Naruto: The Outsider’s Resolve
CH_10.21 (387)

'What do I do now?' Rui thought as he crashed into the boundary stone wall of a house that all but crumbled on impact. He bore the agony from his back as he slid against the cracked stone surface. He wanted to rest, but the dozen or so foot-sized beetles that appeared from around the corner got him up to his feet and moving. Their massive head claws made an ominous cacophony of clicks as they chased after them, not to mention they were terrifyingly fast.

With an Aburame in play, the conditions for escape had changed. It was highly likely that there was a tracking bug on his body placed on him before he escaped from the mill. Getting rid of it was the highest priority if he wanted any chance of escaping.

He weaved hand seals for a D-rank Wind Release ninjutsu that caused a tornado his height to spin into life before him. He undercharged to avoid harsh damage, but almost lost balance when he jumped inside, and the furious wind currents pushed him around. The beetles drew closer as he slowed down, but it had to be done. He couldn't be sure if the bug was still on his body, and to confirm it, he had to throw off his tail once again.

But Rui needed to be quick about it. The badger-masked ANBU-nin would likely catch up eventually with his clone.

However, reality was often worse than the imagination.

Rui's eyes widened at the sight of a boar-masked ANBU standing on a rooftop diagonally to his right. A fire spear burned in his direction faster than a hunter bird diving towards its quarry.

Including this new operative, the Aburame, and Badger's clone, he now had four operatives trying to capture him. But that wasn't his primary thought. As he stared at the fire spear with its smoke trail, he wondered,

'Are they not teammates?'

———

 .

Krait's tactic was a standard one from the Aburame book: occupy the enemy with insects to create an opening to attack. The special breed of flying beetle had an armoured exoskeleton that could withstand a couple of direct D-rank ninjutsu and claw pincers that could match the bite force of predator cats, but the plan itself was simple.

He was to exercise patience while the bugs chased, annoyed, and possibly threatened the ROOT agent until he moved to eliminate them with a ninjutsu and use that exact moment to attack him. The only challenge was to remain close and not lose track of the target, which he ensured by putting a tracking bug on the agent. He rolled up his sleeves to reveal five bugs adhered to his wrist with chakra. Each one tracked a different bug with scent. He followed the agent from the rooftops and confirmed that the bug was pointing in the same direction he could see the agent.

He was in a good position.

To top it all off, he wasn't alone. Krait looked ahead at Duroc, the boar-masked assault squad member, who had come with him to give backup to Ratel. They were following a basic pincer manoeuvre. Even if the agent somehow survived him, he wouldn't have the opportunity to evade Duroc's attack.

He frowned. "Wait, that's..."

Duroc formed and propelled a fire spear towards the ROOT agent. Krait's beetles were in the blast range of the C-rank Fire Release ninjutsu. Even if they survived, they wouldn't be in any condition to press the agent, and while the two of them had discussed the pincer manoeuvre to overwhelm the agent, they hadn't exchanged their personal strategies.

Though not ideal, they were still on plan. If the ROOT agent managed to avoid Duroc’s jutsu, he would just have to strike as well. Krait weaved hand seals for another C-rank, Fire Release ninjutsu.

The agent noticed the fire spear, came to an instant stop, and jumped high into the air, where he suddenly twisted to throw a tagged kunai at Krait while the fire spear exploded below him, taking out some of the beetles.

Krait had a choice to make: either he could dodge the tagged kunai and give up the opportunity to attack the agent, or continue the hand seals for Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu and hope that he would incinerate the tag before detonation, and then proceed onward toward the agent.

He gritted his teeth and decided to go for it. The giant fireball swallowed the explosive tag, but it exploded before it burned. The explosion not only destabilised the jutsu, but the resulting mess also clashed with the fire spear, which only caused even more chaos.

And if he were paying attention, Krait would have noticed that the tracking bug was now pointing in two different directions.

———

 .

Duroc didn't think he made a mistake with Fire Release: Fire Spear. They were running a pincer maneuver to catch the ROOT agent, but the Aburame was too rigid with the plan. He wanted to wait until the agent attacked the beetles to engage, but not only was that too uncertain to rely on, but it could also take too much time. The longer the chase, the greater the chances of their target escaping.

If they had time, he would've liked to discuss the plan, but they also had other possible scenarios to consider, which gave him no room for further discussion.

Ratel had lost the target, making them hurry further.

He made an on-field decision to attack first, acknowledging that some of the beetles might die, but that opened up an opportunity for the same plan with better execution. With the target vulnerable, the remaining beetles would have attacked, pushing the agent to be further ill-protected, creating the perfect opportunity for Krait to finish the job.

"What the fuck?"

