Naruto Hatake

Path to Darkness

Itachi had been on a weeklong mission with his group to hunt down a group of ninjas that had been in the Country of Fire for awhile now. The Lord was getting nervous and was getting complaints on attacks by a few ninjas in black cloaks with red clouds.

They had found one of them but the strength of these ninjas had been understated, he had already lost one member of his ANBU team already as they started to chase this ninja. He was fast, nearly as fast as he was and he had on a forehead protector that had a slash over it, from the symbol it looked like he was an ex ninja from Rock, which made sense with the earth style attacks that they had come up against.

Suddenly the ground shot up at them and Itachi managed to dodge but Raven was caught as giant and sharp rocks the size of trees came out of the ground and crushed the elite ninja. That only left him and Crane and by the way Crane was moving he could read his body and tell he was rattled. He was about to bark at him to get his mind focused when they had to dodge what looked like a giant shuriken

Itachi activated his sharingan as the enemy game into view. He started to make hand seals and he matched it taking the jutsu for himself. At the same time they both cried out, "Earth Release: Stone Pillars!"

Giant stone pillars shot out of the ground all over the place, some of them colliding together trying to smash the other ninja between them. His partner came up behind the cloaked ninja with a sword and slashed into the ninja. Itachi watched as the ninja's body turned into earth as he released it was an Earth clone, he was going to warn his comrade when a stone blade pierced his chest. The ANBU looked down almost like he was confused but when it was pulled out the body fell to the ground and died very quickly from the fatal wound.

Itachi saw the ninja with some type of earth like armour on his arms and legs, one of the arms were bladed as well. It was too bad he hadn't seen the ninja use that technique, he would have liked to have added that to his growing list of abilities. Itachi fired off kunai with steel lines attacked trying to immobilise him. He was satisfied when he saw most of the wires holding him in place.

"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Missile!" Itachi roared out as a giant flaming dragon smashed into the ninja. With those wires there holding him there was no way for him to use a replacement technique the wires were specially designed to disrupt that. But there was a drawback to using the technique he had, and that was for a small moment you lost sight of the person you were trying to incinerate. In that moment the ninja had somehow called more earth together and had a shell covering himself.

Itachi was getting slightly frustrated but he kept himself calm and detached as usual. In battle he found that thinking logically and keeping yourself detached from emotions helped to keep you totally focused. He didn't think about the people he lost, or how strong this opponent was he was only thinking of winning, and how to win. He was about to hit the dome with enough fire to superheat it but thankfully he kept his guard up.

He jumped back as the ninja burst out of the ground. Itachi was grazed on the chest but nothing much more difficult.

"I have to admit you're better than the others," The black clad ninja smirked.

Itachi didn't bother to replay with words but with actions, he started to cast an illusion around the ninja. He wasn't the best but he knew a few good ones that would let him get in a good shot. While the ninja was busy trying to get out of the illusion Itachi jumped up and pulled his sword out, attacking from above.

But the enemy ninja moved just getting out of the illusion and his blade sliced into him but it wasn't fatal. Itachi then received a blow to his face shattering his mask as he flew into a tree. He moved as soon as he could knowing of a follow up but a kunai hit his arm, he winced but kept on fighting the enemy ninja. They continued to fight on never stopping to give the other a break, but it was a tough opponent.