With shattered ground and sudden unforeseeable motion, [Shiki] was already upon the Kumo elite jonin.
But an elite jonin was an elite jonin, even if close quarters was not Dodai's specialty.
The Kumo shinobi already knew the boy had taken out an extremely durable taijutsu specialist like Dogan, there was simply no way he would try to defend himself with his comparatively lower skills.
And so, when [Shiki] struck, the Dodai in front of him revealed itself as a rubber dummy.
'Substitution.' The boy immediately realized, locking on to his prey once again, instantly.
With practiced ease, he reached into his pouch as his storage seal required chakra to operate and launched a kunai at the moving Dodai with a whipping motion of his arm.
With a hurried and stable lean, the elite jonin barely got out of the way as the kunai ran through two trees before vanishing into the sky.
'What monstrous strength!'
And as a sensor he could tell.
'There was no use of chakra, this is not like princess Tsunade. What is this monster!?' Dodai questioned, the uncertainty of facing something unknown, unsettling the normally calm, steel minded shinobi.
Tsunade, despite having physical strength exceeding the large majority of burly Kumo shinobi all the while boasting a curvy but slim physique, something made possible by her Senju lineage, for her to exhibit as much force as [Shiki] had just created, Chakra Enhanced Strength was needed.
Fortunately for the Kumo jonin however, [Shiki] would not be getting another free chance to attack.
Because, just as the boy was readying for another dash, his eyes suddenly narrowed and vanished in a dizzying motion, only for thunder and lightning to crash down at his location.
Tsunade and Inori as well as Shiki who was now a good few meters away from his previous spot looked at the smoking crater left behind to be greeted by the sight of an imposing, raging goddess of lightning.
Her tanned skin that covered a lean but muscular build and auburn mane gave her a wild beauty she was known for in her home village.
Zee had arrived.
And right after, her remaining forces of four regular jonin joined up with Dodai who was a few steps away.
"So you're our target . . . The brat that killed Dogan . . ." She spoke in a low voice that hid the anger her expression did not.
"And every single Kumo shinobi he brought with him." Shiki added with cold calm, only infuriating the Kumo kunoichi further.
"Is that so?" Zee's expression darkened.
With those words, the signature flash that came with the Lightning Body Flicker registered in [Shiki]'s senses and the Kumo kunoichi was already upon.
Her mistake.
A sharp breath and strange rippling and creaking sound later Zee could only freeze in shock as the target of her attack vanished in place before she felt her Lightning Armor give in to a blow she never saw coming.
The exchange was so fast most of the shinobi present could not even make out the details, they only saw Zee moving in with a flash of lightning before being launched out with nearly as much speed.
But one person, the most wary of [Shiki], already expected such a result.
'Lava Release: Rubber Net'
Using the elasticity of his rubber jutsu, Dodai cushioned Zee's landing, ensuring she would not take any further damage.
'Tch! Not as effective as I would have hoped for.' Shiki mentally noted as he watched the still stunned Kumo kunoichi be helped up by her comrades only to crumple over again, coughing out blood in the process.
She was however, not out of the fight as she soon shook herself out of that state and refocused on the fight.
[Shiki] who seemed to have the upper hand however, seemed to be in a worse state.
It was patently obvious for everyone to see.
The boy's arm was shattered and bent in weird directions, the result of releasing the mental limiters on his physical strength and hitting with far more force than his body could handle, a precursor technique to the Eight Inner Gates, before chakra was a thing.
He wasted no time though, pulling out a huge stack of paper tags, part of his earlier preparations that forced him to draw on his sealed chakra.
Without making a single expression [Shiki] wordlessly tossed around a hundred Flaming Breakthrough Tags of Shiki's creation, his entire stock.
A veritable ocean of fire manifested.
Completely unexpected and using no hand seals while producing such power, blocking such an assault was all but impossible without a powerful Water Release Shinobi.
Lacking one, the Kumo shinobi adopted the only other option.
Focusing their chakra on their legs and feet, they jumped high into the air with a burst, evading the flames.
All but one of them.
The Fire Release Jonin that had been previously wounded by Inori had had to keep fighting and dashing around the valley, had been too worn out to fully dodge in time and his legs were caught in [Shiki]'s attack.
But that was just the first stage of the assault.
Being sitting ducks in the sky, the Kumo shinobi found themselves the targets of Kunai the boy had thrown with enough force to obliterate their extremities and punch giant holes through their bodies on a hit.
They were all experienced jonin though, and so, their response was swift and effective.
With kunai of their own, they slightly altered the trajectory of [Shiki]'s powerful throws, making them evadable with a little mid air maneuvering.
In all but two cases that is.
The jonin that had caught part of the flames could not mount an effective defense and suffered the fate of having a giant hole decorating his torso.
And surprisingly, the other target that was struck was the Elite Jonin Dodai.
Only to disintegrate into shattered rock.
'Earth Clone!' [Shiki] realised as the ground beneath him gave way unbalancing him enough to stop the boy from evading the attack from below that would surely follow.
Alas, because of the boy's initiative in combat and independent action, Dodai had briefly dropped his caution towards the other Konoha shinobi on the battlefield.
So far, Tsunade had been working hard to heal Inori as quickly as she possibly could and just moments prior, the Senju princess had finally completed that task.
The Violet Rose was not back to full strength but she could fight near her original level once more and, considering the urgency of the situation, that would have to suffice.
Using her sensory abilities, the Yamanaka quickly noticed one of their enemies escaped underground while sensing a decoy clone up and warned Tsunade beside her who was more than ready to act.
Descending with her signature Heavenly Foot of Pain, the Senju princess shattered the earth, severely impacting Dodai who barely launched himself out of the ground before being pulverized.
From the Kumo shinobi's rough look however, he was hurting internally despite it not being enough to compromise his fighting ability in the short term.
But after these exchanges, it was now five on three, numerically favoring Kumo.
Compared to the beginning of the valley ambush however, it was clear who was really dominating the battle.
'Lightning Release: Overdrive'
Zee's assistants activated a lightning jutsu to amplify their speed and power while blocking Inori's disturbance type jutsu and launched themselves at her while Zee moved like lightning, targeting [Shiki] once again, with a lot more caution this time.
Meanwhile, Dodai and the remaining Fire Release Jonin from Kumo engaged Tsunade.
It was time for the final showdown.
+++++
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 -