Naruto: Stormbreaker

Chapter 199: Chapter 199: The Hunt Part 11

Shisui POV

I put my hand on Noa’s shoulder as he said, ”Sensei, I am almost done with my seal.”

I replied, ”It will not be enough,” and poured every bit of strength I had into my muscles, augmenting them with whatever chakra I could muster to compensate for how locked and strained they were. We flickered an instant before the entire area behind us erupted in violent slashes. Even small stones lifted by the pressure were shredded to dust.

I stopped only long enough to reorient before flickering again. The same scene repeated each time. The whole clearing was being torn apart, destroyed beyond recognition, as I kept moving farther and evading those impossibly fast blades. Without my instincts and danger sense guiding me, we would have been cut to pieces already. Beside me, Noa held his spear tightly, ready to act but unable to throw while I was still dragging him through the chaos.

We pushed deeper into the forest when I sensed something sharp pulling at my nerves.

”Duck, Noa.”

We both ducked as a slicing arc tore through several trees behind us with terrifying force. I flickered to the side again as multiple vacuum bullets detonated entire trunks. I used the uneven terrain and broken lines of sight to escape, but Hawk was experienced. He kept perfect distance, which worked in his favor, striking from far away and waiting for the poison in my body to finish what his attacks started. Using chakra control and my eyes, I slowed its spread, but the effect was still growing stronger with each minute.

I finally landed in front of a massive tree trunk. Hawk stopped moving the moment he had a clear shot. His hands blurred through seals as he gathered a dangerous amount of chakra.

Wind Release: Great Gale.

A powerful gust surged forward. It did not flatten the area like a brute force blast. Instead, anything caught inside the current was sliced into small pieces as the wind spun and folded around obstacles. I cursed under my breath.

”Noa, get ready.”

I flew through hand seals, drew a deep breath, and unleashed Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation. Heat surged up my throat and a massive wave of flame burst outward, rising like a wall of molten air as more chakra than needed was expended due to the effect of the chakra distortion area, which without my Mangekyo Sharingan and perfect chakra control would have prevented me from performing such a powerful ninjutsu. It swept across the trees in front of us, burning them so fast they turned to ash in an instant. The two jutsu collided in the middle, and the world descended into chaos.

Hawk mixed yin into his wind, sharpening the edge and increasing its cutting strength, something I could clearly see with my Mangekyo blazing. I mixed yang into my fire release, increasing its mass and raw force. Trees were uprooted, burned, and shredded at the same time as the clash raged. Hawk’s control was incredible. I pushed back with everything I had just to avoid losing this deadly tug of war.

When I felt the two techniques begin to tear each other apart and die out, I gritted my teeth and called urgently, ”Noa, now. Nine o’clock.” Pain shot through my eyes as I placed my hand on his shoulder, the chakra drain finally hitting me with full force.

Noa did not hesitate. His spear shot out in a beam of blue light, annihilating anything that remained in the path of the fading jutsu. Lightning crawled across its surface as it tore through the dying flames and wind.

The moment the two jutsu annihilated each other, the spear tore through the dying embers. Hawk did not expect an attack to be timed that perfectly. The weapon was a heartbeat away from his chest when he snapped his kunai up, flooding it with wind chakra until the metal sharpened into a pale green edge, thin and deadly. He swung it in a clean arc at the incoming spear.

The two weapons collided. A sharp, ringing crack tore through the clearing as the wind-sharpened kunai bit into the spear’s lightning. The impact forced Hawk backward, his feet carving deep lines through the soil as he fought to hold his ground.

A moment later, the seals on the spear ignited. The metal lit up and released an overwhelming explosion augmented with lightning chakra. Hawk wrapped his body in wind at the last possible moment to shield himself, but the blast was far too strong. The explosion hurled him backward, the force tearing through his defenses and burning into his skin. He crashed through several trees, each one bursting apart on impact, before smashing through a final trunk that shattered into fragments.

Before he could hit the ground, he forced wind beneath him and stabilized his fall, landing in a controlled skid while already weaving more hand signs through the scorching pain.

