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26The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Fri Jun 22, 2018 9:59 pm

Yasubei

Yasubei


C-rank
The Pursuit of medical ninjutsu isn't innately worthwhile, at least that was always how Yasubei saw it. The application of the highly focused skill set was typically over shadowed by most ninja on a day to day basis. Countless ninja live their entire lives without so much as learning the basics of founding techniques, and yet those same ninjas rise up to great heights nonetheless. In fact Yasubei would argue that those with medical ninjutsu are so busy supporting others that they fall far behind. The other ninja can quickly brute force their way through a situation that might require a lot of time and finesse from a medical ninja. That being said Yasubei did understand the basic principles of medical ninjutsu, but only enough so that he could better understand his own body and just what he was. There was the additional benefit of occasionally being able to reset a bone, suture a wound, or perform some other long-term practice to make people better. Those practices though mundane were in Yasubei's opinion all that were really necessary for other people. He saw it as being no different than fixing a puppet. As long as the puppet is out of commission and still being repaired.

In the last few months all of that has been thrown out of the window. Yasu has watched terrible atrocities begin happening as the ninja from what seemed like every village began interfering with the system that had been forming slowly but surely in the Land of Wind. A new force had somehow found root here in the land of wisping sands taking hold of the scarred land and using as a foundation to destroy everything that'd been erected by previous generations. Not that that was of any consequence to Yasubei. An unelected but worthy official made their presence known and seemed to be on the path towards uniting the area under their flag. For a time the entity showed a small amount of interest in Yasubei himself, but as Yasu proved himself to be incapable of defeating a genin in one to one combat, he lost faith in himself and proceeded to go into hiding. He hid in his little bunker outside of the ruins of Sunagakure simply sulking as he thought about why he lost, why the match was called in his opponents favor. It wasn't until he stepped out of his hidden home again after weeks of sulking that he realized the chaos that'd been unfolding around him. Chaos that at one point in time he would have felt responsible for stopping, but now that he'd realized just how weak he'd truly was. The revelation weighed Yasu down like a ten ton dumbbell where his heart would reside.

Yasubei slowly made his way to the plume of smoke that etched itself in the blazing sky, a beacon to those like the person his former self had become, carrion crawlers that slinked through the rubble and ashes with the maimed and inert. Though he was unable to save the injured barring a few stitches and disinfecting their wounds, he learned about the atrocities that they'd gone through at the hands of he invading villages and the factions riled up by them. The strain that this almost proxy war put them through was too much for Yasu, so he made his way towards a familiar sight. His journey to Kiri's camp was mirrored by what seemed like dozens of others that were either here for the same reason as him. While there were also those here to see titans clash or make a name for themselves, Yasu suspected that they wouldn't be approaching at the same old pace he'd be approaching at. He had come to prove himself to the Titan that'd once shown interest in him, he was done sulking among corpses. If it was what it took to stop the lives of the people in the Land of Wind from being forfeit, he fight with full intent to destroy his opponent.

With a frigid exterior he made his way through the smoky dunes that were decimated by one of the many titanic beings that had made their way through here. He looked at the scarred and burned bodies of ninja of all ranks as his chakra flowed through the camp like feeler's inspecting the area for a meal. Normally Yasubei would find such a scene tragic, the forfeit lives of so many laying strewn about on a now non-existent camp. These people though were causing imbalance in his home, and their demise would bring the lives of the people of Kaze no Kuni one step closer to security. Quickly the chakra Yasu sent out would find its targets three semi-transparent tendrils of chakra would grasp onto corpses that were both dead enough to have there chakra systems easily invaded by his own unflinching malicious chakra, but intact enough that they could stand on their own to feet and be useful.the three of them leapt to their new temporary master. He looked at the mockeries of the once ninja, and they would each remove the heavier pieces of armor and weaponry off of their body. They were simply left with their countries clothes; flak jackets, symbolizing that they had succeeded their rite of passage into the militant ranks of shinobi-hood; and their Kirigakure headbands. While he wouldn't be able to use their bodies as effectively as they may have in their previous life, they would bolster his strength accordingly.

The first to finish preparing to fight was a kunoichi who had a scar running down her face. Her body showed signs of wear and tear that existed even before her untimely demise. Those paired with the heavy metal armor that she had been wearing all over and the multitude of large weapons she had at her disposal. Implied a specialty of bukijutsu that was her main focus. Yasubei would reach into his kunai pouch and pull out a scroll, unraveling it and summoning three cloaks in his opposite hand. They were the same cloak that Yasu himself wore, jet black with a crimson lining on the inside. They had long sleeves and a large hood so that most of the wearer's body was obscured. He'd hand the first to her, and once she donned it over everything else she was wearing she pull the hood over her head and speak in a a hoarse voice. "Intern 1, ready for duty." Yasu was pretty sure that the hoarseness in her voice was caused by damage from the fire and smoke.

The second and third would follow soon after the second was a man slight too hefty to be a ninja, or at least so Yasubei would think, and the the third was a young boy about four foot six, much too young to be a ninja in Yasubei's opinion. That being said they were certainly much more accomplished than Yasu was. He'd hand them both the other two cloaks. They spoke together after donning hoods that would obscure their injuries, though unlike the woman these two seemed to have passed from concussive damage to their internal organs. "Interns two and three reporting." Though he was pleased that these two could speak normally no smile spread across his face. Everyone could sense it something terrible seemed to be about to unfold. His preparation was complete though, and he gave the woman a fuma shuriken that she hid under her and the boy a kunai which he hid in a pouch. The four were going to make there way towards an active camp and eliminate more of the growing threat of the invading forces with what meager power they had together.

[WC = 1308]
Siding with Lamya in Lamya vs Takao

27The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Sat Jun 23, 2018 11:43 pm

Fuyuko

Fuyuko


A-rank
Randomly, out of nowhere someone started talking to her. It startled her a little bit. Fuyuko was simply entranced by the fight that was slowly unfolding in front of her. She placed her hand on her chest, a sort of sign of reinsurance that everything was fine before turning towards the origin of the sound. There stood a young man. Someone with a rather familiar face was standing right next to her, but she wasn’t capable of placing a name with the face. Not wanting to be too distracted from watching the fight she forwent asking the question of who he was and simply answer the question. “I’m not quite sure about all the details myself, but there is an unknown assailant who is fighting the Mizukage.” With the question answered her head almost instantly snapped back to the fight. Her eyes fixated on the sleek moves the pair of them were making.

Punches and kicks were thrown between the pair until something once again interrupted her from just spending her full attention on the fight. This time however it didn’t come from close by. A shockwave originating more than a hundred meters out. It was hard to tell what was really going from her position. She did however notice a slight flicker briefly after feeling it. Fuyuko wondered what it meant, was someone here to try and break the barrier? An accomplice of the unknown attacker? Surely no one that was allied with the Mizukage, because it were her ninja that were creating the barrier. Did they want to join in on the fight, fight at better odds against the Mizukage? Or was it some sort of retrieval group? Or perhaps there were after the unknown man. Tons of options raced through Fuyuko’s mind as she tried solving the puzzle. But quite evidently she was never going to figure it out until she got more puzzle pieces.

It made her want to check out the site from where the shockwave came from, however at the same time. That sounded like the stupidest idea that had come up in her mind. Why would she possibly go to the location to where someone was potentially foolish enough to attack such a large group of shinobi, right next to Mizukage of all things. No, Fuyuko would find out later about what happened near the shockwave and for the time being stay at the location where she was at the very least safer.

The fight, or rather the fight around the actual find seemed to only get more and more chaotic by the second. A scream pierced through Fuyuko’s ears. The sound of a man dying came from behind her and it struck fear in her heart. What had she gotten herself into? She turned around and saw a man drop to his knees. His eyes lifeless before he fell forward, face first into the burning sand. A whole group of people seemed to be charging at her location. Ready to fight. Definite accomplices of the man who was fighting Ayakashi. Fuyuko grabbed her kunai out of instinct, but was she ready to fight?





Heading off to splinter thread: Defence against the radicalized.


wc: 526

28The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Sun Jun 24, 2018 2:26 am

Verdandi

Verdandi


D-rank
Mature content warning for song lyrics:

Verdandi's eyes closely followed the surroundings. It was but the footsteps in the sand that she could feel rather than hear. It was as if, in her mind, her inner eye would zoom onto the heels of the monster that was incoming, feeling the footsteps draw closer. The slowly raising powerful aura penetrating Verdandi's skin. Terror would rise in her depths as it increased its levels as if it was the simplest thing in the world. Pupils would widen. People would stare at her. Verd would quickly feel emotionally overwhelmed by the simple fact that this entity was coming closer and closer by all means, directly moving towards Verdandi's position even. It is a feeling most people could only relate to, if they ever saw a projectile incoming for them and knowing well that it was too late to block it. That moment when you accept that your loss is true, despite your own protests against it or your pride trying to tell you to be a better woman. Somewhat soothing in the pain while it just confirmed your suspicions.

Verdandi had lost so many times in her life. She was not the kind of shinobi that could claim to be eternally victorious through their whole career. Some of her friends enjoyed to boast about this all the time. Verd was either not that lucky, or too honest to let her pride obfuscate the truth about her shortcomings. If she had been quicker. More on top of things. Concentrated. Perfectly ready for an assault. Verdandi might have been able to save those men surrounding her. Maybe. She might have conjured a dome of frost around them. Maybe. Might have done her lot as a worthy defender of the realms of Kirigakure. Might have.

But she did not. In an utter moment of intense panic. The woman's glare would go right through her. Whatever reason she had to warn Verdandi and tell her to get lost escaped to her senses, but Verd's feet would start running before anything else could even remotely soothe the terror in her mind. The earth began to shake beneath her feet, breaking up slightly, Verd almost tripped, pillars, spears not unlike her own ice spike technique, raising from the ground within a 30m radius. Given she had a head start and she could run at 16 m/s burst. She unknowingly had about two seconds before her eminent doom. If she had not moved the moment the snake told her to. She'd be already gone.

Seeing Chigetsu approaching her he would grab her as Verd just barely escaped. Pulled by his hand they would run further under the fear the spikes would extend past their existing area. By the time they stopped to turn their heads the masses of impaled men would become evident. The glare of the dragon hauntingly following them. She could decide to chase after Verd and Chi. Despite telling her to get lost. She could move on and try to trample the younglings. But eventually fate had it that something of more importance would come to save them. A bigger fish in the pond. Takao appeared. Instantly engaging the terrifying woman fearlessly. A large blast of wind directly approaching the dragon. Verd would not be able to see the outcome of it. Her Legs would carry her as long as they moved.

Verdandi kept a firm grip on Chigetsu's palm. Seeing how more ANBU and village shinobi would either join their retreat or try and engage the devil that appeared on the scene. Hectic movement was about the place. Many of the less powerful ninja ware to be found retreating as well. Verd tugged on Chigetsu's palm in order to join them. They were headed back towards the castle. But after a few hundred meters they would stop. Moving to a little hill that seemed to overlook the area. Giving the people a break. A moment to catch their breath and lay eyes upon the devastation behind them.

The convoy of retreating ninja was organizing themselves. Trying hard to get radio intel from headquarters. Sharing their observations. Verd just tried to catch her breath. Gazing lost in Chigetsu's face. She couldn't remember to have ever felt anything as brash and devouring powerful. She knew she'd have to get a grip of herself. Wash away the sweat that was running down her forehead. What happened after she left was lost to her. The collision between hawk and snake. How did it proceed? ANBU must have approached her as well by now. Many more forces were on the move. Village-nin storming into the valley towards the dome. Another, seemingly new army of unknown origin and affiliation approaching from the other side. The two of them threatening to collide.

As Verd was still catching her breath her eyes peered at the horizon. When she entered this place, none of these things were here. She seemingly must have stepped in on the scene the very moment all hell broke loose. Her eyes quickly roaming over the fields. It would take a few moments of panic until she could see her little pet crawl around between some of the other ninja. The little rascal had made its way here despite being split up with Verd. Dandi would keep her left hand in Chigetsu's palm. The squeeze of his somewhat comforting her as he must be able to feel her heart pounding.

Verd could hear the village-nin around her passing on and mumbling intel. Mentions of ANBU reinforcements incoming. The sheer numbers that were mentioned left Verd perplexed as towards what to do. The convoy would soon move off towards the castle would she join them? Part of her tried to convince herself that protecting them was a part of her job just as any other. But her inner voice would feel that she was searching for excuses. To leave behind this suddenly conjured hell and run. While logic demanded that she'd return and face the forces incoming to the front lines. But the situation had yet to properly unravel itself before their eyes. Observing what might happen next before choosing for a proper path. Seeing as a nearly endless numbers of chess pieces were currently on the move. Trying to determine where she could possibly fit in.

Verdandi would lay eyes on the seemingly endless numbers of supposedly radicalized local militia of suna. Their masses clashing into the soldiers of the camps. The battle line was clearly visible between the two forces but not all flanks were equally filled with opponents. Verd couldn't see the whole battlefield perfectly. What was happening beyond the crumbling dome was barely visible to her. The battles of Ayakashi vs. the Sealer, or Lamya vs. Takao were only faint but scary shadows from this distance as well. Verd honestly didn't wish to return any close to them knowing well that a mere splinter of their techniques could easily reach out to large areas in effect at that power level. Seeing the militia clash into a nearby group that was defending the retreating forces. Verd however knew that she might be able to contribute still. Swallowing that fear inside her. Denying herself the pain of being afraid all the time.

After their rest and shared contemplation of what was going on. Verdandi gazed at Chigetsu and squeezed his palm once more. Her eyes glaring at the most nearby clash of forces. "I can't run away for good... I swear I want to, but I couldn't sleep anymore if I did so now I guess. So yeah... will you join me smash some faces?" she asked her squad mate. Preparing herself to properly meld and regulate her disturbed chakra flow. Letting the pain of her burst speed fleeing motions course through her legs like a sweet reminder that she was, after all, still alive. Her aura getting colder and firmer once more. Her eyes starting to faintly glow in the sapphire glimmer of Hyouton chakra. Her lips exhaling the frost of the north. Her body pulsating with her energy. The little that she had to offer. She would throw it at her enemy and at least, the little spark of rebellion against the mighty that she could offer and try to not have a death her ancestors would be ashamed of, if she were to utterly meet them after this day.


1400 wc

OOC: Moving to Defence against the Radicalized

29The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Mon Jun 25, 2018 10:46 am

Ayakashi

Ayakashi


S-rank
'Come to me all yo who labour and are heavy laden, I shall give you rest.‘

As the budding war would flower around them, bathing the fields of Sunagakure's golden sand crimson. A veritable cornucopia of sound echoing towards the heavens as blades slammed virtuously against one another, resonating boldly over the sounds of ripping human flesh and anguished cries. The orchestra of battle rose to a fever pitch, the percussion of jutsu cleaving swathes of enemy ninja asunder, crafting a beat which the ninja of Kiri began to dance to. Each of them had been trained in the steps of the waltz they had to undergo, and while their forces were scattered from the initial attack, spiraling them into what many may have seen to be a irreversible chaos. It took a single shining light amidst the spreading chorus of panicked cries to center them once again into their stage. The men needed a conductor, a rallying point, they needed guidance, as it seemed for a moment that the strongest military nation that had been built in the ninja world would be perniciously dragged from their podium as their requiem began to ring somber over the horizon.

It was as this desperation reached its fever pitch that a thunderous roar, louder than any mortal creature or musicians instrument would echo pervasively across the dunes. Chilling many to the bone with the profound bass as those less ensconced in their conflict would look up in horror. Wild gaze swung only to meet a snow white tiger standing upon the barren cap of one of the many rolling dunes. The drained eyes of the chamber kiri ninja would fill with fire as the Legendary Bai-hu would make itself known. His presence, the veritable auraflemme of Kirigakure breathed strength into the tired arms and broken bodies of the men and women who valiantly fought. At his side a wave that had come from the main base of Kirigakure itself, the chakra of their techniques being primed abuzz on the breeze and primed to play as they would charge in unison for the rogue force that had infiltrated their vanguard forces. The choir had become a symphony. However pernicious they may have been, the likelihood of a numerous enemy force invidiously integrating themselves within the community of their Hunter ninja was slight, such a blindside would not likely occur again.

The wave would roll down the mountainside, the opening of the second score of the battle commenced. Clouds of dust pluming high into the heavens as they made their charge behind one of Kirigakure's several symbols of strength and tenacity. Though Bai-hu intended to make his way slowly towards the battle in which Ayakashi had found herself, he would more than abide the decision to tear himself a path. Luminous armor caressed the skin of the white tiger, the grinding plates chiming with his powerful strides. Bai's blade-like claws glinting in the daylight as he would move like a shooting star down the dune and towards the theater's pit. Voracious growls lingering on his every breath, his massive size undermining his wicked speed as he would slalem from side to side, maneuvering around desperate attempts to dissuade his charge as fire and lightning crashed against the slopes before the beast would meet with his first opponent. The ninja would attempt to deftly spin to one side, drawing his blade and hoisting it above his shoulder as his weight would drop, its point leveled at the ribcage of the colossal Leonid in an attempt to disembowel Bai-hu with a single decisive strike.

'Few could have described the impact that followed.'

Whether the ninja had underestimated the speed of the legendary beast, or whether he had simply been unprepared for the strike that was to come, the tip of his thrusting blade with never the chance to strike would be hurled through the skies as the open swipe of the creature caught the ninja square in the center of his chest. Insert the battles' suspenseful break. Dozens of metric tonnes of force per square inch collided with the victims' torso, combined with rending talons, easily the envy of even the greatest raptors, tearing through the feeble armor of the ninja as if it were they papyrus sheets of ancient Icaros. Sickening crunches resounded as the claw would eviscerate through the surface tension of what pitiful resistance the structure of his ribs hoped they could provide. The weight of the strike compressing most of his body inward before the force of the blow so much as even began to propel his body backward. Precious vitae, lifes' ambrosia exploding from between his lips, shock plastered across his ever-widening eyes. Gravity itself seemed to give way for a moment as his body hovered before the enigmatic force slowly imposed itself on his personal world once again, motion beginning, the music's bridge coming to its end as the speed and impact of the blow beginning to follow through as Bai-hu would aim the blow for the body of the militiamen that fought under the banner of the rogues.

The still living corpse would be thrown like a bullet as little more than a ragdolling mound of barely conscious gristle towards them. Barreling at top speeds as it would collide, veritably exploding like a soaked sponge on impact with one of the soldiers due to the four long tears that stretched from one side of his chest to the other which served only to paint those men in the blood of their comrade. Cruel, tactical and psychological in intent. The bloody ballad bathing the battling battalion. The show of power intent to send a visceral message to those troops; 'this was the fate that lay in store for those who would dare to cross blades with the iron tiger of the mist.' A second predatory roar would let loose from the lips of Bai-hu, marking the end of the score, shaking lesser men and women to the core while others would seek to dethrone the beast from its lofty throne at the top of the evolutionary hierarchy. However, there would surely be little question that the morale of the unseasoned would take a blow. The small bridge in the combat, the distraction of the grandstanding conductor would be enough to rally some of the Kirigakure ninjas, allowing them to better take advantageous positions within the sandy auditorium closer to the reinforcements before the battle resumed.

Bai-hu's next assault would be relentless and unwavering. A powerful concerto of thundering blows and percussion. Powering forward on his titanic legs with a pounce congruent with his size, he would pin one of the militia-men, clamping down on a wakizashi with his teeth as it dared to strike him head-on and snapping the C rank blade between his maw before swiping the man away. It wouldn't be long until it was ninja that surrounded the feral creature whose chakra would begin to flow through the fibrous fur that coated its form between the plates of the splint mail armour he'd donned for the battle.

'A true battle was about to begin. Could this be their overture?'




Ayakashi however, serenaded by the eerie silence generated by the veritable walls that had been crafted by her opponent's fuinjutsu would charge her prey with relentless intent. Her serpentine form flexing against his disciplined stance meeting hers head-on as their judicious battle behind the chakra enhanced screens would continue. Ayakashi's blade had met his at the base of her ankle without much of a hitch, her leg soaring inches above his head... an irksome evasion to be sure, redoubling her efforts at the apex of her kick, Ayakashi's freehand clasped hold of the wedding band which discretely slipped from its hilt to flit across the air for a moment as the Mizukage would route to face her opponents stance beyond her. Stepping forward and whipping her blade up from its low angle, the flash of the two silver blades would lock for a moment as the pale blue of the wedding band would glint for but a moment, Ayakashi's movement fast enough to leave her as little more than a whirring blur, the pale light of the flickering flame that shone fervently through the eye of her mask streaking across the air in a lingering line as she would drop her weight into a slide for her following strike.

Against any other ninja, the blow would have proved fatal, Ayakashi could tell in that instant that she had him, he was caught off guard, she had penetrated his defences with her speed and made it so close to his body with a small blade granting her an advantage that would not be easily overcome. However... she had not yet discerned the adamantine defenses which adorned his body. Ayakashi would begin to feel the wind force ricochet from his skin as impact was inevitable, her body preparing for the follow through as the wedding band would bury itself in his cloak, yet just as the razor's edge of the blade touched the skin of the ninja, a blade sharp enough that even the softest kiss would split the dead layer of skin which surrounded his hardened body. Ayakashi would widen in shock as she would catch a glimpse of the Fuuinjutsu seal that coated his body, feeling the chakra activate as the glyphs would resonate with what they came into contact with before enveloping her weapon in its chakra and sealing it in a flicker of an instant.

For a moment, Ayakashi could remember her mother's face, filled with pride as she handed her the dagger that she had crafted for her father. A promise of the relationship of mother and father, passed onto her daughter to grant to whom she chose to be her partner. "This belonged to your father once, he called it; Wedding Band. I made it for him so that we would always be together in some way. I want you to have it. Keep it with you, until you find someone that you can't stomach the thought of ever being without. So that when you bless them with it, your strength will always be there alongside them..." The realization that this precious dagger, vanished from her hand in a whiff of smoke converted the contented yet pleasant bliss that memory bestowed into equal parts hatred and pain. The sole trinket of her father slipping from her fingers would push Ayakashi further than any ninja, man, woman, friend or foe had yet pushed her. Pure fury would flash into the form of the Mizukage at that very moment, the air would chill around her at the internal change of moral alignment as her equilibrium would shatter into a chaotic karmic balance.

Ayakashi, finding no resistance in an armor she had expected to be there would twist her wrist for their blades to remain in contact with one another. Turning to strike out at her opponent as he would stand higher than her, his blade atop hers and gravity on his side and ice beneath his opponent's feet. Power swelling in his arms he would parry Ayakashi hard in the direction she had been moving with her strike, causing her to slide backward and end the technique that she had been maintaining in order for her to bury her feet in the sand for grip to come to a grinding halt. The Demon Ice Witch would roar in response to her opponent with a boisterous defiance "You give that back!" as she would be pushed away and turning to face him. Only to spy Wedding band once again hurtling through the air for her neck. Hatred snapped back into instant desperation and an insatiable need for the precious items recovery, as, just like her action before Ayakashi would follow her spare arm through with her spin, her left palm open as she would snatch the dagger out of the air, wrapping her armoured fingers tightly around the blade of the weapon due to the haste of the reaction... her anxious and hasty eyes blinded to what lay in the shadow of the strike.

The arrow which had followed as Aya's body moved would hew across Ayakashi's left arm delivering a nasty quarter inch laceration across the outside of her forearm and a deeper half-inch deep cut across the flesh just under her shoulder. The biting pain was enough to cause Ayakashi to curse inwardly at her recklessness as the wounds would begin to freeze over an instant after they were shawn into her body. Holding true to her promise to not spill so much as a drop of blood upon the sand in which they stood. Yosei it seemed, had not yet had enough of his onslaught. Now the aggressor, he followed up the two projectiles with a swing of his blade from his left to right and hewing through the air bathed in the pallid light from the radiance of the walls which radiated their ghostly glow all around them.

