AN; The second part to the promised double update! Thanks for the patience! I think I'll be able to update Peacekeeping but after that I'll be honest for a few weeks for finals. After that you can expect more updates more regularly through summer!
There are officially 8 parts to this series, so if you enjoy reading this soul's journey through the cycle of reincarnation across the multiverse, maybe check them out? Though, all fics can be read independently too!
As always, thank you guys for showing your love for my work. I hope yall enjoy!
Discord!
https://discord.gg/XhqUDAnbsH
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Orochimaru calls for a stop for the night since the sun had disappeared behind the horizon. It's earlier than we'd usually stop, but not by much. Kakashi and I have been assigned to stay with Ryōsuke-Ojiisama, likely because Orochimaru is planning to kill as many enemies as possible in the shortest amount of time he can and can't do that while lugging Kakashi and I. Tsunade can't protect us either since she will be acting as a decoy, but staying out of the fight, whatever that means. That leaves Ryōsuke-Ojiisama, a good choice considering his midrange fighting style and specialty jutsu. I guess that means Ojiisama is stuck outside the fight, a slightly alarming notion since he has the strongest aura next to the sannin, meaning the attack force will be at another disadvantage.
Bouncing on my heels next to him as we set up our sleeping gear for the night, I desperately hope to get the chance to see my grandfather's Amenominakanushi in action soon, even if we won't see him fight in the upcoming skirmish. Amused, the older man hands me some roasted fish and rice to munch on with Kakashi, who is at least attempting to hide his own excitement. Subtly, I feel our surroundings as certain Jōnin wander over to one another, the camp site filling with laughter and the smell of food for a 1000 shinobi.
Impressed, I observe how all ninjas above a certain level of skill seem to casually run into one another, their chakras stiffening for the briefest moment before relaxing as they exchange discrete messages and wander off to meet with other groups, the process repeating.
I tilt my head, leaning against my grandfather's legs, heels tapping the ground in excess energy as the highest ranking ninja of the battalion all fall into place around the camp, their movements seemingly random and innocuous.
I feel Inoari Yamanaka slump with a sigh as she curls up in her sleeping bag 20 yards away with her squad, and then I feel her chakra shoot out like webbing all across the camp, her mind jutsu connecting to all the strongest Jōnin mentally. I watch her casually roll over on her bedding and laugh at something her squadmate states even as her chakra reaches towards me. I wrinkle my nose, forcibly gripping my own chakra, fighting the instinctive desire to attack as her chakra settles under my skin, my teeth grinding a little when her voice echoes in my head. It has me wanting to snarl and snap at the foreign presence. "Hello everyone. Please make sure you're in position. Sensor team, please update."
"They are concealing their chakra well," Akane-obachan's voice comes through, the feeling of her chakra nearby along with the barest hint of it now pulsing in my head in rhythm with her words. It makes me go a little cross eyed, the reverberation causing my brain to tingle. "I wouldn't have noticed had I not been looking for them. They are 1 kilometer to the north. 20 enemies. Do we have visuals?"
"Visuals confirmed," Hideyoshi Hyuuga responds, sounding pissed. "They must have an advanced genjutsu expert among them. They are using illusions to distort their signatures, dispersing them to make them less noticeable and moving underground on top of that…"
I furrow my brows. It was a surprisingly effective plan against the byakugan and the sensors despite its simplicity. But I guess after two other shinobi wars, they'd have to learn to counteract various kekkei genkai eventually. Still, it did feel like it relied upon no one looking too closely at anything, or at least, not until the Iwa nin were in striking range. Perhaps, they assumed their superior speed and numbers was enough to do some damage even if they were found out a little early?
I can't tell if their plan was smart or stupid.
"Most of us will move to engage them in the woods. Hideyoshi-San, your squad will remain at camp to protect the rest of the battalion from stragglers. The rest of you, with me. Give them no time to prepare a defense. They'll sense as soon as we move towards them, so Tsunade, Ryōsuke-san,-" I beg your finest fucking pardon?!- "and I will go in first. The rest of you, engage 30 seconds after," Orochimaru purrs.
