The Zero Tails Jinchuriki #29

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Land of Fire

–Kenta Senju–

He landed on the ground, feeling his chakra remain stable, even as he remembered the distinctly wrong feeling of his chakra being absorbed by those two hands. He cycled his chakra a couple of times before refocusing on the now vastly more dangerous shinobi who was, even now, climbing out of the hole he had kicked him into.

“Ah,” the shinobi groaned, in pain or pleasure, he did not know, crawling out of that hole with a single hand, the other trembling slightly, the only indication of a bone being broken. “What was that? It felt greeeaat!” 

The man laughed with his head thrown back, the red markings on his body shining even more as he abruptly stopped laughing and looked back at him with narrowed eyes. Not wanting to give the obviously dangerous and anomalous shinobi a chance, he disappeared from his spot, and knowing that close contact would result in his chakra being absorbed, he created two shadow clones, to execute a tried and tested strategy, one that had served him well, even before he became the Jinchuriki of the Zero Tails.

One slipped behind the trees, and the other charged the shinobi by his side. Meanwhile, he jumped back into the fray, looking as if he intended to continue the hand-to-hand combat, as his two clones cast the jutsu.

[ Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique ]  X [ Wind Release: Great Breakthrough ]

Two C-rank jutsu, not something anyone would use in a fight between Jounin or Elite Jounin, due to their lack of firepower as well as the time taken to cast them. But the difference this time, was that his clones had plenty of chakra to amplify the techniques, and also because the synergy between both elements allowed their firepower to increase drastically, bordering on A-rank, which worked just fine for his purposes since he wasn’t expecting to defeat his opponent with that single jutsus.

So far, he had only felt the acidic chakra nature in his range, which was pretty wide when he was in Sage Mode, and no sign of any other chakra signature, be it from Orochimaru or from Kumo, which allowed him a certain leeway in terms of playing around and gathering more information about his opponent.

With that chakra absorption capability alone, especially Sage Mode chakra, he was someone that every single village would salivate over, and having concrete information about his bloodline limit would help a lot, especially since he suspected them to be a part of Orochimaru’s group.

That unknown headband remained stuck in his mind, as he vowed to do a deeper search on that symbol when he returned to Konoha.

The shinobi’s eyes turned wide as he jumped up at the last moment, using a sealless wind jutsu to push him back, away from the inferno of fire headed his way. His eyes caught on the shinobi being surprised but not as concerned with the jutsu as he immediately executed his Earth Release Jutsu, creating multiple walls over him, along with a sphere right on top of him. A multi layered defensive jutsu cast with a single hand seal.

A moment later, the inferno passed over his jutsu, as he landed on the ground and waited a bit, to see if the acidic chakra nature would move or not. To his disappointment, they did not move one bit, and as expected, the malice and glee in the chakra signature hidden in the Earth Jutsu spiked once more, further cementing his theory that the person inside there was a lunatic.

A lunatic with a dangerous power. His overall power and unique bloodline limit meant that even Elite Jounins would find it hard to resist once he got his hands on them, as the absorption also came with a slight weakening effect, something that should be a lot more pronounced on other shinobi, since they would not have his physique and also would not be running on Nature Chakra.

Nature Chakra was inherently heavier than normal Chakra and he had a hunch that the shinobi would have absorbed a lot more chakra if he had not been in Sage Mode.

The fire dissipated a moment later, revealing the walls had broken down, with the sphere in the center remaining intact, but also being red hot. 

Huh. If not for the chakra holding it together, some of that sand would have definitely turned to glass with that temperature. Another thing that he picked up from the Yondaime. His theory of using nature’s natural properties and weaponising them using the least available amount of chakra was definitely correct.

As expected of the person who had to kill hundreds of people in a single day with no rest in between. Anyone would begin to figure out ways to kill people using the last possible chakra after having to do that multiple times in a single war.

A genius at killing people, the Yondaime definitely was.

The sphere broke apart as the slightly smoking form of that shinobi was revealed, who was glaring at him. “That,” the shinobi spat out blood, which also began smoking as soon as it made contact with the ground, “Fucking hurt, you bastard.”

“Who are you?” He was getting tired of referring to him as the shinobi in his mind. Plus, a name would help in the report he was going to have to eventually write.

The man grinned at him, hefting his broken arm, and pointing at himself, “I am Jirōbō, leader of the Sound Four, loyal followers of Orochimaru-sama. Who are you supposed to be? Orochimaru-sama never mentioned Konoha had another sage. Kami, that chakra was delicious!”

He narrowed his eyes at the chakra bit, confirming his earlier theory. Sound Four? So there were three others like him, with that acidic chakra nature being one of them.

Let's see if a little provocation works as intended. He sneered at him, “I am Kenta Senju. Well, obviously your so-called Orochimaru-sama has never heard of me. He’s too big a coward to–”

“DIE!”

He grinned a little at the vitriol in Jirobo’s voice, his provocation getting to the simpleton with ease, as he shot forward, fist aimed at his head, once again, much slower than he expected a shinobi of his calibre to be. It would seem that he had prioritised strength over speed, which did not help him here.

No Ninjutsu here, aside from the one that created red markings all over his body. He dodged, easily, and then punched at the back of his head, not wanting to splatter him but disorienting would be fine as well.

He had something he wanted to test. He pulled back his fist and jumped back instantly, as a spike of Earth emerged from the ground, which meant that Jirobo had very high durability, as he was able to execute jutsu even after his brain was rattled.

Also, the chakra absorption likely needed extended contact for it to work. Also, it probably only worked with his hands? Last time it happened, there was a thin layer of Earth coating his fists.

Maybe this one was from Iwa? They had the most advanced Earth Release techniques amongst everyone else.

His curiosity satisfied for the moment, he shot forward once more, two shadow clones appearing beside him, and then ran to the sides, intending on circling Jirobo as he punched Jirobo in the torso, pushing him back, right into the waiting first of Shadow Clone, who punched him forward, right at the base of his neck, toppling him on the ground.

The second shadow clone jumped high up, before landing a kick straight on his unprotected back, making him cough up blood immediately. Unfortunately for him, that also made him push himself out of the hole, where his fist was, once more, waiting for him, and this time, he hit him right in his head, making his eyes roll back in his head.

Satisfied with that, he turned around, as the acidic chakra signature finally began moving towards him, yet, not at the level of urgency he expected them to. Judging by his attacks, it should have been obvious that he was probably not holding back and going for vital points meant that their comrade was in danger, and yet, he was not feeling the—

He froze, eyes wide as he immediately jumped to the side, as a vast, bigger than any Earth Spike Jirobo had cast today, rose out of the ground. His neck snapped to the side as he saw Jirobo groaning in pain and yet, struggling out of the hole.

He felt the massive implosion of chakra in Jirobo’s body before he saw the changes. He bulked up, height increasing massively, clothes tearing apart at the sudden change of mass. His entire body turned multiple shades darker, almost turning red, as the red markings on his body glowed even brighter, with splashes of black in between them.

Well, this just got a lot more complicated.