Private/Closed Naruto AU: Roleplay

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Katsuo was grinning madly as the water serpent plunged right for Tomiko. That is, until the floor shifted on him, twisting his body to face Queen Guren. The water serpent from his chest had changed course, plunging right at Queen guren while Queen Guren’s fire stream shot out at the water dragon to defend herself.

Steam erupted all over that side of the battlefield, obscuring King Katsuo’s vision. It’s eyes scanned robotically for her, the steam I obscuring everything I’m his path. Right when he was calculating likely outcomes, he was met with a sharp earthen spike carving right through his gut, cleaving clean through the other side. He gave a scream in a distorted techno manner before she shattered into a billion pieces, his crown plopping with a *PANK!* on the ground. His card that was orbiting the joker card shattered as well, scattering in a familiar fashion.

2 kings out. 2 queens to go.

Queen Tomiko eyed her doppelgänger, stopping her puking of liquid cement. The cement drooled down her body, as her legs had begun to morph into a more twisted serpentine shape. Scales appearing on her lower body and a rattle at the end of her new tail. Her mouth flipped open, at a bizzare 90° Angle, revealing rows and rows of razor sharp teeth! The stealth scattered out like missiles, locking on to Tomiko. The teeth hurled at her, curving with her every movement, aiming to break open that armor of hers and exterminate the inhabitant.

Queen Guren had stopped her fire coming from her fingertips, looking slightly disturbed that there were only half of their numbers left. The Queen breathed in heavily before breathing out a wind current that had built up to become a cyclone! The cyclone ripped through the arena, grinding towards the real guren and Mori.

All the while, Absurd’s chaotic laughter could be heard getting louder and louder. Multi colored Lights had begun to scatter more and more as the floating question boxes had begun to blink with colors towards the beat of the circus music. The blinking becoming increasingly more often as time went on.



.....



“Oh darling we could simply say that they sent in the yellow flash and we had to withdraw. Easy as that~” Hama shrugged. “We both know my team is superior to yours In every aspect. Alone, my team will crush yours and I can take what I want from your cold dead bodies and the jinchurki both. But I have a soft spot for you, and I feel benevolent today~”

Hama waggled a finger in the air, shaking her head in a scolding fashion. A chuckles escaped her crimson lips as she stared Kakashi down.

“Oh, and if your clone moves a muscle, the deal is off. K, Kakashi dearest?” Hama smirked. “What’ll it be?”


.........



Kai’s ice serpent reached Raiku’s position, it’s entire body riddled with coarse and spiked built to grind up anyone who dared touch the serpent. His howled, spinning it’s body like a turbine, drilling right towards Raiku. All the while Kai made a handsign, looking towards Tsuki.

“Release!”

The genjustu dissipated over Tsuki, the ice serpent butting into the battle to finish off the attacker.

“Foul Xeno filth, I remember you! A shining example of the corruption in all Xeno kind!”


......



“Now isn’t that strange....” Kidomaru scratched his chin.

“What?” Zaku looked his way. “Have you found somethin’ spider boy?”

“Not me, but he has.”

Kidomaru belt up a spider by it’s thread, his eyes mesmerized in it’s sway. Sakon crosses his arms at Kidomaru, having very little patience.

“Spit it out, what did you find?”

“A certain someone entering a waterfall. Can’t say if it’s the tailed beast or not, but it is the best lead we have had yet.”

“Then that’s where we’ll go. Good work Kidomaru.” Sakon nodded gesturing to the team. “Move out! Stealth approach.”

Kou gulped at the mention of going in the waterfall. He remembered the girl he met telling him that no one was going in there. He got nervous, sweating a bit about breaking a possible promise.

“H-hey, who’s to say that wasn’t a false lead? Right? I mean, spiders can lie-“

“Are you questioning me, boy?” Kidomaru turned his head eerily staring at him.

Kou immediately shut up with the pseudo Jounin addresses him. Kou looked side to side looking for a way out of the situation. Zaku sighed, coming between them.

“Don’t get your arms in a twist, we got work to do.” Zaku said, putting a hand on his hip. “Stealth approach, let’s go.”

 

[Mystic Zander]

Katsuo's face drained for a moment at the familiar sight of his parents heads sprouting from the grotesque form that used to resemble himself. Thankfully, was quickly forced back to reality when the water and fire jutsu collided. Without another moment of hesitation, the unerved water nin took one quick look at the huge cloud of steam forming, and knew he could use it to his advantage.
"Water Style! Water Clone Jutsu!" He yelled a bit anticlimactically as wisps of steam in the air began to condense down at take on solid forms, being just enough steam for two.
"Ready, break!" Katsuo joked as he and the two clones dove away from each other, forming a triangle around the two remaining Queens.

"Crystal Style: Crystal Encampment Walls!" Suddenly, every grounded member of team Iwa, including the clones, were shielded from the ferocious wave of wind ripping through the battlefield by a near impenetrable wall of dense moroon crystals, holding up surprisingly well against the attack.

"Here we go, super secret finishing move....Water Style! Fish Spit" All three Katsuo cast a small set of handsigns, before simultaneously firing a wide, low pressure jet of water from each of there mouths above the crystal shield formed by Guren. They flung there heads every which way, attempting to hit both remaining Queen's from every side with the....not so powerful attack. In truth, the water wouldn't do any damage, it was just hard to avoid, which is exactly what he was going for.

 

[Retro Master]

The Uchiha internally grinned when Tayuya acknowledged his presence. As expected, bringing up the cursed seal had increased his chances of success. He watched nonchalantly as she paused her training, took a sip of water, before turning to face him. Nonetheless, the scowl on her face along with the tone didn’t surprise him. Kiro simply shrugged before responding in his usual calm tone.

“You’re wrong if you think I expect help. I’ve gotten this far on my own. In fact, this is the first time I’ve been near someone with a similar ability as me that’s not an enemy. That’s the only reason I’m asking you.”

Kiro tried emphasizing the fact that they were on the same side. All the bickering between them boiled down to petty grudges they held against each other. Of course it would be impossible to forgive and forget. In the end, they were still both prisoners and their ties to the snake were undeniable. Speaking of the snake...

“Your basis for attempting to rescue me then was to please Orochimaru, correct? You failed then but you can still redeem yourself. I think your lord would be pleased to know that you had a hand in helping an important piece of his. What do you think?”

Of course Tayuya would probably question his loyalty next. He had no right to deny her that right considering his own past. All Kiro really needed was for her to believe he was leaning towards the Sound. Making it seem as if he were willing to master the seal should steer her in that direction.

“I know you think loyalty is nonexistent for me. That’s fine. However, what about you? Are you still loyal to Orochimaru or do you plan to spend the rest of your days here as a sl- prisoner?”

It was surprisingly difficult to not throw an insult in there. For all Kiro knew, that mistake could be his undoing. Hopefully not though.

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo
The smoke began to clear. The thunderbolt had been fired and Taiyo was trapped right in it. Or so it seemed. Fourtunately for the Fire-nin, he was still standing thanks to the chakra shield he held up.

"How..? I BLASTED YOU! YOU SHOULD BE KNOCKED OUT!" His opponent shouted in disbelief.

Smirking, Taiyo nonchalantly replied, "Two words. Chakra. Shields," He paused, almost as if he were contemplating something, "Now, time to finish this, Fire Release: Flashing Burst Style!" The red firey Aura surged around him, as he ran to meet his opponent in battle.

"I couldn't agree more, Lightning Release, Overdrive!" Seiun adopted a boost of speed to clash with Taiyo. The difference was, this time, as the FBS Master began running, it was more of a leap. Unbeknownst to him, chakra had exploded out of the pads of his foot, granting him a short boost in speed to outmatch Seiun's. The faux Kiri-nin took a knee to the chin, passing out as a result. The firey Aura died down and Taiyo began to cough up blood due to the poison cloud slowly taking effect.

We should leave him, who knows when he'll wake up and slit our throat.

We could do that, or...I could save him, I gotta leave here anyway, the poison

Suit yourself...

And so he did, Taiyo and Seiun, the latter being unconscious, began to walk back to Kakashi and Hama were.
Tsuki
A soft, warm smile appeared on Tsuki's face as Kai's ice serpent came over to finish Raiku. Of course, to show gratitude, the Yuki-nin decided to attack as well. She created a whip out of the ice stitchings and used it to violently whip against Raiku. There was no pleasure in the act, in fact, a part of Tsuki grimaced at the thought of fighting, but hey, just because Kai decided to join the fight, doesn't mean Tsuki should hold out on anything.

 

[SageNeb]

Raiku saw Kai coming with his ice serpent and quickly prepared a jutsu. He anticipated the ice serpent coming closer and closer and then...

POOF!
​

The ice serpent ran into nothing but a clone! Suddenly two Raikus appeared with a rope stretched out right in front of Kai and his ice serpent. They were going to try to get the ice serpent to run into the rope and then wrap it around the rope to capture it. There were also two bomb tags on the ends of the rope, which would the two Raikus would activate as soon as they captured the ice serpent, that is if they captured it.

Suddenly another jutsu appeared, from Tsuki. It looked like a sewing thread, but it was trying to whip Raiku. The real Raiku suddenly appeared as the barb at the end of the jutsu stuck to the tree he was previously on. He got on top of the thick sewing thread and began skating on it in a matter similar to slipping as it went down to Tsuki. He had spend a lot of time practicing to send chakra to his feet, however, and was able to balance himself as he went downhill. As he did so, he was doing hand seals in a rather swift matter.

"Fire Style: Pheonix Flower Jutsu!"

A volley of small fireballs erupted from Raiku and were heading straight towards Tsuki while she was controlling the ice stitching jutsu, in an attempt to assault her, each being controlled by his chakra and were moving in an unpredictable manner.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

As the Raiku clone had been destroyed, the ice serpent overshot, plowing through several trees and carving them up in the process. Upon the revelation that even more clones were inbound, Kai waved his hand into the air.

