Starring:
Date: September 11, 2012
Summary:
A pursuit of a certain actress leads the Hokage herself and the Uchiha Clan Head to Fort Kyuusen in the Land of Grass. What awaits them there is beyond anything they had expected.
"Upon A Pale Horse - Underground"
Fort Kyuusen
That journey to the undersea palace where the Stone of Dreams had been found, briefly seized by that masked kunoichi, Seishino Kanami, and then ultimately taken by Senju Tobiramako, had been taxing. But with that Stone being wielded by the greatest Water Release-user on the planet, the team had managed to evacuate from the ocean depths back to land in short order. However, Kanami had also escaped with the aid of that masked man. It had taken many weeks that turned into months, but eventually a sighting of the Nogakujin ninja in the Land of Grass by Hidden Leaf spies had led to pursuing any leads as to the woman's location.
Eventually, it was confirmed that Kanami had last been spotted in Fort Kyuusen. As the mysterious man who calls himself 'Fuu Ka' is someone that the Hidden Leaf very much wants to find and stop, and he came to the rescue of the snakey kunoichi before, it led to reason that finding her and capturing her could at LEAST give them someone to interrogate if not serve as bait. Given Kanami is an adapt Genjutsuist herself, Fuyu's powerful Genjutsu would likely be necessary to both defend against the actress's techniques and to then force the other woman to give up information.
So, one of the most powerful ninja in the world, Senju Hashiramako, has set out with quite possibly the most powerful Uchiha in the world now that Uchiha Madara is 'defeated' (a term ambiguous enough that Fuyu is still not entirely convinced he's not somehow still alive). They have arrived at Fort Kyuusen as quickly as they can and begun a search for the Nogakujin actress. Early signs indicate, however, that all is not well… And that their quarry may already be gone. The guards are unreceptive to the two kunoichi arriving and trying to get their cooperation. This goes beyond neutrality, however, and right into indifference… Almost like they're ignoring the pair. Just staring into space…
Fuyu turns to Hashiramako as the two wander the grounds of Fort Kyuusen, going unnoticed or simply stared at blankly no matter where they go or what they do. "I think we found the right place. Seishino might have used Genjutsu to ensnare some of these people and keep them from revealing her location… But this many all at once?" Fuyu looks around pointedly, her Sharingan kept at its now-typical 'low-power' mode. "I don't see any Genjutsu at work in their Chakra. It's not impossible a very subtle one might be in place, but… I suspect the one behind all our troubles is responsible for these people too."
Fuyu eventually stops and unstraps a war fan from her back in the middle of the courtyard. The sun shines down from the blue sky above, incongruous with the zombie-like, vegetative state of the people going about their chores as though half-awake all around them. "What do you think we should do, Hokage-sama?"
Anything that could possibly lead to Fuu Ka was of great importance to Hashiramako. No sooner than information turned up for her, she was preparing to the lave the office. All those who had spent time with her and were close knew that certain look of determination set into her eyes and body. Along with Fuyu, she set out to Fort Kyuusen where it was reported an associate was located.
The trip may have been long, but it certainly didn't feel that way with the burning desire to reach the place set strongly within the Hokage. Upon their arrival, Fuyu's words would appear to be ignored, but it was not any intention of Hashi to do so. She was focused on the guards and the area as a whole while it was pointed out to her about their condition. "We wait and stay focused…" She looked around the area. "If you haven't found any trace of the jutsu then there's only one other option…" While standing still, she was summoning whatever life she could from the ground to extend out a system of roots to get a reading on the area. Someone is here, she just doesn't know where yet.
The roots that crawl, writhe, expand, and search throughout the area for something out of place, some life that does not belong… Get to look for several seconds before they 'run into' something underground. Where they touch this thing, they seem to die or at least to stop existing to Hashiramako's senses. Whatever the roots encountered, it cut off all sensation from them at that point. Despite the ability of plants to even crack concrete if given time, they could not penetrate it. Was it something solid? It did not seem different from normal dirt before the roots encountered it.
If the roots are withdrawn at all, Hashiramako may notice that the lengths that previously 'went dead' to her senses are still fully intact and alive. But beyond that boundary, she couldn't feel them. A Kekkaijutsu to block detection located underground, beneath a major fort, where people generally wouldn't be looking to begin with? A barrier against Sensor-Nin of all kinds — even ones that use means such as root networks?
It's unlikely many others than who these two are looking for would know a technique like that and think to use it in this manner. That is evidenced even further when two of the Kyuusen guards who were previously just standing watch outside a building suddenly take off running towards Hashiramako with their spears lowered for impaling attacks! Their eyes are still unfocused but looks of aggression are on their faces now. At the same time these two rush in such a manner some visiting traders (of which there seem to be very few compared to normal) also charge from the opposite direction with improvised weapons. Poles, fruit-peeling knives, short blades for self-defense against bandits… And these are rushing towrds >Fuyu<!
They're clearly being manipulated! But hundreds of people, through no fault of their own, have all become potential enemies. Enemies who can awaken from their sleep-like daze and attack at any given moment.
The Hokage and Uchiha Clan Head are standing right in the middle of them all.
"Kusou!" Fuyu swears under her breath as they are suddenly attacked. "I don't know what you just did…" She lashes out at one of the merchants with her gunbai striking his hand in which he is holding a fruit peeler to knock the hand aside and then swinging the weapon up to crack him in the chin hard enough to at least knock him dizzy if not render him unconscious. A cleaning woman with a broom receives a similar treatment, struck in the side of the head with the blunt side of the fan with only the minimum amount of force needed to disable a normal human being.
"…But it seems you finally caught their attention. Yah!" Fuyu lets out a yell as she swings her fan hard enough to sent a 'wall' of wind blasting outwards at the civilians to hopefully hurl them across the courtyard and towards their fruit stands and stalls and wagons and so on. One man lands in a wagon of vegetables and breaks it, sending cabbages rolling everywhere. "It's not quite the type of attention I was hoping for though." She tacks on under her breath as she looks around for the next target.
Any of these people could become an enemy. Any of them. That means keeping them at a distance at all times, right? But what else does it mean? They were ignoring the two ninja before. What changed? Did they receive orders remotely or is this 'pre-programmed' in response to something or other? Fuyu's Sharingan flares a brighter red, glowing as it assumes its full-power state. "Hokage-sama, can you just restrain them all somehow? Fighting them will just tire us out and leave brain-washed civilians injured or killed. Making us use up energy and maybe stall for time is probably the purpose of all this."
Attention was maintained on the surface just as much as it was maintained beneath the ground where the roots continued to slip through the earth until they…disappeared? She frowned saying, "I think I may have found something…" in a low tone while the roots were withdrawn to which she was able to sense with them once more. Hm.
No sooner than she began withdrawing the roots, the guards at the gate were now rushing toward her with dead eyes and expressions twisted into unwarranted rage. It appears she was going to have to force some growth here to take care of them. Just by shifting her foot on the ground, the roots would extend from the earth to bind the two guards at their feet and continue their growth until the men were no longer able to move. The binding would get to work restricting them until they were put to sleep and laid to rest on the ground where their spears would be taken away and broken to pieces. "That's what I did," she looked over her shoulder to see some merchants lashing out to attack Fuyu. "I can't guarantee I'll be more careful," Hashi made a light joke of the situation while the enemies were blasted across the area with a wind jutsu. Following up with her request, she continued utilizing the roots she'd initially sent out to track to now bind the rest of the enemies in this area to prevent them from attacking and further to keep from killing them. Innocent lives should not be at stake and she feels disgusted that they're being controlled against their will.
"I don't know what it is I found, but I may have a general idea of where it is. If anymore should attack I can keep them at bay while you find this object. Is this reasonable?"
"No need for that," an extremely deep male voice calls out, seemingly from everywhere, as the last of the Kyuusen residents and visitors are incapacitated. Several tiles that make up the ground in the courtyard, arranged in a circle around the edges, suddenly glow with Seal writing that was previously invisible. The writing expands and crawls, the tiles linking together into an actual distinct inked-out circle. Then there is a surge of Chakra and the ground starts to shake. The entire Fort starts to descend into the ground at a measured pace, and the sound of machinery working accompanies the grinding of stone. It does not seem that any buildings are collapsing despite the tremors.
