บท 13: Chapter 12
Chapter 12
It was getting chilly, Kaen observed. The summer was almost already over in Konoha. Even though it wasn't cold, the days were only warm, and the night was frigid. The stray cats were looking for a warm place to sleep. People were wearing warmer clothes. Kaen liked this time of the year most as it wasn't too cold or hot.
Kaen played with his kunai while he waited for Sasuke. Kaen didn't dislike his job, but it became repetitive, and he was bored often. His training had reached a wall hard to pass without real opponents to test himself against. He didn't know what he was lacking and how strong he was. For now, he could only master the skills he already had and hope for the best.
Kaen focused on performing his hand seals to be able to use his jutsu faster and practiced his chakra control to make his jutsu more powerful and less chakra-consuming. He also learned some basic medical jutsu when he didn't know what else to practice. Kaen felt good about his strength but needed to know his limits and weaknesses to get stronger. He believed he still had a lot of room to improve.
Today's lessons took longer than usual, Kaen thought, as the sun started to set when Sasuke and the other children left the academy. Kaen watched as the children were taken by their parents back home before only Sasuke, Naruto, and a few other children were left. Kaen never got tired of seeing Naruto trying to provoke Sasuke, who was ignoring him.
"Let's go," Sasuke said as he wanted to go as far as possible from Naruto.
"Why don't you play with your friend?" Kaen asked, looking at Naruto, who had a face of disgust after hearing Kaen's words.
"He is not my friend," Both of them said.
"Heh," Kaen laughed and soon followed Sasuke, who was walking away. "You should go home too, Naruto."
"I was just leaving," Naruto put his hands behind his head and strode away.
As usual, Sasuke wanted to train before leaving for home, but today he wanted to practice his basic skills instead of his jutsu. Kaen didn't mind as he followed Sasuke to one of the many training fields in Konoha. Sasuke has even prepared his shuriken and kunai. Kaen just watched and gave some advice to Sasuke as he practiced.
…
Sasuke decided to keep quiet today as they walked to the outskirts of the village. It was already late. Sasuke decided to show off his skills to Kaen, but seeing him unimpressed, he tried again and again before it got dark. Probably feeling angry at Kaen's indifferent look, he didn't want to say anything. Kaen enjoyed teasing the kid.
As they walked and reached the Uchiha compound, it felt like the night was too quiet, even though it was only early evening. Kaen didn't like this kind of eerie silence. He felt like something was not right. Just for precaution, Kaen put on his wrist guards and prepared the seals he had on himself.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked as he watched Kaen getting all kinds of stuff from his pockets.
"Just checking if I didn't drop anything."
"Hn."
Kaen knew something was not right. There were no people outside, and a strong smell of rust came from the compound. It was an unnatural smell, but no matter where he looked, he couldn't find anything, at least until they reached the main street of the Uchiha compound. There he saw bodies, men, women, and children cut down with their blood still running down the road. The bodies were everywhere.
Seeing this scene, Kaen knew what he would have to face. But before mentally preparing himself, Sasuke started to run for his home. Kaen quickly followed him behind. There were no lights, and only the full moon illuminated the streets. But the blood and the bodies were visible. Kaen didn't want Sasuke to see it, but it was already too late.
"Big brother," Sasuke said, stopping before his home and seeing Itachi leaving the house. Before Sasuke could rush to Itachi, I stopped him by grabbing his shoulder. "Kaen, what are you doing? Let me go."
"Itachi, would you mind putting your blade away?"
Itachi didn't reply as he looked at Kaen and then at Sasuke. Without hesitation, Kaen put Sasuke behind himself and unsealed his bow and arrows. Itachi lifted his blade, but neither rushed to fight the other. Kaen was still observing the situation and felt the seals he left on the street, but there weren't any in front of Sasuke's house, as he feared that Fugaku or Itachi would find them.
"What is going on, big brother?" Sasuke pushed himself in front of Kaen and asked.
"Foolish little brother," Itachi replied, and once Kaen saw a change in Itachi's eyes, he looked away from them and, at the same time, covered Sasuke's eyes.
"Sasuke, listen to me," Kaen said as Sasuke struggled to get Kaen's hand away from his eyes. "Turn around and run. No matter what, don't look at Itachi's eyes."
"It is you who should run, Kaen," Itachi said. "Do you hope to defeat me? I killed everyone. You are the only ones left."
"Big brother, what are you talking about?" Sasuke cried out.
"I killed everyone. The member of the Police Force, civilians, women, children, the elderly, and even our parents, foolish little brother. No one could stop me, and neither can you, Kaen."
"Why, big brother?" Sasuke asked, his body starting to shake.
"To test my limits. To see how far my eyes can take me."
"Eyes?" Before Sasuke could struggle with Kaen's hands, Kaen hit his neck and knocked him out.
"You were right," Kaen said, carrying Sasuke away before putting a warding seal around him.
"Right, about what?" Itachi asked as he watched Kaen put Sasuke to safety.
"I held back. I always held back," Kaen replied and opened his three tomoe sharingan.
"It won't change anything," Itachi said and rushed at Kaen with his blade.
Kaen blocked Itachi's blade with his bow and was pushed back. Instead of trying to fight back, Kaen blocked and backed off. With each strike from Itachi's blade, Kaen stepped backward. Kaen avoided looking at Itachi's eyes as he blocked one after another strike. Even though Kaen could see Itachi's movements, he couldn't block every strike.