“Activate plan Beta IV!”

The serpent roared, arching its back, the several countless ice spines on it had them become projectiles, shooting out towards the clones In a skewering storm of ice. The needle squall ripped through everything in it’s path, hurling every possible way the clones would go. They were utterly surrounded.

Kai looked around, trying to find the real Raiku. Scanning across the treeline. He was alerted to where the real Raiku was by the ice stitching justu Tsuki preforming. Kai looked at the ice that Raiku was walking on and gave a wicked smile under his mask. He flashed a handsigns whilst his ice serpent attacked the clones.

“Hidden justu! Ice hold prison!”

Underneath Raiku, where all the ice he was walking upon was, reached out to grab him. The ice sprang up, fueled even more by the water underneath it. While he was performing his justu all the while, where he couldn’t make a counter justu. The ice came around him, most of it trying to be matched skin tight to him. His feet were easy, as he was already in touching with the ice. So the justu sprang yo from there, freezing over his feet and rushed to dress everything north of it!


......


The two queens were washed over with water from the Katsuo clone’s ganging up attack. However, they didn’t seem to take any damage. Queen Guren looked on, not seemingly able to replicate the crystal attack of her real life counterpart. Instead, she looked directly at Katsuo, who gotten them wet to begin with. Suddenly, she howled in techno like laughed as she sprouted two more pairs of arms, each one looking like every joint and bone was bent and broken.

Queen Guren lunged toward Katsuo, all of her arms flapping open to grab him. All the while, lightning style justu hand flung from each hand to zap Katsuo.

Queen Tomiko didn’t flinch with he attack, and continued to bombard Tomiko with her barrage of teeth spikes.

The mysterious boxes had begun to blink more and more. Every half a second now they would give a bright red blink. Previously it had been every two seconds. The intervals had become shorter so it would seem.

The joker card laughed louder and louder as the music’s tempo had become faster and faster. The Light’s Danced across the tent as quick as they could, and even the checkard tiled floor and begun to shift, switching between the red and black.

 

[kyuukestu]

Sagisō

Wooden branches thrummed, tender leafs falling to the forest floor beneath the caresses of fierce game which whipped through the canopy; within its cyclonic folds, streaking threads of black hair tailed behind the form of a young lady. Roiling fogs shrouded the tree trunks, the ephemeral blanket of mists parting ever so slightly before the girl's advance. The end of the forest was in sight, a clearing of thick clouds, the murmur of rushing water, the crackle of lighting, the shingle of ice shards...

None of it mattered to the girl, with a final vault she plunged into the clearing, the white pupils in her eyes shifting as they locked onto her raison de etre, her sister. The dirt crunched beneath her sandals, tanned toes clenching as her muscles tensed, slim calves and supple thighs moved in synchrony, imposing a vector of force that propelled the female's body across the ground. Seconds ticked to the patter of footsteps, and a handful of seconds, a melody of footsteps later, she came to a skidding halt.

Her arms flung out, wrapping around Furijia's body, fingers snaked through the younger girl's hair and down her back, scouring every inch of her body. While Furijia had been preparing a response for Kakashi, Sagisō's arrival and subsequent fussing cut her off before a single word could come out. The two sisters grew still, only the faint quiver of lips as Sagisō whispered sweet nothings and honeyed condolences, a promise of safety and words of guidance. Briefly attempting to crush her sister in a bear hug, Sagisō jumped to her feet, her eyes scanning the battlefield once more.

A frown hung on her lips, her eyes locking onto a duo of figures. She surged forth, intercepting Taiyo and Seiun en route. Her eyes held within them an air of lofty indifference, a trace of scorn and ruthlessness gleaming within her iris'. "What are you doing..?"

Hinagiku

It was almost concerning how boldly her enemies galavaunted all over, famcying themselves with some variety of invincibility. The Hyuga Matriarch watched in amusement, mirth in her eyes as she watched the titanic ice snake chase after Raiku, her feet dangling in the air from her leafy perch.

Her eyes glittered with the light of augury, a variety of scenarios playing out in her mind. While the opportunity presented before her was enticing, it wasn't quite worth her effort. It would be utter simplicity to capture the stray Yuki, the Yuki Prince at that, and simply return home to interrogate him. The wealth of information provided by him would most certainly surpass the Jinchuriki in value. A Jinchuriki did not make our break a great village, it was but a portion of their military might. However, the gross of information available to one of the village's noble clans? That, if fallen into enemy hands, could break a village. But, quite frankly, it wasn't worth the effort. The Mist didn't warrant such actions, their level of threat was disproportional to the amount of effort required to effectively carry out such a plan.

Apart from that, she wasn't quite sure if the Yuki prince matched up to her perceived value of him. Flaunting himself so openly in an area that was a warzone between all 5 shinobi villages... Perhaps he didn't actually know much. After all, she could imagine the Yuki would place their secrets within the mind of such a person and then allow him to deliver his head to the other villages so easily.

Well, regardless, she'd already decided against that course of action, so it was of little concequence. For now, she'd simply enjoy the show. While she was currently positioned on a different island, it was rather difficult to miss something 2 stories tall being erected on the horizon, especially her vision.

Yasu

Stepping into the makeshift boat, the Suna shinobi took a brief moment to adjust his balance, then turned to the team leader, Pakura, his eyes inquisitive, seeking her instruction on their next move.

 

[Mystic Zander]

Almost on queue, a water clone jumped at Queen Guren attempting to latch onto her body by whatever means possible. Naturally the water clones form would burst if successful, causing Guren to shock herself violently, he had to hope.

At the same moment, the final Katsuo and his clone both jumped through the air whilst casting a set of handsigns, the clone aiming for Guren, and Katsuo aiming for Queen Tomiko.

"Lightning Style! Tesla Burst!"
​

Both Katsuo's roared simultaneously, there bodies venting out large portions of yellow lightning style chakra in all directions.
Normally, an attack like this would do moderate damage, but when amplified....the effects are highly apparent.

"Crystal Style! Hexagonal Shuriken!"
​

Guren yelled from the back lines, forming two shimmering Shuriken that she launched one after the other, aiming to smash through the rows of boxes Absurd had hidden away in.
"Stop hiding, clown!"

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Queen Guren grinned madly as Katsuo seemed to spring an attack upon her. All of her fingers from all of her hands had shredded off, shooting to take the electricity for her. The wet fingers were zapped by the attack, all 30 fingers from her body had gone. She pressed the attack!

She appeared inches from Katsuo himself, as he had focused more on offense than he did defense. With her two of her six arms, which were stubs, she fired of elecrcuty at the water clones, zapping them the oblivion. With her other four stubs that were already close by Katsuo, she lurched her body and stretched her stomach and chest to coil around him, aiming to stab him with the elecrcuty fuled stubs she had as a remainder of her arms.

Guren’s attack had quickly sported consequences. For each’s wrong guess she had made, another trap had sprung from the boxes. And since she chose to attack several at once, a whole bombardment of traps has sprung. Paper bombs, kunai, shuriken, and sharp tacs had rained down from them. Not only that, but glass coals of poison, wind up toys, and spiked cards as well! She had summoned up massive resistance for her poor choices!

One of the traps was a kunai attaches to a spiced chain, which moved around to flank and wrap her immobile in hopes to keep her stable long enough for her body to become a life sized pincushion

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo
The Leaf-nin was caught off guard by Sagiso's sudden appearance. Staring blankly at her, he managed to cough up an answer.

"...Oh, saving my enemy, that and dying," Taiyo coughed up a pile of blood after saying that statement, "Mostly dying though, could I get some healing?" Putting down Seiun, the Leaf-nin sat down weakly, waiting for her response blankly.

She's gonna slap our shit and I'm not ready for it. Sagiso is one of the few people who actually scare me...

This is gonna suck.
Tsuki
At this point, the Yuki-nin decided to stay out of Kai's plan, unless she was called. Unlike him, she had no such thing as a Plan Beta, and so she decided to report back Hama-sensei and let Kai take care of Raiku.

"You seem to have things under control, I'll leave everything to you!" Tsuki told her teammate as she began to run back to her master.

 

[kyuukestu]

Sagisō

Traces of irritation crossed the girl's face; her eyebrows cocked, her eyes narrowing with a hint of disbelief, and her wrists setting themselves akimbo on her hips. Her tongue slide across her lips, wetting them as if in preparation to give the foolhardy a solid tongue lashing. Her annoyance was palpable, written in bold across the feature of her face. "You..." Her voice trembled, thrumming with vibrations like a high-tension wire, but that didn't last long, looking at the blank expression on Taiyo's face, she sighed. "Kindness to one's enemies can be cruelty to oneself...stay still, let's see if I can expel some of that poison."

Pulling off her gloves, she pressed her hands to Taiyo's chest, her fingers crawling across his body, her chakra passing through them with surgical precision -which wasn't far from the truth. She was no medical ninja, but she was also no quack. With precise manipulations of her chakra, she began to interfere with Taiyo's blood circulation and chakra network. The chakra network was closely intertwined with the blood vessels and many vital organs within the human body. Through her own machinations, she was enhancing Taiyo's chakra flow and blood circulation in certain directions, while restricting its flow in other directions. In this manner, she was able to guide the poison within his bloodstream allowing it to clump up in multiple locations within his body and preventing it from flowing into any of his vital organs.

With the poison under her control, and somewhat isolated, she flipped her hand over, whipping a senbon from the enclosing seals on her arms. Next, with caution she pricked the senbon into her patient, allowing his blood to flow and expelling some of the poison. She was blood-letting, a rather crude form of medical practice which allowed the release of toxins or harms from the body through expelling blood. It often wasn't very effective as the patient would then suffer from blood loss, but with the aid of the gentle fist and timely intervention, she was able to keep the poison more concentrated and thus reducing the volume of blood she needed to expel from Taiyo's body. It still wasn't the most effective method of healing the boy, but the amount of poison left in his system was likely something his immune system could deal with. He'd be a bit sickly, but he wouldn't be keeling over anytime soon.

