Saburo's Tournament
CHAPTER 14
Upper Echelon
Erza vs. Kakashi
"Next up is the first match of the last block!" He grinned, revealing surprisingly sharp canine teeth in his upper jaw. "One of my personal favorite match-ups...Erza Scarlet vs. Kakashi Hatake." Upon announcement, bodies shifted inside of the confining vessels in order to part for the combatants. The first to reach the upturned wreck of a town was the representative of team Fairy Tail.
"Go get 'em, Erza!" Natsu grinned from ear to ear, the sharp teeth shining in the glint of the sun's rays. Who he spoke, the listener halted on the battlefield, hard boot meeting the concrete loudly.
"You'd better not lose, Titania," smirked Gajeel Redfox, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked on from beside Natsu.
"Don't fear," replied the Team Fairy Tail combatant, also folding her well-armored forearms over her chest as she peered towards Saburo, a slight scowl making its way across her face. "I will not be defeated today." The young woman declared confidently. Her off-the-bat trait was the long, scarlet hair that framed her face, falling to her lower-back freely. She also had a slender figure obscured by the silver armor she sported down to her hips, where it became a contrasting blue skirt. However, her legs were barely visible to the perverted eyes due to the black knee-high boots she wore. Her auburn eyes changed focus from the Tournament Host to the brightly lit Konoha Cube, where the inhabitants were parting to make way for a man.
"Surprise those buffoons with your incredible power and youth, Kakashi!" Might Guy spoke oddly, emphasizing the space between "ka" and "kashi" while rolling the "I" off his tongue. He gave his "rival" a friendly shove as he passed before him, though Kakashi replied with an unenthusiastic sigh. Might Guy ignored the gesture and allowed the next person to give their support to him.
"Kakashi," Tsunade stood tall, commanding her comrade's attention as he neared her. Seeing him look her way, she continued. "We need you to put it all on the line for this battle if you have to. I know you don't believe so, but you are probably our best chance of winning this thing."
"You're too mod-"
"No, Kakashi," she cut off his words, though he didn't take it personally in the least. She whispered the next part however. "And besides...if you lost in the first round, it could really drop the confidence level of our team. Especially Guy and..."
"Naruto." Kakashi finished for her, nodding all the while. He knew exactly what she meant by it and saw there was no need for anything else to be said. Giving his thanks to the Hokage, he moved on but was quickly stopped by the grin of a maniac. Or Naruto, whichever name he preferred.
"Show those jerks what you're made of, Kakashi-sensei." The grin grew wider upon the boy's face as he looked into his teacher's wandering eyes. Beneath his mask, a smirk cracked on Kakashi as he studied his long-time student.
"It's a promise, Naruto," replied Kakashi calmly, patting the youth on his shoulder before stepping out onto the battlefield. As he exited the containment cube, a wall of fresh air plowed into him. The breeze was stronger than it normally was, and the skies had already begun to darken. Similar to the sound of Erza's boot hitting the concrete, Kakashi's sandal caused an equally loud clacking sound.
"So you're Kakashi Hatake," assessed Erza Scarlet, her eyes narrowing in on what she considered her pray.
"That'd be me," the man concurred, finally stopping a good two meters from Erza's position on the end of a crater formed during Tsunade and Mirajane's clash. Speaking of the Fairy Tail maiden, Erza noticed Kakashi's spiky yet lopsided hair was only slightly darker than Mirajane's shade of white. Draping from his hair was a Konoha forehead protecter that was placed at the perfect angle to obscure his left eye from all of the curious onlookers.
"Why don't you reveal your face to me?" Erza asked, her eyes now focused on the dark mask he wore, which seemed to be apart of his attire underneath the olive-colored flak jacket he donned. Erza didn't like the fact that she could only see the small triangle on the side of his face, which consisted of his right ear and his right eye, barely even an eyebrow.
"Oh, this?" He pointed up at his face, his finger hovering over his concealed left eye. Seeing Erza nod slowly, Kakashi replied cryptically, "I think it's better this way...for your sake." The Fairy Tail member scowled at this, and launched a taunt of her own.
"If you don't wish to reveal it, then I will cut it down by force."
Seeing no need to respond to this declaration, Kakashi stood on the opposite side of the scabbed crater and displayed an unimpressed expression on his face. "Well then, let's get this started."
"Begin the battle!" Saburo exclaimed, his deep voice booming like thunder, despite his lightning-thin appearance. All eyes locked onto the center of the decimated battlefield, where Titania and Kakashi stood on opposite ends of the gouge in the cement. Potential energy swelling in her legs, Erza launched herself over the depression in a split second, her scarlet hair lashing at the wind like snake heads. Kakashi's eyes latched onto the light gathering in her right palm, which was in turn replaced with a well-crafted broad sword.
A sword appeared from thin air! Kakashi's visible eye widened as the steel blade reflected the sun's rays as it set it's sights on his neck. More impressed with the appearance of a blade than the girl's speed itself, Kakashi simply bent his knees and ducked under the slash. The momentum of the woman forced her over Kakashi as he sprung back up, slamming his left palm and right shoulder blade into her torso.
"Guh!" Erza flew forward quite a distance before tumbling to ground, where she quickly spun to a stop and ended up in a crouched position facing Kakashi. His reaction speed is good, as expected of what I've heard of "ninjas."
"That was a close one. I have to admit that you surprised me with that sword summoning," admitted Kakashi, his eyes narrowed on Erza's.
"A close one?" She repeated coldly, sounding almost disgusted at what the shinobi had just said. "I am not satisfied until you're on the ground, begging to surrender."
"Well, it looks like you're not going to enjoy this battle," he stated in reply, his expression becoming more intense as he drew a kunai knife. He spun the weapon around his index finger a few times before clutching it tightly in a reverse-grip.
"Bring it, Hatake." She baited while drawing upon a second blade from her private dimension of assorted weapons. Getting to her feet, Erza waved around the two long swords whimsically, as if mimicking Kakashi.
"Let's go," he entertained, kicking off the ground. He charged towards the armored mage swiftly, staying as light on his toes as he could. The tapping of sandals quickened as the shinobi neared his target, who readied her blades for the oncoming charge. The distance between the two combatants now shattered, Kakashi drove his kunai-equipped right arm forward.
"I don't think so!" Erza rebelled, pushing her left long sword against Kakashi's oncoming kunai with tremendous force and precision, effectively disarming the man. With little hesitation, the second blade followed up the first, piercing right through the shinobi's torso with little resistance.
"What a easy win! Good job, Erza!" Natsu cheered boisterously, running around the Fairy Tail cube, much to everybody's sheer annoyance. However, his uproar was immediately cut short.
"Over here."
All eyes shifted to the figure crouching on the the half-shattered brick wall adjacent to Saburo's location atop the rooftop. With his arms draped over his knees, Kakashi watched Erza as she turned towards him. Though, her eyes were fixed on the target she knew for a fact that she had stabbed. Much to her bewilderment, there was no lump of human flesh at her feet, but instead there was a slab of rubble that had been split in half.
"It's called the Substitution Jutsu, in case you were wondering." The Copycat Ninja spoke in a nonchalant tone, as if he weren't in the middle of a battle with an S-Class Mage.
"Thanks for enlightening me," she retorted with obvious sarcasm etched in her tone. While she spoke, her armor became enveloped in shimmering light, eventually becoming the light itself, revealing bits of skin, much to the pleasure of a few perverted eyes that looked on in awe. In moments, the light flickered out of existence, revealing the new armor donned by Erza Scarlet.
A new outfit, eh? Kakashi studied the black armor carefully, his eyes tracing the silver trimming that framed it. He forced his eyes away from the fair amount of cleavage and stomach that the silver-edged breastplate left revealed. The plates flanking her hips and waistguard left her front exposed, though she had no intention letting someone get that close. Her legs, however, were shielded by large plates of the same, black colorway. The most prominent feature of the armor, though, were the two black wings sprouting from the back of her outfit.
"This is called the Black Wing Armor, in case you were wondering." Titania mocked, brandishing her newly-equipped sword. The dark blade was quite long and sleek, granting it a menacing appearance, a few blood-colored rhombuses adding to it.
"Impressive," replied Kakashi, his tone relaxed. Disregarding Kakashi's comment, Erza scoffed before sliding her feet along the rough cement, one piece of it upturned due to a previous bout. Before anything else could be said between the two powerful combatants, a crack resonated in the decimated plaza as Erza pushed off the ground and took flight.
"Say goodbye to your silly headband," demanded Titania, crushing the distance between Kakashi and herself in the blink of an eye. As she soared, wind battered against the membrane-like material connected to the black arms that lead the structure of the wings.
"I don't think so," cautioned the shinobi, springing to his feet with a steel kunai already in his hand. The knife soon confronted Erza's menacing sword as she slammed into Kakashi, pushing him from his rubble pedestal and into the air. The wind lashed out at his unveiled skin as he was flung backwards, but Erza quickly burst his bubble of space. Still under the control of momentum, Kakashi was forced to deflect a harsh slash with his weapon as a blur of black sped towards his shoulder.
