The Path Of a Hunternin

Fated Battles

Uchiha Sasuke was considered a balanced individual, not much would faze the raven haired Uchiha as he dealt with his enemies with utmost finesse and tranquility. However, beneath that stoic exterior, everyone who knew him knew how to push the right buttons, which undeniably, ended up being his older brother Itachi and some attempt of comparison between the two just like what Naruto did. It caused Sasuke to lose whatever cool he was having at the present situation, before he charged Naruto with his sword.

But nothing…nothing infuriated Sasuke more than hearing those three words…

Foolish little brother

As Sasuke diverted his attention from Naruto, he looked at the source of everything he been through since the day his entire family was murdered; all those days when he'd sleep alone, only to wake up and realize that he was, indeed, alone with no one to comfort him. His grip on his sword was getting tighter by the minute and all images that he barred deep within his mind resurfaced. His brother, though, maintained the same look he had the night he killed the entire Uchiha Clan, looking like everything he did to Sasuke was a common occurrence.

Naruto, for his part, watched the staring between two brothers as Itachi and Kisame would approach the group of shinobis. The blond had, now, no misconception of an escape route since he was going to participate at the Chuunin Exams in Iwa and Kami forbid, he missed it and lost the chance to get back out there and hunt more missing-nins. Nevertheless, the concept of fighting against an S-ranked missing-nin like Kisame one day before the Exams could cause trouble for the blond afterward, so a cautious course must be taken in this manner. Naruto was diverted from his thoughts when Itachi thought about starting a conversation with his little brother.

"I can see you've grown Sasuke. You're not charging me while screaming with Hatake's technique"

Suddenly memories hit Sasuke of that day when Itachi and Kisame were to capture Naruto at an Inn near Konoha and Sasuke appearing to fight Itachi, charging with a Chidori. Itachi, however, caught Sasuke's wrist, before shoving his body to the nearby wall, before delivering solid punches to his stomach and face. The memory stopped with Itachi whispering something close to Sasuke's ear.

"I loathed you just like you said. It made me stronger because of it. I waited for this day and trained my body day after day so that one day…today I'd kill you and revenge the Uchiha Clan for good. Nevertheless, I'm just curious about something…" – Itachi's attention was peeked as Sasuke continued, not even aware, now, that the entire group was just standing there, listening to two brother's bickering. "The night you murdered the Uchiha Clan…there was no way you could've done that by yourself, no matter how strong you were at the time, you couldn't have done it on your own, who helped you?"

At the realization of some and question of others, Itachi curved a smile on his face, applauding his little brother for his cunningness. Naruto, though, appearing stoic at the situation, didn't think much of the event until right now. Sure, Itachi was a genius and an Anbu Captain at the time of the massacre, but wiping out one of Konoha's strongest clans in one night alone was ridiculous to say the least. Surely, someone helped him and his interest grew tenfold. Not to mention the fact that Jiraiya on his right was looking rather strange in this situation as in the information didn't shock him at all.

"The pervert knows something we don't. I doubt someone as insightful as the Sandaime Hokage, at the time, would let such a thing happen under his nose and none of his Anbu patrols knew, before it was too late" – Kyuubi said, inside Naruto's mind.

And since Jiraiya was his student, most likely that he knows a thing or two about the Uchiha Massacre that wasn't made public. I wonder what happened that night.

Naruto suddenly broke the link with his jailor as Itachi started answering Sasuke's question.

"Certainly, I did have help in getting rid of our clan and this man happens to be one of the founders of the Hidden Village in the Leaves…one Uchiha Madara" – It was only shock that meet everyone as Sasuke remembered when he was inside Naruto's mindscape, talking to Kyuubi about this certain Uchiha and that his chakra was more evil than Uchiha Madara himself. Naruto remembered that scene as well and he could hear the fox snarling inside his cage, which meant that something must have happened in the past between Kyuubi and Madara. Jiraiya, this time, looked shocked as well, since Madara was the man who fought the Shodaime Hokage for the right to lead Konoha as the First Hokage, it couldn't be possible that the man is still alive.