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Hunter	By : Zelha Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female > Itachi/Sakura Views: 3374 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, duh. I only own a pair of sleepers, so obviously I don't make any profit with this story.

Chapter List
- 11
- 12
- 13
Chapter 12: An Army of Me

Warning: Extreme violence ahead.

-X-

As soon as
the thunderous crack went wrapping around the massive stone left hand, the
cloaked figures that happened to be on it had to jump to avoid the collapse,
effectively breaking the ceremony that was taking place within the very heart
of Amegakure.

Naruto’s
body fell to the ground with a loud thud, signaling the beginning of the
battle.

“Fools!”
one of the cloaked nins
roared, disclosing himself as Kisame. “You don’t know what you just did!”

“Oh believe
me, we know exactly what we’re doing,” Sasuke hissed, jumping out of the way as
Sakura’s foot connected with the floor once more, sending a crack to the
statue’s other hand. Soon, the other Konoha nins scattered, laying dibs on their chosen
opponents.

“Konan!”
the pink-haired kunoichi snarled, fists poised and ready. “I’ll be the one that
will send you to hell!”

Said
blue-haired female nodded wordlessly, her face and body fracturing into
thousands of little paper sheets, swirling away towards a corner of the massively
large hall. Sakura bounded close behind; hands flying through a long string of
hand-seals. A sudden green glow on Sakura’s forehead soon formed a
diamond-shaped marking.

“I see,”
Konan’s deep but feminine tone floated with the paper sheets. “You are the
Godaime Hokage’s apprentice. I shall not underestimate you.”

“How wise
of you,” Sakura hissed, hands flowing through another string of seals. “Katon: Gokakyuu no Jutsu!” she inhaled, sending the Grand Fireball
towards the swirl of papers, which whirled away, but some of them got caught in
Sakura’s technique.

The paper
assembly gathered together, showing Konan’s frowning face. Sakura sneered.

“What, you
don’t like fire?” she taunted recklessly. “That’s too bad.”

Konan’s eyes
narrowed in irritation before dissipating again in paper sheets. Her
pink-haired opponent jumped away as a sudden barrage of kunai flew towards her. Looking around, she noticed an
orange-haired man with piercings all over his features glaring at her, with a
pair of the strangest, ringed eyes she had ever seen. But he had to look away
as Itachi’s sword tried to pierce him.

“Leave the
females to their own devices, Pein-san,” the Uchiha Heir’s voice intoned
mildly, as his Sharingan glinted wickedly in the dull darkness of the humongous
hall. “Or do you feel that your partner is not up to the challenge, that you
have to protect her?”

The man
called Pein merely raised a hand, turning his attention to the raven-haired
ANBU Captain.

“Your words
bear no reason at all,” his deep, cultivated voice answered, as a pointy black
spear appeared in his hand, parrying the ninjatô in Itachi’s hand with amazing
skill and not even blinking at the loud clang that both blades made at the
point of contact. “She will be the last one standing from that battle. The
Konoha kunoichi will die.”

“Well,
that’s rich,” Sakura hissed sarcastically as she jumped away from the sudden
attack of the paper sheets. Noticing immediately how the crinkling material
shaped themselves into kunai and shuriken, Sakura started to run, avoiding the finely
honed weapons as they practically rained on her. It wasn’t of consequence that
they were made of paper; they were as efficient and razor-sharp as the ones
made of steel.

Feeling
warm liquid trickling down her cheek, Sakura realized that some of the
paper-made weapons had aimed true. Konan still floated above her, pouring
sheets of paper as she went, also gathering a few of them to make a pair of
wings, in order to help maintain her light body in the air. It was a bad
prospect for Sakura, seeing as she was trained for close
combat and the Akatsuki female was made for middle
to long-range attacks.

But let it
not be said that a teammate of the Kyuubi vessel doesn’t know how to surprise
people, the pink-haired Jounin thought with a decisive clench of her teeth.

