One Thousand Hands (OC- Senju SI)

Pre-Chapter AN: Hey, thanks for reading this. It's literally my favourite thing to write these days. Enjoy the chapter, and let me know how it sticks if you enjoy it. 

After reading this, you can either wait till next week for the next chapter or read the next two on pa-treon right now and keep reading as I write. For the pa-treon, you can remove the hyphen between pa and treon and google it then search for my username- Oghenevwogaga. Or you could copy the link in my bio and remove the spaces before pasting in your address bar. 

Have fun with this- Also, in case you haven't checked out my other story (Gamer of the Desert) yet, then please do so. It's also set in the Naruto universe. It's an SI into Gaara with some gamer elements. I can guarantee you'll love it. It's also much farther along than this one so gives you something to really sink your teeth into. 

SHORIRAMA SENJU- SEVEN YEARS BEFORE THE SECOND GREAT SHINOBI WORLD WAR

Ninjutsu was no longer fun. He had come to realise. Learning it at least. It came so easily that there was no challenge in it at all. It was almost the same as breathing or whatever. He could perceive chakra down to the atomic level. But not just the chakra of others. That same level of perception extended itself to his own chakra reserves. He could feel his chakra so intimately that there was very little chance of him getting a jutsu wrong more than once. His chakra control felt like it didn't even matter anymore. He could basically will his chakra to do whatever he wanted (within reason). 

Wind release Rasenshurinken? Easy. He'd just spread his hands and formed the jutsu. He was also cognisant enough of his reserves that he could tell that his eyes did not compare to the Six Eyes from Jujutsu Kaisen at all. Those eyes had never made sense to him either way. How could they take the User's energy consumption to basically zero? Surely, there were just some things that took more energy than others. His eyes took that truth into account. When he formed the Rasenshuriken, or at least began forming it, he'd found that if he wanted to create anything close to what Naruto had shown off in the anime, then he would find himself in the hospital again. This time, for Chakra Exhaustion. And this time with the guarantee that Tsunade was never going to let him hear the end of it. Even worse, she'd get Mito in on it and between the both of them, they'd frustrate him to death. 

With that realisation, he gave up on the Rasenshurinken and simply formed a smaller scale jutsu. A mini rasenshurinken. Instead of having the power to destroy forests, this one just devastated three trees of so. Still more than enough to kill anyone he'd be facing. And the rest of his jutsu came even easier. He'd found that he could shorten everything to basically a single seal now with how aware he was of his own chakra. He couldn't quite make everything sealless for some reason. Most jutsu needed that initial catalyst to work at all. One-handed seals had also come to him with ease. 

And so with Ninjutsu basically a non-issue, he'd moved most of his training to other disciplines. That was what led him to the Training Ground he was walking into. He'd expressed a desire to continue his gentle fist training to one of the aides at his Mother's place, and she had gotten back to him two days later to inform him that the Clan Head had secured him the services of a Jounin from the clan to work on his skill. 

"Come in, Shorirama-san. Do not dither" He heard the voice from the clearing and nodded before walking out of the clearing. He met a man with long black hair that fell past his shoulders, pale skin, and the telltale lavender eyes of the Hyuga Clan. His Jounin vest was immaculate, and the headband that he wore proudly around his neck was similarly maintained. 

"I have been charged with taking your grasp of the Gentle Fist to the next level. I had the pleasure of watching your matches at the Genin Exhibition, so I have already formed a detailed account of your strengths and weaknesses. I am told that you will not be cleared for missions for at least three months so we will be using that time for intensive remedial training that should be enough to get you to the level that would be expected for a Hyuga of your age" 

I made to speak up, but he continued heedlessly. 

"Hiroshi-sama has cleared everything, both with Hokage-sama, and your Jounin-sensei." He continued on. 

"Left" His sensei prompted, and he spun out of the way of the attack that came from his right. 

He tried to retaliate with a thrust of his own, but it as slapped out of the way with ease. He swatted away a poke aimed at his forehead and returned the favour with one for his opponent's midsection. 

"Right" His sensei said, attacking from the left this time. He stepped backwards as his sensei stepped into his guard. He gave the ground to keep his stance steady and swatted the fingers aimed at his kidney away. His own thrust was dodged with a lean of his opponent's head. This was the second month of their lessons now, and he had come to agree with his Uncle. 

