Here is the next chapter, it's a bit late, sorry. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Itachi still has issues and they only increase and his attitude, well read and see. Please read and review – let me know that you think. Pleasssssse :)

Disclaimer: Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto

Chapter 6

In Defense of Naruto

Itachi sat on the grass with his hands clasped together close to his face. He watched his sensei talking with Naruto, they seemed deep in discussion. "What's he doing here?" He mumbled under his breath, a bit too loudly.

Akima had came up behind Itachi just in time to hear him mumble. "What did you say?" she demanded.

"Wasn't talking to you." he growled.

"Well," Akima said looking around, "I'm the only one around except Sensei and your Hokage. He's so awesome, Even Kazekage Sama holds him in highest esteem."

Itachi glared back at her, "So?"

"So? What do you mean – so? Naruto Sama is a great Hokage. He's one of the greatest."

"Says who?" Itachi stood and faced Akima squarely.

Akima's eyes flashed, "Kazekage Gaara says so."

Itachi stepped forward, "Naruto is nothing but a idiot." he spat out.

Akima stretched herself to her full short height. "How dare you be so disrespectful to your Hokage."

"He's not my Hokage by choice," Itachi's face grew dark.

"Team!" Kakashi called, "Important business, I gotta go for a few minutes. You two start practicing. I should be back before Koho gets here." He waved his hand at the two genin and turned to leave.

"Hey you two, don't kill each other, hee hee." Naruto laughed. He and Kakashi left.

Itachi's eyes turned dark as he stared after Naruto, but he held his tongue.

Akima noticed the change in his demeanor. "What's wrong with you Itachi? Don't you have any respect?"

"Ha," Itachi sneered. "You know nothing about it. You come here from another place with your stupid puppets and think you know all about us of the Leaf. Well – you don't know anything."

"I do so," now it was Akima's eyes that flashed. "In our village we have respect for our Kazekage, he is our leader and our protector. We show him respect."

"Well, maybe if we had someone to respect." Itachi's eyes began to burn and water.

"Itachi, he is a hero and well respected by everyone, even in Suna. He rescued the Kazekage. He saved the Leaf Village, the defeated the Akatski and he won the Ninja War. He even brought your father back to the Leaf"

"Shut up puppet girl! Stupid puppets" Itachi's eyes flashed.

"Puppet girl? you wanna see what this puppet girl can do?" Akima yelled at him. She pulled at the top bundle and out flew an orange haired puppet. "Demon!" Akima yelled, "At him." Before Demon made the attack, Itachi's eyes flashed and his mind saw the attack. He put his hands together and yelled "fireball jutsu" the flame reached the puppet. Akima pulled the chakra strings just as Demon started to become engulfed in flames. She threw the puppet to the ground and smothered the flames. Her anger rose.

Itachi eyes watered and itched ~Sharingan, my sharingan, I have it~ He paused a moment to rub his blurry eyes.

Now was her chance, "Slicer" she yelled. Out flew a huge black spider with ugly green hair and large chakra blades on his legs. He flew so fast at the preoccupied Itachi that he had no time to react.

The chakra blade on Slicers right front leg sliced Itachi's arm leaving a deep red gash from elbow to shoulder. Blood spurted out. Akima stood in horror, "Slicer" she yelled. She pulled on her chakra strings and pulled the spider puppet back off from Itachi. He fell to the ground holding his arm, blood oozing out of the wound. Akima was stunned, she ran to Itachi and knelt beside him. "Itachi, are you okay?"

"What do you think?" he glared at her. "I'm bleeding to death." Akima didn't know what to do, she was no med nin. ~What will the Kazekage say? What will happen? I'll get sent home. I'll be a disgrace to the Sand Village. What about Itachi, what if he dies?~ She looked up and saw Koho approaching. "Koho, get help, please," she cried in desperation. " I think I - I just killed Itachi, hurry." Koho took off in a flash to the med center to find help.

Itachi lay on the ground holding his arm, ~What the heck did she do to me?~

Lady Sakura looked at her son laying on the hospital table. Her mind almost oblivious to those around her.

"Only a chakra blade makes a cut like that." Sakura realized it was Kakashi who spoke these words.

"Just how bade is it?" he asked.

Sakura looked up at the Shinobi. "Not bad, doesn't seem to be any really damage, just a lot of blood. A lot of kids panic when they see blood, espically their own."

"I see." Kakashi grinned under his mask.

"Here, help my aid get him into the bed. Easy." The two moved the young genin from the table into the bed.

"How long will he be down?" The masked man questioned.

Sakura looked at her sleeping son. "He will be up and ready to go in a couple of days. Just a fraction of an inch deeper and it would have been a disaster."

The yellow haired hokage sat on top of his desk. The copy Ninja sat in the window seal. The bushy browed shinobi sat next to his pink haired wife with his arm around her. All were staring at a small boned, short girl who had two puppets on her back. She stood in the center of the floor with her head hung looking at the floor. She wished she could disappear. Beside her stood a shinobi dressed in black clothing and hood, with purple face paint and some scrolls on his back. "Well, Akima, what do you have to say for yourself?" he demanded.

"Kankuro sama, I - I didn't mean to - to hurt him. We just got into a disagreement. I went into defensive mode."

"What?" Kankuro screeched, "You got into a disagreement and nearly kill your team mate!"

"Ya," came the shy voice, "I didn't mean to, but he provoked me."

"AKIMA" the Suna puppet master said firmly.

Akima's head snapped up "Yes?"

