The Mystic Palm Technique's emerald hue shimmers around Raven's hands as she gasps for air, writhing on the ground while holding her groin. The kunoichi gnashes her teeth, slurring opaque curses and offensive remarks regarding Jimi's ethnicity. However, the undue genocidal threats in meticulous detail prove ineffective in riling or provoking a response from Jim. His maniacal laughter infuriates her; Raven radiates with killing intent glaring daggers at him.

Slug stirs from semi-unconsciousness with a kunai in hand, ready to attack, although the shinobi hesitates. Jim composes himself, then holds his fist in front of the Anbu. Slug darts before Raven and shifts into a defensive stance. A lecherous smirk creeps along Jim's face as his grip relaxes. Raven's eyes bulge; her face becomes red like a tomato blushing in shame. The poor woman's g-string droops on Jim's index finger flowing in the wind for all to see. Slug's blood boils in his veins as Jim uses deception and sexual harassment to wage psychological warfare against the shinobi's former student. Nevertheless, Slug is thankful for his mask hiding a massive nosebleed.

"What's weird is that creep Madara wears one too..." Jim says, snickering as he exposes the black cloth dawning a crest in its center—a red and white fan that symbolizes the Uchiha clan's pride. Jim teases and mocks the fuming kunoichi with her ruined lingerie in an ironic manner fanning the ever-growing flame that coincides an Uchiha's infamous temper. 'Rage obscures judgment; thus, the enemy becomes irrational and reckless. If I press further, I may not require my initial escape strategy. Still, they should've swarmed this place long ago. What in the hell happened? Unless their attention is elsewhere. But why? How?'

Jim cannot speculate further as both assassins prepare to strike again, "this thunderstorm is a fitting backdrop for your demi-," he evades a shuriken. "You could've at LEAST let me finish monologuing before..." the Anbu allows none of it: no stereotypical evil villain monologues, no compromises, no mercy.

Slug slaps an explosive tag on a kunai before chucking it, "fuck your monologue!" Jim takes cover behind a stone column; then (via lightning jutsu) uses the impurities within the rocky structure to conduct electricity and defuse the explosive on impact. A ferocious flurry surges alongside Jim; Raven pounces with astonishing speed.

"The pen of fate awaits writing a final line for you!" Raven ambushes Jim's flank. He amplifies the voltage through Slug's kunai, jolting it in the air to deflect the frigid blade racing towards his throat. Jim ducks an impending kick then catches the spinning kunai before maneuvering behind Raven. She parries Jim's follow-up attack, then assails him with a relentless onslaught of whirring steel. A rapid exchange of scraping metal and raining sparks ensues. Raven and Jim's weapons clash like thunder bellowing in the storm clouds; their afterimages shift along the ground akin to a dazzling dance of lightning bolts.

Raven lands a spinning back kick to Jim's celiac plexus. She chains a sequence of hand seals, "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique! A sphere of swirling hellfire erupts from Raven's mouth like a dragon scorching flocks of shrieking sheep in a stockyard. The blazing inferno accelerates at a blistering speed; the torturous tempest appears to engulf the entirety of Jim's being, disintegrating him into a smoldering ash pile.

Time grinds to a standstill; Slug's pupils dilate. While the dust settles, victory seems irrefutable until Raven's Sharingan depicts a frightening forecast. She foresees an inbound assault, then reacts a hairsbreadth away from a killing blow. Dust and debris eject from underground; lightning glints the blade rocketing towards her jugular. Raven leans back, redirects, then yanks Jim's wrist down before punching at his face. He ducks, yet Raven transitions her strike into a grapple. Seizing his hair, she forces Jim's face against her mask and stares into his widening eyes. Jim's body goes limp; his kunai falls to the ground.

The triumphant Anbu captain clutches her helpless captive's face, holding Jim by his head. "And so, now you belong to me, Contra."

Slug breathes a sigh of relief, "she's done it," his anxiousness fades as time resumes its endless stride, "Jimi Malkhaz's been captured… alive? I-I don't believe it!" He cackles like a madman recalling the colossal bounty on Jim's head in addition to the mission payout; also, the value of both increases several times over with their target being alive.

"More specifically to The Uchiha clan. Your bloodline limit will face assimilation and your heritage forgotten!"

Slug's eyebrows raise, "wait, what!?" from solace to abhorrent shock, then grim cognizance concerning the ominous implications behind such an utterance. His uncertainty wavers about whether Jim's attack methodology dictates reluctance or inability to synchronize strategy with aberrant attributes. Furthermore, Slug's mission dossier, including antecedent skirmishes, reaffirms an overall likelihood of favoring the latter over the former, 'so that's the Hokage's endgame. Tajima knows damn well Malkhaz possesses a carrier gene.' His analytical mind deduces a nightmarish synopsis of what an unholy synthesis of bloodlines could unleash upon the Elemental Nations.

However, the Uchiha are oblivious to Slug's ulterior motives and knowledge of their sinister intentions. 'Nothing a little mix-up at the Logistical Support and Medical Division's loading dock can't resolve.' In secret, he places a scroll containing a situation report and meticulous instruction in preparation for a covert abduction onto a messenger bird, then reverse-summons the animal outside the barrier. 'If all goes well, the Village Hidden by Rain scores a new bloodline limit.'

Jim snatches Raven's forearm, grinning like a maniac.

Raven's eyebrows furrow as her hand sinks through Jim's head, "so that's why my genjutsu is not having any effect; it's just a clone." The earth clone reverts to a mud construct ensnaring the kunoichi's arms within itself.

"Detonate," the explosive tag inside the earth clone activates. Jim's dirty doppelganger bursts like a water balloon, coating the thunderstruck kunoichi in a thick layer of warm, steamy sludge. The bubbling brown batter blasts Slug's back causing him to stumble into the rooftop's seal barrier. The sudden jolt shocks Slug off his feet. The remains of Jim's clone pour like chocolate rain pelting the Anbu with muddy misery, "you tried eating the whole ass and got nothing but mud."

FLASHBACK NO-JUTSU

After siphoning chakra from Slug's explosive tag, Jim integrates a Clone Trap with the Body Replacement Technique escaping the killer kunoichi's callous clutches.

END FLASHBACK

A seething brown blob resembling a flowing chocolate lava mound with bloodshot scarlet eyes scowls with unfathomable fury, "what does that even mean!?" Raven whimpers.

Jim scoffs, "oh—and uh… sorry, doll. I've already been married twice; I'm not making that mistake a third time."

"I! FUCKING! HATE YOU!" the kunoichi rages.

"Earth Release: Dust Devil Disguise!" Jim vanishes in a debris cloud as the Anbu bare down upon him. Raven pinpoints his location, then bolts after Jim with Slug not far behind. They approach Jim's flanks speeding through hand seals.

"Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death!"

"Fire Release: Searing Skull Salvos!"

Jim blurs over a short sequence of one-hand seals before punching the ground, "Earth Style Barrier: Earth Dome Prison!" A protective dome shields him from the impending barrage. The Anbu smashes through the stone wall initiating an all-out close-quarters brawl. Jim's speed, flexibility, and agility allow him to fend away the persistent onslaught of limbs striking at pressure points or vital organs. Quick as a flash, Jim's fists surge up the Anbu's joints weakening their limbs. Despite Slug and Raven's numerical advantage, Jim sustains an aggressive counter-offensive; still, his lightning-fast jabs lack the power he needs to keep them away.

Raven blocks a wild haymaker, then shoves her heel into Jim's abdomen. Slug's foot rockets into Jim's chin, sending the Contra spinning through the air with a rising heel kick. Though dizzy, Jim traps Raven and Slug inside the dome's walls, then uses the stone structure to absorb their chakra. The blue luminescent energy vibrates through Jim's hands like a soothing massage traveling up his arms. Violent rumbling shakes him from his concentration; Jim's eyes widen as an explosion destroys the back of the earth dome. He spins around; Slug grabs Jim's throat slamming him against the stone wall, then on the ground.

"I'm getting real sick of this shit!" Slug lifts Jim strangling him.

"You... and me—Ack! Both—Gak!" Jim swings his body around Slug's arm, battering his heel onto the shinobi's face. Slug follows up with an immediate punch, hurling at Jim's jaw. Jim slips left, grabs Slug's forearm, then slams his elbow into the shinobi's abdomen, eliciting a distinct crunch.

Jim barrel-rolls mid-air before his heel crashes into Slug's head, pitching him across the ground like a skipping stone. Jim lunges at the shinobi for a finishing blow, but Slug throws a kunai forcing Jim to react. Jim catches the kunai, but Slug uses it as a distraction to land a solid right hook. Jim reels from the attack, backhand-springing away. Raven teleports behind Jim. He ducks an incoming kick, then drives his fist into the kunoichi's stomach, causing her to vomit all over his shoulder.

