The reverberations of Disuke's chakra that ran through the forest entirely absorbed the sounds of the clashing foes in front of him. Mizuki leapt across the branches and shifted behind a huge bole to cut off her pursuing foe. Yosuke chose to keep pushing his attack, his blade shrieking down like a pulsating chakra beam, cutting the ten meter wide branch loose and tearing into the bole. The huge appendage of the bole almost writhed as it began to fall, but was abruptly caught by a quick wind jutsu and blown upward, spiraling up and through the canopy.
Yosuke clenched his teeth, retracted his arm, and snapped it forward. An instant of anger was all Mizuki needed. As the branch soared away, Yosuke was forced to bridge his gap in distance towards the ground. At that instant, Mizuki's blade came flickering down down towards Yosuke's hand, nearly cutting it at the wrist, and forcing Yosuke to redirect his momentum carrying him away safely.
The pain was barely noticeable. Yosuke felt the humid air touch his flesh and he looked his forearm, moving his hand across the bottom of his armpit, noting where Mizuki's blade could've slashed.
She's extremely skilled. I was faster just now in our exchange, had I been a little slower...
He stepped backward along the rows of branches, finally reaching its central bole, slowly paced by the ever observant woman. Abruptly, ominously, the reverberations began to subside as Disuke's chakra stabilized. Yosuke clenched his teeth, squaring his gaze on Mizuki while firmly clasping his weapon with both hands.
The jutsu is almost ready...I can maintain that speed again...
"You won't push me like you'd push the others. " Mizuki warned, nearing Yosuke like a panther about to lunge, her blade gleaming with each step. "You are strong with chakra. You must learn the hard way. It is a shame your training wasn't ever complete."
Yosuke didn't blink as he made his response. "I am Senju. My training was complete years ago."
"If you only knew..." Mizuki continued. "Disuke never told you why you should respect me as an opponent, did he? You seen it just now when I made that tear in your sleeve."
The mention of respecting Mizuki was enough to ignite Yosuke's anger. "He told me enough about you, Domou...I got to see you in action. He told me you killed an entire unit of Senju. I seen you cut down three of my kinsmen in a single movement."
"Your anger..." Mizuki paused, maintaining her calm as she stared at Yosuke. "Will not sit well with Hashirama Senju at some point."
Yosuke stared with slight disbelief, then blew off the feeling altogether.
"That is my concern." Yosuke said, refusing to give into his feelings.
"It is. Just like Satoshi had his own concerns." Mizuki said, sounding more detached than annoyed.
"I am not like Satoshi."
"Your concerns may differ slightly, but you two were always on the same page. Disuke has always been your main sensei, but Satoshi taught you that speed you displayed just now." Mizuki kept her chakra pulsating into her blade and extended into the Migi Gedan stance.
For an instant Yosuke felt bewildered, maybe it was the mention of his former kinsmen, or the stance she was taking against him, but whatever it was, it made him tense up for an instant. "You know nothing! Shut up!"
Mizuki looked from Yosuke back to Disuke, noting the older of the two was kneading less chakra than before. He really intends to change the landscape entirely...No sense in kneading any chakra now to counter that. I'll make my openings and wait...
Mizuki kept her eyes fixated, until she saw the Disuke's body being sucked into a large whirlpool of chakra. When his chakra flickered before vanishing for a brief instant, the younger woman quickly darted away, sliding across the ground until she found purchase. Disuke's chakra was speeding through the landscape, streamlined into the blade of his weapon.
His chakra hit the bottom of the ground as far as he could go, his feet digging hard against where he stood. The ground, which opened over a bottomless drop, was filled, and he felt his chakra start to spear upwards and cyclone. Frantically clawing at the smooth interior of the landscape, Disuke began to grip it with all of his might and willpower.
"Doton..." He breathed out desperately, his body starting to shake from the strain as he locked his fingers into the dragon seal.
"He's actually doing it..." Mizuki breathed out, shock rimming in her eyes.
Yosuke lunged towards her. Mizuki's blade flickered like a needle, neutralizing Yosuke's initial, wild attack then deflected half a dozen lethal blows to her chest and abdomen. But instead of toppling, the body turned into a log, the younger man kept coming from her flank using the substitution jutsu as cover, never even breaking stride. She pivoted, flickering to the side at the last possible instant, arcing her blade around. Yosuke never stopped, his momentum carrying him straight forward.
