Crow

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Kakumei – Arc 4: Might Makes Right

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Chapter 89 – Crow

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In Ryuka, in a yet quiet afternoon, one of the modest houses of this peaceful village suddenly blew up, victim of a surprise attack. After the explosion, Izuna Uchiha, who was blown through the wall before the blast could reach him, opens his eyes and looks around, still holding the picture of his brother's parents in his hand.

He didn't take much damage from it, but is still feeling fuzzy due to how sudden the action was. Having been repelled through the wall by the repulsion and Konohamaru's Adamantine Staff, he has trouble standing up and so decides to stay lying on his stomach. He tries to wash his confusion away and remembers what happened. Konohamaru had yet sealed every opening that could have allowed a surprise attack. They certainly couldn't expect a trapped weapon to be thrown through the walls with such accuracy.

Izuna tries looking behind him to see if Inoue is safe. She was sent flying further away and crashed against another house. By focusing the best he can in his current state, Izuna can feel her chakra flowing, meaning she's still alive. But this little relief isn't enough for him to get at ease. In front of him, he sees the collapsed house in which he was standing seconds ago.

Jin Heihachiro and Captain Sarutobi must be trapped under the debris. These two took the explosion from way up closer, so their chances are way thinner. As Izuna focuses again to sense their chakra, he's distracted by a flock of crows, the same as the one Inoue saw flying over the beach earlier.

Half of those black birds come closer to the destroyed house and all gather in a small space before a sudden cloud of mist hides them. When it settles, a person appears standing on the wreckage. It's a man with light blue spiky hair, gray eyes and white skin, and who's wearing a long black vest over a buttoned shirt, military pants, sandals and gloves.

This person starts lifting the broken pieces of the house and throwing them away to reveal the body of Konohamaru lying on Sir Heihachiro. They're both completely unconscious and bleeding out from several wounds. The man in the black vest pushes the Jonin away with his feet and gets on his knees next to the one who's probably his target.

Out from the debris, he pulls his sword that he sent flying through the walls of this house earlier. Surprisingly, it seems undamaged by the explosion and still has an intact blade that he uses to swiftly slit the old man's throat.

"no!…" Izuna exclaims quietly and hopelessly, spectating the scene as this stranger simply does his business.

The man now crouches next to Konohamaru and lies his hand on his forehead, covering his headband.

Saiko Denshin (Psycho Mind Transmission)

He enters the ninja's subconscious and extracts the information he needs, leading him to find out that the agents of the Hokage have already gotten the information from his target. Oddly, he isn't disappointed. He looks up and now sees the Uchiha of Konoha raising his hand toward him, as if he wanted to catch him but his body isn't following.

The man in black stands up, sparing Konohamaru's life, and walks toward Izuna, ignoring the crowd of villagers who are curiously but timidly gathering around the house to see what is happening.

"It appears I have been voluntarily delayed in my mission." he says. "Now I don't see what benefit my employer could still get from this hire, but whatever. At least, I get to meet those who sent Voodoo to jail… If I'm not mistaken, you're Izuna Uchiha, student of the 7th Hokage, right?"

Right as he finishes this question, he gets on his knees again, next to Izuna, and takes the picture of a young Oshio Uchiha that the ninja left to fall. Izuna doesn't reply to what he asks. He stays quiet and sees the man looking at the photograph of the kid for a moment, before turning his eyes to gaze at the other picture Izuna is holding.

"I see…" he says, quickly figuring out the context behind these images. "It must be why my employer changed his plans. Kakumei's leader is the wandering Uchiha's son, and therefore your brother."

Izuna, pissed off by this mercenary's analyses and haughty attitude, finds the strength and anger to stand up after this reminder of the truth he just discovered. On his knees, before getting on his feet, he tries to push his fist against the man's chin, but is blocked by his blade that is not even slightly pushed by the shock and completely absorbs it instead.

The blue haired hunter steps back and raises his sword against the frustrated young boy who leaps toward him and tries his best to hit him. Izuna combines his raw strength with his great Taijutsu skills and swiftly throws countless physical attacks to the mercenary who skillfully blocks all of them with the side of his blade.

At the end of an attempted combo by the chunin, the swordsman rapidly takes a few steps back, and leans forward, ready to dash.