"Get her, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted aloud, his hands cupped around his mouth to amplify his voice to make sure that his teacher heard him loud and clear.
Easier said than done, muttered Kakashi as he parried a barrage of slashes with his mere kunai knife. Though, his pace was slowly but surely declining as time pressed on, while Erza's only seemed to increase as she pushed him higher and higher into the air.
"Black Wing: Moon Flash!" Erza boomed, gripping onto her blade with both hands and rearing it back towards her right side. With a flash of light, she swung the blade forward with impressive speed and force, cutting right through Kakashi's headband. Before she could succeed the slash, the man that was once Kakashi, was now a plume of smoke that clouded Erza's vision. It was just one of those replica things that that Uzumaki boy used. So the real one should be nearby... Erza's thoughts began to take form as her feet slid along the ground, her arms deterring away the smoke from the destroyed clone.
"Do you want to see what's behind my forehead protector that badly?"
Erza's eyes moved to the corner of their sockets, her head swiveling at a much slower rate. As her peripheral view panned out, she noticed the figure striding towards her from the shadows of a scorched townhouse on the edge of the plaza. Pinpointing his whitish hair to belong to her opponent, she turned her body to face him completely, the tap tap of her boots meeting the ground as she finished rotating.
"I am curious as to why you limit your vision to fifty-percent during such a battle. Would this not be a handicap or detriment?...in which case, I would feel quite disrespected." Erza's brows furrowed as she began to accuse the man of not showing her the respect of fighting at one-hundred percent.
"If that's how you feel..." Kakashi moved his arm slowly, bringing over his head and placing his hand on the left side of his face, clutching the metal plate of his forehead protector. He quickly lifted the accessory from his its original position, rustling the knot nestled in his spiked hair. What had been concealed underneath of the metal plate was a cherry-red eye that had three oversized commas, tomoes, around the central pupil. "...then I'll entertain you with my Sharingan!"
Erza's eyes widened at the sight of the mystical eye that shined like blood under the sun's ever watching rays. Makarov played with the word "Sharingan" on his tongue, seeing if it triggered any memories of hearing about such a thing. He couldn't latch onto any internal information, so he continued to watch the match with a straight face.
"Now that I've revealed my eye, the fight is over," proclaimed Kakashi, his eyes boring holes into Erza's own. "You know this, Erza Scarlet. You have already thought about surrendering, haven't you?" Upon hearing this, the red-headed mage faltered for a moment.
"I have...?" Erza sounded quite unsure of herself, as if what Kakashi was speaking the truth, yet she didn't want to admit. Or as if she was doubting herself, and began to over think thing to the point where she didn't know right from wrong.
"Erza!"
A cry rang out from inside the Fairy Tail cube, and the source of it was obviously the pink-haired Dragon Slayer, Natsu Dragneel. He had begun to pound against the insides of the containment cube, flames discharging each time.
"What do you think you're doing? You'd never surrender, Erza!" He bleated. Upon having these words travel through her ear canals and relay in her brain, something sparked in her.
"Tch," she sputtered, shaking her head fiercely as to clear it, yet she instead appeared like she was violently drying to dislodge something from her hair. She then cast a quick glance at Kakashi, but only with her right eye. Her opposite eye was shut closed tightly, though nothing seemed to be attempting to pry it open. "That eye...does it lend you the power of persuasion?"
"It wouldn't be smart to answer your questions at this point, so I'll leave that up to you to decide. Either way, you have an artificial eye in your right eye." His eyes narrowed on hers, though she only returned half of the glare.
"You're impressive, Kakashi Hatake. Though, I'll have you know that cheap illusions will not work on me," she smirked haughtily.
"Thanks for the heads up...now if we could get back on track," he baited. Kakashi's single red eye successfully latched onto the tiniest bit of movement as Erza's wrist twitched. The shinobi even managed to launch a kunai knife at the woman before she even finished lifting her wrist, catching her slightly off guard. Despite this, she still managed to deflect the kunai knife, though this was only a ploy by the Sharingan Warrior to calculate her approximate reaction time.
"Prepare yourself, Hatake!" Erza barked, once again launching herself through the wind in an effort to engage her opponent in close combat. As she neared the Jonin, she brought her sword wielding arm across her luscious chest, prompting the man's Sharingan eye to work double-time. As she unleashed her horizontal slash, Kakashi vaulted over the blade, spun in the wind once, and slammed his heel into the square of Erza's back. As the mage face-planted the ground, Kakashi's sandaled-feet landed on the side of a cobblestone wall and he stuck there using finely tuned chakra.
