Konohagakure No Sato :
Training Ground 3 :
The clearing was completely devastated. The landscape looked like a natural disaster had torn through it, and the craziest part was that all of this destruction had happened in just the single minute since Sasuke had been evacuated.
On one side of the ruined field stood two S-rank shinobi, terrifying members of the Akatsuki.
Uchiha Itachi stood in serious silence. Looking at his perfectly calm expression, you would think this explosive two-minute brawl had absolutely nothing to do with him.
But internally, Itachi's mind was racing as his Sharingan swept over the massive army of Shadow Clones surrounding them.
(.....Chakra reserves are exactly as expected from a Jinchuriki... and an Uzumaki. A war of attrition is definitely not in our favor.)
Itachi rapidly assessed the situation. He factored in his own failing health and the deteriorating state of his eyes, all while evaluating his partner's battered condition.
( Normally Kisame is there to Handles this kind of war of attrition with his Massive chakra ....but now )
Frowning slightly, Itachi glanced at Injured Kisame. As a partner, Kisame was highly satisfactory. They covered each other's weaknesses perfectly. Kisame loved the thrill of fighting and killing, which Itachi despised.
Kisame was weak to genjutsu which He himself Compensated , but kisame made up for this weakness with his monstrous chakra reserves, perfectly compensating for Itachi's low stamina , which He Disguised to cover his health Issues from Organisation .
And Above all, Kisame followed his orders without complaint.
(Even if it's just a corpse... I must take Kisame back with me. Leaving him here will cause too many problems & questioning within the Organization.)
Kisame's chest was visibly caved in, riddled with deep, bloody holes 2 fingers width that were still leaking heavily. The only reason the shark-man was even standing was that the injuries were Minute fresh, and sheer adrenaline was keeping him upright.
"How much longer can you hold on?" Itachi asked quietly.
"...Huff... Maybe five minutes? Huff... Or less?" Kisame gasped, clutching his chest. "If not... huff... Itachi-san, you can leave. I'll hold the brat here."
On the opposite side of the clearing, the boy facing down these two S-rank legends made no move to interfere.
ANd Why would he?
With Kisame bleeding out, every wasted second was a massive advantage.
Naruto stood there casually in his festival kimono—the exact same one he hadn't bothered to change out of since the Hokage inauguration that morning.
The fierce, high-speed bout had left the kimono ruffled and his long blonde hair wild and disheveled. Seeing the two criminals whispering to each other, Naruto decided to join the 'chat' and stall for a little more time.
"...How about you guys just surrender?"
Hearing the blonde's words, both S-rank rogues shot him a look like he was an idiot. Naruto just rolled his eyes right back, pointing a finger at Kisame.
"Those chains completely pierced your torso. Then you took a point-blank shuriken barrage, and finally, that punch. I'm certain your organs are pierced , your lungs are punctured, and that last hit definitely cracked your front ribcage....Hell The chais pierced through you know "
"..."
"Surrender, and at least you'll live. I highly doubt you guys are that blindly loyal to your little organization, considering you're rogues anyway."
The clearing fell dead silent, save for Kisame's heavy huffing as the agonizing pain in his chest made breathing more and more difficult. Seeing this, Naruto smirked and shifted his gaze.
"You too, Itachi-san. Sasuke really misses you, day and night. I've been watching him for the last few years since academy to the Team 7 forming and becoming his teammate "
"...."
" ' I have ONly One GOAL ....AN THAT IS TO KILL THAT MAN AT ALL COSTS' he said "
"...."
" Whether he's in class, eating lunch, sleeping in bed, Or in Team meetings or even while he's peeeeeeeeing...!!!"
"..."
"He really just chants 'Itachi, Itachi' everywhere he goes. I'm sure he'd be the happiest if you stayed—"
Suddenly, Naruto's eye twitched as he effortlessly shattered yet another genjutsu Itachi had covertly thrown his way. While his Mind Partition skill was fantastic for breaking illusions, it required him to constantly dedicate two mental partitions to the task:
one to detect the genjutsu
and another to break it.
