Naruto leaped back on Manda's head, eyes watching as Yugito charged him, a recovering Akina trying to regain her bearings slightly behind her.
Fire gathered in his palm as he placed it in front of him before he began firing off the blasts of chakra infused flames, while being careful not to hit Manda with them. The snake was busy enough with Shukaku, he did not need him adding to the damage.
Yugito however did not take after her tenant in her eyes and mannerisms alone.
Lithe and agile she leapt over the balls of flame, twisting and swerving between them as she approached closer and closer before she finally appeared right in front of him, black, ghostlike claws moving to tear him open. Naruto blocked the attacks however, the force making him stumble for a moment before he bounced back, rushing to attack at close range.
Naruto attacked with his single scimitar, aiming for vital organs or dangerous arteries, Yugito dodged the strikes though, using her feline reflexes and agility. When Naruto at one point tried to swipe at her legs, she lifted her leg and stomped down as the blade passed under it, managing to get the sword caught under her boot and lodging it into one of Manda's massive scales. She leapt up, twisting over the blond as she hoped to surprise him with an attack from behind, only for Naruto to leave his discarded blade, turn and grab her by the back of her vest, slamming her against the ground before flipping her over his head and slamming her again, then he threw her off of him, grabbing his blade and yanking it free from Manda's scales before he turned to face the now recovered Akina.
Her eyes glowed red now, it looks like she was getting desperate.
Rushing forward, he attacked her midsection, only for the girl to leap over his attack. He spun on his heel, fireball in hand, only to see a lightning blast already aimed for his face. Raising his free hand he blocked the strike hissing in pain as he felt the blast burn his hand, frying the nerves in his arm but that would soon heal.
Before he could recover though, Akina attacked with a flying kick, connecting solidly with his chest, sending him over the edge that was the back of Manda's head and onto his sloped back, She used shunshin to appear in front of him, striking out with three more kicks before she attacked with a downward strike slamming him against Manda, the angle of the reptile was just enough so that he would slide down instead of just bounce off and continue straight down in a free fall. She threw two kunai slightly ahead of him, wires attached to the ends, lodging them into more of Manda's scales and used that to slingshot herself down towards him as he was sliding down. Naruto felt the wind rush out of him as her two feet stomped down on his stomach and chest, growling as he felt the scales tearing off bits and pieces of his cloak to scratch at his armor.
When Akina leapt up, hoping to do the same technique twice Naruto was prepared, using a shunshin he appeared in front of the girl, both blades at the ready.
He saw her eyes go wide for a split second before he attacked, the Kyuubi chakra coming to her defense instantly. If it was because of her conscious mind, or because of reflex, or because the fox did not wish to die he did not know nor did he care, the result was still the same, seeing as how weapons that should have cut her to ribbons now merely gave her painful, but still relatively non fatal flesh wounds.
He drew his leg back before he kicked her downward. Vanishing from sight he again appeared in front of the girl, this time with a Rasengan at the ready.
Time seemed to slow for the girl as she saw the swirling ball of chakra approaching her. Her breathing got quicker, her heart constricted, and the world seemed to fade into gray for a brief moment as she contemplated the fact that these could be her final moments.
Then, her hands moved of their own accord, one glowing blue, crackling with electricity, the other red with fire. Naruto's eyes watched as she cupped her hands together, fire and lightning coalescing forming a bright pale blue simmering ball of...some kind of energy, it glowed and burned with the heat, he could see the skin on her palms, literally burning away, revealing the bones which were also beginning to blacken with the heat. What was she doing to herself?
The Rasengan and glowing ball smashed into each other, electricity flashing before their eyes, Naruto felt his gauntlets growing unbelievably hot until he could feel his fingertips begin to burn. He growled, pushing more of the nine tails chakra into his palm.
Finally there was a flash of light before a deafening explosion
Naruto cursed as the rush of heat, smoke and air assaulted his senses, forcing him to shield his eyes from the embers and debri. Finally, he passed the smoke as he continued his decent, eyes searching for Akina.
He found her, body falling towards the deep ocean limply, not even a twitch from the younger girl.
But she was not dead, he knew somehow, but before he could do anything searing heat spread across his back, startling him, but it was a momentary thing. As he turned he wasn't surprised to find Yugito, freefalling down towards him, black fire covering her almost completely now as she let released blast after blast of eldritch flame.
Naruto growled, channeling fire chakra into his blade as he used it to deflect the attacks away from himself.
More of the Kyuubi's chakra rose to his arm extending into a claw and latching onto one of Manda's horns; he yanked himself up, meeting Yugito mid fall with an elbow to the girls gut before he grabbed her face. "Katon: Senkou!"
A deafening blast consumed Yugito's black flame covered face, eliciting a startled screech of pain as she was launched away from Naruto, moving up before falling again, slamming into Manda's side, she bounced off dazed and confused. Naruto, using the Kyuubi's chakra pulled himself up to Manda's head, watching as both women descended towards the ocean surface and towards their imminent death.
To his surprise however they did not hit the water. Mid fall, the two were caught on platforms of...sand.
No.
Naruto turned on Manda's head watching as the Shukaku brought the two women back up to his head, safely depositing them on the grainy surface.
Damn. Gaara's sense of logic and reason were returning to him, he could already recognize these two apart from friend and foe enough to save them when they were in danger. He was getting more dangerous as Naruto had expected. With his ability to summon sand from the ocean floor if this continued it wouldn't be long before he destroyed his entire fleet with the sand directly beneath them.
"Move in closer, carefully." Naruto commanded the snake, feeling Manda shift beneath him as the beast slowly inched closer and closer to Gaara.
