Slug and Raven are back on their feet, unleashing a ferocious onslaught of sword thrusts, swipes, and verbal abuse. Jimi evades and diverts their blades; a dramatic increase in the Anbu's speed and precision forces him to make a tactical withdrawal. After wrapping a broken table leg with a flammable cloth and soaking it with whiskey, he leaps onto a bar counter and ignites the makeshift torch.
"It's been fun kickin' your oriental asses, but I gotta turn and burn, bitches!"
"You're not going anywhere, you depraved little minx!" Raven roars, lunging at Jim. Slug and Raven are but a hair's breadth away from him; too late do they realize what he means by turn and burn, for Jim does just that.
"DAAYAMN!" Jim yelps flipping through the broken one-way window. The fireball sends Raven and Slug tumbling through the air spread-eagle in the opposite direction. Jim screams, sprinting for the nearest water source. He extinguishes his trousers (much to all the koi fish's dismay), flopping his blazing bottom into a koi pond. He shudders in relief as the steam hisses and rises from the cold water.
Smooth piano jazz plays over the speakers lining the pillars, droplets of rain tap on the windows, and crackling fireplaces illuminate the courtyard in a dim hue. The ambiance almost drowns out the distant undead groans—almost. Jim approaches a window with an expansive view of the burning city; he walks alongside the glass panes reminiscing the years before the Mutagenic Wars.
FLASHBACK NO-JUTSU
Jim recalls Rouge City's conquest during the last Continental War. The invasion is swift and covert. SCAF (Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces) commandos seize strategic checkpoints and supply lines along the borders in the dead of night. They disable vital communications networks and render critical infrastructure nonfunctional through sabotage. Key political figures become hostages or prime targets for assassination.
While the city's defenses are down, the SCMC (Sovereign Colonies Marine Contras) storm the beaches. Block by block, building by building, they carve deep into the metropolitan area. The Marine Contras converge upon the gates of Fort Firestorm, instilling fear and desperation into their adversaries. After securing the administrative towers and neutralizing the remaining combatants, Rouge capitulates before the bulk of its defense force can mobilize.
END FLASHBACK
Jim sighs, walking towards the courtyard's center, shifting through a sequence of hand seals. Lightning discharges around his body like a cloak made of thunderstorms; the violent arcs of electricity disappear after a subsequent hand seal combination. He closes his eyes, then raises both hands in the air. The inconspicuous lightning cloak emits an electric hum projecting high-frequency electromagnetic waves throughout the courtyard and back to Jim.
He detects two chakra signatures approaching at an alarming rate; their presence is unmistakable—the sudden gusts of wind surge behind and in front of him. The blustering gales extinguish the fireplaces and scatter the lighter furniture around the enclosure. He anticipates an ambush any second, but it never happens. The deafening silence disturbs him; his mind races, figuring out what's what wondering why they didn't attack from the get-go. Then it dawns on him, 'damn Uchihas.'
"Keep your hands where they are!"
"Don't fucking move!"
Jim senses Raven's unmasked face within a hair's breadth of his own. He squeezes his eyelids tighter, knowing one glimpse into those vile eyes is all it takes. He resorts to using another genjutsu on himself. Jim manipulates his cerebral nervous system's chakra flow to counteract her visual prowess, 'c'mon, just a little closer...'
"Open your eyes."
"No."
"Open. Your. Eyes."
"I refuse."
"I know you're stalling, Malkhaz. Which is fine, but you're only delaying the inevitable."
'Do it. Touch the fucking barrier, you bitch! I dare you!'
"We'll get those eyelids open, one way or another," Slug threatens, transmuting the sapphire hue around his hand into a chakra scalpel.
Jim strains focusing his chakra, 'I can't hold this technique much longer.'
"We caught you; it's over! If you so much as twitch in a way I don't like-" before Raven can react, Jim cups her chin with his hand, slightly lifting the kunoichi's head, "RRMPH!?" Her eyes widen like saucers; Raven's face flushes beet red.
Slug's jaw hits the floor, 'the testicular fortitude of this bitch!'
Raven swings a right hook as hard and fast as possible, aiming at Jim's jaw. Instead of that satisfying impact of her knuckles slamming into his face, Raven's fist collides with an electric current. A thunderous shockwave surges electricity through Slug and Raven. A blinding flash causes them a temporary loss of vision. Their ears ring; the disorientating sensation mimics a concussion. They stumble around like drunks until the effects wear off.
"Catch me if you can!" Jim cackles, rocketing through the air with a tremendous amount of force. He sways around the suspension walkways and steel girders in his trajectory. Jim's momentum subsides; he leans back, ascending onto a support beam, then sticks to its surface using his chakra. Raven and Slug charge after Jim desiring nothing more than to rip out his intestines with their bare hands. What Adds insult to injury is the familiar weapon sliding from Jim's sleeve into his hand. 'Neutralizing the enemy's dōjutsu is critical to victory or retreat; it can be the difference between life and death. Likewise, if an Uchiha isn't fast enough—all their eyes uncover is an inescapable death before it happens.'
