Chapter 42
Chapter 42
Madara looked out over the countryside surrounding Sora-ku. Rice paddies dominated the countryside, creating a vast swampland around the city with raised roads cutting through the land. The usual hustle and bustle of endless merchant caravans had come to a stop the moment the Uchiha’s main force had arrived, the merchants quick to flee or bunker down within the city’s walls. Sharingan glowed softly in Madara’s eyes as he looked across the paddies, the green stalks sticking up from the stagnant water of the fields.
A breeze, carrying the smell of wet earth and plants reached the young Uchiha, his wild hair, just starting to grow long enough to actually feel the pull of gravity leaving his face and rustling in the wind. Sakura’s chakra, suppressed and barely visible was on the edges of his senses and his eyes moved over the rest of the delaying team a moment before a series of pops reached his ears. A plume of smoke began to rise into the air in the distance and Madara watched as the Uchiha team drew closer, weaving through the forest on the outskirts of the farmland.
Without warning, a massive explosion, greater then anything Madara had ever witnessed rose high into the sky, a cloud of blackened ash rising rapidly and forming an odd mushroom shape. A shock wave, visible in the displacement of dirt and water raced towards Sora-ku and Madara felt it thump his chest when the sound hit him with all the fury of thunder. The report was a deafening hammer blow and the city shook, windows rattling and paper lanterns bouncing wildly on their strings.
“Wow,” Shou murmured softly. The curly haired Uchiha looked at the devastation with undisguised awe and not an insignificant amount of horror. The war had grown ever more intense since the Senju’s escalation and this new weapon had clearly raised the stakes once again. Warfare would never be the same after today. “And she thinks she’s weaker then you?”
“She can’t beat Aniue in a spar.” Izuna countered instinctively, glaring at Shou who shrugged and turned his attention back to the massive smoke cloud rising into the sky. Madara hadn’t taken his eyes off Sakura since she’d come in range and when she finally broke free from the trees he felt something in his chest ease up. She’d really outdone herself today but fame wasn’t something any of them wanted. Fame brought danger, the Senju would no doubt target the one responsible for this attack and Sakura was the Uchiha’s only seal master. She’d put a massive target on her back for the coming battle and it hadn’t even started yet.
“Madara?” Shou was the first to notice Madara’s concern and the Uchiha heir met his friend’s worried look. Shou’s expression immediately soured, understanding filling his onyx eyes as he looked back towards Sakura. The girl’s shoulder length pink hair fluttered around her head like a banner, drawing attention even from miles away. She stood out like a sore thumb and the effect was magnified when she was shoulder to shoulder with the universally black haired, black eyed Uchiha. “She’ll be fine.”
“I know,” Madara ground out before he dropped down from the parapets, his feet clinging to the outer wall before he jumped down to the ground just in time to meet the advanced team as they made their way towards the city’s gates. The walls were chakra reflective, not enough to stop Madara’s perfect chakra control but it was good enough to keep most shinobi from scaling the walls in anything resembling a hurry.
“Sakura, what did you do?” Madara asked as he reached her side, earning a wide shark toothed grin. Her emerald eyes were almost entirely black, her pupils dilated from a mix of excitement and blood lust. Her cheeks were flushed and her chest was heaving under her crimson breastplate.
“Chakra backdraft explosion. Well that, combined with flammable aerosols created by the primer explosions. I created a five point fire array and it would maybe have been able to destroy a few dozen meters, perhaps a hundred in a stretch but I got a bit creative and used explosive seals to create a whole bunch of flammable dust and push away the natural chakra in the area. When it rushed back in to the fill the void, the chakra density in the area momentarily spiked, overcharging the flame seal and combined with the dust in the air, well,” Sakura motioned at the black cloud slowly trailing away. The sheer scale of the destruction resembled an attack unleashed by a bijuu. Sure it had required set up and the Senju would no doubt be wary of a repeat performance in the future but Sakura’s chakra was nearly full and all it had cost her was a few hours of preparation, a few minutes to deploy, ink and paper.
