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Akimichi Choza scratched the sudden itch on the back of his neck. The chūnin and genin teams in the circle formation around him stopped as he looked up at the canopy.
"Did you hear that?" he asked.
"Hear what, sir?"
They were in the middle of the battlefield with combat all around them. The sound of chaos and nearby explosions was certainly concerning but commonplace.
Choza was silent before he suddenly leapt up and cleared the canopy with Yamanaka Kawamochi strapped to a carrier on his back. The view blocked by the canopy instantly became visible, and he saw a hellish dome of rapidly spinning and swirling fire. He could feel its heat from a distance. It was certainly not something he was expecting, given the number of opposing jōnin running around the area.
"Kawamochi, what's happening in that direction?" he asked while he descended. If he recalled correctly, it was the direction where Danzo had headed. Was it him? If the Leaf had made contact with the target, it could only be seen as a positive.
She didn't respond immediately. He didn't take any offence; he was used to it from his time with Yamanaka Inoichi. But her answer was something far beyond his expectations.
"Uchiha Itachi is fighting with Orochimaru," she answered via thought.
"The Sannin?" he replied back in thought.
"He was Danzo's bodyguard. Jōnin Kakashi and Gai split up and are pursuing the target; they're close."
"Do we have more details?"
"I will not disturb him while he's in combat against Orochimaru. The chūnin near him are desperately trying to avoid getting caught in the crossfire; they gave me as much as they could in their circumstances."
"What happened, sir?"
Choza's gaze remained affixed on the canopy for a moment. Orochimaru was another of the Hidden Leaf's rogues and one of its most dangerous enemies, one who had committed some heinous crimes; on the other hand, Uchiha Itachi was arguably the village's greatest prodigy and surely the future of the village. Though young, he was a jōnin, and Choza didn't want to treat him like a kid, but he couldn't help but worry about the fight when the opponent was one of the Sannin and one of the most talented students of the Third Hokage.
"We're moving the plans forward." He put down Kawamochi and passed her carrier to one of the Akimichi chūnin. "Your orders are to protect Jōnin Kawamochi from any and all harm. Do not pursue enemies, stay out of combat, and only move according to her instructions."
"What are you doing, Lord Choza?" Kawamochi's voice rang in his mind.
"I'm going to go support Uchiha Itachi."
"What about your assigned target?"
Even if he was carrying Kawamochi, Choza had his own target to deal with. The plan was to observe the situation and, after confirming that there was no danger to Kawamochi, detach from her to hunt down the assigned target. Some ROOT agents still roamed the forest as a rear guard, but there didn't seem to be any jōnin who would put her jutsu in danger.
"Give it to Jōnin Gaku. I'm sure he'd like to separate from his partner and go hunt alone with his ninken," he said.
"I will relay the change," she sighed.
Choza gave his thanks and apologies for the disruption before taking off in Itachi's direction.
How long had it been? A minute, two—clearly not more than three.
In that short amount of time, Takuma felt his understanding of strength being rewritten right in front of him. He had seen movements so fast and sharp that he struggled to follow them, C-rank ninjutsu being effortlessly pushed to levels most chūnin would consider their strongest attacks, and multiple B-ranks themselves being elevated to much higher levels through a far superior understanding of chakra.
The number of high-ranking jutsu they had thrown like cheap candies had levelled and transformed the terrain multiple times in the mere minutes they had fought. It wasn't only pure power; even their way of using their wide arsenals was beyond him—traps, clever combinations, and even using the opponent's ninjutsu against them.
He raised his hand to protect his eyes from the intense heat wave being thrown by the flaming dome. The numerous earthen walls, more than half of them erected by him because he was proficient with Earth Release, began to melt from the intense heat; others had been cut down by strong winds, bashed by waves of water, skewered by earthen spikes, and littered with holes by flaming pebbles.
Survival had come at a cost. Takuma looked over at Koyal, who was working frantically on Yazo among the trees. The image of Yazo's wrist—shattered and all but detached—haunted him. Only a thin bridge of tissue kept the hand from falling away entirely. It was an injury that demanded the skill of someone like Doctor Oishi, a tokubetsu jōnin in iryo-ninjutsu. As a chūnin-level medic, Koyal simply didn't have the expertise to save Yazo's hand when the injury was that bad.
He recalled Iori, who had injured her hand at the gold mines during the Steam-Frost war; even though it was nowhere near as severe, she had been at risk of derailing her career as a fūin-nin, as it required delicate work. And while just thinking about the scum made his heart burn with hatred, Kon's missing hand had completely destroyed him as a shinobi.
He clenched his hands. If only he had trained harder, squeezed in more time for training—maybe he would have had a B-rank defensive option, and maybe Yazo would be safe.
