Disclaimer: The Author of this fanfiction does not own Naruto, Rurouni Kenshin, or any other anime, manga, our doujin whose characters and themes are used in full or part. The Characters Himura Seijuro and Houshi are creations of the author. This fanfiction is intended for nonprofit use and no money has been made on it.

-)::(- Interdiction -)::(-

Sakura lead her foe away from the others, jumping from branch to branch to draw him further in to the thick cedar forests. Her goal was simple, maneuver him to a location were her skills at combat would allow her to control the battlefield. Landing in a rocky copse surrounded by tall heavy trees Sakura knew that this was the best location she was going to find. Turning on her heel she threw a hook punch at the pursuing Root ninja, who still in the middle of his jump had no time to react before he was shot backwards bodily as if struck by a freight train. The ninja slammed into one of the trees with a resounding crack and the splintering of the tree's heavy trunk. Sakura was about to relax when she heard the odd ninja laugh manically

"kehehehe… its been a long time since I've had someone catch me off guard like that. You might just be a minor challenge after all." The Ninja stood, the cracked remains of his mask falling from his face. Sakura's eyes widened as she stared at the man. His face was a chaotic jumble of scars and burns, worst of all was the fact that instead of eyes, only two empty sockets stared back at her. The man's teeth were sharpened much like many of the jonin of Kiri, and his laugh reminded Sakura vaguely of a certain swordsman from years ago. But although he might have born a superficial appearance to Momochi Zabuza, the man before her was obviously not the legendary nuke-nin. Firstly his skin was several shades darker, and second he was quite a bit shorter than the swordsman, at least from Sakura's memory of the Kiri Jonin.

"I don't have time to play with you, ugly. We have an appointment to keep" Sakura figured giving him a chance to respond would be stupid, and so leaped at her foe, chakra scalpels ready. The blind ninja twisted inhumanly out of the way, limbs rotating in ways that Sakura was sure were not possible. His momentum drew his right leg into Sakura's side from below, causing the young medic to wince as the wind was knocked out of her. She tumbled away from him and stood running a hand over her abdomen to check for damage. Finding nothing but bruising she stared at her foe as he untwisted himself from the incredibly contorted position his counter-attack had left him in.

"What the hell are you?" Sakura demanded in utter surprise and confusion

The blind man laughed at her as he settled back into a ready stance, "Me? I'm simply called the Oni, a member of the Root" With this he lunged at Sakura, who soon found herself being driven backwards from a flurry of attacks from impossible angles. I was almost as if the joints in his arms and legs had been modified to swing through much wider arcs than normally humanly possible, the young medic mused. It wasn't like Orochimaru's snake-like body however, as overall limb size and shape remained unchanged. It was becoming very obvious that normal melee combat would not win her the day here. Fortunately, she had not been slack in studying other areas of the ninja profession over the last three years.

Leaping back to place some distance from herself and the twisted creature in-front of her, she began the sequence of hand signs for a Doton Jutsu she had spent the last year and a half working on after Tsunade had determined the fact that Earth element chakra was her primary element. She grinned to herself and hoped that this would at least slow him down.

"Stone Pulse" Sakura whispered, and the ground around her exploded upwards in a widening ring of heaving stone that tore the ground into jagged spires of earth tens of feet in height. The Root Ninja was thrown into the air, double-jointed limbs flailing wildly, and Sakura took a chance and jumped up to deliver a hammer-fist blow to his gut. To her surprise, he made no attempt to block or maneuver away, just like the strike she had landed during his jump earlier in the fight.

'wait a minute… can he only sense me if we're both on the ground?' Sakura wondered, changing her trajectory to land back in a tree.

"Damn it… she got me again… now were did she run off to? I don't sense here nearby." Oni growled out as Sakura's face went into a wide grin.

'perfect' she thought, as she began to weave a subtle auditory genjutsu. She gave her best impression of an evil laugh and grinned as it echoed unnaturally through the trees.

"What the? Were are you ya crazy little brat" the root nin roared in frustration, head darting back and forth in a rather comical fashion as he searched for his prey.

Sakura meanwhile leaped from branch to branch until she was directly over the foe, and without a shout or declaration dropped down to deliver a spine shattering ax kick to the back of the man's neck. Oni dropped to the ground like a lead weight and Sakura landed panting next to him. She grimaced as she assessed her chakra reserves, unhappy with how much she had had to put behind that last kick to ensure success. She turned in shock as she heard the same manic laugh from earlier coming from the shallow crater.

