Kage Showdown

chapter 34: Kage Showdown

It was an odd thing for him to be doing this, Orochimaru concluded as he pondered recent events as he adjusted his robes around himself, especially since he was reaching out to every minor nation along with the Kumogakure as a part of a conference to 'discuss' the alliance of four of the five great nations.

Really, it should be simple to manipulate them all into attacking Konohagakure and assist him with razing it to the ground, even if it did take him half a year to convince all of these nations to come together for this meeting, using Kabuto as a middleman for all of the discussions to convince them all. The only one left out, was Ame, and that was because it was under the thumb of the Akatsuki, and he wasn't quite ready to deal with them quite yet.

Now all that was left to do was to pluck their strings, play on their fears, and them point them at Konohagakure.

Stepping out of his room for this little 'conference' he began to make his way towards the meeting hall, a smirk playing over his features as he strolled forward, entering into the hall where the gathered shinobi were waiting for him, their eyes locking onto him as he entered.

"Greetings to you all," he greeted with false cheer as he smiled at them, meeting the gaze of the Raikage who had the two-tails Jinchuriki behind him. "Thank you all for agreeing to this little… conference."

"Just get to the point, Orochimaru," a shinobi from the Land of Mountains growled as he narrowed his eyes at the Snake Sannin.

Orochimaru shrugged his impertinence off as he gave the group of shinobi, representing 20 different villages altogether. "Simple, it is these… alliances that Konohagakure is building," he informed smoothly. "And… the threat that their Godaime poses to… all of us."

Orochimaru put a look of concern on his face as he began to pace in front of the shinobi. "While with Hiruzen in charge of Konohagakure, we all could rest easily due to his… passive nature," he told them all carefully. "With their new Hokage, however, with Yuriko Uchiha at the lead of this village, and at the lead of the alliance with four of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, something that has never been seen before, I fear we are looking at the beginning of an aggressive expansion, and unable to act before it is too late."

The various shinobi began to mutter amongst themselves as A simply remained stoic, not budging his gaze from Orochimaru. "And what exactly are you suggesting then?" The lead shinobi from Kusagakure questioned, his eyes narrowed at Orochimaru in suspicion.

"What, I am suggesting, my friends, is that with our combined power, we can match the allied strength of this… Great Nation Alliance, and rise up and take their places," Orochimaru informed with a dramatic flair. "As it stands right now, the alliance only has about three usable Jinchuriki, which, we also have, one of their jinchuuriki is too young for battle, another is simply uncontrollable and can be… turned on them, and the final, has ran away from his village."

He could see the shinobi listening to his words, leaning in as he plucked at their strings. "And not to mention, the fact that out of those three usable jinchuriki, one is an inexperienced child, when we have at least threejonin level jinchuriki, two of which have managed to gain complete control over the beast's chakra."

Several of the shinobi turned to look at the two-tailed jinchuuriki who remained as stone faced as her superior.

"And with this allied group, we could crush this alliance in a single swoop," Orochimaru explained, seeing the shinobi being swayed to his side, although A's stonefacedness was a bit concerning. "If we eliminate Konohagakure first and kill their vaunted Hokage, it would throw their allies into disarray, and allow us to kill them at our leisure."

"Because, that worked so well for you last time, Orochimaru," a feminine voice commented, getting a frown onto Orochimaru's face as he turned to face the speaker only to freeze, alongside every other shinobi in the room, at the sight of a woman sitting in the front row of the circular room, right in front of dozens of eyes.

Yuriko Uchiha.

I smirked as I saw several expressions flash across Orochimaru's face, and the face of every shinobi around me. "Really, you should have put up a better defense than you have, my little brother could sneak in here wearing neon orange and you would be none the wiser," I taunted, keeping my posture relaxed, even as everyone one else in the room tensed up. "I mean, really, you didn't think we wouldn't realize that this meeting was happening? You're not as subtle as you think, Orochimaru."

"Yuriko Uchiha," Orochimaru hissed out, forcing a smile onto his face. "Well, I must say, thank you for coming here and proving my point, you feel threatened by all of us."

I raised my eyebrow at him in response. "Not really, the reason I am here, is twofold," I told him with a smirk. "One is, you put yourself into the open, and we still want your head, that much is obvious. Two: we are not an exclusive alliance," I could hear a couple of gasps from the crowd. "If you wanted to be apart of this alliance we are building, than you simply had to come to us, and ask, chances are, we would agree to you joining us."

"And… why would we do that, when we could simply kill you now, and parade your body for all to see?" Orochimaru questioned. "You are powerful, but against this many Kage-leveled opponents, you think you stand a chance of victory?"

I let out a chuckle in response. "Perhaps all of you together might be able to kill me, might," I replied. "But, I can guarantee you, there will only be a handful of survivors, the question you must ask yourselves… who wishes to die first?"

With that, I began to unleash my own Killing Intent, keeping my relaxed pose and smirk firmly in place as the gathered shinobi began to shift about nervously. To their credit, none of them passed out, or stopped breathing in fear. "That is what I thought," I said as I dropped my intent after a few moments.

A snort drew my attention to A and his bodyguard Yugito. "So tell me, Hokage," A drawled with a dismissive look. "How is that little brother of that Clan Killer of your doing, has he killed any of his clan yet?" I twitched slightly in response, my smirk dropping as I met A's gaze. "And how about your weapon? Have you ever told him the truth about why you took him in?"

I frowned in response. "I would choose your next words very carefully, A-san," I told him in a low and cold tone as several of the shinobi near me began to move away from where I was sitting. "It's not like your own hands are clean, how did that plan of yours to get the Byakugan go again?"

I could hear his teeth grinding from where I was sitting as he glared at me, I knew it was his predecessor who gave the order for the assault, but A was the one who was attempting to manage the fallout from the attempt.

I could see Yugito snarl in response, a purple aura beginning to surround her as she called upon the Nibi's chakra.

Then she made a mistake.

She met my gaze squarely as my Mangekyou Sharingan flashed, and just like that, the Bijuu chakra vanished.

"W-what?" she questioned, looking down at her own hands.

"Foolish child," I chided her lightly. "Just because I don't like using the technique that Madara used doesn't mean that I won't. Don't worry though, she's just going to be asleep for a month."

Yugito's eyes were shaking as she turned her horrified gaze to me as A clenched his fist tightly.

"Now… as I was saying, any of you are free to approach us about joining our alliance," I told the crowd as I stood up, brushing some invisible dust off of my shoulder as I did so. "But for now…" I turned my gaze to where Orochimaru had been standing and frowned when I saw he was nowhere in sight. "I have a snake to hunt down and skin."

With those words I spun on my heel and began walking away, showing my back to each and every shinobi in the room, a declaration of my own confidence in my ability to kill anyone who dared to attack me, no matter the situation.

Life in Kumogakure was considered to be a harsh one, as while their village was near unassailable with its position high in the mountains and covered by clouds, this meant they had no fertile fields to grow food of their own, nor pastures to raise livestock of their own, resulting in them importing everything.

Of course, this also meant that they need a viable source of income, which, as shinobi, was obvious, pushing them to do better, and better as the demand for services grew.

As a result, they were used to harshness, tight belts and hard work. What they were not used to, however, was the bellowing roar of their Raikage as a smashed desk was ejected from his office with the force of a cannon and flew over the village before crashing into a training field that was thankfully empty at the time.

"FUCKING BITCH!" A shouted, panting slightly from exertion as he stood over where his desk had been, after a moment of seething he threw himself into his chair and leveled a look at Yugito. "Anything?"

The blond jinchuriki shook her head. "Nothing… she's… just sleeping, nothing I do is waking her up!" she replied, looking shaken as she hugged herself a bit. "I… I can't even feel her chakra within me, it's… it's like she isn't even there. I… I thought it only worked on the Nine-Tails… w-we only heard about the Kyuubi being controlled!"

A ground his teeth together as he glared at the wall across from him in anger. "Obviously, we should have taken that into consideration, considering the Kyuubi is considered to be the strongest of the bijuu." he commented, his chair's arm creaking as his grip on it tightened.

A woman in the corner sighed as she shook her head. "A-sama, you really need to get your temper under control," Mabui sighed as she noted the damages, which were normally regulated to his desk. "Last thing we need is you bringing the building down around us."

A shot his secretary a glare that she didn't flinch from before turning away. "She didn't react like anything we predicted." he commented with a frown on his face. "She's supposed to be highly protective of her family right? Then why didn't she lose her cool like we wanted her to!?"

"Probably because she knew that was what you wanted," Mabui countered. "Yuriko Uchiha isn't exactly a stranger to manipulation or politics, and all the reports we got of her overreactions were when she was still a child, even if she was a jonin at the time."