Then the walls of the earth begin to rise up high enough to block out the sunlight as the Fort continues to sink and sink and sink… For a moment, the kunoichi pass through the same Barrier that blocks Sensor-Nin abilities and both Sharingan and Life-Sense 'go blank'. No Chakra is seen, no life felt. It's like everything around them, even their own bodies, have stopped existing to ninja senses.
But normal physical senses continue to work just fine. Then they are through the Barrier, and the land they stand upon is descending not through the earth but through the air! All around them, though dark, is open space. A cavern so large that it could contain an entire city and then some… And once Kyuusen finally comes to a jarring halt several minutes and hundreds of miles later, it becomes evident that there >is< a city down here. The Fort is sitting on an 'underground mountain' some distance outside the city. The city itself is very advanced-looking. Even more than places like Fuuma Alley, which are pinnacles of industrial technology. Tall, gleaming buildings with sides seemingly made entirely of glass, houses of strange design, roads of some black material, machines, contraptions, and who-knows-what-else everywhere…
It's a metropolis bigger than any other city known to humankind right now. It's sitting down here, underground. From the dustiness, the abandonment, the >ruined< nature of it all… One could guess it has been here for a very, very, very long time.
Then the masked man appears. Fuu Ka's image appears in the dark 'sky', with only a comparatively thin shaft of light from the surface world high above providing illumination. They are past that Barrier Technique so both Hashiramako and Fuyu should be able to tell… There's no one else down here besides them, the people of Kyuusen… And one potent Chakra standing atop a tall building in the middle of the dead city sprawling out below. The image says to them, "If you had not checked underground it would not have come to this." The voice echoes and bounces all over the vast cavern. "But now neither of you can return to inform anyone else of what you found beneath Kyuusen. That means at least one of you will have to die. The Uchiha can have her memories adjusted. But you, Senju Hashiramako? You have shown resistance to tampering with your memories and are far too dangerous. I will extract some of your DNA for study purposes, and then you will be disposed of. I do not know either of you despite having pieces of your memories and lives in my head…"
There is silence after that, and then the image in the sky vanishes. "But I am sorry it had to come to this regardless." Then the Chakra begins to build, swell, flare to even greater heights. Hashiramako will be able to feel it. Fuyu will be able to see it. A sickly, gray Chakra that is not at all healthy or natural.
"That's—" Fuyu begins to answer the Hokage before that voice echoes everywhere. She recognizes it easily despite the prior alterations to her memory. The last time she met Fuu Ka, he had not erased her memory, just suppressed her consciousness. Well, this time she was healthy and able to fight, not recovering from being cut in half and lying in a hospital bed. "Stop involving these others!" Fuyu calls out. "Face us yourself!" That wouldn't be terribly smart of the enemy, but she doesn't expect someone as treacherous and sneaky as this to just pop up to save his honor or whatever. She is instead looking all around for signs of where the speaker might be located. If he replies, she can try to trace the sound to its source maybe…
But the flaring of glowing Seals all around them makes Fuyu tense and attempt to run, just hoping Hashiramako follows her, as she tries to get between the Seals before the writing finishes forming a circle. However, despite her speed, she fails to make it through in time and just barely stops herself. She doesn't know what the writing does. Maybe staying inside of it is bad and crossing over it won't do anything. Maybe crossing it will be bad and she can at least watch for what's going to happen next if she stays where she is. She doesn't know!
But when the earth begins to sink and the entire Fort begins to drop into the ground gradually, she decides to just stay inside the circle for now. Maybe that's not a good idea, but she failed to study how to fly around in the air like the Head Ninja of Kumogakure, so she has few other options beyond running towards the walls of this shaft they are descending now.
When they land eventually, after taking in the dead city, even Fuyu's mouth is a bit slack before the image of that mask appears in the air above them. Fuu makes his threats and speeches, talks about altering memories, and Fuyu just feels remarkably pissed off at the assumption that he can take them both at once. "Yeah, right," she mutters. Then she forms two hand seals one-handed. Horse and Tiger. She inhales, takes aim on that swelling Chakra on that tall building down there, and mentally recites her technique's name. «Katon: Gouenkyuu! (Fire Release: Roaring Flame Sphere!)» Then she spits out a meteor-sized fire ball. It's a long-ranged attack and should buy some time while they close the distance. Fuyu doesn't feel like waiting for whatever this guy is going to do. He obviously he excels at trickery, prepared combat situations, and fighting people at a distance. So keep him pinned down and the Hokage, who Fuu has just said is resistance to this 'memory alteration', can move to shorter range and take control away from the enemy.
