His excitement was palpable. Some may say it is wrong to be excited about what is to be the greatest test of his life, but he was. It has been a long road, fraught with challenges and mistakes, but if he can accomplish his life's goal here, it'd be worth it. He'd finally be free to start living, to focus on something other than her. What made it all the sweeter was that he was going to do this with the support of his best friend, the person following closely behind him.
"Oi, dobe, remember our deal," Sasuke said as they made their way down the corridor to the main hall.
"I'm aware, teme. She's yours unless you get in over your head," Naruto said while rolling his eyes. The two shared no more words as they headed towards what promised to be the most difficult confrontation either of them had had since they fought each other at the Valley of the End.
Sasuke would be thankful for the rest of his days that his friend managed to defeat him that day. He wasn't immediately and said every hateful thing he could think of to the blond while in ANBU lockup. He cursed his very existence, even after the blond pleaded with the Hokage to grant him a measure of leniency. It was well after Naruto left for his training trip that Sasuke managed to become thankful to his friend and he was grateful Naruto forgave him instantly upon his return. Team 7 was back and better than ever.
Konoha Intelligence had received word that the Akatsuki killed Orochimaru and that Itachi and Kisame were seen in a part of Fire Country near an abandoned Uchiha hideout. Sasuke requested the mission to apprehend her and Kisame; he had to admit he was surprised when the mission was cleared. The squad left an hour later with Naruto receiving a hug from Hinata as they departed. He thought it was weird at the time, not knowing those two were together.
When they arrived at the hideout, Kakashi and Sakura elected to take on Kisame so Naruto and Sasuke could advance. While Kisame said it was supposed to be a private meeting between siblings, even he knew he wasn't going to beat Kakashi, Sakura, and Naruto by himself. The duo wasted little time passing him by, Sasuke moving a little quicker, unable to hide his anticipation.
The pair arrived to see Itachi sitting on a throne, which Naruto helpfully classified as "Boss bitch status". After an exchange of words, Sasuke and Itachi engaged each other in a fever-pitched battle. Shurikenjutsu countered shurikenjutsu, katon jutsu countered katon jutsu. Sasuke even managed to reverse one of Itachi's genjutsu. The young avenger was doing well against the Uchiha prodigy, but both knew they would be escalating their fight. Naruto was content to remain on standby, actually keeping his eyes closed and allowing his sensor ability to relay any pertinent information about the exchanges between the two combatants. As the two were starting to take things to the next level, Naruto felt a troubling chakra fluctuation and without a second thought, he acted.
The two sharing users were surprised to see the blond blur emerge between them. Sasuke was more than Itachi as he watched his best friend sink the second knuckle of his index finger into Sasuke's chest, before rotating it and ending with a palm strike. The blow immediately caused Sasuke's heart to go into arrhythmia. Itachi, still shocked by Naruto's actions, didn't have time to react to the shadow clone that placed a paralysis seal on her. Naruto made another clone to attend to Sasuke and keep the boy from dying as he attended to his target.
Without wasting a moment or a movement, Naruto and his initial shadow clone placed Itachi on a prepared sealing array. The two then started to blur through a series of hand signs. It is only because her Sharingan was still active that Itachi knew it was 140 seals performed flawlessly. Before she could start to break down what the extensive sealing chain could do, she was engulfed in a golden glow as the sealing array started to move up her body before concentrating on her neck. It took less than three minutes for the process to complete, and when it was done, Itachi had a seal on her neck, near her left collarbone, in the shape of a Uzumaki spiral.
The nuke-nin was beyond confused. First, her foolish little brother's friend attacked him and incapacitated her. He then went through some complex sealing procedure, but instead of hurting, she felt better than she had in years. She could no longer control her curiosity. "Naruto-kun, what did you do to me?" she asked.
"In short, I healed you."
"Why?"
"Don't ask questions you already know the answer to," Naruto shot back, clearly annoyed with the Uchiha.
Taking note of his tone, Itachi relented and asked a different question, "How?"
"Baa-chan's Creation Rebirth mixed with a non-evil version of Orochimaru's curse mark. Given the potency and composition of my chakra, it's ideal for radical healing. It took a lot of clones and a lot of hours to come up with that, so I hope you appreciate it."
"I don't know why you interfered. This was not a matter for you to get involved in. And why can I still feel your seal working if it was only a one-time usage? I regret getting you that beginner's book on seals," she said.
