Sorry for the long wait, you guys. I've been falling behind and there were a few things to the story that I needed to fix before typing it. Plus, I absolutely suck at combat/fighting bits so if you're hella confused as you read, I warned you. Luckily, I was able to complete this chapter before the school started. Yeah, I think I mentioned about posting more now that school's out. BOY, WAS I WRONG!

Chapter 26: Shadow within a Shadow

Itachi pulled the first move by throwing the kunai that were in his hands within his black sleeves. I skillfully dived through the air towards him as I easily dodged the barrage of kunai. As I laid my eyes on him, I saw a smirk on his pale face. I frowned upon this until I gasped in realization that I was still in trouble. I briefly looked over my shoulder to see the barrage of kunai that were thrown by the raven were soaring right behind me. I tried to avoid them by making a harsh turn, but they still continued to follow suit. It was then I realized it wasn't just a mere barrage of kunai knives.

'Itachi's Shuriken Jutsu!' I disclosed in thought as I briefly looked over my shoulder at said weapons. 'He can hit the target perfectly even at his blind spot. That said, I wouldn't be able to just dodge.'

I gracefully spun around to face the metal blades as I continued to glide through the air but backwards. I wielded a couple of hand signs then I took a huge deep breath in as the visible air was seen being captured and stored within my chest.

'Wind style: Violent Whirlwind!' I called forth my jutsu as I blew out a strong, severe stream of wind through my lips.

This caused the kunai barrage to slow down its speed. I then took advantage of the wind in the sky to strengthen my jutsu to the point where the kunai were now flying directly towards the thrower. He hopped to a safe distance a second before the kunai planted themselves firmly on the earth's surface. I wasn't done yet. I then moved rapidly down to Itachi as I continued with my Whirlwind Jutsu.

"I see. So that's her game…" I heard Kisame commented, sounding impressed. "She's using the natural air and wind from the sky to not only make her jutsu stronger, but also allow her to use less of her chakra. That's why she positioned herself so high. Not bad for a kid…"

I smirked at his compliment, as it gave me motivation to move even faster as I made the stream of wind blow ever harder at Itachi. I sensed the raven focusing his chakra to the bottoms of his feet. It wasn't until a few seconds later when the gust of strong wind harshly blew on him as his Akatsuki robe shook widely. Though his face didn't look fazed, I could tell he was struggling to prevent himself from being swept off of his feet by my jutsu. As he was distracted by this, I swiftly pulled out my signature claw blades and used my wind chakra to finely sharpen the claws. At the last moment, the stoic male realized what I was trying to do and instantly pulled out a kunai. And just like that, our blades clashed loudly as the sparks could be seen from where Kisame stood. The metal blades grinded hardly against each other as we battled to gain dominance over the other. I was now standing on the ground once again with my brother as our weapon of choice were still stuck to one another. I looked up into his eyes to see if there was any emotion he had within him or if he carried any sort of regret. When I was little, I was able to interpret what my older brother thought or felt through his eyes since we had gotten very close by him training me. I wanted to see if I carried that capability because knowing him like that made me feel special in a way.

But before I could disclose his emotions, Itachi attempted to throw a punch to my face. I easily ducked his swing as I lifted my leg up to high kick him. He blocked my attack and grabbed my ankle. With this grip, he effortlessly lifted me off of my feet, hanging me upside-down. In an attempt to free myself, I swung my bladed claws in which he dodged. I used the leg that was free to bring it down to the top of his head. Noticing this, he used his free arm to block my kick. Because of the amount of strength in my kick, he released my ankle and I performed a few backflips away from the man. Once I was in a crouching position, Itachi wielded a few hand signs then he took a deep breath in as he brought his thumb and two fingers to his lips. The next thing I knew, a huge ball of fire was seen coming out of the male's lips as it moved intendedly towards me.

It wouldn't be smart to use my Wind Style to deflect or stop the Fireball because wind was vulnerable to fire; I would just make his attack stronger. But I also didn't have time to think of a better plan until one hit me. Then, it hit me: my bladed claws could be used in long-range too. With that thought, I held out both arms in which my weapon of choice was being worn and with one button, two toxic smoke bombs—one from each— came shooting out of the little hole located on the width of the weapon's base, past my knuckles and just above the root of the sharp claws. The smoke bombs immediately blew up caused by the reaction with the fire. The smoke bombs eventually extinguished the fireball as it continued to spread across most of the clearing. I didn't bother protecting myself from the poisonous smoke because thanks to Orochimaru's experiments and Kabuto's acts of generosity, I was literally immune to any type of toxic and poison out there. Meanwhile, I watched as Itachi stood there frozen, rummaging in his head for an idea to overcome this predicament. I took this chance to dash through the cloud of poison towards him as I held both of my pair of claws back, cloaked with my chakra.

Sadly, Itachi saw through my attack and blocked it with a mere kunai knife. Once again, we made eye contact with our visual prowess. I knew that he knew taking in oxygen was out of the question for him since the poison fog hadn't completely disappeared yet. The thought of that made my lips curve upwards.

"Out of breath, Itachi?" I mocked assumingly as he eyed me blankly.

"Overly smug, I see…" He simply observed.

Itachi then attempted to throw another punch—which I dodged—and then threw a hard kick in which I blocked with my covered forearms. Due to the immense power of his leg, I slid a short distance back by force as I felt my arms becoming sore. He wasted little time to trespass on my personal space and started using his technical taijutsu on me. Luckily, I was still familiar with his style of fighting and my taijutsu was similar to his. With that advantage, I performed my strongest moves I had in my sleeve as I skillfully dodged his attack. Meanwhile he was doing the same. I could tell as we threw punches and kicks and weapons at each other, our movements became faster and faster while our determination to win grew.

