Breath
When Itachi uttered that word, the name of a god long forgotten, it seemed like the world simply stopped, and all that he willed would come true. The battlefield was no long the ground of man and woman alike, but instead that of battle driven demons. Demons for whom peace would be paramount to death. Using that accursed chakra construct, the flowing fire red light frame bending around him in a shell of cloth covered armour, Itachi thought that he must, like Naruto, be one of those demons, fighting because it is the only thing they have ever known.
The Rasenshuriken hit, and the world exploded! Whisps of white and blue chakra vomited from the impact point like unlimited tendrils, the power with which they impacted the ground like some kind of monstrous octopus throwing a tantrum, yet it failed to pierce the shield that the Uchiha wielded. The Susanoo pivoted, not even effected by the massively chakra induced attack, instead lunging into the air with its sword, right at the mid-flight jinjuriki.
Naruto knew that sword somehow meant death, a loss he couldn't regenerate from, and so he let a clone toss him to the side whilst it took his place, the blade piercing him, but worse, the left over cloud of chakra being taken by it, the smoke sealed in a pot. To the jinjuriki, any hit with that thing would mean failure, but no hit rallied at the monstrous suit of light armour would damage its controller. An invincible being who could instantly kill you, he mused. What else would a god be?
Then with a gruesome smirk, the blond held out his hand to the air, and started charging another rasengan. This time he imbued it with twirling tendrils of blue flame, the fire mixing into the chakra threads until it glowed with power. His arm then glowing with the orange of the 9 tail's chakra, he created a jaw which bit down on the orb, the pressure building up until like a beam of death massive amounts of chakra shot out at the Susanoo!
Again, the smoke cleared, and no damage had been rallied at the frame. "Give up jinjuriki! Kill yourself and I promise it will be an easier death than what I will grant you! There is no way to piece the tokatsu mirror. Your hard-headedness won't allow you to win this time, fool."
Once again, the jinjuriki ignored the taunts of the Uchiha, as he charged up another rasenshuriken. He launched it, and before the explosion had even cleared, he started charging another.
Again and again, explosion after explosion battered the frame of the red warrior, as its controller looked on passively. Part of his brain wondered what the plan was, but he wasn't just content with beating the blond, he wanted him to suffer. To confront him with an impossible obstacle, one he couldn't surpass no matter how powerful he was would destroy him, and soon he would run out of strength for the first time in his pathetic life and wonder where it all went. Because of those thoughts, Itachi believed that his opponent couldn't have a plan, that his craftiness was giving way to irrationality and fear, and this was the last death knell of a foolish brother murderer, that had nowhere left to go, and nothing left to save him.
But then the jinjuriki didn't stop. His attacks got more efficient as the chakra balls continued to get launched at Itachi, and in fact, the force pushed him back a little. The Uchiha tried to move forward to him, but time after time the power got bigger, and it became harder to push his construct forward, as if he was walking against the wind.
Twenty projectiles and counting, Itachi doubted the boy would ever stop, that his foolishness would truly kill him, but even as the Uchiha's sharingan showed the boy's chakra level getting lower and lower, he kept at it. So entranced was he by the possibility of his opponent's failure, that he nearly didn't notice his own dwindling chakra resources. Itachi knew his Susanoo drained chakra at an extreme rate, hence his reluctance to use them compared to the extremely efficient rinnegan paths, but now he was trapped, being battered with attack after attack with no end. He couldn't guarantee he would hold out longer than Naruto would, and whoever folded first…
Naruto saw the flaming construct fall, knowing his gambit had worked, that the Uchiha had needed to retreat before he. Itachi held out his hand and used the petra path to absorb a rasenshuriken, restoring his own powers somewhat, and in response, seemingly uninspired, Naruto launched another right at him. Smirking, Itachi readily accepted the extra fuel, stealing it once more, but before he could fully incorporate it into his self, his arm started turning to stone. Nature chakra had been used to power the final ball, and acting fast, Itachi sliced off his arm with his left hand, turned into a bone machete.