Before I can even process that, I find myself and Kakashi snatched up by Ryōsuke-Ojiisama, bolting towards the north in a series of disorientingly fast shunshins. Beyond the spinning and whirling of reality, I feel Tsunade's chakra flare. I yowl, clutching desperately at Kakashi as Ojiisama leaps into the sky, the breath whooshing out of me. Before I can get my bearings, Kakashi's nails digging into my arm in his own fright, a boom erupts from below us, the sound echoing and thunderous.
We land,almost softly on the ground near the edge of a giant crater now decorating the half-decimated area that was once thick woodland. In the center stands a smirking Tsunade, arms crossed under her bust as the Iwa nin attempt to drag themselves out of the rubble.
"Huh," I mumble, dazed as I realize our return ambush had started off with a single ground shattering strike from the Slug Princess. This is what they meant by decoy?!isn't this too much?!
"Bring it on, you bitch ass dirt fuckers!" Tsunade bellows before bolting farther away from the camp, Iwa nin, many already injured from having the ground collapsing on top of them, bolting after her.
Chakra flares from each of the sannin- (Oh, that's where Oro-sensei went)- and suddenly there are two huge creatures in the clearing. Tsunade dives into the gelatinous body of her summon, the great slug, Katsuya. Meanwhile, Oro-sensei's big ass snake summon, Manda, manages to smash another two Jōnin under his flailing body. With Tsunade now acting as both a decoy and safely hidden inside Katsuya, Orochimaru lets loose without worrying about triggering her.
"Whoa," I breathe, feeling Orochimaru cut off three different limbs with his Tsurugi no Tenkai, the Snake Sword: Sky Blade. "Um, not that I'm not excited to be here, but was it wise to bring us into this fight?"
Ryōsuke-Ojiisama shrugs. " I am unwilling to leave your protection to anyone beside myself. Additionally, with you and young Kakashi-kun being such high profile targets both for your statuses and bloodlines, the safest place for you is beside myself or the sannin, at least for now, and the battalion can't afford to have me sit this skirmish out."
As my grandfather speaks, he nonchalantly summons his Susanoo, the armored chakra construct folding around us just in time to block a wall of rock bullets. I turn on my Sharinggan to take a look.
Ojiisama's Susanoo was dark green, and with a giant arm, it flings out its kusarigama and slices straight through an unlucky nin who didn't see it coming. I whistle, hiding my eyes again, taking a moment to clap for my grandfather who preens smugly. "Oh, by the way, Ojiisama, I can feel the genjutsu expert under us."
Ojiisama glowers down at the ground. "He won't be able to break through the bottom of the Susanoo, but let's move just in case."
With another shunshin, we are now across the clearing. The next slice from the kusarigama doesn't manage to connect with anything, but it frazzles the enemy nin enough that Orochimaru manages to combine a giant water jutsu with Katsuya's acid attack, further pushing them back and killing another nin in quick and ruthless procession, their skin bubbling up and melting as they shriek.
I tug on Kakashi's sleeve, directing his attention away from the attacks being deflected by the Susanoo and to the sannin. "One day, we're gonna be that good. So good that we can coordinate attacks without a word or looking, even after years of separation."
"No," Kakashi denies.
"No?" I echo, confused.
"We won't spend years apart. Our teamwork will be even better," Kakashi states, chin up as he flicks off the Iwa nin trying to break through the Susanoo fruitlessly.
I grin. "Right, my mistake."
Just then a familiar blaze of chakra slams into the west end of the horde of enemies scattering them bodily and making me laugh. "Dai-san is here!"
Maito Dai, with probably at least two gates open, was whirling through the crowd of Iwa nin. He wasn't actually taking any out, just blitzing them for the others and disrupting their attacks, making it impossible for them to get their bearings and buying time so the rest of the retaliation force that arrives seconds after Dai have more momentum to attack.
The fight had been chaotic before this, but now I could hardly keep up. Inoari-san, who feels like a Toko-Jō to me, is currently hidden in a tree on the edge of the battle. She uses her mind jutsu to take over an enemy and literally stab another in the back before swiftly retreating, leaving the two Iwa nin turning on each other. Inoari is guarded by a vicious older Nara man whose shadow drives an Iwa kunoichi into a vicious roundhouse kick from Dai, earning him his first kill of the night when her neck becomes nearly half snapped off.
