Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening! (depending on when you read this). Guess what? FINALS ARE DONE!! Yeah, I had 'em all this week but as of right now, I am a free man…until fall semester. Yup, it looks like I'm prolonging things a bit more, which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. We're lookin at two more chapters, three at the most.

This chapter mostly features Naruto's fight with Kisame.

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Akiko remained as calm as she could. Her team was surrounded, some of her chuunin were heavily injured, and Naruto and Sasuke were off somewhere with Itachi and Kisame.

She was calm.

"Hang in there, Akiko-san," Neji's voice rung in her earpiece, "we've almost broken through!"

Akiko didn't have time to reply. A swordsman rushed at her. She stabbed at him with her own katana, but the Rain ninja blocked. But with her abilities, Akiko's blade simply bended around the man's defense and pierced his chest. Another enemy appeared, hoping to catch her while her katana was still lodged in the other man's body. With her free hand, she took the dead guy's sword and used the same technique. The attacker thought he had dodged her thrust, but didn't expect it to curl back in his direction. He was impaled in the back, with the tip of the sword protruding from his chest.

"A sword that can bend like that…it's pretty hard to defend, especially if the enemy doesn't know what's coming," Shikamaru appeared at her side.

With the absence of the other two jounin in their group, Akiko had been forced to give Shikamaru a temporary promotion to help her control the pace of the battle. Rock Lee, Kiba, and Chouji were under his command, but his fourth chuunin, Yanagi, had been brutally burned by a fire technique.

Along with Akiko's group of chuunin, they fought back to back so that the Rain ninja couldn't attack them from behind.

"How's your chakra looking?" she asked him.

"Not good. Kiba is low too, and Chouji has just about had it. Lee still has that crazy stamina of his, though."

"Okay. You probably figured this out, but we won't last much longer here. Neji and his group are the closest to us, directly to the north. But if we wait for him, we might not make it.Our only chance is to fight our way to him and meet them halfway. We need to form an arrowhead formation; people with the most remaining chakra need to be on the outside. Tell your guys and rally back here in a bit."

Once she was done explaining, she immediately ran to Iruka's aid. He was having trouble with a double team. Shikamaru returned to the battle as well, staying with his strategy to hold down as many people as he could, preventing them from joining the battle while Lee and the others continued to fight.

"Neji," Akiko said into the microphone, "how far away are you?"

"We got pushed back pretty far when they isolated your group. We're closing in, but we're being held up right now," was the reply.

"How many enemies between us?" she asked.

There was a delay in Neji's response; most likely because he had his hands full.

"As you know, there are several teams of five men or more that are positioned all around you. They've been taking turns and rotating their attacks on your group. However, there are only two groups standing directly between our two locations: a group of six, and the group that we are currently engaged with."

That Neji guy was something else. He was monitoring the battle as far as he could see with his byakugan. How was he able to maintain focus on so many things at one time while he himself was fighting?

Shikamaru was back, along with the others. Sticking to the plan, they formed a triangle. Those with the most chakra lined up in front to protect the people who were almost out of chakra. The three injured had to be carried.

Akiko stood at the very head.

"We'll run right at them and plow forward. Don't stop for anything," she told them.

She gave the signal. As a single unit, they charged forward, straight into a crowd of hostiles.

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Naruto was presented with a major obstacle. Kisame had in his possession some of those troublesome paper seals that had been used to put Naruto out earlier. If he got caught with one of those, Itachi and Kisame would be able to gang up on Sasuke until Naruto broke out of it, which might take some time.

But there was one thing that Naruto noticed. His opponent hadn't tried to put it on his real body. Either he was incredibly stupid, or it actually only worked when on a shadow clone that was infected with the jutsu and then transferred it to him. If this was the case, then Naruto was forced to not utilize all of his distractions like he was used to. He was going to have to bust out some Rock Lee style fighting. The problem was that his taijutsu wasn't as technical as that guy with thick eyebrows. Would he be able to win? They were about to find out.

Things were about to get very interesting.

The black robed shark swung his sword as Naruto jumped at him, missing with a kick that was aimed at Kisame's head. He had to pull off an airborne flip to dodge Samehada, and when he landed he dodged again by ducking under the massive sword. He sprang up with an uppercut that missed as Kisame jumped backwards, and the mid air spinning kick that followed was blocked by the sword. Naruto tried to follow it up with an overhand punch while he was still in the air, but Kisame shoved him off with his sword and created some distance for his next jutsu. Since there was no water here in this rocky place, he decided that he'd fill the entire battlefield with it. Out of the water emerged five water clones, and all of them charged at Naruto.

Five shuriken forced the clones to spread out so it would be easier for Naruto to take them on one by one. However, his attack on the first water clone was parried, and he was forced to back off when two more came to its aid. The remaining two appeared behind Naruto, who quickly slipped a kunai into each hand, which he stabbed into the grooves of the jagged swords to fend them off. The kunai had been previously wrapped with a controlled explosive, which Naruto set off once he was clear of the blast.

