Disclaimer: We do NOT own Naruto or it's official characters, this is fan made story so enjoy. We do however own the characters that we have created specifically for the purpose of this story. We don't need Kishimoto, or anyone else for that matter, coming in and ripping off or sueing our broke asses into the ground anymore than we already are. Aight? We good? We good.

Hey everyone Merry Christmas (When this was originally posted) from the Rogue Two Dev Team and Staff. Like we're a studio Ha. Anyway sorry for this being the only update in a year or so. Things have been rough for us, not bad, just unexpected. Hopefully this WILL continue and have more frequent updates but for Now Happy Holidays everyone and a Happy NEW YEAR. Again (From XemnasO01X and Zinmaster24)

Chapter 15: Landfall

-'The Preparations are what they are. We're here. The storm is coming. We are as best prepared as we can be as the eye of the storm approaches.' –Russel Honore -

-A Tavern somewhere in Yu no Kuni, 1655-

Zevela sat alone at a table in the southwest corner of the tavern; back facing the wall, her legs crossed over themselves with her left hand under her chin, reading a small black book she always carried with her wherever she went.

A plate of food on her table, empty, and a glass filled with a brown liquid. The place wasn't empty as she took a glance around her, Zevela noted the people in the bar at that moment. There was a man in normal clothes sitting two tables from her, eating a steak that smelled slightly underdone and a cup of coffee in his hand.

He was in his late thirties or early forties, was clean shaven, had short brown hair and was very fit, his clothes were sung and were obviously hiding the physique of a ninja. Aside from him there was a couple sitting at a booth arguing about something, and several patrons were already sitting at the bar ordering a few rounds to commence the start of 'early happy hour.' One of them had even ordered her a drink, but she hadn't touched it except once to move it to the empty side of her table. She wasn't here to drink nor even eat, but she wasn't unwelcome to either yet she had to keep her mind sharp.

'He should be here any moment now.'

She was in this particular tavern not just because they had a good beef stew, which they did, but because her bounty would be coming to his particular tavern to pick up some money so he could disappear. After obtaining the flier it had taken her all of about two hours to acquire intel, find his home, and discover he was coming here to get some money from the bartender who owed him. Ordinarily, she wouldn't waste her time with a low-level bounty like this, nabbing a guy who hadn't paid his loan back after one too many trips to the gambling tables, which consisted of only a 500 ry ō bounty. But this wasn't Amegakure, as the rules that came with bounty hunting here were a little different. Most bounty offices merely posted the available bounties in the main office and all you had to do was grab a flier and go out and track 'em down. But here in Yu no Kuni the bounty offices were regulated, meaning you had register with that office, then sign for a specific bounty, and you had to do one of the bounties that was posted outside just to even get through the front door!

'What kind trumped up oxen crap is that?! They expect all bounty hunters to do their menial labor for them? What the hell?!'

Zevela could feel a vein pulsing in her temple as her thoughts raged in her head but she kept a cool demeanor on the outside, merely tightening her grip on her book as the door to the tavern opened. Through the door walked in her target, which put a small grin on her face. 'Okay. Let's wrap this up quickly.'

The short pasty man was shaking like a leaf in a windstorm and palier than a ghost. His steps were fast and he kept looking over his shoulder, like an idiot, and he almost tripped over his own two feet. The mere sight on this guy was enough for Zevela to scoff and even laugh at him, but there would be time for that later. As he neared the counter, Zevela closed her book, got up from her chair, flicked a small button on her crossbow, and walked up right behind the man as he turned around. She merely smiled, flexed her hand causing her crossbow bolt to become exposed and brought it under the man's chin. The 'bounty' couldn't even form a sentence instead he babbled out words as he started to sweat profusely to which Zevela answered with-

"Hi. Would you come with me to the bounty office please?" She asked kindly pressing her crossbow firmly to his chin.