Disuke had a moment to register the strange pulse of chakra, forcing him to adjust his own in moderation. Then he, too, leapt to the side, keeping his weapon gouged in the ground, to avoid being slammed into and thrown for several meters.
Yosuke unleashed a wave of lightning, gathering and releasing his chakra at quick bursts, kneading it as he had to when it called for it. Mizuki slammed her hands together, throwing up a water barrier to shield herself, bracing as the electric storm tore right into it and arced in every direction, struggling to push beyond the spiraling cyclone in a roar of force. T
hen suddenly Disuke was there to save his life, repaying a debt that was only a few seconds old as he threw himself in front of him. He switched elements seamlessly, lightning and earth, one to counter Mizuki's water, the other to fuel his own counter, his arms and fingers became a blur as they carved in the air to catch and absorb the bolts of chakra firing off through his finger tips.
Mizuki formed two hand seals, following up the cyclonic water wall with wind gales of pure aggression. Yosuke rushed ahead of Disuke to begin the second charge. He veered high, viciously slashing at her ears, attempting to leave his opponent cleft completely. His weapon only carved through air, slashing through nearby boles and trunks, Mizuki slipped his attacks at the very last second with each arc he took.
Yosuke snarled, growing tired of the elusive dodging, and brought his weapon up in a diagonal arc upward at Mizuki, who transitioned away from it, attempting to trap her opponent's weapon at the point of intersection. But, chakra flared from Yosuke and ignited within his weapon, nearly distracting her, and at the last instant his weapon pulled back and he swung an elbow around, missing her ribs as she parried this attack. She took a breath, exhaling harshly, and lifted herself off her feet.
She slid back a few feet, taking another deep breath, her feet finding purchase as she sucked in air. Then she stopped, and stared at her two attackers carefully, keeping herself composed when Yosuke dropped into a defensive stance to meet her charge.
He's still igniting chakra into the ground...Whatever he's planning is going to be huge...He's already formed the dragon seal, used two elements at the same time...At this rate... Mizuki eyed Disuke with a new caution and growing anger.
She snapped her hands together, flexing her fingers in the Ram seal.
"Yosuke. Cover me." Disuke said, staring at Mizuki with a new measure of respect.
"The clone has a different handle on their weapon!" Yosuke gasped as he hastily adjusted his stance, blocking the first and second wave of attacks before he had to break the distance.
Disuke noticed the arcing‐handled blade of his enemy, and the unusual two hand grip it required. This would alter the nature of the attacks, causing them to come in from odd and unfamiliar angles whenever a thrust was initiated. Disuke recognized, processed, and reacted to this in a fraction of a second, allowing him to adjust his foe's weapon's course just enough to deflect a strike that would have slipped along the edge of Yosuke's blade and cleft into his arm.
Even so, the strength behind the attack tore the earth tendril from his shoulder, sending him skidding across the ground. Knowing that her blade work alone couldn't penetrate Yosuke's armor, she jumped and swept his legs out from under him, Yosuke reacted instantly, turning his fall into a spring that left him struggling to maintain his grip on the ground. However, this allowed Disuke to look over and reach out with his chakra, forcing several tendrils to stretch out from his hand.
"You're losing control."
Disuke stared at Mizuki hard, struggling against the new weight in his arms. They felt like jelly and his fingers were trembling, unable to stay aligned. "Don't be so sure about that..."
Mizuki spun back, rocketing away and going into her own defensive sequence as Yosuke had taken the offensive, sending quick flicks of his blade toward her unprotected face‐the only spot on her body not covered by the impenetrable armor.
Yosuke shouted at Disuke. "Fire it! Even if I'm in the way!"
Disuke grinned with malicious intent, gathering the chakra necessary to throw up another protective barrier should Mizuki try to unleash her wind jutsu on him again.
She seemed to be everywhere at once‐in front of Yosuke, beside him, behind him, circling low, leaping to come in high, deflecting his blade with one of her own then stabbing three quick times in succession at his eyes. The man's blade slashed and arced, twisting and turning to deflect her blows as he tried to mount a counteroffensive.
