In order to drive the targets away from Rin and Hinata, Shirou had made a bold move. With her Byakugan eyes, Rin could count all one thousand one hundred and twenty five swords that now littered the field.
The Thaumaturgy surrounding his 'Sword Barrels' skill revolved around a self-hypnosis that takes advantage of the human tendency to preform a certain type of logical fallacy; saying that a group as a whole possesses a quality because the members within possess that same quality, sometimes described as a false abstraction. For example, all the members in a group have five balls, therefore the group has five balls. In Shirou's case, a group of swords must itself be a sword.
Through this technique, he could work around the limited working memory for storing blades after they have been traced but before they have been projected into reality, the limit usually being around eight blades at a time. By grouping several hundreds of blades together and treating them as if they were only a single sword he could push them all into a single one of those eight slots, letting him bring out a practical wave of swords at once.
However it wasn't without its shortcomings. The blades still had to be traced one by one before being added to the group, and there was a mental strain to maintain the hypnosis, making it impossible to store the traced swords forever. Also, since the group was not in truth a sword, he could not save them together as a blueprint in his Unlimited Blade Works for later use.
Shirou at his best could trace three mundane swords a second. Time that number by sixty seconds in a minute and then times it by sixty again to convert into hours and you have roughly one thousand eighty swords an hour. In order to prepare another assault like the one he had just unleashed, Shirou would need another hour to prepare.
Not only that, he had now gone from the offensive position of attacking a group that was completely unaware of his abilities, to a defensive position, having to stand between the group of ninja and the girls he had come to rescue, with the skill set of the ninja largely unknown beyond what he could learn from their weapons and the vague at best information from his sixth sense.
For Emiya Shirou, this would be no problem at all. For Ena Kuroshi, there were several problems. Though he could create any sword in his unlimited collection, he lacked the physical height to wield many of them properly. The reason for which he was forced to use a second rate (by his standards) bow and normal arrows in place of his usual massive black great bow and the long steel projectiles that looked more like spears than arrows.
He also lacked the fortitude to active any of the more powerful effects. If he traced and attempted to use any even mid ranking Noble Phantasm, it would more than likely crush his body with the strain, regardless his skill with reinforcement. Trying to use Caliburn would rip his arms clean off for sure.
Rin contemplated all these things in an instant, weighing her options. In a different time, she would have felt a small bit of pride, knowing such details about Shirou's abilities. The fact that he shared them with her was proof of his absolute trust in her, that and his stupidity as a magus, but mostly the trust thing. Close as they were, Rin had not always shared all of her secrets so readily as Shirou shared his with her. However, the presence of her Hinata, crying as she hugged onto Rin's side, prevented her from acting in her usual unconcerned manner.
Shirou's surprise attack had greatly cut down on the enemy's numbers, but they were still far from out of danger. Hinata was a weak point for them. If the ninja got her, then both Shirou and Rin would be forced to surrender again. But, even if Rin tried to take the little girl and run, the Kumo ninja were faster than her, and Shirou couldn't stop them all from pursuing her.
"Shirou, take my little sister and run." Rin said in English, not wanting Hinata to know that she planned on sacrificing herself. "You're faster than I am. If I buy you time so you can get her to safety."
"I'm not leaving you." Shirou said shortly, not even looking in her direction. He was already set up between the two sisters and the ninja. His bow had vanished and in his hands were the Married Blades, Kanshou and Bakuya. The black and white blades had always seemed rather fat for one hand swords, but now, with the decrease in Shirou's stature, they looked more like broad swords in his tiny hands. He was having to change his stance just to deal with the extra length. "I will save you both."
Rin glared at the back of his head, but then just sighed. "I suppose informing you that this isn't your fight would be just wasting my breath." She knew Shirou. She knew that he would not make sacrifices out of the people he cared about. Nor did he ever listen to reason.
"That's right. Words have no place on the battlefield." Shirou said before rushing forward to intercept three of the ninja who were closing in on them. Two had swords drawn while the other seemed to be bare handed, instead covering his body in Earth Chakra.
