章 870: 47
Chapter 46: F.U.B.A.R.
(Forests of Hi no Kuni)
Sakura kneeled over the injured Tayuya and steadily healed her wounds from Sasuke's attack. She had been electrocuted, suffered multiple electric burns, had her heart stopped, and luckily was able to have it restarted by Naruto's Kage Bunshin before it left for some reason, "How are you feeling Tayuya?" She asked.
Tayuya gave her a dry look as she lay still on her back and allowed Sakura to work, "Like some prick with an iron grip grabbed me around the throat and fucking shocked me into cardiac arrest. I feel fantastic Pinky, can't you tell?" She said sarcastically as she shifted uncomfortably on her back, "Thank Kami for Uzumaki…"
A nod was all that Sakura could give in response, "This was all my fault… If Naruto hadn't shown up you would have been-."
"No shit." Tayuya said without remorse, "And it wasn't even necessary. We had the prick. He underestimated us and you could have smeared that pretty boy's face all over your knuckles and half of this forest if you had just grown a spine and unloaded on him. One shot." She coughed out a chuckle, "I don't think hitting anyone in the face ever felt any better to me in my life. After you hit him you probably could have put him back together. You trained with Tsunade didn't you? You sure as hell didn't get her rack size from her so you got the healing part at least didn't you?"
Sakura looked away from Tayuya, "I know I screwed up-."
"Yes." Tayuya said, cutting her off from what was sure to be self-deprecating remarks, "That's the gist of it, you fucked up. We almost got killed. You hesitated, against a known missing-ninja that managed to take Orochimaru down on his own, and didn't cream that asshole when I served him up on a silver platter." Her face was completely serious, "I'm reporting this when we get back. I have to. You're a chunin for fuck's sake. What would you have done if it were you leading the team? What if you were the jounin instead of me? What would you have done, let him kill your team?"
Sakura shook her head, but couldn't say anything. She let the healing jutsu drop from her hands and she turned away fully.
Tayuya shook her head. Her body was still completely numb, but she could move enough to know she wasn't paralyzed or anything, "This isn't a fairy tale. You can't turn the misunderstood dark prince with kisses and fucking sunshine. He doesn't give two squirts of piss about you." She narrowed her eyes at Sakura's back as she sat up, trying to work the feeling back into her body, "If I ever find out you did anything like that again, I'm going to fucking maim you." She stood up and started walking about, muttering to herself, "I swear… Crazy Snake Bitch had the right idea after all… beating the stupid out of these fucking airheaded 'kunoichi' Konoha's got running around."
"Right here. Here's where I left them." Pakkun's voice said from a short distance before the rest of the squad from Konoha arrived on the scene with Sai and Maki in tow, "What happened?"
Tayuya crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against a tree to take some weight off of her legs but get them used to standing again, "Pinky had a nice little reunion with her Uchiha prince, who then preceded to try and kill us while she tried to talk him down. He's long gone."
Kakashi noted the multiple visible wounds on Tayuya and the relatively pristine Sakura in comparison. He figured Tayuya must have gotten hurt covering Sakura while she tried to reason with Sasuke. He looked at Sakura and shook his head, "This is why Tsunade-sama told you it was a bad idea to come on this mission. You wouldn't be able to stay objective." He turned his attention back to Tayuya, "Are you alright?"
"I'll live." She said in reply, "Thanks to Uzumaki."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, "You saw him?" He nudged his head towards Maki, "She said she was with him before she got to us and the other new guy."
"It was a clone." Tayuya explained.
Neji frowned at not being any closer to either Naruto or Sasuke, "So where did Naruto go? Kiba was unable to follow his trail due to the method of travel he used to search for Sasuke himself, and Sasuke's scent is all over the forest."
Kiba shook his head and rubbed Akamaru's head, "It's so displaced and jumbled I can't pin down the right one."
Sai narrowed his eyes, "But can you locate them at all?" Kiba nodded, "How many directions?" Kiba pointed in five different directions and Sai nodded, pulling out his drawing scroll, "Choujuu Giga (Super Beasts Imitation Picture)!" Five small birds formed and went off in the directions that Kiba gave, "Give them a moment and they'll check your leads. They will be back soon with the information."
Kakashi gave Sai an eye-smile, "Good work." He then addressed everyone else, "Until then we need to take stock of the situation." He looked at Maki, "You said Naruto was in a fight with an Akatsuki member and won prior to heading after Sasuke?"
Maki nodded but stayed silent otherwise until Sai placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head, "His other comrades will find out sooner than later. There is no way he'll be able to hide it once he returns. Tell them what you told me."
Maki still looked apprehensive but decided to continue the explanation. Sai was right, he wouldn't be able to hide it by the time he got back, "Naruto-senpai suffered multiple wounds varying in severity. Most of them were easily dealt with through a combination of medical ninjutsu and the Kyuubi's abilities, but he suffered one injury far more grave than anything either of them could handle." She noticed everyone looking at her, intent on hearing her out to the end, "Despite my instruction, and hesitance to allow him to go on, he is the squad leader, and he did so. He's found Sasuke Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha." Everyone had their jaws drop at that revelation in shock, but Maki had intentionally held back the most shocking part of the news. They could find that out only when Naruto would allow them to. He wouldn't be able to hide his Sharingan forever.
"And he still fucking went to fight?" Tayuya snapped at her, "What the fuck is that idiot thinking? He'll get himself killed!"
Maki glared at her, but her gaze relented, "It is his own self-given part in a mission given to us by the Mizukage and endorsed by the Hokage. We are to obtain one of their famed swords, from either Itachi Uchiha's partner Kisame Hoshigaki, or one of Sasuke Uchiha's team members. His part is to keep the leaders, Sasuke or Itachi, away from their partners so that we can obtain the sword."
Tayuya looked around at everyone, trying to keep the worry out of her voice, but failing, "Everybody get up and get ready to move when the pale guy's birds get back!"
Kakashi put a hand on Tayuya to calm her down, "Take it easy…" Tayuya heaved a deep sigh and sat down on the forest floor. Kakashi looked up at the sky, 'Those ink birds better hurry if we're going to find anything. Naruto will be fine either way though. He wouldn't have gotten involved in something he knew he couldn't handle.'
XxX
(Naruto vs. Sasuke vs. Itachi)
'Can I handle this?' Naruto thought to himself absently as he stood before Itachi and Sasuke, no one had moved to attack anyone else yet and everyone was as still as a statue, 'Yeah, I've totally got this… I think.' He noticed Itachi make a half-ram hand-seal, 'Yeah… I'm the man. Now let's do this.' Naruto saw Sasuke's hands move towards his seals on his wrists that held his shuriken and he went to the seal on his left arm to drop another flash bomb.
'Damn it.' Sasuke said, averting his eyes from Naruto and focusing on Itachi to keep from being blinded.
Itachi did the same and wound up finding himself surrounded by several Narutos. Sasuke was in a similar predicament and was already in combat against them. Itachi blocked a sword strike with a kunai and kicked the clone that had attacked, dispelling it. He then, without a single wasted motion, threw the same kunai and buried it right between the eyes of another clone and jumped into the air, spinning around, but upon turning around had a jutsu ready, "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu)!"
From Itachi's mouth flew dozens of tiny fireballs. The more fleet-footed clones were able to survive the bombardment but the slower, less aware ones were eradicated, leaving only three. However in the fireballs were shuriken attached to wires, wires that were used to wrap around the other Narutos and bind them. Only one Naruto was able to cut himself free right before the other two were slammed together hard, dispelling them. The original didn't sweat it though and he went after Itachi again, trying to cut him down.
Meanwhile Sasuke had managed to deal with his copies with ease and then focused on Itachi and Naruto fighting it out by themselves. Taking advantage of the fray, Sasuke summoned a fuuma shuriken. Upon a second look it was revealed to be two.
He held one in each hand and threw one each at Naruto and Itachi. As the two targets jumped away from each other to dodge, the shuriken then split to reveal that there had been one underneath each that had been originally thrown. Naruto had to hold back a scoff; he had just used that move a few hours ago against Deidara. There was no way he was going down to that move, but as he prepared to dodge his Sharingan noticed the wires attached to them, much like Itachi had just done to defeat his clones, 'Teme's specialty.' Naruto thought as he coordinated his dodge to allow him to avoid the weapons and cut the wires with his sword.
Itachi had been able to dodge the shuriken as well, but due to his deteriorating eyesight he found himself ensnared in the wires as he fell to the ground, he was unable to see them clearly. Sasuke smirked, "So does using Tsukuyomi seem like it was such a good idea now Itachi?" He taunted before ducking as he heard wind whip from behind him.
Naruto had attacked Sasuke with his sword, trying to take him out at the neck, but Sasuke was able to avoid it. To make up for his miss, Naruto was able to form a seal-less Kage Bunshin that swung its sword up at Sasuke in a vertical motion. Sasuke showed great dexterity in using a one-armed handstand to avoid the second slash after dodging the first. From this motion he delivered a kick that caught the original Naruto in the head and forced him to stumble back.
Sasuke's Sharingan glared at the Kage Bunshin of Naruto as he stayed upside down in his handstand that had previously saved him. The clone tried to quickly switch to a horizontal swing to cut Sasuke, but Sasuke was able to draw his chokuto and cut the clone down before it could finish him.
Sasuke then saw the original Naruto going for Itachi who was trying to free himself. Naruto's sword was out and poised for the finish, "Naruto! Itachi is mine!" He roared at him, feeling his chance at revenge slipping away. He had never thrown a kunai so hard in his life than when he did right then.
Naruto turned and saw it, almost having it bury itself in his skull, but it only wound up giving him a cut on his cheek as it narrowly missed due to his dodge.
Sasuke used the opportunity to keep Naruto from getting to Itachi with a slash of his sword that Naruto was forced to block with his own. It was forceful enough to send Naruto stumbling backwards a step before he unloaded a retaliatory backslash of his own that Sasuke avoided.
Naruto growled at Sasuke keeping him from getting rid of Itachi while he had the chance and focused back on Sasuke while Itachi was down. He was sick of them protecting each other from him while trying to fight each other and get rid of him at the same time.
Naruto angrily rotated his sword and regripped it as he spun, trying to get past Sasuke's guard, but only hit air with his swing. Sasuke slashed at his belly as a counter and Naruto jumped back out of range, only to have to do so twice more as Sasuke was now intent on cutting him open. Naruto turned and ran with Sasuke on his heels and would up having to jump off of the ground to avoid a slash at his ankles and jump again off of an air bubble to avoid a second cut at his airborne form.
Naruto wound up jumping right up the stairs near the throne and was followed closely by Sasuke. Naruto tried to take advantage of having the high ground and swing at Sasuke, only for the young Uchiha to garner enough force to flip over Naruto and try to cut him in the air. Damn Sharingan was impressive.
The two started dueling blades again until Naruto took advantage of a misstep and got towards Sasuke's side, dragging the blade of his sword down the flat of Sasuke's own, aiming right for his head. Sasuke saw it coming and narrowly dodged it by backflipping out of the way, leaving Naruto with a parting gift of a rather deep gash on his leg from his chokuto that bled freely.
As the two squared off, Sasuke smirked at having drawn first blood on Naruto until he felt something trickle down his brow and cloud the vision of his left eye with red. He dabbed at it to find that Naruto's last swing had cut his forehead over his left eye. Looking back at Naruto, Sasuke found him with a smirk on his face as if to say, 'Some fight huh?' Sasuke scowled, but it slowly turned into a smirk of his own, returning the sentiment.
Itachi had seen Naruto and Sasuke's swift blade duel, but the two boys were messy blurs to the weakened eyes of Itachi. The elder Uchiha brother was able to cut himself loose in order to prevent Naruto from potentially killing Sasuke.
Sasuke made his hand-seals at blinding speed, coincidentally Itachi had made the exact same seals, and both Uchiha Clan members fired their attacks at the exact same time right at Naruto, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!"
'What the fuck is this bullshit?' Naruto roared in his mind as he jumped into the air and did so again off of an air bubble to avoid the initial fireball and the updraft of the scalding air that rose up from the two clashing ninjutsu attacks, 'Jump-on-the-only-guy-affiliated-with-a-village day or something?
Sasuke's silhouette flew from the fire with his right arm drawn back, holding his signature jutsu, "Butt out Naruto, mind your own business! Chidori (One Thousand Birds)!"
"Fuck you, this is my business!" Naruto replied, sheathing his sword and quickly forming his own signature melee jutsu in his right hand, "Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!"
The two fighters slammed their attacks forward and clashed the two powerful techniques that stalemated as Naruto was driven further up into the air. Neither of them were winning the battle as the loud sound of the power clash echoed through the chamber, but Naruto and Sasuke's momentum from the push of the fireball backdraft sent them higher. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Itachi running up the wall and on the ceiling towards them and he formed a plan of action.
Naruto was basically counting the steps before Itachi got to them, 'Wait for it… wait for it… Now!' The second that Itachi stepped into his range, Naruto added a second hand to his Rasengan and pumped it full of wind chakra, "Fuuton: Rasengan (Wind Release: Rasengan)!"
The sudden addition of wind chakra to the already volatile attack combination caused a nasty explosion that blew a hole in the roof that all three ninja flew through.
Sasuke landed on the roof, revealing half of his body under the influence of the 2nd stage curse seal. The single wing on his back was covered in cuts, but other than that, Sasuke was unharmed, "Damn it that was close…" Sasuke said to himself taking note of the mostly superficial cuts on his clothes and body, "That wind chakra of his is strong against lightning… I'm going to have to watch my elements when we trade our jutsu back and forth."
Itachi appeared on the roof unharmed and rushed towards Naruto. Gritting his teeth in anger, Naruto prepared to defend himself when he realized that Itachi was attacking head-on, "Itachi never does that…"
"Bunshin Daibakuha (Clone Great Explosion)."
"Fu-!" Naruto cried out trying to jump out of range with his arms crossed defensively, no real time to react accordingly. The clone exploded in range of him and Naruto flew out of the smoke with a one-tailed chakra cloak around him in the shape of a fox. He was rather disheveled from the explosion, but any minor wound he received, including the cuts from Sasuke, were already healed. The single tail whipped around angrily in the air as Naruto glared at Itachi, 'Kyuubi keep the chakra low unless I need more. If he tries a genjutsu I don't want to risk him actually getting it on you again, so I'll need to be able to switch off quickly.'
"Tear them apart kit."
"Who do you think you're telling?" Naruto yelled in vocal response as he attacked Itachi again with renewed vigor and bloodlust.
Sasuke sat back and watched Naruto rush Itachi at a speed faster than he had already been moving at, 'This is the power of the Kyuubi…' He lost his sense of awe when he realized how much stronger it made Naruto, and they had been giving Itachi a rather fitful run for his money before this, "No!" He yelled in fear of Naruto actually critically injuring Itachi in this form.
Naruto got close and jumped into the air, high over the roof over both Itachi and Sasuke, "I'll finish you both with this one move!" He placed his fists together, linking them for his favorite attack, "Fuuton: Fuujin Seiken (Wind Release: Divine Fist of Wind God)!" Naruto shot off a massive pressurized wind attack from his hands that actually found itself enhanced by a sentient swipe of Naruto's chakra tail.
The two brothers looked up in the air at the move. The only way down was to jump off of the top of the hideout, and that fall would utterly kill them. Jumping through the hole in the roof would do no good. The attack had all the power it needed to bring the place down on top of them both if it hit the rooftop.
"And now you lose Naruto-kun." Itachi said, shutting his eyes as his head was looking towards Naruto in the air, "Your wind will just make my flames burn that much hotter." His right eye trickled blood right before he opened it wide, "Amaterasu (Illuminating Heaven)!" In the literal blink of an eye, The sky was filled with jet-black covering the length of what was going to be Naruto's attack, and Naruto was falling right into it.
Sasuke looked up in awe. Naruto was dead. He was a dead man and there was absolutely nothing Naruto could do to save himself. Once the flames touched his body he would never put them out. He would burn in the fires of hell that were as hot as the sun.
The shock of seeing the sky filled with black flames, blocking his view of the Uchiha Stronghold rooftop, nearly broke Naruto's focus and forced him to drop his chakra cloak. Naruto looked down at his left arm, in particular one of the multiple tattoos on it. Wrapped around the middle of his forearm was the seal of his choice, but he had never tested it. It was meant for emergency… well if this didn't sure as hell count…
Naruto made four hand-seals, and stopped on the half-tiger seal with his right hand, holding out his left arm straight with his palm facing the flames. Either this worked or he would be ash before he hit the roof, "I love you Hamako-chan! Fuuka Houin (Fire Sealing Method)!"
