shard of the six paths

Chapter 11: Shard of the Six Paths

I looked around the simple two bedroom apartment in the residential district of Konohagakure with a critical eye, checking for any structural deficiencies or signs of mold, pests, etc. Little Naruto-kun babbling happily on my hip as I bounced him a bit during my look. "How much does it cost?" I questioned the realtor who was politely waiting by the door as I inspected the apartment, carefully keeping my voice neutral as I looked out the main window at the splendid sight of the Hokage Tower and monument.

"2,000,000," the realtor informed me politely.

I turned to the five month old baby in my arms as he looked out the window. "What do you think, Naruto-kun?" I questioned him gently. "Do you like it?"

He looked up at me and gave me a babbling smile as he reached for my hair, he just loved playing with it.

"I'll take it," I told the realtor with a smile. "I'll bring the cheque in tomorrow."

"I'll be sure to have the keys made up and ready for you," the realtor told me with a smile, barely even glancing at baby Naruto in my arms. "Thank you for your purchase."

After exchanging a few more words, I parted ways with the realtor and began to make my way to the Uchiha District.

It had been five months since the Kyuubi attack and my world fell out from under me with the death of Minato-sama and Kushina-san, only to be saved from my despair from little baby Naruto-kun. On that day in Hokage-sama's office I declared that I would raise Naruto-kun, come hell or high water, even threatening to resign as a shinobi if Sandaime-sama didn't allow it, much to said person's amusement.

He told me that was what he was hoping for when he brought me to see Naruto-kun, he felt that I was the only one suited to protecting him and ensuring his healthy growth. Apparently, according to Jiraiya-sama, the flush on my face went down my neck. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take him with me right away, even with my newfound determination I was not ready, mentally, to begin taking care of Naruto-kun.

It had taken a couple of months with Fuyuko-san and many visits to baby Naruto-kun, but… I was healing. I was officially granted custody over Naruto-kun last week and had been busy looking for a suitable place to raise him within Konoha proper, Fugaku-sama had offered me a place within the Uchiha district of course, but I had decided to get a place of my own within Konoha.

The Uchiha Clan… there had been a big change of opinion for them since the night of the Kyuubi, not only was the outrush of Uchiha to defend their village a factor, but one or several of the councilmembers had let it leak that Sakaki-nii-san had risked permanent blindness with his reckless attempt to delay the Kyuubi.

Thankfully, when he woke up he still had some eyesight left, although he needed to activate his Sharingan in order to see properly. When I saw him again, I gave him a tight hug before smacking him upside the head and ranting at him for his foolish decision to try to teleport the KAMI DAMNED KYUUBI!

He was rather shocked when Fugaku-sama informed him of his transfer into the Konoha Military Police as a Commander, and firmly gave him the order not to use his Mangekyou Sharingan again unless he was in a life or death situation. Although that was nothing when compared to the shock of the number of fan girls for him that seemingly popped up overnight.

Thankfully they respected the warning I issued about those who got too aggressive in their pursuit, I wasn't about to allow a potential blackmail resource disappear on me after all.

"We're back!" I called out as I walked in the door, the trip home taking longer than usual, Naruto-kun not being strong enough yet for me to carry him while travelling shinobi style limited me to walking, and of course, Naruto-kun being the adorable ball of sunshine he was, attracted the attention of various grandmothers all over.

"How did it go?" My mother as she she greeted us brightly, I had been a bit apprehensive about the first meeting between my mother and Naruto-kun, but just like he was wont to do, he had my mother wrapped around his tiny fingers with the first meeting.

And thank god for that because my mother showed me everything that was required for the care of a baby, and there was so much of it too!

"We found our home," I said with a smile as I let my mom take little Naruto-Kun out of my hands before taking off my sandals. "I'll be bringing the cheque in tomorrow when I go pick up the keys."

My mother gave me a somewhat sad look as she continued to play with Naruto-kun. "Are you sure that I can't change convince you to stay home, or take Fugaku-sama up on his offer on a house in the district?" She questioned me hopefully.

