S-Crew just carelessly waved his hand about in a manner not unlike that in which he'd do it if he had grabbed something too hot to keep hold of. A raucous thud came from the direction of his opponent while the face of the serpentine ninja folded inward like a smashed dumpling. The golden-shaded, reptilian eyes blew out like balloons around the center of impact.
The opposing figure just hunched forward as if it had died instantly but somehow managed to stay on two feet from adamant will alone. In just mere moments, the man lifted the upper half of his body back up and glared at the Allied Ninja that had attacked him faster than any eye could register it.
"That's some amazing speed but you shouldn't have shown your hand this early." The mysterious ninja said nonchalantly as if the overwhelming threat of his opponent's rank was completely beyond his care.
"Oh? You think you got my jam? Then how about you try stopping it?" S-Crew grinned with a cocky smile as his body proceeded to display no sign of movement but invisible strikes just as potent as the first one but overwhelmingly numerous littered the opponent's body with nasty looking bumps.
This time, the serpentine man fell on the ground like a sack of potatoes. Just a moment later, however, just like before, it rose up in a skyward spiral, the integrity of his body completely reshaped.
"Damn… No damage, huh?" S-Crew pouted to himself.
"You should have suspected that snakes are capable of sensing heat. I know the secret of your trick, you fool." The ninja dragged his fist across his scaly face and took the same fighting stance from before.
Without any further warning or telegraphing, the ninja launched himself at his Allied Ninja opponent. The man carried within him all the lethality and speed of a snake's lunge in a human body. Every single strike, every movement delivered with the same blinding speed that a Ninja Snake would use to lunge its head. It was a nasty trait of whatever odd technique caused this man to adopt snake-like properties.
Regardless of how fast the Konoha ninja was, it did not matter that he had numerous snake appendages increasing the number of his limbs, not even his impressive speed could match the blitzing evasiveness of the Kumogakure ninja who appeared to be moving almost instantaneously. Mana had not seen this kind of speed since she witnessed Chestnut Hanasaku in a fight. She would have had problems following this battle if it was not transpiring in such a limited space, perhaps it was for the better if she did not involve herself in it.
S-Crew snapped back on the offensive, moving in but a blur before just fading away and leaving a grinning afterimage right up in his opponent's face. The reptilian man kept looking around him. This mysterious disappearance confused Mana initially but upon stronger augmentations being placed on her perception, straining it to its very limit, she could see it – a blur of literal circles that S-Crew was running around his opponent.
"This is stupid, he's just showing off…" Mana observed.
"No, he's actually powering up this way. He is showing his opponent respect." Junichi shook his head.
"How is feinting a hit and then running circles around your opponent respectful?" Mana wondered. To her, it seemed like S-Crew's aloof personality translated perfectly on the battlefield and she just refused to believe that this was part of proper and honorable ninja fight.
"Your perception is not strong enough yet to comprehend S-Crew's ability, that is why his actions make no sense to you." Rushira grinned, looking at Mana as if the magician was just some kind of naïve child.
Out of seemingly nowhere, a shockwave that even Mana could see because of its mirage-like appearance overwhelmed the reptilian man and sent him stumbling back. His tongue was sticking out and the ninja kept on exhaling air through his nose like trying to get rid of a pretty nasty invader or some feeling he did not particularly like.
"This was just like before but… Stronger." Mana put it together. "It is not just speed that S-Crew-san is using. It's heat…"
"That's quite impressive, I wonder just how much of S-Crew's style she can decipher before this fight is over." Cailar looked at Mana with moderate pride as well as surprise that the magician could read so well into a battle she could so barely perceive.
"The heat of his strikes intensified when S-Crew ran around in circles. His chakra network is strained… He is not just fist fighting, he is expelling actual heat his body is building up from his pores with those waves." Mana realized.
"Exactly, the heat that builds up in his muscles when he's moving at the speed he is moving in. S-Crew has trained his body not only in raw speed but also in a way to stop that very same speed in an instant, where his body halts, the heat inside his muscles does not. Because of inertia, the energy from his pores creates these waves that you've seen." Rushira explained with excitement in her voice. Part of it must have been because she was impressed with her teammate's ability but some of it was because of how quickly Mana put it together as well.
"Hmph… This fighting style used to be a big deal, now it seems like literal children can piece it together, let alone trash like this opponent in our way." Junichi looked a tad grumpy. Likely due to the fact that despite an increase in S-Crew's effort and the heat he put out, the enemy appeared to be fazed just as little as he was before any change took place.
The snake-man picked himself back up and showed a smile full of sharp teeth as well as a pointy and elongated tongue.
"What are ya, immune to heat or something? Also, what's with all those snakes, are ya some kind of a snake dude?" S-Crew grumbled in frustration about how his attacks appeared to be leaving little to no damage despite him overpowering his enemy at every turn and in almost every category.
The creepy reptilian did not reply, merely wrap two of his snake limbs into a single braid and try to slam the Kumogakure ninja with it. S-Crew dashed around the attack, despite the fact that Mana could not pick up when he was striking, she saw a handful of blush-colored heatwaves blasting the way of their enemy.
