Shadow clone's perspective
Jimi's shadow clone camouflages itself within the ruins of a rundown apartment complex using genjutsu. With the Anbu unaware of its presence, the clone surveys its prime target's relative position from Jim's approximate line of sight, 'Can the round continue its trajectory through the initial target? Will it travel within the other's skull and impact the tertiary target's center mass?' The imitation grows anxious; seconds seem like an eternity as it maintains its illusion, anticipating the moment to strike. In an instant, the temperature plunges while a deafening silence enshrouds the alleyway.
Layers of palpable tension, unspoken hate, and betrayal saturate the air before a tsunami of killing intent washes over the Anbu. Though ineffective against Jōnin being no more than a slight annoyance, the diversion prevents the Anbu from noticing Mantis opening her eyes. A gut-wrenching death scream shatters the deafening silence like an animal caught in a predator's jaws as fear and white-hot agony sear Crane into near unconsciousness. Blood and chunks of flesh splatter the side of Parrot's mask; a round grazes the top of his head before tearing off Pelican's arm.
"Aaargh! My arm!" Pelican screams, gripping the bloody stump where his arm hangs from the bicep by a few tatters of flesh.
"Sniper! Get down!" Raven warns.
This sudden turn of events astonishes Jim's shadow clones. From the radio room to the rundown apartment complex and the opposing skyscraper from the original, they watch in disbelief at an inconceivable SNAFU unfolding before their eyes. At the worst possible moment, the dead kunoichi reanimates and attacks one of the Anbu, causing the rest to react and the round to be off trajectory by centimeters.
'Hmm, a rather interesting turn of events,' the shadow clone observes the developing circumstances amongst the ensuing chaos. Despite a one-shot three kills opportunity slipping through Jim's fingers, he neutralizes his target and wounds another. The clone's proximity and experience enable it to speculate and differentiate the specialties of each enemy operative. Given the Anbu's varying attire, armor, weapons, and equipment, its suspicions lie on the likelihood of at least two or three being Medical-nin.
Although a slight deviation from the intentional outcome, Jim's Shadow Clone Insurgency exceeds his expectations. The mutant kunoichi succeeding in infecting one of them is just icing on the cake. The assassins vanish in less than a second; the doppelganger makes its move. It stalks the cold, uninviting gap between derelict buildings, cautious of the potential dangers. The howling winds do little to suppress the undead moans in the distance, yet the clone stays in the shadows, mindful of the Anbu nearby.
The red hue of the twin moons unveils a dangerous miscalculation in Jim's Shadow Clone Insurgency. The operation in jeopardy prompts haste over the clone as it races to salvage its failure; however, the replicate suspects its purpose may be a lost cause. 'Can I prevent the infection from reaching the eyes if I sever the head?' Before the Red Zetsu can infect the Hyūga's body, a ricocheting bullet, then flesh and bone torn asunder, derails the doppelganger's train of thought.
Gone are the Red Zetsu's upper and lower jaw; all that remains are bone fragments and tatters of flesh where the tongue now hangs out from the neck. Which does nothing to deter the mutant kunoichi as it tries to consume the corpse without a mouth. The clone attempts to drag the body away; instead, a tug-of-war ensues as both contenders vie over-leverage for their ghoulish prize.
"Grr!" the shadow clone growls through its gritted teeth—the duplicate tugs on the dead Hyūga's arm, unaware of the round fragmenting the spine. 'C'mon!' too little, too late does it notice the baseball-size entry wound on the corpse broadening, 'Let... Go! Darn, it!' With a final chakra-enhanced pull and the Red Zetsu's inhuman strength pulling in opposing directions—the torso ruptures.
"Oh, how quaint," the clone deadpans as the Hyūga's internal organs slosh on the ground; it can almost feel the collective facepalming of its shadow clone brethren. It moves to retrieve the rest of the corpse but halts in its tracks. The replicate's blood (assuming it has any) runs cold, not at the arm or mirror easing from the window above but at the mirror's reflection. Red bioluminescent eyes distinguish themselves from the two silhouettes residing in the darkness.
A round shatters the mirror, a hair's breadth away from a disastrous blunder; a chill shoots up the shadow clone's spine the second it recognizes that three-tomoe pattern within those unholy eyes. The duplicate sits against the wall, with its heart pounding. It eavesdrops on the Anbu as they re-evaluate their strategy. 'Somehow that Uchiha is aware of both sniper's exact locations!'
