Poll is still up! It's coming down on March 8th, so cast your vote before it's too late! It is currently a tie between before and after, and if it remains this way when the poll closes, I will just pick one.

Question: Since Itachi and Tsubaki are both going to be resurrected, should they meet before or after the Itachi-Sasuke vs. Kabuto battle?

"The Natsubishi-hunters will be Uchiha Shisui, Maito Gai, Uchiha Mashigi, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Kohaku Michi." The named ninjas got into a group away from the ones still waiting to be divided.

"Fukoku-hunt will consist of Yuhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, Torune, and Fu." The four ninjas separated themselves from the others.

"Momuri-hunt is Yamato, Uchiha Morin, Nara Shikaku, and Akimichi Choza." A couple nods came from the ninjas mentioned.

"Orochimaru will be left alone for now. I don't want too many high-leveled shinobi absent from the village at a time." More nods of agreement came from the assembled ninjas.

"Tsubaki-hunt will be Hatake Kakashi, Inuzuka Tsume, Hyuga Hiashi, and Uchiha Itachi."

A few heads turned towards Itachi, but other than that, there wasn't much reaction to the last named hunt. Itachi wasn't surprised in the least and he kept his face impassive.

The Third Hokage continued, "The rogues travel in pairs, and we've managed to gather that Tsubaki and Momuri are a pair. Chances are those two will be together. I want the Momuri-hunt and the Tsubaki-hunt to stick together until their targets are found."

The two groups molded together to form a patrol of eight.

"Go."


"What are the main things we should be wary of in our enemies?" Kakashi asked wanting to make sure everyone knew what they were doing.

"Momuri's extremely powerful Wind Release," Shikaku answered.

"And Tsubaki's eyes and Dark Release," Choza added.

Itachi narrowed his eyes. He wanted to avoid a fight but going against those rogue ninjas threw all peaceful tactics out the window. In fact, the only one who seemed most likely to agree to a bloodless solution was Tsubaki, but she proved that theory wrong four years ago.

Even if he didn't want to, Itachi would have to kill Tsubaki to protect Konoha.


"Since Fukoku is immune to genjutsu, we'll have to use taijutsu or ninjutsu against her," Asuma summarized, drawing on the ground with a stick.

"She is really good at wielding that regenerating chain of hers, too," Kurenai said, "It's probably best if we attack her from a distance."

"I guess that leaves ninjutsu as our only option," Fu snorted.

"Or maybe one of us could distract her as the others attack close-range," Torune suggested.

"That's rather risky…" Asuma scrunched his nose.

"We'll have to take risks if we want to fine the best way to defeat her." Kurenai snapped a twig in two.


"What's that up ahead?" Shisui activated his Sharingan and peered in the direction of the flash of movement he just saw.

"Is it our target?" Inoichi asked, halting on a branch.

Shisui stared for a moment longer as his team waited anxiously beside him. At last, he reported, "It's gone."

"Gone?" Mashigi echoed.

"It disappeared. I don't know where it…"

A giant steel spike interrupted Shisui's bewildered observation. Shisui's surprised exclamation was lost as the branch he stood on tore away from the tree with a nasty crunch. Shisui just managed to avoid falling face-first of the ground by jumping onto another nearby branch.

"Surprise, Konoha."

"Natsubishi!" Gai exclaimed. The patrol got into a battle stance.

"Found you," Michi said, pulling a kunai from her bag.

"Wrong. I found you," Natsubishi corrected, folding his arms around his chest.

"No matter. You're going down today," Mashigi declared.

Natsubishi smiled. He pulled out a pair of daggers. The blades gleamed in the sun. "Sorry. I don't plan to die any time soon. I guess you'll just have to die in my place."

I'm sorry about the short chapter. Longer chapters shall come in the future, I promise.

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Reviews are appreciated, and thanks for reading.