Chapter 11.1- One Thousand Hands

I was on the backfoot from the beginning. If I’d been foolish enough to get the thought in my head that this would have been an easy night after watching my opponent limp out into the field, then he would have thoroughly disabused me of that notion in seconds. I jumped out of the way of another volley of lava release projectiles. I’d make sure to get at uzume for her stunning inability to convey scale when she gave reports later on. He did not pause between jutsu, it was like was attempting to flood the arena with lava.

In the first exchange, I’d decided to try to go jutsu for jutsu with him, countering each lava ball with a water jutsu of my own. I wasn’t so stupid anymore. I jumped out of the way of another attack, banking in my run. And then, I came face to face with a volley of about seven different lava balls.

I formed a single seal. “Water release: Water Severing Wave” I formed a thin blade of water between my lips and moved my head across, slicing through all of them and then dropped to the floor, placing my hands on the ground to form a wall that managed to block one attack before melting against the second. I pushed off, banking to the right sharply.

He was quickly turning this into a ninjutsu battle, and unlike him, I didn’t have the chakra equivalent of a nuclear reactor sitting in my gut to keep me going. And I strongly doubted Tsunade would be kind enough to top me off after this one ends. Even worse, there was the fact that I still had another fight waiting for me after I managed to beat this guy. If I managed to beat him.

He flipped seals for the first time, and I breathed a sigh of relief to see it was a tiger seal. No more lava release finally.

“Monkey flame arson” He said, taking a deep breath. The older teenager bent forward and breathed out what I would be underselling to call a firestorm of green flames. It was so much fire. So much bloody fire. The closest in-universe example I could think of was Madara’s great fire annihilation, and all of it was coming right at me.

I formed two seals, forcing as much chakra into my stomach as possible. i kneaded it once, twice, thrice, forcing the chakra to bend in on itself as I created water release chakra and then used that to create even more water release chakra. And then I funnelled all of it down into the ground beneath me. Water release chakra did as it ought, it made water. And the it looked for water, multiplying everything until there was so much water beneath me that I barely needed to force the next step. This was a jutsu I’d ben saving to use against Uzume and I was going to have to pull it out here, still miles away from the finals.

“Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave” I screamed as I slammed my fist into the ground. All around me water burst from the ground, rushing onwards to meet the slow moving fire storm. The water came in waves, moving first in a smaller wave, and then widening as the water got farther and farther from me. In the beginning, the fire evaporated the water, creating harsh steam, but more and more water closed in on what fire remained.

“What a Show!” Jiraiya’s voice cut through the silence as I stared through the steam, looking for my opponent.

“Senju!” I heard suddenly, and whipped around to see him standing on the water that had formed a solid one-foot deep layer across the entire arena. It was evaporating quickly as I wasn’t using my chakra to slow down the process. I doubted I had the reserves to pull that off even if I wanted to.

“You are strong. Stronger than they said. Goodbye. You fought well” He said, and then closed his eyes. Oh fuck no. Any other opponent and I’d be confused. This one? I was just scared.

I unseal my bow and quiver faster than I ever had. I loaded a single arrow and shot it, applying wind release to make sure it shot straight through his head with no resistance. It flew faster and surer than I could have run the distance. But it was still too slow. He reached up and caught the arrow in his grip. His eyes were red. And they were glowing.

The transformation began with the hand that had caught my arrow. Bubbling red chakra surrounded it. And then that chakra began to spread until it surrounded his whole body. Something told me that I should be doing something. Making some movement, some jutsu, shooting an arrow maybe. But I stood transfixed at the sight. It was so fascinating. The chakra actively boiled the water at his feet as it got that far. And then after surrounding his body, it amassed at his tail bone and then branched out to form a tail. A tail that waved in the air behind him. All that red chakra then began to heat up. I could feel the heat from here even. Lava. It turned into lava. It was instant. Almost like I’d blinked. Where the first transformation had been slow and methodical, this one had been instantaneous.

It also came with an instant burst in speed. He covered the distance between us almost too quickly for me to keep up with. I only dodged by commanding the water at my feet to carry me backwards. He punched the ground where I’d stood, forming an instant crater. Oh fuck me, I lamented to myself.

A/N; And that’s the first bit.