Chapter. 57.1- One Thousand Hands

XXXXX- A SHADOW CLONE’S CHRONICLES

He ducked underneath the kunai slash is new student sent right at his head. Come at me with the intent to kill, he had said, and to his surprise these young ones had not hesitated even for a second. Not even his cut little sister had done more than give him a questioning look before unleashing the full cope of her power towards achieving that goal. Speaking of little sister, he moved like water to avoid the golden chains that attempted to encircle him in their grasp. It was like a clock— a masterpiece of engineering, many small parts working together to achieve a big, but simple goal. And just like a clock, it was predictable what came next. Mikoto Uchiha wormed through his mud and sent a storm of shuriken his way.

He hardened his fingers with nature chakra, a trick he had learned after spending enough tike in sage mode and understanding how nature energy enhance his body, and deflected the shuriken without picking up a weapon of his own. That was one of his self imposed handicaps for this test. Was it even fair to call it a test at this point? They’d passed with flying colours already— not that he was ever planning on failing this team. He’d chosen them, after all.

Unlike a clock for a second, they managed to surprise him. At least he pretended not to have seen the chakra furnace posing as a shuriken as his little sister transformed back to her original form after being deflected and made an attempt to snatch the bell. A good plan, he judged. He could see the disbelief in Mikoto’s eyes that it had worked, the triumph in Minato’s, and the naked anticipation in Kushina’s as she stretched out. This was as good a time as any to teach them their second lesson. They’d learned the first in record time so maybe this one would come as easily. Faster than she could blink, but not as fast as he could move, his foot lashed out and stamped her in the chest, sending her flying into a tree.

The Uchiha was next. He shattered her clumsy attempts to place him under genjutsu, staring into her spinning red eye all the while. She lashed out with a fist once he was close enough. He parried it with contemptuous ease and tapped her twice with his fingers. He spun around her and tapped her once on the spine. She fell to the floor, temporarily paralyzed.

Namikaze watched the whole thing, blue eyes wide and shaking. He was next. His sensei body flickered to the side, and then to the side again, before running straight at him. Namikaze managed to react to the slowed down but confusing approach, slashing straight ahead, but hitting naught but air as his sensei backflipped over him. He tapped him once on the neck, putting him down for the time being.

Kushina was struggling to her feet next, and he could see the red beginning to seep into her eyes. Better to put that to a quick end, he thought. One body flicker later, and she laid paralyzed next to her teammates.