'Well, bad news is, I think I suck at fight scenes. Good news, I updated, and it was pretty fun to do so. I'll try to update more often now that I'm finally finished my commission. So yeah, read review and tell me all about how much it sucks kthxbai
Shit.'
Naruto could not believe the depths of his bad luck as Sasuke literally stopped in his tracks, the young Uchiha's eyes widening as he realized what- or rather, who- he was looking at.
The two Uchiha brothers stared at each other from their vantage points on the tree limb and the ground. One's eyes was unreadable, the other's full of pure, unadulterated hatred… and fear.
Yes, Sasuke was terrified.
Terrified that he had to face the object of his vengeance now, before he was ready.
Yes, Sasuke knew he was in no place to stand a chance against his brother, as much as it pained him to admit him. He wasn't dumb, he knew he could barely stand against his Sensei, who was the same age. He had never been in an actual fight. Hell, he still hadn't even awakened his Sharingan! And yet…
Despite everything, he knew he could not let this chance go.
Be it a lack of sense or pure, unblinding hatred, Sasuke leaped down from the branch and faced down against the bane of his existence.
As Sasuke tried to work his courage up to match the unrelenting fury in his heart, Itachi went through his own mental turmoil. However, he managed to keep it under wraps and hidden from all- he was Itachi Uchiha, after all.
"Foolish Little Brother…" Itachi said dryly, staring down at the fuming kid with as much neutral distaste he could muster. "Do you honestly think you have a chance with me?"
Sasuke barred his teeth, pure fury pounding through his veins. Trembling, his hands reached for his pocket, ready to initiate his shuriken assault, when suddenly his view of the despicable traitor was blocked by golden lockes.
"Stand down, Sasuke," Naruto said, his eyes firmly focused ahead but not at Itachi's eyes. He knew the risks.
Even though he knew it was the only logical course of action, Sasuke was not all too logical at the moment. "But-"
"I said, stand down," Naruto barked, his eyes narrowing as he stared down at the rogue Leaf Shinobi. "That's an order!"
While Sasuke was furious that his revenge was being taken from him, he knew well enough that he had no choice concerning an order from his Sensei and stood no chance against Itachi anyway. In a flash, he leaped back up to the tree tops where his two terrified teammates watched on in horror.
Itachi seemed to size up the blonde brat before him. "... So, is this truly what the Leaf has resorted to in its jounin?" he mocked. "How… amusing…"
Naruto ignored this taunt, trying to figure out a way out of this. He knew he stood no chance against Itachi, but he nevertheless had to keep Itachi's cover up. And, at the same time, he knew that Itachi was thinking along the same lines.
'Guess I have no choice...' he finally decided, before taking a leap back and concentrating all the chakra he could muster in his left eye. "Sharingan!"
From the tree tops, Sasuke watched this with an indescribable look of surprise. 'A… Sharingan? But… how? Is he… no, he can't be an Uchiha, he only has it in his left eye… Is that how the dobe got so strong?' By stealing my clan's… from the corpses of my clan… how...
Itachi watched this breakthrough with a blank look on his face, but inside he was sweating bullets. 'Damn it! This is bad. I have to finish this before Tobi gets back and sees where I hid Shisui's eye… But how could I possibly do this without killing Naruto...'
Unfortunately for Itachi, Tobi had returned from reapplying the genjutsu to the Leaf shinobi some time ago, but had hidden underground when he saw the Nine Tail's Jinchuriki approach, curious to see how Itachi would handle this. After all, it was too early for him to take the Nine Tails anyway, so he might as well toy with his partner in the meantime… Needless to say, he was surprised when he saw that the Nine Tail's Jinchuriki possesed Shisui's unaccounted for eye. 'Itachi, that bastard… well, at least I know where you hid it now...'
Taking advantage of the momentary silence, Naruto rushed in to face Itachi in head on melee, his right eye firmly closed as he began his taijutsu onslaught on the wanted criminal.
Itachi blocked each of Naruto's attacks with ease, even without activating his own sharingan yet. From the treetops, Sasuke gritted his teeth in anger. 'Itachi's just toying with him… theres no way Naruto is able to stand even with him, even with the Sharingan…'
Next to him, Sakura and Hinata were practically shivering in place. While they both knew Naruto-Sensei was strong and they both respected him (and perhaps a little bit more), they could still practically feel the aura coming off of Itachi… the aura of pure and utter evil. As if he could and would kill them at any moment without a second thought.
With a speed beyond anything the genin had ever seen before, Naruto dropped to the ground, spreading his legs in an attempt to spin kick at Itachi. However, the Uchiha criminal did not even move as Naruto's legs passed right through him.
