"A Ninjutsu!?"
Kyuseishu whispered shockingly as he landed on the sand few meters away from his foe and parted his legs slightly in a fighting pose.
"How?!"
He barely inhaled another breathe trying to shake off the shocked like state he was into, before a thick amount of sand suddenly hurtled towards him from the hunter's direction. His eyes widened but he leaped to the side swiftly dodging the dashing sand then started to dash towards the hunter quickly, narrowing his eyes.
"This guy's dangerous... I have to be careful."
The Hunter without showing any impression, lifted his both hands in front of his chest and clapped his palms together vertically.
"RYUUSA NO JUTSU!"
He stated with expressionless voice and Kyuseishu suddenly halted to a stop noticing that the sandy ground beneath his feet started to vibrate making the sand blunder like if it was a swamp.
"Shit! What's going on!?"
He instantly realised that it's risky to stand even more onto such an unstable ground especially after his feet started to drown slightly into the sand. So he quickly jumped upwards into the air while he kept observing the ground below closely with astonished facial expression.
"Hmph... I won't be able to land close attacks on him at this rate."
He whispered to himself noticing that he already flew about ten meters into the air above the ground.
"I am getting away from him more and more... Damn it, I can't land on the ground as long as there's a possibility that he can control the sand around him... That quicksand will finish me off once I get trapped again in it..."
He thought nervously, but he couldn't float anymore in the air and realised that he should land urgently. But where? He soon analysed that the early patch that got affected by the Quicksand was narrowed to certain area around the user. That was true indeed, because when he landed five meters behind the Hunter, he noticed that the sandy ground was still steady. He smirked mockingly as he stared towards the male.
"Heh... You know I am better than you in close range combat so you decided to confront me using that ancient ability known as Sand Manipulation... But as far as I know... Nobody inherited that skill so how you!?"
He questioned with concerned voice while sharpening his eyes but he heard the Hunter sighing before speaking with the same cold voice.
"You think you managed to escape my trap? But you didn't know that I control all the sand in the area."
He stated and quickly wove the Dog handseal, Leaving no time for Kyuseishu to fully grasp the fact that he just uttered.
"NINPOU - Kuchiyose No Jutsu!"
A giant cloud of smoke suddenly erupted around him forcing Kyuseishu to cover his face to protect it from the violent wave of dust and sand produced by the summoning Jutsu that blew outwards. He jumped backwards few times to take a safe distance from the presumed summon and soon as the cloud of smoke started to vanish, a gigantic black summon was revealed, swaying it's long, thick tail. Kyuseishu immediately realised it was a giant scorpion as he stared at it closely and gulped with irritation.
"Damn it... This is bad... A tiny scorpion's venom is enough to kill a human so how about that giant one... He'll annihilate me with one stroke for sure..."
The hunter chuckled from his stance ontop of the scorpion's head without turning around to face Kyuseishu.
"And now, it's time to finish you off!"
He whispered out loud and the scorpion suddenly vanished from Kyuseishu's sight leaving only a light steam of dust behind it on the spot it was standing upon. Kyuseishu gulped again as he took a step back onto the sand and grabbed a Kunai with his left hand while narrowing his eyes sharply trying to presume where the scorpion had disappeared before it could blow him an attack, so then he won't be able to fight back. He felt entirely lost in thoughts...
"Darn... The situation got even worse than I expected... Could it be hiding underground?"
His eyelashes suddenly twitched with irritation.
"Underground!? Of course!"
He stuttered nervously but before he could shift his eyes downwards to look down, a massive Shadow suddenly appeared on the sandy ground around him, instantly flipping his calculations upside-down.
"From above!"
He growled anxiously and pressed his feet hard onto the ground trying to jump away as the massive shadow widened even more around him, seemingly alarming him that there's probably less than one second left before the finishing strike to land on him but he suddenly realised that his both feet were pinned tightly with mysterious force to the sandy ground disabling them from moving leaving him paralysed. it was a mysterious force he couldn't even look down to define it.
"Shit!"
The Scorpion eventually landed with it's massive weight on Kyuseishu causing a loud thud and numerous shreds to blow outwards from the ground in different directions. The Hunter appeared standing ontop of the head of the scorpion, crossing his arms while displaying a confident smirk. He was looking down towards the spot where Kyuseishu was seemingly standing on.
"You still don't get it yet!? That I can manipulate all the sand in this area...Heh... Your ignorance is the only reason responsible for your bane."
...
Kyuseishu's body was trembling all over. He noticed that he was still unharmed somehow but his both ankles were tied by a Large Rope made of sand pining his feet tightly to the ground and still disabling him from moving. The giant scorpion had landed mere inches before him nearly missing him.
"...!"
"You're done!"
The Hunter suddenly declared waking Kyuseishu up from his temporary astonishment as the Scorpion lifted up one of it's front legs and dropped it down quickly aiming it's massive spear-like claw straight at Kyuseishu's head. Kyuseishu's eyes widened as he looked up at the incoming strike, shocked, without being able to do anything to rescue himself.
"Whaaaaa-"
A slicing sound cut out Kyuseishu's gasp followed by a thud of a heavy body colliding with the sandy ground.
A young mysterious woman landed suddenly on a high sandy hill located ten and few meters to the north from the massive scorpion. She lifted her right arm up catching a large, metallic, flying ring from it's soft spot with her tiny fingers. The thickness of the ring was about 3 mm and it's circumference was 1 meter. This weapon was sharp enough to cut through almost any solid and it can fly for long distances faster and farther than any common Ninja weapon then return back to it's user when it gets thrown in a curved path, just like the woman did. She grinned sharply showing her cleen teeth as she looked down towards Kyuseishu with a sarcastic hint on her face.
"It seems that I just arrived at the last moment to save your ass!"
Kyuseishu gazed up towards the top of the hill surprisingly. He was still unharmed miraculously and the Scorpion's leg was sliced into two halves, it's lower half containing the spear-like claw fell beside him on the sand and now it appeared that the Sand Rope lost it's effectiveness. Realising that, Kyuseishu quickly flipped backwards few times taking a safe distance from the scorpion before landing on his feet only to look back up towards the mysterious female with dumbfounded look.
"You... What brings you here Katsumi?!"
The young girl just scoffed while fixing her flying ring on her back with a large belt, not looking to any particle direction. She looked confident on herself and quite pretty for a female warrior.
"You are late for the date that we are supposed to meet at... So I guessed you are facing a trouble in your way."
She whispered calmly then started to scan the area through her luminous eyes with unfazed look. Kyuseishu shook his head in disagreement as he glared back forward towards the hunter and his scorpion.
"No, I am fine! You just didn't have to jump in just like that in the middle of a battle... This guy is in a completely different level than us!"
He said nervously knowing that the situation didn't get any better with the female's interfering even if it was on his favour. But he realised that she might just get on his way. The hunter suddenly folded his arms around his chest as he chuckled sarcastically. He seemed very satisfied even after losing the advantage in number against them.
"Kuku... I see, a little girl is determined to join the brawl too... Well, I was only ordered to finish off that Leaf brat but if somebody else tries to get in the way, I'll just kill them off too. So, you both brats will become my prey now."
He barely completed his sentence before the giant Scorpion suddenly stretched out it's massive tail and launched it swiftly towards Katsumi, aiming it's sharp poisonous thorn at her head.
"Tsk!"
Katsumi hissed as she jumped away quickly, dodging the strike without even giving less attention to it before landing calmly on her feet next to Kyuseishu's left side. She was wearing a knee-length reddish skirt and incorporating fishnets over her thighs underneath the skirt. In addition, she wore a pair of black Shinobi sandals on her feet and as top she was wearing a purple-colored kimono shirt with low collar revealing the half upper part of her chest and short sleeves exposing her fair skin. The shirt was graced with greyish straps over the shoulders and sides. The headband of the Hidden Sand village was worn over her forehead. She was a typical Kunoichi with straight body style; well shaped legs and curvy lines especially on her upper half beneath her relatively tight shirt. Her facial features were simply pretty with a hazel, bright eyes and long, black, silky hair reaches down the middle of her back. Her height was nearly paralleled with Kyuseishu's height as she stood next to him. She shifted her head towards Kyuseishu with confused facial expression, squinting her thin eyebrows lightly.
"Is he using that creepy Scorpion in fighting?! If he had summoned it by blood contact, it will get dissummoned once we take out the summoner, right?"
Kyuseishu maintained his serious look as he kept observing the scorpion closely with his eyes.
"I don't think so... He performed only a single handseal I could tell it was the Dog handseal by the position of his arms and that's not the standards handseal for the summoning Jutsu. That's just weird.."
The Hunter blinked like if he noticed something after observing Katsumi closely with his fierce eyes for an extended moment of time, not paying real attention to their conversation.
