Reviewers:
MundaneBeast: Just being a seal master doesn't mean that they'll win, But...in the anime, Fourth Hokage, Third Hokage, and Jaraiya as well as Kakashi though basic, were sealers and masters
7Th Demon of Razgriz: Wake up signal( rrrriiiinnnnggggg) time to read another chapter
Lill1000: The current Kazekage did not build them, the former Kazekage did, but you can think of the hatred of the Shade clan as passed on to the current regime, just as people think the French suck at war, when they are great at it! Have you seen their land size, pretty big, and their border size, a lot! You want 24/7, I suggest Spazzgirl's Hot story, NaruSaku drabbles. Great to read for that. I kind of thought that about the language when you misspelled certain words, but you are very good at the way you phrase your comments.
DiizGirlJess: You weren't rooting for Rei? Well, I have kind of biased Ryu with his story and as Amy's boyfriend, haven't I? Oh well! No fun if you knew. And yes, that is why people hate the Shade. A very emotional and open view of their latest works and events in their lives. Of course you will see what happens next, it's Amy versus Rachael!
AN: Thank you to all for the latest comments. Finals are bogging me down, so this is my stress relief. Stress seems to go away when I am reading your reviews and watching the traffic graph move upwards in the day. In this chapter, a lot will be revealed so be ready. Final fight...Start!
Sorakage Arc III
Chapter 37: Amy Vs. Rachael
Ryu and Rei walked next to each other as they exited the arena, satisfied by the good and mostly even match. Rei had asked as they entered the tunnel why Ryu hadn't used that move in the beginning to which Ryu replied that it was his trump card.
His people were usually long range users, using their elements to attack from far away, and their weakness was a slice to the throat by a sword at close range. That was why Ryu became a swordsman first, to make that weakness into a strength. Now, he was good on most fronts, to which Rei laughed and said that they'd have to have a rematch sometime later on. Ryu agreed, and they sat back in the lounge, waiting to see the last of their teammates fight.
Finally, the stage was set for the last time as a simple grassland of short grass and nothing else. There would be no cover whatsoever in this match and instead would lead to straight up fighting head on.
Rachael exited her tunnel first, and most of the foreign shinobi started to applaud for her. Rachael held a questioning look towards her brother in the Kage box, and he smiled sadly at the unusual reception. It was apparent that the major villages thought that this gennin would win it all.
Amy entered a little bit later and the same thing happened, but this time from the minor villages. One would suppose that there would be less people to cheer her on, but this was her village, and so therefore, more people were able to be here to cheer her on.
Kirito looked between the gennin and watched them nod in agreement to the rules as he stated them. When he had looked at the reports a month ago, he knew that these were the best gennin in the entirety of the exams and now here they were, ready to battle their way against their own friend and enemy in front of tens of thousands. Kirito stepped back, looked up to see his kage, and then signaled for them to begin.
At once, Amy formed ten hand signs in rapid succession in the blink of an eye before falling down to one knee and slammed her hands on the ground. The entire arena started to glow blue as symbols formed on the grassland before the pressure inside the circle increased tenfold.
Rachael gasped as she felt the pressure and instantly fell to one knee. She tried to lift her hands off the ground, but most could see the strain in her shoulders just to keep herself from falling completely onto the ground itself.
Amy looked from afar at the sweat forming on Rachael's brow. Amy herself was inside the circle but wasn't as affected as Rachael seemed to be. It seemed to the experienced ninja that the gennin were inside a gravity seal where the user controlled how much levels to use around them. They only experienced a third of the pressure, being the caster, but just to make the first of five levels of this seal was a cost of enormous chakra, as much as a mid-level Chunnin had, and the next levels took even more than that.
Some knew that the first level was actually green, so they were already in the second stage of the gravity seal, making this gennin a powerhouse in chakra amount and power for obvious reasons and by the fact that she did not seem to be even winded from making the seal.
Amy looked at Rachael and saw her looking down, unable to look at her opponent. Amy smiled knowingly as she reached into her right pouch, taking out a few shuriken before spreading them along her fingers and threw them directly at Rachael's body.
The dozen or so shuriken raced across the arena, moving off course in wide arcs before curving back towards the intended target, but at several angles. Just as they were about to connect and no doubt impale Rachael, Rachael herself raised her head and brought out two kunai, moving rapidly to block every last one of the shuriken aimed at her body.
Rachael broke out in a broad smile to replicate that of Amy's.
"You knew that I was faking it." Rachael smiled broadly.