Fuyu doesn't want to get close enough for that memory technique again. She is happy with her memories remaining as they are.
"Hmph." Hashiramako didn't have much to say in response. Technically, they've found what they were looking for, but there's no clue of where he's located. Seems there's bigger fish to fry now. An earthquake of some sort has begun and the seal spreading out across the ground is the source. There's no means of escape. It'd take too long to try and flee to the exit, so down they go with the whole fort. Just another of the places Fuu Ka appears to operate in.
The Senju sits still and waits much like she did before. No effort is made to look around. She couldn't do that with this entire piece of earth sinking into the ground. "He needs to be removed from the world…" Hashi sighed to herself and closed her eyes. With the darkness they were entering into, she didn't need to see all that much. "Everything he's involved with includes a lack of life," she made mention regarding the barrier they were passing through. "I understand that shinobi are involved in this too, but he…on a greater scale… We do it to protect those we love and our beliefs. What does he have to believe in or protect?" She inquires to herself quietly.
She opened her eyes then, her moment to vent done before the city was revealed to them and soon after Fuu's image was presented to the duo. "I had no other choice. Someone like yourself works greatest in the shadows and the worst of it comes to light." She can't say she didn't feel any pain in her heart from watching Fuyu react to Fuu Ka. She was a perfect example of his work. "I'm not one to easily fall, nor is Fuyu. You will fall."
The chakra that arose around the area gave her the same feeling she had when dealing with the Beast. Working against the opposite of her abilities will be difficult, but she believes she'll prevail. The attack against Fuu from Fuyu sets off the battle and in turn, Hashi gets to work trying to raise some life in this place, if at all possible. Any earth capable of holding life would be dedicated to her cause to try and generate roots to aid her in this battle.
The masked giant stands upon a skyscraper — a building left behind from an age where technology was both more advanced and more prevalent, a time before both Clan Wars, a time before the wars that the Sage ended, a time that humanity has forgotten and will likely never remember. But then, Amuro — 'Fuu Ka' — had likewise consigned himself to a life without memory of his past, and he eventually rediscovered it. Truly, if one lives a long life, one may see many amazing things.
Like Senju and Uchiha working together without the influence of the Sage Stones corrupting them into doing so. Amuro has lived long enough to know not to hate an entire Clan for the actions of two of its members. But he can't help hating this combination regardless. The last time he saw Uchiha and Senju working together, they were murdering his wife and stealing the Stone of Body. He saw them through his wife's own memories. The faces on these two are not the same as those two back then. But his mind plays a cruel trick and places the mental image of the body of his wife at the feet of those two when he looks upon them from his projection. That is why he cancelled that image projection technique.
That is why his Chakra began to build.
He hates them so much.
Fuyu's enormous, explosive fireball attack comes flying at Amuro, and while he could respond in many ways to defend himself, he just raises his right hand and aims his palm as that brilliant sphere grows larger and larger to his Chakra-based senses. "Seal Technique: Fire Sealing Method." The Roaring Flame Sphere is sucked into the kanji on Amuro's right palm in streamers of brilliant fire and then its light is gone.
Hashiramako grows plants easily from the earth, the stone, the ashes, and the dust. This is not a place touched by unnatural power, it is simply a place very, very dead. It has not had the opportunity to renew itself until now. But the earth is ready to do so. Plants can freely grow, erupt, becoming large or staying small, however the Hokage chooses.
But the masked man's hand is still held out and aimed in the same direction the fire ball came from. "Seal Technique: Phlegethon." The kanji on Amuro's palm changes to 'Fire'. Then an enormous river of lava suddenly begins spewing from his hand in a massive arc… A stream of molten rock, glowing white-yellow, and aimed towards Fort Kyuusen in the distance. Unless prevented, it is going to fall on that Fort and all within it like the technique's namesake: Phlegethon, a river of flaming blood in Hell itself.
