OOC Details:

As an ANBU Captain, Kashizudoto, or, as he was known in the ANBU, Kenshin, could be called by the administration at the drop of a hat for any task that required a great deal of secrecy and skill. Today's mission was more pressing than any other mission he had taken in his entire life. The Land of Fire's capital city was being invaded by an army of ghouls, and the daimyo's life was in danger. Shinobi and samurai alike were sent to fend off these ghouls, and, in the midst of this chaos, Kashizudoto had one task: to lead a team of five other ANBU agents into the capital city as they made their way through the ghouls all the way to the daimyo's residence in order to protect him and his family from the invaders. In his short debrief, he was informed of preliminary reports that some members of the criminal organization Black Dawn were leading the ghouls into battle, which meant that his old rival Zuko Uchiha was certainly involved with the plot, if not at its helm.

He and Zuko Uchiha had battled in the Land of Lightning, where it was fair to say that Kashizudoto had lost. Zuko's visual prowess was, in a word, unreal, and his Mangekyo Sharingan allowed him to create black flames out of nowhere that could not be extinguished and put people under vicious genjutsu. He had, of course, done both to Kashizudoto, albeit on different occasions: having once consumed him in black flames and having another time hypnotized him to the point where, looking back, Kashizudoto still could not distinguish exactly which parts of his weeks-long experience under the genjutsu were real and which were fake. However, it seemed that both times Zuko had spared his life, dispelling the black flames of the Amaterasu before it could exact any permanent damage and doing the same to his genjutsu before it could drive Kashizudoto mad. Both of these near-death situations, of course, played a role in Kashizudoto's burnout and his retreat away from ninja life. Now that he was back, this was the perfect opportunity to confront his past fears with a Will of Fire that burned the brightest in members of his clan.

This time, he had a good idea of Zuko's abilities and had come up with a few basic strategies to counter them, which he shared with the ANBU on the way there. For one, it was important not to look into Zuko's eyes: through his eyes, he could cast a genjutsu, and if it was Tsukiyomi, or even anything near as potent, you were finished; instead, you had to look at his feet in order to read his movements. Secondly, if he yelled "Amaterasu," you had to move extremely quickly, with a speed enhancing technique for sure, or put up some sort of instantaneous defense, else you'd be hit, and the only way to get rid of the flames would be to seal them away with a fuuinjutsu. As for Zuko's ghouls, he had faced them before, and, as he told the rest of the ANBU, they attacked by firing balls of energy at their opponents that were high-speed and high-impact; however, these balls of energy were very unstable and could be cut through by a sharp enough weapon, destroyed by a strong enough punch, or obliterated by a strong enough jutsu without even impeding upon it.

Thankfully, Kashizudoto had amassed a variety of new abilities that could assist him on this mission. For one, he had gained the ability to enter Sage Mode, which heightened his mobility and dexterity, allowing him to more easily avoid the Amaterasu and fight with Zuko just based off of his foot movements. He had learned the art of sealing jutsu and could thus seal away the flames of the Amaterasu if it hit him or an ANBU agent - and then potentially redirect those flames toward Zuko Uchiha. And though his passive stealth could not hide from the Sharingan, he assumed that being imperceptible to the natural senses, he could quite easily hide from the army of ghouls unless they had some sort of chakra sensory.

The capital city was quite a mess when they arrived. Tens of thousands of ghouls scattered about, people fleeing for their lives, buildings toppled - the only constant here was the breeze that ran throughout the Land of Fire. The squad was met with opposition from a large number of ghouls as they got deeper into the city - at least thirty by Kashizudoto's count. They were expecting this, of course, but what Kashizudoto wasn't expecting was the apparent sensory abilities of these ghosts. As soon as he reached the city, he turned on his natural invisibility, but it didn't seem to matter to the ghouls, who still flung spirit balls at him as if he were visible; perhaps these ghouls sensed him through some means other than sight.