"Of course."
"How did you know?" Rachael asked as she flexed her muscles slightly from so much fake flexing.
"You started to sweat on your forehead, a hard thing to do in itself, and I almost chose to fight close combat, but I saw that you were breathing normally without anything labored indicating that you've experienced this before and recently as well." Amy observed verbally.
"Then shall we proceed past the trickery?"
"Let's." Amy agreed.
Around their bodies, blue chakra began to seep out of the leather armguards and leg warmers that the gennin had chosen to wear on such a hot day. The officials knew that the gennin were releasing weight seals, enabling them to move faster and attack with greater force.
Both gennin stopped siphoning chakra at the exact same time and immediately disappeared from view, their swords flying out of their sheaths and striking at their opponents. Their blades met between them and orange sparks flew from between them onto the grass on the ground.
Rachael jumped back, allowing Amy to follow her and continued to exchange blows left and right, her eyes barely open, asking for an invitation to attack. But Amy knew better than to assume that she couldn't see very well.
Amy looked closer and saw the telltale signs of the Sharingan activated in Rachael's previous opaque eyes and saw the red rimming the underside of her eyes. That was how she was able to read Amy's slashes; she was trying to find a weakness in her style, but Amy knew better than do reveal most of her moves to an opponent such as this.
"You used your Sharingan to see the frequency in my chakra to bypass the gravity seal, huh?" Amy asked as she went for a jab to Rachael's right side. Rachael ducked out of the way, turning it into a roll to gain some distance before popping back up and slashing at Amy's center.
"Of course. You had to have a way to make sure that you don't fall for the same effects when you're in the circle. My brother taught me that when he trained me in gravity enhanced environments such as this."
Amy blocked most of the attacks, but felt a tear sound along her ribcage. She cast a quick glance and noticed the slash in the material but the metal plating in the jacket defended her well enough. Rachael saw the armor in the jacket and wondered how it was integrated into the jacket itself.
Both gennin backed up about ten yards each before blue chakra released from their chests before flinging forward one last time hoping to end the battle in a simple kenjutsu spar. Unfortunately, after several attempts to bypass the other, they retreated tactfully again, realizing that they were clearly on par with the other.
Still, Amy charged forward, her sword placed in front of her, ready to slash one way or another. She leaped up in the air, going for a downward slash and looked to make sure that Rachael was still there. All she saw was swirling red and black before she passed out.
Rachael felt bad about what she had just done and watched as Amy fell to the ground and skidded passed her, her sword still in her hands. She didn't want to physically hurt Amy, so she had resorted to the one thing that every Sharingan user had, hypnosis.
"AH! The famous Sharingan hypnosis, so rare and such an honor to see it in action these days." The Raikage chuckled darkly.
"Indeed," The Kazekage agreed, "and at such a young age to be able to use it in combat shows the promise of a great shinobi in the future."
"I suppose that you owe me some money, Sorakage-San." The Hokage indifferently looked, but held a gleam in his eyes at taking the profits that the village had made during these exams.
"Remember gentlemen that it is my own personal savings and is no way affecting the village, but anyways, the match is not yet over."
"Of course it is." The Raikage argued.
"I'm afraid I must agree, Sorakage-San," the Kaibunkage stated sadly.
Suddenly on the field, electricity surged all across Amy's body, going from her head to her toes and back again as it repeated an infinite cycle, making her body spasm as if she was a fish out of water and moving at ten times the speed. Amy's eyes opened and closed rapidly as lightning danced across her face again and again as her body phased into a shimmering electric cloud. As the spasm receded, Amy quickly stood up, the electricity dying out as she turned back to face Rachael who was mentally shocked to say the least.
"But-but-How?" Rachael stuttered out, a little scared by the sudden happenings on the arena floor.
"I read up on your Sharingan, Rachael. Last night, I was able to read about the famous hypnosis of the Uchiha clan that it casts upon those that look into it. I didn't really believe it, but I decided to add a seal that would simply shock me awake a little if I fell asleep during the coarse of today." Amy explained as she emphasized the little bit.
"Amy, that was not just a simple shock." Rachael said, remembering the electricity going all over Amy's body.
"Well I know now, but I didn't realize how powerful it would be. It was only a one shot seal though, so I'll have to improvise on how to best fight you from now on."
Amy started her own hand seals, and before Rachael could react, she had settled her hands over her eyes. Slowly, blue light began to emanate out from behind her hands slowly blocking out more and more of her face from the light's brightness.
