>>4668586
One of his eyes has been replaced by a sharingan, though the other is still a rinnegan despite the fact that you now know those were never actually his own. That detail seems strange to you as well, though it does also confirm a few things. First, it confirms that Obito did in fact reanimate Nagato for the purpose of gaining access to one of his rinnegan. Second, it confirms that what happened here is likely that Nagato was made to use King Enma to heal himself.

The good news is that if you defeat Nagato and send him back to the afterlife that should lead to Obito losing his rinnegan. The bad news is that Nagato will be much more capable of fighting against you even despite having lost one of his rinnegan – making it hard to tell in the abstract whether you stand at an advantage against him or not. Mostly what caused you difficulty last time was the fact that he had multiple bodies that could surround and overwhelm you. But at the same time you figure that may have made it easier too since you could count on each body to only use one ability.

“Is Konan...”

“Sensei is fine,” you insist calmly. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help her – Obito had me under a form of Tsukuyomi at the time.”

“I’m sure she was very understanding about that,” Nagato-han reassures you.

Meanwhile, Itachi-han has been waiting rather politely to speak his own mind.

“Sasuke… you’re here,” he muses. “How much do you know?”

“More than you wanted me to,” he admits. “And enough to understand why you tried to keep this from me.”

“Knowing what you do now,” Itachi-han continues, “why are you here now?”

“Because our clan, our parents, died to protect the world that exists,” Sasuke frowns, “so I can at least agree that fixing what’s wrong with the world has to start with stopping Obito. Though… I’m sure not everyone will agree on what happens after that.”

“That’s never been how things worked,” Itachi-han agrees.

“Naori-kun,” Nagato warns you aloud, “we’re going to attack you now. We have no choice… I’m sorry to have to ask you and Naruto-kun to stop me again. This time I think it’s going to be harder.”

“Whaddya mean?” Naruto wonders.

You continue to watch carefully. “Nagato-han now has all six Path powers in one body, and the stamina required to use them. As for Itachi-han avoid his eyes and be prepared to use your chakra cloaks to shed Amaterasu if it gets on you.”

“I know that you jinchūriki can usually rely on your tailed beasts to release you from a genjutsu,” Sasuke adds, “but that won’t work with Tsukuyomi.”

>I’ll take the lead with Itachi-han. Samurai kenjutsu inherently avoids eye contact.
>Sasuke, I’ll leave Itachi-han to you. I’ll take the lead against Nagato-han.
>Yugitō-han, B-han, we’re going to rely on you to cover us against Nagato-han’s summons.
>Other?

>>4668590
>>Sasuke, I’ll leave Itachi-han to you. I’ll take the lead against Nagato-han.
>>Yugitō-han, B-han, we’re going to rely on you to cover us against Nagato-han’s summons.

>>4668586
>>Sasuke, I’ll leave Itachi-han to you. I’ll take the lead against Nagato-han.
Let's try and open up Nagato to a power hit from Naruto.

>>4668590
>>Sasuke, I’ll leave Itachi-han to you. I’ll take the lead against Nagato-han.

>>4668590
>>Sasuke, I’ll leave Itachi-han to you. I’ll take the lead against Nagato-han.

>>4668590
So, question, do we have a piece of Itachi, and what happens if we layer our reanimation technique with Edo Tensei?

>>4668590
>>Other?
Didn’t we make that summoning contract with Itachi to prevent exactly this situation? As in, we should be able to cancel the réanimation?

>>4668590
>I’ll take the lead with Itachi-han. Samurai kenjutsu inherently avoids eye contact.

>>4669401
We didn't, we did had one to get summoned when he died.

>>4669401
I re-read a lot of the old threads and I'm fairly certain that >>4669560 is correct.

Naori currently has a scroll with Itachi's body sealed into it, along with a second scroll with a summoning contract written into it for an emergency. But at that time you guys were mostly in the mode of "avoid using this" with regards to reanimation, and so my recollection is it never came up again. Partly because Naori had the body already.

In this instant, trying to use the scroll and Naori's summoning technique would open Naori to attack by Nagato. So easing the situation a little in the immediate term is kind of the next step.

>>4668590
“Sasuke,” you decide carefully, “you should take the lead with Itachi-han. I’ll take the lead with Nagato-han. Naruto-kun, B-han, Yugitō-han, watch for any openings.”

While you have a summoning contract written for Itachi-han, you never actually summoned him… and so you’re unsure what calling on that contract now will accomplish. It’s entirely possible that it could help, but you’re also aware that trying to act on that would simply open you up to attack from Nagato-han.

No… when facing enemies at this level, it’s best to wait for a clear opening to try any technique like that.

“Go.”

The two of you split your opponents up, using attacks that weren’t necessarily expected to connect – a fireball and a blast of ranton-nature chakra force Nagato to evade to your right and Itachi to evade to your left, giving you an opening to begin the battle.

“I’m sorry it’s come to this,” Nagato apologizes again. “I never thought I would be forced to fight you again, least of all like this.”

You can tell the moment when Kabuto forces the two of them to start giving it some real effort, since Nagato-han winces instinctively the moment it happens.

He begins weaving hand seals, only for you to draw Umekiri and very nearly slice his hands off before he can take a step back.

“I guess not,” Nagato-han frowns. “I’ll be using the Asura path next!”

True to his predictions, the next thing that happens is that the younger-looking Nagato grows an extra pair of arms from around his shoulders – knowing what you do about the Asura path that means he’ll be able to weave hand seals now while defending himself from your kenjutsu.

“Dōjigiri Raigen!”

The bright flash should blind him to your next step, which is to draw Tenryūshi and cross swords, creating a shadow clone that attacks from the front while you use the shunshin technique to get behind him.

“Eyes in the back of your head,” you realize as you fail to get in a hit with either yourself or your shadow clone, which dispels itself as you take a half-step back to shift stances. “Damn.”

“Sorry,” Nagato apologizes again. “There are few limits to what I can do with the Asura path.”

Almost as if to prove the point he grows a third pair of arms, and weaves hand seals with his first pair while using the new four arms to defend himself for a full three hundred and sixty degrees. Because of that, you actually can’t use your kenjutsu to disrupt him… instead you launch a handful of exploding shuriken in hopes of opening an avenue of attack rather than stopping him from what you assume is going to be a summoning technique.

“Kuchiyose!”
>1/2

>>4669881
The beast he summons first is the most troublesome one, the multi-headed dog. Thankfully you have immediate help: Yugitō wastes no time in manifesting Matatabi’s full body, and begins to smack the dog around.

“Focus on the summoner!” you think Yugitō insists.

“Thanks, Yugitō-han!” you call out, weaving hand signs of your own in prediction of Nagato’s next move. “Kuchiyose: Nyoka!”

The two of you end up summoning at the same time – you, upon Nyoka’s back as she flaps hard to take off from the ground. Nagato on the other hand has summoned the massive, four-winged bird he used when you fought in Konohagakure.

“This seems intense,” Nyoka-han realizes what she’s looking at. “So that rinnegan-user has been revived as well… this one will help you to remove the threat, Naori-san.”

“Thank you,” you reply calmly. “As always your help is appreciated, Nyoka-han.”

>Focus on taking out the bird with a single ranton-nature combination ninjutsu.
>Get in close to the axe bird, make sure Nagato-han can’t neutralize your ninjutsu.
>Outmaneuver the bigger bird and jump onto its back, attack Nagato directly.
>Other?

>>4669884
>>Focus on taking out the bird with a single ranton-nature combination ninjutsu.

>>4669884
>>Get in close to the axe bird, make sure Nagato-han can’t neutralize your ninjutsu.

>>4669884
>Outmaneuver the bigger bird and jump onto its back, attack Nagato directly.

>>4669884
>>Outmaneuver the bigger bird and jump onto its back, attack Nagato directly.

>>4669884
>>Focus on taking out the bird with a single ranton-nature combination ninjutsu.

>>4669884
Going to wait a little longer in hopes of a tie-break.

>>4669884
>>Outmaneuver the bigger bird and jump onto its back, attack Nagato directly.

>>4669884
>1d6, best three of four
>DC 11
>SP: 6/6
>ES: 0/2

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4670949
GO HIGH!

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>4670949

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>4670949

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>4670949

>>4670949
“Nyoka-han, the bird!” you shout.

“Very well!” she calls back. “Hang on tightly!”

Nyoka swoops up first, forcing the monstrous bird to lift its head, before winging over and swooping under its head where she digs her claws into its body and her beak into its neck. For your part you put the momentum of Nyoka turning in air to drop the summoned bird monster onto the ground to good use, leaping at exactly the right moment to attack Nagato-han and knock him off his flying mount.

He reaches out towards you in midair. “Banshō Ten’in!”

So he can still use the Deva path with only one eye… how troublesome.

You unseal paper tags from your back to form wings, which you use to push yourself back in a cloud of white ‘feathers’… each of which carries sealing script. Those are still pulled towards Nagato-han, and quickly wrap around his body.

“This won’t be enough!” he insists,

“Yeah no, say that when I’m finished!” you retort, extending Kongō Fūsa chains from both your wrists and wrapping him tight. You’ve only seen this move a handful of times, but it may well serve you well here… especially with the sealing tags and the Kongō Fūsa together acting to prevent him from using the Preta path’s Fūjutsu Kyūin to absorb your chakra.

“Kongō Renge!”

The force behind your attack is massive, more than enough to shatter the bones in any normal human’s body starting from the top of the skull and going down all the way to the heels. You essentially plant Nagato-han headfirst into the ground, excavating a wide crater where you hit, the dust raised from which is blown away when Nyoka-han defeats the summoned bird at the same time not too far away.

Nagato-hans response comes as you’re recovering from the exertion of the attack. “Shinra Tensei!”

“Nyoka-han!”

The other power of the Deva path hits your Kongō Fūsa barrier, scouring away the forest all around you except for a small shadow behind the barrier where Nyoka-han was sheltered… a good precaution on your part to position yourself there just in case of this exact situation.

In the new clearing, you see Nagato modifying his body again… discarding the broken shoulders and arms and repositioning the surviving limbs to be of most use. It’s not even using the Naraka path or relying on the Edo Tensei to recover, he’s just that capable with the other paths that he doesn’t need to rely on those things.
>1/2

>>4670996
“So yeah, seems like I was right,” you muse aloud. “If you’d been like this when we fought in Konoha I’d probably have been killed.”

But now? The unspoken part is that things are different. You didn’t just use your own version of Lee and Guy-sensei’s Lotus for no reason, but because it allowed you to make physical contact with Nagato for a second or so. And that’s just long enough to leave a mark – a hiraishin marking, like a curse mark placed directly onto his body, all but guaranteeing certain death.

