Chapter 131
Vicious Brutality: A War Only Just Beginning!
"Mimi, Aoko, you're both okay." Sakura's relief was palpable. Visible on her ash and blood speckled face even through the mild haze of smoke filtering over the elevated battlefield.
Immediately Mimi's eyes were drawn to the bandages wrapped around her right bicep first—a field repair. One made in haste in the midst of a life or death battle while she, the sole medic on the team, was nowhere to be found. Fresh blood was soaking through the bandage, no longer pristinely white but stained a wet shade of crimson. Slithering beads of blood dripped down her bicep beneath and into the pink arm warmer; it was going to take more than one trip in the washer to clean it, that was for damn sure.
Lip busted, scratched and cut by blades and debris, Sakura settled into a crouch beside the hacking and choking form of Naruto. She rested a gentle hand on his shoulder but kept glancing vigilantly in the direction her squad leader had sent Kasai flying a moment ago. Mimi and Aoko sniffed the air, tracking the pair of enemies with mild difficulty.
The smoke, it acted as an intangible barrier with offensive and defensive capabilities. For everyone it was a deadly smog; the longer they lingered, the thicker it became, and the more they breathed in. Eventually it would kill them, if they didn't kill each other first. For Kasai, it was an advantage against her enhanced sense of smell, one he likely hadn't intentionally gained, but nonetheless possessed.
All the while his Byakugan sight would remain unhindered.
A long battle was a fatal mistake. For all of them.
Naruto coughed roughly. Sakura stifled her own. Mimi's nose burned with the acrid stench of smoke and, strangely, death. But she ignored it. What mattered was her team and their mission.
No more distractions. The last one nearly cost the Goofball his life.
Asphyxiated unconsciousness was but moments away for the Goofball. Or a snapped neck. Mimi wasn't sure which, and, frankly, didn't care. All that mattered was he was alive, breathing and choking on tainted oxygen.
What Kasai intended to do didn't matter beyond adding to her list of reasons to kill him. His wants and desires meant less to her than the life of an annoying gnat buzzing by her ear. His so-called motivations for betraying Amari and Ryu didn't interest her; no reason, no motivation, would ever excuse his actions, nor would she ever see him as anything more than a twisted scumbag unworthy of breathing the same air as the rest of the world's population.
There would be no second chances. No heart-to-heart discussions. No arguments over who's purpose was stronger or motivations for his heinous acts. There would be no grand speeches.
The Masked Man already filled her quota on speeches.
The thought of him tightened her jaw. Her throat rumbled with a snarl. The irritating stench aggravated her further, nose scrunching in response.
But she quickly redirected her focus to her team. Naruto had a better handle on his breathing, no longer blue in the face or hunching over in fealty to beg the oxygen gods for precious air. He sat back on his heels, breathing heavily, and coughing every now and then. He tried to reassure Sakura with a smile. The kunoichi managed a small smile back, then continued to monitor the enemy.
Just like his kunoichi teammate, Naruto, too, was speckled by ash and blood, his outfit torn and cut in varying areas where shurikens, kunai and other such sharp objects ripped straight through the fabric in a vicious hunt for blood.
However, unlike Sakura, his wounds were sealed. Healed. Almost as if the cuts and gashes consciously decided to be helpful for a change and sew themselves shut.
Quite the gift, she thought. The self-regenerative power was akin to highly advanced and sophisticated Medical Ninjutsu techniques, seemingly without any drawback. Valuable for a shinobi. She suspected Naruto might have even appreciated the ability if it didn't come with extra baggage. Specifically the unwanted demon roommate that, for all intents and purposes, was renting space in his body.
The medic-nin didn't second guess her theory. It was confirmed—undeniable. Between her combat experience against Gaara during the Invasion, in addition to witnessing the Goofball and Gaara during the Sasuke Recovery Mission, she had attained intimate insight into their incredible healing abilities.
It wasn't infallible, of course. Hikari and their team had proven that against Gaara, and Kimimaro and Kasai revealed and assailed those same limitations during the Recovery Mission. Gaara and Naruto, and even their demon roommates, weren't limitless. Damn near limitless, but not truly.
No resource was, she supposed. Not even a Chakra Pill.
Regardless, whether with the willing cooperation or the forced cooperation of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Naruto was no longer injured or bleeding all over the place.
Another stroke of luck. Another miracle on this fractured battlefield where nothing else seemed to go according to plan. The gods were laughing at all of their plans, she felt. From Emi and Scotch's kidnapping, to Sasame's capture and Daiuske's continued disappearance, to the Masked Man's presence, they'd hit wall after unforgiving wall. Face first.
But despite their misfortune, little strokes of luck kept them alive and in the mission.
Normally she preferred completing missions on the combination of personal skill and teamwork. After her recent…encounter, Mimi was no longer picky.
Beggars can't be choosers, as the saying goes, she thought grimly, examining her teammates. At this point, I'll take whatever good fortune we can scrounge up if it means we keep breathing.
The Inuzuka silently moved to Sakura's side. She placed a green glowing palm over her injured bicep.
"I'm sorry we're late," she apologized sincerely. "Got caught up in something complicated."
"Complicated… That's definitely a word for it," Aoko rumbled from her head. She sounded as unnerved and emotionally conflicted as Mimi felt.
Emotional conflicts had no place on the battlefield. Not for a grunt or a leader. There was no time to ask questions about the past, about what she had lived believing all these years versus the potential truth the Masked Man so 'graciously' and 'benevolently' laid at her feet.
There was no place for emotional hangups on a battlefield; she'd given Kiba hell for that on the last mission for his crisis of ego. So she ignored the plethora of emotions and latched onto the most familiar: Anger. She grasped it tightly, ignited it and used the flames to cast aside all the shadows obscuring her vision.
Anger was manageable. She could focus with anger and direct all of it towards a single target.
Like Kasai.
"Something complicated?" Naruto covered his mouth as he coughed. "What, like a maze?" he asked afterwards.
"Let's talk," the Masked Man's voice spoke to her again.
The Inuzuka shook off the memory.
"Heh," she chuckled without any heart in it. "Yeah. Something like that."
There wasn't time to think about him. Not while Kasai and the stranger that looked like a walking, fighting, steroid-enhanced malignant tumor were near. The mission came first. To talk about him at a time like this… It risked compromising Naruto's and Sakura's focus with fear of the Masked Man. She couldn't risk it. He was gone, anyway, having vanished right before her eyes.
He left without a trace. Without violence. All while having every opportunity to kill her and Aoko. Yet he never laid a hand on them.
"You underestimate my great-great granddaughter," she heard him chastise lightly, sensing the smile behind his mask. "You have scoped our powers accurately, I do not deny that. Were I to have a reason to kill you, I could. And neither your teammates or Master Jiraiya would know I was here. They would find your body among the corpses of these so-called 'Sound shinobi', and be left to draw their own conclusions.