Multiple vacuum bullets shot toward us, accelerated by the wind already swirling violently around him. Noa was still reaching for the recall seal to summon his spear back. I was exhausted and could not even flicker while compensating for my locked muscles with chakra. I could barely stand. If I had not been pretending to hold Noa’s shoulder as if preparing to flicker away, I would have already collapsed. The enormous fire release I had used earlier had taken far too much out of me.

There was no time. I steeled myself and activated my Mangekyo ability, aware that my eyes were at their absolute limit.

The moment it flared, the world sharpened into painful clarity as time slowed to a crawl. My vision pulsed, the damage in my eyes screaming at me, but I forced the chakra out anyway. There was no other choice. The vacuum bullets were already close, far too fast and precise to evade in my current condition.

A skeletal arm erupted into existence beside me, forming in a burst of green light. The chakra vibrated so violently through my damaged network that my knees almost buckled, but I kept feeding it more. The arm thickened into muscle-like layers of chakra, then hardened into a translucent armor.

Susanoo.

It rose around me in an instant. A ribcage formed, then the beginnings of a torso, its presence heavy and overwhelming. The vacuum bullets collided with it at once.

Each bullet struck with the force of a powerful hammer, sending harsh ripples through the chakra structure. Sparks of wind and chakra exploded across the ribs. The pressure pushed me back step by step, my heels carving lines into the dirt. Noa steadied me by gripping my cloak, but I could feel even his muscles straining under the shockwaves.

I expanded Susanoo further, enough to shield us both completely. The form grew taller, more defined, the translucent armor covering the ribs and extending into a partial arm on the opposite side. The bullets shattered harmlessly against it now, spraying sharp slivers of wind that melted into harmless air as they touched the chakra shell.

Hawk stopped, breathing heavily as he held his bleeding ribs. His chakra was dropping to a dangerous level, and age had clearly taken its toll on him. The injuries he had suffered from Noa’s spear were far from small. He kept his gaze lowered, watching my Susanoo without looking directly at me, although I was certain he had noticed my Mangekyo still active. I prayed silently as I began to speak.

”Now that we are protected, I can flicker around and teach you a couple of lessons, old man. They say even the oldest among us still have something to learn. The world never stops teaching, and I am willing to be your teacher for today.”

I forced myself to smirk with as much confidence as I could manage.

Hawk’s expression shifted. His fingers flew through a rapid string of hand seals.

”Wind Release: Storm Cutter.”

The air around him twisted sharply. A thin spiraling lance of wind formed in front of his hand, so tightly compressed that it hummed like a drill. The pressure alone made the dirt under his feet crack in a spiderweb pattern. The technique sharpened further, spinning faster and faster until the spiral became a narrow beam of cutting wind.

Then it fired.

The Storm Cutter slammed into my Susanoo’s ribcage with a sound like stone grinding against steel. Sparks of chakra flickered along the impact point as the spiraling wind drilled against the construct, trying to carve its way in. The pressure was relentless, a focused stream of slicing force that kept spinning with terrifying consistency.

My Susanoo shook under the assault, the ribs vibrating as the drill pushed deeper. The wind screeched, a constant shrill grind that echoed through the clearing. Each rotation shaved away tiny fragments of chakra from the surface of my defense.

Hawk adjusted the angle with a small twist of his wrist, and the Storm Cutter followed, grinding along the side of the ribcage like a cutting saw. Each impact sent thin fractures of chakra flickering across the construct as the attack searched for a weak point, an opening in an incredible display of experience and absolute control over wind release.

I tightened my stance inside the Susanoo. My vision throbbed, and I felt myself on the verge of collapsing.

The jutsu finally died down, and I took a deep breath. My eyes burned with pain. I was exhausted, and both my body and chakra network were in very bad shape. Hawk continued to watch my Susanoo, which still had not faded. He stood there for a long moment, as if waiting for me to collapse so he could finish his job.

Noa finally recalled his spear back into his hand, the seal shining once more as lightning coated the weapon in violent sparks. I knew Noa was at his absolute limit as well. Maintaining Stormdrive for that long just to keep up had drained him completely.

Hawk let out a slow breath.

Then, without a word, he flickered out of sight.