Wiping the blood from her hands, she gave Taiyo a critical eye, "You really should start thinking further ahead, how could you not have an antidote to your own poison? Or at least have developed some form of immunity?" Konoha wasn't renown for their poisons, she could imagine that Taiyo hadn't had someone to guide him in his usage of poisons, and that had resulted in this blunder of his. She moved to massage her brow, but thought better of it, preferring not to get Taiyo's blood on her mask.

"Nevermind, head that way, there's no point in continuing on in your current direction."

She pointed towards the location of Furījia and Kakashi's clone, steering Taiyo off the path to Hama and Kakashi. "and let me help you with that" Leaning forward, she moved to seal Seiun's chakra points. She wouldn't expel his poison, but she wasn't heartless, she'd stagnate his blood flow to prevent the poison from spreading rapidly.

Hyōryūgetsu

Strolling through the Mist, a flowery smile on her lips, Hyō passed through the field of flowers, her liquid body contorting in ways that would crush the bones of a normal human to dust. In fact, to save time and effort, she simply allowed entire holes to open within her body, allowing the razor-sharp flower petals to pass right through her. She was, however, rather wary of Sakura's paper bomb. It wouldn't be a pretty sight if one of the flowers passing through her body were to suddenly explode. Hence, the Mist immediately around her had already begun to condense into water, providing her protection as well as a means of attack, whichever was needed to respond to her opponent's next move.

 

[SageNeb]

Suddenly Tsuki began leaving and stopped her jutsu, which caused Raiku to jump off the needle before kai's jutsu took place. He noticed Kai's big ice serpent in the air and stopped his Phoenix flower jutsu, then suddenly began moving them towards kai at fast speeds. He activated his sharingan to help him track Kai even better, basically causing the volley of fireballs to become homing missiles to hit Kai off and then finish him.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

“So your the Xeno that Tsuki had trouble with. Must say, I’m dissapointed in her.” Kai said to Raiku. “Your big talk earlier was nothing more than the mewling of a kitten it seems.”

Kai frowned as he saw the fireballs head his way. He didn’t seem concerned. In fact, he slid into the body of the ice serpent, melding with the ice entirely. His body dissapearing from view. The Phoenix flower justu hit the upper body of the serpent, doing small amounts of damage across the surface, melting some spines and spikes but not penetrating to the hull of the creature. Kai re-emerged on his mount, exiting the ice shelter he created.

“Greeners, always fire or dirt. Let’s see how you handle this then. Gamma VII!”

The serpent roared down at Raiku, swooping down at him. It dove in a circular pattern, carving a circle around him. He was surrounded by the spinning blades of the spines of the ice serpent. It carved around the earth in a circle formation, making the circle tighter and tighter around raiku, coming in to squeeze the kill like a closing blender

 

[SageNeb]

Raiku watched calmly as Kai yelled at him and shook his head.

Isn't this the same idiot that believed Kiro? Weirdo...

Raiku gave a sigh and watched as Kai's ice serpent began circling around him, with its spines closing in to stab him as it coiled around Raiku. He quickly performed hand seals in order to counter the jutsu.

"Fire Style: Scorching Vortex Jutsu!"

Suddenly a vortex of flames formed around Raiku spinning wildly as the flames danced and grew bigger towards the circling serpent to try and damage it more when it tried to squeeze Raiku.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Interesting play, but foolish. Flame takes a few seconds to come into prime effectiveness. Now that I’ve got him right where I want him, I won’t need to stay here.

“Turn to shreds!”

All of a sudden, the spinning serpent that had cooled and entrapped raiku’s position, wrapped tightly around his position like a tornado. Giving only a foot of moving space on either side. Spikes had taken up several feet in there to the point to where it was hard to move without touching several ice spikes. That’s when the serpent had begun moving, like a blender it shredded everything inside it’s Coil. The flames bit away at the serpent, several portions of it began to drip with water, made some segments become slightly thinner alongside dulling many spikes and blades. But a dull blade in a blender was still a blender nevertheless. Raiku was trapped

 

[SageNeb]

Raiku waited patiently for the serpent to melt, however it never did. He kept his Sharingan out and looked for the weakest point in the serpent that got melted the most as it kept getting closer. He found it and in a split second decision took out his sword, covered it with flames and slashed through the weakest point to escape out of the coil. However Raiku was not done there as he sent out another volley of Phoenix flower jutsu towards the now visible Kai, this time being able to reach their destination faster.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Kai growled as Raiku escaped his trap, the tail of the ice serpent being cut down. He flexed a few fingers, the ice serpent diving past Raiku, grabbing the tail in it’s mouth. It’s speed outpaced the Phoenix flower justu, long enough for the serpent to dive into the water. Kai, who was under water, ordered the serpent to drop the tail. He then bended the tail to it’s rightful position. He then ordered the serpent to poke Kai above water, leaving the rest of the serpent under water to regenerate.

“Hmph. Seems as though you’ve learned the way of the sword. A good offense. But is it a good defense?”

Kai took out six senbon from his pouch. With hunter nin accuracy, he sent the senbon in different directions toward his neck and wrists. A hunter nin’s Accuracy had been underestimated, nearly always hitting it’s mark

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo
At first Taiyo seemed rather nonchalant, but hey, the loss of blood makes you calmer. That immediately changed as Sagiso began to approach him.

"You..." The Leaf-nin was able to feel the tension in the word, causing his eyes to widen, but just as Sagiso's fury was short lived, so was Taiyo's fear.

"Kindness to one's enemies can be cruelty tooneself...stay still, let's see if I can expel some of that poison."

Oh, well that went better than I could have anticipated, phew...

Once he was healed, the FBS master began to stand up from his previous sitting position. Ignoring Sagiso's comment on a lack of an antidote, he headed over to where Furījia and the Kakashi clone were located. Once he reached there, he began to further examine the mist, someone had to be causing it, he just didn't know who.

"Hey, came here to help, how can I?" Taiyo casually waved to his allies.
Tsuki
The minute that she abandoned Kai, Tsuki began to feel bad about it, how could she just leave behind her ally, no, her friend, like some kind of coward.

I gotta go back! Even if I'm scared, no amount of fear justifies leaving behind a companion. But I can do that later, right now, I must make sure that Hama-sensei did what she had to do, which reminds me, what did we even come here for?

And so despite her emotions, the Yuki-nin continued her venture to her master, making sure she'd return to help Kai, assuming he still was fighting Raiku.

 

[kyuukestu]

Mei

"I suppose...it's about time..."

Rapping to an unassuming beat, nails clicking across her wooden desk, the reigning Mizukage idly passed time, awaiting...something. Time passed slowly; before long the door to her office opened with a click as Ao walked in. The Byakugan Killer bowed slightly, "When the flowers blossom, the bees will come." Ao spoke poetically, his words laced with hidden meaning. Quirking her lips upward into a smile, Mei quipped back, "Then how are the waters? Are they the brilliant blue of the Mist?" Silence descended. A dramatic pause for any unwanted eavesdroppers as the room grew thick with stillness. In a deeper, sharper tone, Ao's voice tore the silence asunder, "No, the waters are red, as red as blood."

As their little dialogue reach its conclusion, the two occupants of the room begun to chuckle. Spinning in her chair, turning her back to her right-hand man, Mei spoke cooly, "I'll leave it up to you, it's inconvenient for me to leave the Mist at this moment. You know what to do..."

A short while later, both Byakugan Killer Ao and the Fifth Mizukage departed the room, the latter heading into the village while the former obscured himself amongst the crowd of civilians.

Baiyan

"You've explained the 'What' of what you wish to do, but to what ends do you wish to reach? And more importantly, why I should join you."

While Azumi had explained her plans, she failed to state the end-result of this great coalition of minor villages. "Allow me to restate it, what happens after you've made buddy-buddy with all the minor villages?"

Koki'o

"I guess the show's coming to an end?"

Kicking her bare feet through the air, a lone Nadeshiko kunoichi saw herself seated at a bluff on Island Alpha. She had been watching with awe and amazement as the flying Ice apparition appeared in the sky only a few kilometers away. Whatever it was doing, the way it dove through the air, spun and flipped, performing cartwheels through the forest, were supremely amusing to the Crying Star. At one point the Icy serpent had moved to form a ring much like Ouroborus, the serpent biting its tail. It was a rather nifty trick, and the ring seemed to spin itself closer together, become a white ring the scintillated in the sunlight. Needless to say, the girl was impressed, and she'd given a round of applause to the dancing serpent. Now, it seemed as if the show was over, as the serpent dove downward and hadn't appeared again since.

Furījia

Having been interrupted by Sagisō's arrival before, Furījia had only now found time to comply with Kakashi's request. Activating her Byakugan, she took a quick scan of the battlefield, rattling off the locations of all the major players to Kakashi. She'd skipped out on the mention of Taiyo because not a moment after she'd finished, had the boy come walking through the Mist, toting on his back a Mist shinobi.

 

[SageNeb]

Raiku was wary as the ice serpent went past him and into the water and he kept his eyes out for any sudden movements. As he predicted Kai sent out another attack in the form of senbon. Due to his Sharingan he was able to predict where they were going and used his sword to deflect them. He decided not to allow Kai to follow up to quickly and bit his finger to draw out blood, then placed his hand on the ground.

"Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu!"

With a burst of smoke a certain crow appeared to help Raiku with his battle.

"Ramer! Listen we gotta take out this guy, so maybe we could evaporate the wat-"

"Wait... I have a better idea. Do the summoning jutsu again with more chakra this time!"

