Naruto: Kage of Kages

The first sight the bespectacled girl was met with, was the sight of [Shiki] being thrashed. Uchiha Mei was frozen in place.

Despite being so young that he barely met the requisite age to enter the Shinobi Academy, Shiki had proven to be the most capable shinobi of their squad besides their sensei.

The boy always felt like an untouchable paragon of skill with boundless talent and an impeccable work ethic, at least to her.

Seeing his small body, his torso covered not by his extremely stylish (in his opinion) vest but instead, black burns from lightning along with countless bruises, his arms in particular with one just limply flailing about as he moved.

It made the girl feel some kind of way.

But when Zee went in for the kill, her shinobi instinct flared.

She could not let the Kumo kunoichi go any further and it was a great timing for an ambushing attack as well.

However, that Lightning Armor would make most of her attack methods ineffective.

A jutsu with mass that could hamper Zee’s attack even if it did not damage was the right choice but.

‘I still haven’t mastered water release to that level.’

And, so she had no choice but to cast the most powerful fire release jutsu in her arsenal and hope it worked, at least enough to save her teammate.

*

Back to the battle, [Shiki] was too battered to dodge the next Hell Stab and Zee was not going to give him the chance to recompose himself.

‘I’m going to die.’ The boy thought, his mind still hollow, devoid of emotion.

The Kumo kunoichi shared his thoughts.

‘He’s dead!’ Zee internally declared.

But even if not spoken aloud, those words still raise flags.

‘Fire Release: Great Dragon Flame’

The elite jonin felt searing heat coming from her back left while [Shiki] had his sight lit up with raging white hot flames.

A dragon head made of dense, concentrated white flame, taking nearly all of Mei’s remaining chakra and far exceeding the maximum power she had ever achieved with that jutsu.

Amped by the Lightning Chakra Mode that gave her far more than a mere Lightning Armor however, Zee dodged in the nick of time but she had been forced to abandon her finishing blow.

“Another one!?” The Kumo kunoichi exclaimed.

Immediately though, she realized the newcomer was not only much weaker than the Konoha combatants already present, she was practically spent as well.

And, a cowardly plan she would not usually resort to quickly came to mind.

“You may have escaped death boy. But can you save this girl without getting yourself killed?” Zee taunted.

Rather than get entangled with [Shiki] who had already recomposed himself, she instead aimed her Hell Stab at the newly arrived Mei, purposefully slowing down her rush just enough to give the boy time to come to the bespectacled girl’s defense.

It was an open scheme.

If [Shiki] did not fall for the trap, Zee would take out Mei, eliminating an enemy combatant while damaging enemy morale.

If however, the boy tried to stop her, she would finally take the boy out, thus completing the main objective of this accursed mission she took. Capturing or Killing Ryumon Shiki.

[Shiki] was naturally aware of all this, but this was an opportunity for him as well.

‘I’ll jump into your trap.’ He thought, using his Ryumon footwork, Shukuchi to rapidly close the distance between him and Mei, throwing himself in front of her just before Zee’s Hell Stab arrived.

It was the only way to stop her.

The sound of flesh being pierced felt deafening for the young Mei.

Overpowering smell from flesh burnt by lightning assaulted her nose.

And [Shiki]’s blood splattered across her face as she witnessed Zee’s spear hand coming out of the boy’s back.

This horrifying scene was reflected in the bespectacled girl’s eyes.

Eyes that now glowed with an ominous red, sporting a mysterious pattern before fading to black from a lack of chakra to sustain them.

Mei could only fall into a daze as Zee’s limps curled into a vicious smile.

A child he may have been.

But in the cruel shinobi world, triumphing over such a dangerous prodigy was a point of pride.

The tanned kunoichi’s froze quickly though.

As soon as she gazed upon the gleaming violet eyes of the boy she had just impaled.

Still bright, still bursting with strength.

But so hollow, showing her the terrifying void inside him.

And then came the pain.

‘Koho’

A striking technique that takes no motion, used while touching the opponent, instantly producing enormous power from one’s entire body to provoke intense vibrations in the opponent’s body.

With his own young body, such a technique was as likely to take out [Shiki] himself as it was to take out his opponent, this despite it only being a transitional technique to learn a more powerful version of itself.

With a huge hole in his chest however, such concerns seemed rather pointless.

Yes. It was Zee’s turn to be concerned, but she never got the chance.

The tanned kunoichi’s body creaked and cracked, her muscles tore and her organs ruptured as she crumpled to the ground bleeding from all her orifices, dragging [Shiki] who still had her arm in his chest, to the ground with her.

Although his internal organs certainly did not appreciate his actions, his bones, muscles and such were mostly fine.

So with great difficulty, the boy got up, pulling Zee’s arm out of his chest.

‘At least the lightning cauterized the wound, even with Ryumon secret techniques, stopping the bleeding from this while having no actual Ryumon training, only natural adaptation, would be utterly impossible.’ [Shiki] thought.

‘I managed to shift my heart away but my left lung is practically gone. I won’t last another hour without medical attention.’ He did not even think how absurd, how aberrant the fact that he could last almost an hour in his current state was.

[Shiki] turned to still dazed, barely conscious Mei.

“Thanks for this assist.”

He tried to smile, but the hollowness in his eyes combined with the giant hole in his chest made the situation horrifyingly bizarre.

“Y-Your c-chest-t.” The Uchiha, her glasses and face still covered in the boy’s blood, finally managed to stutter out.

“I’ll live.” [Shiki] replied.

‘Probably’ He added in his mind.

But then, a new threat triggered his instincts.

[Shiki] grabbed Mei despite being the injured one and, with his Shukuchi, vanished to reappear a safe distance away, an cold and enraged Dodai now staring him down as Tsunade struggled to rid herself of her rubbery prison and quickly body flickered in their direction.

*

It was unsurprising that Mei’s flashy fire release caught the attention of all of the other combatants.

Inori considered trying to strike her opponents down with the distraction but she felt the chances of success were low.

‘I’ll rush to the kids and make this a three on three, they will not make it otherwise.’ The Violet Rose made the judgement and took advantage of the distraction to body flicker towards Zee and the two kids.

She was however, not counting on a desperate attack from Zee’s two attendants, her opponents, they felt their mistress was about to claim victory and complete their mission’s main objective at the same time and so, they tried their utmost to stop Inori . . .

Even opening themselves to a counter . . . A very poor decision indeed.

*

As for Dodai, he had immediately felt something was wrong despite Zee’s overwhelming advantage.

Exhausting a large amount of chakra, completely abandoning his efficient fighting style using small smale jutsu, Kumo’s elite jonin made his move.

‘Earth Release: Earth Flow Divider’

‘Lava Release: Liquid Rubber Bullet’

Suddenly splitting open the earth with large scale earth release, Dodai completely broke the Senju princess’ balance, and with his next jutsu trapped Tsunade long enough to break away from combat with her to assist Zee.

He was, however, too late.

*

Back to the present, [Shiki] held Mei while staring down at Dodai who now stood protectively over Zee, the fire style jonin from Kumo, clearly exhausted from the battle with Tsunade and visibly nervous hanging behind him.

Things only got more complicated as Inori joined the Konoha group while one the unconscious kunoichi’s attendants linked up the few survivors from Kumo.

The other, a casualty of their desperate and poor attempt to stop the Yamanaka from disengaging after she caught them off guard due to Mei’s Great Dragon Flame.

+++++

Hey, Author here!

Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.

I’m trying to become a full time Author now and I’m not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.

Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -