Disclaimer: Don't own shit still.

A Nugget Of Advice, Chapter 11

There wasn't much to say about the ostrich mission. It was kind of like what Naruto thought it would be like, really. Nothing of interest. It was basically a retrieval mission: locate the target and then bring the target back to the village. The mission didn't even take them out of the country – just to a nearby hamlet where they noted to the authorities the ostrich was spotted at.

Besides how somewhat annoying the beast was, and how surprisingly good the flightless bird was at taijutsu, the ostrich was no match for Naruto's team. With Sasuke's already excellent skills in taijutsu and Naruto's skill with his shadow clones, the ostrich couldn't do anything. Now, it was being dragged back to the village with the help of Naruto's clones.

Sasuke, however, let his displeasure known on the mission with grunts, growls, and being even more possibly grumpy about things. He snapped at Sakura a few times on the mission, and couldn't stop glaring at Naruto. It had gotten to a point where Naruto snapped back at him. "You know, you could stop complaining about this now. We're finished with the mission."

"We shouldn't have done this crap in the first place. How many times have we done these retrieving a missing pet missions in the past? That stupid cat Tora ring a bell in that empty head of you?"

"Hey, man. At least we did the mission. It wasn't the most riveting, yeah-"

"Wow," Sasuke interrupted with a smirk. "Not only do you know how to use 'riveting' in a sentence, but you know what it actually means."

Naruto gritted his teeth. His patience was starting to wear thin, and he was this close to breaking out in a fight with his teammate. "Just because it wasn't all that cool, Sasuke, doesn't mean you needed to bitch about it every last second."

Sasuke gave Naruto a smoldering look. "I didn't not 'bitch' every last second."

Naruto looked at Sasuke with a deadpan. "Okay, dude."

"I didn't." Sasuke reiterated. Then, he damn near snapped his own neck by swinging his head towards Sakura's direction. He could have sworn the girl coughed just then. "Sakura? Got something to say?"

"N-No, Sasuke-kun." Sakura held her hands up in defense. "I didn't say anything at all."

"Hmph."

Naruto snorted at the exchange. "Anyway, it's over with now, bastard, so we're going home."

Sasuke scoffed. "Of course. This didn't even take all that long either. I-"

"You could have stayed in Konoha and trained. Yes, yes. We get it. You said this not once or twice these past hours but five times. Five times, Sasuke! Sheesh, and I thought I was supposed to be the annoying one of the group." Naruto said sarcastically, which did prompt Sakura to giggle at that.

"Shut up, dobe." Sasuke growled out, looking embarrassed now with a slight redness on his otherwise pale face. "Don't get all high and mighty. You know we deserved a better mission."

"Yeah, but you heard the guy at the mission desk. They didn't have B-ranks today."

Sasuke only scoffed at that and folded his arms. Sakura tried to cheer him up. "Well, these missions aren't so bad, Sasuke-kun. At least it's free money."

Sasuke glared at the pink-haired female. "Yep, of course. Sure, you wouldn't mind, Sakura; you don't do anything usually. Is it fun doing nothing at all on the missions we've been on? What about today? What were you doing to help get the bird, huh?"

Sakura looked down, obviously hurt by that. Naruto growled. "Shut up, bastard! Sakura didn't need to do anything. We could-"

"She never does anything on these missions. She's still dead weight to the team, even after being a genin for a whole year." Sasuke shot back coldly, uncaring of Sakura's reaction. If he did care, he would have noticed a tear streaking down her face coming from her eye, and perhaps stopped ripping into her.

That was enough to get Naruto livid. "You know, Sasuke, you're a real fucking asshole some-!"

"Oh geez, you kids are so loud. Didn't they teach you runts in school that being loud like that can attract the wrong attention?" A voice sounded off above them, in the trees.

In the blink of an eye, a large figure appeared in front of them. The entourage of shinobi stopped. In front of them, a blue-skinned man who was the tallest shinobi they ever seen in their lives smiled evilly down at them. He wore a black cloak with red clouds, dark blue pants, and had a headband with a slash through the engraved Kirigakure symbol on it.

