The desert sun was scorching the sandy plains, turning the desert into a bakingoven in the least pleasant sense of the word, as it literally made those who wandered through the sandy dunes feel as if their skin was being boiled off, with each layer of sweat that came from their pores simply evaporating at the first touch with the air around them.

Yet even so, a single person, clad in what looked like a modified version of Konoha Anbu armor and a peculiar black and gold helmet looking like a streamlined skull wandered through said particularily heated and quite frankly unforgiving place that the people in Sunagakure seemed so foolishly to call home.

This person did not seem to sweat, as her white exposed skin seemed to react to the air in the same way as a snake's would, practically unfazed by the heat and the dryness of the air, this person marched on through sand and dust, the massive white snake neatly coiled around the person's waist and resting its head upon one of the person's shoulders seemed simply to peer into the endlessly expanding vastness of the sandy desert.

"So, aren't you at least a bit worried that the Anbu of this village are possibly going to jump you when you're close enough to their village?" The snake hissed with what sounded like some soft of soft chuckle coming out of its wide throat each time it hissed. "I won't blame you if you decide to be careful, my dear master."

A strangely sounding voice arose from the black and gold mask, as Lamya tried to answer Uraeus questions, yet just as she had opened her mouth and let out a grunt of being annoyed with Uraeus' peticular behavior, she suddenly spotted a small group of Suna-nin come closer and though she was certain that Sunagakure did not have an alliance with Konohagakure just yet, Lamya, as she was known, was still playing it safe by tensing her muscles just that slightest bit to be prepared against a possible assault.

Time seemed to pass slower as long as the suna-nin and Lamya had yet to cross paths, as she was keeping her senses to the outmost usability, keeping herself ready for every possible outcome of this eventual confrontation, even Uraeus, feeling its masters deeper and slower heartbeat and the tensing of her muscles, now kept his eyes on the small group of incoming Suna shinobi.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, the shinobi from Sunagakure passed the odd duo, though glances were given by what appeared to be a training squad, with genin and a jonin teacher, there were no hostile altercations. At the very least, this showed that despite the fact that she was probably the shinobi with the currently highest bounty she herself had ever heard of, she was yet to be a wanted criminal in Sunagakure, though lamya did not doubt that her helmet and lack of identity due to it would raise questions at the entrance of Sunagakure.

"Well, as far as I know...only the Konoha Anbu would be knowledgeable about my bounty," The woman let out a sigh, which got released by the mask with a soft 'swoosh'. Standing still for a moment, Lamya's back arced backwards as she looked up towards a pair of vultures circling in the bright blue sky. "Well, you think those two are here for us or just for you?"

585

As she was coming closer to Sunagakure, finally able to say farewell to the scorching hot desert in which she was walking, already dreaming of finding herself some place to stay and get a good rest and hopefully a warm relaxing bath as well, Lamya suddenly noticed a glint not far from her location. Though the helmet she was wearing managed to darken her surroundings and prevent her from having to squint her eyes in case of flashes of light, she still managed to notice the swift and almost impossible to notice shimmer of light not far from her location.

Standing still in an instant, she looked into the direction of the source from where the glimmer of light originated and with slight intrigue she diverged from her path, wanting to know what it was that she saw. Even when Uraeus' body suddenly constricted tighter around her body and he let out a hiss as a warning that something was off, she continued to walk into the direction of what it was that had shimmered.

Without warning and without any sign, her feet suddenly dropped into the sand, dragging her down up to her knees in the sand and making it incredibly hard to move, at least for a regular person. Lamya simply continued to walk, dragging her legs through the sand as she seemed to home in to the origin of the light she'd seen. It was then that Uraeus finally knew what was going on. They had been so carefull, keeping a look out for anything that was odd and anything that could resemble a threat, yet in their hightened state of perception, they were a perfect target for the only kind of jutsu Lamya was genetically weak against: genjutsu.

With a quick action, Ureaus' head snapped down towards Lamya's exposed left forearm and sunk his teeth into her flesh, breaking through her alabaster skin with ease, after which a muffled grunt of pain could be heard from within the helmet. She slowly moved her fingers to show that she was fine again thanking her partner with that simple motion and motioning him to move back so she could now keep up the charade for whomever was responsible for trapping her in some kind of mindless mode genjutsu.

When she finally reached the spot, it seemed that the object spreading the light, was a glass globe. Since it was strange for such an object to be laying there so openly on the ground, Lamya picked it up and looked at it, only to hear something click underneath the spot where she had found the globe.

An instant later, it looked like massive arms of what seemed to be wood came out of the ground, no doubt pieces of some sort of puppet designed to capture stuff. With a quick jump, the kunoichi managed to jump out of the trap and land outside of it safely, yet as she looked back towards what now looked like some sort of wooden barrel, she also noticed the thin, nearly invisible chakra strings, which due to being visible, were clearly made for strength and not stealth at that moment.

Yet it appeared she did not have time to think about who was trying to trap her or where that person was, as to her surprise, she was suddenly looking at a reflection of her mask when a massive broadsword coarsed through the air in front of her.

"Ooraah, damn it almost cut that bitch's head clean off, aneki," A massive, muscular man had sprung up from the sand, not wearing any sign of any village, but with his immense obvious strength and the fact someone was using puppets nearby, there was no doubt that these guys weren't just bandits, but actual ronin. "Nee-chan, you're up!!"

Confused at what was happening, Lamya turned to the place where the muscular man was looking at, only to see a multitude of air bullets being launched into her direction. "Uraeus,
burry down for now!!" Just as she said that, her pet dug deep into the sand, releasing lamya from both the snake's weight and movement hindering clingy nature, allowing her to sidestep the incoming air bullets with relative ease. "Well than, seems it wasn't possible to leave the village or get into another village without being spotted by some bounty hunters. Ah well, I could use the exercise."

740/1325

Lamya chuckled and calmly removed her helmet, placing it in front of her on the sand, flinging her raven black hair behind her neck. It seemed that the bandits were quite taken aback by her appearance, as it appeared they had somehow gotten wind of the bounty on her head, most likely through one of those rather shady bounty collection offices that were spread accross the world, allowing bandits and other missing nin to collect money based off of the bounties other people had on their heads either by villages or private people.