Acting fast, Naruto closed in on his opponent, battering him with an array of blows, until Itachi managed to grow his arm back in an instant, grasping the blond by the throat and slamming him into the floor. He rolled back to his feet, but faster, Itachi dashed past him, his sharp limbs cutting into the jinjuriki's flesh. Another body flicker cut across his left side instead, and a third jammed pointed blade arm into his gut.
Itachi then tried to bull his weaponised limb out, but Naruto held onto it, pulling it further in so he could knee the Uchiha in the chest with all his might, crushing ribs and piercing lungs, before pulling the arm out from his stomach. Both men collapsed, as then tried to recover from the vicious injuries they had given each other. The brother talked first. "I will admit, Uzumaki, you're better than I expected. I wanted to believe you were nothing but a lucky dreg, but now I see that you're willing to sacrifice everything to live. You remind me of my father."
"Was he as much of a bastard as you?"
Itachi looked away, far away, as if he was seeing something that nobody else could. "Yes. Yes we are."
Eager as always, the jinjuriki forced himself up to one knee, as a mirror, itachi tried the same. Their injuries were healing, but not nearly fast enough, a huge hole still leaking out from Naruto, and Itachi's chest ballooning out and expanding to its usual size, but still broken and shattered. Both men coughed up blood as they finally rose back to their standing heights, hands and feet stretching into fighting forms. Itachi's, proud and responsive, Naruto's, deceptive and powerful.
Then they ran towards each other.
A flurry of jabs dodged deflty, with an upwards kick stunning Naruto for but a moment.
A grapple, reversed and countered into a body slam, the impact taking away Itachi's breath.
Punch after punch of viciousness, countered with interception after interception of rage and righteousness.
Naruto pivoted around a jab, moving the fist out the way to pummel his foe in the chest with a punishing blow. He stumbled back, which Naruto took advantage of, tripping his body with a well placed hook kick, yet it vanished to reveal crows. From the side, cloaked with illusion, itachi smashed a spinning elbow into the jinuriki, which he took well because he instantly responded by following Itachi's spin, ducking and smashing the Uchiha in the gut. From below, he rushed, the blond uppercutting Itachi, then hitting him in the face with a right hook, yet with the left itachi grappled, jumping and wrapping his leg around his foe's left arm, twisting his body and snapping the bone.
Screaming with pain, Naruto ripped himself out from the Uchiha's grasp, before standing tall, nursing his broken limb. Noticing Itachi's smirk, he let it go. "Yeah, fuck it. I don't need two arms to beat your ass."
Itachi rushed in, twin jabs dodged and reflected each by Naruto, who then positioned himself around Itachi, dropping him to the ground with a kick to the back of the leg. He gave a right hook to the back of Itachi's head, who rolled despite the obvious concussion, his dazed eyes still enhanced enough to know Naruto's next movements, which barely allowed him to not get his head taken off by a overhead with enough force to destroy one's body. Itachi tried to attack from behind, but his head trauma slowed him down enough so the Uzumaki could catch his arm in a hold, letting him get close enough to smash his skull against Itachi's.
With both men's skulls bleeding, Naruto smashed singular fist after fist into Itachi's head, throwing a roundhouse against his temple for good measure, trying desperately to ruin Itachi's greatest weapon his mind. In Jutsus, with the rinnegan, Itachi might have just won. His trump card should have let him win, but in taijtsu? Naruto was unmatched, even now, his durability, endurance, everything. Against an Itachi in his prime without any chakra? Of course he would win.
Now, with Itachi reeling, Naruto took his head into his arms, a rear naked choke he was nearly too tired to hold. Blood was getting in his eyes, and it stuck his blond hair to his head, yet he was smiling, hearing the choked gargles of his foe from next to his chest. Itachi smashed his head into the blond's, stunning him as he escaped, regaining his breath in gasps as he unfurled kunai, launching them at the jinjuriki to create space.