Yugito groaned from her place on Gaara's head as she sat up, carefully touching her face as the black flames pulled away from her body, revealing burns that were already rapidly healing. She looked up towards Naruto as Manda's head hovered just beyond Gaara's reach, moving steadily closer. She looked towards Akina; the younger girl was behind a small mound of sand so she couldn't see her fully. Getting onto wobbly feet she slowly made her way towards the younger woman. "Akina, are you all right?" She questioned, only to be greeted by the sight of a gasping young blond, a large bloody, burnt wound right in the center of her chest.
A startled fearful gasp escaped her throat before she rushed forward, dark fire trailing behind her before she knelt down, careful to pull back her Bijuu's chakra so as not to injure the bleeding woman further. She noticed faint markings on her arms as she did this, were those injuries from Naruto's blade?
Akina coughed up blood as Yugito helped her sit up, the red liquid trailing down her chin, and staining the sand beneath her.
"Not ready...knew that." She coughed out as Yugito helped her slowly stand. The injury was already beginning to heal but the pain was mind numbing in itself.
"What are you talking about?" Yugito questioned. "What's wasn't ready?"
"Never mind." The younger girl hissed before trailing her eyes upwards to Naruto. Though he was at a distance she could see him clearly, standing there with his battle damaged cloak and bloodied sword...her blood.
She felt something at that sight, a strange...eerie sense of...pain. But it was different...phantom-like.
He could see her now, standing back up injuries and all, wavering on unsteady feet and though he could not see her gaze clearly he knew she was watching him, not Manda, not the battle raging below them. She was watching him.
'What is it you desire girl? What resides in that foolish mind of yours? Do you seek your death? The death of Liang? Or are you still after mine? What is it you want? How do you want this...to end?'
Jiraiya cursed as he saw another of the ally ships explode, groaning as it began to sink to the bottom. Though they'd managed to do heavy damage to the fleet as they approached, now that they were close enough for close range combat the Kumo force was clearly making up for their losses, and even with all the elite ninja they had hidden throughout the fleet the second wave would have a hard fight ahead of them.
"What's that?" Jiraiya heard one of the men speak, turning to look at him he found the man pointing to something. Trailing his gaze in the direction he saw, off in the distance a large tower, mounted on four ships, with about half a dozen ships surrounding it. Now, normally this wouldn't catch his attention what with hearing how the Raikage was more of a strategist than a fighter, he had figured the tower was a way for him to have a good enough vantage point to overlook the battlegrounds and direct his troops.
But the blue glow currently simmering above the tower was indicating much more than just a simple vantage point.
Turning his eyes upwards he saw Manda currently engaging Shukaku. Naruto had his hands full at the moment.
Making a quick decision the toad Sannin turned to the captain of the ship. "Captain, pull away from the fight, I want you to advance through the fleets and head directly for that tower."
"What, but sir, the second wave-"
"Will have to hold out on its own for now. We need to stop whatever is going on aboard those ships."
The captain looked somewhat hesitant before he nodded. "Yes sir."
Jiraiya cursed under his breath, he would have to leave the second wave to fend for themselves, something he did not want to do but letting Zhuge Liang do whatever he was planning was like handing them the victory on a silver platter he was sure.
He blinked as he realized that Temari and Hinata were still aboard the ship, turning to one of the Anbu near him he spoke. "You, go down to the decks, secure Hyuuga Hinata and Sabaku Temari, use any means necesary to get them off this ship and back safely onto the vessels still on stand by for the third wave attack force.
The Anbu merely gave a simple nod before vanishing in a cloud of smoke.
"Damn it Ginchiko where are you?"
Tenten paused mid run as two kunoichi she recognized vaguely from the battle of Sakai appeared in front of her, barring her path as they drew their weapons against the weapon mistress; with Sakura brandishing a slightly longer than normal kunai, it could even be considered a very short sword even, glowing with an aura she recognized as that of a chakra scalpel as she took her stance as Ino did the same with a double bladed kunai which quickly extended into a deadly double bladed wind blade.
She had been leaping from ship to ship, attacking ninja whom, with the relatively high number of non ninja had let down their guard, gotten sloppy, and didn't see her knives until it was too late.
Strategies and tactics to defend herself against these relatively 'unblockable' close range weapons ran through Tenten's mind but she did not have much time to continue her contemplations as the two enemy Kunoichi rushed her.
Tenten threw kunai after kunai, her hands, a blur of motion as the weapons were dodged by her adversaries that approached closer and closer to her.
Ino was the first; leaping over Tenten she twisted in mid air, the motion allowing her to avoid a single kunai that grazed her thigh as Tenten tried to anticipate her location.
Tenten turned so that her left side was facing Ino while the right was facing the charging Sakura, back flipping once she avoided a swing from the mind bender before she pivoted on her hands to turn fully around, drawing two kunai which she used to block Sakura's swing as her feet touched the ground. Pulling one of the kunai out of the deadlock she used it to thrust at Sakura's mid section which the medic quickly avoided before retaliating with her own diagonal swing, only for Tenten to stand up and side step the attack before trying to stab at the Suna kunoichi's eye.
Sakura dodged that attack as well.
Tenten tried to deliver a spin kick to the kunoichi but again Sakura was too fast, rolling forward, passing Ino who again tried to take a swing at the weapon mistress, only for Tenten to lean back and do something akin to a corkscrew flip, gaining some distance between herself and Ino before she threw several more kunai that Ino cut in half with her wind blade.
Tenten would have continued her volley had it not been for Sakura, bounding over her defensive partner as she brought her weapon straight down, only for Tenten to block it again with another of her many kunai and then leaping over Sakura as she tried a follow up horizontal swing, throwing another four kunai at the kunoichi's exposed back only for Sakura to awkwardly block the thrown projectiles, stumbling back as she did.
Tenten rolled with her fall, before instinctively pushing herself into a sideways flip when her back was against the creaking wood of the deck, narrowly avoiding Ino's downward thrust as she tried to impale the weapon mistress with her wind blade.
