29 Flight Risk

"Three Two One, NOW!" Kenta's loud voice revibrated in the valley's cold air.

In one swift motion, dozens of hands slapped down the earth.

"Earth Release- Great Moving Earth core"

The power of Chakra surged and commanded the earth to rise, and raised it did. Amidst a loud rumble and trembling earth, a large square section of bedrock rose dozens of meters in the sky.

"AGAIN!"

"Three Two One..."

"Earth Release- Great Moving Earth core"

The earth rose higher, brown rate and rocks giving way to Dark, near-black rocks. Kumo ninjas cheered in joy and elation.

"It really was about chakra metal!"

"Wow, so much!"

Amidst, the cheering ninjas, Itsuki too showed a little elation, in part because he had to keep a facade of Raiden, in part because he could now call for backup through Jiraya. Discretely he nicked his finger with a kunai hidden in his uniform. Letting the blood pool a little, he pressed it on the small unassuming piece he hid in his sleeves ahead of time. This small piece of paper was one of the reasons behind the success of Jiraya's spy network, and Itsuki was under no illusion he was not part of it.

Using pure chakra control and shape manipulation skills, he let the chakra guide blood to form barely eligible words on the paper.

'Kumo.invasion/all.friendlies.dead/border.sector 134/200+elite.enemy.units/goal-chakra.metal.ore\est-20tn*5'

Fitting it as much as he can into a small piece of paper as he could, he flooded it with just enough to activate the hidden sealing formation to send the message to Jiraya but not alert the trigger, happy ninjas, around him.

"You have two hours break to replenish your chakra, I suggest you make use of it." Kenta's voice brought most ninjas out of their funk. Some dropped to the ground with mild chakra exhaustion, others were breathing heavily but everyone was feeling the pressure on their chakra coils.

Sitting down, some started to meditate while others kept vigilance. Kenta vanished in the forest along with some other ninjas but Itsuki did to follow him. He expanded his sensing radius, keeping track of every chakra signature that vanished from the group.

Everyone that vanished was silently following Kenta, who himself just seemed to randomly move through the forest.

'So Kenta is under surveillance. At least one of the ninjas following surely has the activation key of the Curse seal. Hmmm," Gears in Itsuki brain turned fast.

Just before two hours were up, Kenta and the rest of the ninjas returned. After few commands, ninjas were once again in formation.

"Earth Release- Great Moving Earth core"

Another large piece of bedrock rose sky-high, again black ore visible plainly leading to another wave of cheering and celebrations. Two hours later, another section of rock was raised.

By the time sun went down behind the mountains, the valley was littered with haphazardly raized bedrocks. Most ninjas were absolutely exhausted, even powerhouses like Kenta were showing exhaustion on their faces.

Itsuki too was exhausted, but for a different reason. Despite having ridiculous amounts of chakra for a twelve-year-old, he had never used such charka intensive jutsu before. His chakra coils and tenketsu were flooded with such large amounts of chakra that they would have easily ruptured if not for Itsuki's prodigious talent at chakra control. Each time he used the justu, Itsuki had to handle chakra beyond anything he had ever handled before. By the end of the day, his tenketsu had expanded significantly, painfully sore, and filled with minor chakra burns.

"Move to the camp people, you have six hours to sleep." Kenta's voice revibrated over the evening fog. Begrudgingly, ninjas started to get up. Making a beeline towards the camp, moving in a formation with Kenta manning them from the back.

The visibility in the valley was poor. While hopping from tree to tree, Itsuki was barely able to see where the next tree was. He was monitoring every charka signature in the group, especially Kenta's.

And then it happened.

Kenta replaced himself with a clone and vanished in the treeline. Heavy fog and poor visibility worked in his favor, no one noticed a thing, that is other than Itsuki. Itsuki for his part remained silent. He wanted to follow Kenta but stopped himself after some thought. First, he will not be able to make a clean escape like Kenta, and nor he knows any clone jutsu other than standard bunshin. Moreover, it was only a matter of time before Kenta absence was sensed.

