While Yuna was busy becoming part of an illegal gambling den, which, of course, she only did to gather information about Tsunade, Naruto found an appropriate hotel and was currently busy meditating.
Just like Yuna always did when she had some time, Naruto was helping Kurama refine the hatred out of his chakra. So, Naruto was currently sitting in his mindscape and slowly exchanging chakra with Kurama.
After doing so for a few hours, an annoyed sigh escaped his lips as he took out a piece of paper that had a complex seal drawn on it and prepared himself to drop some blood on it.
‘Seriously, what is with my luck? My first c-class mission turns into an A-rank mission. I have to fight Orochimaru during the chunin exam and now two people are approaching that feel even stronger than Orochimaru. Can’t I get some peace?’
[Maybe they aren’t here because of you?]
‘Do you really believe that?’
[Not at all. I am 100 percent sure they are here for you.]
‘…’
A few moments later, the two powerful chakra signatures stopped in front of Naruto’s door, so Naruto immediately dripped some blood on the paper he was holding and put it away. Considering the distance, only Yuna would get his emergency signal. Naruto slightly regretted that he didn’t give a seal to Jiraiya as well, but when Yuna and he started fighting two S-class shinobi, it shouldn’t take Jiraiya too long to appear on the scene of battle as well.
To Naruto’s surprise, the people outside his door actually knocked on the door instead of just smashing through it. Naruto cautiously stood up and opened the door and was immediately greeted with a pair of Sharingan looking at him.
‘Uhaaa, that’s Itachi Uchiha and that fish face behind him should be called Kisame Hoshigaki. Somehow, I don’t think they are here to have a civilized discussion. I heard Fish Face is a meathead, I wonder if I can get something out of this? He should be pretty easy to trick, right?’
Naruto’s eyes visibly scanned the two people in front of him and when he noticed that both of them were wearing the same clothes, an annoyed frown appeared on his face.
“I have no interest in joining your little weirdo cult that forces its members to wear matching costumes. Get lost.”
Without another word, Naruto slammed the door shut, and then proceeded to plaster explosive tags all over it. Then he took some distance, so he wouldn’t get hit by the explosions.
On the other side of the door, Itachi’s face was still completely calm. Considering his Sharingan was already active when Naruto opened the door, Itachi easily noticed the short flash of recognition in Naruto’s eyes.
‘How interesting. He noticed who we are and apparently came up with a plan instantly. I really wonder what he wants to get by…’
“HAHA, DID YOU REALLY THINK A SMALL DOOR CAN STOP ME!!!”
‘Ahh, I see. That is what he wanted to achieve.’
Before Itachi could stop him, Kisame charged forward and kicked a hole into the door. He probably thought of kicking the whole door open, but his kick was simply too fast and powerful, so it only punched a hole into the door. Not even half a second later, sizzling sounds could be heard from the other side of the door as a bunch of explosive tags exploded, blasting Kisame away and smashing him in the opposite wall.
Itachi, meanwhile, only jumped back a little to escape the blast radius. He probably could have helped Kisame, but saw no reason to do so. It is not like a few explosive tags like that could deal any meaningful damage to Kisame. Additionally, Itachi hoped, but very much doubted, that experiencing walking into traps like that would make him more cool-headed in the future.
As soon as the smoke from the explosion lifted, Itachi could see Naruto standing in the middle of the room with a smug smile on his face.
“You must be Itachi Uchiha, huh? You probably want a report card about your little sister’s behavior. Unfortunately, I can only say that I am not impressed with her. All that hatred and angst really sabotages teamwork, you know.”
Itachi couldn’t help but feel a little confused by what he just heard.
‘Little sister? What the hell is he talking about? Is he trying to stall for time by rambling random stuff?’
“YOU DAMN BRAT!!! I MIGHT NOT BE ALLOWED TO KILL YOU, BUT I CAN STILL CHOP OFF YOUR ARMS AND LEGS!!!”
Yet again, Kisame charged past Itachi, who couldn’t help but ponder about what Naruto just said. The moment Kisame stepped into the room, a small seal on the ground activated and turned the friction of the ground to zero, causing Kisame’s foot to slip away just when he was about to propel himself forward.
For a shinobi of Kisame’s caliber, righting himself after something like that happened is no problem at all, unfortunately for him, the moment his center of balance is the worst, another seal activated and increased the gravity in the space around his head by ten times, which resulted in his head smashing into the ground face first.
Itachi, meanwhile, could no longer contain his curiosity.
“Who do you mean when you are talking about my little sister?”
Naruto’s eyes widened when he heard that, but moments later he seemed to remember something he had forgotten.
“Oh right, you are a missing-nin, so you obviously don’t know about Konoha’s news. After Yuna defeated Sasuke during the chunin exam he started walking around while transformed into a woman.”
Itachi frowned a little and took a deeper look at Naruto.
‘Unlike his sister, I can, to some degree, see through him. Although he isn’t telling the truth, he isn’t lying either. What the hell happened to Sasuke?’
“YOU BASTARD, DIE!!!”
