"Crane!" Raven barks.
The Anbu Captain's authoritative tone shakes the medical-nin from his stupor, "My apologies, Captain, but there's nothing I can do; this is beyond even my expertise." He sighs, "I'd put Captain Mantis out of her misery if I could, but how do we kill someone without a pulse or heartbeat?" Crane removes the rebar, impaling Mantis's shoulder, then tosses it aside, 'Could this gel-like substance be what's keeping her remains animated?'
Pelican scoffs, "Disgusting…"
Parrot gags, 'I've had enough of this; I'm out of here,' he walks away, knowing this will be another memory to suppress deep in his subconscious. He is no stranger to war; nevertheless, perpetual missions as a Grey Beret (Anbu) can debilitate even the strongest minds. "You alright?" Parrot asks, approaching Hawk.
"I'm fine; a bit winded, but I'll manage," the Hyūga responds, catching his breath.
He reaches into one of the pouches on his flak jacket, "Here, it ain't much, but it's all yours truly has left," Parrot whispers.
Hawk looks over his shoulder before taking one of the capsules and inspecting it. 'These must be the state-of-the-art Military Rations Pills the New Land of Whirlpools won't shut up about.'
"It's experimental—um, I mean a reverse-engineered product, you know."
The Hyūga rolls his pure, blank white eyes, "And they want a couple of guinea pigs to test these on, right?"
"No, no, no; It's not like that," the Whirlpool shinobi replies, shaking his hands. "We scavenged the recipe from a Syndicate of Socialist Republics pharmaceutics lab a few years back. This stuff works wonders; I'm tellin' you!"
Hawk raises an eyebrow, "Those damn G-MOs sure can make an excellent product. Alright, you've piqued my interest. Go on."
"C'mon, have I ever steered you wrong before? This food pill will remove any pain while producing pretty trippy results. Yours truly would know, you know." the Uzu-nin says, handing him a mysterious soft drink.
"Kekkei-Kola!? Most excellent!" he gulps the capsule and takes a swig. "So, how long does it take to kick in?"
Parrot shrugs, "Uh... the pill, or that *weird* bloodline limit soda?"
Sparrow, eavesdropping, rolls her eyes, "worthless junkies."
Hawk gives Sparrow the middle finger, but she returns the bird. The Whirlpool shinobi flips off Pelican without cause; thus, he bestows a good, old-fashioned California Howdy upon the trio.
Sovereign Colonies Marine Contras
Jim adjusts his rifle's telescopic sights; he zeros in on his mark (accounting for elevation, wind, parallax adjustment) and exhales.
Anbu Black Ops: Thirteen Alpha
Caramel and sugariness within the high fructose corn syrup streams down the Hyūga's throat—the Kekkei-Kola carbonation burns a little. The acidity has a citric taste; it's subtle but noticeable. The Uzu-nin and Pelican stare in astonishment as he downs a two-liter bottle. Hawk tosses the empty container, bouncing it off Sparrow's head.
She glares at him, "Pasty freak!"
Parrot catches the empty bottle, "A two-liter bottle ain't meant for just one person, fool! You fool!"
Before the Hyūga responds, a wave of killing intent washes over the Anbu. Mantis lunges after Crane, biting into the screaming medical-nin's shoulder. Blood and chunks of flesh splatter the side of the Whirlpool shinobi's mask; a round grazes the top of his head.
"Aaargh! My arm!" Pelican shouts, gripping the bloody stump where his arm hangs from the bicep by a few tatters of flesh.
"Sniper! Get down!" Raven warns.
Hawk falls, landing in the Uzu-nin's arms; the baseball-size entry wound in the Hyūga's chest abolishes any hope of survival. Tears well in Parrot's eyes as his childhood friend dies, with a look of shock forever dawning on his face. Crane plunges a kunai into Mantis's temple, then uses the blade's handle to wrench the zombified Anbu Captain off himself. He smashes Mantis's skull with his elbow to break free; Raven punts Mantis, then dives into a window behind the injured medical-nin. The Whirlpool shinobi awakens from shellshock. He springs from the ground, grabs Pelican, and dives through the window before Sparrow. Another round flies by embedding itself into the wall.
"Dang, I missed," the Marine Contra says, 'They can't leave a main-house Hyūga laid out in the dirt. They have to recover the body sooner or later,' He chambers a bullet, "Oh no, ya don't!" and fires. The skeletal framework comprising Mantis's gaping maw ruptures like a festering cyst full of teeth, stopping her from infecting Hawk's corpse. It terrifies yet amazes him how resilient the Red Zetsus are; nevertheless, 'a pristine intact dōjutsu ripe and ready for harvest lies in wait!'
Pelican writhes in pain; Raven stabilizes the injury using healing jutsu while Sparrow muffles his screams, preventing him from giving away their location. Crane finishes patching the bite wound on his shoulder and rushes to Pelican.
"Parrot, restrain him!" the medical-nin administers a potent custom-made anesthetic. Pelican's muffled screams and involuntary twitching cease; Crane sanitizes the wound before removing the fragments lodged within Pelican's arm. His mastery of medical ninjutsu enables him to work with Pelican's bloodline limit while reattaching the limb by creating new cells, skin tissue, muscles, nerves, arteries, and veins around the regenerating skeletal structure. The Shikotsumyaku (Dead/Macabre Bone Pulse) user recovers in minutes rather than hours, relying on his bloodline limit alone.
A droning guttural groan disrupts the post-apocalyptic ambiance as the lifeless mass drags itself against the ground. Persistent tapping against a metallic surface echoes along the adjacent window near the Anbu.
"What is that, you know?" the Uzu-nin asks.
"Oh great, what now?" Sparrow says.
The Anbu Captain slides a compact mirror at her subordinate and points up. Sparrow nods, then inches the mirror towards the window; she adjusts the angle and gasps as a round shatters the mirror.
"You've gotta be kidding! Another one!?" Raven hisses.
The sniper chambers another bullet, then gets a cheap laugh at Mantis, head-butting Hawk's groin plate, struggling to consume the Hyūga's remains.
"Their biotechnology's no match for our combined military might, they said!" Parrot mocks, "Expect moderate to low resistance with enemy morale at an all-time low, they say! Well, someone forgot to tell the SSR that! Or rather, what's left of it, you know."
"Agreed, our intel regarding the Syndicate of Socialist Republics requires much revision," Raven concedes. "Seems those Syndi-boys weren't just cowering in the jungles."
Pelican snorts, "They were fine chowing down upon the Village of the Bloody Mist's hunter-nin divisions until we came along."
Raven slides down, sitting against a wall, "That explains the disappearance of all those infiltration teams sent here over the years. The Socialist Republics may have fallen long before the Allied Forces secured a beachhead."
"Even still, the remaining Syndi-guerrillas technologically outclass us. Why haven't they pushed us back into the ocean yet?" Pelican says.
Crane groans in appalling realization, looking away in deep thought, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say they're biding their time. It may be why large portions of the continent are inaccessible."
"And by inaccessible, you mean—quarantined, right?" Sparrow asks.
"Exactly! Whatever this is," the medical-nin says, pointing at his shoulder injury, "if this ever reaches the Great Shinobi Countries, it can spell the end for each of our respective villages as well."
She nods, understanding the implication: "How long before you try taking a chunk out of me or anyone else, then, Doc?" The kunoichi half teases, keeping her distance.
He chuckles, "I don't know; it's hard to say. I've never been able to study a specimen with us constantly fleeing from them." Crane winces in pain, holding his shoulder. "It's a shame I may never learn the fate of my nephew now."
"We can at least make sure Malkhaz pays with her life before the inevitable," Raven assures Crane.
The medical-nin pulls himself up with a sad smile. "A tragic way for it all to end, wouldn't you agree? But that should be unsurprising given our career choices."
A cluster of smoke bombs project from the windows before detonating, releasing a diversionary smokescreen. The Contra scans the streets, surveying the perimeter around the haze for any signs of activity. He fires at a shadowy afterimage speeding behind a building but misses. The assassins approach; Jim shoulders his rifle and flees.
He dives away from an onslaught of kunai and shuriken, yet the guided projectiles change course in pursuit. The mass murderer dodges, but more kunai, armed with explosive tags, rain down, encircling him. His hands fly through a combination of seals, "Lightning Release: Jolting Jigawatt Jutsu!" Electricity surges inside the metal, diffusing the explosives. A second jolt launches the kunai, cutting the wire strings that control the shuriken. Two black blurs dash at him in his peripheral vision; he eludes evisceration and seizes a ricocheting kunai to deflect a beheading attempt.
"Release!" While dispelling an incursive genjutsu, Jim imbues the kunai with chakra, then butterfly twists (b-twist) between two incoming Fūma Shuriken. The bulky spinning blades veer and intersect, but he throws the kunai, bulls-eyeing the directed shuriken's rings before they rebound, pinning them against a wall. The speeding afterimages reappear; another kunai slips from the war criminal's sleeve into his hand. He deflects a sword racing towards his abdomen. Jim elbows the rifle, nudging its barrel enough to deflect another blade racing at his jugulars. An Anbu dodges the fugitive's counterattack with the shoulder stock, yet he ensnares her wrist using the rifle's sling.
Jim charges the bolt handle, but she cuts the sling and diverts the barrel before he fires at another Anbu. A shinobi slashes with a downward swing. The Contra kicks the kunoichi's sword sheath into the shinobi's ulnar nerve (funny bone), stunning his arm. He heel sweeps the kunoichi, evades an upward slash, and spins the kunai midair to chamber another bullet; however, the shinobi grabs the barrel and lands a solid right hook to his face.