The blade would sing from Ayakashi's right as her blade arm would shift, hilt held high and her blade's tip pointing towards the earth, the clashing of their blades chiming in perfect tone as the choir of war sung its chorus. Against the force of his blade, as the two musicians would cross their bows, passing one another by, the force of the clash and a twist of her wrist would allow Ayakashi to alter then instrument she wielded. Extending the telescopic hilt of changeling into a polearm in an instant as she would flourish the weapon for a moment. Uniting her hands as the flittering melodious pitch like that of a flute whistling through the air was replaced with the strident percussion of the naginata she'd now drawn. Bringing her hands together, she would unite changeling with its pommel, sliding her left hand up the neck of the weapon as this lead would hope to intercept his next strike with the strength of a grander class of instrument as she would hope to begin to crouch against his oncoming chest high blow.

The melodic chirp of Yosie's blade would chirp clearly as his opponent's lament would begin to play. His complex harmony entrancing his duets partner as his leg would raise with a symbolic clash intending to strike against the side of Ayakashi's chest as his attack reached its crescendo. Ayakashi could see the incoming blow, analyzing it, she knew in that moment her evasion had been made in error in the note she'd played, but the soloist saw a chance for recovery... The blow reverberated through her armor and bruised her chest deeply as Ayakashi would fold over the blow, having parted her left from her grip moments before impact to move to cradle his side, finding his leg and hoping to grip tightly as his blow sunk in, forcing him to either commit to the strike and be grabbed or to recant. His bellata of the blade had come to an end...

Should Ayakashi's hand find its grip, her aria of lament would alter, pivoting into a rising mass. Snapping forward with her right leg as she gripped his leg on her left side, the Mizukage would aim her blow just under his shin in an effort to drop his body, releasing his knee and bending hers which had thrust a moment ago to await its stage a moment in advance. The moment Yosei's feet would make contact with the ground Ayakashi would plant her waiting foot against his chest, leaning forward with the extended blade on her right to ward off his sword... In that instant, a crooked smile would grace the face of the Mizukage before in a moment she would kick off her opponent's chest, throwing her upper weight backward into a backward somersault. Her straight leg cleaving through the air like an axe for the underneath of Yosei's chin as Ayakashi would spin with the momentum. Once in the air for that fleeting moments, her hands we free to collapse on her weapon, instincts taking hold as fuuton chakra began to swell within her... "Fūton"

Surprise at the sensation of being able to activate her chakra betrayed the second secret of the cancellation sphere that surrounded the dancing pair as she muttered the beginning of her techniques formation. She had assumed that she was unable to summon the power of chakra within its walls, as if an edict from the heavens had called them to fight with but the means they were born with. Nuance, as it seemed, was key. Ayakashi had misinterpreted the contract forced upon her, in fact, she was able to summon chakra, but it seemed to only constrain those of a certain nature, or perhaps purpose. A world of opportunity layout before her as the chakra within her body would twist into forming a vacuum no sooner than her feet touched the ground a meter and a half from where she had been a moment ago. Had the masked stranger avoided the kick he would have remained stationary, had Ayakashi's blow connected in full, a man of his weight would have reached about two meters before a gale force wind would cradle his body in the air, surrounding it and pulling it jarringly back towards his foe. All the while the sinister smirk elongated into a feral maw of grinning teeth gnashed tightly as she would roar

"却下 - Kyakka!"

Wind would rush back-wards to Ayakashi's position, hoping to drag in everything it could to her position. Pirouetting to the right as her momentum would hit the ground, Aya would draw her blade through the sand at her feet, charting a course of interception. Arching the blade upwards into a blow at waist height, the chakra of Wedding band would flow through the conjoined weapons as her Naginata, killing intent enabled would; with a flick of Ayakashi's finger alter its blade at a ninety-degree angle into that of a dreaded war-scythe with the full intent of bisecting the ninja before her. Her altered position to the right of the vacuums former center giving her the prime location as she would hope to reap exactly what the flagrant despot had recklessly sewed with this challenge... But even she had to admit his skill, twice now Ayakashi had underestimated him which had allowed him to land two blows against her person...

Following through with the reap in a dervish of strikes, Yoseis' forward momentum, all things considered, would likely still pull him past Ayakashi's planted position. Letting the pole out to its full length she would lower her stance, never stalling a moment as she would rotate a hundred and eighty degrees, hoping to catch Yosei in the side with the devilish point of the scythe and embed it through his stomach from the side and out through his spine if she had the chance. Pulling the blade back towards her with a rapid waist high rotation of her body should he ever place himself on the inside of the blade to continue with the second strike.

The man that stood against her, would begin to see the beast that he had uncaged. The sheer voracity of the Hyouton chakra stored within the Mizukage, pent-up to breaking point almost lashed out at the world around them. She was a walking blizzard barely contained within a cyclone, a force of nature vaguely tethered to human form and gripping a blade. Raw emotion emitting through her posture, the way she moved and danced across the battlefield. Rage and unconventional recklessness never for a moment betraying her grace, skill, and finesse with that blade as she would continue the fight. To this day, Ayakashi had never been defeated on an even playing field. It had required grievous injuries from a prior battle for even the legendary Gan Ning of the Seven Bells to strike Ayakashi down during his insurgency. But now that she was here, upon this battlefield.

She. would. not. fall.

[prior post: 3065. || This post: 3491]
chakra 295:

30The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Wed Jun 27, 2018 2:41 am

Raiu Mizuki

Raiu Mizuki

Retired
Lamya's attack on the ANBU triggered an avalanche of reactions. The assaulted ANBU had remained in place to preserve the battle but other shinobi had decided on meeting the missing-nin head on. Blue-green eyes observing their movement, Mizuki wanted to join in. Bring retaliation at her front door for the chaos she had brought at Kumo's front door during the Chuunin Exams, but Lamya was not no one. An S-rank shinobi was not to be trifled with, an opponent that demanded to be approached cleverly. As a special jounin herself, she stood so much as no chance to face this ill-reputed monster as it were. The kunoichi bit her lip in held back frustration, understanding that it would be pointless to throw away her life when there would be no follow-up from a possible sacrifice. Instead she hoped quietly that whoever would meet her in deadly combat would succeed at putting an end to the tyrant's reign of terror. An end to the villainy that walked this land for too long.

Her attention would be drawn away as a mass of troops would show up on the top of the desert hills, intent directed on the ANBU previously attacked by the Snake. Their black clothes and the banner they bore instantly made their allegiance clear - Ryujin. Troops under the command of the same Snake that had attempted to break the barrier that held Ayakashi and the stranger under a controlled environment. It would be the Ryujin's turn now to finish what she had started, the ANBU vulnerable for attacks as they channelled chakra into the barrier. The cold reflection of determination would settle into the diplomat's eyes as she made her choice to stand between the enemy and the rivalling faction that were Kirigakure's shinobi. If she had to die at the hands of the Snake's power, then so was her fate. But she would still be the one deciding where and how she would die. Stopping the invading forces was a much better option than to blindly self-destruct against a monster that she possibly could not even scratch to begin with.

As she was about to move, a figure approached her. He removed his ANBU mask and clasped it to his waist, reptile eyes watching her as he revealed his name. Kobashi Daremo, a jounin. She was familiar with most shinobi of Kumogakure by now but his name was not written on her memory's list. However, the name was not exactly unfamiliar either. With the fall of Sunagakure there had been quite a few new names flowing into the reserves, slowly being divided in ranks and filling up much needed empty spots. Among them a few had stood out, quickly becoming the gossip of the day as they had been positioned among the jounin ranks - Mitsuo, Daremo and Binsu.

"It is my honour to meet a man of your reputation, Kobashi-dono.", she'd return his greeting with a bow. "I am Raiu Mizuki, indeed. Your appointed position is pleasant news to my ears considering the situation I've found myself in. I'll entrust you with my less refined skills, so please watch over me."

Much like him, she had caught sight of the couple of Ryujin that had left their ranks to approach them. Calm and collected as always she was waiting for them to get closer before she'd draw the katana from her sheathe to execute them on the spot, but Daremo blurred movement took care of them before she had a need to rest her hand on her blade. The two of them were dead before they realised it.

"I was of a mind to deal with the Ryujin's troops in defence of the ANBU holding up that barrier, their open assault has given me one more reason to meddle in the affairs despite my general neutrality. If this task is not beneath your skilll, please stand at my side as we retaliate to their hostilities in kind."

Eyes fixated on the storming troops, Mizuki would double-check the armour she wore underneath the white desert clothes she wore, strap the Kumogakure headband tightly around her head, unsealed her bow and quiver to equip them properly and whistled at the grey hawk that circled high in the air. As the grey bird descended, Mizuki wrote a small status report of the situation and the indication she would engage in battle with Daremo at her side. The bird landing on her arm, she'd attach it to Zhinu's leg and command her to go 'way home'. The bird would reply with a short cry before it flickered away from sight to return to the encampment.

"Let's assist those who seek to fight along our side. As for the opposition... Leave none alive."

With those words, Mizuki ran up to face the radicalised troops herself.





OOC: Round 5 post.
And moving to defend against the Ryujin horde

826
Total: 2653

31The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:00 am

Ryo Knetegawa

Ryo Knetegawa


D-rank
Ryo had been bored. He was in the Kumogakure camp which was filled and ready to be deployed at any moment. He wasn’t sure how he would go about helping anyone, but he knew that sooner or later he would have to go out into the field again. The taming of the land of Winds was not easy, and he was sure that it would not be done with the missions he had completed. So, for now he waited and watched for anything that would be a signal for him. He didn’t have to wait long, he heard the instruction that his mission was to go and join with a group of Kirigakure shinobi who were defending against a tide of psychos. Ryo swore loudly as he realized that all of his missions in this land had been for naught. He hadn’t stopped, anything, he hadn’t been able to bring parts of the land of wind under the Raikage’s control without bloodshed. He was furious with himself and he couldn’t allow this to happen. He slid on his coat, strapped his scrolls into place, and was gone heading in the direction of the forward Kirigakure camp. He would not allow these insane animals to destroy the Suna way of life. True the land of wind would be divided among the other nations, but this was the fault of the daimyo and the Kazekage. He had known Midori personally-ish. She was a great medic, and a very talented puppeteer, but she was not the Kazekage that would have been able and needed to restore order in Sunagakure. She had done her best, but the village needed ruthless control, and without it, the village was consumed.

The village had been destroyed and lost. However, the people were still alive, and they needed guidance. The Raikage, and even the Mizukage for all of their faults were at least able to guide their people, and not allow them to fall into decay like Sunagakure. He headed out straight towards the forward camp where he knew Kirigakure would be located. The sights ahead of him were astounding and he could see that there were two shinobi clashing. Being that he was approaching a camp with mostly Kirigakure shinobi as far as he knew he suspected that it was the Mizukage fighting someone who must be the enemy. He didn’t know who this enemy was but he was here to defend this forward camp, and stop any kind of attack that would come into play. He arrived at the camp and was stopped fairly quickly by someone who wore a coat nearly identical to his own. The one who stopped him also had the purple blood drop tattoos under his eyes. He nodded his head “Ah, another Knetegawa. From the looks of it you come from Kumogakure. We are glad to have you. Guess this was your next mission huh? I’m Takashi Knetegawa, the snake puppeteer.”

Ryo bowed his head gently “I am Ryo Knetegawa of the main line, the Wolf Puppeteer.” The pair walked into the camp and Ryo watched as the two titans of the shinobi world were clashing. He couldn’t make out where they were very well, but he was sure that it was a fight to remember. He wasn’t sure what he was realistically expected to do, but he would be sure to do whatever was needed. He was so engrossed in the fighting that was going on between the Mizukage and the foe that was attacking her. Was the Mizukage a woman? He couldn’t recall. He was distracted almost at once from the battle the Mizukage was having by the sound of someone dying. He whipped around to see that a wave of people were coming towards the camp and location. The fight was on, and he was ready to join in.

----
653
Round 5 post (I think)
Joining Defense Against The Radicalized

32The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:54 pm

Yōsei

Yōsei


S-rank
"Then we have agreed. The Mist will serve as Sacrifice. In accordance with the pact we have made, it is time to take our leave of this wasted husk."

The earth moved solemnly above them, a vast ocean of dried bones heaving in rhythm with the world's unseen heartbeat. Miles of dust heaped upon unfathomable weighty depths churned, echoing in the cavernous expanse within which the two made their meeting place. On the surface, the forces which the Sealer deployed throughout the sand still marched toward their destination beneath the already relentless morning sun. Massed clasped with confidence at their weapons and huddled together, whispering among them stories of the man who had brought them together, and of the vengeance they would bring. Together, the pair had chosen this meeting place, far below the earth where secrets could not escape made for an auspicious communion between tyrants who longed to see the world's upheaval. Either side of a pool glistening with white water, the two figures stood alone and in silence in the wake of Yōsei's words, spiraling formations coiled outward from the underground lake and up toward the ceiling where they met at the apex of their journey to form the image of a planet. Either side of this display etched into the unnatural formations of stone, could be seen five pillars which, from East and West, enclosed around the sphere depicted at the highest point above them.

Raising his arm, Yōsei would gesture as they entered the chamber; tucked far beneath these ruins, the temple in which they stood had not seen the living draw breath for a thousand, thousand years. For what purpose he had brought them here, the Sealer had not yet explained, nor had he revealed the origin of his knowledge of this place. Dancing off the walls, the theatre of shadow punctuated Yōsei's entrance sublimely, and as he turned to face the eyes which watched him as they scanned this hidden chamber, he smiled boldly. Not since the civilization above them had worshipped their old Gods in the time before the tragedy of shinobi had two such beings stood where once, those who ruled the earth once communed with divinity. Here, as was his way among his most trusted, and when shrouded in the most secret places, Yōsei removed his mask, hair drained grey of all color falling in strands around the impossibly youthful face of his immortal facade. Lamya, by now, would be familiar with this face, and the disposition which in spite of his weary eyes, showed the joy which comes from merely continuing to exist. While he navigated the outside of the pool, Yōsei took away the wrappings from his neck and hair, breathing deep of the air before he spoke, centering his chakra in line with the spiral patterns which surrounded him.

"Where once there was a great nation there was nothing when the Hidden Sand was founded, built upon the remains of a slumbering behemoth which came before it. Now that Sungakure has met its end, the land is primed for upheaval, this was the genesis of your Empire. You now know, as I do, that this endeavor is for naught. When we march on Inabayama, it will be the last we see of this place for some time, we are needed elsewhere. I have instructed my followers to travel to the Rain, which we will make the seat of our operations."

Reaching out over the water, Yōsei would unravel the strands of cloth around his fingers, peeling back the folds and revealing the layers of intricate scripture covering his hands. He knelt, dipping into the water the tips of his fingers and imparting upon it his chakra, which flowed with the air into the ceremonial bath, twisting it and causing it to spin. The whirlpool would circle outward from the Sealer's fingertip, rapidly parting until the water spun away, leaving his arm free to rise and bring with it the shoal of water which followed his conduction without question. With the removal of the liquid, the basin which was now left bone-dry became the place where Yōsei moved, twirling between his hands the precarious tower of water which sprayed across the walls, climbing toward the ceiling in the rivets of the spiral patterns. Using these trenches, the fluid set upon its pilgrimage skyward where, at the peak of its ascension, it would find escape between the cracks of the planetary iconography. Yōsei would wait until all the water had drained into the ceiling before listening to the sound of gearous churning behind the walls of the chamber. As the water flowed, it would filter through ancient mechanisms obscured by the peculiar masonry, setting in motion weights and shifting platforms which clicked, snapping and sending dust plummeting from the topmost walls. Yōsei laughed softly, thankful the stories he had heard held truth after all these centuries.

"I intend to return home, to Konoha. Before the storm, it is essential that the Leaf's alliance with Kirigakure is severed. If we must burn the village into nothing, slay the Hokage, and leave behind the same fate that has befallen Suna, then so be it. Konoha will endure whatever wrath we lay upon it, such is the strength of the Will of Fire. Through this act, we will send our message to the world..."

Surrounding them, the walls shifted, struggling against the compacted cement formed from wet soil and sediment. Where once-lush grasslands and rivers had woven through the valleys between dunes and been buried in time by the new landscape which monsters now called home. Behind the stone, chambers revealed themselves, passages and halls which led into shadowy depths. Nine hallways, each marked distinctly with the symbol of a nation, exposed themselves to the Sealer's delight. It was all he could do not to clap and cheer as he rose from the pit with his eyes trained on the mark which represented Amegakure. The Rain's legacy was long, and as the ex-Hokage paid tribute to those who came before him, he would use it as his springboard, from where he would thrust out, first, at his homeland. The passageways here would grant them the means to travel unnoticed, maneuver their most trusted troops and navigate the world's secret places unseen. Yōsei would make his way to Lamya's side and place his unwrapped hand upon her shoulder, resting for a moment before releasing a held kunai from the seals between his fingers. Withdrawing his hand from his companion to clasp the knife tightly and move it in his grip, causing the implement to dance momentarily before coming to rest with its tip balancing precariously on the Sealer's index finger.

"...there is nothing so great that we together cannot slay it. Stay safe, my friend, and I shall see you again where war meets revolution."

As if to punctuate himself, the Sealer's weapon retorted to that hidden place, sealed away in a cloud of dust as he brought together his fist and made his way to the endless flights of stairs which led them here. His gait lingered long enough to share between them silent words which were washed away with the moment, their pact already sealed, there was no more need for words.






Surrounded by the art of war, Ayakashi and Yōsei spun a web of shapes between them, and as others clamored to be part of that masterpiece, throwing desperate swathes of paint in an effort to overshadow the others, the twin savants reveled in the beauty of their creation. Yōsei himself was thrilled, the day had played out thus far precisely as he pictured, with the flames rising in the distance, muffled tremors the only clue which alerted the pair so the rising turmoil. Poised at the center of an enormous canvas, warriors who fought to make their mark lent to its surface their own intricate patterns; the swing of a sword leaves behind the curve of ancient architecture, a tiger's roar paints the setting sun. Each sound reverberates with color, forming against the landscape the image of an empire at war, and a people who will not be forgotten. Yōsei's eyes, aflame with joy, had seen the events play out before him long before he found himself here, eons spent cutting through Naraka taught him well and served to harden him against warfare, turning the conquer's might into a philosopher's struggle. It could have been anybody, a member of the legendary Seven Swords, the captain of the Hidden Mist's Hunter-ninja; the Mizukage was an eventuality the Sealer had thought was unlikely, but nonetheless, he was prepared.

Across from himself, Yōsei could see, contained within Ayakashi's arrogance, a seed of doubt planted by his deception. The differences between those who had mastered the art of battle were subtle, but the similarities were vast; both of these artists knew their tools well, could produce each shape effortlessly and repeatedly. The aesthetics they each chose to impart upon their legacy were choices made of how to apply the skills they shared, what elaborate plans they had developed to take utmost advantage of their strengths, and shield their weakness from view. Though the Mizukage possessed the raw power with which to oppress those who stood before her, the beguiling rogue who fought her now would not succumb to weak-willed hostility, continuing to attack with fervor as if the Ice Witch meant nothing before his audacious charge. Both supremely gifted in their own right, the two tested one another without mercy, blades brushed up together in ruthless lines, jagged and unflinching against one another while smiles hid the satisfaction of these symbols behind masks worn with care. Beyond the daydream of their sacred conflict, the art painted by the war grew larger still, and if woven was a wonder terrible and vast, of the story which spanned a kingdom's rise and fall, then what took place through the lens of dueling Shadows could be witnessed calligraphy.

Methodical and delicate, water and fire fought for dominance against the sand, unwilling to concede territory as the monsoon struggled mightily to contain an inferno. Ayakashi was, doubtless, a peerless combatant, rivaled by few but matched by none she brought forth the Wedding Band, calling upon its trickery to rend him, but there was no blood willing to spill. Without delay, Yōsei sensed the tension rise, hope dropping from the Mizukage's heart as she witnessed, in an instant, the secret which she may have feared; her opponent's will would be found absolute. Driven past the cloak into its folds, the hidden blade accomplished little more than add to the innumerable tatters which made up his bewitching mantle, the same ribbons of torn cloth which served as the cryptic clue of his defensive methodology. Countless shinobi across the sand had attempted to slay him, and each met with the deception of his Vanishment seals, which would disarm and turn against them the tools which they relied upon, leaving behind threads of ripped ebony which Yōsei wore as trophies. The Sealer wondered whether the Mizukage could count how many notches in his armor, how many ninja he had slain with this very trick that now spirited away her most cherished relic, or whether it was beyond her to fathom such blasphemy.

Seisakata's edge, trailing a stream of fiendish hunger, found its anchorage against the Mizukage's weapon and the Sealer's unwillingness to break composure lent to him the tempo and knowledge with which he could overcome the Mizukage. Daringly, Ayakashi had revealed to him her hand, allowing him to turn against her the momentum of her spin and push against it to discard her away and have his way with their duel. As he thrust away, and the Oath came between them with its tip anxiously trailing pointedly at where it longed to leave its mark. Spilling from his opponent Yōsei could feel hatred thick enough he could have reached out and gripped in his fist the strings which flowed toward him, the desire which longed to have vengeance. As he felt the Mizukage's weapon slip between his fingers, he would realize its unique composition, impossibly cold and crafted with unfathomable care, the weapon which escaped toward Ayakashi was worthy of her focus; a genuinely beloved relic the Wedding Band was indeed. Sinister weaponry burst into the air and threatened to rend from the earth the Mizukage herself, having turned back the assault of two of Ayakashi's weapons, Yōsei felt his window grow while he planted his foot forward and wasted no time in continuing his onslaught. Doubtless, mind racing, the Mizukage snapped at the air with her hand, taking from it the errant artifact which Yōsei had stolen while her vehement regard for reacquiring the Wedding Band blinded her, as planned, to the Sealer's inimical display.

With tenacity, the Mizukage's arrow would not allow itself to end its journey without fulfilling its purpose. Deep trenches splayed open to run scarlet with the match's first blood, frozen by Ayakashi's Hyōton aura. The Sealer laughed, audibly, as he closed toward his target, she would hear his baritone bellow with regard to her clever wordplay even if it meant little. God could bleed, and it was proven, the Sealer had done his job, and all that happened from here would push his victory further, even if it resulted in a defeat for his forces, Yōsei knew he already possessed the power to continue his mission; prolonged existence stood as a testament to this noble truth. Seisakata's spin came in the wake of the wound, seeking to join the arrow in its conquest and strike down the dueling Mizukage but snarled when first it would glide overhead, the Mizukage lowering herself to evade. And then, colliding with her Changeling, light flashing brightly to draw baroque shapes around the pair, firefly-sparks still reeling from their clash while the shinobi already danced between them. The Sealer's stroke hung thick, black slices in the air and he followed the Mizukage with his eyes, blade flirting with the space between them as she maneuvered her weapon, taking advantage of its composition to change shape as he struck again into the heft of a polearm and continued to press the attack. His mask came low, lit on all sides by the tails of the comets which fell around them before rising up again, voracious maw of the Oath's swift fury howling toward Ayakashi's chest.

As quickly as it had come, the cry of Yōsei's vow was cut short as he commanded it to rest, withdrawing the blade to unleash his kick toward the woman's chest. He pushed with his hips, clashing with the familiar armor of his predecessor and drawing his leg away only to find it snatched up in the Mizukage's grip. Yōsei's eyes, immediately brought to the source of his imprisonment, noticed the leg which nipped down at his shin without enough time to steel himself and before he could react, his struggle was rewarded, the Mizukage released his leg, and he fell. With a similar mindset, the Sealer brought his blade defensively before him, intending to guard himself if the Mizukage planned to strike him with her weapon. As his knee nestled in the sand, pushing away grains to cradle itself for a fraction of time, enough for Yōsei to inhale and brace himself. Ayakashi's foot, firm against his chest, thrust against him as he toppled away under the force, the trailing leg, distended for his jaw, caught against his mask, rattling the alabaster facade, causing it to crack, the right cheek splintering outward from the point of her virtuous impact, black lines twisting spiderweb shapes through the arrogant homage Yōsei wore. With force, Yōsei plummeted backward, teetering away and then leaving the ground with the upward momentum contained within Ayakashi's blow.