"Now because of her show of power… the smaller villages are flocking to Konohagakure's alliance," A snarled as he gripped his chair tighter.

"Then perhaps it's time to set that pride of your aside, bro," a new voice inputted as A turned to the window to look at a burly man with eight swords on his body. "Yo, here's the master of fate, the wielder of eight, Killer Bee, wyrd."

There were groans of irritation from both Yugito and Mabui as A frowned heavily at his brother.

"And what does that mean, Bee?" he questioned dangerously, one hand flexing as he readied himself to use his famous [Iron Claw] technique on his brother for the nth time.

"The facts are the facts, the Uchiha Lady is powerful yeah?" Killer Bee prompted. "And we're losing fans as it stands. So… swallow that pride, and extend that hand."

A frowned as he began deciphering his brother's… unique way of talking. "What, join their alliance?" he questioned after he got Bee's point. "Go crawling to them begging for scraps!?"

"No, no, big bro!" Bee waved his hands hastily, reading the signs of an impending [Iron Claw]. "It's like this, ya dig? We go in now, as equals or we're left out in the cold. It's best to go now and be bold. Fool, ya fool, Kumo already got a bad rap from your old man, bro. Wake up, it ain't like you ta be so slow."

"He… has a point, I can't believe I just said that," Mabui informed, mutter the last point to herself as she rubbed her forehead. "It isn't us begging for scraps if we go now, it's us acknowledging their strength. However, if we wait, we are going to lose contracts to this alliance as they grow in power, and need I remind you, we have no farmers. No farmers, no food, no work, no trade."

"Not even mentioning, due to the fact we don't even have food production, we're not exactly self-sustainable," Yugito reminded. "Hell, the entire country relies on trade for foodstuffs as a whole, and I don't think the Daimyo is going to continue to sink money into us if we're not making any of our own like we have been."

The Raikage growled as he was assailed by logic and hard facts from every direction. It was the least favourite part of the job, in his opinion. Give him an enemy he could smash in the face any day of the week rather than… politicking.

A paused as he ran over what he had just thought and a smile grew over his face as an idea occurred to him.

"There is a way for us to save some face, perhaps," he commented with a grin. "I challenge Yuriko Uchiha to a match for her to prove herself to me."

Three sets of eyes looked at him with varying emotions between them.

"That seems like a terrible idea."

"That is definitely something you would think of."

"Yo, let's do it!"

A frowned at the three of them in response. "This is what we are going to do," he concluded, nodding to himself. "Mabui, prepare a messenger hawk!"

Mabui groaned as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fine… I will… but don't come crying to me when you get your arm ripped off or something by Madara Version 2.0," she sighed out as she began to walk away.

A rolled his eyes in response to her overreaction. This would work, it would show the world that they weren't just bowing to the whims of Konoha or its allies and was willing to stand against them if needed.

I stared at the missive in my hand. "I must be going crazy," I said tonelessly, looking to Hiashi and Tsume almost beseechingly. "Am I going crazy?"

Tsume chuckled in response as she gave me a feral grin. "'Fraid not, the Raikage is indeed calling you out for a duel," she informed gleefully, Hiashi sighing from his position next to her.

"I think I understand where he is coming from," he informed me bluntly. "He wants to save face by fighting you."

"I can see that, but… really?" I was still in disbelief about this. S-Rank Shinobi were some of the strongest weapons in a Hidden Village's arsenal. Kumogakure, despite their focus on strength above all else, possessed exactly three S-Rank Shinobi at any given time, those people being the Raikage himself, as well as the two Jinchuriki of the two Bijuu they possessed. Never in its almost a century's worth of history had Kumogakure ever possessed more than three S-Rank shinobi at once.

I had temporarily negated the possibility that Yugito Ni'i could use Matabi for an entire month, reducing them to two, and now Unruly A wanted to fight me? Battles between S-Rank Shinobi were never small scale, nor were they fought at the drop of a hat or without reason. No one walked away from a battle with another S-Rank without injury; my battle with Kisame Hoshigaki was proof enough of that. If he lost, he would almost certainly be out of commission for at least as long as Yugito's Bijuu powers were, possibly longer.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I let out a breath in irritation. "I really can't say no, can I?"

"Not without losing face to our new allies, no." Hiashi replied.