"He's sticking to the wall!" Lucy cried out in complete shock. She knew that these self-proclaimed "ninja" were throwing out tricks left and right like a pinata, but this simple one caught her off guard.
Now rearing to her armored knees, Erza turned her head to look at her opponent, who had begun to weave some sort of symbols with his hands. Though she saw the movement of her opponent's arms, the man's hands were a mere blur to her. With the gestures ending at the Tiger seal, Kakashi finally began to get serious.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
With a sudden increase in temperature around the immediate area, Erza instantly knew the sensation, compliments of her hot-headed Dragon Slayer friend. She knew that a flame was due, and a large one at that. She wasn't disappointed as a massive sphere of roaring flames was expelled from Kakashi's mouth, only meters from her kneeling position. With the bulk of flames overlapping the Jonin's vision of his opponent and the glare of the fireball blinding everyone else onlooking, every set of eyes were forced to wait and see what had become of the engulfed mage.
"I'm taking this serious now."
Hearing a feminine voice in the premises, Kakashi's eyes widened at the realization that his point-blank technique had failed to secure him a victory. In the wake of the flames, Erza Scarlet stood standing in the center of a fresh and shallow crater, a new wardrobe now strapped on.
"The Flame Empress Armor!" Somebody announced from the depths of the Mage's cube, sparking a grin upon Natsu's face. He had dealt with this dark red, burnt orange, and midnight black set of armor firsthand. He remembered being unable to even lay a hand on her pauldron-less breastplate that extended down to cover her groin. Then the thought of her orange, dragon-esque gauntlets coming towards his face, quickly wishing for Kakashi to know the sensation. Not to mention the surprisingly harsh kick she delivered against him with her dragon-claw shaped greaves. Ugh, he hated the memory of their short-lived bout, but also cherished it in contrast.
Another set of armor with different properties...this'll be more trouble then I first thought. Kakashi slowly moved his gaze from the dragon-like wing structures connected to her breastplate to the blood red sword in her grasp.
"Hmph," murmured the blazing mage, twirling the large bastard sword around her fingers with surprising dexterity. With a quick fixture on the orange decorated hand guard, a slash cut through the air in front of Kakashi. What was emitted from the swing was a burst of flames that sped towards the firmly planted shinobi in front of her.
"Nice try," commended Kakashi as he walked backwards along the vertical wall, his heels now in proximity of what was left of the roof. He hadn't noticed this before, and he instantly knew what was going to come next. As he predicted, his Sharingan eye picked up on the rapid movement behind the fireballs. Despite his knowledge of an oncoming attack, even Kakashi wasn't able to react efficiently as Erza appeared before him, her foot already arced back. Taking the brunt of the kick, the Jonin was thrown backwards and he bit his lip as his backside smashed through the cobblestone wall with a crunch.
"Nice kick I think you meant," boasted Erza, casually pacing towards the broken down wall beyond her. The shadows hid the shinobi from her sight, but she could hear the rustle of movements and the sound of rubble being scraped to the side. The ambient noise subsided as her armored figure neared the makeshift doorway, prompting her to slow down to a halt.
As her foot tapped down against the cobblestone one last time before ceasing her movement, a set of kunai knives were flung towards her in quick succession, the source of them still obscured by darkness. However, she didn't even succumb to a flinch as she deflected each of the projectiles with her flashy sword.
"You've got nice reactions."
Erza spun around with her eyes opened wide with astonishment, almost colliding foreheads with her silver-haired opponent as he hung upside down directly above her, his feet attached to what was left of the ceiling.
When did he get up there? Erza asked herself, running through possible answers and explanations of it in her head. Scrapping what she had come up with, she narrowed her eyes and lashed out at Kakashi with unrelenting speed. The sword swept cleanly through the man's torso, but instead of blood leaking from the wound, only drops of water fell. Soon enough, the figure of the Copycat Ninja exploded into a glob of water that drenched Erza in its aftermath. Groaning as she realized that she had taken out yet another copy, this one containing a hefty amount of water, she turned to face the darkness of the building again. Seeing the glint of something red shine alone in the shadows, she swiftly assumed it be the Sharingan eye and launched a flurry of flames from her blade towards its position.
"Water Style: Water Wall!"
The flames that Erza had unleashed lit up the room enough for her to see what was currently happening. Kakashi had his right hand cupped around his mouth, powerful water spewing from it in the form of a rampant circle around himself. The fence of liquid successfully nullified the bursts of fire, the rising water quickly rushing towards Erza as she stood in the breach of the cobblestone.
First fire, and now water? He's quite versatile...yet I'm already prepared for everything he throws at me.