"Kehehehe, that was impressive, if I had been a normal man I would be paralyzed." The man known as Oni stood slowly, a feral smirk across his grotesque features, "Seems like I need to take you seriously, you've figured out my weakness neh?" Sakura squinted in disbelief as she watched a man stand from what should have been a shattered spine. The man grinned and flexed his limbs, "pay attention, cause you will only get to see this once."

Oni shuddered as if dunked in cold water before his body seemed to shift and change. The extremites of limbs sprouting spikes of rock, joints seeming to crack and reveal liquid flame within. His empty eye sockets now seemed filled with water, and lightning danced across the tips of the stone sparks. With a feral roar he bent into a hunched position on to all fours, even as his arms elongated to reach the ground. Sakura stepped back from the monster before her eyes wide in shock. Oni's face was now even more animalistic than before, and he leered down at her with a sadistic grin.

"Oi, bitch, you should really feel special, no one gets to see this form unless they are deemed to strong to defeat with anything less." inside his own mind however, Oni was less confidant, 'I need to end this quickly, the elemental instability of this form of the Seireikugutsu will kill me if I take too long. I thought Danzo-sama said the gennin would be easy targets...'

Sakura had only a split second to jump away as the monstrosity before her lunged forward, clawed hands swiping through the tree she had been standing before mere moments earlier. She whistled despite herself, and landed on one of the spire like protrusions of rock she had created earlier in the fight. She eyed him with the critical focus of a medic, looking for any weakness, and noticed something she was sure any other fighter would have missed, though she was unsure how to exploit it, the farthest points of his body from his torso were degrading, literally dissolving away into dust. It was slow, but if it continued she mused, he would only be able to fight for a few minutes longer before he was rendered armless and legless.

'Even if that's true,' Sakura thought, as she jumped to a new earthen spire to put further distance between them, 'He appears to be made of stone... how do I hurt something made of rock?' her thoughts were interrupted when a familiar voice echoed through the clearing, making here almost jump for joy.

"Do Ryu Sen!" the now familiar wave of kenatsu racing along the ground struck Oni from the side and sent him flying into one of the massive trees of the area, pieces of wood and rock from his body flying outward in a spray of shrapnel and debris.

Sakura smiled as she called out the name of her new partner "Hinata! When did you get here?"

Hinata sheathed her sword into its black saya and smirked, "Just now, I dealt with their leader and followed the shock-wave from your stone pulse to find you."

Sakura nodded "Well I'm glad you made it. Hitting this guy is like punching a boulder."

Hinata glanced at Sakura "isn't that how Tsunade-sama trained you?"

Sakura gave a mock glare "those boulders didn't move, or punch back."

Hinata nodded, "I suppose not, so you need him to be stationary? I have an idea."

Oni growled as he stood up from his latest hit, the time on his technique was slipping away, and now it was two on one. He growled as he channeled his energy to attack the newcomer from behind as the two girls talked. He burst forward in rage, intent on crushing the hyuuga. Even as he swung his blow, Sakura's yell of warning still only halfway out her mouth, Hinata simply flickered out of existance. Oni's eyes widened in shocked recognition. 'Shinsoku! Impossible! That means she trained with...'

"Sou Ryu Sen!" Hinata appeared behind Oni, blade and saya striking at his stone legs, shattering the rock limbs and sending him skidding forward his arms shattering from the force of his landing. His slide stopped at the feet of a now grinning Sakura, who loomed over the once fearsome root operative.

Sakura pulled her fist back, a green and blue glow shining around it. "Tsui no Do-jin" the punch came with such force that the entire clearing buckled, dropping inward a good seven feet and Oni's body shattering like glass. Sakura looked up at Hinata and smirked "you were right, just like in training."

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author notes

some explanations of things

seireikugutsu: Soul Puppet – an alternate name for the Gokuo Bunshin. Refering to the fact that it essentially becomes a remote control body.

Oni's elemental form: the Gokuo Bunshin requires balance, it is possible to purposefully destablize the technique for a boost in power, but doing so for long endangers the wielder.

Shinsoku: God speed – the term used in Rurouni Kenshin to refer to the speed Hiten Mitsurugi allows its users to obtain.

Kenatsu: the ability to release energy from ones blade to hit at a distance

Do Ryu Sen: a strike to the ground which sends a wave of Kenatsu and the opponent

Sou Ryu Sen: A batou-jutsu using both sword and sheath (Saya)