He figured that if the ghouls could see him, his invisibility would only be an impediment to the squad's functioning, so he revealed himself to sight once more. He and his team of ANBU then dispatched the ghosts that got in their way with their weapons alone, taking advantage of the surrounding buildings in order to dodge the spirit balls, with Kashizudoto making special use of his Dansuburedo's propulsion system to propel himself from building to building, like a monkey swinging from branch to branch. The ANBU used their barrier jutsu as needed; however, they made an effort to conserve their chakra for when they got to the daimyo's palace.

The ANBU squad, after dispatching of the ghouls that got in their way, was able to make it in one piece to the daimyo's palace. Kashizudoto presented himself to the daimyo and his family as the ANBU Captain Kenshin; as the daimyo's daughter Mira Madoka looked at his mask, she had no idea that the face behind it belonged to someone she had kissed not too long ago. The first order of business was to get the daimyo and his family to a safe, secret location. After all, if Black Dawn was behind this, and Zuko Uchiha was here, then the daimyo and his family could be finished in one swift move.

"Amaterasu!" The voice that yelled this was all too familiar, and it was coming from behind Kashi and the squad.

Upon hearing the word, one of the ANBU agents in his squad charged his body up with chakra to speed it up to superhuman speeds and then charged towards and grabbed the daimyo, the ANBU agent shielding the daimyo with his own body as it erupted into black flames. As Kashizudoto had learned while reading ancient manuscripts and had shared with his squad as the ANBU Captain Kenshin, the Amaterasu was not, in fact, instantaneous. It took time to reach its destination - even if that was a split second - and, thus, a fast enough person could dodge or block it.

The ANBU agent spent no time dilly-dallying, and rushed off with the daimyo to a nearby room even as his own body was slowly being eaten away by the black flames; another ANBU agent grabbed the rest of his family and rushed off into a different room in the blink of an eye. These ANBU agents were the best of the best, and that's why they were picked for this mission, but Kashizudoto wondered if they were enough to confront Black Dawn and their legions of ghouls.

---

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Kashizudoto and the rest of the ANBU squad turned around to see Zuko Uchiha standing upside down from the ceiling of the daimyo's residence, with his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan active. As the ANBU Captain Kenshin, Kashizudoto had already instructed his agents not to look into Zuko's eyes, and, even though Zuko's Sharingan could see through his invisibility, he turned it on just as a precaution, as perhaps the act of decoding the chakra signature that Zuko saw from the Sharingan would slow him down just a little bit - and that could be the difference between life and death. And now that he considered it, another advantage of being invisible was that even though Zuko could see his chakra with his Sharingan, he could not see specific body parts, like his eyes, meaning that he could not look into them and cast a genjutsu. This was good news for Kashizudoto, as he had certainly had enough of Zuko's genjutsu after his last experience with it.

"Kashi," said Zuko. His jet black hair had grown messier, or perhaps it looked that way because he was standing upside down and had evidently just fought all the way to the daimyo's residence. "Don't think you can hide from me. My eyes see everything."

Even though Kashizudoto, as the ANBU Captain Kenshin, had specifically warned his agents not to look into Zuko's eyes, it appeared one of them had not followed his instructions, as he was lying down on the ground in agony. Kashizudoto had no doubt that it was the effects of the Tsukiyomi, and, even though he had never dealt with this specific jutsu before, he had read about it before, and he concluded that it was almost certainly a game over for any normal ninja if they were hit by the Tsukiyomi. The reason the Uchiha didn't use it more often was because it strained their eyes and caused eventual blindness; he was surprised that Zuko hadn't gone blind after years and years of running around committing crimes and ostensibly using the power of his eyes to get out of trouble.

Along with Zuko's entrance, ghouls started pouring through the halls in the dozens - floating up the stairs, blasting holes through the walls, or taking whatever other means necessary to get up there. As the ANBU Captain Kenshin, Kashizudoto told his remaining two ANBU squad members to take care of them while he handled Zuko. It was fair to say that he was even more scared of death than he was the last time he faced Zuko, but he also had a newfound confidence in his ability to defeat him. He now knew how to seal away Zuko's Amaterasu if it were to hit him, and he was confident enough in his ability to look at Zuko's feet that he figured genjutsu wouldn't be too much of a problem.

