ENTER from the Siege of Inabayama - http://www.narutosaga.com/t27185p50-the-siege-of-inabayama-open#220365
Hiraishin, the pinnacle of Yōsei's study, displaced the pair without delay, scenery changing as the field of icy lotus blooms cut to the deserted streets of Sunagakure. The brunt of Ayakashi's force was astounding and painful, cracking through Mistuhide's ribcage and sending him hurtling along the road where he skipped along the torn limestone, kicking up sand with his rolling body, shrouding him behind a cloud of dirt. As he flew, Ayakashi's stored arrows and a wealth of kunai knives would spew from Yōsei's body in all directions, unsealed without the intent of harming Ayakashi, though indeed, she would find herself assailed in the storm of blades, would each instead provide numerous gateways strewn throughout the desolate halls of Sunakakure. The ragdoll of Yōsei's body would come to a halt more than a dozen meters from the Mizukage in a heap of torn rags at the end of a trail of blood. With a cough, Mitsuhide planted his left hand on the pavement and pushed against it, letting out a heave as he stood, first to a knee, and then to stand, where at first he stumbled while turning to face the Mizukage. The loose folds of Yōsei's shroud fell still and hung limply against his shoulders, conceding to the warm afternoon breeze which ran through the alleys of ruin and waste that were left of the Wind's heart. If it had taken until now, by this moment she would doubtless have observed the change in scenery; endless dunes became serrated remnants of culture and society, while the unmistakable formations of glass, and scorched remains of houses. Yōsei could not help but wonder, did she know why he had brought them here?
"The way of a shinobi is not an ideal to be held on high, old friend. We persist, servants of death, so that we may continue to slay in the name of our Nations. And what of you, who quests to become master of the throne of Water? What will you do when you finally have what you seek? None can claim to know The End as I do! I have waged war against the tenants of creation, and I have prevailed through eons of slaughter so that I may see this world again."
"I will not allow Dark Gods to ruin this land and destroy what its people have built. To be a shinobi is a pitiful, thankless errand, one that we have together chosen; between us is the culmination of our creed. I have stood by while your wretched nation drained my homeland's lifeblood and prepared myself, and now I will prepare Konoha. The Hidden Mist is strong, and with you to guard it, it will survive, but the Leaf lays a sad shadow of its former glory thanks to its reliance on you. The Hokage has become a pathetic vassal of your will, and this I will not allow. Though you are not the threat which looms over this world, it is through you that I will incite a war from which I shall take aim at Hastur's heart."
"Konoha must survive. That is my ninja way."
Time passed, enough for the duo to steel themselves and converse as needed, howling wind picking up to push sheets of sand from rooftops into clouds of rolling, golden dust. The ravished city, Sunagakure's despoiled center, would serve as the resting place for their bout, miles from Inabayama, chosen not at random but instead to lend weight to the Sealer's lofty words. The Hidden Sand had fallen, washed away in ignorant fire by those who could not see the majesty of existence itself. Whether Ayakashi knew or not, her surroundings were the impetus for Yōsei's change, and the reason her people now suffered at the hands of Suna's lost sons and daughters. Through their hope and vengeance, the Sealer had made himself into folklore, symbols of his visage scratched into the walls marked with the iconography of ancient messiahs. The people of this land already believed this ghost to be their savior, his contract sealed with them long ago when he had first ventured across the sand searching for those few lost souls who now had become his most trusted messengers. En route to Konoha, already, was the letter which would bring about the ex-Hokage's ends, and the poisoned grief of Suna's citizens would send that message elsewhere. In slow, gearous groans, the stream of war arose from the Land of Wind, and would spread throughout the world in time.
Summoning his blades, Mitsuhide charged, fighting through the pain as his shoal tightened to enforce the aching muscles and broken bones enough for him to persist. After several steps, the Hokage would vanish, and to the left of Ayakashi, his assault would begin. Several meters away, Yōsei would barely need a step while running to close with Seisakata and thrust its tip at the Mizukage's stomach, just above her navel, before vanishing again. Without a fragment of momentum lost, the Sealer would descend just above the Mizukage with Kyoki's edge bounding mercilessly for the side of her neck as he twisted it in his fingers, acting like a whirlwind to guillotine the Water Shadow's head from her shoulders. Suspended for a fraction of a second, Mistuhide would appear again in front of Ayakashi and charge, if she had not been slain already then he would strike with the Oath in his dominant hand with a sweep across her torso, at the height of her heart seeking to sever the vessels which held together behind her ribs several inches deep. In time with this blow, the Sealer's weight would shift and swiftly coil Kyoki from below to impact the Mizukage's knee indifferently, nipping into the flesh in an attempt to slip beneath the guard of her hip and flay the skin before withdrawing as he spun away to the right. The dual attacks came within a fraction of one another, and then the blades would swap hands, Kyoki facing the direction of his darting course and Seisakata gathering momentum while it trailed behind.
On the stage of their final performance, Yōsei hoped to cement his will in the face of Kirigakure's legendary Water Shadow, and the secret motive of his choice would become painfully apparent. Not only did the wasted husk of the Hidden Sand prove that Mitsuhide's words were true, but his decision to isolate her, far from where her followers or the prying eyes of other nations could see, this was evidence of a playful secret. This day had nothing to do with her, and Yōsei did not seek to humiliate her or prove to the world he could not be stopped, but instead, he looked inward, to test himself against Ayakashi for its own sake, as enemies. Thunder and rain, the twin shadows spread between them a storm of blades and historic skill, but beyond their duel, the Sealer saw the shape of extinction, shrouded in gold, on his throne above the Clouds.
'Until finally, the godess graces the warstrucken earth.‘
Her opponent was worthy, a usurper, a shadow which grew in opposition to the light fighting for its right to exist as the beam of justice bore down on it brighter and brighter with the hope of extinguishing it once and for all. The power of Ayakashi's techniques often new no rival, however, the defensive nature of her opponent made combat against him difficult. Charging head-first before vanishing from sight she would appear soon after, tracked by her opponent's skill in senjutsu, Ayakashi could feel it there too, a hidden connection to nature chakra within him which would immediately give away his knowledge of her presence while she dashed across the sand for a better angle. Leaping forward with her fist coiled, trailing its hell frozen stream through the air she would intend to swallow him whole with the thunderous force of the pulse that was to follow. However, with what appeared to be a snap of a finger Ayakashi would yet again feel power stripped from her person and torn away, to the internal anguish of the beast which dwelt deep within her.
The beast had torn away from the seals once before, and risen more ferocious than last time... the chakra which maintained her demonic ice corruption would struggle against the seal as it washed around it, unfurling everything within contact as it sapped the Futon and Hyouton chakra out of her form, it would let out an internal howl in agony as something attempted to strip it of even more of its phantasmal being. The punch would soar on a slight downward angle for her opponent's side, only to have him dart backwards with catlike reflexes, coiling backwards onto the slick spring-heeled ninja that he was, he would find his foot meeting the expanding ice as he danced backwards. The seedlings from the forest of blades following Ayakashi in their wake, drawn from the dreamland that was the butterfly sage school and sewn into her hyouton nature. The scalpel-like extensions would tear at his calves as he raced for the exit between them before the trap ultimately enclosed, moving again towards his aggressor blades in hand, the determination in his eyes more than apparent as he locked onto the Mizukage who would welcome his challenge as she would open fire.
Using the break in the combat, Ayakashi would draw her frost-bitten arrows into her bow, the thorns of her technique which she had intended to have active at the time, failing to roll over each of them like brambles as she would take aim with the lethal looking fractal arrows. Fist-full in hand she would open fire with the array, but with another imposition of the sealers potent influence, the chakra from her demonic ice corruption was drained[ from her yet again, allowing him to consume the arrows as well as the ice which had lost any semblance or trace of ayakashi's chakra with the marks her assailant had across his body. Cursing, at the interruption of the flow of the attack, it would seem that he was intent on ensuring that she had no chakra running through her weapons at the time that he would act upon his defense... 'It would seem he can only absorb any of my attacks that actually have a chakra element to them... that's easy enough to deal with. As the demonic ice corruption ended, she was sure to have to deal with her opponent in close combat as he charged her head-on.
Streaking forward the shadow of cinder would swing each of his two swords in passing for Ayakashi's right leg and following her left arm in a spinning fare of deft skill. Rather than allowing herself to be cleaved in two, she would withdraw changeling's bowstring, spinning the bo-staff like a helicopter's blade she would spin in contrast with her opponent, mirroring his momentum as she would guide her spinning staff to her right-hand side, parrying the blade with an arc of sparks exploding from the connecting momentum of their two borderline legendary weapons. As Yosei would spin across to her other-side, it would allow Ayakashi, in turn, to follow through with her spin and rather than to strike in return, she would duck and spin under the blow, allowing Yosei and his blade to soar overtop and past her while she would prepare the technique that was to come. Dropping changeling to the floor and beginning the process of calling on her chakra.
She could see the baleful scowl that crossed his face when the chakra that she had summoned came to light, a realization of what this was. A technique from a time when ancient giants of near infinite chakra walked the land freely, destroyed whatever they pleased and were bonded with ninja who they would call Jinchuriki. But if all they were was chakra, then their power was merely a manner of knowledge, skill and the force of will that it would require to brave death in the pursuit of its practice. Ayakashi was willing to risk it all for the power she had attained to protect those under her wing, she was the will of her nation, and that will have taken likely the weakest Kage the village of mist had ever seen and forged her into potentially the strongest woman alive. She owed her nation everything, and for that, she was willing to give it all! Charging towards her opponent, standing on what little of an ice shelf that had been left before she abused the surface tension of the sand itself rather than her technique as footing she would find that her challenger too would stand his ground...
'The fool'
The Tailless Beast Bomb would slam into the field that he had created around himself, and the energy of the technique would pierce through it like an arrow, unabated by its construction as the ninja would desperately search for the threads in which that he was able to pull in an attempt to unwind it. Ayakashi was able to see the end of this battle here and now. Not in a thousand years would she have thought that there was a Fuinjutsu technique that was able to seal away a Bijudama in this day and age, while Ayakashi's Bijudama was frankly insulting compared to that which its parentage was designed by, but even as a shadow of the image of the likeness of a Bijudama, it wielded incredible power. Closer the orb drew to the chest of her opponent, hoping to drive it home, plunge it into his form and hurl him away for the detonation, which would eclipse the horizon in the ebony orb which would expand outwards, wiping everything within it out of existence... but instead, at the last second, something snapped within the formation of Ayakashi's chakra.
The shock on Ayakashi's face would have been that not seen for an age, as she would step one foot past Yosei and place a hand on his chest, there was still follow through here, and she would dedicate into it. Intending to thrust her hand into his chest with what momentum she had put behind the orb, she would move to attempt a point blanc palm strike. She felt for the most fleeting of moments the steel of her gloved hand connect with Yosei's body, yet, an unfathomable chakra would surround and swallow the two of them and in a flicker of an instant. Not caring for her immediate environs at the time, the mist shadow would follow through with her strike against the king of embers, slamming him in the chest and stepping past him. Angling his body on a thirty-degree angle, she would seek to slam him in the chest, slam him into the ground meters away from her and bounce him upwards and into a nearby wall which would allow him to fall to his knees. Dusting herself off briefly the Mizukage would only now identify her surroundings... the shadows moved in a different direction, this wasn't the town they were near, it was larger, and the damage dealt to it seemed old... This was Sunagakure no Sato.
