Fast and Strong, Strong and Fast

"We will be arriving soon." A sensor said to the leader of the forward response troops, rapidly moving through the rocky mountain terrain. "But there seem to be some problems ahead."

"What?" A man with dark skin and a burly figure wearing Kumo Jonin armor questioned back. The sensor replied, "A large number of Enemy signatures are approaching from the South."

Captain thought for a movement, "Looks like Konoha was fast to act than we expected." Looking back, he infused chakra in his vocal cords before speaking to his unit, "We are few minutes off, get ready for combat!"

___________________________________________________________________________________________

~Clank~

Swords collided and kunai's flew, and the clash between brothers continued.

"Water release: wave blade" A thin jet of water came from Darui's mouth, nearly slicing Kenta in half. Kenta jumped back, before drawing chakra and thumped his hands on the ground.

'Earth release: Mud wall'

The jet of water which had enough force to cut through stoned like butter was stopped by chakra reinforced earth.

"That was rather cruel Darui, did Kumo teach other tricks for being their dog, hah?" Kenta's voice was full of venom. With a single change of hand sign, the mud wall rose and turned into small earth dragons.

Darui somersaulted and weaved through earth animations and threw another kunai at Kenta.

Kenta raised his sword to block, leaving him open. 'Got him' Darui thought, readying his sword, just as he was about to go for the kill, he sensed air bring sliced around him.

Darui jumped back, missing his chance. Kenta too pulled back, glaring at him hatefully. Just then a short figure jumped beside Kenta.

"Do not Interfere!" Kenta said to the new arrival, still glaring hatefully at Darui. But the masked figure just shook its head, "We don't have much time. Both Kumo and Konoha's armies are few minutes off from arriving."

Darui heard it, clearly, the figure did not try to conceal the conversation. Kenta looked conflicted for a second, his fist clenched, and unclenched before saying, "Let's Go"

Darui could not let that happen, running through hand seals when suddenly. The masked figure sensed something and jumped back along with Kenta when hundreds of rock spikes erupted from the ground.