Meanwhile, an Inuzuka and their canine companion are recklessly attempting to bowl over a pair of opponents and getting their asses handed to them, a gash in their stomach slowing them dangerously. I'm just about to tell my grandfather to interfere when an Aburame Kuniochi, who the Inuzuka had apparently been herding his opponents towards, takes a brief distraction while the Iwa nin are gloating to swarm them. Orochimaru, passing by, pulls the most disrespectful move I've ever seen done to a full grown man by grabbing the Inuzuka and his dog by the collar and tossing them straight into Katsuya's open mouth to be healed, making me choke out a laugh. I didn't think Oro-sensei threw others around besides Kakashi and I.
Meanwhile, Manda starts taking serious damage with three Jōnin focusing various elemental attacks on the great serpent. His angry roar has me tensing up, but Orochimaru doesn't go to help his summon or pause his jutsu spamming from the other side of the clearing, either having a plan or trusting his summon to handle it as he continues to draw more attention. Because of his reputation, the Iwa nin are frantic to take him out every time he flashes into their vicinity, causing them to get sloppy about the other threats on the field. Before I can worry too much about the big snake, though, a Hyugga joins the fray, starting to rotate, using their clan's Hakke Hyakunijuuhachishou (Eight Divination Signs, One-Hundred and Twenty-Eight Palms of the Hand).
Spinning like a tip, the Hyuuga woman nullifies an impressive combination jutsu aimed at Manda's scaly flank. The attack sends the kunoichi sprawling, but it is successfully blocked, giving Manda enough breathing room to-
"Oh," Kakashi says a bit faintly as I cringe, wishing my sensing ability wasn't quite so good for once. "I thought summons avoided eating people."
"Well," my grandfather states, sounding somewhere between horrified and amused himself. "I suppose it depends on how angry you've made them."
Manda, I guess in gratitude, uses his tail to swat the Hyuga kunoichi into Katsuya's ready maw for healing, although I'd be shocked if the move didn't break her ribs.
Two Uchiha and a Sarutobi are facing off against the rest of Manda's attackers now and Orochimaru takes the opportunity to appear in front of the Susunoo. By now the element of surprise is long gone and the battles are lasting longer, the Iwa nin adjusting. Still, the numbers have successfully been leveled, so Orochimaru stops worrying about crowd control and keeping the enemy disorganized and focuses on taking out the biggest threats.
"Oi, brat! Where's the genjutsu master?" Our sensei barks out.
I tilt my head before hissing, pointing to where Dai is stock still, a sword wielding nin about to run him through.
Orochimaru sends a volley of Kunai at the man, driving him back, and one of them slices over Dai's arm, waking the Toko-Jō up from whatever he was seeing. Dai's title as the Eternal Genin means his actual battle experience is probably lower than any other here besides Kakashi and I after being regulated to D rank missions his entire career. Still, he's smart enough to know he's outmatched.
Dai leaps over, landing next to Orochimaru. "Damn! How unyouthful of me to be taken off guard by genjutsu! Alas, it is a weakness of mine! Apologies, Orochimaru-Taisho!"
Orochimaru waves him off, surprisingly patient with Dai's antics as he stares down the Genjutsu nin whose smirk doesn't conceal how his chakra signature is roiling with rage and fear. "Not your fault. That's Riku Akamine, S-rank. The Akimine clan specializes in genjutsu, specifically paralysis type. He's got a bounty of 30 million Ryo on him."
Dai goes stiff again and Orochimaru remedies it by smacking him over the head, breaking yet another genjutsu before it even really takes hold. "Go help the others, Dai-san. The rats are scattering."
Indeed, it seems like Iwa was no longer fighting to kill, but to escape.
"Yes, sir!" Dai says cheerfully, shooting off to tackle a nin that is trying to escape past the Aburame.
