“Jin’s telling the truth, Madara told me the truth about what happened too…” Naruto informs the reanimated Itachi as he takes a more relaxed stance.

Itachi takes a moment to digest all that he’s learned. “I see…”

“Itachi, you made yourself look like a bad guy in order to save Sasuke and the Hidden Leaf.” Naruto continues to press on. “But Sasuke isn’t like you, he’s really going to destroy the Hidden Leaf… He’s going to kill everyone who caused his brother so much pain!”

Jesus, I forgot how much talking there was in the major fights... Jin crosses his arms, waiting for the others to transition into the next stage of the battle.

“Does everyone else in the village know about this as well?”

“Kakashi sensei and Captain Yamato heard it when I did… but there wasn’t any proo–”

“Danzo confirmed it just before Sasuke killed him.” Jin interrupts, speaking in a nonchalant tone. His arms remain folded as he wears a deadpan expression.

“...Danzo’s dead? Then please, you all mustn't tell anyone about this. You can’t let the Uchiha’s name be–”

“The Uchiha clan’s name will never be tarnished. From where I stand, the Leaf is the villain of this specific story.”

“Jin!” Naruto is becoming angered by Jin’s remarks. His Nine-Tails chakra cloak flickers in the wind like a fire.

“What? If the Leaf is capable of committing all these wrongs against one of its founding clans, I’d HATE to be one of their enemies.” Jin continues his straightforward rant. “Scowl at me all you want. Call me a sympathizer. It doesn’t matter, it won’t change the fact that I’m right.”

Nagato lifts his arms up, using the Universal Pull on Naruto and Jin. Naruto quickly creates chakra arms with his cloak to anchor himself to the ground while Jin does the same. Nagato then proceeds to weave signs and places his hand on the ground.

“Summoning Jutsu!” In an explosion of smoke, a giant bird and dog appear.

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“Yo, check it! Eight-Tails, the rappin’ Killer Bee, that be me! AWW YEAH!!” Killer Bee springs toward Itachi with his eight swords.

The reanimation is doing his best to evade the jinchuriki’s attacks, but there’s an unforeseen problem. Killer Bee’s unusual fighting style is allowing him to gain ground. Itachi is getting nicked by every swing of Bee’s blades.

“NARUTO BEAM!” Mecha-Naruto fires his eye beams.

The beams pierce through Itachi’s abdomen, but the reanimation turns into a flock of crows. Itachi appears right in front of the robotic duplicate and looks directly into his eyes. At first Mecha-Naruto’s eyes turn into Sharingan then the mechanical copy shuts down. Itachi jumps away as a crystal stalagmite erupts from the ground right under his feet.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“Tch.” Rito snaps his fingers in annoyance.

As Itachi turns his attention to Rito and Bee, a cloaked figure suddenly appears above the reanimated ninja. He dive bombs at Itachi with a Rasengan in hand, an explosion occurs as he makes contact. As the dust settles, a flock of crows fly out of the crater, leaving Rito, Bee, and the new arrival to themselves.

“Echo! What took you, buggers so long?” Rito walks up to greet his friend.

“Moryo thought he could stop us with a battalion of Mugonhei… he thought wrong.” Echo turns to face the shut down Mecha-Naruto. “Execute Order 66.”

Mecha-Naruto powers on, sprouting back to life with a backflip. He creates blades of pure chakra in each hand upon landing. “MECHA-NARUTO ONLINE!”

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“Sage Art: Inorganic Reanimation!” Jin slams his palms against the earth, breathing life into the ground with his sage chakra.

The ground under the Giant Dog begins to bend and shake due to Jin’s sage jutsu. The terra firma morphs into spikes and shoots up, impaling every part of Nagato’s summoning dog. Jin leaps into the air and maneuvers himself above the dog, he forms two Rasengan as he descends.

“Massive Gelel Rasengan Barrage!” The Onikage shoves his attacks into the dog’s back. Woah… I’m actually fighting Nagato and Itachi, this is so AWESOME!!

As the Giant Dog is vaporized in the ensuing explosion, Jin can’t help but smile from ear-to-ear with excitement. At this point, at this very moment, his pride and confidence are on cloud nine. The force of the explosion uproots the nearby trees not caught in blast radius, sending them flying.

“Amazing Jin, that’s so cool! Not bad for a bookworm…” Naruto congratulates his cousin as he dodges Nagato’s black receivers. The orange hero counters with a roundhouse kick. “I still think you should’ve spent more time training though!”

“And you should’ve spent more time in the library!”

Nagato reaches out in order to absorb Naruto’s chakra, but the leaf ninja immediately jumps off the Giant Bird, landing right beside Jin. As the two cousins prepare to attack again, Nagato’s bird summoning is suddenly tangled by tree branches that have grown to absurd lengths. The branches coil around its neck and wings, tightening their hold over the bird.

“Hmph… took you long enough.” Jin greets the new arrival.

Ayanami walks up to Jin and Naruto from behind, standing beside them. “Sorry I’m late. Had to fight an army to get here.”

“Ayanami?! How do you have Wood Style? That’s supposed to be a kekkei genkai.” Naruto is shocked by his friend's sudden arrival.

“Oh, I had a little help.” Ayanami cheerfully holds out her fist to Jin.

Now to give Ayanami a permanent buff… As Jin bumps his own fist against Ayanami’s. He chants in his mind, Shadow and Light Style: Creation of All Things Jutsu.

As Naruto watches the two fist bump, the image of himself and Sasuke overlays itself on Jin and Ayanami from Naruto’s memory. Envy and sadness begins to creep into the depths of his heart.

“Don’t think about Sasuke, we have a fight to finish.” Ayanami’s words bring the hero back to reality.

“Eh? How’d you–”

Jin promptly cuts in, saying, “You’re that easy to read--now keep your head in the game!”

At this point, a flock of crows fly over the three ninja and gather on the Giant Bird’s beak. They merge, forming Itachi with his Mangekyo Sharingan activated. Jin and Ayanami remember Might Guy’s words and focus their sight on Itachi’s feet. Naruto proceeds to cough profusely, saliva drips from his mouth as a crow’s head emerges from Naruto’s mouth. The crow forces its way out of Naruto’s mouth and flies over to Itachi. It looks directly into the reanimation’s eyes as they bleed.

The sight of what just happened makes Ayanami’s face turn pale then green. She holds herself to fight off the strong urge to vomit. Jin on the other hand is just stoic about it as something else is on his mind.

…How are Itachi’s eyes bleeding when reanimations don’t have blood? Jin tilts his head to one side.