Naruto: Stormbreaker

Chapter 326: Chapter 326: Close Quarter

The tiger ANBU lowered her stance. Shisui did the same. The elephant ANBU stayed silent, eyeing him carefully. The tension balanced on a razor’s edge. A piece of debris from the broken wall the elephant had just passed through split and hit the floor. With it, the world exploded into motion.

The giant crashed both of his powerful arms into the earth with terrifying speed, chakra, and strength, making the foundation shudder. Shisui lost his balance for a fraction of a second. The tigress used that opening to touch the ground, and immediately, multiple stone spears shot up. Shisui flickered backward. However, her partner was already moving. Demonstrating impeccable experience, sensing, and reaction speed that utterly defied his size, he blurred as well. He appeared a heartbeat after Shisui did, already swinging his blade toward him.

Shisui cursed, lowering his head under the lethal strike while rapidly weaving hand signs. The tigress touched the wall next to her. Instantly, the stone right beside Shisui’s head shifted, erupting into spikes that aimed to impale him. Shisui saw a punch coming from the giant at the same time to pin him, but he used his smaller frame to wrap around the thick arm, striking the man on the side of the head to throw off his balance. Shisui then tilted away from the deadly earth jutsu, pushing the elephant ANBU into the rock spears instead. The trap penetrated the brute’s skin slightly but failed to cause severe damage as the tigress reacted in time.

Shisui did not have a single second to breathe. The tigress blinked right next to him, launching a vicious kick. Shisui blocked the assault, using her strength to create space as he hurled a shuriken straight at her face. She ducked but was not quite fast enough. The shuriken carried so much force that it sheared off the upper part of her mask, carving a long, bloody gash across her scalp.

The elephant ANBU retaliated with a kick so powerful it launched the dust right off the ground. Shisui quickly lowered his shoulder to protect his side, but the impact was overwhelming. He was launched violently backward, crashing entirely through the wall and into the side room.

The tigress slapped both hands onto the rubble. The surface beneath Shisui turned into a thick pit of mud before he even landed. Instead of touching the muck, Shisui pressed his feet firmly against the far side of the room’s wall. His Sharingan burned red through the storm of dust and debris. He shot forward, practically rebounding directly off the concrete, causing a shockwave pattern to crack the wall as he reappeared instantly behind his enemies. He brought his sword down at the tigress, but the giant stepped in the way to intercept. However, the heavy fighter’s hasty positioning left him slightly unbalanced, and he failed to react fast enough to Shisui’s terminal speed as he tried to raise a hurried guard. Shisui’s edge easily overwhelmed his guard and cut downward, carving a deep wound across the elephant’s chest. The large man screamed in pain.

Before Shisui could land, the entire space beneath him and his target began to glow with an ominous light. The earth exploded into jagged shrapnel, and a huge chunk of stone slammed into Shisui. He had not expected the tigress to endanger her own teammate in such a tight space, but Shisui was an expert. He kicked off the giant’s chest and jumped away from the worst of the blast, which hit the elephant head-on. Instead of blood, sparks flew as the rocks collided with a newly formed rock shield. A moment later, the tigress touched her partner and disrupted his chakra. He had been forced to use it to form that shield, and she needed to be absolutely certain he had not been caught in Shisui’s genjutsu in the process.

The tiger ANBU whispered to her partner. Blood seeped from her shattered mask, but her gaze stayed intensely focused. The elephant was in a worse state, his deep chest injury leaking a considerable amount of blood.

”Are you okay?” she asked worriedly.

The elephant grumbled, ”I will be fine.” He sighed heavily, keeping his focus locked on Shisui at the far end of the corridor, and spoke in a hushed tone. ”I have heard of his ridiculous speed, but this is beyond that. His reaction time is also incredible. Furthermore, I am worried about that faint chakra signature I sensed at the start. It is most likely a small summon he used to send for reinforcements. We need to wrap this up fast or retreat. Given the catastrophic damage that erased our forces, it would be better to report back to Lord Onoki and face the consequences than die here.”

The tigress replied, her expression resolute. ”If we come back with Shisui’s head, we will not face any backlash. Lord Onoki will even accept the men’s sacrifice as a necessary evil to catch that monster.” She looked closely at her partner. ”Also, given the horrific damage to the battlefield, and the fact that he injected so much chakra into his barrier that it is still active, he must be running low. He might even be depleted already. What can you sense from him?”

