The fingers of Hachiro’s mechanical puppet arm twitched emitting barely intelligible squeaks. The darned thing was busted up and cracked, a little bit more beating it into Read’s chakra augmentations would’ve busted it into tiniest shatters. Slowly, to the degree where the Uchiha was unable to sense its flow, the puppet limb, borrowed from Read’s ship, was sapping his chakra. The loss was miniscule really, not at all something to worry about. A civilian may have been troubled and exhausted for wearing the thing throughout the day but someone trained in managing chakra and building their inner pools up wouldn’t even have noticed such miniscule losses. It wasn’t the chakra spending aspect of the puppet limb that worried Hachiro, more the near busted state of it.
The Uchiha was having his hands full with the pirate captain. If once again he was left one handed he’d be crushed much faster than he’d run out of stamina normally. Still, it was a losing battle either way. Hachiro knew it for a long time but he was just not fond of either alternative: letting go of the battle and dying went against every instinct of self-preservation he had developed over the years and moving aside and letting Mana die would only make his death come later and incomparably more painfully, even more “ more sacrilegiously. The madman was known of not respecting death or the dead. Hachiro’s rest would not be eternal in that case…
“Your stolen arm looks pathetic. Matching its wearer I must add!” Read tried to mock the Uchiha, without a doubt she tried intimidating him and making him end this fight early by fleeing. She still must not have cared about the Uchiha that much and just wanted retribution from the Konoha kids that played her.
“Coming from a woman who has her sister literally stuck to her back this is rich…” Hachiro replied back stretching the squeaking fingers out. This was bad, the speed of his two handed hand seals would’ve been greatly diminished just when he regained the ability to weave them again. One handed seals rarely worked on high ranking techniques, the more complex the technique the less the probability it’d work.
A loud bang interrupted Hachiro’s battle planning “ a chakra imbued kunai pierced through the tree behind her. Slowly the large natural pillar of wood began toppling on top of the two. This was just a distraction, these two moved so astonishingly fast that a falling tree would have posed no threat. It may as well have been a turtle’s pace.
Hachiro’s body moved aside only to see Read moving in from the side. The Uchiha’s eyes were too fast tracking and analytical of every smallest happening on the battlefield for him not to notice the woman dashing in from the side.
“Tortuga Sword Style: Dance of Kali” Read announced the name of the technique as her blades attacked all at once, both Read and Bonny slashed at their opponent fast and precisely in lightning swift and wide reaching strikes that left little to no chance for evasion. It was a total overwhelming of the Uchiha’s Sharingan sensory inputs. Four slashes with trajectories so wide and all reaching and coming so fast that anyone would’ve taken at the very least a single deep and conclusive slash.
Hachiro’s body got severed into several large chunks that then instantly turned into water and collapsed watering the jungle floor that the water clone was cut down on. It was a thing of technical beauty “ weaving the hand seal for the Water Clone jutsu and then quickly substituting oneself with it. Everything transpired so fast that not even a skilled swordswoman striking at speeds that make a bolt of lightning look like a snail moving in tar was able to pick anything up at all.
Now was Hachiro’s chance “ the woman was occupied with her attack, her highly coordinated and synced up with her sister dance. Now that her momentum and body was invested fully into the attack was the rogue’s opening. Hachiro’s hands went through a tirade of hand seals. The mechanical puppet arm on the man’s arm worked a couple of corks slow and fired off sparks emitting very troubling sounds that may have alerted the woman, not that any of it mattered.
“Water Style: Lernaean Dragon Jutsu” Hachiro chanted out as strong streams of water rose from the puddle the clone made upon its collapse as well as the multiple small rivers and streams nearby watering the rich jungle soil. Even a stream or two coming directly off of the shore of the ocean came into a round sphere of water in front of the Uchiha that quickly took shape of a dragon’s head and fired itself at the open behind of Read.
