"Earth Release: Gormandizing Grime Gap!" Jimi's foot taps the ground; the surface deteriorates into a bubbling viscid mass, swallowing the headless abominations in seconds.

The mass murderer stumbles upon two silhouettes hunching in a shadowy corner, biting and tearing into a motionless figure. Jim makes two sharp clicks with his lips, drawing their attention. The second the Red Zetsu's skulls align, a metal pipe impales them against a brick wall. Yet, they continue reaching for him with a fanatic desire to consume his flesh. He inspects the burnt corpse sprawled in blood and broken glass. Bite wounds are everywhere, an arm is missing, and the internal organs are mangled and exposed.

The war criminal scoffs, "What a happy meal," the carcass appears female; her charred attire consists of a steel-grey Flak Jacket, black pants, and boot-like sandals. Though damaged, the animal-style porcelain mask is unmistakable, 'what!? I trapped them in the sewers! I watched those things pile on top of them!' Jim surmises the kunoichi is from the Great Shinobi Countries, 'Anbu can mean a handful of Hidden Villages. Even fewer can project military influence across an ocean. All of them, bad news.' He sighs, 'Getting rid of ninjas will be troublesome, but surviving's my main priority, at least for now.'

Jim grasps the dead kunoichi's neck; the anatomical features sink. Her skin pales as she shrivels like a raisin, 'There's not much left to absorb, but it's enough to mitigate the beginning stages of chakra exhaust...' The kunoichi's bloodshot eyes open, stunning him. She clutches his throat, pulling him closer, "Gasp!? Awk! Gak!" he chokes, struggling to escape the kunoichi's death grip.

Jim yanks a piece of rebar protruding from a concrete wall, then shoves it through her shoulder to free himself. She shrieks in pain; the fugitive escapes using the Body Flicker Technique (Teleportation/Shunshin no Jutsu). The two abominations break free from the brick wall, resuming their feast. A nearby group of mutants dogpile upon the kunoichi, cursing at the war criminal in Japanese.

Jim's heart races with adrenalin, yet he breathes without strain in a full sprint. Silent and agile, Jim stalks the alleyways, avoiding the Red Zetsus if possible. He immobilizes them from behind or above before disappearing into the shadows if necessary. After an interval of surreptitious progression, the mass murderer pivots before taking a few steps up a wall and backflips onto a fire escape platform.

Storm clouds smother the crimson sky, consuming the blood moons; lightning surges across the heavens, giving life to a brewing storm. Thunder returns the lightning's call, rattling a dim hallway's windowpanes; a Red Zetsu shuffles in front of an open window, dragging its foot/tentacle behind. Lightning flashes across the heavens; Jim appears in the window and yanks the abomination out the opening like a ragdoll. Thunder rumbles in the distance, suppressing its boisterous impact into a wall. The mutant face plants on the platform's railing before tumbling into the gloomy abyss. He climbs into the skyscraper and closes the window.

Fluorescent lights flicker in the corridors, revealing the shedding paint along the grimy walls. Water and steam leak from the pipes; 'the air smells damp and like death.' A dark figure appears down the halls. Jim draws a kunai but realizes it's his reflection in a cracked mirror. Yet, in the mirror across the window, a silhouette with glowing eyes stares from the glass. He reaches for a pocket on his flak jacket, cautious of the ravenous cannibal stalking for potential prey.

He ties conductive wire to the kunai before wedging it below the window's metal frame above his head. He fastens the other end of the wire to a shuriken, then flicks it into a power socket. A current surges inside the metal, binding the mutant to the frame; the stench of burning flesh permeates the air. Jim pries the red-hot kunai upward with his boot, dislodging the window. The shuriken flies from the outlet, hitting the flesh-eating ghoul's forehead before it tumbles off the skyscraper.

Jim creeps past the dim hallway, approaching an intersection with a kunai ready. Around the juncture, the Red Zetsus gather near a bookshelf obstructing his path. He climbs atop the shelves, then crawls toward the archive's main office. A glance below leads to a full-on double-take. Small oriental eyes streaming with tears burn into his corrupt soul; furthermore, the eyes begin following him.

Though incapable of screaming, the small boy is alone, helpless, and gasping in agony. More Red Zetsus converge upon the young Anbu, but Jim uses the opportunity to reach his objective. He checks his surroundings before entering a pitch-black room. Jim may not have a Dōjutsu (eye techniques) or a useable Bloodline Limit but has other ways of navigating the darkness.

