"Speech"

'Thought'

A/N: I'm sorry for such a late update guys, things came up that I never thought would happen! Now I am finally FREE from college for the SUMMER, maybe. But I will have much more time to write, read, and relax. Thank you to all those that have enjoyed this fic and not given up on me. This is a short butnext part should be up in a few days, I PROMISE! Any comments, criticism, and review is welcomed. Thank you and enjoy.

Naruto X

Chapter 17: The One I care for most, Part 4

By Suiiren

All was quiet as Yuri stood there and gazed upon Itachi angrily. 'Itachi, he's gotten stronger, immensely stronger, maybe he's even stronger than father right now.' thought Yuri as she saw the flaring black flames that surrounded Itachi as if he were a spiraling black wild fire. 'He's too strong, maybe even more than I but I can not be worrying about that now, I have to end this quickly, he is at his weakest when he has finished using his Mangekyou; besides Kisame is the one I should really be worrying about.' As soon as she had finished with that last thought in mind she began executing hand seals.

"Getting a bit too hasty aren't we?" smirked Itachi as the black flames flickered about him, he in turn started executing his own hand seals. "I think this is a good time to use that original technique I just took from Kakashi."

"Hmph, it doesn't matter what you use. I don't really have time to chit chat anymore Itachi. So I guess both of us are going to finish this with just one move." said Yuri as she finished the last of her seals as a ball of spiraling blue chakra began to form in her right palm. "The Fourth himself perfected this unique technique, not even you can copy it with your Sharingan."

"Rasengan." muttered Itachi mootly.

But just seconds later a crackling could be heard as Itachi completed his own seals causing a large crackling to be heard. There in his left hand formed a perfectly red and black Chidori, red and black lightning flashes whipped out in every direction as Itachi stood there for a moment gazing at the sight in which he beheld.

"Chi-Chidori!" stuttered Yuri in surprise as she looked at the darker version of Chidori. It was stronger than Kakashi's by a large amount. 'He mastered Chidori completely in a matter of minutes and his is even emanating an even stronger energy level than Kakashi's Chidori.'

"Teh, are you surprised, Yuri-san?" taunted Itachi as he leapt towards Yuri with a wide smirk on his face.

"Itachi, you'll pay for what you did to Uzumi-san!" screamed an infuriated Yuri as she also leapt towards Itachi. "No matter what, I'm going to make you pay!"

As the two met in mid-air a huge explosion could have been heard around Konoha as several of the nearby buildings were demolished from the force of the two attacks. But as the dust began to clear the two of them could have been seen as they stood about a few feet from each other with their backs facing the other.

"Impressive, Yuri-chan, but it was all in vain." said Itachi slowly as he fell down to his knees.

"What do you mean?" asked Yuri a bit more gently now as she turned around and looked at the dying Itachi. Whatever or whoever it was, she didn't enjoy killing, even if they were her enemies. Now she looked at the dying Uchiha, she became more solemn as she stood there feeling a slight breeze rush past her. "Itachi, why did you have to . . . If only things were a bit different, we might have ended up differently. What did power provide you that I could not?"

"Hm," smirked Itachi as he closed his eyes. "Pity for the dead is not becoming of you Yuri-san. I did what I had to and made the decisions I wanted all on my own. You should accept that and move on with your life. Stop living in the past, no matter how much you want to, what we had back then could never become reality again. No matter how wonderful the past was it will never come back, the past is the past." said Itachi in finality as fell back only to be caught by Yuri.

"You were the one person that I cared for most, I would have done anything for you, even betray Konoha. But yet you still-"

"Someday the dream must end, Yuri-san." said Itachi as he slowly lifted his right hand and brushed aside some of Yuri's hair that was blocking her face only to see a few tears drop onto his face. "The next time we meet, one of us will really have to die."

"What do you mean?" asked Yuri as she started to see Itachi start to disappear into nothingness and everything started to come back.

"Genjutsu," muttered Yuri haplessly as the buildings that were destroyed started to come back along with everything else that she thought had been destroyed in her short fight with Itachi. Itachi was gone and so were all her chakra; the only things that didn't disappear were her tears which kept on streaming and what Itachi had said to her just before the illusion ended. That the next time they met, one of them would have to die.

Not far off, Konoha back alley:

Itachi stumbled around dizzily as he tried to get some footing. The Genjutsu he had used on Yuri combined with the stresses of using Mangekyou had tired him out a lot and drained most of his chakra. He was physically and mentally tired at the moment and needed a momentary rest while he got out his bag of specially modified Soldier Pills and consumed as he sat in the back alley for a bit, hiding from any possible Konoha ninja wandering about due to the current situation. "It might take a while but Kisame can manage on his own for a while if he doesn't go berserk. I have to wait until these chakra replenishing pills take affect on me, I won't be able to use Mangekyou for a while . . . maybe once more but that's the limit.' thought Itachi to himself as he thought back on how he had narrowly escaped an unwanted and potentially fatal confrontation with Yuri. He was able to escape due to his Akatsuki cloak which he had inlaid with special seals that would cause those that gaze upon it to come under his Genjutsu illusion but the drawback was that it consumed almost as much chakra as Mangekyou and could only be used once. It drained almost all of his leftover chakra but gave him enough time to limp away to safety.

It was his one time last desperate trump card in which he only used when he was only in a very bad situation like the one he had with Yuri. 'She's grown strong, stronger than her mother when she was around that age, she is catching up. Someday I will have to test her resolve and that day, one of us will not live.' thought Itachi as he felt his lost chakra and stamina coming back to him as he walked towards the Hokage Tower.

A/N: Well, what do you think? LoL, did you think that I would really kill off Itachi? Next, is the showdown between Hiko and Kisame and then some, too! Any review, criticism, or general comment is welcome.