Through the pain, the Sealer brought his neck back to find the Mizukage and watch her, refreshing his grip firmly on his Oath while she began her invocation. If Ayakashi were the picture of wrath, frenzied justice, relentless and absolute, then before her was the image of quiet stillness, joyous and unafraid, poised with graceful momentum. The pain soon faded, unable to withstand the Sealer's will to fight, and he thought of their creation; history gave way to the words written between their blades, already the day had bloomed into the wondrous creation Yōsei hoped it would be, and the outcome would determine the stories told for eras to come. Gravity succumbed, and Yōsei could feel himself falling, but as he descended, the wind conjured by Ayakashi's technique tightened, pulling around him, causing the tattered robes to flail wildly as he adjusted himself, twisting his body with the scant time provided to adapt while maintaining, as best he could, adequate knowledge of her position. With the weapon in her hands shifted again and rising even as she began to land, sought to rend the Sealer in twain, scattering him across the desert. At each step, the artists prompted one another, testing their innovation as each tried to shift the composition into their own shape. Yōsei's methodology, the cruel abstraction which concealed its form until the final moment, and Ayakashi's talented vision, able to beautifully replicate the color of her dreams with instinct in an instant.

From the wind, the Mizukage drew her power to attack, and from the breeze which pulled at his clothes, Yōsei produced the solemn legacy which would intervene. Kyōki, who until now had slumbered in the desert air, teasing motes of dust happily watching the Sealer's bout. Unlike the Oath, Konoha's Legacy did not hunger but waited patiently until finally, it was called upon again to serve. Imposing itself, Kyōki made the tales of its steadfast defense resonate as the Sealer planted with its edge, which did not waver in response to Ayakashi's wretched scythe and rotated his body around the axis of their clash. Gaining extra momentum was his initial strategy, and throwing himself further past where the Mizukage had formed the chakra for her vacuum. With Seisakata still in his left hand, Yōsei would spin with its weight as he released the clash of their weapons, still barely at the length of Ayakashi's Changeling, and throw the blade down, letting it loose from his fingers while lost within the folds of the hilt's wrappings would be a seal primed to herald the Oath's return. His arrogant rebuttal came as interception before the Mizukage's intended follow-through, and as he Faded further than predicted, launching toward the barrier surrounding them, Seisakata came for Ayakashi's heart. In the time he spent airborne, Yōsei would repeal Kyōki within himself and release it in his left hand in time with reaching the barrier's wall, feet planting for a moment, just enough to bend and then thrust forward, jumping from the vertical surface toward Ayakashi in the wake after whatever maneuver she had chosen from nearly a meter beyond her reach. Intending to take advantage at the apex of Ayakashi's sweeping motions, Yōsei would again force the Mizukage to react to his attacks if he could find a window to do so.

Wherever Yōsei's Oath found itself in the brief moments between its release and the Sealer's jump was irrelevant as the formula against its handle called out to the sister seals in Yōsei's palm, causing the blade to appear in the cradle of his right hand while he came upon the Mizukage. Before the Sealer gathered much distance, the unusual lowness of his position would be revealed as he found himself able to plant his legs against the sand, pivoting with the momentum of his leap as he moved with the pace of his blades. A whirlwind came from the dust, kicked up into the air as Yōsei struck into his foe, Seisakata came first, superior reach unchallenged by the patient Legacy in the Sealer's dominant grip. From beneath, the Oath rose to flay the Mizukage's left thigh, sinking deviously below the folds of her waistband to curve a path through her leg and retreat with the Rogue's elbow, which would twist the edge and withdraw it swiftly if he needed to defend, such was the advantage of favoring the side of his sinister gift. Enclosing, and making provisions for Ayakashi's counter-attacks, Yōsei would skip, unwilling to sacrifice momentum as he came low, intending to cross himself over to the opposite side of that strike and simultaneously swipe at the Mizukage's right ankle with Kyōki.

In an instant, aligned with the pulse of their duet, Yōsei swapped the blades within his hands, and suddenly, Seisakata would be low, and Kyōki poised to defend as he rose, matching the Mizukage's cadence as his sword flowed forward into his step, soaring toward the sky in an effort to rend her from between her legs, or slash with its edge at her chest and arms if she had darted away from Kyōki's ambitious offensive maneuver. Unwilling, still, to sacrifice anything from his motion, the single movement of his darting slashes and now the rising attacks were contained within an instant, a hand free at all times to allow the combat to flow seamlessly, parrying or adjusting as Ayakashi would doubtless impose herself upon his sequence. Intending not to commit, but to provide a series of quick motions, easily modified. Switching his hands again, intent to reserve his homeland's Legacy for its intended purpose, Yōsei would take full advantage of his Vanishment style now that it had been revealed, fighting with the Seisakata alone while still wielding the second blade defiantly against Ayakashi's attacks. The rise would be punctuated by a final sweep, with Kyōki held across his abdomen as Seisakata rose to divide her, Yōsei carried through and brought his body around while swapping the weapons again in his hands, unfurling his right arm, which now wielded the ōdachi, to slash powerfully at Ayakashi's midsection while the wakizashi careened aloft at his shoulder.

Pressing into the slash, Yōsei would allow opportunity to take its course, ending his movement, which supplemented itself on only a fraction of their duel but sought to initiate a complex challenge. If the blades found their purchase without reaction, Ayakashi would discover herself crippled, bisected and then eviscerated, limbs falling away. But she would intervene, instinct would not allow her to perish even to a foe with the skill to challenge her in combat. Following the final blow, Yōsei's tools switched again, and he came ready to defend against the Mizukage while enclosing, Seisakata now lying perilously in wait in the Sealer's dominant hand. As the day drew on, this conflict would escalate; contained within this box only for a moment longer, the warring fates would soon embark on a battle that would be witnessed by all. For now, their swansong remained secret, whispered between them while locked in the Sealer's Crossings, fighting in the split seconds between techniques which roared out over the sand. Imperceptible machines of war, simple synapses firing as they stole moments between a hand seal, the drawing of a blade, and a heartbeat.

3847


chakra 240|345:

33The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Tue Jul 03, 2018 12:29 am

Akusha

Akusha


D-rank
It would seem that things were becoming more interesting by the second. Like a veritable kicked hornet’s nest, ninja were swarming around the site, attacking each other for their various reasons. To his eyes, it would seem that the same female that was rumored to have destroyed Sunagakure no Sato was still here; the giant snake that attacked Sunagakure was present. A masked ninja fought against a high ranking Kirigakure no Sato shinobi; perhaps the Mizukage herself. Various other shinobi would scurrying around, performing their duties to the utmost of their abilities. The male would take care to keep himself away from the shinobi that were operating; all the while recording what he saw upon within the notebook he possessed.

The wealth of the information that he was obtaining at this moment was undeniable; despite the higher ranking Konoha shinobi present at this battleground, their points of view would be limited to that of whom they were fighting with. They would be concentrating on their opponent as to not die in the encounter. But for the young male, it was different. His would be the eyes that saw it all, the eyes that saw the battlefield in its entirety. He could and would pick up on the details that everyone missed. He would take great care to detail even the jutsu used by each of the ninja, allied or not. When the time came, if he felt that he was slipping up with his writing, he would form a series of hand seals with his free hand, forming out an additional three clone copies of himself. Each one would reach into his pack and begin to pull out extra pencils and notebooks, while settling beside the young uchiha on the ground. For anyone caring to pay attention to him, the sounds of papers being shuffled could be heard, as each clone would begin to write as well. Thankfully, Akusha was able to multitask expertly; each clone was armed with a two notebooks and two pencils. As the battle waged on, each would write what was being said and heard by all the participants that they were able to perceive; left and right hands would write independently in a brilliant display of ambidexterity, recording the proceedings as they happened in almost real time.

Hopefully, this is enough information for the village…

Sharp eyes would keep watch over the battlefield as four sets of hands transcribed the flow of the battlefield. Each set of eyes were careful about the placement of enemy ninja, taking care to make sure the male was well out of the way of any attacks. While he knew full well that he would not be able to assist much in any combat scenario, the young man also knew that information was the prime currency of war. If that was what this reclamation project was turning into, then he would see to it that Konoha came out on top as far as it went.




Jutsu Used / Chakra 135/150:

503 | 1329 wc

34The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:37 am

Ayakashi

Ayakashi


S-rank
'Impact would come as a gift from the heavens.‘


Ayakashi's swift movements were clouded by an insidious, desperate anxiety which led to her wound, cleaved into her skin to be frozen black in long scars rending through her alabaster white skin. the biting pain of the arrow's streak, however, could not compare to the disdain her foolishness wrought so it was that yet another mistake carved a lesson learned across Ayakashi's hide. Yosei's skills with the blade were remarkably vast, were he to be scaled in contrast to the mighty mountain Myaboku, surely he with his mastery of Iajutsu would sit upon its gilded and golden crown. What was certain, the shadow of a man fought like a samurai possessed by divinity, but strikingly sans one's honor. As he wrought the nigh-on legendary Odachi from side to side with deft, meaningful, concomitant strikes. The swordsman before the Mizukage was akin to an artist, the blade gripped tightly between his fingers his paintbrush. Wind passed over his blade, singing a sirens song that graciously invited even the most effulgent of swordsman or woman to their deaths at its harrowing razor's edge... yet alone the feckless and distracted.

Ayakashi since the arrows blow would let out a curse across the wind of her mind, pushing herself to be on her guard. Now stalwart in her duty to her people, to survive she would now seem to tease around the tip of his blade with a renewed sense purpose, a mix of skill, preservation of energy and simple inability to do anything more pressing her to move with little more than the bare minimum to evade his strikes least she over-commit and fall victim to another of his trappings. Blocking one strike to her side with changeling's length the bright flash of golden sparks penetrated the insidious radiance that flooded the air crimson, surrounding them for a fleeting flicker of a moment in decadent natural light... as she expected, luring the queen of the land of mist into a trap that few outside her station could hope to escape or survive.

An attempted blow to Ayakashi's armored midsection was an act that was difficult to avoid so close. But, it was a risk on the behalf of her opponent, a kick to the side was something an enemy better hope staggers them or delivers enough internal damage to prevent a hasty riposte. With reverberations of the strike resonating across the Kage's steel shell acting to absorb the blow, his action knocked at the gates of fate and opportunity... Ayakashi's fury would shine brighter than the lone solemn star that hung aloft in the heavens above the combatants. Any doubt or duality of nature that had once been sewn in her mind had now been incinerated by her fury at the mere threat of the loss of her wedding band. Her father's legacy personified in steel, crafted into a decadent dagger that lent the Mizukage more than a mere portion of her resolve.

Having it taken, but then also retrieved was able to sharpen her mind enough to focus on nothing other than the punishment of the foe before her. Clarity and the tampering of her animalistic fighters' instinct found her spare hand tightening around his thigh, pushing her to act as a blow would land to his lower leg dropping him down and opening his guard. The Samurais' shadow before her had ironically stripped Ayakashi of her weakness through his mere attempt to exploit it. Now shed of a fault, the ninja standing before the rogue assailant was not the Mizukage he had fought but moments before, she was stronger now, reformed and rehabilitated to her purpose...

'She had to end this man...'

The stunning somersault kick to the base of his palette which followed as her first strike epitomizing her newfound prestige would launch him skyward. The porcelain white mask he donned cracking under the weight of the blow, piercing the otherwise silent battleground with its iconic near metallic chirp as its formally pristine face split into gossamer patterns of a spiders' web. The perfection of his mantle stained irreparably, chakra channeling immediately within the form of Ayakashi after the impact. The mind of the most powerful woman alive had extended three moves ahead with the intention of branching further still now that her focus drank from the panacea, cleansing her of the toxins comprising anxious doubt and worry.

The vacuum breathed to life at her solemn command, as if a god ordered the very wind to her whim, collapsing to kneel at her feet and dragging all nearby down with it. Ayakashi would spin to its side, her ears perceiving the bellowing flutter of the ragged form that comprised her enemy with the intent of intercepting its cargo with changeling's visceral scythe. The Mizukage could feel the impact, but in place of a body torn in twain, Yosei had conjured a blade from the wind itself, clashing against her changeling with his trustworthy Odachi in a thunderous roar. Defying Ayakashi's edict of death in that moment as he would propel himself forward faster than before off the blade's end.

Ice from the impact against the changeling bonded with the wedding band would spread across a small section of the blade as they collided. Aya's strike falling short, recalling to mind an image of trying to strike a swallows freefall as it flitted from the skies. In that instant, the second blade, simultaneous with her strike would be let fly from his fingers. The wind would part and the death psalm of the foreign weapon boisterously bellowed its intent as its bellicose master had attempted to cast it at her breast. A curse rolling silently across her tongue in a sharp breath as Ayakashi would react in a fraction of a heartbeat; Following through with her strike and forcing the scythe into the form of a Naginata. Recoiling the blade from the impact of her opponent allowed her to maneuver the shaft to strike the airborne blade from the skies, yanking it from beneath Yosei's plant leaving him to his momentum. the impact of the blow intent on sending the wind-soaked blade hurled with force to the other side of the arena far from the grip of her opponent as Ayakashi instinctively buckled her knees and turned aside from the blade's path in case of an unseen follow-through. Traversing the pole-arm around her body without loss of a moment, Ayakashi would follow through with her spin in a race to catch him on the return. Extending the glaive in a single hand as she would lash out with the backhand to catch the side of her opponent as she had intended, yet again the swallow had slipped free of the masters' net. Without the crook of the scythe advancing its range ahead of its hilt, there simply was not the time to catch his fleeing form. In the brief time she had, Ayakashi could spy the markings upon the hilt of the blade in a fraction as she would route the momentum of her glaive like the blade of a helicopter, traversing it around her body to pose behind her, its blade dipping into the sand to hide from the eyes of her opponent, its edge turned in his direction as it would sheath itself between the golden granules. In the brief instant, Ayakashi had seen the sigils planted on the hilt of the weapon, thinking it a sagacious act to keep it away.

'But the absence of the profound, stood the crafty'

In place of an explosion or directly offensive nature, the blade that cleaved through the wind would vanish, re-appearing in Yosei's hand as the bracken-faced man would move to perch upon the wall of his own creation, leering at his opponent for a moment before bounding toward Ayakashi at astounding speeds which rendered his lower body as a blur to even Ayas' senses. Leaning forward and beginning her charge, Ayakashi would lower her blade further into the sands welcoming embrace, drawing a trench with its blade like a sharks fin weaved in slalom through the sand in her wake. As soon as Yosei would approach, the Mizukage would think to make a strike with the pommel of her blade for the eye of her opponent at a velocity even the most studious viper would invidiously fail to replicate. However, the lowering stance of her opponent undermined the opening strike at a moment's notice, his twin blades swinging for the outside of Ayakashi's presented leg with the long blade and intending to follow up with the stinging nip to her ankle. Yosei was intending to cleave deeply at this range, should the blows land, Ayakashi would have been little more than a torso exploding apart with her momentum and forcing her to abort the hopeful strike and instead move to defense.

At such speeds, reversing her advance would have been impossible even for her skills without the use of chakra, leaving the Mizukage, to her chagrin to follow through with the dug-in glaive of her weapon to slide into its path as Ayakashi would step inward with her other foot, her weapon's blade reversed to face away from Yosei as she extended the shaft, planting it on the earth as her body for a moment would seem to seek to collide with the masked assailant. A thuggish charge coupled with Ayakashis grounding was certain to succeed at her full strength, of this there was no doubt. But with the art of reckless release behind her, muscles and tendons essential to her bodies' strength had been strained, placing the two of them on equal footing in terms of strength and speed. But not fighting skill. Ayakashi was the martial artist par excellence. None in this godforsaken ninja world could claim the mantle of combatant overall on her scale and ability, even without her strength and speed powered to their natural maximum, she was more than a match for any ninja who drew breath in the world of the living.

Ayakashi had kept her stance higher than Yosei's charge on purpose, knowing that this battle was not one to be won head-on. The second coming of this shrunken stance allowed the Mizukage to devise countermeasures in advance as her attack was to be executed. The glaive would grind to her side to block the first of his strikes to her thigh with lightning's satisfying crack as recognition, she continued her pursuit. Keeping her blade to an angle with the intent of halting his momentum to that side, she continued her charge. Moments before impact with her opponent's low stance and the nip to her ankle, Aya would use the grounding of her glaive's blade buried in the sand as a stage to vault upward from the blade, rolling shoulder-to-shoulder she would soar over Yosei as contact with his back would aim to take control of her free-fall as well as augment the pace of her strike. Ayakashi clung to the pole of her weapon altering changelings form yet again to that of the scythe she had wielded before, the force of the spring-loaded action within the blade as she rolled with it would explode the sand upwards in Yosei's path while his strike should it follow through with his momentum would seek to push her polearm in pace with her roll. A grin creeping across her lips as she would use his speed and low stance against him, with Ayakashi upon him, should he speed away underneath her, the force of his movement would simply increase the speed of her roll, while any motion from side to side would in-turn force her angle to pivot like an opposing gyroscope. At the apex of her roll towards the small of his back Ayakashi would coil the scythe close to her chest utilizing her torso as a rotating axis to enhance the speed of the blade so that before she would leave contact, the blade would already be moving between Yosei's knees, or likewise creeping under his crouched form from whichever direction she completed her dismounting rotation.

"Got you!!!"

With her destined dismount, Ayakashi would move with her pent up momentum twisting in the air to let out a leg in order ground herself. Golden sand breaking for the force of her foot, the giantess like legends of old gaining limitless strength with but the earth at her feet and her body as its fulcrum. Earthed, Aya was blessed with the necessary force to drive her blade upwards in yet another devastating reap. The point aiming for her opponent's gut like a hook intending to eviscerate her opponent and hew everything in its path with its charted follow through like a butchers' guillotine, much more a stab followed through with the rending action of her momentum than a slash that could simply have his blade pursed against its edge. But should he find his steel to block its edge, he would be without footing. Equal strength or no, Ayakashi was still strong enough with footing on the earth to lift the weight of her opponent no matter how much downward force he could apply to her blade sans increasing his weight or gravity itself.

If her blow would fail to land or be caught by Yosei's blade, Ayakashi would generate slack against the clash by straightening changeling's edge to its Naginata forme once again. Using the lack of a crook to slip past him, rounding off the momentum of the strike with a spinning flourish of her long blade, the mists shadow charged once again for her opponent in the hopes of interjecting his actions simultaneous to him make contact with the ground. Naginata held in off-hand alone halfway down its haft, she would strike out with the blade for his heart with a skipping thrust, hurtling the force of her weight and momentum into the razor's edge of the glaive's tip. Expecting avoidance or resistance in retaliation, Ayakashi would not intend to dedicate her all into the strike, assuming her opponent's prevelance for keeping low, she'd hope to meed his attempted evasion. Planting a foot in the sand with a stomp before the apex of her thrust, a tactic used usually to channel force into one's strike, would become a pivot for her followthrough. spear at her hip, she would recoil its thrust like a viper as she'd spin, rotating it with her as the pommel donned with the wedding band would sweep for the outside of Yosei's left leg, just under his knee-cap hoping to sever both legs entirely could it be afforded while her right hand, once again gripped one of the plethora of weapons still kept on her person.

A bladeless hilt in hand, Aya would activate the sapphire chakra blade known as a legend throughout the ninja world atop her spears haft inches past her left hand as Kusanagi would roar to life with a tigers cry. The flash of the ephemeral blue blade would extend to be launched upwards for Yosei's chest at the height of his diaphragm from the right and carry upwards to his shoulder as it would extend to half its length as a means to segment this opponent into each of his individual limbs save a single arm. The blow would overshadow the strike with wedding bands' tip as a follow through, or a scissor should it come to be prevented by one of his blades for his opposing side. Grinding teeth as Ayakashi would complete her flurry, entreating her opponent towards defeat with each deliberate action.

All the while her mind would expand into branches upon branches of angles, attempting to discern his most likely cause of action with her instincts. At a moments notice, capable of abandoning the possibility of her charge, strike or flurry should unforeseen circumstance occur. Each action created a branch for the blood watered blossoming tree of combat to expand into new possibilities. But as each time her opponent circumvented the linear nature of her thought, unforeseen circumstance would cause the eradication of the tree, forcing it to sprout anew as a sapling and expand to the heavens... The man before her seemed to be a sealer of some skill with a sword, but Ayakashi still held one more advantage against him of which she was certain... having struck once to the base of his chin, and poised to strike once again at a moment's notice.

'She wasn't just a swordsman.'

Should he finds his path to guard both her strikes, pincered between them in a clash, he would quickly find Ayakashi's hands no longer upon her weapons, but rather moving for his wrists as they would draw so close in their clash after whatever words would likely be exchanged between the pair. Following, if successful, Yosie would find his body raising quickly as Ayakashi would seek to tuck her body into his, throwing back a leg to compromise his footing for but a crucial moment as she would simultaneously lift and seek to hurl him into the earth with a shoulder throw which would seek to tear terra firma apart!

[3003 words]

chakra 280:

35The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Wed Jul 04, 2018 11:25 am

Daremo




S-rank
He had to resist the urge in stopping the woman from bowing to him. While he had no problem with her doing it, the current place was not the time for a formal greeting like that. It would have been perfectly acceptable if she had just stopped after acknowledging him with something far more subtle than a bow. Nevertheless, as she performed the action, his eyes were surveying the surroundings, making sure no one was thinking about taking advantage of the opening that was provided to them from Mizuki’s actions. His assignment was to protect the woman, and that precisely what he was going to do.

Despite the chaos surrounding them, the sounds of varying fights breaking out, he still was able to hear the woman’s words. “Do not sell yourself short, Mizuki.”, He spoke, paying little mind to the compliment thrown his way by the fellow Kumo-nin. His eyes were focused on the approaching cloaked figures that had emerged over the hillside like a tsunami with the radicalized militia. Two of them had broken out from the mass and was heading straight for them. “I am should your skills are more refined than you say they are.” He spoke, eyeing the men they were steadily getting close, I will watch over you, only entering into the battles if you need it. Considering your position, I trust your combat skills are good enough to handle this type of combat, and your mind is sharp enough to know when or when not to be the aggressor or defender.”

If Mizuki believed that Daremo was going to fight all of her battles than she would be in for a wake-up call. While he was her bodyguard, meant to protect her until everything was settled, he was still going to let her fight her own fights, and win her own battles. Coddling her was not something he had plans in doing. This was war, and she would need to deal with those who come for her head. The only time he would intervene is if she finds herself in an unfavorable position, such as being ganged up on, or find herself unaware of an attack coming from her.

Seeing the men have gotten a tad bit too close for comfort, Daremo pulled out a familiar pair of senbons from his hair. Though, to call them senbons would be a bit of a stretch considering each one was roughly two foot long and had a silver tip to them. A weapon of old. They were something that he hadn’t extensively used in awhile, only recently had he started using them again. He having picked them up again out of the necessity. There was no reason for him to drop them, to begin with. If he wanted to gain strength, that meant using everything in his arsenal.

Feeling the common metal in hand, Daremo held them in a loose grip, and his hands moved in a blur. Faster than the men could track, he stepped into between the men, arms moving towards their necks with the senbons finding little resistance as they pierce through, sticking out the back of their necks a good three inches to the right side of the spine, having missed the bone entirely, that would have prevented them from doing going through. Tightening the grip on each senbon, he yanked them down at an angle, feeling some pull as the backward facing barbs flayed the flesh, causing even more blood to flow from the wounds. All of this happened in a blur, with the men dropping as soon as they got into range. As they gasp their last precious breath, their crimson liquid soaking the ground, Daremo paid them little mind. His attention is on the one he was in charge of guarding.

He did not have wait long for Mizuki to relay the plan of attack. They would be assisting in defending the Anbu who were maintaining the barrier. “As a shinobi, there is nothing beneath my skill. Only the foolish believe they are too good to do certain tasks.”, He spoke, eying the mass of enemies. ”We finally get to shred more blood.”, the beast within him spoke, standing up from its haunches and stretching. Its massive jaws widening and closing shut like a steel trap. ”Will you let me play?”, the beast asked while picking at the lock on its cage as bloodlust rolled off of it. Right now would not be a good time for the aspect to come out. It was too soon. For now, he was going to remain in control, only giving it over sometime later.

