For the first time in a decent while after the collapse of the monstrous mechanical arachnid crawling toward Boulder Town from the northern side, silence set in. Then it came with a subdued bubbling sound. Almost like boiling water. The dirt around the massive pile of debris turned wet and surged through the cracks. By the time a puffy, sludge mass began to inflate from within the debris, the mud had become something else entirely. The accumulating pressure blew a chunky piece of the once sky-roaming vessel off like a shooting lid.
"Gwirlon, are you alive, you brainless, goddamn moron?!" an injured ninja yelled out after crawling out from the wreckage and sprawling out awkwardly as the sharp protruding edges of the devastated war machine dug into his spine but he lacked the strength to flop his body off of the painful ridges.
A slick thud emanated from the vicinity as a blade emerged from underneath another collapsed sarcophagus of debris. With the blade carving the tomb up like an armed sardine trying to escape the tin can into the fresh air outside, trails of black smoke broke out and began fuming while the mechanical piece popped with localized chain blasts and the failing systems and parts added to the smoky spew. Once the blade had carved once enough of the steel prison out, a devastating thud blasted the carved top off while a hand decorated with blades and tools that simply stuck out from the entire arm like splintered parts of it busted out. The arm was of the thickness of an entire person. The man that pulled himself out attached to that arm was far more massive.
"Find out if Gloyfan is alive. Cut her out from the wreckage if need be," the ninja grumbled while the pile of sludge drowning the part of the collapsed vessel began giving rise to humanoid mud soldiers. The rising sludge army began scouring the area for anything to use for cover. Some of them squeezed their way into a compartment of the destroyed war machine to pull out its many parachutes and parted each of the massive cloth sheets for one another. Others used leafage to give them a more concrete, humanoid shape. The ninja with a neck infused with his chest and overgrown with muscle staggered on his feet before pulling out some bandages from his pouch and flinging it to his army.
The sludge humanoids began frantically grabbing and tearing the strings apart and wrapping them over their sludgy bodies. The sausage-shaped ninja then pulled out a pair of scrolls and unraveled them, unsealing glass jars filled with human teeth and various other smaller bones, while the other had complex assemblages of severed human fingers positioned for showcasing on iron pins. Each of the mindless swarm of sludge humanoids picked their weapon of choice. Some dipped their malleable bodies into the teeth jars, moving them across their entire shape to assemble rows of chompers where humans normally would've formed teeth. Others formed makeshift knuckle dusters from the myriad of tiny bones offered, while others attached stiff corpse fingers both as their own replacement and just spike-type accessories to give them a more horrifying appearance.
An unintelligible fit gargling and chuckling came from Gwirlon's direction as the towering ninja loomed over a cradled and semi-conscious body of a young woman whose entire body had been littered with bruises and cuts. Her once excellent and well-maintained hairdo now was in complete chaos, while her face had swollen up some from the blunt force damage of being within this war machine when it collapsed after being hit by an ungodly amount of destructive force. Gwirlon couldn't stop drooling and licking his lip while he stroked the woman's cheek gently, doing the best he could to wake her up. After all, in Gwirlon's experience, when he put force into something, things usually broke and he didn't want to break this lady he knew from her sticking around the places he was usually in and talking about things he couldn't understand all the time.
Gloyfan screamed out from the shock of awakening to the sight of Gwirlon looming over and stroking her face. She immediately kneed the simple-minded man in the groin but was surprised to see little to no reaction from the hit. Still, as if recognizing this gesture as a command to back off, Gwirlon straightened his back and stepped aside, giving Gloyfan the space needed to stand up.
"This… Fucking freak… I swear to God!" Gloyfan seethed, pressing her hands to her hips as she howled unintelligible gibberish. A sign of surprising restraint as she wanted to yell many slurs at the mentally challenged comrade of hers, but, having found the human decency within her, decided not to. "You almost gave me a heart attack. Don't just parade your strapped, jigsaw face around like you look normal!"
Gwirlon gave the woman a goofy smile before planting his upper half firmly into the ground, punching through the rubble with his headbutt and finding the layer of sludge to bury his upper body into. The odd thing was that the sludge couldn't stop bubbling, suggesting that Gwirlon lacked the understanding to stop breathing after slamming his face through the dirt and burying his upper half down under.
"What the fuck is wrong with him!?" Gloyfan yelled out, pointing at Gwirlon and turning to her other teammate.
"Don't you know? They called Gwirlon the Human Swiss-Knife. He's not right in the brain, so nobody took him seriously. Those blades and tools sticking out from his arm–that's from the experiments they did to him in the army. He's either too dumb to feel and comprehend pain, or he doesn't know how to express it. Everyone in the army just treated him like a human tool. If you tell him to do something–he'll do it," the muscular ninja waved his hand. "Hey, dumbass! Pull your stupid head out of the mud and stop fucking around! The town crew must've attacked us. We may need you to help us find who did it, how, and neutralize them."
