Chapter Three

Finally! A Chance to Prove Myself!

We all watched desolately as Sasuke's coffin was slowly lowered into the ground. Sakura was on her knees in tears. I wanted to help her, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Kakashi finally did by putting his hand on her shoulder.

"You don't need to cry...he's in a better place now," he stated, apathetically.

"How do you know that?!" she screamed. "You can't prove that! You can only prove he's dead!"

"Because...I'm your squad leader...you should believe everything I say," he replied, sarcastically. "Look, I'm trying to help you. Are you going to let me or not?"

"I understand sir; it's just that...it's hard to believe he's gone,"

"Yeah...it is. He had a lot of talent..."

"Let's split before she starts reflecting on the 'good times'..." whispered Shikamaru.

"Good idea..." I replied. Now, some might say I seem too willing to abandon her, but to tell the honest truth, I loved Sakura. I loved her to death. But, sometimes, we guys need a break from all of the emotion. And believe me, during war time, there was a lot of that on the battlefield. I walked away with Shikamaru to go watch some TV and pig out at some greasy, cheap restaurant, when Kakashi stopped us momentarily.

"Oh," he said. "I forgot to mention, meet at Fort Morino tomorrow morning. We have a new mission, and a new addition to the squad,"

We waved to him and left.

Otogakure/Suna Village

"You idiot!" shouted Orochimaru in extreme frustration. "Your mission failed! We lost thousands of troops due to your terrible planning!"

"Lord Otokage, please forgive me...my foresight was terrible. This will not happen again..." replied an Otogakure officer, kneeling before the awe-inspiring sight of Orochimaru.

Orochimaru hissed, "You're right..." he withdrew a kunai from his belt and laughed. "It won't happen again..."

"Oh, thank you my lord!" replied the officer, with great relief.

"Because you'll be fucking dead!" screamed Orochimaru, with anger that you could feel, physically, as he shoved the kunai through the musical note on the forehead protector of the officer. It broke the steel on the purple headband inwards, and the kunai penetrated his skull and frontal lobe. The officer gasped for breath, then seized and died. He was foaming at the mouth. He had suffered a seizure before he died. The two guards at the front of the room glanced around nervously.

"Remove his body from my presence at once!" Orochimaru sat at his desk silently for a minute, and looked down at the broken forehead protector that sat in a pool of blood on the carpet of his exquisite throne. He smiled. When the guards returned, Orochimaru gave them another command.

"Send flowers to his family..." he hissed. "His headband just gave me an idea..."

"Yes sir," they replied, and ran off to do Orochimaru's bidding.

Area Unknown

"So, let me process what you're saying, exactly," mumbled Itachi Uchiha, a missing ninja, or a ninja who abandons his village, standing there looking annoyed by the Otogakure's request. He had jet black hair, sharingans, and a black robe, typical of missing ninja. "You want us, missing nin who have been dormant for ten years, to bring down the Konoha village?"

"Yes, my liege. You have the entire Land of Sound and our newly gained territories at your service," replied one of the Otogakure. Their faces were to remain anonymous in case they were forced to fight. Orochimaru did not want them to know he was still alive.

"Humph…" mumbled Konan. She was the only female in the missing-nin circle, also known as the Akatsuki. "What do you think, Pein?"

Pein is the leader of Akatsuki, and he made all of the important decisions. He made his decision immediately and a resounding 'yes' finalized the offer made by the Otogakure. Gold coins splashed onto the floor as a token of appreciation.

"We don't want money," Pein hissed sharply. "We want revenge,"

Fort Morino, Konoha

"Alright, so… you guys are all here," Kakashi said, looking over us with the almost condescending glance of his visible eye.

"Yeah…and you're not late for once," mumbled Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru…" sighed Kakashi. "You're not the one who should be talking…anyway; this is our new squad mate, Sol. He's the new corporal. So, make him feel welcome by giving him a big, warm, D-27 welcome!" he smiled underneath his mask.

"Hey," we all mumbled apathetically. We were drained, emotionally and physically, due to this war. We had been on missions constantly for three months now.

