Chitsu in his new, hellish coat of armor, unleashed a storm of punches. Hammer-shaped pieces sticking out from the elbows of the blood-iron coat as well as from the back of the knees and reaching to the valley floor worked as pistons, driving through thin air and unleashing compressed streams of hot air or pounding into the ground and pushing the armored body off with even greater ferocity or intensity but instead of inflicting lasting damage upon the enemy, Chitsu only pummeled an oversized water balloon that imploded after the few blows only to wash away and reform back in formation.
"Be smarter than that, Bogetsu." The fox-masked Hozuki kunoichi advised her temporary squad mate. "Just wait it out, there's no way that a drastic jutsu such as this one can be maintained for long without the strain on the bane's chakra escalates out of control."
"You're the one that's not being smart!" Chitsu declared while using the pistons at the lower feet to drive them into the ground and propel the oversized and abundant armor at the enemy formation all by its lonesome. "I don't have all that many other jutsu to rely on so I can afford to spend my entire chakra on just sustaining this transformation!"
"Don't be foolish, Chitsu, stay in formation!" the winged swordsman of the Blood Lagoon who was now hiding his abominable appendages in the same crevices they came from yelled out at his teammate.
It was like the words of warning that the tall gentleman offered his blood brother bounced off of one of these armored plates or the less hardy coating that covered even the patches of the ninja's skin under the armor pieces. Chitsu continued to throw threatening yet awkwardly angled blows and hammering with his hands in a drastic attempt to land one blow on the nimble Hozuki kunoichi. The Kirigakure woman danced around the awkwardly angled strikes and even found ample time to respond with her water claws, which unfortunately left little resembling a chink in the armor of crystallized blood iron or the shinier yet thinner cloak under it.
"The one who's foolish is you! With this form, I can beat all of them by myself! These ninja would have all of us killed just because we've been born in a different kind of union!" the armored ninja raged on, continuing his mad barrage of piston-fueled punches.
"Un unholy one, an impure one!" the ponytail-titan Hozuki ninja stepped in with a wicked body blow aimed at the cloaked yet unarmored abdomen area. The crystalized armor did not break or crack but Chitsu halted his attack immediately and grunted out in pain. The red gleam that emanated through the shadowy holes in between the armor pieces faded away, leaving a grim, dead look to the set of frozen in place armor. The Hozuki taijutsu user proceeded to wrap his arms around the enemy armor before lifting them up into the air and slamming the armor back-first into the ground with a fierce powerbomb whip.
It was as if Earth itself cried out in pain. The grunge of the ground gravel, compressed air and force pockets traveling far and wide, rupturing the natural planetary floor in its path sounded almost like a feminine, crying voice reaching out to anyone who'd listen. An ethereal pillar of pure force shockwave stretched out into the heavens desperately looking for escape, revealing an even more hellish scenery back down from where it hailed from of molten blood of mother Earth booming from deep underground and making the iron dust in the air explode into flickering sparks like the working area of a steel mill during its peak working hours.
The ponytail Hozuki proceeded to stomp his lifeless opponent a pair of times. It was nothing but a heelish attempt to belittle his fallen enemy but also a chance for the enemy to telegraph their refusal to die, which was the desired outcome of this and all following attacks for the Hozuki squad.
"What's the matter? Where's all that bravado or your fancy eyes? On the other hand, nothing too fancy 'bout them, huh? That's the problem with you half-breeds, you've got neither the Sharingan nor the proper use of the Hydrification Jutsu! Why so silent? Don't tell me you've already di…" before the Hozuki powerhouse could finish his sentence, admiring the revelation of the complete devastation he caused and the flattened bodies of the enemy, forced to splatter into blood puddles and then reform again, wasting more of their body liquids in the process, he lost balance and fell through into what appeared to be a trap hole.
As if he was woken up by the despicable sound of reeling, steel string, Chitsu awoke, lighting up the red gleams in the shadows in the left and right sides of the head armor piece. The Blood Lagoon ninja looked around in confusion, he could make out a large hole in the center of the crater he was just in and, after reaching about in the settling smoke, Chitsu gripped a string reeling device in his hand and very nearly smashed it to pieces in his baffled grip.
