"Haha! They called you an imitation, Itachi!" the woman with Fire Nation features burst out laughing at her partner, ignoring Zuko, who was in front of her, causing the prince to raise an eyebrow, but he did not rush like an impulsive fighter.
He noticed that his opponent was prepared for any possible outburst she might have, indicating a rather high tactical mind. So Zuko's body ducked slightly as he reaffirmed the grip on his blades, causing the fire in them to burn brighter.
He felt that fighting this woman would be difficult. He didn't care about her power, but with what little he had discovered about her, he realized that the woman was dangerous because of her cunning.
"Don't worry about what happens to me, Yasaka, take care of your fight, our target isn't this nation, it's the Sage," the man identified as Itachi said, a name that made Shisui narrow his eyes.
This name was a bit important to him, ever since he knew that his name was Shisui, he always thought of this figure from a certain village and his history, as well as his great talent, but sad end.
Then Itachi's name came to mind, a character he didn't like too much because of his actions, but apart from that, even if he didn't want to admit it, he was a visually impressive character.
Shisui took a closer look at his opponent, and from his appearance, he could tell that he was much older than he was, as well as having a much more robust body. His bone spear also looked heavy, but it barely raised any dust as he walked, indicating his control of power.
"What group are they from? They don't seem to be part of what's going on back there," Shisui pointed to the funeral area, where flashes of blue flame were constantly visible, accompanied by Azula's maniacal laughter.
"You think we're the villains in those third-rate soap operas we tell our plans to? Not at all!" Yasaka waved her hand, and the twelve men following her leapt forward, taking up fighting stances.
Shisui noticed that their posture was fairly standard, and they even seemed to be synchronizing their breathing. Fortunately, their auras showed no signs of any kind of mental manipulation, so this was probably all due to some kind of special training.
Itachi walked over to Shisui and, with several movements of his hand, the vegetation around them began to wilt as he drew water from it, causing Shisui to raise an eyebrow.
"Interesting," the super condensed water droplets appeared behind Shisui, covering him; this time, they were even more than before.
Since Shisui's chi had completely calmed down, he realized that his control over some more delicate things had become even more refined, so much so that he was now literally a walking lake due to the amount of water he was constantly storing.
Shisui also brought out the chi motes, which seemed much more animated and alive than before, swirling around him like little bees around pollen.
"You are truly worthy of being a sage, but humanity does not need one person to lead it; it needs to think for itself," Itachi said before he waved his hand at Shisui, and the water he was bending turned into tiny needles that flew towards his enemy.
"And you get to decide what suits humanity or not? That's so hypocritical of you!" Shisui didn't even bother to defend himself from those needles; he just ran forward, dodging each needle with ease, his movement making him look like a ghost.
How could Shisui neglect his martial arts? Maybe it wasn't as comfortable as waterbending, but he had plenty of inspiration for martial arts techniques, and true to his name, he had developed the theoretical basis for the technique he was now performing.
He blinked! Even though it looked as if the needles hit his body, it was obvious that they only wounded his remaining image. Shisui twisted, the tip of his spear orbited by his chi motes, aiming directly at Itachi's chest, but six of those warriors stood in his way.
Walls of earth grew in front of him, not only to defend against his blow but to trip him, crush him, or simply limit his movement, but they did not wait for Shisui's premature reaction.
His gift was active; how could he not notice the fluctuations in their auras when they attacked? Shisui just wanted to confirm what exactly these people were, and when he saw the element they were using, a bit of his smile faded.
'The Dai Li? No, I don't see that their auras are twisted, so who are they?' Shisui thought as his spear pierced two stone walls in a row before jumping over them completely.
Itachi didn't stand still; he had gripped his bone spear tightly, his muscles twisting slightly as they expanded, giving him an extra level of potential as he attacked Shisui, who was in the air.
But even in the air, Shisui was not one to fight at a disadvantage, his foot stepped into the void and out of nowhere, a chunk of ice materialized on his foot, making him jump even higher and avoiding Shisui's lunge.
"What was that?" muttered Itachi as he watched the block of ice Shisui created turn into a sharp spike that shot towards him, but he easily destroyed it with a simple swing of his weapon.
In the air, Shisui held his weapon above his head and began to spin it, but not only that, with each spin, a circle of water was drawn, accumulating more and more. Sensing the threat of his actions, the Earthbenders threw stones, but even though they had spikes, Shisui stepped on them, using them to stay even higher in the air while remaining unharmed.
Then, again, taking advantage of one of those attacks, instead of staying in the air, he pushed down with his spear, pointing downward. The circle of water he had created now covered his weapon and took on the shape of a drill spinning at high speed.