"Orochimaru-Taisho, allow me," Ojiisama pipes up, the small smile he almost always wears around me nowhere to be seen, replaced by icy Uchiha indifference as he pats my head. He then startles me by stepping out of the Susanoo, somehow leaving it in place around Kakashi and I. "I do so hate it when other clans dare to fancy themselves Genjutsu experts."
"Uchiha scum!" Akamine hisses, but Ojiisama barely pays him any mind, hands tucked into the sleeves of his traditional haori, worn over what I'm pretty sure is ANBU gear. "You arrogant bastards with your superiority complexes!"
"Silence, fool. I care not for your jealous ramblings," Grandfather scoffs, making me grin and fist bump in excitement.
"Your Uchiha pride is showing," Kakashi mocks me.
"Bitch, is it unwarranted?" I ask, pointing first to my badass grandpa as he casually strolls towards his enemy, stepping on and over a dead Iwa nin without even looking down, and then towards the fucking giant green samurai of chakra we were currently standing inside of.
"Fair point," Kashi snickers.
"Manda!" Orochimaru bellows. "Watch the brats!"
"Yesssss, Orochimaru-sssssama," Manda hisses as he curls around the back of the Susanoo. Orochimaru flashes away to assist Inoari and her Nara companion, a particularly dangerous nin currently bombarding them with lightning bolts as he tries to escape.
What had started off as 20 enemies was only 12 now. in opposition, Konoha has 7 and 2 summons on the field, with Tsunade, the Inuzuka, and the Hyuga hidden inside Katsuya for healing, but Manda and Katsuya were fielding two ninjas each and despite our forces smaller numbers we were holding up through the teamwork Konoha is uniquely known for.
A derisive snort has me turning back to Oujisama as he flares his chakra to dispel an illusion. "Trying to use genjutsu on a sharingan user is the height of stupidity."
"Shut it, you red eyed freak," Akamine spits, unleashing a massive water wave towards Ojiisama.
Without batting an eye, or even using hand signs, Ojiisama inhales and almost lazily puffs out a jutsu unlike anything I've ever seen. It was an enormous sphere of fire, scorching beams radiating out around it. The chakra is so dense it had me gasping raggedly and so bright that Kakashi had to shield his eyes next to me. Fire release should be weak to water, but rather than fizzling out, the katon evaporates the suiton jutsu instantly, somehow growing even brighter as it decimates not only the spot Akamine had been standing, but a good chunk of forest behind him. Akamine is sent scrabinling out of the way, frazzled and scorched.
Holy fuck, we can feel it from behind the Susanoo.
"Karon: Megami no Shukufuku (Fire Release: Goddess's Blessing)," Ojiisama drawls, casually conjuring a traditional looking Kiseru from somewhere and puffing on it, his other hand tucked into his haori's pocket.
I squeal, shaking Kakashi side to side violently as we ignore Manda using his tail to bat Iwa nin back into range of the others and keep them from escaping. "Did he just make a fucking sun? Oh Kami, Ojiisama is so badass!"
Kakashi watches the jutsu like a man in the desert watches water. "You need that technique. If it's not a clan technique, you need to teach it to me. I want to launch suns at people, too."
"I'll put it on the checklist," I agree fervently. The technique had incinerated everything in its path leaving actual heatwaves in the air. Goddess's Blessing is honestly a fitting name for such a jutsu.
Akamine, no longer even bothering to hide his snarl, is apparently a smarter foe than I gave him credit for. He flares his chakra in a signal, yelling, "Retreat!"
The still living Iwa nin bolt for it, scattering every which way like roaches in the light, but they don't make it far.
A manically grinning Orochimaru flares his own chakra in signal as he bolts after them. "Don't let a single one escape, or I'll feed you to Manda!"
The Konoha nin scramble after them, but the entire clearing outside the Susanoo suddenly is filled with Akamine's chakra, a mass genjutsu. Every single Konoha nin freezes in place, even Orochimaru and the two summons stopping briefly, only the three Uchiha on the field shaking it off near instantaneously.
I whistle, genuinely impressed as the Iwa nin take the opportunity to run for their lives, shooting off a few jutsu to delay our side more. Ojiisama scowls and shunshins across the field, punches Orochimaru in the fucking face, and shunshin-ing back nonchalantly, still smoking his damn pipe. I cackle as Kakashi trembles next to me in his own suppressed laughter. After getting punted around by our teacher so often, that was quite the refreshing spectacle.