The man put up no resistance and complied as she moved him towards the entrance. Directing her bounty out the door, Zevela paused as a man walked through, wearing ninja garb but without a headband. Instead he had a patch on his sleeve of a group she didn't recognize. As she walked out, she looked back inside to see the ninja at the table of the man drinking coffee.

'Must be part of the same group.'

"Captain Redfield. We've received new orders, sir." She heard him say as she walked out of earshot.

XxX

-Bounty office, Ten Minutes Later-

An unassuming man of average height and build, with brown eyes and black hair sat behind a counter bored out of his mind. This man's name was Jin and he was going over the day's bounties and how many people had requested a specific one, and how many had already pulled out of the running for some. It was already near the end of the day, glancing at the clock nearby, it said 5:25 P.M. In 35 minutes, the bounty office would lock for an hour then reopen with someone else taking his place. 'Not like it matters. No one ever comes in here anyway.'

Jin's thoughts came to sudden halt as the door to the building was damn near broken open and a bound man was flung through and onto one of the chairs along the opposite wall. His eyes were dazed and he looked like he passed out but Jin knew his face, the same one that was posted on the outside of the wall. Jin didn't miss a beat, reaching under the counter for the selected pay for the debt-labelled jumper as another figure entered, a woman. Placing the pay on the counter, she walked over and scooped it up, not even bothering to count. Jin was about to thank her when she spoke aloud.

"I'm here to take on another bounty." She said, and pointed at the wall just behind Jin's head. "That one."

Turning around, Jin used a hand to reach for the appropriate paperwork that was needed to accept a bounty. He let out a gasp as his eyes popped open at the poster the woman was pointing at. It was a rough drawing of man with the Sharingan and the name 'The Phantom Uchiha.'

'This chick must be crazy.'

But that didn't stop him from placing the forms she needed to sign in front of her. Leaving a pen there as well, Jin walked out from where he was, through a small entryway that lead to the back offices and then through another door that lead to the waiting area, to retrieve the man. Placing him in a chair right behind him, in the area he was in a minute earlier, knowing that guy wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Jin returned his attention to the woman, but she had already left taking her return slip needed if she succeeded or failed. Jin shrugged and picked up the now finished paperwork to give it the once over. Jin looked over the form but stopped when his eyes fell upon her name: Zevela Yamaneko. Jin placed the paperwork into the trash as he walked to the door of the bounty office, producing a key and locked it. Jin heard a noise inside the room. Quickly he looked towards the sound which was caused by the man who was bound by the famous 'Bloodhound of Amegakure'. He was waking up and Jin let out a scoff of annoyance. "I don't have time for this nonsense, so you need to be disposed of quickly."

Jin merely reached into his pocket and produced a kunai. Throwing it with considerable force into the man's chest. The bound man's eyes widen as he looked down at the blade in his chest for only a second, before he fell over dead on the floor. Jin didn't bother to dispose of the body, but instead walked to the back office and donned a cloak. Before leaving the office Jin removing an armband, revealing a tattoo. It was a circle and a bird, with it's wings extended beyond its border. Hiding it under his cloak, Jin walked out the backdoor and into the mass of people outside.

XxX

-Yu no Kuni, several days later; time: 2145-

Zikito stood at the threshold of one of the windows that lined the storage silo's north side, the warm still air outside flowing inward. Xevhiroth was just sitting in front of the window with his back against the wall that ended where the windows opening began. Zikito looked out to view the landscape that had surrounded it. A well-worn path had been their guide to it and continued with a sharp left-hand turn to a village not too far away maybe a twenty minute walk away. Trees from a moderate forest ended just a short way from the silo and a mountain added a decent backdrop behind the silo, a fairly large open plain that stretched from the silo to the nearby village that must've been tended to by farmers and crop hands but the field was as empty as the silo was. It wasn't the growing season yet and from the looks of it, the silo wasn't used much anymore; evident by the decaying wood, cobwebs, and sparse supplies within its interior.