He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply. He couldn't afford to have those thoughts right now. He had more urgent problems that demanded his attention. He turned towards Anko, standing at the edge of the crumbling wall. Her condition had recovered, and with it, her focus, which, unfortunately, was aimed at Orochimaru with blinding hatred.
"It's him," she said through gritted teeth as Orochimaru stepped out from the charred husk of Gouki's body with his original face.
Takuma sucked in a deep breath when he saw the Sharingan in the Sannin's eyes. Orochimaru had really managed to get his hands on the dōjutsu by taking over a Uchiha. He felt a cold settle in his heart at the thought of the consequences before he felt sick when he realised that it was his friend who had been sacrificed for one person's twisted desires.
"No!"
He grabbed Anko and pulled her back with a jerk just as she tried to rush out to attack.
"Unhand me! I'm not in the mood right now!" she hissed and tried to shake him off, but he grabbed her by both hands and pulled her back.
"No, you have to listen to me! This isn't the right approach if you want to do anything meaningful. You need to get a hold of yourself!" To her credit, she paused despite her rage, giving her tunnel vision, but the wind cutter jetting over their heads to cut a dozen more trees was also a stark reminder.
"I'm not going to sit here and do nothing," she said.
"We can't afford to do that," he replied while looking nervously over at the two monsters who had somehow got faster as their exchange slowly ramped up. "We need to assist the captain, but we can't do it alone. We need help." He couldn't allow her to charge at Orochimaru by herself, and he alone wasn't strong enough to make a change if he joined in.
"Help?" She looked at the operatives standing behind him, their fearful and nervous gazes affixed on the fight.
"There's only one of us who can actually do any substantial damage, and that's the captain. We need to create an opportunity for him to get in a lethal strike—and doing that without getting killed is going to be difficult when they're like that," he pointed out.
"I'm guessing you have a plan?" she asked.
"Somewhat."
"That sure inspires confidence."
"We need to be coordinated to stand a chance and need his cooperation for it to work." Takuma pointed at Itachi.
"Jōnin Yamanaka Kawamochi?" Anko asked.
"Yes, we need her. I'm going to reach out to her." Takuma closed his eyes and reached out to her in his mind, not knowing if it would work because she could be in contact with dozens of people at the same time.
"Hey, you didn't cut contact with her, right?" he asked Grey just in case.
"Cut contact with who?" a woman's voice echoed in his head instead. It was Kawamochi.
Takuma straightened when he heard her. "Jōnin Kawamochi, this is Operative Ratel. I need to contact Captain Weasel. He's currently fighting against Orochimaru."
"Is it wise to interrupt him as he's fighting?"
"I believe the risk is worth it," he replied without anything to back his confidence.
"Very well," she replied after a pause. "Before I connect you, Lord Akimichi is heading your way."
Takuma's mind rushed through the possibilities as another variable was added to their equation, and slowly, some semblance of a solid plan began to form in his mind. A few moments later, Itachi's voice echoed in his mind while the man fought as if nothing could disturb him.
"What is it, Ratel?"
"I have a plan. Would you care to listen?"
Rewinding time back, Itachi stood in the burning grey patch of ground, his cloak heavy with the dampness from the water that was here only a minute ago before it was burned away. Across from him, Orochimaru's face adorned the body of a young Uchiha—with a fully matured Sharingan in his eyes—and that image felt so wrong that it caused him to doubt reality.
"Disrupting your chakra won't make this go away," Orochimaru said. The three tomoe spun frantically in the red with a hungry energy like his smile.
Itachi's eyes widened a fraction. The eyes weren't fake? The possibilities began to open up in his mind until he reached what seemed most likely. Orochimaru had lured Gouki, killed the young Uchiha, and stolen his eyes. It was not at all surprising to learn that yet another person held the desire to covet their clan's prized dōjutsu. The reason Itachi and everyone from the Hidden Leaf were here was because another man held the same desire and killed the man whom Itachi considered no less than a blood brother.
It took everything to calm the fire burning in his heart. He couldn't allow emotions to dictate to him. Once the calm settled back over him, the flaw in his conjecture became clear. Every Uchiha knew that Hatake Kakashi was not the true owner of his left eye—the dissonance between his body's innate chakra and the eye's chakra was a constant giveaway that the eye wasn't a natural part of his body and would never be.
Itachi's eyes laid the reality bare. "You stole his body," he said flatly, but inside a storm threatened to rise. There was no seam, no mismatch; the chakra of the Sharingan flowed in total harmony with the rest of Orochimaru's hijacked vessel.
"A year with these eyes, Itachi," Orochimaru hissed before opening his mouth for a sword to slide out into a waiting palm. The cold, white steel hummed. Itachi recognised the blade. The legendary Sword of Kusanagi. "A year of seeing the world in its rawest, most delicious form. I can see everything!" he yelled as though drunk on the world itself, the Sharingan bouncing in his eyes with excitement.
