Pre-Chapter A/N: Please do check out the first chapter of the novel I'm working on up on Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)- it's completely free to access. What can I say except you're welcome? Here we go. Lovely to have you all here, and I hope you enjoy this one. If you do, feel free to head over to Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) and read the next three chapters- I update there on a daily basis so there's always something for you to read.
'Too slow', she thought with a sigh as she bent backwards at her waist to avoid the arcing slash of the blade. The gunbai she bore in her right hand lashed out with ears of experience from both attacking and defending against it thanks to her two lifetimes and removed the man's head with a negligent flick. The Kumo shinobi were unimpressive to say the least. The letter from her elder brother who warned her to never let the village learn of her mangekyou meant that she was not going all out, but that did not even mater. Of course, it was just like Uchiha Tenzin to figure out what her other half's body-death had meant to her without bothering to even offer his condolences.
He was fighting to the east somewhere a few paces away. As an Uchiha, she was supposed to go in that direction. Help him out, push as one. She went West instead. Uraume was fighting somewhere in that direction, and say what you would about the Hyuga girl, she could at least fight with some competence. There was that, and the fact that she was one of the few that Shori actually cared about. She quelled the jealousy that flared with the ease of long practice. They were cousins. She wasn't a threat. Neither was Shikahime.
A woman jumped in her face, fire building in her throat. The audacity to use fire against an Uchiha of all people. Her eyes spun and the poor chunin never finished her jutsu. Never even saw the shuriken that buried itself in her neck and ended her life with a deft twist of her wrist. She continued onwards. Waging war had quickly lost its lustre. No one could do anything that surprised her or even interested her anymore. All their plans and intentions were laid bare before her sharingan, and she found them wanting. If Shori was here, she could at least entertain herself by watching him. He fought like a scholar. He was never boring.
Every movement was born of an unholy combination of hours of practice, ungodly levels of talent, and a mind most would describe as perverse. Her thoughts were interrupted as another man came in her direction, screaming a war cry. She formed a single handseal and cut through him in a spray of blood and wind. She jumped over the hands that stretched from the ground beneath her. She had seen the fool as he weaved his seals for the headhunter jutsu almost half a kilometer away. He had certainly thought himself wiser than he was in truth. She stabbed her gunbai into the ground, releasing a wave of electricity that locked his nerves and roasted his brain.
She flipped the gunbai around to is flat end and blocked a blast of gale force winds. The weapon made of wood grown by Hashirama Senju himself did not even groan as it held off the winds. She shifted her feet, body flickered to the side, and then was upon the woman who had released the jutsu. Her fingers lit up with the chakra of the gentle fist— with how much she watched him, it would have been impossible for her not to copy bits and pieces of Shori's chaos fighting style. The woman scarcely managed to lift a guard, but it mattered little. Uzume could not see the tenketsu like Shori could, but everyone's heart was in the same place.
Off in the distance, she could see Sensei and the Hokage fighting the Raikage. Well, fighting was an overstatement. They were retreating and leading him on a running chase. The man wasn't very bright, she thought to herself. That was often the case for those with more power than sense— a sort of shortsightedness that they were blind to. Even Shori, for all his smarts, was a victim to it more often than not. He couldn't see why their victories in Kawa no Kuni were never celebrated. They hadn't been sent there to win, but to delay. The threat of Suna possibly annexing the Land of Rivers and setting their sights on Iwa, who they still had a grudge against from the first war had kept Iwa from committing their full forces to the war. The other villages were fighting them, but that didn't make them allies among themselves, and they were wary of what would happen after defeating Konoha.
In pushing Suna back, he had beaten them, but they were not the threat the Hokage worried about. Iwa was. And Shori had unshackled Iwa. When her father explained it to her on the night she had returned, she'd wanted to go to the man and have a long conversation— with her gunbai. But she had seen better. Shori would never see it, though. It wasn't in his nature to think like that. The same way, it wasn't in the Raikage's nature to realise that for all the Hokage swung his staff, and Sensei arced out with his blade, they were not seeking to hurt him. Merely keep him from hurting them as they led him by the nose and their army slaughtered his. Because this was a slaughter by every metric. Another man approached— no two men. The second crept through the shadows, trying to take advantage of the first's distraction to deal with her.
She allowed the approach. He slashed out at her eyes, expecting a flinch. She disappointed him, smoothly stepping back from the attack before slamming a foot into the ground. She wasn't as skilled as Shori, but she had a trick or two. Her left hand curled in half of a snake seal and the earth beneath his right foot loosened, trapping it. When he tripped up from the sudden loss of balance, she was there, red eyes flashing. Her kunai slashed through his eyes. Just as intended, his scream caused the man approaching her from behind to falter for a second. A second too long. She spun around, red eyes meeting his. He fell to the ground unconscious, and she flicked a shuriken into his neck before continuing her journey towards Uraume's position. The second man, she left screaming in place. Someone would put an end to him sooner or later.
She considered jumping over a fight between two chunin who seemed to be in a contest to see who could get themself killed first, before changing her mind. What would Shori do? Incompetent or not, the fool with the brown hair was still a Konoha shinobi. Her fingers flicked and two shuriken sliced through Blondie's achilles tendons. At least, Brunette had the smarts to stab his enemy through the chest while he was shocked and in pain.
