Chapter 7.3- One Thousand Hands

When he and Izuku hd completed the plan, he turned to his teammates and told them, “Just follow my lead when the buzzer rings. It’s going to be a bit like Formation 7 but you’ll notice the twist when it happens”. Toshiro nodded with a shrug but Hume looked between Izuku and I for a few tense seconds. Almost like she was deciding whether it would be a good idea to play ball or not. Finally, she singaled her capitulation with a slow nod. I gave her one back, thankful. I wasn’t an idiot- this plan would be noticeably more difficult without her cooperating. She was easily one of the strongest genin here, after all.

I turned to Izuku’s team and watched him communicate with both Kizuru and Omoikane. Watching that reminded me that I hadn’t seen much of the Kurama heir lately. Omoikane and I were more distant friends so it was understandable that we didn’t see as often, but Kizuru was one of my best. I walked forward, moving past Izuku once he was done and placed a hand on Kizuru’s shoulder to catch his attention. He looked up at me, startled. I smiled to calm him down, but that didn’t work as well as it should have. He still blushed in embarrassment and stepped backwards.

“How have you been, Kizuru? We missed you at the last gathering.” I said to him, silently asking the question.

“I’ve been lovely, Shori. I had lessons with some clan elders that couldn’t really be skipped. Maybe you’ll get to see what I learned in the next stage” he said with a smile that I returned.

Of course our conversation was brought to a quick end by the sound of the buzzer. I turned to the screen and found that it was beginning a countdown. Seven seconds left.

“We’ll catch up once this is over. I promise” I said, and turned to face the hill we’d chosen to die on.

The one to the left, which had a higher proximity of foreign shinobi close to it, and crucially had neither of the two foreign teams that had caught my attention.

“Sharp” I muttered to myself as I prepared to jet off. The screen counted down to 1 and then there was the sound of a horn. I smiled as I disappeared in a body flicker that took me right to the base of the hill. I quickly began to climb, ignoring most of the obstacles, and noting their presence when both Uzume and Izuku appeared behind me in short order. I crested the top of the hill first. Uzume followed shortly after. Toshiro and Izuku mounted it at the same time. I turned in a swift movement and formed a seal. The next body to jump over was riddled with air bullets. The water clone splattered to the floor, and the Mizu genin with the rebreather jumped right up immediately afterwards, tossing a bunch of shurinken my way. I transitioned from the bird seal to the snake seal and a mud wall caught the projectiles before they hit me.

She was forced to end her attack as Uzume dove right at her and kicked her back towards the ground. She landed on the hill and they began to engage in furious taijutsu. One of her teammates crested the hill next, but they found Izuku waiting for them with flashing red eyes. The next people to complete the journey were Kizuru and Omoikane. I nodded at them and got to work.

First things first, I took my scroll of my back and unrolled it. Much like the scroll my grandfather had carried, this was a complicated sealing matrix that basically stored a bunch of shit. I tapped one of the seals, seemingly at random and funnelled my chakra into it.

After a massive puff of chakra smoke, I found myself holding a massive sealing brush with an ink-or next to me. I smiled and dipped the brush into the ink and began to paint the ground with my seals. I was no stranger to barrier techniques. No one who had spent years under an Uzumaki sealing master could claim to be unfamiliar with barriers. I knew I was more conversant than most. I knew multiple barriers that would serve our purposes. I also knew a few that would be even easier to set up. I could always set up something like the Four Violet Flames Formation with a few shadow clones but there was every chance I’d run ou of chakra trying to keep such a powerful seal active throughout the task.

A Suna shinobi appeared in my blindspot with a blade thrust at my neck. I ignored the attack and watched them turn their blade on themself and stab it into their own stomach. Uzume appeared soon after and kicked him down the hill. I nodded at Kizuru with a smile and sent my thanks to Uzume with a nod. The former smiled back, but the latter merely grunted.

“Get that seal done. We’re under a lot of pressure.” She said before disappearing towards another Suna genin. Part of my wanted to study the Suna wind release in action, but I could’t spare the focus. This wasn’t a seal I had mastered. I couldn’t draw it with my eyes closed So I very much had to remain focused on every brush stroke. Especially since I was drawing directly on the stone surface of the hill top.

When I completed the seal, I turned to the flag beside me and whistled to draw attention to myself. I picked up the flagpole, and holding it like a javelin, I tossed it right in the direction of the platform we’d come from. A few shinobi broke off to chase the flag, and both teams had an easier time shoving everyone off the hill. Once I was sure only our teams remained, I slammed my palm on the seal and poured my chakra into it. After that, I began to weave seals at a furious pace: Ram → Hare → Snake → Dragon → Rat → Ox → Tiger → Hare → Snake → Dragon → Rat → Ox → Tiger → Snake → Tiger → Ox → Snake → Tiger → Hare → Horse → Dragon → Rat → Snake → Tiger → Snake → Rat → Ox → Tiger → Hare → Snake. “Barrier Gate Five Seals Technique: Castle Closing Eight Gates” I pronounced.

Five gates rose around us. That was stage one. They then began to spread out red energy in the form of a barrier that linked all of them.

“Well, that was a success” I said with a smile.

And then my shadow bulged before a head rose out of it. A head that was quickly followed by a set of hands. If the head hadn’t had a very recognisable pineapple hairstyle, then I would have smashed it into the ground Shikahime rose out of my shadow with a smile on her face.

“That was a really good plan” She said.

A/N; That’s a thing