Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter, coming in right on time. Next three chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
XXXXX- SHORIRAMA SENJU
My first thought was that he had no right being this strong. No Rinnegan, no Jiraiya as a sensei, no problem it seemed. Perhaps Nagato had just always been destined to be a monster, I thought as we danced across the water. From the moment Toshiro and his team had escaped, I had been on him like butter on bread. His chakra enforcement was excellent. Precise to a level that I hadn't ever seen in anyone without either a doujutsu or medical ninjutsu training.
That told me that he wasn't just a monster with large reserves. He was the kind of monster that could use those reserves well as well. I leaned out of the way of a stab with his kunai, and then attempted to knee that outstretched hand upwards. He twisted the kunai, bringing it down on my rising leg before abandoning the motion and jumping backwards to avoid my fingers brushing against his heart.
He had prepared to fight me. It was obvious from the beginning. He fought against the gentle fist like he had been facing it his whole life. I attempted one strike, and as I geared up for the next, he was already moving out of the way. It was not the first time I faced someone who knew how to fight the gentle fist. My regular spars with Uraume and Uzume, even my students to some extent, had prepared me for an opponent who knew my tricks. So I leaned on the Uzumaki whirlpool dance, adding the sweeping motion and circular blocks to my gentle fist cadence and he struggled for a second or two before he was much the same once again. Well adapted.
He fought the whirlpool dance even better than he did the gentle fist. I attempted to scramble his brains with a graceful poke, and he twisted his feet, his first foot remaining fixed while the other formed an arc along the water surface we stood on to move his body just far enough away that my fingers touched nothing but air.
"Someone taught you the whirlpool dance," I said absently before slapping his attempt to stab me in the eyes away with an almost contemptuous flick.
The blade passed over my shoulder, and he tried to complete the motion by kneeing me in the chest. I danced out of the way of the attack and we were left facing each other again.
"The whirlpool dance. You flow well with it," I said, commenting on his footwork. The way the water was barely disturbed as he trod upon it was only one of the signs. But he did not reply. His fingers began to blur as he took the fight to its next stage, weaving seals fast as anyone I had ever seen.
I sighed. It happened all the time. People realised they stood no chance in beating me in taijutsu and then went straight to Ninjutsu as if the Senju clan were not world famous for their mastery of ninjutsu back in the day.
Eight seals later, and the water behind him rose in the shape of a dragon with eyes that glowed a bright green.
"Water release: water dragon jutsu," he said, and the dragon rose in the air a few feet before diving down at me.
I released my seal just a little bit, allowing the barest amount of senjutsu chakra to flow into my body. I did not mix it with my own reserves for a Sage Mode Lite. Instead, I used it directly, forming a tiger seal before inhaling.
"Fire release: flame dragon bullet."
The missile of fire left my lips, forming a dragon head at its tip as it did so. It hit the water dragon head on, and despite the fact that the water release technique had the elemental advantage and was also a more powerful class of jutsu, both of them cancelled each other out, creating a steam that sat atop the water.
His chakra flowed into the steam, turning it into a colder mist and then spreading it over the battlefield. Well, that would make things much harder for the reinforcements that he had coming.
Also made it harder for my Byakugan to see where he was and what he was getting up to. The Hiding in the Mist technique was one of the few that truly made life difficult for all doujutsu users regardless of skill with one's eyes. This time, when I released my seal, I allowed much more chakra to come through.
The nature energy that my seal had been storing mixed with my own chakra in a 40-60 ratio (nature 40, me 60), to create a true Sage Mode. A Byakugan user was blind in the hidden mist technique. A Sage was never blind though.
I twisted to the side and caught the wrist that tried to stab a kunai through my neck. I backhanded the water clone's head off its body. The original had retreated underground and had four different clones spread out through the mist. The plan was probably to tire me out with constant attacks from the clones to get me too busy looking around to expect what would then come from beneath.
A good plan for someone who fought a man. But I was no mere man. I brought my chakra to bear, my reserves dancing with joy at finally being used after so long. I poured a good portion of my chakra into both the water beneath my feet and the mist all around me, taking it from my enemy's control—he put up a fight that lasted seconds—and then shoving it all into the ground. The clones moved, trying to prevent me from managing what I had just telegraphed. Too little. Too late. They reached me at the same time, but a clone of my own rose from my back and fell upon them before they could fall on me.