“Terrifying little tigress,” Kurou chuckled, ruffling the rosette’s hair affectionately. The entire clan had taken a shine to Sakura and after the last three years of unending battles there wasn’t a man or woman among the Uchiha who didn’t consider her worthy of respect. “I’ll handle the report to Tajima-dono, you kids go get some food and rest.”
“Come on, Izuna and Shou are nearby.” Madara said, quickly leading Sakura away from the gates and into the fortified city. All around them ashigaru swarmed, bundles of arrows being carried up from the streets to the towers and spears being handed out to the town’s militia. They would be entirely ineffective against well rested and armored shinobi but against exhausted, chakra depleted Senju their numbers could end up tipping the scales if the walls fell and the city was in danger of being stormed.
“Here, food.” Shou passed Sakura a rice ball with a core of cooked river fish. Sakura bit into the rice, her teeth sheathed in chakra, allowing her to chew it easily. “So that explosion, you know the Senju will be targeting you during the battle now right? And every battle in the future as well.”
“They already where but this ensures they won’t go after Madara, Izuna or Chichiue.” Sakura replied, glancing over at Izuna whose lips pressed into a thin line. Still he gave her a nod, understanding her motivations even if he was worried for her well being. “We also took out a large chunk of their army and Hashirama was wounded.”
“He’s alive though?” Madara’s chakra twisted with concern for their mutual friend. The Senju might be an idiot and an enemy but neither Madara nor Sakura wanted him dead. Injured meant off the battlefield, at least among the Uchiha so it was a relief to hear he was out of action. “How large was the Senju army this time?”
“Largest we’ve ever seen. I didn’t get a chance to put down any sensory tags, we had to focus on the explosion but from what I gathered, it’s their full force. We’re going to be in for a long day.” Sakura replied, rubbing off the sticky residue of her rice on a rag and then rising to her feet. She could already sense the approaching Senju army, as could the other natural sensors among the Uchiha.
Waves of cold hatred washed over the countryside, hundreds of chakra signatures arriving on the edges of the forest and quickly tipping over into the thousands. Madara made his way back up to the top of the walls with the other young Uchiha, his sharingan allowing him to see across the miles that separated the Uchiha’s main trading city with the Senju army. Banners waved and snapped in the wind as the Senju formed up. Scouts moved forward, searching for seals that weren’t there and wasting energy that could be better spent in battle.
“Looks like you spooked them real well with your attack.” Shou noted, eyes on the Senju army making their way forward at a crawl. They wouldn’t be in range of the city’s defenses for a good long while but that didn’t stop the tension from building. The Senju would not try to siege the city, they had good chakra control on a clan wide level and their ashigaru recruits were capable enough of climbing the walls with the help of grappling hooks. The defenses would ensure the defenders had the initial advantage but if mountains, rivers and valleys could be overcome, walls were a mere impediment to an army’s advance.
Madara didn’t mind battle, in fact he enjoyed it. His heart would thunder against his ribs, his chest would heave with the force of his breaths and his chakra would sing as he wove through the melee. It was a dance on the edge of death, a performance of skill, grace and luck that would determine whether he lived or passed on to the pure lands like so many before him. It was a heady mix of terror and excitement, though the aftermath always left him aching and hollow as the dead were tallied and sobriety overtook blood lust, revealing the horrors of what he had survived.
Taking in a slow breath, Madara did his best to steady himself. ‘Don’t let your blood lust rule you.’ Madara thought to himself and calmed his chakra. Ninshu allowed him to control the curse of hatred and moderate the influence of Sakura’s chakra, which for all it felt like cool forests was of the Isles, bloodthirsty and steeped in ancient violence. The rosette wasn’t a violent person by nature but she had only known war and her heritage had allowed her to thrive where so many others would have been crushed.
“They’re almost in jutsu range.” Shou’s words had Madara opening his eyes once more. He didn’t need them to sense the Senju’s advance but he didn’t want to go into battle blind. The snap of bowstrings and the whoosh of countless arrows rippled up and down the walls as the Senju answered in kind. Small tremors traveled through the wall as hundreds of doton jutsu were simultaneously unleashed, boulders and large stones rocketing towards the defenses.
Madara unsealed his scythe and gunbai, both weapons covered in seals courtesy of Sakura. His chakra churned within his core, circulating through his network and sinking down into his muscles and bones, reinforcing his physical abilities beyond even most adults. Beside him, Sakura unsealed her own weapons, her gunbai marked with her namesake flowers where his had swirling tomoe.
“I think I see Butsuma and the Senju main family.” Shou murmured, drawing back his bow and loosing an arrow, sending it whistling into the Senju’s advanced ranks as they moved towards the city. Madara didn’t see if it hit anyone, more focused on the sudden surge of chakra up and down the walls.
“Sakura!” Madara didn’t even need to say anything else as the rosette leapt into action. Kunai trailing barrier seals flew from her fingers, their sharpened tips coated in chakra allowing them to sink into ground below the wall without a second to spare. Chakra shields snapped into place as battering rams of solid earth erupted from the ground, each the result of multiple Senju working together to overcharge the jutsu. For a moment, Madara hoped the seals would be enough, that the Senju would be forced to climb the walls the old fashioned way.
A familiar chakra, vast and steeped in nature danced across Madara’s senses and his eyes shifted to the Senju main family. Hashirama was kneeling, his hands clasped together and his chakra burning like a dying star as he called upon nature and the world answered. Saplings sprouted from the ground below them, growing rapidly into massive trees, their branches slamming into the stonework and crawling over the parapet, grasping and stabbing at anyone within reach.
Hashirama let out a gasp and fell forward, barely catching himself with his hands, blood dripping from his mouth as a small slug sat on his shoulder, no doubt diverting chakra into healing him. Madara glanced at Sakura who was snarling angrily, her teeth bared in anger as her gloved fingers tightened around the handles of her scythe and gunbai.
“Hashirama,” Madara spoke the name like a curse, putting voice to the emotions every single Uchiha was feeling as the Senju raced up the trees to meet them. Madara shifted his focus from the Senju heir to the incoming wave of soldiers and grinned, sharingan spinning madly as he leaned forward and slashed with his scythe, chakra leaving his hand, running down the spirit wood haft and leaping from the blade as a cutting blade of flames. Gripping his gunbai, Madara pumped chakra into his left arm and swung, a blast of wind doubling the intensity of his flames moments before they collided with the nearest tree.
Shouts and screams filled the air as the Senju on the tree either jumped clear of the attack or were scorched beyond recognition. The scything blade of flames cut through the sturdy trunk, leaving a smoldering black stump in its place as the tree fell free from the wall, crashing onto the ground meters below them. To his left, he felt Sakura do the same, but neither of them had enough chakra to remove every tree that had reached the wall and Sakura’s chakra was a precious commodity considering her ability to heal.
“Throw them back! Archers fire!” Tajima’s voice thundered over the din of battle and archers behind the wall unleashed a barrage in a high arc. Arrows rained down on the advancing Senju, most easily parried but a few finding their mark, the poisoned tips ensuring that even a minor scratch was serious injury.
Madara ignored the ranged battle happening over his head. Sakura’s barriers had been broken by Hashirama’s bizarre plant jutsu but the remnants were deflecting their arrows and the Senju ashigaru on the walls were a more pressing concern. They were fighting well today, years of experience turning the former civilians and clan-less shinobi into a war winning force.
Swiping his scythe through a Senju’s neck, Madara sent the man’s head tumbling towards the ground while his body crashed to the floor before being trampled underfoot. The melee on the wall wasn’t were shinobi thrived. It was the grinding, crushing war of samurai. Jutsu occasionally going off only to be immediately countered by the other side. Blades and knives reigned supreme and Madara quickly linked his scythe to the back of his armor and sealed his gunbai, drawing his sword and darting forward.
A group of Senju had taken up position a few yards ahead of him and Madara quickly moved under the guard of the first in the group, plunging his blade into the man’s throat and ripping it free. Madara sidestepped a spear thrust and answered the attack by hacking the man’s fingers off. Sakura was there a moment later, her jian glowing with emerald chakra and cutting through the man’s steel helmet like it was butter. He’d only rarely seen her use that kenjutsu style, which was odd considering how effective it was but today she seemed to be holding nothing back as she parted steel with inhuman ease.