"Ryōsuke-Ojiisama is the coolest," Kakashi wheezes to my frantic agreement.
"Hn. I'll share him with you," I offer my best friend seriously, smiling when he perks up. Kakashi only had Sakumo after all, so I was entirely willing to share my family with him.
Orochimaru, snarling in rage at having been duped, if briefly, by Akamine, shows off just how seriously he took his role as commander, a good one at that. Rather than going for Akamine in revenge, he orders Katsuya to take over guarding us from Manda, while he and the serpent took over defense of the incapacitated Konoha nin with the other two Uchiha and hunting down the fleeing enemy.
Katsuya spits out the healed Konoha troops to help before gliding over, quietly taking up our protection duty. "Children, Tsunade-hime wishes to know how you are."
I bow slightly to the great slug. "It is an honor to meet you, Katsuya-sama. Please let her know we are doing just fine. We are learning a lot from Ryōsuke-Ojiisama."
Riku Akamine dodges a huge flaming dragon courtesy of Ojiisama as he continues to puffs his pipe, the massive beast not dispersing as it chases him down, crashing into the earth and trees as it keeps him from casting another Genjutsu to help his side of the skirmish.
"Doton: Dosekirū! (Earth Release: Earth and Stone Dragon!)," Akimine yells, forming a giant stone dragon to combat Ojiisama's jutsu.
Grandfather grunts indifferently as the dragons collide, sending molten rock flying in every direction, both jutsu ending.
Then, Grandfather takes me off guard.
He starts talking shit.
XXXXXKAKASHIXXXXX
"Shinobi like you are one trick ponies."
Ryōsuke-Ojiisama, I decide abruptly, is my new standard of badass. The man looks so unruffled, he might as well be taking a walk in a garden. Even Tou-sama doesn't do something as casually disrespectful as smoking a Kiseru mid battle.
It's amazing.
"Excuse me?" The blonde S-rank is so genuinely taken aback that it comes out almost polite as he clutches an injured arm, eyes wide as they dart every which way, clearly looking for an out.
Riku Akamine had initially seemed like a formidable foe. He'd faced down Orochimaru with a smirk, his rippling muscles covered in scars and his hands bigger than Akari's entire torso. Akamine had oozed cockiness, taller and much broader than the Sannin, and I had to give him credit for it considering the strength of sensei's usual killing intent. I'm pretty sure the Susoono and the chakra threads Riri is unconsciously shielding me with are the only reason I'm not crumpled on the floor, drooling and brain dead. By all measures, Akamine is strong.
And yet…
"Hn. Once your strongest ability is nullified, you panic and become as weak as Chunin," Ryōsuke-Ojiisama states, tapping out the ash and finally putting away his pipe, rolling his shoulders as he flicks his grey streaked ponytail behind him.
"Riri, look, he's getting serious. That's how Tou-San looks when he's getting ready to spar with your dad. You know, when he's complaining about being old and having back aches," I state gleefully, dragging Akati closer to the wall of the Susanoo by the hand so I could see better.
"Please be careful not to accidentally leave the protection of Uchiha-san's jutsu, Kakashi-Chan," Katsuya-sama gently cautions me, the giant pink slug's eyes wiggling atop her antenna.
Akamine lets out a string of enraged expletives, face turning purple in rage as he begins to spam jutsu too fast to digest. "Doton: Yomi Numa! Doryo Dango! Doton: Doryuso! (Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld! Earth Release: Ball of Graves! Earth Release: Rising Stone Spears!)"
First, a swamp appears under Ojiisama, coating his legs up to the knees in thick mud and stopping him in place. I stiffen in worry, flinching when Akamine forces a rock shaped like a whole mausoleum up out of the ground and hurdles it at the Uchiha elder. It crashes down on top of him, dust rising up like a cloud, debri smashing into the armour of the Susanoo. Finally, huge spikes of stone stab through it, skewering it through, Akari's grip on my hand turning painful the only sign of her distress.