Kashizudoto activated his Sage Mode to improve his dexterity and mobility, and then the two fought for a while. It was nothing more than a simple clash with their katanas, and they jumped around from pillar to pillar during the fight, with Kashizudoto using his Dansuburedo's propulsion mechanism to get a mobility advantage while Zuko simply determined the best location to jump to using his Sharingan. It seemed that Kashizudoto had the edge in the weapons fight if only for the added advantage of his Dansuburedo, and he wondered why Zuko wasn't using the jutsu of his Mangekyo Sharingan.

While he wasn't looking directly into Zuko's eyes, Kashizudoto noticed that the pattern on them looked different from before based on his peripheral view, and he questioned Zuko on the matter as they fought.

"In the Uchiha, there is one prized eye that is sought out more than all others: this is known as the Mangekyo Sharingan," Zuko began as their katanas met for what was the twenty-sixth time by Kashizudoto's count, "They are eyes of great power; so powerful, that they can create flames that cannot be extinguished." These were, of course, the flames that Kashizudoto had been hit by when they fought in the Land of Lightning. It was still puzzling to him why Zuko chose to dispel them and essentially save his life in the process, but he decided not to bring it up just in case that might trigger Zuko to finish what he started.

"To unlock these eyes, you must kill someone precious to you," he continued. Kashizudoto already knew this, having read about the Uchiha during his studies. By this time, their katanas had hit a total of thirty-one times. Zuko jumped down to the ground, made some hand seals, and shot a giant fireball at Kashizudoto, which he blocked with a chakra barrier. Zuko continued, "Kashi, do you know who I killed?"

"Do I want to?"

"No, you're right. It's not important to you," Zuko admitted, closing his eyes for just a second. To be fair, Zuko was probably correct. He knew that Zuko already had the Mangekyou Sharingan by the time that he had seen Ashlee working with him, so it couldn't have been her that he killed. As long as Zuko didn't kill someone he knew, then it didn't particularly matter to Kashizudoto who Zuko had killed, whether it was his mother or his brother or his best friend.

"The irony of the Mangekyou Sharingan is that the more you use its incredible visual prowess, the more you lose it," Zuko explained, finishing his sentence just as their katanas met for the thirty-second time, "After using it enough, everything starts to go dark. You become blind." By this time, they were once again jumping from pillar to pillar, fighting katana to katana. By now, this was all mostly for show; it was clear that they both wanted to finish their conversation before moving on to the actual fight.

"But there's something even greater than the Mangekyou Sharingan," he explained, kicking Kashizudoto in the chest, "When an Uchiha rips the Mangekyou Sharingan out of another Uchiha and implants it within their own eye sockets, it becomes what is referred to as the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, a set of Mangekyou where the light never dims."

"In time, I, too, began to go blind after prolonged use of the Mangekyo Sharingan. I needed a set that would never fade away." He sighed, "That is why I trained Ashlee. Ashlee Uchiha."

It was fair to say that Kashizudoto was upset by the sudden revelation, of both Ashlee's ancestry and of what Zuko did with her, but he was not as angry as he might have been if Zuko had told him this years ago. Perhaps it was because he hadn't seen Ashlee in years or because he had come to accept her betrayal, but, in any case, Kashizudoto found himself feeling quite indifferent about the plight of the girl who was once his love interest.

Zuko looked at Kashizudoto, smirking.

"Amaterasu."

Abilities/Items Used:

Kashizudoto Jutsu:

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Before he knew it, the black flames of the Amaterasu consumed Kashizudoto just as they did five years ago during their last fight in Lord Buma's Manor. Kashizudoto landed on the ground and pretended that it was over for him for a moment. When he heard the word "Amaterasu," that was his cue to activate a defensive aura of chakra around his body, preventing him from getting burned while the flames still engorged his body. It wasn't hard to act as if he was getting burned by the black flames of the Amaterasu because he had been struck by them before and knew how excruciating the pain was.

