Arms Race [Itachi]

[Kaeru Ankoku]

The stench of blood was heavy and dank in the air just outside of the village hidden in the leaves. Blood was splashed on the trees and Gore was feeding the roots. with cold eyes a killer looked down at the two corpses missing their eyes. Two sets of Sharingan eyes floated in a jar of preservation fluid waiting to be dissected or transplanted in back in the "Bloody Mist." The two unfortuante sentries had managed to detect the killer on his way out of the Village.

The mission had gone fairly well, untill it's ending. Kaeru had infiltrated the village and spied on the Hokage and the rest of the village, finding priceless info for the Mizukage. He had been detected and had escaped in a hurry, but these two dead fools got in his way. Not one to miss an oppurtunity he had killed them with as little effort as he could and then harvested their eyes. He figured it would make a decent apology to Mei for slipping up and nearly getting captured.

Kaeru flicked the swords given to him by Mei to the side, blood and gore sliding off of their surfaces. Raiga had been lucky to have them. they responded to his Raiton better than any other chakra conducting blade he had ever had. The ease at which he summoned lightning was parralleled. proof was the thunderstorm brewing in the sky, electricity arcing across it's face. He marvled at how mother nature transform his jutsu into a REAL storm, a very powerfull destructive storm. If he was attacked again. . . Kaeru smiled. 'And crack goes the lightning' strike' he thought with a sick grin before turning to leave before stopping.

He felt someone nearby. someone strong. He turned and stared into the darkness with a grin across his face. Kaeru activated his kekkei genkai and focused in on someone in the distance. "Uchiha-san, come out to play!!!"

[Itachi Uchiha]

Itachi was enjoying a nice evening until a member of the ANBU black ops showed up in his room. They informed him that a shinobi from the Mist village had infiltrated the Leaf and gathered information that could be crucial. Itachi was then informed that the man had defeated two Uchiha's and even stole their Sharingan’s. Now it was becoming something Itachi could not ignore. Itachi quickly changed into his ANBU uniform and dashed out the room.

It wasn't too soon until he came upon the bodies of the two dead Uchiha's and their eyeless eyeholes. In his mind Itachi said that these two probably deserved their fate, but he would have no choice but to avenge them or be suspect to further suspicion by his father. That was something he could not afford. Itachi quickly caught hold of the Mist ninja's trail and immediately chased after him. It wasn't soon until he spotted the Mist ninja, and was spotted himself.

"Uchiha-san, come out to play!!!" It was obviously the ninja's attempt to taunt Itachi into revealing himself. Itachi was hatching a plan, but then noticed something odd about the ninja's eyes. It seemed he had a doujutsu kekkei genkai, meaning he could probably see chakra and that would mean Itachi plan would not work. Itachi then jumped down from the tree and looked straight at his target, Sharingan already activated. "If he was powerful enough to take out two Uchiha with fully activated Sharingan, then I might just have to use THAT against him."

"Who are you? And what do you plan on doing with those?" Itachi found himself staring at the Sharingan's collected by the unknown Mist Shinobi. "I'm afraid regardless of your answer I’m going to have to take you in, or kill you, whichever becomes the easiest."

[Kaeru Ankoku]

Kaeru new he had been caught. It didn't really matter though, he had gotton the information he required. Now all he had to do was get to Mist. he hadn't wasted much chakra killing those two Uchiha. They, being arrogant and dismissive, had underestimated him, then died. Some good the Sharingan did them.

He looked over to the Anbu standing across the small meadow. Hhe was utterly relaxed it seemed. That meant he was very dangerous. His reserves weren't that drained, he should have enough power in himself to kill this poor unfortunate sod. Kaeru cotinued to size up his enemy, thinking back onto the times Fugaku had hired him or his clan in the past.

"Who are you? And what do you plan on doing with those?"

