Chapter 74 - Mortality
Clank! Shikamaru's entire world seemed to shake when the metals struck together, making a sound that reverberated in his mind.
However, the blood that started to dye Asuma's clothes red reminded him that he was, in fact, not in any position to let his brain be shocked.
Hidan never did manage to stab his own heart with his scythe, for Crane and Heron made it in time to wretch their swords in between the blades of the scythe just as it drew the blood, locking it from digging further into the skin. A spot of red started manifesting on Asuma's vest, confirming once again that any injury on Hidan would also appear on Asuma with no exception.
How? Is this his ninjutsu? What are the criteria? How do I sever the connection? Shikamaru's mind started moving on its own, trying to string together every clue, every disharmonious scene in his memory.
Meanwhile, Crane yelled from across the field, "Elk, Jackal. Stop him!" No more words needed to be said as Jackal and Elk sprung into action. Jackal threw a handful of kunai marked with explosion tags towards the clearing between Hidan and Kakuzu, while Elk slapped her hand on the ground and raised a thick wall of mud around her teammates.
The kunai exploded upon impact, breaking the earth apart and sending up rumbles into the air. Amidst the smoke, Shikamaru saw the bundles of cords that got forced out of the ground by the explosion. Kakuzu was aiming for Hidan, Shikamaru realized.
At this point, not only could they not injure Hidan, they had to prevent Hidan's suicide attempts and merciless attacks from his supposed partner.
The cords that were broken apart by the explosion quickly regrouped in the air as they stabbed into the mudwall. Sensing that the barrier wouldn't hold, Crane raised a hand to his mouth and shot out a violent stream of water, pushing the cords back with the force of a waterfall.
Elk followed up swiftly as she forced the mud to rise again, mixing in with the water until the heavy, suffocating sludge wrapped around the cords, preventing them from breaking free.
The scythe moved a little as Crane's attention was distracted elsewhere, but before Hidan would fully wretch his scythe free, Shikamaru's shadow made it just in time to bind the missing-nin's body.
Crane gave him a quick glance with a mix of surprise and appreciation as if complimenting him for his quick reaction despite the very weird and abnormal circumstances they were in.
But no matter how confusing Hidan's ability was, all of them - Crane, Asuma, and Shikamaru - knew what actions must be taken.
"Asuma-san, let me heal your shoulder," Sakura said just before she was about to rush over. However, a stern look from the Jonin stopped her.
"Sakura, heal the Jinchuuriki. Ino and Chōji will guard you," Asuma-sensei ordered as he rolled his shoulder, looking unfazed by the cut that had mysteriously appeared on his body, telling Sakura that his injuries so far were superficial.
Sakura didn't argue. She didn't need to be told what injuries were serious and how to prioritize her healing. The Jinchuuriki was a burden to them if she couldn't walk on her own. With a curt nod, she carried the Kumo-nin on her shoulder as the three of them fell back to the edge of the battlefield.
It was a distance chosen with care, not so close that they would be in the way, but not too far that Sakura couldn't support the rest of them if needed. To stay in the sight of their enemy was also a deliberate decision in that it was less likely to agitate their opponents into doing all they could to chase Sakura and the Jinchuuriki.
"My Anbu team will do our best to keep Kakuzu in check. Asuma, I'll leave Heron in your care and you're going to have to undo whatever that thing Hidan did to you." Crane didn't mince his words and Asuma didn't raise any objection. Kakuzu's attacks were ranged and destructive, Anbu had already taken the hardest job by volunteering to keep the Takigakure missing-nin busy enough so that he could neither attack Sakura nor Hidan.
Restrain Hidan. Separate Kakuzu and Hidan. Figure out how to undo Hidan's techniques. That was the bare minimum of their plan.
A sense of familiarity washed over Shikamaru as Ino connected their minds together. 'I saw him ingest the blood on his scythe.' The crisp words surprised him a little, only for Shikamaru to realize that it was from Heron - or his friend who had a rare Kekkei Genkai that he should not name because of anonymity, not that it really mattered.
Nevertheless, that little piece of information lodged itself into the puzzle in Shikamaru's mind, making the picture a little more complete.
'I can't keep the binding for long,' Shikamaru said in his mind. The more he used the Shadow on an opponent, the less effective it was as if the enemy's body was being conditioned to adapt.
'Heron and I will keep him occupied,' Asuma didn't hesitate as he answered. 'But …' Shikamaru had a lot to say about that - something along the lines with are you sure that's a good idea considering you're the subject of his CURSE? - but Asuma cut him off, already sensing in thoughts in his mind.
'Shikamaru, don't let worry overwhelm your mind and don't let doubt cloud your judgment.' Shikamaru paused under Asuma's calm and gentle words.
Once a genin reached the rank of Chunin, the responsibility that the Jonin-sensei had towards them lessened. They were supposed to graduate from fresh rookies, understand the basic principles of being a shinobi, and be able to carry themselves without their Jonin-sensei being there to guide their every step.
Many teams went separate ways after the Chunin Exam - like Team 7 where Sakura came from - but Shikamaru's team stayed together, continued to take missions with Asuma-sensei as their leader and nothing seemed to change except that maybe they could take higher ranked assignments.
After all, the three of them were in a weird position - not individually as talented as someone like Sasuke or Neji, but they were above the average line when working together as a team. They had always been together, and it made them complacent because they were good at being Ino-Shika-Chō, but only Ino-Shika-Chō.
He used to wonder if they were getting spoiled by Asuma, who fulfilled their need to continue being a team without being separated. Shikamaru didn't want to be separated from Ino and Chōji; didn't want them to be in danger without support from each other. But as long as Asuma-sensei was there, their team was complete, self-sufficient and functioning as intended.
And Shikamaru never needed to take more responsibility than what he was used to.
But Asuma wasn't spoiling them with his kindness, taking pity on them because they would be lost without him. He was just the kind that had loads of patience, towards his problematic students, one way or another.
He was waiting for them to grow, to understand their role in Ino-Shika-Chō and outside of it. He didn't mind being their guiding post a little longer, helping them along the way. Because he believed that they would never stop striving to be better, to fully become his comrades instead of forever staying as his children.
'Shikamaru, at the moment, you're in the best position to coordinate our attacks and observe what the hell is going on with this … religious zombie.' Shikamaru felt his eyes twitch at the inappropriate timing of Asuma's jokes, but his teacher wasn't done. 'Believe in yourself and believe in us, Shikamaru, use what you need and do what you have to do. Because I believe you can find the solution faster than all of us.'
