Naruto: Tango with Death

[Sukaina's POV]

Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki, Fugaku Uchiha, Mikoto Uchiha, the Sannin, Shisui Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha, as well as that old Uchiha…

Ten opponents, 7 of which are Kage level, arguably ten when the Mangekyou is taken into account.

And despite this line up, all I felt was sadness. Not because I saw inevitable doom, but because I knew they didn't stand a chance.

Why? To start off, Master level Taijutsu, Kenjutsu and Fuinjutsu. I am also capable of opening the 6th Gate, giving me 7th Gate level perception, which is more than enough to react to anything they can possibly throw at me, and largely negates Minato's greatest strength.

Body wise, I'm leagues beyond any of them, even without any Gate I'm easily stronger than Guy, and with the Gates, I might very well be faster than Minato.

Chakra wise, I could put most Bijuu to shame. Kyuubi probably is the only one to have more chakra than I do, and that is not by a long deal.

Ninjutsu… Not long after I turned 12, I finished exploring every Tenketsu paths related to Suiton. In other words, I had mastered every Suiton Ninjutsu in existence.

Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

Well, except for one. The very last one, the very last combination. One that would block my chakra at the very last Tenketsu, the 358th one.

But just now, I unlocked it, and that brings me to my next point.

Everything I just mentioned, it was nothing more than my base form, so to speak. And with only that, I am confident in taking any of them in a one v one. Could probably take the Sannin all together.

Thing is, that is not my full power. Not anymore.

Something else I had worked on a lot during my year of service as the Shogun was my Authority.

While it started out as Tyranny, I found the most natural way to make it evolve was to turn it into Royalty. After all, that was what I had been doing, leading the people. That was both Tyranny and Royalty.

Only difference is the way to do it.

But some months ago, I got stuck at a bottleneck, I could feel I was close to perfecting it, but for some reason, I couldn't find the inspiration despite burning the entirety of the red bead in my brain.

Until today, as I became Queen. I finally found this final bit of inspiration, and perfected my Authority without even condensing it.

And so I finally felt comfortable to activate my Sage Mode. And boy was it powerful.

All of my Chakra and Blood Essence had merged with Natural Energy to form Senjutsu Chakra, and energy so much more powerful that it didn't feel real.

My Gate of Opening did not even manage to contain the energy by itself, and I actually needed all six of my Gates to transform the energy.

Moreover, I could feel that I could still go further beyond, but I unfortunately didn't grow my chakra to the limit, nor did I learn to open the 8 Gates.

Fortunately, now that I had activated Sage Mode, I could feel that I could undo the transformation without harming myself as I did the last time. This meant my fears that I wouldn't be able to reach my full potential was unfunded.

Anyway, Senjutsu Chakra really was something else. Even its most basic function, that is boosting my body's strength, was absurd.

With the 6th Gate still opened, I felt stronger than if I had opened the 7th Gate. It wasn't 8th Gate level, but it was in between the two. My healing factor was largely enhanced too, and allowed me to completely heal from the damages of the 6th Gate as soon as they appeared.

Senjutsu Chakra also allowed me to finally condense my Authority. Building it up without any sign of it was quite the hassle, even with the red bead I ended up consuming, but it was all worth it as my Authority seeing the light of the world.

It didn't actually have any material form, it was a very strange power. From what I understood, every Authority worked differently, and their level of perfection would also affect this power.

Back when I awakened Tyranny, everything around me was destroyed. Royalty worked differently though.

It did retain a certain aspect of domination, but it was different. It didn't kill, it merely made them more submissive, and put a pressure on their body and spirit. However, it could rather easily be resisted, as it wasn't meant to make people submit.

After all, what kind of king needed to force people to bend the knee?

No, instead, the Authority of Royalty gave me a certain power on the world itself. One effect was that it allowed me to understand everything under my Authority.

That could be a material item, but it could also be someone's attack. In other words, it gave me a deep understanding of someone's attack, which would allow me to read through it, and potentially dodge it.

Another dimension of this Authority was control. It was rather broad, and so anything that had to do with control, I excelled at, even more than before.

Be it chakra control or elemental control, it was easy as breathing to me.

And that brings me to my last point, my Tenketsu. As mentioned earlier, I had managed through last year's of hard work to discover every Suiton related Tenketsu paths, meaning I had virtually learned every Suiton Jutsu in existence.

All except for one, the Ultimate Suiton Jutsu, that required the most amount of Tenketsu.

I had already discovered the right path, but my chakra would always give out before reaching the last Tenketsu, resulting in a failed jutsu.

This had happened three months ago, and at first, I thought I merely didn't have enough chakra to pull off the Jutsu, I could feel it was leagues ahead of an S Rank Jutsu after all.

So I started learning Raiton Jutsus, while continuing to grow my chakra. However, even after three months of training and my chakra growing somewhat, it didn't make any difference, I was still stuck.

All until I gained Senjutsu Chakra. Feeling the power of the transformation, curiosity took over, and so as the fight was about to start, I decided to try pulling off this ultimate jutsu.

It had already become obvious after all that a fight would occur.

At first I had some amount of worry towards Senjutsu Chakra, fearing I wouldn't be able to control it, but my Authority made it so easy that it was ridiculous.

It did not even take a tenth of a second for my Senjutsu Chakra to travel through nearly every Tenketsu in my body, and as it reached the 358th, I was glad to find the barrier to be as brittle as a piece of paper.

My Senjutsu Chakra easily tore through it, finally reaching the last Tenketsu of the combination.

However, as I expected a jutsu of untold proportions to be unleashed, I found something very different to be happening.

Unlike usual, my Senjutsu Chakra did not leave my Tenketsu to unleash the jutsu, but instead started going the way back it came, but with every Tenketsu it passed, it seemed to only gain in strength.

My entire chakra started going back and forth the Tenketsu, forming a long line of Tenketsu through my body, until I felt something change.

A strange feeling spread through my body, and I felt something new. And instantly, I understood what it was.

This… ultimate Suiton Path, it wasn't a jutsu. It was something more. It was a new state of Jutsu. A complete and utter mastery over water.

To this day, to unleash any kind of Suiton Jutsu, I needed to go through the appropriate pattern and create the jutsu. Even nature transformation would only allow me to have a somewhat shallow control over the water I had imbued with my chakra.

But this new state, it gave me absolute mastery over water. It felt like I could feel the very molecules of water in the air, and control them to do my bidding. Moreover, it wasn't temporary, the change had taken place, and it wouldn't go away.