Itachi had never imagined that a Waterbender could be so strange with his techniques. He could barely waterbend with one hand and various simplified gestures, but Shisui seemed to need none of that, the water was simply at his mercy.
Now, he was facing a strange attack from the air, it didn't matter how many huge rocks were thrown at him, Shisui used the Waterbending Drill to smash through them as he got closer and closer to the ground.
Itachi decided to respond as the Waterbender knew best, fighting hardness with softness. When his bone spear collided with Shisui's water drill, he relaxed his muscles and used his martial arts knowledge to deflect the blow.
But Shisui didn't let it go. The drill simply shattered, and a thin stream of water seemed to come out of nowhere, shooting toward a nearby Earthbender and slamming directly into his forehead, killing him.
All of these tricks, all of these pantomimes, were merely Shisui's ways of conditioning his enemies' minds and distracting them into falling into his trap. With a huge grin on his face, Shisui gradually became transparent as he looked into Itachi's bewildered blue eyes.
"Looks like you guys came just in time to try out... some of my more daring ideas," at that moment, a slightly warm mist covered the group, all the scattered water had turned into this under Shisui's control, which finally disappeared in front of Itachi.
"Let's play a game called 'How long can you stay alive?' It's been a long time since I've done so many fighting tricks!
I still remember the feeling of sneaking around, using a small knife to slit the throats of my enemies from behind, smearing myself with blood and then continuing to search for prey," Shisui's voice came from somewhere in the fog.
Although these people were well trained, even Itachi could not help but feel a chill at Shisui's disturbing words, and then a strange conclusion came to him: it seemed that Sage Shisui was not only a shining light for the world, but also a twisted mass of darkness.
Only it was their turn to experience the deep darkness hidden in Shisui's memory and psyche, for though he was out of control because of the thing that brought madness to his last world, it could be said that he had learned all too well from the chaos of his recent last life.
Now, Shisui wants to chase his enemies again.
...
Just as the battle between Shisui and Itachi was about to begin, Zuko took a deep breath before jets of fire propelled him forward. He wanted to take the initiative for the simple reason that he knew how cunning humans fought.
Growing up with Shisui was terrible like that! Zuko learned the hard way not to let Shisui create an environment conducive to his plans and techniques, so it was best to try to nip it in the bud.
Of course, Shisui was someone who seemed to embody the properties of water, adapting his form to any environment and circumstance, just as water does with any container, regardless of its shape.
So Zuko was cautious as well, keeping his eyes on the six additional fighters accompanying the woman, who simply smiled at him before unleashing a standard blow every Firebender knew.
But instead of flames, her fist emitted black smoke! Unlike the Air Bender, who could manipulate smoke that already existed in the environment, Yasaka would have created this smoke directly from her body.
Moreover, its consistency was similar to what Zuko could achieve with his fire, something he was not expecting, and he ended up crashing into the sudden wall of smoke that appeared in his path.
Zuko quickly jumped back, dodging several spikes of earth that shot up from the ground. His combat experience was enough to prevent such things, and he was used to the usual Earthbender tactics.
"Smoke bending? I thought it was just stories and party tricks," Zuko complained, remembering that he had read about it and even seen it, but it was more like Firebenders creating smoke patterns with wood and special moves, not directly creating and manipulating it.
"The world is a big place, little prince!" the woman said with disdain and mockery, causing a strange grimace to appear on Zuko's face as something odd occurred to him.
"Wait, you're not one of those guys who say weird words when they fight, are you? Those guys are scary!" Zuko's words made one of the woman's eyelids twitch.
She had a fascination with making comments and saying a lot of crap when fighting, but it was more for tactical reasons than for pleasure, but Zuko's previous comment made her look like a weird or disturbed person, which annoyed her.
"First your cousin rejects me and then you say I'm someone creepy... yeah, I'm not going to put up with this shit," Yasaka thundered in her throat before taking a breath and expelling a thick black smoke from her mouth.
This smoke quickly condensed into humanoid figures with various weapons in their hands, and although Yasaka looked tired, a smile appeared on her face.
"Come, little prince! Let's see if you are more than just a small name next to the Sage!" Yasaka's words did not make Zuko angry; they even made him laugh, but he kept his mouth shut.
Why chat with someone who seemed to have some problems in his head? He had better things to do, such as not getting pinned down by so many incoming enemies. Feeling the pressure of battle, Zuko's thirst for combat grew more and more, and a broad smile appeared on his face.
Maybe he was not so different from his father and sister after all. With that, a sharp and at the same time, embracing impulse surged out of him, raising the temperature of the surroundings a few degrees, but proving one thing very clear:
He was going to fight with everything he had!
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AN: Woooo, for those who ask for more action and battle, take it! And, 17K collections! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!