Comeback Kid (Naruto & Celestial Grimoire | OC-SI)

Sitting down to actually practice fuinjutsu felt like a great way to clear his mind and settle it after the madness of everything being thrown at him at once. It was something that Tobio would say that he was good but not inhumanly talented. There were probably others at this moment who were better at it than he was just in their generation.

Naturally, he couldn’t stand that. So that meant he was going to be furthering his knowledge of seals and trying to ensure that whatever sealing he knew was pushed to the breaking point. If he’d been stuck doing this by himself, Tobio had no doubt that he could make all sorts of progress. It wasn’t arrogance to say that he was quite literally a once-in-a-generation genius and polymath while also having foreign means of intuition that most normal humans could not match.

However, he wasn’t doing this by himself. He had a mind even greater than his own, who could innovate and do things that he’d never even dreamed of, working alongside him in his new home.

Leaning over a table, Tsukihime stood next to him as they peered at the new design they’d manufactured, terrifying as it was. Mostly through her own maniac insistence on putting her through her paces. The Zanpakutō had a body now, but also the brain of a supercomputer, and the willingness to throw it at the most trite topics possible.

“So if we modify the Bear’s Nail here, here, and here, we can make it so anytime you hit someone, you can suppress them with the weight,” she explained, pointing to the modifications that she’d tested out in simulations. “Now, naturally, I’ll be handling the upkeep, so all you have to do is actually supply the chakra. Or dump it all in me beforehand.”

He paused, turning to face her. “Did you have to make it sound so sordid?”

Tsukihime looked at him innocently, even if he could see the glint of amusement in her eyes. “I’m an innocent, nubile blade. You’re the one with your mind in the gutter, master.”

“I should have taken Devil Sword Jumper,” he griped, staring over at her with squinting eyes. “Maybe then you wouldn’t be so troublesome.”

“But then I couldn’t tease you like this,” she pointed out, smirking all the while.

Whatever witty rejoinder he was about to snap back, though, died on his tongue. Something tickled the edges of his distant sensory range, a massive signature that was enough to make the boy pause as he tried to figure out what it was. Tsunade had been notable, at least with the size of her stupidly beefy reserves, and most jinchukiri stood out to him as well for the same reasons.

But whatever he was sensing now was making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. The closest thing he could relate the sensation to was having a predator, a real one, enter your space. Let alone the smaller, yet no less singular energy signature that shared some similarities with… Sasuke, of all people?

It’d been so long that Tobio had almost been willing to drop his hypersensitivity regarding the security of the village. After all, it wasn’t as if he had really picked up anything of particular note as the weeks had passed them by. He rarely paid it any real close attention, if only to save his own sanity from the thankless task.

Which was why the arrival of another immediately began to set off red flags in his mind. Or the fact that despite that he didn’t have any confirmation of the truth, the boy had some suspicions as to what was about to happen. Or at least some strong guesses as to who had just entered his range.

After so long, Kisame and Itachi were entering the village. Right when the security was a little more lax, when people thought they were safe, and the world was beginning to calm down. It was enough to make the boy break out sweating.

Sasuke Uchiha had made much forward progress in suppressing the worst aspects of his nature. Sure, the Curse Seal wasn’t really making things better across the board. That didn’t mean he wasn’t friendlier, open with his teammates, and at the very least driven in a way that wouldn’t see him throwing himself headfirst into the most toxic solutions to his problems.

Would that still remain the same if Itachi threw him into the eyeball torture dimension for another round?

It didn’t matter that Itachi loved his brother secretly or that he was doing all of this cloak-and-dagger bullshit for his sake. He sure chose a funny way of going about things, in Tobio’s humble opinion. And if he continued down this route, he wouldn’t just give Sasuke the impetus to kill him. That was already there from the moment he murdered their parents in front of the boy.

He’d turn his own brother into something far more monstrous. Or at least begin to set him down that road. Not for the first time, Tobio wished Uchiha weren't such melodramatic chuunibyou bastards and instead had more reasonable methods of growing in power.