Continuing to blow out the tremendously powerful water, Kakashi kept his eyes glazed on Erza as she made no attempt to escape from the wave. Instead, her body became a vessel to the light that wrapped around her body in its entirety.
Don't tell me... Kakashi frowned, ceasing the consistent pounding of water in his mouth to watch what had become of his opponent. Instead of being lifted from her footing by the rampant waves that burst through the opening, the water instead parting for her crystalline long sword.
"The Sea Empress Armor..." Juvia muttered from the corner of the Fairy Tail, her first time speaking since Gray Fullbuster's loss.
"The Sea Empress Armor?" Kakashi asked, hearing Juvia's words despite being a fair distance away from typical earshot. "So you're resilient against Water Release techniques now."
"That's correct," the mage responded. She now donned a revealing, green armor that made her resemble some sort of mermaid warrior. There was a sizable metal piece of headgear covering her forehead with bluish fin protrusions siding her head. Her pauldrons also seemed to be modeled after marine fins, and they were linked to the revealing seaweed breastplate she wore.
"This makes things more difficult," mumbled Kakashi, scowling slightly as he began to spark up strategies.
"Come at me with all you've got!" The S-Class Mage requested strongly, lifting her light-green blade to chest-level.
Well, there's no purpose of using water-based jutsu against that armor...let me try a different approach. Kakashi Hatake leapt forward, launching two shuriken from the holster on his right thigh in the process. His opponent deemed the projectiles useless in a moment, but at this point, Kakashi was already diving towards the woman with a kunai knife in hand.
"Haven't we gone down this route already?" Erza asked, frowning as she was forced to press the edge of her blade against the plunging kunai. She then flicked her wrist, pressing the knife downwards, leaving her opponent disarmed in a moment. Taking advantage of the subtle opening, Erza brought her right knee up and slammed it into Kakashi's defending forearms. The force of the strike propelled Kakashi through the ceiling with a crash, creating yet another gorge in the building.
"Ugh," sputtered Kakashi, somersaulting backwards on the vacant roof, landing on his toes perfectly. He shook his forearms gently, as if attempting to alleviate the pain from the strike that had just been delivered.
There was a brief lacuna, however a high-pressured wave of water interrupted it, slicing right through the ceiling from Kakashi's right side. Then man had already noticed the slash of water from his opponent with his Sharingan, so he merely took a single step backwards, allowing the attack to cut right down the middle the building. He didn't account for the back half of the building to slide from its foundation, falling to the cement below with a defeaning series of crashes, seemingly burying Kakashi underneath of them.
"I know you're not down, Kakashi Hatake," blurted Erza, walking around the building, if it could still be called one, and stopping as she reached the pile of cobblestone and cement rubble, ash still seeping from the pile. She surveyed the debris closely, picking about the fragments with her eyes. She wasn't expecting to hear what sounded like chirping coming from the background.
Erza cast a glance quickly, scrutinizing through her peripheral vision at the figure that rapidly approached her, a brilliant color sparking around the blur. Before Erza even turned around to face her opponent, she was already clad in a golden and light-blue armor. The armored gauntlets were covered in golden-trimming and has slight spikes upon them, as well as her knee guards. Instead of a waistgaurd, this protective covering had a decorated cloth hanging down from her breastplate to cover her thighs and other lower regions, a single piece of cloth in the front and three on the back. Her hair was adorned by a band with two ribbons on it, and the hair itself was now a long, singular braid.
"Lightning Blade!"
Hearing the exclamation, Erza finally swiveled around completely, her massive spear swinging with her body, its tip enveloped in light. As she straightened out, a beam of lightning fired from her weapon. Her opponent made no attempt to dodge the high-velocity blast, simply pushing his sparking, azure palm forward, a spherical mass of his own electricity held within it.
"Pay attention, Naruto," requested Might Guy, smirking due to some unbeknownst reason. Seeing the confused look on the boy's juvenile face, he somewhat elaborated by continuing, "you are about to witness the origin of the Raikiri's name."
"Sounds awesome," beamed the young Uzumaki, watching on with a determined look on his face. He witnessed the clash between the two forces of electricity, Kakashi's hand pressing against the bolt of lightning fired from the mage's spear. Naruto swore that he heard the resonance of thunder from somewhere in the distance as his sensei's right hand slit right through the beam, his feet pressing on as he began his charge. As he ran, his Raikiri split the opposing electricity, sending it discharging in every direction.
"There it is...the technique that has so much concentration that it can pierce through any substance, from armor to another mass of lightning," observed Yamato, commending his senior.