The voice put him back to the present. It sounded fairly familiar, Kaeru narrowed his eyes at him. It ws so eerie, the voice reminded him of an Uchiha he'd met before. He reached back into memory and focused his doujutsu on his chakra. . . and made a connection. "Hello Itachi-kun, these eyes? they'll go to Mist's scientists, and maybe a talented ninja or two. Perhaps I'll sell them to Kumo. you know how they love Konoha Doujutsu."

. "I'm afraid regardless of your answer I’m going to have to take you in, or kill you, whichever becomes the easiest."

He grinned at Itachi and laughed a deep heartyy laugh befor pulling out the swords of Raiga. He would kill the Uchiha prince like any other man. He was a seven swordsman damnit, he wouldn't die here, in the depths of the leaves. "You WILL try. . ."

[Itachi Uchiha]

Itachi continued to have zero emotion when it came to the man's words. So the bastared planned on selling those eye? To kumo of all people, hmph such nerve. As Itachi continued to look at the person his identity became as clear as day. He remembered the man as someone his father once hired along with his clan. They're clan was distantly related to the Uchiha themselves. They're Doujutsu allowed them to inflict an upmost deadly pain on their target, but not without a high price.

"Hello Kaeru-san. It's been a while." Itachi watched as the Mist ninja got prepared for battle. His responce to Itachi's words about taking him in were that Itachi would try. The man seemed quite arrogant in his choice of words, simply implying that Itachi could not do what he said. That very arrogance would be the downfall of this Shonbi, simply because he knew not of Itachi's true power. When they met many years ago Itachi was only a fraction of the person he is now.

Itachi pulled off his mask, as it was no longer neccesary sine they knew who each other was. With his mask now removed Itachi's crimson Sharingan were now visible. "Shall we begin?" With that said Itachi simply vanished and appeared begind the Mist Shinobi, but it was truly only a shadow clone that was soon to explode. With in moments of appearing behind the mist ninja the shadow clone imploded and from a nearby tree Itachi would whisper the name of this jutsu. "Bushin Bakuha- Clone Explosion."

Itachi was not foolish enough to belive that a simple jutsu like that would finish this ninja off, after all he had abviously become a member of the seven swordsman of the mist, which is mainly obvious because of his unique weapons. Itachi had hoped he could finish the enemy off with just his normal Sharingan, and would not need to use the Mangekyou and it's deadly jutsu. But if worst came to worse then Itachi would simply finish the man off with either an Amaterasu or a Tsukiyomi, both jutsu that couldn't be defended against, well the Tsukiyomi can only be broken by a fully realised Uchiha, Which Kearu was obviously not no matter how related their clans are.

[Kaeru Ankoku]

He stared at Itachi's emotionless form, he smiled at the younger man with a knowing grin. Kaeru knew Itachi was stronger than he was at the moment. While typically they were at the same level, Kaeru had been fighting previously. He would have to be carefull with this fight. Especially considering it is the Uchiha Prodigy he's facing.

"Hello Kaeru-san. It's been a while."

Kaeru nodded at Itachi in return. Last time he was in the Leaf he was 16 to Itachi's then 19. they had fought to a draw in a qualification bout set up by Fugaku. He had no doubt that Itachi has gotton far stronger since then, but so has he. Kaeru looked up into the sky seeing the lightning bend in twist and rain begin to literally pour down. Kkaeru was comfortable, here in his element.

"Shall we begin?"

Kaeru nodded in return and smirked as Itachi appeared behind him and exploded. The explosion ripped apart the lightning clone standing there with a large discharge of electricity. Up in his tree with a summoned Hawk on his shoulder Kaeru put the vials of eyes in it's talons and watched as it took flight and sped off to mist. With that package secure Kaeru jumped at Itachi, slashing at him with blades cackling with current. Now was time for the tricky part. Surviving Itachi's onslaught

[Itachi Uchiha]

Just as Itachi had expected, Kaeru managed to escape the Bushin Bakuha that Itachi used. It was to be expected by someone who was once considered Itachi's equal. Itachi's ears picked up the rumbling of thunder in the sky and his body felt random drops of water. So the rain was going to begin? This would be bad because, from Itachi can remember, Kaeru used the lightning element.

