The moment of reluctance for Ren and Ino lasted only a few seconds before they moved. And when they moved, they blitzed through the distance so fast that the battle had barely started.
Ren and Ino stopped on the edge of a treeline, hiding as they observed the situation. Three of Konoha's most Elite Jonin and Kurenai were facing two men in black cloaks with red clouds in a momentary, tense silence as both parties measured each other up.
As Ren saw them and understood that it was Itachi and Kisame, he suddenly remembered that this was something that had happened in the canon, too.
Ren's mood soured as he inwardly groaned.
With all that happened with the Chunin Exams and his plans for eliminating Orochimaru, he had absolutely forgotten that the day Naruto left to search for Tsunade with Jiraiya, these two were going to show up.
'So, these two are members of this Akatsuki organisation, huh?' Ino's voice resounded in Ren's mind.
It was a battlefield protocol they had agreed on between them and Hinata to only speak through their telepathy seal during a confrontation with an enemy. You can never know who might be eavesdropping, so not making use of this option while having it would have been dumb.
Any word spoken out loud was simply either not important, was supposed to confuse the opponent, or, in Ino's case, it was plain talking shit for the sake of it. If Ino or Hinata ever shouted some sort of plan at Ren mid-fight, he would know that whatever they said was simply not the actual plan.
'Is that Itachi Uchiha?' Ino's gaze zeroed in on the emo-er guy from the duo, and she started appraising him with her eyes gleaming in interest.
Seeing it, Ren couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. He knew what she wanted, but he was leery of letting her do it. There was a difference between allowing her to fight Hinata, whom she sparred with countless times and who is her dear friend, and letting her fight an infamous S-rank ninja known to be a genius who would go for the kill right off the bat.
'Ino...' Ren started his attempt to talk some sense into the stubborn blonde, but she was ready for it and cut him off before he could build up his momentum.
Damned Yamanakas.
'Come on!' Ino gave Ren a wide, pleading, puppy-eyed stare that he knew would make Inoichi's resolve collapse like a house made from cards. He had seen her use it that night when she was defending their budding relationship to her unimpressed father. The problem was, Ren wasn't wholly immune to it, and he could feel it slowly working on him.
Letting out a frustrated, choking noise out of his throat, Ren listened as Ino quickly continued chipping away at his defenses. 'This is what I've been trained for. When and where could I get another chance to test myself against somebody like Itachi Uchiha again? Especially in such a safe environment?'
The most frustrating part was that her argument was sound!
Three Elite Jonin were here. He was here. And while Kurenai was more or less just a decoration on the battlefield, so far out of her depth that it wasn't even funny, everybody but her could step in and help if Ino started struggling.
This was indeed a rare opportunity for her to test herself in a fight against a real, hostile S-rank ninja and gain important experience in a situation with minimized risks.
Sage, how Ren hated logic in that moment.
'Fine.' Ren unhappily grunted out before he grouchily continued. 'But at the first sign of you not being able to handle him, I will be jumping in.'
'You are not going to fight?' Ino asked in surprise as she read between the lines of his statement and came to the correct conclusion before he even properly finished his sentence.
Glancing at her, Ren mentally chuckled and sent an impression of wryly shaking his head to her.
'I can't.' He apprehensively conveyed, sending her some snippets of mental imagery to efficiently explain the dumb situation he had found himself in.
In short, his mischievous stunt of crashing the Akatsuki meeting in his fake Tobi persona was absolutely stupid. He could not have Akatsuki realize that he, Ren Yotsuba, is the fake Tobi. Which meant he would have to limit his technique repertoire while fighting them.
At least, that's what he thought at first. But then Orochimaru showed him that he was still underestimating S-rank ninjas.
Ren had put more thought into his actions recently and realized that he could not fight a smart Akatsuki member in his normal persona, period. It was not just his techniques that could reveal his identity. It was his combat style. His way of moving. His way of talking. His instinctual habits.
All of that, experienced S-rank ninjas might just notice and compare to the guy who made fun of them in their base. And once they had even a small inkling of who he is? Ren had no doubt that the entire Akatsuki would drop on him like a sack of particularly vindictive potatoes, keen to pay him back for their humiliation.
He especially could not fight Itachi. That guy was far too observant for his own good, and Ren didn't want to know what sort of inane habit might reveal his identity to a Sharingan wielder.
Ren sighed. Of course, the mistake had already been made, and Ren's only options from here were to let it go or double down.
Naturally, he was going to double down on his stupidity. Tobi shall be a good boy again!
Sage willing, he was going to bring Tobi out to play with the Akatsuki brothers and sisters again. Because it no longer mattered. They most likely had all his combat habits catalogized after their last confrontation anyway. The milk was spilled and all that.