"What?" Sasuke said in disbelief. That would never work. Fuuinjutsu wasn't powerful enough to contain the full power of one of the Uchiha Clan's most powerful ninjutsu even conceived
"What?" Itachi said in equal shock, his left eye bleeding from the exertion the attack put on him. There was nothing to seal the flames into even if it was powerful enough to hold the Amaterasu. What was he going to use? Neither brother could see through the density of the dark flames.
The appropriate seal that was tattooed around Naruto's forearm spread down until it covered his hand and a blue glow of chakra vapor emitted from his palm. Like a vacuum it sucked up the offending flames that Naruto was about to fall into. In a matter of seconds, Naruto had cleared the sky of the treacherous flames and he fell back down to the roof safely. He kneeled on one knee with his head down as he held his left arm with his right. His chakra cloak flickered in a living manner as usual.
"Impossible!" Itachi verbally exclaimed, far out of character, 'There was absolutely nothing to transfer the flames to! What on earth did he use? There was nothing there at all! No scroll or anything!'
Sasuke didn't know how to feel. On one hand he didn't have to use his pre-planned escape for the Amaterasu; he could save it for another emergency if he needed it. On the other hand, Naruto had once again interfered in his battle with Itachi. How did he directly overcome the Amaterasu? A seal didn't seem like it could contain the power of Amaterasu with no effect at all.
"Gaaaah!"
Both Uchiha brothers were alerted when Naruto shouted his lungs out and hunched forward, desperately holding his left arm as it twitched uncontrollably. He had never felt this much pain in his entire life. No one else could ever say that they had ever heard Naruto wail in such anguish before, and they probably never would again.
Naruto's tattoo around his forearm was glowing an intense, burning red. The flames were settling within the storage force of the seal, 'I didn't know sealing something directly into a body part would hurt so badly!' It didn't feel like any fire he had ever felt in his entire life. Naruto had been burned before, he had been burned a lot. That was nothing compared to this. He may have been alive, but he wished he had just let the fire hit him because then he would be dead by now and wouldn't feel the pain anymore.
'Kami, I want to rip my goddamn arm off!' He screamed in his mind as tears of pain pricked at the corner of his eyes. Whenever he had seen anyone demonstrate this seal's ability to hold any kind of flame without anything being burned he figured doing it on his arm would hurt, but the second the seal solidified and returned to its normal black color it would be fine, 'When Ero-kyofu and Hamako-chan used this the seal settled way quicker than this!' Unfortunately, neither of them had ever demonstrated the seal on the sheer amount of fire that Naruto had absorbed, nor had anyone ever used the seal on their own body. He let out another unholy scream that echoed out into the darkening sky and raked Itachi and Sasuke's ears.
Sasuke spared one last glance at Naruto who sounded like he would simply die of the shock the pain was causing him, 'That's what happens when you take our eyes and believe you can automatically match our power.' He thought before focusing on Itachi, who dropped to a knee and coughed up blood. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, 'No mercy… just like he showed our clansmen.' Sasuke told himself as he let his body fully take on the 2nd stage of the curse seal, "Running low on chakra Itachi?"
Itachi simply looked at Sasuke and stood back up, his left eye bleeding and blood coming from his mouth. He blurred from Sasuke's sight in a burst of speed.
Sasuke crouched in a stance of preparation before he flapped his wings and wound up smashing Itachi who had gotten behind him. However Itachi's body turned into a mass of crows that surrounded Sasuke's body. Sasuke batted them all away only to find himself ensnared tightly around his entire body in ninja wire. Sasuke struggled to get free, but the amount of wire was so thick that he couldn't break it with brute force, nor could he reach a blade.
"This is the end for you Sasuke." Itachi said, standing a ways away from his younger brother, as he had anchored the massive amount of wires into the ground with over a dozen kunai surrounding Sasuke's body, "It seems this is as far as you can go. You cannot move, you cannot escape. Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Dragon Flame Jutsu)." He said as flames flicked from his mouth to the wires he had been holding between his teeth.
Fire flickered at the edges of all of the wires and travelled along them towards Sasuke. They hit Sasuke's body just as the wires went slack. However, as the flames died down, the charred corpse of a snake revealed itself in Sasuke's place. Sasuke had desperately summoned the creature to block the fire enough to survive.
Meanwhile, Naruto was losing it. The pain from the seal he had used to absorb Amaterasu wasn't going away. His breathing was frantic and erratic… and he was drawing more of the Kyuubi's chakra out of nothing but pure desperation. At the moment he now had two tails waving angrily and batting the rooftop, raising rubble with the intensity of the strikes.
Inside of his head the Kyuubi was trying to get Naruto to calm down, "Boy you're losing control and drawing on my chakra as a lifeline to dull the pain! You know that's only a useless crutch. That will only cause the pain you still feel to make you angrier and rely on more of my chakra!" As he tried to talk Naruto into a calm state of mind, a third tail emerged, giving Naruto his three-tailed form, "Tell me you understand me damn you! Don't you quit and let this slip! After all of this and you're going to make me fight your battle for you? You're going to give me the reins? If you do you'll never get them back!" He warned Naruto.
'No!' Naruto thought to his tenant, 'I'm not handing the reins over to you. I just need to dull the pain!' On this level, the chakra began to hurt Naruto if he used it for too long and abused it. His plan was to overexert his left arm in this form to numb his arm enough for the pain of Amaterasu's sealing to go away. At least until the seal finished solidifying. After he had ordered his command to the Kyuubi he didn't hear the creature's disputes anymore and he felt most of his power fluctuating around his arm where the chakra was bubbling harshly. His arm started to shake and numb and he began to calm down. He had to make this quick. At this rate his arm would shortly be useless to him if the seal didn't settle and he couldn't feel Amaterasu anymore.
Naruto stood back up with his caustic chakra cloak stinging the air around him and his three tails whipping wildly. His left eye was blood red, while his left remained Sharingan. He had enough of sitting back and having to defend, that seemed to be all he had been doing since he had found his way to the roof, 'I can win! My old man sealed the Kyuubi in me because he knew I could grow skilled enough to beat this Madara person, well let's start with these Uchiha first!'
Itachi's attention was taken from Sasuke when Naruto began drawing upon more and more of the malevolent chakra inside of his courtesy of the Kyuubi, 'This is ruining everything. At this rate, Naruto-kun will kill one of us before-.' He had to stop his thought when his Sharingan picked up Naruto beginning to move towards him. Or was it Sasuke he was coming after? It didn't matter, he still had to stop Naruto.
Before he could begin to focus a counter attack on Naruto, behind him, Sasuke emerged, cutting his way through the dead, large snake he had used to block the brunt of Itachi's last jutsu. Itachi found himself caught in a pincer between the two teens using the warped, dark powers inside of them, both of them set on killing him and each other.
Sasuke looked over at Naruto who stood behind Itachi from his point of view and noted that now he was using even more of the Kyuubi's power, 'Of course he can use more of its power. That amount he was able to summon was still a far cry from the legends told about the Kyuubi. Even now-.'
As he kept thinking, Naruto dropped to all fours on the roof and let out a deafening roar that expelled a wave of his chakra in a shockwave at the two brothers. The force of the soundwave had enough pressure behind it to turn the surface of the sturdy stone rooftop to rubble. Itachi put his hands up to keep his body from being overtly wounded from the attack, but the sleeves of his Akatsuki cloak began to burn away before he was thrown back like a ragdoll near the edge of the roof. He caught himself near the edge and pulled himself back up, breathing heavily, blood steadily coming from his mouth now, 'There's no other choice. If I don't use it I'll never last long enough…' He thought as he stood back up and coughed blood into his hand.
Sasuke's wings tried to flap back against Naruto's shockwave. This gave him a measure of protection from Naruto's caustic chakra, but he still managed to get driven back slightly. The unstable rooftop was unable to provide him a decent foothold and he found himself losing ground as he was eventually pushed off of the ground and thrown off of the roof into the air. Sasuke's wings caught him in the air and he glared at Naruto who jumped towards him in the air as he made the tiger seal and inhaled deeply, 'It has to be now. Naruto I won't let you ruin my chance no matter what!' "Katon: Gouryuuka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Jutsu)!"