A missing-nin.

Naruto and Sasuke immediately slipped into a fighting stance after recognizing that. The man cooed, "Oh, how cute. Are you going to fight me? That's the spirit. Make it fun for us."

'Us?' Naruto thought, sweat starting to drip down his face. Wait, the red clouds on his cloak. Naruto swallowed. That meant-

"This isn't about fun, Kisame." Another voice came from a treetop. Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by the sound. Then in front of the members of Team 7 and Naruto was another shinobi, wearing a similar attire as the missing-nin, Kisame. Now instead of one missing-nin, there were two.

And Sasuke recognized this one, the widening of his eyes an indication of such.

"You." Naruto watched Sasuke's face twist into a snarl. "You. You. You!"

Naruto in his life had never heard of Sasuke talk so venomous to someone before. Even when they went at it, Sasuke had never had so much heat in his voice before.

"Hello, my little brother." And from that, Naruto definitely knew who it was in front of them. Yes, the black hair, the red eyes, and from what it seemed like from here, a person who looked a lot like Sasuke.

This was the infamous Itachi Uchiha. The man who was said to kill his entire clan single-handedly. He murdered men, women, and children alike; jōnin, chūnin, and genin alike in his clan. There was not a lot of people he knew about or heard about or even cared to hear about, but after that one-time Sasuke asked him – when Sasuke and Naruto both thought Sasuke was dying – to kill his brother, Naruto did some research on the guy.

Not only was he a clan-slayer, but he was before that a prodigy. He had graduated from the ninja academy at the age of fucking 7. Then, be became a chūnin at 10. And if that wasn't insane enough, he became an ANBU captain by the age of 13. Itachi Uchiha was immensely powerful, and he was incredibly young still.

That meant that they had to run.

"Itachi Uchiha," Sasuke growled.

"It has been a while."

"Five years. It's been five years since that night. Since that night you took everything from me. Today will be the day," Arcs of electricity erupted from Sasuke's right hand. Naruto looked at the technique his teammate was starting to create and knew it was a Lightning Release technique. It seemed like this was what Kakashi taught Sasuke over the break before the third round of the Chūnin Exams.

"That I," The younger Uchiha's eyes became wine red just like his older brother. "Will show you," A snarl marring his face. "MY HATRED!"

"W-Wait, Sasu-" Naruto tried to warn him, but it was too late.

Sasuke nearly became a blur to Naruto's eyes, with speed that rivaled Rock Lee. The already small distance that was between the missing-nin and the three 13-year olds was closed. Kisame had already moved away with a smirk, but Itachi stayed in place.

That was because before Sasuke could hit him, Itachi had stopped the boy with one hand, grabbing the wrist of Sasuke. Sakura gasped, but Naruto spent no time waiting until Sasuke got hurt, snapping into action by directing a clone to attack Itachi from behind. The man merely kicked at behind him, and smoke billowed in front of him and Sasuke, but that had been enough time for Naruto to summon more chakra for his next technique.

Several more clones came close to Itachi, and the man, letting go of Sasuke, had to deal with Naruto's doppelgangers. Shortly, they were gone. Sasuke wasn't exactly finished either with his brother. Using the cover of the several clouds of smoke, Sasuke quickly finished doing a few hand seals, and a large plume of fire erupted from his lips. Itachi didn't bother moving away from it, as his partner, now with a large sword in his hands, merely swung his blade at the fire, and it split apart.

Naruto's jaw dropped. 'Pretty sure that's not how swords work...!'

"Now, Itachi-san, try to dodge that fireball next time. After all, my poor Samehada hates the taste of fire-natured chakra."

"That was unneeded, Kisame. My brother's pathetic fireball could not injure me," Itachi mentioned flippantly.

"Fuck you, you piece of shit, murderous bastard!" Sasuke roared, to which Kisame chuckled at.

"Ooh, boy. Such animosity between you two brothers! I guess Sasuke-chan here can't forget what happened that unfortunate night, huh?" Kisame smirked.

"Stay out of my way, freak!" Sasuke raged at his brother's companion. "This is between me and him!"

