Kiyomi and Meiko continued to observe the fight that was about to erupt between the invading chaotic factor and their own target team. They did not sit easy as the duo were constantly doubting every little move they made, even their current position of sitting quietly and observing the battlefield.
"If Mana's out, does that means she's eliminated"? Meiko asked mentally, somewhat vaguely.
"I… I don't know… I don't want to jinx it but… It's more than likely". Kiyomi gritted her teeth as a brief ray of light illuminated the mostly dim little spherical shaped room that the two observed the scene below from.
Kiyomi turned at her friend and teammate just to observe what reactions were running down her face. Meiko was quite unpredictable in her usual state and right now Kiyomi, as Team Hokage leader needed unpredictability the least in her life. The blonde herself wanted to just run out and start taking over minds and kick asses but her more rational part demanded to think her plan through.
"We need to get out there, we need to fight"! Meiko demanded as her mind became murkier, her thoughts raced through and burnt out before they could be clearly read by Kiyomi who was beginning to worry more about her teammate than the odds of them taking out their target.
"No! Sit tight! For now at least… There're too many factors we still don't know about all of this". Kiyomi silenced the blacksmith as the two continued to observe the situation below.
A circular blade of Squlra's shot out from out of nowhere aiming right at the golden haired Kaguya's neck. It whizzed so fast that Kiyomi found tracking the blade quite difficult as to her it moved in a faintly visible silver blur. If seeing this thing was so troublesome, the blonde couldn't even begin to imagine the trouble it'd be to actually avoid it.
The Kaguya youth of the invading team leaned aside allowing the blade to whizz right by the skin of his neck. It seemed a very arrogant and berating way of dodging. If the opponent had any afterthought of this attack, such a careless dodge would've left countless openings to exploit.
Such was actually the case as another blade flew at the Kaguya from the side. Squlra herself dived out from one of the upper floor hallways and stuck to a wall as she launched her rotund blades at the enemy. The golden haired young man lifted up his hand and trapped the spinning circular blade in his bone weapon like a horse-shoe on a pin. The bone began to spark violently as the blade must've been of higher quality materials and craftsmanship but the bone didn't even come close to relenting.
In a final motion the girl pulled on a string attached to the second blade which only became evident once she wished it to be revealing that it was tied on another piece of string tied to the first blade she tossed.
"String Reeling Jutsu"! The young lady yelled out in an energetic and relatively low pitched voice for a girl, her somewhat masculine voice was further muffled by the headdress she wore that covered almost the entirety of her face except for her dark brown eyes.
As Squlra pulled the second string it pulled on the first one making the spinning first blade whizz right back in a circular motion and saw a wide arc in the walls of the structure before re-entering the manmade building and whizzing in straight at the Kaguya's neck for decapitation.
Without caring too much about the incoming decapitation Jekleifer Kaguya grabbed on the steel wire on the second blade and pulled on it firmly, pulling his opponent in for a close distance battle. A flesh slicing buzzing sound followed by a metallic clang heralded the contact between the buzzing circular blade coming in contact with the Kaguya's neck as he pulled his enemy in. A small amount of blood squirted out from the damaged flesh but it appeared as if the circular blade had lodged into the young man's neck very shallowly.
As the body of the young lady clad in black whizzed by in a whirling vortex of dark cloth and Kaguya slammed his opponent's body to the ground leaving a bone in the center of her chest where he had punched her. As Kiyomi and Meiko observed the exchanges of murderous strikes and were just about to bury both of the opponents Squlra's body disappeared in a cloud of smoke leaving just a log with several circular blades lodged in it, joined by Jekleifer's hard as steel bone blade.
An athletic young man with shoulder long dark hair looked at his teammate with a mocking glare.
"Got tricked by a Substitution Jutsu", he stated the obvious.
"I expected some manner of a trick. Substitution, clones, something. That's why I chose to approach this lethally, I knew she'd wriggle out of it somehow", Jekleifer closed his eyes as he removed the circular blade that had left a small flesh wound on his neck, just past the skin and several bits into the flesh. "You may have known that I'd place a bone plate under my skin but you could've helped me out with that".