"Maybe in a few years," I admitted with a slight smile. "I honestly have been thinking about getting my own place for a while now inside of Konoha proper, plus, because of his… condition Sandaime-sama doesn't want to seem like he's favouring one clan over the other, and the best way for that to happen is for me to leave the Uchiha district, at least for a while."

My mother took in a soft breath, but nodded her acceptance as the three of us moved into the house proper, mom stopping only to put Naruto-kun into a playpen, one reinforced with Uzumaki seals that prevented the child from escaping. Apparently either Kushina-san had really wanted my help with Naruto-kun - which while likely, was almost certainly not the case - of she was outright determined to eventually set me up with someone to have kids of my own with.

I still don't know which one is more frightening to think about.

"Heya squirt," my brother greeted, looking up from a small amount of paperwork with his Sharingan active, needing it more often than not these days as he settled into his new position. "So you got a place eh, need help moving in?"

"Well, Genma-senpai and Raido-senpai will be helping me out, but an extra hand would always be appreciated, would it be alright though, you missing work?"

"Eh, I got quite a bit of personal freedom," he told me in response as I sat down next to him. "Turns out that being a Commander for Internal Patrols is mostly just paper work and deciding who patrols where.

I giggled a bit at his frustrated expression. "Poor onii-san, relegated to the desk because he decided to play hero," I told him teasingly, garnering a roll of his eyes in response.

"Whatever you say squirt," he replied tousling my hair to annoy me, which it did, I work hard to take care of my hair thank you very much! "Ready to do some more Susano'o training tonight?"

While I had been busy making sure my head was on straight enough to raise Naruto-kun, that had not been the only thing I had been doing, when Sakaki-nii-san had heard I had awoken my Mangekyou on the night of the Kyuubi, he had been ready to rip his eyes out then and there to be implanted into mine.

It had taken early an hour of arguing with me and our mother to convince him to wait a bit before doing so, waiting at least he was finished in coaching me in some of the more esoteric skills of the Mangekyou. It didn't take me long to get the hand of my Ama-no Ukihashi and Kamiyonanayo, their abilities rather simple to work with and very easy to combine. Susano'o on the other hand, four months, that's how long it took me to manifest Susano'o in its cloaked form.

I was rather surprised when my own took on a vaguely feminine form, but then again any other user of the Susano'o on the show had been male, not so surprisingly, my light blue chakra construct was armed with a single kodachi, go figure.

"Sure," I agreed easily running my fingers through my hair to correct the damage Sakaki-nii had done to it, watching as Naruto-kun began to stack blocks on top of one another and taking great delight in knocking the over. "I think I got the hang of it, but some practice never hurts."

"That it doesn't," Sakaki-nii-san confirmed with a chuckle, turning back to his paperwork as mother watched on with a soft smile.

"I'm sorry, you wanted to announce what to the populace?" I questioned my commanding officer in his office, a now one year old Naruto-kun at my feet playing with some paper and crayons. "Telling them that Naruto-kun is a Jinchuuriki is a foolish move, Hokage-sama," I expanded, a frown very pronounced on my face as I crossed my arms over my modestly growing bust and crimson jacket - now bearing my personal symbol of a five petaled flower on the back. "Hokage-sama, they won't see him as a hero, they'll see him as the Kyuubi itself, not to mention the fact that his anonymity is his best defence against any of the other countries wanting to acquire a new Jinchuriki for themselves."

"But Minato wanted the villagers to see him as a hero," Sandaime-sama countered making me groan.

"And we both know that Minato-sama is more than a bit naive about the people being accepting of things," I pointed out, making him wince a bit. "Remember when he wanted to introduce the tax reform all at once instead of a bit at a time?"

I loved the man, I would freely admit that to the day I die, but even with that, the man could be an idiot sometimes when it came to people. Persons, individuals, he was great with, people as a whole he had more trouble reading than a quadrapedict blind, deaf and dumb man.

