Raito did not panic. That was not in his nature.
Instead, he flew backward while still facing the opponents. The anbu aiming for him grossly missed and was forced to pursue Raito. Raito activated the Hikarigan's second stage and once observed the enemy's chakra. It was not substantial; in fact, Raito could see it was not as large as his own pool. That meant he could afford a stamina battle. However, he quickly dismissed this, realizing his teammates were also in danger.
All of these thoughts ran through his head in a few seconds, and immediately, he pulled out a single kunai.
The anbu attacked, and Raito quickly realized he could not hold his own. A barrage of slashes cut open Raito's forearms, and he was unable to deliver a proper riposte.
Realizing extremely quickly how outclassed he was, Raito realized he had only one thing left in his arsenal. Letting himself get a deep gash near his elbow, Raito distanced himself and activated stage one of the Hikarigan. Seeing the waves rushing towards the enemy, Raito did not need a hand sign to complete his jutsu.
He was gone in a white flash, shocking the anbu before they heard a jutsu uttered in their ear.
[Light Style: Instant Doubling]
The person did not get to turn into a kunai, the most basic of shinobi weapons, and slit his throat smoothly. Raito wasted no time, turning back to his other two teammates, who were in extremely unfair, two-versus-one situations. Knowing that Karasu would be able to reverse summon if the battle got too dire, he used his technique again.
This time, he lets his sword pierce the heart of the enemy.
The anbu didn't even know they had been killed.
The other anbu, while surprised, did not live long enough to grasp what happened to him. Raito stood over the two dead bodies, with the same look he had always held. But internally, he was extremely annoyed. He'd thought it would be enough to have his dojutsu techniques in battle.
Despite how short this fight had been for him, he'd seen that he was too weak. Looking at Aoi, he kept his annoyance far from his face. That kind of emotion could not be displayed in front of others, especially someone as new as she was. He turned away from the girl and saw as the two Iwa anbu facing Karasu scurried away. Karasu then turned away and ran up to them with a look of worry written on his face.
He said, "This is not good; such people will report to Tsuchikage about the happenings here."
Raito replied, "Yeah. But we will not be pursuing such dangerous opponents."
Aoi gritted her teeth and spoke quietly, "We need to move. This might have been a strategic loss, but we don't have time for that. It's in our best interest to leave this village."
Raito nodded in agreement while Karasu made a thumbs-up gesture. The team wasted no time leaving the clearing.
Raito turned off his eyes and let his body recover as they traveled for many more days on end. The fact that they were in enemy territory did not make them comfortable, but eventually they arrived at a village near the border that Earth Country shared with the Grass Country. The entire time they traveled, they made sure not to have their headbands on.
The village was small, but it was clear that there were still a couple of hundred people who lived in the village. What was even clearer was the fact that the city had a lot of inn's suggesting to the group that a lot of people liked to stay there. The trio immediately found a place to stay, and all decided to stay inside the said hotel room. Before they knew it, they'd all fallen asleep.
The next day, they walked around the town, and so Karasu took this time to set up his plans for a spy network. However, he realized he needed a way to ensure loyalty and that they were not being double-crossed. Figuring that a seal would be the best way to do this, he decided he'd speak to Raito about the spy network after they'd scouted the city.
Raito, on the other hand, was focused on finding their target. Asking around was not in their toolbag, as it could easily get back to who they were looking for. So instead, he looked for things that seemed odd, occasionally testing to see if he was in a genjutsu. He was not, but it was good, in his mind, to test that.
Aoi was focused on the villagers; they weren't wearing drab clothes, but none seemed particularly happy except for the children.
Occasionally, Aoi would catch the eye of girls their age staring at the group. Which was odd, but she decided to keep that in the back of her mind. However, as they continued, she subtly activated her dojutsu, her eyes turning a deeper shade of blue, and she saw tensed muscles all around her. Except for the children their age and younger, who were relaxed and seemed unfazed.
Aoi signaled her newly gained information through a hand sign. Raito internally guessed that the town had been attacked recently, but as he put his hands up to dispel any genjutsu, all the adults rushed the group. The children grew frantic trying to grab their parents. Some successfully did, but others watched as their parents began to rain punches on kids their own age.
Raito was not afraid to give the adults a beating. The group quickly went their separate ways. Raito ducked under punches and then jumped over them. Mid-air, he executed a spin kick and landed on the ground with a roll. Activating his Hikarigan stage one, he looked around to see where the chakra was. Just as he was about he felt chakra flood into his system and immediately dispelled the chakra. Standing right in front of them was a man sitting in a chair with his hand in his pocket. He wore a blue cloak with lightning down the sleeves. Upon his head was a damao of extremely large proportions covering his face completely.
