Swordsmen Of The Mist (VI)

Kakashi had pulled up his forehead protector almost immediately after the first attack had been launched, but in the thick mist, his Sharingan didn't help him as much as he would have liked it to. It might give him an advantage if his opponent came close, but other than that, it wasn't any better than a normal eye right now.

Considering he would prefer to keep his enemy at distance or at least be the one that initiated the fight, that was a problem.

His sight severely limited, fighting an opponent that specialised in killing without making a sound, and entirely separated from his team... yes, Kakashi was in a very tricky situation indeed.

And of course they were smart enough to take precautions to eliminate their smell as well, he thought with an inward sigh.

However, the fact that their opponents put so much weight on moving silently also gave him an advantage. After all, if there was no chance of hearing them anyway, there was no reason for Kakashi and his team to remain silent.

"Itachi," he called just as the sounds of a fight began to ring in the distance. "Can you hear me?"

Unfortunately, there was no reply.

Kakashi was just about to call for Zabuza as well when the whizzing sound of something flying through the air rang from behind him, making him duck reflexively. A second later, an object that looked like an oversized needle flew over his head.

So that's the legendary sword Nuibari, huh. It wasn't the weapon itself that caught most of his attention, though, but what was flying behind it. It appears that Zabuza was right when he told us about his comrade's tendency to use ninja wire.

Then the weapon was flying at him again, now coming straight at him. However, this time, he was prepared; rather than dodging again, Kakashi instead waited until the weapon was close enough for him to see before catching it. Not wasting any time, he immediately pulled on it with all his strength and was shortly afterwards rewarded when a figure fell from a nearby tree.

Kakashi only realized that he had been tricked when the kunai he threw at it hit a wooden trunk rather than a human. Even worse, the noise of his own attack almost drowned out the sound of something flying at him from behind again, resulting in him receiving a gash on his shoulder when he just barely dodged the needle before it could pierce his heart.

Then Kushimaru, for that was obviously his opponent, apparently decided to make serious, for Kakashi suddenly found himself continuously dodging attacks from all directions simultaneously.

Kunai and shuriken flew at him from his right, shortly followed by water needles from his left that stopped him from throwing something back in that direction to block them; Nuibari flew at him from behind, while a hail of senbons came from in front of him.

Kakashi found himself unable to stay at one place for longer than half a second without being under constant attack from all directions.

The most annoying thing was that at some point two needle-like swords began flying towards him at once. While certainly annoying, Kakashi knew that Nuibari didn't come as a set and thus could at least confirm his suspicion that Kushimaru was using a clone technique to attack him simultaneously from several directions.

However, the longer this cat-and-mouse chase continued, the more insight Kakashi gained into his opponent:

First, Kushimaru was cautious; for all that he was by all accounts a cruel man, he didn't rush at him without restraint. No, he instead continued to attack Kakashi from a safe distance to wear him down until he would be easy prey.

Second, there was a muster to his attacks. Kushimaru always went first for his head, then for his heart, and finally for his lungs. There were occasional small deviations in that order, of course, and when Kakashi intentionally left an opening in his defence, Kushimaru tried to use that as well. Nonetheless, his attacks started to become predictable to Kakashi.

Third, while there were usually only attacks from two directions at most, there were never more than four either. Even when they came at him from all directions at once, many of the thrown objects showed signs of not having been thrown in a straight line. Thus, Kakashi deduced that there were indeed only three clones in addition to the original.

I see, he thought. In that case, I can-

Kakashi's eyes widened as he came to a sudden stop, his throat mere millimetres away from a metal wire that would have decapitated him had he continued on his path.

That wasn't the thing that caught him the most off-guard, though. That honour went to the corpse of a middle-aged man that leaned against a tree to his right whose clothes were mostly burned away and that had dark marks spanning all over his torso. Or more specifically, the man's forehead protector. A shinobi from Takigakure? What-

Kushimaru, obviously taking advantage of the fact that Kakashi was momentarily stumbled, threw Nuibari at him again. The sword missed his head by a hair, and when he wanted to hurry away, he found himself face to face with another wall of wires.

It was then that he realized that the only direction where no wires stopped his path was the one he came from.

Naturally, it was from there that a hail of shuriken flew at him a second later.

It took every ounce of agility he possessed to bent his body in a way that allowed him to dodge all those projectiles, leaning backwards until his hands touched the ground and with one leg twisted over the other.

A moment later, he was helpless to do anything when Nuibari flew down at him from a nearby tree and pierced his heart.

It was half a heartbeat later when the clone puffed out of existence and the real Kakashi that was hiding in the underground gained his memories that he knew it was time to implement his plan.

He and three of his clones 'swam' through the ground until they were below the positions he had concluded the various versions of Kushimaru to be before they all at once emerged from it in an explosion of dirt and dust, lightning crackling in their hands.

It was impossible to read their opponents' mimic as he wore a mask, but going by their body language, all four of them would have found themselves face-to-face with an expression of shock as their hands pierced their hearts similarly to how the man's weapon had pierced his clone's shortly before.

Much as Kakashi had expected, three of the bodies immediately dissolved into water. However, he quickly realized the danger he was in when the fourth body too dissolved into nothing more than a puddle.

Dammit, he thought as the muscles in his legs tensed, preparing to carry him away. This is a trap!

Then, before he had a chance to do anything else, the sound of wire being cut rang through the mist, and a second later, everything around him, from trees to rocks, was cut to pieces as the metal wire tore through them.

_______

It was obvious that their opponents wanted to separate them. Not only were they easier picking that way, Kushimaru and Jinin would also want to keep Kakashi and him away from Zabuza as they probably thought he would be the hardest to kill.

Itachi understood that logic, and he also realized that the odds of finding his teammates in this mist were slim to non-existent. Thus, and knowing that his usual techniques and methods wouldn't work, he decided to do something unexpected; rather than searching for his team or waiting for his opponents to attack him first, he ran.

Unpredictability was always one of the most effective abilities a shinobi could have.

As soon as he began to rush away, weapons began to fly at him. However, while every experienced shinobi would recognize that for all that these projectiles were thrown with great skill and precision, Itachi saw that they were also used hurriedly. Rather than trying to push him into a certain direction or distract him from another, more powerful attack, there was no other intention to them other than to stop Itachi in his tracks.

Therefore, Itachi concluded that he had caught his opponent off-guard just as he had hoped he would.

He ran for only about three minutes or so before stopping. Long enough to hopefully get some distance between himself and his teammates wherever they might be while also remaining close enough to potentially find them later.

Then he waited.

It was barely five seconds later that he felt eyes on the back of his head.

The Seven Swordsmen were masters of the silent killing technique. They could move through the mist without making any noises and still find their enemies with ease, erase their very presence until not even the most talented shinobi could sense them, and kill their opponents so quickly that they didn't even realize they had died before their bodies collapsed.

However, they were still just humans. They made mistakes.

Unfortunately for them, people were the most likely to make mistakes when they were flustered and caught off-guard.

The sensation lasted only a split second, but it was enough to tell Itachi his opponent's position. Spinning around in an instant, he formed hand seals faster than the normal eye could track.

A moment later, the man in the tree two dozen metres away from Itachi saw a large fireball fly towards him.

That was only an illusion, however. Rather than a fire release technique, the hand seals were for a mid-level, large scale Genjutsu. It wasn't as strong as one powered by his Sharingan, but considering he couldn't even see his opponent through all the mist, it was the best he could do.

He quickly formed hand seals again, and this time, the fireball he shot was very real.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)

Itachi appeared on a branch of the burning tree a moment later, only to find a distinctive lack of a corpse. He was confident he had hit a body, though, and his Genjutsu hadn't been broken, so…

A clone, he thought. Which means the original-

Before he could finish the thought, his instincts screamed at him to move, so he did. Jumping from the tree, he landed on the ground just as the sword he recognized as Nuibari cut off the branch he had stood on. The attack didn't stop there, however; the moment he touched the ground, he was already on the move again to avoid dozens of projectiles of all kinds.

Not letting that stop him, he formed hand seals for yet another large-scale illusion.

Using the same trick twice was usually ill-advised, but in this case, Itachi betted on the fact that his opponent wouldn't think him foolish enough to try such a thing. After all, something usually stupid could actually be very effective when it managed to surprise an enemy.

Unfortunately, he felt a backlash from his Genjutsu being broken shortly after. Because of that, he momentarily felt light-headed and didn't see the needle-like sword flying at him until it was almost too late, leading to him being cut on his cheek when he tilted his head out of the way at the last possible moment.

In the following minutes, Itachi jumped around and twisted his body in a hundred different ways to dodge the onslaught of attacks while making sure to not stay at the same spot for too long, knowing that would result in him being trapped.

Kushimaru was known for his traps, after all, especially in conjuncture with ninja wire.

