Shiki vs Yagura II

Yagura in his full tailed beast form wasted no time seeing the massive construct before him. Quickly firing a barrage of colossal water bullets in an attempt to gauge its power.

Needless to say, he wa quite disappointed when the powerful Perfect Susanoo didn't even mount a defense and just took the attack with no visible damage.

Like it was previously said, Shiki's version was quite different that the other Perfect Susanoos depicted in the original series, looking more like a gigantic armor Shinigami with wings than a Tengu which was the basis for the other Susanoos' appearance.

Seeing the futility of his previous attacks, Yagura immediately switched tactics and condensed a powerful Tailed Beast Bomb.

Shiki on the other hand, had no intention of waiting for another attack as he was also eager to test his Susanoo's offensive capabilities.

While all Susanoos have some attack methods in common with each other, they also possess certain special abilities related to the user's mangekyo. Amaterasu Black Flames for Sasuke's and Kamui Shuriken for Kakashi's as an example and Shiki was planning on testing all of them.

'Yasaka no Magatama'

Manifesting purplish black magatama in the air connected by violet chakra, Shiki's Susanoo threw them at Yagura's Tailed Beast body before he could fire his Tailed Beast Bomb.

The impact caused the condensation of the bomb to fail with it harmlessly dispersing. However, the Three Tails, Isobu, was perhaps the tailed beast with the greatest defensive capabilities so despite the awesome power of Shiki's attack, it remained largely unharmed.

Seeing this and taking the chance that Yagura was still trying to regain his posture from his previous attack, Shiki controlled his Susanoo to fly in the jinchuuriki's direction, forming a standard Susanoo chakra sword to attack and slashed down.

Regaining his footing just before the the slash arrived, Yagura elected to take the strike that formed a significant crack in his turtle shell and counterattacked with his three tails, smacking Shiki's Susanoo.

The force of the strike was actually far greater than the whole barrage of water bullets Yagura had previously use but, despite being knocked flying, the Susanoo's integrity was not compromised in any way.

'Time to try out the specialties.' Shiki decided as he regained his posture in the air by using his Susanoo's wings.

Meanwhile, Yagura had taken the opportunity to charge up another Tailed Beast Bomb and this time, he managed to fire it.

With such a powerful jutsu heading his way at blinding speed Shiki quickly conjured an nodachi. It was whitish in color and ghostly in appearance, possessing an immaterial fell to it.

Without further ado, Shiki controlled his Susanoo to slash apart the Tailed Beast Bomb.

'Fool! You think that will save you?' Yagura mockingly thought.

But as the blade and chakra bomb met, the expected explosion did not take place.

The ghostly odachi severed the the chakra of the Tailed Beast Bomb and devoured it. Not only did it solve the threat, it also netted Shiki a huge amount of Tailed Beast chakra.

Yagura froze in shock for a slight moment, giving Shiki the perfect opening to strike.

Using all the chakra he just absorbed and more, he teleported his entire Susanoo right beside Yagura and struck down with the odachi.

While he could activate the blade's soul slashing ability and instantly kill the jinchuuriki, that was not very desirable so he simply severed his chakra, knocking him out of Tailed Beast Form and completely unconscious.

'Well . . . I can say this, was a very successful test. Very successful indeed.' Shiki thought to himself as he collected the Mizukage and deactivated the barrier.

'If they haven't finished already, they shouldn't take very long.' He considered as he made his way to the rebel and Mugetsu forces' position.

But apparently, Shiki was wrong and the battle was still raging.

*sigh* He sighed.

"Do I have to do everything myself?" Shiki asked himself.

Sealing up Yagura he flickered towards the fortress, not even bothering to use teleportation as he systematically slaughtered every loyalist that crossed his path.

His allies and subordinates could only watch in awe and even some fearat the terrifying display of killing efficiency as Shiki's ghostly visage flickered about and loyalist kept dropping, seemingly out of nowhere and soon, the battle was won.

Not because Shiki killed all of the loyalists though. Before such a terror inducing display of power, the garrison surrendered, barely after Shiki got started. Even so, dozens, possible more than a hundred shinobi laid dead by the Reaper's hand.

