"Itachi!" Sasuke tried to pull his hand back, but Itachi wouldn't let go. "You are not a worthy measurement for my capacity. Give my regards to Mother." Itachi twisted Sasuke's wrist, almost snapping the bones, and tried to thrust the kunai in Sasuke's own hand into his little brother's neck, only to find that he couldn't move.
"Shadow Bind, success." Shikamaru, still near the edge of the clearing, was holding the ram sign, a line of shadow connecting to the S-class missing Nin's. "Ino, get Sasuke and run! Chouji, help her get him to the hospital. Everyone else, come with me. We've gotta go get help." They nodded, as Shikamaru started sweating because of the exertion of holding such a powerful foe at bay. Ino had barely gotten Sasuke away before the shadow broke. Chouji was quick to rush to her aid, throwing Sasuke's body unceremoniously against a nearby tree and taking Ino on his back into the dense foliage. The other Genin were quick to disperse, heading back to the village in separate directions so that even if a few were caught, more would be able to raise the alarm. None of them bothered to take Sasuke with them.
Kisame landed next to Itachi while the other Jounin grouped around Naruto. "Uchiha Itachi, S-class missing-nin, member of Akatsuki, partnered with Hoshigake Kisame, S-class missing-nin, also a member of Akatsuki, hunting down the Nine-Tailed Fox. I'm sure this isn't a social visit."
"Uzumaki Naruto, A-class Jounin, container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, personal apprentice to the Sandaime Hokage, perfect mission record, and a Grand Seal Master. And no, we didn't stop by for tea."
"Shame, really. Guys, you take care of Shark-boy, I'll take Itachi."
The four other Jounin gave some sort of affirmation, and attacked Kisame. Itachi and Naruto leaped away to clear some room for their own fight.
"So, you are the one that has supposedly surpassed me while I was in Konoha. You will be an appropriate measure for my capacity."
Naruto chose not to respond with words, instead dashing at his foe. Itachi dodged the fist aimed at his face, but failed to see Naruto's elbow that slammed into the side of his head from the same arm he dodged. Caught off balance, he was easy pray to the cross over uppercut Naruto threw at him. It was only the intervention of his Sharingan that allowed him to anticipate the attack and dodge out of the way.
The two jumped away from each other. An intense stare down lasted for a whole 3 seconds before they both started hand seals.
"Katon: Karyu Endan!" their two voices yelled in unison. Two intensely hot flame dragons clashed together. Naruto's was quickly overpowered, and where Naruto stood before was nothing more than a burning patch of grass. Itachi narrowed his eyes. Something was off about that scene.
Naruto burst out of the ground behind the Akatsuki member. A quick kunai to the head dispersed the Itachi clone. A ninjato slashed through Naruto's middle, causing that clone to disperse as well. Itachi dodged a gust of wind, but his sword wasn't so lucky, being split in half just above the guard. He threw the useless hilt away and responded with a flurry of fireballs from where the attack had come from. He heard another poof, and whirled around to catch Naruto's wrist, barely stopping the Rasengan he was holding from hitting him. Naruto let the Rasengan explode, sending the two in opposite directions. Itachi was slammed against a tree, the front of his robes was tattered, but there wasn't much blood. It seems that Itachi had taken to wearing ANBU armor underneath his Akatsuki robes. Naruto was mostly alright, but his hand was bleeding quite a bit, and from the strange angle his fingers made, they were broken.
Naruto calmly snapped his fingers back into place, mentally thanking Kyuubi for his regenerative powers. By the time Itachi had risen to his feet, Naruto's hand was almost healed.
"Mangekyou Sharingan." Itachi's three tomoe Sharingan transformed into the final stage, the Mangekyou. 'Shit' Naruto thought. 'Kyuubi, I need some power if I'm gonna beat him.'
'Your wish is my command.' Kyuubi's sarcastic remark didn't help with Naruto's mood, but the three tails of power sent his way stopped him from responding. His body started glowing with the chakra shroud, and three waving translucent tails appeared behind him. Though they were covered by his mask, Naruto's eyes shifted to that of the fox's, and his whisker marks lengthened. With a roar of fury, Naruto dashed at Itachi, claws extended. Naruto's swipe missed, Itachi ducking underneath the blow and slapping a piece of paper onto Naruto's gut.
Itachi slammed his fist into Naruto's jaw with a vicious uppercut. He sent Naruto flying across the field with a well placed kick. The seal on the tag glowed brightly and the malevolent chakra disappeared. The ground managed to stop Naruto's momentum, but a small trench was cut into the soil.