-X-

Sasuke was
thinking the same thing as his female teammate as he evaded another clay-made
sparrow.

“What’s the
matter, kiddo, hmm?” the blond ninja that he was facing sneered, with a cocky, psychotic
grin. “Can’t handle a few explosions?”

The young
Uchiha’s Sharingan swirled, surveying Deidara’s techniques and cursing
inwardly. Kekkei Genkai techniques couldn’t be copied, but perhaps he could do
something to trick the bomber-nin.

“Why don’t
you just go die in a fire?” Sasuke sneered as the Gokakyuu
no Jutsu flared in the hall once more. Deidara evaded it, sending a barrage of
clay birds toward his opponent.

“Why don’t you die already? This is getting boring
as hell, yeah.”

What he
didn’t know was that the youngest Uchiha was constructing his counterattack in the form of a genjutsu. Several snakes broke out of
the ground with a joint hiss and jumped at the clay bird, in a flurry of
movement that opened a humongous hole in the wall, startling the people outside
the building and creating the unavoidable collective chaos.

The fight
was out now, and the Leaf ninja would be probably attacked from every angle. But as soon as the pieces of wall
settled down on the ground, a shout outside signaled that Konoha wasn’t
invading Amegakure on their own; a rush of sand and a barrage of weapons made it clear that reinforcements had arrived, with a few
addendums.

All the
better, Sasuke smirked as he felt the tomoe in his eyes shift into another
form.

-X-

The Uchiha
ANBU Captain deflected another thrust of Pein’s black spear while his mind
reeled. The probability of coming out of this battle unscathed was about forty percent, for him, whereas his cousin Shisui –
who was battling the nin who had a swirled orange mask,
Tobi – had a sixty percent chance, given the information Sakura had decoded
from Kabuto’s journal in the last stop before
entering Rain.

Kakashi,
who was fighting the powerful Hoshigake Kisame, had a sixty-five percent chance of victory, while Yamato, battling
the mysterious Zetsu, had an even fifty percent.

However,
his brother Sasuke, who was battling the blond arsonist and explosive expert,
Deidara, had less than a thirty percent of
winning his battle.

Sakura’s
chances of defeating that kunoichi, Konan, were less than ten percent, in his objective
opinion.

It was a
fortunate thing that their help got hold of the rest of the mercenaries that
surrounded the main building. It was very convenient, and Itachi wondered if
his Hokage had something to do with this, as they had to round the route by
gathering info from Orochimaru’s hideout. Also, there was the strong
possibility that Jiraiya had helped, gathering information on his own.

“I would
appreciate your full attention before I kill you, Uchiha-san,” the smooth voice
of his opponent broke his quick reverie. “Are you worried about your teammates?
Do not be, for they are going to die at any rate.”

“I would
not wager on that, Pein-san,” Itachi shot back easily. “I have to admit that
your organization has been most effective in
keeping the information about its members classified,” he continued; it was
time to make the orange-haired man talk, if possible.

“It was
most unfortunate that Sasori couldn’t finish Orochimaru and return with us,”
apparently, Pein knew they had the journal. “It is of no importance. We are
aware of the technical summaries the Snake Sannin had on us all. However, it is one thing to know the theory and another...” slate
grey ringed eyes glowed diabolically under the clouded daylight, “the practice.”

Itachi
stopped when he recognized that Kekkei Genkai from an
old folktale book one of his aunts gave him when he was a boy.

The Rinnegan.

-X-

Yamato was
not having a good day.

Not to
mention how dangerous this mission would be - he understood the need of
salvaging Naruto and bringing him back home, for letting the Kyuubi fall into
Akatsuki’s hands was not an option, and god forbid, allowing the release of the
Nine Tails bijuu to the world would practically vaporize it.

Now he was
avoiding the several tentacles that were shooting toward him from everywhere out of the ground, producing as many branches as he could dare as he avoided the stingers
that were poised at the end of every tentacle attached to Zetsu.

