Starring:
Date: February 18, 2013
Summary:
A Mist Hunter Nin and a Leaf ANBU fight for rights to a scroll containing secret information.
"Within Reach"
Outside Fuuma Alley
Night has fallen across the land outside the Fuuma Alley. A light breeze blows across the fields leading into the woods. There are the sounds of foot steps landing on branches as someone moves by moon light. He is moving quickly and out of breath. His eyes are blood shot with dark bags around them. He wears the attire of a shinobi but does not wear a forehead protector. The color scheme is obvious one from Kirigakure. What he is doing out this far from the land is a mystery, but the fact someone is after him is not.
After a few minutes he lands in a clearing. The male shinobi turns around and scans the area before turning himself towards the clearing. "Are you here? There is not much time." he whsipers.
"Aa." Answers a voice from the darkness. "Judging by your condition, you are in a panic. Are you followed?" The source of the voice is hard to distinguish— his form is shrouded in darkness, but the glow of red eyes from the shadow is unmistakable. A tomoe is visible in both eyes. The form of the shrouded figure does not bother to move from it's spot, instead waiting carefully to hear an answer, or see the answer; whichever comes first.
"I.. I should not have been." the male shinobi finally stammers out as he regains his composure. "In the Mist village, they tell stories about the Hunter Nin. Masked shinobi without mouths. Demons that rise up from the earth to claim the lives of those who go against the Mizukage… They are said to always know." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a scroll. "The Leaf promises protection in exchange for this?"
About twenty feet behind the man, Yari (Tsiro) lands on a tree branch thirty feet from the ground. From behind his white and blue hunter mask, he scans forward towards the traitor in the clearing. "They woke me up early for this fool…" he mutters under his breath. It was almost time to act. He reaches back to draw the blade from the sheath behind him. He was preparing to strike from his hiding spot.
There is a moment of silence, before a hand stretches out from the darkness, "That was the deal. Protection for information." The hand beckons the man— more specifically the scroll— but the man remains in the shadows, the tomoe in his eyes spinning.
"Come." The man utters.
As the male shinobi reaches his hand out with the scroll, a glint of a metal blade comes forward from the shadows of the night. The hands falls clutching the letter. As Yari touches down to the ground his red eyes glare upwards towards the shinobi from Konoha behind his hunter mask. As his eyes move upwards the top half of the head of the traitor nin from Kirigakure slides forward revealing the blades path had originated from behind him. Now that the traitor had been dealth with, the fight was between the hunter nin and the man after the scroll on the ground between them.
Yari moves his blade hand back reflecting the light of the moon into the darkness in an attempt to get a better view of his opponent. The hunter remains silent as he waits for his opponent to make the first move.
The reflected moonlight falls on the form of Issei to reveal his featureless mask; It was painted with many tomoe on it, in black, while the mask itself was white. He wore only a cloak, but that seemed to suffice him. It completed his look of mystery, and the mostly featureless mask conveyed a message of simplicity; Perhaps even zeal. Decoration after all, was just a distraction.
As the arm falls on the ground, followed by the head, Issei makes no move at first. But then, without a word, he flickers away in an instant, to attempt landing a blow on the hunter nin— picking up the scroll in the process.
He doesn't keep it though, instead, he flings it as far as he can, in a random direction— as if to say, the first one to disengage safely can go look for the scroll.
Konoha ANBU… This was going to be more interesting that Yari had first thought. As the man moves, Yari vanishes at a similar speed backwards. He then sees the hand tossed out into the woods. Despite the desire to growl, he remains silent. This time he strike forward towards the ANBU operative making a slash with his sword before turning his metal blade the direction of his forward and attempting to stab the operative as he moves past.
Issei is there, but as the first attack comes through, it only strikes hard wood of a nearby log. But the other one does not fare the same way. Instead, Issei reappears nearby, with a fresh cut on his shoulder.
"You…" He whispers, the mask deepening his voice, as he runs a finger across his shoulder, checking the depth of the slash. "You are talented." His hands press together, as he focuses his chakra.
Yari does not return the verbal compliment. He was not here to test his blade like normal. He was here to prevent information from falling into the hands of another. Though he was not certain if his last attack hit because his opponent misjudged it or if he was not capable of dealing with it. Now he moved forward with some speed. Instead of striking with his blade, he aimed to grab onto the arm of his opponent and toss him over his shoulder into a tree. That should have decided if this shinobi was holding back or if there was just that much difference between their power levels.
When the hunter nin rushes at Issei and grabs his arm, he had but a split second to make a decision. In the end, he chose to protect his vitals AFTER he got flung into a tree. Perhaps he saw no purpose to try and dodge that technique— but something about him did change. He knew that technique. Through it, he also learned what it felt like to be thrown through a train.
As he falls to the ground, momentarily stunned, the sharingan in his right eye spins, the one tomoe splitting into two. But the other one remains the same.
