Disclaimer: Is everyone else sick of doing these? I am. We all know that ficcers are terrible ripoffs. :P

I am presently making up jutsu off the top of my head. I figure enough time has passed that eevryone should know how to kick ass. Also, I can't remember anything actually valid. So I get to have some fun.

I hope this chapter isn't too confusing. Mangekyou turns everything into an acid flashback. XD

Vengeance

An orange flash from above.

"Itachi!"

Sasuke raised an arm to block the blow and was rattled to the teeth when it connected. The orange shape jumped backwards, hands forming a pattern of seals that Sasuke didn't recognize.

Cracks opened in the sodden earth beneath Sasuke's feet, fierce wind blowing straight up from the gaps. Cursing Kisame's water jutsu, Sasuke made a skidding feint through the mud and dashed for an opening on the enemy's left. Forming one-handed seals with his right hand, he fingered a handful kunai with his left. Tight blue flames bubbled out of his hand as he threw them in alternation with the kunai. The target ducked the first knife but was hit in the back by a line of curving flames that exploded on impact.

Sasuke took the opportunity to make for the trees. He ran in the opposite direction, landing fuda-strung kunai with a series of steady thunks on trees as he passed. If he knew his opponent as well as he thought he did, the target would follow.

After a moment of suprise when he didn't hear footsteps immediately behind him, he smiled. Naruto was no longer as great a fool as he once was.

When the twin shapes once again emerged from the trees ahead of him, Sasuke cursed his judgement in leaving Kisame behind. Now it was two on one.

The fight was a blur, a series of split-second decisions and instant reactions that Sasuke no longer had to calculate. In the moment Sasuke felt the tide turn against him, he managed to cut an escape and return to where Kisame waited, smirking, traps already laid.

One moment he had the advantage with the girl wounded, and the next she had recovered and Kisame had abandoned him for good without a word of parting. The shark hadn't been lying – he would not risk his life to protect Sasuke's hide.

In a second his cape was ripped from his back and he was pinned to a tree, spitting blood at his feet. A heavy punch to the gut made him double over and fall to one knee.

"You... bastard!" Naruto spat out the insult as if he were cursing Sasuke, his ancestors, and his decendants.

Sasuke raised blank eyes to Naruto's rage. "Why is that?"

"Don't you play dumb with me." Naruto hissed. He grabbed Sasuke's collar.

Sasuke raised a hand to casually wipe away the blood trailing down his chin. It was time to pull out his trump card. He closed his eyes.

Click.

When Naruto saw Sasuke's eyes open once more, they opened into a bottomless void. He froze. Sakura, standing behind him, crumpled to the ground as if her spirit had been sucked away.

"Why is it that you hate me?" Sasuke asked, brushing off Naruto's now-limp hand.

"You..." Naruto mumbled. "Sasuke..."

"I see." With the powerhold reversed, Sasuke now gripped Naruto's forearm. "You're angry because I killed Sasuke."

Naruto's eyes widened. "No."

"Yes." Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Just like this." His hands slid up to Naruto's neck, gripping tightly, thumbs digging into the soft flesh under the Jinchuuriki's chin.

Naruto gasped, clutching at the hands around his neck. He could see Itachi's eyes boring into his. His own hands looked foreign. He was wearing white sleeves, and black hair waved in the corners of his vision. An intense feeling of hatred filled him. He wanted to kill and to kill and to kill again. He wanted to be the one pressing his fingernails into Itachi's neck. He watched in horror as Itachi bent over him, pale lips touching his own. He bit down and tasted blood.

Itachi pulled away, removing his hands to wipe the blood from his lower lip. "What a cute little brother you are."

"No!" Naruto barked. "Get out of my head!"

Itachi licked the wound on his lip, leaning down to meet Naruto eye-to-eye. "I'll never leave your head. I am a part of you, Sasuke. I'll always be inside you."

Emotions that Naruto didn't understand and didn't want to understand scrabbled out of his throat to leave a dirty taste on his tongue. "This isn't how Sasuke was. Sasuke wasn't like this. And you're a monster."

Itachi's head turned, so that he was looking at Naruto out of the corner of his eye. "That I am. And you will never understand Sasuke. Only I can understand him. We are blood."

"Shut UP!" Naruto yelled. He closed his eyes and drew his kunai, slicing himself across the thigh. When he opened his eyes, Itachi was slumped on his side against the tree. His eyes were heavy-lidded and his breathing was shallow. His shirt was ripped, revealing a mark on his back, between the shoulder and neck.

Naruto pushed himself to his knees and crawled towards Itachi to see the mark more clearly.

It was the shape of a complete Sharingan, surrounded by the lines of a seal. It was the Tenfuuin.

"Sasuke," Naruto breathed.

"I am Itachi." The response gurgles out of Sasuke's throat.

"Sasuke, you're alive!" Naruto wanted to embrace hs old friend, but he hesitated.

"Sasuke is dead!" Sasuke pushed Naruto back.

"What are you talking about? Sasuke –"

"What is it with you and Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke! Sasuke was worthless!" Sasuke struggled to his feet. "Forget about him!"

A few limping strides broke into a run. Breathing rapidly, he gave only the slightest attention to covering his trail. He had to escape. He had been caught off-guard, but he would be ready next time.

Next time, he would kill Naruto.