As Mizuki scribed a letter, he kept his attention focused on the approaching armies. Once the letter had been scribed and given to a bird, a hawk, he followed Mizuki into battle. Having been given the order to leave none alive, he would follow the orders perfectly.



824[2913]
Moving to defend against the Ryujin

36The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Mon Jul 09, 2018 8:08 am

Yōsei

Yōsei


S-rank
Cherished conflict, the dying nation struggled to breathe through the spluttering dry heaves as Yōsei's vision came to life around them. Still arriving, shinobi from the Great Nations met with further radicals, pairing off across the dunes in deadly parleys. The sprawling battle became a war zone as the sun glared menacingly upon them, growing by the second ever larger while the masses descended upon the slaughter pit, unable to resist the allure of conflict, the chance to be part of something greater than themselves. Such was Yōsei's drive, the sacred duty which drove him to complete this crucible, push back the invaders and wrap his hands around Suna's hope, to twist it to his bidding. While the conflict grew around them, the contest of wills behind the Sealer's walls grew more minute by the second, drawing itself into the microscopic elements of combat where each flourish of muscles and tendons caused a thousand responses, strung in sequence like an orchestra playing out of time. Each reaction pulled the duo deeper into their trance, examining their movements with more detail at each interval while their swords and smiles jawed back and forth, playful hounds asserting dominance. This was their way, to howl and snap at one another for dominion over the wasted landscape of Suna's final gasps, before finally, the country would fall into slumber awaiting a new era that neither of them would see.

In the smothering cadence, Yōsei felt time dilate between their decisions, the Mizukage ready to unleash with inhuman quickness and the Sealer's versatile magic allowing the fight to transcend the seconds of war which marched on outside the walls. As if secluded in the corner of heaven reserved for savagery, where Gods who no longer could debate sought to make amends for their wounded pride and cast the other from the Heavenly Kingdom. What world could have been on the day he slipped beneath the waves of Water Country and found himself in Naraka's clutches? Yōsei supposed this conflict would have been inevitable, the conqueror who once had desired to claim the Fire Nation for his own not shrouded in cowardly secrets would have come to find himself at the end of Ayakashi's blade. There was no doubt in the Rogue's mind that the Mizukage surpassed him in martial prowess, and that his strength on this field would only last as long as he could hide away the weaknesses, bluff them as his strength, and maintain his infamous veil of trickery. While Ayakashi attempted to match him with her sword, and he continued to aggressively press her defenses, Yōsei would remain concerned with matching the woman's wits, outpacing her with cunning and closing the gap with his speed of thought. Like outsmarting a typhoon, the Sealer had embarked on a remarkable errand, one of both tremendous courage and profound hubris, but one that he intended to vanquish all the same. In life, nothing had stood between the Sealer and his missive, and this was no different.

Sequence unfurling, Yōsei brought the edge of his homeland's Legacy down in defense while his body arched up, watching the Mizukage already reacting to his offending arm, which unleashed the Seisakata toward her chest as he flew skyward over the arc of her slash. No amateur, Ayakashi maneuvered her weapon, switching its shape as she impacted it, unceremoniously discarding the Duelist's relic across the sand, where it nestled with its blade in the sand awaiting the Sealer's call. Such a test, wrapped thick with audacious merits equally as it was in transparent intention, easily cast away by the Mizukage's retort as Yōsei's body contorted overhead. Wills never faltering, the combatants watched as Yōsei left the proximity of Changeling's funeral dirge, following through with fluid motions in a strike reminiscent of the wind which pulled him toward her; one with nature. By inches, the Sealer escaped her scythes following reap, gliding freely to the wall of the chamber and peering back at his challenge while summoning back the blade which carelessly had been left alone, back to its purpose in his grasp. Whipping to attention, the Oath growled, low and steady, while Yōsei readied himself, pushing with his legs to begin his approach toward the Mizukage. So careful, each step played out in infinite journies, the Sealer's foot planting against the sand as the Mizukage's arm swung through the air, sweeping for his weapon.

What came next was a dizzying whirlwind of light. The Mizukage's interception, compelling and bold, would seek to thwart the course which Yōsei plotted toward his target. Into his mask, with the force of a ship's cannon, the hilt of Ayakashi's blade would hesitate, causing the Sealer to lash out faster and with vehement desire to push this moment of weakness with his strikes. Without honor, the Samurai descended with his stolen Oath, lowly, wretched, and cruel, seeking to sow death in his wake. Sinister steel rang out, fluttering wings of sparks as Yōsei plunged Seisakata into the space where the Mizukage's thigh would be as she responded by thrusting with her weight, sliding into the sand and his strike with her hip, forcing Yōsei to pivot earlier than he had wanted, relenting as Seisakata met her blade, resigned to lay dormant until it had a chance again to strike. With the retreat of Konoha's Oath, it would vanish, the Sealer adjusting to the Mizukage's changing stance by moving the hand which once Seisakata occupied, now freely up and summoning the blade again to knock aside from underneath the angled polearm and allow him to slide beneath it as still, the Mizukage allowed herself to be carried forward by her charge. As Kyoki lashed, striving for the witch's ankle, the Mizukage's weapon, which had before wanted to impede him, allowed her to whirl on its axis and leave the ground. As anticipated, the woman left her feet, but dropped her body surprisingly into Yōsei's shoulders.

A life led in the pursuit of death inevitably ends in ruinous finery, burned regalia, and tattered flags. Yōsei's low road had brought him here, through the fires of his conquests on earth, list of slain soldiers and enemies of Konoha who stood before him. The Mizukage, dedicated to the defense of her homeland, exemplified the Water's creed; refined and unyielding as she faced each challenge with unrivaled valor, was now rewarded with the world's eyes watching on, cheering for her victory. Caught together on this crossed path, each would retake their road, Yōsei stealing away close to the earth with blades in tow, elegant tricks concealing his movements as the blades in his hands swapped places, allowing Seisakata to follow its rival closely. Meanwhile, Ayakashi spun high, elevating above the conflict and pressing against the Sealer's back her shoulders while the two rolled away, close enough to feel the depraved cold which frosted the air. The Mizukage, too, might feel, just the slightest vestige of Naraka's chill which lingered on the Sealer's flesh, an unfamiliar cold that even to the Kōri's greatest clansman, would seem profoundly dark. What alien sensation she would derive, with her own, mythically prodigious Hyōton imbalance, which made Ayakashi's chakra rival the sodden aura which clung to the man returned from death. Storms rolled between them, caught in the juxtaposition of the lives not led by each of the duelists as they departed, Yōsei leaving behind fragments of sacred scripture inlaid on the Mizukage's armor, the same path to victory thwarted by Ayakashi's earlier technique now again tried to find permanence.

Departing from their brief performance, Yōsei still keeping his stance low, reminiscent of his strategy, moved quickly, pivoting and shifting to the right of Ayakashi's deadly slice, which rose in time with their separation. Taking from the Sealer's threadbare cloak ribbons of black cloth as Kyoki vanished, and Yōsei moved himself with the pressure of his right hand, moving forward and rotating around the blade while rolling his body parallel with the sand to avoid the ascending strike while curling beneath his body legs which would steady the spin and allow him to propel himself forward toward the Mizukage. Already changing the weapon's composition again, Ayakashi routed the Sealer's position, meeting Seisakata with her naginata's edge as Yōsei rose with his weight moving away, sweeping rather than parrying with the blade. Her opponent sought to reverse their positions, traveling in the Mizukage's wake and filling the empty air which sung for any company against the heat which, rising from the sunlit grains, accompanied by the sparks of their warfare, was a sweltering tomb within which Yōsei was becoming increasingly unable to bury the Mizukage inside of. Summoning Kyoki again, the wakizashi would mirror Yōsei's rising shape as he knocked forcefully at the polearm which replaced Ayakashi's blade, the Sealer twirling the Legacy between his fingers to reverse it and continue his parry. Around the Water Shadow's orbit, her Wedding Band came low, and the Sealer met it with Kyoki, forcefully exerting the blade's defensive prowess while making his way in the reverse of her relic's rotation, shuffling backward and circumnavigating the deadly edge of her attack with his deft hop.

Delicate and swift, the Mizukage's hand drew forth a tool the Sealer recognized without delay. The Grasscutter's chakra, bubbling and begging for release at its master's behest, would not dally, unwilling to leave Yōsei time to contemplate the antique. Instead, the Rogue's efforts were focused on continuing his strafe, and swapping within his hands the held weapons to focus the Kusanagi with Kyoki, aiming to push the blade higher than intended while simultaneously swaying his body opposite the direction of his movement, lowering his shoulder to allow the Mizukage's weapon to slide over. Meanwhile, from the Sealer's hip, his right hand would swing out with a snapping strike for Ayakashi's left-hand side, just beneath her ribs. Without enough force or space to follow through with a bisection, Yōsei's strike would intend to impact vigorously on the Mizukage's armor, using the opportunity afforded by maneuvering past the Wedding Band's attack while parrying instead of halting his momentum to block it. Kyoki would remain occupied in the Sealer's left hand to clash with the legendary Kusanagi as he would press the attack, anticipating the Mizukage's defensive maneuver would be to block with the Changeling held in the same side he swung toward and seeking to lock her away in the very same motion Ayakashi had attempted to trigger herself, though through a combination of their offensive efforts instead of just her own. As Yōsei brought his weight into the Mizukage's, the pair would vie for dominance, Seisakata excited by the prospect of Ayakashi's demise.

The Mist's Shadow, unparalleled warrior of Kirigakure and one of the world's most legendary heroes; if she had thought the Sealer underestimated her capabilities, she was not the woman her reputation suggested. As the duo clashed viciously, exchanging hidden grimaces as the flakes of alabaster obfuscation still chipped and fell from Yōsei's mask, the Sealer would suddenly find himself assailed in a new way, the Mizukage freeing the grip on her weapons while moving toward him, hands snapping out like the jaws of wolves to clamp down upon him. Reacting quickly, the Sealer recalled his swords, vanishing them into his flesh as he would dip his right hand and spin into the Mizukage's right side, left-hand unraveling lengths of black thread while he would drop that same wrist, hand now unveiled, showing Ayakashi the sutras and maps which adorned his fingers. Aiming to intercept the path of her grapple, Yōsei would flourish the quartet of errant strands in an attempt to ensnare the Mizukage's gauntlet in time with her grip, dropping them around it and aiming to hold them tightly and secure together their hands, his left, and her right, clasped wrist to wrist with the Sealer's resting beneath. Yōsei would follow by moving to that same side, routing himself to brace for Ayakashi's tucking frame and sweeping leg, which would hook at his lower body as she begged the Sealer with her strength, tantalizing him to leave his feet and roll with the momentum of her throw. Now atop his opponent, Yōsei would, if he had succeeded in binding together their hands, pull taut the material and steady himself; otherwise he would grip at the Mizukage's gauntlet, which would doubtless provide sufficient leverage.

Now plummeting toward the earth, the Sealer-become-comet would time his rebuttal with dizzying precision, revealing to the Mizukage another of his secrets: he too, was no mere samurai. Willing to endure the pain of his crash with the earth, Yōsei would pull himself into Ayakashi at the moment of impact, curling his body, legs raising and rocking his shoulders against the sand to dig a cradle in the dust, all of which was designed to lessen the impact, if even slightly. Wasting no time, Yōsei would pull with considerable strength at the limb of Ayakashi's which his grip sought to remain upon, and his legs would snap backward over his body while pulling the Mizukage's right arm toward the inside of her mass. The entwined limbs which crossed their bodies would serve as the Sealer's axis, upon which he would intend to spin the Water Shadow; as his left leg rose and passed across his body, timed with the beginning of his pull and still in the act of landing, to strike with the calf at the crook of her neck. The combined momentum of Ayakashi's lowering body bent over the Sealer's prone form, would be his attempt at undoing her. Utilizing the Mizukage's strength while pulling her toward the earth, sliding through the loose grains of sand beneath with the leverage created by the tug of her arm and hopeful, though not entirely necessary hook of his leg across her neck and head. The intended result would be to slide out from underneath Ayakashi at the exact moment of impact, displacing the sand and garnering enough sway to slip away on a wave of roiling dust, putting to use the sand in much the same way the Kage was known to glide across the ice. Bruises to his back and shoulders would be the necessary sacrifice it took to slip away, causing Yōsei to grimace. At the same time, he would relinquish his grip, sealing away folds of his cloak which the Mizukage gripped at to remove them and allow his hand to pass gracefully between Ayakashi's fingers as he departed the epicenter of her throw. Perfectly executed, the maneuver would leave the Mizukage face-planted, having supplanted the position of her intended victim and been thrown into the sand with the force of her own strike. And that would not be the end.

Retaliating with quickness, Yōsei would spin to his feet and close towards the Mizukage in the space between a heartbeat and the inhalation of their next breath, unleashing his right leg with a snap-kick for his opponent's skull, which would be ideally rising from the sand. This kick, if the Mizukage had salvaged her movement and recovered as quickly as the Sealer, would be satisfied to end its life as a feint for her knee instead, covering Yōsei's intention to step into that leg and, with the force of his hip, to hook his right fist into the mask she wore, aimed directly for the cheek. Beyond the opening stratagem, the Sealer kept his stance loose, judging his opening and if it presented itself, he would bring the elbow of the offending punch back while thrusting his body forward again in an attempt to plow the elbow back-handedly into the front of her mask and then follow with his opposite leg, this strike carrying enough force to send the Mizukage from her feet without resistance as his shin would seek to wipe away the opponent. Ideally sweeping into Ayakashi's right side and carrying her away, the leg would stop abruptly after only a short impact, desiring to hurl the Water Shadow several meters away into the sand where he would meet her next.

As the two came close to the edge, Yōsei could feel the pressure mounting outside the walls, and the sting of the battle being waged throughout the sand. Vicious and true, the Sealer's crusade had begun this day beneath the shadow of Inabayama and would not soon be forgotten. Years of subsisting in the dark between worlds, feeding off the slaughter of his journey through the underworld, and orchestrating his plans had led him to this moment of triumph, where the sun held its breath and all who inhabited this lost world set their eyes upon him. The hero who struggled valiantly against him, the woman who called herself the strongest among the living, only she would appreciate the significance of their plight, the same unending curse which they both had shared since birth; it was not their destiny which made them Gods, but their willingness to accept such a reprehensible title.

2830


chakra 225|345:

37The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Thu Jul 12, 2018 9:35 pm

N'Jobu Aburame

N'Jobu Aburame


C-rank
The thrill of the battlefield was a new sensation to N'Jobu. While he often got some thrill hunting local game with bow, the rush was nothing compared to sensation he was currently feeling. The beautiful chorus of metal clanging against each other ringing throughout the battlefield was a symphony to his ears. As he sat atop a large cliff face overlooking the battlefield, he scanned the battle below looking for semblances of his fellow Konoha brethren. He had been tasked to keep an eye on the battlefield and report the situation back to main camp to determine if further reinforcements would be required to assist those on the battlefield. He could also provide some aid to the local camps should he be so inclined but he had yet to make up his mind. He felt as though he could keep up with some of the minor skirmishes but this battle clearly had some heavy hitters. From the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of two high level shinobi engaging each other on the battlefield below. As he focused in closer on the battle, he clutched his bow tightly as he recognized one of the combatants below. A woman who moved like snake, the supposed cause of the destruction he had witnessed on one of his earlier missions in the area. “Better keep my distance from that one…She could end me without a thought,” he lamented to himself, clearly understanding the vast divide in the skill between the two.  

As he thought about the implications of what could happen should he end up encountering her, he fixated his gaze back upon the two combatants, noticing the other of them was a fellow Konoha ANBU nin. He watched for a few more moments then turned away to scan the immediate area near him to ensure that he was lone, commanding a few of his kikaichū to scout out a small parameter around him so that he wouldn’t be ambushed. As his gaze returned to the battlefield, he watched as a large vortex of flames encircled the snake woman stemming from the mouth of his fellow Konoha brethren. He watched in amazement at the level of power these two were capable of producing. The snake woman began to bellow water in an effort to douse the magnificent flames descending upon her, albeit it seemed a bit to late as he could make out some damage to her body. The two stood on the battlefield, the steam rising from the ground from the amalgamation of their two incredibly powerful jutsu resonating through the air. He watched as the woman slammed her hands to the ground, erecting a large wall of mud in front of her. In a moment, she placed a mask on her face then disappeared in flash before he knew it. Her presence seemed to almost disappear entirely as he was not able to sense or feel any trace of her.

He shifted his gaze over to his fellow comrade in arms. He stood up from his stance, obviously annoyed by his opponent running from him. N’Jobu figured he should probably send down one of his female insects to tag along on this fellow Konoha so that he could find him again in the scuffle should things go awry. Hopefully he would notice the friendly partner tagging alone but if not, it wouldn’t be so bad either. He commanded a female down over the battle field, slowly flying towards the ANBU nin. The nin turned his head and began to sprint towards a larger clash of Kiri nin and Suna radicals. N’Jobu watched as the sand beneath his feet quickly turned to ash and flames, with flames erupting from his backside as he dashed into the crowd. Realizing his insects would likely be burned in the flames, he called them back as he didn’t wish to lose any of his precious kikaichū for no reason. He decided to move down towards the action and follow his fellow Leaf brethren, albeit keeping his distance to be able to pick off any stragglers and avoid any unnecessary combat as his ammo was limited in this particular instance. He took another vantage point a bit above the chaos and readied his bow. He continued to watch the movements of ANBU nin as best as he could, he moved incredibly fast but the flashes of flames behind him made the task a bit easier.

WC: 747

Splintering off to to Defense

38The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Fri Jul 13, 2018 4:15 am

Ayakashi

Ayakashi


S-rank

'Just when everything seemed to be going so well...‘

Ayakashi found herself vaulting over the top of her opponent, feeling the dry heat void of humidity assault her cool skin as she took to the heavens against the demonic foe beneath her. The light of the blazing star above shimmering candidly across the righteous platinum of Ayakashi's steel as she would dismount, spinning midair in a horizontal corkscrew with the voluminous momentum she'd gathered, the blade of her scythe cascaded around her axis in a lethal vertical orbit seeking to sever the ties that would have once so tightly bound Yosei's left from his right. Ever ignorant of the arcane sigils that had been planted upon her back in the meantime... The chakra resonating within the weapons' rigid shell caused the intended reap to trail a cool frigid mist in a crescent plume of fog like that which rolled across a morning stream. For a moment, even the Mizukage was sure of the validity of the strike. Yet in a moments notice, it was undone as her opponent vaulted. Were there even the faintest glimmer of fear in the air, Ayakashi would have felt it, yet it seemed abundantly clear that this enemy that she had chosen to cross blades with was some other kind of animal... Contact with his body was cool even to her own touch, unearthly even, something which wouldn't go unnoticed by the queen of frozen blades. Forcing her into a scowl as her Naginata would flourish before thrusting forward with her intended charge.

Moving with a degree of inveterate swiftness around the outside of her strike, Ayakashi would pivot her pole-arm at her hip with a pirouette, wedding bands' reverse blade hurling for his knees, giving chase to the hubristic hound. The strike was decisive, changeling moving so quickly that its long steely pole seemed to warp under the stress of the blow to even Ayakashi's senses, flexing in perception alone as the slam would careen ever so slightly out of her dance partners' range, the Ronin deftly recoiling backward in response, stepping around the tip of the spear like a boxer's feint before closing in on the gap that the Yuki's strike would create within a moments breath as he attempted to penetrate Ayakashis usually adamant guard. Darting inwards, his opponent would be met in turn with the legendary blade of the grass cutting sword, hurling through the air and drawn across Ayakashi's sleeve, catching his charging path dead in his tracks, unfortunately leaving both of Ayakashi's weapons on her left-hand side. Noting the disadvantage that this particular result left her at, it was only fitting that one of her enemie's blades would seek to hew deeply into her side...

Decisively, Ayakashi would allow her wrist to knock backward, the act allowing the axis of her spear's swing to spin it back towards her, traversing over the curvature of her back and over the top of her opposing shoulder, moving her free left hand overtop the arm holding Kusanagi to grip the weapon as it orbited her frame once again and sliding it down into place to guard her side as Yosie's blow would strike. Pincered between each other's strikes, Ayakashi still found herself at odds. Her arms were crossed over, enclosing her guard but trapping her when the intention was to do the same to Yosei all along. At that instant, a solitary thought began to form within her analysis. 'This man isn't underestimating me at all... ...' The thought grew in relation to Yosei, his actions seemed to be so deliberate, Ayakashi had never sensed fear from him at all, each of his actions was deliberate and calculated. Had all this been to plan? Choosing then to act, rather than simply letting her weapons go and allowing her opponent to simply follow through with his pursed strikes, Ayakashi would pivot on one foot, spinning her upper body in a veritable barrel roll to untwine her arms from each other in the clash they had entered. Using the centrifugal force of her entire body to simultaneously push Yosie's to cross and hers to open.

The results of the acrobatic move wouldn't matter, the tattered man before her had proven himself a keen fighter, and was more than capable of performing a similar maneuver to simply maintain the status quo. But such wasn't the point... momentum, distraction, misdirection. Ayakashi as soon as she landed from the quick hop would have to round off her spin, only then would she release her weapons entirely, having deviously performed an acrobatic feat for martial superiorty, but also, bringing his hands, even if for a moment, closer together. Discarding her weapons to either side, she would snap forward to grab both of her opponent's wrists and using the force of her cork-screw having not quite ended her round off, would tuck into her opponent, using the momentum of her stunt to add to the force of the slam to come. Feeling her wrist become bound by Yosei's netting, Ayakashi would simply put even more effort into the slam as her intended answer, hoping to power through. Then luck smiled upon her efforts, fingers touched as her grip landed. She had him! Invigorated by success, she would throw all of her might into her upper body, driving with her legs and thrusting downward as she successfully kicked out his footing. Projectile in towe, the Mizukage would arc towards the earth before releasing her target with a strike which could part the red sea. Sand exploded in a miniature tidal wave from the force of the blow in every direction with a resounding boom... Though it seemed yet again her opponent was ready.

Drawing on the strings which bound her wrist and with a snap of a leg, Yosei followed up on her momentum and bent over stature, managing to fight through the searing pain of his spine and ribcage no doubt compressing like a spring. The pent up potential energy of his compressed form served only to add to the recoil of his strike, as a leg would explode from the sands catching Ayakashi in the side of the head. Force met force as Ayakashi was sent spiraling downwards, dazed and bruised through the strike to her armor. The thought of taking a blow to the head wasn't something she had thought possible... how was he alive after that throw? She gave it everything! The casting was perfect! She felt the force she hurled him with!... but then the reality of the scenario dawned on her... It was the sand. Had they been fighting on a stone base, or anything that had not acted like a cushion, he would have been crushed under the weight of a similar throw and splattered across the pavement. Ayakashi wasn't used to fighting in this arid environment, her opponent, however, seemed to be far more comfortable in this desert wasteland.

Shaking off the sullen daze, she would bring her arms in front of her to pull herself off the ground as Yosei would make his next charge. As finally, something clicked and the thought she had began resumed... 'he's not underestimating me... he knows exactly what I'm capable of...' Raising her hands to guard her head, Yosei would make a deft feint to strike at one of her legs. Too late! In the time it took for his leg to route to alter its strike, Ayakashi reacted in turn! Twisting at the waist and lashing out with a powerful kick she rotated her entire body on the soft slippery sand to attempt to land a blow on the inside knee of his supporting leg, hoping to trip him just long enough for herself to kick backward from the impact so that they could both raise in tandem. But her Jocular foe proved once again too nimble. The strike for her knee a feint found little but air as she rose to her knees, only to appear as his fist plowed pristinely into the cheek of Ayakashi. The force of the blow resounding, jarring her neck as deep bruises and light fractures underneath the surface of her skin would come to fruition. Repeated blows to the same side of the head, even through her armor ultimately took their toll as Ayakashi would fail to spiral back so much as rock her head to the side with the momentum, rolling with the punch as little as she could to stay on her feet. The swirling internal concussive force seemed to allow the world to move slowly for but a flickering moment allowing her a single instant of clarity. Yet to her... it may as well have been an eternity.

