Although he found it hard to accept, A knew that he was not the opponent of the young man in front of him.
There was no comparison.
A even thought he wouldn't get out of here alive.
His only chance of getting out of here alive was if his speed was greater than the young man's.
But if the enemy's reaction speed was any indication, that wasn't very likely.
"Me?" the young man asked casually, remaining silent for a second before answering.
"Soy Kozue Ichihara..."
"I'm just a shop owner"
Kozue responded in a relaxed manner, all while shrugging as if it wasn't that important.
But A didn't believe him.
It was impossible that the young man in front of him was someone without a name.
After all, he was the fastest man in the world.
Only his brother was able to keep up with him using the chakra of the eight-tailed beast sealed inside him.
And although he had to accept that B was stronger precisely because of the chakra of the 8-tailed beast, he still had the advantage in speed thanks to his lightning armor.
And although many say that Namikaze Minato, the Fourth Hokage of the Leaf Village, was the fastest in the world, they were wrong because the man's abilities were teleportation and not speed.
Therefore, A always believed that no one could be faster than him.
Until now.
Staring intently at the young man in front of him, searching for any clue to his identity, A felt the pain in his shoulder and remembered what had happened a few moments ago.
His strongest technique, 'Hell's Stab', came within inches of hitting the young man in front of him.
A could already taste victory at that moment.
But right then something inconceivable happened.
In one second, the young man was about to be pierced, and in the next, the young man was to his left, leaning slightly forward as he struck his elbow with a palm covered in chakra.
On any other occasion, if someone tried to hit any part of his body with just a palm, they would find themselves in the unfortunate situation of being electrocuted before being torn apart by him.
But this time it was different.
The opponent's chakra was so dense that it was able to pass through his lightning armor and strike his elbow.
This caused his hand, the one he had been pointing with a finger to pierce the young man earlier, to fly off and hit his own shoulder instead.
A was able to see how everything happened, but it happened too fast and he was unable to react.
His shoulder was pierced by his own attack, stopping his body in its tracks, leaving him suspended in the air for a few seconds before falling and then moving away to create space between himself and the enemy.
But this time A did not attack again.
The wound on his shoulder cooled his mind, extinguishing the anger that threatened to explode a second ago.
His calm mind led him to reason that any further movement would be useless. Although he found it hard to accept, the young man had already proven to be stronger than him.
His wounded pride also made it difficult for him to accept that Kozue was a stranger.
The only thing the man could do was accept that he had failed in his objective.
With the young man standing before him, he wouldn't be able to take the Hyuga girl. And more importantly, he didn't know if she could escape.
All he wanted now was to know the young man's affiliation.
"Are you from the Leaf Village?" A asked after finding nothing on Kozue's body.
Although the young man in front of him did not wear a headband or any other accessory that indicated his affiliation, it was not uncommon for some ninjas to go around without announcing their village or country of origin, making them difficult to recognize.
But looking at Team 8, which now included the young Hyuga girl he had come to find, it was easy for A to guess that Kozue belonged to the Hidden Leaf Village.
Otherwise, why would he appear to help them?
"No," Kozue replied, shaking her head.
"I already told you I only own a store."
"I'm here because I have some questions"
And before A could say he didn't believe her, Kozue introduced the name of her shop and began to explain why she was there, causing the Fourth Raikage to freeze in place for a few seconds, closing his eyes in disbelief at why his grand plan had failed.
The man began to breathe, trying to calm his urge to open his eyes and scream from the frustration he was feeling.
Besides complaining about the injustice of fate, the man wanted to kill the cloud ninjas who couldn't keep their mouths shut.
If those guys weren't dead, A would have gladly killed them with his own hands.
Far from them, Team 8 also heard him and knew why that young man had come here.
And although it frustrated them that it wasn't to save them, they were grateful.
It turns out that someone was demanding money from Kozue, 100 million Ryo to be exact, threatening his business and giving him a deadline of 7 days to gather the money and deliver it to a specific location.
Of course, Kozue wasn't going to accept.
Instead, he planned to capture those who came to receive the money and interrogate them to find out their identity and other intentions.
But instead of the blackmailers showing up, it was ninjas from the Cloud Village who accepted a mission.
It goes without saying that they were not Natsuo's opponents and are now dead.
But since they didn't know who had presented that mission in the cloud village, Kozue didn't obtain the identity of the person or group that was extorting him.
But what he did obtain from them before he killed them was information about the operation to kidnap a young woman from the Hyuga family branch, who had apparently somehow freed herself from the caged bird seal.
If they manage to capture her, they could not only obtain her Byakugan, but also keep her to reproduce the bloodline in their village without fear of the Hyuga clan in the Leaf Village assassinating her from a distance.
Therefore, the young woman was extremely valuable to the cloud village.
Kozue could also guess the latter, so she deduced that someone of high rank from the Cloud Village would appear here.
This high-ranking person from the Cloud Village was Kozue's target in order to obtain information about the person behind the blackmail.
And if that person didn't have that information, he planned to go to the cloud village in the future to get it himself.
Although Kozue's words sounded arrogant, implying that she wasn't afraid of the Cloud Village and almost causing A to explode with anger again, they wouldn't be so scandalous if you took her age into account.
Any other ninja would be crushed like a cockroach if he dared to go alone against a great village.
But Kozue could be different.
Kozue was young, and A couldn't guess how strong she would become in the future.
Would he be able to match Hashirama Senju?
Or would he only reach the level of Uchiha Madara?
Likewise, both characters from the past were not opponents that their Cloud Village or any other village would dare to fight.
Both were monsters capable of wiping out a large village on their own, and A felt his scalp prickle at the thought of such a monster targeting his village.
And even if Kozue didn't reach those levels of power, it would still be annoying to have him as an enemy.
Right now the young man was already strong, stronger than A, something the man was reluctant to accept.
The Cloud Village would have to be on high alert at all times for fear that Kozue would invade them and cause them great losses.
Suddenly, A started to wonder if it was worth making an enemy of someone like that.
It wasn't worth it.
"The information will reach you in the coming days," was all the Fourth Raikage said before his body, covered by his lightning armor, disappeared from sight.
And although Kozue had made it clear that she didn't want his life, only the information, A still kept a watchful eye on his back as he exploded into speed.
She didn't want to stay there any longer. Besides the humiliating defeat, she feared the young man might change his mind.
The man didn't even bother trying to take the unconscious cloud ninjas away from the scene.
They were just Genin and Chunin who agreed to infiltrate the land of fire with the goal of gaining merit, so they were not valuable to the cloud village.