"Are you both a dragon and…a surin?"
He didn't hesitate in answering.
"Yes. I am a surin."
"Oh. WHAT?!"
Uehara winced after experiencing the sudden shout from Shikibu.
[Just like Sakura.]
Ignoring Shikibu's gobsmacked expression, he looked at Chizuki.
"Where's Sakura?"
Chizuki slightly lowered her head.
"She's at Aokigahara training, master."
"Oh? Interesting."
He held her hand, making her tremble a bit at the unexpected action.
"Let's go. There's no reason for us to remain here."
As a dark swirl appeared around them, Shikibu finally recovered from her stunned state.
"Wait boy!"
Uehara frowned at being called boy but Shikibu ignored him.
"Do you realise what you being a surin means?! Although you are a hybrid, you are the last living surin in existence. The amount of value you have…"
She trailed off in the end but Uehara frowned even more. A faint killing intent leaked out of his body after remembering how his father had said how valuable surins are to humans.
"Value? Who am I valuable to?"
Shikibu smiled once she saw he was triggered.
"Fight me and I will tell you-."
She couldn't even finish her sentence before she was sent flying a few hundred metres through the multiple walls lining the palace. When she crashed through the last wall protecting the inner palace, she was already outside the silencing barrier she had set up.
As such, multiple guards were alerted and the palace was put on immediate lockdown as multiple martial artists and shinobi flocked to the area of concern.
Shikibu stood up and dusted off the rubble that was on her dress. She looked at Uehara who was looking at her through the hole in the wall of her house a few-hundred metres from her with a calm expression. His bright golden eyes were fully locked on to her as a black fiery aura was around him.
The palace guards finally arrived. After seeing Shikibu facing some unknown child who was emanating a dangerous aura, they were about to attack but Shikibu stopped them.
Dusting off the rubble on her robes, she smiled gently.
"Leave him. You can't deal with him."
"But-"
Her smile disappeared as she looked straight ahead and noticed he vanished.
"I said leave-"
She was interrupted by Uehara unleashing a fiery black wind-blade that sliced all of them apart. Uehara was now standing on the courtyard wall a few metres away from Shikibu.
Turning his head towards her, his expression was grim.
"You said I am valuable. If there's one thing I despise the most…"
His eyes changed from just golden in colour to golden slits as he entered sage mode. Black tear-marks formed on his face as small horns grew from his head.
"...it's being seen as a possession. You wanted a fight. Well I'm changing the terms. Tell me everything right now and I'll spare your life."
The dark aura around him increased in intensity as Shikibu giggled, not caring for the freshly cut corpses around her.
"Is this how you treat your saviour, Aoki~?"
"I will kill anyone who is a threat to me. And you, are currently a threat."
He vanished from his vantage point on the wall and appeared behind her. A bone spear sprouted from his palm and he pushed it against her spine.
Immediately, he felt something wrong and vanished. He made the right choice as a large column of rose-coloured flames erupted from the ground.
"Oh my, Aoki~. I never expected you to dodge that."
Hearing her voice behind him, he slightly trembled but he calmed down when he realised there was no scent emanating from the Shikibu behind him.
"Illusion."
Shikibu's voice suddenly came from every direction as the one behind him dissipated.
"Fufufufu~. Are you nervous, Aoki? I'll tell you a little something. My species specialises in illusions. So no matter what, you won't be able to find me."
From her hidden location, Shikibu expected him to feel at least a tinge of fear. But she never expected him to suddenly look at her.
As she stared into those slitted golden eyes, what she heard next completely terrified her.
"You can't escape these eyes."
Immediately, Uehara stomped his foot on the ground and an earth-shattering sound was heard as everything within a kilometre radius was completely destroyed. Shikibu lost her balance and was fully focused on destroying the buildings about to fall on top of her that she didn't notice Uehara appear in front of her to punch her gut.
When his punch was about to land, he suddenly changed direction and aimed his fist to his left. Bone crunching sounds were heard as the real Shikibu who was to Uehara's left was once again sent flying.
Quickly righting herself, Shikibu's expression revealed shock and disbelief as she stared at Uehara who was a few dozen metres from her.