Quickly, before she even hit the ground Tenten was already forming her hand seals, feeling the chakra molding within her she gathered her naturally fire based energy, spinning fully around she took a breath to expel the chakra in her lungs and burn her opponents to ash when a blade passed mere centimeters from her nose, startling the weapon mistress who reeled back from the shock, the chakra in her lungs dissipating to nothing with her break in concentration as she saw Sakura was the one whom had nearly cut her down. Tenten couldn't react quick enough as Sakura leapt over her left shoulder wrapping her arm around Tenten's throat as she pulled her down, Tenten felt sharp pain shooting up and down her spine as her back fell on Sakura's feet, which the medic then used to kick her high into the air. Tenten twisted and turned wildly, unable to control her movements quick enough as she felt, more than heard Ino leaping up in order to cut her down while she was still in mid air.
Finally righting herself the weapon mistress knew she could do little more than brace herself as Ino swung the wind blade in order to cut her down permanently.
But before the strike could be completed a green blur smashed right into the blond Suna Kunoichi, knocking her away and landing at Tenten's side.
The Konoha kunoichi turned her eyes up to her rescuer, expecting to find Gai, standing there but was instead greeted by the sight of the ninja she recognized as the appointed commander of the northern forces, Toushiro, Guan's adopted son. She hadn't really spoken much to him during their brief meeting at Sakai but that certainly didn't stop her from smiling at the now bearded Kiri ninja. "Cutting it a little close there eh?" She questioned, rubbing at her throat, grateful it was still on her shoulders she turned her eyes to the larger man who smirked at her in that cocky way of his. "Thanks." She added, almost as an after thought.
"Don't mention it." The axe wielder said, not taking his eyes off of Sakura and Ino's gaze as he drew his weapons.
Sakura and Ino stood shoulder to shoulder, staring at their adversaries who stood a short distance away, watching as the man in the green robes removed two axes from his belt. "Any ideas on this one?" The pinkette questioned her blond friend.
"I'll deal with him, you just deal with miss sleeps-with-kunai over there, keep her busy." The blond answered back, watching as Sakura nodded before they both rushed their respective opponents at the same time.
Toushiro's muscles tensed, his hands gripping his weapons more firmly before he somersaulted backwards to avoid Ino's swing.
The blond kunoichi, at the same time did a forward roll, delivering a thrust which she hoped to catch the green robed jounin's leg with. But Toushiro was too fast, giving another leap he rose up to the mast of the ship, using his axes to cut one of the many thick ropes that connected parts of the ship releasing one of the beams that held the sails, allowing the large chunk of wood to swing down like a pendulum, Ino's eyes widened as she rolled out of the way, several ninja, some friendly, some enemy were not so fortunate however as the wooden structure batted them aside like cheap dolls.
Sakura, who had been crossing blades with Tenten had her back facing the incoming mass of wood. Tenten's eyes widened, and the Konoha weapon mistress pushed her off before rolling to the side.
Sakura turned around in order to face whoever or whatever was approaching her, only for her eyes to widen as she was smacked solidly by the wooden mass, sending her skyward nearly a dozen feet before she vanished in a puff of smoke, the broken remains of a wooden plank left in her wake as she reappeared standing on the lower end of the swinging mass before she ran up its side.
The momentum of the beam caused it to pivot with its somewhat sudden stop, going from a slanted incline as she climbed its side to an almost perfectly flat surface for a few seconds as she bounded over the top end that was still clasped to the rope and onto the structure's other side. Giving a leap she lunged for the axe wielding Jounin who still stood on one of the Mast's stems that held the sails.
Toushiro saw her approach, pumping chakra into his legs before he leapt to meet her in mid air.
Sakura adjusted her path, twisting her body in a corkscrew motion she latched onto Toushiro's robes, turning their positions in mid air with the use of their combined momentum before she placed both her feet against his chest and kicked out, sending him smashing against the same wooden beam he had sent swinging down here in the first place.
The Kiri jounin stumbled, landing on his side, his world spinning for a moment before his senses returned to him. Rolling onto his back he bucked himself up off the ground a few inches he was able to avoid Ino as she had swung her wind blade, trying to slice open his side while he was still on the ground. He turned enough in order to place a hand down so when he landed he was on his side, and using this new position kicked Ino's legs out from under her and used the momentum of said kick to rise back to his feet. Backflipping to avoid Sakura's swing giving another high leap backwards as Tenten, threw several kunai at the pink haired kunoichi as she rushed the Suna ninja.
Ino's first instict was to help Sakura, but she soon caught sight of Toushiro as he leapt off the mast of the ship again, she leapt up to meet him, swinging her wind blade and forcing the Kiri ninja to ajust himself to avoid the unblockable weapon.
Never the less he was still on course as he tried to deliver a crushing drop heel kick on Sakura as he fell.
Rolling forward the kunoichi avoided the attack and engaged Tenten at close quarters, weapons clanging as sparks flew from the impact of kunai against sword.
Suddenly, Sakura leapt back, rising nearly ten feet in the air before she extended her fingers, chakra strings latching onto the parts of the deck around Tenten, using the untouchable strings to spring her back like a slingshot. Tenten, who had not seen the strings was caught completely off guard when Sakura was soon right in her face, and burning agony ripped over her side as she fell away, a wound bleeding harshly beneath her ribs from a sword. But soon enough again, the weapon mistress vanished.
Toushiro who had been turning back around after he had landed from his drop kick was meet with a spin kick to the face from Ino as the mind bender appeared right infront of him, knocking him into a daze as he spun twice before hitting the floor. Ino would have finished him off but Tenten appeared at her side a second later in a cloud of smoke, kunai and shuriken seemingly flying from her finger tips with the speed which the volleys came, forcing the Yamanaka to backpedal quite a bit as she struggled to block the seemingly infinite number of weapons.
The volley soon ended however as Sakura rushed up to the girl, a swing of her own weapon forcing Tenten to block as she pulled away before Toushiro got to his feet, and smashed his foot against Sakura's chest with a flying kick, knocking her away before charging lightning and water chakra into his axes, using them to block the sudden assault from Ino's double bladed wind blade. Normally wind would beat lightning, but when augmented with water chakra coursing through it the lightning could resist wind. The downside was that this used nearly twice as much chakra and three times as much concentration. Blocking her assault for a few moments he went on the offensive, his axes appearing as nothing more than a blur as his supperior strength was forcing Ino to stagger and back away from him. Capitalizing on this he leapt up, his body becoming paralell to the ground as he spun in place, his axes smashing against her weapon with bolts and flashes of energy and Ino, with her phisically weaker body could barely hold her weapon up in order to continue blocking the assault. Finally a single swing made the kunoichi stumble and the Kiri ninja kicked her, his foot smashing against her forehead and knocking her wits out of her as she stumbled as if in a drunken stuppor.
Gravity finally did its work and he was forced to return to the ground. But of course he was immediately on the defensive as Sakura blurred into his line of sight, her weapon fast and accurate as it seeked to slice him open like a gutted fish.
He was rescued however by Tenten, approaching Sakura's blind side she kicked the medic ninja with a brutal straight kick that sent the pinkette colliding with her comrade, their bodies smashing against the door that led into the crew's quarters at the rear of the ship.
Tenten then unrolled two scrolls where two spiked balls, each about the size of a melon and covered with explosive tags. The weapon mistress threw them at her opponents, the two spiked projectiles nailing themselves to the wall at either side of the two.
Sakura and Ino realized what would happen, and the two tried to put some distance between themselves and the explosives. It partially worked, they were able to avoid the main blast radius, but the shockwave still pushed them forward, right into Toushiro and Tenten as the two Konoha jounin kicked them away, with Toushiro's leg smashing against Sakura's rib cage and Tenten's against Ino's throat nearly crushing her wind pipe and snapping her neck, their own strength added to the forward momentum of the two kunoichi. Sakura and Ino were thrown back into the now dissipating fireball as they struggled to regain their strength. Though that was difficult considering both could barely breathe.
Tenten and Toushiro gave them little respite as the two rushed forward, over the debris and broken ship parts caused by the explosion, weapons drawn as they made to kill their two kunoichi adversaries.
But soon another figure burst out of the smoke slightly behind their targets, catching them both by surprise, they brought their weapons to the ready, using them to block the split kick the newcomer delivered. To their surprise however, the kick smashed right through their weapons, catching them full in the chest sending them flying back until they were near the middle of the ship. Despite the fact that this person obviously lost alot of his momentum by breaking through their weapons they both felt as if they'd been kicked by a mule, knowing this it was no surprise that they both knew it would be unwise, to say the least to take one of those blows full force. When they saw another spin kick approaching them the two wisely fell onto their backs and sprang back to their feet to avoid the attack from their yet unidentified opponent.
Hearing his feet land they both turned around and paled at the sight of the one and only Tsunade of the Sannin standing infront of them, standing in an offensive taijutsu stance as she smirked. "My turn."
Toushiro and Tenten discarded their broken weapons, before revealing new ones, Toushiro with a spare set of axes strapped to his back and Tenten from yet another pouch, instead of attacking Tsunade though, they turned and rushed the still downed Ino and Sakura, figuring their previous two opponents would be down for the few seconds it would take to put distance between Tsunade and their previous opponents in order to take them out without interference from the slug queen. Of course what they did not know was that both Ino and Sakura were capable medic ninja themselves, and were already nearly fully healed from the debilitating blows, having had time to do so with Tsunade's little distraction.
As they approached though they heard Tsunade approaching behind them, she was faster than they expected. Leaping straight up, they dodged the sannins flying kick, when they landed the blond haired legend was now standing infront of them as they landed. Tenten tried to throw another kunai but before she could she was forced to lean away from Tsunade's incoming fist, receiving a grazing blow on her shoulder, but even a grazing blow was enough to send the weapon mistress flying onto the other side of the deck.
Toushiro landed a moment later, brandishing his axes but instead of going on the offensive he was forced on the defensive as Ino appeared infront of him, an evil gleam in her eyes as she swung her wind blade, forcing Toushiro to block the attack as he quickly charged lightning chakra into his blades to offer some resistance to her wind element, but the awkwardness of the block and the sloppiness with which it was executed left him open for her next blow as she delivered a spin kick which send him flying back with his comrade.
Before he even landed he felt another kick connect with his spine, sending him upwards, noticing from the corner of his eye that it had been Sakura, who used a Shunshin to get below him.
Tenten who was still recovering from her brush with Tsunade's fist shot to her feet, little pellet balls slipping into her hand as she pulled them from her pouch. She called them flashers, her own invention. It was like a regular flash bang only without the extremely loud ringing in your ears, using combustible powder and pepper dust to blind opponents for a few moments. The timers were attached to her chakra system, meaning she could literally will these things to explode when she wanted. Problem was they weren't fully tested yet. She'd have to gamble her life on her own untested inventions.
Strangely she never felt more secure.
Spinning around she kicked Sakura as she was regaining her own balance from the kick she'd given Toushiro before she rounded on a charging Ino and Tsunade, the Yamanaka girl reached her first, throwing one of her flash bangs right in her path she watched the little pellet explode in a burst of light, knocking the Yamanaka onto her back more from shock than blindness or stinging pain, it was small but it was better than nothing.
Tsunade reached her next, the slug Sannin throwing a kick that would have hit her back if it connected. Tenten leapt up, landing on Tsunade's outstretched leg, her right leg rested on her knee, and her left leg just bellow the older woman's ribcage. She tossed three of the pellets right in Tsunade's face, leaping off the woman before the baubles exploded, knocking the legendary Sannin down as well. But Tenten could see Ino was already up, her wind blade in hand again, she had no time to loose.
