Within a second Kakashi appeared by Shikamaru and looked to Sakiya before asking, "can you heal?"
"I can, but his injuries are minor. We should be able to hold off for a bit," She answered as she approached the others, she reached into her bag taking out a pair of what seemed to be black leather gloves however before she could put them on she could sense a similar sensation again. She spun bringing her blade up to meet the attack, however Kakashi had beat her to it and was blocking the attack with his own katana.
Sakiya blinked, her eyes growing wide at the sight of the blade. She knew it had been gifted to him as a child but she also knew that blade had shattered.
It was a Wakizashi blade with maroon hilt wrapping. It was quite a bit smaller compared to her own katana, the white hilt wrapping was a perfect match to the camellias that decorated the pale lavender sheath, and the daffodil shaped guard.
Kakashi kept an intense glare on Seinosuke, but his eyes quickly grew in surprise at the man being able to cut into the blade itself. Noticing this Sakiya extended a single finger at Seinosuke and unleashed another concussive blast of energy at him, shoving him back away from Kakashi.
The former Lieutenant blinked as he realized that the girl was now clashing her blade against his, driving him further away from the humans before pushing him away from her.
The man righted himself, and came to a halt in mid air, he smirked at her as he concluded, "you actually care for these meat sacks."
"Considering you're a former 'meat sack' yourself, that's really telling of your self-perception," she countered.
"I see- you see them as the pathetic wastes they are. You should join our cause-"
"Don't insult me, Seinosuke. I know exactly what you were doing," She interrupted. The air became ladened with a heavy mixed floral scent of jasmine, lilies, camellias, and roses. The sweet stench made his nose twitch while she plainly stated, "you were about to activate your Shikai on that human. I knew you were a filthy snake, but I never thought you'd stoop so low. Him, I could understand, but you… you have a little brother that probably still idolizes you—and you would-"
She clenched her blade so tightly it trembled in effort to contain her outrage. He smirked as he reiterated, "you actually care for these pathetic humans."
"I pity you," Sakiya confessed. At this the man's gleeful demeanor turned sour his intense glare was nearly suffocating as he demanded, "What did you just say?"
"I pity you," She repeated. He screamed as he charged at her she was quick to deflect his blade. He began attacking her relentlessly, trying his best to corner her against something, however just when he thought he'd have her, she'd flip things around so she wasn't backed against a wall. After roughly five minutes he realized he wasn't going to trap her so he began to try to wear her down mentally, "you're an abomination. You don't get to pity me, little girl. I pity you! You think your Daddy would ever accept you? With his social status, he'd be the first to scream for your execution! You think you're better than me? You're no better than those beasts you claim to purify! You've never been to the academy. You've never been part of a squad. You don't have a rank. You're nothing!"
To his chagrin, she looked at him calmly, a sad smile spreading across her lips as she acknowledged, "There's truth to everything you just said, but some of it is pure assumption."
Seinosuke scowled intensely as he looked to Shikamaru who was still using his shadow paralysis jutsu to hold the blond man in place. Seinosuke yelled as he sent a large blast of kido energy towards the black-haired shinobi.
Naruto cried out "Shikamaru!"
The blink of an eye Kakashi stood as a barrier between Shikamaru and the oncoming attack only to never feel the impact and a second later see the raven-haired girl in front of him. Her sword had changed in appearance the tsuba extending upwards now making her sword resemble a flower.
Seinosuke's eyes widened as he asked, "y-you blocked that?"
Sakiya had a bored expression on her face as she inquired, "was I born yesterday?"
She flipped her hair behind her shoulder as she explained, "blocking that attack would've caused it to disperse to either side, still harming humans. So no, Seinosuke, I didn't foolishly block your enraged use of kido—I nullified it with a kido blast of my own of the same strength and density. I'm certain you know kido-type wielders can be quite versatile in their attacks."
"Kido? How! You're of Takahashi blood—you should-"he was cut off once again by Sakiya, who had rolled her eyes into the back of her head.
"—should be an elemental, blah, blah, blah. Like I haven't heard that a million times from those creatures you creeps keep unleashing on this world. Not every Takahashi wields an element," She interjected.
He observed her momentarily before he gained a sly smirk and remarked, "I see it now. You may not have the Takahashi type of blade—but you certainly have the other trait unique to the clan. I've been watching you and you haven't had a single opportunity to heal yourself, yet your injuries have healed and you prefer to fight barefoot. I get it. You're healing Kiyoshi's more complex injuries by utilizing the sun—which he wields as a blade. I'm going to bet you'll do the same with Minori—taking her somewhere with water to submerge her so she can heal quicker—that's the other reason why you Takahashi are difficult to defeat—the elements that correspond with your Zanpakuto also heal you without having to use Kaido."
She remained silent while his smirk grew as he inquired, "but then—what of your mother? She's not an elemental like the other two. How will you heal her?"
Sakiya closed her eyes for a moment to maintain her calm composure but a second later opened her eyes and had just enough time to push Kakashi out of the way before Seinosuke's blade seemed to pierce her. Then she seemed to explode into light. Off to the side and hidden under curved light Sakiya held her side where Seinosuke's blade had struck her. She panted a little at the pain from the injury, but hoped against hope that maybe the fact that he'd struck a curved light clone instead of her would be enough to protect her from his shikai. However she didn't hold much hope. That kido spell was a powerful method for misdirection but it came at a price: when the light clone is defeated the injuries it took during its existence are transferred to the caster. 'Damn it. I can't beat them both. If Shikamaru's jutsu starts to fail, I'm done for- and despite what I thought I can't stand the idea of the humans getting hurt,' she realized.
Meanwhile in soul society a man who stood not even an inch below 6' tall hunched over, his hand pressing against his side. It felt as if someone had sliced him with a blade, and yet he knew the injury was not to him. He momentarily caught his breath before his memory connected this sensation with a feeling he'd been struck with before, years ago as a teenager. At this realization he immediately discarded his haori, leaving it on his chair behind his office desk. He stood straight, his dark raven locks coming down to his shoulder blades. He removed the kenseikan from his hair, placing them neatly on his desk and uttered a phrase below his breath. After doing so he seemingly vanished from the squad's office just as his red-haired Lieutenant walked in.
