Chapter 21: The real work starts now part 2

This was odd, Itachi could say that much about it, his mind wanted to entertain the notion that this was a dream, but it wasn't, it couldn't be since he hadn't fallen asleep. He was sitting his now completely repaired safe house, his back resting against the black sofa, his head tilted upward and his eyes barely focused in a blank stare at the ceiling. All was silent, Kisame was off somewhere which that in itself was probably the reason it was so quiet, he didn't know or care where or why.

It was just so peaceful, oddly peaceful, it was never this peaceful. Not that he was complaining, he was more relaxed right now then he'd ever been in his life, relaxed and slowly drifting into a peaceful sleep. Itachi let his eyes start to close, each slow breath bringing him closer and closer to the rest he was seeking, every breath making him feel lighter and lighter, making him feel more and more like this would be best sleep he would ever have in his life. Even better then that one night with Kisame...

"Itachi!"--Kisame's voice came from some place outside of the house, probably him coming home.

Itachi didn't care what it was, he just wanted to keep drifting off. "Meh..."

"Itachi, Get up damnit!" Kisame's voice called out again, Itachi just dismissed it since he obviously couldn't careless about it. He just watched the ceiling start to blur and fade into a slow coming darkness, increasing sequentially as his eyelids drew farther and farther closed. "Itachi!" His darkening vision of the ceiling was suddenly switched with gray clouds and falling rain that had started to pool in his widen eyes. All centered around an inhumanly large level 3 Sharingan eye.

Itachi immediately awakened with a few quick blinks to bring his vision back in to focus, he was laying on his back on a half muddy ground. The Sharingan demon was standing over his body in the eerie form of his father covered in those large eyes over it's body, one in particular that protruded from the demon's palm was directly over his face. Or at lest it had been until Kisame tackled it off of him...His first instinct was the get up, but his burning lungs and his body's cry for air forced him to gasp, he couldn't even move. That's when it became apparent that he hadn't been falling asleep in his illusion, he'd just stopped breathing and nearly suffocated.

Kisame knocked the demon from Itachi but landed on his feet where it tumbled to the ground, he knew he couldn't fight something like this with head on brute strength, that strength took sight. He couldn't use any, so instead of trusting himself by just closing his eyes, he pulled down the blue headband over them and lifted the Samahada. "Itachi, are you ok?"

This was the second time Kisame had saved him from that demon. "I'm fine." Kisame heard Itachi's voice behind him, tired, weak and ridden with pants but regaining it's normal tone substantially. "Kisame, that's not me!" This is when things became confusing, he also heard Itachi's voice in the opposite direction of the previous one.

"How am I suppose to tell with out looking!" Kisame lowered his Sahamada slightly, but he quickly raised it again just in time to block a punch, he pushed who ever was attacking him back. "Itachi, your the only who can fight this thing."

"It's going for you." One of the voices yelled. "It's quick."

Kisame couldn't tell if the same person had said that last statement, both were so similar! He didn't even have time to try and figure it out, a sharp blow too his back sent him stumbling forward. He was alert enough to catch a fist flying toward his torso, but he immediately and lower his head a bit, reach up and grabbed another foot going for the back of his head. This didn't add up, there were two people attacking him. "Itachi! Why are you trying to hit me!" Kisame squeezed down tightly on the smaller fist he'd captured in front of him and tossed the two bodies as far away from him as his strength would allow him.

"I'm not." This time there were three voices saying the same thing, all of them surrounding him.

Kisame wasn't sure, so he just attacked everything in his path and hoped he didn't hit Itachi. Kisame drove his Samahada into the muddy ground in front of him, then he clasped his hands together with quick seals, enduring the blows to his back and his side attempting to make him waver. If it was one thing he knew about Itachi was that he himself was physically stronger, and though Itachi's attacks always hurted, Itachi was better suited with Jutsus. With a loud grunt from the stinging pain where he'd been hit during the process, Kisame drove his hands down on to the ground. "Tidal wave!" 'Sorry Itachi.'

In the darkness he felt the water uprising out of the shaking ground from his heals in walls he knew were at lest 10 feet tall from previous jutsu uses. The waves of clear blue water rushed outward from all sides, smashing through anything in it's path... He waited until the sounds of water died down, until no other sounds remained except for rain pounding in to the mud saturated ground... "Itachi?" Kisame slipped his finger under his grayish blue head band and pushed up off of his eyes. "Hey, if I..." Kisame looked around among the ankle high waters that covered the ground after his Tidal wave attack, he was surround by fallen Itachi's all identical. "No wonder I kept hearing...Itachi?"

Kisame was cut off by a blinding flash of blue light...

"Kisame!" Itachi, drenched from head to toe while trying to escape the man's Jutsu, landed behind Kisame with an audible splash just in time to catch him as he fell lifelessly backwards. Kisame's eyes were half lidded and unfocused, his mouth open slightly, he was completely dazed. Itachi slapped his cheeks lightly "Damnit, why did you have to open your eyes."

Itachi dropped Kisame harder then he intended to, then he jumped back right before the strange Sharingan demon came down on him. It was just using Kisame to get to him, to get him out of the way since he kept getting in the way, every single time. "What the hell are you?" Itachi reached outward and caught the Sharingan by it's neck, but he abruptly looked away just as he saw it's red pupils widening...Something was wrong, Itachi could see a bright white light flash on the horizon, the next thing he knew he was standing in a shapeless black void. 'I Didn't even look at it...it can inflict Mange Sharingan on me with out me even looking at it.' That explained a lot.