Having to do it back-to-back while trying to talk was starting to get...
(...really annoying.)
Naruto stopped talking abruptly as Itachi layered on another illusion. Dropping the banter, Naruto casually shoved a hand into his pocket.
The sudden movement instantly drew the sharp attention of both S-rank criminals. But to their bewilderment, Naruto simply pulled out a small rubber band.
(....even without looking at him in the eye , he is still sending These Genjutsus silently and effortlessly )
Gathering his wild, disheveled hair, Naruto tied it back into a neat ponytail. As he did, his deep blue eyes locked directly onto Itachi's forehead, his voice dripping with Calm amusement.
"Just so you know, Itachi-san..."
"..."
Snapping another latest genjutsu like a dry twig, Naruto finished fixing his hairin ponytail as he spoke calmly
" Genjutsu of that level... doesn't work on me.....!! "
A mild breeze swept through the devastated clearing, rustling both the Uchiha's and the Uzumaki's hair. For perhaps the very first time, Itachi looked at Naruto with seriousness.
(Even elite Jonin don't possess this kind of genjutsu resistance...)
While he still had his Susanoo and other Mangekyou eye techniques, Itachi had no intention of using them right now. Realizing that Naruto had this absurd level of genjutsu immunity, and his guard against him that was never looking him in the eye .
Combined with Kisame's critical condition, Itachi decided that an immediate retreat was their only viable play.
( ....time is also not on our side)
Itachi's breathing hitched slightly as he spoke to his partner.
"Is there no solution?"
"...Huff... Unless I fuse... huff... with Samehada and use my Shark-Man form...!!" Kisame coughed violently.
"But Samehada is... haaa..." Kisame sighed at this point as samehada had already not in his hands anymore
"Good," Itachi interrupted smoothly. "Then retrieve Samehada. I will hold him here."
Kisame's small, shark-like eyes widened in shock at that proclamation. He had fully expected Itachi to abandon him to die. After all, whether it was Itachi or himself, they were exactly the same breed of shinobi:
Men who slaughtered their own comrades for their goals. Kisame butchered his ANBU squadmates; Itachi massacred his own kin.
While Kisame deeply respected Itachi, he had never expected this kind of selfless loyalty from Itachi itself —not that he was complaining.
Hearing Itachi make that promise while standing at death's door , Kisame wiped the blood from his chin, smirked weakly, and whispered.
"...Thank you... Itachi-san."
Seeing them both ready, Naruto locked his focus. Instantly, a familiar, whisper-like notification from a long forgotton game echoed in his mind.
( ROUND TWO...!!! )
Itachi kicked off the ground first, blurring forward to confront the Naruto standing in the front—the one who had just casually tied his hair up.
His first move was blindingly fast.
Seeing the ridiculous speed of Itachi's hand seals, Naruto wasn't surprised, but his eye still twitched as he recognized the jutsu.
[Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu]
(Are you serious..??)
Naruto realized a split second later that this was no ordinary fireball. Itachi's technique wasn't just massively oversized—spanning three to four meters across—it was insanely fast.
[Body Replacement Technique]
Naruto opted for a basic E-rank jutsu to dodge the elite Uchiha's C-rank attack.
He displaced himself five meters away just as a resounding, deafening explosion rocked the clearing, sending a violent shockwave of hot air washing over him.
BOOOM!
(Whoa... that fireball's explosion radius is ridiculous.)
Suddenly, Naruto spotted Itachi blurring out from the right side of the explosion, his timing and speed absolutely flawless.
Seeing Itachi's positioning, Naruto nodded to himself and leaped directly backward again .
Even Before , He purposefully avoided dodging to the front, left, or right, knowing that doing so would have forced a head-on confrontation and—more dangerously—direct eye contact with the Uchiha.
Itachi was mildly surprised. An aggressive Shinobi like Naruto dodging backward instead of closing the distance? It was out of character from what he observed till now .
But just as Itachi decided to press the attack, he watched Naruto trigger the Body Flicker technique, rocketing even further backward.
