Itachi Uchiha was, yet again, on a mission, he would have rather rejected. This time, however, it was not because it went against his morals… well that was the case as well, but not the main problem. No, it was because he had a very bad feeling about it.
He was currently walking through Konoha with Kisame Hoshigaki by his side and he had the mission to kidnap Naruto Uzumaki due to the Kyuubi that was sealed inside him.
Truth be told, Itachi would have preferred if their target was Yuna Uzumaki instead. Despite her being the stronger target, Itachi felt like if they were to kidnap Naruto, Yuna would hunt them down to the depth of hell, while if they tried to kidnap Yuna, she would only fight back and wouldn’t chase them too ferociously.
When Itachi first met Yuna all those years ago, he didn’t think too much about the encounter. Just a sister that wants to protect her brother, but after he managed to regain his bearing from what he has done on that day, he realized what actually happened.
She had played him like a fiddle and coaxed top-secret information out of him without him even noticing it at first. No, he noticed it, but for some reason didn’t think it was a big deal at that time. The supposed great genius of the Uchiha clan was toyed with like a child by a little girl that just started the shinobi academy.
In the aftermath, Itachi felt terrified when he thought about that last encounter with Yuna. The way she easily broke his genjutsu and then quickly diverted the attention away from it. The way every single one of her movements seemed to display sincerity while at the same time manipulating Itachi’s emotions to make him feel sympathetic for the twins. And, probably, the worst part, the way her eyes seemed to constantly analyze him without him even noticing it. Luckily, he had his Sharingan activated during the whole encounter, otherwise, he wouldn’t have even noticed that part after analyzing the whole encounter multiple times.
Currently, Itachi and Kisame were standing in front of the newly established Uzumaki compound. While Kisame was only lazily looking around, Itachi had his Sharingan activated and was trying to analyze the almost invisible blue sealing barrier that covered the whole compound. After about half an hour, Itachi shook his head.
“This is too complex to analyze on the go. I would need multiple days to understand how to prevent it from detecting us.”
A smirk appeared on Kisame’s face when he heard that.
“Hehe, then I guess we will just have to break in by force.”
Without another word, Kisame pulled out his sword and slashed at the barrier. Itachi’s eyes widened when he saw that. He wanted to stop him, but it was already too late. Kisame’s sword smashed into the barrier and… easily tore it to shreds.
Itachi was shocked by how easily the barrier was destroyed, while Kisame had a smug look on his face.
“See? Easy. There is nothing brute force can’t solve.”
Itachi didn’t think it would be this easy, but no matter where he looked, he couldn’t find any indication that this was a trap or that there were more seals hidden somewhere. Unlike Kisame, who boldly strode forwards, Itachi took every step very cautiously. Unfortunately for him, the moment he passed the boundary of the previous barrier, a crimson red barrier appeared in its place while a second one appeared in front of them, trapping them between the two barriers.
Kisame sneered in disdain when he saw that and slashed out yet again to tear one of the barriers to shreds. This time, however, only a small area of the barrier was reduced in thickness, which was regenerated within a short moment.
Itachi immediately understood what was going on.
“The barriers are leeching our chakra and using it to repair themselves. We should retreat for now. This is more complicated than we thought it would be.”
Kisame reluctantly nodded his head and prepared himself to whittle down one of the barriers when flames were shot at him from almost everywhere. Kisame slashed out his sword to get rid of them, but to his surprise, only about half of the flames were drained of their chakra by his sword, while the remaining half didn’t seem to be affected at all.
Kisame’s eyes widened in surprise and he quickly pumped chakra into his legs to dodge the flames. Although he managed to dodge most of them, his clothes were still singed in a few places. While Kisame was confused about why his sword only absorbed half of the flames, Itachi quickly explained what happened.
“Not all of the flames were created through chakra. Some of them were normal fire, that is why your sword couldn’t absorb them.”
Itachi noticed that the seals surrounding them were getting more and more active, which was probably due to more and more Uzumaki clan members supplying it with chakra. Or that was at least, what Itachi suspected to be happening right now. He quickly moved to the side and dodged a cluster of earth spikes that were flying at him, while Kisame did the same to a bunch of air blades.
