Shit biju, what's Kushina doing here when she's supposed to be stopping Kumogakure's main forces instead of rushing to my aid?
Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one who noticed the new arrivals, as the younger Ai's eyes widened for a moment, and the next moment he literally exploded with a burst of raiton chakra from his technique, sacrificing a good portion of his remaining reserve by coming very close to me and making a sharp turn. Raiton no Yoroi went through Goriat no Kouchikubutsu like sandpaper, peeling off a layer and throwing it back.
- Gah!
In some places, the attack reached my flesh, leaving blood stains on my arms and legs and making my body shudder from the powerful electric shock, but I recovered very quickly, not even paying attention to the superficial wounds and twisted and landed on the ground, ready to repel another attack, hastily restoring the pierced cover. I saw the back of the future Raikage running away from me at top speed, instead of the expected use of the chance I had created. Straight towards the unconscious jinchuriki of the two-tailed jinchuriki!
- Retreat! - shouted the blond man to the still living guards, "Cover!
- Halt! - I roared, rushing in pursuit as soon as I realized that the prey was leaving my hands.
I had a couple seconds to give the swarthy shinobi a decent lead, but I wasn't going to let him get away with it, especially now that the reinforcements had arrived!
***
Unfortunately, Kushina was still too far away to impede the cloudbenders in any way, especially when the closest jonins were literally sacrificing themselves in suicidal attacks in order to delay her for even a second.
The same was true for me - whereas before the enemies preferred to keep their distance, staying out of the way of the S-rankks and only occasionally indicating their presence with a ninjutsu or two in the back that missed the target, the ninja accompanying the jinchuriki were now preparing to fulfill their purpose, fearlessly standing in my way.
Despite their speed, three of the dozens of jonins closest to me still managed to get in the way, and even though it took me a fraction of a second each to toss them aside with quick strikes - I didn't have time to kill them - I was able to get to Nii.
Picking her up with one hand and not damaging the girl when he touched her, demonstrating excellent control over Raiton no Yoroi, the blond rushed away at full speed, and the two jonins turned in my direction, lightning-fast folding several hand seals.
The water and lightning techniques combined into a wide stream in front of the shinobi, and I flew right into him, unable to dodge for a fraction of a second, though I tried to dodge at the last moment - despite the supernatural powers, even chakra users have to take into account the effects of built-up inertia, and my weight has increased a lot lately, making it very difficult to maneuver at great speeds.
Even though overcoming the combined ninjutsu was easier than a red-hot butter knife, it chewed a decent amount of chakra out of my defenses and slowed me down.
When I reached the bastards and set them on blades of chakra, interrupting the attack, Ai and his burden were further away and continued to increase the distance between us.
In two movements I ripped the weapons from the enemies and almost cut them in half with fountains of blood, I transformed the weapons into spears and threw them after the blond, not so much hoping to hit - because this is not the kind of opponent to allow himself such a slip - but with the purpose of delaying and narrowing the gap a little while he would avoid the attack.
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