Trial by Fire

Understanding they would be gone for quite a while, Akata told him to get a backpack from the armoury and wear the black cloak stored in his locker.

It hadn't taken the team long to gather at the main gate as instructed and beside Akata who wore a white cloak, each of the other members had on the same black one as Fuzen over their standard uniform. All of them were geared up and prepared to head off into combat.

With the addition of him, Akata now commanded a team of five Anbu's. Large enough force to cause serious damage, yet small enough to avoid detection, the perfect strike unit.

Leaving Konoha, their team travelled south-east heading towards the Land of Mountains where a reconnaissance team was going to meet them.

It took a couple of days of non-stop travel, but gradually the terrain changed from vibrant forests to more mountainous. The cover of trees was replaced with more open areas dominated by cliffs and high visibility.

The entire time Fuzen kept practising his new offensive technique and eventually, he did manage to form a semi-complete version of his envisioned 'Void Fist'. The coating of black death would now coat his entire hand and emit an eerie pulsating bass.

So far, he'd managed to brush off Akata's questions, yet he knew she'd seen him ditch the ruined set of arm guards. 'Void Fist' consumed anything touched, and sadly that included what he wore as well.

Approaching the intended meeting point, Akata tasked an eagle-masked Anbu possessing sensory abilities to take the front and perform regular scans of the area to make sure they weren't surprised by uninvited guests.

Running at high speed, each of them agilely manoeuvred between obstacles even though it was in the middle of the night. About to reach the top of a cliff, the man in lead indicated with a closed fist for them to halt.

Blending into the surroundings, all five of them crouched down on the vertical cliff. "I sense a group of three about a mile that way," the sensory Anbu pointed the same way they were travelling.

"Okay, Gaijin. This is on you. If they're with us bring them back here, and depending on what you find I want you to kill two and bring one back for interrogation."

Without answering, Fuzen disappeared in his shadow and went to work.

In his dimension of pure darkness, the location of the group up ahead quickly became apparent. The shadow carried by people had a special feeling attached which made it easy for him to discern them from the other inanimate objects. Fuzen could even give a rough estimate of chakra level.

Judging by chakra, he was quite confident that all three of them was chunin, which didn't match the provided information on the group they were supposed to meet.

'Shadow Walk' had improved to a degree where few chunin were able to react in time if they didn't expect it.

However, credit, where credits due, the three chunin were smart as each of them, was positioned in advantageous spots taking advantage of the natural terrain if an enemy engaged. Not that it'd help them against him though, he could almost appear from anywhere.

Materializing behind the first victim, Fuzen outstretched his right hand and with 'Void Fist' activated, cut a clean hole through the place his heart used to be. No sooner had the body collapsed onto the ground, and Fuzen arrived at the next chunin where he followed the same exact procedure.

By this time the third chunin noticed something was happening out there in the dark, and his baser instincts urged him to run like the death reaper himself was coming. In a period of a few seconds, he'd caught an unnaturally low frequency pulsating bass come and go twice, each time closer to his current position.

Arriving at the conclusion nothing good would come from waiting, he decided to do a fast check on the position of his closest comrade. If things weren't right, he'd have to notify his superiors.

About to step away from his well-defended spot, a pair of luminous golden eyes became visible in the bushes ahead of him.

'Genjutsu Paralysis!'

The amount of chakra used in Fuzen's genjutsu caused an overload in the chunin's entire nervous system, basically short-circuiting it. For a while, he'd neither be able to move nor utter a single word and could only watch as Fuzen approached with a predatory gleam hidden behind his tiger-mask.

Including this one, each of these male shinobi owning chunin level chakra had been wearing forehead protectors of Sunikagure. It didn't matter to him, but he guessed it'd mean a great deal to Akata when she was informed.

Walking up to the genjutsu bound Suna chunin, he activated 'Void Fist' in his right hand that in turn released an ominous rhythmic bass to the surrounding area.

Fuzen bent down on one knee and inspected the chunin's legs. "You should honestly thank me. Because of me, you won't even feel a thing..." Passing a swift hand coated in void chakra straight through the legs, he erased from existence what connected the upper part of the thigh to the rest below.

Finished with the amputation the chunin fell onto his back, leaving the lower part of his legs separated from the rest. This way there wouldn't be any risk of the chunin fleeing or attempting something dumb."

The mental and physical trauma inflicted upon the chunin made him start hyperventilating. "Oi, don't faint on me! Not cool. I need you conscious here, otherwise, how can we question you." Fuzen placed an assertive foot onto his chest. Leaning forward, he saw the chunin's eyes filled with dread and fear.

Hidden beneath the mask, Fuzen couldn't help a small smile. "Don't worry, we only want to ask a couple of questions. After that, we'll let you go, promise."

After a halfhearted attempt to find a clue of some sort as to what might have happened to the intelligence team they were actually supposed to meet, but not finding anything, he turned his attention to the crippled chunin who was bleeding profusely.

"Guess, you'll have to do. Let's go, I have people waiting to meet you."