Naruto let out a gravelly gasp of shock as coming directly at him in the air was a massive dragon-shaped fireball, with flames so hot they had dark clouds already trailing behind them. He tried to stop himself in the air with an air bubble to avert his path, but failed to do so. His normally precarious to begin with chakra control was shot to hell once he went past one-tail, substituting the power boost for the control he had painstakingly worked his entire career to hone. It was only meant to overwhelm his enemies with tremendous force, for times when having the control just didn't matter enough for him to prioritize it… and this time wouldn't be any different if he had anything to say about it.
Naruto was hit directly with the fireball the moment he let out a roar of defiance. As the attack exploded on him, the black clouds began rising to the sky, 'There. You wasted your fire absorption technique on Amaterasu. You couldn't block that. And now everything's all set up for-.' Two red claws of chakra shot out of the clouds that had formed in the air when Sasuke's jutsu hit Naruto and grabbed Sasuke by both of his arms, holding them apart, leaving his torso open for attack, "What?"
"It's over!" Naruto's gravelly Kyuubi-powered voice yelled from inside of the cloud before it floated up completely, revealing Naruto with steadily healing burns all over the front of his body. The two began falling back towards the roof as Naruto used his chakra arms to reel Sasuke in towards him. In his right hand was a Rasengan that had a bright burning red shell of chakra around it, "I'll see you in hell Sasuke! Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!"
The demonically charged jutsu hit Sasuke directly in the torso. The twisted look of agony on his face, stuck in a silent scream, locked eyes with Naruto as his body started disintegrating from the point of contact on up and through on his right side. Naruto held onto Sasuke's body until his torso vanished up to the joint of his shoulder, taking out one of the points that Naruto had a hold of.
Itachi had a basically perfect view of the scene of Naruto basically destroying the right half of Sasuke's body with his Rasengan. As they fell from the air and hit the rooftop with a resounding crash, Itachi stood staring in abject horror as he could hear Sasuke gasping like a fish, "Sasuke…"
Naruto stood over Sasuke's body, staring down at the youngest Uchiha to confirm his kill. From the point where he had made contact there was simply nothing. Sasuke's entire right side was gone. He was still alive, Naruto had no idea how, but if he didn't finish him he would die in a matter of seconds. Still, there was a difference between killing someone and being cruel. Naruto formed another Rasengan, intent on ending things with Sasuke now when he heard a yell of pure rage and looked up at Itachi who had never looked at anyone with such emotion on his face in his entire life. A flock of crows flew around Itachi's body and when they dispersed a second later he was gone.
Naruto's eyes widened when he felt a punch right to the back of his head that sent him flying and rolling through the rubbled rooftop. Naruto stood up to see nothing but a flock of crows flying away, 'Itachi hit me? He actually touched me directly?' Naruto turned his head all about to catch the movements of the faster Uchiha brother, but whenever he thought he got a glimpse he just wound up seeing crows in his place before taking another hit, 'He's punching me! This should be killing him right now! Doesn't he care about being burned by the chakra?'
Itachi didn't care.
Every punch felt like he was sticking his hands in a fireplace and pulling them back out, but he didn't care. Why would he have cared? Naruto ruined everything. This wasn't supposed to happen. Sasuke wasn't supposed to die. Naruto didn't know that, Itachi would never say it out loud, but he could sure say it with his actions, and each time he hit Naruto he was screaming it at him. The pain he was inflicting on Naruto and the pain that he was inflicting on himself was therapeutic to Itachi.
Naruto could keep up with him, but his lack of experience with the Sharingan allowed Itachi to take advantage of his lack of ability to prioritize his targets. When Itachi would use his crows they would only cover Itachi's sudden shifts in directions, allowing him to get closer and hit Naruto. There was no more need for him to keep the rest of his energy in reserve now, he was going to finish Naruto off for what he did to Sasuke if it killed him, and it probably would. There was no need to keep his last move under wraps any longer, if he did Naruto would just kill him too.
Naruto let out another roar and released a shockwave that threw Itachi bonelessly across the roof as the sky turned completely dark overhead, pitch black the sky seemed. Naruto had an enraged glare on his face, but it didn't seem to come close to comparing to Itachi's, who coughed more blood as he rolled through being thrown back, stopping himself easily, and faced his brother's killer. His glare turned to a look of confusion as he noticed Naruto's chakra appendages, 'Wait, he had three tails of chakra. I only see two now-.'
Naruto's third tail emerged from the ground in front of Itachi and grabbed a hold of him. Itachi let out a cry of pain at being grabbed by the harmful chakra before Naruto began slamming him all over the roof angrily.
Itachi's vision was unable to make Naruto out properly as he kept getting bashed about with the chakra tail slams, but he was able to focus enough to attempt to counter Naruto, 'You will not be taking us both without your own death Naruto.'
Naruto suddenly dropped Itachi when his chakra shroud was shattered by the black flames of Amaterasu, 'He missed!' Itachi's depth perception was off due to the beating he had taken and his own incurring blindness. Still, the attack was enough to break Naruto's hold over him with his chakra. The flames were even close enough to catch Naruto's hands ablaze, and Naruto hurriedly ripped his gloves off to keep them from leading the rest of his body to catching ablaze. He was just now getting over the agonizing pain of simply sealing Amaterasu away.
Itachi breathed heavily and stood shakily as his Akatsuki cloak was now nothing more than holey rags. There were burns all over Itachi's body where the tail had wrapped around him. He would have been lying if he said that the rainfall that had appeared from the storm clouds overhead wasn't a total relief. But when lightning started to crash, both Itachi and Naruto both looked up at the sky and saw a massive concentration of chakra in the clouds, 'Those aren't natural… Sasuke.' Itachi thought to himself.
Naruto on the other hand could see exactly how large this was going to be as the storm built power directly over the entire Uchiha Stronghold, 'Kyuubi… give me more chakra.'
"Another tail?" The demon said inside of his head, "No problem-."
'No.' Naruto thought gravely, 'That… That won't be enough. I need more. Whatever this is, I can't run from it I need more.'
"You know you can't handle more than four! You won't be able to stay aware and protect me with your Sharingan! I will not have my power sealed by the blasted Uchiha again! Never again! I would rather you die here than fall prey to those eyes!" A berserk Naruto in this case would be no good to the Kyuubi. It didn't have time to give Naruto all of its power which meant that it wouldn't be able to escape, and Itachi wasn't doing this attack. That meant Sasuke was still alive and had enough chakra to pull this off. If Sasuke still had the power to do this he could still subdue the Kyuubi like what was done before. Kyuubi would not have that happen again.
Naruto's Sharingan was different, it managed to convince itself when Naruto had it implanted. It was protecting the Kyuubi from the other remaining Sharingan out there that could yoke it to an Uchiha will again, and inside of Naruto's mind when he had freed the biju from its genjutsu haze that estimation had been proven as far as the Kyuubi was concerned. Death would be a welcome alternative to becoming a slave to the Uchiha again.
But Naruto wasn't having any of that.
'We can't just die here! I know you can give me the power to survive this! You can flatten mountains and raise tsunamis with swipes of your tails, you can give me enough of that to let me survive!' Naruto argued back as the power began to build in the sky and took shape. A massive mythical dragon took form, and roared from within the clouds. By this time Naruto was not going to be taking no for an answer. He dropped his concentration over his cloak, returning to normal to scream at his own mental inhabitant, his Sharingan spinning wildly. As his Sharingan saw the jutsu building, he was out of time and he knew it.
"Goddamn it Kyuubi give me enough fucking power to live through this, that's all I want!" He roared in more desperation than he had ever said anything in his life.
As his last word was uttered and echoed to the sky, it was drowned out by the ungodly blast of lightning that came from the sky in a flash and eradicated the entire Uchiha Stronghold as well as the hill it sat on.
XxX
(Moments Ago – When Naruto and Itachi began to fight alone)
Sasuke lay on the ground with the right side of his body gone, 'I have to use it!' He thought as he saw Naruto standing over him with the Rasengan in hand, prepared to finish him, 'I have to use it now!'
Before Naruto could strike, he was sent flying by an enraged Itachi, sparing Sasuke, but he still only had seconds before he would be dead on the roof the way Naruto had originally intended.
He rolled over and carved a hole in the roof with his Chidori and pushed his head through, opening his mouth widely. His mouth stretched unnaturally wide and he began to regurgitate. From the inside of his mouth, a new body started pulling its way out, like a snake shedding its old skin. Sasuke's body fell down from the ceiling and landed on the ground before taking a knee and heaving heavy breaths, 'I almost died right then!' He thought as he looked up and heard the sounds of Itachi and Naruto continuing to battle, 'Absorbing Orochimaru was a serious boon to this fight.'