Tsukikage (Moonlight)

He rushes toward Izuna and tries to bisect him with a lateral sword dash, with such speed that he leaves an afterimage where he was standing an instant ago. The Uchiha, using his Sharingan, could anticipate that leap forward and, with equally impressive movement swiftness, jumps back to escape it. He however wasn't as fast as the blade that could still slice through his red sweater and leave a slight mark on his abdomen.

"Your Taijutsu is useless." the mercenary comments. "My sword's blade can absorb any kinetic force that strikes it."

Izuna, still in the heat of his temper, doesn't bother answering and immediately tries something the weapon will presumably not block.

Katon – Gokakyu

He expels a giant fireball that heads straight forward to the enemy, way too large for him to have time to leap out of range. Instead, the mercenary resorts to Ninjutsu as well.

Suiton – Suiren

He gathers water around his sword and slashes through the fire ball with it, cutting it in half and leaving its two pieces to crash on his left and right, without damaging him. Out of the steam cloud left by this reaction, he sees the young Uchiha jump out with heavy red flames concentrated in his fist.

Enken

Izuna lets all his strength out in this violent punch that propels its burning flame as a hell breath destroying everything in front of it. But quick enough to react, the mercenary suddenly turns into a group of crows out of a misty cloud. The birds spread around before the fist reaches them, and all get in the Uchiha's back.

All the villagers run away as the intense flame turns the few debris in front of it and the destroyed house's backyard to ashes, leaving nothing but a black burn mark dug deep in the soil on its way. After this destructive attack, Izuna tries to turn around as fast as possible to not stay back to his opponent.

"Too slow!" the enemy says, after the crows already came back together to his shape.

Suiton – Suiro

He raises his hand forward to create a water sphere around Izuna and imprisons him, leaving the boy unable to move and breathe. The young chunin angrily struggles but can't even bring his hands together to perform any jutsu. Even channeling chakra to his fist to light it up like earlier is impossible. The mercenary raises his chin and gloomily looks at the trapped ninja.

"Honestly, I'm kind of disappointed…" he says. "I expected you to be better. Now, to know that Oji Tatari has fallen against you stains the respect I had for him… No, I refuse to believe this. You can't have defeated him. It must have been the Minamoto boy of Kiri, or the Hokage himself."

While he's drowning in this orb, Izuna is forced to listen and starts to feel as shameful as his enemy wants him to. He regrets the flow of anger that led him to this, ignoring the state of his teammates. Inoue is still passed out and the captain looks like he needs urgent treatment. Instead of coming to their help, he stupidly fell to his rage and went head first in a battle against an opponent he didn't know.

While his prisoner is slowly letting the shame take over, the mercenary senses one of his clone crows that is flying over the scene suddenly disappears. He therefore receives the knowledge that it acquired and is able to see an attack coming. Still holding the water prison jutsu, he gets on his knees to dodge a young woman who was coming foot first toward his skull.

This sudden new player lands back to the black hunter, with her legs spread apart, and slams her two hands against the ground.

Doton – Doroku Gaeshi (Terra Shield)

This slam causes the ground to rip open and be lifted in the shape of a wall emerging between the mercenary's legs. He sees it growing, aiming for his crotch, and quickly slides his feet close to stand on the rising soil instead. He then jumps and flips over the water prison that he's still holding with one hand. He lands on his feet on the other side and looks back at the woman who jumped in.

A young blonde tanned woman, seemingly between 16 and 18 years old. After this failed attempt with Ninjutsu, she pulls out two daggers with which she tries to slice the water orb open to free its prisoner.

"Pointless." the man in black boringly says as the water gets back in shape. "This prison will stay closed as long as I'm holding it. Only way to open it is to get me to let go."

"… Fine then." the blue eyed girl says.

Izuna, hardly holding his breath, observes as this mysterious girl fights to save him. As he slowly starts to faint from the lack of air, he looks at her tanned skin, her blue eyes and blonde messy medium-short curly hair, the black crop top and light colored jean shorts she's wearing, and the ninja accessories she has on her arms and legs.

She follows her opponent by flipping over the sphere and arrives hands first, attempting to stab him with both her blades, but is blocked by his katana. She leaves her foot on the water orb to stand on it and tries to force the mercenary to take a distance away from the bubble and let it go, but to no success. He just keeps blocking all her strikes with his blade, unbothered by the short range of movement.

Sick of trying this way, she spreads her arms and blades away and quickly closes them together again to attack him from both sides, forcing him to crouch. When he does, she jumps off the water ball and lands behind him, stabbing down to his back with her daggers just as he rises. To escape again, the mercenary turns one of her strategies against her before her weapons reach him.