Hyuga Jinpachi was clearly one of the most skilled practitioners of the gentle fist his clan had. Just a month under him and the difference had been night and day. Now, he was even better. He'd at least managed to make the Jounin begin moving at his full speed. He was yet to land a hit and still left each training session racked with chakra welts, but it was still progress. 

Their dance continued. He bent underneath an attack aimed for his head and realised his mistake the second he made it. Jinpachi did not hesitate to punish. He never did. It was what made him so well suited for teaching Shorirama. His knee went up and slammed right into the Senju heir's nose, sending him shooting backwards. 

He barely managed to keep his feet under him and still took two hits before he was back in the fight. His head was still ringing, but the feeling of his tenketsu along his left lung and clavicle blocked brought a clarity to his head. Enough of a clarity to allow him fight back. 

Just as he always did, he unblocked the tenketsu with a burst of chakra- a skill no other Hyuga could claim- and burst into a short range body flicker. With the way, the jutsu screamed its existence to those who could perceive it, he was practically telegraphing his next moves to his Sensei. He came out of the shunshin and slapped aside the hand that aimed for his forehead before stabbing at his Sensei's chest with a lance of chakra. The attack never hit, the man leaned backwards in time. But that was not the only attack he had. He stepped into the man's guard, this time forcing him to be the one to step back, and aimed a series of attacks along the man's body. Each was either slapped aside or leaned out of the way of in time. 

He dodged out of the way of the retaliatory kick that tried to separate them, but he did not allow it to happen. He pressed even further. The man would a mistake eventually. No one could deal with this much pressure. Overall, it took two minutes of continuous attacking for Shorirama to manage to graze the man's arm with a gentle fist attack. That graze had hit a tenketsu that made it slower for him to raise that same hand to block the attack that came for his chest. 

He was forced to body flicker backwards to escape the situation. The bell rung. Shorirama fell on his arse laughing. He'd won. He'd actually won. 

XXXXXX- TOSHIRO TAKEHADA- SEVEN YEARS BEFORE THE SECOND GREAT SHINOBI WORLD WAR

Today was the day Shori was scheduled to return to active duty with their team. A year and six months without him had not passed easily. He regretted the thought, but part of him was unsure that this was a good idea. Shori had been gone for a year, unconscious. In that time, both he and Uzume had been running missions with a powerful Jounin at their side, and training under said Jounin. He knew that the Hyuga and Senju clans would put all the resources at their disposal towards helping Shori get better, but he was unsure if that would be enough. 

A year was a lot of time. Could he truly have managed to bridge the gap that would have inevitably built between them in three months? It was unlikely. Shori was a genius, but some things were just impossible. Besides, it was not like he and Uzume had remained still in that time period. They'd kept going on missions, and training. His genjutsu arsenal had gotten so large that he knew three techniques he could apply for any situation.

His ninjutsu had not lagged behind by much, either. His chakra capacity had grown with training, as Sensei promised, and now he could do jutsu like the Great Fireball up to four times a day. Nothing compared to Uzume's nine, but he didn't have centuries of breeding behind him or even a fire affinity so high he could burn water. He blinked as his teammate appeared in front of them. 

He seemed to just appear. There was no puff of smoke from body flicker. Toshiro checked his chakra network, and just like he'd thought, it remained undisturbed. How had he done that?

"Fancy" was all Uzume said upon looking at him, and he had to say he agreed. 

Shori had changed his outfit again. This time, he wore a plain shirt and some combat pants. He didn't have the same giant scroll he'd worn for the chunin exams, but there were ends of smaller scrolls peaking out of the pockets of his combat pants. On his hands, he had a pair of fingerless gloves that had metal plats on their back. The main change, Toshiro noticed, came with his face. He'd grown his hair even further. He wore it in a ponytail that fell down towards his waist now. And over his eyes, he wore a pair of sunglasses. Strange.

Uzume whistled as she stepped closer to peer at the glasses, and he did the same, noting that the lines etched into the glasses weren't just decorative like he'd thought. They were seals. 

"Are we going to keep staring at me or are we going to get this show on the road?" He asked, pulling down the glasses with one finger to pin them with a stare. 