Having
enough data on the plant-man made him think of a nice, safe strategy - wearing
the guy out and then neutralizing him with a doton jutsu. It was by far the safest bet since the
Akatsuki was surely keeping his distance from his mokuton.

“What’s the matter,” Zetsu asked in a mild
voice. “Are you scared?”

The second
question came out in a harsher, wicked tone. This gave Yamato the outrageous
idea of how Zetsu seemed to be everywhere... but
medically, that farfetched idea was beyond impossible.

Or was it?

Not having
the time to ponder his deranged idea, the ground shook once more, this time
from one of the blond Akatsuki’s bombs, which were chasing Sasuke all over the
place. Deidara was laughing maniacally, the mouths in his hands with their
tongues waggling mockingly as the youngest Uchiha practically flew around,
avoiding the charged blasts.

Such a
freak... all members of the Akatsuki were proof of the
strange meddling of Mother Nature.

No one knew
about natural interferences more than Yamato.

Hands
flying in the usual mokuton seals, numerous wooden
branches cracked out of the earth, matching the poisoned tentacles of his
enemy.

Creating a
shield, he quickly set about his plan, praying that his gut was right about
that incredibly ridiculous but horrific idea.

-X-

A blond,
laughing moron was still hovering over Sasuke.

“C’mon, yeah!” Deidara sneered, sending another dozen sparrows after his quarry. “Show
me how awesome that Uchiha clan is! How long are you going to run, little
brat?”

Not for
long, Sasuke promised inwardly, feeling the mark on his shoulder throb and
pulse, begging for release. “Stupid arsonist,” he mumbled, hoping his opponent
heard him.

Deidara did
hear, cackling in response. “Is that what you call an insult? Bah! Hidan was
way more versed in the cursing field, Uchiha brat. Sure, he lacked finesse in
everything else, but his filthy mouth could give a sailor a run for his money,
yeah.”

“And he was
killed by one of my comrades, did you know?” Sasuke taunted, three tomoe
spinning lazily in each of his eyes. “His zombie skills didn’t save him from
his final destiny.”

“Oh? And
tell me, did he go with a blast?” the mad bomber asked eagerly, eyes glinting
in excitement.

Remembering
Shikamaru’s report, he smirked. “Who knows.”

Deidara
frowned, watching how at ease his enemy seemed to be as he sliced all the bombs
with his katana and avoided each explosion.

“Oh! You
think you’re some hot shot because you’re able to avoid minor charges? I’ll
show you, yeah!”

Sasuke
narrowed his eyes. “Oh yeah, show me.”

Pressing
both hands inside his clay bags, Deidara missed the clone that dropped from the
neighboring building, inhaling all the air it could muster.

“Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu!” the clone yelled, sending a massive
fireball towards the back of the ninja but a sudden flock of birds served as a
wall, protecting Deidara and directing the blast right back at Sasuke’s clone,
which popped out as it was caught in the explosion.

“Nice try,
yeah!” Deidara jeered, annoying his opponent by sending another group of sparrows
after him. “But you’re gonna need more power if you want to be a worthy match!”

“More
power,” Sasuke repeated flatly, his sword slashing out. “Fine, I’ll give you
more power.”

Deidara’s
taunting laugh resonated through the battlefield.

-X-

Actually,
Shisui wasn’t faring too well with his opponent.

The moron
kept slipping away from his attacks, no matter how sure he was that his kunai
or shuriken would hit. The weapons simply passed through without harm.

Tobi tilted
his head inquisitively. “Oh! Shisui-san, you seem upset!”

“Oh no, not
at all,” he groused, gritting his teeth in frustrated annoyance as he launched
another barrage of sharp kunai. “I just want you to be still for a moment!”

“Oh! But I
can’t do that!” Tobi jumped in place frantically, but his ridiculous antics
weren’t amusing at all for the elder Uchiha. “Why do you
attack me, Shisui-san?! Tobi didn’t do anything to you!”

“That might
be,” the Uchiha jumped, ninjatô in hand, intent on slashing his opponent but,
once more, the corporeal form seemed to vanish as the blade ran through.
“Dammit!”

He would
need to pull out the big techniques then, Shisui decided, his Sharingan
shifting to the three tomoe, which started spinning.

Suddenly,
Tobi laughed. “Oh Shisui-san, a genjutsu is not going to work with Tobi. Tobi
is a good boy, you see.”

The Uchiha
ANBU watched in surprise as the masked nin looked up, engaging his Sharingan with one of his own.

But the
form was different... there were no tomoe.

Shisui let
out a mental curse.

-X-

Kakashi was
certain the sword that Kisame carried was going to be a great nuisance.

“I should
have picked Itachi-san to fight with,” the tall Mist nukenin
was musing as he avoided his attacks. “I owe him a thump or two after that
genjutsu in the Fire Palace.”

The Copy
Ninja smirked under his mask, his hitai-ate showing his gifted Sharingan.
“What’s the matter, you don’t like genjutsu?”

“I prefer ninjutsu,” Kisame showed all his razor-sharp teeth in a
menacing smile before opening his mouth and letting out a humongous amount of
water, basically drowning every person around them with the force of the wave.

“That’s
impressive,” Kakashi noted, hands in his pockets as he regarded the flooded
place with bored countenance. “It’s a good thing I like ninjutsu
the most too.”

“Oh yeah,
that ‘Master of a Thousand Jutsu’ title you hold... it’s interesting, don’t you
think?” the blue-skinned nin taunted, his sword ready
in his shoulder, buzzing with anticipation. “Why don’t you show me what you
got?”

The
silver-haired man looked up. “Fine, but don’t come crying to me afterwards.”

He hoped
his bluff wasn’t called before his chakra was eaten, or worse, depleted.

-X-

Thankfully,
the flood didn’t reach the site where Naruto lay.

Sakura,
however, after the flooding Kisame had provoked, had a wonderful idea.

It would be
quite risky, but knowing that everybody else was fighting for their lives and
the rest of the world, hers was a small price.

“Creation
Rebirth,” Sakura murmured, feeling a rush of warm chakra flooding her senses
and pathways, feeling recovered as every single
gash from the razor-sharp origami healed.

She had
known for a while that her base element was earth. Doton
jutsu were nicely set with earth, wind and water. With fire,
even better. But water...

Sakura
wondered idly what kind of element origami was.

“Nice new
addendum to your face,” Konan droned from her vantage point, hovering over the
water. “Paying homage to your shishou?”

“Something like that, but it’s not really your business,” she sneered,
raising an eyebrow, dismissing the ornate swirls that decorated her features.
“Come on, bitch. Shannaro.”

Konan
dissipated herself into tons of folded paper shaped into kunai, which rained
over the Leaf kunoichi. Sakura didn’t move, taking every blow, scratch and
gash, not having enough room to avoid them. She cried out in pain, as the kunai
moved faster, staining the paper with her blood.

“You will
lose now,” the blue-haired kunoichi said with a faint note of triumph in her
ethereal voice. “Just like your friend, that couldn’t handle his own artwork
being ripped apart by the paper that contained it.”

Sakura saw
red when she realized how Sai had been tricked and cornered.

Just like she was now.

“I have to
wonder though,” Konan continued as she rematerialized in front of her panting
opponent, “what do you have that is so special, for Uchiha Itachi to refuse our
advantageous proposal. He could have been a great asset to us.”

“Shut up!”
she gritted, as another gash was opened on her skin.

“But it is
true,” the blue-haired woman pressed, feeling that Sakura was about to crack.
“You are not suited for this ninja life. You are pathetic and emotional; this
makes you so weak I find it amazing for you to
even be a jounin-ranked kunoichi with this obvious lack of skills.”

“Perhaps,
you’re not looking at the big picture,” Sakura gritted as her blood kept
flowing, “It’s more about the desire to protect our loved ones that makes us
strong. Itachi refused you because you have no honorable goal whatsoever. He
decided to stay in his homeland because he knew he could make a difference with
us.”

Konan
narrowed her eyes. “This is where you die, Haruno Sakura,” she said coldly, her
origami skills creating a long katana and running it through her stomach. “Your
idealism holds no reason against the word of God.”

“Who’s the
God you speak of?” Sakura asked after she cried out, feeling her life slipping
from her. “God is the greatest protector of this world, the one that lets us
live with our decisions, no matter how bad they can be
for us. He granted us the most amazing gift... free will.”

“You have
no idea how God is,” Konan allowed herself a mild sneer, as Sakura’s clammy
hands clasped hers feebly. “God is the one that will set this world right. No
more war, no more death. No more ninja.”

“And
how...many people...will you...kill for this goal?” Sakura asked, tightening
her grip on the blue-haired woman’s hand. “People that have... always worked
for the greater...good. If you really...believed in God...you would see...”

Pulling
Konan’s sword deeper into her, Sakura breathed deeply and smiled. The Akatsuki
kunoichi’s eyes widened in surprise when she found herself covered in exploding
tags, the product of Sakura’s blood as she
sliced her. Realizing she had been fooled by a simple genjutsu.

“You will see...how wrong
you are. Sakura Fubuki no jutsu!”

The ensuing
blast called the attention of all.

-X-

Sasuke’s
snakes lay all dead, scorched and seared, at his feet.

At least,
Deidara wasn’t laughing anymore.

And Sasuke
himself was furious. He had seen Sakura’s technique going off, and so far she
hadn’t appeared among the debris that floated in the water.

He would
never forgive her if she died so stupidly.

The
building he stood on rumbled with the beginning of another explosion. Deidara
was closing in, he could feel him building up the C2 charge he had promised him.
It was just a matter of time until he executed his plan...

But first,
he needed to release that little mark on his neck. Three teardrops in a circle were the only physical evidence of the seal Orochimaru had imprinted on him with his fangs,
the Heaven Cursed Seal. Disregarding the warding that Kakashi had placed on
him, it was just as his genin sensei had advised him.

The cursed
seal held wicked power, but in this dire situation he didn’t have any qualms about
using it.

“There you are, brat! Eat my explosive clay, yeah!”

The dragon
uncoiled itself from the electric tower, bellowing a roar that resonated
throughout the entire village. It wasn’t raining anymore; a dark power kept the
sky overcast but with no more precipitation.

Sasuke
gripped his sword and closed his eyes, feeling the foreign chakra engulf his
form, changing his body, feeling his back throbbing as it ripped apart as
horrendous wings sprouted from his skin. His hair grew wild, his Sharingan
honed in on his target unerringly.

Attacking a
surprised Deidara, who ripped his own shirt apart and displayed another mouth
sewed closed on his chest, Sasuke was sure of his victory.

“Kuchiyose no jutsu!”

-X-

Itachi
almost froze when he felt Sakura’s energy dwindling at an alarming rate, but
the dark chakra that roiled out of his little brother stunned him to a halt.

Looking
around quickly, he found each of Pein’s bodies
battling furiously against a Konoha or a Sand nin. Sabaku
no Gaara was imprisoning one, while his siblings were fighting another. A third
was battling a newly minted ANBU-level Hyuuga Neji, while the fourth body was
being handled marvelously by the rest of his genin team. The fifth was being
handled by Nara Shikamaru and his team. Itachi was handling the main one,
though, as the orange-haired man kept pushing him for an opening.

“What is
the matter, Uchiha?” Pein asked coldly. “Did you lose something?”

Sakura’s
explosion rocked the village, making the Akatsuki leader pause in surprise.

Itachi
leaped forward, breaking the black spear Pein held as they realized that Sakura
had risen against all odds and defeated her opponent. Itachi felt a rush of
fierce pride inside; he hoped, hoped that she would pull through. Like a
phoenix, she had risen from her ashes, and had fulfilled her promise to her
friend Sai by conquering her Akatsuki enemy.

Pein, on the other hand, was gripped by a cold fury.

“Konan,” he
whispered.

“Excellent
battle they had, won’t you agree?” Itachi said smoothly as he avoided a second
blade and parried a third.

“Your nakama is surprising, I give you that,” Pein said flatly,
his speed enhancing with each blow and making Itachi accelerate his movements to
keep up with him. “But you won’t come out victorious from this battle. I ask
you, Uchiha, how incensed is your flame regarding your beliefs.”

“My beliefs? What a strange question coming from you, Pein-san” Itachi answered with
an ease he didn’t feel.

“The Path
of God is the Path of Pein,” the orange-haired ninja intoned, as if repeating a
line he had said many, many times in the past. Your doujutsu
won’t help you against the hand of God. The Rinnegan
overpowers everything.”

“How...arrogant
of you, Pein-san,” Itachi answered, now realizing why all the genjutsu he had
placed hadn’t held against his quarry. It was simply impossible to fool him
with an illusion, pretty much like the Hyuuga, although there were high-level
genjutsu that couldn’t be broken by the Byakugan. “I
personally do not believe in God.”

“Ah, you
are a skeptical one,” the other said, as if he was amused by Itachi’s flat
remark. “The works of God are everywhere. Do you honestly not believe in the high
power of divinity; how you humans play the game God has
set for his subjects? It is easy to understand why you are so detached when
it comes to such matters, Uchiha, but that
doesn’t make you the holder of the ultimate truth.”

“The ultimate
truth is that you want to annihilate everyone and bring all the countries to their
knees,” Itachi’s face finally twisted in a disgusted, haughty sneer. “I cannot
call that the work of God but the work of a totalitarian madman. Tell me,
Pein-san, is this your way of getting revenge for whatever wrong was done
against you?”

“You know nothing
of my reasons,” Pein was swift in his response
and his counterattack. Two of his other bodies had been brought down – the summoner and the taujutsu vessel
– which limited his field of observation, making him a bit vulnerable. Yet, the
others were responding well and it was just a matter of time for his comeback.

A humongous
explosion stopped all his machinations though, when Deidara had finally gone
through all his techniques against the youngest Uchiha. The blond Akatsuki had
resorted to his last but not least jutsu.

The C0.

The earth
shook so strongly that all the contenders fell to the floor unceremoniously.
There was a massive feeling of confusion, but then some ninja took the
diversion to their advantage and struck their
enemies.

-X-

Kisame’s
arms lay on the ground, neutralizing him effectively as Kakashi stood over him,
breathing heavily, his Sharingan spinning in a bright pool of red.

Yamato
managed to cage Zetsu, delivering a fierce Suiton jutsu inside his wooden contraption. He knew the
only thing that could kill the plantman was salt; but
then he remembered one of Sakura’s poisons. He only had to add it to his water
jutsu to make an acidic solution, strong enough to kill his opponent.

Shisui
managed to land a hit on his adversary, a hairline crack dividing the orange,
swirled mask. A dark laugh came out of it, making him curse now loud and clear
in his mind, as he gripped the kunai and drove it hard into his own thigh.

-X-

Yamato ran
to the summoned lake when he noticed a figure trying to make their way towards
the shore.

“Sakura!”
he exclaimed, splashing all over as he ran to assist her. “Are you alright? We
thought you –”

“I’m fine,”
she replied, panting as she took in a cleansing breath. “I managed to cover my
head with chakra when I slammed down to the
bottom of the lake. Where’s Naruto?”

“Still
unconscious,” he answered with a grim frown. “I have a clone watching over him.
His vitals are stable, but...”

“By the
gods...” Sakura murmured with a stricken tone, but she wasn’t listening to him
anymore.

A monstrous
sight was hovering in front of their eyes.

Long-haired,
dark eyes with a strange pinwheel form in his Sharingan, Uchiha Sasuke waved
his morbid hand-like wings effortlessly, taking in the massive battlefield the
Rain village had become.

“What...”
Yamato whispered, bewildered. Kakashi also observed the hovering young man from
his place, as he finished tying Kisame up.

“Sasuke,
what have you done...” Sakura breathed, eyes widened. “Sasuke!!”

His eyes
swiveled to hers and held her there. “It was the only way,” he growled.

“No it
wasn’t!” she screeched. “Why did you have to do this?!
This is not a quest for power, Sasuke!”

“Shut up!”
the bizarre winged form roared. “You haven’t the slightest idea of what I was
going through!”

“And
serving as a test subject for Orochimaru served you to set your own North?!”
Sakura snarled right back. “This is not about you, you moron! This is about
Naruto!”

“What the
hell are you talking about?” Yamato asked her as Kakashi reached them. The
silver-haired ninja looked angry, but not as livid as Sakura appeared to be.

“Sasuke
asked for a leave of absence for a few weeks
after their Chuunin exam,” Kakashi explained curtly. “I figure Orochimaru did
get to him, even if his brother and I were keeping him under strict
surveillance.”

Sakura
didn’t listen to her former sensei. “Sasuke! Goddammit, listen to me! Put that thing back!”

The
youngest Uchiha laughed. “Why should I? I’ve never felt better. This curse seal
is under my control, now that Orochimaru kicked the bucket. No pain at all.”

His
Sharingan took notice of how hard-pressed his cousin was with his opponent.

“You will
see,” he sneered at Sakura, “how great I will be now.”

-X-

Kicking his
opponent to gain an opening was all it took for Itachi to see why the
battlefield was so quiet. Sakura was back on her feet, which was a relief for
the stoic ANBU Captain, but why she was scowling so hard?

The figure
that flew low and tackled the nin his cousin was
fighting was so bizarre that he almost couldn’t believe what his Sharingan eyes
told him.

That
monster was his little brother.

“Sasuke!
NO!” Sakura screamed as she sprinted behind him. Pein noticed her right away.

“Ah, so she
survived,” he said in a frosty tone. “But not for long.”

Itachi had
no other choice but to run and parry the black spear once more, halting Pein’s advance and engaging him in a new bout of Taijutsu. His Sharingan, though, was picking up new things
in his system. The chakra the Akatsuki leader had was exhausting and somehow
all the black piercings were concentrating a lot of his energy.

“I would appreciate
it if you would move, Uchiha-san,” the man said
conversationally. “I have someone to kill in retaliation.”

Itachi
blinked and frowned. Like he was going to allow him to get
closer to Sakura. “You leave me no choice, Pein-san,” he answered
smoothly, as his hands flew in a flurry of hand-seals that he hadn’t performed,
ever.

He only
hoped he had copied the technique just right.

-X-

Shisui
gaped unabashedly at the freak of nature his little cousin had become. He had
caught Sakura’s form in her flight though,
having no qualms in pushing her back to keep her in line.

“What the
hell, Sakura?!” he shouted, “You can’t interfere--”

“Fuck if I
let Sasuke get consumed by that stupid curse seal!”
Sakura yelled at him. “That thing will kill him if he uses it too much!”

“What the
hell are you talking about?” he started to say, but a sharp intake of air was
all it took for Shisui to shut up and turn to see the wide arc of Sasuke’s
katana swipe in the air, just over his former target, Tobi--

His
Sharingan eyes widened in sudden fear. “Sasuke, no! He has a Sharingan!
Sasuke!!”

A burst of
black flames sprang forward, Sasuke only having enough presence of mind to fly
away to avoid them.

“Very good,
very good!” Tobi celebrated with a smooth, refined tone, one very different
from the cheery one the rest had heard from him. “You got a Mangekyou all by
yourself, huh? I wonder who you had to kill to gain it.”

Sasuke
sneered. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Ah, kids
these days are so disrespectful of their elders,” Tobi wagged a finger at the
younger Uchiha. “You should mind your tongue in front of the father of your
clan, boy.”

Shisui
gaped once more, while Sakura looked puzzled.

“Isn’t the
clan founder... dead?” she whispered to her friend, who nodded numbly.

“Ah! But
I’m not that dead, you see,
Sakura-san,” Tobi appeared to have heard her and answered with a rich, deep
chuckle. “I was just biding my time for a grand comeback. You all stumped my
plans, but I’m sure we’ll reach an understanding soon.”

“Go to
hell, old man,” Sasuke snarled from the air, releasing a Katon Ryouka over the
man, who didn’t move and accepted the flames engulfing his body. Afterwards, he
only walked to the side of the sudden blaze, looking as unscathed as he was
before the jutsu hit him.

“This is so
upsetting,” he continued talking. “I only wanted to have one of my relatives
with me in this scheme of mine. Apparently I thought too well of them...or too
bad.”

Yamato and
Kakashi attacked him in a tandem move, but he slipped away once more. Sakura
was perplexed; how on earth could he dematerialize
his body just when the blow was about to hit him?

Together,
both Uchiha and the two older ninja attacked their target mercilessly, but to
no avail. It was a complete stalemate, and all of them knew it. The situation
was getting more dangerous with every second.

Suddenly, a
massive wave of red chakra flared behind them, startling them all.

Tobi, or Madara, as he claimed to be called, moved forward and
struck... his curved kunai found purchase as he ripped through clothes and
human flesh.

Dark eyes,
wide and frozen, lost their light as their bearer went down to the ground.

Sakura
screamed, rage and killing intent pouring from her every pore. “Yamato!!!”

Three male
shouts of her name were unheeded, as she charged as a rampaging bull towards
the orange-masked nin.

But then
the strange Sharingan form spun and her entire world went red, with black
clouds hovering over a deserted landscape filled with blood.

-XxX-

AN: I had to pull a massive battle scene like I
did in Refraction. I was going to limit myself to Sakura’s and Itachi’s fights,
but then I itched to write Shisui’s, Kakashi’s and
all the others. Therefore, chopped-scenes-no-jutsu! I do hope I could pull it
off satisfactorily for you, though.

As for the
canon battles, you can imagine how it happened. Sasuke vs. Deidara was the less
portrayed because it happened in the manga,
disregarding the change of the location.

This was
the chapter that gave me so much trouble for all those months of frustrated hiatus!
I had to smoke enough crack to pull this off in a mildly believing manner,
so... yeah. I hope you enjoyed it, though.

Oh, and one
more thing. To mystical spirits,
that was one really rude and offensive review. I truly don’t care what you
might think, but insulting me, my writing style, the way I develop my plot, and my commitment to my stories
- how in the seven hells Sakura is a Mary Sue, ahahaha,
wtf! - and on top of that,
comparing my work to yours was incredibly
backhanded and lame of you. One humongous review like that, arrogant and nasty,
gained you a nice place within my banned list. That was incredibly offensive,
so if you were trying to get a rise of me, congratulations, you did. Thankfully
I have friends that convinced me not to make a voodoo doll of you and stick a
few not needles in its head. However, calling you out on your holier-than-thou
attitude was sort of mandatory. So here it is, enjoy your ban from my account
because I don’t want to hear from you again.

Not to
mention how much I’ve stressed to my readers that English is not my main
language – and the fact that I work hard to provide you all with an engaging story
and a source of amusement, I find truly insulting when someone thinks they’re
doing me a favor by pointing out things that they want to read. So even if I risk losing readers, I’m going to
declare this for Hunter: there is no fluff in the horizon. This is a drama, a
bunch of characters have died - and some others will also - so don’t ask for
something that really doesn’t fit in the story.

Man, this
is why I’ve been so wary of leaving my comfort zone. Anyway, I apologize for
the drama-llama and let’s move on with this, which I’m dying to see finished.

As always,
many thanks to my dear MelissaRose85 for her sharp betaing
skills, and to you guys for reading!
- 11
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Hunter