"I would've… I just didn't care enough to", the Kaguya's comrade shrugged with a seemingly innocent grin.
"I would prefer if we took this outside", the female teammate of the golden haired Kaguya mumbled quietly making it difficult to distinguish what she said with hearing alone. She looked relatively odd compared to her teammates – she wore a thick leather jacket covered with fur and dark sunglasses that looked more like swimming goggles.
"I intend to, don't worry, Maurlon", the Kaguya nodded affirmatively. The firm and calm look on the young man's face heavily implied that he understood why his teammate asked of it and had it in mind before attacking the place to begin with.
"They want to take down Team Maruf just like us. They're pretty capable too", Kiyomi mumbled to herself.
"Maybe we should show ourselves and help them fight? Six on three we are sure to win", Meiko suggested.
"No way. We don't know what their intentions are towards us. Also, if we show ourselves too early we can scare Team Maruf away into fleeing. We need them to think that they are in control. Besides, how willing would you be to cooperate with the folks that took Mana out"? Kiyomi shook her head listing multiple reasons from the top of her head she had for remaining hidden and tracking the battle. Even though she appeared firm on this question, the possibility of revealing themselves has crossed Kiyomi's mind early on as well.
The eyes of the attacking team turned at somewhere right above Team Hokage's hiding spot, as well as on both sides of the staircases around them. Judging from that, Kiyomi assumed that the enemy team had revealed themselves. So Team Maruf decided to take on their enemies in a full out three on three brawl…
"Stay down and wait for me to move in. We need to wait for a good moment to strike, when we find an ideal opening we take out Qarsufly and we run. Hopefully those Iwagakure guys won't care enough to pursue us and Team Maruf will be pinned down by them and won't follow us either". Kiyomi ordered.
"What about Mana"? Meiko looked worryingly.
"The only ways she could've just disappeared from the link like this would've been if she's out, dead or she left by her own choice. There's nothing we can do but leave her for the staff to take care of", Kiyomi looked away from the brewing brawl below and turned her eyes at a blank point in the dim room the two were hiding in. At that moment she felt the weight of a leader, the pain of wrestling with one's own self and making a tough call. It wasn't a life or death call, not a real one anyways. Either way, it was a simulation of what a real higher ranked mission was like.
"But… Maybe she blanked out to warn us"? Meiko still tried to fight that decision. It made sense, Mana and the redhead had a pretty close background and they've bonded quite extensively over that trip the two kept mentioning briefly.
"It doesn't make sense that she would. She would've just let us know about the approaching enemy mentally instead of leaving the link and leaving us to wonder. We could've communicated more efficiently like that, Mana's smarter than that. If she left – she's out cold", Kiyomi stood by her decision firmly, she had to admit, her own minds fluctuated and wavered similarly to how Meiko's did when she first realized what Mana's unconsciousness meant.
The entire structure rumbled forcing Kiyomi to direct her attention at Team Maruf that had gathered in the circular hall surrounded by staircases that lead into the "brainbox" of the second floor. The ground floor likely was the insect's mouth before it was reworked to look more like a hall.
Team Maruf were just like they were described: Squlra, whom Team Hokage and the invading team wearing Iwagakure's forehead protectors had already met, a tall and fat, seemingly genderless and featureless, thing covered with green bubble-like features that were described by Steinck as "ulcers". The team leader was Qarsufly, a youth with shoulder long dark hair with two longer strands extending past his back and quite formally dressed, wearing a long and dark jacket over a simple white shirt.
"So you've shown yourselves? That's good", Jekleifer calmly closed his eyes in approval. He appeared completely confident in the total victory of his team if he allowed himself the mocking luxury of closing off his eyes right before battle.
"Make no mistake, the fact that we're standing in front of you means that Squlra sized you up and decided that we can beat you", Qarsufly raised his fist up angrily, it appeared that the utmost confidence of his enemy annoyed him.
"So that's what it was"? Jekleifer noted calmly before taking a fighting stance.
