AN: Sorry again for the delay you guys, I really hope that I don't make a habit of this. School has been...interesting to say the least, and has been taking up a great deal of my time. I honestly do feel bad about the substantial wait time between chapters so I'm going to try to update again before the end of the month. Thanks for all the hits, favorites, reviews, ect. it's nice to know that my work is appreciated. I'm not very sure about the actions scenes, so any feedback would be a big help to me.
I still need a beta. If anyone is interested in being one, send me a message.
This is a little question I have for you: How would you kill demon Naruto? (trust me. it's relevant.)
Pain.
All he knew was pain.
Itachi reeled forward; unable to even think, let alone stand in the midst of this mind numbing torture. His head struck the unyielding floor of the sewer with a sickening crack, leaking a splash of crimson into the murky green water. Submerged beneath the rapidly expanding halo of blood and putrid water, the Uchiha's sharingan eyes spun wildly, vainly trying to break the illusionary world that their master was trapped in but unable to do so.
Itachi could move, couldn't breathe, couldn't even scream due to the horrible amount of pain he was in. His fingers twitched sporadically, struggling desperately to latch on to something, a lever, switch, a cyanide pill, anything to put an end to this unholy torment.
A sticky mixture of blood and fragments of tongue began to seep from Itachi's gaping mouth; the nuke nin unconsciously shredding the organ in an attempt to make the pain stop.
His ANBU training did nothing to numb the pain. There was no happy place he could retreat to, no pocket of solace that he could hide within, no escape from the undiluted agony that now coursed through his veins.
He couldn't escape into the depths of his mind because he was already there. All of his mental blocks were crushed to dust by the fury of the nine-tailed king, swept away as though they were constructed from sand or ash. The Kyuubi had brought him to his knees effortlessly. It was killing him without even touching him.
The Uchiha's body began self destruct. His bones splintered within his body, simply unable to bare the strain that the man's own muscles were exerting on them. Tendons and ligaments snapped under the tension, tearing themselves away from Itachi's ruined skeleton in sharp jerky movements. He grit his teeth until they shattered, again causing a gory soup to once again pour from his mouth.
Amidst the indescribable torment only one thought remained anchored in Itachi's mind.
'Kami please, let me die.'
The mantra echoed inside his mind over and over again, as unceasing and unrelenting as the suffering that wracked his body. Itachi's mind was instinctively trying to destroy itself in order to spare its host from any further pain.
'Kami please, let me die.'
Darkness claimed him. Whether his optic nerve had been severed or his prayers had been answered, he didn't know. The darkness seemed soft and safe.
It was quiet now. No more frantic splashing as his nails clawed at the floor. No more rushing of blood in his ears. No more cracking of bones, no more tearing of muscle, no more pain.
Silence.
Solace.
Death.
A feather soft voice whispered in his ear. "Wake up Itachi."
The Uchiha smiled at the voice's naïve suggestion.
'I can't hear you silly voice; I'm dead.'
The soothing voice was suddenly replaced by roaring laughter and Itachi's eyes snapped open. Staring back at him from no more than three feet away was the colossal grinning visage of the Kyuubi.
"But Uchiha, if you're dead then how are we talking?" the demon questioned with a mocking child-like innocence.
Itachi fell to his knees, trembling in anguish. It wasn't fair! He was dead, he'd escaped from the fox!
"Not again." He whispered brokenly, "Please don't hurt me again."
The Kyuubi's eyes glittered with malice.
"71 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds little Uchiha."
XXXXXX
Both Naruto and Itachi fell to the ground. The former managed to catch himself, panting in exertion as he worked his way up to an unsteady base. The latter struck the ground like a sack of bricks, unresponsive.
Broken.
From where he knelt, the jinchuuriki could clearly see the amount of damage that his prisoner had inflicted on the sharingan wielder's mind. Itachi's sharp, calculating eyes where now dull and dead; more closely resembling the eyes of a doll than a living breathing man. Aside from the occasional twitch, the nuke nin's body remained unnaturally still.
If one were speaking scientifically, Itachi would still be considered to be alive. His heart continued to beat, his lungs continued to breathe, and his chakra network still circulated his life force. But all it took was a single look into Itachi's legendary eyes to realize he was dead.