Itachi picked up Kaeru's hawk leave with the two Sharingan. Itachi could not allow the Hawk to escape with those valuable items and summoned three crows to intercept it. Itachi thne picked up Kaeru's movement as he came charging at him with a blade that had an electrict current. As the slash came down Itachi used his sharingan to predict Kaeru's movements and woudl attempt to grab his wrists and stop his attack. If he succeeded thn he would use his sharingan and hopefully entrap Kaeru in a genjutsu.

Of course Itachi was not dumb enough to charge head on and had done the handseals for a kwarimi jutsu moments before making his strike. Of course with his speed he was able to do it too fast for anyone without a sharingan to even see. So most likely Kaeru wouldn't be expecting Itachi to have done the handseals and be ready to immediatly switch with a log. Anyways, if Kaeru had been placed in the genjutsu he would be attached to a wall in a world where the ground is water, and everything was read. This would be Itachi's Tsukiyomi and with it he would have a million Itachi's stab Kaeru with a katana for what would appear to be a full year, but would only be about three seconds in real time.

[Kaeru Ankoku]

Seeing Itachi reach out Kaeru tucked his wrist and landed from his leap onto his hands and spun in a whirl, his legs spinning in a helicopter fashion, striking out at Itachi. Leaping back onto his feet he studied Itachi, he was about to put him in a genjutsu? He shrugged and ran at him slashing at Itachi, throwing in kicks and blows with his elbows in an attempt to incapacitate Itachi.

Startled by a bird's cry he looked up to see his hawk slashing at the attacking crows. Kaeru flashed through hand seals summoning another hawk to assist it''s ailing brother. Turning his attention back to Itachi, he ran at him engaging him in a Tai/Kenjutsu battle once again. "You don't even want to really fight me do you, Itachi-kun?" Itachi did seem to be fighting with a measure of reluctance. It was nothing like the epic bout he remembered from four years ago.

[Itachi Uchiha]

Itachi was hit by the barrage of attacks, only to disappear in a puff of smoke and a log be revealed in his place. Itachi honestly did not want to waste his time dealing with this at the moment. He honestly wished he could just forget this and enjoy the rest of his day, but his pride and loyalty would not allow it. Itachi looked up and saw that his crows were doing their job and defeating the Hawk, but were soon ambushed by another Hawk that was summoned by Kaeru. With a quick string of hand seals Itachi summoned another crow to help balance out the odds against the two Hawks.

Kaeru then seemed to have noticed Itachi's unwillingness to battle with him. Itachi watched on as Kaeru charged in at him. Releasing a sigh Itachi responded to Kaeru's words, "Your right. I do not wish to bother with this battle and hoped I could bore you enough that you give up, but that does not seem to be the case. I will stop toying around and end this quickly." With that said Itachi's sharingan evolved into it's mangekyou form and within seconds the inescapable and inextinguishable Amaterasu flames shot out at Kaeru. Now Itachi would watch and seem how things would progress.

[Kaeru Ankoku]

Seeing Itachi's eyes morph, his eyes widened as he jumped into the trees bouncing from tree to tree until he was airborn. he looked down to see sections of the forest burning with black fire. 'What the fuck was that?!' Kaeru thought to himself. he bounced on a limb of a tree and lauched himself at the Hawk/Crow battle managing to snatch A vial of Sharingan eyes in his hand, but the other vial dropped out of the sky towards the black fires.

Pocketing the Sharingan vial, Kaeru narrowed his eyes at Itachi before diving at the falling vial, hands flowing in seals befor electricity wrapped itself ariound the space to his left and a clone popped into existance to his right. Pushing off of the clone Kaeru dove at the remaining vial as the clone rushed Itachi, leaping around the fires.

Landing Kaeru studied Itachi. What was his new sharingan capable of? It looked incredibly powerfull, Kaeru needed to be even more carefull now. this was definately a unkown unknwon. It could cause his very death if he wasn't carefull

[Itachi Uchiha]

Itachi watched that Kaeru managed to escape the Amaterasu by hiding behind various tree's. That was an impressive tactic, that Itachi will admit. Itachi then watched as Kaeru attempted to take the viles from his Hawks that were betting beaten, but dropped one. Kaeru also summoned a clone and used his clone to launch him at the falling vile. Then he had the clone itself charge in at Itachi.

