Disclaimer and Important Note are the same as in the first two chapters of this fanfic. Also, from this point on the writing style will change a bit, largely dropping the earlier Omniscient Narrator POV and getting to the characters themselves. Huzzah for getting most of the Necessary Plot Set Up ™ and Establishing AU Background ™ out of the way.

-

The Phantom of Konoha

Chapter Two: Battle on the Bridge

-

Uzumaki Naruto simply stared in shock at the two men who had confronted him and his teammates. How do they know about the stupid fox? he wondered. Naruto had rarely ever been this surprised or uneasy. He could feel the men's chakra—the short one at least was definitely stronger than Kakashi, and the other one was probably about the same level as their teacher.

Suddenly the tall one yanked his weapon off his back and pointed it at Naruto and his friends. "I can kill the other two, right?"

The short one didn't even hesitate. "Yes."

Sakura let out a little gasp that Naruto could hear quite clearly even though she was behind him. Gagami's breathing became quicker and more ragged, while Naruto nearly stopped breathing altogether. It was one thing for an opponent to yell at you to die during battle and another altogether to have someone much stronger than you say he was going to kill your teammates.

The one with the bandaged-wrapped sword—what else could it be?—caught onto the team's obvious fear. He laughed, an amused sound woven through with menace. "Too bad they won't offer much of a fight." A sudden motion and then the man's hat was off his head and they could see his face.

The only uglier person Naruto had ever seen was Gaara of the Sand when he was part way into his demon form. This missing-nin—he had to be, he was wearing the hitai-ate of the Hidden Village of Mist with a scratch through it—had blue skin and markings akin to gills on his face. His teeth were pointed unnaturally, almost like he had them filed. He's like a shark, except he can breathe on land, Naruto thought.

The removal of his hat acted as a signal for Naruto and his teammates. Sakura and Naruto both drew out kunai, while Gagami picked up the paper hawk he had finished earlier. The three genin were in a basic defensive triangle, with Naruto closest to the enemy and Gagami and Sakura behind him.

The blue-skinned shinobi laughed again. "We'll see how long you last against Samehada!" He charged up the bridge and toward Naruto.

Who cared how strong they were? They were threatening Naruto and his teammates. "Kage bushin no jutsu!"

Suddenly there were five Narutos, all armed with kunai. The blonde ninja always preferred the advantage of numbers when it came to a fight. With a roar, the shadow clones charged the sword-wielding shinobi.

Five kunai arced toward the blue ninja. With barely a pause, the man dodged two and swatted away the remaining three with his gigantic weapon. He has to be really strong to move it that fast, Naruto thought as he and his clones drew out more weapons. The one who had said his name was Uchiha still stood motionless, watching the fight from his place on the riverbank.

The enemy was on the bridge now, but Naruto and his clones had surrounded him. The real Naruto had ended up standing atop one of the railings. From his position he could see that Sakura, in a protective stance, had placed herself between the fight and Gagami.

Gagami's hands moved, creating a flurry of seals. He had the little origami figure between his teeth. When he hit the finishing seal—the Dragon—he spit out the figure, shouting, "Kami no seishin no jutsu!"

Naruto wasn't about to sit there and let Gagami take all of the Mist-nin's attention. He and his clones charged again, kunai in hands, pulling the enemy's attention away from Gagami and back to the immediate threat. Over the yell of his clones, Naruto heard the screech of a hawk.

Shark-guy swung his weapon, and there was a puff of smoke. Clone number one down. The blue shinobi used the momentum of the swing to take out another clone.

A brown hawk flew up into the sky, something clutched in its talons. What's Gagami doing? Why just one? Naruto knew that the dark-haired ninja always had more than just one origami figure on his person.

Two more puffs of smoke. Only Naruto remained now, facing the blue ninja.

Before the hawk could get more than a few meters above their heads, the short enemy moved. A kunai was suddenly flying through the air, and it hit the hawk's breast. Gagami's Paper's Soul technique crumbled. What was once a hawk was now two falling pieces of paper: a white one with a hole in it and white one with a red border and black writing.

Gagami smiled, and the second paper exploded, creating a discharge of light, smoke, and sound.

Naruto ducked instinctively. That jerk. The smoke had enveloped that section of the bridge entirely so that he couldn't see where the blue shinobi had gone.

The smoke began to clear, and Naruto could see that his enemy had jumped out of the smoke and back toward his comrade, weapon at the ready.

There were two thuds as Sakura and Gagami landed at Naruto's side. "You could have warned me," Naruto said, glaring at his teammates.

"Sorry, Naruto," Gagami said in a voice significantly louder than normal, watching the two enemies. "But I figured we needed help." The dark haired boy now pulled a kunai from the holster on his left leg so that everyone on their team now had a weapon out.

Naruto frowned. He wasn't deaf from the explosion or anything, so why was Gagami talking like that? It didn't make any sense. A second more and Naruto realized that what Gagami was saying wasn't just for his teammates—it was also for Shark-guy and the Uchiha.

The pair of enemies had obviously caught onto that train of thought before Naruto did. Shark-guy scowled at the three genin on the bridge. He took a step forward. Team Seven tensed, waiting for the charge, but before the enemy could move, the shorter one held out a hand to stop him. "You'll get hurt unnecessarily if you fight him," Uchiha said.

Naruto blinked in confusion. Surely he didn't mean Gagami, did he? Gagami might have been one of the better rookies—Naruto would never admit that aloud though—but there was no way he was up to their level. In the next second his question was answered.

"Sorry I'm late," a familiar, carefree voice said from above and behind Naruto. "I'm afraid I was talking to one of the Sannin and lost track of time." Crouching on one of the tresses above the bridge was Team Seven's jounin leader, Hatake Kakashi.

For once, Kakashi noted absently, they didn't call me a liar. He spared the briefest glance for his students. They all appeared to be intact, kunai out, lined up on the bridge facing the two men. Those men were the ones who got the most of the jounin's attention.

One Kakashi recognized after a brief moment of thought. "You're Hoshigaki Kisame, S-rank criminal, missing-nin from the Hidden Mist. One of the Mist's Seven Legendary Swordsmen." Still on his perch, Kakashi carefully shifted his hitai-ate to reveal his left eye—Obito's eye. He would definitely need every advantage he could get against this one.

Kisame grinned behind his partner's outstretched arm. "Copy Ninja Kakashi. I heard that you took out that kid, Zabuza."

Kakashi noted the twitch that ran through his team. He could almost imagine their thought processes—if this guy was calling Zabuza a kid . . . Kakashi took that moment to leap down, landing lightly between his team and the enemy shinobi. "What are two Mist missing-nin doing here?" He tried to remember if any of the Seven had had ties to Konoha of some sort, but he couldn't think of anything.

Kisame's wide, shark-like grin grew larger. Kakashi involuntarily remembered something Sensei had said back when Kakashi was a chuunin: If your enemy is smiling, and you can't tell why immediately, you're screwed. Sensei had been in a rather sarcastic mood after that botched mission.

Kisame's partner moved then, pulling the hat off of his head so Kakashi could see his face. "I'm not from Mist, Kakashi-san."

Kakashi stared at the familiar crease-lined face, the dark hair, and the unmistakable eyes. Definitely screwed. "Uchiha Itachi."

"Hey!" Naruto was trying to get his teacher's attention. "You know this guy, Kakashi-sensei?"

"He's supposed to be dead." Kakashi remembered the rumors about Itachi back when he was—when they both were—part of ANBU. Hasn't anyone else noticed the explosion? He hadn't ever worked directly with Itachi, but he had heard a lot of things that he would have thought to be nothing more than exaggeration except they had come from one of his former teammates, Taro.

"What?"

Kakashi kept his eyes on Itachi, noting every feature, every detail of the younger man. Man? If he remembered right, Itachi shouldn't be more than eighteen at the most. "Five years ago, everyone in the Uchiha Clan, except his younger brother, was killed." Had Itachi worn purple nail polish when he had been in ANBU? "The bodies of the other head family members were completely destroyed in a fire."

Kisame started to laugh. "So they don't even know that you killed them all?" he asked, incredulous, turning to Itachi. "You never said you set a fire."

Itachi still had the Konoha hitai-ate tied around his forehead, a deep scratch through the leaf symbol. This definitely answers some of our questions about that night, Kakashi thought. And it raises several dozen more.

"I didn't," was the steady reply. "But we're running out of time." Four shuriken were suddenly in Itachi's outstretched hand. "Kisame."

Kakashi swore even as his hands flashed through a sequence of seals. A wall of water shot upwards from the river below, protectively enveloping the four ninja on the bridge. As it was, the wall was barely in time to block four different jets of water from bowling into the team.

He really is fast, Kakashi thought. Itachi had used the shuriken as a distraction, no doubt thinking that Kakashi would have tried to dodge the projectiles and trusting his students to dodge as well. He would have gotten me with that technique if I hadn't tried to defend my team.

Before Kakashi could even release the technique completely, he sensed one of the missing-nin above. He jerked his head upward just in time to see Itachi, kunai in hand, and falling straight toward him. Kakashi barely had time to block the descending blade. The clang of weapon on weapon was drowned out by the sound of the released water falling back into the river.

With Kakashi's right hand occupied with fending off the pressure from Itachi's kunai, Kisame took the opportunity to leap over the pair and head straight for the three genin. Kakashi opened his mouth to shout, and in that moment found Itachi's left fist heading straight for his temple. Kakashi brought his own left hand to counter the blow and managed to grab Itachi's wrist millimeters before the man's fist made contact.

Itachi twisted, and suddenly his own hand was wrapped around Kakashi's wrist. Then the man pulled, and Kakashi suddenly found himself being yanked around at an almost inconceivable speed. Unbelievably screwed.

It was mere luck that Kakashi hit the railing shoulder first. As it was, Kakashi's collar bone shattered instead of his skull. With a sickening crash, Kakashi broke through the railing and plunged into the water.

Shark-guy was after him again. Why do they want me? Naruto began the seals for his favorite technique as the shinobi leapt over Kakashi and Uchiha and landed between Naruto and the other fight.

Shark-guy, however, had different ideas. He swung his blade, and the three genin leapt backwards to avoid getting sliced in half. But something was wrong—the chakra Naruto had been molding disappeared. What happened? he thought frantically.

Gagami took out an explosion note while they dodged, making it glow as he poured some of his chakra into it. With a sudden movement, he flung the note at Shark-guy, who had raised his bandage-wrapped sword for another gigantic swing. The note attached itself to the enemy shinobi's cloak.

Four things happened in rapid succession.

Shark-guy threw his sword at Naruto and his teammates, who leaped far out of the way to avoid getting hit by the gigantic weapon. The sword plowed itself into the bridge planks where they had been standing.

As the explosion note began to burn, Shark-guy ripped off his black and red cloak and hurled it at Gagami. Unable to change his direction mid-jump, Gagami ended up tangled in the garment and completely missed his landing, crashing into the hard planks of the bridge.

Kakashi smashed into the railing, breaking through the wood and landing with a gigantic splash in the water below.

Gagami struggled to get to his feet and get rid of the cloak at the same time. He was only partially successful at both. The explosion note erupted, sending a gigantic plume of smoke into the air.

"Gagami!" Sakura yelled.

Naruto swore violently. He couldn't tell what had happened to either his teacher or his teammate. He reached for his chakra again, but instead of the normal blue energy, he reached for a touch of the red, the special chakra that Ero-sennin had taught him to use. They won't get away—

A loud noise behind him stopped his thoughts. He whipped around, only to see a large cloud of smoke drift away to reveal—

"Ero-sennin!" Naruto gaped at the old man. There was a frog next to him, a tall, stout one that had a katana strapped to its back.

For once the man's voice was serious. "Stay back, Naruto." His voice said he wouldn't take any cheek from Naruto, not this time. "I'll take care of them."

Shark-guy grabbed the hilt of his sword, which was still embedded in the bridge. He pulled on it, and as he did so chunks of the bridge came up with it, tearing the bandages off in the process. Naruto stared. It was the strangest sword he had ever seen; instead of a cleaver like Zabuza had had, this blade seemed to be covered in teeth.

"Kisame." The tone was just as even and emotionless as ever. Shark-guy apparently could hear what Naruto couldn't, because the man jumped back to his partner's side. "Jiraiya-sama, it's time for us to go."

"Not if I can help it." Jiraiya's hands formed a series of rapid seals.

The other two were just as quick at forming seals. Before Jiraiya could finish the sequence, the two missing-nin disappeared in two identical puffs of smoke.

Author's Notes—

Sorry it took so long to get this up. Hopefully, you think it was worth the wait. It's been a long time since I've had to write a battle scene, and it's the first time I ever had to write a ninja battle scene. I hope you could follow it all right . . .

Much love, praise, and appreciation must be bestowed upon my wonderful beta, Kilerkki. (I highly suggest you check out her new Naruto story at this site called Wolf Mask, which features a rather interesting romantic pairing.) Thanks, of course, must also be extended to you wonderful reviewers. Your comments always mean a lot to me.

Speaking of comments (and criticism), they are welcome and wanted. Let me know if you find anything lacking or confusing in this story at all. Questions are also welcome.

-Phoenix