Thanks for all the reviews! And many, many apologies for the super huge delay!

Summary: Sasuke has returned to Konohagakure after 5 years, and his two biggest fans have stopped chasing him. But there's another kunoichi in his life. SasuHina With slight NaruSaku, NejiTen, & ShikaIno

Disclaimer: I am not a genius, I do not own Naruto.

Chapter Twenty: The Price to Pay

"Nani?" Sasuke's eyes flashed toward the village. He saw smoke in the distance. "What could that be?"

"Well we're going to find out!" Naruto flew past his friend at break neck speed. His mind raced, he knew exactly where the smoke was coming from. 'Don't be in trouble… Please just be a normal fight…' he thought, not wanting to mention any of it to Sasuke.

'What's gotten in to him?' Sasuke asked himself. Of course they would race over there, but something didn't sit right with him, why did Naruto seem on edge?

"Hurry up teme!"

Naruto continued to push himself, picking up speed as the two broke from the forest into the village. He raced across rooftops toward the arena. He didn't bother explaining anything to his friend, it would be cleared up quickly. His eyes narrowed as they closed the gap between them and the arena. He glanced back at Sasuke, noticing his body stiffen for a second then he picked up speed. Naruto shook his head, starting after the boy who had just passed him. He could be getting riled up for no good reason. That was highly unlikely though, but he knew whatever was happening Hinata could handle it. She was, after all, better trained as an Anbu. He followed Sasuke over the roof of the stands when they had reached their destination. Cerulean eyes widened underneath the cover of his kitsune mask. It was as bad as he first thought.

'Hinata…' He watched as the small girl fended off the Akatsuki leader's attacks. His mind raced for a moment, she wouldn't have called them with the explosion, would she? His thoughts were broken when he saw Sasuke lunge slightly. "No! Teme!" He caught his friend and held him back.

"Naruto! What are you doing?" Sasuke barked at him from underneath his mask. "We need to get down there!"

"I don't think Hinata called us…"

"She needs our help!" He focused his strength to pry himself away from the kitsune.

"What if that's the point!" Naruto tightened his grip.

"I'm not going to let her die!" Sasuke noticed Naruto lose focus for a second and broke away. "Even if she can handle Itachi, he could just be toying with her!"

Naruto's eyes widened again. Hinata dying? That comment went right through him. He didn't think of that at first, holding Sasuke back was condemning their friend to death. Sasuke was right, Itachi could've been messing with her, he wasn't below that. He jolted back to reality when his eyes caught something red down below them. Blood. His body surged for a moment, and he leapt to the ground. Though Sasuke had already been ahead of him, he took the chance to jump down once he had gotten out of Naruto's grip.

"Hinata-chan," Sasuke whispered, landing next to the battered and bruised girl.

"Sasu-Sa-Sasuke-k-kun," Hinata stuttered, pushing herself back into a standing position. "You t-two shouldn't h-have c-come." She jerked forward, coughing up some blood.

Hinata mentally cursed what was going on. How could she be so blind? She fell into a trap and now her opponent was just toying with her. It may not have looked like that to the spectators, but she knew it. The way he conducted himself and his obnoxious smirk every so often. Of course to keep this little charade up Itachi had to allow some of Hinata's hits on him, which took a toll as long as she used jyuken. This only flustered the girl all the more, she wasn't landing blows because of skill, but only because Itachi just didn't move out of the way. She couldn't stand that, but she wouldn't allow herself to just stop fighting because of that. She only hoped that she could do enough damage before the Anbu showed up. That would truly be where this battle ended, and she knew it.

'It looks like Tsunade-sama is on crowd control,' she thought as she moved to the side away from Itachi's attack. 'Just keep Hanabi out of this.' Her eyes flashed back to Itachi as he attacked again. "What makes you think that they'll actually come?" She knew that was a stupid question, she could feel chakra massing on the arena. They were coming.

"You honestly want me to answer that?" Itachi replied as a mock. His smirk had returned again. He knew that they both felt the Anbu coming, Naruto and Sasuke coming.

"So why not just stop messing around then?" Hinata's eyes burned with anger as she leapt toward the elder Uchiha. She aimed to seal a tenketsu near his hand. Her plan now was to render his hands and ability to cast jutsu useless.