'Nonetheless, this dreadful revelation should be unsurprising given my firsthand experience of what the Sharingan can do on a bad day.' The shadow clone shudders, recalling the constant Uchiha incursions upon the colonies and fending away the random Susanoo specters that appear. In gruesome detail, it overhears how the Anbu plan to kill their target in the most agonizing way possible before escaping and warning the ASF about the outbreak.
With the Anbu's scheming concluding, the shadow clone wonders 'if seizing the lower half of the Hyūga's body without drawing attention is possible.' It considers snatching the lower half and making a break for it, but 'carrying both halves will be messy and cumbersome.'
A chain-link gate swings open, alerting the doppelganger. The haunting groans of the undead draw nearer; the crows fly away from them, approaching the subsequent alleyway. The shadow clone shoves the Hyūga's internal organs into an old garbage bag. Several smoke bombs fly from the windows, and ruined sections of the walls then explode, releasing a diversionary smokescreen. 'It's now or never!' Seizing the opportunity, it punts the mutant kunoichi into a cluster of metal garbage cans, grabs the lower half of the Hyūga's corpse, and flees.
After reaching a somewhat safe location, the replicate sits both halves of the body against a wall, careful not to spill the intestines from the lower half. It scavenges the carcass for supplies and finds a storage scroll to preserve the body. During the sealing procedure, the clone hears voices no more than a meter from its hiding spot. It peers behind the wall, noticing a few figures within the smoke.
"It was just here. Where did it go!?"
"There's no way those things could've gotten to Hawk's carcass already."
"We would've heard something if that were the case, right?"
"Did anyone, though?"
"Maybe that jarhead got up and walked off somewhere by himself?"
"You mean… like Captain Mantis!?"
"What? It's plausible; besides, I'd rather not stick around and find out, don't you know!"
"Sparrow, where's Parrot?"
Screaming disrupts the silence; the call for help is stifled and strangled, but all the more ear bleeding. The Anbu break into teams of two and beeline toward the disturbance. The shadow clone finishes sealing the dead Hyūga inside the storage scroll without distraction. After securing its objective, hoarse breathing from an emaciated corpse dragging against the ground draws the duplicate's attention.
Jim's shadow clone chuckles at the mutant kunoichi's persistence as it crawls closer from around the corner. The doppelganger remembers the undead Anbu without its mask; its long platinum-blond hair and porcelain skin is hard to overlook, 'Staff Sargent Yamanaka!? What a rather depressing sight to behold. A once-proud Anbu captain who's risen through the ranks by sheer merit alone is now nothing more than a mindless rotting corpse slithering in the mud.'
"Well, aren't you a miserable piece of…" the zombified Yamanaka lunges at Jim's shadow clone, "Argh! Get off me!" The Red Zetsu's tongue flails around without direction. A perpetual air intake akin to a vacuum emanates from its throat. The imitation thrashes about, struggling to escape the flesh-eating ghoul, pulling itself closer for reasons the clone dares not wish to fathom. Despite the mutant's eye-opening speed and freakish strength, the replicate overpowers and restrains the abomination. "Even in death, you still find ways to annoy me, repulsive nympho!"
An immense alteration in pressure from a sudden chakra depletion almost withers the Red Zetsu to nonexistence. The zombie-like creature's bones implode, then splinter as heat accumulates. The instant the residual chakra leaves the Yamanaka's body, the abomination bursts into brilliant blue chakra flames, forcing Jim's shadow clone to step back. This shocking display stuns the duplicate into silence. It stares at the smoldering ash pile in disbelief, questioning if the sight before its eyes is genuine.
All too eager to dispel itself and pass the information onto the original, the shadow clone pauses, remembering it still has another task to complete. The doppelganger removes an empty storage scroll from the Hyūga's 20cm HV Penetrator. A quick examination reveals vast improvements over the previous design, impressing the clone, 'Huh, this must be the ASF's new A3 model. The handheld kunai launcher has a decent pistol grip, adjustable shoulder stock, iron sights, and a Picatinny rail system. Too bad there are no custom sights. Then again, why would a Hyūga need any?'
Jim's shadow clone crouches on a dumpster, crossing its index and middle fingers over one another, targeting a kunai on the ground, "Multi-Shadow Kunai Jutsu!"
Without smoke or sound, thousands of razor-sharp blades phase into existence, overflowing the alleyway. The imitation steers clear of the kunai filling the alley and tosses the storage scroll into the black metal sea. After a brief sequence of hand seals, a vortex appears, pulling the blades into the scroll like a bathtub drain. The alleyway is clear in less than a minute; the shadow clone grabs the storage scroll and loads it into the handheld launcher.
