Pre-Chapter A/N:Welcome to October, guys! Let's smash whatever goals we've set ourselves this year. More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Experimenting with two chapters a week, we'll see how long I can keep this up for.
XXXXX- SHORIRAMA SENJU
I looked at the ground beneath me, and then far in the distance. I couldn't see the end of the trench my jutsu had carved into the ground, so I pushed off, jumping to the end of my range in a matter of seconds, and then I could see it. The Raikage was back on his feet again. He had already wrestled his way out of the mass of rubble my jutsu had smashed against Iwa's walls. From the center of the village to its walls. I hadn't intended for the jutsu to be that powerful. I hadn't intended to use half my chakra in that thing either.
But hopefully, I wouldn't have to use any ninjutsu again. The sludge that my chakra had become almost seemed to rebel at the thought of being controlled outside my body. I pushed it into the jutsu, and it just went. More of it—far more of it than I intended—had just gone into the jutsu and turned into wind.
I flared my chakra, waiting for my opponent, and he didn't waste any time. He was in front of me in the time it would have taken most to blink. With my eyes, I spotted several familiar chakra signatures at the edges of the trench, watching us from above. We would have an audience, it seemed. The Raikage turned his own eyes towards them, and the second his head was not facing me, I pushed against the ground.
He caught my punch, barely. The ground around us shattered even further. I lashed out with my foot, aiming to take his head off. He released my hand and bent at the waist to allow the kick to miss. His legs arced out, sweeping mine out from underneath me. I spun with the motion, moving into a handstand. I formed a single hand seal, and just as expected, the Raikage dodged out of the way. I returned to my feet, not having fired any jutsu.
He scoffed at being caught out, and we met again. His fist came first. I dodged it, and instead of attacking his body, I stabbed three chakra lances into his arm before he could snatch it back. Only two had managed to close the tenketsu I had been aiming for. He stood still, clearly about to spike chakra through the limb to return feeling to it. Not on my watch.
I pressed the attack, stepping into his guard and forcing him to keep dodging around my attacks. We were close enough in speed in this state of mine that I was forcing him to move at full speed, and he was still only managing to dodge my attacks by the thinnest margins. One downside of this form of gentle fist that could penetrate his armor was that I needed a really good hit—like I needed to dig my fingers in if I wanted it to have any chance—so with him dodging as he was, it was nearly impossible to land a hit.
We danced around the trench, me trying and failing to land a hit while he also dealt with a failure of his own—his inability to mount any sort of offensive. The second he turned his attention away from dodging and avoiding my attacks, I would pounce with all the force of a thousand stars, and since I had proven able to bypass his armor, he was now less than keen to allow me as many openings as he did earlier.
So we continued in our stalemate, neither of us managing to harm the other. It was turning into a battle of attrition, and I was very cognizant of just how quickly the chakra that enabled this form was running out. But there was one thing I had going for me that he didn't. I wasn't alone. I tried to strike his chest, and he slid backwards only for him to suddenly be sent flying right back at me. I noticed the purple specter form behind him as Uzume's Susano'o tossed him back into my grip. I lanced into his chest, closing the tenketsu there. He stepped back, coughing up a small amount of blood, but that was my opening.
I felt my body slow a tad as I felt my chakra coils scream in protest at the abuse I was putting them through. They were built for my water-like chakra that flowed like air when it could, not for this sludge that I had turned my chakra into. Just a little more, I consoled myself as I erupted at him.
"Two palms," I muttered, feeling like a child again—it had been so long since I'd used this.
"Four palms."
"Eight."
"Sixteen."
"Thirty-two." Each one was like a lance of chakra digging into the Raikage.
"Sixty-four."
"One hundred and twenty-eight," I near-stumbled at that one, seeing light creep into the edge of my vision. I pushed through it though. This was it.
"Sage Art: Two Hundred and Fifty-Six Palms," I announced my newly developed jutsu to the world as I landed a final series of one hundred and twenty-eight strikes so quickly that someone else would have mistaken them for a single strike. The Raikage was sent flying backwards. I couldn't follow, finding myself on my knees in a matter of seconds. My byakugan had deactivated itself—was it protesting?
Then I realized that my chakra itself had retreated from me. I could still feel it, but it was a positively infinitesimal amount compared to what I had just been working with. Kurama's chakra and the sage energy had all been expended in forcing my body to become fast enough to deal with the requirements of my new creation.
I felt the strain of remaining upright become too much and decided to just take a quick nap. I flopped to the floor, but instead of the cold soil of the earth, it was a pair of laps I found myself falling into.
"You fool. There's a reason no one goes above one hundred and twenty-eight."