Jim tiptoes past an infestation of stray cats with a kunai and flashlight. After petting a few felines, Jim proceeds to the primary office with curious new friends following him. He searches the desks and file cabinets, finding a box of rifle ammunition. The fugitive uncovers a functioning computer terminal in a corner, then a locker he opens via console command.

Two cats lunge at him, intending to use his face as a scratching post, but Jim's training kicks in, and he ducks. The first cat slams into a wall; the other crashes out a window, yowling as it falls from several stories to its death. Dozens of blood-soaked inhuman extremities smash through the walls.

"STUPID ASS FUCKIN' KITTY!"

The cat hisses in response before lunging at the war criminal again; nevertheless, a tentacle breaches the stone wall, yanking the feline through. Jim grabs a binder, a bolt action rifle, and a suppressor from the locker, then leaps out the broken window. He swings from a flagpole onto a wall, clinging to its surface using his chakra. An abrupt symphony of stray cats screaming bloody murder soon addresses his hypothesis for why the vile abominations are not in pursuit.

Anbu 13 Alpha – PAST

The Anbu barge into their safe house, fatiguing and low on chakra. Surviving becomes their prime objective with diminishing morales and most of their squad dead or missing in action.

"Hawk, Parrot—secure the windows! Everyone else, barricade the entrances and grab any available supplies," the Anbu captain orders. "Command, this is Alpha Squad—Respond!" she calls into her transceiver.

"Anything, Raven?" Parrot asks, igniting a dim flair to alleviate the stark lightlessness.

Raven adjusts the frequency and volume on her transceiver, "No, nothing. We're on our own," she deadpans.

Hawk raises his index and middle finger at eye level, curling the rest into his palm. The veins near the Hyūga's eyes and temples bulge, "Byakugan!" Focusing his telescopic vision, he scans a large concentration of mutants gathering in the streets, "Those… things are inbound towards our rendezvous point with Delta Squad."

"Those zombies must've spotted them," Pelican suggests.

"Negative, they're pursuing someone," Hawk replies, catching everyone's attention.

"If it's that wretched Syndi harlot who trapped us in the sewers, I get first dibs!" Sparrow rants, chaining the door handles, "I'll use Malkhaz's intestines as a noose after disemboweling her alive!"

Hawk deactivates his Byakugan, "You may not have that opportunity if Mantis's squad apprehends her first…"

An enormous fireball engulfs the fuel depot; flames erupt onto the streets, incinerating everything. The explosion brightens the night sky; shockwaves rattle, then shatter the windows. The Anbu stand silent as the chaos unfolds. The Red Zetsus pound on the barricades as the two by four in the door handles fragment, almost breaking the chains. Mangled, bloodied limbs/tentacles breach the opening and burst through the walls. Crane, Pelican, and Raven reinforce the double steel doors with a sofa.

"How do they keep finding us!?" Pelican yelps, trying to hide the fear in his voice.

"Beats me," Crane huffs, struggling to keep the cannibalistic fiends from rushing in, "Regardless, our safe house is compromised—we can't stay here any longer."

"There's an alley three blocks down we can fall back to and cut Malkhaz off at the pass…"

FLASHBACK NO-JUTSU

At his wit's end, he severs the torso's hand and pries its smoldering fingers from his ankle, yet the hand continues grabbing at him. Jim chucks it off in the distance.

END FLASHBACK

A black blur speeds through the air outside.

Sparrow rushes toward the window, "And Malkhaz'll take it up the a—"

"Sparrow, watch out!" Hawk warns, but to no avail. The window shatters; darkness engulfs Sparrow's vision as slimy rotting flesh latches onto her mask.

"Aaargh!" Sparrow thrashes about, convulsing on the floor, "Get it off! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!"

Parrot rushes to assist the flailing kunoichi, "Hold still, dang it!" He breaks the severed hand's thumb before throwing and impaling it against a wall with a kunai, "The thing's still twitching, you know!"

"Try not to think about it! We must leave while we can!" Hawk advises. The flesh-eating ghouls breach the floor and ceiling, forcing the Anbu to escape out the windows. Hawk, a combat engineer, leaves behind a timed fuel-air explosive. An explosive charge bursts open the soda-can-sized container, dispersing a fuel cloud that mixes with the atmospheric oxygen. A second charge detonates the cloud, creating a massive pressure wave, obliterating the mutants. He lands near his comrades as smoldering remains plummet around them.

