Chapter 13 - Unfortunate Circumstances (1/2)
Itachi recognizes a familiar sensation in his eyes. 'Mangekyou… I awakened it once again.' He approaches the hollow and sees it about to attack one of the injured barrier corpsmen. Itachi reacts swiftly and flash steps in to grab the man then flash steps back out. The hollow follows Itachi's movements and runs towards Itachi. Seeing this, Itachi puts the man down.
”Bakudo 4: Hainawa.” Itachi releases a yellow rope and entangles the hollow's legs, causing it to fall. Using this opportunity, Itachi grabs the man and takes him to a safer spot. Itachi looks back at the hollow which was tearing off the rope. 'It's best I fight this without my Mangekyou abilities' Itachi's Mangekyou sharingan reverts back to its standard three tomoe pattern and Itachi rushes back in towards the hollow.
The hollow reacts to Itachi's movement and jumps towards Itachi while throwing a punch. Itachi waits and dodges it at the last second. 'This hollow moves way too fast for a regular hollow. They shouldn't be this strong…' Itachi notes as he gains distance from it. In the corner of his eye, Itachi catches a glimpse of something. He turns his head and sees the blurry reiatsu of two human figures who were concealing themselves. 'Who are they?' Itachi questions before the hollow starts to charge at him, shifting his attention.
”Bakudo 4: Hainawa.” Itachi releases his bakudo spell but unlike the normal rope, it comes out as thin as piano wire. The wire wraps tightly around the hollow, slightly digging into its skin but not enough to cut through all the way. Itachi moves the wire to his mouth and casts hand seals.
Snake -> Rabbit -> Dragon -> Tiger
”Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu.” The reiatsu wire rope in Itachi's mouth ignites and spreads to the wire wrapping around the hollow. The flames burn through the hollow's thick skin and it lets out a loud roar as it burns. The hollow becomes infuriated and breaks out of the wire, injuring itself more in the process as the wire digs into its skin before snapping. The enraged hollow flails its arms wildly as it is engulfed in flames before crashing into a nearby building. Itachi runs towards the building to inspect the damage done to the hollow. Upon arriving at the hole it made, he sees the hollow had severe burn marks but no mortal damage. The hollow, who was no longer on fire, sees Itachi and leaps towards him. Itachi reacts quickly and jumps out of the way in time. As a result, the hollow punches the ground, creating a huge crater and sending out a shockwave that causes the building to collapse.
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Daiyu and Kanzaki hear a huge crash behind them as they make their way to Taro's group. Taro and his squadmates were paralyzed by fear as the hollow displayed its killing intent to them.
'I can't let Taro get hurt!' Daiyu rushes in anxiously to fight the hollow as Kanzaki follows.
”Hado 4: Byakurai!” Daiyu shoots a lightning blast from her fingertips, hitting the hollow's back. The hollow turns around unscathed and sees Daiyu and Kanzaki heading towards it. Kanzaki and Daiyu split positions as they attempted to attack the hollow from separate sides.
Kanzaki goes for the attack first, unsheathing his blade and aiming for the hollow's ankles to cut it down. As Kanzaki's asauchi makes contact with the hollow's skin, it makes a small cut no deeper than a centimeter before the hollow grabs Kanzaki. During this time, Daiyu jumps at the hollow from the other side to try to get its mask but the hollow reacts and swats her out of the air.
Daiyu heard her entire body crack as the hollow made contact with her. She goes flying into a nearby building, creating a huge hole in the process. As she lays in the hole, she tries to look up back towards the hollow but coughs up blood as she passes out.
Meanwhile the hollow was still holding Kanzaki with a crushing grip. Kanzaki tried to struggle out of it but the hollow's strength was too much as his ribs started to break under the pressure. Kanzaki let out a yell in pain before he vomited a large amount of blood. Kanzaki passes out from the pain and the hollow opens its mouth as it leans in to eat Kanzaki.
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'Why does this hollow have this level of strength and durability…' Itachi questions before he distances himself further away from the hollow.
”Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Hado 31: Shakkaho!” Itachi recites a full incantation. During this time, the hollow notices Itachi's presence and rushes towards him. Just as the hollow is about to strike Itachi, Itachi casts Shakkaho at point blank range. A huge explosion of red energy results from the clash. Itachi jumps out from the smoke. The smoke clears and Itachi sees the hollow's mask was cracked and chunks of the hollow's arm were missing from the explosion. 'So that wasn't enough.'