Act I - The Eruption Night

Alkaid had initially written off that dark liquid, but that had been a big mistake.  The more she moved around the more it began to circulate within her bloodstream.  With every step she took towards the reaper she could feel herself growing slightly more slower and sluggish.

Her second mistake was being too focused on the reaper.  Not that you could blame the poor girl. She was so outclassed it wasn’t even funny and in that type of situation it was simply instinct to keep your eyes peeled to the deadliest threat and not noticed something smaller.   It was the type of thing a more seasoned shinobi would have been on the look out for, not a gennin like herself who didn’t have enough battles behind her to count on one hand.

Before she knew it cold hands had closed in on her, gripping her by her arms and legs with strength she couldn’t hope to break free from.   Was this is? Was this how she was going to die cut down by this mockery dressed as death?  Letting Yanagi take out her revenge would have been a fitting end. Alkaid wouldn’t mind a passing that poetic.

But dying here? On some random battlefield before she could even accomplish anything? What kind of death would that be for a star like herself?  Fuck that.  If she was going to punch her ticket in a fight she wanted it to be either on as grand a stage as possible or extremely flashy.    

“SCREW OFF.” She screamed feed up with the annoying impediments. Without warning spears of bone erupted from her flesh all across her body skewering all of the puppets that had so foolishly tried to restrain her and ripping them to shreds.   One moment she’d seemed like a normal human, but now with so many bones protruding like spines she more closely resembled a hedgehog.

As the reaper came in to attack her there where no openings in the spikes large enough to fit the shaft of it’s scythe thought. The bones stronger then steel or titanium would not break so easily. As it slammed the handle into them they stood firm.  

The first strike had been so fast she hadn’t registered it until after it had happened, and she was unable to do much by the second, but by the third she lashed out her bones even further trying to turn the reaper into Shish kebab or at least trap his scythe between them depriving him off his weapon.

“My blade is unbending.” Muttered Alkaid, blood trickling from her mouth from the exertion of using so many bones at once.  On the plus side forcing them all out had purged most of the poison out of her body, but at the same time she had lost enough in the process that her consciousness was wavering, making her vision blurry.

In her current condition it didn’t matter if she’d stopped the reaper or not, there was no way she was going to be able to get away from the massive tidal wave of sand coming her way.  Luckily for her she wouldn’t have to as the chunnin that had been assinged to help her stepped forward.  

With a single hand seal he waved his hand unleashing a wave that traveled in a straight line at high speeds.  This was the Water Release: Rising Water Slicer technique and it could easily cut thought solid rock like it was nothing,  cleaving enough space thought the sand to spare the group of gennin who had been fighting so valiantly and himself would be a piece of cake.

It would appear that Akeno’s efforts was not wasted as she cleared a path for the Kiri forces to advance with little difficulty. Whatever reason that chicken puppet was in the midst of fire is beyond Akeno’s knowledge, but she’ll admit that chickens can be easily overlooked when they’re not being butchered or harvesting eggs. The puppet labeled as Reaper moved swift and strong in dealing with its combatants. The little guy whom Akeno assumed is the source behind all of this lifted his hand from what appears to be an… Orb? Orbs don’t float, or at least not naturally in Akeno’s mind and even if this figure was causing it to float it can be taxing on the body. Perhaps it was some sort of amplifier? A dozen questions formed in her head as this small one performed a technique through a series of hand seals so fast and precise even her keen eyes had trouble seeing them.

Then with the final seal a massive tsunami of sand erupted underneath Akeno’s feet. She was quick to assume that magnetizing chakra under her feet holds the same effect as water surface. Something basic that everyone worth their salt should know, but the problem is do the others know as well? Akeno remembered where her two clusters were located at, and like she is wearing a pair of skates the jounin flew into action as she moves around Shin. Forming the tiger seal feigning like she’s about to unleash another katon technique. However Akeno only conjures a single shadow clone that now skates alongside her.

