Sukuna hated tracking jobs. Give him a target to fight, fine. Give him a scroll with a na and a face, fine. But tracking? That was torture.
"Seriously, I need a dog or sothing. My move set is not for tracking down people," he muttered for the tenth ti as he wandered through the outskirts of a small trade town. His stomach was already grumbling, and he'd spent nearly the whole day asking questions, bribing shady rchants, and pretending to be lost just to gather scraps of information.
The bounty scroll only said: Origin – Kirigakure. High-level missing-nin. Extrely dangerous. Capture Alive.
Alive!
"Isn't that a little too much? How are you supposed to capture soone alive?"
But again, this explained the big fat bounty attached to this hunt.
"How am I supposed to find soone I don't even know?" Sukuna grumbled again, kicking a rock on the dirt path.
Still, luck was on his side. He overheard a fisherman at the docks talking about a "strange man with shark-like teeth" who had passed by earlier in the day. That gave Sukuna sothing to work with.
Hours later, after sneaking through alleys and keeping his distance, he finally spotted the man. The missing-nin was short, sowhere in his mid-teens, with white hair. He sat on a rock near a riverbank, sharpening his blade with slow, steady strokes.
Sukuna crouched on a tree branch nearby, watching carefully. "Well, that's definitely not so random shinobi. The sword alone screams trouble. What is that thing anyway?"
Using his Sharingan, Sukuna could easily tell that it wasn't an ordinary sword. Hell, it wasn't even a sword at all.
'It's too small for a spear though… a rapier perhaps. But do people here in the ninja world even use a rapier?' he muttered to himself in confusion.
'Sigh… I could have used a bit more intel about this guy. Seeing he's from Kiri, water style is obvious. But besides that, I don't rember anything about a guy like him from the ani.'
Actually, Sukuna hadn't given much thought to who he'd been tracking, honestly. He was just excited to do sothing besides lazing around in his room. So at first, he didn't give much thought to his bounty target. If it wasn't a character he imdiately recalled from the story, then he couldn't be anyone strong, right?
That's what Sukuna thought. However, upon spotting the shinobi, he felt otherwise. Even without fighting the person, he could tell this guy was strong. How strong, he couldn't say—but strong, judging by how his presence felt.
Just as Sukuna was contemplating whether to attack directly or wait a little longer to gather intel, or try to recall anything useful from his mories, he felt a ripple cross over the water.
It was very mild, but his Sharingan caught the almost invisible chakra fluctuation.
The missing-nin suddenly paused, his head turning slightly, as if he felt Sukuna's eyes on him. His sharp grin revealed rows of pointed teeth.
Sukuna froze.
'He spotted ? So that earlier was so sort of sensory jutsu?'
Sukuna stayed in his hiding place for a little while longer, unwilling to give up his position out of a wrong assumption. But he was right—he'd been found. The very next second, the shinobi threw a kunai with extre precision right at him.
With a simple and quick Kamui, Sukuna avoided the kunai and ultimately had to co out.
"Shark teeth… weird sword… white hair," he muttered under his breath.
The missing-nin stood, slinging the needle-like sword over his shoulder and scanning the area.
"What you want?" he called out, his voice deep yet soft.
"Ain't you too young to be a missing-nin?" Sukuna called out. Indeed, the man in front of him was just a teenager. Early to mid-teens, in fact.
Around 13 or 14 at his best guess.
"Says the 10-year-old playing bounty hunter," the man retorted.
'Ah, well, I guess I don't have any right to talk about age in this conversation…' Sukuna grumbled.
"There's a bounty on your head, a big one."
"I know," he replied nonchalantly.
"Ah good. Then we can start without any delay. No hard feelings, right?" Sukuna rolled his shoulders, getting ready to make quick work of this bounty. Killing wasn't allowed, so he had to capture the man alive.
No reply ca for a few seconds. Sukuna thought the man was lanting over his fate until he heard him say this:
"I know, 'cause that's how I planned it—to lure you out."
"Huh?"
Sukuna blinked, his mind failing to click into place.
'It's a trap?'
Well, there was always a possibility. Anything could happen in this world. Deception was always the key among ninja.
However, how co it sounded like this guy was specifically targeting him?
'I an, I have been killing an awful amount of missing-nin lately, but those were missing-nin. Why co to avenge them? And outside that, what else do I have to do with the Hidden Mist? I didn't do shit to them!'
Unfortunately, the man clearly didn't think the sa. He cut the talk short, instead choosing violence.
He swung his weapon—a giant sewing needle with a thread trailing from its end—straight at the boy.
Sukuna barely ducked in ti. The needle pierced through a tree behind him like it was paper, the wire hissing as it tightened.
"Yup, definitely not a normal sword. Is that one of those famous Mist swords or sothing?" Sukuna muttered, leaping aside.
Before he could even land, the shinobi clapped his hands. "Water Style: Gunshot!"
Dozens of water bullets fired from his mouth like arrows. Sukuna cursed, twisting in midair, rolling along the ground, and barely avoiding most of them. A few grazed his arms, forcing him to use Kamui on that one.
But still, he didn't directly show his Kamui to the enemy. At this level of fight, keeping that hidden as a surprise attack was always worth it.
"Great… long-range fighter with a needle projectile inbuilt. Just my luck."
He charged forward, trying to close the distance. His plan was simple: get in close, put all his strength into one knockout punch, and drag this guy back alive.
Normally, he would have just taken the man down by now with a quick Dismantle. However, this one he had to bring back in one piece to get his bounty money.
But the missing-nin wasn't giving him the chance. Every ti Sukuna closed the gap, that giant needle lashed out like a whip, threading trees and rocks together. It forced Sukuna to dodge and weave, making him waste stamina just to stay alive.
"Who are you?" the man asked again, water dripping from his lips. He swung Nuibari again, the thread wrapping around a tree, then yanking it down toward Sukuna like a trap.
Sukuna barely leapt free as the tree crashed, splinters flying everywhere. "I'm afraid that's a secret, my friend. It will go to the grave with ."
"Then die." The missing-nin snarled and ford hand signs—it was a water style jutsu, as obvious.
The river water reacted to his chakra and ford a giant dragon.
'Damn, Zabuza would be ashad at this speed. Who the fuck is this guy?'
The giant water dragon ca roaring at him. Grumbling, he ford his Enmaten hand sign.
"FUGA…"
Terrifying flas erupted from Sukuna, engulfing the giant dragon completely. Fire and water collided, the air pressure itself changed, and smoke and mist clouded the entire place.
This shinobi was a master of water style, and it wasn't helping that they were fighting right near a river.
However, still, Sukuna's flas were able to completely evaporate the water dragon. That was the insane power of his fire.
But… was this the best outco he could have gone for?
Definitely not. He had just created blinding mist around himself, and he was fighting one of the Mist shinobi. They thrived in these conditions.
'Fuck…' These kinds of mistakes happen when battle experience isn't enough. Only after committing the mistake did he realize what he'd done.
However, it wasn't all bad. It wasn't just him who couldn't see the target—Mist shinobi didn't use their sight to assassinate in mist. They used other senses.
Many attacks ca at him, and none touched thanks to Kamui.
The missing-nin, who was almost certain he had the little masked man, was baffled. Since visibility was bad, neither could tell why their attacks weren't connecting.
The fight beca a stalemate until the mist naturally thinned out.
Finally, when Sukuna feinted left, then dashed right, zigzagging through the attacks, the enemy at last beca a bit more visible to his Sharingan. The missing-nin narrowed his eyes, but the boy was faster than he expected. Sukuna slid in low, fist cocked back, and aid for the man's jaw with every ounce of strength he had.
The punch connected—
Or so he thought.
The missing-nin's body rippled like water, the fist passing straight through. Sukuna's eyes widened. His hand ca out soaked.
"What the hell—?!" Sukuna hastily retreated.
The man reford instantly, grinning even wider. "Surprised?"
And then he tugged on a long ninja wire he was holding. Turns out he'd been setting up a trap. The mont the missing-nin pulled the wire, Sukuna found multiple wires rushing at him from every angle to capture him.
Others could never have seen how many wires were coming from which direction, but with Mangekyo Sharingan, Sukuna's perception was godlike. He quickly figured out the wires' locations and sent two discreet Dismantles to sever most of them while dodging the rest with ease.
Sukuna wiped the water from his hand, breathing calmly, though his mind wasn't.
"You've gotta be kidding … his body turned to water. He's like Suigetsu." That last part he muttered to himself quietly.
The missing-nin was surprised his trap failed so fantastically but didn't give him ti to think. His form rippled again, rging with the puddles on the ground. Sukuna could barely track him before the man burst out behind him, swinging Nuibari like a spear.
Sukuna ducked, the blade slicing a strand of his hair. He flipped backward, planting his feet against a tree, then launched himself forward, a kunai slipping into his hands. Their weapons clashed.
Just as he was close, he sent a weak Dismantle at the man's chest to see whether what happened before wasn't so trick. If it really hit him, then he could just fix the nin with his RCT.
To even the missing-nin's amazent, his chest split into two, his hydration acting on its own while he couldn't even see the attack coming. He wasn't hurt, but this made him more cautious.
"Damn it…" Sukuna, on the other hand, cursed, ducking under another thread as he retreated. His mind raced. "This isn't just so random missing-nin. This technique…"
Suigetsu.
He rembered Suigetsu had it in the ani.
Sukuna froze for half a second, realization hitting him. "Damn it, how did I not connect the dots? Suigetsu's na is also Hozuki. This guy's from his clan."
"Mangetsu Hozuki, was it…" Sukuna asked with a sigh. The sudden call of his na paused the man for a second.
"You don't happen to know anyone nad Suigetsu, do you?"
However, instead of getting an answer, Sukuna saw the missing-nin's face darken.
"How you know him?" he asked, killing intent radiating out of him.
'Do they not get along or sothing? Why did his mood get worse?'
Little did he know that Mangetsu was Suigetsu's big brother—and Sukuna calling Suigetsu's na felt like a threat against his brother to Mangetsu.
xxx
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