Just then a joyful shout was heard by everyone around them.
"YESS!"
Yukimi threw her arms up with a triumphant grin on her face. To prove her breakthrough, she consciously willed her left hand to dissolve into a wisp of smoke, shot it across and re-materialized it right on Itachi's shoulder, giving him a friendly pat.
"Already?" Kaien thought to himself.
Kaien gave a smile and nodded toward her. "Incredible work, Yukimi-senpai. But you've only scratched the surface. The ceiling for this technique is way higher. Imagine shaping that smoke into solid weapons mid-combat, or sending a cloud to choke out an enemy's airways from the inside, or even phasing inside an opponent's body and solidifying a blade where they least expect it and killing them from inside. There are more advanced techniques like sending out your eyes or ears for scouting."
With a soft puff, her floating hand dissolved back across to reattach to her arm. She stared into space for a second, thinking on Kaien's words.
Smirking slightly at her relentless drive, Kaien turned back to Itachi. "Well, with progress like that, I suppose you'll be able to slice through those Ao clones even faster now."
~~
Yukimi's hand instinctively scratched the back of her head, her fingers tangling slightly in her hair as she searched for the right way to put her gratitude into words.
"You are so young, but you changed my perception of strength. Thank you," she murmured with disbelief. Though she was nearly twenty years old, Kaien possessed an impressive ability to bring out the best of the abilities just like Dodai. With just a few grounded, well-timed pieces of guidance, it felt as though a mental block had finally lifted off her mind, clearing away years of progress.
Keen to put her renewed perspective into practice, Yukimi acted immediately, she transformed her left hand into a sharp tanto blade, grasping it firmly with her right hand. Turning her hips, she spun and hurled the blade upward with immense centrifugal force, launching it high into the sky. Her eyes darted back to Kaien, silently asking for guidance on the soap bubbles' locations. Without missing a beat, Kaien nodded and pointed upward, vectoring her line of sight.
Lifting her right hand into a single-handed seal, Yukimi tried to steered her left hand or rather the blade. Her initial attempts were predictably amateurish... the weapon wobbled, resisting her control and flying wildly off course. But she refused to get frustrated after a dozen or so clumsy, trial-and-error maneuvers, she finally got the rhythm.
Kaien didn't just instruct or point the directions; he also participated as his dual polarity-seal blades unsheathed from his back, zapping into the sky like streaks of lightning. He had already casually dispatched half a dozen targets before Guren, Itachi, and Jugo decided to join the fray, taking cues from the instructions he was tossing out for Yukimi. For the others, jumping into the hunt was also an excellent distraction and a way to blow off and cope with the grief following Dodai's death.
Guren, lacking the long-range projectile techniques of her teammates, decided to compensate through ingenuity and chakra control. Reaching out, she instantaneously crystallized the literal moisture suspended in the air. Physical crystal steps materialized mid-jump beneath her feet, allowing her to leap straight up into the sky and effectively "stand" on her own floating constructs.
Planting her footing on a newly formed crystal stair, she whipped her hands up and flew through a sequence of tiger and rat hand seals.
"Crystal Release: Blinding Goddess!"
Instantly, a fractured dome of glittering hexagonal crystalline mirrors erupted around her position. The midday sunlight caught the facets of the dome, magnifying the light rays a thousand times over in a split second. A searing blind flash tore through as the glare was so intense that even shinobi like Kaien and Itachi had to throw up their arms and shield their eyes, completely whiteing out everyone's vision for a crucial moment.
But this time the flash wasn't just for defense. As the light faded and refractive glints bounced everywhere, it illuminated the translucent camouflaged soap bubbles. Working entirely on her own intuition now... without needing Kaien to point the way... Guren leaped gracefully mid-air, manifesting sharp crystal constructs beneath her forearms.
"Crystal Release: Jade Crystal Blade!" she called out, slicing through multiple clones with clean arcs of slashes.
Itachi, still recovering his vision, decided to take a backseat approach. He handed off the burden of command to Jugo's flock of birds, trusting the animals while keeping his eyes peeled for the subtle shimmers of light created by Guren's mirrors. Drawing a handful of shuriken, he began his shuriken jutsu dance. With pinpoint accuracy, he hurled them so that one shuriken struck another mid-air, ricocheting and altering trajectories to pop a cluster of soap bubbles in rapid succession.
The impromptu competition heated up fast. Guren, despite getting a late start, used her high-mobility crystal platforms to close the gap tying with Jugo who was utilizing his flock of avian scouts... though most of the birds were exhausted, having spent hours searching the terrain for Dodai's body, they still reluctantly obeyed Jugo's mental prodding, racking up 12 kills. Itachi wasn't far behind, with an impressive 10 Ao-clone kills.
As for Kaien, he didn't bother taking the exercise too seriously just like Itachi. Seeing his comrades throw themselves into the hunt to cope with their loss, he deliberately slowed his pace, finishing with a modest 8 kills... matching Yukimi's tally.
Kaien looked around at the scattered traces of chakra and gave an approving nod.
"Good work, everyone," Kaien called out. "We've cleared this sector, but we'll have to change locations now that all the Ao clones here have been accounted for. Let's move out. We still have 149 clones left to deal with."
~~
A/N: A fun little competition for a little distraction and what else could Iburi clan do?
Upto 20 Advance chapters available @ patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0 [7-day free trial]