Storm clouds smother the twin moon's residual scarlet hue. The thunderstorm strengthens; gradual rainfall becomes a thick downpour, waterlogging the rooftops. The Marine Contra crawls from underneath the roof's rocky surface, writhing with both hands on his face.
"Arrgh! Fucking Uchihas, man, I swear!" Lightning strikes a nearby antenna, capsizing the metal structure. He rolls away, preventing the twisted metal from crushing him. He sits against a stone pillar, 'Ow, my head hurts... my mouth is sore, why do I taste... iron?' Jim uses the rain to wash the blood obstructing his vision, then steals a glance over the tower's ledge, 'I can't keep this up much longer. Where are they!? What's taking so long!?' the mass murderer's face pales as a thirst for blood looms, invisible beyond the dust yet ominous and overbearing.
After consuming a military rations pill, Crane shuffles back to his feet, groaning in pain, angry and ever more ferocious. The numbness in his limbs subsides; he scans the rooftops yet maintains a vigilant eye on the scrap metal. The medical-nin clutches the hilt of his rattling sword while drawing a kunai. Apprehensive of what lies ahead, he prepares for combat, awaiting orders to advance; however, Raven has yet to recover.
The Anbu Captain's hair conceals her face as she stares at the reinforced mask lying on the ground. 'I felt it again… they use the same techniques; that chakra signature is too familiar. I no longer need my Sharingan to recognize those moves—they're the same as *his*.' Her shoulders tremble as she stutters with each breath, 'Malkhaz's lips even feel the same as *his* against mine! Is my husband still haunting me from beyond the grave!?'
The shinobi gasps, catching a glimpse of her eyes as she stands, worrying the juinjutsu (cursed seal techniques) keeping her PTSD in check is weakening. He condemns the Hokage for releasing her from the psychiatric hospital, 'She's earned her husband's former codename and mask. But using them to mourn is proving counterproductive.' The unique pattern in her eyes relapses to the usual three-tomoe design as the Uchiha places the mask back on her face.
The dust around the metal debris settles; Jim's silhouette materializes, doll-like gilded eyes, lifeless, cold, and calculating, bare down upon the Grey Berets (Anbu), analyzing their every move. His expressions and body language are unreadable, appearing predatory and inhuman, almost robotic. They sneer as he assumes a combat-ready stance. The war criminal's injuries render his self-inflicted genjutsu inactive; furthermore, the gash on Jim's head forces him to use an olive drab bandana as a bandage. Now vulnerable to the kunoichi's visual prowess, he avoids eye contact until the irksome procedure can be re-subject to automatization via genjutsu.
The fugitive teleports before Raven, dispatching a solid kick to her chin; he spins the Anbu Captain through the air via tornado kick, pivots, and roundhouse kicks the tall Anbu in the head. Both assassins tumble across the rooftops but are back on their feet, releasing smoke bombs and genjutsu to camouflage themselves. She uses the body flicker technique; however, Jim intercepts her with a snap-kick, teleports behind Crane, and heel-kicks him, sending the Anbu crashing into each other.
"Barrier Ninjutsu: Five-Seal Pentagram Genesis!" the Contra's sealing tags along the tower's edges activate. Luminous spheres of electricity materialize, encompassing the rooftops; the assassins halt a hairsbreadth away from the boundary. The Uchiha's knuckle grazes its surface; she flinches, hissing in pain while shaking her hand to relieve the searing sensation. "It's a unilateral seal that requires external deactivation. Those inside cannot escape. Resistance is futile!"
The medical-nin glares at him, "If so, neither will you!"
He chuckles, "Perhaps, but let's face facts. We're trapped together here, and you're about as fucked as a main house Hyūga in the Raikage's office after midnight!"
The kunoichi scoffs, "But are we trapped here with you, or are you trapped here with us?"
"My time left on this Earth is fleeting. Either I kill you, or you kill me; it doesn't matter. Nothing—leaves—the quarantine zone..."
"So what're you planning to do? Talk us to death?" the shinobi says.
A devious grin slithers across his face as he connives at the Anbu's weaknesses, "Actually, I thought I'd *beat* you—to death," He bolts after them, aiming a butterfly kick at Crane. "That shoulder injury is a bite wound..." the mass murderer says, though more of a statement than a question. The shinobi braces himself; Raven detects genjutsu, layering a basic clone technique—the afterimage phases past Crane's counterattack. "The infection's spreading. You should save me the trouble and kill your comrade now," he frowns, "that is… while it's still possible."
