Chapter 26 – Tensenrin

The cold air seared its way down her throat and into her lungs as Akane ran, following the distant sound of an erratic heartbeat. Tsume would stop anytime now. They had put enough distance between them and the clearing, and the others would never allow Suisen and Juri to follow them. Tsume had to stop. Even she must have realized the condition Hiashi was in after that backfired jutsu, the massive damage that it had dealt to his body.

Please stop now, she thought.

And, mercifully, the faint sound of that heartbeat started growing louder. Akane pushed chakra into her legs to slow the formation of lactic acid in her muscles before speeding up to close the remaining distance between them.

Tsume had just finished laying Hiashi down on her cloak from Kuromaru's back when Akane arrived. The scent of anxiety that clung to her was enough to set the Inuzuka on edge, too, but she kept her comments to herself. Akane scuffed through the snow as she threw herself down on her knees beside the unconscious Hyuuga, green chakra alight in her palms and entering his system a mere moment later.

Hiashi's final jutsu had been meant to kill. He was lucky not all the chakra in it had reflected off Suisen's defense in his direction; some of it had been thrown off by the grace of inertia from the rotation. Even so, it had ravaged through him, dealing damage to his soft tissues all the way down to individual cells, like he had been through a storm of microscopic needles of his own making. Ironic, how the very energy which sustained life could be turned against itself to deal death instead. Shinobi were a sum of contradictions, after all. Perhaps humans had never been meant to mold chakra.

Juri could not afford to look up, but she could almost feel the sharingan watching her. She wondered if this was what prey felt like under a predator's gaze, like possessing some preternatural sense of danger. She would never know, because she was not prey. One hand rose to her chest and the other arm straightened up in the air as she molded chakra around herself. There was enough humidity in the air to draw upon, which made things easier.

Shisui was on to her even before the humidity around them began to coalesce into the opalescent mist Kiri-nin were infamous for employing. Oh, no you don't, he thought, as his hands formed the seals and he drew air into his lungs. Fuuton: Taifuuikka! The gust of wind he blew out through the small mouth hole in his ANBU mask not only dispersed Juri's incipient mist, but also made it clear that it would be pointless to attempt the concealment technique while he stood on the battlefield.

Juri had to break the jutsu to shield her face from the lashing wind, and only lowered her arms once the gale subsided. Of course they had brought along a Wind-style user this time around, she thought with a scowl. The other Uchiha had clearly not found throwing fireballs blindly at the mist as entertaining a sport as she had dodging them. Unfortunately, it also meant she would have no reliable means of protection from that accursed dojutsu of theirs.

Suisen reassessed the situation. Without her mist concealment, Juri was too exposed, and that called for a change of plans. Before his own opponents could engage him, he repositioned himself between Juri and all three Konoha-nin. "Formation B," he told his partner. He then turned sideways, bent his knees and extended his arms, visualizing the field of divination around him.

Itachi recognized the pose Suisen was taking as the one Hiashi had assumed not long before, except the number of palms he called out was double. Before he had time to issue an order, Suisen launched himself upon them, delivering a whirlwind of juuken strikes which he split among the three of them in a mad dance of wicked grace.

Behind him, Juri was busy herself. She had created two water clones to aid her and the three of them were seemingly throwing weapons everywhere but at their opponents. The two Uchihas made note of the attached wires and realized she was building a trap around them, but Suisen was keeping them too busy for them to deal with that at the moment.

While their sharingan enabled them to dodge the juuken strikes, Tenzo had to resort to other means, and over thirty consecutive hits caught him mid-jutsu, causing him to stumble backwards, stunned. Shisui cursed under his breath, blurred through the seals while dodging the Gentle Fist and used his Body Flicker technique to set himself between Suisen and Tenzo before transporting the latter out of the Eight Trigrams' range, to safety. He had painstakingly avoided tripping any of the wires, but Itachi would have to deal with Suisen, because Juri needed attention, too.

"Are you alright?" Shisui asked Tenzo, while his eyes analyzed the web of wire around them and his mind worked on how to best disable it.

"Slightly… out of breath," Tenzo said in a strangled voice, clutching at his chest. He gritted his teeth at the sharp pain which accompanied each breath, along with the constant one in his arms. He could see now why the Hyuugas were known to be fearsome fighters. The number of strikes was not as important as the amount of chakra in them and which tenketsu they targeted. While his regenerative abilities should kick in soon enough, he feared they would not extend to his chakra circulatory system.

Juri was about to weave another wire into the mesh when the tall Uchiha suddenly appeared in front of her. Simultaneously, her water clones splashed out of existence as the same Uchiha struck them down. She pulled out a kunai just in time to parry his tanto and grinned, struck by a sudden revelation, which had been prompted by the fact that he appeared to be in multiple places at once.