That wasn't what he was concentrating on the most, however. Instead, he thought about how his opponent had managed to escape his Genjutsu that quickly. Even when not created with his Sharingan, all his illusions were exceptionally powerful. It shouldn't be that easy to break them, not even for a shinobi of Kushimaru's calibre. Furthermore, his first attempt had worked just fine, so why not the second one as well? Even the effect of surprise didn't make that much of a difference.

The best explanation he could come up with was that Kushimaru must have created a clone that kept out of Itachi's range and kept an eye on the original's chakra. Then, when it noticed Kushimaru being affected by Genjutsu, it could intervene and release the illusion.

Alternatively, it was even more likely that it was the original that stayed back while a clone did the more dangerous job of staying close and attacking Itachi.

If true, that would certainly be very annoying.

The longer the fight lasted, the more he began to understand his opponent's movements. However, the same was true the other way as well. In all likelihood, it would be Kushimaru who got the drop on him first and catch him with one of his traps simply because he held the more favourable position. While he could hide in the mist and attack from the distance, Itachi wasn't doing much more than dodging and jumping around.

He needed to change that.

If he could find out the clone's location, he could from there predict the original's as well because he needed to be close enough to be in a position where he could help his clone if needed.

His decision made, Itachi drew several kunai with attached paper bombs from the weapon pouch at his leg and threw them while spinning in a circle. Then, using the short reprieve of attacks as well as the sight and noise barrier the explosions provided, he quickly bit his thumb and went through a new set of hand seals.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" (Summoning Technique)

A murder of crows appeared and immediately flew high into the sky.

The attacks continued shortly afterwards, but this time Itachi wasn't just trying to merely survive. No, he was waiting for his chance to attack.

This chance came when the cawing of a crow could be heard from his left.

Itachi jumped around without hesitation and created two crow clones, one on each side of him, before rushing in the direction his crow had pointed him as fast as he could while his clones spread out a bit further to the sides. Even if Kushimaru tried to escape, one of them would surely catch him.

The first silhouette appeared quickly, standing at the top of a big tree from which he could coordinate his attacks easily. Seeing him and his clones approaching fast, Kushimaru flew through hand seals and slightly lifted his mast before a powerful water stream shot from his mouth.

Itachi didn't need to do anything as one of his clones moved in front of him immediately; using him as a springboard, Itachi jumped high into the air where his other clone was already waiting, allowing him to use that one to propel himself directly at his opponent.

Kushimaru didn't even get the chance to rise his sword before Itachi cut off his head.

Naturally, just as Itachi had predicted, the body dissolved into a puddle of water shortly after and thus proved his previous theory right.

Not stopping there, he rushed on, once again guided by the cawing from one of his crows.

As it turned out, the original Kushimaru had been more focused on getting away than on trying to stop Itachi, so when he appeared in front of him, he was barely able to evade the kunai that would have cut his neck.

Not wanting to give up the initiative, Itachi followed up with a roundhouse kick which Kushimaru ducked beneath. Dodging the following thrust with Nuibari with a tilt of his head, Itachi then closed in on him and drove his knee into his stomach before going for the kill with the kunai in his hand.

Kushimaru avoided that with a flick-flack during which he sent a kick at Itachi chin that missed him only by a hair. The short break this created was enough for his opponent to get his footing back, meaning the next swing of his sword was much more controlled and thus much more dangerous.

He blocked the first slash with his kunai and dodged the second one before he fell into a crouch and tried to sweep Kushimaru's legs away with one smooth attack. The swordsmen simply jumped a bit into the air, though, and then tried to ram his sword downwards through Itachi's abdomen.

Having expected that, Itachi twisted out of the way and pushed himself into the air with his hands before landing on the handle of Nuibari, ramming it into the ground and consequently rendering the weapon useless for Kushimaru when Itachi tried to slash his throat again.

However, instead of either backing away or trying to regain his weapon as Itachi had thought he would, Kushimaru grabbed both his wrists with one hand each. Furthermore, he didn't even let him go when Itachi kicked both his legs against his chest!

The reason for that became clear shortly after when his legs broke through the man's body and rather than broken bones and blood, all that covered his legs was water. It's another water clone, he realized as his eyes widened in surprise. So I was fighting a clone all this time? Where then is the original?

Anyway, he couldn't solve more than one problem at a time and first needed to concentrate on escaping the clone that still held his wrists before he could do anything else. The fact that it was still able to fight even with a hole in its chest meant that Kushimaru must have used an enormous amount of chakra, but even such clones were far from indestructible.

It was a second later that he understood why the clone was trying to keep him in place, however.

Before he had a chance to do anything else, a clinging sound rang through the mist, and suddenly metal wire was rushing at him from every direction.