Spinning in mid air, her foot landed on Sakura's shoulder, tossing the last of her pellets at the girl she leapt up, grabbing an overhanging rope, bellow her, in a massive net tied to the rope, were dozens of barrels of oil and rum, she caught Toushiro before he fell back to the deck where the proverbial sharks were waiting for him. She used his momentum to add to her strength as she tossed him up to the mast before she herself leapt off her platform, throwing two kunai behind her, one that sliced the rope holding the barrels, sending them smashing against the deck, their contents spilling all over the wooden floorboards and another with an explosive tag towards the deck.
The tag went off, igniting the entire deck of the ship in searing red hot flames, Toushiro and Tenten stared down at the flames as they quickly worked their way throughout the entire ship, hoping they'd see at least one of their opponents burning with the wood.
It was a fools hope however as Sakura soon appeared in a cloud of smoke next to Tenten and Toushiro caught sight of Ino running up the central mast to engage them on the stems, her wind blade flaring to life again as she leapt up, rising above Toushiro as she spun the weapon over her head. He saw the surge of chakra as it passed over the blade and wisely backed away instead of trying to block it again, already his second set of axes was sporting a rather deep gash from the first attempt, as he dodged it, her weapon descended, he watched as the blade connected with the stem of the mast, dozens of other smaller wind blades cut deeply into the wood, not enough to cut through it completely, seeing as how she stopped mid swing but enough to make it unstable.
Never the less he rushed her, exchanging attacks with the kunoichi before she used her lithe frame and greater balance to simply slip past him, kicking him in the back of his neck as she did, he stumbled forward, right into Tenten whom had been fighting Sakura. The pink haired medic took the opportunity and smashed her foot into Tenten's throat, much like the bun haired weapon mistress had done to Ino, making the kunoichi stumble and lose her balance enough to fall, descending into the searing flames bellow.
Toushiro saw this, acting fast he pushed chakra into his hand, gripping the surface on the side of the wooden structure as he bounded over the edge, reaching down, he caught Tenten's hand, who had regained her bearings at this point. Swinging her upwards she landed on the mast, her hands flying through the air as she launched kunai after kunai at Sakura to keep her at bay, aware that Ino was approaching behind her but choosing not to deal with her yet. Toushiro soon got up onto the mast as well slightly, infront of Tenten, placing himself between the weapon mistress and the pinkette. Just in time to see something that made him push Tenten away before backing off himself, a split second later, a massive wooden projectile, which he could only guess was some large chunk of their ship smashed right through the wooden stem of the mast before being stopped by the tightly packed sail. The stem leaned and swerved violently as it toppled over, the ropes that were tied to it holding it up, the wind making it serve and rock in the wind. Tenten struggled to maintain her balance as the stem swerved in the air. Spinning on her heel she began throwing her volley of kunai at Ino, who was still at some distance, having stumbled back when the mast's stem had been sheared in two.
The blond kunoichi once again blocked all the projectiles with her wind weapon. Tenten soon caught sight of Tsunade, rushing towards her behind Ino having leapt onto the swerving mast from the deck railing that was not on fire. Tenten leapt back, onto the edge of the broken stem before leaping away, trying to reach the still stable stem that was connected to the mast.
But Ino and Tsunade rushed after her, Ino leaping higher and Tsunade slightly lower. Tenten launched kunai at them both, trying to stave them off while she was vulnerable in mid air.
Tsunade slipped past her however, landing on the broken edge of the stem first, her speed and most of all her trajectory having been more direct than Tenten's higher motion. The slug Sannin did not stay on her perch for long, lunging towards Tenten a second later. Tenten again tried to turn in mid air, launching kunai at the slug summoner but it was for nothing as, Tsunade reached the girl, trying to deliver a drop kick that would have killed Tenten if the bun haired Kunoichi wouldn't have dodged. Taking two kunai she tried to stab Tsunade herself, only for Tsunade to catch her wrists, spinning in mid air before using the gathered momentum to throw Tenten down towards the searing flames below. A second later Tsunade reached up, catching Ino's hand as the girl had already landed at the stem, allowing the younger blond to pull her back up lest she share the same fate as her latest adversary.
Toushiro heard Tenten scream as she fell, snapping his eyes back around in order to see what was happening he quickly made a risky decision, throwing both of his axes up in the air he watched with relief as Sakura's eyes followed them. Latching onto her jacket before she could react, Toushiro used a great deal of his considerable strength and threw her towards the falling Tenten before he caught both his axes as they descended again.
Sakura turned in mid air, launching more of her chakra strings from her finger tips she latched onto the mast of the boat with them. She never noticed however that she had gotten within Tenten's reach, and seeing what she was about to do the weapon mistress wrapped her arm around the Haruno's neck, Sakura gasped in surprise but soon the strings yanked them back like rubber bands. Rising above Toushiro and the others Tenten's grip slipped from around Sakura's neck and the two fell on opposite sides of Toushiro, with Sakura between the male Shinobi and her two allies, while Tenten was now getting to her feet behind the green wearing ninja.
Toushiro rushed forward, attacking Tsunade with his axes. The Sannin wasnt given her title for nothing however as she blocked his strike with her forearm by connecting it with his own before delivering a brutal uppercut to the ninja, his head coming clean off with the strength of her blow before it and the body it had been attached to dispersed into water.
Tenten threw kunai in every direction she could as Sakura continued to use the Shunshin no jutsu to confuse her, buying time for Tsunade and Ino to make their approach. Finally the pinkette found an opening appearing infront of Tenten she kicked the girl in the stomach making her stumble back before Toushiro leapt over the weapon mistress and delivered a flying kick to the kunoichi's chest, making her stagger back this time. This time Ino took the Haruno's place, her wind blade lashing out as Toushiro dodged what he could and blocked what he could not, praying his axes would hold out against the ridiculously sharp blade. The blond spun the staff wind blade wildly, forcing Toushiro to do continuous back flips in order to avoid the strikes before he finally pushed himself several feet off the ground when she tried to swipe at his hands in the middle of his maneuver.
But as Toushiro was out of her line of sight Tenten let loose a single fireball at the blond haired kunoichi. Ino's eyes widened before she began spinning the blade rapidly infront of her, but the fireball exploded after a few seconds sending the suna kunoichi flying back, smashing into the Mast, barely missing Sakura on the way.
Toushiro who was still in the air slightly above and infront of Tenten was not so fortunate as Tsunade appeared infront of the Kiri jounin and smashed her foot against the green clad jounin, the blow connected solidly, sending him careening as he smashed into Tenten sending them both tumbling and nearly falling off the far end of the stem.
Tsunade raised her leg up high, over her head before bringing it down in a powerful dropkick. The stem snapped like a twig, catapulting Tenten and Toushiro straight up into the air.
Rearing back her fist the slug queen smashed it into the wooden beam that now stood upright infront of her sending the massive object flying towards the two falling ninja, ropes and sails tearing like strings and paper with the force. The wood smashed into the two ninja, sending them flying into the adjacent ship where the battle still raged between the ninja and pirates aboard. The weapon mistress and the son of the dragon struggled onto their feet, Toushiro coughing up copious amounts of blood as he did, Tenten's legs shook with weakness as she struggled to stand, reaching into her pouch for one of her many soldier pills.
Before the two could even have some semblance of having recovered their three opponents were already on the ship, rushing towards them.
A white blur rushed past the two injured ninja and with movements that could barely be perceived by the naked eye delivered an elbow to the Yamanaka's ribs and a kick to the Haruno's face, knocking them both away before he delivered a palm thrust to Tsunade, making the woman skid back several feet as she blocked the blow, bringing the momentum of the tree Kunoichi to a screeching halt.
"Lee." Tenten said as she pulled herself up to her feet, her legs slowly regaining their feeling of strength as the Taijutsu master stood between them and their three opponents.
Chakra crackled and swirled violently in Naruto's free arm, forming a spinning ball, growing smaller and more compact in a few seconds until it became a perfect sphere. His ruby red eyes followed Akina's white clad form as she sailed through the air lightning flashing off of her weapon, forming a spear head at the tip, the pale blue chakra nearly blinding in its intensity as she descended on him. With a cry they both plunged their attacks into each other, releasing a shockwave that drove Manda and Gaara's Shukaku form apart.
As the smoke cleared and the dust settled the sound of metal clashing against metal rang out as the two traded blows with their weapons. Naruto, gripping a single scimitar in both hands, pushed against Akina's weapon. Her eyes locked with his, crimson meeting pale blue as she struggled to hold him back, his superior strength and height granting him an advantage.
Naruto felt a shadow fall over him, he spun back around, and delivering a brutal kick that connected with Yugito's stomach sending the Nibi Jinchuriki skidding across the rough, jagged terrain that was Manda's head, hissing in pain as one of her arms was torn open with a scale. Teetering over the edge she grabbed hold of one of Manda's horns, grasping the surface with chakra as best she could and began pulling herself up. Dark fire framed her face now, forming two cat-like ears, blue veins spread across her pale features, almost like a corpse. The violet eyes burned through the sickly pallor though, gleaming as brightly as ever.
This distraction was enough for Akina though, as she turned the angle of her three pieced staff and positioned Naruto's blade so it was over his shoulder, then she shoved down hard.
Naruto grunted as he was forced to his knee, the blunt edge of his scimitar digging into his shoulder and neck. Then lightning crackled.
Akina pushed lightning chakra from her three pieced staff down the weapon until it glowed golden with the electrical currents, forcing the muscles in his hand and arm to contract, which in turn forced him to keep his hold on the weapon as it continued to electrocute him.
Manda suddenly gave a violent lurch as Gaara delivered a brutal body slam against the snake summon. Making Akina lose her footing.
Taking the opening for what it was worth, the blond lashed out with his foot, slamming it into Akina's knee. He heard her scream in pain as her strength gave way and she collapsed onto the injured knee, using her hands to hold her up, while still gripping the weapon, she was now eye level with her kneeling sibling.
Naruto got to his feet with a quick spin and swung his blade like a bat. Akina, regaining herself, got to her knees and positioned her three pieced staff to block the strike, but Naruto's momentum, coupled with his sheer strength shattered the weapon like glass and ripped right through it.
Naruto watched through his red filled orbs as metal sliced open flesh, cutting through bone and muscle as he drove it onwards, hacking Akina in two with one jagged slice, only for the girl to vanish in a cloud of smoke a moment later. The Blue glow behind him was the only warning he received. Turning around swiftly he formed a Rasengan in his hand again, driving it forward he slammed it right into another lightning attack at the tip of the girl's weapon, the other end he noticed, was twisted and heavily damaged, ending now in a jagged metal spike rather than the normally smooth flat end. The two attacks slammed into each other, and the effect was the same, an explosion. And though Naruto would have been able to hold his feet easily another violent lurch from Manda at just that moment made both him and his sibling loose their footing, allowing them to be carried off by the shockwave.
Naruto soared through the air, red cloak fluttering heavily, singed and smoking from the close encounter, Akina was in a similar state, falling from the great height that was Manda's head as the titan continued his struggle against the raging Shukaku Gaara.
Naruto flipped, righting himself in mid air before he crashed against a surface violently, his legs nearly shattered from the force which they hit. The blond kept his blade firmly in hand. Realizing where he had fallen was none other than the Shukaku's head.
