Chapter 25 Teamwork
The most important thing is teamwork. That is a line that is repeated over and over and over to the young academy students. And yet... sometimes I wonder. I would have preferred to die instead of Obito. I wish he wasn't there. Of course I know this kind of thinking is not only useless but dangerous. And yet... sometimes I wonder...
Kakashi
The battle was still being fought. Itachi was killing off the Naruto clones with insulting easiness. Sasuke, thanks to the fact that the Naruto clones were all transformed into identical Sasukes, missing right arm included, was watching the fight always from behind. Sasuke hated to admit it, but Itachi was just too good. Even while killing all the clones at superior speed he never showed any openings. The wound on Itachi had been just a scratch.
Finally, he got a basic understanding in the pattern in Itachi's movements, a pattern almost impossible to notice without the Sharingan. Sasuke waited, running around, using the clones as shield and cover, and finally at the right moment, he attacked.
He ran straight away toward Itachi's back. He only had one chance, his first chance in the whole fight. Yet at the last moment his battle senses, the ones that had saved him through his shinobi life, yelled at him.
He jumped backwards, just before Itachi's kunai, moving at unnatural speed, grazed his face, right near his only eye left. Sasuke was sheltered by the next batch of shadow clones and he was able to back away with only a new scar, not even very deep compared with the others, hiding from Itachi's endless power. He needed a little more time to stop the cold sweat.
There was no way that Itachi, or anybody, could fake a movement pattern in the middle of a battle. Still, when Itachi had added another scar to his collection, they had exchanged glances. He had seen Itachi's scornful look. That was impossible... still Itachi had done it.
He was having a real bad feeling about this fight.
Sakura was having a real bad feeling about this fight.
Sakura glanced at Kisame. The other Akatsuki shinobi seemed to be also concentrated on the fight. That was good. She had to get ready. Itachi was too fast, he was avoiding and eliminating the shadow clones too easily. However even the most powerful shinobi in Leaf's history was human.
Sooner or later he would leave an opening, and she would strike. At least she hoped so.
She looked again at Kisame, but he had disappeared.
«Uh? » she thought. She then felt Kisame's chakra behind her. She turned around. Kisame was behind her, waving his huge sword towards her. She jumped high to avoid the attack, but it was too late and she was far too slow. She managed to not get cut in two, but her right leg was not fast enough.
She screamed in pain, as she fell down with only one leg.
Both Sasuke and Naruto turned around when they heard the scream. Forgetting Itachi, the both of them ran to her, leaving behind half the clones that kept on the attack. The other half attacked Kisame that quickly had to retreat against the superiority in numbers of the clones.
"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!" cried Naruto.
Blood was pouring from the huge wound. Sakura screamed in pain. Sasuke too wanted to scream in horror, but his trained body was acting on his own. First knocking her unconscious with a precise hit, and then quickly applying a tourniquet using his shirt as makeshift bandage.
Sasuke took a long look at her. Then he closed her eyes and turned around. His face was a mask.
"Naruto. She is hurt. She needs medical treatment. Take her to the hospital in the near city. I'll protect your retreat. Hurry up!" ordered Sasuke carefully and accurately.
Naruto almost obeyed him. Then he took a good look at Sasuke. His right hand and part of the arm were gone, his face also partly gone, and there were multiples bruises along Sasuke's body. Naruto smiled, and his eyes went to Sakura. Her beautiful face was pale as a corpse and covered by sweat. He thought she was more beautiful than ever. He leaned down and kissed Sakura softly in the forehead. Then he got up and moved between the two Akatsuki members and his two team-mates.
"No. Sasuke, you go." Naruto said.
"What? We have no time for dis..." started Sasuke.
"Sasuke, you are faster than me." Said Naruto calmly "And you are hurt. You go. I'll protect you."
"This is an order! Naruto, take her and go! NOW!"
"Above all our differences we have always agreed on one thing even since Team 7 was created. We always put Sakura as more important than our own lives." said Naruto throwing Sasuke's words back at him. "The more time we discuss, the more blood she losses.
"Naruto..." started Sasuke. His cold expression was cracking.
"This is the logical thing to do, as you like to say Sasuke-bastard. So, take her to the hospital and move your ass back here. OK?"
There was a pause. Naruto waited. Usually, it was Sasuke that was in control of the feelings in the middle of a tense situation. In normal circumstances, Sasuke would wait till he were to break up and had to carry Sakura.
"Damn it, you idiot! I'll be back in a second. If you die I'll resurrect you so I can kill you personally. Is that clear?" said Sasuke. Naruto smiled. Probably even Sasuke didn't know how much he loved her.