The omniscient they once said that a person's eyes were the windows to their soul; reflected in the Uchiha's eyes was nothing. His brain still functioned but his mind was shattered. Itachi was gone, but the earthly chuck of meat that people knew as Itachi remained.
With a furious growl, Naruto plunged his claws into the ground.
How! How could the pride of the fabled Uchiha clan die so easily! How could this happen! Again he'd been robbed of his existence. Again he'd done battle with a supposedly worthy opponent, only to be met with bitter disappointment.
Again the wheel of pain had been turned.
Amid the storm of anger and disbelief that raged in the boy's mind came a small nagging feeling; like he had forgotten something.
It was a thunderous punch to the temple that finally rid the demon vessel of his amnesia.
Kisame.
He skidded across the slick ground, unable to recover from the first blow in time to dodge the second. Five knife-like claws entered the boy, carving a series of deep bloody gashes across his back.
Naruto roared in anger, tails whipping blindly at the source of his pain, striking nothing but open air.
Again the hammer-like fist connected with his head, and again the boy was sent flying. Strobes of multicolored light danced across his vision as he flew into the air, creating a technicolor nightmare which served only to accentuate the throbbing pain that now coursed through his head.
Naruto knew of no word which could aptly describe the force behind the shark-man's blow. It had felt like a building had collapsed on top of him; nothing had ever hit him with such horrific power before! Which was most likely the reason why Naruto had never before felt such overwhelming excitement.
'Yes Hoshigaki Kisame. You are worthy of my claws. Your flesh will satisfy my hunger.'
The jinchuuriki twisted in mid-flight and touched down, driving up a spray of earth on impact. He hooked his claws into the ground, slowing his out of control momentum just enough so that he could roll into a low crouch and face his assailant.
For the first time in a very long time, Naruto was surprised.
Looking back at him was the hulking figure of Kisame. The Kiri nin seemed to be more shark than man now. Two large fin-like appendages extended from his arms with a third running down the length of his back. His whole head had changed, becoming sleeker and more streamline, jutting slightly forward in order to better utilize his massive crushing jaws. Wicked saber-like claws extended from the tips of his fingers, and a transparent membrane connected the digits to one another; like the feet of a frog.
However all of these features were quickly forgotten when the demon child caught sight of his opponent's powerful tail.
It swished slowly, menacingly, behind the Kiri nin; an action that made Naruto's body cry out for the swordsman's blood.
Kisame was a monster, a demon.
Something like him.
The boy's tails began to mimic the motions of his enemy's. They slowly swept back and forth across the ground behind him; challenging Kisame, encouraging him to attack.
A look of psychotic glee seeped into the Kyuubi jinchuuriki's face.
"Kill me."
The nuke nin needed no further encouragement. He crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye, his wrecking ball fist once again aiming at Naruto's head.
The boy vanished in a flash of crimson mere seconds before the blow connected, and a sudden pain lanced across the shark-man's face. Kisame's eyes darted around wildly in vain hopes of finding his invisible foe. A flicker of scarlet was the only warning he had before the demon vessel's talons embedded themselves into his side. Kisame roared in anger. His hand shot forward, clamping down on the jinchuuriki's neck with horrendous force.
Naruto's eyes went wide as his windpipe gave way with a wet crunch. The Kiri nin whipped his body into the ground again and again, as though he were little more than a rag doll caught in the grasp of a sadistic child. The shark-man pinned him to the ground and readied the claws on his massive hand for the killing blow.
And then, suddenly Kisame was on the defensive.
Naruto's flaming tails tore into his opponent's body, their demonic energy burning large rotting holes into the nuke nin's hide.
Kisame acted on reflex, viciously backhanding the boy in an attempt to escape from his lethal tails. However, luck seemed smiling down on Kisame. The jarring impact of the blow given the Kiri swordsman just enough time to escape from his foe's fiendish tendrils.
The grievous wounds that littered the shark-man's torso slowly began to heal, though the pain still lingered. Apparently the little bastard's tails inflicted damage on the soul, Kisame would most likely deal with this pain until the day he died. He shot a backwards glance at the rapidly healing boy. And if he couldn't figure out a way to put the jinchuuriki down, that day would arrive much sooner than he had anticipated.
