Severed Arm

Cloud-Thunder Gorge.

This rugged land was perpetually beset by thunder and lightning. Dark clouds hung low, and furious bolts of lightning slithered like silver snakes between the jagged cliffs. This was the training ground of Yotsuki Chloe, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki and Killer B's star pupil.

Chloe was not a Perfect Jinchuriki, but she was exceptionally talented and as resilient as a thunderbolt. Her relationship with the Eight-Tails, Gyuki, was a delicate balance between harmony and resistance, and her strength was not to be underestimated. Yet today, she sensed an unusual, cold, malicious gaze upon her, as if a venomous snake were watching from the shadows. Even the Eight-Tails inside her grew restless.

Her premonition soon came true.

Space warped silently, and three figures appeared like phantoms, cutting off every avenue of escape.

The one in the lead wore a white, spiral-patterned mask that revealed only his right eye, along with a dark cloak. He was Uchiha Shuoyue. To his left stood Uchiha Obito, wearing an orange tiger-striped mask; to his right was Nadeshiko Haku, whose face was hidden behind a white mask patterned with scales.

"Who are you?!" Chloe instantly entered fighting stance. Lightning flickered around her, and dark, octopus-tentacle patterns surfaced faintly on her skin as powerful chakra surged from her body.

Shuoyue did not answer. His Eight Gods Mirror had already locked onto its target. He conveyed the order to act with a glance.

Obito struck first! Kamui's warped field instantly enveloped Chloe, trying to suck her into another dimension!

"Not a chance!" Chloe roared, activating Lightning Release Chakra Mode in an instant! Her speed surged, and she narrowly dodged Kamui's pull while quickly forming Hand Seals. "Lightning Style: Lightning Tiger Tracking Fang!" A ferocious tiger made of raging lightning roared as it pounced on Obito!

Haku struck at the same time! Countless senbon wrapped in Ice Release Chakra shot toward Chloe like a driving storm, sealing off her room to move. "Ice Style: Swallow Snowstorm!"

Shuoyue stood calmly beyond the fray, like a spectator. Beneath his mask, his Eight Gods Mirror spun furiously, analyzing Chloe's every move, the flow of the Eight-Tails' chakra, and the best moment to strike.

Chloe was in dire straits. Obito's Kamui was unpredictable and difficult to defend against, while Haku's Ice Release senbon were precise and vicious. The two worked together seamlessly, driving her back step by step. More frightening still was the masked man who had yet to move. The pressure he put on her far exceeded that of the other two combined!

"B, sensei! Help me!" Chloe cried out anxiously in her heart.

But Gyuki's response was grave, tinged with hesitation. "Watch out for the one in the white mask! There's something wrong with his eyes... He's analyzing us!"

Finally, Chloe unleashed a full-powered Lightning Release attack in an attempt to force Obito back. In the instant between her spent strength and the next surge of power, Shuoyue moved!

He was so fast it was as if he had teleported, appearing right in front of Chloe!

The Eight Gods Mirror had already seen through the weak point in her Lightning Release Armor, along with the tiny gap in the flow of the Eight-Tails' chakra!

He did not even use a jutsu. He simply chopped at her with the edge of his hand, cloaked in highly concentrated Yin Release Chakra that could disrupt chakra flow. His strike landed with pinpoint precision on the weakest point in the lightning armor at Chloe's neck!

Crack! The lightning armor shattered instantly! Chloe felt a cold force invade her body, cutting off her chakra flow in an instant. Her vision went black, and she lost consciousness.

"Target secured." Shuoyue announced coldly, reaching out to catch Chloe as she slumped.

Obito immediately stepped forward, ready to pull her into the Kamui Dimension.

But just then—

"Bastard! Let go of my student!!!"

A roar like an exploding thunderclap rang out from the horizon! A blue figure wreathed in dazzling lightning descended like divine punishment, moving faster than the eye could follow!

The Fourth Raikage, A! He had come in person—and arrived astonishingly fast!

The Raikage was incandescent with rage, his Lightning Release Chakra Armor fully activated as electricity crackled all around him. He looked like a god of thunder made flesh! Without a word, he hurled a punch filled with overwhelming fury and power straight at Shuoyue, who was closest to Chloe!

"Lariat!"

