69. WHY??

Chapter 23: Unexpected...

Sora was exhausted beyond belief, He didn't know that he could push himself this much, He had heard that your body creates additional chakra when you are in danger or in extreme situations but he could now feel that first-handily

He was now retiring to the shelter along with Hanabi, Hanabi was not really tired, but she decided to accompany him.

Obviously, she didn't say that directly and wanted to guard the shelter in case some 'enemy ninja' attacked it, despite two Jounins on standby there.

Meanwhile, his Earth clone, who was outside and had just helped a grandma cross the road heard a loud sound.

He looked at the horizon and saw a Giant Sand Tanuki? battling a Giant Orange Fox, 'Is that the nine-tailed fox? Wasn't it killed or something like twelve years ago?'

To be honest it appeared as a comical scene to Sora as it was like two animals fighting, just the size of animals is huge.

Unfortunately for Sora's earth clone, He was out of chakra and dissolved into mud, The Original body wouldn't be able to see this scene first-handily due to the clone being an earth clone, not a shadow clone. 

So the memories won't get transferred, he can only hear about it from the rumours.

Later on the same day, The invasion concluded, All the foreign ninjas were finally captured, There was also a rumour that Orochimaru personated Kazekage after secretly assassinating him. Sand ninjas might even be released after negotiating with the Sunagakure.

Sora wasn't able to figure out the truth about this matter, but what he knew was that the Third Hokage lost his left arm and got a fatal injury to his liver. His Career as "The Strongest Kage" of his era finally came to an end.

It was a sombre mood in the village, as despite rescuing people, a lot of have died, heck, Sora and his earth clones had witnessed a few of them dying in front of him.

It did sadden him that he was unable to save them, but he knew that it was unrealistic to save everybody as he was not on that level.... yet.

In two days a Funeral would be held for heroes who lost their lives in this Invasion.

***

Sora bought flowers from the Yamanaka shop, he also chatted with Ino, but the chat this time was short, due to his already sombre mood, plus Sora wasn't really feeling his usual cheery and bubbly self.

Currently, He was walking towards the cemetery where the people are buried.

He was feeling regret and remorse over his inadequacy and its consequences. It wasn't the case of feeling inadequate over his current skillset but rather the decisions he took, in various places, he could have made a better decision which would saved a few more lives.

He didn't have any memories of his earth clones, but he knew in which direction and general area he had sent, plus got some reports from management after the invasion about fights, enemy ninjas captured and damaged, and comparing them.

He got a good idea about what happened, It did take a few hours with his shadow clones, but he was able to analyze some of the major decisions that his earth clone took.

The above forty stat in intelligence wasn't for nothing.

It seems he was still playing ninja instead of being the actual ninja he had strived to be.

He was glad that none of the people he was close to died. He doesn't like the emptiness he feels when he completes a story and has heard that the feeling of losing someone close to you is multiple times that feeling.

One's chakra getting doubled means that at one point when they are out of chakra, they would have the same amount as they previously started. 

Looking at it that way, the factor of 2, is quite powerful, despite the number being small. So, he was very afraid of losing someone close to him.

Sometimes, He thinks that he shouldn't have let people get close to him. At least, he won't have to feel that way if something like that happens.

He clenched his fists holding the flower bouquet. He arrived at the entrance of the cemetery, it was in an open field, and now he knew that nobody would blame him for the lives he was unable to save.

Heck, even if they blamed him, he won't care about their opinions. His first priority has been self-preservation.

It always has been.

So, He really shouldn't care about the lives lost... as He technically gave his best and many things were out of his control.

Yes, his clones made some wrong decisions, but isn't it always the case with most people when an urgent or unpredictable situation like an invasion is occurring

Right?

So...

Why was He feeling this way inside?

Why was he feeling pain even when he was the one uninjured in this entire ordeal?

He turned around and flickered away from the cemetery.

He was a coward.

He always has been...

***

He arrived at his usual training ground and to take off his mind, He started to use all the destructive jutsus he knew.

Having a lot of stamina might be the reason his mind was thinking of such thoughts. With that thought in mind, He started his ordeal.

However, after a minute, he realized that it was not stimulating enough for him to distract him as the speed of his thoughts was always very high due to his intelligence stat being high and his investing time to increase it with the usage of chakra.

But today, the same skill was causing him pain.

He slammed his fist on the ground, however, unlike how usually a pit occurs, this time it was his fist that hurt.

He continued slamming his fist on the ground, however, soon he realized that it was also inefficient.

He then took a deep breath 'Hurting myself won't solve a thing' and tried to reason with himself.

Sora then formed a familiar cross sign and formed a shadow clone with 75 Percent of his current chakra.

The clone suddenly lunged towards Sora with a chakra-enhanced kick, which Sora barely was able to dodge by initiating a body flicker at the last second.

'A death battle with my shadow clone should do the trick'

In the next instant, the kick landed on the ground, where Sora was standing previously, forming a mini pit.

In the next second, the clone's body flickered towards Sora.

The shadow clone was also feeling the same way as Sora and beating up the original body should do the trick. 

Sora's main body had set the area all around slippery, however, the clone transformed his shoes into a type of ice skates, gliding over the slippery surface with the previous flickering speed increasing drastically.

Sora was barely able to enhance the point of contact with chakra just before the impact. Sora was sent flying in the air.

Meanwhile, the clone weaved some hand signs, the same signs that the main body started weaving a second later in the air.

Soon, Water senbons met in the air, however, the clone created more senbons due to having more chakra, with a wider area than Sora.

However, the extra senbons just passed by the main body as Sora had aimed his senbons to not get hit which were aimed straight at him.

These were bound to not hit him directly which Sora also noticed.

Suddenly, the senbons that passed through him instead of clashing with other senbons, 2 of them transformed into Sora's clones and fired waves of senbons from either side.

Sora had already started weaving hand signs and used a wind jutsu to change his orientation and also blow away the senbons coming his way.

Sora started weaving other hand signs while blowing using wind jutsu to deflect the senbons.

However, the original Shadow Clone sneaked upon Sora and from a few meters away from Sora used Shuriken Shadow clone jutsu and nearly a hundred shurinkens aimed at Sora.

However, Sora had already predicted this as he had started weaving hand signs before only, He slammed his hands on ground without looking back.

***

Lol, I didn't plan to write, but I suddenly decided to do so, Plus, I have intentionally not used AI to make it feel that something is wrong with this chapter...

Well, Something has to be wrong with chapter 69.

Right?