2 weeks later…
Itachi met with Ryuu in his house, minutes before his mission.
Ryuu was in his Anbu gear, he was about to head outside when Itachi knocked on his door.
"I've collected enough information on Mukai Kohinata.
Shisui and I will kill him today."
"That's smart, you've probably learned a few things from him too."
Itachi nodded.
"I better get going, I can't be late."
"Yeah, good luck on your mission."
"Thanks." Itachi flickered away.
Ryuu wore his mask and teleported to the Hokage's office.
"Ryuu, I have a mission for you and Kakashi."
"Another assassination?"
"No, it's more like a hunt, a terrorist group of rogue ninjas from Kirigakure have been disturbing some small towns around the borders for the land of fire.
Kirigakure sent a hawk and told us about them.
I don't know much about them apart from that they specialize in water style and genjutsu and they have around twenty members."
"I see…." Ryuu read their report and gave it to Kakashi.
"Do you think this could be related to Mukai Kohinata?
He had a few contacts in there, didn't he?" Ryuu asked.
"I'm uncertain, it may be connected to him, but maybe not.
The Mizukage didn't mention their motives, they might have been a terrorist group because they made deals like this, but who knows?" Ryuu nodded.
"Alright, let's get going, Kakashi."
They flickered out of the office and left.
"I'll meet you at the gate and then I'll teleport us there."
Kakashi nodded.
Ryuu went to Ichiraku Ramen and had a bowl of Ramen before leaving.
"Really? Ramen before a mission?"
"What? You want some?" Ryuu asked with a mouthful of ramen.
"Here, I left some for you."
"I'm not hungry, plus we're on a mission."
"Grrrr…" Kakashi's stomach growled.
Sigh.
"Mina's cooking is still that bad?"
"It's getting better."
Kakashi finished the rest of Ryuu's Ramen, and they left.
Ryuu teleported them to the borders of the land of fire.
"Can you sense them?"
Ryuu shook his head as he touched the ground.
"Could they be using some kind of jutsu to hide their chakra?"
"It's possible.
But that has to be some strong jutsu if they can hide from me."
Ryuu bit his finger and made hand signs.
"Summoning jutsu!"
*Poof!*
"Hey! Ryuu!" Kai ran around Ryuu in circles after being summoned.
"Kai, hold on." Ryuu caught him by his Konoha forehead protector, which he kept on his neck.
"This is serious, I need you to find some shinobi around here.
They're from Kirigakure and their terrorists, around 20 of them, alright?" Kai excitedly nodded.
"You have my word!" Kai stated with a salute and a smile.
"Here." Ryuu touched Kai and infused him with lightning chakra.
Kai's eyes started glowing with yellow lightning, and his fur stood up and turned yellow.
"Alright!"
Whoosh… He vanished in a yellow blur and the wind blew past both Ryuu and Kakashi.
"This should only take a few minutes, should we help?" Ryuu asked.
"Let's do a simple search nearby first."
"Alright."
They searched nearby to see if the enemies would've left any trace of where they were hiding.
"Hey, Ryuu, come look at this."
"What is it?"
"That puddle over there, there's something off-putting about it."
Ryuu inspected it.
'There was nothing off about the puddle, nothing I could see.
I moved closer and made a stick using my ash.
I poked it to see what was wrong, but when I pulled the stick out, the water felt like goo.'
Ryuu stood up.
"It's possible this is some sort of jutsu.
Maybe a kekkei Genkai, but I'm not sure, here, what do you think it smells like?"
Kakashi sniffed the goo on Ryuu's stick.
"Blood."
"Just as I thought.
There was probably a fight here.
Can you track it?"
Kakashi shook his head.
"That blood is faint, I can't track it properly, it's like a strange mixture of blood and other things, it's probably a special poison."
"I see…"
Fwoosh…
"Ryuu! I found them, hurry!" Kai shouted, while on Ryuu's head.
"Let's go, Kakashi!"
Ryuu and Kakashi entered lightning chakra mode and followed Kai as he led them toward the enemies.
'What?!' Ryuu's eyes widened at seeing all the corpses of the enemies.
"But who killed them all? Could it be-"
Boom!!!
Ryuu was cut short when a loud explosion occurred.
They didn't hesitate and moved toward the loud explosion.
On their way there, they heard a familiar voice.
"Gentle Fist cuts off enemy chakra.
