S-Crew's body turned into a blurry mess before multiple images of the Allied Ninja popped in and out of existence all over the limited space of the laboratory. Even in his slightly worn out state from the previous triumphant battle with one of the Spliced, S-Crew's speed remained just as ceaselessly impressive as before, not dropping one inch from his limit.
Junichi's hands worked through a collection of hand seals in sync with his teammate's movements. The blurry and highly unpredictable blitzing manner of S-Crew's fighting method granted the rest of the Allied Ninja some semblance of cover to set up their moves and use their hand seals. The Spliced looked a tad bit overwhelmed trying to read into S-Crew's moves, worried that this man that successfully defeated one of them already could use those same techniques on one of them if they were not careful.
Regardless of the slight intimidation factor that S-Crew's speed had granted, the Spliced ninja with the scaly skin charged out on yet another ruthless assault, his white teeth flashed around the cramped space as the lizard-man tried to use his teeth to slash, maul or bite into the speedy opponent. Loud thuds emanated through the room, several walls collapsed with S-Crew's after-images appearing nearby the centers of the impact that toppled them.
All signs of the Spliced very nearly missing the speedy Allied Ninja, S-Crew managed to maintain his balance and build up the inertia of heat inside his body for a potential release some more. The forced detours he had to take in his blitz resulted in him ramming into walls with his feet, something that toppled the walls from the built up force of speed in S-Crew's motion.
The feral Spliced twitched, his hands extended to the sides as his eyes opened up wider in shock. His body twitched again as if attempting to move but he failed to notice Junichi's extended palm and the sphere of flames comprised of pure Fire Release chakra whirling and raging around him. With the closing of Junichi's hand, the flames closed in as well on the reptile-man.
"Fire Style: Blazing Eleven!" Junichi yelled out.
A rowdy glass-shattering sound made the Allied Ninja jump up, the trapped Spliced ninja managed to bust out from his intended fiery doom and launch himself in a crocodile-like dive right at the seal-user Konoha veteran that attempted to subdue him. A picking up gust of wind alerted the Allied Ninja to the fellow Spliced, a coral-skinned young woman joining in on the offensive of the scaly-skinned Spliced ninja.
Junichi yelled out in discomfort but not because of the successful and well-timed combined offensive of the enemy, it was due to the rough push from behind of his own teammate, Rushira. The female Allied Ninja managed to shove her teammate that was still too invested and frozen in place after using his technique to defend himself properly, his chakra still returning to the proper default stage and still in aftereffects from the molding he did before.
Rushira covered herself up, blocking the continuous attacks with her impressive bulk, her entire body tensed up with an impressive tonus that helped her better withstand the relentless and savage attacks of her enemy. Shallow stripes of crimson covered the woman's athletic body and with a mighty jumping kick from her outer leg, the Spliced ninja managed to knock Rushira down on her back.
Despite the effective combined attack from the enemy, Rushira's valiant defensive wall provided Cailar more than enough time to prepare his own jutsu. Traps, loops, and strings of steel wire erected all over the room, just waiting for one of the Spliced to get overexcited and fall for the trap, Cailar was not about to wait, however. A very gleefully shimmering string of steel wire wrapped around his finger and attached to a specific loop of wire, noticeable only to the keenest of combatants, activated the trap in the exact way that Cailar intended it to work.
A vociferous roar emanated in the air, the lizard-ninja leaped up in the air, swiping his teeth, his claws on both his fingers and his toes to sever the steel wire and even break the chakra imbuement that Cailar had placed on the wires. The speed and the ferocity of this particular Spliced ninja was remarkable, there appeared to be absolutely no openings for the Allied Ninja to focus properly on attacking the desired target together.
Buberuri dove right under his rampaging, reptilian comrade and then managed to arc his mighty tackle by pushing his body off the floor with thrusts of his arms, changing the trajectory of his torpedo-precision, armored tackle. Before the headlong-charge could connect, however, a powerful airwave comprised of pure heat blasted the rushing enemy to the side and past a couple of walls, rumbling the entire foundation of the underground facility in the process.
