Flameless Ash

"Captain, there is a single chakra signature approaching us from east." One of the blindfolded sensors said.

"Friendly?" Darui asked.

"No chakra flare for identification." Sensor answered back. Darui looked at the rest of the camp busy preparing for the attack, mentally calculating the pros and cons of dispatching manpower at this time.

"Let the mercenary handle it. It is already a breach of orders to not retreat with the rest of the troops. Moreover, the location of HQ is secret, how this ninja knows. Spy? most likely."

Sensor nodded, relaying his commands to the comm unit, "Call in Kakuzu."

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Itsuki moved through the foliage of pine trees like a shadow, barely visible over the morning mist. Kenta followed behind him, his burly body not quite as graceful.

"You, move to your position and get ready to rush in after distraction," Itsuki said, and Kenta nodded. Speed is going to be the name of the game. It would be good if Raiden could blow up the entire HQ and kill all sensors but no good plan is complete without redundancies. No good plan solely relies on luck.

'On that note, let's plan for escape.'

Itsuki moved towards one of the steeper sides of the valley, just a few miles off the Kumo HQ, and took out the C4, dividing it into multiple tiny balls. After sticking each ball with remote detonation tags, he placed them in his pockets.

'Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage'

And disappeared into the mountain wall.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Raiden was less than a mile off his target before he sensed his tail. He immediately increased his speed, trying to get as close to the cliff as he can.

"Lightning Release: False Darkness'

Enemy's attack hit him out of nowhere. A spear of lightning pierced through his torso, boring through his lung and ribs with impunity.

Raiden fell down, darkness nearly overcoming his vision. He was going to die here. Out of the corner of his blacking vision, he saw his goal, the cliff oh so close.

A maddening smile filled his face and with great difficulty, he brought up one arm and formed half tiger seal.

At distance, Kakuzu saw his action, immediately prepared an escape jutsu, Having too much experience with suicidal techniques in his long life.

The maddening smile on Raiden's face became more pronounced as he muttered,

"Katsu"

~BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!~

"Wha...aaAAAAA"

"Retreat"

"Run"

"Earth Release: Rock Barrier"

A resplended explosion shook the entire valley. A large fireball visible to all rose up near the cliff and the shockwave rocked out, blowing a large chunk off in it. The Kumo HQ was destroyed in a rain of rock shrapnel, killing half the ninjas who were not fast enough to react.

Almost the entire comm unit was down, severely limiting the communication between the Kumo troops. Little did they knew this was only the start. Debris laid everywhere and clouds of dust clocked the entire cliff.

'Storm Release: Laser Circus'

Shooting out from dust clouds, searing hot beams of plasma killed many ninjas unlucky enough to be in its path.

"We are under attack, scatter and reposition," Darui shouted, face grim. He now knew who was responsible for the attack, after all, there was only one other storm release user here.

Kenta's figure appeared among the dust clouds, slowly walking towards Darui, sword in one hand and poised to attack.

"Hello Bother"

Darui pulled the sword off his back, ready to engage at any movement.

"Good to see you too Brother"

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Itsuki rose from the earth not too far from the Kumo HQ just after the explosion went off. He unsealed the fox mask and put it on his face, before relaxing his face and changing from Raiden and back into Itsuki.

Pulling out the Katana he 'took' from Kumo ninja, he flooded his entire body with chakra, even opening the strength of a hundred seal and opened his senses.

'Twenty-two targets, all with mid to high-level reserves so most likely chunin and jonins. Find the ones with a blindfold, eliminate and get out of there. Simple' Itsuki pulled massive amounts of finely controlled chakra into his feet, and just as Kenta and Darui started to clash, he rocked forward into the Kumo ninjas, and before they could react, his sword flashed, taking along the head of one Kumo Jonin.

"We are under attack." A Kumo Jonin screamed, alerting others who could not see in the dust cloud. Itsuki could sense every ninja but the same could not be said for others. With a flick of his wrist, he launched multiple kunai at ninjas, who were easily able to avoid them upon sensing the displacement in air. But dust prevented them from seeing the primed explosion tags at their ends.

~Booom~Boom~Boooom~

Many explosions went off, taking along ninjas few Kumo ninjas. Some Kumo ninjas threw a hail of shuriken and Kunai at his previous location, hitting nothing.

"Someone get rid of the dust!" A Kumo ninja ordered, recognizing the tactic similar to Hidden Mist Justu.