Some of the puppets surfaced from the sand and tried to grab at Akeno’s feet, but with a few choiceful leaps over the puppets she avoids them along with her clone. The waves of overwhelming sand were dealt with by treating this experience like surfing. With her natural speed Akeno and her clone manages to glide with the waves while moving up to get over the top. Akeno eventually leaves her clone around a certain area at Shin’s left flank while Akeno continues onward to Shin’s right flank. Akeno notes the number of puppets still loitering about, and some of them were honing towards her location along with Akeno’s clone. A smirk plays on her lips as both Akeno and the shadow clone leapt up while forming a sole ram seal. Within seconds fifteen golfball sized jagged black rocks burst from the sand with great velocity and packed enough power to shred any of the puppets nearby within ten meters. Luckily the jounin was just out of the range from the shards.

Tech:

80/120 (-3 Stamina)

The Twins were nearing the source of all this chaos and madness: The Kazekage himself Shin Kazehana. Konami's eyes narrowed when she saw his face. Shin Kazehana! What is the meaning of this?! She said as her mind raced. This was essentially a declaration of war by the failing Suna state or perhaps a lone wolf attack. She thought the former more likely though. Toonami had noticed it too and was now shouting obsecneties as she decimated the remaining puppets with cries of epithets directed towards the Suna native. The Twins fought their way through the hordes of puppets but just as they were about to enter close quarters within the master puppeteer he launched another attack. Large waves of sand erupted from the ground and threatened to cascade down on the twins. Kiri guard that was behind them launched another volley of Water Dragon Bullet Technique and Water Severing Waves. The stream of powerful suiton cut through the mounds of waves that threatened to engulf the twins. The excess water pulverize and weakened the waves. The continuous blasting essentially functioned to partition the sand, splitting it into two steadily advancing streams while the center remained relatively clear or at least clear enough for Toonami and Konami to steadily trudge forward. Unfortunately the amount of sand being generated far outpaced the chakra reserves of the Kiri shinobi.

How is he generating this much sand? The amount of chakra this jutsu would require is akin to that of a Tailed Beast! Konami reasoned. This would be over for them if they continued at this pace as she turned back to see her shinobi slowly losing stamina. Konami looked at Toonami and the two nodded as they came to the same conclusion at the same time. Toonami merged into Konami's body and the woman utilized Chakra Enhanced Strength to leap into the air far above the waves. No sooner had the combined Twins jumped from their position near the top of the hill, did the Kiri Guard finally give up on their battle with the waves of sand. They allowed it to wash over them and bury them in its wake. Luckily the worst had been avoided and while they were alive, they would be out of the fight until they dug their way out. The ones near the Kaguya would of course remain in play for the time being unless they were otherwise killed or incapacitated.

Konami sudden flight into the air hopefully distracted Shin for a moment. The woman angled herself so as to land directly on top of them aiming a red steel gauntlet at his temple as he rode the sand waves. The attack from above had put her in a vulnerable position but hopefully it would distract him from Satomi's Purple Lightning blast and Akeno's attack which had coincidentally and fortunately not been angled so as to threaten Konami herself.

[OOC: Heads up, there is an autohit on this post. It is not a hit call (as in, a connect of an attack made on an earlier post) but rather a auto-hit (as in, an attacked initiated and connected in the same post). It is made on the character Akeno and I have full permission from the character's roleplayer to do so.]


The battle raged on, jutsu were thrown back and forth and the full might of the shinobi and kunoichi battling Shin Kazehana was rather impressive. Even during the pre-hidden villages era, Shin would rarely ever see combat of such caliber and scale. From Kirigakure no Sato's impressive use of Suiton Ninjutsu to stop his sand waves, to the combined efforts of the Leaf's Lightning and Lava release natures this was truly a sight to behold likely once in a lifetime. The first one to react to Shin's sand waves was the Leaf ninja known as Uchiha Satomi. He and his clone worked together to release a powerful Lightning Jutsu aimed at the Reaper.

