DISCLAIMNER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANY ASSOCIATED CHARACTERS

Yeah, I know, I know. It's been a while. But I bring the newest chapter, so please put your pitchforks away. Anyways, I don't have much to say, so everyone enjoy and drop a favorite and a review!

Chapter 24 - Old Foes and New Betrayals

Obito's iron grip threatened to crush the wrist beneath his grasp as he held tight. Gritting his teeth, his right hand ignited at the same time, red and orange flames coating his palm and outer hand. He moved to punch his assailant's face, but a quick shift to the side, followed by a wrist grab in the same manner brought the pair into a lock.

Obito's killer intent exploded, practically flooring Rin as she tried to stand. His assailant's flared as well, and he took on a sadistic smile beneath his mask. Obito growled at the shift in the cloth, and strained against his opponent's grip, but he was unable to do anything without relinquishing his own hold. He could turn himself intangible, but that would leave Rin completely exposed to the lightning blade.

"I'm actually grateful that you were able to stop my attack. That would've been far too quick of a death for her," the man taunted with an air of superiority. In front of them was their childhood teammate and friend, Kakashi Hatake.

Obito was so blind with rage that he found himself unable to speak. Instead, he jerked his arms towards him, landing a headbutt directly on Kakashi's nose. Obito allowed a small grunt of satisfaction as the white-haired shinobi was sent reeling backwards, the lightning on his right hand fizzling out completely.

But before Obito could move to follow him, he felt a pair of hands on his arm. Rin was staring at him with pleading eyes from underneath her frame of brown hair. "Please don't, Obito. Not alone. Let me help you."

The Uchiha scoffed, lightly shoving her off of him with one arm, while facing the traitor. "Thought you could come back and exact some kind of perverse revenge? I'll kill you for what you've put us through."

Obito shot towards Kakashi like an arrow, but the white-haired shinobi was ready. His sharingan saw every move Obito was making, the flames coating his fist shining like a beacon. Kakashi dodged the punch almost effortlessly, creating a shadow clone as he did so. Obito flew off the side of the building, forcing Kakashi to follow, their battle leading down to the street. While the real Kakashi went on the offensive and engaged Obito in hand to hand combat, the clone disappeared from the Uchiha's sight. At least it would have had he not been using the sharingan.

A pair of hands emerged from the ground beneath him at the same time that a lightning blade was thrust towards his chest. To Kakashi's confusion, Obito simply stood there, allowing the blade to press directly into his heart. Strangely, though, the all too familiar sensation of blood coating his hand never came. Instead, Obito ducked, shifting his feet so that his ankles phased through the clone's hands, at the same time that his body cleared Kakashi's lightning blade.

In one fluid motion, Obito reached down, grabbed the clone by the wrist, and yanked it out of the ground. In an overhead swing, the clone quite literally beat Kakashi into the dirt before dissipating in a cloud of smoke. The white-haired shinobi was forced to roll to the side and use a chakra-propelled leap in order to avoid being stabbed by a kunai from Obito. The jump took him all the way up to the roof of the building they had been on previously.

Kakashi took up position on one side of the roof as Obito leapt up onto the other side. The Akatsuki member tilted his head, almost as if he were disappointed. "Obito Uchiha of the Fire Storm, huh? I'm not impressed. I knew you got your name from killing lowly Chunin, but I didn't expect you to be this unimpressive."

"Well at least I didn't need to stab someone in the back to get my power. What do I call you anyways? Traitor? Murderer? Thief? They all fit, but which one should I use?" Obito said, his fiery rage having tempered itself enough to allow him to speak.

Kakashi shrugged. "From your point of view, I suppose I may seem that way to you. But from my point of view, I simply saw an opportunity. After all, it's not every day that you get a free shot at a shinobi of Shisui's caliber. And a reward for it, as well? Even you would take that deal, Obito," he chuckled, gesturing to the red orbs within his skull.

"The hell I would. I'm gonna kill you and rip those eyes from your cold corpse," Obito growled as Rin finally caught back up to them.

She gingerly stepped forwards, attempting to put herself between Obito and Kakashi. "Kakashi, why are you here?" she asked.

The man spread his arms, red cloud robe billowing in the wind as he did so. "Chaos, Rin. Just chaos. I suppose my organization has some goals here, but I couldn't care less, to be honest. I think I'll settle for killing the pair of you, then I'll move on to Minato-sensei. Who knows, after we level this place, maybe they'll make me Hokage."