And sure enough, one of the chakra signature in the rear became pulsed in a specific pattern. Every ninja in the group sensed it but there must have identified it as Anbu code, only ninjas Itsuki had marked as Anbu ops deviated from the group, running in the direction Kenta had taken.

Taking advantage of poor visibility and chakra fluctuations courtesy of leaving Anbu, Itsuki slowly tones down his chakra fluctuations, vanishing to the senses of all but the most capable sensors.

Anbu swiftly moved through the dark night and heavy fog, poor visibility barely impeding them, but baring them from communicating using hand signs.

"Curse seal pinged northwest. Target seems to be moving towards Land of Iron." An Anbu spoke, alerting the group to Kenta's location.

The group swiftly through the terrain, unaware of the ghostly figure following them.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

A burly figure hung from the pine tree, focused on expanding his senses and anticipating the arrival of his enemies. Tonight, between heavy fog and moonless night, even the enhanced vision of a ninja was useless, so the figure closed his eyes and focused his chakra on the inner ear, enhancing its while carefully controlling it to not damage the delicate chakra pathways in the inner ear.

Soon his efforts were rewarded. His ears picked up the subtle sound of air tearing apart, indicating the arrival of his enemy.

A manic smile blossomed on Kenta's face before his hand formed a half tiger seal.

"I am No One's Slave!"

"Boom","Boom","Boom", "Boom","Boom"

Multiple explosion tags lit up in explosions, engulfing the Anbu team in inferno and shockwave. Half of the two dozen Anbu were too slow to respond, suffering the inevitable fate.

"It's an ambush, scatter." The captain roared. Surviving Anbu's scattered apart.

'Storm Release: Laser Circus'

A brief glow and multiple ionizing rays rained down on the remaining Anbu's, taking out multiple targets in a single volley.

"Watch out, it is Kenta."

"Raise Defences"

" "Earth Release: Mud wall" "

A giant wall rose in front of Anbu, but it did not give them any sense of security. Kenta was one of the best combatants in the entire Kumo.

Anbu leader looked towards the left, to find the burned corpse of Anbu that was guiding them and cursed. That Anbu had the key to Kenta's curse seal, with it they could have easily subdued him but now it was only wishful thinking.

These were the last thoughts of Anbu captain before white ionizing ray bore through his head and the rest of the remaining Anbu, killing them instantly.

Just as the bodies of Anbu fell, Kenta's figure jumped down and kneeled from exhaustion, the activities of the day and hurling high power ninjutsu one after another finally catching up to him, leaving him breathless. But none of this dimmed the smile on his face.

'Shiinggg'

A little too suddenly, a sword entered his back, cleanly going through his body and exiting just above his hip. The blinding pain paralyzed him before a finger hit on a pressure point, completely paralyzing him. Kenta tried to move, make his chakra flow but all was for the naught.

'Am I going to die now, so close to the freedom?' Kenta closed his eyes, quietly accepting his fate.

"Mister Kenta, no need to look so grim." A youthful voice behind him bought his attention.

Whoever was behind him, placed his hands near the wound. A brief flare of warmth and his wounds started to heal, with the sword still in it.

The person removed his hand and appeared in front of him. Kenta recognized the face, Raiden Nakamura, a rather remarkable chunin who was being considered for Jonin promotion if rumors were to be believed. But he would be a fool if he believed the person standing in front of him was Raiden.

"Who are you?" Kenta pointedly asked, trying not to wince at sudden flare of pain as he did.

Raiden look-alike merely smiled, speaking in a voice far too young for Raiden, "Mister Kenta that is not the right question to ask?"

Kenta growled, but the pain remaining him the person in front of him held all the cards at the moment, "What do you want?"

"What I want is..." the person extended his hand, "for us to work together."