Clementia
Kini ran towards her screaming out her name. Well, he always was a feisty one.
With a quick, practiced motion, Clementia reached into her shinobi tools pouch and retrieved a small bag. Her hands weaved through a series of hand signs, invoking a duplication jutsu. The bag soared high into the air, and with a resounding explosion, it released a cascade of marbles, scattering them across the battlefield.
Kini, charging relentlessly, stumbled over the marbles and tumbled forward, his fiery assault interrupted.
Clementia couldn't help but giggle. "You always know how to make me smile, Kini."
"Fuck off!" Kini said as he tossed a handful of marbles at her, magnetized no doubt.
Clementia held out her corrupted arm and the marbles were simply devoured as they collided with her palm.
Tastes like irrational rage," Clementia mused, a sardonic smile playing on her lips. "Must be your chakra."
"Not irrational. There's a reason I'm the way I am."
Clementia leaned in, her curiosity piqued. "Oh? Do tell."
"What?" Kini laughed arrogantly. "I ain't tellin' you, ya psycho."
"Then how about you tell Renga?" Clementia said as she bit her finger and began making hand signs.
"Your husband? So he survived then."
Kini charged toward her, his fiery determination evident in his eyes. Clementia, with her unique blend of scientific prowess and shinobi skills, was a formidable adversary, and she had an uncanny ability to rile Kini up.
With a quick, practiced motion, Clementia reached into her shinobi tools pouch and retrieved a small bag. Her hands weaved through a series of hand signs, invoking a duplication jutsu. The bag soared high into the air, and with a resounding explosion, it released a cascade of marbles, scattering them across the battlefield.
Kini, charging relentlessly, stumbled over the marbles and tumbled forward, his fiery assault interrupted.
Clementia couldn't help but giggle. "You always know how to make me smile, Kini."
He shot back, still defiant even on the ground. "Fuck off!"
Unfazed, Clementia held out her corrupted arm, and the magnetized marbles hurtled toward her. With a casual flick of her wrist, they were effortlessly drawn into her palm, absorbed by the pulsating Corruption.
"Tastes like irrational rage," Clementia mused, a sardonic smile playing on her lips. "Must be your chakra."
Kini, his temper flaring, responded with biting sarcasm. "Not irrational. There's a reason I'm the way I am."
Clementia leaned in, her curiosity piqued. "Oh? Do tell."
Kini, ever the stubborn one, scoffed at the notion of confiding in her. "What? I ain't tellin' you, ya psycho."
Clementia, undeterred, chose a different approach. "Then how about you tell Renga?"
Kini's eyes narrowed as he heard the name. "Your husband? So he survived then."
Clementia's voice took on an eerie calmness as she corrected him. "No, not really."
Suddenly, with a forceful slam of her palm into the ground, Renga materialized before them. But this was no ordinary Renga. He was a fusion of metal and flesh, puppet-like joints interlacing with mechanical components.
"What do you think?" Clementia asked, her eyes gleaming with pride. "I combined Sunagakure's puppet knowledge with my own research into machines and biology."
"Yeah, I'm a robot or something. It's weird," Renga said.
"Renga, honey, we talked about this. Don't be like that."
Kini didn't really seem impressed and just got up and began walking towards her, more cautious of the marbles now.
"Oh come on, he's a cool machine man. You could at least give me a 'Clementia, you crazy bitch, what kind of abomination have you created!'"
"I dunno. After that Corruption monster you turned into a vehicle this just isn't surprising."
Clementia gritted her teeth and clawed at her scalp. "Renga! Show him that you're full of surprises!"
"Literally," Renga said in his flat tone, as his chest opened up and a barrage of misses flew out of it, aimed at Kini.
Kini glanced at the ground covered in marbles. That's right, he couldn't run. He wouldn't be able to dodge the missiles.
He bent his knees. Was he going to try and jump? He'd be in for a surprise then. These were homing missiles.
He did jump, but not away from the missles. He jumped towards them, and before Clementia could grasp what was happening, the missile had turned around with Kini riding on top of it grinning like a maniac. The other missiles turned to follow and… he was taking all of them straight towards her!
Shit! She'd have to use the thing Maguro gave her. She unfurled the scroll and suddenly there was a pillar of smoke towering above them.
Eight tentacles slithered out from the cloud, lashing out at the battlefield, demolishing shinobi on both sides, and causing indiscriminate havoc in general.
More importantly, the Eight Tails was now between herself and Kini. She heard the explosion and saw Kini leap out of the mist before it dissipated.
He landed gracefully in front of her. "The Hell did you do, Clementia!? That monster can't be controlled."
"Yes, that's why I summoned it next to this village and not my own. Are you slow?"
