GIFTED

Chapter 3

"HIS LIFE"

Kushina looked at the sky and wondered if it was worth it, her mission was an important one. Exterminate all those who knew of her existence and her connection to minato, investigate how much the other villages knew of this and to seek and destroy any and all of those who could possible be a problem in the future for herself, the village and her son, that is how they had first come across Akatsuki. After killing or incapacitating almost every one who knew whom she was and knew things they should not, She had set her sights on the biggest fish in all of this, orochimaru, the snake knew every thing there was to know about herself and minato and about naruto, the bastard was the hokage is favorite student after all. Joining up with Jiraya is network was easy enough getting a hold of the bastard snake was a whole other matter.

The bastard had been recruited into an S-class brotherhood of unknown origin and power, the first time they had battled he had been with another S-class missing ninja, some shark looking guy with a big ass sword, bastard thought his sword was the greatest thing in the world; stupid ass had never fought an uzumaki. Kushina smirked at the memory of the bastard is surprised look when his little swords stopped working, the smile how ever quickly faded. Jiraya and herself had barely made it out of there alive; those two were in a completely different level that was for sure.

"I knew I would find you here"

Kakashi looked at the red head and smiled, he knew that she would run straight to her old home, but the smile quickly faded when he was slammed into the old house is wall a kunai pressed to his throat, looking at kushina he could see the hate and anger in her eyes.

"I saw the old man today kakashi, so tell me why didn't you tell me?"

Kakashi is eyes widen and when he saw the files behind her.

"So…you know"

"Why didn't you take care of him? Were the hell are your teammates?!"

"We couldn't do any thing….the council….."

"BULLSHIT! YOU COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING!"

"I am no longer an anbu because I did something; obito is no longer a konoha nin and rin was vanished because of what she did!"

Kushina is eyes widen in surprised, team kakashi had been disbanded because they wanted to protect her son? How could sarutobi allow this to happen, the old man was the hokage for god sake, kakashi seeing the question in her eyes took a deep breath and pushed the kunai away from his throat.

"We knew about sensei is son and we all wanted to help, but the hokage has lost to much power to the council, they pretty much run the place now, all the hokage does is over see ninja affairs and is in charge of konoha is military force, he no longer has power over civilian or clan matters"

Kushina frowned, the old man was really, old man now, all of his powers had been taken, and all that was left was a glorified general. Kakashi hated the look of disgust that crossed the woman is face, but he couldn't exactly defend his leader when all power had been stripped from him and given to fools with over inflated heads.

"I read the files of my son, is it true that Tsunade took care of him for a while?"

"When he was younger yes, but it was after the demon attacked, she was sent on an easy scouting mission, Dan and a few others volunteered to accompany her, she was to scout the surrounding areas near konoha to see if any of the other nations would attempt something…"

____________FLASH BACK____________

Tsunade smiled when she saw the old man playing with naruto, it seem that the kid had the most powerful ninja in the village wrapped around his little finger, the baby just giggled at the professor is funny looking hat. She had brought him in for one of his regular weekly inspections of his seal, this had started when doubts began to form in the council is head, what if the seal weren't able to hold the beast, what if it malfunctioned. Such questions were often brought up, so despite the old man is unwavering faith in minato is work he had schedule a weekly visit to check on little naruto is seal, this was so he could spend some time with the kid and keep the council from doing something drastic.

"It would seem that he is in perfect heath"

"Appearances can be deceiving, the boy is riddled with a number of afflictions, the demon is chakra is eating away at him, if it weren't for minato is seal he would be dead by now"

The hokage nodded, he could see that the baby was not as strong as other infants, and was not growing at a normal rate; it was as if his body was spending all of its energy keeping the boy alive.

"Nothing serious I imagine?"

"Nothing I cant handle, but orochimaru and myself had gone over some figures and we think it will take the body about a year to adjust to the demon chakra, after that the brat should be perfectly normal, more so than normal according to what orochimaru says"

"Ah all the better news, now I have a request for you"

"Oh? I thought taking care of the brat would keep me off the field"

"Smart as ever I see, yes well this is nothing serious. I just want you to patrol around the village scout for possible threats and such, after all we are being closely watched by our neighbors, and while having orochimaru here is a bonus, showing that we have two of the three sannin here in the village would discourage any ideas they might be getting"

Tsunade smirked, easy enough mission, all she had to do was strut herself around, show whom ever was watching that despite there little incident konoha still had the power to fight. Not a bad ideas seeing as how the demon had weaken them some what, this way the other nations wouldn't get any bright ideas, the last thing the world needed was another ninja war.

