"Normal speech"
"Thought"/Flashback
"Kyuubi/Other voices"
A/N:
Disclaimer
I do not own Naruto… This is merely for my, and hopefully everyone else's, enjoyment. Thank you!
Recap:
As the Uchiha brothers fight to the end, Naruto comes to the aid of Jiraiya. In a surprise event, he comes face-to-face with the Akatsuki leader, Pein, himself and a mysterious man who threatens their existence. With a bit of luck, Naruto manages to give them the slip and get Jiraiya to safety. Now it's a rush against time for him to save both his old friend and his grandfather...
A Race Against Time
The dragons flew furiously through the skies. They were in quite a bit of hurry to get Jiraiya the help he so desperately needed. In the meantime, Hinata did what she could.
"So… how's it going, girl," the female dragon asked.
Hinata had placed a few chakra rings on his body as well as Sakura, so she couldn't respond. Able to see that she was in deep concentration, the male dragon answered on her behalf…
"Quiet Kaoru… The girl needs peace and--,"
"Don't tell me to shut up!" she retaliated. "I could already tell that she wanted peace, so why don't you shut up!?"
The two continued to bicker. Maintaining her focus, Hinata ignored them until faint whispers of it got through. It was then replaced with a sudden sharp pain. This broke her concentration and her jutsu.
From Sakura's point of view, it looked as though Hinata was suffering from the effects of a twinge of a headache. She was then surprised to see her eyes glow. When it came to an end, Hinata commanded that they hurry…
**Uchiha hideout**
Sasuke trembled as his brother menacingly and slowly crept closer and closer. Itachi was a fingertip's length away from ripping out Sasuke's other eye when his curse spread and got out of control. Sasuke shivered as the world seemingly quaked…
To Sasuke's relief and Itachi's, and Zetsu's, surprise, the genjutsu cast on him had been broken. It was unprecedented.
As Sasuke collapsed to his knees, the dark half of Zetsu commented, "He just ate a Tsukuyomi, and yet… he somehow managed to overcome it."
"How is that possible?" the other half asked. "How could someone with a regular sharingan beat someone with the Mangekyou?"
The dark half answered, "The sharingan is just another tool. A tool is only as good as the shinobi using it. Someone with exceptional skills at throwing rocks could beat a novice using shuriken any day… Basically, it seems that Itachi underestimated Sasuke's potential. He may just be better with the sharingan than even him…"
Sasuke stood tall. His trembling had decreased, as did the spread of his curse seal. He looked at his brother, who covered his aching left eye, and smirked. He then said, "You can use your eyes on me over and over again, but my hatred for you will get me through. I will see my dream become a reality!"
Itachi scoffed, "Make your illusion a reality… Fair enough… Then I say the same thing to you. During my Tsukuyomi, you saw me ripping your eyes out of their sockets… Be ready for that to become reality."
Seeing Itachi close one eye, Zetsu commented to himself, "The air around Itachi is changing…"
"Looks like he's finally getting serious... We might actually get to see 'Amaterasu'…"
**Leaf Squad**
Naruto was fuming. His master, his grandfather, had been seriously injured, and Sasuke was so close but they couldn't get to him because some jerk was blocking their way.
Naruto's hair turned golden as he said, "If you won't get out of our way, then I'll just have to blow you away," while removing his top.
Seeing this, Kiba commented, "What kind of weird freakin' habit is that, stripping like that in the middle of a fight…!?"
"And you call me weird," Shino remarked.
Kiba just looked at him out of the corner of his eye. Seeing this didn't change his opinion of his long-time teammate. He was certainly, without a doubt, still very odd himself. Also, he wasn't providing an explanation so he was just being as annoying about the subject as he usually was.
Naruto ignored them and focused his chakra, ignored the remaining pain from his injuries, and exploded.
"He disappeared!" Tobi was shocked.
He looked about but found no trace of Naruto. "Shadow Star," Kakashi realized.
What Tobi hadn't realized was that Naruto was attacking from behind. As he appeared, ready to lop off Tobi's head, the others thought, "Got 'em!"
