Colors of Life and Death series
Truth in Dreams
by Songbird21

Chapter 14

Hey all. This chap is nearly 3000 words. Enjoy. :)

Please read and review. I love reviews! Thanks!

"You're gonna teach me Chichiuei's jutsu?!" Naruto said excitedly.

"Yup. But there're other things to do first. You need to work on sealing jutsus first. With any luck there'll soon be a new 'yellow flash' of Konoha," Tomoyo said with a grin.

"YATTA!"

"But seal work comes first. If you don't know the mechanics behind this you won't have a chance in hell of mastering the actual jutsu." Tomoyo opened up a scroll of her own and pulled out an extra brush. Now, paint a circle in the center."

Naruto did as he was instructed. The circle was a tad sloppy but it would suit its purpose well enough.

Tomoyo took the plain sheet of paper from Naruto's other hand. "Good. Now draw these symbols around the outer edge." She painted the needed symbols as Naruto watched. "Okay, your turn."

Tomoyo watched in disdain at the slow pace of Naruto's painting. "Umm. You work on that for a while. I'm going to see if I can make this place a little more presentable." She reached into a bag she had brought along and pulled out a wad of explosive tags.

Naruto watched in curiosity as she placed tags at the bases of four trees, making sure to place them on the side opposite their position. Tomoyo put her hands in the ram seal and the tags exploded. The trees fell with a loud groan, shaking the ground as they hit. She was about to continue on to the next set of trees when she noticed Naruto was not doing his seals. She pointed sharply down at his scroll. "Paint!" she commanded.

Naruto quickly went back to work.

Tomoyo brought down four more trees, then looked around the field and frowned. "Hmm. This is gonna take a while."

Naruto was distracted again when he heard a familiar phrase. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" He looked up to see twenty Tomoyo's populating the field. Each clone took a stack of tags from the original and went to do more damage. He didn't know why, but seeing another member of his family use his favorite jutsu made him happy. He was snapped out of his reverie as another "Paint!" was directed his way. A few seconds later a deafening explosion rocked the field—and the resulting crash from the trees hitting the ground was almost as loud. He just sat there with a thunderstruck (A/N- pretty much means WTF) look on his face for a moment. "She's completely insane."

Itachi walked at a fairly slow pace. He wasn't looking forward to what he had to do. When he'd spared Sasuke so many years ago it had been because other than his parents, Sasuke was the only member of his family he hadn't loathed. He remembered back to that day.

((Itachi sliced through one of his aunts with cold expression on his face. Staying emotionless was the only way he could pull off what he was doing without going insane. But soon Konoha would be rid of the clan and he, Sasuke, and his mother and father could live a normal life in peace.

He thrust his sword through the belly of one of his cousins and sighed. This was the last one. He sheathed his sword and walked back to his house. The instant he was near his front door he felt a horribly dark chakra and yanked the door open.

He burst into the living room and came across the grizzly sight of his parent's corpses. "You BASTARD! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Orochimaru's expression was one of indifference. "We can't leave witnesses."

Itachi dropped to his knees beside his parent's bodies. "Kaa-san! Tou-san" he cried.

"Is there anyone else?" Orochimaru asked.

Unseen by the snake Sannin, Itachi's eyes widened for a moment in fear as an image of Sasuke flashed through his mind. "No," he said, praying to god his tone of voice didn't give anything away. "There's no one."

Orochimaru looked skeptical but let it slide. "Alright then. And don't forget our offer."

Itachi numbly nodded. "Hai."

He thought about Sasuke as Orochimaru walked off. He also thought about his best friend who he had killed in order to bring about this day. Everything was his fault and he knew his little brother would hate him for it. "It's better that way," he thought dismally. He knew that if Sasuke knew the truth he would chase down the Akatsuki and would be killed by them. At least if he was chasing Itachi then he was trying to kill someone who didn't want him dead.))

Itachi created a bunshin. "Inform him I am here." The clone nodded slightly and vanished. "I'm sorry...Sasuke."

Tomoyo walked over to Naruto and looked down at his scroll work. Her eyes widened as she looked back and forth between Naruto's scroll and her demonstration—they were barely recognizable as the same symbols. "His handwriting's actually worse than Minato's" she thought as her eyebrow twitched.

Naruto looked up from his work as he finished the last symbol. "Done! What'd ya think?" he said as he held up his work proudly.

Tomoyo made a strained smile. "It's...not bad." She eh-hemmed. "Okay let's try sealing something." she scanned the ground for a moment and found a slightly less than fist-sized rock. She picked it up, tossed it into the air a short height and caught it. "This outta do." She handed it to Naruto. "Now, place it in the middle of the scroll."

Naruto did as he was instructed and made some seals. He slammed his hands down on either side of the seal. "Fuuin no Jutsu!"

"Kami-sama, let those symbols be good enough for it to work," Tomoyo prayed.

The puff of smoke dissipated and Tomoyo's eyebrow twitched once again. Only half the rock had been sealed—the other half still lay on the scroll. "Umm...well...that's a new one."

Naruto frowned. "I don't get it. I did everything you said," he said as he picked up the remainder of the rock and studied it.

Tomoyo scratched the back of her neck nervously and sat down. "Yeah, you did...technically."

"What do you mean...technically?" Naruto asked with a slight pout.

"Well...Lemme put it this way—when Minato was alive I thought that no one could possibly have worse handwriting than him. Today...I have been proven wrong."

Now Naruto's eye twitched. "Are you telling me the seal didn't work because my handwriting's lousy?"

Tomoyo grimaced. "Pretty much."

Naruto sighed heavily. "Fine. I guess I'll take this home and practice then."

Tomoyo smiled. "Sounds like a good idea. I'll go home after I finish clearing this place out."

Naruto stood up and looked around the field. Although you could now actually see its borders there were still forty or so trees lying all over the place. "How are you gonna get rid of 'em all?"

Tomoyo glanced around at all the trees slowly and then put her finger to her lips in thought. "You know what? That's a good point." She grinned in embarrassment. "Guess I'll go home now."

Naruto laughed and they headed for the path that led back to the main village.

Sasuke, TenTen and Lee lay on their backs in the grassy training field. They'd been there for quite a while and TenTen was getting frustrated at staying still for so long. "You guys wanna go get ramen?" she asked hopefully.

"Not when the night sky is so full of wonders," Lee replied with a tone of awe in his voice.

TenTen pouted and traced a line of stars with her eyes. After a moment she tried again. "Sasuke-kun, you wanna train?"

"No thanks," Sasuke replied.

TenTen sighed and shifted her gaze to the trees. It wasn't long before she spotted something odd in one of them and squinted in an attempt to help her vision cut through the darkness. Finally she turned to her friends. "There's someone watching us in that tree over there."

Both boys looked at her with confused expressions before checking to see what she was talking about. After a moment Lee shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "I don't think it's anyone I know."

TenTen frowned. "How bout you, Sasuke-kun?" When there was no response she looked toward him and her breath hitched in her throat. His eyes held a coldness she had never seen before, and it scared her. Of course, she was relatively new to Sasuke's world and as such hadn't seen much of his dangerous side. "S...Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke didn't reply, but instead simply jumped up and disappeared in the direction of the tree.

"Sasuke!" TenTen yelled as she and Lee stood up. Both teens gave chase, their feet pounding away at the moonlit earth.

Naruto had long ago parted ways with Tomoyo and was now headed to Ichiraku for a late dinner. He was about to push aside the entrance fabric when a familiar blue and white blur shot past him. A moment later TenTen and Lee also ran by. "Looks like dinner'll have to wait," he said sadly. He took off after his friends, pumping more chakra into his legs to give himself an extra burst of speed.

After a few seconds Naruto caught up with Lee and TenTen. "What's going on?"

"He's chasing after someone, but we have no idea who," Lee answered.

"What does the person look like?" Naruto asked.

"It was hard to tell, but I think he had on a cloak and he might've had black hair," TenTen replied in an unsure tone.

Naruto's eyes went wide as an image of Itachi popped into his head. "I hope it's not who I think it is."

Every vein in Sasuke's body pulsed with adrenaline. Rational thought had left the forefront of his mind as he pushed on nearly completely on instinct. Suddenly, just as he got within range of his elder brother there was a puff of smoke and Itachi was gone.

Sasuke skidded to a stop in a small clearing and gritted his teeth in anger. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" He screamed in desperation. Little did he know that as soon as he had entered the clearing he had become trapped in a genjutsu.

Naruto, TenTen, and Lee had heard Sasuke's yell and knew he had lost sight of his quarry. They stopped running once they caught sight of him and Naruto turned to the others. "I'd better go alone. I'm the only one he listens to when he's like this."

TenTen and Lee frowned, but nodded in agreement. The instant Naruto was gone both of them were knocked unconscious by Itachi's unseen hands.

Naruto walked into the clearing. "Sasuke?"

Sasuke turned around and instantly, there was a glare of killing intent etched across his face.

Confusion ran rampant through Naruto's mind. What was going on? "Nii-san?"

Sasuke charged up chidori. "I'LL KILL YOU!" With that, he dove forward.

Naruto barely managed to dodge in time, diving to the right and executing a sideways aerial flip before landing six feet away. He jumped up and went into a defensive stance. "SASUKE, WHAT THE HELL?!"

But Sasuke didn't hear a single one of his younger brother's words—for the one he saw in front of him...was Itachi. When Naruto had yelled for an explanation Sasuke only heard Itachi's usual taunts. He knew he had maybe one more shot with Chidori—two at most. "I'll have to try and wear him down."

Naruto's heart raced in panic. Not only did he have no idea why Sasuke was attacking him, but there was a good chance Itachi was near by, which meant they didn't have time for this. "Sasuke, STOP! It's me!" he insisted loudly as he hopped backwards to avoid a punch.

Snake, Tiger, Dog, Ox, Rabbit, Tiger. "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu! (A/N- Flame Type: Mythical Fire Flower Technique)" Sasuke held his hand to his mouth and shot out several small fireballs at Naruto.

Naruto flipped, rolled and jumped to get out of their way. When he looked up from dodging the last one he wasn't surprised to see the sharingan in Sasuke's eyes. "Shit!" he dodged a volley of punches and ran up a tree. "What do I do?! I can't go all out against him cause it's pretty obvious he doesn't know it's me. But who does he think I am?" He suddenly noticed flames licking their way up the tree he was in. He jumped down and turned to face his brother again, and that's when he noticed it—his eyes. The look in Sasuke's eyes was a photograph of the anger and hatred that had been directed at Itachi when they'd met at the hotel almost two years ago. "He thinks I'm Itachi." If Sasuke truly thought he was Itachi then nothing he said would make a difference. He was going to have to bring him down somehow—but how to do it without one or both of them being seriously injured was going to be a problem.

Sasuke was getting irritated. "What's going on? He doesn't usually just dodge like this." His thought was suddenly countered as he dodged a kick to his side.

Naruto threw a punch toward Sasuke's head. Sasuke blocked it with his right forearm and used the opportunity to sweep Naruto's legs. Naruto rolled out of the way as Sasuke's fist came crashing down into the dirt his head used to be. Naruto half rolled/ half flipped as he swung his lower torso around in a circle, grabbed Sasuke by the legs and used the momentum to fling him aside, giving Naruto time to scramble to his feet.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Six Narutos surrounded Sasuke. But instead of freaking out at the number of 'Itachis' Sasuke now saw, his mind was spinning with confusion. "There's no way in hell I should've been able to knock his legs out from under him so easily. Something's not adding up." His eyes suddenly lit up with realization. A realization he would've come to much earlier had he not been so blinded by rage. "Could this be a genjutsu?"

Naruto watched curiously as Sasuke paused. "Did he figure it out?"

"If this is Itachi's genjutsu there's no way I'll break it without outside help." Sasukelooked over at the fake Itachi. "And who the heck am I fighting?"

"I need to find a way to let him know I'm me," Naruto thought. Suddenly an idea dawned on him. "I got it!"

Sasuke eyed his opponent warily as said opponent held out an open palm and the rasengan materialized on his hand. "Rasengan?!" He stared for a moment as he looked more closely at the sphere—it was rainbow colored. "Naruto?"

Naruto smiled and gave him a thumbs-up.

Sasuke sighed in relief. "Do you know how to dispel genjutsu?"

Naruto shook his head.

From the other side of the trees Itachi frowned in disappointment. As he dispelled the genjutsu he sensed several powerful chakra signatures moving towards him and made a short sigh. It would be too difficult to obtain his target now. Especially if the two remaining sannin were in the group of fighters. "Another time." He vanished into the night, leaving Lee and TenTen sleeping at the foot of a tree.

Sasuke blinked as he saw Naruto return to his true form. "He must have left," he said with an angry glare. "Naruto, I'm sorry."

Naruto smiled. "Hey, don't worry about it. It's not like you knew who I was."

Sasuke smiled a little. "Right."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Lee! TenTen!"

"What about them?" Sasuke asked with concern.

"I left them at the edge of the clearing!"

Just then, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Hinata, and two anbu landed in the clearing. "What happened?" Hinata asked quickly.

"We'll tell you later!" Sasuke answered. "Right now you need to use your byakugan to search for TenTen!" he said with urgency.

Naruto looked at Sasuke. "And Lee," he added.

Sasuke looked a little taken aback that he had forgotten about Lee and quickly corrected himself. "Right."

"Byakugan!" Hinata's eyes scanned the forest until her gaze came to rest on two figures on the ground not far from their position. "Over there!" she said before running off in the indicated direction.

As soon as they got to Lee and TenTen, Sasuke ran over and checked TenTen's vitals, then Lee's. "They're alright. Just knocked out," he said as he breathed a sigh of relief.

Tsunade nodded in approval. "Okay. Now that we've found them let's get them home." She looked at Naruto and Sasuke. "You two can give me your report on the way."

Jiraiya picked up Lee. Tsunade was about to pick up TenTen but Sasuke beat her to it. She looked at him curiously for a moment, then led the way as everyone headed back into the village.

...TO BE CONTINUED

Hope you liked the fight. It was gonna be longer but this chapter was much later than I wanted already.

Some of you may have noticed some name changes this chapter and thought "What the hell?". There's a simple reason for the name changes. Those of you who have read the latest manga know the reason. Those of you who don't, well, you'll find out eventually.

Later all,

Song