I would apologize for the time it took to get this latest chapter out, but Life's been too cruel to even let me think about writing lately. This chapter is extremely long, and I apologize but it just couldn't be helped.
Oh, and I took some artistic licensing for some things this chapter...
Chapter Thirteen: Final Showdown
Sasuke crashed through the shadowy foliage of the trees, not even bothering to try and mask his presence with stealth. He could focus on nothing but the throat-tightening swell of panic churning inside him. What was Naruto thinking sneaking off like that? What was he hoping to accomplish? Didn't he know throwing his life away wasn't going to solve anything? The stupid idiot! He didn't care how sick the other boy was, whenever he found him he was going to physically beat some sense into that numbskull's head and then drag him back to Konoha by the scruff of his neck.
It hadn't taken long to alert the other rookies of Naruto's disappearance and form small search parties. Shikamaru had gone to check with teams guarding other areas of the compound, but none of them had seen the boy and there was no sign of Naruto anywhere else in the area.
How was that possible? How could a half-dead boy barely strong enough to walk sneak past several teams of highly trained ninja guarding every entrance to the compound? It just didn't make any sense!
Naruto might have outgrown some of his clumsiness and learned a little bit more on the subtle art of stealth since becoming a gennin all those years ago, but there was no way Naruto could have gotten that good. Especially not in the state he was in.
And then it had hit Sasuke like a punch to the gut. The tunnel Akatsuki had used to get into Konoha. That was the only answer. That was the only way Naruto could have gotten out without anyone noticing him. The shrine was only a short distance away from that part of the mansion, and it was far enough inside the compound that patrolling teams could have missed him going inside.
Sasuke cursed himself as he delved deeper into the forest, following the trail of his illusive friend. He was such a fool. He should have thought of Naruto using that tunnel to slip away earlier. Naruto had to have at least a thirty minute head start on them now. There was no saying how far Naruto had gotten, or what he was planning to do. They had to find him as fast as they could and bring him back. If not from Akatsuki, then he had to protect the idiot from himself.
Sasuke desperately scanned the forest beneath him as he leapt from branch to branch. Naruto's trail had faded some time ago and it was getting harder to see. The lights of Konoha had all but disappeared behind the thick cover of trees. The only thing to shed any light was the faintest hint of moonlight filtering through the leaves. Sasuke was sure he had to be at least two miles outside of the village's eastern wall by now. The forest was unnervingly quiet. He'd lost track the others that had followed him through the tunnel. As far as he knew Shikamaru, Hinata, Kiba, Neji and the others were all searching other areas of the forest.
Where are you, Naruto? he wondered as he paused on the edge of a branch and scanned the ground below. He stretched out his senses to try and detect any hint of the other boy's chakra signal, but could feel nothing. It wasn't too surprising though. Gai and Kakashi's Five Point Seal had closed off almost all of Naruto's chakra lines. He would have been surprised if Naruto could manipulate enough chakra now to even perform a simple first year academy jutsu.
Gritting his teeth in frustration, Sasuke sped on.
How far did Naruto get? Even with such a lead, he couldn't have gotten that far. The boy was at the end of limits - both mentally and physically. There was no way he could have made it this far.
For a moment Sasuke considered doubling back and covering another section of forest. He had to hurry and find the other boy. There was no saying what Naruto was planning to do. Where could he possibly be heading? There was nothing but forest and open wildness for miles around in this direction. The next closest village was Sand, and that was more than three days' journey away on foot. Gaara was still in Konoha from Sand and Leaf's joint attack on Akatsuki several days before, so Naruto couldn't be going to see him. Plus, it was doubtful he would be trying to head for another village. He was already afraid of his curse seal breaking again and him hurting other people, so it was unlikely he'd risk going near another place that had a large population.
So then where was he heading? There was nowhere out here for him to go.
Unless…
Unless he wasn't trying to actually get anywhere at all...
Sasuke unconsciously quickened his pace, his heart hammering against the inside of his ribs. He had to find the idiot. The boy was out of his mind with guilt right now. He wasn't thinking straight. Sasuke just hoped he wasn't too late to stop his friend from doing anything stupid. Because if he was-
Sasuke abruptly cut that line of thought off. He didn't want to even consider that horrible possibility. He'd already experienced the pain of losing his friend once, and couldn't stand the thought of going through it again. He knew he wouldn't be able to survive it. The memory of Naruto's blood staining his hands still haunted his dreams like a nightmare he could never fully wake up from. He couldn't let that happen again.
He wouldn't.
Suddenly, up ahead through the trees, Sasuke saw a clearing. Moonlight bathed the area in ghostly blue light. On instinct, Sasuke veered towards it. For some reason it seemed like a place Naruto might go. Maybe he could pick up his trail again from there.
As Sasuke darted through the shadowy foliage, weaving his way through the dense branches, the trees suddenly parted to give him a clear view of the clearing -
And Sasuke felt his heart freeze.
There, standing in the middle of the clearing, were two dark figures dressed in Akatsuki robes. Their backs were to him; one of them, his sword drawn. A third figure was there, kneeling on the ground several paces in front of them in a crumbled heap.
As Sasuke watched, the Akatsuki ninja with the sword stepped towards the third figure, the blade of his katana flashing in the moonlight. The defeated figure slowly raised his head to watch the other's approach. Moonlight spilled over his haggard features like liquid quicksilver, and Sasuke once again felt his chest constrict with dread.
Naruto…
Just as he'd already begun to suspect even before he'd seen the other's face, the third person was none other than his missing teammate and friend. Sasuke also had little doubts now as to who the two Akatsuki ninja with him were. He had no idea why his estranged brother and partner were still so close to Konoha, but knew it couldn't bode well for the boy kneeling before them.
Naruto seemed detached from the situation even as Itachi stepped up to him and leveled his sword at the blond's chest. The boy slowly looked up at Itachi. Sasuke saw Naruto's lips quiver, as if whispering something only the older Uchiha could hear. Then, closing his eyes, Naruto tilted his head back to expose his neck to the missing Leaf-nin's blade, and smiled.
Sasuke felt his blood run cold. Pushing more effort into his already stinging leg muscles, the panicked shinobi struggled to cover the last few yards still separating him from the clearing.
Itachi had already begun to draw his sword back over his shoulder, ready to deliver the final blow. Naruto calmly knelt there, not moving or even trying to get away. His eyes were closed, his features soft and almost peaceful in the moonlight. It was almost like he welcomed the release Itachi's sword was prepared to offer him.
But before Itachi could bring his sword down on the helpless boy, Sasuke finally reached the edge of the clearing and propelled himself off the final branch out of the tree cover into open air. Sailing airborne, he whipped several shuriken from his ninja pouch and sent them flying at his older brother.
"Get away from him, you bastard!" he screamed.
Itachi whirled around at the sound of his voice, his Sharingan spinning. His brother's eyes narrowed. Then moving faster than Sasuke could track, Itachi twisted away from Naruto and back-sprung to the side just as a hail of shuriken peppered the ground right where he'd been standing only half a second before.
Sasuke hit the ground and skid to a halt in front of his kneeling friend. Whipping a kunai from his leg holster, he spun to face the two Akatsuki. His lips were pulled back from his teeth in a fearsome snarl, every muscle in his body as tense as a drawn bow string. He moved so that he stood directly in front of Naruto and sunk into a low battle stance to shield the other boy with his body.
"You bastards come any closer, I'll tear you both to pieces," he snarled. His vision swam red, and not just from his activated bloodline trait. Panic, fear, anger, and adrenaline pulsed through his veins so strongly it was almost painful.
"Sasuke," Naruto's startled voice rasped behind him.
His eyes never straying from his older brother or sword-wielding partner, Sasuke shouted back over his shoulder, "Run, Naruto! I'll hold them back. Shikamaru, Neji, and the others should be nearby. Find them and have them take you back to the village. You'll be safe there."
"No. I can't…"
"They're not far," Sasuke insisted, desperate to get his friend moving and away from Itachi and Kisame. His kunai remained expertly trained on the two. "Just run for it! I'll hold them off. You can make it. Go!"
"No, Sasuke," Naruto said, shaking his head. "It's no use. Just let them do what they came to do. It's what I want…"
Momentarily forgetting about his brother and partner, Sasuke spun halfway around towards Naruto, his blood running cold. "What?"
"Please, Sasuke," Naruto said as he stared up at him as if pleading him to somehow understand. "I'm too dangerous to be left alive. I've already hurt so many people. I don't want to hurt anyone else. Kyuubi's getting so strong. I can't fight him anymore. They can stop Kyuubi once and for all." Naruto desperately stared at Sasuke, the moonlight illuminating the unshed tears in the corners of his eyes. "Please, Sasuke," he whispered, "they can make the pain go away…"
Staring into his friend's pain-filled eyes, Sasuke felt his throat constrict, and for a moment he could barely breath. The misery in Naruto's voice was almost tangible. He felt as if his heart was about to break. How could so much pain be expressed in so few words? Naruto's eyes seemed to stare straight down into him. The suffering in them was almost unbearable to look at. It was like Naruto was somehow trying to give him a glimpse of the suffering that had become his life.
"Naruto…" Sasuke whispered, struggling to keep his voice from breaking as he stared into his friend's empty blue eyes. "Please don't do this…"
"You're being selfish, little brother," Itachi's voice suddenly said from the other side of the clearing. "You should listen to what your friend has to say."
Sasuke angrily whipped back around and glared at his brother. His snarl was once again in place and kunai threateningly held out towards his older brother. "You stay away from him, Itachi," he hissed. "I'm not going to let you hurt him anymore."
Itachi slowly took a step towards him. "Can't you see how much pain he's in?" he said. "Can't you see how much he's suffering? Why won't you let him go? You say you're his friend, yet you continue to make him stay here and suffer. Don't you care about what he wants? You're being so selfish keeping him alive like this. It's almost cruel."
"Shut up!" Sasuke screamed. He was gripping his kunai so tightly, he was probably going to have indentations from the handgrip in his palm when he let go. His entire body shook with barely contained rage. He could barely keep the tip of his kunai properly trained on his brother anymore his hand shook so badly. "Don't you dare talk about how much suffering he's in when it's you that did this to him!"
Itachi shook his head in mock disappointment. "You're so narrow minded, little brother," he sighed. "We never wanted to keep your friend alive for so long. He was suppose to die the first time we did the Seal Breaking ceremony. His suffering would have been over a long time ago if he'd just stopped trying to fight us. And now, when we're here to put an end to this entire mess and put your little friend out of his misery, you refuse to let him go. Tell me, brother, have you really become that selfish that you'd continue to make him suffer just for your own needs?"
"Only because you've taken everyone else I've ever cared about away from me!" There were tears now in Sasuke's eyes - both from anger and unforgotten loneliness and pain. His lower lip began to tremble. "I refuse to let him go because he's the only person I have left! If that makes me selfish, then so be it! But I'm not going to let you take Naruto away from me too! I'm not going to let him give up that easily!"
