They came in the night.

Itachi woke with a start, chest heaving, sweat forcing his shirt to stick to his back.

He had no reason to be on edge, there were two Sannin, one in the same building as him. Sannin who could use chakra, unlike him. His brothers also had keen instincts that could detect danger, and yet…

He knew something was wrong. He could just feel it. It could have been his body unconsciously using chakra in his sleep from the years of training until it was so natural, so a part of him, that he could literally do it in his sleep.

It could also been that something in the universe, some higher power or fate, caused him to wake up with worry compressing his chest. It didn't matter what the reason or cause was. All that mattered was that he could feel it.

Something was wrong.

For the first time in three months, he loosened the tight leash and muzzle that he'd been keeping on his chakra. Let the coil unwind, and suddenly he could breathe again. Like the time he dove into the Uchiha lake, and got lost in the experience of being around the peaceful aquatic life. He'd spent too long too deep, and didn't think he'd make it up in time for air. Of course he had, failure was not an option for Itachi Uchiha after all, no matter how menial the task. When he broke the surface and inhaled, it had felt like new life. This was better. So much better.

Like an extension of his body, he could feel what was going on around him. His brother's deep, peaceful breaths in the rooms next to him. Jiraiya's much rougher snore. Shizune and Tsunade, also at rest one building over. And then the blip.

The one slip up that would cost them, the faintest amount of chakra being loosened from it's tight hold. It wasn't an obvious thing, it barely registered in his brain, like a light breeze shifting directions. But it did, and Itachi knew. They had come for them. For him. For his brothers.

Naruto and Sasuke. It didn't matter what happened, he would protect them. It didn't matter if using chakra set his illness back months, or years. Hell, he didn't care if it killed him. He would protect them.

Silently, using his sweet, precious chakra to mask the sound of his movements, he slid out of bed. Even creeping silently across the floor, he felt stronger than he had since he'd left Konoha. Chakra fed his muscles in perfect control, no movement being wasted as moved like a cat stalking its prey.

He slipped into Naruto and Sasuke's room without a single sound, or a single breath out of place. He had to be careful, on such a chakra dark island, any slip would be noticed in the middle of the night. He had proven that already.

He woke Sasuke first, as the quieter of the two, he knew he could count on him to be silent right off the bat. He ran through quick hand signs, indicating the emergency they were in. He saw Sasuke's eyes narrow, but the boy showed no other outward signs other than a nod.

He moved to Naruto next, waking him while covering his mouth. The blond, despite not being a morning person, tended to shout when he didn't awaken naturally. He saw Naruto's eyes widened big, until he saw Itachi and quickly calmed himself. He removed his hand from the blond's mouth, indicating that he needed to stay quiet, and then ran through the same hand signs as he did for Sasuke. Naruto looked at Sasuke, then back at Itachi and nodded his head firmly.

With his priorities out of the way, he took the opportunity to weave a genjutsu. It was risky, which is why he had awoken his brothers first, but necessary if he were going to wake the Sannin in time.

He concentrated on the technique, the highest level chakra masker that he had. He quickly ran a separate, less formidable technique of the same task over the top. If he did it correctly, which he had, the second technique would be realized and broken, giving the attackers a false sense of security. The higher level first technique would continue to take hold over them. Anything under an A-rank technique wouldn't be able to be sensed by anyone the genjutsu affected. If all went according to plan, they'd have about 30 seconds to prepare for a fight.

Immediately he summoned a shadow clone and then a second. There was no need for instructions, they just disappeared soundlessly to do their jobs. The first moved to Jiraiya, gliding across the room like a wraith. Waking him silently was easy enough, as was using the old ANBU hand signs to update him on the situation.

The second shadow clone had a trickier job. He had to use an earth jutsu to tunnel underground into the building housing Tsunade and Shizune. He was wary of what the female Sannin would do, as she wasn't under the genjutsu, there was a possibility that she would awake thinking Jiraiya was attempting to peep. That would be catastrophic in more ways than one, which was why he made sure everybody was awake before his clone got close enough to wake her.

