A flicker.
The senjutsu clone froze mid-stride.
One presence, fast, like lightning wrapped in shadow was closing the distance at impossible speed.
The forest shook slightly.
Wind shifted.
And then he was there.
A figure stood ahead in their path, calm, still, cloak fluttering in the breeze.
No words. Just those eyes, brilliant, swirling, filled with watching fire.
The Sharingan.
The chakra clone's expression dropped into something grim. He didn't attack.
He didn't run.
He understood.
They had miscalculated.
The plan was simply to get the attention of the leaf while pretending to infiltrate, offer themselves as an asset,and stay under the protection of Hiruzen as at the moment ,and he did not mind providing strategic benefit and doing espionage in the process.
Ho,wever he sorely miscalculated something, at exactly around this time, there was one group that was active that he totally forgot...
"Danzo..."
"...That explains why the anbu gathered quite quickly" Gaara muttered
He glanced sideways his senjutsu counterpart hadn't moved, hadn't looked up.
And still, Shisui's eyes never blinked.
The clone exhaled.
"Tch... they sent you?"
Sand hovered faintly at his fingertips.
But there was no escape now..,. Well not without a sacrifice.
The scene stood still, quiet and tense three figures standing in a triangle of suspicion, silence, and unreadable motives.
The forest was quiet again.
Only two remained in the clearing now or so it seemed.
Shisui stared down the cloaked redhead, his sharingan glowing with gentle but unrelenting intensity.
The senjutsu clone had taken a step back.
Gaara's chakra clone broke the silence, voice calm but measured.
"We didn't come to fight."
Shisui didn't move.
"But you triggered Konoha's seals, assaulted several of our operatives, and now you say you're not hostile?"
"Those operatives would still be dead if I was," the clone replied.
"I acted to contain damage. You should know what it means to avoid blood."
Shisui's expression didn't change. "That sounded almost sounded genuine."
Gaara's brow twitched.
"I'm not here to justify anything. I'm here for someone."
"Who?"
Silence.
Shisui narrowed his eyes.
"Why now? Why Konoha?"
No answer regardless he understood his misconception.
It was simply that maybe he thought information had leaked about the inner conflict and outside villages are about to use this, however he could not exactly tell shisui anything.
"You claim peace but carry secrets like weapons," Shisui said quietly.
"I know that look. The mask of diplomacy..." shisui said as he slowly unsheathed his blade from his back.
Gaara's fingers twitched with instinctual sand motion.
"If this is a warning, it's wasted."
"I don't give warnings," Shisui said, lifting his other hand slightly to weave a jutsu
"I ask once. If you can't answer, I stop talking."
Then the clone moved.
So did Shisui.
Sand surged with violent force, tearing bark and leaves as it launched toward the Uchiha at point-blank.
Shisui blinked, his body vanishing in a short flicker, reappearing midair as he kicked off a tree trunk, shuriken flaring from his sleeves.
The clone met him in the air, sand tendrils coiling around the shuriken like water around stone, redirecting their force.
Clash.