A/N: Shisui's debut at last! I am really excited to hear what you all think about the fight scene. Did it feel as sharp and fast as it should? I cannot wait for your feedback, so do not be shy and let me know in the comments. ;)
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Noa kept the barrier active, forcing as much chakra into it as he could. His arms trembled slightly from the effort, and a cold weight sat in his chest. He knew the next attack could shatter the seal if it broke through. For a heartbeat he wondered where his sensei was.
Shisui flickered out of the cart, vanishing so suddenly it looked like the air itself had snatched him away. Three shadow clones split off at the same moment, darting in separate directions with the same frightening speed.
To Noa, they were nothing but brief blurs.
Shisui appeared on the ridge by the river. The red pattern of his Sharingan glimmered faintly in the morning light. His hands moved in a swift, practiced motion that looked almost too smooth to be real.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique."
A vast sphere of flame burst from his lungs and surged outward with a deep, rolling roar. The orange glow washed over the rocky walls of the pass, casting tall, flickering shadows as the fireball swept forward to meet the oncoming wall of wind.
The clash struck like a thunderclap. The rushing wind slammed into the ball of fire, tearing away glowing fragments at its edges, yet feeding the blazing core with oxygen. Heat and pressure collided, the air between them vibrating as if it would rip apart.
Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan spun into full view, his eyes sharp as blades. He shifted the flow of his chakra with perfect precision, feeding power into the clash at just the right points. The jonin above faltered as the flames began to surge forward, realizing too late that his own wind was being turned against him.
While the two forces ground against each other, Shisui's first shadow clone appeared behind the cart. The chunin there barely managed to raise his kunai before the clone's blade swept across his abdomen, leaving a clean red line. The second clone emerged near the front and hurled a kunai with such force that the chunin stationed there staggered back when he deflected it, his arms going numb from the impact. Before he could even comprehend what had happened, a blur crossed the distance, and a swift slash opened his throat. His knees gave out and he collapsed soundlessly onto the dirt.
The flames roared louder, sparks and dust swirling wildly as the fireball began to drive the wind backward, forcing it to scatter and break apart.
Noa's hands were locked on the seal, pouring chakra into it as fast as he could. The barrier's surface trembled faintly under the pressure of the jutsu clash above. His jaw clenched so hard it hurt, yet his eyes were drawn to the scene beyond the faint glow of the dome.
One heartbeat, the two chunin stood ready with weapons in hand. The next, a thin red line opened across one man's stomach and he collapsed with a blank, stunned stare. Almost at the same instant the other was knocked back a step, only to have his throat opened before he even registered he had been attacked. Blood splashed dark across the dirt as both fell, lifeless, almost in the same breath.
It happened so quickly that Noa's thoughts struggled to catch up with what his eyes had just seen. For a moment, everything felt eerily still, broken only by the deep roar of fire and wind still battling above the cart.
A chill crawled up Noa's spine. He had trained for years and had fought and won against other strong shinobi. What he had just seen was something else. Those two chunin had been seasoned fighters, yet they had died before they could even understand they were in danger.
His heart thumped harder, the weight of it sinking into his chest. If he had been in their place, there would have been no chance to react. He would have been dead before he even blinked.
A tight, nervous thought slipped through his mind. How in the world did Danzo kill someone like this?
The question lingered like a cold stone in his gut as he turned his focus back to the barrier. The wind and fire still clashed, shaking the ground beneath the cart, and a deeper fear settled in. For the first time in a long while, Noa felt as if he was staring at the gap between himself and a true master of the battlefield.
At the same moment, the third clone flickered in behind the jonin, who had the other two chunin stationed a short distance away, ready to support him. The jonin was too focused on the struggle to keep control of the unstable jutsu he and Shisui were feeding with chakra. If either lost focus, the combined wind and fire could erupt and tear the entire ridge apart.
The clone did not hesitate. Its hands blurred with tremendous speed.
"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique."