All the response she got from Kini was an angry scream and a flurry of fists. His brain might have been slow, but his body sure wasn't. She couldn't block any of his attacks. If it weren't for her size and general physical bulk, she might be in trouble.
That said, she couldn't tank hits forever, and with one powerful punch, Kini sent her flying back.
She returned to her feet and shook off the dust. "Whew, someone's feisty. Is it that time of the month?"
Kini's eyes seethed with rage as they locked dead onto Clementia. "I will murder you!"
"I mean, you can try. Getting into melee range would seem to be the smart move, but Kini dear, I'll tell you now it isn't going to work."
Renga's arm began to shift and morph, indicating that he was about to fire another weapon Clementia had installed at Kini. But, both he and Kini stopped for a moment, staring behind Clementia. She turned her head to behold shinobi dropping to the ground in a fan that was spreading out towards them.
She understood what this was immediately. She'd been informed of the child's abilities. She held out her corrupted hand and it began devouring the gas, pulling it into its vortex until she felt she was safe. "Well, shall we continue, Kini-weenie?"
Kini didn't need any further provocation. He ran towards Clementia and grabbed for her. This was what she had been waiting for. This attack was slower than his punches. He let Kini grab what he would, which ended up being an arm, the uncorrupted one, while she jabbed at his stomach with her beast arm.
But of course, Kini had been prepared for this as well. She had been aiming for his heart, but instead she ended up devouring a chunk of flesh next to it, leaving a gaping wound on the side of his chest.
As they broke away, Kini coughed up some blood.
"Oho! Looks like I scored a lung!" Clementia said.
"Well, I got an arm. I'll get the other one long before I bleed out. Then you die."
Clementia, her voice alight with playful arrogance, extended her arm, flexing her fingers mockingly. "Really? When is it supposed to kick in?"
"Your whole arm should be magnetized. How did you—"
Clementia cut him off. "You went on that whole trip with her. Don't tell me you've forgotten? I told you I made Anri so that I could study your Kekkei Genkai. In particular, I needed to combine our DNA to create cells that were compatible with my own. With Anri's cells in my body it's easy enough to undo your—"
Beyond Kini, Clementia took note that there were many more shinobi on the battlefield than before. And the new arrivals were definitely not on her side. In fact, one powerful shinobi in the distance was going at it against the Eight Tails… and pushing it back!? Wait, that looked like a Kage hat, but she couldn't tell which village from this distance.
Then a white fog fell over the immediate area. Clementia could no longer see Kini or Renga. Oh, great. So, it was that village, huh?
She heard a thud from within the mist and chuckled. "Oh, do be careful. Probably should have checked the ground before you put that mist up."
An unfamiliar voice, strangely distant yet resonating all around, responded."Apologies. I don't know why you are here, Rain Shinob, but we are here to scatter the sand to the winds, and so I will aid you against this sand ninja."
"Oh, yes, please. He's a terrible sand ninja who has allied himself with the Corruption. He even summoned that twisted Bijuu so be super-duper careful."
"The Hell I did!" Kini shouted.
Clementia took slow steps, careful to avoid marbles as she moved through the mist. Couldn't have them knowing her position.
Clementia heard the clashing of steel-on-steel from where Kini was. Then another sound that she knew was Renga's needle weapon firing off.
Then Kini's voice came from near where Clementia had been before. "Hey, Clementia. Why did you join that weird religion, anyway? I thought you were a scientist, believing in that man's bunk…"
Now that she focused on that spot, she could sense Kini's magnetic field. It was quite powerful. She wasn't using any kind of magnetism at the moment, so he wouldn't be able to sense hers… well, she could move if he did come towards her. She just had to wait it out at this point and let him succumb to his injury.
"Oh, talkative now are we, Kini? Kekeke, well lucky for you, I love talking. But you really think you can trick this man by reversing our roles, Kini, when you are clearly the one who's a sand ninja? But I'll humor you. Here's why I think you joined that cult. You don't really care about any of that. You're just using them. That other scientist who was with you said something about how the Corruption could evolve humankind. Well, you probably want to do something like that, but you're a rough kind of person. Angry little guy. I don't think you hold such romantic no-"
A piercing pain seared through Clementia's stomach, followed by a resounding sonic boom. Damn it! A supersonic attack. In this mist that meant an attack that can't be seen or heard until it was too late. "Oh, you got me good, Kini, nice one! Was that… a Rail Gun? I'll have to write that one down."
"Shut your cocky mouth and die already."
As her vision blurred and her consciousness faded, Clementia caught snippets of conversation from the mist-shrouded battlefield. Kini's voice, Renga's, and another, unfamiliar voice, but the words were indistinct, slipping away as she drifted into unconsciousness.