Power Stone Goals from now on: I always post a minimum of 5 chapters. Henceforth the following are the goals:
Every 200 powerstones, I upload an extra chapter.
If we hit top 30 in the 30-90 days power stone rankings, thats 1 more chapter
If we hit top 10 in the 30-90 days power stone rankings, thats 1 more chapter
If we are top 5...well lets get to that first. Happy readings!
Chapter 64: Slaughterhouse
The battlefield was quiet now.
The swirling water of Maelstrom Coffin had long since vanished, the brutal vortex having done its work.
Nothing remained of the enemy Chunin or my former squad—just shredded earth and a silence heavy with tension.
Then they appeared.
Dozens at first.
Then more.
One by one, chakra signatures flared to life as cloaked figures stepped out from behind trees, rocks, and thick mist.
Hitai-ate marked with the Hidden Mist symbol.
Hundreds of Jonin, emerging in waves, fully surrounding the ruined clearing.
I stood at the epicenter of the destruction, water still dripping from the shredded roots beneath my feet.
I wasn't fazed.
My eyes calmly swept across the battlefield.
There was no need for words.
The well-trap was gone.
My squad was dead.
The enemy scouts were annihilated.
Only predators remained now.
I exhaled slowly.
Not out of fear.
But out of clarity.
I reached out briefly with my sensory field.
The Elite Jonin from the Leaf was still out there, far enough not to intervene.
Let them see.
I took one step forward.
The Mist Jonin closed in.
As the first Mist ninja appeared in front of me, I didn't hesitate.
With a fluid motion, I reached into my pouch and drew a kunai, my fingers tightening around the familiar steel grip.
Before the enemy could even register what was happening, I slashed across his throat.
A wet gurgle followed as he collapsed, lifeless, into the muddy earth at my feet.
No time to pause.
Three more emerged from the mist almost immediately, each one weaving through different hand signs.
Earth. Fire. Lightning.
The first sent a jagged pillar of stone hurtling toward me. The second launched a stream of flame that hissed. The third crackled with electricity, hurling a bolt of lightning that arced toward my chest.
Well, not like it mattered to me at the end of the day.
Without a second thought, I focused inward.
[Gate of Pain-Open!]
The fourth Inner Gate burst to life within me, and my chakra surged violently. I felt my muscles tighten, blood rush, and skin turn a deep, unnatural red. Power erupted through my limbs like wildfire.
To them, it must have looked like a blur of death.
With enhanced speed and precision, I sidestepped the incoming earth spike, ducked beneath the fire jet, and deflected the lightning with my kunai. I lunged forward, my movements perfectly calculated.
One strike to the throat.
A second to the heart.
A third through the temple.
Each enemy fell before they could even process the threat.
But I wasn't done.
Spinning mid-air, I twisted my body and gained momentum. My free hand dipped into a side pouch, fingers pulling free a pre-inscribed paper bomb. As I landed, I wrapped it tightly around the kunai and flung it with expert accuracy into the thickest part of the Jonin cluster.
Time slowed for a moment as the weapon sailed through the mist.
And then...
BOOM.
The explosion tore through the trees, the shockwave flattening nearby brush and scattering the front ranks of the Mist Jonin.
Smoke and screams filled the air.
I stood still, chest heaving, watching the results of my handiwork unfold.
Seems like learning Fuinjutsu and taking the time to self-inscribe my own tags was worth every second.
I charged into the enemy, weaving through chaos like a phantom.
My body moved on instinct, slipping between the blur of kunai swipes, jutsu blasts, and terrified reactions.
Blood sprayed around me, footsteps pounding in disarray as Mist Jonin tried to comprehend what was happening.
I didn't give them time.
As my foot landed in the mud, I pushed further.
[Gate of Limit-Open!]
My body surged with raw power, muscles bulging, speed increasing manyfold.
But it wasn't enough.
Not for this many and not if I needed to be fast.
So I dug even deeper.
[Gate of Joy-Open!]
The Sixth Inner Gate roared to life inside me, and it was like my blood caught fire.
My skin flushed crimson, steam poured from every inch of my body, and the pressure in the air twisted violently around me. I felt my heartbeat pounding like a war drum.
I no longer needed weapons.
I abandoned kunai, shuriken, scrolls—everything. From this point on, it was all taijutsu.
I let my training from the greatest hand-to-hand combatant alive take control. Guy-sensei's shadow guided my fists.
Sure, my mastery of the Eight Gates now exceeded even his.
But in pure taijutsu? In sheer technique?