He lifted his head to her— "Thank you", he sounded so excited and had a bright smile on his face. A bright smile that remained on his face as the burly man appeared behind him. She moved to call out a warning, but it was too late. Body bubbling with red noxious chakra, the man grabbed a hold of her countryman and roasted him alive. A gleaming tail formed behind him.
"So you're the one killing all the men" He growled at her. Enji, the Jinchuriki of the Two Tails, she recognised.
"Will you manage to entertain me, I wonder?" She mused with a sigh, and then jumped backwards as he moved faster than anyone she had ever seen to crash into where she had been standing. As she jumped backwards, their eyes met, and she snared him in a genjutsu to make him think she was two metres to the left from where she actually was. She felt it break in a second, with no effect. How annoying, She thought as she dropped a set of shuriken from her sleeves into her fingers.
He tried to jump at her, but the wind released shuriken tore through the space between them before he could make a choice. Even a jinchuriki couldn't just take an attack like that and walk it off. So he didn't. The tail roared into the space between them and deflected the shuriken that had been in danger of hitting him. She took advantage of his distraction, and with a single hand seal— a one-handed tiger seal, she breathed out a fireball the size of a small house. He braced for the attack, and took the explosion head on. She had little hope of that being enough to take out a Jinchuriki of all things so she activated her meisaigakure no jutsu with a ram seal and merged with the shadows.
She watched as the flames died down to reveal him standing hunched over. The single tail that had previously been floating behind him had now become two. They danced through the air, weaving a pattern of noxious red chakra. The feeling of choking and death was almost impossible to ignore. She bore it with ease. She'd died once before, after all. Half of her had, that is. She quietly considered her options while she remained still. Jinchuriki had fixed advantages, but they also lost out on a lot of things that regular shinobi had to rely upon. For one, they were much less bright, to used to using their strength and speed to solve problems. Now she just needed a way to take advantage of that.
XXXXXX- SHORIRAMA SENJU
Han was too slow, I thought with a smile. He barely managed to lift his arm up in a guard in time for my punch to send hum flying through the forest. Behind me, four tails weaved their way through the air. He shot out of the foliage like a bullet made of steam and I caught his fist in one of my tails before using the same tail to toss him through the air and backwards by about a dozen feet. Again he came. I ducked underneath his sweeping claw strike and punched him in the ribs. He flinched, taken aback by Kurama's strength.
I took advantage of that. I stepped down on his leg, stopping him from backpedaling, and nailing him with three straight right hooks. He fell backwards for a second before returning and trying to bash his head into mine. One of my tails swept up and slapped him in the face, sending him flying further into the forest. I followed at an almost leisurely pace.
"I've missed this" Kurama roared in my head, delighting showing his sibling who the better was.
When Han came out, this time he had transitioned into the Version Two cloak. Four tails were behind him, and there was a bony structure on each tail. His body was impossible to make out from the deep red chakra that surrounded him. Steam wafted from his form like he was boiling himself alive. I wouldn't be surprised if he was. The surroundings were probably much hotter than they used to be, but I felt nothing, safely ensconced in Kurama's chakra.
"Version two?" Kurama suggested, but I shrugged and refused. That shit looked painful.
"Coward" The tailed beast in my head snorted at my refusal. I shrugged again.
"Let me do a full transformation, and we'll see" I replied.
"Watch out!" He yelled, but he didn't need to. I'd been expecting him. I grabbed at Han's wrist and used his momentum to flip him over my body. He landed, and several trees were blown away from the force. He pushed up from the ground and shot his tails right at me. My own tails slapped them aside. Next thing, he breathed out a hurricane of boiling steam. I focused for a second and appeared elsewhere.
"That was harder than it should have been" I said, referring to the strain from the teleportation. Against my will, I collapsed to one knee, vomiting blood. I'd left an organ or two behind. Fuck.
"You can't use your ninjutsu in this state, fool" He said.
"What? Naruto could use ninjutsu all the time".
"The Rasengan? You can do that with my chakra, but not something as sophisticated as this".
"Minato could teleport even with the cloak."
"You don't have access to that state. We'd need to merge our chakras for that to work, and that would make it impossible for you to release me without dying in turn" He said. I nodded, and pushed myself up to my feet right in time for Han to catch me in a devastating lariat. His arm hit my neck and the force was enough to create a shockwave that popped my eardrums.
He continued the motion, sending me straight into the ground. He did not stop there, grabbing me up from the floor and throwing me into the distance. I had no idea how far I travelled. I felt myself crash through a few trees and even skip along a stream at some point before I landed on the ground, smashed halfway into a boulder the size of the Uzumaki clan building.
He was there seconds after I landed. He grabbed on to my inner shirt and used that to pull me up to his height.
"Foolish child" His deep voice echoed as he punched me straight in the face. Once. Twice. Thrice. My head moved to the side with each punch and then on the fourth one, I braced my face against his punch and refused to give.
"Kurama" I called.
