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Atum-Coma: The City Hidden in the Nexus
By Demonabyss
Chapter 28: Family Feud – Ninjas Vs Pirates
After Ria, Mia, Kiba, and Akamaru were all retrieved, Hayate took a look around the arena, or what was left of it. Having judge before, he knew how bad some of these fights could get, but not like this. The ground was torn up from Verity's Serpent Snappers with the remains of her arm all over the place and now there were huge trenches everywhere from the Inuzuka's and cat girls' attacks. 'The repair bill is going to be really bad this time around,' he thought before calling down the next two fighters.
Neji walked down to the arena, head held high and absolute confidence in his victory over the pirate. Despite the fact that her only relation to the main house was through blood, she was still favored, receiving immediate training despite the fact that she belonged to another village when they were so adamant about the Caged Bird Seal being on the Branch House. 'They are nothing but hypocrites and I will prove how weak the blood of the Main House is this day, fate has decreed it,' he though with absolute certainty. However, his certainty wavered slightly as he saw Hinata come down the steps casually, the talking bird on her shoulder and that freaky sword of hers attached to her back. Interestingly, the sword was upside down from what he saw it before. Instead of the handle and guard sticking out on the lower left side and the shark face appearing over the left shoulder, the sword was flipped, making it so that the handle was above the left shoulder instead. What that meant exactly, only a few select people knew.
Amethyst Heart walked down to the arena, with cloak and hat to keep her self better hidden, something she picked up from her ship mates on her mother's ship. She had learned a lot since becoming Ruby's daughter, much more than what many would believe. For one, she knew how to handle arrogant pricks like her cousin here. 'Take them seriously, but don't let them know you're taking them seriously,' Amy thought to herself, going over what her mother had taught her about situations like this. It was one of the things pirates and ninjas had in common, tactics and deception. Ninjas used it subtly while pirates tended to be more dynamic about it, but they did both use it frequently. In this case, she knew Neji could give her quite a challenge, but he didn't need to know that and the more unnerved he was, the better it was for her. In any case, she knew the most important thing of any battle, have fun with it.
Both Ruby Heart and Hiashi Hyuuga looked at the two fighters. To a casual observer they both seemed relaxed, but to the two parents of Amethyst/Hinata, they were anything but. Hiashi could see the confidence and the readiness in Neji, as well as the absolute intent to take down his daughter with extreme prejudice. However he had gotten to know Hinata … Amethyst a little bit during training and knew that like the skies she sailed, she could seem calm one moment and then become a raging hurricane the next. Ruby knew this for a fact and knew that she was taking this seriously simply by the position of her sword. The only reason that Amethyst would have her sword like that instead of the opposite was because she wanted to use the Mortal Draw. It was a lethal and yet highly risky technique, but was highly effective against close range fighters that came straight at you. 'What are you planning matey?' she wondered.
Neji stared at the girl for a moment before speaking. "I never thought I face you in such a manner. It seems fate had decided otherwise," he stated clearly and coldly.
Amethyst just chuckled. "Aye, you'll get no argument from me there though I don't really care for fate," she said simply which caused Neji to frown.
Kir spoke up. "Yeah, he always cheats at cards," he said with a chuckle.
Round 4 – Neji Hyuuga VS Amethyst Heart
Both stood as Hayate called out begin. Neji took the standard Gentle Fist stance while Amy stood still, her cloak covering her body and her hat hiding her eyes. The two stood silent as they gauged each other, Kir and Sharkey standing ready for their mistress's command. Neji activated his Byakugan and scanned Amethyst. Though she appeared calm and relaxed her body's slight motions betrayed her. 'She is ready move the moment I do to draw one of her living weapons but I can't tell which one she is planning to go for, the bird or the sword,' he thought as weighed his options. He had seen what that bird was capable of and a close range blast from it could do serious damage. Likewise that shark sword was nothing to underestimate either.
There was a tense silence before they both moved at same moment. Neji dashed forward at top speed, hoping to nail Amethyst with his Eight Trigrams: 64 Palms attack. The pirate on the other hand, reached for both of her living weapons, spinning around as she did so. Her right hand flew to the shark blade handle and swinging it with incredible speed and precision as her left hand went for Kir, instantly forming his gun mode. While Neji was fast, Amethyst was equal if not faster, plus Sharkey gave her a much farther reach than his Gentle Fist. He stopped dead and bent backwards, using all his flexibility to avoid the shark blade's teeth as it sailed over him. The Hyuuga reared up to attack, but didn't have a chance as he saw a familiar green light and immediately jumped away from the multiple Kir Royale attacks from the bird. He stopped a good distance away to see that the girl had discarded her cloak and stood ready with both the sword and bird. Had either of those attacks connected, it would've ended the game for the opponent.
