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The steam soon began to let up, allowing the sunlight to once again meet the ground. The patch of forest had gone from lush trees crowding each other to a scorched clearing, and then to a pit of obsidian glass filled with bubbling, ash-filled black water, creating an artificial pond.
It would take nature several decades to reverse the damage done in the span of minutes, and even then, things would never be the same.
The two who had caused the destruction stood on the slanted walls of the pit. Itachi was winded, his chest heaving in shallow, jagged jerks. A map of bruises, cuts, and red scratches littered his frame as he leaned against the cooling, glass-slicked walls of the crater. With a steady thumb, he smeared away the blood trailing from his lip, the lower half of his shattered mask long since lost to the debris. Through the dust, his Sharingan remained fixed on the far side of the pit, where Orochimaru once again pulled himself out from the tattered husk of his old skin—his stolen eyes glowing with a crimson light.
"Is that all, Itachi? You have more; I know you do. Show me the real power of the Uchiha dōjutsu," Orochimaru said with a casual laugh, as though what had happened wasn't much. Despite his spotless demeanour, he didn't make a move. The strain of using an A-rank ninjutsu was heavy even for the Legendary Sannin.
Itachi ignored the snake and instead replied out loud to the voice in his head, "Yes, I have something like that."
"Talking to others while I'm still here is rude," Orochimaru said, guessing that the Leaf must've sent a Yamanaka jōnin along if they were bringing the fight right to Danzo's home. His eyes narrowed when he saw the chakra inside Itachi flare.
The ANBU captain suddenly launched himself into the air from his leaning position while his hands blurred into hand seals. He swung his short sword, buzzing with chakra. Orochimaru moved his position a moment before a Wind Cutter carved out a gash in the wall behind him. He had more pressing matters as a kunai with an explosive tag landed near him; he ignored it as it wasn't close enough to harm him, but then it exploded and shattered the black glass covering the surface, causing him to slip and sink down.
His eyes widened, and he looked up to see a barrage of kunai, all laden with wind-natured chakra, flying towards him. They clashed against each other, changing directions and getting faster with each bounce. His crimson gaze tracked each projectile, and the future unfurled in front of his eyes, allowing him to twist it to his desire by throwing a kunai of his own into the fray. One collision sent the intricately executed barrage aimed to trap him into disarray. He no longer paid them any heed, as none touched him while they fell around him, gouging the earth.
His bony fingers signed hand seals for a Wind Release ninjutsu, and he raised his palm at Itachi, who was arching through the air towards him. The two B-rank Wind Release ninjutsu clashed against each other. Orochimaru was hit by a wall of air that crushed him into the ground behind him, while shallow gashes opened up throughout his body. Itachi slashed a cannon blast of wind with his short sword, buzzing with wind chakra, reducing its power, but he was still violently thrown back and slammed into the far end of the pit.
Orochimaru laughed as he pulled himself away from the dirt, as the winds continued to cut and smash him down. Managing to unstick his chest and head, he was about to shoot himself across to Itachi when he noticed an ANBU-nin standing on the surface of the dirty waters.
Takuma finished weaving hand seals and dumped the chakra he had gathered into the water beneath his feet.
Water Release: Water Dragon Missile Jutsu
A darkish-grey dragon, bigger than anything Takuma had ever created, erupted from the artificial pond's surface. It visibly lowered the water levels as more and more water rose into the air. Veins popped on Takuma's forehead behind his mask as he gritted his teeth under the weight of the water he was lifting; he had put in twice the amount of chakra he should have to make the dragon more powerful, which had worked despite being terribly inefficient, but it had also made it difficult to control.
Takuma opened his mouth, and the dragon's roar drowned out his own. He brought his hands down and sent the unruly dragon right at Orochimaru, who was still trapped in Itachi's ninjutsu. The massive creature of water slammed into the side of the crater, causing a powerful explosion in its own right, even though it looked small in comparison to what they had seen only a minute ago.
His shoulders rose and fell with every straining gulp of air. His work wasn't done. He raised his hands to form hand seals as he jumped away. At the same time, a shadow blurred past him, heading towards Orochimaru.
The real challenge had only begun.
Laughter pierced through the clearing as a sopping-wet Orochimaru emerged from the explosion. He didn't look any more injured than he did before. "Using the little insects as a distraction to cast a genjutsu on me, are we now, Itachi?!" He had a manic look on his face as his eyes glowed a sharp red. He didn't spare a glance at Takuma—an insect he could crush under his feet—and only sought Itachi. "Did you forget we have the same eyes?! This level of genjutsu isn't going to work on me! Bring me something stronger."
He sent a powerful jolt of chakra through his body that shattered the genjutsu, revealing what was being hidden from him.
Takuma suddenly became visible right in front of him. His feet were spread wide, his hips were low, along with his knees for balance and a powerful foundation. His toes were clawing at the dirt beneath him to anchor him down. He extended his left arm forward while he pulled his right arm backo. With his shoulders retracted, pulses of chakra began stacking into his right arm, and when it was completely saturated, all of it was compressed right into his hand to make space for more chakra. It continued to be compressed until there was no space, and his arm glowed with an intense blue.
