Sharingan!

For a moment, Itachi stopped what he was doing and watched as Tenma's idle body fell off the cliff.

Tears fell from Shinko's eyes and blood came from Itachi's hands as the wire slowly cut his hand.

Itachi closed his eyes as he felt something behind his neck… a sudden throb going into his eyes, he understood what this was…

Chakra.

Chakra within the Uchiha's eyes only meant one thing.

Itachi opened his eyes, the world was red and a single tomoe appeared, spinning on a red-colored background in his eyes…

'I know what I have to do now…'

Itachi looked where the masked man was, he let go of the line holding him and the cart up.

"Is this kid nuts?!"

"Itachi!" Shinko screamed his name while watching him fall.

Whoosh! Itachi pulled and swung himself below the cart.

He removed the katana and threw it into the mountain.

Itachi dived toward the katana and charged the chakra into his feet.

Whoosh!

He kicked the blade, threw a kunai, and pulled it back up with him while he sprung up.

He was beside the cart and held onto the rope and pulled.

"Humph…"

Itachi appeared back on top of the cart.

"Itachi, your eyes…"

Itachi looked at Shinko, his red eyes glowing in the dark.

Itachi didn't stop there, he charged toward his sensei and helped him take on the clones.

Itachi jumped and threw two kunai with explosive tags on them.

Boom!

He covered his senseis back.

"Sensei, these are mist clones, we need to find and kill the real one, or else all this effort is futile."

"I'm afraid that's all useless right now.

We need to abandon this mission; I heard him call reinforcements.

It seems he isn't working alone."

"Sensei, we can beat him if we work together."

"No, this is an order, Itachi!

I won't lose any more of you."

Itachi frowned and looked down.

'They've cornered us and outnumbered us.

We're finished either way.' Itachi's Sharingan turned off.

"I don't have enough chakra to continue using them." He muttered.

"Itachi, keep Shinko safe while I hold them back."

"Yuki-sensei…"

"Just do it, I'm going to keep you two safe and this is the only way you'll both survive."

Fwoosh!

They looked ahead and saw an Anbu member arriving in a cloud of dark smoke.

He was moving too quickly to defend against he moved in blurs of smoke, one moment he was ahead of you, the next he was above you and the smoke washed over your face.

"Big brother…" Itachi loosened his grip on his Katana.

Ryuu charged lightning in his hand and mixed it with ash.

He clenched his fist and punched the ground.

Boom!!

Spikes came from the ground with lightning emitting inside them.

All the clones dispersed except one, he was at the top, stuck on a spike, and was squirming to get out.

Ryuu stopped moving so fast and controlled the smoke to slowly sink into the ground.

"Sorry I didn't make it fast enough, I had a mission.

But you can rest easy now, your big brother will take care of this, Itachi."

Ryuu removed his mask and put it on the side of his head before calmly walking toward the masked man.

He slowly pushed him toward the end of the plant, his blood was spurting everywhere.

"Aaah! Stop!!"

Ryuu stopped pushing him further.

"You almost killed him, you almost killed my cousin." Ryuu pulled his head and made him look into his eyes.

"Ah! Aaa!" He pushed himself further into the spike, his strength slowly faded, and then he stopped breathing and finally died.

Ryuu calmly walked towards Itachi and his team.

"Th-there are reinforcements heading our way," Yuki said.

"I know.

My brother has that and the merchant covered.

Let's go home."

Fwoosh!

Ryuu took them and teleported them back to the Hokage's office.

"Yuki, Itachi, Shinko, go to the hospital, my clone will be there to patch you up and I'll be here handling the mission report."

"Yes, sir."

Yuki led his team out of the office and towards the hospital.

"What happened? Where's their teammate?"

Ryuu answered all of Sakumo's questions and told him about the mission.

"I see…

Tenma Izumo is dead."

"That's right.

Please excuse me, I need to check on Itachi; I hope he's doing alright. He won't take this lightly."

"Alright, you're dismissed for now."

Ryuu left the office.

He went back home and changed out of his uniform.

Ryuu looked outside and saw Naruto training with Sasuke, they were panting and sweating.

Both Naruto and Sasuke were holding their knees.

"How long have you guys been at it?"

"Big sis Ichika told us you'll be back soon and so we trained until you came back," Naruto said as he caught his breath.

"Well? Let me see what you got!"

Sasuke and Naruto nodded.

Ryuu set up 10 different targets around them.

"Go!"

Naruto and Sasuke took 3 different shurikens in each hand and threw them toward the targets.

Before they hit the targets, they took more and threw them toward other targets.

Thud!

The shurikens hit all the dead centers.

They took two more and threw them perfectly again, Naruto's was a little off the center but Sasuke's was perfect form and dead center.

"Nicely done!"

'I couldn't help but smile seeing them train together.

They're just like me and Kakashi when dad wasn't home.'

"Are you okay, big bro?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just remembered something, you know."

"Grrr!"

Their stomachs growled.

"Ok, Mmhm, I guess I should treat you both with some Ichiraku Ramen, right?" Naruto and Sasuke nodded.

Ryuu removed some ryō and gave them to both Naruto and Sasuke.

"I'll catch up, alright?"

"You're not coming with us?" Naruto asked.

"I'll be there, I just need to see someone before I come." Ryuu teleported outside Shisui's house.

"Yo." Shisui looked back.

"I hope you aren't busy."

"You need me, sensei?" Ryuu shook his head.

"I'm not the one who needs you right now." Ryuu entered Shisui's house.

"It's Itachi, isn't it?"

"Yeah…" Ryuu unsealed some documents.

"I got a mission for both of you."

He tossed it to Shisui.

"You need us to hunt this shinobi?

Do you think Itachi's up for it?"

"Yeah, he's up to it, especially now.

He simply needs a proper reason to leave his house, he's feeling overwhelmed by everyone.

He needs a distraction, some space to think, you know?" Shisui nodded.

"Will you be joining us on this mission?"

"A mission to hunt a traitor with my talented cousin and my semi-talented student?"

"Semi-talented?"

Ryuu nodded.

"Sigh.

Just tell me if you'll be there."

"Fine, I guess I could make some time in my extremely busy schedule, you know."

Shisui smiled.

"Man, they call you the fastest shinobi and it took you this long just to say yes."

Ryuu dropped his head depressingly.

"Anyway, for now, I'll have to go, I promised Naruto and Sasuke to take them for some Ichiraku Ramen." Shisui nodded.

"Sensei?" Ryuu looked back.

"You once said that… Never mind, I'll ask you after you finish taking Naruto and Sasuke out." Shisui frowned and looked away.

"Before I leave, can I see him?" Shisui's face lit up again.

Shisui took Ryuu to his father's room.