The sound of a small squirt of liquid splattering over the castle ruins made any creepers lurking on the walls, waiting for another one of their kind to creep by just so they could feast on their insides, creep away. It was not a gruesome death that stood behind the noise and it was not blood that colored the ancient structure walls. It was Kusagoro spitting over his shoulder in frustration.
"Shit, I must've taken a wrong turn somewhere..." he cursed as he was moving quite fast and yet he still hasn't found his son and the others that accompanied him. The only explanation that with all his speed would've still kept him behind was getting lost. He wasn't able to really get into his speed reserves because the place was filled with non-functional traps, sharp twists and turns and bottomless pits that went nowhere. He was still faster than those twerps could've possibly been...
The sound of squirming alerted Kusaguro as his entire body was instantly surrounded by golden sand. The golden grains concentrated into a structure that resembled a cocoon of some sort, a spherical coffin of death that lifted into the air.
"Desert Funeral..." Regalia's cold voice chanted out as the sphere was crushed grinding anyone inside to dust. The technique was lethal to ninja even when used by genin, strong enough to grind stone to dust, strong enough to tear steel apart. When used by Regalia and her unmatched golden sand it should've been enough...
And yet the man simply slumped onto the ground, he appeared relatively unharmed except for a scratch on his forehead and one above his eye that sent blood spurting down his face. His mercenary vest which was strong enough to withstand kunai and sword slashes was also torn up and now less useful for protection. Had the woman used such a relatively simple technique on someone as world-breaking as a Tailed Beast it'd still have felt some pressure... This golden sand was dangerous but, to the man, it felt more like a nuisance.
Normally, such an event would've invited excitement to Kusagoro's lips, maybe even joy that his abilities were somewhat challenged. After all, having fun like his old days was the goal, normal forced suspension from his ninja duties would've killed him of boredom and while he still craved the magician's head he did feel some gratitude to the girl. If it wasn't for her he'd have not had this much to do...
"Why are you here?" Kusagoro asked with a serious face, the face of a killer who was ready to burst into emotion at any point despite his current expression looking quite lifeless and bloodthirsty calm.
"I'm looking for the girl, the magician girl, who is currently looking for the Box. Judging from her movements she knows what she's doing, she's moving in a singular direction and only stops briefly when her dormant chakra takes a significant dip to regain her breath" Regalia replied. After seeing this man only receive minor scratches that were more visually repulsive than actually effective at keeping him down she felt like picking a fight with him may not have been too wise.
"Hmph, I'm looking for my son and his party. They're a safer bet. The little brat is slippery and crafty. If you can control her friends you can control her. Sadly, I won't let you lay a finger on my son." Kusagoro lifted his palm forward, his palm extended and his fingers stuck together in a mash of flesh as his hand formed a giant hole in the center and his skin at the end formed a cannon of wooden-like texture. A blue ball of chakra started glowing at the end. Yet the man did not fire his technique, he stood and watched the woman for whatever reason.
"Back out, Konoha Jounin. Yes, we can tell you're too skilled to be genin following the girl. She must've done something to annoy the Hokage and we aren't interested in her per se. We only wish what she knows, namely about the box, more specifically where it is. Whatever you wish to do with her is of no interest to us." Regalia's skin became dried out and cracked, her arms dissolved into golden sandy dust and created a dust cloud behind her as the woman resembled a creature made of both sand and flesh alike. The golden sand from the woman's gourd mixed in with her natural sand creating more golden sand with a mere contact of the two sand grains.
"This box... An awful lot of really interesting people want it, why? What is it exactly?" Kusagoro's emotionless face finally twisted with a smile, he asked the scary question.
This whole time he followed Mana and her party without actually knowing too much about the box they were looking for, they just knew that it interested them and because it was an adventure waiting to happen it interested Kusagoro's crew too. He didn't even bother asking the kids before about what the box was, they would've carried that intel to their graves if they had to... Now this woman was interested in a peaceful solution so they may as well have had a brief chat and seen where it went.