"How is this for an insect?" Takuma said, his neck and jaw visibly strained as he struggled to handle that much chakra. Even if he could compress that much chakra into his arm, he didn't want to do that, because the blowback was going to punch through even the Earth Release: Earth Spear that was running through his body.
Chakra Augmentation: All-Out Kamikaze
Takuma pushed off the ground with such force that the earth beneath him cratered. He threw his entire body behind the fist's arc, putting the entire momentum into the arm as it whipped. Orochimaru's body felt like it had no bones in it as the snake tried to dodge, but it was too late as the full force of the augmentation hit him. The compressed chakra was released in a concentrated point right where the heart was in the body.
The blue glow of the chakra blinded one side of the crater as Takuma's clone was immediately destroyed by the backlash. On the other side of the crater, Takuma flinched when the memories and experience hit him, along with all the pain that burned and stabbed his arm.
He pursed his lips because he didn't know what impact the augmentation had on Orochimaru. He didn't have to wait long because, when the dust settled, Orochimaru stepped out with blood dribbling out from the corner of his mouth. He had a grin on his face, but his exposed chest was caved in and covered in a white snake's reptilian scales. That level of injury would have killed most people, if not instantly put them out of commission for a very long time, and yet, the man stood there as though it were nothing.
"A bug's bite," Orochimaru scoffed, but then he stepped forward, and his feet faltered.
'It worked!' Takuma exclaimed, and just at that moment, four chains shot through the air and wrapped themselves around Orochimaru. A moment later, a red chakra streamed through them, covering Orochimaru's body.
"What?" Orochimaru's eyes narrowed as he looked at the chains. "Barrier Ninjutsu…"
On the other end of the chains were the four members of the assault squad, jointly casting a very special form of barrier ninjutsu inspired by the extinct Uzumaki clan of the Hidden Whirlpool, called Barrier Ninjutsu: Red Chains of the Whirlpool. It was reserved for ANBU and was only taught to all high-level assault squads due to the difficulty. Successfully learning the jutsu was one of the requirements for assault squad operatives, and until they learned it, they were probationary members.
Orochimaru's eyes widened when suddenly the Sharingan deactivated, and moving chakra through his body became difficult. The eight chakra gates in his body tightened the flow of chakra, and the natural frequency of physical and spiritual energy was sent into disarray, making it difficult for him to mix and mould chakra. He suddenly spat a mouthful of blood as whatever jutsu he was using to heal or maintain his injuries failed.
Takuma felt a surge of confidence as the plan seemed to work, and he quickly weaved hand seals for his part of the duties—but just when he thought things were looking up, a monstrous pressure descended on him that made him collapse to one knee. It was the physical expression of the chakra, and it felt like he was being strangled by a large snake. It was nothing as he had ever felt. Even Jōnin Onikuma from Maizuru Quarters couldn't hold a candle to the pure bloodlust choking him out.
"Bugs that don't know their place get squashed," Orochimaru declared as his Sharingan came back full force with a murderous glow.
"H-He's already figured it out," Hopper murmured with a tone of utter disbelief.
The barrier jutsu disrupted the natural frequency or rhythm of the two energies; the target was so naturally used to them that they didn't even need to think about it, rendering the conscious mixing of chakra strenuous for most people. For someone like Orochimaru, they expected it to make the task difficult enough to give an equally matched opponent like Itachi an advantage, but in a few moments, he already figured out how to mix chakra with the new frequencies. A task that would've challenged even the most talented of jōnin was accomplished in a matter of seconds.
Takuma neutralised the pressure and managed to stand up. His mind raced with thoughts of what they were going to do next, now that their plan had been disrupted, when he felt an intense dread grip his heart, and he turned to the source of the feeling.
Itachi finished forming the last hand seal. He didn't draw the fire-natured chakra to his lungs; instead, he sent it all into a single, microscopic point at the tip of his fingers. The air around his hand began to hum as a tiny, pulsating spark appeared at his fingertips. It was a dull, blue-white light whose glow was reflected by the lingering steam in the area. There was no heat haze, no roar of flames—just a high-pitched frequency, giving a hint of the temperature of the point of chakra compressed beyond anything Takuma was remotely capable of.
Takuma recalled the short conversation that he had with Itachi just prior to all of this.
"—Captain, do you have something that would only harm the target? I fear that if you use A-rank ninjutsu, the assault squad guys in the vicinity would be in mortal danger. They won't have the time to escape. We need something that won't kill them.—"
They had to be in a relatively close distance while casting the joint barrier ninjutsu.
"—Yes, I have something like that—"
Takuma realised his error. When Itachi had told him that he had something suitable, Takuma assumed that it was going to be a B-rank ninjutsu. It was because he had only seen A-rank ninjutsu causing widespread destruction and heard the stories of how they were used to wipe out companies of shinobi. An image of A-rank ninjutsu had formed in his mind; it was an image of A-rank techniques being area-of-effect weapons that dealt damage to an area instead of a target. But if there were ninjutsu of D-, C-, and B-rank that could target a single person, then there was no reason to believe that A-rank wouldn't have similar options.
Uchiha Itachi was casting his second A-rank ninjutsu of the day.
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The link is in the synopsis!