Meanwhile Nyoka-han has taken back to the skies for lack of any clear objective on the ground, preparing to set up a change in weather. Nagato for his part is unloading explosives at you, forcing you to stay mobile and on your guard. A few come close enough that you’re forced to actually slice them from the air, or else knock them aside with your foot.

>Try to keep Nagato busy until someone else can come help you seal him for good.
>Lure Nagato back towards the others.
>Use some shadow clones to try finishing this fight with Nagato off on your own.
>Other?

>>4670997
>Other
>Wait for an opening to use the hiraishin marking to surprise attack Nagato's Rinnegan and try to seal him when his powers are crippled

>>4670997
>>4671104
Seconding

>>4670997
>>Use some shadow clones to try finishing this fight with Nagato off on your own.

How did the whole "Itachi broke Kabuto's control over him by implanting Tsukuyomi into a crow, and then had that crow reflect the Tsukuyomi back on him to override Edo Tensei's hold over him" even go down in canon? It's been so long I'm not even sure if we haven't accidentally prevented that.

>>4670997
Oh yeah, forgot to vote
Supporting >>4671104 because I think the three preset options are too generic to pull off against a healthy Nagato of all people.

>>4671232
If I remember correctly Itachi had one of Shisui's Kotoamatsukami and put it in a crow, then put it inside Naruto to brainwash Sasuke into helping Konoha. I'm guessing since itachi is a bit less of an asshole thanks to us he didn't do that.

Probably worth noting that a strong genjutsu can trump Kabuto's control over an edo tensei.

It's worth a try on anyone we think we can get away with it on. Why try to fight an unkillable foe when you can turn them?

>>4670997
>1d6, taking the first three, DC 11
>SP: 6/6
>ES: 0/2 (0T)

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>4672016

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4672016
GO HIGH

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>4672016
Fingers crossed

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>4672016

>>4672650
>taking the first three

>>4670997
Kabuto and Obito chose to recover Nagato for the exact same reason he’s now proving to be a pain – his Rinnegan. Of which he has precisely one. And you’re willing to bet that the fact that he now has a sharingan in one socket means that if the other is removed, as Obito has clearly done with the first, it won’t regenerate. Which makes a certain amount of sense – if it hasn’t been destroyed, why would it regenerate?

There are just two questions – first, how do you go about creating an opening to pull that off? You think you have one ability that can serve that role, even against an opponent with powerful dōjutsu at their disposal. But the second question is a bit tougher to answer, and that’s the question of how you’re supposed to deal with a man who can grow extra faces… including his eyes.

You suppose the first thing you’ll need to do is make him resorb the face on the back of his head before you put your real plan into action. And to do that you’ll need two bodies.

Crossing your blades you create another shadow clone, maneuvering yourselves around with perfect coordination.

“You cannot take my back,” Nagato warns you.

Your clone makes the first move, weaving a series of one-handed seals and opening her Mangekyō sharingan. “Magen: Kasegui no Jutsu!”

“That… one of Itachi’s genjutsu!?” Nagato realizes, and your clone quickly points at you to show that what you hoped would happen has happened – that Nagato’s reaction to being caught in an ocular genjutsu would be to simply resorb the extra face back into her head.

And it gives you the cue. “Kengen: Tsubamegiri!”

For just a split second, you have the advantage of moving unimpeded by any defense Nagato could otherwise have prepared. Normally it wouldn’t get you much, especially not in this situation when any damage to Nagato’s body will be relatively minor and only temporary in any event. But you have an instantaneous advantage, and that’s all it will take.

In that instant you pluck out Nagato’s remaining rinnegan… it’s a movement that’s just a little slower than you’d hoped, leaving you little time to get clear of Nagato. In fact you have to parry his attack with Umekiri, a powerful blow using an arm that’s been transformed into a wicked blade with deep serrations.

It’s a trade, a nasty slash to your left side ribs for having removed Nagato’s eye. But that’s a trade you’re willing to make.

“A fine deduction...” Nagato admits, clutching that side of his face with one hand. “I see your logic, Naori-kun. The replacement eye does suggest that the Edo Tensei will not reconstruct a rinnegan that has not been damaged… otherwise there would be no need to replace it.”

His body begins to split open, limbs exposing massive numbers of self-propelled explosives. “Naori-kun, I am...”
>1/2

>>4673346
You dodge at the last second, a massive spectral blade that impales Nagato from behind.

“I am sorry, Nagato-san,” Itachi apologizes. “I fear this will be… less than pleasant.”

“I understand, Itachi-san,” Nagato insists. “I hated being used as a tool anyway. So far as I’m concerned you’re doing me a favor.”

“Is that the Sakegari?” you wonder aloud as Nagato is drawn into the sealing gourd under the arm of Itachi-han’s Susanō’ō. “Itachi-han, what is this?”

“Naori-san,” Sasuke addresses you, having reached you with a body flicker. “A crow came out of Naruto’s mouth and put Itachi under some kind of genjutsu...”

“Kotoamatsukami,” you realize, watching as Itachi finishes sealing away Nagato. “No… you can’t have prepared for this with Shisui’s eye. How long?”

“Quite some time ago,” Itachi-han admits. “You do understand that I knew I was dying well beforehand, so it made sense...”

>Tell him to skip to the part where he tells you what he has planned.
>Let him prattle on for a little bit. This is a big moment for him and Sasuke.
>Slug him in the mouth.
>Other?

>>4673348
>>Let him prattle on for a little bit. This is a big moment for him and Sasuke.

>>4673348
>>Let him prattle on for a little bit. This is a big moment for him and Sasuke.
>and once he's done
>Slug him in the mouth

>>4673348
Seconding >>4673379

>>4673348
>>Slug him in the mouth.
Oh boy

>>4673348
Supporting >>4673379

>>4673348
>Slug him in the mouth.
ITA NO BAKA

>>4673348
>Let him prattle on for a little bit. This is a big moment for him and Sasuke.
>and once he's done
>Slug him in the mouth
>"You could have been more honest with your brother! Even I have limits to long cons!"

>>4673348
>Let him prattle on for a little bit. This is a big moment for him and Sasuke.
>Slug him in the mouth.

He deserves it, let's be honest.

>>4673348
>Slug him in the mouth.

>>4673348
>>4673379
Yeah supporting this

>>4673348
>Slug him in the mouth

>>4673346
>you pluck out Nagato’s remaining rinnegan
Fuck yeah, now that we have it we:
> Don't have to pray that we develop one ourselves before the big battles of the War Arc start
> In case ours develops soon enough, we can hand it over to someone strong enough to use it properly (Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, Guren, Konan or even Tsunade)

>>4673695
i would argue that kakashi wouldn't be a good user, since his stamina is rather limited and since it is an evolution of the sharingan, then it would stand to reason its chakra use is even higher

>>4673695
>>4673707
On top of being something that a LOT of people on that list will have some VERY strong feelings about, i's also something that's bound to disappear as soon as the Edo Tensei is dealt with.

>>4673735
I must be misremembering something, then. Obito, and later Madara kept their Rinnegan after Itachi and Sasuke made Kabuto undo the Edo Tensei, right?

>>4673787
in canon obito took one eye from Nagatos corpse, in the quest Naori crushed both eyes, thats why they reanimated him.
Madara awakend his on his own, since he grafted Hashirama cells into his body, but it didn't awaken before his natural death and later resurrection.

>>4673787
See >>4673803
In-character Naori already knows that Nagato's rinnegan weren't actually the eyes he was born with, and suspects they previously belonged to Uchiha Madara - she's just not certain how Obito fits in, she just knows that he does somehow.

Naori crushed and destroyed both of the eyes that were in Nagato when he was alive, so Obito had Kabuto reanimate Nagato so he could take the reanimated eyes (or one of them at least). Naori would have had no reason to think IC that could work.

>>4673348
You’ll allow this.

“… to lay a contingency plan of my own,” Itachi-han continues, “in case someone… well, someone like you with a reanimation technique got hold of my body after my death.”

“So yeah, are you finished?” you ask.

“Yes...”

You crack him across the chin – a lot harder than you intended, since you’re still in sage mode. The blow dislocates his jaw and knocks him flat, but the damage almost immediately resets so that by the time he reaches up to rub his chin it’s back where he probably remembers it being.

“What was that for?” he demands.

“Yeah no, even I have limits!” you insist angrily. “Not giving me a chance to say goodbye, that’s one thing – but never telling Sasuke a damn thing is too much!”

You can tell that you’re attracting stares, but you don’t particularly care nor do you wait for an explanation. “But hey, I don’t know why I’m so surprised – because that’s just you, isn’t it? Always taking on everything by yourself cause at the end of the day you can’t trust anyone?”

Itachi-han stares at you for a moment, as if in slow realization. Then he glances towards his younger brother. “Sasuke, answer one question for me… when you learned the truth, how strong was your hatred?”

After a pause, Sasuke answers. “Very.”

“And how strong is it now?”

“Really I wouldn’t even call it ‘hatred’ anymore. Anger, sure… I think it’s only natural I’d be angry. But not hatred, not the way it was at first.”

Itachi-han glances back at you. “I… will admit that I might have made a mistake.”

“Really?” you frown. “What makes you say that?”

“Naori-san,” Naruto-kun insists curtly.

You take a deep breath.

>I cared about you, you know.
>Can you track down Kabuto?
>So I have a rinnegan now… sort of.
>Other?

>>4674596
>>I cared about you, you know.

>>4674596
>I cared about you, you know.

>>4674596
>>I cared about you, you know.

>>4674596
>I cared about you, you know.

>>4674596
>>I cared about you, you know.

>>4674596
>I cared about you, you know.

>>4674596
>I cared about you, you know.

>>4674596
>Can you track down Kabuto?

>>4674596
>>I cared about you, you know.

>>4674596
“You know… I was never in love with you,” you admit, feeling almost compelled to vent now that you’ve been given the chance to do so. “I could’ve been if you’d let me get close enough. Even after Ajisai… I got why you did it, and I was too mad at myself to hold it against you anyway.”

“But you never gave me the chance to get close to you.”

“I knew that I was dying,” Itachi-han repeats.

“Bullshit,” you counter, voice not raised in the slightest despite your rare slip into vulgarity. “You did the same thing to Izumi-han, didn’t you? Kept her at arm’s length despite knowing she cared for you?”

“She told you this?”

“Call it female intuition,” you roll your eyes. “Or a lucky guess, whichever one you can believe more easily.”

“What’s even happening right now?” Naruto-kun mutters, only for Sasuke to lightly knock his fist against his head.

“Not the time.”

“So… yeah, why?” you eventually ask.

“You wish to know if I saw you as a monster,” Itachi-han frowns. “As a threat to Konohagakure, something to be managed rather than grown close to.”