Kisame, who was slightly dazed from smashing into the ground head first managed to regain his bearing. His eyes were almost as red as Itachi’s Sharingan as he charged Naruto like a wild beast.
He managed to take a total of 2 steps before the friction under his foot was removed yet again. Just like the first time, a gravity seal activated and smashed Kisame head first into the ground. This time, however, Kisame managed to get his hand between the ground and his head before the impact, dampening the blow.
Naruto, however, decided to use this chance to attack. Although Kisame obviously wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, Naruto didn’t believe he would fall for the same trick a third time. His whole body was instantly coated in red chakra and he appeared in front of Kisame. He would have liked to activate his wind armor, but that would have taken too much time, so he simply smashed his fist down on the back of Kisame’s head with all his strength.
Unfortunately, Itachi got out of his contemplation far faster than Naruto expected and managed to deviate Naruto’s blow by kicking against his hand from the side.
Although Itachi didn’t show anything on his face, he was quite surprised by Naruto’s decisive strike. If he wasn’t here, then this might have actually been quite the dangerous situation for Kisame.
Naruto clicked his tongue in annoyance and quickly took some distance from the duo. He hoped he could keep Itachi distracted by talking about Sasuke and at least deal some serious damage before things got too ugly, but he underestimated Itachi’s reflexes.
This time, when Kisame stood up, he didn’t charge at Naruto. He at least realized that the situation just now might have ended badly for him. Since the previous attacks pretty much dealt no damage to him, he didn’t bother reining in his anger but now that he realized that his opponent could actually harm him, he would pay more attention and not blindly charge forward.
Naruto gritted his teeth and prepared himself for quite the harsh battle, but to his surprise, someone else appeared on the battlefield.
“ITACHI UCHIHA!!!”
A hate-filled roar echoed out of the corridor. Everyone turned around to look at the owner of the voice and when Itachi saw who it was, his mind actually froze for a moment before it went into overdrive to understand the situation.
‘Is that Sasuke? He really is transformed into a woman! Why? What is going on? Is he going through a weird phase? Is it because I left him all alone? Is this some kind of rebellious phase? Should I acknowledge his transformation or ignore it? Does he prefer to be called “she”? Now that I think about it, having a cute little sister is pretty nice as well. Stop thinking about nonsense Itachi.’
While Itachi’s brain was almost overheating, his face was still calm and collected.
“It has been a while, Sasuke-ch…*cough*”
Sasuke, however, didn’t even notice Itachi’s slip of the tongue. His Sharingan activated as he charged at Itachi just to…
“TODAY I WILL DEFINITELY KI…WOAH *CRASH*!!!”
…lose balance while running, trip, and smash onto the ground. The center of balance between men and women is rather different, after all. Walking might still be somewhat possible, while even running might be possible, but running at full speed at someone while using chakra is a totally different matter.
An awkward silence descended onto the battlefield and moments later, Sasuke stood up and glared at Itachi even harder. Itachi wasn’t certain why, but he thought that Sasuke’s angry face looked rather cute while he was female.
‘As expected, having a little sister IS really nice.’
“DIE ITACHI!!!”
Yet again, Sasuke charged at Itachi, this time, however, he had lighting chakra coating his right hand. Although Itachi was still contemplating about how he had a little sister now, he still easily caught Sasuke’s wrist and stopped the attack.
“Foolish little…sister? I currently have no interest in you.”
At first, Sasuke had no idea why Itachi called him little sister, but when he realized why Itachi did so, his anger exploded even further.
“DAMN, I WILL DEFE…*BOOM*”
Itachi unceremoniously smashed Sasuke into a wall and held him up by his neck.
“Your hatred for me still isn’t enough.”
Itachi closed his right eye and moments later reopened it, showing that the pattern in his right eye had changed.
[Mangeky…]
While his right eye was closed for a split second, a shadow approached him from his right side and pierced a sword straight through his heart the moment Itachi reopened his eyes.
“I am impressed that you managed to substitute yourself this quickly.”
Instead of piercing through Itachi, the sword was currently impaling a simple desk that was used as a substitute. Yuna, the person who was holding the sword, couldn’t help but be impressed that Itachi actually managed to get away from her attack.
Itachi, on the other hand, looked like he wasn’t bothered by Yuna’s attempt in the slightest, but he knew very well that he almost died just now. Yuna’s sword actually penetrated his flesh and was very close to actually reaching his heart.
‘I knew it, that girl shouldn’t be messed with. If I wasn’t extra cautious due to Jiraiya being close I would have died just now. Rather than ninjutsu or taijutsu, isn’t she specialized in assassination? This mission was doomed to failure from the start, but I don’t think I can reasonably retreat before Jiraiya appears here.’
“Tricks like that, obviously, won’t work on me. It seems like you are unwilling to come with us, so we have no choice but to use force.”
The smirk on Yuna’s face told Itachi that she didn’t believe his words for even a second, but there was nothing he could do about that for now.
‘Goal of this mission: Drag this fight out until Jiraiya appears, so I can make up a reasonable argument for my retreat. I would rather not be kicked out of Akatsuki before I can gather the appropriate amount of information, after all. Somehow, I feel like this won’t be easy at all.’
