2/2

Naruto looked around the small town he and Jiraiya had entered, taking in the sights. It was a relatively small town, more of a hub for traveling merchants to stop and rest or sell some of their goods. It was the perfect place for Jiraiya and Naruto to stop for the evening, as the day began to wind down. Here they could find warm beds and good food, and also gather information from the stream of travelers going in and out of the town.

Jiraiya merely smiled as he led the way, heading directly to the most likely location for an inn within the village, stopping for a moment to eye a couple of attractive women who favored him with a smile. He continued to grin until Naruto elbowed him, causing him to start walking again while the blonde shook his head in despair.

Unbeknownst to them, two figures watched them quietly from a hill overlooking the town. Kisame whistled quietly as he saw the tall broad figure of Jiraiya. "Well that's definitely not good. Jiraiya of the Sannin? I doubt even combined we could take him on and survive. Though it'd be a hell of a fight," he said quietly.

Itachi merely kept watching, his mind working on the situation. He had to find a way to alert Jiraiya as to what was going on without blowing his cover within Akatsuki. Kisame was an aggressive, bloodthirsty shinobi, but he was still intelligent. Itachi knew he had to be subtle. A plan began to form in his head as he looked over the village. "We will simply need to separate the two then," he said quietly as he moved down towards the town, Kisame following him.

Jiraiya let out a sigh of relief as he soon saw the inn, pointing to it. "There we go. That should do nicely," he said, leading Naruto over to it. He barely paused for a moment when he felt a slight burst of chakra, internally tensing up even as externally he remained calm, paying the owner of the inn for a room for two. He had accepted the key and was turning to Naruto when he noticed the extremely attractive woman in a rather short blue dress pass by, pausing to turn and wink at Jiraiya, before moving on.

Naruto sighed as he saw the rather goofy grin spread across Jiraiya's face as the Toad Sage turned to him, handing him the key. "Why don't you go head on up and rest gaki. I'll catch up with you later," he said, before following after the woman with a spring in his step.

"Damn old perv," Naruto muttered quietly as he took the key, heading up the stairs to the room. He quickly entered, locking the door behind him before detaching the dual sword and bow scabbard from his back, allowing him to rest more easily on the bed. He quickly summoned a shadow clone, who pulled out its copy of the seal book Jiraiya had given them earlier and began to read it, while Naruto slowly pulled out his ninjato, checking the blade for any sign of weakness, rust, or blunting of the cutting edge. While he had checked all his equipment before leaving Konoha, he had been slightly pressed for time and wanted to take advantage of their stop to do a better examination of his weapons and tools.

He had just sheathed his sword after checking the hilt wrappings, and was starting to examine his crossbow when there was a knock at the door. The blonde assassin was instantly on the alert, as he doubted any of the inn staff would be bothering him and Jiraiya most likely would have simply come in through the window. Slowly standing up and securing his equipment back onto his back, he nodded to the shadow clone while he moved to the window, opening it as slowly and quietly as he could. The clone, moving to the door, extended one of its hidden blades, due to having been created without the crossbow or blade since Naruto wasn't carrying them when he created it. "Who is it?"

There was a few seconds silence before a male voice spoke on the other end. "I have a message for Naruto Uzumaki. I was told he was staying in this inn," the voice said.

Naruto shook his head, stealthily slipping out the window as the clone tensed up. "What's the message?" It asked, only for there to be a groan of annoyance and for the door to suddenly be kicked in. The clone barely dodged out of the way in time, finding itself now looking at two tall men in black cloaks with red clouds and trim. The one in the lead, with an active Sharingan, narrowed his eyes before his hand barely flickered and a shuriken buried itself in the clone, dispersing it. "He's escaped," Itachi said.

"How could you tell?" Kisame asked in surprise, as Itachi turned and quickly led the way back out of the inn.

"The target had a sword strapped to his back. The clone there didn't. Most likely it was created while he had it removed. The window was also open," Itachi said, having seen all those details in a split second. As they stepped out of the inn, he looked up and down the street, before pointing in the direction of a slight dust trail, kicked up from the dirt path by someone moving fast. "That way."