"Not to mention, A will likely see it as a sign of weakness on your part and make him think he can push you around." Tsume added.

I let out a sigh in response. "Did he say where he wanted to hold this fight of his?" I questioned, not only were injuries guaranteed, but we would reshape the geography in our fight. Where we fought would be very important to prevent anything important from being destroyed… like dams, towns, villages… small mountains, even.

"He's leaving it up to us," Hiashi informed with a small frown. "A concession to you as he is the challenger."

"There is a large unused island to the south of the Land of Lightning, correct?" I questioned recalling my lessons in geography. "We can have our little duel there."

"I shall have the message be sent," Hiashi promised. "Do you have a strategy in mind for the fight?"

I frowned in consideration, running through what I knew of the Raikage. "He isn't a complete idiot," I said after a moment. "But he is a man who often relies on a straightforward assault, a blitzkrieg if you will, to win his fights. With his [Lightning Release Chakra Mode], he is usually faster, stronger and has better reflexes than any of his opponents. He's a nin-taijutsu user, who specialises in hitting the enemy where it hurts before they can even react. For this fight, I should be able to win without relying on my Mangekyou, but if push comes to shove, I'll use them."

"Just remember not to throw around too many S-Rank jutsu." Tsume said with a snort. "We want him beaten and humbled ever-so-slightly, not a bloody mess."

"I think I can manage that." I replied dryly. "But if he forces my hand…" I trailed off with a shrug.

It wouldn't be the first time someone tried to use the pretext of a duel to assassinate someone.

"Well, just make sure the nearby islands don't regret his decision," Hiashi commented.

I flushed a bit in response. "Nearly make one volcano with your husband and no one ever lets you hear the end of it"

"You nearly made a volcano?" my advisors questioned in me unison.

A groan escaped my lips as I placed my face into my hands. "Oh god," I muttered to myself. I was never going to hear the end of it.

"So, you go on a hunt for Orochimaru… crash a meeting of all the strongest shinobi outside of the Great Nations, with the Raikage present, and you didn't bring me along?" Roshi questioned me, a smirk playing on his face as we shared a chuckle.

"Had I known that the snake would be in a meeting with A- and S-Rank shinobi, I would have brought you along." I informed my ever-so-amused husband. "I swear that he is just as slippery as a snake though; the bastard managed to leave during the single minute that I had to look away from him to quell the Nibi and stare down A. One day, I am going to corner him, and then…!"

I made a violent ripping gesture with one hand.

Roshi snorted in response as he leaned back into the couch we were sitting on, Naruto-kun off on his training trip with Jiraiya-sama, Madoka-chan was with my mother, and Sasuke-kun was with Hiruzen-sama. "I think there are more than a few people within and without Konoha who would be more than happy to help you with that," he teased me lightly.

I rolled my eyes in response. "Considering what I ended up disrupting, it was a good thing I didn't wait," I told him lightly, laying down so that my head was in his lap. "He was trying to get all the minor countries and Kumo allied against us."

Roshi hummed in response, running a hand through my hair. "Yeah, that would have been a disaster." he commented.

It would have been a disaster. Although the minor countries were by no means able to stand up to Konoha on a one-on-one basis, if they'd allied together and had Kumogakure backing them up, it would have taken a lot of blood and death to put them down, even with Iwa, Suna and Kiri on our side. By the time the last sword was sheathed at the end of the theoretical Fourth Great Shinobi War, the casualties on both sides would have been appalling, something Orochimaru and that hollow bastard Kabuto would have no doubt taken advantage of to gather up DNA samples of powerful deceased shinobi, as well as grab bodies belonging to rare Bloodline Limit wielders.

I had no desire to fight in another war unless it was against that bastard Madara. Eventually, I would have to do something decidedly permanent about Kabuto Yakushi, because I had little desire to see the bastard resurrecting famous shinobi as he had done in the original timeline. In order to prevent someone from doing that to me, I had placed it in my will that my corpse and any samples of my DNA were to be burned into ashes upon my death.

"I'm going to up Kabuto's status in the Bingo Book." I told my husband. "He's Orochimaru's right-hand man and likely knows a great deal of the forbidden jutsu that the snake does. Add into that his attempt to kidnap our daughter and I want him dead and buried yesterday."

Roshi growled at the memory of being told by Han of the attempted kidnapping. It had taken him quite some time to calm down after that.

