"Father, we found him..." Third said mentally, interrupting Kenshin and Keiko's talk.
Hearing his son's words, Kenshin shuddered and barely mustered strength to hide his emotions.
"You should rest a bit. I'll be back soon." He said, ignoring her further and soaring into the sky toward the ill-fated canyon.
Arriving, he instantly saw several sons staring with immense sorrow at Eighth's mutilated body. Tears streamed nonstop from their eyes, and few could endure the sight.
Kenshin landed quietly and approached slowly on buckling legs, then fell to his knees, bending over his dead son's body. For minutes, he stared blankly at his unmarred face, finally finding strength to say goodbye.
He deliberately kept other sons from their brother's body, wanting Eighth to remain in their memory as a cheerful, lively man, not a heap of mangled flesh crawling with insects.
"Little Eighth..." Kenshin said with a sigh, long unable to find words. He recoiled from nonsense like "better world" or "paradise," knowing life far better than death and whatever follows.
"You're avenged, and all your brothers live..." He said, knowing this alone mattered to Eighth.
"Any of you will be avenged, whatever the cost!" Kenshin literally roared, his thunderous bellow carrying kilometers to every son's ears.
Glancing once more at Eighth's serene face, Kenshin sighed heavily and placed a small metal plaque with intricately carved patterns on him.
Flames engulfed Eighth's body in an instant, and in a minute, only a handful of ash hung in the air. Kenshin carefully gathered all that remained of his son, placed it in a small urn, and left without looking back.
Ichiro and Fifteenth infiltrated Kusagakure without issue and, thanks to Kenshin's formations, remained relatively unnoticed. The village's top sensor shinobi still sensed them but paid little heed to two wandering Chunin, as at least four strong Jonin could easily catch and eliminate any overzealous Chunin.
The brothers posed as simple travelers and entered an elite restaurant to eat and drink. Observation continued sluggishly, but during planning, Kenshin insisted on thorough disguise to minimize risks.
Half an hour later, well-fed and having downed a huge amount of alcohol by ordinary standards, Ichiro and Fifteenth visited the best military pavilion. Restocking explosive seals and fuinjutsu with sealed dry rations, the brothers leisurely headed deeper into the village.
The sensor shinobi tracking the utterly uninteresting pair grew lax and decided to rest, checking their position only every few minutes. Though the entire village was girded by an incredible complex of interconnected fuin, constant interaction with it was exhausting, and sensors often slacked.
Ichiro and Fifteenth knew they were watched, so no lengthy prep was possible. Due to the abundance of fuinjutsu, Kenshin's formations couldn't scan the whole building complex for a detailed plan, so the brothers vaulted the fence lightning-fast, triggering the alarm, and burst through a third-floor window.
Clinic staff didn't even grasp what happened, as the brothers rushed deeper per instructions. The far end of the third-floor corridor, where Keiko and Karin lived, differed markedly from the rest. This wing was far more fortified, guarded by two Chunin.
The two burly men, hearing noise, instantly went combat-ready, but it was futile. Fifteenth, misjudging his newfound strength, obliterated one's head with a precise kick. Ichiro was far more precise, piercing the second guard's heart with a katana thrust.
Opening the simple wooden door, the brothers found an empty room, but peering under the bed, Ichiro spotted the fear-trembling red-haired girl. Seeing they'd found her, Karin screamed loudly and tried to crawl deeper.
"Shh, don't cry, your mom sent us." Ichiro said, producing a small pendant belonging to Keiko.
Seeing the familiar item, the still-sniffling Karin suddenly stopped crying and let them pull her from under the bed. She still feared these people madly, but longing for her mother was stronger.
Scooping up the girl, Ichiro activated the persistent barrier and bolted from the building at insane speed, aiming to leave the village before the Jonin could react.
Meanwhile, Zosui, sensing the alarm, raced to the hospital complex in huge fury. Two hundred meters from his private clinic, he saw outrageous impudence. Someone was brazenly stealing his most valuable asset: a man leaping from a window with the red-haired girl, intent on escape.
Mad with rage, Zosui pursued but suddenly sensed massive danger and dodged aside.
"Water Release: Water Bullet Technique!" Fifteenth exclaimed from the rooftop, trying to delay pursuers and let his brother escape safely.
Zosui could only dodge hastily without counterattacking, as the entire hospital complex was no less valuable than Karin herself, and its destruction was unthinkable.
Fifteenth attacked Zosui with more Water Release techniques, then decided to flee. Kusagakure's four Jonin reacted too late and disorganized, so Fifteenth, with Zosui in pursuit, easily left village bounds and kept running at top speed.
Zosui was boiling with rage, realizing he couldn't catch up to that rogue, and intended to tear him into a thousand pieces when he made a fatal mistake. After twenty minutes of futile pursuit, he began to doubt its expediency. A bad foreboding stirred in his chest that if the shinobi who fled with Karin decided to reunite with his comrade, his chances of victory would become illusory.
That was why, fifteen minutes later of running, his inner caution ordered him to turn around and head back. He was incredibly angry, but even all-consuming fury couldn't drown out his keen self-preservation instincts. Filled with hatred, the shinobi planned to take brutal revenge as soon as he found out who was behind it.