The fat and mushy member of Team Maruf, Faqsadid, leaped straight from his staircase post aiming to crush his enemies using his own weight. Only once the large and rotund genin extended his arms and legs and stretched out in the air that the trio of the attacking team realized that their opponent was large enough to do it. Right as the slow downfall of the massive genin concluded the invading team had dispersed in a quick blur of movements.
Like a swarm of highly coordinated insects the Iwagakure trio decided to focus on their belly flopped opponent who was currently writhing on the ground doing his best to get back on his short but bulky feet. Jekleifer threw a combination of quick punches testing out the bulk and toughness of his opponent, knowing the precise limit of one's opponent's endurance allowed one to precisely calculate the amount of force needed to overcome them instead of killing them. Despite emitting powerful shockwaves and threatening thundering thuds upon impact, Jekleifer's powerful blows bounced off the large body of the Sunagakure giant.
"Crystal Style: Diamond Ridge"! Jekleifer's comrade yelled out as he quickly weaved a pair of hand seals and slammed his hand to the ground. Tall crystalline pillars with sharpened edges shot out in a straight line completely tearing to shreds any structural obstacles on its way to the giant genin. The crystal appeared to be powerful and sharp enough to toss the massive genin into the air and make him grunt in pain, it even left gruesome looking shredding wounds on the exposed body of the heavyweight.
Attempting to aid her comrade Squlra sent a whizzing barrage of her circular blades her opponent's way. Had they connected it'd have been entirely possible that the buzzing barrage of blades would've left the crystal ninjutsu user in pieces but at the very last moment a swarm of insects surrounded him in a sphere protecting him from harm. Judging by the extended arms of the female teammate of the Iwagakure team it was the female Aburame's doing.
"And who's protecting you?" Qarsufly yelled out as he attempted to kick the female member of Team Corundum with a deceitfully fast divekick.
A gut-wrenching sound of tearing flesh and blood splattering on the ground followed as Qarsufly's kick did not connect to the chest or head of the female Aburame but instead to her Kaguya clan teammate's exposed back which had bones protruding from all over his body as he stood in a hunched over position so that the protruding bones could do as much damage to the enemy as possible.
Jekleifer's female teammate followed up her comrade's caring guard with a quick kick that sent the bruised and injured Qarsufly sliding back to his initial position. While the Sunagakure genin managed to perform basic course protection in mid-air, thanks to his up to par superhuman perception being able to follow his opponent's movements, he still didn't avoid grievous cuts and lacerations. Attacking the Kaguya clan physically was the equivalent of headbutting a defensive echidna.
With pain caused grunts the Kaguya straightened himself out, allowing his bones to painfully return to their places from where they pierced his own body. Shortly after the bones disappeared a white cartilage tissue covered up the wounds where Jekleifer's own generated bones pierced through his body. It was a highly efficient combination of offensive and defensive techniques however it didn't come pain free.
"Hmph… A Kaguya member with the Shikotsumyaku ability", Qarsufly uttered in relative surprise. "You'll have to forgive my oversight, it is not something that one sees every day…"
"You know about the Kaguya clan"? Jekleifer grunted as he still felt the resonating pain inside his own body from creating new bones on the fly and making himself a human hedgehog in a fraction of a second.
"This and that. I've heard about the ability to control one's bones, mostly as an example of a rare ability that only a few members of a clan inherit", Qarsufly smiled as he observed the bleeding cuts on his lower arm, biceps and his thighs as well as one on his abdomen. He was lucky to avoid more serious wounds as at that moment his body was focused entirely on delivering as powerful of a kick as possible and not bothering with defensive measures.
"It's not like you aren't a bunch of freaks either", Jekleifer's crystal ninjutsu using teammate grinned after seeing his crystal pillar collapse into chips and dust and seeing some bright red liquid goop out from the wounds of the massive genin he had injured. In his life Tolkre Guren has seen blood but this thing leaking out from the giant was not it.
Qarsufly's hands moved first, the Sunagakure genin quickly bit his thumb before running through a bunch of hand seals and driving his extended palm to the ground. In a large cloud of smoke a quartet of bulldog sized beetles emerged aiming their horns at the enemy.