"What now, genius?" Gloyfan crossed her arm, taking a few seconds to scan her tattered clothes and the lacerations and blunt force trauma decorating her all over. "Without your precious juggernaut, we won't be able to level Boulder Town…"
"That's where you're wrong," the man who considered himself the leader of this makeshift group smirked. "We don't need to level Boulder Town, we just needed Konoha's Sorceress to believe we could if we wanted to. I think, if she saw our war machine, she got that carved into her skull already. Now, all we need is to butcher enough people to make her little peace-loving heart whimper and beg us to take her."
"And how do you know it will work?" Gloyfan rolled her eyes. "She's a stage diva, isn't she? A child grown in fame and adoration is rarely concerned about innocent lives. For all we know, she could view other people the same way everyone sees Gwirlon–as her own pawns and walking money bags."
"You should attend meetings more. We've got a new surprise addition to our crew that knows an awful lot about the Konoha's Sorceress. The way you said that… You're still jealous of that brat, aren't you?" the master of the mud humanoids squinted in suspicion at his comrade.
"Of course, I'm fricking jealous!" Gloyfan pressed her hands to her sides while boiling inside. "I want that for myself! I want people to adore me, to yell my name, I want fame and power over people and to have everyone kiss my ass. Can't you see how beautiful I am? I fricking deserve it!"
"Oh, we'll be famous alright…" the rogue ninja cackled with malicious intent. "Go. Make as public of a bloodbath as you can. Dismember, gnash and drown the skies in blood-curdling screams, loud enough for the Sorceress to hear and come to us running."
With a chestnut-brown blur, a peanut-colored rabbit with feet, forearms, and ears fluffed with coffee-colored fuzz dashed in between the master of the sludge creatures and more than a few of his creations. The young rabbit planted her front paws and ears into the ground for stability while vaulting her over the front.
"Mana-san says no one else dies today!" Usubane yelled out. "Leaf Violent High Whirlwind!"
With her immensely well-honed feet up in the air, hanging over her head, the young rabbit spun her entire body while spreading her feet out and forming a living whirly tornado of feet that splattered a handful of the sludge creatures and forced the enemy ninja to cover himself up to soften the blow. Regardless of his block, the force of the spinning kick barrage still sent him dragging his feet across several bountiful dashes worth of distance. The area where he blocked Usubane's kicks steamed and displayed grievous burns, suggesting that the rabbit had used Fire Release besides her taijutsu technique for a nin-taijutsu combination.
"Oh… What a cute little thing!" Gloyfan grabbed her hectic hairdo while leaning back in awe. "Goddamn it, that Konoha's Sorceress, I could just skin her and wear her like a bodysuit if I that would let me live her life!"
Usubane winced in disgust, reacting to Gloyfan's remark before turning to the clearing between two large boulders. Because of Mana's flashy attire that was basically just a modified version of her stage uniform, it was nigh impossible to miss her making an entrance, whether the magician accompanied it with her flashy but harmless Lightning Release ninjutsu sparkles or not. Mana walked out into the clearing, stopping by the immense pile of junk she just cluttered this area in by destroying the war machine before striking a pose, presenting herself, and bowing to her audience of enemies.
"I'm here. You don't need to hurt anyone else, so keep those filthy soldiers of yours to yourself," Mana said bluntly.
"Oh, so you intend to give yourself up then? I'll take it you were the one to destroy our war machine too?" the master of the sludge creatures turned to the magician. "If you were as cooperative as you make yourself out to be, you wouldn't have bothered blowing up our precious war machine. That thing could've aided our war effort. We could've sailed across the continent, straight to the Land of Lightning with it… Little by little, you're becoming more of a nuisance than your pretty face is worth, you know that?"
"You misunderstand," Mana shook her head. "I didn't come here to surrender. I came here to stop you. Convince you of the error of your ways, cripple you, or leave you comatose, either way's fine with me. Your petty lack of ability to accept your loss that saved hundreds of thousands of innocent lives is costing those very same innocent lives, making Lord Tsuchikage's humble surrender meaningless."
"There are no innocent lives amongst those we punish!" the athletic ninja hissed out, throwing his fist out as if threatening physical violence would augment the validity of his point. "Collaborators and apologists. They all deserve to die alongside the occupants. Iwagakure lives by the Will of Stone and that ideal can never be chipped or shattered! It is absolute!"
"A fire that burns like the Sun burns everything in its path and is snuffed out. A smoldering flame can live on for centuries and bring warmth that will flock those who will nurture it forever," Mana softened her tone, wondering if she could reach these three. She was surprised by how well these three handled the collapse of the war machine, frankly. Something this hardy and well-put-together truly may have threatened to de-stabilize the entire continent. How could some wayward freedom fighter rogues get their hand on a terrifying walking weapon like that?
"You've messed up, Konoha's Sorceress. There're three of us, yet you came here all alone. You miscalculated how badly your attack would hit us, and now you're all on your own. Should've brought your bodyguards with you. Your frame is a bit too puny to skin you, plus, I'm not quite the fan of your skin tone, anyway. I think I'll just slit your scalp off and wear it like a wig…" Gloyfan teased Mana, stepping out in front of the magician's view while leaning on her dominant right leg and inviting Mana to come closer and try her luck with a gesture of her finger.
