[Western front]
Yukiko and the rest of the Shimura clansmen had repositioned themselves to another mountain range. As they retreated, they could not help but worry about their patriarch. The tailed beast's chakra waves were too strong.
"Shimura Wind Corps! Again!"
Great Wind Breathrough [C]
A single C-rank jutsu could be easily ignored by a figure like Roshi, much less in his beast form.
However, forty such jutsu acted as a more powerful attack, far more powerful. Shinobi wars were not used to such formations, and the Shimura clan had been the first to implement it effectively. Others had tried, but they would often be too noticeable and lose their members over time. Replenishing units were almost impossible, unless peaceful times appeared.
Only a strategic mind minimizing losses could achieve something like that.
Taking roshi by surprise, the jutsu blew him off, crushing his back onto trees.
However, compared to the S-rank jutsu I had just inflicted on him, this wound was inferior.
If anything, it only gave me enough time to attack again.
It is not as if we stood by idly between ambushes. The elders and I had been preparing for this enventuality. There was no way Iwagakure would leave us unpunished from those plunders. If not Ishizo, then surely a jinchuriki or a squad of iwagakure elders were bound to attack us, search for us, and attempt to kill us.
The cave was our territory, so naturally we used the convoy's resources to plan out a trap.
Twenty thousand explosive tags were stashed underground, connected by a chakra thread contained within the tree. In other words, it was a massive mine, the tree being the detonator. Crashing onto the tree, the jinchuriki howled, but I gave it no time to think as my hand rushed forward like a snake. I smiled. It was no average strike either.
Futon: Vacuum Sphere [A-Rank]
I detonated the explosion. The massive 100-meters-tall tree crumbled, the explosive tags below exploding.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*
It was a massive explosion. My torso was charred, but Roshi fared much worse. His face was unrecognizable, only a pair of red eyes assimilable to figure. His body was bleeding profusely, his legs trembling in pain, his arms bending in an akward angle.
This time, however, he did not give me enough time to think as he charged at lightning speed.
My chakra reserves were high, but ultimately, I was not of kage-level just yet. Thankfully, Roshi was just a shadow of what he would be during the third shinobi war. I took out the A-rank chakra blade, an heirloom of the Shimura clan, and used the powerful Shimura Kenjutsu Art: Wind Coating [B]
The strongest kenjutsu technique, however, failed to fully deflect the bite.
*SPLASH*
Despite being partly deflected, the attack still crippled me. Looking in horror, I immediately realized that my arm was flying in the air.
Roshi stopped mid-air, as if he was struggling to keep his consciousness. This was my opening. Grinning like a devil, my arm flickered like a snake and slashed through his eyes.
*SPLASH*
An arm for his eyes, not a bad trade, was it? Blinded, he reacted and punched in the air, but this time around, I had the upper hand. There was still time before his eyes would regenerate. I thrust my blade again, this time targeting his lungs.
*SWOOSH*
As expected, he unleashed a wild scream again, and tried to bite me. However, right after thrusting my blade in his lungs, I had already retreated three steps and unleashed a pair of kunais targeting his tendons. Immobilized, I made sure to restrain his movements further.
"Shimura Kenjutsu corps! Shimura Wind corps! Paralyse him"
Immediately, a rain of futon vacuum shurikens coated in paralysis poison pierced through his coat of red chakra. Struggling, three jonins approached Roshi, as if to defend him, but the man had lost himself to the beast. He punched his bodyguards in the chest, killing them in the spot. I smiled.
Everything was going as per the plan. I advanced silently, using the Shimura footwork technique, often used in courts to move without sounds. This time, however, I was using it to escape his senses, and sneak behind his back. Taking out a tag, I bit my finger and stuck it on his back. Instantly, a massive spider was summoned. The Shimura clan possessed two summoning scrolls: one giving access to elephants, but they were prideful and few in numbers. The second was regarding spiders.
At first, I was a bit adamant and fearful, but spiders were actually very reasonable. As long as I fed them chakra and organic matters, they would gladly help me. Bodies from convoys didn't disappear overnight. I had actually been feeding the corpses to my contracted beast: Mei mei, a massive 5-meters-long jonin-level spider.
"Mei mei, please hang in there for a moment!"
Struggling to overpower the weakened Roshi, whose back had a 'Lethargy Seal', I shouted: "Seal team!"
Four Shimura elders—my personal guard—leapt from the rubble. Chains of Uzumaki-forged steel lashed around Roshi's limbs. He roared, melting links, but the seals held. For now.
"You think these trinkets can—", Roshi shouted. No. It wasn't Roshi. It was the beast he had inside his body.
I slammed my palm onto his chest.
Reverse Four Soul Symbols Seal [Forbidden Jutsu].
A gamble. A jutsu I had glanced at in the Shimura's library after becoming patriarch. According to the notes, it had been a gift from the Uzumaki clan upon the creation of Uzushio, the hidden village of whilrpools, home to the Uzumaki clan.
His tails thrashed. Two elders vaporized. I cursed inwardly. Two jonins died, just like that. By a crippled jinchuriki, paralysed by the most potent poison we could concoct.
The third fell, however, endured the hit. Itoru, the last one, held firm, teeth gritted, coughing blood as the beast was trying to raise the temperature of the chains to kill the others.
"Danzo…!" Yukiko begged from a distance
The seal glowed. Roshi's chakra screamed. The Four Tails howled—I felt it, a furnace threatening to consume us both.
"Submit," I hissed.
For a heartbeat, his human facial expression surfaced—wide, terrified. A young man again.
Then the tails vanished. Roshi collapsed, lifeless. The chains were cooling down.
The gorge fell silent. Ash snowed down. Yukiko staggered to me, sleeve pressed to a burn. "We… did it?"
I stared at Roshi's dead corpse. My right arm blistered and seemingly regenerating at visible speed, the seal's backlash gnawing to bone. A fair trade. Soul renching pain for power.
"No," I said. "We bought time. Onoki won't leave his jinchūriki in enemy hands. He'll counterattack. Full force."
I turned, already strategizing. The Shimura dead were embers in the wind. Expendable. Necessary.
"Send word to Hiruzen," I ordered. "Demand triple pay. And tell him… the 'ghost' just bagged a jinchuriki"
As we retreated, I didn't glance back. Monsters weren't worth mourning. The war, after all, had only just begun.