Jim reappears behind the Anbu Captain; she dodges, then redirects his rapid combo strikes. Crane tags in with a flurry of quick jabs; his extensive reach keeps the Contra beyond arm's length. As the tall Anbu sustains the pressure, Raven assaults the fugitive from behind. Jim shifts the ground with a hand seal to divert the kunoichi's incoming attack. He blocks Crane's near-pinpoint haymaker, but the shinobi lunges forward and grabs him.
"You should know better than anyone—Dr. Kuriarare. Weren't you a military virologist? How long ago were you bitten?" The shinobi thrusts his knee at Jim's face. He blocks, twists away from Crane's grasp, avoids Raven's spinning roundhouse kick, and deflects the medical-nin's hopping sidekick.
Crane feints a kick to Jim's ribs, sweeping the war criminal's knee instead. "If it comes down to that, you better believe I'm dragging you down to hell with me, Malkhaz!"
Jim falls backward, using the momentum to spin on his palms and assault the Anbu with a torrent of upside-down revolving heel kicks. They block the whirling barrage, yet the continuous blows stumble them. Raven blitzes him, targeting his groin with a frontal assault. He transitions his centrifugal onslaught into an evasive maneuver, implementing a back-walkover to dodge her turning sidekick. He swings one leg after the other beneath his torso; she cork-flips away. The tall Anbu dispatches a swift 360° ax kick.
He smirks, sidestepping, then sweeping Crane's supporting leg. "Confidence—a fool's substitute for intelligence." He traps the mass murderer with a scissors takedown and rear-naked choke, then tries snapping his neck, but Jim struggles and squirms, forcing an opening. He enhances his elbow with chakra before hammering the medical-nin's floating rip and seizing his arm. "At any moment, your body will begin moving independently. You'll endanger your comrades, try infecting them and probably succeed."
The nociceptors within the shinobi's forearm erupt all at once, triggering a white-hot searing sensation, "AARGH!! I can't hold on much longer! Hurry up and gut this commie whore!"
"You'll be conscious through the ordeal; your nervous system reanimates!" The fugitive strengthens his elbow, siphoning more of the tall Anbu's chakra before ramming it into his kidney. Crane coughs up a red gelatinous substance. "You'll feel and recall everything! It's a fate worse than death!" The Anbu Captain lunges at Jim with a kunai. He kicks her ulnar nerve before driving his heel into the Uchiha's solar plexus, then her chin. The medical-nin screams in agony as Jim drains his chakra; the kunoichi tries disemboweling the Contra, forcing him to release the shinobi's shriveling arm and deal with the impending threat. He stops her kunai centimeters away from his navel.
The tall Anbu strangles him with even greater force, reddening his face, "Project: Red Falcon was the bioweapon you sick fucks were gonna use on us, wasn't it!?" Jim raises an eyebrow at the accusation. He slams his elbow into Crane's sternum, then staggers Raven with a left hook. His grasp loosens, allowing the mass murderer to steal precious oxygen and remain conscious.
"What the *hell* are you on about!?" Jim strikes the medical-nin's kidney, preventing him from snapping his neck, "Ninja Art: *Don't Tase Me, Bro* Jutsu!" The Anbu Captain shrieks as lightning surges across her body, causing the Uchiha to drop her kunai. He kicks the blade away, then tases Crane while absorbing the kunoichi's chakra. She rams her knee into his abdomen, stopping the clicking current, yet he tightens his stomach and dazes her with a firm taser punch to the face.
The shinobi strangles him with his forearm, "Don't screw with me, Malkhaz! The ribbons and medals on your dossier expose all the horrific shit you've done!"
"Pi—ka… CHUUU!!!" Jim shouts, tasing the tall Anbu again, 'Good. I've at least piqued the enemy's curiosity. Now, if I can stall a bit longer,' he breaks free, "Red Falcon is a cryptonym for The Red Zetsu Scourge," then kicks Raven in the groin. Her Sharingan eyes bulge as she falls onto him, crying and writhing in pain. The war criminal adjusts his glasses, "This contagion is not of the prior regime's creation nor terrestrial origin." The gasping Anbu Captain tries constricting his arms, but Jimi shimmies free. "Granted, the socialists are responsible for many of the mutagenic horrors unleashed upon the ASF, but I'm certain humanity's extinction was never their intention."
"Lightning Style: Electric Boogaloo No-Jutsu!" He electrifies his fingers, then jams and wiggles them on her ribs, "Tickle-tickle-tickle-tickle-tickle!" The assassins scream, tussle, and tumble on the ground, unable to subdue the slippery fugitive or deliver a killing blow. "Red Falcon was unlike anything we'd ever encountered before. It was sentient, self-aware, it had ambition: the assimilation of all organic matter on the planet; a truly communist society in its purest form." He says with blatant sarcasm as Crane blacks out.
