Chapter 30: Chapter 30
Uchiha Shisui was a simple guy by most Shinobi standards. He'd grown up in a large, prestigious clan at the heart of the strongest country in the world and yet, he was nothing but frugal. He didn't posses the elitist stoicism that most of the rest of his clan seemed to share, nor did he have anyone to expect too much of him as seemed to be common in all of the major clans in Fire Country. He was the one Uchiha in Konoha that if someone bumped into him on the streets of Konoha, they would never have been able to tell that he hailed from the family of Sharingan users.
It took him an eternity to fall; at least, that's what it seemed like to his clouded mind.
His world retreated inwards around him, darkness seeping around the edges of his eyes and threatening to engulf him in its lonely abyss. He couldn't even register the pain as the thin blade of his attacker's Chokuto was pulled smoothly from his body. He was left suspended in the air; his face frozen in a mixture of shock and awe both from his current dilemma and from the amazing display of power shown from his young friend only moments ago.
How could things go so wrong, so quickly?
The setting sun painted his torso an orangey-red. He couldn't tell the difference between the blood soaking through the front of his muscle shirt or the rays of the heavenly body as it set for the day. He was sure the wind was howling in the background, yet all he could hear was a strange sort of buzzing; high pitched yet low at the same time.
'Could...could that happen? Is such an oxymoron possible?'
He tried to turn, to gaze upon his attacker, the one who had defeated him; a feat no other opponent had managed up till now. He knew he could die, would die when the time for such an event would come to pass and yet...
He didn't think he was ready for it.
He fell so slowly, almost as if he was in a dream or an illusion. Was this how his enemies felt as they died, victims of their own confounded senses?
He would have shivered if he had control of his body but it didn't seem like his power extended that far. To be a Shinobi, he fought. To be a Shinobi, he killed. To be a Shinobi, he trained until he could train no more.
And to be a Shinobi, he would die.
As the final piece of the equation settled in his mind, it was as if a non-corporeal switch was flipped. The revered 'Shinkirou no Shisui', the feared illusionist of Konoha, fell prey to a stronger carnivore.
And so he fell.
XXXXXXXXX
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"
Team 9 paused on their respective perches as a humongous explosion tore through the canopy about half a mile away from their position. It was so large that the illumination from the raging inferno lit up the surrounding area even as far as they were away from it. Neji's body swayed from the backlash, his torso hanging from the branch of a tree by only one hand.
Maito Gai remained silent as his brow furrowed in anxiety. Something was very wrong here, he could feel it. For a Shinobi, feelings were everything in a life and death situation and although he wasn't in peril himself, he trusted his senses completely.
"Neji, Lee, Tenten. I want you to continue on to the Village. I'm going to take a look."
TenTen stared worriedly at her Sensei's eerily serious face. All of the usual boisterousness had disappeared from his demeanour, his face frozen in a frown of concern and dangerous expectation. It was an uncanny feeling; the sombre feeling that descended on the team as the one they called 'teacher' took off in the direction they had just come from.
The brown-haired Kunoichi bit her lip in consternation, a Kunai gripped tightly in her fist. She held it so forcefully that she could feel the coarse bandages wrapped around the hilt biting into the surface of her skin. Naruto was back there and Gai-Sensei could be trusted in a heartbeat when it came to his senses.
She couldn't lose him after regaining his friendship after so long.
She hesitated again as she hung upside down from the limb of an elm tree, its great, brown spread covering her form in shadow. She felt more than saw her two teammate's eyes boring into the back of her head.
"TenTen, don't even think about it."
She turned, her blazing gaze alighting on the proud Hyuuga's face. Neji was taken aback by the sheer amount of focused concentration in her chocolate orbs. They weren't the soft brown that he had come to associate with his female teammate over the year he had been on the team. They had hardened, a glint of pure steel within their depths. What could have coerced such an emotion in his teammate?
"TenTen-"
The pupil-less Hyuuga's eyes widened as his male teammate's arm flashed out in front of his face, blocking him from stepping towards her. He glanced sharply to his left to where Rock Lee was crouched, his hand supporting his form on the rough side of another tree.
"Go on TenTen. We know it's important to you."
Neji's eyes narrowed furiously at the one calling himself his rival. His voice came out in a low hiss, warning him of the stupidity of such an action.
"She's injured!"
Lee turned his deep black eyes on to his proud teammate, an unidentifiable emotion smouldering in their inky depths.
"There are things more important than the health of the body..."
"Isn't that right, TenTen?"
A shockwave of Chakra ripped through the clearing as the three members of Team 9 stood across from each other; a stalemate of tension thick in the air. Without a word, the weapons-mistress turned and leapt off in the same direction as her Sensei, her form quickly disappearing into the surrounding trees.
XXXXXXX
Anko had no idea what had happened. One second the entire clearing was lit up in a glorious fireball of death and doom and the next she was sent flying through the air, away from her teammates. She hadn't even had time to see what had become of her motley team as the tree they had been watching from seemed to have exploded from underneath them or something along those lines. There was one thing that she was sure of though.
Something had gone horribly wrong.
She landly fluidly, her hands already flashing through the seals for the Senei'Jashu. She spun on her heel, her back bending low to the ground as she released her Jutsu on the form that dropped from the trees behind her. The snakes ripped through the figure, the form dispersing into a flock of crows. She knew that Jutsu; there were only two people in the world that could do it and one of them was a Konoha Jounin. The other...
"Itachi..."
The name was a whisper on the wind, a fleeting memory of her old ANBU captain deep in the dredges of her memories. There was one thing that she knew for sure; she could not beat him, not in a hundred years.
"Anko."
The Tokubetsu Jounin turned towards the voice, her beige trench coat billowing to the side as a gust of wind buffeted her body. She held herself proudly; a subordinate facing her traitorous superior. His voice was emotionless as usual, exactly the way she remembered and his eyes were alight with the cursed red of the Uchiha's bloodline. A bubbling hate rose within her, tearing through her veins as it sought to grip her in the jaws of anger. If he was here, that could mean only two things. Either he had come to kill Shisui, or he had another objective that they were unaware of.
"What the hell are you doin' here, scumbag?"