I let out a sigh as I closed my eyes and adjusted my position a bit to get more comfortable as I relaxed against Roshi.

"And now you have to duel the Raikage," Roshi commented with a contemplative look at me.

"Yup, you're coming along with me," I said, opening a single eye to meet his gaze with a bit of a smirk. "You and Kakashi will be acting as my bodyguards for this."

"You've really come around since I forced you two to stop acting like genin fresh out of the Academy." he commented.

I snorted. "I won't deny that we've set most of our differences aside, but we'll never be anything more than comrades in arms. There's too much resentment between us."

"Better than almost using A-Rank jutsu at point blank range, dear." Roshi pointed out blandly.

"Point." I conceded, wincing at the memory of us almost doing exactly that.

Roshi chuckled slightly. "You always did have a temper issue," he commented, smirking at me. "Remember our vacation?"

I flushed in embarrassment at the reminder. It had been one of the few chances we had as a family to take a trip together, and we ended up going to the Land of the Moon to visit the beach.

We ended up getting accosted by a group of missing-ninja bounty hunters who thought they would be able to claim my bounty. Idiots.

The end result had been… well… catastrophic for a neighboring island after I was finished with the missing ninja.

"I was finally able to relax," I pouted in response to his teasing. "You know how long I had been waiting to get out of Konoha and onto a beach."

Roshi chuckled in response, running a hand through my hair. "I know, still amusing, however," he told me.

Letting out a sigh, I allowed myself to relax against my husband. "Fine~" I breathed out. "I'll keep my temper in check against the Raikage."

Roshi chuckled in response. "Thank you," he replied, winking at me in response.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Whatever," I smirked back at him, causing the two of us to laugh in response.

I let out a sigh as I looked out at the island that I was going to be duelling the Raikage. The island was fairly barren, mostly rocks and coral outcropping from the ocean with sparse vegetation dotted here and there, stubbornly clinging to life in spite of their location.

All around us were a number of other seafaring vessels, each with a number of shinobi from different villages, both recent allies and non-allies, all of them looking to observe the battle between myself and A.

I glanced back at Roshi and Kakashi who were scanning the area. "I'm heading out now," I told the pair of them, getting nods from the pair as the Mist Shinobi manning our vessel continued with their tasks.

Pulling out a tri-pronged kunai I hurled it into the air, the metal glinting in the sun, drawing the other shinobi's attention as the kunai thunked into the rock of the island. A quick flash later and I was pulling the kunai out of the ground as I turned my gaze to the Raikage's vessel.

The dark-skinned man was glowering at me as he took in my appearance before a shroud of lightning surrounded him as, with the shake of passing thunder, he landed landed on the island.

I didn't say anything to him as I drew out my kodachi and held it at the ready, my [Sharingan] spinning to life as the two of us watched each other for any signs of an opening, the Raikage keeping his gaze locked on my chest to keep his eyes away from my [Sharingan].

There were a few more moments of silence as we continued to try to stare each other down before I made the first move, launching a brace of tri-pronged Kunai at A.

The Raikage blasted himself out of the way, the ground exploding as his lightning shrouded body hurled itself at me.

Darui hummed as he watched the initial clash between the two Kages on the island. "So, what do you think is going to happen, Bee?" he questioned the rapper next to him in a bored tone of voice. "Is A-sama going to crush her like he said?"

"Fool, ya fool, crush a Kage? That ain't savvy!" Bee rhymed as he shook his head. "And just a Kage she ain't not!"

Darui grunted in response, even if it sounded stupid, it was true, Yuriko Uchiha was a fabled 'God of Shinobi' as well as being the Hokage. "Fair," he conceded as the Raikage moved himself out of the way of Yuriko's glowing sword, no doubt her signature and infamous sword scalpel technique, he remembered the autopsy reports from the aftermath of her usage of that technique during the war, and it was not a technique to be trifled with.

"Check it, they be almost done testing each other," Bee informed as the pair separated.

"Shit," Darui groaned in response. It was troubling just keeping up with them as they were right now, and this was just them testing each other?

A loud crack was heard as the Hokage vanished from sight, the Raikage managing to bring his vambraces up to stop her sword from removing one of his arms as his chakra shroud kept her scalpel at bay.

"Damn, don't think I've seen anyone move like that without any chakra shroud before," Darui muttered as the Raikage try to stab through her chest with his [Hell Stab] technique, the [Four-Finger Nukite] version, only for his hand to pass through nothing as she blurred out of the way.