He could not open his eyes because the flames were still burning, but he heard Zuko Uchiha jump to the ground, likely aiming to finish him off. He used fuuinjutsu to begin sucking the flames of the Amaterasu into the body seal on his chest, and as soon as he could open his eyes, he jumped to a pillar, using his sage ability to boost him even faster than his normal speed to surprise Zuko.

"Amaterasu," Kashizudoto whispered, releasing the black flames from his seal onto Zuko Uchiha. As he expected, Zuko simply dispelled it with his own eyes; however, it left life-threatening burns on his body, and Kashizudoto figured that with those, he wouldn't be able to properly fight. There was another Mangekyou technique of the Uchiha that Kashizudoto was worried about - neither the Amaterasu nor the Tsukiyomi but something more devastasting altogether: the Susanoo. It was the reincarnation of a demon, it was said, and it appeared as a giant avatar surrounding the Uchiha who used it. And that was exactly what began to appear around Zuko: a blue demon. First, a blue ribcage appeared, and from there, an entire body sprung out. The Susanoo stood as a giant, standing nearly one hundred meters tall, destroying the roof and several pillars of the daimyo's residence. Kashizudoto knew what he had to do next and took out his scroll for a summoning.

In a puff of smoke, his giant summon Hanuman, Lord of Monkeys, appeared to face Zuko's Susanoo, and the two began to exchange blows. It seemed that Zuko, having been burned so badly by his own Amaterasu, barely had the energy to stand and was instead kneeling down on one foot as he controlled his Susanoo from within. Lord Hanuman and Zuko's Susanoo were tearing down the daimyo's residence with their clash of titans, and Kashizudoto knew he was going to get a scolding if he ended up surviving this.

Abilities/Items Used:

Kashizudoto Jutsu:

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The two titans - the monkey and the demon - clashed with their bare fists, tearing down huge chunks of the daimyo's residence with every twitch they made. It was destruction that could not be avoided, and Kashizudoto trusted that his ANBU agents would be able to ensure the safety of the daimyo and his family in this time while he delt with Zuko Uchiha and his Susanoo. From Lord Hanuman's half-open mouth, Kashizudoto could look down and see the ghouls spreading out across the city killing people and destroying homes. It was utter mayhem, but among all the ghouls, there was a ray of hope. Samurai and shinobi were fighting tooth and nail against the ghosts to drive them out of the city, and it seemed to Kashizudoto that so far they had secured some minor victories at certain chokepoints. It wasn't Kashizudoto's responsibility to worry about the fate of the city; however, he felt a certain degree of shame for not having brought down Zuko earlier, preventing this catastrophe from occurring in the first place.

Zuko's ghouls began to swarm around Hanuman, aiming spirit balls at his legs to cripple his movement. Kashizudoto jumped out of his mouth and began fighting these ghouls from atop Hanuman's body as the battle raged on between the titans, monkey fist to demon fist. It was quite hard to maintain balance while standing atop a moving beast, but Kashizudoto managed, using the Supernatural Walking Practice to stand firm from wherever he was standing as he fought the ghouls and deflected their energy orbs away from Hanuman.

