Chapter. 53.6- One Thousand Hands

Lady Katsuyu acknowledged her summoning with a grunt, moving over so the bulk of her form covered both Jiraiya and orochimaru’s bodies. In many ways, Lady Katsuyu was the perfect summon for someone like Tsunade. Contrary to what her teammates might have thought, Katsuyu was not a natural healer. What she was, was a being perfect for channeling and amplifying chakra channelled through her. That was why she only needed to place a hand against the Slug’s bulk to use a diagnostic jutsu to check both their states. They were both alive— Jiraiya was facing, and he was fading fast. While Orochimaru was a victim of Chaka exhaustion as well as a mild vase of poisoning. Poisoning was something the three of them shared, but Jiraiya’s case was worse. Much worse. His internal organs had begun to quit on him— scratch that— his heart was the only one still functioning and even that was a close thing.

He had been only minutes away from fading. The only thing that had even let him last so long was that unlike Tsunade and Orochimaru, his reserves had been relatively full. Full when compared to the chakra exhaustion the both of them had been fighting at least. And then there was Tsunade’s earlier efforts which had slowed down the deterioration of his condition. A thousand things had come together to allow Jiraiya survive this day and it was all she could do not to weep in joy as she felt his body begin to respond to the healing chakra she pumped into Katsuyu’s body.

XXXXXX- UZUME UCHIHA

Fresh reinforcements or not, this new set of Kumo shinobi were doing little to challenge her as she cut through their ranks like a hot knife through butter. A bold fellow stepped in her direction and died a second later, her fingers reaching out to crush his windpipe with chakra enhanced strength while her other hand buried a kunai to the hilt through his left eye socket and into his brain. She channeled lightning natured chakra into the hand holding the kunai and used it to catch the lightning jutsu sent in her direction before flexing her chakra and sending it back with double the power.

On the opposite end, she could see Sensei doing much the same. The only problem was that they were still losing the fight. She and Sensei were powerful shinobi but there were still only two of them and the Kumo numbers were in the hundreds. Their comrades were dying in droves, caught with their pants down by the sudden arrival of this new battle group.

The Raikage had taken their plan and turned it on its head. A new battlegroup straight from Kumo hadn’t been in anyone’s projections for what would happen next. There was a clap of thunder and she turned her head to see the outcome she had known was inevitable the second the Hokage had asked her and Sakumo to leave. It was the right decision, she knew. The only thing that had a chance of keeping their force alive. The bloody swathes both she and Sakumo had cut into the Kumo offensive had kept them from crushing the Konoha detachment with the force of their numbers. Still, it had not been without a price.

The Raikage remained stationary, standing with his arm outstretched and the Hokage could be seen nearly two dozen feet away. There was a scar along the earth itself dug into the distance that separated them. Half the right side of the Hokage’s chest was just gone. A fatal wound if she’d ever seen one.

“Uzume” She heard her name shouted above the chaos, and her head snapped to Sensei’s.

He body flickered between the Kage.

“Sound the retreat. Get the Hokage out of here. Run. Don’t stop until you’re in Konoha” He said and she watched with her sharingan as two more of the gates that controlled the body’s flow of chakra snapped open. That made four. Where did Sensei even learn to do that? She stared at the battle, frozen as she tried to make a choice.

A/N: And that’s the chapter. How’s things going for Konoha? Not good. Not good at all.