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 266: A Battle Thought Ground and Sky
"Urgh…" Itachi covered his bleeding left eye. Even after only using it for a moment, the Tsukuyomi still put a heavy strain on his eyes.
Naruto landed in front of him. "Do you need a moment to rest? You don't look too well."
Itachi's expression showed how furious he was. "Do not mock me, Naruto Uzumaki." His stare became more intense, as did the blood that was now pouring from both his eyes. "Amaterasu!"
Naruto saw black flames manifesting around him.
Right as they were about to consume him, he teleported a short distance away, where one of his kunai had been dropped by the first clone that Itachi destroyed.
"That was scary," Naruto said as he picked up the formula kunai. Those flames looked nasty, and after this brief interaction, he wasn't sure how much of that he would be able to block or absorb.
"You can truly use the Flying Thunder God Jutsu," Itachi said, trying to appear calm, but he was obviously in a lot of pain.
"Does every use of your Sharingan inflict so much damage on yourself?" Naruto commented, considering that it was probably for the best that he never got those eyes implanted in him.
He recalled that Kakashi was always exhausted and in pain when he used his eye.
But Naruto had the feeling that there was something more to Itachi's suffering...something different.
"Or maybe there's something wrong with you in particular… are you sick, perhaps?"
Itachi's response was to launch a barrage of small fireballs at him. "Fire Release… Phoenix Sage Fire!"
"Did I hit a nerve?." Naruto jumped into the air and threw his kunai down. While the blade was airborne, it exploded into a cloud of smoke, and from within it, hundreds of kunai came raining down at the general area where Itachi had been standing.
Naruto disappeared from the sky in a bolt of lightning and reappeared on top of one of the kunai that landed next to Itachi.
"Rasengan."
Itachi used a substitution jutsu to avoid the attack and gain some distance between them.
Naruto disappeared again, and once more, he reappeared on another kunai, which was the closest to Itachi. The blue Rasengan still spinning in his right hand was driven toward Itachi.
"Tsk!" Itachi had to use substitution once more. But he knew this was pointless… he had to get away from the field of formula kunai that Naruto had created, or he would never escape from his reach.
Naruto appeared next to him again. But this time, Itachi used his taijutsu skills to deflect Naruto's hand away from him while going for a counterattack.
Naruto released the Rasengan, allowing it to vanish while blocking Itachi's attack.
The two of them engaged in hand-to-hand combat.
Itachi grunted as a kick landed on his left calf. He tried to attack again, but Naruto was able to block or deflect all of his attacks.
"Urgh!" Itachi grunted louder now when another kick from Naruto landed on the exact same spot, making him lose his balance slightly.
His Sharingan showed him every move that Naruto was about to make before he did, and even then, he could not avoid them.
Naruto always chose the best moments to poke at Itachi's weaknesses, not giving him the chance to fight back.
Itachi grunted again… another kick… the same place. Itachi lost his balance and had to use his hands to keep himself from falling. His left leg was unresponsive.
Knowing that he couldn't continue with this strategy, he created several shadow clones as a distraction to get away.
The shadow clones detonated once he gained a bit of distance.
"You really thought you could beat me at taijutsu?" Naruto commented with amusement before disappearing.
"That's my specialty."
Itachi heard Naruto's voice sounding from behind him. From the corner of his eye, he saw that Naruto had stopped next to another one of those kunai of his.
"Ahhh!" This time, Itachi heard the bone in his left leg cracking and shattering under the pressure of the kick.
"Did you thought you could get away from me?," Naruto added.
Itachi tried to control his fall with his hands. His Sharingan spun rapidly as his eyes snapped toward Naruto. "Amaterasu!"
He knew that this wasn't going to kill Naruto, but he needed some breathing room to perform his next jutsu. "Summoning Jutsu!"
Beneath Itachi, a massive black crow appeared and lifted him into the air.
"I'll give it to you. You're a resourceful guy," Naruto said as he began to float in the air.
"Fire Release… Great Fireball Technique!" Itachi ignored Naruto's comments and attacked again.
Itachi expelled from his mouth a massive stream of flames that burned everything in the area.
Naruto avoided it by flying higher. "An aerial battle won't be to your advantage," he said, glancing down at the field he had been in. "But that was clever…" Itachi had destroyed all the kunai clones that Naruto had spread over the field. No more teleporting around.
Itachi then summoned more crows, this time smaller ones.
The birds surrounded Naruto as he floated over a hundred feet in the air.
The aura around Naruto grew more intense and violent as he channeled large amounts of chakra through his body. "Sage Arts… Great Flame Flower."
A multitude of massive balls of fire appeared all over the sky and began to fall upon Itachi and the summoned creatures immediately after.
This was an S-rank fire jutsu capable of decimating an entire battlefield, and Naruto had empowered it even further with the natural energy inside his chakra.
The crows summoned by Itachi began to disappear before even making contact with the fire...the heat alone was enough to cut the connection and send them back.
The giant crow that Itachi was using as a mount fared a bit better, but even with Itachi's assistance, they were not able to avoid every single attack.
A ball of fire passed too close to one of its wings, burning it completely and causing it to end the summon too early.
Itachi fell toward the field, which was now completely covered in flames, while Naruto watched from the air with his arms crossed.
"Go on… what else you got?" Naruto wondered if the Uchiha genius had already shown everything he could do. If that was the case, he was not impressed.
But just then, something rose from the black cloud of smoke that the fire had created.
A massive red hand shot out and tried to grab Naruto.
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