With a scream of pain the pirate captain was sent tumbling off her feet after the roaring waters collided with Bonny’s desperate cross shaped chakra imbued sabre block. The pirate got sent crashing back through trees tearing down entire towering wooden structures just by getting tangled in their endless and thick vines. As an additional follow up to the attack the water did not scatter however, instead remaining static in its splashing in mid-air stage resembling an aquatic snowflake or a spiky sea urchin made entirely out of water.
Out of the static sphere of water additional eight water dragon waves formed rushing at Read. The woman finally managed to pick herself together and land her feet firmly on a rocky structure, kicking herself and Bonny off of it so hard that the rocky wall collapsed into smallest shatters. The woman rushed right past the chasing dragons of water slashing the waves as she past them and blowing them up into splashes of water that finally settled down.
Read huffed out together with her opponent who launched such an incredible technique. It must’ve been greatly taxing at Hachiro’s overall chakra reserves but the man still impressively enough stood on his feet even though one side of his body looked drawn to the ground.
Read’s pouting lips changed into a teeth grinding expression of anger, she swiped her blades to the side before forcefully sheathing them. The woman was soaking in water and carrying quite a large number of bruises and cuts from the technique and the debris she was crashed through. Both arms of Read as well as Bonny pulled out their kunai dispensers.
“Tortuga Sword Style: Dance of Asura” the woman mumbled under her own lips, a pronunciation which Hachiro’s Sharingan was able to pick up just from the way her lips moved alerting the Uchiha to prepare for the woman’s comeback attack. It was another one of her peculiar swordsmanship dances, she leaped onwards spinning in pirouette and firing off in each and every direction.
Hachiro leaned down and witnessed that the rocks and trees that were supposed to provide him cover did no such thing. The woman’s attack shred right through them making the cover explode into a hell of rocky and wooden shrapnel. Then there were all the stray kunai blades fired and the blades that bounced off of other blades changing their trajectory in mid-air “ a classic projectile throwing technique.
While the Uchiha’s Sharingan was able to register each and every shrapnel, every wooden splinter coming his way and every stray blade, hear and see every blade bouncing off of another and realize that his dash needed to change direction he was still unable to move fast enough to avoid every bit of damage. The blades were just too fast and numerous for his tired body to move out of the way, the rocks bashing into his bones busting them into dust were far too numerous and coming from every direction and the wooden splinters lodging into his flesh occupied his pain sensors too much making avoiding the rest of them almost impossible.
Hachiro collapsed on his knee but as he soon found out Read was far from finished with her attacks. The dance continued as both Read and Bonny pulled out blades and assaulted him with madly fast and precise thrusts coming from every direction. The Uchiha pulled out an explosive tag and slammed it to the ground, redirecting his weight and falling backwards before he set him off and interrupted Read’s technique and sent both of the opponents to different sides of the field.
The rogue’s ribs were pulsing with pain and his lungs burnt up as he drew breath. Still, the fear of the madman’s vengeance upon the world if the girl he admired for some reason died the Uchiha picked himself back on his knees and looked around. Breathing heavily and wiping blood and sweat off his face desperately trying to find his opponent. He was on his last legs, final stretches of his chakra pool able to take only several augmentations before giving in or one or two good techniques. His body was about to give in on him. Hachiro glanced at his trashed puppet arm and spat blood to the side.
“I need to give her everything and go down, no use prolonging this at this point…” he thought to himself forcing the broken and stiffened fingers of his puppet arm into the position that resembled the hand seal he needed.
“Water Clone technique…” he chanted out creating four water clones. Splitting what little chakra he had into four separate pieces. It was fine, they’d share their chakra input for using that final technique of glory. The magnum opus that would make him going out worthwhile. The last thing Hachiro ever wanted to be was a hero but technically he’d go out as one. He’d have rather lived more as a coward than died as a hero…
One of his clones smacked the back of Hachiro’s head.