"However, were we to look at it the other way, the unknown and mysterious circumstances of your death would also draw Haya's eyes straight to me. Consider that we only reunited no less than three weeks ago, during which she witnessed my powers firsthand. There wouldn't be a doubt in her mind that I was responsible, and so she would come to hate me with all of her heart for killing any of you. But you especially. Haya considers you a sister, after all.
"Rest assured, however, that I mean you no harm."
Strangely, though she knew in her heart to never trust a single honeyed word out of his mouth, she believed him. The logic of his argument was flawless. A major element of his goal, from what little he revealed of it, was to manipulate Amari, to twist her towards darkness so she would leave the Leaf Village behind and become… Who knows what he hoped she would become.
Did he want her to be Konoha's greatest enemy?
Did he hope to unleash her and the power of her bloodline on the world itself?
Was she to be a disposable pawn in a grander scheme?
Who could say?
Unfortunately for the Masked Man, the Nara was smart and observant; were they to die under mysterious circumstances, especially seemingly at the hands of some punk Sound shinobi, all lines would be drawn straight back to him, the one man who could move through space and time without a single trace.
He couldn't act rashly. If he did, his olive branches would become ash in a scorching wind of the great, untamable raging wildfire known as Amaririsu Yūhi. Nothing but a burnt ruin would be left of his deceptive bridge of friendship, because Amari would blow it sky high without hesitation and seek to destroy him. And that would render his efforts ultimately pointless.
"I have a favor to ask of you."
The Inuzuka didn't growl. She frowned, a conflict of emotions battling out inside of her.
"Mimi?" Sakura noticed it.
"Later," she dismissed the conflict and the unspoken question. "We have a mission to complete."
The sooner they finished their mission, the sooner they could bug the hell out of this Land and return to the safety of the Leaf.
Safety of the Leaf, huh?
She almost wanted to laugh. But it tasted too bitter.
The Leaf wasn't a peaceful safe haven without darkness. Not for Amari or Sasuke. Or her. Not while the Foundation existed.
"Catch me up on the situation," she said instead. "Keep it brief, if you can."
"Orochimaru isn't here. We almost had Kasai before Arashi showed up," answered Sakura.
"Arashi?" Aoko repeated, stunned by the revelation.
Mimi felt it, too. She glanced off at the stranger.
"You mean that walking tumor is Arashi?"
"Yes," Sakura nodded, a grave expression on her face. "He's been posing as Orochimaru for some time. According to Kasai, the plan was for Arashi to build up Orochimaru's forces while he escaped into the shadows; Orochimaru was going to build elsewhere."
"And we'd suffer an attack on two fronts in addition to our other problems," Mimi finished.
"Exactly. Right now, though, Arashi's body is fused with two Cadaver Puppets—Kamikiri and Jigumo. Because of how the jutsu works he has access to their techniques and weapons—Jigumo's strange web abilities and Kamikiri's pincer blade, specifically—all while increasing his physical strength, speed and chakra.
"He controls and commands them, kind of like how the Sand shinobi use the Puppet Master Jutsu," she added.
"He believes he's become the ultimate shinobi," Naruto said. "He's gone totally off the deep end. I think that jutsu is making him crazy."
Mimi hummed. The name of the jutsu was unfamiliar, but if she had to bet, she'd place it in the realm of Forbidden Jutsu.
"Fused with two dead bodies, huh? Explains why he smells so awful," she muttered.
Like, well, death. Fresh and putrid. It'd taken her a while to pinpoint where it was coming from, but the aroma of death was certainly billowing off of him.
In a way, she thought, it's like a Curse Mark. It grants new, extraordinary power. But it comes with a steep price. And, like the Curse Mark, the price you pay is your mind. Your individuality. Your Will. You become nothing more than a weapon. A puppet on a string for Orochimaru to play with.
She lowered her hand from Sakura's bicep. She'd stopped the bleeding and alleviated what pain she could, but it was just another field repair. There wasn't time for an extensive healing. They were surrounded on all sides by Kasai's jutsu; standing flatfooted was going to get them killed.
It was going to be stiff. Achy. But Sakura could work through it. She was tough.
"All right, I've done all I can for now," she said. "You two are gonna handle Arashi. Hit him fast and hard. Keep your senses sharp, though. I don't know if you can cut those Cadaver Puppets out of him or if he'll just regrow them, but removal may be the only way to take him down. Since Aoko and I are at full strength we'll finish off Kasai."
"What about Arashi?" Naruto asked.
Mimi cast a wary glance at the boy. "You still want to bring him back to Sasame? In his current condition?"
"Of course I do! He's her cousin!"
A severe frown tugged at her lips. There was a lot Mimi wanted to say. Little of it was in favor of saving Arashi. In fact, she wanted to tell the Goofball to forget about saving him and finish him off, because the person they were calling Arashi didn't appear human anymore. He was a fusion of dead bodies. A maniac who helped facilitate the suffering and death of innocent people. Children.
He was a monster. Twisted by Orochimaru, maybe. But a monster all the same.
She didn't say any of it. A weakness on her part, perhaps. But she couldn't stop herself from thinking of the possibility of Arashi being Kiba or Hana or any of her friends. It was easy to play judge, jury and executioner for a stranger. It almost made her regret their time with Sasame, because she knew without that time she wouldn't hesitate. She wouldn't pause to wonder what if like she currently was.
Maybe that made her a bad shinobi. But whether they were a monster or not, if someone she loved was twisted by Orochimaru, she wouldn't abandon them so callously to their fate as a pawn. She wouldn't kill them.
She'd hunt them to the edges of the earth, grind them into the dirt, leave them bloody with broken bones and swelled faces after beating sense into them.
But she wouldn't kill them.
More than that, if it had been her that was twisted into darkness, she'd want someone like Amari, Kiba, Hana, Lee, Tenten, or the Goofball to beat sense into her. To try to give her one last shot at redemption even if she didn't believe herself worthy of it.
That's what Amari would do here. It's what she did for Gaara back then despite all the pain his Village caused ours. But…
Rising to her full height, Mimi looked away from Naruto.
"You do what you gotta do, Goofball," she said. "Beat sense into him. Make him remember what's important."
"Right!"
But, she thought, reaching into her pouch, the difference between Arashi and Gaara is stark. Despite everything, Gaara still cared for Hikari. He hated himself for hurting her. He didn't believe himself worthy of her companionship, afraid he'd just cause her more pain.
Gaara was a victim of his circumstances. He was twisted by his Village to be a weapon, made to believe he was a monster. And, big surprise, he became a monster. In the end, he was just looking for a reason to exist. A reason for his painful existence.
It was a dark and cynical purpose. A bloodthirsty and crazy one. But I get how it came to that. Not like I'm a saint. Hell, if I didn't have my Aunty, Hana and Kiba, I'd probably have dove off the deep-end, too.
But Arashi… He chose this path, she thought, staring at the brawling enemies.
Kasai was evading through the branches, chased by the monstrous form Arashi. The Cadaver Puppets bent and stretched, crashing into the bark, narrowly striking the Senju. Kasai ignored the debris, focused solely on the Leaf shinobi, specifically the kunoichi who struck him. He wanted revenge.
