A Measure of Darkness - indefinite hiatus -

FOUR

The heat strikes again and sends me falling to my knees. Shortly after, Han lands on the rooftop with me.

"Good idea," he comments. "You're much more useful alive than dead. Perhaps I will persuade the Namikaze to desist his efforts. He seems to have a weakness for death."

I have no choice but to activate the Sharingan. I turn around to see a phantom hand reaching out for me. Easily, I dodge out the way. My body is still sluggish, but I refuse to be a stupid pawn.

Han lunges for me several times over. The monster is slow. Slow in the way of two hundred milliseconds versus one hundred milliseconds, which isn't slow, but it gives off a sense it is slower than what a ninja is used to. This guy is not the typical trope of super strong and super slow. He's nearly the best of both worlds.

Now he's facing off with me, a ninja who's only got speed against him. I search through what skills I know. All I've got is illusions, medical arts, and a few Fire Release techniques that'll consume all my fake fire chakra. Weak.

This is seriously beginning to piss me off. How idealistic am I to think I'm actually on track to joining Itachi's level?

You'reanidiotstupidunrealisticpieceof-

I spit out a giant fireball in between us. The rooftop goes up in blue flames, leaving me to leap to another, more fragile roof. The area glows a bright blue, and Han watches me with his purple eyes, very calm.

"Very, very interesting," comments he, tilting his head. "Are you the little brother? I am very glad you are not dead."

My shaky voice is barely louder than the flames. "Little brother?"

"Yes. The fabled Blue Fire Dragon. Caused a wave of blue fire at Kanegasaki. For over eight hours. No human being can produce and use that much chakra. The Earth would love you alive, little one. It would be a great honor to torture you in front of thousands and quench vendettas in that instance," he monotones.

"Screw you," I shoot back.

I see his hands moving in a blur, but can catch every single hand seal with these eyes. I've remembered hundreds of hand seals associated with known techniques as per the Academy requirement, but never have I seen this.

What the hell is he going to do? Am I going to die? Is this Fire Release? Earth Release? Steam? What kind of technique needs the Rat Seal twice? I am going to die.

"Ah... I do not want to hurt you yet, little one," Han says with misplaced calm, just as soon as I think that.

The chakra blob disappears in a blink.

Reappears as a ghostly image before my eyes. In pure instinct, I leap backwards, watching as the man forms tangibly, bringing a fist down where I was and toppling everything to the ground with a strength more explosive than Tsunade's.

The earth used to create the building just yields to his presence, becoming like liquid. I can see the unnatural bend the roof tiles and wood make, a crumple more characteristic of an aluminium can than stable infrastructure.

But what good are those observations? The power of his chakra pushes me off the roof and steals my breath away. I'm falling off the collapsing building.

I'm not going to die, thinks a small part of me. I'm a clone. I'm definitely not alive.

My first clone who fell off a rooftop. I didn't die, definitely not, but-

Shit. This is going to hurt like hell.

Luckily or unluckily, I see another faint chakra blob at the corner of my eyes. It makes contact with me. Only this contact doesn't hurt nor jostle me enough to pop. This blob, now human, carries me close to his chest. The green vest. The shuriken enclosing a red fan.

"Father!"

He's sprinting fast on the ground. "Takenaka. I know that fire from anywhere."

"What's happening? Is Mother okay? Ryorin? Itachan? Our family? Hokage-sama-?"

He covers my mouth. "You shouldn't concern yourself about these things. Rely on adults, will you?"

I deserve to know something, I try to say against his rough hand. Tastes bitter.

A noise more booming than the thunder bursts from the left. I can hear the metal armor cracking the ground as Han chases after us.

"Wicked Eye Fugaku is attempting to rescue the little one. I cannot allow you to do that."

I squirm, which tightens the hand on my mouth, before I can look at Father clearly. I want to see if he's nervous or depressed. Maybe I can read the death in his eyes.

There is only focused determination surrounding Father's Mangekyou Sharingan.

I close my eyes, but photographic memory won't let me forget. The red and black kaleidoscope is burning through my skull and it doesn't let me vanish.

"Oi," is Father's voice. "Oi! Are you hurt?"

I am not going to look at his face. I turn off my eyes and watch as the world becomes sloppy all over again. "Use your eyes to predict, Father," I say weakly. I think... I remember Nahime's words. It hurts.

I don't get a reply. Father kicks a corpse still clutching a kunai. The blade goes flying, gets stuck in a store window. Father jumps and shoves his shoulder directly onto the kunai handle end, shattering the window. To my surprise, half of the building starts crumbling with the window once we're through.

We've landed in some kind of family dinner. As far as I can tell inside the dust and darkness. Father releases me and starts looking around, eyes whipping in all directions almost painfully fast.

"One point three seconds," mumbles Father. Walking towards me, he adds, "You're a Shadow Clone."

What? No... no, clones have identical chakra structures. It fooled Neji. Father can't know. And while my brain briefly short circuits, Father takes my shoulders.

A father-son moment? Now?

His hands quickly move under my shoulders. Picks me up. Flings me at the wall.

I can't say I'm too worried, not being real and all, but you couldn't give me a warning?

Ignoring me, Father flips through his hand seals.

He's going to pop me.

I'm watching as an Earth Release technique removes the collapsed wall and reveals Han. His eyes flicker to me.

My head slams the wall hard enough to where I should have a concussion. The last thing I hear is Father shouting, "Sarutahiko!"

.: FOUR END :.