"Sight!" Itachi narrowed his now glowing eyes, his surroundings distorting into black swirls and reshaping back into his real settings. "What are you?"

"Sharingan Ninpo, Jutsu Seal." The voice of his father passed through the demon's lips as all of the eyes on it's body turned towards Itachi and flashed an illuminating red...the next thing Itachi knew he felt a part of himself going numb, but before he could even contemplate what had just happened the demon disappeared from his grasp.

'...How can I fight this thing?' Itachi looked around just enough to check for the demon, then he immediately went back for Kisame...only to find that what ever the demon did to him had worked, he couldn't use Jutsus...He didn't have time to deal with that, he could still use his blood line and he had to pull Kisame out of whatever his mind was trapped in to.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

It was raining, and he loved rain. So much so that it became a habit for him to go up on to the roof and stare up at the sky, particularly glad just to let the small drops of water fall down on to him. Konohamaru just laid back, his hands behind his head and his eyes upward with a smile across his face. Good things always happened to him when it was raining, he never had a bad day during the rain...well except for his Grandfather's funeral, but Iruka had been able to comfort him well enough. But other then that they were all good, tides turned on rainy days, fights shifted momentum in the rain, and by his own admissions he'd never lost one while rain fell.

Whenever he sparred with Naruto for training he always seemed to win in the rain, he never won in anything against Naruto any other time. Konohamaru smirked 'Nee-chan is so cool.' he had to remind himself to challenge Naruto to a fight today.

"Konohamaru, what are you doing up there?" Naruto called up from the ground, his arm over his face to shield his eyes from the falling water. "It's raining really hard out here." He said, glancing to his left as Kakashi walked past him, he and his team just returned from fighting bat demons.

"Yeah I know..." Konohamaru's voice held a hint of forlorn with in his tones, he'd challenge Naruto later. It was only fair since he'd just came back from a mission.

"I wouldn't stay out too much longer, Iruka's gonna be mad if you catch a cold out here." Naruto said that last remark before he followed Kakashi into the building, which he immediately ducked his head and shook the stray water from the yellow strands across the lobby floor. "Hey! Hey!" Kiba wiped the stray drops of water from his face and shook them off of his black jacket since he just happened to be walking past when Naruto preformed that action of his.

"Sorry." Naruto said, sitting on the ground next to the couch where a dry Gaara was sitting. "Where are you going?"

"Tracking mission." Kiba shoved his hands in his pocket, Akamaru settled in his zipped up jacket and his hood down around his neck since his ears were uncomfortable being pushed down for long periods of time. His tail was noticeably lower, almost between his legs, a tell showing that something was obviously wrong with him. "A 4 year old girl in one of the residences out side of Konoha was kidnapped, the mother says it was a demon and I have to find her before the trail is gone completely. And as you can see, it's raining outside." He spoke with haste and hurried out the door, with good reason. Kiba seemed a little angry about this mission for what ever reason, or at lest he seemed mad.

"Good luck." Naruto told him solemnly, he'd need it... Naruto looked up at Gaara. "How are you the only one who's dry?"

"Sand." Gaara said in his usual manner. "You should go dry off."

Naruto stood up with a small nod before he climbed up off the pool of water he left on the ground and headed to the door behind the desk leading to the main hall. There was a light pause before his voice could be heard again. "I never noticed how huge this place was with out all those people."

! - ! - !

What gave his life meaning now? It was interesting what things popped up when Gaara was left to his own thoughts. Maybe it was because he decided not to sleep for the last two weeks, doing work, helping Iruka out among other things. Strange thoughts always crept into his head when he went with out sleep, not homicidal, but...strange, he was content to say not all of them bad.

Gaara pushed the headphones off of his messy red hair down around his neck, then quietly walked down the empty main hall in to his room. He found Naruto on the ground in the center of his room, pulling his soaking wet black pants off. "Sorry Gaara, I got lost. Did you know where my room was is my office now? I can't find it!"

'Is that why he's been sleeping here so much?' Gaara sat down on his bed, setting aside his CD player while leaving the headphones where they were.

Naruto stripped himself of his boxers, tossing all of his clothes in a scattered pile on the ground. "It's freezing in here." He pushed a stray strand of yellow hair off of his forehead that was dripping water, walking over to the closet to find a towel. "How can you stand it?"

"It just feels that way because your wet Naruto." Gaara said plainly.

Naruto ran the towel through his hair before wrapping it around his waist, then he jumped in to Gaara's lap. "Yeah maybe." He laid his still slightly damp head back against Gaara's chest where it was warm. "This place is really big now..."

"What do you mean?" Gaara laid back on to the bed, wrapping his arms around Naruto's stomach to keep him from falling from his chest.

"When we first started this last year, I just wanted to help Konoha..." Naruto held his head down a little when he said the last part, "Since Konoha was just a wasteland and I think the storm could have been my fault since I was the one that wanted to go back in time...But I thought it would be easy, just do a few missions..."

"You thought this would be easy?" Gaara inquired.

"Not easy but I didn't think it would be like this...after we started doing this for a while...it was so hard and it seemed like we were doing more and nothing we did was doing anything. I thought this would be impossible. I didn't think there was any way we could be able to help Konoha and that I was just going to tire and starve ourselves out trying."