Sasuke stood back up, and closed his eyes, "This is going to be my last jutsu. I don't have anything left… but." He smirked and opened his eyes, the sounds of Itachi and Naruto battling above sounding out with massive thuds against the ceiling, "It's time to achieve my ambition. They won't be able to dodge this final jutsu. No baby-Kyuubi powers, no Mangekyou Sharingan… nothing will help them avoid this."
He raised his hand into the air and channeled lightning chakra to his hand, "This is not a regular lightning jutsu. This is lightning from heaven itself, and no one walks away from it." He guided a wisp of lightning through the holes in the ceiling to the sky, "Kirin… Now disappear with the thunder." He dropped his hand straight down and all he saw was a flash of light.
XxX
(Meanwhile – With the Konoha Ninja)
"Where the fuck are we going now?" Tayuya snapped irritably. She was not having a good day. First her partner almost got her killed by the same kid that was almost indirectly responsible for getting her killed three years ago, then she found out that the first person to treat her decently was in a battle with the two Uchiha brothers, then she learned that the same person that was good to her was not only fighting the two last remaining Uchiha, he was doing it with some kind of handicap, "Pale and listless over there never told us what we were going for."
The group was being led by Sai as he headed through the woods towards their destination, "Our mission was to find the sword Kubikiribouchou or Samehada while Naruto-senpai detained whichever Uchiha we ran across." Sai's brow furrowed, "My birds located both keepers of both swords. That's where we're headed now."
"Why aren't we looking for Naruto?" Kiba said in a disgruntled manner. A friend of his was hurt and fighting dangerous people, and he had no idea where he was to help him.
Kakashi explained why, "Our mission was never to go to Naruto, nor was it to capture Sasuke. It was to locate him so that we could assist him in his mission. He's handling his portion of executing his strategy. Our job is to help ensure that the objective is achieved. Respect Naruto's decision as a squad leader. He is a jounin as well as myself, Neji, and Tayuya. He knows what he is doing." Kakashi said with full confidence.
Neji's Byakugan was out as he scouted ahead, "We're very close." In the distance he saw two men dueling with massive swords, "I believe I see the men fighting that you spoke of Sai-san."
"Very well…" Sai said, stopping and thus bringing everyone else to a stop, "I do not believe that a battle with Kisame Hoshigaki and whoever believes they can fight on par with him would be in our best interest at all."
Shikamaru looked at Tayuya with a pondering look on his face, "I have an idea of how to handle that." Tayuya wondered why he was looking at her in particular when he smirked, "They're meatheads… From what I've heard of Kisame Hoshigaki he doesn't seem to be the kind of guy that values subtlety too much."
Tayuya figured what his plan would be and returned his smirk with a rather vicious grin, "Right. Leave it to me you lazy bastard, I think I've got you." She then noticed Maki place a hand on Kiba's shoulder who was nearby, "What the fuck do you want?"
Maki had a small smile on her face, "If you're insinuating what I think you are then I think I could be of some help."
XxX
Kisame and Suigetsu were trading strikes with their respective swords. So far it seemed to be rather leisurely as far as the two of them were concerned. By leisurely of course, it's meant that while they were swinging their weapons to dismember and behead they were pleasantly bantering with one another.
Suigetsu's arms were noticeably more pumped up due to his ability to manipulate his watery body as he swung Kubikiribouchou with a casual expression on his face, "Is this all you've got Kisame-senpai? I thought you would be using all kinds of stuff on me by now?"
Kisame snorted as he blocked with Samehada and returned a slash of his own, "Yeah, like I'm going to use any water ninjutsu against the kid that can turn to water. Itachi-san's the idea man, but I'm not that stupid kid." He gave the boy a shark-like grin, "Besides, I like the fact that when I cut you to ribbons you're going to be a puddle. Seeing blood all the time gets kind of old. Are you sure sending your little friends away was the best idea?"
Suigetsu jumped back and faced off against Kisame again. The two prepared to square off again, but when they tried to move they found their bodies unable to budge, "What?"
Kisame growled as he tried to do the same but couldn't, "What's going on?"
Nearby, in hiding, Shikamaru held the rat seal, "Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Possesion Jutsu) is a success. Good work girls."
"Whatever…" Tayuya muttered, looking over at Maki, "You have genjutsu skills?" Maki gave a nod while focusing on her jutsu.
Shikamaru tried to get both men to mimic his movements so that they would throw their swords over, but the resistance he was given was great, "What's going on here? It's like trying to force a bull elephant to pull an anchor by pushing it."
Maki frowned, "Sorry. It's my genjutsu, Juuryoku Satsujin (Gravity Killer). They think their bodies are five times heavier than normal. They're monsters, it took forever for them to slow down enough for you to get with one attempt. With them like this, trying to work their muscles in any way right now is a total strain. It relies on your physical strength against what their minds perceive if you want to move their bodies from the look of your jutsu."
Neji pointed out at the battle that had been stopped, "I don't think that will be much of an issue. Watch."
XxX
Sai rushed into the area and quickly drew his tanto, cutting Suigetsu's arms off and grabbing Kubikiribouchou, dragging the heavy sword behind him as he quickly retreated, "Hey you son of a bitch!" Suigetsu roared at Sai as his arms reformed, "Get back here with my goddamn sword!"
Kisame just laughed at Suigetsu, not even really caring he was captured, "Well look at you, you'd better get moving kid! You went and lost old Zabu-chan's sword! That's rich!" He laughed uproariously as Suigetsu took off after Sai, "Okay Samehada, find whoever put this genjutsu's chakra in me and get it out. Consider it a little snack." The sword made a vibrating noise and got to work on breaking the genjutsu.
XxX
In hiding, Shikamaru dropped his jutsu as his arms went limp for a moment, alerting everyone that was around him, "Geez. That actually felt like I lost my arms for a second… troublesome." He muttered while rubbing his arms.
"And now it's time to go." Maki said with a smile, "We only needed one, and Sai-senpai broke my genjutsu over the water one. It's still on Kisame."
Tayuya nodded, "Okay, let's get the fuck out of here then." She looked out and saw Suigetsu chasing after Sai, "Your friend looks like he's in trouble."
Maki shook her head, "Sai-senpai will be fine." She stood up motioned, "Shall we leave? I know where Sai-senpai is going." Kakashi nodded, "Follow me." She took off, and the others all followed her.
In the woods, Kakashi felt something off about Maki, and he lifted his headband to reveal his Sharingan eye where he immediately brought the team to a halt, "Neji use your Byakugan and check as far as you can." Before anyone could ask why, he continued, "This isn't Maki is it?"
'Maki' turned and faced them before giving a very Sai-like smile, and in a puff of smoke turned into Sai. In shock, Neji activated his Byakugan and gasped, "It's some kind of Bunshin!"
"And why couldn't I smell the difference?" Kiba asked.
The clone explained, "Maki put a genjutsu on you right before we launched our ambush on Kisame and Sasuke's acquaintance. All it did was stunt your sense of smell, and since we were already there you didn't notice it."
Kakashi nodded, "It was under a Henge. Maki must have replaced herself with one of Sai's clones, but why?"
"There are many reasons." The clone of Sai said, "But know that we are not enemies, nor have we betrayed you. I've taken you far away from any danger and on the path back to Konoha. I'm sorry, but Naruto-senpai cannot come back to the village yet. These are his orders to us, we simply carried them out in our own way. 'Let no one tail us and find me' That was what he said."
Sakura gasped, "But why would Naruto order something like that?"
Sai-clone looked at Sakura and his face went emotionless, "He didn't need others getting in the way of what he had to do. I believe he made the right choice on that front." The clone said, referencing Sakura's earlier episode with Sasuke, "By the time you get your bearings we will be long gone. You should just return to Konoha. We on the other hand, have a mission to fulfill."
Kiba growled at the clone, as did Akamaru, "You asshole!" He launched himself at the clone of Sai.
"Kiba no!" Kakashi said, as Kiba reached Sai-clone.
"Naruto-senpai will be in touch." Sai-clone said, just as Kiba's claws passed through him. The clone then exploded and covered everyone in ink. Kiba coughed and sputtered, "Urk, gross! I can't smell a thing, all I can smell is ink!"
Neji rubbed at his eyes, "I can't see. I need to wash the ink out of my eyes." He said as Sakura came to his aid and poured a canteen of water in his eyes to try to clear them, "I'm no good like this."