Cuts started appearing on Kaen's arms and torso. They were shallow cuts, but they showed that Kaen was slower than Itachi. When Kaen backed away from Sasuke's house, he jumped back as far as possible from Itachi. Yet Itachi didn't let go, knowing that Kaen would gain an advantage at a distance. Still, Kaen wasn't nervous and kept his calm.
"Seal release," Kaen said, taking another jump away from Itachi.
As Kaen jumped and Itachi was ready to follow, the ground beneath Itachi's feet exploded into fire, dust, and smoke. Kaen knew it wouldn't affect Itachi in any way, He would be lucky if it scratched Itachi, but he used the explosion as a smokescreen to shoot an arrow into the sky. Making six hand seals, Kaen concentrated on the chakra on his arrow.
"Secret jutsu. Rain of arrows."
As Kaen said the name of his jutsu, the sky, illuminated by the full moon, was quickly covered by his arrow clones. As Itachi jumped from the smoke created by the explosion, he was greeted by literal rain of arrows. Hundreds of arrows descended on Itachi and all around Kaen. Itachi couldn't evade the arrows no matter where he went.
Itachi had no choice but to block all the arrows with his blade. Even though Itachi moved his blade masterfully and incredibly fast, the arrows never ended. As Itachi was busy blocking the arrows, Kaen made another hand seal releasing another set of seals hidden all around them. From the ground, fire snakes emerged and wrapped themselves around Itachi as he still tried to block the arrows. Kaen didn't wait for Itachi to react.
"Fire jutsu. Easter dragon."
As the fire snakes restrained and burned Itachi, Kaen began moving his hands, making ten hand seals, and performing his jutsu. Breathing wind and fire on his arrow, he let it lose at restrained Itachi. The arrow turned alive as it flew and became an eastern fire dragon that consumed everything in its path.
A tremendous explosion arose once the arrow hit Itachi. Kaen used the shockwave to jump another distance from Itachi. Kaen's speculative action to back off was the right choice. As the fire lessened, Kaen saw movement. A gigantic humanoid avatar made of the yellow-red chakra covered Itachi. Even though it didn't have legs, its torso and arms were enough to scare Kaen.
As the hand of the avatar swept, Kaen could do nothing but run away. It brought destruction, and Kaen knew if he were hit by it, he would die. After dodging a few sweeping blows, Kaen couldn't stop smiling. Susanoo could be considered the most powerful ability of Mangekyo sharingan, and he forced Itachi to use it. Kaen felt gratification that his hard work over the years was worth it. As Itachi's Susanoo subsided, Kaen saw blood on Itachi's cheeks. Kaen still refused to look into Itachi's eyes.
"Secret jutsu. Homing arrows."
Making three hand seals, Kaen shot three arrows at the same time. The arrows split into three different directions. Yet the arrows knew their target and hit Itachi from above, front and back. While Itachi blocked the arrow in front of him and evaded the one above him, the arrow behind him managed to hit him in the shoulder.
"It seems I could stop you, Itachi," Kaen said as he notched another arrow. "I expected more from you. You have disappointed me. Maybe you are physically and emotionally exhausted, but I expected you to use more than your Mangekyo sharingan. As it is, I couldn't even use all my abilities."
As Kaen finished speaking, he found his hands consumed by black flame. Through the pain, Kaen got his sealing paper, which he had long since prepared for such a situation, and sealed the fires inside it. Yet it was too late. The damage was done, and his hands were severely burned. Kaen saw that Itachi was tired as more blood dripped from his cheeks.
As Kaen was starting to think about what to do next, he saw a leg coming for his face. Barely managing to raise his arms to defend himself, Kaen was sent flying. He hit the ground hard and slid a few meters before stopping.
"Itachi, you are late," A man with a mask covering his face spoke.
"My opponent was more capable than I anticipated," Itachi replied through hard breathing.
"It doesn't matter. We don't have any time now. The village will not ignore your spectacular fight. A great number of shinobi are coming. We need to finish this."
"Who is he, Itachi? Your new friend?" Kaen asked as he got up. His arms were heavily bleeding. If not for his wrist guards, his hands would have been broken.
"I am Madara Uchiha," The masked man.
"Heh, a jokester, you mean. Who is he, Itachi?"
"He is Madara Uchiha," Itachi replied. "But it shouldn't matter to you as you are going to die."
"The Madara Uchiha, I know, wouldn't be hiding behind a mask. He would challenge the world and proclaim who he is to everyone. Yet there he is, hiding behind a mask in front of me. No, he is just an imposter using a legend's name to further his goals. I only see a coward afraid to reveal his face or name."
"Your attempts to stall for time won't be enough for you to escape from death."
"But it was enough," Kaen said, already finishing his hand seals behind his back. He knew he couldn't win against the man in the mask, and his only choice was to run away. So, he has long prepared a plan to escape from the man. "Reverse summoning jutsu."
Kaen slammed his bloody hand on the ground, and a summoning seal appeared beneath him. Seeing this, the masked man disappeared and reappeared right next to Kaen. As the masked man tried to punch Kaen, Kaen vanished into a cloud of smoke. The Masked man's punch landed on the ground and made a small crater.
A.N. I probably should I have said that earlier, but somehow didn't think about it. I am reposting this story in webnovel, but I started writing it on fanfiction.net, so if you want to read more chapters without waiting, visit the story there, it is the same name. I have more stories there too.
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