Mizuki's dexterity of her blades was unparalleled, but even with her talents, she wasn't able to land a telling blow on such a small target through the combined defense of her foes. Still, the ferocity of her new strategy had turned the momentum in her favor, and with a tug of chakra she launched a large piece of debris forcing it to detach itself from the ground and hurtled it at his back. Yosuke lunged, flashing his weapon and cut the debris in half easily, and the two massive pieces smashed into the ground. A second projectile sped toward Yosuke, and again he used his weapon to cleft it in two. The massive branch bounced away as if it had been struck by a blow, and Yosuke turned only to see a large bole darting towards him. Even as Yosuke managed to cut through the enormous chunk debris, branches, leaves, and smaller pieces of wreckage from battle came flying at him from all directions. Vines writhed, pulling themselves out of the earthen walls, twisting and whipping and gripping at him.
Bombarded on all sides, Yosuke did what he could to deflect the assault. He was beginning to get bloodied and bruised in the exchange. Another large branch glanced off Yosuke's body and crashed right into a large bole, rupturing the ground for several meters behind the spot. Everything in the area was thrown about, and the wave of force nearly smashed into his body and filled the terrain with a resounding boom.
Yosuke agilely flew across the branches and took refuge behind a huge bole. Mizuki was there in an instant, her blade swiping down like a cleaver blade, slashing into the it and sending bark flying for several feet. Yosuke stepped backward until he reached the end of the branch, paced closely by Mizuki and her blade, and Yosuke realized he had to launch himself through the canopy and above it to do anything worthwhile.
"You're strong." Mizuki said in a much more stern tone, slowly bringing herself to a stop.
"You won't convince me with a taunt like that."
"You can't go further against me." Mizuki said, her expression like her tone being blank but crisp. "I planned some jutsu in advance."
As she spoke those words, a final piece of heavy debris soared through the air, striking the young man, and it was only with a quick twist that he avoided being smashed into a nearby bole. Everything became a great blur as the ground carried him, swirling and twisting, until he managed to grab hold of a branch with one hand. When the ground stopped moving and his vision cleared, Yosuke realized that he was hanging from a branch by an extension of the earth, that jabbed into the ground with four protrusions, and one huge earthen wall stretching all the way to Disuke.
When he gazed closer he saw that Disuke had taken a perch on a branch as well, where his weapon has been was now just the earthen wall extending along with the protrusions that allowed him to remain balanced so high up.
A wave of realization swept over him and he squeezed his eyes closed in an effort to keep from giving into his anger.
"Yosuke..." Disuke said, his tone calm, reaching him from his perch nearby. "I told you before, you need to respect her."
"She'll-"
"We're playing into her favor now. Her clones did what she intended them to do."
Yosuke did as he was told. His eyes set on Mizuki and he didn't flinch or blink. He looked at her completely for the first time. Her eyes were sharp and clear, like she could see and know things in advance. There was a glimmer in them, a spark that had more depth that he was willing to admit. He realized, her greatest ability, was her ability to analyze and observe even in the most intense moments.
He took note of how everything was closed off around them. They'd either need to worm their way through the smallest of openings, or they'd need to launch themselves over the canopy. That was if Mizuki would let them. The way she looked. She was comfortable with their positions so far, even if they maintained the high ground at the moment.
She closed us in, even after all of that...We lost sight of her...Not to mention Disuke needed to cover for me with a defensive ninjutsu-that things spans for miles.
Yosuke clenched his teeth.
Had Hashirama expected this to happen?
Why would he send them here if they were to only be captured in the long run?
"I'll give you both one more chance. Cancel the ninjutsu and relax your chakra. Come with me until Hashirama comes to get you both."
"You expect me to do that?" Yosuke struggled against the outrage pulsing through him.
"All things considered. It's the only thing we can do." Disuke said, his tone calm as he and Mizuki set their gaze on each other.
Yosuke whirled on him.
"I think I understand what Hashirama-sama intended. She was told to bring us back alive. I presume they want a conversation with Hashirama-sama, in which using us they get that now. Something they wouldn't be able to get otherwise. Likewise. With us being here we're disturbing their peace, in order to keep that balance, they will have a discourse to clear up that energy."
"More than the enemy of my enemy being my friend." Mizuki clarified for Yosuke who looked baffled.
Yosuke bit his tongue, looking toward Disuke who only nodded. "I'm having a hard time with this..."
Disuke clicked his tongue, noting how his hand wasn't shifting back to normal. "it was show there was a pathway for conversation, and more so..."
Mizuki carefully kept her blade parallel with them, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly. "I'm not sure what they want with Hashirama-sama. Gotou Yuki and Daishiro Shimura wanted you guys alive. I was entrusted with that..."
"A variable that has to deduced." Yosuke realized with wide eyes.
"Something like that."