"I have a few tricks. Don't worry. I never give up. That's my ninja way." Naruto said. Then he looked at Sakura "I always thought..." his voice caught in his throat for a second "I always thought I had a chance, even after so long, you know? You never really seemed the type to... I don't know. She really managed to break the ice around your heart."
"Don't start saying goodbyes yet, you idiot. I'll be back. I swear. I have tried very hard not to make friends with anyone." Sasuke drew in a long shuddering breath. "But somehow you slipped by all my defenses. It would be too annoying to find another friend, so don't die on me."
"Foolish brother, where are you going?" interrupted Itachi with a neutral expression.
Sasuke stopped for a few seconds. He felt his nails biting in his palms.
"Itachi" he said, not looking at him. If he looked at Itachi's hateful eyes, he was afraid he was going to stay and damn everybody to hell. "I'll be back. I swear. Don't run away again."
"Don't go back. You are too hurt. First heal yourself. I'll ..." Started Naruto.
"Naruto. Don't play hero with me! I'll be back." Long Pause. Sasuke, the one that hated to show feelings, which he considered weaknesses, showed an expression of fear "Please, don't die!"
Naruto smiled. Sasuke and Naruto locked hands with each other, and then Sasuke left carrying Sakura. Naruto watched the two of them left. He hoped they could be happy if he didn't make it
"Are you ready?" said Itachi curtly after both Sakura and Sasuke left.
Kisame smiled. Finally the nine-tails kid was alone. They would take him to Akatsuki. Their plans were finally coming together.
He turned to Itachi to say it to him... but the words couldn't get out. Itachi's face instead of the usual disinterested expression was full of extreme displeasure. He had seen him like that only two times. He still had nightmares when he thought of those two times.
Then Itachi looked at Kisame
"I didn't give you permission to enter the fight" came the icy voice of Itachi. Kisame had to stop himself from kneeling in the ground and ask for forgiveness.
"The nine-tails... Akatsuki... We have..." tried to explain Kisame.
"For this moment on, you will refrain yourself from meddling in this fight." Came again the chilly voice of Itachi. "Thank you."
Itachi returned his attention to Naruto's chakra, which was increasing exponentially every second.
"Itachi. Because of you Sasuke is suffering. I won't let you hurt my best friend!"
"Best friend of Sasuke? That's interesting."
Naruto bit his finger and started making some seals with the blood. Itachi read the jutsu and started making seals of his own. Naruto finished his seals, and a huge toad appeared. However, before the monster could do anything Itachi finished his seals and the toad disappeared.
"W-What?" asked Naruto. The use of that jutsu had exhausted him.
"Monster summoning! It was a really effective technique during the time of the Three Sennins. During the reign of the Fourth effective counter-jutsus were developed and the use of summoning was mostly forgotten due to the excessive use of chakra. I didn't know monster summoning was still being used. I guess one of the Three is teaching you." commented Itachi matter-of-fact.
Naruto started creating again shadow clones. He had to find a way to defeat him.
He was real having a bad feeling about this fight.
Sasuke watched between gasps as the stretcher carried Sakura away. Another doctor was saying something and pointing at his arm but he wasn't paying attention. As soon as he got his breath back he had to run to Naruto again. Naruto wouldn't die. He was carrying the Kyubi, after all. He would go to hell just to kick Naruto if the idiot died.
He started walking as people looked and some even shrieked when he passed. Sasuke however didn't stop till he passed in front of the rest room of the hospital. He took some steps backwards and looked at the rest room again.
There was a horribly disfigured person looking at him. Sasuke moved his hand and the stranger also moved the hand. Yep, the guy covered in blood in the mirror was him. He was sure he wasn't going to attract many girls from that day on. He glanced at his right "arm". It was kind of interesting. He gave orders to the arm, and his brain still acted as if he was able to move the arm. However his eyes showed that nothing was there.
However, as long as he was able to kill Itachi, he didn't mind. Well, Itachi AND Kisame. He was going to rip that shark bastard in pieces.
Enough rest. Had to run.
The real Naruto felt like collapsing as ten of his last shadow clones were effortlessly cut down by Itachi. He couldn't believe it. Was that guy human? He had the Kyubi power and still he was so tired that each movement was nightmarish. However Itachi didn't even look fazed.
He thought about something, anything, to give himself time to recover, and he could only think about one thing.
"Why? Why are you torturing Sasuke so much?" Then he instinctively said something that he didn't know it, but after he had said it he was totally positive about it. "He still loves you!"
"I know." Itachi said simply "His hate is not enough yet"
Naruto stood still. How could anybody answer to that? Then he said something else. Yes, it was funny the way instincts worked.
"I think you still love your brother" he accused.
"How could I not love my cute little brother?" Itachi asked with a smile. Naruto didn't know smiles could be so unsettling till that moment.
"Why? Why are you doing this?" Naruto asked.