The ones that weren't dodged were reflected. Itachi realised he had nothing left. He had used all of his tricks, all of his abilities, all of his chakra, and still he was going to lose to this bastard. This brat.
And that same brat was smiling, blood pooling in his mouth and rolling down his forehead. "What's the matter big bro?" He taunted, his stolen eye shining with sadistic glee. "Scared?"
The brother rushed at the fool once more, desiring nothing to see him dead. Two jabs were blocked by the blond but the third spinning backhand wasn't. A kick pushed upwards threatening to break his jaw but Naruto blocked it with two hands, his counter parried by the tired Uchiha but still rattling him. A step back was all the jinjuriki needed, pushing off the ground with a knee to the face, one that was blocked but put Itachi off balance one more. Naruto came down with a flurry of strikes which was returned by a flurry of Itachi's own, the two exchanging vicious near lethal blows before both were even on the ground.
Then his feet did hit the floor, and he hugged the Uchiha. In Itachi's chakra drained, physically exhausted, migraine induced and blood starved brain, he thought that it felt nice. He looked up and saw the clone carrying a rasengan push it through both of them.
"Huh. So that is how it is." Itachi said, the rasengan piercing his heart but not Naruto's. Weakly, he stumbled and then fell back, eyes looking to the sky.
It looked peaceful.
Itachi thought of his brother. Everyone knows Itachi never deserved a good life after what he did, Itachi being more familiar with that fact than anyone else, but selfishly he wanted to see Sasuke in heaven. The blue of the clear sky reminded him of his little brother. Empty and beautiful, and something we try to take for ourselves when really everyone deserves it equally.
Maybe there was an afterlife, he thought finally. Or maybe people like Naruto Uzumaki were proof that they were living in hell.
...
Lungs pierced by his own jutsu, Naruto fell to the ground, shirt destroyed in the battle, the surroundings scarred, his chakra drained, body covered in cuts and wounds, and a smile on his face, blood welling in his gums.
After all that, he had won, and he couldn't be happier. Sitting up and pushing himself up on a surviving tree, he looked at the dead, lifeless body of his foe, and told it "You were a good opponent, Itachi."
His smile was wide and not taunting, nor mischievous, but genuine. Another push of his broken body which was rapidly healing itself put himself on both feet. "Without Kakashi, Sasuke, you, I doubt I would be the man I am today. You were all pathetic, yes, but I owe you that at the very least. For that, I won't ever forget you."
Nobody spoke back. In the echoes of victory, Naruto was alone.
Just a little, his smile faltered.
…
The winds of Suna at this time were calm. Where they typically raged at all times, enraging traders and terrifying tourists, now they had settled. Garaa was told this was a sign of good fortune, but he wondered if it was a sign of a curse, that soon the power of them, their wind, would vanish.
It was because of that lack of sand that the visibility was much better. They could see further and hence, noticed a figure walking towards the village. That much wasn't suspicious, but the fact it was a figure without a carriage was. The most terrific thing though, and the reason why Garaa was flying on a bed of sand towards it, was because it had more chakra than the 1 tailed beast.
And so filled with a mix of fear and excitement, Garaa approached this being. When he reached it, the figure stopped, and raised his hood.
"Hi Garaa. You remember when I said I would be hokage?"
Garaa looked back to red and purple eyes on a familiar whiskered face and felt afraid. "Why?"
"Because I have a plan."
…
A/N: Hello, been a bit. I have mainly been writing my own stories which is why fanfiction has been on the backburner. If this chapter isn't as high quality as you expect, sorry but I don't care enough to rework it or whatever. As it is, here is a cool fight with Itachi, yippie!
Also this sets up the next arc. Some of you may hate the next arc. I may never finish it, who knows.
Anyway, thanks for 100 reviews again, basically the reason I made this fanfiction in the first place, so thx guys.
[Edit: 26/05/24]: Added a little bit to the Naruto Itachi fight. Reading it there was a lack of closure to Itachi at the end and the way he died was silly. Like he just gets kicked in the head and choked out? No, rasengan that motherfucker.