All of This Was Your Fault!

Sasuke's state of mind was always swinging between two extremes.

At times, he believed in the beauty of a peaceful life. At others, he became consumed by the conviction that revenge was his destiny for the rest of his life.

He couldn't find a balance. Sometimes he was generous and considerate; other times, he was volatile and unable to control himself.

But that was only when he was thinking things through for himself, or dealing with ordinary matters and ordinary people.

The moment he saw Itachi Uchiha—his own older brother, the source of all his misery—all his reason crumbled in an instant. He wanted nothing but to kill that man.

He didn't even consider the difference in their strength. He simply ignored it.

Pale-blue lightning erupted from his Chidori as he sprinted across the hospital garden. He tore a furrow through the ground, a streak of light brighter than anything else in the world at that moment.

Faced with Sasuke's ferocity, Itachi Uchiha remained calm. So calm it was impossible to tell whether Sasuke was even in his field of vision. His composure only made Sasuke angrier and more heartbroken.

To Naruto, Itachi Uchiha looked like a crouching beast of prey. Sasuke was charging straight into its jaws, and Naruto couldn't simply stand by and watch. Sasuke might be willing to throw caution to the wind, but Naruto wasn't.

As they passed each other, Naruto swept at Sasuke's legs and struck him in the back, sending his whole body plunging diagonally into the ground, where he crashed through the paving stones.

Bam!

Stone and dirt scattered everywhere. The blow was powerful enough to leave a crater more than three meters across.

Sasuke twisted in midair and shouted, "Naruto! Stay out of this! I'm going to kill him with my own hands. This is my fight!"

Itachi Uchiha remained indifferent, as if he were watching some farce. "I have absolutely no interest in you right now."

His words were like a bomb dropped into an already murky lake, churning up the mud until nothing of its original appearance remained.

Sasuke gathered Lightning Release Chakra again, then ran back to build up momentum and put some distance between them. A strange, strangled cry caught in his throat.

"Naruto, take Sasuke and get out of here. I'll handle this." Kakashi formed Hand Seals and slapped his palm against the ground. "Earth Style: Mud Wall!"

A wall topped with dog-head carvings rose up, cutting off the courtyard. But flames surged over it the moment it appeared. A massive Great Fireball Technique scorched the wall until it cracked and crumbled.

Naruto had meant to help Kakashi, but Sasuke was no longer just dead weight. He was practically throwing himself into the kidnapper's hands.

Take Sasuke and run? Leave Kakashi alone?

No. He couldn't do that.

"Either we run together or we hold them off together. With Sasuke acting like his brain's broken, I'd be more worried about something happening to you, Kakashi."

Naruto coated Kubikiribōchō in Chakra and looked at Kisame. "Two on three. We've got the advantage!"

Kakashi said no more. He gathered Lightning Blade in his hand and followed Sasuke as he charged at Itachi Uchiha.

Kisame fixed Naruto with a savage grin. "You think you can hold me off?"

"Hold you off? The hell I do! I'm gonna kill you!" Naruto swung his blade, sending a Hell Slash flying.

"Too slow." Kisame seemed to teleport, sliding two meters to the side so the slash barely missed him, as if he were showing off on purpose.

But in the next instant, his expression changed. He immediately raised his massive weapon across his body.

The slash had turned in midair! Fortunately, his reflexes were quick.

The white bandages around the weapon's handle ripped apart, revealing a hideous weapon covered in dark-purple flesh and barbed spikes. A fanged maw at its tip breathed as if it were alive.

Kisame flew into a rage and raised it to strike Naruto.

But a hand came down on his shoulder. "Don't be rash. Don't forget our target."

It was Itachi Uchiha.

His eyes had changed. Within his blood-red irises, his pupils had become black, three-pronged shuriken.

Meanwhile, the combined Chidori and Lightning Blade attacks from Sasuke and Kakashi had been dispelled without a sound.

Kakashi gasped for breath, his face drawn with weakness and pain. Sasuke's head had been smashed into the soil in the flower bed, and his body trembled uncontrollably.