The sound of quiet laughter floated past the nuke nin's ears and a smile slowly began to creep across his face.
This kid was good.
The laughter slowly intensified until it erupted into an echoing symphony of psychotic laughter.
"Excellent. Excellent! I haven't felt so alive in ages! Again Kisame, kill me again!"
The swordsman turned, hands blurring through seals.
"Water release: Grand waterfall jutsu!"
"Fire release: Fire dragon missile jutsu!"
The union between fire and water could only be properly described by one word.
Catastrophic.
The nearby town was completely annihilated, consumed by the advancing wall of water, smothered beneath the thousand ton wave. All manner of plant life crumbled into fragile chunks of ash in the presence of this unholy supernova before being swept up by never ending wave. The laws of nature seemed to abandon this spectacle. Flames continued to burn beneath the dome of water. Waves rejected the laws of gravity, bent into inaction by a sinister will. The world dissolved into wasteland of steam. This was a submarine voyage to hell. This was a thing that should not be.
And shielded from the eyes of Kami beneath the veil of steam, the demons fought.
They were animals, wild dogs whose unquenchable lust for the enemy's blood had blinded them to thought and reason. Tactics were abandoned, strategy was meaningless, and any semblance of form was cast aside as the monsters ripped into one another with teeth and talons.
Naruto materialized out the mist, slamming his blood drenched claws into the shark-man's chest again and again, hardly noticing the deep jagged gashes that had been inflicted upon his own body.
It was unfathomable pain that finally halted the demon container's assault.
Kisame's massive jaws slammed shut on the boy's shoulder, severing the jinchuuriki's entire arm in a torrential spray of gore. Naruto roared in agony, which only caused the monster of the mist to tighten his hold on the child.
The Kyuubi vessel shifted his attack, his claws jack-hammering through Kisame's neck in a shower of blood and tissue. The Kiri nin recoiled in shock, unintentionally releasing the boy from his jaws in the process.
Now that he was free Naruto could inflict some serious damage.
He vanished into the fog, distancing himself from the swordsman in order to maximize the effectiveness of his next attack. When he took aim with this jutsu, taking cover behind a mountain wouldn't be able to save his target. And then suddenly it hit him; his gloves were gone.
On two separate occasions Naruto's arms had been ripped from his torso; the first by Samehada and the other just now. And while his arms may have regenerated, his gloves didn't.
His thoughts were brutally interrupted as Kisame's knee collided with his jaw.
Instinctively the jinchuuriki torqued his body in an attempt to land on his feet, but to his great surprise (and mild panic) he realized he couldn't move. He was trapped within a globe of water, his body held stationary by the water's crushing pressure. His burning eyes widened when they locked with those of the Kiri nin below him. The cruel light inside the shark-man's eyes told him everything.
Kisame was going to drown him.
For the first time in his life Naruto felt fear. True fear juxtaposed by true happiness. The human side of his mind screamed at him to do something, anything, to avoid the cold grasp of the Shinigami. His demon side screamed at him too, but for a very different reason.
If he was going to die here, Kisame would die as well.
The demon vessel wracked his oxygen deprived brain for an answer; it didn't disappoint. They had pit their bodies against one another in a test to see whose broke first, now they would do the same with their minds.
Ivory flames erupted from the child's mouth, enveloping his form entirely, and instantly the aquatic prison began to boil. Kisame grit his teeth at the blistering pain that shot through his arm, it felt like he'd submerged his hand in magma instead of water. His initial reaction was to tear his hand from the sphere of frothing water, but he knew that he couldn't.
This would be his only chance to defeat the demon boy.
The jinchuuriki hosting the nine-tails was practically invulnerable; however the key word was practically. Apparently even a demon has to breathe.
The whole scene was disturbingly beautiful. Kisame's hand plunged into a sphere of immaculate radiance, it's soft luminescence reflecting off of the surrounding raindrops, making it appear that a million diamonds were falling from the sky.
It was serene. It was perfect.
It hurt like motherfucker!
