Disclaimer:
Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto.
I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 267: You Get to Live
"A giant construct made of chakra? Let me take a better look." Naruto avoided the hand and flew to one side.
He then brought his hands together. "Great Breakthrough!"
A powerful gust of wind pushed away all the black smoke and extinguished the remaining flames in the process.
This revealed the complete figure of the golden chakra giant.
It looked humanoid in shape, with two large arms but no visible legs. Only the torso seemed to be coming out of the ground, while Itachi himself was inside the belly of the construct.
There was a shield on the left hand, while the right one was empty.
"You wanted to see more, Naruto? My Susanoo will be the last thing you see," Itachi exclaimed before attacking again.
A massive sword appeared in the empty hand of the giant, and it brought the blade down upon Naruto at lightning speed.
"Sage Arts… Wind Barrier!" Naruto created a series of interlocking currents of wind that pushed against each other and anything that tried to approach him.
Itachi's ethereal blade was only stopped momentarily, as Naruto noticed that it seemed to be removing the wind itself from its path.
'That sword seems to have some nasty ability too. I better not let it touch me,' he thought.
In an instant, he allowed the 'Eight Gates' inside his body to open at the same time.
His pure chakra began to flow violently, like water pouring from a broken dam, and Naruto felt like he was brimming with energy.
Itachi noticed the change, but from his position, he had no way of knowing that Naruto had just used one of Konoha's deadliest kinjutsu.
Naruto moved faster than the speed of sound and positioned himself on the other side of the battlefield.
"I believe it's my turn to attack," Naruto said as he extended both hands at his sides.
Swirls of energy formed two spheres, one before his right palm and one before his left.
One of the spheres emitted a pure white light, while the other seemed to be encased in darkness.
"That's…" Itachi had a worried expression on his face as he looked at what Naruto was doing.
Not willing to let him finish his preparations, Itachi moved his chakra construct to strike at him again.
The Totsuka Blade, wielded by the Susanoo, was able to seal anything it touched. If he could get a good hit on Naruto, he could end this fight in an instant.
The chakra giant moved its massive body and brought the blade down on Naruto.
At that moment, Naruto moved his hands together.
As the black and white spheres of energy touched, they created a violent reaction.
The blade of the Susanoo was not allowed to get any closer and was instead pushed back by an immensely powerful shockwave generated by Naruto's technique.
Itachi raised the Susanoo's shield to protect himself from what was coming. He could barely see what Naruto had created, but his instincts were screaming at him to get away.
There was a large black sphere in Naruto's hands. Pure white lines ran inside it, moving almost like lightning bolts, piercing the darkness within.
The sphere was rotating at a tremendously fast pace and emitting a sharp noise that grew louder every second.
Naruto's eyes snapped into focus, looking at the figure of his opponent.
"Yin-Yang Release… Rasengan Blast!"
A beam of pure energy shot out from his hands and instantly hit the shield that the Susanoo was holding.
This was the Yata Mirror, a legendary artifact believed to be capable of blocking any attack.
This was… until today, at least.
Itachi watched in shock as cracks appeared on the shield in front of him. The black and white beam of energy that Naruto had shot at him was also rotating at an impossible speed, destroying his most powerful defense in the process.
He only had a couple of seconds to contemplate the scene before his legendary shield gave in, allowing Naruto's attack to pass through and obliterate everything in its path.
Itachi's vision went dark, his last thoughts about his little brother and how he had failed to both protect him and avenge him.
'I'll have to apologize in the next life if I have the chance…' Those were his last thoughts.
Or so he thought.
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Itachi opened his eyes. The sunlight blinded him and confused him at the same time.
"I'm… alive?"
"Not many of my opponents get to say that, but yes… you are."
He heard Naruto's voice coming from his side.
Itachi snapped his head in the direction of the sound, and his vision began to return slowly.
He was lying down with his back against some sort of broken wall. Naruto was sitting on top of a rock, just a few feet away from him.
"Why…" That was the first thing he wanted to know. Why was he alive? Why wasn't he killed?
"It was a fun fight. But I don't appreciate being used," Naruto said with a serious expression on his face.
"Used?..." Itachi didn't understand.
"You never expected to win this battle, did you? You wanted to die, and you wanted me to do it, for some reason," Naruto told him.
"Ah…" He hadn't anticipated that Naruto would realize that or even consider it. From what he knew about him, Naruto would kill anyone who made a move against him, regardless of their motivations.
"You are sick," Naruto added.
Itachi coughed a few times. "I am more than sick… and I have nothing left. You should have let me die. I won't last long anyway."
His eyes had lost most of their light, his vision was blurry at best, and he felt exhausted.
"I'm not a healer, so I can't help you with that. But Tsunade is quite good at it," Naruto said, looking to his side. "Is there something you can do about that?"
"Maybe, but we'll need to bring you back to Konoha for proper treatment, Itachi. What do you say?"
"Lady Tsunade?!" Itachi recognized the form of the Legendary Sannin next to him.
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