Ch. 20

Hikan stepped forward, "You're coming with us."

Naruto turned to Sakura and Sasuke. "Cut and Run! No signature moves!" The three nin immediately separated. Naruto ran up the alley wall, Sakura ran out of the other end of the alley, and Sasuke dropped a smoke bomb. Hikan gave orders to the two nin accompanying him, "I'll take the one going up the wall. You two handle the others." His voice was disturbingly calm considering the situation. The two nin immediately went into pursuit. Tanto went after Sasuke, while Tashisu went after Sakura.

As Sasuke tried to escape to the shadows, he was cut off by Tanto. As Tanto let out a yell of rage, the left side of his face turned a gray color, his eye turned a yellow color and his arm turned into a spiky gray mass and shot out towards Sasuke. Sasuke dodged it then thought to himself, 'It can't be…' As Tanto threw another punch, Sasuke dodged under it and activated his Sharingan. Soon the two shinobi were standing in a dark, red hallway. Sasuke's expression changed into one of confusion as he saw the shinobi standing on the other side. It was exactly who he thought it was…Jugo. Jugo looked across to see a confused Sasuke across the hall. As Jugo realized who he was fighting, Sasuke yelled across the hall, "Long time no see."

Jugo was stunned. He didn't expect to run into Sasuke of all people. "Sasuke…what are you doing here?..."

"I was just about to ask you the same question." Jugo stood in stunned silence for a few seconds before replying. "Orochimaru had us come here as bodyguards to your imposter. He doesn't know our true identities. We're basically a safety precaution. After you betrayed Orochimaru, he made sure to be more…cautious." Sasuke smirked before replying, "You said "our true identities". Who's the other shinobi? Suigetsu?" Jugo paused then gave a quick nod. Sasuke looked down as he started pondering the new development.

Jugo looked over to Sasuke, "It's good to see you're doing ok." Sasuke looked up to see Jugo staring at him. He replied with a brief, "Same."

After a few more seconds of thought, Sasuke turned to Jugo, "I need you to tell me everything you know about my imposter." Jugo paused and his face twisted into a pensive state before he looked up and replied. "We don't know much, but his name is Hikan. Me and Suigetsu know Orochimaru is working with him, but we don't know of any plans. The way Hikan acts, I'm not sure even Orochimaru knows what's going on half the time. He plays his cards very close to his chest…"

Sasuke continued to process the new development before turning to Jugo. "That's all you know?"

"Yeah…Sorry if I couldn't help much."

"No, you've helped more than you know. At least now we have a name…Thanks for the info." Jugo nodded, then replied, "So if you're here, your teammates..." Sasuke smirked as he turned away, "Naruto and Sakura." Jugo gave a slight smirk as he realized that him and Suigetsu never stood a chance.

Sasuke started to undo the genjutsu as he spoke to Jugo, "Keep fighting, we can't blow your cover. And Jugo…" Jugo looked over to him. "Nice seeing you again." Jugo smiled then nodded and instantly found himself back in the real world.

As Sasuke threw a punch, Jugo blocked it using his right forearm, then used his spiky left arm to punch Sasuke onto another roof. As Sasuke landed on the roof, he regained his footing and looked over to Jugo who had already jumped onto the roof, "That was a little rough…" Jugo smiled under his mask, "Gotta make it look real…" Sasuke smiled as the two started to trade blows.

Sakura was trying to avoid any contact with Suigetsu, but he was proving to be harder to lose than she thought. As she jumped across a rooftop, she noticed that Sasuke had beat his opponent and was now heading towards her and Suigetsu. She was about to drop into an alley so Sasuke could take care of Suigetsu, but then she noticed Sasuke was staring in her direction. As she looked back, she blinked and found herself in a genjutsu. She suddenly found herself in an open red field. As she tried to make sense of her surroundings, she heard a voice. "Sakura!" She turned around to see it was Sasuke who was now grabbing her shoulders. "Sasuke? What are you doi-"

"No time for that. The two people we're fighting are Jugo and Suigetsu. They're undercover, that's why that guy called them different names." Sakura immediately found herself back in the real world. She turned to her left and saw that Sasuke was already using his Sharingan on Suigetsu. Jugo must already know. After she had made sense of everything, she looked over to Sasuke and Suigetsu. After a few seconds, she saw Sasuke hit Suigetsu with a Chidori to the face. Suigetsu's body started to liquify as he flew through a few buildings before landing on a sidewalk. It was a light Chidori though. Sasuke was definitely holding back. As she joined Sasuke where he was, he turned to face the direction that Naruto and Hikan were fighting in. "I have new intel. We'll talk later. For now let's head over to Naruto, we need to get out of here." Sakura nodded and then they started heading towards where Naruto was.

Naruto kept moving through the dark alleys of the city to try to avoid combat. Hikan was trailing him using the rooftops, but he couldn't manage to get a good position to strike from. As Naruto jumped into an alley, Hikan held out his hand, "Universal Pull!" Naruto suddenly felt his body start flying towards the rooftops. He quickly used his chakra to attach his feet to one side of the alley. His upper body strength prevented his upper body from flying upwards. Naruto held his stance on the side of the alley wall despite Hikan's Universal Pull. Hikan smiled then released his Universal Pull and jumped down onto Naruto. He landed on Naruto's stomach and kicked him straight down into the alley while he planted his feet on the side of the alley. As Naruto started to recover, he tried to do the hand sign for a shadow clone jutsu. Hikan immediately stretched out his hand and used his Rinnegan to push a trash can into Naruto. Naruto was taken aback as he thought about what had just happened. He had no time to perform the shadow clone jutsu as Hikan immediately started to exchange blows with him. Naruto got caught off guard by the sudden change in fighting style but was able to adapt pretty well. As Naruto ducked under a kick, he decided to try to create some distance to escape by running up the alley wall. As soon as he was halfway up, he heard another "Universal Pull!". He tried to stick to the wall again only to have the bricks under his feet fly off the side of the building. As he came crashing down into some garbage bags, Hikan rushed him with his sword out. Naruto gave a face of exasperation as he thought to himself, 'Man, this guy just won't quit…' As Hikan started to make a move, he heard a voice from the end of the alley. "Almighty Push!" Before he could turn around, he felt a strong force pick him up and push him halfway across the city.

Naruto watched him fly through a series of building then gave a sigh of relief as he saw Sasuke and Sakura standing at the edge of the alley. "Thanks." Sasuke quickly replied, "You're welcome. We need to get out of here before he comes back. We have new intel." Naruto nodded and Sasuke used his Rinnegan to open a portal back to Konoha. The three nin wasted no time jumping through.

Hikan brushed himself off before jumping onto a nearby rooftop. As he looked in the direction of the escaping nin, he was met by Jugo and Suigetsu who looked considerably beat up. Jugo turned to him as they looked in the direction of the escaping nin, "Aren't we going to follow them?"

Hikan kept looking into the distance as he smiled then replied with what looked like glint of pride, "No...First of all, we probably wouldn't catch them, but secondly...having information isn't the same as having answers…" Jugo and Suigetsu cast confused glances at each other. Hikan smirked then turned around and started heading back towards the main building. He motioned to the rubble caused by his fall as he started walking away. "Take care of this." Then he looked over to the buildings Suigetsu had been punched through, "And that." Jugo and Suigetsu gave short nods as Hikan walked away.

Author's Note

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