A resonating signal of chakra beamed in the distance. Mana's chakra sensory had become acute enough as of late that she could no longer just verify the existence of a chakra signature but sense some details of that signature. Given the input from the other senses, oftentimes it lea to some very useful insights. Things were no different now, given how the magician saw no visual changes from this distance nor did she sense a change in her allies' chakra systems, which would have suggested an illusionary attack – it became evident that Nashi and Gubezuri had activated their Sharingan.
"Be careful, their eyes are active, time them out. It appears that Sharingan wears on the user's system more and more the longer it is used." Mana warned Meiko and the rest on the mental link.
Just as Nashi and Gubezuri twitched for a movement forward, they froze as if in total panic, then turned at the side of the canyon to their right, letting their eyes gaze up in fear. The type of fear that one experienced when they knew exactly what they would see up there but begged all the omnipotent forces in the universe that dictated fate itself that one would not see what they felt like they would see once they looked.
Kiyomi was stuck to the side of the canyon, pressing both her palms to the surface with a grin that betrayed exactly how much the Yamanaka enjoyed what she was about to do.
"Earth Style: Rock Collapse!" she yelled out while sending a pulse of chakra through the canyon wall that resonated with ripples through the stone, lodging out massive chunks out of the canyon and sending them crashing down below to where Nashi and Gubezuri were standing atop the creek that ran at the bottom. The loosened integrity of the canyon forced even the Kannabi Bridge, which had held for years upon years and served as a passageway between Konoha and Kusagakure, to collapse. The damage and pressure caused by the previous clash of flames between Nashi and Hanshin appeared to have caused significant damage to the structure even when all of the destructive potential was perfectly contained. It was only the solidity of the canyon structure that held the bridge together, without it – the whole thing tumbled down in pieces.
Gubezuri and Nashi leaped up, landing atop one of the falling pillars. It would have taken ten whole seconds for the bridge and the falling debris to crumble into the river. That was plenty of time to settle a fight between ninja of their collective ranks. Mana, Meiko, and Hanshin leaped atop falling platforms of their own and moved down until they could meet the Uchiha on their level, the rabbits drove the vanguard given the strength of their feet and the unmatched velocity of their dashes.
The string reeling devices screeched with the infernal sound of steel wire being reeled in. The piece of steel wire attached to the swords that the Uchiha duo had lost when they were blasted away by the unexpected appearance of the ninja rabbits reeled the weapons back to their owners' hands. An Uchiha with an active Sharingan and a sword was a dangerous opponent. Nothing could match the pattern reading, the perceptive and almost precognitive abilities of the Sharingan. Leave alone the fact that ten seconds was nowhere near enough to cause that much strain on the user's chakra system…
Still, the team was adamant about settling this matter before the Kannabi Bridge and the tall canyon had crumbled into a rocky, devastated mess. It was most likely a matter of pride, an arrogant claim about the extent of their abilities. Ten seconds was plenty to reinitiate and conclude the engagement.
Nashi yanked his sleeve back, the shimmer of light reflecting off the piece of silk-thin steel wire caught Mana's eye but her eyes were nowhere near as perceptive as the Sharingan that her opponents used. She could not identify the layers of looping thread before they shut tightly around her, pressing against her limbs and muscles with a credible threat to slice her to pieces if she ever lost the chakra augmentation struggle against the chakra used to coat the strings.
Her opponent was skilled – he had managed to realize that Mana was a sensor and therefore did not coat his strings until they were already pressing against Mana and tying her up. The Sharingan allowed him to perfectly nab the timing of that, to someone in the magician's shoes it was beginning to seem like there was nothing that the copy wheel eye could not do. With a bloodthirsty and triumphant grin, Nashi yanked on the piece of wire, instead of blood, guts and a sick display of human-sliced-sausage, a shower of flower petals smacked against the Uchiha's face.
