Starring:
Date: August 13, 2012
Summary:
After Uma shattered Kitaru's arm and took off into the forest, Keisuke followed her to keep an eye on her and be sure she did not plan to bring any harm to the Land of Water or Kirigakure. Whatever, her plan is, she does not take kindly to being followed, and a fight soon ensues.
"The Fall of a Kaguya"
Forest Glade - Land of Water
The sun has long set since Uma's grand greeting outside of Kirigakure, she rests in the center of a crater lowered into the ground. A fire burns, yet the walls prevent glow and minimal smoke. The Hyuuga girl sits in front of a tea-set, a cast-iron pot resting above the spitting flames of a mild fire. Uma has several different tea-leafs spread out. Once the water begins to boil, she pools the herbs together and pours the water into a porcelain tea-kettle. She pours her cup, and then another. It's unlikely that Uma wouldn't have noticed someone tracking her, "I know you are there Kaguya-san. You might as well join me for tea.."
Currently standing behind a tree, Keisuke smirks slightly as the Hyuuga comes calls out to him. He ponders a moment before stepping out of the treeline and into view then approaching the small campsite. "How kind of you," he says off-handedly as he moves to sit across from Uma. His intense blood red eyes study her as he takes his head, lifting an eyebrow slightly. Though he does sit down to relax, his eyes never leave her, staying on guard.
Uma shrugs lightly, "I wouldn't say kind. Honorable thing to do. I like to drink tea with my enemies before I kill them." The tea would be of the highest quality in the land. Uma might be a shinobi, but she's developed into quite the tea-mistress. She breathes lightly on the steam that hovers off the surface. Taking a deep sip of the amber liquid, Uma comments, "It would've been better if you had never followed me. Some things are not worth losing your life over. This is one of those things." Waving a hand around the trees, she comments, "Despite me being a shinobi from Konoha; In my younger years, I lived in these woods during the coldest of winters and the hottest of summers. I know this land like it were my own." She sips some more tea, "I've lived on every continent, there for I see no need to explain myself to anyone, anywhere. At any time." Shrugging she stops talking, simply sipping her tea, and letting Keisuke enjoy his own.
"Ah," Keisuke says, shrugging his shoulders at her custom. At her next statement, he responds, "You are a high-level shinobi from a village ours has been at war with several times. Really, you should be shocked if someone /doesn't/ try to keep an eye on you when you come to our country. Despite where you've lived, this is our land, and we have a duty to protect it." He then reaches across and picks up the second glass of tea, taking a few sips of it. While he knows a fight is more than likely coming, might as well ast least have a drink of the offered tea before they trade blows. "And, if you think I'll fall as easily as those you've dealt with in the past, you're sorely mistaken."
Uma finishes her cup of tea with a graceful flicker of her pinky upwards. Setting the cup down, Uma stands, removing her hood for the sake of not ruining it, "Whatever may be the case, I cannot allow you to follow me any further. Since you've followed me this far, you are definitely no slouch.. but as I said. This is where it ends." Uma folds her hands into a seal, "Byakugan!" Her eyes suddenly bulge, the veins throbbing around her temples as the white pupils raise above the normal whitish iris.
As Uma stands up, Keisuke smirks slightly and takes a final sip of his tea before setting the glass down. "Confident little lady," he says as he stands up, spikes bone beginning to protrude from his arms and massive bone structures from his back. When he is fully erect, he brings a hand to the back of his neck and literally grabs at his spine, pulling a full, massive spinal column from his body and bringing it out to his side. "You may have done some damage to my student, but shattering the arm of a kid who's nowhere near your level does not impress me. Even a Chuunin is still taking baby steps." He then actually releases the spine from his hand, yet it doesn't fall, instead floating beside him. Her Byakugan should allow her to see that, unlike most Kaguya, she can actually still see his chakra flowing through his bones, almost like they are still connected to his chakra network somehow, even when they're not attached to his body.
Uma makes no sound even as she breaths, her chakra rippling off her skin like a mirage in the middle of a desert, "Your student attacked me.. I will not stand by and let someone attack, so I hit him. I could've killed him easily, but I held back. I will not hold back on you. Your kind has caused more death and destruction than any one clan I can think." When the spine is pulled, Uma frowns, making a 'gross' face. "Also, the nastiest clan.. to date." With a sudden burst of speed, Uma disappears, and reappears, spinning on her back foot to plant her heel right in the temple of her opponent!
"Indeed, we have, but the boy had nothing to do with that. He was simply fulfilling his duty as a protector of Kirigakure and the Land of Water," Keisuke replies as he watches the woman carefully. When she disappears to make her attack, he does the same right as she reappears. The Swordsman reappears directly behind the Hyuuga, chuckling a bit. "There's no denying that, but we are also one of the most dangerous," he says as the spinal column he pulled from his back goes to lash at and wrap around Uma as if it were being wielded. It goes to wrap all the way around her body and ensare her, digging blades of bone into her as it does so.
Uma's would hit air as the Kaguya disappeared. If it weren't for her insane vision, she might've actually been hit by the clematis vine! A chakra-shield of sort forms around Uma, and she manages to slip out of it, flipping upwards before coming down behind her attacker. The Chakra that had formed a shield was still active around her. That is, until it starts to condense, and darken, before exploding outwards in a chakra-bomb of sorts!
As the clematis vine is deflect by chakra, bits of bone seem to fly off the spine, yet they don't fall. Instead, they float up around it. When the chakra explodes toward him, a large bone shield forms out of Keisuke's ribs, deflecting some of the impact as he is knocked back into a nearby tree. After the explosion, the shield begins to fire off as a swarm of bone shards toward Uma. Combined with the shards from the spine, they form the shape of an Iron Maiden around the Hyuuga and attempt to impale her from all sides.