"Sure thing old man, but were is jiraya? Shouldn't he be here also?"

"He…left, said there was nothing holding him to konoha any more"

Tsunade frowned, he had left and hadn't even said good-bye to her, sarutobi seeing the anger behind her eyes took a deep breath and handed her naruto.

"His seal is fine, you should go"

Tsuande glared at her old teacher, she knew what he was doing, he was trying to distract her, it seem that something had happened between himself and jiraya, the two had never gotten along, what with sarutobi favoring orochimaru above jiraya and all.

"When is he coming back?"

"He is not coming back"

"WHAT!?"

The exclamation scared the child in tsunade is arms and the baby started crying, quickly handing young naruto to her apprentice shizune she signaled the girl to wait outside the office, the 13 years old nodded and awkwardly walked out of the office with baby naruto in arms. Sarutobi looked at Tsunade with a frown, she was ready to demand some answers.

"You should understand his wishes"

"What about his friends?! What about me!? He didn't even say good bye old man!"

"You know why he didn't say good bye"

Tsunade closed her eyes and looked away from the old man. It was a simple rejection but even she knew it was much more than that, after all out of all the women that jiraya could chosen to fall in love with he had fallen in love with her, and despite how many times she had rejected him he still kept going after her. Stupid moron would shout to the whole world that one day he would win the slug princess is heart; that was until the slug princess found her prince, after that he pulled away from all of them.

"We were still friends last I checked old man"

"Yeah, but how would you feel if the roles were reversed? If you were forced to hang out with Dan and his woman?"

She flinched at that, it was quite simple actually; she would not stand for it. She knew that jiraya put on a brave front when ever he was around them, but she didn't know he thought like that, after all he had started publishing that stupid book right after he had given up on her, so how hard could he have taken the news. But if she thought about it she had seen the signs, he wouldn't be around her as much and as soon as Dan showed up he made some lame excuse to be some place else, hell even orochimaru had seen the changes.

"It was too much for him huh?"

"You have Dan and Shizune, orochimaru has his research and anko, he lost you and Minato, as strong as he is, I doubt he could handle living here any more, to many what ifs"

"Stupid jerk, if I ever see him again!"

"I am sure you will make him pay, now run along and get ready for the mission, hatake kakashi has volunteered to accompany you"

"Nah, no need I can handle things on my own"

"You know protocol, if you don't want kakashi then take your pick, but we only have a limited supply of ninjas within the village, the rest are off doing missions"

She nodded and left the office, that night she spoke to Dan, and he decided to accompany her. Kakashi, rin and obito were the other part of the team; they were sent to show that minato is strength live on in his students, as the team left they joked about what an easy mission hey would have. Rin would flirt with kakashi causing obito to scream and shout about how he was so much better than kakashi and all the while tsunade would see mirror images of herself and her teammates reflected on minato is team. Kakashi was like orochimaru a blasted genius and one hell of a ninja, rin was her in every sense of the word, she would flirt with kakashi, just like she did with orochimaru and obito would lose his cool just like jiraya used to do.

"You okay?"

She smiled at Dan and pointed at the three kids in front of her.

"They were just like we were, orochimaru, jiraya and myself"

Dan smiled and placed a hand around tsunade is shoulders, the woman blushed and smiled at him.

"Oh? Should I be jealous of a certain snake genius?"

"Not one bit, I have my……"

She stopped when she saw the spear coming out of Dan is chest, kakashi and the others quickly jumped into action, but it was too late they were surrounded from all sides. Obito activated his sharingan and frowned when he saw all the chakra signatures, there was no way they could face them all, turning towards the others he could already see five clones of kakashi going into the forest, while rin rushed to aid tsunade.

"Guys we have a problem here!"

Kakashi and Obito turned towards her and frowned when they saw tsunade frozen with fear, obito frowned and rushed beside them, while kakashi covered his back.

