A Meeting With Destiny

is episode 13 of the Naruto: Shippuden anime.

Synopsis
Kisame starts things off with Water Style: Exploding Water Shockwave at his bout with Team Guy, while Kakashi warns the others about Itachi’s Sharingan techniques. He learned from Guy that the way to fight someone like Itachi is to focus on their feet and body, and then anticipate their moves from there. Chiyo sees it a bit differently. In a one on one battle, battling Itachi would seem impossible, but when more than one person enters the fray, the odds change. One person would be the bait to take Itachi’s genjutsu, while someone could attack Itachi from behind. If that didn’t work, the genjutsu can be dispelled by simply hitting or touching your ally. Just as Naruto steps forward, Kakashi halts him.

Guy and his squad continue to avoid the onslaught of the enormous tidal wave Kisame has created. Kakashi re-examines Chiyo’s theory about countering genjutsu. She would be right if they were dealing with normal genjutsu, but trying to take on Mangekyo Sharingan is suicide. Kakashi thinks back to when he had to endure the effects of the Mangekyo Sharingan when Itachi came to the Leaf Village awhile ago. While it seems that only a second passes in the real world, in the world of Tsukuyomi, minutes, hours, and days at a time can pass. Dispelling something like the Mangekyo isn’t possible. However, Kakashi also remembers that the Mangekyo Sharingan is a double-edged sword. When Itachi uses it, not only does it use an enormous amount of chakra, but it does a number on his eyesight. Kakashi wonders just how bad has Itachi’s eyesight become.

Kisame and Guy continue going at it and Guy nearly avoids a hard swipe from his Shark Skin when Lee intervenes with Leaf Upwind. Kisame is then sent flying when Neji gives a hard 8 Trigrams Sky Palm and he nearly avoids the spiked kunai bomb that Tenten has thrown. The attached explosive note detonates and he heads underwater to avoid the blast. Eventually, he emerges from the water looking like a wet blanket.

Kakashi informs Itachi their battle would be different than the last one since he let his guard down, and the same goes for Naruto. However, just as Kakashi had done long ago when all of Team 7 had to protect Tazuna from Zabuza, he tells Naruto at he’ll do the battling, but he does need Naruto’s help since Itachi’s no pushover.

Guy prepares for his counterattack. While he distracts Kisame, the others will attack with everything they’ve got. Kisame isn’t one to leave himself open to attacks, so the plan seems futile. Guy narrowly avoids another swipe from Shark Skin while Neji goes on the offensive and strikes the sword with his Gentle Fist. This and Lee’s kick are blocked and Lee realizes that close range combat is pretty pointless. Therefore, Tenten summons several kunai from her scroll. They all have explosive notes attached, but even this does nothing to penetrate Kisame’s defenses. Guy then realizes that Shark Skin is Kisame’s weapon. As Neji points out, something simple like that could be figured out just by looking at Kisame, but to Guy, there’s a huge difference between thinking and knowing that it’s his weapon. Lee seems to be pretty enthusiastic about it, but not Neji and Tenten.

Kisame retracts his earlier comment and says that Guy has the brain of an insect as opposed to an animal. Guy springs forward with Dynamic Action.

Kakashi springs forward with a punch that’s easily caught by Itachi when another Itachi rushes past him. Naruto nails the shadow clone dead on with a Rasengan. Naruto then turns around to find Chiyo and Sakura lying unconscious on the ground. Sakura stands up, but materializes into Itachi!

Guy manages to get Shark Skin away from Kisame while the others attack. They are all battered off by three Water clones that Kisame created. He then uses his Water Prison Jutsu to trap Neji, Tenten, and Lee. Just as Guy prepares to strike Kisame with Shark Skin, his hands are pierced when blades emerge and the blade goes flying.

Itachi is now in front of and behind Naruto. Kakashi then stands up, but it ends up being another Itachi clone. AMTNinja wrote this on May 11th