". . . . . . . "
He smirked after taking a mental note and suddenly jumped off the Scorpion's head to the sandy ground below befall taking a couple of steps forward slowly towards the other two while folding his arms.
"I wonder what a Kunoichi from the Sand village supposed to do here with a brat from the Leaf..."
He scoffed. The giant scorpion suddenly vanished in a large puff of smoke.
Katsumi narrowed her eyes against him silently and took a step forward ahead of Kyuseishu while lifting her left arm to grab the Sharp flying ring attached to her back.
"... Let me just handle him and kick his ass! We shouldn't worry about the scorpion anymore."
She said and suddenly started to dash towards the Hunter while gripping the ring on her back without drawing it off.
"Katsumi! I told you he's in a whole different level than us, you shouldn't get close from him recklessly!"
Kyuseishu yelled at her but she ignored his warning and continued to run towards the hunter before jumping onwards as she quickly grabbed a hold of her ring from it's soft spot then she swiftly shoved it downwards towards the hunter's head while hissing out loud as she jumped at him.
"Take this!"
The hunter didn't move a step from his stance, he simply blocked her weapon with double edged Kunai using his left hand. The two weapons collided causing a sharp whizz as the hunter placed a step back firmly with his right foot to keep up with her momentum.
Kyuseishu squinted his brows watching them as he gritted his teeth in anger. It was too late for him to interfere and stop her.
"Damn it... I knew she's so Reckless..."
However, Katsumi seemed to have much confidence on herself more than Kyuseishu's confidence on her. She smirked smugly, using the advantage of gravity on her side and pressing her sharp Ring against the hunter's Kunai still without landing her feet on the ground.
"Heh!"
She scoffed noticing that he was grinding his teeth together to endure her momentum. Without loosening the pressure on him, she suddenly elevated her waist upwards and used her high agility to flip herself backwards and rotate in the air above the hunter swiftly before landing right behind him.
"!"
He blinked, surprised to her high velocity but before trying to make any defensive move, Katsumi lifted her right leg suddenly launching a spinning kick with her foot towards his shoulder from behind.
"I got you!"
She shouted but for her surprise, the Hunter ducked letting her foot swing one inch above his head. He leaned down until his nose nearly touched the sand and his body got paralleled with the ground, presuming another blows to follow from her. she blinked but he suddenly flipped himself over using his elbows to support himself onto the sand and making his back facing the ground now. Katsumi was halfway from landing her right foot after her kick missed him with an inch before turning to deliver another blow but he quickly retracted his right leg under him to give himself enough momentum then swiftly swung his other leg up with rotating motion aiming to knock out Katsumi's supportive left leg from under her before she lands her right foot and regain her balanced stance. She winced, releasing his aim but she quickly lifted up her left leg before his blow hits her, just high enough to reveal a big part of her well shaped thigh to him. Now with her both feet in the air, she elevated her torso up again and landed upside-down on the palms of her hands then she instantly flipped backwards two times away from the male before landing on her feet in a crouch.
"That was close..."
"You're not bad but I'm not that bad too..."
The Hunter taunted sarcastically while undusting his cloak from the dirt as he stood up, eying her with a death glare. The lashes of his eyes suddenly twitched realising too late that he totally moved his attention from Kyuseishu and his back is not guarded. He rolled his eyes to the side but Kyuseishu had already appeared behind him and threw a straight punch with his left fist from behind. The punch was mere inches away from reaching the back of the hunter's head but he stepped to the side swiftly dodging it then with high velocity he turned half circle around and grabbed Kyuseishu's dashing forearm tightly with his right hand.
"Too lame to attack from behind."
Kyuseishu remained calm and without any struggling he let the Hunter grab his arm but he simultaneously grasped the male's free arm firmly with his own free hand.
"Katsumi, now!"
The hunter was dumbfounded for a fraction of second but Katsumi had already received Kyuseishu's signal. She dashed towards both of them holding out her both opened palms. A small puff of smoke suddenly appeared around each hand of hers and soon as the smoke vanished, two Kunais were summoned in her hands. She gripped the tow Kunais tightly and quickly threw them forward towards the Hunter Who kept grabbing a hold of Kyuseishu's arm for a moment more. But soon as he realised the attack, he quickly released the male's arm and performed the half handseal of the Tiger, watching closely the two thrown Kunais hurrying towards him.
"I guess I'll quit playing around now."