"Naruto! Don't look at his eyes!"

Naruto shut his eyes. "That's messed up. Seriously messed up."

Kakashi had just endured a terrifying nightmare. Countless copies of Itachi Uchiha had taken long blades and repeatedly stabbed through him from opposite sides. They had kept it up for a full seventy-two hours, without stopping for even a second.

After he'd forced himself to endure it, he'd returned to reality to find that only an instant had passed.

Now, his mind and body were both in excruciating pain. He was barely standing through sheer force of will.

This was beyond the realm of a clash between ninjutsu.

"Lord Jiraiya and the other jonin will be here any moment. Do you want to die here? What are you even trying to do?"

"I came for the Fourth Hokage's legacy." Itachi Uchiha looked at Naruto. "Kisame, do it. Go easy on him."

"Ha! Don't worry, I won't kill the brat!" Kisame leaped five meters into the air, drawing his weapon back to build up force. As he landed in front of Naruto, who had his eyes shut, he swung horizontally at his legs.

As long as the kid stayed alive, that was enough. It didn't matter if he ended up crippled!

But Naruto leaped just in time, making Kisame's strike miss. It was as if he could see every move Kisame made with his eyes open. Kisame followed with a flurry of horizontal and vertical swings, but Naruto dodged or blocked every single one.

Kisame was both irritated and astonished. He was famous for his love of battle and close-quarters combat, and his tremendous strength was innate. Few could match him.

Yet this little guy could withstand his heavy blows. His physical talent was simply absurd.

And with every clash, Samehada, the great sword in Kisame's hands, bit into Naruto and devoured his Chakra. It had taken seven or eight bites and still hadn't consumed it all.

With his eyes shut, Naruto used his perception and the Chakra he'd released into the air to track Kisame's attacks.

He was weaker than Kisame, so he relied entirely on Chakra rotation to reinforce himself. Each exchange cost him about one-thirtieth of his total Chakra.

The harder the impact, the more he lost.

The two strange great swords weren't being used for their edges at all. They were simply smashing into each other with brute force. The ground couldn't withstand their power; cracks spread everywhere as it caved in.

Naruto had thought they'd come to capture Sasuke. But judging from Itachi Uchiha's words—and the fact that he'd left Sasuke behind without a second glance—their real target was probably Naruto himself.

The Fourth Hokage's legacy?

Calling him that made his blood boil.

And then flames rose from his body—crimson flames.

"Gah! You're all making me do this! You're forcing me to rely on outside help! Kurama! Let's see what your limit is!!"

"Heh. This great god has no limits!"

An enormous—unbelievably enormous—mass of Chakra burst out through the Eight Trigrams Seal on Naruto's abdomen, as if a giant mouth had opened and begun spewing flames without end.

The skin on Naruto's face split, forming cracks like molten lava. He clearly couldn't withstand this raging Chakra.

A furious roar of hatred echoed in his ears and inside his skull, threatening to swallow his reason, drive him mad, and make him destroy everything he could see.

But would Naruto be controlled?

No! Never! His will was that strong! He was a goddamn peerless badass—what could possibly control him, what could possibly erase his fierce pride?!

"Yeah! Chakra rotation: fifty thousand horsepower! Hell-Shaking Blade!"

Naruto turned his retreat into an advance, charging forward with the force of an erupting volcano as his blazing sword came crashing down.

"So this is the Nine-Tails' Chakra?!" Kisame's pale, almost transparent eyes widened. He leaped backward.

He hurled Samehada from his hands. Its hilt suddenly extended more than ten meters, and its barbed blade twisted through the air, its gaping maw snapping as it lunged at Naruto.

Kaboom!

Samehada was smashed into the already battered ground, shaking everything around it.

Through the dust, Naruto opened his slit pupils and stared at Samehada, still wrapped tightly around his great blade and twitching disgustingly. Even more violent flames poured from him.

He raised his sword again and smashed it down.

"Let's see how much you can absorb!"

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!