"Summoning Jutsu", the young man chanted out as the four beetles rushed at the Kaguya.
"Dance of the Tulip", Jekleifer shouted out as bones once again protruded from his upper arm and under his biceps from where the blades were pulled out with the Kaguya's own arms and wielded as blades in a relentless barrage of lightning fast thrusts that created this ruthless rushing offensive combination.
One of the beetles got skewered by the bone blade thrusts, that were completely invisible when used with these coordinated thrusting movements of the dance, almost immediately. The others persevered the multiple stabbing wounds and rushed on, grazing and bruising the Kaguya using their horns and tossing him over their large bodies like a ragdoll. Adapting to being tossed around Jekleifer fixed his mid-air position and began relentlessly thrusting his blades with the same dancing combination of thrusts vertically downwards skewering and heavily injuring the insects even more.
Slightly to the right the massive Sunagakure genin slammed his own belly as if he tried to beat his own guts out forcing a handful of the dark green ulcer-like orbs all over his body to pop. However instead of blood or some pus a bunch of small and creepy doll-like humanoid figures, with knives at the end of each limb, emerged rushing straight at the crystal ninjutsu user. The young man was completely surprised by the highly unorthodox manner of attack, by the time he tried weaving the hand seals to protect himself it was too late.
The toy-sized puppets began whizzing by and around the Guren clansman slashing and cutting him with small blades on their hands and feet without giving him space and time to counter properly. Before too long the young Iwagakure genin was covered in crimson stripes and bruises but the ruthless hands-off offensive of the massive Sunagakure genin continued. The puppets began attacking with purpose, buzzing around in loops that tried to tie Faqsadid's opponent down and leave him powerless. Luckily enough he managed to weave a pair of hand seals, struggling through the pain, right before the loops tied around his hands.
"Crystal Style: Crystal Needles", he yelled out sending a storm of crystal shards his opponent's way, the wide reach of the technique allowed to damage Faqsadid's puppetry strings, pin down some of the annoying little dolls he used as well as damage the giant again leaving more leaking cuts on his massive frame.
"A little help next time, maybe"? Tolkre the crystal ninjutsu user complained at his teammate noticing too late that she herself was slightly occupied avoiding Squlra's ceaseless offensive.
However Faqsadid's own attacks have not yet ceased, right as Tolkre turned around to face his opponent he noticed that some of the damage he inflicted popped more of his green pulsing ulcers releasing another group of toys that intended to pester and cut him up to a more lethal extent. This time, however, the genin was ready. He rolled forwards weaving a pair of hand seals while he avoided the initial swipe of blade strikes and grabbed the puppetry strings of the massive Sunagakure genin.
"Crystal Style: Crimson Fruit"! Tolkre chanted as a large dome enclosed around the toy puppets shutting them off from their puppet master's control and leaving them completely powerless and useless.
While the crystal ninjutsu user was busy dealing with the weird puppetry attacks of his massive opponent and Jekleifer was matching strength and speed with Qarsufly's beetles, Squlra was attempting to cut down the female Aburame member to pieces with her deceitful and quick bladework. However every time that she managed to trap her opponent with strings before pulling and shredding her to pieces or successfully beheading the girl it turned out to be just another insect clone that collapsed into a lifeless swarm of insects upon being stricken down. Both young women realized that the Aburame was just wasting chakra fighting defensively like that but for some reason the Iwagakure girl just continued to attempt to evade the sadistic kunoichi's attacks, waiting for something resembling a chance to strike.
As the bloody scuffle between Team Maruf and Team Corundum was heating up, Kiyomi and Meiko waited patiently for their chance to incapacitate Qarsufly. So far, while the young man was occupied with Jekleifer, he sent his summoned ninja animals after him leaving himself quite ready to intercept any upcoming attacks. While his back was turned and his attention focused on his brawl with the Iwagakure ninja Kiyomi still waited for a better chance since Team Hokage only had one shot before exposing themselves.