"Look, give people a few years to grieve the lost and heal," I said, trying to compromise with him. "Maybe it can be revealed when he becomes a chunin, by then he would have been able to prove his loyalty to Konoha to everyone and he should be strong enough to fend off any potential kidnappers."

Thankfully, Sarutobi-sama - he had began to insist that I call him by his name rather than his title - seemed to mull this proposition over, and seeing my chance I push a bit more. "Plus it will give him time to train with his powers as a Jinchuriki to show that he is in control of the Kyuubi's chakra," I added, raising a hand to forestall his response. "I'm not saying we should tell him as soon as he can understand, but he should know before he makes Genin and starts going out on missions that could cause him to draw on the Kyuubi's chakra."

Sarutobi-sama sighed as he sagged in his chair, looking his age far too much. "I… shall take your words under advisement as Naruto-kun's guardian," he told me, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "There is something else I wished to speak with you about," he said after a few more moments. "The daimyo has requested you by name for a mission."

I blinked in surprise. "The… Daimyo, sir?" I questioned. "What exactly is the mission?"

"He wants you to retrieve a stolen item from a group of bandits that attacked one of his convoys," Sarutobi-sama explained. "He wants you specifically to deal with them, retrieve the item, and… present an example on why not to steal from the daimyo."

Ah, that would be why I was chosen then, my method of fighting was rather… bloody ninety percent of the time.

MANDATORY QUEST ALERT!

Objective

Eliminate the Blood Hand Bandit tribe and retrieve the Daimyo's item

Reward

25,000 EXP and +7,500 Reputation with the Fire Daimyo

Bonus Objective

?

?

Reward

?

?

"Understood, I'll leave as soon as I'm ready," I informed, saluting before picking up Naruto-kun and accepted the mission scroll from Sarutobi-sama. "I'll return as soon as I am finished."

Sarutobi-sama nodded, dismissing me, allowing me to leave and make my way home to get ready for my mission. Placing Naruto-kun into his playpen I entered my room and stripped myself of the simple shirt and pants I was wearing when off duty and began pulling on my uniform, there had been some changes to it as I grew older, the black t-shirt that I had been wearing underneath had been replaced by a armored mesh shirt with bandage wrapped around my modest chest, the skirt was now a bit shorter, while the spandex shorts underneath had shortened considerably.

The more I lived as a girl, the more adjusted I became to it, the more comfortable I felt with showing my skin. Letting out a sigh I grabbed my red jacket and threw it on before pulling my kodachi from where it had been secured out of Naruto-kun's reach and settled it in its holster.

"Alright, Naruto-kun, let's go visit Auntie, okay?" I asked him as I picked him up.

"Au-ie!" Naruto-kun squealed happily as he let me pick him up.

"That's right!" I cheered on, smiling broadly at him as I headed for the door, grabbing his overnight bag as I passed it.

I don't think I would ever be thankful enough for my mother taking care of Naruto-kun whenever there was a mission that require me to be assigned to them. Being one of the few truly combat capable medics put me in high demand, Saya-taicho having been promoted to the head of the hospital was often too busy, and Tsunade-sama having left after the Second Shinobi War, that basically put me on the shortlist of medics for bloody missions.

So far, I've been on three of them since gaining custody of Naruto-kun, and quite honestly, coming home to him has been the one thing that kept me sane after them. Nothing quite like a massacre to make you go crazy, no wonder Itachi ended up so fucked up if this was the level of missions he went on.

Still, I had a job to do, and Naruto-kun was now tugging on my hair painfully.

"Naruto-kun, that hurts," I chided him gently, unwinding my long hair from his chubby fingers.

"'etty!" he giggled happily as he let me free the hair that seemed to fascinate him.

I smiled at him and kissed his forehead, getting a squeal of happiness from him.

"Au-ie!" Naruto-kun cried out happily as I entered my childhood home.