"The Box of Ultimate Bliss is a wishing artifact. It is said to fulfill one wish of its founder and then disappear beyond the reaches of the dimensional and universal walls only to reappear again at a random location. I sense a great disturbance in the girl's chakra, I theorize she may be seeking it to restore her ability to control it, most likely caused due to abusing chakra augmentation, I've sensed similar disorders before..." Regalia explained still standing ready for the man's next move. His face looked too rough and barbaric to avoid making an unnecessary mess out of things, he was going to do something very stupid most likely.
"Hmph, well then it's of no use to me. All that I want is to have a little fun and finding the damned thing first and winning the hunting game would already fulfill that desire of mine..." Kusagoro smiled letting his hand weigh down and shape back into his human hand. He was somewhat pleased by the lady's cooperation, enough perhaps to forget that he tasked his friend of keeping her at bay and it may have cost his friend his life since she was there talking to him.
"Game? You dolt! Me and my husband need the box, we wish to get rid of a monster unlike anything else in this world, a monster of a man that chases us who is capable of ending all of us in an instant and the only reason he doesn't destroy everything in existence is because some of those things are "tasty" to him. Your own friend paid for this game with his life! Is this all just a game, just for fun to you? How can you seek the box for such a stupid reason!?" the woman lost all her cool and started screaming at the man in pure rage, letting out all the angst, all the anger she felt repressed and reserved for the man chasing her family, chasing her ever since that fateful day in Land of Tea.
Before the sentence was finished Kusagoro was no longer there, the man disappeared and reappeared behind the woman in an instant, faster than anyone that Regalia had witnessed before as the ground beneath his feet crumbled from the sheer force of him kicking off. Before she could turn around she felt her golden layer of sand armor explode and crumble as the man's blow broke not only it but also a couple of her ribs right through that armor.
"Such power..." she coughed up feeling the taste of blood in her mouth. It would've taken more than enough power to destroy a large moon to break through her emergency golden sand armor which she usually wore as an invisible layer of protection against things she couldn't see coming. She used a similar to the Transformation Jutsu technique to make the golden sand layer completely blend in with her skin. And yet the man chasing her has outrun both her husband and her sister-in-law, both of whom were some of the fastest ninja she had seen. And now it was revealed to her through this all demolishing punch that there were other ninja matching her husband in speed.
Regalia clinched her gut feeling the sharp stabbing pain coming from the previous blow and surrounded herself with a ball of golden chakra-infused sand. She felt emanating awesome pressure and air rushing all around it, more and more bumps – the man was rampaging and unleashing all of his might outside the ball trying to break it. It took four to six layers of sand to protect from a single blow and the man was punching more and more and more and more in an endless barrage of anger fuelled blows.
"I'm going to run out of chakra if I keep defending myself like this, or worse, he'll miss a punch and blow everything up... He's like a Tailed Beast this man, enough power to destroy the whole world and no responsibility using it! Just instinctual rampage" Regalia thought making her golden bubble explode violently pushing Kusagoro away into a wall. It did not seem to hurt him too much, just keep him at bay for a moment as the woman floated. She will need to use THAT against him, it was the only way...
"You're like a wailing child! Hasn't your village taught you responsibility after you've achieved that level of power? I saw your Juugo bloodline, were your clan's teachings lost on you? Don't you remember the serenity and tranquillity filled ways of your clan?" Regalia yelled out as Kusagoro angrily yanked himself out the wall he was stuck in causing a castle ruin tower to collapse. The man's feet were shifted into jet-like cannons that emanated a faint chakra flame which kept him floating above the bottomless pit below and Regalia was using her sand as a floating platform to stay floating.
"You've killed my comrade. That changes my plans, I shall kill you then find that box and use it to bring my friend back! That is the ideal Juugo way, the way of ninja bruisers!" Kusagoro roared out rushing at the woman at a much slower speed, he clearly saw how much the castle was damaged by his enraged attack and he didn't want to destroy it now that the rebirth of his friend depended on it.
"Hmph, that was what lead to Juugo being hunted by Iwagakure, your kind has reformed since then and become peaceful with nature, where is some of that tranquillity in you? Leave and you'll need to lose none more of your friends" Regalia tried appealing to Kusagoro since she didn't really wish to use her following ace technique. Still, she began molding her chakra right after uttering those words because she knew that the man was not one to see reason all too clearly.
"The other Juugo have become afraid of what they could do! Fear over their extinction made them afraid to be who they are, what kind of life is that? They act peaceful and love the nature and the animals when actually their souls long for battle, at least I had enough guts to reach out for a village that found use to my abilities everyone wanted to keep hidden. Do you know what those "peaceful" Juugo do to children that do not learn the lesson of "peace and tranquillity"? They kill them before they become trouble. Before they draw attention. Is living in fear of standing out, in fear of being excellent any way to live?" Kusagoro roared out trying to punch his way through Regalia's endless waves of sand she kept bombarding him with. He did break some but then some others kept hitting him again and again, opening more and more bruises and blunt trauma.
"Those youngsters are killed because they possess the power to destroy the world at an age much earlier than they know how to use it. Slaying them is a preventative measure, everyone knows that. Everyone knows of Juugo's peaceful natures. I see that your elders killed one Juugo troublemaker too few, when a skilled ninja punches strong enough to blow up planets or cause lasting damage to the universe or the integral laws of physics we bow to they control their chakra flow, they purpose it thusly so that it flows through their opponent and nowhere else. They fight with control and finesse and preserve their precious homes. You're like a scared dog, wailing left and right making things blow up where you throw your stupidly aimed fists. I hoped to make you see reason but I'll do this world a favor and save it from blowing up next time you decide to punch an alarm clock..." Regalia said by ceasing all her sand defenses and letting the endless waves of sand fall into the abyss below.
Kusagoro roared out, a tube of wood-like texture shot out from his elbow firing a jet of chakra that propelled his fist forward at an even greater momentum, the jets on his feet shot his entire body forward charging at the woman faster than sound, faster than lightning itself. The bruiser's fist did not collide with soft and warm feminine flesh, however, he only bruised through sand sending his empowered fist full rotation around and hitting his own left side opening a bleeding wound there.
The man screamed out of pain and aimed his leg jets at the woman shooting back, a demolishing wave of chakra fired off shooting right through the woman and destroying her body made of sand, the beam of pure chakra continued to travel through the tower, splitting the heavens above and into space, hitting an unidentified planet far far away when it lost most its momentum and force leaving a large crater in it flooding the planet with magma bursting from the crater.
Kusagoro himself was sent back into the abyss opened by his previous attack. He crashed into hot waters below, apparently, the place laid on some sort of heated water source that was boiling both because of the heated by the desert sun ground and because of the depths it was in. The man felt chakra automatically being used by his body to keep his flesh from boiling as he raised himself up and leaped up sticking to a wall at the bottom of the hole. He fired off the jets on his feet to raise him back to where the woman's body dissolved into sand just in time to see it slowly reforming.
"What the flying fuck is this? For a moment I thought it's a sand clone but it's clearly not, it's reforming plus I tracked you pretty clearly, I would've noticed you replacing yourself using Substitution Jutsu or using a clone technique..." the man inquired when suddenly he felt frozen, paralyzed and afraid. It was strange, how could a battle scare him, maybe it was an emotion placed on his affected mind? Suggested? It was genjutsu! The man's body burst with chakra that disrupted his own flow dispelling the genjutsu almost at the same time he realized he was hit by it.
"It's an incredibly complex technique, it's neither ninjutsu nor genjutsu but it has elements of both. It's a Tenketsu Shinto technique. Tenketsu Shinto is a combination of ninjutsu and genjutsu cast on oneself that allows me to manipulate my own body at a molecular level and for example – become sand when I am hit" Regalia explained as her body popped into clouds of sand that blew Kusagoro's way, the man just stood there letting the sand cut his cheeks and caress his wild hair. The man huffed angrily as the ability as explained to him sounded quite troublesome.