Raven recognizes that sword, wondering, 'when and how did she loot Hawk's corpse?' it dawns on her like a dick-slap across the face by a Mandingo-futanari. 'The Byakugan is again in enemy hands,' the hair on Raven's neck stand; imagining Jim with those eyes is enough to give her goosebumps. 'Under no circumstances can I allow that scenario to occur; Malkhaz's too dangerous to be left alive!' Raven concludes.
Jim releases a cluster of explosive tags, "can you avoid this?"
"Incoming!" Slug warns.
Raven and Slug demonstrate their proficiency using thrown weapons by diverting the explosives with professional accuracy and precision. Senbon needles (some with Jim's tags sticking to them) zip through the air forcing him to evade. The Anbu follows up with a barrage of projectile-based ninjutsu (ninja techniques). Jim takes cover behind a wall preventing himself from (whichever comes first) suffering third-degree burns or being cut to shreds by high-pressure water jets.
They surge up the stairwell after Jim tossing shuriken and senbon as he dodges and deflects the inbound fusillade with Hawk's sword. Jim uses teleportation jutsu to gain some distance; at intervals, he tosses debris wrapped with explosive tags over his shoulders like frag grenades.
The Anbu maneuver around the explosives; however, this slows them down, enabling Jim to gain further. A triad of mutants ambushes Jim; he flips one over the railing, then decapitates the other two. Jim slaps a couple of explosive tags on the mutants before kicking them down at the Anbu. Slug and Raven avert the headless mutants tumbling down the stairs; the explosive tags explode, splattering bloody chunks and debris everywhere.
Jim slides across the floor in a burst of speed, flipping another mutant in the air like a rotting burger patty. He tosses the airborne abomination down the stairwell knocking Raven off a guardrail. Slug catches her, swings Raven around then uses his momentum to throw her back at Jim. She enhances her blade with chakra increasing its power.
Jim parries a decapitation attempt; however, the onslaught's strength knocks him off balance. Raven, seizing the opportunity, kicks Jim over the railing. He sticks an explosive tag on a kunai before throwing it and landing on a bridge. The Anbu vanishes before the explosive detonates; they reappear behind Jim with their blades ready. Raven swipes at Jim's throat but misses; he backhand-springs, avoiding another swing at his jugulars from Slug.
"I have you now!" Jim declares before teleporting away. Explosions destabilize the bridge columns; Raven and Slug dash toward the collapsing platform's end. They leap onto a giant chandelier, swinging onto the next floor. Jim awaits with an arrogant demeanor down the halls, "still alive, eh? Guess I'll have to—" he ducks a senbon needle, "whoa! You could've put someone's eye out with that!"
Slug throws more senbon, "that's the idea, you gaping cunt!" Jim dives into a closet preventing himself from becoming a pincushion, then slams the door. Raven and Slug barge in after him but the closet's empty. Another door opens; Jim runs into a room on the opposite side of the corridor. They rush into the room after him, but he escapes from somewhere else at the end of the hallway. Jim yanks open a door, then ducks a volley of shuriken, "there you are! C'mere mutha fucka!"
Jim darts back to the previous room with the Anbu trailing him, door to door, room to room, looming ever closer. He emerges from another door but hides behind it this time. Slug and Raven charge out the room past him and into the next.
Jim snickers, "fuckin' idiots." Across the hallway, four teenagers and a Great Dane flee from two giggling green ghosts rattling chains on their wrists. The door slams before the evil spirits can enter, but they change course, then hound after Jim. His eyes widen. He dashes up the hallway and around the corner with his, 'oh shit' factor blaring furiously. Raven and Slug skedaddle from one room to the next, screaming in pure terror as the ghastly apparitions trail them not far behind.
Jim runs down the hallway, then back again, fleeing from a mutant horde hot on his heels. He follows the teenagers and their dog, running out one door to another. Rather than entering, he holds open the door allowing the mutants to stream in after them. Jim locks the door, mumbling, "meddling kids," then hides in a different room. The Anbu dashing up the halls freezes near the intersection.
"Hold on; I've seen this before," Slug cautions. "If we continue chasing Malkhaz back and forth, to and fro, in and out, left to right and right to left, over and under, eventually we'll be chasing each other."
"And of course," Raven adds, "there's also the possibility of a random object falling on us from above-" the Anbu leaps back; on cue, a large piano falls out of nowhere but misses. Jim dashes back up the hallway, jumping through a window and shattering it. Raven nods sagely at Slug before leaping out the window after Jim. Raven and Slug race up the glass panes evading and deflecting the kunai and shuriken hurtling at them.
Jim electrifies a kunai, then throws it against the window's surface, causing a chain reaction. The Anbu surge up the comminuting glass, avoiding the enormous plummeting fragments while trying not to lose footing on the surface collapsing around them. Slug and Raven approach the top of the skyscraper, increasing their speed. They reach the rooftops before the final glass pane shatters behind them.
Music: Chip_11 - Contra Force - Final Boss Remix (NES) — DJ ILS HK
Standing on a ledge, a silhouette with large pupil-less white eyes stares at Raven and Slug. Lightning flashes across the sky; the crimson moonlight peeks through the clouds reflecting off Jim's glasses. He takes a drag of a cigarette before flicking it over the ledge.
(On a distant rooftop)
"Yours. Truly. Can't—move. You know."