'What? Did he place us under a genjutsu?' Sasuke thought bitterly from his vantage point. 'Even with Naruto's eye… no, the Uchiha's eye...'
Naruto, however, seemed to have a better clue of what was going on, and wasted no time in taking action. He immediately turned around towards where his genin were, though Itachi was no where to be seen. He had to admit, it was a good trick, but his Sharingan could very easily detect the slight aberration of the chakra. Though something told him he was supposed to see that.
"Air Style- Air Bullet!" Hinata, Sakura and Sasuke had little time to react as, all of a sudden, their Sensei cast a jutsu and spit out a chakra infused blast of wind at the three of them. Fortunately, all three genin were now skilled enough to dodge the seemingly random attack, jumping to different branches before it could hit them. Though, that was not to say they understood why he did that.
'N-naruto Sensei… tried to attack us? Why…' Hinata shivered as she barely made it to a branch in time.
'Gah! That idiot! What the hell is he thinking?' Sakura raged as she struggled to maintain her place on her new perch, trying to hide her sheer fear in rage.
'That idiot… did Itachi place him under a genjutsu?' Sasuke cursed to himself, rather easily finding his footing on a new branch in time.
'Heh… You really seem to have a lot of faith in that brat, don't you, Itachi...' Tobi chuckled to himself from his vantage point unseen.
The observers had little time to be surprised, however, as Itachi soon visualized right where they had been moments ago, seemingly unfazed by the air bullet that had struck him. It was only then that Sasuke realized what had happened:
'Itachi… he place us all under a genjutsu to make himself appear invisible… But when? And how? Is this… is this his power...'
Sasuke had little time to realize this, however, as Itachi soon reappeared right in front of him. Sasuke's eyes widened in fear as he stared directly eye to eye with the object of his hatred for the first time since that eventful night. And, for all of his boasting and expertise, he found himself unable to even blink.
A flurry of wind came, as Naruto attempted a surprise strike, but Itachi knocked him back into a tree without even moving his eyes from Sasuke's, and all the emotions contained within.
A lifetime of worry was contained in his little brother's eyes, a lifetime of pain that he himself had caused. And the emotions no elder brother wanted his younger brother to hold toward him, but he knew must be so… fear, and hatred. And, deep within those eyes, buried deep within his exterior… betrayal. Betrayal… of the love he could still see in those eyes.
"Sasuke…" Itachi said in a cold and flat tone, betraying none of the whirlwind of emotions he felt internally. "... You are still too weak."
A few feet away, Sakura looked on in utter fear and shock as her Sasuke, the strongest and coolest guy she knew… at least until recently… was completely and utterly devastated by the mere sight of this new and terrifying individual. And even Naruto-Sensei's attacks proved to not even register as an annoyance to him.
And now…to see him completely obliterate with mere words her Sasuke, no, her friend… She did not even know what she was doing as she grabbed her kunai and lunged at the mysterious enemy.
Sasuke watched in growing horror as Sakura, his comrade, jumped straight into the arms of certain death. Itachi barely had to think in order to reach back, twist Sakura's arm around so that she dropped the kunai, and stared her directly in the eyes. "Tsukiyomi."
Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke watched as Sakura's eyes closed silently, her body falling unceremoniously down to the ground. Though Naruto and Sasuke knew the true depths of what she was going through.
'Dammit, Itachi-Sensei!' Naruto growled internally as he held his injured arm in place. 'Even if it is to maintain your cover… to subject Sakura to that...'
Sasuke, however, simply gawked in pure pure terror as he looked down at his fallen comrade, no doubts to what kind of terrors her innocent mind were being subjected to. And yet still, Itachi watched him, eyes unwavering in how cold and lifeless they were…
He couldn't take it anymore.
With a frenzied yell, he threw the hardest punch he could at Itachi, one the famed criminal easily dodged. Itachi, however took note of the new development in his younger brother.
"The Sharingan…" The missing nin stated, almost surprised at the fact. 'That girl must have been something special to him to cause this...'
Sasuke heard the remark and could feel the change in his eyes, but did not bother to congratulate himself on his new accomplishment. No, he went straight to unleash a new jutsu. "Fire Style- Fireball Jutsu!"
The increased eyesight Sasuke's new Sharingan provided increased the speed and ferocity of his clan's trademark jutsu. However, not everyone was able to keep up with such a feat.
Sasuke had been so dead set on striking Itachi before he knew what hit him, he had forgotten that Hinata was right behind Itachi. As Itachi easily dodged the attack, his eyes slightly widened as he saw the Hyuga right behind him. It was so quick and sudden that Sasuke would never have noticed it in his state, and Tobi barely saw it… but the Hyuga were not masters of eyesight for nothing.