The ninja barely had the opportunity to gather this fact in his mind before hundreds of tendrils of sand emerged from the 'ground' around and rushed the blond from all sides. The Kyuubi Jinchuriki slammed his palm against the ground, creating a shockwave of wind blades that sliced the tendrils of sand to ribbons, buying the blond only a few more scant seconds before they re-emerged. Enough time to run towards Manda, who had bitten down with his fangs into the Shukaku's neck, the sand beast thrashed violently as he struggled to break free, the wet sand hissing and steaming as it was dried up due to Manda's acidic poison.
Naruto saw the Nibi Jinchuriki leap down off of Manda's head onto the surface of the Shukaku, rushing him, as she knew she held the advantage in this terrain.
Naruto dodged and weaved past tendrils of sand, struggling to keep ahead of the attacks due to the sheer volume. He lunged for the Nibi as she did the same The two slammed against each other. With Naruto's superior size and momentum the blond Jinchuriki was easily able to knock her back, slamming her against the wet sand that made up Gaara's form, quickly placing his feet on the ground he latched onto her throat with his free hand.
Yugito let out a short gasp before she clutched at his wrist futilely trying to pry herself free. Her eyes turned a deep shade of purple with a black slit down the center, the dark hellfire of the Nibi beginning to spread across her skin. Naruto wasted no time before he started running, pulling her along, dragging her over the hardened grains of sand even as she struggled to stop him, the strangely freezing yet searing hot flames seeped through his gauntlet as she clawed at his arm and armored wrist.
Naruto saw the tendrils of sand rise up from the remaining expanse of ground before him, trying to bar his passage to Manda as he rushed towards the snake king.
Pumping chakra into his legs the blond gave a single, powerful leap, rising up over twenty feet with Yugito still in his grip. He pulled her up till she was eye level with him. His eyes piercing her own for a brief moment before he shoved her away, towards the tendrils with enough force to throw a market stall, sending her rocketing towards the surface of Gaara's sand body.
The tendrils acted quick, molding and reshaping themselves until they formed a curved rounded surface which caught the Nibi Jinchuriki, cushioning her against the fall.
Raising his scimitar up in the air the blond cut the empty space infront of him, sending forth a red, crescent like wave towards the girl, before he quickly drew his second blade, launching thousands of small fast wind blades. Coming into contact with the red wave the sky was seemingly consumed by fire, flames spreading wide and rising high with one massive explosion, blinding the soldiers bellow, and deafening the great beasts that struggled against one another. The searing heat turned the sand closest to it into glass, descending like a Tsunami of the apocalypse as it forced even Manda to pull away with the sheer inferno the air had become.
Naruto descended from this, falling through the fire, his red cloak and black clothing blending into the haze of flame above them as he fell towards the glittering glass surface bellow. He landed with such force, the glass shattered and cracked beneath his boots, crunching and crackling as he turned, rushing off towards the edge of Shukaku's head.
The blond leaped, spreading his arms wide as he allowed gravity to pull him down towards the crashing waves and sinking ships bellow. "MANDA!" He roared, watching as the great snake boss, suddenly burst up from the watery depths of the ocean beneath him like a great sea monster. Roaring as it opened its jaws wide, the sharp hiss following before it snapped its jaws shut. Naruto then caught sight of the lone figure firmly perched on the great summons head, one hand gripping her three pieced staff firmly, her other resting on one of the scales on Manda's head as she crouched low.
Raising her eyes, towards him, her blond bangs, wet and matted down to her forehead as the rest of her hair whipped out behind her in the harsh winds, blue eyes clashed with searing red as they approached one another. Naruto's raised his blades high over his head, timing his swing perfectly with his decent before bringing them down with all of his considerable strength.
Akina, in response raised her own weapon, blocking his two blades with an extremely loud clang. The force of the attack pried her chakra covered feet from Manda's hardened scales, allowing gravity to do its work as it pulled her back down to earth, shooting right past the still rising Manda. Quickly she adjusted her fall and twisted in mid air, doing a small back flip before she planted her feet down, chakra once again gripping the surface of Manda's scales, the sudden change in direction giving her stomach a strange sense of vertigo as she reeled back, forcing her to nearly falling on her ass before she righted herself. And not a second too late, for by the time she had fully straightened and regained her bearings Naruto was a mere two feet infront of her, his swords already mid swing.
Bringing her weapon to bear she blocked two quick strikes from him, before leaning back to avoid a third aimed for her face. Placing her hand down onto Manda's scales she used it to support herself as she raised both legs and connected something akin to a mule kick into Naruto's chest, making him stagger, which she used to do another back flip before taking up her stance.
Slowly Manda began to turn in mid air, and the two shinobi found themselves descending back down towards the sloshing waves of the ocean below. Wind whipped past the two, their clothes fluttering wildly with the harsh gusts. Even so, their attacks against one another didn't cease as metal clashed against metal, launching small bursts of sparks into the air with every impact of the two weapons.
Akina released the chakra from her feet, allowing Manda to rush by beneath her, distancing herself from Naruto before she planted her feet back down on Manda's scales. Forming her hand seals, lightning gathered in her palms before she launched it at the ninja.
The Konoha Jinchuriki threw one of his blades away as he formed several quick hand seals. "Katon: Napa-mu no Misairu!" He yelled before cupping his freed hand over his mouth. A single bolt of fire shot out with great speed, creating a sonic boom as it traveled through the air, forcing Naruto to take a step back before it smashed into the airborne Shiroi no Raiko, a small explosion forming a cloud of black and brown smoke between them. Naruto fired off another "Katon: Napa-mu no Misairu" where he anticipated her to be but was disappointed and surprised when his attack hit nothing but air and instead of finding her standing where he had last seen her he found her instead clinging to Manda's side as she passed through the smoke the blue glow of another lightning ball burning in her hand before she fired it at him again. With no time to dodge and even less time to form a proper counter Naruto hastily formed a Rasengan, but due to such a short amount of time it was incomplete with several of the slivers of chakra that formed the sphere spraying outward, as their techniques clashed against one another, scratching and tearing away at the gauntlets around his wrist and hand, a few who managed to reach higher tearing open horrible gashes along the entire length of his arm. With his attention fully focused on holding off the lightning based attack he barely noticed as Akina rushed to stand off a bit further to his side. Snapping his eyes over to her he watched as she formed several quick hand seals.