Surprising, but not unlike their other attempts, Tobi managed to avoid taking seriously damaging attacks. Naruto's attack slipped right through him, but not without shining a ray of hope on the dim situation. Tobi began rubbing his neck. To the surprise of everyone, the few specks of blood on Naruto's blade proved that the task of defeating him wasn't impossible.
That "ray of hope" brightened their day, but the roaming storm clouds seemed like a bad omen for the group and their chances…
**Uchiha hideout**
Itachi shut his right eye but kept the other on his skilled younger brother…
Still unnoticed, both Zetsu continued to comment, "The 'War of Genjutsu' was over the moment Tsukuyomi, a great and powerful one, was broken. So far, in taijutsu and genjutsu, the two have been fairly evenly matched… The only thing left… is a ninjutsu clash… The left Mangekyou Sharingan eye possesses the greatest genjutsu, while the right possesses the greatest ninjutsu. It's said that Amaterasu is the fire from hell which never disappears until it burns everything in its path… It's coming!"
Itachi sped through hand-seals as Sasuke summoned another large shuriken and let it fly. Just as he finished his seals, he wasn't quick enough to act. He tried to duck low enough to evade but found another shuriken in its shadow. Itachi winced as the pain got to him, but he bore through it and leapt between the two.
Although this was a surprise, even more surprising, the shuriken were destructible. With one tug of a wire, it exploded into pieces. A glancing blow from one of these sent Itachi roughly crashing to the ground.
Zetsu found this all to be weird. Sure Itachi had wasted chakra when he used a powerful jutsu that failed to be successful, but it was odd how sluggish he seemed already.
With an opening, Sasuke grabbed his sword and rushed in for the kill. Unexpectedly, Itachi's right eye finally shot open. Sasuke stopped in his tracks, jumped back and released a fire jutsu. It, however, wasn't enough and was overtaken by…
"Amaterasu…! The flame that even burns fire itself!"
While his fire was being devoured by black flames, Sasuke snuck around to blindside Itachi with a Chidori. Seeing it coming, just barely, Itachi made a timely move to avoid being run through, but Sasuke instantly partially activated his seal to form a wing and bat Itachi through the ceiling.
Recovering, partially, Itachi followed with a small fire jutsu. Using his wing, Sasuke easily blocked it. Sasuke hurled more shuriken that forced Itachi back and gave him the chance to follow him to the high-ground. He was then met head-on with another fireball. He blocked it but was blown backward. Being pushed back, Sasuke decided to counter and fight fire with fire. His grew quickly and soon overpowered Itachi's who, once again, resorted to Amaterasu to overtake Sasuke's flame.
Sasuke cut his loss while he could, evading Amaterasu as it continued forward. He stood several feet away, barely able to see the blood dripping from Itachi's eye as he closed it. Sasuke let out a small grunt before charging Itachi once more.
His eye flung open once again, sending Amaterasu to chase after his target, Sasuke. Sasuke increased his curse and tried to fly to get away. Because his wings were really designed for flight, there wasn't much he could do to evade the black flame that followed him no matter what.
It finally caught up to him just as he was about to land and run away on foot. It caused him to botch his landing and skid across the roof as the flame quickly spread. The more it spread and the more it burned, the louder Sasuke's screams of agony grew…
Then, something interesting, according to the white half of Zetsu, occurred. The flames of Amaterasu were seemingly extinguished. The dark half assured the other that this was necessary if Itachi wanted to collect his brother's eyes intact.
Blood dripped from Itachi's eyes as he reached down for the fallen, unmoving Sasuke. As he got a closer and better look, Itachi realized that it was a trap. But he was too weak and exhausted to react as Sasuke attacked from below. In the fully released form of his curse seal, Sasuke launched an assault of…
"Fire style: Great Dragon Flame Jutsu!"
