Not a ninja from Kumogakure.
"Bakayaro, konoyaro! What kind of intel could a rogue ninja possibly have?!"
Young Killer Bee threw up his hands in rhythm, striking a rapper's pose. "Fool, big bro! You're getting tricked for sure!"
"You'll know when the time comes." The young A didn't bother explaining the mission to him further.
Instead, he reminded him, "Just make sure that guy doesn't escape. His corpse can be traded at Konoha for a bounty. Then you'll have money to hold your concert."
"Woo-hoo!" Killer Bee cheered and sprinted ahead. "Fool, big bro, why you so slow? Bakayaro, konoyaro!"
Watching his brother dash off, A could only shake his head and follow.
He was the next Raikage, and every generation of Raikage needed a jinchuriki partner to perform the Double Lariat—a two-person combination technique.
And Killer Bee had been chosen by his father to be that partner.
He was also A's sworn younger brother.
"Seisui, are you sure you didn't misjudge this?"
Minato, using the Transformation Jutsu to disguise himself as a leaf, hung quietly from a nearby tree. A breeze blew past, and he swayed slightly to stay in character.
"You know nothing," Seisui replied from below, his voice calm. "It'll happen within the next two days."
Down on the ground, Seisui and Uchiha Haru were roasting fish. A rimless pair of glasses rested on Seisui's nose—something he'd picked up while gathering supplies. He thought it gave him a refined, scholarly air.
The aroma of the fish wafted upward, testing Minato's patience. "Seisui, stop grilling fish. The smell's too strong."
At that, Seisui looked up and said seriously, "You do know I've awakened the Uzumaki clan's Mind's Eye of the Kagura, right? My sensory range is enormous."
Minato's leafy disguise stopped swaying immediately.
A moment later, he dropped the jutsu, landed on the ground, and stared at Seisui, his face full of exasperation.
"Then why did you let me hang up there pretending to be a leaf?"
"That was hard work!"
"Hm?" Seisui feigned confusion as he lazily turned over a fish. "Oh, I thought you were doing performance art."
"Damn you, Seisui!"
Before Minato could complain further, Seisui's expression suddenly hardened. He pulled a photograph from his pocket, leapt into the trees, and peered into the distance.
Moments later, he landed again, eyes sharp.
"They're here."
Then, glancing at Minato, he smirked. "And you said I was wrong. Watch carefully, and learn."
Minato sighed, black lines crossing his forehead.
Before he could respond, Seisui unsheathed his blade and sprang back up into the trees.
"Seisui, what are you doing?" Minato asked, confused.
"What else? Killing." Seisui gave him a quick look.
"Shouldn't we be ambushing him instead?"
Haru, standing nearby, cast Minato a sidelong glance and quietly took a step back.
"It's just a chunin," she murmured. "Why bother with an ambush?"
Minato blinked. After thinking about it, he realized she had a point.
Seisui gave him a deadpan look. "A single chunin—what makes you think he's worth the three of us lying in wait? If Uchiha Madara heard about this, he'd think we'd gone soft."
Feeling the rogue ninja's chakra draw closer, Seisui gripped his blade, gauged the distance, and smiled.
"Hyakuze!"
In the next instant, his figure vanished.
"Almost there…"
Zekawa took a deep breath. Once he crossed into the Land of Lightning, he'd be safe.
But just as relief began to wash over him, a glint of cold steel flashed in the corner of his eye. He tried to dodge—but couldn't.
"Damn it! What is this?!"
He gasped, horrified to find an ambush waiting for him at the very end of his escape.
He twisted aside as best he could, but the blade still sliced clean through his arm.
"...Huh?"
A figure emerged before him—Seisui. He looked genuinely surprised. "You didn't die from that?"
"Ever think about how much easier it'd be if you'd just died right away?" Seisui said lightly, glancing at the blood on his blade. "You're Zekawa, right? We've been waiting for you a long time."
"Damn it!" Zekawa's face went pale. He stared at his bleeding stump. "You've been here all along?!"
"Of course," Seisui smiled. "I don't enjoy playing hide and seek."
His Sharingan spun to life—three tomoe gleaming with a cold red light.
Minato and Haru appeared, surrounding Zekawa in a tight triangle.
Seeing the three-tomoe eyes of both Uchiha, Zekawa let out a hollow laugh. "Two Uchiha jonin… I'm finished."
"You are," Seisui replied, his eyes flashing. "Farewell Slash!"
The words had barely left his lips when Zekawa felt a crushing blow to the head, like being struck by an iron hammer. His vision blurred.