"Then...why did you keep going, if you thought it was impossible?" Gaara seemed a little bit confused now, he didn't get it. If something was futile, something with little to no hope of working that could most likely get you killed trying. Something that may not have even made an impact...why try?

"I'm a shinobi for Konoha, I had to try and help."

"But there wasn't a Konoha at the time, the Hokage was even dead."

"Konoha's not just a place with a lot of buildings, it's the people...I learned that. The Leaf wasn't dead, I couldn't let it die, not after everything that happened."

"But you could have gotten killed, and you said you thought it was impossible." Gaara said questioningly.

"Yeah...But I love this place, I had to try even if it didn't seem like worth trying." Naruto tilted his head back and looked up at Gaara. "I didn't care if I died, there are things that are worth dieing for, especially if you love them."

Gaara paused for a moment, just starring down at Naruto...he wasn't sure if he understood it yet but... "Would you...die for me?"

"Yeah." Naruto said with out hesitation or the slightest change in tone that would say otherwise, he was completely sure of it. And he would have asked Gaara the same question, but...he wasn't sure if he wanted the answer. He was Naruto, no one would die for him... "..."

"Naruto..." Gaara he still didn't understand, how could some one have feelings so strong for him that they would give up their very life But on the other hand...maybe he did a little whether

he knew it or not, but he still didn't understand it. This was so confusing. "...I..."

"Don't worry about it too much Gaara." Naruto said in dismissal, he rolled over so that he was facing Gaara. "It's not that big of a deal."

"It...it is." Gaara subconsciously tightened his grip around Naruto, his hand traveling up the boy's back and settling in his blond hair. "Your talking about your life, you would give up something that important for...me?"

Naruto hugged Gaara lightly, laying his head against his chest. "..." He had to think about it for a moment, the thought of dieing wasn't inviting, in fact it scared him a little. "...Yeah."

Naruto was serious about this... "I...guess I would too." Gaara said defeatedly "Your the only thing that gives my life any meaning, with out you..."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto looked up at Gaara, staring directly into those green eyes that he liked so much. It was enough to make him wish his eyes were green. "You mean a lot of things, I mean, your you. That's really important."

"Not something as mundane as that, it's not."

"What! Come on!" Naruto pushed himself up abruptly enough to scare Gaara, his arms pressed firmly on the bed above Gaara's shoulders and veered down so that they were face to face. "Don't say that, your really important."

Gaara looked up at him with a strait face. "Why?"

...Ok, Gaara wasn't going to make this easy. "...The other reasons don't matter, your important to me. Just because you had to grow up like you did, around those bastards." He said that last part with a little bit of animosity "Doesn't mean you don't matter... Even if no one else cares, your important to me."

Gaara shifted his eyes away from Naruto, a very un-Gaara like look coming on to his face. He was either unsure or unbelieving. Naruto wouldn't let that stand.

"Hell, I'll prove it to you!" Naruto pressed his hands against the sides of Gaara's face, looking down on him with an oddly determined expression before he closed his eyes and pulled Gaara into a kiss. It was fiercer then usual, Naruto's tongue was moving almost fervently around the warm mouth. If Gaara could say he loved one thing about Naruto, it was his energy "If your ever wondering why again, just tell me and I'll prove it to you that your really important to me."

"If I need you to prove it to me, will you do that again?"

"Uh-huh."

After careful consideration, Gaara decided that he wasn't quite convinced. "Why?"

Naruto smiled impishly, giving him a quick kiss on the lips before he burred his face into Gaara's neck. His hands pressed against Gaara's chest, clinching the black fabric in his fist and forcefully pulling the shirt off of Gaara's back. Gaara had to lifted his torso up lightly to let Naruto do so, and though it was a bit of a hassle it was just easier this way since the alternative was ripping, that would mean Gaara would have to buy new clothes .

Even after it was removed Gaara still felt Naruto's hands against his chest, forcing him to stay down since he was clearly intent on making Gaara lay still.

"Don't move." Naruto said in a victorious tone that he spoke in when he'd just won a fight. His hands roamed across Gaara's torso, resting them on the boy's sides while he slid off of the bed. Landing on his knees before the other boy, his hands tightened around Gaara's torso and pushed down as Gaara tried to sit up. "Be still..." Naruto was almost taunting as his thumbs gently rubbed across the abdomen messagingly.

Naruto's hands trailed downward, his fingers slipping into the waist band of Gaara's pants and, a lot more calmly this time, he pulled Gaara's pants down to his knees. He lent over Gaara's knees and burred his face in to Gaara's lap, taking the hardening cock in to his mouth. "Na-Naru..." Gaara clinched his eyes tightly, feeling his hands drift uninhibitedly on to Naruto's head. Gaara still wasn't used to feeling things like this, he'd long since become accustom to pain, his body was even used to it. But something that felt like this, something pleasurable, he was really sensitive to. Even small, soft touches...so knowing this Naruto reached up and gently rolled his fingers over Gaara's nipples.

"Uhhaaaa..." Gaara moaned lightly, a small blush making itself apparent across his face, he had to restrain himself from pulling Naruto's hair too hard. He hated to admit it, but he was a little squeamish on count of his sensitivity to these types of actions. Though Naruto on the contrary seemed to enjoy watching Gaara's every reaction, how his face contorted and his eyes looked, how every muscle of the boy's body filled with energy that gathered with each second. He loved watching the usually stoic, cold Gaara like this. "Naru!"

