_________ POV Narration_________
Flying didn't come naturally to Ken.
He had practised it during the creation of 'Flash Step', but he hadn't actually ever flown with his own two wings.
Mainly because he didn't even know he had them.
He had only been tracing the Raikage's steps, catching up to him, when he finally sensed his targets, flying high in the sky.
His frustration rose at that moment when he realized that the Waterfall Jinchuriki was much faster than expected.
Even if the Raikage was injured and tired, the fact that he hadn't caught up already was impressive in itself.
He still had the 'Flash Step' up his sleeve, but while it would give him the speed to catch up, it was by no means sustainable.
It would take a while to even catch up, and it would surely tire him out.
At that moment, Ken really wished he could just grow some wings...
And from his scaled-back sprouted a pair of wings.
The assassin was so disoriented at first that he almost tripped and fell, something he hadn't done ever since he was a wee child in his first life.
The wings had a strange feeling to them, he could control them like his own limbs, just like his tail. They also ripped the back of his coat apart as they came out, but ah well, you can't win them all...
Still, it was then that his desire to learn more about himself grew once more. Not that it needed to grow any more, but it just added more intrigue on top of intrigue.
He already knew his body adapted to its surroundings constantly. His 'underwater form' was proof of that.
But now? It seemed that his body didn't just shift in major ways because of his surroundings, his transformation depended on his will as well.
He may have gotten some hints regarding that when he managed to cover his Tenketsu and alter his height, but he didn't think he'd ever be able to grow more limbs from his body.
At that moment, the first thing he tried while flying was to grow another arm... But he was not able to do so. He then tried to grow another leg, but that was not successful either.
He did manage to alter their size greatly but did not grow more limbs.
He couldn't grow another mouth, nor could he grow himself a pair of eyes. It was regrettable, but also expected, and likely for the better.
Getting used to new limbs was not all that easy, and he had already lived his entire life the way he was.
What he did manage to do, however, was grow a second pair of wings, which seemed to increase his speed as well.
He made his body slimmer as he eventually caught up to the Jinchuriki and struck him down, slashing him in half with his strongest attack.
He knew that he couldn't go easy on a Tailed Beast of all things, so he didn't hesitate to kill it instantly, using the vast majority of his chakra, keeping only enough to not turn to stone.
He did notice the distinct lack of Onoki, he had felt the old Tsuchikage somewhere within the forest as he flew by.
But the midget seemed to be immobile at the time, so Ken didn't bother going after him and wasting precious minutes while Yusuzo got farther and farther away.
Yusuzo was already at the edges of Ken's perception at the time, even a minute of stagnation would've likely meant losing him.
Sure, following his scent might've been possible, but there was always the possibility of him hiding his scent, making clones and sending them in different directions. Just the possibility was too much of a bother.
Well, now that the Jinchuriki was dead, the first thing the masked assassin did was to check his corpse.
The Tailed Beast chakra had already dissipated, and the body of the Kage returned to that of a human, still split in two right down the middle.
His kage hat had long since been blown away, and Ken could clearly feel a split expression of pure terror on his face.
It was clear that Yusuzo's last moments were not pleasant. But Ken didn't care for that one bit.
He simply walked over to his body and started searching him properly.
Eventually, he managed to find the scroll he was looking for... A's arm. Well, it was most likely the scroll that contained A's arm.
It was hidden in a seal hidden in between some bandages that he wore on his arm.
'Hmm... Better to just take everything to make sure.'
And so, the Assassin did just that. He didn't bother checking the first scroll, instead, he stripped the Jinchuriki of everything he deemed useful or valuable before turning around and flying off.
Using his wings was certainly more tiring than simply running, but it was also faster. There were no obstacles in the sky, nothing slowing him down.
No flock of birds was stupid enough to even attempt to get close to him, so he had free reign to travel in the sky.
The stamina consumption of flying meant that he wouldn't be able to do it endlessly like running.
But he was certain he'd be able to fly for at least a few days before needing a stop for rest.
But his current flight only took around 40 minutes.
The chase hadn't taken that long, but the speed they had gone at increased exponentially when Ken grew his second pair of wings and the Jinchuriki started pushing himself to his limits.
Now, Ken just took it at a more leisurely pace, enjoying the wind on his skin as he retracted the scales from most of his body, allowing what little chakra he had left to flow in all but his back.
The first thing he felt? The Tsuchikage was no longer where he had fallen.
In that instant, Ken dived down into that forest, a confusing scene for the Raikage and B, who were observing him in the distance.
Ken landed on the ground, raising a cloud of dust around him. In front of him was a rather large crater, with the imprint of a small body in the middle.
Blood seemed to trail in one direction and into the woods.
The Assassin's nostrils flared for a second, he immediately picked up a few more scents near the crater.
'Anbu likely... The trail feels faint, if anything, my chances of catching them are rather low...'
The main problem was that, no matter how good Ken's senses were, the Anbu still had countless ways of hiding their tracks, and they were used to doing so against countless techniques similar to Ken's.
They were no longer within that patch of forest too, outside of Ken's overall senses.
'I could try to follow the scent of blood... But it seems to cut off at some point, and the others seem to have split up... Anbu are always going to be annoying...'
In the end, the assassin just shook his head and turned around.
There was no point in 'crying' over spilt milk. Onoki was strong, but he wasn't someone Ken couldn't handle.
