Genin Days (IX).

Plan G was essentially nothing more than fight the enemy with some combos until Itachi got the chance to use a Genjutsu on them. Whoever fought alongside him, which in this case meant Anko, would use the moment the enemy was rendered motionless to go for the kill. And while their opponent already proved that he possessed excellent chakra control, good enough even to free himself from Itachi's currently strongest illusion in barely more than a second, this plan had still some chance of success. After all, a mere second was more than enough time to kill someone, at least for a shinobi. Taro seemed to know that too if the way he didn't look into Itachi's eyes was any indication.

"So," Taro spoke up again, still sounding amused. "Did you finish your little planning session? I think I gave you more than enough time to do so, didn't I?"

"And why exactly did you give use that time?" Anko snarled. "Are you so eager to lose?"

Taro snorted. "Hardly. It's just so much more amusing to see the hope in your enemies' eyes be crushed slowly but surely. Besides..." He looked right at Itachi, a cruel smile visibly forming under his bandages. "It's not every day that you get the chance to kill a bloodline user as famous as an Uchiha! You need to savour the moment, especially when it's so hard to find a bloodline user at all these days."

'If he hunts people with a Kekkei Genkai, he is probably one of the Mizukage's men.' Itachi concluded.

"Well then," Taro said. "Shall we begin?"

One moment he was several metres in front of them, and the next moment he stood between him and Anko. Itachi, being able to follow his movements with the Sharingan, was able to move out of the way of Taro's attack just in time, but Anko wasn't so lucky.

The man rammed his fist into her guts, lifting her into the air with the force behind it. He reached out with the other arm for a follow-up attack but was forced to abandon this plan of action to evade a kunai that flew at him from his right. Itachi hadn't any weapons with him, considering it would have given away his identity if one of the kidnappers found him armed, so he had taken the ones Taro had thrown at him earlier.

With a kunai in each hand, he appeared in front of the man and slashed at him with one of them. His attack got blocked, but he wasn't deterred. Using his small stature to its fullest potential, he jumped into Taro's guard and tried to break his knee. He was forced to jump back before he could accomplish anything, though, as the man had drawn a kunai of his own and slashed at him with it, the extended range making it impossible for Itachi to get close.

He redirected Taro's following palm strike and tried to get some distance from his enemy but was stopped when he was grabbed and pulled towards him. Itachi would probably have been done for a moment later if it weren't for Anko appearing in the air beside their opponents head and trying to connect a roundhouse kick. He let go of him to raise his arm to block the kick, allowing Itachi to use his momentum to connect a kick of his own with the man's chest.

While obviously not hurt by it, the momentary confusion of being hit allowed Anko to rush in again. However, her attack to his waist was blocked and Anko needed to jump away again to evade his elbow strike to her head.

They faced each other just like they did just a few seconds earlier, at the start of the battle, with Anko and him on one side and Taro on the other.

Anko gave him a hand sign and he nodded. This time they would be the ones to attack first.

Anko kicked forward with as much speed as she could, jumping at the waiting form of their opponent while Itachi appeared with a Shunshin a bit to his left.

Taro was prepared -and probably even excited- for another Taijutsu battle, so he was understandably surprised when Anko came to a sudden stop just outside of his reach and jumped back while making hand seals as fast as she could.

"Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique)

His eyes widened momentarily before he jumped back to evade the volley of small fireballs that flew at him, only to suddenly threw his head around when he saw movements from his left.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique)

Out of nowhere, over a hundred shuriken appeared, heading his way.

With two different volleys of attacks heading his way from two directions, Taro saw himself forced to use a Jutsu of his own.

"Suiton: Suijinheki!" (Water Release: Water Formation Wall)

He shot a great amount of water out from his mouth, creating a wall of water around him that protected him from both their attacks.

Using this opportunity where he was out of sight, Itachi quickly created a Karasu Bunshin (Crow Clone) and used the Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu (Earth Release: Hiding Like A Mole Technique) to hide himself in the underground. While it used more chakra than a Fire Release or a Water Release technique would, it was still a rather basic technique that didn't require much chakra to begin with, so it would be fine.

He could feel the fight continue a few seconds later, sensing the magnetic forces of Anko and Taro fighting each other on the surface. His clone was a bit more removed from the battle, standing nearly two dozen metres away. He couldn't risk being exposed as a clone yet, so he limited himself to support Anko from afar by throwing weapons and possibly even some Jutsu.

Itachi knew that the only reason Taro hadn't finished the fight yet was that he was enjoying himself far too much playing with them. He wasn't complaining, though, as this behaviour was the only reason they had a little chance at winning this fight in the first place.

He waited until he felt Anko back away to interfere. The moment Taro was nearly upon her, when he needed to make only one more step to be able to reach her, his arms shot out of the ground and caught him at his ankles. Losing his balance, the man fell to his knee and instinctively reached out with his hands to catch himself before his face could hit the ground. Anko, having waited for this opportunity, jumped forward and stabbed her kunai right in the back of his neck.

For a single moment, Itachi thought they somehow managed to beat the Jōnin, but then his hands became wet and he felt how there were suddenly no longer any magnetic force from where the man's body should have hit the ground, and he knew that their offensive had failed.

'But when had he the time to create a Water Clone? Even with his superior speed, he shouldn't have been able to hide its creation from my Sharingan, unless...' His eyes widened. 'Unless he created it after I started to hide in the underground!'

That only left the question where the real one could be, as he should have been able to feel the real body's magnetic forces-

'The ocean!'

He was basically going blind as long as he stayed under the earth, so he decided to come to the surface again. He was just in time to see the real Taro, who was indeed standing on the water surface, finishing some hand seals.

"Suiton: Suiryu Sanrendan no Jutsu!" (Water Release: Water Dragon Triple Step Technique)

Three gigantic water dragons rose from the waters behind Taro and proceeded to show their majestic and violent beauty before starting to launch themselves right at them.

Anko and he both immediately jumped to the side, hoping to dodge the attack, but it was hopeless. While they were able to evade the brunt of the attack, they were still hit and thrown away in a volley of water. They flew in a parallel line to the coast for what felt like an eternity, and Itachi felt his clone being destroyed and his summons vanishing before the two of them finally came to a stop.

His sight was fuzzy and his body felt like it had been used as a training ground for Taijutsu for a week straight, but he still tried to stand up. This endeavour was cut short a second later when a foot pushed down on his chest, holding him secure in place.

Looking up, he saw Taro standing above him, holding Anko up with one hand at her throat.

"I confess," he stated, "that you are more troublesome than you look. Seriously, you have decent teamwork and even a pretty good strategy. Didn't saw it coming that one of you would hide in the underground for a trap. Good thing that I expected something, though, and created the clone as a precautionary measure. Still, that's it for you. I would say I'm sorry, but that would be a lie."

Itachi just wanted to use his Mangekyo, which wouldn't just make him fall unconscious for a few hours like it did the last time but at least for a week or more if he didn't outright died considering his current chakra reserves, when Anko suddenly spat into the man's face.

And Taro started to scream.

Itachi instantly knew what happened; Anko loved using poison and other substances in her attacks, something she hadn't been able to do in their current fight because they hadn't been able to bring any weapons of their own with them. Or at least he had thought so. Now it was obvious that she somehow managed to bring something with her, and had been just waiting for the right moment to use it, and she had just spat it into the man's face. The effect was quite apparent, as the man was still wincing in pain and stumbling backwards.

And then Itachi had an idea.

Their original plan, 'Plan G', wasn't going to work. Whatever substance Anko had into Taro's face was seemingly not a very potent one considering the man was already starting to calm down. He would probably be able to open his eyes in a few seconds. Unfortunately, simply attacking him wouldn't do the job. The man was still a Jōnin and fighting without one of your senses was mandatory at that level, after all, but they could use his momentary distraction to make him think he was in a Genjutsu.

Using the same Jutsu as before, a combination of a Crow Clone and the Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu (Earth Release: Hiding Like A Mole Technique), his real body hid in the underground again while his clone took his former position. However, this time his clone didn't look like a carbon copy of himself but was only half-formed and had dozens of crows flying around him instead.

Just like he liked to present himself to his enemies in illusions.

He finished just in time for Taro to open his eyes.

"What?" he murmured, pain and anger still audible in his voice. "A Genjutsu?" He scoffed. "That's not gonna work on me, kid, I already proved that, didn't I?"

Forming the seal for Ram, he noticeably disrupted his chakra flow. Obviously, as they weren't actually in an illusion, nothing happened.

Taro blinked. "What the hell? Why can't I break free?"

He tried to release the 'Genjutsu' again, and then once more, before looking at him.

"You! No way you can use an illusion more powerful than the one at the beginning! What are you playing at?!" he screamed.

"Do you understand it now?" his clone asked devoid of any emotions. "Before my eyes, all your skills become meaningless. I may have underestimated you at the beginning, using only a weak technique to bind you, but I know better now. The moment our eyes met, less than a heartbeat after Anko spat into your face, I was able to use the most powerful Genjutsu in my arsenal. There is no escape from here."

'Hopefully Anko regains her breath soon and kills him' he thought.

As long as Taro thought this was an illusion, he would probably not act on anything he saw. If Anko attacked him now, he would most likely just assume that it was a trick to lead him to a position of Itachi's choosing. Going along with that would be like signing his death sentence.

Also, much more important, if he thought nothing here was real anyway, then why should he block attacks, right?

"Are you kidding me? No matter how talented you are, there is simply no way a kid like you can create such a powerful Genjutsu!"

He shrugged. "My village calls me a once-in-a-lifetime prodigy. Such a title needs to come from somewhere, don't you think?"

He growled and threw a kunai at him, probably more out of annoyance than because he thought it would actually do something.

He let it hit his clone and it went right through his chest, leaving a hole behind. Not for long, though, as some crows flew to him and 'healed' the injury almost instantly.

His opponent scoffed again, having regained his calm. "Nice trick you got there, I give you that. But shall I tell you something? This doesn't mean anything! The weakness of illusions like this, where you want to manipulate an enemy in the real world through what you show him inside the Genjutsu, is that your enemies can still use techniques of their own. And seeing that I don't have any comrades in the area, I can just blow up the entire coast!"

Itachi's eyes, both the clone's and the real one's, widened. He had no kunai nor shuriken left to throw, and Ninjutsu would be too slow, so all he could do when he saw Taro wield hand seals was to rush at him as fast as he could, knowing he wouldn't be in time.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" (Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique)

An absolutely ridiculous amount of water rose from the ocean into the air in the same way it did when Itachi had observed Kisame using that technique from time to time. If this hit them, it would be over. There was no way to survive being hit by this technique, not when it was strong enough to hollow out the ground and devastate the area similar to a natural disaster.

He saw something fly past him, and a second later a kunai embedded itself into Taro's throat. The last thing Itachi saw of the man were his wide, shocked and unbelieving eyes before the man fell to the ground.

But there was no time to celebrate as without the man controlling the water that was already in the air, there was nothing that stopped it from starting to fall down. While this wouldn't be as devastating as the original attack, it would still be enough to potentially kill them. Without hesitation, his real body emerged from the ground besides Anko, pushed her as close to him as he could, and activated his Mangekyo Sharingan.

"Susanoo!"

He had barely enough time to create some skeletal protection before the water hit them and his world went dark.