"Huh, it seems they've found me." Haruto mumbled beneath his breath, the hairs on his neck rising as he felt the familiar feeling of Kakashi's chakra approaching with 3 other assumed ANBU's. Haruto turned around, he had found a tattered grey cloak earlier and used it to coverhis open heart and back, making it harder to target, "I haven't had time to train with Jiongu yet… but I guess I'll have to improvise, don't want to kill them though." He muttered, getting ready to fight with a dangerous Konoha shinobi.
In a few seconds, blurs hit the ground before standing up. Kakashi and his group had finally reached him and were prepare to fight the teen. The masked men and woman stared at the cloaked blonde who had his back turned to them.
"Haruto, by order of the–+" He stopped in shock at the sight of the blonde teen standing before his men. They were all staring in horror at Kakashi's surrogate younger brother's body that seemed to be stitched up everywhere like he had been chopped up and sewn back together poorly.
"I see you've noticed my new look. I must say it is not the most appealing one, but I will have to deal with it for the betterment…" His voice was quiet and cold, same with his azure eyes that darted from ANBU to ANBU.
"Please don't fight, Haruto, you can get a lighter sentence by coming with us peacefully." Kakashi lied painfully as he took off his mask and re-hooked it on his belt, knowing that Haruto was completely fucked when he got back to Konoha. No one kills a whole clan and gets away scot-free, even if you were, you'd be ostracised by the village and alienated from humans, but Kakashi supposed that nothing would really change if Haruto was alienated and ostracised, seeing as he rarely enjoyed the company of humans anyway.
Haruto sighed, placing his hands behind his back as he spoke, "We both know that's a lie, Kakashi. I'd either be executed or sent to rot in jail, and I do not enjoy both options as I would not be able to see Naruko-chan at all." Nobody moved, and the animals were quiet. Kakashi took a breath and continued reasoning with him. He honestly did not like the way his body looked, it must have been a side effect of the Jiongu.
"I'm sure Minato-sensei can convince them to lighten your sentence considerably, he is the Hokage, in case that Kinjutsu you stole has made you forgotten." Kakashi tried a little humour, but to his disappointment, not even a small twitch of the lips occurred on Haruto's face.
"Sorry Kakashi, I'm just in the pursuit of power. But I won't kill you or your ANBU today, that's a promise but I'll need you four to report to father about just how strong I am." And with that, Kakashi's visible eye widened as he felt a vice-grip on his leg. Looking down, Kakashi saw one of Haruto's hands gripping hard on his ankle, What the hell?! Kakashi was quickly dragged down into the ground, unable to leap away. The three other ANBU sprang into action, ready to knock the teen unconscious. Haruto's hand was quickly pulled back through the tunnel he had dug while he was stalling Kakashi by talking to him, tunnelling all the way beneath his ankle, prepared to surprise the Copy Cat with something he had never seen before.
Using the detached hand as a whip, he swung it forwards before pulling it back quickly. The black wire connecting his fist to his arm cracked the air loudly as the clenched fist delivered an incredibly fast punch with the help of the whiplash effect to an ANBU's gut, knocking the air out of Tora and causing the man to drop to his knees from the pain. The feeling of a change in the air waves behind him alerted him of the oncoming tanto wielding ANBU, Yaku, who had jumped down from the trees, intending to impale his shoulder.
Haruto spun slightly, driving his elbow into Yaku's body and avoiding the tanto shot the back of his arm. He lifted his hand up and grabbed his ANBU collar tightly and yanking him over his shoulder and slamming Yaku into the ground with his strength, cracking the dry dirt beneath the injured ANBU considerably.
"Gah!" Yaku cried as Haruto kicked him away and into Tora, knocking them into the flora of the forest. Usagi had seen his prowess at hand to hand combat and believed that she was not able to keep up with his strength and speed. Tossing out volley of shuriken, she shouted out her technique.
"Katon: Hōsenka Tsumabeni (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson)!"
In an instant, the shuriken were all coated in the burning flame, increasing their destructive power and each sharpened immolated weapon was intending to scorch the already scarred teen. Haruto, with his quick feet, stepped silently through the rain of burning shuriken, surprising Usagi as she watched the blonde traitor danced through the shuriken with but ease.
"Hya!" Haruto shouted as he shot his arm forwards. Usagi's eyes widened behind her mask as his fist was blasted forwards, the momentum pushing it forwards while the black wires that inhabited his body kept it connected to his arm. Leaping off the branch, she let herself be open to another detectable fist that connected to her gut, gripping her vest and pulling her back to Haruto's body slowly as the black threads receded back into him.
"Sorry, Usagi-san." He brought his forearm forwards and connected it with her guts again, causing her to gasp in pain as one of her ribs almost broke from the power behind the knockout blow. She fainted almost instantly while still being held in his hand before Haruto gently set her onto the floor.