Jim cringes in repugnance, "AAGH GOD DAMN IT! Lightning Release: High Voltage Vendettaaa!"

Jim's knee slams into the Anbu captain's chest; he B-twists, then sends Raven flying with an airborne kick to her torso. She impacts the seal barrier; electricity surges through her body. Jim blinks out of existence and appears before Raven unleashing a barrage of galvanic punches pinning her against the seal wall. Raven's eyes roll back into her head; however, Jim's relentless assault deprives the kunoichi of gracious unconsciousness.

Excess currents from Jim's supercharged strikes overload the seal barrier generating an arc blast that throws Raven across the air. Jim's fist collides with Raven's jaw in midflight as she crashes onto the ground. He hooks his boots under her arms, then executes a backflip overturning the kunoichi like a flapjack.

Jim's hands blur over a sequence of seals, "Lightning Release: Ballistic Bolt Barrage!"

A consecutive triumvirate of lightning strikes hammers Raven through the rooftops and once more into the seal barrier. Her voice grows hoarse as electric discharge suffocates Raven's desperate pleas for mercy. She struggles to escape the torturous trap, but gravity nullifies her efforts. Mutant constructs of tortured flesh, unrecognizable inhuman extremities, and slimy slithering tentacles reach inside the barrier, trying to pull the hysterical kunoichi through. Jim stands triumphant above his flailing foe, appreciating the irresistible irony that Raven's excruciating ensnarement is all that keeps the mutants from devouring her alive.

"No one owns me! Nor will anyone ever again, Uchiha!" an inhuman guttural screech from a speeding silhouette snatches Jim's attention.

"Malkhaz!"

"What the fu—ACK!?" Slug blindsides Jim tackling him to the ground.

"Diiieeee!" Slug gurgles clawing at Jim's face. Blood leaks from the shinobi's eyes, ears, and nose; severe inflammation causes his necrotizing skin to hemorrhage. Despite the near liquefaction of Slug's intestines, he retains total agility and mobility.

Jim's swift responsiveness enables him to repel the vicious assault and prevent the feral shinobi from vomiting blood and intestinal chunks onto him, "get off me, motherfucker!"

Jim rips a broken rib fragment from Slug's torso, then plunges it into the shinobi's jugular. A conductive cable wrenches Slug's throat; Jim heaves the wire while shifting through a chain of seals with his free hand. Lightning discharges through the metal galvanizing Slug as he hangs from a stone pillar like a dried fish; however, the powerful currents prove ineffectual in restraining the mutating shinobi. Slug withstands the bolt battery and cuts himself free with a jagged pipe puncturing his kidney. He evades an upsurge of stalagmites from the ground, then retaliates with a shuriken swarm compelling Jim to dodge.

Slug removes the bone fragment from his throat, "Piercing Separation Spring!"

Water jets sprout from the ground cutting through the rocky surface without hassle. The shinobi exploits his opponent's weaknesses, then initiates a successful counter-offensive. Slug pressures Jim with successive layers of long-ranged attacks while maintaining an intricate network of sensory deprivation techniques. Though unable to retaliate, Jim preservers through Slug's Hiding in Mist Technique, dispelling a perpetual onslaught of genjutsu while executing swift evasive maneuvers from the covert attacks within them. Jim dispatches the marauding water clones and teleports to avoid the complex web of hydro-jets erupting below. A blinding flash disorientates Slug disrupting his vision.

"Ninja Art: Cascading Crescendo!" static discharges around the shinobi, infusing and transmuting the dense mist into a greenish electromagnetic haze. Slug's respective techniques evanesce on a molecular degree. All become uncontrollable constructs that curve and contort in an unnatural, almost impossible capacity. Analogous to sonar, the supercharged electrons ripple through the greenish haze enabling Jim to pinpoint Slug's location. Without deliberation, Jim capitalizes upon the chaos and seizes the advantage. In an instant, he is in front of the delirious shinobi; Slug moves to parry the blade racing towards his neck, but Jim's afterimage fades like a mirage upon contact.

Slug gasps as cold, sharp steel puncture his heart from behind. The electromagnetic haze recedes; Slug discovers he is away from his Hidden in Mist Technique, on the opposite side of the rooftops. Half of Slug's limbs fuse into a pillar, yet he retains sensation in the absent extremities.