Kisame tore his hand from the orb of molten moonlight; revealing that his flesh and muscle had been melted completely. Without the swordsman's influence, the water prison immediately evaporated and boy fell to the ground; haggard and groggy but still alive.
The kneeling Naruto grinned darkly as he stumbled to his feet and began advancing on his opponent.
"You have fought better then I'd ever imagined. You are truly worthy of my claws, Hoshigaki Kisame." Naruto's grin wavered. "It's truly a shame that I have to kill you now."
A small smirk settled on the Kiri nin's face. "Don't feel to bad about it. I have a hunch that you won't even touch me."
The jinchuuriki cast an amused look at the monster of the mist; a look that was soon replaced by anger.
"Amaterasu."
Naruto found his path bared by a wall of ebony fire, and a sense of mounting frustration overcame the demon container at the prospect of being robbed of his kill by a man who was supposed to be dead.
Crimson eyes met, and a ghost of a smile played across Itachi's face.
"I killed you."
"Apparently not." the Uchiha deadpanned.
Naruto could almost feel his patience withering. "I saw the look in you eyes when you fell to the ground. You were dead."
"Shadow clone."
"And the collision of our jutsu?"
"Susanoo."
The child simply nodded as he continued to eye the wall of fire.
'Fucking Uchihas.'
"So what now Uchiha Itachi? Are we simply going to stare at each other for seven days and seven nights until the ebon flames of Amaterasu die out?"
"No. We are going to retreat." And with that both, Itachi and his mutilated partner shot off into the mist.
Naruto's remained motionless, paralyzed by unthinkable rage.
"Don't run." he whispered hollowly as his glowing eyes continued to track the rapidly retreating heat signatures of his prey.
His chest heaved, his heart thundered in his ears, his tails struck the ground behind him furiously.
"Don't run!"
A cyclone of ruby chakra exploded from the the boy, condensing into seven flickering tails.
"Why are you running!" flecks of foam began to fall from his mouth. " Don't run!"
The jinchuuriki's tails slammed against the ground one final time before lashing forwards towards the child's mouth. A vivacious plume of crimson light flared into existence within the boy's gaping jaws, crackling with a fury that only its creator could rival. Sparks of black light danced across the orb's surface, eclipsing the scarlet sphere until nothing but darkness remained.
"Seven-tailed menacing ball!"
It was like witnessing the birth of a second sun. The foggy wasteland was swallowed beneath an ocean of light and fire, utterly consumed by the flames of inky garnet. Sky met earth, and all things dissolved into a nightmarish realm of shadow and flame. Hurricane force winds leveled what remained, their actions seemingly guided by an evil master.
There was no life in the void, only death.
A malefic grin spread across Naruto's face as he surveyed his handy work, but as the midnight flames began to die down, his face twisted into a mask of hellish rage.
They had lived.
The spectral form of Susanoo wavered out of existence and Itachi fell to the ground, tears of blood leaking from his patternless sharingan eyes. Itachi was blind. All around the Uchiha, shards of silver glass clattered to the earth; shattered remnants of the unbreakable mirror, the Yata no Kagami. Not even the legendary shield of Susanoo could stand against the might of the nine-tailed fox.
Kisame had escaped from the attack unscathed due to his partner's interference. To Naruto, this only lead insult to injury. Not only did he fail to kill the fleeing pair, but he also wasn't even able to touch his true prey. His attack was for nothing!
A mirthless chuckle floated out of the jinchuuriki's mouth. "Still alive?"
The boy's tails slowly began to move back towards his mouth. "Allow me to remedy that."
A voice as cold and unyielding as steel sounded from behind him.
"Shinra tensei."
Naruto eyes widened in shock as pain exploded throughout his entire being. It was as if some vengeful god had reached out of the heavens and backhanded him. He was sent rocketing into the air at incredible speeds, cutting through the sky like a bullet. With a sickening crack he struck the ground, the impact of which broke nearly every single bone in his body. The sharp stone of the earth tore into his body, pealing great strips of flesh from him with every subsequent impact.
He didn't know how far he'd been thrown, and he didn't care. Only one thought lingered within the boy's mind before darkness claimed him.
He had been defeated.