I stare, stomach dropping. The series of jutsu was so quick I couldn't even process it, my hackles raising. "Shit! Did you catch that? It was too fast to see. Was that 2 A-rank jutsu?"
"…That was three total, though I don't know the rank," Akari grits out, tone icy, and I feel chills break out across my skin as I hear something I've never heard from her before; Fear. "…I-I'm struggling to feel Ojiisama with his chakra residue all over the place."
A tide of terror and grief rises high, choking my throat before I shove it away. I wouldn't believe anything happened to the Uchiha elder until we had proof and right now, it's more important to focus on the threat in front of us.
We'd been shitting on the Elite nin from Iwa this entire time since he was so easily being overwhelmed, but we lost perspective. Riku Akamine was still an extremely lethal S-rank.
Akamine throws his head back, laughing wildly, all his teeth on display as he turns crazed eyes to us. "Not so high and mighty now, you old bag of bones! The Uchiha are all pompous pricks with nothing special to them but those fancy eyes of yours!"
He stalks towards us, pulling a tanto free from its sheath as he approaches our shelter, the giant chakra construct notably still, not having moved since its master vanished. I feel the blood drain from my face as I yank Akari's stiff, unmoving form behind me, pulling her back further away from the man stalking near.
"Approach no further!" Katsuya-sama bellows, rearing up and readying an acid blast.
"Eien no muryoku-kan no jutsu! (Eternal Helplessness Technique)," Akamine spits, a chunk of his burnt hair falling from his scalp, and Katsuya-sama goes still. "Stay out of this, pest! I was told you little shits we're quite valuable to your village! I think I'll take you with me before that snake fucker returns."
Told?
A low snarl builds in my chest as I search desperately for an out. Behind Akamine, the Konoha nin that still remain in the clearing lurch towards us only to be headed off by their opponents buying their leader time. Orochimaru and Manda are nowhere in sight, chasing down stragglers.
Akamine raises more stone spikes and aims them at us and my mind races. Shit, what do I do? How long will the jutsu last? Can I shunshin us both? Will the jutsu even let us out? How far can we get? Maybe the pack- no we'll be slaughtered he'stoofastwhatdowedowe'regoingtodie-
Akari's grip on my hand suddenly goes limp. "Hn."
"Idiot. Amenominakanushi." A deep voice rumbles.
There is a crash and the stone spears along with Akamine go flying into and then through thicket of trees, revealing Ryōsuke-Ojiisama, smoking his Kiseru again with mild irritation as he washes off his mud covered feet with a casual display of elemental water chakra control with his free hand. His red Sharingan's tomoe are gone, revealing swirling curls of ink that remind me of calligraphy. "Fool, why on earth would you presume me dead with my jutsu still up? Tch, Iwa nins. Nothing but rocks for brains."
I blink, cursing myself for the same lapse in logic.
Akamine staggers up, coughing blood, eyes bulging. "What, but-"
He's silenced when he's slammed face first into the ground then raised abruptly into the sky and thrown sideways into another group of trees.
"What the hell?" I mutter, eyes wide.
"Ryōsuke-Ojiisama's Mangekyōu. Amenominakanushi, named after a deity that formed when heaven and earth did. He controls gravity, letting him move objects," Akari informs me as Katsuya snaps out of her Genjutsu.
I watch the Uchiha elder fling the other nin around like a rag doll while throwing razor sharp quips, only pausing briefly to force all the remaining, living enemies in the clearing to their knees to be taken prisoner.
"Akari…" I start, at a complete loss.
"Hn. I know. We gotta get him to stop smoking," the younger girl states with full seriousness.
My hand makes a resounding noise when it collides with my face, the exasperation overwhelming. "No, Riri, that's definitely not the pressing issue here!"
"Hn?"
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AN: Yes, that Magekyōu ability is similar to Pain's Rinnegan ability. No, I don't give a shit since there is hardly any consistency with those abilities anyway. If you like, we could argue they work a bit differently.
How was that fight scene?
Also, do you think there is a better way for me to sneak in the English names of the jutsu? I couldn't figure out how it would be best, so this is what we ended up with.
Please leave your thoughts below!