“You can see why the thought might bother a self-conscious kunoichi,” you tacitly confirm it. “Can’t you?”

“I thought you said that what I did to Sasuke was what made you upset.”

“You can’t evade forever. You’ll have to face someone sooner or later, be it me or your little brother. I have a reanimation technique, so I can guarantee it.

There’s a long silence before Itachi-han answers your challenge. “There was a time when even I had a loving family. With each of them that love was expressed in a different way, especially between myself and my father, but it was there.”

“A man who kills what he loves to save what he loves… should such a man possess any sort of conscience, should he not work hard to keep anyone he might come to love out of his life?”

You frown, glancing away from him. “Yeah no, that’s not how normal people think.”

“But you can understand it.”

“It’s messed-up.”

“That wasn’t a denial.”

After a moment, you shake your head. “No. No it wasn’t.”
>1/2

>>4675801
“The Uzumaki blood runs strong in your veins,” Itachi-han declares, “and your technical brilliance is a match for my own, albeit in different ways. But you also have a heart capable of caring even for someone like me… had things been different, perhaps I could have allowed myself to accept that, and even return it.”

“But as things were you were afraid you’d end up hurting me,” you sigh, “the same way you hurt Sasuke. So when you suspected that I could actually fall in love with you, that’s when you decided to make sure it would never happen. That’s what you’re trying to say.”

Itachi-han nods once. “Do you think I was incorrect?”

“… probably not.”

Eventually, you nod. “Thank you, Itachi-han. It’s a relief to hear, in a sense… though I’m sorry you felt things had to be that way.”

“My apologies for making you wait so long,” he apologizes with a slight bow. “It would have been better had I told you this clearly from the beginning...”

“… but you’re not comfortable around girls,” you supply the explanation.

In a rare scene, Itachi-han actually sighs in defeat. “That… may have also contributed.”

“It’s okay,” you shake your head. “But hey, now that you’ve died there’s no need to be embarrassed or anything.”

“True.”

>I’m satisfied with this. Now, I assume you have a plan to beat up that snake nerd?
>Itachi-han… I think there’s someone else here you owe an explanation-slash-apology.
>The situation here is under control. I may be more useful now with Gaara’s division.
>Other?

>>4675802
>>I’m satisfied with this. Now, I assume you have a plan to beat up that snake nerd?

>>4675802
>>Itachi-han… I think there’s someone else here you owe an explanation-slash-apology.
>I’m satisfied with this. Now, I assume you have a plan to beat up that snake nerd?

This whole conversation has the same vibe as two exes reconciling with each other.

>>4675802
>I’m satisfied with this. Now, I assume you have a plan to beat up that snake nerd?

>>4675802
>>I’m satisfied with this. Now, I assume you have a plan to beat up that snake nerd?

>>4675802
>>I’m satisfied with this. Now, I assume you have a plan to beat up that snake nerd?

>>4675802
>I’m satisfied with this. Now, I assume you have a plan to beat up that snake nerd?

>>4675802
>Itachi-han… I think there’s someone else here you owe an explanation-slash-apology.
Come on, he still needs to apologize to his little brother for being an ass!

>>4676699
We gotta space out the heart-to-hearts a bit, let
Itachi and the pacing breathe.

>>4675802
After a moment to collect your thoughts, you give a curt nod. “Right, I’m satisfied with this. So yeah, can I assume you have a plan to beat up the snake nerd now and end the Edo Tensei?”

“I do,” Itachi-han admits, conjuring up the skeletal form of his Susanō’ō and putting Naruto, Killer B, and even Yugitō back into a defensive posture. “And this plan of mine does not involve two things, which I must now pass on to Sasuke.”

“The Sakegari and the Yata mirror?” you guess.

“Sasuke,” Itachi continues. “Manifest your Susanō’ō. I wish to leave you these gifts… I suspect you will need them.”

Sasuke is hesitant at first. “You intend to fight Kabuto without them?”

“This fight will not be won through strength of arms.”

“The Edo Tensei can’t be undone by defeating the jutsu-caster,” you add with a frown. “What are you planning, Itachi-han?”

“Something that would be a problem were I still alive,” he admits. “But like you said before, I am no longer alive… so I won’t have to worry about the consequences to my non-existent health.”

All eyes fall back on Sasuke, who manifests his lilac-colored Susanō’ō. “Okay. If you think this is what’s best.”

You’re not entirely certain how it works – both weapons are spiritual in nature, so it’s not as simple as handing off Umekiri-maru to Naruto would be. But in the end Sasuke’s Susanō’ō is armed with a shield on one of its left arms, and a gourd tucked under one of its right arms against its ribcage. Where both were a fiery orange color when they were in Itachi-han’s possession, they now share the same lilac tone as Sasuke’s Susanō’ō.

“They will be difficult to use at first,” Itachi-han tells Sasuke. “The Yata mirror is not as perfect a defense as most people who know of its existence seem to be convinced – it is not effective at repelling genjutsu, it has a limit to its physical durability, and it cannot properly counteract powerful attacks using dual-nature kekkei genkai. The Sakegari is very effective, however its fūinjutsu properties are not infallible either. It can be escaped or repelled by various methods, including by chakra absorbing barriers.”

“So fighting Naori-san would be a nightmare even with both,” Sasuke offers an example. “At least that seems to be the implication.”

“I would avoid making her angry,” Itachi-han admits. “But what I meant by those warnings was that it is important never to let your possession of such tools lead to arrogance. They simply offer you new strategic options to consider.”

“I’ll remember that.”
>1/2

>>4677664
Meanwhile…

You are Hatake Kakashi, often called the ‘Copy Ninja’ or ‘Kakashi of the Sharingan’, and scattered reports have reached your ears of something that concerns both you and your long-time rival Might Guy. You didn’t want to believe it – even for scum like Kabuto this is unbelievable. But upon inspection of the corner of forest where these reports have been centered, you’ve found that the truth is undeniable.

“Hey, Kakashi, that can’t be...” Guy frowns, even more taken aback by what he’s seeing than you are.

It’s like staring into a strange mirror.

“So this is what we were brought back to do,” your father frowns bitterly.

“Sakumo-san,” Might Duy asks, confused at the situation. “What’s all this? What’ve you figured out?”

“Father,” you greet Hatake Sakumo stiffly. “It’s been a long time.”

“So it was true,” Guy clenches his fists. “I didn’t want to believe it, and looking at it with my own eyes I still can’t quite wrap my head around it.”

“We’ve been brought back, Might-san,” your father explains. “You probably remember dying some time, right? That actually happened. This is one of the Second Hokage’s techniques, the Edo Tensei.”

“Is the caster Orochimaru of the Sannin?”

You shake your head. “A student of his.”

“The headband you wear says ‘Shinobi’,” your father continues. “That implies some kind of alliance?”

“That’s right,” you nod.

“So that means we’ve been summoned by your enemies,” Might-san realizes. He’s not stupid of course, just not as familiar with things like this as your father is.

>Guy, we’ll each deal with our own fathers. If we’ve surpassed them this shouldn’t be a problem.
>We’ll trade duties. Fighting our own fathers plays right into the enemy’s plans.
>Other?

>>4677666
>We’ll trade duties. Fighting our own fathers plays right into the enemy’s plans.
I know it might seem cold, but its probably better for both

>>4677666
>>We’ll trade duties. Fighting our own fathers plays right into the enemy’s plans.

>>4677666
>We’ll trade duties. Fighting our own fathers plays right into the enemy’s plans.

>>4677666
>We’ll trade duties. Fighting our own fathers plays right into the enemy’s plans.

>>4677666
>>We’ll trade duties. Fighting our own fathers plays right into the enemy’s plans.

>>4677666
>>We’ll trade duties. Fighting our own fathers plays right into the enemy’s plans.

>>4677666
“Fighting our own fathers is what Kabuto wants,” you decide. “So we’ll trade.”

Guy glances at his father, then nods back in your direction. “Yeah, I got you Kakashi.”

“Fourth Gate: Shōmon, open!”

Guy charges and hits your father square in the chest… usually an attack like that is something you’d expect to be fatal, but your father is already dead and on top of that you’re pretty sure his skills with kenjutsu were sufficient to meet Guy head-on at that level. But it’s at least sufficient to get you separated into two single-matches, leaving you with Might Duy.

“So… you ended up becoming friends with my son after all?” he muses. “That’s good. I was afraid that Guy might struggle to make friends at the academy.”

“Friend and rival,” you admit. “One-sided at first.”

“Still,” he insists, bowing stiffly even as he reaches for his own chest, “I’m grateful, and I’m sorry… but the only thing I know that’s useful at all is the Eight Gates. Some way of thanking you...”

What happens next is something you’ve thankfully never seen before – the ‘red mist’ created as the user’s blood starts to evaporate out through their pores, in this case surrounding Might Duy. You’re acutely aware that this is a technique you actually can’t beat, and so ‘defeating’ Might Duy isn’t even how you’re going to win despite the fact that ordinarily he would be the sort of opponent you’d feel bad about having to beat. No, the only ‘victory condition’ in this case is to survive by any means necessary until your opponent’s own body starts to fall apart.

It won’t be until then that you’ll be able to seal Might Duy, in the few precious moments between the point the Gate of Death wears his body down and the point where the Edo Tensei builds it back up again.

>Try to catch him in a sharingan genjutsu – he’s not Guy, he doesn’t have the talent to avoid your eyes.
>Just try to keep away from Might Duy as best you can, wind down the proverbial clock until he self-destructs.
>Use wide-area attacks. Might Duy is a genin at heart, and so he’s likely to charge straight into an oncoming attack.
>Other?

>>4679787
>>Try to catch him in a sharingan genjutsu – he’s not Guy, he doesn’t have the talent to avoid your eyes.
Kakashi has shit stamina, so we gotta end this quick.

>>4679787
>Try to catch him in a sharingan genjutsu – he’s not Guy, he doesn’t have the talent to avoid your eyes.

>>4679787
>>Try to catch him in a sharingan genjutsu – he’s not Guy, he doesn’t have the talent to avoid your eyes.

>>4679787
>Try to catch him in a sharingan genjutsu – he’s not Guy, he doesn’t have the talent to avoid your eyes.

>>4679787
>>Try to catch him in a sharingan genjutsu – he’s not Guy, he doesn’t have the talent to avoid your eyes.

>>4679787
>Try to catch him in a sharingan genjutsu – he’s not Guy, he doesn’t have the talent to avoid your eyes.

>>4679787
>1d6, first three. DC 9
>SP: 2/2
>ES: 0/2 (0T)

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>4680846

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>4680846

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>4680846

>>4680846
>Take 1 ES
>Use 1 SP
Only two choices because the third alternative would be death.

>>4680858
>Take 1 ES

>>4680858
>Take 1 ES
The choice is to use the eye in the first place to be fair.

