Chapter 52.1- One Thousand Hands

The golem struck with more force and speed than Sakumo would ever have expected from a creature this size. The Raikage stared at the approaching attack, and then the number of fingers stretched in his hand went down to on. The tore through the golem’s hand, coming flying right out of the next side. Uzume created a firestorm that bore down on the Raikage’s position and achieved nothing. The man landed mon the golem’s head a second later, and Sakumo met him in blistering taijutsu. He dodged out of the way of the man’s outstretched finger, and chopped at his neck, allowing a cutting arc of chakra to escape his hand.

It broke against the lightning cloak. He body flickered backwards, but the Raikage kept pace with him easily, about to bisect Sakumo in one swing. He felt a familiar chakra signature pull at his own and allowed it to complete the substitution jutsu. He looked and managed to catch sight of Uzume as she dodged underneath the outstretched finger and stabbed straight up with her rasengan spear. The jutsu flared as it made contact, and it exploded, covering the both of them and most of Sarutobi’s golem. Sakumo himself was barely able to body flicker backwards off the golem’s head once he saw the explosion begin to spread.

When the smoke cleared, the top half of the golem was gone completely. Both the Raikage and Uzume were stationary, stood unscathed right in front of each other on th ground where they had landed. “How interesting” The Raikage said, and Sakumo did not waste his time wondering how Uzume had managed to survive an explosion like that one unscathed. Instead, he body flickered in the middle of their engagement and lashed out with a knee aimed at the Raikage’s head.

To his side, the Hokage formed his seals and the ground erupted, falling beneath the Raking and ensnaring him. Sakumo’s high knee landed, to no effect as the Raikage broke out of the earth release attack, grabbed a hold of his leg and then tossed him to the side.

“It’s a trap” Uzume finally said, creaming towards he and the Hokage. What?

“So you finally noticed, huh? I wondered how good those eyes could be if you couldn’t see something that simple” The Raikage’s voice aid as he took a step forward, looking down at Uzume. To his student’s credit, she met his stare, not flinching. From the way he jolted and moved his eyes from hers, it was clear she’d managed to ensnare him in a genjutsu. Shame that it hadn’t lasted longer. But what did she mean?

Sakumo focused his attention on his surroundings.

“Contact at 11:00 Five clicks away” he heard one of the Hyuga say in a panicked tone and he felt his blood go cold. Reinforcements. Fresh reinforcements to face their weary and tired force. Where did Cloud even get the numbers for this kind of waste?

“We’ve been had” Hiruzen said, appearing next to him.