"That's why you were told to stay in the formation, damn it! If one of us dies too early, it's the end for all of us!" the cloaked specter of the Blood Lagoon lashed out at his arrogant teammate after reforming. "If it was not for this surprise hole…"
"This is no surprise hole, this is a trap hole." The winged swordsman of the Blood Lagoon concluded after giving the hole another look.
"Huh? What happened? It went all cool and shit and then Gungetsu disappeared…" the chubby Bogetsu scratched the bald side of his head before stroking his mohawk and ruining it by having his greasy hair scatter all over his oversized belfry like grass that's been trampled on. "Should I attack again?" he turned at the female Hozuki as if she was some sort of maternal figure, a result of the woman presuming she had authority over him previously.
"No. You'd be wise to stay put. This was so sinkhole that swallowed Gungetsu, it appears that the half-blood scum have some reinforcements we weren't aware of. A support-type ninja working underground, without a doubt. That's odd, I thought that all Iwagakure ninja were called back to defend their home." The fox-masked Hozuki lady wrapped her long, pale fingers with cerulean-colored nails over her decorated mask as if attempting to take it off but after a few lifts and twists she merely fixed the position of the fancy accessory on her face.
"Whoever dug this hole…" Chitsu extended his hand and opened it just to show the device he had found his salvation in to his allies. "They used this to save me as well. A string reeling device. Strong, could drag a whole mountain, attaches itself to hard surfaces too."
"They are on our side then." The cloaked Blood Lagoon member took what seemed the most useful from his comrade's words. "Hiding and setting traps. What a peculiar fighting style…"
"We do our hidden friend a disservice by standing about and letting the enemy look out for them. Our time is spent best pressuring our opponent and giving our ally an opportunity to set off more of their traps." The winged swordsman added.
A sizeable hand shot out from the jarring hole, lit up by blobs of molten rock and minerals still drooping all over its owner, with grunts of effort that overpowered the gruesome sizzling noise of the magma attempting to cook the man it covered alive, Gungetsu Hozuki revealed himself to be very much alive as he pulled himself out of the hole and wiped some of what mother Earth bled over him.
"Watch out! Kasano says that the Blood Lagoon has friends underground!" the chubby Hozuki brawler yelled out to his ally without bothering to restrain his voice so that it became less audible to the enemy.
"A rat… I hate rats…" Gungetsu punched his own hand before letting his eyes wander to his left and right, looking out for potential signs of the ninja that fancied to fight like a rodent. He did not have much time though as Chitsu blitzed right up from behind the lump of flesh that managed to powerbomb the armored ninja previously, wishing nothing more than to return the favor.
Gungetsu threw a back elbow strike without taking too much time to even spot his opponent. Despite the fact that Chitsu was absolutely silent, his enemy simply read that the Blood Lagoon ninja would attempt something of this sort. Cracks began forming around the head-pieces of Chitsu's armor, chunks and splinters flew out from the impressive formation of crystallized, mahogany-colored iron. Without waiting for the armored ninja to recover, Gungetsu wrapped his hands around the head of his enemy and dropped down with his full body-weight, dragging the upper body of Chitsu down with his own full body weight and causing immense strain on the neck of the Blood Lagoon ninja.
Chitsu staggered about from the damage accumulated by the swift response of the enemy and the even faster follow-up to the opportunity that Gungetsu created for himself. Noises not too different from those that a cracked coconut made that sounded both as sounds of tearing muscle and sinew and those of shattering and cracking stone signaled the collapse of Chitsu's armor into pieces and the revelation of the soft man inside, still surrounded and covered by a fleshy membrane in between the crystallized iron of his armor technique and the user's skin.
With a proud and smug grin on his face, Gungetsu slid his right arm between the wobbly legs of his opponent and then coiled his left over Chitsu's shoulder, scooping his stunned opponent as he spun around and over onto his back while slamming the down on his luck opponent while falling on top of him at the same time. The physical titan of the Hozuki clan was all too quick to get off the ground and admire his own work from above.
The other Blood Lagoon ninja were not planning on just standing there and watching their ally being manhandled, they charged out onward after the first sign of trouble but were both intercepted halfway. The elongated and supersized, impressive claws-donning blood-arm of the cloaked Blood Lagoon member met the overweight Hozuki somewhere down in the middle of the distance between where Chitsu required some aid and where his allies were.
Similarly, the curiously impractical sword met the watery opposition of the Hozuki kunoichi in around similar distance from where aid was required. There was no doubt that the woman was the supplier of the idea for the interception as the chubby Hozuki did not seem nearly bright enough to come up with this perfect timing to block the Blood Lagoon off from one another.
The cloaked Blood Lagoon member lunged his transformed limb onward, letting it extend far and wide, reach as far as it could. He was surprised to see the seemingly blade-sharp claws of the limb slipping off of the rotating body of the Hozuki fatso who was halfway transformed into his liquid state and spinning around in his semi-liquid state, creating a slippery and brittle obstacle to any incoming attacks. Bogetsu ended his rotation defensive technique far quicker than he started it, wrapping his own arms around the extended limb of the enemy before spinning the trapped opponent about and crashing them through the valley's mountains and rocks.
The female Hozuki threw a mad barrage of swipes and thrusts of her aquatic claws at her opponent, the efforts of the winged swordsman were valiant and commendable however with a spurt of blood squirting from the wounds previously acquired clashing against this young woman he was unable to properly defend himself in all of the awkward angles that the ferocious and unorthodox fighting style of the fox-masked Hozuki kunoichi demanded him to block from.
The Blood Lagoon swordsman grit his teeth as the pain from multiple shallow cuts he had received was beginning to tax his willpower and his stamina alike. With an airborne split kick, the Hozuki fox-lady attempted to send her injured opponent flying and eating the dirt but her kicks only landed at the wide-guard of the slightly hairy, black and wet defenses of the emerging wings of the Blood Lagoon ninja.
"You see that? You little rat? You better fuck off. These abominations wish to die themselves, that's why they're not using their twisted version of the Hydrification Jutsu." Gungetsu yelled out through a self-righteous, full-mouthed grin.
"That is not why they're not liquefying themselves at all." The fox-masked Hozuki woman shook her head.
"Huh? Why's that?" the Hozuki powerhouse turned away with a stupefied face. While he was not quite as thick as his more round ally, Gungetsu was still no grand strategist or a genius.
Before the woman could reply to the physically imposing Hozuki, exploiting the moment of when the enemy turned his eyes away from him, Chitsu grabbed the giant's thighs, pulled and yanked on them so that his enemy lost his balance completely. Blood squirted out from small cuts and bruises on Chitsu's forehead to the point where it covered the entire body of the Blood Lagoon ninja, it was not mere blood, however, shortly after appearing from the wounds out on the surface the liquid turned to thick, mahogany goop, a mixture of something in between a liquid and gelatin.
At the same time as his emerging armor completed, less out of base chakra and more out of his own blood, Chitsu shot himself high-up into the air, soaring through the intensifying layers of clouds, transitioning from blood-red to rust-brown, from rust-brown to pink, Chitsu turned around and continued to dive down like a heaven-splitting meteor with both of his armored limbs aimed down and looking to crush his opponent under him.
Instead of crushing Gungetsu, however, the armored devil simply blew up a bloated balloon of water in Gungetsu's shape, water that was quick to cover the Blood Lagoon ninja though Chitsu could not feel its refreshing chill because of all the layers of armor he was hiding under. The iron-covered hellion looked around with his dead-eyes, looking where the object of his hatred was to reform himself so that Chitsu could continue his onslaught.
