Title: Stand My Ground

Rating: M for violence, language and later chapters.

Distribution: Just credit me and let me know where it's going!

Reviews: Love 'em. I don't really like flames, but then, no one really does.

Disclaimer: I do own NARUTO, and if I did, Sasuke wouldn't be so cold.

Main Pairings: Sasu&Saku, Naru&Hina, Ten&Neji, Ino&Shika

A/N: Even I know that Naruto doesn't know his parents. (Poor Orphan Naruto..) It's not his mom, as will be revealed in this chapter! I love you all! REVIEW!! And Buta means Pig. :)

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Sakura was pissed. How dare they leave her in the house like that!? She ran outside, still clutching Pakkun to her stomach in an awkward fashion that he was grumbling about. Once in the presence of Naruto and Sasuke she loudly declared, "I HATE MEN!" Before scrambling over to Kakashi with Pakkun. Of course, Kakashi couldn't see them.

"Pakkun, you have to release the genjutsu or we can't fight."

"That's precisely why I activated it."

"PAKKUN!" The nin-dog twitched. "Alright, alright."

The genjutsu was released and Sasuke was standing directly behind Itachi. Itachi turned casually around, greeting Sasuke with a, "Hello little brother."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and held his arm out. Blue chakra was swirling in his palm, growing into a huge ball. The same size that had killed Tayuya.

Kakashi's eye widened in shock before understanding immediately.

Sakura put the pup on a boulder next to Kakashi before running over to join in on the fight. "I knew you were holding it," he said to Pakkun. "Why'd you release it?"

He frowned looking directly at Sakura. "I'm out of chakra and she threatened me."

"Oh." He paused, "I need to send you back to Konoha. You can regain your strength there and update Tsunade. I sent one of the others, but you probably know more."

The weak nin-dog nodded and Kakashi poofed him away in a cloud of smoke.

Sakura was staring at him.

Itachi laughed at her, "Well, well, well. Good job little brother."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and launched another attack at him, which he blocked with some difficulty. He smiled slyly when he realized Itachi was weakening.

Itachi eyed Naruto and said quietly, "Mission complete."

The woman nodded at this comment and advanced towards Naruto. For some odd reason, Naruto couldn't get his legs to move. He was beginning to worry. Then, out of nowhere, Ino's body came barreling at him, tackling him to the ground, Tenten doing the same to his attacker.

The blonde stood up, the murderous look never leaving her eyes. "That wasn't nice."

She formed hand signs and a purple bubble about 20ft wide spread over the space, entrapping Tenten and herself inside the barrier.

Tenten, pulling four shuriken out of her robe, never took her eyes off of the enemy. She threw one of her shuriken at the barrier and watched out of the corner of her eye as it touched the barrier causing a static shock and landed on the ground smoking, still inside the barrier. Tenten mentally winced.

The blonde moved forward, launching several weapon-based attacks at Tenten, who successfully avoided all of them, being a weapon's master herself. Tenten managed to get some distance between them and sent several kunai with exploding tags at the blonde.

There was an explosion when they hit the ground around her, but when the smoke cleared she was still standing. Ino, Shikamaru, Neji and Sakura who were all working on the barrier could tell she had done some damage. She staggered towards Tenten, bleeding, the rage still in her eyes.

Suddenly, there were shadow clones everywhere and they moved quickly, ambushing Tenten. Naruto, who'd been fighting alongside Sasuke and Kakashi against Itachi, gawked. Shadow clones!

Neji, who was still working on the barrier had to painfully watch his girlfriend fly into a tree trunk and hit with a sickening 'thud'. They waited. She didn't get up. He began pounding harder on the barrier with the branch he'd found.

Shadow clones appeared outside the barrier and advanced towards Sakura who was working on the other side of the barrier. Naruto intervened with several taijutsu moves and the clones dissipated.

Sakura turned in time to see Kakashi fly past her head from one of Itachi's attacks. She ran to heal him, after which he got back up and went back after Itachi. Tenten finally struggled to her feet, bleeding from her forehead and the corner of her mouth. She looked pissed.

She smiled as she formed several hand seals, attacking the blonde. The barrier disappeared. Tenten was knocked several feet back and Neji ran to her, followed closely by the pink haired medic-nin.

Ino and Shikamaru were left to fight the woman.

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"What happened from there?" Tsunade was getting bored of interrogating the nin-dog. She was just about to ask another question when there was a small puff of smoke and Pakkun was lying casually on her desk. She let out a small shriek. "What the hell! Pakkun!"

"Konichiwa, Tsunade-sama."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to update you on what's going on. Itachi and the woman that he picked up from the unknown village have located Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto. So has the retrieval team. They're fighting now as we speak."

"Who's fighting who?"

"I believe it was Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi against Itachi and Neji, Shikamaru, Ino, Sakura and Tenten against the blonde."

"Shouldn't they have defeated her by now?"

"Yes, but she's more powerful than we believed her to be."

"Does Naruto know who she is?"

"Sakura asked if it was Naruto's mother. Is it?"

"No. It's not."

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"This is awkward," Ino said, still waiting for the woman to make a move.

"Not to mention troublesome."

"I think she's crazy," Ino said, still watching her.

The comment set her off. She turned on Ino. "SHUT YOUR MOUTH, BUTA!"

Ino's face turned red. "DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME A PIG!" She would've run at her if Shikamaru weren't holding on to her arm.

Itachi was laughing at Sasuke. "Your attempts are in vain, little brother. You are still too weak. Nothing has changed."

Sasuke didn't like what he was hearing. That was obvious to Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura who had now come to join the fight with Itachi. Right now, Sasuke was forming hand signs that Kakashi didn't recognize. From the look on Itachi's face, he didn't recognize them either.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he realized what Sasuke's intentions were. He was using the curse seal. But Orochimaru was dead… how was it still working? He watched Sasuke transforming before his eyes. The wing-hands sprouted from his shoulders, his hair grew longer and the black star on his nose became visible. Naruto recognized this as stage two of the curse seal. But it didn't stop there. He kept going. This was a level no one had reached before. The risk was higher than fifty percent that Sasuke would be consumed by it if he used it too long. But Sasuke knew that. He knew all the risks. And he was willing to take them, as long as he killed Uchiha Itachi.

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Hmph. I'm kinda ticked right now. I don't know when I'm going to be able to update next because of this anger issue I'm having. I'm supposed to be going to this concert in a few weeks. In order to go, I have to miss a school day. He is being retarded and won't let me go if I have to miss a school day even though I've only missed like THREE out of the entire year. He's a bummer.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! I'll be updating A.S.A.P! No worries. I won't let my father spoil out FF!

--rach