Chapter 54.6- One Thousand Hands

“Suiton: Bakusui Shōha” (Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave), He intoned and then the world became water. Or at least that was what happened if you elected to avoid describing the beginning stages of the jutsu. I wouldn’t do that here because the jutsu’s formation itself was fascinating enough to necessitate description. As a native of the land of rain, his water release began with the rain itself. The rain that fell around us halted in the air, arranging itself into one stream even as water rose from the ground to join it, and then there was the water from his mouth. The water erupted into the air, exploding like a geyser, and creating a giant wave that came down in all directions.

I had blood aplenty from the earlier injury I’d sustained so I took a small amount of it on my fingers and began to weave seals. Eight seals in all before I flared my chakra, committing about half of it before I slammed my hand to the ground and seals began to spread. “Kuchiyose no jutsu: Jinpei” I whispered, creating a large plume of smoke as I felt my feet leave the muddy ground in favour of Jinpei’s smooth hide. The water parted as it came toward us, parting the water with his superior control of the element.

“Kuchiyose” I heard from the other end of the field and a creature that I had previously only seen on the small screen took shape before me, Ibuse. Both of the creatures towered over the battlefield. Jinpei was bigger— about double Ibuse’s size but that was not to take anything away from the other creature. In fact, it was a credit to him that he could be half Jinpei’s size. As a whale, there were few things that could claim such a feat.

Ibuse seemed to take a breath, and then spewed a massive cloud of purple gas— poison. If my memory of canon served, then this was the poison that had given him the upper hand when he fought the allied shiobi forces. I reached to my neck and unsealed my fuinjutsu enhanced gas mask— the same one I’d used against Chiyo while Jinpei did something more impressive. With aa growl, the water rose under his control and swallowed up the gas. For some reason, he managed to control the water so perfectly that all the gas was trapped within. Then he sent that ball of water flying straight for Hanzo’s position atop Ibuse’s head. “Nice one, Jinpei” I said with a stomp on his head that he probably barely even felt.

Off to the side, I could see Katsuyu getting the hell out of dodge. Within her mass, I could make out the familiar signatures of Tsunade, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Renjiro. Good. That was one less thing to think about.

Hanzo stretched out his hand, and did the impossible. He snatched the water from Jinpei’s control, leaving the both of us shocked and reeling. We struggled to manage to avoid it in time, as Jinpei commanded the water beneath us to move his massive bulk out of the way. He hissed as the water hit the area we’d occupied at about double the speed he’d sent it at Hanzo with. Some of the droplets splashed both over Jinpei and I. Fuck. Was the poison contact-based? It definitely felt like something had hit me that wasn’t water, but that could be psychosomatic.

When the ground beneath us erupted, it was another shock as the Ibuse Hanzo stood atop dissolved as a mirage and the one beneath us slammed into Jinpei’s form from underneath. I teleported to the side, and was instantly beset by icicles from all sides. I chained my teleportation twice and was forced into a Kaiten when the ice managed to somehow keep coming my way.

I was reeling, struggling to react. I couldn’t see through the Kaiten, but he couldn’t see me either. But then it wouldn’t matter where I teleported to, he’d have an attack waiting for me. And then there was the water that had splashed on my skin. I could feel part of my body beginning to go numb. Fuck.

“Retreat” Kurama barked in my mind.

“Like hell” I said, not even considering it. No one is unbeatable, and Hanzo definitely didn’t have me beat. I just had to outmanoevre him. At least that was my thought until I felt my connection to Jinpei snap. He’d returned to the ocean. Hanzo and Ibuse alone? I could still do it, I thought as I kept spinning.

“Was the goal to rescue your cousin or to kill the Salamander?” Kurama asked.

“Fuck you”

“You know I’m right. You can come back to fight him another day when you aren’t already half-tired from fighting and then sprinting to Konoha, and your supplies are not so exhausted.” He was right.

When the chakra dome that marked the kaiten disappeared, I was not there.