Naruto and Sasuke were quickly trying to cycle their chakra to warm themselves up and get ready to fight. Jiraiya, being a veteran of two wars at this point, didn't need any such luxury, and was busy planning for possible scenarios.

Itachi ushered them towards the far wall, the one closest to Tsunade's building, and prepared to move. Quickly his hands snapped through signs and he pressed his palm against the wall. Razor thin lines appeared as a door-sized section of the wall detached itself, but was held steady by Itachi's chakra.

He waited, it would be any moment now if it was going to go wrong.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING CREEP!" Tsunade's shout was punctuated by what sounded like an explosion, and a moment later, Itachi finched minutely at the memory of Tsunade obliterating his clone.

That was one way to impart a distraction on the enemy he supposed, might as well take advantage of it. He reversed his chakra grip on the wall, pushing it away, and immediately moving out to the right. There were several kunai slicing through the air towards him. His eyes remained dark as he pulled his own from the pouch that he slept with. An almost imperceptible twitch sawthe three blades being deflected by his own, ricocheting into each other. His kunai continued on its path of righteousness until it struck a masked ninja in the throat. One down then. How many more of Danzo's Root to go? Danzo knew better than to send less than 15, even if he didn't know the Sannin were with them.

Behind him, Jiraiya moved straight ahead to the newly formed hole in Tsunade's wall, attempting to join the two groups. He had activated his hair jutsu, expanding and hardening it to protect him from projectiles and jutsu alike.

To Jiraiya's left, Naruto and Sasuke breached the opening and light to work like lightning and thunder. Sasuke, sharingan shining in the night, streaked between enemies using his superior speed. Naruto rooted himself in place and began blasting jutsu after jutsu at the enemy. Itachi didn't need to turn to see how mesmerizing they were, he'd experienced it many times. Somehow the two perfectly complemented and protected each other perfectly despite their contrasting styles.

Another powerful gust of wind exploded from Naruto's palms. The justu worked as a sword and shield, both defending him from shuriken, and disrupting the balance of their attackers. One particularly capable masked ninja had stood her ground, timing her attack perfectly between Naruto's. As soon as the wind gust let up, the Root ninja meant to let loose a kunai aimed for the blond's throat. He wasn't paying attention, already running through more hand seals to fire an attack at another ninja.

The kunai never left her hand, and she was dead before she hit the ground. Sasuke, the one who dropped her, continued to the next enemy ninja, lightning lightly crackling around his legs. A hulking man seemed to come out of nowhere, a large sword raised above his head. Yet again, the root ninja had timed an attack on one of the boys perfectly. Just as he was poised to bring the blade down, Sasuke lowered his center of gravity, seemingly elongating himself in a counterproductive fashion. A hulking head, and two large arms fell to the ground an instant later. The large body followed, having been severed by one of Naruto's water streams.

Jiraiya and Tsunade had joined the fight, and while Shizune was participating, it was clear Tsunade was trying to protect her, while Jiraiya moved to help the boys. Itachi on the other hand was fending for himself, and doing a magnificent job. After his first kill, he'd activated his sharingan. Three more Root members had dropped not long after, leaving roughly seven more coming after him.

Two dropped to friendly fire when his genjutsu took hold. One was trapped in ninja wire, almost escaping, only for a flaming dragon to literally melt him. Another looked him in the eye, and seemingly dropped dead instantly. His eyes whirred, blood dripping out of his left one from using Tsukuyomi.

He was beginning to feel the wear of his illness now, his delicate body not holding up to the intensity he was using it at. Behind him he heard Naruto cry out, more in anger or frustration than pain. It wasn't motivation that was needed, but it was accepted nonetheless. He grit his teeth and pushed through, gliding across the battlefield as if death himself was after the Root-nin.