Using it means being very familiar with that flow. Jutsu is the embodiment of chakra. If you can read the flow, it's not so tough to split it,"
Mukai explained with a grin and raced toward Shisui.
"At least now we know who was fighting earlier," Ryuu commented while watching Itachi and Shisui take on Mukai Kohinata.
"Should we help?" Ryuu asked, desperate for a fight.
"No, this is Itachi's test, not ours."
"Come on, not even a little?" Kakashi shook his head.
"But-"
"Quit it, Ryuu!"
Ryuu's head dropped depressingly.
"What a drag."
Their opponent was a user of Gentle Fist. It was almost too difficult to strike the killing blow in close combat.
A single long-distance blow would decide this contest.
"Let's stay here and watch them."
Ryuu sat on a tree and watched them fight.
"Fine." Kakashi stood on a tree next to Ryuu's.
Besides his vast experience, Mukai was a user of the Byakugan, a kekkei Genkai that allowed the flow of chakra to be sensed visually; naturally, he understood what the Sharingan was, and what it could do.
Mukai had been on missions with Ryuu and Kakashi sometimes, and sometimes he even went on missions with Obito.
Just barely dodging Mukai's left thrust, Shisui threw his torso back. Given the perfect opportunity, Mukai pressed in on the younger man.
Shisui leaped backward, as if in flight. In that instant, Mukai's face was turned toward the rock Itachi was hiding behind.
'I see… Itachi's trying to put him in a genjutsu.'
Mukai turned his gaze toward Shisui as he landed, and then abruptly averted his eyes. Mukai had turned his face in the exact direction of the rock concealing Itachi.
When they were a hair's breadth apart, Mukai kicked suddenly at the ground and flew upward, in an incredible leap.
When he landed, he kicked at another rock and bounded into the sky again. Itachi's hiding spot had been found and, in an instant, Mukai noticed Itachi's presence.
Mukai was leaping straight toward the rock where Itachi was hiding.
Itachi didn't notice Shisui standing behind him, grinning before his friend disappeared.
Shisui next appeared in front of Mukai. "Tch!" Clicking his tongue, Mukai was knocked back into the rock wall rising, as Shisui's kick ripped into his face.
His skull split open. Or so Itachi thought before his eyes took in a splintered log. "Shadow Clone!"
"Right…" Mukai stood behind Itachi.
"Eight Trigrams Two Palms." The heels of his right and left palms slammed into Itachi's stomach in quick succession.
"Eight Trigrams Four Palms." Before Itachi breathed, this time, four blows slammed into him.
"Eight Trigrams Eight Palms." As if sneering at Itachi's brain as it fumbled for the start of a counterattack, Mukai assaulted him mercilessly with successive attacks.
"Ngaaaaah!" Itachi heard a cry from Mukai's right side.
The byakugan's blind spot. In the corner of Itachi's hazy field of view, Shisui launched a flying kick. "Shisui."
Mukai dropped into a defensive stance.
As Mukai dodged the kick merely by angling his head, he grabbed hold of Shisui's neck with his outstretched left hand and held him up high with a single arm.
Strangled like this, Shisui struggled frantically. But the five fingers sunk into his throat simply would not peel away.
"There's this thing called 'training' that you do to overcome your weak points.
The first step in my training was to compensate for the byakugan's blind spot in one eye, with physical jutsu.
"Don't underestimate this old man, brats."
"Mukai Kohinata…" Unconsciously, Itachi called the name of the powerful enemy before him.
His feet had also taken a step forward without him realizing it.
Moving forward with no kind of plan was an act of suicide.
However, Itachi's feet would not stop moving, they continued to walk artlessly toward Mukai.
"Then I'll put him out of his misery, as requested!"
"Hngh!"
The hand around Shisui's throat tightened its grip.
Mukai was going to crush his Adam's apple.
"Stop!"
Itachi shouted, and the Sharingan in his eyes glittered.
"There's no way that sort of obvious genjutsu is going to work on me." He said, turning his eyes away from Itachi.
"I have to admit, I thought Ryuu Uchiha's top student would be more of a challenge.
I guess his standards are too high, even for you, Shisui of the body flicker."
Kakashi looked at Ryuu and noticed his proud smirk.
'What's he so happy about?'
Kakashi looked at Shisui and noticed the one-handed signs he was making.
"Chidori!"
A stream of lightning swiftly cut through Mukai's hand, and Shisui dropped.
"Aaaah!" Mukai yelled as his hand had been severed.