The Uchiha dizzies Jim with two solid right hooks before kneeing his abdomen. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down..." she says, reciprocating her palms in a halting gesture, "Are you talking about—space aliens now?"
He rolls his eyes, "We live in a world full of magic ninjas, demons, ghosts, talking animals, and mother fuckers with reality-bending supernatural abilities that defy every law of physics and thermodynamics, yet talk of space aliens is what's hustlin' you, darling!?" the kunoichi's patience wears thin; she traps the Contra's forearms between her knee joints then claws at his face, trying to pry open Jim's eyes. "Alright, alright! Look—I'm not saying it was space aliens, okay. But it goes without saying—that it was fucking space aliens!"
She nudges the mask above her mouth, then tries biting him. He dislodges an arm from Raven's leg, then unsteadies her with two teeth rattling left hooks. The mass murderer stands and kicks the medical-nin in the stomach as he stirs; the hyperventilating shinobi substitutes himself with a log. He suplexes the war criminal; Jim counters midflight via scissors takedown, then kicks away the tall Anbu. The Anbu captain tackles the war criminal.
"Oof!" a sad chuckle escapes him, "This extraterrestrial lifeform… this parasitic organism was centuries beyond anything we could even engineer or control. It was scary stuff, radically advanced. It gave us ideas and took us in new directions we never thought possible!" He throws another punch, but she catches his fist, 'does she truly think I'll allow her or anyone ever again to heal by biting me!?' The Uchiha bites and snaps at Jim. He reaches for her discarded kunai on the ground, bit by bit, dragging it closer. "Yet it came from a meteorite that wiped away most of our already war-ravaged population like excrement from a boot."
The fugitive frees his hand and stuns Crane for the umpteenth time with an elbow strike. "There were survivors here and there, though whatever was within that infernal space rock is what finished us off." He shoves the kunoichi's head, preventing her from biting his neck; she chomps Jim's shoulder. He screams, punching in desperation to shake her off. Nevertheless, the thick material composing his fatigues prevents Raven from healing. He grabs the kunai and plunges it into her buttock; the Anbu Captain's eyes widen.
"Lightning Release: Jolting Jigawatt Jutsu!" Electricity surges through both assassins, locking up their muscles. "We were so foolish and desperate, never comprehending the true nature of this otherworldly being!" In a last-ditch effort to free himself, the Contra reaches behind the flailing Uchiha, grabbing and pulling whatever he can. "Red Falcon eradicated cancer and eliminated AIDS, any mental or genetic disorder, or conceivable ailment to humanity; a treatment or cure was under development." Jim thrusts back, slamming his chakra-enhanced elbow into the medical-nin's crotch; his eyes bulge.
"URGH!! You dirty bitch!" he squeaks, tumbling over while holding his groin.
"AAARGH!! MY CRACK!!" Raven screams bloody murder as her body shakes without control.
Jim breaks free, "Oh yeah! How about them undies wedged *right* the fuck up that pasty white Uchiha ass!!" heaving the Anbu Captain's thong. "It was an unprecedented medical breakthrough!" the Uchiha's g-string snaps; he left hooks her off himself, "suck some fist, dirtbag!" then teleports away. "However, that thing turned on us once it understood enough about the human genome to view our species as nothing more than nourishment."
The tall Anbu teleports behind him and puts Jim in a full Nelson, but he lunges backward. Lightning surges into Crane's body, weakening his limbs as he collides with the seal barrier. "Millions perished soon after; the only problem was that they didn't stay dead." He pivots, hip throws the medical-nin over his shoulder, then strangles him with the kunoichi's ruined lingerie, "For years, we were hunted down and fed upon by those abominations—those Red Zetsus, mutants, nosferatu, or what have you!"
"As our weapons failed, our hiding places diminished, and they drew nearer. We had turned to hope, but hope fled long ago—just one bite or scratch, and well. I'm sure we're all familiar with the results," He presses his knee against the shinobi's back, torturing him upon the electric barrier, "No more exposition. I'm going to kill you now, then the rest of…" Raven tackles the mass murderer, "Fuck!" screaming and stabbing a log he substitutes himself with.
A thin, conductive wire lassoes her neck, pulling the Anbu Captain against the barrier. Electricity restrains her limbs as the cable compresses the Uchiha's arteries; darkness encroaches upon her vision. The tall Anbu throws a shuriken, cutting the kunoichi from the excruciating ensnarement. Another cord entangles Crane's ankle, yanking him into the air, galvanizing the medical-nin as his back bounces on the seal wall. Coughing and gasping for air, Raven throws her kunai, cutting the wire from a stone pillar protruding inside the barrier. The shinobi hits the ground, twitching and convulsing from the current coursing within his body.