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.
Suddenly Sasuke was huffing. He looked at his brother who was across the room and slumped to the floor. Itachi gritted his teeth and held a hand against his left eye. He sunk to one knee. “You… broke through my Tsukuyomi?” he asked. Sasuke slowly rose to his feet. Taryn bit her lip. She was so focused on the fight that she didn’t notice the other visitor hiding in the shadows.
Not far away, Zetsu was watching the fight as well and he was in deep conversation with is other half. “How come Sasuke isn’t down for the count?”
“Cuz he didn’t get hit with the Tsukuyomi. He broke through it.”
“What? Someone who only has ordinary Sharingan isn’t supposed to be able to win against the Mangekyo.”
“The ordinary Sharingan is still a weapon. And a weapon can be either strong or weak, depending on the ability of the person wielding it. Someone carrying shuriken might still lose to pebbles thrown by an adept. So the point is their variance in strength… that Sasuke’s talent has exceeded Itachi’s imagination.”
On the battlefield Sasuke looked at his brother emotionless. “I thought I told you that no matter how much you use those eyes of yours… I’ll use my hatred to turn fantasy into reality.”
“Heh,” Itachi said while standing up, “turn fantasy into reality eh. Then let me throw those words back at you. You saw your eyes gouged out during the Tsukuyomi just now. Well… allow me to make that a reality.”
“The air around Itachi has shifted,” Zetsu said, “it seems he’s finally getting down to business. Which means… we might get to see Amaterasu. Continuing to use genjutsu will lead nowhere. From the moment Sasuke broke through Tsukuyomi a genjutsu battle became pointless… the Amaterasu produces black flames that are said to never extinguish until they have burned to ash whatever its caster’s eye sighted.”
He watched as Itachi waved some signs. Sasuke took out a giant shuriken and threw it at his brother.
‘How quick,’ Zetsu thought at himself, ‘he’s planning to not let Itachi wave signs.’
A moment before the shuriken would hit Itachi, it split in two. One above and one under. ‘Shadow shuriken,’ Taryn thought. Itachi dodged both of them by ducking in between, but he didn’t seem to notice the strings that were attached to them. Taryn did.
‘Rigged shuriken,’ she thought and watched them go back towards Itachi. Without thinking she launched herself at him and slammed him out of the way at the cost of a large gash in her leg. She gasped and crashed to the ground on Itachi. Itachi kicked her off and she was slammed against the wall. For a moment she was lost for breath.
“I told you not to interfere!” Itachi snarled at her.
“I just…”
“Stay out of it!” he stood up and held his arm. So one of the shuriken had caught him too. Sasuke smirked content. “Stay out of it,” Itachi said again, “or I’ll take you down too.”
Taryn closed her eyes, not wanting to see his expression.
“That’s funny,” Zetsu mumbled, “nah… just… it’s not like Itachi not being able to dodge such things…”
Itachi stumbled and sweat dripped from his forehead. His vision was unstable and his hand went to his eye.
Sasuke chuckled. “Feeling backlash from the Tsukuyomi? Heh… It’s a nice feeling for me.” He signed and spit a fireball towards Itachi, who at the last moment, evaded it. Sasuke lashed out with Chidori and Itachi was thrown through the roof. Taryn gasped and hid her head in her arms to protect herself from falling rocks. She quickly scrambled to her feet and went after Sasuke who had followed after Itachi. Both brothers had started a fireball jutsu, but they blocked eachohter out. Then Itachi momentarily closed his eyes and when he opened them… Taryn gasped and went for cover right away as Amaterasu flew over the rooftop.
Quickly Sasuke spun another fireball jutsu and extinguished the black flames with is own fire. The black flames were stronger and burned one of Sasuke’s wings. Itachi moved over, but Sasuke was already gone. He’d escaped through the hole in the floor. Itachi doubled over and grabbed for his eye. He was panting heavily.
Taryn hurried over to him. “Itachi, stop this. Please.”
”I can’t. I have to do this. I told you why.”
“Then find another way to…”
“Get out of the way!” Itachi yelled and pushed her aside. The dragon flame Sasuke created hit the spot she had just been at. Taryn gasped and saw Itachi had made it to safety just in time.
Sasuke glared at him, still in his transformed state. “That Amaterasu took a lot out of you eh,” he said and slumped to his knees too. The curse mark slowly retreated. He was panting too. “This will probably be my last jutsu,” he said, but he smirked.
“The Sharingan can access chakra,” Itachi breathed, “stop bluffing… I can see that you’re out of chakra. You used Orochimaru’s art of substitution to evade my Amaterasu. You’re skillful, but you used too much chakra.”
“Yeah,” Sasuke admitted, “I don’t have any chakra left. I used it up on that fire dragon, but… do you really think I would come here to kill you unprepared?”
Taryn stared at the sky that had started to rumble. Rain was softly falling down. “Oh no,” she whispered.
Sasuke grinned. “It only lasts an instant. Just like Amaterasu it cannot be blocked or evaded. Now… you wanted it… so here it is… your death!” An enormous lightning broke through the sky.