Now, the Assassin even had an advantage in the air that the Raikage didn't, so that meant that Onoki's strategy of flying up and shooting Kekkei Tōta around was not going to be that easy to pull off.
Ken's wings provided him with a lot more manoeuvrability in mid-air, making him a lot harder to hit than someone like the Raikage.
Regardless, the Blind Assassin wrote off the Tsuchikage as someone to keep an 'eye' out for. But otherwise not that worrisome of a threat.
'He's more likely to target the Cloud than to target the Dark Brotherhood anyway. I doubt he'll put the pieces together and realize I was the Gray Fox as well.
Yusuzo had more chances of doing that, he seemed relatively smart, but now he was relatively dead. Still, he had been smart enough to fool the Tsuchikage anyway.
Well, he took advantage of the Tsuchikage's panic at the time to pull the wool over his eyes. But it was a win nonetheless.
A win that managed to put him in Ken's visors as a person of interest, someone to pay attention to and be careful around. His death meant that Ken could now focus his attention elsewhere.
Ken's wings flapped as he reached the Raikage and B in a few more minutes, his wings creating a powerful wind that forced B, who was now supplying the Raikage with Chakra, to close his eyes.
The Raikage clenched his fist, a purplish aura covered him and two ephemeral tentacles grew out of that aura on his back.
"How's the situation... Did you kill the fuckers?" The Raikage asked as the Masked Assassin landed in front of him and B.
"The Waterfall Jinchuriki is dead, here." Ken threw the scrolls he had taken from Yusuzo's body.
"Your son's remains should be in one of these scrolls..." Ken crossed his arms and turned his head towards the Raikage, who seemed confused.
"... Why didn't you just check them yourself?" The Raikage's question went unanswered, as Ken just shrugged and pretended to look away.
B just sighed as he got to work. The Raikage was still recovering. He also wanted to see the remains of his brother... He needed to do that in order to finally accept his death.
The very first step of the process of healing from a loss. If there was no body, then even though they knew better, they would still forever be in denial.
B started searching through the scrolls with a grave expression etched on his face.
Ken just flexed his back, his scales entering his body and disappearing, alongside his large wings.
The Raikage raised an eyebrow at that. It couldn't be helped, the scene was just that odd. The wings themselves were bigger than Ken's body, and seeing them just disappear was strange.
To add to that, the assassin's flesh seemed to shift visibly as he retracted his wings, his muscles twitching as if an earthquake was contained within his body.
It was both an unnatural and unnerving sight for B and the Raikage.
Meanwhile, the 8-Tails was just intrigued, curious about the nature of Ken's existence still. But it didn't overstep boundaries to try and speak to him again.
He merely hoped they would get a chance to do so later.
The Raikage didn't dwell too much on Ken's monstrous abilities and body. Instead, his mind focused back on his own body, then on his missing arm.
And then, he turned back to Ken.
"What about the Tsuchikage?" He grasped at his stump, most of the bleeding had stopped thanks to B's chakra, but it wasn't looking all that pretty.
"That midget escaped... He was dropped off in the forest while I was following the Jinchuriki. I decided to prioritize chasing the still-escaping target rather than the unconscious one..."
Ken's tone was steady, and his words sounded reasonable even, but that didn't mean the Raikage liked hearing them.
"What?! How long would it have taken to just fly down there and cut his head off?!" The Raikage raised his voice without even realising it.
For once, he didn't care about shouting at Ken, he didn't care about diplomacy. He just cared about his son's killer getting away.
"I don't know... A minute, maybe a few seconds? But the Jinchuriki was already getting away from my sensor range." Ken didn't react at all to the Raikage's raised voice, if it bothered him, he surely didn't show it.
"Sensor range?! He was in the middle of the sky! If you kept your eyes peeled, you could've tracked him easily!" The Raikage scowled, not satisfied at all with the assassin's explanation.
"First off, we don't all have eyes, Lord Raikage. Some of us just don't get that lucky.
Second, if you had 'kept your eyes peeled' maybe you could've noticed that the Tsuchikage had only landed a few dozen kilometres from the place you stopped, and maybe you could've finished the job yourself."
Ken's tone was just as cold as before, but there was a mocking undertone to it. The assassin didn't bother sticking around to hear the Raikage's response either.
"You can send my payment to the Dark Brotherhood compound. Bye." After that, the assassin just dissapeared.
His job was done there, he saw no point in arguing with the Raikage.
He didn't bother to focus on the Raikage, or B, he didn't care what they felt.
But the two of them couldn't help but stare at the assassin's disappearing back in absolute shock.
'... One of the most intimidating assassins alive... Someone capable of hunting down Kage like they're prized prey... Is completely blind?!'
B's mind had just imploded at that point. The Raikage himself was both too shocked and embarrassed to say anything.
'Well... That could've gone better...' The Raikage sighed as he turned and looked at the scrolls on the ground.
He joined B in searching for his son's remains after that, knowing that there was no use in trying to find the assassin.
Meanwhile, Ken didn't even spare them a thought.
He just smiled as he hoped to feel a nice reaction from the Hokage.
'Missions success... I wonder what Tosho is up to... I'll just send him a message to go back to base.
Meanwhile, I'll just take my sweet time travelling back to the Leaf...'
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Hope you liked the chapter!
Btw, yea, slowly but surely, the world will find out that the Red Dot is a blind kid :))) That's gonna be a fun reveal, innit?
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