Si Vis Pacem -‖- Para Bellum [Naruto FanFic]

Arc XII Chapter 31

XII

━━━━━━┓༻❁༺┏━━━━━━

Arc XII Chapter 31

━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━

“... ... ...” Tobi was standing in the middle of the cave, motionless, sunk in thought. His voice had fallen silent. He turned towards the source of his sudden consternation with apparent irritation, glaring at the boy even from behind his orange mask. His posture hardened visibly. Gone was his usual benign nature, replaced by something far more sinister. Even if it was just for a fraction of a moment, Tobi’s mask had slipped, much to her amusement. “...”

“...” Asami grinned, considerably pleased. As suspected, so she was right all along~. No matter how much he tried to pretend otherwise, Tobi was more than the met the eye.

“Aargh ... Aargh ...” Lee rose amidst the rubble and debris, groaning in pain as he pulled himself up with youthful exuberance, unbothered by all the collateral damage that he had caused. Lee wiped his forehead, his breath slightly ragged. Dust and grime clung to his skin, yet his eyes burned with determination. “Guy-sensei, did ... Did I get him? I felt no contact ...”

“...” Guy shook his head, his keen stare focused on the enemy. “Unfortunately, not, Lee. Somehow, the enemy escaped.” His tone was steady but cautious.

“What?!” Lee gaped in disbelief, his fingers clenching into fists. A single question was written all across his face. “How?” He was not alone. Unspoken yet palpable, the question loomed in everyone’s mind, including hers. Asami narrowed her eyes while sipping on her tea.

“Tsk.” Shikamaru clicked his tongue in irritation, his voice cutting through the silence. The Nara heir commanded respect. Lee, Guy, Tenten, Choji, Ino, they all turned towards him. “Impossible to tell at this point. We lack sufficient information to determine how he did it. What we can say is only that he did it. The guy somehow evaded your attack, Lee. From point blank, no less.”

Shikamaru’s eyes narrowed, his mind working tirelessly, piecing together available information. “He didn’t dodge, though. He didn’t even try to. He took your attack head on. You should’ve made contact, but you didn’t. Upon impact, you phased right through him. I suspect that the enemy must’ve deployed some kind of intangibility. Probably through some sort of spatial displacement technique.”

“Hmm ...” Lee listened, merely nodding along. “So it’s like that.”

“You think so, Shikamaru?” Ino asked for confirmation.

“Yes, or at least, I’m reasonably sure of it. It must be some sort of intangibility. That’s for sure”, Shikamaru stated, his eyes focused on the enemy. “It must be some kind of technique. It must be some kind of ability of his. The crucial question is how his ability works.”

Shikamaru threw a glance at Lee. “Hey, Lee, listen!” His words made Lee stand at attention. “Did you feel anything strange while passing through him? Anything abnormal? Any tickling? Or anything else? It doesn’t matter what. Every piece of information is relevant!”

“Hmm ...” Lee reconsidered for a moment, as his mind replayed what had transpired in his mind. The boy shook his head. “No, not that I know of. I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was as if he wasn’t there.”

“Hmm, I see.” A grin crossed Shikamaru’s lips, slow and calculated. “As suspected then, his intangibility probably applies only to himself.”

 @@novelbin@@

Choji raised an eyebrow, his broad frame shifting ever so slightly. “What do you mean, Shikamaru?”

“...” Shikamaru hesitated for a moment before explaining. “You see, theoretically, his intangibility works in two different ways. Either he passes through us, which means his ability makes him intangible, or he makes us pass through him, which means that technically speaking, he makes us intangible rather than himself. The result is the same, but the implications differ. In the former case, his ability is limited to himself and thus possibly restricted in range. In the latter case, it means that he can apply his intangibility to other objects and targets, which necessarily implies some kind of range for his ability.”

“I see.” Choji merely nodded. “I get it.”