"And get the Godaime involved?" A small laugh escaped his lips as he took a step to the side. "That wouldn't do me any good."

"Fine then."

Hinata moved passed him and brought her leg around to send a strong kick to his side. She wasn't going to make waiting easy on him. Too bad it didn't matter anymore. Her eyes moved to the top of the arena, and they widened. Sasuke and Naruto had appeared first. That was not good at all. Just as she was about to yell for them to go, she felt a pain surge through her body, originating at her stomach. She lurched forward and brought her gaze to meet Itachi's. Yes, he was done playing with her now that the real targets had arrived. The next few moments were a blur to the young Hyuuga as Itachi unleashed a barrage of taijutsu and weapon based attacks on her. She was too worn out to keep up with his speed, not to mention the wind had been knocked out of her just seconds before. Itachi threw a well placed kick to send the small girl sprawling across the ground as he felt the two shinobi jumping down from their perch.

"Hinata-chan," Sasuke whispered, landing next to the battered and bruised girl.

"Sasu-Sa-Sasuke-k-kun," Hinata stuttered, pushing herself back into a standing position. "You t-two shouldn't h-have c-come." She jerked forward, coughing up some blood.

"Don't say that…" Sasuke braced her carefully, and turned his gaze to his brother. His eyes ablaze and red with his activated Sharingan. "You're going to pay for this."

"She's right you know," Itachi replied simply. "If you wouldn't have showed up I would have at least spared her a few more moments."

"You…" He started to shake slightly, anger rising through him. "Naruto. Watch Hinata-chan for me."

"Nani?" The blond shinobi was taken back. "No way. I'm going to help. You're not stopping me."

"I don't care. Just take her for the moment and get her to Tsunade-sama." He looked at his friend and managed to smirk despite being angry. "Then you can help if there's anything left."

"Right." Naruto understood. Sasuke had changed, he was going to allow help. He quickly took Hinata from Sasuke's arms and leapt to where Tsunade was.

"N-Nar-Naruto…" Hinata moaned when they landed. "Be… Be ca-careful. I d-don't want ei-either of y-you to d-die…"

"Don't worry. We won't. We can't." He smiled as he carefully placed on the stone floor of the arena's waiting area. "You just rest. We'll make him pay." He watched Hinata pass out then looked up to find the Hokage. "Tsunade-sama!"

"Hinata-neesan!" Hanabi ran over to the two, closely followed by Tsunade. "No!" She knelt next to her sister, and shakily took her hand.

"Tsunade-sama. You have to heal her," Naruto stated. "Sasuke and I will handle Itachi."

"Of course I'll take care of her," the Godaime replied. "Just be careful Uzumaki. You know why he is here." She turned her head to where the two brothers were, they had started fighting the moment Naruto left.

"Hai." With that Naruto stood up and took off for the arena's ground. "Hope you saved me some fun teme." He moved back when the two brother's collided. 'This is going to be interesting,' he thought.

Sasuke didn't acknowledge Naruto's return to the arena ground, he couldn't even if he wanted to. Itachi would surely exploit the diversion. Only when the older Uchiha made a move for the blond shinobi, did Sasuke look in his direction. He sped after his brother, slowly closing the gap he had created. If he did catch up, he wouldn't dare get in front of him. Naruto would definitely have some kind of attack ready, and stepping in between that and Itachi was folly. His eyes narrowed as his friend and his brother collided in a plume of dust. His eyes moved skyward when he saw the two jumping into the air, and he quickly followed suit.

It seemed as if Naruto held most of Itachi's attention, and that would possibly give Sasuke a chance to blindside him with something. The blond had made several shadow clones during his ascent, and slowly turned his momentum to dive at the Akatsuki leader for an attack. He knew his plan could easily be seen through by his target, and it became a disadvantage when the same technique was used moments after. The clones and their creators clashed in the air with a flurry of attacks. As some of the clones disappeared in plumes of smoke, the shinobi's visages were obscured from view. Luckily, Sasuke had reached the battle before too much smoke could cloud his vision. His crimson eyes had locked onto his actual brother and he prepared to strike him from behind.