"Guys…" Kakashi said, slightly annoyed by our attitudes, "I realize this war, and the death of our teammate, Sasuke Uchiha, is tough. But I got leave passes for three weeks. This is the last battle we'll be fighting for three weeks. During those three weeks, we can do whatever we want. Just stay focused, and we'll all leave the battleground each holding three week passes! Just think, us five marching into those Konoha gates, bloody and bruised, but being praised as heroes. And Lord Hokage walks up to me, looks me right in the eye, and says, 'Kakashi, you're the best damn ninja I've ever seen!' As a token of my appreciation, you can have anything you want in the village! Even women! Including my wife!"

We all drooled at the sight of the passes, considering our regiment during the week consisted of training, small missions, more training, and more small missions. Weekends were our only escape, and even they weren't enough.

"…You guys aren't even listening, huh?" Kakashi asked, rhetorically.

"No," we replied in unison, shaking our heads. We were all relieved to see these passes. Sol didn't look so happy, however. I had a sort of sneaking suspicion about him. He wore a full du-rag Konoha headband, he was pale and wore a flak jacket and shinobi pants, but something just seemed very odd about him. He didn't fit in. We confirmed that during our pre-mission exercises. He seemed too lazy for his own good, stumbling on the easiest maneuvers, and talking very slowly, and not as if he was choosing his words carefully. It was if as he was straining to speak. Even then, he still stuttered. Was he even mentally capable of handling this squad? Kakashi was letting him lead the squad to the mission site. I think he felt that something was up, too. When we stopped in the middle of the forest, he turned around and looked at Kakashi.

"Alright, Itachi, you've had your fun, what did you want?" asked Kakashi, angrily. Sol burst into smoke, and when it cleared, a man in his late twenties or early thirties, who was obviously part of the Uchiha clan, judging by the sharingans, and was a missing ninja appeared. His headband had a slash through the Konoha symbol, showing he'd abandoned it officially, and was most likely part of the Akatsuki.

"To kill you," he said, nonchalantly. If he could say something like that without any hesitation, then it pretty much proved he was a cold blooded killer. Suddenly, thousands of Otogakure troops dropped down from the trees, along with one more Akatsuki member. He introduced himself as Kisame, and his face resembled that of a shark. A large sword was slung over his back, but not just any sword. This one ate the chakra of anything it touched. His skin was blue, his teeth were sharp, and he had gills on his cheeks.

"So, Itachi, these were the kids we were supposed to take out?" he asked, a slim smirk spread across his face.

"Yeah," replied Itachi, somewhat annoyed by Kisame's playful way of intimidating his opponents.

"Mind if I go first?"

"Not at all," mumbled Itachi. "Just don't jump the shark,"

Kisame smiled at this comment as he jumped into the air, his black and red robe rippling in the wind. He unsheathed his sword, which also resembled a shark, albeit with feathers, and bought it down onto Kakashi, who flipped into the air and hit the dirt with a blue, translucent fluid coming out of him that flowed into Kisame's sword. It was eating Kakashi's chakra.

"Damn it!" shouted Shikamaru, who flashed some hand signs and shouted, "Shadow Imitation no jutsu!" A shadow flew towards Kisame, and stopped when it reached him. He couldn't move.

"What the?!" he shouted, shocked and confused.

"Ikanobori!" shouted Shikamaru. "Use something to finish him off! His power's too much for me to hold for much longer!"

"Right!" I looked over at Shikamaru, and nodded. I flashed a hand sign, and yelled, "Wind Style! Tornado Wind Shuriken no jutsu!" Wind began flowing in between my palms, rippling my clothing, and stressing my skin from the force. It was making a high pitched whining noise, distracting my opponents from the real threat. Once the wind had formed into a shuriken shape, I hoisted it up with my left arm, and threw it at Kisame. Shikamaru's jutsu failed to hold, and Kisame managed to jump into the air. My shuriken missed, and killed a few Otogakure in its wake. Kisame was busy preparing his next attack, when Sakura threw a windmill shuriken at him, which he managed to catch. He laughed at our apparently futile attempts to kill him. Just then, the shuriken burst into smoke and turned into explosion scrolls. His entire torso was covered in them.

"Oh my god! Get them off! Itachi, help me!" he screamed. Itachi glanced up at him, and his neutral expression turned into a scowl.

"Fool. You jumped the shark…ironic, wouldn't you say?" Kisame couldn't respond in time, as the scrolls exploded and most likely killed him in a horrible manner.