The speed and force behind this punch surpassed anything Shuoyue had faced before!

Shuoyue's pupils contracted! The Eight Gods Mirror instantly predicted how terrifying the attack would be! He did not even have time to dodge or defend himself completely!

At the last possible moment, he shoved the unconscious Chloe toward Obito, then threw himself sideways and brought the Uchiha Gunbai on his back up to block!

BOOM!!!!!!!

The thunderous impact shook the air!

The Raikage's fist, powerful enough to shatter mountains and split stone, slammed into the Uchiha Gunbai!

Even the sacred fan, capable of absorbing and reflecting ninjutsu, groaned under the unbearable force of that purely physical blow! An unimaginable force passed through the fan and slammed into Shuoyue's body!

Crack! The unmistakable sound of bones breaking rang out!

Shuoyue was sent flying as if he had been hit head-on by a speeding train. He spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the inside of his mask! His left arm, the one gripping the fan, twisted at a bizarre angle—its bone had clearly been shattered completely!

"Brother!" Haku cried out, trying to rush to him.

"Stay back!" Shuoyue forced himself to steady his body in midair, then landed and staggered several steps. His right arm hung limply at his side. The pain drained the color from his face beneath the mask, but his eyes, visible through its openings, burned with a cold, unhinged fury!

Having landed his blow, the Raikage did not pause. He turned into a bolt of lightning and charged at Obito, intent on reclaiming Chloe. "Hell Stab: Four-Finger Nukite!"

Obito instantly turned intangible. The Raikage's hand passed through his body, grasping at empty air.

"Raikage A... You certainly live up to your reputation." Shuoyue's voice came through the mask, heavy with suppressed pain and icy fury. "Obito, take the vessel and leave!"

"Think you can run?! Not a chance!" the Raikage roared, lightning flaring even brighter around him. "Lightning Oppression Horizontal Chop!" He became a blur of lightning, attacking Shuoyue and Obito from every direction at once! He moved so fast it seemed as if a dozen Raikages were attacking them simultaneously!

"Kamui!" Obito immediately pulled the unconscious Chloe into the other dimension, but he was caught in the Raikage's relentless assault as well. He could only keep turning intangible to evade, unable to escape at once.

Shuoyue was under the greatest pressure of all! He had lost his left arm, his internal organs were injured, and his movements were hampered.

But the light in his Eight Gods Mirror blazed brighter than ever!

"Copy: Lightning Release Chakra Mode!" He forcibly imitated the Raikage's chakra circulation, and dazzling lightning erupted around him. His speed surged, letting him narrowly evade a string of lethal attacks!

At the same time, he quickly formed Hand Seals with his only remaining hand. "Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!" (Copied from Uchiha Madara.) A sea of flames swept out—not to attack, but to block the Raikage's vision and force him to defend or dodge!

"Pathetic trick!" the Raikage roared, charging straight through the flames with his Lightning Release Armor and powerful body! But his speed was delayed for just an instant!

And that instant was all Shuoyue needed! His Eight Gods Mirror caught a tiny flaw caused by the Raikage's speed and fury—a barely perceptible delay in the lightning armor's energy flow beneath his arm as he switched targets!

"Now!"

Shuoyue abandoned all defense, pouring all his chakra and the ocular power of the Eight Gods Mirror into the tip of his right index finger! A tiny sphere of chakra formed there, utterly black, as if it could swallow every trace of light!

"Yin Style: Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack: Piercing Point!"

This was his own creation, combining the insight of the Eight Gods Mirror with the brute force of the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack—a technique designed to pierce a single target's defenses!

Whoosh! A flash of black light!

Thud!

The Raikage had never expected his opponent to launch such a precise and terrifying attack while grievously wounded! The speck of black light pierced the nearly imperceptible weak point in his lightning armor and burrowed deep into his right chest!

"Gah!" The Raikage let out a pained groan, his charge abruptly checked. He looked down in disbelief at the black wound in his chest, which was steadily eating away at his chakra and flesh! The excruciating pain and strange Yin Release Chakra left him gravely wounded in an instant!

Shuoyue, too, had nearly exhausted his chakra by forcing out the technique. His injuries worsened, and he spat out another mouthful of blood before dropping to one knee.

"Lord Raikage!" the Cloud Hidden Anbu cried out from a distance. They had finally arrived!