The real question was what the fuck he was meant to do with this information, as it interrupted his fuinjutsu training.

Realistically speaking, the thing that he knew his system might reward him for was throwing himself into the situation with reckless abandon. The notion of pitting himself against two of the strongest people in the entire setting was enticing, enough so that his Oni blood was singing with the potential thrill of the fight. Tobio was also intelligent enough to realize what a stupid goddamn idea that was, across the board.

That didn't mean he still didn't wish to do it. It just meant that the boy had to be smart about it. Going it alone was foolish when he, as a Tokubetsu Jōnin, was expected to be smarter than that.

"I can feel your brain running hot," Tsukihime commented. "Are you actually thinking? Oh my god, you are!"

She almost seemed to be in total shock that he wasn't throwing himself into the fight. What that said about him, Tobio chose not to look too closely at in that moment. Instead, he gestured toward her and snapped his fingers. "Back in your sword form, please."

"C’mon! I can't fight in this form?" Tsukihime whined, stomping her foot against the ground impetuously.

"Maybe when I explain to everyone that my sword is also a spirit and a girl," he hastily added, looking nervous at the batshit insane conversation that it would require. "But you know how skittish shinobi get about people they don't know just walking around the village. Especially if they're strong."

Tsukihime certainly qualified, given that she had the superlative chakra control that came from being a Device, along with possessing basically all of his jutsu knowledge. Let alone the ability to iterate on it to new heights, terrifying ones, if she had even a moment to mess around with her gigantic brain. Add in the fact that he was fairly sure she knew one of the names of YISUN…

Yeah, it was easier to just avoid the awkwardness and possible friction. At least until the current crisis had been brought to a close. The last thing he wanted was for her to get angry at someone trying to order them around and render them to their constituent atoms by giving them a divine revelation.

"Fine," she huffed, crossing her arms, unwilling not to acknowledge his logic. "But I expect snacks as recompense."

"You're a glutton."

"It's your fault for making culinary masterpieces. Is it a crime to crave a succulent meal?"

Whatever Tobio was about to say was cut off as she shifted back into a blade between blinks, making him shake his head at her words. He reached out and took a firm hold of her hilt, hefting her bulk onto his back. It was time to get moving, and they had maybe minutes of forewarning before things became untenable. Naturally, he was going to head to the adult he knew the location of for sure and trusted the most.

Tekuno-sensei was easy to see with his Brotherhood connection and the vast range of his sensory connections, to know that the man was sitting in his apartment. Doing nothing, presumably, besides watching television and being a bump on a log. Part of Tobio did feel bad about presumably disrupting his rest.

Needs must when the devil drives, though. And he felt as if Itachi and Kisame likely qualified as two men who would be able to fight no small amount of the strongest people in the village to a standstill. Or at the very least make an escape with effort.

So instead of going through the front door, which would likely take some time, Tobio instead chose to enter through the open window. Not as unwisely as some might have, though, as he briefly reinforced his body with chakra to twist and dodge past all of the various traps that attempted to ensnare him.

Maybe they would have gotten him if he was a fresh genin or someone weaker, but these days Tobio had so many means of sensing danger, it was basically child's play. That didn't stop his sensei from reacting violently, leaping up from his recliner and pulling what was a frankly impressive amount of weapons from hidden locations all over the home. It was a respectable amount of alarm for someone whose home was being invaded, if ultimately misguided.

The man was prepared for violence at the drop of a hat until he realized that it was his foolish student. Albeit rather than looking mirthful or eager, the boy had a worried expression on his face. "Tobio? Gods, you scared the shit out of me!"

"Sorry, sensei," Tobio apologized, looking genuinely regretful. "But it's an emergency! A bad one!"

"What type of emergency?" There were obviously all manner of horrific, terrible crises that were flitting through his sensei's head at that moment, judging by the concern on his face. However, whatever he was about to say was interrupted by Tobio's words.

"There's a half-blind terrorist and his pet fish about to abuse a traumatized child!"