S-Crew and Cailar may have teased each other to no end as friends but while in the middle of a battle they appeared to have each other's backs covered.
Colceli's shocking, elongated limbs slurped back into his gelatinous body before appearing from under his head and moving in a swift flurry to cover for his derailed teammate, forcing Rushira, who was rushing in to properly stomp and pound the downed Buberuri while his armor layer was cracked and down on the defensive. Despite her impressive skill in close range combat, the sum of her injuries and scratches accumulated and prevented the female Allied Ninja from moving as fast as she normally would have, resulting in a nasty bunch of crackling, electric jabs connecting and knocking the Allied Ninja down.
"They may be weaker than us but their lack of fatigue or injuries is annoying," Cailar noted with a muzzled mutter meant only for his squad.
"Rushira, stay in the back lines. Your injuries are troubling." Junichi followed with a similarly silenced manner of speech meant only for his most injured teammate. The physically impressive kunoichi struggled to stand back up and could barely resist the alluring draw of stumbling back down once she did.
"Damn… That lizard-guy got me pretty badly before…" Rushira clutched at a nasty-looking bite wound on her side that previously she had little to no trouble ignoring and augmenting her body through but at her current state was beginning to pour blood more and more at an alarming rate.
"Don't let up!" Junichi ordered the team while he began weaving hand seals again. When he started he appeared to have no cover or defenses from interrupting the use of his jutsu, it was about as obvious of a trap as traps got but one of the Spliced appeared to be too drawn into the excitement of the battle to care. The reptilian Spliced ninja charged in with a headlong, twisting charge and his mighty jaws wide open, looking to snap and lock a good chunk of somebody's meat just like he did before with Rushira in his initial attack.
The irises in the eyes of the reptilian shinobi disappeared from the shock of the painful and speedy attack of S-Crew hitting him right in the throat with an elbow strike that was so blindingly fast it looked like it came out of nowhere.
"There're more ways than just running around to build up speed, dirtbag!" S-Crew grunted as his hands worked like an automaton, dishing out rapid blows that while really hit their mark, appeared to have little to no effect on the dazed and confused reptilian. A combination of lacking force present in the strikes due to their immense speed and the thick, scaly skin of the receiver.
"Fire Style: Blazing Eleven!" Junichi yelled out once more. The Konoha veteran almost felt the questioning glares of his squad resting on him. The jutsu appeared to have little effect before and yet he chose to use it again. This time, however, instead of using the technique on the reptilian Spliced that may have enjoyed a moderate amount of short-term blaze on him due to his partly reptilian cells, Junichi used his technique instead of Buberuri as jets of flames darted off on the ground before reconnecting in a massive, sphere-shaped blaze around the armored ninja.
One did not require extensive training in one's auditory senses or perception to notice the loud popping and crumbling noises that followed. The superheated layer of reinforced bone-like tissue on the Spliced ninja crumbled in black, dust-like texture leaving the slightly burnt up and injured owner very much exposed to follow up attacks as he fell to his knees after Junichi's blaze had dissipated.
"String Reeling Jutsu!" Cailar yelled out, pulling on a piece of string with his teeth, the string connected to a loop that tripped the injured and now armor-less Spliced ninja by the back of his shins and forced him to fumble on a steel table still covered with operating tools while pieces of string wire looped around him, tying him down. The steel wires lit up with a sky-blue shimmer of chakra coating the moment they locked down properly and subdued the temporarily exposed enemy.
"Now!" Cailar warned the rest of his squad to use this precious opening and give the subdued Buberuri all they had before his armor layer grew back. It was a now or never moment and a tremendously daunting task, given the rest of the Spliced being in quite a fighting condition, ready to jump in and cover for their subdued teammate and brimming with devotion to Guru Ayushi's work.