"Gladly" We exploded in power.
I was right. Version Two hurt like a motherfucker. It was like my skin was being burned off and regenerating at the same time, over and over again. I could see why this was the state where Jinchuriki tended to get taken over. I didn't have that problem with Kurama helping me centre myself and focus on the fight around. Han came at me aggressively once again, and this time it was almost child's play to dodge his wild ship and plant two nasty crosses to his midsection. He stumbled, and I was upon him like white on rice.
My tails lashed out, sweeping his feet out from underneath him. He tried to roll around, but too late. I'd jumped right on him, holding him to the ground with a combination of superior strength and leverage. His hands came up, but I trapped both with my tails and began to smash punch after punch into his head.
His head moved with each one, sinking deeper and deeper to the ground. "Go to sleep, go to sleep" I muttered with every punch I sent into his head. I could see the retreating fellows being closed down and eliminated one after another, even as I knew that there was little chance that every single one of them would be caught. I kept punching into Han's face, pushing him further and further into the ground until he stopped reacting, and then I punched him out some more until the tailed beast cloak had dissipated. I punched him once more to be certain, and then I deactivated my cloak. First things first, I tapped his neck and focused for a second to plant my flying raijin seal.
Now, it didn't matter what happened after today, he was a dead man. I considered capturing him but had no idea how the prisoner holding seal would interact with holding a jinchuriki.
"Do you want to talk to your brother, Kurama?" I asked the furrball.
"Tap his forehead and let a bit of my chakra into him. I'll handle the rest" He said. I did so, and we were suddenly elsewhere.
It was familiar, at least, that expanse of white space where we were faced with Kokuo and his Jinchuriki. Han looked confused, looking about himself, Now that we weren't in the middle of combat, I could notice things about him. For one, he was older than me, but not by much. He was around Tsunade's age at the very oldest, and probably a bit younger for truth. His armour gave him additional heft, and covered most of his body from view, but his eyes were bright and expressive.
"Where is this?" He asked, clearly talking to me, not his tailed beast.
"The world of the tailed beasts. Think of it like a meeting place only we tailed beasts and our hosts can access" Kokuo answered, giving us a look.
"What do you want, Kura—"
"Don't you dare use my name in front of your human" Kurama snarled.
"Peace" I placed my hand on my friend's— were we friends now— paw to calm him.
"You maintain that childish insistence? Alright then. What do you want, oh great and powerful Kyubi no Kitsune?"
"To talk, Brother"
"To talk about what? What could we possibly have to talk about? You and your host already won." Kokuo said, but Kurama just offered a fist.
"Are you certain?"
"Come here before I change my mind," Kurama said.
Kokuo trotted over and smashed his own fist into Kurama's while Han watched the whole thing with shock.
"I understand now" Kokuo said, taking a step forward.
"So that is why you cooperate with this human, then?"
"Yes. We have an agreement".
"Alright then. Release me" he said, turning to me.
"What?"
"Release me from the fool I've been saddled with. I'll run, hide, and do whatever is necessary to prevent myself from getting captured again" He said.
"That would start one hell of an arms race. Everyone would want your power" I said.
"The wood man was the only one who could capture me. If he is gone, then none will succeed" He said. That was true enough.
"And now that I know to be wary of your kind, I could always escape." Some of my doubt must have shown on my face.
"Tell him, Kyuubi"
"Kokuo is the fastest of us all" Kurama said.
"Makes him good at running away, at least" he continued with a smirk.
"Hold on, what's going on here" Han spoke again.
"Shush, human" Kokuo said and with a flick of his tail, Han was gone.
"So you say I should release you from the seal holding you. That would rob Iwa of an asset, but what do I gain out of it".
"Shorirama" Kurama growled behind me.
"What? Your brother or not, why would I do him a favour for free"?
"Because it benefits us all."
"Try again. I could just capture Han. With the power of the Uzumaki clan, it would be nothing to design some pot capable of holding you indefinitely. If you want me to grant you your freedom, then you'll pay for it" I said, crossing my arms. The Five Tails actually erupted in laughter.
"He's just like you, Kurama." He said. It was unclear whether he meant it as a compliment or not.
"Fine. I'll give you about half a tail's worth of my power."
"One whole tail" I pushed.
"Shorirama" Kurama warned.
"Fine. I'll take the half." I said with a shrug. Steam release? Yes, please. Sure, I had enough on my plate to deal with for now, but I'd get around to it eventually. Just after I figured out Uzume's Mangekyou.
A/N: To me Uzume fights a lot like a healthy Itachi would— liberal use of genjutsu, brutal and efficient taijutsu, deadly bukijutsu, and ninjutsu that just about does the job. Of course, her brother has asked her not to advertise or use her mangekyou (he also doesn't know she has EMS, so fear of her getting blind is likely the root of that) so she's holding back a fair bit. As always, the next three chapters are up on Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga). If you just want to read complete chapters and not my work in real-time, then feel free to purchase this story as a collection on my Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) page so you get to read each chapter after I finish it and not necessarily the daily updates available with a regular patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) membership- nice way to support this story and me while you're at it. Enjoy!