>>4680862
That's the way I figured it, but I also thought it would be appropriate to offer the choice.

>>4680862
>>4680858
i fully agree with this

>>4680858
>>Take 1 ES

>>4680858
>SP: 3/3
>ES: 1/2 (2T)

>>4680862
Your best option is one which leaves you little room for error – to catch Might Duy in an ocular genjutsu you only need to make eye contact once, but you may only get once chance to do it. In an instant he crosses the space between you and makes a simple attack, which is elevated to the point where it seems more like a high-level ninjutsu. You’ve heard that on the day he died Might Duy managed to kill four of the Seven Swordsmen – including Akebino Jinin, Kuriarare Kushimaru, and Munashi Jinpachi, who your division faced yesterday with heavy losses.

It’s stunning to see someone who was a genin in life move so quickly, altering the terrain with basic taijutsu, but that’s the level of power achieved when someone opens the Gate of Death. The Seven Swordsmen who were killed that day couldn’t possibly have understood it.

But you were just quick enough to pull off what needed to be done, as Might Duy didn’t see you move. Instead he chases after the illusory copy of you that you showed him. That copy manages to dodge, but only just, drawing the fight out further.

“Keep dodging!” he shouts at your illusion. “Just like that Kakashi m’boy!”

You almost feel bad for making such a fool out of the poor man. He doesn’t even have the skill necessary to free himself from a basic genjutsu, nor the mission experience required to know that he’s even under a genjutsu in the first place.

>Use this genjutsu as an opportunity, incapacitate his body then place a sealing tag on it.
>Call for backup, by the time he self-destructs you should have a fūinjutsu specialist here.
>Put him under a deeper genjutsu, then go help Guy against your own father.
>Other?

>>4681561
>>Put him under a deeper genjutsu, then go help Guy against your own father.

>>4681561
>>Put him under a deeper genjutsu, then go help Guy against your own father.

>>4681561
>>Use this genjutsu as an opportunity, incapacitate his body then place a sealing tag on it.

>>4681561
>Use this genjutsu as an opportunity, incapacitate his body then place a sealing tag on it.

If he figures out he's in a genjutsu he could just decide to absolutely destroy his surroundings thanks to gate of death shenanigans, no need to keep that around

>>4681561
>>Use this genjutsu as an opportunity, incapacitate his body then place a sealing tag on it.

>>4681561
>Put him under a deeper genjutsu, then go help Guy against your own father.

>>4681561
>>4681663
Agreed

>>4681561
>1d6, first four considered
>DC 9
>SP: 2/2
>ES: 1/2 (1T)

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>4682120

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>4682120

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4682120

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>4682120

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4682120

>>4682120
You quickly come up with a way to take advantage of this situation and put Might Duy away indefinitely, so that you can meet up with Guy to make sure your father hasn’t found some way to pull out a victory. The first thing you have to prepare is the Kubikiribōchō – something you took from Zabuza-san after yesterday’s battles, and from there the rest of it is almost simple.

“Dodge it again, Kakashi!” Might Duy warns you, before throwing a punch of absolutely stunning power and speed that blows a hole clean through your chest.

Then your shadow clone dissolves into static that surges through his body, giving you your opening.

“Got you!”

You burst from your hiding place under the earth, Kubikiribōchō in your hands, and slice him in half effortlessly from hip to shoulder. He can’t dodge the attack because of the stunning effect that hitting one of your Lightning-element shadow clones inflicts on a would-be attacker, and so the attack connects with a flawless execution.

“That sword,” Might Duy recognizes it immediately. “I know it… but that won’t be enough! I can already feel my body coming back together.

“That’s fine,” you reply. “In fact I was counting on it.”

The sealing script spreads across Might Duy’s torso as it reforms, freezing him in place.

“I knew that if I let you, or rather the one controlling you, see the fūinjutsu tag,” you explain, “you would be fast enough to remove it. So I attached it to the side of Kubikiribōchō’s blade with a little chakra, and let it come off and reattach inside your body as it recovered.”

“So don’t worry, you won’t be able to hurt anyone now.”

“That’s good to hear,” Might Duy sighs in relief. “That would be the last thing I’d want, so thanks, Kakashi. I owe you.”

You shake your head. “If it meant that Guy wouldn’t have to fight you, then it was already worth it.”

>Go and find some fūinjutsu specialists to deal with Might Duy and your father.
>Go and see if you can’t deal with your father, if Guy needs the help.
>Other?

>>4682168
>>Go and see if you can’t deal with your father, if Guy needs the help.
kakashi kinda wants to see/talk to his father i feel

>>4682168
>Go and see if you can’t deal with your father, if Guy needs the help.

>>4682168
>Go and see if you can’t deal with your father, if Guy needs the help.

>>4682168
>>Go and see if you can’t deal with your father, if Guy needs the help.

>>4682168
>>Go and find some fūinjutsu specialists to deal with Might Duy and your father.

Trust in Gai to get it done alone.

>>4682168
>Go and find some fūinjutsu specialists to deal with Might Duy and your father.
There'd be no living with him otherwise.

>>4682168
>Go and find some fūinjutsu specialists to deal with Might Duy and your father

>>4682168
>Go and find some fūinjutsu specialists to deal with Might Duy and your father.
If they somehow escape while distracted there will be hell to pay, better get stuff done ASAP.

Bad news once again, due to a range ban and Queens current reliance on his phone, we have to wait till Monday for another update.

>>4683288
Fairly sure I'm back, just with a different ID and no formatting options.

>>4682168
A little like Naruto, you’re a shinobi who can ‘look right and left at the same time’ – meaning you can be working on two different goals at the same time without causing a problem for yourself. The answer is always shadow clones with him, and it’s the answer you need right now.

One shadow clone waits where you’ve temporarily halted Might Duy and fires off a flare, while a second runs towards the place where you last remember the bulk of your unit being located. There has to be some fūinjutsu expert out that way who can follow your clone back to Might Duy to finish the job, but for now there are other places where you could be fighting and making yourself useful.

…

Thankfully, it seems that Guy has your father fairly well under control. Still, that being said you’re not here entirely for the purpose of helping Guy, despite that being a benefit to your being here.

There’s also the fact that you’ve never even seen your father – the infamous ‘White Fang’ – fight before. You figure he must have been something special to be put on the same level as Jiraiya-sensei, Tsunade-hime, and Orochimaru. You also know that his skills probably lay with kenjutsu and tantōjutsu based on the chakra sabre he left you when he passed. From what little else you’ve gathered he was a skilled tracker on top of his combat abilities, and had a keen mind to put his talents to best use.

Both are in a rush to compliment each other to you.

“Your father really is something else, Kakashi!”
“This friend of yours has grown strong, Kakashi.”

“One at a time,” you muse, your tone completely flat. “Please.”

“You first,” Guy insists, even as he’s forced to use his nunchaku to block your father’s sword, which is glowing with chakra.

“I told you as much, didn’t I?” your father muses as he attacks relentlessly. “That if you weren’t careful drive would overtake natural talent?”

“I thought we were supposed to avoid fighting our own fathers,” Guy asks you, nunchaku still spinning in lethal arcs. “What happened to that?”

“I restrained your father,” you explain, using your sharingan to watch your father’s movements and analyze the style and ability that made the man so infamous. “He’ll be sealed shortly.”

“Ah, I get it,” Guy admits with a grunt of exertion.
>1/2

>>4686894
“Watch out, Guy-san!” your father warns, before he’s joined by four shadow clones he creates on the spot. “Kakashi, you came here to see what the ‘White Fang’ can do, and you’re about to see it!”

So this is what made your father famous… by the time you were eight years old you could already use lightning release as your natural affinity as well as earth release. Eventually you guess you could probably have learned all five natures on your own even without using the sharingan to give you a leg up, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you when your father and his four shadow clones each channel one of the five basic natures as a chakra flow technique through his katana.

They split up, each preparing for some kind of attack of their own. The first raises a mud wall to Guy’s left, and the second unleashes a wall of water curving past him to the right. The third adds lightning release to the water, and the fourth uses fire release to superheat the mud wall, which threaten to close around him. The fifth is clearly waiting, having used wind release to enhance the lethality of his sword in much the same way that Asuma-san would.

>Use Kamui to open a hole in one of the walls for Guy to pass through.
>You can use an earth release technique to open a fissure at Guy’s feet.
>Guy may be able to answer an attack like this, so prepare to deal with your father.
>Other?

>>4686906
>>Guy may be able to answer an attack like this, so prepare to deal with your father.

>>4686906
>>Guy may be able to answer an attack like this, so prepare to deal with your father.

>>4686906
>>Guy may be able to answer an attack like this, so prepare to deal with your father.

>>4686906
>>Guy may be able to answer an attack like this, so prepare to deal with your father.

>>4686906
>>Guy may be able to answer an attack like this, so prepare to deal with your father.

>>4686906
>Guy may be able to answer an attack like this, so prepare to deal with your father.

>>4686906
>1d6, first three, DC 10
>SP: 2/2
>ES: 0/2 (0T)

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4688128

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>4688128

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>4688128

File: Naori_v_yoru_II_sandals.png (243 KB, 779x1101)

243 KB PNG

>>4688131
>>4688138
>>4688143
Not a bad set of rolls.

Have a concept I threw together for what Naori might kind of look like if she tended to wear hakama. Pose is a little informal for her but it's what I had to work with.

>>4688148
Jesus Naori’s stacked

>>4688148
Among all the shinobi who are fighting out here, some you would feel justified in being concerned for more than others. Some of them are barely chūnin, shinobi who have no business fighting against the likes of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist or against Konoha’s White Fang. Even many of the jōnin you’ve met wouldn’t fare very well, and in fact haven’t fared well. Several of the men who were slaughtered by the Seven Swordsmen yesterday were jōnin just like you. So you suppose when you come down to it, most shinobi on the battlefield could actually use your help.

Might Guy is not one of those shinobi.

Instead you prepare a technique that would make Lord Fourth proud… and which is inspired by what you’ve just seen your father do.

As Guy opens another of the gates, forcing the earth and water away from his body with just a shell of compressed air, you start to weave your hand signs.

“Doton: Ganseki Shuriken!”
“Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!”

The rock shuriken wrapped in flames are a perfectly-timed collaboration with your own shadow clone, serving to counteract your father’s clones as they try to block the incoming projectiles. As for the original body, your father is forced to fall back as Guy goes on the offensive… only to find your hand emerging from the ground behind him.

Guy’s attack hollows out a massive crater in the earth from the raw physical might behind the blow, meant for your father, but the sealing tag you placed onto Hatake Sakumo’s back finishes the job.

“That was great,” your father muses. “I guess that’s one positive to the Edo Tensei… because of that I was able to see the sort of man my son became.”

