Chapter 50.6- One Thousand Hands

Two puppets appeared from the ground, invisible until they were literally within my line of sight and from them came an avalanche of needles that glowed a deep, worrying purple. Poison. Might even be the same poison that had killed Choni. I pulled at Kurama’s power and screamed with raw power that sent all the needles flying away from me, moving in a random pattern. I noticed some bury themselves into the still bodies of some of my comrades, but allowed it to distract me little as I kept for her.

Another one, the one with the blades for hands came in my way again, and this time, I snatched it and forced it to stay still with two of my tails before grinding it to pieces with a rasengan that formed in my hand in the blink of an eye. Another puppet was there before I could make it to her, and only then did I notice the ninja wire surrounding me. What the fuck was going on with my vision. I based myself again as I was buffeted with the force of another point blank explosion.

“I think I need to deal with this one myself” I told Kurama as I shoved his chakra back into the seal, abandoning the chakra cloak and the protection it granted. I wasn’t that kind of fighter. I didn’t rely on overwhelming power to beat my foes. I outsmarted and outfought them, yeah, but that was about more than just power. It was about a thousand other things that went into making a shinobi what they were.

I tapped my hand against my sleeve, unsealing a set of twelve kunai. Seemingly at random, I tossed them about the clearing. Shurikenjutsu had been one of the few areas where Uzume had been my better in the academy. That didn’t make me terrible at it, though. I just didn’t have the brain for angles and vectors the way she did that let her instinctively curve shuriken and Kunai through the air or even bounce them off against each other at precise angles to hit far flung targets.

I counted the puppets I could see and took a breath. There were seven of them. Looking at her fingers showed ten chakra strings though. The only issue is that I could only trace seven of them. When I tried to follow the other three, the chakra strings went underground for a bit before suddenly disappearing. It wasn’t my range. Probably the same technique she had used to succeed with a sneak attack on a team with several Hyuga and Uchiha.

“Admiring my babies?” She asked.

“They look interesting.” I admitted, looking at the varied appearances and abilities of the puppets.

“Thank you. My Grandson is far too young to begin building on his own, but he’s more than motivated to come up with ideas for puppets specifically designed to eliminate you. I call this my Senju Extinction Brigade.” She said with a flourish while I almost facepalmed. What was with people in this world and silly names?