Chapter 82.4- One Thousand Hands

My new transformation had not come without cost, I realised. My chakra, normally light and free flowing like water, felt like mud as it moved through my coils. It was dense. So dense that it was a struggle to move it anywhere it did not naturally want to go. Ninjutsu was basically a non-starter in this case. Okay, not ninjutsu as a whole, but anything that required precise control. I’d probably manage a fireball three times hotter and bigger than normal, but I’d struggle to even cast the most basic genjutsu in this state.

His chakra spiked, rising even further. Until his hair that had previously reached down to his back in a lazy fall began to rise at the ends. Not enough so as to make it comical, but enough to be noticeable. He shot at me, noticeably faster than before, but he was not the only one to have gotten a boost, and my boost had come with an idea for how I could weaken him even further. His senses worked as well as a normal person’s despite the armour. Maybe if I were any better with them, I would use a poison of some sort. But I didn’t have any, and besides, that was not how I wanted to win.

I blocked his straight punch, and moved to the side to allow his knee hit nothing but air. I retaliated, a punch going straight for his head. He took it straight on, even though I had put my full strength into it, and for the first time, we clashed, and he was the one to lose. I did not break through his armour— I wasn’t so lucky by any means, but I did manage to force him backwards.

The shocked look on his face did not get to remain there for more than a second as I pressed my advantage. Two punches, each aimed at his midsection were dodge before he tried kicking my feet out from underneath me. I danced away, stretching my fingers out and striking at his chest with all my strength, focusing my dense chakra on my finger tips. He raised his hand to block, and for the first time, I felt my gentle fist succeed, the lance of chakra cut through his armour, and stabbed at his tenketsu.

Closing it was a temporary relief as he merely shook the hand and spiked his chakra again, somehow forcing it back open. But a temporary relief was still a relief and in this case, it was proof of concept. Tailed Beast chakra plus sage mode created chakra dense enough to pierce that armour of his. Good. That was a weapon I could use.

Almost as if by agreement, we struck at each other at the same time. His punch was slapped to the side as I leaned fully into the gentle fist. My fingers sought another chakra point but he danced backwards. Good, I had given him something to fear now. I pressed the attack.