The air left Shikamaru's stomach as a kick slammed against him which was followed shortly by another to his face, sending him smashing against the cold stone of the wall. What did that guy have for bones? Rock? Nah that wasn't nearly hard enough. Steel maybe.
"Shikamaru!" He heard Ino yell out to him. Looking back to her he saw their opponent appear behind her, a fist already formed and headed for her face.
She managed to sense him at the last second, ducking under the punch and spinning around with a kunai in her hand as she took a swipe at him.
Lee however was far faster, both physically and in his reflexes. Lifting his left foot up he slammed it against her forearm, causing her to drop the blade with the sharp pain. The Taijutsu user then leapt up and delivered a spin kick across her face with his right leg, making her roll with the sheer force of the kick.
Shikamaru pushed down the urge to go to Ino as she recovered from the brutal looking kick and formed his shadow again, extending the tendril, hoping to catch the Taijutsu specialist by surprise. As the black sliver approached however, Lee, and subsequently his shadow vanished from Shikamaru's line of sight. He felt a minor wind blow against his cheek, which was the only warning he received before a fist decked him right across the jaw, sending him rolling towards Ino, landing at her side in a heap.
"Shikamaru." She growled out. "This isn't really going well."
"No shit." He shot back as he picked himself up and rubbed his now bruising jaw. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times as he looked back to Lee, who stood in his fighting stance, the white clothing a stark contrast to the dull gray, light green and black of the ninja around them.
The cogs in Shikamaru's mind slowly turned as he began to come up with a plan. Finally after a few seconds his mind came up with something.
"Ino." He spoke, not taking his eyes off of Lee. "I may have a way to beat em...just follow my lead."
Ino nodded, knowing better than to argue with Shikamaru, he was smarter than her after all, she begrudgingly admitted.
So it was quite a surprise when instead of trying to attack what was obviously a Taijutsu master from a distance, he instead rushed him, apparently intent on fighting hi on his own terms. "Wait a minute Shikamaru!" She yelled after him before she followed.
Toushiro screamed as he was bodily thrown a good twenty feet by his opponent. Smashing the nearby stone bench he was thrown onto as he landed.
"Ohhh..." He groaned as he slowly rolled over to push himself up. Getting to his knees he spared a glance at the giant of a man now making his way towards him. The young Kiri nin took a deep breath before he lifted himself completely, his axes were on the floor, behind Chouji. They had fallen out of his grip when he was thrown. He had to get them back, seeing as how much of his fighting style, and complemental Jutsu revolved around those axes, each imbued with special seals to allow them to absorb and channel chakra better than normal blades, thus facilitating the process.
If he didn't get those back well...he'd might as well be fighting with one hand behind his back. As Chouji approached Toushiro settled himself in his fighting stance, ducking under Chouji's fist he tried to counter with an upwards punch into the man's stomach only for the loud ringing sound of metal to reach his ears as his fist met the armor under Chouji's clothes. Biting back another painful grunt he tried to punch Chouji in the face, only for Chouji to catch his fist in one hand, and deliver his own punch with the other. Toushiro tried to block but with Chouji's super strength it didn't do much good, and he was still smashed against the side of a nearby building.
His vision swam and for a moment he couldn't really remember where he was or how he got there. But soon the disorientation passed and he managed to recall everything. So it was no surprise that the moment he noticed Chouji was near his fallen form he lashed out, moving to kick his feet out from under him only for his shin to meet with even more metal plating, and an unyielding hunk of flesh.
Grabbing him by his face Chouji lifted Toushiro up with a single arm and began repeatedly slamming him against the building until the wall itself collapsed
When he released the Kiri ninja, and he simply crumpled to the ground Chouji was only mildly surprised to see him collapse into a water puddle.
As his ears picked up footsteps behind him he spun around in time to block Toushiro's two axes with his armored forearm.
Toushiro smirked and a water dragon, of relatively small size exploded from the building behind Chouji, being formed from the water in the buildings plumbing. Chouji snapped his attention back but wasn't fast enough to move out of the way as the water dragon crashed over him. Strangely though It caused no pain, and barely even budged him from his spot Chouji was about to disregard this as simply his opponent being weak when he noticed two things. One, the water wasn't dripping off of him as it normally should, it was actually much slower, a scant few drops every five to ten seconds and when one is thoroughly soaked that is very odd. And the second thing he noticed was Toushiro's smirk.
Soon the reason why he was smirking became apparent as lightning began to form over his axes. Chouji's eyes widened and he kicked the Kiri ninja off him before he leapt back to a relatively safe distance.
Soon however Toushiro was on him again, his axes arching through the air as he swung, lightning trailing behind it.
