Crow's feathers - Naruto fanfiction

Chapter 36 Sacrifice

Itachi dodged the shuriken Sasuke cast in his direction and countered the attack with a handful of his own. Sasuke drew his sword, but Itachi blocked it with a kunai dagger and held on to his brother’s wrist. Lightning flitted across the room and buried itself in the nearest wall. A scream made them both look up.

Taryn was falling down with high speed and almost hit the ground when two strong arms caught her. She was gently placed on the ground, pieces of the now crumbled wall all around her. Taryn looked up and stared into Itachi’s eyes. Still confused she stared at the battlefield where Itachi was still blocking Sasuke.

‘A clone huh,’  she thought.

Sasuke seemed to have noticed that as well. ‘So he was able to weave signs for a shadow clone.’

The Itachi in front of him broke off into crows. Itachi was glaring at Taryn. “You promised not to interfere,” he said.

Taryn shook her head. “No. I promised not to try and stop him. I never promised not to try and stop you.”

“Hey,” Sasuke called, “I hate to break up your little reunion, but we have things to settle.”

Itachi pulled Taryn to her feet. “Go away,” he said.

Taryn shook her head. “No.” She shivered when she saw the cold look in his eyes, but she wasn’t leaving.

“Stay out of this Taryn,” he warned her, “I have things to discuss with my brother.”

“Itachi…”

     “No,” he said. He turned to Sasuke who gave him a mocking grin. “You need your girlfriend now to fight your battles for you? So much for settling this between the two of us.”

“She had nothing to do with it,” Itachi answered, “leave her out if this.” It was silent for a long time, but then Sasuke shrugged.

     “Fine, she can watch you die then.”

“You’ll leave her be,” Itachi said. 

       “It’s not her I’m after,” Sasuke growled.

Itachi nodded and turned to Taryn. “Don’t interfere.” He jumped back to Sasuke.

“Itachi wait!” Taryn called, “there’s something I need to…” But he was already back in the fight. Taryn sighed and sunk down to the ground. Was she supposed to just let this happen then? “You promised….” ‘After this, I’m never making promises again.’ She watched as Itachi threw Sasuke against the wall, knocking the breath out of him. He pinned Sasuke’s arm so he couldn’t use Chidori and reached out to Sasuke’s left eye.

“Forgive me, Sasuke. This is my reality. Give me your light.” Sasuke screamed and pressed his free hand against his eye. “I told you,” Itachi sated calmly, “you won’t win. I have Mangekyo and you don’t.” Sasuke panted heavily and stared at the blood in his hand with a horrified expression. “Now,” Itachi said darkly, “for the other one.” Sasuke’s face became covered in strange markings and Taryn gasped.

      ‘The curse mark? But how is that possible? Orochimaru is dead. Unless…’ She stared at the boy in shock. Unless he had used Orochimaru’s body as a vessel instead of the other way around. Itachi had noticed this too and jumped back when Sasuke’s arm started to transform. But Sasuke didn’t have much time to recover. From behind, one of Itachi’s clones locked its arms around him, disabling him to move. Itachi moved closer again and reached for Sasuke’s other eye. Sasuke roared and his vision became blurry. Taryn looked on and noticed she was trembling.