Even though the ROOT agent dodged his attack, Krait's plan seemed to be on track, with Krait using the Great Fireball Jutsu—but then it suddenly destabilised and burst, sending intense heat that damaged the remaining beetles.

A blinding flash momentarily made Duroc lose track of their target.

———

 .

At the moment, the beetles were in a disarray, and their host was temporarily unable to attack due to the destabilised ninjutsu, leaving only the newcomer boar-masked ANBU-nin in an active position.

Rui was in a better position than he was a few seconds ago, all because of the two ANBU-nin's uncoordinated efforts. Either they hadn't communicated properly, or they weren't teammates, or both. The result was him being in a better position, something he was eager to take advantage of quickly before the badger-masked ANBU-nin caught up with his clone.

The immediate problem? The beetles that were still alive and the Boar ANBU. He could ignore the former, but if he could get rid of the operative, he had a good chance of giving them the shake. He just needed a few more seconds in the lead. He had used a considerable amount of chakra in a very short period, and while he would like to conserve his usage for the uncertain future, he knew he was at a critical point that could make or break his escape.

Instead of running in the opposite direction, Rui turned toward the Boar ANBU, who charged at him with a sword. As they drew closer, he finished weaving hand seals. The calm air on the rooftop around them spun into the thick dome of sprinting winds around the ANBU-nin, whose kenjutsu-enhanced sword bounced off the winds, but not before weakening it significantly.

It was a C-rank jutsu that did nothing but keep the target inside a dome that didn't last long and became increasingly weaker by the second, making it easy to break out, which was why it was used in conjunction with other offensive ninjutsu to nail down a stationary target.

Rui didn't prepare the follow-up ninjutsu and instead ran a distance before chucking his last smoke bomb. Half the smoke was sucked in by the dome's wind current while the other half spread. It was conflicting to use his last smoke bomb because they were his favourite, but he liked living more.

When he looked back, he didn't see the Aburame or his beetles anywhere near him. He estimated he had six to seven seconds before they would return. But then Rui's instincts screamed danger when he heard the faintest sound of flapping cloth and leapt to the side because his life depended on it.

He looked over his shoulder and saw the badger-masked ANBU coming down at him with his fist cocked back. The sun behind the operative cast a shadow on him, but Rui saw a glimmer of faint blue around the fist.

Chakra was ordinarily not visible to the unaided eye unless highly concentrated or manifested in large amounts.

The shining fist shattered the rooftop. There was a split second of silence before cracks appeared all over the surface like a flipped switch. A wave of destruction followed and spread out from the point of impact. The roof caved so fast and so deep that Rui almost didn't have the time to jump away and almost sank into the building. Without proper footing, his jump was weak, and thus, he barely made it off the roof.

He didn't see the Boar ANBU's clone disappear into smoke.

Rui stumbled into the street and sprinted with multiple kunai in both hands as he looked around with complete focus.

'Where's the other one?'

The badger-masked ANBU-nin or his clone had attacked him, which meant the other one had to be nearby. He looked to the right, left, up, and even kept light on his feet in case an attack came from the ground below him. Every moment that he couldn't find the enemy ramped up the tension in his body rose until his intuition screamed at him. It was an instinctual process of elimination. If there was nothing in sight, then the attack could only come from somewhere unseen.

He pumped the brakes a moment before he reached the corner, and the decision was immediately justified when a bouquet of earthen spikes sprang out of the ground. Rui jumped over the spikes and spotted the Badger ANBU kneeling with his palms pressed to the ground. He immediately unloaded his kunai toward the operative before continuing to run.

The Badger ANBU had erased any advantage he had gained thanks to the poor planning of the other two operatives.

He turned to look out for possible kunai aimed at his back, only to see that the spikes were no longer affixed to the ground and were now zooming towards him.

'I can't dodge that.'

The spikes were too fast and close to him. He could only minimise the damage so he could keep running afterwards. He shrank his body to minimise area, twisted around to get his spine out of the way, protected his head, and let himself fall to the ground. Three of the nine spikes hit him in various parts.

The pain immediately let him know that his chances of escape had decreased by at least twenty percent. It made him consider the small pill bottle in his pouch to ensure he wouldn't be captured alive.

'I'm not taking that,' he thought to himself. 'These people aren't good enough to force me to that limit.'

He got up and didn't need to look back to know that the Badger ANBU was hot on his tail. His training told him he could no longer avoid combat and that it was time to fight.

Alas, he did not like fighting.

If the Master Instructor heard his thoughts, they would've beaten it out of him. Unfortunately for them, he hadn't been a trainee in nearly a decade.

Rui weaved hand seals as he heard footsteps that could only be a few strides away from him.

Wind Release: Second Wind

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