Naruto lifted his head, removing all of Gaara's cock from his mouth save the head. His lips tightened around the soft flesh and sucked it lightly while he swirled his tongue skillfully around the warm erection, his thumbs playing along Gaara's nipples in gentle massaging touches. Soft pants and stiffed cries were growing more audible from the boy below him, which in turn signaled Naruto to pause and draw back from Gaara. "Heh Heh." He smiled with that same bright smile he always carried as he jumped on to Gaara's stomach before the boy could inquire anything from him.

"Naru?" Gaara lifted his head, looking up at Naruto with light curiosity just faintly evident in his tone and expression.

"Just wait." Naruto leaned forward and held himself up with one hand on Gaara's abdomen while his other pulled the towel from his waist. He reached back with one hand and held Gaara's cock steady while he pushed himself back on to the dripping wet length. "...uha." The boy bit down on his lip lightly as Gaara's member penetrated his entrance, slowly forcing itself into the taut heat of his body.

Gaara's head fell back on to the soft white sheets covering his bed, this felt even better then before, he didn't think it was at all possible. It was so tight, and warm, it was amazing, making the blush across his cheeks grow redder and his pants grow heavier. Pain he could take and occasionally he enjoyed since he didn't usually feel any type of physical sensation on account of the sand, but this...it was overwhelming. Gaara lifted his hands from the bed his fingers were currently tearing into and held on to Naruto's legs, lifting up and down onto his throbbing erection. Taking the time to farther impassion himself by watching that lightly tanned rear swallow every inch of his cock.

With one half eye open Naruto gently as he ran his still slightly damp hands over Gaara's stomach and caress the skin with feather soft touches, knowing it only made him even more squeamish. "Gaara..." Naruto clasped on to Gaara's waist and pulled him upward. Gaara got the message, he immediately wrapped his arms around Naruto's back and pulled the boy down on to his chest in a tight embrace while he thrust frantically into the smaller frame.

Naruto held Gaara tightly, pressing his face into the chest before him with an increasingly intensifying hold. "Gaara." Naruto nearly bit down on to the pale flesh, not that Gaara would have at all minded, as his body clinched around Gaara's length and a spurt of cum on to the defined expanses of Gaara's torso.

"..." The sudden tightening of Naruto's muscles around his cock was what did it, the pressure built substantially until one final buck of his hips finally drove him over the edge and the boy above him was filled to the overflow with thick white cum...

Naruto lifted his head enough to look over Gaara's face, still with traces of the blush from before, "So, convinced?"

Gaara had nearly forgotten what Naruto was talking about, but who could remember anything during something like that. "Very."

Naruto nodded lightly as he pushed himself up just enough to reach the discarded towel that had landed on the edge of the bed. He used it to pad himself, and Gaara, dry before tossing it aside again and laying back down on Gaara chest. He could still feel Gaara's heart pounding in his chest, his still heavy breathes...

Gaara took the time to pull his pants up while Naruto had been drying himself, now only half naked he was trying to get his body under control. It just made him wonder how did Naruto do this to him? How could he cause such a reaction every time? Gaara glanced down at Naruto who had a questioning look in his eyes "What is it?"

Naruto reached up in a playful manner, pulling the headphones off of Gaara's neck and settled them over his ears, then he plugged them back into CD player that had been amazingly close to them this whole time. "Pick a favorite song yet?"

"No." Gaara answered in his nonchalant tone, his arm coming to rest behind his head. He liked watching Naruto, even when doing simple things he always seemed so... Naruto-like. Even when he was doing this, something as simple as listening to music he showed so much emotion...Gaara closed his eyes and yawned, he still wasn't sure how this happened, but he always found himself drifting into a blissful sleep with the boy. Sometimes it was just best not to ask questions, just to let it happen...

"I like this one." Naruto drew in his knees and curled up into near ball like form while within Gaara's loose embrace...really loose. "Gaara?" Naruto glanced toward Gaara's face, looking over the peaceful features of a sleeping insomniac. '...I like how he looks when he's sleeping.' Naruto lent upward and kissed Gaara on the cheek was a light smile across his lips. 'He is so cute...' He pressed the muffled headphones clear against his ears though halfway through lowering his hands he found that previous position oddly comfortable.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

He couldn't believe that this had worked, that demon, that Sharingan demon had placed some type of seal on his use of Jutsu. Itachi could still use his Chakra, but every time he preformed a hand seal or a manual Jutsu nothing happened.

He'd laid Kisame down loosely on the couch with obvious haste, probably more like threw him down in a manner that was most likely painful. Though he was pretty sure that Kisame didn't know or care about anything that was happening to him at the moment. He just laid completely lifeless with his eyes wide and his mouth open, dazed and out of it. "Kisame...what the hell did that thing do to you."

Itachi had went through every book he had, trying to find something that would at least mention a Jutsu seal. Chakra seal maybe, but not a Jutsu seal... Itachi tossed the book over his shoulder with evident disregard, this wasn't getting him anywhere! "Damnit!" He sat roughly down next to Kisame, holding him by the shoulders and pulling the man's head down into his lap. "I have to...break through this Jutsu."