He chose to stick by Orochimaru's side long after he saw what darkness it infected the world with. The Fūma Clan was still there. Sasame was still there. They would've accepted him back. But he abandoned it all for…this. This power he believes makes him the so-called Ultimate Shinobi.
That's why if Arashi—Sasame's Arashi—is dead and gone, then I'll finish off this monster he's become. I won't take chances with your lives. If he refuses to wake the hell up, I'll personally end him before he can cause you two, Sasame or the citizens of this Nation further pain. Even if that means Sasame hates my guts for the rest of her life.
That was fine. She could bear the Fūma kunoichi's hatred, if it came to that.
She hoped for Sasame's sake it wouldn't. She hoped like hell the Goofball and Sakura together pulled off a miracle and somehow, someway, salvaged what was left of Arashi for Sasame.
She hoped. But she didn't believe.
From what she could see of Arashi, his recovery wasn't in the realm warm sunshine and dazzling rainbows housing pots of gold at their ends. The sunshine was poisonous, the rainbows monochromatic, and the pots of gold corrupted into volatile cauldrons of bubbling acid.
I hope you can save him, Goofball. But if you can't, I'll end him.
From her hip pouch she procured two pill containers—one, a small container full of Plasma Pills, the other, a slightly larger container full of Food Pills. When she finished distributing two Plasma Pills to Sakura and one to Naruto—she wasn't certain the Nine-Tails Chakra could replenish blood loss—and pocketing the small container, she handed out a Food Pill to both of her comrades, then popped one into her own mouth, holding it between her molars.
I held off on Food Pills for the entirety of our mission for this specific moment, she thought. I haven't actually seen Kasai fight. But I've seen what he did to Amari, and I can see now what his Wood Style is capable of.
She drew her eyes over the thick branches, twisting and turning, spearing into the walls like a complex root system.
He's changed this entire chamber into his domain. For that reason, I'll take no chances. I'll unleash all of my power and shred this bastard until nothing is left.
Half the work had already been done by Naruto and Sakura. They wore him down. Cracked his ribs. They forced him to use his chakra until, finally, Kasai decided to prove he had the longest kunai in the room by unleashing a massive Wood Style Jutsu.
Based on Amari's reports, I can't assume he's gassed or close to hitting a limit. I can't assume his injuries will slow him down, either. Their battle raged on while surrounded by a fire he started.
There was no time for ego, no room for error. She couldn't waste time yelling in a rage about Amber's death or how he soaked his hands gleefully in the blood of a child.
He didn't care about a nameless and faceless girl.
The Inuzuka prepared to swallow her pill while returning the pill container to her pouch. Naruto and Sakura were taken care of. She could trust them to handle Arashi, who was bounding through the thick maze of roots, swinging along the branches with strings of web spat from Jigumo's ugly dead mouth, attacking Kasai relentlessly.
The Senju wasn't bothering to attack in return. He was content to evade the lunging mass of the Kamikiri Puppet. And to spit in the corpse's face.
His Byakugan eye was drawn to the Leaf shinobi. He could see the replenishing chakra within Naruto and Sakura. It doubtlessly annoyed him. But it also spurred inspiration.
Kasai, without any warning, sank into the wood. Mimi nearly choked on the marble-sized pill, her nose instantly catching the distinct scent of the Senju rising out of the branch behind her.
The time it took for him to sink into the wood, flowing with his chakra, was no more than a second. By the end of the next second he was rising out of the bark.
In the same first second she whipped around, the scent of his bloody hand striking her enhanced sense of smell first, alerting her to his attack. With her hand almost in her pouch, in the next second she witnessed her enemy springing out of the tree, his hand reaching for the pill container in an attempt to steal the item.
Her half spin had moved it out of his immediate reach.
The Inuzuka loaded her leg to kick. Saw his eyes flash in triumphant. At that moment she noticed his lips were pursed. Then, with a sharp breath and a silent curse, realized too late his intentions.
Flecks of blood and droplets of water sprayed through the air. The pill container flew from Mimi's stinging hand, shot out of it by a bullet of water fired by the Senju, flipping end over end off the edge of the tree.
Despite the force of the bullet throwing her slightly off-balance, the Inuzuka followed through with her kick with a furious growl. Kasai scampered beneath her leg. He rushed past her, ignoring the kunoichi to leap after the falling container.
That was the real prize, for now. One pill and he'd get an incredible boost of chakra.
Just like Amari had.
Mimi ingested her pill and crouched onto all-fours.
"Ninja Art of Beast Mimicry: All-Fours Jutsu!"
Chakra in the form of a crimson lashing cloak exploded off the Inuzuka. As it did her body underwent its transformation, nails elongating, teeth sharpening and features becoming more feral. Her pupils became slits.
Arashi lunged through the air at the Leaf shinobi, another masterful stroke by Kasai. He led the crazed maniac straight to them.
The Inuzuka spared a brief, sharp glance to Naruto and Sakura. "You two take care of Arashi. We're gonna rip this bastard to shreds!"
Then, like a red torpedo, the Inuzuka rocketed off the thick root after the Senju.
Ahead of her, Kasai snatched the pill container out of the air, snapped the top off and, upon landing on another thick root, popped a Food Pill greedily into his mouth.
As it landed in his mouth, Mimi reached him.
The Senju whirled on her, striking with the arm wielding the pill container. He kept his teeth clenched to keep the pill in his mouth from falling out. He wanted more. No, he wanted all of the pills.
It was then and there he learned the advantage of the Inuzuka's claws.
Shooting through the smokey veil hanging in the dark chamber, senses hyperaware through the use of Beast Mimicry, the Inuzuka caught his arm at the elbow and dug her claws in, piercing them through his clothes and into his fragile flesh.
The physical interaction didn't last more than a second. Momentum from her launch kept her shooting ahead. But with his arm in her grasps, she had gained a point of leverage and a means to wound the Senju in that brief instant. She pulled the arm right along with her as she shot past him, pulling him off balance, spinning him slightly.
In an effort to counter, Kasai dug his heels in, connected his feet to the branch with chakra. But the attempt to stop himself from being yanked and thrown off his feet resulted in a different adverse reaction. When his arm halted all movement and her momentum maintained itself, an audible pop struck Mimi's ears, so loud she was certain she would've heard it without enhanced hearing.
The pop was quickly deafened by a cry of rage and pain bursting from Kasai's scarred lips. But the dislocated shoulder was the start. Her nails, dug deep into his flesh, carved all they way down his elbow, forearm, grating through tendons and muscles until reaching his hand.
The Food Pill container was airborne again.
Blood and flesh buried beneath her fingernails; she could feel it intimately, dirty and grotesque, but familiar. The unscarred right arm of Kasai fell limply at his side. Five streams of crimson were beginning to pour down the limb.
Face contorted in pain, eyes flashing with vehement hatred, he ingested the pill he acquired as the rest bounced, rolled and tumbled to the chamber floor below like scattered marbles.