"Yeah sure, as soon as Sensei shows up" Uzume said, and almost like he'd been eating for that very cue, the man appeared in front of them with a body flicker. A body flicker much louder than Shori's. Interesting. Toshiro began to wonder if he'd been wrong about things. Could Shori be better than them after a year off. No, that made no sense. He'd always had prodigious chakra control even with his large reserves, so it made sense that if he spent time training that, then he'd possibly get even better than Sensei at it. That even confirmed Toshiro's fears more. If he'd spent all his time on Chakra control of all things, then what had he done about the rest of his shinobi skills. 

"Our mission today is a search and destroy." Sensei said. 

"What?" 

"There is a team of rogue shinobi with unknown origins that have burned two settlements along the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Grass" He explained. 

"Unknown origins?" 

"It is suspected that they are from Iwa, but Iwa has been sure to deny any knowledge of them or their activities. We are the second team being sent out for them. It was initially thought to be a bandit camp, but the fact that the four chunin that were sent have disappeared without a trace makes that theory very unlikely. Present intelligence suggests a team of rogue shinobi." 

"So our mission is finding out what happened to the Chunin team and exterminating the rogue shinobi" He summarised, and his sensei nodded. Shori seemed to be very intrigued by the entire thing, while Uzume appeared eager. I could see why. If they'd taken out an entire chunk team already, then they were sure to be strong. 

A year ago, he'd have been hesitant, but now he was sure that the only thing that differentiated him from a chunin was the vest. He had the skills now. He just needed to make use of them. 

Sensei asked them to move it, and they instantly took their favoured formation for long-range travel out of Konoha. A half-diamond. Sensei was the tip of the spear. He took the left side, and Uzume took the right. He looked behind to check if Shori was following along, and he'd seamlessly positioned himself at the rear. Toshiro smiled at him and received a wave in return. He'd be sure to protect his friend if things went out of control. 

Just like Sensei preferred, they did not stop on their journey to the border, and maintained Speeds close to their stop. 

XXXXXX- SHORIRAMA SENJU 

It felt good to be back. Back on missions. And even better, this mission was guaranteed to have some action in it. He couldn't wait. He felt antsy to test himself against someone who wasn't Hyuga Jinpachi. Someone he could actually use his ever expanding ninjutsu repertoire against without getting a lecture on how they were supposed to be spending the time on getting his taijutsu up to snuff. Either way, he was refreshed and raring to go. 

That was why when they arrived at the last town to be destroyed, he instantly activated the byakugan. He would have said that was the only thing that saved his life, but he was certain that Sakumo would have intervened and gotten them out in time if he felt they were actually in any real danger. 

"Landmines" He shouted at both his teammates as she formed a tunnel of chakra through the air and body flickered backwards. Toshiro used a quick substitution, while Uzume also made use of the body flicker technique. Hers was much louder than his, so they were waiting for her the moment she came out of the technique. Just as he was waiting for them. He substituted with Uzume, smiling at the fact that she didn't resist once she realised it was his chakra pulling at her, and allowed the man to stab his cleaver sized blade right into his chest. The body turned into very sticky mud that kept a hold of the blade while I body flickered into his space and stabbed at him with my fingers. He managed to dodge out of the way but was forced to let go of his weapon to do so. I pressed the attack, while keeping track of my surroundings. 

Sakumo-sensei had drawn two of them to him, while Uzume and Toshiro fought another one. Four shinobi. The skill marked them as Jounin level. An Iwa Kill Squad. Interesting. 

I bent under the man's attempt to force him to gain distance with a kick. I marched closer, stabbing at him with a kata from the gentle fist's advanced forms. I came in from the left, and then the right, and then the centre, stabbing lout with fingers at different angles. He jumped back completely out of taijutsu range and formed a series of handseals- Tiger → Ram → Rat, before slamming his hands on the ground. I devoured every part of the technique with my eyes, observing the way his chakra moved to form the technique. The earth around me rose up into two massive formations that moved to squash me in the middle. I smiled as I body flickered through the technique. 

I enjoyed the look on his face as I appeared right in front of him in seconds. He was too slow to react, and I funnelled the momentum from the body flicker into my legs and spun into a kick that slammed his head right as he looked up at him. It sent him flying. I smiled and formed a single seal before taking a deep breath. Before he could stand, I bathed his position in flames. His screams echoed through the ruins of the town. I enjoyed the sound for a second before snapping the genjutsu with a wider smile. That was sleek. A very sleek attempt. If I couldn't literally see his chakra reaching out to catch me in the genjutsu, then maybe I'd have been caught in it. 

