Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 124

Another arm formed for Itachi's Susanoo and that looked dangerous enough for Eiji to decide that was enough just standing there. One of those overpowered swords was enough for him, that was for sure. Tsuchi might have been sending him a confident feeling, but he didn't want to test things if he could help it. Which he could, so he would.

He dashed to the side, letting the first chakra sword hit the sand on the ground and send up a cloud of the stuff. Kisame, clearly not seeing himself out of the fight just yet, followed his movement easily enough, going for taijutsu now that he was weaponless. The man dodged Nuibari when Eiji tried to use it, but he couldn't very well evade all the wires that followed right after.

Forced to jump away just as fast as he'd done so in, Kisame clicked his tongue. Eiji didn't let up though, instead charging on the man, not giving him a moment to breath. Itachi with Susanoo on would be a nightmare to deal with, so he'd leave the man be for the moment. Tsuchigumo could block any attack from the chakra structure's and if more than one sword came at him, he'd dodge.

The battle was going his way now, and he knew it. However, he needed to press that advantage while he could. He couldn't let them turn the tables on him like he'd done on them. After all, he didn't think he could pull something to change the situation again if it came to that. 'Come on, come on,' he chanted in his mind, all but willing Kisame to get hit by one of his threads. Just the one and it'd snowball from there. He just needed to hit one.

Eiji dodged a Susanoo sword and used his own weapon against the former Kiri nin. The Sacred Flock was doing nothing to the Susanoo armor, he noticed. He'd thought that maybe focusing on one part would be enough to pierce through eventually, but it didn't seem to be the case. That thing was as solid as it was going to be.

Which wasn't bad per se, not really.

The next lightning bird that came from Eiji didn't go in the Uchiha's direction. Instead, it rushed Kisame, who's eyes widened. A single one of those birds was A-ranked, according to his system and pretty much anyone that had ever commented on it. And normally, that wouldn't be all that much against an S-ranked ninja.

But these weren't normal circumstances.

Kisame was S-ranked alright, probably high up on the list. But that was, according to all the info Eiji had, because of Samehada. The sword wasn't the only thing in the man's repertoire though. Supposedly, he also had monstrous chakra reserves. That didn't do much when he was a Water specialist for the most part.

After all, he was now a swordless swordsman and a Water specialist in the middle of a desert.

All of Kisame's advantages had been taken from him, one by bad luck and another on purpose. Suddenly, he might not be an S-ranked ninja anymore. But that wasn't what was important. There wasn't much to stand in the way of the lightning bird that hit him almost point blank. Resilient, he might have been, but even if a single hit wasn't enough, the rest of the avian rush sure was to take him out.

Tsuchigumo blocked another slash of Susanoo as Eiji pierced Kisame's head with Nuibari. It felt almost anticlimactic, for it to be so easy. So simple a thing. It was the sort of thing that happened when one stacked enough things together though. Difficult things became laughably easy at some point.

"And then there was one," he said, turning to regard the Uchiha who looked as calm as he'd been the whole time. "Again, I don't suppose I can ask you to give up, right?" he asked, noticing the man's bleeding eyes. How long would be too long for the fight to go on? Would Itachi go blind if he drew the battle on? Did he have enough juice in him to take Eiji out before his sight left him?

As it was, those were the key questions, really. Would Eiji and Tsuchigumo run out of energy? Would Itachi go blind? Which would happen first?

Evidently, the Uchiha wasn't that confident in his chances, because the now two arms of his Susanoo did their best to slash at Eiji. The younger boy, for his part, did his best to always dodge one at the least. He trusted his partner to block the other. Every strike ate away at Tsuchigumo's chakra though.