Doton – Chidokaku

With one of his hands still on the ground, he slightly lowers the soil under his feet while raising it under hers, making a distance between her daggers and him, and using Doton to startle her, allowing him to calmly raise up. Before the ground under her rises too high, he stops the jutsu and turns around.

Raiton – Stun Gun

From the tip of his fingers on his sword's handle, he shoots a tiny lighting bolt that stuns her and makes her trip off the elevated ground, falling on her back paralyzed. With one swift sword dash, he disarms her and sends both her daggers off to a distance. She's now lying defeated and unarmed at his feet.

Only now does the mercenary and his prisoner notice the tattoo on the girl's visible belly. Right under the bottom of her crop top, Izuna and the blue-haired hunter see the mitsudomoe symbol of Kakumei.

"I see. It's Kakumei sending one of them against their own hire." the mercenary says, to Izuna's surprise.

He already had suspicions about it, but to hear him say it confirms it. This bounty hunter was sent by Kakumei, but is now face to face with another person sent by the same group.

"Screw Kakumei!" the girl exclaims, still unable to move.

The mercenary slightly squints, confused by this reply. His contract states that he had to kill Jin Heihachiro and meet with an agent sent by Kakumei afterwards. She must be the agent, but she seemingly had a change of heart. Deciding to seek an answer, he presses his foot against her belly to keep her still and leans forward to grab her forehead with his hand.

Saiko Denshin

He scans her subconscious to find his answer while she's still left paralyzed by the stunning electricity running through her nerves. With this jutsu, he accesses memories that even she herself may have forgotten. Izuna, now nearly passing out, finally hears the voice of a friend in his mind.

"Izuna, hold on. Konohamaru-sensei needs help. He'll bleed out." he recognizes Inoue's voice.

The mercenary gets up, a bit confused from the explanation he got from this girl's mind, and suddenly senses his own mind being broken into.

Shintenshin no Jutsu

Inoue Yamanaka, having just woken up from the shock of earlier, tries to overtake his body and force him to surrender. But he once more escapes by turning into his flock of crows again. The crows fly apart and go round in the nearby sky to join the clone birds that were left above to watch the mercenary's back.

Having left his hold on the water prison, it collapses and frees Izuna who's barely breathing and conscious and falls lying on the ground next to the mysterious girl who came to help him.

"This is quite unpleasing." the mercenary lets his voice be heard through his flying bird crowd. "I've seemingly been set here as a pawn… Not that I can complain. It is my job's purpose after all. But not being able to understand the plan that motivates it bothers me."

Inoue manages to get on her feet and makes a quick series of hand signs.

Katon – Kitsunebi

She makes 8 fire balls floating around her and sends them all toward a different bird.

Suiton – Suidan

All the targeted crows puke out water bullets that hit and turn off the flame projectiles. They then all urge themselves toward Inoue to overwhelm her. This is only to make her panic, just to prevent any other move. The birds then fly off to turn in a round higher.

"I consider my part of the contract complete." the crows say. "Staying longer against the likes of you could get the Hokage himself involved, therefore I'll retreat… Still, I let my name be heard, ninjas of Konoha. I am the highest-ranking mercenary. The most prized bounty hunter of the underworld. My name is Karasu Komori, but you should call me Crow."

After these few words, the flock of crows flies off over the ocean and disappears in the horizon. Having technically accomplished both his objectives, Crow leaves intending to obtain an explanation to this intrusion later from Killin' Kiss.

Inoue looks at the birds with an embarrassed but relieved face. Bringing herself to reality, she shakes and hurries to get to Izuna's side to see how he is doing.

She gets past the villagers who were getting closer now that the menace left, and sees the strange woman who stepped in earlier sitting by her friend's side and checking his vital signs. After doing so, this young woman leans over and, as it seems to Inoue's eyes, prepares to lay her lips on Izuna's.

"What the hell are you doing?" the Yamanaka exclaims, not feeling confident about this girl at all.

"Mh?" the tanned girl says as she raises her head to confusingly stare at Inoue. "He needs a kiss of life. Mouth-to-mouth I mean. He's hardly breathing."

"You're not gonna do that!" Inoue yells. "Get away from him."

"Kay… Then what? Will you do it?" the girl answers.

"Me?" the kunoichi exclaims, getting all red before slapping her own face, ashamed by her childish behavior in such an alarming situation.