"How the hell did you manage a seal like that? I've never heard anything like it, not since the Fourth Hokage. And even he could not simply stop a Bijudama head on... the hell kinda ninja are you?"She would speak in rhetorics, beginning to walk forward and cradling her wrist as she did so, massaging her chakra points to allow the free flow of the Mastery of the perfect form to do its work, and allow the full function of her strained hand.
"The way of a shinobi is not an ideal to be held on high, old friend. We persist, servants of death, so that we may continue to slay in the name of our Nations. And what of you, who quests to become master of the throne of Water? What will you do when you finally have what you seek? None can claim to know The End as I do! I have waged war against the tenants of creation, and I have prevailed through aeons of slaughter so that I may see this world again... I will not allow Dark Gods to ruin this land and destroy what its people have built. To be a shinobi is a pitiful, thankless errand, one that we have together chosen; between us is the culmination of our creed. I have stood by while your wretched nation drained my homeland's lifeblood and prepared myself, and now I will prepare Konoha. The Hidden Mist is strong, and with you to guard it, it will survive, but the Leaf lays a sad shadow of its former glory thanks to its reliance on you. The Hokage has become a pathetic vassal of your will, and this I will not allow. Though you are not the threat which looms over this world, it is through you that I will incite a war from which I shall take aim at Hastur's heart... Konoha must survive. That is my ninja way."
He'd speak in a sullen passion, not heated, but instead firm, and quite dark in intent. But all Ayakashi could hear from his statement was insanity. The nation of Fire and Mist, whom had rivalled perhaps the longest in known history with one another in the great ninja wars of the past, competed directly for Bijuu and struck at one another's greatest ninja, finally had an alliance so close it had created a veritable conglomeration between the two nations. Yet to him this was something to be detested!? Ayakashi's legacy to rid the nation of the title the bloody mist and turn it into something that her people could be proud of was being spat in the face by someone who had been away for over a decade. There was almost no reaction that Ayakashi could spit back at him which would do full service to relay her rage, and yet, she would try.
"You... dare to spit in the face of our unity and call it a weakness!? Your nations own way of fire has been realized, the world had been happy maintaining what it had. I'll tell you what I think, it's ninja like you, who are not content to fade into obscurity, warmongers, who seek to carve their fame out of the complacency a nation faces bought about by peace... we helped shoulder a shared burden with our allies, and it has made us happy! Look around you, you plunged a whole nation into war and ruining its one change to find the same happiness we have... I think you're wrong, I know you're wrong! You don't look down at ninja as a poor and thankless profession, you haven't been a real ninja, you're a soldier, a killer, you were unthanked. You've been warped by your experiences and piteous self-reflection... You think you're the only one who's died and come back? Who's floated down a river so cold that no ice could hope to match it? The difference between you and me, is that I was lifted from my suffering when I reached the end of that river... but you sank deeper, you were plunged into a world of what your actions created, misery... your end was by your actions, and what lays in your heart, as I see you now... perhaps that was justice. Your inner soldier can't seem to handle a warless world, so now you've made one be king in, and to drag everyone back down to you're level! You can't handle looking at Konoha and seeing the just, kind, and peaceful people there, they're weak... So... what you mean is; ninja like you, are bringers of death for nations... Ninja like me forge them from the ashes that shadow'd cinders like you leave behind!
The world I create when I finally lead my nation, will be a world where a little girl doesn't ever see her parents taken because of ninja like you... I'm not so blind I can't see your likeness chiselled into the walls here... You said you won't let dark godlike men devour the world..? Then you should hurry up and throw yourself on your goddamn blade! Because that's exactly what you've become!!!"
'clap'
It was a mental high five which finally allowed Ayakashi to let herself go to tag in the voice which would ultimately take primary control of Ayakashi's actions. Raw unhinged instinct would surge through her body, relaxing her muscles and preparing for what was to come as Mitsuhide would charge. However, as the ninja before her vanished with little more than a shimmer of chakra, the feral creature possessing the Mizukage would open its senses, a shimmer of steel in her peripheral vision would have the beast turn to face that stab, opening her palm and coiling it around the blade with her left hand, the force of her grip tight enough, that as the blade lost its momentum sparks would flower like a fountain between the steel of the two, blood beginning to leak from Ayakashi's hand as she would catch the open blade's stab, its momentum ebbing four inches from her person. Tilting on her left heel she would raise her right leg, bringing her knee tight up against her chest at point-blank range with the full intent of delivering a kick with devastating power to the chest of her opponent over the top of his blade... yet, before she even had the chance, in another flash, he was gone...
'Instant transmission...!?'
He was using the power of the Fourth Hokage... The light of the midday sun reflected off the shimmering blade as the proclaimed Shadow of Cinder would hang aloft in the air as gravity would take hold. Ayakashi would lean her upper-body backwards, Yosei's blade nearing two inches from her neck, as, like she was producing a spear from her chest would seek to deliver a thrusting kick on a 170-degree standing angle which would anatomically impale her opponent on her heel, gaining momentum at a much faster rate than her opponent's fall. Figuring that her opponent wasn't done at this point, Ayakashi was ready for something more. She growled at the use of 'swift release' now that it had once again been born into the ninja world. Gritting her teeth as Yosei would appear in front of her once again, Ayakashi's thrust, barely outracing his blade and penetrating nothing but wind and his lingering shadow as he apparated again before her as if completing his charge he set-out to begin with. Already in swing, Ayakashi would not have much time to deal with the strike, already exposed, his strikes had been getting progressively closer, inevitably like this, one would lethally land. Kicking off the ground with her planted foot, performing gymnasts' backwards aerial, bringing her leg up and over Yosei's intended lower strike for it, and intending to kick the flat of the blade from his strike to her chest with her rising leg striking hard enough to potentially disarm it.
Landing and shrinking low to the ground, a hand upon its dusty surface, the creature didn't have time to think. Yosei was not the only one capable of extreme feats like this. Within aya, something had changed, at such close range, Yosei's senjutsu sensory would see the wild nature of her chakra taking a hostile turn. Ayakashi's Tenketsu would for a moment veritably explode as she would cease to exist for a moment, while her chakra would seem to, in the briefest of moments, exist in two places simultaneously as she activated the first part of her retaliation. Flying thunder god had not been seen in an age, a lost relic like the Beast Bomb she had intended to smash him with. Each of Yosei's succinct strikes had gotten closer and closer to meeting their mark and would surely overcome her if they persisted, so it was time to attempt to match them.
At speeds so fast they could be considered all but instant transmission in name alone, Ayakashi would speed across the battlefield without a trace to Yosei's right flank. The beast wanted to bring down its prey, but it was still strong, it needed to be bled, and worn down before the kill that was on the horizon. Keeping in nature with her beginning low stance, the first of Ayakashi's attacks would appear at the side of his remaining blade should the other no longer sit in his hand, appearing slightly behind him back to back and shoulder to shoulder as Ayaksahi would whip up and around with a palm to catch the outside of his wrist, bringing her other for a quick jab to the outside of Yosei's elbow at the apex of his attack's swing, hard enough to shock his arm into releasing its haft while Ayakashi would rotate away from Yosei, vanishing again and creating a trail in front of him as she would continue her onslaught.
Appearing a second time, Aya maintaining her outward spin away from him before, but appearing to the opposite angle at his front left, now turning into him and intending to let out a vicious kick for his injured arm, seeking to obviously shatter it beyond use... but really intending to trigger the defensive reaction of aiming for a weakened location. Moments before her strike would intend to land, Ayakashi would vanish again, Yosei feeling the phantom of her arrival behind him on the left as she would appear, arcing her hip to throw that kick on a downward angle for the back of his left knee in an attempt to drive it to the ground and drop him to one knee before using the extreme speed technique to switch to move to the opposite direction again, slightly in front and to his right, she would be pressed low to the ground as Aya would deliver a sweep to what would be his upright knee before finally seeking to move towards the finale!
One final vanishing act would have Ayakashi appear above him, directly above his shoulder-blades all else having been successful, one attack for each of his limbs having come to pass in order to disarm or else put him on edge as she would leap mid-speed to amass an absurd amount of momentum, the forces at play as she appeared in midair dragging her into view as nature attempted to slow her to terminal velocity. However, too little too late as the barrelling tornado that was Ayakashi would let out a heel in what could be the greatest attempt at a heel drop ever seen, more than able to split her opponent in two should it land unopposed. Ayakashi, even on instinct alone seemed to have a penchant for the theatrical. With a bestial roar, she would move to drive her heel into the ground with such force the shockwave would crack the earth outwards in every direction, forming an expansive crater as she would follow through...
'And the trap was set'
Her final attack sought to draw out his flying raijin, she would lead him up to the conclusion of her attacks, feed him the narrative of the overwhelming ninja as she would attempt to box him in with ludicrous speed and strength in order to reveal his advantage and trump card. Flying Thunder-god. No speed alone could match it, that much was true, but Raijin had a weakness... in that it was famous. He needed his seals. Ayakashi's final attack was wild and powerful enough to shake the earth, the crater launching most objects upwards and away at least a few meters within the immediate vicinity, meaning anything he could potentially warp to right now was airborne. Should he make the jump, aim to counter-attack her finale as he had done plethora a time before. He would appear to see her gone, Ayakashi's reactions honed to a fine art as she would vanish to intercept his airborne flight-path.
Letting out a cry, as the Tenketsu in her leg would erupt into a wave of force, Ayakashi would strike with the force of a tidal-wave to intercept Yosei. Feral and unrelenting she would hope to catch him in the small of the back and follow through with enough strength to send the missing ninja like a missile through the tattered remains of stone buildings which would seek to cushion his tumble. The wave of chakra expanding from her leg as she would lash wheel it towards him, enveloping his form as the true ender to this unhinged combination of strikes. Ayakashi's eye never wavering from her intended prize. If the man who stood against her had been sent to hell and returned to walk amongst the living, he was a demon who needed to be slain and cast back into the pit from where he had crawled back from.
And this was how it would be done.
[3847]
chakra 125| sen 50:
-Maintained master of the perfect form sage mode
Jutsu used
Name: Waxing Moon, Heavenly Body Motion Assault | 三日月・天体動打 - Mikazuki: Tentai Dōda Canon/Custom: Custom Rank: A Type: Offensive Element: N/A Range: 10m Specialty: Taijutsu Duration: 1 Cooldown: 5 Description: After an attempted opening hit, the user flows chakra from their core throughout their body,The user, with extreme speed, vanishes from sight disappearing to re-appear at multiple locations around an opponent. After she appears, Ayakashi is then, afterward is able to launch a single, quick and devastating basic-strike before using the extreme speed, relocating to another position to perform the action again for a maximum of 5 attempted strikes in quick succession.