Chouji tried to dodge, not being nearly stupid enough to try and block, as wet as he was but the lightning still jumped to him, making excruciating pain shoot through his whole system. He staggered for a moment, but had enough sense to block a follow up swing to his head, though he was rewarded only with another painful jolt course through his system, followed by a kick to his stomach which sent him flying back, not being prepared to absorb the blow as he normally would.
Toushiro smirked. His two elemental affinities was for water and wind.
Any ninja with any of these two specific elemental affinities was considered a rarity. His adopted father, Guan had been the one to discover his two affinities during one of their training sessions together. When it had happened Toushiro didn't really know what to expect from his 'father' but he soon realized he didn't need to really worry, the look of veiled pride in the man's eyes was all he really needed. And shortly after he had brought some scrolls on manipulating both lightning and water elemental chakra.
He had only recently passed his jounin exam, and this was really his first actual "battle" but he was determined to make both his village, as well as his father proud. He refused to openly loose to anyone short of the Tsuchikage himself on this battlefield.
Chouji stood back up and ignored the involuntary twitches throughout most of his extremities as he stood up and glared at Toushiro, looking at himself he confirmed that he was still quite wet. Looking back to Toushiro, and the lightning crackling over his twin axes he knew that he would be in for a tough fight.
"KAITEN!" Hinata yelled again, scattering the Iwa nins atop the wall, and sending them smashing against their comrades as the sheer force behind the spinning barrier threw them off like rag dolls. Coming to a halt, her Byakugan caught sight of two distinct blurs shooting towards her, before they were anywhere near her. Twisting and contorting her body in a way that allowed both of the shadowy blurs to pass her by harmlessly. As they each came to a halt she found two, identical looking boys standing behind her, though it didn't take long for her to realize that one was under a henge. It also didn't take her long to recognize the clan markings as those of the Inuzuka clan.
The boy sniffed the air and snarled. "You...I knew it was you!"
Hinata paused as she took in the young man's features, her features twisted into something akin to recognition mixed with disbelief. After a long silence she finally spoke. "Kiba?" She questioned somewhat uncertainly, unwilling to believe that this was her old classmate, just what on earth were the chances of that?
The Inuzuka snarled again, his fangs lengthening even more than what was normal for an Inuzuka before he lunged at her, Akamaru not being too far behind.
Hinata snapped out of her disbelieving stupor in an instant. Catching Kiba's wrist as he tried an upwards slash and using her free hand to strike at several pressure points along his chest. The Inuzuka male coughed up blood before he tried to swipe at her extended hand with his free one. Hinata was far faster than the him, however, and simply moved back away before she delivered a straight kick to his stomach. Her leg still extended she leapt over Akamaru as the dog attempted another Tsuuga attack. She settled herself into the starting stance of the Hakke, ready to strike at the animals exposed back when another attack above her caught her attention. Back flipping three times she settled herself on the edge of the wall as several wind blades cut down into the area she'd been standing on. Followed shortly by two kunoichi.
One she recognized easily enough, if Kiba was any indication, that would be Sakura. The other she vaguely recognized, not from her class though. If she had to guess she was most likely from another gennin team from Konoha that was around before she graduated, that would explain the vague feeling of familiarity.
Still, where she recognized these people from wasn't important. What was important was that she was now facing three opponents. Four if you counted the dog. The Inuzuka was too headstrong and brash, and his partner, no mater how intelligent it was still an animal. It would act only in the most basic of ways and would follow attacks that would fall into a predictable pattern after the first few strikes.
But now she had two more Kunoichi, as the girl she recognized as Sakura form a chakra scalpel in her hand, it made it abundantly clear that she was a medic nin. While the other was a long range wind specialist judging by the fan in her hand.
Sakura began to slowly make her way to Kiba, one hand still with the bluish fire of the chakra scalpel, the other glowing green with healing chakra. Hinata narrowed her eyes, the injury she had given Kiba was a somewhat debilitating one, but also relatively easy to heal. If Sakura healed it, then that advantage was blown out the window. But she couldn't get to her without exposing herself to considerable injury from the other girl and Kiba's dog.
Before Sakura made it to the Inuzuka boy however a voice made her pause. "I'm afraid I cannot allow you to do that."
A swarm of Kikaichu suddenly condensed and made a shape between the two, Before Sakura could pull back a blade was held against her throat, same with Kiba. The swarm took on more color, revealing none other than Shino.
"Shino!" Hinata cried out in surprise. "But you're-"
"The colony, will always repair the hive, Hinata-san." He interrupted respectfully and simply, answering her unasked question.
Temari didn't take her eyes off Hinata as she settled herself between the Hyuuga head, and the Aburame head. Akamaru growled and snarled as he stood behind the boy, but did not dare to make a move while his master was in danger.
Kiba snarled at the man his teeth gnashing together as he did. "You-you damn bastard...you sold us out to that monster you traitor."
