Naruto Chapter 388: The Gap Between Our Power

Summary: Itachi shows Sasuke an illusion of his eyes being plucked out, but after activating the cursed seal, Sasuke overcame the Itachi's Tsukiyomi eye-technique. Sasuke boasts that his hatred will make his dream of defeating Itachi a reality. Itachi responds that he will make the illusion of taking Sasuke's eyes a reality and prepares to use another eye-technique. (Read 388 here)

SnowyOwl Says:

There's something morbidly fascinating about seeing Sasuke in pain. He just does it so ... prettily. Chouji, Shika, Naru, Kiba, and the like just wouldn't have looked the same. Anyway...

Not surprised it was an illusion, though I'd be mighty disappointed if someone doesn't leave the battle damaged in some way; otherwise, it would feel as if the story hadn't moved forward.

More thought provoking for me in this chapter wasn't how Sasuke got out of the illusion and plans on defeating Itachi (though, once again zapenstap has nice theories [1, 2]) but with all this talk of illusion vs. reality, I'm having a hard time figuring out what is happening 'in the real world.'

Note:
ch. 385 - Sasuke spears Itachi on the throne => illusion plane A (IP:A).
ch. 385 - Fly-trap sees the brothers standing still => Reality
ch. 386 - Itachi makes a crazy face and reveals his motive => (IP:B)
ch. 386 - Itachi says Sasuke must have seen his true self => (IP:A or Reality)

Where A !=B but B is not necessary a sub-level of A.

Then they fight and Sasuke gets plucked. This is where it gets confusing. Either (a) they were in Reality at the beginning of the shuriken fight and Itachi uses Tsukiyomi during the fight, or (b) the whole fight including the plucking happened on the same plane, which must be an illusion, because Sasuke then breaks out of it. Either way, the plucking happens in an illusion. What then, is Zetsu reacting to on page 3 when the reader sees Sasuke clutching his bloody eye-socket?

Most likely, it is scenario (a), since there are shuriken scattered on the ground when Sasuke breaks the illusion (and is most likely back in Reality and Zetsu has lot's to say); Itachi probably Tsukiyomi'd him right as the clone dispersed (see picture) and Sasuke never really slammed into a rock. So does that mean that Zetsu was caught up in the eye-plucking Tsukiyomi (which would have some interesting implications for the jutsu)? Or was he observing something outside the reader's knowledge (perhaps he was surprised both suddenly stopped moving)? Or maybe Kishimoto made a continuity error and I'm focusing way too much on the wrong thing. Yes.

Zetsu. How convenient that white!Zetsu is so ignorant and asks all the questions the reader would have wondered about. Poor Black!Zetsu, he must get so annoyed with himself.

Nice continuity with the one-winged demon (cue crazy-killer music)* - Sasuke busted a wing fighting Deidara. However, did Itachi know? I wonder how much detail he is responsible for when creating illusions, and how much is an interaction with the victim's mind. Perhaps he just makes the rules ('relive worst nightmare') and the victim fills in the rest...

*reference to One-Winged Angel, Sephiroth's theme from Final Fantasy VII.