Chapter 266: Decisive Battle for Uzu VIII

The “Strongest Spear” of black lightning broke through.

It tore a hole into the dragon of swirling chakra currents and eviscerated the boy’s leg.

However, it was not strong enough to disperse the whole construct.

The Soaring Heavenly Dragon smashed into the Third Raikage’s body and violently shattered the man’s Lightning Armor.

As the propelling force of his chakra carried him forward, Shiki was blasting his way through Ay Senior but as a result the Kumo Shinobi’s Hell Stab had run up the boy’s leg and was now tearing into his torso.

The boy could not afford to care though, this way his only chance to break out, so he kept pushing regardless.

Unfortunately, the Raikage was not a soft target either, he knew the enemy he was fighting had potent recovering abilities and even if he would much rather capture than kill, even killing was preferable to letting Shiki actually get away.

Using nothing but brute strength, even as the Swirling Chakra Dragon violently battered him, the Kumo shinobi forcefully redirected his Hell Stab to target the boy’s head.

By now though, Shiki was completely committed and could not back off.

It seemed inevitable that the Third Raikage would succeed in trading grievous injury for a confirmed kill.

But then, interference came once again, this time on the boy’s side.

Benihime who had never given up hope, had been straining her Shuigan for the entire battle searching for even the slightest opening and now, she had finally found it.

With a focused glare, illusory crimson dust seemed to imperceptibly cross the Third Raikage’s vision and the man's strike, precisely targeting Shiki’s head, veered off slightly.

Feeling the sharp spear of black lightning cut open his cheek instead of impaling his brain, Shiki immediately realized what happened and he was not the only one.

‘I missed!?’ The Third Raikage internally exclaimed with shock, his fierce eyes widening.

But then, realization came.

‘The one that rescued that Uzumaki Elder I was fighting . . . They made me miss like this too!’ The Kumo shinobi immediately deduced that twice now, he had been thwarted by the same foe interfering in the critical moment.

He did not have any time to contemplate further thought.

His life saved, Shiki poured all his effort and will into his Flash of The Soaring Heavenly Dragon.

The swirling draconic chakra construct violently smashed the Third Raikage aside, the man’s lightning armor broken, his bones shattered and his torso bleeding heavily from a massive tearing wound.

It would be wishful thinking to believe this would result in his death considering the Kumo shinobi’s inhuman constitution but safe to say, he would be out of commission for a while.

Now unimpeded, the dragon soared through the heavens, harkening back to the jutsu’s name, rushing towards the Uzumaki lines with blinding speed and unstoppable momentum.

In the future, long after the battle for Uzu was concluded and the country pulled out from the Second War, it was this sight that gave Shiki what would be one of his defining nicknames.

A name feared by enemies across the World.

The Dragon of Uzu.

*

A few hours had passed since Shiki’s clash with the Third Raikage.

What was supposed to be just a stalling operation meant to wear down the opponent somehow resulted in one of the enemy Kage being put out of commission when another was severely chakra depleted after having used multiple massive scale Water Jutsu with no surrounding water.

With the keyman for the final assault in no fighting condition, the Three Village Coalition stalled.

Truthfully, Kiri and Iwa had wanted to keep pushing, stopping held no merit but Kumo was in complete disarray after their "invincible" Third Raikage, the strongest in their village’s history, had been rendered critically injured and worse unconscious.

If Ay Senior had at least been awake to give orders, things would have been so bad but alas.

Unfortunately, he was not the only one.

Shiki too had yet to wake up, this despite his incredible self regeneration capabilities, even Mito herself was helpless to fix this.

Not out of ignorance though, she was actually quite familiar with the boy’s condition because it was not the first time she had seen it.

Therefore, the Uzumaki matriarch was well aware the boy was not in any danger, it would just take a while for him to wake up and she assuaged the concerns of Maiko and Beni with her wisdom though the two girls refused to leave Shiki’s bedside.

But while everything was technically fine, the redhead was on the verge of blowing up with rage.

Although strategically sound, her and Shiki’s plans had nearly gotten the boy killed because they required her not to step on the battlefield herself.

If not for that, she would have crushed the attacking force herself under the combined might of herself and the Nine Tailed Fox.

And seeing her beloved ward so near to getting himself killed had nearly overpowered her better judgement but she knew that if she were to waste his sacrifices, Shiki would be very unhappy with her when he woke up.

The Uzumaki matriarch understood that but she was very unhappy with the boy’s recklessness herself.

Shiki never overestimated himself but despite his incredible insight into matter, Mito noticed he had a tendency to underestimate his enemies, one she could not figure out the origin of though she surmised it came from one of his many secrets.

‘I’ll be sure to thoroughly interrogate him when he wakes up.’ The woman thought to herself.

In his bedding, under the careful watch of Maiko and Benihime, the unconscious Shiki shivered, triggering a wave of fussing from the two girls.

The Uzumaki matriarch thought back to the sensory feedback from a few hours ago.

When the majestic, draconic chakra construct closed in on the Uzumaki line before dispersing mid air, leaving a bloody Shiki to fall and crash into the ground.

The First Elder immediately recognized what had happened and wasted no time carrying the boy’s broken bloody body to Mito, there was simply no one in the village better suited to the task of saving his life.

Even then, he had been consumed by worry over the reaction of the Uzumaki matriarch though the fact that she stayed in Uzushio despite no doubt sensing what had taken place, did assuage some of his concerns.

The boy’s condition had been strange to say the least.

His left leg had been shredded into ribbons of flesh and shattered bone, a gaping wound started on his lower left back while coming out of his right chest, nearly tearing his body into two pieces.

Gruesome to say the least.

However, after a few moments, marks spread across Shiki’s body, emerging from the Nirvana Seal on his forehead.

They seemed to hold his unravelling flesh together with chakra while pouring massive amounts of life energy into him to keep the boy alive.

Even then, despite the scale of the wounds being well within the range of the Nirvana Seal’s power, it seemed it could only barely hold Shiki’s body together and not fully heal them.

Once she saw his state, Mito had immediately seen through the issue . . .

+++++

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