Zikito could only surmise that other storage places had been built, closer to the village and made to store more or something along those lines, and this one must have only been used to store whatever couldn't fit elsewhere. Which judging by three crates of grain, one drum full of water, and a dozen other containers, some full, some not, that held various other items but for the most part, the storage silo was empty.

'Which is good because we won't get many visitors, maybe now we can catch our breath.'

After scorching that village and Xevhiroth learning the truth of his kin, the two had decided to lay low after that. After hours of running through the woods and sporadic landscape of Yu no Kuni, they managed to come across the very silo that they sat in at this very moment. Zikito had expected something from Xevhiroth about any number of things; Unity, Zikito himself, the Uchiha, what else Zikito might know. However, nothing came up in their entire run, he never said a word the entire way.

'What the hell? Mister chatterbox suddenly turned catatonic on me… then again he was just told the history of his clan and the monument of sins that the name carries to himself. If I expected him to be okay after learning all that, then I am the most apathetic bastard on the face of the planet.'

Zikito should have expected this, even he had his own bout with that. But, when it happened to him he had no time to absorb it as Xevhiroth had. Zikito cast a glance down at Xevhiroth and saw something in his hand, a book. Zikito wondered where he got that but it also explained something that had him worried and put his mind at ease. Xevhiroth had been sitting against the wall just beneath him for well over an hour, chin resting on his chest, and his gaze looking somewhat far off. At first Zikito thought he was mulling over what he'd been told and maybe was feeling a bit disheartened about it all, but now he knew that he was looking down because he was reading.

'How can he read in here? It's damn near pitch-black. It took me awhile just to search one floor, let alone this whole place damn it. Wait, the Sharingan, doesn't it allow the user to see even in low-light? Okay, that explains that but what could he be reading?'

Zikito crouched closer to get a better look at the book in Xevhiroth's hands.

"Where'd you get the book?" he asked.

Xevhiroth didn't turn to look at Zikito or even appear to notice him. His eyes were planted firmly on the book before him, moving and scanning every word on the page. Zikito waved his hand in front of Xevhiroth's face, snapping him out of his trance like state and back to reality.

"Huh? What? What is it?" he asked.

"I asked you, where'd you get that book from." Zikito stated with a deadpan stare now.

Xevhiroth looked towards the page and continued reading as he answered.

"From that Unity controlled town. When it all went to hell just before we found the hub of information I remembered seeing a few books I wanted. So, I sent a clone to grab them from that shop in the hopes that in the confusion no one would really be too concerned about theft." Xevhiroth explained as he flipped over a page, not even once looking up to Zikito.

Zikito only looked on in amazement at the way he spoke about the place where he discovered the truth of his name and the legacy of his kin. Ordinarily, Zikito might have considered the possibility of psychological instability, but he had already affirmed that this Uchiha was insane. So, he let the man's nonchalant explanation on how he got the book slide. But on the tail end of that question came another.

"What's the name of it?"

Xevhiroth merely gave Zikito a look of 'can't you read?' as he tilted the book towards his chest to reveal the book's title:

Icha Icha Paradise

Zikito's jaw dropped a bit for a moment before he closed his eyes and waved his left hand in the air, merely giving a scoff.

"Oh. Smut." He said with a huff of annoyance.

"It's not smut." Xevhiroth said, raising his voice, to thoroughly address Zikito's statement.

"It is a romantic tale of the man's journey through this life of ours, in a long and arduous search to discover true love. This romance novel speaks to every man who has ever dared to love and invokes all men to follow their hearts, and to never be dismayed when they may fall." Xevhiroth said, all the while his arms making several exaggerated gestures and using them to convey what he felt on the subject.

Zikito pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head at the Uchiha's ramblings resisting every urge to vomit, and instead proceeded to fold his arms together as he rolled his eyes.

"Okay in the-"

Close

Zikito couldn't say another word as the Uchiha closed the book suddenly and stood up.

