Chapter 125: Disappearing kunoichi

"It's been a while... Izumi."

Breaking the silent deadlock, Itachi said while unbuttoning his classy Akatsuki cloak.

A scene, Kisame had only seen when the Uchiha was taking his opponent seriously.

With clear hostility, Izumi snarkily replied. "Too long, I might have to make a new grave for you."

Itachi hummed and thought while feeling entangled.

Should I ask about Sasuke? It's been hard to get current information on him, since the death of the Third Hokage.

Sure, he was no longer a spy with those he was really loyal to dead, but he doubted Pain would be too pleased to find out that he had been a traitor all along.

Then their was also the internal debate about how much Sasuke knew and how he had changed.

He was certain that Izumi knew the truth and the dark side of Konoha, but did she tell Sasuke about those things?

How would those effect that sweet little brother of his, and would it require him to try and rewrite Sasuke's mind with Kotoamatsukami

Unfortunately, his rapidly growing train of worried thoughts were interrupted by a sneer from his former childhood friend.

"Don't bother."

With a knowing smirk, Izumi said. "You really still think that I will allow Sasuke to be the one to kill you? Don't worry, I'll give your sharingan to him anyway."

The emotionless mask on Itachi's face cracked slightly, before he recovered almost instantly.

"Is that so."

The former clan heir was contemplating whether, she was aware of the eternal mangekyo or not.

While she didn't directly mention it in her previous statement, it seemed like she knew about the potential for further evolution laying dormant within their scary, scarlet eyes.

For a brief second, their mangekyo met and began to spin slightly.

Simultaneously, they both reached for their kunai and shuriken before pelting them towards each other with crisp clear killing intent.

A symphony of collisions played out with spark splashing about.

Suddenly, Izumi started to teleport closer to him, after vanishing from his sight once or twice, she bent down in front of him and sprung up, stabbing him in the heart.

betraying his panicked expression, with a calm tone of voice, he uttered. "Flying Thunder God, huh?"

As soon as he completed his statement, under the eyes of his opponent he turned into countless crow clones at once.

Izumi grit her teeth and tried to reorganise her thoughts.

An illusion?

No way!

That was definitely a physical technique!

The innumerable flock of crows gathered together in the air again forming a falling Itachi.

Taking the initiative, he completed several quick seals and chanted.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

The symbolic fire style jutsu of the Uchiha clan rushed towards its target with lethality equal to an S-rank jutsu.

In response, Izumi quickly weaved a number of seals and shouted, "Fire Style: Fire Fighting Arrow!"

She spat out an oddly shaped mass of fire that shot towards the opposing fire jutsu.

Boom!

The moment they collided with each other, a cloud of smoke was formed as a much smaller version of the arrow, Izumi created continued travelling along its trajectory seemingly trying to drill a hole through its opponent.

Hiding a frown, Itachi closed his eye for a split second before opening it again, to reveal a spinning shuriken and some blood building up around it.

Amaterasu!

The remaining fire gained a coat of even hotter and darker flames that burned with even greater intensity.

Itachi's bleeding eye shifted over towards Izumi as he tried to turn her into a helpless pile of ash.

Fortunately, despite her sleeve catching fire, she managed to teleport behind a tree that blocked his vision.

Swiftly, she cut off the sleeve before discreetly throwing eight other marked kunai, in case she had to face a similar attack again.

She frowned and slumped back against the tree.

She tried to fix her breathing rate and suppress any volatile emotions as Itachi walked around thoroughly looking through the array of trees.

They continued their game of hide and seek for a few minutes before Itachi began to loudly shout, "Come out, I have something to ask you."

"..."

"Chirp... chirp..."

All was silent except for the incessant cries from crickets.

Clearly displeased at how the talks were going, Itachi continued to shout before coming to a frustrating realisation... great, I was never one for chases...

He coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood onto his hand. With a grimace, he thought.

Damn it. I was counting on Tsukuyomi for finding out more about Sasuke, but at this rate I'll be dead before I find anyone to interrogate.

...

...

On the shore.

Boom!!!

Mei ignored the shark she had sent flying into the forest for a second, looking around for her original target. The Mizukage.

Her eyes met an orange masked Akatsuki member waving towards her, and the other two people with him gone.

"Hehe! Would you like to play with Tobi too, senpai?"

His cheerful voice seemed to draw her ire as she glared at him knowing about his Kamui dimension.

She growled to him. "Give me back, Yagura!"

Seemingly oblivious to her frustration, with sheepish gestures he twiddled with his thumbs before apologising to her for something she couldn't care less about.

"I'm sorry senpai, although I would love to play, the boss would get angry if I slacked on the job so~... goodbye!"

The figure of his body looked like it was distorting as it seemed to get smaller and farther away.

"Damn you, come back here you coward!" She shouted in fury and tried to desperately leap towards him in an effort to prevent the teleportation.

Unfortunately, a grinning shark appeared and swung Samehada onto her path forcing her to dodge and helplessly allow Tobi to leave with his burst of childish laughter.

Until suddenly... a kunai came from the trees and stabbed into his left arm.

In sequence, a magically appearing female lashed out with a kick aiming to take off Tobi's head.

The distortion came to a halt, and slowly unravelled itself, fulfilling the conditions for the orange masked man to phase through the vicious attack.

The sand was launched into the air making a smoke screen to which, the female Uchiha tried to use to her advantage engaging in a taijutsu battle, unaware that the battle was actually on a level playing field.

Resembling a heartless murderer, Izumi used her Uchiha style taijutsu skills to ruthlessly deal heavy blows, slowly forcing her opponent to reveal some of his own skills.

The sandy smokescreen cleared while Izumi thought to herself.

I can't get any solid hits because of that space ninjutsu, I'll try to create an opening and decide the battle in a single blow.

She dashed forward again with renewed vigour, as her mangekyo began to leisurely spin, looking over his body thoroughly, clearly not willing to miss an a chance to strike Tobi down.

Luckily, her chance came soon when Obito stumbled into a punch which landed on his face.

Before, he could recover, she hopped just an arm's length away and...

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There was a small fire at my school today, lol.