Chapter 40.3- One Thousand Hands

She looked familiar, Uraume thought to herself for second. Uraume did not get the chance to assess her further before she shot at her again. The Hyuga heir barely managed to spin out of her way this time, turning the spin into the first spin of the Eight Trigrams: Rotation as the woman turned around and shot a water bullet in her direction. When she came to a stop, it was to see the woman being beset upon from all sides, and still managing to fight her way through.

Shiba’s kikaichu surrounded her, but most of them fell dead after getting close to her. She barreled through Benzaiten’s great fire bullet and folded him in half with a single kick while dodging out of the way of Toshiro’s retaliatory blade strike. Uraume jumped into the fray along with the others, eyes narrowed and visage furious. How dare this woman?

Still, the woman seemed to be capable enough of dodging out of the way of Uraume’s grasping fingers while forcing Toshiro on the back foot and ignoring every attempt Kizuru or Shiba made to get her attention with their genjutsu or insects. She knew that Shiba’s more powerful and dangerous insects required him to make physical contact with the victims because they couldn’t fly or survive outside their hosts for more than a few seconds.

She dodged out of the way of a backhand and struck when the opening presented itself. Her fingers jabbed right into the woman’s midsection, blocking an important chakra node even as she was forced to backpedal almost screaming from the pain of her fingers being scalded. The steam around her wasn’t just for show then, Uraume concentrated chakra around her fingers to shield them even if she knew it would come at the cost of blunting her gentle fist a fair bit before diving back into the fray.

The chakra node remained blocked, but the woman adjusted well. Her chakra control had to be incredibly precise for that.

Benzaiten made several seals and breathed out an actual firestorm atop the woman while both Toshiro and Uraume body flickered out off the way. The woman stood there and took the firestorm point blank before emerging unscathed from the other side. “You took something that doesn’t belong to you and I want it back” She said next.

“What the hell?” Kizuru replied.

“We don’t even know who you are” He said, while Uraume’s mind was reeling. She could see it now. She had to be related to the girl from the cave- an older sister maybe- the resemblance was uncanny. The cave. The same cave they’d stolen the waterskin of infinite water, dooming the Land of Rivers to a drought, and killing this woman’s probably sister in the process. Oh Shori, she rested the temptation to curse his name but it was a close thing.

“You will. And you will return what you took or I will take your heads” She said and moved again, a missile in motion.