His surprise tactic seemed to work as his fist drove into Itachi's lower back. At the same time Naruto's fist had also made contact with Itachi and drew the man's attention of what came from the rear. The two Konoha ninja pulled back as they started their decent, both sets of eyes watching the faster decent of their opponent's temporary limp body. Their eyes narrowed as a crater formed, that didn't seem right. Both knew Itachi wasn't taken down very easily. Definitely not this easily. The fact that Hinata had done some damage before they had arrived barely registered in their minds. They just jumped back from the newly formed hole when they landed and cautiously waited for Itachi's shadow to appear in the stirred up dust.

'I should've been more careful when toying with that blasted girl,' Itachi thought, picking himself off the ground and making a sign under his cloak. 'She'll be the death of me… But right now I need to get this down to just one on one. Fighting both might actually be a problem this time…'

'Where is he?' The same thought crossed the two younger shinobi's minds, and when they caught the darkness of Itachi's form in the slowly settling dust, the two were off.

'There!' A hand popped out of the ground and yanked on a leg before it left the ground.

"Nani?" Eyes widened as the owner's body was pulled underneath the ground so only his neck and up was above the surface. "Kuso… Dobe! Watch out!"

"…Hm?" Naruto threw his fist at the dark form in the dust only to be blown back by an explosion. "A clone!" He forced himself back up onto his feet. "Teme! What's going on with you?" He couldn't see where his friend went, nor did he know where the other Uchiha would pop out of.

"Don't worry about me you baka!" Sasuke shouted, trying to work his way out of the ground. "Pay attention to where he is!"

A shiver went up Naruto's spine and he dove to the side to dodge a blow from behind. A low growl escaped his lips as he got back on his feet and faced the stoic ninja. Though fatigue enrobed him, Itachi showed no sign of it. His Sharingan showed no signs of faltering and his strikes were still as precise and powerful as the ones before them. He did know that eventually the combination of fighting these two and all the tenketsu points that had been sealed would add up and his movements would become slackened. He had to obtain the kitsune before that. Wear him down before then, and that's what he planned to do. Making a deft movement of sliding kunai into his concealed hands, he dashed toward the blond headed boy.

Naruto cleared Itachi's dash by making his own to the left. And as he turned around, he pulled out kunai from his holster and threw them in the older Uchiha's direction. A shimmer from the sun shining off another projectile told the boy that his weapon would hit their mark. Listening to the loud clanging of kunai colliding in mid air, the two went back in for each other. Both grabbed a flying kunai from the air as they continued toward each other, and met in another loud collision of steel. Cerulean eyes met crimson in a glare, but only for a brief moment. Naruto knew what lay in those eyes if gaze was connected for too long. Wrenching his weapon free, the blond kitsune jumped back. His ears twitched picking up a high pitched crackling to his left. The boy made a sign to make more clones, and as the appeared they released a barrage of kunai on Itachi.

Itachi's ears had picked up on the high pitched noise, but he had to deal with multiple kunai coming at him before pinpointing the origin. He used the small weapon in his hand to deflect most of them, before quickly disappearing to a new area. Turning his gaze back to the cluster of clones, he hurled the kunai at the original. It wasn't very long before he was met with a stinging pain in his back. The crackling had decreased, only silenced because of the certain technique meeting him in a direct hit. Pain flickered across his face briefly. He lurched forward before bringing his being around to get a tightening grip on his attacker. Dealing with these two shinobi was no easy task. He would have to take more drastic measures in removing his brother from the scene before he could obtain what he came for.

"I must admit, you with your little friend may actually be formidable opponents," Itachi uttered smoothly. He moved toward Sasuke and with deft movements concealed by his cloak, knocked the boy back what seemed to be effortlessly. "But you still cannot kill me. Even with his help."

With that the elder Uchiha flew after his brother's limp body. A deadly grip found its place around Sasuke's neck and halted his flight. He jerked his brother forward before violently hurling him into the arena wall. He couldn't spend too much time playing with his little brother. He came for one reason and every moment that passed, the objective burned brighter in his mind. He had a couple of options to narrow down the playing field, using the Mangekyo Sharingan to tap into his kekkei genkai's ultimate techniques. The ninjutsu Amaterasu to burn the young shinobi or the genjutsu Tsukiyomi to mess up his mind even more. He didn't intend on killing his brother, so it would have be the latter of the two choices.

'Forgive me Naruto, but I'll have to deal with you in a moment,' Itachi thought, forming a sign under his sleeves. 'But I'm sure you'll have fun with this.' He disappeared in a flash, leaving a clone in his place.

"Ugh." Sasuke picked himself out of the rubble of the wall. "I shouldn't have let him get that close." He wiped the small trickle of blood that had started to form at the corner of his lips.

"Ototo," the voice came through so clear and before Sasuke could make a move to get away his head jerked up and met with vibrant crimson eyes.

"…No." The younger Uchiha remembered this so well, but as much as he tried, he couldn't break eye contact with his brother. Those advanced eyes of his began spinning, they almost seemed to turn back to their normal black color. Sasuke would not get away from this illusion.

He had been here before. It had been so long since this demonic trick was pulled on him. Five long years. He had gotten over it, but never prepared himself to relive it yet again. 'It's all an illusion. Don't let it consume you.' was the only thing going through his mind as he stood in his house, the room where his parents were murdered. The images though. They still were so real. The pain becoming fresh again. It was like shards, innumerable shots of pain hitting him from all directions. His will wasn't strong enough, even with his own Sharingan activated, this was too great to overcome again. He was cracking, succumbing to the pain.

Then there was the cursed crimson eyes. Watching him. Taking it all in. He knew it. He could see them even against the red and black illusion. And behind those eyes was a despicable smirk. But there was nothing that Sasuke could do. He was consumed by his pain. The loss. The suffering. He couldn't do anything. It was pathetic. His body frozen in place. His eyes frozen on the sight before him. And then it all vanished, darkness consumed his sight. Those eyes appeared in front of him and then the whole image of his brother was brought into painful light.

"You don't think this ends here, do you?" he asked. "I control this world. And I'm not done with you yet." He still had a little more time before the illusion ended. And he intended to use all of it since his brother showed more strength than in the past. But this would end it.

A new area appeared around the two, and as it materialized, Itachi walked around his frozen brother. He wrapped his cloaked arm tightly around his brother's neck as two more figures appeared in their little world. This would get a most desired reaction out of the younger Uchiha, Itachi was sure of that. His eyes moved to the first, smaller figure. Female. Younger. And in this illusion terribly injured, which in fact was not too far from the reality. Hyuuga Hinata stood facing the two, a silent illusion for now. She was grasping her stomach, where blood has started to seep out, and her frail body was shaking. To the side of her was another Itachi, a veritable clone. A blood stained katana was firmly in his grasp. As he took a step around the fatigued girl, her eyes followed him but she couldn't manage to make her body move. As he took another casual step behind her, he swiftly moved the slender blade to neatly slice into the girl's back. When she lurched forward in pain coupled with a pain filled shriek, she was only met by another cut that ran from her right hip to her left shoulder. The shriek grew intense in volume, but died off pretty quick. The clone just stepped aside as the Hinata first fell to her knees before completely collapsing into a heap.

"Nani!" Sasuke muttered as everything was first brought into light. "Hinata-chan!" He had regained movement and was trying to free himself from Itachi's grasp.

"Just keep watching," his brother uttered so smoothly as the scene started to repeat itself.

"Stop it!" Sasuke screamed. He failed at trying to close his eyes to shield him from the painful scene, still resisting against the hold around his neck. "Hinata-chan!"

He was finally released as the last scream died down. He ran to her quickly, stumbling over himself. He threw himself to his knees beside the fallen kunoichi and touched her face. It felt cold. So icy, frozen. He turned her over in his arms. He checked for her breathing. Her pulse. Nothing. There was no life in this girl anymore. His body stiffen, his own breathing hitched. This was too much. Too real for him. A horrible trick, but it did what it was expected to. And as the young boy brought the girl closer to him and cried out in pain, the illusion was released…

Uchiha Sasuke fell to his knees, his hands pressing firmly to his head and his fingers entangled tightly in his raven hair. His knuckles were white, along with his face. And an ear piercing scream filled the arena as his body crumpled to the ground. The was no movement from him except for the hesitant rise and fall of his chest. And that seemed to satisfy his sadistic attacker. Itachi watched his brother for a moment and then turned around to where he could see the blond kitsune's chakra signature. It seemed he was still dealing with the one clone, but then it had only been a couple brief seconds. But he started to make his way over to them anyways. Everyone in the village probably heard his brother's cry. Naruto surely would coming to the source to find out what happened. And when he did, Itachi could strike again. He disappeared in a flurry of dust.