"What the hell is that attack? It's cutting right through the lightning beam like it was made of butter!" Natsu wailed, but he only received a stiff jab to the leg from his Guild Master.
"You watch as well, Natsu," the petit elder ordered. The Dragon-Slayer obeyed, watching as Erza ceased the ray of lightning, instead slamming her spear into the cement with tremendous force. This action prompted a rather large magical seal to erect in front of Erza Scarlet, which was subsequently replaced by current of electricity.
A barrier?! Kakashi relented briefly at the sparking impediment only a few meters from himself, but he promptly advanced his tear down the cement. The lightning in his palm jolted at the ground, as if attempting to keep Kakashi back, but at this point, nothing could. That is until he met the electrical barrier paces in front of himself, pushing his sparking technique towards it with ascendancy.
"You will not win this clash!" Erza vowed as she stood steadfast, hands clutching the spear handle firmly as winds and sparks erupted from the clash of blue electricity. Kakashi grimaced as the rogue discharges from the clash pummeled his bare skin, but he didn't falter, his Lightning Blade still pressing against the magical barrier. With a pound of thunder resonating from the atmosphere, there was a grand outburst from the clash, blowing Kakashi backwards, his Raikiri already dissipated.
"H-his Lightning Blade couldn't get through her defense!" Hinata stammered worriedly, her hands held near her mouth bashfully. She watched stunned as the Jonin's back declined to encounter the unforgiving cement, rolling on his shoulder and tumbling backwards. Erza simply watched as the man whirled on the ground, his body eventually coming to rest on contact with a slab of cinderblock.
"She has a opposed all of Kakashi's techniques so far...this isn't turning out well," muttered Yamato, sweat beads forming on his brow.
"Don't underestimate Kakashi!" Both Naruto and Might Guy retorted friskily, causing Yamato to shrink back in surprise.
"Well, jeez..." he sighed as the two ninja turned back to watch the ongoing battle between Kakashi and Erza. Maybe I am selling Kakashi-senpai short...after those years of ANBU and his long tenure of being a Jonin, I know he's capable of more than this! He must have something up his sleeve!
Tenzo's right. She's countered every elemental jutsu I've attempted up to this point. Each set of armor she equips give her specific properties...there's only evidence that the last three sets can negate the effects of only one element individually. Kakashi rested his head against the brick wall as ran through the options he had left, not wasting the time to even stand. There's no point in wasting chakra to see if she has a counter for Earth-Style Jutsu. I'm going to have to test my theory out and end this with one last push!
"Here I come, Kakashi!" Erza warned, her Lightning Empress Armor glowing with light as her body declined towards a running position. As she exploded into a sprint, she was now donned a revealing, armored cheetah-patterned top with fur-lined edges. As she charged, the large cheetah ears adorning the sides of her head bobbed along with the feline tail.
Speed augmenting armor! Kakashi watched as the opposing woman became a mere blur to his right eye. His left eye, however, was working feverishly to track the fast moving mage. His Sharingan advantageously allowed him to see the image of Erza's next move, though his body couldn't react quickly enough as the short sword she held pierced through his shoulder.
"You managed to avoid a fatal injury...that eye is more trouble than I first assumed," noted Erza Scarlet. Kakashi gripped the blade penetrating his skin and glanced at the blood oozing from the wound.
"You're pretty tough," commended Kakashi, turning his attention back to the young red-head. He continued, "but it's time to turn the tides!" The man suddenly began to form rapid-fire handseals, surprising his opponent. Upon finishing, three Shadow Clones emerged into existence spread apart from Kakashi.
What's he planning now? Erza scowled at the arrival of the trio of replicas. Upon command, each clones dashed backwards before reaching a single point and leaping high into the air.
"All the ninjutsu I've copied, let me show them to you!" All three clones echoed while forming additional handseals. Thereafter seeing this, Erza took a powerful step away from the original Kakashi, leaving behind her short sword that was embedded in the ninja.
"Don't tell me..." Erza was cut off by the Shadow Clones as their voices boomed once again.
"Fire-Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
"Wind-Style: Devastation!"
"Water-Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"
With the words coming in unison, Erza's ears were overwhelmed, much like her eyes. She watched in utter shock was a visible spiral of wind sped towards her from the Kakashi on the far left, while the one on the far right launched a winding bullet of water that resembled a giant serpent. The center clone launched a technique familiar to Erza, the Fireball Jutsu that she had dealt with earlier in the match.
"Get her, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto roared, pumping his fists against the Containment Cube while Rock Lee and Might Guy spouted some nonsense about the "Power of Youth" or something of the sort.