"She's fast…" Kisame commented in awe as he watched from afar. "No wonder Itachi saw so much potential in the kid… she's like a younger version of him."

I consistently swung my sharp weapon at him to which he dodged each and every swing. Itachi jumped back a bit as he made hand seals in one millisecond. I gritted my teeth, immediately knowing his next choice of attack.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" He called forth one of our clan's common jutsu as he blew out small fireballs at me.

I pounced in a nick of time before his jutsu came in contact with me. While in the air, I weaved a few hand signs and took a deep breath in myself.

"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" I verbally summoned as I blew out a stream of fire closely shaped as a dragon.

Thanks to Mother Nature offering wind in the sky, it made my fire jutsu even stronger than it would've been if I was at ground level. I watched anxiously as it engulfed Itachi's whole body. Because of the wind fuelling my fire jutsu, it took a lot longer for the flames to extinguish themselves. It was only when I landed softly on my feet the flames were erased from existence. I scanned the burnt setting cautiously, trying to locate Itachi. Though my attack wasn't weak or petty, it wasn't enough to take down someone as skilled and intelligent as my older brother. As a precaution, I glanced solidly at his large partner who was now sitting against a tree within the outline of the clearing, watching with amusement. He noticed my eyeing at him and gave me a mocking grin to which I responded by narrowing my eyes at him coldly. I snapped my gaze away from him like a stubborn child not accepting their parents' wishes.

"For a little girl, she's got a lot of skills and talent not many shinobi have. She's possibly the youngest to ever stand to par with Itachi." I overheard him analysing to himself. "However, I highly doubt she will win this fight; Itachi is simply too powerful for anyone… including his sister…"

I continued to examine surroundings, trying to locate Itachi with my Sharingan. But dammit, he hid his chakra so well I was having trouble detecting his movements. In the last second, I heard a slight rustle of grass and before I fully turned around, I felt a hard object jabbing deep into my abdomen. Because of the force, I was sent backwards at such speed until my back abruptly crashed against a tree causing me to hack out blood. I slowly slid down against the tree's stem as I panted deeply with blood streams pouring down my mouth. The second I tried to use my strength to pick myself off of the dirt, I felt something seized my neck harshly and swiftly resulting in me coughing out blood. I subconsciously grabbed onto Itachi's wrist as he used his incredible strength to lift me up against the tree until I was dangling above the ground, wriggling around to free myself from lack of oxygen. I started to wheeze and croak as blood erupted from my mouth, taking into note that my vision started to get blurry and dark. Out of desperation, I grabbed onto Itachi's wrist tightly as my nails dug into his flesh; I tried to use my willpower to force him to free me. But of course—Itachi being the most unnerved man that had walked on the face of the earth—he was unfazed by this attempt as he continued to grip my neck firmly. The need for air was so bad to the point where my legs swung widely as I panted and choked quickly.

"It's no use, Katsumi…" I partially heard Itachi's voice speaking to me nonchalantly, not batting an eyebrow that I was suffocating right in front of him. "You can't fight this battle because no matter what you do, you will always fail…"

Just the thought that not only Itachi didn't give a s**t about me, but he was intentionally suffocating me until he killed me… it really clenched my heart and lungs. I'd thought he had the same mindset as me: estranged siblings who wouldn't attempt to kill one another willingly. But this doesn't apply to this scenario. The feeling of this all caused tears to well up in my eyes; now I had two of my big brothers—my former protectors—as my enemy. They didn't consider me as their own just because my morals were different. It was as if "big brother" was a label they used to carry until they ripped it off themselves.

Itachi then moved me away from the tree and immediately slammed me even harder back against the large plant, leaving me helplessly with blood continuously being spewed out. He intended to use any tactic to make me suffer more than possible. The raven then leaned in closer to my face as his Sharingan stared dully at my scrunched-closed eyelids from the physical and emotional pain I was dealing with.

"You're still the same, helpless little girl that has no one. No one at all…" He continued in a low, dark tone as he fastened his grip on my neck even tighter.

Hearing those hurtful, piercing words from my own flesh and blood was enough for the tears that I was trying so desperately hard to hold back fall in thin streams down my cheek. It crushed and disgusted me that bastard Itachi was the sight I would see last after I took my last breath. Why the hell did it had to happen this way? This was like that faithful night when our whole family was killed by the man in front of me, when little me tried to take on Itachi after harming helplessly little Sasuke. At the time, I thought I died right then and there along with or deceased mother and father. But miraculously, heaven decided to give me another chance at life to redeem all of the things I had done in retaliation to the unfortunate things I had to deal with living in the Uchiha Clan. Though my good luck got the best of me, I wondered if the heavens gave third chances. If they did, I would rather be reborn as a different person who saw only the good things in life. Yes, that was what I wanted. Maybe Itachi putting me to death wasn't the worst thing. Maybe it was meant to happen considering the whole mess was basically started because of the massacre.

Suddenly, a mere thought of a certain someone popped in my mind. This person gave one of the brightest smiles I'd ever seen. Kabuto Yakushi, that four-eyed bookworm. He was smiling at me without a care in the world. He found a reason to smile and that was why he was happy. His smile made me even smile a bit despite me close to unconsciousness. Why after everything he had been through, how was he still able to smile?

"Your existence is the only thing that makes him truly happy with himself and his life. You might be the reason why he continues so hard to build himself up and become even stronger…" I recalled Orochimaru's theorization on Kabuto's change in attitude.

I weakly gasp as I somehow gained enough strength to open my eyes a bit, seeing more of the light than the dark. That was it. Kabuto found a reason why he should be happy. Orochimaru was right: I was the reason he was able to still smile at life. And as a matter of fact—and shockingly enough—he was the reason I was happier about my life as well. All those times when we spent time with each other, holding each other close, kissing passionately on each other's lips, me sleeping on him after moon and star gazing, insulted each other's misfortunes, and laughed at our past events. All those times… I was happy. I was genuinely happy when I was with Kabuto. No matter how difficult it was to see it, I knew that my happiness laid around the male I'd grown to care so much. I had always been such an independent person who pushed people away and sat in my own little dark corner from the rest of the world. I was happy no doubt when I was on my own, but being happy with a significant other who was also happy felt incredible. When I was with him, everything negative had been erased as if it were mere nightmares. I don't ever want to lose that feeling… I don't want to lose Kabuto.

My mind was set, I wasn't going to leave Kabuto's side and I wasn't going to die. No way in hell was I giving up now after searching long and hard for that feeling of happiness and peace.

I sneaked a brief glance at my brother who still held my neck tightly, knowing that I wasn't dead yet. Meanwhile, my hands were wrapped firmly on his wrist but it became weaker as I bounced to and from unconsciousness. If I had to guess, Itachi was telling himself to not let go until I was completely knocked out. Despite my current state, I still had time to get out of his grip alive. Like Kabuto, I possessed the Yin Healing Wound Destruction Jutsu meaning my body basically could heal itself automatically and my condition wasn't too severe for the jutsu to heal me completely. But in order for that to happen, I had to get out of here.

After mentally planning my strategy, I carefully focused a bit of my chakra to the palms of my hands, converting my chakra to the same exact chakra used as my chakra scalpel jutsu except it was invisible to the naked eye. Hopefully, Itachi didn't detect what I was trying to do because he had his Sharingan so it would be really hard to deceive him. But at this point, I had no choice; if I didn't do anything that was it for me. I was committed to defeat Itachi and prove him wrong. That thought motivated me to trickle more of my medical chakra into my brother's arm without him realizing it. My main intention was to cut off any function from the arm that was occupied by my neck.

'Focus… focus… keep funnelling your chakra into his arm until it reaches his shoulder…' I thought to myself hardly; my concentration was at a hundred and ten percent.

I made sure that I still looked I was struggling for air so Itachi wouldn't be suspicious about anything. That was very easy to do since I was still in pain and he was still trying to choke the life out of me. I couldn't help but smirk microscopically when I detected that the right amount of my chakra was positioned right on the main nerves, muscles, and joints of the man's arm.

'Now!' I acknowledged mentally, displaying my excelled skills in chakra control.

At a perfect time, my chakra struck all of his vital nerves, muscles, and joints to an extent where he shouldn't be able to move or feel his right arm anymore. I knew Itachi felt the pain associated to my attack by the way he slightly winced in pain. Though it couldn't be seen by an average shinobi, the sight of his pain was as clear as day to me. After what seemed like a year, Itachi's arm finally lost all of its strength, movement, and feeling which forced him to let go of my neck. I gasped long and deeply for air before a long fit of coughing and wheezing followed from lack of oxygen. I held my chest tightly as I watched with one eye the raven taking a few steps back with his right arm dangling helplessly. At first glance, he didn't seem to care about it nor did it fazed him, but by the glassy look in his eyes, I knew he wasn't too pleased that I basically took one of the most important limbs for a ninja to have.

"I see…" He mused huskily. "You allowed yourself to suffocate and suffer so that I wouldn't pay attention to your chakra's actions…"

I stayed silent mostly because of how long and hard Itachi grabbed my throat, my vocal cords possibly suffered some damage so I knew speaking would cause some pain which I didn't need at the moment. I was also trying to gain my all the oxygen back to my lungs as I continued to breath heavily. If it were longer, I would've suffered severe brain damage. Though I prevented that from happening, I knew based off of how lightheaded I was and the newly-found migraine I was receiving, I might have suffered some brain damage that could easily be tended to.

"You've matured, Katsumi…" The raven remarked dryly, forgetting to check his lifelessly arm, knowing that it was now useless to use.

I subconsciously glanced over at Kisame who still remained sitting against a tree at a distance away from our fight. Though he looked tired, he seemed to be watching our every move intently. He noticed that I was looking at him and gave me a toothy grin, to which I looked away coldly.

"Considering how powerful the girl is, I forget that she's still a kid. Not just any kid… she's an Uchiha…" I overheard Kisame comment in amusement. "I can't believe she actually got Itachi by almost allowing him to kill her… and it costed his arm. I wonder what he'll do now…"

That was the same thing I was wondering. What was his next move?

All of a sudden, Itachi disappeared in a blink of an eye. I gasped and frantically looked around, desperate to find him before he got me. I was still on my knees and I hadn't recuperated enough to take him head on.

"Hn." I heard that familiar grunt and the first thing I did was look over my shoulder only to see my eldest sibling standing right behind me.

If I had to think of the dumbest, stupidest thing that I had ever done, it was briefly looking at his Mangekyō Sharingan. I knew right there that I was literally f**ked. Just when I thought that I could beat him because of how well I knew him.