Raiku was confused on Ramer's plan but proceeded to do the summoning jutsu once more and spent more chakra than he normally did. Suddenly two more crows appeared, much bigger than Ramer, with one having grayish feathers and the other having brownish feathers.

"What the- Ramer what are we here for?" said the grayish feathered crow.

"Just use your jutsus on that water! Suck the water out of it or something. You got summoned didn't you, so help!"

The two crows made a sound similar to sighing and looked at Raiku to find out who their summoner was. However only after a small moment of observing the crows suddenly flew over to river. The grayish crow released a large amount of chakra in lightning form towards Kai and the river while the other brownish feathered crow caused the earth along the river on the Kai's left and right to grow higher to stop more water flowing.

What the- this is incredible! Two earth and lightning release natured crows?! How did Ramer know I could summon these guys?!

 

[Grand Master Koop]

At the end of the waterfall cave, Henshina heard Aisha state her 'intent'. "She doesn't seem like she's a threat Gyuki." She said to herself. "That's exactly what you said about some seemingly harmless guy last time, and how did that turn out?" Henshina sighed at her companion's words. "Alright I get it, I guess I'll stay quiet for now." She answered.

Over on island Alpha, Shura was leaning against a tree while standing on one of its braches observing the fights that went down on the island. "Hmm, it seems the mission is interrupted by this skirmish here." He thought to himself as he kept watching. "Quite the chaos we have here, is anyone still focused on our prime objective?" He added.

 

[DarkHydraT]

Mori was just about to slap an explosive tag onto the box above him as it exploded in some unholy hellfire made out of everything that was even remotely deadly. He tried to rebury himself as a paper bomb fell onto the ground next to him, exploding before he could react. His world went black as his ears were filled by a persistent ringing, by all looks of it he didn't survive the blast. Although he was still breathing, but he wouldn't be for much longer as Queen Tomiko's mud tears began to flow into his hole and weapons were still raining down on him.

As he felt a cold item fall upon his face, Mori opened his eyes. A shuriken was laying upon his face and he was almost getting touched by the mud. He quickly climbed out out the pit, but the world seemed different to him. The ground was no longer covered with checkered tiles, but was just earth and dirt. The lights and music were gone, the boxes had some kind of fuses on them, the queens had cards on their foreheads and the joker card had two flashing lights on it. Not to mention both Kings were gone, although Queen Tomiko surely made up for their loss appearance-wise. "Man, I hope that Tomiko doesn't take after her. Wouldn't make her much prettier, she looks nice enough already. I'd chose real Tomiko over her every day." Suddenly it felt as if a cold hand grabbed his heart as he felt his breath stop in his throat.

He spoke, he felt his lips move. He created the words in his mind yet he didn't hear himself speak. He couldn't hear the frantic music, he couldn't hear the battle raging on around him, he could not hear himself breathing. It felt like he was a ghost, seeing life continue without him. He stood there for what felt like an eternity, dazed and confused until a paper bomb exploded and the heat singed his skin. He was still alive, and by the looks of it he saw some things the others didn't. This was not time for self-pity or drama, this was a fight and their lives were at stake. If he was gonna die here, so be it. He knew no bigger honor than dying for your village, but that didn't mean he was just going to let Absurd kill his team. Mori put his forehead protector on his head, wound his scarf tighter around him and grinned. "For my parents, for my brethren, for my clan, for Iwa!" He shouted these silent words, but these words gave him courage regardless of his hearing.


"Earth Style: Mud Shot!" Mori shot out a large amount of mud over the boxes, attempting to put out the fuses on top of them and prevent them from blowing up, atleast that is what he thought that would happen without interfering. He looked around and saw Katsuo in serious danger of getting hurt by Queen Guren. "Earth Style: Rock Push Jutsu Spike mode!" A rock spike shot out of the ground below Queen Guren and attempted to impale her body whilst protecting Katsuo. "Always wanted to harm a superior." He thought with a grin as he turned towards Guren who was not exactly in the most preferable position. "Oh well. Earth Style: Dragon Totem jutsu!" Two rock pillars rose from the ground with dragon heads carved out of them. "I turn my back for one moment and it all goes to Hell. Amazing. Time to chomp down!" He rose his middle and index fingers, causing the dragon heads to lunge at the chain and bite down on it. "Hyah! Begone, you metallic menace!" Mori shouted as he made the dragon heads toss the chain into the sticky mud covering the boxes.

As the chain was gone, he sank onto a knee. He was not exactly kind to himself chakra wise was he? He needed to notify his team about his condition though, so he turned to Guren and began to speak without words. He pointed to his ears, made a cross with his arms and nodded. He then pointed at the joker card and held up four fingers. He pointed at himself, lowered a finger and did the same with Katsuo. He then pointed at Tomiko and Guren, assigning them to a finger. He made a fist from his hand, pointed at the joker card, made a stabbing motion with his tanto and nodded. Hoping that he did a good enough job at explaining the situation and avoided questions being asked verbally, he looked at the boxes. Those fuses didn't have much time left before he used Mud Shot on them, were they extinguished?

----------------------------------------------------

Taji didn't feel at ease in this cave, a jinchuriki was here and she had no idea where. She stuck close to Taji and growled in an attempt to sound tougher than she was. Come on girl, you made it here without getting in a fight. Just act normal and this mission is in the bag. Stay calm, forget that you're a human and let Aisha take control. If it goes wrong, Darui sensei is right here with you. Her thoughts went all over the place, yet she tried her best to not let her nervosity show.

 

[Godjacob]

"Simple. Once better relations and alliances have been made. We then seek to tip the inbalanced power scales of the ninja world. Throw the major nations into a state of chaos and self conflict. Through various means; sabotage, key assassinations whatever needed to ignite the fires of domestic and foreign conflict. Given that there is always tension among those superpowers, it would not take much to push them past that point." Azumi explained, though she'd address Baiyan's question which concerned why she should join.

"Because if you join, your people will have opportunity to have greater standing in the world. More power in the ninja world, more favorable trade benefits and influence in things. Greater opportunity for your people to flourish, for all our people to flourish." Azumi explained as she gave her initial case to Baiyan, though Azumi felt she had to strengthen her pitch even more.

"On top of that, opportunity for you to see and clash with ninja of foreign lands and improve yourself even more. Get to experience the full ninja world in our journey." Azumi added on, applying a personal reason of why it'd benefit Baiyan herself rather than just her nation in the event she had been more nomadic.

-----------
Tomiko frowned a bit, her satisfaction for having destroyed King Katsuo was quite short lived as her own replica launched an attack right for her. Teeth that were razor sharp upon even the most casual of glances, and fired from her mouth as if they had bee missiles. Tomiko acted quickly in response, as she made some hand signs in quick succession and slammed her palms to the ground.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall Jutsu!"
​

Tomiko formed another protective wall of the Earth and mud on the field ahead of her, one she used as a shield as the tooth missiles slammed into it. Naturally, the wall would not hold forever as the teeth would begin to dig through it. Tomiko needed to act quickly, and as the teeth dug through the wall more and more Tomiko flashed some hand signs behind it.

Crunch!
​

The teeth cut through the wall eventually and aimed for Tomiko herself....only for the Iwa-kunoichi to have disappeared, with only a lone hole in her place. As Tomiko dug a tunnel and used it to manuver herself under and behind her duplicate as she jumped out as she aimed to deliver a running shoulder tackle to its back while "she" had been unaware; with her shoulder and forearm having produced elongated spikes to help deliver what she hoped would be a punishing blow.

-----------
Madoka saw both Pakura and Yasu get on her modified Raven, and with a couple flickers of her chakra threads she managed to flap its wings as soon Raven took off in the air as it carried the trio to the island where the Jinchuriki had been presumed to be. Though some mist and explosions on a nearby island had drawn their attention Pakura kept them focused on the task at hand. Even if she had been mindful of it.

"My my, seems to be some excitement over there." Pakura commented on, keeping that location memorized. If the Jinchuriki had not been on their island they flew towards, she'd lead them there to search that next. If a couple other search teams battled each other then that simply meant they had in theory less competition.

----------
There seemed to be no response yet, as the Jinchuriki chose to hide herself here. Still she had still been in the cave, Sky & Luna could sniff that much as Kenji took note that Taji seemed on edge with that growl.

"Easy girl, easy." Aisha said as she assumed "pack leader" mode and decided if the Jinchuriki was not gonna come out, she needed to show the Jinchuriki who had to be watching them that she had meant her intent. As such, she scanned the cave and let out a sigh.

"Well, if anyone was here they seem gone. Think this cave will be good for rest, we should probably find some stuff here to make a fire." Aisha said to herself, quiet but loud enough for the listening ears of the Jinchuriki to overhear. Wherever she was, to give the impression she was not dangerous as she turned to her pack.

"Alright guys, stay close to each other. Let's find some stuff to make a fire. Sticks, straw and anything you can find pile up." Aisha said to her pack as the "owner" to her pack as Sky & Luna took to it to heart as they and Darui began to scan; Darui mindful to keep his senses sharp.

Kenji gave a reassuring nod to Taji as they scanned with the other wolves while Aisha also scouted for their seemingly innocent task.

-----------
Kakashi raised a lone eyebrow as Hama began to make her bold claim of her team's superiority. As well as her general attitude as she offered her "gracious" compromise.

"I see. Have much faith in your team, I can see that. But are you so certain this engagement is worth the risk of losing some of your own? Seems like a bold stroke, you may know what I am capable of but less so on my team. Are you so certain this is the only way we can talk of a compromise for this blood donation?" Kakashi asked, as Hama seemed quite confident and sure of herself. Well, if she had been prepared to overlook her team and certain other factors well that had been her business. But Kakashi had been curious if this concern even registered in Hama's mind.