"Finally, some results…" the Kumogakure native smirked confidently upon seeing small burns over the places where his heatwaves blasted the opponent, throwing him about like a ragdoll. His counterattack was successful, it seemed.
"The fighting style of S-Crew-san is quite taxing," Mana observed, "He had lost more than a quarter of his chakra already and the size of his signature initially took me by surprise."
"You can't fire the literal heat of your muscles without working them up some," Junichi replied.
"Well, if this much heat only works half the time then…" S-Crew grinned to himself before leaving countless afterimages after his further movements while the Allied Ninja built up more and more speed.
"It's quite pathetic that a little barrier in the road is inconveniencing us this much," Cailar noted.
"This man is no mere barrier. He is a perfect barrier," Mana replied. "Have you not noticed it yet?"
"Indeed, he does not appear to be using any remarkable offensive techniques. His style appears to be completely based on surviving enemy attacks and being all-around to leave a dent on. Most of his attacks revolve around just foolishly waving around, even a goofy idiot like S-Crew can dodge those kinds of attacks." Cailar nodded after a brief pause.
"Then… This man has been trained for this exact purpose, as a sacrificial lamb to hold the enemy off for as long as it is possible? What a terrible fate, who would create such a follower?" Rushira's face turned sour as she observed the continuing battle.
S-Crew's body appeared right in between the Allied Ninja and their serpentine enemy, the overwhelming heatwave that came out of his body was completely coral in its shade and intensity. Just a couple of jogs like this one and there may have been full-out flames bursting from S-Crew's body, even if this was just vaguely defined heat, Mana could sense the immense but controlled in its spread temperature, it never began any less intense than the hottest a powerful blaze could get, to begin with.
The body of the snake-man bent backward, the upper half of his body turned and twisted and fell to the floor while his clothes tore off to shreds. His snake-like eyes completely whited out but the lower body of the ninja somehow managed to keep the reptilian on his own two feet. Just as fast as he was brought down, the man bounced back to life and threw his limbs around, trying to wrap them around his opponent's human limbs to hoist him up in the air and leave him powerless and open for a brutal beating from the reptilian's human limbs.
Despite how deceitful the attack of the serpentine man was and how agile he was to even provide this much challenge to the Kumogakure speedster, S-Crew was simply nowhere near the location of the attack when it took place. The snake-limbs merely phased through the image of the Allied Ninja while the true S-Crew appeared behind the snake-man, then all over the place, launching yet another barrage of heatwaves, this time ones streaming just from his fists and coming from afar, not his entire body.
The attack completely devastated the poor man and sent him crashing into and through a nearby building. By the time the heatwaves stopped, the snake-man was just a crushed and beaten pulp of scales and wine-colored blood. Mana noticed how thick and gooey the blood was in consistency, not unlike that of the actual Ninja Snakes she had met and fought briefly.
"At last…" S-Crew huffed. He looked quite winded. Mana sensed the speedster to have just about hit his halfway line of how much chakra he still could use. Who knew just how much stamina he had left to keep fighting this way. In this state of weariness, his signature was almost tolerable to properly size up and analyze.
"I don't think he is a partner of the Ninja Snakes. The only jutsu that would grant a man this kind of unity with their summon are Combination Transformation and Sage Mode." Mana noted.
"If he was using Combination Transformation, injuries like these would have caused him to poof back." Rushira turned her lips to the side of her face before slightly biting the lower one.
"And I do not think any summoner has ever managed to befriend the Ninja Snakes enough to be taught the Sage Mode." Mana sighed. She was a little relieved that she did not have to go into too much detail about just what Sage Mode was with these people, truth be told, she barely knew what that technique was herself.
"If he was using Sage Mode, we'd have all been dead." Cailar stuffed his hands into his pockets.
"In any case, it would be for the best if we moved on. We still have to catch up to those weird, rotten people." Junichi grumbled.
"Guys, wait up, I need a moment here…" S-Crew huffed heavily a pair of times before looking back at his unconscious opponent and blitzing after his colleagues to follow their advance.
"Now would be the time to tell us why the enemy knew you so well," Junichi spoke up with a firm and strict tone. His was not the tone of a man that would have accepted jokes or levity in this case. This was the tone of someone, who was this close to lashing out and breaking bones but asked to be convinced to reconsider first.
"I… I don't know. I've never seen any of them before, even if I did, how could I recognize them after what has happened to them." Mana replied. She genuinely felt like she was about to become the enemy in the eyes of the Allied Ninja herself. Could she have simply been framed this way?
Then again, way back during the search for the Box of Ultimate Bliss, about when the entire mess of the disappearances started, Shimo's sensei did blabber a whole lot about someone dangerous being very interested in Mana. Someone who very much wanted her alive, if Mana's memory served. This revelation was part of what was so alluring about this mystery.
"You did then confirm that you've met Ninja Snakes before, we just fought a snake-man of sorts," Cailar spoke up. His tone was not accusatory in any way, unlike that of Junichi. The Allied Ninja merely attempted to make Mana understand why they are so on edge after the enemy addressed Mana with such familiarity and what could only seem like admiration.