“He formed a thundercloud,” Zetsu gasped, “he doesn’t need to use his own chakra, but just take advantage of the atmospheric energy to create alighting style jutsu. When he formed that fire dragon, he was aiming for the sky.”
“This jutsu guides the lightning from the heaven and I merely direct it towards you,” Sasuke said, “this jutsu is Kirin.” He raised his hand to catch the lightning and redirected it at Itachi. For a moment the whole sky was engulfed in light and there was a loud thunder that drowned Taryn’s scream out completely. The world around her exploded and she curled herself up to avoid getting hit by flying rocks.
When the word became silent again, she unfolded herself. Itachi was lying on the floor again, since the roof had collapsed, and so was she. Only he wasn’t moving.
Sasuke breathed heavily and stared at Itachi expectantly. His Sharingan returned to his normal eyes. “It’s over,” he said, “finally over.”
Above them the sky slowly started to clear.
“Is this the death you had imagined for me?” Itachi’s voice sounded. He stirred and slowly crawled to his feet. Both Sasuke and Taryn gasped. Sasuke trembled in anger. Immediately the curse mark awoke again.
“How dare you?!” he shouted at Itachi.
Taryn stared at him stunned. With Sasuke’s chakra gone… how could the curse… but of course… this was what Itachi had been waiting for. Around him a ghostly skeleton had appeared, like a giant shield. Blood was leaking from Itachi’s mouth. He didn’t have much longer, but he smirked.
“If I hadn’t had this… I would have been dead… you really have gotten stronger, Sasuke.”
Sasuke watched it confused.
“This time,” Itachi continued, “I shall show you my final trump card… Susanoo.”
“Susanoo?” Sasuke asked.
“The one other jutsu that took root in my eyes once both Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu were awakened. Sasuke… is that it… for your jutsu? If you’ve got anything else hidden up your sleeve… now is your last chance to play it.” They held eachother’s gaze for a long time, but
Sasuke was the first to waver. He groaned and closed his eyes. Then there it was, a soft whisper in the back of his mind…
“I can give it to you…”
Sasuke’s eyes opened.
“I can lend you my power…”
Sasuke gasped in pain and fell to his knees.
“Don’t you need me, dear Sasuke? I thought you wanted to take revenge on Itachi? Now… release me… release my power… so you can fulfill your dream…”
Sasuke doubled over and groaned. Something was trying to break free from his back.
Taryn stared at it in shock, but Itachi was completely calm and was concentrating deeply. A large creature stood in the ruins of the building.
“Judging by the feel of it, this is Orochimaru’s art of the Eight Headed Serpent,” Itachi said.
Taryn nodded absentminded. She was focused on the serpent too. Sasuke may be willing to focus on Itachi alone, that did not go for Orochimaru.
“What’s that?” Zetsu gasped,
“It’s cuz Sasuke tried to squeeze power out despite having no more chakra,” his other half answered, “Orochimaru’s chakra that he absorbed and suppressed had shove its way to the surface.”
Taryn ducked out of the way when Itachi’s Susanoo started chopping off serpent heads until there was only one left. That head opened its mouth and started gagging.
“Finally it emerges,” Itachi said.
Taryn held herself upright against the remaining wall and stared. She grew a horrid expression when Orochimaru appeared through the snake’s mouth. He was laughing like a maniac and coughed up a sword.
“This is it!” he said, “this is what I’ve been waiting for! Thanks to you, Sasuke’s repressing chakra is gone! Now I can take over the child’s body and…” he was cut off when he was pierced right through his chest.
“Well Sasuke…” Itachi smirked, “what next?”
“Heh,” Orochimaru chuckled, “you think such a puny attack can take the likes of me down?”
‘Yes,’ Taryn thought, ’it can… because that blade is…’
Orochimaru gasped. “This sword…” he coughed, “is it… The Totsuka blade? Itachi… you had it?”
‘No wonder no one’s been able to locate it,’ Zetsu thought amazed, ‘it’s a spirit blade hat has no physical form… it is also known as the Sakegari blade, the sword of sealing. It is said to trap and seal away those it pierces in a genjutsu world for all of time.Orochimaru has been looking for this sword for a very long time.’
The serpent disappeared and only Sasuke remained.
“This is it Sasuke,” Itachi said. He had trouble breathing and slowly advanced on Sasuke, almost falling over several times.
Taryn let out a choked sound and was afraid to look. Susanoo was hard on the user’s body.
“Your eyes are mine,” Itachi breathed, “I think I’ll take my time retrieving them.” Suddenly he grabbed for his chest and started coughing up blood.
Taryn hid her head in her arms and trembled. She bit her lip so she wouldn’t cry out. This was it then.
Susanoo was wavering and Sasuke threw a kunai with a detonating note attached, but the shield came up again and protected Itachi.
Taryn sunk to her knees.
Slowly Itachi approached Sasuke and the boy took a few steps back. He suddenly seemed frightened.