He rose out of the ground, and I regarded him with an unimpressed look. A look that he returned with a scowl on his face. He clearly didn't enjoy being pushed around by a child. "Your taijutsu is good, Hyuga. Just like they said about your clan, your resistance to genjutsu is high as well. But unfortunately for you, neither of those are my specialty. I am Iwabe, master of ninjutsu. I will have your name, so I can tag your skull with it when I add it to my collection." 

I considered correcting his misconceptions about me being a Hyuga, for even giving my name, but I remembered the orders that Tobirama had given before allowing me go on my very first mission. 'Under no circumstances are you to reveal your name or clan affiliation. You are not yet ready to deal with the attention that our name commands outside this village', he had said. They were orders I had no problem obeying. 

"What use is information to a dead man like you" My smile was wide. He allowed my words roll off his back and began weaving seals. I did the same. 

"Fire Style: Great fireball Jutsu" 

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu" I executed mine a second after his. Both fireballs flew across the space that separated us before exploding in a massive conflagration. A conflagration that I dove right into. I commanded my chakra to cloak me from the fire as I body flickered into the space. I met him weaving more seals and had to dodge out of the way of the stone he spat at me at hypersonic speeds with a body flicker. Again. Again. Whenever I stayed still for more than a second, he fired at me with that jutsu. I allowed him to aim a fourth time, but this time, I flipped through two seals of my own. 

"Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder" I intoned, while allowing the versatile jutsu to release itself from my fingers and spread in the air. 

The stone bullets he sent shattered to pieces as they flew at me. 

I formed another seal and took a deep breath. "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough" Hurricane force winds came from my mouth and tore across the space. 

He weaved a few seals of his own and slapped his hands on the ground. He formed an earth wall that my jutsu washed across. Another seal, and I shattered the wall with lightning release, but he was nowhere to be found when the jutsu ran its course.

Hiding like a mole? How plebeian. I slammed my hand on the ground, using my chakra to feel out the surrounding area and sun out his location. For some reason, he was sensitive to that, and wasted no time in surfacing. 

He was already weaving seals as he did so and spat out a massive flame bullet at me. Io formed the horse sweat, transforming my chakra into water release chakra in seconds and forcing that water release chakra to condense into a wide wall of water in front of me. The fire hit the water, erupting into steam that spread through the battlefield. I flipped from the Horse seal to the snake seal and took control of the mist, forcing it to thicken until it went from a mild haze to a fog to thick for any without doujutsu to see through. 

"What the fuck, pretty boy?" I heard Uzume's voice call out, but I could also see that she was taking advantage of her opponent's loss of visibility to pen him into a tight situation. As for my own opponent, he was weaving seals continuously until he blew out his own Great breakthrough. A lesser version of my technique, but still more than enough to blow a hole through the mist. A hole that I plugged in virtually no time. I could see him getting irritated as he used the jutsu over and over again, only for the mist to reform itself before he could do anything about it. 

Finally, he tsked before beginning a longer series of hand seals. I watched the whole thing with rapturous attention as he called up more chakra than he'd ever had with his other techniques. This time, he didn't blow the air from his mouth. He spread his hands around him, and a massive tornado formed around him. It built slowly, small amounts of wind moving around him in a circle until the amounts increased, and they picked up speed. The wind forced the mist from my control and tore through it in its entirety. It didn't stop there, and continued to pick up more and more speed before it left its creator and began to advance towards me. 

It scoured the dirty grounds that had the ruins of the town as it moved forward. I weaved two seals and spat a fireball that was quickly swallowed into the tornado, turning it into a firestorm. Why would I do that? I could tell that Iwabe over there didn't have any control of the jutsu after he formed it. The best he'd been able to do was give it a direction to move in. Beyond that, the tornado was basically a natural formation. A natural formation that anyone could use for their interests. I body flickered away as the tornado passed through the space I'd once occupied and advanced towards the fight between Uzume, Toshiro, and their Jounin. 

