Chapter 13.3- One Thousand Hands

“Yeah sure, as soon as Sensei shows up” Uzume said, and almost like he’d been eating for that very cue, the man appeared in front of them with a body flicker. A body flicker much louder than Shori’s. Interesting. Toshiro began to wonder if he’d been wrong about things. Could Shori be better than them after a year off. No, that made no sense. He’d always had prodigious chakra control even with his large reserves, so it made sense that if he spent time training that then he’d possibly get even better than Sensei at it. That even confirmed Toshiro’s fears more. If he’d spent all his time on Chakra control of all things, then what had he done about the rest of his shinobi skills.

“Our mission today is a search and destroy.” Sensei said.

“What?”

“There is a team of rogue shinobi with unknown origins that have burned two settlements along the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Grass” He explained.

“Unknown origins?”

“it is suspected that they are from Iwa, but Iwa has been sure to deny any knowledge of them or their activities. We are the second team being sent out for them. It was initially thought to be a bandit camp, but the fact that the four chunin that were sent have disappeared without a trace makes that theory very unlikely. Present intelligence suggests a team of rogue shinobi.”

“So our mission is finding out what happened to the Chunin team and exterminating the rogue shinobi” He summarised, and his sensei nodded. Shori seemed to be very intrigued by the entire thing while Uzume appeared eager. I could see why. If they’d taken out an entire chunk team already, then they were sure to be strong.

A year ago, he’d have been hesitant, but now he was sure that the only thing that differentiated him from a chunin was the vest. He had the skills now. He just needed to make use of them.

Sensei asked them to move ut, and they instantly took their favoured formation for long range travel out of Konoha. A half-diamond. Sensei was the tip of the spear. He took the left side, and Uzume took the right. He looked behind to check if Shori was following along, and he’d seamlessly positioned himself at the rear. Toshiro smiled at him and received a wave in return. He’d be sure to protect his friend if things went out of control.

Just like Sensei preferred, they did not stop on their journey to the border, and maintained Speeds close to their stop.

XXXXXX- SHORIRAMA SENJU

It felt good to be back. Back on missions. And even better, this mission was guaranteed to have some action in it. He couldn’t wait. He felt antsy to test himself against someone who wasn’t Hyuga Jinpachi. Someone he could actually use his ever expanding ninjutsu repertoire against without getting a lecture on how they were supposed to be spending the time on getting g his taijutsu up to snuff. Either way, he was refreshed and raring to go.

That was why when they arrived at the last town to be destroyed, he instantly activated the byakugan. He would have said that was the only thing that saved his life, but he was certain that Sakumo would have intervened and gotten them out in time if he felt they were actually in any real danger.

“Landmines” He shouted at both his teammates as she formed tunnel of chakra through the air and body flickered backwards. Toshiro used a quick substitution while Uzume also made use of the body flicker technique. Hers was much louder than his so they were waiting for her the moment she come out of the technique. Just as he was waiting for them. He substituted with Uzume, smiling at the fact that she didn’t resist once she realised it was his chakra pulling at her, and allowed the man to stab his cleaver sized blade right into his chest. The body turned into very sticky mud that kept a hold of the blade while I body flickered into his space and stabbed at him with my fingers. He managed to dodge out of the way but was forced to let go of his weapon to do so. I pressed the attack, while keeping track of my surroundings.

Sakumo-sensei had drawn two of them to him while Uzume and Toshiro fought another one. Four shinobi. The skill marked them as Jounin level. An Iwa Kill Squad. Interesting.

I bent under the man’s attempt to force him to gain distance with a kick. I marched closer, stabbing at him with a kata from the gentle fist’s advanced forms. I came in from the left, and then the right, and then the centre, stabbing lout with fingers at different angles. He jumped back completely out of taijutsu range and formed a series of handseals- Tiger → Ram → Rat, before slamming his hands on the ground. I devoured every part of the technique with my eyes, observing the way his chakra moved to form the technique. The earth around me rose up into two massive formations that moved to squash me in the middle. I smiled as I body filickered through the technique.

I enjoyed the look on his face as I appeared right in front of him in seconds. He was too slow to react, and I funnelled the momentum from the body flicker into my legs and spun into a kick that slammed his head right as he looked up at him. It sent him flying. I smiled and formed a single seal before taking a deep breath. Before he could stand, I bathed his position in flames. His screams echoed through the ruins of the town. I enjoyed the sound for a second before snapping the genjutsu with a wider smile. That was sleek. A very sleek attempt. If I couldn’t literally see his chakra reaching out to catch me in the genjutsu then maybe I’d have been caught in it.