"Heh, I guess some time was needed for the effects of Yutsubu's jutsu to catch up. Things sure work weird with you involved." Hihei laughed out. The rogue found this exceptionally hilarious. He even bent over from the strain of laughter.
"This… Doesn't feel too good." Hanasaku noted to herself. Her entire body shook in shock but she managed to get herself back on her feet, despite the highly lethal aftereffects of Yutsubu's techniques. The burden of eternity resting on her shoulders itself appeared to merely discomfort the Sannin and make her serious.
"T-That's impossible, she can't possibly be standing! She took it all head on, almost the entire barrage!" Yutsubu shook in her boots, quivering the girl took a pair of steps back as tears and slobber ran down her face.
"I hope you guys don't mind that I take you out quick. I'm feeling kind of sick after that…" Hanasaku grunted while she slapped her palms together and began quickly working on an order of hand seals. Her body was sweating profusely as if she would have been suffering from a fever of some sort and her face was much more serious than before, there were very few times in the Sannin's life where battles forced the indifference and boredom out of her face.
"Earth Style: Staircase to Heaven!" Hanasaku ruffed out before driving her palms to the ground. Almost like the touch of the woman's limbs caused the ground itself to shift, a tremendous pulse resonated through the field and the foundation of the building beside them. Chitabo looked down with a goofy and clueless expression, shortly followed by his comrades that did the same thing. Their feet were slowly being covered up by the shifting ground and swallowed up.
Before the crew could sink to their knees, in case of little Yutsubu - her neck, sky-piercing pillars made of stone and soil rocketed upward, slamming into Chitabo's face and body but most importantly, lifting the immovable man up in the sky before the pillar collapsed after reaching its maximum altitude.
Hanasaku breathed out, working her body through the tension of the nasty sickness she was going through and leaped up in the sky so fast that her movements appeared to fade in and out of existence even the to the dangerous nukenin following them.
"Trillion Yottaton Punch!" Hanasaku roared out, driving her fist into the core of Chitabo's body, using all of her strength to drive it in as deep as it went before letting the force of impact do what it did best. Like an arrow from the world's most unbelievably fast crossbow, Chitabo got launched diagonally up beyond where the eyes of anyone trying to catch sight of the fumbling giant could do so.
Hanasaku slammed on the ground on her knees, hyperventilating. Her vision was blurry and her chestnut colored hair got in the way of her trying to see this fight through.
"Wow! I can't even see Chitabo anymore… How high did he go?" Hihei exclaimed in excitement and surprise, feeling little to no remorse or grief about the fate of his comrade.
"As far as things go. To the very edge…" Hanasaku replied, straightening her back out and preparing to move on to finishing up the fight. She felt the backlash of that punch in her own body, the pulsing intense pain in her bones. That was nothing new to her, she was used to straining and tearing her own muscles by abusing her own immense power and breaking her own bones from punching people harder than any ninja possibly could.
What troubled Hanasaku was that the pain no longer went away. Her hands trembled from it, the blood covering her shaking fists did not dry up but instead got reinforced by more blood coming from those same injuries. What did this rogue's jutsu do to her really? Hanasaku rarely felt fear for her own life, usually, that feeling was reserved to when people she held dear were in danger but… This realization of the fact she was now vulnerable, that her own actions had consequences now almost deserved that same angst in of itself.
Something was wrong. The butterflies in Hanasaku's stomach begged her to use her healing techniques and help herself but some deeper part of her suggested that she didn't. This feeling of vulnerability, weakness in her body… Whenever she used her medical techniques on weak and vulnerable people she messed something up. In her current state, something suggested that Hanasaku would not survive shifting her organs about or growing sets of teeth all over her bones. She'd need to fight like this… See this to the end.
Hihei's hands extended forward, attempting to utilize the distraction in Hanasaku's reflections. The colossal watery arm came out from the smallest drops of humidity in the air around him. Once again rushing at the Sannin in an attempt to entrap her or crush her outright in her new, vulnerable state.
"Yottaton Punch!" Hanasaku cried out, feeling the pain that would come as a backlash of this reckless action before it even came. No. She had to move on. No matter how much it hurt. Her students, everyone that looked up to her and once called her "Lady Hokage" lived that same kind of life. A life of pain and consequence, a life where things made sense, a life of limits.
Maybe such a life was not so bad. Maybe such a life was worth pressing on for…
The water construct shattered like a flare, spreading tiniest ripples, jets, and streams in every direction as Hanasaku's punch busted through the construct and demolished it from the hand end to the shoulder. It hurt so much initially. After some point the coldness of the water, the intensity of the pain made it all go numb just like it used to before and in that moment Hanasaku felt hopeful that her hand returned to its previous healthy state all by itself without having to actively use Medical Ninjutsu on it.
Once the woman saw her bloodied hand with lacerations and torn flesh from her knuckles to the upper arm, such naïve hopes were shattered.
"Heh, guess you'll have to heal your arm up the old-fashioned way? That's just fine. I could use a drink myself…" Hihei grinned with his monkey-like smirk. The rogue forced his legs out of the dirty tomb and moved his hand reaching for the water bottle hanging from his belt.
"That's just fine," Hanasaku replied. "It does not matter how many punching arms I have when I can punch you any number of times I want."
The woman moved in the fastest she has ever moved in a battle for quite a long time. Time itself had stopped around Hanasaku like she would have stopped it. It was not so, she had done nothing to it. This was one aspect of combat where the woman had done the appropriate research given the possible consequences. The world around her looked so tunneled, like a poster wrapped on the walls of an actual tunnel she was passing through, all distorted but beautiful in its own way.
It was something that the Raikage had taught her once in a discussion the two women had. The leader of Kumogakure was modest to an aspirational degree, she denied being able to beat Hanasaku in combat despite her companions suggesting her speed giving her a tremendous advantage. Raikage Imasu argued that the speed of light was the absolute limit that anyone could move in and she knew that Hanasaku could match that speed.
On top of that, she even mentioned something interesting, something that stuck with Hanasaku for a long time to come. To Hanasaku's encouragement to admit that their fight would be long and epic, the woman merely replied that while fighting at lightspeed, time all around stopped. That meant their fight would only take an actual instant. Now that she moved at those exact speeds Hanasaku saw what Imasu meant…
Yutsubu looked around, the little girl thought herself losing it completely. One moment Hanasaku was moving right at her, the other she had disappeared from view entirely. Almost like she never existed, to begin with. That was the same woman who got hit by a technique that decayed any living person it hit to dust, crushing them with the weight of eternity. A crunchy splattering noise alerted the girl post factum and made her turn her head right at the same time as her leader splattered into a bloody stain from his waist up.
Yutsubu screamed out and fell on her bottom. She should have been braver than this… She had seen comrades and family killed before but… She may have abused her jutsu a bit much and lost it again. Every time she used that series of techniques she made herself younger and perhaps this time she renewed herself more than it was reasonable. All she wanted to do was to run away, just like the age she looked being.
"W-What did you do to him?" Yutsubu whined out. She felt disdain for the little brat she made herself in her final moments. She should have died with more dignity than to soil her pants and cry in front of her opponent like a pathetic child…
"Did you not know? When one moves at the absolute limit of possible speed, time around them stops. It does not matter if I have just one working arm if I can punch someone any number of times I want while they just stand around unable to defend themselves as strong as I want." Hanasaku looked at the crying child. Something about this particular rogue made her slow down again. She should've just lifted her boot up and squished this criminal, a traitor to some village somewhere who took the teachings of the village that raised her and decided to run away and do as she willed it with it.
Nevertheless, that face, those clothes, and whiny face… It softened Hanasaku's heart, despite this same brat being the one who hit the Sannin with this odd infliction, which plagued her currently. Pain in her bones, heaviness breathing and the crushed right arm… All of it was the fault of this deceitful old hag in the body of a little girl.
"Get out of my sight," Hanasaku ordered. Little Yutsubu needed nothing more than a stroke-inducing furious glare to get the clue. She would run as far as her little girly legs could take her from this terrifying woman.
Why did they ever think they could defeat such a person in the first place!?
Inaka had unwillingly provided Meiko with a short pause to think of a better way to escape his lethal chain-hold. Being swung around and slammed about was not the best thinking environment, especially for someone usually as straightforward as the redheaded blacksmith.
This was a smart maneuver too. With the chain holding her tightly, she couldn't substitute out of it, it wasn't like there were plenty of tools for her to do so with, to begin with. Maybe some of the rubble from the black market point may have done the trick but… It was foolish to think about something Meiko couldn't even do.
Inaka swung the chains around, flinging Meiko into the wall of the building before slamming her back into the ground on his other side. He looked a bit surprised that the girl's neck did not snap immediately. He was a bit higher-ranking nukenin, compared to what genin could have reasonably taken on. It would not be that difficult to see his shock seeing a mere child resist his best attempts to break her neck.
The man groaned in frustration, forcing the chain to drag Meiko's body closer to where he could drive his own foot right in her face and pull on the chain with the added leverage of his own foot. The blacksmith bent her knees and pressed her fingers against her boots, unsealing a burst of chakra sealed inside them that functioned as a jet.
She had hoped to smash into her opponent's knees and topple him. Once her opponent was down and the chains around her throat weakened, she could have removed them or eased the pressure somewhat. Maybe get a breath of fresh air, even if it would not become a deadly sort of a trouble as long as Meiko's chakra resources were there to sustain her.
Inaka leaped over Meiko's improvised shoulder tackle and flipped his chain-claws over him like a jump rope, driving the blacksmith into the dirt head-first. Or at least, such was his original intention, as the redhead regained her will to fight and switched positions, thrusting her still blazing boots first to propel her off the ground and smashing her head right into her opponent's gut.
It was a risky move. The man managed to sustain his chakra imbuement that he applied to his chain-blades and dragged Meiko with him. Had Meiko somehow mustered up the strength needed to knock him out of it, the chains would have snapped from the immense force of the pull and that would have freed the girl.
Regardless, the pull on her chains had loosened and Meiko bounced on her feet faster than her opponent. She may have been forced to close in at close-range but that was preferable in this situation – his main weapon was dismantled into this chain-deathtrap anyway. He had little to no other options for combat. Meiko's last gamble was to hit him hard enough and plenty enough times to where he could not return to applying his advantage of having her in a chain-hold.
"C-Rank Seal: Release!" Meiko cried out, more so because of her own valiance and bravery gambling her life this way than necessity. She had used these seals on her armor for years and seals as simple as C-Rank no longer even required words from her to work.
The blacksmith's hand shot out into a cloud of smoke, eager to wrap itself around the weapon she had unsealed. The blacksmith grabbed her windmill shuriken, making its surprise return and charged into battle, using it in melee range in its collapsed form. It was easier to imbue it with chakra that way than to waste precious microseconds and apply the steel wire on it.
Inaka yelled out in pain, his eyes widened and the ends of his roar mixed in with the definition of wet gurgling. He was not used to being hit right up in his face but he had little choice – his chakra supplies were waning already so supplying only his chain-blades with chakra imbuement was difficult enough at this point.
"Weapon Transformation Jutsu!" Meiko yelled out, a poof followed by a cloud of smoke enveloping her windmill shuriken signaled the success of her technique, transforming it into a scythe while keeping its chakra imbuement at the same time.
That was too much time wasted, Inaka's push kick sent Meiko rolling back on her back in pain while her weapon reverted to its original windmill shuriken shape and clanged unceremoniously beside her opponent.
"This… This is too far. This shouldn't be happening. In our group, only Omase is considered a B-Rank rogue in most Bingo Books but she is useful because of her unique skill. How could a mere genin possibly push me this far?" Inaka growled, clutching at the wound on his chest and shedding the armor pieces that bent in an awkward manner and dug into his wounds making it deeper. As he did so, the rogue exposed a well-trained and scarred bare chest, ripping both his undershirt and his armor off.
"Heh, you wasted too much time last time. There's a reason why you're the only person you meet applying chakra imbuement to your entire armor – it costs way too much chakra to sustain. Fighting me last time you probably halved your stamina and now you're having trouble keeping up even this long-range style." Meiko grinned. It was true, had her opponent not worn himself out last time in a show of force aiming to shake the child ninja off their tail, she'd stand no chance against this man.
The gap was simply too wide. With or without chakra imbuement.
Inaka's muscles tensed up. Veins shot out from his forehead and around his biceps and his eyes swelled out in black bags, turning them bloodshot in a snap.
"It is true that my fighting style is straining but… I think I have just enough in me to finish what I've started." Inaka declared. He yanked on his chains, grabbing them with his fingers and wrapping the chains around them to ease his pull. Meiko dug her feet into the ground and strengthened her augmentations. Her opponent was exerting his last kicks of stamina, he was at a fraction of his usual strength, this was where she pushed back.
Meiko grabbed the chains and yanked on them herself, overpowering her opponent and, for once, feeling glad that he kept up his endless imbuement of chakra into these chains so that they did not snap from the tremendous opposite forces pulling on them. A shock of pain emanated from the girl's body making her feel the taste of blood in her mouth – that struggle did not really respond well to her worn out neck or injured body either.
"Blockbuster!" Meiko yelled out while leaning her body forward. The flares of chakra fired out from her boots, sending the blacksmith flying at her opponent at great speed and ramming into her opponent with enough force to knock all semblance of consciousness out of him for a mere moment.
Meiko was not done just yet, she pointed her flaring boots down at the areas around her downed opponent's waist and shot herself upward, as high up as her boots and chain wrapped around her neck allowed her. Once she reached the desired height, the redhead straightened out her body and slammed her palms together, lighting up all seals on her armor simultaneously.
"Sealing Technique: Mandala Arrows!" she yelled out unleashing a raining hell from up above as her Coup de Grace.
Meiko noticed the flares of blue around the chains dying out. This may have meant that her opponent was out cold or dead, or it could have meant he simply chose to end channeling his chakra and keep it all where it belonged. With shaking and bloody fingers, still coughing up blood from time to time, Meiko unwrapped the chains around her throat that have tied up and wrangled in a complicated manner from all the tossing around she received.
A loud cough made Meiko enter her fighting stance again but then Hanasaku's boot forcefully snuffed out all fighting spirit out of the man by simply stomping on his chest. Just a mere glance at the woman's serious eyes betrayed her intent on killing the man if he proved himself to be too much trouble.
"Are you OK, sensei?" Meiko asked, glaring Hanasaku down and seeing a different, vulnerable side to a woman she had admired for so long.
