Just a mere blink of an eye after the initial exchange of attacks concluded the erected pillar rows collapsed into piles of dirt. The male assailant changed his battle stance. He then put his gauntlets together so that the triple set of blades on each gauntlet connected with the other. It was like an improvised hand seal for the man's style.
Both the primal and bestial headset and the lower sections of the man's armor lit up with the same chakra glow that his blades had. This was one kind of technique where Meiko did not need to be told what it did or what did this enhancement meant. Unless the two girls found a more focused and more intense in its chakra content manner of attack – they would have difficulty breaking through the intense aura that the male assailant irradiated.
The man charged at Meiko once again. He was moving fast, so fast that Kiyomi did not feel very confident about attempting to interrupt his attack with a Yamanaka hijutsu. She still needed to keep her eyes on the second one, after all.
Meiko did her best to avoid the attacks but that proved difficult. The man showed great skill in wielding these bladed gauntlets and he was relatively fast, fast enough to put pressure on Meiko and eventually corner her into having to put up her buckler between herself and her assailant.
Chakra cloaked blades were a devastating match for well-crafted wood and steel, as many modifications and chakra weavings Meiko may have put into that buckler to harden the natural material. The shield split in half without offering much resistance and very clean. The blacksmith reached up for her upper shoulder. Red trickling between her fingers suggested that despite her most honest attempts to block the attack by sacrificing the shield, the attack still got to her. The redhead kept on dragging her hand lower down the arm to check on the flow of other, smaller wounds that were opening up as well.
The talisman user wasted no time for small talk or taunting. She rushed in to close the distance between her and Kiyomi somewhat, before waving her talisman wielding hand like the sheets of paper adorning those strange sealing glyphs were a fan. Kiyomi felt gusts of winds picking up, forcing her on the defensive. She noticed blades of grass rising up and twisting in a perfect vortex shape suggesting a Wind Release technique that utilized the transparency of its element. As such, someone would only see it coming from the things it picked up and thrashed along the way.
"She used multiple talismans to create this technique, there have to be multiple projectiles," Kiyomi thought to herself while she moved back to give herself more space and time to avoid the incoming attacks, letting the invisible vortexes of wind absorb more dirt and grass and become easier to track.
It was just like the Yamanaka thought, within mere moments the five wind vortexes revealed themselves by absorbing dirt particles that colored them mud brown. After that point, dancing around the projectiles was not that difficult, even though Kiyomi could not build up speed due to the limited area of movement.
That was this woman's game, without a doubt. As a talisman using ninja, she relished keeping her opponents away with techniques like that Earth Release rushing pillars of rocks jutsu or this one. While she kept her enemy at bay, she could stack up continuous attacks one on top of another and eventually her opponent would tire or get sloppy…
Kiyomi reached for her pouch, she leaned halfway and moved in sync with the vortexes so that any projectiles her opponent used attempting to intercept her would bounce off of the gusts of wind. While the vortexes did block off her own view and aim as well, it was just what Kiyomi needed.
The wind vortexes erupted into a chain of explosions, triggered by Kiyomi's explosive kunai hitting one of the vortexes. The suppressed air tunnels inside the gusts of wind fueled the heating element of the explosion enhancing it just enough to cause the distraction that Kiyomi needed.
Meiko unsealed the thimble sword she made and inserted her hand into it. Fully aware that she needed to be careful because any hits from the opponent's gauntlets aimed at the hilt might injure her actual hands, Meiko moved in just to see how much damage she could cause to her opponent the way she was now.
Meiko thrust her perfect for quick strikes and nimbleness blade a good dozen of times. It seemed to simply bounce off of her opponent's armor, unable to even penetrate through the intense chakra aura covering it. Even the holes between the armor plates were sufficiently cloaked with the aura that covered the armor to not let Meiko's blade pass. Her opponent delivered an upper swipe leaving Meiko's blade divided into pieces and opening a new wound on her armor.
It was shallow enough. The gauntlet blades were short, the most of the space that the opponent's strike was given got eaten up by the sword Meiko offered. Days of work left in pieces… There did not seem a thing that Meiko could do. No way for her to penetrate her opponent's defenses with normal weaponry and no way to block his strikes properly either.
"Earth Style: Submarine Voyage!" Kiyomi yelled out, appearing from underground with an uppercut as she rose from the depths. While her talisman-wielding opponent had plenty of options on keeping the enemy way, none of her keep-away measures seemed to work underground.
The woman flipped in the air, thrown back by the tremendous force of impact but she was made of sterner stuff than a single uppercut could break. After recovering, the talisman user simply dashed back, waving her hands and firing small fireballs from each of her talismans. After forming, the fireballs all merged into one, solid size, projectile.
They were not made to hurt, Kiyomi could stay away from being hit by them, despite their impressive numbers and size. They were there just to prevent the Yamanaka from staying on top of her opponent now that she had managed to move up close to her.