"Aneki, Nee-chan is that the woman with that insane bounty?" The muscular man asked, when a slender woman shifted out of the sand and a atlethic looking man came out of the muscular man's shadow, both of them smiling feintly and nodding at the huge man's question. "Well than, if this one's the one with that bounty, we better give it our A-game. Time to collect us some sweet payday."

"Ugh, this really sucks, can't you guys just leave me alone and get someone else.
I have no need for such annoying intermissions during my travels," The kunoichi sighed and looked at the trio of bandits, noticing that they were at the very least of average to above average quality in their skill and chakra control. Nothing to sneeze at for a chuunin or maybe a special jonin to sneeze at, but she herself was already so far beyond that level of a shinobi that the very thought of looking at these bandits as a threat, could not be treated as anything else than a mere joke. "I'm warning you, just leave...me...alone."

The big guy snorted, getting into a fit of laughter before shouldering his massive, ten feet long and two feet wide blade. "No...you're going to be our meal ticket out of this desert, you bitch."

In an instant the big guy had moved from his position with relatively surprising speed, throwing down his huge lump of metal in the form of a blade towards Lamya's neck, yet in stead of dodging or even lowering herself, her hand reached down for one of her scalpels and managed to stop the huge sword with her kirinketsu's tiny and thin blade and relatively no effort from her own physiqal capacities.

Though slightly taken aback by this sudden change of pace, the two others seemed to decide that letting their brother do all the work was not in their best interest at the moment, as each of them quickly started to form handseals and got ready to use jutsu of their own. However when the woman of the trio was ready with her handseals and started to inhale to perform some sort of wind-style jutsu, Lamya grabbed the muscular man's broad arm and threw him and his sword towards the woman, while rushing towards the older brother of the trio to just press the palm of her left hand against the man's chest with her full force, sending him back for a few meters. "Final warning, stand down... or I will kill each and every one of you."

"You got to be kidding me, this bitch just threw me, let's kill her, aneki, nee-chan?" the muscular man stood back up, lifting the massive blade and smirking towards Lamya while his siblings seemed to pick themselves up as well. "Trying to threaten us, you're alone, we've got the numbers and we were just a bit surprised, we underestimated you, but now we'll use our full force to beat you, so get ready."

613/1938

The massive bandit swung his blade towards lamya again, throwing down the massive blade with remarkable force and quite some agility given his own frame and the sheer size of the blade itself, yet in the middle of his swing, he suddenly changed the direction of his blade, instantly going for a diagonal, downwards slash, showing that his swordsmanship skills with the huge lump of iron in his hands was not just for show. In the meantime, the brother and sister had apparently noticed that their youngest sibling had taken point and aimed to surround the nukenin from left and right, each preparing a jutsu to compliment their huge sibling's frontal assault.

With a strong stream of pressurized water coming from the left, a rather basic, yet effective jutsu from the older brother and a barrage of air bullets yet again being send at her by the older sister from the right, Lamya had to admit that if she had not been as experienced as she was in combat or if she had been even slightly slower, she would've been in quite a pickle, but than again, she was who she was; a former anbu captain, former head of the Ouroboros clan and part of the once famed Heaven, Earth, Hell trio of Konoha. In short, she had nothing to worry about just yet, as long as she kept her movements at a bare minimum and didn't do anything rash or brazen, she would get out of this little skirmish with hardly any expended chakra and the bandits would live to tell the tale of their failure, more importantly though, she wouldn't attract too much unwanted attention from sunagakure's own shinobi.

"Ugh, what a drag," She sighed calmly, taking a slow, yet deep breath as she quickly formed a few handseals, suddenly rushing forwards to slip through the defense of the trio of bandits, aided by her High Velocity jutsu, which allowed her to raise her speed by a considerable amount, making it so that to the untrained eye, she could've very well just teleported herself to behind the huge man. Before he could react though, Lamya gave him a little nudge against his back, which aided by the man's own momentum through his slash from earlier, meant that he came to fall right into the path of both the water stream and the air bullets, which though not deadly, would no doubt hurt the hulking tower of muscles a fair bit. "Again, I'm asking you three politely to retreat and leave me be, I really don't have the time nor the patience to deal with amateurs such as yourself. Why won't you just understand the difference in skill between us...three people of arguably genin, maybe chuunin level can't even come close to making me sweat, let alone capture me."

The muscled man was standing up again after having been blasted by his older brother and older sister from each side and though he had some tears and rips in his clothing, it seemed that his actual wounds were superficial at best, except for maybe an obvious bruise on his right upper arm, making it painfully clear that his ability to use the massive blade had greatly diminished by this unfortunate incident for the three of them. "No, not yet, I can still go on... please aneki, nee-chan... let's show her our invincible combination, that way we're surely going to take her down, even if it would ask us to expell all our chakra, think about the bounty on that bitch's head."

Lamya simply tilted her head to the left, while her pupils seemed to widen a bit. "Let's hope you entertain me with this so-called ultimate combination of yours. I warned you too many times already, kill or be killed it is than."

652/2590

The muscled man and his siblings simply smiled in reaction to Lamya's final threat, seemingly unfazed by both her words and her earlier display of skill. these guys were either desperate to get their hands on the bounty on her head or they had unwavering conviction and trust in their so-called ultimate combination. It was such a sight to see them being so calm and confident, that even Lamya, despite her confidence in her own power and abilities was feeling slightly nervous and at the same time intrigued by what they would be throwing at her, but as always, the former head of the ouroboros clan had a failsafe within her repertoire of jutsu, her most recently perfected shin saisei or perfect revival would no doubt be perfect to use in a case such as this, if the combination would at least pose a threat to her continued survival.

