A masked figure emerged from a swirling portal and touched down on the ground. Then a Venus flytrap-like creature came out of the ground.
The flytrap-like head opened, revealing a face that was half-white and half-black. White Zetus smiled and said, "Those kids really did a number on you, Tobi."
He ignored the taunt, looked at his half-burnt clothes, and said, "The way Itachi acted, it seemed like he was prepared to fight me. The poison and fire attacks were both designed to counter me and were untraceable until the last moment."
The Black Zetus responded, "You have had no contact with him or anyone else from the Leaf Village. No one is aware of your ability to phase. It must be a coincidence."
Obito replied, "Whatever the case is, you need to keep an eye on that brat. We have to eliminate him if he becomes a danger to our plans."
Black Zetus replied, "Or we can nurture him and harvest him later. You are also short of one Mangekyo Sharingan."
"Yes. We can do that too," Tobi said as he spiralled out into a portal.
Itachi and Shinko reached the hospital.
"Help! Please, someone help! She's badly injured!" Shinko's voice echoed urgently in the hospital lobby.
"We will take care of her. Were you on a mission? We need to inform the mission centre," the hospital staff said.
Tenma was admitted to the emergency room, and the mission centre was informed, and very soon their jonin sensei, Minazuki Yuki, entered the room.
"What happened? It was a simple mission to capture harmless thieves. What went wrong? If the information was wrong, you all should have escaped." Minazuki-sensei started berating them after assuming that the bandits had hurt the group.
"No sensei, it wasn't like this," Itachi said, and they explained their situation.
Shinko told him, "I have never seen anything like this before. The enemy could pass through solid objects like a ghost. We barely made it out alive.
"Ghosts aren't real. Are you sure you weren't under any genjutsu?" Minazuki-sensei asked.
Itachi replied, "No sensei, I checked for genjutsu. And it wasn't exactly a ghost. It was a ghost-like person. Probably a ninjutsu that lets him pass through solid objects."
Minazuki-sensei replied, "If what you say is true, then this enemy is really troublesome to deal with. You three are truly lucky to escape from him, even if one was injured in the process."
"We need to inform the mission commander about this troublesome enemy. This ninjutsu is troublesome, but I am sure the upper echelons will have ways to deal with such a person. Until then, maintain secrecy and do not discuss this with others. Such a strong enemy could instill fear among the new generations in the village. Let the higher-ups decide on the next steps."
Just then a doctor came out to the lobby. "Are you the Jonin-sensei?" the doctor asked.
"Yes, I am Minazuki Yuki, their jonin sensei," replied the sensei.
The doctor replied, "I am Nono Yakushi. She received a stab wound to her abdomen, but lucky for her, the stab wound was very serious. I have stitched the wound and healed what I could. But there was significant blood loss. any more blood loss, and she would have been critical. She is yet to regain consciousness, but she is out of danger."
Shinko sighed in relief and said, "Thank God."
Nono Yakushi said, "Good thing she was attacked right outside the village and you were able to reach the hospital very soon."
Shinko said, "But we were attacked some distance away from the village. We came running as fast as we could after escaping from our attacker."
Nono Yakushi replied, "But it is impossible."
Minazuki asked, "What is impossible?"
Nono replied, "The wound she had will have anyone bleed to death in a few minutes. If what they say is true, then these kids are actually really fast."
"That must be the work of the poison," said Shinko.
Nono and Minazuki asked, "What poison?"
Itachi explained, "My friend provided me with a paralysing agent that we utilised to incapacitate the enemy during our escape. Tenma was also poisoned while escaping. I remembered my friend telling me that this one is harmless and its effects wear off after some time. I also remembered him telling me that this poison slows the blood flow, so I judged that I should not give her the antidote and rush to the village, hoping it would slow the bleeding."
Nono Yakushi said, "That is one hell of a paralysing agent. It saved all of your lives in more ways than you can count."
She then asked, "Who is this friend?" I would also like to get this poison for research purposes."
Itachi was hesitant to sell out his friend. He didn't know if Ryu wanted this sort of attention or not. He thought, "I will ask him first; till then I should keep his name out of it."
He replied, "I am afraid that I cannot tell you the name of my friend to respect his privacy. But I will ask if I can provide you with the sample."
Nono smiled and asked him, "Tell me, was it Ryu Hamura?"
Itachi was taken aback and puzzled to hear Ryu's name mentioned by a complete stranger. He asked, "How do you know him?"
"Oh, so it was really him." Nono replied.
Nono smiled and proudly said, "Don't worry, it's not the first time he has saved a life like that. And let me assure you, his secret is safe with me. He is actually my student. The only ones that can pull off saving lives by poisoning the patient like this are either the legendary Sannin, Tsunade-sama, or that brat. So it was very easy for me to make a guess."
She continued, "He learnt Healing Hand Jutsu in record time and now can be considered a medical ninja even if he drops out of the medical course. I am trying to convince the medical council to allow him to give an early promotion exam, but to no avail."
Shinko looked at Itachi and asked, "Is your friend that talented?"
Nono replied, "Oh, yeah, he is very talented. Whatever he puts his mind to, he excels in it."
Shinko said, "Itachi, please thank your friend for today. I am sure that the enemy would have killed us today if not for him."
She then assured, "Your teammate will be under our observation for now. She has lost too much blood, so she will wake up after recovering some of it. You can rest assured that she will be okay."
"Was her family informed?" She then asked.
Shinko replied, "No, I will go inform them now."
"I will also leave now. Thank you, Doctor." Itachi said.
On his way home, Itachi pondered the ghostly figure and wondered how he had been strangely equipped to confront such a foe. The hypothetical scenarios discussed with Ryu now seemed like lifesaving strategies.
He was also bothered by the fact that he was recognised by this individual as if he had seen him in the past. He went straight to meet Shisui Uchiha at his home.
Shisui asked, "Itachi, what happened?" Why are you covered in blood?"
Itachi explained the whole thing, starting from his meeting with Ryu, his lab, his hypothetical enemy, and the plans he and Ryu discussed in the event of finding such a ghost-like enemy. And lastly, today's events.
Shisui thought for a second and then spoke, "So you suspect that Ryu can see the future, and he knew this would happen and made plans in advance to save you?"
Itachi replied, "I don't know; I just find it strange that his hypothetical enemy appeared in front of me, and I survived thanks to plans Ryu made."
Shisui said, "It could be a coincidence. Whatever it is, coincidence or not, you should be thankful to Ryu."
Itachi acknowledged, "Maybe you are right; even if it's true, I doubt that Ryu will tell us."
Shisui replied, "Right. People with ability like that will find themselves in a dungeon without a window very quickly."
He continued, "And as for this enemy recognising you, that is concerning. We need to talk to your father about this. Let's go."
They reached Itachi's home and discussed what happened. Everybody was silent, and Fugaku was thinking. He had many thoughts, but he kept them to himself.
He thought, 'A ghost-like enemy… Probably a space-time ninjutsu. He knew me and Itachi. Outside of the village, Itachi is still very much unknown. So this enemy knows about Uchiha clan members. And this ability, could it be Mangekyo?'
Fugaku looked at his son and thought, 'If my guess is right, then this is the enemy that is responsible for the Nine-tails attack on that day and the Minato's death. Itachi was lucky today. I should probably warn all Uchiha.'
Turning to his son, Fugaku stated, "Ryu's actions saved your life, Itachi. Without the intervention of that poison, the outcome could have been dire for you."
Itachi nodded.
"Invite him to dinner. I want to thank him personally." Fugaku said to Itachi.
Itachi replied, "Yes father, I will go invite him to dinner tonight."
##PoWeR StOnEs##
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