Rin gave a small smile and a shake of the head. "Then I shall entrust my fate to your sword, Emiya Shirou." She said, feeling a bit nostalgic, despite herself.
"Onee-san?" Hinata said through her tears, confused by her sister's words.
Rin patted Hinata's head and she carefully freed herself from her sister's arms. "Don't worry Hinata-chan, Shirou and I will keep you safe."
"Shirou-nii?" Hinata said, looking over at the boy as if noticing he was there for the first time. The four year old girl's eyes widened at what she saw.
Shirou was fending off three full grow ninja at the same time, keeping himself positioned so that they couldn't move around him and avoiding and countering each of their attacks. Hinata had only had a year's worth of combat training, and none of it had been with weapons, so she couldn't say much about Shirou's style. But she could see his energy flowing within him. His entire body glowing from his body's reinforcements. That strange chakra that only he and her sister had was gathered into his hands in the form of blades.
Shirou deflected another sword strike aimed for a gap he left in his right side and retaliated with a quick rush and swipe. The move was unfortunately dodged and left more openings in Shirou's stance, but that didn't matter at all. Shirou knew exactly where each opening was and which one his opponents would aim for.
Shirou would purposely leave openings in his guard in order to draw in attacks, however, he would already know where those attacks would fall and would be moving to deflect the attacks before his opponents even knew they were going to preform them. It was a skill that could never be gained through normal means. The amount of insight into your enemies forms was too great for anyone to reasonably know. If you didn't have enough knowledge, or if your timing was off by a moment, then you would die. No one could have any mastered such a stupid style. And it was because of its complete impossibility that stopped people from seeing through the technique.
His enemies had a longer reach then him, they could strike faster, and they were stronger. But none of that matter. So long as he could get the timing right, they would not be able to beat him. In a way, he was lucky that Kumogakure was a village that focused so heavily on the use of swords in conjunction with their chakra techniques.
So long as the swords were providing him key information about his enemies' timing and style, they would not be able to beat him, not without a much higher difference in power than existed between them. In truth, it was only the man who used his bare hands combined with his chakra that was giving Shirou a little trouble, though he did his best to mask that fact.
Even though the man's reach was significantly lower and his speed was not the most incredible, his chakra sat heavy around his body in an inch thick layer that was as hard as diamonds, and even Kanshou and Bakuya were unable to cut all the way through its protection.
"Blinding and Swift, what I seek is Thunder!" The pressure was relieved a bit as several bolts of lightning moved around Shirou, aiming for the ninja. The two sword weilders managed to evade, but the man in his stone like chakra armor was too slow and was struck, being nailed to the ground by Rin's lightning spell moving through his system.
Shirou took full advantage of the breathing room and began to chant. "A horrible miracle! Spring of life from bloody soil! Nobility that stems from sin! Beauty born in tragic flames! For this, I will never forget your sacrifice!"
Bright orange flames engulfed the twin blades as Shirou swung them outwards, unleashing two short waves of fire that intersected in such a way as to make them seem like two wings of a fiery bird before dissipating a few feet later, though not before pushing away the two sword ninja and covering the third in a fire which quickly burned him to a crisp.
The Fire Chakra within the blades died down until it was only present as a small network of glowing orange lines on the two different colored blades. To all the ninja it would look like a simple Chakra Flow ability, which in some ways it was, though the means for performing it was different.
Shirou had quickly found when experimenting with chakra that just like with his magecraft, his perverse perception of reality was interfering with his ability to transform the nature of the chakra. So any jutsu that required a chakra nature would be forever out of his reach. However he had deviced a small work around.
In Rin's own words, the technique "couldn't be anymore like you, Shirou". It was both a complement and a sign of tired resignation. The idea behind his new skill was ingenious, insane, impossible, and involved swords.
Even though Chakra could be channeled into object, by its very nature it would only undergo elemental transformations inside of a living being, due to the need for unique life force and spiritual energies.
It was by using his own confused reality and reinforcement magic that Shirou blurred the line between living and not living, pulling from the sword's history in order to create a pseudo spirit, allowing for the potential for chakra to be transformed. Then by connecting the sword's potential for chakra to his own chakra supplies, he could use the blade to transform the element of the chakra for him.
Now at a range, the ninja started to try to throw kunai and throwing stars at him, but Shirou simply judged the weapons' paths and moved out of the way, letting some pass just inches away from his face without so much as blinking. However, it seemed that the commander had had enough and was coming in himself.
Throwing the sheath of his six foot long tachi blade to the side, he rushed in with a two handed swing. Blue sparks erupted from the long blade as it was filled with lightning chakra, the air humming with the sound of vibrating metal.
Smoke was kicked up by the explosion of the blade rushing down into the ground. The Kumo ninja backed away from the spot, not wanting to be caught up in their commander's attacks.
At first, they had assumed that the boy would have died instantly from such an attack, but then the sound of metal striking against metal echoed out from the dust cloud before both fighters came rushing out of the smoke, continuing to exchange blows. Each time the blades met, small blue and orange sparks jumped through the air. The relentless flurry of blades dissuading any attempt to get near the two of them.
However, with the strange weapon using child driven out of the way, the remaining ninja had a clear path to the two girls who were their true targets from the beginning.
The two groups had rotated, the two remaining from the first assault against Shirou moved back as the other three pushed forward with chains and steel coils to try to retrain the children. As capturing the children was their only goal, lethal force was out of the question, even if that made things much harder for them.
Rin activated the circuits in her her magic crest, giving her access to the one line spells held within it without the need to use incantations or runes. Lifting up her left arm, she uncoiled her fingers towards the targets and started to unleash spell after spell. "Gandr! Gandr! Gandr!" The black light curses flew though the air, moving fast, but not quiet fast enough to catch the ninja, just forcing them to slow their progression in order to avoid a hit.
Once they were in range, they through their restrains at her, using their chakra to guide it.
"Kraftr!" Rin shouted with a wide sweep of her arm, releasing a pulse of prana that displaced the air and knocked the ninja tools aside. Then bringing her hands together, she started to make hand signs. Dragon. Rabbit. Tiger. "Fire Release: Breath of Fire!" The stream of fire moved too slowly to catch the ninja, but as they were forced to move back, the flames blocked their vision of the follow up. "Gandr!" The curse moved through the wall of fire and managed to catch one of the ninja on his shoulder. The blast hadn't made a good enough hit to take the man down, but muscles tissue burst in a most painful fashion as the curse did its work. Not a finishing blow, but it would take him out of using most weapons and jutsu until Rin could finish the job.
Rin didn't have time to continue to throw out curses. Her eyes drifted down to the ground where underneath the surface, she could see the two ninja who had pulled back moving about towards her and her little sister, trying to catch them off guard. Snake. Clam. Snake. Tiger. "Earth Release: Earth Flow River!"
The ground turned to mud and began to move away quickly, pulling the two tunneling ninja out from underneath its surface and moving them away in a river of loose earth.
Slamming a palm onto the ground, Rin opened up her magic circuits again. "Analyzing composition. Identifying desired compounds. Hypothesising restructuring process. Alchemy." Using a basic spell, Rin brought out the more flammable elements hidden within the mud. Then, adding a spark from her Fire Chakra, she ignited it.
Fire zipped along the river of mud, towards the two ninja who were struggling to escape it. It would have roast them to a crisp if their allies hadn't stepped in. "Water Release: Water Dragon!" The water in the nearby stream came to life and jumped up in the shape of a serpent-like dragon and dove down onto the flaming soil, smothering the fire and loosening the mud to the point where the trapped ninja could escape.
Then things turned from bad to worse as Rin found the number of enemies increasing. "Summoning Jutsu!" Five large white furred tigers covered in shiny metal armor appeared from a massive burst of smoke.
"Summoning us to nab little girls. How insulting." One of the beasts growled in annoyance.
"Don't underestimate her. She isn't normal." The ninja summoner warned before instructing the ninja animals to go on the offensive. The animals formed up and began in a wide circle around the two girls, slowly drawing it in closer and closer. Rin was going through her list of spells and jutsu, trying to find one that would help when surrounded. Most of her jutsu were focused on a single direction or a short burst. She didn't have anything that could fend off an attack from all sides for more than a moment. Jutsu like that consumed too much power.
