Chapter 63.5- One Thousand Hands

I felt my connection to the kunai I’d just teleported away from disappear a second later, and another one of my kunai went the same way a few seconds later. It was an interesting strategy, and a way I actually hadn’t anticipated someone using to fight the Hiraishin. What made it even more impressive was that this was hosted first time facing the technique. If someone like Chiyo or Hanzo figured a workaround, it would make sense considering we’d crossed paths before and they had been victims of the technique already but in just a few exchanges, Onoki had sussed out that I was teleporting to the markers, figured out some way to sense where they were on the ground, and then come up with a strategy for getting rid of them. I could see why this man had outlived everyone in his generation while living in a profession where most people died before they were told enough to have kids. I dipped my hand into my lunatic pouch, and he took the chance to send the blast of dust release he’d been gathering in my direction.

I teleported to one of my few remaining markers, off to the left, and found an earthen pillar shooting at me with all the force of a bullet even if it was easily big enough t o crush me to bits. I stretched my hands in front of myself, abandoning the kunai for the time being and using a lightning spear to blast the stone to pieces. I teleported away as spikes shot from the ground beneath me. Onoki’s golem was there this time, trying to punt me into the distance. I teleported backwards, eyes wide and paying attention to every single detail, waiting for the attack I was sure would come. In the meantime, two more of my markers disappeared from my senses.

The same second they did so was the second two clones of the Tsuchikage tore themselves from the ground on either side of me. Both their hands were splayed in a seal and less than a second later, I was enclosed in a cube of dust release. Before the jutsu could run its course, I’d teleported away, but that had been too close for comfort.

Even worse, the bastard knew it. He was grinning now. I could feel my reserves of nature chakra dropping. Each use of the hiraishin was a reverse summoning and while my chakra control was elite enough that I wasn’t dying from just using it a few times, using it to remote teleport the others, teleporting Onoki’s dust release on three separate occasions, and all my other jumps meant that I was far from swimming in chakra.

I braced myself as both of the clones flew at me. I accelerated my chakra, increasing the pressure, until it hit a boil and then I was off. The first clone managed to dodge my straight punch and avoided being destroyed in one hit, but there was nothing it could do to stop my hand that followed behind the punch and grabbed a hold of its face.

I teleported with it, using the flying raijin to appear off in the forest with it, simultaneously marking it with my hiraishin seal. A second later, I was back where I had left— ping pong jutsu: stage 1. The second clone aimed a blast of dust release in my direction, even as I felt the seal I had on the other clone accelerating straight ahead. It was child’s play to swap myself with the seal itself.

Ping Pong Jutsu: Stage 2. There was nothing to clone could do to avoid killing its compatriot, and sadly for it, it slowed down for a second. A second too long. Thanks to boil release, I was the fastest ninja on the battlefield even without flying thundergod. The clone turned its attention to one oof my four remaining markers when it destroyed its compatriot. That was a mistake. I flew straight from the treeline in its direction. It managed to turn in time and avoid my spartan kick. It mattered little.

My kunai fell from my hand a second later. I teleported away. I came back to that kunai, he wasn’t ready, and he ate the rasengan straight to the face. Ping Pong Jutsu: Complete. I thought with a smirk even as I felt two more of my markers disappear.

I formed two seals and blasted a lance of cutting water straight at the golem’s head. The damn thing was beginning to annoy me. Just like always, it moved faster than anything that big had any right to and put its hand right in the way of the blast. The water scored a deep trench in its form, but I watched the form begin to seal itself a second later. I sighed, gathering lightning chakra in my hand, forming a rasengan, and then allowing it to collapse into its sister jutsu— the raikiri. The golem moved, and I moved as well, aiming to strike it before it struck me.