“You bastard, why are you just prancing around splitting our chakra?” he quarrelled with the original. Technically they were extensions of his own mind and personality and they were just as lacking happiness of going out as heroes as the original was. Still, they were not made for combat, these clones were made for a singular jutsu after which they’d collapse. That was all. That made the clone technique a little lighter on how much chakra it took and how taxing the clones themselves were.
“Shut up and do what we have to!” Hachiro ordered beginning to weave hand seals. One of the clones was dedicated solely for adjusting the hand seals of Hachiro’s original body’s puppet arm while the clones all performed the same technique one handed.
“Water Style: Idyll of Avalon!” Hachiro chanted out as each of the clones performed the water chakra infused shuriken barrage technique from before launching numerous barrages of shuriken infused heavily with water chakra. While technically it reduced their penetrating power the opponent’s body would’ve had to spend more chakra on augmentation to compensate for the additional water chakra imbued on the weaponry. That made the technique more exhausting and damaging, more in the blunt way, to the opponent.
The multiplied barrage of shuriken directed at a wide arc left a wide clearing that soon made a small pond of water. Read and Bonny repurposed their arm position fully to deflect the oncoming water projectiles.
“Tortuga Sword Style: Dance of Aegis!” the woman shouted out loud as she and Bonny both spun their blades vertically forming two defensive spinning discs of bladework resembling a chakra infused shield that began deflecting the overwhelming onslaught of tools coming at her. One after the other the shuriken began falling on the ground and those thrown by clones dissipated in cloudy poofs whereas those thrown by Hachiro himself stayed. The water coming out of the imbued water chakra began accumulating faster and faster, each shuriken bashing at the defensive formation made such a deafening and powerful shockwave that the crater which Bonny and Read were in began enlarging and deepening. The woman had to activate the Art of Water Walking jutsu, a very primal and basic chakra control technique that was more of a training exercise than an actual technique to stay afloat.
Still, as powerful and rapid as Bonny and Read’s defences were they began skipping blows. The shuriken blew the swords out of the hands of the women and began pummelling hard and painfully against Read forcing the woman to clench her hands and cross them in front of her face to cover up from the full onslaught of damage coming at her. The woman stopped her water walking technique to sink under to avoid the overwhelming barrage but as the shuriken collided with one another they got sent into the water as well. Even underwater there was no escape.
Bubbles rose up from the pond combined with small stains of blood rising from where Bonny was. Hachiro didn’t foster any hopes of having beaten his opponent. Those shuriken may have been strong enough to pierce through and destroy anything, no matter how dense and thick but they could’ve been blocked by an equivalent or stronger chakra defensive augmentation. That meant that by throwing enough chakra into it Read could’ve escaped with grazes and scratches. Still, she’d have spent a great deal of effort and that was what mattered. That for a single moment the woman was crapping her underwear that just maybe she’d not survive this…
Bonny and Read shot from the water and into the sky, farther than Hachiro could even see. She must’ve used some sort of technique to be flung off this high. Either that or she reached the very bottom of that manmade lake and kicked off of it to leap up properly from what seemed like ten meters deep, piercing tons of water to be blown off into the skies above.
“Tortuga Sword Style: Dance of Thor” she chanted, Hachiro’s Sharingan tracked the woman’s lips even all the way up there. She had made a clone that spun the four armed and legged fusion of sisters right down, piercing the air and the heavens themselves and making a strong gust that propelled up and down in a manner similar to a beam. Above it opened the clouds surrounding the area and parted them leaving a giant gaping hole that enlarged with each passing moment only to completely clear the skies of any visible area. On the lower reaches all the way to the ground it formed a powerful air pressure that locked anyone unfortunate to stand inside of it down with a seeming sensation of immense gravitational pull surpassing hundreds of thousands of g’s with sheer air pressure alone.