Obito had heard enough. He could deal with being berated himself, that's all his life had been ever since he'd chosen to follow the darker path. But he wouldn't stand for someone speaking blasphemy about becoming Hokage of this village while he was still breathing. Past Rin in a flash, she barely had time to comprehend that he'd moved before he was already rearing back to strike Kakashi. She noticed that he had his same jutsu from earlier active, his right fist coated in flames, but she had yet to see what it did.

When Obito was just a few feet from Kakashi, his fist collided with a force that was nearly indiscernible to the naked eye, but it quickly became that way as it formed more and more. A pale green spectral skeleton was taking form around Kakashi. As the ribs formed, Rin saw that Obito's attack had been stopped by the lowest rib on the entire skeleton.

Obito leapt backwards as muscles and tendons sprouted from the skeleton's joints, wrapping themselves around the bone structure to form a body. As he landed, he allowed his power to flare even further, the familiar blue hue beginning to taint his vision as his own Susano'o began to take shape.

Rin's jaw threatened to drop as she looked between the two giant figures, one pale green, the other sky blue, that stood over her childhood friends and former teammates. If she thought that they would stop at bodies being formed, she quickly found herself sorely mistaken, as armor began to materialize, slamming itself into place on each of them.

Obito's transformation was complete when his Susano'o held its twin swords across its chest, the helmet lowering into place as well. Kakashi's, however, only held one weapon, a spear fashioned in a spiral pattern that it held in its right hand. Obito had only seen this Susano'o once before, that being in training, when he was teaching Shisui how to channel it. The young Uchiha had been a natural, though he had never progressed to the point of full armor, Obito wouldn't allow it.

"Maybe you're not as useless with your power as I was led to believe," Kakashi said matter-of-factly. "It matters not. Shisui's powers were far greater than yours. Allow me to demonstrate."

Faster than one would think possible, the green spectral warrior charged forwards, spear point lowering like a lance, the tip aimed at Obito's own Susano'o. Calmly, Obito coated his swords with orange flames, adjusting so that his Susano'o stood at a side profile. While neither of them had achieved complete Susano'o, the power was still immense. A shockwave tore the roof to pieces when Obito deflected the lance to his right before countering with his second sword. Kakashi's green warrior used an armored forearm to bat it aside before the pair landed on the ground simultaneously.

Kakashi took a half step back and pointed the lance downwards at Obito. Green projectiles shot out of it and rained on the sky blue armor of Obito's Susano'o. Amidst the hail of green energy, Obito crossed his blades and slashed simultaneously, creating a flaming X that flew towards Kakashi's Susano'o, deflecting all of the green darts that met it. The green warrior reset, and timed a lance thrust that broke the center of the X, allowing the rest of the flames to wash over its armor with no effect. Kakashi took the small lull as time to retreat a few meters, which Obito mimicked, sheathing the sword in his right hand.

"I don't know what your plan is, but it doesn't matter. You die today. Justice for the crimes you committed against us," Obito said in his raspy voice.

Kakashi scoffed from within his Susano'o. "Just as naive as ever. You can't defeat me, Obito. I was always better than you. Even before I had the sharingan."

"It was also before I had the sharingan," Obito said as two shuriken formed in his Susanoo's right hand. Wordlessly, he reared back and hurled hem towards Kakashi, who shook his head in amusement.

"Really? You think simple shuriken can defeat my Susano'o?" he asked in a mocking tone as he raised his lance to bat them aside. But to his surprise, on contact, two chunks of his lance were vaporized, and the weapon broke into three pieces before dematerializing completely, leaving Kakashi defenseless against the next pair of shuriken that came his way. One destroyed his Susanoo's head, while the other blasted a gaping hole in its chest.

Obito, having abandoned his Susano'o, followed behind his shuriken, fist ablaze, and shot into the gap in Kakashi's Susano'o. The white-haired shinobi shifted in an attempt to dodge, but Obito's flaming right hand still caught him in the upper right shoulder. Similarly to the way his Susano'o had been demolished, a chunk of his right shoulder disappeared, and blood would have spurted from the wound had the flame not cauterized the wound immediately afterwards. Crying out in pain, Kakashi grit his teeth and kneed Obito in the stomach before leaping out of the crumbling Susano'o.