"You have hurt far too many people for me to put any more to risk. And it is actually you who are facing terrible odds…" Mana closed her eyes, disappointed by the lack of success in her attempt to reason with these three. Having seen plenty of nightmares during her career, Mana remained unflinching in the face of these haunting threats.
"Go-Fish Jutsu!" Usuzoku barked out, leaping out from behind the cover of one of the boulders Mana had passed and then kicking off of the ground again to throw himself toward the kunoichi, inviting Mana to try her luck. As the rabbit rushed past her, he drew his sword and delivered multiple lightning-fast slashes before sheathing his blade behind him and looking up to Gwirlon, whom the rabbit faced eye-to-eye after having dashed through Gloyfan.
The force from the swift slashes that the dashing warrior rabbit had delivered only translated a blink after the rabbit stopped moving. They erupted in a violent howl, followed by the scream of the kunoichi hit by them as the force jerked her in the air to land crudely on the back of her head.
"What are you fucking waiting for, you numb-skull!? Skin those stupid rabbits already!" the lumpy shinobi yelled out an order to the mindless drone of the rogue ninja group who stared at Usuzoku with a vacant look in his eyes and a drool that tapped on his exposed chest once in a while or splattered somewhere on the ground.
Gwirlon let out a chilling, unintelligible shriek of absolute gibberish while raising his hand and making all the tools implanted into his beefy arm stick out and fork like the hair of a very displeased cat while the straps of segmented flesh slipped over his arm began twitching. In but a moment, the Human Swiss-Knife began turning all the tools decorating his arm in various directions, creating an improvised, devastating drill out of his arm.
Usuzoku dashed aside with a grumble, kicking off the ground to platform about with dainty hops over the dislodged stone and scrap from Gwirlon's ground-shaking slam of his drill that sent a barrage of debris his way. Flipping and vaulting over each boulder or piece of scrap coming his way in the air, Usuzoku landed on the ground before realizing the horrifying mud soldiers had surrounded him.
"Serenity Arcana!" Mana chanted out, swiping her hand to the sides as an ethereal stage of sapphire shade elevated the magician in the air as an armored construct of chakra. Responding to the stage magician's will, the ethereal curtains swatted the rushing sludge monsters aside, splattering them into a shower of shapeless sludge with a single blow. Mana extended her hand to send a flurry of chakra-construct swords mirroring the props that Mana used on stage to skewer the mud creatures, giving Usuzoku trouble.
"Stop fightin' da goons! Take out deir boss!" Usuzoku growled out while returning to a fighting stance after his acrobatics and hopping around with his claymore sword, dispatching handfuls of sludge creatures with each swing. True to their nature, the sludge-men left sticky mass all over Usuzoku and his sword, which made it harder and harder for the rabbit to move.
"You will realize the folly of your challenge to us, Konoha's Sorceress. If you have a speck of honor left in you, you'll set your guts free from shame after witnessing the body count we'll leave behind for this muck-up!" the rogue ninja in control of the mud-men swatted his arm in command for his mud-army to scatter into shapeless sludge puddles and reform closer to Boulder Town, where they would be free to cause havoc and drown the town in blood.
"The one who is making the mistake of aggravating me is you!" Mana yelled out, visibly distraught as she couldn't control the battlefield with three enemy ninja present and chase after the escaping mud-men. Even if plenty of the mud forces have left the battlefield, her rabbit allies had been covered in gunk and had difficulty moving efficiently, while Mana couldn't keep up with the enemy ninja and hit the escaping mud-men at the same time. The magician clapped her hands together, moving them apart in a hand seal position, preparing to execute a genjutsu technique to render her opponent powerless.
"Oh, you're an illusionist too? Must've figured, what with all that fancy flair for stage theatrics and all…" Gloyfan taunted Mana after returning to her feet with nasty shallow gashes all across her body where Usuzoku had cut her. She weaved a hand seal of her own. A flutter of butterflies burst forth in alarming quantities, drowning out the battlefield and leaving it all behind. Even if Mana instantly realized that the patterns on the butterfly wings were a genjutsu medium, it was already too late, as she was under her opponent's illusion.
Everything went dark. The opponent must have targeted Mana's senses by tricking her brain into thinking Mana was blinded. Though, when the noise of a water droplet hitting the ground reached Mana, sounding like a deafening toll of a bell in the void of any sort of feeling or emotion present in the illusion, the ripples, and the droplet were clear as a diamond crystal. Before the illusion could truly begin, Mana clapped her hands and focused her mind, channeling her chakra into a pulse that expelled the foreign chakra from her entire body all at once.
Just like that, she was back on the battlefield. The expelled pulse of chakra still lingered around her. None of her opponents seemed to dare to approach Mana during the momentary glimpse of disappearance she went through. Whether it was because of the staunch defense of Usuzoku and Usubane, who have realized Mana's trouble and banded together as a group in front of her, or the fearsome facade of the magical stage constructed out of chakra in the Serenity Arcana, the enemy took the moment to regroup, rather than press on their offensive.