Chapter. 29.2- One Thousand Hands

He took a half step back that transitioned into a full one forward in less than a second and two hands rose in a series of jabs that I could just keep ahead of. I leaned backwards to avoid the third punch and blocked the fourth from his wrist with my forearm. My fingers lashed out again. He pulled back, just managing to stay ahead of me. I pursued him, stepping up the tree as we continued to fight. He sent a roundhouse kick that I blocked with only a single arm. He strained against me, but I refused to move, and as a result, I did not. That was the kind of bullshit chakra enhancement I’d spent the last six months on. The Whales had to use chakra enhancement to haul about their huge forms, so they were the perfect people to learn from.

The technique I’d just used to keep my feet in the face of the power from his legs was one such addition from the whale. They taught it to the young ones in their clan when they finally began swimming with the older whales whose very passing could cause massive disturbances in the water. It was the only way to keep them from being blown far and wide whenever they found themselves near an older one’s form. He abandoned the kick and twirled to return that leg to the ground from whence it had come while his second leg came up instantly. It was like a pulley system. One leg came down and the other went up. I backed up and then he followed the second kick with another. Instead of completing the motion for the third kick that I ducked underneath, his leg stopped halfway and then dropped right upon like me a hammer.

I crossed both hands and lifted them to block the kick. Bark beneath me splintered from the force of the kick and I pushed back, forcing him to take a step back or lose his balance. His legs went back to the tree and I took the initiative now. Two grasping fingers for his left shoulder forced him to tilt his body to the side to avoid them. Sloppy, I thought with a grimace as I stomped down on his foot that he hadn’t managed to move in time. He grunted in pain but showed little other reaction. A kunai had appeared in his hand and he struck out with it in a wild slash. An attempt to gain distance, I decided. So I did the opposite. I stepped into his space and allowed his arm stop against my neck even as I struck him twice I the midsection. So little space meant little space for my strikes to gather force but that mattered little when one used the gentle fist.

He backpedaled so quickly that a lesser shinobi would have left some sort of opening in their retreat. Of course, that didn’t matter in the face of the gentle fist. I struck at his guard and tore it apart and right as I stepped in further to deliver the strike to his diaphragm that I knew would have ended the fight, I was forced to jump to the next tree as the one I’d been standing on exploded in flames. I tilted my head at Jinpei who was now commanding several watery tendrils at the same time and was handily dealing with the Jounin. He seemed to have let one miss his notice, as I spied the Yonbi girl a few trees into the treeline and staring at me with a savage glare.