Well, that was a truckload of responsibility that Shikamaru did not sign up for. But it was too late to back out of it now.
Before Shikamaru's shadow binding could expire, he took a deep breath and said, 'Hidan did at least two things before connecting his injury with Asuma's. One, he ingested Asuma's blood, and two, he drew the symbol beneath his feet with his own blood.'
'Avoid getting your blood spilled at all cost and erase the leftover blood on his scythe so that he won't have any more raw material left.' The role of an opponent's blood was the easier part to deduce, given how ecstatic Hidan was over the small graze he had gotten on Asuma. However, the role of the symbol was a little more difficult to discern.
'In the meantime, we'll try to drag him outside of the symbol beneath his feet and destroy its integrity.' Shikamaru wasn't sure of the purpose of that bloody drawing. Did he need to be standing on it? If so, what counted as a contact? Or perhaps it just had to be intact?
In the worst case, that symbol was merely a requirement for the jutsu's activation and had no subsequent meaning to the curse itself. But either way, they needed to try out the possibilities one by one.
Never grow complacent with your thoughts, Shikamaru reminded himself. It was because deduction came so easily for Shikamaru that he needed to take extra caution in confirming their truth.
In a span of a breath, Shikamaru let his wobbly shadow snap, feeling a wave of fatigue washing over him just as Asuma flickered to Hidan without any hint of fear. Heron's red sharingan glowed with intensity as Hidan seemed to slow in his movements.
The genjutsu didn't last long as Hidan shook himself awake and flickered his scythe upwards, forcing Heron to retract his blade if he didn't want to be thrown to the sky.
"Sharingan! What a surprise. Pein was talking about one of you - can't remember which one, but I'll be happy to offer your death to Jashin … After I'm done with this one!" Hidan turned his body sharply, using his arm to embrace Asuma's chakra blade. But Asuma was quick to throw his chakra blade instead, letting it sail past Hidan's defence and hit his retracting scythe, just before the blades would fall down on the missing-nin's own leg.
Shuriken connected to ninja wires flew from behind, weaving themselves around Hidan's scythe with deadly precision. In the blink of an eye, Heron pulled the wires taut and locked the tri-bladed scythe in place while shuriken etched into the ground. Without a pause, Heron placed his fingers in front of his mouth and blew out a stream of fire.
The fire spread across the metallic wire in no time, raging across the scythe like a flaming serpent. Heron was careful to make sure that the wires and the subsequent fire only touched the scythe without injuring Hidan's body.
But Hidan didn't play by the rules. Before anyone could react, he reached out with his other hand and grabbed the flaming wire. "You can't stop a devoted Jashinist from seeking death, you losers!"
Burn marks started to appear on Asuma's hand the moment Hidan grabbed into the flaming wire. As much as Heron tried to retract his wires before Hidan could turn them into tools of self-mutilation, the damage was already done when a searing mark stretched across Hidan's arm, all the way from his hand to his elbow.
'Don't dwell on it, Heron. You did what needed to be done!' Shikamaru called out in his head when he felt the hesitation and guilt that radiated from his friend's body. Despite the deep breath that Asuma took to steady himself from the searing pain, the determination in his eyes was clearer than ever.
The bloodstain that used to be on Hidan's scythe was now gone, burnt away by the fire, leaving not a single speck left.
It took Hidan a moment to catch up when he glanced at his own scythe, seeing nothing but a thin layer of black soot. His eyes twitched in annoyance as he pulled his scythe free from the web of wires.
'Break the chains that connected the scythe to him.' Shikamaru didn't have any time to waste. He thought about the weapon in Hidan's hand, the triple-bladed design was obviously to increase the chance of drawing blood.
The cord attached to the handle, however, was designed to extend the range, even if it would add considerable weight and difficulty in manipulation. That alone suggested Hidan as someone that would prefer to move as little as possible when he attacked.
To Shikamaru, that was enough of a clue to add to the speculation that the Jashin symbol grounded him in a small space, forcing him to perform his attacks while staying stationary.
But this was a matter that Shikamaru couldn't just leave in half-assed speculation, like what they had provided for the Hoshina household. He couldn't afford to think about what would happen if he was wrong.
Clank! Asuma pushed his chakra blade against Hidan's scythe, stopping it just a few inches short of the missing-nin's throat. What a devilish laugh, Hidan suddenly turned the blades around, aiming the sharp edges at Asuma instead.
Heron was faster, predicting the course of his action as every detail slowed in the sharingan. Ninja wires lashed out from his hands, making a sharp in the air when the leading shuriken was hit by another.
Heron pulled the scythe black with the wires as he jumped back, forcing it away from Asuma before it could draw another ink of blood. Unfortunately, unlike them. Hidan had options. Without stopping, he shook his scythe and made the blades detach, letting them fly towards Heron, going with the forces of the wires instead of against them.
Just then, Hidan's muscle locked in place, unable to move another inch as shadows crept up from underneath, connecting all the way back to Shikamaru. His arms remained in the air as the scythe was raised above his head, exposing the stretch of cord that connected his waist and the weapon.
The chakra blade stuck to the ground shivered in a high-pitched noise as wind chakra spun around it. As soon as Asuma finished the last hand seal, the trench knife broke out of the floor and zoomed across the air, cutting through the cord in the blink of an eye before returning to Asuma's hand.
Shikamaru clenched his teeth as he forced Hidan to release his grip with his shadow, just a little. Heron rushed in at the perfect timing, aiming a heavy kick at the scythe, kicking it off of the missing-nin's hand, just before Shikamaru's control over his shadow snapped.
Shikamaru panted heavily, trying to catch his breath when he felt chakra slipping away from his body little by little until the emptiness was almost suffocating. In the corner of his vision, the scythe fell on the ground, five metres away from the Jashin symbol.
Hidan didn't move to reach for it, even if it would only take a moment.
There, Shikamaru had all the answers he needed.
Hidan moved his gaze to Kakuzu, whom the remaining three Anbu agents were barely holding in check as they clashed in ninjutsu of mass destruction. God knows how Kakuzu summoned black masses with masks to fight alongside him, but Shikamaru had no choice but to believe in the Anbu that were risking their lives.
Then, Hidan turned to him, as if finally realizing that little by little, Shikamaru was unveiling the details of his 'curse', when he didn't even notice it.
"This seriously sucks," Hidan said as killing intent grew thick around him. Without any hesitation, he grabbed his own shoulder and pulled.