"You fool!" Nashi turned exactly where the real Mana stood behind him, swiping his steel wire aside, still overflowing with chakra. At their present state and velocity, these wires could have cut no worse than the sharpest blade crafted from the finest materials. Her illusion was useless against the Sharingan, it seemed, an Uchiha with the active Sharingan would always see through that sort of attack…
It was probably the first time in Mana's memory that the magician felt like she was being countered and did not belong on this battlefield at all. Not since she faced Sasuke Uchiha in the foreign universe did she feel this uncertain about the outcome of a battle… Nashi lacked the calm and certainty from Sasuke's eyes back then, but somewhere inside those abyssal eyes, there was this smug knowledge about one's own superiority and constant, perfect awareness of the situation at hand. It was something all Uchiha appeared to share… This was not good, Mana was too invested into evasive movements after executing Flower Petal Sanctuary that she could not possibly hope to evade the swipe of these threads that threatened to cut her throat open.
A thunderous clang made the magician snap out of her attempting to figure out a way out of this lethal predicament. Usuzoku managed to block the strings with a chakra coated blade of his own, the intensity of the coating almost matched that of the enemy, nevertheless, the strings wrapped around the sword as they were blocked and locked it firmly in place, allowing Nashi to pull on the blade and yank the rabbit up closer for a good punishment for interrupting his kill.
The infernal red ocular orb wandered sideways. Instead of pulling on his strings and disarming Usuzoku while pulling him in for a good beating, maybe even an execution, Nashi leaned backward, avoiding a diving kick from Usubane meant to blast him away again. What insane perception of one's surroundings! He saw that attack coming from a completely unnatural corner, for all intents and purposes, he was meant to get hit by that!
The chakra coating of Meiko's blade changed completely. Instead of the simple, reddish blaze, sparkles and jolts of blue lightning surrounded it, cracking up and down the blade's surface. The grip and the cross guard were all sunken in a shade of a white cloud that lingered shortly wherever the blade moved giving it an almost heavenly look. The blacksmith swung her lightning coated blade around shooting off bolts of lightning from it at seemingly random directions while its swings unleashed a barrage of lightning projectiles that flew for miles and sliced through the ruined canyon and the falling platforms like a hot knife through butter.
It was a clever way to attempt and outplay the Sharingan's advanced perception. If anything could fool the eye that was so good at seeing, it seemed like it saw into the face of the future, a seemingly random thunderstorm at one's fingertips would have been it. Gubezuri danced around Meiko's heavenly, crackling sword but had to block and stone-wall a lightning bolt that threatened to hit him square in the chest. The blast sent the larger Uchiha flying back and busting through multiple falling rock platforms.
Before Gubezuri could hit another, Hanshin's image flashed in from behind him, hands crossed over his chest while his knees appeared to manage all of the intense blowback from the superhuman speed of his movement. Black Vicious appeared for just a single, blink and you'll miss it moment, to deliver a cross chop from behind Gubezuri aimed somewhere at the center of the Uchiha's back. Instead of Black Vicious smacking the Uchiha down with a gruesome finishing move, its ethereal arms cut through a black mass that burst into a shower of obsidian, bubbly goop. Like a massive blob of tar that fuzzed and swallowed anything it covered.
"The Eye of Hypnotism, huh?" Hanshin grumped with a blank, lifeless stare. A friendly tap on his back with a pulse of Kiyomi's chakra busting her superior out from the illusion created through the Sharingan's Eye of Hypnotism woke the man up. Almost instantly the eyes of the physically dominant one focused on the enemy that landed atop of a higher falling platform.
It was a demonstration of tremendous growth and understanding of the art for Kiyomi to be able to snap the special jounin out from an Eye of Hypnotism illusion. The Sharingan, being the gift that just kept on giving that it was, was capable of weaving illusions freely without any latent skill or training for illusions from the user being necessary, although, if one was present, it multiplied the power and effectiveness of those illusions as well as the abyss in which they sunk the victim exponentially. Even if Gubezuri was no master illusionist when his Sharingan was closed, the sight of the Yamanaka managing to triumph the illusion with such ease was one that locked one's gaze onto it with admiration making its way from one's core.
Mana, together with Usuzoku and Usubane charged onward. Her movements appeared to completely match those of her two summon animals, she bent her legs, tensed her thighs and charged around focusing on her lower body and accumulating speed just like the rabbits. The results were nowhere near as effective, but for a human mimicking a ninja animal, it was beyond just being a good tribute to the rabbit martial arts.