Naruto cursed the moment he got his clone's memories, having recognized the man who had dispersed it. Itachi Uchiha, the betrayer of the Uchiha clan and rogue nin of Konoha. (1) Raphael had each member of the Brotherhood study the bingo book for missing nins, so they could recognize any of them immediately while out on assassinations and know if they could take them on, or if they should exercise extreme caution. His clone had only a brief glimpse at the other figure, enough to register tall and blue but little else before it was dispersed.

Hopping along rooftops, the blonde assassin looked around frantically for any sign of Jiraiya. His searching was interrupted, however, by the whir of shuriken cutting through the air. He ducked down, hitting the dirt road and spinning, creating several shadow clones. Itachi and Kisame appeared as well as Naruto and his clones all drew their swords.

"Ooohhh, he thinks he's a swordsman," Kisame said with a grin, his hand starting to move to the hilt of his blade, only to stop as Itachi took a step forward.

"Naruto Uzumaki. You will come with us," Itachi said, his gaze locked on one of the Naruto's. Kisame had no idea which was the real one, but he knew that even without the Sharingan, Itachi was able to pick out even the smallest details in seconds that helped him see through disguises or clones.

Naruto gripped his ninjato as one of his clones spoke up. "Sorry, but my schedule is kind of booked at the moment. Rain check?" The clone quipped, only to receive a kunai from Itachi, dispersing it. Another clone had barely stepped forward to attack when a shuriken buried itself in the clone's head, dispersing it as well. The two dispersals happened within as many seconds, shaking Naruto to his core at how quickly they both had been taken out, especially since they had been at opposite ends of the group.

Itachi was about to step towards Naruto, only to stop as his eyes barely narrowed. "…you should not be here Sasuke," he said quietly, turning his head to see the form of his little brother. Naruto's eyes widened as he too saw Sasuke Uchiha, standing on a roof nearby.

Sasuke leapt off the roof, landing amongst the Naruto clones, facing Itachi. "I heard you stopped by in Konoha. And you attacked Kiseki nee-chan," Sasuke said, his voice cracking slightly with anger, his two tomoe Sharingan blazing to life. Beside him, Naruto stiffed as he heard the part concerning Kiseki, glaring at Itachi now.

"To be fair, that was more me then Itachi," Kisame said with a smirk. "She was quite fast with those swords of her. Too bad she wasn't fast enough."

Sasuke didn't spare him a glance, focusing on Itachi the whole time. "…I have waited a long time for this, traitor," he said quietly to Itachi. "For a chance to face you, to bring you in for the crimes you committed. The betrayal of Konoha, our clan, our own family!" He shouted.

Itachi watched him dispassionately, never showing any emotion at all. "…do you honestly believe you can defeat me, Sasuke? I would hope you are not that arrogant."

Sasuke drew out a pair of kunai, still watching Itachi. "Where is Jiraiya-sama?" He asked Naruto quietly.

"I really wish I knew right now," Naruto answered back, watching Kisame warily. He knew they really had no chance at all against these two, not without Jiraiya there.

Sasuke knew this as well. Despite his desire to bring Itachi down, he knew he couldn't do it on his own. And even with Naruto's aid, he doubted they would even scratch Itachi.

Itachi narrowed his eyes slightly, seeing his little brother not backing down. Behind the collar of his cloak, his lips twitched slightly into a frown, before he spoke. "Secure the jinchuuriki. I shall handle my brother," he said.

Before Sasuke could reply, Itachi was in front of him, already burying his fist into Sasuke's stomach. Sasuke's eyes went wide as he hunched over the fist, his mouth dropping open as the air was punishingly driven from his lungs. Before he could drop to his knees, Itachi had spun and kicked him, sending the genin Uchiha flying into a wall.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, only to be forced back as Kisame's sword slammed down where he had been standing.

"Pay attention gaki!" The giant swordsman yelled, immediately lashing out with a fist to destroy one of the shadow clones that had launched itself at him. He swung the sword in a wide arc, destroying all of the other clones before they could react, swinging the blade up onto his shoulder and grinning the whole time.

Naruto felt fear grip his heart at the sight of that. The speed at which Kisame had moved his blade was unreal, especially for a blade that long and heavy. He knew he likely wouldn't survive in a sword fight, as he'd have no way to block or parry that sword, and Kisame's speed meant getting inside his guard would be incredibly hard, if not impossible. He'd have to stay at range, and hope that gave him the edge. Stabbing his sword into the ground, he quickly ran through a few handsigns.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" He unleashed a fireball towards Kisame, mentally thanking Anko now for insisting he learn that technique. Yet that thought was immediately dashed from his mind as he saw Kisame swing his blade down off his shoulder, the bandage wrapped sword cutting into the fireball and causing it immediately to disperse into nothingness.

"Do they teach you Konoha shinobi nothing about the other villages?" Kisame asked with a smirk, bringing his sword back up onto his shoulder. "Tell you what kid…I'll give you one free shot at me. Then I'm going to rip your legs off and ask Itachi to cauterize the wounds," he said casually.

Naruto, hearing this, felt cold sweat from on his forehead. After seeing the casual way his opponent was treating this fight, he knew he had to do something surprising to either end this fight or at least get away. His attention was drawn away by Sasuke's cry of pain, causing him to glance over worriedly.

While Naruto had been dealing with Kisame, Sasuke had dazedly pulled himself up from the ground, only to find Itachi above him. He had tried to lunge up with a quick uppercut, only for Itachi to grab his fist, slam it back into his face, and then kick him back into the wall. Sasuke groaned in pain, feeling like he had been slammed in the gut by a hammer, as he struggled to push himself up, only for Itachi to grab him and slam him into the wall. "Why do you persist, Sasuke? You have no hope of beating me. Do not tell me you think that jinchuuriki you fought was a greater opponent then me," he said quietly.

Sasuke panted heavily, lifting his head up to glare at his brother. "I…vowed…to bring…you in," he groaned out, struggling to recover his breath. "I…made a promise…to myself…and to kaa-san."

Itachi's eyes narrowed at that. He had no desire to hurt his brother anymore then he had, and hearing his words, he knew his brother would keep coming for him. He felt pride in his little brother's dedication, but he also knew that if Sasuke kept coming after him like this, it would most likely end in his younger sibling's death, should one of the other Akatsuki members fight him instead. He needed to stop his brother from going down this path, and without compromising his position in Akatsuki or the secret of what happened that night.

Reaching a decision, he mentally begged Sasuke, his mother, and Kiseki for forgiveness. "Allow me to show you the futility of your decision, Sasuke," he said, as his Sharingan morphed into the pinwheel Mangekyou. "Tsukuyomi."

Warning, scene of mental torture

Sasuke gasped as he suddenly found himself standing in the Uchiha district, though the sky was blood-red. He frantically looked around, trying to find Itachi, only to gasp as he saw his father coming towards him, alive and well. His eyes watered a bit and he started to move towards him, only for Itachi to appear like a wraith behind Fugaku and slice through his neck with his sword, causing the man to fall to the ground as blood spurted from the neck wound.

"NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!" Sasuke screamed as Itachi stood there, blade dripping with blood. The younger Uchiha dropped to his knees as Itachi moved towards him.

"For the next twenty-four hours, you shall experience the truth, Sasuke. You will try…and you will fail to stop me," Itachi said. His words caused Sasuke to scream and hurl himself at Itachi, throwing wild punches and kicks at his older brother. Yet each blow was effortlessly dodged, blocked, or parried, with Itachi barely moving to do so. Itachi suddenly lashed out, sending Sasuke smashing into a wall. Sasuke let out a sob of pain as he slid to the floor, struggling to regain his breath, to get back up.

And then suddenly it all reset. Sasuke found himself standing again, the pain gone, and his father standing there. Sasuke's eyes widened and he quickly rushed to his father, to protect him, only for Itachi to appear in front of him, driving a foot into Sasuke's chest and kicking him away. Sasuke scrabbled madly to grab onto Itachi's leg, to prevent him from going after Fugaku, but Itachi shook him off with ease, turning towards Fugaku and raising his sword. Sasuke desperately threw a kunai at Itachi, only for him to deflect it, the blade spinning and stabbing through Fugaku's chest in the same movement. Sasuke could only scream in pain and anguish as Itachi drew his blade out, turning to look at Sasuke.

"You have twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes, and fifty-nine seconds to stop me," he said, as Sasuke sobbed in pain and rage, and the entire world reset around them.

End Scene

Sasuke let out a scream of torment and despair as he slumped against the wall, making Nartuo's eyes go wide. He nearly paid for that moment of distraction when Kisame's blade slammed down towards him, and he barely dodged back in time to avoid it.

"Looks like Itachi is really give him some brotherly love," Kisame taunted, glancing over at Itachi. Naruto stared up at Kisame, frantically trying to think of way to get out of this mess. Ninjutsu was useless and trying to engage him in taijutsu or kenjutsu would be as well. His eyes narrowed as he came up with an idea, quickly summoning twenty shadow clones. A half dozen of them spread out around behind Kisame, staying back from his reach as he merely smirked at Naruto, hefting his blade onto his shoulder. "Do you really think you can swarm me with numbers?" He taunted.

Naruto remained silent, answering instead by pulling up the hood of his outfit, as did his clones. As one, several of them suddenly leapt into the air, grabbing smoke bombs from their pouches and tossing them on the ground. A massive cloud of smoke erupted upwards, engulfing not just Kisame, Naruto and his clones, but also engulfing Itachi and Sasuke.

Kisame narrowed his eyes before quickly shifting to the side as he heard the dull 'thwack' of a crossbow firing, and felt the wind of a passing crossbow bolt that shot past him. There were several more similar noises, and Kisame quickly moved out of the way of each one, rapidly raising his sword to block a downward stroke from an airborne Naruto. He shoved them away with his sword, but before he could attack he was forced to dodge again as another crossbow bolt shot through where his head had been, before spinning to kick another Naruto that was slashing at him, dispersing it into smoke. The whole time he never saw the barely discernible shadow moving slowly through the smoke, waiting and watching.

Itachi, for the first time in quite some time, found himself surprised. The sudden thick smoke had rolled in, obscuring his vision save for a foot or two around him. He knew that for an Uchiha, this was a dangerous position. For all the power of their doujutsu, it could still be defeated simply by obscuring the wielder's vision. Itachi however had more than his doujutsu to rely on. Focusing on his other senses he released Sasuke, tensing and waiting for any noise, any movement of smoke or air to indicate the presence of someone else close by. He suddenly whirled, his arm meeting the arm of Naruto Uzumaki as the jinchuuriki struck down at him, quickly tossing the blonde towards the wall next to Sasuke only for him to disperse in a burst of smoke. Itachi ducked at the moment, a blade slicing through the air where his head had been, before delivering a lightning fast punch in that direction, only to strike air. At the same time, movement to his side caused him to turn, only to see that the catatonic form of Sasuke was gone. Itachi was about to leap from the smoke when a crossbow bolt force him to lean back slightly, glaring in the direction it had come from.

Kisame growled in annoyance as he dodged yet another crossbow bolt. "This is pointless gaki! I can keep doing this all day!" He shouted, seeing the smoke starting to disperse. He grinned at that, as he could start to see figures become more visible. He prepared to charge at them when some sixth sense suddenly went off in his mind and he turned his head, only for his eyes to widen as he saw the hooded figure of Naruto descending towards him, his left arm drawn back and a blade extended from under said arm. He was about to substitute himself when he felt a sudden flash of pain in one of his legs, as another Naruto disappeared into the smoke, having used the distraction to run past Kisame and deliver a quick slash to his leg with a kunai. Kisame quickly jerked his head out of the way, causing the descending Naruto to miss stabbing him in the neck and instead cutting his cheek. At the same time, Kisame grabbed the boy by the neck, growling angrily as he began to squeeze.

"Now you've just pissed me off," he said, only for the squirming boy to disperse into smoke. "WHAT THE HELL IS WITH ALL THE DAMN CLONES?!" He shouted angrily, finally spinning in a circle with his sword, generating a mini-whirlwind that cleared away all the smoke. A few of the clones had also been caught by the sword, dispersing as well, leaving about a half dozen or so left with their crossbows drawn, all aimed at the angry Kisame.

Itachi, seeing the smoke clouds being blown away, quickly dispatched those clones with a swift barrage of shuriken, leaving the two Akatsuki in the street. Kisame was growling angrily, blood lightly seeping from his cheek while his cloak now had a tear in it, and his left leg also had blood seeping from it. Itachi had been left untouched, as he slowly scanned the area. "…it seems our prey is more resourceful then I thought."

"I swear, I'm going to chop the little bastard's arms and legs off," Kisame growled out angrily, looking around. "Where the hell did he go?!"

"I do not know, but I think we-," Itachi said, only to suddenly jump back, as did Kisame, when a ball of oil like liquid slammed into the ground where they had been. A dozen or so feet away, Jiraiya appeared with a very large toad, roughly the size of horse, which had armored bracers covering its forearms. Beside him was Naruto, supporting the catatonic Sasuke.

"Well well, Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki. What are two S-ranked missing nins like yourself doing out here?" Jiraiya asked, setting on the ground the now unconscious woman that had lured him away earlier.

"You took your damn time getting here Ero-sennin," Naruto growled out, setting Sasuke down as well.

"I had the entire situation under control kid. Don't get your panties in a twist," Jiraiya told him.

Itachi let his stance relax fractionally. "It seems our time is up. We should withdraw," he told Kisame quietly.

The blue Kiri missing nin growled angrily in response. "We got this far, haven't we? We have to try," he snapped back, only for Itachi to shake his head.

"I've expended too much chakra, and while minor, your wounds will slow you down. Even if we were at full strength, a fight between the three of us would likely end in a draw at best. We must withdraw," Itachi said.

Kisame just growled again before slinging his sword onto his back. "Fine, damn it," he said.

Jiraiya, seeing their actions, quickly stepped forward. "Don't think you two are going anywhere!" He shouted, his toad companion readying another ball of oil in its mouth, only for the two cloaked figures to disappear in a shunshin, making Jiraiya curse softly.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief, dropping onto his butt in the road. He could already feel his limbs trembling, both from exhaustion and fear. He stared at his hands, both of them shaking; only looking up when Jiraiya's shadow was cast over him. He found Jiraiya looking down worriedly at him. "You okay gaki?" He asked.

"Yeah…yeah I'm just fine. Not like I didn't have a life and death battle with a couple of freaking S-ranked missing nins just now. And saw almost everything I used against them prove worthless," Naruto snapped at him, trying to calm his hands. This fight had been one of the worst he had ever experienced. The fight with Gaara had been bad, but Naruto at least had already been training to possibly fight him, and he had some knowledge of what to expect. This fight he had gone in blind, and against opponents who had just as easily, if not more so, defeated almost every one of his attacks. And they didn't even have nor need biju abilities to do so.

Jiraiya was about to speak when another figure appeared behind them, her eyes widening as she saw Naruto's trembling frame. "Naruto?!" Kiseki cried out, only for her eyes to then take in Sasuke. "SASUKE!"

Jiraiya turned to see Kiseki rush forward, quickly moving next to Sasuke. The female Uchiha only need one look to know what happened. "Itachi did this?" She asked, her voice strained as she looked up to Jiraiya and Naruto.

Naruto nodded quietly. "I didn't see or hear what happened. Itachi had pinned him against a wall, and suddenly Sasuke was screaming…it was…horrible," he whispered.

Kiseki shook her head. "He must have used Tsukuyomi on him too," she whispered, checking Sasuke over for any other injuries. She lifted her head, glaring at Jiraiya. "And where the hell were you?! How did this happen?!"

Jiraiya mentally flinched at that. He couldn't very well reveal that Itachi had used the genjutsu'd woman to deliver a report to him, at least not in front of Naruto. He knew Kiseki knew the truth about Itachi, but Naruto didn't. Before he could come up with a suitable reply, Naruto answered for him.

"He was off chasing some tail," Naruto snorted, before slowly and shakily standing up. "Which I'm betting those two bastards wanted in the first place."

Jiraiya winced at that, as he felt the heat of Kiseki's glare, waving his hands. "It's not like that, I swear! I knew she was under a genjutsu, meaning someone wanted to separate us! I followed her in order to draw out whoever was after us, and see who their target was."

Kiseki and Naruto both glared at him, before Kiseki slowly picked up Sasuke. "I'll get him back to Konoha," she said curtly, still glaring at Jiraiya. "And you better pray that Mikoto-sama is in a merciful mood when you return, because I doubt she'll appreciate learning her son was tortured and you could have been there to stop it."

Jiraiya winced at her words, imagining the fury that most likely would be visited upon him. He had arrived at the fight too late to stop it from happening, or else he definitely would have stepped in before Itachi did whatever he had done to Sasuke. He watched as Kiseki turned to Naruto, speaking to him quietly in a softer, more encouraging tone. Then with a final glare directed back at him, the female Uchiha was gone.

Jiraiya let out a sigh, before turning to Naruto. "Listen kid, I am really sorry for not being here. I swear to you, I really wasn't just off chasing down a girl. But I could have tried to get back here faster once I knew they were coming for you."

Naruto was taking in deep breaths, before shooting Jiraiya a look. "And why were they coming after me in the first place?! Why in the hell did I have two of the worst missing nins in the world targeting me?!" He shouted, his emotions still frayed from the fight.

Jiraiya hesitated for a moment, before he decided to answer. "…let's get back to the hotel room. We'll get some food, give you a chance to try and calm down, and I'll tell you what I can," he said.

Naruto glared at him, before pointing a finger. "You better," he said, doing his best to try and control himself. "I don't like finding out that someone I'm supposed to trust knew I had mass murdering criminals after me and didn't think I should be informed."

As Jiraiya watched Naruto turn and start to angrily stride away, he let out a tired breath. "Well…looks like I fucked up again," he muttered, rubbing one hand over his eyes as he started to follow Naruto. He could see that what bond had started to form between them was already breaking. Shaking his head, he could only pray he could make up for this.

And chapter. I honestly had intended to get all the way up to meeting Tsunade, but considering I'm at 10k words and it's the end of August/start of September, I figured that would be a good place to stop.

DLTLR: Dude…this chapter had some dark moments in it.

Elroth: Those mental torture scenes were…grim.

LR: Truth be told, I could have gone a lot worse with what Itachi did to Sasuke. I actually started off that way, but then I figured I wanted to tone it down, because it wasn't fitting the goal of what Itachi was trying to do: make his brother give up chasing him.

RS19: That still is pretty fucked up though.

LR: Yeah well, Itachi is in a really fucked up situation. He has to maintain his spy role in Akatsuki, meaning he has to maintain the façade of being a cold ruthless bastard. In canon, and this is SPOILERS so don't read if you don't want them, that's easier to do since his ultimate goal is to have Sasuke kill him, so he can still be cold and ruthless to Sasuke, up until the very end. Because his actions make Sasuke want to kill him all the more. Here, it's a different situation. Itachi is trying to protect Sasuke, but trying to do so while not revealing he's a spy for Konoha. He has to be cold and ruthless, hurting those he cares about so that he can continue to protect them and the village.

Raphael: I am glad I am not in his position. I do not think I could remain sane.

Diehard NaruHina LeafRanger: Uugghh, what is with all the serious crap here?! This is supposed to be the time where we're torturing you by blowing up the lair, not everyone moping around, feeling dark or nostalgic.

LR: Or maybe that's my plan all along, to stop you from torturing me? Did you think of that? *smirks evilly as all the OCs and personalities gasp*

Elroth: You fiend!

LR: *keeps smirking, only to suddenly be crushed as another cloaked figure appears, riding on the back of a rather large dragon*

FinalFantasyXIV Gamer LeafRanger: Hey, anyone mind if I park my Midgardsormr mount here?

LR: *from under said dragon* …..I hate you all….

Thanks for reading the chapter, and hope you all enjoyed. Special thanks goes to Bill Alain for his work betaing my chapter. And remember, timbarney110 has a Harry Potter challenge for anyone who wants to write it!

Till next time!

1. To clarify, Naruto doesn't know the truth about Itachi Uchiha. While Raphael, Anko, Yugito, and Kiseki all know, because of their various roles in the events of the death of Fugaku and the other ringleaders of the coup attempt, they never informed Naruto because he was too young to know at the time, and at this point it is a volatile village secret.