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The port was Fune's lifeline, and the chaos there forced everything to a halt. It didn't take long for the shinobi, and even the few samurai stationed in the city, to rush to the riverside. By the time they arrived, the Leaf ANBU had already donned their masks. For a tense moment, the ANBU were surrounded by the forces of dozens upon dozens, who couldn't be sure if the masked figures were friends or foes.
"Who's in charge?" Takuma asked, stepping forward toward the leader. "There are civilians in need of help. It would be best if we can defuse this situation and get them the help they need."
He raised a scroll in his hand that would validate their identity as ANBU.
"This feels awfully familiar, don't you think?" said Hopper, who was standing beside him. The last time they had to show someone their papers led to them getting stripped and subjected to an anal cavity search. It was an unpleasant experience for everyone involved. They glanced up and followed the Jōnin stationed at Fune as he landed on the ground, looking absolutely livid. "Forget familiar, this is the same shit as the last time. I hope you're wearing new underwear."
Takuma sighed, knowing that he was going to bear the brunt of the jōnin's anger. But as he was about to speak, the Jōnin looked up with furrowed brows; the next moment, Itachi landed on the ground on a nearby roof.
"I am wearing new underwear, but I don't think you'll get to see it today," Takuma said with a smile at Hopper before running off towards Itachi.
———
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The cloaked woman walked through the streets, going against the flow of civilians distancing themselves from the port. She stuck to the main roads she recognized from her few days of being in Fune and only dipped into side streets when she saw shinobi leaping from roof to roof.
The closer she got to the port, the more shinobi she saw, and the fewer civilians there were to use as cover.
She turned her black cloak inside-out and put the now forest-green cloak back on. Taking her chances, she got up on a prominent clock tower standing above buildings without any real height and hid herself against its forest-green top. She pulled out her pair of binoculars and peered through. Even with magnification, it was hard to get a clear view from her distance. Moving closer was a higher risk due to the rising shinobi presence.
She could make out a group of masked figures, presumably ANBU, and the shinobi forces in Fune coming face to face. Barely a minute or two later, the Jōnin stationed at Fune arrived, though it was a bit difficult to be sure because of the lingering smoke.
Her heart sank when, moments later, she recognized Uchiha Itachi as he arrived at the scene. She turned her head away for a moment because of the implications. The forest still burned behind her, and she could recognize the aftermath of an A-rank ninjutsu.
It could only mean two things. Neither of them was an optimistic scenario.
After a moment of putting her thoughts in order, she packed her binoculars away and got ready to move closer to the ANBU. Everyone had their mission; hers was to keep an eye on them.
———
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It didn't take long for the issue to be resolved—resolved to the point where the ANBU were no longer in immediate danger. However, even with Itachi talking it out with the Jōnin, the latter wasn't happy with anything that was happening in Fune and the ANBU's involvement—especially when an A-rank ninjutsu was used so close to a highly populated city.
Takuma sat alone in a dim room at the underground level of the Leaf's headquarters in Fune. It was clearly a large holding cell, with a one-way mirror panel on one wall. They had plopped a big sheet metal table, some foldable chairs, and some dusty mattresses inside to make it hospitable.
Hopper's squad was in another room, and the reconnaissance squad was on their own. Tern was out talking to some people, and Aquilla was still helping with the rescue efforts. Takuma was free after he had given Itachi a rundown of everything that had happened, from catching the courier and extracting the information, to the confrontation with the ROOT Jōnin and sending Raven and the others out to get the information back home.
He listlessly stared at the poorly painted table. Despite regularly using more chakra, training harder physically, and accruing more mental exhaustion with his clone usage, barely an hour of actual combat had taken more out of him. The moment he got to rest and let his guard down, his mind and body clocked out for the day. And yet, some part of him refused to rest because he knew that this mission would only be over once they launched an attack on ROOT's base.
The door creaked loudly as Itachi entered the holding cell. His steps were heavy as he walked down the set of stairs at the cell's entrance. He stripped down all of his heavy gear and dumped it in the corner before sitting across from Takuma at the table.
"How are you feeling?"
Itachi didn't answer for a moment and listlessly stared at the floor. "Tired," he finally answered.
Takuma glanced at his captain's gear and saw a transparent plastic bag, black with soot, though he could make out its contents and immediately knew that they were whatever had survived of Itachi's assault team.