"Using those explosions as a diversion. That was impressive." The woman noted. Speaking her first set of words after revealing herself not to be a simple dango seller. The woman stroked her hand through her dark green hair and fixed the little hat on her head before changing the sets of talismans in her hands.
This was the first time Kiyomi even noticed the woman doing that. It did appear like each talisman had their specific function however the woman was so quick in changing their rotation somehow and Kiyomi had seen so very few that reading them would be near impossible. Back in the Academy, the Yamanaka had heard bits of advice from the teacher to try and memorize patterns and details in her opponent's actions, such as notes they use in their music or the glyphs on their talisman, in this case.
"As if I could even do such a thing," Kiyomi thought to herself before cracking a grin. Her strategy was a complete success and her opponent failed to notice a thing.
Meiko resorted to sticking on the defensive. She unsealed her father's blade, feeling terrible about throwing it to the wolves like the other weapons she lost combating this man. Regardless, even if she did nothing but move back and to the sides avoiding the blows by controlling the space between her and her opponent, she needed something just in case she needed to place something in front and minimize the damage.
She could win like this. Just jump around and let her opponent drain himself completely dry. It must have cost him a great deal of chakra to enhance every little plate of his armor in addition to his weaponry. Meiko could not even dream on covering anything other than her weapon with the chakra cloak. This man was so impressive.
But that was what was so infuriating about him. He was impressive merely because of his skill in imbuing his weapon with chakra. Meiko could avoid his blows, she could probably kick his ass otherwise. Their skill and chakra levels must have been relatively similar… This ability that he had mastered and which Meiko wanted so badly was the only thing placing him above her… The only thing…
Meiko pressed her teeth together and tightened her facial muscles. Her arms and her thighs twitched in pure rage and she could feel the blood flow under her skin intensifying and her entire body warming up. She threw a good straight at her opponent's direction, confusing the man with her boldness and throwing his head back. The man's armor did not dent or slip off, but the momentum of the impact was skipped through and his body did move after Meiko's strikes.
She let it all out. Throwing crosses and elbow shots without looking back or worry about over how close she was to the enemy. She embraced the deadly threat to her life, she moved in closer. So close, in fact, that a normal sword user would have failed to utilize their weapon properly in such a close range and the blacksmith just kept on throwing awesome yet awfully dull in the damage they inflicted punches her opponent's way.
After pushing away an awkward movement of her opponent's arm aiming to impale her on his chakra-imbued gauntlets, Meiko pushed her knee to block his kick and then used her own elbow as an answer to the procession of the man's combination attack. Gauntlet thrust into an elbow strike, using the resulting shockwave and momentum to push herself further from the opponent who was beginning to regain his composure and fight back for every inch of space Meiko had gained in this last assault.
"That was a pretty strong punch. I felt that take a chip out of my chakra…" the man exclaimed in his husky and authoritative voice.
"I don't want to win this way," Meiko replied, her hands shook in the hopelessness of her situation. She engaged this man to learn on the battlefield what she was missing in her training but the more she fought him, the more she realized that it was not something she could find. This battle was to be so close that she would require all of her concentration on him and not wandering on looking for something she had no idea what it even was, to begin with.
"You are misreading this battle. Usually those who can choose the way they will win are those who are greatly ahead of their opponent. Me and my partner are just about ready to wrap this battle up." The man grunted. His breath was a bit uneasy, whatever strain his extensive chakra cloaking placed on his body was beginning to show itself. Invincibility, as always, came with a price.
"Mind Body Disturbance: Art of Valentine!" Kiyomi chanted while she raised her hands up in the hand seal position used in the Yamanaka clan hijutsu.
A hollow bubble of white mental image floated out from Kiyomi's body, wearing the vague shape of the girl's facial features on its front. The talisman woman instinctively attempted to leap aside before her body froze up. She acted as if a figurative lightning bolt paralyzed her muscles, in truth, a mental signal coming off from a foreign invader – a blond strand of Kiyomi's hair conveniently placed on the woman's body.
"What the…" was all that the rogue ninja had time to utter before the mental projection entered her body. Ordering her body to perform a single motion before leaving it.
It was not a powerful technique. It had ample start-up time, it was easy to predict, it only ordered a single motion to be performed by the target and then it left the target's body, leaving a microsecond after the mental image had left the target's body but after the action was ordered to stop oneself from performing it. As long as the sufficient mental fortitude and reaction speed was intact.
The talisman woman stood there frozen, hunched over and relaxed like her body was turned off, save from her feet on which she stood still. Without warning, the woman straightened up and made a hand seal. Kiyomi only had time to feel warmth in her side before the explosion set off. The kunoichi raced to remove the talisman stuck on her body but only managed to throw it right in front of it, a short distance after the explosion had been set off but before it enveloped her and threw her away.
"It was quite tricky of you to use that underground jutsu to place that hair on me." The rogue ninja patted her uniform, dusting off the rubble that the explosion picked up.