Uma had been expecting something along the lines of a boney death. She had saved up some of that charge for a counter to a melee attack. It just so happens an iron maiden begins to form. With another deep breath, her hands form in the same seal used to activate her clans unique blood-line limit. Chakra explodes once again, sending the bone chunks flying away from her. Zooming in, Uma forms a classic Juuken stance, her fingers spreading apart. A five finger attack explodes out of the Hyuuga, towards the tenketsu located at the temple, 'third eye', heart, solar-plexus, and finally a upwards chop to the throat.
When Bone Maiden is actually deflected, Keisuke lifts an eyebrow, a bit impressed by that. When she comes at him again, he attempts to create a bone shield to deflect the onslaught, yet he doesn't manage to bring it up in time, thus allowing her to make a barrage of strikes that send him to the ground for a bit. Really, he'd like to use the next-level technique he's been working on to fight back here… But following her is not worth trying to use something like that when he's not fully perfected it, as it could easily kill him if he botches it. Though it may not be by much, this woman from another genius clan is outdoing him enough today to keep him from hitting her.
Uma slips several feet back before slamming her chakra-laden hand into the earth. Lifting the surface up above her head. The lump of earth is gigantic, and the destruction it has caused will forever change the face of this area. Perhaps underestimating her opponent to this point, she sighs, "This was a pleasent fight, but I will be ending it now. I will give you an honorable funeral after you're dead." With that, Uma flings the giant dumpling of earth towards Keisuke!
Okay, so maybe he SHOULD have attempted it… Keisuke remains still down from the strikes before as the massive piece of earth is flung ontop of him. Unable to move, he is hit directly, and the giant rock now sits on top of him. However, despite popular belief, the Swordsman is far from finished.
Frowning, Uma can still see Keisuke alive. More seals form, when the loose pieces of earth underneath the large clump of earth suddenly come to life, giant jaws attempting to gnaw on Keisuke from underneath his earthen imprisonment!
Well, so much for the plan of letting the Hyuuga think he was down and simply continuing to follow. The bottom part of the rock seems to experience a rather massive blowout as the Swordsman leaps out of it. "You make a pretty ratty tea host," Keisuke says with a smirk as he lands on the ground about twenty feet in front of the earth dumpling. "I don't die easily," he says as the bone shards from before raise up again, coming toward Uma once again in an attempt to impale her from all sides.
Uma watches Keisuke explode out from underneath the bottom of the rocks. "I do my best!" Offering a sarcastic bow, Uma saw the Bone-Maiden coming from a mile away. She doesn't give him a chance. Smacking several bones out of the way, spinning and twisting expertly as she counters the attack, sliding right up to him, using the same maneuver she used earlier, going with another familiar attack. "You may not die easily, but you do not learn from your past mistakes!"
As his tenketsu points are attacked again, and even more damage is done to his windpipe, Keisuke starts to cough up blood. His breathing is starting to get extremely labored. He's not sure if even he can survive if his windpipe collapses out in the middle of the forest from her attacks… Falling to a knee, the Swordsman lets out a low growl. Well, he may not have died from the stone, but not being able to breathe can kill anyone…
Uma brings herself up to a straight positiong, standing above the Kaguya, her eyes narrowed as he falls to one knee again, "This was an honor, Kaguya-san. Your death has slightly helped redeem your clan in my eyes for the assassination of my father." Uma's hand slowly fills with a gyrating blue chakra that shimmers dangerously, spasming around her palm. "Until we meet again!" Closing her eyes she enlarges the amount of Chakra in her palm until it's blinding. Cocking her shoulder back she leaps forward and unleashes the energy in a palm-strike to Keisuke's skull.
Listening to Uma as he feels his consciousness beginning to drift away, Kiesuke looks up at her with those intense blood red eyes narrowing. Unable to move to dodge, he feels the palm crashing into his skull and sending him down on his back as blood begins to pour from his head. "… Maybe… I wonder… if… my daughter… will even… remember me-" his voice drifts off as, for once in his life, one can actually see pain in his eyes, not for himself, but for knowing his daughter will be growing up without her father and Yuuka will now be raising her alone. As the light leaves his eyes, somewhere in Kirigakure Yuuka and their daughter would suddenly feel a deep void ripping open as his presence is no longer there.
Uma is never one to show emotion, nor shed a tear; but as the final words are uttered, Uma's entire disposition changes a bit. The sour, bitter narrowed brows slowly unclench. The fight had been one sided the entire time, she could've stopped.. and let him flee, but something told her to keep fighting. Now she stood in front of a dead father. A dead Husband. It's ironic how things turn full circle. Today marks a day that forever changes Uma, for she realizes she's just created a Kaguya version of herself. A singular tear rolls down her cheek, pauses at her chin, then falls onto her hand. Honoring her word, she performs a quick Hyuuga funeral ceremony. As she utters the last words, Uma's hands form a few quick seals. The earth begins to swirl and grind, devouring Keisuke's dead body, sinking the mangled pieces deep below the earth. Uma won't stop pushing him further down until she can no longer spot pieces with her Byakugan. With a Kunai, Uma walks over to the large mausoleum-sized chunk of earth, and carves an ancient kanji which translates roughly to: Forgiven. With that, Uma gathers her tea, and ventures deeper into the wilderness, not looking back at her past now.. only moving forward.
