In the land of Fire,
Six figures in Anbu uniform crossed the border into the land of River, 5 figures followed behind a solitary leading figure, the 17-year-old phantom, despite carrying the burden of both village and clan, had calm shoulders and a firm step, moving swiftly like escaping the plaguing thoughts.
"Captain, when is the mission brief?" an older, middle-aged man asked, finding the situation suspicious. Something felt wrong, but his life being at risk didn't come to mind. If he had been exposed, he would have been captured by the torture and interrogation unit. 'Ibiki, that sick sadist.' He thought, trying to calm down, he was an experienced Chunin and had secretly passed the jonin threshold due to being a spy. The resources given by his contacts had been well used, but he hadn't run yet; he wasn't willing to give up his peaceful life in Konoha to become a rogue shinobi constantly hunted.
Stopping by a spring running through the forest, the others stopped looking at Itachi, waiting for instructions, but they could tell their objective might have to do with Sunagakure.
"I'm Crow, your captain. The objective is targeting the grain storage silos used by the hidden sand village. Unstable elements in the hidden sand village are clamoring for war, and we must force them to come to the negotiation table. Understood?" Claw cast his gaze on the men before him.
The five operatives stood shell-shocked, digesting the objective. If war were coming, should they take the opportunity to escape? Make riches off the information and then run away, but there? By the time they came to processing their captain's question, it was already late. "Swoosh!" A blade gleaming, reflecting the sun, swiftly beheaded the sensor shinobi of the group, blood splattering, and the 4 awakening to the danger, flickering away their gazes of horror on their captain, his chilling gaze seemingly having sentenced them to death.
"What the fuck are you doing?!! Have you turned traitor, you scum!" The middle-aged man bellowed, injustice and fury intertwined. 'This is not good. How did they find out? Shit, I was careful, so how?" He turned his gaze to the 3, and seeing their mortification, he understood that they were like him. His face solemn, "Hey, we have a traitor in our midst, we take care of him and return to the village to report." The middle-aged man rallied his other comrades. The other 3 understood and nodded, their gaze on the captain whose fire jutsu had just erased the dead body.
Of course, none of them were returning to the village; their only hope was to kill this supposed captain and truly become rogue shinobi.
"Scum like you don't deserve the grace of the village." Itachi spoke, his tone filled with murderous intent, "Swoosh!" His figure vanished, making a beeline for one of the traitors, "Watch out!" Another nearby rushed forward to intercept Itachi. Itachi stopped his blade, tracing a circular arc headed for the neck of the incoming enemy, "Clang!" Their blades clashed, sparks flying, as the traitor, shocked, found himself being pushed back.
Itachi flickered, dodging the torrent of winds from his right flank, "Wind style: Great breakthrough." The battle had split from a one-to-one to a two-to-one as Itachi found himself in the center of the 2 pairs of attackers.
He shot south, the enemies chasing now both with his peripheral vision, making the tiger hand seal, "Fire style: Great fireball jutsu." The middle-aged man stepped forward, his palms crashing on the ground, "Earth style: earth dome." "Boom!" The fireball hit the dome head-on, flames spreading as the traitors left the dome, "Swoosh!" Shuriken were thrown in the air, blocking their escape paths. "Clank-clang." Shuriken and kunai collided as the traitors defended back-to-back, "Uggh." One of the shuriken had impaled the man with a boar, 'Shit, how? I thought I blocked that.' He let it in, continuing to fight, and eventually the forest entered an eerie calm as they treated wounds.
"Hey, think it's better if we just escape. Whoever this is killing them is going to be hard, if not impossible. Let's get out of here." The boar mask shinobi said, having bandaged his leg and haphazardly looking at the trees.
"You fool! Do you think he won't hunt us? He probably wants to make us feel the absolute pain." The middle-aged man roared, his gaze alert, 'Why give us time to recover? Obviously, to torture us both physically and mentally. Now where is he?'
"Fire style: Phoenix sage fire," multiple small fireballs shot like meteors crashing into the 4 men. "Boom!" An earth wall collapsed in the dust storms as flickers of red shone, red eyes and blood dancing in the dust storm. "Behind us!" "Clank!" "Shit, it's a Uchiha!"
"What?!" "Fuck, RUN." About to take off, shuriken cut the throat of the screaming man, severing the windpipe as he choked on his blood. The middle-aged man, boar mask, and tiger mask all felt a chill. "Disperse!" With the body flicker technique, they ran as fast as their chakra could allow, but they hadn't gotten far when shuriken from all sides of the forest blocked their path.
3 clones of Itachi stepped into the open, their Sharingan gleaming in the daylight.
"I'm not dying here!" Tiger mask bellowed, hands moving furiously, "Lightning style; Flash pillar!" An overwhelming brightness consumed everyone as they closed their eyes. ' Hmph, even the fabled Sharingan has a weakness. ' His thoughts stopped dead like his body as he fell from the air, "Thud".
Overcoming their stinging eyes, they came to a dead body, which came into sight, disbelief etched on its face, the tiger mask lying not far, with blood splattered on it.
"Hey, let's negotiate. I have plenty of money, just let me go. Please let me go." The boar man pleaded, dropping to his knees, the sight causing the middle-aged man to frown. "Pathetic." He spat his eyes on the 4 before them, trying to ascertain the real one.
"Never mind. Earth style: swamp of the underworld," using a vast amount of chakra, the ground turned muddy with bubbles on top like lava, their feet supposed to be sinking as he leapt away, but only the boar mask man was caught in the jutsu.
"Fine, you can live." Itachi's voice echoed over, the boar masked man's shone with glee, only for his yes to turn a crimson red tomoe appearing within. With swift movement, he beheaded himself, his corpse sinking further into the swamp.
The middle-aged man stood before two clones; he hadn't gotten away, his face ashen with fear, but soon turned resolute. "I might not be surviving this, but neither will you." "Earth style: rock spears." Massive spears from the ground shot up instantly, piercing everything around him, "Shadow shuriken jutsu." Shuriken multiple mid-air coming from the woods, "Earth style: Earth dome, that won't work on me!"
"I know." A voice slithered from behind him, turning sharply, "What?!" "Earth style; head-hunter jutsu." A pair of arms shot from the ground, dragging him into the ground, "Earth style," Earth hardening," the pale brown ground dark brown, but his relief cut short, "Fire style, Blazing sword!" A red line of fire severed his head, marked with terror as Itachi's sword cut through the dome. "Swoosh."
Itachi's gaze landed sharply on the mess, but he didn't clean it up; his figure vanished, escaping the closing in Sand and Leaf shinobi. The clues he left screamed Uchiha and pointed a target on his back. He was now a rogue shinobi.