"Mangekyō Sharingan!" He said lowly as said eyes eyed me strongly.

The next thing I knew, everything became black. I could feel myself losing consciousness as I felt my brother holding me up a bit, making sure that I was actually caught in his genjutsu. The one thing I despised the most out of all of this, Itachi was the last person I saw before my possible death.

*Time Skip*

I peeked my head behind a tree near the outline of the clearing as I panted quietly. Good, they hadn't noticed that it was my Shadow Clone Jutsu. I stared briefly at Itachi holding my clone's unconscious body as his partnered walked over to him. I turned away and laid my head against the tree as I sat on a high branch. Thanks to my high IQ and strategy skills, I knew it was a smart move to make a clone of myself while hiding out just in case. That wasn't even the best part; Itachi had no clue. I smiled to myself by the thought of my eldest sibling knowing that I knew most of his weakness and way to get past him which was why he was extra careful with his attacks and moves.

"The weasel is so f**kin' complicated." I commented aloud softly.

I then slightly looked past the tree's stem over to the duo as they seemed to be conversing about me. Though I could hear their voices, it was hard to determine exactly what they were saying. Because of this, I activated my Sharingan to read their lip movements.

"That took you a while, Itachi." Kisame commented incredulously with the toothy grin. "Not only that, she got your right arm good."

"Admittedly, yes. Her medical abilities have grown more powerful… which is exactly why Lord Pain requested us to recruit her." Itachi replied in agreement as his eyes were glued to "my" lifeless body. "We've finally completed our mission and my right arm was just a sacrifice."

"But are you gonna be alright?" Kisame asked concernedly. "You've used up more chakra than you've intended. Plus, you used your Mangekyō Sharingan when you told me that you weren't gonna use it on her."

"To my dismay, she's gotten a lot stronger than I thought. I simply did what I had to do for the mission." The raven replied dismissively, ignoring his partner's concern.

I smirked at my brother's honest compliment, leaning in to hear more of their conversation.

"So that's that…" The swordsman huffed tiredly, hoisting his sword onto his shoulder. "I wonder how she'll react when she learns that she not only lost, but kidnapped too."

"Whatever she has to say is useless from this point on; she's coming back to the Akatsuki." The raven murmured as he adjusted his grip on me with his unaffected arm. "Let's go."

'Why did I have to be related to a bunch of f**kin' douchebags!?' I commented coldly as I narrowed my eyes at my brother for that comment.

I used my sensory ninjutsu to see if they left the area like they had planned to. I didn't sense their chakra any longer, which brought me to believe that I was in the clear. The second I allowed my guard to drop just a bit, I gasped in horror only to see a huge, bandaged sword being swung directly at me. Out of instincts, I took out a kunai knife and blocked the swordsman attack. That did little to save me because the amount of power and strength he had applied on his sword was unimaginable. In fact, it was strong enough to send me flying across the clearing. I managed to keep my balance and landed on my feet without any difficulty. After my feet stopped sliding on the dirt, I glared in frustration at the duo in front of me. The man who had just attempted to murder me a moment ago, moved himself beside my brother who still held my clone. In one move, my Shadow Clone disappeared in a puff of smoke. Itachi continued to give me the old stoic, blank look as I returned with a cold stare.

"So, you knew, huh?" I mused dryly.

Meanwhile, the shark-faced giant snickered darkly as his clone that was speaking with the raven liquefied into a puddle of water. 'So, he was speaking to a Water Clone, huh?'

"A trick like that won't work on me." The raven remarked expressionlessly. "However, it would've worked if it weren't for these eyes of mine…"

"I figured that." I responded hardly, then turning to his large partner beside him. "I also figured that he would've backed you up on mischief just in case."

"My, my…" Kisame grinned amusingly. "The girl's got a brain…"

"Shut the f**k up, scaly bastard!" I snapped hastily, activating my Sharingan.

"Geez, your sister has some attitude… and language…" He commented lowly.

"Never mind that, Kisame. We don't have time to waste." Itachi dismissed him completely, eyeing me carefully. "Our leader will grow impatient if we don't capture her soon."

"Hate to break it to you, Itachi… but he's already getting tired of waiting." His partner informed hesitantly as the raven gave him a look that urged him to explain. "I answered his call since you were too busy with her. I briefed what was going on and simply demanded us to get the work done or else we may pay the price for it."

"So, what do you suggest?" My brother questioned, briefly eyeing his comrade.

"We work together to defeat your sister, is what I'm suggesting." He answered lowly, throwing me a serious look. "Besides, you can no longer use your right arm; it will take forever for you to beat her at this rate."

"Don't underestimate me, Kisame." Itachi warned lightly.

"Just giving you the heads-up, is all." Kisame defended playfully.

I was tired of hearing nothing but bulls**t coming out of their mouths. I expressed this annoyance by glaring at him exasperatedly.

"Listen, why do you need me of all people?" I questioned in irritation. "There are other medics that are more than capable in offering you their services."

"But we don't need just any medic; we need a medic whose medical ninjutsu is one of the strongest." Kisame replied dully. "You're the only one who has no allegiance with any village. That makes it easier for us to get what we need without any interruptions,"

"I already told you no!" I snapped lividly, hating the fact that my feelings were meaningless to their selfish beings. "Just leave me the f**k alone!"

"Like I said, you have no other option than to come with us." Itachi spoke up, sounding slightly impatient.