"And why should I do that? He is my partner after all. I should help him out. Plus, freak? Really?" The blue man grinned madly. "I don't quite like what you said about me. What's freaky about me, smooth-skin? Perhaps I should carve you up a bit, and see who would be the freak then, huh?"

"Kisame." Itachi calmly spoke in a low baritone, without any sort of emotion in his tone of voice. "I believe I shall indulge my foolish younger brother's desire to fight me for a few moments before we get back to the task at hand. Do not interfere, but of course, keep an eye out on Naruto-kun and his female companion."

Kisame sighed melodramatically. "Aw, how boring, Itachi~! Can I just play with one of them while you mess around with your kid brother? After all," He turned his head towards Naruto and Sakura with a deadly smirk, killing intent seeping from him like it was coming from the pores of his shark-like skin. "For one of them, it doesn't matter if we kill them or not, and I don't exactly remember Leader-sama saying we can't rough up our target."

It was like looking at Death himself. Naruto had never felt such heavy killing intent before besides from the Kyūbi, Gaara, or Zabuza. If they wanted to, the missing-nin could kill his team right away. He knew he was sweating throughout his whole body; his shirt, his pants, his underwear – he was sweating in places it felt awkward to sweat from. He could barely move, and he knew it was worse for Sakura.

The blond boy turned his head and confirmed such. Sakura looked like she was a zombie; ashen and mouth gaping.

He had to get the girl out of there, and then also Sasuke, and they had to get back to the village. They were only a few miles away too, he noticed, as he licked his chapped lips.

"Come on. Do you think Leader-sama minds if the one we must capture comes back with one leg removed? I doubt it." The tall man tried reasoning again.

"Kisame." Itachi uttered his partner's name again, the same tone of voice he had before. Kisame didn't look cowed at all by that, but Kisame sighed – either in defeat or just melodramatically again.

"Oh, poo! Alright, alright, killer. You don't need to tell me twice." Kisame placed his giant sword on his shoulder. "Okay, kiddies, don't run now, or else I might have to ignore Itachi's orders and cut off some legs, you hear me? Especially you, young man." The blue man wagged his finger playfully at Naruto, still grinning nastily. "You definitely look like the crafty type too."

Naruto realized what that meant. The man already admitted they were after one of them, even though he didn't say who. Naruto had a feeling he knew who: himself. 'This is exactly what I read up in that letter from Sarutobi-jiji. He warned me of the men who wore red clouds… They're after the Kyūbi. If I don't get us out of here, we're all dead.' But he had to do it sneakily.

Sakura was damn near catatonic, frozen like ice, gasping loudly like a fish out of water, sweat dripping down her youthful face. Naruto eyed her for a moment, before knowing what he'll do first. As Sasuke would fight Itachi – and Naruto knew perhaps in vain (this man is a mass-murderer, of course) – Naruto would get Sakura and a few his clones out of here. With the Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu, he could move not only a few of his clones underground but Sakura as well.

Sasuke had already started to go against Itachi, with taijutsu that was unlike his usually collected and defensive style. Instead, it was aggressive haymakers, swings, and kicks that the 13-year old used against the rogue ninja. Itachi moved so lethargically, it was almost as if he was bored, obviously playing with Sasuke. Sasuke seemed to pick on that and became even more agitated with his movement. Finally, when that didn't work, Sasuke became completely mindless in his hatred that he tried to hit Itachi with anything, but the man kept dodging.

Sasuke was horribly outclassed, Naruto could see that. Hell, the man caught Sasuke's electric attack before by grabbing Sasuke's wrist and suffered no such damage doing so. Naruto had already summoned more of his chakra and summoned a shadow clone under him. He directed it to move under Sakura, and grab her by her legs to drag her underground. Get her near the gate of the village, and then, let someone know what was happened to his team out here.

It seemed to work, as he seen his clone's hand erupt from the ground, and grab his frozen teammate. Just like he practiced many times, no traces of a hole were left.