A spear-like lance of fire shot out, burning white-orange at the core so hot the air around it rippled and warped. Unlike the broad, explosive Great Fireball, this flame carved a straight, narrow line through the air, fast and precise.
The jonin finally noticed it and his eyes widened. Realization flickered across his face as he muttered, "That speed… Shisui… damn it," losing focus for a heartbeat. That moment of distraction weakened his grip on the clashing jutsu, which swelled dangerously out of control, threatening to engulf the ridge.
"Retreat immediately. It is Shisui of the Flicker. Do not meet his eyes and do not look back," he barked at his subordinates.
The first lance of fire slashed toward the two chunin, and they flickered desperately backward, narrowly escaping. But the first shadow clone had already flickered behind them, anticipating their retreat. With only a fraction of a second's delay, it unleashed the same technique.
They reappeared on the other side, eyes widening as realization struck. They froze in place, horror and pain twisting their faces as they realized the searing heat had already cut clean through their bodies when they flickered. A heartbeat later, their forms split apart along the scorched line and collapsed lifelessly onto the rocky ground.
All the chunin had been cut down before they could move to support their leader, their lives ended in seconds. The six genin who had been standing farther back froze in place. They had been ready to throw weapons or use jutsu, but after watching their comrades die so fast, they could only stare in shock.
They barely heard the jonin's frantic warning before they turned to run, only to find the second shadow clone already behind them. The air shimmered faintly as a pulse of chakra rippled outward, silent and colorless but heavy enough to make the ground hum. It invaded their network with terrifying speed and efficiency, the kind that spoke of unmatched mastery. In that instant, every genin within reach froze mid-step, their minds caught in the illusion before they even realized anything had changed. It was the kind of genjutsu that only worked on the inexperienced, a subtle trick of chakra pressure and control that slipped past those too weak or too slow to recognize it.
The clones flickered away again just as the unstable clash of wind and fire, which had been slipping from the jonin's control ever since his moment of hesitation, finally broke free. What had started as two opposing jutsu locked against each other turned into a single, roaring torrent.
The compressed wind did not just feed the flames, it forced them into a concentrated core, hotter than a forge and burning almost white. The merged force no longer resembled a clash of jutsu but a natural disaster let loose. It tore forward like a hurricane set ablaze, twisting and shrieking as it ripped into the rocky ridge.
The ground shook as if struck by an earthquake. Entire slabs of stone were pried loose and hurled outward like boulders from a catapult. The flames inside the gale no longer moved like simple streams but like molten spears, lancing out in every direction and scorching anything they touched.
When the raging torrent struck the ridge's edge it exploded in a deafening blast that drowned out every other sound. A shockwave punched through the pass, knocking smaller rocks loose from the cliffs and blasting clouds of dust down the slope. The cliff face simply tore apart, chunks the size of small huts broke free and tumbled into the river below.
Everything near the ridge, the ground itself, the twisted bushes clinging to the rocks, and the unlucky genin frozen too close to the blast, was consumed in an instant. Fire and shrapnel engulfed them, their shapes vanishing in the roaring inferno.
Noa gripped the seal on the cart's roof so hard his knuckles went white, forcing every bit of chakra he could muster into the barrier in a frantic surge. He could not see the ridge above, only feel the ground trembling beneath him and hear the chaos outside. The air inside the dome grew stifling, each breath harsh and ragged in his chest.
A wave of blistering heat swept down the pass toward the cart, the barrier shuddering as if it might rip apart under the strain. The blast pressed on him like a solid weight, the deafening roar rising to a furious peak as the ridge erupted. The shockwave slammed into the barrier like a hammer, rattling his bones and driving the breath from his lungs. Chunks of rock, torn free by the blast, pelted the dome, making it ripple and hum under the impact. For a heartbeat he was certain the barrier would rupture and the torrent would sweep them all away, but it held.
Even after the roaring subsided, Noa stayed frozen in place, heart pounding as the truth sank in. One misstep in a battle between shinobi of that level could be catastrophic.