The man could only stare at the boy as his brain struggled to parse those words. "… I'm gonna need a little more explanation, Tobio."

“You know how I’m a sensor, right?”

“I’m aware.”

“I may have, possibly, for totally normal reasons, understated what the range of it was. And I, uh, might have picked up what was probably one of the biggest chakra signatures I’ve ever met, coming alongside one that feels very, very similar to Sasuke.”

That got a blink and a look of mounting concern from Tekuno. “You can discern people’s signatures with that much skill?”

“I didn’t know it’s supposed to be hard.” The story of his new life in a lot of respects.

Dragging his hand down his face, he could tell that the older man was just about done with the mounting bullshit that Tobio tended to pull out of his ass. At least he wasn’t saying it to his face, though reading his emotions did make it fairly easy to tell. “For most sensors it is, my troublesome student…”

“Even if this is a false alarm, we’ve got to move quickly,” Tekuno grunted out, as he already began to gather as many of his things as possible. “How long do we have?”

“Minutes, at most.”

“Then we’d better get moving. If not to raise the alarm, then to find someone who might be able to help.” It was one of the wonderful things about his teacher, Tobio thought. By this point, the man tended to trust Tobio’s intuition almost implicitly.

Considering the things the boy could do or knew about, though, it probably shouldn’t have been all that surprising. No matter how you looked at it, he had a tendency for pulling new capacities, powers, or ways of reading the world out of his ass. Complaining about them when they were objectively useful warnings was silly. Even if it didn’t stop being frustrating in other ways.

From there… things moved relatively quickly.

The problem with an emergency was that you weren't always prepared for every possible contingency. Tobio assumed that there were some pretty extensive, out-there plans that the actual bigwigs in the command structure had for all sorts of hyper-specific scenarios. From what he could remember of his old life, the U.S. military had all sorts of weird wargame scenarios like that they had made plans for.

However, there was a gulf between actually establishing those plans and putting them into practice. Watching Tekuno-sensei do his best to actually grab as many people as possible and raise the alarm was interesting on that point alone. It was an effort that was met with mixed success.

Despite the fact that the Konoha Crush wasn't that long ago, things weren't on the same level of high alert as they had been. Jōnin had the sway to do things that Tobio himself didn't, like find the nearest Genin or Chunin and immediately task them to set the alert up, put people on notice, and go interrupt the rest of the other Jōnin.

Like, say, two people that Tobio roughly could track down by the chakra signatures that he'd familiarized himself with. If there was a problem, it was the fact that they had so little time to actually situate themselves and prepare.

It was why they'd only managed to link up with the two people Tobio thought could provide a solid fight against these guys. Hopefully, Tsunade or Jiraiya would be on their way too, or people could find them quickly enough to at least fend off the people he knew were coming. For now, he had to be settled with Might Guy and Kakashi.

"And you're sure Itachi and Kisame are coming?" Kakashi spoke, the faintest hint of doubt in his voice.

Tobio didn't even have to defend himself from the line of questioning. Tekuno-sensei was the one who did it for him.

"My pupil's a lot of things, but a liar or overstating a threat isn't one of them," Tekuno said, speaking with the kind of unabashed confidence that made Tobio's chest swell with pride.

"One of their chakra signatures is on a direct collision course to Sasuke's," I admitted.

"Which is reason enough to suspect Itachi Uchiha alone, though when put alongside who he's known to associate with from our intelligence…" Tekuno continued, trailing off with a grimace. "It's a guess, but even if it's wrong, I'll take responsibility for it."

"A youthful lad like him wouldn't lead us astray, Kakashi," Guy gently admonished, shooting Tobio a beaming smile. "Besides, if it is true, then I suspect the reasons that Itachi and his companion could be in town would be few and far between."

"Fair," Kakashi conceded. "Let's hope fortune favors us in this respect."