He whispered as a large, thick amount of sand suddenly dashed upwards from the ground in front of him letting the two Kunais dive into the wall-shaped sand instead of harming him. The dashing amount of sand continued it's wild dash skyward while getting twice thicker and larger within seconds before curving it's path suddenly and heading outwards towards Katsumi with wild might. The female continued to observe the sand closely for a couple of seconds before eventually realising it's offensive aspect beside it's defensive usage that the Hunter just used to block her attack but she wasn't prepared for such kind of counter attack.
"What the hell!?"
She exclaimed nervously and jumped away from the way of the raging sand before it smashes into her.
Realising the current menace of the sand, Kyuseishu suddenly swung his left leg trying to deliver a surprising kick at the Hunter's side without letting go of his arm but the Hunter slapped away Kyuseishu's hand and slid back onto the sand with his feet avoiding the kick then jumped backwards few times swiftly before landing on a medium height sandy hill, while maintaining the half handseal of Ram to manipulate more sand around him with his released Chakra and making thick amounts of sand dash for Katsumi consecutively. She kept flipping backwards constantly from spot to spot trying to dodge the outbursts of sand but she soon started to pant as she landed in a crouch to catch her breathe for a brief moment.
"This is bad ... I can't keep up with these flows of sand!"
She puffed out her breathe again but her eyes suddenly went wide as another flow of sand fell directly towards her from above. She let out a shriek figuring that it's too late for her to dodge.
"Kya!"
As the shriek reached Kyuseishu's ear, he felt a violent shudder rolling into his spine. He was on the other side from the hill that the hunter had landed on so he couldn't watch clearly what was going on in the other side but Katsumi's shriek made him realise that she is in danger.
"Crap!"
He hissed nervously and quickly started to weave a string of handseals completed them with the Horse then Tiger handseal before lifting the handseal in front of his lips while glaring furiously towards the stranger, taking in a long inhale of air.
"I have no other choice... Fire Style - Grand Fire Ball Jutsu!"
A large steam of flames suddenly bursted out from Kyuseishu's mouth as he began to exhale, producing a great, ball shaped fire ball which travelled along the sandy ground with unexpected speed straight towards the Hunter, reaching him in no time. The entire sight was soon blurred completely with a huge cloud of dust and smoke caused by the collision of the fire and the surrounding sand. Kyuseishu stopped exhaling the flames from his mouth and began to pant lightly from exhaustion.
"I think I got him..."
...
A moment of utter silence occurred as the dust began slowly to vanish... seconds later, A silhouette of a human being was seen standing on top of a gigantic black corpse ... As the steam of dust was blown away from around the person completely, whom was the hunter himself, some of his brown reddish hair was revealed and a dark eyes underneath the burned cloth of his black mask. His face is seemingly uncovered!
Kyuseishu glared up towards him with a slight shock as he held down his arms slowly.
"You... Who the hell are you!?"
The red haired Hunter remained calm as he stared down towards Kyuseishu with expressionless face. He was standing ontop of the head of his giant scorpion gripping the side of his black gown. A huge part of it was burned as well.
"Nice one... You also can perform Ninjutsu, I thought kids nowadays deserted that art... Though you almost got me if I haven't saved myself at the very last moment."
His scorpion swung it's huge tail from side to side slowly as he spoke coldly but Kyuseishu had yet something else to be anxious about which is Katsumi. He grinded his teeth as he continued to glare fiercly towards the male while trying to figure out something out from his new look that might lead him to know his true identity which he was trying to hide behind the mask.
"...!"
The Hunter suddenly startled and slid onto his feet to the side without thinking, dodging a surprising punch shooted towards his head from behind.
"!"
He thought that his sand took care of the girl but she reappeared to flip over his calculations. Katsumi smirked as she pulled her fist back after missing him, slightly surprised that he managed to dodge it effectively but she quickly threw up her left foot towards his shoulder.
"Hmph!"
He surprisingly jumped onwards off the scorpion's head and away from the reach of her kick as The scorpion suddenly started to roar loudly, raising it's upper part.
"So you survived my sand attack huh..."
The Hunter murmured as kept dashing onwards in the air while the wind swished the remained part of his cloak.
Kyuseishu parted his legs slightly in a fighting pose as a grave glare mixed with worried expression appeared on his face. He was looking towards Katsumi now as the Hunter temporarily left his eyesight.
"KATSUMI BE CAREFUL!"
