One Thousand Hands (OC- Senju SI)

TWO MONTHS INTO THE SECOND GREAT SHINOBI WAR

"I'm surprised it took them this long to get this desperate" I said, while giving Shika a significant look. She'd seen this coming, but had expected it to happen as early as a month ago. They had sent sixteen different teams out. The last time, they even sent two teams out at the same time in the hopes of confusing our surveillance but that had done nothing to help their situation. They had widened their patrol routes to the point where we decided that getting rid of the patrols would be more efficient than hiding from them all the time. So we had started hunting down their patrols one after the other. We were winning, and we were doing it handily. Their water stores had been dwindled to the point where the lower ranked shinobi were being limited to one bottle every other day. They must have realised that there was no chance of success here and had decided to attempt this Hail Mary. 

"I'm not." Shika said in reply and I nodded. She had been right in the end, the conflict between the big personalities in the Suna camp meant that they spent more time arguing among themselves than thy did worrying able us and that meant a measure like this had taken time to hatch and to implement. 

Nine different teams were going to be sent out from the camp in the middle of the night today- Shiba had confirmed it himself. Only one of the teams would be problematic to deal with though - the one that would have Piandao the Weasel on it. 

"So what are we going to do?" Inukuro asked, and I narrowed my eyes at him when I saw the glassy look in his eyes. He was still doped up, of course he was. Shiba just could never refuse him and no one wanted to get in the middle of that mess right now. 

"We can't stop Nine different teams of Jounin, can we?" Choni asked, turning to Shika as well. 

"We can't. There's only twelve of us here and even if we had Shori taking on a team on his own like he insists he can, the numbers just don't work." She said. I nodded in agreement, not bothering to mention that I was certain I could take on two teams on my lonesome because it didn't matter. 

"So we just let them go get help? Let everything we've done here fail?" Uzume didn't sound pleased at all, and that was a position that I could tell most of our classmates agreed with. To keep them on their toes, we had been kept on our own toes. No one here had gotten a full night of rest in a month, and people like Uraume, Shiba, me, Inoken, and Inukuro who had special senses useful for keeping track of the Suna camp hadn't gotten a good night's rest in even longer. 

"No. Not at all. Nine teams of Jounin is 27 Shinobi. That has to be the entirety of their remaining Jounin force. The camp will still have hundreds of Chunin, but that is a different matter entirely. I say we invade the camp, capture the Commanding Officer, eliminate as much of the remaining hierarchy as we can, wreak as much chaos as possible, and leave before they can get themselves in order. When those Jounin return with reinforcements, they won't find a camp to return to." She said, and I felt my lips pull apart in a smile. 

She turned to me and gave me a nod that I returned. 

X- 

"Are you sure this will work?" She asked me from our position cloaked at the outskirts of the Suna camp. The camp was located within a valley, surrounded by highland on all sides. It would have been a terrible place to make a camp for a regular army but shinobi tended to work on different principles and the high ground wasn't worth as much when fighting against people who could jump dozens of feet in a single bound. Something like this meant they could take advantage of being on the lowland and not be so easily scouted from above.

"I think that this might be the wrong time to ask such a question, don't you think? If it doesn't work, then we're fucked." I said to her with a smirk. 

"No time for your jokes Shorirama. I did this on your assurances that you can somehow create a distraction big enough to occupy five hundred and twenty three Chunin and Genin." She hissed back. I knew we were in little danger of being discovered so I didn't cause any problems about that. 

"Fine. I told you I'd deliver. Trust me to deliver. Now, if you would-" I gestured away from the camp. 

She still didn't look pleased but she disappeared in a body flicker nevertheless. I nodded at the others from their position hidden in the distance and proceeded to remove my meisaigakure jutsu. It wouldn't be serving me from this point henceforth. I picked at a seal tag that I'd attached to my breastplate and ripped it off in favour of sealing it away. It was the chakra suppression seal I'd been forced to come up with when the Suna forces started implementing sensors in their patrols. If I kept it on while I did what I was about to, there was no chance it wasn't going to burn up and set me on fire with it. 

Once I removed the seal and jutsu, I could see a few people in the camp become alert to my presence. That number rose sharply as I began to flare my chakra. I folded it in on itself just like Hashirama described in his journals once, twice , and thrice before my tenketsu began to feel like they were on fire. Shinobi were scrambling towards me from the Suna camp, but they would be much too late. 

Boar → Dog → Bird → Monkey → Ram, I whispered to myself beneath my breath as I went through the seals and then slammed my hand on the ground while mentally willing Jinpei to come forth. 

The smoke that followed my jutsu was so thick and plentiful that it stretched past even the range of my vision. I felt the jutsu succeed and instead of standing on the ground, my feet were pressed against stiff blubber and I was dozens of feet above the ground I'd been standing on. 

"You've called me again, Shorirama" my whale friend said, voice booming across the battlefield. 

"Yes, I have Jinpei. Will you help me, my friend?" I asked, and I didn't even need to wait for the answer. 