Several large dragon-head-shaped fireballs were blasted upward at Itachi. Just barely, Itachi managed to avoid being swallowed by these beasts of fire but not without taking some damage. At first, his cloak had caught fire, but then his right arm and leg were terribly burned. He quickly jumped out of his Akatsuki cloak and stopped to catch his breath and get his bearings as the assault ceased.
Though blurred, he could see Sasuke drop to his knees as well. His transformation reverted, but he still sounded confident as he chuckled and said, "This will probably be my last jutsu… but I'm sure it'll be the last you ever see…!"
Between breaths, Itachi replied, "Drop… the act, Sasuke… I… already know you're… out of chakra… The replacement you used… to evade my Amaterasu was a move… of Orochimaru's… Although it's difficult to detect… it also consumes a lot of chakra."
Sasuke responded, "Heh… I won't deny that I'm out of chakra… I used everything I had left for that last fire technique… But don't think that I came here to kill you with that little bit… I came prepared this time." Sasuke leapt up to the highest point he could and looked down at his enemy. He then stated, "It'll be over in an instant. Like Amaterasu, this technique is unavoidable." He raised his hand, saying, "It's time to reproduce what I saw earlier… the vision of your death."
**Leaf Village**
The dragons had arrived in the village, to the shock and awe to the villagers. Hinata quickly got help for Jiraiya and Sakura, who could now walk a bit thanks to her. Once word reached Tsunade, she wasted no time in getting Jiraiya into surgery. Hopefully, they could make it in time.
Having done their job, and sure that Naruto wouldn't forget to pay them for their effort, the dragons were about to leave, but one was missing…
Yuuki had come across Konohamaru and his team, and sensei, and joined them in their training at one of the many training areas. Being a bit more experienced, she agreed to be their opponent and test their capabilities as shinobi.
It seemed that no matter what they tried, the experience and skill level was too much to overcome, as Ebisu constantly stressed. Yuuki would prove to be speedier than their fastest member and able to outfox even their smartest member. Konohamaru tried to match her clone for clone and trick for trick…
"Sexy Technique: Guy Love!!"
Konohamaru transformed himself and his clone into a pair of Narutos touching and caressing each other. This brought a big blush to Moegi and Yuuki's faces and caused Ebisu to go on a rant of how it wasn't a proper technique to use to succeed in battle.
As the two touchy-feely guys looked from the corner of their eyes, they could see Yuuki licking her lips. Just as he wanted, she approached as if she wanted to get in the middle of things. Once she got close enough, Konohamaru would spring his trap and subdue and defeat her. This would prove how great he really was and could be.
Yuuki was an arms length away when the Narutos stretched out their arms to welcome her. To their surprise, the look on her face wasn't what they were expecting. The look on her face was ferocious and the look in her eyes spelled death. Before they realized what was happening, Yuuki lashed out with a punch to each of their jaws…
As Konohamaru lay sprawled out, Yuuki lectured, "Shame on you, using my brother's image that way! It was wrong!"
Ebisu agreed, "That's correct… Using such a thing to try and win a battle will only lead to defeat, such as it has."
Yuuki continued, "It was all wrong! My brother is a lot sexier than the way you portrayed him! And two of him feeling each other up was the wrong image to use against me! I love my brother, so it'd be best to use one of the two of us being lovey-dovey!"
Ebisu couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Tha-… that's… what she found wrong with it…?"
Udon and Moegi were in the same boat. "Seems that way… [Sighs]…"
"Hey, did you hear…? There's been talk of dragons showing up back in the village…!" they overheard a young man say.
"Really…? That's awesome! Let's go check it out!" another suggested.
"Dragons…?" Yuuki wondered.
She then heard them say, "Awesome! Is that one there!?"
"Yeah, I think so!"
"It's kind of small though…"
Hearing this Yuuki ran to see the two boys looking and pointing to a small dragon flying overhead. "Kiyoshi, what are you doing here?"
Finally spotting Yuuki down below, he swooped down to meet her. "Oh, Yuuki… It's nice to see you… I came to play," he informed her.
"But… you had to be summoned here. If you were, then, that must mean… my brother's back!"