"Go!" Obito seized the grievously wounded Shuoyue and activated Kamui. Space warped violently around them!

"Don't think you can escape!" The Raikage gritted his teeth against the pain and roared as he gathered lightning to stop them, but the black wound in his chest was rapidly draining his strength. He was a moment too slow!

Whoosh! Obito and Shuoyue vanished completely into the warped space.

All that remained was the gravely wounded Raikage, roaring in fury, and the Cloud Hidden Anbu who had rushed to the scene, staring in stunned disbelief.

At the base, in the medical laboratory.

Shuoyue lay on the operating table, his mask removed and his face white as paper. His left arm was twisted and broken horribly, and traces of the Raikage's violent Lightning Release Chakra still clung to the wound, continuing to damage the tissue.

Orochimaru examined his injuries, golden, serpentine eyes glinting with excitement. "My, my, the Raikage's destructive power is truly astonishing. The arm is completely ruined, the meridians are shattered, and Lightning Release Chakra still lingers in the wound... Conventional Medical Ninjutsu won't work."

Obito stood nearby, silent.

Shuoyue endured the pain and rasped, "My arm... Can it be restored?"

"Not by conventional means." Orochimaru licked his lips. "But... don't we have just the thing?"

He pointed to a specially made cultivation tank nearby. Inside floated a pale arm brimming with vitality—it was a perfectly compatible, controllable Hashirama Cell Prosthetic, grown using the First Senju Hashirama's cells and the latest biotechnology! It was far more advanced than Danzo's crude transplant.

"Connect this prosthetic to your severed arm, then guide it with your ocular power and will..." Orochimaru's voice was full of temptation. "Not only will it perfectly restore your arm, it will also greatly enhance your vitality and Yang Release Chakra. Balanced against your existing Yin Release Chakra, it might... let you wield the Eight Gods Mirror and Tailed Beast power more perfectly."

The risks and opportunities went hand in hand.

Shuoyue did not hesitate. "Begin."

A precise and perilous operation began at once.

Orochimaru removed Shuoyue's completely necrotic left arm, then microscopically joined the Hashirama Cell Prosthetic to the nerves, blood vessels, and meridians in his shoulder. The procedure demanded extraordinary precision and mastery over the cells' vitality.

Then came the most crucial step—Shuoyue had to use his powerful will and the ocular power of the Eight Gods Mirror to guide and control the wild Hashirama Cells, ultimately "taming" them so they would fuse perfectly with his body instead of consuming or assimilating him.

Shuoyue squeezed his eyes shut, veins bulging across his forehead as sweat poured from him. The Eight Gods Mirror spun wildly in his mind, simulating countless possible outcomes of the cellular fusion and guiding his chakra to envelop and permeate the surging Yang Release Chakra.

It was the fusion of ice and fire, the collision of yin and yang!

The agony far surpassed what he had felt when his arm was severed, as if every cell in his body were being torn apart and rebuilt!

But he endured. Through sheer force of will and an unyielding desire for revenge, he forcibly mastered the power!

A day and a night later.

Shuoyue's eyes flew open on the operating table.

A brand-new, pale and powerful arm had grown from his left shoulder! It looked no different from an ordinary person's arm, but a closer examination revealed an earthlike vitality and terrifying reserves of Yang Release Chakra within it!

He slowly raised his left hand and clenched his fist, feeling the power within it—far greater than before. With a thought, faint patterns of wood even appeared across the arm.

A perfect fusion!

What was more, the Hashirama Cells' powerful vitality was already rapidly healing his other injuries.

He stood and flexed his new arm. It moved without the slightest hitch, as if it had always been part of him.

Orochimaru smiled with satisfaction. "Perfect! A truly perfect masterpiece! The powers of the Uchiha and Senju have combined in this way..."

Obito looked at Shuoyue's new arm, his expression complicated. In the end, he merely said, "Be more careful on the next mission."

Shuoyue did not reply. He only looked at his left hand as the light of the Eight Gods Mirror flickered faintly in his eyes.

He had lost an arm, but in return had gained an even more powerful one, imbued with the Power of All Creation.

A blessing in disguise.

His power had climbed to a whole new level once more. The cost of recovering the Eight-Tails had been steep, but the outcome... did not seem so bad after all.