"Sasuke…" Naruto's voice trembled behind him.
The dark haired boy looked behind him again to find Naruto staring at him in utter anguish. There were tears in the blond's eyes. As he watched, a single tear slipped from Naruto's eye and flashed down the side of his face. "Sasuke, I'm sorry," he whispered. Hanging his head, Naruto hid his face behind a fringe of overgrown bangs. "I'm so sorry… I never wanted to make you this upset. I'm just so tired… I'm so tired of hearing Kyuubi all the time in the back of my head. He won't ever be quiet or go away. I just can't take it anymore…"
"Do you hear him, Sasuke?" Itachi intoned from the other side of the clearing. He was eyeing them like a predator waiting for its injured prey to stop thrashing and lay still so it could move in for the final kill. "Do you hear how he wants you to stop making him suffer like this?"
"Shut up, you bastard!" Sasuke screamed as he wheeled back around towards his brother, his kunai shaking in his fist. He felt like he'd just become the center of some kind of tug of war with Naruto and Itachi both trying to pull him in directions he had no desire to go.
"Sasuke, please," Naruto murmured, pleadingly staring at the dark haired boy's back. "I don't know when Kyuubi'll try to get out again. I don't know if I'll be able to stop him a second time. Please, Sasuke, just let me do this. Let me go. I don't want to hurt you if Kyuubi gets out again. Please… it's for the best…"
"Be quiet, idiot! You don't know what you're talking about! I already told you I'm not going to let you give up that easily. I don't care what you think, you're going to pull yourself together and fight! I know you can do it!" Sinking into a low fighting stance, he then turned back towards the two Akatsuki, his kunai challengingly held out in front of him as if daring them to try and come any closer to him or his friend.
"It doesn't look like your brother's going to let the boy go without a fight, Itachi," Kisame said. He stared at Sasuke with growing annoyance. "Let me take care of him. We're only wasting time playing games like this. Just let me finish him off so we can kill the demon-vessel and leave."
"Fine," Itachi sniffed. "I don't think my little brother would have given me much of a worthwhile fight anyway."
Sasuke grit his teeth and dug his heels into the ground as Kisame unhooked his overlarge sword from his back and stepped forward to face him.
Naruto frantically looked between his teammate and the shark-faced Akatsuki. "No!" he cried, struggling to rise to his feet. "Leave Sasuke out of this! Just kill me and let him go! There's no reason for you to hurt him too!"
"Maybe if he hadn't come out here looking for you," Itachi replied, "but since he's so bound and determined to throw his life away, then we have no choice but to honor his wishes."
Naruto looked horror-stricken, as if he were seconds away from being physically ill.
"Naruto, run and find the others!" Sasuke yelled, still warily eyeing the missing Mist-nin. "They'll take you back to the village. I'll hold these two back long enough for you to get away!"
"No!" the other shinobi wailed, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "I'm not going to leave you here just to get killed! I don't want anyone else to get hurt because of me!"
"I'm not going to die that easily," Sasuke yelled. "Just run for it! I can take care of myself."
But Naruto just shook his head, refusing to move.
Sasuke grit his teeth in frustration. Why did Naruto have to chose now of all times to be so annoyingly stubborn? But then again, what was he to expect when it was partially because of Naruto's stubbornness to listen that they were out here in the first place?
Kisame stepped towards them, his pointed teeth bared in a wicked grin. With a sharp flick of the wrist, the cloth wrapping of his gigantic sword came loose and unraveled to the ground like the shed skin of some giant snake. The blue, scaly texture of the sword's "blade" glittered in the moonlight. Sasuke warily eyed the unusual weapon. He'd overheard other jounin in the village talking about it once - namely Asuma who'd once had a run-in with the missing Mist-nin and his estranged older brother - and how its blade was used to literally shred its opponent's flesh instead of cleanly slice like a normal blade. He'd also heard of the sword's strange ability to absorb chakra. He was going to have to be careful. Especially with Naruto so close…
"I do hope you'll give me at least a little bit of a fight," Kisame said with a grin. "It's been awhile since I've been able to put Samehada to good use."
Sasuke grit his teeth and carefully stepped away from Naruto to give himself more room. His kunai remained poised in a wary guard in front of his chest. "I'm not letting you anywhere near my friend," he said with a dangerous growl. "You'll have to kill me before I let you near him."
Kisame's toothy grin widened. "How amusing. Because that was exactly what I was planning to do." Then, moving faster than Sasuke expected, the shark-man whipped his sword back over his shoulder like a giant baseball bat. Then swinging it back around, a wall of water suddenly appeared as if it'd been conjured from the very air itself by the gigantic blade, and sped towards Sasuke like a destructive tsunami.
The wave slammed into him with the force of a battering ram, sending him flying backwards off his feet. He hit the ground hard, water pooling and eddying around him. As he coughed and sputtered and hurriedly struggled to get back to his feet, the water seeped back into the ground and disappeared, almost as it'd never even been there at all.
