Chapter 4: Akatsuki

"Naruto..." whispered Hinata to herself as she sprinted back towards the village. "Please be safe." She though about what had occured before. Naruto had said that he loved her. Did he really mean it or was it just the desperation of the situation. No... he meant it. She had seen the look in his eyes as he said it. He meant it.

"HInata..." said Naruto to himself as he charged towards Itachi and Kisame. "Be safe..." The duo came into sight. "Raaaaaarrrrrhhhhh!!!" he shouted as he threw a load of Kunai and Shuriken at them. Itachi quickly knocked them all out of the air in the instant before they hit him with his own Kunai. "Damn!' Naruto said as he engaged the clearly more experienced Shinobi. Kisame simply stood to the side and watched the confrontation in amusement. Sparks flew as the two Kunai blades clashed again and again. Itachi was barely trying as he evaded and blocked all of Naruto's attacks with little or no effort at all.

"How long are you going to bore me with you child's games?" asked Itachi. Naruto grunted in anger and continued slashing at the Akatsuki ninja. He pulled out another Kunai so he would have more of a chance. Itachi, still calm, defended against the second Kunai.

Naruto quickly performed his hand seals. "Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" he shouted as four clones appeared on his sides. They all pulled out two Kunai each and slashed wildly at Itachi. Naruto grinned slightly as he noticed a small look of exertion on Itachi's face. He made his seals again and performed the clone jutsu. One-hundred Naruto clones surrounded Itachi and started stabbing and slashing at him. In what seemed like a flash, every clone vanished in a puff of smoke. Itachi appeared in front of Naruto and drove his Kunai deep into his right shoulder.

"Auugghhh!!" Burning pain shot through Naruto's bleeding shoulder as the cold metal was hastily pulled out. Dammit!" shouted Naruto as blood flowed from his shoulder. He held his shoulder with his left hand.

"Too easy..." murmered Itachi as he swiped the air with his Kunai to clean the blood off. The remark angered Naruto.

"Oh yeah!?" he shouted. He sprang up and delivered a powerful uppercut, sending Itachi crashing to the ground. Naruto clenched his fist. He didn't feel the pain in his shoulder anymore, but it didn't really matter because it had already started healing rapidly thanks to the Kyubi.

Itachi saw the slow healing process of Naruto's arm. He smiled slightly and murmered, "Thought so..."

"Heh... Need some help, Itachi?" asked Kisame from the side.

"No... This'll be over soon." he replied.

"Kakashi-Sensei!" shouted Hinata. She found him walking out of the theatre showing the Icha Icha Paradise movie.

"Hmm?" he looked at her. "What is it?" he asked.

"N-Naruto! He's being attacked on the Hokage statues!" she shouted desperately.

"By who?" asked Kakashi calmly.

"T-two men in black cloaks!" she said.

Kakashi's exposed right eye widened slightly. "Akatsuki!?" he said loudly. Hinata nodded.

"N-Naruto s-said to get you and as m-many people as p-possible!" she said.

Kakashi nodded. "Get yours, Neji's, Shikamaru's, and my team! Meet me at the foot of the mountain!" he dissappeared in a flash. Hinata ran to try and find everyone.

"Hey, look..." said Choji as he munched on a bag of chips. "It's Hinata. She looks pretty scared."

"Mmm... Wonder what's wrong..." said Shikamaru lazily.

She almost ran into them. "Shikamaru! Choji! Get all the Genin teams and meet at the foot of the Hokage faces!" she shouted desperately. "Naruto's being attacked!"

"Alright! Hinata, get your team. Choji, get Ino and Sakura. I'll get Neji's team." he said. The three of them went off in different directions to find their teammates.

Naruto stood, staring at Itachi. His shoulder had now completely healed. He quickly made a clone and began to mold his chakra. He was performing the Rasengan. Itachi stood, fascinated. He hadn't seen this technique before. Blue chakra balled up in Naruto's hands. The Rasengan was done in a few seconds. "Aaaauuuugggghhhhh!!!!!" he shouted. He charged at Itachi with his mass of chakra in his hand. He was almost on Itachi.

Itachi's eyes widened in slight fear as he realised just how strong the chakra ball was. He just barely moved out of the way as Naruto was on him. He hadn't dodged enough. The Rasengan took out a fine chunk of flesh from Itachi's right side. Blood spewed out of the wound.

"Augh!" he shouted in pain. Kisame ran over with a scroll. He read off the scroll quickly and performed some hand seals. A small barrier of chakra appeared over Itachi's wound.

Itachi appeared on a rock to the left and sat down.

"My turn..." said Kisame happily as he put his hand on his sword's hilt.