Chapter 29.5- One Thousand Hands

“Whale Secret Art: Blubber shield” I aid, feeling my skin shift and change as it erupted to grow several thick layers of fat over itself that kept on growing more and more. My entire body was more than covered in the thick fat by the time the explosive tags went off. I also got to enjoy the sight of Kubo Yatsuki panicking as he realised the substitution jutsu that was supposed to take a hold of him did not work. To his credit, the panic had not even lasted up to a second and he was already moving to cross the space by foot. Of course, it was a trap designed to catch me of all people. His top speed meant he lost a leg in the explosion before he collapsed on the floor and had his body reduced to pieces and ash, but nothing more than that.

When the bombs had had their way, I shivered as I deactivated the whale jutsu. The blubber fell from my body in one single piece. The sound echoed through the forest, the effect of so much mass dropping at much. I tried to ignore the disgusting mass of fat and flesh as I jumped over it, seeking my prey. I landed on the first tree branch with ease but had to abort my jump to the next one as I felt myself involuntarily double over. I coughed into my hand, not needing to look at it to know that it would come away red. I still hadn’t perfected the jutsu, I figured. Oh, Tsunade would be such a pain once I got back to the village.

I jumped to the next branch and chased down the young Jinchuriki. Credit where it belongs, the second she had felt her substitution fail, she began to high tail it out of there. She almost made it to the Island’s edge when I jumped to land right in front of her. I smiled at the way her eyes instantly began to look for a means of escape. She was smart. I’d seen her measure when I fought both she and Kubo together. She was powerful when it came to chakra alone. She would probably give an average jounin a run for his money, but the rest of her skills were too lacking for her to be more than that for the time being. And sadly, she would never get to see that potential of hers come to fruition.

It was the way of shinobi in the end. Now that I was older, I had begun to understand just exactly what Tobirama had done for me. His death had come with a disappearance of my bounty in the bingo book. At least that was until Konoha publicly assigned credit for the Raikage’s death to me and Cloud placed a bounty of their own. That was another fact that brought me no small amount of displeasure. Kagami was dead, and the credit would not have done him any good, but it still itched to take credit for what he had done. I’d told Hiruzen so, but the man’s logic was impeccable as always. Konoha lost their Kage. We had to show that we gave as good as we got and had the potential to do even more damage. We had to show that we’d lost one Senju but had two more to take his place. That was why Tsunade had been the one given the credit of taking down the Six tails even if it had been a team effort. Tobirama had received the most accolades in the end, the eight tails, the Mizukage, and several Kumo Jounin were placed under his kill count.

But that was besides the point. He had shielded me from missions because this could have been me in any single one of those missions. All I had to do was run into someone truly dangerous. Even a year ago, and Kubo Yatsuki would have been a death sentence for me. He was the one that had placed the bounty that he’d used as an excuse to sideline me for the better part of a year and I could not even judge him for it.

The girl seemed to come to an internal decision as her fingers came together. She’d fight. Of course she would. Blade over heart. My wind armour pushed me out of the way of her blue fire lance. The next two weren’t even close to hitting, and she was forced into a coughing fit as I appeared in front of her and slammed my knee into her stomach. She dropped to her knees. Pitiful. I saw the acting for what it was. She rose in a body flicker, kunai aimed at my throat. I caught her hand in midair before it even got close to its intended target. She pushed against me, but failed to achieve anything. I twisted the arm sharply, breaking it.

“You’re quite a bit out of your depth here, kid” I said, almost sad about it before I kicked her in the midsection again. My hand holding on to hers kept her in place. She was already teetering at the edge of consciousness. My fingers lashed out next, plugging the tenketsu around the seal that held the Yonbi within her. All the defiance within her seemed to dry up at that.

I began to search my pockets for a kunai, trying to give her a clean end before I saw a familiar chakra signature come into my range. The time between him entering my range and being next to me was barely even two seconds. Guess that’s the white fang for you.

“We’re leaving now”

“Now?”

“The Gold and Silver brothers are on the other island. Orochimaru and I weren’t enough to deal with them along with the Tsuchikage’s son and a team of Jounin from both villages. Orochimaru’s hurt, and Danzo-” He said.

“Okay then. Let me just handle this” I said, turning to the struggling child in my grip.

“No.” He grabbed a hold of the hand I was about to scramble her brains with.

“What?”

“They have Danzo. He tried sneaking towards us but ended up caught by one of the Kumo shinobi whose a sensor”

“So what are you doing here then? Go rescue him”

“Orochimaru was on that, but now we don’t have to bother risking a rescue plan.” The look he gave the Jinchuriki was full of insinuation.