Naruto: Kage of Kages

It was a new day and a new morning session.

As Mito and Shiki stood facing one another, the redhead thought to first discuss the spar of the previous day but the boy, far too focused on battle testing his developments from last night, did not read those cues and thought they were sparring like usual.

Making sudden progress from scratch, enough to make a real difference would be nearly impossible but there was something Shiki had been working on since before he met Mito.

In fact, it was the very thing that led to him meeting her.

His second Nirvana Art that had just entered the stage of combat viability.

‘Nirvana Heart: Kukyo’

(Author Note: Kukyo means emptiness by the way.)

In an instant, Shiki’s mind chilled almost as if empty and at rest, bringing a sense of peace but immediately after, his thoughts were accelerated, information was processed at inhuman speeds and the boy’s seemingly peaceful aura was replaced by one of deadly purpose.

In that moment, all of Shiki’s being was optimized for that single battle.

Mito’s expression changed. The change to Shiki’s mindset immediately alerted her and, without wasting another moment, the boy was upon her.

Flicker flashing towards the redhead, the jutsu was no longer being used as an escape or means of closing the distance alone, by triggering the expelling of chakra through his body in extremely precise sequences of tenketsu, Shiki was accelerating all of his moves, attacks included.

Mito body flickered away but with his flicker flash constantly being adjusted, Shiki was hot on her trail.

‘His jutsu and technique have hardly changed but what is it with this precision and pace!?’ The redhead thought as she continuously body flickered around, her superior skills and chakra potency enabling her to keep out of Shiki’s range without too much trouble.

Seeing that catching up to Mito normally was going to be impossible and that the redhead was uncharacteristically avoiding taijutsu exchanges, the boy switched up his tactics by taking a page from his mistress’ own book.

Redirecting his attacks downwards when he missed, Shiki shattered the earth as rock fragments turned into flying projectiles blasted in all directions.

Mito kept dodging, occasionally smacking away stray rock shards as she analyzed the boy’s jutsu.

‘It is the same as yesterday, a body flicker variant but today he is also using it like by Chakra Enhanced Strength.’ She concluded.

‘He expels chakra from particular tenketsu to accelerate his blows and increase the force on impact. Because the chakra is already being expelled for speed and not stored until impact, it lacks the explosiveness of Chakra Enhanced Strength but the tradeoff can be worth it.’

The examining of the body flicker variant was all well and good but what made Mito so passive was not Shiki’s increased speed. He was still far too slow for her.

Changing her tactics, the redhead stopped maintaining distance and let Shiki get into taijutsu exchange range.

But unlike the other spars where the Uzumaki matriarch practically danced around him, avoiding nearly all of his strikes, she was now blocking most of them.

‘What’s happening?’ Shiki was confused.

With flicker flash’s propulsion, he maneuvered through the air, launching an accelerated flying roundhouse kick at Mito’s head.

‘Like usual.’ Shiki analyzed within his accelerated thoughts.

Keeping the propulsion, he spun around before launching a back kick with his other leg which Mito effortlessly blocked.

‘A block again. Usually Mito-sama would have side-stepped that . . .’ The boy wondered if she was testing him in some way.

Although his attacks were much faster than yesterday, Shiki did not believe the difference was big enough for Mito to need to change her combat style.

He stomped on the ground to unbalance her but the redhead just backstepped, avoiding the broken ground.

‘Again. Usually she would attack to punish me for using a move that left me open so close to my opponent.’ Shiki analyzed but the answer suddenly came to him.

‘Time for a little test.’ He internally declared, suddenly changing his attack pattern.

Rather than chasing Mito like he usually would, Shiki kicked the jagged pieces of rock created by his stomp.

The projectiles were much faster than before as they came from a directed kick rather than him just smashing into the ground but the redhead casually dodged to the side.

But in the direction she was going, Shiki was already there, intercepting her with a kick packing his full strength and, just like he expected . . .

Though the clash caused a shockwave that rattled the surroundings, Mito solidly blocked it without issue.

‘I’m certain now.’ The boy thought.

He kept trying similar tactics, luring his mistress with openings, purposefully leaving a path of escape to intercept and ambush her . . .

Mito saw through and didn’t bite on almost all of them, owing to her wealth of experience but the key point was not that.

‘Mito-sama did fall for a few.’ Shiki triumphantly thought.

The Uzumaki matriarch was far from threatened even when she was tricked, always noticing the trap in time to perfectly block or counter. Shiki had even been smacked in a couple of exchanges because of it but one thing was certain.

‘If before, Mito-sama could stay four to five steps ahead of me, she is now only two to three steps ahead.’ The boy concluded.

It was still terrible of course since Shiki was two to three steps behind his mistress all the time but the difference was massive.

Focusing on his spirit by taking advantage of his heightened mental state from the “Nirvana Art: Kukyo, the boy noticed something he had never caught before.

‘This is Mito-sama’s “Mind’s Eye of The Kagura”!’ Shiki jubilantly thought.

He could now perfectly tell he was being closely monitored all during the spar but there was an anomaly.

‘Mito-sama can read both chakra and intent but because of Kukyo, my mind is in a forced state of emptiness, masking my intent. By reading my chakra, Mito-sama can read my move as soon as I start it but unable to read my intent, the prediction cannot extend to earlier than that.’

Finally figuring out the whole truth, Shiki was satisfied with his gains but despite maintaining his attack while deep in his thoughts as the heightened focus enabled him to multitask perfectly, he knew even grazing his mistress with an attack was currently out of his reach.

‘But now that I can sense Mind’s Eye of The Kagura, maybe I can use it to trick Mito-sama and create an opening.’ The boy theorized.

Full of motivation, Shiki prepared to continue his assault.

But plans are one thing, reality is another.

Just as he was flaring his chakra for another Flicker Flash, the boy’s vision suddenly darkened and he passed out on the spot.

‘But I still have plenty of chakra and stamina . . .’ He confusedly thought while making his way into the realm of unconsciousness.

Mito watched Shiki suddenly pass out despite still having a reasonable amount of chakra left but swiftly came to a conclusion regarding the cause.

‘Whatever mental technique he conjured up helped him with precision and efficiency, helping conserve stamina and chakra but the mental exhaustion must be high.’ The Uzumaki matriarch once again picked up an unconscious Shiki and headed back inside.

This time though, she would wait for him to wake up and have a talk with the boy straight away to inquire about his jutsu and other developments.

‘He has already skipped one day’s worth of fulfilling my wh- his afternoon duties ao he shall not escape another in a row.’ Mito self righteously declared.

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