Ignoring her initial comments, Naruto replied, "If your condition was degenerative, which I suspect it was, reversing the damage doesn't cure the condition. The seal will continue to fight off whatever it is that brought you this close to death. It should work the same way for your eyes."
"Is this where I thank you? Because I don't feel grateful at all. I needed to die here; Sasuke was going to bring honor back to our clan."
"Yeah, we couldn't have the world knowing they were going to stage a coup."
"How?"
"Danzo. I had to torture him for two weeks to get the full story. You snapping or testing your limits or whatever other bullshit tale you and the crones were spinning never made sense to me. I didn't buy it for a minute."
"You were always more clever than people realized," Itachi said. "Are you going to tell Sasuke and undo all that I sacrificed for?"
"No, Itachi. I won't tell your precious little brother he's been dedicating himself to a lie," Naruto said, unable to hide the annoyance in his voice.
"Then what, Naruto? What's next in your master plan? Did you think you'd save me and I'd jump into your arms? You're an even greater fool than Sasuke is if that's the case," Itachi spat.
"You've asked me that more than once now, Itachi. But to answer your question, no, I don't expect anything from you, nor do I have any specific demands. Trust me, I know exactly who you are, and you being alive is enough for me."
In response, Itachi said, "No, you don't know me, Naruto-kun. I was merely a guard who was kind to you, nothing more."
Naruto flinched but held back his response. "To think, all this trouble because I took pity on some lonely orphan. I ruined my plans over a misplaced crush. What a sentimental idiot I was."
But Naruto replied, "Believe what you want, Itachi. It doesn't matter to me. The fact that you're alive is enough for me to have accomplished my goal."
Itachi threatened, "If Sasuke doesn't kill you for this, I will not let this insult pass."
Naruto retorted, "You aren't going to kill me. I'm too valuable to Konoha."
But Itachi warned, "Not if Akatsuki gets you."
Naruto remained confident and said, "I seemed to incapacitate you easily enough. Sasori and those zombie assholes would likely disagree with you as well. I'm a lot of things, but weak isn't one of them."
.
"I disagree. You're the weakest kind of person, ruled by your emotions to the point of egoism. At least it saved Sasuke."
"I've failed, my seal has made you stupid, Itachi-chan. Do you think all I've done to save your brother was because of some deep-abiding friendship? Please. I wanted nothing to do with the psycho except I know you'd want him to be somewhat stable and I was never going to allow him to kill you."
"Even if it's what I want?"
"Yes, Find a better way to deal with the guilt."
"Like what? Drinking like Tsunade or perversion like Jiraiya? Maybe I'll do both and send you the pictures. Would you enjoy that, Naruto? Watching your precious Itachi-chan taking it in every hole by a group of men and none of them are you? You could be my little cuckold. How'd you like that?" Itachi spat, uncharacteristically emotional.
"Do what you wish, Itachi. It's your life."
"You pick an excellent time to realize that. I was so close, Naruto. So close to atoning, to being at peace and free of all of this. You shouldn't have taken that away from me."
"Maybe, maybe not. Too late to worry about it now."
"I'll just try again, Naruto. You've only delayed things and you can't always be around Sasuke."
"Once again, maybe maybe not. But if you're dead I no longer have reason not to kill Sasuke and as good as you are, I have more access to him than you do. Allowing Sasuke to kill you assures his death. You live and I'll protect him, even from himself."
"You assume my loyalty to Konoha is such that I won't kill you to protect Sasuke."
"That and you don't want to kill me."
"You still overvalue my pity."
"Itachi, look at me." Naruto said pausing until she made eye contact, "I know. I knew every time so why are you pretending?" Naruto said as he watched Itachi's eyes light up in recognition.
"Hn. Clever boy, indeed. How did you know, you didn't break my genjutsu."
"Genjutsu is said to disrupt chakra flow but chakra flow is like a river, instead of fighting your invasion I just moved my chakra in a way in which I wouldn't break the illusion but still be conscious of the artifice. The guises you picked didn't help, some might even call them spiteful."
"Spiteful? As in, how dare you look at any woman that's not me? Idiot."
"So, that the first time you looked like Haku, the second a Tsunade with a smaller bust and the next a Shizune wasn't intentional?"