Silver chakra irradiated off the Senju, furious and sharp as blades of silver meant to slay monsters. Wood sprouted from his back, wrapping around his limp limb, only to then force the shoulder back into its socket with another sick pop.
Mimi corkscrewed her body. She landed on the side of a thick branch behind him, hands in Tiger.
"Let's go, Aoko!"
Aoko hopped from her head to her back.
"He may have replenished his chakra," Aoko reminded, "but his injuries will not heal because of a Food Pill. All the same, do not let your guard down for a moment, Mimi. Remember what we learned and what he did to Amari."
"Trust me, I haven't forgotten for a moment," she growled, a result of her transformation. "Now, Man Beast Clone!"
Her ninken transformed, appearing as her mirror image.
Kasai grinned wildly. "Let's go! I'll kill you all! Every last one of you! Animal, human, it doesn't matter!" He clapped his palms together. "The world I will create has no use for an inferior Clan like the Inuzuka!"
Mimi and Aoko flickered away. They tore across the thick root, chased by sharpened spears erupting along it in an effort to skewer them. They evaded left and right, zigging and zagging, racing up and around the entire circumference of the root in intersecting spiral-like helixes.
The sharpened wood speared upwards in front of them. The duo sprang to the side, twisting and arcing their bodies out of range; the branches missed by thin margins of error.
Down the hump of a root they raced on all-fours. At the bottom more sharpened wooden spears lunged at a diagonal angel for their midsections. The creaking of wood behind them warned them of the others.
Together they leapt over the spears and off, falling and landing on all-fours on a lower branch. He was keeping them at range. Utilizing the environment he created rather than attacking head-on. Smart, she'd give the bastard that. He could attack from anywhere, vanish into the bark he created at a moment's notice to reposition himself.
He held all the advantages here.
As if to prove her point, Kasai vanished abruptly, sinking into the bark. He reappeared on the side of the root they'd just leapt off of, hands clasped together.
Thick branches surged alive on his sides and beneath him, creating an attacking half-ring palisade of sharpened tree spears. Quickly, the Inuzuka duo jumped back, the piercing crunch of the wood and debris of splinters chasing them.
He expected as much. Planned it. From his newly created spears more sprouted to skewer their floating bodies.
He was underestimating them. He believed they'd jumped without reason, without anticipating his attack and the vulnerable position a simple retreat would place them in. To him, they were members of an inferior Clan. She could see it in his eyes he thought they were just a couple of stupid animals.
Grinding him into dust was going to be fun.
When they evaded, Aoko jumped at a downwards diagonal with more force, and because of that simple action she slipped behind Mimi at a faster speed. A simple act done without any communication. Communication was unnecessary.
They were already synched up.
While passing by, Aoko snatched her companion by the wrist and, utilizing her momentum, tugged Mimi down and away from his attack, beneath the branches meant to skewer them.
As the branches bent and retargeted on the pair, Aoko whirled around one whole revolution, at the end of which she threw Mimi up in the direction of Kasai. She streamlined herself, flying parallel on the underside of the attacking spears.
The transformed ninken landed on a root below and quickly leapt to the side. Wood splintered. Debris and sawdust peppered her body.
Mimi, meanwhile, pressed her hands and feet against the underside of the extending branch, fearlessly racing up and around the branch on all-fours. She dashed up the initial branches, eyes and senses seeking out the next attack,
The kunoichi with the crimson chakra cloak threw herself through the air into a roll suddenly, a newly sprouted branch shot past her back, nearly clipping the collar of her flak jacket and catching her wild mane of brown hair. The moment all four limbs touched bark again, she bounded up the multitude of branches forming a half-ring like a crimson pinball rebounding rapidly between two bumpers.
Kasai's eyes flicked side to side, trying to track her movement. At the last moment he raised his arms up in defense.
Wrong block!
Mimi launched at a diagonal from the left side of the half-ring to the right side, too quick for the Senju's body to react. Her claws slashed through his shirt and across his abdomen.
Chakra at her feet, she flashed past him, surfing up the half-ring, around and behind Kasai onto the surface of the main root. For a moment she saw his green eye, wide, peering at her from over his shoulder. And flickering in it she saw all of his fury. His hatred. His bloodlust. Intense killing intent crashed against her body.
Then, with a growl, she launched ahead and drove her foot into his back.
His body careened rapidly into the half-ring, then through it. The branches shattered, the uneven fractures tearing off threads of his haori. He crunched into another root system below.
Mimi, in the form of a drilling spiral, shot through the newly opened hole.
Sawdust and splinters peppered the air again. Out of it, Kasai rolled safely onto his shoulders, undamaged by the drilling spiral, but only just. The Inuzuka ended her rotation immediately, lunging through the rain of splinters and veil of smoke and sawdust with a cloak of vengeance and fury lashing wildly off her body.
Kasai had only gotten his feet under him when she caught him. His eyes were owlish, but his lips were curled in a snarl.
She rose from all-fours when she struck. Her fist slammed into his abdomen, drawing a pained gasp from his scarred lips; spittle flew through the air. He stumbled one retreating step, she followed, advancing by knocking aside his block to crash a second fist into his vulnerable and cracked ribs.
Mimi saw the grimace on his face for only a moment. Because she then clenched him by the head and shoulder, digging her claws into both, and dragged his head down into an intimate meeting with her knee. She didn't stop with a single knee, though. No. She drove a second, a third and then a fourth in quick and harsh succession.
When he finally managed to push her knee back, firing off two gut shots to push her away, thus tearing her claws out of his flesh with a furious roar, she saw his face again. Blood was dribbling out of his nose, his lip was busted open and split, and his eyes seared her with unadulterated hatred.
Her eyes seared him in return. The feeling of hatred was mutual. Genuine. Sincere in all its volatility scorching through her veins with the same intensity as the cloaks of crimson and silver chakra flickering off their bodies, licking the air, lashing it with the same mercilessness they intended to show one another.
They attacked again. Punches whistled by their ears, crashed brutally against flesh, Kicks, knees, elbows, they struck relentlessly at one another. They darted along the thick root, the Inuzuka of the two quicker, catching the Senju in his retreats, attacking his vulnerable side with all the built up emotion since they found Amari and Atsuko's defeated, soaked, lacerated, burned and bleeding bodies.
All the emotion built upon since finding Amber, since Kamikiri, Jigumo and Kagerō kidnapped, struck and pushed around innocent kids, that righteous fury fueled her strikes. It powered them, delivering all of her hatred and fury for the twisted bastard into his injured body.
Aoko regrouped in the midst of their clashing fists. She spiraled around the thick root, racing up from the underside on all-fours, and attacked from his vulnerable side.
At the same time, Kasai trapped Mimi's left arm, twisted it to face the elbow upwards, bending her forward into a kick that made her insides tremble. He prepared to snap the limb like a thin twig.
The ninken dashed past his back. Kasai's eyes, she noticed, widened in agony, back arching away from the strike; she heard the fabric tear, and the grating of Aoko's nails digging through his flesh. The ninken skidded on the bark, whipping around, jumping through the air and swinging her leg to take his head off.