"I told him it was possible. If I die here, tell Uncle Tajima he can suck my—" Her fingers covered my mouth as Uzume appeared next to us.
"You are not dying here, you fool. And I am not telling Uncle Tajima anything. I might be the Clan Head, but even I have the common sense to know not to piss off a veteran of the first war and one of the clan's most powerful jounin." What she left unspoken, of course, was the fact that she thought I didn't have that common sense. I tried laughing, but my lungs screamed their protest. Every part of my body screamed their protest—I amended. My body was not pleased with that one at all.
But I still won. I beat the Raikage. I hadn't even needed to seal him or to use his own attack against him or to use a chakra-inert arrow or any of my other plans. Instead, I'd won exactly how I wanted to. I put my fists against his, and we found out who could hit harder—it was me.
"What?" Uraume spoke.
"He's a monster," Uzume whispered. I turned my head in the direction they were looking at, feeling a sinking feeling in my gut. My neck screamed, but I ignored its protests, forcing the movement, and found that my fears were being proven true. He was standing up. One knee first. And then another.
Uraume suddenly looked up, and then she was on her feet. I felt her chakra spike, my senses all the more sensitive now that mine had chosen to retreat to my core to avoid damaging my body any further. Her Kaiten was a thing of beauty. Her hair fanned out in all directions, while a spinning vortex of blue chakra surrounded all three of us. The spinning shield buckled as there was some sort of impact from the outside. Thankfully, the absolute defense of the Hyuga clan stood strong. When the danger had passed, Uraume stopped spinning.
Pushing past my body's protests, I pushed myself to my feet, partially using Uzume as a stand. The Konoha group was largely devastated by the explosions, but I couldn't keep my focus on that because there she was. Chiyo. In front of her stood a girl with an Iwa headband—couldn't have been more than a pre-teen, but the tongues I could see coming from each palm told me not to underestimate her. It also told me where the explosions that had done so much damage had come from.
The Raikage was trapped within a wooden box of some sort. I could hear him struggle against it even as the seals glowed from the outside. His struggles grew weaker and weaker. I tried stepping forward only to fall to my knees again. I was barely able to raise my hand in time to catch the blood I was about to begin coughing out.
"Chiyo of Sunagakure. If you know what's good for you, you will step back, surrender yourself into custody, and maybe you will live to see the end of this day," Uraume threatened, stepping fully in front of me. I glanced around, feeling the urge to activate my byakugan, but holding off on damaging my coils any further. What I could see told me that there were several Konoha shinobi dead. That meant Chiyo's life was forfeit no matter what Uraume promised.
"Bring me her head," I coughed out, words addressed to Uzume. She turned to me and nodded, barely perceptibly. She shot forward, not as quickly as she could when fully rested but faster than Chiyo could ever hope to react to. Or at least that was what I thought. Her fingers moved, and the ground itself erupted. One of the puppets wielded blades all over its form. It went straight for Uzume, who was forced to spend her time blocking and dodging. She was trying to conserve chakra—probably didn't have much left.
Another of the puppets turned its attention to me, pointing two cannons for arms right at me.
"You die here today, Shorirama Senju," she cackled from behind her puppets. I didn't have to say anything as Uraume began spinning the second the cannons fired. The spinning ball of chakra that was the Kaiten kept us unscathed even as what had to be two powerful attacks smashed into it at the same time. The moving nature of the Kaiten meant it didn't need to block the attacks head-on. It just had to deflect them. Uraume came to a stop when the attacks had run their course. I looked off to the side, noting the lines carved into the trench from what had to be the deflected chakra cannon.
"Attack," I ordered Uraume. She turned to me, clearly worried even if she didn't say it.
"I am far from defenseless even in this reduced state. Now go bring me that silly woman's head," I ordered, my tone leaving no room for disobedience. She nodded, even as she looked unsure. Of course, all that uncertainty disappeared once she turned her gaze on our enemy. Uraume pushed off the ground, heading straight for Chiyo like a bullet.
The Iwa girl with Deidara's jutsu jumped in her way. "Lightning release," I shouted after her, while two snakes made of clay aimed to wrap themselves around her. Uraume stopped on a dime, twisting out of the first snake's lunge before jumping straight up to avoid the other. As she jumped, she weaved several one-handed seals before tapping her shoulder. She sent several senbon charged with lightning release into the snakes as they lunged at her again. They fell to the ground inert, and then she did something I'd never actually seen anyone do. She kicked off against the air itself, heading straight for Chiyo. Two puppets appeared in her way, but Uzume was there, now wreathed in spectral armor. She barged straight into both of them, knocking them to the side.