A bit shaken by this unexpected jutsu, the tomoe spokes ringing Sasuke's Sharingan whirled as he spun back towards his opponent. How'd he do that? He didn't even see him use any hand seals. He'd also never heard of anyone being able to summon water like that out of thin air. It just wasn't possible…
"I can see you're surprised," Kisame noted with a smug look. "In the land of Mist, my people have learned a number of water-based jutsu you Fire-ninja have never even dreamed of. I'll just say that anywhere I can summon water instantly becomes my ideal battle ground. And I can summon water anywhere…"
Sasuke twirled the kunai in his hand around so that his thumb and forefingers were free, and sent his hands flying into a complex series of hand seals. Chakra crackled the air around him, and he felt the earth beneath him violently shift. Rocky protrusions shot up out of the ground towards Kisame. The entire side of the clearing the two Akatsuki ninja stood suddenly seemed to uproot itself and flip over, as if the earth was convulsing and trying to turn itself inside out.
"If Water is your strongest element, then that just means I have to defeat you using Earth!" Sasuke yelled over the thunderous roar of rock and dirt.
For a moment, Sasuke lost sight of Kisame and Itachi behind the sections of up-heaved land. Clouds of billowing dust filled the air and hung over the area like a thick blanket. Sasuke stood in a tense ready-stance, his Sharingan cautiously scanning the area. He knew he couldn't count on a single jutsu - even one as destructive and powerful as the one he'd just used - to be able to finish off his friend's would-be assassins that easily. Itachi and his partner were too vindictive to just quietly die and leave the rest of them in peace.
As if in confirmation of his suspicion, two dark figures suddenly shot up out of the shifting cloud of dust and perched themselves on two rocky protrusions sticking out of the torn up ground like geological fingers pointed at the night sky. They stared down at him from the height like two black carrion birds of death. Sasuke was dismayed to note that neither of them appeared to even have a scratch.
"I must admit, little brother, that was quite impressive," Itachi's voice rang out. "When did you learn such an interesting jutsu?"
"When I was training to kill you!" Sasuke snarled.
The mocking chortle of Itachi's laughter echoed across the clearing.
"Unfortunately, I won't get the opportunity to see any more of those jutsu you learned since Kisame's already asked to have the pleasure of killing you. For me to finish you off, I fear, would only be a waste of my time and skill."
Sasuke snarled, a venomous retort poised on the tip of his tongue to spit at the living epitome of all his hatred and revenge. But he never got a chance to speak those words; for just then, Kisame took the opportunity to attack.
Like a black blur, he leapt from his rocky perch down onto Sasuke, his sword hoisted over his head with both hands as if to cleave the boy straight down the middle from head to toe.
Sasuke dove to the side, just barely missing the deadly blade. He rolled on his shoulder across the ground and nimbly sprung back to his feet. He spun around just in time to parry Kisame's sword away from him with his kunai before it could shred his stomach open like a giant cheese grater. The bones all the way up the length of his arm vibrated with the force of the shark-man's swing.
Unable to push back the attack, Sasuke twisted away and back-sprung several paces to put some distance between himself and his opponent. He knew he had no hope of winning a hand-to-hand battle with the man. Kisame was just too strong to be overpowered like that.
As he turned to face Kisame again, however, he was startled by a sudden wave of lightheadedness that hit him like a physical blow to the face. His staggered backwards a step, shaking his head as a hazy ring of darkness tunneled his vision. He was suddenly exhausted, as if all the strength had been sucked right out of him. His entire body began to tremble. His breathing became labored, coming in short desperate gasps. Sweat rolled down the sides of his face in thin, watery lines.
"What did you do to me?" he hissed, furiously blinking his eyes against the ring of darkness. He was finding it hard to keep his fingers wrapped around his kunai anymore.
Kisame smiled in response, his pointed teeth flashing in the moonlight. "Ah… So I see you're finally feeling the effects of Samehada. I'm sure you've heard of its ability to absorb chakra, but I bet you didn't know it can also drain people of chakra too. Anyone who comes within striking range of it can instantly be drained of fifteen percent of their chakra reserves. You're lucky you actually managed to dodge it when I came at you - and not just because it would have shredded you to ribbons. A direct hit from Samehada can drain a ninja of more than seventy-five percent of his available chakra." The missing Mist-nin flashed Sasuke a leering grin. His yellow eyes gleamed in the moonlight. "Knowing that now, let's see how well you do this time when I come at you…" Then hoisting his giant sword aloft, the blue-skinned Akatsuki lunged at Sasuke.
By this time, the initial dizziness of having a portion of his chakra drained had passed, and Sasuke had regained a tentative hold over himself again. Unfortunately, he was still no match for the Mist Swordsman's sheer strength and speed, and was forced to hurriedly backpedal to evade each of Kisame's sword swings with barely any opening in between to lunge in for an attack himself.
Pushed more and more onto the defensive, Sasuke struggled to hold his ground against the Akatsuki's deadly advance. He felt like he was trying to fight back an oncoming train. Kisame ruthlessly pressed his attack. Sasuke tried several different genjutsu and ninjutsu techniques, but all of them seemed useless against the more powerful ninja. He could feel himself progressively getting weaker each time Kisame came near him. He felt like an invisible string had been tied between his inner chakra coils and Kisame's sword. Each time the blade came close, it felt as if that string was tugged and unraveled a little bit more inside him, leeching him of strength.
If he didn't do something soon, he knew he wasn't going to last much longer. Judging by how difficult it was becoming to summon the strength needed to dodge and evade Kisame's attacks, he'd already lost more than sixty-five percent of his original chakra reserves…
Kisame suddenly swung his sword at Sasuke middle. Cart wheeling backwards to evade the strike, Sasuke twisted midair and spun around back towards the other ninja. His hands flew into a set of hand seals. Then, poising his two forefingers in front of his lips, he summoned his waning chakra to the back of his throat. And with a thunderous cry of, "Kanton Fireball!" sent a massive plume of fire streaking towards the missing Mist-nin.