Kasai tried to relinquish his hold. Mimi didn't allow him the opportunity. She dug her nails deep into his forearm, latching onto his arm with a vice grip. The tip of her middle finger stopped before the others; she could feel the hard surface of his radius bone against her nail.
With no other choice, he lifted his free arm to block Aoko's kick, and the collision of their limbs reverberated through his body into Mimi's, smacking loudly in her ears. With her senses heightened she could see the flesh sink, pulse and flap away from the epicenter of the blow, like watching a cymbal bend in slow motion after being struck.
Another furious snarl surfaced out of his throat, the muscles and tendons of which she could see contracting. The Inuzuka's slit pupils and sapphire eyes flashed with wild satisfaction.
You think this hurts? She wanted to ask. I haven't even finished shredding your flesh off your bones!
Hastily, Mimi rolled head over foot over the bark, righting the direction of her arm as she maneuvered up into a crouch. She dug her nails deeper into his forearm. Blood was pouring from the puncture wounds.
She could feel his ulna beneath her nails, too.
He grunted when she kicked the outside of his knee from her crouched position, buckling it. Aoko pushed off his arm. As he collapsed to a knee, Mimi rose, pivoting on one foot, twisting her hips to drive her right knee—the knee opposite of him—for his chin.
The Senju caught the violent strike with his free forearm. Hastily, he tucked his chin into his shoulder; it spared his face from another intimate meeting with her knee. The strike broke through his weak block, causing her knee to glide down the length of his forearm into his opposite shoulder—the shoulder she had wounded with the sharpened stream of water.
The force of the blow knocked his shoulder away. It yanked her nails out, and with them chunks of flesh and a bellowing roar. Flecks of blood splashed onto the fierce features of the kunoichi.
Aoko flashed behind the Senju as he fell back. She was low to the ground, braced on both hands and her left foot. From there she drove her right foot into the center of his back, rattling his spine and his cracked ribs, to knock him back towards Mimi.
Growling, the Inuzuka batted him away with a spinning kick. As he flew over the ninken, Aoko snatched him by the collar of his haori, redirecting his flight and slamming him onto his shoulders and neck on the root.
The Senju's entire body grated against the tree bark, sliding, then skipping like a thrown stone across the branch. Quick as it started, he flipped himself out of it and slid back on his heels, sprouting four Wood Clones from his back with an ugly look on his face.
He wanted to kill her. He wanted to watch her suffer and die at his feet. It was almost funny.
She wanted the same thing.
Mimi lowered herself onto all-fours again. Kasai weaved familiar handseals in quick succession. His chest expanded, his cloak of silver chakra pulsed with a shockwave. Then he unleashed a violent stream of fire as wide as the thick root and as tall as a house. It raced over the tree with equal speed and fury to a white-water rapid.
The Inuzuka duo recognized the technique before the flames erupted from his lips, before the air itself thrummed with the shockwave of power. They scattered hastily, Mimi leaping up and towards the thick root on her left side, Aoko jumping off and onto the camel hump of a root on the right.
The torrent of flames roared past a moment later. Though the flames did not physically touch them, the intensity of the fire was akin to standing too close to a bonfire. The heat stung her eyes, made them water and squint. It singed her mesh long sleeve, nearly setting her clothing aflame. Burned the skin mildly on her right side—the side closest to the flames.
To think he can expel a flame this hot, Mimi thought, landing and dashing down the side of the root. He nearly cooked us both with that attack. Reminds me of Amari's flames.
She saw Aoko across the stream of fire dashing on the upper side of the opposing root, down the camel hump, across the bend in it, charging, like her, towards Kasai and his Wood Clones.
The stream of fire cut off. The hungry flames continued to devour the root, the tinge of orange and red burning in malevolence. Burning with the same passionate hatred its wielder possessed, eating up all it touched until, eventually, nothing would remain.
The aroma of burning wood joined the smokey smog. It was getting thicker. Her chest rumbled with a stifled cough.
Ahead of Mimi, a Wood Clone emerged with his hands clapped together. Three branches sprouted out of the root, malleable like serpents, their ends sharper than the best crafted spears. The outer two speared into the root itself, shattering and carving a hellish path of splinters and death directly for the Inuzuka. The middle lurched straight at her.
The crimson cloaked kunoichi dashed left and right, zigging and zagging up and down the side of the root at random. The evasive maneuvers didn't throw off the Wood Clone's attack or aim. The center branch reached her first, spearing down into the bark.
Through the rain of splinters and sawdust, the Inuzuka appeared racing along the branch on all-fours, uninjured save a few scratches caused by debris. Of the other two branches, it was the branch on her right that attacked next, shooting up at a diagonal in an explosion of splinters and sawdust that once again peppered her.
A warm cut opened across her right ear.
Pressing her chakra covered hands into the center branch, she carried herself through a handspring. The branch passed her torso by a narrow margin. As her feet hit the bark again, chakra humming over her sandals to keep gravity from tugging her down, she pressed onwards.
The third branch caught her by surprise. It speared out of the root beneath the middle branch, shattering the wood, its sharpened point aimed for her abdomen.
Mimi threw herself into an evasive jump and roll up the side of the root. Still she felt the pain of its tip tear through the flesh on her right side.
A snarl rumbled up her throat as she landed on all-fours on the root itself. The bastard hadn't skewered her. But it still hurt like hell. She'd have to pay him back for that.
Before the Wood Clone could launch another assault on the Inuzuka, the kunoichi released the chakra at hands and feet and shot ahead as if launched by a slingshot. She threw herself into a rapid rotation.
"Tunneling Fang!"
The Wood Clone saw her approach in vivid detail thanks to his Byakugan. But his body had no time to react to it. The crimson drill buried into his chest, shredding the fabric of his clothes, tearing flesh from bone, spraying blood through the air to rain down below on the chamber floor.
The Tunneling Fang ended abruptly. Again he could see her movements in vivid detail. He saw one foot land on the side of the root, witnessed her body still twisting through its rotation to stand upright on two legs rather than four limbs. He saw her hand grip the kunai in her ninja tool box, could almost hear the blade grating against it as she pulled it out rapidly.
The last thing he saw was the spurt of blood splash across her face. Her sapphire eyes were cold, merciless, and the slit pupils flashing with fury and hatred. He could almost see the scenes playing through her mind. The scenes of Amari's burned, lacerated, soaked and bloody body. The arm of a faceless and nameless child reaching through a steel prison door.
But he did not see it. The Wood Clone only saw her blood stained face. Then it became nothing more than a wooden replicant at the mercy of gravity. It fell into the fire and bounced off the edge.
The flaming dummy fell out of sight into the dark, hazy abyss below.
Mimi flicked her eyes across the battlefield. She made note of Aoko, who was in the midst of dispatching a Wood Clone herself. She had a visible injury on her left shoulder, flesh torn off, bleeding badly. But she had finally closed the distance with the Wood Clone. And that was fatal for him.