A wind chakra aided kunai cut right through the mask of another, deep enough to halt his movements immediately. Itachi spun and threw the same kunai, wind chakra included, right through the chest of a woman trying to sneak up on him. The final ninja after Itachi was nowhere to be seen, his sharingan flared trying to track him down.

Before he could, he felt an immense amount of chakra building up. It came from deep behind him, on the other side of where Naruto, Sasuke, and Jiraiya were mopping up the rest of the Root ninja. Three of their final enemies had gathered, and even as he watched, they flowed through hand seals. Jiraiya perked up, but wouldn't make it in time to stop all three from their combination attack.

Itachi watched, even as the raced across the battlefield, stepping on more than one bod as he did so. Jiraiya activated his hair jutsu, pouring an immense amount of chakra into it to try and protect them all. It wouldn't be enough, and Itachi knew.

His body clicked into a gear of speed that he'd never known before, and he moved so fast his sharingan struggled to keep up. The Root Ninja had finished their hand seals, and were directing all six open palms directly at Jiraiya's defense. Itachi smelled the ozone in the air that often accompanied large lighting techniques. His sharingan saw the crackle of lightning, moving slower than normal, but still much too fast. And then he was there.

He'd crossed the rest of the clearing so fast, he almost didn't understand. He watched the lightning come at him head on, determined to protect his family and those who would help them. The lightning screeched at him as he pushed as much chakra out of his body as fast as he could, and he roared back when it struck. There was a giant flash of light, and then only ringing in his ears, and an iron taste in his mouth.

The world was white for what felt like minutes, but his brain told him was only a second or two. He stumbled wearily, his body was burning, every single cell felt as if it were on fire. His vision returned, the white taken over by a glowing orange and red color.

"Susan'oo" He spit out, accompanied by plenty of blood.

"Itachi!" He heard Sasuke scream from behind him. There was work to be done yet though, so he didn't take the time to turn.

The ethereal figure around him blinked out almost instantly as he found his targets. The three ninja looked worse for wear, but were still standing. Itachi's eye locked on him, the Mangeyko in his right eye building up for his technique.

The black flames struck true on two of the ninja. The third one, the one that had escaped Itachi in the initial battle, managed to get his sword up on time. He threw it away even as the Amaterasu melted it.

'No' Itachi thought. He couldn't fail. He was Itachi Uchiha, failure was not an option. Even as he thought it though, he swayed heavily, barely able to stand from the fatigue of using all three mangekyou abilities in such a short time.

A flash of yellow flew past him. Naruto. His adopted brother charged the final ninja all out, reaching back to throw a haymaker at the final enemy.

Itachi hit the ground. Strange, he thought, I could have sworn I was still standing. Even as his brain came up with these delirious thoughts, his body, his precious eyes, saw how quickly the final ninja reacted. Saw the tensing in his muscles as he crouched, picking up his teammates blade that had fallen at his feet. He saw the outcome ahead of time. The ninja was too fast. Even as he heard Sasuke screaming his name, all he could think about was Naruto. He reached out for the blond, willing him to stop. But he didn't. Itachi watched for what felt like hours, as Naruto moved in slow motion. As did the enemy, but not slow enough.

He watched as the blade pierced through flesh, quicker than the lightning jutsu earlier. Watched as Naruto twitched, and then went limp on the sword. Watched the Root ninja lift his boot, using it to roughly kick Naruto off of it. His world went black when he watched his brother die, and then he watched no more. He was Itachi Uchiha, and he had failed.

A/N: Short and intense chapter. As you can see, I've decided this is going to be an Itachi centered fic. I'll answer questions about things either at the end of the next chapter, or at the beginning of the chapter after that. There's also probably a lot of typos and stuff because I get my computer back tomorrow, but I'm way too excited to see how this chapter is received to wait.

I might switch to first person after this, we'll see how that goes, if I don't like it i'll rewrite it normal.