"I know who you are," she said. "Shisui the Teleporter. You made quite the impression on Ao, years ago. In that case…" Tiger, Ox, Tiger, Rat. She formed the seals singlehandedly, kneading chakra in her stomach. Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu!

Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu! Shisui countered the torrent of water gushing from her mouth with a roaring fireball, causing steam to blow out between them with a loud hiss. As an S-ranked Kiri-nin, her Water Style was more powerful than most, packing the punch of almost three regular casters of the same jutsu combined. It did not matter. Shisui judged it would still not be enough.

Suisen scowled. Itachi had dodged every single one of his juuken strikes, although he had been unable to retaliate. He was about to do so now, however, because Suisen could feel the tendrils of a genjutsu creeping into his skull, seeking to perturb his chakra flow. Had Hiashi not warned the Uchiha that a Hyuuga could not be so easily seduced by the sharingan? Had he decided to protect the family secrets, even if it meant placing others at risk, instead? Or perhaps he had warned him, and the Uchiha had not trusted him. Both possibilities amused him as he regulated his chakra flow to dispel the genjutsu.

"They'll use you until there's nothing left of you," he told Itachi after finishing the final set of one hundred and twenty-eight palms. "And when you're dead, they'll rip the eyes out of your cold skull and use those, instead."

Instead of replying, the Uchiha launched into the sequence of hand seals for the signature jutsu of his clan. Suisen dashed backwards from the ensuing flames. At the same time, his byakugan enabled him to notice that Juri was having trouble against the same technique at his four o'clock. He immediately rushed to her side and added his own Suidan no Jutsu in. Their joint effort successfully extinguished Shisui's fireball.

"They're too well coordinated," Itachi told Shisui. "He covers for her at every turn. We need to separate them. Also, genjutsu doesn't work on him."

"Then I can't risk wasting a Kotoamatsukami," his cousin said. The three tomoe in his eyes began to spin, merging into the black pinwheel of the Mangekyou. "Not on him, at least." His jaw clenched as pain shot up his optic nerve, exploding in the left half of his head. Blood pooled in his eye and ran down his cheek.

Behind the slowly dispersing steam left in the wake of their elemental jutsus, Suisen took a moment to catch his breath. The pain in his chest had dulled to a lingering ache, but the damage was there. On top of the physical injury, the tenketsu Hiashi had hit were almost completely blocked, and other pathways were bearing the brunt of redirected chakra on top of the normal flux. It made molding it more difficult, beyond simply painful.

Juri retrieved a small scroll from the folds of her cloak and rolled it open, pushing chakra into the storage seal inscribed on it.

"Are you finally getting your shit together?" Suisen asked her, only to notice a subtle change in Juri's chakra flow. His instincts kicked in at full speed and he jumped back just as his partner swung her large, circular sword at him. Getting nicked by Juri's Tensenrin was the last thing he needed, and boy, did that edge gleam. He focused most of his attention on dodging it and occasionally parrying with a kunai when pressed, using the rest to assess her state.

She was clearly under the influence of a genjutsu, but it was like nothing he had encountered before. While subtle, its influence was too powerful on her for the usual means of release to work – it affected not only the chakra flow in her central nervous system, but also the peripheral, which meant she would not register pain. The only thing he could think of that could work might also kill her if he was not careful.

He ducked as the Tensenrin swung around over his head, only for Juri to land a kick in his ribs, followed by a second rotation. Pegging her for a long-range fighter because she preferred wasting her time on stupid traps was often the last mistake their enemies ever made. The truth was that she was just as deadly at close range. A pity she had been forced to throw away the element of surprise by chasing him instead of them, he thought as he jumped away.

His displeasure turned to surprise when roots sprung from the frozen ground and through the snow to wrap around his feet, almost causing him to lose his balance entirely. He barely had time to realize it was the bug-eyed Konoha-nin's doing when the Tensenrin came for him. Suisen managed to shift in the jutsu's hold, causing the blade to slash down his upper arm instead of burying itself into his shoulder. He was getting tired.

He gritted his teeth as blood soaked through his shirt and cloak. The flow was steady, at least, which meant she had not gone deep enough to nick an artery. In any case, he was running out of time faster the genjutsu appeared to be wearing off. Whatever the outcome, he had no choice. Suisen sent chakra into his hands, sharpening it to cut through the roots holding him in place. Instead of avoiding Juri, however, he circled around her and slammed his right hand into her back, pushing his own chakra into the neural pathways to dislodge the genjutsu. It would leave her unable to use chakra for days while she metabolized his… that was if she even lived.

Itachi heard Shisui curse as Juri's body hit the ground, her odd choice for a sword falling in the snow, beside her.

Suisen noticed chakra was still flowing through his partner and assumed she had made it, so he interposed himself between her and the enemies to make sure they would not take advantage of her state and nullify his efforts in keeping her alive. He then ripped off a piece of his cloak to hastily tie below the gash in his arm, which was bleeding profusely.