"Someone is coming." Xevhiroth said with finality that ended their previous conversation.

Zikito immediately turned to the open sliding door that led to the storage space but it was a futile effort. The sun had already gone down and the moon wasn't much help due the angle and its current phase. Except for where the two stood, the room was pitch-black in the stillness of the night. Reaching for his weapon scroll, he mentally ran through the building's layout to gauge where the enemy might come from:

The silo was old, the outside paint had nearly been completely removed by time, and the elements and the interior was just as bad. The dry rotted wood was everywhere and small holes from stress fractures were evident all around them. The whole silo had been built floor by floor and an outside staircase with a weight operated elevator system for heavy objects were along the western wall. Each floor had two rooms designed to store different objects and the other room's door was open leaving the hallway a classic fatal funnel. Zikito couldn't see or sense anything approaching as he wasn't a sensor ninja and neither was Xevhiroth. However, Xevhiroth did have the Sharingan, which gave the man rudimentary sensing capabilities and allowed him to see a person's chakra.

"What do you see?" Zikito asked in a lowered tone of voice.

"I saw a wave chakra coming into this room. I felt two presences within, but they vanished." Xevhiroth said in the same hushed whisper, his scythe wielding partner.

"Vanished?"

Xevhiroth didn't answer and Zikito didn't want to take his eyes off of the door, so instead he decided to ask another question.

"Anything outside?"

Zikito never blinked or even shifted his gaze, but he could tell that Xevhiroth was already checking.

"No."

Now fully paranoid and suspicious, Zikito decided to not waste more time and began to move forward toward the door, the floors layout still etched in his mind. His training in the ANBU paid off here as he noiselessly moved toward the door, a thin layer of sweat forming on his brow that made him register something else

The air was cool.

It was early in the year already, but it had been unseasonably warm these past few days, evident by just a few minutes ago when he was standing at the window the outside air was pretty warm. So, why was the interior of a storage silo cooler when the air outside was warm?

Zikito pushed the thought away as he neared the door's threshold, weapon scroll still in hand, and peeked around the corner but saw nothing from both directions. Zikito wanted to ask Xevhiroth if was losing it, but refrained from doing so.

'I am being hunted by a criminal syndicate with reach far beyond what the world knew and my only partner is an Uchiha. The Sharingan can usually stop most surprise attacks and I know him well enough. If he says something's there…'

Zikito looked back to Xevhiroth, who was silently moving forward as well.

"Huh?" Xevhiroth called out curiously, wondering what he just saw.

Zikito could barely see but he could hear clearly, a pause in his partner's footsteps and a word of surprise escaping his lips.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

A series of noises broke the silence as three objects pierced the wooded floor somewhere near Xevhiroth.

Crackle!

A sound like a fuse blowing was followed by an illumination of the room and a field of something surrounding Xevhiroth.

"What?" Zikito asked as he saw something fly in from outside the window, low and moving toward him fast.

"Damnit!" Zikito put his arms up to defend himself from the incoming blow that was sure to hit his torso, when he felt something press up against his legs. He couldn't turn his head back to see but whatever it was, it had caused him to tense his legs up and prepare for what was about to happen.

A hard kick connected to his forearms, not enough to break his guard but the added second kick did. Causing Zikito to, due to the force the incoming objects, off his feet and sailing into the opposite room. Landing on his back, Zikito used the momentum to flip himself back over and looked back just in time to see two figures duck into the room, Xevhiroth behind a lightning cage, and the doors out slam shut and a seal extend from the floor to the ceiling and along every wall in the room forming a virtual prison, trapping him inside along with two others.

Zikito didn't see anything in his view at all. Whatever had kicked him into this room was small and fast, too fast for him to get a good look at and if that wasn't bad enough, it had backup and his backup was behind in the opposite room unable to assist him in the least. His current surroundings were much the same as his last one; bare walls, a crate or two and pitch blackness. There were no windows on this side and any light had to come from the opposite room. In the end, he was alone, blind, and outnumbered but he was not willing to go down without a fight. Zikito inhaled sharply and unfurled the weapon scroll in his grip, summoned his scythe, and readied himself. That's when he saw a shadow move.