[How did he see through my illusion?!]
Meanwhile, Uehara looked at the illusory Shikibu next to him that slowly dissipated. He then turned his eyes towards the real Shikibu that was staring at him with shock.
"I told you."
Two tri-bladed bone chains came out of his palms.
"You can't escape these eyes."
…
"Heika! We have to leave here quickly!"
"WHAT IS GOING ON OUT THERE! WHO DARES TO FIGHT IN MY LAND!"
"Sire! Please, we have to leave now while Lady Murasaki holds back the threat!"
Three men were in a hidden passage way. Two were dressed in black shinobi clothing while one was a skinny thirteen-year-old boy clad in royal robes.
BOOM
With the recurring explosions outside, the two guards in plate armour pleaded with their emperor.
"Please heika! We have to leave now!"
"Yes tenno-sama! The rest of the family has already escaped! Murasaki-sama will be able to handle this intruder but we mustn't hold her back!"
The emperor gritted his teeth as he stared at the destruction.
"Fine! Have you sent a message to the Fujiwara clan?"
"Yes tenno-sama. A messenger hawk has already been sent out."
BOOM
"Grr! Fine! Let's go!"
The emperor and his two guards finally entered the secret tunnel.
…
Chizuki watched the battle between her master and her master's savior. From the moment Uehara woke up, she was dazed. With her attention fully focused on feeling the link between them, his heartbeat and the flow of chakra in his body, most of the conversation between him and Shikibu flew over her head. At the time, she was just happy he was alive. Other things didn't matter at the time.
When Uehara suddenly attacked Shikibu, she was surprised. Initially, she was ready to help but when she saw he had everything under control, she decided to stay far and let her master do his thing. As for how Shikibu saved him before…it's just semantics.
"Hehehe~ Master just keeps getting stronger and stronger~"
…
Sakura was still training on Aokigahara. There were only a few ice-filled craters left. After taking a rest for a few minutes, she got up.
"Yosh! Time to get to work. After Aoki-sama sees me when he wakes, I'll blow his mind."
Standing at the centre of the ice, she sent her flames out.
[After I finish this one, I should go check up on him. Baa-san said Aoki-sama should be waking up soon.]
…
"Ha…ha..ha. I'll give you this much Aoki. You certainly have the pride of a surin. I never expected that teasing you a bit would lead to this much destruction."
Uehara had Shikibu pinned against the wall of a demolished building. A hidden bone blade was already pushed through her abdomen and she was clearly in a very bad state. With destruction all around them, the entire emperor's palace was in ruin.
Uehara ignored her ramblings and stared right into her eyes.
"You said I am valuable. Who am I valuable to?"
Shikibu coughed as she laughed.
"You have a woman like me pinned against the wall and yet those are the words you say? I expected you to be more domineering~"
Uehara got angrier after seeing how she dodged the question.
"You said I am valuable. Who am I valuable to?"
Smiling, Shikibu replied.
"Me. You are valuable to me."
Her figure became illusory as she vanished from Uehara's grasp. Turning his head, he saw a massive concentration of chakra forming about a hundred metres away from him. Along with the chakra were rose-coloured flames that were burning brightly.
Calmly watching the scene before him, Chizuki appeared next to Uehara in her sage mode.
"What's happening master?"
"She's assuming her true form."
As the chakra and the flames merged together, a scene happened that made Uehara furrow his eyebrows. In front of them was a six-metre tall four-tailed fox.
Uehara's chakra surged even further as he entered his golden flame-sage transformation.
"Kitsune."
(AN: Sorry about the two day delay. Three days ago, there was a power outage in my area that lasted one day from 2023/02/27 18:00 to 2023/02/28 20:00. Then yesterday on 2023/02/01, I had to catch up on the research project I wasn't able to do due to the power outage.
It is possible to write on my phone but the quality of my work would drop immensely compared to me writing on my computer. It's very easy to overlook plot-holes, grammar errors and story consistency on a phone whereas on the much larger monitor of a computer, you have a larger overview of what you're writing.
So please bear with me for a while. And as I said before, the chances of me dropping this story is absolutely zero.
Thank you)