Itachi's eyes flared with the glowing red of level 3 Sharingan that pierced into Kisame's dark orbs, peered into his mind. He immediately saw a white flash that hurt his vision, an almost crippling headache tore into his head, making him draw back and the blood line deactivate. "!" Itachi nearly fell as he lent forward and tried to catch his breath, 'W-What was that...' Itachi clinched his pounding forehead, the second he pressed his hand to his skin he felt a sticky fluid coating his palm. He was bleeding, just taking a peek at what was happening inside of Kisame's mind made him actually bleed...

What ever that Sharingan demon had did to his friend, it was made to keep him specifically out. 'What did it do to you?' If Kisame was trapped in place constantly feeling what ever he'd just felt, then he had to bring him out of it as quickly as possible. And if his Sharingan wasn't going to do it he needed to unseal his Jutsus... How the hell was he supposed to do that! Itachi growled in anger and frustration. "That demon."

"Ahhhhhhh!" Kisame started flailing wildly, striking Itachi more then a few times before he knocked the raven haired boy to the ground. Kisame clinched his forehead and quieted again, though his body was shaking and he looked as if he was trying to hold something back.

"Kisame." Itachi pushed him down before he could start flailing again, it was apparent he couldn't do anything for Kisame around here. The man was apparently suffering, and if this kept up there wouldn't be anything left of Kisame to bring back. 20 minutes had been wasted already, he couldn't waste more, so in the interest of doing this as quickly as possible he knew there was only one place he could go.

! - ! - !

Very few people could actually be this comfortable in a position like this. Well the way Konohamaru's body was positioned wasn't particularly remarkable but the fact that he'd been sitting on the Forth floor and the roof of SDI for a half hour in the rain was the important thing. He seemed to be the only person who could fall asleep in the rain, even though he was starting to get cold and he hadn't initially meant to fall asleep, it just happened.

'...Sa...Sasuke?' He wasn't dreaming about anything, though he seemed to be overly sensitive to Sharingan. That small link he and Sasuke had formed through the Uchiha blood line grew substantially over the past year, it was evident every time either one of them fell asleep. Sasuke could tell when Konohamaru was sleeping even to the degree where he could see what he was thinking, though Konohamaru couldn't really do anything with the link unless both of them were sleeping or Sasuke was using Sharingan. 'Sasuke?...Wait...it doesn't feel like you...it feels...if feels like...'

Konohamaru was awakened by the strange feeling, the one that felt like Sasuke only darker, if that was at all possible. Upon his return to awareness he found himself staring up at Itachi, the darker then Sasuke feeling, looking down at him through the dark surrounds with glowing red eyes and Kisame on his shoulder. Most people would have been threatened by this thought, he wasn't in the slightest. Konohamaru lifted the back of his hand to his eyes and wiped away the sleep and stray water "Itachi?" He looked up, mildly confused though not entirely sure that he wasn't dreaming. "What...what are you doing here? And what's with Kisame?"

"That demon did this to him." Itachi sounded aggravated, impatient, he would have to be to come here like this.

"You mean, the one with all those eyes like yours?" Konohamaru climbed off the tiled surface, water streaming out of his clothing. "What happened!"

"That doesn't matter right now." Itachi's voice was forceful, he didn't have time to explain everything to Konohamaru. "I need to use your library, do you have anything on breaking Seals?"

"I don't know." Konohamaru started to become worried, was this the reason he was carrying Kisame like this? Did he have some type of seal on him? "But Neji knows, wait here, I'll go ask."

"Hurry up."

! - ! - !

Sasuke shook the water from his hair in an unusually messy manner, not that he really care since the floors where wood. He lowered his hands to the rim of his blue shirt, being the only person that hadn't changed his regular attire for black and white, and just as he was about to remove the wet clothing he paused. '...' With slow, inconspicuous movements he lower his hands to his waist and into the small pouch on his side, then with swift movements he drew a Kunai and turned around.

He found himself face to face...well not quite face to face but standing in front of a mutated version of his father, covered in large red eyes. "Uchiha."

"You!" Sasuke flipped the blade around in his hand so it was pointing downward as he took a step forward and jumped to eye level with the demon, driving a kick at the eye centered in it's torso. Then he swiped the Kunai across it's neck, the Sharingan demon stepped back out of the way then grabbed him by the face with one hand. "!" Sasuke struggled against the painful grip, trying to pry himself free by pulling at it's arm with no success. So finally he held one hand behind his back while he tried to stab the demon in the arm with the Kunai, he couldn't seem to connect.

"Ice blade." Ice grew from the hand behind his back, at first jagged and uneven but the frozen water continued to pile on to it self and take shape. With in a few seconds it had grown into a smooth, edged short sword which he jabbed at the demon's torso, he could feel the resistance as it plunged into the human flesh, forcing his captor to let go...The hand was no longer obstructing his vision, though part of him wished that it was. He found his office filled with copies of the demon all holding vein images of his mutated father, 30 or so surrounding him. 'Damnit.'

Sasuke grunted and threw the ice sword at the one in front of him, which didn't disappear as he thought it would...the next thing he knew he was being grabbed by the arms and legs, being pushed down to the ground and held. These weren't copies, this was Sharingan! And as much as Sasuke could figure it had been the eye in that demon's palm that did it, he just couldn't believe he hadn't realized it until now...

The demon looked down at Sasuke, laying with dull eyes and squirming lightly on the ground. It would have killed Sasuke off now,-- but instead it looked up...

! - ! - !