An opponent with any sensory technique which would enable them to sense the location of Aya when this jutsu is activated, is able to predict the location of her appearances moments before her arrival, so long as she's within range of it.
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Name: Full Moon, Mirror Ice Ring | 満月・氷輪鏡 Mangetsu - Kōrihakyō Canon/Custom: Custom Rank: A Type: Offensive Element: Hyouton Range: 30m Specialty: Taijutsu Duration: Instant Cool-down: 5 Description: Intended as a devastating Combo-Finisher. Following any kick in which leaves the intended target airborne and moving in a direction. Ayakashi explodes hyouton chakra from the tenketsu in her leg, appearing 5m behind them and pushing her to spin at an incredible speed to successfully intercept her victims' trajectory. Lashing out with a huge spinning round-house kick, Aya projects a wave of violent hyouton chakra from her leg at 40mp/s capable of breaking bones, light 3rd degree frostbite and causing deep bruising. the blast projects the victim up to a dozen meters away violently, shattering through obstacles in their way.
An opponent with any sensory technique which would enable them to sense the location of Aya when this jutsu is activated, is able to predict the location of her appearance moments before her arrival, so long as she's within range of it.
Whatever supreme confidence had once the Mizukage drawn her smile from faded in the moments following the Sealer's revelation. Unquestioned and unwilling to falter, Yōsei's fuinjutsu made work of the ball which sought to replicate, through spiraling, shivering terror, that which once threatened to destroy the world. As his ancestor before him, Mitsuhide had taken such tremendous power and willed, with the power of his genius, for it to be snuffed into non-existence. The void into which the Mizukage's trump card had been drawn welcomed it with familiar cold, embracing the Water Shadow's technique as an old friend, dear to the heart of the space between dimensions. Yōsei's lips coiled upward in time with Ayakashi's realization, wonderous fury igniting behind the woman's chakra betraying her emotions in their entirety. From the greatest heights, the Mizukage brought down with her the arrogance of a life led undefeated, the yoke of transcendent power laid upon her from the Gods above this world, who laughed and chided from the Heavenly Kingdom, suddenly shed away with the seal which stole away her secrets. The Hokage wondered if she would see for herself what he had seen, the power contained within the horizon's baleful threat which yet still claimed, piece by sordid piece, all who were too weak to stand against it.
Resigned to the consequences of his transgression, the Sealer's eyes closed as the rush of warm air parted around them. The dust and concrete lit through the lenses of crystal towers, cracked and splintered into abstract branches shining concordant prisms through which infinity stirred. Groaning pillars of glass shifted with the weight of chakra as Ayakashi's hand, wrapped thickly in tempered, ancestral steel, tore through with momentum unabated, Yōsei's shroud between them pushing with all its strength against the rampaging imposition put upon its master. Thrashing into the ground, Mistuhide felt the snap of bones beneath his chest, several ribs sundered by Ayakashi's blow and heavy bruising caused by his unceremonious collision with the terrain before again he routed airborne and come to rest where ruin met earth, in the crook between a hollow chapel and the scorched pavement. As he rose with the garment servant tightening around him, dust flowing in waves from beneath its innumerable folds, he could hear the Mizukage's questions, barking through the veil of the Sealer's own tide, threatening to overrun the dam and spill into his gullet. To these inquests, Ayakashi would find no answers from the enigmatic shadow, which would only peer at her with quiet riddles, unwilling to reveal the philosophy which drove its utterances. If it were the Mizukage's wish to see the way of a shinobi returned from death, then she would have it, and as he spoke with lapping waves of calm indifference, each word strung together from the tapestry of the Sealer's journey beyond death. Predictably, the Shadow of Mist reacted by unleashing the beast within, seething with rage at the accusation of her tyranny and the attack on her redemption.
And so came the thunder, drawing forth rows of vicious teeth in response, Mitsuhide flying on the slipstream of the Mizukage's rage, tightening the grip on Seisakata, which twitched readily at his hip. Her own duet with the river of samsara lent weight to what she thought her words were attacking, launching into a tirade of misplaced, ignorant misunderstanding. Hidden between the volumes of pointless, vapid nothing were rays of truth, Yōsei had become to the people of Suna what his target had become for the Cloud, but between them was a difference that would remain unspoken, the golden God of Kumogakure took his throne by power, and Suna's ghost had done so through hope. When she finished, the response
"The world extends far beyond you and me, Aya. This struggle to exist, this wheel of peace and warfare, none of this is about you! And it is absolutely not about me! What do you think becomes of the world in the era beyond you?! Can you even see an era beyond you? Kings and legacies, soon, all of this will be dust, and what we have said today will mean nothing. One day, our names will be gone, and the world will move into a new age,"
"Nothing lasts forever."
Coiled fist slamming against his chest, Yōsei punctuated his next words as adrenaline streamed from shattered bones, synapses firing overtime signals through the Sealer's rising tension as he bayed, loudly echoing baritone steady and booming as the drums of war.
"So I challenge you! Hunt me! Bring your most trusted familiars, forge your deadliest weapons, raise an army in your wake! It will never be enough to see this short-sighted peace last forever! If it is not me, then it will be your trusted Raikage who sees this world destroyed! So I will do what needs to be done! I will slay, and burn, and strike down anything which threatens the Leaf's survival! When inevitably the world sees war again, you will make your choice, and you will choose the Mist, when that day comes, Konoha will not be left this way! Continue, Aya, to destroy those you deem to be against the missive of your homeland! Take from them their tools of war and spread them across the world while you judge me from your cold, pitiful, island! I will not watch as Konoha is made extinct by the ice age you have chosen!"
"I don't care what you think about ninja like me."
As soon as the first leap came, and Mitsuhide traversed dimensions in an instant, the reaction was powerfully evident. Immediately, Ayakashi recognized the Fourth's power, reverse engineered through years of study, the lost art of instant transmission allowed him to soar and plunge the Oath from nothing into Ayakashi's gut. Finding itself caught between the folds of the Mizukage's gauntlet, Seisakata growled, sinking its fangs deep into the skin of her palm and tearing through the muscles as it withdrew, silently as it came, into the Sealer's next transmission. The woman's foot met with nothing as Yōsei lunged from above, Kyoki barely missing its mark against the crook of her neck, severing strands of white hair instead of arteries, effortlessly all the same. The dodge combined with assault of her own as the Mizukage's leg soared heavenward, thrashing between the folds of dissolving matter that came as Mistuhide vanished again, audaciously charging in a frontal assault with Seisakata's sweeping stroke as Ayakashi twisted backward, foot whipping into the flat of Konoha's Oath, reverberating through the crystal as the spinning black pillar rose. Clattering into the remains of nearby city streets, Seisakata dug deep through the masonry into the depths of sand as Ayakashi's kick propelled it from the Hokage's grip, Kyoki again failing to fulfill its promise. As momentum carried his opponent backward, Yōsei could glimpse the eruption of chakra, all of Ayakashi's tenketsu, at once willing her body to transcend the limits of its speed, sending out luminous reflections of her future self for the fraction between a heartbeat.
Beyond all else, the Sealer found himself lost in the sensation of victory. It was undeniable now, the power unlocked by his ancestor's sacred formula, passed down from the teachings of the Second Hokage, found again by the so-called Shadow of Cinder, would be the key to all of this. If Ayakashi, who lay claim to the title of mightiest warrior in this saga of the world's history, found herself overwhelmed by the seal which Yōsei wielded, then the Raikage would fall as well. Overjoyed with the day's accomplishments, Mitsuhide indulged himself in watching the Mizukage's desperation as she attempted to match his prowess. The sum of her travel left them back to back, Ayakashi's hand clasping down on the wrist which held Kyoki before it could be withdrawn, spinning the Shadow's hand outwards before it became impacted with the force of her blow, reflexively stripping away Yōsei's grip on the Legacy within his grasp. Leaving its socket, the power of Ayakashi's punch would dislocate the elbow to punctuate her disarming strike. Kyoki's fall would start but not before the Demon Ice Witch struck again, following in the wake of her chakra signature to raise a kick into the Sealer's left arm, which would not shy away, lifting in tandem with the right forearm and bracing for the connection. Bluff called, the Mizukage's strike ended as nothing more than a feint, Yōsei watching his opponent glide around again to reposition behind that same side. No teleportation was needed for the Sealer to spin gracefully, with a small step to the right as Ayakashi's leg collided with the stone, sending waves of force spinning out in waves as shuriken, kunai, and arrows arose in an erratic display, creating a field of spinning seals and blades around the dueling shadows. Without delay, she was upon him again, snapping into the side of Yōsei's knee, contacting the limb and causing it to buckle, hairline cracks spreading from the outside and muscle tissue tearing beneath the force of the Mizukage's strength. As the Sealer toppled, right knee planted in the dirt, his hands would stabilize his fall, right arm clicking painfully back into place, utilizing his momentum to haphazardly relocate the injured appendage.
Rolling clouds of thunder and violence careened down as the Mizukage gathered her storm of momentum, imposing herself upon the world in a flash of inhuman speed and strength. The wheel of her kick, like the hammer of a giant, came within inches of its target, meeting with nothingness as the Sealer darted away, leaping with his Flying Raijin to a perch above and away from her assault, among the fluttering domain of errant gateways. The second wave of force emanated outward, shapes of war-displaced strewn astray by the wild energy of the Mizukage's strength, unparalleled, but speed not enough to match Hiraishin. Again, Ayakashi thought herself unassailable, darting through the space between them to rout herself behind the Hokage and unleash her strike in an effort to intercept his dodge, unaware of the formula which lay on the small of her back. It was the Mizukage's trap that would become her own undoing, suspending herself in the air as she had sought to corner Yōsei would draw her out into the same gambit with which she had attempted to ensnare him into the inescapable notion of her force. Instead, Mitsuhide would vanish immediately, taking his second step toward victory, each of his attacks reaching closer and closer until finally, the moment had arrived for him to execute the traversal of those bewitching paths he had laid so many miles away. A hair from her back, the Hokage's apparition was immediate, unlike her insipid imitation, Yōsei's Flying Raijin could not be matched by speed alone, and the likes of Ni no Dan propelled him between spaces with unheard precision, so close she could feel the cold of Naraka's curse.
Raijin's stolen light burst forth, plunging from the seals on his palm and breaking into the world as lightning radiated from its hilt as quick as its namesake. Paired with the technique that bore its name, the relic gave new meaning to Mitshide's message of defiance, rolling within a fraction of a second in his left hand with the momentum of his transposition to hook beneath her shoulder and rise skyward, seeking to sever Ayakashi's dominant arm at that same angle betwixt her torso and her shoulder. Endeavoring to rend the limb aloft would take a flare of his speed, but the rest would spin his body, left leg twisting out a strike toward his foe's back intended to send her plummeting toward the ground beneath while impacting the flow of her thunderous attack to aid in this onslaught. The result, perfectly executed, would leave the Mizukage flying through the street leaving a trench of cracked earth in her path while her right arm would fall in tandem with the Sealer and his myriad Seals which descended, earthbound, to settle in the road around him. Whether the Mizukage was prepared enough to counter depended entirely on whether she understood the challenge which lay before her, but the Sealer suspected that she would believe her own technique Hiraishin's equal, a hubris that would see her shortly killed. Between them, the contest of speed was over, Ayakashi would be unable to overcome this struggle, this the Sealer knew. Still, if she sought to persist, another leap would send him landing several meters divorced from the engagement instead of at the edge of whatever crater Ayakashi would find herself in if his attack succeeded, summoning back the tool of his craft and staring at the Mizukage, Seisakata pleased to be called upon again.