Unfortunately, they weren't so lucky as to be called for a false alarm. Not when they eventually found two men walking from a noodle stall, as casual as could be, yet somehow failing to draw much attention toward them from the civilians around them. For all intents and purposes, they seemed like regular travelers, albeit with patterned coats that might draw the eye in passing.

It was clear that the two members of the Akatsuki had not been expecting to be on anyone's radar that quickly. This was the first real glimpse that Tobio had received of some of the greatest threats he might end up facing since arriving in this new world of his. While the stated goal of the group was theoretically admirable, achieving it through the most genocidal or apocalyptic means proved reproachable in every sense.

For the good of the Elemental Nations, they all had to go.

Itachi looked a lot like his younger brother, though there were also differences too. His face was a lot more severe, his features sharper, maybe taking less after their mother than Sasuke had. He was tall for a man in this new world of theirs, even if the other guy next to him made that harder to notice. And his emotions…

They sent shivers down Tobio’s spine. He’d had the pleasure of seeing things that ran the gamut, from wild, incoherent rage, lust, love, affection, and even greed, but the cool, placid lake that he saw felt almost inhuman. A level of emotional regulation that almost went beyond what should have been capable for a normal person.

Perhaps this was just the power of prodigies. You’d need the capacity to keep that kind of even temper to go on a murderous spree against your own family.

Despite the fact that Itachi was an unhinged, possibly delusional bro-con who had a very odd way of showing his love, Tobio would grant the man one thing. His fit was immaculate. Before, he'd always questioned why so many people were obsessed with the presentation of the Akatsuki or their clothing, but honestly, it wasn't even that hard to understand why these days.

The coat was pretty cool, Tobio would be forced to admit. It made him wonder if he could get something like it made for him if he asked Ami. Some kind of haori…? Yeah, that'd be cool.

"YOU FOOL!" Tsukihime yelled at him inside of his own head. "FOCUS!"

Right. The dangerous mercenaries who'd try to usher in the end of the world by accident. They were more important than his vague fantasies of looking cool.

What happened next was a first for Tobio, though. Locking eyes with Kisame, the first and most prevalent thought that went through his brain was the instinctive knowledge that he stood in the presence of a fellow predator. Of the fact that, on some level, the man that was before him was just as inhuman as Tobio was, if in different ways.

Kisame Hoshigaki was a kindred spirit.

No, that wasn't quite right. He was a superior to Tobio in many ways, frustrating ones, as he could feel implicitly the man's strength. The reserves of chakra that made the boy's skin prickle, with the closest thing he'd experienced up to being near Gaara. Or, well, close to Naruto when he was using Kurama's chakra.

Just an enormous ocean of reserves that didn't belong on anything mortal. Was he being unfair, with his capacity to basically use Atum for whatever he wanted through the Key of Kings? Yes, but standing before the two members of the Akatsuki, Tobio's desire for a fair fight went out the window.

Kisame was huge, easily one of the tallest men that he’d ever seen, not just in terms of height but the presence he brought. With his hued skin and shark-like features, it was all he could do to keep from vibrating on the spot and throwing himself at the guy. That part of his blood that wanted to fight screamed for him to test himself, his limits, against someone who could push him even further…

"Oh?" Itachi spoke. "It appears that we were found even earlier than expected."

"Wasn't this supposed to be your old digs?" Kisame commented, sounding more disgruntled than actually afraid of the force that was arrayed before them. "Ugh. I thought you were supposed to be able to maneuver through their patrols."

"I appear to have been mistaken."

"It is you, Itachi…" Kakashi spoke, his voice casual, but to Tobio the tension and caution in his body was easy to read. Nor the emotions swirling in complicated patterns around him. Fear, anger, and concern—a mélange that was reasonable, considering the man in front of him.

"It's been some time, Kakashi."

"That it has," the gray-haired man admitted. "I don't suppose you're interested in surrendering?"

Kisame laughed, throwing back his head at the notion. "Itachi, you didn't tell me these squirrels of yours were so funny! Surrender, he says. Oh man, that's good."