Kisame didn't seem to notice or care. Instead, he was completely engrossed in watching Itachi finally catch Sasuke, and promptly break his wrist. Naruto winced as Sasuke cried out sharply. The breaking of bones also perturbed Naruto. 'I'm sorry, Sasuke. I'll get us out of here. Oh god, I'll get us out of here, man.'

"Foolish brother," Itachi emotionlessly insulted Sasuke. He kneed Sasuke in the stomach, and Naruto heard the sounds of Sasuke retching loudly. "Even after five years, you are still the weak little boy I spared that night. Perhaps I shouldn't have stopped at only Mother and Father."

Sasuke roared again, yelling. That was perhaps the first time Naruto had ever heard him yell so loudly. "I WILL FUCKING MAIM YOU, YOU FUCKING BASTARD. CHIDORI!" This time the attack came from Sasuke's good hand, the left hand. Sasuke had thought he finally gotten some sort of attack on his brother but as he sunk his hand into the shoulder blade of the Uchiha slayer, Itachi became nothing but a plume of smoke. Sasuke fell over to the ground, momentum still carrying him forward.

As a result, the bones in Sasuke's left hand rattled. Sasuke immediately howled in great pain, as he laid awkwardly face first on the ground. Itachi reappeared, and quite brutally kicked Sasuke until he laid on his back. Then, another kick, and Sasuke was wheezing, laying flat on the ground on his stomach. The older man approached slowly, and then sat on Sasuke's back. When Itachi grabbed his arm as Sasuke kicked and resisted, Naruto knew what was going to happen next. Sasuke struggled and struggled but it was no use.

Itachi bent Sasuke's arm and pulled until the bone in it snapped.

Sasuke screeched in pain. With both of his right hand and left arm was broken, Sasuke was a sobbing, crying mess. Itachi merely stood and looked over his brother mockingly for a few seconds. "You still lack what I told you to have, Sasuke. And do you know what that is?"

The older man bent down to the Uchiha genin and said lowly, "Hatred."

Itachi coldly looked at his hollering brother for the last time, before sweeping his vision over to Naruto. "Naruto-kun, please, come with us. Unless you want your teammates to become more hurt because of you."

"Well, one of them anyway, and you already shitted on your brother hard. Oh well." Kisame chuckled. "It seems like the little tyke got the pink-haired girl away. Well done, brat. Well done."

Itachi narrowed his red eyes slightly at Kisame. "Did you not watch over them like I had said?"

"I did but the kid did it so quickly and efficiently, I didn't even see it happening. Besides, I can't lie: the way you dealt with your brother was much more entertaining. Well, aren't you going to finish him off?"

"He isn't worth my notice."

"You are so cold, Itachi." The shark-like man guffawed. "Well, then, I suppose you are right; he's already disposed of, and won't be too much of a problem to us."

Itachi turned his cold gaze towards Naruto. "Now then, Naruto-kun. If you will be so kind to come with us."

"No, fuck you," Naruto growled, his anger reaching its boiling point. Sasuke's hollering in the background still ringing in his ears. "I'm not going anywhere with you." Defiance showed in his blue eyes, but inside, he was panicking. 'Oh shit, oh shit. How the hell am I going to get out of here? No, no, don't forget about Sasuke, you coward. I need to get Sasuke out of here, but not the same way I got Sakura out of there.' The way Kisame 'praised' Naruto before for getting Sakura away from the battlefield, Naruto believed Kisame allowed Naruto to retrieve Sakura.

The thought frightened Naruto even more.

Okay, okay, what could he do to get out of here? Fighting for an extended period time was a no-no. He had directed his clones to get Sakura back to the village, and tell somebody of what was happening, then disperse right after, so as long as he lasted until then, he was fine. That gave him an idea, as Kisame and Itachi stalked slowly towards him.

Naruto summoned chakra again, and a quick two-handed sequence of hand seals. He hoped to the spirits this worked correctly. "Doton: Yomi Numa!"

