I feel like you need to take a step back, realize that hyperbole exists in this manga & Kirin was presented as an attack just like Amaterasu. Which we see Ay evade in the manga 80 chapters later.
"It repels Sasuke's attacks" & "It's said to repel all things" are suddenly an exception cuz we've rarely seen it's use on combat after that? Amaterasu is a core mechanism to MS/EMS Sasuke's abilities, that's why we've seen immediate counters against it.
Yata Mirror was just one of the sage tools being addressed once as some invincible things and never used again.
Zetsu, the speaker, treats it as a rumor because his experience with it seems to be limited but he knows and treats it as valid.
The 1,000+ goo monster born from Kaguya's will.
So you can choose to take it as a "rumor" when Zetsu says it though I'd probably acknowledge that if Zetsu is shivering at how powerful these are supposed to be, they are very powerful. Not to mention they were valuable enough to be on Orochimaru's list of things he wants.
But again, rumors is only in-manga because Zetsu cannot speak from his literal experience with these, seemingly having none to barely any. The Databooks are treating the statement literal, are not coming from someone in-universe bound by what they do and do not know, and explain how the Yata Mirror functions.
When you have the break down of what it does, that no longer makes it a rumor. That's the author explaining the jutsu.
Bro, the first paragraph and there's already a contradiction.
So if Black Zetsu has a limited source of knowledge when it comes to this weapon, how can we conclude that he's a reliable source in the first place?
Black Zetsu was born like several hundreds of years ago but it doesn't mean his knowledge of this world is limitless, just like how he thought Kirin cannot be dodged but was surprised when Itachi briefly blocked it at the blink of a second, lol.
Sure, they are part of the sage tools after all. I don't think Yata Mirror is just meant to block Kirin or some fire kunais at best but there's no argument it can block something like that:
So the databook statement isn't an extention of Zetsu's vague explanation but how it usually describes abilities? Bro, you can find lots of these in various databook statements. I've posted several on these on the previous page:
Especially the Orochimaru one is something which isn't even that different compared to the Yata Mirror statement.
The databooks are very extreme in hyperboles and exaggerated statements, a lot. While the manga treats is as a rumor or mystery how Yata Mirror truly works, the databook goes into detail that it can repel physical, astral bodies, ninjutsus, etc - so everything.
So you're telling me when Oda hypes up these god like tools and swords, he's wiling to show them being overcome and the hype destroyed, like with Obito's DNA sword or the Sage's 6 tools that Darui outsmarted?
The world was at the stake of being turned into an eternal Tsukuyomi, so the alliance couldn't allow themselves to fail destroying the same weapon which was wielded by Hagoromo to create the world, unlike the sage tools which were used in minor battles compared to this one.
So yes, a world creating AND destroying weapon lost the clash against a non-haxed attack.
I have no reason to think Totsuga sword would just absorb this combined attack effortlessly. I mean, this would be crazy to think otherwise.
Yes, Lightning is a hard limit for most Naruto characters. Itachi can mentally react to summon his skeletal or ribcage Susano'o, before it hits.
Again, it's rumors but never presented as false, never has Kishi used these weapons and tried to make the audience doubt them. If you had anything like that, maybe I could see your argument. But they function as promised, the Totsuka blade seals every time it's used. Unfortunately the Yata Mirror wasn't given impressive showings but that doesn't make the hype nor the DB statements less real.
"Lightning is a hard limit for most Naruto characters." versus "Nobody can block or evade this attack!" are two entirely different things because Kirin got blocked in fact.
Totsuka sword is a sealing technique which has a pretty good argument to work against opponents (honestly, it'd definitely fail to seal the likes of Juudara or even Kaguya), Yata Mirror is neither a special sealing technique nor does it have some invincible barrier which parries everything and the attack is automatically cancelled. Look at those two panels:
The only argument is that the shield isn't physical. I mean, it kinda does? I mean, Orochimaru was charging against it and it wasn't intangible or some other thing.
The user can even be pushed back.
I don't remember the fight against Kabutomaru that well but iirc, Yata Mirror wasn't even used against Kabutomaru.
Besides, less feats or confirmation of no limits to repel everything is an argument why Yata Mirror can be easily discarded in VS discussions when Itachi is just 4000x weaker than his opponent. I'm especially not using hype in these discussions, come on, these things are useless, lol. Try again.
It's changing properties to deflect anything.
Where?
I repeat: "I'd like to see the "changing form" in the actual manga, tho.
As of now, I've seen these:
"
Honestly, I'm even confused about the "repelling" part because from what I see, are these attacks simply getting blocked? Okay, this one is nitpicking, so ignore this part lol.
The only attacks it might not deflect are those that can outhax it, those that can destroy dimensions or potentially Kaguya's all killing bones. Can't see any others overcoming it.
So it proves, this part:
especially the "ninjutsu" and "astral body" part, ends up to be wrong when other attacks outhax these. If you include Kaguya's all killing bones, this is a physical attack and if it works on Yata Mirror, there's no reason to assume Yata Mirror simply repels
everything. The "everything" or "all things" - basically the same synonyms - can mean many things. All jutsus in the shinobi worlds, meteors, asteroids, falling moons - that's the part when the "all things" begin to get vague because sure, you can say it can block everything in this verse but if we compare this ability to other verses, it suddenly shows its
true limit.
If it can be outhaxed by similar abilities,
it proves Yata Mirror isn't limitless. Simple as that.
Lmfao okay, so now the explanation of how it works doesn't matter. It lists categories of attacks in the Naruto-verse and then says they don't work. Kishimoto didn't need to go that far, he could've left it at attacks in general, but he reinforced that astral attacks (Kamui) do not work specifically.
That's more validity to it being true if anything, the more details that aren't hyperbole added the more legitimate the jutsu is.
Hax is hax, I do not think Infinite Tsukuyomi could be stopped by Yata Mirror for example. Kaguya can transport others through dimensions, possibly with her Yomotsu Hirasaka depending if it's astral categorized or not.
Can it work against truth-seeking balls?
Can it work against Kaguya's all killing bones?
Can it work against Toneri's moon splitting laser?
Can it work against DMS Kakashi's Kamui?
I'm not even sure if it works against Pre War Arc Kakashi's Kamui since we've never seen Itachi blocking
actual astral bodies/attacks. It might be enough to block Jinton but well, even Madara's Perfect Susanoo works against this one. You just told Kaguya's all killing bones potentially bypass the mirror even though it's not even an astral attack. So how does this one work?
Also, even IF IT WORKS on almost
all abilities within the Naruto verse, it certainly DOESN'T MEAN it's working on the majority of other verses which are not DC or Marvel like broken. Would it block Zeref's death magic for example? I mean, Natsu can even burn time and death. Would it block Law's spatial hax or Blackbeard's Yami Yami no Mi? Blueno's ability? Yami's dimensional slashes? Piccolo's or Roshi's Mafuba? One verse just has to show some different ability compared to jutsus - non Haki DF abilities are not even spiritual based - and suddenly, Yata Mirror isn't so impenetrable... So yes, it's a fallacy when you're not certain of the actual limits of this shield/barrier.
It's about what this attack can or cannot block, what the limits of this ability are. More details are not enough to say the barrier is invincible, especially if it's from the databook.
If you count Infinite Tsukuyomi as an astral body, I don't see why Yata Mirror wouldn't block this one since it's based on the user's vision being reflected upon the moon as a genjutsu and shines upon the world. If it can block light, it should be able to defend Itachi from it.