Immediately, Asuma let out a gasp of pain as he clenched on his own shoulder, the chakra blade dropped from his hand as he lost control over his hand muscle. 'He dislocated his shoulder,' Asuma told them through Ino's Mind-Body transmission.
He's going insane, Shikamaru concluded in his head. If Hidan was feeling like he was in control before, then now was the moment that he felt threatened. Everything seemed to go against him, nothing seemed to work in his way. This irritation coupled with a feeling of unease would make him very dangerous.
They couldn't wait anymore, for Asuma's sake, for everyone's sake.
'What do you need for a genjutsu to work?' Shikamaru asked Heron in his mind, followed up with the exact details of what he wanted the genjutsu to be.
'As long as he has a strong desire for it, it will work,' Heron answered immediately, with a certainty that came from trust in one's ability. It was contagious, making Shikamaru feel that he too, could make it work if he just pushed a little harder, to reach a little farther. With that, Shikamaru told everyone his plan.
Unable to hear what Shikamaru was thinking, Hidan did what he did best - destroy himself. With a strong force, he crashed his knee into the ground. Shikamaru could hear the horrifying cracking of the bones when Asuma fell down as well. Blood started to soak through his pants as he struggled to steady himself with the loss of one knee.
As expected, Shikamaru lashed out with his shadow, binding the crazy missing-nin with threads that looked like it could break at any moment.
It must have felt like that to Hidan as well, as he laughed and mocked, "You're out of moves, shadow boy, Your bindings are getting weaker the more you use it. The moment I break out of it, I will crush his other knee as well!"
None of them paid any attention to his threat. Behind Hidan, Heron whipped out a handful of shuriken tied to ninja wire and threw them towards the missing-nin. Hidan must have thought that the ninja wires too, were becoming less and less effective, especially when he didn't have a weapon anymore.
He was correct. When used on human bodies, Heron couldn't bind Hidan without hurting Asuma-sensei. But that was not what those ninja wires were for.
Hidan's expression of mockery turned into confusion when the shuriken sailed above his head, and then over Shikamaru's head as well. As if on cue, Chōji expanded his body, letting his giant figure loom over Shikamaru as he caught the shuriken with his gigantic fist.
"You're right that my shadows are getting weaker. But nobody ever said that I can't reinforce them," Shikamaru said as his chakra pulse intensely, travelling from his shadow to Chōji's shadow, then through the shadows made by the ninja wires, no thinner than spider threads, before arriving at Hidan's.
It took considerable energy to expand Shikamaru's own shadow, making its efficiency drop exponentially as distance increased. However, it was a different story if he and his target were already connected by existing shadows.
The battlefield had already been reduced to a clearing by Kakuzu's wild attacks earlier, leaving everything exposed under the sun. If there were no shadows to begin with, they just had to create their own.
Shikamaru could feel his chakra being drained at lightning speed the moment he started walking backwards. His legs felt like they were wrapped in a casing of lead as Hidan resisted the external control. But never had Shikamaru felt this strong, never did he believe this firmly, even if his enemy was ten times stronger than him in physique, combat skills, and chakra level.
After all, he had caught him in the shadows, and he was not letting go until he had done all he could.
Slowly, Shikamaru pulled Hidan out of his circle of blood with his own movement. The moment the black and white markings faded on the missing-nin's body, Heron shot a kunai, nicking the barest of the skin on his right arm.
The same injury didn't show on Asuma.
It was then that Shikamaru felt his control slipping as his chakra ran dry. As the recipient of his Shadow Possession, Hidan felt it first. With the ferocity of a demon, Hidan struggled through, moving forward little by little.
A kunai embedded itself in Hidan's knee - the one that he broke earlier but didn't succumb to the injury as Asuma did - but it didn't slow down his step at all. Shikamaru's control kept on slipping until finally, Hidan took one last step to connect his feet with the Jashin symbol.
"Thanks for the weapon! It's game over!" Shikamaru's shadows finally lost their power as Hidan pulled the kunai out of his knee. Savouring the expression of horror on his opponents' faces, especially the pain of his offering as he struggled to even stand with a broken knee, Hidan stabbed the kunai through his chest and made sure he reached the heart.
Hidan stumbled as he fell to the ground. Even his enduring body wouldn't negate the shock of an injured heart so easily. The pain was overwhelming, but his source of joy - the same expression of despair and agony on his offerings face - never appeared.
In that moment of vulnerability when Hidan tried to regenerate his heart, a chakra blade zoomed across the air, leaving only the wail of the wind on its path, before it sliced through Hidan's neck clean like butter.
Dragged by the trench knife's momentum, Hidan's head rolled for a few seconds before it came to a stop.
"What the hell?" Hidan yelled, half in disbelief and half in anger. But the curses got caught in his throat when he looked in the direction of his own fallen body. The Jashin circle was still a metre away from where he had fallen. "A genjutsu? How, when?"
"The most effective genjutsu is not about what the caster wants, but what the person caught in it wants to see," Heron said from behind as Chōji swung his giant fist down at the Jashin symbol and cracked the earth apart. A giant fireball arrived next, charring the ground black until any semblance of blood was destroyed.
"Kakuzu, Kakuzu! Sew me back!" Hidan yelled as panic filled his voice.
"Che, stay there a little longer. I'm dealing with something right now," Kakuzu spared Hidan a glance before he moved his attention to getting the black masses out of the swirling mud. A bundle of gray cords sprung out of one of the black figures, trying to reach for Hidan, only for it to get slapped to the side by a whip of electricity that extended from Jackal's hand.
Shikamaru wanted to yell to his teammates, telling them to do whatever they could to destroy Hidan's body - which he was not sure of what that entailed. But his consciousness was slipping as chakra exhaustion enveloped his entire body.
Crap, Dad's going to hear all about how I exhausted myself with the shadows and I'm going to get double the training AND the nagging. Ahh, so troublesome …
Before Shikamaru could let out a sigh of exasperation, he fell unconscious.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
Sasuke felt stupid when Hidan's severed head kept on cursing even when enveloped by a ball of fire.
"Hahaha, this is like a light scratching on my back!" Hidan's coughs and laughter were mixed together, but no matter what kind of sound he was making, the mocking was evident.
Suddenly, Sasuke stabbed his sword into the ground, sending the crackling lightning into the ground. A few metres away, the ground split open as a bundle of cords swarmed out of the floor, driven out of hiding by the electricity. Without a pause, Sasuke blew out a giant fireball, forcing the threads to scatter and retreat amidst the explosive flames.