"That seal will keep your tenant quiet. Your only choice is to come with me."
Naruto chuckled quietly, slowly getting to his feet. From the way his breath was labored and the fact that he held his side, some of his ribs must be broken.
"Don't think you've won yet."
"Oh, but I have. Your chakra is almost depleted, your tenant's is being repressed, all thanks to that seal, and on top of that, you're injured. Without the demon's power, your regenerative powers won't work. You have no choice."
"No. I have one other."
Itachi froze, his eyes following Naruto's hand as it reached for his mask. The blank ANBU mask was dropped onto the ground, next to Naruto. His blonde hair was held back by a hitai ate, of course with the Leaf symbol. Three whisker marks adorned his cheeks, which didn't quite hold the roundness of a boyish face, but wasn't quite to the point where it could be called manly. His eyes were closed.
"I have no choice but to use this. I can see your future, and your future is death!" With the final word, Naruto opened his eyes. With a pulse of chakra, Naruto's Sesshougan met Itachi's Mangekyou Sharingan.
Itachi let out an inhuman scream. His hands clutched at his eyes as he stumbled around, finally falling to the ground and writhing like a snake in its death throes. After a minute of pure torture, Itachi stilled, panting quickly. During all of this, Naruto had calmly put his mask back on.
"My eyes! What have you done to my eyes!" Itachi turned to face Naruto, who had expected Itachi to be a corpse by now. "My Mangekyou Sharingan, what have you done to it!" Indeed, Itachi's eyes were back to the three tomoe Sharingan that all fully developed Uchiha have.
"I know how the Mangekyou Sharingan is formed. You must kill your closest friend to get it. Yours was Uchiha Shisui. When you drowned him, the bond you had with him forced his soul to inhabit your eyes. Your Mangekyou Sharingan is the soul of your closest friend. And I removed that soul. Your Mangekyou is gone."
Asuma and Gai leaped at the shark-man. Asuma went high with his trench knives, while Gai went low with a sweeping kick. The both connected, but Kisame burst into a pool of water, indicating that they were fighting a Mizu Bunshin.
"We need to form a strategy, but I don't think we can take him alone. Kurenai, come with me, we're going to get some help. Asuma, Gai, hold him off." Kakashi spiked his chakra twice in quick succession, then once more, slightly longer in duration. It was a classic Jounin signal for 'lie'. Meaning that Kakashi and Kurenai were going to retreat into the woods until the opportune time to counter attack.
"Roger!" the three other Jounin shouted, spiking their chakra once in return, indicating that they understood the deception. Kurenai followed Kakashi as he leaped into the trees. Soon, their presences disappeared totally.
"Oh? What's this? Your teammates left you here to die. Whatever happened to Konoha's infamous teamwork? Tut tut… No matter. It'll just make killing you that much easier." Kisame practically gloated. He was right, of course. Asuma and Gai couldn't take him alone, since they were both close range fighters, while Kisame was a short to mid range fighter. He had the advantage, despite being outnumbered. Kisame's sword counteracted Asuma's chakra enhances blades, and would most likely drain almost all the extra chakra Gai would get from opening his gates. Granted, it couldn't take it all at once, but in the end, Gai would be worse off after than he would without the boost.
Asuma located the shark-like man, standing near the edge of the clearing, and charged. Gai took the opportunity to remove all the weights he had on him, hoping the advantage would be enough.
Asuma slashed high, trying to behead the Akatsuki member, but Samehada intervened, disrupting the wind chakra and blocking the steel blade. With a quick spin, Asuma brought his other hand around, trying to stab the man in the side. Kisame adjusted the angle his sword was at and again blocked.
"Dainamiku Entori!" Gai's foot flew at the blue man's head. Kisame ducked underneath the kick. Recovering quickly, he swung his sword around. Gai dodged, but Asuma had a small chunk of his leg shaved off. Asuma stumbled and fell to one knee. Samehada was raised over Kisame's head. Gai's eyes widened and he dove at the other Jounin, knocking him out of the way. Fortunately, the strike completely missed the two.
Gai rolled to his feet, watching Kisame carefully so he wouldn't take advantage of Asuma's attempts at standing. A twig snapped. Kisame whirled around, looking at the source of the sound.
