Recap: Wrap up of part 1 and introduction to what's going to happen in part 2
Itachi, My brother Part 2
Chapter 21: Shippuden
'I wonder...how far are you willing to go for me
when I destroy everything you love.'
"Well, well, well...if isn't Sakura."
Sakura's tight grip on Sai's neck loosened. 'Who's voice is...' The thought trailed away once his deathly gaze dawned upon her. "Who...are you?" She quietly murmured.
"Ah-" Naruto scrambled out of the hallway. 'He isn't...' "W-where is he?!" His fingers tightly closed together. "WHERE IS ITACHI?!"
"..." The answer was nothing short of a blank stare.
"A-ANSWER ME NOW...UCHIHA...SASUKE!"
The corner of Sasuke's lips flickered. "And you're the nine-tails jinchuriki, hm," His eyes closed for a second, relishing the last time he encountered the spiky blonde. "It's been a while hasn't it?"
In a blink of the eye, his arm rested on Naruto's shoulder. "Tell me," He lowly muttered. "How is Itachi doing?"
'So fast...!' "Why the hell would you ask that?!"
"Oh, I assumed you already 'caught' Itachi back at the Valley of End, maybe instead of chasing him around you probably should've been training..." He pulled out his katana. "...because I can assure you, Itachi has."
*much earlier*
"This is going to take three full days...stay aware of your physical bodies. Zetsu, on the other hand, stand guard outside with your physical body."
"Understood."
"Three days? Maybe we should allow more time, after all, Orochimaru is gone."
"Then it's best we get started at once."
"...! Enemies are quickly approaching our lair, one of them is powerful, he's Might Guy from Konoha."
"Who?"
'...its been too long since I've heard that name...' "He's a jōnin class ninja, with expertise fielding in taijutsu. It's wise not underestimate him."
'Oh, him.'
"Then I urge you to use that jutsu."
"Please allow me to leave...I find the fact frustrating that we haven't found our Jinchūriki yet."
"No, I'll go, fate itself has given me this chance."
'Kisame...'
"-That is true, the jutsu is best suited towards anyways you since you have the largest amount of chakra, we're still using 30% of your chakra."
"Heh, finally."
"Tch.."
"...! Mm, several more Konoha shinobi have appeared."
"Then I trust you'll handle them...Itachi."
XxxxxXxxx
He ran his fingers through his limp, black hair while a lowly sigh escaped. 'Haruno Sakura of Team 7...It's been a while since I've heard her name aloud...' His pace began getting faster and faster. 'And Kakashi...the copy ninja.'
The black cloak around him flapped wildly against the wind. 'And...Uzumaki Naruto...! They are my targets!'
OoO
Team 7 and Lady Chiyo, a special escort, bounded from tree limb. Their mission to save Gaara from the midst of the Akatsuki would be their first as full-fledged shinobi.
Naruto's hands latched onto the end of the tree limb, the feeling of nostalgia pumped through his veins as his team dove in further into the forest. Throughout all the hard training with Jiraiya, he was finally one-step closer to realizing his dream. 'I wonder where you are...huh. It's been over two years since we've faced each other."
"...Naruto."
'I wonder what you're thinking about right now? Is it of...us?'
"NARUTO!"
Naruto quickly snapped out of it, his head jolted towards the left where Sakura was giving him one of those looks. "Sorry, Sakura, I just..." His attention drifted off again.
"Naruto..." 'He's been like this ever since we entered the forest.' "I-"
"Hey-hey!" A bright smile formed across Naruto's face as he landed on the next tree limb. "I'm just worried about 'ol no-eyebrows, that's all! We have to stop the Akatsuki from taking his tailed beast!"
'He's totally faking it, but I guess I should lay off the questions.' She smiled back. "Right!"
Kakashi stopped at the nearest branch. "Everyone, stop!"
Naruto and Sakura glanced towards each other, they could both tell their sensei was in distress mode. Naruto ventured to ask. "...Hey, sensei, what's-"
"Long time no see...Naruto...Sakura."
"W-WHAT?!" Naruto swung around. 'I know that voice! It's...'
Itachi Uchiha stood still on the tree limb, he'd noticeably grown much taller than before, exceeding almost a head above Naruto. His raven black hair also grew long enough to put in a small ponytail, if anything, his face above all else was the thing that changed the most, almost unrecognizable from before. Blood red sharigan replaced Itachi's soft, black eyes and what little positive emotion he had left was nonexistent.
"Itachi..you..." Naruto's eyes rested on Itachi's cloak. 'Is Itachi apart of the...Akatsuki?!'
Sakura's mind was stuck on replay, she couldn't react, all she could think about over and over again was Itachi. Lady Chiyo and Kakashi were the only real capable ones at this point.
'An Uchiha, its been a while sine I've faced the sharingan.' Chiyo noticed the blank faces of the children and looked towards Kakashi for guidance. "Do these kids know him-"
"Yes. He was...originally apart of our team, Team 7."
"I see."
Kakashi's eye narrowed when he saw Itachi shift his weight. "...Even though you were once my student, you're now apart of the Akatsuki and I won't hold back!"
"Good for you." He dryly replied and just like that, he was gone.
Naruto punched the tree limb. "DAMN IT! Why didn't I do any-"
"Hold your breath, Naruto." Kakashi said.
Itachi appeared behind Kakashi's back with a kunai knife in hand. Kakashi snatched his flailing arm and it burst into a flock of ravens. 'I see that move still hasn't changed...'
"How..." Naruto stared at all the ravens flying around. "I didn't even look at your eyes, Itachi...how did you..."
"You don't have to look at my eyes anymore in order for the gengutsu to release," He raised a single finger as his head slowly tore apart. "I can do it with just a finger,"
"...Y-you've changed so much...I..." His fingers were curling up into a fist out of pure anger. "Why did you choose a path of hatred and revenge?!"
"...I didn't."
XxxxxXxxx
Flashback...
"Aw! Come on Pervert Sage, I wanna do Genjutsu not how to deal with it!"
Jiraiya sighed. 'Of course he does..' "Listen Naruto, Genjutsu works on your opponent's five sense's, it's a highly advanced and intellectual jutsu that allows you to control the chakra flowing through the cranial nerves."
"H-huh? I don't get it..."
"Hey, nobody's askin' you to master genjutsu in a day, you're not really cut out for that type of jutsu anyways."
"Really? Then let's forget about that jutsu and skip it!"
"You can't skip it! There are enemies out there that can use-" Naruto wasn't paying attention at all to what he was saying. 'This damn kid...' "I'm telling you this because, Itachi in particular exceeds in using genjutsu."
Naruto perked up at the mere mention of his name. "Yeah...I know...but...I..." He became flustered.
"If the time ever comes, if it comes, when Itachi decides to attack you, he's going to use genjutsu as his go-to-jutsu and once you're trapped in one of his jutsu, or anyone's, you need to try and stop your chakra flow as much as possible. While you're caught, your chakra is under that person's control and if you can break that control, you can break the genjutsu."
"..."
"What if I can't break it?"
"Then someone needs to physically touch you and send chakra into you to disrupt the flow."
XxxxxXxxx
"You're...lying!" Naruto roared, smacking his hands together. 'I'll break out of this in no time!'
Naruto's pointless attempts somewhat amused Itachi. 'He's improved vastly, however, it isn't enough,' "...to break out of my genjutsu."
'What's happening? It feels like...I'm falling...' Naruto's pale blue eyes closed on the sliver of light above him, he was falling. 'Why of all genjutsu you choose to do this...' He was falling in a never-ending black void.
Naruto suddenly plopped down, he pushed his arms on the ground and lifted himself up. It finally dawned to him that two arm-like pillars pillars were fixtured across from him, the fingers pointing up in such a way like they were in anguish.
"Shall we begin?" A voice echoed.
'Huh?!'
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHH-AHAHHHHHH!"
'That screaming,' Naruto stumbled in the dim light to find the source of screaming. 'It sounds like...' After what seemed like days of walking, he found a stone platform and someone strapped to it. 'It's me.'
'Why is he showing me this?!' Sweat began pouring down his pink face.
The screams stopped and so did Naruto's heartbeat. "ITACHI?!"
OoO
Within all the madness surrounding him, Naruto heard a distinct voice echoing through his ears like a blissful melody.
"It's...ok..." He would hear over and over again
Everything stood still, Naruto's conscience shifted and a spoonful of reality greeted him harshly. "...Sakura..." He slowly mustered up.
"You ok, Naruto?" Kakashi asked.
"Yeah but-"
Sakura sighed. "It was only a genjustu-"
"Did he...did Itachi do anything..."
Her head swayed to the left. "He didn't do...so Kakashi..." Her words trailed off to the black lump adjacent to Kakashi. Naruto ran over, and quickly scanned it. "What's going on?!"
Kakashi responded, disheartened. "I don't know myself,"
"He's Yura," Lady Chiyo said, walking up to the corpse. "A jōnin from our village."
"Hidden sand? How is that possible?"
"I'm not sure."
"Maybe he was an Akatsuki spy." Sakura suggested.
"That can't be it, he served four years at the highest level."
"It could be a transformation technique." Naruto said.
"No, if it was, he would've fought back, after you fell under the genjutsu, all attacks and evasion from him stopped completely."
"..." 'So who we met wasn't Itachi, so then...where's the real Itachi...?'
XxxxxXxxx
"I'm out of chakra."
"You're done too, huh?"
"It couldn't be helped, with what little chakra our 'sacrifices' were supplied with," Itachi said, looking yonder into the forest. "But we've delayed them."
"Mm, let's get back,"
OoO
Itachi and Kisame's chakra manifestation appeared on the fingertips of the gedō statue, essentially a vessel they had to feed.
"Itachi," Sasori said, it was a rare instance, whenever, if ever, Sasori mustered up the voice to speak to him. "Tell me about what kind of tailed beast Naruto hosts."
"..."
"Tell them." Their leader reinforced.
"...he is the one...who bursts in and barks first."
This puzzled Sasori. "What do you mean by that?"
Unlike his partner, Sasori, Deidara, would frequently put down Itachi and the Uchiha clan whatever chance he got. This had to be the perfect chance. Deidara spoke in his usual aggravated tone. "Interesting how you choose to still your tongue whenever information on Naruto comes about, hm."
Sasori added onto this. "You spent most of your days with the leaf's jinchuriki, shouldn't you know something about him?"
"..." Itachi began disappearing much to their annoyance.
Deidara's face twisted from annoyance. 'Then I'll remind myself to punish him later...'
OoO
"Why did you cut off?" Kisame questioned.
Itachi answered nonchalantly. "I have an important friend I must meet."
"Sounds like you're using the term 'friend' loosely."
"Take whatever you want out of my words." With that, he quickly left leaving Kisame to fill in extra chakra for his absence.
A/N: it's a weird chapter, I know, and the next few chapters aren't going to be my usual 3,000 words three act story guidelines. So just bare with me for awhile.