Kon looked at "Ni", who was writhing on the floor from the lightning ninjutsu channelled through the water tentacles. Water and Lightning-release being complementary elements meant both jutsu had been enhanced.

He immediately pumped fire nature chakra into his sword and swung at Takuma, thinking that Takuma’s lightning ninjutsu would damage him as well—but he stood unfazed by it as he evaded the blade and countered by jabbing a lightning-charged tentacle at Kon, who didn't want any part of and backed away.

Kon clicked his tongue. The water ninjutsu insulated Takuma from the lightning but it was already depleting so he waited for it to completely disappear before making his move. He glanced at Ni, who was no longer moving and was knocked unconscious by the lightning.

The loss of one team member had shifted the fight’s dynamic, tilting the balance towards the middle. Despite this setback, Kon maintained his confidence, knowing his team still held the upper hand. However, the question of whether his men could match Mitarashi Anko's prowess lingered in his mind.

"Take him and get out, both of you," Takuma said to the sword-wielding kunoichi beside him.

She looked hesitant, but rushed Ni and threw him over her shoulder. Kon moved to stop her, but Takuma very aggressively closed in and swung his fist. He felt the phantom pain in his shoulder at the sight of his glowing fist and quickly backed away.

It was the right move as a rush of wind brushed past his ears. Takuma's chakra augmentation was dangerous; he had felt it first-hand and didn't want a second experience.

"Go!" Takuma yelled when he saw his teammates hesitate.

The second kunoichi moved toward the door, and "San" followed after her, but Takuma positioned himself at the door, intending to hold them back while they escaped.

In taking one of his men alive, Kon recognised that their aim was not extermination but capture for information extraction. Measures like anti-interrogation seals were a standard operating procedure for ROOT agents on missions—all of his men, including himself, had them active on their bodies—and ROOT agents were trained to self-eliminate to stop a potential information leak.

However, seals could be broken, and the self-preservation instinct was difficult to beat out of people. As the mission leader, he couldn't allow one of his men to be captured. The correct thing to do was for one of them to take on Takuma while the other chased after the kunoichi. But as Kon gazed at Takuma, his shoulder began to burn and ache, causing a cocktail of feelings to rise in his throat.

"We're taking him out," Kon said to San, venom in his tone.

Takuma's tentacles flared out at his words as though attempting to cover more of the door and the broken wall beside it.

There was a moment of pause as the two sides measured each other before all three shinobi exploded into action. Takuma acted aggressively and moved toward Kon with one of his tentacles swiping a kunai at the latter's neck. Kon jumped back toward the wall and started weaving hand seals. San shifted between them and attacked Takuma with a dagger that Takuma parried using a tentacle holding a kunai and then countered with an augmented palm strike to the chest.

San gurgled out blood and stumbled back. Takuma closed the distance between them and threw a follow-up augmented liver shot that San barely avoided by shifting his body back at the last second.

"Clear!"

In the back, Kon breathed fire between his hands as he pulled his arms apart, creating a burning fire spear that cast a nasty light on his face.

San half-stumbled and half-jumped to the side, clearing the way between Kon and Takuma.

Kon flicked his wrist, and the fire spear raced toward Takuma, who couldn't dodge because they were so close. His tentacles bunched before him just as the fire spear hit him, and he was sent barreling through the wall. The fire spear exploded into a mass of fire, lighting up that section of the room. He didn't let himself slow or stop as he flowed into another set of hand seals while staring at the wall of fire with eyes taut with attention. He knew it wasn't over; that would be too easy, and if it was that easy, he would've killed him the first time they met.

His intuition was spot on as Takuma surged out of the intense fire.

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He was soaking wet, and the tentacles behind his back were missing. He instantly slid down into a sliding tackle and kicked a broken piece of furniture in Kon's direction. Kon turned his back to the flying furniture and took the hit to continue weaving the hand seals. Another fire spear bloomed in his hand and was immediately launched at Takuma.

The distance between them was shorter than before; there was no time to dodge or any tentacles to protect him. Kon was sure—this was going to hit, and it was going to hurt.

Their eyes met for two-tenths of a second, and at that moment, Kon saw his fire spear reflect in Takuma's eyes. He expected to see fear and trepidation, but the eyes he met were steady—not even a hint of unease. What he saw was a picture of focus—and the focus was him, which made Kon's heart jolt.

Takuma's half-cocked fist punched out, and the fire spear that was only a foot away from the fist quavered as an unseen force struck and travelled through it.

'Impossible!' thought Kon.

The unstable fire spear lost shape as it broke down, losing its penetrative power, and yet it still exploded in Takuma's face. With only a portion of its intended power, the weakened fire jutsu singed his face and hair. Kon felt his heart ease up at the jutsu still doing damage, but then Takuma's face became visible, and he saw the same focused look persist as though the ninjutsu hadn't affected him at all.

There was an intensity in his eyes that sent a shot of fear up Kon's spine. Even as he got his face blasted by fire, even as he stumbled back, there was a single-minded intent focused on Kon, which alarmed him to his core. It was feral ferocity reined in and harnessed via cold reasoning—and that was a dangerous combination.

Kon had no intention of letting Takuma leave alive, but the last exchange only intensified his desire. The kid before him was dangerous, and all of his instincts screamed that if he was given time to grow, he would become even more dangerous.

He had seen what geniuses were like; Takuma wasn't like them; he was different—and that made him even more dangerous. He couldn't put a finger on it, but the answer came just as quickly and hit him.

The kid before had already seen the darkness, dragged into it, and managed to climb out. This was someone who was willing to do anything and everything to achieve what he wanted. Kon remembered the bombing that had taken out the jonin—and even though he had no proof—he knew that Takuma was behind it.

He had wiped out dozens of civilians to eliminate a jonin and not many people would be willing to do that.

Given that the ROOT had targeted him twice, they had become bitter enemies. There was a chance just now when Takuma could've run away, but he made the choice to come after him, which was enough to show that the grudge ran deep enough for him to risk his life.

Kon had to end him before he became a threat far too big.

Takuma lunged at him, which made him pull back to enough to cleanly dodge an augmented strike—but Takuma faltered with a look of great pain on his face.

'He's injured?' thought Kon—had the fire spear managed to do substantial damage?

Regardless of what it was, Kon took advantage of the opportunity. He took a quick forward step and stabbed his heart. Takuma raised his hand at the last moment, and the sword stabbed through his palm as he pushed the sword to the side, leaving a deep laceration just under his armpit.

———

.

With the unconscious ROOT agent on Kameko’s back, her and Rikku sprinted across the manor house as fast as possible. The team wanted to capture more ROOT agents to facilitate cross-checking and verify the authenticity of the information during interrogation, but the mission's minimum requirement was completed by capturing just one.

The team now had to judge the situation and see if they wanted to take their chances by going for a second capture and the final decision was Anko's to make. The two kunoichi jumped out of a window near the side of the manor house so they were visible to Anko and Daiki while still having enough distance between them to allow a quick enough escape in case other ROOT agents tried to stop them.

As they jumped, they noticed Anko was fighting two ROOT agents simultaneously while Daiki provided support from a distance. Anko spotted them immediately. She disengaged and backed away for a moment and then yelled something they couldn't hear. Daiki, who was positioned at a distance, looked towards them and seemed to hesitate but sprinted towards them after being yelled at by Anko again.

Kameko instantly realised what was going on—Anko was going to cover for the three of them to escape.

When one of the ROOT agents tried to go after Daiki, she charged with reckless aggression and put herself between the two agents so they would focus on her rather than Daiki.

"Let's go," Kameko said as she started to run away from the manor house.

Rikku followed, but only a couple of seconds later, she stopped.

"What are you doing?!" Kameko exclaimed while constantly looking toward Anko, fighting the two ROOT agents, scared that they would lose their opportunity to escape with the unconscious agent.

"I'm going back," said Rikku, already back-peddling towards the manor house.

Kameko was flabbergasted for a split second before realising what Rikku was going to do.

"Rikku, no—"

"Takuma will need help. I can't leave him alone when I can support him. You and Daiki go—GO!"

Rikku turned away and sprinted without waiting for a response. Kameko shouted at her to stop but was ignored as she picked up more speed.

"What happened? Why is she running to the house?" Daiki asked the moment he was in earshot and gazed worriedly at Rikku as the distance between them and her stretched.

"....Let's go," Kameko said bitterly as her face twitched with frustration. She stayed still for a moment as she internally struggled with how to proceed until, ultimately, she turned her back to the manor house and started running with a hard stop to vent her feelings.

"We have our orders."