Everyone in the crowd silently watched the fighters. That initial standoff kept everyone's eyes glued to the scene to see what would happen next. Hiashi and Ruby stood a good distance away from each other, both silently contemplating their situation as they watched the match. Both wanted Amethyst/Hinata to win, but for very different reasons. Hiashi wanted her to win using at least some of the techniques he taught her to prove that she was worthy to be heir to the elders. Another reason was that by defeating Neji, she may be able to get through to him and break the influence of the elders who wanted him to replace both her and Hanabi. While normally Hiashi would be glad to do this, the elders currently had too much sway over him and could make a lot of trouble for the clan. Ruby on the other hand, wanted her daughter to win because the girl was her daughter, plain and simple. However, how she won would be a concern. Would she use the techniques Hiashi taught her, showing that she in some sense accepted her possible role as heir, or would she stick with the moves she learned from Ruby, showing that she was still a pirate at heart? It was a major concern to the blonde, one-eyed woman, but she would wait it out and see what happened, come hell or high water.
Neji snorted, "You are better than I thought. Still, even with your sword, bird, and training from Lord Hiashi, you are no match for me. Everyone is born with a certain degree of talent, and that does not change. Struggling against your fate is futile. You do not have the ability to defeat me, so you do well to keep your distance."
Amethyst and Kir stood there blinking for a few moments, as if they couldn't comprehend what he had just said. They then gave each other a look before turning back to Neji. Kir was the first to break the awkward silence. "Boy is he whacked. Think he was dropped on his head as a child?" the albatross asked casually, much to the annoyance of the Hyuuga.
Amy shrugged, "Who knows? Anyone who believes that bunch of bilge water can't be flying with all the sails open."
Neji narrowed his eyes at them, suddenly hating her more he should've. "What would you know about fate? Everyone's fate is sealed the moment they are born, just as mine was with the Caged Bird Seal," he shouted at them.
Amethyst just laughed at that point. "Sealed from the moment they were born? Now that's rich. I mean look at me, I was born to a high class ninja family and I ended up as a sky pirate. If fate does exist, it is pretty screwed up. I say, those who believe in fate are cowards who can't face the world," she cried out as she launched a massive volley of Kir Royale blasts.
Neji scowled, deciding to forget trying to convince her to quite and to simply beat her into the ground. He stood his ground and just as the green energy orbs he quickly began to spin around. "Kaiten!" His chakra flared as he spun creating a shield and blocking the blasts, though only just so. He staggered back from the force of the Kir Royale attacks, now knowing that nothing less then the Kaiten would be able to stop them, meaning they were now at a stale mate. Her long range attacks couldn't pierce his Kaiten but he couldn't get close enough to her to use his Gentle Fist as long as she had the bird. Having trained with a weapon mistress, he was pretty sure he could get past that shark sword of hers, but that bird posed a unique problem.
On the other side of the arena, Kir was having a problem. "Sorry Amy, my throat can't take much more. I've got enough for one more shot," Kir muttered to his partner.
Amethyst just smirked. "Not a problem matey, I'll just have to improvise a little bit," she said as she jumped straight up. On the ground without Kir she knew she would be at a major disadvantage, so she decided to change things up a bit. She pointed Kir straight down and let loose another blast, propelling her up higher. The albatross quickly disengaged himself from her and she immediately grabbed the anchor and chain connected to Sharkey. Neji and most of the crowd watched in confusion, wondering what she was doing. Swinging the chain and anchor at high speeds, she threw it straight down into the ground, much to everyone's confusion. "Chain Crossfire!" she cried out as duplicate anchors erupted from all over the stadium, each connected to a seemingly infinite chain. The chains and anchors embedded themselves all over the arena, pulling them selves taught and creating numerous tightropes, or tight-chains as it were. Amethyst swung Sharkey, the shark sword catching one of the chains in his teeth but not cutting it. She swung around and then gracefully landed on the chain, balancing on it like an acrobat on a tightrope. "Hey landlubber, come and get me if you can!" she called down to Neji who was just annoyed at this point. Though she could've tangled him up with the technique, but a concentrated blast of chakra would've cut the chains. This way, she was forcing him to fight on her terms, as crazy as they were.
The Hyuuga boy scowled as he ran up the wall to the correct chain and jumped on it, facing the pirate in this battle turned circus act. He wavered a little bit but kept his balance. 'She isn't as foolish as I thought. Up here she has the advantage, both with that sword and that she is used to fighting like this,' he thought as he remembered her earlier fight with that creature that was living in the refrigerator behind the mayonnaise, next to the … oh hell you know the rest. He stood in the standard Gentle Fist stance while Amethyst stood holding Sharkey ready, holding the anchor and chain connected to it.
In a flash, the two dashed at each other and engaged in a high wire or chain as the case may be, battle. Neji attempted to strike down Amethyst who blocked the attacks with both Sharkey and the anchor. The sword, while living, didn't use chakra the same way humans did and thus the attacks had little to no effect. Likewise, Amethyst tried to run Neji threw, only to be deflected by his Gentle Fist style. In fact he might've been able to take her down by now if it weren't for the fact that they were fighting on a chain suspended several stories high. With Neji, basically being forced to watch his stance and balance less he fall straight down even with using chakra to stick to the chain, his attention was divided plus he couldn't maneuver like he was used too and thus couldn't fully use his Gentle Fist.
The separated, both backing off a little bit to evaluate what to do. Amethyst then got a devious grin on her face, causing Neji to raise an eyebrow. In a flash she threw a kunai at him that he easily ducked. However, his Byakugan caught the sight of something attached to it, an explosive note. His white eyes widened as he realized she wasn't aiming for him, but the point at the wall where the chain they were standing on was anchored. Just as the note exploded and the chain began to fall to the ground, the pirate swung her own chain and anchor, latching onto another nearby strung up chain and swinging away safely as Neji began to fall. The Hyuuga, thinking quickly, grabbed the chain he was standing on as it fell and swung it like a whip. It caught on another chain and he swung down and landed on a chain still anchored, though it was lower than the one Amethyst was currently standing on. He looked up and glared at the pirate girl who was cheekily grinning at him. "You're stupid tricks will not save you! You cannot defy fate," he angrily yelled at her as he ran to the wall in order to get to the chain she was on. No way would he dare jump from one chain to another, considering whom he was dealing with.
Amethyst just continued to smile at him. "Not from where I'm standing matey," she taunted as he ran up to her chain again. "Took you long enough. So, shall we continue our little dance or would you like to give up?" she asked sweetly.
Neji scowled at her, her attitude finally getting to him. "I refuse to surrender to an obviously inferior opponent. I will win because it is fate, just as it is fate that the Branch house is enslaved to the Main house, just as it was fate that my father died and yours lived simply because he was born a few minutes earlier!" he cried out as he came her faster than before. "Eight Trigrams: 64 Palms!" he cried out as he attacked her chakra points with vicious accuracy. Amethyst attempted to block with Sharkey but could stop all the strikes and just prevented her right arm from being paralyzed. When Neji was about to go for the chakra points in her legs, Kir intervened and took the full brunt of the attack.
"KIR!" Amethyst yelled as she watched her avian companion fall to ground, most of his chakra points closed. He had prevented her from falling off the chain by making sure her legs still worked.
Neji just snorted at her cry as he backed away slightly surprised at the bird's interference. "Pathetic, relying on that excuse for a bird to save you when fate has decreed that I will win," he said with absolute certainty.
Amethyst Heart just narrowed her eyes at her biological cousin. She raised her shark sword and pointed it straight at him so that the face and teeth were staring at him. Normally she wouldn't use this move in this situation, balancing on a chain, half her body paralyzed, and Kir down and out, but Neji had just pushed her a little too far. "Neji, you can take fate," she said in a deadly quiet voice as the eyes of the skull hilt of her sword began to glow. "And cram it up your ass!" she finished as the mouth of the skull that was holding the living blade opened. "Shark Sword Tsunami!"
Neji had no time to react as in a flash of multicolored energy he saw a massive shark made of energy coming right at him. Unable to do more then cross his arms in defense, the Hyuuga got the full force of Sharkey's true form, knocking him into the wall behind him, destroying it and the chain's anchor point while ripping him apart, doing massive damage. Amethyst on the other hand, was blown backwards by the recoil of the move, causing her to also go flying backwards. The two crashed into opposing walls at the same time. Amethyst reacting quickly, placed her sword handle in her mouth which at moment didn't have a blade, and quickly grabbed the broken chain with her right hand since her left was still paralyzed from Neji's attack. Using her legs and her one working arm, she slowly slid down as she watched the massive dust cloud where Sharkey and Neji had crashed. The pirate and the crowd watched as Neji fell to the ground once the shark had dissipated, one of the trees breaking his fall somewhat. He lay on the ground, unconscious and unmoving. 'Jackass got what was coming to him,' she thought as she made her way over to her Kir. "Crazy bird. You're getting a pint of rum when we get back home," she commented with a smile as she picked him up, still alive but unconscious, and placed him on her shoulder. She absently watched as energy gathered around the skull hilt in her hand and reformed into Sharkey, who was now asleep. She placed him on her back, picked up her cloak, and made her way to the stands, absently humming to herself. "And really bad eggs. Drink up me hearties, yo ho. Yo ho yo ho, a pirate's life for me."