The battle between the giants was over when each hit the other in the face. For both, it was a decisive blow, one that sent the monkey poofing into a cloud of smoke and caused the Susanoo itself to shatter. Now all that was left was Kashizudoto, Zuko, and his ghouls, but Kashizudoto deduced that with Zuko's burns, the battle was won at this point, as long as he could get rid of the ghouls. With Zuko writhing on the floor in agony, having been burned by the flames of his own Amaterasu and now having lost his only protection from the elements, Kashizudoto took the opportunity to dispatch the ghouls with the kunai and chain of his Dansuburedo. He then appeared behind Zuko and jammed his sword into the nape of his enemy's neck. The moment that Kashizudoto had been waiting for had finally arrived, and, if he pressed his sword a little harder, he was almost sure that Zuko would die. A tiny ounce of hesitation came over him for a moment, but it passed as quickly as the breeze flowing through the ruins of the Fire Daimyo's Residence. After all Zuko had done to him and all that he was going to do to him if Kashizudoto did not kill him on the spot, this was something to be executed in a cold, timely fashion, and even an ounce of hesitation could spell Kashizudoto's own death. It was a shame that things had to end this way, Kashizudoto thought. Perhaps in a different life, they could have been friends.

More ghouls would be coming to give Zuko backup anytime soon, so Kashizudoto had to make this quick.

Abilities/Items Used:

Kashizudoto Jutsu:

---

"Kashi," Zuko uttered. He coughed up blood as Kashizudoto drove his sword further into the nape of his neck. If there was even a twitch from Zuko that looked like a counterattack, Kashizudoto would finish it right then and there is less than a heartbeat. For now, he paused momentarily to hear what else Zuko had to say.

"For your own sake, you don't want to do this." Zuko's katana was still in his hand, and he lifted it up, not as an attack but as a gesture, "You see this katana?" Kashizudoto recognized it: it was an ornate blade with a purple hilt decorated with figures of ghouls, the same katana that Zuko used back in their fight at Buma's Manor.

"This is the Soul Cutter, the blade that binds the souls of the ones it kills to this Earth, destined to serve the will of the one who killed them for all of eternity," Zuko explained. From this explanation alone, Kashizudoto could understand two things: one, how this army of ghouls came to be, and, two, why Zuko was so intent on slaughtering random villagers back in the Land of Lightning, "Over the years, I have amassed an army of these ghouls, and no matter how many times a ghoul is cut down, it will rematerialize and again rise to the Earth to do the bidding of my will."

"Now, you tell me, Kashi?" he spit out some more blood, "Do you want to be on the bad side of my dying will?" As Kashizudoto expected, Zuko was not the kind of person to beg or give a sappy speech when confronted with what could very possible be his death. He was the kind to threaten and coerce his way out of it, and Kashizudoto shivered just thinking of the possibility.

"If you cut me down here," Zuko continued, "My ghouls will chase you and Konoha down for the rest of eternity." By now, a crowd of ghouls had gathered around Zuko and Kashizudoto, but they did not fire. It was an expression of Zuko's will, Kashi figured, because Zuko probably knew that if they fired, Kashizudoto would hurriedly finish the job and escape, and that would be the end of Zuko's life. He momentarily considered whether the part about Zuko's dying will was a bluff, but, if it was possible, Kashizudoto did not want to find out.

"Alright, so if I let you go, then what happens?" he asked Zuko.

"Kashi," Zuko said, "I want you on my team. I want you to work with Black Dawn." It was perfect timing for this sudden offer, as the three members of Black Dawn that Kashizudoto had confronted earlier - Daifuku Momochi of the Mist, Angel Yukino of the Sand, and Cana Jashin of the Clouds - had all just appeared on the scene. They nodded their heads in agreement; as they all had sensory capabilities, they knew it was Kashizudoto despite the ANBU mask and cloak. With the ghouls and these Black Dawn members amassed around him, Kashizudoto was outnumbered, and taking them up on this offer suddenly sounded enticing, if only to protect his own life.

Angel stuck out her tongue at Kashizudoto and winked, "Come on. Play nice, Kashi."

Daifuku nodded, "You should feel honored that Zuko has extended this invitation to you."

"Come on, say yes already!" Cana yelled.

Kashizudoto still needed to feel righteous, and, if only for that purpose, he asked Zuko, "If I agree to work with you, will you and Black Dawn leave the Leaf alone?"

"Yes, Kashi," Zuko agreed, the sword still lodged within his neck, "If you work with us, we'll stay out of the Leaf." To Kashizudoto, there wasn't much of a choice in this matter: it was either he killed Zuko and died himself to Black Dawn and these hoards of ghouls, or he left Zuko alive and joined Black Dawn. There was always the possibility that he could bail on Black Dawn later, but the fact that there was an army of ghouls that could hound Kashizudoto down made the idea of ditching seem less appealing.

"There's much more we can offer you, Kashi - money, job security, and the like. We'll give you missions that offer you more pay than the ones you take in the Leaf, and we'll deal with anyone who threatens your job in the Leaf. And the best part is that no one in the Leaf has to know you're working with us," Zuko added, "But none of that will happen if I die here and now. If I die, my ghouls will enforce my dying will and terrorize both you and Konohagakure for the rest of eternity."

"Your choice," Zuko finished, and, with that, Kashizudoto retracted his blade, having been either convinced or coerced; he wasn't quite sure, and, nonetheless, it didn't really matter which one it was because the bottom line was that now he was to work with Black Dawn on the side and nothing was going to change that.

"Meet me in a fortnight," Zuko told Kashi, coughing up more blood, "At the Valley of the End." Zuko fell to the ground, panting and spitting out enormous amounts of blood. Having been burnt by his own Amaterasu and having his neck pierced by Kashizudoto's blade had delivered near-lethal damage to Zuko, and, without immediate medical intervention, he would die.

"Allow me," Kashizudoto told the other members of Black Dawn, and he used the ANBU Peaceful Stasis Technique to put Zuko in a temporary coma, and, as long as Kashizudoto was to maintain this technique, Zuko's injuries would not progress further and Zuko would not die. Kashizudoto handed him off to Angel, who began to use some more advanced medical ninjutsu on him, and, with Zuko taken care of, Kashizudoto, as the ANBU Captain Kenshin, disappeared away into the distance, not wanting to be seen working with Black Dawn. He would, however, meet Zuko in a fortnight as he had asked and begin his work with Black Dawn. This was a new and frightening chapter in Kashizudoto's life, but he was prepared to take it head on.

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Kashizudoto, as the ANBU Captain Kenshin, proceeded to rendezvous with the rest of the ANBU, who had moved the daimyo and his family to a safe bunker underground. From a small slit in the bunker, Kashizudoto could see the lost souls retreating and made out what seemed to be Master Piandao, Professor Ivan, and Lord Buma, three of the masters of the Order of the White Lotus, confronting lost souls in the city. He did not want to face those three again, especially now that he had joined with Black Dawn, and he was happy to be underground with a mask on, far away from them. In a fortnight, he would begin work with their greatest enemy, Black Dawn, and while he felt some shame when seeing their faces, he was otherwise indifferent to him. Black Dawn or White Lotus - it didn't matter which one he aligned himself with as long as he himself emerged the victor.

By evening, the samurai and shinobi had finished clearing the city of the ghouls, and the daimyo and his family was safe. It would likely take a while to rebuild the daimyo's residence after the clash between Lord Hanuman and Zuko's Susanoo, but Kashizudoto was sure there were some Wood Style users who would make quick work of rebuilding it all. The wreck that had been made to the capital city was not the most important thing to Kashizudoto at the moment, though he mused over it for a while to take his mind off of what had just happened. Later that night, after a reinforcement unit arrived to take over the daimyo's protection, Squad Kenshin departed to debrief the administration on all that had happened.

Just as planned, Kashizudoto would meet Zuko Uchiha fourteen nights later at the Valley of the End, ironing out the details of his involvement with Black Dawn. Kashizudoto was not to receive a Black Dawn tattoo or cloak; rather, he was to work with Black Dawn covertly, on the premise that if he did so faithfully, then Black Dawn, Zuko, and his ghouls would not bother him or his village. To work with criminals was not something Kashizudoto had ever expected of himself, but the situation called for it, and Kashizudoto was going to rise to the challenge.

Abilities/Items Used:

Kashizudoto Jutsu: