Chapter 8.2- One Thousand Hands

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One thing he had learned from having g the prodigies of both clans on his team was that the Uchiha and Senju were not as different as they liked to pretend themselves to be. They were two sides of the same coin, for sure. Shorirama generally had a more personable energy than Uzume, but that did not take anything away from the similarities that existed between them. For one, their bloodlust. From the second, his Senju student had ;looked over at the fight between the Kumo and Iwa teams, he could tell the thoughts that ran in his mind; “I want in on that”. What separated Shori from Uzume was that Uzume would be much more direct with her thinking and honest with herself. She wanted to join the fight because they were strong. Shorirama would come up with a million reasons to explain why he was going to be doing what he would be doing,.

The end result was still the same. They left poor Toshiro to hold down the fort in that barrier of theirs and jumped right to join the fight. They’d probably get points taken off for that when it came to the secondary objective of these exams, but if he was being honest with himself, he was perfectly fine with that. They weren’t ready to fly the nest. Not until they could actually work together.

When they managed top engage their targets without getting in each other’s way, he was ashamed to say he felt some pride at that. It was a sign of the progress that they’d managed to make in a year, but he could already see how their approach was flawed. Not even flawed because they failed to strategise properly. That would have been an entirely different beast to deal with, but it was flawed because they knew the right thing to do but never considered it because it would require them working together. Taking on organised teams each was stupid. A better approach would have been attacking all six at the same time as a group off two, and then separating them in such a way that some Iwa nin ended up with some Kumo nin, and then taken advantage of the chaos inherent in that. And that was only if they were too impatient to just let them fight it out between themselves and take the prize when they were exhausted.

This plan of facing two composed teams at the same time was more risky. Not too risky, clearly. He internally amended his thoughts as he saw Shori begin combat with the Kumo team. It was a clear situation of him being a superior fighter to them, and also their teamwork being shit. He’d probably have had a harder time if he had to fight them one by one. Sakumo was aware of how much sense it made, however. Kumo only operated in two man teams. It was clear that they were being hampered by the introduction of a third teammate who did not fit in with the dynamic.

He decided the battle was practically over as he watched the second teammate get taken down by Shori’s jutsu, but that proved to be inaccurate. With a chirping sound, the girl caught in his swamp of the underworld jutsu erupted from the ground with a hand on her blade. She and the younger teenage with dual coloured hair faced down Shori, wary looks on their faces.

On the other hand, Uzume was having a less fruitful timer against the Iwa team. She was yet to be rebuffed as she dove from Shinobi to shinobi. The one with red hair fought her off with smooth command over an interesting form of lava release. The other was one he’d been briefed on. Kitsuchi. The son of the Tsuchikage himself. He used earth release with almost as much skill as Shorirama but manifested in a different way. Where Shori used his talent to learn as many jutsu as possible and apply each of them in unique ways, Kitsuchi was more focused on learning a few jutsu and being able to apply them in unique ways. He could raise walls with stomps of his feet, and use those same cues to turn said walls into spikes that he sent flying at Sakumo’s student.

Only Uzume’s masterful use of the lightning flow with her gunbai allowed her fight off his offensive. The third teammate kept running through seals and scowling as no effect appeared. Sakumo’s guess was that she was some sort of genjutsu specialist. The Sharingan and being on the same team as both Toshiro and Shorirama made it highly unlikely that there would be a genin out there capable of ensnaring Uzume in their genjutsu. The Iwa girl would probably have an easier time going after Shori with er genjutsu. He had the Hyuga preternatural chakra control that made him highly resistant to genjutsu but he definitely wasn’t immune. Not even close.

With a swing of her gunbai, Uzume sent two stone spears flying into the distance and dove right at the genjutsu girl with the weapon raised high. She backpedalled, trying to retreat from the smiling Uchiha. She dodged the fgirtst swing. Was forced to duck underneath, and eat a kick to her face for her troubles. A wall rose between Uzume and her target, but she would not be denied. With a heave-ho, she sliced through the wall, and continued her approach. Her war fan arched down to deal the final blow, but the red head substituted with his teammate.

Uzume dove backwards and barely managed to dodge out of the way of the flood of lava sent her way. Back at square one, she grit her teeth and lifted the war fan again.

Shori weaved seals at a rapid pace, only just managing to keep the duo of Kumo nin away from him with rapid ninjutsu. He’d abandoned the use of earth release after they proved more than willing to slice through whatever he sent with lightning natured chakra flow. It was almost ridiculous how chakra flow was an advanced technique reserved for the more experienced Chunin, but there were three genin on the rooftop displaying familiarity with the technique. He’d never seen Shori use it but he was almost certain he could. Especially since Uzume had shown proficiency with the technique.

The Kumo duo dove at him, but were forced to dodge out of the way of a stream of air bullets. They were careful to prevent themselves from being separated after their first teammate had been taken down.

As both fights began anew, the buzzer sounded off. One minute more. Almost immediately, the Kumo nin lost all interest in Shori and made at the Iwa position. Uzume jumped to the side to prevent being caught between both teams.

A/N; Here you go. Here you gooooooooooooooooooo. Switched POVs to get both fights from a more bird’s eye view.