“It’s her!” A cry went out right before the Senju who’d screamed it was cut down. Still, he’d alerted his compatriots to Sakura’s arrival and all of a sudden a small storm of suiton jutsu descended on them. Madara reacted immediately, grabbing Sakura and using a shunshin to clear the wall while Shou jumped after them, a fire dragon bullet leaving his lips as he retreated.
The trio landed on one of the towers over looking the wall, Izuna joining them a moment later splattered in gore and dripping wet. The group prepared to rejoin the battle when a massive series of chakra spikes drew their eyes beyond the walls. The Senju jutsu teams were at it again and this time massive water dragons rose from the rice paddies that stretched outwards from the walls.
“Anymore seals?” Madara asked Sakura quietly, his eyes on the bijuu sized jutsu and the girl shook her head. Below them, the swampy fields were practically dry, only mud and ruined rice remaining within them.
“No” Sakura replied, sharingan zeroing in on Tobirama who was standing next to one of the larger water dragons. “Shit, they’re going to add lightning to it! Get off the walls!” Sakura’s shout was boosted by chakra, her voice instantly recognizable amid the screams. Instantly the Uchiha who heard her jumped backwards into the city as massive water dragons came crashing down onto the battlements. The Senju had been prepared, abandoning their positions on the walls for the trees and leaving their wounded behind.
Madara watched as the water crushed those who had remained, turning momentarily pink with blood before sparks danced through the massive constructs, flashing the water into steam and unleashing a devastating explosion. Chunks of wall flew overhead, crashing through buildings and crushing anyone unfortunate enough to end up in their path. A second wave of stone battering rams crashed into the fortifications now that the defenders were gone and what was left of the walls exploded inwards, masonry shrapnel obliterating the entire outer ring of the city’s homes.
Senju followed on heals of the flying rubble and Madara could barely tell what was going on as he danced through the carnage. His scythe spun through the air as he launched it at a Senju, his gunbai intercepting a water bullet and returning a frozen ball of ice as wind and water mixed. A pulse of chakra returned his scythe to his hand only for it to leave once more, coated in flames he hurled it at another target. Sakura flowed around him, covering his openings and killing with graceful ease. Shou’s arrows struck down anyone trying to cast a jutsu on them from a distance and Izuna flickered around the edges, tachi bloodied and crackling with lightning.
The fighting was endless, the morning long gone and the sun arcing through the sky overhead. Flames raged throughout the outer ring of the city, pillars of smoke and steam reaching towards the heavens and clouds slowly forming as the fighting intensified. The Senju were determined, pushing ever inwards, trampling over their dead and attacking despite the casualties. Madara could feel his stamina beginning to flag and Sakura had stopped using jutsu at least an hour ago, fighting with just her scythe and super strength.
Madara glanced at his best friend, her eyes calm despite her bloodied grin, sharingan whirling and hair held back in a short ponytail. A few pink strands were plastered to her forehead from sweat and her armor was covered in scuffs and dents, though she’d yet to be truly injured. Sweeping the battlefield, he grimaced as a fresh wave of Senju moved forward. The battle lines on the Uchiha end had broken down as they made a fighting retreat through the city. Sora-ku was utterly devastated and it would be years before it could recover. More importantly though was the barrier the city created to forming unified battle lines and only the ability to sense chakra allowed each group of isolated combatants to know where they were amid the chaos.
“Pull back for now.” Madara ordered, realizing they needed to rest. Sakura’s chakra was recovering even as she fought, her refusal to use it letting her replenish her reserves at the cost of her combat effectiveness while Shou was out of arrows and forced to fight with his naginata. Izuna’s tachi was covered in nicks, the blade dulled from cutting through chainmail and bone while Madara’s whole body felt like one giant bruise.
“Do you feel that?” Izuna asked, resting on a shattered chunk of the outer wall that had flown well over two hundred meters for him to be sitting on it. His armor was dinged up, bruises slowly disappearing as Sakura tended to them. The quartet of Uchiha tensed, a barely there pulse sweeping through the air around them. It was subtle, a shift in natural chakra but now that they’d felt it, it was impossible to miss.