After thirty seconds of blinding chakra, the light quickly faded and the audience and Rachael looked to see what had been done. Now normally, Amy's eyes were bright blue like crystal blue mixed in with the sky, but this new blue was even brighter, maybe like the color of a midnight blue-white snow. Amy moved her head slightly, and the sunlight reflected off her eyes. Apparently, there was a barrier made of chakra covering her eyes, almost like a contact lense.
Rachael knew that it was useless, but she cast her hypnosis and directed it to Amy. Amy for her part stared directly back at Rachael and into the soul inside her through the Sharingan eyes. So, she had mainly in the course of a minute thought up and created a seal that nullified her eyes' special ability, though she probably thought about it more during the previous night.
"Very intriguing jutsu."
"Seal, actually. The monks had a spectacular training regime that focused more on thinking and methods of purpose than actual training of the body. I worked out the rest as I got older."
"I see." Rachael conceded, remembering Amy's tale of how she was orphaned and sent to a monastery and taken in by Christian monks who had several of their roots in seals.
Rachael took a new stance and ran through some hand signs. Up until now had been pretty basic and known of what was to come out in the match, but now, she planned to put her strategy to work. She just had to test out her methods to make sure that Amy had nothing else up her sleeve.
Katon: Phoenix flower Jutsu!
Several fireballs left out of Rachael's mouth and grew in size as they traveled across the field, at slightly different angles, but all aiming to hit Amy where she currently stood. Amy formed her own signs, and Rachael smiled as her assumption came true.
Suiton: Water wall!
Water surrounded Amy completely, separating her body from the water two yards in a circle and hissed and smoked slightly from the fireballs impacting the wall as the remains of the chakra inside the balls dissipated. The chakra in the water stopped and the water fell down on the ground around Amy.
Rachael bent down onto her knee, readying her next jutsu with the proper hand signs. She had seen Amy's jutsus in the last match yesterday. She had the natural afinities of water and earth jutsus. She had just used a water jutsu to defend against a fire attack, its natural weakness. Rachael knew of a way past her earth jutsus as well…Lightning.
Raiton: Fingers of Destruction!
Energy formed on each finger of Rachael's right hand, till each had the shade of bright white and reached up to her knuckles. Rachael aimed her fingers at Amy and released the jutsu. The lightning on each finger surged ahead, aimed at Amy's center.
Rachael knew that Amy could not defeat her jutsu. Rachael, like Amy, had a double affinity but hers consisted of fire and lightning affinities. While Amy's water outweighed her fire, electricity beat earth jutsus. Also, the water around Amy could help to add a conductive force to the electricity even further. Any other element not naturally attributed inside a ninja simply couldn't stop the full force of her attack.
As soon as Rachael saw her attack coming within striking distance of Amy, her fear of losing the match intensified. Surely Amy would have been able to dodge it. The jutsu wasn't exactly the fastest of lightning attacks. It wasn't until she saw Amy's mischievous smile that Rachael knew that her plan had failed. It soon became apparent with the next jutsu as well.
Futon: Slicing Wind!
Amy slashed her hands outward, wind forming along the hands out of her tenketsu points and growing as the wind jutsu surged forward to meet the five electrical charges. The wind completely surrounded the charges, it being the better element, but to most of the audience, were shocked when it completely over powered and dissipated the attack, before the remaining wind slashed at Rachael, forcing her to duck.
As Rachael stood back up, she and the rest of the shinobi in the stadium were aghast at the revelation before them. Amy had three chakra affinities. So rare and almost a myth, the only one around them being the Mizukage herself, and she was surprised as well, though happy at finding out of another of her kind.
Rachael was quick to try again however, but Amy followed her as well.
Katon: Grand Fireball!
Katon: Grand Fireball!
Raiton: Fingers of destruction!
Raiton: Wave of destruction!
Rachael's fire and lightning combined together, forming into one electrode of burning death. Amy own fireball, slightly bigger than Rachael's by the amount of chakra in it, caused it to pause in its wake before it dissipated. The waves of electricity however, much like 'Futon: Slicing Wave' cut the remaining electro-fireball in half, ending the attack.
Silence filled the entire stadium as sweat poured down the faces of even the Kages of major and minor villages alike. Five Affinities: Futon, Katon, Suiton, Doton, Raiton. This girl had the affinity of them all, and seemed to have a high level of mastery in each of them to boot. What could you call her? Perhaps the next Sage of the Six Paths?