2123
chakra 85|450:
HIRAISHIN ACTIVE - x 2
Name: 飛雷神: ニの段 | Hiraishin: Ni no Dan | Flying Thunder God: Second Step Canon/Custom: Canon. Rank: A-rank. Type: Offensive. Element: None. Range: 50m. Specialty: Fūinjutsu|Ninjutsu. Duration: 1 post. Cooldown: 4 posts. Description: This technique is a variant of the Flying Thunder God Technique, requiring the user to have the Hiraishin Restricted Techhique in their jutsu list to perform. Performed in conjunction with a ranged attack or thrown weapon, the user places a seal on a projectile which they intend to perform this technique with. When activated within the same post by performing the Seal of Confrontation, the user transports to the location of the projectile, transporting up to 50-meters instantaneously while performing a basic attack: unarmed or with a held weapon. While this technique does not enhance the damage of a basic strike, it bypasses the normal range restriction of Hiraishin, allowing the user to move within inches of a target provided there is room to transport to. Because transportation is instant, there is no threat of something being present at the time of arrival.
Words which echoed in the mind of Ayakashi at the heart of his speech was a deadly nihilism. Ayakashi, it seemed had been more correct than she could have possibly known in calling him the Shadow of Cinder, his fire had died, not only because he was a fallen Hokage of Fire Country, but because the will of fire, which was meant to burn brightly in the heart of this man as that nation's leader, seemed to have long since been smothered by evil. He spun clever words, but each of them spoke to a sense of inevitability, that all things were fleeting. Peace and War to him seemed to be seasons on a limitless convection that cycled throughout the age of man. Yet, before this day, it had been three hundred years of peace, which they had the opportunity to end in a short few months if the ninja forces had, had his cooperation as opposed to his resistance. Having stemmed from a time of feudal, limitless war, three hundred years of peace was not merely a feat... it was a miracle. One which the man before her had dedicated himself to destroy.
As the hatred broiled within the body of the water's shadow, her teeth grinding together as the beast assumed control of her body, her legs, her waist, her chest and her arms. She could feel it flexing and testing her facets for a time as the final roar of control welled up in her gullet. She had but a moments chance to reply to one part of her opponent's vacuous diatribe. "For a messiah, you don't share much faith in people...! But, just in case you missed it, time and time again, when the cards are down... I chose the WORLD!!!" Ayakashi would spit her final comment out, two voices laying overtop of one another, one filled with hate and venom for her enemy, but the other was little more than a ferocious guttural snarl. No sooner than she finished Ayakashi would vanish from sight and appear not far away from her opponent and begin her counter-attack. Combined with her natural speed, the suddenness of the attack seemed to take her opponent by surprise.
'Once again, two speedsters came to blows.'
Of the two of them, the legendary technique of the Fourth Hokage at his disposal made Mitsuhide a terrifying foe, however, speed was now the object of this fight. Vanishing, Ayakashi would feel the Cinder's arm dislocate and reverse with the strike, spiralling his weapon out of his hands to clutter to the ground as she would continue her onslaught, following through with her feint as he would raise his arm to brace it, only to flicker and aim for the side of his leg. Her opponent would spin, causing the strike to miss but opening up a second opportunity as Ayakashi would vanish from her spinning enemy, striking out from his front with a sweep, hooking his leg at shin-height and slamming her opponent to the ground with the cracks of bones echoing in the beast's ears which filled with revelry at the joyous sensation. Her opponent Prone, Ayakashi would vanish with what he would think to be a final time. The chakra of the beast flaring as it salivated over the thought of the kill before it.
The tails of the spinning comet descended, coiling into the air with her momentum like the patterns of smoke from a cigarette as she would let out a heel to find her opponent flicker away at the final moment, the blow a fraction of an instant short of shattering every atom which constructed the missing ninja's body with the force of the strike. Every building in the nation shuddered with the weight of the blow, the earth fissuring and giving way to the strike as a spiderweb of cracks tore across the landscape in every direction from the impact crater. Few within the desiccated village would fail to hear the echoing boom which travelled on the arid winds for miles in any given direction. Yet her sequence had yet to punctuate. It didn't take long to see the disturbance in the sand wash over a foreign object as the shockwave harmlessly broke over him not far from the impact zone, high in the sky. So it was with a final leap that Ayakashi would make her assault.
'She'd scatter his dried remains over the city he deigned to rule.'
But within a flash the attempt was over, a flicker of golden light penetrated the sand as Ayakashi saw no opponent, but immediately felt the flicker of an opponent behind her, moving to spin and attack without a moment's hesitation, but even she was too slow at this point. She could feel the sting of the Raijin no Ken's touch underneath her arm strike upward with a precision that she hadn't expected. Ayakashi herself felt no pain from the blow as the Beast which had assumed her senses let out a bone-chilling howl as the electricity coursed through its spinning body. Concentration shattered, the Sage mode she had activated seemed to detonate into shards of brilliant light as it was launched from the skies to collide unceremoniously with the earth, the spinning force causing her arm to slam into the ground no more than a few meters away from her body in a long arc to slam lifelessly moments after she hit the pavement. Feeling the control of the creature recoil at the experience, the water's shadow could still feel a dull ache from her right hand, looking to the phantom limb and seeing only sand where it should be as she'd remove her mask from her face to breathe the natural air and let out a groan as the ache from the cauterized wound set in.
Disbelief was the first emotion that came to mind, shock, the sudden loss of a limb was something that she had expected in her ninja career, but, like this? How? Doubt was always an insipid toxin, capable of poisoning any great ninja at their height... had Ayakashi been overthrown from her throne as the strongest ninja alive? Was it the former Hokage who'd done it to her? the Mizukage had let down her guard one too many times with Mitsuhide, and he'd gained momentum, of that she was certain... but it was when her mind attempted to convince her that she was wrong, her ideals were wrong, that her morals were wrong, that she could finally identify the venom of doubt for exactly what it was. Insecurity. Rolling onto her front, she would begin to move to her severed arm, dragging herself with the only one that remained in the meantime as she would pull her heavy body across the sands.
Once she reached it, she'd untangle her mother's gauntlet from her cold dead fingers, and stare at the limb as she would reason with the shock that attempted to overthrow her mind... Sure that her enemy would be encroaching upon her, calling upon the final vestiges mastery of her body more than ever to fight off the effects that threatened to cloud her mind and overturn her senses. Looking to the sky she would let out a mumble, gripping the earth as she struggled to hold herself in the waking world. "A warning woulda been nice dad..." Expecting a reply, but none coming as she would push herself to one knee, back to her enemy, the cracks in her psyche breaking further and further outwards as her plans it seemed, had finally run out. This was it, the bottom of the barrel, where life and death hung on the line and only chaos reigned over the arena. Calculated desperation was the key, Ayakashi would have to wait on her opponent, she could see the seals on the equipment that had scattered all around her clearly now, and when he moved she could feel the one that was on her back.
He'd have to come to her, and she knew there was no way he wouldn't wield that technique in doing so. He was too smart, there was no way he'd leave something so critical to chance...
"You're right, this world isn't a perfect place, bad things are always going to happen. But what I've seen, time and time again is that people are strongest when they're together, when they're united. You saw that on my 'pitiful island,' you were part of that. You were a lot stronger then than you are now. In fact, standing here, alone, atop your ivory tower where you intend to sever our brotherly ties and plunge us into darkness... you've never been weaker. As for me, well, I'm not alone. I'm never alone. I have the love, respect and support of family... friends... and not even just one nation, but every grand ninja nation I've walked in has seen me for what I am and stands with me. I'll be the Kage who unites this world so that the will of fire can one day burn brightly, even if you can't see it... but, wherever you go, everyone will reject you. And they'll be willing to sacrifice more than you can possibly comprehend to do so."
As Ayakashi spoke, she could once again feel a peaceful calm wash over her form, like that of an animal coming to heel at her presence. Closing her eyes for a moment and loosing herself in that sensation she could feel herself in the forest of blades. Bitter cold far deeper than the chill that hovered with Mitsuhide's presence, a dark beast of shadow and ice leered over her as she would reach out to caress the side of its face. It, like her, seemed to be missing their right arms, recalling in a visceral manner, that, in many ways, the two of them were one. Smiling softly, and without a word, the two understood that they were strongest together, with their wills as one. The moment Ayakashi's bare hand touched the side of the beasts frigid features, a spark of ice emitted from her left hand, turning her skin black at its very tip.
'This was going to be a close call... but it would be worth it.'
"We reject you!" Ayakashi would call, hoping to wait for his assault as she would hear the sound of his approaching opponent, and in the time spent closing the gap with movement alone, or with his devastating technique, Ayakashi, recognizing the loss of weight on her right side, having already acclimated to the loss, lashed out with her left hand and spinning to the side, clutching the wrist of her severed appendage tightly as the black ice began to creep up her arm. Immediate contact freezing the limb solid in an instant as she would hurtle her lost arm through the air like a mace, back-handing it in a blow aimed for the side of Mitsuhide's head. A blow strong enough to 'shatter' the arm into little more than fractaline sparks in the sunlight. A blow that would send shrapnel into his face and surrounding areas as the limb exploded and would send him ragdolling backwards more than a dozen meters should he not recover. And with a laugh, Ayakashi would continue
"I wonder... I watched you desperately claw your mind and barely stop my Bijudama... Did you ever stop for a moment, and think about where it came from!? Why I'm the Kage who has stood the test of time and remain standing? I think it's time I introduced you properly... KURAO!"
It was with a call of its name, that the world would tremble at the chakra that would explode from Ayakashi, in a flash her Tenketsu would open as her Byakkugan would flare. Ayakashi's skin, like it had charred beyond repair would turn black as raw and unhinged Hyouton chakra would seep from her Tenketsu like a flame burning away at her body. Two egregiously long feather-like antennae extending backwards over her head as the purple flame would freeze a layer of a beast over the top of Ayakashi, printing an image of something monstrous which deserved to stem from a world of nightmares. Parallels were abundant, 300 years had long dulled the memory of others to the truth about the cloaks that those 9 legendary ninjas attained when the beasts within them ripped free from their bodies to terrorize the world, and stronger yet when they worked in sync with them.
Sheets of ice would begin to expand in every direction as the wings of the creature flickered to light in grand phantasms. Two additional arms spawning, one from where her right was missing and one from the shoulderblade over-top her left, each finger's digit sharpening to claws with edges beyond imagination. Teeth sharpened as its eyes would light into a fiery glow, senjutsu chakra emitting like a pillar from its form in such volumes it would be felt by sages for miles in every direction. In truth, it was a pale shadow in comparison to the true power wielded by those ninja, an imitation, nothing more... yet even the likenesses of gods carried with them forbidden power in the hands of mortal men and women. Eyes blazing and glorious, it would focus on Mitsuhide as it would prepare its attack, awaiting his creation and craving the surprise, craving the look in his face when he witnessed the bridge between the two of them expand into an unpassable ravine. No matter how he struck with his blades, the armor of the tailless beast would not be fissured with his mortal blades nor unwound by his fuinjutsu.