Fortunately, Izuna wakes up on his own without the need of anyone's help, to Inoue's relief. He looks around, and confusingly stares at the girl sitting next to him. He looks down to see the tattoo above her hip and then back at her face and eyes.

"Who are you?" he asks.

"Izuna!" Inoue exclaims before he can get an answer. "Konohamaru-sensei needs a medic!"

Izuna turns around and looks at his captain lying in the debris, still pouring blood. He hurries to get up and runs to help him with his medical capabilities. The stranger from the lands of Heart quickly goes to get her daggers that were thrown aside earlier and then gets by Izuna's side again. Inoue follows, feeling like she's in a race against that girl in her mind.

The two girls silently stare as Izuna is calming himself down to focus and save his captain.

"I can stabilize him for now, but he needs better help." the Uchiha says.

"Let's head back to the village then." Inoue says.

"Sure, but before that, who are you?" Izuna repeats, asking the tanned blue eyed woman.

"Well, I finally get to introduce myself!" she replies. "My name is Seiki Tomoe. I'm from Ketsugakure, but I recently moved to Hikari."

"Hikari?" Inoue exclaims provocatively. "You were sent here by Kakumei?"

"No. She is from Kakumei." Izuna corrects. "This mark you bare means that my brother can feel you wherever you go." he explains, reciting what he's learned from his father's reports on Kakumei members.

Seiki looks down to look at her tattoo for a moment, and promptly stabs herself through it with one of her daggers. Izuna blenches, startled by this sudden decision. Inoue takes a step back, surprised as well. Seiki now digs her finger in the hole and pulls out the piece of white rod left there by Oshio. She catches her breath and explains herself.

"Yes. I was sent here by Kakumei, and Lord Oshio marked me with this to keep an eye on me. I was supposed to deliver something to this bounty hunter but I didn't. I am turning my back on them."

Inoue raises an eyebrow, finding it hard to believe. Seeing her wound, Izuna hurries to heal her. Seiki keeps speaking.

"I ran away from my clan and life for Lady Meinu, and she introduced me to Lord Oshio and Kakumei. But their ways and their relations with the rest of the world including Ketsugakure feel wrong. Now, they are on the move for a plan that could destroy the world as we know it. I can't let it happen."

"A plan that could destroy the world?" Izuna asks.

"Yes. My task was supposed to be a part of it. But my betrayal won't be enough to stop it. Lord Oshio is on the verge of getting his hand on everything."

"What are you talking about?" Inoue mistrustfully says. "Hokage-sensei and Izuna's father are still inevitably in his way, just as they've been all along the last year. He's got nothing in his hands."

After she mentions Sasuke, Izuna suddenly makes a hateful face and pulls out the picture he put in his pocket earlier. He stares at the face of the woman with his father and clenches his fist. Inoue and Seiki both notice his sudden turn in feelings. Inoue just makes a worried face, afraid that his bad side emerges again. Seiki, more direct, engages in dialogue.

"I knew I guessed it! You're lord Oshio's brother… Half-brother apparently… Does it bother you to crash his plans?"

Izuna thinks of what Jin Heihachiro's intel means for his regard for his older brother. It shouldn't change anything. In the end, they're all just victims of their father's lies and ignorance. Now that Izuna found this out, Sasuke's denial of this possibility feels… cowardly. Still, Oshio remains an enemy of Konoha, and as long as he is, he'll have to see him as it.

"Seiki, your information would be of great help to Konoha." he suggests.

"… Sure. I kinda need a place to stay now that I'm technically on the run." she answers.

"So what, Izuna? Are we bringing her back home to the intel division?" Inoue completes, to clarify their intentions and humble Seiki's optimism.

"Take care of that, Inoue." Izuna says as he stands up after healing Seiki, and lifts up Konohamaru to carry him on his shoulders. "You know better than me about this kind of stuff. I'll bring the captain to the hospital."

"Understood. We better hurry then." Inoue answers.

"Yeah… Then, there's someone I gotta have a word with." Izuna adds, thinking of his father that he'll finally be able to confront.

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And so, Izuna, Inoue and Seiki Tomoe went to Konoha to get more serious medical assistance for Konohamaru. Despite having failed to protect the VIP, they got all the information they came for, and even have much more to tell thanks to the deserter that joined them on the way.

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The next morning, back to Konoha, the two members of Team 1 did just as they said they would. Inoue Yamanaka delivered Seiki Tomoe to the intel division where she was strapped down and put under evaluation by Ino Yamanaka. Going through the memory of this woman, she finds the truth about her presence and mission, which are going according to what she reportedly already told to Izuna and Inoue.

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In the meantime, Konohamaru was brought to the hospital by Izuna. He just now wakes up, expecting Sakura Uchiha or Shizune to be there. Instead, he's in presence of the Hokage and Shikamaru Nara in his room. He notices an apparent sadness on Naruto's face.

"I'm not here to look after you just once, and see what happens?" Naruto kids with him, honestly glad that he made it, but still with unexplained visible sorrow.

"… The flak jacket armor turned out useful." the Sarutobi gladly says, having survived the explosion thanks to his equipment. "Can someone please tell me what happened now?"

"To make it short, you got all the intel you needed, but the VIP died and the world's most wanted bounty hunter stepped in." Shikamaru says.

"Most wanted bounty hunter? You mean Crow, the top S-rank of the bingo book?" Konohamaru exclaims in surprise.

"Yes. He took down his target and fought against your team. They were however helped by a mysterious girl who's currently being investigated by the intel division. Inoue and Izuna could get you to safety in time."

"Well… I owe them my life then." the Sarutobi remarks. "So Crow, huh? He really got us out of nowhere. I'm glad I could at least save the kids."

"Don't call them kids." Naruto says, proud of his students, but with a somehow sad voice. "They're almost grown ups now."

"Um… Yeah, sure…" Konohamaru replies, confused by the Hokage's expression. "They really fought against the most dangerous mercenary in the world and survived?"

"Something more important came out of this mission." Shikamaru says.

"Uh? Ah yes! Jin Heihachiro's intel." the Sarutobi exclaims.

"I don't believe it." the Hokage simply says. "I refuse to. I want to trust Sasuke on this. There is no way the answer to his own questions is so simple yet stupid."

"Is it really that much groundbreaking?" Konohamaru asks, addressing the sorrow on his friend's face and voice.

"What? Oh, No… It's… something else." Naruto answers, before shaking his head and stepping forward to heal Konohamaru.

Just by clapping on his jonin's shoulder, he provides all the chakra he needs to feel full again. Konohamaru makes a pleasantly surprised face.

"Take a break for now." Naruto says, avoiding the topic that Konohamaru almost brought up. "Saori and Satomi must be deadly worried."

"Naruto… What's up with you? What happened?" Konohamaru asks, insisting.

"Something happened two days ago, while you were on this mission." Shikamaru answers in his place, also making a sorry face.

Konohamaru stays quiet, and looks at them, only now understanding why Sakura or Shizune aren't the ones taking care of him in the hospital, since they're usually the ones on this kind of job.

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At the moment, Sakura and Shizuna are both in the Uchiha household, sitting in silence on the living room's couch. They're both fully dressed in black. In the back of the room, Sasuke and Kakashi are standing, just as quiet as their wives. Kakashi is dressed in the same color, while Sasuke still wears his long cape. Next to him, Sarada is quietly looking down, wearing the same outfit as Sakura. She lets go of her father's cape and goes to sit next to her mother.

Kakashi and Sasuke slowly stare at each other, quietly dealing their thoughts through their gaze, and then look away. Sasuke breathes in and turns around. Not to trouble anyone in the room, he silently walks out. Kakashi, not wanting the attention gathered around his former student, tries to bring up a small talk topic.

"Izuna should be back from his mission." he says. "He'll be back home very soon."

Sakura just quietly nods, thinking about having to explain this atmosphere to her son. Sasuke leaves the room, not interested in this discussion, not even aware of what mission his son was taking part in. Just to run away from the room's dark mood, he gets to the kitchen, on the way to the main door to get out.

As he passes by the kitchen's table, he stops and makes an intrigued face, thinking he noticed something. He turns around and looks at the table again. He made no mistake. He sees a little piece of folded paper lying on the corner. Out of curiosity, he takes it up with his only hand and slowly unfolds it to see what's inside.

When he sees it, he widely opens his eyes and clenches his teeth, not knowing if he should be happy or stressed. One thing is sure, he feels in a sudden hurry. He takes another deep breath in, reminds himself of everything Sakura told him these last months, and folds the paper down again to hide it in his pocket.

On this paper note, just a few simple words are written in an alphabet that only eyes such as his can decipher: "I am ready. Come to meet me."

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End of Chapter 89 – Next Chapter: A Hokage's Nindo