Tenzo gasped and coughed, even though it sent shrill pain through him. His hands were trembling and burning after having molded chakra, and when he looked at them, he saw coin-sized, raw spots dotting his flesh. Lifting his sleeves, there were more going up his arms. Trying to mold more chakra was probably not a good idea. He was about to rub some snow over his flesh to dull the pain until his regenerative abilities reactivated when Akane knelt beside him, quiet as a shadow. He had not heard her coming.

"How's Hiashi-sama?" he asked as she went straight to business with the healing.

"He'll live," she said.

Itachi was looking at Suisen, who had just finished pulling on the ends of the fabric strip with his teeth. "Now's our chance," he told Shisui.

"Double the firepower?" Shisui asked in a humorless tone. He then flickered across the clearing to get behind Suisen, while Itachi dashed forward, to his front. The hand seals were already done by then, and they had synchronized down to the last one.

Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!

Their two techniques collided from opposite sides in a whirl of fire which swallowed Suisen whole. The heat blasted against their faces even with the distance between them and their target, but it was not until it became nigh on unbearable that they realized it was coming back towards them in great, scorching waves. Itachi jumped back out of its range and it dissipated, allowing him to see Suisen's blue chakra fading as he slowly stopped spinning. Fortunately for them, they had been at a greater distance than Hiashi when Suisen had used the same jutsu to counter his. However, the Hyuuga was panting now, a sheen of sweat glistening on his face. Producing a larger Hakkeshou Kaiten to cover Juri as well had seemingly taken its toll.

Itachi pulled out the sword from the sheath strapped to his back and lunged for him. He had been biding his time for this moment: waiting, watching, learning. He was the most rested out of the three of them. Tenzo had taken multiple juuken strikes and Shisui had already used the Kotoamatsukami. He was the one who could press the advantage now.

Suisen darted left and armed himself with a kunai to fend off Itachi's blade. His left arm was growing numb from the makeshift tourniquet, but it had slowed the flow of blood. He could still keep this up for a time, even though the Uchiha was giving him no room to breathe. Those red, glowing eyes, so unerringly seeing through his every move made this fight rather one-sided in offensive.

Shisui was about to join Itachi in his endeavor when something moved at the edge of his field of vision. What is it with Kiri-nin and oversized weapons? he wondered, not even willing to go into how Suisen had somehow managed to break his Kotoamatsukami.

Juri picked up her ring blade from the ground, leaning on it as she straightened up to look at the Uchiha. Hell was burning in her eyes and searing in her soul. Fucking dojutsu users, she thought, partly aiming that thought at her partner, as well. She could feel his slimy, cool chakra in her system and although she could not remember what had happened, it did not take a genius to guess. She kept her gaze fixed on her opponent's chest and threw a handful of shuriken.

Shisui dodged with ease and was quick to realize Juri had not expected them to hit – or rather, that he had not been the target. The star-shaped weapons latched on to the remains of her disabled wire trap and she pulled on the metal strings attached to the shuriken, recalling them towards him. His sharingan could make no sense of whatever she was attempting, as both wires and shuriken fell harmlessly around him, tangled and useless. Even while pondering the possibility that Suisen had hit her hard enough to addle her brains, Shisui could not help but be suspicious. He began forming the hand seals for his Body Flicker when something felt wrong.

His hands were not moving fast enough somehow. When he looked at them, he noticed the pale, delicate strands laced over his fingers. Spider silk. Juri had lined the wires in her unfinished trap with spider silk and when she had pulled it towards him, the lighter-than-air threads had been carried by the movement to land on him even as the metal wires had fallen around him. So, 'Spider of the Mist' was not just a figure of speech, he thought as he tested the silk by moving his fingers. It was sticky, resistant and only mildly yielding – a substance most likely produced by a summon. It would slow him down. Without a second thought, Shisui removed his white cloak.

"Too slow!"

He barely had enough time to block her sword with his tanto, since his movement was still restricted by the spider threads on his hands and legs. He had to use the Kotoamatsukami again. Perhaps a second attempt from Suisen to wake her from it would kill her, since whatever he had done cannot have been entirely harmless the first time. He was about to focus on it when Juri suddenly looked up and spat through the left eye hole in his mask. For some reason, it burned, and his eyes both shut on reflex.

Juri took advantage of that split second to overpower his tanto by tipping it to one side, effectively breaking the deadlock. She then brought the Tensenrin around and in an upwards arc of delicious, glimmering crimson. Truly a sight for sore eyes, she thought, licking her lips. Her opponent staggered backwards, one hand flying to cover the weeping gash across his chest. With the other, he removed his ANBU mask and threw it away to wipe furiously at his left eye.