'Then it struck.'
Eclipsing speed at its disposal, it would tear up the earth with awe-inspiring strength its long knife-like fingers slicing through the air as it made its way for its opponent, leaping with a diagonal swipe that would seek to hew him from neck to navel with her left talon. The threat of the four-bladed digits more than capable of stripping him to ribbons. Sinking its weight into its strike should it be blocked with either of his weapons, Kurao's third arm would clutch the wall to a side of her, grounding her weight and pulling her to a side, perching on a wall as if it were the flat earth. Frost expanding from every-direction on contact. What was once a poisonous corruption, was now a plague of permafrost which stretched out from the land, coating Suna once again in a reflective glass which sought to consume it.
From its perch upon the wall, Kurao would leap with its tremendous thighs, detonating the structure on which it stood to little more than rubble as it would seek to overcome the proud Namikaze, a triad of limbs swiping at targetted locations one after the other, each more devastating than the last in a show of power few would seek to comprehend. Mitsuhide may have won the battle of speed, but it had failed to end Ayakashi and all that stood behind her. Instead, it had simply cornered her, forcing her, and the animal within to collaborate in order to survive. Cornered, and lashing out with everything they had, for their own survival, and the survival of millions in the face of a ninja war...
'Never, had the Mizukage been more dangerous.'
[2732]
Chakra=45:
Name: Yuki Oni Technique: Demon Ice Corruption, Himiko! Canon/Custom: Custom Rank: SS Type: Offensive/ Defensive /Supplementary Element: Hyouton Range: 30m Specialty: Taijutsu OR Taijutsu/ Senjutsu (With S rank Senjutsu or higher) Duration: Maintainable (-40 chakra per turn) Cooldown: Double the duration Description: (-80 chakra to activate)
The ultimate application of Solstice’s Demon Ice corruption, or perhaps merely its intended state, the user falls into meditative trance opening the chakra gates all over their body, overflowing with their body's imbalanced hyouton, allowing their own living Ice chakra to surround their body as armour. The user’s skin turns black and is covered with a 1" hyper-dense layer of ice, forming scale like ridges over their body, the users teeth become capped with sharp pointed icicles resembling fangs while from their spine ridges into small spikes and over their hands become large separate clawed arms which join at the elbow, ending 10” longer than their normal hands while their feet become lethal talons.
The Jutsu can block basic strikes. the 10" Talons and claws are sharp enough to rip open B rank and lower armours like a can opener. The armour reduces non Raiton Damage by 1 rank and can block basic sword swings (Due to its weakness to raiton.) The user freezes A rank and lower water Techniques/ liquid vapours within 3 meters of themselves The user Resists A rank and lower fire Techniques Passively. The Ice on contact is colder than death, capable of freezing 10” deep in a 10" orb radius and causing severe 4th degree frostbite. Once every three posts this effect can be 'surged' by the user for -25 chakra to send out a sound-like pulse from their body, which freezes-over a 20 meter radius and everything within its area, it is able to freeze, extinguish or counter all Katon/ suiton abilities/ abilities parented by Katon and suiton due to Demon ice's affinity toward fire, and its freezing nature, dealing the same damage as physical contact and counting as an SS rank jutsu against defensive techniques. Finally, the living chakra of the technique is sourced from the user's Senjutsu. This techniques activation is also considered the simultaneous activation of sage mode and requires sage mode to be maintained. (Cost included in jutsu cost/maintenance.)
The user cannot see while using this technique, having fallen into a trance like state, though blind it renders attacks with visual triggers useless. The Armour can be broken by a single direct (non Katon) Technique of Equal rank, though the user will survive.
They were as a beast, twin furies exuding blow after blow on the ruinous expanse of Suna's dilapidated remains, each of Ayakashi's strikes causing the earth to shake, the air to quiver and quake, and the dust to churn in ghostly fingers which rose heavenward. Cascading from the current of her chakra, the Mizukage made an approximation of the Sealer's Flying Raijin seem almost as capable as the original, disarming and positioning her foe with ease as the desperate vestiges of her chakra sought to put an end to this struggle before it became too late. Lost in the seconds flying between life and death, the pair forgot Inabayama, and its bloodshed, the shadow of that rock loomed over what would now be a killing field, in the waning combat, the bodies of Sunagakure's lost children piled high beneath the might of the shinobi villages and their mightiest heroes. Few bore witness to the apex of the shadows' duel, and these precious final moments during which the Shadow of Cinder and Demon Ice Witch would display their most storied prowess, techniques the likes of which had not been seen for generations of their contemporaries, the power each of them held to lay claim to the title of unequaled, supreme authority. At the peak of some heavenly mountain, fire and water danced, sparkling strands of primordial essence falling from the bleeding edge of every blow.
Yōsei dropped, hands splayed wide on the burning limestone, blood trailing in streams from his lips, made thick by spit and dirt while he coughed in time with the impact. World spinning, the stage gave way beneath him as the Mizukage crashed down upon him, the force of comets threatening his extinction, Yōsei flashed through the folds of space, his body poised, slowly rotating in the air above Ayakashi. At the moment of contact, the Water Shadow's force cried tolling to anticipate the funeral of her opponent, who skipped effortlessly from the eminent threat as trenches of the shattered city rose in violent fractures spreading fractal patterns through the street. Buildings groaned as their foundations collapsed beneath the immense weight, damaged foundations causing the stone ruins to sink and crumble into piles of shredded masonry as vast motes of dust rose gasping from the Sand's weary coffins. The Nation sighed, exhausted by the endless war, as Ayakashi's wrath compiled itself in the blow she had wrought against the world. Before the force of her blow reached the folds of the Sealer's clothing, she was gone, torn with the full display of her unfathomable speed through the air to lash out in tremendous audacity against the suspended foe who she had thought so unsuspecting. Disarmed and without reproach, Yōsei must have looked to the Beast as if he, once again, saw death. No matter how numerous the legends of Ayakashi's quickness, there was no hope to match the power of the Fourth and the Namikaze who had now achieved the heights of his ancestor's mastery played this trump card to perfection. Gone was the Bimijudama, exhausted were the Mizukage's reserves, between them only a battle of agility and wits remained; on this playing field, Yōsei found his moment for regicide.
"There can be only one."
The Thunder God's blade, Raijin no Ken, soared forward, chakra coursing in radiant waves to form vibrations in the scorching desert air, each singing baleful epitaphs for the victim of its carnage. Slipping beneath the right arm of the Mizukage, Raijin wasted no effort in the rending of her limb, severing through the muscle and bone without delay as Yōsei spun with great force, conserving what remained of his chakra by allowing the legendary saber to fall silent immediately as he followed through with his momentum to complete the onslaught. Dilated seconds between severing and impact stretched unnaturally through the air between them, Ayakashi barely registering the wayward limb before the base of the Sealer's boot made its purchase on her back, impacting her spine with Tobirama's stolen armor and thrusting with great force to send the Mizukage tumbling from the summit of the world. The sorry depths of defeat awaited Ayakashi's fall, collision with the sand sending her battered body several meters through the dust and refuse of the Hidden Sand's lost streets, desecrated and ruined. Silence fell, the dust settled, and Yōsei landed, still standing, nearly ten feet from where the Demon Ice Witch found her final resting place, towering over the fallen Mizukage with the pervasive, piranha smile of a predator strung together with his bloody visage. As the Mizukage stirred, groaning and twitching while her eyes gazed hopelessly at the phantom limb on her right while suppressing the pain coursing through her body without wavering. Finally revealing her face, Ayakashi's bleeding, bruised visage exposed to Yōsei a woman much older than he remembered, eyes staring with a tired, desperate stare as she struggled to catch her breath. The Hokage's arm rose sharply, Seisakata vanishing from its tomb beneath the ruins and leaping through space to the digits of his left hand, black edge singing as the Sealer rose it through the air, crystals carved through decades by the Inuzuka craftsman whos companion stood to inherit the sacred artifact.
There would come no moment of his dimensional traversal to instantly close the gap between them. The Sealer, instead, made his way slowly toward Ayakashi's fallen frame, having clipped her wings and cast her from the sunlit realms of victory assured. Deed done, Yōsei could have left the Mizukage bleeding and alone, but she had awakened in him the forgotten dog of war that still brimmed with fiery viciousness beneath the facade of calm indifference which Naraka forced upon him. Drawing closer, Yōsei became the spirit of death upon his enemies, and the end of this duel remained no different, exhausted and crippled, the Mizukage could have only looked upon the Sealer, as he did upon her, as an equal. Among so few who had risen to the zenith of creation's power, pushing the limits of magic and prowess into heights attainable only by the most legendary heroes of the last Great Age. Among their coevals, several battled beneath the shape of that cursed rock which had become the impetus of war, Inabayama drawing the immense power of the world's transcendent warriors, and the eye of a twisted yellow God above the clouds. Ayakashi would speak while staring up toward on high as Samsara's wheels turned in Yōsei's eyes, the scripture adorning his skin visible through bloody tatters of black cloth seemed to shift hypnotically, continually realigning into new sealing scriptures while his teeth clenched, fist tightening around the hungry Oath. It would be the final torrent of words which the Ice Witch spoke that tore down the walls which held at bay the beast before her, one to match the snarling, frigid behemoth welling up within her own spirit, into his tirade of screaming rebuttal. Mitsuhide would no longer abide by Ayakashi's blasphemy, and the moment her utterance shifted to the Will of Fire, the Sealer burst into familiar baritone.
"What gives you the right?!What gives you the fucking right?!"
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE WILL OF FIRE?!"
"YOUR STRANGLEHOLD ON MY HOMELAND WILL COME TO AN END! HOW DARE YOU BLEED BELOVED KONOHA'S LIFEBLOOD, STEAL ITS CHILDREN, AND PROCEED TO CLAIM THE WILL OF FIRE AS YOUR OWN! YOU WILL BE SILENT! I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!"
"Sniveling, pathetic Shadow of Water who dares to call herself the savior of humanity, YOU ARE NOTHING! If it were your goal to save the world, you would have taken Hastur's head in Kumogakure! But you were spineless! Are you, too, a vassal of the Raikage's will?! Unwilling to peer beyond the veil of your own ignorance you persist in the name of a world you alone have chosen! You take no prisoners because you are afraid! Look down upon the field of corpses, the lost sons and daughters who you send endlessly to war, and tell me again about your moral superiority!IS THE PATH OF REDEMPTION TOO DIFFICULT FOR THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL NATION?!"
"Continue culling your enemies and leaving a bloody river in your Nation's wake while proclaiming hypocrisy with every word and daring to decry my missive?! Perhaps the death of your life's work, and this mortal reminder of your own ineptitude and frailty will cause you to consider my words carefully, Aya!"
"Your age of peace is done!Your life has been a waste!"
Closing her eyes, Ayakashi and the fallen Fire Shadow drifted again into silence while the echoes of Yōsei's tirade cascaded through the city, broad strokes of the Sealer's passion illuminating the truth behind the icy aura that between them, the pair so profoundly shared. From the depths of her hyōton imbalance, only the Mizukage could know what Naraka's touch had felt like, what ultimate cold through which Mitsuhide had fought for millennia. This sacred bond which wound between them, weaving stories of the wonders that once they could have accomplished by one another's side, and the inevitability of Yōsei's fall from grace, lent gravity to the moment of stillness, mysterious zen found at the tail of their conflict, as the sand descended into warfare around them. Seisakata rose in tune with the Mizukage's shallow breaths, seeking to deliver the final stroke which would mark her forever as beneath the man who stood before her, crossing over Mitsuhide's chest poised high and glistening with the brightness of the sun.
"LOOK AT ME!"
With his punctuation, the hammer came crashing down toward the Water Shadow's neck, screaming through the air at the moment of her artful maneuver, summoning the power to endure even this as Konoha's stolen Oath clashed with the stone, slicing with teeth of wicked gemstone deep into the flesh of Suna's remains. With the same unbelievable swiftness, Ayakashi slipped beyond Seisakata's final nail, delaying the curtain call and forcing the Sealer to raise his blade again, dragging it effortlessly through the concrete as he spun to follow the Mizukage's fleeing form, ready and willing to chase her until the ends of the earth. Mercy had vacated, the Sealer had given, in his own right, the will of his actions to the beast which lay within. As his eyes trailed down and Seisakata readied, Yōsei followed to the axis of Ayakashi's left shoulder and below its length, rising in tandem with the Hokage's shifting gaze, Clamoring for response, Yōsei's eyes snapped wide open and his elbow rose, pulling against the shackles of agony which enveloped his broken limb and struggling to raise in time. Had this been the moments in which they had begun their battle, the Sealer would have effortlessly dispatched of such a strike, but here in the shadows of the end, running on fumes, Mitsuhide felt a tremendous affinity with the ice which he could not prevent from finding its mark. At first, the strength of his foe's assault raced through Yōsei's cheek, cracking the bone before shattering into a resplendent array of crystal dust which danced around the Sealer's head, refracting into a halo of multicolored radiance. Searing his flesh, miniscule razors, slicing at every vertex of fractured ice, cut away at the left side of the Rogue's face with enough force to send a wealth of shards into the unguarded socket of the Hokage's eye, eviscerating the orb into a bloody mess of pouring viscera, rime gathering immediately in frigid splinters across the wounds.
Leaving his feet, the Fire Shadow would collapse across the ground as Seisakata fell from his grip, clattering away from his fingertips as he rolled, screaming through the sand and clutching at the open wound of his missing eye. With a counterattack looming, Yōsei could spare no time in examining the threat of crippled vision, instead, propping himself up immediately with his right arm, still cradling the source the red waterfall spilling from his face. Vision blurring, the Hokage's mind would soon begin to play tricks on his perspective, so willing his mind to focus on Ayakashi and steady her against the twirling backdrop of the city which shook, wildly out of focus behind her, he growled in pain and fury. Still, the Shadow of the Mist had the strength to speak, and as she did so, the Sealer could feel the wealth of chakra swelling up beneath the surface of reality, the primeval cold which crept from Ayakashi's core as she uttered her final words before the breaking point. Not since his journey through the Hell had Yōsei felt such profound, all-consuming bitterness. It was all he could do not to lash out again, questions raising in unhinged sequences as he saw the eruption before it came, too unorganized to make sense of through his words and instead, producing a twisted scowl, gritted teeth, bloody and raw, snarling like a cornered hound.
And then, he could do so no longer.
"HOW?! WHAT INFERNAL CONTRACT HAVE YOU MADE?! HOW CAN YOU SUMMON THIS POWER?! IS THERE NO END TO THE TRIALS I MUST FACE TO CUT YOU DOWN?! WHAT ELSE DO YOU DEMAND OF ME?!"
"WHAT ARE YOU?!"
Waves of wind and ice spread from the center of Ayakashi's transformation, the thick sheets of freezing entropy forming beneath Mitsuhide's feet and brushing through his hair, equally red as white, while he directed his questions to the sky and earth. At the end of each road, throughout the history of the Sealer's path toward this moment, had opened yet another crucible, and now, at the culmination of his efforts, as the battle waned, and victory fell finally within his grasp only to slip between his fingers, the Sealer's remaining eye began to weep with rage. Chakra surged in endless swathes, primordial in its composition as the cloak of glaciers enshrined the Mizukage, turning her from mortal into monster in the most accurate homage to the Tailed Beasts which had been seen in centuries, so terrifying that if the Sealer had not known better, he might have thought she possessed the means to seal one away within herself and transcend the realm of shinobi entirely. In an instant, the momentum shifted, hunter became prey, and the monstrosity took shape, regrowing the lost limbs of its master, igniting within its skull the energy to topple nations and bring an army to its knees, and focused it all toward the Sealer's silhouette. Dropping the hand from his face, Mitsuhide summoned his blades, Kyoki in the left and Seisakata in his off-hand, twitching eyelid covering the empty hole of dripping blood while he prepared himself, again, for war. If this were the trial set before him, then he would overcome; the Shadow of Cinder had not defeated death itself to perish alone in the forgotten sand. If it were his crucible to slay a tailless beast, then he would strike it down.
Upon him with unrivaled power, the earth collapsing in its wake, Kurao's opening strike met with Seisakata, the weapon standing defiantly between them for a moment before the edge would splinter, cracks forming through the face of Yōsei's treasured relic, replaced with jagged, eternal formations of pitch-black ice which tore through the seams between the blade's rent composition. Vanishing, Mitsuhide would seek solace opposite the street, kunai acting as his catalyst while leaping through the in-between to look down upon where he would have stood, the Beast's blow crushing beneath it the earth and sending debris in all directions, the force alone causing Yōsei's shroud to whip violently at the air. But the barrage was not through, clasping the wall of the ruined chapel and perching against its surface, Kurao would obliterate it utterly with the force of his jump, destroying the history of the Hidden Sand as effortlessly as it made work of the stone and bedrock that tore away, trailing the slipstream of insurmountable force left in the monster's wake. There was left no recourse but to observe and discover the limits of the Mizukage's profane transformation in order to overcome it, but with chakra running thin and the unknown depths of Ayakashi's soul bound partner, the time for observation was swiftly running out. Kurao's next attack would meet with air as again, Yōsei spun away into myth with the power of the Fourth Hokage. Several rooftops away, the Sealer would appear again only to be encroached upon by the Beast's further blows which Yōsei would attempt to sink beneath, striking out with Kyoki in a tentative nip which snapped away with Hiraishin's power the moment Konoha's Legacy found its edge worthless against the shell of corruption housing his opponent, before the ice could consume it as it had already weakened Seisakata. With his reappearance, a blink would initiate the boundless sight within his eyes that could examine chakra's composition, seeking to find a chink in the armor of absolute zero, the power of a being held within, drawn forth from Ayakashi's soul.
Against the towering presence of Kurao's chakra, Yōsei found no mark to hunt, no divide through which he could enforce his will, and without the possibility of stepping within his hegemonic sealing formula, which still burned away, unwilling to be called upon again so soon, there was left no way for him to tear away this ultimate technique. Reason fought the cage which once held back the Sealer's warlord lust, finding the freedom it needed to trigger a final jump of the Flying Thunder God the moment Kurao would seek to descend again upon him with whatever attack it had chosen next, rendering it invalid as the Sealer disappeared. No longer satisfied with meager gaps placed between them, Mitsuhide had instead opted for the road of denial, the final statement which would assert his will over both the Mizukage and her inner monster, and by rejecting Kurao, he would become the elusive meal which the Tailless Beast would never know; the one that got away. Left alone to rampage through the empty rubble, Kurao would go unsatisfied, Mitsuhide's leg nestling in a cradle of sand as he apparated, slumping against the walls of discarded city outskirts, hundreds of meters from where Kurao made his judgment known. The Sealer leaned back, pressing himself against the burning stone, soothing the icy wounds which, even still, persisted in creeping across his skin. Far away, the Sealer would be able to see the uproar, but instead, his gaze was pointed toward the sky, what remained of his wounded cheek still bloody and raw as he drew shallow breaths. Such a display heralded the arrival of others, and already the horizon betrayed dots of approaching military shinobi, black ops agents tracking the Mizukage through the desert to assist with the destruction of the assassin that dared to spirit her away from the battle where her nation continued still the slaughter of Inabayama's dying moments.
The truth of Ayakashi's final words had not been lost on Mitsuhide; the world would reject him, and wherever he turned, the people of the Great Nations would band together and summon insurmountable strength in their endeavor to overcome him. And he was counting on it. Awaiting silence, the Hokage considered whether this conflict would continue; waning adrenaline and shattered bones brought forth the worst of his intentions, sight drawn away from his true mission, baited by the Mizukage's words as he, too, had drawn her into the conflict of ideals in order to strike her down. If they came for him, he would fight, but for now he lay in wait, for the storm to pass, and his lips contorted into a weary grin, for he knew now the capability within him to slay a God.
Ayakashi had torn through the universe fast enough to succeed light in an attempt to strike at the flank of the ninja who sought to rend the world from the delicate peace which had been sustained for three hundred years. But when she arrived at her location, a single factor stood in the path of her claiming her prize as the chakra swelled within her leg, raising in such a manner that it would have likely cleaved her opponent's fractured body in half like a flying guillotine, launching the two halves to two separate horizons. Although, a simple fact stood in the way of the strike as the tidal wave of ice chakra exploded into the air before her... Her opponent didn't have to move to perform his actions. The Mizukage, unmatched by any within the bounds of her limited mortal existence, could not bridge the infinite gap of a ninja who instead shredded the notion of such rules of conflict, instead imparting his will upon space itself, fracturing it, and deigning to traverse under its skin to evade what would normally be considered certain doom.
The cut that removed the beloved digit from her frame was felt as little more than a sombre sting. Shock combined with the barrier of the beast's psyche dulling the edge as a firmly placed kick would find her cascading to the earth, slamming into it hard enough to crack the tiles of the road and spill out into the street where she would attempt to compile herself, the sudden loss of her arm playing upon her mind as phantom nerves from a lost hand fired in her mind, feeling the ache of her right arm as well as mentally manipulating it towards her mask in an attempt with its still attached compatriot to remove her mask and breathe in the dry arid air. Her eyes were tired, restless even, unbeknown to even herself, her body had not rested well in weeks, regardless of the faux blackness and black-birds caws that seemed to greet her somnolence each sunset. But as Ayakashi attempted to distract him... something wondrous happened.
'He became mad!'