"Unfortunately not," Itachi spoke, his voice dispassionate and still, as if everything that was happening was washing over him. "We're here for Naruto Uzumaki. Where is he?"

"He's hidden," Kakashi quickly stated, the mention of Naruto immediately raising his hackles. "You'll never find him."

"… Then I suppose we'll just have to beat it out of you," Kisame shrugged. "Maybe ripping off a limb or two might be enough to get you talking."

"You can try," Guy spoke, already beginning to slide into a stance.

Tekuno-sensei was definitely out of sorts and maybe a little out of place next to those two legends. But in Tobio's eyes, as he drew no small amount of weapons from his scroll in a smooth puff of smoke, his sensei might as well have been a badass no different from the other men.

"Think the Hokage will sign off on overtime for an emergency mission in the village?"

"Probably not," Kakashi admitted.

"Yeah," Tekuno-sensei sighed. "I was hoping for too much."

And there was Tobio, right alongside them, as a fight was about to break out. He had, perhaps, seconds to spare. And what he intended to do…

The right thing to do…

Tobio didn't know for once. This was the sort of fight that the old him would have argued that he didn't have a place in, that these were people that were fundamentally monstrous existences above him. Yet at the same time, wasn't he strong now?

He'd achieved Balance Breaker and Shikai, developed all manner of martial arts moves through the assistance of Revival of X, and even had a Key of Kings attached to his head. If Tobio didn't deserve to stand amongst the mighty and the powerful, at the rank he was at, what was the point of all of this?

If there was an obstacle, he'd cut it down. If there was a foe that deemed themselves his equal, he'd cut them down. If there was a fate that he found intolerable, he'd cut it down. Compared to the true monsters of this world… Itachi and Kisame weren't that frightening.

You ready?

"Always," Tsukihime spoke, and he could practically hear the grin in her voice. "Let's show them what we can do."

But of course.

Tobio breathed out and put his hand on his sword. As everyone else prepared for battle, a crown of fire erupted around his skull as a grin spread across his features.

"Let your shroud cloak the slaughter," Tobio intoned, as a certain pressure formed around him, getting the looks of just about everyone. "Tsukihime."

And from that moment on, a cloud erupted forth from his blade in an explosion, filling the air and the streets, as coughing civilians were even caught in it. A purple haze of sweet-smelling mist that flowed around them, not so thick as to make it hard to see, but definitely visible all the same. All of his allies whipped toward him in alarm, but Tobio couldn't help but to keep grinning.

"Tobio? What is this pressure…?" Tekuno-sensei barked out before he stopped and looked down at himself. At the way his own muscles were growing before his eyes, his stature, and the sense of power filling his limbs.

"This is what happens when you push your sword even further beyond!" He laughed, breathing in the booze, feeling the transformation push his own state to new heights. "TO TRULY REACH THE SOUL OF YOUR SWORD!"

Much like Tekuno, Kakashi and Might were beginning to grow stronger in new and foreign ways, the beginnings of horns already starting on their temples. It was fascinating to watch under his sensory sight, as bones grew, muscles swelled, and teeth shaped themselves briefly into fangs and nails into claws. Even their chakra reserves were adapting, growing even more potent and engorged, as the night parade began in earnest.

It hadn’t been often, but at times Tobio had wished that he could have shared what it meant to be an Oni with his friends and allies. To bring a little piece of Mt. Ōe to Konoha and to revel in the glory of combat with people that understood what it was like to have their blood sing like his did.

Yet the opposite was true of Kisame and Itachi when they were exposed to the mist. At the core of his self and his blade was the notion of raising others up. However, hindering his foes was also important. He could see when the mist was exposed to them, the way their noses wrinkled, as if repulsed by whatever they were smelling. Not quite drunk, but at least affected in some way.

As to the depths of it, well, Tobio didn’t know. But he was sure that they were about to find out.

Both of them stared at him warily as Tobio bared his fangs at them. "What is this, Itachi?"

"I don't know," the dark-haired traitor admitted, his gaze centering on Tobio. "But I feel inclined to remove it from the situation."