Itachi summoned a shadow clone and launched it at the incoming clone, having it rigged to explode. Itachi then charged at Kaeru himself and closed his right eye for a second as the blood began to leak from it. Then without any warning a large army of crows were summoned. "Sanzengarasu no Jutsu - Scattering One Thousand Crows Technique" This jutsu allowed Itachi to hide himself within the crows and simply vanished, all except for a Shadow clone he summoned in his place.

With his Sharingan Itachi picked up the real Kaeru, knowing for sure that it was not a clone or anything like that. Itachi summoned three more shadow clones and when they got too close for the ninja to escape they all used Amaterasu, making sure they didn't have each other in their sights. Although Itachi knew he would have to be careful not to overuse it because of the side effects.

[Kaeru Ankoku]

Kaeru stiopped short as the crows surrounded hiom on all sides. He narrowed his eyes andflashed through seals. "Suiton: Mizu no Tatsumaki!!!" the rain collected and coalesced intoa violent tornado of water crashing into the clones and arcing upinto the air to disrupt the birds. Kaeru escaped Itachi's trap by jumping through the spinning vortex to a position in the trees. Itachi hadn't really done much heavy attacking, but he felt a stone settle in his gut. He felt like what he had seen was only the tip of the iceburg.

"Itachi!!! Why bother?! You don't really care and we both know it!!" Kaeru knew Itachi wasn't really fighting him to the fullest he could. he was definately holding back some. Kaeru was determined to find out just how much he was hiding. He let the jutsu disperse and sat back sowrds ready, eager to find a destroy his enemy. He wanted to defeat Itachi this time, the draw left him with a rotton taste in his mouth. He created clones and sent them into the forest with instructions to discharge when Itachi was spotted. This didn't need to turn into a game of cat and mouse. He wanted to end it.

[Itachi Uchiha]

Itachi was starting to get annoyed, he really did not want this battle to drag on. It was already bad enough that he had used amaterasu twice, but at this rate he was going to need to use Tsukiyomi to end it all. Itachi watched as Kaeru summoned clones and tried to use them to confuse Itachi and escape. "Come on now Kaeru-san, you don't really think that'll work do you?"

With his eyes Itachi immeditaly detected which was the real Kaeru and used his almost god like speed to appear near him. Itachi went to grab Kaeru's neck and force him to lock eyes with Itachi. If this worked Itachi would activate his Tsukiyomi and mess with Kaeru's mind. He would allow him to escape for old time's sake, and may even let him have one of the sharingans, but Itachi would have to do a lot to cover for this.

[Kaeru Ankoku]

Truth be told Kaeru was tired. This was his third Uchiha to fight today, and this one was easily at the same level he was. He had the information and the eyes, he just needed to get the hell out of the Land of Fire. He mused over the information. Info on the sealing array surrounding the leaf village, where it's underground bunkers for civilians were, the beuracracy structure, the layout of the village. He had enough info to blackmail the Leaf, or even invade with some success. Top it all off he had the Sharingan on it's way to the village. He'd say it was worth the trouble.

While musing over all of this, the young Ankoku forgot that when facing an opponent like Itachi, one must always keep their mind focsed. His tired mind gave in to his lackadaisical personality and it cost him only a split second he could've spent escaping. Usually a split second wasn't a big deal, but Itachi was a S class monster, like himself and a split second was all a fresh Itachi needed against a tired Kaeru.

Cursing to himself as Itachi grabbed him, he tried to pull his head away from Itachi's grasp but the Uchiha prodigy had him in a vice grip. Kaeru's eyes met Itachi's for a second, his Dojutsu de-activated, and the protection it provided was gone. Kaeru had slipped up, it would be up to Lady luck to decide what would be in store for him.