"Look!" Lucy pointed her index finger towards the target of the concurrent attacks, the figure shrouded in hazy light once again. It was quickly replaced by a bulky, whitish silvwe and navy embellished armor. The breastplate was constructed of different plates joined together underneath the high armored collar. The shoulder pads of the attire were quite large and sported prominent plates shaped like spikes. Her waistgaurd seemed to be composed of light blue plates, Erza's legs underneath them being covered by black, tight-fitting pants. The most pronounced piece of the armor being the two massive halves of a single shield on each of the plated gauntlets she wore.
"It's the Adamantine Armor!" Cana instantly recognized from the bout seven years ago with the Phantom Lord MK II, and other instances from their long past together. Nobody from the opposite faction seemed to care or notice the new armor Erza was dressed in, and remained focused on the trio of attacks by Kakashi Hatake in admiration.
All eyes watched as the triad of jutsu greeted Erza Scarlet, who brought her shielded arms together in hopes of defending against the ensuing eruption that rocked the earth around them. The explosion then became a pillar of surging water, incinerating fire, and slashing winds that extended into the sky above. The pillar of devastating chakra then contracted before bursting in a plume of smoke and overwhelming ash.
"Well, that's it," sighed Kakashi as he slowly got to his unsteady feet. He face showed exhaustion, and Tsunade instantly noticed this. She said nothing however, her arms still crossed stiffly across her chest.
"That's not the end as far as I'm concerned."
Noticing motion through the fume and vapor, Kakashi withdrew a kunai knife while taking up a defensive stance. When the smoke cleared enough, he could clearly see the figure of Erza with shattered pieces of armor near her kneeling body. The ground beneath her had been collapsed, chunks of cement rising around her with a series of fissures snaking away from her.
"I wasn't expecting such a powerful attack, I'll admit," frowned Erza, getting to her scuffed feet. My Adamantine Armor hadn't been completely restored from blocking the Jupiter Cannon, but still... "This is the end, Kakashi Hatake." She said with a renewed focus in her eyes. Before Kakashi even knew it, the mage was clothed in a completely new set of armor.
"She's resorted to the Armadura Fairy and it's only the first round," muttered Master Makarov, pacing back and forth. He heard the distant voices mentioning the new armor from the opposing Cube, but he ignored it, admiring the armor himself. It was pink with a simplistic breastplate joined to the collar which was decorated with two wing-shaped attachments. Her new weapon of choice were a pair of identical swords with handguards that resembled pairs of wings.
"Fantastic," scowled Kakashi sarcastically. I'm running out of chakra, while she barely seems fazed. This woman is incredible.
"Needless to say, this armor hold the name of my guild," inquired Erza, staring coldly at the shinobi. "And I will defeat you with it, Kakashi Hatake!" She exclaimed, prompting Kakashi to narrow his gaze on the woman.
"I'll be expecting something spectacular in that case," readied Kakashi, watching as the mage burst forward with her right blade extended forward and the left one held back. Both swords began to release brilliant green energy that resembled lightning. The further Erza traveled, the more the magic began to condense together. As she neared Kakashi, she was nothing more than a sheer ray of emerald light.
I have to use it! Kakashi quickly realized.
The air in front of the approaching beam of magic that was Erza began to spiral into itself. As the space in front of Erza became distorted, she fell an overwhelming pull on her blade. Attempting to resist the strain initially, Erza finally gave in and let her blades go, the Kamui drawing them in. With the disappearance of her weapons, the emerald shroud around the mage did as well and the mage attempted to slow down, but at this point it was too late.
"Rasengan!"
Erza watched as a compacted sphere of chakra that was nestled in Kakashi Hatake's palm. Noting it to be blue, she was still unable to analyze the element of the ninjutsu in time as it plowed into her ever approaching torso. There was a brief pause where time seemed to come to a standstill before exploding into two-times speed. Erza was launched backwards as the sphere dissipated, a cyclone forming around her as she spun.
"Did he just..." Naruto couldn't even finish his sentence as he watched with his jaw to the floor.
"Sorry, Naruto. I had to take a page from your book this time," he joked. Though, he slowly turned his attention back to Erza, who was slumped against severely bent lamppost. Her clothes had been torn apart and blown away from her body under the force of the Rasengan's devastation. All she had left were bandages that covered the center of her breasts tightly and a pair of flaming red pants. Kakashi couldn't tell if she had requipped it, or if it had simply been underneath her Armadura Fairy Armor. "I need to finish this fight now...before I collapse."
"Perhaps this is good," coughed Erza, stumbling to her feet with the help of the lamppost she was gripping firmly. "I have shed my armor, and can now take you on with nothing in the way, Kakashi Hatake."
