Shiki and Sasuke vs Kisame and Itachi

With Itachi on board, the rest of the business was easy, with a bit of convincing, Shiki managed to coax out of him another of his three objectives, Shisui's other eye.

If itachi didn't see Shiki's goals as something Shisui would approve of and a cause he would happily lend his power to, he would have never handed over the eye of his own free will but thankfully, everything went smoothly.

With Kisame brainwiped of the meeting's memories, the pair continued on their way to Konoha. Now, all that was left was Shiki's last remaining objective whose completion was already in the bag after discussing the execution of the plan with Itachi.

As for said objective, to "die" at his hands in front of Sasuke so as to awaken the emo's Mangekyou Sharingan. Shiki was sure Sasuke cared more than enough about him for it to work.

Lately, the emo had even taken to calling him Aniki so it should be an instant awakening like it was for Obito when he saw Rin being pierced by Kakashi and not in a pleasant way, even though that might cause enough hatred to awaken it as well.

Shiki had already called Sasuke out for an outing and they would "coincidently" run into the Akatsuki duo who happened to be looking for jinchuriki in the village. The sacrificial soul clone would then be offed by Itachi while the Reaper would drive the duo away afterwards.

It was show time and all of the parties involved were right on schedule.

In a deserted street, the four crossed faces. Like experienced actors, neither Itachi nor Shiki gave out any signs of knowing each other, much less that this situation was completely fabricated.

The first to speak was predictably Sasuke.

"Uchiha . . . ITACHI!"

He was much further along than he was at this time in the original series., His three tomoe Sharingan activated by his rage but unlike in the original, he didn't start with the edgelord speech, Shiki had taught him better than that.

Sasuke was just glaring with his sharingan, looking for way to attack, an opening for him to deal a deadly blow, his rage adn't clouded his judgement, the only reason he hadn't made himself scarce was because Shiki was right next to him.

Together with Hinata and Naruto, they were the only members of the Konoha 11 to be promoted to chunin while Shiki was already a jonin. Their training with Shiki hadn't stopped at all too so they were definitely much stronger than they were back then.

Shiki activated his sharingan and made two shadow clones having them them stick with Sasuke while he prepared to deal with Kisame, just as he and Itachi had discussed. In the meanwhile the man would test out how much had his little brother progressed over the last few years.

"Those eyes . . . Do you know them Itachi-san? I Thought you had annihilated all the Uchiha?" Kisame asked his partner.

"I don't know the white haired one . . . The other is my little brother." Itachi answered.

"Heh? Little brother . . . You do look alike!" The sharkman replied but that was where the talking ended.

In a burst of speed with body flicker, Shiki instantly kicked Kisame who guarded with his samehada. He was still kicked back, through a wall but managed to steal some of Shiki's chakra but not much since the contact was too brief.

Kisame and Shiki then began fighting nearby while Itachi, Sasuke and Shiki's shadow clones just stood still in a faceoff. But then Sasuke asked.

"Aniki . . . Can I try alone?" Shiki was about to deny him but since it was a stupid idea going by the situation if he didn't know what he knew about Itachi but Sasuke just assured him.

"If you judge it to be to dangerous, jump in any time you like."

"Fine." Shiki gave the go ahead.

This way Itachi could fully test his younger brother as well so it worked out perfectly. Meanwhile, the special Shiki soul clone and Kisame were facing off nearby but out of the others' sight.

'Lightning Style: Godspeed'

Activating his jutsu, Shiki just ran around Kisame constantly hitting him with quite a bit of force and electrocuting him in the process.

After using the Soul Transmutation Jutsu, Shiki's affinities for the various elements were greatly enhanced and he now had created a signature jutsu for all the basic five nature transformations and even a way to combine all five. This was one of his main self's trump cards.

He was also in the process of developing several advanced nature transformation jutsu for the Reaper too but those were far from finished.

Lightning Style: Goodspeed could now store massive amounts of lightning chakra weather from being charged by Shiki himself or by absorbing lightning from other sources, including enemy jutsu, it was then condensed into orbs behind his back in the shape of the Raijin's drums when he used the jutsu.

This allowed him to unleash massively powerful lightning jutsu without using too much of his chakra but once he had used up all the stored lightning, it would have to be built up again.

Back to the fight though, Kisame was getting frustrated.

'He's too fast for me to hit. After I guarded that first hit with samehada, this kid has done his utmost not to touch it. Always dodging, not blocking and never making frontal attacks that would lead to possible contact.'

'I underestimated this kid! If I knew he was going to be so troublesome, I would have gone for a decisive counter instead of showing him my samehada power so easily during a simple block.'

The thought process wasn't bad, too bad Shiki had already known about the sword's characteristics. Even if he fought recklessly though, the "sword" would be hard pressed to take all of his chakra before Kisame died anyway so there's also that.

"Well, well! Are you intending to fight up front at all or are lacking the confidence?" Kisame taunted.

'Young and talented shinobi tend to be prideful about their abilities, maybe I can bait him into a frontal attack.' He thought.

"Well, well, Monster of the Hidden Mist and the Tailless Tailed Beast! Are you so incapable to feel the need to rely on childish taunts when facing a mere kid?" Shiki hollered back.

'This brat . . . Has quite the poisonous tongue. How annoying.' Kisame thought.

"What? No answer? Are you despairing over your lack of ability and want to commit suicide?" Shiki continued.

Alas, Kisame didn't bite.

'Tch! As expected of an experienced assassin! He doesn't lose his cool that easily.'

Since Shiki wasn't planning on killing Kisame, he didn't want to show too much of his ability since it would raise his threat level in the Akatsuki's eyes.

While Shiki could handle most of them, Obito being the exception since he could just run with his Kamui, he needed the Akatsuki to move forward with their plans so that he could execute some of his hence, he didn't want to spook them by showing too much power right now.

Still, he didn't have to hold back as much as he was now.

Dashing towards Kisame he threw a lightning fast punch that Kisame barely guarded on time. But it was just an after image and Shiki had taken his opponent's back once again.

With a fast reaction, Kisame swung Samehada around without even looking, forcing Shiki to dodge.

Turning to face Shiki, all that was waiting for the sharkman was a kick across the face that despite no injuring him too much, it sent him flying back in the others' direction, crashing through a building's wall in between the two and Itachi and Sasuke's location.

'Itachi should be satisfied with the testing, time to get this show on the road.' Shiki thought.

Seeing Kisame fly in through a wall, Itachi understood it as a sign to wrap up and despite taking it easy on Sasuke until now and remaining calmly on the defensive he quickly switched styles, kicking away his younger brother with some force.

'Like he had said, Sasuke's progress is better than I expected, enough testing though, time to for the finale.'

Shiki's shadow clones sensing it was time charged in and locked up with Itachi who had just kicked away Sasuke. The Uchiha dealt with the first one with a surprise burst of speed and clashed with the second shadow clone.

The soul clone Shiki charged in and gave Kisame another shot for good measure, with the shock from the lightning incapacitating the swordsman for a short while.

In that time window, Sasuke had gotten up and once again charged towards Itachi to help the shadow clone.

However, catching the clone in a taijutsu lock, Itachi activated his mangekyo sharingan and used Tsukuyomi on his younger brother forcing him to relive the night of the massacre and destabilizing him so that the next scene becomes even more shocking.

Finishing off the shadow clone, he charged towards Sasuke who was still getting his bearings. Pulling out a kunai, he stabbed towards the younger Uchiha but, in the nick of time, the soul clone stepped in between them, "protecting" Sasuke and getting stabbed in the heart in the process . . .

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