"Man that girl was smooth…" Shikamaru muttered, "She used the smallest distraction to get away from us; when my and her jutsu were broken by that Sai cutting that guy's arms off everyone focused on me, and she didn't miss a beat getting out of there."
Kakashi ran a hand through his hair, "Naruto's got a good squad with him… to be able to get away like that. We let Sai go scot free due to the chase, and Maki used pure misdirection to slip away unannounced. Sai knew enough about her personality to have his clone portray her well enough to get us this far away." Kakashi let out a sigh, 'It will be quite some time before we can pursue.'
XxX
In the area where Kisame was left alone, he stood still, holding Samehada with a perturbed look on his face, "What do you mean looking for that little sliver of chakra in my body is like looking for a needle in a haystack? Just get it done." He said to the weapon that vibrated a reply, "Don't be a smartass, just do it."
From the trees, a certain man in an orange swirl mask appeared, "Ooh, what are you doing just standing here? This doesn't look like a very interesting place to hang out." He said brightly.
Kisame smirked, "Oh, some punks put a genjutsu on me and ran for it." He stiffly moved his head to a direction, "One of 'em went that way, I don't know how many others there were or where they went though."
This seemed to sober the man up for a moment before he returned to normal, "Okay, Tobi will go and chase the one you saw Kisame-senpai." He said with a crisp salute before taking off in that direction.
"Weird kid…" Kisame said, "Weird, but good I guess." He then realized he was still weighed down, "Man fuck this." He said as he began to walk stiffly, "Keep working on that damn genjutsu…" He ordered to Samehada, "I'm not dragging you down my arm again until it hurts me enough to break."
XxX
(With Sai and Maki)
The two were on one of Sai's birds, birds that Sai had kept to himself the full abilities of. After his birds returned to him and informed him of everyone's location he had managed to hide one very important location. The location of Naruto.
He used his birds, instead of just dispelling them, to form a secret message to Maki about the plan of action: To find an opening and leave the Konoha ninja behind, and everything had just fallen into place from there. They had the sword, they lost the Konoha ninja, Sai had ditched Suigetsu when Maki suckered him into another genjutsu that threw him off of Sai's tail, and they knew where Naruto was.
Miles away, dark foreboding clouds had just struck down a sudden massive bolt of lightning in the distance.
There was no storm that could produce lightning of that magnitude. The clouds in the sky were just for rain. The clouds in the distance were pitch black.
Neither of them said a thing. There was nothing worth saying at the moment that either of them cared to hear.
XxX
(Destroyed Uchiha Stronghold)
Sasuke stared at the aftermath of his jutsu that could double as a force of nature. The entire area was a rubble-strewn wreck, nothing was left of the hideout except tattered slabs of stone.
Itachi lay face down on the ground, motionless.
Seeing that his goal was complete, Sasuke let his Sharingan fade and dropped to his knees, his eyes starting to sag closed, "It's over… it's finally all over. I did it." He said in relief, almost in disbelief that it was truly over until he focused on the feeling of pure crushing malevolent chakra.
'No way.' Sasuke thought to himself as he rushed over to see what it was and found Naruto over the summit of a large pile of rubble. He was simply standing up, with a look of pure awe and wonder on his face. Around his body, there was a haze of red chakra that disappeared, and a layer of bone that looked like the skeleton of a fox that was draped over his back, like a pelt of some sort. It then fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Naruto swayed in place before catching his balance and his skin was red as if he had been sunburned all over.
Sasuke snapped out of his trance at seeing Naruto still standing once the feeling of the murderous intent he had by now attributed to the Kyuubi left him, "How? How are you still alive?" He asked in wonder/respect/fear, before he realized who he was talking to and grew angry, "Tell me how you're still alive!" He roared at Naruto.
Naruto didn't even focus on Sasuke's anger as he asked his question. He had just come closer to death than he ever had in his entire life twice over the course of a month; once against Pein, once here against Sasuke and Itachi. And both times the only thing that saved him was dumb luck and timely intervention from an always reliable source. Naruto answered in a whisper, "Kyuubi." Sasuke looked at him, waiting for him to elaborate, "I don't know, just… Kyuubi."
Naruto went to his thoughts to contact his chakra creature and find out what was happening, 'Kyuubi did you do that?' He asked, rather relieved, 'I told you I could handle your power, a second of using you past my limits wouldn't make me lose control. How far'd you go anyway? That was more than five tails, I felt it.' He waited and waited and got no answer. Kyuubi never responded, 'Kyuubi? Come on, talk to me here, are you pissed because I yelled at you?' He then thought of something else, 'Wait, I've never gotten you to do anything by ordering you to do it. Why this time?'
Still no answer… and it was freaking Naruto out.
He would have to worry about that later. He turned his head towards Sasuke slowly and looked at the exhausted Uchiha with his single Sharingan, "You're out of chakra." He said, not asking. It was a fact, he could find no trace of it on Sasuke's person, "I'm not." He said, getting Sasuke's eyes to widen.
Naruto's body screamed at him in pain as he turned towards the Uchiha to finish him off. Every inch of his skin was screaming at him in agony due to the full-body burns he had suffered from whatever the Kyuubi did to help him survive Kirin, but he was better off than Sasuke as he hissed lowly while grabbing his sword's hilt and slowly sliding it out of its sheath.
Sasuke was almost beside himself at this point. He didn't know how Naruto didn't know he survived, and he didn't care, because if Naruto was still alive then that meant there was a chance that-.
"So this is what you envisioned when you saw my death?"
Almost like instinct at hearing that voice, Sasuke immediately went to level two of his curse seal, "Goddamn you!" He angrily jumped back to where Itachi was laying where he saw Itachi slowly rising to his feet. Naruto moved at a more reserved pace, still trying and failing to contact the Kyuubi and letting his healing abilities handle what they could of his burns.
Around Itachi's body, a flaming ethereal skeleton rose from the ground, "If I hadn't used this I would have been obliterated. Sasuke you truly are powerful. Now bear witness to the final trump in my arsenal… Susanoo (He With The Ability To Help By All Means)." The spiritual skeleton then took the form of an armored humanoid, still surrounding Itachi. He noticed Naruto, "Consider yourself lucky to see this." He spoke to both of them, "If you have any more tricks left, I wouldn't suggest holding them back."
It had been said before by many shinobi in Konoha that Naruto had overheard speaking prior to Itachi's defection. It had been drilled into Naruto's head after Itachi left Konoha and took out his clan. Naruto knew it when he had first run across Itachi three years ago and stalled to save his own life from capture. It was a fact in Naruto's head that he carried with him for years and all the way through this mission because the elder Uchiha was the one Naruto was most wary of. Still… seeing this in front of his eyes right here, right now, Naruto had to believe that the point was if anything downplayed and could not be accentuated enough to complement the man.
Itachi Uchiha was a bad motherfucker.
Period.
'How can he even stand after all of this?' Naruto wondered, not so much intimidated at this point, more like amazed. Itachi had taken a beating from him when he used the Kyuubi's chakra, and he was still moving forward with this 'Susanoo'. Speaking of the Kyuubi's chakra, He still couldn't get any. He had just gotten a huge burst to help him survive Kirin and he couldn't get jack now to face off with Itachi's Susanoo, 'The whole fucking world's against me, I swear to Kami. Fine! I'll have to use that. Sorry Temari-chan, I know you don't like it, but nothing else is going to work this time.' Naruto said, taking Itachi's attempt at verbally goading him deadly serious. Someone like Itachi wouldn't say that if he hadn't meant it. Still why was he even saying that in the first place? Nevertheless, after almost being blown away by Kirin, Naruto wasn't counting Sasuke out either.
Sasuke took Itachi's threat more seriously and with more trepidation. Unlike Naruto, who apparently looked like he was still ready to rock and roll wounds notwithstanding, he didn't have anything else. Kirin was only good for one shot, as his storm clouds had cleared after his usage, and setting the damn thing up as well as using his body shedding technique to survive Naruto annihilating the right half of his body took everything he had in the tank, 'Shit, shit, shit! What the fuck am I going to do? What now?"
"Shall I lend you my power?"
That voice, 'Fuck… no.' Sasuke hadn't heard whispers of that voice in his head since Naruto had defeated him all those years ago, and here it was again. In an impossible situation, only it was infinitely more powerful this time.
"Admit it Sasuke-kun, you need me."
'Fuck you… get out.'
"Do you want your revenge on Itachi? Or are you just content to let Naruto-kun finish your fight for you. Kukukuku…I'm sure he'll have enough fight in him to kill you and then get rid of Itachi for you. Just wait and see."
Sasuke grabbed his neck on the curse seal and dropped to his knees, scratching the ground with his sharper demonic nails as continued to struggle.
"Go ahead. Unleash me and your deepest wish will be granted."
A scream of agony from Sasuke preceded Naruto jumping away from the Uchiha avenger. Why? Because the space on his neck that housed Orochimaru's curse seal began expanding and eventually ripped through, producing eight towering snake heads. The creature was white and had spikes on each snake body.
Naruto got as far away as he could and palmed his face, "That's great… that's just fucking great…" He said to himself, 'Wake the fuck up Kyuubi!' He said inside of his head, still getting no response from the beast, 'Damn it! Am I going to have to beat these things by myself?' He growled dangerously when he saw some of the heads look over at him and open their mouths in a threatening manner.
Itachi, from within the defenses of Susanoo, looked at the massive eight-headed serpent that hissed at him and his spiritual warrior with a few of the heads, "Orochimaru's Yamata no Jutsu (Eight Branches Jutsu)… This is it." He tried to take a step forward, as did Susanoo, but when he did his leg buckled under him and he coughed blood harshly, 'No… Naruto's Kyuubi chakra is speeding up my illness.'
"No…" Itachi said, forcing Susanoo to reach for a gourd on its belt as his vision started to spin. The hydra hissed and came at Itachi, intent on destroying Susanoo, "This is what all of this was for… I won't lose now. Not yet." But a cough that did nothing but spew blood from his lips said otherwise as Susanoo started to fade.
Naruto on the other hand, was facing down three separate snake heads that wanted nothing more than to kill both him and the weakened Itachi, "I have to say…" Naruto said as the snake prepared to strike, "I'm surprised. How you managed to get something like this from Orochimaru I'll never know, and I don't care." Naruto formed two Kage Bunshin and held up his right arm with a Rasengan in it, "This was supposed to be for Susanoo, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend… and you're the biggest threat right now."
As the Kage Bunshin began to manipulate the chakra around the Rasengan, one whipping his hands in a circular motion to generate wind chakra, a white shape of four points like a fuuma shuriken formed around it, rotating as the Rasengan in the center held the entire thing together. It began to let off a loud bell-like screech that grated against the hydra, getting the heads to hiss dangerously.
"Yeah, yeah. You want to eat me, blah, blah…" Naruto muttered before he charged forward with his dangerous looking new attack in his grip, "Well you can eat this!"
The snakes moved together to prepare and attack the thing rushing towards them intent on attacking, Naruto. But before they could all slam down onto him, Susanoo smashed against them all, disrupting their effort and letting Naruto get close enough to leap at them with his jutsu to attack, "Fuuton: Rasenshuriken (Wind Release: Spiraling Shuriken)!"
Naruto smashed his attack into the snake heads as they all let out a deafening simultaneous hiss.
Itachi stared at the clash after softening up the snake with what he had left to give. Naruto's Rasenshurirken caught the hydra in a vortex that ripped into its body with an uncountable number of tiny wind blades and eventually felled all eight heads, 'Amazing… Naruto you are an amazing shinobi. I can't even count the amount of attacks your jutsu causes… truly an S-ranked ninjutsu.'
Naruto fell down from his attack attempt on the snake and hit the ground hard, looking at the downed snake through half-lidded eyes as he slowly stood back up, "Got you ugly… How'd that taste?" He said, stumbling around as his left arm twitched uncontrollably.
Before any rest could be given, a single head of the snake stood up and opened its mouth and roared as something emerged from its maw. Itachi closed his eyes and stood back up, knowing this was not over, "Finally I can bring this to an end. It's time at last." As if he expected something of this nature to happen.
Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the person that emerged from the mouth of the snake, "I should have fucking known better… I should have known he wouldn't have killed you off that easily! Orochimaru!"
Orochimaru sat with the top half of his body sticking out of the final hydra head's mouth, and regurgitated his Kusanagi sword out, taking it in his grasp, proving that it really was him. He laughed loudly, "Yes! This is the chance I've been sitting and waiting for! This battle was perfect to force Sasuke-kun to expend his chakra and lose his ability to suppress me! Now his body will be mine, and you will both die here first!"
Naruto looked over to Itachi and Susanoo who locked eyes with him and nodded. Naruto pulled the Sennenki no Ken from his back, "The enemy of my enemy…" Naruto repeated lowly, "Sen'nen Hakkei: Ichijiraware (Millenium Release: Primary Materialization). The sword dematerialized and turned into his bladed gauntlets and greaves, "I only need a few seconds of this… I shouldn't lose much chakra…" With that he vanished in a flash of raw speed and reappeared, having run up the entire hydra and stopped in front of Orochimaru, "Anko-chan says hi." He said before driving the blades of both gauntlets through his chest, "I needed to stab you anyway. Now I don't have to chase down Kabuto the way I had planned to at first."
Orochimaru's face froze in a face of shock before his eyes moved and locked with Naruto's. He sat with Naruto's blades in him, laughing as if he were unharmed, "Your tiny blades can't harm me Naruto-kun! He slashed at Naruto's blades to make a show of breaking them to dishearten him, but he only managed to knock Naruto loose from his body. His surprise at his sword not breaking Naruto's vanished as he made the massive snake head toss Naruto into the air, "It doesn't matter Naruto-kun! You can't kill me, I'm immort-!"
He was kept from finishing his comment when he and the hydra head he was in was stabbed through with a massive sword made of liquid fire held by Susanoo. The weakened Itachi, serving as the medium providing the spirit with the ability to move and the chakra to exist smirked as his eyes bled and even more blood sat around his mouth, "Naruto-kun might not be able to kill you, but I've prepared for any little nasty surprises he had hiding… like you."
Orochimaru began to laugh again, "Do you think that any weapon that you have could possibly harm me?" He then felt himself go hazy and be drawn forward towards something uncontrollably, "No! It can't be! The Totsuka no Tsurugi! You had it all along!" He said, his voice distorting as he and his hydra were all sucked into the gourd on the hip of Susanoo.
Sasuke's body lost all traces of the Hydra, or Orochimaru, or his curse seal. Everything, as it was all drawn into the gourd and sealed away, shut tight. Sasuke sat on his knees exhausted and out of chakra. Like it or not, Orochimaru's surprise appearance was his last gasp in this fight, and Itachi knew it, "This is the end Sasuke. It's all over." His eyes no longer had their Mangekyou Sharingan design, just the red irises of the original kekkei genkai.
Sasuke sat on his knees, unable to stand as he didn't even have enough chakra to turn his Sharingan back on anymore. Naruto had torn him apart during the fight. All of the injuries, all of the jutsu he had used to keep pace with Naruto and Itachi throughout the fight, he had nothing left.
"Your eyes are mine." Itachi said, walking forward weakly and panting heavily. He was hardly able to keep his eyes open as he slogged ahead, "I'm going to savor-. *cough cough*" An intense coughing fit brought Itachi to his knees as the form of Susanoo started to fade away and his blood stained the ruins of what was once the stronghold of their proud clan.
The sound of a high-pitched ringing screech directed their attention to the side, where Naruto was walking towards them, limping through the debris of the battlefield and holding another Rasenshuriken. In addition to his body count of wounds, his Root top had been ripped open through the front, revealing a seal tattoo on the front of his chest, "Sasuke you idiot…" Naruto said quietly, "You almost gave Orochimaru exactly what he wanted… your eyes. That madman would have killed us all. I'm going to finish this right now, to keep you from doing something else to destroy the world, idiot. You had your chance to surrender at the start."
"How did you live through getting thrown into the air like a ragdoll?" Sasuke asked weakly.
Naruto kept moving forward not even blinking as he held the Rasenshuriken and found his way to even ground over all of the rubble without, "I can run on the air asshole. Thanks for that by the way. As if I hadn't had enough happen to me today I had to fight Orochimaru too." His footsteps started speeding up until he broke into a run towards Sasuke, but his speed was a far cry from the pace he had been moving at during the battle.
"Fuck you!" Sasuke yelled at Naruto as he tried to stand and get away. He tried, but his legs were next to useless like Naruto's. He couldn't even manage to run.
"Sasuke get away!" Itachi moved in front of Sasuke and cut Naruto off from reaching him as Susanoo's arm descended down with a shield on its arm to block Naruto's Rasenshuriken.