Under their feet, a dark swamp covered the grassland of the forest quickly. Itachi, Kisame, and the wailing Sasuke were now glued to where they were in the forest, while Naruto was free to do what he wanted. Naruto didn't bother trying to minimize the size of the newly created mire. In fact, he had already planned out his next move. It had given him quite enough time to create a shadow clone in the tree above his head, and in a quick motion, his position had switched with the clone. The wonders of the Kawarimi no Jutsu; such a simple technique, and yet, effective, even against these missing-nin.

He created another clone, and using the Kawarimi no Jutsu again, Sasuke had joined him in the trees while his clone was now in the swamp. Sasuke had finally stopped screaming but still, he whimpered in pain. "N-Naruto?"

"Don't worry, Sasuke, we're going to get you out of here," Naruto stated, as confidently as he could, but his face was still sweating.

"N-No. We… gah, ah fuck!" The black-haired teen cried sharply.

"Shut up, Sasuke. For once in your life, stop being so damn stubborn. You're in no position to fight these people."

"You don't understand! I must kill that fucking bastard down there! He slaughtered my entire family!" Naruto narrowed his eyes at his former classmate.

"And you think you can do shit now?! He fucking stopped your Chidori-thingie twice, broke your hand, and your arm, and pretty much made you his bitch." Sasuke glared hotly at the blond, but Naruto refused to stop. "Plus, you said it yourself: this fucking guy slaughtered your entire clan – by himself! Are you trying to die? Seriously? And they call me the stupid one." He was starting to question that. It seemed like Sasuke was the more impulsive one of the team now.

Sasuke had no words anymore, his pain now overtaking his anger. Naruto picked up Sasuke and threw him his shoulder. This would be the second time Naruto saved the boy, and if this was another time, Naruto would be teasing the hell out of Sasuke for it. At least they could leave now-

A roar let him know from below that he should have used his time well, instead of arguing with his teammate. He watched in horror as the swordsman who split Sasuke's fireball from before plunged his strange sword into the swampy ground, and the thick mud that was supposed to keep the missing-nin stuck inside had started to disperse.

There was something about that sword. First, it cut Sasuke's fire technique in half; now, it sucked up his technique. Regular swords didn't do that. Did Kisame's blade have some sort of ability to absorb chakra – maybe absorb chakra from a technique? Should he even think about it too hard?

It really didn't matter, because they had to get out there anyway.

Naruto's shadow clone tried distracting his opponents further by dropping stones upon their heads, but after dodging, Kisame swung his sword, and Naruto received memories of its demise.

"Interesting usage of the Kawarimi no Jutsu, Naruto-kun. Switching positions with another person are often difficult, and even more so with a breathing target, though I suppose with your massive chakra levels anything is possible." Itachi meanwhile quickly appeared next to the retreating Naruto carrying Sasuke with an unreal speed. Naruto gasped, while Itachi impassively looked at him. "Why do you keep trying to fight? You cannot win against us."

Naruto barely dropped Sasuke in time before being kicked outside the tree. He managed to land near the trunk of another tree, and stuck his legs to it, though that was jarring his bones, and he nearly tripped. He growled. Again, he and his teammate were separated. Itachi was targeting him though, and so was Kisame, who was now catching up.

What else could he do besides run? Now that they were in the trees, his techniques now wouldn't be much of use, and his Doton: Yomi Numa was useless against his enemies. He was still working on that other technique, plus even if he pulled it off, it could end up hurting Sasuke as well.

Thankfully, he no longer had to worry as a lone kunai came flying past him and into the face of Kisame. The shark-like man deflected it, but a battle cry followed that. "Dynamic Entry!"

He watched as Kisame was kicked to the side like a ragdoll by a flash of green. The green blur being one Maito Gai. Naruto had never been so happy to see the man at all. He jumped down the tree as a hail of kunai came to his rescue. Itachi quickly turned into smoke – a sign that the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was used.

"Geez, your first mission as a chūnin, and you run into trouble like this, eh? I fear you're, what I call, a magnet for trouble, Naruto." Kakashi Hatake quipped, jumping nearby Naruto. Despite the joke, Kakashi's Sharingan eye was now out as he stared forward at Itachi.