"No… I was summoned to lead Ryuuto and Kaoru here without causing a scare for the villagers."
"Where are they now? Why would you need to lead them here?" Yuuki asked.
"Oh, well… they left. Ryuuto felt bad about asking Naruto for treasures since was really hurt. Naruto had us hurry back here to get him help," he truthfully told, not realizing the effect it could have.
Yuuki was shocked and in disbelief. "My… grandpa… was hurt…!?"
She wasted no time and hurried back to the village to see about her grandfather's condition. When she got to the hospital, she was told that he was in surgery and forced to wait…
**Leaf Squad**
The dark clouds that were quickly gathering could be better seen as more of the tall trees of the forest were being chopped down.
In his goofy persona, Tobi remarked, "Eeyah…! That was surprising there for a minute, but… you still can't beat me~!"
Naruto growled, "Grrr… Then I'll have to obliterate you!"
Naruto sheathed his swords and began cycling through hand-seals. Realizing what he had in mind, Kakashi stepped forward and stopped him…
"That'll do no good, Naruto… If he avoids it like he's been doing, it may just give him the opening he needs to land a serious hit…"
Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration, but he understood what Kakashi was saying. Every now and then, he would lose track of this guy's chakra. What's more, if sight of him was lost, it would be tragic if he'd use the opportunity to eliminate his comrades before they realized what was happening.
Seeing Naruto's chakra stabilize, continuing in a goofy manner, Tobi remarked, "Ahhhh… Why'd you stop? It was so pretty…! I really wanted to see it," he finished in a serious tone.
"JUST WHO THE HELL ARE YOU, YOU PSYCHO!!?" Kiba roared.
**Uchiha hideout**
"Un-… avoidable…?" Zetsu pondered. "What could it possibly be?"
The dark clouds had gathered and it began to pour. A flash of lightning and the roar of thunder and the storm's ferocity picked up. This clued Zetsu in on what Sasuke was thinking. He had taken advantage of Itachi's Amaterasu's heat along with his own fire techniques to set this all up. He was planning to tame lightning itself…
"If he can actually do it, it's gonna be on a different scale of what humans can normally produce," Zetsu commented.
Sasuke went on to say, "This technique's power source is lightning from heaven itself…! All I have to do is guide it. I call it… 'Kirin'!"
Zetsu and Itachi looked on in amazement, and a bit of terror. Itachi was too weak, and his eyesight was fading fast, but he could still see the flashes of light as the lightning itself began to take form.
With a smirk on his face, Sasuke remarked, "Don't blink… You'll miss your obliteration… Now…! Disappear with the thunder!!"
He dropped his arm and directed at Itachi down below. As Sasuke had mentioned, the lightning that he had "tamed" sped towards his target. In one brilliant display of light and power, the technique shook the heavens and split the earth.
Sasuke had aspired to top his brother and become the pinnacle of the shinobi world. It seemed that, with the bright flash and thunderous boom of his newly revealed technique, he had done just that as his brother was completely devastated and wiped out. A cool smirk appeared on his face as he realized this…
**Leaf Squad**
"What-The-Hell-Was-That!?!" Kiba exclaimed, wriggling his finger in his ear.
Tobi was thinking to himself, "I wonder…"
He turned back to see a swarm of insects closely followed by manipulated wood coming at him. Before he was overtaken by this, he could see that the remaining Leaf shinobi were resorting to "scattering in hopes of getting by him".
Exasperated, he thought, "Not again…"
History repeated itself as he managed to corral them before appearing before them once again.
"Let us pass!" Naruto demanded.
Tobi responded, "No… How about you keep me company for a little while longer…?"
"Like hell we will!!" both Kiba and Naruto threatened.
**(Former)Uchiha hideout**
As the smoke began to clear, seeing the hectic condition of the landscape below turned Sasuke's smirk into a broad smile.
"It's… it's all over! I did it!"
A bit of happiness could actually be seen on his face. He leapt down to get a better look at the turnout. As the smoke finally fully dissipated, so too did his smile…
"Was that… what you saw in your vision of my death?"