Obito followed, and the pair came face to face in the street. Rin, who had been watching the entire thing from the adjacent rooftop, jumped down to stand next to Obito, wrapping her two hands around his left arm, for his right was still covered in flames.

"I'll admit, I was unprepared for something like this," Kakashi chuckled to himself as he gestured to his wounded shoulder. "A most unforgiving jutsu. I was unable to copy it, yet you don't possess kekkei genkai other than the sharingan. Curious."

Obito shook himself out of Rin's grasp and began to pace towards Kakashi. "Enough. Surrender and I'll end this quick."

"No offers to let me rot in a dungeon for the rest of my days?" Kakashi asked in mock disappointment. "Nevertheless, I don't think I'll let you kill me today, Obito. You may have humbled me, but I assure you, next time will be very different."

"Won't be a next time," Obito growled.

"Oh, there will be indeed," Kakashi chuckled, his Mangekyou spinning. "How will you have time to fight me when your precious Rin is so busy trying to kill you? Rin, be a dear and murder Obito for me."

Obito whirled around just in time to see a kunai mere inches from his face. He allowed it to pass through him as he rotated and put himself between Kakashi and Rin once again. "What the hell did you do to her?!" Obito roared as he watched Rin repeatedly attempt to stab him, despite his intangibility.

"It seems that Shisui didn't trust you with the most powerful ability of his Mangekyou. The Kotoamatsukami is quite powerful. A genjutsu nigh unbreakable by anything other than death. You'll hate me even more than you already do after this. Especially since it will force you to murder the woman you love," Kakashi smirked.

Obito's eyes widened as he turned his attention back to Rin. Gone were her soft brown eyes and caring features. They had been replaced with ruthless determination and rage. Her brow was furrowed, partially hiding her steely eyes that reflected nothing but a desire to kill.

"I'll kill you for this," Obito half-whispered to Kakashi.

The white-haired shinobi grinned beneath his mask. "You and your threats, Obito. If only you could ever follow through with them," Kakashi taunted before leaping away.

With Kakashi gone, Obito turned his full attention to Rin. It was very evident that she wasn't her normal self. The only problem was that Obito had no idea how to return her to normal. As her blows continued to pass through his body, he glanced left and right, trying to think on the fly. He couldn't risk dealing with this in the middle of the village, especially not with Rin the way she was. She could get hurt, or worse.

"I guess some places just can't be sacred," Obito sighed as he made up his mind.

The pair of them disappeared in a dark spiral.

Mere moments after Itachi had flown off, he sensed a malicious presence drawing closer to Obito and Rin. But before he could turn around, he found his crow had a sword embedded in its skull. Itachi vaulted off of the corpse as it plummeted to the ground headfirst. The Uchiha clan head spread his arms and legs to slow his descent before somersaulting and landing in a crouch that dented the concrete roof he landed on.

"My, my. I'd expect nothing less from my next vessel."

Itachi's sharingan darted up, focusing on the figure that had appeared in front of him. "Orochimaru. What purpose could you possibly have for this attack?" Itachi asked as he rose to his feet.

The perverse grin of the snake Sannin met his gaze. "Why, to capture you, of course. And dear Kakashi wants so bad to kill his former teammates," he smirked. With a simple flick of his fingers, the same sword that killed Itachi's crow summon flew to hover at Orochimaru's waist level.

"Capture me? I won't be used as a bargaining chip, Orochimaru. I would rather die," Itachi said calmly.

The snake user let out a harsh cackle. "Oh, I'm sure you would, dear Itachi. But I'm afraid I need you alive. And there will be no bargain struck for you. You're much too important to me," he grinned.

Itachi responded only by weaving signs faster than the eye could see and bringing a circle to his lips. A massive fireball materialized between the pair, threatening to incinerate Orochimaru. He shot skywards and landed on the other side of the flames, pursuing Itachi, who barely had time to breathe before he was suddenly having to dodge both Orochimaru in hand to hand, as well as the sword that he seemed to be able to control with his hand movements.

On the back foot, Itachi batted the sword aside with his kunai before tossing four shuriken at Orochimaru. The four quickly turned to dozens, as Itachi used shuriken shadow clone jutsu. The snake sannin twisted his body in almost inhuman ways in order to dodge them.

When the barrage of shuriken had abated, Orochimaru smiled even wider. "Just what I'd expect. You're going to be a hard one to catch, Itachi. Fortunately, I brought along some backup. Someone that you know very well. Summoning Jutsu: Reanimation!"