Itachi could only shake his head when he realized that the situation was getting worse by the minute. Although he didn’t want to do it, he didn’t see any other way to get out of here quickly. He closed his right eye for a moment and when he reopened it, his three-tomoe Sharingan was gone and was instead replaced with a pinwheel-looking Mangekyou Sharingan.
“[Amaterasu]”
Blood started to flow out of his right eye, and moments later, black flames appeared on the barrier that was hindering them from running away. Although it took a moment, the black flames opened an exit for Itachi and Kisame.
“Let’s get out of here. The Uzumaki compound is not a place we can take on by ourselves.”
Although Kisame wasn’t happy at all, he still retreated without complaint. They weren’t here to wage war against Konoha, after all.
Meanwhile, deep in the Uzumaki compound, ten people were sitting in a circle and were injecting chakra into a small crystal ball in front of them, while an additional two people were standing nearby and watching the situation on the outside through multiple monitors.
One of them was Zabuza Momochi, who, truth be told, had no idea why he was allowed to be this deep inside the Uzumaki compound. He could only guess that it had something to do with him being something like a father figure to Haku.
Zabuza could only marvel at what has just happened. Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki weren’t exactly unknown people. If Zabuza were to meet even one of them, he would die, no questions asked. And yet, 10 Uzumaki clan members who could barely defeat a chunin in a one-on-one fight repelled them. How did Zabuza know that they could barely defeat a chunin? Because he has been training them for the past few weeks.
‘Well, even if they can barely fight a chunin, their chakra reserve is certainly on another level. Despite most of them having very little training in fighting, every single one of them could at least match a weak jonin in chakra volume.’
Even Zabuza couldn’t help but be slightly jealous of such a ridiculous advantage. Pairing their ridiculous chakra, with their almost endless lifeforce, could make them a devastatingly powerful clan, but most Uzumaki have very little interest in stuff like that.
Well, Zabuza couldn’t deny that he has become rather fond of the Uzumaki clan in the few weeks that he was here, and the fact that they had no interest in all of these power games between clans and villages certainly was something positive in Zabuza’s eyes. Now, that they have proven that they could, despite their rather pacifistic attitude, repel such a powerful foe, Zabuza couldn’t help but look forward to what would happen in the future.
The other person who was in the room was Masato Uzumaki. He had short spiky hair that was, like with every Uzumaki, red in color, but unlike most Uzumaki, he had a stern face and gave off an aura of seriousness. He was the only jonin-level Uzumaki that immigrated to Konoha and was kept a secret for now. The only ones who knew about him were Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shikaku Nara.
Masato was assigned as something like a chief of security for the Uzumaki clan and was currently busy eyeing the monitors in the room like a hawk. Only when Itachi and Kisame didn’t return after waiting for ten minutes did he nod his head in satisfaction.
“Well done, we repelled the invaders. Half of you may leave for now, while the remaining five stay on monitoring duty. If nothing else happens today, we will return to the normal schedule tomorrow.”
“”””””YES!!!”””””
After he finished giving out his commands, he turned towards Zabuza.
“I need to write a report about what happened here and need someone to deliver it to Hokage-sama without anybody noticing. Are you up for the job?”
Zabuza only shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head.
“Sure, I already noticed that you guys suck at stealth, so I will do it.”
Masato gave him a stern nod and left the room together with Zabuza. As soon as they left the room, Masato’s facade shattered.
“Hahaha, that went well, you know! Yuna-sama gave me some good alcohol, so let’s drink on the victory of the Uzumaki clan, you know!”
Zabuza could only shake his head and chuckle a little. This was Masato’s real personality. As soon as none of his subordinates could see him, his personality turns into the usual “Uzumaki” personality, but instead of Ramen, he seems to be fond of alcohol.
“Sure, sure, but you should write the letter to the Hokage first. Being drunk isn’t good when you want to move stealthily, after all.”
“Haha, no problem. I’ll have it done in a jiffy; you know!”
Zabuza couldn’t help but chuckle, again. He was really wondering how the Uzumaki clan will develop in the future. He couldn’t help but look forward to it.
