Chapter 9.4- One Thousand Hands

The fifth fight was nothing like the four that preceded it. Instead of a battle of taijutsu, or even ninjutsu to awe the spectators, we instead got to see someting arguably even more impressive but only to the discerning. Kizuru Kurama had been drawn against a kunoichi from Iwa that went by the name Shiki. She was the one who had the brilliant idea of trying to trap an Uchiha with a fly matured Sharingan in genjutsu. Something of a genjutsu specialist, but Uzume hadn’t been particularly kind when she referred to her abilities as middling. At least, she hadn’t meant to be kind, but at the end of the day even that much recognition from Uzume might as well have been high praise.

My team was well accustomed to genjutsu, both in detection and usage. Sakumo-sensei had a habit of weaving powerful genjutsu into his taijutsu and kenjutsu, in much the same way Toshiro had done in his own fight with that Cee girl ,but with loads more finesse and skill. Needles to say, even with our natural abilities, both Uzume and I had been forced to do a lot of work to be able to largely ignore his plethora of genjutsu in combat. Toshiro, even without those talents was still the most skilled non-clan genjutsu user I knew of. That was changing today, however. Uzume had undersold things.

On getting to the battlefield, Kizuru had wasted no time in taking out his flute. The same flute I’d bought hi, all those years ago and begun to play. The sound waves weren’t travelling so far as to catch us in the genjutsu as well, but I could tell that it was one of his stronger variants from the sheer chakra expenditure. On the other hand, the girl weaved seal after seal as she transitioned from one genjutsu to another.

I could only imagine what was going on between the two of them. What each of them was seeing as the other ensnared them in their genjutsu, and then held them there while they tried to break out to ensnare the other. It must have been like a dance. Tov dance with mental techniques like that must have been an experience for the memories. I knew I’d never have something so beautiful happen to me. I could cast genjutsu at Chunin level, but people like Toshiro, Uzume, Izuku, and most definitely Kizuru had me beat in that aspect of them shinobi arts. Despite having Tsunade as a Cousin, my chakra control wasn’t necessarily anything to write a tale about. Certainly not good enough to overcome the advantages my peers had, either by nature or by hard work. I could admit it. Toshiro worked harder than me when it came to genjutsu. He didn’t have much in the way of ninjutsu to rely on, so it was perhaps unavailable for him to dedicate most of his energy to the art.

I left my thoughts to return to the fight before me as I saw the Iwa girl drop to her knees with blood streaming from her nostrils. Her black hair fell around her in ringlets that frames her face and added something truly savage to her appearance. Despite the problems, however, she still maintained her grasp on her handseal as she desperately tried to maintain her contest with Kizuru in the battle for genjutsu supremacy.

On the other hand, Kizuru, had an almost relaxed look on his face as he played the flute with an adeptness that only a true master of their craft would. I’d heard Kizuru play for entertainment at many a gathering, and I knew what it must have sounded like to the Iwa Kunoichi in the thrall of his genjutsu. He had a preference for slow haunting tunes when he added genjutsu to his music, but his range was not limited to that. No, there was an interesting one that had a frienzied upbeat tone that drove all who listened to it into a wild frenzy, allegedly. I’d never gotten the chance to see that one in person, but Izuku had a talent for description. There was also a fast, but soothing tone that somehow induced paranoia in all who heard it. Izuku had narrated the tale of how they’d used only that genjutsu to perform a bandit extermination mission. The bandits had begun to fight amongst themselves, under the sway of Kizuru’s genjutsu, and then eventually slaughtered each other down to a man. The light in Izuku’s eyes as he described the gory scene would have made me worried if I didn’t feel much the same excitement at the thought of such effective genjutsu.

Kizuru lived up to all the hype that had been made of his abilities and systamatically disabled Shiki of Iwa with an ease that belied the complexity of the art. He maintained his playing, until he switched his tone suddenly. His movements became much slower. Slow and methodical. His fingers moved across the flute at an almost languid pace. The effects on his opponent were immediately apparent. She formed the release seal multiple times with an unmistakable look of panic etched on her face. It didn’t work. One of her fingers dropped uselessly to the ground. She formed the seal with one hand. Began to scream “release”. The fact that I could hear it from here spoke to how she loudly she must have been screaming it. She suddenly coughed out blood. And then began to scream. But this time, not any discernible words. Just screams of terror. Screams that got so loud that I feared she’d tear her own vocal cords from exertion, until it all came to a sudden, abrupt stop. She collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

Orochimaru declared Kizuru the winner, but he did not acknowledge it, and merely continued to play the piece until he reached its end. The chakra flowing from him had cut off after she’d collapsed, so it was clear there was no genjutsu involved here. Just an artist wanting to complete his craft. It was all the best that he did not stop. The end to the fight had been jarring enough that the civilians, and even the shinobi in the stands merely stared at the field. Jiraiya’s attempts to stir some excitement for Kizuru’s victory fell flat.

No one would be forgetting the sight of the pale Iwa girl lying on the floor with blood running from her nose and mouth anytime soon. The image was practically seared in all our memories.

A/N; And this is the second to last bit. We'll have Shori's own fight to round things off. Guess who he'll be facing.