Chapter 39.5- One Thousand Hands

He leaned into her attack, not allowing her bring her kunai to bear and slamming the hilt of his blade into her stomach, making her double over from the pain, and then he kicked her backwards, sending her flying. Izuku put down Kuro’s body as gently as he could before body flickering towards Uzume and grabbing a hold of her before she slammed into the Oak tree behind them. She shrugged off his grip once she came to, and put a glowing hand on her stomach, healing what he could tell were a couple of broken ribs.

“No close combat” he whispered to her, and Uzume nodded, not being her usual confrontational self. She was probably just as shaken as he was. Inukuro was dead. Their classmate. Their friend. He was dead, and the man that had done it stood there like he hadn’t just shattered a family with a swing of that blade of his. Inukuro was a good man. A good friend. How would they even tell Uraume about this? Or Shiba? Oh gods. Shiba! Izuku wanted to scream at this man, but he took his rage and swallowed it with a breath.

They would give Shiba the head of the man who had taken so much from him, and they would do it as a team. He tapped Uzume’s shoulder, silently begging her to follow his lead, and this nod came slower, but it came all the same. Good. He took another breath in, superheating the air inside his body, before ejecting it in a series of small fireballs designed to distract rather than disable. Piandao moved his blade, slicing each one in half but was forced o jump backwards as massive spikes rose from the ground he had been standing on. Izuku weaved a set of seals this time and spat out multiple lances of superheated air that combusted as they crossed the distance between them and their quarry.

Piandao’s blade remained in place to block the jutsu, but Uzume ran along the edges of their battlefield, seeking a different attack angle before she brought her hands together in two seals and sent a massive bolt of lightning natured chakra aimed at the side of the man’s head. Unable to deal with both attacks at the same time, the man made his choice, and it was one Izuku hadn’t seen coming. Backwards or upwards, he expected and planned for, only for the man to run forwards, head on into Izuku’s flames with his sword outstretched. He emerged from the smoke singed, but intact and managed to dodge the volley of shuriken that Izuku had sent right to the point he was going to come out from. He jumped backwards as The Weasel dashed at him only for the man to be forced to turn to slice through a lance of pressurized water courtesy Uzume. The water still soaked his body, and Izuku took the chance given to him.

He didn’t need seals for this jutsu. He body flickered into close range, and dodged a slice that came ever so close to removing his head from his shoulders before he brought his fingers and jutsu to bear.