"One down, one to go," laughed Shikamaru. "You Akatsuki are pushovers. Looks like those ten years were really hard on you,"

"And you assholes are any better?" Itachi spat back. "Kisame was a fool. He couldn't handle Naruto when he fought him as a genin. I'm no pushover. Just watch," he flared his sharingans, and yelled, "Tsukuyomi! Activate!" Shikamaru froze in his tracks. Sweat beaded down his forehead. He looked as if he was in immense pain.

"You…bastard!" stuttered Kakashi, still recovering from Kisame's blow. "you wouldn't…dare do that…to a chunin!"

"Oh, he's a chunin?" asked Itachi, raising an eyebrow. "Interesting,"

"What the hell are you doing to him?!" I shouted, angrily.

"Nothing…we're just playing a kid's game…remember bloody knuckles? Well, it's like that, only more like bloody bodies. See who dies first," he chuckled.

"Let Shikamaru out, you bastard!" I screamed. I ran forward, and attempted to strangle him. He kneed me in the stomach, then punched me in the face, sending me hurling through the air, before my body realized what happened. When it did, I had already hit the ground, and the pain was immense. I could barely move. Shikamaru was now screaming. He wasn't even injured. He was just screaming for no reason. Itachi had him locked in some kind of damned genjutsu.

"Already had enough, Shikamaru?" laughed Itachi. "Pathetic. Only five minutes in the real world, and almost dead of exhaustion. At least your Sergeant was able to last a day. Quite the squad you have here, Kakashi Hatake,"

"You shut up!" cried Kakashi. He charged forward, and punched Itachi in the face, almost knocking him off balance. Itachi recovered, and then returned the hit, with at least three times the force. Kakashi was knocked back, and that's when Itachi did something completely unexpected.

"Hey, Otogakure…" he mumbled.

"Yes sir!" they replied.

"Leave," he ordered.

"Uh…but sir, what if…" they replied.

"There are no longer any hypothetical questions, understand? I've won this battle, and I want to kill them my self," he interrupted. They left without saying another word, leaving Itachi to his spoils of war. He ended the genjutsu he had trapped Shikamaru in earlier, and Shikamaru fell to the ground, unconscious. Kakashi couldn't move after the blow from Itachi. I was slowly regaining strength, but pretended to be struggling, so I could think of a plan. Sakura was the only one who wasn't incapacitated within our squad. She was shaking with fear as Itachi approached her.

"Get…get away from me!" she screamed. Itachi smirked. He leaned in close to her, and whispered into her ear,

"I killed Sasuke,"

She screamed. She was crying. Itachi then kicked her in the face.

"You're pathetic," he laughed. "I haven't even gotten serious yet. I wonder how much pain you can take…" he picked up her arm, and snapped the bone with tremendous force, creating a compound shatter. She screamed again. Itachi kicked her in the stomach. She coughed up blood and could no longer move. Anger flowed through my veins, and I was overcome with rage.

"Stop it! Stop it right now, you dirty coward!" I screamed. Itachi turned around, amused at my reaction.

"Huh…I thought you were hurt too badly to fight me…" he mumbled. "Oh well, more spoils for me!" He leaped in the air, and landed in front of me. He tried to punch me in the face, but I ducked, and punched him in the stomach with extreme force, quite possibly breaking several ribs. His arms flung into the air, and that left him open for a combo. I punched him in the throat, kicked him in the ribs, and then performed an axe kick onto his collarbone. He was on the ground, coughing. I was preparing to nail him with another combo, when Kisame jumped in front of me. His robe was torn up, and his skin was badly burnt.

"Out of my way, punk!" I shouted.

"No…I'm going to prove I'm no pushover," he laughed. He tried to punch me, but I took his arm, and snapped it in half. The resulting fracture ripped his forearm off. His body was weak. Blood spewed across the ground. I kicked him in the jaw, which rattled his body. Then, I flashed several hand signs.

"Chido…RI!" A flashing blue ball formed on my hand, and a sound that resembled many birds chirping emitted loudly from it. I ran forward, and smashed the ball into Kisame. He was ripped apart by the force of it. He made no sound even though his lips moved, as the ball of chakra was just too much for his vocal cords to reach above. Chidori meant 'one thousand birds'. Just then, as I was regaining strength from wasting so much chakra, Itachi's hand slammed into the back of my neck. He loomed over me, and flared his sharingans.

