26 26. Meeting Shisui Uchiha

"For a hidden village, the security is surely disappointing" said a dark haired man to his companions, his voice filled with disdain.

"It is the chunin exam period after all, they can't check everyone who enters the village." replied another as they moved towards the next shop.

"Keep quiet, just focus on your mission, we don't have to worry about unnecessary things" replied the man who was walking at the forefront.

"Calm down boss, we are almost done anyways, we will be famous once we finish this mission" said the dark haired man, but he quickly shut up receiving a glare from the man he had called boss.

"Keep your guard up, there are a lot of shinobis here, you know what will happen if we fail" said the boss, his voice emotionless, causing the other members to shut up and get serious.

.............

Aiko looked at the dots on his mapping skill and confirmed that they were out of the shop, moved towards the table they were occupying with the intention of checking the contents of the bag.

As he got closer to the table and was about to pick up the bag, he heard a voice telling him to stop.

"Don't touch it" he heard the voice say and turned around to see a boy about the age of nine standing beside him.

The boy had short, unkempt, dark-coloured hair, black eyes and a relatively broad nose, he was wearing a t-shirt with an uchiha crest on its pocket.

"You shouldn't touch other people's stuff" said the boy looking at Aiko.

"They are suspicious" replied Aiko, not sensing any ill will from the boy as he glanced at the bag.

The boy hearing this raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Then that makes it even more dangerous." he said looking at the red-haired boy with interest.

Aiko frowned thinking what the boy said was reasonable, but he was also curious about its contents.

"You should leave these works to the professionals" said the boy as he picked up the bag, opened a scroll from his ninja tool bag and sealed it inside.

"Are you a professional?" asked Aiko, looking at the actions of the boy.

"Yes, I am a chunin and an intern in the police force" said the boy with a little bit of pride in his voice as he walked out of the shop with Aiko following him.

"You have good observation skills" commended the boy as he watched the group he was monitoring move towards another street through an alleyway that was empty.

The police force had been suspicious and had been monitoring their movements since the morning and were just waiting to know their motives and catch them red handed, these types of incidents were quite common during chunin exams because a lot of people from other villages entered freely into the village.

"Package secured" he said into a radio handset he took out from his pocket.

"Roger that, secure the position and be ready to engage." he heard the command from the other side.

"Roger that" he replied motioning for Aiko to wait there as he walked towards the group as they entered an alleyway.

Aiko through his mapping skill saw six marks heading towards the alleyway from roof tops.

Thinking that he could see some real shinobi fighting, Aiko silently moved towards a better position that would give him a better view of the alley.

"Halt" said the boy loudly as he entered the alley and at the same time the other six people caught up as they surrounded the four.

"Tch, we have been surrounded" said the man at the forefront as he looked at the people surrounding them.

He quickly used a smoke bomb obstructing the vision of the people, but Aiko sensed them moving in four different directions trying to escape.

The shinobis surrounding them as if expecting it threw kunais at the smoke as soon as the bomb was deployed.

"Ahhh" Aiko heard two screams and he felt two chakra signatures grow weak as they stopped in the smoke.

Three of the surrounding shinobis used wind style jutsu to disperse the smoke as they moved in to apprehend the two people. While the remaining two people were heading in opposite directions, one towards the boy and other on the other side of the alley.

The boy calmly threw shurikens on the man who was running in his direction, the man seemingly skilled easily deflected it with his short sword as he closed the distance between as he attacked the boy with it hoping he would withdraw letting him escape.

But the boy took out a kunai from his ninja tool bag as soon as the shurikens were deflected as he blocked the sword strike letting sparks fly between them. Both of them separated and the man had an angry and anxious expression on his face as looked around and noticed civilians standing a bit far away from the battle.

'I will take a hostage and trigger the bomb diverting their attention' thought the man forming a plan as he threw two kunais in succession towards the boy as he rushed towards him. The boy who had his focus on the man deflected the first kunai, the man seeing this smirked as he made a hand sign making the explosive tag tied around the handle of the second kunai explode when it was near the boy.

"Tch" muttered the boy, as he used a substitution jutsu escaping from the blast radius, but it was at this time he saw the man running towards the civilians and saw the small kid he had met at the tea shop taking a step forward standing in the path of the man.

"It's bad" thought the boy as his pupil turned red and three tomoe markings appeared in it spinning rapidly as he used body flicker technique quickly chasing after the man.

Aiko who was looking at the battle with interest saw the man break out from the entanglement of the boy and running in his direction with a vicious expression on his face, and noticed that there weren't any people with strong chakra signatures around him.

He stepped forward increasing his calm mind skill to 100% and activated his instinct manipulation skill increasing his reflexes and senses to maximum waiting for the man to enter his attack range while relaxing his body.

But he didn't get a chance to act, because as soon as the man came near him, he suddenly stiffened and collapsed while coughing blood. Aiko noticed blood stains spread on the back of his clothes due to a kunai which was embedded in it.

The man struggled to move before twitching for a few moments as he stopped moving.

'He is dead' thought Aiko looking at the corpse in front of him.

"Are you okay?" He heard a voice snapping him out of his thoughts and he saw the black haired boy

"Yes" replied Aiko nodding his head as he looked at the boy.

"You are very brave to step in, I am Shisui Uchiha. What is your name?" asked the black-haired boy introducing himself.

"I am Aiko Uzumaki, " Aiko answered.

"Are you attending ninja academy Aiko-kun?" asked Shisui, looking at the boy who was standing beside him because he looked trained even making him feel a little bit of pressure, the area of the fight was being cleared by other shinobis from the police force while both of them observed from the side.