Sasuke's frame began to tremble as the sight and sound of Itachi slowly coming towards him conquered his mind. "H-… how…?"
Zetsu wondered the same thing. "How did he survive that just now?"
Watching him creep closer, Sasuke's eye twitched as he grinded his teeth. Losing control, he exploded, "GODDAMN YOU, ITACHI!! JUST DIE ALREADY!!"
Sasuke's rage pushed him to force a transformation. His curse seal quickly spread over his body as he had nothing else up his sleeves to resort to. The only thing he could manage was hurling kunai and shuriken. They were all batted away by a strange form that seemingly materialized around Sasuke's target.
"What… is that?"
Itachi smirked while saying, "If I hadn't used this in time, I would've been obliterated… You've become strong, Sasuke." Seeing the frustration set in Sasuke's face, Itachi revealed, "Behold… the final weapon in my arsenal… 'Susano'o'."
"Just what is that supposed to be?"
Itachi replied, "The third and final technique of the Mangekyou Sharingan. With this, my victory is assured, so… if you have anything else up your sleeve, I suggest you bring them to the light…"
Sasuke and Zetsu were amazed to see that the skeletal form of Susano'o was becoming more complete. In a matter of seconds, it became a figure of glowing eyes hidden within a guise of long, pointed nosed titan.
Ready, Itachi began to come forward. Sasuke resumed throwing whatever he could get his hands on, shuriken, kunai, even rocks, but it was all futile. The strange entity that shrouded Itachi knocked it all away as it protected its user.
Feeling weak and failing to succeed at accomplishing his goal, Sasuke could hear a voice deep within hiss, "I can give you what you want. Do you want my power?" Sasuke tried to fight it, but it continued, "Admit it, Sasuke… You need me if you want to get your revenge on your brother, Itachi… Now… release me… and I'll grant your wish… Sssss-…"
As a creature branched out from Sasuke's curse seal, enormous in its own right, it took form as the voice finished, "Sssssasukeee!!"
A smirk crossed Itachi's face. This was what he had been waiting for. As his behemoth stared down the eight slithering heads before it, Itachi stated, "I know this feeling… The snake's finally come out…"
"Orochimaru's found a way to come back… That guy just doesn't know when to die and stay dead," Zetsu remarked.
As the two began their battle of behemoths, Itachi's guardian swiftly sliced off several heads of the serpent in one mighty swing. It kept chopping and slicing until there was only one reluctant to attack. From within its mouth appeared none other than Orochimaru.
In, according to Zetsu, Orochimaru's usual disgusting fashion, he pulled a sword from his own throat. A sadistic smile came to his face as he expressed, "This is the chance I've been waiting for… and it's all thanks to you, Itachi! To thank you properly, I'll kill you quickly before I take your little brother's body as my ow--n!"
As he was finishing, Orochimaru was on the receiving end of a surprising thrust from Itachi's mighty guardian. Hearing Orochimaru creak from the pain of being run-through, Itachi confidently said, "Alright, Sasuke… got anything else?"
He then heard the maniacal laughter of Orochimaru as he proclaimed, "That won't work on me! I--,"
Feeling a strange sensation that came from being stabbed, Orochimaru realized the blade Itachi had been using. It was one that would seal anyone pierced by it into an endless world of genjutsu for all of eternity. This meant bad news for someone even as persistent and resilient as Orochimaru himself.
In one swift moment, Orochimaru met his end as he was sealed away by Itachi. Rid of that nuisance, Itachi could finally focus on what it was that he had waited so long for… claiming Sasuke's eyes…
**Leaf Squad**
The vast area faced the threat of deforestation as Naruto and company continued their struggle against the mysterious menace now known, and to never be forgotten, as Tobi.
Great frustration was quickly setting in. it seemed that everything they had tried was proving unsuccessful. They tried everything they could but couldn't take the liberties to try anything more drastic… that is until…
"I guess I have no choice but to try my trump," Kakashi stated.