Round 4 Winner – Amethyst Heart
Hayate shook his head. "The winner is Amethyst Heart." The crowd went nuts cheering for the young pirate as both she and Neji were treated by the medical teams. Up in the stands, most of the Hyuuga weren't sure whether to cheer or what. True a blood relative of the Main house had beaten the prodigy of the Branch house, just as it should be, but she did it without using any Hyuuga techniques. Did that mean that the Main house was naturally that much stronger with or without them, or did it mean that the Hyuuga techniques as a whole were weak? Needless to say, the Hyuuga elders weren't sure which possibility bothered them more. Ruby Heart on the other hand, along with every sky pirate in the area, cheered, hooted, and hollered for their pirate princess, though no one dared call her that to her face for fear of theirs being broken. Nonetheless, the girl was a pirate and no one could tell Ruby otherwise.
Surveying the damage, Hayate sighed as the chains from the girl's technique poofed out of existence. The stadium was now one-third demolished and they still had eleven more fights to go through. "Would Axel Raptor and Misumi Tsurugi please come down?"
DARK TOME: Techniques
Eight Trigrams: 64 Palms: This a close range jutsu that closes off sixty-four specific chakra points on an opponent's body with the Gentle Fist taijutsu style used by the Hyuuga family in conjunction with their bloodline the Byakugan. It effectively eliminates the opponent's ability to use chakra for quite some time and making it quite difficult for them to move. It begins with the closing of two chakra points, followed by four more, then eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two, and then sixty-four strikes. Each set of strikes is done at an increasing pace. It should be noted that the chakra points can be reopened with a concentrated burst of chakra out of each point. However, doing so requires a substantial amount of chakra and hurts quite a bit. Another important note is that this attack has limited effectiveness against certain types of darkstalkers, specifically any darkstalkers that can shape shift, who have extra body parts such as tails or wings, who are unnatural creatures such as a constructs, or whose chakra systems are far from normal such as undead or plant types. Currently, this attack is only used by member of the Hyuuga clan.
Kir Royale: This is a long range attack consisting of a focused sphere of an explosive mix of chakra and energy of the Dark. This move is exclusively used by the sentient weapon Kir the albatross who is currently partnered with Amethyst Heart. While potent, Kir can only do this move a limited number of times before having to rest his throat, essentially reloading. Since this move is powered by Amy's chakra with Kir as a focus, this attack has the potential to be modified, but nothing has been confirmed yet.
Mortal Draw: A close range sword technique used by many pirates and sword users in Nexus. Though dangerous to use, it is a powerful move that very few can dodge and even fewer can block if at all. It requires high levels of speed, strength, and accuracy as well as excellent timing but when mastered can kill with one unexpected shot. The user draws their blade, spins at high speed, and strikes the target at a very vital point, usually the neck. To use this move however, the user must lower their defenses in order to draw properly and to get the target close enough for it to be a lethal strike. It is possible to use this move and have it not be lethal, but only those who are at least proficient at it can do this.
Kaiten: This jutsu utilizes the chakra control gained through Gentle Fist training to release a huge amount of chakra from the user's chakra points when struck. The released chakra blocks any possible attack. The user then spins around rapidly to parry the attack creating both a shield of chakra around them selves and tossing away any would-be attackers. However, the Heavenly Spin, as it is also called, is only effective when rotating. Chakra itself is not enough to stop a physical attack, unless it is extremely concentrated, but can counter an energy attack depending on how much and what type. Since such concentration is impossible with the Hyuuga members, they must rotate in order to maximize the deflection. If the rotation stops, they become vulnerable once again and thus timing is crucial in many cases.
Chain Crossfire: This is a mid to long range jutsu used by both weapon specialists and raiders such as sky pirates. This jutsu is another variant of the Shadow Clone but instead of the user copying them self, they copy the chain and make it appear wherever they want within the nearby area. As they appear, the user can make the chains do anything, from entangling a target, creating a bridge, or in the case of sky pirates a net to catch them if necessary. However, once the chains have appeared, they cannot be manipulated any further. An advantage to this jutsu is that the chains created can be any length as the jutsu isn't copying the chain as a whole but rather all the links in the chain in a certain formation. Another advantage to this jutsu is that the chains will not disappear until commanded, even when cut again because the jutsu is copying the links themselves and not the chain as a whole. Theoretically it is possible to do this jutsu with just a single chain link, though it is much more difficult and requires chakra control on an equal or greater level to that of the sannin Tsunade along with a large enough chakra pool to make it effective.