Then it finally happened, the trio at long last made their move, with the burly man suddenly slamming his hand upon his massive blade, breaking it apart in easily a hundred shards by sheer force, which in itself was quite impressive to watch, but it was also at that point that Lamya realized their ploy. Knowing that the man's sister was proficient in using kugutsu or puppet techniques and wind release, it was no surprise that she suddenly used a hundred chakra strings and her wind release to keep the shards afloat in the air, yet as she launched them towards Lamya, the kunoichi felt a pang of disappointment, thinking that she did not even need to worry about a combination of this level.

Snapping her fingers, she erected her second most powerful barrier, effectively blocking the shards as they flew towards her, yet still the trio seemed to be calm and even smiling at her, it was so strange that she almost thought they had become mad, but then she realized it, she had been baited by her own arrogance. She had forgotten about the older brother, who had yet to reveal his part in the combination and all she knew was his water release skills, but what else was he capable of, as she did not see how water could help in this case.

The shards were still stuck on her barrier, so for now she was safe, but Lamya knew the barrier could only hold off a single high level jutsu, so if they managed to push through or the barrier's effect ended, she'd be in trouble, yet for now the purple wall seemed to hold up.However, she noticed the cracks coming in the barrier and as she was contemplating what to do next, the older brother finally made his move, making a multitude of handseals before slamming his hands together to form a final tiger seal, at which point the shards started to vibrate immensely fast.

"What the!?" She had to react quickly, so as her barrier broke, the former Anbu captain quickly erected a slightly weaker in level, but sturdier barrier from her repertoire to hold off the shards, yet to her surprise, they penetrated this barrier with quite some ease, showing that this combination jutsu the bandits held so highly was indeed quite a powerful jutsu in the end.

Jumping back again, Lamya quickly made a few handseals and slammed her hands on the ground, forming a large wall of mud in front of her, hoping the wall's viscosity would be enough to stop the shards or at least get the stuck for a while, yet as she let out a sigh of relief when it seemed that her ploy had worked, a hundred spinning iron shards got through the wall with relative ease and flew right towards her, which despite the fact that the siblings could not see her was quite remarkable, remarkable, annoying and extremely dangerous. This wasn't an A rank jutsu, this was an S rank jutsu made out of a few low ranking, but carefully matched jutsu, a homing jutsu using a weapon, string manipulation and vibration. If she was not these guys' target, she'd have recommended them to become her servants, but in this case such a reccommendation was kind of impossible. "I might actually need to use my best techniques to stop these guys, quite impressive."

726/3316

So she had been cornered by a jutsu that on its own didn't look the part, but when taking in account that it had to be build up by rather average level jutsu by seemingly of average skill being bandits, the endresult was quite a spectacular one, able to not only break through one, not two, but three of Lamya's best defenses, practically making a mockery of her entire style of fighting and the jutsu she had been carefully studying over the course of her career as a shinobi. In the end it was a slap in her face and a serious wake up call not to underestimate her enemies too much, to resist the call of her own arrogance and to prevent herself from giving in to her vanity.

However, at this point she had to think fast and she had to figure out how she'd be able to prevent herself from getting caught into her opponents' jutsu, which had already passed through her final defense, with the dozens upon dozens of metal shards finding their way towards her. "I seriously did not want to attract too much trouble, but I reckon there's no space for such frivolous requests now."

It wasn't like she had a choice by this point, so while jumping backwards through the sand, in the meantime motioning Uraeus to remain hidden within the sand just for the sake of his own safety, Lamya began to make her preparations to this rather uncomfortable, unexpected and quite frankly unwelcome situation. It was quite a predicament to deal with a jutsu that seemed to home in on her and also looked like it was a maintainable one to top it all off. "Such a real pain, this is such a nuissance."

Activating her Anbu sensory range jutsu, she started to rely upon her extremely well-honed senses to follow the path of the shards, to discover their motion and to avoid them while necessary, so she could in the meantime mend her chakra as she was attempting to get herself into sagemode, which meant she could not be using any of her jutsu in the meantime.

As she ran around, passing her grand mud wall, she could see how the trio was also able to keep track of her despite losing sight of her due to her barriers, as the muscular man who's blade had been broken apparently was keeping his eyes closed, yet used a handseal similar to the Yamanaka clan's dream-seal, which they used to transfer their soul to other objects, yet she reckoned with his magnet release using brother, he himself probably had a more sensory oriented version, using the shards of his sword as rods or antennae for his sensory purposes. "I should remember that jutsu combination...it might be worth creating a less potent, but more useful adaptation of that."

Finally, after having run around for a few minutes on end, having skillfully avoided the shards from connecting to her, Lamya suddenly stopped with pressing the palms of her hands together and formed a Yin-Snake handseal combination, after which she changed drastically, with her hair turning white and each strand becoming thick and slick like a snake, her eyes turned silver and her face and body grew slightly thinner, with her skin becoming slightly slicker as well. "Finally, time to take out this trash."

570/3886

Yamata no Orochi

The very act of expelling a huge amount of chakra seemed to be able to halt the shards of metal in their path, preventing them from reaching her, though this was most likely because the trio of bandits were surprised by what was happening.

A shockwave coursed through the area, whipping up the sand in a towering cloud of dust, looking like it seemed to reach the heavens themselves, yet what made the bandits tremble and fall to their knees, subsequently making them lose control over their own jutsu, was not the cloud, not the sound of the screeching wind, but the massive, imposing dark shadow that could be seen within the cloud of dust and sand. This shadow alone was enough for the muscular man to eventually pee his pants in response to the immense pressure that could be felt as the cloud of dust started to dissipate.

A humongous beast, a snake with eight impressively imposing heads, thick white scales and a spiked, rocky shell acting as a crown upon its immense body appeared out of the dust, with each head's attention focused upon the trio of bandits, the beast straightened itself, reaching up to its full height of easily thirty meters and a deep, rumbling hiss could be heard far and wide as the maws of each head opened to reveal a multitude of long, sharp fangs.

In an instant, at least two of the heads chomped down into the sand, just nearly missing the trio of bandits who had managed to narrowly escape by jumping out of the way. "What...what the hell is that!!"