"She is an entertainment star in this village. It would make sense that everybody around these parts would at the very least have heard of Konoha's Sorceress. Her fame has spread even beyond the walls of her home village, after all." Rushira shrugged. The woman looked simply unsure about what to believe in. She did not look at Mana as if the magician was some sort of a villain but the kunoichi did look quite confused.
"Perhaps that is how they know of me." Mana closed her eyes, using her sensory to track the enemy in the darkness of the sewers while the sounds of running water helped her navigate while moving at high speeds in total darkness. The magician was almost impressed with her own skill at moving so fast in such limited space in complete darkness by just listening to the movement of the water and the rodents present in the sewer system.
The girl left the sentence lingering even though she desperately needed and wanted to find the words to help ease the distrust that was beginning to root in the group.
"Well, if that is the case, there is only one way we can find out." Rushira smiled at Mana's direction as a gesture to let the girl know that the woman was not mad or distrustful of the magician at all and decided to keep an open mind.
"Maybe, but that could be just what the enemy wants." Cailar stroke his chin.
"Yes. Lull us into a false sense of security and strike at our backs when we think we have the enemy cornered." Junichi wondered out loud even though his distressed and accusatory glares have stopped and his mimics have softened in general.
"Finally…" S-Crew wheezed out, finally having caught up with his squad in the complete darkness. The fact that the man managed to do so without any sensory abilities whatsoever was an impressive feat all by itself, then again, a ninja of his rank and stature would be able to track people and with his amazing speed, catching up would have been child's play.
The squad stopped shortly after regrouping to observe a ring of falling sewer water surrounded by endless pathways of rusty metal and mossy stone all around. Even before Mana reached out for the signatures of the black and rotten ones into the darkness to determine the best path to take, she could feel the red eyes of rats staring the curious visitors down the whole time from every single path.
"Impressive." Rushira grinned to herself like a child who was at the funfair for the first time.
"Yeah, this place is pretty lit." S-Crew wiped his running nose and finally got to catch his breath somewhat.
"The sewer is impressive to you?" Cailar gave his colleagues a disgusted and mocking glare. "Also, I believe this literal shithole is the exact opposite of being lit. It is one of the main problems I have with this place."
"Any luck finding us a right path, Mana?" Junichi looked at the magician.
"I-I'm sorry…" Mana shook her head. "Their signatures are too small. If they banded together I may be able to pick them up but they must have scattered all over the place."
"For someone their size and condition those bastards were quite quick to run away," Cailar noted.
"It's because we took this long with the snake dude. If you guys just ran off without me, maybe you'd have caught up." S-Crew crossed his arms and pouted his lips at the Allied Ninja with the stylish hair.
"Heh, you mean you wanted for us to run away and leave you?" Cailar boldly looked right back at the judgmental glare of his colleague who appeared to have flustered over the response.
"No. It is for the better that we waited. This way we can all travel together in one group. The fighting stance of the opponent was too wide, his reach too long and the space too limited for any of us to give him the slip. Whoever taught them this strategy of reacting to pursuers must have been quite experienced. There is a mastermind behind all of this." Mana admitted.
"So what now? Do we just split up and look everywhere? Mana did mention that there was a possibility…" Rushira began talking.
"A certainty." Mana interrupted her.
"Fine, a certainty that the black ones split up. If we scan the whole sewer we can scoop at least one of them up and then interrogate them about all their hideouts." Rushira suggested.
"No." Junichi cut the idea down. "If Mana truly is a traitor planted among us, that would be just what she'd want us to do. The enemy was surprisingly challenging for someone like us. It would no longer be wise to look down on this mission or treat it like any other investigation. This might demand our full strength and wits to complete."
"Awww man…" S-Crew's arms dangled helplessly below his hunched over in powerlessness body.
"Seconded, this is the type of mission S-Crew likes the least." Cailar bit at his comrade, as was his nature, it seemed.
There was something quite discouraging to Mana herself about being distrusted this way by a man who worked with her father once. Junichi was a greatly skilled and extremely experienced and battle-hardened ninja but that may have been what scolded her the most about the man. It always stung pretty deep when someone as skilled and experienced and close spoke this way about you.
"Well, I suppose we've hit a dead end of sorts with the drugs, maybe let us try to seek for the monster now?" Rushira suggested.
"No. Mana said she can pick up signatures she's sensed before. Is that true or was that a lie?" Junichi's glare made the magician almost freeze over. Luckily, this time she did not need to brace for the incoming judgment and distrust.
"It's true. I'm fairly certain I could pick up on those signatures if we get close enough to one of them or, better yet, multiple in one group." Mana nodded.
"Then what's with the weak and crestfallen tone!? Chin up!" Rushira smiled at the magician while playfully tapping her elbow with a friendly smack. "We can still find out the black ones and the people responsible."
"But what if the girl wields explosives under her large hat? If we stick together the traitor could blow us all up in one blast!" Cailar teased his larger and more experienced colleague for his doubtful and strict ways.
"You seem pretty energetic to joke around. You can have the next fight all to yourself." Junichi replied while the man turned around and head for the exit the way that the group came in. There was nothing the rest of the Allied Ninja could do but follow.
