Chapter 25.6- One Thousand Hands

It hit nothing but air but it was enough to achieve my first goal- Keep Kagami in the fight. Another breath and two more arrows flew through the air, forcing the Raikage to dodge away from them. I took a hold of the next arrow and allowed my chakra for through it with a breath.. When I fired, the wind release enhanced arrow cut through the air like a missile and forced the Raikage to take another path as he tried to get at Kagami. With my distraction in place, the Uchiha had taken out another kunai and seemed to be getting back into the spirit of the fight.

He lashed out like a serpent in the grass, coiling his body and uncoiling it to gain explosive force as he shoved his kunai right at the muscular man’s throat. Regardless, he managed to make no headway. Ay used a single elbow to push the hand holding the kunai out of the way and then grabbed a hold of Kagami by the throat. It happened so quickly that I only even managed to figure out what had happened after the fact. In one second, Kagami was there, being held up and in the next his body was hading towards the ground. The arrow I’d been nocking hadn’t even had the time to leave my bow yet.

I stared at the body as it fell, lost to gravity’s hold. It said something about the speed at which we had been fighting that it felt like Kagami’s body fell for an eternity. It was still in the air when the Raikage made it to my position and was forced to snap his head backwards to dodge the arrow I threw with a flick of my wrist. I slammed my hand on the ground, instantly turning the area around me into mud that reached out to grab him. I myself sank into the mud a fair bit and thanked fuck for the pain relief of not having my crushed knee against hard ground.

The Raikage had two choices, retreat or commit. Ay never retreated. He rushed through the mud, moving so quickly that it struggled to get a grasp on him and slammed a powerful fist straight through my head. Or what he thought was my head. The mud clone fell apart instantly and it was almost impressive how he managed to dash out of the mud field without getting caught.

He miscalculated, however, stopping at the edge of the mud field to begin looking around. Staying still was a mistake. Wind release chakra around my hands, I shoved through the power of his armour and grabbed a hold of his legs. The earth around us turned into even more mud. He couldn’t find any traction to push me away. This was my domain. My kingdom. I pulled him deeper into the mud even as parts of my body were forced to surface. The wind release chakra I had around my hands had been abandoned. I couldn’t channel the armour and use earth release at the same time. Still, even as I felt his lightning armour burn against my skin.

“Get off me” I heard him mutter as he increased his output even further. I could smell my skin burning as I held on to him. I didn’t let go. Could not let go. If I did, there was no chance of me catching him like this again. One of my legs was already out of commission. This was it for me. My one fucking chance. I dragged my body even closer to his and forced more and more mud to begin to pile upon the two of us.

I felt his hands grab a hold of my head and begin to push. The skin around my face was beginning to sizzle. I was going to die here, I realised. This new life. Everything. It was all going to end here. Against the fucking Second Raikage of all people. Basically a no-name when compared to the giants that would come after, or even those who came before. I forced more mud on top of us, trying to kill him before he killed me. I could breathe just fine. He couldn’t.

“Stop. Stop it” The words left his mouth for a second and I took the chance to stuff the mouth full with mud. His fingers tightened against my head and I felt them break skin and dig at the flesh beneath. Fuck. So much pain. It all seemed to crescendo as I blacked out for a second. In the next second, his hands fell away limp. Had I done it? No. My byakugan could make out the person on top of the river of mud we’d both sunk beneath. He held a bow and there was an arrow sticking right out of the Raikage’s left eye.

The world blurred as I struggled to force the mud to lift me to the surface. “Good to see I made it in time” Uchiha Kagami said to me with a closed left eye.

A/N; Yes, that’s how the fight ends. The Raikage should have beaten the both of them. He held back in the beginning and allowed them too many chances. When he finally took things seriously, he didn’t see Shori’s ‘earth’ release coming and would have managed to snatch a draw from he jaws of victory of not for cheating Uchiha bullshit eyes.

A/N: Today’s bit