Naruto grit his teeth as he continued to run forward. What was Itachi made of to keep going like this? Was everyone sure that there were only nine jinchuuriki in the world? Because in Naruto's view Itachi was certainly making his case for being a tenth. Why would he block for Sasuke? How could he still keep doing this? What in the world was keeping him up? "Both of you are going down Itachi, I don't care what kind of defense you have, Rasenshuriken can cut through it!"
Itachi simply focused on blocking Naruto's attack, his eyes pouring blood like tears at this point, 'It doesn't matter how strong your new jutsu is or what its element is comprised of Naruto-kun… Susanoo's Yata no Kagami (Eight Span Mirror) can render it null.' He thought until a sick grinding noise signified Rasenshuriken slowly carving its way through. A peek of the spinning white blade of the jutsu poked through and the hole just started steadily growing larger and larger until the jutsu started cutting into Susanoo itself.
'There's nothing Rasenshuriken can't cut through.' Naruto thought, holding his right eye shut either in concentration or as a desperate effort to hold the last dregs of his chakra, 'It's my strongest jutsu and my last shot to finish this. Itachi can't live! If he takes Sasuke's eyes and grows as powerful as Madara Uchiha originally was then I'll have three monsters to deal with!' Naruto continued to push further and further into Susanoo, getting closer to Itachi at the core.
Sasuke could only watch on. He had no chakra left, and nothing to penetrate Susanoo. He couldn't attack Itachi to ensure his revenge, and if he had then Naruto would simply kill him with his Rasenshuriken. Hell even if Naruto got through and hit Itachi directly to finish him he could still keep going and hit him with it.
Itachi dug as deep as he possibly could. Finding enough chakra to power Susanoo and the shield to stop the rest of Rasenshuriken from punching through and hitting him, 'Naruto you will not be getting past me today! You will not have Sasuke!'
Naruto's attack arm started going into spasms uncontrollably, only this time he couldn't will it to stop, 'No, hold out a little bit longer!' Naruto pleaded with his body, 'I'm inches away! I'm almost there!' Using the Rasenshuriken injured Naruto's arm, not like using Rasenriseki. Rasenriseki was a fire and forget attack and it didn't have the focused destructive power that Rasenshuriken had. If he had shot that at Itachi it wouldn't have gotten through, it would have been deflected. Naruto could keep plowing ahead with his Rasenshuriken until it broke through, but also unlike his other Rasengan improvement, using this attack legitimately had risks for him.
Rasenriseki would just paralyze his arm for a few hours. Prolonged use of Rasenshuriken like this tore Naruto's arm apart from the inside out, doing cellular damage.
He had never held onto it this long for that reason, and this was why his arm would fail before he was done.
A wicked explosion of air rocked Susanoo, the dome of white, blinding wind cutting every single stone of rubble in its wake to a fine gravel. From the smoke of the blast, Naruto's body rocketed lifelessly into the air and into the side of one of the large hills off near the Uchiha Stronghold in the hidden valley it was situated in. His entire front was covered in small cuts from the backlash of his jutsu and Susanoo stalemating.
Knocked to the ground, Sasuke covered his eyes as the dust cleared from Itachi and Naruto's clash where he found Itachi still standing with his back facing him, his ponytail swaying in the leftover wind from the attack. But this wasn't what Sasuke took note of. He especially didn't pay attention to the wisps of rapid moving wind that dissipated in front of Itachi's body just as the smoke from the attack and defense left the area. Only one thing mattered to Sasuke.
Susanoo was gone.
Itachi was defenseless. His spectral protector was gone. And Sasuke stood; no Naruto in his way, no Orochimaru in his head waiting to take his body, no Susanoo to take his best shot in Itachi's place, nothing.
Sasuke drew his chokuto, holding it in a reverse grip, and limped forward towards Itachi with his Sharingan still off, 'It's time… finally. You'll take my eyes Itachi? I doubt it. Over my dead body...' He thought as he kept limping forward, his vision going blurry. Itachi turned around, alerting Sasuke, but his appearance made him second-guess Itachi's condition.
Itachi had blood dripping from every orifice in his head, his entire front was covered with cuts just like Naruto.
Sasuke continued to stalk forward and weakly drew his chokuto back as Itachi lifted up one of his hands, covered in his own blood. Sasuke sneered, thinking Itachi was going to beg off, or had one last trick up his sleeve. But when he got close enough for a killing strike, Sasuke was shocked when all Itachi did was tap him on his forehead, just like when he was a little boy, mouthing words he had no power left to speak.
A stunned Sasuke could only watch as Itachi fell forward onto his shoulder and rolled off to the ground where he didn't move again. Sasuke just stared at the unmoving Uchiha as the blood from Itachi's hand trailed down his forehead. Once again, thunder clapped and the clouds began to rain down onto them all, only this time it was natural.
Sasuke stared down at Itachi for what seemed to be an eternity before looking up at the sky where tears began to well in his eyes. They eventually started to stream down his face and mix with the rain as he screamed out in anguish, "Damn you Naruto! Damn you! Why is it always you? It was supposed to be me! I was the one that was supposed to finish him, Itachi was my fight!" Sasuke dropped to the ground on his knees and punched the ground several times, each time weaker than the last, "He was mine…" He said, his Sharingan activating one last time in a strange pattern before falling the rest of the way forward on his face where he didn't move again.
Sasuke and Itachi's bodies just sat in the rain untouched for quite some time until Madara Uchiha appeared in his orange mask and Akatsuki attire. He looked down at the two brothers for a few minutes, just standing in the rain, "You're slow Zetsu." He finally said.
From the ground, the body of the plant-man emerged, "Well we can't all move through time and space like you." Zetsu said snappishly as he looked at Itachi's non-breathing body, "I almost couldn't believe it when I saw it... but I'm looking at it right up close and personal. The last Uchiha was actually killed."
"Did you record the battle?" Madara asked impatiently, incredibly upset by the turn of events.
"Did I ever." Zetsu replied, "You're probably going to find a good many interesting things about that fight. But we're probably just going to leave now, right?" He asked, getting a nod from Madara. He pointed over to a hill a few miles to the side, "The Kyuubi jinchuuriki is over-." He saw a bird land over on the same hill and take off soon thereafter with another new one following it, "-Oops. Nevermind."
XxX
In a crater in the side of a distant hill overlooking what was once the Uchiha Stronghold and the hill that it sat on top off, Naruto's eyes were fluttering open and shut as he tried to crawl out, "I've got to get up… I've got to get up. *pant pant*" He crawled to the edge of the hill and looked down over the distance of well over a mile and saw no ethereal flames, no giant warrior, nothing.
Naruto kept panting heavily as he rolled over painfully onto his back and used his good left arm to touch the tattoo on his right arm. He had to correspond to Hamako to let her know that he was okay before he blacked out. After his episode with Pein he had decided to always tell her the results of anything that had happened to him, lest he let the world think that he was dead for a second time.
He thought of a message until he saw Sai fly overhead. As he landed nearby and dismounted his ink bird, Naruto saw a flash of silver on the bird's back and relayed his message to Hamako, "Mission accomplished. Heading to Mizu no Kuni to deliver sword. Tell Tsunade-baachan not to worry." He sent before he blacked out.
Sai saw Naruto lose consciousness and picked his leader up to carry him over to their ride as the rain continued to pour, "Good work Naruto-senpai." He said as he placed Naruto on his bird with Maki and created his own for himself. After making sure Maki had Naruto secured on the bird, they both took off.
While he circled the site of the battle and saw the fallen bodies of Itachi and Sasuke Uchiha, he prepared an explosive note to a kunai to throw down and eradicate the bodies. Next to the two fallen figures on the ground, he saw Tobi appear out of thin air. He picked up both bodies and looked up at him in the air before he seemed to just disappear again.
On her bird, after seeing the man with the mask look at what she knew was Naruto, she held onto him tightly as if he would just pull him right in away from them until he simply left. Sai narrowed his eyes and grunted before flying away.
Jutsu List
Juuryoku Satsujin (Gravity Killer). C-ranked genjutsu. Supplementary. All ranges. This technique increases in potency over time. Each minute, the opponent will feel like their clothing, tools, weapons, and generally anything they carry, has doubled in mass. This can cause targets to start slowing down, or against those rather weak against genjutsu, may even cause them to grow tired.
週次パワーステータス
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ランキング 
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チケット