No need to hurt her even more after knocking her out. He thought as he turned back to Kakashi, who was missing. Haruto hummed softly as he heard the crackle of electricity coming from his left, Haruto skilfully dodged a translucent blue and white charging dog made entirely out of electricity, one that left a trail of the blue energy that led from the dog to the trees behind as it ran and collided into the tree beside Haruto, shocking and burning it with the intense voltage behind it.
Kakashi was silently impressed with Haruto's reflexes, not many people were capable of dodging his "Raiton: Raijū Tsuiga (Lightning Release: Lightning Beast Tracking Fang)",especially someone so inexperienced compared to him.
"A good attempt Kakashi, but you've shown me your exact position. Katon: Zukokku (Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work)!"
From his mouth, a small ball of fire that rapidly changed into a humongous fire storm approached a surprised Kakashi who had to back flip off multiple trees in order to escape the inferno. The fire roared with incredible life, swallowing the forest whole and coating it in a bright orange-red as Kakashi reached a dirt area, clear of tree to catch fire. He stared as the bark of the trees cracked as the fire slowly devoured it with their intense heat, destroying and smoking the whole area up.
Luckily Usagi, Tora and Yaku are on the other side of the fire, and Haruto said he wouldn't kill them. Kakashi thought to himself, knowing the blonde would keep his word. Haruto seemed to have a habit of consistently keeping promises, ensuring he never broke them and doing everything in his power to complete it.
From the flames, Haruto casually stepped out, seemingly unhindered by the fact that the flames were blisteringly hot. His black silhouette unnerved Kakashi, especially considering that the flames were dancing wildly behind him, painting the picture perfect portrait of a demon that had just ripped a portal open from the depths of hell.
"Quite interesting that one of Konoha's best has yet to take me down; clearly they've overestimated themselves and their ninja." Haruto said, loud enough for Kakashi to hear over the burning wood and the loud roaring of the fire. Kakashi tensed, waiting for Haruto's eventually attack.
"You have been played Kakashi. From the very beginning I was never truly here." Haruto continued, confusing Kakashi.
"What do you mean?" Kakashi's eye darted from left to right, scanning the surroundings with his Sharingan eye uncovered. Haruto simply shook his head, "Did you honestly think I left Konoha with only one Kinjutsu? The Kage Bunshin is a very handy tool most ninja are unable to even try, let alone use." Kakashi's eye now narrowed, he had heard of the Kage Bunshin but did not believe that they were capable of taking down multiple ANBU and Kakashi in a 4 on 1 battle. The sharingan wielder was slightly sceptical that he was able to make a sentient clone capable of fighting them all off as surely they could not have been beaten by their junior so easily.
"I am part Uzumaki and was born with an already large chakra pool to use the Kage Bunshin with. Unfortunately, I am unable to create more than four clones without depleting at least half of my chakra resources." Haruto told the man he considered a brother, who was shocked that he had never noticed Haruto had such a large amount of chakra.
"Goodbye Kakashi. You and your squad were a good test of my abilities." And with that, "Haruto" poofed out of existence and vanished, leaving behind a slightly weary Kakashi who remembered he had an ANBU team to look for. Once Kakashi had left with the injured, but awake, ANBU, they set off back to Konoha to report their failure to the Yondaime who would surely be upset.
From the running river that was untouched earlier by the blazing fire that had now died out, Haruto burst out from the bottom and landed perfectly on his nimble feet. He had created the clone when he fired the Zukokkuat Kakashi before leaping into the water to prevent him from being spotted. He knew that Kakashi would be able to stop him if he were not too careful and wanted to ensure that he was not captured yet, not when he had not even entered Akatsuki yet.
He was genuinely surprised and disappointed that Kakashi actually fell for his tunnel trap, he believed that since Haruto was his friend/surrogate brother, he could be reasoned with. Unfortunately, there were just some people who could not and would not cooperate and simply had to be knocked out and tied up before being interrogated. Had Kakashi not answered his questions, Haruto had no doubt that he would have been half-way back to Konoha by now.
Wringing the blonde locks that reminded him so much of his father and the ones his sister loved, he dried his hair before looking at the object in his palm.
Kakashi's ANBU mask, the same he had taken from his belt when he dragged the Cyclopes 5 feet under. Haruto gazed at it before his left pectoral convulsed slightly, a thin black wire popped out from the sewing marks on his body and wrapped around the mask, bringing it to his back and above the throbbing heart. Sharpening the wire, he pierced the mask before threading through the hole and into his skin, repeating the process until the mask was firmly in place and unable to move, protecting the heart from shrapnel or throwing objects.
Satisfied with his new protection, he cloaked himself again before setting off to cause trouble to draw attention to himself in order to lure Akatsuki's invitation to him.