When Orochimaru slammed his palm against the ground, the jutsu formula spread out for a brief second before a coffin began to rise out of the roof. When the lid fell, and the figure stepped out, Itachi's breath hitched in his throat. Out of the coffin stepped his best friend, Shisui Uchiha.

The Uchiha's expression was blank, due to the reanimation, but it was definitely the face of Shisui. Itachi glared at Orochimaru with hatred for the first time. It was disgraceful, and evil, to make a man fight his best friend. But Orochimaru never really cared about disgrace or evil things.

"Shisui," Itachi half whispered to his friend. The other Uchiha didn't even register that he'd spoken. Only Orochimaru's laughter filled the silence.

"I'm afraid he has no awareness of where he is. I've suppressed his mind and free will. Granted, that makes them significantly less powerful, but they serve their purposes," the Sannin shrugged.

Itachi furrowed his brow at that. "They?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, I'm happy to say that that old bag of bones Sarutobi is currently dealing with both the First and Second Hokage. Quite exciting, isn't it?"

Itachi said nothing, the shifting in his eyes did all of the talking for him. The sharingan condensed and spun to form a curved, three-bladed shuriken. Then, in an explosion of power, a red aura began to surround him, growing to form bones, muscles, tendons, and skin before it was all encased within a set of armor. An intimidating horned helmet slammed over the warrior's eyes as a shield formed in its left hand, and a gourd in its right.

Orochimaru, rather than intimidated, looked as if he were salivating at the sheer power before him. It made a stark contrast with the still completely motionless Shisui. "My, my. I applaud you for showing me the extent that your body can offer me, Itachi," the snake user licked his lips.

Itachi responded only with a blade that looked to be made of pure energy that emerged from the gourd. The warrior stabbed downwards at Orochimaru, who dodged to the side, just as Itachi had planned. Altering the trajectory of the blade at the last second, the tip pierced Shisui's reanimated form, emerging out his back.

Seeing this, Orochimaru only laughed more. "I'm not sure you understand, dear Itachi. Shisui can't be killed while in this form, only sealed. It's the Second Hokage's jutsu, after all."

"I'm aware," Itachi said simply before the reanimated Shisui was sucked down the blade and into the gourd at the base. "Rest, old friend."

Orochimaru would have been angry if he hadn't just discovered the whereabouts of something he long sought. "So, you've possessed the Totsuka Blade all this time. You are the perfect body for me, Itachi. Submit to me!" he screeched with what sounded to be glee as he rushed towards Itachi.

Itachi took a step back, his eyes beginning to pour with blood from the strain of the Susano'o. He watched as Orochimaru coiled around the spectral sword arm and shoulder, immobilizing the Totsuka blade completely. His head extending away from his body, Orochimaru made to bite the Susano'o with his fangs, but a swift hand raised Itachi's shield. Orochimaru's head bounced off of it completely, the attack completely nullified.

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed as his head returned to his shoulders. He hissed almost tentatively, as if he'd realized something that Itachi had known all along. "The Yata Mirror. You have quite the combination there. Perfect for my body."

Itachi wiped the blood from his eyes, only for the flow to renew itself instantly. With the Susano'o at the ultimate form he could take it to, his eyes were becoming noticeably worse as time wore on. He would need to end this quickly, or risk losing to Orochimaru due to the loss of his vision. Itachi coughed, some blood coating the back of his hand as he narrowed his bloody eyes at Orochimaru.

"You keep mentioning a body," Itachi began. "What use qould you have for my body?"

Orochimaru licked his lips as a grin spread across his face. "Oh, poor Itachi. You don't think I've survived this long while retaining this much power while still using my old dusty body, do you? No, dear Itachi. The secret is jumping hosts. Your body provides the perfect host for me to achieve the ultimate power!" the snake Sannin cackled.

Itachi furrowed his brow. "Why not Obito? Or Lord Yondaime?"

Orochimaru let out a small, guttural growl at that one. "Kakashi has assured me that poor Obito is much too weak for me to take. And as for that usurper, I think that death will be a much more fitting fate for him, wouldn't you agree, dear Itachi?"

The Uchiha clan head clenched a single fist, readying himself for the fight ahead. He would not let himself be captured. Sasuke needed him.