Kisame disappeared from view behind the blinding wall of flames. After several moments Sasuke cut the flow of chakra to his mouth off, and the plume of flames disappeared. In front of him stood a scorched track of dirt.
But there was no sign of Kisame anywhere.
Sasuke hurriedly looked around, searching for the missing Swordsman. But before his fire-scorched retinas could even fully readjust to the dim moonlight overhead, a dark figure suddenly seemed to rematerialize out of nowhere just off to Sasuke's right. The boy quickly spun around towards it, his kunai raised in defense.
But he was too slow.
Before he could dodge or even step back in surprise, fiery hot pain exploded across his right hip and side. An agonized scream tore from his lips, and he was sent crashing to the ground. He lay there in a jumbled heap panting for breath, gritting his teeth against the throbbing pain as blood began to seep through the shredded remains of his shirt and into the ground beneath him. He felt as if he'd just been raked across the side with sandpaper, nails, and jagged shards of glass.
"Sasuke!" Naruto's frantic wail sounded somewhere just behind him.
Sasuke desperately tried to force himself back off the ground to stand. But his body suddenly seemed unwilling to respond to his commands. It was like he no longer even had the strength to move…
A nasty chuckle forced Sasuke to give up his struggles and look up at the looming figure above him. Kisame gave a snickering laugh as he stared at the helpless, bleeding boy at his feet. He stood with the guard of his sword resting in the hollow of his shoulder like some foreign harbinger of death. His unnatural yellow eyes seemed to shine with their own demonic light.
"That hurt didn't it?" he chuckled, his lips pulled back in a malicious grin. He critically eyed the bloody mess of torn flesh and cloth spanning Sasuke's side. "Pity. It doesn't look like I managed to chip any bone. Despite whatever your brother says, you're faster than you look. You managed to last much longer against me than I ever thought you would. Unfortunately, I doubt you'll be able to move around much anymore crippled the way you are. Plus, it looks like Samehada drained you of most of your remaining chakra with that last hit. So it looks like our fun together is over…"
Stepping closer, Kisame shifted his sword off his shoulder and swung it up over his head like an executioner taking position over the neck of his prisoner stretched out over the chopping block. Sasuke impassively glared at him, not giving away any of his inner emotions. He didn't want Kisame to have the pleasure of seeing even the tiniest hint of fear or regret flash through his eyes.
Kisame seemed disappointed by the lack of emotions on his victim's face, and scowled. Drawing his sword high up into the air, he prepared to bring it down on the helpless boy.
But before he could deliver the final deadly blow, a sudden shout and weak flare of chakra just off to the side startled both Kisame and Sasuke into looking up at the unexpected newcomer.
Sasuke felt his heart seize and blood freeze.
Barely several paces away, Naruto stood on violently trembling legs, his hands poised in the hand seal of a chakra-summoning jutsu. Faint sparks of energy crackled the air around him, but faded out of existence so quickly Sasuke couldn't be sure he'd actually even seen them at all. The air around the blond sluggishly churned, like the brackish undercurrent of a stagnant lake. A weak pulse of energy radiated off him, but it was like the rumble of a distance thunderstorm muffled by some invisible barrier.
Naruto's entire body shook with the effort to stay standing. A thick sheen of sweat had broken out across his forehead. His teeth were bared in a strained grimace of pain. To Sasuke, he looked like he was mere seconds away from collapsing. Yet despite all this, the fiery look of determination in Naruto's eyes as he stared at the shark-faced ninja above him was almost frightening.
"Get away from Sasuke," he growled, his raspy voice suddenly dangerous and as hard as steel. He changed hand seals, and Sasuke felt the air around Naruto crackle again with a frighteningly weak pulse of restrained chakra. As chakra strained to break past the barrier seal on his stomach, Naruto visibly faltered, almost dropping back to his knees.
"Naruto, what are you doing?!" Sasuke yelled, staring at his friend in horror. "Stop it! You know you can't manipulate chakra right now! If you try to push past Kakashi's seal, you'll only hurt yourself!"
"I don't care!" Naruto yelled. His eyes were like two points of molten sapphire, his entire body tense as if the only thing keeping him standing anymore was sheer willpower. "I'm not going to let anyone else get hurt because of me!"
"Idiot! You're going to kill yourself!" Sasuke screamed. He angrily tried to push himself off the ground to stand, but the pain that blossomed across his side at the movement effectively stilled any more of his efforts to rise. "You can't fight like this! Just run and find the others! Stop trying to be the hero!"
"No! If I die then at least I'll die protecting my friend instead of becoming some kind of puppet for Kyuubi and killing everyone I care about, or being the reason Akatsuki keeping attacking the village! I'm not going to let you or anyone else I know get hurt!"
Above Sasuke, Kisame gave a throaty laugh. "How amusing," he simpered. He glanced at Itachi on the other side of the torn up clearing. "I have to say, Itachi, you Leaf-ninja are cloyingly sweet in how willing you are to sacrifice yourselves for one another."
"Please do not group me in the same category as them," Itachi sniffed. "We might be from the same village, but I am nothing like them. Only those who are weak or pathetically naïve would throw their own lives away like that."
Another chuckle from Kisame. "Well said," he agreed. He slowly looked back at Naruto, then down at Sasuke and grinned. "Let me take care of the blond one first, then I'll come back and finish off your brother. It'll be more fun to have him watch while I tear his friend apart."
