Niichan: Older brother
Chibi: Little one
Daijoubu da ka: Is everything ok?
Hai: Yes
Baka: Idiot
Oni-tora: Demon Tiger
Jutsus:
Deido-no-jutsu: Mud slide
Kai: Release
Aisu-dansu-no-jutsu: Ice dance
Katon-Ryuuka-no-Jutsu: Dragon Fire Technique
Doton-Doruki-Gaeshi: Earth Wall Land Flip
Katon: Fire Dragon Flame Blast
Taren-Ken: Match Punch
Kyuichose-No-Jutsu: Summoning
Itachi growled under his breath as he slipped into a fighting stance. "You know niichan; maybe we should make this fight more interesting." Sasuke snapped his fingers, and Kabuto appeared at his side. "If we were to higher the stacks, maybe you would put up a better fight. Can't have you giving up to quickly now can we?" Itachi's face remained expressionless, although another growl rose in his throat.
What's he thinking? Itachi searched his brother's equally expressionless face. This can't be good.
"Kabuto," Sasuke started, turning to his assistant. "Bring her out will you?"
Ah, shit. Itachi's mind cursed. Kabuto disappeared from Sasuke's side, only to reappear a few yards away with Ino in his grasp. Her body was limp, she was obviously knocked out. A gag was placed firmly over her mouth, and her hands were secured behind her back.
Sasuke approached her, and took her chin with one hand, lifting her head to get a better look at her. "Always was an obnoxious one, that Ino." Itachi unconsciously clenched his fists at his sides. "I think I like her much better this way," Her gestured toward the gag. "What do you think niichan?"
"Don't you touch her you filthy bastard!" Itachi snarled.
"Or you'll do what?" Sasuke laughed bitterly. "You can't beat me! You know, I learned a lot from you brother. I learned everything from you really. I have you to thank for all this." His hand fell from Ino's face, and gestured around the courtyard.
"You leave her out of this!"
"It's to late niichan. She's already a big part of this. You see what better motivation could I give you, than the girl you love!" His harsh laughter echoed through the courtyard once more. "You were always a hard one to pin down, Itachi. No feelings, no family, no friends. It always seemed that all you cared about was yourself. But oh no, it was a lot more than that wasn't it? It all came down to this girl." He approached Ino again, taking her chin in her hand and turning it toward Itachi. "She was all you ever really cared about. Wasn't she Itachi?" Itachi remained silent, flexing his fists, his eyes never leaving the hand Sasuke had on Ino's chin. "You were never really motivated really. You had nothing left to fight for. But let's see how you fight when you have everything at stake."
Kabuto took the hint to get out of the way, and disappeared in a puff of smoke. He reappeared on the side of the field, Ino now tied to one of the pillars in the courtyard. Kabuto made several hand signs, and a thin silver line appeared around the pillar. Sasuke looked at the line and said, "Just so you aren't tempted. You see, that line wont disappear until one of us is defeated. No one can cross it, from either the inside, or the outside. So you don't even need to try to run over there and rescue her."
"I guess we'd better get started then, shouldn't we chibi?" Itachi regained control, and moved back into the fighting stance.
"I guess we should. You know niichan, when I kill you, I'm going to love having her to my bed."
Itachi's face remained impassive, although he was imagining ways to slowly and painfully kill his brother. First, I'll rip out his eyes. No, only one of his eyes, so he can watch me ripping it apart with a Kunai. Then I'll cut open his stomach and pull out his guts. I'll hang them over the river, and let the piranha's slowly devour them. But Itachi's ranting mind was interrupted when Sasuke started making hand signs. Dog, Serpent, Hare, Tiger, Dragon. Itachi didn't recognize this jutsu. "Deido-no-jutsu!"
The ground around Itachi's feet turned to mud, and he slowly started to sink. He tried to pull his feet from the constricting mud, but with no avail. A mist appeared, and surrounded him. "Damn it, genjutsu." He made several hand signs. "Aisu-dansu-no-jutsu!" The mud around his feet froze, and he was able to break his feet free with a kunai. But the mist still surrounded him; up from it raised several puppets. About ten probably, surrounding him in a circle. "Kai!" The mist cleared, but the puppets still remained.
Itachi pulled ten kunais from his weapon pouch, and threw them at the puppets. Each kunai landed squarely in the puppet's chest, but it didn't seem to affect them. Wait for it... BAM! The puppets burst from the exploding tags he had placed on the kunais.
