Contract Seal

Hyuuga Nen was on the run. Through his Byakugan, he could see Kakashi's squad less than ten kilometers behind him. Eight Ninja Dogs ran ahead of them.

Those must be Kakashi's summoning beasts. If I want to shake them off, I'll have to deal with them first. Hyuuga Nen glanced back as he thought.

Then he looked up. Several crows were flying after him through the sky.

Not just dogs, but crows too. Whose summoning beasts are they? They're outside my attack range. Unless I can deal with their summoner, there's nothing I can do about them.

This is getting bad. Hyuuga Nen's expression darkened, and he muttered a complaint.

He raised both hands in front of himself and examined them closely. The veins in his hands had been injured by the excessive burst of chakra.

Feeling the burning pain in his hands, Hyuuga Nen furrowed his brow. "I need to find somewhere to treat these injuries."

Over the next while, Hyuuga Nen tried several ways to lose Kakashi and the others, but none worked. Still, they hadn't gotten any closer.

Why aren't they catching up? Hyuuga Nen wondered.

He was injured, and he had far less chakra than usual. He had no doubt Kakashi and the others could catch up to him if they wanted to.

Seeing Kakashi's squad spread out behind him in a curved formation as they pursued, Hyuuga Nen began to think.

They're driving me toward the Land of Fire. Could they be waiting for reinforcements? The thought made him a little nervous.

Hyuuga Nen took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down as he considered his options.

Right. They aren't pressing the pursuit too hard yet. Maybe I can use this chance to lose them and find somewhere to treat my injuries.

Just then, he spotted a forest of moderate size ahead. "I'll carry out my plan there," he told himself.

Taking cover behind a large tree in the forest, Hyuuga Nen endured the pain in his hands and quickly formed hand seals.

Three Shadow Clones appeared beside him. Hyuuga Nen stuck more than half of his Explosive Tags onto them, then had the clones draw Sealing Formulas on one another.

In just a few minutes, Hyuuga Nen had made all the preparations. His real body used Earth Release to burrow underground.

Meanwhile, Kakashi and the others saw Hyuuga Nen enter the forest.

"Quick, pick up the pace!" Kakashi shouted, and immediately raced toward the forest at full speed.

When they reached the forest, Kakashi and the other two saw three Hyuuga Nens emerge from behind a large tree.

"Captain, these are probably all Shadow Clones. His real body must have used Earth Release to escape underground. And there's something strange about the chakra flow in these clones," Itachi warned.

"I know. You two be careful." Kakashi had already activated his Sharingan. Through it, he could indeed see that the chakra flow in their enemies was unusual.

"I'll take care of the enemy. You two keep tracking him," Kakashi added.

"Not a chance!" one of Hyuuga Nen's clones shouted, charging at the three of them.

As the three clones rushed Kakashi and the others, they kept shouting:

"Explosion!"

"Explosion!"

"Explosion!"

Hearing Hyuuga Nen's shouts, all three of them grew wary and instinctively paused for a moment.

Seeing them stop, Hyuuga Nen's clones stopped as well, standing in their path and staring intently at them.

"Damn it, they're deliberately stalling for time!" one of the Anbu members snapped when he realized they'd been tricked.

"Don't get close. Take them out with long-range attacks," Kakashi shouted to his teammates.

At Kakashi's words, Itachi and the other Anbu member immediately used long-range ninjutsu, hoping to keep their distance and eliminate the enemy.

After watching Hyuuga Nen's clones dodge several attacks, one Anbu's expression darkened. "They're fast, so it's hard to hit them with ninjutsu. And their Byakugan lets them spot our attacks in advance."

Kakashi also found the situation troublesome. Having the Byakugan turned against you really is unpleasant.

The boy called Itachi pulled several kunai and Shuriken from his ninja pouch, then quickly hurled them at Hyuuga Nen's clones.

He threw several Shuriken in quick succession, varying their speed. As they collided with one another, their trajectories grew even more bizarre, creating a dazzling display.

"That's Uchiha Shurikenjutsu. Are you a member of the Uchiha Clan?"

One of Hyuuga Nen's clones dodged while looking at the boy. "But even your throwing technique is useless against my Byakugan."

Itachi didn't answer. Instead, he pulled back hard with both hands. At his movement, the Shuriken and kunai that had scattered through the air shot toward the same point. Nearly invisible threads had been tied to them.

Hyuuga Nen simply did a backflip and crouched down, avoiding the threads.

"That trick might work in the dark," Hyuuga Nen said calmly.

Itachi suppressed his surprise and was about to try something else when he saw the clones charge at him and Kakashi all at once.

Itachi wasn't nervous as he watched them rush toward him. The three Tomoe in his eyes began to spin.

"Genjutsu: Sharingan!"

Itachi only had to look at one of the clones to make its eyes go vacant. It froze in place, unable to move.

But by then, two of Hyuuga Nen's clones had reached the three of them. Their bodies began to swell.

"Rumble!"

A blinding light and a deafening boom erupted through the forest. Faced with the violent explosion, Kakashi and the others had no choice but to dodge.

Just after they escaped the blast and breathed a sigh of relief, Itachi noticed that the clone which had been unable to move had somehow broken free of his Genjutsu. Seizing the opportunity, it appeared right in front of him and slapped his arm.

"Contract Seal, seal!"

Hyuuga Nen's clone smiled at the boy before its body began to glow faintly and swell rapidly.

"Boom!"

Another explosion erupted. Itachi managed to dodge at the last moment, leaping to another tree.

He raised his arm and looked at the Sealing Formula on it, deeply surprised. How did he break free of my Genjutsu? And when he touched me, my Crow Clone Technique should've activated instantly. He shouldn't have had time to place a seal on me.

Looking at the marks left by the explosion, Itachi recalled that his Crow Clone Technique had failed at the last moment. If he hadn't reacted quickly and used the Body Flicker Technique, he might have died there.

Kakashi and the others hurried over. "Itachi, are you all right? You look a little pale."

"My Summoning Technique has been undone, Captain Kakashi. Can you do anything about it?" Itachi also told Kakashi that his Genjutsu and Crow Clone Technique had been affected.

After hearing Itachi's report, Kakashi shook his head. "I can undo this Contract Seal, but I can't do it quickly. As for the other things you mentioned, I don't know what caused them either."

"Let's keep tracking him. With Pakkun, we can still catch up." After saying this, Kakashi resumed the pursuit of Hyuuga Nen.

Meanwhile, underground, Hyuuga Nen received the information from his Shadow Clone and smiled. He emerged from the ground and looked up, only to find that the crows had disappeared.

From beginning to end, Hyuuga Nen's plan had been aimed at the person using the Crow Summoning Technique. At first, though, he hadn't known who had used it.

After fighting Kakashi and the others, Hyuuga Nen realized that one of them belonged to the Uchiha Clan and had two tear-trough marks on his face. He knew the boy's true identity: Itachi Uchiha. The crows had been summoned by him as well.

Itachi Uchiha is on Kakashi's team? I don't remember that at all!

Hyuuga Nen grew more wary, picked a direction, and started sprinting at full speed.