For Nara Kazuki now, two chūnin weren’t even a threat. He opened with a Grand Fire Dragon Jutsu, chained straight into Shadow Imitation, and finished with a Fireball Jutsu the mont the dragon ended.
He barely moved.
The two chūnin, caught mid-conversation, dropped dead on the spot.
Kazuki turned to deal with the third, only to find Shisui had already decapitated the poor bastard with a clean strike—no pulse, no question.
"Damn!" Kazuki muttered, quickly firing off a Fireball Jutsu. In the ensuing chaos, he managed to take down four genin-level enemies.
Battle: over.
"Crow. White Crow." Kazuki called, glancing at the fleeing stragglers.
Shisui and Itachi took off after them, blades flashing.
The scent of blood grew heavier in the trees.
"Y’know..." Kazuki looked down at the eight corpses before him, and a bold idea crept into his mind.
Up until now, he’d always used living sacrifices to fuel his offerings to that Nyarlathotep. But what if the sacrifice was made from corpses instead? Could that work?
Only one way to find out.
Kazuki moved swiftly, arranging the bodies into a crude but proper kyōkan—the kind of grotesque totem built of bodies found only in the worst pages of history. It was small, but carried the right vibe. He followed with the Dance of Sacrifice he’d committed to mory.
Nothing happened.
"Tch." Kazuki clicked his tongue.
No good.
Apparently, that one was picky. Only accepted living offerings.
"Captain, what are you...?" Shisui’s hesitant voice broke the silence. Kazuki glanced over to see him watching with unease, eyes occasionally drifting toward the kyōkan he’d built.
Itachi tried to peek too, only to be stopped by Shisui’s hand over his eyes.
"Nothing. Just a little dance to pray for the souls of the dead," Kazuki said solemnly, expression calm, posture reverent—like a monk from the Fire Temple.
Yes, there were monks in the world of shinobi. Most from the Land of Fire’s deeper provinces.
Shisui’s mouth twitched. He was starting to think his new captain was a bit... unorthodox.
And with the way Kazuki kept tossing out Fireballs and clones mid-conversation, Shisui’s suspicions only grew.
"Heh... Captain, you’re really..." Shisui coughed, not sure how to finish that sentence.
Kazuki crouched down and began the most sacred of all post-battle traditions: looting corpses.
Shisui joined in after getting permission, but not before kicking over the kyōkan out of respect—or maybe fear—for Itachi’s young eyes. Kid still had innocence to lose.
Kazuki snorted. So Shisui really was close to Itachi. Adorable. Maybe even a secret little brother complex going on, despite no blood ties. Not surprising—Itachi was a lot younger.
Once they’d picked the bodies clean, the trio turned to leave.
They hadn’t gone far when Kazuki suddenly stopped and raised a hand, frowning. Shisui and Itachi imdiately tensed, scanning the trees.
"...New mission. Mandatory."
A masked shinobi dropped from the branches ahead and tossed a scroll toward Kazuki.
Kazuki eyed him. Unfamiliar face. The mask was unlike any standard Anbu pattern—aning this guy probably wasn’t Anbu. Still, the scroll bore Anbu’s encrypted seals. Kazuki slashed it open with a kunai and read.
[To Anbu Squad 17: Upon reading this scroll, proceed imdiately to the border near Iwagakure in the Land of Earth. Rendezvous with the embedded spy from the village.]
Kazuki instantly recalled this mission. He’d seen it posted earlier—nobody had taken it.
"Just the three of us?" he asked, disbelieving.
Iwagakure. Not so backwater town. This was a major ninja village. Sending this squad for a spy extraction?
These types of missions had the highest casualty rates for a reason. Ambushes. Pursuers. Mind-readers. Everything could go wrong.
Kazuki’s team had just been ford. They’d only completed one mission—and now this?
For a brief mont, Kazuki seriously wondered if Danzō had changed his plan—decided to kill Shisui and Itachi to provoke the Uchiha Clan instead of absorbing them.
The masked man said nothing. Just stared blankly.
Kazuki sighed and accepted the scroll.
Sotis, Anbu did get assignnts like this. Escorting funds to the Fire Daimyō’s court, for instance—specific squads would be chosen.
He really wanted to curse, but unless he was ready to jam a kunai into his own headband, there was no getting out of this.
The man left without a word.
"Captain, what’s the mission?" Shisui asked, already sensing sothing was off.
"Spy extraction," Kazuki replied, handing the scroll over to Shisui and Itachi.
The danger level for these missions varied wildly. Sotis it was just a walk in the park—go pick up a spy, bring them ho, done. But sotis? It was a gauntlet of hell.
"The Land of Earth? How are we getting there?" Itachi asked, curious. It would be his first ti stepping into another country.
"We either sneak in or join a rchant caravan," Kazuki explained, rolling up the scroll. There was a deadline—if they didn’t reach the rendezvous point in ti, or if the spy returned on their own, the squad would face heavy penalties.
Both approaches were common. If you wanted stealth, you joined a caravan. Safer, with cleaner entry through customs—but slow. Trade routes didn’t move fast.
Kazuki pinched his brow, irritated.
Should’ve just taken a basic village mission. He wouldn’t be dealing with this kind of surprise ambush from HQ.
Still... Iwagakure, huh?
Kazuki scratched his head.
He rembered from the ani that Kabuto Yakushi had once been embedded as a spy in Iwagakure. Could it be...?
If so, this might get interesting.
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