The elephant grumbled again. ”Although I can sense him, I am not sure about his exact reserves. Konoha ANBU, and especially him, are incredibly good at masking their chakra levels. It was a miracle I caught his signature from the start.”

The tigress slapped his back lightly. ”Do not undersell yourself. You are one of the best sensors our village has.” She stood up fully, cracking her neck and shoulders. ”Let us get him.”

Shisui sighed, seeing the determination in his opponents’ posture. He wanted to take a breath and give Noa a chance to recover his strength while he occupied them. He knew if he weaved hand signs, the ANBU would rush him. But given their expressions, Shisui knew they had made up their minds.

”They are not retreating,” Shisui muttered to himself.

His hands exploded into motion. At the same time, the tigress started weaving hand seals, preparing to unleash a powerful jutsu given the immense amount of chakra she was gathering. The elephant was already moving with blinding speed toward Shisui. However, the Uchiha finished his signs first. He slapped his palms onto the ground, and a net made of pure electricity extended in the blink of an eye.

”Sorry Noa, I will borrow your jutsu,” Shisui whispered.

The tigress cursed. ”Get behind me!”

In an impressive show of deceleration, Kuzan stopped and flickered back behind her. She raised a thick earth wall between them just as the electric net was about to reach them. The jutsu exploded with an erratic current, hitting the corridor so violently it blasted holes into both the stone wall and the ground.

The tigress asked, ”Where is he now?”

Kuzan was tense. ”I have no idea. That lightning is scattering a lot of energy into the air, and it is not easy to see beyond it.” His muscles were completely taut.

Suddenly, the tigress cursed and injected more chakra into her defense. A powerful fire jutsu collided with it. The intense heat caused the barricade to thin and melt into lava, but she desperately kept reinforcing it.

Then, Kuzan abruptly snapped his head to the side, his pupils wide. Shisui blinked into existence in the adjacent room right at the exact spot where they had first discovered him. He had moved completely silently through the opening the giant had smashed earlier. Shisui threw a kunai with tremendous force right at Kuzan’s head, then instantly disappeared again.

Kuzan slashed with his sword on pure instinct. Shisui reappeared right in front of the heavy blade, grabbing the flat sides of the metal with both hands and stopping it dead. Simultaneously, the thrown kunai bit deep into Kuzan’s neck. The giant stared in sheer disbelief before pain replaced it.

The tigress was already reacting, slashing her own weapon toward Shisui’s unprotected side. However, Shisui kicked her hand away, pivoted on one leg, and spun backward. The momentum drove his foot right into the hilt of the kunai already lodged in Kuzan’s neck, kicking it cleanly through his throat. The giant dropped to the floor, choking on his own blood as he held his throat while withering on the ground.

”Kuzan, no!” she screamed, launching herself furiously at Shisui. They collided hard against the wall. Shisui struck her chin with his knee, causing her eyes to almost roll back into her head.

However, Shisui realized in shock that her hands were planted flat against the wall right behind him. He felt her chakra ignite. She was preparing to detonate the entire area, fully intending to kill them both. Shisui headbutted her hard enough to push her back, then kicked her in the chest, breaking her contact with the wall.

Shisui then tried to body flicker away. But to his absolute horror, Kuzan used the last embers of life in his eyes to grab his leg, pinning him with impossible strength and causing the flicker technique to fail.

The tigress was already creating multiple rock spears covering a wide area, willing to finish off her partner just to get the kill. Shisui resigned himself to the grim fate of never seeing the world clearly again just to survive this as his three-tomoe Sharingan started to shift.

The tigress prepared to propel the already-formed spears with deadly speed. But a fraction of a second before she could, a blinding attack erupted from the room Shisui had just vacated. The entire space shone with an intense blue glow.

The earth shuddered as a streak of blue light crossed from the barrier to the wall next to Shisui, leaving a trail of crackling lightning in its wake. Shisui’s eyes widened as he watched the spear tear straight through the tigress’s head. It continued its devastating path, blowing a clean hole right through the wall of the building. She collapsed to the ground like a stringless puppet, her body spasming violently from the severe electric shock.

Shisui looked down to see the elephant’s grip finally fail. His heavy head hit the stone floor as the light of life faded from his grieving eyes forever.

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A/N: Man, I love writing Shisui’s fights, haha. That was one of my absolute favorites in the series so far. Back-to-back amazing fights. Y’all are eating good! Hehe, I’m glad. I want you to