“They are my eyes,” Itachi said and reached out.
Sasuke tripped and in a sudden panic started to crawl backwards. He managed to get to his feet again, but his back hit a wall. Completely trapped now, he could only wait for the end. He trembled when Itachi’s hand came closer and closer. But instead of taking his eyes, Itachi drew a bloody line across Sasuke’s face. His brother’s mouth moved and then he crashed to the ground and stayed motionless. Taryn rushed to his side and hovered over him. He was still breathing, but it was faint. She let out a few incoherent sounds, but couldn’t turn them into words. Her fingers touched his face. Tears escaped form her eyes. She took in every inch of him, because this was the last time she would be able to.
Somewhere behind her, Sasuke slid to the ground unconscious, but she paid it no attention. What did she care about him? He had stolen Itachi from her. Because of a stupid promise. Because of hate.
He felt he tears fall on his face. He wanted to say it. The words were burning on his lips, but they wouldn’t come out and now they would die there, unspoken. Why had he never said them before? What harm could it have done? He should have said them sooner, but now it was too late. Perhaps… perhaps if he thought them loud enough she would be able to hear…. His breath was shallow. It would be over soon. Soon the burden he had been carrying most of his life would be lifted. Her lips faintly brushed his. Yes. Perhaps she could steal the words from his lips. ”I love you…” The pressure on his lips became harder and then disappeared.
“I know,” she whispered. She brushed the hair out of his face and leaned in. She whispered something in his ear and then sat back to watch his face. Itachi’s eyes flickered for a second and then a smile appeared. And it froze there for all eternity. Taryn’s smile died when Itachi’s face fell to the side. She stared at it, gave a sob and then felt for a pulse.
“No,” she sobbed. She kissed his lips again, but there was no reaction. He was gone. She pressed her forehead against his and cried.
***
“There is fighting over there,” Pakkun noticed, “about ten miles South from here.”
Kakashi looked over to the direction he had indicated. An explosion made them all jump. “Smoke,” Sakura gasped.
“No,” Kakashi said, “That’s not just smoke. That’s a fire jutsu.”
“Sasuke!” Naruto shouted and took off towards the fight.
“Naruto wait!” Kakashi called, but the boy didn’t listen. Kakashi sighed and turned to Sai and Sakura. “Come,” he aid and followed after Naruto.
***
Taryn looked up when she heard approaching footsteps. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it couldn’t have been long. When she saw who had come in she crouched over Itachi to protect his body and glared at the visitor. Two visitors, but she ignored Zetsu. Her eyes were focused on the man that called himself Tobi. He laughed at her.
“No need to be like that,” he said, “it’s only me.”
“Get lost,” Taryn growled threatening.
“I’m only here to take Itachi’s body,” he said, “we wouldn’t want any secrets to get out.”
“You’re not taking him with you,” Taryn said.
“I mean you no harm…”
“I mean it Madara,” Taryn growled, “you’re not getting him.”
She had guessed right. Something changed in his attitude and his voice was colder now. “So he told you then. Or did you figure it out on your own?”
Taryn didn’t answer him, but never took her eyes off him. If what Itachi had told her was true then she shouldn’t let him out of her sight.
Madara chuckled. “Ah Taryn… you were always quite the clever one. And you’ve got guts. I like that, but he carries Akatsuki secrets. I can’t let those get out. No matter how much you love him.”
“If you know so much about me then you know I would protect his secrets with my life. If you want his body then you’ll have to kill me, because I won’t give it to you.”
He weighed her words carefully for a moment. He saw the determination in her eyes and knew she was serious. “I still need his ring back. It belongs to me and I need to give it to who will replace him.”
Taryn reached for Itachi’s hand and took the ring without breaking eye contact with Madara. She tossed it across the floor. “There,” she said, “now leave.”
Madara took the ring and rolled it between his fingers. He gave her a quizzical look. “You’re an odd one, I’ll say, but I understand what Itachi saw in you. You are the same as he.” He glanced towards Sasuke, who was still unconscious. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll let you keep Itachi’s body… if you give me Sasuke.”
Now Taryn did look away from him. She looked at Sasuke too, a sudden discomfort started running through her.
Madara noticed her hesitation and took advantage of it. “He killed Itachi after all… you’ll never forgive him for that, will you? I’ll give you Itachi’s body in exchange for Sasuke.”
Taryn turned away from Sasuke and looked at Itachi’s face. His eyes that would never smile again. She remembered how beautiful they used to be. Dead now. He was gone. Taken from her. Her hands tightened in fists. A thrill of hatred and anger went through her body. “Take him then. I don’t care.” What did she care for Sasuke? He had murdered his brother. She didn’t give a damn about what would happen to him.
Madara smirked. How easy it was to manipulate her. But he had what he had come for. He motioned for Zetsu to take Sasuke and they left her. Now he could start with is plan. He could finally set it in motion. Taryn Desertstorm had just given him the one thing she should have protected with her life. She had given him the key to his plan to dominate the world.