Chapter 82.2- One Thousand Hands

He reached for my hands, grabbing a hold of both my wrists as he began to forcibly wrench them apart. We struggled against each other for— I don’t even know how long. Me on top of him, him beneath, snarling at what he must have viewed as the injustice of it all. We kept struggling and then there was a flicker of movement. I closed my eyes for a second in the struggle, and I felt him move ut hit was too late tl do anything about it. I felt my skull crack, my brain tossed about like clothes in a washer. I went scrambling back. I couldn’t think. Not clearly. Where was he? Where was I?

I could hear Kurama saying something but it was all gibberish. Who was Kurama even? Who was I?

With the sound of popped air, everything came back into focus, My name is Shorirama Senju and I have a fucking kage to kill.

“That was rude” I said. He snarled from his position as he wrestled Uzume’s sussano’o. She had even less chakra now than she did before. I gave a minute more. If— when we killed this bastard, we were going to work on her chakra reserves as best we could. She already had great chakra for an S-rank, but it clearly wasn’t enough. Not in face of monsters like this. And as hard as the Raikage was to fight, I had no doubts that he was an easier opponent than any version of Madara. I clenched my fists. This was not the end of my ability. I could win.

I pulled at the natural energy I had stored before. It clicked in my head now. I had wondered how to increase the ratio of natural energy to my chakra as a way of getting better sage mode. But that was the wrong question. Sure, you could get better wine by messing up the concentration of the ingredients. But there was one way to improve the quality of the output almost immediately. Improve the quality of the input.

“Kurama, work with me please?” I asked out loud, not quite stable enough to tell the difference.

“A pleasure” He said. He was just as curious as to whether this would work or not. It had to work though. Now that the Raikage was not holding back, it was taking all we had to just keep him here, to keep him contained and fighting. If I wanted to weaken him, then I needed more. More power. More speed. More strength.

I dropped out of sage mode, letting the previously merged natural energy flow from me. And then I grabbed it back, pulling it back into my seal as best I could.