While they started running, the massive white snake with its eight intimidating heads followed them, crushing all in its path to dust under its formidable weight. Surprisingly enough for them, the beast seemed to be able to keep up with them fairly easy and with hardly any obvious effort, despite the massive crown upon its back which would've slowed down most animals of said size, yet it did not seem to deter the dragon-like snake known as Yamata no Orochi at all.

True to its name, it was a technique which had only ever been in the hands of its namesakes; the Orochi and it was understandable that many had no clue that Lamya could use such a huge jutsu, as many had forgotten her real name, even in Konoha there were but a few left who knew her by her original name of Orochi Risu and it was thanks to that name, that she had the blood of the Snake, the power to become a dragon that could swallow a whole platoon of shinobi in a mere instant.

The bandits were scared for their life and rightfully so, bickering with eachother as they ran from the Yamata no orochi, each giving their own reason why their original plan now looked rather stupid, but they did agree on one thing: they probably should've heeded the warnings they were given by their target.

As they again narrowly avoided the massive snake's attacks, the trio suddenly decided it was perhaps smarter to make a run for Sunagakure, hoping that their forces would be enough to contain or even destroy the very thing they had so foolishly allowed to be created before their very eyes.

When they were running, trying to cross dunes of sand in their way, eventually, the burliest of them; the muscular man who had earlier soiled his own garments at the very sight of the Yamata no Orochi, suddenly fell and could not get up in time. Right before his brother and sister's eyes, a single maw of the eight headed snake chomped down on him, the sound of crushing bone and tearing flesh reaching the two in sickening fashion, yet the worst were the screams coming from the muscular man's mouth. "Aneki, nee-chan, save me!! Save...me...Aaargh!!"

A single final chomp upon the muscular man's body snapped his body in half, with his mangled upper half falling into the sand in front of the two other bandits, the sand becoming soaked with bits of flesh, bone crushed to dust and ample amounts of blood, with the lifeless, bloodied eyes of the bandit looking at the two survivors in anguish. "come on nee-chan, we need to go, we need to go!!"

The older brother pulled his sister by the arm, as she was shocked by what she had witnessed. Though he was shocked as well, the older brother had lost everything now, he could only think about running and preserving his own life, nothing else mattered, so when his sister did not react to him, he made a run for it and as his sister finally got out of her shocked state, looking at her running and stumbling brother, she realized that she was standing within the shadow of the encroaching massive beast they had been running from.

Before she could say anything, the Yamata no orochi simply slithered over her, crushing her entire body slowly under its massive weight, allowing her to scream in agony and anguish until her chest got crompressed to the thickness of a piece of paper, making her head and spine pop out like the corque from a bottle, splattering the ground with various bits and pieces of skin, tissue and blood until those as well got run over by the massive beast.

The older brother in the meantime no longer cared, he was so close now, he could see it, the huge wall that had kept sunagakure safe for so many centuries...except for maybe that one time when someone just flew over it and nearly bombed the village into nothingness. He was so close, safety was right there...

"Hey, hey...anyone, help goddamnit, help me!!"

976/4862

chakra remaining: 235/370

Just another day at the office. That was what Midori expected when she sat at her desk, scribing down on paper the details of a mission she had to lay out, another simple mining task that was required, and so, set for the genin and chuunin as a priority. Good training for their muscles, sense of responsibility, and it worked to help keep the village running. Yet this generic task was swiftly interrupted as a shadow flickered in front of her desk, before four ANBU arrived, each wearing their masks and standing in silence before one spoke up. “Lady Kazekage. A large snake creature, perhaps a summon, is attacking one of the front gates. What is your suggestion for plan of action?”

The information took a moment for Midori to process. The information was vague, and were it not given by the black ops themselves, she would believe it to be false information. Still, this was from the ANBU. Fact that she had to take serious. Was it a major force assaulting? A rogue summon going berserk? Regardless, she had to subdue whatever aggressors there were, and ensure the village safety. Standing up from her desk in an instant, the Ningyou Kazekage spat out her words with a forceful, commanding tone. “I want fifteen squads of ANBU, and every three squads to be led by an ANBU captain! Gather those sixty ANBU, specifically focusing on those that specialising in damage and defensive – sensory specialists are not important for this mission! Everyone else, I want to clear the district! Make a perimeter so that nobody can go in, and evacuate the citizens! Get any injured to the hospital, and everyone else in the vicinity to the coliseum! The ANBU squads will be on me, with as many weapons as they can get! Now go and get on it! Dismissed!”

With a wave of her puppet prosthetic arm, Midori dismissed the ANBU, who body flickered away as swiftly as they arrived. A flat out dangerous expression upon her face of stern fury, Midori walked over to the corner of her office, where she kept one of her puppets, attaching her puppet strings to the automaton in preparation. A humanoid figure with a sharp blade in each hand, wearing a kimono and almost looking as if it were merely another human – only with a reddish hue. The Ace of Diamonds, and her strongest puppet currently within her arsenal. At her side were basic shinobi tools, although given what she had heard vaguely of this creature, she wouldn’t need it.

Armed and ready, the Kazekage moved to the window of her office, looking out along the balcony and towards the main gate. Sure as sure could be, there in the horizon was a silhouette large enough to be seen from such a distance. The idea that someone unleashed such a thing… Without hesitation, and puppet at her side, Midori leapt from the balcony and onto the nearby rooftops. Clad in her usual office gear of just the Kazekage robes, she wasn’t in the most perfect of combat gear. Yet hopefully it would be good for morale if nothing else.

From there, she rushed to the sign of the battle, arriving in short time after a sprint, the ANBU with her and surrounding the large behemoth from all angles. Midori herself stood atop a rooftop, hair flowing behind her in the slight breeze, with her puppet at her side. Meanwhile, the shadowy figures of the ANBU, all wielding a variety of weapons – some bows and crossbows, some yari’s and spears, however the majority wielding the classical sword. And with fury in her eyes, and harshness in her voice, Midori shouted out. “I don’t know who or what you are, but this is your only warning! Stand down! If you so much as begin to move, you will be executed under order of the Kazekage!”

The tension in her stance was obvious, puppet strings trailing from her left hand to the combat puppet, while her prosthetic right arm was poised ready to unleash a punch. At any moment, she prepared herself to spring in to action, have Miyamoto remove a head or two, or simply punch one of the blows away should the snake come for her. Right now, Midori was angry. She took not kindly to those that dared invade and attack her home.

She would get answers for this transgression, and would act to ensure her home was protected. Her eyes scanned around the area as the snake creature writhed around and caused devastation. No sign of sentience… Yet, she was not going to risk it getting a strike off while unprepared. With a swiftness, the Kazekage swung her arm to the side in a gesture, shouting her orders for the troops to act upon. “Activate the barrier! I want this thing contained and quarantined, all of you! Think of it as overkill if you will, but I will not take chances with lives at stake!”

With that, 60 ANBU placed their hands on the ground – either on the rooves of buildings, or the ground atop the cliff gateway in and out of Sunagakure no Sato. A large wall quickly formed, the ANBU Barrier technique that was common for ANBU to use in small squads to quarantine or block dangerous attacks. In this instance, a tremendous scale of nigh-impenetrable defence. From there, Midori, incredibly pissed off, punched a chimney with her puppet arm, causing a dent in the structure as she called out. “Sunagakure is not a weak nation! I know not what summoned you, but we as a nation will not falter! The sandstorm is a defence, and even the smallest grain can whittle down a fortress with time and support! ANBU, maintain the barrier, do not let the creature escape! If you grow tired, declare so, call for back up, and swap places with them! We will not allow any damage to befall the village!”

With that, the pissed off Kage stood atop the building and watched. Unbeknownst to her, she couldn’t save a soul that called for help. Yet, a bigger picture was her priority right now, not investigating the inevitable destruction the creature had so far caused.

1037

Chakra: 265/270 (-5 for Puppet Strings Technique)
Born Ill: 1/8

Jutsu used:

When a beast hunts

While the kazekage was forming a rather impressive defense around the massive wall which had shielded Sunagakure for generations, the poor eldest brother of the trio of bandits got locked out of his hoped safe haven as well, banging on the barrier with his fists, loudly screaming for help, while not forgetting to look behind him and notice that not only was his sister nowhere to be found, but the massive eight headed snake was coming closer as well, shifting through the desert's sand at a leisurely speed towards its target. "Oh come on...please, lower the barrier, let me in!! Please don't do this to me, please help me, please!!"

Trying to escape the beast as it had finally come close enough, the bandit started to run along the length of the barrier, hoping to somehow find a hole or something to get into, but as he ran, he could hear one head after another from the massive snake bang against the barrier as it was aiming to get the bandit, sending shockwaves through the anbu-made defense and surely some cracks here or there, but it mainly seemed to ignore the anbu and their barrier, focused mainly on the bandit as he ran accross the outside of the barrier in the hopes of managing to save himself somehow.

The Yamata no orochi, slamming its heads one after the other against the barrier, seemed to halt for a moment, sliding closer to the barrier, breathing at it, while each head seemed to look at the anbu holding up the barrier, before its eyes seemed to wander off towards the kazekage standing nearby her men as well. However, they were not the enemy, not yet at least, for now the only thing which seemed to be of any interest to the massive beast, was the single man running along at the edge of the barrier, crying out for help towards the anbu at the walls and on the rooftops, besieching them to save him from the beast. "Please, please let me in, remove the barrier, let me in, please!!"

Eventually, the bandit and basically everyone within half a mile would be able to hear the massive beast's deep and low hiss, a loud, heavy rumbling sound which denoted the size and weight of the massive beast, yet belied its ferocity.

The snake seemed to stop following the bandit for a moment, looking at the eldest of the trio of bandits, as he was whimpering near the barrier, still crying out for mercy, his arms spread out and pressed against the barrier, actually trying to push himself in at no avail. However, when he heard the rumbling sound, he turned around to see one of the snake's heads lowered to his level and a mere meter away from him. As the beast breathed out, the bandit actually squaked and did his best to back away against the barrier, yet to his surprise the beast didn't seem to react.

Slowly the single head came closer to the bandit, pressing with its snout against the man's chest for a moment, smelling the man's perspiring sweat, his fear and anguish culminating in a sour and salty smell and for a single moment, the head opened its maw, its tongue flicking out and barely touching the man, causing him to squeak and whimper again. Then, to the man's surprise, the beast's head seemed to retreat, rising slightly upwards and slightly going backwards, closing its eyes.

"You...won't kill me, I'm safe... oh thank you, thank you, thank you..."

In an instant, the beast's eyes opened again and any anbu nearby could easily sense it, the immense intent to kill, the ferocious amount of hatred and anger that was visible in the massive slit pupils of each of the heads and as the man still had his arms wide, thanking the beast without looking at the rest of the heads, anyone else would've been able to see that the seven other heads started to sway gently, which was usually the sign for anyone knowing anything about snakes, to become wary and very, very carefull, yet the man did not see this and remained thanking the Yamata no orochi for not eating or killing him.

Two of the heads struck in a flash, each biting down upon an arm of the man, ripping them off like one would bite the flesh off of a drumstick and as the man screamed in pain and despair, the head closest to him bit down upon the rest of his body, raising upwards while the man was still yelling a muffled scream and squirming at all costs to get out, when finally, another of the snake's heads bit down on the lower half of the man and the two heads simply ripped apart the body of the man in swats of flesh, bone and blood, silencing the last bandit's screams and splashing the barrier with his final remains.

The snake let out a loud, almost triumphant sounding hiss when it spat out the rest of the man at the barrier, watching closely as both halves of the bandit slowly slid down the barrier.

881/5743

Midori and the ANBU watched in silence as the individual tried to desperately get through the barrier, to no effect, before begging for his life to the beast. No movement of expression change occurred at the gruesome instance that proceeded to follow up that moment, blood splattering against the ground and barrier. A grim moment, and as Midori steeled her resolve, she thought of what to do, eyeing up the tremendous sized beast. With that, she simply watched, eyes scanning the various pieces of anatomy of the creature. Taking her time, she withdrew a scroll from her waist, spreading it out on the ground with one hand before slamming the palm of her prosthetic against it, undoing the seal that could be found on it and summoning a rather simple looking humanoid figure – the Two of Clubs. From there, Midori set the puppet down on its knees, flipping the book at the back of its head open as she began to look through, scanning for information. The gesture the serpent had made before striking was similar to that of the cobras found within the desert, a threatening display. So, Midori scanned through the pages, looking through the pages specifically on the fauna of Kaze no Kuni within the tremendous tome. Minutes of awkward silence within the tense situation, the ANBU continuing to hold up their defensive barrier while Midori simply read.

Finally, the page about snakes indigenous to Sunagakure and its surrounding desert turned up, and swiftly Midori scanned through the page, looking up every now and again between the serpentine beast and the real snakes that could be found locally. The head of the beast was thin, at least relatively to the neck, and she only spotted a singular set of nostrils, with no sign of heat sensing pits. She nodded to herself, confirming the thought she’d had. The serpentine creature they were faced with now had an anatomy closer to that of a constrictor type serpent, and thus did not have venom or poison. This was good, as it meant there would be little to no risk of contaminating the area with the dangerous chemicals upon decapitation of the creature. That also meant the creature had the body type to wrap around, even if it had a few more heads than your average serpent.

Taking into consideration this anatomical similarity to real snakes, Midori shut the tome with a surprisingly loud bang. From there, she gestured to two of the five ANBU captains, the ones nearest her. “You two. Order your respective squads to prepare the strongest techniques they have! Have your squads drop the barrier ready, while everyone else maintains it! On my mark, I want both teams to have their techniques unleashed upon this thing, aiming for just below the jaw, and the neck! This thing likely has a fair bit of agility to it, and we just saw that the heads can co-ordinate with one another, so I want you to aim as spread and centre as possible! Fire squad, air squad, get ready! Everyone else, prepare for my signal!”

At this, a total of six teams of ANBU ceased using the barrier technique, leaving thirty six ANBU holding up the barrier. The twenty four that stopped meanwhile, began weaving signs and moulding chakra. Out of these twenty four, a total of ten of them on the east most side began weaving a very co-ordinated set of signs: Horse, Monkey, and then Bird, before in sync moving their hands in front of their mouths. Meanwhile, another two, one of which was the ANBU Captain of that segment, simply gathered chakra in their mouth, putting a singular hand in front of their masks lips.

On the opposite side meanwhile, the other twelve ANBU all began forming a rather long string of hand seals: The Ram, the Horse, the Snake, the Dragon, the Rat, the Ox, and then finally, the Tiger, before taking in a singular deep breath. From there, Midori waved her hand as she tended to do when giving orders, shouting out at the top of her lungs. “Release the barrier!”

In an instant, those still upholding the barrier allowed it to sink, as the twenty four ANBU black ops unleashed a barrage of jutsu. Ten ANBU unleashed a mass cloud of wind and dust, twelve unleashed a roaring cone of flames whose heat could be felt even by Midori, whilst the other two unleashed quick moving orbs of pure wind in a five metre radius each, that seemed to slice through the air itself. Basic techniques of high standard and level, whilst Midori simply watched, observing and continuing to plan, preparing for any situation of which she would need to act herself.

788 + 1037 = 1825

Chakra: 255/270 (-5 for maintaining puppet strings, -5 for using generic sealing technique)
Born ill: 2/8

Jutsu Midori used:

Jutsu used by ANBU:

OOC: So people don't get mad at me for utilising NPC's, I'll just clarify: Each ANBU, excluding the A rank ANBU Captains, is a B rank shinobi, meaning they'd have the sort of jutsu a B rank shinobi would have. Same with the A rank ANBU Captains. Given that they are an emergency deployment, I believe it would be fair to assume they'd get squads that contained people with jutsu that could deal big damage, and so I used 3 library jutsu.

As the massive snake had done what it desired to do; taking down the bandits which had been pestering it, Lamya still resided within its darkness, feeling its instincts slowly washing over and engulfing her. It was the first time that she had used this forbidden technique and now she was slowly coming to realize why Konoha had forbidden this secret technique of her clan's most famous member in history. She could feel a cold sensation swallow her whole, as her golden eyes lit up in the darkness, her pupils narrowing to slits with the width of just a single strand of hair and as she let out a deep hiss of her own, the massive snake seemed to react accordingly, suddenly rearing its heads when it had calmed down for a while after having killed the last bandit, it's eyes radiating with a golden sheen as it turned its attention towards the barrier that had blocked it earlier.

Before it managed to focus on a new target, the Yamata no Orochi noticed that the barrier was coming down, with many veiled shinobi suddenly jumping towards it, launching jutsu after jutsu to keep it at bay and destroy it. However, when the snake felt that two of its heads had been shredded apart by strong wind jutsu, it let out a loud, rumbling hiss, lashing out with its tail towards a few incoming shinobi, lowering its other heads to slither as quick as it could out of harm's way.

Uraeus in the meantime noticed that his mistress had lost control over her jutsu and softly nodded his head while slipping through the cracks of the massive wall protecting the village, knowing that his best shot of solving this problem peacefully and without additional, unwanted casualties, was to get the attention of the one using puppets, who seemed to be the leader of the troup of shinobi.

Another of the heads got sliced apart by an earth style jutsu, but as the jutsu hit their marks, it became obvious that for each earth style or wind style jutsu, there had to be two fire style jutsu to gain the same effect, showing that the massive beast shared the same strengths and weaknesses as the one who had cast the jutsu in the first place. Taking advantage of this, the snake, despite having already lost a few heads, focused its attention mainly towards those using earth style jutsu, lashing out with its tail, while snapping its jaws towards every shinobi that came within its range, yet it could not hold out much longer against this onslaught, as it was primarily a jutsu used to fight evenly against large summons and even the famed Uchiha's Susano'o jutsu, but against a whole group of sixty shinobi with no element of surprise for itself, the Yamata no Orochi was doomed to fall under the brunt of all those dangerous techniques they were firing at it.

Uraeus, particulary concerned that they wouldn't stop even if the jutsu would be dispelled, managed to crawl upon the building where the puppet user was standing. "If you wouldn't mind...would you consider listen to my request before you accidentally kill the one who's inside that monstrous snake, milady?"

547/6290

As the battle raged on, ANBU leaping from position to position to avoid the swiftly moving and striking heads, Midori shouted out a new order as she noted the effectiveness of the serpent. “Fire squad! Focus on defending the other squads! Your techniques are not as effective, perhaps due to the fact it’s a snake, which are cold blooded in nature! Keep moving and don’t allow yourselves to get hit by its fangs, or its weight!” Her voice carried, even throughout the roaring of combat that enveloped the area, all ANBU now using any techniques in their arsenal to attack at the necks and heads, however mostly focusing on evading the attacks.

Out of the corner of her eye however, Midori caught sight of a slight flickering shadow. While it could perhaps be anything, Midori’s fingers twitched at the strings attached to the Ace of Diamonds. Nothing came directly from ahead, yet soon after, the sound of movement upon the same rooftop as her caused her to become aware of the new presence. A voice, serpentine and low down, emanated from behind, Midori spinning on her heel with the Ace of Diamonds quickly following to be at her side. A white snake, coiled and hissing as the animal often does. Yet given the situation, and the words of which were stung through the air, it didn’t take much for Midori to put two and two together – that this snake was the one who had talked.

Facial expression unchanging, Midori looked down at the snake, voice stern and unforgiving as she spoke in grave tones. “I know not who you are snake, but, if you are referring to the creature that killed within the borders of Sunagakure, then you would do well to give a brief reason as to why the creature should not be killed. I do not take kindly to murder within my borders, whatever the cause, and either that is a summon, or a technique, the latter explaining what you mean when you say there’s a woman in the body of it. So, speak. You have one minute to tell me why not to execute this hostile upon the land.”

A few ANBU dead from the retaliation of the snake, the fire specialists began to move to intercept blows for their comrades in instances that they cannot escape in time, the earth release, water release, lightning release, and wind release users all continuing to unleash their barrages while moving in a non-stop circular pattern, hoping to keep the heads occupied and as tangled and restricted as possible by its own, extended anatomy. Weaving around, bouncing atop rooftops and cliff faces in an ever moving motion. Various images of animals. Reptiles, birds, marsupials, rodents, mammals and other such vague animal features, all carved into white and red patterns upon the masks of ANBU, the only colour and light to stand out against the pitch dark of their robes and uniform, the dark grey of ANBU armour. The shadows of Sunagakure now moved in the light, and the shadow of the sand, the Kazekage, awaited for the words of the serpents tongue.

522 + 1825 = 2347

Chakra: 250/270 (-5 chakra for puppet strings)
Born Ill: 3/8

Yamata No Orochi's finale

The massive snake steadily started to weaken, as at least four heads had already been crushed, shred apart and devoured by multitudes of jutsu and when a fifth head had been cut off and the kazekage had managed to realize that fire style jutsu were far less effective, the Yamata no Orochi began to rely on its speed more and more, choosing rather to try and avoid getting hit rather than trying to go on the offensive, it's retaliations towards the attacking ANBU becoming rather sparse and few in number.

Luckily for Lamya though, the fact that the snake was losing its ferocity meant that she was getting more and more control, attempting to calm down herself and by extension the Yamata no orochi itself, which had obviously been agitated by the unprovoked attack by the ANBU. She herself understood why the Yamata no Orochi did not hesitate to retaliate, as the jutsu was specifically anchored to her own emotions and desires, which had shown prevalently when the snake calmed down considerately between the moment it had dispatched of the last bandit and the ordered attack of the ANBU. However, that attack itself forced Lamya's instincts out and into the massive beast: the instinct of self preservation and rage taking prevalence in a situation like that.

Just two heads left, as the Yamata no Orochi suddenly held still, it's radiating golden eyes turning dull like before and the heads hanging low and silent before the incoming jutsu, making it obvious that Lamya had managed to calm down, though also opted to be forced out of the jutsu rather than making the dangerous option of emerging from one head, which was quite suicidal in a heated moment like this.

The snake in the meantime looked at the Kazekage, noticing her twitching fingers and the slight movement of the puppet she had with her and letting out what seemed to be some sort of chuckle, though it mainly consisted out of a mixture between chuckle and hiss. "First and foremost in that minute of yours, allow me to quickly introduce myself. I am Uraeus, descendant of the Great White Snake Sage of the Ryuchi Caves, partner to Orochi Risu, former member of the village hidden in the leaf."

Coiling himself up, so that he could take a more comfortable position, the large white snake rested his head upon his piled-up body and looked at Midori for a moment. "There's three things I'd need to tell you. One, my mistress was attacked by three bandits, which after repeated warnings used a particulary dangerous and righteningly strong combination jutsu, to which my mistress responded in kind. Second, rather than allow my mistress to calm down after she had taken down the bandits, you attacked her without warning or hesitation, thus provoking her ire and Thirdly, this is more or less a question...but what do you think will happen when my mistress is repelled out of the snake's body when it's destroyed?"

Letting out a sigh, the snake turned it's head around and sighed again.

"It seems she's calmed down...your choice, try to listen to reason or face her when she can use all her jutsu again," the snake started to slither away and as he reached the edge of the roof, he let out another chuckling hiss."Would be interesting to see though. Cut off the two last heads and she'll emerge, continue a full assault and someone who is much stronger than the current hokage wille emerge rather pissed."

604/6894

At the serpents words, Midori’s glare harshened, tempering steel within her mind. She took note of the first words of the serpent. The implications of its introduction, several things of which she felt appropriate to keep in memory. Its name mattered little to her, the hostility of its voice almost mocking. Yet, to her, two things were the most important. The first most being that it introduced itself as a descendent of a snake sage. To Midori, that meant a situation of which underestimation would be daft. The second being, that it declared it was partner to someone named Orochi Risu, an ex member of the leaf. The title of ex member gave Midori a hint that perhaps this Risu was not the most popular back at their home. Rogue shinobi, perhaps.