The Lightning Release had an edge over Shin's sand if nothing else by power alone. It seemed to the ex-Kazekage like Satomi was commanding lightning itself and for a brief moment, he regretted his previous decision. "Having seconds thoughts?" the beast eased him but Shin paid him no mind. There was no place for doubt and hesitation in any battlefield and certainly not on this one. The Purple Lightning Technique did cut through the sand towards the Reaper, but it simply wasn't wide enough to prevent the three consecutive sand waves Shin had thrown at his opposition. So while it did save Satomi's position and made an offensive move on the Reaper, the rest of Shin's opposition still had to deal with the sand- which they did remarkably, but we will get to that later. For now, Shin had to deal with the combined lightning techniques forced on the Reaper. Despite the puppet's immense agility and coordination, Shin was forced to admit his puppet could not deal with that sort of raw damage. But more important than his puppet, there were other problems caused by this Lightning Ninjutsu.

Before and while Satomi's lightning jutsu was being cast, it is important to note the Reaper's position. The puppet was striking Alkaide at that time, banging its scythe against the mighty Kaguya bones that she used to defend herself. The sudden change in anatomy was enough to throw Shin off his concentration on that attack. Had he been fighting Alkaide alone, the change in the attack's trajectory to strike weaker points would have been child's play (or at least he liked to believe so) but Shin's concentration was required almost everywhere else on that battlefield as well. And so by the third strike, the Reaper's scythe clashed against the lashed out bones, and it got stuck between two of them. The Reaper would try to pull it out but very much like the girl had said, her blade (in this case, her bones) were unbending. The Reaper was able to exert up to an A-ranked amount of strength but its current position was unfavorable for applying that kind of strength and the scythe was too awkwardly stuck. Additionally, he had had to move out of the way of the other lashing bones so while he was still quite close to Alkaide (in close combat range), the puppet was in no position to recover his scythe despite still holding a firm grip on it.

It was at this point that Shin noticed the powerful Lightning Release cast by Satomi. It moved a large amount of chakra so it was immediately red flagged on Shin's sensory range. Glancing at the jutsu and its intended target, Shin couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Are you insane?!" the Sand ninja yelled out by reflex. Perhaps it was due to the sand waves ravaging the battlefield, or the many things happening at once that Satomi didn't see where he was aiming at. Or perhaps he saw and just didn't care. Shin couldn't possibly know which one but by the time the technique was cast it didn't matter. The Chuunin behind Alkaide had used its powerful Suiton technique to cut through the sand and find a temporary safe haven, yet the jutsu didn't reach either the Reaper not Alkaid for obvious reasons. But should that lightning technique hit its intended target in that position, all of them, the Reaper, the Chuunin and Alkaide would be doomed. Shin knew they wanted to win, but were they willing to go that far? To sacrifice a life to destroy a single puppet? Shin couldn't believe that, so instead he chose to believe the Leaf Jonin hadn't seen the weakened Alkaide there.

Shin did the only thing he could, at the same time he spoke. The Reaper was in no position to pull the scythe back, but he was in a condition to push. With a quick move of a single finger, Shin made his puppet move. The first thing that would happen was that the Reaper let go of the scythe. It was too much weight, so it disappeared in a poof of smoke. The second was a taijutsu move. The Reaper would raise its right leg at his usual high speed and apply a mighty kick to the Kaguya's bones. The A-ranked impact would send her flying towards the Chuunin, hitting him and sending them both flying out of Purple Lightning's way. The impact was massive and could easily kill a regular person, but having struck the lashed out Kaguya bones and not Alkaide's body itself, Shin had a feeling she would live. This reckless move had another sort of consequence, however. The Kaguya bones were extremely durable. The Reaper was strong and built by the world's greatest puppet master at the time. But in the end, despite its brilliant engineering, it was made out of steel and its weaknesses were its joints. The moment the puppet's foot made a poorly planned impact on Kaguya lashed out bone, its ankle joint was ruined.

Shin wasn't controlling puppets through the usual chakra strings method so every joint in each one of his puppets was essential. The moment he felt the joint stop answering correctly, he knew: That battle was over for the Reaper. Standing on just one leg, the puppet would turn towards the jutsu in time of seeing lightning coming towards it. Before it could strike and further damage the puppet, however, the Reaper vanished from the battlefield. The Lightning swept across that area and absolutely devastated the area where he was, but Shin had called the puppet back and while it was no longer on the battlefield the ex-Kazekage now knew that it was at least safe although in dire need of repairs.