It. That was how he referred to Tobio, like he was some kind of bug. The term made him even angrier as he stared over at the teenager, looking him directly in the eyes. "You can try."

"No, I will,” he spoke, dispassionately, as his eyes turned blood red, and the pupils spun. “Tsukuyomi."

The problem with Uchiha was that you couldn't usually fight them head-on if they had their Sharingan unlocked and were genuinely good at using it. Just doing so was a good way to open yourself up for being attacked or otherwise exposed to all kinds of genjutsu. As those blood-red eyes looked into his own, black tomoe spinning, a normal person would have been totally screwed.

One moment he was in the middle of a busy street, and the next he was somewhere else. Some sort of courtyard, it seemed, trapped underneath a crimson sky, as a group of Itachi surrounded him. Armed with all sorts of weapons of torture. He was tied to a cross, practically crucified, as his heart pounded in his chest and an unfamiliar sense of weakness had faced him.

He flexed against the bindings, feeling himself strain on something that wouldn’t break underneath his strength for the first time in… at least since he’d first arrived here. It was terrifying, some part of him would acknowledge. Being exposed and at the mercy of someone else.

“What is this, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors?”

A familiar voice broke him out of the rising, mounting panic as Tsukihime practically shoved her way from seemingly nowhere, out of the crowd of Itachi. “Do I have to do everything around here? REMEMBER, FOOL!”

He did.

None of this was real. Red King Syndrome, the perk that he’d taken just to no-sell situations like this, asserted itself in his mind. This was a false reality, a false world, and this potemkin dream was one that would be subjected to his own qualia.

With a feral, toothy grin, Tobio flexed against his bindings again, shattering the ropes and breaking the cross in that instant. And then Tsukuyomi shattered right after it, as the dream ripped away, fading into nothingness, replaced with reality once again. Barely a second had passed since Tobio had fallen into it. Yet the complete and utter shock and surprise on Itachi's face as the other Jonin rushed toward him and Kisame was exquisite.

“THAT WAS WEAK!” He yelled, eyes fiery, as they glowed with a molten heat, his Mystic Eyes shamelessly activating as he took in the remnants of information that could be gleaned from the illusion. Something to be incorporated into his own arts later. “Was that all you had?” Tobio asked, a hint of mocking in his tone.

It was fun to talk mad shit when you could basically tell one of the most terrifying powers in fiction to get fucked. All he had to do was ensure that he could keep up with some of the most dangerous people on the planet, and not job like an idiot after he talked big game.

Easy.

"Did that kid just break through your Tsukuyomi, or am I seeing things?" Kisame asked as he whipped forth his blade, fending off the advancing probing strikes of Might Guy as he tried to swing at him.

Only for the taijutsu expert to find himself being pressed, as Itachi blurred before him, delivering a series of intricate, careful blows to try and direct the heavy-hitter away. For a prodigy, it was clear that the teen had a masterful control of his own body, if a bit slowed from his hidden illness, and the effects of Tobio’s Shikai.

It was to the point where someone could generously call him being pressed when Kakashi entered the fray. “Maa, don’t you think you’re forgetting about someone, Itachi?”

Whatever the teen was thinking, he didn’t say a word, rather giving the silver-haired man a thrown shuriken for his trouble and then allowing his hands to blur into a series of seals. Fire was spit out from his mouth, easing off the pressure from Guy as he was forced to dodge. Of course, Tobio’s full attention couldn’t stay on their part of this brawl in the middle of Konoha for long.

Not when Kisame was fighting his teacher.

All of this time, he had more or less considered his teacher good with the sword. Tobio was probably nearing, if not on, the same level as, or past, it with all of his buffs. But seeing the man actually pull out all of the stops as he moved from one sword swing to another, weaving and chaining strikes together…

It was beautiful swordplay, the kind that spoke from someone who considered weapons to be their bread and butter. Especially as he tried to form chakra flow on his sword and swung it to attempt to swipe at Kisame. Against most foes, it probably would have even worked. Against the monstrous, bandaged weapon that was being hefted around with an almost contemptuous ease, that wasn’t quite the case.

