Naruto: Kage of Kages

With the mathematical proof of his growth in mind, Shiki arrived at the sparring grounds raring to put his new abilities to the test.

Unlike before, the boy and his mistress would be sparring in a more private location, isolated through Uzumaki Barriers and Tsunade was not there to watch it either.

These private spars were almost a kind of communication ritual between Shiki and Mito, they never talked much about their own secrets when it came to jutsu and training, a few exceptions notwithstanding.

However, they never held back anything during these spars either, fully showcasing abilities they would normally hide, only dropping the output to not kill the other party, that limitation being more of a thing for the Uzumaki matriarch.

After all, she was exceedingly more powerful than her ward so some holding back became inevitably necessary for actual sparring to be possible.

This time would prove to be no different as the pair faced each other in this familiar private setting, no words needing to be exchanged as they both firmed their stances.

‘Nirvana Art: Dragon Heart’

Dense and heavy black void chakra was pumped through the boy’s blood vessels, making them pop and show as countless black lines across his skin.

Switching to Dragon Force mode, the same black chakra clad Shiki’s entire body, drastically enhancing his physical power as the weight of the unleashed chakra cracked the ground around him and unleashed blasts of air.

Mito showed a slight smile of pride unleashing even heavier dark blood red chakra, born of the Blood Spiral Arts.

This violent energy was effortlessly tamed by the redhead, wrapping around her body like a protective shell while simultaneously boosting her physical abilities.

The intensity of the Uzumaki matriarch’s chakra release was so great it shattered earth even more violently than Shiki.

A tense standoff followed.

The pair’s chakras seemed to slowly expand across the sparring grounds, clashing like an aura battle, something rarely seen outside the peak of Kage level fights and above.

But suddenly, Shiki’s figure vanished.

‘Flicker Phantom’

Far more serious than before and keeping her Mind’s Eye of the Kagura fully focused on a much narrower area, Mito upped its accuracy and perfectly captured Shiki’s movements.

Her right leg raised as a powerful side kick heading for her gut smashed into her knee instead, showing she could now defend against his taijutsu effectively, unlike in their previous spar.

Mito did not move to counter attack though, instead raising her left arm just in time for another Shiki to unleash a second kick, one heading for her neck only to impact her raised guard instead.

The redhead then leapt off the ground with her left leg, just in time to make a third Shiki miss his leg sweep.

This however, forced her into an unfavorable position as a fourth Shiki unleashed a heel kick from above, chakra accelerating hit like jet thrusters as it smashed into the Uzumaki matriarch’s right arm, sending her crashing into the ground as a pack of Shiki’s jumped her.

With a massive burst of blood red chakra, Mito smashed the ground to blast every Shiki away but like mere ghosts, they were unaffected, as if not solid.

Something which could not be true as all of their attacks felt far too real.

Soon, the Uzumaki matriarch who had been using the intense focusing of her Mind’s Eye of the Kagura to neutralize the boy’s unorthodox taijutsu that would otherwise bypass her guard, could not keep up with multiple Shikis.

Punches and kicks began slipping past her guard, smashing into the dense chakra cladding the redhead’s form which greatly reduced the damage and impact she suffered, enough that the blows nearly seemed to not affect her at all.

But if Shiki thought he was finally heading towards a win by wearing down his mistress’ defense like so, he was dead wrong.

‘Adamantine Sealing Chains’

Golden chains shot out from the redhead’s body swiftly formning a rapidly expanding sealing barrier.

Shikli’s afterimages vanished as if swept through until it impacted something moving so fast it became invisible . . .

The boy’s true body.

He quickly shifted mid air, clearly unaffected by the impact, landing perfectly and taking his distance until Mito undid the barrier which he had no means of breaking.

‘How masterful.’ The Uzumaki matriarch looked at her ward with wonder.

She sensed just before impact that the chakra which the boy had been using to enhance his strength seemed to retreat into his body, strengthening its internals and forming a dense film over his skin, blocking all damage from her barrier smash.

‘Combined with the interesting taijutsu he has been using to harden his body since the start of the battle . . .’

Indeed, using Iron Body at all times and shifting from Dragon Force mode to Dragon Scale mode just before he was hit saved Shiki from damage.

But the boy was more focused on analyzing the performance of his Flicker Phantom.

‘There is still plenty of room for improvement.’ He thought.

Flicker Phantom was his take on the Shisui Style Body Flicker of the original series.

Although some misunderstand this jutsu to have genjutsu mixed in, it is actually pure ninjutsu, Shiki guessed the Afterimage Clones came about by using the principles of the regular Clone Jutsu.

The user would then use an extremely fast Body Flicker to constantly move between each clone, attacking from all directions while hiding one’s actual position.

Shiki used the Clone Jutsu Principle along with a combination of Flicker Flash and Shukuchi for speed and maneuverability, the sensory powers provided by Kukyo filled the role of the enhanced perception of sharingan, a necessity to guide oneself at such high speeds.

‘From Mito-sama’s actions however, she was able to track me perfectly and while few should possess such abilities, it is still a flaw.’

‘Especially since eventually, I want to do away with the clones entirely, vanishing from sight and attacking unseen through speed alone.’ Shiki mused.

‘Maneuverability can also be improved. The accuracy of my movements was also impaired enough that Mito-sama had an easier time tracking my Hidden Dragon Kata despite not being able to deal with it at all previously.’

‘Even if she prepared countermeasures, they shouldn’t have shown such effectiveness.’

All these thoughts occurred at impossibly high speeds. In truth, Shiki barely paused and, as soon as his mistress dropped her barrier, he jumped back in with a different game plan.

‘Nirvana Art: Elemental’

Shiki had barely created this art, not even reaching the 10% mark of basic mastery for regular use, but he still very much wanted to combat test it.

For her part, Mito immediately noticed the change in her ward, her Mind’s Eye of the Kagura detecting the nature transformation of chakra within him.

‘Elemental jutsu were never his strong suit, so what is this infusion of the five basic chakra natures into his body?’ The redhead wondered.

For once, she decided not to take her usual defensive approach to see what her ward was cooking and made a preemptive attack instead.

‘If he wants to play with elemental jutsu . . .’

‘Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets’

A massive barrage of small vacuum bullets was unleashed like a hail from a wall of machine guns, nearly impossible to dodge and each packing extraordinary killing power due to Mito’s massive chakra reserves.

But Shiki fearlessly charged ahead.

The lightning chakra in the boy’s body flared, amplifying his reflexes as he flicker flashed his way through the barrage.

The earth chakra hardened his form to negate damage from the occasional glancing hit.

And then, Mito watched in awe as Shiki’s counterattack came . . .

+++++

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 -