'It's like I've fought him before, he knows me, knows what I'm capable of. But not just as I am now, whoever this man is, has knowledge of me at my full potential... he's seen me at full strength. He's prepared to fight me at my pique and is still fighting like he can take it... but weakened as I am now. I'm playing into his hands... I could lose... I need to turn this around now, who is this guy!? Whoever this man is... whoever he was... whoeve-... no... no... ... you know what? I don't care anymore...

'This. Ends. Now!'

After the blow to Ayakashi's head, resolve would fortify her in a moment as power would flow through her body. The elbow of her enemy would pause for a moment before hurtling back at Ayakashi for a strike. Reacting like that akin to an animal more than a human, the shadow of the mist would thrust her heat towards the blow at the last moment at speeds far exceeding that of before and accelerating in an instant. A mirage of motion as if the shackles which had bound her to the meek state she had been in once before had been shattered by the strength of her own willpower and drive to survive. Should her head meet the blow, what would normally have been a clash or a block due to the shortness of the wind-up and the strength of her opponent. Would be hard enough to send hairline fractures expanding like spiderwebs up Yosei's radial bone. A secret hidden by Ayakashi's armor at work as her face had donned the mirror-like sheen of one of her defensive techniques, her armor having rattled and followed through with his strike, it was met with the technique when the steel would crash into her skin, reflecting the force of the blow outwards and channeling it into his arm, allowing Ayakashi to connect with her once-inch head-butt with the intention of overpowering him and finally putting him on the backfoot as she would raise from the sand.

Ayakashi doubted she had much time to capitalize on her speed/strength advantage, her body still structurally fatigued from recklessly releasing her strength so early. However, Mastery over that structural form allowed her to overcome that weakness for a time, to any ninjas' detriment. Until of course her enemy was able to seal it. Ayakashi until this moment had, had her attention split on the many mysteries that this opponent had summoned into existence with his appearance. His skill, way with the blade, mysterious jutsu and intricate knowledge of Ayakashi's fighting style and equipment had been like weights tied to her extremities, only serving to weigh her down and dull her resolve when she should have been focusing on the tasks before her. Finally shedding such disparate thoughts, Ayakashi was left with a single task; win.

"So you want to kill Hastur eh!?"

Ayakashi would breathe in the recoil of a strike, the fever of combat finally breaking through to something more beastial inside of her, clawing at the surface of her Tenketsu, trying desperately to free itself... were it not for this cage. At maximum speed, Ayakashi was little more than a haze of color to others plastered across a scenic backdrop, surely she could be perceived by Yosei, but how well? She doubted even her enemy could sight her blows at their maximum potential perfectly, he seemed to calculate their likelihood and react accordingly judging by his cool demeanor, A method marred equally in prediction as well as potential. She marveled at the thought as she would seek to spin on a single leg and test this skill of his. The force of the pivot twisting the sand at her feet around her, coiling it into a miniature cyclone as she would whip out a heel at head-height for Yosei. A spinning wheel kick more than capable of severing the head from another ninja, the strengthened Achilles tendons of the Mists Shadow may as well have been a bladed guillotine, 'But he knows that... doesn't he?'. Although its threat was real, it would act as a feint to push Yosei lower as Ayakashi would hope to coil around even faster with her momentum.

Letting out her other leg, for a moment Ayakashi would levitate mid-air as her second kick would cut once again, fast enough to blast the sound of bass as her heel aimed at head-height, hoping to push him even lower with a jumping wheel kick. Ayakashi's body coiled tight to her center of mass with her blows, similar to that of a figure skater performing a single axel. Her form faster than he could hope to match without chakra drew on her true strengths in an attempt to press him into what little reaction he could. The double feint would once again hope to push him even lower as she would route her momentum as she landed, bending her knees and spinning to catch the ninja face to face, poised to spring. To the eyes of the world outside them, Ayakashi would vanish, lashing out a hand with the intent of Catching Yosei by the throat or the clothing around it, scooping up changeling in the process as she'd make her charge for the wall that caged the two of them!

"You'll have to do a LOT better than this! But now... its you or this DAMNED CAGE!"

Bursting at maximum speed boarding insanity for what could be considered nature, Ayakashi would grip her enemy with iron clad claws, tangling them in his skin or clothing and locking them firm in place before using all of her strength to slam her opponent against the prison wall that had kept the two of them imprisoned for far too long. Her roar channeled her focus into the intended strike. If her opponent had control of the jutsu that painted their world in its malevolent hue, he would have to lower it lest he became an insect crushed against the stalwart barricade of the windshield they speedily approached. But, on the off-chance that her blow was stronger than what the shield was able to withstand, Yosei would no doubt find himself hurtling outside of it, the wall of the chakra enforced enclosure shattering outwards before he could, as Ayakashi would release her foe at the strikes zenith allowing him to sprawl out across the sands like a ragged doll. Either way, the jutsu would end, allowing Ayakashi to inhale and exhale methodically. Feeling the aggressive, animalistic, living, breathing chakra within herself flex its might in the first time for what seemed like an age. In turn, the arid air around Ayakashi began to chill, the ground beneath her feet began to freeze, creeping outwards like a poison at her touch which sought to drag Yukigakure with her as if she were the avatar of cold itself.

Changeling would warp into the form of its bow once again, its master taking aim with one of her families' black bolts, gripping a plentiful handful of arrows in the same hand which coiled tightly around the shaft of the bow. The Skill of the demonic ice corruption technique flowing down the length of all she touched as her weapons would be empowered by her ferocious jutsu. Taking aim for a hearts flutter with a single arrow, she would let one fly before the veritable volley would hope to follow. Five arrows in total would soar through the air in flight in tight formation in a ranged passado, all aiming for her opponent's chest before the fifth, altering its course slightly, would take aim for her enemie's feet. Charged with a 'pulse,' on impact it would seek to detonate with a wide aura of expanding frost that sought to swallow Yosei alive and leave him as litte more than a weeping statuette melting in the hot desert sun.

'It was time for a new Ice-Age in Sunagakure.'

[2920]

210 chakra:

39The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:12 am

Makoto~

Makoto~


D-rank
Makoto was just walking around peacefully that day as he fooled around with his rusty tanto, only to find that things took a turn for the worst or perhaps the best as everything turned to chaos. He was not sure how it all started or how any of it even came to be as the only thing he knew was that it was fight or flight, live or die as he just heard an explosion as the already ruined walls of the ruins just crumbled as a body flew through it.

The sensation he felt in this very moment was a mixture of fear, terror and excitement. He began to wonder if he could learn the ability to perform a jutsu with the same effect as he started to run for his life. While some shinobi just clashed their blades silently, they seemed to ignore him simply cause he was not posing a direct threat to whatever it was these guys were trying to do.

He ran around looking for a place to take shelter from which he could get a better view of what was actually going on. He did not have the skill to fight most of these shinobi and as much as he would want to watch and learn all their beautiful techniques, this meant nothing if he was not alive to use it in the future. He thought he heard some of the shinobi trash talking while staring at each other and some guys seemed to be standing still while this one guy stood their with this mysterious look on his face as he just walked to them as they seemed to be lost. He then noticed the guy swing a weapon faster then his eyes could keep up as he just made a run for it not paying attention to the cries as those men died just like, he was not sure what to do right now as he just ran for his life.

He saw the guy standing before him and felt like he was trapped inside an illusion as he just saw his hands split into many tiny hands as he wondered what was going on as he felt a hand touch his shoulder and he realized he was released from what could be a genjutsu as he did not even get time to say thanks the guy just said.

"Go there, this battlefield is no place for children who are not prepared". Makoto made a mini-bow while running off meeting at an encampment as the guy looked him over and sighed. "If you need to take refuge stay here, otherwise if you want to be of use go out on the battlefield and protect our land"

While thinking about all this madness he rested for a while as the battle had only just started at the time. After resting for a short while and recovering his resolve he equipped himself with his gear and then approached the guy who sounded like he was trying to organize things in this mess. He branched out and went out to go and defend the village, he had no idea why he even agreed to defend the ruins. However if he just stayed here he felt danger as he left that encampment he looked around and noticed quite a few high classed shinobi as he took detour after detour. Like a mouse inside a maze trying to find his cheese he noticed a nice plot of higher ground as he wondered if it would be safer to scout the area from there.

He then ran into three strange looking guys, they were not shinobi at all though he sensed danger as they asked him a quick question. "Hey kid, are you running away or are you trying to attack our land". As he paused for a moment as he prepared to make a run for it. "I am here to protect our land" as he said that he just saw them moving their arms and knew they were attacking as he just performed the hidden mist technique as he dashed off into an alley way as they shouted. "Get him, don't let this brat get away, we have our orders, take no prisoners and destroy this land until there is nothing but dust"

Makoto finally took another breather as he was trying to recover only to here a snap as he looked to his side and the three of him had cornered him, however they stepped on a bug and all of a sudden this swarm of bugs attacked them as they ran away screaming. The only thing that Makoto could think of was that he would have to make sure not to step on any bugs by accident unless he was ready to run away. Those bugs looked faster then him though as he decided to get onto the crumbling roof tops, it was better to fall while able to see the areas around you then to run low and get caught by bandits or shinobi.

This was a mistake as the roof tops were full of shinobi who all probably thought the same idea as he just hung off the edge of the roof just watching as people were fighting. He watched some people making mud flow down the roof tops making people fall off, while others were bashing craters in the roofs as he was wondering what weird monsters these people were.

In a moment he began feeling a rumble as he dropped down from the building carefully as he dusted himself off he just heard glass explode and the building fall as he began to run through the chaos as he began to wonder who or what he was protecting until he came across an encampment and decided he would just choose a side properly so he could at least have some allies as he finally stopped trying to run all over the place leaving himself tired out. Explosions of the five elements, an army of bugs and other weird creatures. He began to wonder if this was war or the end of the world.

Words = 1025
Total Words = 1025
Chakra = 250 - 10(hidden mist jutsu) = 240/250

Splintering off to to Defense

40The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:25 am

Yōsei

Yōsei


S-rank


Steadfast, Yōsei's will, emboldened by the deceptive method of transferral, found itself rendered in full, undetected, across the Mizukage's back. Terror slipped beneath redemption, and between them, the flourish of steel would lash out and cry with their harried tone as they departed from their goals, unable, at once, to find their marks as the Sealer ascended into position. Trailing the shadow of Mist gave the Rogue, delicate as they were, cherished moments of insight with which to attack again, Ayakashi's weapon marked as the target of his ire, which would meet abruptly and kiss the edge of Kyoki's dismissive defense. Arrogant, the tool of Konoha's Legacy would rebuff Changeling, acknowledging the weapon as inferior, incapable, and laughably undisciplined, judging it entirely unworthy even of contempt as the Sealer traced his foe's movements. Each beat the Mizukage took, Yōsei tended to the wake of with care and efficiency, seeking to undo each advantage she could create by not allowing himself to make the mistakes her foes had made in their past endeavors; he would not succumb to ignorance. The scene was drawing rapidly to a close, the first act of their performance culminating in the final moments of Yōsei's waning Marginalization Wave, but the Mizukage remained yet unaware that the conclusion of the conflict had been settled in a fleeting moment, one initiated by the unsuspecting Water Shadow that would be her undoing. With the flash of light that signaled a clash of weapons, the thought was gone, and Yōsei came upon the Mizukage's assault with vehement oppression, seeking to smother Ayakashi's righteous fury with precision and planning.

There had been no moment of revelation which led him here from the depths of Naraka, no divine inspiration borrowed down from on high spurring forward the Sealer's secretive mandate. In truth, Yōsei had never accepted death, from the second his eyes opened, burned by the frigid snow weighing down his body at the pit of that infinite valley, he had fought for the right to exist anew. The battle here was no different, another in a line toward the goal of restoring glory the world's warriors, providing them the spark with which they could set the landscape ablaze, nothing else mattered here. Accomplished were the Sealer's goals of throwing Suna's so-called saviors into disarray, sending his message with resounding audacity into the heart of the world's most exalted. What moment had it been? When had she realized, in the flashes snatched within their duel, that the man who stood before her was no insignificant assassin, or foolhardy, arrogant shinobi seeking merely to test his skills, but a fellow Shadow? Would yet the Mizukage decipher the pair's cryptic connection, which sung through death, before Yōsei took it upon himself to part ways with secrecy?

The Wedding Band, bold and righteous, skipped beneath the Sealer's movements as he routed the Mizukage's twirling body, coming to face the woman's left side as she passed the apex of her wandering swing. The Rogue had her where he desired, open, exposed and vulnerable for Seisakata, the Oath who grew tired of being exploited by the Sealer's tricks and wished to allow its purpose to bejewel the arid wasteland. It would have its wish, the domineering duelist's instrument boomed loudly in tune with Kyoki, the subtle whistle of the wind's Legacy which reminded Yōsei of his homeland, and pushed away from the shimmering edge of the Grasscutter's extension. From the Mizukage's back, Changeling twitched, rolling through the empty space and letting gravity aid its interception; this unnatural role which now Ayakashi's weapon played told the Sealer his stratagem had been successful as it now made an improvised defense, proving further that between the pair of them, Yōsei had always been the dominant swordsman. Nothing the Mist could teach compared to the Sealer's mastery of his craft, the stroke of his blade planned steps ahead of the Mizukage who drew forth desperate resistance to cover her lack of preparation, through force alone Ayakashi endeavored to overcome each foe who crossed her path, but such methods would not be enough. In the refined cracks between the seconds, Changeling slotted into place, denying Seisakata yet again, but this time, by a hair. Finding their paths crossed as intended, Yōsei leaned in tight, pressing the weight of his strength into Ayakashi's guard in an effort to force her to relent.

But she was not through yet. Even from the precarious position pincering her personage, poised poachers pursing pallid lips, proving peerless, a paragon, pinnacle to permanently placate, proudly painting a perilous predicament, Ayakashi managed to divert her disadvantage into an offense. Spinning away from the two-pronged mixture of attacks which Yōsei laid down, the woman slipped deftly away, withdrawing her arms in a circle which the Sealer would meet by recalling his blades in surprise, clenching his fists as he saw the Mizukage's weapons drop and readying himself for the test of her martial prowess. What he had not anticipated, was the extent of her swift grapple, which caught him with the momentum of her spin, forcing him to resign his body to her brief whim and brace himself. The threads of his cloak, subtle, found their way around the woman's gauntlet, snaking across her arm and wrapping it tightly in the grip of his bewitching shroud, while the two embraced. Palpable was the Water Shadow's relief, Yōsei felt it, like a wave lifted in thick layers, apprehension faded with the moment of triumph, one conceded to her by the Sealer for the sake of preservation. The thought speedily perished, snuffed by the realization of his conquest, which aimed straight for the heart of Ayakashi's vulnerability and thrust her like the hand of God she was into the earth, wrought in havoc and devastation as she wished to be. A rare match for the Mist's Demon Ice Witch, Yōsei brought his foot high while he spun the woman's body down, sand parting in his wake as even now he began his sliding departure. Able to find its mark, Yōsei's blow dug deep into the side of the Mizukage's mask, resounding with refined strength which would doubtless force the woman to compose herself while Yōsei already reeled up, rising to his feet.

With his grin spread wide, the Sealer charged Ayakashi's recovering position, thrilled to bring about the realization that perhaps, the Gods of this world were not immortal. Thus far, the legendary Butterfly Sage had produced little of merit beyond her unparalleled physical condition, and by Yōsei's judgment, that too appeared to be slipping away. In the memories of their youth, the Fire Shadow could recall what imposition the Mizukage's presence made, but somehow in the vastness of the sullen wasteland that remained Suna's burial pit, Yōsei sensed weakness. The would-be killing blow impacted Ayakashi's forearms as she rose and he hopped around, skipping across the sand as if he were repulsed by its touch, and lash out with his intended feint. A beat behind, the Mizukage would attempt to topple him briefly but fail again while the adroit adept made his way into the blind spot between her whipping neck and whirled his fist around in triumphant array, impacting Ayakashi's mask with a splendid crack. Gleeful, the Sealer's fist withdrew, shaking in earnest with the recoil of his belt, streams of air gushing past the Mizukage's body, kicking up a tuft of sand in the wake of Yōsei's strength. The silence which followed could have bridged eternity to nothingness, conjuring memories of the astonishing breadth of creation which stretched out, such grand designs, beyond the window of his icy tomb for those wretched millennia. Laughing, Yōsei was the one who dared to break the stillness, jovial aplomb, and a slight chuckle carrying his words to the Shadow of the Mist.

"Having fun, Aya?"

Accentuating his taunt, the Sealer struck again with the opposite end of that same arm, seeking to press Ayakashi back and overthrow her defenses. It was the reaction of the Mizukage which gave the Sealer pause, thrashing her head into his attack, he felt immediately the surge of force reflected through his arm. From the source of her counterattack, the webbing of small cracks radiated with searing pain which Yōsei gritted his teeth to bear as the folds of ribbon surrounding his arm responded without delay, tightening around the appendage and steadying his arm through the following recoil. Withdrawing his arm, the Sealer would pivot on his left leg and hop briefly, barely leaving the sand but propelling himself several feet away while the Mizukage rose and spat her taunt, the stay allowing him enough time to steady himself against the discomfort in his arm, which the writhing fabric of his shroud now cradled firmly. Somewhere between Yōsei's jeering remark and Ayakashi's rebuttal, a moment of clarity echoed between them, the mysteries the Mizukage faced, yet unrevealed, would soon enclose around her, but the surprising strength summoned in the wake of her deprivation gave the Sealer enough reason to pause, evaluate, and continue with their duel in time.

Rushing forth, merciless quickness became one with the sand as the Mizukage ascended the summit of distance toward Yōsei's guarded form, fists raised high and posture light, swaying with the scorching waves of trivial heat. Behind the veil of his mask, Yōsei's eyes narrowed as he examined the change between the fraction of a second after his blow and the Mizukage's stunning movements; gone was the fatigue of her reckless release, the foolish gambit which allowed the Sealer's first efforts to come within a hair of her demise. It was reasonable, in the decade-some that he had traversed the murky dark, the Mizukage's skills had grown, Yōsei was not unprepared for a kink in his plans due to unforeseen knowledge, that was the purpose of Okoshi, the hidden fan tucked away which allowed him to swiftly mark his Sealing script. Opening with her body spinning, bolstering her typical penchant for theatrical acrobatics, Yōsei was afforded enough time to drop beneath the thunderous boot, tucking into the exposed left of Ayakashi's rampage and sinking toward her, ready to exploit the opening before his eye caught sight of the following turn. Beneath the Mizukage, her supporting leg left the sand and whipping toward him from behind the first blow. If Ayakashi intended it to be a feint, she would be surprised when her follow-through found purchase, crashing into the side of the ex-Hokage's mask and sending a wave of force through the Sealer's neck and skull, causing him to spin rapidly. Ivory teeth spat in all directions from Yōsei's crumbling mask, which shielded him barely from the stupendous collision of Ayakashi's foot against his head, which sent shards of Obito's arrogant visage into the side of his face, bruising and cutting the flesh of his right cheek while the force caused his ear to ring loud, throbbing as he fell spinning to the sand.

Before his date with the sand, Yōsei came upon the startling grip of Ayakashi's arm, which swept up beneath the folds of his cloak and gripped his throat, latching onto the vulnerable chin while the Jibaku fell away, revealing the tip of his devilish grin. Even caught by her grapple, Yōsei was the picture of delighted calm, the sun on his lips causing the Sealer to further embrace his love of the world, paired with the sensation of currents produced by Ayakashi's force, Yōsei found peace. The secret of the Sealer's formula, the one which had prevented the Mizukage from performing her devastating Taijutsu within the pathos of Gods' crossroads, seemed set to die with Ayakashi's words, even she had no suspicion of the secret seal which lay beneath Yōsei's cloak, seemingly targeting the cage itself as the source of her disturbing lack of control. Rushing along the path toward the lucent crimson chakra which he wove to imprison them both, Yōsei felt the walls spring into the edge of his perception, the Mizukage proudly declaring her final words at the moment the Sealer's form made contact with the barrier, eliciting a twisted purse from the Cheshire smile as he conceded to Ayakashi's wish.


'So be it.'

So came the wordless response of the Sealer, which punctuated the release of his cage, collapsing in magnificent shards of spinning energy, the edges of which would writhe and lash at the air as they spun rapidly. The iridescent red glow faded at once into the desert's golden fare as the Sealer's barrier collapsed naught than a fraction of a second after his initial impact, allowing Ayakashi's momentum to persist unbroken and release him unceremoniously across the sand. With its departing wish, the living folds of Yōsei's shroud would use the moments of contact through the grapple and shattering walls, to sneak across Ayakashi's waist and attempt to grip the hilt which lay dormant, paired initially with the Kusanagi which now sat in the sand out of reach, the Mizukage's second legendary blade would become the target of Yōsei's heist. If lifted from her personage, the Raijin would be swept away in the innumerable ribbons which trailed his ragged descent through the dust, obscured by the wrappings and spirited away beneath the mantle he wore to lie in wait. Kicking up a majestic cascade, the Sealer rolled with the momentum, allowing himself to skip across the sweltering ocean before coming to a stop a considerable distance, just greater the total reach his pen had occupied before. By the time Yōsei was still again, Ayakashi would be granted her moment of peace, the Sealer to regaining his composure as he stared up from his back at the vast, burning depths of Suna's empty sky. Without regard for theatrics, and producing no aura of his own to match the Mizukage's immeasurable cold, the show of his stand would come from the dripping alabaster facade.

From the corner of the mask's left chin, structural integrity could no longer withstand the pressure of Ayakashi's strength, and had begun to give way. In tribute to Yōsei's crooked road back to life, the black snake cut a jagged line through the homage Obito's cruelty. Already, as his gaze leveled toward the Mizukage, she would see the twin hemispheres fall apart diagonally, releasing at first, a stream of white hair to shift between the field of falling splinters. Further still, the green eyes which came beyond that halo of white signaled something the Mizukage may have thought she would never lay her eyes upon again. Impossibly youthful, beneath the crown of settled hair, the ex-Hokage would transfix upon his counterpart those familiar eyes, bright smile, and his revelation. The spitting image of the day he sunk beneath the folds of Kiri's frosty oceans, save for the golden hair which, now devoid of color, but otherwise not an inch removed from the memory of Konoha's wayward son. Mistuhide let his breath stall, forgetting it the moment he felt the sun on his cheek. In the silence between the pair, who each steadied themselves while they finally could look upon the battle that evolved around them, in only seconds the violence spread across the desert, consuming the allied forces and revolutionaries alike in its cruel inferno. It would be time enough for a quiet laugh to emanate from the Fire Shadow, incurably personable, Mitsuhide's voice would offer precious few words in desolate tribute.

"Trust in me. At the end of all of this, you will understand."

Without reprieve, Yōsei would respond to Changeling's impending attacks by launching into a run to the right, circling as he had done at the beginning of their bout, but without the Eight-Tails in tow. Weaving with his feet, darting and shifting his momentum like a hummingbird, Yōsei would dip throughout the volley, arrows slicing coils from his flowing garment as his feet, weaving through the sand, cut trenches with their pivots. When finally the frosted bolt came, seeking the axis of his precise maneuvers, Yōsei skipped into a run towards it, closing necessary distance between the intercepting projectile and its target before he would spin away, conserving the bulk of his momentum to seek a path toward the Mizukage, making his escape path a beeline toward her personage. With his face revealed, Ayakashi would doubtless see the joy across the face of Konoha's Ghost, who brought Seisakata to bear in his left hand as the pulse of chakra began to unleash behind him at the moment of its impact, signaling the beginning of his attack, as well as enkindling a formula within his right palm. Off-hand thrusting toward the Mizukage, Yōsei's fingers would open wide from a fist, twin symbols glowing at the center of his palm which claimed territory outward in two towers of the sacred script along his thumb and little finger, the tips of which would each produce a glowing spiral. Well within its range, the seal would tug at the workings of Ayakashi's demonic chakra, seeking to end the corruption with indomitable will, but not merely by drawing away the Mizukage's chakra into the void between worlds; Yōsei's method was far more invasive. She would feel the Hyōton chakra woven together by her will suddenly unraveled, wind and water coalescing either side of her tenketsu, demanding to be expelled by the Sealer's technique, and tear itself away to evaporate either side of her body harmlessly. There would be little recourse for the Mizukage to protect her chakra from the Rogue's sealing prowess, but he would not act foolishly, only attacking if the aura succumbed to his defensive efforts.