Aoko slammed her elbow into his sternum, rose in a flash, then snatched his throat at the windpipe and Adam's apple. With remorseless brutality, she ripped out what started as a mass of blood and gore, but what became broken pieces of wood a moment later.
Another wooden dummy fell to the floor.
However, she noticed a second Wood Clone primed and ready to attack her loyal ninken with a Fire Jutsu. Mimi dashed ahead while weaving handseals, molding the chakra in her belly into a sharpened point.
She couldn't see or smell the fourth Wood Clone, but that didn't matter. Aoko needed backup, and she had a perfect line of sight on both her attacker and the original.
Her chest expanded. Her side burned and ached.
Water Style: Water Bomb Jutsu!
From her lips she expelled a long, thin and sharpened stream of water. It was difficult to aim, to maintain its sharpness, thinness and length while running. But the necessity of movement couldn't be understated; if she stopped flat-footed, she was certain either Kasai or the fourth Wood Clone would make her pay for it. Dearly.
Today, to her mind, the only people paying anything would be Kasai. And he would pay his debt in blood and flesh.
The stream punctured into the root, shattering bark. Unfortunately, bark was all she hit. The stream struck a foot behind the heel of her intended target, rising and falling with her body's movement, scraping more bark from the branch. Mimi immediately cursed.
But the explosion of wood, to her surprise, distracted the Wood Clone, who raised his hands in front of his face against the debris. Maintaining her jutsu, Mimi turned her head just so to realign her aim, and found herself rewarded for the effort. The stream slashed over his left leg, fissuring his flesh as if struck by an axe, and taking his leg out from under him.
He cried out in agony, roared wordlessly in hatred. By then Aoko was on him to finish the job.
Mimi shifted her head again. The sharpened stream shaved off more bark, passing through the dead space between the Wood Clone and Kasai, to then carve a visible path straight towards him.
Kasai reacted instantly. He clapped his hands together and erected a wooden dome in front of himself. The stream tore across it, shaving the upper half off.
The Inuzuka cut off the attack, molded her chakra again, and rearmed her attack.
As the sharpened stream, like an arrow, pierced through the center of the wooden dome, she saw Kasai flee off the side of the root.
Mimi slid to a halt on the branch, sandals grating over it. She prepared to jump after him. At that moment her nose caught the scent of the fourth Wood Clone; he had emerged behind her, above, hands in Tiger.
"Mimi!"
There was no time to counter. The Fire Ball exploded on her back. She flew off the side of the root, flipped through the air and landed on the root Kasai had been on moments before. Her jacket, specifically her back, was on fire.
As she landed, thoroughly pissed by the burning pain on her back, Aoko shot through the air, up to one of the roots above, then bulleted off it straight for the fourth Wood Clone. The ninken became a buzzsaw. And crashed on top of the fourth Clone, tearing him apart.
"Go after Kasai! I'll take care of this one!"
Whipping around, still on fire, Mimi unbuckled one of her jackets pouches, dropping a scroll into her hand as she ran towards the edge of the branch. She jumped off, chakra and fire flickering off her.
Below, Kasai was rolling up a scroll of his own, a sword in his hand and a wild expression on his scarred face.
Mimi unraveled the scroll behind her back, pressed her hand against the seal and unleashed a fountain of cold water over her burning back, soaking her from head to toe. The flames doused, water pouring down over and around her, she weaved handseals in quick succession.
"Water Style: Feast of the Water Wolves!"
Three wolves took form within the falling fountain of water. Golden eyes locked on the Senju, they lurched out of the gushing water encapsulating their creator and dove headfirst straight for her enemy.
Kasai hopped to the side to evade the first Water Wolf. It collapsed into a puddle against the bark. The second Water Wolf wasn't far behind the first, but unlike the first it landed on all-fours gracefully before lunging at the enemy.
Again Kasai attempted to evade, pivoting on his feet, but the Water Wolf's mouth grazed his left forearm, collapsing on impact.
The length of his forearm, which had been dripping with blood, became coated in crimson. Shredded by the hungry wolf.
The Sound shinobi's eyes widened. Pain. Realization. Immediately he understood the nature of the jutsu, its dangers and how to negate it. He made one powerful leap away, hands beginning to weave handseals for a Fire Ball Jutsu. Distance, after all, was the only safe way to destroy her water wolves.
Points for the ugly bastard for figuring it out faster than Ukon and Sakon. And points for his high pain tolerance.
The third Water Wolf landed and dashed after him at a full sprint. Mimi spun through the air, resealing the remaining water and rolling up her scroll before landing; she quickly slipped the scroll into its pouch and fastened it before the Fire Ball took form.
Ribbons of smoke streamed off the back of her scorched jacket. Her skin stung. The cold water soaking through her clothes and showering off her body felt good against it. Relaxing. Made her want to take a dip in a cool stream to decompress.
There was no time for such thoughts.
Another Fire Ball erupted from Kasai's lips. It swallowed her Water Wolf, incinerated it, and continued barreling straight for her.
Mimi didn't hesitate to jump off the side of the root. Descending rapidly through the smog towards another root system quite some distance away, her flak jacket and hair rustling with the descent. But flight was no reprieve from combat.
Kasai dashed down the side of the root and rocketed off it with his sword drawn back, teeth gnashing together and eyes flashing with ill-intentions. Mimi's hand flashed into her pouch.
The clang of metal on metal was unpleasant. Sharp and piercing; her eardrums began ringing instantly. Orange-red sparks leapt off the their blades.
Kasai zipped by, corkscrewing through the air to face her again, hands held in Tiger around the hilt of his sword. Mimi twisted herself around, hands finishing her consecutive handseals on Rat.
Water Style: Water Bomb Jutsu!
A violent torrent of orange-red and powerful stream of blue clashed in the center of their flight. Steam billowed off at the point of impact, spreading thickly over the battlefield. The water and fire battled viciously, pushing against one another, struggling to snuff out its mortal enemy.
When the flames intensified, the heat stinging the Inuzuka's face even from behind her Water Style Ninjutsu, the stream of water grew in volume, gained force similar to a roaring waterfall.
You murdered all of those people, including children like Amber! You betrayed the people who considered you family, abandoned Amari to loneliness or death, then came crawling back into her life to try to destroy it all over again! Your existence is toxic! You cause her and innocent people to suffer just by breathing!
Steam rose. Thickened. It was becoming suffocating.
I can feel the evil inside you through your fists and your jutsus. You're the antithesis to everything Amari embodies! Someone like you never deserved her love. Someone like you never deserved to call her a sister!
Just as she could sense his evil, he could sense her hatred for him through this intangible communication of jutsus. Her thoughts transmitted to him.
And she sensed his sinister glee in response.
I won't let someone as evil and as twisted as you infect her! Twisted bastards like you are a disease! A plague!
The air itself pulsed as a shockwave of power emanated off the Inuzuka.
I'll eradicate every last one of you! Starting with you!
