As he tried to avoid the shuriken being thrown at him, he got hit in the thigh. The pain was excruciating, and he stumbled for a moment, but he managed to keep his grip on the newborn heir.
Contrary to what a civilian might believe, the shuriken was not made to kill, but was made to injure and incapacitate, or at least reduce the combat capability of the enemy.
Eichi knew that he couldn't afford to let the Kiri-nin get his hands on the heir. He had to keep fighting, to keep running, to keep trying to survive.
"You guys are not the only one who can makes clones, you know that right?" Said the Kiri-nin as he approached Eichi, "Give the child, kid, you know more than I do that you have no chance of surviving this if you resist," spoke the Kiri-nin with evident mockery in his tone.
His facial expression was twisted with sadistic pleasure, and Eichi could only say that he was the sickest person he had ever fought against.
Eichi gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain in his thigh as he clutched the newborn heir tightly.
He couldn't let this Kiri-nin get his hands on the child, no matter what. He knew he was running out of options, but he refused to give up.
With a fierce determination, he summoned the last of his chakra and created another shadow clone. He threw the clone towards the Kiri-nin as a distraction, hoping to buy himself some time to escape.
The Kiri-nin smirked, clearly unimpressed by the shadow clone. He charged towards Eichi, making a set of seals then spat some water bullets.
This time, Eichi was ready, and he dodged it with a quick movement to the side. He then followed up with a counterattack, the clone and Eichi throwing a bunch kunai each at the Kiri-nin'.
As the Kiri-nin dodged then got away from the attack without much though to it, thinking it being an explosion seal or some gravity seal. As he saw the small tag attached to one of the kunai, he cursed as he read the word "Flash" written on it instead "Fuck!". Suddenly, the tag activated, and a blinding flash of light engulfed the Kiri-nin, causing him to stumble and lose his balance.
Without wasting any time, Eichi seized the opportunity and made a run for it down the alleyway towards the exit. However, before he could leave, he saw two strange men in costumes jump on the Kiri-nin.
Eichi had no time to figure out who they were, so he continued running towards a section of the city with lower buildings that reminded him of his homeland.
As Eichi arrived at the building, he quickly leaped up and began focusing on his sensing abilities.
Despite his exhaustion and compromised senses, he managed to spot the Kiri-nin again running relatively slow at his direction.
'It's not going to end this way!' Eichi thought to himself with anger and fear that he might fail his mission and let the Uzumaki bloodline finally be exterminated.
As he tried to think of a good plan, he saw a woman, a mother, with a newborn child. Suddenly, an idea came to him, not a good one, but the best one in that moment.
He quickly got into action, performing two one-handed seals and casting a Genjutsu on the child.
He changed the color of the child's hair and leaped down on the woman, limping with his bloodied and worn uniform. It clearly surprised the woman, but he didn't give her much time to comprehend the situation.
"Please, take care of him, they are after him. Please, I beg of you, he is the last person of our family." Eichi pleaded with the woman, his eyes pleading with her to understand the gravity of the situation.
Before he get out of there, to not endanger the women and the two child's, he said, "His name is Hikaru, Hikaru Uzumaki. But please use your name instead of Uzumaki."
The woman, with green hair and round face, hesitated for a moment, looking down at the newborn child in her arms. She looked back up at Eichi to ask him something, but he was already jumping like a rabbit towards the opposite direction.
As he jumped, he couldn't help but feel guilty for leaving the baby behind, but he knew it was the only way to keep the Uzumaki bloodline alive. He had to trust that the mother would take care of the baby and keep him safe from harm.
Finally, Eichi arrived at a secluded area where he could make his last stand. He took a deep breath, calming himself and focusing his chakra.
He knew that he might not make it out alive, hell, he already planned to die on the battlefield, like his brother, not what was demanded from his mission but it was what it was.
As he heard footsteps, he silently sighed, he knew now that the Heir was safe.
"See you one the other side, Brothers..."
"Where is the Heir?" said the Kiri-nin as he eyed Eichi, who was in a pitiful state, with a blank expression.
"I don't know what you are talking about," responded Eichi with a smirk, crouching lightly as he prepared for a fight despite his injury and exhaustion.
The Kiri-nin raised his eyebrow, then bore a devilish smile that bordered on craziness. "Bold of you to challenge an I&T Division member into extracting information," he said, also crouching slightly and taking off his two kunai. "It will be fun, believe me, you will enjoy it!"
As the Kiri-nin shot towards Eichi, the latter felt his vision darkening, likely from his blood loss and chakra exhaustion from his previous encounters and the teleportation Jutsu.
'This is it, my life is over,' he thought as he watched the Kiri-nin approach in slow motion, his hands forming a seal and black markings starting to expand from his chest.
But just as the seal was about to detonate, Eichi canceled it as he saw a huge guy with yellow hair and a blue and red outfit land a kick on the Kiri-nin.