Try as hard as he could, even with the Sharingan aiding his perception, Nashi simply could not keep up with the rabbits. His eyes foresaw the movements but his body failed to provide an adequate response that would help him beat all three incoming attackers consistently. Often he dodged, seldom he managed to slip in a counter, which in itself provided the three with an opening which they showered with counter-counterattacks, more and more, the Uchiha skipped strikes or simply chose to block them and take a decent brunt of the force coming at him because the alternative would have been too costly or dangerous to his future.
Still, even if Mana, Usubane, and Usuzoku landed blows, those attacks hit Nashi on his terms. Most of the time he chose where and when he would get hit and he chose to least dangerous and potent angles, attacks and attackers possible. Even if he did get tagged, even if the Sharingan's defense proved too godly for the human body of the man behind the eyes, it would have taken far more stamina than the three had to offer to defeat the Uchiha at this rate.
Nashi unleashed his own flurry of attacks, wielding a sword in his hand. Usuzoku rushed in to take on the armed attacker all by himself, shouldering the responsibility of defending the two unarmed ninja he was supporting by clashing his blade against that of the opponent's. Sparks clanged and blades thundered as they hit opposition of equal force that equally did not budge or give an inch back, at this point Usuzoku and Nashi appeared like mere blitzes and flickers even to the superhuman beholders observing this clash, looking for an opening to pitch in.
Mana did not need to tell Usubane anything, a mere pleading look from the magician explained everything she saw. Usuzoku's chakra was taking massive dips every microsecond and he did not have much left in him. He was simply outmatched in this clash all by himself. The wicked cleaver of his enemy found gruesome openings that shed blood but most brutal of all were the unarmed strikes that Nashi landed when Usuzoku was too busy protecting himself from a lethal blow. He was being ragdolled at times, it always started out okay, Usuzoku seemed to have his grip about him, then the enemy bashed and cut him about a pair of times before the rabbit intensified his augmentations and stepped over his limit to fight on this level for just a split-moment longer… This mercy of fate would not have lasted long.
The spunky female rabbit leaped to her master's aid. The sensation of chakra forcefully channeled through Usubane's ears as a unique form of chakra augmentation that made the ears stiffen up and emit a prominent yale blue shine.
"Rabbit F.U. Combo!" Usubane yelled out while she nodded her head down and allowed her stiffened ears run rampant, using both her arms, her feet, and her chakra-enhanced ears to form an unbelievable combination of blows that was so intense that even a Sharingan would have had trouble keeping up with it. Or at least so Mana thought, having seen the limits of what Sharingan could perceive and how much of that perception mattered compared to the ability of the user to execute the necessary motions.
The degree of evasion that Nashi put to work was supernatural even for him, Usuzoku, having come to terms with the fact that he was outmatched and getting beaten down, also the fact that his pupil had come to his aid, swung his longsword around as a test of just how much mobility his body still retained. The rabbit found a platform to set his long feet on, his limbs bent and tensed up telegraphing the immense force that the ninja animal put into it. The pulse of chakra leaving Usuzoku's feet when he kicked off the platform with a rush towards the enemy shattered the platform into tiny pebbles.
"Block Breaker!" Usuzoku shouted out like a madman, throwing his sword back and over his shoulder before almost flipping over his front to drive it at a diagonal angle with a sword strike mighty enough to shatter any blocking tools, paralyze any limbs unfortunate enough to be holding said tools or cut whatever was in his path and was unfortunate enough to not be blocking in two.
There it was… That completely unbelievable movement… It was like Nashi was flowing, his movements left traces of afterimages all around him that further confused a potential attacker the way this man was now, Mana had no idea about how to land a single blow on him. The three managed to put a slight stranglehold on the Uchiha's defenses before but… Usuzoku was beaten up now, also Nashi tapped into new and untrodden grounds of Sharingan perception that would likely be enough to even avoid a similar coordinated attack.
Of course… The enemy was using their chakra augmentation to have his body perfectly keep up with the perception of the Sharingan and surpass the limit he had noticed before. It was a dangerous game, a very temporary one but one that faded in the face of these ten measly seconds. In a life or death engagement, maybe Mana would have tried timing the enemy out, wear their evasion and chakra supply until they were forced to rest their Sharingan and that would be when she'd focus all her attacks.