Shino looked to the Inuzuka right in the eyes as he spoke. "If I recall correctly Inuzuka-san, my father was still the clan head at the time, I had nothing to do with his decision. And if it were up to me, I never declared any vow of loyalty to you...so I have betrayed no one."
Kiba's fangs lengthened before he barked out his command. "AKAMARU!"
The dog lunged at the Aburame, only for said ninja to burst into insects and stick to the dogs fur like ticks as they began to eat its chakra. Soon its henge dispelled, revealing the dog as it clawed and bit at the insects sticking to his fur.
Kiba and Sakura used the opportunity to leap away from the bug user as he reformed himself.
As Shino reformed he let his eyes travel to Hinata's silently he looked to Kiba, and then to Akamaru before looking back at her. She got the message, those two were his, She would deal with Sakura and Temari.
Tenten and Mika worked their way up the third tower, they had already taken the first two, rather easily in the initial attack, the third however was giving them some trouble, now that the men were prepared to, and rather desperate to repel them. If they took all seven towers they would put the entire south western section of city under their thumb, Tenten's unit was known for their long range skills, both with kunai and jutsu. The weapon mistress had requested this unit, it was almost completely experimental and this would be their first trial by fire mission.
As the two dispatched the ninja, atop the third tower they spared a glance at the battlefield below. The fight along the northern end had spread out to the courtyard, but along the central part of the wall the men on the wall itself were only beginning to give ground.
The red eyed, silver haired Kiri ninja looked to the next tower before she looked back to Tenten. "Lets keep mo-"
"LOOK OUT!"
The cry reached their ears and the two girls snapped their attention over to the side, only to find a massive shredding tornado approaching them. The two kunoichi rushed and leapt off the edge as the spinning form decimated the tower they had previously been standing on. Rolling with their fall the two spun around, weapons on hand they found one massive wolf like dog standing atop it, along with eight other horse sized similar looking dogs standing over the rubble around it. A single woman sat atop the largest one, over his shoulders as she gripped its fur like the reins of a horse. "Allrighty boys." She growled, as her fangs lengthened. "Feeding time."
Each of the massive beats snarled, growled and roared, drool sliding down the edges of their mouth as they looked positively feral, letting out a howl four of them rushed the two girls while four more went after other random ninja.
Tenten unrolled a scroll, removing a double pointed spear-staff. Grabbing it she managed to place it between one of the dogs jaws as it tried to bite at her throat. Grunting with some effort she threw the creature off her and jabbed one end of her spear staff into its side. The animal howled in pain as it reared back on its hind legs and tried to bite down on the offending weapon, but it couldn't reach.
Tenten smirked but soon the second dog helped his comrade, its jaws biting down on the wooden oak staff with enough force to snap it like a twig in a single bite.
Tenten leapt back as the creature then tried to swipe at her with its claws. Unrolling another scroll she took out two short, double bladed sabers. She rushed the two animals, her weapons ready to cleave the flesh from their bones.
The two creatures tried to bite her, but she avoided both of them easily enough before she slashed at them, trailing the blade from their front shoulder, all the way to their hind leg.
The two dogs let out another howl of pain before they both vanished into clouds of smoke.
Mika openly laughed as the two animals chased her around, their snarls and growls were music to her ears, the blood pumping through her veins as adrenaline fueled her, she lived for this, the thrill of battle, the thrill of the chase, the hunt, the baiting. But most of all...
She slashed at the creatures throat, slicing it wide open, allowing its life essence to pour over her.
She loved the thrill of blood. The essence of all life. She loved to watch the shock, the disbelief in their eyes as they went all empty. It was almost orgasmic to her.
Her silver hair was now matted down to her forehead, red with blood, her eyes shining with malice and barely restrained sanity as she looked to the second creature, watching how it cringed at the sight of her. Reveling in the instinctual fear she could feel coming from it, taking it all in. Her smile was slow and deliberate, her eyes opening to take in the beast's form before she vanished from its sight. The creature barely hand time to move before the sword was plunged into the back of its head. Mika removed the blade with a sickening slice as she lapped up the blood with sickening glee, ignoring the beast as it vanished in a cloud of smoke.
Hana watched as the two girls finished off her summons, while those summons were not incredibly strong the fact that they were able to do it so quickly was a testament to their skill.
Tapping her mount on the side twice with her leg the creature adjusted its position to look down on the two Konoha Kunoichi. "Alright then girls, looks like I'm gonna have to deal with you myself." She spoke smirking as the two took their fighting stances. It had been a long time...hopefully her place on the council hadn't gotten her too rusty.
"HAHA! COME ON IS THAT ALL THAT YOU TWO 'LEGENDS' GOT?" Yoshihiro spoke mockingly as he blocked one of Guan's strikes, though it was with some visible effort. The older man pushed the swordsman off of him before he rolled to the side to avoid Kakashi's kunai slash.
Guan recovered quickly and rushed the Tsuchikage again.
Yoshihiro got to his knees and flung the massive war hammer he wielded like a simple hand axe towards the swordsman. Guan, caught off guard by the unexpected movement instinctively tried to bat the massive weapon aside, but the success was merely a partial one, the weapon had managed to knock him onto his back by the sheer size and weight.
Yoshihiro then got to his feet looking to Kakashi as the man completed his hand seals.
"Katon: Karyuu endan!" The sharingan wielder cried out before he blew out a massive fire dragon towards the Tsuchikage.
"Doton: Hari no tate" Yoshihiro spoke calmly forming his own hand seals, before earth began forming around his arm in a rough circle. Hiding behind it, the sheer heat of the flames licked his skin but did no damage. When the attack died down he had a scant warning before Kakashi smashed through his shield, with a chakra enforced kick, connecting with the older mans chest sending him rolling backwards from the impact.
Yoshihiro got to his feet and began blocking a rapid series of more punches and kicks from his opponent. Kakashi was faster than him for certain, but Yoshihiro was much more physically built than he was and was able to absorb most of the blows that got trough with minimal effort.
Yoshihiro was also patient, knowing that a little pain now for you, can sometimes mean a lot more pain for your opponent later. Kakashi would soon get overconfident, thinking that because he hadn't tried to counter attack once that he simply couldn't, and that would lead to a more sloppy defense, add to that the legendary copy ninja hadn't even had the decency to remove his eye patch well...Yoshihiro felt somewhat obligated to show that even though he was old he could still keep up with the younguns pretty damn well.
Finally he found a single glaring opening in the Sharingan wielder's attacks and before Kakashi could react delivered a powerful punch right to the man's solar plexus Kakashi gasped as the air forcefully left his lungs. Still Yoshihiro had to give the man some credit. That hit would have anyone else coughing up blood with the air. Kakashi had seen the counter at the last minute and managed to shift his body a bit better to absorb the blow with more ease.
Coughing and gasping for air, Kakashi barely managed to raise his arm to block an elbow to his face, though it didn't do him much good as Yoshihiro's sheer size and weight broke through his guard and smashed against his face anyway.
Yoshihiro didn't have a moment to spare however as he looked back to Guan who had recovered from his throw and was now ready to slash at him with that cleaver he called a sword. Looking back to his hammer he extended two chakra strings and latched onto it before yanking it towards him.
Guan sensed the movement behind him and rolled forward in time to avoid the hammer which flew over his head. He didn't pause in his run however and continued undeterred. Dragging his blade behind him he swung in an upwards motion, only for the sound of metal against metal to reach their ears as Yoshihiro blocked the strike, shifting it so it passed over his head before he took a swing at Guan's legs. The Swordsman leapt over it, coming back with another downwards strike, using the added force of his jump.
Yoshihiro stepped to the side, watching as the blade cracked and snapped the floorboards with its sheer weight. Guan tried to swing at his face, only for the Tsuchikage to simply lean back and block the next swing with his hammer.
The sound of a thousand birds reached their ears.
Yoshihiro snapped his head back to look at Kakashi as the man rushed him, lightning trailing behind his hand, leaving a deep jagged trench as he moved. The sharingan, now exposed, spinning wildly.
The Tsuchikage moved with speed the two jounins didn't think him capable of, pushing Guan straight into Kakashi's path and letting the lightning pierce his chest instead. Water, not blood sprayed from the wound before Guan collapsed into a puddle. Yoshihiro wasted no time and smashed his hammer over Kakashi's skull, only for his opponent to vanish in a cloud of smoke.
The two jounin in question suddenly appeared from below and above him, Kakashi exploding from the ground below/behind him while Guan appeared above him. Kakashi driving a kunai into his spine, and Guan slicing off his head, which promptly was replaced with a wooden floorboard.
"Well now..." The two jounin looked to a slightly panting Yoshihiro as he leaned against his hammer along the other end of the room. "You two aren't half bad." He complemented.
The two jounin straightened and looked to the Tsuchikage. "Well, as you said we are 'legends'." Kakashi accented as he took out two more kunai.
"Indeed." Guan spoke up next. "Today, Yoshihiro Shimazu, is the day you end."
The Tsuchikage chuckled softly at that. "Yeah, you two kids are strong, you definitely have a good chance of beating me, even with my special techniques...lets see if I'm right shall we?" He questioned, smirking.
Kakashi and Guan tensed as something that looked like steam began hissing up from the mans skin, and it turned a deep reddish color, as if he'd gotten a bad sun burn and his eyes dilated slightly, becoming unfocussed before they came back into focus, glowing an eerie green color, similar to his natural eye color.
"Hehehehe...its been a long time since I've had to use this technique...lets see if you can figure out how to break out of it before I smash your skulls in."
The two jounins tensed as Shimazu's chakra flared.