Yari moved forward at near the same speed that he had thrown the Konoha operative. As he falls to the ground, Yari brings a knee up into his gut. He then takes a step back and brings his blade horizontal between his two hands. He was waiting for the man to get up and fight back. The focus of the fight had never been so intense for the young Hunter Nin. Even on missions he had not dealt with someone specifically trained to work in stealth.
Issei narrows his eyes— he saw the blow coming, but he was too numb to make any moves. It strikes him square across the chest— and with that blow, he finally knew, he found the opponent he was looking for. Such efficiency in those moves— the killer instinct— a true warrior. Perhaps it was not what shinobi were meant to be. Warriors. No, shinobi should stay in the shadows he thought, and be taught to fight, but fighting should not be the sole purpose, should it? But fighting is what wars taught them.
"Raiton." He utters, and then drives his hand forward as if he wants to pat Tsiro across the chest— instead, a spear made of lightning lances forward with a crackle of lightning filling the silence of the air.
Once more Yari vanishes as the lightning spear extends towards him. He had noticed the change in the man's eye. One eye seemed to remain the normal Sharingan. The other had two tomoe in it. He had never seen this before, even with all of his fights with Naru. This was a hybrid version. Was this man a half breed? Yari had no idea, nor did his questions really matter. It was time to end the fight. Once more flashing his steel in the moon light, Yari lunges forward leaving a blue trail of after images. If successful he should appear to move through the operative before the wounded even becomes apparent. The strike was simply that quick.
Issei watches his opponent carefully— he is wounded, he cannot afford to keep missing, or for that matter, keep getting hit. But he sees now. Better than he did before. The impossibly fast jutsu is reduced down in speed enough for Issei to, based on instinct more than reflex, body flicker away; His hands already prepared the handseals.
"Karyuu Endan." He utters, as he expells a massive stream of fire at the hunter nin, intending not only to send the burning fire at him, but the area behind and around him— there was a specific reason for that.
For a moment Yari was confused as to why he did not feel the blade pierce into his opponent. Then he spots the fire coming towards him. He's easily burned though he raises his arm to block the mask from taking damage. His skin had a fairly nice burn on it. Now without hesitation the hunter nin moves forward once more attempting to end the man before he can set fire to the scroll. Yari still needed to know what was on that scroll and only one attack he had was fast enough to prevent that from happening. Now leaving the after images and a blue trail, Yari dashes forward attempting to slice through the ANBU operative.
The ANBU operative who seemed to have gotten slow start was keeping pace with Tsiro now— even more so, he was one step ahead. When Tsiro moves towards the scroll, through Issei no less, Issei replaces himself with the fire that he just set, effectively avoiding the blow, putting distance between the two of them, and getting closer towards where he threw the scroll. And it was no surprise that this shinobi was ANBU; His skill and tactical precision was showing as he literally continued to burn his way towards the scroll— through Tsiro no less— and quite calmly so.
"Katon." He uttered, and followed through with a barrage of burning oil and fire.
The Uchiha operative was starting to get on Yari's nerves now that this hybrid Sharingan had emerged. He evades most of the fire by vanishing from the attack as it appeared. He reappeared into a fireball lacking the time to evade it. Now his crimson eyes glared towards the Uchiha as he seemed to make his way towards the scroll. Now Yari decided to end this. He lunged forward and reached out for the arm of his opponent. He was going to smash him into another tree if he could get a hold of him.
Issei can't quite keep up with that fling, and he's grabbed and tossed once again into a tree, same way as before. Perhaps he wasn't used to the sharingan- or maybe he just didn't have a appropriate answer to a jutsu of that rank. Whatever is the case, he is at the mercy of his opponent, and that is never a good thing. He remembered the last time he was at anyone's mercy. He would be lucky if he could survive long enough to retreat.
This was the one break that Yari needed. Granted he had his true power still hidden as a Kaguya, but this fight was still within his grasp without using the actual dances. As the operative heads towards the tree, Yari follows up with his blade looking to end him in a single slash. He was feeling fatigued from this battle and if it did not end soon, he would be at the mercy of any shinobi that came to back this ANBU up. His eyes never leave the man until he passes him. He waits to feel his blade make contact before considering the fight over.
Issei grits his teeth, there is no way he can escape that last attack. He tries to, nevertheless, but his muscles just won't listen. His Sharingan doesn't even allow him to not notice the fact how exhausted Tsiro is; If Issei were able to avoid that attack, he would've won, no doubt. But that was not so. And now he was not in the condition to fight any further. He had to retreat.
"Well done." He uttered, trying to make his voice sound like he was still capable of fighting— a bluff to not be followed. He followed it up with a body flicker technique, conceding possession of the scroll.
Yari felt the blade make contact. The hit was fairly deep. There was no way his opponent could continue the fight without risking his own life in the process. As the shinobi from Konoha retreats, Yari turns around until he spots the scroll. After picking it up, he makes his way back to the clearing. The hunter searches the body for anything of value. Nothing is found. Before leaving, his hand reaches down to the ground to pick up the top of the skull that he had severed earlier. Now he was free to be be on his way home. This night would be spent in a village not far from here though.