Her Water Bomb Jutsu grew in volume and power until, like a tsunami smashing through a fishing village, it consumed his Fire Ball Jutsu. The wall of water crashed into Kasai, carried him into the root below, and smashed him into it, pinning him down as more and more water slammed against his body.
The kunoichi cut her jutsu off at the last moment, growling viciously as she threw herself head over foot into a buzzsaw. Kasai rose quickly, soaked to the bone, fresh blood replacing the crimson trails she'd washed off. He was breathing heavily but grinning vilely. Truthfully, his grin was nearly as ugly as Sakon and Ukon in their Curse Mark transformation.
He raised his blade in a block. Mimi came out of the spin slashing her kunai.
Again the sharp and ear-piercing collision of metal on metal reverberated through the chamber; the acoustics were good, she begrudgingly admitted. The piercing collision was joined by a shockwave of power erupting off at the point of impact.
Kasai's feet sank into the root, bark shattering into two small craters.
"I like your eyes!" he declared wildly.
Her foot flashed forward and caught him in the abdomen. He allowed the force of the blow to carry him into a jump to a cluster of mangled and twisting roots level with them, roots which made humps and dips, arcs and curves like a winding hilly road.
"They're full of hatred and darkness! Just like mine and Amari's!"
Ignoring the comment, Mimi chased after him. They engaged in a duel of blades, where they traveled along the mangled and twisting roots, up and down the humps and dips, along the arcs and curves in a fierce battle, blades hunting for flesh.
"Are you the one that hypocritical Village of yours sent to kill me? Did they send a kunoichi from an inferior Clan to do what Amari couldn't?"
"Ha!" Mimi laughed cruelly.
They zipped past one another, once, twice and then a third time, their blades clanging harshly with each pass. One the fourth pass, their blades greeted one another and held their embrace.
A nasty grin tugged onto her feral features. "Ya know what's funny? Normally your insults would piss me off. But, the more I think about it, the more I just feel sorry for you. You're a sad little boy, ya know that?"
"Is that right?" snarled Kasai.
They pushed off one another and instantly attacked again. The metallic clang-clang-clang of their colliding blades rang up the walls.
Up above, Aoko was fighting the fourth Wood Clone, who's flesh and clothes were torn apart, who was being forced to follow the originals down towards the chamber floor, frustrated and, perhaps, a little ashamed a so-called 'dog' was pushing him.
Naruto and Sakura were still fighting Arashi. She couldn't sense anything beyond that. The smog was thicker down here. Her nose was clogging up. Both of them were beginning to cough more frequently.
"Look at yourself sometime," Mimi taunted the Senju. "You are the member of one of the Founding Clans of the Leaf. No one even knows you exist, though. No one cares, frankly. You're just a bastard. The forgotten offspring of an ancestor conceived during a time of war.
"Meanwhile, Lady Tsunade is the beloved granddaughter of the First Hokage. They even call her a Princess. Ya know what's sadder? Your great-great grandfather is known to be the strongest shinobi of his time. His brother and, of course, his granddaughter also carved out legends of their own. All three of them have shared the title of Hokage.
"And you think," she said with a cruel laugh in her voice, "you'll surpass them? You think the name Kasai Senju will be written in history, as what? The next God of Shinobi? Ha! More like the Jester of the Senju! Hehehe!"
"Shut up!"
Kasai lunged at her. Their blades met, but his strikes were coming quicker. Stronger despite the damage he'd received. It was almost as if the pain was fueling his strength. Adrenaline, likely.
Adrenaline and overwhelming hatred.
"I'll destroy everything my idiotic great-great grandfather built!" he declared. "I'll destroy the Village system and remake this world! I'll set us all free!"
"And you really believe it! What a sad, sad little boy you are!" She laughed even when his blade opened up a cut along her left bicep. "Thinking you could ever ascend beyond the likes of Hashirama Senju, now that's a funny joke! I didn't know you were a comedian. Why didn't Amari say so!"
Her kunai found flesh, too. After two blocks, retreating quickly on her toes down a dip in the branch, she parried his sword and slashed her kunai at his chest. Kasai ducked his body away as best he could. Yet the tip of the blade still cut along his clavicle.
Her words and the wound incensed him.
"Grrr! Shut your mouth, you inferior nuisance!"
"Inferior, huh? That's a funny word you've chosen."
Mimi parried aside his blade and crashed her fist into his face. The bones in his nose broke beneath it.
"Because when I think of you and Amari, you're the one it fits best!"
Again the pain didn't disable him. He blocked her follow-up killing blow and slammed the pommel of his sword into her cheek with a furious scream.
The lower orbital bone cracked. But that didn't stop her from connecting a weak kick to his inner thigh, just off target of his groin, but still enough to buy time for a hasty leap back.
"You'll always be in her shadow!" she taunted with a nasty grin. "Hundreds of years from now it won't be some forgotten offspring of the Senju the historians will write about. You'll be lucky to be a footnote!"
In their debriefings after the Recovery Mission they learned of Kasai's personality traits. They learned he liked to push buttons. He was a trash talker. Someone who like to get under people's skin by targeting their insecurities while hiding from his own.
That was fine by Mimi. She could push buttons, too.
She also liked to trash talk.
Infuriated by the Inuzuka, Kasai launched after her again without thought, without plans. Just a desperate need to shut her the hell up.
"Amari will be the one the world remembers," she declared as they crossed blades again. "She's a trailblazer. A burning light that magnetically draws people to her, that gives them hope, shares its warmth and builds people up rather than tearing them down."
Piercing collisions of metal on metal reverberated along the walls. Orange-red sparks flew. Hatred, like the cloaks of chakra lashing off their bodies, flashed in their eyes. They were being consumed in it. Swept up by the never-ending cycle that had led to the current world.
That had led to their creation.
"She's strong, passionate, driven, kind and flawed," Mimi continued. "She's naïve at times. Recklessly altruistic. She can be too forgiving. She throws herself into danger on behalf of total strangers without thought to her own safety. She'll maim herself to win a fight. She tries to do too much on her own.
"She's stubborn as all hell, too. But that's just who she is. That's what makes Amari one of the brightest lights in this whole world, flaws and all. That's why I—no, why all of us care about her. Why each of us, in our own ways, love that troublesome girl to bits. Why we'd follow her through hell and back."
"Your sentimentality is literally making my skin crawl!"
"In short," she ignored his comment, "Amari is everything you could never hope to be!"
The latest insult was the straw to break the camel's back. The Senju let out a furious, hatred filled roar. His attacks came faster, with greater force behind them. The sharp ringing in her ears together with the odor of smoke and thick hanging steam made it impossible to track Aoko, Naruto, Sakura and Arashi.
Kasai had her on her back foot. He advanced with each strike, pushing her reaction time to its absolute limit as they traveled down another dip. Mimi blocked his strike, stepped in and caught his sword at the hilt. Likewise he caught her kunai at the wrist. The pair struggled for dominance, briefly. At least until his knee crashed into her wounded side.