Zikito felt a quick strike along his right shoulder, coming from left to right, cutting into his flesh. Zikito felt a slight drag and nothing else, the person who did it moving too fast for him to defend against and Zikito only hit air when he followed with a reverse slash behind him. The same reaction followed when the second shadow struck his left leg, he felt the hit, swung his scythe but it failed to connect with anything but air. After the fourth attack that ended with fresh cuts on his upper torso and right arm, he decided to test something that he only noticed after the third one; he stood still as another hit landed on his left shoulder and this confirmed it. The smell of copper filled the air and a wet sensation reached his brain but surprisingly it only felt like a shallow cut, just barely deep enough to slice the blood vessels under the skin and nothing else.

'They're toying with me. Like a cat with a cornered mouse, they don't want to kill me, they want me to suffer and writhe in agony. They want to take pleasure in watching me squirm and try to hit them when they know I can't. If that's the case it can't be Unity, they would just kill me outright. Wait! Unity want's Xevhiroth and they have him captured in the other room. No. I can't let them take him. Need to get out of here.

Zikito began to draw his chakra into his scythe to use it to cast a jutsu to break through the wall, a simple water technique to-

"You gonna get me outta here or what?!" Zikito couldn't stop himself from just stopping entirely as another sensation of a blade being drawn across his abdomen and a simple 'huh?' from escaping his lips.

'What in the world?! Why is he still in there? Why haven't they moved him yet, and more importantly, what's with the attitude?'

"Why are you still in there?! No one's come for ya?! And there's kinda something in here trying to kill me!" Zikito yelled out.

"What are you talking about? I told you already. There were only two chakra's I saw, no more!" Xevhiroth shouted in reply. "They trapped me in a cage, so stop playing around and GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Zikito felt a rush of anger towards not only Xevhiroth's impatient tone, but also the fact that he thought Zikito was playing around.

"They put a seal on the door!" Zikito hissed out as yet another lightning fast strike hit his already bleeding left shoulder. "It's not like I can just open the door you know!"

"You're an ANBU right? You can just undo the seal and then you can release me from this cage."

Zikito gave a minor huff in annoyance as he tried to counter his unseen assailants again, but this time he only managed to block a direct strike to his head.

"Yeah, I'll do that as soon as I'm not being stabbed in the face!" Zikito yelled.

Zikito had been in more hazardous situations before in his time in the ANBU, but never in a cornered situation like this. Every time he tried to use a jutsu, not matter which or how fast it could be used, they were forcing him to defend his vital spots. Even using his scythe as a medium was impossible, they were forcing him to dodge and block simultaneously, and their strikes were becoming fiercer, aiming for vital spots at every turn now. His opponents may have been getting agitated or were just wanting to see him in a frenzy but as two more strikes landed. The first being a rising slash, managing to cut a few strands of his hair and the second grazing his cheek, he knew they were stepping up their game.

'Damnit! Either kill me or release me but don't waste my time with this bullshit!'

As if they were reading his thoughts, a shadow lunged from in front of him as he brought his scythe up and widened his stance.

CLASH

He caught the strike with the shaft of his scythe. The figure, still hidden by the low light, had brought it's weapon up in a frontal assault, to which Zikito needed very little of his strength to block. Cracking a grin, whomever it was had made a grave error, while he admitted his speed was the main reason they had the upper hand; their blows were weak, his were not. Bringing his scythe inward, the figure had to take a step forward-

BAM

-and Zikito thrust the shaft of his weapon into his opponents unprotected face.

"AHH!"

As a shrill cry reached his ears, that of a girl, the figure reeled back in pain. Zikito arched his scythe back for a downward right slash.