Hawk uses his Byakugan with a 20cm High-Velocity Penetrator: a weapons-grade Handheld Kunai Launcher that fires 20cm blades with enough force to nail targets to almost any adjacent surface. He fends off the endless waves of aggressors, maiming and dismembering each Red Zetsu with an expert marksman's skill and precision. However, the severed body parts retain mobility, sometimes mutating or joining into hideous flesh and bone abominations. The Hyūga's flight/fight response increases his heart rate, flooding him with adrenaline. He struggles to remain calm and steady his hand while replacing the ammunition Scroll/magazine for his weapon.

Raven tries again, establishing radio contact with the ASF (Allied Shinobi Forces), "Command, this is Alpha Squad! The situation's far worse than imagined, and we request an immediate EVAC!"

Sparrow throws a handful of explosives at the mutants advancing from a petrol station, then ducks behind a concrete traffic barrier. The explosion annihilates the structure and the abominations within the blast radius, "Command, you must evacuate us ASAP! Get us out of here—Argh!" A charred Red Zetsu grabs her; she smashes the zombie-like creature's skull with her weapon's shoulder stock before decapitating it with a bayonet. Yet, the mutant continues shuffling after her, "Keep your rotting hands to yourself!" she roars before further dismembering the abomination.

"We can't hold out much longer; they're about to overrun us! Command, if you're even listening, we need an extraction immediately!"

Struggling past the oncoming hoards, the Anbu secure a strong signal and hear an enigmatic transmission in their receivers. A cryptic voice speaks in a cold, ominous tone, "Alpha Squad. Come in—over."

"Alpha Squad, reporting—what's left of us," Raven answers.

"Your request for extraction is acknowledged; however, the Barrier Ninjutsu impeding our armies still must be disabled. Therefore, the mission parameters remain unchanged! You are to eliminate the target by any means necessary, secure a DNA sample, and deliver it to me at the…" Static interference interrupts the signal.

Raven adjusts the frequency of her transceiver. Still, the transmission is choppy at best, breaking between sentences. The signal dies before she can decipher the broken message. Again, the Anbu are left without contact with the outside world and fending for themselves. The mutants persist in their unrelenting assault, closing in from all angles.

"Captain, did Tobirama just tell us to get stuffed?" Sparrow inquires.

Raven sighs, "Pretty much."

With the Anbu's ammunition and supplies depleting, they use Ninjutsu and Kinjutsu (Forbidden Techniques) with enough destructive force to level a city block. The devastation slows the mutants down, allowing the Anbu to retreat before the abominations emerge from the burning rubble. They escape via the city's vast network of tunnels and alleyways but stumble across a traumatic spectacle that renders them aghast with vacant stares. The vile abominations bite and tear into the Delta Squad captain's entrails as she cries and gasps for air.

The veins near Hawk's eyes bulge; he charges forward, Byakugan blaring, "Eight Trigrams, One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms!" The Hyūga lands behind the mutants, unleashing his Gentile Fist Technique. Blood and limbs erupt in a gory fountain around him, with not a spec of it staining his military fatigues.

The sounds of flesh tearing and bones breaking cease as the Red Zetsus fall at Hawk's feet; however, the dismembered abominations are back on their feet within seconds and lunge at him, "Eight Trigrams! Palm Rotation!" The mutants explode in a whirlwind of blood and gore like tomatoes in a blender; the whirling chakra barrier around the Hyūga diminishes, and the carnage subsides.

Tears stream down Mantis's face as she gurgles blood. Crane is unsure if she is screaming in agony or trying to communicate. Regardless, Mantis falls unconscious before he can clear her airways. Though Crane is a hardened war veteran, it bewilders him how someone with missing limbs and intestines hanging outside their body is even alive. 'The rebar rammed into her shoulder is no help either.' Despite his vast medical knowledge, he can't make heads or tails of the situation.

"Can anything be done to ease her suffering?" Raven asks.

Crane's eyebrows raise. His mind wonders at the possibility of several worst-case scenarios, 'Is this the result of Project: Red Falcon!?' He contemplates, lost in thought.