Nagato's clones were water. Mine was shadow. That made all the difference. In a matter of seconds, there were drops of water falling all around me. The water I took control of seeped into the soil of the training ground. No. Not seeped. It rushed in, turning it all to mud in a matter of seconds. Nagato, surrounded by a shell of his chakra, shot out of the mud, just barely managing to make it out before I had him. He landed on one of the trees to the side, looking composed to the naked eye, but frantic to my senses.
He was not used to being overwhelmed like this. Understandable. Someone with as much chakra as he had. He probably lived life at the top of the food chain.
"You want my water? Take it," he snarled, weaving the required seals at a rapid pace. I almost allowed him to get the jutsu off. I really almost did. But Sage Mode meant I could sense Toshiro now, and he had gotten into the kind of trouble that he would need my help to get out of.
I pushed against the ground, increasing my mass a second before I pushed off, and then reducing it right as I did. The wind guided my path and in less than the time it took him to move from his sixth seal to his seventh, I was in front of him. I grabbed his clasped hands with my own and we met eyes. His were a brilliant shade of red that reminded me of Kushina's.
"Perhaps against a different opponent, you could have done more," I said. He spat out a lance of water. The second it left his lips, my chakra snatched it from his control, parted it around my head and turned it around before shooting into his mask. His head snapped backwards and his mask shattered, revealing that face. The face I'd spent years in this world looking for.
"Later," I said, brushing my fingers against his forehead. He slumped forwards and I picked him up, heaving him over my shoulder. I checked my pockets and cursed to myself. I really needed to update the contents of my storage seals. I didn't have the latest prisoner transport scroll that would contain someone of his power. Guess I'd have to settle for moving about like this instead.
Someone from the approaching crowd of Kiri nin that until now I had been doing my best to ignore sent a kunai in my direction. I reached out and snatched it out of the air. An exploding tag was strapped to the end. It was Kiri's sealing language, which just meant that it was a hodgepodge of styles with what they could cannibalise from the Uzumaki forming the backbone and skeleton. The tag had not run its course by the time I figured out just how to disable it.
I tapped a finger from my other hand against the tag, having to move Nagato's body out of the way a fair bit to do it. The exploding seal was completely rewritten, changing form to become Minato's latest bit of genius. I tossed it back into their ranks. They tried to scatter, but this one had a much shorter fuse than a standard one.
Boom.
I turned in the other direction where even more shinobi were approaching. This group far more hesitant. I could recognise a few people in the front. It seemed the Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist had come to play. I so wanted to take up their challenge. How would it feel to tangle with a wielder of the Kiba Blades, or the Twinsword that had made a Kage out of a man in canon, or better yet, Samehada. But Toshiro would not last that long. He was doing well against Michizane, but a Kage was still a Kage, and a Mizukage in the middle of the sea was a fool's fight.
"Have fun," I said to the shadow clone I had made earlier as I pushed off against the tree I'd been standing on. I lightened both Nagato and me as I did so, flying into the air and towards my old teammate.
As I did so, I watched through the back of my head as my clone buried its hands in the ground and brought all that mud I'd so helpfully created to bear. Spikes rose out, solidifying and shooting out for the approaching crowd in their hundreds, and that was just the first salvo.
I turned my focus back to my present goal as I felt the chakra signature of one of Toshiro's assigned teammates begin to weaken. Fumikage. I went even faster.
In a matter of seconds, I had a visual. Toshiro had truly come into his own in the years since I had last trained with him. He wielded both his blades with perfect poise. Not one micromotion was out of place. Perfection as a swordsman was what he displayed as he duelled the Mizukage. Fugaku was a nuisance, for the first time in his life, forced into a support role and fulfilling it as well as anyone could ask. Fumikage had a ball of water around her head that was drowning her even while the rest of her body remained above water. Neither of the others could break away to help her. If Fugaku's attention turned for even a second, then he would be signing Toshiro's death sentence. The same went the other way. It was a cold calculus, but they had no choice but to hear her die, impotent to stop it.
At least, that was the case until I arrived. When I had closed down the distance to the point where I could actually see their chakra points and not vague outlines of it with the Byakugan, they seemed to sense me as well. Michizane's head snapped in my direction. Toshiro used the chance to slice through him but the blade sparking with lightning release passed through with no resistance. What an interesting ability, I thought to myself as his body reconstituted itself a few inches away, both from the water beneath his feet and some of the mist in the air.
"Have no fear, for I am here," I proclaimed as I landed between them and the Mizukage.
Silence.
"What? No applause? Not even a thank you?" I asked Toshiro, turning my attention to him. But he was already gone. He was trying to rip the water prison off Fumikage's head. Oh that. I almost blushed. I'd been out of the field too long.
