The vulnerable, soft skin of his neck parted against the sharp edge of Senju Butsuma's blade, the Uchiha's expression forever frozen in an expression of shock.
Itama had no time to consider the death he had dealt, forced by necessity to focus all his senses on the next opponent, who had used his distraction to sneak up on him.
His enemy's hands flashed through a very familiar set of hand seals, before bringing his right hand up to his mouth, fingers forming a ring. A ball of fire as wide as his height was produced, scorching the grass black as it shot towards Itama.
The Senju scrambled to leap to the side, only for the ball to shift in the air to follow him. He idly noted that his adversary was still locked into position, clearly controlling the attack from afar.
Landing, his hand swept by the pouch at his hip, running in a diagonal to attempt to position himself between his opponent and the attack.
It was not to be, however, as with a narrowing of his brows, his opponent released another ball of flames. Itama now found himself trapped between the two spheres. A plan formed in his mind, but his window was narrow..
Grunting, he stabbed his sword into the ground, the already sharp blade imbued with chakra allowing it to easily part the heavily packed earth. The chakra then expanded into the soil, and with a sharp tug, Itama pulled his sword up. A large mound of earth surrounded it - not an earth release technique, simply a ball of material held together by his own chakra.
Itama swung in a circle, facing the attack coming at his back. The fireball was batted away, the resulting explosion directed away from him. His ball of earth was consumed in flames on the tip of his sword, the Uchiha's fiery chakra unable to consume his own. He twisted around and flung the ball.
The flaming mound of earth flew in a collision course with the second fireball. Right as they were about to collide, the Uchiha jerked his attack around it, to continue its chase after Itama.
The Senju teen was granted a whole second, a whole second where the line of sight was broken between them. His right hand, wrapped around the hilt of his sword, flashed into a half-ram seal, activating the countdown for the seal located inside the mound of earth.
The Uchiha moved out of the path of Itama's flaming projectile, catching the Senju scrambling backwards in apparent flight from the guided fireball. Then, in his periphery, his Sharingan caught the ball briefly growing, thick lines of red along its surface glowing through the flames, a rapid explosion, lumps of flaming debris spraying in all directions, and then…
Without its caster to actively guide it and speed it along, Itama easily dodged the fireball and moved to his downed opponent.
Itama's trick had ripped through his opponent, high-speed projectiles having pierced his thighs and torso. One arm was missing below the elbow, and a brutal gash had been gouged out of the side of his head, taking one eye with it.
Despite his sorry state, however, his chest was still rising, his heart still beating, though his remaining eye was closed.
"I should put you out of your misery", Itama whispered, putting the tip of his sword against the man's neck. Even a tiny, sudden movement would cut his carotid arteries and result in a swift death.
Yet, with a sigh, he reached into his pouch and took out another seal. Mindful of the man faking his state of unconsciousness, Itama angled the blade of his sword under the man's chin and slapped it over the man's remaining eye. With a flare of his chakra, bright red seals spread out from underneath the paper slip, covering his body. With a final flash of light, the markings turned black, signifying that the man was rendered helpless.
Bending down, he threw the man over his shoulder, before dashing away, channeling and circulating his chakra to take on a speed matched by only a handful in the clan.
The paralysis seal was a new tool, crafted by Mito at Hashirama's behest, designed specifically for capturing Uchiha prisoners.
Hashirama's argument had been pragmatic: if they could capture Uchihas, the Uchiha would in turn have an incentive to capture rather than execute any defeated Senju, in order to do a hostage exchange.
The clan's reaction to his suggestions had been mixed, many outright negative, some grudgingly admitting there was merit to it, but most skeptical. Hashirama had pushed through, insisting that he was not suggesting they pull their punches, and they could always execute prisoners later if there were no Senju to exchange them for.
He had then ventured out to prove that the seal worked by capturing a group of Uchiha by himself.
Hostage taking was a big part of Westorisi warfare, Itama knew. After all, it was rare for an entire house to be wiped out, usually levies and men-at-arms were killed but knights and lords were more often taken hostages on the battlefield. It was what Westerosi honor expected, and the nobles could be ransomed for handsome sums.
Psychologically it also weakened the enemies' resolve. Men would rise and fight heroically beyond their limits if their only other option was death. Provide them a means of escape, however, and they were more likely to break and run, or surrender themselves.
