Chapter 41.5- One Thousand Hands

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And then there were eight, I thought but did not say. From twelve graduates in our class now to eight. Well, more like eight and a half, I thought, thinking about Uzume’s jutsu. She still hadn’t explained the barebones of it to me, but we had time. We would have time. Suna was broken. Their Commander was dead. Their Chunin backbone was either dead or scattered. Their reserves were battered and bleeding. We had struck a powerful blow against them, but like an animal trapped in a corner, they lashed out.

The Commander had killed Choni with his poison. Both Izuku and Kuro had died to Piandao. Izuku, I thought again with a shiver spreading across my body. He didn’t deserve that. And then there was Omoikane. I could deny responsibility for most of the deaths, the plan had been Shika’s, not mine, but this one was my fault. Everyone knew it, and I knew it was only a matter of time until someone called me out on it. Uraume’s squad had everything in hand and then that woman had come in. She’d only intervened because I took the waterskin. And her intervention, short lived as it was as they managed to send her my way, had led to Omoikane’s death.

The distraction had been enough for the Reserves to get some order about them, and even if they were the dregs of the army, they still had the numbers to force my friends into a bloody retreat. A bloody retreat that Omoikane had not survived..

“Thinking?” A voice startled him from his thoughts. He turned away from the sea of trees he was staring through to look at Uzume, standing right below the tree he was sitting. She was different. None could deny it. It was the only reason anyone could believe her claims about fusing with Izuku. Her hair, previously straight as the crow flies now curled and fell in ringlets down her face. Her previously sharp features had filled out and softened with the addition of Izuku’s comparatively soft features. The clearest sign were the lines across her face that were like tear marks. Izuku had had them. Uzume didn’t.

And her chakra as well, he thought to himself. Even without activating his byakugan, he could feel her chakra. She had almost as much chakra as he did and that was something else. She- they were impressive.

“How did it happen?” He asked again as she appeared next to him in a blur of movement that he could barely follow. She had jumped up in strength quite a lot.

“You know Izuku is my brother” She said.

“A secret that your father kept terribly. But yes, my Granduncle had known and he told me.” I said.

“Somehow, we had the same mangekyou ability, but different versions of it” She began.