Pairings: SasuNaru

Warnings: Shounen-ai and Yaoi (boy x boy love). Mature content, crude language, cursing and sexual references.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. This story is a work of fiction based on the Naruto manga and anime series.

Thoughts are represented by italics.

Chapter Nineteen – The Mission

The team made camp a few miles away from the location of the Akatsuki headquarters. They had one extra member that they originally hadn't been planning on...Gaara had heard about the mission from Naruto and had insisted on going with them. No one had objected, not even Sasuke, since they all knew how powerful the Kazekage was.

When Sasuke had been told by Tsunade that the murderers of his clan were the same group that his brother had been working for, he had been pissed and had gone to confront Itachi. Itachi had explained to him that he worked for the murderers in order to stay close to them and to find out how strong they were and what weaknesses they may have. He told Sasuke that he had had a hard time controlling himself over the past years and it was only because of the leader that he kept himself from trying to kill all of them. Itachi called him the leader because no one was ever told what his real name was and he had insisted that all the other members call him Leader. The older man was just too powerful for Itachi to kill. He was somehow able to shield himself from the power of the Mangekyou Sharingan. Itachi knew this because the leader had not only told him, but had ordered Itachi to try to use it on him. The man had wanted to show Itachi that he wouldn't be able to betray him and get away with it. Over the years, his older brother had learned as many jutsus as he could and kept as close an eye on the leader as possible, looking for any weakness he could find. Their leader is going to be tough to beat. Naruto and Gaara will be the ones that fight him. If I could kill that man myself, I would. But it's enough to know that I will be a part of this and that all of my clan's killers will pay. Itachi said that not all of the current members of Akatsuki were in the group back then, but if they decide to fight against us, then they will die too.

Naruto walked over to where Sasuke was standing. "Sasuke? Are you alright?"

The raven haired teen looked at the concerned face of the blond. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about tomorrow."

"Everyone is eating now, you need to eat something too."

Sasuke smiled at his love. "Alright." He followed Naruto back to where the others were sitting around the camp fire. He took the plate of food that Gai handed to him, nodding his thanks, then sat down next to his blond.

Kakashi looked around at the group and then settled his eyes on Itachi. "Everyone knows what they will be doing, right?"

Everyone answered in the affirmative. No one really felt like talking because they were all thinking of the tough battle ahead of them tomorrow. After they had all ate, the first shift of the night watch went to the places where they would be stationed. Since there were nine people, there would be three people on each watch. The ones on the first watch were Gai, Shikamaru and Sasuke, the second watch would be done by Neji, Sakura and Gaara, and the final watch by Kakashi, Naruto and Itachi.

Nothing happened during the first watch. After the second watch began, Neji who had been wanting to talk to Gaara, decided that he would do that during their watch. Gaara had his third eye out to help with watching the area and Neji would check around with his Byakugan every once in a while.

The Hyuuga genius walked over to the tree that Gaara was standing by and looked at him. "You are very good friends with Naruto, aren't you?"

The red head was curious about why the brunette had approached him. "Yes, we are close friends."

"You came on this mission for him, didn't you?"

"Yes, I wanted to be here to help him. The Akatsuki are very powerful." Gaara had been impressed with the Hyuuga boy's talents when he had watched him during the Chuunin Exams. Having the boy standing so close to him, was causing him to feel something strange inside. He didn't understand what it was that was making him feel that way and was trying to figure it out in his head.

Neji had been fascinated with the control that Gaara had over sand ever since he first saw him fight. He had also thought the boy seemed lonely when he first had seen him. He wanted to know more about the red haired Sand nin. "I care about Naruto too. He helped me to see things about myself that I needed to change. Because of him I was able to have a better and closer relationship with my cousin Hinata and also my uncle. I wish to repay Naruto by helping him."

Gaara smiled. "So do I."

"If I may ask, how did he help you?"

"He was my first friend and he helped me to be able to sleep. I am a jinchuuriki like Naruto is. But unlike Naruto, the seal that had been put on my demon, was not as effective. Shukaku would try to possess me if I fell asleep. Naruto helped me by putting up a new barrier around my demon so that it couldn't get out, but I could still access it's chakra."

Neji hadn't known that the Kazekage was a container for a demon. But now he was able to understand the friendship between Naruto and Gaara better. They shared similar pasts, while growing up. "I would like to be your friend too, Gaara."

Gaara looked at the brunette in surprise. "I would like that. It would be nice to have another friend." He smiled at Neji.

Neji smiled back.

In the morning, everyone packed up all their things, then cleaned up the camp. Kakashi told Itachi to lead the way to the Akatsuki headquarters. The silver haired jounin and Sasuke were the next two in line, followed in order by Sakura, Gaara, Gai, Shikamaru, Naruto and Neji at the back to watch with his Byakugan for anyone that tried to come at them from behind.