When Kisame sent a terrifyingly potent stroke toward Tekuno, all the older man could do was try to block, aborting his thrust. Whatever focus he had on his chakra flow broke, and it didn’t even manage to actually do much more than cut through some of the bandages on samehada, revealing the scales of the terrifying weapon as he was knocked back through the air.

Coming to a skidding stop, Tekuno breathed a little harder, sweat beading on his brow. While he didn’t seem too hurt, his arms were definitely shaking. Hell, Tobio was pretty sure only the Oni-buff was what allowed him to do that in the first place.

His sensei needed help, and frankly, the boy with the stupidly large sword was more than happy to throw himself in the middle of the fray.

"Who even are you? Aren't you a bit lacking to be involved in this fight?" Kisame commented, a mocking sneer on his face.

Whatever satisfaction the sadist might have felt as he advanced on Tekuno again didn’t last for long. There wasn’t much to warn him to twist as he felt a surge of chakra, instinct ruling the day as he spun around and lifted up his blade to block, while a smaller form rocketed toward him with a clap of sound. Tobio's massive Zanpakutō came falling down in Kisame's direction, with the two blades meeting.

Truth be told, Tobio didn’t know what was going to happen when the two weapons met. Samehada absorbed chakra, and Zanpakutō interfaced with the user’s soul, so theoretically it should have chakra to absorb… but it was also a weapon so much more than that. He was briefly afraid that it might even hurt Tsukihime in the process of striking them together.

A fruitless worry, though, as the two weapons met, and Tobio’s not inconsiderable force sent Kisame skidding back against the ground. His eyes widened, merely from the raw power that Tobio had in his limbs, as the kid readied himself in another stance, eyes blazing.

"HE'S MY TEACHER!" Tobio shouted, breathing hard. Not out of exhaustion, but to get more of the booze into his body. Already, he could feel his own form tensing against the clothing he wore, threatening to cause it to tear from the expected growth of muscles and bone. "And the guy who's gonna help me kick your ass!"

Embers of the Heroic Age were spinning up, not quite burning as hot as it had during the invasion. But here and now, everything was working a little more smoothly than it usually would.

"Spirited, huh?" Kisame grinned. "You'll need it, kid. Try not to die too quickly, eh?"

Then, the man moved, his sword swinging down in a massive overhead blow. One that Tobio’s instincts screamed for him to get out of the way of. Explosion-stepping to the side, the earth shattered where he’d briefly been seconds before, a small crater and dust erupting from the source of the strike.

Tekuno came in from the side with his blade in both hands, only for Kisame to perform one-handed hand seals as quick as lightning. Shooting off a burst of water from his mouth, the piddling jutsu might not have been strong, yet it did force Tekuno to dodge and screw up the angle of his attack. Right as Tobio tried to press the advantage, his own reserves of chakra steadily dwindled.

From there, it was…

Tobio had perhaps believed that he had seen what the peaks of this world held. Thought that his Shadowflame, provided he could see his foe, would allow for some kind of dangerous reputation to be formed. But here and now, he got a glimpse at what it meant to be a true S-rank combatant.

Might Guy was off to assist Kakashi with Itachi, which meant that he and his sensei were the only ones who could fight Kisame. Though calling it a fight was… generous, to say the least. Because the man, despite wielding a sword that big, made it look effortless as he swung it around.

Worse, he wasn't someone who relied on nothing but brute strength. There was a genuine skill there, one that kept them on the defensive. Not quite as aggressive as he might have been, coughing every so often. Yet the challenge seemed to be making it fun for him.

"What's this kinjutsu, runt? Making my lungs burn like that!" Kisame exclaimed as he slammed his sword against Tobio's own and sent the boy flying back.

He recovered in the air, though, explosions under his feet righting himself as he propelled right back at the man. "Finding it hard to breathe?"

