The rabbits had one final night to gather everything they could carry while maintaining a reasonable pace and leave first thing next morning. They would be heading closer to toward the Ryuuchi Cave, a sacred location for the Ninja Snakes. The home of the snakes that resided there was an equal distance away from Land of Fire to the north-east, as the Rabbit Caves were to the west.
Kouta opened his eyes in the midst of the night, awakened by a strange feeling that he could not explain. He didn't hear or see anything but the air around him felt somehow different, different enough to trigger his perception and awaken him, at least. When the young man turned to the other side than the one he was facing while he nodded asleep he noticed Mana.
The magician was sitting in a meditating position with an aura of light around her. The odd thing was that she was levitating a small distance off the ground and it was not her usual method of levitating either. Given how her chakra was visible on the outside, Kouta figured that it was the sheer output of Mana's chakra that levitated her. She was concentrating and controlling her flow thusly that when it left her bodily pores, the force of the energy flowing around her propelled her gently off the ground.
The young man closed his eyes again. He decided not to interrupt Mana with something like a question. She was probably recovering in her own unique way. Both of them spent some chakra fighting Brownback and Kouta spent even more after he had to quickly patch Mana up during the battle and complete her recovery after it.
The next morning, when Usuzoku was packing all of his weaponry and paper tags and Mana was observing the preparations both inside Usuzoku's carved home and outside where the rabbits were beginning to gather, Kouta finally got his chance to speak to Mana.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" He wondered, trying to use his professional qualifications as an excuse to strike up a conversation. Even if they had gotten close lately, he still didn't feel brave enough to just talk to her without a reason or as much as a made-up excuse.
"Fine. As fine as one might feel with what's ahead." Mana replied, sipping a little from her cup of green tea before closing her eyes to calm her heart that began racing just from the mere thought of transferring an entire society of Ninja Rabbits to another location.
"I noticed you were meditating yesterday. Did you rest well?" Kouta wondered, still keeping up his professional façade instead of revealing his actual friendly concern over his girlfriend's well-being.
"Meditation is not a substitute for sleep. It is a lesser way of resting but I had to spend one more night at it." Mana replied. After seeing the confusion on Kouta's face when she explained, the girl elaborated. "You see, I was boosting the size of my chakra signature. I was trying to increase it as much as I could through meditation last night. The challenges we will face will be unlike anything else, there is a high chance of A-Rank animals trying to kill us".
"You can increase your chakra size through meditation?" Kouta wondered.
"No, meditation merely boosts your spiritual chakra, at least normal meditation. Over the years I have learned to have it substitute physical training as well by simulating it in my mind. That helps me train both aspects at the same time and achieve growths of my chakra at half the time." Mana explained.
"So I can just think about training instead of training?" The young man wondered with innocence to his bafflement that made Mana chuckle.
"It is much tougher than that. You must not just think it but truly feel it. The process you're simulating must be ingrained in your mind, you must visualize the sights, the smells, every strain to every muscle. It takes immense concentration and years of practice to learn." Mana replied with a smile, her amusement still lingering in the system.
"I think I'd rather stay with the old-fashioned method…" Kouta concluded.
"I thought you might." Mana nodded. "Then again, you were the one to ask me about it".
"Ya guys ready? I think we can head out." Usuzoku grumped out after taking a peek outside at the gathering crowd of the Ninja Rabbits.
The trio stood up without a word, packed the few things that still remained unpacked or left what was unneeded and rushed on out of Usuzoku's place and ahead of the crowd. The rabbits did not need much further encouragement to move with the group, the moment that Mana, Kouta, and Usuzoku moved on ahead, the rest followed while maintaining a defensive group formation.
It did not appear that there was any training or rehearsing involved. Even the young bunnies gripping their mothers' skirts or immensely powerful thighs as well as the animals Mana could distinctly remember being rather low-ranking and uninvolved in any fighting managed to maintain perfect traveling formation. Perhaps moving this way was also one of the things that rabbits had ingrained in them through their genes.
"Do ya think we can really pull dis off? Won't ya get in trouble fer bringin' a bunch 'a rabbits to Konoha's forest"? Usuzoku wondered with a strict look at Mana's direction.
"Not at all. The Forest of Death is a den of all sorts of creatures from various parts of the world, used as training grounds. It will not be a paradise by any means but the predators there are just that – mindless sets of poison, teeth, and claws with no affiliation. I do recall you yourself dispatching of multiple giant centipedes." Mana replied.
Usuzoku turned back ahead, looking a bit calmed by the magician's reply. It was in the prey's nature to question and doubt everything. Despite the excessively protective and untrusting nature of the rabbits, Mana was glad to have had some voice in the community after all this time spent with it. She may not have been enough to convince the whole place to pack and leave, but at the very least she managed to reach into Usuzoku's heart and pulling this off would help her find a way into the hearts of the others as well.
"As far as pulling this off is concerned… I've no idea. How many of these guys can actually fight?" Mana wondered. She had counted on Usuzoku dropping his foolish macho act and give her an honest answer.
"Every bunny has at da very least strong feet. Nuff ta behead humans deir age with a light kick fer sure." Usuzoku shrugged.