Kisame stayed back, looking for his chance to land the ending blow. As his three water clones chased Naruto down, he saw the opportunity he was looking for. The kid managed to destroy one more clone, but the other two seized his arms. Kisame locked on and flew in like a bullet. His sword shaved the entire front side with one, sweeping stroke. The clones punched him down into the water, and trails of red floated to the surface as the boy sunk.

-xxx-

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled.

"Don't worry. He's not dead. We still need him, remember?" Itachi called.

They both watched as Naruto's bloody body was dragged back to the surface by Kisame's two clones. But then, a great toad leapt out of the water to their left, and its tongue darted out to destroy the two clones. Naruto, who had been limp just a second before, landed on his feet smoothly.

"As you can see, he's still ale to defend himself. But I suggest that you keep your eyes on your opponent, little brother."

Itachi came at him, and Sasuke drew his katana and slashed his brother right down the middle. The body scattered and the pieces turned into ravens that flied off in every direction. So Itachi wanted to play the genjutsu game.

The ravens turned into copies of Itachi, and they landed all around Sasuke, surrounding him. Sasuke's fireball jutsu scorched them all, and only burning black feathers remained, falling around him as he scanned for Itachi's location. He didn't find it in time. Itachi's sword ran straight through Sasuke's back. But his body broke down into a pile of squirming snakes. Instead of waiting for Sasuke to make the next move, Itachi took it upon himself. It was time to use Tsukiyomi.

The scenery changed. Itachi took them back to the place where this blood feud had originally started on that dark night many years ago, in the bedroom of their mother and father. Sasuke was a young child once again, standing before his towering brother. Their mother and their father laid in a pool of their own blood on the floor, with the most horrid expressions imaginable imprinted on their faces for eternity.

Sasuke had no control; it was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. This scene…it was exactly how he remembered it. The feat felt so real; the helplessness and the confusion. He was struggling now, trying to unravel the ultimate genjutsu that the Mangekyou granted his brother. Itachi walked towards him slowly, his footsteps pounding the floor and Sasuke's heartbeat sounded in perfect synchronization. His older brother drew his sword back and thrust it forward, impaling him right through the middle of his chest. Sasuke cried out with a silent scream, and his body curled up in pain. Itachi pulled his sword back and impaled him again; over and over and over.

If this kept up, Sasuke was going to die in this illusion. But trying to keep his focus as his brother stabbed him repeatedly was not an easy task. Itachi was staring down with cold eyes, the same ones that Sasuke remembered all his life. Staring right back into those eyes, he strained his body, his mid, and the abilities of his sharingan in a last attempt to break Tsukiyomi.

It snapped. The world that surrounded them was sucked away, and Sasuke found himself back under the cloak of the darkening sky. Both he and Itachi were in their original positions; neither of them had moved a muscle.

Itachi grabbed for his left eye as a thin stream of blood leaked from it. Sasuke's hands clutched his chest in pain, full of injuries that could not be seen or touched.

"Not bad. You dispelled Tsukiyomi. Nevertheless, the damage was done." Itachi seemed as calm as ever.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sasuke said back, "We're just getting started!"

-xxx-

Naruto would be a liar if he said that his huge wound didn't hurt. The entire front of his cloak and shirt had been shredded to bits, and the flesh from his upper abdomen to his face had been deeply skinned. The left side of his cheek had been cut wide open, and his lip was opened up pretty badly, too. Looking at his reflection in the water, Naruto thought that he looked like one of those zombies from horror stories. Pieces of skin were dangling everywhere; it wasn't an attractive sight.

"Son of a bitch…" he cursed, "And I told Suki I wouldn't get injured. I almost hope you kill me, shark guy, 'cuz she's gonna be mad…"

"Hey, brat, my name isn't 'shark guy,' it's Kisame. Remember it."

"It makes no difference. In the end, you'll just be some other guy that Uzumaki Naruto of the Leaf Village took down."

Kisame's next attack was a huge wall of water. A summoned toad was sitting directly to Naruto's right. He jumped onto it and ran away from the monstrous mountain that was crashing down behind them. With the help of a shadow clone, Naruto used the Odama Rasengan to shoot through to the other side of the wall unharmed, though he immediately dismissed the kage bunshin. Naruto separated with his toad as he went left and the toad went right. He let the amphibian go ahead of him, and Kisame's focus switched to the toad. Now was the only chance Naruto had. While Kisame's eyes were diverted, he had to pull a fast one. Using the blood already dripping from his body, he summoned another toad, Gamakichi.

"My god!" said the toad when he saw Naruto, "what happened to you, squirt?"

"Shut up and transform into me!" Naruto commanded.

Toads weren't good at transformation, so Naruto had learned how to transform them himself. He also knew how to multiply other objects besides himself. It was those two abilities that would bring him victory.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

After shrugging off the toad, Kisame turned to see three clones of Naruto. What a dumb kid. In desperation, he had turned to the move which would be the end of him. The three bloody Narutos formed a triangle to trap him, far enough to be out of range but close enough to be able to stop him should he start to form hand signs.

"Shadow clones, huh? Do I have to remind you that using those is dangerous?" he laughed.