"We're pulling back."
"Ah..so soon? Can't handle the heat?"
"It's time, the Kraken's in position."


The Reaper was gone and everything so far had happened in an instant but Shin knew the battle raged on. Glancing up, she saw the Mizukage. Shin heard her speak her name earlier, but with everything going on with the Reaper he couldn't afford losing focus for a reply. In fact, he was only now noticing that both of them had jumped a ridiculously high distance just to strike him in close combat. Shin had his guard nearby tho, and manage to take advantage of the Mizukage's approach strategy. By jumping and angling herself so that she would land right on top of Shin, she would need to follow a trajectory that had a fundamental flaw: In order to get in a position above Shin and then land on him, the two women had to go through a time of vulnerability which was the higher point of their trajectory. It was at this point that Shin found the Mizukage(s?). It was also the point in her trajectory at which their speed was minor so if there was a moment to counter-attack, this was it. Shin was confident the Angel guarding his side would be strong enough to protect him but he wanted to do more.

"She knew me...my name." This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone but Shin was still surprised to hear someone call him that name. It had been a while. Nee-san was probably the last human who called him "Shin" with that sort of fiery battle passion, and with whom he had enjoyed working and fighting alongside with. They were nearly defeated in battle, however, and Nee-san had forfeited his life so Shin could live on.

A quick set of one-handed hand-seals and the Angel quickly released a technique against the Mizukage. Wind Release: Great Breakthrough was a Fuuton jutsu capable of tearing trees and devastating anything in its path with wind pressure alone. It wouldn't directly hurt the Mizukage but it was certain to send her flying back to her original position if not even further. The air blast would hit the Kirigakure ninja's leader and accelerate her in the opposite direction of Shin.

Now it was time to attack. Shin glanced down where he saw Akeno making her move. Had she noticed anything? It was unlikely...unless she either was a sensor or had a keen sense of perception. But Shin had years of experience using his favorite predator and he didn't think it could be so easily detected. Shin noted how she made a Kage Bunshin but was certain to keep in mind which one was the real one. That was his main target. The woman dodged the first few puppets that tried to grab her feet, gracefully using chakra on her feet to avoid both the puppets and being buried by the sand wave. This much was to be expected, she was a Jonin class ninja after all. Not that Shin had ever seen her before, but after years of battling one could almost always tell for certain the level of their opponents after battling for a bit. In this case, it was rather obvious since she had used a large scale Katon jutsu that no average ninja could use.

But the moment had come. The chicken burning witch had leaped in the air and very much like the Mizukage she was vulnerable there.  The Kraken was in position.

It all occurred in a flash. One moment she was there, the other she was not. The only traces of her presence being particles of sand moved by the Kraken's tentacles. Out of all of Shin's sand sea predators, the Kraken was his favorite. The puppet was enormous and moved at speeds similar to that of the Reapers. It had an incredible offensive and defensive potential but above that, it was Shin's favorite puppet for making prisoners. As soon as Akeno began her leap, a giant tentacle rose from the sea of sand beneath her and grabbed her left foot. At the same time, another tentacle rose fand grabbed her right arm, pulling it down and preventing her from completing the hand-seal needed to cast that lava jutsu of hers. Her clone cast the jutsu and managed to destroy a few puppet soldiers but none of the shards reached Shin or the Kraken. A third tentacle also rose from the ground at the same time the other two did, wrapping around her torso and pulling her down towards the Kraken's mouth. There, she would be swallowed and made prisoner. Each tentacle had many needles, the length of which Shin could control. Once they pierced Akeno's skin, they would slightly wound her. Shin controlled the length so that in very little time no traces of these wounds would be left on her body but the attack's main purpose had been fulfilled: Akeno had been poisoned and brought under the sea of sand.

The Kraken:

It all happened in an instant. At S-rank speed, chances are the Leaf Jonin would be down under the sand incapacitated inside the Kraken before she could realize what had happened. The tentacles would rise and return incredibly fast, probably too fast for most ninjas on that battlefield. Those would see it, would see it. But to all others, Akeno would suddenly vanish in a quick burst of sand. The Kraken would make use of its speed to bring her down to the deeper part of the sand sea, going towards underneath Shin's position until it was beneath him but still covered by thick layers of sand.

"It's done, we're going."
"So soon? "
"There's nothing left for us to do here."
"Weren't you supposed to assess their power and bring a Kirigakure ninja back?"
"No. I was asked to come to Kirigakure, assess their military power and bring a subject. No one said anything about it being from Kirigakure."
"Ah, playing wordgames are we? I'm not sure they will like that."
"Since when do you care?"
"I don't, but apparently you do."
"Hmph."
"Should I tell them you saved that girl's life?"
"You can't know that. For all I know she could still have enough strength to jump out of the way. Or perhaps the Leaf Jonin aimed more carefully than I believed."
"Ah....but you didn't risk it, did you? Is Shin getting softy?"
"You really want to stay in that ball forever, don't you?"

It was time to cover their run. One more wave of his hand and Shin gathered a large amount of sand. The sand which had been spread by the waves quickly came together and created a massive wall between him and his opponents. The wall was at least 5 meters thick and several dozen meters tall. Additionally, it had about 25 meters in length. These proportions were possible from the moment Shin took sand from the waves he'd thrown earlier. Walking on the wall would be unwise, as it was Shin's sand and he could create weapons from it at any time. He created this wall for 2 reasons: First, it didn't suit him to unnecessarily bury people alive. And second, it would both cover his escape and distract whoever might have noticed Akeno's disappearance. Who would ever look at the ground with such a menacing structure towering above them? Either way by now the Kraken was already deep underground, even below the sea of sand (which was now much thinner). As soon as the wall was created, Shin jumped on Angel's back and the puppet began away from there at full speed, S-rank. On its back, was Shin. And below them, the Kraken kept up. Once at a safe enough distance, Shin would make a hand-seal and the sand would fall down and sink into the ground until no trace of it was left and all those who were buried alive could now be safely rescued.

[Exit]

Satomi's attack was brutal and powerful. But at the last moment he had noticed that after blasting apart one of the large sand waves heading towards him, he had made a mistake. His attack was aimed at the Reaper was well, but he did not get a good vantage point to see the whom was next to it. His heart sank and he instantly regretted firing the Purple Lightning technique. However things changed when when the reaper attacked with a strong kick and sent a figure flying into another, and they went sailing out of the area. Just as Satomi's purple lightning landed and devastated the area. Damnit It seemed as if Satomi's attack decimated the puppet, for when the smoke cleared it was gone.

However there were no pieces of machinery left, which made it seem that he had escaped at the last minute. But things were going to take a turn for the worse, as Shin had something up his sleeve the entire time. And it wasn't the puppet army at his disposal. That was the foreplay. He had brought the main course. Large tentacles popped up from the ground and something huge popped up from the ground. But then it came back down and it was gone. It happened to fast, you'd have thought it didn't happen.

But Satomi's eyes caught it. And he was able to see who else disappeared almost instantly. Akeno! If anyone would be keeping an eye out on it would be his partner. She was grabbed and she was gone. It happened so fast there was nothing for anyone to do. Satomi ran forward but stopped as Shin summoned a wall of Sand. It was gigantic, impossible to scale in time to stop their dangerous adversary of escaping.

Satomi was beside himself. Why would they take Akeno? Whatever the question lie on. He had to return to Konoha immediately. Once the Mizukage recovered from Angel's attack he would call out to her. "Lord Mizukage. I must return to Konoha. He took Akeno. I must tell Lord Hokage and we have to rescue Akeno. You will hear from us. He will know what to do." There was no need for him to stick around longer. Things took a drastic turn.