In the presence of the barely contained firestorm, I felt the heat in the area rise upwards. Iwabe looked awestruck at the sight of his jutsu raging out of control. Was that arousal I saw in his eyes? I wondered as I picked up my bow. It had been a while since I held the weapon with the intention to use it, but it fit perfectly. So perfectly, and now with the byakugan, I could see everything I needed to. 

I drew the bow, taking a deep breath, and loosed it. He twitched his head out of the way of the kill shot. Of course, he did, he was a jounin. But it was enough to draw him from his trance. He turned in my direction, and I smiled before sinking into the forest, daring him to follow. I'd beat him in Taijutsu if I closed the distance. In terms of ninjutsu, he had proven himself to be little threat. I could kill him whenever I wanted, so why not use him to test a few things. 

He chased me into the forest, heedless of the danger he'd been caught in. I allowed him move deeper and deeper in, taunting him with a glimpse of me every now and then. I did not risk Genjutsu. I could control my chakra perfectly, but that didn't suddenly give me Jounin-level genjutsu skills. There was more to genjutsu than chakra control. That was what made the numerous fan theories about Sakura having the potential to be some sort of genjutsu monster ridiculous. If it were that easy, then Kakashi would probably have passed on his undoubtedly large arsenal on to her. And not just that, if it were only about chakra control, would Tsunade not have become the greatest genjutsu mistress period. She had the best chakra control, undoubtedly. 

No. People did not like to admit it. Especially not civilian shinobi or those who promoted their inclusion in the military. But the fact was that things like ninjutsu, genjutsu, and to some extent, Taijutsu potential were decided at birth and did not really shift more. I did not have chakra with the rich Yin attunement that would mark a genjutsu master. I just did not have that dawg in me. That was beyond the point, however. Iwabe followed me deeper, and then he paused for a second. Even without turning around, I could see the expression on his face. He looked like he'd swallowed a lemon. 

"So I guess I'm in some sort of trap now." 

"Precisely" My voice sounded out from all around him. 

He sighed before dropping down to the ground and flicking his eyes around, trying to catch a glimpse of me. He would fail. Meisaigakure was another piece of ninjutsu that I'd gotten much better at after awakening my Byakugan. He weaved seals, spitting out a mud bullet towards one end of the forest. I watched it sail in the opposite direction from me with a tilted head, and pulled my bow. 

Wind release allowed me eliminate all sound, and all signs of my arrow being loosed, while at the same time enhancing the speed. The arrow in his leg forced him to his other knee as he screamed in pain. In his defence, the arrow had a twisted head designed to cause as much pain as possible. As he reached down with his hand to remove the arrow, I took the hand out of commission with another arrow. It still wasn't working. I doubted I'd get another target as useful as this one for a while, and I was still failing. 

Failing at what, you might ask? Well, what's the most famous thing the Hyuga taijutsu is known for? The relationship we have with chakra points, of course. I was trying to see if I could block someone's tenketsu from afar with my arrows. Jinpachi had said it wasn't possible, but I couldn't discount the possibility that he was telling me that because of his own personal dislike for long-range weapons of any sort. The man didn't even throw shuriken for Christ's sake. Not like I did, either. But for me, it was more a matter of lack of ability than lack of interest. 

His tenketsu remained unaffected under my arrows as he screamed in pain. He weaved seals with only his right hand as the left was out of commission. Breathe, draw, loose…the right hand joined the left in hanging limply by his side. Still nothing on his tenketsu. 

"Finish it already, you bastard!" He screamed into the forest. 

I ignored his words. I fired another arrow, sinking it into his back. Nothing. Another arrow into his shoulder. Nothing. Another into his stomach. Nothing. I was hitting the tenketsu right on. I was channelling my chakra through the arrows, just like I would with my fingers to use the Gentle Fist. It just wasn't working. I drew my bow to try again, but suddenly, there was someone there. Sakumo stood in front of my quarry and cleaved a second smile into his neck before staring right at me through all my disguises. 

"What was that, Shorirama?" Oops. He sounded pissed. Scratch that, apoplectic. 

A/N; Here we go! As I said earlier, the next chapter comes up next week or skip the wait and read the next three along with daily uploads on pa-treon. For the pa-treon, you can remove the hyphen between pa and treon and google it then search for my username- Oghenevwogaga. Or you could copy the link in my bio and remove the spaces before pasting in your address bar.