Crane and Raven are back on their feet, unleashing a ferocious onslaught of sword thrusts, swipes, and verbal abuse. The Marine Contra evades and diverts their blades; a dramatic increase in the Anbu's speed and precision forces him to retreat. 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 behinds, but I gotta turn and burn, suckers!"

"You're not going anywhere! You depraved little minx!" the Anbu captain roars, lunging at Jimi. Crane and Raven are but a hair's breadth away from him; too late do they realize what the fugitive means by turn and burn, for he does just that. Jim yelps as the 'rear detonation' flips him forward through the broken one-way window.

The fireball sends Raven and Crane tumbling midair, 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 that line 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 an apocalyptic insurrection during the last Continental War. The invasion is swift and covert. At Witching Hour, SCAF (Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces) commandos seize strategic checkpoints and supply lines along the borders. They disrupt vital communications networks and render critical infrastructure nonfunctional by 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. They carve deep into the metropolitan area, block by block, building by building. 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, the fortress-like town capitulates before the bulk of its defense force can mobilize.

END FLASHBACK

Jim sighs, walking towards the courtyard's center, shifting over 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 himself.

Jim 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.

"Keep your hands where they are!"

"Don't move a muscle, Malkhaz!"

Jim senses Raven's unmasked face within a hair's breadth of his own. His mind races, figuring out what's what, wondering, 'Why didn't they just attack from the get-go?'

"Open your eyes."

Then it dawns on him, 'Ain't no doubt about it; I'm dealin' with one of THEM...' Jim squeezes his eyelids tighter, knowing one glimpse is all it takes. "No."

"Open your damn eyes," Raven demands.

"I refuse, Uchiha!" Jim resorts to using another genjutsu on himself, manipulating his cerebral nervous system's chakra flow to counteract the Anbu captain's visual prowess, 'C'mon, just a little more...'

The Uchiha chuckles, "I know you're stalling, Malkhaz. Which is fine, but you're only delaying the inevitable."

'YES! I've done it! Touch the barrier! I double-dog dare you!'

"We'll get those eyelids open, one way or another," Crane threatens, transmuting the sapphire hue around his hand into a Chakra Scalpel.

Jim strains to suppress his snickering as he charges an enigmatic jutsu, 'Ninja Art: Cascading Crescendo!'

"What's so funny, Malkhaz? We caught you; it's over! If you so much as twitch in a way I don't like…"

'Oh, give me a break.' In less than a fraction of a second, Jim cups the Anbu captain's chin with his hand, slightly lifting her head.

"RRMPH!?" Raven's eyes widen like saucers; her face flushes beet red. Crane's jaw hits the floor.

The Medical-nin swipes his chakra blade at the base of Jim's scalp; the Anbu captain swings a right hook as hard and fast as possible, aiming at his jaw. Instead of a prompt decapitation or that satisfying impact of her knuckles concaving Jim's face, the Anbu's vicious assault collides with an electric current. A thunderous shockwave surges electricity through Crane 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, losers!" Jim cackles, rocketing in the air with tremendous force. He sways around the suspension walkways and steel girders in his trajectory. The war criminal's momentum subsides; he leans back, ascending onto a support beam, then sticks to its surface using his chakra. Raven and Crane charge after him, desiring nothing but to rip out his intestines with their bare hands; adding insult to injury, a familiar weapon slides 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 a Uchiha isn't fast enough—all their eyes will uncover is inescapable death before it happens.'

Raven recognizes that sword, wondering, 'When and how did that insufferable wretch loot Hawk's body?' It dawns on her like a harsh slap. 'The Byakugan is again in enemy hands,' the hair on her neck stands on end. Imagining another Marine Contra with those eyes is enough to give Raven goosebumps. 'Under no circumstances can I allow that scenario to occur; Malkhaz's too dangerous to be left alive!' she concludes.

Jim releases a cluster of explosive tags, "Can you avoid this?"

"Incoming!" Crane warns.

With professional accuracy and precision, Raven and Crane demonstrate their proficiency using thrown weapons by diverting the explosives. The volley of Senbon Needles (some with Jim's tags sticking to them) forces him to evade. The assassins follow up with a barrage of projectile-based ninjutsu (ninja techniques). Jim takes cover behind a wall, preventing himself from suffering third-degree burns or being cut to shreds via Water Release: Falling Rain Needles.

They surge up the stairwell after Jim, tossing Shuriken and senbon as he dodges and deflects the inbound fusillade with Hawk's sword. The fugitive uses Teleportation Jutsu to gain some distance; at intervals, he tosses debris wrapped with explosive tags over his shoulders like fragmentation grenades. The Anbu maneuvering around the explosives slows them down, allowing him to stay ahead. He flips a Red Zetsu over the railing, beheads two more, then slaps active explosive tags on their backs before kicking them down at the Anbu.

Crane and Raven avert the headless abominations tumbling down the stairs; the explosive tags explode, splattering bloody chunks and debris everywhere. Jim slides across the floor, flipping another Red Zetsu in the air like a rotting burger patty. He tosses the flesh-eating ghoul down the stairwell, knocking Raven off a guardrail. Crane catches her before swinging the flailing kunoichi around, using his momentum to throw her back at the fugitive. 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 him over the railing. He sticks an explosive tag on a kunai before throwing it and landing on a bridge. The assassins vanish before the explosive detonates; they reappear behind Jim with their blades ready. The Anbu captain swipes at his throat but misses; he Backhand-Springs, avoiding another swing at his jugulars from Crane.

"I have you now!" Jim teleports away. Explosions destabilize the bridge columns; Raven and Crane leap onto a giant chandelier, escaping from the collapsing platform as they swing onto the next floor. The mass murderer 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!" Crane throws more senbon in response. Jim dives into a closet, preventing himself from becoming a pincushion, then slams the door.

Raven and Crane 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. The Contra opens a door, then ducks a volley of Shuriken. He darts back to the previous room with the Anbu trailing him, door to door, room to room, looming ever closer. Jim emerges from another door but hides behind it this time. Crane and Raven charge out of the room past him and into the next.

Jim snickers, "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, hounding after the fugitive. His eyes widen. He dashes up the hallway and around the corner with his 'butt-cheek clenching' factor blaring furiously. Raven and Crane 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 Red Zetsu horde hot on his heels. He follows the teenagers and their dog, running out one door to another. Rather than entering, the war criminal holds open the door, allowing the cannibalistic fiends to stream in after them. He locks the door, mumbling, "meddling kids," then hides in an adjacent room. The Anbu dash up the halls and freeze near the intersection.

"Hold on; I've seen this before," Crane 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 leap back; on cue, a large piano falls out of nowhere, crashing through the floor, squishing a random Red Zetsu. Jim dashes back up the hallway, jumping out a window and shattering it. The Anbu captain nods sagely at Crane before leaping out the window after the fugitive. Raven and Crane race up the glass panes, evading and deflecting the kunai and Shuriken hurtling at them.

Jim electrifies a kunai before throwing 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. Crane and Raven approach the top of the skyscraper, increasing their speed. They reach the rooftops before the final glass pane shatters behind them.

Standing on a ledge, a silhouette with large pupil-less white eyes stares at Raven and Crane. Lightning flashes across the sky; the crimson moonlight glints from 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."