Uraume, beyond a brief wide-eyed look, did nothing to change her approach as she reached the older woman. Chiyo stepped backward as Uraume's fingers reached for her brain. Sharp footwork had my cousin advancing into the space that the puppeteer had just vacated, aiming to burst her heart with the next attack. This one Chiyo slapped to the side with a forearm motion. Then her fingers twisted again, and the ground beneath Uraume began to open up.
She jumped backward, avoiding the trap, but was instantly caught by a centipede made of white clay. In a flash, Uzume was there. Her Susano'o was gone, but she swung her gunbai, crackling with lightning release in one smooth motion, setting Uraume free. Chiyo's fingers danced, and the puppets that Uzume had shattered to pieces began to reassemble themselves.
Both women looked around them, and then Chiyo did something I hadn't expected. She snapped her fingers, sealing the box that contained what I suspected was a very poisoned Raikage into her scroll before shoving it straight into her bosom. Well, that would be a nightmare to get out. Her head snapped to the side. And she looked off into the distance for a few minutes before turning back to me. There was something indecipherable in her expression, and then the Iwa girl was moving. Several birds shot from her cupped hands, flying over to us.
Uzume took the first move, cutting apart two-thirds of them in clean, efficient movements, while Uraume's senbon dealt with the few remaining. While they did so, I watched the girl bring out another bird, except that this one expanded until it was about a size where it could carry the two of them without trouble.
"Stop her," I said, and Chiyo seemed to smirk. Uzume body-flickered forward until I heard the sound of broken bone just as there was an explosion of stone from Chiyo's position. In front of her stood a man in monk's robes. He looked less than human, a distinctly artificial varnish and pallor appearing in his skin. It clicked then. Human puppetry. Chiyo was using human puppetry. That was why the Iwa girl was so ardent in her defense of her. She was naught but a puppet in the end. And I was beginning to get a very bad feeling about what she was taking the Raikage for.
"Uzume?" I asked. She looked at me and shook her head. Fuck. She was tapped out as well. Uraume had already fought Sora before this and was one-handed besides. There was no chance she was going to beat Chiyo and what puppets she had up her sleeve with this.Chiyo moved to do…something, and then she stopped, hand reaching up to her ear. Some sort of transmission?
"Prepare for my return, Shorirama Senju. I will enjoy the despair in your eyes as I pluck them from your skull. Now, good riddance," she said, and the bird took off with a blast of air.
"Can someone shoot that woman down?" I called, even as I picked up a kunai. Every bit of me hurt as I aimed and hurled it with what little strength remained in my body before I fell to my knees again. It didn't even make it close. None of the kunai people tossed, following my lead, made it any closer to her either.
"At least the Raikage is no longer a problem," I heard Uzume say above me. I growled. That hag had stolen my kill. And even worse, I wasn't all that certain it had been my kill. Sure, the Raikage looked like a stiff breeze could blow him over when he had stood up, but he stood up nonetheless. I hadn't been able to do the same until some more time had passed.
XXXXXXX- TOSHIRO
Finally, he sighed, as he heard a familiar sadistic laugh. Orochimaru. Fuck, the man was a creepy weirdo on his best day, but Toshiro had never been more pleased to see that creepy weirdo.
He stepped backwards, allowing Hayate's blade to slice naught but air. To his side, his left arm dangled uselessly, disabled by a precise strike. The ground in front of him erupted, revealing a snake whose mouth parted to reveal the Snake Summoner with his blade stretched out.
The Suna swordsman, even despite the surprise, still managed a perfect block on the straight stab. That was what Toshiro had noticed. The man's body reacted perfectly no matter what. No matter how many genjutsu Toshiro layered, no matter what he did, once his blade got within a certain radius, it was blocked.
"Kukuku," Orochimaru laughed some more as he stepped out of the snake and began to exchange swings with Toshiro's former opponent. The ground rumbled, and Toshiro barely got to brace himself before Inoken was hurled into him from the side. They slid backwards.
"Hey, Shori's friends. Get out of here," he heard Tsunade Senju, Shorirama's cousin, say in a gruff tone, and he did not spend a second arguing. He turned and began running.
Was it cowardice to leave them with two of Suna's S-ranks? Should his duty as a jounin not compel him to stay and help? Those were questions he did not allow himself to answer as he ran towards Uraume's last position. His hand was freely bleeding, and the burns on Inoken's body were not looking so good.
So focused was he on his running that he never noticed the bird flying above him, heading in the direction he was fleeing. Maybe if he did, he would have turned around to return to the battle. Maybe then things would have ended differently.
A/N; And so we get the end of the fight between Shori and the Raikage. And one of the penultimate chapters of this war arc. Next comes the fallout. Next five up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.