This chapter was hell. It took me from about twelve-thirty AM to three-thirty AM. I did some researching things and whatnot and tried to make sure this battle went perfectly.
As for that, well, I'm not terribly impressed with the battle at all. I don't think I did it right. See my notes at the end for a full author notes. But for the general description, I'll just say I made the battle seem way to simple in my opinion.

Chapter Nineteen

"Are you ready, Naruto?" asked Gaara.

"Yeah," replied Naruto plainly. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Kyuubi, it's time to get serious. Are you ready?

Do not be concerned with my well-being, Naruto. You have yourself to worry about.

How do you propose we go about this?

The Iris is absolutely necessary from now until the end. Don't worry. It doesn't consume any chakra at all. It's just a part of my anatomy, not a doujutsu or anything like the Sharingan, which is a chakra draining technique.

And you're sure it will protect me from his Sharingans?

Naruto, my dead boy, it will seem like he doesn't even have Sharingans, Mengekyou or no.

Good. Let's get down to business then.

"Acitvate! The Nine-Tails Iris!" said Naruto. For half a second, nothing happened as Itachi appraised him sardonically as though he'd lost his mind. A gentle breeze howled through the trees, adding to the awkward nothingness of the moment.

And then all hell broke loose.

Red chakra exploded in all directions around Naruto, chakra hotter than the hottest flames and brighter than the most intense star. With difficulty, Gaara, Itachi, and Sakura ducked and covered themselves as best as they could from the debris and heat swirling from the spot that was Naruto. They protected their eyes from being blinded, having to look away.

When the light had died out, there was still a light, subtle roaring sound, like the sound a great fire makes as the flames dance. They looked up to see Naruto, standing plainly and facing Itachi squarely, his arms at his side. He was looking down, as though he were merely sleeping on his feet.

"The chakra levels are unprecedented!" Itachi screamed inside his head. "No doubt, this is the work of the Kyuubi. Such power… Has the Kyuubi taken over!"

"Stronger than me?" asked Gaara to himself mockingly. "Am I an idiot! We're not even in the same ball park. Hell, I'm not even on his planet in terms of power. Just standing too close… It's killing me."

"Naruto," thought Sakura. "This is the power that will kill you?" Tears started to fall from Sakura's eyes as her vision blurred. She didn't want to watch. She crouched half behind a tree, turning her head.

"No, I must watch," she said. "I owe to him to watch him fight like this. I will watch him every moment of this fight." She returned her gaze to Naruto's location, where he still stood lazily, though breathing deeply.

Naruto looked up at Itachi. Itachi looked closely at the face of the blonde boy. His fange were bared, and his whiskers were of course much more prominent. And then he saw the boy's eyes.

Itachi hadn't been surprised much in his lifetime. This, actually, was probably the first time he'd experienced true shock and dismay. Naruto didn't have normal eyes. Itachi knew he was looking into the eyes of the demon inside him. Naruto's eyes had transformed to gold, round irises with black slits in the middle, completely dilated. Around the Irisies, what should've been the whites of his eyes were blood red. Naruto was growling.

"This is the power that will kill me, Itachi," said Naruto demonically. "Unfortunately for you, it will also be what kills the last of the Uchiha Clan. I'm sorry to mock you, but I have to say it. 'Prepare yourself. Today, Itachi, you die.'"

Itachi didn't doubt for a second that, if he wasn't extremely cautious and speculative, he very well might end up in trouble.

"Gaara, it's time that you bring out the Shukkaku," said Naruto. "There will be no holding back from this moment forward. It's time to get serious."

Gaara held his two fingers up in a prayer-like form in front of his face. Yellow chakra glowed around him as sand poured itself from the gourd and surrounded Gaara. "Naruto, this is the most optimum from my demon can take while I remain in control of it. Much like you, I won't change in physical appearance. However, I'm not sure how long I will remain myself… If I… try to turn on you, kill me."

Naruto smirked as he snorted, facing Itachi still. "I'll do that," he replied. Gaara's eyes turned to the same killer pupils he had when possessed by the Shukkaku. However, different from those years ago when he had attacked Konoha, Gaara was both Shukkaku and Gaara at the same time, like Naruto was with Kyuubi.

Instead of Shukkaku being in control of the power, Gaara had meditated for a long time to gain the calm and collected manor to remain in power. "It's time, Naruto."

"Good," growled the blonde. "Ready, Itachi?"

Itachi confidently took his battle stance under the great Akatsuki black cloak. His eyes flashed for a second, and the crimson red pupils with the bladed fan in them, the Mangokyou Sharingans, activated. Naruto smiled. Now was as good a time as ever to test his new ability.

"I remember fighting several members of your clan, back in my day long ago when I fought to destroy Konoha," said Naruto with a sick smile on my face. "Let me assure you now that I am just as adept at resisting your clan's techniques, such as your Katons, as I was back then. It would be foolish of you to attempt to use them against me now."

"I assume you are both the Kyuubi and Naruto now," said Itachi. He managed to smile, not betraying what he was truly feeling. "Unexpected, but still not enough to defeat me. Even if you are the Kyuubi, you're held back by the limitations of the human form."

"Am I now?" asked Naruto. Itachi's eyes widened horrifyingly. He blinked. Naruto was gone. He didn't even leave behind a residual image. There was no movement of the wind to betray his movements or speed. He was just gone, without a trace.

ABOVE!

Itachi looked up as Naruto swung his leg down in an axe-kick with speed he'd never seen. He hadn't even time to interpret his Sharingan's suggestions. He took the foot right to the face, and the blow knocked him straight backwards, until his back cracked on something hard.

The Shukkaku's sand tail had whacked him back towards Naruto, now standing solidly on the ground, ready for the flying Akatsuki agent. Itachi saw for a brief moment that Naruto was preparing a round house kick that would hit him on his left. He was in flight, so there was no chance of dodging. He'd have to block. He rose both arms to take the blow in place of his side, but Naruto saw the block coming, as Itachi had raised his guard before he'd even risen a leg to strike.

Naruto's retaliation was a round house kick to Itachi's right side. Itachi fell hard into a tree, shattering it into thousands of slivers and splinters. Itachi stood up and coughed up blood. His Sharingan hadn't worked! How was that possible?

"Did I misinterpret it, reading it wrong?" he thought to himself. "I must've underestimated him. There's no way he can overpower the Mangokyou Sharingans. I just let him get too close…" Itachi prepared a few hand seals.

"Kokuangyo no Jutsu!" he exclaimed, thrusting both his hands forward. Naruto felt a cold, dampness in the air as he seemed to be losing his sight. It started to grow darker and darker. This was the darkness technique, used to completely blind the enemy in pitch blackness with genjusu. Kyuubi's eyes flashed, and the darkness wasn't even allowed to grow any further. Naruto smiled.

"You no doubt are having trouble seeing, Naruto-kun," said Itachi. "This technique blinds the enemy completely to its surroundings-

"Shut up," growled Naruto, arming a kunai in his right hand. "I can see your pitiful form just fine, thank you very much." He dashed straight at Itachi, who retreated to a tree limb. The limb was cut into pieces by a large, slawed hand, owned by Gaara's transformed arm.

"How did you do that?" asked Itachi. "The Kokuangyo is not a Genjutsu that can just be released by the victim. Even the third fell victim to that against the pitiful Orochimaru. There's no way you could just see through that."

"You mistake me for a human, dear Itachi," said Naruto in his uncharacteristic growl. He glared over at Itachi, still standing on the ground after having recovered from his tree being reduced to nothing.

"Fine," said Itachi. He did a few hands seals again, as fast as lightning.

"Combing a few simple techniques to try and make them stronger!" yelled Naruto as Itachi finished.

"Katon: Karyuu Endan Kakuro!" Itachi held his fingers to his lips, where he spat a long column of black fire into a massive wall that quickly converged on Naruto and surrounded him. It rapidly closed in on him and exploded with massive destructive force that made even Itachi have to cover his eyes. (This is two techniques, the Karyuu Endan and Kakuro. Karyuu is a massive, red hot fire wall for making sure the opponent cannot escape. Kakuro is a fire technique that creates flames that are black and demonic, though they are much much hotter than any other of the fire techniques.)

Naruto stood completely protected under a blue barrier of bright chakra. He was smiling wickedly.

"He knew what I was doing before I even finished it," said Itachi, his face not moving at all to betray his surprise. "He doesn't have Sharingans though."

"I told you," said Naruto darkly. "I fought members of your clan long ago when they fought as protectors of Konohakagure. I know all of the clan's attacks very well, as well as every attack that has been thrown at me, even the ones used against Naruto. It seems this Chakra barrier was all I needed to combat your old abilities, even if they were combined attacks."

Itachi's Sharingans swirled. "It's a new ability. Useful, no doubt… but… it requires two people to work!"

Two gigantic, clawed arms reached up from the dirt and clawed at Itachi. The Shukkaku's arms had burst from the ground, while Gaara stood several yards away. Itachi saw that his sand arms were actually imbedded into the ground.

The claws only scratched pieces of his cloak as he retreated high into the air with his super jump. "Resengan!" he heard from above.

He looked up just in time to see Naruto falling from above with a ball of blue energy swirling in his right hand. Itachi twisted at the last second as Naruto fell past him, but turning around, he saw that another Naruto below him had followed him into the air.

"So fast!" he said to himself as he watched the Naruto previously above him lock arms with the one that had followed him. The pair twisted into a spin, and the Naruto with the Resengan was thrown back up into the air at Itachi.

The ball hit home with powerful force. Naruto it was the strongest Resengan he had ever thrown, thanks toe the Kyuubi' help. Itachi exploded into smoke and flames. It was a doppelganger, a basic clone made of fire. When he had performed a Katon Bunshin, Naruto didn't know. Naruto was still in his blue dome below.

He looked around for Itachi. He knew that, with these new Nine Tail Irises, he would undoubtedly find him fast. However, Itachi found him first. The ground crumbled beneath him as Naruto's ankle was grabbed by Itachi' hand from the ground.

"Inner Decapitation Technique!"

Chakra surrounded Naruto and pulled him forcefully into the ground so that he was buried to his neck in the ground. Another Itachi appeared out of the ground inside the barrier and ran at him with a long sword katana, ready to behead the blonde.

The Naruto that had previously performed Resengan fazed through the blue wall and slammed into Itachi's back with yet another Resengan, causing them both to explode into fire and smoke. Two Narutos were out in the open, and one was underground.

Itachi exploded from the earth, sending dirt and rocks in the air. As he landed, he performed several more handseals. Again, Naruto knew what was to come, but it didn't stop him from being shocked nonetheless.

Both of Itachi's hands glowed blue with electricity, a rumbling sound like a thousand birds flooding the air. Naruto's hair stood on end. The only way Naruto figured that Itachi could've acquired Chidori and mastered it was in using the Sharaingans against his little brother years ago.

Itachi ran at Naruto's submereged body. They were both in the barrier, and Naruto's other Bunshin was too far away to help him. He had to work fast. Gathering more red chakra to his feet, he pushed himself out of the ground with a powerful jump, sending him upward just before the Chidori attack passed him from below. Itachi stopped his momentum severely and twisted his body to face upward. He punched upward with both hands toward Naruto.

He had little time to waste as he rapidly prepared a Resengan in each hand. Both pairs of hand met and exploded into each other with blue-on-blue fire and lightning. They stood in suspended animation like that for several seconds, their Chakra pushing against each other continuously to see who would buckle first.

Itachi went down on one knee, continuing to try and fight. He didn't know why, but he was no looking good in this fight. For the first time in his life… Itachi was afraid he was actually going to die.

Finally, the Chakra levels became too much for either of them to control, and a great explosion resulted. It was so powerful that it shut down the blue barrier that had locked them in, causing it to just evaporate as the blast incinerated any nearby trees.

Naruto and Itachi were both on one knee, facing each other and breathing heavily, painfully.

"Kyuubi, what's going on? I'm not feeling so good."

You're almost out of time, Naruto-kun. You're about to die.

I can't. I need more time. I'm not done yet.

You have to hurry it up. I'm not trying to send you to your grave quicker, but if you don't resolve this within the next five to ten minutes, you'll die. You only have that long.

Itachi, meanwhile, was thinking other things. "How is he that strong? Not on training alone did he become so powerful. Something's not right. I missed something. It's like I'm not fighting Naruto. I'm fighting the Kyuubi. He's somehow managed to completely become one with the demon fox, like he's fused with it so that they are the best of both realms, human and demon."