Next, the snake declared three points. First, it explained why the woman had become a snake in the first place. Bandits. Nothing new. Its second point somewhat pissed Midori off though, daring to accuse the Kazekage of being the aggressor of the situation. At the implications the snake dared to make, Midori twitched her fingers once more, the puppet at her side brandishing its blades in an ominously looming manner, as if it were about to slash forwards at any moment, an inhuman stillness in both Midori and the puppet. And lastly, posing a question of rhetoric. She glanced to the side, where her ANBU had ceased attacks, and as had the serpent. It had gone alongside what the serpent had stated. Voice stern and unwavering, the Kazekage spoke. “I advise in future, you think before you speak. A large serpent appeared at the border, and before we struck, we raised a barrier, and demanded an explanation. We got none, and so we did the judgement of what was best for the village. Secondly, your wording implies that whoever your partner is inside of that serpent, is not popular within the village of the leaf. For that reason, I am loathe to simply expect you to keep your word…”

Raising her puppet arm for the ANBU Captains to cease fire entirely, she continued. “That being said, I will give you the benefit of the doubt. However, if the creature even moves to strike again, I will personally deliver execution, do you understand? Now go tell your master to leave. We are not welcoming of missing shinobi of other nations here, especially those that strike with such destructive wanton abandon, and think not of the consequences, blaming those that retaliate for their own folly. You and your master may leave. But do not dare strike against the Sand again. Do not dare to undermine the Sand. And do not dare to believe your master is in the right. I don’t care if she was attacked by an entire army or invading nations. My citizens were put in danger. Consider the cease fire a blessing.”

With that, Midori turned on her heel from the snake, shouting out. “All ANBU units, stand down! If the serpent moves to attack, dodge, and then strike back, however otherwise cease fire! Squad fire, fall back, and get some medic squads! I want full analysis of any injuries sustained, as well as tests done on the bodies once this serpent leaves! Everyone else, form up on me!”

At the command, the shadowy figures of the Suna ANBU Black Ops moved, those who had been using fire techniques running off back towards the centre of the village, jumping atop rooftops as they moved to the Suna hospitals and ANBU stations. The rest of them meanwhile, gathered upon Midori, standing at her side and gathering her in a mass of shadows, the Kazekage watching and preparing for what the creature would do next. The snake had one chance to leave, or else Midori would hold no mercy.

640 + 2347 = 2987
Charka: 245/270 (-5 for puppet strings)
Born Ill: 4/8

"True, there was no explanation given," Uraeus laughed, halting his return to the massive snake and precariously leaning on the edge of the rooftop on which the kazekage was standing. "Alas, when you erected that barrier, there was also no way for me to go through and elaborate on the situation like I've been doing now... pretty inconvenient disadvantage from using bariers after all."

The snake looked at Midori, softly hissing as he continuously seemed to eye the puppet she was using, keen on being aware of every twitch in the woman's fingers which could launch the mechanical device his way, no doubt she had to be quite the skilled puppeteer if she was even to be considered worthy of the position of a kage, but already at first glance Uraeus knew that it was most likely her puppet that was to be feared and not the kazekage herself. "Your citizens were never in danger, Lady Kazekage. No doubt they would've been terrified, but the Yamata no Orochi is mainly a defensive creation, only attacking those that threaten it. Let us call this an unfortunate case of disfunctional communication and human error."

In the meantime, the massive snake seemed to notice that the Anbu people didn't continue their assault, which in turn firstly confused the beast for a bit, wondering what had happened, but as it sensed that Uraeus was behind those enemy lines, the Yamata no Orochi finally seemed to realize the situation and why there was this awkward silence. However first things first, as the beast looked down, it could see medical shinobi hurry for their comrades to try and fix them up, doing their best to mend broken bones and stop the bleeding of lacerations and puncture wounds caused by the large snake's teeth.

With the realization that there was no threat, the jutsu's own instinctive consciousness made way for Lamya's rational logic, as suddenly one head opened its maw and bit into the other head and with a sickening sound of crushing bone and tearing flesh, ripped it off and spit it onto the ground, where it suddenly vanished in a large cloud of smoke and sand after which the sole remaining head lowered itself with open maw, allowing a single person to crawl out and wipe of the sticky goo that seemed to cover her.

"Sunagakure, hmm," The woman sighed, looking behind her as the remains of the snake started to melt away and sink into the sand. This truly had become a mess, first those bandits and no an entire squadron of Anbu soldiers. Though on the bright side, it seemed that Sunagakure's Anbu were greatly inferior compared to the Konoha Anbu or they had to have been the mainstay basic operatives. Either way, this entire thing had turned very bad. Here all that Lamya wanted to do was get into sunagakure, just to perhaps find a new home, not plagued by internal struggle and a faulty bureaucracy, but what she found were bandits trying to claim her head and... suna shinobi actually cutting off her heads. "This really isn't what I hoped it would be."

Uraeus noticed that the Yamata no Orochi had vanished and let out an obvious sigh of relief, even though he was confident in his abilities, that kazekage could've easily captured him or worse if she'd used that expensive looking puppet. "Lady Kazekage, I reckon you have no need for someone of my mistress' caliber. Ugh, now I'm the one who has to explain to her that she's not welcome in Suna...seriously, this desert was probably the most worthless trip ever, first bandits,
than sunagakure attacking without provocation...well, if sunagakure doesn't need someone beyond kage level in their ranks, maybe Kumogakure would love someone who can teach their medics some new stuff."

The white snake glared at Midori before finally slithering off of the rooftop and vanishing from sight, hurrying along to Lamya who was still slightly in a daze and not sure wether she needed to help the Anbu or just leave them, given how rude they'd been to attack her for no apparent reason, she wasn't entirely sure if actually helping them wouldn't be seen as a threat either. "Tsk, I heard Suna was xenophobic, but this just tops it all."

733/7627

1750/1750 S-0 RT to S-1 RT
2000/2000 S-1 RT to S-2 RT
2250/2250 S-2 RT to S-3 RT

1500/1500 B rank jutsu Strength of will trained

127 wc left