A was beginning to grow tired of this. In all seriousness, he was weighing the consequences of killing another Kage while on a peaceful trip to the Chunin Exams. He knew that it would mean war with Suna, but if it meant ending this battle, he was starting to consider it. Facing another Kage alone is a challenging enough task, but with C in constant danger, it was becoming increasingly more difficult.

The only thing saving them now was A's lightning chakra cloak, which enhanced his speed beyond the ability of the human eye to follow. Darting back and forth to demolish waves of sand was becoming incredibly repetitive, and as such, the pair of them needed a plan to end this, before it turned into a war of attrition between the two Kage, waiting to see who would run out of chakra first.

Fortunately, a distraction provided A and C with the breather that they needed. The Hokage had reappeared, this time with the Kazekage's son, Gaara. A three-pronged kunai was held to the boy's throat by Minato, who had a firm grip on the back of Gaara's shirt.

"Enough, Rasa. Stand down," Minato said sternly, looking towards the Kazekage.

The swirl of golden sand that surrounded him suddenly dropped to the ground, calming the air for the first time since before the battle had broken out. But still, Rasa laughed. "We both know you wouldn't do it."

Minato pressed the kunai even closer to Gaara's neck, one of the sharp tips drawing a drop of blood. "Try me," he said with venom behind his voice and eyes.

Rasa looked as if he were debating whether or not to believe Minato, but he didn't get the chance, as he was slammed aside, into the wall of an adjacent building.

"Lariat!" A grunted as Rasa flew through the air. Minato quickly flashed over to the stunned Kazekage and knocked him out with a swift right cross. Shouldering the unconscious adversary, he nodded for C to bring Gaara.

"We have things to discuss."

Naruto was in the fight of his life. Despite having been in life-threatening situations before, such as when he faced Haku, or in the Forest of Death, this was by far his toughest matchup. Kabuto seemed to know everything about him and his jutsu, as if he'd been watching, studying for months.

Each time that Naruto attempted to teleport to one of his clones and execute an attack, he always found his clone dispelled in front of him before he could even blink. Kabuto seemed to know the angles that he like to attack from, which didn't bode well for Naruto's strategy.

Meanwhile, Guy was having a less difficult time against Zabuza, but by no means was the fight easy. Water jutsu were flying left and right, trying to keep Guy and his augmented strength away from the swordsman. During a slight impasse, Guy looked towards Naruto, his signature grin having been replaced with a look of determination and suppressed pain.

"Doing alright over there, Naruto?"

"So far, so good," the blonde responded as he slid backwards, avoiding a strike from Kabuto's glowing palm. One of his clones steadied him as three more engaged Kabuto. Naruto needed a plan, one that would assure him of victory. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he watched calmly as Kabuto dismantled his three clones in the blink of an eye. In terms of taijutsu, the older shinobi had the distinct edge.

He had to find a way to land a decisive blow without exposing himself to a counterattack by those hands of Kabuto's. Shadow clones clearly weren't doing the job, so he would have to get creative. With Kabuto's experience, Naruto knew that he would never succeed one on one, and he had also yet to land a decisive blow with his clones. Meanwhile, Guy was forcing Zabuza on the defensive, which clearly made Kabuto anxious. He wanted to get this fight with Naruto over with before Zabuza was defeated and he had to face both Guy and Naruto together.

As a result, Kabuto surprised Naruto by rushing directly at him, both hands glowing with those blades that Naruto still had yet to figure out, because chakra blades were the only things he knew of that could conduct chakra like that. Regardless, to give himself additional time, he sent another ten clones at Kabuto, then took a step back to assess the situation and try to get his mind going.

But as he did so, Naruto suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his lower back. As he fell to the ground, he looked over his shoulder and saw Kabuto smirking as he stood over him. The spectacled shinobi disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Naruto cursing as he had fallen victim to his own signature jutsu.

"Naruto! Are you alright?!" Guy shouted as he avoided a massive water dragon a few dozen meters away. Being in the middle of the village had left Zabuza plenty of plumbing to summon water for his jutsu.

As he let out his first groan of pain, the real Kabuto finished up with the remaining clones, leaving Naruto prone on the ground. And while the pain was immense, no blood was present because there was no wound, which left Naruto questioning what had happened.

"You poor jinchuriki," Kabuto teased. "Look at you, all helpless on the ground."

Naruto growled and tried to stand, only for his eyes to widen at the difficulty of the attempt.

He couldn't feel his legs.