Itachi spat a mouthful of blood onto the soil.

"I'll let you in on a little secret, Itachi," said Naruto, standing up and smiling. "I am dying, and it has nothing to do with you possibly killing me. If you want my demon so bad, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed, because this demon will have killed me by the time this battle is over."

"What?" asked Itachi, also standing up, though visibly it looked painful to do so.

"That's right," said Naruto. "The Kyuubi is too strong for my body anymore, and I will die very soon, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. The same is true of Gaara."

"So that's why you tried to lure me out here," said Itachi, smiling in spite of his fear. "You want to go down with a bang, as they say. You want to die a heroic death."

"You're mistaken," said Gaara. "There is no thought of heroism in this battle. Naruto and I are fighting without resolve with no thought of our own glory on the line. There's no heroism about this battle. This is just us wanting to do you in before we have to be done in by ourselves."

"Got the picture?" asked Naruto. "Now, you can die knowing your efforts to gain power through us were completely futile, because when we go, so do out Bijuus."

"Tell me something," said Itachi. "How did you suddenly become so powerful? I'm not fool. The Kyuubi has something to do with you unprecedented strength."

"You fool!" shouted Naruto. "I am the Kyuubi as well as Naruto. I am not just one warrior! You've been fighting the demon fox all this time. I am no longer limited to the human form's capacity. The chakra I am using is all mine, all demonic, because Naruto has no reserves about living anymore. He knows he will die!"

Itachi's eyes widened again in that horror stricken way. "You're understanding now, aren't you?" asked Naruto. "I am no longer just Naruto, using the Kyuubi's power to help. I am both Naruto and Kyuubi as one warrior. There's no possession going on here, and there's no tapping into the chakra of another person to boost strength a little. We are two minds fused as one. Naruto knows everything the demon knows. The demon's chakra is now Naruto's chakra as well. The demon's abilities…"

Naruto performed a long series of whirlwind handseals. Itachi wasn't even able to comprehend them or see them, even with the Mangokyou's help. "are also Naruto's abilities."

"Oni Ninpou: Nine Tails Sweep!" Means, "Demon Ninja Technique: Nine Tails Sweep

End Chapter Nineteen

I'm not very good with cliffhangers, thinking that I could've left you with something a little more suspense-filled with this. Anyway, this battle is very hard to write out, because I want it to not look so easy for Naruto. I want it to seem like he has a clear advantage while making it seems that Itachi isn't a pushover. I mean, these are powerful nins, and I'm trying to make it seem as though Gaara isn't just sitting on the side line either. Like I said, this is way difficult.

Anyway, the next chapter will be the end of it. The end of the battle will actually some very quickly in the next chapter I think. People will die. That's multiple people, multiple deaths. I'm not even exactly sure how I'm going to get everything done, but I'll throw out some of the parts I'm expecting to use.

Naruto has to transfer the demon consequences to Itachi with an ability granted to him by the Iris, but Itachi has to be near death and held down or unconscious/unable to move. Again, I don't want Itachi to be just defeated with ease, so it will be difficult, and Gaara will probable be needed for this.

Anyway, I'm sure I screwed up some things along the line with ninjutsus or genjutsus or something. Frankly, though I usually do like to hear people's corrections, I'm going to respectfully say that I don't want to hear it for this or the next chapters. If I screwed up a jutsu name or the proper way to perform it, I just don't care. I'm sorry, but it's just the way this story will be.

Some things I am sure of: The genjutsu used against Naruto to put him in darkness is indeed 100 right on this one. I researched it and all the other technique names diligently if they previously existed in the series. However, there were probably a few parts I wasn't sure of exactly on their validity. But the data on that genjutsu is exact, like how it can't just be dispelled, because you'll recall even the third Hokage having trouble against this one against Orochimaru and his summoned zombies. Fortunately, Naruto's Iris is an immunity to genjutsus.

So don't take me for an arrogant person who doesn't want to be told he's wrong. Normally I respectfully take the advice and try to act on it accordingly to make sure it's right. But this one time, I'm going to say that I don't want to hear the proper way to say something or the proper way to perform something. This is not a reflection on previous reviews at all either. I'm tired, it's three-thirty AM, and I'm sure that in my drowsy stupor I screwed up a few things here and there.