"Kakashi we need to get out of here now!"

"Right, but leave Dan, he will only weight us down"

Obito froze and so did the others, what the hell did kakashi mean leave Dan behind, he was still alive and could possible be saved, they had rin and tsunade for god sake; he could be saved.

"The hell with that, tsunade please snap out of it we need to get dan out of here"

"I…y-your right"

The sannin finally snapped out of her stupor, picking up dan she rushed away from the clearing and into the forest, obito looked at kakashi and frowned when he saw that chakra signals rushing towards them, it was no use, even if they ran they wouldn't be able to make a clean escape.

"Leave me, go with them I will hold them back"

"You're not that good"

Kakashi froze when he saw obito smiled and walk right beside him, his eyes looking at the clearing, kakashi frowned and shock his head, the idiot was disregarding ninja code, he should be focusing on the others instead of him, tsunade was more important than him. Every ninja is duty was to safe guard a village is most important assets, right now they should be safe guarding tsunade she was more important than him.

"You have to go help them! Tsunade is more important than me, the mission has changed, our priority now is to safe guard her, it is what is best for the village if we don't do it we will nothing but trash"

"I WONT LEAVE YOU BEHIND, WE ARE FRIENDS AND IF I WERE TO LEAVE YOU HERE I WOULD BE WORSE THAN TRASH!"

Obito is hands began to flash trough a series of hand signs before coming up to his mouth and releasing a massive fireball. Within minutes the whole forest before them was covered in flames, with that distraction they managed to follow tsunade and rin, obito cursed, that damn jutsu always took to much of him, he could barely move and keep his sharingan activated. Kakashi saw the fatigue on obito and frowned, this was bad that fireball was huge; it had to have taken up a lot of chakra, and with his sharing on active obito was in bad shape, following the chakra trail the finally found tsunade and rin.

"Status rin!"

"Kakashi!, we managed to stabilize dan, but we need to get him to konoha fast"

"Right, we….what the hell is wrong with her?!"

"She spent almost all her chakra healing dan, I never seen any thing like it"

"Damn it all"

Kakashi turned to obito and frowned, there was no way he would be able to fight, obito frowned and turned towards rin, she could fight but was not really a fighter type, kakashi was the only one who really knew what he was doing. The enemy was close and if they did not do something fast they would be slaughtered.

"I don't have enough chakra to fight properly but if me and kakashi team up and you do that weird jutsu of yours we might be able to survive this"

Rin frowned and shock her head, there was no way they could pull this off, kakashi couldn't use that jutsu with out leaving him blind to his opponents is attacks.

"You know he can't used it in combat, when he does it leaves him open for an attack"

"Not if he has one of these"

Obito pointed to his eyes and both rin and kakashi gasped in surprised, there was no way.

"Are you insane, you know how…"

"Is either this or we die, you chose"

The sharingan was extracted and with it the copy cat of konoha was born, obito used his remaining sharingan to copy kakashi is lighting blade and with it both of them were able to take on the on coming ambush.

"I quit"

Tsunade handed the infant to sarutobi, the forth could only stare at her retreating and frowned, she had been broken.

"The job, just keeps getting worse and worse"

__________________END FLASHBACK______________________

"Just like that she left did she? What happened to naruto afterwards?"

"Me and rin, hell even obito tried to helped the kid, but suddenly we were all quietly removed from any position of power, I was kicked out of anbu no explanations given, rin was sent to some out post in the far regions of fire country and obito well, he is in the branch family of the uchiha clan"

"Orochimaru?"

"No one knows what happen to him, one day he was to take the position of hokage the next all hell broke lose, he attacks the council members and tries to kill danzo"

"He went rogue?"

"With no explanation what so ever? He spoke about how a worm would always rot the fruit from the inside out"

Kakashi saw the surprised look on kushina and frowned, something in his words had triggered something in the red headed, kushina remembered her fight with orochimaru and kisame, and how they were able to escape.

"I meet orochimaru before, he is part of a secret organization formed of S-class ninjas, jiraya and I fought him and one of his companions but we were un able to defeat them, jiraya mentioned something about snakes and how they shed there skins"

"Why do they always speak in riddles I wonder?"