Fuyu sees her attack just wink out in the distance. From here, even the telescopic sight of the Sharingan can not quite make out what happened. But she sees the Chakra in her attack 'go out' and then her opponent's Chakra to flare moments before a more physical light does likewise. She can't tell what it is at first. Liquid fire?
But then as the stream comes closer, her eyes go wide and she turns towards Hashiramako and yells, "GET AWAY FROM THE FORT!" Then Fuyu follows her own advice, leaps down from the tower she was standing upon to get a shot at Fuu, and begins running and jumping as fast as she can to get out of there. Silently, she apologizes to all those in the Fort who are likely about to die. If only she had practiced more with THAT technique… She could have protected them. Instead she finds herself running as the oppressive heat of molten earth comes raining down behind and around her. Unless the Hokage does something, that Fort is soon going to be flooded and it's unlikely anything will survive the thousands of degrees for very long.
Once she is out of range, Fuyu decides this isn't a time for testing her enemy's abilities. He is clearly able and willing to do whatever it takes to defeat them, including killing them. Memory alteration of Fuyu seems to be a 'if viable' plan, rather than one that Fuu will stick to stubbornly. So she has to be flexible to then. If Fuu can defeat fire techniques, she'll have to try a different element. "Wind Release: Razor Eye of the Storm!" Fuyu then leaps into the air and breathes out seven 'Razor Eyes' from her lower-powered technique. These swirling vortexes surround her in a circle as she leaps and runs down the mountain-side, jumping from boulder to boulder, heading towards the city itself. When next she looks up, she's going to try to spot the enemy's Chakra again and, if possible, hurl all seven of the micro-hurricanes along different spiralling, swirling, indirect routes towards the enemy's position!
Hashiramako winced. That fireball…it just disappeared, right? She looked at Fuyu as if she had done something wrong or rather, perceived something wrong was going to happen. It wasn't long before her question was answered. Heat was quickly building as a bright light captured her attention. He took her fireball and turned it into lava? What manner of jutsu was this?
None that Hashi would allow to be completed. She set to work then, making a handseal to summon forth water from within herself and spewing it out in a large torrent to fill the area. Once she had enough she distanced herself while summoning forth a number of water dragons with their maws open wide to swallow any lava that would think to touch the ground. She doesn't intend to lose the people of this place. The lava almost serves as a fuel to her anger burning inside her. Each moment spent with this guy is less time given to the people who need saving.
Now with her roots in place, Hashi thinks she can begin the process of protecting the fort from Fuu's attacks. Growing out the largest trees, she creates a ring of them to surround the village and extend their branches around and over it, writhing and twisting until they interlock with one another. This was going to take some time, but it didn't mean she was out of the fight. The trees would do as she guided. Despite the amount taken from her reserves, she had more than enough to continue with.
Leaving the trees to complete their work, she began her trip towards the city to engage Amuro along with Fuyu.
The Sharingan sees all, even if its bearer can not react to it in time. Amuro is not hiding his Chakra, and Fuyu would easily be able to find him even from her distance. The micro-hurricanes that swarm towards him atop that skyscraper may not be visible to normal vision beyond the distortions in the air and perhaps the the swirling of dust and ash drawn from this dry, long-dead city, but they are audible and the masked man relies on >other< senses usually anyway. So he waits until the barrage of Razor Eyes are about mid-way to his location and then a swirling black vortex of Nothingness appears at about stomach-level. He then allows himself to be sucked into it, ceasing to exist at the same time that a second Void appears right beneath Fuyu while she is in mid-leap.
Amuro re-emerges from this Void, resuming his existence, just as the first Void is consuming itself and the Razor Eye projectiles with its shrieking suction. Fuu Ka raises his right hand and aims it at Fuyu as she is leaping over him. Then the Seal on his hand changes from the kanji for 'Fire' to the kanji for 'Water'. «Seal Technique: Styx» A torrent of water rushes from the palm of Fuu's hand, attempting to effectively hit Fuyu with an entire river at point-blank range.
Meanwhile, the lava released has nothing to do with Fuyu's fireball. It was instead a lava flow that Amuro sealed years ago, so that he could use it later on. This should be apparent by the sheer amount of lava far outweighing the thermal energy that was within Fuyu's Roaring Flame Sphere. However, the water, the multiple Water Dragons, the trees, all do their job and cool the lava. It does not happen immediately, and there is a massive cloud of scalding steam that goes up when the molten rock meets the water. But eventually the white-hot lava turns to a shimmering yellow-red, and will eventually turn to a dimmer red, and then charcoal-black… But that won't be for awhile yet. Right now, the parts that aren't being cooled are burning things they touch, bubbling loudly, and producing hissing sounds like a giant serpent as it meets with moisture.
Fuyu sees alright. She sees her target's Chakra ceasing to exist while she's in mid-leap, before her attacks even hit him. The idea that he just suddenly died is ridiculous. So what then? Was that a Shadow Clone? She has little time to think about it while flying through the air because that awful, shrieking, tearing, portal to an endless Nothingness appears below her. Fuyu's eyes go wide and everything seems to slow down as she looks below her while she's still there in the air, only to find the masked man is right beneath her on the ground. Nearly close enough to touch. The kanji on his hand changes, but Fuyu reacts with the reflexes that only a master of the Sharingan can hope to achieve by lashing out with her war fan in an attempt to strike her opponent's hand.
Assuming that's successful, she still gets hit by that attack, but it's more of a glancing strike from the unsealed river that sends her hurtling through the air to land hard on the rocky slope and tumble for several dozen feet down the mountain side until she can stick her feet to it with Chakra. She's going to have some bruises from that, and she's now pretty soaked, but the impact of that water alone would have been enough to knock the wind out of her and probably greatly weaken her. Fighting against a river is an experience that is far more exhausting than one would imagine. Fuyu has experienced it before herself. Even if it's only for a short time, it leaves one shivering, chilled, feeling strangely weakened…
Even from a glancing hit she'll feel a bit shakey as she tracks back towards the masked man and decides it's time to pull out the stops. Hashiramako probably wants to question this man. But he has made it abundantly clear how dangerous he is. In order to capture him, they'll likely have to fight him as though they intend to kill him instead. He's just that tough.
So Fuyu's forms a single handseal, Tiger, one-handed and then expels a Great Fireball from her mouth. Fuu managed to somehow absorb or negate her Roaring Flame Sphere, and she thinks it might be the Seal on his right hand. She saw the ink change. Shift itself around. Does that mean the technique he's able to use is based on what it says on his palm? This is extremely high-level Fuinjutsu… Stuff she doesn't think she has seen outside of the Uzumaki Clan before now. But while the mystery man may be a master of Seals, he can't be invincible, right? So the raven-haired kunoichi decides to see what happens if she gets rid of that right hand.
She puts her hands together in one more hand-seal while the Great Fireball is still in-transit, but doesn't complete the technique. Instead her eyes change to something that only three Uchiha in history have achieved. A different form of Sharingan… The Mangekyou Sharingan! Series of red and black triangles and circles form her distinct and unique pupils. Then her eyes begin to bleed and the remaining whites in her eyes 'crack' as the capillaries stand out within them, darkened by blood. "Amaterasu!" she calls out and sweeps her gaze over the ground that her enemy stands upon, causing a wall of black flames to erupt wherever she looks. Then she completes her jutsu. "Fireball Shadow Clone!" The one Great Fireball that has almost reached Fuu Ka suddenly turns into twenty Great Fireballs.
Trapped between a fire and a hot place.
Hashi believes her trees are enough to handle the job, having faith in her work. Fuyu has been fighting long enough against him and now it's time she joined the fight. Still, it may be difficult. The way Fuu uses his ability has to have some factor that can be exploited or so she hopes. It's clear he uses it for a number of things and transportation is only just one of them.
Turning her attention to her new task, finds that Fuu has gone on the offensive once more and as the portal tears open, water spews from his hand like a geyser toward Fuyu. When it strikes, Hashiramako curses under her breath. This isn't looking good and though the Uchiha woman is right about her need to question him, she doesn't think she'll achieve the chance.
Summoning a tree to surf along, she attempts to seek out a better view of the field they're working with and perhaps this is for the best as the black flames have been summoned. Amaterasu has been released. She takes this chance to send forth branches with the intent on binding him when the the fire has run its course…except that of Amaterasu. A flame that yearns for everything shall always continue its course.