"Heh," he snickered at the woman. After all that damage she had sustained, she just kept pressing on with her will to fight. "You've got yourself a challenge, Erza Scarlet." At this reply, Erza smirked quickly before extended her right arm. A single, simplistic katana appeared before her, and she grasped it before it could be claimed by gravity. She watched as Kakashi knelt down and lifted a long sword from the ground, the very long sword she had used at the beginning of the fight and discarded.
"Come, Kakashi!" Erza cried, holding the katana with both hands and kicking off the ground and charging towards Kakashi, who also took off in a full-on dash. Cheers became rampant from the onlookers as they cried for their representatives victories. With one last shout of exuberance, the two combatants met in the center of the plaza in one final clash. The long sword and katana embraced one another, a loud ringing resonating from the strike. Kakashi instantly noticed the strength of the woman, and recognized it to be more than his own. "I can tell that you're no stranger to swordplay."
"That's true," admitted Kakashi, a few bits of remaining chakra into his arms in an attempt to match the mage's might. "It's just been a little while since I've had to resort to it."
"But I cannot be defeated with the amount of strength you have left," Erza declared as she began to gain the upperhand in the power struggle. "This is the end for you, Kakashi Hatake!"
"You're wrong, Erza," claimed the Jonin, straining to hold onto his blade. "It ends for you now!" With a loud zap noise rising into their ears, Kakashi's long sword instantly became a conduit for a consistent flow of electricity. It only took a second for the lightning coated saber to sever Erza's own katana in half. Just as the upper portion of the katana embedded itself into the ground, blood erupted from the massive wound Kakashi inflicted upon Erza.
"What?" Erza asked with eyes full of astonishment as she fell to her knees. She then began to noticeably shake as she shouted. "I cannot lose here! For the sake of my friends and comrades!"
"You can no longer fight, Erza," reported Kakashi, letting the head of his long sword rest on the blood-splattered cement. "I've cut where I did to insure that you wouldn't be able to fight on. You can't even hold a sword right now."
"You did...?" She asked, confused that she had been so foolish to engage the trained assassin in such a high-risk fashion.
"You may have superior strength and energy output, but I came equipped with experience and superior insight on how to fight swordsmen. Though, I have to admit that you are beyond the level of any opponent I've faced in my lifetime." Kakashi lectured, striding towards the mage slowly. Though any second longer in that power struggle and I've wouldn't be standing.
"I deem the victor of the bout the Konoha Ninja, Kakashi Hatake!" Saburo boomed as he appeared between Kakashi and Erza in one fell swoop, his cape still flickering with the wind. He quickly pressed his blade against Erza's slumped over body, and sent her into a frenzy of light. As Erza vanished from sight, he turned his sights onto the seasoned ninja.
Some sort of Reverse-Summoning Jutsu? Kakashi attempted to analyze it himself, but his thoughts quickly faltered, as did his movements. The exhaustion had finally overwhelmed him to the point where he could no longer stand, so his body began its descent into the ground. However, he soon found himself inside of the Containment Cube, somebody's blurred healing hands hovering over him.
"Did...Erza just lose?" was the common question within the Fairy Tail Cube. Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Wendy and even Freed seemed greatly perturbed. However, a disgruntled Makarov's voiced boomed from their cell.
"Do not falter, my children!" He ordered, his eyes full of mixed emotions, each of them overwhelming. "We will be victorious when this is all said and done!" This barely managed to expel Natsu's frustration and confusion.
"Whether you fools are shouting and weeping, it will not change the fact that the next fight will be announced immediately," Saburo hissed with a sly smile on his face, slamming his charcoal colored great-sword into the cement like it were made of butter. "And the combatants of that match will be...Freed Justine and Might Guy."
Team Konoha's Record: 6 wins, 1 Draw
Team Fairy Tail's Record: 6 Wins, 1 Draw
Next Match: Freed Justine vs. Might Guy
Author's Note: I don't know how many of you actually read these, but anyway...I apologize for the lateness and overwhelming length of this chapter. And for those of you sore with decision of this fight, please don't let that deter you away from Saburo's Tournament. I'm just trying to entertain my readers by creating great battles no matter who fights or who wins.
And on another note, just because a certain technique or armor wasn't featured within the chapter does NOT mean that I didn't include it in how the fight should turn out. Actually, it's you guys deciding the victor for these bouts at the moment anyway! So I can't be called biased anymore, I'm just here to entertain.
And lastly, the poll results of this fight were a whopping 25 to 8 in Kakashi's favor.