Continuing toward Ayakashi, Yōsei would stagger his steps at the moment his trailing Oath came within range to strike, quivering in the grip of his arm which swept toward the Water Shadow, ascending from the Sealer's left hip. In sequence, Yōsei would cease this action and use the opposite leg to halt himself further, hopping to his right and twisting with his speed while deftly replacing his supporting leg with the opposite as his right foot attempted to spear Ayakashi's chest, enough force, potentially, to send her stumbling several steps at best. Unlike his last kick, Yōsei would this time be prepared to snap his leg back at a moment's notice, unwilling to tease the threat of a grab. Shared between the duo was a shred of similarity, even after all these years, and Yōsei's wind chakra burst into rhythmic coils from his wrist, encircling Seisakata as he sought to throw the blade toward Ayakashi with the power of his spin. Careening outward, the spinning Oath of Sky, wrapped in the Sealer's blessings, would seek to slice at Ayakashi's chest but would not cease when inevitably it found either her armor or an effort to defend, even in the eventuality of the Mizukage avoiding the projectile entirely, Seisakata would carry on. Fighting at range, puppeted by the Sealer's chakra, the ōdachi would rise to crash diagonally for Ayakashi's right hip and then, swiftly, whip around from the opposite side in a strike that would bisect a human just beneath the ribcage.

Yōsei would not be found idly waiting, but following the Oath's release, would reverse his strafe and move away while rotating to opposite of where he initially began, simultaneously demanding Kyoki to replace the errant Seisakata. With his free right hand, Yōsei summoned again the Eight-tails, four shots still nestled within the drum, and added two to the onslaught, aimed to intercept defensive or evasive efforts by attacking her ankles and wrists in the same manner as he had before, but coupled with the commanded blade that timed its strikes perfectly with the Sealer's ranged attacks. Hidden no longer were the great truths of this merit, beyond the Shadow's intentions lay the destruction of peace, disruption of the natural order, and the combustion after which a new era could be built. Ravaged was the head of the conquering serpent at the beginning of that winter war, and in its place had grown something higher, reborn from the crucible which so closely resembled Ayakashi's heart. It was right, the ex-Hokage fought not as if he merely knew his opponent, but understood her; even though her face had aged, weathered by years of the Mist's burdensome yoke. In contrast, though, the chilling countenance of Mitsuhide's, which had not changed at all, belied a new devil, one which the Mizukage would not recognize. Never before had the Namikaze's methods been so elegant, executed with poise to rival the legendary Yuki clansman; whatever the expert sealer that stood in her way had become, his power had grown tremendously.

3435


chakra 290|445:

41The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Sat Jul 21, 2018 2:04 am

Mitsuo

Mitsuo


S-rank
Flames arose across the land, the screams of the guilty were a heavenly chorus across the smoke stained skies of the heathenistic sand village. The heat of the divine punishment that had been brought to this land warmed the damaged heart of the older shinobi who was at the heart of the retribution that was being dished out to the sinners of the sand. Every thing that had happened in his life had led him towards this moment, towards his calling. The god of death spoke to him, and Mitsuo Sarutobi had become that god’s Sword of Justice, his words and actions heralding the arrival of that god to balance the scales of the world once more. Evil had been allowed to run rampant for too long, and Mitsuo was the agent that would purge it from the face of this earth.

Flame cleansed all, and Mitsuo assumed that was the reason the death god had chosen to reveal this purpose to him. He had been working for years towards exposing the corruption that had existed within his own village of Konoha, but his scope had been widened greatly towards the rest of the shinobi world. He made his way through the streets of the village, glass coating the ground wherever he stepped and death meeting any who dared to stand in his way. He had gained followers in his conquest, though their hearts seemed to be in different places. One was a former member of the Aoi Bara who seemed to have a personal vendetta against the village that housed him. Mitsuo didn’t believe that this would cause him to interfere with his mission, and he allowed him to operate as normal. The other seemed to be in it simply for the wanton destruction. She had revealed Mitsuo’s identity and she was clearly dangerous. She didn’t seem to actually care about justice, she was simply killing for the sake of killing. She was not his target in this assault however, and that was why he didn’t divert his attention towards her...

He could hear the screams of the innocent, and it angered him as her undirected hatred seemed to destroy those who deserved no such thing. He was not here to wantonly kill, quite the contrary. He was a surgical blade that was being sent into the heart of the evil that existed at the core of this village, and she was more akin to a machette, hacking away at whatever got in her path and spilling the blood of the innocent indiscriminately along with the blood of those who truly deserved it. She was lucky that today was not her day to die, but it would come...and Mitsuo would be ready...


That time was now. Explosions in the distance. Mitsuo had been sent here by Hastur, but he could operate apart from the living embodiment of a god. The shock-wave crashed out across the land, whipping the hem of his white and gold robes around his body, the sapphire roses on his hat rattling as he placed a hand to his head to ensure it didn’t fly away. He could feel the weight of the headband around his neck, that of the village of Kumogakure, as well as the one that he wore on his arms, that of the Aoi Bara. It was an interesting thing that he stood here on behalf of a village that he had never wanted to be a part of, his home in his heart always being located in Konoha, but the people who had made that place home were long gone...

He ran his thumb across one of his twin swords, Justice, and pressed it to the ground, creating a seal as a light flashed and his friend stood before him once more. The obsidian armour and staff of The Monkey King were always an impressive site, more so even now with the sapphire rose cloak clasps and sapphire accents that had been added to them. King Eizo stood before the Sword Saint of Konoha, a grim look upon the generally fun loving face of the monkey king. His fur rustled and his head turned towards the destruction, the two powerful individuals standing amidst the destruction of the former village that they had been sent to ensure the cleansing of.

“She’s here Eizo...I can feel her evil radiating from the earth like a great beacon.” Mitsuo’s voice was serious and grim, the tone of the sword saint matching the demeanour that he had been presenting. He had already done this place justice, and it put a halter to his divine purpose to be here once more, or so he had thought. “It appears that fate has brought me to this place once more. I have been given another chance to expunge a great darkness from this land, one that has no business being allowed to live on. My God has seen it fit to place his blade upon this path, and I shall strike true, bringing justice once more to the deserving and felling low a great villain.”

Eizo normally didn’t buy into Mitsuo’s bullshit, but today he nodded his head in agreement, having witnessed first hand the actions that the woman had taken at the siege of the sand. “I can’t help but to agree, Lord Sarutobi. Hastur might be an insane megalomaniac, but him sending you to this hellhole might have served a greater purpose than even he realized. Risu is a threat to the entire world, and the way she dismissively ended the lives of so many innocents...” His voice trailed off as he remembered the horrors that he had witnessed that night. It wasn’t only Risu who had committed such atrocities, Mitsuo had been right there alongside her. The Sword Saint knew that the Monkey King didn’t agree with his actions, but Eizo respected him enough to back him up instead of standing against him.

“It is good to hear your approval friend. We mustn’t dally, however, as the longer she is left to her own devices, the more damage she has the potential of imparting upon the innocents of this world. I fear for what she may do if left unattended, and would rather see justice brought to her swiftly. While many might not believe that one such as her deserves a quick death, I have always believed that extending a person’s suffering is uncalled for and therefore I will not do it. Nobody deserves to suffer.”
His gaze shifted once more towards the distance as the two of them began to make their way away from the small encampment they had been holed up in.


As they approached the destruction, Mitsuo noticed that it wasn’t exactly what he had expected. The banners around made it clear that this was the Kirigakure encampment, the camp of his closest allies outside of his own village of Konoha. He had been known in Kiri as a war hero for so long, and it had always felt like another home to him. The Mizukage had been welcoming to him, and although she had been a contributing factor to him being chained to the village of Kumo, she was also doing what she believed was best for him to avoid him facing something worse. He could feel her tremendous chakra, it was impossible to miss as it was the only chakra he had ever experienced that compared to his. He went in search of Lamya, but what he found was something a little different.

It had appeared that Lamya had disappeared, but the two individuals who were engaged in combat made Mitsuo stop dead in his tracks for a second. The first, of course, was Ayakashi, who was absolutely unmistakable. Mitsuo had been able to fight with her up close and personal when he had helped defend Kirigakure against the assault of Seven Bells. The two of them had a lot of history together, but even that didn’t compare to the history of Mitsuo and the other man who stood there, mask breaking apparently from the stress of combat with such a shinobi, and revealing a face that apparently time hadn’t effected at all.

It had been over a decade since Mitsuo had seen Mitsuhide, the man who had been Hokage when he had left the village. He had gifted Mitsuo with the sword that he had coveted more than any weapon he had ever wielded. He was someone whom Mitsuo had looked up to, and even at a time maybe more. It was simply shocking to see him in the flesh before him, as Mitsuo had assumed he had died long ago when he had never been found. He was so upset when he had left, and when Mitsuo had taken over the position of Hokage he had done so with a heavy heart. The entire village believed Mitsuhide a coward, but Mitsuo knew that he was a hero. Nobody had ever been willing to listen to him.

As Mitsuo stood and watched two titans face off, he couldn’t help but to wonder why they fought and who he would back up if he needed to do so. He owed Ayakashi much for her roll in keeping him alive so that he could continue to see out the completion of his quest, but at the same time Mitsuhide was someone whom Mitsuo would always be loyal too, and a ma whom he adored. A serious and contemplative look crossed his face as he looked towards Eizo, who seemed somewhat confused as to the hesitation.

“Why do you not attack the man who fights the Mizukage? She is your ally. She appears as though she may need help.” Eizo was right, of course, but it wasn’t so cut and dry with him. He pulled out his blades and looked towards the two titans, raising his voice above the battle to let all know of his arrival, hoping to make motives more clear...

“Corruption runs deep in the lands of the shinobi, a corruption that was believed to be expunged from this land. The god of death has set its weapon upon the path to bring this land back to compliance in order to make the world take one step closer to Utopia. Those who stand in the way of that blade will be brought to justice and taken into the arms of my god, though fires of penance await they who oppose this righteous path. Evil must be expunged from this world...and I, Mitsuo Sarutobi, Seventeenth Hokage, Hellfire Dragon of the Aoi Bara, and Sword Saint of Konoha, will be the flame to cleanse it!”


His left hand held Justice, and his right hand held Penance, his chain whip, as he stood prepared to join the fray, looking to see which side was the true side of justice...

(1833 words)

chakra 475/520:

42The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Sun Jul 22, 2018 2:05 am

Orochi Risu

Orochi Risu


S-rank
Wounded both physically and in her pride, the rogue shinobi managed to escape the obvious attempt to take her down by the stranger from Konoha, whose name she had not even managed to get. Luckily though, the fact she had been using her Monitor Snake technique to heal her severely burned arm was playing in her favor, with it regaining the flawlessness of skin and muscle which it should've had all along in a steady process of regrowing all her cells properly. However, her chakra reserves had been dealt a severe blow and though she still had some fight left in her, she was not prepared for the sinister and rather overwhelming chakra she could feel practically right in front of her, right between herself and the battle between her comrade and the Demon Witch of the Mist. This wasn't good, she couldn't stand up against someone of the Original Sword Saint of Konoha's level, certainly not with that other impressive chakra signature so close to him.

Even though she had been given both the claim and the infamy of destroying Sunagakure, Lamya was well aware of who was truly to blame for the assault on said hidden village and its consequent destruction. There was nothing precise or surgical about this...monster, as he had left more bodies in his wake after a single moment of unadultered savagery than she had managed to trail behind her in a decade. The man standing between herself and the fight that would decide the fate of the current era was dangerous, extremely so. She did not have the full gist of it, but the rumors that the Sword Saint was now part of Hastur's inner circle simply made the threat even bigger. If this individual were to interfere with the current preceedings, he'd end all she and her comrade had worked for in an instant. Yet, she could not...nay she dared not get close to him now, not in her current state. Though she had grown stronger compared to those days, she had just felt the burning sensation of all-envelopping fire already and was not tempted to endure it once more.

It was then that she could hear the booming voice traverse through the sky, a threat, a warning, a revelation, a promise. The Sword Saint cometh, that was basically the entire gist of it all. Still, Lamya chuckled softly after hearing the exclamation, as she perceived the man's logic and zealous dogma as exactly that which was wrong with the shinobi world. perhaps he had yet to realize that his own hypocrisy had turned him into exactly that which he sought to expunge from the world: evil, beyond reproach and beyond reason. "Pointless dogma, dangerous zealotry," The woman sighed, looking at her right arm to assess the situation of her healing process, pleased that she could note that it wouldn't be long for her arm to be in tip top shape again. "This man is going to become a problem either soon or down the line...but then again, he is the perfect instrument to show just how wrong the current shinobi world truly is."

Closing her eyes for a moment, the woman sat down on the sand and calmly decided to review the situation. In the east, there were people fighting off a part of the uprising, to the north, the encampment was being overrun by the rebellion, though the majority of Kirigakure's forces had managed to relocate themselves. It was chaos, but it was obvious that despite the overwhelming numbers Yosei had presented, they were not winning this battle so far. They had the numbers, but with so many shinobi from the other village flowing in and actually taking the side of those wretched invaders... their cause was all but lost. Or at least, it looked like that for now, after all...there was a reason why Uraeus was no longer slithering around the Desert Snake. If overwhelming numbers did not work, it meant they had to start relying on quality and exactly that was something Lamya had within her grasp. Even if it meant sacrificing all of her reserves for this one battle, it proved to become a pivotal moment in the invasion of the Land of Wind.

"Damn it, I can't find a scenario in which this battle can go safely for either of us with that damn zealot here," The rogue shinobi had pondered, sifting through dozens of possible outcomes in her mind, each and every one of them ending in a failure. Yes, she could use the rest of the forces at her disposal to turn the actual tide of this battle, but when it came to her own and Yosei's safety, things were less predictable. That Konoha guy was vicious and dangerous, Mitsuo was now here on the battlefield, a piece that could not be disregarded or circumvented. Every scenario ended up with either of them dying, being captured or worse and of course that was not something the Desert Snake wanted. Without Yosei, she was vulnerable and Yosei lacked the forces to truly back him up if necessary. Not to mention, who would heal him if he got hurt and she wasn't around? "Nothing...I can think of nothing that would have a favorable outcome."

Slowly the woman stood up again, dusting off herself and putting her helmet back on. If she was going to have her last stand in this godforsaken place, she might just as well do everything in her power to safeguard Yosei and his ideals. The stranger from before had made it abundantly clear, she was not the one to lead the shinobi into a new era, she was not the one to change the world. All she was, was a stepping stone, a single step on the staircase towards the future of the shinobi world and all she hoped, was that the one walking upon those steps, was someone she'd support.

"Ah well, here we go," Spreading out her arms and letting the Monitor snake jutsu run its final course, the woman released all restraints on her chakra yet again, allowing especially the man or rather the monster between herself and the raging battle of the current and former kage. "Come at me, Sword Saint."

notes:

Entered from splinter thread

1061/4873

43The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Mon Jul 23, 2018 4:03 pm

Nozomi

Nozomi


D-rank
Nozomi was wearing her hunter-nin outfit, sans the mask over her face that she'd usually wear, as the heat of Suna was already fairly intolerable to the girl, the defense of her combined armors keeping her rather well protected, and their slim nature kept her from being too bulky. Her outfit consisted of a bound chest that was unable to be seen as it was the lowest level of clothing Nozomi had on. The next layer was the Camelio armor that she had taken from Syn. Over top that, she had on her ANBU armor, as it was quite a deal more compact than the standard armor of Kirigakure, and offered her a decent amount of protection as well, enough to deal with most people's attacks anyhow. Her armor was slightly hidden from view by the blue-green robes that were standard hunter coverings, but it was evident to anyone facing her from the front, as it was quite visible.

Her armaments were quite a bit more substantial, although she'd decided to leave a lot of her gear elsewhere, only bringing what she considered essential for her arsenal, as opposed to her entire weapons depot. In two separate holsters on either side of Nozomi's hips were two basic Kunai that had Explosive tags wrapped around the handles, the tags hidden from view by the Hunter-nin robe. Her superior Tanto was strapped behind her shoulder, also exposed and fully uncovered for quick draw time. It was a work of art, for certain. Serpent's tongue also remained strapped on her back, tandem with the Tanto, although it was hung diagonally. Shorter blades and the whip were the only things she'd consider placing on her back, as drawing from there was generally difficult in combat, but these weren't given their length and nature. The weapon she'd chosen upon her becoming a Hunter-nin Captain, a beautiful work of Kirigakuran black smithery, was securely fastened to her left side. The Katana was one of the best weapons she had, and was a marvel of Kirigakure technology. Her Tanto was of similar make, but this was made so beautifully it almost seemed to cut through the air quicker than other weapons of similar style.

In addition to that, Nozomi has another A rank Katana strapped on to the same hip as her Kiri Katana. She is also carrying three scrolls on her, each usually containing a separate weapon: Her Windmill shuriken (which rather than being in her scroll, it was in her left hand), her A rank Kirigakure Yari, and her A rank Scythe Demon's Fang. She had all of her 51 E rank Senbon scattered throughout separate pouches and hidden pockets on her clothes. One of her pouches was exclusively filled with 20 Makabishi, conveniently on a rip away pouch so she could throw out the tiny weapons with little issue. Another pouch contained her 3 smoke canisters and her 10 Metsubishi. The rest of her shuriken and half of her kunai also were spread throughout the multiple pouches on her.

Considerably armed up, Nozomi had been fighting off some of the enemy forces, using mainly Taijutsu in conjunction with the Windmill Shuriken for blade blocking and redirection, more competent with her Taijutsu than she was with her weapon play, despite being a Seven Swordsman, which spoke volumes to her skill, waiting for the barrier to fall so she could go and assist Ayakashi in her match. Conserving her chakra had been one of the main focuses she had, or she might have tried to smash through the barriers already, but that would prove to be taxing on her at the very least. Still, she'd been on the lookout for them to go down, and the second they dropped, Nozomi spun on her heel, moving towards the two of them, pumping a little chakra into her Windmill Shuriken as a small measure of added security. Always have an escape.

Her gaze momentarily shifted over to Mitsuo, who had also recently arrived, and saw that his well timed arrival coincided with the reemergence of the snake, Lamya. She would pause for merely a moment, faltering in her step only slightly, deciding whether or not to continue her course or to go and intercept Lamya again. It was only a moment though, her goal right now was to protect Ayakashi. They could bring that fight to a close and then address Lamya. Mitsuo should be enough to keep her occupied, and if not, maybe she'd bring the fights together and then Nozomi could deal with that as well.

Continuing her charge towards Ayakashi and her opponent, she was on the lookout for any surprise attacks that may be sent her way to discourage her from interrupting the match, prepared to deal with it any way she could. She wasn't about to go charging into a jutsu of some sort or anything like that after all, that would be a dumb thing to do.

As she moved towards them, Nozomi spun around, whipping the Windmill Shuriken around with the built up momentum required to launch it at the highest speed she could muster towards Yosei, the massive shuriken hurtling through the air towards him as he disengaged from Ayakashi, his blade manipulated via some technique. She knew the dangers posed by a technique such as that, as she had a couple in her arsenal, and the majority of her techniques were based on manipulation of blades through the air. While she mainly focused on the multitude of petals, she had a few sword manipulation techniques that were lethal. She also understood the drawbacks of the same techniques, as they required a lot of focus to accurately use. She could be the distraction that broke his focus.

Someone who could fight for any length of time against Ayakashi wasn't a pushover, and wouldn't be easily distracted, even by the likes of a Hunter-nin Captain, but Nozomi was confident enough in her abilities. As the Windmill left her hand, Nozomi would immediately begin to form the handseals that would allow her to utilize one of the more versatile jutsu in her aresenal.

Thousands of petals issued from her hands, surrounding her and rotating at intense speeds until they condensed into 4 katanas, mimicking the shape and sharpness of blades made of similar quality as the Seven Swordsmen swords, all encircling her at 45 m/s. As she entered within 30 meters of Yosei, 3 of the blades launched towards him, moving at the same speed they had been encircling her, aiming to pierce him through from the shoulders and and right thigh. Her hands moved towards the hilt and saya of her Hunter katana, ready to draw and slash at him the instant she moved into striking range.

The one blade she hadn't launched towards him remained behind her, awaiting her beck and call, following around at the same speed she moved. She expected to be chased down by Lamya and was hoping that Mitsuo would keep her busy, but it didn't hurt to have a little extra defenses to protect her, to intercept anyone trying to stop her on her path to Yosei.

She took in his appearance unmasked, but she couldn't place the face from anywhere. Who was this person, and why could they keep up with Ayakashi so well? There were precious few people that could do that. It was interesting. She'd try to take him down non-lethally, so they could interrogate him, but it might not be possible to do so, depending on how she fared against him. At least Ayakashi could use her as a distraction, and if she got cut down in the process, it might provide the opening to take him out. She could think of worse ways to go, but it wasn't like Nozomi was a pushover when it came to close range combat.

WC: 1336
TWC: 1336

-5 Sub prep
-30 Hasu no Bukijutsu activation
365/400 Chakra

Jutsu used:
Spoiler:

Stats:
Spoiler:

44The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Tue Jul 24, 2018 4:07 am

Akusha

Akusha


D-rank
Hopefully, this is enough information for the village…

Sharp eyes would keep watch over the battlefield as four sets of hands transcribed the flow of the battlefield. Each set of eyes were careful about the placement of enemy ninja, taking care to make sure the male was well out of the way of any attacks. While he knew full well that he would not be able to assist much in any combat scenario, the young man also knew that information was the prime currency of war. If that was what this reclamation project was turning into, then he would see to it that Konoha came out on top as far as it went.

Many things would continue to happen as Akusha and his clones watched the scene before him. The mask of the persona attacking the Mizukage would shatter, revealing his face. While Akusha could not quite tell whom it was, the persona seemed vaguely familiar, as if he had seen their face at some point in his life. As Akusha pondered on the identity of the persona, one of the clones took the initiative to sketch what they could make out of the face for identification later. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of the world's ninja could identify this persona?

It would seem that the someone else was joining the fray; a man who appeared to carry swords, and was accompanied by a large… thing? Quickly, one of the clones of Akusha sketched his face and that of his accompanied creature to add into the text that was being recorded. This one too appeared to be vaguely familiar as well, though the young male could not quite place his face either. Surely, one of his commanding officers could have an idea who these people were; rarely did a ninja get to be as strong as those fighting before him without becoming fairly well known for their skills in whatever they decided to pursue

As the young man continued to watch the scene unfold, he took note of something; the female who had attacked the barrier created by the Kirigakure no Sato Anbu earlier was now returned after her previous retreat. She seemed to be intent on attacking the newer male whom had just arrived. But even as these events unfolded, Akusha would take notice of something else; a fresh face arriving on the scene, one that rushed to the Mizukage’s side within the crater. From the looks of it, they bore the appearance of a Kirigakure Hunter ninja, but Akusha was not certain. Either way, this entire affair was becoming interesting, almost to the point where Akusha was more interested in simply watching than that of gathering information for Konohagakure no Sato. But, the male and his clones kept at it, gathering the info that being displayed in front of him.




474 | 1803

45The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Thu Jul 26, 2018 11:26 pm

Ayakashi

Ayakashi


S-rank

'For a moment Ayakashi felt submerged...‘


The blow to the side of the head had left Ayakashi reeling for a moment, the almost boorish sound of waves crashed up against her inner ear as the wind the battle between the two of them had spurred muted for a time even to her own exquisite senses before the vast chakra within Ayakashi came surging to the task to defend its wounded host. Raising her stance in defiant revolution Ayakashi would begin to recover, regardless of the fact she was pushed to kneel on one knee before Yosei. In a motion of sheer stubborn bravado, the water shadow would slam her head into the elbow of the strike that would seek to assail her once again. The force of his blow channeling through the rigid steel fibers of her mask to be met with the contumacious technique beneath it. The mirror-like chakra reflecting the physical momentum of the blow causing the steel to ricochet, thrusting it back upwards against his radial fossa along with the colossal, though mitigated, strength of her own small attack. The act had thankfully saved Ayakashi from further harm, but the iconic chattering of friable bone that echoed in Ayakashi's recovering ears could not help but bring sinister mirth to the woman as hairline fractures would creep up his arm like vines. There was no doubt such a blow had resulted in that arms weakness, sword-clashes from it against Ayakashis strength would only seek to exacerbate the currently minor condition. However, reeling from the blow with little more than a scoff and with an inordinate amount of calm almost radiating from his body and lingering around him like a cloud, It was almost as if he didn't feel it. 'or he's felt much worse...' Ayakashi would need to move quickly, seeking to capitalize on her newfound strength and the advantage she wielded against Yosei in what little time she had...

Stepping inward, a fluttering shadow dashing across the desert plane, Ayakashi would twist her upper body building tension before deftly flourishing a leg in a dramatic kick towards the head of Yosei. The muted sound of her calf hewing through the air formed a wind barrier around her leg which would sound like a deep boom as it would rocket less than an inch above him as he in turn acted. Nobly taking the brief heartbeat of the kicks preparation time, the specter before her would crouch as the Mizukage had anticipated, gearing up for the second assault, the twisting momentum of Ayakashi's rotating form would see her second leg raising from the ground in tow, already poised to catch him in its path... Feeling that her opponent would once again slink closer to the earth, Ayakashi was surprised, but unequivocally delighted when her second kick crashed into his mask like a megaton weight. The unbridled cataclysmic force of Ayakashi's momentum, undefended, could rip a bull elephant in twine, yet, the enemy before her remained visibly intact. What seemed severely damaged by what occurred was his mask, splintering it beyond recognition as the blow reached its threshold for damage. The porcelain shards that cascaded from its surface in ringing chimes as Ayakashi would coil her fingers around Yosei's neck would be left in their wake, each of them approaching the barrier like a comet streaking across the battlefield trailed by ceramic tears.

'Until finally, impact.'

The barrier warped as the body of the rad doll in her hands collided with its surface. Stretching, bending like a pane of glass stretched across a wide window. But ultimately it shattered with the force of the impact, its chakra seemed to have waned as it had been nearing its natural end, but as the chakra of the technique would explode outwards in a shower of glittering light, Ayakashi was freed from the oppression it had cast over her. Still unknown to her that it was an aura on her opponents' person which had been sealing her offensive chakra away over the course of their clash as she hurled her prey skidding across the sands at the apex of her arms thrust. The sound of the war that waged around them flooded Ayakashi's senses in place of the silence that she had been exposed to while within the barrier that sealed the two of them. Cries and wails carried along the wind, chakra filled the air as jutsu were wielded with expertise and desperation alike as over a thousand men and women fought for their lives as well as their ideals. War was never something that Ayakashi aspired to, but now that she was in this state, she had eyes only for what lay before her. Worrying about the world around her was a fleeting thought, only the battle existed now. The world around her was little more than a hazard that needed to be traversed least it want to be destroyed should it veer into their path. Changeling in hand while her spare would seek out the arrows in her quiver, as something deeply primal within Ayakashi yearned to be released.

"Free me... Free me... Free me!" The voice thundered deeply, resounding like a tigers roar, but with a domineering substance behind it that was tantalizing, even to Ayakashi. For a moment Ayakashi was ready to give in to the seduction of power that lay dormant deep within before her better nature resisted the beast that dwelt within the confines of her psyche's shadow. The beast, hadn't been active like this for some time, Ayakashi had thought it conquered, defeated and bound to the rule of her law... perhaps it had merely been tamed. This howling, berserk creature of frozen blood and frigid death. But in that moment of hesitation, a momentary flicker of her will giving in the power of it that dwells within, Ayakashi's Hyouton imbalance became immediately apparent to her surroundings. The chakra of the Mizukage leaking, bathing the ground at her feet into a platform of dry ice ten meters across as well as creeping onto the arrows in her hands, the fractaline mass slithering outwards like branching serpents, elongating long tendrils of sub-zero temperatures that would spread outward, seeking any heat they could anchor to in order to absorb whatever lay there.

But as her opponent stood from the throw, the cracked mask finally splintered beyond the point of no return, the left and right hemispheres of the mask would fall to either side. The revelation of the face beneath it shocked Ayakashi to the core... emotions that she had thought dealt with for so long began to come to light, something fierce, corrupted and dark within her chakra would flare as Mitsuhide, a noble hero of the Seven Bells War and the former Hokage of Konohagakure stood before her. A trusted ally, whose work in the war in primarily had led to the two nations bridging an alliance so deep it had hazed the borders between the two great ninja nations. True peace forged with love and friendship, true to the will of fire that was so revered within the leaf. As if it were a dream, tears would flow from Ayakashi's face, her body beginning to tremble as the tremors drained all the strength from her limbs. Once alabaster hands that gripped her blade with steel resolve had become like that of a child's as she would fall to her knees as her senses became overpowered in gratitude. The two would embrace as old friends, the war would break and reveal misunderstanding and speak of their hardships, uniting a greater world... where no-one needed to lose a friend to the churning waves of strife and chaos...

'Had it been another time... it may not have been a dream.'


Ayakashi had suffered too much loss, too much regret... the crystalline wall which composed her persona was a collage of fractured arcs each representing a failure. The failure to hold onto those she loved, some little more than familiar shapes, familiar faces, friends, loved ones... family. Each of them expanding the fragmenting monolith which she placed on her shoulders, toxic darkness seeping through its cracks intent on spreading its black wings. Sorrow was not what gripped Ayakashi... no... it was hate. A cornucopia of emotion would flash across her face in a moment, surprise, sorrow, regret, remembrance, despair, realization then rage. Her teeth clenching tightly as in spite of the revelation, she would open fire with the first of her deathly arrows. The initial volley would be swift, each of the arrows slinging through the air as her opponent would take flight to one side, several of the frigid pinions launched from her bow closing in tighter groupings on Yosei with each one that was let fly from her bow. The bladed tips of the arrows nipping at the egregiously long tatters of the shoal he wore as searing venom would coil up for Yosei only to fracture and fall away from the ever-extending length of the cloak, leaving small tips of ice across many of the cloaks ends.

The final bolt of her volley she charged a moment more, firing the blast towards Yosei's feet in an effort to catch him in the explosion as Ayakashi would hold back a roar. Gutteral growling beneath her breathing emphasized a voice not her own should he have been standing closer than he was. Turning in to face the arrow, Yosei would side-step the bolt as it would crash into the sands behind him after he so rapidly changed his heading. The detonation of Hyouton behind him let out a plume of steam as the sand seemed to turn to glass in an instant, a cloud of vapor from the pressure change rising into the air from the blast making it difficult to discern whether it had been caused by heat or cold. Her opponent Zig-Zagging closer, Ayakashi's hand would have already gripped her Fuma Shuriken using the time she still had and intending to sling it vertically into the earth beneath her diagonally downward towards Yosei as she would grip yet another handful of arrows as her palm recoiled, this time six, allowing three of them to knock against changeling's bow-string as she drew her hand back against the string in a single motion intent on firing them in a triangle formation for his shoulders and stomach... Yet more tricks seemed to lay in wait, hidden away within the scriptures that covered Mitsuhide's body from head to toe.

Power would surge forth, robbing her chakra of its power a picosecond before Ayakashi would let go of the arrows she coveted between her fingers, robbing them of their Hyouton empowered state as they would launch to soar through the air, to no doubt be swallowed by the body seal which surrounded him. The stripping of her chakra nature forcefully as wind and water would be expelled from her body, the cool air coiling into the air around them as the water touched the newly formed ice upon the ground and became one with it on the spot. Feeling like her internal power was stretched apart, Mitsuhide was suddenly upon her, the Fuma shuriken she had launched vaulting upward and into the sky missing his left hand side in a failed prediction as his kick landed square in Ayakashi's chest as she would skid backward, falling to a knee from the blow to keep her footing on the slick ice.

Brandishing one of his two blades, Mitsuhide would hurl Seisakata at Ayakashi's chest, fuuton chakra swirling around it generating an impressive vortex forging a double helix in its wake due to the force whipping the air in unnatural angles. Raising a bow with one of her remaining arrows knocked against the string she would raise changeling and fire. The shaft of the arrow colliding directly with the cornered hilt of the blade, bouncing the arrow back in her direction as the force would seek to hurl the weapon from her back towards its wielder in a point-blank block and feat of archery. Sparks exploding from the pressure built of steel grinding against steel as the weapons would part ways, however, as the blade twisted in the air as if gripped by phantom hands it swerved around Ayakashi's side of her hip and prepared for yet another strike. Two arrows left between Ayakashi's fingers she would flow fuuton chakra through and around each of them. Precise funnels and densities at different angles as Ayakashi would hold deathly still, keeping her attention on the levitating blade that traversed her body.

Letting a single one of the bolts fly as the blade saught its attack, seeming to aim the arrow almost down towards the earth, rather than fly in a straight line, the wind coiling around the bolt would see the arrow curve, sling-shotting around her body and slamming into the side of the swords' blade. Sending the blade reeling to her other side for its third strike, aiming for under her ribcage to tear her in twine, Ayakashi would have knocked and released the third arrow just as the first she had bounced off the blade was about to reach her once again. Slamming her third arrow near the tip of the blade to invert its swinging momentum from that of the previous deflection. The three arrows striking the attacks in rapid succession around her would shower the mizukage in sparks as she would swipe the piece of ammunition out of the air before her, knocking it against the bow quickly as the air from her flutter-shot technique would surge around it. Bringing the arrow to her eye and aiming directly at Yosei with the sharpened point of her family arrow.

The dead man before her would call to his fingertips the crossbow that he had opened with, and aimed to pull the trigger, the tip of the weapon pointing down for Ayakashi's left foot. Waiting for the weapon to fire, Aya would sweep her first foot backward as Mitsuhide would route and fire for her second. Putting weight on her foot behind her, Ayakashi would kick off, pushing backward into a corkscrew spinning somersault as two more would fly to intercept her wrists in an attempt to dislodge the bow in her hands. Knocking her retrieved arrow from the air and augmenting the arrow's course, she would sight it down the center of the rounds he had fired, twisting the arrow between her fingers so that as she let it fly spinning as a drill might soar. The charted arrow would hurl towards and slightly between the bolts as they cascaded for her arms, grinding into the side of the first before ricocheting into the side of the other, spiraling the two to part around her leaving little more than inches at their velocity, slamming into the sand behind her as her arrow, unimpeded directly would soar for Yosei's chest, curving with the path of his strafe... with but a single surprise left in store, a sharp forty degree change in direction towards his neck once the arrow would reach about a meter from him...

'It was then forces seemed to interrupt'

A fuuma shuriken would burst out of the clearing, glittering against the sun as it spans, expertly thrown as it cascaded through the air towards the former Hokage. Someone sought to interfere... the realization drove Ayakashi further to anger, an ally within close proximity now would only get in the way of the series of attacks that were to come. Whipping forwad her Sheng Biao with her free hand, it seek to intercept the Fuma Shuriken shortly after it would be evaded by Mitsuhide... Nozomi was a powerful ninja, and one of the seven swordsmen to boot. Easily the second strongest ninja in her country. But a glimpse of the battlefield had her aware of several other powerful presences that were vastly more intimidating. Mitsuo Sarutobi had arrived on the battlefield, the weight of his zeal like a cloud of righteousness was a light that could not be ignored no matter how dark the night or bright the sun. Then there was the serpent queen herself... Lamya. The one even Alpha Squad had failed to capture, anyone in combat with her would need more help than Ayakashi did here.

Coiling her dart around the shuriken's middle, Ayakashi would pull it back to herself, calling out to her ninja as she poured all of her strength into the blade, combined with the draw force of the elastic wire that connected it to her wrist. "Nozomi! Go face the Snake! I can't fight with you nearby! No-one will escape Kiris shadow today!" And with that, Ayakashi would sling the Fuma-shuriken in the direction of Lamya, a meter off the ground through the path of the enemy attackers. The speed and force of Ayakashi's maximum strength, the elasticity of her slingshot and finally the routing of the remaining strength of Nozomis' throw would see the Fuma vanish as a meteor across the battlefield at near supersonic speeds. A path of ninja simply having their mid-sections regardless of their armor plating vanish in a heartbeat due to the strength of the throw. Ayakashi had assumed that Nozomi had prepared transportation... and this would allow her to relocate herself to where she was needed in the battlefield. Perhaps together with the sword-saint, they could capture her once and for good.

Leaving Ayakashi with her enemy... 'you're mine' echoing through her head as the power radiating around her would come to a climax. Unable to hold in the boiling hatred that composed her psyche, in an effort to release the pent-up power she would allow her tenketsu to open with a cry. "Senjutsu!" Tribal markings of emerald light would carve themselves across Ayakashi's body marking the transformation into her sage mode. Her jutsu would feel empowered by the energy, the wheel of the three chakra natures within her would become consumed by the force of the nature chakra itself, spiralling out of control as translucent wings and feelers of ephemeral light would make themselves known in an instant, only able to be seen at certain angles depending on the placement of the sun... The surge of strength was gratifying, but the voice within clawing against the walls of Ayakashi's mind didn't relent, but only seemed to get stronger and stronger with each passing moment.

With this power at her disposal, Ayakashi would draw her bow back, sans arrow. Ice building up to crystalize a hollow spear-like bolt against it as she would swivel, taking aim directly at Mitsuhide...

"Flash Freeze!"


Letting the arrow fly, the air around it would bathe in the frigid cold of her Jutsu, wind coiling around the bolt and altering its course should it fly a meter past him to turn ninety degrees and slam into the ground. As the hollow arrow would break on impact, should it reach it, it would erupt into a cloud of raw Hyouton chakra that would seek to instantly freeze in place everything within its vicinity. However, not done with her combination yet, Ayakashi would activate the jutsu hidden long within the Fuma shuriken she had launched, vanishing from sight in a cloud she would see herself high above the battlefield by now, peering down on her opponent from above as a second Arrow of raw ice would form. The furrowed and serious face of ayakashi would broaden to a cruel sneer as she would seek to gather her senjutsu chakra. The once translucent features of her wings and antennae would begin to become real as her senjutsu chakra drawn in from the environment saught to overpower her as it was poured into the next arrow before letting it fly, the force of the shot blasting Ayakashi backwards and slightly further into the sky.

A blast expanded in a ring as the arrow was launched on a crash course for Yosei from the heavens above as multiple more speed rings would emanate from the fast moving projectile launched from Changelings' platform. The bolt would seek to intercept the first arrow, impacting shortly after as the initial blow, the hit when it collided with a surface would explode into raw webs of ice that would expand in every direction as spearlike petals to the frosted lotus that it would create in contrast to the desert sand. Landing on the ground almost fifty meters from the points of impact and breathing heavily at the rapid expense of her chakra. The mothlike features that her body had transformed turning to stone as the Senjutsu chakra within her body returned to normal limits and crumbling away in the desert winds. Ayakashi would watch for a moment in anticipation to see the condition of her opponent, almost certain that her quarry would weasel his way out of the predicament once again...

yet ever hopeful.


[3640 words]

260 chakra / 180 Sen Chakra:

46The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Sat Jul 28, 2018 12:46 am

Yōsei

Yōsei


S-rank

At once, the alignment of concepts gave Ayakashi clarity. The waning veil of Yōsei's disguise collapsing brought with it a profound answer. At once, the Sealer could see within Ayakashi's eyes the wealth of human experience well up behind those false facades. Mask or no, Yōsei could perceive the Mizukage's reaction without obstruction, every fiber of her being reacted, awash with simmering hatred yearning to escape the cold of her hyōton imbalance and unleash an inferno of wrath upon the man who stood before her. Yōsei reveled in the response, though subtle, which told him everything about the Mizukage; the pain she held within, pointed at the face of death who stood against her blade. He wondered, was it a presumed betrayal that caused the final branch to crack and unshackle whatever savage beast that sought to bring about such vengeance? Or was it desperation that called the Mizukage's true self to reveal itself for the world to see? Whatever machinations the Sealer had wrought, the seconds which followed his pleasant smile rewarded him for careful planning, years beneath the world's shadow preparing for his inevitable return. Here it was, the springboard from which, with crying, harrowed fury, Mitsuhide would leap, once again, into war. For Ayakashi alone came the vague concoction of notions from the Sealer's lips, a plea, perhaps, for the woman to have faith in the man who had fostered the genesis of her nation's peace.

"Trust in me. At the end of all of this, you will understand."

The time for words was over, Ayakashi's assault careened out from her Changeling's vengeful maw, streams of frozen air lapping at the scorching desert leaving thick trails of mist which the Sealer carefully danced between. It was a feat of deft footwork, momentum carrying him in an intricate dancing pattern around the flurry of arrows that nipped the flailing ribbons of his cloak, shattering the strands of black thread and causing the tips of his shroud to shimmer with crystalline composition. Flakes of ice whipped away, torn by the air of Yōsei's altered approach while he came toward the Mizukage, pulling his mantle through the cloud of freezing emanation and smashing free the confines frozen in his wake. Reflected at the Sealer's stern, the shards of frozen cloak and coiling sculptures of ruptured sand lent gravitas to his approach, reflecting the sun's indiscriminate patter in technicolor prisms which danced in the air. In the moments between, lifted straight from Ayakashi's memory, Yōsei's face would encompass the conquering Hokage that once he had been, showing in his expression all of the wrath and anger, too genuine to be a facade, profoundly true, Mitsuhide revealed himself to his old friend. Not withholding a shred in an effort to cement in the Mizukage's mind this moment, so that she may never forget the death of Namikaze Mistuhide.

"What is your wish?"

Swiftly as he was upon her, the familiar countenance faded away, revealing beneath the creature that the Hokage had become; calm replaced frenzy, calculation replaced audacity, the passion quieted and dismissed at the Sealer's behest and gave new meaning to his evolved control. The Mitsuhide his foe had known derived his strength from the unrelenting, ferocious charge that became his tide of battle, but this man returned from death had supplanted that need entirely with a new hunger. The psychological warfare enacted by the fallen Shadow coordinated nuanced attacks aimed toward the Mizukage's psyche, intended to confuse her with truth and lies entwined with every movement. Deceptive calm, subversive and cruel, peppered with the flashes of sincerity she had caught in the shadow of twin blades' sparks, the corner of her eye, a distant memory. Even the Sealer's arms, which had, since his earliest memories, run black with inky scripture, somehow seemed to bend with his will, Karma swallowing itself beneath the impossible designs of his otherworldly sutras. Drawing leylines across his palm, Yōsei commanded chakra to submit in against the commanding presence of his seals, cascading in orange lights as the hand opened, pulling the Mizukage's chakra into reversing spirals, invading the temple of her body and demanding her spiritual energy to cease. Met with no resistance, the outpouring was brutal; the process of tearing the Mizukage's chakra apart against her wishes and expelling the corruption with his silent judgment could be seen as the ultimate invasion of her agency, interfering with that which made shinobi shinobi. To the left, rising in pillars of light and dust, the wind chakra dispersed throughout the world, and opposite that, the waterfall of Suiton which accompanied, collapsing away and twisting into sharp flowers of ice, razors permeating each vertex of the icy forest surrounding the Mizukage's feet, blue as a newborn's lips.

The trio of projectiles sent toward Yōsei in the moments before his impact would predictably find themselves swallowed by the abyss of sacred fuinjutsu adorning the tattered Sealer's body, stored with the Raijin lifted from Ayakashi's belt, yet unnoticed, which had now joined the ranks of his sealed armory. Away went the shuriken, climbing away from the carnage as it rose above the battlefield, a victim of the Sealer's deft escape. Yōsei, with momentum his aide, thrust the force of his heel into Ayakashi's chest, a blow withheld for fear of being grappled again, but enough to throw the armor plating of that stolen relic into her bosom, toppling her stance as the Sealer danced away. From his grip, the Sky's Oath carried forward to respond, but the Mizukage would not yet be thwarted by Orochimaru's teachings, firing her bow into the face of Seisakata and diverting its course around her before the storied jutsu carried it back again to lash with disdain into Ayakashi's side. It had been a joy to watch the Shadow of the Mist engage him, but as the tide turned into desperation Yōsei could see the breadth of her skill unfold, the adept precision with which she summoned instinct to defend her, seeking the battle with eyes unlike any other, save perhaps, for the Fire Shadow that faced her. Each of the odachi's attacks, parried by the Witch's storied prowess, predicted within inches of each collision, failed to find their mark, and the Seisakata whined petulantly in the form of sparks, hissing and impatient. As an arrow wove between the Mizukage's fingers, Yōsei saw her bow rise before the movement began, Changeling matching the stroke of Ayakashi's eye as it zeroed in upon him.

Mitsuhide must have looked like a little boy, mouth agape as he laughed in awe of his foe's maneuver, visibly impressed, lips forming the shape of 'wow' beneath his breath. The Eight-Tails roared in time with his jovial expression, laughing in disbelief as the chakra surrounding the pair became interrupted. Yōsei could not have mistaken his companion's chakra for any other, Lamya's appearance meant the end of whatever apprehension remained in the independent forces, and the others, late arrivals but not unwelcome, Yōsei regarded with disdainful apathy. Even the Sarutobi, who knew him well, received nothing from the former Hokage, no time for ideals, with war upon him, Mistuhide would not be deterred. Kyoki would rise opposite the Eight-Tails, nipping at the space between himself and the Mizukage's arrow, which came toward him as he was unwilling to cease his strafe, but twisted within feet of him to impale his throat. The folds of his shroud, unfurling into a wreath of limbs, would encircle beneath the arrow and wrap it tightly, cloak working on its own accord to capture the projectile and veer it into the sand.

Though Nozomi's shuriken had been quick, the length of her approach before a reasonable distance to throw it meant it was effortless to fade away in his spiral, low to the ground as he let his crossbow's force aid the tide of momentum, the shuriken would careen overhead, missing the Sealer utterly, by several meters, before being intercepted by the Mizukage's rope-dart. Splitting his attention between two targets came as easily as breathing, and the twin Mist shinobi, if they sought to fight in tandem, would prove challenging but not impossible. Nozomi's flourish of petals and chakra, the frenzy which sharpened into roaring blades, prompted the formation of seals as the hunter-ninja approached the distance of her desired engagement. Ayakashi's order would come before her full commitment, allowing the swordsman time to be dissuaded, but the outcome mattered little to the Sealer, who looked between the soldiers of the Mist with the same focused eyes.

Punctuating the time between Nozomi's assault and Yōsei's response, the activation of the Mizukage's Sage Mode sent the flow of natural energy into flux, distorting all of the desert's lifeforce and withdrawing it into her body as she called upon the mantle of her Butterfly Senjutsu. Beneath his cloak, the hunter's answer would come in the form of dismissive scripture planted on his flesh, black, bold letters prying themselves wide to yawn a sleepy haze of blue vapor into the path of her itinerant projectiles, causing them to stutter and whine as the cloud withdrew. Torn effortlessly from reality, the petals would find themselves undone, shredded into nothing as Yōsei continued to glide across the sand, willing Seisakata to his fingertips where it replaced the Yatsouhan which he stored away. In time with the formation of his seal, which would have been as the petal-blades reared to perform their strikes, the Sealer's side would unleash the trio of arrows previously stolen from the Mizukage's offense. Roaring pillars of Kirigakure black, backed by Ayakashi's strength, would seek to intercept Nozomi sequentially; first for her abdomen, below the left side of her ribcage. The second would attempt to catch her reaction, aimed for the wrist holding a blocking weapon, or in the trajectory of a dodge to impact the opposite shoulder. Thirdly, Ayakashi's rerouted attack would come below the second, off of the same beat by a fraction of a second, for the right thigh of his target, wherever it resided. Seeking to deter her charge, but knowing that the triumvirate of projectiles may do little to dissuade the hunter captain, Yōsei's assault was deadly accurate but required little effort with the combination of his keen gaze and the bulk of its offensive potential having been stolen from the Mizukage herself. If still, she sought to engage and continue her approach, and if she had not been intercepted, her reply was yet to come.