Two of the tigers began to lung from either side of her, with another preparing to follow. Chanting a quick line in Nordic she expelled a more powerful Kraftr spell, swinging her arms out wide and pivoting around to throw it in all directions, hitting all three tigers and blasting them away over fifty feet.
But when the last two came charging in a moment later, Rin was still not ready for another burst. She put her arms around Hinata, trying to use her body to shield the small girl from being hurt by the summon beasts.
The animals were just a few yards away when dozens of kunai landed on the ground in from of them. The ninja tigers were too shocked to change their path and the moment they were over the kunai, the explosive tags attached to them detonated into several clouds of multicolored smoke.
Rin looked up in confusion when she could swear she heard an actual drumroll playing. Standing inside of the smoke was a familiar character. "Never fear, for the true hero of this story has finally arrived." Anko said as the wind blew away her multicolored smoke cloud to reveal her standing triumphantly with kunai in hand. Her usual crazy smile still in place.
"Anko-nee-san?" Hinata said in surprise.
The Kumo ninja took a step back. "Mitarashi Anko." One of them said, sounding a bit put off by it.
Young as she might be, Anko was still a Tokubetsu Jounin, and a skilled one at that. Some said that the only reason she wasn't an all around Jounin was because of some uncomfortable issues in her past scaring the council, rather than any missing spots in her skill. She had made a pretty big name for herself on a curtain S-rank mission before transferring into intelligence work to make sure she never did anything that crazy ever again.
Her grand entrance, sacrificing the element of surprise said it all. She was so confident that she would slaughter these Kumo ninja, that she didn't need to take them out from the shadows.
"That's right. These little monsters are under my protection, so if you want to get at them, you will need to deal with me." Anko said, bringing up her kunai in front of her face. "Soon my fang will taste your blood." She said giving the metal blade a lick.
"Anko-san, you ditched work again? You were hoping to sneak into the picnic, weren't you?" Rin said accusingly as she returned to her feet, putting her hands on her hips and giving Anko a sly smile. "You have such a horrible work ethic."
Anko staggered a little. "H... how could you say that at a time like this!" Anko shouted, a small flush coming to her face at being called out in front of the bad guys. "I came all the way here to rescue you girls and guy and this is how you thank me!? You should be showering me in gratitude for this!"
Rin giggled. "I'm sorry. I'll make sure that Shirou treats you to some dango later."
Immediately a smile spread back across the young woman's face. "Now that is more like it!" She said, not really carrying who was watching her. A particularly large crashing sound drew her attention towards where Shirou was fighting the main bad guy. One of Shirou's blades had been broken, only for another to be formed in the blink of an eye to take its place without missing a beat. "So what's the story behind this? You little monsters have been holding out on me."
"Um... well... I don't think this is the right time to be discussing that." Rin said nervously, using body language to indicate the ninja who were starting to regroup.
"Suppose not, but you better tell me later." Anko said with a shrug, as snakes slowly lowered themselves down from inside of her over coat, rushing outwards across the ground. "Lets get this over with. I want my dango after all."
Rin was unsure whether to give a sigh of relief or to curse her luck... or Shirou's luck. On one hand, Anko's appearance was a massive boon for the fight. On the other hand, she was a witness that Rin and Shirou wouldn't want to kill, and Magus did not like witnesses. There was little doubt that she would report all the amazing things she saw to her superiors, leading to more people than she would like knowing about her and Shirou's skills. Shirou was like her ultimate trump card, so she didn't like the idea of him being revealed this early in the game.
Oh well, It wasn't as if Shirou's skills would stay a secret forever anyways. It was going to make things more difficult in the near future. Maybe if she was lucky they could bribe the snake charmer with sweets.
None of my explanations are canon, unless completely by mistake. I pull everything out of my ass. You feel like flaming me for that, fuck you too... I mean go head.
Anko's nicknames for people
Shirou - Shirou-chan
Rin - Princess
Hinata - Sunshine (derived from the fact that her name means sunflower)
Naruto - Little Fox
Collectively - My Little Monsters (yes she is possessive)