Itachi's eyes snapped open, he felt dozens of genin to chunin level chakra signatures and a few jonin as well. It was the middle of the night and he'd been sleeping, Sasuke was supposed to have been keeping watch but his senses weren't as sharp as his or even Naruto's.

Itachi leapt up to his feet, glaring his sharingan and yelling. "Ambush!" Sasuke, Naruto and Karah sprang to their feet. Sasuke and Karah went back to back while Naruto got behind Itachi so no one could take Itachi from behind.

"Sensei, where's Raijin?" Karah asked. Other than their fire it was completely dark so Naruto and Karah were having trouble seeing.

Itachi and Sasuke could at least see chakra with their sharingan.

Indeed Raijin was gone, nowhere to be seen.

Naruto's and Sasuke's marks gave off a weird glow. Pale blue for Naruto, gray for Sasuke.

Their powers were close to activating, but it might end up being too late.

The sound of a gust of wind appeared next to them, revealing Raijin. He had his sword out and looked winded. "Can't even shit in peace without some Iwa ninja jumping out and demanding to have the children of the Yondaime."

Itachi's eyes widened. This was worse than he'd feared. Given time he could kill all of the ninja surrounding them, but that would leave his students and client open to attack.

"We need to be able to see to fight!" Karah whispered to Itachi frantically.

Itachi nodded. Then began going through handsigns. "Fire style: Grand Fireball!" He spit out a blast of fire that encompassed the forest in front of him, likely killing a few of the slower ninja as well.

Then it was on.

Naruto brought his arms up, blocking a heavy kick that sent him stumbling in front of Itachi, Naruto s attacker was blinded by a lightning fast flash of steel and he was dead before his head hit the ground. Raijin helped Naruto up as Itachi was forced to fight a trio of Jonin. "Look alive, Kid. I really don't feel like dying today."

Naruto nodded. Suddenly he could see! The area around him was a mixture of grays and whites but each person had a blue glow and he could even see the ones behind trees. It wasn't byakugan because he couldn't see in 360 degrees or chakra points but he had no trouble seeing in the dark. "I can see..."

Sasuke looked at him for a moment, shocked. "Dude, your eyes are glowing a bit. And your pupil is white... and people say the sharingan looks weird..."

Naruto shrugged, drawing a pair of shuriken. Then he hurled them into the darkness. After thirty feet the shuriken collided and allowed one to turn at a ninety-degree angle and stab into a ninjas cheek, knocking him down and taking him out of the fight.

"Get 'em, boys!" Ninja charged from all directions and suddenly Naruto could feel the incoming danger. His body sped up while the world around him slowed. He was seeing things at a third of their normal speed and fighting for his life.

One ninja threw a kunai and Naruto spun, catching it by the handle and stabbing a ninja behind him in the throat, then leaped up and kicked the ninja in the chest hard enough to send him sprawling.

Karah was using a pair of Rasengan in her hands and delivering powerful blows that sent enemies rocketing into the foliage.

Sasuke, like Naruto, was using taijutsu. However where Naruto's style became more and more brutal, his own became graceful. He moved with fluidity that seemed unnatural, weaving through ninja and taking them down using a pair of kunai.

Naruto leapt over a man, flipping as he did so and flipped through handsigns. Then a foot long blade of wind surrounded his hand and he became a veritable flurry of bloody limbs, his glowing eyes giving him a prenatural look.

A lone rock ninja stood back, watching with a look of anger. "Fine brat, let's see you deal with this!" He flipped through a dozen handseals and breathed in. "Particle style: Eraser Canon!" A ball of bright white energy appeared in his hand. It was the size of a beach ball and gave off a look of almost divine power.

The ball blasted forward at Naruto, faster than anyone could react.

Naruto saw it coming, he couldn't dodge, he couldn't block, he couldn't even deflect it. He was about to die.

The white explosion shook the earth and stopped most of the fighting. Tears fell down Sasuke's face, his best friend was gone. Itachi bit the inside of his cheek, he didn't show it, but this pain was far greater than even he could ignore. He'd come to look at Naruto as a brother or even a son, and now... blood leaked from Itachi's eyes as his sharingan flipped to mangekyo form.

Karah fell to her knees. She could never say it aloud, but she admired Naruto. He was her big brother. Memories of how her dad refused to let her and Naomi play with him, memories of calling him names, of belittling her big brother...they all surfaced at once, bringing tears to her eyes. A lump formed in her throat as she realized she would never get to say she was so-

A black metallic looking orb lies in the crater the jutsu had made. It was over six foot tall and was a perfect sphere.

Then it morphed into a much smaller set of three orbs the size of fists. They floated behind a very angry looking Naruto.

Sasuke reacted instantly, charging the ninja who had fired the white jutsu and putting a lightning covered fist through his chest. "One thousand birds!" With a yank he forced his still covered lightning fist upward, vaporizing the ninja's torso, neck, and head.

Naruto was about to jump back into the fight when the enemy ninjas began fleeing from Itachi, who had awakened his Susanoo and was surrounded by a giant red ethereal skeleton.

The Susanoo faded and Itachi sighed in relief when he saw Naruto mostly unharmed.

Karah was still looking at him in shock. He's... stronger than me... just like Sasuke, Itachi, and Dad...

She resolved right then that she would get stronger and start being nicer to Naruto. Maybe one day he would forgive her. Maybe one day..