As he did this however, there was a sudden surge of pain cutting through Zikito's body. They had aimed for his legs this time, causing him to drop to one knee, as the pain seemed to only intensify. Slamming the bottom end of his scythe into the floor to keep himself up, the pain coming from his right leg was torrential. As much as he wanted to stand up, he couldn't. While the cut hadn't severed the hamstring, it missed maybe by a half inch, it had cut the muscle fairly deeply. If he allowed it to bleed it would more than likely end him. Zikito could no longer move and he knew his adversaries would exploit it. Still kneeling, using his weight to compress the wound, Zikito looked up because he thought he heard something-

-And though it was near pitch black, with only a foot or so being visible, he knew that there were two people standing in front of him.

"Now, we shall send you to hell, Hoshigaki!" A voice yelled out.

Zikito thought he was looking into the light of heaven, a brilliant flash illuminated everything-

BOOM!

-and then a deafening roar silenced everything, even Zikito's own heartbeat. His ears were ringing and he could only see white but he could still feel the pain from the cuts he had received in this struggle to stay alive. So he was still alive and in the world of the living but-

'What the hell was that?'

As if almost on cue, his blinded senses cleared as the light died and was replaced by bright orange glows, the smell of burning wood, and the crackle of flames. The two assailants were gone and a hole through the wall to Zikito's immediate left, with only the foliage of trees outside the silos newly acquired window.

'Okay, two things: First, Who the hell were they? Second, WHAT THE FUCK CAUSED THAT?!'

*Cough*

Hearing a cough, he turned his head in the opposite direction. Xevhiroth walked through the hole that now replaced the sealed door and waving away the smoke and steam coming off his armor.

"Well, that just happened." He said walking over to Zikito and he casually cast a glance to Zikito. "What happened to you?"

Zikito gave him the same look and spoke just as casually "Oh you know, outnumbered by people trying to kill me for whatever reason. Bleeding badly. The usual."

"So it seems. By the way…" Xevhiroth began, but paused and gestured behind himself as a section of the silo's upper floor gave and crushed the room just behind him. "This whole thing is falling apart, we may want to get out of here before it buries us. Can you walk?" he said pointing to Zikito's leg, blood seeping from his wound.

Zikito just reached into the pouch on his back, pulled out a pressure bandage, and tied it around his bleeding leg. He would inspect it later, hoping it would not worsen in the meantime and stood up, using his scythe to support himself.

"Let's go." He said. Xevhiroth made his way to him and helped out of the silo as the flames were quick to engulf the entire structure.

XxX

Engin felt only pain as she pushed herself up from the dirt. Each caused by several sources: The force of being thrown from a tall structure coupled with the hard landing, the sting from being hit by a massive wave of something that burned the exposed parts of her skin, and a headache from being hit in the face by that scum's scythe. And that last one hurt the most, if only to her pride. They were so close they were within reach of claiming vengeance on the man that destroyed their home, slaughtered their fellow villagers and friends, and stole their lives. He was in such a pathetic state: On the floor, his dirty blood flowing from various wounds inflicted by hers and her sister's blades, and his eyes looked up at them with the look of defeat. Another minute, another second and it would have been over.

'If we had just one more second, we would have killed him. If his partner hadn't saved him.'

"Unh."

Engin felt a surge of pain come from her right shoulder as a hand fell on it. Looking up, she saw her sister kneeling next to her. The same range of burns and scrapes on her clothes and skin were evident, but she didn't seem to notice them as her eyes seemed to be screaming. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She said, but her sister had already noticed that she was grimacing. Engin thought she had only some minor bruises but after Ingem had placed her hand on her shoulder it became apparent that her shoulder had been dislocated. She ignored the pain and asked her sister an important question.

"Is he still alive?"

Ingem looked off in one direction, which Engin followed-

-and saw that the silo that their target was hiding in was already engulfed in flames, smoke and heat radiating out to where they were, maybe 25 feet away. Engin wondered how she had not felt it before but pushed that out of her mind, as her sister spoke.