"I think I know why, you said orochimaru attacked the council and danzo the old war hawk, why did he snap? And why only danzo?"

"Unknown, but why were you fighting orochimaru and this S-class ninja?"

Kushina froze and pulled away from kakashi, she couldn't be mad at him, she was naruto is mother and yet she had done nothing for him, she had left on a mission to keep the boy safe, and look how it turned out. The kid practically raised himself.

"I was trying to keep naruto safe; I should have realized that the biggest dangers were here in the village not out there"

"He turned out ok didn't he?"

He had but he had lost his childhood and there was no telling what kind of psychological effects growing up like he did would have in the long run, walking towards the files scatter trough out the back yard of her home she points towards one and signals kakashi to join her.

"That file tells of his abilities, but who trained him?"

"No one trained him"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FLASH BACK~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No one would teach him, no one paid attention to him, he had to find a way to learn but every time he tried to ask a question, every time he was interested in a subject, he was denied and outright denied his education. He would often be used as nothing more than the punch lines of mean, hateful words and used as an example of what a ninja shouldn't be like, he became by no fault of his own the class outcast and as such no one would socialize with him, but that only made him realized that he had been right. No one in the village wanted him, they would sooner have him dead than aid him in some form of manner. So he came to the startling conclusion that if he were to learn any thing at all it would have to be done in secret, he would hide he would listen and would become better than all of those who looked down upon him.

Slowly he devised a plan, one that would allow him to remain inside the classroom during important lesson. One that would aid him in learning and in achieving his goals, he would pretend to fall a sleep in class, he would listened to the explanations other students got and he would paid attention to every thing and any thing that the teachers were teaching. He would ignore the instructions given to him by the teachers and would watch how other kid did them, he would see the difference and quickly change his own to resemble that of the other student, all of this was kept in secret, every thing he would memories and would later practice on his own.

That how ever did not get him very far, he was still lacking in many areas, and while others were on there way he would always remain behind, the teachers would sabotage him in every turn, he had to come up with a new way to pass, to achieve a successful grade. He struggled every day of his life until he was aided by the most unexpected of sources, a techniques was taught at the academy one designed to calm one is self and to force the body to relax and release stress, the teachers called it mediation. He doing as he always did followed the instructions to the letter, but what surprised him was the fact that when he closed his eyes and began to do the exercises given, he was immediately transported to another realm.

The place looked like an abandoned building with old rusted tubes coming in and out of the walls, the whole place was dark and damp and before him, giant gates with the words seal had appeared. Curiosity getting the best of him made him walk over to the bars and reach for the seal, but before he could rip the small seal sign, his hand was stopped by a blond man wearing a long white coat with flames covering the bottom of part of the strange coat.

"W-who are you?"

The man is blue eyes looked at the young boy and smiled, he had not expected his son to reach this level of awareness on such a short amount of time, the boy had reached for the seal out of curiosity not out of desperation and as such had triggered the seal is safe guards and awakened his message.

"I am the forth hokage and this is the seal which hold the nine tailed demon fox"

Naruto is eyes widen in surprised and the elder blond smiled.

"You are it's container I sealed the demon within you, and what you see behind me is the seal I used to trap him, I am here because you activated one of the many safeguards I placed upon the seal before my death"

"W-why?…..I-is that why…"

He could not say or do any thing, all the five year old is mind could do was simply try to understand this and not go insane. The forth hokage seeing the conflict within the small child did what any father would do when there off springs are in chaos, slowly he knelt before the boy and wrapped his arms around him.

"Shhhh, its okay, every thing will be okay"

The forth closed his eyes and saw the life of the five year old flash before his eyes, he felt and saw every thing the boy had endure and wondered if he had done the right thing.

"H-how c-can e-every thing be okay?"

"Because naruto, fathers know these things"

Slowly he pulled away from the small boy and smiled, part of his soul might lie within the shinigami, but a small part of it still resided within the safeguards. He had done this just in case his wishes were ignored, so all that remain was the whole worth of his knowledge, but that was enough to aid his boy in achieving his goals and become that which the villagers hoped to destroy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~END FLASHBACK~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kushina stared the copy nin in surprised, no one had aided her son? How could that be?

"Are you sure?"

"Far as we know he simply went up to the hokage and asked him to test him in another form. The bushin test was designed to keep him in the academy and once he failed a third time, there would have been no risk of him every becoming shin obi, but naruto had seen this laid out plan and had found a loop hole in it"

"He was tested in a battle proficiency exam? He defeated a chunnin"

"Quite easily, were he gained his mastery of chakra, his skills or any thing is beyond our knowledge"

The red headed woman frowned, could the demon be responsible? He was sealed within her son is self, but if that were so why would a demon such as the nine tails aid her son? It didn't make any sort or sense, kakashi smiled when he saw the woman deep in thought, she had found out exactly why her son was more hated and feared now more than ever.

"That is why they want him dead?"

"The uchiha that was apprehended refused to answer any questions, and once the clan turned there backs on the guy the matter was closed, just another person trying to get revenged on the demon that almost destroyed us 13 years ago"

"Smart of them to have a escape goat handy, it eliminates any kind of involved from there part"

"So the hokage is hands were tied, even if the apprehended uchiha talked and confirmed the clan is involvement there was little to do"

Kushina nodded, he was right, if the hokage had pressed the matter than the whole uchiha would have turned on the village, and then who knows what might have happened. She had seen what civil wars did to other nations and villages, she had seen with her own eyes what could have been the out come if the hokage had pressed the matter. How much had her son suffered for the sake of the village? She was beginning to realize that the village owed naruto a debt it could never hope to pay.

"The old man did the right thing, but he should have aided him better"

"Not with the council breathing down his neck, besides I think your kid turned quite all right"

"How mentally and emotionally damage is he?"

Kakashi remained silent, that was the thing. They didn't know. The kid plastered on a shield around himself keeping ever one at arms length, he couldn't afford things like trust or let his guard down for fear that in one of those instances it would cost him his life. As a result, he always wore a mask; he always was the perfect little ninja and always, always played things close to the vest.

"Unknown"

Kushina figured as much, there was no way that those reports could be accurate, they depicted her son as a well adjusted ninja who is goal was to be loyal and reach the ranks of hokage or anbu, that didn't sound like the boy she had read about. The boy on the files had been an isolated one, one who sought shelter in loneliness and isolated himself from others; the boy was not a social person nor would be ever be one thanks to the effects of his childhood. So why had he chosen hokage? Anbu perhaps, but hokage?

"You people are lucky he didn't turn into a self fulfilling prophesy"

"It's still too soon to tell"

Kushina smiled, so they were still worried, good, they needed to be worried, because if she were in naruto is shoes she would have laid wasted to the village before her as soon as she were able.

"I need to think"