Around them was the town, except the children were tied down and gagged. Looking at the parents, he saw the thin chakra strings that were attached to their bodies. Raito turned towards the man and rushed him. Appearing behind the man, Raito struck the blade through the chair towards him. The man fell out of his seat only to explode, throwing Raito through the village.
Raito spun mid-air and righted himself. Then, using his chokuto as a kunai, he spun it before throwing it with all his power. The man who'd reappeared simply dodged the attack before weaving hand signs.
[Puppet Style: Undead Cloning]
Suddenly, a puppet rose out of the ground. Their armor was old and destroyed, with the dirt of over a hundred years under the ground. As Raito landed on the ground, he looked at them in annoyance. They rushed the genin, and Raito was forced to defend with a single kunai. But his skill was apparent. He weaved in and out of attacks like a weasel, then before the puppet knew what was happening, he'd strike them.
On the other side of the dirt road splitting the town, Karasu dodged an attack from one of the puppeted adults. Then, caught the incoming cross from another, Karasu executed a perfect neck strike to the man. He fell down like a piece of crumpled paper, and Karasu dodged under the next attack he sensed coming. Spinning, he used his momentum to kick the man who'd thrown a punch from behind him. The man flew a slight bit away. Karasu took this chance to interfere with Aoi's fight. He entered her surrounding force and distracted them enough so they could put their back together.
The two teammates got into their stances and played heavy defense before Karasu created a crow clone. Then the clone began to weave hand signs. At that moment, Raito appeared behind the enemy ninja. Slitting his throat, all the adults wavered for a few seconds. Then the chakra strings reappeared elsewhere, following them, Raito looked for the enemy man.
Indeed, the missing ninja stood where Raito had been not two seconds ago.
Karasu's clone finished weaving his signs. Turning towards the enemy ninja and putting his hand up to his mouth.
[Fire Style: Wings of Flame Jutsu]
Flames erupted from the clone's mouth towards the enemy ninja. The ninja immediately yelled out his jutsu.
[Earth Style: Earth Wall]
The wings of flame slammed against the large wall of earth. Their flames were powerful enough to rip some of the earth off, but they still did not reach the ninja behind the wall. Raito's eyes widened as he once again saw the chakra strings dissipate.
He yelled, "Keep pushing, Karasu! He's losing concentration."
Hearing his teammate speak, Karasu created two more crow clones, and each one of them began to weave a different set of hand signs. Raito took that time to use his Hikarigan to the third stage. Seeing the waves of light, he simply thought.
[Light Style: Instant Doubling]
Raito appeared behind the enemy ninja. This time, the kunai actually yielded blood. However, the ninja realized what had happened and tried to dodge. This only gave the man a larger wound and caused him to wince. The man jumped back and held his side as he began to speak.
"You, kid, are a real fucking pain in the ass. Has anyone ever told you that?"
Raito snorted before getting into his Precision Fist stance.
"I am the great Kari. I don't lose easily. You may have taken care of the puppet people. However, I have a trump card."
Karasu took the time the man was speaking to finish his hand signs.
"My true puppet-"
Simultaneously, all three of Karasu's clones released their jutsus.
[Earth Style: Flying Dagger Jutsu]
[Fire Style: Flaming Dagger Jutsu]
[Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu]
Kari, the missing ninja, didn't even see the earth daggers. Instead, he tried dodging the massive fireball headed towards him. Pulling from the ground a large puppet, twice the size of Raito, and with a skin mask put over it.
It was made of a special clay, its eyes holding an odd coloration. The puppet didn't even get out of a move. Flames licked it, and as Kari thought he'd escaped, flaming shards of earth rocketed towards his position.
Raito took that chance to appear behind the man and hit him with a vicious mid-air spin kick, knocking him towards the ground. The force of the kick broke the man's concentration, which allowed the puppet to be eaten by the flaming earth shards. Then, standing above Kari, Raito activated the most powerful genjutsu he knew.
[Light Style: Infinite Spectrum]
Kari's face dropped, eyes widened as new colors blasted his optical nerves. Within a few seconds, he went blind, making him completely useless.
Raito released the genjutsu and tied the man up. Breathing heavily, he brought the slack body to Aoi; however, before he could do more, he collapsed on the ground.