Shisui saw Juri coming with his right eye. She bore a malevolent sneer on her face and the edge of her sword was coated in his blood. Ruby drops flew through the air as it came for him and he clenched his jaw, forcing his burning left eye to open. The blood which trailed down both his cheeks felt hot in the frigid air. Pain exploded in his head first, then every cell in his body picked it up. Juri's sword clanged against a rib of the green, skeletal form taking shape around him. The luminous fissures it produced were quickly covered as the Susanoo's body fleshed up and armored itself.

Suisen avoided the flame-coated shuriken whizzing through the air towards him once, and then again when they changed their trajectory. The Uchiha was keeping him busy from the front as well, but his byakugan had seen them coming. All but one, which he only felt when it imbedded itself in his back, having come in through his blind spot; not deeply enough to cause any serious damage, since he always took care to push cushioning chakra through that particular spot, but still.

The Uchiha would certainly make a mental note of that, he mused, plagued by an ever-growing sense of frustration. He was an S-ranked, former ANBU, a Hyuuga with at least a decade's worth of experience over him… and yet he was losing ground to him. Hiashi would be amused, and their father would certainly strike his name from the family tree, if he had not done so already upon hearing of his endeavors over the past fourteen years.

In an attempt to buy himself more time, Suisen produced a smoke bomb of his own making from one of the pockets in his cloak and threw it at the ground. It would not counter the sharingan for long, and his own eyes were already feeling the strain of byakugan overuse. As the cloud enveloped them, he focused on his opponent, having noticed a small disturbance in the chakra flux around his right lung. At a closer inspection, the underlying cause became all too clear. All it needed was a little encouragement.

Itachi strained his eyes against the impenetrable smoke, already making for a quick retreat, when Suisen materialized beside him and jabbed two fingers into his side. The effect was almost instantaneous. The burning sensation which had been gradually building up in his chest from the cold air and the sustained effort exploded in a fit of coughing. He stumbled out of the cloud, coughing into the crook of his arm. Blood glistened, wet and stark red against the white of his cloak.

He saw Suisen coming, tendrils of smoke curling in his wake. He raised his sword to parry, but the fit was not subsiding and he was getting dizzy from the lack of air in his lungs. His vision doubled as Suisen's kunai clanged, only for him to retreat a few feet immediately afterwards. Itachi had not felt the impact. He was surrounded by something green and transparent and his stomach churned as he realized what it was: the fist of Shisui's Susanoo. And Akane was in it, with him.

Healing chakra flooded his system, soothing its way down his throat, into his airways and the tissue of his lungs. Oxygen rushed into him and went straight to his head, adding to the dizziness for a brief moment before that, too, subsided. His voice was coarse from the coughing when he spoke. "Report," he said to her.

"Hiashi-sama is stable. Tenzo won't be able to mold chakra for days. Shisui took a hit, I need to get to him when I'm done here."

"I'll cover you."

Suisen was grateful for the respite, truth be told. A thread of blood tickled as it ran down his wrist and along his fingers before dotting the snow. He scuffed with his foot to cover it and tightened the cloak's sleeve around his wrist with a piece of metal wire. It was already soaked through halfway. Fortunately, it did not show against the black and red pattern, and the sleeve was long enough to cover his swollen hand, by now likely purple from the tourniquet.

His eyes went past the two ANBU currently shielded from him, to the large, phantom figure surrounding the third. He had seen one before. An image flashed in his mind, of a lone Uchiha facing a small army of Iwagakure shinobi in the middle of a field which had been burned down to ashes. The monstrous, ethereal being which had enveloped him and the carnage left in his wake. Juri was bashing her sword against that. If he had not been so tired, he might have burst into laughter.

Instead, he saw the chakra surging in the red tomoe inscribed on the fiend's chest and rushed to Juri's side. He got there in the nick of time, hardly having launched into the Kaiten rotation when the monster unleashed a barrage of chakra needles at them.

It would be his last jutsu. His chakra reserves were nearly depleted. Suisen had not expected to see the end of today, not without dragging at least one of them down with him. Even his brother would live to see another day, courtesy of a certain medic-nin he had been neglecting. But perhaps not all his efforts had been in vain, he thought as he finished the final rotation, looking at the pale Uchiha inside the green giant.

"I think I've earned a treat, after everything you've put me through," he told Juri.

"Don't whine," she snapped. "I can't use chakra because of you." Her hand disappeared inside the cloak nevertheless, rummaging for a bit before pulling out a small syringe filled with colorless liquid. She then unceremoniously stabbed it into his upper arm.

This chapter was a nightmare to write. I imagine it wasn't easy to read, either, so I apologize and I hope you still enjoyed it. I was going to tell you all about my grievances with it, but there's no point in whining. In the end, I tried my best.

Whose Susanoo do you think Suisen remembers having seen once?