Chapter 24: Know Your Own Powerlessness
The silence on the clifftop was absolute, broken only by the sound of water dripping from the bisected rock formations. Kisame stared, his shark-like eyes wide, at the impossible line of destruction that had been carved through the entire landscape. Itachi stood perfectly still, his Sharingan spinning furiously, trying to process the data from an attack that defied all known principles of speed and ninjutsu.
"That," Gin said, his voice a soft, almost cheerful purr that was more terrifying than any shout, "was me gettin' a little serious." He raised Kamishini no Yari again, its small, unassuming form a stark contrast to the devastation it had just wrought. "Now... who's next?"
Kisame growled, a low, guttural sound of frustration and rage. "What was that jutsu?! There were no hand seals!"
"Jutsu?" Gin's smile widened. "Oh, this isn't a jutsu, Kisame-kun." He brought the hilt of his blade to rest against the center of his chest, a gesture that immediately put both Akatsuki members on high alert.
Itachi made his decision. This man was too dangerous to be allowed to act freely. "Kisame. We attack together. Do not give him an instant to breathe."
"With pleasure!" Kisame roared. "Water Style: Great Shark Bullet Technique!" He thrust his hands forward, and a colossal shark of churning water, large enough to swallow a summons, erupted and surged towards Gin.
At the exact same moment, Itachi's eye focused. "Amaterasu!"
Black flames, hotter than the sun, materialized directly on Gin's position, seeking to incinerate him where he stood.
Gin didn't brace. He didn't dodge. He simply began to speak.
His voice was not loud, but it cut through the roar of the water and the crackle of the black flames with an eerie, rhythmic cadence.
"Seeping crest of turbidity..."
He moved. "Butō: Renjin."
He didn't dash or flicker. He took a single, firm step forward, his blade braced against his chest. The world seemed to stutter. A storm of impossibly fast, invisible thrusts erupted from his position. The Great Shark Bullet was not bisected; it was diced into a million harmless droplets in mid-air. The black flames of Amaterasu, having lost their target, consumed a patch of empty rock.
"...Arrogant vessel of lunacy..."
He appeared to the right of Kisame, his chant continuing, his voice never breaking its rhythm. He swung his blade in a simple arc. The "Extended Cut" of his Bankai, an invisible line of force, shot towards Kisame's legs.
Kisame, warned by Itachi, reacted with pure instinct. He drove Samehada into the ground and pushed off, vaulting over the invisible attack.
"...Boil forth and deny. Grow numb and flicker..."
Itachi was already there, descending from above with a kunai aimed at Gin's neck. Gin simply tilted his head, the kunai scraping harmlessly off his shoulder as he brought his own blade up to parry. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second.
"What are you chanting?" Itachi demanded, his Sharingan trying to decipher the strange words, looking for a genjutsu trigger.
Gin's smile was a razor's edge. "...Disrupt sleep..."
He pushed Itachi back and flickered again, appearing a dozen meters away, his blade once again braced against his chest. All the while, the chant continued, each word layering on top of the last, the spiritual pressure in the air beginning to warp and twist.
"I have no idea what you're doing," Kisame snarled, his patience worn thin, "but I'm not going to let you finish it!" He fused with Samehada, his form becoming more monstrous, more powerful. He charged
"...Crawling queen of iron. Eternally self-destructing doll of mud..."
Itachi's Mangekyō flared. A skeletal, crimson ribcage erupted around him, the first stage of Susanoo, protecting him from the strange, building energy. "Yasaka Magatama!"
He launched three spinning tomoe of pure, destructive chakra. They hurtled towards Gin, each one a guaranteed kill.
Gin didn't stop chanting. He didn't even look at the incoming attack.
He simply took another step. "Butō: Renjin."
Another storm of invisible thrusts erupted. The Yasaka Magatama were shattered in mid-air, their immense energy dissipating harmlessly. The attack continued, forcing the charging Kisame to abort his assault and desperately defend himself against a flurry of unseen blows that tore gashes in his fused form.
"...Unite. Repulse..."
The energy around Gin was now visible. The air itself was turning black, not with fire or shadow, but as if space was being squeezed into a solid, geometric shape. A dark, rectangular box began to form in the sky above him, humming with a power that felt alien and utterly terrifying.
"Itachi!" Kisame yelled, bleeding from a dozen new wounds. "Whatever that is, we have to stop it NOW!"
Itachi knew he was right. The skeletal ribcage expanded, forming a full spectral warrior around him. In one hand, the Yata Mirror materialized. In the other, the Sword of Totsuka. The invincible Susanoo was manifest.
Gin's chant reached its crescendo. He was no longer smiling. His face was a mask of cold, absolute concentration. He looked up at the two of them, at the monstrous shark-man and the invincible spectral god, and he spoke the final, damning words.
"...Fill with soil and know your own powerlessness!!"
He raised a single, empty hand towards them.
"Hadō #90. Kurohitsugi (Black Coffin)!"
It was not a jutsu. It was a judgment.
The single box of black spiritual energy in the sky multiplied. A hundred, then a thousand boxes appeared, blotting out the clouds. Each was topped with cross-shaped spears of gravitational force. They descended, not just on Itachi and Kisame, but on the entire clifftop. The world seemed to darken. Space and time warped around the epicenter of the spell.
Itachi's Susanoo raised the Yata Mirror, its surface shimmering as it prepared to reflect the attack. Kisame roared in defiance, his immense chakra forming a vortex of water to defend himself.
It was useless.
The black coffins did not strike from the front. They closed in from all sides, from above, from below, from dimensions that shouldn't exist. They were not an attack; they were a reality collapsing in on itself.
The Yata Mirror, designed to reflect any attack, was not attacked; it was simply enclosed. The water vortex was not dispersed; it was contained.
The black coffins slammed shut.
There was a sound like the universe itself groaning in protest, a symphony of grinding space and shattering time. A monolithic, black tomb now stood where the two Akatsuki members had been, covered in ethereal, cross-shaped spears that pulsed with a dark, final energy.
Silence.
Gin stood before the Black Coffin, his chest heaving slightly, a single trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth. The strain of casting such a high-level spell with a full incantation was immense.
He waited. One second. Two.
A crack appeared on the surface of the monolith. Then another. With a deafening roar, the Black Coffin exploded outward.
From the wreckage, Kisame emerged, his fused form shredded, bleeding heavily, but alive. Samehada had absorbed a massive amount of the spiritual energy at the last second, saving him from complete annihilation.
Beside him, Itachi's Susanoo was gone. He was on one knee, blood pouring from his eyes, his cloak torn. The Yata Mirror had saved him from the initial impact, but the warping of space and time within the coffin had bypassed its defense, inflicting massive internal damage.
They were both alive. But they were grievously wounded. Broken.
Gin's smile returned, faint and tired.
"See?" he said, his voice a soft whisper on the wind. "I told you it'd be over quickly."
Tbc