She heard his warning but she was already tripping with her feet on top of the scorpion's slippery head while having hard time trying to maintain her balance ontop of it.
"Eeek!"
She gasped as she lowered her upper half down and digged her long nails into the raging Scorpion's skin trying not to fall off but the scorpion kept swaying it's head from side to side roughly while roaring.
"Woah!"
The hunter eventually landed on the ground about ten meters away from Kyuseishu and smirked smugly looking towards him with firm eyes.
"You and that bitch wasted too much of my time... Now I will make an end for this."
he whispered with clear tone and clapped his hands together forming the Tiger handseal. His glare was filled with fury.
"Ninja arts - Sand Burial!"
Kyuseishu suddenly winced realizing that his feet started to drown downwards into the sand before he could even react. The spot around him began to swirl like a whirlpool and loosened making it hard for him to pull his feet up. He growled nervously and looked down only to see that his both knees were already surrounded by the sand only in a matter of second but he just smirked and glared towards the Hunter with a scoffing manner. He knew that there won't be any meaning of struggling after he got trapped.
"Heh... You got me."
He watched Katsumi land safely on the ground after passing a hard time ontop of the scorpion's head before flipping backwards few times consecutively to dodge the claws of the scorpion which continued to strike down the sandy ground aiming to impale her. Her eyes filled with panic suddenly as she casually shifted her head towards Kyuseishu's location realising that the scorpion has drived her a large distance away from him.
"NO! KYUSEISHU!"
She screamed his name out loudly watching the top of his head already getting drowned below the sand surface. She trembled and fell on her knees to the sand, closing her eyes slowly with despair while muttering with some words sorely. It was an unexpected shock for her to witness Kyuseishu getting sucked down easily like that without her being able to help him but... she figured it wasn't too late to rescue him yet if she hurries up and defeats that guy first. raising her Head back up weakly, she noticed the Giant scorpion standing just a few meters in front of her and was ready to strike again with it's huge claws.
"... I can't hold back... I can still save him..."
She stuttered and closed her eyes again tightly as she stopped shivering some.
'No, I've got to save him!'
she suddenly opened her eyes fiercely as the panic gaze on them turned to be a determined glare. then Soon, she swiftly started to weave a string of handseals. /Tiger-Boar-Bird-Monkey-Dog!/
"SUMMONING JUTSU!"
She yelled without slapping her hands against the ground, a huge cloud of smoke suddenly puffed around her as a Gigantic shadow elevated one second later from her spot...
After the cloud of smoke has completely blown off from around the spot, Katsumi was seen kneeling on top of the head of a Giant Dinosaur who's head elevated around twenty metres in the air. It's back and the edges of it's tail were covered with sharp scales and big thorns around it's head. It's size in total was nearly bigger than the giant scorpion of the hunter. Katsumi tapped it's head which was covered with minor scales as she started to pant heavily from the strain while glaring forward towards the Hunter who had landed again on top of the scorpion's head.
'Damn it... My Chakra is almost worn out... But I will stop him no matter what.'
She whispered to herself and gave the signal for her Dinosaur to charge at the enemy. The ground started to shake hard under the Dinosaur's massive feet as it started to dash straight towards the scorpion.
"Guaaah!"
The Hunter stared forward towards the dashing Dinosaur calmly with a half grin then he smacked his hand down against the scorpion's skin gently.
"... I am not planning to waste more time here with you little girl... But make sure that if we meet again, I won't let you alive." 'I had to use a too much Chakra in this battle...I didn't expect this resistance from them...'
He whispered to himself as a big cloud of smoke suddenly spreaded around the scorpion and covered them. Soon it vanished leaving no trace to any creature behind...
Katsumi bit her lower lip painfully with depression as she fell off the Dinosaur's head to the sandy ground on her four limbs. Her Dinosaur soon vanished leaving a small clouds of smoke floating around her.
"Ugh..."
A few sweat drops fell down to the ground across her chin as she kept staring down with widened pale eyes not wanting to believe what just happened in front of her eyes. She was supposed to meet him today but that Hunter was faster than her in taking him out...
"I am... I am useless..."
She muttered weakly and raised up her head feeling that her tears were betraying her and not wanting to drop off her eyes although she wanted to cry with all of her strength. She started to sob instead as she began to creep on her knees slowly towards the spot where she had seen Kyuseishu last time before he sank below the sand's surface.
"Forgive me..."
Her quivering tone faded away as she collapsed to the ground on her stomach after reaching halfway the distance towards her destination...