Team Rei was a team built for combat, each member was an expert in ninjutsu of at least one chakra nature, giving them diversity in their attacks as a whole. That was why Sasuke's teammates were able to hold themselves against the S-rank missing-nin and occupy most of Kakuzu's attention.
Most, but not all.
Even if Kakuzu claimed that he didn't have time for Hidan, the fact that his cords kept sneaking in their direction said otherwise. They needed to get rid of Hidan's body as fast as possible, to the point that it couldn't be stitched together by Kakuzu's threads.
Shikamaru had fainted from chakra exhaustion. Asuma-san suffered a dislocated shoulder and a broken knee. The two of them were carried to Sakura by Chōji, who, along with Ino, were standing guards over their make-shift medical station, warding off stray ninjutsu and occasional sneak attacks from Kakuzu. Sakura totally looked like she was having a field day, with the sudden spike of patients around her, when she still had her hands full on the first one.
As things stood, the job of getting rid of Hidan's body before Kakuzu could sew things back together fell on Sasuke. Unfortunately, he was having trouble making it work.
Fire merely grazed Hidan's skin, only being able to burn off the surface layer before the regeneration took over, preserving the missing-nin in a state of severe burns, but never quite enough to shut him up for good.
The explosion caused by a combination of fire and lightning chakra helped, but not by much. Bones started to show on Hidan's severed body, as his flesh got blown off by the explosion, but the moment Sasuke stopped supplying chakra to the ninjutsu, the undying zombie started to regenerate, mending the holes and peeling away the burns.
"More, more! It's like you're giving me a massage!" Of course, the taunts added another layer of emotional trauma. Sasuke was already in a bad mood and the suffocating atmosphere was not helping. In a moment of disgust, Sasuke gathered up the concentrated lightning in his arm and drove Chidori right through Hidan's severed head.
The remaining carcass was not a pretty scene, but at least Sasuke got some peace and quiet.
However, that peace was short-lived. Just as Sasuke was about to go join his teammates against Kakuzu, the manic laughter returned as a whisper. Despite having half of his head blown off earlier, the muscles and bones on Hidan's face already regenerated to the point that he could mock Sasuke.
As long as one black thread could reach Hidan, stitching his neck and body together, all of their sacrifices, all of Shikamaru's efforts would be null.
Sasuke couldn't let that happen, but at this point, he would just be wasting chakra if he repeated the same useless endeavour. He needed something stronger, something that would overwhelm Hidan's regeneration and destroy at a rate that surpassed the speed at which Hidan's body healed to make itself functional, and it had to do so for every cell in the missing-nin's body, all at once.
An image of the ruby-red fire, incinerating everything it touched into ashes and dust, faster than anyone could breathe. Sasuke's mind inevitably pulled that scene from his memory. He was certain that not one practitioner of fire-jutsu could escape the fate of being mesmerized by such flame.
What lay at the end of that fatal attraction, of course, was a burning desire to recreate the scenery, in any way he could.
Sasuke could still remember how Maiko-nee stood in silence, observing him making a mess out of their training ground, burning trees left and right, trying to tame the fire that was born out of all of Sasuke's frustration, rage, and ugly desires.
It had been a month since Sasuke left for Anbu, more than enough time and separation for Sasuke to get over his pride and ask for help.
The flame danced in front of their eyes, crude and uneven as spots of blue and white rose from how concentrated the fire chakra was. It destroyed things on its path in the blink of an eye like it was supposed to, but it also destroyed things that it was not meant to.
A thin layer of chakra shimmered around their body as Maiko-nee's silver ribcage faded, protecting both of them from the fire that couldn't differentiate friends from foes.
Sasuke's legs buckled as he fell down on his butt due to chakra exhaustion. His breathing was rushed as he gasped for air to fill his lungs. Everything around them was hot and suffocating, and he had no one to blame but himself.
A jutsu that was out of control was unacceptable because it was not 'Sasuke against the world'. Sasuke was fighting alongside his teammates - from Anbu, from Team 7. He wanted to fight with his siblings, with Naruto, none of whom would ever want to hurt.
As much as he told himself that he would make it work somehow, sometimes, he wondered if his fire was born out of the wrong circumstances because it arose from his rage, frustration, and a sense of inferiority.
Shaking his head to get the thoughts out of his head, Sasuke felt Maiko-nee sitting down beside him - just the two of them, facing the charred training ground in front of them.
"I don't want to tone down the power," Sasuke said all of a sudden, fighting back the urge to smack himself because of how stubborn he sounded. But all jutsu needed to have a purpose, and Sasuke knew from the beginning that the purpose of this fire jutsu, while still in its infancy, was to destroy.
"That's fine." Sasuke was surprised to hear that because Maiko-nee was always reminding him of the importance of control over power. Noticing the skepticism in his eyes, his sister let out a chuckle and patted him on the back. "Really, it'll be fine the way it is."
She was talking about the jutsu, but Sasuke felt like she was also talking about something else. His sister always seemed to see through him - his pent-up anger, his unspoken frustration, and his stupid struggles - more than he'd like to admit.
"I always thought that fire is kind of like emotions. It dances in joy, flutters in excitement, rages in anger, and also destroys out of hatred," Maiko-nee said as they stared into the empty clearing, devoid of anything except the ugly aftermath of Sasuke's uncontrolled flames. "Moreover, even if they both arose out of us, they seem to have a will of their own."
"That's an understatement," Sasuke muttered under his breath. He had yet to feel any sense of control besides the feeling of being dragged along by the fire. It was his chakra, for god's sake, so why did he have to run from the flames so that he was not burned to a crisp?
Maiko-nee let out another laugh upon hearing his words, before turning her body to face him. "I'm sorry to say this, but that's just how they are, flames and emotions alike. You can't smother their existence, because they are a part of you, just a part that's not always pretty at a first glance."
She raised her hand and placed a finger on Sasuke's chest, where his heart was beating under her touch, as the centre for his circulatory and chakra system.
"You're angry, you're frustrated, and you want to destroy something. You want your flames to burn through everything and burn forever. So accept those desires and know that there's nothing wrong with it." She moved her finger upwards, hovering over his neck and his face and eventually landed between his eyes. "Power can come from emotion, you should know that. Having control over your jutsu is not a prerequisite, but a product of being in control of yourself."
Against Sasuke's dazed expression, Maiko-nee lightly flicked his forehead, making him scrunch his face in annoyance. "Are you listening?"