"Yo, she be pumping some mad chakra through her legs for that, bro," Bee commented, reaffirming that for all his posturing and rapping, he was still a cunning and highly observant shinobi.

Darui grunted in response. "Dangerous, but she is a medic at her core, she could probably fix herself up before any of us even noticed it hurt her," he commented with narrowed eyes as the two traded a couple more passes. "Damn, she's not even concerned with his Chakra shroud."

True enough, the Raikage was forced to roll out of the way as Yuriko's sword suddenly extended forward, mid stab that he was leaning back out of the way, only for the sword to suddenly retract as she moved it to cut into his shoulder, A getting his arm guard in the way once again.

"It'll be the first blow that decides this thing, yo," Bee noted. "Should that sword of hers cut into him, he'll be taking a lot of damage."

Darui grunted in agreement. "She hasn't even pulled out the evolved [Sharingan] that she was reported to have. Is she mocking A-sama?" he growled angrily.

"Nah, that lady knows better than to do that, she be playing a long game," Bee said with a nod to himself. "Win with that freaky eye, she be losing a pie, wyrd?"

"…what?" Darui asked blankly.

"Look, she can win with the evolved Sharingan, but it'll make people lose respect for her." Bee finally broke out of his rap speech as he got serious. "They'll say back in Kumo that she only won because of it, not her own personal strength. If she wins without using it though…"

"Oh…" Darui replied, his eyes widening slightly as he considered the information. "That… makes sense, yeah."

"Dang right it does, fool, ya fool," Bee grunted as he continued to watch the fight. "Better not blink, the real show is about to start."

Darui raised an eyebrow at Bee before looking at the two as they squared off again.

Their pause was broken by Yuriko spitting out a massive fireball at A only for the Raikage to intercept it with a single finger as he started to use his [One-Finger Nukite] dispersing the fireball with ease as he charged at Yuriko, who leant herself back at a full ninety degree angle to dodge the strongest form of the [Hell Stab] technique, a chakra-covered foot coming up in an attempt to kick the Raikage's back.

The large man moved out of the way of the blow as Yuriko continued her attacks in a handstand, both of her feet covered in chakra as she attempted to smash her feet into A. Each blow blocked by the armguard right before he narrowly got out of the way of her sword as she spun herself back up to her feet with a massive slash that would have cut straight across his face had he not moved at that moment.

As she spun in the air, Darui's eyes widened as he spotted her forming several one-handed seals. "What in the world? She can form seals while moving like that!?" he questioned in shock.

It was a well known and accepted fact, that the best ninjutsu specialists could form hand seals while moving, for obvious reasons, while the masters could do so one handed, but it was a known fact that the faster one moved, the more erratic or jerky movements, the more likely you were to mess up the seals.

Taking those facts into account, the fact that she was able to form a complex formula like the one Darui spotted her using, put her in the highest tier of ninjutsu specialists, and she was a MEDICAL specialist.

"[Fire Release: Sun Flare]!" Yuriko shouted as she landed on her feet her unoccupied hand in a tiger seal as the air surrounding her burst into flames that whipped out at the Raikage.

A growled in response as he lashed out with his one finger, cutting through the flames as he gritted his teeth, the heat obviously affecting him, even with his chakra shroud protecting him from the worst of the effects.

"Those be some mad skills she be laying down," Bee said, a slight frown on his face. "Bro might be outclassed here."

Darui frowned in response. "But, if he can keep her in close quarters, won't that give him a chance?" he questioned. "I mean, yeah, her sword skills are great, but overall, isn't her weakness close quarters?"

"Fight a med-nin up close? That's suicide." Bee shook his head. "I'll be surprised if that's what my bro decides."

Darui winced at the reminder. "He's been blocking her sword pretty well," he countered. "Isn't that how she mostly uses her scalpels? Even if she used her hands, his shroud would make it hard for her to lay a hand on him."

"Not so," Bee denied. "Basic strength scalpels she's been using, she can always overpower them with more chakra."

Darui grimaced in response, not having considered that as the two clashed again, A managing to overpower her long enough for her to lose her grip on her kodachi, the blade spinning away onto the other side of the island. "Hey, he managed to get her sword away," Darui noted hopefully.

"Yo, check it, she be doing something weird," Bee noted as Yuriko began to form a ball of chakra in her hand.

"Yo, that be that Flashing boy's technique!" Bee shouted in surprise at the sphere of chakra.

"Flashing boy's, wait… the Yellow Flash's?" Darui shouted as he looked at the sphere that began to shudder and shift. "It doesn't like she can control it well."

"No ya fool, she be changing it," Bee noted as the sphere shifted and elongated into a sword comprised of swirling blue chakra, the exact same shade as her chakra scalpel. "That be a mite bit of a dangerous thing there."

"[Rasenken]," Yuriko announced calmly as she held the sword easily in her hand. "Might not be completely obvious, but… it's the [Rasengan] and the [Chakra Scalpel] combined into a singular jutsu."

"A 'mite bit' dangerous? Try absolutely insanely dangerous!" Darui shouted back at Bee with wide eyes.

Bee nodded numbly in response, he remembered getting hit by the original technique, and that thing had hurt. This however? This would just straight up kill a man.

"Bro better realize the danger of that," Bee said in a low tone. "Even his mighty shroud won't help him with that."

And it seemed it had as the two began to dart across the island, A keeping out of reach of the chakra blade as it cut through his shroud in several places narrowly avoiding a cut or nick that would spell the end.

The Raikage bellowed out a victorious roar as it seemed like Yuriko over extended herself , driving a punch forward that would surely take her out of the fight, only for his first to pass through nothing at all as she vanished with a flash of light as she reappeared behind him with her [Rasenken] held to his throat.

"This is over" Yuriko announced in a cold tone as A froze.

Silence descended into the area as every shinobi held their breath, waiting to hear the Raikage's response to my declaration.

I was on a hairs edge, waiting for him to attempt to attack me as I held the [Rasenken] to his neck.

I tensed further when he shifted a bit, his head turning to meet my gaze for several moments.

Finally a sigh escaped the Raikage's lips. "I surrender," he called out, loud enough for others to hear him, he then lowered his voice as I dismissed the [Rasenken]. "You certainly are powerful like the rumours say."

"I am only as strong as I need to be to fulfil my duty as Hokage. Nothing more, and nothing less, A-san."

A snorted in response to my statement, standing as he did so. "No one gets that strong just for duty," he replied to me, rolling his shoulders, feeling out the small injuries he accrued during our duel. "But, either way, you have certainly proven yourself, so, Kumogakure will be joining your alliance."

I nodded, blinking as my [Sharingan] faded back into my coal black eyes.

"I look forward to working with you in the future," I told him honestly as I held out a hand for him to shake.

A hummed in response, reaching out to take my hand into his own. "As do I," he said formally as we shook hands. "Hopefully, this is the start of something new."

I smirked in response. "A-san, we are on the cusp of something amazing," I assured him calmly. "This is only the groundwork for the next generation to take and build upon."

Hge man blinked at me as he met my gaze, his eyes widening slightly. "So… that what my father meant by the insanity of the Uchiha," he murmured, getting a raised eyebrow from me in response. "No matter how insane it seems, you all still strive for that goal."

I raised my eyebrow at the Raikage before me in response. "Is it really insane?" I questioned in response. "Is it really insane to try to leave behind something that will help those who follow me?"

A shook his head in response. "Not quite what I meant, don't worry about it," he said, waving it off. "We should head back to our ships before anyone gets any bright ideas, I will send a hawk about the official signing."

I nodded in acceptance, smirking a bit at him as we separated and headed back to our boats. "Time to return," I announced to my escorts. "We have to prepare for a treaty signing."

The crew on the ship let out a short cheer in response before we set ourselves for our return back to Konoha.

END CHAPTER!

Yuriko's Stats

Name: Yuriko

Level: 105

EXP: 39,582/700,000

Age: 23

Gender: Female

Title: Godaime Hokage (+100% Reputation with allied Shinobi, Command of Konohagakure Shinobi, you can gain 25% of experience given out for missions completed by loyal shinobi)

Secondary Title: God of Shinobi (+50% to all stats +100% Reputation with all allied Shinobi +10% Damage with all ninja arts. Skill [Aura of Absolute Command] active)

Fated Title: Fatechanger (+100% to all stats.)

STATS

HP - 20,025

CP - 95,800

STR - 120 (300)

INT - 160 (400)

DEX - 200 (500)

VIT - 120 (300)

WIS -160 (400)

LUK - 60 (150)

Ryo - 342,761,998