>Hit him with the truth – his suicide is STILL something you’re trying to get over.
>Just agree with him for now – however you feel, it’s not worth saddling your father with.
>Forgive him. It does no good for either of you to hang onto the past this long.
>Other?

>>4688262
>Hit him with the truth – his suicide is STILL something you’re trying to get over.

>>4688262
>>Hit him with the truth – his suicide is STILL something you’re trying to get over.

>>4688262
>>Forgive him. It does no good for either of you to hang onto the past this long.

>>4688262
>>Hit him with the truth – his suicide is STILL something you’re trying to get over.
>Forgive him. It does no good for either of you to hang onto the past this long.

>>4688262
>Hit him with the truth – his suicide is STILL something you’re trying to get over.

>>4688262
>Hit him with the truth – his suicide is STILL something you’re trying to get over.

>>4688262
>Hit him with the truth – his suicide is STILL something you’re trying to get over.

>>4688199
It is the sideboob

>>4688262
>Hit him with the truth – his suicide is STILL something you’re trying to get over.

File: sideboob.png (911 KB, 1024x1178)

911 KB PNG

>>4688787
Just gonna point out that all of these images were used in the previous quest, I'm pretty sure our boy has a type.

File: Spoiler Image (120 KB, 500x500)

120 KB JPG

>>4689290
It's all just a coincidence surely

>>4689290
Hey, I am not complaining. Sideboob is a mark of great taste.

>>4689290
On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, with the sleeveless uniforms in Bleach your choices are Sui-Feng and Yoruichi, and the latter is closer to Naori.
>writing

>>4689442
“You know something… I never got the chance to tell you this,” you admit. “But when I was young I had trouble accepting your death. I’m afraid that for a while I was a very different person because of it.”

“What changed?” your father asks, encouraging you to continue.

“I had another friend, one who insisted that what you did to end your career as a shinobi made you a hero moreso than anything else,” you explain. “A total screwup who managed to save my life near the end of the last war. He told me once that shinobi who break the rules are trash, but that shinobi who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.”

Hatake Sakumo nods thoughtfully. “He sounds like a wise young man. What became of him?”

“He’s the one who summoned you,” you admit. “The one who started this war.”

Your father’s expression darkens. “I see. This young man was an Uchiha, wasn’t he?”

You can feel your eyes widen for a moment. “How did you guess?”

“I saw that happen a few times in my day,” he admits. “When an Uchiha loses something precious it changes them, rarely for the better. I figured that only that phenomenon could account for so drastic a change as you seem to be talking about.”

“What did he lose?”

“Our teammate,” you explain. “Nohara Rin… looking back he had a crush on her, and she on me.”

“She died in the war?”

You nod. “She was made into the Three-Tails jinchūriki, and was to be sent back to our village as a sort of time bomb. So she threw herself onto my Raikiri. She killed herself to save our home. I… don’t know what to do about Obito.”

“… Kakashi,” Guy frowns, his expression unusually grim. It’s obvious he wants to help but has no idea how, and you can’t blame him. Nothing about the situation is ‘okay’, so where do you even begin if you’re in his position?

For his part, your father simply nods in understanding. “I wish that I could help you resolve this, but I can’t. I don’t know this Obito well enough to say whether the death of the girl he loved did this to him, or whether it was the fact that you were the one who did it.”

“I suppose it could even have been something else entirely.”

“I see,” you muse. “Well, in any event thanks for considering the situation.”

“I do have one question for you,” your father admits. “Do you blame me for all the things which happened after I died?”

>I did, just a little. Now I'm mostly upset that you were made to feel shame for something you should never have regretted.
>There was a while where I was almost looking for a place to die myself. Unfortunately, I feel like I understand now how you felt.
>A lot of people are to blame, not just you and me. But it's not our place to judge them. All we can do is try to be better.
>Other?

>>4689634
>>I did, just a little. Now I'm mostly upset that you were made to feel shame for something you should never have regretted.

>>4689634
>I did, just a little. Now I'm mostly upset that you were made to feel shame for something you should never have regretted.

>>4689634
>>I did, just a little. Now I'm mostly upset that you were made to feel shame for something you should never have regretted.

>>4689634
>I did, just a little. Now I'm mostly upset that you were made to feel shame for something you should never have regretted.

>>4689634
>>There was a while where I was almost looking for a place to die myself. Unfortunately, I feel like I understand now how you felt.

File: Naori Post Timeskip.jpg (22 KB, 323x354)

22 KB JPG

>>4688199
This fact is well known.

>>4689634
>>I did, just a little. Now I'm mostly upset that you were made to feel shame for something you should never have regretted.
>>4688787
Yeah, it makes it look like one wrong move and her boobs are gonna plop out
>>4689777
I honestly forgot about that pic but hell she’d probably slightly bigger by now wouldn’t she, actually how old is Naori right now?

>>4689802
19 at the moment. She's two and a half years or so older than Naruto. Reference pics I've tweaked are always approximations as well - in reality I focus more the outfit when I choose a base to start with than any other feature.

>>4689634
“I did at first,” you admit calmly, “but I stopped blaming you for what happened years ago. Mostly I’m just angry now that you were made to regret a decision that you had no business regretting.”

Your father seems somewhat stunned to hear you say that – which is actually a little sad, realizing as you do that the reason for the disconnect is that he missed out on seeing you grow up into the person you are now when he should have been there. Your mother died for other reasons, that nobody could have changed… it was unfortunate but sometimes that’s how things go. But your father’s death was a uniquely human tragedy, in the sense that it was entirely created by humans in the first place.

“Logically I can even understand blaming Konoha for what happened,” you go on to admit. “Which isn’t to say it’s logical, or even reasonable, I can just understand how someone could come to that conclusion. You were after all driven to what you did by many of the same people who commended you after previous missions, not by an enemy but by our own fellow villagers.”

“But you don’t blame them anymore.”

You shake your head. “No. Because setting the present situation aside what Obito said about you was right – you were every bit as much a hero in saving your comrades as you were in completing your missions.”

“What I never understood is what exactly happened on that mission,” Guy admits, finally breaking his silence. “Other teams have backed out of missions before without that sort of consequence, so what were you even doing that made it some kind of sin to prioritize your comrades’ survival like that?”

>I suppose during war there are sometimes high-value missions that most people think are worth sacrificing as many lives as necessary.
>I neither want nor need to know exactly what happened, because knowing the context wouldn’t change the fundamental truth.
>I never knew the details of the mission exactly. I remember it was strictly classified, and it was never discussed after the fact.
>Other?

>>4690947
>If i had to guess, there was probably a grudge involved.

>>4690947
>>I suppose during war there are sometimes high-value missions that most people think are worth sacrificing as many lives as necessary.

>>4690947
>>I never knew the details of the mission exactly. I remember it was strictly classified, and it was never discussed after the fact.

>>4690947
>>I suppose during war there are sometimes high-value missions that most people think are worth sacrificing as many lives as necessary.

>>4690947
>>I suppose during war there are sometimes high-value missions that most people think are worth sacrificing as many lives as necessary.

>>4690947
>>I suppose during war there are sometimes high-value missions that most people think are worth sacrificing as many lives as necessary.

>>4690947
>I never knew the details of the mission exactly. I remember it was strictly classified, and it was never discussed after the fact.

>>4690947
“Sometimes in war people start to think that certain missions are important enough to justify any amount of losses,” you muse with a frown. “Which isn’t wrong in principle, but I do think that people are too ready sometimes to make that argument – especially in the event of a mission failure.”

“In my case there was a secondary mission objective,” your father clarifies. “That objective was to secure documents from a forward base being operated by Sunagakure, just across our border with the Land of Rivers. Loss of these documents may have forced Sunagakure to abandon its plans along that border, allowing us to shift more of our focus to facing the Land of Lightning to the east.”

“You’ll probably remember this mission occurred not long after your mother passed.”

You nod quietly. “I remember.”

“One of the men under my command that mission had a son who had just been born. Another had a daughter who’d be about your age. Several others told me they had just been married. So when I realized Suna’s ANBU had been tipped off about our approach by some of the locals, I called off the mission.”

“We had already had casualties – one man crippled by a trap and another who stayed behind with him – so we were down to ten men from the regular forces against enemy ANBU. I wasn’t about to guarantee the deaths of those ten men just for the off chance that I might return home with some documents that wouldn’t even end the war.”

“And just for that people turned on you?” Guy demands. “It sounds like the mission was sketchy to begin with.”

“The member of the elder council who obtained the information had different ideas.”

“Shimura Danzō?” you guess.

“That was my understanding,” your father confirms. “Though I doubt that matters much now.”

You nod in response. “Especially since he’s dead too now.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Some one has to be.”

“In any event this seems to have run its course,” your father insists. “Go, Kakashi. Save the lives of those who are still with you, and don’t worry too much about things you could not and still cannot control.”

…

>MEANWHILE

…

You are a shadow clone of Uzumaki Naori, and you’re just now arriving at the scene of the battle between Gaara’s division and several reanimated kages. And what you see before you is a strange mixed case of ‘better than expected’ and ‘absolutely horrifying’.
>1/2

>>4692481
Broadly speaking there are four separate battlefields right now, not just the one – in the skies Ōnoki-han is fighting his predecessor, the previous Tsuchikage, who appears as a lanky man wrapped from head to toe in bandages. They both use the same dust-release kekkei-tōta, which seems to be keeping them at stalemate with one another. Then there’s Gaara, who is fighting not his father but another man who you immediately recognize – from the puppet-ified version of his corpse kept by Sasori-han. This is the Third Kazekage, famous for his use of iron sand.

Then there’s a man you don’t recognize, but assume to be Hōzuki Gengetsu – a previous Mizukage. You say this because the fourth man could only be a Raikage judging from his muscle mass and the lightning-enhanced taijutsu he’s using to dismantle a large force of shinobi led by Temari-han and her wind-release unit.

The problem here is that wind release is bad at creating walls, while the best element at creating walls is earth release which happens to be weak against lightning – so in other words, useless against a Raikage.

“This seems bad,” Guren muses grimly at the scene. “The fight between the Tsuchikages is a no for me.”

“Agreed,” you nod curtly. “What about the others?”

“Earth is a key component to my kekkei genkai,” she informs you.

You can’t help but frown. “Crystals… are you sure you can’t use quartz?”

“This terrain isn’t good for supplying quartz in sufficient quantities,” Guren admits. “The possible forms of my crystals is heavily influenced by the material I have to start with.”

“Gaara has plenty of sand,” you muse.

“If it’s silica-rich that would work,” Guren agrees. “But a lot of the sand in the Land of Wind is also derived from limestone, which is mainly calcium carbonate.”

“Like shells?”