"A technique like that must cost a lot of chakra to maintain..." he said when suddenly his body felt paralyzed again, Kusagoro looked at his arm and witnessed it aging rapidly and drying away into dust.
The man knew it to be an illusion again, he quickly used some more chakra bursting through his system to dispel it. He was surprised by how easily the woman transferred illusions through his system using her sand, only now he understood just how dangerous she was – whenever he hit her she dissolved into sand and remained unharmed and yet she could use her golden sand to transfer techniques at his expense if even a single grain of sand got into his body. How was one to track all the sand in the middle of a desert?
"Not at all, it does cost some chakra to command one of my chakra nodes – the Tenketsu to activate the technique on a very small scale, then one must simply overflow that chakra node with enough chakra to cause a small shockwave signal that passes through the others and passes the signal. It can be activated quickly and efficiently" Regalia smiled a little, she took great pride in her Tenketsu Shinto technique, there were very few if any living ninja that could use Tenketsu Shinto.
It required higher than that of a medical ninja chakra control to manipulate something on a molecular level at that exact way, it also needed manual reactivation every time one's body was completely destroyed to reassemble it. A smallest miscalculation could've manipulated the body's molecules permanently transforming it into the substance one emulates causing Regalia to permanently become just a pile of sand or a smallest miscalculation of chakra amount left compared to how much was needed to reassemble her could've left her in separate places at once making what remained of her life quite miserable.
"Hmph... Well, in that case, I can't kill you because I know no way of beating your Tenketsu Shinto. I've never seen or heard of someone manipulating their own molecular structure making themselves invulnerable, however, you also have no way of beating me. Your most powerful golden sand techniques might hurt me but you can't use it inside the castle or even outside without risking it falling apart and sinking your precious box to the bottom of the abyss, also you can keep casting genjutsu and reducing your chakra level but I have chakra to beat your illusions now that I know they are coming. I have more chakra left than you so all you'd achieve is cancel out your Tenketsu Shinto leaving you fleshy and very punchable" Kusagoro laughed out from the bottom of his lungs realizing the deadlock the two were in. If only this woman did not kill his friend whom he planned very much on bringing back he could've fought her to the end of time there... He could've had so much fun!
"True..." Regalia sighed, Kusagoro turned at the corridor he was heading to when the woman's body dissolved into sand and then reassembled with two armored minions with steel helmets and chest plates and twisted desert swords, the equipment matching that of best-equipped desert raiders. The two minions assaulted the man but with a quick flip in the air Kusagoro's kicks blew the two up into two bursts of sand.
The golden sand wielder shrugged with an innocent smile, "Can't blame a girl for trying..." when Kusagoro looked at her with a little annoyance on his face.
The woman floated up closer to the Jounin and landed on the same corridor he floated into. She lifted her palm up pointing in one direction and then turned at another.
"I am also an Advanced Sensor, I can sense anyone within two hundred meters of my sand grains and I've placed one on the magician girl so I know perfectly where she is. The sand grain she has feeds back with the others and reaches me in a chain. She is over there. Since we cannot possibly walk the same path, go the other way..." the woman suggested.
"Hmph, that glowy sand of yours is pretty handy..." Kusagoro growled angrily and then looked at the other path, "Why should I go there?" he asked curiously.
"Because I don't know what's in there. Imagine the adventure and the thrill of going that way, you may meet the magician girl and stop her from finding the box if this path cuts in with hers, you can find your son and the other Konoha genin or butt heads with me again... The possibilities are endless" she smiled playing the man just like she wanted him to be played.
"Fine... I suppose it beats walking the same way as you and us trying to kill each other every couple of seconds" the man sighed as the two parted ways heading to the different sides of a corridor that split into two paths. Five floors higher Mana was still rushing towards where she thought the throne room was, the planning of the castle reminded her a lot of the long and detailed historical analyses of the Land of Wind architecture and she couldn't feel more proud in herself for studying all of those boring books back home.
The only problem was identifying all those ruined rooms correctly but she was making way – the throne room was close, she could feel it!