Notes: Alternate version of manga chapter 384
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters used in this story. Masashi Kishimoto created the Naruto universe.
The fight wasn't going as it was meant to go. Sasuke knew that Itachi was going to be the strongest he ever fought, but how could he be so good? Sasuke couldn't fathom how defeating Orochimaru was so simple compared to Itachi. Orochimaru had defeated the Third Hokage after all, certainly if you can easily defeat someone that causes the death of a hokage you can at least cause your opponent to fight with everything they have.
Inside Sasuke was furious. This wasn't his typical fury either. This was anger beyond the madness of Karin after one of her plots to get him alone failed. What Sasuke felt inside was a lifetime of hatred for Itachi, the loss of his entire clan, years of hell for training with Orochimaru for this final battle, and all of it appearing to be for nothing. If he couldn't beat Itachi, everything he had done in his life was wasted effort.
Itachi had the upper hand. Itachi was stronger, and thus had the upper hand up close, which is how the fight had been going on so far. Itachi was also one of the most skilled people ever with genjutsu. Sasuke knew that letting Itachi get room to focus on creating illusions would be suicide. More so than any other advantages that Itachi had was experience. It was only a matter of time before Sasuke made a critical mistake and Itachi took advantage. Sasuke decided it would be the best idea to end this as quickly as possible. Clearly he needed to avoid long range combat, so it had to be close range. Itachi's superior strength wouldn't help save him from everything Sasuke used at close range.
Sasuke's hands flew through signs. Lightning erupted from his palm and enclosed around his fingertips as Sasuke shouted "Chidori!" He charged Itachi at blinding speed. Itachi showed no signs of avoiding the powerful attack. Sasuke tried to wait as long as he could to read Itachi's next move. The chidori flew, Sasuke saw what he thought was an opportunity to attack Itachi. He waited as long as physically possible as he almost passed Itachi.
Sasuke's swing only met air. Even though Itachi seemed like he wouldn't be able to dodge such an attack, he easily avoided it. Now he was behind Sasuke ready to deliver a serious blow. Sasuke noticed where Itachi had appeared and pivoted to his right a bit, spun around and was able to block Itachi's kunai strike with his blade. After their forceful clash the brothers separated, each jumping back several feet.
A moment of eye contact between the two reminded Sasuke not to allow him to have a moment to think. With that in mind he threw an enormous shuriken at Itachi and began sprinting behind it planning a two pronged strike. Sasuke began charging another chidori for his next attack. Itatchi jumped over the shuriken just as Sasuke anticipated. Sasuke then dove at him chidori blazing, increasing his speed. Despite Sasuke's best efforts, he could still not match Itachi's speed. Itachi was able to swerve around Sasuke in mid air and grab his other arm. He then made a couple rotations to build up momentum and released Sasuke driving his chidori into a wall. The power of the chidori caused the wall to crumble on top of him.
Sasuke was hurt. Not so much physically, his pride was more injured. He was going to have to get more serious now. Focus more instead of letting his fury do the fighting. Sasuke was confined under the rubble but was able to push his way forward fairly easily. He saw a single beam of light. Know he was close to getting back to Itachi he forced a punch in that direction.
There was now an opening in the rock pile the size of Sasuke. Having such a drastic change in light, Sasuke was unable to see perfectly clear. He was able to recover from that virtually instantly with the help of his sharingan. This delay was such a miniscule fraction of second but Itachi was able to take advantage of it.
Sasuke's first sight upon coming back into the light was his older brother's Mangekyou. Sasuke ran directly into a genjutsu trap. Everything went black except for the eyes. He couldn't see the floor or any walls. He couldn't even see the sky. All was black, but for the floating sharingan. The raven haired avenger knew he had lost. He couldn't believe he had failed so quickly.
"I told you once before..." Itachi's voice echoed through the darkness. "...that you were not to challenge me until you have the same eyes. I could be completely blind but still see that you have failed to obtain them. The probability of you succeeding without these eyes is essentially zero."
"I'm not dead yet." Sasuke answered with a frustrated retort.
"No, you will live for quite some time before you die, even if I was to kill you as soon as I released my sharingan. Welcome to a world I control. You will find it quite familiar..."
"Stop being a coward and actually fight me! Why are you doing this?" Sasuke cried.
Itachi continued on once he was sure that Sasuke was done. "...You will find it quite similar to the world that you have lived in during your life. I will warn you now..."
"Why damnit why? Why are you doing this?"
"...I will warn you now that not everything is the same."
"Answer me you bas-"
"Fine. You will experience this because you are not ready to fight me. Since you do not have the same eyes, you cannot hope to be able to even touch me. I am sending you back to give you a chance. I admit that you deserve a chance from all the things I have done to you. Do not waste the precious time I am giving you." Itachi answered.
"I'll make you regret every second that you give me." Sasuke spat.
"Soon it will be goodbye for a little while. Do not think you can defeat me by just training with the time I give you."
"If you are telling me to get the eyes, there is no way I will be like you. I refuse to kill my best friend. Those eyes are not worth the price of a life. No eyes are!"
"How touching Sasuke, you are nowhere near as ruthless as you act. Do me a favor and keep yourself safe. Not that it matters, since I am the God of the world you live in now. I control how time passes. I control how people will progress. I control the weather. I control the feelings of those around you. I even control the lack of these things." Itachi's voice said this, getting slightly less loud with each word. It sounded almost as if Itachi was walking away. There was another noise though, a rumbling noise that was all around them.
The sharingan eyes vanished. Sasuke figured that Itachi had left him alone. Alone with that noise, that noise that was getting louder by the moment. Then the volume got turned up.
"What the hell is that noise?" Sasuke asked. As soon as he said it, the noise was increased to a level that was identifiable. It was the sound of people. Lots of them. Before Sasuke could think about the implications of what this could possibly mean, he felt a force that restricted his movement take hold of his body. The only part of him that moved was his eyes. He couldn't see that they closed, due to it being so dark, but he could still feel them close.
"Sasuke, when you open your eyes you will be in what appears to be your past. I will leave you alone for quite some time now. Become strong and don't fail." Itachi's voice sounded one last time from far away.
Sasuke sat in the darkness and waited. He listened to the voices slowly getting louder around him. After a few moments, he felt the force that was restricting his body leave and at the same time the voices around him boomed to the maximum volume. He opened his eyes and found himself in a familiar place. A very memorable place. He was in an arena of sorts, staring down Gaara of the Sand Village. The Chunin exams were going to be a little different this year he thought.
"This should be simple. I certainly have the lead on Naruto now." he said with a smirk. "I DO get to have a bit of revenge today. Thank you Itachi, I always wanted another shot at this guy." Sasuke said as he continued to stare at Gaara. "I will defeat Gaara this time, NOT Naruto!" Sasuke declared to himself. Revenge was going to be sweet. Itachi had given him quite the opportunity. "Perhaps I should thank him for this." Sasuke sneered.
"WIN THIS FIGHT FOR ME SASUKE...BE CAREFUL!" came a scream from a pink headed girl that Sasuke knew very well.
"Damn you Itachi. You know exactly how to be a sadistic bastard don't you."