"More like it tickles," he sneered, as Tekuno came in from the side, eagerly trying to deliver a cut of his own. With an almost contemptuous ease, Kisame jumped up and slammed his foot against Tekuno's arm. Tobio would have sworn it'd be strong enough to break something in his sensei if they were fighting under normal circumstances.

From the moment that his mist had begun spilling forth from his blade, nothing about this fight was normal.

With a face full of fangs, Tekuno only barked out a laugh of his own, eyes reddened as he surged forward. "Is that the hardest you can hit, Hoshigaki?!"

In a flurry of motion, the sword was practically whistling through the air at speeds Tobio wasn't sure the man had ever normally accomplished. It was enough to perhaps pressure Kisame, if only a little, into putting in a certain degree of effort. Compared to the treatment that Itachi was receiving, their own efforts might as well have been compared to just light exercise.

Kakashi and Guy were blurs, yet so was Itachi, as they blitzed from spot to spot, smears of color as they fought their best. To think that this was Itachi weakened and not even in his prime, either! Only the fact that the fight was sticking mostly to taijutsu or bukijutsu, and no real elemental releases had been broken out yet, kept things from getting that crazy.

Not that the order of events could stand for that long.

Itachi's hands blurred, and while Tobio couldn't see it, he sensed the bloom of fire chakra spill forth as the Uchiha sent fireballs indiscriminately over the landscape. Not intent on so much as actually hitting them, seemingly, as it was meant to create some distance for him.

Almost at the same time, as if it were some agreed-upon tactic, Kisame disengaged. In fact, the more Tobio thought about it, the more he realized that it probably was that case, given the fact that they'd smoothly reacted to each other too swiftly for it to anything else. Joining back up at the top of a nearby building, the rest of the assembled fighters took the moment to quickly catch their breath.

"Hmph," Itachi hummed, looking over at the assembled group with his careful, blood-red gaze. "We should retreat, Kisame."

"After all of that?"

"Konoha has certain new talents in their midst," the Uchiha stated, those eyes of his focusing on none else but Tobio. "And our mission doesn't feel accomplishable at this point."

The shark-man clicked his tongue in irritation. "Here I was, just getting warmed up."

Pointing his bandaged sword at Tobio, he gave him a sharp-toothed grin. "Hear that, kid? Make sure you stay alive, alright? I wanna cross blades with you again."

It was all Tobio could do not to leap at him, and merely give the man an excited grin back. "Of course. I'll put you in the dirt properly, geezer."

"You're alright, for a squirrel. Stay alive so I can kill you myself."

"Don't you think you're taking us lightly?" Kakashi spoke, even if Tobio could hear the exhaustion in his voice.

Maybe years ago the guy would have been a genuine S-class combatant. Yet that was before the depression and him giving up on reaching his full potential. However, it was a long way from his peak. As he was now…

No, Tobio didn't think he could hunt them down. Maybe Might Guy could take them out if he opened up the Gates as well, which wouldn't be a sure thing. And his sensei, no matter how much Tobio wished to glaze the man, wasn't strong enough by himself to do it.

"I don't think any of you are in any state to really stop us," Itachi commented. "… There's no real issue in allowing Konoha control of their jinchukiri for now. Let's retreat."

There weren't any other words shared between the two men. Years of serving as partners had honed whatever bond they possessed, whatever teamwork, into a fine edge. Words at this point were wasted wind, as they disappeared into a shunshin, a blur of motion that was moving toward the edge of Konohagakure.

Whatever attempts they had to actually chase after them were, admittedly, in vain. Tobio could fight through a truly tremendous amount of damage, and his allies hopped up on his Shikai were more rugged than they'd otherwise be. In the end, though…

That wasn't enough to keep them going on the same level that the Oni could. Which meant that the situation could only come to a draw, as the Akatsuki beat a hasty retreat. Though, as he sensed Tsunade coming their way, he wished that they'd stick around and keep fighting.

The debrief after all of this was bound to be a pain in the ass.