The audacious veneer of his calm and calculated self-drained, and within that moment, Ayakashi could once again taste victory. He'd been placed off-centre, destabilized, raving at her inability to possibly understand the way of fire he'd so obviously left behind as he decreed that the age of peace that Ayakashi had ushered would come to an end. Claiming that Hastur, a man who none knew anything about other than a certain eccentricity would be the downfall of the world, the ravings of a possessed madman. And there it was... a fanaticism that exceeded zealotry or nationalism, a warmongering sickness that could not be allowed to exist. The will for strength, but at any cost, regardless of what innocent bodies lay in the realization of that idea. Though she could not respond to his baseless allegations, Ayakashi knew that she alone walked the path of the righteous in this new era. While unhinged ninja like the man before her, wayward souls like Sero Osada and pious mean like Mitsuo Saratobi either didn't understand true justice, or were more than content to abide the death of the innocent to secure their goals. While to Ayakashi's puritanical mindset, both were unacceptable.
Without prisoners, the wealthy and powerful could not escape the judgement of the people, by performing her station as the machine of Kirigakure's will, she had been largely uncorrupted by selfish power, only kind, selfless weaknesses had stayed her hand from the necks of friends. A trait Ayakashi would always consider a boon overcast upon her time as Mizukage. If she were to be known as both strong, although too kind, as the Mizukage of the formally bloody mist, that was a legacy she could be proud of. Ayakashi's right to the will of fire was that in the time of a great ninja alliance, she had created bonds with love and friendship, forged families between nations and fanned the great flames within her policy of justice. She had come closer to the realization of Konoha's ideals than most could seldom dream of. At his demand for silence, Ayakashi would turn and spit at his feet.
"My path to redemption spreads like the fires your past position was supposed to espouse. Only the wicked have fallen before me. If you would judge a man, before his actions are realized then you're nothing but a paranoid shamble. You're more a remnant of the bloody mist than I have or will ever be... and I'm more a Hokage at heart than you will ever hope to become... We reject you! I wont weep watching your strangling cinder fade into obscurity a second time."
Following on from his tirade she would defiantly follow through with her own, shouting over an attempt at a retort until such a time as he bought down his blade. Should he interrupt in such a manner, Aya would think him only proving his inability to lock horns with her righteous ideals, the surest sign of weakness, as he desperately attempted to snuff out morals that shone a light on his inadequacies. He would bay he turn to face her, and without hesitation, she would until the blade bore down upon her neck, only then seeking to spin and dive for her side, clutching her precious yet unconventional weapon as the slow-moving chakra imbalance within her would pique with her action. Gripping it as the severed arm became black, covered in a layer of thick ice as every cell within it was instantly killed with the frostbite of her technique, sacrificing any hope of re-attachment and wielded as a club at her opponent, proving as she took the mantle of first in line, to sacrifice life and limb to resist Mitsuhide.
Fate shone upon Ayakashi's compulsive plan, as her dominant arm slammed directly into his head, hearing the satisfying crack as the arm veritably exploded with the force of the blow. Splinters of frozen shrapnel expanding in a cone and eviscerating the skin they came into contact with as their frigid tendrils scarred the former Hokage's skin black like obsidian along its surface from the intense cold. Shards of true ice puncturing his eye, yet even he failed to howl at the pain of the coldest ice technique in the world coming into contact with one of the bodie's most sensitive nerve centers. Ayakashi almost felt bad for the pain he would be undergoing, the proximity to the nerve so close to the brain and the acute sensation that it would cause, would be enough to drive most ninja to madness... 'This was what it's like to chew 5 gum.'
But death waited at the gates, and once again Ayakashi, eager to prove a point would announce her transformation as Kurao would begin to take command of her body once again. The beast evolved, truly released as the sequence would complete before her opponent. Finally, as the seal would close over her face, and the glee of his hatred at the depths of her reserves would flush the surface. All resolve breaking down as the facade of his zen splintered like the structure of the Mizukage's right arm had moments before. Until he finally bridged the question... What are you!?'' Kurao and Ayakashi as one, entwined with one another's chakra at will, as rather than simply succeed control, Ayakashi would augment the beast's feral movement will the learned skill of decades of training, as the beast filled Ayakashi's mind with ferocity and drive, Ayakashi would have a single answer before erupting her abomination onto the world.
'Just a beast, without a tail...'
In moments the first blow would come crashing down for Mitsuhide, raising his trusted sword high as he would attempt to block the blow. Ice threatening to spread across its surface and swallow his arm as cracks splintered across the legendary weapon. The sword was a powerful tool, but against the wrath of Kurao, it was a knickknack to be shattered under his claws. Its legendary nature belied by its ability to withstand the strike and not be strewn about the battlefield in little more than shards of crystal swallowed in permafrost and swallowed by the shifting sands of Suna.
Following up was an onslaught unlike that which had been seen in recent memory. No sooner than the shadow of a Hokage appeared, the creature would be on top of him again with all of the speed that the combined force of the Ayakashi and the beast that was hidden within her could muster. Dodge after dodge the fanged wolf tore at the rabbit who managed to escape by a hares breadth with each of the lethal strikes, the sands of Sunagakure no Sato beginning to look more and more like the frozen lands Yosei had only barely managed to claw his way up from... Yet, soon enough, with one final cut. Yosei would vanish from the world once again, prompting the Mizuakge to feel for his signature as she had done plethora before... only to find he no longer seemed to be within the range of her sensory abilities. Obscured from her lack of sight, scent, the touch of even the lightest of ripples which blew through the air... he was gone.
Standing in place, still as a statue, the two of them would attempt to search for the location of Yosei, the pillar of chakra that emitted from her form like a beacon across the nation as Mist ninja began to collapse on their location. Hunter ninja from Alpha Squad that had been present at the battle and unabaited as they took horrific tolls on their enemies only to sense the chakra of their charge miles away. Each using their remaining chakra to body-flicker across the land-scape in jumps to arrive at her location as swiftly as humanly possible... All the while, the Mizukage would continue her hunt for the coward as he fled... Having been searching for her presence and finding the location since her departure, it would be Bai-hu to arrive first on the scene, pearching at the top of a nearby building as the massive leonid would stare down at the statuesque Mizukage, not yet willing to make even the slightest of sounds.
It was after some time that Ayakashi's lips curled from their thoughtful scowl into a smile, her chest beginning to heave every now and then as stillness became an affirmative smirk, then a chuckle... and only then would it explode into laughter. Hunter ninja arriving on the scene to see the Mizukage, standing upon a mound of ice, Kurao's skin long peeled away, hysterically laughing loudly into the open air. Wounded and bloody as pools of her opponent's blood and ichor surrounded her in the streets of the decayed city. ANBU moments away as she would call out to the horizon.
"SPINELESS COWARD! NO MATTER WHERE YOU SHOW YOUR HEAD, I'LL BE THERE TO REMOVE IT!"
Her hysterics dulling to a chuckle as Ayakashi would walk from the battle, in desperate need of medical attention, but focusing on the ambient chakra within the wasteland that they stood in, allowing it to flow back into her reserves freely as she would feel the fatigue of the fight begin to drain away. It would be the leader of Alpha Squad who would approach her, keeping an eye to his surroundings as the ANBU began to appear who would ask, in front of the crowd that arrived as others attempted to breach the walls and hunt down the weakened attacker. 'Lady Mizukage... was that really?' Looking to the man, bruised and battered, the black marks of stress fractures expanding across her skin in multiple locations as her smile would fade... "No... he died a long time ago. Whatever that is is just a cinder. Call the men back, its pointless giving chase."
With her final moments of giving her left arm to the shoulder of her trusted friend, Ayakashi would walk with purpose along the battlefield, looking back to it and analyzing her actions, her mistakes. It had been a few crucial errors in this battle that had allowed her opponent to gain this much ground. Had it not been for those errors in judgement, and had she instead pushed her advantages from the beginning, pacing herself and not succumbing to psychological assault... this battle would have been drastically shorter. Mitsuhide was a skilled fighter, of this there was no doubt, but he was statistically outmatched. As she looked back at the bloodstained and frostbitten dunes, Ayakashi made herself a promise. That next time, she would not be confounded by his tricks and wiles. She'd make the fight on her terms, and show him the true reserves of her power that he loathed to see but a shadow of.
...Epilogue:
Ayakashi had been resting a few weeks in the field hospital, positioned as a leading force rather than as a participating field commander due to her injuries when a familiar face came to see her. Looking up to see the smiling face of her mother, a case held in her hands as tears of gratitude streamed down her face. Her mother was in her sixties now, the Yuki had failed for sometime to see the wrinkles expanding under her eyes and smile lines upon her rosetinted cheeks. The sign of a happy and fulfilled life, but not one without its fair share of sorrows. Ayakashi would push herself to sit up in the bed, dragging her feet to the side as she would embrace her mother tightly, as they would talk about humble things. Health, life and gratitude as a mother and a daughter would share the same space in a distant land, now formally decreed to be wracked by war. It would take longer than initially thought to address the case her mother carried upon her back.
"Well, the iron banner heard about the battle, and your injury... So, I gathered some of the best of us together and we came up with this. The materials its made of are rare chakra metal, so, sadly, the ability to outfit this design to the masses is impossible. But, they wanted to show their support to their Kage. It's already been billed to your estate." She would say with a laugh, shared in turn by her daughter as she would take the box onto her lap. Lifting the charcoal coloured casing to reveal its contents, platinum shimmering across her awe struck features as she would observe for the first time, the beginnings of a legacy.
Poignant, the question lingered, drifting across the room from the tip of a candle's radiant spark. From the pillar of red wax, a luminant array was born, highlighting rigid forms of cloaks and daggers, silhouettes of malice standing on the precipice of a dark endeavor, shrouded from one another and splitting fractured technicolor in all directions. From the myriad fume and prism-light, only eyes peered through the veil of obfuscation to observe one another, pairs of eyes, some imbued with sacred lineage, each drew their gaze toward the room's principle figurehead. On a stone protrusion, a product of the underground expanse shifting with the turmoil of the war above, which even now shook so many miles down with the denotation of each subsequent magical warhead, Yōsei sat with Seisakata clasped lazily in his grip. The Sealer's one eye transfixed itself on the communion of his conspirators, those who had forged a contract with death itself in their quest to fulfill their ambitions, and then each been dragged along into the tide of secrets and bloodshed which followed the Namikaze's sordid missive. Unmasked, as he had been since the inception of this war, Mitsuhide's visage no longer shrouded in that secret identity, but instead the bulkhead of a journey still toward the impetus of sweeping change, to which few were privy. With a deep breath, the Sealer considered such a question reverently, the final days of the Fifth Shinobi War were approaching, and from behind his equalizing gaze, it would be time, soon enough, for the age of Shadows to end.
"What we have wrought will ensure that this chaos remains until all of us are dust. As far as we are concerned, this war has no end."
