Goto, Ryugo and Yumi gave chase. One chunin and two genins, against a Dotuki chunin.
It was a blur through torrential rain. They had practiced this a million times in joint training, so they only needed a few moments to find trails. The Dotuki operative, 'Fang', was messy. He attempted to put fake trails, but the proficiecny was low. Too low for Goto, who had been trained to hunt the stealthiest of deers in the lands of Rain's forests.
Goto led, his movements a pained but precise economy. His sharp eyes allowed him to take quick turns and waste little to no effort.
Ryugo and Yumi flanked him, their breaths coming in controlled bursts, weapons ready.
They didn't speak. The burning command tent, Batto's roar of traitor, and Zenitsu's betrayal were communication enough.
'I knew it...', Ryugo thought, 'I knew that something was wrong with Zenitsu...Fortunately, Commander Batto managed to uncover the truth. Based on levels alone, he should be able to beat him, and Zenitsu won't have many followers in this rural border fort. It means he will get subdued fast. Plus, the Shikabane are known for their loyalty to Amegakure. His disciple won't fight alongside him'
With that mind, Ryugo took the initiative to give chase. He was a Dark Hall Tower member. He was taught to assassinate.
The Dotuki was an amateur. He might have bested Ameruyi in a two against one fight, but in terms of experience, he was clearly lacking. His steps were giving off his trails easily, and he was clearly heading for the shortest route back to the river and the mist-shrouded gorge beyond. When the destination was clear, the chase was becoming much easier to follow.
Additionally, he was wounded. It seemed like Jonin Batto's massive jutsu had hit him. Some branches showed signs of bleeding. His footsteps in the mud were...showing hesitation, despair and fear.
The Amegakure trio cornered him at the edge of the misty cliff, a rain-slick limestone top of a hill that dropped fifty feet into a massive stream. It was a dead end. Even a shinobi would not be able to walk on a surface that was so tumultuous. At least, not a chunin of his skill.
Fang skidded to a halt, turning to face them.
His wolf mask was chipped from Batto's near-miss. His chest heaved slightly. His shoulder showed a clear wound, a spear-like rock that was deeply embedded onto his bone. The bleeding was critical, as shown by his panting breaths.
In the silver-grey light of the Raikōgan, Ryugo could see his chakra. Bright, dense, but it seemed...artificial.
"Three on one?", Fang's voice was a mocking rasp, his voice seeming younger than Ryugo expected. He gestured with a kodachi at Ryugo, Goto, and Yumi, "You guys are young...Don't tell me you're one of us"
Goto and Yumi frowned, not understanding.
Ryugo didn't rise to the bait. He analyzed the scene. The cliff at Fang's back.
His age. Twelve years old, the same as him.
"You talk too much for a dead man", Yumi sneered, her hands on her gourd.
"He's not dead yet", Ryugo said, his voice flat. He looked at Goto and Yumi. "Consider this advanced training. A moving target. A chunin from the Dotuki clan, one of the five founding clans of Tani"
Goto's eyes widened behind his umbrella-senbon weapon. Yumi's grin turned fierce.
Fang stared, incredulous. "Training? You arrogant little-"
"Now", Ryugo commanded.
Goto struck first. His umbrella snapped open, spinning.
"Haribako Art: Scattering Blossom!" (C)
Not a killing volley, but a dispersed fan of twenty senbon, aimed to harass, to test reflexes, to herd.
Fang dodged with fluid grace, his kodachi deflecting two needles. His free hand formed the first seal of the Kokuen no Mai—Ox.
Ryugo's hand shot out, a single, sharp seal of his own.
"Raiton: Lightning Arc." (D)
He didn't aim at Fang. He aimed at the gathering moisture in the air around Fang's sealing hand.
CRACK-ZZAP!
The spark of lightning superheated the damp air instantly.
A tiny, localized steam explosion erupted at Fang's fingertips, disrupting his chakra flow. The half-formed black grit of his technique pattered harmlessly to the wet ground.
Fang hissed, shaking his stinging hand.
His eyes behind the mask glared pure hatred at Ryugo.
Yumi seized the opening. She spat a glob of pre-chewed, chakra-infested fungal mass onto the ground.
"Hakkō Art: Binding Mycelium!" (C)
Thick, rope-like cords of rapidly growing fungus shot from the mass, lashing towards Fang's ankles. He severed them with a sweep of his kodachi, but they regrew instantly, forcing him into a defensive dance.
He was fast and strong, especially for his age. He had never seen a chunin so young in Amegakure besides his teammates. Yet, a small village like Tanigakure had someone rise to this rank too. It was suspicious.
[Dotaki Operative 'Fang' - Lv. 36 Chunin]
His level 36 stats were real—his agility was superior to theirs, his strength enough to make Goto's blocks shudder.
'His fighting style is rigid...', Ryugo analysed
When Goto feinted with a senbon and followed with a blunt umbrella thrust to the gut, Fang parried the senbon perfectly but took the thrust on his forearm with a grunt. He relied on his attributes and his clan's one terrifying trick, not on unpredictable, dirty shinobi experience.
He was like a student who had mastered the textbook but never faced a real, chaotic brawl. His skill proficiency was high, judging by the speed and ominous strength of his skills, but he did not have any versatility to his arsenal. Ryugo's lightning arc rendered ignition of smoke useless. That was the power of knowledge. Re-using the same trick over and over again...That was recipe for disaster.
"He's inexperienced" Ryugo observed aloud, leaning against a tree, his Raikōgan recording every move.
"Shut up!" Fang screamed, his composure shattering. He abandoned subtlety. He bit his thumb and smeared blood on his mask—a crude, forceful activation, "I am stronger! My level is higher"
'I knew it...', Ryugo mused, a smile forming on his lips, '...A player'
But just because they came from the same planet did not mean they were friends...or allies. Quite on the contrary, his plot had threatened his life, and if he had not managed to best the Emi clan jonin Hubei, he would have lost his life. Mercy, under those conditions, was out of the equation.
"Dotuki Secret Art: Kokuen no Bōfū! (Black Smoke Gust)" (B)
He didn't try to create the careful, enclosing fog. He exhaled a concentrated, projectile-like stream of the black, granular dust directly at the trio.
Ryugo was already moving.
"Goto, umbrella shield! Yumi, acid cloud now! Right in its path!"
Goto snapped his umbrella open and planted it, the reinforced fabric facing the stream. Yumi, trusting Ryugo implicitly, vomited a torrent of frothing, yellowish liquid from her gourd.
The stream of black dust met the spray of Hakkō digestive acid.
The reaction was not an ignition, but a violent neutralization. The acid broke down the alchemical bonds in the dust.
It fell as harmless, wet sludge mid-air, splattering against Goto's umbrella.
In that moment of failed technique and stunned disbelief, Goto and Yumi struck as one.
"How can it be-"
Goto's umbrella retracted and shot forward, the tip striking Fang's wrist, disarming one kodachi. Yumi's foot, coated in the same corrosive slime, swept his legs out from under him.
Fang hit the muddy ground hard.
Before he could form another seal, Ryugo was there. His foot—not his injured side—stomped down on Fang's remaining hand, pinning it to the earth. The Storm-Sever katana's tip rested a hair's breadth from the boy's throat, right under the wolf mask.
"Weak...", Ryugo mused
He had not even had to use anything besides a D-rank raiton ninjutsu.
Fang laid there, panting and his arms trembling from the pain. The arrogance was gone, replaced by a dazed, almost childish shock.
"How…" he mumbled. "My stats… my clan art…I'm Level 36…I am the strongest player in Tanigakure..."
Ryugo's eyes narrowed. Stats. Level.
A weak, ragged laugh escaped Fang. "How could you? You are just a chunin, and you...You are just genins...How can it be?"
"The alliance of heirs in Tanigakure. Tell me", Ryugo asked, feinting knowledge he did not have, to attempt at extracting information
Fang, broken and seeing no escape, talked. It was a pathetic, eager spill of information, as if confessing would somehow make his failure part of a larger narrative.
"Promise me you will let me go after this. I promise I will not attack Amegakure if you do so. I will even convince the others not to attack"
Goto smirked: "Is he really a chunin? I find it hard to believe that Ameruyi got bested by this weakling"
Yumi stepped on his injured shoulder, shaking her head: "Ryugo nullified his clan jutsu...It would have been dangerous if we were alone"
Ryugo knew what players feared most. Long-term injuries. Harming potential.
He cut Fang's left thumb.
"If you don't talk, you lose a finger. Once there is no more finger, you lose your head. Deal?"