"Hmm, very good niichan. You were able to cancel out the genjutsu, get free from the mud, and defeat my puppets. And you haven't even broken a sweat! Not that I'd expect anything less from the great Uchiha Itachi." Itachi looked around the courtyard, but he couldn't find Sasuke. His voice was echoing so he couldn't find his exact location. "Katon-Ryuuka-no-Jutsu!"
"Oh, shit." A burst of fire irrupted in the courtyard, and a streamed toward Itachi. "Doton-Doruki-Gaeshi!" Itachi hit the soil with his fist, and the ground flipped upward, creating a wall in front of him. He could hear the fire pounding against the wall, as it sheltered him the it's blast.
"Ok, it's my turn." Itachi made several quick hand signs. "Katon!" A burst of fire came from Itachi's mouth, and took the form of a dragon. It tore apart the courtyard, since he didn't really know where Sasuke was, but he was sure to keep it far way from the pillar where Ino was tied. The walls of the courtyard tumbled around him. Itachi was breathing heavy now, it took a lot of chakra to summon that big of a fire technique.
His eyes searched the debris around him, but didn't see Sasuke. "It's so simple!" Sasuke said, as he stepped out from behind the pillar where Ino was tied. "She's like the ultimate shield! You keep your techniques as far away from here as possible, so you won't chance hurting her! It's sweet really, that you care that much about her. To bad she'll be all alone again when you're dead."
"Get away from her!" Itachi yelled. He darted forward with speed that only an accomplished ninja could hope to attain. "Taren-Ken!" Itachi yelled, ramming his fist into Sasuke's stomach. But that wasn't all, the punches kept on coming. It was a high level Taijutsu attack where the user reaches unimaginable speeds, and it appears that he is punching his opponent a thousand times. His quick, hard thrusts were enough to send Sasuke flying into the far wall of the courtyard. Or at least what was left of it after Itachi's fire attack.
Itachi darted back to Sasuke, and kicked him upside the head. "Match kick!" His kicks continued until he was satisfied with the results. Sasuke lay in an unconscious lump, blood dripping out the corner of his mouth. He wasn't dead, but Itachi had never intended to kill him, so it didn't really matter.
Itachi looked back to the pillar, and saw the silver line surrounding it start to dissipate. "Ino!" He fought his way back over the rubble, and untied Ino. When she was free of the restraints, she fell limply into Itachi's arms. He held her close to his chest, and gently stroked her hair. "We've gotta get you back to Konoha." He said, mostly to himself.
Ino's blue eyes fluttered open now that she was no longer tied to the hard pillar, but being held tightly by a pair of strong arms. She looked up to see Itachi looking fairly distressed. "Daijoubu da ka?"
He smiled down at her. "Hai. Everything is fine now. We're going to get you back to Konoha, alright?"
"Hai." Her eyes were going in and out of focus, and it was making her dizzy. Itachi gently set her back on the ground, leaning her against the pillar. He turned his back to her, and bit his thumb. "Kyuichose-No-Jutsu!" He yelled, and rammed his thumb into the ground.
Smoke erupted around him, and when it cleared, it revealed an abnormally large white tiger. "Oni-tora." Itachi said, addressing the tiger. "I need you to help me get Ino, and that baka over there," He thrust his thumb in Sasuke's direction. "Back to Konoha, ASAP! Can you help?"
The tiger made a low growling sound in his throat before he spoke. "I don't like the feeling of that one, Itachi-sama." He said, referring to Sasuke. "He's got some bad chakra in him."
"Yes, I realize that. But he's knocked out; he won't do you any harm."
Oni-tora snorted. "I'm not worried about him harming me. I just don't like him."
"Well, I don't care if you like him or not! I need to get Ino back to Konoha! I think they poisoned her!"
Well there's the big fight scene! I know it's not that great, but it turned out better than I expected...please let me know what you think! Another thing is that even though I have a huge paper due in a few weeks here, I'm getting more writing done than usual. Amazing what procrastination can do for some people. Well, till next time! (Oh, and expect the unexpected in the next few chapters. I think that whole "and they live happily ever after" thing is kind of overrated, so we'll see if we can make it more interesting, ne? But no worries, I'm not going to kill them all off in the end or anything!)