-----​

Sakura was cautious, the tension felt in the thick mist as she scanned the area around her. Her clover field seemed to elicit no noticeable sounds which had Sakura guess that the Mist ninja had found a way to neutralize it.

Her opponent gave off the aura of some sort of serial killer, which given Kakashi's lecture of the technique seemed to be more fitting a comparison than she initially thought. Irregardless, if her opponent aimed to use limited visibility as weapon then she'd respond fire with fire as she made some hand signs and uttered a jutsu with the faintest of whispers.

"Ninja Art: Hollow Whisper...."
​

With a sudden guest of wind, Sakura seemed to vanish out of thin air before Hyo would have had the chance to close in on the pink hair kunoichi. Her clovers fell to the ground as there seemed to be no trace of the konoha kunoichi; no visual, no sound nothing. Least, not till a faint whisper from what appeared to be somewhere in the mist had been heard though it projected all around the immediate area that carried a massage directed at Hyo.

"If you think you can scare me, with this mist....with your mannerisms, then you picked the wrong ninja to fight."
​

-----------
"No idea, but this mission seems to have taken a turn to the shitshow quite quickly." Tayuya replied with her arms folded over her chest as she observed the battle ahead.

"You know, I thought our team was supposed to get into fights. Seems others are beating us to the punch, you think it's Kakashi's team?" Takato asked Tayuya & Shura as Sagiso seemed to have gone off on her own.

​

-----------

Flashback
​

Tayuya listened to Kiro as he made his request, and more importantly addressed each of her "counter points" in succession as if he had a mantle list prepared of what she'd possibly say back to him. Though his comments about her having "failed" and also being a "slave" naturally stung as evident by her scowl she had shown just enough restraint to allow Kiro to point out his arguments as she took a deep breath before she looked him in the eye with a hard glare.

"A privileged piece of shit like you has no right to talk oh so high and mighty. On your own? Fucking please. It's only because of those damn eyes you accomplished anything of worth; the only reason your Mizukage or Orochimaru see value in you who are the ones who made you what you are. Save the melodramatic crap about us being kindred spirits cause we bear the mark. I embrace the mark and its contract while you've done nothing but spit on it like the ungrateful shit you are. And fail? My "failure" was only because you decided to sit on your ass and do nothing while that Zaku bitched out. Not through any fault of my own, yet I don't see you holding accountability there. I let down Lord Orochimaru, but you also didn't even act for him and pretended to be the poor innocent victim to save face." Tayuya replied, before she developed a small smirk on top of her scowl.

"You asked me to help you to prove my loyalty to Orochimaru. Because you are so "valuable" to him right? Let me educate you on something, you are just a Uchiha he decided to pick. There are plenty more out there he could select when word of your treachery reaches his ears. You are nothing special, despite being treated as a precious snowflake by everyone you met and betrayed anyway. Why would he risk so much for a "prize" who already sold out to save his own skin when he could just find another to claim in your place; maybe that Raizu fuck or someone else." Tayuya said with a mispronunciation of Raiku's name given she didn't know or care to know him. Or perhaps was bitter in his claim he killed Jirobo. Either way she wanted to highlight that Kiro had less leverage than he believed and could be viewed as expendable rather than one of prized value.

"You are the one with something you need to prove here, not me. I see no reason or benefit to helping you cause you dance around the most important question. You speak as if we are on the same side, as if just having that mark indeed makes you one of us. News flash, that Jonin bitch here also has one and I can tell you she ain't an ally. Give me one, one fucking reason to consider you someone who is still on our side. Prove your loyalty for once in your life to somebody to give me incentive to see helping your mark grow as mutual benefit to Lord Orochimaru rather than just giving a boost to a possible enemy." Tayuya countered, as she made her requirement in theory very simple but it seemed she needed to be convinced of their mutual ties as she seemed to question them or the "rock solid" connection to Orochimaru.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Mud poured over the blinking boxes, their sudden flashing had been quelled. The fuses had now appeared cutting into the genjustu now that Mori has brought them to light. The boxes’s elaborate color scheme was tarnished by the mud asnit clogged up their colors

“Earth Style: Rock Push Jutsu Spike mode!"

Queen Guren was shocking herself just to get a lethal blow on Katsuo, Inching in for the kill when the rock block swept in and Decapatated Queen Guren, the card in her for head smashing to ribbons. Her body de-materialized, leaving only her crown to fall down to the ground. A swift end to Katuso’s Problem.

Queen Tomiko grinned like a monster as Tomiko’s rock wall shattered apart. She aimed for the killing blow when she came to a revelation: no one was on the other side. She was confused, scanning around for her real counterpart when a fist connected to her back. Her snake like exterior was throne across the room, landing in the sticky mud along it. That was when she realized: she was right in front of the boxes.

The traps guren hadn’t sprung had showered over Tomiko. Spikes, daggers, twist tie swords, axes, and much more flung into queen Tomiko. She screamed as her body shattered into nothingness, only her crown remaining amongst the scattered debris.

It didn’t stop there, the kunai attached to the chain was thrown by Mori, flinging into each and every one of the boxes, breaking them all apart! The mud stopped the traps from being sprung, leaving all the boxes to collapse into the muddy rubble. One this was for certain: no one was in any of them.

The joker card had lit up with all four lights, brimming with energy as the last queens were defeated. Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out.

“Ah-ha-ahhh! The heroes save the day by stopping all the evil-doers, stopping all the traps and helping each other stomp the powers of evil! Ah it’s such a heartwarming clichè that never grows old through the passage of time!”

Absurd appeared, rippling through the ground, hovering up in front of the joker card. He gave a mad smile, gazing down at his actors.

“But every story must have it’s end, and this is it...!!! Prepare!”

The glowing card rotated erratically, lights shimmer all around it as the music picked up, louder and louder, faster and faster! Suddenly the music stopped and the lights all focused on the card as it exploded into heaps of multi colored confetti, Absurd striking a pose in front of it.

“The end!” Absurd laughed as the joker card had become heaps of confetti. “Well done well done my magnificent actors! A dazzling preformance, you truly are professionals! Ah-ha!”

The genjustu seemed to have shattered around them as the floor had begun to rise as well, clicking into standard ground levels around the tent. Absurd’s laughter echoed throughout the tent as confetti trickled down towards the cast of unwilling actors and actresses.




........



Kai was surpised by this maneuver of Raiku’s. He hadn’t expected summons to be something the boy would be capable of. He’s spawning more hostile Xeno Scum. This mustn’t be tolerated...!

Thinking quick, he grabbed an ice spine from the ice serpent, transforming it into an ice shield and crouched behind it. The lightning zapped away at the shield, Kai flinching as even then he felt some of the after shocks course through him. He sighed, tossing the shield back into the ice serpent. He wastvged as the earth crow effectively cut a substantial amount of flowing water.

“Hm. Cutting off my supply of material. Clever...but can’t you see your outclassed?”

Suddenly, the ice serpent sprang up into the sky, soaring into the clouds. It wove in the sky like a needle in a quilt, before hurtling down towards Raiku.

“Zeta II!!”

The ice serpent gunned directly for Raiku, it’s ice spikes rotating before showering his entire position with 1 foot long ice spikes. Bushes were mauled into dust and rocks were pulverized. A large dust cloud had surfaced as he finished his move.

 

[SageNeb]

Raiku observed suspiciously to how Kai would react to the attack, with his crows doing the same. Suddenly the ice serpent flew into the air at astonishing speeds, only to come back and shower Raiku and nearby objects with dangerous ice spikes. Before Raiku could react, the sky was blocked from his sight by rocks as a large earth dome 3 feet thick formed around him and Ramer, protecting them from the ice shower. It was made by the crow with the brownish feathers with its own chakra and was kept holding until the attack finished. Then the stone the dome was made out of headed back to the ground as if the jutsu never occurred.

Raiku observed his surroundings to find the grayish and brownish feathered crows gone and the area around him missing any signs of previous objects. Raiku suddenly felt that his chakra levels decreased a large amount.

Did one of the crows cause that jutsu to protect me? Maybe that’s why I feel as if I used a lot of chakra and that they’re gone... I didn’t have enough chakra to support them for much longer. Well... they just saved my life.

He turned to Ramer to find him still there with an expression as shocked as Raiku himself was. Then he waited for the dust cloud to clear to see if Kai had anything else up his sleeve after that powerful attack as Raiku kept his guard up.

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo
Not even going to suggest anything? That's fine...I'll find my own way to help out.

Eh Kakashi gets a pass, but Im not giving one to Furījia, maybe we should have found someone different to go with us...

That's not really fair to Furījia, I'm sure she's doing her best, even of we havent seen it yet, now if youll excuse me, I got some Mist ninja to fight.

Leaving his internal debate, Taiyo began his search for other opponents, after getting treatment from Sagiso, he was ready to go, in fact, his firey passion was strengthened to send put the Kiri-nin in their places and send them packing. And it wasn't long before he found out how either, since Sakura was kinda standing there just waiting to be intercepted for help. He was stealthy in his approach, playfully sneaking up on Sakura to get her attention.

"Sup, seems like you could use a little help, and since I don't got anything better to do, want me to help you?" Despite the suggestive nature he was implying, the Leaf-nin already took a fighting stance against Hyo.
Seiun
The ex-rouge groggily stood up from his resting position. Rubbing his eyes, he turned to Sagiso, clearly confused and disoriented.

Ugh...what happened?

In time however, the memories came rushing back to him, the monotonous rush trades, the poison cloud, the firery aura and the knee to the face.

Oh yeah...that guy beat me up! Well, Hama-sensei won't take that well, plus I'm pretty sure this Hyūga did something to me, so I really think that there is only one proper course of action.