"You are asking it from the wrong point of view." explained Itachi. "You are asking the question as if I were a human being. However I am not a human being anymore. I am a shinobi."
"I... I don't understand."
"Children being trained since they are seven or even less to become living weapons of war. Endless training where the ultimate objective is to eliminate your opponent and become a good village dog. Are you sure you still qualify as human being? Shinobis are just tools to use and discard for the village. That's the way of the shinobi."
"N... No. No! I don't like that shinobi way!"
"Is that so?" Asked Itachi with a sinister smile "According to the information about you, your so called "dream" is to become the leader of the Leaf's village. Well, actually, I can guess that you care little for being a Hokage. The only thing you care about is acknowledgement from your peers. When you were a child you considered the Third the one person the villagers had more respect and that's the reason you decided to become Hokage. If the one person that people looked up the most was the leader of the bloodthirsty ANBU, your only objective would be to become the leader of the ANBU."
"You... You know nothing about me!" Yelled Naruto "It's not that way anymore!"
"Can you become a true Hokage? Can you sacrifice lives as bait for the mission to succeed?; can you send troops to a suicide battle just because retreating is bad for the village's reputation?; can you execute young boys gone missing-nins... can you do all that?"
Naruto, the real Naruto, looked around, while the shadow clones protected him. Itachi smiled. He had confirmed the location of the real Kyubi kid among all the fakes. Messing up with people's heads was amusing. Pity his foolish brother had to show up.
"Naruto!" yelled Sasuke losing all the breath he had left. After almost two straight hours of running back and forth, he was finally back. Fortunately the idiot was still alive.
"Sasuke" said Naruto with a relieved voice turning around.
Behind him, Itachi raised his katana, with a dangerous expression in his eyes. Sasuke blinked and then he understood the real reason Naruto was still alive. Itachi wanted him to see it.
"LOOK OUT!" Sasuke yelled, gathering the last of his strength and running towards Naruto.
Naruto started to turn around, while Itachi ran straight to him, moving his katana in a wide arc. Sasuke ran, willing to stop the blade that intended to slice through his teammate with his own body. But no matter how fast he ran, the blade slithered through the air faster still, the edge coming closer and closer to Naruto for the killing slash.
The Sharingan was one the most powerful bloodlines ever, but it had many drawbacks. One of the most important downsides was that sometimes people didn't want to watch perfectly and clearly everything that happened in front of the eyes.
Naruto finished turning around, but he wasn't fast enough. The other shadow clones were also too slow. Sasuke saw clearly the blade passing through Naruto's neck, saw his head flying and saw the body falling headless. True, Sasuke sometimes hated the Sharingan.
Sasuke's recollection became blurry for a few seconds. He found himself holding Naruto's body and wondering what was going on. Where had the idiot put his head? No wonder he was always the worst in his class. He was always thinking about other things.
"Was he your best friend?" asked a voice in front of him. Sasuke raised his eyes. Itachi was looking at him with a blank expression "You should have killed him yourself and regret it later. Love is fleeting, but Death is eternal.
Sasuke's fire raged as never before. He screamed and lunged toward Itachi. His opponent's reflex was so fast he could barely see it. Itachi blocked the punch and Sasuke felt like striking cement. Itachi didn't even flinch. Then Itachi's wrist just seemed to flick out and then Sasuke chest felt like it was burning. Sasuke fell more than ten meters away. His shoulders complained for the rough treatment.
He got up and saw next to him Naruto's head. His lifeless eyes were staring at him. He would bet his life that Itachi's had punched him with just the right strength to shove him near it.
"Why?" Sasuke whispered. He looked at Itachi, his brother. He was suddenly too tired. The exhaustion for all the fighting and running was catching up to him
"Who knows?" said Itachi with a neutral expression. "You can think it's a warning and that I want you to be strong because I felt terribly in pain and I want you to kill me, or you can just think I am a sick bloodthirsty monster that enjoys torturing you. Make your choice. Doesn't matter to me."
Sasuke felt his hate greater than ever. He was going to kill that fiend or die trying. His own suffering was splashing to other people, and that was something he had always tried to prevent.
"I used to love you. Then my love turned to hate. I used the hate to survive. I'll make you regret you were born." said Sasuke.
Itachi wasn't paying attention. He was concentrating on his own hand. The Fourth had died before he could see the Rasengan. That was the first time he had the chance of witnessing it. It was an interesting technique to learn. Itachi started gathering chakra in his hand. Then the gathered chakra started to spin.
Sasuke was yelling and running at Itachi with a kunai in his hand. He wasn't concentrating on defense anymore. He only wanted to kill, to strike in any vital point.