"…Nani?" Naruto muttered, clenching his ears as the scream reached him. It was deafening. "Teme!" he called out before receiving a quick boot to the face.

The clone had taken the opportunity given to him. Naruto allowed himself to be distracted by Sasuke. The clone however, much like its creator, was unfazed. He swiftly came upon the young blond and kicked him into the wall. Watching the young shinobi crash into the wall, turning the stone into rumble, the real Itachi appeared in place of his double. He could feel all his fatigue tugging at him more vigorously now, though it was still not a major annoyance. He was going to end this in two moves, he had to now. It wasn't because he body was becoming worn, oh no, he could handle more punishment easily. It was the pitiful cry from Sasuke the he was concentrated on. Should the Hokage step into the battle, this would get unnecessarily complicated. It was something he would not allow at all.

"…Itachi," a voice growled as the chunks of stone wall were pushed out of the resting places. "Whatever you did to Sasuke, you'll pay."

Itachi just watched as Naruto pulled himself out of the fallen wall. His eyes glowing with the flaming red fury of the demon inside him. The Uchiha's hands started to speedily throw together hand signs. His red eyes watching his opponent move toward him with inhuman speed. Before the boy could get within striking distance, dark flames came from Itachi, engulfing everything in front of him. He jumped back to cover any moments the kitsune would make in efforts to dodge the attack, the black fire still spewing forth. Once he landed, Itachi's eyes looked for the altered chakra signature. The Kyubi would be preoccupied with stopping what flames had leeched onto his host and keeping the boy alive, and in the process wearing down what chakra was being leant out. Once his eyes caught his target, he disappeared.

"This ends here," Itachi muttered, appearing behind the boy. Itachi brought up his arm in a deft motion, and in the same movement brought it down again with alarming speed. The blunt side of his hand struck the boy in the back of the neck, causing him to pitch forward first onto his knees and then onto his face. Itachi let out a gruff, "Hm?" as his picked up Naruto by the back of his uniform and disappeared out of the fire.

"Where do you think you're going?" a fierce voice asked, accompanied by the loud cracking of knuckles.

"Tsunade-sama," Itachi stated simply. He hoisted his captive onto his shoulder with ease.

"Drop the boy." Her brown eyes boring into the man that stood before her.

Author Notes:

Okay. I am so sorry for the huge delay on this chapter. I really expected to get a lot done over the summer, but obviously that didn't take, now did it? I mean it's almost been six freaking months since my last update. I'm surprised half of you haven't been sending me messages or something about getting on the dumb computer and updating this thing! I respect you for not doing so, but then again it might have been funny. Now I know I'm setting myself up for that happening if I don't update real soon again. Let's just say, if I don't update within a month or so then you can start the crazy messages if you so choose. I mean come on, it's school time again.

Anyways, school's back in session and that's what made this a month later that expected. I was getting so excited because I was going to get this up before September started, or at least before we got into double digit days in the month, and then pfft. Nothing. I feel so bad. I tried to make this long to make up for the huge delay, and I think I sort of succeeded. Honestly, trying to make it any longer would probably have delayed it even more until practically Christmas. But it's not. It's here. Happy happy!

I do have a general idea of where I'm taking this, at least in the next chapter. Long term goals… Eh heh heh… Not so much. I'm should really work on that. But anyways, I will hopefully have some time this coming weekend to work on this, or my second fiction (which I really need to update as well). But that's if I'm not totally wiped out for all the stuff that's going on this week. So, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I really hope you aren't too sore about this really long delay. I hope to be quicker. Sorry again. Reviews are totally appreciated and loved! Thanks! Next Chapter: Chapter Twenty One: We're In Trouble

Later.

Ice Demon Meru