Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_234

Takuma released the Hidden Mist Jutsu and ran into the nearest alley with Orange-Mask on his tail. Takuma looked behind and dodged the shuriken launched for his back. He ran around the blocks, carefully routing away from the leader.

Orange-Mask stuck to him like a dog to the bone, but Takuma noticed there was more distance between them than before. He deduced that Orange-Mask's short-term anaerobic endurance was on the decline. Takuma didn't have that problem because of his endurance and durability focused training. He took advantage and pushed himself to further the distance between them. Orange-Mask tried to slow him down by throwing kunai and shuriken at him, but Takuma continued to pull away.

He led them to the alley where he had kicked Orange-Mask through the building's walls.

Takuma recalled the busted pipes leaking water and saw an opportunity. He started weaving hand seals the moment he entered the street. He completed the seals as he passed by the hole in the wall. The building occupants, who had gathered around the hole, shrieked and ran back into the building when the water rose to form a humanoid shape that turned into Takuma's clone. The clone hid in the building and exited to find the leader after Orange-Mask left the alley chasing Takuma.

On Takuma's side, he stopped in the middle of the street and faced Orange-Mask.

The water mass behind him turned into four tentacles—the rest of the water was burned away during his fight with the leader. He had spent more than 30% of his chakra on the two clones and nearly 10% on other jutsu—it was more chakra he ever wanted to spend in less than ten minutes of combat, most of it he had spent running.

With kunai in both hands, Takuma charged toward Orange-Mask. He opened the throttle and rained down kunai strikes on Orange-Mask, who defended with his sword. Instead of his usual strategy of looking for openings and creating opportunities, Takuma barraged Orange-Mask with strike after strike, not giving him any chance to retaliate.

Orange-Mask was more than capable of responding to a bull attack and defended every one of Takuma's strikes. Takuma only amped up the intensity and pushed his body to the limit, single-mindedly attacking like a rabid dog.

His tentacles moved in sync with the offense. They tried to hinder Orange-Mask's movements by grabbing for his limbs, shoving water into his eyes, drenching him and his gear, and doing everything to make Orange-Mask conscious of them. They annoyed Orange-Mask so much that he prioritized cutting them—forcing Takuma to reduce them from four to two full-sized tentacles.

Under the intense assault, Orange-Mask was pushed back, but he successfully defended himself without getting cut a single time.

Then, all of a sudden, Takuma jumped away from Orange-Mask.

It was time to end this, thought Takuma as he weaved hand seals.

———
.

Orange-Mask was surprised when the target suddenly put distance between them. The abrupt shift from a full-on assault where he wasn't allowed to retaliate to having all the space to mount an attack bothered him.

He became apprehensive when the target formed hand seals. He had the choice to charge the target to disrupt him from completing his hand seals, counter with a ninjutsu of his own, or back away and react after observing what the target was throwing at him.

His eyes went to the tentacles hanging behind the target. They would hinder him if he went in to disrupt the target. The target was dangerous enough that a moment of disruption could be enough, and then he would be left in close proximity to the target with a lethal ninjutsu aimed at him. Orange-Mask considered his second option to counter with a ninjutsu of his own, which felt like a viable option—he knew they were standing in the open and Lord Kon would arrive at any moment, and it was wiser to attack then—but Orange-Mask thought he could take down the target on his own.

Orange-Mask raised his hands and weaved hand seals for the Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu.

Their eyes met as both sides weaved hand seals, and Orange-Mask's vision blurred. He blinked his eyes, and his vision returned to normal, but the next second, his vision blurred worse than before. The color of everything started to leak into everything else. He tried to focus on the target, but the target's figure was blurring into the surroundings until he couldn't even be sure of the target's location. He looked down and saw his own body blurring into the road until the point where he couldn't tell where the road started and his body ended.

———
.

The genjutsu was successful.

Genjutsu: Hazewas a touch-based jutsu that blurred the target's vision and twisted their sense of balance.

Until very recently, he didn't think he would be able to use a touch-based genjutsu in active combat because of the problematic pre-requisite, which required him to apply his chakra on the person's skin, and most people didn't allow their opponents to grab them long enough to sufficiently apply chakra for genjutsu.