"Naruto-kun~" Mother greeted him happily, taking him from my arms to hug and gush over him. "This is a surprise, I wasn't expecting you today," she said to me after greeting the blond bundle of joy. "Were you given a mission?"

I let out a sigh and nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, Daimyo requested me so I can't exactly beg off it," I replied as I placed Naruto-kun's go bag to the side. "I'll be gone for a week or two, it's near the Taki no Kuni border so at least I won't have to dodge enemy patrols."

"Small things," mother agreed with a relieved sigh. "Naruto-kun will be fine with me and your brother."

"Thank you," I said gratefully, hugging my mother tightly before kissing Naruto-kun's forehead again. "Behave for Auntie, okay? I'll be back before you know it."

Naruto-kun seemed to realize that I was leaving, and looked a bit upset about it, but settled as I gave him a bit of attention.

Saying my goodbyes I headed out the door and began sprinting off towards my mission.

It was a mystery to me, how these idiots managed to raid one of the Daimyo's caravans, considering the number of his Samurai he assigned to them, huh, maybe he'll finally start hiring ninja to start escorting them as well.

But the bandit tribe itself was full of idiots, seriously, after silencing one of their sentries I was rather surprised to find him being the only sentry they had, granted there was just one entrance into the cave that I tracked them to - into Taki no Kuni.

Thankfully I ran into a Takigakure team of shinobi on border patrol and was able to show them my mission scroll to affirm that I was after a group of shinobi.

Two of the four man team seemed incredulous about a kid being such a high profile mission, but the other two recognized me through my bingo book entry. Huh, turns out that the Tsuchikage had bumped my rating up to A-rank after becoming apart of Minato-sama's Hokage Guard Platoon, I really need to keep a closer eye on the bingo book.

Shaking my head I cleared my head of the distracting thoughts and focused on deeper into the cave, the bandits were partying, apparently celebrating their attack on the Daimyo's convoy. Letting out a small sigh, I braced myself and stepped forward, not bothering to mask my footsteps. "Did you really think, that Konohagakure would allow such an attack to go unpunished?" I called out, my voice echoing through the chamber that the bandits set themselves up in.

"Who the fuck!?" the apparent leader shouted out angrily, a slashed Kirigakure hitai-ate on his head, ah… so that's probably how they got through the samurai. "Kill the bitch! She's only a kid!"

The bandits all roared in laughter as they looked at me, granted I had finally broke out of the 4' range… although I was now just five feet even, not exactly an intimidating figure in the least.

So, I decided to make them fear me.

"[Water Release: High Pressure Bullet]!" I called out after forming the seals of my jutsu, three bullets of water rippling from the moisture rich cave walls and caved in the skulls of three of the bandits. Forming a new set of seals I braced myself for the retaliation. "[Water Release: Mantle of the Blue Dragon]."

Ah, one of my favorite defensive technique, reducing damage from fire chakra by half while also reducing the enemy's chance for a critical hit. The first bandit reached me shortly after the cape formed on my body, slashing a sword at my head that I simply tilted my head out of the way of and slashed my kodachi across his neck and leaving him to bleed out behind me as I stepped forward, ignoring the blood on my face.

I must of unsettled them because the ones that were following after their fellow paused as I smiled at them cheerfully. "Please, can we continue this massacre in an orderly manner," I requested politely, it didn't cost anything to be polite after all. "I have a little brother waiting for me to come home after all."

With that, I finally activated [Chakra Flow: Chakra Scalpel] while my left hand formed a set of seals. "[Fire Release: Crimson Flames]!" I announced before breathing out a long stream of fire onto the bandit ranks, the unwashed men panicking as the intense flames swept over them.

"[Water Release: Rising Water Slicer]!" the bandit boss shouted to my side where he just finished forming a set of seals, causing the ground to crack and break apart, a stream of water cutting through it towards me.

Leaping back I grabbed one of the bandits and threw him into the path of the jutsu, the high pressured water slicing him in half before the liquid dispersed. Turning my eyes to beside me where one of the bandits apparently found his courage to thrust a spear at me.

Flicking the edge of my water cloak, my own body remaining dry for the most part under it, I cracked the end of it against his wrist to knock him off target before lazily cutting him with my empowered kodachi, the man choking as he feel over, clutching at his chest in pain.

My left hand began forming more seals as my dispassioned gaze ran over the crowd. "[Fire Release: Crimson Orb]," I announced, spitting out a mid sized ball of fire that exploded on contract with a now screaming bandit, I didn't even pay attention to him as I began running towards the Kiri-missing nin.

I danced through the ranks of the enemies, the light touches I made with my kodachi dealing irreparable damage to their internal organs as I continued to make my way to the Kirigakure ninja. "Is this really all you can do, send your little minions at me?" I questioned him tauntingly. "At the very least, the ones I killed during the war put up a somewhat decent fight."

The criminal frowned, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion before his eyes widened, recognition clicking into place as he placed my face. "Bloody Scalpel," he gaped as he began backing away.

I really wonder what kind of stories they told about me to get that reaction? "The one and only," I announced, finally activating my sharingan, but I didn't stop there as it bloomed into it's five petaled form. "Sorry, but you boys won't be leaving here alive," I announced as light blue wisps of chakra began to surround me, the [Mantle of the Water Dragon] splashing around me as I released the technique, it was useless now that my [Susano'o] was formed, its cloaked feminine form glaring down at the now absolutely scared shitless bandits as it drew it's kodachi. "But thank you, for giving me the opportunity to practice my abilities where no one will see them, and good bye."

From that point on it wasn't even anything resembling a battle, it was a wholesale slaughter as I ripped through them with [Susano'o] my first real use of it in combat. As I fought I could feel the heady rush of power washing over me that I worked hard to clamp down on. When it was used, the Mangekyou Sharingan could mess with your thoughts, giving you a sense of far greater power than you actually had.

It was that reason that I used it at this moment, when using it in training it was easy to rationalize it away, this time, however, it was not, they were not able to harm me while it was active, and they fell by the dozens as they tried to escape, and through it all I had to remind myself of my humanity, the image of little Naruto-kun's smile burning in my mind as I followed the request of the Daimyo and made an example of the group.

Panting hard, I let go of my [Susano'o], blood dripping from my eyes as it faded away, the burning sensation from activating almost debilitating were I not used to it by this point.

It took me a while to regain my breath enough to start walking again, but once I was properly mobile I began walking through the cave, checking the nook and crannies, locating the box with the Daimyo's seal and storing it in a storage scroll for transport, the biggest surprise I found, however, was the trick door at the back of the cave, something I only spotted when my Mangekyou inexplicably activated without me triggering it.

I followed the path behind the trick door into another open cave, lit up by the glow of some kind of stones that gave off a greenish light. In the center was a simple shrine with a Naginata at rest.

The first thing I realized, that that it was old, the wood of the shrine had begun to rot, but the Naginata itself… it was completely untouched, activating my sharingan almost blinded me with the incredibly dense chakra the weapon was radiating.

"Descendant," a powerful voice boomed through the room, my eyes widening as I searched around for whoever spoke. "If you wish to wield the power of this Sacred Treasure, you must prove yourself worthy of such power."

MANDATORY SIDE QUEST!

Objective

Defeat the Spectre of the Six Paths!

Reward

?

Wait… spectre of WHAT!?

As soon as the quest alert disappeared from my sight a man walked into view, his skin was greyish in color wearing a monk-esque robe, a pair of pupiless lavender eyes were offset by a third eye on his forehead that looked like a sharingan with multiple rings surrounding the iris, in his hand was a staff so black that it seemed to drink in the darkness around it.

[Spectre of the Six Paths] Level 60

HP: 10,000

CP: 10,000

Oh.

Letting out a breath I braced myself and activated my Mangekyou Sharingan, like fuck I am about to not put in my best efforts to survive this.

That seemed to be all the spectre needed to charge me as I rapidly formed a string of seals in response. "[Fire Release: Great Flame Annihilation]!" I announced before letting out an explosive stream of fire at the charging spectre who crashed into the flames sweeping its staff to disperse the flames and preventing them from harming him.

Activating the [Inaba Rabbit] jutsu I blurred myself forward, Tsuki no Usagi in my hand with [Chakra Flow: Chakra Scalpel] active I acted like I was about to attack, the spectre bringing his staff around to counter me, only to find me passing overhead, both of my eyes bleeding.

"[Fire Release: Great Flame Annihilation]!" an echo shouted, my voice sounding as if it was staked upon itself several time.

My Kamiyonanayo had activated, and I warped time and space to unleash the jutsu I just performed, while initially along the same track it had originally been unleashed.

That changed when Ama-no Ukihashi activated, altering the trajectories of six of the [Great Flame Annihilation] to surrounding him completely, unleashing the flames onto the spectre from all directions.

For normal opponents, I would call this enough, even against Kage's I would think it would be overkill, seven High B-Ranked fire ninjutsus unleashed at once from every direction? The burning of all the oxygen alone would be enough to kill a man.

But for what I am facing? I needed more.

I flew through the hand seals as the fire connected against the spectre who was nullifying one of the streams of fire. "[Wind Release: Great Breakthrough]!" I shouted as I unleashed the C-ranked wind natured jutsu, directly into six active B-ranked fire jutsus.

Now, if I had been far enough away, my inner pyromancer would've been very happy to see the resulting explosion of white hot flames. Considering I was right above it when I released them? Yeah… I'm counting this as one of my more stupid decisions in my life.

I gritted my teeth as my eyes burned, the light blue chakra of my [Susano'o] surrounding and protecting me as I flew through the air. Flipping a few times I landed on top of one of the outcropping glowing rocks with a nervous expression.

"Okay… don't think that was supposed to happen," I thought as I allowed the ribcage of my [Susano'o] to fade, my eyes moved to the center of the conflagration that I had created and spotted the spectre standing there, its robe missing a sleeve with some burns on the arm, but otherwise seemingly unharmed. "Now that… that is seven levels of bullshit."

[Spectre of the Six Paths] Level 60

HP: 8,657

CP: 8,965

But, hey, I did some damage, right?

"[Bansho Ten'in]," the spectre announced, reaching its hand out for me.

Oh… right… Rinnegan, FUCK!

I tried to resist the attraction technique, channeling my chakra into the rock, only to find it sliding right off of it. "Oh… shit!" I shouted as I hurdled towards the spectre.

My eyes began to burn again. "[Susano'o]!" I shouted desperately, the chaka construct forming around me rapidly into it's fully cloaked form as he swung his staff at me. Retaliating I swung the [Susano'o]'s kodachi in response, meeting the black staff with a resounding… resonating sound that I couldn't for the life of me describe.

The spectre reached out to place a hand on the construct, making my eyes widen, the Preta Path allowed the user to absorb all forms of chakra. Cutting the technique off I charged forward and slashed at him with my Kodachi. "[Eight Stroke Beheading]!" the technique I copied from Orochimaru all those years ago coming into play as I struck out eight times in rapid succession, every strike aimed at the spectre's head.

Only two of the strikes hit, scoring blows across both sides of the neck, but doing too little damage for my tastes, and with it being a spectre, that meant my tried and trued method of bleeding it to death wouldn't work so well on it.

As my swing carried my arm to the side I allowed my momentum to carry me as I lifted my leg to strike out at his chin only for him to sweep his staff around, taking my other leg out from under me.

I placed a hand on the ground, channeling chakra to my palm in a version of the [Wall Walking] chakra control exercise to root me in place I pulled myself back, pulling my legs just out of reach of his empty palm before he could absorb my chaka from me directly. "[Shinra Tensei]," the spectre announced, slamming me with the repulsion technique.

