Naruto, Neji, Shikamaru, and Pakkun arrive at the area that the Kazekage's demon was extracted. Neji advised that Temari and Kankouro should stay behind and the Kazekage complied with the request.
"Byakugan!" Neji concentrates as they stand before a huge door. "It's empty."
Naruto and Shikamaru push the doors open and the group enters. Shikamaru cautiously keeps walking forward until Pakkun bites his leg.
"OUCH!" Shikamaru kicks the pug away.
"What are you doing?" Naruto screams at Pakkun.
"Don't take another step." The dog commands.
"You could've just told me to stop you stupid mutt." Shikamaru rubs his leg.
Neji examines the floor that Shikamaru almost stepped on and notices a button that's slightly popped up.
Neji rubs the dirt off the floor and says, "This could be a trap or this could be something else."
"Kage bunshin." Naruto multiplies himself. "Everybody out. My clone should be the one to press that."
Everyone made sure they were outside the door. Naruto's clone presses the button and suddenly the ground rumbles and parts of it start to fall and the entire place collapses.
"What the? They can't just let a poorly placed trap—" Pakkun smells the rubble before him.
"This doesn't make sense," Shikamaru says as he starts picking on tiny pebbles.
Two figures appear out of nowhere. Naruto can easily tell who they are from the sharingan that gazes at him and the massive sword that is held by a shark-like figure.
"Naruto-kun. As expected, you have come. We figured that with the Sand's loss of military and your friendship with the Kazekage, you would be the one assigned to this certain mission. Now, you must come with me and Kisame here or-" Itachi is interrupted by the raging blonde's shurikens.
"It's my demon you want, so it's my terms you follow. First of all, I'm not going anywhere with you two idiots, and second, if you don't like my first proposition, then I'll have to kill you."
"You're not in any position to bargain." Itachi glares with his sharingan to show he's not joking.
Kisame charges towards Naruto's group and swings his sword, Samaheda. The group jump out of the way and Neji charges at the shark-looking nin. Kisame jumps back but suddenly finds himself immobile. Shikamaru smirks as he binds the enemy with his shadow and Neji prepares for the execution.
Itachi stares down at Naruto who returns the look. Naruto watches as Itachi throws 5 shurikens which, multiplies into hundreds. The shurikens miss Naruto as he lifts a barrier from the ground with his doton: shouheki technique. Suddenly, Itachi appears behind Naruto and threatens the blonde by placing the edge of the kunai on his throat. Naruto smirks and with lightning speed performs the Hiraishin no jutsu. Itachi's caught by surprise as Naruto disappears when he throws a kunai. Another kunai heads towards Itachi, which he swiftly avoids but Naruto lands a punch on the face—sending Itachi back a couple of steps.
"Well Naruto-kun. You truly are the 4th's legacy. Not even the sharingan can imitate the Hiraishin. I guess you'd prove difficult than expected." Itachi's sharingan changes from 3 tomos to a triangular shape.
Naruto watches as his surroundings changes into a completely different place. He suddenly finds himself in front of the Konoha villagers, who taunt and mock him. They give him the evil eye and Naruto finds himself weakening and at the same time getting angrier.
"STOP IT!" Naruto releases a massive amount of red chakra and burns through the villagers.
He watches as the red chakra reduces the mob to ashes. After, Naruto finds himself in the Hokage's office—receiving the familiar cold look from his peers. His tears threaten to come out as Sakura and Kakashi glare at him. All of a sudden, Itachi appears in front of him and places his palm on the Kyuubi's seal. Naruto can feel his stomach burn as smoke starts to appear from Itachi's hand. The red chakra starts to pour out, adding to Naruto's pain.
"This is a genjutsu, this is a genjutsu…" Naruto repeats in his head.
Naruto frees himself by kicking Itachi but unexpectedly finds himself in a circle, surrounded by the Uchiha.
"You are in my world Naruto-kun. In this world, I am god. I can control time and space, and kill you here."
"NARUTO!" Shikamaru punches the blonde in the stomach, which frees him from Itachi's hold.
Naruto lands on his knees and Shikamaru catches him to soften the landing.
"Don't look at his eyes. He'll trap you into his world." Naruto chokes out. "He can also perform genjutsu with his finger but it's not as strong as his eyes."
Shikamaru helps Naruto to his feet as Itachi looks on.
"What about Neji?" Naruto weakly asks.
"We're having trouble with fish-guy. He was able to break free from my jutsus but Neji saw that you needed help more than he did."
Itachi attacks Naruto, while a clone attacks Shikamaru from the back. Naruto sees Itachi's kick coming towards him and quickly uses Hekireki kutsuu and covers his arms with electricity. Itachi lands his kick and Naruto grunts as he is sent back crashing to a wall. Naruto sees his enemy twitch slightly from the jolt of electricity. Itachi quickly stands straight but is clearly out of breath from using his Mangekyou sharingan.
"Although this is not the outcome I have predicted, we will finish this battle another time." Itachi body flickers away from the location and Kisame follows.
Naruto drops to the ground, clutches his stomach, and coughs out blood. Neji and Shikamaru grab the blonde as he uncontrollably coughs and continues to clinch his stomach.
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Kakashi arrives at the Hokage's office.
"Kakashi, I need your team to head on to the Sand village and help Asuma's team."
"How about Asuma? Where is he?"
"He's on a separate S-class mission. Besides, it's Sakura's medical skills that is strongly required. Team 9 was sent to help investigate an area in the Sand village. I just received a message from the Kazekage's office. It turns out that it was all a trap by Itachi to lure Naruto. They're becoming impatient about obtaining the Kyuubi. Naruto was greatly injured in his fight against Itachi and I want Sakura to help the medics treat Naruto."
After 2 days, team 7 arrives at the Sand village. Kakashi and Sakura rushes to the Sand's hospital and beelines for Naruto's room. They find him hooked up to machines to monitor his pulse and respiration. At the corner of the room, two medic nins discussing his condition and searching for a way to help the blonde ninja.
One of the medic nins reports to Sakura, "He's been bleeding non-stop. We can't figure out what's wrong with him. Although we were able to find that the source of the bleeding is his stomach. His stomach has unusually high temperature and we're constantly placing cool towels over it."
Sakura heads over to Naruto and examines his stomach. Suddenly, the machine monitoring Naruto monotonously beep in one long tone.