Amuro has not fought an Uchiha in a long time. He >almost< battled Madara, but that was ended almost as quickly as it started. A misunderstanding when they first met. He'd nearly forgotten how fast the Sharingan lets them react. Fuyu is also one of the fastest ninja around, or so he has heard — and seen some of in Fuyu's own memories. So while he was not expecting his hand to be knocked aside like that, wasting an entire river's worth of water for a glancing hit, he still finds it understandable that this happened. When Fuyu finally sticks herself to the side of the mountain and relocates him with her Sharingan, Amuro has not moved from his spot. He has turned to face her, of course, even as he tracks the approaching presence of the Hokage with his Chakra sensing abilities.
But he also has performed a quick technique inbetween when Fuyu goes tumbling down the mountain and when she stops and locks her sight on him. What that technique is doesn't become apparent until after Amaterasu springs up, setting fire to the masked man's sleeve immediately despite his clothing being soaked with river water. The black flames care not whether a subject is ordinarily possible to burn. Those flames can burn fire itself. The odd thing is that Amuro does nothing even then. Moments later the barrage of fireballs slam into him and cause twenty different explosions of flame to mass and expand across the mountain side in his general vicinity.
As the domes of flame are gradually eaten up by Amaterasu, it seems that overkill may have been overkill. Fuu Ka does not re-emerge from the inferno. The branches that seek him out to wrap him up and restrain him, however… Find no body admist either the 'normal' or supernatural flames. All they find is a burning, black cloak with red clouds. A moment later, a circle of Seal-writing appears on the mountain side that matches a very large Summoning Technique. Moments later, a cloud of smoke erupts from the middle of it. A black tower, covered in nasty-looking blades and spikes, with a large, metallic skull 'capping' it on top is there when the smoke clears.
At the same time this tower appears near Hashiramako, Fuyu may notice the presence of Chakra under the ground.
Then she might notice the ground turning into a giant mass of stone-fanged earth that attempts to swallow her whole as it surges out of the mountain side, arcing through the air, and then potentially 'throwing' the Uchiha kunoichi in the direction of the abandoned city rather forcefully. The black tower, meanwhile, begins to produce a painfully high-pitched noise that just goes on and on and on. It's enough to make ears bleed at a distance, or induce unconsciousness in humans at close-range. It echoes across the mountain side, off the cavern walls, throughout the city, and so on.
And a second Devouring Earth construct surges out of the mountain, with Fuu riding atop it. He needs to keep Hashiramako and Fuyu away from each other if he intends to defeat them. He knows how powerful a team they would make. Thus they >must< be kept apart.
Fuyu narrows her eyes as she sees no sign of Chakra within the flames. Gone? That Void again…!? She starts to open her mouth to call out a warning, but then she catches sight of the Chakra beneath the earth. The realization hits her that this man can pass through solid stone, likely with Earth Release, a moment before the tons of dirt, loose stones, and denser rock hit her directly. She tried to hold up her warfan to block it somewhat when she saw the Chakra surge underground and become Earth Chakra, but Devouring Earth is a powerful attack that she's not equipped to overcome. Her eyes hurting, she had already returned them to her normal Sharingan. Perhaps the pain and blood in her eyes made it harder to detect the attack in time to properly defend herself.
But as she is carried through the air by the monstrous construct of earth, Fuyu tries to form handseals despite the jarring impact numbing her arms and putting tearing pain in her shoulders from trying to block multiple tons of earth. The only thing that kept her from breaking both arms is probably that she tried to block at close-range instead of leap away. The earth had less time to build momentum since she was directly at the point where it emerged from the mountain. But now she uses her skill at performing Ninjutsu one-handed, slightly slowed by a loss of manual dexterity combined with pain, while she brings up her other hand — the one holding her war fan, and prepares it to strike. Then she silently recites in her head, «Thermal Release: Flame Dissolving Wave!»
She breathes out a small but very focused Fire Release technique and then combines this immediately with a Wind Release technique to fuel the flames. It results in a flash-inferno that may well break apart the construct even as it tries to hurl her towards the city — with thousands of feet to fall before she hits the ground. Cleaving out a chunk of the wrecked earth-monster with her weapon, she attempts to stick herself to the boulder as it tumbles through the air, gain as much of a stable position as she can… And then vanishes in a blur of extreme speed, attempting to slash Fuu with the bladed side of fan in passing as she uses a technique she copied from one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist years ago.
Her eyes take in the condition of her opponent even as she attacks him with one of the signature techniques of Shima Sami, Hyper-Speed Chain Kill. «This man….» she thinks as she tries to land on the Devouring Earth construct that Fuu stands upon after completing her high-speed leap/dash-and-cut maneuver. «…Looks like he's being kept alive more by machinery than living tissue. How is he still so strong with a body this old and wounded…?» Then her wondering it put aside as she lashes backwards with her fan using peripheral vision alone in an attempt to cleave off the masked man's right arm at the shoulder while they're each facing opposite directions.
The ringing sound in the distance is growing more and more painful as it echoes and reverberates, however… And it might be just enough of a distraction to keep her from landing her hit as the two ninja descend towards the dead city below.
For every attack, he evades. This just isn't working out and Hashiramako is growing more frustrated. As much as she attempts to calm herself, nothing appears to be working. Despite it all, she knows she needs to focus and not allow her anger to be hers or Fuyu's demise. She inhales deeply and exhales all the same. Something /can/ be done, but she doesn't know /what/ just yet. No time to think, it feels like as a seal appears on the mountain. Hashiramako turns her gaze up to the tower that has risen nearby. She's certain it's something devastating as most things are with Fuu.
It's made apparent when the wailing of the tower screams through the air and around the cavern, bouncing it off off every wall without mercy as it enters the Senju woman's ears and shakes her to the core. She kneels to the ground, feeling weakened and unable to think clearly. Her ears may very well bleed due to this pillar of madness.
Without much time to spare nor to lose, Hashiramako seeks power within herself to overcome the screech of the tower and an whisping aura of green covers her body. Her chakra surges and along with it a massive tree that would seek to swallow the tower whole and in turn choke the siren out to keep it from affecting this battle.
The tree grows insanely quickly, winding around the spikes and blades that line the black tower's walls, crushing the ebony stone between powerful branches, and smothering the device in the silver-skull that tops the tower. Whatever is producing the sound eventually stops working as the top of the tower is crushed. Amuro underestimated the resourcefulness of Fuyu. He knows what many of the techniques she knows are, but he didn't perform a full memory copy, so there are going to be gaps and the lack of ability to think like the memoryies' owner means he might not come up with the same strategies she does. And on top of that, he doesn't have that damnable Sharingan…
So the rapid destruction of the earthen construct and then the use of a chunk to serve as improvised ground to perform a high-speed Kenjutsu from is not only unexpected but highly-effective. The fan slashes across the masked man's chest, producing sparks as it strikes a few metal plates both on and beneath the skin to guard internal organs and the like, but ultimately drawing a small amount of blood. Most of the lack of blood is due to the upper layers of skin being scar tissue, and very little blood passing through it. But the wound is still deep enough to leave a gouge from Amuro's left shoulder to his right hip.
Fuyu landing on the construct with him, however, just convinces him to act immediately and not dwell on the injury he just suffered. Unlike Fuyu, Fuu doesn't need to see his opponent to know what she's doing. So he doesn't bother turning around. He just reaches back with his left arm as that war fan lashes out at his right shoulder. His bandage-wrapped, seal-covered, metal-chained left arm. His hand grab Fuyu's right hand as she holds her fan in a reverse grip. Amuro uses his forearm and his grip on that hand to block the haft of the war fan, and prevent its swing from being completed.
The deep voice of Fuu Ka speaks then, as the high-pitched sound dies out. Turning his head slightly, he says, "What a bother." Then a swirling black vortex appears at the point where Amuro's hand is holding on to Fuyu's own. The Void spills from his fingertips.
Part of Fuyu's war fan, the entirety of her right hand, and some of her forearm all cease to exist nearly instantly, all drawn into and destroyed utterly by a portal into the ultimate Nothingness from which all things emerged and will eventually return. The Void spirals, black tendrils reaching for Hashiramako's ally, the Uchiha Clan Head, and attempting to claim even >more<…