Seisui flickered behind him in an instant, his blade cutting deep across Zekawa's neck.
Blood sprayed. Silence followed.
"Before these eyes, you never stood a chance."
Seisui exhaled and turned toward a nearby bush. "You can come out now. I knew you were there."
Minato and Haru both looked in that direction.
A moment later, two figures emerged—young A and Killer Bee. Seeing the corpse at Seisui's feet and the Sharingan's glow in his eyes, A's expression grew grim.
"It's been a while," he said slowly. "You've both gotten stronger."
Caution flickered in his gaze—but also fighting spirit. His fists clenched, joints cracking like breaking bones.
"I've been waiting for this day—to face you again!"
"Honestly, I wish we didn't have to meet again," Seisui said helplessly.
"Don't make it sound so depressing," A grinned. "You weren't my match before—and you're still not now!"
"Bakayaro, konoyaro!"
"The mighty us, the doomed you! Ow~!" Killer Bee sang, bouncing in rhythm beside him.
"…Is this your son?" Seisui asked dryly. "You don't look alike. I've got a green jumpsuit somewhere—remind me to give it to him next time."
A didn't understand what he meant, but he could tell Seisui was insulting him.
"Then let's see," he said, face hardening, "if I really am weaker than you!"
He turned his head slightly. "Bee, stay back."
This fight was not one the young jinchuriki could join. Their time together now was only for building teamwork—so they could one day master the Double Lariat.
Killer Bee didn't argue. He obediently stepped back. He knew that anyone his brother took this seriously against was far beyond his current level.
"This time," Seisui said with a faint smile, "you might really die."
"Die?" A smiled back. "Even if I do, my father will avenge me!"
Seisui fell silent for a moment. As expected from the Village of Brutes… even their threats are refreshingly simple.
He wasn't actually planning to kill A.
The balance of the ninja world had to remain intact—at least until Sasuke awakened his Eternal Mangekyo.
Killing A now would only spark the Third Great Ninja War years too early, which did him no good.
"Fine, have it your way."
Seisui took off his glasses and nodded to Haru.
She met his gaze and nodded back. Her three tomoe spun rapidly, merging into the pattern of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
"Before these eyes," she said coolly, "you have no chance."
It was the first time she'd stood in front of Seisui to protect him.
The enemy wasn't a real threat—but still, she would catch up to him one day.
Seeing her step forward, A's face twisted with irritation. "You're mocking me? Letting a woman fight in your place, bastard?!"
"Don't get so worked up," Seisui said casually, producing a scroll and sealing Zekawa's corpse inside—it was their proof of mission completion.
"You might not know about the Mangekyo Sharingan, but let me tell you—those who do, call its users monsters."
Minato, watching from the side, could only twitch his mouth. You're praising yourself again, aren't you?
After all, Seisui had one too. Not that anyone else knew—it was a secret between them.
A froze for a moment. Mangekyo Sharingan? He had never heard of it.
Still, he wisely avoided looking into Haru's eyes. He might not know what it was, but every ninja knew—never meet a Sharingan user's gaze.
If Haru knew what he was thinking, she'd probably sigh.
As an Uchiha, she was sorry to admit—genjutsu wasn't her strong suit.
Her strengths were Fire Style, swordsmanship, and body flicker.
Though she'd since given up the sword to focus entirely on the latter two—especially the Uchiha's mighty fan technique.
Raising her great fan, Haru smirked.
"Whatever your Sharingan or Mangekyo are," A shouted, lightning crackling across his body, "they're nothing compared to this fist!"
"Lightning Style Chakra Mode—Activate!"
"Lightning Style: Lariat!"
Lightning flared as A vanished from sight, moving faster than sound.
"Too slow."
Through the Mangekyo's vision, Haru could see his every motion clearly—though her body couldn't fully keep up, his attack appeared in slow motion before her eyes. All she had to do was adjust slightly and block with her fan.
A grinned confidently. "You can see—but you can't move fast enough! I've killed plenty just like you!"
He drove forward with all his might—only to feel his fist hit something soft and yielding, like cotton.
Haru hadn't budged an inch.
"Wh–what?!"
"Impossible!"
Haru's lips curved upward. "Nothing's impossible."
Before A could react, she swung her great fan, chakra igniting along its edge.
"Fire Style—Fanned Flame Great Fire!"
A massive whirlwind of flame roared forth, engulfing A and hurling him far into the distance.
Haru watched him vanish, smiling faintly.
"Your strength isn't bad," she murmured.
After all, the fiercer the strike, the stronger the flame that answers it.