Chapter 84.5- One Thousand Hands

Explosions erupted all around her as she finally managed to finish healing her damaged brain cells. She pushed herself to her feet, and just in time, as two creatures of wood bore down on her from either side. One opened its mouth, unleashing a storm of cutting winds. Snarling, she stomped on the ground, calling on her admittedly clunky mastery of earth release to lift a wall in front of her.

She huddled behind it even as the winds cut through parts of it, and stung her skin. And then another puppet moved, and the wall she hid behind began to melt. Some sort of acid or poison, she thought as she rolled to the side. It was not enough, as there was a third puppet there. A spider. Just how many creatures could this woman control at a time. The spider spat a wad of webbing at her. She rolled to the side, allowing it hit the ground and nothing more.

Forming a chakra scalpel, she cut through the next two hits, and then had to jump to the side to avoid another storm of cutting winds. She stretched out her senses through Katsuyu to feel at her teammates. Jiraiya was burning through his chakra, casting jutsu after jutsu to keep the man with the gold aura at bay. Orochimaru was lurking. He was trying to get a good shot at the puppeteer herself.

Good. She would give him the opening he needed. She slammed her fingers to the ground, ripping out a massive disc of stone. The puppets moved at her, but in a flicker of space, she formed a shadow clone that rushed the spider. The other two moved to defend, and thus were out of position to do anything as she heaved.

She spun, increasing her momentum, and then hurled the disc straight at her target. Another puppet stepped in front of her, charging up a chakra canon that cut striaght through the massive disc of stone. Still, it gave Orochimaru the opening he was looking for. He jumped from a building— one of the few still upright, springing like a coiled viper to stab straight through the woman’s heart from behind. Yes!

But then she began to turn white. Turn into the clay. Clay that softened at Orochimaru’s feet and held him there. No, she thought, springing to move.

But then there was a blast of webbing at her feet, holding her still for the second it took to rip her out of it. The clay exploded, and she felt Orochimaru’s life force dwindle as he was blasted away, deeper into the city. Orochi, she yelled in her mind, feeling at her bond with Katsuyu.

There was enough of Katsuyu still left that she could begin remote healing, but before she could even form a seal, there was another storm of razor sharp winds heading her way.