A/N:

Caliko: well, probably- but I doubt you can guess exactly what he'll do to get the chance. Especially considering his present company. But as for myself, as my profile say I'm a college student- and in a bit of a rut, so this is a nice lil' vent for me…

Serenity Maxwell: Well, he knew in a long draw out fight it would come down to his excess of Chakara vs. Kisame's brute strength, so he didn't want to give Kisame the chance and planned to take him out before Kisame even realized he was going all out. It didn't work, but it did badly cripple him to start out with, making the fight much easier. Now he's just got to survive 4 vs. 1 (all of whom aren't going to give the chance to M. Sharingan anyone else) until Naruto and co. arrives.

DarkRavie: Thank you, spread the word.

End A/N

Itachi ducked a huge wake of water from Hidan, which he immediately followed with a pillar of earth spiking up from where he was about to be. Itachi pushed off and above it into one of Deidara's clay pigeons. He swung Kisame's sword and sliced the bird in half, pushing the explosion to either side of him. Kakuzu thrust his blade strait for Itachi's center of mass. Itachi turned Kisame's sword to block it and shoved himself head below feet just as Sasori's tail came flying towards him. Landing quickly he swung Kisame's sword towards Hidan and Kakuzu, forcing them back for a moment which Itachi used to rush Deidara, but rather than swing the sword he held between them he did a one handed series of seals. A series of slashes shot from Kisame's blade without Itachi swinging it. Deidara threw a cascade of clay pigeons which all exploded on impact with the force of Itachi's attack. The explosion created a plume of smoke in all directions.

naNAnaNAna

Naruto slowed down a bit and fell to the back of the ranks ad Anko and Iruka came up on the group, Iruka spoke first, "Jiraya let us know about Itachi's message, you should have thought to get us while you hurried to gather the rookies."

"I didn't plan on actually taking on Akatsuki if I could avoid it, not yet anyway, we still don't know anything about The Leader or his partner, and next to nothing about Zetsu."

"All the more reason we needed to be here," Anko cut in, "if and WHEN we do have to fight Akastuki members, the more of us who actually know something, the better we will be at getting away with the least damage possible to us."

Naruto shrugged and leapt forward, positioning himself more towards the front of the group. Suddenly Naruto spread out his arms and motions for everyone to stop.

"Kiba," Naruto called over, "Take a whiff, there's a trap somewhere around here, but I don't know exactly where."

Kiba turned to Akumaru, the two of them sniffed around for a moment, then pointed over at a tree, a small parchment perched on one of its branches. The group moved around that, then Anko took the front, "from here we are deep in Akatsuki territory, there could be traps anywhere around here, and Itachi could be anywhere hidden in here if he isn't already in combat-"

Anko stopped as she spotted Akumaru's ears twitch, she looked directly at Kiba, "Do you hear him?"

Kiba put his hands together and focused, he could hear a battle not too far off, he pointed in the general direction the sounds were coming from, "There's a battle over there, I just heard a large explosion- possibly several at once."

"That would probably be Deidara," Iruka explained, "He uses his skills in explosive as an art, and he has some strange ability in his hands to make explosives from dirt."

itITitITit

When the smoke cleared everyone backed off, no one wanted to give him the chance to run up and use his Mangekyou Sharingan. Once Itachi realized this he waited in the smoke until just before it clear, allowing a moment to pass simply for the sake on holding out. Just before the smoke began to clear and before anyone started to move on him again, he swung Kisame's sword and curled the smoke around it, spinning full circle he directed the smoke directly at Kakuzu who was just starting to move. He barreled himself at Kazuku and slashed him through the center, seeing his target with the normal Sharingan while he swung and pierced Kakuzu's heart attuned to water.

Kakuzu choked up blood and vomited as Itachi came around, but before he could take a second pass a huge bird swooped down- Deidara's. Itachi pushed back with his sword and stopped his momentum in time and the bird landed between Kakuzu and Itachi. Deidara came down from the bird throwing another armload of explosives, Itachi looked back before him moved and managed to see the mine in time to avoid it and sidestep instead. Swerving around the mine and behind it he set it off by dragging his sword against the ground and edging it, forcing the wake of the explosion back at Deidara, and setting off the other explosives he had thrown. Itachi saw Hidan's blade coming but wasn't able to move fast enough. Reacting immediately Itachi blew a grand fireball at Hidan's blade to burn the blood off and force Hidan back again.