"Yeah, accept my flawed personality and stupid emotions, I got it," Sasuke said, making his sister shake her head in exasperation. He did get it, really. His fire was born out of a myriad of negative emotions, each more destructive than the last.
But at least, it wasn't wrong. It had a meaning, or Sasuke was determined to give it a meaning.
"On a more technical note, without the threads of yin-chakra to stabilize fire chakra of this concentration, it won't hold for long after they leave your body - half a second, from what I observed," Maiko-nee said as she narrowed her eyes at the charred scenery as if she was seeing the fire coming alive.
"You can try extending that period. With practice - and I mean a lot more practice - and perhaps some shape transformation to add to the integrity of the construct, one second, maybe one and a half, would not be impossible, but it'll still be a small window between when you released the jutsu and when it would engulf everything around it indiscriminately," she continued with her advice and Sasuke nodded, listening with care.
"If you want to capitalize its destructive power to its full extent, then you need to make up for the other parts to make it useful. For that, timing will be important." She turned to him and gave him a smile. "But that won't be a problem for our Sasuke, right?"
"Of course not," Sasuke replied immediately. Timing, huh, if there was one thing that the Sharingan was good at, it was catching those lost moments down to the milliseconds.
"Nevertheless, it's very impressive. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action," Maiko-nee said in conclusion. At that moment, Sasuke could feel his heart beating faster with restlessness and anticipation. He too wanted to show her his flames that would make her pause her gaze, like the way her fire was always imprinted in his eyes.
Back to the present, Sasuke turned around and flickered away from Hidan's severed head and body. He felt his mind being latched on by a familiar chakra - it was Shun, supporting them from a distance, reconnecting his mind with that of his Anbu teammate.
'Heron, explain why you're running the other way?' Captain Crane asked, giving him a chance to explain his confusing action before yelling at him.
'I can turn Hidan's body - and anything in the vicinity - into ashes. I just need five seconds,' Sasuke answered as he placed his fingers in his mouth and whistled.
'Anything in the vicinity, you say?' Captain Crane asked and Sasuke could already hear the wheels turning in the man's head. 'Alright, do your best and then get your ass here to help us.'
It was nice of him to think that Sasuke's attack would work, after so many failed attempts from before. Well, best to return the trust, he supposed.
Garuda zoomed in from the background, bringing with him a rush of wind that seemed to slice the sky open. Sasuke caught the ride the moment Garuda passed by, clenching onto the feathers as he focused his gaze on Hidan's remains and gathered up his chakra.
In a periphery, Jackal got caught by the Kakuzu's cords as his severed hand rose from the ground and grabbed the Anbu's leg and pulled it into the ground. As his teammate got pinned in place, one of Kakuzu's masked shadows blew out a sea of fire towards Jackal, all the while sending the black cords out towards Hidan like slithering snakes.
Crane arrived in front of Jackal just in time to raise a waterfall in front of them, blocking off the fire at the last second. Switching his hand seals, Crane summoned up two columns of water from his feet, breaking through the wall of fire and pushing the Fire Mask towards Hidan's direction.
Just as Kakuzu's black cords reached Hidan, threading itself into the skin around Hidan's neck, Sasuke arrived right above it.
Time slowed down for Sasuke as he focused on nothing but his own chakra and the severed body in front of him - not Hidan's yell of joy, not the sneaky black cord that could undo all their effort up until now, and not the fact that Garuda was flying faster than the wind itself.
It was then that Sasuke found the right moment, blowing out a stream of fire that circled around Hidan's severed body like a serpent. For a fleeting moment, blue hues danced on the serpent's skin as if the fire had a life of its own.
Katon: Tōda.
0.8 second - that was how long Sasuke had to get out after the jutsu's full manifestation, just enough time for Garuda to carry Sasuke away, so long as he didn't make any pauses. If only he could extend that time to 1 second, then it would be enough time for Sasuke to get out using body flickers. But as of now, Sasuke had to settle for what he had.
Just as Garuda and Sasuke rose to the sky, the fire serpent expanded behind him in its full glory, incinerating everything in a ten-meter radius, almost catching up the hawk's tail with its blaze. Unlike those times during practice, he didn't tone down the power for safety.
As he told his captain, everything in the vicinity - Hidan's severed body, the snake-like black threads, and half of the masked shadow that spat fire, was reduced to ashes.
He made such a big scene that even Kakuzu was distracted for a second as he hurriedly tried to reel in the Fire Mask as it flopped to the ground. It was at that moment that Crane and Jackal struck at the same time, lightning wrapped around the water dragon as they smashed into Kakuzu, sending electric currents down his body.
An earth spike rose from the ground, digging into Kakuzu's flesh and piercing through his chest. The stones cracked against Kakuzu's hardened musculature, only to reveal a blade as Elk followed from below the ground, driving her sword into the missing-nin's heart.
There was a moment of silence as everyone held their breath for the aftermath - damn, at this point, they couldn't even expect the general rule of 'people die when they get stabbed through the heart'.
It was hard to say if it was a surprise or not when Kakuzu's body convulsed violently. Elk had to abandon her sword and flee when the black cords started swarming wildly around Kakuzu's body. Within a span of a breath, the fire mask - still with half of its body destroyed - got pulled back into Kakuzu's chest.
Kakuzu straightened his body, eyeing the four of them as Sasuke dropped down from Garuda's back, in no way was he close to the definition of dead.
"Water, Earth, Lightning, and Fire." Kakuzu eyed them one by one, biting the last word as his gaze landed on Sasuke. "I guess your heart will be used to replace the one I had lost."
Despite the fact that Team Rei had yet to suffer a casualty after they had lost Lynx, they were all battered to different degrees and far from injury-free. Jackal had a broken leg, Crane had a large patch of burn across his shoulder, and Elk's left arm hung by her side, unable to take any weight. Somehow, Sasuke seemed to be the one in the best shape.
It was then that Sasuke felt something cold hitting his face. So it's not my imagination that the air kept getting heavier. It started to rain.
The rain doused the lingering flames around where Hidan's body used to be, revealing piles of ashes on the ground. Sasuke could still see the remnants of chakra buzzing amongst the black particles, telling him that no, Hidan was not dead - in a broad, unexplained way, that was - and given enough time, he would regenerate back to a loud-mouthed cursed individual once again.
At least, it won't be anytime soon, and he doubted that Kakuzu's thread would be able to help in the process.