"Hello, beautiful. I will—COCK you gently," Jim's clone pulls back the charging/summoning handle, chambering a kunai; an analog designator displays a six-figure ammunition count on the weapon. A Red Zetsu stumbles into the alley; a volley of chakra-conducting metal surges at the abomination, crucifying it against a brick wall. Another unlucky mutant wanders by but suffers a similar fate.
More Red Zetsus stream into the alleyway toward the shadow clone. Limbs, tentacles, and other unrecognizable inhuman extremities burst from the soft soil; the zombie-like creatures arise from the ground like cockroaches surrounding the duplicate. It dives through a nearby broken wall section before smashing a mutant's jaw with the 20cm HV Penetrator's shoulder stock—a full-auto barrage of cold steel rains down upon the horde bottlenecking the staircase.
The doppelganger tries holding its ground, but the flesh-eating ghouls continue their unrelenting advance, forcing it back. They shatter the windows, rush into the rooms, and flank Jim's shadow clone. The replicate sticks an explosive tag on a kunai, then throws it at the cluster of abominations clogging the staircase before darting up the next floor. The explosion buys the imitation time to subdue a mutant rushing out of a closet, then absorbs the abomination's chakra without restraint.
"Get fuck fried fuckin' freak fuck!" the cannibalistic fiend implodes, then ignites. The shadow clone crosses its index and middle fingers over one another, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" A second shadow clone phases into existence; however, its weapon is dysfunctional, "Oh, come on! Why couldn't I copy the launcher!?"
"Forget about it!" the second clone says. A sword slides into the duplicate's hand from its sleeve, "Let's just get out of here!" In the blink of an eye, it blitzes a Red Zetsu rushing down a corridor. Both halves of the abomination separate down the middle yet continue dragging themselves along the floor. The doppelganger exhibits inhuman agility and responsiveness as it carves a swath past the flanking mutants. Every cut or motion is clean, swift, precise, and without hesitation. Like an elegant dance of mutilation and savagery, "K to the I to the A, zom-bitch!" Back to back, both shadow clones fight their way through the war-torn skyscraper, ascending higher past the forlorn blood vapor.
"They're swarming; watch out!" the first shadow clone warns. An endless stream of chakra conducting metal dismembers, punctures, or pins every Red Zetsu in its trajectory against the floors, walls, and ceiling. The replicate takes full advantage of its environment. It uses the 20cm HV Penetrator to set off explosive barrels and gas lines to collapse weaker sections of the floor or ceiling to crush and blockade the horde. Even with an absurd munitions capacity, fending off the mutants is like attempting to extinguish an ever-encroaching wildfire with a garden hose, "Hey! Is it weird for a shadow clone to have an erection!?"
"It'd only be weird if you didn't!" The second shadow clone jury rigs a bundle of explosive tags into an IED (Improvised Explosive Device), then kicks it down at the horde, "It's a chew toy, freaks. Now chew it!" Both shadow clones take cover behind the numerous columns lining the stage.
"And the limbs go flying!" The explosion destroys a large portion of the theater's audience chamber, almost collapsing the entire floor, but awards the shadow clones momentary leeway to retreat behind the stage—a torso set aflame plummets beside the second clone with an awful slosh sound.
"Oh no! Its bitey area's closer to my fun-fun area now!"
"Darn it! I forgot they can still move!"
"I hate you demonic bootlicking ankle biters!" the second clone punts the burning torso into the rubble, missing the projector window, "I missed!"
"You wouldn't even hit our second wife's ass with that aim!"
Sibilant screeching and haunting wails drown out the brief silence; hundreds of glowing eyes appear within the smoke as silhouettes of all shapes and sizes arise from the burning debris. The Red Zetsus resume their unrelenting descent upon the shadow clones. They barricade the backstage entrance with Earth Release, yet the doors bend and rattle.
"Those doors won't hold forever; there isn't much time!" the first shadow clone crosses its index and middle fingers over one another; a stack of paper tags appears from thin air.
"Are you trying to atomize this place and everywhere around it!?"
"Quickly, in here!" the initial clone discovers a hidden trap door, "Take these keys; there's a motorcycle in the parking lot. This passageway will lead you to it!" The Hyūga's sword slides from the imitation's sleeve into its hand; it gives away the blade and the rest of its weapons and supplies.
"What are you about to do?"
"This place is about to blow much sloppier than a Suna kunoichi, swingin' a giant fan!" A few quick hand seals and the stack of paper tags mummify the shadow clone. "I suggest leaving before that happens!"
"You crazy, son-of-a!"
In the audience chamber, a cross-eyed Gibdo with an erection leaps off the theater balcony onto a horde of mutants, "ALOHA SNACK BAR!"