"Kakashi-sensei! Thank goodness you're here." And he wasn't embellishing at all. All sense of annoyance he had made felt for the man in the past was now gone. The guy – and Gai-sensei – just saved him and Sasuke's ass. "I thought you were out on a mission to Suna still."

"I was. Just got back about an hour before we got news about you guys." Kakashi grunted. Naruto watched as two other jōnin showed up: the teachers of Shikamaru's and Kiba's team, Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yūhi. "Alright, Naruto, take Sasuke and leave from here."

Naruto nodded at all of them, "Alright. Good luck, guys," and quickly moved to the tree where Sasuke laid on his back awkwardly.

He made it back to the village's front doors and immediately was seen by the chūnin at the front gate. "What happened?"

"Mission went wrong," Naruto grunted a response as he flashed his ID and was let into the village. He created a clone and gave Sasuke to his copy to carry. He had to now report to the mission assignment desk; they stressed that was the first thing they had to do after completing a mission. "I gotta go now to report what happened.

"No need." A voice said ahead of him, and Naruto felt a hand clasp his shoulder. He looked up and seen the new Hokage staring down at him. "Come with me; you can give me a full report in my office.

So, Naruto talked to Jiraiya, who sat there listening to every detail. "…And then, Kakashi-sensei, Gai-sensei, Kurenai-sensei, and Asuma-sensei showed up to save us."

"Hm, I see. And do you know why Itachi and Kisame were after you?" Jiraiya asked.

Naruto frowned. "Yeah, I think it's because of my… tenant."

Jiraiya sighed. "That was what I was afraid of. I assume you read about them in your… scroll?" Naruto slowly nodded. "Well, I guess it is time already. I would have liked to have tried this about next month, and let things cool down first, but if this organization is going to troublesome like this, we don't have that long to wait."

"Um, what are you talking about?"

"You can stand to be somewhat respectful, brat. I'm not the last Hokage, you know?" Jiraiya said, sternly looking at him. "Thankfully, I'm not too big on protocols and such. Just remember who you're dealing with when you talk to them. Anyway, come meet me back here tomorrow."

"What for, er, sir?" Naruto tried, remembering the Hokage's last words.

Jiraiya smirked. "Well, assuming you read the scroll that was given to you, we were going to meet anyway soon."

"What scroll?"

"The one I gave Kakashi to give to you two weeks ago."

Naruto blinked, jogging his memory in a few seconds. "Oh, wait, that scroll? Wait, Sarutobi-jiji told me to meet…" Naruto's eyes widened, and he pointed at the Hokage. The scene would look somewhat comical to an outsider. He gasped, also adding to the comical effect. "I'm supposed to meet with you for training!"

Jiraiya smirked in amusement. "Well, kid, nice to meet you."

End.

A/N: A little more action this time around.

Contemplating making Itachi a villain in this for real. I dislike his canon self quite a bit. Especially when it seems the whole "Itachi is actually loyal to Konoha" is tacked on, and a last-minute decision from Kishimoto. I mean, in the first part of Naruto, he mind-fucked Kakashi with the Tsukiyomi, killed the entire Uchiha Clan (supposedly with Tobi's help), traumatized his brother, beat the shit out him when they met again during that one arc and is arguably why Sasuke became what he became. It was only in the later parts of Naruto Shippūden he started to showed that he wasn't a heel and actually was a face all this time. Even if he was acting like he was supposed to be bad, isn't it quite brutal for him to do that to one of his former associates? Like, I get fucking up Sasuke, but why nearly fucking up Kakashi mentally, arguably the strongest shinobi Konoha has to offer? He just has more makings of being a villain – a great one at that – then a "complex anti-hero."

Then again, I'm pretty sure I will upset many of the Itachi fans if I went down that route, and some might feel inclined to attack me on this website. Hmmm…

Oh, decisions.

Oh, and if you noticed, I decided to start doing shorter chapters again. I promised myself to do them shorter because, let's be honest, my track record is horrible when it comes to making fucking gigantic chapters. Hell, 4000 words plus is kinda rough for me now these days.

Anyway, I'll be back later.

Translation List:

Doton: Yomi Numa – Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld