Starring:
Date: January 20, 2011
Summary:
A second attempt at capturing Kaede is made; this time, Koudo and Kuoroke work together.
Warning: Contains foul language.
"The Unconquered Falls"
An abandoned building on Katakaze street.
Down on the Katakaze street were a couple of abandoned buildings, due to a fire that happened some time ago. And the area around them have been sanctioned off due to the fact that they're at risk from collapsing. They're due for repair at some time or other, but due to the recent events, not just including the criminal, it was postponed.
But who would've thought that not so long ago, a construction worker who had gone to check the place out, pre-emptively, so he has all the info he needs when the buildings are due for repair, would appear in the Kazekage's dome, and share the story about a figure with a burn mark over it's left eye, matching the description Kuoroke has given?
It was the truth though. Kaede was in one of those buildings. The worker had also said that Kaede didn't appear injured at all, and that Kaede has apparently not noticed the poor man who was shocked to have come so close by this alleged 'savage murderer'.
Koudo was officially looking for the guy that attacked the kazekage and his colleague on the suna council. Well with this sort of case there was no time to waste. He was on the look out for anything that was out of the ordinary, but it was just what he needed when the construction worker called for help. "…Thanks Masaharu-san." He says in a deep tone patting him on the back.
The robes of the desert were dusted at the bottom just noticeable as the brown dirt was lighter than the robes, they marked him as a council member of Sunagakure. As he walks to the street with the abandoned houses he thinks about each step, as he was intent on the vibrations in the earth. His own steps were much louder, but he could tell there was a faint presence not exactly sure where though. Just great, he could be ambushed anytime, but that would bring the suspect to him, his goal, but without a partner could get risky, so Koudo was really on the lookout. Still he lets out a light chuckle "I've been in worse."
Kuoroke raises his hand, ordering them to stop. "Alright, you two." He looks at the Chuunin whom he's ordered to accompany them. "Make sure there are no civilians nearby, this guy has no problems with collateral damage." His motions are still a little uncertain, as if his new and repaired skin is does not sit entirely comfortably. "Koudo. He's dangerous, I assure you. Our best bet to defeat him is to come in with full lethal force immediately, and not give him the chance to wake up and realize what's going on before it's way too late." He turns towards the other Council Member, waiting for a reaction, while gathering some chakra for the fight ahead, and taking off his gloves and cloak, baring his upper body. "The civilian's luck was suprising. He may be lying, or trying to trap us."
Up, in one of the buildings, at a window not facing the street, sits a cloaked figure. Though, there aren't any traps set, there are a few crystals set at key points. Doors, windows, etc, so that the figure has a chance of at least knowing that someone is approaching if he is careful. He wasn't stupid. Not using a Henge technique was a tactical choice he had to make. He couldn't hide forever using the Henge, and being caught would just limit his supply of Chakra if he had to fight. So he chose to hide for a bit, before moving on with his plan.
He looks up at the sky, the sun had sunk beyond the horizon just a hour or so ago. It was so quiet, and in a way, boring.
Koudo listens to Kuoroke, it was good to see him and his team, but he stays focused. "Okay, we won't play nice." He admits though seemingly regrettable or not, he makes a hand seal to gather chakra causing the dust to pick up around him. He takes a few more steps getting closer to the target, but the buildings were in the way. "I am Fukuzawa Koudo of the Suna Council. You must show yourself." Taking a glance back to Kuoroke "It's a good thing there aren't any others here now." Moving even closer, they had to be ready to act swiftly and get the first strike, but he knew that sometimes it just wasn't that easy. "A difficult challenge!" He remarks.
"Didn't I just..?" Kuoroke growls. He prefer to inform Kaede of their presence another way: he simply charges the building, with a few mighty pulls gets himself up to the second story and rolls into the building, tattoos slightly glowing as he warms them up for us.
Kaede was in a half-trance-like state, listening to the wind, enjoying the little warmth the breeze brought with it during the night when the sand cooled down. But there was one sound that annoyed him, barely comprehensible. Was it a voice?
He stood up and slowly turned, placing his hands together, index fingers extended but not focusing his chakra yet. He waits to see what that was. And just as he approached the door, Kuoroke rolled in.
"Crap. You again?" Kaede leaped back and focused chakra immediatly, lowering into a stance. "Why did you come, I beat you last time?!" Of course, Kaede is not yet aware that Kuoroke isn't alone this time around.
Koudo watched as Kuoroke ran in, and it seemed he wasn't going to waste time either, so he goes after him, but not on foot. Slipping into the earth below like and moving through the walls swiftly, up to the target. Suddenly a hand shoots up from the floor below Kaede and attaches a grip to the ankle proceeding to try and pull him down through the floor so part of his lower body and arms were under the floor. "Headhunter Jutsu!" Koudo says as he appears standing on top of the floor looking at Kaede, arms crossed but serious and ready.
Kuoroke's reply is to drops his hands, and allow two of the more complicated designs on his body to unfurl to its full, luminous beauty. Two crossbows appear on the inner side of his forearms, with small tendrils reaching for his kunai pouches and aiming themselves. He rapidly fires first the right one, then the left one, and then the right one again, and then while their glow slowly dies off and they settle back onto his skin, the Kuroki expects the return attack.
The hand that ruptures out of the earth grabs a clone and pulls him under just in time when a crossbow bolt hits him, and the clone explodes in a puff of smoke, sending the other bolts straight through smoke.
Kaede is seen rolling on the ground not far from there. His mind raced with the precision and speed of a tactical genius. Though, some could argue Kaede was not, he has been more than once useful to Rain.
Two enemies, using low powered attacks. If he had used one of his more demanding, persistent techniques, he wouldn't be long in the fight. He had to force them to take the fight to another level, so that they too had to use their resources sparingly.
Two enemies.
Not good.
His hands clap together and a spike rushes through the ground, towards where he thought Koudo should be, at least, and then another one, that headed for Kuoroke, just before the tip of the second one crystallized and exploded towards Kuoroke.
He laughs at himself for going at a clone, but Koudo couldn't speak for Kuoroke as well, giving him a side glance, and trying to re-focus on the enemy. It seemed to quiet for just a split second, and just in time to notice the attack he shoots a burst of chakra to his feet to push off and dodge the spike. Rubbing his thumb over his nose he thought that was a little too close for comfort, but starts off a hand seal to retaliate and he swirls in a quick motion to produce what at first seem to be shuriken, but as they replicate the form of dragonflies, flying at Kaede fast in a pattern.
The pattern that lights up on Kuoroke's body looks not just odd, there's a certain wrongness about how the shapes cut into eachother. The entire thing is slightly nauseating, but, more importantly, also slightly disorienting, as if Kuoroke is never exactly there where Kaede expects to see him, and certainly not where he's looking. The spike appears, due to this, far too close and too much to the right, and when the crystal tip explodes, the shrapnel doesn't even make it to the Kuroki.
Kuoroke begins shortening the distance between himself and Kaede, but the need to weave and make feints to keep his defense working efficiently slows him down, preventing him from immediately going for the melee attack. Instead, another three kunai appear from the unpleasant-looking mess of light and darkness his tattoos have temporarily turned him into, headed for Kaede.
There's a barrage of shurikens and crossbow bolts and kunais and what not. And there are several puffs of smoke, and the incredibly precise movement of the young criminal. At one point, a Earth Barrier even rises as he covers his head, but the bolt punches straight too it, but it's direction changed away from Kaede. He continues to even further confuse his real locations by placing out more clones… when suddenly the ceiling ruptures, breaks, and falls in a crystallized rain down on Kuoroke while at the same time crystal spikes rise in a spiralling fashion around Koudo, trying to trap him in place.
"Damn, you are persistent." Is the only thing he said, feeling the slight heaviness of tiredness creeping up on him, but still ways far off.
Koudo was expecting some kind of high level jutsu to come from this guy even though there hadn't been a hit landed on either side yet, so he was ready for the advanced crystal jutsu to come forth. He had seen crystal manipulation and was pretty familiar with going up against it, but this did prove to be a powerful attack. "Doton: Doryuuheki!" He remarks as he runs through a set of hand seals to make a wall of earth from floor to ceiling between him and Kaede, mainly Kaede's attack.
Another motion and under the cover of the chakra enhanced wall he marks a ring of seals on the floor around him, and running through a set of hand seals he concentrates very hard. He was concentrating so hard that a vein pops out on his temple, and finally "Doton: Fukuzawa no jutsu!" He was a master of earth manipulation, and so experienced that he could even manipulate the earth deep under the building. The Seal patterns on the floor light up, the earth below starts to rumble softly, and the bottom floor starts to envelop itself in thick mud, making the whole building wobble on its foundations, quite frankly bringing the house down. While the his signature jutsu was making its way to the upper floor of the building he was still concentrating on it, but catches Kaede in his sights and blows fire in his direction and tosses shuriken in the midst of it. "Persistent? Like hell, you're the one who's just making it worse for yourself.
Kuoroke raises a shield, crouches, allows the glittering rain to fall over him without causing any damage. Speaking of causing damage, Kuoroke intends to do some of that. The familiar lines along his limbs and back light up, reinforcing his movements, and then he rushes towards Kaede, swinging a fist, whose acidic, brightly shining embellishments are certainly familiar to Kaede.
The blazing shuriken flies past one of the two Kaede's suddenly appearing and apparently clips the right one over his shoulder, causing his cloak to catch fire with small embers. Kaede beats it off and quickly performs more clone techniques, like a crazy deja-vu of the earlier rerun. Kuoroke rushing in to take a swing at Kaede hits a clone one, who just explodes in smoke.
Kaede can feel the incredible tremors, something's happening and it's not pretty.
It was time to step up the game. A few handseals and suddenly crystals in the shape of petals as they pass through the moonlight, fan out, towards the walls of the spacious room.
"Crystal Release! Wraith Wall Cloud ForMATION!" Kaede yells out the last part as the crystal petals turn into a mist-like substance swarming around the two fighters, a vortex of such mist dancing around Kaede. And than suddenly, the mist around the two coalescens, becoming more tangible, sailing past all possible defenses and obstructions, trying to keep them in place. It was as if someone tossed out a bucket of water and it froze in midair.
Kaede hoped that this technique would also help stabilize the building as much as possible.
Koudo was trying to keep the ninja busy while the lucky swamp jutsu reached to the upper floor. This however seemed to backfire, and he couldn't concentrate on the earth jutsu when he was hit by the crystals. He's speechless in pain, and the building stops shaking as the mud stops flowing upwards and eating the building. Letting out a snarl at their oppoent, this might be the worst case scenario, but he could not give up and he knew that was the only way to defeat Kaede. "S…Scum…Only scum leeches of others, and destroys things." He glares at the enemy not able to move and in a bit of a pinch, feeling sorry for Kuoroke that he had to endure this again. "You're not going to get away with this."
Kuoroke's deceptive tattoos light up again, but the crystals are not deterred by something like a visual illusion: they find him, and once again, he finds himself foaming at the mouth and stuck in a multitude of shiny particles.
Kaede seemed vastly different than before. No longer in a hurry that could be mistaken for panic instead of being fast thinking and desperation. He seemed extremely calm. In control. As if all the worries of the world sailed right past him, and beyond somewhere.
He took steps forwards as the vortex beat the floor under him, ripping it, tearing it.
"You say I am scum, hypocrit, yet it is you who is trying to bring down this building, so you have me at your disadvantage. Would you do this if you were in the Kazekage's Dome? I don't think so, 'servant of the people'." Kaede says as he performs a /single/ handseal and says, "Breaking The Clouds" His hand ominously squeezing into a fist.
The crystals explode suddenly, sending shards, spikes, debris in all directions. Even past Kaede. But he just stands still, as the vortex slams the shards away from him.
Koudo was in a bind and seeing the use of Kaede's ultimate technique was weighing on him heavily. He seemed doomed, but one person inside the walls of Sunagakure could not get away so easily and he was not going to let that happen. The extent of the injury was unfathomable, at least to a normal person. The councilman fell in a bloody mess, but he didn't loose conciousness, in fact it was just the opposite. In an instant his survival instincts come into play and adrenaline flows through his system, making his eyes light up. "Nooo!" He slams a hand on the floor, and tries to lift himself back up from all fours. "You're view is wrong, I can rebuild this house in, less than an hour." He holds his ground.
Kuoroke continues trying to pull himself free. The exploding crystals rip through him, and practically undo all the efforts the medics have put into restoring him to a humanoid form in their flight.
Kaede leaps backwards as the attack sends more shrapnel towards him, one even passes inches from his head. "I can rebuild this house, and make it more glorious in less than 30 minutes." He steps forwards, takes his ground, and his hands commit to making handseals again. "You say my view is wrong, but I stood out of your way, I did no damage to your village. And you come here with the purpose of causing me pain, though I would've stood beside you should danger befall this village. You are.." The remnants of the crystals suddenly turn into flowers, the ground crystallizing. The flowers begin to twist up, into two pronged spears, as Kaede says his next words, they launch towards the two in blinding speed. ".. /Despicable/!"
More of this treatury was upon them, Koudo was hit with more sharp crystals. Normally this would not be an experience once could live through, but Koudo was a very strong ninja, with great fortitude. He had the elements on his side, and once the crystals came he disappeared to dodge, yet he was still hit hard. It didn't stop the wind from blowing and he flickered to few feet nearby, again on his feet. The enemies words hit a rock hard wall "Enough!" He looks at Kaede with the most determined look and takes a breath in, hand sealing. He brings his forearm before him and it starts to glow, a tattoo though it was not like Kuoroke's. His had the symbol for earth, and the earth chakra releases througout his system. As it does so, his skin becomes hard, and morphs into stone, his limbs and everything about him grow larger shaping with a hard stone surface. Now with all the earth chakra in his system he was even more powerful and could manipulate earth chakra with full force. "Let's give this jutsu a little…push!" As he slams his palm on the ground, causing the floor to break in pieces with mud squirting out from the cracks to envelop the rest of the building." As well as lauching his large stone figure towards the enemy with raised fist.
"You're a criminal. Plenty of damage there…" Kuoroke growls. "What? Too stupid to make the link?" He charges again, raising his left arm, a shield appearing on it, from his left arm. The crystal spear goes through the shield, however, bending it like it was a soap bubble, and goes through Kuoroke's shoulder. Clencing his teeth, the Kuroki takes a look at Koudo to see if he's planning to retreat. Apparently not, so with his teeth still clenched, he spins around to neutralize the spear's momentum and continues his charge.
Koudo's technique is dead on, and Kaede finds himself pulled underground, barely holding on, above the surface just at the time that Kuoroke's acidic punch slams into Kaede's chest and dissolves straight through his cloak, scorching his chest as if he was put in front of a blast furnace. Though, Kaede doesn't scream. He knows that he is /screwed/, but somehow, he cannot feel the panic. He is calm, collected, eyes following every move.
The earlier version of the technique had made him bloodthirsty, unpredictable from a lack of tactics, but this one, this newfound one, thanks in part by Kuoroke, had made him calm, unpredictable on virtue of tactics.
He just sits there, indifferent, watching. What happens now? A thought passed through Kaede's head.
The motion of this fight was fast, so fast that Koudo was almost having trouble keeping up with it, with his currently massive weight, but he also had strong strength and chakra. He knew it would be very difficult to avoid his A-rank mud jutsu, and he regretted that he was not able to set it off before. He skids across the surface coming to a stop "Can you feel your chakra draining? I doubt you can go on any longer, though you put up a good fight, to say the least." He says to Kaede and shoots a pained grin at his ally. He runs through a set of hand seals, even the large rocks for hands were able to do so, and a bunch of earth dragonflies raise from the mud. the same as they were last time, but in the swamp they flew where they pleased and this time it was a much more dangerous threat to Kaede, as they pleased to fly straight into his joints, and skin. He figured that rather then burning him to a crisp or beating him to a pulp "They will not attack vital spots. They will only cause pain and weaken your body. We will take your wretched existence to a cell now, until the Kazekage comes to a decision about what to do with you. Your powers mean nothing now that you cannot use them. How does it feel?"
With Kaede half-burried the way he is, Kuoroke is a little too busy to respond to Koudo's grin. He grabs Kaede by the top of his hair, letting the acid do a little damage there, mostly cosmetic damage mind you. Then, he releases some of his anger by giving a quick punch to that annoyingly, hate-inspiringly, infuriatingly calm face, and only at the last moment, he realizes what Koudo's next attack will be. He releases Kaede, rolls out of the way to allow the dragonflies to reach their target, and watches them do so.
Kaede glanced at Kuoroke as he approached, and to Koudo's question. Though, Kaede wanted to say many things, he could only think of 'It feels quite exhilarating'. Though, he doesn't say it because before long Kuoroke is there, pulling his hair and dripping acid on Kaede's face, further disfiguring his already disfigured face. Though, even that coupled with the punch doesn't force Kaede into making any kind of expression. It was as if he was incapable of doing so. The vortex though lashes out, as if in rage, but as the dragonfly slams into Kaede and his head rears back, smashing into the ground, it disappears, as Kaede apparently loses consciousness.
Perhaps, most terrifyingly, his last thought was, 'Good'
Koudo considers the situation another time before asking Kaede "What is your reason for doing this?" and saying "Have you lost your tounge?" Koudo laughs "It doesn't matter, I can only speculate." you won't even be able to talk when we're done with you." Whether he was trying to scare him or gather information, he noticed he was going to pass out "The end of the road." and says to Kuoroke "He is weak."
Through all of this, he knew they were up against a challenging foe, more importantly a dangerous enemy. "Let's take him along to the hospital with us, shall we?" He suggests and asks his comrade, whom he knew might be feeling twice the amount of pain he was as this was his second time being injured in battle, he could only have faith he was doing ok. They wouldn't let him get away, and from his pouch grabs rope and cuffs to ensure this was not an option for the enemy crystal user.
Kuoroke's strength is still pumped up by both adrenaline and his tattoos, so he relatively lightly heaves Kaede out of the floor. "He's going to the prison. With around-the-clock-watch." The Kuroki begins dragging Kaede towards the Dome, and the dungeon below it. "And maybe we'll let a medic to him after that."
