Naruto: The Shattered Eyes

The days passed.

Now, it was the 15th of March, 13 Years After Naruto's Birth.

Suguru was busy refining his research when a powerful presence alerted him. His head jerked upwards to look at the sphere of crimson floating above his head. A large ripple indicated the presence of a large amount of concentrated chakra.

"...Who?"

—Crack.

His silver irises shattered.

'Kaisugan,'

His gaze instantly fell upon the person in question. A blonde woman with a slender but lethal build. The sheer quantity of her chakra was a telltale sign of her identity.

"Yugito... Matatabi's Jinchuriki, huh..."

With narrowed eyes, Suguru located another source of chakra. Although significantly weaker, it was still indicative of a jounin-level shinobi.

"The Tsuchikage's shield, Akatsuchi of Iwa?"

The shinobi from two major villages, gathering to meet within the Land of Fire? Suguru could taste the schemes from a mile away. However, something felt off about this meeting.

'I just can't put my finger on what's wrong,'

Deep in thought, Suguru moved his gaze elsewhere, urged by yet another set of ripples in his Mark of the Mirage. That was when he saw them.

Konoha's own squad of shinobi, rushing rapidly from the South. Within this squad of four was a chakra signature Suguru was surprised to see. Despite the unfamiliar face, he knew who it was.

"Hiruzen?"

Suguru then noticed the three genin trailing behind him. Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakrua, and... Hyuga Mitsuko.

"Consider me surprised."

He had not expected his old classmate to have been the person replacing Naruto. The Uchiha-Hyuga grouping would be quite the force on the battlefield.

...But they were still too young.

'Was this the equivalent of Team 7 having to fight a famous jounin right off the bat?' Suguru thought, exasperated by the machinations of fate.

Instead of Zabuza and Haku... Team 7 was heading straight for a Jinchuriki and another war-torn veteran. It was as if the mission's difficulty was made to match the level of the presiding jounin-sensei.

"Now that I think about it..." A small budding seed of panic grew within Suguru's mind.

He quickly calculated their speeds, and he figured out where they were all going to meet. A small hint of frustration bubbled up.

Suguru sighed as he looked around his lab.

"...I best clean up," He muttered under his breath, hurriedly storing everything important and cleaning up the mess of corpses he had been dissecting.

Suguru lamented his own fate for a moment, smacking his lips.

"The world is so big. Why do they have to meet here?"

At the rate at which all three parties were traveling, their paths were predicted to intersect right above Suguru's head.

Here, in the Valley of the End.

***

"Akuta-sensei..." Mitsuko gulped as she strained her Byakugan to see into the distance.

"I see eight ninjas in total. Four from Iwagakure, and four from Kumogakure."

A shiver ran up her spine as her eyes fell on Yugito Nii.

"This chakra..." Her voice trailed as dread settled upon her expression.

Akuta, or more precisely, Hiruzen's jounin-sensei identity, nodded. A grim tone would thus lace his voice, heightening his students' wariness.

"That's the Jinchuriki of the Nibi. Be careful. As much as possible, avoid being anywhere near her."

Akuta paused as his gaze sharpened. A warning to his students.

"Or you'll end up as nothing but ashes in an instant."

Sasuke couldn't help but swallow his saliva. His mouth had dried up due to the tension and his heightened focus.

To him, this mission seemed absurd given its difficulty. It didn't make sense that their team was being sent to something as important as this.

Something was going on in the shadows. He just needed to figure it out.

Meanwhile, Sakura couldn't control her trembling hands. The mere presence of a near-perfect Jinchuriki induced terror, forcing her to calm herself with heavy breaths.

She had already been informed by Akuta beforehand that a perfect Jinchriki — should they encounter one — would be more or less immune to her Genjutsu.

'This is going to be tough,' She bit her lip to numb her fear.

"Akuta-sensei,"

Mitsuko spoke once more, this time with more conviction. Through her Byakugan, she noticed that their targets had stopped moving.

"All squads seem to be in position. How do we proceed?"

Akuta thought for a moment before putting his hands to form a seal.

'Shadow Clone Jutsu.'

Another Akuta appeared in a puff of smoke, bearing only an inch of his original chakra reserves.

"We'll make contact through my clone." He said, carefully sensing the movement of Iwa and Kumo.

He felt the changes in chakra, noticing two new entities appearing out of thin air. The other parties created their own elemental clones.

The two Akutas then nodded at each other, and the clone flickered away.

***

Suguru watched as the slow buildup of tension wracked people's nerves. He was still hiding within the Valley of the End, relying on his seals to keep the Byakugan and any chakra field at bay.

It would not do Mitsuko any good if she saw him.

With a bird's eye view, he saw three clones meeting up on the lake where had tested his different Rasengan applications. That vast expanse of water was a relief from the endless woodlands.

A good spot to hold a civil shinobi meeting.

The first one to speak was Hiruzen's clone.

"Seeing as we're all here on time, let's get on with business." Adhering to the identity of Akuta that he forged for himself, he spoke in a definite tone.

A cheerful laugh was what Akuta got in return. Akatsuchi's eyes scanned Akuta and Yugito with the wariness of the weakest. This entire meeting felt wrong somehow, but it had to be done.

He knew about Yugito, but this Akuta was a silent threat. The man's mere presence was sharp like the blade on his back.

Thus, he treaded carefully.

His guard was up.

The same went for Yugito as her instincts flared whenever she gazed into the distance. The meeting was off, yes... but perhaps their sights were on something different entirely.

Perhaps...

It was the timing of this situation that was giving her the chills.

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