It wasn't long before Itachi called them all to a halt. Half a mile in front of them was what looked like a hill made of stone. They had not sensed anyone besides their own group, up until that time. Kakashi gave the order for all of them, except for Itachi, to lower their chakra levels to the point where it couldn't be detected. The first group that would go in with Itachi were Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto and Gaara. They would henge into shuriken and be carried into the headquarters in Itachi's weapon pouch. Once inside, they would release their henge when given the signal by Itachi. The ones left outside would know to come in, when the entrance to the headquarters was blown up. It was Naruto's job to give that signal by blasting the door, which was a huge boulder, into little bits with his chakra.

Naruto had practiced how much of his chakra to use and where to strike it at, in order to blow up a large boulder, before they had left for the mission. The blond had also had to work with Gaara on how to henge into a shuriken, since the Sand nin had never done that before. Gaara was a fast learner though, so it didn't take too long for him to pick it up.

Once Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto and Gaara had performed their henge, Itachi put the transformed shuriken in to his pouch. He then lead the other members of his team closer to the cave. He left them hiding in the trees that were several yards away from the cave, while he walked up to the entrance by himself. Itachi performed the special seals required to open the entrance and said the password, then stepped inside. He walked into a very large room that had a table in the center of it, with several chairs around it. Seated at the table was his partner, Kisame, and the blond bomb expert, Deidara. Both had been talking together and stopped when they noticed the Uchiha walking towards them.

The shark-like man grinned at his partner. "I don't see the blond demon container with you. Had some trouble, huh?"

"That fox container is too much trouble, yeah. Kinda glad not to see him, yeah." Deidara had been one of the Akatsuki members that had suffered a lot of damage after a fight with Naruto. It had been over a year since the blond Akatsuki member's battle with the demon container, but he still hadn't forgot how painful it was. Nearly all of the bones in his arms and legs had been crushed.

"Who's here?" Itachi just wanted to get this all over with, so he ignored Kisame's question.

Kisame's face became serious. "Something happen?"

"Everyone's here, somewhere, yeah." Deidara answered Itachi's question.

"Go get them. I have something important to report."

Deidara grumbled, but got up from the table anyway. He left the room to go find the other Akatsuki members.

Itachi activated his Mangekyou Sharingan as soon as Kisame looked him in the eyes. He trapped the shark-like man in a genjutsu and then pulled out a kunai and cut the man's throat, nearly severing his head. Itachi pulled out the shuriken he had in his pouch and laid them out on the floor in front of him. "It's time."

Kakashi, Sasuke, Gaara and Naruto dropped their henge. They went to stand near the walls, where they then performed another henge, this time to look like part of the stone wall. Sasuke, Naruto and Gaara had practiced this type of henge too, before leaving Konoha. The blond had moved close to the entrance before he had performed his henge, in order to be ready for when he had to signal the others.

Itachi dragged Kisame's body outside and then re-entered the headquarters. He wiped up the blood that had been spilled on the table, chair and floor, then he stood by the table to wait for the other Akatsuki members to arrive.

A couple minutes later, two cloaked men entered the room. They moved to stand on the opposite side of the table from Itachi. Neither one spoke to him. More people soon entered the room, some alone and some in pairs, until finally all Akatsuki members, minus one, were in the room.

Deidara looked around and noticed someone was missing. "Where is shark man, yeah?"

All of a sudden, a sand wall blocked the door that the Akatsuki members had entered from, leaving only the front entrance accessible. The boulder blocking the front entrance exploded outward and light from the outside entered the room. The Akatsuki members were taken by surprise, but soon snapped out of it and separated from each other in order to fight whatever enemies had infiltrated their headquarters.

It was Itachi's job to point out who the leader was to Naruto and Gaara, he did that by throwing a kunai at the man. Gaara, Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi dropped their henge. Both demon containers then teleported over to where the leader was standing. Itachi went after Zetsu, the Venus flytrap man. Sasuke went after Betsui, one of the original Akatsuki members that had been one of his clan's murderers. Both Itachi and Sasuke were determined to attack the ones that had actually killed their clan, first. Gai, Neji, Shikamaru, Kakashi and Sakura went after the other members. Sakura's opponent was Sasori, a puppet master that used poison. Shikamaru was able to capture three of the Akatsuki members using his Shadow Imitation jutsu and Gai and Neji took them out of the fight.

Kakashi's opponent was Deidara. Since Deidara was not one of the killers of the Uchiha clan, and he was a lot younger than the other Akatsuki members, Kakashi decided to give the young man a choice. He told him why the Akatsuki were being attacked and that Deidara was free to leave, but if he stayed he would be captured or killed like all the other members.

Deidara was not a coward, but after hearing the reason for the attack and that Itachi had turned on them, he decided to leave. He could see that some of the other Akatsuki members were already out of the fight and despite how powerful the leader was, he knew that the demon containers were very powerful too. "Maybe I'll see you again, yeah." Deidara smirked at the silver haired jounin, then ran out the entrance.

Kakashi turned around to see what was happening with the others and saw that Sakura needed help. He went to her side and joined her in the fight against Sasori. Sakura had destroyed several of Sasori's puppets already, but had come very close to getting poisoned. She was grateful for the help from her former sensei.

