Chapter 54.2- One Thousand Hands

XXXXXX- SHORIRAMA SENJU

Yeah, I get it now. I get why this man was enough of a deterrent to basically make this strip of land between three great nations a no-go area in canon. It was actually impressive how strong he was. And this was all talent. Hanzo never could have had the kind of tutelage that people like Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru boasted. Neither could he claim the pedigree or the access to resources. Regardless, he was stronger than they were, and possibly even stronger than I was, but the both of us were still a ways of from going all out so it was difficult to tell.

I ducked underneath a slash of his scythe and pushed into his space. His footwork was immaculate as he danced out of the way of my grasping fingers as I sought to force some of his chakra points closed. We wove through the ground as ran fell around us and unto our bodies in a continuous dance of attacks and counterattacks.

When I felt him begin to get into a lull, I flared my chakra and turned the ground around us into mud, forcing him into my element and commanding the mud to rise and encase him with a single handseal. Victory. At least, it was victory until I felt the control of the mud be snatched from me as I watched his chakra worm into the mud itself and force it away from me. “Earth release creates the substance, water release makes it malleable and allows seamless control. A powerful kekkei genkai.” He said as I watched him do the impossible— beat me in a contest of chakra control.

“Perhaps I might have enjoyed facing your Grandfather. He was famed for his water release, while you are sloppy with the world’s most powerful element” he said and the scoff was audible in his voice.

“Granduncle”

“What?”

“Tobirama was my Granduncle not my Grandfather” I corrected, while I secretly wished he kept on talking as I felt Kurama get to work, building up to something.

“Oh, apologies for misspeaking then. The names are so confusing, you know?” He said with lips drawn ino a thin line.

“Please do send him my apologies when you meet in Naraka” he said, rushing at me.

‘Kurama’ I yelled mentally.

‘On it’ his reply was instant as I felt nature energy flood my body. I partitioned my reserves like the hero water had done instinctively, and balanced the smaller portion with the nature energy that Kurama had just fed me to turn it into nature chakra. It wasn’t a lot, but I could make do in the end. I just had to make sure that this fight came to an end when I needed to.

I could feel it in my bones as Hanzo moved, moving nearly twice as fast as he had been before, showing the he was holding back back then. I waited for him to get close and swing his scythe before I stepped into the swing and let the scythe’s shaft slam to my neck with no effect while I punched straight through Hanzo’s body as his midsection turned into water before reforming itself after my fist had passed.

“How the hell do you do that?” I asked, genuinely curious.