I felt for the water release chakra in the technique and tried to supplant it with my own, only for it to face a strong resistance. Stronger than anything Nagato had been able to come up with. Guess that was the Hozuki water affinity for you.
I flew over to her, and with two jabs of the gentle fist, destroyed the water prison around her head. It fell to the sea, and she did not waste any time following it, dropping to her knees, gasping for air.
"Thank you for your patience, Michizane-chan," I said.
"Shorirama Senju," he responded, ignoring my taunt. His voice was gravelly but distinguished in that way that only old farts could manage. There was a distinguished air about it, don't get me wrong. But it was annoying to hear an attempt at nobility from the man that had left a foreign Kage in the middle of his village in favour of chasing after some random Jounin. His Jinchuriki—his hope of one day waging war against me—mattered more to him than his people did, and that just irritated the fuck out of me.
"I took you for many things. Slimy, manipulative, opportunistic, many other words that would be even less polite. But never did I think of you as a coward. It seems I'm even worse at judging people than I thought," I said with an exaggerated shrug and shake of the head.
"You think I fear you, Shorirama Senju?" he asked like I said the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.
"Do you not? I waited for you in the middle of your village. You refused to come to me last war. This time, I brought the party to you and what did you do? You ran. Well, here I am now Michizane-chan. The debt comes due, and I am your comeuppance." I spread my arms out and picked up the body on my shoulder before tossing it at Toshiro. He caught it instantly.
"Fear is a finite resource, boy. A man can only have so much fear in his body. Only so much of that vital resource can be produced by any living brain. And I fear that I had produced all I can. I've met the only thing in this world worth fearing, boy. You might think yourself powerful in your pond of minnows, but I have seen the shark that swallows the world. I have seen the destroyer himself, and I serve him. What could I have to fear from you?" Well, that was about as useful as a condom in the Land of Iron.
He tilted his head to the side as if he was hearing something only he could hear. And funny enough, he was. I could see the chakra interfacing with his now. It was coming from a fair distance away. All the way back in Kiri even. I traced the source on his person to a ring. A ring that should not exist in this world because Toshiro had in his arms the person who headed the group that used them in canon.
"You are even more unlucky than I feared, Shorirama Senju. The Destroyer seeks to take your measure in person," he said, biting down on his finger.
He brought his fingers together, and between the first and the second seal, I had robbed him of use of both his hands. He looked up at me standing right in front of him, shock apparent on his face. What? Was I just supposed to let him do whatever power-up or summoning he wanted to do in peace? Naaa. That'd be stupid. If the so-called Destroyer wanted to speak to me so badly, then he knew where I lived. He made to say something and I poked him once in the forehead.
His unique version of hydrification clearly required more preparation and effort than he made it seem. He actually had to see the attack coming, and at the levels I was working at, well, that was asking too much. He fell against the water, dead. And so the last of the golden generation of Kage died. This would be a new generation. And his ilk were not welcome.
"You guys should hurry up out of here." I said to them. I'd stay for a bit in case anyone troublesome tried to break away from the party my clone was hosting and tried to make it to them. Or maybe I'd even wait for whoever this Destroyer was. See if he bothered to get his arse off whatever throne in Kiri he'd been lounging on and come my way.
Toshiro nodded his thanks before looking from me to Nagato.
"Probably set him down there. Uzumaki heal quickly and I wouldn't want you carrying him when he does wake up," I said, gesturing for him to drop the body. He did so happily, and then they were gone. I watched them leave before I turned back to the man at my feet. The ring, silver or at least silver-looking, glinted against the sun. I reached down and plucked it from his index finger.
I felt something brush against my chakra from the ring itself. How interesting. Something fun to study later. I slipped it into my pocket and left a clone to wait and keep watch before looking down to Nagato's body.
Normally, using flying raijin for two people across this distance would be too chakra expensive for me to even consider it without Kurama's help, but here I was with a helpful battery. A compatible one, even.
I weaved two seals before leaning down and placing my hand against his chest.
A/N: Shori basically never fights anyone who can give him a challenge anymore. Never in life or death situations, at least. So he did have some fun with Nagato for a bit, but then the levels needed to be shown. Michizane and Nagato are roughly the same level, so think of that fight as what Shori v Nagato would have been like if Shori wasn't curious and didn't hold off on Sage Mode for as long as he did. Next chapter comes on here by Thursday night at the latest, but Wednesday night/Thursday morning most likely. Next three chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.