Chapter 39.3- One Thousand Hands

XXXX- IZUKU UCHIHA

This was a terrible idea, he thought as he and his cousin ran across the grasslands of the Land of Rivers to catch up to their quarry and head off his approach.

“This is a terrible idea’” he told her again. It was a breach of usual protocol to speak outlaid during a situation like this, but if they were being observed, they’d know. The third member of their group scoffed at his words and Izuku was barely able to prevent himself from facepalming.

“There’s a delicate mission taking place, and this person can toss a wrench in that. It’s our duty to head him off” Uzume said, and if the words had come from anyone else, then he might have believed that was the reason for this, but he knew his cousin better than anyone. He didn’t have any siblings and Uzume’s brothers were all much older than her, so they had grown up more like siblings than anything else in truth.

“You just want to fight Piandao.” He said, and she did not deny it.

“That doesn’t matter. We have a duty.”

“Our duty was to send a message to Shika and Shori and wait for them to tell us what to do next”

“You can do that if you need daddy and mommy to hold your hand, Uchiha. But me, I’ve got a man to fight” Inukuro said, and Izuku could barely resist the urge to attack him. Assuming it was just Uzume or even Inukuro by themselves, then this would have been a more stable situation. He could appeal to Uzume’s common sense in Kuro’s absence, or he could just genjutsu Kuro until he came out of his testosterone induced recklessness. Together, they’d egg each other on and run circles around him if he tried to go at them one at a time. He spotted some movement from the side and barely managed to dodge away from a throwing knife that almost turned his skull into its new holster.

His kunai came up a second letter and the sound of ringing echoed through the field as he blocked Piandao The Weasel’s famous blade. They met eyes and just as he tried to slip his chakra into the man’s system and put him under a genjutsu, he felt the boot dig into his ribs as he was sent flying. He allowed he momentum to send him rolling until he came to a natural stop.

When he did, it was to witness Piandao cutting a massive fireball in half before jumping out of the way of Shiro’s spinning form and then bringing up his blade to block Inukuro’s own gatsuga. He thought this was stupid. This was reckless and almost definitely insubordinate, but that didn’t matter now. The fight had begun either way.

He formed a horse seal and stretched his chakra towards its target, but his genjutsu just slid off like water against a wall, and the man’s eyes snapped to him. Uzume used he chance to attempt another jutsu, and the man- without even looking- bent his knees and jumped above the flame dragon bullet before flipping and stabbing his blade into the jutsu, nullifying it.