Chapter 81.5- One Thousand Hands

XXXXXX- TOSHIRO

He still remembered the pitying looks he had received when the teams had been announced. Not everyone made it obvious, of course, but even Sensei had taken him aside to offer some condolences. He hadn’t understood it then. He wasn’t the best in the class by any measure, but he had smoked the written test and passed the physical ones as well. He was just as much a shinobi as Shori and Uzume. All he had to do was work hard, and one day he would close the gap.

Except that had never happened. He trained hard, he worked harder than anyone else he knew, but he still lagged behind. He trained his gwnjutsu until he could cast it with closed eyes and bound hands, trained a whole new form of ninjutsu that allowed him merge his native lightning release affinity with his genjutsu. He was a dangerous shinobi as far as he was concerned. He showed it again, cutting through two Kumo jounin in a whisper of movement. Kizuru’s genjutsu ensnared them the second before he struck, making them just that tiny bit slower, and that was enough for him to get the kills.

But Uzume and Shori would not have needed Kizuru to do that. Shori had killed a Kage before he’d even finished puberty. Now, he was one himself. Uzume, she was Uzume. When she and Shori fought in the village, he’d barely been able to keep track. And now they were fighting the Raikage. In a fight that stretched so far that Uraume was giving orders for everyone to avoid the entire central area of the village. If Iwa existed after this, then it would be much diminished. He couldn’t see a path to recovery, especially because the fighting was not yet over. Not for them, sure. But not for Shori and Uzume either, and that was the fight causing the most damage. “How’s it going?” He gave in, asking Uzume after he dispatched the last chunin in the district.

“Kumo has been conclusively routed. All their shinobi are either dead, too wounded for combat, or captured. Iwa’s anbu are going to attempt an ambush on our position soon. When they do, we will end the last of Iwa’s resistance. The Tsuchikage herself surrendered to Shikahime and Inoken earlier. They have her in a prisoner scroll. Inoken will be coming here to hand over to me before he returns to Shika.”

Toshiro nodded, but that hadn’t been what he wanted to know. The news of the Iwa anbu ambush was useful in that it meant he could not rest yet and needed to keep going for just a bit longer, yes. But still not what he had come here seeking.

“I meant with Shori and Uzume” He said.

“Worry not. Shorirama and Uzume are powerful, and from what I have seen it is only a matter of time until they breach the Raikage’s durability conclusively. He is unable to handle the two of them at the same time and is being pushed into the wall” She said.

“Then they better be careful.”

“Indeed. There is no animal more dangerous than a cornered one” She agreed.