Chapter 19: The Price of a Draw
Ai stared, his mind reeling. He'd felt the impact. He'd seen his hand pass through solid flesh. It made no sense.
"An illusion... it has to be an illusion," he muttered, forcing his chakra to surge in a disruptive pattern to break any genjutsu. The world around him remained stubbornly real. The snow, the wind, the watching shinobi, and the Uchiha boy standing calmly before him. Nothing changed.
"So it's not me. It's you," he said, his voice low and serious. "Some kind of special ability." This time, he didn't hold back. He lunged forward, his hand coated in crackling lightning. "Lightning Release: Lightning Cutter!"
He aimed a devastating chop at my neck. I didn't flinch. I let him.
Once again, his attack met no resistance, slicing through empty space where my body should have been.
His eyes narrowed, finally locking onto the source. My eyes. "I've heard the stories. The Shinobi of Hell, Uchiha Madara, fought the God of Shinobi to a standstill with a pair of strange eyes. You're Uchiha." Of course he knew Madara. Everyone did.
"That's right," I said, my voice flat. "My name is Uchiha Tenchi. Uchiha Madara was my father." There was no point in hiding it. Not anymore.
A fierce, eager light ignited in Ai's eyes. "Madara's blood... and his eyes. Your power can't be just this." A thrill ran through him. He'd always wanted to test himself against the legend of Uchiha Madara. Now, facing his son, he could finally measure himself.
He poured more chakra into his Lightning Armor, the air sizzling around him. This was different. This was his full power, concentrated, focused.
"Uchiha Tenchi! Hiding won't decide this! Face me with everything you have! Let's see if you can withstand this!" He raised a single finger, and a terrifying, high-frequency drill of lightning chakra coalesced at its tip. All his speed, all his power, compressed into one point.
The Konoha shinobi watched, confused. "A finger? What can he do with one finger?"
Only Tobirama understood, his face grim. "He's using the lightning to stimulate his nervous system to its limit. The speed will be instantaneous. And all that force, focused... Tenchi is in danger."
The Kumo ninja grinned. Not even the Raikage would try to tank that hit head-on. As long as the Uchiha didn't use his phasing trick, he was finished.
I watched him prepare, my mind clear. The Hell Stab. Fast enough to rival the Flying Thunder God. There's no blocking it. A faint smile touched my lips. But I'm an Uchiha. My eyes are my answer.
"Ai," I called out. "Breaking your technique is simple."
"Oh? Then stand and face it!" he snarled, offended that I'd dismiss his ultimate move.
He became a bolt of living lightning, a straight-line blur of annihilation aimed at my heart.
I didn't phase. I didn't dodge. I simply looked at him, and the space around his charging form twisted. A vortex of invisible force opened, and Ai, mid-lunge, vanished from the frozen field.
"I told you," I said to the empty space where he'd been. "It was simple." Checkmate.
"WHAT?! HOW?!"
The Second Raikage's roar of disbelief shattered the silence. The sure victory he'd envisioned had evaporated in an instant.
On the Konoha side, stunned silence broke into elated shouts. "He did it! We won!"
"YOU LITTLE BRAT!" the Raikage bellowed, his face purple with rage. "You've won! Now return Ai to me! Now, or this truce is over!" Ai was his chosen successor. He couldn't be lost.
"Don't worry, Lord Raikage," I said calmly. "I'll return him the moment our business here is concluded." A future Raikage made for excellent leverage. I walked off the field, leaving a fuming Kage behind.
In the Kamui dimension, Ai landed hard on the strange, stone-like ground. His lunge met empty air. He looked around, bewildered. The snowy plain was gone, replaced by a grey, endless landscape under a twilight sky.
"So... he didn't dodge. He sent me somewhere else." He explored the confines of the pocket dimension, finding its limits. "A different space... to break my technique by removing me from the battlefield. Clever. Very clever."
With Ai gone, the rest of the matches were a formality. The Gold and Silver Brothers, facing Sarutobi and Kagami, clearly held back, their hearts no longer in a fight that had already been decided. The bouts ended in draws.
The final tally: a tie. Four draws, three wins, two losses.
"Second Hokage," the Raikage growled, his pride warring with his pragmatism. "A tie. What now? Do we keep bleeding each other dry?"
"A tie means both sides withdraw," Tobirama stated, sensing the other man's reluctance to continue. "The war ends here. Are you prepared to renege?"
The Raikage scowled, the prospect of further pointless casualties finally outweighing his bluster. "Fine! We withdraw in three days. We will sign the treaty then. And the Uchiha boy returns Ai. Now."
"Of course." I focused, and a swirling vortex opened beside the Raikage. From it, Ai tumbled out, landing unceremoniously in the snow.
"I'm... back?" He blinked, looking around at the familiar faces and the pale sky.
"Lord Raikage, I have failed you," Ai said, bowing his head in shame.
The Raikage waved him off, his eyes fixed on me, a calculating glint in them. "That ability... to move a man between spaces. A formidable tool." His gaze then swept to Tobirama, a sly, knowing look on his face. "You've cultivated a dangerous one, Second Hokage. I'll be watching his career with great interest."
It was a masterstroke. A seemingly casual compliment designed to fester like a poison. He was telling Tobirama, loud and clear: You have a monster in your ranks. And he's not one of yours.
I saw the words hit Tobirama. His jaw tightened, his eyes narrowing as he looked from the retreating Raikage to me. The suspicion and fear I saw there were exactly what the Raikage had intended to plant.
Let him be suspicious, I thought, turning my back on the Hokage. His time is almost up. And he can't control me anymore.
"Back to camp," Tobirama ordered, his voice cold and clipped.
The war was over. But a different, colder war was just beginning.