Ah, he must have used that when I launched my wind ninjutsu to negate most of the damage, the clinical part of my mind noted as I bounced along the ground before regaining my feet under me and sliding to a stop just in time to see him charging at me again.

"[Fire Release: Great Fireball]!" I announced, releasing the jutsu I didn't need seals for any longer before my right eye began to bleed again.

"[Fire Release: Great Fireball]!" seven 'mes' shouted as they all released at once, stacking on top of one another to create a supersized fireball right behind my original one.

I didn't stop there as I formed more seals. "[Earth Release: Rock Gun]!" I announced before inhaling and began spitting out tiny pebbles that grew into fist sized rocks in a rapid series.

The rocks, travelling faster than my fireballs passed through the largest one, unfortunately dispersing my flames, but my objective had been achieved as the dozen or so rocks I spat out were now on fire as they hurdled at the spectre who had been preparing to absorb the chakra flames.

While he was able to dodge the majority of them, four of them did manage to slam into him, one on his chest, two on his shoulders and the last on on his upper right thigh.

Seeing him stumble I ignored the feeling of pain from my eyes and charged forward. "[Water Release: Chakra Flow]," I announced as moisture from the area began circling around my kodachi before flowing onto it. I was just barely ten feet away from him when I slashed my kodachi at him, the water on the blade leaping out like a whip to slash at him as he recovered only for him to block the whip with his staff.

Not allowing any time for him to recover I continued slashing at him with the whip of water attached to my blade, leaving long furrows in the ground as my attacks were deflected.

My free hand began forming more seals, my brow sweating in concentration as I split my focus. "[Water Release: High Pressure Bullets]!" I shouted forming three bullets of water that shot at the spectre.

My left eye throbbed just as he was about to deflect them with his staff only for them of vanish, reappearing at his back at the exact same velocity that they vanished at as they slammed into his back, throwing him forward.

It didn't do a lot of damage, but it was enough for me to for the long string of seals required for my next technique. "[Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet]!" I shouted as the moisture gathered on the walls and water from my earlier water techniques gather into a massive chinese dragon made of water that launched itself at the spectre.

He reached out and as soon as the water touched his hand the dragon collapsed, the Preta Path sucking all of the water from the construct, leaving it to drop to the ground, creating pools of mud all around it.

"Kami-damn it," I groaned, panting from exertion, my eyes flicking to my 'HUD'.

CP: 2,587

Damn… that was a lot of my chakra depleted.

[Spectre of the Six Paths] Level 60

HP: 7,136

CP: 8,085

Damn… I need to find a way to end this guy before I run out of chakra.

Swallowing I pulled myself upright as he stared at me impassively. I moved first, using my [Inaba Rabbit] technique to launch myself at him at my maximum speed, closing the distance in the space of a second, a second that was all he needed for him to strike out with his staff, directly into the ground.

I slammed my foot into the ground, launching myself into the air as I flipped, heels over head, the spectre following my movement with all three of his eyes before jerking his staff above him to strike me while I was airborne.

I thrusted my blade, meeting the tip of his staff with the tip of my kodachi, and surprising the both of us by balancing there.

It was only for a couple of heartbeats that we stared at each other in wide eyed shock. But that was plenty of enough time for me to activate my eyes again.

"[Earth Release: Rock Gun]!" Seven 'mes' shouted at once as several dozen fist sized rocks came charging at him from all directions.

"[Shinra Tensei]!" the spectre announced loudly, the repulsion force blowing me up to the ceiling, but I kept him with my sight as my left eye joined my right in bleeding.

"[Ama-no Ukihashi]" I announced, gritting my teeth as my eyes burned. All of the rocks that he had just deflected reappearing right beside him, arrayed in a way that gave him no way out as he began to be bombarded by the rocks.

Light blue chakra began to envelop my right arm, surrounding it and my kodachi. "[Susano'o: Chakra Flow Scalpel]!" I screamed as the ribcage of my [Susano'o] surrounded me, a singular arm formed alongside of the arm I was gripping a kodachi with, the phantasmal weapon the Susano'o was wielding was alight with more chakra than normal. "[Straight Slash]!"