Despite her injuries, Rushira stepped into the front lines. A great sense of responsibility and determination in her pain-ridden and bloodied face signaled of her dedication to fulfilling her role as a strong taijutsu user and do her best to bring down the enemy once her more perceptive and quick-witted teammates were done with investigations and figuring out just whom she was supposed to punch.
"Living Shuriken!" a feminine voice yelled out.
A strong blow sent Rushira flying aside and crashing into the side wall, shaking the foundations of the underground facility even more. The coral-colored skinned Spliced kunoichi had buzzed at the rushing taijutsu user with an odd method of attack – a ceaseless barrage of cartwheels performed in rapid succession, the Spliced kunoichi moved just like a shuriken, using her chakra augmentations to harden her spliced skin and make it rock-hard.
It was not that hard of a hit but it successfully protected the subdued Buberuri and knocked Rushira off her feet. The persisting dizziness in her head and the accumulating injuries made the Allied Ninja stay down for a short while, at least while she regained her sense of balance and the world stopped spinning. Clutching her aching ribs the woman coughed up a couple of large drops of blood, her lungs burned when the woman took a breath.
It has been a while since Rushira has been pushed this far in a battle. Usually, the business of an Allied Ninja concluded with the end of the investigation, very few conspirators and criminal overlords carried the fighting chance to challenge the Allied Ninja.
While Rushira's offensive was unsuccessful, yet bold, Junichi went through a sprinkling of hand seals. The Konoha native extended his palm out, revealing a sealing glyph lighting up with sky-blue flames on his hand. The air in front of the Allied Ninja crackled with innate electrical shocks before compressing and becoming infinitely thick. The Spliced Ninja twitched overcome by an intense shock of the air pressure around them as if the gravity they were affected by intensified hundredfold.
"Sealing Technique: Two-Minute Gold!" Junichi chanted out.
Golden spheres similar to transparent barriers of light formed around the greatly reduced in size Spliced Ninja, all of them except the subdued Buberuri. Junichi's clever use of his teammate's sacrifice managed to allow him to catch every single one of the Spliced in a sealing barrier and reduce them to the size of a brilliant basketball.
"Ninja Style: Karakuri Thunderball!" Cailar chanted out, spreading his hands out wide. His foot stomped onto the steel wire that held the grip around Buberuri tightly while the hands of the steel wire and explosive weaponry user sent a flurry of exploding, rotating balls decorated with bladed spikes at the enemy.
The explosion devastated the entire complex of laboratories and mock shops, leaving nothing but the wooden rubble of the shop and shocking the villagers calmly walking outside. For a good minute, the villagers' minds became crystal clear of any other sentiments or plans but the absolute confusion of this overwhelming blast right in the middle of the village and the falling, burning debris and the slightly caved in ground around the area.
A rowdy and thunderous roar sent the villagers down on the ground, covering their bleeding ears and fleeing for their lives. Normally any average ranking ninja would have remained in secret to the processions going underground in the hidden lab of Guru Ayushi's little cult. Only the elite village ninja with the skill to stop such a battle were being assembled and dispatched now in the Hokage's office. However, given this new, outing development, even the average ranked chuunin began flocking to the area like a swarm.
The flock of green blurs destroyed the raining debris, quickly dug out the sinking underground civilians and assisted those fleeing the scene with the venture, providing their amazing speed. It took a great amount of moments before the first remnant of the battle raging underground surfaced, with a gentle tap of his foot, S-Crew landed on the soft and devastated Konoha dirt, holding his injured female teammate.
"Damn, Cailar really let himself off the leash…" the Kumogakure native muttered to himself while he handed the barely conscious ally of his to a greatly confused village ninja, who, if it was not for the Allied Ninja headband present on one of S-Crew's arms, would have considered the Allied Ninja an aggressor and the cause for this calamity.