I gritted my teeth exasperatedly at them. I was at an impasse; there was literally no way I could handle two of the most dangerous, high-classed criminals in the books. I thought about calling for some back-up, but the nearest hideout was literally the one Orochimaru, Sasuke, Kabuto, and I currently resided and that was literally miles away from here. Plus, I knew they would easily kill off any attempt of signal I made. There literally was no other choice; I had to fight them in order to survive. With that thought, I quickly weaved some hand signs and took a huge breath in. The next second was when I breathed out a large ball of fire. As I did so, I weaved another set of hand signs for another jutsu.

'Wind Style: Air Current Wild Dance!'I summoned verbally as I continued to blow out my fireball jutsu. I then held out my palm, releasing my wind jutsu to compliment greatly with my fire jutsu.

The combination of my jutsu resulted the inferno to increase in size and intensity. It headed straight for the two Akatsuki members as they stood there motionlessly. The moment I believed I actually got them, Kisame stepped forward and used his massive sword to slice the inferno completely in half, causing the fire to cleanly miss them. This movement made a clean pathway of fire throughout the same clearing we were standing on. Just before they were able to recover, I focused my chakra to the bottoms of my feet as I ran with incredible speed. I pulled out my bladed claws, cloaked with chakra. Kisame jumped in front of Itachi and blocked my attack with his gigantic sword. He gave me a cocky grin as I glared at him deadly while struggling to par with his incredible strength he applied on his sword.

"A little warning for you, kid." He spoke with a threatening grin. "I won't go easy on you just because you're my partner's little sister, so you may not walk out of here conscious. Think of it as payback for screwing up his arm."

"What brother?" I seethed fumingly, using my anger to increase my strength.

"The brother you wish to kill someday?" Kisame answered in question, confused by my use of words.

"Why would I wish to kill someone when they're already dead to me!?" I barked coldly, earning a stunned reaction from my large opponent. "Itachi's dead to me! I don't consider him my brother or someone that I'm proud of being related to!"

Kisame then glanced over at said raven who watched us from a short distance away with a dull look.

"Gee, Itachi. Did ya hear that?" He mused lowly with a small smile. "She doesn't consider you as her brother and that you're even dead to her."

"Hn." Itachi merely responded, resting his eyes.

He pulled away a mere second then swung his sword at me again. This time, I jumped over his swing then ducked on his rebound swing. I then pulled back my arm then swung my bladed weapon at him. Kisame leaned back, away from my attack. I flipped backwards a few times and made hand signs as my opponent ran towards me with a low cry.

As he ran towards me with his big ass sword, I used my Air Current Jutsu again on him. He abruptly stopped and jabbed his sword in the soft earth as he held onto the handle, preventing himself from being swept away by my Wind Jutsu. Once the wind died down a bit, rushed directly at him with a handful of senbon gripped tightly in between my fingers. I threw them all at my opponent and at the second, he took out a kunai and blocked most of my needles except for a few which were able to hit deeply in his arms and shoulders. He realized this and growled displeasingly at me to which I returned the growl with a confident smirk. Just before he played his move in the fight, his fish-like eyes shot wide open while his body started to shake in pain. I watched his knees getting shakier and shakier by the minute, struggling to keep his enormous figure up.

"What the hell!?" He exclaimed in confusion. "What's going on?! I'm starting to feel numb!"

"Should've stayed in your tank like a good little fish." I mocked cockily, placing a hand on my waist as I watched him in entertainment.

"I see..." I overheard Itachi analyzing lowly as he continued to watch from afar.

After hearing his dark-haired partner, Kisame awed in realization as to what was wrong. He then glared darkly at me with his toothy gritted teeth grinding against each other in pure anger.

"You little brat, you've poisoned me!" He concluded lowly, trying to decrease his kill instincts. "These needles on me... they're covered in poison, weren't they?"

"Not just any poison..." I corrected flatly with a straight face as my time kept the smugness I was feeling. "This poison was created by your ex-member, Orochimaru. This creation of his is very strong; it can paralyze you and shut down your immune system if you don't obtain the right antidote."

Kisame just kept quiet while giving me a death glared. He then grunted in pain one last time and dropped down to his knees; his legs were finally paralyzed. It would only take a few hours for his entire body to feel the excruciating pain it was enduring at the same feel the numbness overcoming his body. The thought of actually defeating one of the Seven Hidden Swordsmen of the Mist was so unbelievable yet very impressive at the same time. I had come a long way since leaving the Hidden Leaf. I could feel myself getting stronger and by the look my brother was giving me, he saw how much I'd improved.

Then, in the corner in my eye, I saw the "paralyzed" male coming straight at me. My eyes widened incredulously at him as he attacked me with his gigantic sword. Out of mere instincts, I jumped far away from him to collect myself from that shock. I couldn't believe that after being paralyzed, he was still able to feel never mind move.

"How the hell...?" I breathed in disbelief.

"Reminder: if you have the Sharingan, take advantage of it and use it." Kisame smirked arrogantly. "That way, you may have noticed that the one you poisoned was a Water Clone."

"F**k!" I huffed in frustration.

At this rate, it would take literally forever to get back to the hideout. I could already tell Kabuto woke up from his coma and worried sick about me. Meanwhile Sasuke wouldn't give any sort of s**t and Orochimaru was probably suspicious about my disappearance. I needed to get this job done and I needed to do it quick. But how?

