"Earth style: earthquake jutsu!"
Boom!
The ground shook, causing Itachi and his team to fall.
"Earth-style: earth-dragon jutsu!"
Boom!
Multiple dragons headed towards Tenma while Itachi made a hand sign.
"Fireball jutsu!"
Boom!
A giant fireball went and burned the whole dragon…
Whoosh!
Six people jumped out of the ground, they wore matching grey suits with masks.
"Tenma, be more careful, don't forget about the cart!" Itachi ran towards them with his Katana.
He jumped up and dodged one of their attacks and sliced his back open before jumping back and throwing a kunai with an explosive tag.
Boom!
All six of them got hit by the explosion.
Another group attacked from Tenma's side.
Tenma threw 4 kunai with explosive tags toward them.
Boom!
While those two handled them, someone on the edge of the cliff was climbing up and headed towards the cart silently.
When he reached the cart, he took a glance at Itachi before pulling the cart backward.
"Caw!" Itachi's body started dispersing into flocks of crows.
"Huh? Genjutsu?!"
A cold sweat broke on his face while he felt cold sharp metal on his neck.
"Hmph…" Itachi slit his throat, but his eyes widened.
'The kunai…
It passed through him!'
"Clone jutsu?" Whoosh!
Itachi jumped back.
The smoke from Tenma's previous attack was clearing up. And from inside the fog, the same multiple people stood unharmed, too.
"Now you know my secret…
There's nothing you can do to stop me from getting this cart…" The man spoke with a hoarse voice.
"Gather around the cart! Don't let anything happen to it!"
"Yes, sensei!" They all surrounded the cart except Yuki, he kept the merchant safe.
-----------------
While Team 2 kept the cart and the merchant safe, team RO was through defeating the enemies.
-----------------
"This guy was from a rare clan and he even had the almost extinct Typhoon release kekkei Genkai.
Pretty cool, huh?"
Kakashi rolled his eyes.
"Let's just go back to the village, we're wasting time here."
"Come on, have a little fun, you know? We've already defeated them, plus the Daimyo and his escorts are way back there, safe and sound, you know?"
Ryuu was sitting on the corpses of his enemies while Nobu gave him Intel.
"They surrounded us. If we didn't have the captains with us, they would've forced us to retreat." Kuhai said to Kaoru.
"I know, we need to hone our skills further." Kaoru was cleaning his Katana, his uniform was already clean too.
'Nobu finished giving me Intel, so I guess I should leave.' Ryuu jumped from the pile of bodies.
"Ah!" a scream from someone that he landed on.
Ryuu controlled ash and dug spikes into his head.
"Man, Kakashi, if we left as soon as you wanted us to, he could've told others his name, you know?"
"Let's head back already, you idiot."
Ryuu chuckled and controlled the ash surrounding them.
Whoosh!
They arrived beside the Daimyō's carrier.
"Daimyo-sama, I think we should go using teleportation right now.
It'll be faster and safer like that, I won't risk my mission and your life for a fun fight."
"Oh well…
If you insist." Ryuu nodded and teleported them back to Konohagakure.
---------------- (Above the mountain, Itachi and Team 2 weren't fairing off well enough. )
"Itachi, what should we do?" Shinko asked.
"Why ask him, he's stuck here with us too!"
"Keep quiet, one of us has to break formation and search for the real one."
"The real one?"
"Yeah, these guys are all mist clones, big brother has used them against me.
If we find the real one and defeat him, we'll get rid of them all."
They were each fighting off multiple clones at once.
'The toughest part of these clones is that they can hit you, but hitting them is impossible.
I can't keep up with this much stamina, neither of us can.' Itachi thought to himself while directing a clone to hit another one.
"I guess I should stop playing around now." The masked attacker made multiple hand signs.
He inhaled air and blew out a giant wall of water.
"Water style: Water wall!"
One of his clones made another hand sign and punched the ground.
"Earth-style: mudslide!"
A wave of dirt combined with the water and a mudslide headed toward Itachi and his team.
"Protect the cart!" Itachi jumped in front of them and made a hand sign.
"Fireball jutsu!"
Boom!
He blew out a giant fireball, and the mud hardened after being burned.
Boom!
A kunai on the edge of the hardened mud exploded and sent giant rocks toward the team and the cart.
Whoosh!
Yuki appeared and kicked the rocks away from the cart.
The rocks fell to the ground, but they backed the team into a corner.
"Damn it, I should've known this would happen."
"Sensei, what happened to the merchant?"
"I got him to safety, he's with my clone right now."
Itachi nodded.
Crack!
The ground shook, and they heard a crack.
'Oh no.' Itachi looked back, and the cart was rolling down.
Whoosh! Itachi chased after it.
He threw a kunai in the air and then threw another one.
Cling! They deflected, and one went in front of the cart's wheels and stopped it from moving.
Itachi continued chasing the cart.
He jumped up and threw the kunai with an attached wire in front of it, then made a hand sign.
"Shadow clone jutsu!"
Itachi swung himself using a clone and went ahead of the cart.
Itachi was in midair with a kunai in his hand.
Cling!
He threw the kunai into the edge and pulled himself closer.
"He's doing it again! Acting like he's so much better than us." Tenma raced after the kunai, he jumped above the cart and threw a kunai to the edge too.
"Tenma, what are you doing? This cliff can't handle the both of us."
"Just shut up, will ya?"
The cart rolled and fell off the cliff.
Itachi pulled the string he put on it before and now the cart was dangling with Itachi holding it up.
"Man, you kids are a pain.
Dedicated to your mission, huh?"
The masked man appeared from inside the cliff and next to Tenma.
"I don't want to ruin the merchandise, and if I kill you, you'll fall with the cart.
However, if I kill your teammate…
Nothing could ever go wrong…"
Itachi's eyes widened.
"Tenma look out!"
By the time Tenma saw him, a kunai was in his chest and the wire was cut.
"Tenma!!" Shinko raced towards the edge.
"Wait Shinko!"
Yuki wasn't handling himself well, so he didn't go chasing after them.
'He's…
Dead.'