"Tsukuyomi! Activ…" he started. I jumped into the air, flipped, and kicked his jaw upward. He bit his tongue, spewing blood into the air from his mouth. Then, he fell backwards onto the ground. As he tried getting up, I smashed my foot down onto his neck. He was trying desperately to scream, but couldn't. He spewed out blood onto my foot and pants.

"You're done…" I said. I was wrong. At that moment, he teleported, and kicked me in the back. I flew forward, tumbling over and over. He prepared his sharingans again.

"Tsukuyomi! Activate!" he shouted. I couldn't stop it this time. I was looking him right in the eye, and I was trapped in the genjutsu. It was a strange sensation. I was tied to a wooden cross, and at least five of Itachi's clones were standing in front of me with katana. He began shoving them into my stomach. I screamed in pain.

"This isn't real!" I shouted. "It can't be real! You can't kill me!"

"You keep telling yourself that…" Itachi laughed.

"Actually…" I laughed weakly. "If I know it's not real, then my conscience realizes that, and so long I'm aware of that fact, I can't die, or be hurt!"

"Ah, you're trying to confuse me with all that psychological warfare crap. It won't work," he replied matter-of-factly.

"Even so, my team will eventually wake up, and you'd better prepare for an ass whooping then,"

"Or maybe they won't. Maybe I'll call back Otogakure and have them kill your teammates right in front of you. Wouldn't that be terrible? Having your best friends and future family killed right in front of you? I wouldn't enjoy that, would you? I killed Sasuke. But, it's your fault. You didn't stop him. He cursed your name before he died,"

"No! That's not true!" I was angry now. What an arrogant ass. Trying to make me feel as if it was my fault he killed Sasuke.

"It is…I can tell you every aspect about his death. I killed him using this very genjutsu, and I simply disguised myself as an Otogakure. You're pitiful. I killed the entire Uchiha clan, and what have you done? Killed one of your own pitiful teammates. Pathetic. I've seen better academy students than you,"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" I screamed. I was so enraged; chakra was steaming off of my body. I'd had enough. I broke out of the genjutsu, and prepared my next maneuver. However, Itachi was quicker. He fired off an explosive scroll, and the flak from that knocked me to the ground. I managed to throw a few kunai and senbon at him, which stopped him in his tracks. The kunai hit him in the chest, and the senbon tore into his neck. He was weary, but was preparing the genjutsu again. His chakra was dangerously low. He couldn't perform that maneuver without killing himself…which was what he was trying to do. He wasn't going to let a lowly chunin such as I kill a respected member of the Akatsuki. He'd kill himself and me with this next genjutsu. I wouldn't let that happen. I flashed a few more hand signs, and shouted, "Chi…dor…i!" The same blue ball appeared in my hand, and I charged forward. It was spiraling out of control, showing me my chakra was too low to keep it going for much longer. "Bring it on, bitch!" Itachi flared his sharingans as soon as my palm made contact with his chest. My chidori was ripping him in half, and he fired off the genjutsu. The resulting force created an explosion so large, so immense, that it created a 4.6 magnitude earthquake throughout the Land of Fire. I found myself staring up at the sky, dizzy from the battle. I forced myself up, and saw Itachi on the ground in front of me, torn in half. I looked around for my teammates. Kakashi, Sakura, and Shikamaru were all lying in their original positions, knocked out from the explosion and their battle wounds.

"Ha-ha…" hissed a voice behind me. I spun around, and saw the entire Akatsuki tribe standing directly in front of me. The one standing in front was clapping. I couldn't see his face, but I did know one thing: he was the leader. "I am Pein, the leader of Akatsuki. I saw you take out Kisame and Itachi. Very well done. I'll make this offer once: would you like to join the Akatsuki?"

"No, you rat bastard!" I yelled. "How dare you get involved in this war!"

"Hah! …We were simply hired by Otogakure to take down Konoha. The rest is none of our business. This is not for Otogakure at all. This is a personal vendetta. In fact, after Konoha is destroyed, every village will crumble because they won't have anyone left to save them. In fact, right after we destroyed you, we were going to take out Otogakure…I'll give you another offer: join us or die!" spat Pein rudely. He was pissed at my apparent arrogance. It wasn't arrogance, though. It was pride. Pride for my people, and for my village.