'... Concern?' Hinata wondered as she stared at the increasingly confusing enemy, as the heat of Sasuke's jutsu threatened to consume her.
However, before she met a quick and most painful death, she found herself being unceremoniously tossed over a shoulder and away from its incredibly heat.
As she came back to reality, she saw that it was Naruto-Sensei who had saved her from the heat. And, although being tossed across his shoulder was not the most charming or most comfortable of rescues, she could not help the blush creep onto her face from the close proximity. Seeking to save the embarrassment, she turned to face the scorching pit the jutsu had left behind them and gasped.
Naruto, however, focused straight ahead at the two Uchiha. Sasuke still did not notice he had nearly killed Hinata, but had rather leaped straight into a taijutsu brawl with his elder brother. And, while Itachi was managing to evade the attacks so far, he knew that Itachi would have to attack in full force in order to maintain his cover. And he did not want to force Itachi to do that once again.
He set Hinata down, telling her to "Stay put," before he began to channel a deep and forbidden chakra.
Tobi's eye widened in surprise. 'The Nine Tails…? He can control it?'
Itachi turned around to face the blonde haired jounin. 'He's starting to get serious… But even if he manages to hold me off with the Nine Tails chakra he can handle, he still cannot defeat me… but the more pressing matter is escaping without blowing my cover.'
Sasuke looked at the incredible chakra coming out of his Sensei with awe and envy. 'First the Sharingan… and now this chakra? Just what are you, Naruto?'
Hinata stared at the unbelievable display besides her as an orange glow of visible chakra seemed to pour out of her Sensei. To be sure, she activated her Byakugan… only to see this chakra was a completely seperate chakra signature than her Sensei's own. 'Naruto-Sensei…'
After summoning as much chakra as he deemed safe, Naruto rushed straight for Itachi, attempting to blitz him. It was much harder than before, but Itachi managed to dodge the strike. Naruto continued his assault, however, and each one proved harder and harder to dodge from mere physical dodging.
Itachi wracked his brain to think of a way out of this with the best possible outcome for both of them, but did not have much time to think with Naruto's Nine Tails infused taijutsu. 'Damn, he's getting good...' he thought with a small sense of pride.
Deep beneath them however, Tobi was beginning to feel pity for his partner. Or, at the very least, concern over how much longer Itachi could keep his cover. It was the best for all involved, after all. Besides, he could only keep himself intangible for so long.
Naruto finally laid a punch on the Uchiha traitor, knocking him to the ground. Naruto leaped down to join him, rushing straight at the traitor with a powerful punch at the ready…
… only for a fist to come out of nowhere to punch him rigt in the jaw.
"AH! Nothing like a nice pee break!" Tobi giggled as he rose from below the ground. And for once, Itachi was glad to see his partner.
"Oh, hey Itachi! Uh… did you make yourself some new friends?" Tobi said curiously as he stared at the shinobi with the orange aura, the unconscious pink haired girl on the ground, the young boy with the glowing red eyes who looked extremely like Itachi, and the scared little girl with her Byakugan activated, before his gaze returned to the first one. "Hey! Is that-"
"... Let's go," Itachi said simply as he rose to his feet. "We don't need him yet."
Tobi looked at the yellow haired boy quizzically. "Well, if you say so…" he agreed half heartedly before activating his jutsu.
Sasuke's eyes widened before narrowing as he saw his target about to leave with the strange man. "ITachi!" he shouted, as he prepared to rush at him.
Itachi simple looked up at him as he was about to vanish in Tobi's teleportation jutsu. "Sorry, Sasuke," he said coldly. "Another time?" he added menacingly.
And with that, both Akatsuki members vanished once more.
Sasuke looked at where his brother had just vanished, his crimson eyes filled with rage at how his brother had escape justice once again… and had the nerve to taunt him with those words! But the strain his Sharingan underwent was proving to be too much, and he soon collapsed down and joined Sakura in unconsciousness, leaving only Naruto and a very confused and frightened Hinata awake.
"Oh boy…" Naruto sighed, his eyes turning toward Hinata. 'Guess I'll need to talk to them about that after all,' he thought glumly, before turning his attention to Sasuke. 'And he'll probably wonder about this too,' he thought with a sigh before curling over in pain.
"Shit… Overused the Sharingan…" he managed to get out before the strain of overusing his foreign power overcame him, and he too fell unconscious.
Hinata turned around to face her three unconscious teammates, and gulped. Of course, she did not have much time to worry about that. It was all up to her now. 'Thankfully I remembered mother's medicinal cream...' she thought to herself, but she got to work.