The copycat smiled and vanished.

~~~~~~~~~~ITACHI~~~~~~~~~

Itachi Uchiha look at the figure before him with a frown, there was something different about him, something about him was off his whole demeanor was screaming at him, warning him about something, but he could not tell why he was like this. His surroundings didn't betray any thing, there was no one here the forest of death was the ideal place to have this meeting and yet something was off. Obito looked at him with dead eyes, eyes that did not belong to him, frowning activates his sharingan and just as he suspected there is nothing wrong, every thing is as it should be and yet.

"You asked to meet me here; you tell me what this is about"

"The clan is in turmoil, we both know that they have become quite displeased with how things are run in the village"

"I am well aware of the situation obito; tell me what is it that you propose?"

"We take back what is ours; the village should be ours the uchiha clan should be the ones to rule"

That set it off, obito ducked and jumped away a wave of kunai, itachi once more activated his sharingan and glared at the figure. Obito turned towards itachi and smiled but the smile did not belong to him, itachi quickly noticed this and frowned, if it was some one in a henge then he should be able to see trough it, but he focusing more he saw no sings of an active justsu no nothing.

"Confused?"

Itachi is eyes narrow in anger while obito is smile grew even more.

"Who are you?"

"I am obito old friend; I just had an eye opening conversation with your father"

Itachi cursed and clenched his first in anger; his father is sharingan

The perfect hypnosis the way to control any and all of those who's gaze fell on them, it would seem that his father had been aware of there little meeting and had intercepted obito before there meeting. He glanced at his surroundings when he sense a huge chakra signature emerging from within the darkness, there was some one else here, but how had he been able to hide himself from him.

"Who is there?"

Obito smiled and from behind him, a figure wearing an orange masked appeared, one eyehole in the mask showed a sharingan spinning around, the man was clearly and uchiha but he had never seen him.

"You are such a disappointment itachi, you could have been a great allied"

"Who are you?"

"I am madara uchiha and along side your father we will bring a new age to this pitiful village"

"So your are the one who is behind all of this"

Uchiha madara was alive, and he had always wanted to rule the village. It made a whole lot of sense that he would once again unite with the uchiha clan in order to spur on a revel ion against the village; that had according to the elders turned them into nothing more than obedient little followers. This was far beyond him. Madara had taken fought against the first hokage and if he remembers correctly that he was damn near invincible, now he was being helped out by his mentally controlled friend.

"The uchiha will once more reclaim that which we have lost"

"My father is a fool for trusting you"

"Maybe so, but I extend an offer to you itachi, if I aid you in the annihilation of your clan and you swear your allegiance to me I will aid you in there destruction and spare the village"

Itachi froze, if he destroyed his clan then the village would be safe, but if he defied madara, he would die right here and now, odds were that he wouldn't be able to beat madara, nor obito, he had no other choice.

"I…"

"RASENGAN!"

Madara frowned when he saw the swirling ball of chakra rushing towards him, blue eyes and spiky blond hair made him hesitate, and that cost him. The rasengan connected sending him sprawling towards the ground, itachi seeing the surprise on obito rushed forwards and managed to knock the man out with little effort.

"He is still alive; what ever made him hesitate wont work twice"

"You are right, it will not naruto namikase"

Itachi is eyes narrowed at the figure, the rasengan was one hell of an attack and yet madara had only suffer minimal damage, something told him that even with the blond by his side this wouldn't be an easy fight. Naruto pulled a kunai and glared at the masked man, this guy he was the reason that every thing went wrong so long ago, looking at itachi he could see him thinking, trying to come up with something, to stop this guy. Madara looked at his wound and frowned, he had been careless, the blond brat did not only surprise him by the attack he had used but also by the way he looked.

The brat could not be older than 13 and yet he knew how to use that attack, what was worse was the fact that the boy was holding no ordinary kunai in his hand. That little demon was holding one of his father's legendary three-prong kunai, Itachi picked up the small movement on the man is eye and turned ever so slightly towards naruto. He was surprised to see the weapon in the blond is hand but smile nonetheless, if naruto knew how to use his father is techniques then maybe they had a shot at this.

"Naruto we can"

"No this guy, he is something else the only reason the first kage was able to stand up to him was due to his kekegenkai, we need back up"

"You have me at a disadvantage child, how do you know so much about me?"

Naruto glared at the man and rushed towards him, there was no way he was letting this guy know what he knew, throwing the kunai he saw the man jump away from the kunai much to the surprised of naruto the man simply ran trough a couple of hand signs before unleashing a massive fire ball towards them. Itachi jumped away from the on coming attack but naruto simply held out his hand and another rasengan formed, the fire immediately was engulfed by his attack and the fire dissipated. Itachi smiled and turned towards madara, the man seems surprised by the turn of events, and forming a couple of hand signs he unleashed a fireball of his own.