"Yes. Both he and his partner escaped."

Engin wanted to pursue him immediately because he was wounded and he would be an easy target. To let him escape now would be stupid and a blunder of epic proportions, there were three countries he could escape to and this may have been their only chance to-

"There'll be another time."

Engin looked at her sister, who suddenly spoke. Ingem glanced down at Engin, who gave her a look of reassurance as if to say 'he will not escape next time.' That's when she noticed something, thanks to the glow of the fire before them, a thin trickle of blood was coming from her sister's hairline. A reminder that the two were caught in the same blast and both were injured.

'Yes. We found him once and we can find him again.'

Engin stood up, the wounds she received were becoming numb in her mind as she stared into the flames, wishing that they were Zikito's funeral pyre but he didn't deserve such an honorable burial. The only thing he deserved was to die like the animal he was, crawling in the dirt, whimpering and howling in agony. Turning around, Engin began walking away, her sister following close behind. They would let him go for now, to lick his wounds and cower in the dark, fearing the next person who came upon him. He would not survive their next encounter, that was a promise.

'And your partner won't save you next time.'

Moving into the forest, Engin already had started thinking of ways to eliminate Zikito's partner from the equation….

XxX

-Two days later, Yu no Kuni, 0937-

Kick

Zikito kicked out the embers that remained in the small campfire Xevhiroth made last night, if only to word off insects, those little buggers had bitten up Zikito but good. He quickly swatted one off his neck as it started nibbling on him, groaning as he wiped the remains on his pants. Zikito's injury wasn't minor but not debilitating. The bandage, a fresh one, which now was wrapped around his right leg would be enough to last until they got to another town, hopefully one not controlled by Unity. He had been using his scythe as a walking stick to ease the use of his right leg, knowing full well that he had to use something else once they reached a town but he had that covered, he had multiple weapon scrolls. Being a master of several types, though his scythe was his favorite, he trained in not only bladed weapons but non-lethal ones too, such as the Bō staff.

But for now, his scythe would do. With the last wisps of smoke dissolving into the air, Zikito turned towards his partner. Xevhiroth, stood only a few feet away, as he was folding the sleeve on the plain black shirt he was wearing, the right one. He still didn't know how to wrap his head around the explanation he received about his escape, but that was one of the things he could top on the pile of things he didn't get about Xevhiroth…

-Flashback-

-Two days earlier, Yu no Kuni, 2230

Zikito could feel the blood sticking to the side of leg, the sensation of dried blood was nothing he couldn't put out his mind. This wasn't the first time he had a severe leg wound and that time it was far worse. He held the pressure bandage with right hand, his scythe was gripped in his left hand, which was over Xevhiroth's shoulder as the two jumped from tree branch to tree branch. Because his partner was several inches shorter, so he had to bend his knees to match footfalls but then that made compressing the wound easier. They had been at it for ten minutes already, creating as much distance as possible, Zikito used his scythe to channel his chakra into a slight breeze to scatter the leaves to mask their direction of travel. Being an ANBU, trackers used any means to help them find a target and most people fleeing an attack often did so without thinking; running on the ground, breaking through shrubs or jumping on tree limbs like they were doing. Either way, it left behind some indication of direction of travel and they had already been found once, now he was going to take a few precautions to ensure that they would not be found so easily next time. Zikito looked behind them: He could no longer see the fire and there was nothing following them, but that didn't mean jack to him.

'Rule one: Never leave a trail. Rule two: If you think you are far enough, put another two kilometers between you and the enemy.'

It was a simple logic that all covert operations had to adhere to, something that was needed now. Zikito turned his attention to Xevhiroth, whom had his right arm raised to shield his eyes from the wind.

"How did you get out of that trap?" Zikito finally asked.