"Shadow bind, success." Shikamaru stood under the shade of one of the huge trees, using it's sprawling shadow to extend his own, connecting it with Kisame's, holding the shark-man in place. Asuma and Gai took advantage of this. With a lightning quick kick, Gai's shin collided with the side of Kisame's leg, shattering his knee. Kisame's cries of pain were silenced by Asuma's wind enhanced trench knife, loping off the creature's head. Shikamaru released the jutsu, and Kisame's body collapsed to the ground. The blood spurting out of the dead ninja's neck revealed it to be the man's true body. Kakashi walked out from behind the tree and rested his hand on Shikamaru's shoulder.
"Good job. Thank you for coming back to help us."
"Meh. I'd have been too troublesome to let these two go unchecked."
Kakashi nodded. He turned to the two Jounin inspecting the body. "Gai, take Asuma to the hospital. I'll take the body to the morgue to get it inspected. Shikamaru, head back to the village and get the ANBU here. Dismissed!"
Naruto dashed at Itachi, snapping off a few kicks. Without the super-enhanced prediction abilities of the Mangekyou, Itachi couldn't block the incredibly fast attacks. By the time Naruto broke off the attack and jumped away, both of Itachi's arms hung useless at his sides, and his right knee couldn't support his weight. Naruto dashed at the man again and with a quick chop to the neck, knocked him out. Grabbing his hair, he dragged the unconscious man over to the tree where Sasuke was knocked out against. Naruto pulled a small vial out from one of his hidden pockets, uncorked it, and waved it underneath the Last Uchiha's nose.
Sasuke shot awake, looking around frantically. He grunted in pain as he tried to move his severely sprained wrist, finding it unusable. His eyes darted around, landing on the unconscious form of his brother.
"Uchiha Sasuke, I know you want revenge on your brother. This is the only chance you'll get."
"I wanted to fight him at his fullest. I wanted to beat him before I killed him."
"You were beaten to it. The ANBU are probably on their way, and they will execute him on the spot. Your only chance to kill him by your own hand is to do it now." Naruto pulled a kunai out and offered it to Sasuke, hilt first. The boy frowned, but took it anyway. Steeling himself, he stood and approached Itachi.
With a quick slice, Itachi's throat was split open, is blood pooling in the grass. Sasuke stared at the hand covered in his brother's blood. He was shaking slightly, and a lone tear slid down his face.
"The first time is always the hardest. It's not what you thought it would be, is it?" Naruto asked. "Even though you hated him with a passion, for a good reason, too, it wasn't enough to let you just shake it off. The fact that you still feel guilty, that his death still affects your proves that you are still human. Now that you don't have his shadow over your head, things will make a turn for the better for you. Besides, now you can work on your other goal: rebuilding your clan." Naruto's smirk was hidden by his mask. It wasn't every day you saw the Last Uchiha blushing, was it?
"Yeah… I guess you're right." Sasuke wiped his hand on the corpse's black cloak.
"I hope this means that you won't use a deadly jutsu on a fellow Konoha ninja in the future. If you dare do that again, I'll personally rip your arms off. Understand?"
"Perfectly."
The rest of the day was rather uneventful. The ANBU and Hunter nin cleaned up the mess and took care of most of the paperwork. Sasuke got a huge bounty for landing the killing blow on Itachi, although Naruto took a good sized portion for his own involvement. Shikamaru also got a sizeable bank account for his involvement in Kisame's defeat. The rest of Kisame's bounty was split between Asuma, Gai, Kurenai, and Kakashi. Even split five ways, there was still more than enough for each of them to retire on, though they chose not to, opting to continue their shinobi careers. The best part of it all was that Sasuke started breaking out of his shell. He even started smiling, laughing, and (wonder of wonders) telling jokes. Who knows, maybe his future did take a turn for the better…
Sorry for my tardiness! I apologise for the late update. I would have posted sooner, but a few bad reviews left me rather discouraged. I know I havn't really introduced the plot, but I do have an idea for what I want to do. I know that many of you are dissapointed with Kisame and Itachi's deaths, but I needed a way to get Akatsuki off of Naruto's back for a while, and what better way than to remove those two? And I have a few ideas that'll take care of Kyuubi too. Most of the plot will really come into play after the Chuunin Exams, and i'll do a few time skips to get there, so please bear with me. Also, I feel that Ino needs a major boost in power, so i'm gonna do something about that too. It'll polly be very Mary-Sue-ish, but the end results are necessary. So, yeah... I encorage you to keep reading, and your review help out a ton. Well, the good ones anyway. Enough rambling. Until next time!