"Argh!!" he recoils but catches the kunai as it tightens and reels in translucent wire strings; Jim cuts a tripwire, setting off an impromptu trap. The kunoichi kicks the rifle out of his hand and lunges onto the mass murderer's back. The shinobi swings his sword at Jim's mid-section; nevertheless, he halts the blade with the kunai ring before wrenching on the almost invisible wires with all his strength. He gasps; the kunoichi's sword ceases inches from the back of his throat. Both assailants are bound as the war criminal's rifle tumbles over the ledge.
"You thought we wouldn't catch up with you? You thought you'd get away with everything you've put us through? You've had this coming for a long time now, Jimi!" Raven sneers, venom dripping in her voice.
"My my—you're pretty strong to hold us back like this, but for how much longer?" Crane taunts, applying more force with his sword, "Your arms *have* to give sooner or later."
She struggles against the translucent restraints, hellbent on moving her sword mere centimeters, "You have a choice, Malkhaz. My blade slides down your throat, the doc guts you like a fish, or you fall to your death!" the Anbu Captain threatens, squeezing her legs tighter against his ribs, "Oh, look, she's suffocating. It won't be long now."
"You know I'm a renowned medical practitioner, right, Malkhaz? If we capture you alive, I'm breaking out my surgical instruments and will take my time with you. Starting with that gorgeous little face of yours!"
The assassins bear down upon Jim with immense pressure; his limbs can't sustain the tension much longer as they struggle against their restraints. He tries salvaging his strategy before it goes FUBAR but knows he'll have to improvise. The fugitive curses himself for not refilling his pistol mags, 'Hindsight's twenty-twenty, I guess…' With a slight twitch of Jim's index finger, the wires hoist the kunoichi's arms, enabling him to maneuver away from her blade. He spins, redirecting the medical-nin's sword before kicking him in the head. The Contra snorts mucus from his sinuses, then spits the lung butter straight at the eyehole on Raven's mask.
She shrieks, "You repulsive skank!!" as he pulls her over the ledge. The excruciating Chakra Absorption Technique forces the Anbu Captain to disengage. He throws her through a window and readies another kunai; the shinobi dives after him, opening with a hail of expert sword strokes. They erupt into a flurry of strikes faster than an untrained eye can see while falling—sword against kunai and steel against steel match each other blow for blow. Crane's unnatural long arms give him an edge; he swipes away one of Jim's kunai.
They withdraw, then slow their descent using their chakra to stick to the building's surface. The medical-nin stares the mass murderer down, daring him to make the first move. The thunderstorm intensifies; lightning rips along the clouds, brightening the sky in a blinding light as if God is watching the battle.
Jim disappears, reappearing before the shinobi as the lightning flashes—their weapons clash, emitting sparks that rain down like the tears of a weeping devil. They battle in pure physical strength, striving to break the stalemate. Standing at 222cm, Crane towers over the war criminal; however, Jim has a speed advantage. He forces the medical-nin's fingers into a crude amalgamation of hand seals. Electricity surges inside the shinobi's hand, electrocuting him. Galvanic currents arc between the fugitive's palms; he tightens his fists before taping them together like jumper cables.
"By the way, dick doc—I'm *not* a girl! Lightning Style: High Voltage Vendetta!" He assails Crane with a rapid barrage of electrified punches to the abdomen. Jim uppercuts the medical-nin, then sends him plummeting with a reverse roundhouse kick. The kunoichi's hands breach the glass under the Contra. She grabs his ankles, then yanks him into the building, throwing Jim through a wall. A volley of shuriken and kunai fly at him, but he dodges and deflects the fusillade with little effort.
A dim light gleams behind him; the room brightens. Heat soars against his back. He evades, but a fiery, cackling skull impacts a nearby wall, launching him across the room. He grabs onto the interior balcony railing, preventing himself from falling. Raven disappears from the doorway, then reappears behind the mass murderer; she speeds over a string of hand seals.
"Fire Style: Searing Skull Salvos!" three flaming skulls accelerate toward him. He executes an aerial cartwheel off the railing, throwing a handful of shuriken. She dodges and bolts down the hallway after him. Explosions rupture the walls behind Jim; the Anbu Captain swings from an intersection, surprising him with a powerful kick. He crosses his arms, blocking the attack, yet the impact sends him flying into a cubicle farm. He skids to a halt; a Red Zetsu ambushes him from behind.
"I like your cut, G!" The war criminal slaps an explosive tag on the back of the flesh-eating ghoul's head before kicking the abomination at her. She dodges; the Red Zetsu's upper body wedges into a wall behind her. The kunoichi lunges; however, an explosion destabilizes her trajectory.