"You are here to represent the village of Suna and to learn their ways. Is this what they teach you? To attack your team mate? "You were only to spar not kill." Kankuro gave her a long cold stare.

"N - no," came a timid reply.

The Hokage arose from his seated position, walked over to Akima, and squatted on his haunches making himself eye level with her. His blue eyes stared into her brown eyes. "You said you went into defensive mode is that right?"

"Yes." came her timid reply.

"I guess everyone feels they have the right to defend their own land." he smiled at her.

"Sir, I - I wasn't defending my own land. I was defending yours." a single tear ran down her cheek.

"What? You were defending the Leaf Village?" Naruto couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Well," she hesitated, "Actually I" she hesitated a moment. "to be precise, I was defending you." then she smiled at her idol through tear filled eyes.

Naruto froze in place. "You were defending me? Why?"

Akima straightened her shoulders, "Because, Hokage sama, you weren't there to defend yourself."

Sniffles came from the bushy eyebrowed man. "What an honorable thing to do."

The white haired shinobi let out a chuckle. "It seems to me Naruto, that you have a number one fan here."

Naruto stood and scratched his head, "You took drastic measures to defend me. Why? I'm not even

your hokage?"

Akima thought out her words carefully. Then she slowly addressed the Leaf Village Kage. "Before I came here, Gaara Sama, our Kazekage, told me of what you have done for him. That you saved his life and you are his closest friend and I must represent Suna and show my greatest respect for you and your village. I have great respect for Gaara Sama and I want to please him and do his bidding. I could not in all good conscientiousness let someone degrade the famous Leaf Village Hokage and stand idly by. You see, I just had to do something. Please don't send me back until I have completed what I was sent to do." More tears ran down her cheeks.

Sakura rose from her chair. "Please let me speak. It is my guess that my son had as much, if not more to do with this than Akima." She turned pleading eyes to Kankuro, "Please let her stay and finish her training. I am on the committee and have fought long and hard to give the student exchange program a good start. I would like her to stay." "Besides, there wasn't any serious damage done. It just looked worse than it was, just a lot of blood. He is fine, really."

Kankuro stared at Sakura. "This may be more difficult than you think, Lady Sakura. The council of Suna is not, nor ever has been in favor of this exchange. However, since my brother is Kazekage and is in favor of this exchange, perhaps we can work this out."

Naruto nodded his head and laughed. "I must take part of the blame. I am the one who came and asked Kakashi to leave his students for a time. Perhaps we can report it as a mock disaster training for med nin." Kakashi's eye widened and he grinned under his mask. Sakura started to rise in protest but thought better of it. Lee raised his eyebrows then nodded in agreement. Kankuro slowly nodded his head knowing that Gaara would agree.

Naruto continued, "I think that we can all agree that what happened here will not leave this room. As far as I am concerned, this will be reported as a mock disaster. Now lets all go have some ramen."

Sakura leaned over the tiny herb plants in the greenhouse. "Itachi," she jerked up a weed, then another. " I can't believe that you can act as if you had nothing to do with this." She made her voice as calm as possible.

"Hey, she started it." Itachi growled. "She made the first attack."

"No." Sakura's voice was hard and steady. "You did, you made a verbal attack on Naruto. That's what started it."

Itachi squinted his eyes, he didn't raise his voice. "How can you defend him? He's nothing but a jerk."

"Itachi, Naruto is my friend and he was your father's friend." Her voice quivered a bit. "Son, he brought your father back to me and to the Leaf."

"Ya," Itachi's voice rose a bit, "and because of that my father died. Naruto inflicted those wounds that killed my father didn't he?" His voice got louder. " Didn't he?" Itachi's body shook with emotion. "If you were any kind of Shinobi you would have found a way to bring him back and save him."

Son we all tried. Perhaps if you would go to the archives and look up the Sauske Retrieval then you'd know how we all tried. Neji Hyuga was nearly killed and so was Choji Akimichi. Kiba Inuzuka was badly wounded, and Lee wasn't even healed from his chunin examine wounds, but he still fought. We all tried, but in the end only Naruto could do it.

Sakura hung her head in silence. Slowly she began to speak. Her voice was low and began to shake. "..he..did it... for me. Naruto promised me," she paused a moment then continued, "he promised on his life, that he would bring your father back. I - I guess I am the one to blame. I knew that Naruto was the only one strong enough who could bring him back." Sakura took a big breath, "Son, if anyone killed your father, then I guess it was me. Naruto went for me." She hung her head to hide the tears. " I wasn't able to bring your father back, it took Naruto.

Itachi opened the door then turned to his mother. Paused for a moment, "I have my father's strength in me and I have learned Lee's tai-jutsu. And now I have the sharingan." He slammed the door as he left.

"The sharingan," she whispered. Sakura fell to the floor on her knees and her hands clasped together. A white haired figure emerged from the background., He knelt beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder and spoke softly. "He is like his father isn't he?"

Sakura jerked her head up looking the great Copy Ninja in the eye. "Yes, too much so, and now he has the sharingan. He will be almost unstoppable." She shook her head, "I fear he thinks me weak and has no respect for me as a ninja. Kakashi stood and put his hand to his masked chin. "Hmmm, let me think." then he scratched his head. "I've got it. Let's just show him what you can do."

Sakura raised her tear stained face, "What?"

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Obviously Kakashi and Sakura are up to something. We shall see, next chapter. PLEASE leave a review and let me know what you thought. Have a wonderful day.