"Fine," Itachi shrugged. "Just hurry up and do it. I'm tired of this and want to go back to headquarters. This has dragged on for long enough."
"Don't you dare touch him," Sasuke hissed, glaring at Kisame from where he still lay on the ground. He clutched the kunai in his hand tighter. "If you go anywhere near him-"
"You'll do what?" Kisame laughed, flashing his teeth in a mocking grin. "You are in no position to be making any threats, boy. You're already as good as dead. I'm only letting you live a little bit longer because I want you to see me rip your friend apart limb from limb and watch him gasp for his final breath of air before I come back to finish you off once and for all. Normally I wouldn't go to the effort of making a simple killing into such a large production, but you and that demon-vessel have given us a lot of trouble and I want to make you suffer as little bit as payback. Your friend killed more than half our inner members. I may not have liked any of them, but that doesn't mean we're going to just let that demon-vessel get away with what he did."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed, his lips curling back from his teeth in a snarl of near mindless rage. His Sharingan whirled so fast the tomoe spokes ringing his pupils were almost a solid black line. He once again tried to rise, but try as he might he couldn't seem to get his legs underneath him to stand. Every little motion sent blinding waves of pain shooting across his hip and side. Blood soaked the entire half of his body. It felt like a thousand tiny blades had been taken to his side and grated across until nothing remained but a bloody mess of little skin flaps and missing chunks of flesh.
Naruto, meanwhile, was still trying to draw upon his disabled chakra reserves. His hands shook with increasing intensity the more he tried to summon the strength to defeat the deadly assassin threatening his teammate. A flash of crackling blue light suddenly enveloped him, but swiftly disappeared again behind Kakashi's Five Point seal. Naruto staggered and almost fell. But with a stubborn grunt of effort, he forced himself to straighten and continue his desperate bid for strength.
Kisame calmly stepped away from Sasuke towards him, his cloak swishing harshly over the grass. The blade of his overlarge sword shimmered in the moonlight like the scales of some exotic fish. "You should listen to your friend," he said as he slowly approached the blond shinobi. "What you're trying to do it useless. There's no way you're going to be able to break past that curse seal. Your chakra lines are completely blocked. All you're doing right now is trying to fool yourself into believing you still have some hope of escaping. There's no way you're going to beat me."
"Then you don't know me very well," Naruto hissed between gritted teeth as another flurry of blue sparks flashed and faded around him. The air began to churn a little faster as if the boy had become the eye of some brewing hurricane. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the boy who was once going to be the future Hokage. No stupid curse seal is going to keep me from defeating you! I might not be able to use all my chakra right now, but I don't need it! Because that's not what true strength is, or what I need to beat you. True strength comes from protecting the people you care about. It's the most powerful thing in the world. I used that strength once even when I didn't know I still had it to regain control of my body from Kyuubi, and I'll use it again to protect Sasuke! He's my best friend - my most precious person! I'm not going to let you hurt him, even if I have to die doing it!"
Then closing his eyes and throwing his head back as a thunderous scream of pain and determination tore from his lips, a powerful surge of energy exploded from his stomach. Brilliant blue light filled the air and encased him in a whirlwind of uncontrolled chakra, Kakashi's curse seal now no longer there to restrain it.
"Naruto, no!" Sasuke screamed, but his voice was swallowed by the deafening roar of chakra.
The storm of chakra continued to build until Sasuke could barely even see his friend anymore behind the crackling wall of light. As if possessed by this surge of light, Naruto sunk into a battle stance and flung his one arm out to the side. A separate concentration of chakra began to gather in the palm of his hand, spinning and swirling with the power of a thousand tiny suns; and as Sasuke watched in awe-struck disbelief, saw a full fledge Rasengan appear in Naruto's hand.
"Itachi!" Kisame cried, his eyes wide as he stared at the frail, Rasengan-wielding boy.
"Kill him!" Itachi screamed, his blood red eyes locked on Naruto. "He's somehow managed to break the chakra seal! Finish him now before he summons anymore!"
Kisame nodded, gripping his sword in both hands.
Naruto turned towards him, his Rasengan cradled in the palm of his hand like a live grenade. "Get away from my friend!" he roared. Then with an unforeseen surge of strength lunged at the sword-wielding Akatsuki.
Kisame drew his sword back, ready to meet him in a titanic clash of metal and chakra.
Naruto seemed to literally radiate power as he rushed the missing-nin, chakra pulsing from every pore of his being. Sasuke was sure he'd never seen Naruto look so fierce or powerful as he did that moment - not even when they'd fought each other in the Valley of the End.
The two seemed to move towards each other in slow motion. It was like they'd suddenly been suspended in a world which moved at only a fraction of the speed of the rest of reality. As they came within only paces of one another Naruto drew his fist back over his shoulder, his eyes locked on Kisame. The Akatsuki nin also began to swing his sword back, ready to cleave the approaching boy in half.
Sasuke felt his heart clench into a tiny ball in the middle of his chest.
No! What was Naruto doing? What was he hoping to accomplish rushing an opponent head on like that? Even when they were still a team, Kakashi had always yelled at Naruto for that, telling him that brute strength was not always the best option and that he needed to learn to use his brains to win. But the boy had never seemed to listen. It was like he firmly believed he could defeat his enemy by using nothing more than brute strength. It was a technique so crass and unrefined it was something only Naruto would continue to use. Even now, years after Kakashi had tried to teach him better, it still seemed the blond believed the best way to win a fight was to throw himself head first at his opponent.
Sasuke had no illusions his friend had no chance of beating Kisame. Even with Kakashi's seal gone and Naruto's ability to use chakra restored, he was still no match for an S-class ninja like Kisame in the shape he was in.
Sasuke had no time to think, no time to even question the sanity of his own actions. All he knew was that he had to do something, or the blond numbskull was going to die right there in front of him.
And he couldn't let that happen.
Quickly mustering his dwindling strength and moving faster than the pain in his side even had time to register in his panic-stricken brain, Sasuke lunged at Kisame's turned back and wrapped his arms around the Mist-ninja's legs, knocking them out from under him.
Even though he couldn't see the older ninja's face Sasuke heard Kisame's startled grunt and felt him pitch forward, off-balanced by his overlarge sword face first-
right into Naruto's Rasengan.
A blood-curdling scream shook the night over the deafening blast of Naruto's jutsu. The world became nothing more than a fiery void of light and sound. It felt like a thousand tiny hands pulling and tearing at the youngest Uchiha's body.
Sasuke felt himself sent flying backwards through the air, and then-
Pain. That was the first thing to register in the his mind when he felt himself collide with the ground half a second later. For a moment Sasuke could do nothing more than just lay where he landed, dazedly blinking the white afterimages from his vision. Slowly pulling himself together, he pushed himself off the ground enough to take stock of things around him.
He'd been thrown several yards from where he originally was. The moonlit clearing was now nothing more than a chakra-scorched crater around him. Half a dozen paces away Kisame's body lay in a jumbled heap, his limbs twisted and motionless. Wispy curls of smoke wafted off his body and drifted away on the cool night breeze that blew through the clearing. Kisame's giant sword lay half a dozen feet off to the side in the scorched grass, probably dropped there sometime after Naruto's jutsu had slammed into its owner's face.
Sasuke glanced at Kisame's offended visage, and immediately looked away again. The missing-nin's face was nothing but a hollow, smoking mass of ashy charcoal.
Somehow Sasuke couldn't bring himself to feel sorry for the missing-nin or how he'd met his end. After all he'd done to his friend, it seemed like a fair punishment…
A gurgly gasp of air suddenly startled Sasuke into looking up at the blond in question. Naruto knelt on the ground several feet away from the Akatsuki ninja's charred corpse, half bent down over his knees. He was tightly clutching his chest, bunching the material of his shirt into a tiny ball directly over his heart. He was violently shaking as if he no longer had any control over his own muscles. It looked like he was about to come apart at the joints he shook so violently. As Sasuke watched, the boy suddenly spasmed, his entire body convulsing as if touched by a strong electrical current. His face had become ghostly white, and his eyes taken on a far away glazed look.
"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled, panic creeping up the back of his throat. He knew these symptoms. He'd learned about them back in the academy when they began studying the dangers of miscontrolled chakra. What Naruto was experiencing were the tale tell signs of chakra exhaustion - a dangerous enough condition for anyone, but for a boy with one foot already in the grave, it could almost certainly prove deadly…
Naruto convulsed again, his limbs sharply stiffening. His eyes suddenly rolled back into his head. And then his entire body going limp, he collapsed forward onto the charred ground and lay there motionless.
"NARUTO!"
Sasuke ignored the wave of pain that exploded through his hip and side and forced his broken body to stand and half-crawl, half-stumble towards his friend's motionless body.
He reached Naruto and collapsed down next to him. Snaking one arm under the other's chest, Sasuke rolled the near weightless boy over in his arms. Naruto's head lifelessly lulled into the crook of his elbow. In the moonlight, Naruto's skin shined a pale, waxy white. His eyelashes pressed against his cheeks in two black half-circles.
"Naruto? Naruto, answer me! Answer me, dammit!" Sasuke screamed as he frantically shook the other boy's shoulder. But Naruto refused to respond. Pressing two fingers to the blond's neck, Sasuke was startled by the frighteningly weak pulse that fluttered underneath his fingertips. "Naruto, don't you dare die on me!" he yelled. "I told you not to try and be the hero! You complete idiot, why can't you ever just listen to what I say?!"
But no matter how loud Sasuke ranted or raved, or how hard he shook his friend's skeletal frame, nothing seemed able to break Naruto out of his comatose state.
Sasuke could feel Naruto's heartbeat beginning to slow. He could almost feel the demon-vessel's chakra coils sputtering inside him as they entered their final stage of shut down.
"Naruto, don't do this!" Sasuke cried, desperately shaking the other boy. "You have to keep fighting! Please!"
"That foul little monster…"
Sasuke was momentarily startled out of his panic by the deceptively low hiss of his older brother's voice. His head snapping up towards the sound, Sasuke found Itachi standing on the far side of the clearing - his presence completely forgotten until now - with his eyes locked on the motionless blond figure cradled in Sasuke's arms.
Itachi glanced over at the charred remains of his partner, his teeth bared in an ugly snarl. "He killed Kisame… Even nothing more than a walking corpse, that demon-vessel managed to kill one of Akatsuki's strongest ninja…" His Sharingan spinning, Itachi whipped his sword from its sheath and turned towards his younger brother and dying friend. Like the possessed incarnation of some enraged demon, Itachi advanced on them. The sharpened edge of his sword caught a shaft of moonlight and flashed a cold, brilliant silver.