"To slow!"

Madara appeared behind itachi and slashed with a kunai of his own, the attack connected by itachi simply puffed out of existence, madara frowned when he realized that itachi had used a substitution jutsu to escape him.

"GRAND FIRE BALL JUTSU!"

Madara is eye widen, from within the smoke a massive fire ball was rushing towards him, itachi had substituted himself with one of that brat is three prong kunai, the fire ball rushed towards him but nothing happened, the attack simply passed right trough him. Itachi is eyes narrowed, what ever had happened, what ever madara had used it was not ordinary jutsu he couldn't even trace, detect or see any thing, one minute he was tangible the next he was not.

"NARUTO CAREFULL HE CAN TURN HIS BODY INTANGIBLE!"

"You are a smart one itachi, such a shame you have to die"

Itachi froze when madara is voice came from behind him, that speed, he had failed to see him move, one minute he was there the next he was behind him, it was impossible, turning around he unleashed a blow to madara is head only for it to go straight trough. Madara smiled, and unleashed a slash of his own, a kunai straight towards itachi is heart, but before it connected, he was sent flying sideways by a hit to his side.

"HOW??!"

The scream was uttered in disbelief and in surprised, itachi himself could not believe what had seen, naruto was beside him in a flash, it was a just like his father is jutsu.

"How did you?"

"I filled the whole area using shadow kunai jutsu, with it I was able to replicate the three prong kunai my father made, and I hit madara with a bursting rasengan"

Madara clenched his teeth in anger, he had been careless, he had focused on making his head and body intangible, but that damn kid had burst his rasengan right before it made contact. The shock wave of the bursting rasengan had hit him with the force of a hurricane and had nearly blown his arms and legs off, turning towards the blond boy he could see the focus and fix look he gave him, this child was not to be underestimated, he had managed to hit him twice in battle. Itachi was scanning him with his sharingan and he knew that it would only be a matter of time before the two brats came up with something.

"Enough of this"

Madara is eye narrow, freezing both naruto and itachi on there place, the wave of power and killer intent that washed over them was overwhelmingly strong. Naruto cursed when he saw the man move right before appearing beside itachi sending him crashing to the massive trees behind him, one minute the man was in front of them the next he was kicking itachi into the forest and naruto is face slamming into the ground. Activating the flying thunder god technique he vanished and re-appeared in another part of the forest only to be hit with a neckline that nearly decapitated him in the process, falling to the ground he saw the man rushing towards him.

"The hell is he?! (Unleash some of my power) You got it!"

Madara once more hesitate but this time he only did it to noticed how the child before him summoned the fox is chakra, naruto is red eyes focused on him and the uchiha could tell that this kid was in complete control of the demon is power.

"You are fill with surprises aren't you naruto-kun"

"Yes I am"

Naruto is voice came from behind him but madara had been expecting this and had turned his whole body intangible, naruto cursed when his kunai slashed right trough him, this guy wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. Doing a quick back spin kick towards naruto he sent the blond flying right before it busted in a puff of smoke, cursing at the blond is proficiency in using shadow clones his sharingan did a quick scan and spotted the blond not far from him, but surprised him was that he was aiding itachi.

"SUMMONING JUTSU"

Madara looked behind him and cursed, thee was so many shadow clones running around the place he couldn't tell which was the real blond, was he even fighting the real one? Turning towards the sound of the voice, he cursed when he saw the massive fox towering over him.

"Hello master"

Madara jumped away and slashed at the massive fox, after a series of hand signs the earth beneath the giant fox began to open and naruto cursed.

"Earth prison jutsu!"

The ground under the fox opened up and like a massive mouth tried to swallow the massive summon, naruto cursed and jumped away from the summon before dispelling him, no point infighting this guy if he could open the ground and make it swallow his summons whole. Madara turned towards the blond and jumped at him but was quickly reminded that he was not fighting one opponent but two; itachi had jumped towards him unleashing a barrage of kunai and shuriken.

"Secret arts, chakra suppression jutsu"

Naruto smiled when he saw the kunai and shuriken rushing all around there area, this attack was one of itachi is favorite ones, creating a seal type design on the ground with the shuriken and kunai he was able to create a field around the area that suppressed any one is chakra. Madara landed on the ground and cursed when the weapons laid all around him began to glow, this technique was a dangerous one.

"Such a magnificent attack, you are talented"

Naruto landed behind him and itachi before him, leaving the orange masked figure in the middle, naruto looked at itachi and saw his sharigan spinning, something was wrong.

"AMATERATSU"

Before naruto or itachi knew what had happened, a huge explosion of black flames came out of no were, the massive explosion sent them crashing to the ground, naruto cursed when he felt his arm beginning to burn.