Kakuzu reached out with one of his hands, rising up with smoke all over his body from Deidara's explosions. His body moved awkwardly as it looked like it was coming apart by the seams, which could be seen now because his jacket had been burnt off. One arm came shooting at Itachi, the one with the hand reaching; his other arm came circling around behind him in an attempt to lasso him. Itachi forced a burst of Chakara to his legs and leapt skyward well above all four of them. He looked to the horizon and spotted Naruto with reinforcements. Swinging the sword to direct his momentum into a flip and land away from where he had jumped. Itachi at last smiled triumphantly just as Naruto came barreling through the tree line announcing his presence in typical fashion.

"Itachi, get to Sakura!"

As he said that the others came in behind him. Itachi went past Naruto towards Sakura, "Your arm," she noticed first, and immediately reached into her bag for supplies.

"Kurenai, you and your team with me, Naurto with Gai's team, Iruka with Asuma's. Kakashi, you keep the fourth one busy until Itachi and Sakura can help."

Itachi smirked, two Sharingan fighting together; it'd been a long time since the world had seen that. Iruka pointed Kakashi towards Deidara, Itachi smirked again, Deidara was notoriously sore about losing to the Sharingan. That psychological edge must have been why they planned the strategy accordingly.

Anko and Kurenai rushed against Kakuzu, Iruka directed Asuma's team against Hidan, and Naruto pointed at Sasori challengingly.

Naruto let Gai get ahead of them and 'take lead,' Gai turned to Neiji who was already opening his Byakugan eyes to peer into Sasori-

"This guy is hiding inside his puppet- in fact; his own body is barely human anymore."

Tenten pulled a massive throwing star, "Well, I got the can opener," she kidded.

"No," Naruto cut them off, "this guy is a master of poison's too, every blade, every needle, every piercing surface, is likely to be poison coated." Gai gave Naruto a curious look, as did Neiji, neither were accustomed to Naruto not just barreling into battle. Realizing he was being stared at, Naruto blinked moronically before he realized why, "Itachi's been feeding us what information he could about Akatsuki members," he shrugged, "I know because I got the full mission brief, now, Neiji, you think you can keep his full attention on you and not get hit?"

"Not for very long, since I can't get past his defenses."

"Leave that to us," Naruto flexed his arms in a more typical fashion.

deDEdeDEde

Deidara frowned, he hated being mocked like this, only one- only one out of 16 was preparing to go against him. Deidara glared at Kakashi, but before he could rush in Itachi whispered something to him, Kakashi turned back, lifting his forehead protector and taking off a bandage on his head to reveal a healthy looking bruise that had fully risen to the surface on his left side. Kakashi replied but Deidara couldn't hear at this distance, Itachi looked shock as Kakashi turned back to Deidara-

The Sharingan! He could barely see it because Kakashi's eye was only half open, but what he could see of it stood out against the blacks and blues and deep purples on that side of his face. So this is why they were only sending one against him, they were going to psych him out with the Sharingan, well, he was prepared this time, smirking privately he reached into his pouch and began manipulating the dirt in his bag.

"So I get the damaged goods," he mocked as he opened out both his arms, a clay pigeon 'innocently' in one of his hands. Kakashi just looked at him, but Deidara knew not to meet his eyes, yet as he paid attention to Kakashi's face he missed the seals he was doing with his hands. Only realizing as a light started emanating from Kakashi's hands-

"Chidori!"

Deidara threw his clay pigeon at Kakashi as he started to move, Deidara was shocked by the pure speed Kakashi managed as Deidara fought to so much as step aside in the time it took for Kakashi to close distance. Deidara didn't even manage to see what happened to his thrown clay pigeon as Kakashi caught his left arm and sheered it right off. Deidara grabbed the remaining bit of shoulder as he finished pulling away with a shocked expression.

"What happened to the moment," Kakashi taunted.

A/N: I'd have had this out much earlier today, but my internet decided to re-enact 90's dial-up this morning... then I had class- and now I finnaly deliver this to you... (if you didn't get the 90's dial-up gag- think 44KB/s)