"No more games!" Itachi roared. His tomoe dotted eyes glowed like two windows into the very pits of Hell. "This ends here and now!" Then lifting his deadly sword above his head, he lunged at the two boys, ready to end both their tragically young lives.
Time once again seemed to stand still. As if moving in slow motion, Sasuke's body seemed to move on its own.
In one smooth motion, Sasuke released his hold on Naruto and let the other boy slide from his arms back to the ground. Then gripping the kunai still clenched in his fist, he leapt over Naruto's body to stand in between his friend and older brother; and thrust his kunai out even as Itachi's sword swung down on him in a long graceful arc.
Blinding white pain exploded through Sasuke's left shoulder. He must have involuntarily closed his eyes against the pain, because when he opened them again he found himself staring back into the startled red eyes of his older brother whose face hovered mere inches in front of his own. Hot, thick blood poured like water down his back and chest where Itachi's sword had buried itself in his shoulder almost to the junction of his collarbone and upper rib-
and down the length of his arm from where he'd simultaneously plunged the tip of his kunai into his older brother's heart.
Itachi stared at Sasuke almost dumbly, as if he couldn't understand what had just happened. Blood appeared in the corner of his mouth and streaked down the side of his chin in a thin red line. His lips weakly twitched, as though trying to speak. But all that came out was a watery gurgle.
Swallowing back the pain now spreading like wildfire through his entire chest and arm, Sasuke leaned forward and speared Itachi with an ice-cold glare. "I won't let you take any more of my precious people away from me…" he hissed as if in answer to the unspoken question written across his brother's face, and almost grinned at the look of surprise that flashed through Itachi's eyes.
Itachi's lips soundlessly moved again, struggling for words. But then, his eyelids growing too heavy for him to keep open anymore, Itachi's eyes slowly slid shut, forever shuttering the bloodline trait he'd massacred his entire family to test from the rest of the world. His grip on his sword hilt faltered, and he limply sagged to the ground at Sasuke's feet.
Dead.
For a moment, Sasuke just stood there, staring at the motionless corpse of his older brother - the one he'd spent so many years training to kill. It seemed unreal somehow, like it was all really just some sort of dream. After so many years of plotting his revenge, Sasuke couldn't seem to comprehend the reality of all his hardship and pain finally culminating in this abrupt and sudden end.
Unfortunately, Sasuke didn't have time to contemplate or savor his victory any more as the pain in his shoulder suddenly reached a whole new level. Blood was now literally pouring down the front of his chest. He had a sinking suspicion that Itachi had hit a major artery…
Wrenching Itachi's sword from his shoulder - and biting back a muffled cry of pain - Sasuke dropped to his knees back down beside Naruto's still form. The blood was coming faster now with Itachi's sword no longer there to staunch the flow. Sasuke could feel it pulse from his body with every beat of his heart. He was also dismayed by how lightheaded he suddenly felt and the hazy ring of darkness blurring his vision.
Clutching his shoulder with his right hand to staunch the dangerous blood flow, Sasuke leaned down over Naruto and pressed two fingers of his other hand to the blond's neck again. He could barely feel a pulse anymore. Naruto's breathing was also almost nonexistent. His entire body was shutting down, his chakra coils failing. If Naruto didn't receive a chakra transfusion soon to support his failing chakra system he was going to die within a matter of minutes.
Ignoring his own injury and crippling pain, Sasuke pressed the palm of his left hand to Naruto's chest. The blood running down his arm stained the front of Naruto's shirt a dark, sticky red.
"Come on, Naruto!" he yelled through gritted teeth as he gathered his remaining chakra and began to desperately pump it into his friend's motionless form. "You have to keep fighting! You can't give up now! You said you wanted to be Hokage someday! Hokage never give up! You have to keep fighting! Please!"
But no hint of response came from the unconscious demon-vessel.
As Sasuke continued to forcibly push his own chakra into Naruto's empty chakra coils, a sudden wave of dizziness hit him like a blow to the back of the head. His vision swam dangerously, almost going black. Shaking his head, Sasuke forced himself to ignore the pain and continue working. The flow chakra going from his hand into his friend was began to slow, fading away along was the rest of his life force that seeped down his shoulder and hip in the form of sticky red blood. Sasuke felt the life line between himself and Naruto taper to a mere trickle.
"No… Come on… Come on, Naruto… you have to keep fighting…" Sasuke begged, desperately trying to give yet more of his waning strength. He knew he was nearing the end of his limit. He didn't know how much longer he was going to last. He could barely see straight anymore his vision was so blurry. His hearing suddenly sounded muffled, as if he was hearing things from the end of a long narrow tunnel. An uncomfortable buzzing had started in the back of his head. His head was so light it felt like it was only connected to the rest of his body by a thin piece of string.
And yet he still continued to pump what remaining chakra he had into his dying friend.
The darkness tunneling his vision slowly began to spread, seeping across his vision like a spilt bottle of ink. He suddenly felt weightless, as if he were falling backwards into a bottomless pit of nothingness.
And just before the last vestiges of pain faded from the edges of his consciousness, one last thought happened to cross Sasuke's mind:
Naruto… His fading conscious called. I'm sorry… I wasn't strong enough to save us… Forgive me…
And then, there was nothing…
To Be Continued…
So? Was the wait worth it? I thought Itachi's death was poetic in the fact that Sasuke finally managed to kill him, but was not motivated by hatred or revenge, but rather the selfless desire to protect his friend.
Any thoughts?
PLEASE REVIEW!
I know it was a long chapter, but I really worked my butt off to get a nice update out. Feedback's appreciated.