Shikamaru continued his analysis, his eyes sharp. “Based on what we know, we can’t exclude either option, but I have a strong suspicion that his intangibility applies only to himself. The fact that Lee felt nothing at all supports my theory. His ability is a jutsu. It must use chakra. If he was altering Lee’s state rather than his own, Lee would have felt something. He might not be a sensory ninja, but he would have noticed. You can’t just pull a trick like this on someone without people realising.”

“...” A row of nods followed. Lee. Guy. Tenten. Ino. Choji. Everyone agreed.

Shikamaru glanced up. “The questions remain, though, what’s the range of his ability? How does he identify incoming objects? Does he require any direct vision? Or does he rely on a sensory field? How fast is his response? Can he affect multiple objects at once? Are there any other potential limitations?”

Tenten fidgeted, her impatient fingers twitching, itching for the next fight. “So what are you suggesting then that are we going to do then? How are we going to counter his ability?”

“... ... ...” Shikamaru pondered his answer. Then, a smirk crossed his lips, confident and assured of victory. “Don’t worry, we’ll find a solution. In the meantime, we need to keep the pressure up. The enemy is not infallible. Far from it. He can be beaten, and he’ll be beaten.”

“...” Ino stole a glance at him. “How can you be so sure, Shikamaru?”

“...” Even now, Shikamaru’s smirk never faltered. “Think about it for a moment, Ino. The guy was mocking us this entire time. He’s spent every second taunting us from the moment we met. And yet now, he’s suddenly fallen completely silent. Not a single word from him. He must be fuming right now. And you know why? Because it shows us two things.”

Shikamaru raised his index finger. One. “Our friend knows he’s miscalculated. We forced him to reveal his cards.”

He raised his middle finger. Two. “And last but not least, his intangibility isn’t invincible. If it was, he wouldn’t put on this whole farcical performance just to hide it. He wouldn’t go to such lengths to play the bumbling fool. He wouldn’t be some nameless lackey shoved around at will by our little princess. His ability has a weakness. It’s just a matter of finding out.”

“...” Poised and composed, Asami sipped on her tea with deliberate grace, her expression unreadable save for the faintest of smiles. It would be a lie to say that she did not commend him for his deductions. Shikamaru ... Personal differences aside, the Nara boy was smart indeed. His conclusions mirrored her own, although the information at her disposal was admittedly superior.

Tobi’s chakra signature betrayed him. His use of chakra and the corresponding increase in ambient chakra was keenly felt. The increase was distinctive and noticeable. He might have thought himself subtle, but his use of chakra was far from inconspicuous. Quite the contrary. Her bare eyes were able to pick up on his chakra. Even without her Sharingan activated, she was able to discern his signature.

His use of intangibility correlated with an increase in chakra activity, which meant that the phenomenon was most definitely a jutsu that relied on chakra to operate. Furthermore, his use of chakra was localised and limited, which corresponded with the area of contact. Chakra activity ceased the moment contact ended, as did his intangibility.

His use of chakra was brief, controlled, precise, and meticulous. The conclusion was clear, as Shikamaru had suspected, his intangibility applied only to himself, and not even to his entire body. Only portions of his body turned intangible, and then only for brief durations. Which suggested that his ability was active in nature and not passive. His use of chakra was far too precise and controlled for a mere reflex reaction, which in turn implied that he had to identify incoming objects in order to deploy his intangibility.

And most importantly, the fact that he deliberately limited its use suggested either an exceedingly high chakra consumption prohibitive for prolonged combat or significant stress on the user, or both. Otherwise, such a limited and evidently efficient minded use of his chakra would not be required.

Nevertheless, despite all this, there was something else that aroused both her interest and suspicion. Her purple eyes saw beyond the veil. They saw what lay hidden. The phenomenon ... The jutsu ... His chakra ... The pattern ... The frequency ... It all felt strangely familiar. It all felt strangely suspicious. It was different, yet undeniably similar. She had sensed this pattern before. Quite recently, in fact.

...

...

...

“...” Asami narrowed her eyes, her scrutinising gaze at his wooden mask, entirely drawn to his right eye. Tobi ... Could it be ... Was it possible ... Was Tobi really hiding what she thought that he was hiding?

━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━