Her teeth ground together in her anger, one hand gripping a Kunai in her utility pouch secured to her left hip. She knew she would go down if he decided to fight her, but at least she'd go down fighting.
Uchiha Itachi simply stared at her, a deadpan expression devoid of any emotion covering his features. It was one of the things she had hated the most about her ex-ANBU captain; he could do the most traumatic things and come out looking as if nothing had affected him in the least. It wasn't right...it wasn't human.
"Come to finish the rest of your damned family?"
The teenage Missing-nin gazed up at the sky as if he hadn't even heard her question. He remained in that position for a moment, not even twitching as another breeze rustled through the trees.
"I admit, I didn't think you would be on this mission. It seems my intelligence was mistaken."
He said it so casually, like it wasn't a difference between life and death. Mission parameters were the most important things to any ninja. The success or failure hinged on the ability to adapt to any situation, but without the accurate framework to go with it, things could go drastically wrong, just like it had for Anko's team. She almost snorted at the irony.
She could take it no longer. Her arm snapped out, sending a Kunai flying through the air. She rolled to the right as a thin blade whistled over her head; the days spent in ANBU returning full force. The memories of a warrior were never forgotten and even if she hadn't used the true extent of her skills for a few years, she could use them when the situation called for it. Itachi was an amazing Shinobi, far better than anyone else in the Leaf most probably, yet she had known him for a while, fought alongside him through thick or thin. She would not go down easily.
She sprang backwards, her feet digging trenches in the soft, forest floor. Her right hand flew up to her mouth as a large Goukakyu erupted from her lips. She was forced to cartwheel as her own Jutsu was thrown back at her; the fireball doubling in size as the Uchiha murderer added his own to the mix. As long as she didn't meet his eyes, everything would be fine...
Her blood froze as she heard a whisper of his next technique.
"Sanzengarasu no Jutsu."
It was a lowly C-Rank technique, one that shouldn't be a problem to a Jounin of her stature, however Itachi was feared for his use of low-level Ninjutsu; he could use the smallest techniques and kill the strongest Shinobi with ease. She had seen many A and S-Rank missing-nin fall to this Jutsu, it was deadly in the right hands.
She grinned mirthlessly; that was probably why that idiot Aoba used it so much...
She tried to lean back and avoid the strike, but the tunnel of black crows obscured her vision in almost every direction. She could hardly see the world around her as she frantically attempted to locate her attacker.
The blade sunk so smoothly into her right shoulder. She hissed in pain as she attempted to staunch the wound with her fist, Itachi's Jutsu dispersing in the air as he reformed in front of her.
"You have improved Anko."
"S-Shut the hell up!"
She gasped as another stab of pain ripped through her body, a small geyser of blood and saliva shooting out of her mouth as she coughed. The Uchiha stood in front of her calmly, a single hand clenched around the hilt of his Chokuto. He seemed to stare off into the distance, looking at something nobody else could see.
"In truth lay lies, and in lies lay truth..."
The Mitarashi's head shot up as she stared wide-eyed at her ex-Captain.
'I've heard that before!'
"It seems that our young friend is proving most troublesome..."
Without any further warning, the Sharingan User's form popped out of existence, obscuring the purple-haired Kunoichi in a cloud of smoke.
'Tch...flippin' clone...'
She slid down to the earth, her hand still gripping her shoulder as her blood flowed from the wound. It was by no means life-threatening unless she bled to death, but she could already feel her consciousness waning. She hastily tore a strip of material from the hem of her coat and wrapped it over her shoulder with unfocused eyes. There was no time to assess whether the attention was effective or not, but she couldn't exactly complain in her haze-induced mind. Only time would tell if she wouldn't bleed to death.
And just like that, she faded into unconsciousness.
XXXXXX
For an elite ANBU agent, stealth was the key to success in almost any mission that could be thrown their way. They were always there, hiding in the shadows even in Konoha, but the truly terrifying thing about them was that they could appear and disappear with hardly a sound even in broad daylight.
Taka knew that the ex-ANBU Captain standing casually on the soft earth was a master of deception and stealth.
"I see. You're just a shadow clone."
Taka's eyes widened imperceptibly as three shuriken were flung towards Taka's position. The ANBU agent jumped backwards to gain some space, a standard-issue Katana sliding from Taka's sleeve.
"You must be new to ANBU; I have never seen you before."
Taka swung around desperately. The Uchiha had disappeared from the operative's sight, melting into the surroundings like a drop of water hitting the surface of a lake.
'A Genjutsu?'
Gloved hands rose, dispelling the illusion almost immediately, but it seemed that it just wasn't fast enough. Taka's Kage Bunshin popped as a solid blow hit the back of its head.
The fearsome Missing-nin turned towards the trees, blood-red eyes staring at the exact position of his opponent. Taka flinched as his gaze settled squarely on Taka's ANBU mask. How could he be so powerful? It was unreal...
In a flash of movement, the ANBU operative sped forward, hands up and blazing through seals. Taka's leg caught on the side of a tree and Chakra shone around the sole of the operative's feet. The adhesive properties of the energy caused the agent to spin around the stem, gathering a large amount of momentum from the movement.
'Soushuuha!'
A semi-circle of Kunai rose in front of the Shinobi's body as it swung around the tree. Taka let the hold go and the torrent of blades shot off towards the traitor almost at the speed of sound. A high pitched scream rent the air before a huge explosion rocked the area. Earth and rock was thrown high into the sky due to the high speed impact of the blades but Taka couldn't spot the Missing-nin anywhere.
"You are strong."
A masked head swung each way; up, down, left and right. Itachi was nowhere to be found.
"But you are inexperienced. You do not have the skill to fight the Sharingan."
'The Sharingan! Shishi-Taicho has that Kekkei Genkai too! What can it do...THINK! What would he try to pull off in a fight to win?'
Taka released the hold on the side of the tree, dropping like a tiger and landing lithely on the forest floor. The ANBU operative flicked the Katana into the air and caught it smoothly in a pale-skinned fist.
'Genjutsu! Shishi-Taicho's speciality is layered Genjutsu!'
Immediately, Taka attempted to dispel the illusions, knowing that if they were multi-layered, the release would have to be done several times. As the agent reached the third, Taka froze.
The point of a Kunai was placed against Taka's throat, the sharply honed edge like electricity against the operative's skin.
"Your team is strong. Maybe, if you had known how to fight me, you could have won."
Taka stared grimly through the ANBU mask, the crimson orbs of the Sharingan returning the favour with not a hint of emotion within them.
"It seems my time is cut short. Goodbye."
The hilt was reversed so fast that the ANBU agent could hardly see it, yet the solid 'thunk!' that followed was enough to knock Taka out.
Uchiha Itachi stared off into the distance, an almost contemplative look in his eyes.
One more to go.
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As he was blown back, Naruto spun in the air as he had been forced to do so many times throughout his training. Sparring with Anko and Kakashi meant that an attack could hit you from anywhere at any time; it was far more useful to have your eyes on your opponent no matter where you were or what Jutsu was roaring towards you. If there was any subterfuge planned, you could catch it before the next move in the battle was made and that was something the blond could appreciate.
How many times had he been shocked in a fight by his enemies appearing right in front of him?!
Too many to count.
A choked scream tore from his throat as he saw Shisui fall in the distance. He could do nothing to help his friend and the blood blossoming from the hole in his chest looked fatal. How had it turned out like this? Who had the skill to do such a thing?
He landed in an ungainly heap, one arm gripping the soft ground and another holding his shoulder where a thin cut was throbbing down his arm. It seemed that some of his wounds from his earlier stunt when rescuing TenTen hadn't quite healed. Even trees could be deadly depending on how they were used.
Shaking his head, he glared back at the direction he had been thrown from. The tree had literally exploded from underneath them and he knew from experience that it had been rigged that way. There was no Jutsu to simply blow things up from far away without any prior contact.
Someone had been expecting them.
He snarled in rage as three ex-Iwa nin landed around him. These were small fry. He didn't have time to waste when Shisui was in the state that he had seen. He had to get back there straight away. When he spoke, his voice was low and tinged with madness and venom.
"As a Shinobi, I'll give you one piece of advice."
The Missing-nin grinned at each other, obviously anticipating an easy fight from the age of the Konoha Jinchuuriki.
"When you come at me, aim for the kill."
His eyes snapped open, gleaming an unnatural electric blue as he glared at his opponents. His hair hung over his face, shadowing his right eye as a manic grin spread across his visage.
"Breathe as one."
"Move as one."
His hands came up, forming the Ram seal in front of him.
"And most of all-"
"Kill as one!"
For the first time in two years, the hilts of both the Wakizashi were seized from their sheaths. The dying sunlight caught on the edges of both blades as it filtered through the trees sending a magnificently perilous pattern of light dancing through the leaves. Chakra exploded outwards from the blonde's body, rooting the trio to the ground as they fought to throw off the sheer bloodlust radiating from the preteen. He disappeared in a burst of speed and the ex-Jounin could only stare around in shock. They could feel his Chakra, but they couldn't find out where he actually was.
"Tsukeshi, use that Jutsu!"
The heavyset, pale-faced ninja to the right nodded and dropped to his knees whilst forming hand seals. Slapping a flat palm on the earth, he called out his technique.
"Doton: Doryuu Katsu!"
A large earthen wall rose up in front of them, a huge tower of rock and mud. It slit down the middle and separated into two halves, trees uprooting all around as they were ripped from their roots. The other Shinobi in the group turned to the one who had spoken, an angry snarly colouring his face.
"To hell with this Takeshi! Our base is gone and we're fighting a little kid! We gotta find those Konoha-nin and take them down, that's our mission, ain't it?!"
Up in the trees, Naruto paused.
'Mission?'
"Shut yer trap yer big idiot! Where the heck do yer think the rest of the team's gone, huh? You think we can flippin' take them out when they killed nearly all of our team and blew up the hideout?! To hell with Orochimaru if you ask me!"
'What the?! Orochimaru's involved in this?!'
He growled low in his throat, the deep bass sound sending shivers up the Missing-nin's spines.
"He's gonna have to come from over the trench at least..."
Rock and dirt blew outwards as the blond Jinchuuriki came blasting through the left side of the wall, a Rasengan spinning in his hand. Takeshi was ready for the attack, his abilities higher than the rest of his comrades and he dodged to the left, the sapphire ball blowing his hair back from the force generated by its rotation. The Jutsu died in Naruto's hand as he let go of one of the Ryu-Zashi held in his left fist. Dropping low, he spun, catching the falling blade with his right and positioning the two blades horizontally, one at chest level the other lower down. He spun like a top, avoiding the crushing fist sent towards his head. As he whirled around low to the ground, he slashed at the brown-haired man's legs, cutting deep into his shins. The man cried out in pain as blood flew from his wounds, but Naruto was by no means finished.
Something inside him had snapped; whether it was due to Shisui getting stabbed or the constant battles against his own resolutions, all he wanted right now was to destroy these people, tear them into tiny pieces for the pain and sorrow that he was feeling. The very emotions he had run away from, seeking to leave them far behind so that he would never have to experience them again, constantly reappeared within his soul. There was no end, no shield, nothing that could save him from the heart-rending pain that he alone seemed to feel on a constant level. He knew he wasn't the most stable person around, but he didn't expect his childhood to have such a large and prolonged effect on his mind.
As he spun around on the balls of his feet, he raised his height. This time his pair of blades slashed cleanly into the man's stomach and gut, spattering the blonde's head with a foul concoction of fluids. He didn't care about his state; he only wanted this guy to feel even an ounce of his pain.
On his final spin, he straightened fully, his Wakizashi raised to his enemy's neck and upper torso. This time a pulse of Elemental Chakra ran down the blade and the other two Missing-nin could only watch in horror as Takeshi's body was thrown backwards, his head flying from his shoulders with a spout of blood spraying from the disconnected Jugular Vein in the dead man's neck. They stepped back in terror as the 12 year old completed his last revolution, his eyes rising to meet them in a silent challenge of death.
He was a despicable sight. The dying sunlight caught the scarlet liquid splotched all over his face and dripping down his chin. An unidentifiable yellow fluid was splattered under his right eye as it trailed down his cheekbone and mixed with the blood. His eyes glinted a mortifying purple as the electric blue was caught in the orangey-reds of the setting sun. It was a picture of death and despair, one seen in only the hardest veterans in the World; those ANBU agents who had remained as operatives for too long, their job taking its toll on their souls.
He suddenly disappeared again, a spectre in the trees. The two Shinobi shook in fear of the boy; he was so young yet he was a killing machine of the highest order. His eyes were devoid of any light, empty depths of blue that seemed to stare right through you as if you were a ghost to the World. They couldn't even begin to speculate how the preteen's life must have been. How were Konoha raising their new generation?!
Naruto didn't feel anything as the edge of his blade cut cleanly through the apparent 'leader's' neck. He felt hollow apart from a small thrill from deep within his consciousness. He wasn't enjoying this, but he wasn't unhappy either. They would pay for what they had done to Shisui and to hell with the consequences!
He performed his Invisibility Jutsu and jumped into the trees to see how the remaining two would react. They seemed stricken, unable to move from the speed that the brown-haired man's life had been taken from him. Maybe he should have given them more advice?
Without any warning, a solid fist slammed into his nose, the fragile cartilage cracking from the pressure and sending him tumbling from his perch. He had been invisible to the eye and he had his bastardised version of the Chakra Beacon active too! No-one should have been able to attack him!
He landed with a thump, clumps of earth poking into his back from the ground movement when that guy had used the Doton Jutsu. He hastily rolled to the side and sprang to his feet, blood gushing from his broken nose all the while. The ex-Iwa Shinobi stood silently watching at the edge of the clearing, the trench having failed when the user had lifted his hand from the ground. Without a sound, a black-clad figure appeared in their midst, Sharingan orbs spinning as they analysed the surroundings.
White hot rage coursed through the Uzumaki heir's body like lightning. His head shot up as he hurled his two Ryu-Zashi at the man; wind Chakra boosting them from behind
"MADARA!"
Itachi's eyes widened in absolute shock at the speed of the blades and the name shouted from the 12 year old's mouth. He couldn't dodge that completely, he could hardly track them even with his Sharingan!
One of the blades whistled over his head as he flopped backwards but the second tore into his leg, the blow strong enough to dispel the clone. In a puff of smoke, the Kage Bunshin disappeared and Naruto once again turned to his two other opponents. His anger only grew as he stared down at them and something within him stirred; a terrible power filled with evil intent and bloodlust rose from within, his irises dilated and then slit down the middle as his orbs flashed crimson. Red Chakra exploded around his form as he snarled, one of the Shinobi dropped to the ground in terror, landing on his backside on the soft earth of Wave Country.
A Nine-Tailed Fox smiled a smirk of devilish glee. An opportunity had presented itself and to Madara's protégé no less. He would be foolish not to take advantage of the situation.
Naruto leapt forward, his hand outstretched.
XXXXXXX
Shisui was dying, he could feel it. He had fallen in battle to the only one he had ever called 'brother'. He laid face-down in the mud, his breath hitching in his throat at the pain radiating from the hole in his torso. It had happened so fast that he would have thought it his imagination, yet the fact that he couldn't move anything but his arms and head spoke otherwise.
He turned his head, his neck jerking awkwardly as his chin dug into the mud below it, smearing his face with brown and green. Itachi stood over him, his Chokuto held firmly in his grasp, blood dripping down its length.
Shisui's blood, the blood of the Uchiha.
"W-Why, Itachi?"
And then he noticed. The Uchiha's murderer was crying, weeping tears of sorrow as he gazed down at his once best-friend. His eyes trembled and his body shook. He seemed to have trouble drawing breath; Shisui had never seen the prideful Uchiha with that kind of expression on his face.
Itachi turned and walked towards the edge of the clearing, the blast from Naruto's fireball and his own exploding notes having torn into the ground and uprooted any vegetation in a three hundred metre radius. He stopped as he reached the edge of the clearing and glanced back.
"In the underground chamber of the Uchiha Shrine, there is a scroll...A scroll hidden from the eyes of the World and those who wish to seek it."
Shisui gasped as another tremor ran through his body. He was paralysed from the waist down and when he had woken up, Itachi had been there, staring down at him with the most heart-wrenching expression of loss and regret.
"The reality of the Mangekyou Sharingan is one unknown, even to the majority of our clan. I despise it; a despicable power of murder and hate, a power that would destroy even the worst of mankind should they acquire it."
He flicked his blade, the blood flying from the deadly edge like raindrops.
"It has only one requirement for an Uchiha; for the one who has reached the highest level of the Sharingan, he would only have to kill his closest friend."
Shisui choked in shock; blood and phlegm spitting from his throat in a pool by his head.
"I was ordered by Madara to acquire this power, to better aid his organisation in the future. For the last few years I have been working in a group called the 'Akatsuki', our goal to capture the Bijuu and use them to prevent war and suffering from ever blighting the surface of this land again."
"T-That's utter c-crap!"
Itachi turned back towards him, his mouth a thin smile.
"It seems that I couldn't kill you once again..."
He laughed mirthlessly, a light sound alien from his mouth.
"Just like before...I couldn't raise my hand for the final blow! To Kaa-san, to Sasuke, to you!"
Tears streamed down his face, the sight of a pitiful man forced to endure the worst experiences life had to offer again and again. His mind was broken, his heart shattered. The only thing he had left to cling to, were his hopes for death and the survival of his family, the very family he had almost completely destroyed with his own blood-soaked hands. He uttered a strained sound, halfway between a scream and a laugh, a testament to the agony in his soul. Shisui realised at that point just how far his best friend had deteriorated. His mind had cracked under the pressure of his motivation, the essence of trying to protect everything he held dear in its entirety, even to the extent of sacrificing himself to do so. He was far stronger, far nobler than anyone gave him credit for.
And the worst thing? The worst thing was that nobody would even know of the sacrifice he made.
"Everyone lives bound by their own knowledge of awareness, that's called 'Reality'."
He turned then, his blood-soaked eyes staring up at the dying light as the sun's tip fell below the horizon.
"But knowledge and awareness are vague, perhaps better named 'Illusions'. Everyone lives within their own subjective illusion..."
His eyes shifted, his gaze focused entirely on the injured Uchiha's face.
"How far can you see with that Sharingan?"
"At the coming of the moon you must ensnare the Kai no Sharingan in the void of its own melancholy. Turn its power into its weakness and reduce the immortal to nothing but a decrepit shell of a being. Only then will he be defeated."
'W-What is he talking about?!'
His arm came up and wiped his eyes free of moisture, his Sharingan spinning in the lengthening shadows of twilight.
"Live on Shisui. I fear that the next time we meet; I will have no choice but to remove you from this world. There is one that can defeat us and I think you know who that is..."
Shisui could only blink at the cryptic words spoken to him. When his eyes opened again, Itachi was gone.
XXXXXXX
"How did you find me?"
Itachi landed in the destroyed terrain sprayed with blood and gore. The evening had turned from peaceful to dark and terrible so quickly that the world seemed to shake from what it was being forced to witness.
Uzumaki Naruto stood at the centre of all the carnage, a swirling red cloak of malevolent Chakra bubbling around him and a single tail waving at his back. His eyes were ringed with shadows, the orbs a glowing red and slit down the middle like an animal. Sharp fangs poked from the sides of his mouth, his lips twisted in terrible snarl of fury.
"I have seen that Jutsu before Naruto-kun. It has a single weakness to one who has experienced it; by spreading your Chakra evenly, the epicentre will always be directly in the middle of the output. I am surprised that you had not noticed this before."
Naruto threw back his head and roared into the sky, a torrent of crimson energy exploding from him once again. His head snapped back down to the Uchiha and he launched himself forward on all fours.
Itachi had experienced fear only three times in his life. Once when he had first met Madara under the cover of night and the second when he had feared for his soul and the agony from killing most of his family. But what he was facing now was on a different level.
It was inhuman, a force unlike anything else walking on the face of the earth. The Kyuubi's power was honed to the very edge; the example of a Gallows sharpened till the cutting side was but a nanometre in width. Its power was immense yet it had complete mastery of it, able to focus its Chakra for the most devastating effect. Itachi had been 6 years old when the monster had attacked Konoha and that had been the only other time he had truly feared for his life. The sheer amount of evil that rolled off of the beast had been enough to crush the weaker minds from miles away. Pregnant women had been forced into labour, some civilians were driven insane and the younger Shinobi population were frozen from the amount of hate that had pervaded the very air they had breathed. It was otherworldly, a foreign concept that nobody could ever understand unless they had faced it and even then they would be hard-pressed to describe the feeling in words.
And here he was, facing a ninth of that power once again; he could only feel regret that he had hurt the Jinchuuriki so much that he had been willing to rely on such an immoral power.
He dodged quickly, a clawed fist almost tearing his head from his neck, the brimming crimson power generating a strong breeze by his ear. He ducked low to avoid the sweeping red tail that swung for his head. The blond Jinchuuriki was forced to follow through, spinning around in a full circle and dropping to all fours.
Itachi's hands blurred, so fast that Naruto could not even see the handseals. The Uchiha's murderer performed his Jutsu with such speed that he even had time to whip out a brace of Shuriken and fling them at the enraged container. Naruto batted them away, his fangs bared in a snarl of rage, yet he was unprepared for the ability that the teenager possessed.
In consecutive movements, a ball of water shot out from the Uchiha's mouth and a clone appeared behind the blond, a Kunai held within its fist. Naruto roared again, his cloak of crimson Chakra blasting out all around him and throwing the Kage Bunshin backwards at high speed. The Shuriken bounced off his body harmlessly; the cloak protecting him and damaging him at the same time.
"Are you sure that was wise?"
The Uzumaki's eyes widened as the clone exploded from behind him, throwing him forward into a tree. He slammed right through, splinters flying as the wood groaned and began to collapse sideways. His single tail waved as he pushed himself to his feet, the tree smashing into the ground and throwing up a screen of wooden chips and pine needles.
"I never thought you would succumb to such a beast, Naruto-kun. Are you not strong enough by yourself?"
Naruto attacked again with such ferocity that the Uchiha was hard-pressed to respond. He dodged and rolled, jumped and cart wheeled; he had no time to counterattack with the speed and power behind the blonde's blows. Sweat poured from his brow, his eyes a blur as he sought to keep track of the unpredictable movements made by his opponent. He could hardly track the cloak, almost as if it had a mind of its own. In a last ditch effort to regain control he ducked another swipe of the Jinchuuriki's arm, his feet planted at an even distance apart, his head tucked to his belly.
"Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu."
A massive inferno of fire erupted from his lips, the size of which Naruto had never seen before. In his anger-hazed mind, he didn't even consider avoiding it and so he blasted right through. At first, the heat stung his skin, burning his pale complexion a lurid pink. Again he roared, another blast of red Chakra screaming through the fireball and dispersing it from the centre outwards. He landed on all fours, the forest floor charred and flames rising all around him as the trees caught fire.
And then Itachi was in his face.
Naruto barely dodged the powerful haymaker aimed for his head, but the older Uchiha was by far his superior at Taijutsu. Itachi's fist rotated behind his head, turning and grasping the collar of his black muscle shirt. The Uchiha murderer's hand began to burn, yet he held doggedly on; a vice-like grip of pure steel as he stared hard into the ruby eyes of the Bijuu infected preteen.
The world flashed before him and all went dark.
XXXXXXX
Naruto opened his eyes to find himself in a dark and damp room, surrounded on three sides by huge walls of cracking concrete and rotting pipes. The last and final side was covered in a huge set of bars stretching up towards the ceiling further than the eye could see. In his curiosity, he turned to discover anything else about this chilling abode he found himself in.
"So this is where the Kyuubi no Youko is sealed?"
The Konoha Jinchuuriki flinched as he sighted Uchiha Itachi standing calmly knee-deep in the murky water flooding the room. He looked down at his own feet to find that he too was standing in the grey liquid. Where were they and what were they doing here?
"Bijuu, I request your presence. There is something I wish to discuss."
He felt it then; the raw hate that bubbled up behind the bars, the cage that held back a monstrous beast of such power and disparaging hate that it could be felt from miles away. A dim crimson glow throbbed behind the prison, the length and width of the seal immeasurable to the naked eye. A chilling, haunting chuckle filled the air as a humongous maw, the size of a skyscraper pushed itself up to the bars, two slit, red eyes peering dangerously down at them as if they were worms addressing a mighty warrior long forgotten. Naruto stepped back in fright; the sheer menace and danger exuding from the fox scared him to the roots of his soul, the eyes glaring balefully from their vantage point; assessing him and deeming him unworthy to stand in the presence of one so capable of ripping him to shreds if he so wished.
"Heh heh heh heh...Uchiha..."
The mouth opened in a wicked grin, revealing two rows of gleaming white fangs honed to their very edges. Steam billowed through the cracks as the giant fox exhaled, a gush of wind throwing their clothes against their bodies as they stared at the malevolent Bijuu in front of them.
"Kyuubi no Youko."
Red eyes gleamed in the darkness.
"Impressive that you are able to see me inside of Naruto, that would be the power of that accursed Sharingan..."
Itachi held his gaze although sweat dripped from the point of his chin, the droplet plopping into the murky water and resonating throughout the expansive room.
"Such power you hold in your gaze...not unlike Uchiha Madara once held..."
Naruto's head snapped upwards, his eyes focusing to incredible levels as his mind sharpened on what the beast had said. How did it know that name, and why was it choosing this time to reveal itself?
He turned to look at Itachi.
'Does he have something to do with this?'
"I may not see you again, but heed my words."
The crimson fox turned its head as if to dismiss his audience and Itachi raised his hand only to be stopped when the beast spoke once more.
"Tell your master...tell Uchiha Madara...do not kill Naruto."
"A price to be paid requires a debt to be established."
Its form disappeared into the darkness as it moved away, its deep scratchy voice echoing around the room.
"He will...regret it..."
XXXXXXX
Naruto gasped and recoiled, his power leaving him as he dropped to his knees. The air was suffocating and humid, the heat from the forest fire causing steam to raise from the damp, soft earth of Nami no Kuni. He sucked in a breath, raising his quivering gaze to his opponent who hadn't moved an inch throughout the whole ordeal. The blonde's body shook as cold sweat drenched his clothes through; he had never thought, never believed that there could be anything more completely devious and menacing than the true perpetrator of the Uchiha Massacre. And yet...
The Kyuubi was in a league of its own.
'Th-That...THING is sealed within me?!'
He could hardly believe it. How was his small, frail body able to contain such a powerful entity? The Chakra alone was potent enough to overwhelm him, even a small portion of it! How was it possible that he could house such a dangerous beast within an ink seal on his gut?!
It was inconceivable, so remotely possible that his respect for the Yondaime Hokage raised a few notches. You had to be amazingly powerful to even face the beast one-on-one let alone best it and seal it within something.
His eyes caught movement about half a kilometre away through the thinning trees, the flames crackling all around them extending his distance of sight. The area was becoming increasing perilous; branches were cracking off and tumbling to the ground whilst alight, throwing up sparks and adding fuel to the flame. The heat was slowly increasing in temperature, the smoke and steam billowing into the air in great clouds, stinging the eyes and clouding their vision. Naruto's eyes watered profusely as he struggled to draw breath; oxygen was becoming scarce, he had to get out of here soon.
"Next time..."
Naruto jumped at the sudden speech from the Uchiha.
"The next time we meet, I will have no choice but to fight."
Naruto was frozen to the ground as Itachi walked towards him with slow, measured steps. For some reason he couldn't move; had the Uchiha done something to him within the seal?
Itachi stopped in front of him, a single hand raised as he poked the blond on the forehead, a small smile gracing his lips.
"I used to do this once...a long time ago..."
He crouched low to the ground, spreading his arms wide as he prepared to jump.
"I hope you will be ready by then..."
Naruto simply stared as Itachi disappeared into the darkness right before the Jounin Sensei of Team 9 landed next to him.
"NARUTO!"
He gave a start as a bun-haired girl caught him in a tight hug as she gazed worriedly into his eyes.
"Are you ok?"
"TenTen, we have no time for this! Naruto-san, where are the rest of your team?"
Naruto simply stared ahead, unable to answer through the blank void in his mind. Gai sighed before making handseals and slamming his right hand onto the surface of the cracked earth.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
In a puff of smoke a large turtle appeared. It stared around in slight confusion but seemed to realise the urgency of the situation as it stared at its master, awaiting further orders.
"Kametsuchi! I need you to find the others; you'll know them when you see them!"
The turtle nodded, the swirling ink patterns painted all over its shell creating a mesmerising effect to anyone who beheld it. It turned and plodded slowly into the flames. TenTen recoiled as Naruto's head swung upwards, an eerily glint in his sapphire eyes. Without a word he turned and sped off into the burning trees, ash and dust flying in his wake.
"Naruto, wha- WAIT!"
Gai swung at her shout, his eyes narrowing at the running blond.
"No time to waste TenTen. Young Naruto must know something we do not."
They followed him, the Sensei and student sticking together but keeping a pace so that they could still see the leading blond. It was hard going for the weapons-mistress; she hardly ever had to run at this speed and the cracked, barren ground was difficult to traverse, she was tiring far faster than she normally would. Finally they reached a clearing that seemed to be largely untouched apart from a moderately sized crater directly at the centre. TenTen gasped and she heard her Sensei breathe in sharply.
"Shisui...Shisui...don't die on me...please..."
Naruto's voice was cracked with fear. His voice came out harsh and low, despair shuddering through his frame. He looked so small, so thin. He did not fit in the picture that the ninja had made.
Maito Gai walked resolutely forward, his boots greying as they crunched through the burnt forest floor. The fire had died out in this area but there was an even larger inferno burning a little ways to the north. Soon the two fires would connect and the whole forest would likely go under.
"Naruto-san."
The Konoha Jinchuuriki looked up with watering eyes as the green-clad Jounin placed a firm hand on his shoulder. Gai's eyes widened slightly as he took in the state of the 12 year old for the first time; his clothes were torn and ragged, hanging from his torso like tissue paper. They had lost all their colour, curling and crumbling from the forces they had been subjected to. The cloth was splattered with blood and a myriad of other substances, unidentifiable by their colours. He was really beaten up; his eyes were shadowed and ringed from fatigue, large bags swelling under them. He carried himself slightly bent, his form haggard as if the world was pressing down on his shoulders and he would buckle at any second from the weight. The thing that frightened the Jounin though, was his arm bracers; they were twisted and bent in odd directions. Gai didn't know what kind of blow could have caused such a force on the hardened steel that they were made from.
"Do you know any Water Jutsu?"
He nodded vaguely.
"We need to put this fire out before it hurts anyone even further."
Naruto stood, his eyes devoid of light. He walked to the perimeter of the clearing and raised his hands slowly.
"Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu."
A large water dragon spewed forth from the voluminous mass of water running just beyond the trees. It rose up, a formidable weapon, before streaming down and collapsing over the burning trees to the north. A large hiss sounded through the tree as the flame was doused, smoke and ash rising into the air. The blond walked robotically towards the next source and was about to continue when Gai stopped him.
"It's okay, I can handle the rest."
He nodded mechanically. He plodded back to the Uchiha's fallen form and dropped to his knees once more.
"He's alive, Sensei!"
Gai breathed a sigh of relief at TenTen's cry. At least they hadn't lost the Captain but he really needed to find the others. He paced from side-to-side as he awaited the confirmation from Kametsuchi.
"Naruto, you've got to get him out of here. Take him to a hospital in Wave. He's losing too much blood and if we leave it too late he'll die anyway."
"B-but how? How can I get him there on time?! How can I-I-"
"NARUTO! LOOK AT ME!"
Naruto gazed up at his friend and memories and feelings flashed through him. He remembered everything that had happened between them, times when he had been happy and content to sit back and watch how the world continued around him, times when he had been focused only on getting stronger to alleviate the burden of death threats and insecurity. TenTen had been a friend and then simply neutral. He would remember all these things forever, he couldn't help it, but right now he needed to act.
TenTen's heart trembled at the sight of the once proud and joyful blond, the once king of pranks who would have seemed out of place without a smile on his face. It was like the world was falling down around him and he was powerless to stop it. It was heartbreaking and she would do whatever she could to help him no matter how small it was; a small favour when put beside everything he had done for her.
"Your Airboard, you can take him on that!"
Naruto's eyes widened but then turned sceptical.
"H-He'd fall off without anything to stick...him..."
Taka sat by the fire, her head resting on her knees that were pulled up to her chest. He was almost certain of the ANBU agent's identity by now but he was sure that the operative still thought that nobody on the team had any doubts.
"I've heard you're good at sealing?"
Naruto grunted absently. They had camped out for the night and Shisui hadn't assigned him a watch so he was free to sleep if he wanted. According to the Uchiha, as he wasn't a Shinobi of the leaf, conventional rules didn't apply to him. Naruto knew that he was just showing he cared.
"I confess, I am confused with the design of your Airboard."
Naruto raised an eyebrow in question, not sure if Taka could even see through the small eyeholes cut into the mask. Something must have tipped the operative off that he was curious though as Taka answered his unspoken question.
"Why is it that you do not have a Chakra Sticker Seal to keep you in place rather than having to keep a constant amount of Chakra running through the soles of your feet?"
Naruto chuckled slightly at the question.
"Oh that's easy! Here I thought you were gonna ask me somethin' all ANBU-like and I wouldn't be able to answer!"
Taka's head tilted to the side in confusion. Naruto was almost certain he knew who the shadowy nin was now.
"See, if I had a sticky seal then I wouldn't be able to move would I? I'd have to build the entire thing into the sticky seal so that I could fly without having to step on different areas of the board!"
He felt rather than saw the Shinobi's eyebrows rise at his terminology. He never claimed that he knew the stuff anyway.
"Would that not be easier?"
Naruto grinned.
"Easy, maybe, but it'd take ages to figure out and I really can't be bothered, ya' know?"
A comfortable silence descended around the pair as they stared off into the night. The sky was clear and the stars were out in full force. Naruto sighed in contentment as he gazed up at the beautiful constellations in awe.
"I thought of it though! I thought maybe I wouldn't have that problem if I used a sticky seal on one foot, but left the other free. I actually tried that one too."
He chuckled good-naturedly, a light sound in the serene and sable twilight.
"Heh, it didn't go too well! See, by doin' that I reduce how much I can move and when you're up in the air you need to be able to change direction real quick. It just won't work that way."
He rubbed an imaginary pain at the side of his neck and Taka winced under the mask. It must have been painful...
Sticky seals...that was the answer. He pulled out a scroll from his utility pouch, the button seemingly ripped from the lid in a previous fight. As TenTen stared in confusion he rolled it out and channelled his Chakra into the seal depicted on its surface. With a small pop, an ink brush set appeared in front of him and he immediately pulled his Airboard from his back and got to work. He worked quickly and quietly, his strokes precise and confident. It only took him about a minute to finish; it was one of the easiest seals and he had messed around with it so many times that he could probably have pulled it off in his sleep. Stowing his equipment in his pouch, he grasped the Uchiha's arm lightly and placed it on the seal. It stuck immediately.
A small smile of triumph that didn't quite reach his eyes curled the side of his lips. He pulled out his brush and began painting another, larger seal, identical to the first, further up towards the front. When he had finished he placed Shisui's body with the help of TenTen, gently onto the seal.
"Gai-san, I'm going to take Shisui to Wave on my Airboard."
Gai nodded, the shock from the blonde's sealing prowess still on his face.
"Don't worry Naruto-san, I have everything covered here. You should get going straight away."
TenTen smiled softly at him and his spirits rose slightly. He hopped onto the board and directed his Chakra to the Elemental seals on its surface. With a final glance down, he took off in a cloud of ash and smoke.
XXXXXXXX
Desperation filled him, an anxiety and worry of great proportions as he raced through the skies towards the Village on the outskirts of Nami no Kuni. He didn't care what happened, he didn't care about his own wellbeing; Shisui was dying and it was his entire fault. If only he had been stronger and faster, if only he hadn't relied on that damned fox's power, maybe he could have saved him before anything had hurt him.
His memories with the older Uchiha flashed through his mind, all the good times he had shared with him racing over his mind's eye. He flew right through a low-hanging cloud, drenching his clothes with water as it condensed from his body heat. He looked down at his friend; he was unconscious again, small ice crystals forming on his skin from the chill of flying this high. The blood from his wound had been staunched and it almost looked like he was sleeping. The serene demeanour was ruined by the dried blood covering his face and congealing in his hair. He remembered that same pale face when he had first met him, a victim of one of the blonde's earliest stunts. He had laughed and thrown it off as an honest mistake; that grin that was so frequent on his features.
They had fought side-by-side through the worst situations, always appearing with identical grins on their faces. They had eaten and trained together, argued and mocked each other. They had been like family to the other.
He couldn't lose him; his soul was already so badly wounded.
He pushed his body to the limit, straining every last drop of Chakra into the Elemental seals on his Airboard. The high-pitched whine of the air screaming in his ears as he gradually reduced his height as he passed over the Village. Wave's hospital was a small building much further in; he had seen it briefly the first time he had come here. He didn't know if it was still located in the same place but he didn't have the time to think about that.
He circled around the area, his mind going blank as he recognised the building that was once a hospital. It was empty, the windows boarded up and no light from within. The sun had fully set and with the onset of night, lights should have been on at this time. The building was devoid of any life.
Desperation seized him in its iron grip once again. He swung around on his Airboard, frantically searching for someone to ask for directions. There wasn't a Villager in sight; it seemed that everyone had turned to the warmth of their homes already.
He almost screamed in frustration. Shisui was dying and he couldn't do anything about it! He was slowly dropping into madness, something he had sworn to avoid so many times. With a jolt he remembered the map that his friend had shown them back at the camp. Hovering in the air, he bent down to reach into the Uchiha's utility pouch and pulled a thin scroll from it. Biting his thumb, he swiped blood across the seal and channelled Chakra into it.
Nothing happened.
"DAMN IT!"
He swiped his thumb again and again until his skin grew raw from the friction. A large welt grew on the calloused appendage and the seal just wouldn't budge.
'Why...why won't it open?!'
He glared down at his obstacle, sweat dripping from his brow, his heartbeat racing at a mile a minute. He had to open it, he had to find a hospital, and he had to...save...Shisui...
"SHISUI! The seal must be coded for his blood only!"
He was loath to do it, but he had no choice. Crouching down, he wiped a bit of blood from his friend's injury onto the seal and channelled Chakra into it once again. This time the seal disappeared with a pop and the scroll rolled open. Rolling the scroll back up, he gripped it between his teeth allowing his hands to form handseals. He cursed again as the Airboard dropped slightly from his Chakra redirecting for the Hibana as it activated between his fingers. The small spark generated enough light to allow him to see the details on the map in the darkness. He scanned the squiggly lines frantically, looking for anything that would hint at a hospital in the Village. His anxiety grew as he found nothing; no building names, no signs for emergencies, nothing.
He was about to toss the scroll in his anger but suddenly noticed one of the red-ringed areas with Shisui's scruffy handwriting and an arrow pointing to it. It was the house that their client was located in a few streets down from his current position. He would surely know where the hospital was.
He accelerated down the street, rubbish and trash cans being thrown out the way as he was carried by the wind. Side-streets whizzed by; he had no time to stop and contemplate on how far the once miserable Village had progressed since his last visit. With a loud whine, he drifted to his right, just in time to barely scrape a building as he completed his turn. He came to rest outside a moderately sized house covered in the deep shadows of night. A few lights were shining through the windows of the two-storeys, the occupants having returned to home by now.
Jumping from his board, he ran to the portcullis, rapping his knuckles mercilessly into the green oak door. He heard a light 'Hai!' and the plodding sound of footsteps as he waited impatiently for the door to open. With a scrape of a lock, the hinges groaned as the door was pulled inwards.
"What can I do for-"
The petite woman screamed, her sight resting on the blond-haired boy covered in blood and all sorts of other bodily fluids. With a start Naruto recognised the woman.
"Ts-Tsunami-san?"
The woman gasped, her hands held up to her mouth as she struggled to hold in the bile rising in her throat.
"N-NARUTO-KUN?!"
He nodded slowly and she stepped back in slight disgust.
"Wh-what happened to you?!"
He could only stare at her dimly, his eyes lifeless. A pair of pounding feet came running down the stairwell that rose from the right of the hallway that led off from the front door.
"Tsunami! What's wrong?"
"Tazuna-Jii?"
The old bridge builder recoiled in shock as he took in the state of the boy standing at his front door. The image of the boisterous blond from two years ago unable to reconcile with the blood-drenched sight in front of him.
"Jii-san...I really need a hospital right now, Shisui's dying."
He didn't know how he managed to say it so calmly. It was a far cry from what he felt in his heart at the same time but somehow his nerves responded to the dire situation he was being faced with. Two sets of eyes silently followed his pointing hand and Tsunami gasped again at the unconscious form of the ANBU Captain who had called on them earlier.
"Kid, what the hell happened?"
"YOU DON'T FLIPPIN' NEED TO KNOW RIGHT NOW! HE NEEDS A HOSPITAL!"
Naruto slapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes wide at the stinging shout that had tore from his mouth before he could stop it. He was desperate, so very desperate that his senses were leaving him. The woman and her father seemed to snap out of their funk and immediately responded to his words.
'At least' he thought ruefully 'At least they're listening now...I'll apologise later.'
Tazuna ran out the front door.
"Follow me, brat! We'll get him there in no time! Tsunami! Make sure Inari didn't wake up, I'll try to be back as soon as I can!"
She nodded mutely, her shocked and worried gaze rooted to the blond 12 year old hastily following after her father. What was wrong with him? What had happened to him? Why was he covered in so much...so much blood?
She shut the front door slowly, her mind faint and a strange buzzing ringing in her ears. He looked for all intents and purposes like the living dead; his face was unearthly pale, his eyes staring ahead as if not really seeing what he was looking at.
Try as she might, she just couldn't rid her mind of the frightening image of the blond. She wouldn't be sleeping that well tonight...
ZZZZZZ