"These Blood Lagoon ninja are well aware of the weakness of the Hydrification Jutsu – the fact that it spends the water present in our bodies to manifest its powerful effects which might quickly leave the user completely dehydrated. I'd assume because they are not turning to water but to that macabre, gore-goop instead, they're wasting more than just their body's water so they are even more desperate to stay hydrated and preserve their minerals." The kimono-donning Hozuki lady explained to her ally who ran downstream in the shape of a water puddle that managed to remain liquid and unaffected by the inhuman heat surrounding the battlefield and reformed nearby her.
"Yeah, I see… That must be it!" Gungetsu thundered out with an excited tone. "Hear that, you crummy halflings? It's 'cause of your Uchiha blood that you can't use Hydrification as well as we do and have to use your own, lamer version."
"I don't know about that…" the winged swordsman of the Blood Lagoon replied, swiping his sword aside. Careful observation would have revealed the fact that the blood from his hand that he held his massive sword in bled all over the ridges of his sword, turning it a nasty combination of turquoise elegance and patterns of a grotesque shade of crimson. "I'd say it's much more hardcore!"
With this bold declaration, the winged swordsman charged forward, his wings open and spread out wide to carry the tall and slender man in his wicked lunge. The long hair of the enigmatic Blood Lagoon ninja scattered all over the man's face and behind his back but soon became too tough to tell from the man's changing appearance. The entire body of the winged swordsman took the shape of the black, abominable creature to which his wings belonged to.
It was a creature of long, bald fingers of skin that appeared sickly enough to be pale and rotten enough to be dark at the same time. A crushed snout, full of small yet sharp teeth that could have shred through fruit and flesh alike, a triple pair of blood-red, gleaming eyes possessing the signature blood moon in a black, night's sky appearance that the ocular orbs of all the Blood Lagoon ninja had. Lastly, a massive pair of black, hairy ears that extended far out and reached even wider back followed by two pairs more that appeared significantly less formed. The entire body of the pitiful creature was riddled with short yet brushy hair that tangled with rare companion each string found to form more complex patterns and attempt to cover the plagued skin underneath.
"Ooh, ooh, I want to play with you!" Bogetsu chanted out of sheer, childish glee as he ran towards the enemy. Gungetsu wanted to jump right after him and second his ally but noticed his knees shaking in the middle. Before the face of the physical titan sighed in relief, it twisted in fury that he was reduced to such pitiful display of emotion. It was not until the man realized the more inner, instinct-driven nature of his primal fear that he gave in to the instinct that kept him back from this mysterious transformation of his enemy.
The Blood Lagoon swordsman swirled and swooped right around the enemy aiming to intercept him. Bogetsu attempted multiple times to smack his enemy out of air or try and get his hands on the slippery bastard but found it all to be in vain. A bright gleam of blood-red outshined the gloomy atmosphere of the Valley of Hell on Bogetsu's cheek, nothing but an insignificant, little cut on the cheek, nothing but mockery and just a showing-off notion of the swordsman uncanny speed and ability.
"I…" Bogetsu's face changed all of a sudden, it turned sad and displeased, almost like the face that Bogetsu used to make all the time when he overate and found himself profoundly nauseous although the same effect of primal, instinctive fear of the unknown finally got the belfry of the oversized Hozuki as well. A second too late, sadly.
"Don't… Feel too good…" the chubby finished his sentence. Blood burst from around Bogetsu's eyes, his mouth and his nose as the stream of bloody vomit was too powerful to be directed solely through the Hozuki's mouth alone. The skin of the suffering ninja turned red as if it was boiling from the inside before the red turned much more intense but only in spotty patterns all over Bogetsu's skin whereas the leftover patches of his skin paled out of blood loss. Without much more to his life than its grisly end, Bogetsu collapsed on the ground in the pool of his own leaking blood, that, ironically enough, his body would have needed desperately at these final moments if they were to be prolonged in the least.
The winged and malformed swordsman landed firmly with his transformed, three-toed and bird-like feet onto the floor before giving the two remaining Hozuki a morbid stare with all six of his blood-moon eyes. The swordsman that tended to speak as little as possible at all times now found that his stare conveyed the message more effectively at that moment than any amount of words would have, no matter how meaningful and tactful.