Konohamaru landed on a window sill one story down from the roof, with his scarf blowing wildly in the wind behind him he opened the window and climbed in on the second floor balcony of the library. He immediately ran to the railing surrounding the balcony and jumped down to the floor below him, nearly landing on Neji in the process.

"Konohamaru?" Neji looked down on the boy sternly, "What's with all of this water? And watch where your going."

"Sorry Neji but there's no time for that. Do you have anything on Seals?" Konohamaru asked.

Neji glanced around over Konohamaru's head at the books surrounding them "Hmm...Second level on the left side. Why, what for?"

Konohamaru thought quickly, he couldn't say that Itachi was on the roof and he wanted the information, so what could he say? "A demon."

"Is it for a mission?"

"No!" Konohamaru shook his head, smiling nervously before turning around and jumping back on to the second level of the library, he almost yelled when he ran into Itachi. But Itachi covered his mouth before he could make a sound. "..." Konohamaru pushed his hand away "You scared me."

"Where are the books?" Itachi looked around, trying to find a relatively safe place to put Kisame. Having someone stumble on him wouldn't be pleasant, Itachi didn't look forward to fighting SDI, even as skilled as he was it would have been considerably harder to nearly impossible to fight them with out the use of Jutsu.

"Over there." Konohamaru pointed just behind him in the section of book cases Neji had indicated.

Itachi pulled Kisame off of his shoulder and laid him down next to Konohamaru. He gave the boy only a few words before he headed off toward the books. "Take care of him, make sure you keep him out of sight."

"What!" Konohamaru looked down at Kisame, the man looked...to be honest half dead. Konohamaru was worried but still-- "How am I supposed to do that?"

"Just keep him out of sight." Itachi was a little more forceful this time. "I don't have time for this."

"Damnit." Konohamaru placed his hands together and concentrated, just as this had been done thousands of times before Konohamaru's bright golden Chakra started to radiate outside his body. And with 1000s of hours of honing practice Konohamaru ordained the energy into his arms, legs and into his small torso. "Fine, just be careful!" With extra strength coursing through him he lifted the man 3 times his size above his head, though it was awkward since this was the only way he could move Kisame considering the fact that he was so short and couldn't even fit his arms all the way around him. 'Sorry boss.'

Konohamaru headed for the stairs this time, hoping to make it to the basement before anyone saw him, or even worse before Sasuke saw him. He had no idea that Sasuke was in the same state Kisame was. 'Oh god, please Kisame, don't move. Itachi will kill me if I drop you down the stairs!'

Taking a few glances back just to make sure that Konohamaru was alright, then he looked through the books. Glancing over the tittles quickly just to see if something caught his eye...

"Damnit." Itachi drove a swift kick back, striking the Sharingan demon in the forehead and knocking it back a few steps. With the small lead he was able to unsheathe the thin bladed sword on his back and thrust it toward the largest eye resting in the center demon's chest. He hadn't been fast enough though, each eye blinked at once which was linked to an attack that followed. A invisible force pushed Itachi away, it was like in invisible feedback... The next thing he knew he was standing at the edge of a black void, and it was pulling him in.

Itachi drove his sword behind him and held on 'I didn't even notice myself looking...' This thing was too much for him, it seemed to be able to use Sharingan with out end while Itachi couldn't, and with out jutsu he didn't stand a chance..."Sight!" With another flare of his red eyes Itachi's surroundings faded away in black swirls, by the time it was over he was standing in the library again, face to face with the eye on the demon's chest. 'It hasn't attacked me yet, it just keeps using Sharingan...' It hadn't taken Itachi long to figure out his enemy's style of attack, if he couldn't use Jutsu then he'd just beat it physically.

Itachi moved with his usual speed, appearing behind the demon, lifting his sword above his head and slashing downward across it's back. It fell forward on to it's stomach and Itachi closed his eyes while he plunged the sword down into the Sharingan demon's back, and just as he had expected it lifted it's left hand toward Itachi with the eye embedded in it's palm so wide that it was shaking. Though he wasn't sure how it happened, Itachi couldn't feel the demon beneath his sword anymore, he didn't open his eyes to check. He just lifted his sword and swung where his senses told him.

And it connected with something.

Unable to sense a demonic presence anymore Itachi deemed it was safe enough and opened his eyes. 'It ran.' Itachi was standing in front of Neji, and his sword had struck the boy's lifted fist. The only reason Itachi hadn't cut through Neji's hand was the glowing with a white Chakra blocking the edge of his sword.

"What are you doing here?" Neji was not at all excited about the prospect of fighting Itachi and visibly hesitant.

"Hey wait, Itachi--" An empty handed, still soaked Konohamaru ran up the stairs just a few feet behind Itachi and Neji, so rushed that he tripped on the last step and crashed head first into the ground. That's when he saw the two, both of which were looking back at him, and his mind started to race... 'Oh crap...' He didn't have time to worry about that, the reason he came back was more important. "Stop it! There's no time for that!"

"Konohamaru?" Neji's first thought was that the reason Itachi had returned was to recapture Konohamaru, that thought started to lose accountability when he realized that Konohamaru had addressed Itachi specifically. "What's going on?" Neji lowered his hand from the sword and stepped away, still tensely on guard. Itachi only glanced back at Konohamaru with a look in his eyes that inquired what he'd come back for and at the same time told him it better had been a good reason for leaving Kisame...where ever he'd left him.