"Do you think it'll work Kakashi sensei?" Naruto asked.
"It better because we no longer have time to play around here. We have to get to Sasuke."
Naruto nodded in agreement. He then added, "You try your way, and I'll try mine…"
Kiba and Shino were lost. They had no idea what the two were referring to or how it would affect their current situation. They would just have to sit back and watch…
They expected to see some amazing kind of spectacle. What they witnessed was indeed a spectacle, but not one they were expecting. A strange being in the form of a giant flytrap appeared at the feet of Tobi.
They overheard it say, "It's all over."
"What!? What's all over? What is that thing?" Kiba questioned.
"He was in the booklet Kabuto left behind," Kakashi informed.
As it opened, they saw a two-toned figure as he said, "You should come quick…"
"So, one of the Uchiha brothers finally prevailed over the other." Looking down at the Leaf shinobi, especially Naruto, as if taunting them, he said, "I wonder which one of them won…"
Naruto could no longer feel Sasuke's chakra signature. Desperate, he exploded, "Hey, 'Aloe-Vera man'... which one?"
"Aloe Vera…?"
"Just ignore him," the dark half told the other.
With this, Tobi stated, "I'd love to finish playing with you children, but it'll have to wait until some other time…"
This time of all the others, Kakashi had actually gotten a good look at Tobi's eye. He was surprised to see that it was a sharingan.
"Just who the hell are you?!"
Tobi didn't reply. As Zetsu sunk into the tree and disappeared, he waved one last goodbye before disappearing himself in an odd manner. As if sucked into a point in space, he was gone, leaving the Leaf shinobi with a bad taste in their mouths.
Shaking this from their thoughts, they resumed their pursuit of Sasuke, who they hoped was still alive. They were in a hurry…
"We have to get to Sasuke before they do! Naruto, can you sense him?" Kakashi asked.
"No, but there's a place with powerful chakra around. It's 10 kilometers that way!" he pointed out.
Seeing that this wasn't greatly reliable information, Kakashi decided to check. He noticed that there were unusually dark clouds singularly hovering over one specific area. Hopefully, this was the correct destination they would need to go. It was certainly better than nothing. They rushed as fast as they could…
Back at the ground where the Uchiha hideout once stood, beneath the pouring rain, Tobi found the Uchiha brothers, Itachi and Sasuke, both laid out. With a brief flash of lightning, Tobi suddenly appeared between the two.
Looming over them, after the following cry of thunder, he remarked, "Looks like I win the race. You're all too slow," to Zetsu. "You're no faster than that kid and his glorified 'Body-Flicker technique'… Humph… 'Shadow Star'…"
To this, Zetsu responded, "Well excuse me for not being able to move at the freakin' speed of light!"
Ignoring this attitude, Tobi asked if the battle had been recording which Zetsu assured it had. With everyone in place, he suggested, "Let's get them and get out of here before those Leaf children get here. Go get Kisame as well."
After getting by Itachi's ever-burning Amaterasu, the very so-called "Leaf children" arrived on the site of the brother's epic battle. They had arrived, but unfortunately…
"We're too late," Kakashi gloomily remarked.
Sai could see the hurt on Naruto's face. He wanted to help get him through this, but he had no idea of what or how to do this. "It would be better if Sakura was here. I'm sure, if she was, she would know how to make him feel better…"
With way to follow their scents or find them by their chakra signatures, at the moment, the Leaf shinobi had failed. The mission to get Sasuke was once again unsuccessful.
With nothing more that could be done, at the moment, Naruto began walking away from the battle site. The rapid splash of his feet as he departed caught the attention of the others.
"Where are you going, Naruto?" Kiba wondered.
Naruto didn't answer. All that was on his mind was, "I hope you're okay… Hold on grandpa…!"
End of chapter…
The mission to capture one of the Uchiha brothers fail as the Leaf squad is beat to the punch…
Even so, which prevailed in the battle, and will Jiraiya somehow survive?
Next chapter: Failure…