"I-I don't actually. I was hearing you fighting and I had no way to get out. So I closed my eyes to think, how could I break through this barrier with nothing to pierce it? I took a deep breath and…when I opened my eyes, I wasn't there anymore, I was elsewhere and…I saw a man running at me. He was about eye-level with me and had spiky silver hair, wearing a flack jacket. He had the Konoha headband and one of his eyes was the same as mine; the Sharingan, you called it."

Zikito simply looked on as he described the man, he turned away, as his was jaw gaping and his thoughts running faster than Xevhiroth was but instead of asking what he wanted to, he said.

"You still have answered my question."

Xevhiroth merely smiled and continued, as he pushed off a branch with his passenger.

"He was running at me with his right imbued with chakra and he thrust it into my face but as he did he said something, I think it was the name of the technique: Raikiri. And when I blinked, I was back behind that wall so I just copied the technique I saw and –Boom- blow out the barrier."

-End of Flashback-

*Snap*

Zikito heard a sharp snapping sound, bringing him back to reality. He knew what it was, it was his partner's signature way of getting people's attention and ending genjutsus snapping his fingers.

"Ready?" Zikito asked. To which Xevhiroth only gave a nod. Raising a hand, Zikito formed a sign, Xevhiroth followed suit.

-poof-

And the two disappeared.

-A modest town, Yu no Kuni, 1255-

"Ugh!"

Zevela let out an exasperated sigh, as she threw her hands in the air almost surrendering to the feeling of defeat she had been trying to hold back since yesterday, after her last lead turned out to be a dead end and a massive waste of time. She had been searching through town after town in Yu no Kuni for five, now going on six, days. Chasing after clues, tracking down sightings, and running around an entire nation for one man. And she was no closer to finding her target than she was when she left Amegakure. After her latest lead turned out to be a dead-end, she thought she hit pay dirt, rumors spread that the Uchiha was responsible for a village being torched to the ground and though she picked up a trail that brought her to the town she currently stood in, she was the only one to pass through its gates in the past week.

'I trekked this far, combing through hours of leads and false clues, and just when I think I'm close to finding my target, it turns that I took a wrong turn.'

Though this town wasn't the only one out this way, there was another that was told about on a guidepost. Both were about the same size, and were the same distance from the border, her intuition told that this was the town that he would come to. Zevela's intuition was rarely wrong, it had saved her life on more than one occasion, dodging traps left behind by paranoid targets to taking an extra step away from an explosive tag she placed on a wall; it served her well. It had come to the point where she trusted her intuition more than anything else, but it seems like the old adage was true, your instinct may be rarely wrong but it still can be.

Growl

Zevela stopped walking when her stomach moaned in its empty state, begging her to eat, which she hadn't done yet today. Reaching into her bag, she was mortified to see that it was empty, she had already eaten the last of her rations.

"Ugh!"

Zevela let out a moan of annoyance be

cause she was starving and had nothing to eat. Reaching into her wallet, she found that she maybe had just enough to buy an instant meal. And as luck would have it, she was passing by a shop as she looked around. Without even breaking stride she walked through the door.

-ding-

The shop's telltale ding told the clerk that someone was entering. Zevela heard a kind female greeter shout from the back, out of sight of the door but not hearing range.

"Welcome! I'll be with you in a moment."

"Okay!" Zevela responded in kind.

Taking a minute to look around from the counter, Zevela saw a number of things for sale, most being small snacks, nothing that would fill her empty stomach. Walking down an aisle with a number of instant noodle products, she crouched down and began to peruse her options, when the store bell chimed again to signify someone entering. Zevela stood up and let out a gasp in surprise.

Then, she lowered her head quickly, as the greeter who had come out from the back welcomed the newcomers. The black haired huntress noticed that one of them was the Uchiha she had been hunting all over Yu no Kuni for. "Jackpot." Zevela whispered to herself, as a grin slowly formed on her face already planning on how to capture her target.

BTW the technique that trapped Xevhiroth was Lightning Release: Thunder Binding.