"You have a one in three chance that the 'me' you attach that paper to will be the real one. I won't be destroyed in one hit, and by the time you realize your mistake, one of my clones will have you."

Kisame grinned. "So basically, you're gambling."

"Yeah, I guess I am. The Old Lady would be proud, don't you think?"

"Bring it on," Kisame beckoned and readied his sword.

Instead of waiting for them to come to him, Kisame singled out one of the clones and attacked him. The clone's punch was easily caught, and he attached the paper to it's arm. In a fluid motion he moved behind the clone and an elbow to the back of the neck made it disappear.

Heh. The kid's gamble didn't work. Kisame had successfully chosen a shadow clone, and now Itachi's jutsu was about to take affect and-

The man's thoughts stopped as pain ran through his body. He didn't see what had hit him, but he had experienced it before. His body spun as he was forced backwards, and he landed in the water.

What the hell had just happened? Kisame was sure he had properly attached the paper and destroyed the clone like he was supposed to. Why hadn't the jutsu worked? Mustering whatever strength he had left, hemade two water clones that swam him back to the surface. What greeted him when he emerged from the water was a grinning brat.

"What the hell did you do?"

If the kid was smart, he probably wouldn't have told him so that he could use the technique again and keep Kisame guessing. But Naruto liked to brag. The brat undid the jutsus that he had in affect. One of the Narutos turned back into a small toad.

"When you were busy with that bigger toad, I summoned Gamakichi here and made a clone of him. Then I used transformation to make them both look like me, and I shouted 'kage bunshin no jutsu' to throw you off. You automatically thought that these two guys were shadow clones, but they were Gamakichi in henge. The one you destroyed was Gamakichi's clone. You already thought you won, so you didn't even bother looking back to see what happened to me."

"Don't underestimate this guy," called the toad, sticking his tongue out, "he's pretty good. Didn't you notice? You destroyed that clone of me so easily because I'm not used to walking around on two feet. I was totally unbalanced!"

His body could barely move, thanks to the rasengan. Kisame wouldn't be able to do anything. Damn this kid. If Kisame was able to go all out and not worry that he would kill the nine-tailed brat, then he would've killed him for sure. Now, the only weapons he had left were water clones. He made two more and sent them in after Naruto.

"Still fighting until the end, huh? But since your body can't move, I've got a great finishing move for you!"

Before the clones reached him, Naruto gathered up his chakra and summoned the biggest toad of all, Gamabunta. After a quick whisper from his summoner, the huge toad leapt high into the air, away from the pursuing clones. Kisame could only watch as the gigantic toad came positioned himself directly over him as he fell.

"Get your asses back over here and move me!" he called to his clones.

The shadow of the boss toad grew wider around him as the moment of impact grew near.

"Hurry!"

It was too late. They weren't going to make it. This was it. What a strange feeling it was, knowing that he was about to be crushed by a huge ass frog. Kisame had lost; he couldn't believe this was how he was going to die.

"OHHHH SHI-"

His last words went unfinished as Gamabunta landed with a brilliant splash. Water exploded everywhere, sending huge waves in all directions.

"Wasn't that overdoing it a bit, kid?" Gamabunta's booming voice came from underneath Naruto.

"That bastard deserved it. And besides, it's funny as hell."

Already the water was vanishing; the ninja maintaining the suition jutsu was no longer alive.

"Anyway, get yourself some medical attention, squirt. You look like you're about to die, you know," said Gamakichi, hopping beside him.

"Do you need me to take you back to the Village?" asked Gamabunta.

"No, I can't leave yet. Besides, I don't even know where we are," admitted Naruto.

"I do. Konoha is just south of here, just so you know," the toad's deep voice sounded, the smoke from his pipe rising into the sky.

"South, huh? Thanks Frog Boss, that helps a lot!"

Naruto jumped down onto Bunta's tongue, which extended to the ground.

"Well then, if we're not needed anymore, we're going. And by the way, I'm not a frog, I'm a toad!"

With that, the two toads were gone, vanishing in the same manner that shadow clones did.

Naruto's attention turned to the two brothers who were throwing fire jutsu at each other at the top of the cliff side. He wanted to help, but some of his wounds were still bleeding. If he didn't stop them soon, he was going to be in real danger.

-xxx-

"Looks like Naruto-kun finished off Kisame," noted Itachi.

"Aren't you going to run?" asked Sasuke, "he's probably on his way up to lend me a hand."

"Beating Kisame is no small feat. If he does come up here to fight, he'll be exhausted and probably just get in your way," the older Uchiha said confidently.

"We'll see."

With the short stall in their fight over, they went at each other again. Throughout the entire fight, Sasuke had been holding his own. But as he expected, Itachi was hands down the toughest opponent he had ever faced. His attack combinations and transitions from taijutsu to ninjutsu to genjutsu were perfect and timed so precisely that Sasuke could barely keep up.

Both of them knew, however, that the fight was almost at an end. The damage Sasuke had suffered from Tsukiyomi was massive, and the strain that Itachi put his body through just to use that technique was beginning to weigh him down. This fight between two brothers that had been burning for so long was going to be decided in the next few minutes.