“It’s coming from over here.” Sakura murmured, jumping into the remains of a burnt out home and pulling out a kunai with kanji engraved onto the hilt. “It’s a seal of some kind, not offensive…” Sakura’s sharingan moved over the marks, reading the seal and following the subtle flow of chakra back towards its source. “Shit, it’s a sensory seal! They must have scattered them in the initial attack! They know where all of our fighters are!”
Madara’s blood turned to ice as he realized something far worse. Sakura was holding the sensory seal, they knew exactly where she was. Reaching out, he crushed the kunai, a pulse of chakra adding to his strength just as he’d learned to do all those years ago. A whisper of something on the edge of his senses alerted him it was already far too late, and Madara turned, flaring his own chakra as the Senju elite descended upon them like a storm.
***
Sakura almost felt cheated as she stared down Senju Butsuma’s personal guard, three of his four sons present among them. This was the man who had been the Shodaime and Nidaime’s father, a legend who had stood against Uchiha Tajima. In Sakura’s mind, a fight against this man had no business being fought amid the ruined remains of Sora-ku’s main street. All around them, burnt out shops smoldered and the ruined remains of apartment buildings crumbled under the constant tremors that rocked the village, their windows shattered hours ago by the deluge of stonework from the battle’s beginning.
“Uchiha,” Butsuma’s voice was cold as winter and burned with all the hatred that the Uchiha were famous for. Say what one would about the Senju’s own curse that killed off their emotions and drove them to single mindedness, they were fully capable of loathing. “Kill them all, focus on the girl.”
Sakura felt Madara pulse his chakra alongside Shou. Both of them had sent out the signal to alert Uchiha Tajima and the rest of the clan’s elite. Sakura wanted to scream because she didn’t know what battle Tajima died in but letting him face off against Senju Butsuma was the last thing she wanted right now. She didn’t though, instead she simply spread out her senses, detecting a shinobi sneaking through the gutted buildings in an attempt to flank them.
“Big words for a Senju, you think you can take us?” Sakura put on an air of false confidence and let her killing intent sweep outwards as her fingers flicked a pair of bo shuriken with superhuman force towards her target. The weapons, sheathed in chakra punched straight through the wooden walls of the buildings in their path and impaled the man, cracking his skull with contemptuous ease.
The Senju didn’t rise to the insult, instead they launched themselves forward. Sakura bared her teeth in a snarl and leapt to answer them, her scythe slamming into Butsuma’s sword and sending the man skidding backwards. He was fast, but not as fast as Shisui, nor was he as strong as she was.
‘We can win this, protect chichiue,’ Inner’s voice resounded in Sakura’s mind and she immediately moved forward, bringing her hammer down on Butsuma and forcing him to dodge to the side. The man snapped his blade upwards, forcing Sakura to shift her grip on her weapon, the chakra conductive blade biting into the haft of her scythe and cutting clean through it. ‘Chakra pulse.’ Inner’s voice was calm and Sakura obeyed it, releasing a burst of chakra a moment before Butsuma could cut through her skull, rebounding his weapon.
“Shannaro!” Sakura shouted, gripping the top half of her ruined weapon and slashing it towards Butsuma, cutting a thin line across his cheek as he jumped backwards. Sakura pivoted, spinning around her right foot and hurled the scythe’s head towards the man. Butsuma’s katana snapped under the force of her attack, but his armor protected him from injury as steel crashed against it, winding him momentarily as Sakura flickered forward, leaving behind an after-image clone as she arrived behind him, chakra suppressed and sharingan blazing.
Without a word or even a battlecry, Sakura drove her sword through Butsuma’s spine, the jian’s chakra coated edge slipping through the steel plate without a sound. A feral grin split Sakura’s lips as she felt the man’s chakra splutter. A burst of smoke hit her in the face and her eyes widened as a blade was driven into her wrist and a hand clamped down over her throat. Sakura turned her head, meeting Senju Butsuma’s eyes as he smirked down at her and her brain finally registered what had happened, the Shadow Clone had just made its combat debut and she had fallen for it.
***
Tajima pushed his chakra into the muscles and bones of his legs, forcing them to move ever faster as he raced against the shinigami. He could feel it on the wind, death was in the air and today his family would be losing someone. The question was, who? The kami had delivered Sakura to them but she had no destiny, her fate was in her hands and the hands of those who held her close. Madara would survive, but Izuna was vulnerable and he already knew that sometime this year he would perish.
