Chapter 35.3- One Thousand Hands

XXXXX- SENJU SHORIRAMA

The land of Rivers was burning. In hindsight, that should have been an outcome he saw coming from taking the waterskin. Perhaps he might have left that behind if he saw this scale of destruction in the near future. Naaa. He’d have taken it either way. He would just have done it with more gravitas, recognizing the moment for the pivotal shift it was. Now, just how did they get here. Right, it all began with Shika, Toshiro, and Kizuru.

X-

“Shika is in trouble” Uraume whispered as they made their way to the chosen rendezvous point.

“What?” I asked with some urgency in my voice. Losing our chief strategist in the opening exchange of the confrontation would be disastrous. But beyond that, Shika was my friend.

“She and the others are being chased by close to thirty suna shinobi. They’re ahead of them and making good progress”

“So what’s the problem?”

“Someone is taking a different route, cutting across to forest to catch up to them. He’s moving quickly as well.”

“Only a single shinobi? They should be fine” I said, turning to focus on our own travels.

“While I cannot be one hundred percent certain, I suspect that the shinobi racing towards them is Piandao the weasel” She said pointing towards the Northeast, and I froze instantly. I’d memorized the bingo book a while ago. Every shinobi worth their salt had learned the names and epithets of the S-ranked threats that called the other villages home. Piandao was one of Suna’s most dangerous.

“Continue towards the others. Inform them about the River situation. Secure our own stores and work to make sure that Suna does not get to top theirs up. Hopefully, the fact that Shika and her team are fleeing means they managed to succeed with at least some part of their mission.” I ordered Uraume and Shiba. They nodded, and I began to make my way way to cut off the approaching Suna threat.

“Good luck Cousin. Just continue in that direction, and you should come in contact with him in no time. Be careful”

“When am I not?” I asked rhetorically.

“Always” Both Shiba and Uraume replied in unison, making me facepalm and return my focus to my target. I jumped into the treeline, moving with vim to make sure I caught up to Suna’s famous weasel before he caught up with Shika and the others.

Piandao the weasel, I thought with a smile beginning to build. Of all Suna’s S-ranks he was going to be the one that would present the greatest threat to me and my fighting style. The truth was that being an S-ranked shinobi was often a question of tradeoffs. Every shinobi had their strengths and their weaknesses. A good shinobi would focus their energy on building their strengths and removing their weaknesses. S-ranked shinobi were just so strong that their weaknesses never mattered. To beat one, you had to either get extremely lucky or beat them multiple times in the same fight.