Shark Sword Tsunami: A long and wide range attack used solely by the sentient sword Sharkey. This is a powerful attack but it has severe limits. Normally, Sharkey cuts/eats energy of any kind, chakra, electricity, the Dark, the Light, magic, any kind at all and stores it inside himself along with any solid material he can get to go with it, though some solid materials don't agree with his stomach despite being able to handle any type of energy. He can then release this energy in a number of ways, depending on what type of energy he has consumed. This attack however, is his most powerful in that it releases ALL of the energy he has stored up at that point in one massive shark shaped blast in which his spirit takes control of. The size and side-effects of the blast are both relative to the amount of energy and materials and what types he's eaten. However, during the actual attack the hilt has no blade and it pretty useless as anything other than brass knuckles. Also, once Sharkey reforms as the blade, he's out of it for a short while before being able to eat again and thus is no different from a normal sword.
DARK TOME: Guns
Info: While swords and other close range weapons are preferred, guns also have a place in Nexus. Developed mostly by Sparks and engineers and used by many, guns are almost as common in Nexus as kunai and similar weapons. They tend to be used by civilians, jägermonsters, sky pirates, Sparks, and generally anyone who is unable to use jutsu, magic, or any similar abilities. There are three basic types of guns in Nexus, projectile, energy, and enhanced. Projectile guns are guns that use normal bullets, arrows, blades, etc. that have no special properties. Energy guns are just as the name entails; guns that use energy instead of normal bullets. Last but not least, enhanced guns use projectiles with special characteristics such as freezing, electrocuting, exploding, etc. when they hit. Civilians use them because they want some type of offensive power but don't have the ability for jutsus and such. Jägermonsters use them simply because they like explosions and dislike complicated things like hand signs or incantations. Sky pirates use them simply out of practicality since such long range weapons are perfect for their sky ships where magic and jutsu has to be limited, as well as the fact that cannons on said ships is something of a tradition. Lastly, Sparks tend to use guns of their own creation since they prefer to rely on their creations rather than simple brute force and like the jägermonsters they tend to like a good explosion. They also tend to equip guns to their various war machines as long range weapons.
While there is a wide range of guns available, they are generally not used by darkstalkers and ninjas for multiple reasons. The first reason is that while they are good at long range, at close range they are highly ineffective especially against trained ninja and darkstalkers. Second, since many darkstalkers have advanced healing and resistance to certain things; there is no projectile that would be universally effective against all types. Each type of gun also has its own problems. Projectile types have very limited effectiveness overall and enhanced types are only most effective in certain situations. A problem with both these types is ammo consumption. Carrying enough ammo along with reloading can severely hinder the user, especially against ninja and darkstalkers who can easily use such openings to take the user out quickly. Enhanced guns have the added problem of creating their special ammo with can be costly and time consuming depending on what the ammo is. With energy guns, the problem isn't ammo but vulnerability. Energy guns tend to be highly susceptible to outside energy sources depending on how their created and with what type of energy as their power source. Another problem is that if damaged enough or in a specific way, energy guns tend to explode in the user's face. One last annoyance with most guns is that they are clunky when carried by ninjas or darkstalkers who rely on movement and not very cost effective or versatile when compared to kunai, hence why they are not used by ninjas. Some have considered using sealing scrolls to seal guns into for later use, but this is only effective with projectile guns as enhanced and energy type guns may be affected by the sealing and unsealing process.
There has been talk of development of two new types of guns, the caster gun and the sentient gun. The caster gun is said to be a new type of enhanced gun that absorbs the ambient energy in the area to power its shots. The shots themselves are specialized shells with runes and seals on the inside that convert the energy into the blast. This would make the gun extremely versatile and make the ammo easy to create. As far as anyone knows, it is still in the planning stages only. The second type is the sentient gun. Like sentient swords, a sentient gun has marvelous potential but is extremely difficult as guns tend to be far more complex then swords or other items. For comparison, a sword is usually just one piece with no moving parts, whereas a gun is actually many pieces all moving around to a certain end and that is why they are so hard to raise to enchanted level and higher. As such, there are only rumors of sentient level guns with the only one being confirmed is Kir, the albatross. Any information of others, if they exist, is still just rumors.
AN: For those wondering, I based Chain Crossfire on Anubis' attack "Quake with Fear!" from Ronin Warriors. Again, still looking for suggestions for the Dark Tome, please Read and Review.