But Ren Yotsuba had to stay far, far away from any Akatsuki member for now. So, no. Unless Ino's life was in danger, he was absolutely not going to even enter Itachi's line of sight.
'Besides, don't underestimate Guy. He can handle Kisame just fine.' Ren tried to reassure Ino, a bit disgruntled that he couldn't don his Tobi persona right now and intervene.
The fake Tobi appearing two times in such quick succession would not be good. Fighting the Akatsuki with that persona would have been even worse for his goals.
For now, Hiruzen probably thought that the fake Tobi was from Akatsuki and that Akatsuki was a serious threat. Ren didn't want to give him any reason to think that he had been played and that the fake Tobi is Akatsuki's enemy. Because that might give him the false impression that Akatsuki was not his concern.
Ren mentally cursed. It was all so much simpler in fanfictions.
'What about Kakashi?' Ino curiously asked, and Ren opened his mouth to explain when, suddenly, Kakashi's Sharingan met Itachi's Mangekyo.
Kakashi then collapsed onto the ground like a puppet with cut strings, and Ren let out a small huff as he closed his mouth.
'... That.' He dryly said to Ino, whose eye was twitching.
Yeah. Konoha was hyping Kakashi up as one of the strongest ninjas in the village. Seeing him drop out of the fight like that really did not inspire confidence in the village.
'What kind of idiot looks Uchiha in the eyes?' Ino exasperatedly asked. Not waiting for an answer, she hopped down from the branch on which they both stood, and as her feet his the ground, she started leisurely walking forward, toward Itachi.
...
Kurenai, trying to hide how scared she was under a veneer of confidence, was about to face Itachi because she had no better option left to her. She had come here, hoping to be a support. She was a genjutsu specialist and wasn't supposed to fight head-on in one versus one.
When this whole situation started, the teams naturally formed with a silent agreement. Guy with Asuma was more suited to go against the fish guy, as neither of them would fare well against genjutsu, while she and Hatake were saddled with the Uchiha traitor by default.
To be honest, in that moment, Kurenai regretted her genjutsu specialization. Just for a split second, she wished to be anything else.
Hatake had a Sharingan. Genjutsu, which was the Uchiha's very well-known specialty, shouldn't have been a problem while she was Konoha's best genjutsu specialist, too.
Not that Kurenai was arrogant enough to think she could compare to Itachi fucking Uchiha in genjutsu. She quickly calmed her nerves. But she didn't need to. This was a two-versus-one, and she only had to...
And that's when Uchiha and Hatake locked their eyes, and Kurenai could only stare in a very well hidden horror as the main combatant of her team dropped to the ground like an absolute one-pump chump, as Anko would have called him. And she found herself alone against one of the most infamous rogue ninjas from her village.
As she felt Itachi's eyes land on her, Kurenai almost shivered, but she was an experienced kunoichi who risked her life for her village on a regular basis. She wasn't quite willing to let him kill her without even trying to resist, and so, she was going to fight while giving it her all.
Her fingers twitched and twisted into a hand seal as she channeled her chakra...
Only for both her and Itachi to halt as Ino Yamanaka exited the tree line nearby. Itachi frowned, or at least as much as an emotionless Uchiha could frown, while Kurenai secretly let out a relieved breath.
From what Kurenai knew, Ino was an S-rank kunoichi who had proven her abilities in the invasion, even if she had received only a Chunin rank from the village afterward.
She dared to hope that maybe with Ino's help, she wouldn't be dying here today. She wasn't going to give Asuma a second date before this clusterfuck happened. But if she survived today, Kurenai decided that it couldn't really be any worse than what happened today, on their first one.
He could only go up from here.
Ino finally arrived next to her under the wary gaze of motionless Itachi and the amused gaze of Kisame, all the while Guy was still monologuing something about youth and green beasts, and Asuma was checking on the fallen Hatake. With a renewed sense of defiance, Kurenai narrowed her eyes and was ready to start the battle with one of her stronger genjutsu.
From the corner of her eyes, she glanced at Ino while keeping Itachi in her line of sight, and urgently opened her mouth to warn the girl about the Sharingan, when she briefly noticed the blonde girl staring Itachi in the eyes with a cocky grin.
Despair and desperation flooded into Kurenai's mind as alarm bells rang in her head when she realized that the Yamanaka girl had arrogantly locked her gaze with Itachi as she swaggered into the battlefield.
'What kind of idiot looks Uchiha in the eyes!?' Kurenai's shoulders slumped in defeat and helplessness as she unknowingly repeated Ino's sentiment from a moment ago, just as Itachi cast Tsukuyomi again, and Ino froze in her step.