Grimacing, Mimi shoved the blade aside, hit a weak kick to his abdomen and used it to push herself to the bottom of the slope. Kasai didn't give her a moment to breathe. He shot off after her. Again she jumped in an evasion, up the slope of the root, leaning her head back to escape the range of the sword.
The tip passed dangerously close to her throat. Close enough to feel the air whip over her skin. As she landed, Kasai darted in again.
Their blades sang in their piercing clash.
"Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong!" Kasai bellowed. "That is not how our war will end! It's not how any of this will go! She will be the one forgotten and destroyed! She will be lucky to be a footnote in my new world! And I will be the one who remakes this twisted world! I will be the one the new world reveres and fears!"
Mimi was taken aback by the statement.
"Your war?" she repeated in disbelief.
"Ours! It's our war! Our destiny! It's the twisted inheritance our ancestors left for us!" he declared obsessively. "And it's only just begun! This is only the beginning! Our war will consume the whole world! And the only role you and your little friends have in it is to die by my hand! I will use all of you to make her suffer and wish she was dead! That's all you're good for. All you are destined to be!"
His hatred was overwhelming. His obsession and killing intent sent chills across her body.
He's pure evil, Mimi recoiled. This bastard will burn the whole world to ash if given the chance. He'll destroy everything. He'll kill everyone. No one will be spared.
Block, block, duck, evade; Mimi was losing ground. In a straight duel she was never going to win. She knew it, Kasai knew it.
"You can't hold a candle to my skills with a sword!" he taunted.
As if to prove his point, his sword slashed deftly along the back of her hand. The blade carved through her glove, unzipping the flesh beneath. He quickly, deftly again, moved from that strike into an upward slash.
Despite her best effort to block it, the blade was sent flying from her hand.
Before she could recover his sword came down again, burying into her right shoulder, gouging through the flak jacket into the fragile flesh beneath.
"You couldn't even win a duel against that crybaby," he hissed.
A nasty chuckle bubbled out of her.
"You're right. I'm no match for Amari in a pure duel of swords. Or you, for that matter. But I don't need to be."
He moved to pull the blade from her body. Intent on taking her head off to silence her permanently.
Mimi's right hand suddenly wrapped around his, claws digging into his hands to hold the sword in place. She stepped forward, and the blade drove further through her shoulder, deeper; hot blood was pouring from the wound, staining the blade and the jacket. But the move had also brought her closer to the hilt.
"You annoying little—"
Mimi's left hand flashed forward, clutched around his skull and…
His curse broke into a cry of pure agony. He tried to throw his head back, but her hand kept him in place. And the elongated thumbnail pierced deeper and deeper into his Byakugan eye. Hands trapped beneath hers, he couldn't peel the assaulting hand off.
His green eye shimmered with unshed tears and glistened with hatred. Blood and the vitreous humor—the inner jelly-like clear material of the eye—gushed and oozed out of his right eye, over her thumb and down his cheek.
Mimi watched it all with a terrible and ugly grin. Satisfied by his agony.
"Remember when I said Amari would maim herself to win a fight? Well, you could say she passed that on to all of us!" She dug her nail in deeper. He writhed and screamed, which incensed the pain in her shoulder.
"I bet you didn't have your eye cut out last time, did you? Now it's time for you to feel the same pain Ryu and Amari did!"
Bending her thumb towards his temple, digging the full length inside, the kunoichi wasted no time in yanking the eyeball straight out of the socket. At the same time she clawed the other half of his face.
Kasai howled horribly. His arms tried to pull upwards. Swiftly, Mimi clutched his arms with both hands and threw her weight behind them to dislodge the blade, forcing it straight up to prevent further damage. She then straight kicked him in his injured ribs, the force of the blow not only bowling him over, but the audible crunch of bone signaled a cracked rib.
Despite suffering what was immense pain, Kasai rolled through his tumble onto his heels. He brought his hand to his bloody face, to his empty eye socket. He inhaled sharply, then grimaced. Collapsing to his knees, he covered his mouth as he began to cough.
Flecks of blood flew from his lips.
Mimi's eyes flashed with vicious and wild satisfaction.
"You were right. I don't have Amari's skill with a blade, but I can hit a helluva of a lot harder. You could say it's my Sensei's specialty."
"Shut! Up!" Kasai roared. Then hacked up more blood.
"What's the matter? Lung feeling full? Or are you missing something?" She lifted up her blood soaked hand and the organ held between her fingertips. "Something important, maybe? Something that never belonged to you? You'd think you'd protect it better. But I guess I should've seen this coming…" Her lips twisted into a cold and cruel grin. "From the Jester of the Senju Clan."
Growling, Kasai rose rapidly to his feet and pointed his sword at the kunoichi.
"I'll kill you! I swear I will! You will beg me for mercy before I end your miserable life! Do you understand?! I will—"
The roar of Naruto high above joined in chorus with a desperate and powerful scream of exertion from Sakura.
The air ruptured a moment later with sheer power.
Above, drawing the combined three eyes of Mimi and Kasai, a blinding white light ignited the shadowy chamber. Roaring power deafened the air. But even then she could hear the explosion, shattering, ripping, tearing, disintegrating the bark and fracturing of stone walls as the light wiped out everything in its wake.
The Inuzuka felt her heart stop. She feared for her teammates. For Aoko. For her own life as she watched the trees several meters above disintegrate and shatter beneath the shockwave of power crashing into them. Debris bulleted down from above like a shower of razor sharp hail.
"What in the hell—"
She felt the crash of a body against her own. Didn't realize until a moment later it was Aoko tackling her and carrying her off the root in a rapid descent for the chamber floor.
It was too late.
The chamber was consumed by white light.
Review Response to Guest: Happy you loved the chapter! And the little surprise Wind Jutsu Naruto pulled off in the last chapter. The interaction with Kurama was one of my favorite surprises of this arc, since it is the first time I've actually written an interaction between them. And the content was a lot of fun, too, given his aversion to Amari and Kasai as Uchiha and Senju. Also Naruto smacking him with a metaphorical stick for information was entertaining to write out. So I'm happy it was as entertaining to read as it was to write. Hope the fight between Mimi and Kasai was fun to read. We'll be tying off the arc in the next chapter and witnessing the aftermath and how it effects the characters in it and as we go forward. Then we'll be back to the Leaf and the self-proclaimed Queen of the Uchiha after that, so lots of important stuff coming up.
Anyway, thank you for the review!
Review Response to Guest: Yep, Kurama has pieced together the puzzle. He knows. Presently, for clarification for anyone curious, the only member of the rookies and Team Guy who know of Amari's relation to Madara is Sasuke. They know of the Masked Man's existence, but not that he's calling himself Madara or that Amari's lineage goes straight back to Madara Uchiha himself. It's a closely guarded secret. More on that soon.
Hope that clears up any confusion.
Thank you for the review!
Review Response to Mikan26: Happy to hear you loved the chapter and interaction between Naruto and Kurama! Hope you enjoyed the latest update!
Thank you for the review!