I don't have enough chakra to deal with two of the most formidable villains in the books. Plus, none of my jutsu worked on either of them. Well... except for one. There was my other kekkei genkai: my Typhoon Style. This particular release was similar to Wind Style however it was ten times more powerful and intense. I developed this special technique when Itachi trained me, around the same time we were trying to determine my Chakra Nature. Since then, I had trained long and hard to master it until I finally succeeded. I hadn't use my kekkei genkai for a while because I would normally use it when it was absolutely necessary. I guessed it was the right time to use it.

As I took a deep breath in, I weaved a long series of hand signs. I could already feel Itachi watching me carefully, assuming my realizing what my next move was.

"Kisame." I heard him call his partner lowly.

"I know." The man replied lazily and then weaved hand signs of his own. "This stops now!"

I calmly closed my eyes as I focused my chakra on my jutsu as I felt my opponent concentrating much more chakra than I was for his attack.

"Water Style: Water Shark Bomb Jutsu!" I heard Kisame's voice calling out his attack.

Because of my familiarization of this jutsu, I visualized the water projectiles shaped as hungry sharks coming straight at me. Thought it seemed I was in danger, I remained standing exactly where I was holding a tiger seal hand sign with my eyes closed. Before the Shark Bomb Jutsu could touch me, a small tornado-like wind spun around my personal space like a shield cutting of the water attack.

"What is this chakra?" I heard Kisame question to himself curiously.

"Typhoon Release..." I slightly heard Itachi answer Kisame's question.

Once I had slowly opened my eyes, the typhoon around my got bigger, stronger, and faster to the point where it lifted me off my feet. Both Akatsuki members watched me as I moved higher and higher to the sky with the wind circling around me as I held my tiger hand sign. I eyed them hardly, focusing my chakra for my big and hopefully final attack. Because of my high chakra concentration, the sky became gloomier due to clouds forming surely in the sky until no brilliant blue could be seen anymore. The typhoon around me started leaving my body and moving rapidly and aggressively in any possible direction to the point where rooting your feet to the ground with chakra was mandatory. I sensed Itachi and Kisame doing just that as they glanced up at me while struggling to prevent themselves from being taken away by the strong wind storm.

"What kind of jutsu is this!?" The bigger man asked warily, looking at my brother for an answer.

Itachi simply briefed a look at the blue-skinned man and blinked dully.

"Katsumi's kekkei genkai." He answered lowly but loud enough for his comrade to hear. "It's a powerful Chakra Nature, stronger than Wind. It allows her to bend and control powerful wind storms by using this special chakra of hers."

"Wow, that's impressive." Kisame mused. "But I expected nothing less from an Uchiha, especially those who are closely related to you."

"Never mind that, Kisame." Itachi dismissed flatly, turning his attention towards me. "This jutsu isn't like any normal jutsu mostly because this attack involves Mother Nature's anger; it's impossible to stop nature. That's the biggest advantage Katsumi has against us."

"Alright then." Kisame grinned widely as he made a hand sign for another jutsu. "Let's stop this 'special' jutsu of hers."

"No, Kisame. Jutsu won't work on her at this moment." Itachi interjected quickly. "That typhoon is solely being controlled by her. She can use it as offence and defence in unison. Whatever you throw at her, she can easily stop your jutsu with the typhoon and use it against you."

"Okay then. So, what do you suggest?" The large man inquired impatiently.

"Just avoid any attack she throws at you." He replied quickly as he eyed me. "In order to stop this jutsu of hers, we have to hit her directly with taijutsu."

With my chakra, I threw a sharp stream of wind directly at them. This resulted them to cut their conversation short and dodge my attack.

"Easier said than done, Itachi." Kisame remarked huskily as he slid back from dodging another one of my typhoon attacks. "With this jutsu of hers, we can't even manage to touch her."

Itachi remained quiet as he moved flexibly away from my attacks as he gave a brief look at his partner. Kisame responded with a huff and roughly moved away from another attack. As I eyed them hardly with my Sharingan eyes and held a tiger seal, I continued to throw cyclones and typhoons at them to get them to lose some balance in their movements. I knew I had a better chance in getting Kisame because he was the type of ninja who was quite impulsive and reckless whereas Itachi very particular and precise with his movements. I watched the two dodging in different forms to prevent themselves from not getting sliced up by my sharp winds. The point to this attack was to drain them down a bit to the point where their movements and reaction time were slow and sloppy.

That tactic was achieved after a moment of basic offense. It was time to end this battle.

I weaved a few hand signs in the following order: dog, hare, and finally serpent.

"Typhoon Style: Consecutive Bursting Strong Winds!" I exclaimed as I held the serpent seal.

Seconds past when the clouds above us formed a gigantic vortex spiralling crazily. I winced my eyes wide then a tornado formed from the vortex and slammed itself down on the ground in front of my opponents. They watched warily as the long, crazy cyclone grew bigger and bigger in size. Once it enveloped both Kisame and Itachi, I made sure it stopped growing uncontrollably for the safety of others around the outer area we were currently in. I watched them covering their faces desperately as the wind circled them quickly.

'Good. They're in the twister.' I thought in relief, feeling a sense of accomplishment.

As I kept the size of the twister the same, I did order it to rotate faster and faster until it was close to the speed of sound. This caused both men to be swept off of their feet from the ground and lifted up in the air within the strong, rotating wind. Despite the fact they were up in the air, they still protected their face from possible damage or object that could hit them. I then focused my chakra even more, dipping into my Chakra Nature even more to sharpen the wind. Once I succeeded, I could see the winds nicking, slitting and cutting any bare skin of the two criminals. Kisame hissed in pain as Itachi only showed his pain by his one eye closed shut tightly. I watched their blood slowly dripping down on their wounds the wind continued to cut them from different places and directions. The sight of their pin and struggle made my lips curve upward; I was finally gaining the upper hand.