Guren nods. “It’s uplifted seabed.”

“Yeah, so that’s… much more than I expected you to know,” you admit. “But still, worth a shot?”

Guren nods. “I’ll see if I can’t get hold of some of Gaara-san’s sand. It seems there was a big fight earlier near where the Raikage is fighting so it shouldn’t be difficult.”

>I’ve faced the Third Kazekage’s techniques before. I’ll help Gaara so we can come help you.
>It seems like they’re having trouble with the Mizukage for some reason. I may be able to help.
>We should tag-team the Raikage. I may not have an elemental advantage but I have the speed.
>Other?

>>4692483
>>It seems like they’re having trouble with the Mizukage for some reason. I may be able to help.

>>4692483
>>It seems like they’re having trouble with the Mizukage for some reason. I may be able to help.

>>4692483
>>It seems like they’re having trouble with the Mizukage for some reason. I may be able to help.

>>4692483
>It seems like they’re having trouble with the Mizukage for some reason. I may be able to help.

>>4692483
“Good luck with the Raikage,” you offer calmly. “I’ll be working on the Mizukage, but yeah… if your shot with quartz doesn’t work let me know.”

“Right,” Guren replies curtly before leaning to direct one of Sai’s ink birds towards that part of the battlefield. “Good luck to you too.”

…

Hōzuki Gengetsu is a rather oddly-dressed man with a pencil-thin goatee, so thin it almost looks like a stiff wind would carry it off, with his hair slicked back in a pompadour style. He immediately notices your arrival, and upon arrival you immediately notice his genjutsu.

“Nidaime Mizukage-tono,” you greet him politely.

Your eyes flick towards a giant clam that bears the insignia of Kirigakure on the upper half of its shell, then back to Gengetsu. Your brow furrows slightly in puzzlement. “Mist?”

Gengetsu-tono raises an eyebrow. “Ho? So you noticed that already?”

You calmly put a wired kunai through his head to test your theory that you’re talking to an illusion, probably using the thin mist created by the giant clam he summoned at some point before your arrival. As you predicted it would, the kunai passes straight through without any resistance – no tug on the wire either, so you sever that.

“Genjutsu then,” you muse. “I take it if I destroy your giant clam the illusion will end?”

“That’s not the real clam,” Gengetsu-tono informs you. “The real clam is behind me.”

“Ah,” you realize. “So it’s more like a mirage then?”

“Thank you!” he practically laughs. “Finally someone gets it! The real clam is behind the real me, in the same relative position as the fake clam is to the fake me!”

“Oh!” a nearby Kiri chūnin realizes aloud. “I get it now!”

“No partial credit!” Gengetsu-tono snaps.

So… the problem becomes one of locating the real Gengetsu-tono and the real giant clam, then destroying the latter which should have relatively high endurance but low mobility. Then you can finally move on to dealing with Gengetsu-tono himself.

>Summon Nyoka… Nagato once used a sensory technique using rain as a medium.
>This sort of genjutsu may or may not work against various forms of chakra sensing.
>It may be a bit more obvious what you’re doing, but paper tags can provide tactile feedback.
>Other?

>>4693316
>>This sort of genjutsu may or may not work against various forms of chakra sensing.

>>4693316
>This sort of genjutsu may or may not work against various forms of chakra sensing.

>>4693316
>This sort of genjutsu may or may not work against various forms of chakra sensing.

>>4693316
>This sort of genjutsu may or may not work against various forms of chakra sensing.

>>4693316
>Summon Nyoka… Nagato once used a sensory technique using rain as a medium.

>>4693316
>>Summon Nyoka… Nagato once used a sensory technique using rain as a medium.

>>4693316
You quickly begin to assemble a working theory – one that relies on your observation that when planning people tend not to consider what they don’t understand or have never experienced. And in your case, that means natural energy. While some sensory-type shinobi can tell that something has changed when you start to use senjutsu chakra, such as Ao-han describing you in terms of a bottomless pool, that doesn’t mean that he can perceive natural energy when it hasn’t been mixed with your own chakra already.

Thus, your working theory is that while the clam summoned by Hōzuki Gengetsu clearly distorts perception of visible light, smell, sound, touch, and chakra, much like any other non-sage it has no conceptualization of natural energy in its raw state.

Without taking your eyes off your enemy you kneel down to the sand and place two fingertips against the ground, then release a brief pulse of senjutsu chakra – a basic but powerful sensory technique that may not always rival more sophisticated means, but which Senju Tobirama was skilled enough with that he didn’t need those more sophisticated means to determine the location, number, and relative strengths of potential foes.

“The Tobirama-san’s technique won’t help you here,” Gengetsu-tono warns you. “So if that’s what you’re thinking you’re wasting your time.”

Found it… the natural energy you gently displaced using that pulse washes against something big, something that clearly does exist but whose position you can’t confirm by sensing for chakra. That’s got to be it.

Now, for the tricky part… it would help to delay just a little here.

“Yeah no, I always try to avoid wasting my time,” you muse, flowing yin-nature chakra through Umekiri’s blade and using the high-pitched hum created by its horimono to its true purpose. “So while I’ll thank you for the warning, I think you’ll find it quite unnecessary.”

Gengetsu-tono smirks. “I see. Then I hope you don’t find that confidence of yours misplaced, young miss.”

In an instant you rush past his real body, tricking his brain into thinking your body moved past his mirage body with a simple genjutsu.

“That’s not...” he begins, seemingly exasperated as you appear to approach his illusory clam.

“Found you!” you roar, readying your blade for a flat thrust.

When you switch away from yin chakra flow he realizes what you’ve done, and fires an unusually fast and powerful water bullet towards you, and in a change of plans you push off the clam’s hard shell rather than follow through with the attack. But if he thinks he’s succeeded in driving you off he’s mistaken.

“Young miss, you have to counter it!” he warns you as he takes aim while you’re still in midair.

As you agitate and compress the chakra flowing through and around Umekiri you prepare to finish your assault.
>1/2

>>4695558
But instead of countering his attack, as he must have thought, you teleport back to where you left a hiraishin marking on the giant clam’s shell. Even with chakra flow and senjutsu your sword might not be enough to kill such a massive shellfish in one hit, so this will have to do.

“Hiken: Tenrangiri!”

The rasengan-shaped chakra flow adding to Umekiri’s striking power smashes into the shell, spiderwebbing it all the way through and sending pieces the size of dinnerplates tearing into the clam like shrapnel. The clam abruptly disappears in a cloud of smoke, and the illusion ends to reveal Hōzuki Gengetsu’s true position.

With a surprised expression on his face the Second Mizukage slowly applauds. “Magnificent! A fine show of capability, worthy even of the rank of kage! I take it that you are not with one of the five great shinobi nations… Uzushiogakure, perhaps?”

“Amegakure,” you reply honestly. “Uzushiogakure was destroyed, long before I was born.”

“Which my successor had a hand in no doubts,” Gengetsu-han rubs his forehead. “I thought I told that gangster not to go around dishonoring our village with actions like that – but no, he had too much of Shodaime-sama in him for anyone’s good. I take it the current state of Kirigakure is rather grim and its reputation permanently stained?”

“The current Mizukage is doing better,” you admit, “but yeah, no, it’s like you said – there’s a lot of work to be done.”

“That’s the thing about trust,” he frowns. “It’s hard to gain but easy to lose. But that aside, you’re pretty good, young miss. What’s your name?”

“Uzumaki Naori.”

“Ah yes, a good name,” he muses wistfully. “The Uzumaki clan produced many imposing women back in my day. Good to see some things don’t change.”

>Tell me about my clan, back in the days you remember them from.
>Tell me about the First Mizukage and the founding of the Seven Swords.
>Tell me anything you can about your abilities. Anything to help seal you.
>Other?

>>4695562
>>Tell me anything you can about your abilities. Anything to help seal you.

>>4695562
>Tell me about my clan, back in the days you remember them from.

I feel like asking him to tell us about his abilities won't work well as Kabuto will pull the plug and prevent him from talking about stuff like that entirely.

>>4695562
>>Tell me about my clan, back in the days you remember them from.

>>4695562
>>Tell me about the First Mizukage and the founding of the Seven Swords.

>>4695562
>Tell me about my clan, back in the days you remember them from.

>>4695562
>Tell me about my clan, back in the days you remember them from

>>4695562
>Tell me about my clan, back in the days you remember them from.

>>4695562
“Tell me about my clan,” you insist as you exchange blows with Hōzuki Gengetsu, holding back just enough to avoid breaking the bones in his arms with every attack you make. However as a former kage you find him to be quicker and more physically powerful than he appears. “I never knew the Uzumaki in their ‘glory days’, so I’ve only been able to guess at what I belong to.”

“Well, I suppose there’s no harm in indulging that,” Gengetsu-tono muses thoughtfully. “Watch out, I’m about to use the Mizu Fūsen no Jutsu.”

“Water balloons?” you muse, taking a step back to avoid a puddle of oily water spreading around Gengetsu-tono’s feet.

As you watch, the slick produces bubbles – almost like soap bubbles you might have blown as a child, had it ever not been raining.

“Those explode of course,” Gengetsu-tono adds as one bubble comes streaking past your ear. “Now then, the Uzumaki clan… you already know of course they were among the most feared at one point. Our First Mizukage tried to recruit them even.”

“Yeah, so I take it they refused?” you ask, easily evading several more bubbles that all shatter stone or raise massive pillars of dust and sand where they explode.

“Naturally,” Gengetsu-tono continues. “They refused to do anything that would pit them against their only true allies, the Senju clan. But they also refused Uchiha Madara’s entreaties to join with Konoha. Given their fearsome reputation you can probably guess why.”

“Because if they joined with the Senju and Uchiha it would force all the other clans to ally against them?”

“Exactly!” he confirms. “My kekkei genkai lets me make soap bubbles. Your clan’s hiden and kekkei genkai let them seal people like me inside teapots. One of those things is significantly scarier than the other.”

“Yeah no, you almost sound like you’re excusing what happened.”

Gengetsu-tono shakes his head, before sending you dancing across the sands again to avoid his attacks. “Not at all, in fact I was fairly explicit in my thoughts that the Uzumaki should simply be left alone as they desired. My guess would be that the Water Daimyō got involved, and surely you know how that works.”

“Why would he?”

“Because the Land of Whirlpools lay between the Land of Water and the mainland, as did several smaller nations that existed at the time. The Land of Bays?”

You shake your head.
>1/2

>>4696222
“So we annexed that one, did we… how about the Land of Reefs?”

You shake your head again.

“The Land of Waves?”

You nod.

“Anyway, had several of those smaller lands offered support to the Whirlpool Daimyō the Land of Water would be in a difficult position… we could no longer contest the shoreline of the Land of Rivers, putting us at a huge economic disadvantage. For an island nation like ours, why live with the risk if you can just destroy it?”