Of course, shinobi fought more like the mercenary armies in Essos than the nobility in Westeros. They had reputations to maintain, and clients were more likely to go for the shinobi who fought to the bitter end, rather than the ones that surrendered themselves to their opponent's mercies at the slightest hint of defeat. In that regard, having a reputation of being lenient and taking prisoners could indeed be a signal of weakness, that they expected their own members to be captured.
In practice, the results of Hashirama's experiment had been mixed, because Uchiha, for all their troubles, were fiercely proud and did not simply surrender. Even if they were captured, they had to be carefully restrained and monitored to avoid blinding, gelding, and then killing themselves.
Rarely did an opportunity present itself as it had Itama. So he could do nothing but deliver his captive to the battle station on the south-eastern corner of the field.
"It seems the south-west is clear of enemies, for now," Toka stated, after he gave his report. She turned to a team of five on her side, who nodded in understanding and flickered away. He accepted the onigiri she presented before quickly emptying a gourd of water.
"Itama, they need you in the north. Tobirama is being pushed back."
The onigiri tasted like ash in his mouth as he swallowed quickly, his mind already on the north. Tobirama was in danger, and there was no time to waste.
The teen saluted and made himself scarce.
In the distance, to the north-west, he could see his brother and Uchiha Madara going at it, both sides wisely staying clear of their respective leaders. No, the victor of the battle would be determined by the many fights taking place on the sidelines. Itama's job was to move and shift himself to wherever his presence would tip the balances, something his skillset suited rather well: he was fast, stealthy and possessed a skillset that allowed him to fight at close to his best performance for the entirety of a battle.
Arriving on the treeline, Itama grimaced at the scene that met him.
Bodies of his clansmen laid strewn about, most dead, some groaning in pain, while the battles raged around them. But that all paled to what was happening in the distance, where Tobirama was doing his best to fend off a two-on-one assault by Uchiha Izuna and Uchiha Hikaku.
He swept his sword through the foliage, collecting leaves around and at the tip of his blade. With a burst of chakra, he catapulted forward, eager to relieve his brother.
Tobirama, of course, had detected Itama before Itama had caught sight of Tobirama. In the middle of dodging a dragon of fire and parrying a strike by Izuna's sword, his hands went into a series of hand gestures.
[Support] [others] his brother communicated, in a simple code that they had devised right before the battle. The Sharingan made it necessary to change codes after each use.
For a brief moment he considered disregarding Tobirama's command, tempted to charge into his brother's fight, before doing as he was told. Tobirama had the sharpest and most ruthless mind in their clan, he had to trust that he knew what he was doing.
He shot forward to where a clansman and an Uchiha were locked in battle, his clansman doing his very best to avoid eye contact.
The Uchiha had more ways to ensnare their opponent's minds though than through eye-contact, and Itama flushed his mind with a flare of chakra. His clansman, Sadao, however, suddenly looked dazed, taking a fuma shuriken to the side.
"Over here!" Itama yelled, and thanked the gods that his distraction worked before Sadao could be finished off.
The Uchiha raised his giant shuriken at the last minute to block Itama's sword swing, and with a screech it halted it. The razor-sharp leaves swirling around it, however, continued unabated, digging into the man's chest and left clavicle.
With a heave, Itama kicked at the flat of the shuriken and pulled his blade away. The leaves translated along with it, sawing right through his enemy's upper body like a scythe through wheat.
The battlefield was a storm of blades and fire, but Itama's mind was clear, focused. He couldn't think about the bodies around him, the blood-soaked ground, or the screams. It would come later—the weight of it all.
The spray of blood hit Sadao's face, snapping him from his stupor.
Itama had no time to pause, however. The fighting groups of Senju and Uchiha had by now noticed him and four of the latter broke off to meet him.
"Sadao," he called, as the Uchiha's body thudded lifelessly to the ground. "Cover me with long-distance support!"
"Yes sir," the man quickly deferred, despite being older than Itama. There were four against the two of them.
The trick to dealing with the Uchiha was simple: be fast and chaotic. The Uchiha's doujutsu allowed them to analyze their opponents' bodies and predict their movements. But it was useless if they could not move their body in time, or communicate with each other to mount a coordinated effort.
Having a chaotic fighting style, Tobirama had explained, created a "combinatorial explosion" that severely limited how far ahead into the future time an Uchiha with the average intellect could predict.
