"It's Itachi," Sasuke growled. He would know the chakra that he was now feeling anywhere. "What's he doing here?"
"Probably the same thing that we are," Kakashi guessed as he crouched into an offensive position.
Angel landed behind Sasuke and held Kyusuke close to him. Sasuke, noticing that Angel was behind him, immediately made sure that he was between them and where he thought Itachi was.
"Oh little brother," Itachi walked into the clearing with a bored smirk on his face. "I didn't expect to see you here."
"Itachi!" Sasuke growled.
"Although," Itachi continued, "I guess I should have known that you would want to investigate the rumors of a new Uchiha heir. What are you going to do now that you've found him?"
"That's none of your business," Sasuke growled.
"Oh," Itachi said. "Are you going to force him to go back to your village and then care for him as your own?"
"Shut up," Sasuke said.
"I don't think he would want that," Itachi said. "Why don't I just take him myself? That way he doesn't have to choose."
"You won't touch him," Sasuke hissed. "I won't allow you to hurt another one of my clan."
"I don't think you have much of a choice," Itachi shrugged.
Suddenly there was a loud clanging sound as metal hit metal and Sasuke turned to find Angel blocking an attack from Kisame's big sword. Unfortunately, the sword was beginning to eat at Angel's chakra and it just seemed to be getting bigger the longer it snacked. Angel didn't seem to be bothered by it, but he kept looking back at Kyusuke to make sure that he was still doing okay.
Kyusuke's eyes were wide as he stared at the big sword before him. He had never seen anything like it, but he had seen the clouds that were swished behind it. The red clouds. He recognized those because his father had shown them to him and made it very clear that the people wearing the clouds were bad and that they were very dangerous. Kyusuke sometimes had nightmares about them, but he always woke up to find his dad stroking his hair and kissing his forehead and rocking him back and forth until he calmed down enough to fall back asleep. This wasn't one of those times, he knew, but he really wanted it to be. He really wanted to wake up and be in his dad's arms without any visitors from distant villages or dangerous men come to kill him.
Kyusuke couldn't help it as he watched his dad's chakra be sucked out of him, he screamed and tears began to stream down his face as his legs buckled and he fell. Angel winced at the scream and turned his head to look at his son, but that gave Kisame enough time to throw another attack at him. Angel, noticing the pressure leaving his guard, turned back just in time to lift his kunai enough to stop the attack from crushing his face. Instead it sent him flying and cracked his mask. Kyusuke screamed again and ran over to where his dad had collapsed and tried to wake him back up. Sakura silently put herself between them and the attackers.
"You're still not strong enough little brother," Itachi shook his head as Kisame moved to attack Angel again only for Kakashi to get in his way. Itachi didn't really care about that battle anyway. "You're still not strong enough to defeat me. Run. Run away and get stronger still."
"No," Sasuke growled. "I won't run away from you ever again."
"Very well," Itachi shrugged and his eyes morphed into the Mangekyou. Before Sasuke could look away, he was ensnared in the trap.
Sasuke opened his eyes to find himself tied to the post that Naruto had been tied to during their first test with Kakashi. He started to look around, but didn't see much before Itachi appeared right in front of him.
"You should have run," Itachi shook his head. "Now you're going to live your own personal nightmare for the next 72 hours."
"What are you going to do?" Sasuke hissed. "Are you going to torture me? I can handle that just fine."
"Oh no little brother," Itachi replied. "This is your nightmare. You won't be able to handle the torture that I put you through."
Itachi moved to the side and Sasuke's eyes widened at what he saw. In the back of his mind Sasuke knew that none of this was real, but that didn't stop him from trying to escape his bonds even as they rubbed and burned his skin. "Naruto!" he called out without even realizing that he was doing it because Naruto was tied to a post across from his beaten and unconscious. "Naruto! Wake up Naruto!"
Naruto stirred, but he was too late because Itachi was already by his side yanking his head up by his hair so that Sasuke would be the first thing that he saw when he opened his eyes.
"Why don't you tell him what I told you?" Itachi growled in Naruto's ear, but it was loud enough that Sasuke could hear him.
"No," Naruto mumbled. For that he got a stomach full of fist and he coughed up blood. "I love you Sasuke."
"That's not what I told you to say," Itachi hissed. He took out his sword and thrust it into Naruto's side. "Say what I told you to say."
"Tell me Naruto," Sasuke pleaded. He would do anything to make this torture stop. He had an idea of what Itachi was telling Naruto to say since this really was his worst nightmare, and he would willingly hear it if it meant that Naruto would be safe. He would willingly hear Naruto renounce his love of him for that. "Please just tell me."
"I love you Sasuke," Naruto smiled and the torture continued.
"Damn it," Kakashi hissed when he saw Sasuke freeze. Whatever Itachi was making happen in that mind of Sasuke's could not be good and Kakashi wanted to stop it, but he was too busy dealing with Kisame and his chakra-eating sword to be able to even make a move towards Sasuke.
It wound up that he didn't have to. Red chakra thrust from where Angel lay to where Itachi was staring at his brother and Kakashi's suspicions were confirmed. Itachi only barely recognized the threat in time to dodge it, but the chakra followed him into the air and he was forced to twist out of the way. Because of this he lost sight of Sasuke and the rest of the group. Sasuke fell on his hands and knees when he was released gasping and crying.
"Sasuke!" Sakura cried out. She wanted to go to him, but she didn't want she didn't want to leave Kyusuke by himself since Angel had disappeared somewhere.
"I'm fine," Sasuke gasped out. He would be even better if he knew where Naruto was and if the man was safe, but for right now he was fine that he didn't have to deal with that torture any longer.
Angel reappeared with the red chakra surrounding his body behind Itachi and delivered a kick so fast that no one would have seen it if not for the fact that Itachi went flying straight for the tree. Then Angel was on top of him and was driving him into the ground. He landed on top of Itachi's torso; effectively knocking what little air remained in Itachi's lungs out, and dug his hands into his eyes.
"Stop!" Kisame said. Angel took the time to look over at the man to find that he was holding his rather large sword in front of a frozen Kyusuke with Sakura standing off to the side trying to find a way to get close without putting Kyusuke in any more danger. The sword was taking Kyusuke's chakra from his body. "Let him go or I will kill this boy."
Angel growled, the first sound that he made in years, and a tail of red chakra shot through the air to grab the sword right out of Kisame's hands. The sword at the chakra that was now surrounding it happily but it didn't know until it was too late that the chakra was burning it from the inside out. Soon it would become nothing more than a whole lot of melting iron.
With the threat effectively neutralized in Angel's eyes, he went back to pressing his burning hands into Itachi's eyes until there were no eyes left. Itachi screamed throughout the whole thing, but he survived because the chakra had been cauterizing his wounds even as it destroyed his eyes. Angel stood and stared down at the screaming Itachi with satisfaction before he grabbed the man and dragged him over to where Sasuke stood staring at them with wide eyes. Then angel turned to Kisame who was gaping at his now melted iron of a sword. Angel quickly made his way over before Kisame could notice him and knocked him out with one swift motion of his hand.