Not to mention, Orange-Mask was covered from top to bottom.

But Takuma figured out a workaround using the Water Style: Eight Tentacles. He poured his chakra into the tentacles and used the water to get his chakra onto Orange-Mask's skin. While fighting, each time the tentacles made contact, they left behind a small amount of chakra-charged water on Orange-Mask's. The gear wasn't waterproof; the water passed through the fabric and wet his skin. The water stuck to the skin, wetting it, and delivered the chakra to the tenketsu points near the skin.

Takuma felt an exhilaration run up his spine when he saw Orange-Mask's body language change. He tried to hide it, but it was apparent that Orange-Mask was deep in the genjutsu—or else why would he stop forming hand seals? Takuma hadn't tested the application before, but the concept was sound— so seeing it work told him he had another combat-ready weapon available.

But Takuma's genjutsu were supplementary options.

He released the Eight Tentacles jutsu and let the water tentacles fall as he weaved hand seals for the Water Release: Spirit Water Wave. The water from the fallen tentacles was pulled into a glob in front of Takuma's finger gun. Takuma aimed for Orange-Mask and shot a high-speed water bullet at his forehead.

"Bang," he whispered.

There was no sound as the water bullet cut through the air.

Orange-Mask shuddered before going limp and falling to the ground like a sack.

Takuma carefully moved toward Orange-Mask with another shot ready in case he wasn't dead. Takuma confirmed the kill and finally breathed a sigh of relief. But then he felt his clone die and rushed to remove Orange-Mask's weapon belt. He decided to take the mask as well before escaping before the leader arrived.

———
.

That evening, the team, except for Gaku, who had chosen to remain home with Chinatsu, visited the factory base. The news about the "second" police station attack had spread like wildfire in Yu. Knowing that the team wasn't involved, they knew it was the work of a copycat—a severe problem that needed to be discussed and tackled immediately.

When the team reached the factory base, they found Takuma lying on the couch with his arm covering his eyes. His hair were wet from having bathed recently. They didn't think much of it, but then Takuma glanced at them after hearing them arrive and slowly sat up with a groan to reveal a bloody bandage over his other arm, which was hidden from their view.

"How did that happen?" asked Anko, surprised along with the rest of the team.

"A police station was set on fire today," Takuma replied as Rikku sat beside him and took the arm to check it.

"Yes, we know," said Anko.

"Well, I ran into the people who did it," Takuma hissed in pain when Rikku pulled the bandages, "and let's just say we ended up in an intense game of tag that went a bit too far."

"Oh my god," Iori gasped.

"I want to know everything from the top," said Anko, getting a bad feeling about what was about to be said.

Takuma didn't look like he wanted to, but he recalled his experience. The news about the drug exchange between the Goharu Family and the enemy shinobi would've been big news for their plans, but when Takuma told them that the police station arson was a plot to draw out the team, it no longer seemed to be any current significance.

"I managed to escape them and then spent an hour roaming around the city as a precaution before returning here." Takuma looked disgusted as he said: "They killed and hung three people on poles outside the police station... They killed them to poison our efforts and stifle the support we had rallied. We will have to take steps to mitigate the damage quickly."

"We can talk about that tomorrow, Takuma," said Daiki, worried. "Are you alright? Is there something we can do for you? You can come with us to the home and stay there for the night if you want."

"I agree," said Anko immediately.

"Thank you, but I'm fine," Takuma shook his head.

But then Takuma stared at the entire team for a long moment.

"What is it?" asked Anko.

"...I found that—"

Takuma stopped talking, fully leaned into the couch, and closed his eyes briefly before sitting back up.

"...When that group was pursuing me, I noticed—well, my clone noticed—that I recognized the gear they were wearing." Takuma bowed his head. "The assassins who tried to kill me back home... they were wearing the same gear I saw today."

Iori and Daiki gasped while the rest stared at Takuma in shock.

"Are you sure?" asked Kameko.

Takuma nodded. "Yes... I, of course, had my doubts, so I got proof."

He got up, walked to a nearby table, and tossed a naked knife blade without the handle to Kameko. She looked down at the blade. It seemed like a normal blade, but she flipped and saw a pattern of a tree, with its underground roots visible, imprinted on the blade's tang.

