Originally posted by: The Lord of Morning
does anyone wonder why itach ididnt have to use seals when he cast the water jutsu? Seems that the akatsuki are getting things like kyubi and absorbing them somehow, allowing them to use jutsu's without the hand seals. I think that is the reason he had to leave, its like the seal orochi gave, you get to use power without hand seals but its a crutch that needs to be recharged too often. they want kyubi bc it is the most powerful source of chakra.
for the battles, he use sharigan constantly, beat the female jounin, made some clones which blew up (which was new from what kakashi indicated) used the water jutsu (i thought the shurikens were a distraction, not an actual hand seal), then used maresharingan. Then used the genjutsu on the woman to tease jiraiya and then the maresharingan and black flames at the end.
True that doesnt seem like a lot for a S ranked ninja, i put most of the akatsuki on a level slightly below if not equal to hokage.we know the hokage themselves are more powerful then before, i believe the 4th was more powerful then even the 3rd? Even the other S rank was wondering why they were retreating. makes me wonder if itach is completely evil, opposed to slightly evil. Itach is using strange jutsu's that the elite of konoha have never even seen before, and using them without hand seals. and not bothering to kill any of the ones he faced.
and i doubt konoha ninja's would use their own as bait.