Naruto: The Shattered Eyes

With Suguru bursting into flames, Fuu and Torune felt a wave of heat slam into their faces. Flames washed over them, singeing their hair and lighting dried leaves on fire. However, that was only for an instant.

Their target's chakra signature disappeared, melting into the air. Furthermore, the world turned silent. Suddenly, Fuu and Torune felt that something was off.

Fuu froze, halting his movement on the next branch he encountered.

'My chakra!' His eyes widened.

Putting his hands together he formed a seal and disrupted his chakra.

'Kai!' 

The world cleared up, just in time for Fuu to feel a fire-coated fist flying into his face.

—Vwhoom! Thwack!

At the moment of contact, Fuu shoved Suguru's hand aside. In what was a desperate parry, Fuu avoided having his head turned into a ball of flames.

A fireball exploded from Suguru's hand, and a ring of fire flew straight to an unsuspecting Torune. Still trapped in Suguru's Infernal Mirage, Torune could not dodge the sudden strike. Torune was forced awake only when the flames began burning his skin.

Meanwhile, at point-blank range, Fuu did his best to avoid being burned by the sudden outburst.

He leaned back until his body began to freefall.

Fortunately for both of them, Suguru's Blaze Battle Body still lacked lethality. His fires lacked substance, burning only those things that were easily flammable. Despite such fortune, however, they still had to face Suguru's following barrage of strikes.

Suguru summoned a diagonal wave of fire with a wide arm swing. Then, as if shadowboxing to chase after Fuu's rapid retreat, Suguru fired fireball after fireball.

Each burst of flames came in different shapes.

A fist, a palm, and a straight kick yielded fast-flying streams of fire that Fuu could barely dodge. Suguru's spinning yielded spiraling flames that slashed through the air, turning the battlefield into a small pocket of hell.

Suguru blasted fire from several points on his body, deterring the two jounins from getting too close.

Realizing that the battle approached a stalemate, Suguru took out several heinous smoke bombs. He threw them at his enemies. Upon contact with anything solid, the smoke bombs burst into foul-smelling, flammable material.

—Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Several explosions appeared like fireworks, cutting off escape routes and changing the battlefield.

"Tsk!"

Torune clicked his tongue as a tree fell where he was supposed to step next.

"Haap!"

Suguru was swift in exploiting this opening. Flickering in front of Torune, Suguru slashed through the air with his hands.

Torune dodged, however, a solid shin hit his shoulder. A dull thud echoed out as Torune resisted the urge to send his insects to their deaths.

The raging flames around Suguru served as a massive deterrent which Torune had no choice but to be wary of.

"...!"

Torune met Suguru's eyes just then. With a wide-open gaze, Torune saw the red, tomoe-stained irises embedded in his foe's eyes.

It was too late to look away.

"Wha—?!"

He was left without a chance to exclaim.

Suguru's eyes flashed with malice.

'Genjutsu: Sharingan!'

***

Fuu watched as Torune looked into Suguru's eyes by accident. His eyes widened as he rushed forward, blade in hand.

Unsure of the exact functions of Suguru's special Dojutsu, Fuu attacked with some reservations.

'That's your mistake,' Suguru thought as his neck nearly snapped to face Fuu's blade.

Unlike his Kaisugan's Vampiric Gaze requiring constant eye contact, the Sharingan's Genjutsu was an entirely different foe.

'Furthermore...'

Suguru's Sharingan changed. The black tomoe markings faded, and only an unbridled crimson color bloomed like lights in the darkness.

'Genjutsu: Infernal Mirage — Shinrakugan!'

With the Shinrakugan's ability to hinder Fuu's sensory abilities, Suguru was certain he had won. Fuu would be unable to identify the problematic state of his chakra, thus giving Suguru a moment of respite.

His chakra was low. Keeping the Blaze Battle Body at a sufficient output for combat took a strain on his chakra reserves.

'My time is about done,' He thought.

Taking out a kunai, Suguru slashed at Torune's throat to draw blood. He needed to guarantee at least Torune's death. A splatter of blood drew a brutal streak across the tree behind the Root shinobi.

Next, Suguru turned towards his other enemy, still carrying the momentum from the earlier slash.

Fuu was likely unaware of his Sharingan, having avoided any moment of eye contact throughout the battle. Nonetheless, he was a victim of Suguru's use of the Kaisugan's abilities.

There was no option but death.

Unfortunately—

—Clang!

A kunai threw Suguru's swing off course. Furthermore, several shurikens were flying straight for him.

'Shit,'

Suguru had leaped backward to dodge, though still keeping within range of Fuu's dazed figure.

Tracking the kunai and shuriken's trajectories, Suguru's eyes were led to a face he hadn't greeted in some time.

Suddenly,

"..!" His heart jumped.

Suguru could not stay focused on his sensei's appearance. A shadow was flickering through the shade.

It was a blur of movement heading straight for Suguru's throat.

Suguru had no choice but to flicker away as Kuromaru tackled Fuu out of harm's way. Furthermore, Hitomi appeared at Torune's side, her hand glowing with green chakra. It was the Mystic Palm Jutsu.

The slash on Torune's neck began healing at a rapid pace.

'I guess I failed...'

Suguru sighed. At least, he was able to rewrite Torune's memories using the Sharingan.

With an inconsistency between Fuu and Torune's reports, Danzo would still be left in the fog of mystery. Though that fog would no longer be as thick as it was before.

'It's likely that Lord Fifth will suspect the veracity of their reports... That should be good enough.'

If Danzo did indeed suspect Suguru... 

'Amai's presence will ensure that having a Sharingan wouldn't be so far-fetched.'

Suguru nodded to himself, warily observing the two jounin-level powerhouses before him.

"Oi," Hitomi cracked her knuckles with a feral smile splattered across her face, "Wanna give your ol' sensei an explanation?'

"...Hitomi-sensei," Suguru cracked a crooked smile, "It's good to see you again."

—Vwhoom!

In reply to Suguru's words, Hitomi's body exuded an aura of flames.

'Ahaha,' Suguru's smile turned into a grimace, 'She's gotten better at it...'

The odds were not in Suguru's favor. 

Nay, it was skewed heavily towards Hitomi's side.

"Since you still have the energy to talk nonsense..."

Hitomi's sudden burst of speed made the air pop. Her instantaneous acceleration was even crazier than what Suguru remembered.

"...I need to beat some sense back into you."

A blazing, fiery fist was headed straight for Suguru's gut before he could even blink.

—Crack!

With pure speed alone, Hitomi was still a league greater.

"Hm?"

However, upon making contact with Suguru's body, the impact didn't feel right.

Hitomi raised a brow.

'That impact...'

—Poof!

"Ah," Hitomi laughed, "That damn brat is as cunning as I remember!"

All this time, Fuu and Torune were fighting a Shadow Clone.

***

A safe distance away, Suguru was out of breath, drenched in sweat, and low on chakra. He had poured at least 85% of his chakra reserves into that single clone. Using his Shinrakugan and Chakra Field Hacking, he masked his chakra signature and fled.

His earlier smoke bomb effectively masked his original scent. With the fires on top of that, Kuromaru would have a harder time tracking him.

Furthermore, he made sure to use the Transformation Jutsu to alter his body's characteristics.

It was then...

"Oh..."

The Shadow Clone had been dispelled. Its memories, and whatever bit of chakra it had, had returned to him.

"I failed,"

Suguru sighed, "Unfortunately, my predictions were right."

He took out his notebook to update his estimated strength.

"Though the gamble was worth it, the reality of my mistakes has quite the sting."

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Back from... an eventful set of holidays... Hopefully, life will settle down again in the coming days.

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