"That day, I had to scavenge weapons from one of the assassins. I retained a weapons pouch afterward and investigated them to find that smith's touchmark," Takuma pointed at the blade. "I could accept mistaking the gear, but with that mark on the blade, I'm a hundred percent sure that they're connected. I guess that they belong to the same organization."

The atmosphere in the base was indescribable. The team gazed at Takuma, unsure what this meant for them and their mission.

"We will have to report this," said Anko.

"Do it," said Takuma, somber. "Tell them to contact Uchiha Kano in the Leaf Military Police Force. Last I knew, she was handling my assassination case. I gave her the knife with the touchmark to her. She might have more information. We might get some information about the organization. And now that we know that there are organization members, we can interrogate them for more information!"

Takuma looked up at Anko with a fire in his eyes. The look on her face confused him, but then he recognized the doubt and concern in her eyes and realized what she was thinking.

"The mission is and will remain my main priority," Takuma stressed his words for emphasis.

"I surely hope so," she said.

Clearly, she wasn't entirely sure if Takuma's desire for revenge wouldn't distract him from their mission.

———
.

Kon lay on a bed in a clean room as an iryo-nin worked on his shoulder. The iryo-nin had been working on Kon's shattered shoulder for an hour. The operation would continue for another hour to stabilize Kon's shoulder and put it in a position for accelerated healing through further sessions.

Kon opened his eyes, revealing he wasn't put under for the operation.

He was given something for pain, but he was wide awake.

He stared at the ceiling, thinking about what had happened earlier that day. Kon recalled his memories, going through everything he could remember from the chase and fight against the target. The day had been terrible—he got injured and lost one of his men. His report back to his superior officer would put his situation in danger with a real chance of getting pulled from the assignment. And the Hidden Cloud jonin would complain and use the failure to catch the culprit behind the police force bombing as reasons to shove their pea-brained ideas into the city conversion strategy needlessly.

He had to resolve this problem; for that, he needed information, and his memories were the only source of reliable information.

He closed his eyes and recalled the target. His clothes, movements, body language, the jutsu he used, and every minute he could pull out of his memories.

"It was the Hidden Leaf Kata," Kon opened his eyes.

"Pardon, sir?" asked the iryo-nin.

"I recognized the vestiges of the Hidden Leaf Kata in the target's combat style." Kon narrowed his eyes as he focused on the little taijutsu the target had shown. "Adopted as the base but modified to suit the target's needs."

Kon clicked his tongue. He wasn't a taijutsu specialist. It was luck that he had even noticed the relics of the Hidden Leaf Kata in the target's combat style, but trying to gain deeper insight into the target through his combat style was far out of his capabilities.

Knowing that the target showed the Hidden Leaf Kata reduced his search circle to the Land of Fire. He couldn't be sure if the target was someone from the Leaf shinobi organization as the style was widespread in the nation, and every other dojo run by a retired shinobi taught the style. However, the Hidden Leaf supported the Hidden Steam in the Frost-Stream war, so it was a reasonable assumption that the target could be a Hidden Leaf spy.

But the target had bombed a police station, which was an act of altering the status quo in Yu.

"He could be a Leaf ANBU," Kon said aloud—but it didn't sound right to him. An ANBU wouldn't approach the burning police station so brazenly, leaving themselves open and easily spotted. That was surprisingly bad spycraft.

"What else?"

"The target must've been skilled with chakra augmentation for this level of damage," said the iryo-nin.

"Chakra augmentation," Kon hummed before shaking his head. Chakra augmentations weren't a commonplace technique, but they were universally present worldwide—which didn't help him narrow down the target's identity any further.

Just when Kon was about to move on from chakra augmentation, a thought entered his mind. He recalled the last time he had read about chakra augmentation—the hateful face of the person Kon blamed for all his recent problems flashed into his mind.

"Chakra augmentation... Hidden Leaf Kata..."

It couldn't be, Kon said to himself—plenty of people in the Hidden Leaf knew chakra augmentation.

But what if? Kon swallowed.

"...Could you send for an intel request," Kon said to the iryo-nin.

"The subject, sir?"

"Genin Takuma of the Leaf Military Police Force... Where is he right now?"