Itachi's Mangekyou Sharingan widened seeing Naruto's running direction
(Not good... his target is..... Kisame!)
Naruto sprinted away without even looking back. Seeing this, Itachi's eyes narrowed. Moving flawlessly, he completed a sequence of hand seals with one hand while diving into his ninja pouch with the other.
[Fire Release : Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson]
Itachi launched a spread of shurikens, igniting them mid-air into blazing, fire-coated projectiles aimed squarely at Naruto's back.
But suddenly, a dense barrage of spinning wate shots rained down from the canopy above and from almost every direction around Itachi.
Itachi's eyes widened as his flaming shurikens were perfectly intercepted and snuffed out by the water jutsu.
But his Mangekyou captured something else, too: these water shots weren't just aimed with pinpoint precision. It was a wide-area suppression attack designed to completely box him in from multiple directions as most shadow clones from all directions used this Jutsu .
Seeing himself surrounded, Itachi's hands blurred again.
[Earth Release: Earth Dome]
A thick dome of earth erupted from the ground, perfectly shielding Itachi from the multi-directional water assault. But almost immediately, he heard the Earth cracking.
Thanks to his Mangekyou, Itachi knew that the jutsu hitting him was a simple D-rank Water Shot. It shouldn't have possessed the power to even scratch his defense especially Earth release Jutsu .
His mind raced, piecing the details together.
(...Was it because He added rotation to the water shots?)
Suddenly, Itachi's eyes contracted. Looking down, he saw three... no, four hands erupting from the dirt floor inside the dome.
And every single hand was clutching an ignited explosive tag.
BOOOOM!
Dozens of Naruto Shadow Clones watched in anticipation as the Earth Dome violently blasted open. But their eyes instantly contracted as a flickering aura of spectral, orange ribs manifested within the smoke—only to vanish a second later.
Every single clone understood exactly what that meant.
(...Susanoo.)
Itachi stepped out of the smoke completely unscathed, though a fresh trail of blood was now leaking from one of his eyes.
Ignoring the pain, his bleeding eyes locked onto the retreating Naruto, who had already put a massive distance between them. But thanks to the flattened terrain and his Mangekyou, Itachi still had a clear line of sight.
Seeing Naruto relentlessly hunting Kisame, Itachi focused solely on the boy's back—specifically the flashy festival kimono—and triggered his ultimate weapon.
[ Amaterasu ]
Black flames instantly erupted, engulfing the running Naruto's back.
But Itachi's eyes widened in shock as the boy didn't even break his stride, completely ignoring the inextinguishable flames. A second later, his confusion was answered as the fire fully consumed the blonde.
POOF!
The 'Naruto' dispersed into a cloud of white smoke.
Itachi stared at the lingering smoke, his mind working at lightning speed.
(...He swapped his main body with a Shadow Clone... it must have happened the moment I used the Earth Dome.)
Suddenly, Itachi's eyes narrowed as the atmosphere in the clearing grew incredibly heavy.
Looking around, he realized that every single Shadow Clone in the area was staring him down with dead-serious expressions and palpable killing intent.
Unfazed, Itachi analyzed the situation with cold detachment.
(...Sixty percent of the Shadow Clones have disappeared.... Did they go after Kisame with the main body?)
His brow furrowed slightly as he reached conclusion.
(......Kisame.)
Without hesitation, Itachi blurred forward, moving in the exact same direction the main body had fled.
Or Kisame's direction
Seeing Itachi make his move, the remaining Shadow Clones sprang into action.
[Wind Release: Wind Bullets] X 20
Once again, Itachi found himself completely surrounded by a dense storm of compressed air bullets firing from every direction.
(The exact same tactic... using low-level jutsu spread over a wide area to suppress or damage me.)
Itachi's Mangekyou spun rapidly as he felt the sheer pressure of the assault. The tactic seemed rudimentary, but considering how many clones were firing and the sheer volume of chakra required to sustain it...
(...And all of this is being done simultaneously by clones of the exact same person. ...Uzumaki Naruto.)