Itachi contemplated the rasengan in his hand and then he easily avoided Sasuke's strike. Then he moved like a snake closer to his brother
Sasuke saw it clearly again. Thanks to his Sharingan eyes he saw everything. He saw Itachi avoiding his best attack without any difficulty. He saw Itachi getting then closer to him, his bodies almost touching. He felt a tremendously powerful chakra attack in his chest. He felt his bones and flesh being pulverized. He fell.
He thought that he hated the Sharingan. Then he thought about a loud-mouth blond in an orange suit with a heart full of ambitions and then he thought on a certain pink-haired girl, the most annoying person ever. He had failed them.
His body impacted against the ground, the guts fell less than a second later.
Kisame looked at the two Leaf shinobis in front of him. Wrong. He was looking at the two dead Leaf shinobis in front of him, including the nine-tails. Itachi was crazy. He had killed the Naruto kid. SHIT! The Kyubi was dead. The other members of Akatsuki were going to kill them. He wanted to insult Itachi. He wanted to strangle him. He wanted to warn him about the consequences of angering the higher echelons of Akatsuki, but he didn't dare.
"It's sad. I didn't intend to kill the nine-tails, but he died protecting his friend Sasuke." Itachi said and looked at Kisame "Is that clear?"
"Yes!" said Kisame too fast. The threat wasn't even disguised.
"We are leaving" said Itachi turning around.
Kisame started to follow Itachi when he noticed that the body of the brother of Itachi was still very faintly moving. Well, he was moribund anyway. The blood was leaving the body and the injuries were mortal. The kid was dead. His body didn't know it yet.
"Itachi. Your brother is still alive." He waved his huge sword "Can I finish him off?"
"Kisame, you can do whatever you want" Itachi answered.
Kisame smiled. Itachi was a cool guy, when he wasn't slaughtering people and stuff. He walked till the body of the Uchiha kid. He was moving the lips weakly. Was he saying a name? Well, it didn't matter.
Kisame raised his huge sword, and he let it fall on the kid. However the blade never hit the body. There was a strange chakra covering Sasuke's body like a halo and stopping the attack.
"What?" asked Kisame. Suddenly the chakra moved on his own and attacked.
Itachi looked with keen interest as Kisame's body was pounded numerous times by the chakra. The huge frame of Kisame was thrown away as if it were a piece of paper.
"Itachi!" Kisame pleaded.
Itachi walked till the body of Sasuke, making sure he wasn't doing any movements that could be interpreted as hazardous. He looked as the long, bloody cuts were being regenerated; not even leaving scars or scabs.
"Itachi!" Repeated Kisame "I broke some ribs! Help me! What's going on?"
"Interesting. The chakra protecting Sasuke seems to be some residual energy left by the Kyubi kid." said Itachi "It's said that the strongest demon, the ten tails, was killed by the person that first developed the ninjutsu, that is, the first shinobi. However that first shinobi was killed by the demon, the legend says, after the demon had been killed. Apparently after a demon dies, there is some residual energy that wants to prolong the strong desire the demon had just before he died. In Naruto's case, since he died wanting to protect his friend, the residual chakra is protecting and healing him."
Kisame slowly got up. Sasuke also got up. He glanced at his right arm. It was also regenerating.
"What do you mean? He is going to be protected by that chakra shield forever?" asked Kisame with a scared expression. The young Uchiha had the same chakra as the beginning of the fight. No, it was increasing. His intent to kill seemed even stronger, if that a thing was possible.
"No. As I said, it's just some residual energy. In a few hours it will be gone."
"Time enough for me to kill you, monster" Sasuke said, holding a kunai and walking slowly towards Itachi. He was still dizzy. As he walked, he was still regenerating. He finally got his right eye back. Both his eyes could see to Itachi with all his hate.
"I am no monster, foolish brother. I am just a shinobi." said Itachi closing his eyes. When he opened, Itachi was using the Mangekyou Sharingan. "And I'm tired of losing my time."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Yelled Sasuke. He had been caught with his guard down. Now it was too late. The chakra shield protected Sasuke against physical attacks, not against genjutsu. For the equivalent time of forty-eight hours, he saw the death of Naruto over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over...
Sasuke fell down comatose.
Itachi looked at Sasuke cataleptic body with a disinterested expression while Kisame ever so slowly walked toward Itachi. Then his eyes turned to Sakura's lost leg.
"Itachi! I'm hurt" Kisame groaned.
"The only city with a hospital big enough is the one we left some time ago. Probably Sasuke took the girl there." Itachi said and then he started walking in that direction.
"Where are you going?"
"I want Sasuke's lesson to be clear enough" His eyes turned toward Kisame, and Kisame shuddered "I am going to kill the girl Sasuke helped."
Then Itachi kept walking toward the city.
Well, here is another installment of the story. It is turning definitely darker. Did you like the chapter?