“Because it would be the right thing to do?”

Hōzuki Gengetsu simply laughs. “I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t laugh… but seriously, have you ever known the Daimyō to think like that?”

You shake your head. “Hope is free.”

“True,” Gengetsu-tono muses. “Tell you what, Naori-kun, I’m feeling especially generous right now – so I’m going to give you a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”

“Oh?”

“That’s right!” he insists. “Jōki Bōi!”

There’s an immediate explosion of steam, which isn’t powerful enough to defeat your Kongō Fūsa technique but which does force you to do nothing but defend yourself for a moment. As the steam clears you see that the oil slick from before has expanded dramatically, and that Hōzuki Gengetsu has been replaced by an obvious clone – one with cartoonish facial features and a bloated, albeit rapidly-shrinking, build. It also has a wicked-looking blade protruding from its right arm.

“Hey mist guy!” you shout at the nearby chūnin from before. “What is that thing?”

“It’s Lord Second’s infinite explosion ninjutsu!” he replies in a panic, just before the clone lunges at you.

It’s definitely powerful, and you can tell it’s no ordinary water clone. Since you’re using sage mode it’s not strong enough to knock you off balance, but it does pass you by with a bizarre, flowing fluidity to its movements. And you do notice as it swings round for another attack that it’s starting to swell up again.

>’Infinite Explosions’ are your thing now. Show this old man how it’s done.
>You need to watch it carefully and determine how it works. Then you can counter it.
>If it’s based on a water clone, counters that work against water release should work here.
>Other?

>>4696224
>>’Infinite Explosions’ are your thing now. Show this old man how it’s done.

>>4696224
>>’Infinite Explosions’ are your thing now. Show this old man how it’s done.

>>4696224
>’Infinite Explosions’ are your thing now. Show this old man how it’s done.

>>4696224
>’Infinite Explosions’ are your thing now. Show this old man how it’s done.

>>4696224
>’Infinite Explosions’ are your thing now. Show this old man how it’s done.

>>4696224
>>’Infinite Explosions’ are your thing now. Show this old man how it’s done.

EXPLOSION!

>>4696224
>>’Infinite Explosions’ are your thing now. Show this old man how it’s done.

>>4696224
>>’Infinite Explosions’ are your thing now. Show this old man how it’s done.

>>4696224
‘Infinite explosions’, huh? That comes a little too close to your own domain than you’re comfortable allowing, so perhaps it’s time to show an old man how it’s done these days? Mindful of the fact that you shouldn’t be committing to such intense measures over some misplaced concept of professional pride, you set out to confirm what you suspect – that the Second Mizukage wouldn’t be regarded so highly even now over a half-assed technique.

You lead with lightning chakra flow, sending a jolting surge through Umekiri’s blade the instant after parrying another attack from the special clone. For a normal water clone such an attack should spell an immediate end, but not so for this one. Just like with the previous water balloon attack he used, Gengetsu-tono has used a dense, tacky substance as part of this technique.

“So that’s it?” you realize as you pry your blade free.

The clone is still growing rapidly in size, getting ready for an explosion – the heat generated by its high-speed movements is raising the temperature inside its body to the point where the water starts to convert to steam. The increased surface tension presumably created by the mystery goo coating the clone holds that steam in until tremendous pressure builds up and is released as part of the coating finally ruptures.

Then, as the clone’s body cools, the coating reforms and the cycle repeats. It’s an ingenious and probably unique take on the Hōzuki clan’s kekkei genkai techniques, but one you’re going to be able to find a solution to countering.

That counter starts with the Kongō Fūsa, which you use to wrap around the clone’s growing form and hold it in place.

“Oh?” Gengetsu-tono muses thoughtfully from somewhere melded into the nearby terrain – you gather he can use earth release to hide himself, probably for the specific purpose of using his steam clone to rampage while he himself remains unseen. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that technique.”

When the steam clone finally bursts it releases most of its energy upwards due to how you’ve bound it, and as it shrinks you wind the Kōngo Fūsa chains tighter with your left hand, stopping it in its tracks and robbing it of the heat it needs to grow again.

Now, it’s time for the second part of your plan as you unseal a small handful of sealing tags, affixing three to the clone before whipping it around over your head from the Kongō Fūsa chains.

“That was a cool technique for sure,” you admit, spinning the clone body up to full speed, “but allow me to show you how the cool kids to ‘inflinite explosion’ techniques these days.”

“Shiyō Kibaku – Fifth Step.”

Each of the three tags sets off its own rapid chain of tblasts – just shy of twelve thousand in total. Enough to rip the thick hide of the steam clone into pieces and blast those pieces into a thin mist, set off directly above where Gengetsu-tono was hiding.
>1/2

>>4697473
“Fantastic,” he muses as what remains of his body slowly begins to regenerate into the series of sealing tags you’ve placed all over him. “That was Senju Tobirama’s technique, wasn’t it?”

“A version of it, yes,” you confirm, waving for Ajisai to come wrap up the Mizukage a little tighter. “I made it my own.”

“So it would seem,” he beams at you. “Well done, Uzumaki Naori-san. You pass with flying colors.”

“So that really was it, then?”

“Of course! As a former Kage I couldn’t go back to my grave easily unless I knew at least one of you kids could beat a dead man,” Gengetsu-tono insists with a smirk that’s quickly wrapped in paper. “You’ll be just fine.”

…

You are Guren, at one time the subordinate of Orochimaru of the Sannin, and right now your ‘crystal release’ is about to be put to its greatest test – against a master of lightning-enhanced taijutsu.

“And who are you?” the reanimated Raikage demands curtly. “You face me boldly, as though you have an answer to me already, but I’ve never even seen you before.”

“I may have an answer,” you frown.

An older man from Kumogakure, who wears a strangely-shaped hat and an eyepatch, approaches you.

“Dodai,” the Raikage recognizes him. “So you’re still alive. That’s good.”

“So you’re our backup?”

You nod. “I think so.”

“Do you have a solution?”

“Maybe.”

Dodai stares at you with his good eye. “Maybe?”

“If it works,” you gesture at the Raikage, “then yes. If it doesn’t, then no.”

>Have the survivors here build some earth walls, then reinforce one with quartz as a test.
>Throw some quartz shuriken at him. See what happens, then build a plan from there.
>Maybe you can bind him in a giant quartz crystal just to start with? End the fight immediately?
>Other?

>>4697493
>>Throw some quartz shuriken at him. See what happens, then build a plan from there.

>>4697493
>>Throw some quartz shuriken at him. See what happens, then build a plan from there.

>>4697493
>>Throw some quartz shuriken at him. See what happens, then build a plan from there.

>>4697493
>>Throw some quartz shuriken at him. See what happens, then build a plan from there.

>>4697493
>>Have the survivors here build some earth walls, then reinforce one with quartz as a test.

>>4697493
>>Throw some quartz shuriken at him. See what happens, then build a plan from there.

>Maybe you can bind him in a giant quartz crystal just to start with? End the fight immediately?

>>4697493
You quickly sweep up some sand, hoping to propagate enough quartz crystals and reinforce them with your chakra so that you can put your theory to the test. Once you have enough, you form the hand seal you need.

“Shōton: Shuriken Ranbu!”

The Raikage is even faster than you figured at first, and that makes you glad for the swirling shards around you… a regular attack, even with a large number of shuriken, might miss him entirely even coming from you, so a constantly-moving net is your best option.

“Very good,” he commends you, “but this is still based on earth release?”

His charge is met by several flying shards of white crystal – which while they thankfully don’t shatter, simply bounce off the mass of chakra coating his body.

“Shōton: Suishō Kyō!”

Instead of just becoming a mirror to create clones with, the three-seal series of hand signs creates a wall reinforced with quartz. It delays the Third Raikage and blocks his line of sight for just long enough that you can dodge, but even with its quartz structure it shatters under the raw power as he lands a jab on it, leading with his fingertips.

Just three fingertips. So he uses the shape of his hand to alter the concentration of his force? That means he has two attacks with greater penetrating power even than that – with two fingertips, then with one.

“That’s Raikage-dono’s Invincible Spear!” Dodai calls out. “He...”

“Tucks in his fingers to concentrate the force of his attack,” you interrupt. “Yeah, I’m not an idiot.”

“You’re using quartz crystals grown from the sand to add an insulating property to your techniques,” the Raikage realizes aloud, turning to face you after his attack plowed straight past your hasty barrier and killed three shinobi unfortunate enough to be in a straight line behind where you were standing before.

You must have a tell, because he frowns. “Those three were unlucky. But you can’t save everyone all the time, especially while you’re still figuring out your strategy.”

“I know that,” you insist, this time recognizing your own frown. “But that sort of thing didn’t used to bother me, so this is kind of a strange feeling.”

“Well, don’t take too long thinking about it,” he insists curtly. “I won’t remain still for long!”

True to his word he’s on you in an instant with a flurry of punches. Your jade crystal blades are easily overwhelmed, and after just a few quick jabs are too badly-shattered to withstand the onslaught. You have to substitute out for a pile of loose sand, not even having the time to crystallize it properly.
>1/2

File: dd2ur8h-9b2b4150-332b-4f4(...).png (99 KB, 850x752)

99 KB PNG

>>4698787
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsjEVpy0W0Y
This is a desperate moment, and so you respond with something of a gamble. Your ‘red crystal’ may be a little more taxing to use, but if you can base its structure off quartz its self-regenerative capacity should be of great use… maybe enough to give you some breathing room even under this kind of intense physical pressure from the strongest Raikage.

“Shōton: Kesshō no Yoroi!”

The crystalline gauntlets might have ripped the sleeves on your previous outfit, which is part of why you went back to a sleeveless kimono top over a short-sleeved shirt after losing to Naori-san. You figured at the time that as much as you liked the look of a swinging sleeve it just wasn’t practical if monsters like Orochimaru and Naori were going to make up more of your future opponents. In retrospect, it was kind of the style of a woman who expected to get away with being a bully.

With a tight guard, you’re now better able to weather the unliving storm that is the Third Raikage, his lightning-supercharged blows raining down on quartz armored gauntlets hardened by your chakra. When they start to crack the crystal regrows, now leaving you deadlocked.

A particularly powerful blow slides you back across the sand on your feet, knees bent to better take the immense physical punishment unleashed into your upraised arms. Even as you slide you weave the horse, monkey, ram, and boar signs before placing your palms on the ground in a low crouch.

“Shōton: Omiwatari no Jutsu!”

“Ho!?” the Raikage muses as the crystals erupt from the ground, forcing him to dodge at the last second… but not quite fast enough to avoid your technique slicing through a part of his right wrist.