"Raiton: Chiboruto no Harou!" She yelled, clapping her two hands together. Several hundred lightning bolts shot out from her hands towards her older sibling.
Molding wind chakra into his blade he quickly used it to block or deflect as many of the tiny bolts as he could but it proved to have only a partial success, as the Shinobi was forced to bear the brunt of whatever of the attack got through as little darts of lightning pierced through his arms, stomach, legs and shoulders.
The pain further destabilized his already unstable Rasengan the glow of Akina's lightning attack seemed to intensify, as it gained the advantage over his haphazard defense. Naruto's eyes widened with a minor sense of panic just before the attack exploded in a fireball that knocked him off his feet, shooting past Akina as she and Manda descended far faster than he. His body seemed like little more than a smoking rag doll as it bounced off Manda's body several times as the snake continued its decent before he was finally able to grab hold of one of Manda's scales with his armor covered hand.
His sword still gripped in one hand he stabbed it into the surface of Manda's scales and used it to pull himself "down" in order to place his feet on the surface of Manda's body and not a second to late as Manda finally dove into the deep blue sea and the sound of rushing water met Naruto's ears, forcing him to hold himself in place as Manda plunged beneath the waves. His two passengers dragged down with him, rushing past broken ships and dead, sinking bodies as the muffled battle cries above them were drowned out by the sound of rapidly moving water.
Mika stumbled as she made her way out of the water, stumbling with the high slope of the shifting sand. They were a bit farther out to sea than she had thought, and the water dragon had drained her nearly entirely of chakra. Looking behind her, she managed to catch sight of Ginchiko as the older woman made her way out of the sloshing waves as well. Chakra exhaustion visible in her body language as well.
She turned, throwing a kunai in hopes to kill her while exhausted, but in her own tired state the knife was not nearly as fast, accurate or powerful as normal and so, it merely bounced off her thick, purple armor with an audible chink.
Ginchiko cursed, but paid the attack little mind before she pushed lightning chakra into two of her kunai. Launching both, the knives passed the girl on either side, electricity sparked between the two weapons as they sailed through the air, catching Mika between the currents. The red eyed Kiri jounin screamed before she fell onto her side, struggling to move as the paralyzing effects of the lightning took effect.
Ginchiko fell onto her hands and knees, breathing heavily before she looked up to the twitching Mika.
"Why?" She questioned, glaring at the girl. "Why did you do it?"
To her surprise Mika had the audacity to actually smile, the cruel upturn of her lips taunting in its nature as her red eyes gleamed in the bright mid day sun.
"Answer me!" Ginchiko demanded.
Mika opened her mouth to speak but before she could a kunai knife, thrown from beyond the dense foliage of the forest, sliced open her throat. Her eyes widened for a brief moment before they grew dim and she stopped breathing.
"She did it-" Ginchiko heard as she snapped her head and eyes in the voice's direction as the attacker emerged from his hiding place. "Because she wanted to. And also because we asked her to."
"U-Uchiha Itachi."
The name left her lips in a whisper, Ginchiko stared at the Akatsuki member, not willing to believe the sight of him standing there, not willing to believe her own death was staring at her right in the face. As tired as she was she would be lucky if she could beat a rookie chuunin, let alone an S class criminal like Uchiha Itachi.
Still, perhaps she could buy for some time, get him to keep talking while she figures out some means of escape.
Pulling herself up to her feet she stumbled backwards, away from him as he began to close the distance between them. "What do you mean you asked her?"
Itachi shrugged his shoulders. "Just what I said. Your Jounin was not a person who wanted the chaos to end. She did not want peace. But she found herself in a position where she could never hope to succeed in undermining Naruto's plans, or killing him without placing almost certain death over her shoulders. We provided an outlet. We told her that we would bring her into our organization, offering her a place where she could fight against both sides, slaking her bloodlust. In exchange, all we asked for was for her to put an end to Temari of Suna before Naruto could secure Gaara's surrender.
"What? But how could you know that she'd be on the ship? We weren't even certain ourselves until the last minute." Ginchiko questioned getting closer and closer to the water's edge.
"With over 10 thousand hired, non ninja combatants in your force do you truly believe our spy networks so inadequate?" He drawled, stepping closer still.
"But why? What was your purpose? Akatsuki is only after the Bijuu why would you want to fuel this war further?"
"Because, if the villages attentions are on each other then no village can focus their full attention on us when we capture their Jinchuriki. Worse yet if they are unified then even we cannot prevail. This way, both villages will fight each other, and though we cannot reach our targets now at sea, when they make port we'll have our chance again."
At the end of his sentence the mass murdering ninja vanished from Ginchiko's sight, and the woman suddenly felt an arm wrap around her neck while a kunai dug deep into her thigh, she gasped, clutching both of the offending appendages as she tried to push them off. But quickly, almost before she could even fully lift her arms she felt strength leaving her body. She noticed, vaguely that Itachi had sliced open the artery that ran along her inner thigh, she would bleed out in less than a minute.
Itachi's slow, cold voice whispered in her ear as she could feel the life draining out of her. "It will be over soon, lady Ginchiko. Don't struggle."
As darkness crept along the edges of her vision she found her mind returning to others. To Hidetada, to Toushiro...to Guan.
'I've...failed.' Was all she could think before everything was consumed by blackness.
Itachi slowly knelt down, placing her gently against the ground as he closed her now sightless orbs. "Your time is done...rest for now...lady Ginchiko."
Standing he began to leave. Catching sight of Kisame standing by a tree a short distance away.
"Make it look like they fought." The Uchiha stated as he brushed past the giant fish man. Their plans were underway.