As a child, Itama had needed Hashirama's analogy to understand: in jan-ken-po you could only make one out of three moves, whereas in go you had three-hundred and sixty one positions to place your first piece on.
The more possibilities, the harder it becomes to anticipate what came next, and the more strenuous the task of attempting to do so was.
The hardened leaves buzzed around his sword, kicking up a cloud of stones and soil particles as he dashed toward the group of four. They began to fan out, attempting to encircle him, and so Itama picked the one on his right-most flank.
The mass of debris had now grown and floated around him in a cloud, like an Aburame with their insects. His enemies, hardly idle, summoned a combined katon, producing a wall of flames, a noose meant to tighten around him. Or force me into the air.
With a swipe of his sword, the cloud coalesced into a crescent-shaped barrier in front of him, dense enough to break their view of him. A massive orb of water shot forward over his head and struck the flames, not nearly enough to smother the flames but enough to halt their advances for a moment and produce a thick blanket of steam. Itama smiled.
He slashed his sword again, the leaves now sweeping up along its blade and flying ahead, gathering into a rough facsimile of him. There was no point in layering a thin henge around it, as the Uchiha would simply see through it. The mass flew up in an arc.
He followed it up with more strong swipes in the air, sending projectiles of gravel and hardened soil at high speed in the rough areas where the flames were the strongest. Then, with a blast of chakra, he shot out to the left.
The Uchiha had taken his bait, shifting the aim of their flames upwards at the sight of the silhouette and releasing shuriken for good measure. The follow up of his second layer of projectiles proved a good distraction, granting him a few seconds alone with his target.
The young man made to re-aim his flame throwing technique, but was forced to interrupt and dodge as Itama sent an arc of raw chakra. A much costlier attack with no medium, but one made possible and dangerous by the properties of his sword and the short distance between them.
Itama's swordwork was a quick flurry of attacks that the Uchiha could barely scramble himself to defend against with a kunai. He fainted left, then right, before delivering a heavy round-house kick that the man hurriedly blocked with his arms.
The kick connected with a bone-crunching force, sending the Uchiha airborne. He barely had time to register the pain before Sadao's water senbon peppered his body, piercing flesh and muscle like needles through silk.
Twisting, Itama turned to the other three, His sword swung up, catching the loop of another fuma shuriken – one of the Uchiha's favored weapons – through its loop, spinning with its momentum to send it flying right back, while jumping and flattening his body mid-air to avoid the second one right behind it.
The Uchiha closest to him saw it all but was unable to react in time to stop the heavy metal from ripping into his torso, the prongs punching through his ribcage with a sickening crunch.
Numerical advantage now erased, the two Uchiha, a man and a woman, halted, on guard. Sadao drew up beside him, staring down their opponents.
The two Uchiha shared a glance, seeming to come to a decision. Itama took a breather, before steeling himself.
With an almost imperceptible nod, the two split, one going north-west and the other north-east, where the thick of the battle was taking place.
Itama didn't hesitate – he pursued the one heading north-east, not wanting the man to get away, interfere or gather allies, leaving Sadao to harass the other one.
The man put up a valiant resistance, but Itama was the so-called third Senju brother, and had yet to exhaust himself. He ran down his opponent, avoided the desperate projectiles and fire technique sent his way. With a swift, calculated throw, a kunai buried itself in the back of the Uchiha's exposed knee. A guttural cry escaped the man's throat as his leg buckled, sending him sprawling onto the dirt.
Just as Itama moved in for the kill, a voice cut through the battlefield. "Move, Itama!" Sadao's warning was barely fast enough. A streak of purple lightning carved through the air, faster than anything Itama had faced that day. His heart pounded in his chest as he dodged to the side, the crackling energy scorching the ground where he'd stood moments before
Standing not too far away, Uchiha Hikaku watched with cold intensity, his hand still raised, palm open as residual sparks of purple energy flickered around his fingers. Itama's stomach clenched as his eyes darted to his brother. Tobirama was still locked in combat with Izuna, but at least whole and hale.
With a nod from his superior, the crippled Uchiha scrambled away, as much as he could with one leg crippled. Itama was unable to act as another purple bolt shot through the air, forcing him to deflect it with his sword.
"Itama the Jutsu-less," Hikaku called out, dressed in his purple high-collared shirt, dark brown hair held up in a pony-tail. A thin ornamental chain draped across his right shoulder, from his armpit to the opposite side.