"Naruto!"

"DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME, GET THAT BASTARD!"

Itachi turned towards madara, who seem to just come out of the dark flames, he cursed and rushed towards the masked uchiha, madara frowned when he saw itachi is eyes begin to morph.

"(They are trying to evolve but how?)"

"Shadow strike jutsu!"

Madara is eyes spun and he was able to dodge the attack of his own shadow. Itachi had move so fast his sharigan was unable to copy the attack or see what he had done, narrowing his eyes he saw itachi is eyes once more try to morph, they were shifting from the regular shape of the sharingan to there more advance form. Itachi panted and cursed, he had thought that for sure he had got him that time but no such luck, he needed to end this fast, madara didn't look the least bit tired and he could already feel his chakra running out, not to mention the fact that his eyes felt like they were burning. Glancing towards naruto he could see the blond holding his arm and was surprised to see that the flames had not advanced, they were simply stuck to his arm.

"Your eyes, they are evolving….how can this be?"

Itachi turned towards madara and frowned what the hell was he talking about?

"You managed to create an illusion of yourself attacking me, but you were not attacking me were you? You have not move from your spot since naruto got hit with my ameteratsu"

Madara could see the confusion on the boy is face and smile beneath his mask, it seem that itachi had yet to realized what was happening to him, but what was worse was that he, the great uchiha madara didn't know what was happening either. The only way to acquire the second phase of the sharigan was to kill your best friend or brother, to kill who ever was closest to you, but itachi, he had done nothing and yet his eyes were clearly evolving.

"Illusions don't fool the sharing an eye, yet you…how is it possible?"

"REVERSE ATTACK JUTSU!"

Naruto is voice rang out and madara could only look on at as his own amataratsu attack was re-directed towards him. The black flames rushed towards him and he couldn't help but wonder just who had trained this brat, both of them were impressive yes, but the boy the blond brat knew things that no one should, and those attacks of his. Naruto looked on as his attack rushed towards the orange wearing man only for them to fade right trough him, itachi turned towards him and naruto smiled.

"Your eyes are growing itachi"

"W-what?"

"Focus more chakra to your eyes and focus"

Itachi took a deep breath and closes his eyes, turning towards madara he focused on his target, he focused on his eyes and released the breath he was holding, once he opened his eyes he knew what had transpired and madara knew that this fight had gotten a lot more complicated.

"Magenkyo Sharingan"

Madara cursed his luck, there was no telling what the young uchiha could do with that power, not to mention that the blond brat is chakra seem endless and despite him trying to lock eyes with him he had no such luck, the brat seem to know what his plan was. The only way to get that damn fox under control was for him to go into the blond is mindscape and repress the demon is chakra; unfortunately, he was unable to lock eyes with the blond. Fortunately, for him he did not have to continue with this little battle, the village is screams had already reached them.

"It would seem that your father is quite the impatient person"

Itachi glared at the mask man and naruto narrowed his eyes, this guy had done his job well and they had fallen for it like amateur ninja. He was wondering why no one was coming to there aid, Madara had unleashed some pretty powerful attacks and he had even access the fox is power that alone should have the whole area filled with Anbu. Cursing at his own stupidity, he looked over at itachi and saw him nod in understanding.

"He's only been playing with us, kept us busy and away from the village"

Itachi nodded, he could see the sky above konoha being illuminated by the fires that were set, and the explosion that the uchiha clan were clearly responsible for, they had been battling this man with every thing they had and yet he was merely playing with them.

"The attack has already began"

"Right you are, and as such my job has been done"

With that that Madara simply vanished in a swirl of chakra, itachi turned towards naruto and then towards the fallen obito.

"We are fools, what made us think we could stand against some one like madara"

"Arrogance perhaps, but that doesn't matter right now, obito will be fine and the village needs us, so let's go"

Itachi looked at naruto and shook his head, he couldn't defy the clan.

"I can't I, I can't side against my own people naruto"

"The hell you can! Those idiots are going to laid waste to the village we need to do something!"

"They are my clan's men! What would you have me do!?"

"FIGHT! Stake your claim now, become the new head of the uchiha clan and end this madness!"

Could he stand against his own? Looking at the sky he could see it turning a bright red color, the color of blood, if this continue on then the uchiha would be whipped out and the village would suffer greatly because of his father is arrogance, yet he couldn't help but feel afraid, would he stand against his own?

"Not all uchiha are behind this itachi, what of them? Will you forsake them?"

Closing his eyes he shook his head, no he couldn't do that, they were others whom did not share his father is ambitions, there were others who would side with him and there were those whom were innocent in all of this, opening his eyes he smiles at naruto and naruto nods.

"I will end it"

CONTINUED……

Next time: "SILENCE"