With the fortress now in the hands of the rebels, a leader's meeting was held once again.

"Hey boss, why come steal our fun?" Zabuza asked.

"You were working to slow." Shiki replied.

"Besides, I even intentionally prolonged by battle with Yagura to test out some stuff but you still weren't finished by the time I returned." He admonished.

"Resistance was quite higher than expected." Ao interjected.

So . . . have you . . . you know . . ." Mei started speaking.

"If you're asking about the Mizukage, he has been captured and sealed. I would be happy to deliver him into your hands." Shiki informed.

"Thank you for your assistance Reaper. It is a great day for the entire Land of Water." Mei declared.

"Indeed." Ao supported.

"I have . . . other troubling news however." Shiki interjected.

"What do you mean?" Mei asked.

"My skill in genjutsu, where in casting, detecting or dispelling it is quite advanced and, during by battle with Yahura, I've detected he was under genjutsu, a very deeply hidden and powerful one." Shiki said.

"Lord 4th was a respectable Kage when he took office. It all suddenly changed one day though . . . A genjutsu would explain it . . ." Ao thought out loud.

"The 4th is a perfect jinchuuriki and one of the most powerful shinobi in our village's history. How could he be controlled boss?" Zabuza asked with disbelief.

It was precisely this mindset that caused all Kiri shinobi to not even consider that their Kage was being controlled, which led to a series of unfortunate events.

"A sufficiently skilled user of the Mangekyo Sharingan could pull it off." Shiki explained.

"So an Uchiha?" Ao considered.

"Most likely. Although, after Uchiha Itachi massacred his clan, those are in short supply. Not to mention Mangekyos are rare, even among Uchiha." Shiki continued.

"Do you have a suspect?" Mei asked.

"Not many people have the necessary ability to control a perfect jinchuuriki with genjutsu after all." Shiki said.

"Other than me, there are two others with the skill to pull something like this off and currently alive to do it." He explained.

"Other than you?" Mei inquired.

"Yes I could do something like that but if I did it to Yagura, we would not be having this conversation, in fact, a rebellion would not even happen." Shiki assured.

"So, who are the other two?" Ao asked.

"Uchiha Itachi, although I don't think him to be the culprit and the most likely suspect, a man that goes by the name Tobi and as also called himself Uchiha Madara on occasion, though I doubt he's the man himself." Shiki exposed.

"First though, we should work on dispelling the genjutsu affecting Yagura though. It is very deeply entrenched in his min however so haphazardly dispelling it might kill him." He suggested.

"I agree." Ao supported.

"I should be able to confirm the existence of the genjutsu and, if Reaper-san has the ability to place someone under such a genjutsu, I would guess you might have a better chance of safely dispel it than others." He said.

"Yes, I think that is indeed the best course of action." Mei agreed.

Shiki brought out the 4th Mizukage and unsealed him.

He won't wake up for a while and, even if he does, he'll be too drained to do anything." Shiki informed.

"Understood." Ao replied.

'Byakugan'

He activate the eye he claimed as a spoil of war in the previous great war to observe his former Kage.

*sigh*

"I'm afraid you were right Reaper. I sense Lord 4th is under a very well hidden but powerful genjutsu." Ao confirmed.

Everyone shared a moment of silence to ponder on the situation.

"If you'd like, I can try to dispel it." Shiki offered.

"Yes, you might be more qualified than myself." Ao agreed.

"I agree as well, please proceed." Mei supported.

Activating his Mangekyo, Shiki cast his signature genjutsu.

'Yominohana'

'I wonder how things will change with the survival of 4th and if he will be able to reveal any information of worth.' Shiki pondered as he got to work on the genjutsu.

It was not easy work, not even for him as he needed to ensure the integrity of Yagura's mind. If it was just dispeling the genjutsu, Shiki could have done it in a flash.

Still, roughly an hour later, he finally manged to untangle the genjutsu and Yagura's mind, allowing for the safe dispelling of the former and full recuperation of the later.

"It is done." Shiki informed.

He took the opportunity to help Yagura recover some of his chakra and soon, his eyes blinked open.

"W-Where am I?"

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