Kisame kept rapidly pursuing Torune and Fuu over the sunset sandy environment of Kaze no Kuni, chasing them further and further away from Itachi and Danzo. If Itachi wanted to take on the old man by himself Kisame could deal with that. It just gave him two enemies of his own to deal with. Maybe he could kill them before Itachi finished the old man off, told him that they had what they came for, and made him stop fighting as was Itachi's nature.
"You two are really good at running away, did you know that?" Kisame taunted, trying to goad them into a fight. But he knew that they weren't stupid enough to turn and fight him just because of an insult or anything like that. Danzo would have made sure the drones that travelled with him personally were far better than that.
Meanwhile the two Root ninja didn't know how to go about countering Kisame's chase. Fuu didn't have the time to set up his signature trap so that left Torune to fight directly and maybe begin the counterattack. They needed to get back to Danzo, but they first needed to dispose of the ex-Kiri ninja. A daunting task indeed.
Torune had already pulled the gloves off of his hands revealing that they seemed to look purple. This was the sign of his Aburame Clan Kikaichuu, although his were special nano-sized insects that did something more devious than simply draining chakra. Torune and Fuu looked at each other before wordlessly nodding and breaking directly apart away from each other, splitting Kisame's attention.
Fuu quickly threw a trio of shuriken at Kisame who blocked with his bandage covered Samehada. Torune then took advantage of Kisame's focus being diverted and launched at the man with his fist cocked back, ready to strike. Kisame simply smirked and the bandages on Samehada flew off, as it grew in size and bent around like a flail, stopping Torune's attack, "Now that's more like it. Keep me entertained why don't you?"
Samehada then snapped back to its normal position, flinging Torune away and keeping the Aburame from making contact with him. All of a sudden, a scarecrow looking puppet with sickle-like limbs dove from the sand and rushed right towards Kisame.
The Akatsuki swordsman jumped back as the puppet plunged, missing its attack and hitting a sand dune. Kisame tried to scan the area for Fuu but was unable to see him. A growl from Samehada put a smirk on his face, "Well I found you." He then went off away from Torune and the strange scarecrow in a seemingly random direction. It turned out to be not a random direction at all as Fuu burst from a hiding place in the sand before Kisame could reach him, "Heh, Samehada can sense your chakra fool."
Fuu grit his teeth and tried to steel his expression, 'I couldn't even finish my jutsu before that bastard found me!' It had been a long time since Fuu or Torune had fought someone as strong as Kisame. They probably had never fought anyone as strong as Kisame to be quite honest, and despite his reputation as a bloodthirsty musclehead it would be difficult to catch him off-guard. No one in Root's ranks except for Naruto who was more of an associate instead of an operative at this point had the brute power to match Kisame head-to-head. If he couldn't hide his presence then his body was vulnerable when he tried his variant of the Yamanaka Clan jutsu.
"Come on boys!" Kisame said with a boisterous match, "Don't tell me that's all you've both got! I expected more of a fight from those little suicidal puppets from Root after what I've heard!"
They were most certainly not suicidal... but as far as Torune and Fuu were concerned, getting into a fight with someone better than them was not a suicidal action. After all, there was always a chance that they could win, slim as it may be. And in Root they all knew that even if a chance was slim, as long as something was in the realm of possibility they would possibly be sent on a mission to complete or obtain whatever it was.
The best of them had their resolves tempered in the fires of hell so to speak.
And that's why they would not cut and run. Because they couldn't. Because they had faced down situations like this, potentially with odds that were worse. Because it didn't matter how much of a monster Kisame was, it was their job to deal with the things that no one else could.
Even if it killed them.
XxX
(Danzo vs. Itachi)
When Itachi and Danzo blurred from sight, they had been prepared for a high-speed opening to their battle. That was not what occurred. Instead of trading offense, Itachi wound up staring at what Danzo's right arm looked like. Grey and discolored, but that was not the staying point of what was so intriguing... horrifying... well viewers to what Itachi was bearing witness to would have to come up with their own descriptive adjectives for what he saw.
Because imbedded all throughout Danzo's right arm were ten implanted, fully matured Sharingan eyes.
"You don't want to do this Itachi." Danzo insisted as he brought his greatest weapon to bear. Not a single person in his employ, in all of Konoha knew that he had these eyes. They were even bigger secrets than the eye he had in his right socket. That he could easily explain away, the others... not so much.
Ignoring Danzo's words, Itachi simply stared at the right arm of Danzo, not moving or saying a word. His eyes merely stared at Danzo's arm before they suddenly snapped up towards Danzo, "I could accept just one." Itachi started to say, "I could accept you using just one Sharingan the way Naruto did, after all he wound up losing his eye before our battle. And I never held any ill will towards Kakashi for his own. The Sharingan is a powerful tool. But how do you think this looks Danzo? This doesn't look like the death of my clan was for the good of anyone other than yourself."
Danzo merely shook his head, not offended by Itachi's words, "Believe whatever you wish Itachi. This was done to truly keep our home safe."
"Home..." Itachi shut his eyes as if he had been trying to remember what Konoha was like, "I do not have a home any longer Danzo."
"Do you regret any of it?" Danzo asked.
Itachi sighed and shook his head, "Everyday. But regrets are merely wastes of time, solving none of the problems produced by the actions that are remembered." Itachi then disappeared in a flock of crows as his voice echoed out all around Danzo, "There are no reasons to have any regrets. What's done is done."
"Words to live by." Danzo admitted, 'Or in this case die by... because he seems to be intent on truly doing this. At the very least I know what Itachi is capable of due to Naruto's recount of his battle with him.' A wisp of sand kicking up for a second in Danzo's peripheral vision gave him the range of Itachi to himself. He then made a set of hand-seals and inhaled deeply before spinning around and exhaling, "Fuuton: Shinkuuha (Wind Release: Vacuum Blade)!"
A blade of wind formed around Danzo and cut into a body, revealed to be Itachi, however after being cut in half the body detonated in a great explosion. Danzo however was able to see the explosion before the combustion spread and he managed to blow himself away from the explosion faster by exhaling wind from his mouth.
"I am sorry elder." Itachi said, appearing suddenly behind Danzo with a kunai, "But you broke our covenant." Naruto in Root would always be Danzo's strongest weapon. In Itachi's mind it was negligent of him to not inform Naruto... he believed that Danzo left him uninformed so he could have Sasuke taken out but still have plausible deniability. Danzo was devious like that, Itachi wouldn't have put it past him.
Before Itachi could stab Danzo, Danzo turned his head directly down and blew more wind chakra from his mouth, kicking up a large cloud of dust to obscure Itachi's vision. A blind Uchiha was historically acknowledged as a dead Uchiha, especially in the later annals of the clan's history. Without those eyes they didn't have much else to make up for the loss with. This however was not just any Uchiha, it was Itachi Uchiha, and while he might not have been able to defeat Danzo without his eyes he could damn sure last long enough with them closed to avoid being blinded by sand to show Danzo that he was not to be trifled with.