"Yes, intentional. Figured you'd be easier to manipulate if they were to resemble existing preferences."
"You think I have a thing for Baachan? A woman I call baachan? You sick fu-"
"Stop your posturing, Naruto. Besides, given the results of the evening, why are we debating this?"
"Because that's pervy, dattebayo!"
Itachi couldn't help be snicker, seeing a break in the blond's cool disposition made her want to press the advantage. "I noticed you only mentioned the first three. I'm surprised the last one didn't work. Who wouldn't want a guilt-free night with their superfan?"
"Even geniuses can be wrong," Naruto said.
"But why, I wonder. The star-cross enemy Kunoichi was ok. The mother and sister figures didn't give you pause. The shy heiress, however, that was the line. What, felt too guilty that you didn't return her feelings?"
"Something like that," Naruto replied, sadly.
"Surely you can provide more details than that."
"I may not be the best at social cues but even I, eventually, realized she had feelings for me. I asked her and she said yes. I then had to request she move on from me. As great as she was I didn't think I could truly return her feelings, not completely. That I was once saved from my personal hell by someone and couldn't move passed them, to my obvious detriment."
"Hn. Maybe I'll visit her then. Show her what we got up to, maybe let her know the only one he rejected was her lookalike. What do you think, Naruto-kun? That should really help her self-esteem."
"Do what you want, Itachi."
"That's it? No declarations about protecting your precious people?"
"Hinata isn't weak, your little game wouldn't be as harmful as you think. Besides, I doubt someone stoic to the point of emotional impairedness, outside of an unhealthy obsession with her brother, would bother to do such a thing just to hurt me. Anyway, the paralysis seal will go inactive in about ten minutes which should give your body enough time to adjust. Try to take it easy for a few days." Naruto said as he walked over to collect an unconscious Sasuke. Before he reached the exit to the room, Itachi spoke,
"You will honestly protect him?"
"It's a promise of a lifetime." Naruto said before retreating away from the hall. If he had stayed he would have seen the smile gracing Itachi's face.
As Naruto emerged from the exit he saw a beaten and battered Kakashi and a nearing exhaustion Sakura seemingly at a stalemate with Kisame, though he didn't look all that bad. Naruto had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes while wondering if he could convince the Akatsuki to stop collecting the bijuu just so he could join. It'd be nice to work with competent shinobi more often than he did. Kisame, saw the blond exit the hideout with the 'lesser Uchiha' in stowe and grew concerned. Not bothering to continue the fight, he dashed toward his partner. The Konoha nin took the opportunity to return to the village,
Kisame found Itachi looking no worse for wear and was confused as to what happened, at least momentarily. After that moment, he cackled, loudly. His laughter echoed throughout the building and he didn't stop until Itachi was finally able to move as she tried to shut him up with a katon jutsu.
"Why are you being so mean, Itachi?"
"Because you're being obnoxious."
"Maybe I am but it isn't everyday you prove Itachi Uchiha wrong." he said with a great deal of mirth.
"How could you possibly know-"
"You're fine, the whelp looked fine and loverboy sure as shit was fine. Just admit it and be prepared to pay up. I'm thinking sushi and a lot of it. I told you your boyfriend was going to intervene. Shouldn't never threw that nasty at him. Got the boy all open." Kisame said, smiling the entire time.
"Shut up, Kisame."
"Not until you admit it."
"Fine, Naruto-kun delayed Sasuke's and my duel. It's only a temporary setback."
"I'm sure. Samehada said your chakra feels whole, again. Were you healed with the power of love, Itachi?"
"I'll kill you and that sword both if you don't watch it," she said, glaring at the larger shinobi.
"Man, I should have convinced your boyfriend to stay longer. You were always much nicer after you spent the night with him."
"I sincerely hate you, Kisame."
"I love you too, partner."
After some convincing, Naruto massaged Sasuke's ego, "Sasuke, I could never get the drop on you with your Sharingan active. I'm not that fast, you know that." Sasuke believed that he had been caught in a complex web of genjutsu and that the Naruto who attacked him was Itachi. He also believed that Naruto managed to extract him after Itachi expressed her utter disappointment in his progress. Sasuke pouted and ran off to the train, annoying everyone except Naruto, who found it amusing. Sasuke is dedicating himself to a goal he'll never reach, not if he knows what's good for him.