With the advent of this truth, the Sealer would be gone, washed away by the phantasmal pull of his dimensional interjection. The dust left behind refused to shift, and the projections, one by one, faded from existence, eyes closing and evaporating into the aether, returning to their missions. At once, Yōsei would find himself amongst the fray of his front lines, lines of chakra coursing in all directions, infinite strings of puppeteers surrounding his ascent back to the battle. Machines of war waged their destructive rampage, delicately conducted by masses of shinobi who tore the surrounding forests to shreds with their methods of warfare, passed on from the Hidden Sand's legacy, reborn anew through the fires of industry and redemption. Orders flew from the lips of shinobi, ANBU operatives appearing to strike at the hearts of the colossal, behemoth puppets carved in limestone. The Sealer would not see the Eastern Front undone by such a careless attack, kunai trailing from the stroke of his hand, precise knives meeting skilled parries but unaware as the Sealer struck from the void, appearing with Seisakata's baying, frostbitten edge digging through them. With this action, he was gone, a streak of black lightning throughout the war zone, carved sigils with sacred sealing script adorning their surfaces acting as the gateways through which Yōsei struck, impossibly widespread, the rogue's influence cut trenches across the landscape, Seisakata screaming strands of slaughter in its wake. Remorseless, Yōsei set about his thankless errand, these violent ends regarded with indifference rather than pleasure, for the Namikaze found no joy in death.
Cloud and Fire whirled together, embracing in the throes of sweeping conflict with inferno bolstered by the Sealer's alliance with the Sand, the Battle of Yamazaki had become tantamount to a hundred days war, the single clash exceeding any reasonable expectation for a siege. Like the storied Fourth before him, Mitsuhide made his ancestor's will known, imposing unquestioned authority where he struck from the cracks of reality, the wounds he made burning terror into the landscape. Clasping together his hands, the Sealer would utter the words of his forbidden technique, awakening the chakra around him while the ground beneath his feet began to tremble as he called into the World's heart and brought into his body the wealth of natural energy stored under the skin of the earth. With a roar, the Toad Sage ignited dark clouds pierced by a collapsing star of roaring flames. Formations crumbling, the shinobi on the ground would barely have time to begin their desperate retreat before the swallowing fury was upon them, threatening to obliterate all that found itself unfortunate enough to lay beneath its treacherous path. As the screaming soldiers prepared to lay down their epitaphs, the Kinjutsu would discover denial in its stead, shimmering folds of ice and mist coursing from a radiant central structure of crystal and light which impacted from above, consuming the Nenku in the time it took for the flames to caress and scorch the foothills.
Parting curtains of thick vapor and fog spread through the newly rendered silence engulfing the battlefield, soldiers scattering in all directions as a silhouette revealed itself beyond the frigid mist. Auras clashed together, cyclones meeting in a flurry of revenge and frenzy, ancient rivals renewed in the sundered trenches of the Fifth Shinobi War, the Hidden Mist's Demon Ice Witch once again stood before the Shadow of Cinder. Raising her arm high, contraptions shifted into their proper places as the implant, her mortal reminder of their last battle, served as the vanguard for those the Sealer sought to slay. No time for mind games, the sages scowled, winding shades of nature chakra battling for dominion of the forest's ley lines, whipping the flow of spiritual energies into a violent furor, the outbreak untempered by notions of conservation and testing. The pair of Shadows, now famed enemies, had crossed blades throughout this war, poised on opposite sides of the conflict from its inception, and they wasted no time in engaging again, picking up where the storm had left them, stranded in the endless cycle of death and reincarnation, to fight for all eternity, until nothing remained. Changeling came first, naginata low and sweeping as the Mizukage danced around her foe, Kyoki hurtling to the ground and acting as the axis for the Sealer to roll above, lunging with Seisakata at Ayakashi's bosom as he did so, simultaneously dismissing the Legacy once its defensive duty was complete to withdraw Wakakusa for his ascent.
Gliding through their brief engagement, Ayakashi would raise her gauntlet in the path of Konoha's Oath and parry it down while the two parted ways, pausing briefly as the two announced their rage in tandem, chakra bubbling from beneath the tangible, erupting in magnificent streams around them. Thunder and frost expanded in waves, flattening the trees and grass, clouds of ash parting away through the sky as shivers sent them fleeing with the bulkhead of power and ferocity. Nature itself, proud and indomitable, gave way to the Titans' reunion, forces of history's redemption given shape in blood and tragedy, who each had journeyed from the door of death, one through salvation, the other through defiance. Invocations of celestial domain vying for their positions, Yōsei and Ayakashi came again to blows, a chorus of masterful blade work slithering between the thrashing tide of deadly steel and cleansing fire. Wakakusa bellowed, chakra's blasphemous purpose thrusting the plumes of smoke and flame onto the Mizukage's chest for an instant before they were smothered by the reactive currents of compressed air released from the Mizukage's tenketsu. Replaced again, Sairin's sheathe would apparate at the Hokage's hip, slowing Ayakashi's retreat as he withdrew the blade and sliced heavenward, but met the air as his opponent vanished. Thunderous as Yōsei's own heart storm, Ayakashi spun through space and delivered her leg to the Sealer's side, sending him from his feet and hopping along the ground, where she intended to meet him from above with the crushing fist of her ancestral gauntlets. Hiraishin became the Sealer's saving grace as he plummeted from the real, freed from its constraints by the same methodology which allowed him to sever the Mizukage's arm at the inception of the Fifth War.
Trailing dust and smoke, Mistuhide fell from the space between worlds and landed further away than he remembered the seal to have been, carried up the foothills by the force of their brief exchange. Preparing to engage again, Yōsei would offer to the turning Mizukage a jeer, familiar baritone cutting through the war zone, which provided precious silence within which they could contend, none willing to enter the duel between sacred rivals. Dripping with audacity, confidence unparalleled, Mitsuhide spoke with venom and joy, childlike wonder overlaying the subtext of his lighthearted chuckle.
"Look around you, Aya! What do you see?!"
"I see nothing more than a fallen star, crashed and broken having lost its light, jealously consuming the light of everything it can strangle within its reach. I see you, sans all the brilliance of what you could have been... and myself stopping you."
Ayakashi's rampage echoed through the dead metropolis, cracking the earth as plumes of dust and chakra soared toward the vast expanse above, limitless blue skies which lent gravity to the Wind's beauty and tragedy, wrapped up in the acts of destruction and peace. Undone was the sanctity of their bout, ANBU agents from the Mist coursing to the center of the disturbance as the Mizukage's energy quivered and sunk away, Yōsei able to feel the pressure in the air relax, but with it, the breadth of his injuries took their toll. Alone in the ruins, Ayakashi would be left to think of the mysteries they had shared, and the ideals laid bare between them, she would know that war was coming, the familiar dread strung high above the clouds, the same primal force that permeated the cycle of creation brought with it unfettered destruction. Not since the last great war had such ambient, palpable shades of foreboding bloodshed loomed so caustically on the horizon, and Yōsei was utterly assured that his contemporary would understand the meaning of such an omen. Looking for their master, the Black Ops would find dust in paths as they combed the streets, only to find the Mizukage wandering, covered in her own blood, depleted of her resources and struggling to stand, in urgent need of medical attention. Ayakashi's condition, the first grim sign of the implications of this battle, even through the slaughtered thousands of lost Sunagakure sons and daughters, the allied forces had suffered a pyrrhic victory, the bastion of the world's most influential nation, its figurehead, battered and defeated by a ghost who had slipped back into the forgotten sand. The few who did find him would curse their luck as the Sealer cut his way free, as he had done from the bowels of Hell, through all who opposed his exodus from Sunagakure.
By the time the soldiers had combed the land enough to discover this repository of corpses, sliced to pieces and strewn across the sand, Yōsei would be gone. Silently, the reality of what had occurred would settle across the Land of Wind, like a wave of hushed murmurs, a man in black had attacked the Mizukage, slaughtered her hunter ninja at their forward base and set the signal with a resounding explosion. The resulting conflict, which would one day become known as the Siege of Inabayama, had seen the world's paradigm inverted, toppled from the age of peace down into a new era, with a single blasphemous act, Mitsuhide had returned from the dead, and ignited the Fifth Shinobi World War; this is the story which would become of this place, and the shadow of the rock they had fought beneath. The legacy of Suna's vengeance had just begun, punctuated by the battle which wound into fading conflicts, spread out across the dunes in pockets of resistance against the inevitable current of collapsing idealism, crumbling beneath the rotten pillars of its short-sighted foundation, as Yōsei had willed it thusly. Left behind were thoughts of things to come, in their place the gearous motion of wheels grinding against the wheel of progression, unwilling to stagnate longer beneath the thumb of Ayakashi's life's work; an age of everlasting lies which could not see past their own mortality.
With a flourish of chakra and blood, Yōsei spilled across the sand, collapsing to his knees in the lonely dunes, hundreds of miles from another living soul. His bones ached, broken and compressed by the folds of his living shroud, which clung to the haggard Sealer, threadbare and in tatters, half-frozen and stained with blood, which still seeped from Yōsei's eyes and mouth as he coughed and spluttered. Falling from his lips in time with blood and pain, was the jubilation that came in the wake of his victory; each goal the Sealer had laid out before him, every domino had fallen, and the world would soon have him to blame, as news spread of the Hokage's revival, and of his descent into darkness. The Shadow of Cinder, a title bestowed upon him by the Mizukage in her anger, no claim could have been so apt as to describe the resurrection of a man such as Namikaze Mitsuhide, Konoha's wayward son, shame of the Hidden Leaf. Risen from the embers, kindled by plans upon plans of darkness and subterfuge the Sealer had worked tirelessly toward this end, planting the seeds of hope and forging sacred contracts wherever shinobi saw his name. The manipulation of ally and foe led him to the mountaintop, and from here, he could gaze down upon all that he had wrought, triumph absolute, the scorching sea of fire beneath would become a symbol of his incessant compulsion.
The first cry heard by nobody rang out, joyous and permeated with laughter as the Sealer smiled, lips churning upward to reveal his genuine celebration, fists slamming into the sand repeatedly through the burning of torn muscles and shattered bones as he stood, cackling and alone. Undeterred by the combat, Yōsei allowed himself these cherished moments of freedom, to unleash the primal emotion caged within the indifferent shell of Naraka's cruelty. In his cries of worship, strung between the laughter and pain, the Sealer's utterances were toward one end alone; lost in the slew of hidden meanings, motives often unclear, deliberately cryptic and enigmatic, the truths he spoke toward the throne atop Kumogakure's summit, and the Dark God who resided there would die with the imperceptible solitude of his revelry. The Mizukage he had left behind, who had failed to comprehend his mission, would have thought herself vindicated in her assertion of the ex-Hokage's madness, but what she now saw as the depths of depraved insanity was the same passion that had, once upon a time, held the same man so aloft in Ayakashi's perception, that had led him to war with Seven Bells and made him a hero in the Mist. Only now that the Demon Ice Witch found herself at odds with the ghost of embers and dust did she decry him for this appetite, insatiable and cruel, to which she had once turned a blind eye. Such was the Mist's hypocrisy, embedded in the ideology of those who took no prisoners, dishing out their swift punishment save for those to whom Ayakashi felt a kinship, who she would allow to wander free, to unshackle the bonds of peace, this revival had been meticulously executed to sever those bonds, and draw Ayakashi's hatred.
And with her hatred at his disposal, Yōsei would bring an end to this desolate era.
end
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Shadows of Inabayama (private) Sun Aug 05, 2018 10:48 pm
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