Facing down hundreds of wind bullets, and remembering the explosive tag ambush that had forced him to use Susanoo, Itachi decided on a different countermeasure.
[Phoenix Sage Fire Technique]
Utilizing his absurdly fast hand seals, Itachi leapt and spun mid-air, spitting out a massive volley of fast-moving, localized small fireballs. The fireballs intercepted the wind bullets perfectly, violently exploding on contact.
The Shadow Clones watched seriously as the fireballs fed off the wind, creating a massive chain reaction of Fiery explosions that completely engulfed their jutsu.
"Fire is stronger than Wind-natured chakra... Academy basics," one clone noted dryly.
Suddenly, another clone scratched his head. "...Now that you think about it..."
"What?" Clone B asked, annoyed, while picking his nose.
"When we used the water shots..." Clone C pointed at the crater below.
"...He used Earth," Clone D finished, adjusting his Imaginary Aizen glasses
"Em," Clone E mumbled, looking half-asleep.
"Earth beats Water," Clone F yelled from the ground.
"...Is this guy like Kakashi?!" Clone G screamed from the top of the canopy.
"With that 'Sharingan', he can probably anticipate our jutsu and counter it simultaneously with the superior element," Clone H muttered, keeping his eyes locked on Itachi's position.
"...So how do we do this, then?" Clone I asked, cracking his neck.
"Don't panic! We have the chakra advantage!" Clone J announced, crouching on a tree branch like Spider-Man.
Clone K yelled in the middle , violently grabbing his crotch for emphasis "Don't forget about the BALLS! ...I mean, the Rasengan!"
"Idiot! We're clones! We don't have enough chakra to spam that!"
"Oh. Right."
"Believe in yourselves! Didn't we intercept his flaming shuriken with water shots earlier?"
"That's right!"
"OHHH!" thirty-three clones cheered in unison as they felt moticvated by themselves .
"F*CK...! THE FIRE IS SPREADING! RUN.....!" a clone suddenly screamed.
"...It's like a fire cyclone! How did that happen?!"
"...That bastard must have used Wind Breakthrough from the inside to fan the flames!"
"...Fuck! If we had used it, wouldn't we have burned him alive?!"
"But wouldn't he just risk burning himself right now?"
"Don't forget the 'glowing ribs', idiot!"
"Lunatic!"
"RUN!" X 20
In seconds, a ten-meter radius was completely engulfed in a raging firestorm, scattering the clones. As the storm finally began to die down and the smoke cleared, one clone sighed heavily, massaging his temples.
"...Let's just execute Plan S " Clone M groaned.
"YOSH!" the remaining thirty-four clones yelled in unison, quickly shifting into their designated positions.
Itachi emerged from the dying firestorm. Assessing the new distance between himself and the clones, he breathed a small sigh of relief.
Suddenly Without breaking stride, he casually flicked a kunai straight down into the dirt, cleanly impaling a Shadow Clone that was trying to ambush him from underground.
Poof!
Itachi's Mangekyou spun, his eye twitching slightly.
(With this much distance... I only need to focus on Earthe Mole ambushes.)
Itachi flicked another shuriken down, popping a second clone who was using the Earth Mole jutsu again to ambush him .
Seeing this, the remaining clones suddenly rushed Itachi from all sides. Itachi also stated moving his direction still the same , entirely focused on his primary objective: reaching Kisame.
(....shouldn't be problem to reach Kisame in 2 minutes )
While it looked like Itachi was cornered by over thirty clones, they were spread out in all directions . There were only about six or seven clones directly in his path, with the rest trying to flank him or were underground or on tree or smiliarly spread out .
Furthermore, at the end of the day, these were just standard Shadow Clones—they didn't possess the main body's systemic buffs or overwhelming chakra reserves.
Confident he could easily break through and reach Kisame, Itachi prepared to strike.
But suddenly, his eyes narrowed. The majority of the clones simultaneously executed a jutsu—one that his eyes did not recognize as they read the Chakra inside the clones .
