Chapter 59.6- One Thousand Hands

Shiba was the most dangerous of them, his swarm rising with him and dealing with swathes of Kumo shinobi as they came. Every shinobi that tried to engage him at a distance found their bodies covered by specially bred insects that imparted electric shocks at a distance. Apparently, the Aburame had made them by mimicking the behaviour of electric eels. Those who came close were cut apart with Toshiro’s seamless Kenjutsu, near impossible to oppose with how he weaved genjutsu into every movement.

And then there was Kizuru whose fingers moved across his flute at immense speeds. Last she heard, some enemy shinobi had managed to break the old one Shori had made him but it seemed their mutual friend had managed to find the time in his busy schedule to make him a new one. At least it seemed Shori-made, from the seals that dotted its construction, weaved around it like some sort of art. Inoken, in the woman’s body was a storm of blistering taijutsu as she worked her shadow through him.

Whenever he engaged someone, their shadows would link for a second and that was all she needed to freeze them for long enough for Inoken to deal with them. In a matter of minutes, they were the only living things in the hallway, a fact she made sure of by moving from body to body and performing quick stabs to the throat.

“Toshiro, deal with the elevator” She ordered. No doubts the main reason they hadn’t been buried in bodies was Inoken’s distraction. She felt guilt run through her before she squashed it. Students in the academy were shinobi-in-training, and so were viable targets in something like this. And logically, she knew they were the perfect distraction. No Kage could ignore an attack on their youngest and most vulnerable and expect to remain Kage for long. She watched as Toshiro walked to the still open elevator and dropped a set of seal tags.

“Let’s go” She said, and they stormed ahead to the room at the end of the hallway. Within was a single person, a young girl attached to various machines. Well, Shori had been right when he said there was no way she’d be standing soon. Toshiro got to work disconnecting her from the machinery, showing that his time spent in the hospital had not been wasted. She wondered how it must have felt to be placed on a genin team with monsters like Shori and Uzume as a clanless shinobi. It couldn’t have been all that enjoyable, she thought, as a rumbling sound began from above them.

“Someone’s digging through” Inoken whispered at them.

“Disguises now. And Toshiro hurry the hell up” She said, placing her had on the headband and activating the seal behind it hoping to gods that Shori’s work was perfect. In a matter of seconds, she looked around and could not recognise any of her teammates. They all bore the appearance of strange Kumo nin.

Toshiro spread a scroll over the unconscious jinchuriki and in a puff of smoke, she disappeared.

“Out of here” She commanded, figuring they still had some time until the ceiling above them exploded, revealing a floating short man.

“Fuck, it’s the Tsuchikage” She heard someone say. Way to state the obvious.

“Out of here now” She barked, barreling through the thin wall with her earth release while Inoken jumped right at the Tsuchikage.

She watched out of the corner of her eye while retreating as Inoken’s stolen form stopped in midair, caught in some sort of cube, and turned to dust.

“To me” She screamed, and the others wasted no time in grabbing on to her.

“Home” She whispered the codeword.

A/N: And so we get the heist— Konoha five v. Iwa.