"Well, then you might as well kill me!" I shouted.

"Fine then," Pein stated. He flashed several hand signs and yelled something I couldn't quite understand. The earth in front of me cracked in half and water filled the crevice, creating a deep river. I realized what he was doing, and I proceeded to do the same. We both flashed the same hand signs at the same speed, and yelled almost as if the whole thing had been practiced ceremoniously,

"Water Style! Water Dragon jutsu!"

Two spirals of water that closely resembled dragons, even to the most minute details, exploded in a tremendous fashion out of the river. Each of us had one dragon to fight with. Whoever's dragon lost first would be killed by the opponent's. Pein's dragon flew wildly towards me. I jumped into the air, and yelled, "Wind Style! Tornado Wind Shuriken no jutsu!" Wind began rushing in between my hands, forming the shape of a windmill shuriken which I weakly lifted up into the air, due to the enormous amount of chakra I had used in this battle, and threw it down at the dragon. It cut off the 'head' of the water dragon, and the dragon's body withdrew into the river yet again. My dragon had been destroyed as well, but that made me and Pein even. I landed back onto the ground, already thinking about my next move. Just then, Pein's dragon popped up again and flew towards me. I had no time to move. But, suddenly, Kakashi jumped in front of me, and took the blow for me. The dragon impaled him, and its teeth were gnashing at me in a raging bloodlust after missing its intended target.

"Kakashi!" I cried out in anguish.

"Ikanobori…" he muttered. He was still weak. Why did he take that hit for me? He could barely fight after Kisame removed his chakra from him, so why did he even bother saving me? "Get out of here…call in for backup. We can't hold off the rest of the Akatsuki…please…"

"…" I was shocked. Kakashi Hatake, the copy ninja, one of the most renowned ninja throughout the world, had just paid the ultimate price for me. A simple chunin in his squad. He'd led many squads before, and he'd seen his own men die, some of them young chunin such as myself. Why did he sacrifice himself for me, specifically? Why not Sasuke? He had more talent than me. Why not anyone else? "Why did you do it Kakashi?!"

"Ikanobori…" he laughed. "Don't worry about such trivial things…we lost the battle, you lost me. Don't worry…just…" he hacked up blood, which forced him to muster up the strength to remove his mask. The water dragon was still holding strong, and was caught in Kakashi's torso stubbornly, like a big splinter underneath the skin. "Just get backup, okay?" I saw his face. He was a handsome man. Although he was pushing 35 years old, his face resembled that of a man in his mid twenties. Pein walked towards Kakashi, and withdrew two katana from the sheathes tied to his back. He bought his arms back, preparing to shove them directly into Kakashi to finish him off.

"Ready to die, Kakashi Hatake?" hissed Pein.

"Not just…" Kakashi coughed, spewing blood onto Pein's robe. Pein scowled, noticing Kakashi had done it out of spite. "Yet," he finished his sentence. Kakashi pried open his clenched fist, and yelled, "Rasengan!" Wind sloshed around in his palm until a dark blue ball appeared, spiraling madly. So this was the legendary move the Hokage taught him. Interesting. Pein was too close to escape. Even though he tried, Kakashi grabbed him, and pulled him forward. "I want to see your damn face before we meet in hell…"

"No!" shouted Pein. "Let go!" Kakashi smashed the Rasengan into Pein. He screamed in pain, but managed to shove the katana through Kakashi's kidneys. The Rasengan caused a small explosion, sending Pein flying through the air, and impaling him on a tree. He was dead. "Damn you…Kakashi Hatake…"

"You too, asshole…" Kakashi smiled, as his eyes closed and he took in his last breath. As the old proverb goes, an eye for an eye, etc. I smiled. Kakashi's corpse was smiling, even as the water dragon dissipated and he fell onto the ground with a 12 inch hole in his stomach. He didn't care he was dead. He had done what needed to be done in his lifetime. Accomplished everything. Nothing left for him to do, except fight. What did it matter if he died? I began laughing, maniacally. I pointed at the rest of the Akatsuki, and smirked.

"It's your turn now. Ready to face the wrath of Konoha?" The Hokage and hundreds of Konoha soldiers appeared behind me.

"Sure," replied Konan, the only female member of the group. "You ready to face the wrath of Otogakure?" Thousands of Otogakure troops appeared from the trees behind them.