Naruto had taken control of the leader's chakra and was holding him in place so that Gaara could make his own attack. Over the past few years when Naruto had been training with Jiraiya, he had practiced taking control of other people's chakra. He had been able to get to the point where he could hold Jiraiya in place for fifteen minutes, before the sannin was finally able to get away. Jiraiya's chakra levels had been nearly depleted though. So now, Naruto was able to get a good hold on the leader, enabling Gaara to use his desert coffin jutsu on him. Naruto let go of the leader right before he was surrounded by the sand cocoon. But the man managed to put a shield around himself while inside the coffin. Naruto seeing that the leader had survived, quickly reached out with his chakra again to control him. Damn it! I have to drain all of his chakra. I hope I can do it before he gets away. Naruto worked quickly to drain the chakra from the Akatsuki leader's body. He decided he needed the fox's help, so he stole some of it's chakra in order to give himself a boost so he could work faster.

Meanwhile, Itachi had killed Zetsu by using the Amaterasu, a technique only a user of the Mangekyou Sharingan can perform. This black fire jutsu can go through any barrier and nearly every shield jutsu. The black fire burned through the fly trap shell, destroying the body within. Itachi could see that Sasuke was still fighting his opponent and seemed to be winning. He looked over at the others and saw that all of them were fighting against Sasori now. It seemed that there were only three Akatsuki members left in the fight, so Itachi went over to where Naruto and Gaara were fighting the leader. He looked at Naruto. "Let me kill him. When I give the word, let go of him and leap far away."

Naruto nodded. He had managed to drain a lot of the leader's chakra from him, but the man was still putting up quite a fight in trying to break away. Gaara hadn't done anything more because he hadn't wanted to hurt Naruto.

Itachi got himself ready to perform the Amaterasu jutsu again. "Now!" As soon as Naruto let go of the leader and leaped away from him, Itachi quickly performed his jutsu and black fire came out of his mouth and shot towards the leader. The man being very low on chakra, tried to dodge the fire coming at him instead of trying to shield himself, but one of his arms got hit with it anyway and the fire soon spread to his whole body. He screamed out in agony and after a few seconds his body was no longer there, because it had been completely burned up until there was nothing left of it.

Naruto was in shock at how powerful Itachi's jutsu was. I sure am glad he never tried to use that thing on me! He looked at the oldest living Uchiha. "Why didn't you ever use that on him before?"

"He was very good with shield jutsus and I wasn't sure if the Amaterasu could get through all of them. I didn't want to take the chance that he would survive and then kill me before I could kill him. I needed to be sure first. Because you drained most of his chakra out of him, I felt he wouldn't be strong enough to be able to shield against the Amaterasu. If he had been able to do it though, I believe you would have been able to finish him off for me." Itachi then looked over at the others and saw they had all finished their fights. Sakura was busy healing Sasuke's wounds and the others were making sure the surviving Akatsuki members were tied up securely. The team had brought several chakra-suppressing bracelets with them and those were now being put on the survivors. Itachi noticed one person was missing. He didn't see a certain blond anywhere. He walked over to Kakashi. "Where's Deidara?"

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders and grinned beneath his mask. "Guess he got away."

Itachi frowned at the silver haired jounin. He doesn't act like it's a big deal. Did he let him get away and if so, why? Well, Deidara wasn't one of our clan's killers, so it doesn't matter to me. He turned away from the jounin and walked out of the cave. He looked down at the body of his former partner. He really had had nothing against Kisame. The shark-like man hadn't been one of the killers either. But his sword was powerful and having Kisame in the fight may have caused harm to his team. Kisame had enjoyed killing anyway, so it's not like I killed an innocent man. Itachi looked away from the dead man and up at the sky. I have finally avenged my clan. I'm sorry it took me so long, Father and Mother.

Sasuke came outside and stood next to his brother. It's finally done. I used to think I would die after I killed Itachi or even while trying to. I can't believe that all these years, I was filled with hate for him and he wasn't even the one I was supposed to be hating. It still feels strange to me. Sasuke looked over at his brother and saw him looking up at the sky. "Can we be brothers again, aniki?"

Itachi looked at Sasuke. "I would like that, little brother."

They both heard the voices of their teammates and looked at the entrance to the cave. They watched as the others came out. There were only three surviving Akatsuki members and they were being dragged out by Kakashi, Gai and Gaara. The red head was using his sand to drag his burden with.

Kakashi looked at the Kazekage and saw what he was doing. "Would you mind carrying all three with your sand?"

Gaara smirked at the jounin. "No, I don't mind." He then used his sand to latch onto the other two men that the jounins had been holding. He wrapped all three together in a cocoon of sand.

Kakashi smiled at his team. "Mission accomplished. It's time to head home."

Everyone nodded. They were all exhausted, but felt good because no one on their team was seriously injured, and they had defeated a powerful organization. Kakashi took the lead and they all followed him, leaving behind the ruins of the Akatsuki.

TBC

The Akatsuki member called Betsui is just a name I made up because so far only Itachi, Kisame, Sasori, Deidara and Zetsu have been named as members of Akatsuki, while the other four have not been given names yet.