"I saw it, that demon. It went after Sasuke, it did something to him, but when I tried to fight it off it ran."

"So what?"

"It's coming right--"

Itachi stepped to the side just as the same demon dived down from someplace above, narrowly missing it's target Itachi and falling right into Konohamaru. It's hand slammed into Konohamaru's face, knocking him backwards through the wooden railing and tumbling down. He would have fell down a level if not for Neji who had jumped in between him and the demon right after the impact... "Konohamaru!" Neji slid to a stop from discharging momentum, looking down on Konohamaru who didn't seem to be moving. In fact he didn't even look conscious with the dazed look in his eyes and the slightly twitching mouth.

"Konohamaru, Konohamaru!...Damnit." Neji recognized the demon from Sasuke's descriptions, he could easily tell what happened to Konohamaru. "It used Sharingan on him." And since Sasuke hadn't come after the demon after Konohamaru said that it attacked him, it could only mean something was wrong.

Itachi growled in frustration, first Kisame and now Konohamaru, and he was still no closer to unsealing his jutsu. With anger rolling off of him Itachi appeared in front of Neji with an untraceable speed, His tone rough and demanding when he spoke "What do you know about Jutsu seals?"

"Why are you here!" Neji shot back, his previous question still unanswered. Though he did seem to notice that this demon was after Uchiha family members, it was easy to see that. But it didn't make sense, why was Itachi here, and Jutsu seal?

Itachi sent a swift elbow back at the approaching Sharingan demon, then turned and punched it directly in the face with enough strength to throw it back into the wall. "I don't have time for this." Itachi didn't think Neji would help him so easily, so he had to give him a little incentive. "I'm the only person that can release the Sharingan on Konohamaru, and I can't do that like I am. So just tell me."

He was right, that was the unfortunate part. "There is no Jutsu seal, the only way to seal a jutsu is to seal the hands or the Chakra."

"That can't be right, that demon sealed my Jutsu, I can't use them at all."

"Then figure it out." Neji wasn't focused on Itachi, he was too busy trying to bring Konohamaru out of what ever trance he was in.

...'Hmm...' Itachi watched as the father replication pulled itself off of the impact crater, then it disappeared in a flash of red, the third time it had run from him today, this was all becoming confusing. Before he even attempted to figure anything else out he had to get this seal thing cleared up. 'If there is no Jutsu seal...' Itachi should have thought about this more... 'Then it could only be...' Sharingan hypnosis. There couldn't really be a seal on his Jutsu, he'd just been hypnotized into thinking so. He'd been trying all this time to use his Sharingan on Kisame when he should have tried it on himself. "Damnit, it tricked me."

! - ! - ! - !

'Sasuke...' Sasuke...'

'Kono...Konohamaru?' Sasuke looked around his office, he knew that he was still trapped in the demon's illusion, fighting off copies of his father that had no end. All of it had taken it's toll quickly, he was starting to ware down. 'Konohamaru! Where are you?"

'I-I don't know... that demon...it really hurts.'

'Konohamaru! What happened?'

'That demon, it did...something.'

'Konohamaru!'

! - ! - !

Sasuke sprang upright with a startled gasp, looking around frantically. "Konohamaru!"... He was...he'd broken out of the Demon's Jutsu, and his eyes were glowing so much it was actually painful. He didn't particularly care about what that meant, he had to find Konohamaru!

Sasuke scrambled on to his feet and ran for the door, he was moving so fast that he nearly fell when he tried to stop when the door suddenly flew open just as he reached for it. It ended up slamming into his face and knocking him flat on to his back as the Sharingan Demon made it's emergence. One demon that couldn't seem to make up it's mind and stay in one place.

A very startled Sasuke rolled backwards and ran at the demon since he knew he couldn't wait. He thrust his hand forward, stopping just inches from touching his enemy. "Ice wall." Upon his command a wall of Ice formed between him and the demon, cold enough to dissipate a thick smoke like mist from it's surface. He closed the gap between his hand and the wall with one small movement, causing thick spikes to protrude out of the barrier toward his enemy. '...I think...that did it.'

Nope, not yet

Sasuke jumped up lightly and kicked off the wall, flipping over the demon who had appeared behind him and then thrust his foot into the back of it's head. "I don't have time for this!" Sasuke landed behind the Sharingan demon and bolted past it toward the door.

! - ! - !

'It runs every time another person shows up...'Itachi started to realize some things about this demon, like how it's only means of attack was by the Sharingan, not to say that wasn't a powerful means of attack. And how it ran away when someone else made an appearance, like with Kisame.

"Alright, I told you, now release this Jutsu from Konohamaru!" Neji said firmly, holding the boy in his arms. "Now. Before that demon comes back."

Itachi rolled his eyes as he knelt down next to Neji and slipped his hands under Konohamaru's arms, taking the boy away from Neji. Then he looked directly into his glassy, wonton eyes with his own glowing red ones..."Ahhhhhhaaa!" Konohamaru's eyes widened and his body started squirming and failing, he ended up punching and kicking Itachi several times before he realized where he was. "Oh, sorry Itachi...What happened? Where was I?"

Itachi didn't answer, instead he abruptly dropped Konohamaru and lifted his hand just in time to catch Sasuke's leg. "Leave him alone!" Sasuke called angrily as he was tossed aside by his older brother, he caught himself and landed on his feet.

'Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn!' Konohamaru rubbed his head and his lower back, one hurt by the small fall and the other only farther aggravated by it. 'Not now, not now!' "Sasuke, hey wait!"

Sasuke obviously wasn't listening because he charged at Itachi who easily evaded and blocked anything he threw at him, Itachi wasn't focused on him. The elder Uchiha easily grabbed him by the neck, pulling them face to face "I don't have time to deal with you." He said in low tones, then threw Sasuke into one of the book cases surrounding them.

"Stop!" Konohamaru ran over to Sasuke and abruptly jumped on his chest and tried to hold him down. "Wait! You can't do this, not now--"

"Konohamaru, move." Sasuke gave him a warning, a very callous warning at that.

Somewhere in-between what was happening now and what happened next Itachi had notice Neji was gone, which was his first hit that something was about to go wrong...

Konohamaru didn't even have a chance to respond, the next thing he knew he was being picked up his hair by two hands and brought face to face with a man that looked like an older version of Itachi and Sasuke. The Sharingan demon. "Aaaa...Let me go!" Konohamaru tried to attack it only to find that he couldn't even reach it, and that his head was hurting really, really bad. With a cry of pain Konohamaru reached behind his back for his metal kunais but was stopped with a strong, oppressive and completely unseen force blasted into his chest like a hard punch. He was blown out of demon's hands and through the same window he'd come down from the roof in, leaving chunks of his hair behind.

"Uchiha."

"Konohamaru!" Sasuke dived out of the broken frame and caught Konohamaru before the boy hit the ground, immediately leaping back into the library with him in his arms...and once again the boy was staring up with wanton eyes and a slightly open mouth, he'd been hit with a Sharingan based attack. 'No...' "Konohamaru!"

Itachi, as fast as he was, usually could at lest put a Jutsu in motion with out anyone being remotely aware of his action, allowing him to catch them off guard. But this time he was caught off guard himself, the Sharingan demon was right in front of him with it's left palm extended outward. It was making a strange sound, a gushing sound, like fluid being expelled right before the level 3 Sharingan eye shot from it's hand and on to Itachi's chest. "Uhhrrrga!" Before he could even reach for it the long red optical cord began burrowing into his chest opposite the heart. He fell to his knees, clinching the spot where it had gone... That's when his vision started to blur.

Sasuke jumped on the demon from behind with a Kunai in hand, driving it downward into it's back just short of the neck, his intended target. The Demon stumbled forward as it thrust it's elbow back into Sasuke's stomach then reach upward with it's left hand, pulling him over it's shoulder and slamming him down to the ground before pressing his right against his chest opposite his heart and expelling the Sharingan eye into him just like it had done to Itachi...

"Ahhhhaaa!" Sasuke scratched and pounded at his chest in an attempt to remove it, what scared him was the fact that the pain was dulling and he could feel the hole it created when it dug into his body closing off. His mind didn't have time to wonder about that, it was going other places, literally, he was starting to see things. "No...No!" Sasuke clinched his head and rolled away from the demon, landing on the fallen Konohamaru. "Stop it! Stop it!"

Itachi, incapacitated from this strange force attempting to gain control of his head, could only watch as his younger brother struggled around like a fish out of water while he couldn't even move. Infact he was genuinely impressed at how Sasuke was resisting it while Itachi was fighting a losing battle. 'How...is he...? Konohamaru.' Itachi could see his brother's motivation, how much more he was looking at the boy he'd run into instead of the closing wound, his real problem. And how much his eyes were glowing were not normal, not for the Uchiha blood line at any level. 'He's...'

Sasuke pulled his hands away from his head as he scrambled along the ground and dived at the demon bearing the image of his father, tackling it to the ground and punching it repeatedly in a blind furry. He wasn't worried about himself, he wanted, he needed to help Konohamaru. He could hear things, through that link they had developed, he could hear Konohamaru and the only thing he knew was that what ever he was going through was worse then the first time. "Stop it, Stop it, Stop it!"

Itachi finally just closed his eyes since his vision was so blurred that he couldn't tell if they were open or not anyway, unable to fight against the Sharingan working in opposition to him any longer...and just as he was about to enter the control of the Jutsu, it stopped. Itachi, now able to move again, sat up and opened his eyes. His hand immediately clinched the spot across from his heart, pulling away the layers of clothing to exam it while Sasuke relentlessly and mindlessly pounded the demon. 'How did he do it when I couldn't even get close?'

Itachi noticed that the area where the eye had gone into his body, there wasn't even a trace of what had just happened, he couldn't even feel it. He just knew that it was still there, and he had no way to find it or get it out since it seemed to be moving around. But Sasuke, he only seemed to have been briefly effected by it, he'd succeeded where Itachi had failed...

With a flash of red chakra the demon disappeared and Sasuke fell to his knees without anything under him. "Sa-Sasuke!" Konohamaru shouted as he jumped to his feet though nearly fell out of the window with disorientedness.

That's when it became apparent to Itachi that he didn't have the motivation or the sheer desire to beat that demon, at lest not alone. Especially with this...thing inside of him that could inflict Sharingan at the demon's will, or at lest that's what had just happened now. So the only way could get rid of this demon that wanted the both of them dead was to use Sasuke to do it...no, Sasuke wasn't strong enough to do it by himself, they both would have to...

Sasuke looked in the direction Itachi had been in, only to find the man gone...