Itsuki sensed someone trying to mold chakra and immediately flashed to its location. But in haste, he was sensed, and just as he was upon the ninja, a sword blocked his attack.

"Got ya!" A female ninja wielding a Katana shouted loudly, alerting others of his location. Many chakra signatures moved in his direction, and in front, the ninja who barely looked older than sixteen was rapidly flashing through hand seals of a wind natured jutsu.

"Wind release..."

But Itsuki was having none of it. His free hand moved faster than the women could react and his punch slammed into her with the strength of a freight train. Her inwards ruptured and nearly all bones broke on impact, killing her in a moment. Her body launched and collided with the young Kumo ninja behind, interrupting his jutsu and launching both into the trees.

Before the young ninja could pick himself up, a senbon struck his neck and he lost consciousness. Itsuki jumped beside the body but just then a hail of kunai forced him to jump back.

Bringing up his Katana in front of himself, Itsuki took stock of his situation. A dozen ninja surrounded him, with more on the way. A ninja among them spoke, "Surrender."

Itsuki frowned behind his mask, this was a little too fast. He did not even get the sensor yet.

Seeing him not replying, the same ninja ordered in a dispassionate voice "Kill him"

Suddenly Itsuki realized he was in a formation. Every ninja surrounding him stood at a specific location, cornering him and sealing his escape routes.

All ninjas threw weapons all at once, but not all were targeting but the space around him. Even if he moved from his location, he would be skewed. There was no chance for escape and he knew it.

To Itsuki, time slowed to crawl at and each kunai and demon shuriken slowed to crawl. Calmly he brought his free hand up, almost absentmindedly, and formed half rat seal, the seal he used to cast Kurama clan techniques.

The blades were almost upon him, but beneath the mask, Itsuki for his dislike of fighting and killing, smiled. The genjutsu activated and all blades turned immaterial.

The immaterial Kunai when collided with Itsuki, did not sink in his flesh but passed through like a ghost, not even leaving a mark on Itsuki.

The shock of ninjas surrounding him was almost palpable, so much so that Itsuki could sense it in their chakra despite not actively not trying to sense emotions. But that only remained for a second, before their presumptive leader ordered again.

"Attack! Attack using ninjutsu"

Itsuki looked at the ninjas before stretched and kneaded the chakra a touch differently, his hand still in half rat sign. The genjutsu changed and so did the world.

'Kurama Secret Technique - Flameless ash'

Everything living around Itsuki started to turn into ashes, the leaves, twigs, branches, and the humans standing on them as if burned by ethereal, unseen flames.

"Ahhh." A short scream was all they could do before they too were reduced to a burned husk before falling down and scattering like statues of ash, still encased in unblemished clothes.

Itsuki came out of his battle frenzy and saw everything around him reduced to ash, every living thing was dead in his immediate vicinity. Except for the young Kumo ninja he knocked out earlier. Taking out his Kunai, he quietly moved towards him.

He stared at him for a moment, before turning his head towards the remaining chakra signatures, sparing his life.

With just six ninjas remaining, with others either dead or incapacitated, they stood no chance against Itsuki. Every single one of them was surrounding the sensor, trying to protect him, while the sensor was trying to get the status of the fighters.

Just then, at one movement sensor was relaying orders, the other movement his head was flying. No one saw Itsuki enter, no one saw him leave.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kuhara ran like hell. He was running since he heard the explosion, just as Itsuki said. Hopping from tree to tree, he had been few minutes since the explosion, and he had not run into any opposition or enemy unit since.

Something glimmered in his field of view upfront, putting Kuhara immediately on alert.. But as the two figures came close, he recognized the headbands.

"Hey! Heeeey!" Kuahra shouted loudly, waving his hands while flaring his chakra in Konoha standard genin code.

The two Konoha jonin came close, recognizing the code. "Identify yourself"

"Kuhara Muramoto, Reserve corps," Kuhara said, panting from exhaustion. The jonin nodded before asking, "What happened?"

"Kumo attacked all of a sudden. Every village and outpost was decimated, every single person killed." Kuhara spoke, fear clear in his voice.

"What were Kumo ninjas doing?" Other jonin questioned, but Kuhara shook his head. "No idea, but we have a rough estimate of at least two hundred ninjas present."

Jonin looked at each other once again before sending a brief flare of chakra.

For a few moments nothing happened, then suddenly, the forest canopy came alive with hundreds of ninjas, jumping in organized chaos, moving through the forest towards the valley as Kuhara looked on in awe.