Who knew I could stand a chance against two of the most formidable, S-ranked criminals?

'Time to end this once and for all!' I proclaimed determinedly, and made a dragon seal with my hands.

It was a second later when a gust of wind came out of the vortex and crunched up behind me. It gradually formed itself into a large phoenix made purely by my wind chakra. It cawed obnoxiously as it flapped its wings, causing strong gusts of wind to harshly blow on the enemy. Kisame opened his one fish eyes and gasped to see what was in front of him and his partner.

"What… what the hell is that!?" He exclaimed incredulously.

Itachi stayed silent as he used his one eye that wasn't closed to see the situation himself. He then glanced at me with a blank look but I knew deep inside, he was impressed of how much I had improved my jutsu and abilities. My smirked stretched further as my wind phoenix cawed some more.

"I warned you two to leave me alone and you didn't bother to listen." I spoke up hardly. "Now you will pay for your stupidity, and all of the horrible deeds and pain you've caused!"

My wind phoenix lifted its head back and immediately snapped its head forward, releasing a sharp stream of wind that headed straight towards them. Since the wind was very strong and sharp, it caused more wounds to appear on my enemies and deepened the pre-existing wounds.

"Now!" I signalled and my phoenix cawed one final time then it soared down directly towards its targets.

The larger male gaped at this as he watched the graceful bird headed towards them with incredible speed.

"This thing is moving too fast!" He indicated frantically. "We can't escape it in time."

Despite the circumstances, Itachi still remained calm and collected however I did see a bit of worry in his eyes. He realized that he was truly at an impasse. With that sight, I smiled down at them wickedly as my crimson eyes shined proudly at the sight they were seeing.

"Ninja Art: Typhoon Style: Ultimate Phoenix Wind!" I announced just a second before said wind creature hit its target.

The amount of force and power slamming hard on the earth caused the entire area to shake hardly as everything on the ground was blown away or ripped off from the soil, leaving a clean ground of dirt and dust. The small quake lasted over a minute as I watched from above the powerful jutsu I performed. This was literally the first time I had used this jutsu because it took a while for me to master it. Plus, the amount of chakra required for this jutsu was quite a lot and the amount of concentration and focus of chakra was way out of jonin-level. Considering how I just did it perfectly, I was very proud of myself especially at the time I needed it the most. Now it was all over; I actually won. I was rewarded by the sky finally removing the clouds, showing off its friend, the sun, and its bright blue colour.

I sighed deeply in relief while lowering myself slowly towards the ground. The second my feet touched the earth, I cautiously walked over to the corpses of Kisame and Itachi as they laid there in a pool of their own blood. Their flesh and skin was torn from their bodies as they laid on the crumbled boulders and rocks from my attack. I briefly scanned my surroundings, taking into account that the forest we'd once stood in was barely a forest; it was merely a large deserted area with dust. I could vaguely see the new outline of trees that weren't affected severely from the blast, remained standing tall and proud. I glanced back at the dead bodies, particularly Itachi's. I was glad that I was able to defeat my brother and especially proving him wrong about everything about me. Most importantly, I proved myself that I could defeat one of the most talented, skilled, powerful shinobi of all time. The only drawback was Sasuke not being the one to bring our oldest sibling down. I wasn't sure how he was going to react but considering what our current terms between us, he wouldn't be too happy if he learned that all of his hard work and training was for nothing.

But at the moment, I couldn't care less. I survived an impossible, deadly scenario and that was what only mattered. Now that that was done, I should probably get back to the hideout. But the second I took a step away from the bodies, my eyes shot wide open appallingly as I felt a cold, familiar presence standing right behind me.

"Where do you think you're going?" The gruff voice questioned darkly as I felt his smirk on me.

Before I had the chance to turn my head, I was hit harshly by a strong, powerful object that consisted of sharp spikes of some sort. Because of the large amount of force put into this attack, my body flew back helplessly then it tumbled hardly on the fresh dirt. It wasn't until a moment later when I grabbed my strength to land weakly on my feet as this made me slide back a bit more. A moment passed when I finally came to a stop. I panted heavily as I glared coldly at the large man with the equally large sword who was responsible for that attack. I attempted to adjust my position but I immediately felt a sting everywhere on my body. I glanced down and was appalled to see all of the deep cuts and slashes made by the dark spikes located on the upper portion of the man's sword. I eyed him with even more coldness as he returned the glare with a wide grin.

"How the f**k did you survive an attack like that?" I inquired lividly, gripping my arm to stop the bleeding from one cut. "I couldn't sense your chakra at all!"

Kisame giggled at my analysis, mocking my pitiful self. After glaring at the man for a moment, I was baffled to learn that my chakra was literally close to zero. It was appalling because yes, I used a significant amount on my jutsu, but I remembered thoroughly that I didn't use all of it at once. That was when I took a good look at the Shark Skin sword Kisame wielded which was moving quite a bit. Then it hit me: Shark Skin feasted on chakra when it came into contact with any source. This explained why my chakra was so low all of a sudden; that damned sword chowed down on my chakra.