A figure rose from the ground, with furious green eyes, with skin covered in stitches where a normal human would have joints and four masks stitched into his back, one of them cracked. Kakuzu looked apoplectic, his skin was singed and a bare tatter of cloak protected his modesty. Even his inhuman mouth was twisted in his anger, he spoke slowly, "You are not getting anywhere."

~~~~~

Behind his mask, Itsuki looked at Kakuzu, feeling a little helpless. He had no idea Akatsuki was involved. And now both armies were going to arrive at any time.

'Got to go all out'

"You go, leave now or you will not get any chance later," Itsuki said to Kenta, without taking his sight off Kakuzu. Behind him, Kenta looked uncertain for a moment, before nodding, "Stay safe"

Itsuki smiled at his parting words. Seeing that Kenta about to get away, Kakuzu shouted, "No you don't" But this proved to be a mistake. While focusing on Kenta, his focus wavered from Itsuki, just for a moment, but that was enough.

Kakuzu weaved a jutsu, "Fire relea..." but Itsuki appeared above him like a ghost, so fast that Kakuzu barely caught a glimpse of his fist before..."

~booom~

An entire section of cliff collapsed under a single punch, obliterating the structure of stone that withstood the previous explosion. Sheer wind pressure and shockwave blew off Darui and Kenta.

Kakuzu's body bored down into the cliff like a rocket, before exiting through the cliff wall and crashing into the valley below. Rocks larger than houses took to skies, before falling victim to gravity and started to fall into the valley below.

Any normal ninja would have been dead, but Itsuki knew Kakuzu was not normal. Weaving through falling stones, he launched towards the crater in which Kakuzu fell.

'Heavenly Foot of Pain'

But this time Kakuzu saw him coming, and moved, missing Itsuki's heel just by a hair's breadth. But nothing saved him from the resulting explosion, and he flew further down the valley like a ragdoll, unwittingly destroying multiple pine trees in his wake.

Itsuki followed behind the flying figure of Kakuzu, he was about to follow up with another punch but Kakuzu righted himself mid-flight and intercepted it with an open palm.

~Thump~

The force of punch blew off the stitches on Kakuzu's arm joints, but he used the momentum of the punch to outpace Itsuki, momentarily throwing him off his trail and vanishing into the forest. Itsuki slowed down a little, panting but did not relent. He might have more than enough chakra, but moving at such speeds and launching heavy attacks one after another was taxing on his immature pathways.

Itsuki knew Kakuzu, his strength, and weaknesses, but that did not help him much. Despite looking like he was winning, Kakuzu was a very bad matchup against him. The only thing able to damage him is either lightning release or a very overwhelming force. And despite his best efforts, Kakuzu did not lose even a single heart.

A sudden torrent of flame and wind attacked Itsuki from the side, nearly getting him but his sensing abilities and fast reaction speed saved him just in time.

'Three different signatures looks like he split up from his mask.' Itsuki took cover behind a tree, keeping his eye and senses alert.

Faster than he could react, a hand grabbed Itsuki from below the ground, other hand slashed his tendon. Panicked, Itsuki blasted chakra through his feet, turning the earth below into fine powder, jumping away at the same time.

Just as Itsuki landed, he winched. His one feet was incapacitated, completely out of action. Kakuzu rose from the ground, a mocking smile on his face.

"So I was right, you are a sensor. But you forgot every sensor's blind spot" Kakuzu pointed downwards. He was right, hiding underground was an effective tactic against sensors. Itsuki too had exploited it, never thought I would be also on the receiving end of it. But this blind spot is more of a voluntary exclusion to increase overall sensing range than a permanent handicap, but in heat of battle, that thought never occurred to him.

Itsuki berated himself before he caught onto something. Kakuzu was not attacking. Why?

On the fringes of his passive sensing radius, many chakra signatures started to appear. Hundreds of ninjas arriving on both sides. Soon he could even see the Konoha and Kumo ninjas arriving from over the trees, Jumping into the valley but keeping their distance.

The middle of the valley suddenly became a no man's land, with large blocks of earth and ore standing there. More and more ninja kept pouring on both sides. Despite both armies being miles away from each other, the tension in the air was palpable. Some were keeping an eye on each other, some were monitoring Itsuki and Kakuzu, watching them.

In the middle of no man's land, Itsuki and Kakuza stood facing each other. Itsuki questioned Kakuzu, but its tone suggested it was more of a statement, "You were delaying me."

Kakuzu's smile became more pronounced, "Smart, but not much. But you are going to die either way. The moment I cut your Achilles tendon, you were going to die anyway." With a few hand seals, a water blade materialized in Kakuzu's hand, Takigakure's signature jutsu.

"You really are a nuisance. No one reduced me to this bad state in a long time." Kakuzu walked closer to Itsuki, who was barely able to stand on one foot. "I had never face someone who punched harder than you." Kakuzu kept monologing, "Neither I have faced someone who moved faster than you."

Itsuki put his hand into his jacket and pulled out kunai and brought it in front. Kakuzu's response was to lengthen his water blade.

"So it's really a shame you seemed to have no bounty." In a swift move, he brought his water sword to chop Itsuki's head, a vicious smile on his face.

But Kakuzu forgot one thing he mentioned a movement before. Itsuki is fast, blindingly so. Kakuzu ignored Itsuki's kunai, believing his altered body to be strong enough to withstand it, completely missing a sealing tag wrapped around its handle. He also did not link the masterful pinpoint chakra control required to execute such strength convert to expertise in medical ninjutsu.

Because it was not just Kakuzu who was bidding his time, Itsuki was too.

And when Kakuzu attacked, Itsuki was ready. Moving faster than Kakuzu could react to, he used his small stature to enter Kakuzu's guard. Bringing his kunai, slashed at Kakuzu's outstretched arm while simultaneously raising his leg to kick Kakuzu in his stomach. Just as his kunai was about to connect with Kakuzu's arm, he pushed chakra into the seal on the kunai's handle which converted it into electricity.

But a little seal used to convert chakra on Kumo's comm units was not enough to damage the legendary defense of Earth Grudge Fear. Itsuki expected that, his empty hand already in half rat seal.

The instant kunai impacted Kakuzu's arm, the reality bent to Itsuki's whims, and sparking kunai turned into Raikiri.

All this happened in an instant, the Raikiri severed Kakuzu's hand like butter, and the kick launched him like a ragdoll, deep into the pine forest. The look of shock on Kakuzu's face nearly made Itsuki laugh.

Sealing Kakuzu's hand, Itsuki looked in Kakuzu's general direction, mockingly saying "So long, loser." before forming a tiger hand seal.

"Katsu"

~Boom~Boom~Boom~Boom~Boom~Boom~Boom~Boom~

Many small explosions, muffled explosions occurred, causing ninjas in both armies to look around but no one saw any explosion.

An earthquake rocked the entire valley, and in front of everyone's eyes, the mountains on one side started to collapse on themselves.

Panic ensued as large rockslides rushed down the slopes, filling into the valley. Both armies retreated as rocks started to fill up the valley. In the chaos, no one would be able to track any chakra signature.

Just as the valley started to fill up rubble, 'coincidently' where most chakra metal ore was located, Itsuki left the valley without looking back.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Author Notes:-

And Border Skirmishes Arc ends. The Winter war is just about to begin as tensions rise among Konoha and Kumo. As shockwaves of war will be felt back in Konoha, the future Rookie twelve will have to live through harsh realities of war, instead of ignorant but innocent peace, or would they. Definitely, if the winter war escalates into the Fourth Great Ninja War.