Seiun stretched his legs, not fully aware that the poison was slowed as well as his chakra points being sealed and promptly made his attempt at his retreat. It wasn't until then that Seiun realized that whatever the Kohana-nin had done to him, it caused his movements to be more sluggish than usual.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

“Losing my own? Kakashi darling, I never painted you as the naive type.” Hama gave a smirk with her red lips. “Teams are numbers, statistics. They either succeed or fail. If my team fails against yours, then we would have just weeded out the weak to make room for the strong. No one has survived my harsh training before except these three cadets. They are the cream of the crop. Your team? They are the leftovers, simple as that.”

Hama stepped forwards aggressively toward Kakashi, taking a bold stance.

“I am more confident in my team taking out yours than trees being in the leaf village. Now this begs the question: are you confident in your team? Make your decision now. And think of your mission, isn’t that what the yellow flash would say, hm?”

Hama toyed around with Kakashi, riveling in the opportunity to prove him wrong and solidify her position. She looked him directly in the eye, not a fear on her face.



........



Solid rock? These crows can’t keep up with this chakra usage for their tiny bodies. If I had to hazard a guess, they would be out already.

As the rock crumbled after his bombardment had finished, he didn’t even wait for the dust to clear. He dove the ice serpent in, using the dust to hide his position and obscure the Sharingan from detecting him ahead of time. The ice serpent swooped it’s back tail across raiku’s position like a baseball bat, whacking anything that was left standing. A surprise attack amidst confusion

 

[SageNeb]

Before Raiku could get hit the serpent’s backtail, he was thrown into the air by a gust of wind from Ramer, and quickly dug his sword into the ice serpent’s end of the back tail, and stuck it to the ground.

Maybe I can climb on it and-

Before Raiku could follow up, someone else did. The earth near Raiku began covering the serpent in small but strong earthen cages along its long body in an attempt to immobilize it. More and more cages appeared rather quickly as it reached the middle of the serpent in a few seconds then the cages began appearing even more further along nearly reaching the place where Kai was mounted. High in the sky a large lightning formed and caused a loud thunder as it tried to strike the head of the serpent where Kai was mounted and pulverize it.

B-but aren’t the other crows gone?!

 

[Retro Master]

Kiro wanted to strangle Tayuya right then and there after hearing only the first sentence that came out of her mouth. The Uchiha’s fists trembled with rage by his side as he did his best to listen calmly.

“A privileged piece of shit like you has no right to talk oh so high and mighty.”

Privileged? Having the sharingan in a foreign village that only aimed to use his eyes for their own use was a privilege? That very privilege being the reason why his father, mother, sensei, classmates and even-

“On your own? Fucking please. It's only because of those damn eyes you accomplished anything of worth; the only reason your Mizukage or Orochimaru see value in you.”

Kiro had heard that one so many times it was almost laughable. Of course the sharingan was the only reason his life was worth anything. He had been taught that since he was a child. Uchiha this, sharingan that. That’s literally all they cared about.

“My ‘failure’ was only because you decided to sit on your ass and do nothing.“

So apparently retaliating in a two against ten scenerio would’ve been the wiser decision. In that case, Tayuya was a hidden gem amongst the Sound. A genius. Why hadn’t he thought about that himself. They couldn’t be captured if they were already dead.

“You asked me to help you to prove my loyalty to Orochimaru. Because you are so "valuable" to him right?“

Even after asking the woman a direct question, she somehow spins it on him. There was no use in even trying at this point.

“Let me educate you on something, you are just a Uchiha he decided to pick. There are plenty more out there he could select when word of your treachery reaches his ears.”

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

’So that’s how it is. Alright fine. I’ll make sure that snake never lays a finger on another Uchiha.’

He was being dead serious. If Kiro had to kill the entire clan to stop the snake, then he would.

“You are nothing special, despite being treated as a precious snowflake by everyone you met and betrayed anyway.”

This was the truest statement of them all.

He didn’t want to be anyone special. If Kiro was a regular shinobi without the sharingan, even a civilian, he would’ve been free from enduring all the hell he had witnessed.

Everyone Kiro met, he either killed or betrayed. There was actually no in between. It was cruel and really wasn’t helping his current situation. Unfortunately, it was just in his nature to push those that cared for him away. Atleast then they’d be safe.

Why couldn’t he just roam the world and do as he pleased? If Kiro had the power, no one would even dare to interfere with his peace. No loyalties to any village or anyone for that matter. Just living and fighting. True freedom.

...

A moment of silence went by after Tayuya finished her rant. She looked proud of herself. Pleased at the fact that she had exposed each and every one of his wrongdoings. Tayuya was a creature, sent from the same place as that demon to condemn his soul. That was her only purpose of being in this plane.

Letting out a sigh, Kiro loosened his fists before pocketing them. There was no use in arguing with Tayuya. With a cool head along with a neutral tone, Kiro finally spoke.

“I’m not even going to respond to all of that. However, I will comment on your last statement.”

“Prove your loyalty for once in your life to somebody to give me incentive to see helping your mark grow as mutual benefit to Lord Orochimaru rather than just giving aboost to a possible enemy."

“Theoretically, the more I use the seal, there is a higher chance that I would fall under Orochimaru’s control. The cursed seal is supposed to corrupt the users mentality and make them more susceptible to the snake’s will. I really don’t know what better way to prove my loyalty than literally surrendering my mind.”

He was careful not to speak too loud considering they were in public, probably being watched by some Hyūga nearby.

 

[Mystic Zander]

Katsuo inhaled quickly through his teeth as Guren's limbs ignited with harsh lightning chakra.
"Hey, that was supposed to be my little surprise...." He muttered as the doppelganger charged him, only for a large spike to impale the double a few shirt feet from the boy, not even giving him time to react.
"Mori, thanks." He mumbled, taking note of his rather dazed friend whilst taking large leaps backwards to put some distance between he and the show.

In an instant, Guren was at Mori's side, an apologetic look on her face as she abruptly firced the boys head into a tilted position, peering down into his ear canal.
"Your ears should be fine, but I don't suggest trying that again. If my Shuriken had blown anymore boxes....you'd be dead." She mouthed in an over exaggerated fashion so Mori would understand.
"Now get back." She added aloud, turning her attention towards Absurb with a look of pure venom. One of the crystal Shuriken she had been using lay flat on the ground behind the entire group, Absurd as well.
"I dont know who you are think you are, so ill inform you that your nothing more than a menace and a real pain in my ass. But you are correct about one thing...this is the end!" She roared, flicking her left pointer finger around her body in an arching sweep. An invisible thread ripped the Shuriken from the earth and sent it hurdling towards the joker card, but its real target was passed that, the back of Absurds head, and boy....the shot couldn't have been cleaner.

In the distance, Katsuo was visible standing in plain sight with his eyes closed and his fingers intertwined into the most basic of hand signs.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Absurd game a big grin, flipping himself upside down in the air, hits floating there upside down. The shuriken narrowly passing him by his neck, knocking a few hairs. He giggled like a kid, kicking aborning he air, still suspended even though the genjustu had been lifted.

“Selfish selfish my dear actress! One must be careful not to hog the stage, for that, you forfeit your prize.” Absurd waggled a finger, still upside down. “As for the rest of the cast! Well done! You all get two prizes! Let’s start with the first prize for all of you, all three of you get one question: any at all, and I will answer it. Ah-ha-Ha! Aren’t I a generous host?”

He held his sides as he laughed, kicking about in the air before adjusting himself, throwing his cape back into position, staring down with baited breath towards his guest stars

 

[DarkHydraT]

Mori just nodded as bits of rock fell from his hands and head, he was not willing to argue with Lady Guren in this state. He shouldn't have been so careless with chakra, true, but his loss of hearing was not his fault. If it wasn't for the Rock Armor he put on when seeing Sagiso, he would have been in a worse state as most of the force was taken by the armor. He couldn't keep up the armor anymore and could barely stand, although he was more than capable to react to Absurd's finish. "WHAT?! We went through all that for some confetti? What is this dude's reason to fight us?" He didn't say anything, but his face clearly showed that he was fed up.

As Absurd began to talk, he narrowed his eyes to read his lips but couldn't quite read it due to Absurd being upside down. He picked up 'selfish', 'prize' and 'generous', but that was not nearly enough to figure out what he just said. He leaned on a tree and motioned for everyone of his team to get near before grabbing his notepad and began to write. "I probably have a ruptured eardrum or something due to a paper bomb going off next to my ear, so I'll communicate like this. What did this clown just say? I picked up a few words, but not nearly enough. I'll try to speak in make-shift sign language as talking won't work for me, sorry for the inconvenience." Mori sighed, this mission was not exactly off to a great start. Not even a day on these islands and already there was a wounded team member.

--------------------------------

Taji relaxed somewhat as Aisha told her to calm down, which was surprising to Taji as she couldn't relax nearly as easily when anyone else said that including herself. She thought about it for a while whilst looking for twigs and the likes, after all she had to keep up appearances. Why do I relax when Aisha tells me to but not when others or I do? Is it because she has some pack leader skills and I am a wolf now, or is it something else? She was so deep in thought that she nearly missed Kenji's nod and nodded back, ever so slightly. During the gathering of twigs and other burnable stuff, she kept her mind busy by thinking about the physical appearance of her team mates and possible combination attacks. She spent more time on Aisha than the others but she just waved it away, blaming it on the fact that Aisha calmed her down.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Absurd giggled, looking down to Mori, who seemed to have hearing issues. With a snap of a finger, he drew a card from behind his back. Another snap of his fingers and a puff a smoke later, a pen had appeared. He threw it down right at Mori’s feet. The card upon closer inspection read this inscription:

“Ah-ha! Some say your a man, some say your a mole, to me? You’ve climbed right out of my trap hole! For that, you get a prize so take heed: A Question of any kind, on me! Ha-ah!”

With that, the pen had appeared next to the card as there was a space to write down Mori’s question. Absurd awaited anxiously for Mori’s response, seemingly most eager of all to hear his question.


........


The earth prisons seemed to nearly stable the serpent down to the ground. It roared, unable to get up due to the sheer amount of segments that were pinned down. Kai was shocked such a justu came from raiku’s arsenal, but not nearly as shocked as he would be were that lightning bolt were to hit him. But first things first...

“Break! Alpha-Epsilon XII!!”

Suddenly, the segments that were pinned down by the earth stakes were disconnected from the serpent as a hold, like a train and carts. Kai winced as he did so. While he can get ice and water from any nearby source easily, he couldn’t replenish the chakra from those segments, meaning he wouldn’t get those parts back in this fight

With the deferments detached, the serpent re-tied the remaining segments, with the serpent standing at a 30 feet tall instead of 40, 25% of it’s body mass being destroyed in that one attack. It made the hunter nin sweat. He looked up at the lightning crow, growling at it.

“Ice dome Justu!”

He had no choice but to use a justu to defend himself, as if he went inside the water dragon for protection, the lightning would still shoot into him. The ice barrier refracted the lighting, dispersing it before it could hit him. That’s when he got a confident smile. Counterattack time.

The ice serpent looked at Raiku, staring him down before he flew down towards him, slamming on the ground. The serpent spread out it’s long body to the full 30 feet. In order to encumpace almost ways if kovemnt Raiku could go, the ice serpent began to roll it’s meat grinder like body over towards Raiku, crushing logs and every type of debris in it’s wake. It would aim to steamroll right over Raiku

 

[Mystic Zander]

Guren sneered at Absurds continuous annoyance whilst clasping onto the high speed Shuriken with ease, not caring much about the questions he had offered and then denied.
"Does as you wish, but make it quick. We don't have time for this act." She replied in a gruff tone, starring at Tomiko and Mori. This man was a child, his mind clearly diluted, it was a waste to argue further.

Upon hearing of the opportunity to question Absurd, Katsuo's eyes fluttered open. With a small smirk, he crouched down, kicking off several feet high in the air to once again clear the gap between he and his teammates. He landed with a quiet thud right between Guren and Tomiko, showing the return of his vitality.
"Okay, you clearly didn't attack us for no reason. Tell me who wanted what from which one of us?" Katsuo spoke confidently, attempting to sqeaze two answers out of one question, knowing he may need to be specific. Treat em' like a Djinn in a lamp so he can't screw you over.

 

[Godjacob]

Tomiko, still in her Terra Armor, saw the motion of Mori as he called for them to come to the tree he seemed to have produced as she skipped over to them while Absurd had gone on his deranged monologue as she glanced at the paper her wrote as her eyes widened.

Mori was deaf! Or at least, partially, she wished she had a way to help but at this stage she only knew how to use Rejuvination on herself. Said technique she subtly cast while Absurd made his "offer" known to them. As Tomiko healed herself from the heat damage of Queen Guren's flames and replenish her chakra she glanced over to Mori to rely the information to him.

"Well, it seems this guy wants us to ask him one question each." Tomiko explained to Mori before she glanced over to Absurd. Unsure of what question she should ask, or rather if a question needed to be asked and she should simply attack? Irregardless, one thing was clear and that was whatever this guy wanted out of this could only end poorly. Not helped as Absurd seemed to have sense Mori's weakness and had sent him a paper which seemed to write out what Tomiko relayed to him.

But, Tomiko had to consider that they had an advantage. This guy had to have burned up major chakra during this battle, and while Katsuo and Mori had probably been worse for ware with her Rejuvination working its natural magic she'd be essentially back to 100% and Guren had likely exhausted little so far. So they still had a good leg to stand on, but for now they needed to address this question and try to find a way around his intent with it.

But then Katsuo asked his double question. A smart tactic, showed Katsuo was quick thinking on top of being skilled as she turned and waited to see how Absurd would answer.

------------
Darui and Kenji began to gather a pile with Sky & Luna as Aisha seemed to set up camp within the cave. To the Jinchuriki who observed them, which Aisha knew was still in the cave as she sent was still fresh within, would think that she and her pack had indeed just been a rogue group that meant no harm. Aisha had a grin as she seemed pleased with the convincing display.

"Alright, good work guys." Aisha said, as she pulled a pair of rocks and began to work on a fire while Darui kept subtle glances at the cave entrance in wolf form. Just on the off chance there might have been someone else approaching or at the cave; not that Aisha or her wolves had detected anything.

-----------
As Pakura's team flew on the back of Madoka's puppet, the sounds of conflict on the island behind them and the one just next to them had been made clear which drew Madoka's natural curiosity.

"Man, seems the battle has expanded." Madoka said aloud, as Pakura had her own thoughts on the matter. Given she had seen Hinagiku here, that likely meant it had been her team involved in the conflicts. Their aim here was to get a Jinchuriki, not help out people in their own struggles....but Konoha and Suna were allies and if they lent a hand to them then that would possibly open the door to an alliance among their teams which would in theory strengthen their odds.

Pakura formed an idea in their head, as they passed over the island where Raiku had been locked in battle with Kai; further away at quite the safe distance and out of their view.

----------
Sakura had been hidden well by her Genjutsu illusion, and maneuvered herself away & around Hyo but before she had time to act upon it Taiyo seemed to appear out of nowhere as he spoke to her which nearly startled Sakura.

What is he doing here, now of all times!?
I don't know, but I need to salvage this now.

Sakura made a whisper motion with her finger, before she made some hand signs and expanded her Whisper Genjutsu to Taiyo so that his body would similarly "vanish" though Sakura had not expected to have to use this technique to cover more than just herself. Tricky, but Sakura's chakra control served her well in this regard. Sakura then glanced over to Taiyo as she proceeded to communicate with lip speaking.

"Nice timing. Just, try not to be so casual about entering a battle in process right now, could have been bad for me. Either way, I have an idea since you are here. We need to deal with this Mist and her. Raiku is in need of help and we need to regroup." Sakura advised, as the Mist had been Hyo's greatest protection and without it it would have allowed herself and Taiyo a far easier time or better opportunity.

With a gesture of her hand, Sakura acted on a spur of the moment idea, as she gave Taiyo the motion for a Fire Release technique. Sakura figured the best way to deal with the Mist was to use the powerful force of the warm fire to blow it away from the area and from what Sakura had seen Taiyo seemed to have the needed firepower.

------
If my team fails against yours, then we would have just weeded out the weak to make room for the strong.

Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum.
​

As Hama made her clarification to Kakashi in regards to her team and their role as "statistics" as well as her casual dismissal of her concern over her team with this Darwinist view. Granted, this ideology had been common among ninja as ninja were tools as an extension of their village or more specifically the Feudal Lords. Kakashi himself had similar views to Hama and he could not fault her for it.

But Obito....he had a way to influence people. And he could not help but think of that quote in this time when Hama made her comments. With his usual composure, and inexpressive facial language he glanced at Hama before he spoke up.

"Would it not be a case of naivety to blindly assume your team can handle an enemy unit you've never seen in direct action? Or even this sudden jump into a situation you might not know all the details on. Seems like a reckless endeavor, both to your team but perhaps more importantly for you Lady Hama this little mission of yours." Kakashi countered back to the Kiri-Jonin and Yuki heir.

-----------

Flashback
​

Tayuya watched, curious what bullshit excuses Kiro would have spatted about her points though to her "surprise" it appeared Kiro dodged her questions minus the very last one. Figured she thought to herself, he had been a natural side-stepper to this point though none the less she listened to Kiro as he explained his reasoning.

"That's your reasoning? You expect me to go to such trouble based off that alone?" Tayuya asked back, while she had no doubt of the power of the mark she still seemed apprehensive of helping Kiro at any capacity. Still perhaps she can use her knowledge and his need for her knowledge to her benefit...


"Tell me something, if you do desire my help, what is your aim with all this? I know you are prissy about the Uchiha over something but I need to know why you desire the mark and what your end goal is with all this? If you want my help to unlock secrets of this mark, then a little trust here is required." Tayuya asked as she was curious what she could fish out of this guy. If she could get a sense of his motives, that would tell Tayuya more about his trust capacity more so than any "bullshit" he would say as a justification for her to teach him.

 

[SageNeb]

Raiku watched as Kai blocked the incoming lightning attack and then started trying to steamroll him with the ice serpent. He began doing hand seals and then placed his hand on the ground. Suddenly a burst of high flames erupted from the ground, though there were no cracks to indicate it's source. The flames were closely next to each other horizontally, each reaching multiple feet high.

"Fire Style: Rising Flame Wall!"

The flames were all at very hot temperatures, enough to melt rocks. Raiku once more did hand seals, though to normal viewers of him it'd look as the hand seals didn't do anything. Raiku took out bomb tag which suddenly disappeared. Then he noticed the brownish feathered crow wasn't here anymore, and this time he felt that it was for certain, unlike previously.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Absurd crossed his legs in mid air, seeming to float as if he were laying back on an invisible couch. His right arm rested behind his head while his left arm Pointed at the crew. At Katsuo’s double question, Katsuo giggled to himself, balancing a card on his shoe.

“Ah-ha! Very well then! I was employed by the great snake himself as an assasain of a special kind! My services as a preformer were needed to test you, Katsuo! I hear the old man has caught himself quite of an interest in you, oh-ho-ho!”

He changed his position in the air, to where he seemed to be laying stomach down, his hands propped under his chin. He winked at Katsuo.

“An Ikeda like his father, he said. Ah if only I met the man myself, then perhaps he would have given an excellent performance as well!”

He let the answer weigh in the air, Katsuo’s question cashed in, with two renaming from the other members of the team.



.......


Reaver growled, looking at the wrecked room around him from his sudden and disruptive outburst. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. This isn’t like you Reaver. Get yourself in gear! Recite the ritual and get yourself battle hardened for the next battles to come!

Reaver took a scroll from his back, unfolding it and pressing his palm down in the center. Out of thin air popped dozens of trophies that Reaver had collected most recently. It always brought a smile to his face to see his milestones and accomplishments. He picked up the first Trophy, a twisted dagger.

Pathetic

Frightened

He slit his cheek slightly with the dagger, a small thin strip of red appearing on it. Reaver put down the dagger in exchange for another trophy: a crimson windmill Shuriken

Crafty

Desperate

Reaver picked up item after item, slitting his cheek with each and every one.

Little, Foolish, Sturdy, Vengeful, limber.

Orphan,righteous,Determined,Broken, mortified.

Reaver got to the final item, a headband from a very familiar ninja that he had met a couple of times. Reaver held it for a good moment, eyeing it hard up and down.

Rival

Friend

“Get out of my head!!!!”

Reaver howled to the voice inside of him, banging against the wall, dropping the headband on the ground amongst the other trophies. Reaver has around 19 cuts on his face by the time he had dropped Mori’s headband.



.......


Kai smirked as the oncoming fire wave rushed his way. Doesn’t this Xeno know anything about this justu? Kai stomped on the ice serpent where he was, the ice serpent stopping all momentum, raising from the ground and soaring right back into the sky before the fire wave could hit him. All the while, Raiku wasted justu on a technique that was going to miss. The ice serpent was there, flying idly in the sky, Kai appearing on the top of it’s head, glistening brightly in the sunlight.

“Don’t you see Xeno? Struggling is pointless. Your trinkets and tricks are no match to an opponent who is superior. Your overrated clan would be ashamed of mere power you possess!”




........



“Kakashi darling, that’s what confidence is for~”
Hama scoffed. “I trained my team with bone breaking methods and trial by fire. I tried to kill them more times than I could count in training, and they survived it all. Even hiring ninja to assasinate them. What say you of your recruits? A cripple, a wilted flower, a coward, and a weakling.”

As Hama said this, Kai’s ice serpent came into full view up in the sky. Hama smirked as it came just in time.

“Looks like his fight is going well. Can you be so certain of yours? Come to think of it, I never actually heard of you having a team dear Kakashi~” Hama spoke, walking closer. “Could it be that you were tutored alone or had special training? Or could it be...”

Hama crept closer to him, whispering in his ear.

“...That they were killed off.”

 

[DarkHydraT]

Mori looked intently at Tomiko, not wanting to miss a single letter she said. How she stayed this energetic after this fight he didn,t know, but he didn't mind it. He nodded and turned to the card and pen that Absurd sent him, cracking a grin about it. The little nod towards his preformance and his writing style was surpisingly endearing. This guy, I swear. He is crazy, but not in a bad way. He turned his head and saw Katsuo ask his question, approving of his method of asking. He then turned to read Absurds answer, but it was not what he expected.

"What!?" He said it before he knew it, but he didn't care. Orochimaru was after Katsuo, and he hired a mercenary to capture him. He was not going to let Katsuo get taken by some pale snake creep, it might be time to become a badger instead of a mole to fight off Orochimaru. He began to quickly check off possible questions, Absurd explained his reasoning for being here so any questions regarding the jinchuriki could be written off as Absurd probably didn't know where she was and probably didn't even care. He grabbed the pen and wrote his question. Nice writing, but that's not my question. How did Orochimaru know that Katsuo would be here of all places? Apart from the Tsuchikage and my parents, no one knew where we were. He must have had a spy or something. He finished writing and held the pen and card up in the sky with one hand as he wrote a message on the notepad with his remaining hand, using the tree to steady his writing. Try to get him on our side or atleast meake him abandon his current objective. Orochimaru probably payed him already and he likes to show off. If we can get on his good side, he might refrain from capturing Katsuo and he can show off his art to others. Try to sell it as good as possible, make it extravagant like my introduction. He loves that stuff. I am willing to preform with him if he does join us. He finished writing and tossed his notepad at Tomiko, cursing his lack of hearing to death.
---------------------------

Taji was pacing around, not nearly as nervous as before but with a severe need to kill time. Darui-sensei kept guard and Aisha made fire, so she didn't have much to do other than just wait. Patience, Taji, is a virtue. Enjoy this time and relax. She sighed inwardly and layed down near the fire, rather close to Aisha. She just wished that she could talk, but knew better than that. Talking would raise many questions and ruin their strategy, so she would just lay down by the fire and relax her tense muscles and nerves. If the jinchuriki wanted to attack them, she would have done that before. Eventually she would have to show herself.

 

[kyuukestu]

Hyōryugetsu

"Are you ready yet~?"

Although Hyo might've given off the impression of a murderous psychopath -an assessment that was questionable enough- she was still a rather polite girl who had properly learned her manners. As such, she waited patiently as her opponents multiplied, turning from one to two, both vanishing into her Mist, as if by some misguided ideology that they could actually hide from her. Seeing as the duo seemed to have gathered their wits about them, and ironed out a plan of action, Hyo prepared to spring into motion once more, "if you're ready then I'm coming~ but if you're not ready I can wait."

Baiyan

Trade Benefits? Greater Standing in the Shinobi World? If Azumi had been speaking to someone from one of the other minor villages, then they certainly would've been swayed by her words. Baiyan however, remained mostly unmoved. Trade Benefits were nice, but as a village with barely over a hundred citizens, most of whom weren't in the village at any given time, the village itself got by with a surprisingly low amount of resources. With such a small market, Nadeshiko village didn't engage in trade on a large enough scale that trade benefits became a major point of interest. Besides, Azumi had already been beaten to the punch on that line, Nadeshiko already had a healthy source of goods in the village of Kirigakure, or more precisely the Mizukage Mei Terumi.

Scattered as they were, the Nadeshiko kunoichi all kept in contact with their village, mostly through the usage of trained animals such as hawks. Baiyan was rather aware of the situation of her village, though the specifics only amounted to what could be fit within a letter.

Nadeshiko's standing within the Ninja world was also a moot point. They were a secluded village who's headband was almost unrecognized. They weren't even like the other minor villages who were, at the very least, associated with smaller nations. They rarely engaged themselves with the politics of the ninja world, and as such founding political standing and influence rather unnecessary.

While Azumi's first two points weren't exactly persuasive, her last offer had caught Baiyan's attention. Now that she took a moment to ponder over Azumi's goal, it seemed quite unlikely that they wouldn't be besieged by strong opponents left and right. The fact that her team included the likes of Reaver spoke to potential danger of the task -though speaking of the boy...

A metallic clatter had been brewing within the room for quite some time, and the noise had made it's way to Baiyan's ears. Although Azumi showed no real sign of noticing, Baiyan had caught onto the disturbance rather quickly. With her eyes gone, and keeping up a chakra field 24/7 virtually impossible, the sightless kunoichi had naturally invested her time in sharpening her other senses.

************
Similarly to clans such as the Inuzuka, the white lotus had taken to saturating her senses with chakra to heighten them. Baiyan in particular had treated her nose, ears, and skin with such chakra soaks over the years. The sensitivity of her skin was half the reason why her earth and wind chakra fields worked so well. Tremors in the ground, and shifts in the wind were more easily noticed when the primary organ for interpreting them, the skin, operated at a heightened sensitivity. She'd already displayed her sense of hearing throughout their earlier battle, having been able to pick out the distinct pitch of Iris' chirping among the throng of other sounds on the battlefield. Her usage of smell also relied on the little Hummingbird. After a generous splash of Eu de excrement from Iris, her opponent's stench would be all to easy to pick out.
************

Pondering for a brief moment, Lianhua present her arm, a single finger raised. "Talk is flimsy, let me see you in action. One Year; I'll stay with you for one year. If after then, you haven't convinced me to stick around, then I'll leave."

Turning her attention to the wooden house, she 'gazed' at the room Reaver occupied. "Perhaps you should check on your companion..?"

Sagiso

"You've got pretty bad timing... well, I'll need you to go back to sleep kay~?"

Staring at the stiff body of her Kiri captive, and his futile attempts at escape, Sagiso took careful aim. She spun, raising her body onto to tips of her toes, and her leg flew out, a roundhouse kick directed at the back of Seiun's head.

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo
The Leaf-nin was confused as he too began to vanish, but ultimately let it happen, despite that because of him, Sakura likely lost the element of surprise.

"Are you ready yet~?"

Taiyo appreciated that his opponent, a girl based on the sound of her voice, would be so courteous to ask such a question, she could have easily attacked, but instead, she let them put their plan into motion, either out of arrogance, or out of genuine generosity.

So, she's basically giving us an opportunity to clear the mist, right?

Yep.

And we're just going to abuse it?

Pretty much.

Alright cool.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball justu!" The FBS master soon fired his jutsu in no specific direction. As Sakura planned, most of the mist was cleared up, and if it happened to hit Hyo, then that was an added bonus.

"NOW we're ready, thanks for asking by the way!" Despite the questionable genuinity of her response, Taiyo still put some genuine emotion into his response.
Seiun
Despite lacking his usual mobility, Seiun was still able to dodge the round house kick. Of course, since escape nor fighting was an option, there was only one left, negotiation. At first, negotiation with the enemy was out of the question, but since he was rendered a hollow but ultimately temporary shell of his former self, the faux Kiri-nin decided to attempt the unthinkable.

"Wait! Ms, before you attempt to kill me, might I suggest a more peaceful resolution. Think about it, I'm in no position to fight or escape, so you'd receive no challenge from me. All I ask is to leave with my life, other than that, I am entirely at your mercy,"

Does this suck? Yes, but will this cause me yo live to figh another day? Yes. Plus I'm already imprisoned, so being moved from one jail to the next doesn't sound too bad.