I examined the body of the swordsman and saw that despite avoiding my final attack, he still sustained injuries prior to my wind phoenix attack. So, it couldn't have been a mere Substitution Jutsu. Then what was it?

I gasped in shock when I sensed another familiar presence behind me and spun around frantically. Regardless, I received nothing but a God-awful kick to the stomach by none other than Itachi Uchiha. I was once again thrown away from my spot and instead of landing on my feet, I tumbled hardly on the ground until I came to a stop with my body laying helplessly on the ground. The only thing in front of my eyes at the moment was a blurry sight of the clear blue sky. I looked up at it disappointedly, thinking what had gone wrong.

Instead of getting an answer, another strong foot jammed itself gladly into my gut. This time, it remained literally crushing into my stomach causing me to gag and cough in blood. With one weak eye, I looked up to see a smirking Kisame towering over me with his large foot nailed into my midsection. I gripped his ankle desperately, wanting nothing more than this foot to get the f**k off of my stomach. It was so hard to breathe because the man above me crushed my ribs and stomach to the point where anyone else in my situation would be dead already. I wheezed as more blood spurted out of my mouth from severe internal bleeding.

"Finally, had enough, kiddo?" He taunted mockingly, pushing his foot down on my even more to which I cried in pain. "You have no idea how much trouble you are…"

My mind was literally on survival mode; I tried my hardest to take in as much oxygen as I could. But that just resulted to more pain in my chest. I had high tolerance to pain my whole life, but what I was feeling right now couldn't even compare to what I had "felt" before. It was both excruciating and overwhelming; I did whatever I could to not burst into tears. I started making whimpering sounds out of pure desperation as I tried whatever I could with both of my hands just to get this foot off of me.

"Don't be reckless, Kisame." Itachi told him warningly. "Remember, we're supposed to take her in alive."

"Yeah, yeah. I know." Kisame replied dismissively. "But because of how tough she is, we can't go easy on her or else she'll pull out another trick of hers."

I stole a quick look of my brother who stood aside with his usual stoic, pale face looking down at me, unfazed by my condition.

"No matter." He simply stated and moved a bit closer to me. "Hold her still, Kisame."

I gasped in horror at his words. I realized what he was going to do: he was going to cast his powerful genjutsu on me. That was the last thing I ever wanted to happen especially at a time like this. I had to escape and I had to do it quick. Out of instincts, I used the last bit of my chakra to activate my chakra scalpel and swiftly pressed my hand on the foot that remained nailed in my midsection, cutting off some of the ligaments in the foot and ankle. Kisame responded by roaring in pain, immediately removing his foot from my stomach. I wasted no time and started running as fast as I could, as far as I could. I felt another series of pain all over my body especially my stomach after that stunt from blue whale behind me. I ignored my body that was telling me to stop and continued using the last bits of strength I had in me to escape from those monsters. I held my midsection with one arm as I panted in exhaustion until I started to notice that I was getting a bit lightheaded. I shook my head, trying to keep myself up and running.

I had no clue where I got this amount of willpower from until I saw an image of Kabuto standing at a long distance away from me. He was the source to my determination to not fall in defeat. I swore to myself that I would stay by his side no matter what and I wasn't planning on breaking that promise any time soon. The sight of his kind, bright, genuine smile boosted the strength of my legs, pushing me even harder to move forward. I was going to see Kabuto even if I had to lose everything. There was nothing that would stand in my way.

But alas, I felt further insult to injury—more salt put on the wound—when the image of my partner was replaced by my eldest sibling who appeared out of nowhere in front of me. My first reaction was to hit him to get out of the way, but he sensed that and swiftly pulled out a kunai and used it to stab me in the already injured, sore midsection. I felt my blood pouring out of the fresh wound inflicted on me and fall onto the ground. My eyes widened in excruciating pain as I felt my knees getting weaker and weaker. I shakenly lifted my head to look up at my brother meekly as he eyed me back expressionlessly.

"You've gotten strong, Katsumi. Very strong…" He remarked dryly as he shoved the knife deeper into my stomach.

This caused more blood to come out of my mouth and wound to the point where I felt myself getting even more lightheaded.

"However, you're not strong enough to defeat me." He added darkly, watching my blood making a large pool on the ground emotionlessly. "No matter what you do, you'll never be able to defeat me…"

As much as I wanted to retort, I lost too much blood for me to see and think straight; everything was foggy and blurry to the point where I couldn't recognize Itachi anymore. After one final glimpse of my damned brother, my head dropped lifelessly as my whole body was literally supported by only the raven's arms. I was semiconscious when Itachi then grabbed me by my hair and forcibly lifted my head up, making sure my dead eyes were looking directly at his. I knew that after this, it was over for me. My life flashed before my eyes as flashbacks of my childhood, Squad 7, and of the Leaf Rookies rushed through my mind. The last thought I had was Kabuto Yakushi: the one man who I would've never thought I would fall for. I was heartbroken that I failed him; if spots were switched, he would've crawled back to me with only one arm and leg left. Whereas I—like always—didn't prove myself to him or any one of my loved ones. I couldn't earn their respect no matter what I do and unfortunately, I would never be able to get it.

'I'm sorry… Kabuto…' I murmured sadly in thought as I was forced to have my brother as my last sight.

The next thing I knew, I succumbed to Itachi Uchiha's genjutsu that put me into complete darkness.

Chapter 26 complete! Again, I'm super sorry for the wait. But, hopefully this chapter made it up to you a tiny bit at the most. Let's pray that I'll a lot sooner than three months, lol.