Having come to a stop you weave two more signs and press your left palm against the nearest of your crystals, causing the blade that nicked the Raikage to erupt outwards, drawing raw material out of the sand below.

He dodges with a lightness that you never would have expected given his bulk, the tips of his toes just barely touching sand before he changes directions, allowing him to stay one step ahead of your rapidly-spreading lattice of crystal spears. Every so often he has to smack one with the side of his hand to shatter it.

“You’re increasing the sectional density,” he muses even as he evades another branching crystal spear. “Then propagating it, not unlike the Third Kazekage’s iron sand.”

>This is using too much chakra. You should switch back to close combat and look for a chance to impale him.
>Move him around just a little more and you can trap him inside a regenerating crystal barrier he shouldn’t be able to break.
>Limit his mobility enough and you could hit him with a crystal dragon, then use that material to seal him in a crystal.
>Other?

>>4698861
>>Limit his mobility enough and you could hit him with a crystal dragon, then use that material to seal him in a crystal.
its a badass gambit, lets hope this works

>>4698861
>>Move him around just a little more and you can trap him inside a regenerating crystal barrier he shouldn’t be able to break.

Guren a cute!

>>4698861
>Limit his mobility enough and you could hit him with a crystal dragon, then use that material to seal him in a crystal.

>>4698861
>>Move him around just a little more and you can trap him inside a regenerating crystal barrier he shouldn’t be able to break.

>>4698861
>>Limit his mobility enough and you could hit him with a crystal dragon, then use that material to seal him in a crystal.

>>4698883
She sure is

>>4698861
>>Limit his mobility enough and you could hit him with a crystal dragon, then use that material to seal him in a crystal.

>>4698861
>Limit his mobility enough and you could hit him with a crystal dragon, then use that material to seal him in a crystal.

>>4698861
>1d6, first three
>DC 10
>SP: 3/3

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4700587

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>4700587
GO HIGH!

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4700587

>>4700593
FUCK!

>>4700597
don't worry, you did not ruin everything!

>>4700587
You hatch a plan, one that makes what you feel is the best use of your skills in this situation while respecting your own limitations. It begins by weaving a complex pattern of crystalline spikes that limit the Raikage’s movements, while at the same time weaving the hand seals for the following step.

“Shōton: Hashō Kōryū!”

The Raikage is left with only one option for evading the crystal dragon, which is to leap vertically over the dragon and allow it to pass harmlessly under him, with the intention of landing carefully on the opposite side.

What he doesn’t expect is that you’ve hitched a ride on the side of your dragon, and that when he dodges it places him right where you wanted. Having already pierced two of your own tenketsu with your right hand, you reach out with your left.

“Shōton: Isshi Kōmyō!”

The Raikage manages to put his hand on the crystal dragon and dodge, though just an instant too late to completely avoid the tightly-focused blue beam of light that lances out from your fingertips. That attack hits him just above where his left lung should technically be, and slices out through his shoulder as he evades.

The pink crystals that make up the dragon’s ‘scales’ can’t quite wrap around his hand in time, since a pulse of lightning-nature chakra shatters it as it’s forming – just like fire, you can’t crystallize nature transformations that don’t have some sort of stable form. But the beautiful thing about this arrow-like attack is that now you don’t have to.

As you’re left momentarily drained from the effort, the Raikage is forced to try to take advantage.

“Back on your feet!” he warns you loudly. “I’m about to use my one-finger spear!”

Even as he cocks his right arm back, preparing to charge you down, you make the seal of confrontation with your left hand.

“That’s enough.”
>1/2

>>4700620
You are Uzumaki Naori, and it seems that Guren wrapped up her fight just as Naruto’s shadow clone arrived to offer his help. Several survivors are watching the duo in apparent awe – and nearby, encased in a red crystal pillar, you can see why.

“How did you do that?” an older shinobi from Kumogakure admits his own curiosity. “I never expected that a single shinobi could defeat Lord Third like that.”

“You used that technique,” you frown. “Didn’t you?”

Guren nods, still obviously weakened by having forced two of her tenketsu open in such a rough technique more akin to a butcher’s finesse. “That attack maximizes acceleration by shape manipulation… it accelerates a crystal to such a speed that it shatters, and the shrapnel punches a hole through the target.”

“So the crystals were left inside the wound,” the Kumo-nin realizes. “That was how you could crystallize his skin underneath the lightning cloak. That’s… almost unthinkable.”

“Had he been alive that might not have worked,” Guren admits. “Because that’s not skin and muscle I pierced… it’s essentially just dust and grave dirt. That’s why reanimations don’t feel anything.”

“So yeah, in any event it looks like he’s been dealt with,” you muse.

>Guren, I’m taking you to the medical division for treatment… and when this is over we need to have a talk about that thing you do with your tenketsu.
>I’m going to set up a defensive perimeter near here to support Gaara’s division as they tend to their wounded. And you’re going inside the perimeter.
>I’m going to try closing your tenketsu. Then we’ll meet with Gaara and see what else he may need us to take care of around here.
>Other?

>>4700644
>>Guren, I’m taking you to the medical division for treatment… and when this is over we need to have a talk about that thing you do with your tenketsu.

>>4700644
>>Guren, I’m taking you to the medical division for treatment… and when this is over we need to have a talk about that thing you do with your tenketsu.

>>4700644
>>I’m going to try closing your tenketsu. Then we’ll meet with Gaara and see what else he may need us to take care of around here.

>>4700644
>Guren, I’m taking you to the medical division for treatment… and when this is over we need to have a talk about that thing you do with your tenketsu.
>I’m going to try closing your tenketsu, under medical supervision.

>>4700644
>>Guren, I’m taking you to the medical division for treatment… and when this is over we need to have a talk about that thing you do with your tenketsu.

>>4700644
>>Guren, I’m taking you to the medical division for treatment… and when this is over we need to have a talk about that thing you do with your tenketsu.

>>4700644
>Guren, I’m taking you to the medical division for treatment… and when this is over we need to have a talk about that thing you do with your tenketsu.

>>4700644
“Guren, I’m taking you to the medical division for treatment,” you declare. “And after that you and I are going to have to have a talk about the way you’ve been brute-forcing your tenketsu open like that.”

You create a single shadow clone, who swiftly teleports Guren to a hiraishin marking you left near the entrance to the medical division staging grounds.

…

“Hey, Sakura-han,” you greet the familiar face. “Need a favor… this hard-headed fool needs two of her tenketsu closed. Do you know where Karin got off to?”

Sakura shakes her head. “Here, I’ll get started and explain as I work...”

…

You are Uzumaki Karin, and the situation just got even screwier than it already was. Before you were just handling the influx of casualties as Gaara’s Fourth Division ran up against several reanimated kages. That’s because a reanimated shinobi stole several sealing scrolls from the logistical division – evidently he’s a former tokujō from Konoha who was once involved in proctoring the chūnin exams. This was before he was killed by Sunagakure and that ‘snake nerd’ Kabuto who Naori has mentioned a few times.

“His name is Hayate,” a long-haired Konoha Anbu declares. “He’s a highly-skilled swordsman whose invisibility techniques were recognized even by Lord Third.”

“I’ll go after him,” you declare.

“Can you spare her?” the Anbu asks Sakura-san.

You speak up first before anyone else can. “I’ve got sensory skills better than just about anyone in the world, but my medical ninjutsu is pretty much average. I can save more lives this way than sticking around here.”

“If Hayate can get those scrolls back to Kabuto for analysis he can use some of the enemies we’ve sealed into them,” the Anbu adds. “Sakura-san, she’s right – we can keep people from being wounded in the first place this way, it’ll save a lot of lives.”

“We’ll take Fū with us,” you add. “But if we don’t go now we may lose him.”

After thinking about it for a few moments, Sakura nods curtly. “Go.”

>1d6, best three of the first four

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>4701958
Go karin go!

>>4701971
Not like that!

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4701958
Don't worry! >>4701971
I will cover you!

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>4701958

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>4701958

File: 40031013_p0.png (256 KB, 507x884)

256 KB PNG

>>4701958
Just based on the last known direction the scroll-thieves were heading in, and the occasional shinobi with minor injuries who can offer corroboration as they work their way back towards the rear, you’re able to quickly get back into the range offered by your Kagura Shingan. It seems they haven’t made it very far at all, and with Fū carrying you piggback you close the distance in practically no time.

There are three reanimated shinobi in this little group, as it turns out – one vaguely familiar to you, carrying the stolen scrolls. Two are not familiar, one is clearly dressed as a shinobi from Amegakure with hardly any features visible behind his full-face respirator, while the other is a short-haired man from Kumogakure who wears a half-mask shaped kind of like a bird’s beak.

“These the guys?” Fū asks you as she lets you down off her back.

You nod. “Unless we’ve been following the wrong guys. Yugaō-san, wasn’t it?”

The Konoha Anbu finally catches up with Fū’s completely unreasonable pace, only to stop short atop a wide tree branch as she recognizes one of the men.

“Yugaō?” the former Konoha shinobi recognizes the Anbu who came with you.

She nods quietly. “That’s right, Hayate.”

You and Fū exchange a quiet glance, both realizing what’s telling about this encounter – no honorifics, which especially after living with Naori for so long is even jarring enough for Fū to stand up and take notice. Generally, with regular people, that means one thing.

“I’m… told it’s been a while,” Hayate begins. “It’s good to see you, well, still alive.”

“Your cough is gone,” Yugaō offers, before shaking her head. “I’m sorry, that was insensitive.”

“I...” Hayate replies before taking an awkward pause. “I understand why you’d feel a little like joking. This is uncomfortable for me too, but I’m concerned we don’t have time. Kabuto won’t give us that luxury.”

“That means you’re going to have to stop me.”

After a moment Yugaō nods. “I know that.”

>Offer to track Hayate. If what you’ve heard is correct his stealth abilities are why he was valuable enough to be reanimated in the first place.
>Help Fū take out the other two shinobi, make sure that you’re not so focused on Hayate that the others escape with a scroll or anything.
>Offer to help in defeating all three at once, with both you and Fū using your own respective summonings to make sure that happens.
>Other?

>>4703604
>Offer to track Hayate. If what you’ve heard is correct his stealth abilities are why he was valuable enough to be reanimated in the first place.
It's what we're here for.

>>4703604
>Offer to help in defeating all three at once, with both you and Fū using your own respective summonings to make sure that happens.
There is a bigger picture here, we shouldnt waste time

>>4703604
>>Offer to help in defeating all three at once, with both you and Fū using your own respective summonings to make sure that happens.

>>4703604
>>Offer to help in defeating all three at once, with both you and Fū using your own respective summonings to make sure that happens.

>>4703604
>>Offer to help in defeating all three at once, with both you and Fū using your own respective summonings to make sure that happens.