Pushing the limits

"That's some precise control over his sword. It wouldn't have been easy for him to deflect Sasuke's sword which was coming with so much speed and power." Shikamaru said to which the others nodded. They understood that Itachi hadn't taken the brunt of the attack and had redirected it to the ground.

Sasuke was shocked to see something like this and since he had already lost his footing, he was deciding whether to pull out the sword and risk getting hit by the Anbu or just jump back and then search for a chance to get his sword back. Sasuke had many other strengths than Kenjutsu so he won't have much of an issue if he loses his sword for a few seconds.

As Sasuke was deciding, he saw Itachi coming toward him but he wasn't looking at Sasuke but above him.

RASENGANNN

The 4 Narutos jumped from above Sasuke and 2 of them stretched their hand toward Itachi. No one in the crowd could guess which one was the real Naruto.

As the 2 Narutos reached close to Itachi, he threw his sword toward one of the Narutos and then held the hand of the other Naruto and delivered a kick to his chest. Everyone expected one of these Narutos to be the real one and either get hurt by the attack or dodge it but surprisingly both of them disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Huh? Both of them were clones?" Sakura asked as she began to feel curiosity. Just then one of the Narutos turned into a big Shuriken and the remaining Naruto threw the big Shuriken at Itachi and then rushed at Itachi with kunais in each hand.

The Big shuriken forced Itachi to step aside and this would mean that Itachi without any weapon on him would be in front of Naruto with two weapons in hand. But just then Itachi put his hand in his utility belt pocket and pulled out a kunai as he was midair jumping to the side and his other hand was still outstretched in the air as it had thrown the sword at the Rasengan holding naruto clone.

"The Anbu can block one of the kunais with its kunai but I am sure that Naruto will use the other kunai to attack at a random spot." Temari said. She was impressed to see Naruto grow up to become this powerful.

Just as Itachi blocked one of Naruto's kunai attacks with his own attack, the others were looking at Naruto's other hand as to where he will attack the Anbu but...

Pooffff

The Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke as well. Everyone's including Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw that and then all their focus turned in a completely different direction. This was the direction where the big Shuriken was and the Shuriken turned into Naruto.

Naruto didn't waste much time and lunged at Itachi to attack him while he had his back toward him.

"The real Naruto was the Shuriken? Only he can think of something this crazy." Kiba commented to which Kakashi nodded and said "He really is the most unpredictable knucklehead ninja I have ever seen.

Naruto was confident that he was going to land the attack and the crowd was sure of it as well when suddenly they saw Itachi jerk his hand with a quick movement. Naruto didn't understand at first what Itachi was trying to do instead of focusing on turning back and doing something to counter him but Naruto suddenly stopped and leaned backward and the next moment he saw the sword pass in front of him and go back toward Itachi.

"What the hell? How is the sword flying back to you." Naruto asked as he looked at the sword in shock and that's when he and everyone saw something shine near Itachi's hand and soon it was clear what the shine was.

"T-That's a transparent thread." Sasuke who had just recovered his sword shouted.

"He had a thread connected to his hand and the hilt of the sword? That's why he threw the sword so easily." Kurenai said to which Asuma asked "Doesn't that mean that he knew that the big Shuriken was the real one?"

Jiraiya who had been quiet this whole time shook his head and said "No...it means that he had prepared scenarios in his mind about each of those clones being the real Naruto and he also applied contingencies for them in such a short amount of time. He didn't take any clone for granted and executed his plan seamlessly."

Tsunade chuckled as she heard Jiraiya praise Itachi and said "Jiraiya don't forget we are here to grade Naruto & Sasuke, not the Anbu."

Kakashi looked at the side at Tsunade and asked "Lady Tsunade this Anbu definitely has the skill of a kage-level shinobi. Now I am curious as to who he is." se

"So am I" Jiraiya chimed in. The fact that he didn't know of such a shinobi being mentored by his own sensei and now the Anbu's strength, the curiosity was getting to him.

On the training ground, after his attack had failed Naruto jumped and stood beside Sasuke. "Looks like we will have to team up on this Sasuke." Naruto said. Sasuke didn't reply but subtly nodded.

Sasuke activated his Sharingan and said "Overwhelm him with your clones and I will sneak an attack in."

Naruto smirked as he liked that idea with a few hand signs he created nearly 100 clones all around him. All the clones looked at Itachi and rushed at him like a swarm of bees. Some were in the air, some were coming from the side, and some were head-on. Itachi knew that he couldn't use the techniques that everyone knew Itachi used in the past which included the fireball jutsu and the exploding clone jutsu.

Within seconds, Naruto's clones surrounded Itachi completely. Just as everyone thought the clones were going to attack Itachi, the clones started creating Rasengans of their own.

"What??? Don't tell me Naruto plans to create close to 50 Rasengans at a time?" Temari asked in shock.

"When you have the chakra pool to back it up...I guess this is the best option." Shikamaru shrugged.

But then they noticed that something was different. The clones weren't creating rasengans in pairs but three at a time with one guy standing in the middle and 2 clones creating rasengans in each hand of his.

Itachi was trying to find an opening to stop this from happening but since he was the only opponent and he had no idea who the real Naruto was, he had to wait.

Just as the clones finished creating the Rasengans, all the clones shouted "Be ready for my RASENGAN BARRAGE"

They all rushed at Itachi with the rasengans in their hand and the ones that didn't have it made sure that Itachi had no way to find a gap and escape the encirclement. Knowing that he can't face that many rasengans at a time and he can't disperse into ravens as it would be a dead giveaway, Itachi jumped up in the air. Just as he was looking around, he heard a voice from behind him

"I knew that this is the only move you could make." Sasuke smirked and the next second Itachi saw a Chidori shaped like a funnel form in Sasuke's hand. Sasuke aim the chidori at Itachi's chest. He was able to cover the distance pretty quickly but Itachi reacted instantly as well and was able to turn sideways mid-air but this didn't mean he escaped the attack unscathed.

The Chidori grazed the surface of his chest. Itachi quickly fell back but composed himself and stood back up. Itachi on the other hand landed on the ground with the Chidori still in hand. He dispersed it and stood silently.

"Huh? Why is Sasuke wasting this chance? He finally managed to injure the Anbu and instead of attacking he is just standing?" Sakura asked. Everyone else was wondering the same thing.

Naruto dispersed his clones and stood beside Sasuke and said "Come on let's attack."

Sasuke looked at Lady Tsunade and said "Is this enough? I am sure he is holding himself back quite a bit and that should have been instructed by you."

Tsunade smirked and said "Well even if that's the case, you didn't use too many jutsus yourself and held back. I can say that you have definitely become as strong as a Jonin."

Kakashi stepped toward Tsunade and said "Lady Tsunade are you sure? Sasuke and Naruto have hardly shown any skill. I am sure that they can show us a lot more."

"I agree with Kakashi sensei. I want him to go all out so that Naruto and I can do the same."Sasuke said but then Tsunade glanced at Itachi for a second and then back at Sasuke and said "No...I think we have heard enough. Go back to my office and I will fulfill our promise."

Naruto and Jiraiya wanted the fight to carry on as they were excited to show the progress but then he saw Tsunade had a serious expression on her face. The other jonins noticed that as well and left the training ground.

Tsunade walked toward Itachi and asked in a low voice "What happened? You decided to let him injure you."

"Looks like I have attracted unwanted attention. We will soon have to face a demon we have been avoiding for quite a while now." Itachi said as he looked in a direction where there was nobody to be seen.

(Who will win the fight and how much have they both grown. Where is Yami and what is he even doing? Ans to all your questions are posted in my P@treon)

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