"Just who is that girl?" The Mizukage whispered, amazed, happy at such a nice and fine shinobi with the ability to have that power, and scared if ever to face her.
"She is the one that will become the next Sorakage." Naruto smiled as he leaned back in his chair.
"Surely, she is too young to be considered for such a position."
"Who have you chosen then?"
"A high ranking Jounin of course."
"Did you see promise when they were Gennin?"
"Of course. But-"
"She is strong by herself alone. She has ninjutsu mastery, kenjutsu, and known as a seal master. In a squadron or a battalion, she would be the ultimate advantage. And something else that I'm sure she's about to show you." Naruto smiled below and nodded to Amy who had been looking at him for permission.
Amy smiled brightly as she looked back down at Rachael. "It seems that I've been given permission to show you my ultimate secret."
"A-after all that?" Rachael stuttered, already wanting to surrender to Amy, but remembering the promise they made beforehand to not do that.
Amy nodded before biting both of her thumbs and quickly smeared her blood along her arms, slowly but steadily creating a maze like structure on the verge of a labyrinth along her now exposed arms, forming what looked like a half of the pearly gates in blood opening. Finally, she performed the five hand seals that most Chunnin level shinobi learned to recognize and be wary of about the jutsu being performed.
Summoning Jutsu!
White smoke spread from the blood on Amy's arms, phasing in and out of reality as it turned a bloody red and misty in the atmosphere. The bloody mist fell down below Amy's knee and moved about five or so yards in front of her before settling on the area and dissipating, a summons in its place.
The jaw formed first, its muzzle only half the size of a hand before its red eyes and fur filled out the rest of the body. The head was small as well as the rest of the body proportionally. Its legs were firm but dexterous, made for agility over strength. It looked like a simple baby fox.
"A small fry summoning?! Ha!" The Hokage in an uncharacteristic mood couldn't contain his laughter any longer and caused the rest of the major male Kages and a few of the minor Kages to laugh as well. In fact, this started a chain reaction among the crowd of foreign civilians, the shinobi knowing how hard a proper summoning was.
Rachael looked to the fox through her active Sharingan eyes. It didn't make sense at all; she had seen firsthand how much chakra was used, and just that? No, her brother's voice reminded her; each summoning had an advantage in some way and this summoning was no different. Rachael looked to Amy and saw her teeth pulled back in a sneer and her eyes glaring with unseen before hatred at the mocking audience and laughing Kages. This was cruel in every sense of the word.
A movement in Amy's appearance caught Rachael's eye and looked towards Amy's own eyes. Red-blood like liquid began to seep into her irises, turning her blue into a red-blue mix, before Amy smiled proudly. Rachael took note of the fox's change in stance and prepared herself for whatever happened.
The fox's orange tail suddenly filled with bubbling red chakra, before splitting on either side to make a total of three tails, two made of pure chakra, and these three began to be surrounded again by the chakra before splitting again. Six new tails formed of the three, and the original tail morphed into that of chakra as well, for a total…..of nine.
"A-a-a…Kyubii." Rachael breathed as the stadium's laughter ended abruptly, the Kages all too stunned to speak.
Rachael had heard her brother's warning a year ago when she had been told of them when she had begun her training as a shinobi. He had clearly stated that if one did appear, to surrender and run away. Never fight one. You couldn't win. Sadly, at the moment, she didn't have a choice.
Rachael charged forward with her sword high above her.
"Rachael! No!" Amy called out in warning as Rachael swung her sword down at the fox.
The sword pierced the fox's skin…as well as directly through its body, as if ...t wasn't really there. Rachael stood there in complete disarray. Luckily for her, Amy held her fox back from attacking and explained.
"My Kyubii is still underage, and as such, in battle situations, it can't attack, but nothing can hurt it as well. It acts like a phantom mode, Rachael." Amy explained as she took out two of her kunai, these made of gold plating, as the Kyuubii disappeared from view.
"Why did you bring it out, then?" Rachael asked as she readied herself to launch in any direction.
"I get to keep these demon fox eyes which help me see more clearly. Plus, just wanted to show you is all. Kyuubii never gets called out, and she feels hurt at times. She is just a baby after all. In about two years, she'll be battle ready and everything."
"Let's finish this Amy."
"Let's." Amy agreed as she poised her kunai in front of her.
"Raiton: Flash Step!" Rachael cried.
"Futon: Steps on the Breeze!" Amy cried.
The next second, the crowd looked before them as metal pierced skin, and blood splattered around the entirety of the arena.
Who Won?!