Ayakashi, legendary warrior, defender of the Hidden Mist, let loose in cherished waves the sum of her chakra which shifted to form the length of a fearsome lance, burning cold pyres of rising steam into the sweltering daylight. Simultaneous arrogance heralded the next impeccably timed rebuttal, swirling fuinjutsu typically reserved for the fingertip, would instead grace the spirit's eye, providing nothing more than the show of Obito's shadow as the chakra embracing Ayakashi's arrow would be stripped away, freeing the programmed assault of its missive to call an ice age at its impact. Spirals ripped the flow of hyōton into Yōsei's iris, gathering within the remnants of Ayakashi's trickery and sealing it away in the vault of his inhospitable denial. With the captured technique wasting away, Yōsei's peripherals would keep watch for Ayakashi, who vanished as she let loose her arrow, while preparing his actions. Kyoki in his left hand, Seisakata in the right, Yōsei flipped them, sheathing the odachi at his hip while the smaller of the pair rose with bubbling Katon chakra, poised to taste freedom. Beyond imperception, Ayakashi's chakra allowed the Sealer to locate her body, adorned in translucent halos of bright chakra, held aloft by the wings of her Senjutsu chakra. Intense circles of light drew themselves around Ayakashi's projection, the soaring sword of Damocles dropped from heaven toward Mistuhide as judgment for his hubris and folly.

The fraction between his firing synapses was all it took to catch Seisakata in the grip of his right hand and draw it upward across his body, face awash in voracious joy as he bellowed with laughter. Within a second, the battle had escalated, as if pandora's kingdom had been contained within the Sealer's crossroads, and once the Mizukage had broken free, with her had come discord and death. Chakra flowed freely now, there was no longer a need for quiet conservation, such a strategy alone could not hope to combat so many variables; instead, Mitsuhide would become war itself, and overpower them with the impetus of sweeping change. Becoming his literal spark, the rapid withdrawal of Konoha's Oath brought with it a violent flash, Raiton exploding from Seisakata's edge, causing the blade's crystal surface, heated by the immense force of Mistuhide's storm, to reveal its color, calm and bright as the vast blue sky above. Taka, the signature technique of the Sixteenth Hokage, could be heard across the desert, shaking the dust beneath the Sealer's feet and delivering its message to the heavens as the Hawk's Cry which heralded its namesake. The Mizukage's Sage Arts, pristine and crafted with loving harmony between creation and divine, would find itself no match for Taka's rampaging heart. After witnessing her Senjutsu devoured, the Butterfly would find herself the target at which the Hokage's roar set its sights, chakra tremblor threatening to rend her into pieces if she could not defend herself.

Nearing the final barrier of Yōsei's defense would be the connection to nature that he, too, shared, one taught by the Demon Ice Witch who he now fought against. Though unrefined, the aura of that connection would become a trigger for the swathe of flame decidedly ready within Kyoki. In response, without delay, to a breach of his sanctified ground, Yōsei would release the glittering inferno from within and send forth the rapid expansion of chakra at a distance that would require any who dared attempt to permeate this defense to respond instantaneously or be rendered still by the piercing heat of his Fire Style. Yet, too, would Kyoki be ready to deflect with its stern response if an opponent managed to come within range following the blinding release of his Lightning Chakra and prepared release within Kyoki, moving in the path of any blade capable of opposing him through all these trials. Mitsuhide felt as if he had been welcomed back into the dawning of a golden age, and his ilk, who he had left behind so many lifetimes ago, had each grown stronger in his absence. The laughter and childlike fascination with which the Sealer treated this battle served to signal his irreverence, all who saw him would know he saw this as a game, each step beyond his goal another foray into the wonderous vow of ninja arts and innovation.

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47The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Sun Jul 29, 2018 1:17 pm

Mitsuo

Mitsuo


S-rank
The world seemed to be in chaos, edging closer and closer to the bring of destruction every day, as the evil and corruption threatened to tear down everything that the people had built. Some people were agents of that evil, and some were chosen to fight them. Mitsuo had been chosen by the god of death to re-balance the scales...but he was still also Mitsuo. He could take a second to appreciate the impressive duel that was taking place before him before two people whom he held in high regard. One he had never had the pleasure to fight, the other two had fought to a standstill in the past while growing uo together. It was interesting that Mitsuo had grown so old, but Mitsuhide still appeared to be young and spry. He had fought alongside Ayakashi twice before, once in the Seven Bells War, and once when the Allied Forces had marched upon Kumogakure to dispose of the Raikage, Sanosuke Flint. He wanted more than anything to join the battle of Titans that was taking place before him and write his name in the stars along side their, as history would surely speak about this battle...

Just as he had thought that, a threat had emerged. He could feel a shiver along the lands of sand as the snake witch had made herself known once more. Mitsuo’s attention would move towards her, and in that split second that it had, another issue would present itself. This one Mitsuo didn’t see as a threat to himself or the safety of the land, but as a threat to the beautiful duel that was being fought on these grounds. The individual charged its way towards the duel, unleashing attacks towards Mitsuhide, clearly wishing him ill intent. It had been over a decade since Mitsuo had guarded Mitsuhide, but he was still a man whom Mitsuo would always feel indebted too. Mitsuo owed Mitsuhide his life, for had he wished he could have taken it after his fight in the Seven Bells War, but he had allowed him to live and return home, where he became the Seventeenth Hokage and was praised as a hero. Risu clearly demanded attention, but this woman was attacking a man whom Mitsuo owed his life, and he simply couldn’t stand for that.

“Eizo!” Mitsuo nodded to the Monkey King as they bolted towards the person charging towards the two kage, activating his Wings of the Saint jutsu as he suddenly became aware of all movement through his area, anything that affected the wind. He could feel where the snake witch stood, wind not being allowed to move past her, and where the projectile weapons flew towards the battle, where they were turned away. He could feel the shinobi who attacked the duel as he closed in on her, being sure not to get too close to the fight. He heard the Mizukage address her, clearly pointing her towards the snake witch whom had arrived as she prepared to release a jutsu. Mitsuo would turn to ensure that his momentum would take him out of the radius of the attacks of the Mizukage.

“You there, servant of the Mizukage. Hear my words.” His voice was loud and clear, moving at his top speed to make his way to her. “This is an honour duel between two titans. These individuals are of a level of power that nobody should ever even attempt to disturb. You dishonour your master by attempting to break up her duel...but worry not. My name is Mitsuo Sarutobi...” He stopped near the girl and tapped the pendant that showed he was a War Hero and Honorary Member of the village of Kirigakure. I protected your lands alongside these two during the Seven Bells War. I killed the scourge of the Uchiha Clan, Ukiyo Senju, and the man whom burned your village to the ground, Hao Uchiha. These two are in a league all of their own, but I am too. I will be your opponent today if you wish to seek glory...though a cautionary tale if you do. That snake will sink its venomous fangs into your neck and corrupt you to your core. She is pure evil and needs to be purged from this world...”

The chain whip in his right hand cracked with the intensity of a raging inferno as his chakra passively flowed through and reacted with it. Heat radiated off of him, the wind sensory jutsu he kept active having small licks of flame dance across his body. He could feel the earth shudder and the temperature of the entire area fluctuate, his heat battling with the cold of the Mizukage passively as though they were old foes meant to do battle eternally. His hair whipped back and forth in the wind, and his eyes, the two different coloured eyes, one a deep emerald and the second the pale green of the Karisuma clan, a reminder of the purging of the corruption of that clan, had a calm and determined look within them. The winds bent around him, the sword in his left hand running wind chakra along its blade. Mitsuo was an impressive figure to be sure, and the Hellfire Drake of the Aoi Bara would protect the integrity of this duel, he would leave it up to the woman in front of him which route they would take towards that...

2741

{Chakra 410/500}
-Eizo Summon Maintained
-Wings of the Saint activated

48The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Sun Jul 29, 2018 5:21 pm

Orochi Risu

Orochi Risu


S-rank
She was no god, she was not immortal, she was human, she was a monster...she was a snake, ready to strike when the opportunity provided itself to her, but also cowardly enough to run when times got to tough for her to handle them. Just as she had opened herself up, strengthened her mind right after running from that overwhelmingly powerful shinobi from Konoha, she could no feel the cold air on her back, the looming presence of something or rather someone who even after all this time, even after being freed from his accursed seals and control over her, was still influencing her. Her breathing got deeper, heavier and without a doubt, despite being in the presence of the original Sword Saint, the famed Mizukage and even the shinobi which had managed to push her to the edge at the Chuunin Exams in Kumogakure, for just one instant, she could swear she saw His shadow looming over her, waiting for her to slip up, so that the Black Snake could sink its teeth into the White Snake and take from it all that she had and all that she was.

"I am human, I am nothing more than that...just a human, nothing less than that," Clenching her fist, she could see The original Sword Saint pass her with a speed so blinding that when she actually registered that he had passed right in front of her, he was already standing with that Hunter-nin who had managed to make a mockery out of her at the Chuunin Exams. Clenching her other fist, she bared her fangs, red bloodvessels thickening and becoming visible in the white of her eyes. "Humiliated, forced to run, forced to slither into hiding like a snake and then forced to do it all over again. Oh yes, this world is teaching me so much. Humility, shame, lack of confidence in one's own abilities...seems nothing has changed over the decades, all I am is a snake, nothing more nothing less. It has always been like that...but so what, so what if I'm a snake?"

Her skin hardening, scales forming atop the surface of her pure white complexion, the pupils in her eyes narrowing to slits, the Desert Snake slammed her arm against the incoming fuuma shuriken, forcing it to careen off into the distance. Her teeth got slightly sharper, her fangs more pronounced and her muscles began to bulk up a bit. Yes, if there was one emotion, one feeling to overcome the inadequacy, the fear she was feeling, it had to be anger, pure, unimpeded, seething rage which started to course through her veins, her muscles, her mind like an all consuming fire, no...not a fire, a void which knew no boundaries and knew no limit to its voracious hunger. "I hate this, I hate this world, I hate you, I hate myself...Let it all just burn, let it all just be trampled and destroyed!!."

"If that is what you desire, so it shall be." A voice, slithering and dark, so deep and hissing, yet without any kind of emotion ressonated within the Desert Sanke's mind. Cracks appeared in her mental image, until her mind finally had shattered under the internal pressure, the virulent swirl of thoughts and the untamed haterd which was boiling up within her.


She opened her mouth, yet out came not the cry of a girl, nor the scream of a woman, but the bellowing roar of a monster, the immensely loud, booming sound only a beast could make. Her arms cocked to her sides, her hands cramping up as her eyes turned completely black. Hunching forward, she continued to roar, to let out a hiss so loud and powerfull it displaced the very air around her, lashing out in a powerful torrent of wind.

The sand shifted, the ground shook and trembled, until it seemingly started to buckle underneath her. The sand turned to glass and shattered under the sheer compressed weight and pressure she bore upon the ground beneath her feet and with every passing instant, the output of her chakra grew denser and denser, heavier and heavier, to the point even that those too close to the crater in which she barely maintained her form, would find difficulty just taking a single breath.

Her mucles bulked up further than they had before and as she continued to let out her booming voice, her cheeks ripped open with a sickening crack, her neck growing longer and more muscular with every moment passing. Her body itself started to morph and turn into what seemed to be but a mere ball of massive, white scaley flesh at first, until on top of it, a shield or crown made from bone, rock and scale appeared, bursting out of said flesh and accumulating even more weight.

No longer had she any human features, no longer was she recognisable as Orochi Risu or Lamya, there was only just a white snake, which kept on growing and growing, pressuring and collapsing the ground underneath it, as if even the rock beneath the sand was but cardboard. As the sand shifted further and further, her chakra blasting into all directions like highly pressurised steam coming from a kettle on the hottest burning stove, for a mere moment, this one singular snake stopped growing at a size of about fifty meters in length, at which point the single head and neck suddenly started to split apart into eight identically shaped and identically sized mirror images of one another.

However, this was where those who had seen the form before would think it would end, where the limits were of its incomplete form and weakened imperfect state. Yet, this time it continued to grow, becoming larger and larger still, until it's very size would've been able to fit in, nay burst out of the very barrier Lamya had broken before, the very barrier meant to contain the Sealer and the Mizukage in their battle. It's shadow loomed over the entirity of the encampment, the entirity of the battlefield and in a simple, yet indiscriminate act of rage and untamed savagery, the eight massive heads slammed down upon the sandy dunes around it with terrible force and power, only to rise up again, revealing Ryujin, Kiri-nin, former Suna shinobi wailing and screaming within its giant maws, mauling each and everyone it had cought to gulp down on them as if they were but tiny morsels of flesh to satiate its incredible hunger.

"Now than, shall we turn this world into a true paradise?" The booming voice Lamya had heard within her head, now exclaimed her wish for the world. the eight massive heads rose upwards and for all to see, they seemed to prepare themselves to swallow the low hanging sun. "Who will offer themselves to satiate our hunger?"

notes:

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49The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Thu Aug 02, 2018 8:44 pm

Nozomi

Nozomi


D-rank
Nozomi was stopped short as Yosei intercepted her blades with a seal, removing her petal weapons from the field in the blink of an eye. He didn't even seem to pay her much mind as he did so, and she could tell that she was being pursued by Mitsuo as well. Sliding to a halt rather than approach Yosei, she leapt back to a distance of 25 meters away, the seal forming in response to Yosei's offensive seal meant to send something back at her.

Her immediate thought was that in retaliation he would send back her 3 petal blades, but she wasn't going to chance it. Removing her hands from the weapon at her side, Nozomi formed a few seals, petals issuing from her hands and forming a small wedged wall in front of her, rather than trying to meet whatever it would be head on. The arrows blasted forward, and even with her barrier up, she was momentarily worried it would falter. Her gaze flashed to Ayakashi as the arrows deflected towards her left and right sides, continuing on without losing much momentum, as she'd managed to angle the barrier in a way that it wasn't just meeting and beating the force. Redirection was usually one of the better ways to deal with things, as she didn't have nearly as much force behind her jutsu and defenses as some others did. It was, in her opinion, the best way to contend with people.

Still, as the arrows passed by her, she dropped the barrier, the petals forming a small mound in front of her. Ayakashi warned her to stay away, as she couldn't fight with Nozomi present. In a way, her pride was hurt, as Ayakashi didn't think Nozomi was enough of an asset to benefit from fighting next to, but she ignored her pride for the moment. If the Mizukage told her to deal with Lamya, she'd do that instead.

Nodding to Mitsuo, showing she'd acknowledged his words, Nozomi watched as her Windmill Shuriken was grabbed by Aya, knowing what she needed to do. The blade at her back flew into her left hand as she prepared herself, surging Raiton chakra through her body, activating her Raiton Viper Technique, feeling the surge of chakra start to affect her muscles, forcing them to be more rigid, as she stared Lamya down, crouching as if about to make a beeline for her. "No time to talk, let's get her." she muttered to Mitsuo, knowing he would be able to hear her speak, although she was more focused on Lamya, hence the over emphasis on that.

And so it was that when Lamya smashed away the Fuuma Shuriken, Nozomi was prepared to make her move. Activating the Substitution technique the moment her arm connected with the weapon, Nozomi's body and the shuriken swapped places, instantly Nozomi was right next to Lamya, her sword mere inches away from the Snake Lady. The movement was precise and accurate, beyond what most people would expect. Nozomi may even be shocked to see that Lamya's arm was already bloodied and sliced up by the Windmill, as Ayakashi's force behind the weapon itself was massive to begin with, but she wasn't focusing on that just yet.

Nozomi had done this maneuver plenty of times in the past, utilizing her Fuuma Shuriken as a substitution vessel, always used to help her get close to or behind an enemy for a quick strike that was designed specifically to take out an opponent with a quick execution or disabling technique in that brief period of time that it took them to register that Nozomi had even moved. Having already prepared herself for the move as it was, she was able to immediately launch her strikes, having moved herself into a position that was favorable to her sneak attack before substitution had even taken place, while the stance she had used lended itself to the deception as well, making it appear that she was crouching to make a kick off dash towards her opponent.

Ayakashi, on her own end, knew full well what Nozomi's tactic was, as it was one of the several tactics that the Hunter-nin Captains specialized in and trained. Nozomi had an added advantage with this technique in that she'd used this particular trick more often than a lot of people, harking back to the days when she was a genin, and attempted to use the Substitution switch on Gin when she was still her sensei, and Sero and the little genin Ashley were her squad members.

The difference there had been that Nozomi was vastly slower, so even with the surprise of her attack, she had been unsuccessful. Since then, she'd gathered much more speed and abilities to enhance her speed, and practiced over and over. She was no longer the novice that had failed to pull it off before, she was a battle hardened Captain of the Hunter-nin, and had the advantage of never having used this trick on Lamya before, not showcasing her full set of skills against her the last time they'd met.

As she appeared, a few things happened. Nozomi's right arm burst forward towards Lamya's heart, preparing for a strike that would surely incapacitate her, aided not only by the initial burst of speed provided by the Viper Technique that had accelerated her arm, but also the second additional burst of speed that the technique allowed for, centered on a Tenketsu on her back, which launcher her own self forward as well. Both of her arms also propelled themselves forward using her own power behind the movements, allowing her to nearly instantly launch her strikes and body into Lamya, assuming she didn't have some way to block her.

If her right hand made contact with Lamya, a discharge of electrical energy would issue from her hand, seeking to pierce the snake through the heart with her Lightning Execution technique, known for completely blasting through people and destroying organs on contact. Her sword, if it made contact, would also unleash a burst of Raiton inside her, as it pierced through her armor and into her skin even moderately. All she'd need to do was make contact with her flesh, which her blade was plenty strong enough to pierce through the armor and do so, especially given the speed and force of her attack.

Unlike the Lightning Execution, the technique unleashed from her Petal Katana wasn't meant to kill, but instead to stun. Nozomi wasn't foolish enough to think that her Lightning Execution alone would be enough to take out Lamya, as she knew that she was a Medical Ninja with incredible prowess and ability to heal. However, if the conjunction of the strike to the heart and the stun were to complete, then they could potentially disable her long enough for a capture. That was her thought process anyhow. She knew it could also potentially kill the Snake, but that wasn't her goal. Massive damage to disable her was. There were people around who could hopefully stabilize her if need be.

If everything went correctly, Nozomi would smash directly into Lamya, landing on top of her, straddling her upper half with her legs, sliding across the ground a little bit with the woman, her right hand in her chest, her left hand on the hilt of her sword, which would also be impaled within the snake, electricity and petals surrounding them, trailing from her attacks and the sword, and complete eye contact sustained. She wanted Lamya to know who had brought her in.

"You could have turned yourself in and saved some trouble." she'd say, a small frown appearing on her face. If she did take out Lamya so easily as this though, she was hoping Ayakashi, her opponent, and Mitsuo all saw it. She was tired of people underestimating her value in combat. She could have helped Ayakashi take down Yosei and let her conserve her energy, had she not been too thick headed and stubborn as to refuse help. Sure, Mitsuo would have jumped in as well, but she would have relished the opportunity to fight him. Unfortunately, he was on her side more or less, and there was no reason to fight him if Lamya was disabled. Someone had to make sure she wasn't taken by any of her supporters, and make sure she stayed alive.

She needed to keep her stunned though, so there would be no leaving her, as she had to keep the stun going. It would suck, but she was basically out of the fight for now, relegated to the side line. "Mitsuo, I need you to protect me for as long as she stays alive, or she might escape. Can we find someone to keep her stabilized so we can bring her in alive? I'm no medic and Hunter-nin don't have access to the ANBU stabilizing techniques, but maybe there's one around here who can." she called out, hoping beyond hope that he wouldn't try pull something. She needed him right now, and she wasn't used to relying on anyone particularly.

WC: 1565
TWC: 2901

-5 Substitution Technique used
-10 Hasu No Bukijutsu Maintenance
-20 Taijutsu: Raiton Viper
-20 Stun Baton
-25 Lightning Execution Technique

Chakra: 285/400

Techniques used:
Spoiler:

50The Siege of Inabayama. (open) - Page 2 Empty Re: The Siege of Inabayama. (open) Fri Aug 03, 2018 2:16 am

Sero

Sero


S-rank

Sero had once been but a boy. A lost soul to the masses that few ever knew had been born. Lost to the wilds and the temperaments of the seasons. Driven back from the acceptable ways of society if only by their ignorance of him. In that time he had allowed himself to become the very thing he had been abandoned for. The monster his aura suggested he was. A cold and calculating boy that had striven for knowledge and power. To surpass any who would try and take what was his. To demolish those who would threaten his domain and the domains under his protection. He had sworn to do this in return to gain the power he needed to be a true beast. At first he had given into the dark nature within him. Letting it corrupt him. To push him into a sense that he was something less than human but far greater. An Apex predator before he was man. His deal with the spiders had been to gain more power. To consolidate more power and as he did it was for Kiri. That no man would dare tread over them again without considering his name. There were consequences to the sins being committed here. For the slights against his people and his allies. His friend. His calm demeanor faded away as he received word the forward camp had been attacked. Demolished even. It had taken a great deal of effort to reach it in the time he had from the supplies further back. Yet he had raced forward with the intent to cause suffering. To those who would defy his Kage. To those who would cause harm to his men and to those who would dare ignore the possibility of him, he was coming to right that wrong.

three hundred meters east of the edge of the camp, now turned crater covered in skirmishes a huge flock of birds would take flight. Chased away by something they darned not be near. Their vulture tendencies overcome by the urge to flee. From over the dune a blistering wind would pick up. Far too hot to be of a natural cause. The sands would shift with the wind and roll away down towards the combat. However even in the midst of combat everyone there would easily sense it. Something was coming. Something had risen from this battle and now it came for them. On the other side of the dune was something monstrous. The father of horrors had found his rage. There on the other side of the dune his aura pulsed out as clouds began to roll in as if pushed forward by the intense heat and yet fed by his suiton chakra. Above the dune the clouds gathered and darkened as thunder rumbled. Announcing him to the dance they were weaving. Thunder would crackle but no rain would fall. Instead the dune itself would begin to split down the center. Parting like a sea of sand as if the very desert dared not bar him passage. Still the side walls of the pathway through the dune would glass. Red hot and solidified as he took his first steps forward. The glass beneath his feet cracked as Sero moved towards the battle. White robes already splattered with the blood of a couple of scouts who had mistakenly tried to intercept him along the hem. A single katana rested at his side but in each hand was a head. Gouged out empty sockets seemed to expand on their terror striken final expressions. Dying as they knew the mistake they had made simply too late.

Sero stepped forward at a casual walking pace. Even from where he stood glass cracked like the thunder above with each step. Over his right shoulder was a line of fur as white as snow while over his chest and left shoulder was a single breast plate for armor with the kiri symbol on it. His bare feet seemed not to even notice the heat or the glass he was passively putting off. Still eyes as dead as those laying on the ground would look to the battle before him. Seeing so much destruction caused to Kiri. The heads in his hands would be engulfed in flames as they fell from his hands and burned to ashes. He would feel that old dark aura welling within him. Reaching out as it joined his rage, his pride and his wrath. His chakra would rise from his form visibly. A towering dark thing taller than the dune, humanoid but faceless and without flesh. Simply a black chakra. Its hands would rest on either side of the passage through the dune and glass the top of it. Finally as it rested there holding itself up its great maw would open. From within the darkness a flame burned as hot as a furnace. The roar the beast let out would echo across the sands. Cracking glass and pushing waves of sand forward. They had tested his patience. Now he was coming. Osada Sero Jr, the captain of the seven swords and one of the most feared beings alive, one most didn't consider human had arrived. If nothing else could be told of his arrival there was but one clear fact, he was going to slay every last enemy combatant there when he crossed that distance.

898

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