"Then there's you, Usuzoku-san, I do recall you having plenty of heart in the finals of the Chuunin Exams." Kouta attempted to flatter the brutish rabbit. Judging from the somewhat lacking of composure grin that it summoned on Usuzoku's face and the pride all over his grimace, the young man succeeded.
"I'm sure dat Hatchling managed ta pick 'erself a decent fighter fer a mate too, even if I didn't see ya fightin' in da Exams…" Usuzoku replied. He may not have meant for the reply to sound a bit offensive but Mana noticed signs of bitterness on Kouta's face. Mana sighed. She would not have liked for all the old wounds from that time to open now that she and Kouta were together again.
"It was enough for Brownback…" Kouta puffed his lips a little. Seeing the usually reserved and shy boy fire warning shots at the direction of her rabbit partner did have some entertainment value to Mana.
"Aye, Brownback was a pretty nasty piece 'a work. Surpassed other B-Ranks he did, I'm sure he'd 'a given me a fair beatin'." Usuzoku pondered to himself. Mana wondered if the rabbit perhaps lamented the fact that he never got to fight the titanic snake but her knowledge of reading body language failed in picking any signs that could have verified that theory up from the rabbit.
It hit Mana like a hammer to the chest. The large chunk of chakra right ahead. An extension of her sensory alerted the magician of two more signatures to the side, much more massive ones too. The girl herself was impressed by her ability to speak when facing such massive signatures, ones flanking the rabbits from the side caves must have been four times the size of what Usuzoku had.
"We have company." Mana declared with a raised in the air fist. Her other hand swiped down to force the Audra wand out from her sleeve while her fingers tightly wrapped around it, preparing to punish any greedy overextension with an attack of her own. "One B-Rank or so in front, two much stronger at the sides."
"Does this mean that the snakes are actually out to get us?" Kouta prepared himself as well, choosing to take a fighting stance and letting Usuzoku draw his blade and step on ahead.
"Either way, da biggest one won't attack us while we're on da move. It sure as hell won't hit us while we're on da surface." Usuzoku growled while raising his large sword up and readying himself for an upcoming attack. "Our plans weren't made fer a flankin' such as dis…"
"Move back!" Mana ordered the whole group of rabbits behind her. Fighting while protecting them would be troublesome as it is. They'd be a constant target. "The only direction they can't hit us from is the back. That much they've made sure of"!
A handful of strong looking rabbits with chakra signatures of around Usuzoku's size, ranging both to the upper side and the lower one, chose to stay behind with Mana. The magician did not object. When confronted with an A-Rank threat, the group could have used any help they could get.
The flame of uncertainty in the outcome of the coming battle blazed in Mana's chest hotter and hotter the more the massive moons of the chakra signatures closed in on them. In this relatively wide rocky pass with abyss leading to the outer core, shimmering from kilometers below, from each side, Mana was not entirely sure if all of them would survive this raid.
The snakes were more cunning than Mana gave them credit for. Right before the serpent moving in from the front burst through the wall of minerals blocking it from their vision, its chakra signature multiplied drastically. Within but a snap, Mana's sensory became overwhelmed by sheer numbers of the same signature, she could not recall ever being attacked in such a sly way.
A loud thud signaled the breach of the frontal wall of minerals, through which hundreds of thousands of glowing predatory eyes shimmered as the whirlpool of snakes rearing their fangs flushed in the shape of a wave right at the rabbits and their companions who tried to fend the assault off by taking defensive formations.
Kouta noticed Mana's lowered guard and her shaking, mad glare. He saw the sweat running down her face and must have realized the source of it. Instead of replying to the masses of snakes with something very destructive, he chose to grab Mana and take a short dash back, letting the rabbits take the front. He was not sure if the rabbit warriors had something in their arsenal to block this rushing whirlpool of snakes, he could not have known it for certain but he had trust in their abilities.
The third rabbit warrior, one with extremely fluffy ends to his long ears and the one with the most thickness to his body leaped ahead. His ears moved in a quick blitz, thrusting at the snakes in rapid succession, with a rush of palm strikes that at the very least stopped the oncoming wave of snakes in its track and began drastically lowering their ranks by crushing the extras.
It was a noble effort, but a vain one. The rabbit's ears became more and more visible as their speed significantly slowed down and he was overcome by the rush of the snakes, who appeared to care little if they washed most of them off into the abyss below. As long as the rabbits and their human friends fell with them.
"Earth Style: Rushing Rampart!" one of the other rabbit warriors chanted out as they placed their hands on the platform where the rabbits stood. A flurry of sharp mineral projectiles began firing from under his feet, severely weakening the platform but aiding his predecessor in its defense from the snakes.
The combined effort was enough to cause a violent shockwave eruption that made the snakes scatter in a wild rain. The rabbit that valiantly leaped into the fray first landed back on the platform, pulling a bunch of vastly reduced in size and length snakes out of where they let their fangs dig into the rabbit's flesh. These specific serpents appeared to lack any venomous qualities, at least from what could have been perceived at that moment.