(A jutsu I don't know? ....Is this an original?)
Itachi's body tensed as the Shadow Clones inhaled deeply.
[ Wind Release: Soot Cloud Jutsu ] x 17
Instantly, the clearing was flooded with an incredibly dense, greying smog. Itachi was completely swallowed by the smoke, and he was forced to abruptly slow his pace.
(It's similar to a Smoke Bomb or the Hidden Mist jutsu.... Did he use this specifically to counter the Sharingan?... My long-range vision is now hindered.)
Suddenly, Itachi felt his chest tighten as the thick, ashy smoke began to fill the air around him.
(....Is there poison or something mixed into the smoke?)
Not willing to take the risk, Itachi held his breath. He considered using a Wind Release jutsu to blow the smog away, but calculated the risks.
(To disperse smoke this heavy, I'd need to use Great Breakthrough. But to do that, I either need to inhale a massive amount of this tainted air, or expel a significant amount of chakra to generate it.)
Factoring in his already damaged lungs and the unknown nature of the grey smoke, Itachi immediately discarded the first option. As for the second, it would put too much strain on his dwindling chakra reserves cosidering the current situation
[ Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu ]
BOOOM!
Opting for brute force, Itachi unleashed his most proficient C rank jutsu, using the fireball's explosive shockwave to forcefully clear a ten-meter radius of breathable air. Stepping into the center of the cleared zone, he finally took a breath.
But he didn't stop there. Itachi immediately chained it into another jutsu.
[ Water Release: Starch Field ]
A viscous, highly sticky golden liquid erupted from Itachi's mouth, raining down over the surrounding ground to completely trap enemy movements.
The closest Shadow Clones instantly found their feet glued to the floor.
"What the hell is this?!"
"This wasn't in the data files!"
"No, wait! I think I remember this from a filler ?!"
"Who the hell watches the fillers?!"
(Damn it, since when did Uchiha F*cking Itachi started to get sticky?! )
the Shadow Clones panicked, their collective minds racing.
With the explosion, the dispersing smoke, and the sticky fluid trapping them, the clones completely lost sight of Itachi, as they lacked the main body's sensory skills and systemic buffs.
(He should still be in that clearing!) they deduced.
But they weren't given the luxury of time. After catching his breath, Itachi bolted forward, choosing a direct path to break out.
Seeing him move, the clones abandoned brainstorming and committed entirely to the plan.
Itachi had just reached the edge of the smoke screen when he heard a sharp, commanding voice echo from within the smog. His Mangekyou instantly locked onto a single Naruto clone, who had slammed a massive scroll onto the ground.
"SUMMONING JUTSU!"
A massive cloud of white smoke erupted. Itachi skidded to a halt, genuinely caught off guard.
(...Summoning Jutsu? Does Uzumaki Naruto have a summoning contract?)
As the smoke began to clear, Itachi heard Naruto's dramatic, booming voice, followed by the appearance of the 'Beast'.
"GO, TSUNADE NEE-CHAN...! .....I CHOOSE YOU.....!" X 27 screamed Shadow Clones simultaneously
Plan S: Summoning the Fifth Hokage.
The Thug Sannin
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Author's Notes :
At first i want to hang you guys at summoning without telling who summoned , but then I remembered that you may misunderstood as summoning Po or even Simba
That would have been hella funny , a shame that I authour make sure to not include comedy in serious fights .
though Itachi's face would have been priceless if he saw simba being summoned to deal with him Haha
Well I think his face is also hilarious in front of fifth Hokage too .
For thouse who wanted Itachi's fight ,
I will give you explanation in next chapter , tough with your brains it shouldn't be neccesarry .
Naruto also didn't really confront Itachi either
but the answer for this is already clear as NAruto's Target has always been 1 since the beginning .
In case you are windering , Just as in chunin exam , how using Heaven and earth clone you can Summon Iruka , or how sand used summonin gTo nfilterate ,Naruto used the same method .
Further explanation in next chapt ,unless you deem it unneccessary ?
I still appreciate your advises though .
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