I reached for the waterskin at my waist and felt at the connection I had begun to form with it. I was nowhere closer to understanding how it did what it did, but I was now capable of interfacing with it on some level. The skin did not have a constant flow of water, it released as much or as little as its wielder commanded, and since I was the wielder in this case, I was commanding it to release a shit ton. Water rushed from the skin like a geyser, spraying down to the ground beneath us. 

"Don't worry about water, Jinpei. I'll handle that. What I want you to do is join me in keeping this lots focus on us" he nodded beneath me and I felt a smirk build as I prepared my next jutsu. 

One thing the whales did better than any summons I had ever heard of was chakra control. I was standing atop Jinpei's head, but I stabbed my chakra down, and he allowed it to flow around him and through him like he wasn't even there and dug into the ground itself. Even atop him, I could feel the earth like I was standing on it. With that connection, I worked my jutsu. "Mud Release: Sad Man's Parade" I proclaimed to the world, marking the beginning of my legend. My chakra turned the surrounding earth and grass, already being loosened by the water flowing from the skin into mud that rose up into clones of me. I had shamelessly stolen the idea from another anime when I realised just how many clones I could make when I put my mind to it. Some combination of UzuSenju genes and a natural affinity for mud release meant that I could do a passable impression of Naruto from the beginning of the series. 

The clones erupted in their dozens and jumped at the approaching Suna shinobi while more and more water poured out into the field we stood on. With these many clones, I had to stretch things a bit so they weren't even close to the 70% strength that I could get from the clones when I only made one or two of them. But in this situation, quantity had a quality of its own. They crashed into the Suna shinobi, and it was barely even a contest. I couldn't replicate the Raijin no Ken but it didn't matter when each clone weilded the gentle fist to its maximum potential. 

If I were a different man, perhaps I would have felt some inklings of regret or mourning or even at the very least said a prayer for the souls being reaped by my clones, but I was me. I would do the shinigami's work for him and I would miss no sleep for it. One clone dodged around a puppet while another clone rushed into the puppeteer. In two touches, the young man was down for the count. Another Suna shinobi tore that clone to pieces with a wave of her fan and then found herself the subject of three more clones. To some small amount of shock, she managed to dodge all their attempts to reach her and dispatched all three of them with a massive gust of cutting winds. So that was the woman that Shika said would be dangerous. The fact that she was a Chunin and not a Jounin was fascinating but I didn't care much. I simply instructed my clones to give her a wide berth while they did their job. 

I smirked as I watched one clone engage a heavily muscled man in taijutsu for a few seconds before the man suddenly froze and fell to the floor- an arrow made of hardened mud sticking out from his eye socket. Another clone ran circles around a group of three who were standing back to back, disorienting them with his rapid movements before a clone jumped out from the ground in their middle and felled them with quick movements of his fingers.

I directed more and more clones into the fray as the water began to pile on. Soon, everyone was trodding on water to move around. The wiser ones were making sure to use the water walking technique to stay atop. The less skilled, or less intelligent of them were plodding along the ground, allowing the water to steadily climb up towards their shins. Foolish. Jinpei seemed to be having a good enough time watching any clones as they dealt with the approaching shinobi that he hadn't done anything to contribute to the fight apart from sending a blast of concentrated water that tore through a clump of approaching Suna nin. 

I briefly considered electrocuting the water to deal with those who had their legs in it but changed my mind when I considered that I had no idea what lightning release would do to my mud clones and how the interaction would work. For now, I was on the front seat, and the goal here wasn't to kill everyone. It was to keep them distracted and focused on a single point while my team went and did the actual difficult work of capturing the head of this whole mess. We'd interrogate him and then send him back to Konoha to be used for whatever they wanted over there. This was to be the end of the Suna offensive, and I would bring it with style. 

I stared at the wind release jutsu as it flew towards me even as I knew that I wouldn't be able to dodge it without risking my connection to my mud clones. Directing them like this meant I had to stay still and keep my hands in the snake seal for focus. I guess it didn't take a genius to figure out the connection. I took a deep breath in, and while being careful not to disturb the flow of mud release chakra to my feet, breathed out a fireball that flew right at the wind release jutsu. To be honest, it was pitiful in size and I hoped that Uzume didn't catch a look at it while she was performing her part of the mission. It didn't need to be large though, as it hit the wind releaser jutsu and was instantly stoked, doubling in size and potency while still flying towards the woman who had sent the wind jutsu. 

She jumped away to dodge it and I returned my attention to my clones as they continued to wreak havoc through the Suna lines. One mud clone was diced to pieces by someone wielding sharp blades enhanced by wind release. The next clone faced a similar fate until he faced two at a time. While he moved in to deal with one, I directed the other to return its arms to mud that wrapped around the Suna shinobi with the blades as he moved to dice its compatriot to pieces. The clone being diced backpedalled under my direction as the two of them co-ordinated in a symphony that ended in the man's heart exploding from a well placed gentle fist strike. They moved on, seeking more prey. 

XXXXX- SHIKAHIME NARA

She almost could not believe her eyes. Hundreds of chunin approached Shori and he was somehow holding them off for the time being. She had no idea how long that would last for, but he was doing his part so she would do hers. She turned to Choni and Inoken, her genin teammates, her friends and only her eyes were enough to convey her intentions. The link that Inoken had formed between them when they became chunin - when they got the earrings that they now proudly wore - allowed them to convey much more than words in much less time and with much more efficiency. 

Uzume and the others were doing their role in destroying the reserve camps and routing those out so it would just be the three of them for this. Just the three of them were enough. She grabbed a hold of their shoulders and moulded into the shadows, making her way across the route to the Commander's office that she had memorized. She would never tell him this, but Shori's idea to begin capturing and interrogating the Jounin hadn't been something she'd thought about. She'd completely forgotten to consider it. 

They emerged from the shadows right outside the Commander's tent. Just as Inoken had sensed, he was alone in the tent. The Jounin was arming some sort of weapon that he clearly intended to bring to bear against Natsu. "Fucking Konoha Senju scum" They could hear his voice from outside and Shika could see both Choni and Inoken burying the urge to chuckle. She was much the same. 

She sent her chakra inside the tent, running it on the ground, and under the tent's flap. She felt it connect with her target and smiled. "Shadow possession: Complete" She said out loud and both her teammates burst into the tent at that. Of course, that was when she felt something off with the body she was holding on to. She couldn't put it into words, but something told her something was wrong, so her shadow tendrils grabbed onto both her teammates and tossed them outside just a second before the tent exploded in green gas. She held her breath quickly and backpedalled.

The thing her shadow had caught collapsed into pieces. Some form of puppet. That Jounin Shori has captured had revealed information about a puppetry jutsu, but it had been Toshiro and Shori who spent their time grilling Inoken on specifics of the jutsu. Still, she had her teammate here so they weren't going in blind. 

She didn't get the opportunity to say anything to either of her teammates before the puppet flew out of the tent and went right for Choni. The wrong choice, Shika mentally thought in a celebratory tone as her teammate's hand grew to an immense size before swatting the flying blur straight out of the air. That didn't seem to do much to take away from the puppeteer's plans as the ground beneath Inoken erupted, revealing a snake that moved to swallow her teammate in one swoop. Both Inoken and Choni met eyes and in less time than it took for the snake to reach Ino's legs, she swapped places with their much more durable teammate. The snake swallowed Choni in one go, but did not manage to exist for much longer than that as it exploded a second later. 

Her teammate's form revealed itself in the wreckage. Grown to at least a dozen feet tall and just as many wide, Choni cut an imposing figure. If only the world knew just how gentle she was in reality. Another puppet came from the tent, a massive creature that Shika struggled to describe - it was like its form was constantly in motion, shifting and whirling. Its attention was on Choni, her teammate easily the greatest threat of them all in this kind of situation. 

The puppet opened up what could only be described as a midsection, revealing a mechanism that sent hundreds of Senbon flying at Choni in seconds. Her teammate crossed her hands before her face and while some were rebuffed by her bracers and chunin vest, the others stuck inside her body. Shika's eyes turned to one of the senbon as it clattered to the floor. Its tip gleamed an eerie purple. Poison. Shika felt her heart skip a beat. 

Inoken was already on the move though. The puppet raised a forearm to block a sword that was about to cut it in twain. Somehow, the wooden creature managed to block the blade that Shika knew Ino had used to cut a whole tree on more than one occasion. Roaring as much in pain as in anger, Choni swung her own sword, using it as much as a blade as she was as a club, and sent the puppet flying into one tent. 

Shika formed two seals, and took a deep breath before bathing the tent and the puppet that had been sent into it in a sea of flames. 

"What a set of precocious brats you are" She heard the voice and spun around to look at the Commander step out of the tent that had exploded in green a few seconds earlier. His jounin vest fit snugly around his frame and his red hair clashed against his pale skin. Shika silently wondered if he was an Uzumaki, but killed that thought. They were on a timer here. Choni was still going strong, her larger size giving her some measure of resistance. 

"I'll take your presence here as proof that I was right. The Senju brat was a distraction. I wonder which one of you killed my wife though. I will kill you all as is my duty as a Suna shinobi. That one, though, his death will be personal." 

"It was Shorirama" Inoken blurted instantly. Shika almost whirled to look at him in shock then realised something. Choni needed medical attention yesterday. She wouldn't get it if they got stuck fighting this guy. Sending him after Shori would solve at least half a problem for them. From the sounds to her east, Shori was still going strong against hundreds. What was even one more? It smelled like a betrayal but she knew Shori wouldn't mind. He lived for an interesting fight. 

"Good. Him, I will kill when I am done with you three." The Jounin said, and then he moved, body springing to the left right on time to avoid the shadow she'd been sneaking towards hum from behind. 

A/N; Yup, the Jounin Shori ran into was Sasori's mom. Now Daddy dearest is going to face off against our favourite three-man squad. Three guesses as to what happens when a certain not-so old lady at the peak of her powers does when she finds out what happened to her family (I don't think the son's death is a spoiler here). 

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