He still surpassed me.
While the Eight Gates made me a monster, they also came with a price.
Pain.
Even now, I felt my body screaming under the strain—muscles tearing, bones vibrating, organs barely holding together.
But I could take it—a Senju, an Uzumaki, a Jinchuriki fused into a single, unbreakable force.
My durability was absurd. Reinforced by two legendary bloodlines and the burning chakra of Matatabi, I was a walking engine of destruction.
And the Mist Jonin were learning that the hard way.
The first one lunged with a water blade, aiming for my side.
I pivoted, driving my elbow into his chest. The impact folded him in half and sent him flying into a tree with enough force to crack the trunk in half.
Another came from above, swinging twin sabers.
I leapt, flipped, and brought my heel down like a guillotine. His body slammed into the earth with a sickening crunch.
I didn't stop.
Punches fired off like artillery. Each time my fist cut through the air, the shockwave alone was strong enough to split bodies apart. Mist Jonin were sent flying, some bisected by pressure alone, others crumpling before they could even react.
I moved faster than anyone without doujutsu or elite sensory abilities could follow. To them, I was just a blur—a red comet tearing through the battlefield.
They tried to form formations. Countermeasures. Barrages of elemental attacks.
But nothing landed.
Nothing slowed me.
Sure, during the Hidden Cloud assault I had gained the name "Riptide" for my overwhelming use of water-style destruction.
But that was then.
Now I am Anbu...well soon to be EX-Anbu.
I had to become a ghost.
I had to shed the past.
So here I was.
Not Riptide.
Just a red storm of fists and fury.
It didn't take long for more than half of my enemies to be eliminated.
Bodies littered the battlefield, their blood soaking into the shredded earth. But now I found myself in a conundrum.
I didn't want any of them to escape.
If even one of these Mist Jonin made it out alive, they could report back to their village.
Word would spread.
And it wouldn't take long before that word reached the Hidden Leaf.
I had planned to use this operation to cover my tracks—maybe even fake my death for a while. But if anyone knew I was alive, that illusion would shatter.
And let's be honest: the Leaf has spies everywhere.
Delaying the inevitable was the best I could hope for.
All the remaining Mist Ninja had backed off, retreating into formation at a distance. I could sense their hesitation, their fear.
But I wasn't about to burn myself out trying to chase them.
The Sixth Gate was already overkill.
And there was no need to open the Seventh.
Not for this.
Instead, I let the chakra pressure fall away, releasing the gates.
Relief flooded my limbs as the burning tension bled off my body. I rolled my shoulders once, then pressed my hands together into a plus sign.
[Shadow Clone Jutsu]
Ten of me appeared instantly.
Each clone flickered out using Body Flicker, spreading rapidly across the battlefield to encircle the remaining Mist Jonin.
Within seconds, we had them surrounded.
Each clone had one job: suppression through overwhelming force.
We began spamming two techniques.
Verdant Spear Barrage rained down with terrifying speed. The ground split open with violent cracks as spear-like branches burst forth, their tips honed to razored precision.
The air sang with the sharp whistling of wooden death as they launched in tight succession, slicing through limbs, torsos, and skulls. Mist Jonin were impaled mid-jump, skewered as they tried to weave signs. Others were thrown off balance, only to be torn apart by a follow-up strike.
Screams filled the forest, short-lived and choked by blood.
Then came the Forest Breaker Pillar.
The forest trembled violently as massive, spiraling wooden pillars erupted like angry gods, ripping through formations like paper.
They twisted skyward with thunderous force, flinging bodies in every direction. Bones snapped on impact.
Jonin who tried to run were bisected cleanly, their corpses tossed like dolls into the crimson-slick dirt.
It was a slaughterhouse.
Clones coordinated like reapers, timing their jutsu in waves so that not a single breath of relief could be taken. Some rained down suppressing spears from afar; others ran interference, altering terrain, forcing their prey toward the center.
I stood unmoving.
Watching.
My expression didn't change as bodies exploded under pressure. As blood misted through the air. As lives ended by the dozen. I had no need to act further. My clones and my techniques were enough.
And amid all this carnage, I turned.
The ground still quaked with rupturing wood and panicked footsteps, but I ignored it.
My eyes locked on a distant hilltop.
The Elite Jonin from the Leaf.
Still observing.
Still hiding.
I let him know that I knew.
Didn't really matter, when he wouldn't be alive for long anyways.
...
Authors note:
You can read some chapters ahead if you want to on my p#treon.com/Fat_Cultivator