Together with wiping away the clouds the air blast also cleaned out the signal sent from Read’s ship. The one that attracted any friendly crews to assist, a sort of SOS signal for pirates. The entire symbol that appeared to be made from sky clogging smoke got blasted away and cleansed. If anyone was coming to the island they should’ve had to have gotten the direction and the approximate coordinates of the signal to follow it now. By now the signal had formed a heart with two swords shaped around it and a lonely otter endlessly running around diagonally. All of that artistic flare wiped out in an instant.
With her blindingly fast fall from the skies Read rushed down onto the seemingly paralyzed Uchiha. Despite the near impossible to humanly determine speed of the woman to the Sharingan wielder she moved so slowly… It was like the man could see his final moments and sense them out, he saw the woman move every inch, cover every last meter of her skyfall. It would’ve been a motherlode of all aerial sword techniques.
The red Sharingan in Hachiro’s eyes flared momentarily paralyzing Read’s movements and forcing her to slam into the ground face first just a couple of meters away from where her target was. Further away pirates that were paralyzed by genjutsu previously started to pick themselves together in a sleepy rage clinging their blades and shaking fists at Hachiro. The Uchiha fell to the ground with one of his eyes closing down in pain. It’s been a while since he used his Sharingan so extensively and while he was born with the eye and did not have it transplanted, which was known to cause immense chakra taxing on the body of the receiver, it was still beginning to wear him out.
As expected Bonny seemed to be able to aid Read in recovering from genjutsu and the woman stood up and cracked her knuckles and neck before picking her swords back up off the ground.
Hachiro looked at the handful of pirates that looked bloodthirsty and ready to beat him to a pulp. Read dismissed them with a gesture and ordered them to return to the ship instead. The woman was a little pleased that she got more of her men released from genjutsu and that they were in somewhat able condition to take care of a ship.
It hurt… Everywhere and everything. The rogue knew that he won’t be able to move, even before, feeling crushed by close to a million g’s of pure air pressure in his worn out and tired state completely kicked the breath out of his lungs. He didn’t expect to do this good. Looking at Read she was bleeding, cut up and bruised. She wasn’t doing well herself and just the smallest stretch could’ve actually changed the entire outcome and yet…
“What’s so funny?” Read asked swinging her own blade up to Hachiro’s throat, while the woman approached the rogue couldn’t even pick himself off his knees, remaining in his undignified and humiliating position of kneeling in front of the captain.
“I actually expected to get trounced worse than this. You really had trouble with this, didn’t you? Big and mighty pirate captain…” the Uchiha thundered out a powerful laughter from the depths of his chest. His Sharingan closed revealing pitch black tired eyes in its place.
“Don’t overrate yourself, I’ve only shown you the side of my skill and power that everyone knows. You’ve pushed me far for this percentage but I am still holding back a great deal - a much more risky power-up” the captain smiled before raising her blade up in the air and preparing for the execution strike.
The woman’s face bent over from a strong blow right in the center of her face. Her body got sent flailing comically back rolling and smashing through trees and rocks until it fell into the ocean waves and began sinking down.
“I suppose this is a lucky shot then…” Shimo commented on Meiko’s punch as the young blacksmith made highly offensive gestures and improper faces towards the spot of the ocean where the pirate captain got sent.
“Don’t expect me to help much…” Kouta huffed out. The medical ninja had just finished the healing process and felt completely drained after it, still, he joined the battle together with everyone else. The team went through everything they faced, the craziest odds together. They would have to face Read and Bonny together as well, no matter how tired or beat individual members felt.
“I guess Mana’s stupid kindness worked out in the end, huh, Scaredy-sensei?” Shimo sarcastically tossed back a remark back at his beaten and kneeling sensei who just handed the Audra alloy sword back to the Yuki swordsman.
“It would appear so… Had she not prioritized your lives over hers I’d be dead meat” the man admitted.
“You did great, old man, now you can go and be a scaredy cat again… We’ll take it from here” Meiko gave the man a thumb up and a playful grin.
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