"Allow us to join you in battle."
Suddenly, Benihime, with Ema and Tomoe behind her, made an unexpected request, especially since the coming battle had little to do with her and her cohorts.
Fugaku and Makoto looked confused, even Mei and Shinka were caught a bit off guard but Inori and Shiki became ponderous.
It was hard to place the ladies' combat power on a ranking without actually seeing them fight but Tomoe should have regular Jonin level strength at the very least which would make her an asset.
Ema was likely a bit weaker than Tomoe but not by much.
Benihime on the other hand, was a mystery.
Common sense dictated she couldn't be that strong but she reminded Shiki of his inner Hollow far too much for him to confidently apply common sense.
So it was plenty possible that, like him, Benihime possessed power abnormal for her age and, based on what little he gathered, the boy speculated that it was possible for the little girl to show power superior to Tomoe under specific circumstances.
Their accounts of the events of their escape from the massacre of the Kurogane clan pointed to this thought neither Shiki nor Inori knew how much weight they could put on these theories.
Whatever the case, going from five combatants to eight would undoubtedly make a huge difference in the coming fight.
"You'll need to show us that you're capable of keeping up." Inori suddenly spoke and the Land of Iron ladies nodded in acceptance.
"Alright Shiki. I know you've been experimenting with a different fighting style so this is a good opportunity to test it out." The Violet Rose called up the boy to be the tester.
"Sounds good." Shiki replied. He wanted to stress test his new abilities anyway and it would also show whether the ladies could deal with shinobi tactics and fighting styles or not.
*
The Land of Iron trio stood across from Shiki at a medium distance in a rocky area with both older ladies already having their swords out but Benihime keeping hers sheathed.
"Begin!" Inori announced and before the ladies reacted, Shiki was already moving.
'Flicker Phantom'
The boy widened the distance immediately knowing his opponents were specialized in melee combat and wanting to put his ninjutsu to the test, he made the obvious choice.
Without being noticed, a shadow clone sprung into being as Shiki retreated and the two boys immediately unleashed a combination jutsu.
'Fire and Wind Release: Great Flaming Breakthrough'
His original flaming breakthrough but now used two C ranked jutsu boosted by the refined Nirvana Art: Elemental whose passive boost was now permanently kept active.
A literal sea of fire covered the landscape, leaving the spectators speechless.
Shiki was fighting like a completely different individual, showing a style and abilities he had never used before.
'Shura Style: Heavy Storm X2'
Using the same style as the samurai that previously tried to ambush the caravan, Tomoe and Ema unleashed to blade storms with opposite rotational directions, resulting in a blast of force that scattered the fire.
'Looks like they are competent as a combination so they might not be a liability in group battles.' Inori evaluated from the side.
Meanwhile, Shiki was already launching his next move.
One of him leapt into the air and with a hand seal sequence so fast that only the sharingan users managed to make out the seals he used, the boy unleashed his attack.
'Lightning Release: Discharge'
Tongues of forked lightning rained down from the sky as the ladies prepared another counter.
But being so defensive and not interfering with your opponent, letting them do whatever they wanted, was a dangerous tactic, likely to backfire.
'Earth Release: Tearing Earth Palm'
While the attention was on the airborne Shiki, the other one slipped underground and destroyed the firm footing required for the ladies to unleash their big moves.
Off balance, the counter did not come out but, just as it seemed the lightning bolts were going to hit . . .
'Shura Style: Chizuki'
The little Benihime had jumped slightly, as if she knew the earth jutsu was coming and unleashed a blood red spherical domain that immediately became filled with countless chakra slashes.
Lightning Release: Discharge was shattered and the "sword domain" reached underground, slashing the Shiki hiding in there mercilessly.
But it was just a shadow clone.
Turning upwards . . .
'Shura Style: Chikage'
A reddish black flying slash, akin to a monstrously amped version of the normal samurai technique of flash, came out of Benihime's blade and instantly bisected the Shiki in the air.
The audience froze.
But with a pop, it was revealed to be another shadow clone.
As if she expected it, Behime didn't even pause, rushing towards a certain location.
A surprised Shiki canceled his Transparent escape and prepared to counter but, in an instant, Benihime closed the rest of the distance.
'Shukuchi!?' The boy was dazed at being on the receiving end of his own technique.
'Wind Release: Gale Palm'
'Phantom Flicker'
With Shiki's immense precision and control, his practice with hand seals showed tremendous results, allowing him to finish the sequence even in his precarious situation.
Using the speed enhancing version of Gale Palm, he vanished away with Flicker Phantom.
Benihime immediately turned her gaze his way, clearly able to follow his movement but did not give chase.
Taking a moment to look at her, the situation became clear to Shiki.
The girl's eyes had turned into a deep crimson color, glowing strongly enough to pierce through a dark cloth unlike the more subtle glow of the sharingan which was easily hidden, for example.
'Is this the kekkei genkai Ranmaru showed in the original series?' The boy internally questioned.
It certainly looked just like it.
Then came the sudden realization.
'This girl . . . I never really paid that much attention to her behaviour before but . . . She was likely watching everything I did!' Shiki had finally realized the truth.
A small blush appeared on Benihime's cheeks.
'Broken ass dojutsu!' The boy thought, noticing the blush.
Clearly, the girl could read him to an extent.
'Emotion sensing better than Mind's Eye of The Kagura, a field of vision far surpassing the Hyuga Byakugan, she can even perceive sound, also possible mind reading, genjutsu even other dojutsu can't dispel . . .'
Shiki mentally went through the laundry list of abilities shown by those eyes in the series.
'She likely can't read my mind, Kukyo makes that pretty much impossible but traces of my emotions which should also be nearly impossible to sense along with every action I took during this mission was probably caught. Even my Enlightened Mind's Eye . . .'
'It's not guaranteed but since those eyes can detect other things I had previously thought were undetectable, Enlightened Mind's Eye is probably not the exception.'
'Broken ass dojutsu!' The boy thought once again.
With that big pause cooling things, everyone just decided to stop there.
Technically, Tomoe and Ema had yet to do much to prove their ability but after little Beni's showing, no one was in the mood.
*
After a short period of rest and contemplation, the whole group gathered again.
A tense silence settled in, mostly created by the Konoha group, so Benihime went ahead and decided to broach the matter herself and reveal the basics of her dojutsu, not enough for her to be at a disadvantage but enough to show off her capabilities.
"These eyes are called the Shuigan or Crimson Eye . . ."
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -