It had been some time since Aya had managed to get out of her home, everything she had gone through had led her to take a brief hiatus, handing over her duties to Dameon and the Twins knowing that they would be able to handle the village while she was gone, though, never really leaving, the Mizukage had the natural ability to make those believe that she was, wherever she wanted them to think that she was. The pale ephemeral light of the sun breaking through the low hanging fog of the city created a ghastly glow across her varnished onyx colored floor. Sighing to herself, Aya knew that she was not going to be able to hide forever, but, she could only hope that the time she would have had to recover would be enough to be able to deal with the foreign men in red that had been accosting her over the last couple of weeks. Looking up at the roof, Aya's glimmering sapphire eyes looked not like the cold, battle hardened eyes of the Mizukage, but the fearful and worried eyes of a woman facing the most powerful enemy that she had ever met, and, she knew full well that the number of people that she could bring into this fight was severely limited from the start. There were those who were loyal to her, who would die for her, but the more people she dragged into this, the more people would get hurt, and that was the last thing she wanted... But, if news spread, and her city and countrymen rallied behind her, there would be much, much worse... the Daimyo would rally the Samurai, and they would march on the village, and while the Ninja of Kirigakure no Sato were powerful, and some of the greatest in the world, their wealth had also spread to the Daimyo, making the Samurai there, also well equipped and themselves well trained.

And they outnumbered the Cities ninja one hundred to one.

There was simply no chance of an absolute victory against the nations Samurai, the best they could hope for would be to push for a Pyrrhic victory, but, there was no way that Aya would ever rest in the next world, if she knew she had single-handedly damned every person who had followed her, especially after everything that they had gone through with the Seven Bells war... No Aya needed to handle this on her own as long as she could that way, she would be the only victim if things went south, the Daimyo did not wish to damn her people, it was her they were after, having spoken up and become too rebellious to the eyes of the foreign vizier... there was little she was able to do about it, though, what came next, was not what she would have expected...

Waiting at her home, it was not a ninja But Aya's mother who came rushing home from the Market, in her hand was a torn piece of paper. The aging forge-master whom had crafted much of Aya's equipment seemed blustered, her face flushed from the exercise, having obviously run and hurried as fast as she was able to back to the house, worry in her eyes as she burst into Aya's room, coaxing the Mizukage lost in thought to sit up from her bed as her mother slapped the paper down on the bedroom table, spinning it to face her. Aya could not help but take her eyes form her mother for a moment to look down at a piece of paper which looked oddly familiar, or at least the format of it, the paper was a mission from the mission board in the center of town, stating that there had been a kidnapping, two genin had been training at the edge of the village had been accosted by mysterious people wearing red, facing them down, the genin attempted to hold off their attackers, but were overwhelmed, two jounin ranked ninja in the ANBU corps had attempted to intercept, though one of them was rendered critically ill from the combad which directly insued, the other tactically retreating in order to feed back the information to the village. The mission had been given S rank credentials due to the obviously dangerous nature of the criminals, though on the piece of paper, it was deemed that they were remnnants of the Seven Bells war, remaining Missing ninja and Lietenants which had obviously never been captured or killed, though, Aya knew that such things were lies... they were the assassins from before, and Aya knew exactly what needed to be done...

She could not let an innocent die, not for her...

Picking up her equipment, she kitted herself up in everything that was in her possession save for her body armour, the speed and movement restrictions that it provided would only play to her own determent. But, of the few things that Aya knew about the assassins which were after her, they would be there waiting, but they were still trying to gauge her strengths, and if she would step up to save the child, it was a trap, simple as that, but, there had to be a way to save the child and fight off the assassins at the same time. She had done it once before with the genin named Yui, and she would do it again with this one if she could, but, she doubted that the assassins would expect her to bring someone else to help... Going for a messenger crow, she attached a letter and sent it to Dameon, telling her to go to her residential house immediately, hoping that he would be here within the last few moments it would take for Aya to be ready for war. Three swords were equipped and at the ready, as well as her mask, her fuuma shuriken, her gloves, her cloak her arrows and everything at her disposal that was not the personal body armour of Tobirama senju himself. The relic needed to remain here, save, save for those few events where she needed to appear as more of a symbol of power, faceless, formless and mysterious rather than as a person, the mizukage, Aya... Such tactics and shows of force and fear would not work on these people who fought without fear, and killed without mercy or moral.

So, Aya was ready, when Dameon arrived, she would fill him in on everything, Her trip to the Daimyo, how she spoke up against his vizier, how the assassins attacked her, she beat them, and then one of them attacked her again with a legendary relic rivaling one of the seven swords, so, she wanted him to help her with this particular event, knowing full well that they two of them would be walking headfirst into a trap where there may be two or three of these lethal assassins from a foreign land. She would note the skills of the ones she had fought so far, one of them was a man with a spear, which created fire that could not be put out, and another, a woman who seemed to fight with jutsu surrounding her use of a large steel construct used to defend against attacks, like a shield, but of a shape and type she had not seen before, many times larger, and it was able to seemingly block almost anything it came across, be it jutsu, or otherwise, the aegis seemed to be an unstoppable force no matter what was thrown at it. From there she would ask the final simple question...

"So... what's the plan? "

.

[1314 words/ training stuff. Probably jutsu or stats, will decide later.]

A loud knock on his door would awaken him from behind his desk at the administration building. The door opened but all that could be seen were mounds of paperwork. Dameon popped his head up from behind the large stack a piece of paper still attached to the side of his face. This paperwork was too much and too damn boring. Before the person entering his office could talk he already knew the situation. He could feel the Mizukage’s presence back in the village. It was something that you got used to as a sensor ninja. Still there were other questions on his mind like why hadn’t she immediately come to the admin building. It wasn’t normal for her to just bypass the building on the way to her home. This was interesting indeed. Dameon stood up the paper still coming as high as his chest.

“You! You are my new personal assistant. You can remove your mask and get to work on this paperwork. Find the twins and have them assist you as well. I must go see the Mizukage,” Dameon said as he walked out the door and into the main hallway. The ANBU he had recruited to be his new assistant bowed to him although he looked obviously unhappy about the assignment.

”Yes-s-s-s C-c-c-c-c-c-captain,” The ANBU said as Dameon walked off. Dameon kind of smirked a bit at his stutter. It might be for the best he was no longer in the field and would be his assistant, locked up in a room and assigned to relay information to the Mizukage. No doubt the man wouldn’t survive long in either situation. Dameon would shunpo the moment he reached the outdoors and in a matter of seconds he would appear at the door just as someone else seemed to be leaving. Perhaps that was the person assigned to let him know that the Mizukage was back in town. His instincts had served him right as he walked through the door and saw her. He could tell instantly that something was up. The Mizukage would proceed to fill him in on the details. He would listen to the story whilst leaning up against the wall furthest from her on the other side of the table. This was some timing, not only were they on the verge of a large confrontation with these samurai but there was also the Shikyo Four that had started the pop up recently. The more immediate threat however was the samurai.

”Our primary concern needs to be recuing the genin. If they are as strong as you say they won’t make it easy. Fighting them while outnumbered seems like a bad idea so if we can fight our way to the genin and get away from there we should do that. It really depends on their numbers I can sense them from a long ways off but we have to suspect they won’t only send a handful of men to take out the Mizukage. My guess would be that they would use their heavy’s to confront you while they would have a separate force defending their prisoners. However they would no doubt have a second or third force off in the wings waiting to engage once the fighting has started. Stealth might be the better option here although if we hit them hard enough fast enough and get to the genin that could also work. Try to beat them before the reinforcements,” he stated as he brought his hand up to this mouth and rubbed his fingers across his face, a sign of his deep thought. This was a tough situation, they obviously wanted to rescue the genin but the fact was that strategically their best bet was to let them be captured and wait for a better chance to get them if at all. His mind thought much like chess and the cost of a few pawns was well worth the victory. However both Dameon and the Mizukage knew that this wasn’t an option. Which perhaps this was why he had been given notice before any of the other Swordsmen.

He had never fought the Daimyo’s forces before. Dameon had always considered them to be weaker than the forces of Mist but he had apparently been wrong this entire time. That or they simply had a hell of a lot more power in numbers. Where one ninja could kill a thousand men there was no guarantee of success when fighting a hundred thousand. Ninja were always on the clock when it came to their chakra the more he could kill before his chakra ran out was the big factor. Ninja were also masters of surprise and deception. All these advantages had been taken away from them against a threat with far superior numbers.

”How many do you want in on this Solstice?” Dameon asked looking right into her eyes and even deeper. He knew the risk they were walking into and he knew she would want to bring as little as possible. The Mizukage also knew that Dameon never spoke her name unless it was something serious.

”You know I would follow you into hell itself. So I am going no matter what at this point. How many other people do you want in on this operation? You know as well as I do this will not be easy and we could both end up dead doing this. That being said if we succeed we will essentially be at war with the Daimyo and more people will die if we don’t make it. If you die we lose on both ends of the confrontation. It might be better if I go alone,” he stated thinking out loud but also logically. It was never a good idea to play your king so recklessly in chess. Perhaps this is where they could come up with a different strategy or tactic all together.

”They don’t know me I assume. What if I turn myself over in exchange for the genin’s release? I will last a lot longer than them and we can wait for a better opportunity,” He stated suggesting another possible option.

[1,026]

Aya listened to the things which Dameon had to say, he was wising up to the concepts of strategy, and he had come a long way since he was a Genin in the village that was for certain, she watched him as he furrowed his brow and thought about the events that were yet to come, though the truth of the matter was, there was likely no way the two of them were going to be prepared for it. They could not risk the death of the Genin, such a thing would be a massive hit to the village, and Aya had proven before that she was able to handle two of these guys at once, but, this scenario was something different, the first time she had fought them, they had high grade equipment, but, the weapons they seemed to have upgraded to were nothing short of the artifacts which would be considered legendary by anyone else. Even Aya.

This was something that needed to end well.

Aya thought to herself for a small moment, the assassins were smart, they would not be there with the child and have them as the only people there, but, she doubted there could be that many people of that high a skill tier, she would be surprised if there was any more than three or four of them to be honest... she had fought one, which seemed to have command over a lethal throwing weapon, then there was the shield maiden, and at last, the man with the flaming spear. She could only hazard a guess what any others would be like, but their skills were something else, wherever they came from, if their warriors were trained to this extent, they were like the greatest ninja in the current ninja world, defeating every one of them was going to be an up hill battle for Aya and those with her, though, she was truly yet to have a victory that was anything more than Pyrrhic at best, and crippling defeat leading to retreat at worst.

Though, with Dameon to lend a hand, perhaps some tables could be turned on them... though the thought of them having reinforcements nearby was something which Aya would not be able to stomach, they were strong enough as it was, dealing with the assassins and fodder would be something that could end disastrously, no matter how efficient Aya or Dameon was at eradicating them, there was only so much a person could do against that kind of force... though, the assassins themselves seemed prideful, they were warriors of incredible skill, and if the goal was to draw Aya out into the open, they would want to dedicate everything into the attack... but if they were killed they would want to have reserves for a second try later, They had not seen Aya's full power yet, but they had gotten close.

"No..."

Aya began. finally drawing herself out of her own thought, after a couple of long moments, left lingering after Dameon had ended his monologue..

No we can't just let you go in, they see you they will converge on you, and I've fought one of these guys who blind-sided strafe and I, and we could barely hold our own together, no, we need the advantage. I go in, they'll confront me as a group, I can defend myself from their initial assault just fine, you use that and your speed to grab the Genin and get them to safety, from there, you flank them, hopefully, that will be enough for us to turn the tables and for the two of us to get the upper hand against these assholes... However, as for however many people we get involved... I'd like to go no further than the people closest to me, the swordsmen, and only those who have to get involved, if we begin getting too many people into this fight, the Daimyo may react with military might... and that would spark a war we can't win... no, this fight stays in the shadows, with as little group as possible, or we all lose... ... ... but a few people could not hurt, just to even the odds.

Aya relented, she knew that just having a few supporters in her campaign would be something that would help her keep her mind of little things like being killed in her sleep. She had not heard about the ninja which had been freed from the Daimyo's palace in a while, one would only expect that the altered ninja were being held back close tot he Daimyo as his own personal guard, or, to be used at a later date... one could not know.

"But, whatever the case, we should leave now, night is coming, and with that will pass a full day after the kidnapping, and I don't want these men to begin to lose their patience and take it out on their captive. We do this mission my way, you know I can handle myself, so, don't be worried about me, I'll be fine." Aya said with a re-assuring smile, though it flickered from her face quickly as it dissolved into a neutrally negative tone and facial expression. With that said, she began to walk for the door, looking back to her mother and waving goodbye, a single nod and she exited the house, beginning to walk in the direction of the city gate, placing her mask on, she was ready for the battle of her life. Nothing was going to get in her way of this one, Aya's steps were made with a malicious purpose and weight which created an almost palpable sense of intent by looking in her direction.

Though the fact of the matter was, Aya was worried, she did not want to loose this battle, so, she would need to bring everything to the table. Eventually, as Dameon would follow, should he have anything to say, Aya would coax him to continue to say it as she began to run, moving at her own SS ranked speeds, she knew Dameon would be able to keep up with relative ease, they would continue any of their remaining plan as they closed in on the destination the enemy were noted to have taken the child in... It was here, that Aya activated her Sage mode under the guise of her cloak, few would notice the difference other than some of the lines on her mask lighting up a pale blue and resonating faintly. though, the lines across her stomach were a tad more noticeable. Tribal yet elegant designs painted across her body like visible chakra pathways...

She only hoped she wasn't too late.

[1141 words]

[390 chakra]

“Wouldn’t this be easier if I just go an kill the Daimyo?” Dameon teased though with a little bit of truth behind it. The Mizukage knew that his level of devotion included suicide missions after all he had already done a handful and succeeded. If he had not done them and succeeded he doubted he would even have the titles that he now held. Titles didn’t mean anything to Dameon though for him life was something you could risk losing if you had something worth fighting for. Dameon had nothing when he was a child surviving off the lands and being attacked by animals on a daily basis. Something caught his attention outside of the door and he noticed a familiar face looking back at him but nobody else would see the same thing he had. The man known as Zeta would turn and walk away down the alley. He had been showing up more and more lately, ever since the defense against Seven Bells. No doubt the Mizukage would call him crazy if he started mentioning how he kept seeing his clan founder whenever something serious was about to happen.

The fact he could even see him and interact with him was a huge deal in the Shikyo clan and the only reason he suspected the Shikyo Four were after him. Zeta is rumored to only present himself to the most worthy of his successors. Though the man had been dead for centuries it is rumored that his chakra signature is present in the one he deems worthy and will lead the worthy to his tomb. Dameon never knew what the big deal was, for centuries the clan always had one who could interact with him and they just were catered to as royalty and the visionary for the clans. Dameon actually found it a bit funny that he was banished from the Raiton clan’s village of his clan and branded as such; but now the leader of the clan had chosen him. Sure he was proud of his bloodline but he hated the way the clans were structured and just kept the fact he was the worthy one to himself. Dameon snapped his head back to the Mizukage realizing he was still staring out the door. No doubt his sanity would be questioned if she had noticed. He couldn’t help but smile at the thought of being called a crazy, as if he would care anyways.

Dameon listened intently as she answered his speech with one of her own. It made sense especially if they were as strong as she said they were. He would just shunpo in behind them to the genin and gets them out and be back to attack before the enemies even knew what was going on, or at least that was the idea. He could effectively block their escape and attack them from behind, even trapping them If they needed to. He had seen the Mizukage at only a small portion of her power during his Sannin examination. He could only imagine how strong his opponents today would be and it actually got him a little bit excited. He didn’t know why he felt such a rush at the idea of fighting a potentially strong opponent and his emotions and exterior wouldn’t reflect this excitement. Internally though he was pumped to finally be able to show how much he had improved from the last time he had been around the Mizukage in a combat situation. Though he had lost that fight and almost died he still recalled leaving a decent amount of damage to the Mizukage…or at least her armor. He tried to recall this but remembered he had fallen unconscious and didn’t actually know what had happened after that. Dameon nodded at the Mizukage when she mentioned them leaving right away.

“If you could take care of yourself I wouldn’t be here. You leave the village for ten minutes and start a war. What am I going to do with you?” Dameon said with a bright smile, something that was rare for him. He wanted to try and lighten the mood before they set out. Sure things were serious but he could tell she was worried and he couldn’t help but feel the need to try and get rid of some of those emotions before they went into action. Dameon would follow her out and maintain the same speed as her. He slipped his ANBU mask on as well. It was something he rarely ever wore since he was almost never out on actual ANBU missions. His mask was a little different than the others as it was not based off of any animal but rather his emotions. His mask was pitch black with a single white tear drop under his right eye that seemed to shimmer as if it was made of water. Only a one person during the war had ever seen his mask and actually survived; Seven Bells.

As they neared where the genin had been taken he noticed their footsteps still fresh for both of their eyes and heading out toward the graveyard. They were within range for his sensing jutsu to get its full effect. Dameon came to a stop and closed his eyes and kneeled to the ground placing his index finger on the ground and sensing ahead to get an idea of what kind of numbers they were facing. He would turn slightly to the left and right as well. He would then lift his finger and stand back up and turn to the Mizukage.

“I count three and two genin. The genin are moving within a small space. They are alive but they might be in cages or just tied up to a tree or something to that extent. They are not hiding which means they are expecting us, or at least you. That’s hoping they haven’t had eyes on us or someone sensing our movements as well. Either way I am ready when you are. Do you need anything of me before we separate?” Dameon said explaining the situation as he could see it with his sensing jutsu. He knew the job he would have to do but it also required the Mizukage to first show herself to cause the distraction. He only waited for her to give the go ahead to begin the mission.

[1,062. 2,088 total]

Profiles here~

Xingcai:

Guan Ping:

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Bao Sanniang:

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Aya sank low to the ground as they approached, looking to Dameon he seemed to be onto something, his sensory prowess as a ninja and as a captain of the ANBU and hunter ninja in the village aided him greatly in this respect, though, it seemed that they were still outnumbered, Aya would have liked to know whom the people they were attacking were, but, it seemed that they were only just shy of sight, and Aya didn't want to have to use any jutsu or chakra that might be useful in the on-coming fight. Listening to his analysis it seemed like there was another Genin there which had not been reported. Aya looked to Dameon to ensure that the plan was still the same... if it was, then Aya would have absolutely no issue with beginning her approach, if she could get them into any form of dialogue then she would be able to wait them out, but, without engaging them in combat, then they would likely be able to see and know what Dameon was doing, not as if they would care, they had no issues dealing with her and strafe, but, this time Aya was not being blind-sided while in the middle of an emotional quarrel... Taking in a deep breath the Mizukage pushed against the earth and began to walk out into the open, making some noise on purpose as to alert the assassins to her presence.

The three of them that stood before her each wore a red cloak... only one of them had she seen before, the woman with the shield on her back, was the very same woman she had almost killed with one of her own SS rank techniques, but, the power of her jutsu and the shield she used was able to switch with her intended target moments before the killing blow, she shattered the woman's shield, but, unfortunately, she seemed to have survived the attack. The other two who stood out in the open seemed to be younger than her however. One of them, bore a gigantic sword on his back, something that seemed out of myth more than practicality. Like the bladed finger of a karuma tengu or a dragon attached to a shaft in which to weild it, if it could be anything more than simply swung... it reminded Aya of several of the previous seven swords, the most notable being the shark skinned Samehada, in size alone, but the youngest and smallest of them all seemed to be a girl with two bladed war-fans at her sides, and several odd looking shuriken, obviously foreign in nature... though, now that Aya thought about it, she while she had not seen her, those shurikens were familiar... the assassin who had struck from the darkness of the forest had used those same weapons... they seemed high quality, and If aya looked closely, she could see the lethal steel fiber coiled around the blades to be unraveled as they were thrown...

Approaching Aya clenched her fists as the three assassins turned to face her, the youngest of them smiled and began to celebrate as Aya revealed herself, looking to the other two, who seemed to grimace at her presence, most notably that Aya was well armed and ready for a fight, flexing the chakra of her sage mode rather than seeming to come ready to die. It was the male between the three of them that spoke up first. Calling out to her and ordering Ayakashi to submit to their demands or else he would eliminate the genin behind him... Aya looked to see their condition, each of them seemed to be tied to a tree, beaten a little and bruised with some swelling across their faces, but they were otherwise unharmed. Each of them saw the Mizukage arrive and hope lit up in their eyes. Ayakashi was here for them, and there was no way that these assassins from another land stood a chance against the 'legendar' demon ice witch... though, while Aya could see such notions reflected in their hope, she herself was not so sure she was able to win this fight... but she had to try. There was no telling what the assassins would do if they succeeded, they would likely murder the children due to them being witnesses to their strengths and even the event... which was something that could not be allowed to happen...

"If you think I'm going to lie down and let you take me without a fight, you are sorely mistaken... I'm the Mizukage of the Village Hidden in the Mist, I am, single handedly, the most powerful ninja in the five nations, and you... you don't hold a candle to the kind of power I command at my fingertips... so, let them go, or just like the last time we met... I will shatter your weapons and destroy you all~"

The woman scowled as Aya bought up the events of last time, drawing her hooked blade as the man rose his hand above his head, placing a hand on his sword. The girl amongst them began to laugh hysterically, pointing at Aya and claiming that she did not have a chance at defeating the three of them together. While it was true, Aya would have very little chance of defeating the three of them alone, though, with her particular skills, it was not impossible, but, Aya was not alone... her trump card was waiting in the wings. Aya drew Changeling, and the sword of Kusanagi, flowing her chakra into the blade and feeling its humming power in her fingertips. With changeling's cross guard open Aya braced herself for what was to come. Talk it seemed was done, the young girl began to throw her shuriken, but not at Aya, she darted off into the forest, throwing them to the trees around them, slowly creating an arena of razor-wire which would ensnare them and attempt to hold all of the fighters within the immediate area. Aya couldn't help but smile at her naivety, sealing them all into an enclosed area with Aya in the middle of it was a bad idea, she only hoped that the shikyo would be able to defend himself against Aya's more area oriented attacks.

But, while the Mizukage thought to herself, chakra flared within one of her opponents and the shield maiden charged, having drawn the shield and rushed towards Ayakashi, followed up by the man with the giant sword. Smiling to herself Aya dug in her feet, and with a single piston-like movement she bought her knee right up to her shoulder and let out a gigantic kick, enough that the collision between the two forces was so extreme, the wind-blast from the impact cracked the ground and broke the bark of the nearby trees. Stopping the woman's low ranking technique with sheer strength, Aya back-flipped off the woman's shield to avoid the follow up attack. The man, 'Ping' darted to a side of the shield maiden and with a single downward chop, Chakra flowed into the sword, Aya Avoiding the attack by a hair, planted her hand on the ground, and with the strength of her arm alone jumped into the air, as 10m of the ground in every direction erupted into an earthquake, rupturing the earth as spires and granite tore through the ground, leaving a crater where Aya once was... This man, seemed more dangerous than she had initially thought, and that was saying something. Leaning down, it seemed the youngest female had surrounded about half the area in a wire fence sharp enough to remove limbs, plenty of room for Dameon to get in so far...

Kicking off the tree as Pink jumped up with his blade, removing the branch Aya had been standing on, Aya charged for the woman, both of her swords in hand Aya opened up with a gigantic flurry of blows, more than a dozen landing within the blink of an eye on the initial assault before they broke into the 'fight.' Xingcai held up her tower-shield, blocking the frontal assault, parrying Aya aside for a moment to let out the hook of the blade to loop aya's leg and remove her at the ankle. But, Aya was there faster, bringing changeling down she caught the strike and locked blades with the woman, knowing full well that was her intention in the first place, holding Aya was what was important, as Ping came down with another gigantic slam from above, on Aya's trail as the Mizukage span to a side, allowing Ping to slam into Xingcai's shield. The crashing force of Aya's kick and that shield was made to look like nothing compared to the weight and force of Ping's blade. While, Xingcai, protected by her shield did not so much as flinch from the blow, Aya was thrown backwards by the force several meters, flipping backwards and digging both of her blades into the ground to slow her movement and ground her... the attack was a good one, these people knew how to work together, and Aya needed to do what she could now, or else this battle was only going to become harder with every passing moment.

Charging the two of them again, Aya found herself moving towards Ping, he was the weak link here, neither of these two opponents came close to Ayakashi's speed, so, relying on this, Aya burst forward, like a bolt of blue lightning in comparison to their sluggish movements, crossing her blades over she collided with Ping's sword as he bought it up to block for him. As soon as the connection was made, Aya used her chakra enhanced strength jutsu to immediately overpower him, pushing him back and knocking him off balance for the moment that she needed to, breaking the man's guard and forcing him to fall backwards. Raising her two blades high, Aya was ready to bring them down for the strike that would end his life, but, with a brilliant flash of light, Xingcai was in his place, shield raised as Aya bought the strike down. The magic of the shield allowing Xingcai to feel none of the strike behind the invulnerable Aegis of the Daimyo. Aya scowled, but hat no time to linger, stepping backwards, Ping was on her again, chopping horizontally with a full three hundred and sixty degree wind-up, Aya bought up both of her blades to block the attack, grinding her back on her feet and allowing Xingcai to raise up once again and continue her charge... Angling her blades and ducking, Aya allowed the massive sword to pass over her. Stepping in to strike at the feet of the Goliath of a man, but meeting only the Hookblade of Xingcai, as she unleashed a shield and sword flury of her own, and though aya countered with three strikes to every one of hers, and was able to block the woman with relative ease, all Ayas strikes fell on the shield, unable to get past its iron clad defense.

This was beginning to make her mad.

A tactic needed to change here, it was obvious now, Throwing the sword of Kusanagi up, for some-one else to be able to take it, or for it to stab into the ground to be grabbed later, Aya extended the hilt on changeling and allowed the blade to hook down into it's 90 degree angle, creating the scythe that she knew and loved, something that would actually allow her to get past the shield of her opponent would be more than handy. Holding back, knowing that she would rally and begin her assault once again once Dameon made his move...

[1991 words]

Dameon waited for the Mizukage to walk off toward where the three of the enemies were waiting for them. Dameon cracked his neck a bit and started to take the long way around so he could approach them from behind and out of their way. When he had finally made it completely behind them he realized the enemy had thought of this at least to some extent. There were a few booby traps lying around although none serious. It was likely there for civilians or animals that approached too closely looking for food. He could finally see the tree that the genin were tied too and spot the Mizukage. It looked like they had arrived at roughly the same time. He waited for the enemy to completely turn their attention and once they had he silently and swiftly approached from the tree he sat on and snuck up behind the genin who looked excited that they were about to watch the show, despite them being in harms range. There would be no way the Mizukage could fight at her full potential with them around. He silently cut the rotes and grabbed the genin, one over each shoulder as he made sure that the enemy was still distracted. He then took off with a quick shunpo and left them with some of his men at the gate closest to them. Ordering them to look after them and get them checked out at the hospital. He also told the men to not order anyone into the cemetery no matter what the genin said. If they kept including other people this would be a much bigger issue than it already was.

Dameon quickly headed back a few seconds later and right back to where he had left from. It seemed the fighting had started and the Mizukage was holding her own. He could now see why she needed him. It wasn’t really that she wasn’t strong enough it’s that comparatively as a team they were stronger and would be unable to pick off any of them. If it were one on one she would no doubt succeed but the team element was deadly. He wondered exactly how he should make his approach he could be loud and try to distract them away from the Mizukage and give her an opening or he could rush in quietly. Though he supposed he could also just do both. He was still a good deal away from them and well hidden; if the enemy wasn’t paying attention to his direction they would never notice. He formed a couple hand signs and created a clone. He put a hand on the shoulder of his clone and added additional chakra so they could swap if they had to. A cage had been set up to ‘trap’ the Mizukage inside, he felt a dire urge to face palm realizing the enemy had no idea of the Mizukage’s powerful are of effect abilities. They were the ones trapped with her, not the other way around.

Dameon prepared himself as he formed a couple hand signs so he could increase his speed to a much higher level than before. Meanwhile his clone would run forward and catch the sword of kusanagi that the Mizukage had thrown. ”Hello ladies! Fine evening don’t you think?” the clone would say loud enough to hopefully catch them off guard. As his clone finished speaking he would channel its rush the male quickly and channel chakra through the blade and extend it outward forming a long white ratiton sword he would attempt to pierce through the man who had now stepped away from the shield wielding attacking. His speed seemed to be slower so he knew he could easily get into attacking range. Especially while extending his white raiton blade at a rate of 45 m/s. The clone was only trying to blindside the man at least for the moment and catch them all off guard, so why had he got their attention first? Well simply because if they were going to fight as a team, the Mizukage was also going to need a team. Sure there was a moderate chance that his clone wouldn’t survive but more importantly he wanted to surprise the third person who had been sitting back playing support as the other two rushed the Mizukage. She was sitting back presumably to stop anything uncanny or switch in if something started going the Mizukages way. So he would get her attention with the clone and attack on his own toward the lady with the shield forcing her to make two different decisions in such a small amount of time, thus increasing the chances of one of his attacks to be successfully.

As the clone charged the man Dameon took off at his full speed with his midnight child drawn and now activated as he ran. He would be there in only a second or so, arriving at the shield assassin roughly at the same time his clone would attack the man. Instead of leading with his sword though he would extend a his other hand out as well and fire off a very easy to miss jutsu only a few meters away from her as he would attempt to also stab the lady in the back aiming, for her heart. He had launched his white raiton disarming jutsu just in case the third person had chosen him to attack him instead. So either way he would have something to attack with even if he had to swap, dodge, or even block an attack from the other people. He hoped his attack would be enough to create a sense of shock and disorientation amongst them long enough for the Mizukage and himself to rally and fight them off or even kill them.

[968. 3056 total]

Jutsu used:

Spoiler:

Aya watched as Dameon attacked, rushing through what little was left in the web which surrounded them, though she had a bad feeling about those razor wires, a Ninja setting up something as intricate as that for an arena was something that she had not expected... each of the wires were stretched tightly, as taught as a fine web would be expected to be as the shadow of the younger female opponent closed the final gaps around them, a smile could be seen flicking across her face, as she had been extremely busy... Aya had been facing down the combination of the man and the woman, but now with the clone attacking the man with his white raiton sword. The man had been pushed to be on the defensive, unable to react to Dameon's speed, though more than able to react to his jutsu. Not doing much other than bringing up his colossal blade side on, moving it no longer in an offensive placing but rather raising it between himself and his opponent to avoid the strike which would have otherwise scarred him deeply. The white raiton crashing against his blade and causing his hands to burn as the clone encroached on him with tremendous speed.

Meanwhile the shield maiden had been fending off her opponent with some tenacity, though she was finding it ludicrously hard to track his movements with any level of accuracy, she was able to keep track of where he was by the dust he was kicking up with his extreme speed. The bolt of lightning which intended to disarm her as her opponent moved past was something that she could not ignore, so, veering to a side as Dameon rushed past his own attack to stab her in the back she would move to a side in such a manner as he would almost be struck with his own disarming technique, something which she was sure the blades-man would not be able to afford. Bringing her hooked blade up to block his strike with the midnight childs blade, and parry his blow up into the bolt of disarming lightning. Though, it was in this position that Aya was able to engage her enemy... Charging in at her flank, Aya had an open shot at the shield maiden, coiling her fists once again and charging her flank with incredible speed. Aya's butterfly wings sprouting from her back as she charged in head-first with the Scythe in her hands, changing her weapon stance once again if need be as she intended to reap the woman in two, stepping in, in such a manner as her shield would be meaningless.

But the battle was not so easy.

The eyes of the shield maiden opened as she routed the path of her shield to block her side, but, there was a build-up of light near her chest, as, suddenly, the shield maiden was gone. The scythe passed over where her neck would have been, and instead below it was the body of the smaller female whom had been spreading the barrier of lethal wires. A smile as wide as the devil around her face as she seemed to know something the other two did not. As she appeared, raising his sword and slamming it into the ground the Man with his giant-sized weapon created a tremour across the ground to destabilize the footing of those around him, long enough to jump from the arena to the outside.

"Time for Bao Sanniang to show you what we're really made of... lady mizukage, and sexy extra. aha~"

The chirpy younger woman spoke with a smile, each of her fans in her hands as she took a slightly flirtatious pose, as from her back and her gloves as they caught the light, there were hundreds of the wires extending from her coat to the arena walls around her. Pulling them tight, the wires which were five meters high obliterated the branches they were locked onto, cutting through them as if they were nothing and creating a webbed roof over-top of them, truly locking the ninja into the arena. Blinking seductively towards Dameon she giggled lightly...

"Well aren't you the looker? How about you join our little crew and we can forget any of this even happened. "

Aya had heard enough however, scythe in her hand, she activated her Demon ice venom technique, and the blade and the pole of her weapon took on a frosted hue as the earth around her also began to be frosted over. Aya was loosing control of her Hyouton in her anger at the situation, the the mocking nature of the girl was not helping anything along. Though, Aya was now pacified from using her more cataclysmic techniques due to the presence of Dameon... but it was no matter, with the two of them, singling off against a single opponent, there was no way that she was getting out of here alive... Dashing forward once again with her weapon in her hands, The girl laughed, pulling one of the thousands of strings at her disposal as Aya rushed in, as suddenly, like a guillotine, a single of the wires from the brances, linked with several others ripped free, swinging across the arena as the taught nature of the entire web compensated minimally, loosing almost no tension as the single wire was bought free.

The glint of the wire crossing the paths of the rays of the sun was just enough time for Aya to raise her weapon to guard against the strike, realizing that she was not fighting against the girls' strength, but the strength of the entire web, forcing Aya to grind backwards against the ground. Holding back the wire as it bend around her weapon at neck height, one of the blades pressing against her mask, causing sparks to fly as the the wire attempted to cut its surface with it's near laser sharpened edge but the wire was beginning to freeze over, enchanting that part of the string with Aya's ice.

"Naughty Mizukage... so, hotty... what do you say? "

(1025 words.)

Dameon watched as the shield maiden was only barely able to avoid the attack on both fronts but that was only half the purpose for it. The Mizukage had quickly picked up on the second one as she prepared to strike with the new opening he had created. Though as he was being directed into his own attack he wondered if he should slow down. As he saw the woman about to parry his blow and force him into his own attack he deactivated the midnight child’s blade causing her blade to miss the parry attempt on what would have been the chakra end of the sword and as such making it so he would never be forced into his own attack. As soon as her blade would pass across the axis of his own her would reactivate the midnight child’s blade just as soon as Aya had begun her own attack and forcing the shield maiden to turn to block her. Dameon would attack in this second moment of opportunity with his own sword attack to her enemies flank with his Shikyo clan’s combo kenjutsu and unleash a quick six attacks. The series of attacks would quickly follow after her attempted parry and just as she was beginning to turn to face the Mizukage. He was sure something would land. A few moments later after his attack a bright light would appear and in front of him would be a new enemy.

Dameon was already in close range and if it wasn’t for the fact they were trying to keep things relatively covert he would have swapped out without hesitation and blew the woman into kingdom come, but he still had the advantage of being so close to her. He would attack without hesitation trying to not have the woman speak. After all he was there for one reason alone and if he didn’t continue to press the attack then they could easily be set up to potentially lose. Dameon would attack with a one handed horizontal slash of his midnight childs blade which he had extended into the full meter and a half from his last attacks. As he attacked however he released a Metsubishi that was wrapped in an explosive seal with his other hand and activated his substitution jutsu and the seal swapping out with his clone who had dropped its sword in preparation for this move. The seal would explode along with the metsubishi and hit the raiton clone causing it to explode as well and all at the same time. Dameon would grab the sword of Kusanagi in his other hand ready to continue attacking as soon as they could tell what had happened in the aftermath of his ruthless attack. He had no doubt she would survive the assault but it was a matter of how much. She was obviously a ranged attack user and the metsubishi if nothing else would make it harder for her to land her attacks.

”No offense, but I usually prefer women that are more relaxed and not so…wired, he said with a bit of a grin as he prepared himself and also keeping an eye on the Mizukage in the process. He had used a lot of chakra already but he still had a good amount left he just hoped his clone was of some use to damaging this girl. He looked back up at the Mizukage, “Don’t hold back on my account, you remember my test don’t you?” Dameon said as he walked closer to the Mizukage so they could regroup and plan accordingly as the mix of smoke, chili powder, and dirt began to settle. He still had his defensive jutsu he could rely on if the Mizukage decided to turn this place into a winter wasteland, though since his test he had learned to completely control the ability of his clan and could effectively shield himself from the Mizukage’s area of effect attacks, though he would also be removed from the fight after the first one but he could easily cocoon himself until she finished. He now had an understanding though of how difficult the enemy was and the intel he had been given on the way was spot on. He knew she could over power them but at great risk to Dameon. Though he didn’t care about what could happen to himself, everything he did was to protect the Mizukage and he would continue to do so until his dying breath.

”In hindsight…if we wrap this up quick enough with our more powerful jutsu we could just write it off as a spar, Dameon said, though he knew now his chance of using his new explosion jutsu had passed with his clone’s life having ended but it didn’t mean that the Mizukage couldn’t use some of her more powerful jutsu. After all, he could theoretically work alongside of it which would put them at a much greater advantage. Dameon focused his raiton chakra throughout all of his chakra points and released his raiton chakra outward in a white explosion of chakra that then settled into an aura around his body. Unlike most raiton that was erratic and cracking with electricity his aura looked calm like white fire that surrounded his body. He could now afford to withstand the attacks of the enemy and they would in turn send the raiton through the wires back at the user but that wasn’t the purpose. He could now react quicker and withstand the Mizukages aoe jutsu even if only for a little while. Though it seemed their couple seconds of break ended as the cloud began to settle and would allow him to see exactly what had happened in his ruthless assault. He had learned from experience that sitting around and listening to your opponent just bought them time and in a dog eat dog world it was those who acted instead of sitting back and sharing equal opportunities that lived the longest.

[997. 4,053 toward Endurance training]

Items used:

Spoiler:

Jutsu Used:

Spoiler:

Dameon was close to Bao, and that would only prove to be at his own disadvantage, the woman who stood before him was more formidable than he could have imagined to begin with, she smiled as he attacked, though he split himself into his clone and intended them to explode, as soon as they entered her offensive thresh-hold she enhanced all of her wound tight guillotines with fuuton chakra, pulling on thirty of them at once they pried themselves free and bulleted for Dameon's location to cut him off, the tension wound between them made the projectile speed more than ludicrous, however, with every pull of the strings and with every blade that was fired they got slower. Though now, moving at just shy of 130mp/s they were fast, and lethal. The thirty that were launched at the clone were to cut him off from attacking, digging thick trenches in the arena as the girl was able to look on and prepare her chakra for the next coming attack. Should her volley land and detonate the clone, she would be hit by the fringe of the blast, a blow which would giver her light burns to her mid torso which would be agitated by the mikibishi causing her to grit her teeth as her eyes turned to daggers.

Dameon would not be safe now... where thirty had sprung loose from thousands of cords which were strewn among the trees around them, she would launch an even fifty in his direction now, each of them like the projectile blades which bukijutsu users would launch from their weapons and enhanced with fuuton chakra, solely to reinforce the wires against damage with an A rank defense. The subsequent blades would launch at Dameon from the direction of Bao's person in groups of two, cutting through everything in their path as Bao moved to accommodate the coils. Smiling like the devil himself as the last ten of the fifty strings closed in on Dameon from every angle like a cats cradle finger-trap. intending to completely cut the Ninja in two. but with the sheer number of wires which had loosened the tension of the surrounding wires, the projectile speed of them all dropped to 115mp/s.

Aya however, was not doing nothing, after diving to a side from the wire she transformed her scythe into its bow form with a single flick of her wrist, releasing the tightly wound bow-string as her hand moved to her quiver. The steam which flew from the arrows indicating that her Demon ice Venom was flowing through both her arrows and the weapon which they were being fired from. The arrows quickly became frigid and enchanted with Aya's demon ice... the rate of fire which came next however would be staggering. Ten arrows would fly from Aya's hands as she moved her hand clasping ten arrows like a piston less than a second had passed and ten arrows had been flown, a style almost never before seen in the ninja world as even Aya used a foreign superior art when it came to archery, not using traditional Japanese Kyujutsu with its three stage practise, but instead rather sarisan archery, an art which created the greatest archers in the world. With only one stage used to fire.

The final of her bolts would leave her bow-string before the first one even made contact, but, the woman was no fool. Leaping backwards and over the first arrow  as it sailed under her, Aya had thought her trapped, her following arrows intercepting her motions, but, with simple flicks of Bao's hands, another seven of the blades swept across from the sides, vastly faster than Aya's arrows and catching them by the side, discarding them as each of the remaining arrows got inches from their intended target...

But Aya had made a mistake.

In her short sightedness, she had not seen the two blades come from either side of her, last second Aya's hands went out to her sides, blocking one of them with changeling as the wire bent around the weapon and Aya's gauntletted hand caught the other, pincering her between two blades in a very bad, very vulnerable situation... the pressuer and tension of the wires were such that even with Aya's natural strength she could feel her arms buckle and her bones bend. it felt like the wires were a forest that she was trying to lift all on her own. The situation caused the MIZUKAGE to cry out before she was able to angle changeling above her, giving one of the wires a means to slide over her own head, releasing aya from the trap as the force of the second was enough to send her flying across the arena towards the wall of razor-wires. A second later and Ayakashi would have been ribbons were it not for her managing to tilt over and vault the wire, tumbling off to a side meters from the edge of the arena.

Bao Sanniang was strong... and she hadn't even used many jutsu yet...

Looking to Dameon, Aya was beginning to worry that he might not even be able to take this opponent, but, he was fast, he would need that speed, this was not an opponent strength would prevail against, one direct hit from the wires would lead to death... The two of them should not have allowed her to spin the web... but it was done, and now they had to deal with it... Looking to a side she noticed that one of the trees had been partially frozen... though Aya had not used any Hyouton techniques which would have done that... though, noting the wires that had hit her hands, Aya remembered the trick she had used on Kaguza, flowing her bukijutsu techniques into his weapons against his will in an attempt to freeze his hands... all of these wires trailed back to Bao in the center of them all... so, if Aya was able to grip one of them with her Hyouton techniques, or more, they would trail right back to Bao... But trying to grip the walls of her arena was a death sentence, and she highly doubted her friends would allow her to become a Popsicle.

Aya would have to remember this for later.

Standing, Ayakashi sheathed her sword, and began to overpower it with Hyouton chakra, focusing all of her force into the technique, thankfully, this particular technique was not flashy enough to attract attention... If dameon looked back in her direction she would give him a subtle hint to keep the attention of the woman they were fighting. He was good at that... and with the slight wound she may have been given it was all the excuse she needed to hate the Shikyo a deceptively large amount. So...Aya charged her technique... without the shield maiden there to guard against it, this next move if not lethal... would be able to free them from their situation. But Aya needed a little time...

Just a few moments.

But she could feel the weight on her chakra pools.

Spoiler:

1200 words

[exit thread]

Thread Total: 6671
Speed: SS->SS1 949 + 4051(welcome return) = 5000/5000
ReacT: SS->SS1 5722/5000