Tajima suppressed his chakra signature, keeping the energy in his body hidden and tightly leashed as he arrived on a rooftop overlooking the ruined main street that just yesterday had been the busiest marketplace in Hi no Kuni. He arrived just as Sakura’s sword pierced Butsuma’s back and the fighting froze around her. In the timeless world of the sharingan, Tajima saw Butsuma slip up from the ground, rising up behind Sakura. The Senju drove a kunai through her right wrist, sending her jian skittering across the cobblestone road.
Butsuma lifted his daughter upwards, pulling her in as his bloodied right hand moved towards her throat. They were too far away for him to shunshin and a weapon wouldn’t reach them in time. Katon was out of the question and Tajima’s mind searched for answers before he fell upon the only viable solution. Bringing his hands together, Tajima’s chakra flared and a sense of certainty washed over him as he felt the distinctive jerk of substitution.
***
Madara’s heart was in his throat as the soaring sense of victory was crushed under the cruel grip of imminent death. His opponent, some hotshot Senju also looked on, both of them locked in place but experiencing opposite emotions as Butsuma’s corpse vanished in a puff of smoke and the man lifted Sakura up into the air, his kunai angled straight for her throat. Her hair fluttered around her head as the world slowed to a crawl and Madara silently wished he’d been able to see the trick, had eyes that could pierce through any deception or illusion.
It was too late now, Sakura was going to die and nothing he could do would save her. A scream rang in his ears, the voice sounding too much like his own but it was cracked and broken in a way he’d never heard before. Terror unlike anything he’d ever experienced before burned within him as Sakura met his eyes, determination burning within her own sharingan and her mouth open in a silent snarl as she fought to survive, screaming out against the inevitable and baring her fangs to death itself. Then, she was gone.
***
Sakura reached outwards with her chakra, trying to find something to substitute with but Butsuma’s hold on her was iron clad. She lacked the sheer chakra presence to overwhelm him, to escape his grip even with her perfect control. The blade was angled towards her throat and she watched it descending upon her in slow motion even as she reached for his wrist with her off hand. Her clawed fingers wrapped around Butsuma’s left wrist, her fingers tightening as she felt a tug on her chakra and the world shifted out of phase for just a moment before she found herself collapsing onto the tiles of a roof overlooking the main street.
The chakra that had transported her was familiar, warm and loving like hearth and home. “No,” the words slipped from Sakura’s lips as she saw Tajima standing where she had been the kunai flying towards his throat. The Uchiha clan head raised his hand, gripping Butsuma’s right hand with his own and slammed his foot down on one of Butsuma’s sandals with bone crushing force. The Senju clan head staggered and Tajima spun, sharingan bleeding into pinwheels as he drove a fist into Butsuma’s chest, chakra steeped muscles moving with superhuman force and a pulse of chakra he’d copied off his eldest surviving children hurling the Senju clan head across the street.
Relief surged up within Sakura as she turned her eyes on the rest of the melee, taking in the various chakra signatures. The Senju outnumbered them, but the cavalry was coming, Kurou’s ambush team and Tajima’s guards only moments away. Sakura dropped down to the street, chakra suppressed and immediately flickered for the back of the Senju facing Madara.
Sakura’s wakizashi sparked angrily as it met Tobirama’s blade, the white haired boy intercepting her attack before she could kill Madara’s foe. The clang of steel on steel broke the fragile peace that had hung over the street. Dull red eyes met sharingan crimson and Sakura snarled angrily, using her strength to force Tobirama backwards as she stepped towards him, driving her short sword forward in a thrust aimed right for his heart.
Tobirama’s sword burned with chakra as he intercepted it, seals lighting up along his armor, reinforcing his muscles in a way his less then perfect chakra control couldn’t quite manage and he held his ground. His face was a grim mask, nothing but cold determination gleaming in his eyes as he parried her blow and launched one of his own, a sweeping cut that kept his sword between them. Sakura ducked the attack, immediately kicking out his feet and the two children hit the ground simultaneously as Tobirama tackled her.