"You've met Yamanaka before?" Kiyomi guessed, grunting in pain while she picked her body off the ground. She had wide but shallow bruises on her chest and some blunt force traumas on her face. The explosion was no joke, its range was pitiful but the sheer power it held inside would have been enough to injure a chuunin or someone even stronger than that.
"I've replicated some of their techniques in my talismans even. I can't impart my will onto someone quite like the Yamanaka but I can record a singular order which I command the target to do. I have to say, I've been inspired by your clansmen." The woman admitted. "I suppose I was lucky to have placed that talisman on you while you were placing that hair on me."
"I was feeling so proud of myself placing it on you that I didn't notice what you were doing…" Kiyomi admitted with a smile through the pain of her injuries.
"Likewise…" the rogue ninja shared her opponent's smile before both transitioned into a composed fit of laughter. "That being said, you would not have landed that blow on me, if I did not intend to let you in close to let me place a talisman on you."
Kiyomi pouted and grunted something angry and unintelligible. Had someone been close enough to hear they would have noticed it was quite profane as well. Here she thought she landed a legitimate blow on her opponent while it was all just a part of the woman's plan to trace the Yamanaka with her talisman. Getting socked once was worth of being given the freebie to pin any lousy piece of chakra soaked paper on one's opponent, ordering them something dumb.
When the talisman extended its influence onto the girl's mind, she could feel it. Hear the voice of the woman telling her to "Stop attacking", see her body floating in front of her in her mind, like a mirage. It was quite the overpowering trip, not something that could be just fought through with sheer willpower. Kiyomi better would not let the woman tag her again.
"It does not appear that Kiyomi and Meiko are going to win. The levels of them and their enemies are mismatched, the only reason why they have not lost yet is because their enemies are holding back. Possibly because they do not wish to show their hand to you – Chestnut Hanasaku of the Konoha Sannin." Waiso tried to reason with Hanasaku to step into the fight.
"Maybe. If they weren't inconvenienced and pushed to their limits, it would be a poor training." Hanasaku insisted on her own stance. "Did you not tell us that it would not be wise to reveal our abilities to the enemy until it is necessary? It's vital information in battle, you know?"
"I know that," Waiso turned at his superior. "But it's gone a bit beyond just "inconvenienced", both of them are injured slightly more than fundamental battlefield patching can fix completely. If we let this continue – their wounds might drag us down for the duration of our mission."
Hanasaku observed the battlefield with seriousness. She was considering what her possible future student had to say but she saw the value in letting Kiyomi and Meiko keep pushing on. For her to just butt in now would have meant that she did not have faith in her students, even if it would mean a swift end for her opponents.
Meiko and the male rogue clashed once more, Meiko cleverly avoided the first couple of claw thrusts but this time she was expected. The blacksmith's heart froze up when she saw the dark blue flash right up her face. The claws froze up right by the center of in between her eyes with the other two blades very nearly carving out her eyes, even counting the small extensions to the blade's length that the chakra cloak provided.
The talisman user and the bestial-armor using rogue retreated from their respective scuffles, standing beside one another back-to-back. Kiyomi and Meiko took the chance to regroup and unite with one another again, having been separated slightly by the hectic battles they partook in.
"Willing to switch, maybe? I think you may be a bit more effective against this woman than me. Your abilities to close range are more brutal and effective, your ability to fight at long range may be less effective than mine but it is faster. My mental techniques will never reach her before she can intercept, as a long-range ninja I am outmatched here." Kiyomi muttered.
"No way! I haven't pushed myself enough. Maybe if I really, really want to win and I'm in danger… Just maybe my abilities to imbue my father's sword will awaken." Meiko objected. "It's how I learned to swim, after all!"
"These are two very different things. Anyways, did you try transforming your weapon into something like you did against Sugemi in the Chuunin Exams?" Kiyomi wondered.
"I didn't see the use. I can't hit him no matter what shape my weapon takes, I'd just be wasting chakra." Meiko replied.
"If you transform your weapon into something of very wide surface, you can maximize the area of impact of your weapon which will maximize how much you wear out his chakra coat with each strike." Kiyomi suggested.
"Isn't it odd how they just stopped fighting? You think it's something one of us did?" Meiko wondered.
"No, it's a little embarrassing but we're completely outmatched here." Kiyomi clenched her fists hard.
Both girls froze in place while the speedy after-image of their sensei charging at the enemy with fists flaring up with blue chakra flames stayed recorded deep in their consciousness. The woman tried clotheslining both of the rogue ninja but her arms simply cut through something gooey and very disgusting while the bodies she hit collapsed into a puddle of bio-material.
Waiso ran up to the puddles with a goofy run, tripping over himself once and taking his sweet time. The boy poked the goo before making his hypothesis.
"These are dead bodies." He nodded, confident with his diagnosis. "The enemy has escaped during the break."