"You went to see them?"
Itachi nodded. "To find something to return to the families."
"I am sorry for your loss, Captain… I heard that Kingfisher was the leader of your first unit when you became Captain."
"When I was a Lieutenant, Kingfisher was part of my unit as a squad leader. When I got a promotion, I took him with me. Poached him off Fox; he wasn't happy." Itachi smiled for a moment before it slipped right off.
There was nothing warm to serve in the room, so Takuma poured him a glass of water.
"Thank you." He held the glass but didn't drink, his gaze distant, as if recalling memories. "I knew him from the day I entered ANBU, and now he's gone. I know what jobs can be like… especially for someone in an assault unit, but I never thought this day would come; maybe it was because he was a Lieutenant."
Deep regret. That's what Takuma felt coming from these words. He recognized it because he had felt it as well.
"You were close?"
"I had the honor of being a close friend."
"Tell me about him and the others." Takuma wanted him to talk things out and process his feelings that way.
Itachi seemed surprised but then began to talk. He talked most about Kingfisher, but he knew much about all of his subordinates. And the way he talked wasn't just about their work, but about them as unique, individual people and what they had done for him.
Listening to him made Takuma wonder about the if-onlys and what-ifs. His lips pursed into a line of anger towards himself. What if he had done something differently that day at Yu? Would Rikku still be alive?
He looked down at his arms, and for a moment, they were covered in her blood. He could feel her losing body heat slowly as he ran through the mansion screaming for Anko because he didn't know what to do. He recalled Kon's hideous laughter and then his snot-leaking face as he cried and begged for his life, but contrary to Takuma's expectation, it didn't bring him any relief. He felt a hand touch his shoulder and glanced up to see Grey standing behind him with a somber yet comforting look, as though he could understand the feeling. For a moment, he wanted to lash out at the entity. What did he know about his pain? But then he recalled that Grey had merged with his memories and thus knew exactly what he was feeling; the anger deflated, leaving only a sense of self-loathing.
Even today, if they had just nabbed the courier the moment they saw him at Baizan's warehouse and made Raven pull the location from his head, perhaps none of this would've happened.
"I was simply not strong enough to protect them," Itachi said, his expression betraying no emotion, yet it could be felt that he carried more weight on his heart than he had a day before.
Takuma felt a pain in his heart. How was he supposed to feel that one of the strongest and most dangerous people in the world didn't feel he was strong enough to protect the people he cared about? He didn't think he would ever be as strong as Itachi, so did that mean he would never be enough to protect the people he loved? He put those thoughts aside, knowing that if he gave them any room, they would bring him down. He had fought a Jōnin today, and even if Kinoto was going easy on him, the difference between them was still a gulf, and that bothered him. If he wanted to do something about it, then all he could do was move forward.
"Don't worry, Captain. Kinoto might have gotten away, but we will get revenge for Kingfisher and the others," Takuma said, trying to make the Uchiha feel better.
"I'm tired. I'd like to rest," Itachi said.
"Of course," Takuma replied. It wouldn't be strange if someone asked for a year's worth of leave after fighting a Jōnin and taking on an A-rank ninjutsu.
Itachi downed his glass of water and walked to the mattress in the corner. Takuma was sure he had been offered much better accommodations to rest in immediately, but the Jōnin had refused, opting to stay with his subordinates until accommodations were ready for everyone.
He stopped beside Takuma and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Captain?"
"Justice, Ratel. What we seek is not revenge, but justice for the crimes committed. It may seem the same, but the difference is important. Let's not lose sight of it." He gave him a soft smile and then went to lie on the mattress.
Takuma leaned into his chair and slumped his head back to stare at the ceiling. He had been a Police Force officer and ANBU-nin long enough and lying to himself for even longer to have a good grasp on knowing if someone was lying. A bitter look appeared on his face when he felt the truth in those words.
Justice, not revenge. Those words would've seemed naive if they came from anyone else, or if they were just some words that were thrown because they were the correct response.
However, it required a different kind of strength to say those words after losing someone and actually mean them.
It seemed that he was not only inferior in power and talent, but also in other things as well. And while he could add clones to supplement the first two, he didn't know if he could do something about the other kind of strength.
And perhaps that was the difference that actually mattered.
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The link is in the synopsis!