"Hawk-eye Hikaku," Itama muttered, "the last of Uchiha Tajima's lieutenants." The third strongest member of the Uchiha clan, he left unsaid.
Sadao, gripping his long kunai, warily made his way around Hikaku, moving to flank him.
The man in question seemingly ignored him, leveling them both with an arrogant smirk.
"The rate of your progress has been remarkable," Hikaku stated, making a general sweeping gesture. "Another potential powerhouse of the Senju clan – that cannot stand. I must cut you down."
"Hmph," Itama snorted, doing his best to mask the fear that shot through his body. He couldn't let Hikaku see his hesitation. The Uchiha thrived on exploiting weaknesses. "You and Izuna combined could not take down my brother, what makes you think you alone could take the both of us down?"
"Your brother is an eel, slippery and elusive. But you are no match for me."
This wasn't a fight he could win. Hikaku was stronger, faster, and more experienced. Every second they spent clashing was a second closer to his defeat. But retreat wasn't an option.
"My brother is a dragon," Itama replied stiffly, shifting his stance, before shooting forward.
Hikaku smirked and unleashed another bolt of lightning, which Itama narrowly deflected with his sword, slashing with his sword and having it blocked with the sickle.
The Uchiha matched his strength, putting his weight on it. Meanwhile, his right hand lit up with purple energy once again, forcing Itama to disengage.
"Water technique: Water Bullet!" Sadao's voice called out, and Itama watched as Hikaku froze, making as if to dodge.
However, instead of hitting Hikaku, the bullet of water struck Itama in the side instead, sending him flying, his body bouncing painfully across the ground. It was followed up by a purple lightning bolt, which made the muscles of his body spasm.
"Gah!"
Through sheer force of will, Itama channeled chakra through his sword – tip in the ground – and upturned a patch of the ground. It was just enough to absorb and deflect a barrage of water, sending it spraying up in the air, and giving him enough time to flush his muscles and nervous system with his own chakra.
"Sadao!", he yelled, jerking up to a crouch and leaping to his left. "Snap out of it!"
Itama's mind was racing, desperately trying to come up with a plan while doing his best to dodge the projectiles coming at him - shuriken, lightning bolts, water attacks. A purple attack struck him in the thigh, leaving him vulnerable for a water bullet that clipped him in the side.
Circulating his chakra to move faster, using it to flush out the lightning chakra, coaxing it to augment his body's natural Senju resilience - it was all taking a toll. The Uchiha was wearing him down, death by a thousand cuts, from a safe distance, with the help of Itama's own ally.
The only bright spot, Itama thought furiously, was that holding up Hikaku gave Tobirama breathing room with Izuna. Itama knew very well his brother's strength and tricks.
The water techniques stopped, abruptly, the last one disintegrating before it could reach him.
Sadao had collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath, his gaze flitting back and forth between the two of them and eyes furiously blinking.
"Sadao please! Come to your senses!"
The Uchiha tutted.
"That's it? No matter, you have outlived your usefulness."
Itama was helpless to act and could only watch as Sadao was consumed by purple lightning. Only a smoking scorched husk was left behind.
Itama closed his eyes and wheezed in frustration, mingling with a heavy guilt. He had failed another one of his clan.
"Do not despair, young Senju. You will join him shortly."
Without Sadao to distract him, the Uchiha switched up his tactics and turned it from a long-range fight to one close up.
Kunai in both hands, glowing with lightning chakra, he delivered a flurry of slashes and stabs at Itama, who struggled to keep him at bay. Normally, courtesy of his sword, the Senju had a longer reach, but his body was sapped of its strength, and his mind was further distracted channeling his own chakra to deflect the purple lightning.
Of course, Hikaku had an underlying reason for coming in so close.
Jumping back, the Uchiha threw his kunai at Itama, who hurriedly raised his blade to bat them away. His opponent produced another pair of kunai from his back, before rushing forward to engage him again.
Itama deflected, twirling - in a trick he had seen in Oldtown - and using the momentum to sweep his blade into a thrust forward into his opponent's face.
Hikaku leaned back, flicking his hands. The ends of the two kunai were connected together by a thin metal wire, unnoticed by Itama up until now. The wire twisted itself mid-air into a loop, passing over Itama's blade, over the hilt, and then tightening with the spreading of Hikaku's arms.