[Exit-Konoha]

The impact was tremendous, but without a doubt the Kaguya would survive. Her bones prevented her body from hurting itself, and Tsubaki herself was already quite durable. She took the impact like a champ, though still suffering great damage. Her eyes would open in a slight daze, the girl all not quite there in the past fit of combat. With the combat situation at an end the bones would dissolve back into her body as she shambled up on both feet struggling to maintain posture. "Hmph! You better run!" She snorted before parting from the area and heading back into the village.

[Exit]

Through her blurred vision Alkaid almost couldn’t believe her eyes. Holy freaking shit she had actually managed to catch the scythe with her bones. Somehow someway she’d found a way to still make herself useful to the others despite being completely outclassed.

The euphoria didn’t last long however as the puppet kicked her spikes hard enough to send her flying. Damn that thing was strong. It was a wonder it hadn’t simply just picked her up because it sure seemed strong enough to, then again staying that close to a Kaguya was a fools errand so it elected to send her away instead.

At the moment of impact she had heard something break in the reapers leg. It irked her to no end that the only “damage” she’d managed to dish out had basically been self inflicted. She would have liked to actually skewer the damn thing but she had a bigger problem on her hands.

It had been smart about choosing her trajectory, sending her flying directly at the Chunnin who had so nobly saved her for the tidal wave of sand. With bone spikes protruding from particularly every part of her body so if she hit the man as she was now she’d turn him into a human pin cushion.

“I ain’t about to be used as a weapon against my own allies.” She thought determinedly as she willfully ejected all the spikes, letting them clatter to the ground as she flew so that when she impacted with the Chunnin it simply knocked them both for a loop.

The next thing she knew she was sprawled over the man on on the ground in heap and the battle was already over. “Wow for such a small girl you’re surprisingly heavy.” commented the man prompting Alkaid to get off him in a hurry. Talk about rude. She was about to give him a mouthful when she noticed that his face was quickly turning red, followed by a small amount of blood dripping from his nose.

Had he been hurt by the impact more then she’d initially thought? His body had cushioned most of the blow for her which is the only reason she hadn’t blacked out, but she realized that might not be the case as the man quickly averted his eyes. Looking down to where he’d been starting Alkaid began to blush herself at the site of her of almost completely nude body.

It seemed protruding bones from all over had torn her clothes to shreds and there was little more remaining then a few scattered tatters that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Alkaid quickly moved her arms to cover up her ample bust as best as she could but it was too late, the man had already gotten a good eyefull of her.

Her face burned in shame. She liked to show off a bit and tease but this went beyond the pail. The bad girl thing was nothing but one of her acts. Sneaking in public was crossing a bridge too far. What if people started talking about it saying she was an exhibitionist?

“You saw nothing….. And if you ever breath a word about this to anyone I will stab out your eyes and put them on display.” she hissed a warning, thought she was mainly bluffing relying on her village’s reputation for bloodthirstiness do the work for her.

The man audibly gulped but said nothing and Alkaid quickly made herself scarce. In the chaos of the battle not many people had been paying much attention to what she was doing, plus she’d been wearing a mask for most of it. She’d been forced to play her ace in the hole revealing that she had in fact unlocked her bloodline ability when what was her public file said otherwise. With any luck her secret would still be safe….

[exit]

It was all a blur that Akeno honestly did not know what really happened. One second Akeno had leapt up preparing to shred any remaining puppets, and somewhere between that second and next something came up. Latching onto Akeno’s leg as several needles puncture into her leg as another strongly wrapped around Akeno’s right arm. Not only did Akeno feel the hundreds of needles piercing her skin, but she also felt and heard a sickening pop emitting from her right shoulder. Just that alone knocked the wind out of her as Akeno tried to gasp once she registered the overwhelming trauma. Her right arm had been crushed from the grip from the bicep down to her hand. Then a third tentacle came up and wrapped around her torso which thankfully was protected by the standard issued flak jacket.

With a strong pull Akeno felt herself weightless as something cold was crawling through her veins. Her eyes fluttering as Akeno briefly saw her right arm, or rather what is left of it severed from her body. And then just like that everything went dark for her. Slumber came over her consciousness and was out…

[Exit]