Mana extended her hands, Lightning Release chakra sparkled down her body before a barrage of orbs fired off from her palms like from an automated kunai dispenser. It was for naught. With Usubane throwing her mad flurry of strikes, Usuzoku dashing in and out with momentum-based sword slashing techniques and Mana attacking from long range, the enemy seemed completely invincible. Nashi raised his arm up, reeling a piece of steel wire.
The magician saw what he was trying to do from a mile away, she could hardly believe it that Nashi would have set up a bunch of steel wire traps all over the platforms he had bounced on and off of while exchanging blows and dodging their attacks but such was the cruel reality she'd have to deal with. A single reeling piece of wire clogged up and compressed a whole bunch of independent, previously set up strings, creating an elaborate trap that constricted around Usuzoku and Usubane instantly.
By letting her own fancy evasion skills out, sensing the chakra running through the strings around them like they were miniature heartbeats, Mana danced and weaved around the strings and managed to avoid them as they compressed and leave the range of the wire trap. The enemy may have been invincible with those eyes open but he was not perfect, he coated his strings a millisecond too soon allowing Mana the precious time needed to avoid them, combined with her own battlefield perception skills that let her read Nashi's following move.
This was far from over though, Mana raised her hands back up and unleashed another barrage of Lightning Release orbs from her hand. If a single one of her Magic Bullet Barrage Jutsu orbs managed to land, it would have meant busted bones, nasty injuries and a certainty that her enemy would be too injured to keep up the divine execution of the moves his Sharingan demanded of him to avoid all of the upcoming attacks.
It was no use. Nashi blitzed and danced around the Lightning Release bullets, quickly appearing in front of Mana's face and driving his sword through her chest. He did not close his Sharingan for a moment, even after the fight seemed like it was over. Mana's impaled body dissolved into flower petals, the crimson iris of Nashi's eye raced around the battlefield trying to locate the real magician just to make the inevitable conclusion she postponed with this cheap trick a reality.
"Petal Shuriken Jutsu!" Mana's voice rung through Nashi's ears, making his eyes spread wide in shock as the countless petals that the magician's body dissolved into turned to shuriken and flung at him. Nashi grunted and shouted out in pain and twitched, feeling the stiffness of his body as while he had no actual injuries, his body inflicted the pain and shock of being skewered by hundreds of shuriken.
"A genjutsu that is activated using another genjutsu as a trigger… You've outsmarted the Sharingan itself…" Nashi's feeble voice grumbled through tremendous pain.
"I didn't outsmart the Sharingan, I've outsmarted the Sharingan user. Had you not felt stingy about dispelling the illusion you thought you saw through perfectly – the follow-up would have never activated in the first place."
Nashi's face twitched a pair of times before a small grin decorated it. "I tried crushing it…"
"One of my illusions targeted your chakra flow, the other pinched your brain directly. They were two different types of illusions. Not even your Sharingan could break both of them, not at the same time." Mana spoke her final words before flickering away to the edge of the collapsed canyon. Usubane and Usuzoku followed.
"Did'ya left 'im ta die?" Usuzoku wondered while the stone debris finally collapsed and hit the ground, neither sooner nor later than they were intended to.
"My illusion didn't actually hurt him, someone like him will definitely a survive a two-kilometer drop on his head." Mana breathed in and out to catch her breath while her sensory calmly affirmed her guess.
"It appears you've dealt with yours as well…" Hanshin observed after the remaining three human members of the group flickered onto the edge of the collapsed canyon and looked back at the destruction of the Kannabi Bridge they've caused. "Commendable. You used these stylish beasts, without a doubt."
Usuzoku and Usubane popped away leaving just a cloud of smoke where they were previously, choosing to return to the Rabbit Caves they were summoned from. Somewhere, where the wild winds of destruction brought the dust of the debris, a tall Uchiha laid seemingly lifeless, covered with burns and sprawled in a highly unnatural position suggesting countless fractures. Without the danger of the Eye of Hypnotism affecting him, Hanshin truly could let loose.
It was a straight path to Yordalar alongside the border from this point on…