"I can see the twitch of your heart before it beats because I can sense it spreading the chakra through the pathways a moment before it pushes blood through the vessels. The scales have fallen from my eyes. The mysteries of this world have shown themselves to me… and yet, I wonder…" his head snapped down, and he stared at Itachi "…what does the world look like to you?"
"I foresee your death," Itachi said.
Orochimaru laughed as both of them turned to blurs, and they met in the middle with a thunderclap.
It was a nightmare of kinetics. The two Sharingan calculated trajectories at a speed inconceivable to most people. In their eyes, multiple futures began to appear as faint shadows as they predicted every possible move. Before they even met, a dozen moves had already unfolded.
Orochimaru swung the Kusanagi in a low sweep. Itachi didn't jump; his short sword was aiming down and blocked the sword while he stepped into the halted arc and hammered a palm towards the Sannin's throat. The tomoe in Orochimaru's eyes moved like a gear in a clock as the palm advanced—a stuttered, frame-by-frame projection—and he jerked his chin back at the last moment while stepping back to make space for his sword. However, as he shifted, he saw a glint as a kunai shot out of Itachi's sleeve, flying straight for his throat.
He could see the grain on the blade's surface. In an instant, he opened his mouth and a snake sprang out. The kunai entered the snake's open maw, ultimately stopping it, and as the blood sputtered, a small gust of wind pushed the airborne liquid forward.
Itachi saw a spurt of blood coming for his eyes to blind him. At the last moment, he looked at everything before voluntarily closing his eyes.
Orochimaru grinned as he raised his sword, but the short sword parried it away before he could get into the swing. He swung his foot for his head, but again, Itachi's forearm was already there and caught the kick, which sent an impact vibrating through his teeth at the same time the blood finally hit his face. But he had already foreseen it all before he closed his eyes and flowed into his next move to drive his short sword through the heart.
One year with the eyes? He had awakened his eyes a decade ago. The mere thought of comparison was an insult.
Orochimaru's eyes widened with the same realisation. His body jerked, and his spine elongated and bent at angles Gouki's body would have never allowed. The short sword struck and even went through the body, drawing blood, but did no real damage as it missed every single internal organ, turning the attack into a needle stabbing through a knitted sweater.
Itachi opened his eyes to see Kusanagi coming at him and side-stepped so that the blade only stabbed the blur he left behind before leaping back to put some distance.
Orochimaru snarled, the cold blade ready in his hands. He didn't swing it immediately. If Itachi could do it, then there was no reason he couldn't. He waited, watched, and looked deeper until the future became clear. He lunged, and the Kusanagi hissed as the blade extended forty feet in a heartbeat, a silver streak that pierced through three ancient oaks as if they were made of paper.
Itachi's cloak was in tatters, but more importantly, he was in the air because of his successful evasion attempt. However, his plight was not over as Orochimaru's fingers danced.
Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire
He exhaled a dozen high-velocity orbs of flame that twisted and weaved through each other's trajectories. When everyone saw fire, Itachi saw chakra hidden inside. He saw the concentration of fire-natured chakra fueling the flames. Eight shuriken appeared in his hand to match the eight fireballs. He breathed wind-nature through them before letting them fly. Despite the twisting trajectories, all eight stars hit their targets right in the middle as though there was no chance of missing.
The shuriken's wind-natured chakra mixed with the fire-natured chakra of the fireball, causing them to grow bigger, brighter, and most importantly, faster. The small fireballs screamed forward, but Itachi didn't seem to care; he didn't even look at them as they neared him—only for them to fizzle out right in front of his nose.
The fires burned stronger, consuming the fuel more quickly until they burned themselves out, vanishing before their goal was ever met.
Spikes twice his size exploded out of the ground, and Itachi barely avoided them by expertly manoeuvring his body and pushing off the tallest blade. But as he landed on his feet just a few inches away from the spike pit, the Kusanagi stabbed through the thick spike and into his side.
Itachi's eyes twitched as he twisted his body; unfortunately, he couldn't dodge it completely, and the blade left a little more than a shallow cut just below his ribs.
On the other side, Orochimaru hadn't moved from his spot. Though there was a smirk on his face, there was a severity in his eyes. Itachi calmly walked around the spikes to face the man who had fought through the mud of the great wars.
"Ratel would like to speak to you. Should I connect?" Itachi heard Kawamochi's voice in his head. He didn't move his eyes from Orochimaru while he mentally replied with his consent. "What is it, Ratel?"
"I have a plan. Would you care to listen?"
Feeling the pain in his side, Itachi thought for a moment if it would be worth the risk of getting Ratel and others involved. Even if they were there to support him, in the fight between him and Orochimaru, they would be the most in danger. But then he thought about Ratel and the repeated assassination attempts, war, and dangerous scenarios his subordinate had survived and then replied,
"...What are you thinking?"
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The link is in the synopsis!