"Ninja Art: Cascading Crescendo!" static discharges within the dense mist before a thunderbolt overcharges Jim's technique transmuting Slug's jutsu into a greenish electromagnetic haze. Slug watches in confusion and dread as preceding events happen once more. A primordial warp storm wreaks havoc upon the dimensional plane encompassing Jim and Slug's past selves. Temporal displacement causes both combatants to flicker in and out of reality between alternating locations, then disappear through the space-time continuum. The resulting hyper-dimensional disruption causes a shockwave that deactivates the Five-Seal-Barrier surrounding the rooftops.

Direct exposure to the Immaterium overloads Jim's Chakra Pathway System causing the channels to glow through his skin. Jim's body stiffens before collapsing due to the resulting seizure and various internal injuries from the warp. Jim's helpless form is within arm's reach of Slug. Without hesitation nor thought of his actions, the shinobi grabs Jim and chomps down on his throat, almost decapitating him in one chakra-enhanced bite. A violent gust of smoke erupts from Jim's body as it vanishes into thin air. Slug's heart sinks to his feet as grim realization, then melancholy trembles him to the core.

"S-shadow clone!? That—that's. Impossible!" razor-sharp steel slicing through flesh horrifies Slug once he regains focus; the subsequent haunting phrase twists nostalgia into sadness and sorrow.

"Believe it," Jim lands crouching forward, wielding Raven's sword in a reverse grip near his back. Jim's other hand rests at eye level, forming the Seal of Confrontation/Earth Release Seal. Raven stands not far behind stationery and motionless with shock in her Sharingan eyes. A red hair-thin line broadens as it slithers across her throat. Blood spills from Raven's neck as her head separates, then hangs against the kunoichi's upper back by a sliver of flesh. Any semblance of hope Slug has tumbles along with the Anbu captain's headless corpse. Tears trickle down the heartbroken shinobi's face as his former student dies how she lived: cold, lifeless, and alone.

Jim readies the fallen kunoichi's blade with a wrist flick before casting his icy inhuman gaze toward Slug. The writing on the wall is ever-present; Slug accepts his tragic fate as Jim bears down upon him.

"Less than a handful of people can use shadow clones, most of whom are dead," Slug rasps, gurgling and coughing up blood, "tell me. Just who, or. What—in the hell are you?"

"I was under the assumption that prolonged exposure to my tactics and techniques would've made this apparent."

"Need I remind you of that peculiar manner assume may be interpreted?"

Jim chuckles, "a smartass till the very end. You haven't changed at all, old man," he grabs a pack of smokes from his fatigues. "I'd offer you a cigarette, comrade, but if memory serves correctly, you don't do that anymore."

Slug sighs, "gee, glad to see you still care—Namikaze Naruto. But—I think I'll make an exception, just this once," Jim raises a curious eyebrow at the dying shinobi before flicking a cigarette towards him, "mind giving me a light?"

"Oh, you're funny," Jim replies with sarcasm.

"C'mon, kid. What's the matter? I won't bite."

Jim ignites the cigarette between his thumb and index finger, then takes a drag, "when a shadow-clone dispels, its memories transfer back to the user. That's the secret of the jutsu and why it's so dangerous. Imagine something like that falling into the wrong hands or becoming a ubiquitous technique."

Slug rolls his eyes, "the ramifications would be—apocalyptic. Oh, wait…" an explosion erupts in the distance behind Slug to further emphasize his point. Jim frowns at this, "that Anbu captain you murdered in cold blood, my former student idolized you ever since she was a little girl. You were an inspiration and symbol to all women, proving a kunoichi can be as powerful as or surpass any shinobi should they apply themselves. The masses were never suspicious of their alleged heroine's true gender or nature. Can you possibly comprehend how demoralizing it is for such an inspirational figure's name and legacy to become synonymous with treachery?"

"More than you realize, Dr. Kuriarare. Now imagine the irony of several morally deprived nations prolonging nescience over a fallen heroine's gender as if to prevent further degradation to their respective village's collective psyche. Thus, upholding a false political narrative via sophistry and deception."

"Was it all just some cruel, sick joke to you? To inspire a false sense of pride amongst a downcast population and tear away that foundation from underneath, casting them further down a dreary couloir of hopelessness? Tell me, nephew, how does someone once so kind and gentle become a backstabbing megalomaniacal lunatic like yourself!? What terrible wrong set you on this path? Why betray your family, friends, and fellow compatriots? Was it wealth? Power? Prestige? Does the Will of Fire still mean anything to you?"

"For the record, I'm not your nephew; Naruto Namikaze has been dead longer than you realize. After all, I'm the one who assassinated and sealed his soul within my body—and still, to this day, he's never once stopped bitching about it."