I walked toward Madara with shaking legs and a dead man's smile.
The Five Kage were losing. Tsunade on the ground with blood pouring from her forehead. The Raikage missing an arm. The Tsuchikage floating like a broken kite. Madara standing in the center of them all.
Hahahahahah.
That laugh. Deep. Cold. Like rocks grinding underground.
I stopped fifty meters away. My hands empty. My heart screaming.
A cold voice inside my head. System. You have one extraction available. Use it wisely.
What does that mean?
Every being you touch in death leaves a trace. You have touched death. Now you can take from the dead.
I looked around. Bodies everywhere. Konoha ninja. Cloud ninja. White Zetsu. Eyes open. Mouths frozen in final screams.
Anyone?
Anyone who died near you in the last hour.
I closed my eyes. Felt them. A thousand threads pulling at my chest. Each thread a skill. A jutsu. A memory of chakra. Most were weak. E rank. D rank. A handful stronger.
Then one thread burned.
It came from a body ten meters to my left. A Konoha jonin with his throat torn open. His hands still holding the seal for a technique I only read about in forbidden scrolls.
What is that?
Flying Raijin. The technique of the Fourth Hokage.
My hand reached out without thinking. The thread pulled. Something hot entered my chest.
Ohhh.
Not pain. Power. Like drinking fire.
Extraction complete. Flying Raijin acquired.
I did not feel different. But I knew. The seals. The coordinates. How to disappear and reappear anywhere I had marked.
Madara turned his head. Looked at me. Not curiosity. Annoyance.
You are still here.
I died. Then I got better.
Tssss. His eyes narrowed. One hand raised. A fireball the size of a house grew above his palm.
Stay dead.
I threw a kunai. Not at him. At the ground three meters to my left. The kunai had a seal on it. My seal. I did not remember carving it. But my hand knew.
The fireball came.
Go.
The world twisted. My stomach flipped. Ghhaa. Then I was on the ground. Three meters away. The fireball roared past where I had been standing. The heat burned my back.
I opened my eyes. Alive. Moved without moving.
Madara stopped laughing.
That technique. Where did a worm like you learn that?
I stood up. Legs steady. Hands no longer trembling.
A dead man taught me.
He stared at me. A long moment. Then a smile. A real smile. The first human expression on his face.
Hoh. Interesting. I will kill you last.
He turned back to the Kage. Ignored me. Like a toy he would play with later.
I let him walk away. My fist clenched around nothing.
The voice again. You cannot kill him yet. You need more extractions.
I know.
Then run.
I ran. Not away. Toward the bodies. Toward the dead. Toward every fallen ninja who still had a skill I could steal.
Behind me, Madara destroyed a mountain.
Hahahahahahah.
Ahead of me, a battlefield of ghosts waiting to give me their power.
One extraction at a time. Then I will come back for you.
Aaah. And I meant it.