The walls to the side burst as well, revealing the two much larger snakes behind it. One of them appeared not by displaying its massive fangs but instead its tail, displaying an impressive bone growth at its tip with a hollow ending.
"Wind Style: Eruption Breakthrough!" the snake hissed out, letting a powerful wave of air out through the end of the bony growth. It directed the stream of the powerful airwave, targeting it at its own scattered smaller comrades on the frontal end before dragging it all over the supporting platform and then trying hit the wall behind the rabbits.
Whether it was to destroy a way back for the combatants that stayed back to confront the serpent assault head-on, or if the beast knew of where the civilians and the weaker fighters were remained a mystery for now.
A rabbit beside Usuzoku revealed its own weapon – a long scythe before throwing the blade around while the weapon lit up with a faint, blue flame of chakra imbuement.
"Wind Style: Crescent Blade!" he yelled out as the chakra flame at the tip of the blade separated from the blade itself and flew at the direction of the oncoming air stream in the shape of a crescent chakra projectile. The projectile appeared to be powerful enough to split the stream of air as well as hit the snake using it as well.
The final assault came from the wall to the other side. The attack was somewhat coordinated as all three snakes attacked within mere microsecond after the last. It could have been coordinated much better, given the high rank of the threat, however, the teamwork of the rabbits was also less than stellar in return.
The final snake was a dark purple reptile, its snake covered with black markings that spread over the snake's body as a tattoo. Its eyes were sunken in total blackness except for the flaring, blaze-colored iris. The beast burst through the wall of hardened stone with its mouth already open.
"Vespa-Sparrow Acid Technique!" the snake hissed out as a dark purple liquid sprayed from its mouth in a widespread cover, the liquid spread in a drop-shaped field that was quickly descending upon the cornered rabbits, their partners and the feeble structure they stood on.
"Dis 'ere's mine cue!" Usuzoku declared, kicking off the platform and drawing his blade. Using his sword in a barrage of slashes, the rabbit blocked every droplet of the falling acid in mid-air as if protecting himself from down pouring rain with just his sword alone.
The rabbit examined his sword upon landing back on the platform and turning his eyes back at the three wrangling attackers. The multiplying snake appeared to be slowly reforming into one, much greater shape while the smaller serpents made their way back and up the rocky wall they have plummeted down from before. While the number of snakes was greatly reduced from right after the multiplying serpent split itself, it appeared to be able to fully recover himself from what few snakes remained alive.
"Dat acid was child's play. Barely even left a mark on da blade…" Usuzoku concluded while swinging his massive lump of steel around and resting it behind his head onto his back.
"It's likely very venomous as well…" Mana declared, thusly informing her companions that she was also back in the fight after being temporarily overwhelmed by the numbers of the first, multiplying snake. "Otherwise there would be no use in spreading such a weak acid around. If the acid truly was this weak and corrosion was its first purpose, the snake would have spat it at a much more intense concentration. Like a stream, instead of a shower."
"Good to know, we'll have in mind." One of the rabbits who did not have a chance to involve themselves much in the fight yet nodded his head. Mana could not put much of what the rabbit was capable of just from his appearance but he had a nasty scar on one side of his face and the eye where his face was cut looked like it was completely blind. At the very least, this mammal appeared capable of taking a hit well.
"A multiplying opponent, one that's capable of firing compressed air at us from the tip of its tail and a venom-user…" Kouta summarized while he let go of Mana and stepped ahead. "It's unfortunate but I don't think we'll manage to separate them or control where and how we'll fight them. This will inevitably turn nasty…"
"That girl is very clever." The dark purple snake with the black markings all over its body declared, silencing the inside conversations. "She also appears to be a Konoha ninja".
"That's right, the Ninja Rabbits are protected by Konoha!" Mana bluffed.
"I don't think they are…" the venom-spouting reptile almost mocked Mana by how obvious her lie was to tear apart. "I think that you're just a lost little girl who took up she has no idea what just to be one of the cool kids who has a summon…"
Compared to the rest of the snakes, who spoke with a very pronounced and evident hissing sound accompanying certain sounds they let out, this one was particularly well-spoken. It could have been someone's partner as well. A partnership with a human could have explained why it was able to speak so well. It would also be a testament to its strength. Snakes were different from rabbits, they had plenty of powerful specimens to spare their contractors meaning this one could have been chosen for its abilities.
Its chakra was absolutely massive. It was not a threat Mana could have ever taken on alone, or with one of her peers… None of the rabbits beside her were anywhere near that weight class. While Ninja Animals functioned on a slightly different classification compared to human ninja, with the A-Rank human being more powerful than an A-Rank ninja due to human spirituality being more profound and having a greater effect on their chakra size and power, this one was still comparable to a jounin level ninja.
Kouta was right, this encounter was to turn pretty nasty and the worst part was that there was nowhere to run – there was an entire society of rabbit young, old and weak behind them. The multiplying serpent was also blocking the only path that lead anywhere of use. The only path to salvation of the rabbits was through these three…
Author's Note: Sorry I'm a bit late with today's chapter. Been going through some personal issues. Sometimes chapter may be late but I try to do my best and put them up at least the same day they're supposed to come.