As for the Takigakure missing-nin in front of him. One, two, three … Sasuke counted three masked shadows - Water, Wind, and Lightning - besides Kakuzu. Four more hearts, okay, that's just cheating. I don't know how Maiko-nee deals with those that won't die, but this is just ridiculous.
There was a moment of silence before Sasuke heard Crane's voice in his mind. 'I agree, that's totally cheating. And I don't know how she deals with them either, but I imagined it has to do with repeating the process until they're fully dead.'
Sasuke didn't even realize that he had said those words out loud through the Mind-Body Transmission. Awkward.
'I just connected with the reinforcement, but that team of Anbu won't arrive for another fifteen minutes.' Shun told them, saving Sasuke from feeling mortified.
Fifteen minutes sounded like the length of a lifetime for them, especially since Kakuzu was in a state of livid fury. Sasuke sent Garuda to protect Sakura as she tried to get both Shikamaru and Asuma-san healed enough to run, but the pressure would only increase from here.
'Here it comes.' Crane didn't need to warn Sasuke, for a tornado of water was already slamming into him. His body moved on autopilot as he blew out a wall of fire in front of him. He couldn't run because Team 10 was right on the path of Kakuzu's water jutsu.
Still, it sucked when the rain splattered down onto Sasuke's fire, shrinking its size when it was already at a disadvantage against the water nature. It felt like even Heaven was against him.
The fire struggled against the water before the sea of blue broke through, but his jutsu put up enough of a fight for Crane's waterfall to arrive in time, both augmented by the rain, crashing into each other in an old-fashioned face-off.
A shield of mud surrounded Sasuke as Elk placed her hand - the only good one left - on the ground and poured her chakra in. The mud shield saved Sasuke from being slapped around by the violent currents, but it also exposed herself just as the Wind Mask opened its mouth.
"Garuda!" Sasuke yelled as he rushed forward, moulding his chakra in a hurry as he formed the hand seals. None of his jutsu was the defensive kind, so the best he could do was to direct the attack towards the enemy.
Sasuke called down the Narukami just as Wind Mask blew out a torrent of pressurized air. The lightning struck down from the sky, cracking the mask on the shadowy figure, but not fast enough to stop its attack.
At the last moment, Jackal arrived in front of Elk and raised a shabby-looking earth wall in front of them. Jackal's earth wall didn't last long against the gale of wind - it wasn't his strong suit, after all - and the wind slapped them both into the air, with Jackal taking the brunt of the damage for Elk.
Garuda managed to storm through the flying rumbles and grabbed both of Sasuke's teammates, shielding them with his own feathers as he slugged them towards Sakura.
Great, Sakura had just managed to get Shikamaru conscious again and fixed the broken bones and damaged organs in the Jinchuuriki. Before she could move onto Asuma's busted knee, Garuda brought her two more to work with, one of them was knocked out by the gale and the other was on the verge of unconsciousness with a broken arm.
But an Anbu agent, even as battered as Elk, should not be underestimated. Sasuke could see the rage and determination boiling in her eyes as she focused her attention on the Wind Mask, its movement slowed from Sasuke's earlier attack.
They had just lost Lynx, and Jackal's fate was uncertain. With that in mind, Elk pressed the reminder of her chakra into the ground and let it rush through the earth, before rising up as mud around the Wind Mask.
Her mud clawed onto the black shadow made of swarming cords before hardening as restraints. It was an opportunity, and Sasuke had to take it.
The rain had all progressed into a downpour and Sasuke could even hear the rumbling of clouds in the background. Sasuke was once again reminded how small he was against the power of nature, how the Uchiha flames could be so easily affected by something as volatile and spontaneous as weather
Ughh, screw the weather.
Sasuke let the lightning chakra tumble in his body. It was a strange feeling when the electricity on his fingertips seemed to resonate with the rumbling thunder in the background. He could feel it, the electrical energy contained within the sky.
Sasuke caught that moment of epiphany, letting Narukami soak in all that energy from the clouds before guiding it down. Compared to that of Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke's Narukami always struggled with maintaining its power and precision when the distance increased.
But this time, the flash of lightning roared as it struck down, shattering the Wind Mask in a second as the thunder engulfed the mass of black.
Sasuke didn't have time to be awed, for he saw the bundles of wires slipping under the ground, heading straight for Sakura's temporary healing station. On the other hand, Crane couldn't hold off the Water Mask by himself anymore, not when the Lightning Mask joined the fray as it shot out a beam of black lightning, destroying Crane's water wall in a fraction of a second.
"Go! Ino can sense the cords. We'll protect Sakura and the injured!" Asuma-san shouted from behind, just as Chōji punched the ground, forcing the black cords to come out of hiding. Shikamaru's shadow followed, restraining the cords long enough for Asuma to shred them with his wind blades.
Despite the commotion around her, Sakura focused on healing Jackal and Elk with steady hands, working as fast as she could to keep everyone alive.
Sasuke wondered if Shikamaru and Asuma had forgotten that they were injured too - the former looked like he was about to faint again anytime now and the latter was still limping - but you know what, beggars can't be choosers.
Lightning pulsed on Sasuke's blade as he took a swing, sending chains of lightning out towards Crane's water dragon. The lightning wrapped around the water dragon as it clashed with the combined attack of Water and Lightning Masks.
Two against two, and there were the same elements on both sides. However, both Sasuke and Crane were running the last leg in terms of their chakra reserve. The soldier pill had already been used earlier.
The Masks, on the other hand, seemed to have an endless source of energy. Then, it really wasn't a surprise when their electro-infused water dragon got shattered into pieces under the water torrents combined with the black lightning.
Crane pushed Sasuke to the side as they both flickered away to avoid being drowned and then electrocuted. Water smeared on Sasuke's face - from the rain and from the splashes of jutsu - running into his eyes, nose, and mouth. He coughed violently, trying to get rid of the water down the wrong pipe.
'Heron, watch out on your right!' Crane's warning came just in time for Sasuke to raise his blade against a swarm of Kakuzu's threads. But it was far from over, for the missing-nin itself popped up from the ground and punched him in the torso, sending him flying.
Cling! Sasuke could vaguely see his Captain landing in front of him, blocking further attacks from Kakuzu with his sword. Water started rising from Crane's leg, ramming into the missing-nin to force him to fall back.
Sasuke sucked in a deep breath, feeling a sharp pain on the side of his body. He fumbled around and found the jagged stone that rammed into his flesh when he crashed landed. Blood started to soak through his clothes, making it all slimy and disgusting when Sasuke tried to move.
When he pressed down on his wound to assess the severity, he remembered something he had tucked in his undershirt before leaving the Anbu Headquarter - it was a talisman given to him by Naruto, from two months ago when he was back from his training with Jiraiya very briefly.
Naruto had given the seal to him and told him to keep it close. But when Sasuke asked what it was for, all he got was a smug smile and a 'you'll find out when the time comes, hehe." It made Sasuke want to throw the piece of paper into the river and forget it ever existed. But of course, like an idiot, Sasuke did what Naruto asked.
So far, Sasuke had yet to find out what it was for and he was starting to think it was just a half-assed prank.
Therefore, it came as a shock when a giant toad poofed into existence. For the first time, Sasuke questioned his sharingan when he saw Naruto and Jiraiya the Sannin standing on top of the toad. The blonde boy looked around until he found Sasuke lying in a pile of rocks, dazed and confused as his sharingan swirled behind the mask.
"Sasuke! Are you okay?" Of course, that was the first thing he asked.
You're not supposed to call my real name. Sasuke would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't busy pulling himself up from the ground against the throbbing pain.
It was funny that Kakuzu was the first one to get a hold of the situation. It took the missing-nin a second of contemplation before he called back his masks and started running away.
Like hell they were going to let him do that, not when everyone had paid so much to corner the missing-nin up until this point.
Crane lashed out with tendrils of water to bind the fleeing missing-nin as Jiraiya the Sannin fired a stream of oil along with his toad summons, covering the clearing with a layer of viscous liquid, slowing down the missing-nin and his remaining masked shadows.
With a yell in anger, Kakuzu willed the Water and Lightning Mask to melt together as one. Chakra gathered behind the masks, lighting up in Sasuke's vision like lightbulbs. Then, a tsunami charged with wild black lightning crashed down on all of them.
Crane and Jiraiya had already sprung into action, using their respective jutsu to fight against the tsunami of destruction. But neither Crane's water nor Jiraiya's oil had enough penetrating power to break through the wall of water, only able to hold it back and prevent it from electrocuting everyone on the spot.
Sasuke wondered if he were to use Katon: Tōda again to try to break through Kakuzu's attack, could he get out of the range of the jutsu in time, or rather, would he even have enough chakra left to move afterwards?
He really didn't like the odds, but before he could think further, his attention was overtaken by a voice that he couldn't ignore.
"Sasuke, let's go!" Naruto yelled as he landed beside him and formed two more shadow clones.
Stop calling my name! And what do you mean 'let's go'?!
Sasuke never felt this stressed out in his entire life. But when the ball of wild chakra in his hand started to resonate a high-pitched sound, reminiscent of Asuma-san's wind blade, Sasuke's hands moved on their own in a motion so deeply ingrained in his memory.
It was raining - not as heavily as before, but still enough to make it very stupid for Sasuke to try something that was already deemed inefficient.
But Wind was supposed to help Fire spread, fueling the blaze and carrying it to places it couldn't reach alone.
"Futon: Rasengan!" "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu."
The moment the swirling ball of wind touched the giant fireball, they formed a catastrophe that couldn't be stopped. The fire swirled in joy as it turned into a flaming tornado, cutting through the electro-charged tsunami and engulfing the masked shadows that were fused together.
Kakuzu … where did he go?
Sasuke whipped his head around when he felt the rush of chakra towards Sakura's medical station.
The first rule of combat, kill the medic-nin. Sakura was their backbone, making sure that their injured teammates wouldn't die so that those who could still move could perform their duties without any worry.
Kakuzu flipped Chōji out of the way as he emerged from the ground. His entire body turned into a giant mass of swarming cords as threads connected his limbs and body parts, making him look more like a stitched-up ragdoll than a human.
Garuda had long been released from Sasuke's summon because he didn't have enough chakra left to maintain the hawk's existence. Desperation made Kakuzu attack in a reckless manner, slapping away Asuma and Shikamaru's jutsu with hordes of black cords rushing out of his body.
But desperation was a drug and no drug was without its side effects. Sakura didn't flinch as she paused what she was doing and punched Kakuzu with a force strong enough to knock the inhuman creature back. Then, she punched the ground, sending rumbles up to form a screen in front of her as she stood in front of her injured patients like the most diligent guardian.
Like many, Kakuzu underestimated Sakura's burst of strength. He also underestimated how much her medical ninjutsu was worth to a jinchuuriki who already had unparalleled regeneration.
With the broken rocks blocking Kakuzu's sense of surrounding, a claw made up of bright blue chakra thrust forward and plunged itself into the missing-nin's chest, taking the last beating heart that kept his monstrous machine of a body moving.
Kakuzu's mouth hung open as threads connected his jaws, but no words could come out as the cords that held his body together lost their energy, causing him to flop to the ground, never to move again.
For the first time, Sasuke was able to fully observe the Two-Tail Jinchuuriki. The woman coughed violently as the tailed-beast chakra faded around her arm. She was covered in blood, but the Kumogakure headband around her forehead was still very recognizable.
"Please don't overexert yourself. It took so long to get you conscious again," Sakura said in exasperation as she rushed to the Kumo-nin before she could fall to the ground.
The Kumogakure kunoichi didn't stop her when Sakura hovered her hand over her chest and let the green medical chakra glow with warmth. She glanced at the medic-nin, before moving her gaze around to see the band of Konoha shinobi, slumped around the clearing in various states of health.
Oh, let's not forget the giant toad with a sword in his hand.
Suspicion brewed in her eyes, but at least there was no visible hostility.
"I've sent a message to Kumo's Border Patrol. They should be here soon, so long as they take my words seriously." Asuma-san broke the silence as he tried to pull himself up from the ground. Unfortunately, that knee was failing him.
The Kumo-nin nodded before she said, "You all have my thanks. I'll make sure that Raikage-sama hears of this and understands its utmost emergency."
The Jonin let out a whisper that awfully sounded like "fucking finally", curse word and all, before he admitted defeat to his broken leg and fell back onto the ground.
On his right, Sasuke vaguely heard his Captain giving Jiraiya a recap of events, before directing his attention to the pile of ashes all the way across the field. Jiraiya's jaw dropped open when he heard that whatever that pile of ashes was made up of might still be alive. But the Sannin composed himself quickly and proceeded to douse the ashes with oil and let the liquid-ash mixture fill half a dozen empty bottles.
Hidan was still alive - whatever that definition was - so Jiraiya couldn't store them in a storage seal. With no other choices, he packed the bottles onto his toad summon and ushered Naruto along to return to the domain of the sage toads.
Sasuke grabbed onto Naruto's clothes as he let himself sit down on the ground, exhausted and tired and still very confused. "How the hell are you here?" he asked as Naruto ignored Jiraiya and sat down beside him.
"It's a modification of the reverse summoning seal. Ero-sennin helped me design it so that it'll notify us when it's soaked in your blood and chakra." Naruto explained in excitement as Sasuke struggled to pull out the blood-soaked paper stuck to his uniform.
"I'm so glad it worked, Sasu—" Sasuke clapped his hand over Naruto's mouth before he could once again remind him that anonymity didn't mean shit in Anbu. Not for him, anyway.
"Stop calling me by my name. Can't you see where I work now?" Sasuke sighed in exhaustion, wondering why he even bothered.
"Oh, my bad … ummm Duck?" Naruto squinted his eyes as he tried to make out what the hell Sasuke's mask was supposed to be. It was a hard task, given that the mask was covered in mud and blood and a lot of other things that Sasuke didn't want to remember. Still, it still made Sasuke want to punch his friend in the face for saying that.
"Just … don't call me anymore" Sasuke settled with that and Naruto let out an 'oops' in apology.
"Oh, Ohh, did you see my newest version of Rasengan? I managed to infuse some wind chakra into it. It's so hard and I still can't, what was that word again, multi-doing—"
"Multitasking," Sasuke supplied as his eyes twitched
"—Right, multitasking, so I had to split the work between my clones. Also, I made more super awesome seals and I can't wait to show you all of them. Let me tell you, one of them …"
"Naruto! Get your ass over here!" Naruto squirmed when Jiraiya yelled at him again in impatience. He wasn't supposed to be here, not when they had to keep his trail hidden as one of the targeted Jinchuuriki.
"Go," Sasuke said, pushing him lightly on the shoulder. They still had so much to say, after such a long separation, but Sasuke was certain that they'll see each other again. "It's good to see you again, reminds me exactly how annoying you are."
For once, Naruto wasn't riled up by Sasuke's sarcastic words. There was a moment of silence before Naruto pulled him into a hug. "You're awesome, you know, winning against one of the S-rank missing-nin. But believe it when I say that I'm going to catch up one day."
Sasuke wanted to say that it was questionable if he was 'winning', and there was also the fact that it was with Naruto's help that they destroyed two of Kakuzu's hearts. You don't need to catch up. You're already there.
Still, that was way too exhausting for Sasuke's brain, so he opted to just return the hug and pushed Naruto to Jiraiya before the legendary Sannin ran out of patience.
The rest of the events faded into a blur. Just as Shun said, their Anbu reinforcements arrived ten minutes later, with a medic-nin that helped Sakura lighten the workload of her healing - which was more or less needed by everyone at this point.
The Kumogakure Border Patrol arrived a little later. Sasuke might have slipped in and out of consciousness back then. By the time he woke up again, one of the Anbu was carrying him as they moved towards Konoha's direction.
According to his teammates, the two-tailed Jinchuuriki was on her way back to Kumogakure with her fellow Kumo-nin, planning to relay the knowledge of Akatsuki's attack back to their Raikage as soon as possible.
Sasuke wanted to argue when his captain admitted him into the hospital, saying that compared to others, his injuries were on the mild side. But a look from Crane shut him up.
"Look, Heron, our team suffered losses on this mission. Lynx died before any of us even realized what happened. It'll take Jackal and Elk a while before they can even get out of bed, even then, it's uncertain if they'll return to front-line duties. They're all honourable sacrifices, I'm sure, but it doesn't make my mood any less terrible. So don't make my job worse than it is and just stay still at the hospital."
Sasuke couldn't argue with that, but still, he raised an eyebrow - now fully visible without the mask - and asked, "Are you going to follow your own advice, Captain?"
The older man paused a little before letting out a laugh. "Yeah, sure. After I give Hokage-sama my report, I'll take the bed next to yours and we can supervise each other's speedy recovery, how does that sound?"
That sounds terrible, but Sasuke supposed he walked himself into that one.
"Congratulations on surviving your first S-rank mission. You've become somewhat of a dependable Anbu agent," his captain told him as he exited the door. He didn't close the door completely, and Sasuke only realized why he did that when his sister walked in right after.
For a second, Sasuke didn't know what to say when Maiko-nee examined him with worry in her eyes. Sorry to make you worry? I'm doing fine, better than most of my teammates, actually? All of those sounded terrible in his head and there was no reason to think they would sound better when he said them out loud.
Thankfully, his sister broke the silence first.
"I've heard about your battle against Kakuzu and Hidan. I'm sorry about your teammate." Sasuke lowered his head when he heard that. What happened to Lynx could have happened to any one of them. It was bad luck that he was the one at Bounty Exchange Point 23. That was why every one of them felt so frustrated and helpless against it.
The only thing they could do was to avenge Lynx by killing his murderer.
"I was told that you played an indispensable role in determining the victory," Maiko-nee said, making Sasuke shake his head.
"Everyone is indispensable." Sasuke felt the need to add. Unlike Hidan or Kakuzu, they didn't have immortality or a second heart to correct a mistake. There were so many close calls that it was still a wonder to Sasuke how they all held it together.
"I have no doubt about that." His sister chuckled as she sat down by his bed. "But don't sell yourself short. Just know that I'm very proud of you, in more ways than you can imagine."
Her words were simple but genuine, calming Sasuke's world, no matter if he was feeling the adrenaline from battle, the sadness from a lost comrade, or just general uncertainty towards the world.
Sensing his drifting attention that resulted from fatigue, Maiko-nee patted him on the head before leaving to give him some time to rest. For the first time in years, Sasuke didn't scrunch his eyebrows in annoyance.
He used to feel like he was being treated as a child whenever his siblings did that, but not this time, not anymore. Probably.
After all, Sasuke didn't sell his soul to gain immortality or a second heart, and his one existing life was too short to be wasted on things that didn't matter.
A/N: 'The hero always arrives late' LOL no, if you arrive late here, you only get leftover breadcrumbs. It's so hard writing a group battle with so many people involved, and I hope I did everyone justice.
Also, Sasuke is my darling son, if it isn't obvious enough already. I just want him to take his own words to heart: You don't need to catch up. You're already there.
Tōda is written as 騰蛇, loosely translated to flying/soaring serpent. It's a mythical creature, usually associated with breathing out clouds and fire. It's kind of a parallel to Kirin, which is another mythical creature.