I swung my arm down as fast as I could, the partial [Susano'o] following my every movement as the massive chakra blade came crashing down onto the off balance spectre who managed to reach his arm up to absorb the technique.

While each of my eyes had a cooldown period, [Kamiyonanayo] was longer than [Ama-no Ukihashi], but among the many things [Ama-no Ukihashi] could repeat, was [Kamiyonanayo].

It hurt, alot, replicating two jutsus at once, but I grit my teeth and bore the pain as I replicated [Susano'o: Chakra Flow Scalpel - Straight Slash] seven times simultaneously with [Kamiyonanayo].

The result you may ask?

Well, aside from completely emptying my tank, it caused several phantasmal [Susano'o] arms to slash down on the occupied spectre who eyes widened at the sight, seconds before he vanished under the slamming of blades upon him.

I coughed as I landed on the ground, groaning in pain as I fought to stay conscious grunting as I tried to lift myself up.

"Descendant," the powerful voice boomed as the dust settled, showing the Spectre standing there, injured badly, cuts running all along it's body… but still standing. "You have proven yourself worthy, the Sacred Treasure is yours."

The spectre stepped closer, I belatedly noticing the Naginata in his grasp. "Wield its power with honor, and never falter from your path," the voice announce as the Naginata was presented to me.

Gritting my teeth, I reached out with a shaky hand and clasped the weapon, gasping as something began to fill me, the Naginata lighting up with the same light blue chakra as my [Susano'o], the weapon became indistinct as it's name filled my head.

Amenonuhoko.

Then, the world went black.

END CHAPTER!

Yuriko's Stats

Name: Yuriko

Level: 54

EXP: 3,015/27,000

Age: 11

Gender: Female

Title: Jonin (+50% to all Reputation gains)

STATS

HP - 2,600

CP - 8,600

STR - 58 (62)

INT - 108

DEX - 120 (140)

VIT - 58

WIS -100

LUK - 40

Ryo - 4,672,153

New Perk!

Intellectual - Given upon reaching 100 in INT stat -50% Chakra Cost for all chakra based techniques

The Wise - Given upon reaching 100 in WIS stat - +50% CP regeneration in combat

New Skills!

Fire Release: Crimson Flames (Level 58 - 92.76%) - User unleashes a flamethrower of crimson red flames from her mouth. High chance of inflicting [Burn].

Fire Release: Crimson Orb (Level 43 - 0.97%) - User fires a fist-size orb of crimson fire that explodes on impact. Flames have a high chance for crits and for inflicting [Burn].

Water Release: Mantle of the Blue Dragon (upgraded version of Water Mantle) (Level 63- 60.97%) - The user is shrouded in a cape made of highly condensed water that protects the user from harm. Reduce damage from Fire ninjutsu by 50%, lower chance of receiving critical hits while active.

Water Release: High Pressure Bullet (Level 40 - 75.92%) - A more powerful version of the Water Style: Liquid Bullet Jutsu, the amount of water in each bullet is equal to a water tower and is fired as fast as an actual bullet. Fires 2-3 bullets at once.

[Water Release: Chakra Flow] (Level 43 - 0.97%) - Releases water chakra along the blade that then extends out to strike in a whip like fashion

[Wind Release: Great Breakthrough](Level 36 - 6.32%) - creates a powerful blast of wind to knock enemies back or send objects flying.

[Fire Release: Great Flame Annihilation] (Level 59 - 21.88%) - User unleashes a massive swath of flames in front of them. Guarantees [Burning] status

[Earth Release: Rock Gun] (Level 24 - 10.07%) - user shoots up to twelve pebbles out of their mouth that then grow in size, size varies on level

[Susano'o: Chakra Flow Scalpel - Straight Slash] - Using the [Susano'o] as a medium for the [Chakra Flow: Chakra Scalpel] the user swings a single slash in a vertical fashion.