Chapter 5.5- One Thousand Hands

Uzume scoffed across from him and he almost chuckled at her reaction. Retreat? They were shinobi of Konohagakure. They did not retreat. Besides, they had the upper hand here. He just didn’t know it yet. Uxzume weaved five seals and he jumped pet backwards. He knew what was coming. “Katon: Hosenka no jutsu” She said, executing her own unique flavour of the phoenix flower jutsu. She spewed out several missiles of flame that fanned out inn a woide angle, spreading across the hall before converging in on a single target. Their opponent. His hands remained on the ground and instead of a single wall, a giant dome of earth formed, surrounding him from all angles. The flames attacks hit the dome and exploded.

The spoke parted to reveal that the stone was unharmed. A few scuff marks were all that could be shown from the attack. Before the smoke had completely parted, a single blur dropped from the ceiling. Shori landed on the dome. He wanted to shout out a warning that the guy could manipulate the dome from the inside but that was moot point as Shori placed his hands on the dome and visible exerted his massive reserves to do….something.

He dropped from the dome with a chuckle. “I didn’t think that would work so easily” He said, looking at both of the, with a smile on his face.

“What did you do?” Uzume asked, asking the question on both their minds. The dome fell apart behind him, revealing their opponent with several holes through his body. The body fell to the ground, limp, without the dome holding it up.

“The same thing he did with the earth wall he hit you guys with. I figured that if I overpowered the chakra he had in the jutsu then I could manipulate his jutsu like it was mine instead. Bastard never even saw it coming” He said with an easy smile on his face.

“You stole my kill” was Uzume’s reply as she released a grunt.

Suddenly, the ground beneath Shori fell in as he was buried up to his neck. Their opponent appeared right above him with a hammer in his hand. Toshiro felt himself frozen in place. Uzume was in motion. Everyone looked like they were moving through jello. Each step Uzume took was slow. Too slow. The hammer arced down, aimed right for Shori’s head. And then everything snapped back into reality. Their opponent’s body was pinned to the wall. Sensei stood in front of him with both hands on the hilt of his chakra sabre. The same sabre that was doing the job of pinning their opponent to the wall.

“What did I say about dropping your guard?” He was shouting at Shori. He’d never heard Sensei shout before. Never even seen any of the irritation that they’d caused him on his face. Now? He looked apoplectic. His normally flaccid easygoing expression was nowhere to be found. He looked an Asura from Naraka itself. And Shori was the subject of all that attention.

“I’m sorry, Sensei. I really thought I’d got him. That’s one hell of a clone jutsu” He said, trying to change the subject with the smoothness that came so naturally to him, but their Sensei was having none of it today.

XXXXXX

“So we’ve been genin for a year now” Izuku was the one who spoke. The rest of the gathering were spread out across the Senju lawn like usual. These gatherings had become monthly things instead of weekly engagements, but Toshiro was impressed with the effort Shori went to to keep up with his friends. After graduation, the circle had widened to include everyone in their graduating class. Some people came more often than others, but even Uzume could be found calmly drinking a cup of tomato juice in a quiet corner of her own.

“Yes we have” Shori said.

“Did your Sensei tell you about the thing?” Kizuru was the one who asked now. In a whisper that had no chance of going unnoticed by the entire gathering.

“I’m willing to bet all our sensei did” Shori replied, not bothering with the whisper.

“I assume the thing you speak of is the exhibition to take place in the Village next month” Uraume said with her customary formal tone and low pitched voice. He’d have mistaken her for a boy with how deep her voice could get sometimes. Of course those thoughts were never expressed. Stupid thoughts were best left in the head before they infected the air.

“Yes it is.” Kizuru said, not even turning to her. He kept his attention on Shori who was moving around Choni as the larger boy worked on the grill. Shori hadn’t given up on figuring out how the Akimichi pulled off their food related sorcery, and Choni was amused enough to let him observe the whole process every single time. Nine months of effort had yielded nothing so far as Shori’s food was always found wanting.

“What do you think about it, Shori?” Omoikane asked, putting words to the question his teammate was obviously itching to ask.

“I think it’s going to be fun. Just imagine how much we’re going to learn from fighting against shinobi from Kumo and Kusa, and even Taki. There’s going to be a lot of foreign shinobi here for us to learn from” He said.

“No one said anything about fighting” Shikahime pointed out with narrowed eyes, but Shori just waved her point away.

“We’re shinobi. The only thing we can do that will entertain the civilians is fight. Considering the size of the stadium being built for this, I’m willing to bet that Uncle is expecting a massive audience. Wouldn’t do to bore them all, would it?” He said with his trademark smile and winked at her.

“Is it even safe to have so many foreigners in the village all at once?” Inoken asked, flipping his long ponytail to get some hair out of his bright blue eyes.

“It has to be. Hokage-sama has been working on this for a while. Besides, the war ended over a decade ago. The Shinobi nations are at peace. This kind of thing is just supposed to be more cooperation to help strengthen that peace. This exhibition is going to be a substitute for war, that’s what my Uncle said. If we children fight it out then the adults won’t have to.” Was Omoikane’s response. He spoke with the tone of someone repeating something he’d been told, but Toshiro found no reason to disagree with him.

None of the other villages would be bold enough to attack them here. They’d be surrounded and cut down. The sizzling of the meat on the grill was the only sound to be heard for a while until Shori sighed in disappointment and went to pick up his bow. China’s chuckles followed his path.

A/N; What’s a Naruto fanfic without Chunin Exams? Nothing.