Around them the battle raged and Sakura lost track of the others. She could feel Madara, Izuna, Shou and Tajima around her but Tobirama took up all of her focus. He was the one who had engineered the Uchiha’s downfall, his students who had massacred her clan. Her eyes ached as she rolled over the ash coated cobblestone, the two fighting for dominance as she tried and failed to drive her wakizashi into the gaps of his armor while he struggled to draw a kunai without ending up skewered then set ablaze.
“Hold her still son.” Butsuma’s words cut through the din but Sakura ignored them. She could kill Tobirama here and now, she had to. Letting go of her blade, she gripped his arms and leaned forward, jaws open wide as she moved in for his throat, intent on biting it out. The world around her suddenly lit up with emerald chakra, the sensation of Tajima surrounding her as the ground shook.
“Sakura!” Tajima’s voice was sharp and loaded with chakra, her clawing need to kill momentarily soothed and her grip weakened briefly on Tobirama. The boy didn’t miss a beat and drew a kunai, driving it into her hip in one fluid motion before bringing his hands together and forcing his chakra to obey him as he sank into the ground. Sakura’s head, which had almost cleared was once more flooded by blood lust and she screamed, her fist rearing back as Tobirama vanished through the stones, chakra burning blue around her glove as she brought it down on the street like the hammer of god, splitting the earth and unleashing an earthquake the likes of which would make even Tsunade proud.
“Sakura!” Tajima’s hand closed around her shoulder and Sakura turned, her head aching and eyes throbbing as her mind burned with the need to kill. Hatred coursed through her veins, liquid and molten, but she still met her father’s eyes, confusion spreading through her thoughts as she saw concern within them. “You can’t give in to the curse.” Tajima’s words had barely registered when her father twisted, his chakra flaring as a series of stone spikes erupted from the ruined ground, crashing into his susanoo. The Uchiha’s ultimate defense wavered for a moment before burning away, stone and dirt clattering to the ground around them as Tajima staggered, his chakra utterly spent.
“You’re really going to die for that half blood brat?” Butsuma asked, voice cold as ever as he walked forward, intent on claiming a kill today. Sakura bristled, but her own chakra was exhausted, everything she had managed to scrounge for herself spent during the brief fight.
“I won’t be burying another daughter Butsuma.” Tajima replied, drawing his katana and stepping forward. “And you won’t live to attack her again.”
Tajima and Butsuma had fought each other countless times before, but it was always inconclusive. The day the man had killed Kagami, Tajima had failed to end him and now, once again Senju Butsuma had turned his blade on one of his children, his only living daughter. Tajima growled, abandoning the tight leash he had on his chakra and letting the blazing flames fill him from head to toe. He felt the chakra gates in his network buckle before the first two burst open and power flooded his body.
Tajima’s eye met Butsuma’s and he pulled the man into a genjutsu at the same time he flickered forward. Bustuma easily dismissed the trick, parrying the strike and answering back with one of his own. Their blades clashed as Butsuma’s chakra built within his reserves then exploded outwards, his own gates opening and the air became heavy with power. The two danced, katana meeting katana as the ground around them cracked, tiny fragments of stone lifting free from gravity as they were caught up in the swirling chakra currents.
Nobody could interfere in their fight, the killing intent both men were releasing acting like a barrier that blocked out the world. Tajima was exhausted from hours of combat and hard marching. Butsuma had barely expended any chakra but Tajima was fighting for his clan, his family, his children and he would not back down.
Leveling his blade at Butsuma, Tajima snapped it forwards, cutting sideways in a perfectly executed strike aimed straight for the Senju’s skull. Butsuma dropped his sword, his left arm coming up and catching the blow on his gauntlet as he stepped forward, a kuna already in his right hand. Tajima’s chakra burned along his blade as it cut through metal and then bone, both men fighting for that half second that would determine the battle. Steel burrowed through the mail protecting Tajima’s left armpit as his katana cut through Butsuma’s arm, flames scorching the wound beyond repair.
The two men backed away from each other, blood pouring from Butsuma’s severed limb even as it blistered and boiled while Tajima staggered backwards, his head turning and his sharingan taking in all three of his children one last time. Then he fell.