A tip of a blade split the ground in a quick, round motion before the dislodged dirt was forcefully blasted out with a single, powerful pulse of chakra and dirtied and injured Junichi surfaced as well. The blade skis folded and returned to a hidden compartment somewhere on Junichi's shoes.
"You're… Junichi Seimei-san." One of the chuunin ninja uttered in confusion. While the ninja was apparently slightly familiar with the face of the Konoha veteran, the presence of said Konoha native appeared to be baffling to most of the village ninja that knew who Junichi was.
"Calm down, son, this is official Allied Ninja business," Junichi grumbled, panting and dusting off his tattered attire, desperately searching for any signs of the fleeing enemy or anything of note. "Shit, those bastards must have used the blast to escape…" he whispered under his own nose only to confirm his own worst fears.
A whirling twister of steel wire threw a massive cloud of dirt and rubble up in the air, using his steel wire to zip himself out from the newly dug up underground tunnel, Cailar landed nearby his resurfaced colleagues and with a good yank pulled out the subdued Spliced ninja. Buberuri spun around the piece of string attached to him like a yo-yo before landing right by Cailar's feet.
"Is this the one you've come here for?" a chuunin amongst the first responders to the catastrophe inquired.
"He's not someone we can just knock out," Junichi grunted while weaving a bunch of hand seals and extending his palm again. "Sealing Technique: Two-Minute Gold!"
A shiny barrier sphere formed around the recovering Spliced ninja, reducing the size of the ninja greatly while surrounding him with a powerful, golden barrier as well. Junichi smacked the golden sphere that bounced off the floor and into his hands.
"Shit… What now?" S-Crew cursed, giving his Allied Ninja teammates a bemused look.
Junichi closed his eyes and sighed. "We can neither pursue Mana nor try and mount a search for the escaped Spliced. We'll need to report the intel we got to Konoha and call it a completed investigation."
"Congratulations." Cailar gave his friend from Kumogakure a bitter glare. "You happened to get just what you wanted." Referring to the burning desire from S-Crew's part to be done with this investigation, no matter how formal the means.
"W-Wait, you said… Pursue Mana? You mean Konoha's Sorceress? Is she involved?" one of the village ninja heard something that made sense to him in the entire speech that most of them were excluded out of. The Konoha veteran turned back at the confused chuunin with a strict glare that used to chill Mana so much earlier.
"Correct. It is entirely possible that she has betrayed us… I'd say the chance is forty-five percent. You should report to the gate guard and the Hokage's office as fast as possible, I will personally assist you with the debriefing and share all the intel that the Allied Ninja have gathered." Junichi replied.
"Wait, what is this forty-five percent shit all about? She ditched us and ran off to play holy maiden…" S-Crew ground his teeth, his raised fist shook in anger and intense heat emanated from it still in the form of smoke that he did not manage to release during the previous battle.
"That would be a very foolish assumption. I will not act like I understand women, let alone those old enough to be my daughter as my own children are the greatest mystery to me. However, I remain sure that becoming an accomplice to Guru Ayushi is against Mana's beliefs." Junichi boldly declared while looking up at the gloomy spring sky.
"So your version is that she just ditched us and ran off solo? I'm not sure which choice is stupider from her part, to betray her village and the side of justice or to challenge this cult all by herself…" Cailar sneered at the confused Konoha chuunin that half-assedly assisted the villagers that still required help and tried to make sense of how best they could assist their village in this situation.
"She felt betrayed by us just the same…" Junichi looked at the reflection of his cold eyes from the shimmering golden sealing sphere in his hands before placing it under his armpit and looking on at the Hokage Monument. "In any case, we've wasted one of our two minutes babbling here. My sealing jutsu will soon become ineffective, let's deal with subduing this guy before we debrief Lord Sixth."
Cailar and Junichi disappeared, leaving just a strong gust that picked up a handful of leaves off the surrounding trees and tossed them about. S-Crew just shook his head and sighed before picking Rushira up from the baffled chuunin that held her and disappearing herself in the direction of the Konohagakure Hospital.