The wire dug into Itama's right hand, his left hand barely retracting from the sword. The lightning chakra streamed right through, electrocuting him through his hand.
For the first time since the battle had begun, Itama - in his pain - made eye contact with an enemy.
The battlefield disappeared, the open grassland and forests giving way to a dark void. Even Hikaku disappeared, leaving Itama standing - or floating - by his lonesome.
There were no recognizable features, nothing to orient himself against. His sense of time similarly disappeared, his thoughts coming slow and languidly.
From one instant to the next, a gigantic pair of blood red, black triple tomoe eye blinked open. Itama felt nothing but unadulterated fear, the terror seeped and cut through his very being.
Another pair appeared, then another. A fourth, and a fifth. The void was being replaced by Sharingan eyes. Some were terrifyingly large, others small. Some had the tomoe spinning rapidly, others slowly. But wherever he turned, wherever he looked, he could not escape their gaze.
OBEY
No…
OBEY
N-no…
YOU MUST OBEY
I-I.. I…
OBEY. OBEY. OBEY. OBEY.
Yes… I.. must… ob..
OBEYOBEYOBEYOBEYOBEYOBEYOBEYOBEYOBEYOBEYOBEYOBEYOBEYOBEYOBEY
the voices ranged from coaxing and kind, seductive and alluring, desperate and panicky, and rage-filled and commanding
Suddenly, they halted, his ears left ringing from the sudden drop in volume. Then, the ringing disappeared, making way for a new sound. The growl of a large, furious animal.
From behind him cobalt flames poured over him, leaving him comfortably warmed, and turning his entire vision blue.
The eyes had no mouth yet they screeched as the blue flames swept over them, and before he knew it the world was back into place, his thoughts back into order and his opponent once again in front of him, locked as they were.
Itama was left with the burning rage of a dragon, Tessarion's growls still echoing in his mind. He could not help but meet his opponent's eyes unflinchingly, taking in the disturbed look in Hikaku's eyes.
With a growl of his own and a second wind, he poured chakra down the wire, pulling and ripping the kunai from the Uchiha's hands
The Uchiha in question recovered and leapt back, fingers flashing through hand seals. A wall of fire erupted, forcing Itama to halt in his tracks, against all his instincts.
Shaking his head, he took the reprieve to unwound the wire, allowing the kunai to drop on the ground. He flexed his hand, hissing at the pain.
"Izuna!"
Uchiha Madara's voice, filled with abject fear, made them both turn their attention in its direction.
From a distance, they could see Madara cradling his brother Izuna. Hashirama was visible off to the side, observing.
In a flash, Tobirama was at Itama's side.
"Uchiha, to me!" Hikaku yelled, frustrated, sweeping his head toward his new opponent and the clansmen fighting little skirmishes across the field.
The cacophony of the battlefield faded, leaving only tense silence
Tobirama had no intention of letting them go, however. Itama was similarly disinclined, yet his brother held him back with an arm and a look.
Twin water dragons, formed out of thin air, bore down on Hikaku, who snarled as he produced a large fireball to vaporize the one and then a lightning technique to destabilize the other. His efforts saved him from being turned into a pulp, but large amounts of water still swept him away to smash against a boulder.
A score and a half or so of Uchiha appeared, having disentangled to array themselves protectively in front of their downed third-in-command, but Itama and Tobirama were similarly bolstered.
Itama gathered himself, gearing up for a final offensive in this battle to really cripple the Uchiha.
"Halt!"
The two groups turned to Hashirama, who had just appeared. Madara and Izuna were nowhere to be seen.
"Your commander has left the battlefield. Surrender and no harm will befall you!"
The Senju were shocked. The Uchiha stilled.
"Brother! You can't mean-" Itama tried to voice what his men were thinking, but Hashirama did not let him finish.
With a large flare of chakra, he stuck his hands into the ground. Roots exploded out of the ground, growing and sweeping over the Uchiha, who futilely tried to incinerate it.
Beneath him and the rest of the Senju, sans Tobirama, vines had crawled and had latched onto their feet - a warning.
"This battle is over," his older brother commanded. Itama and the rest of the Senju wearily nodded, cowed. Satisfied, the vines retracted themselves.
With a grunt, the young Senju fell heavily to the ground. They had won.
His eyes turned to the black patch of grass and the smoldering heap that had been Sadao. And in his mind, he thought of the cobalt flames, of the dragon that had protected him even from the Sharingan.
