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| - Yuzume felt adrenaline flood her veins as the maze around them dropped away, revealing itself to be nothing more than an illusion. Stripped of all deception, the battlefield lay before them: bare, wide, and smooth. The lines of dark wood met the clear blue of the sky, with the clouds so crisp on the horizon she felt she could reach out and touch them. But there was nothing else. A stiff wind, bitterly cold from the altitude, rushed over the platform as the four shinobi eyed each other warily. She noted with dismay that they had been matched against the red-haired shinobi who had given her chills earlier. Shenron Uzumaki. She did recognize the other man, and sensed an electrical aura that threatened danger, his mere presence seeming to charge the air around them. Raiden Narukami. She had been careful to memorize a list of all the participants beforehand, supplied to her by the leader of Root himself, and now found that the extra information would afford her with a very slight advantage. Nonetheless, considering the current situation, she would take anything she could get her hands on. “Shit,” she muttered under her breath before turning to Ameshizu. “You take the one on the left,” she said in a low voice, referring to Raiden, “And I handle the one on the right. Sound good?” Yuzume then threw back her shoulders as she faced the other team directly. “Shenron Uzumaki, Raiden Narukami,” she pronounced their names as if they were profanity, “While I have no intention of killing either of you, be aware that I’m not about to go easy on you. Slaughter is pointless, but don’t blame me if you happen to fall. I can’t be held responsible for the collateral.” She reached for the hollow, square short sword in the sheath slung across the small of her back, and pulled the knife a few centimeters from its sheath. Yuzume did not yet draw it, however, as she waited for the other team to make their move. "Why was I paired with an unstable female? Why were we put up against such powerful Shinobi? To top it all off, this battlefield consists of nothing but a damned wooden floor. Using Amaterasu is suicide, and it will bring everyone else down with me. I'm at best bound to my Water Release." He'd eye his opponent, Raiden Narukami, while remaining calm. He takes a deep breath and continues developing a strategy while Shenron had explained to Raiden Ameshizu's abilities. "Yuzume, I'd be careful if I were you." He decided to go along with her selection of opponents. "Look at you Shenny-kun, actually putting faith in someone else to win the battle. This is progress for someone like you." the beautiful Maiden Spirit smirked, then sat on the armrest on the Shogun's newly built chair. The Shogun would grin in response. Yuzume dropped to the ground, landing in a crouch as she took in the entire sweep of the battlefield in an instant. She had been thrown entirely off-guard by Ameshizu’s partial use of Susanoo, and it took her a second or so to gather her wits. Normally she would have proceeded in a mission to eliminate an opponent no matter how strange her situation may have become, but she had a mask to wear, after all, and had promised to kill only her target. Within a fraction of a second she flung dozens of thin, steel wires that were attacked to small knives. With obvious expertise she swung the wires so that they wrapped around the kunai that Raiden had thrown, and with one pull had removed them from the wooden platform. Clattering through the air she redirected the entire net of captured kunai as she threw it back towards their adversary. It had been an entirely precautionary measure: Raiden had apparently used some form of space-time technique, and she knew the best way to combat him using it would be to remove the markers needed for the transference. At the same time her attention was diverted to Shenron: he sat upon a throne he had formed himself and seemed entirely at-ease watching the battle at hand. Is he allowing his partner to fight alone? She questioned inwardly. Now was not the time to be distracted, however. Gathering her chakra, she quickly formed the seal for “boar,” followed by “bird,” “rabbit,” and finally “dog.” While water might have been weak against a Lightning Release user, she was banking on the fact that the two natures might serve to amplify each other, thus strengthening the attack. A fistful of water spiraled in her hand, and she speeded the time needed to prepare the technique by exciting it with her chakra. Then, with her eyes shaded by her furrowed brow, she swung her open palm in Raiden’s direction, unleashing a torrent of water that tore through the air and threatened to obliterate all that stood in its path. Its force was great enough to pulverize stone, and if allowed to make contact with its intended target, would no doubt push him from the platform and off into empty space. She had not, however, considered the effect it would have on a body that was completely charged with electricity. The results could be deadly. "Kamui!" Ameshizu's version of Kamui is unique to him. Kakashi can suck foreign objects into an alternate dimension. Obito can transport parts of his body into the dimension while simultaneously remaining in tact with reality. Ameshizu, on the other hand, can transport whatever he sets his sights on through space, and can unleash it out onto the battle field through an exit node within a split second. He wittingly focused on the main beam headed towards Yuzume, and right before it even managed to touch her, a cross-dimensional portal opened right before her - taking in the lightning bolt - and at the same time, unleashing it through its exit point: the portal conjured directly behind Raiden. Meanwhile, the streams of lightning headed towards Ameshizu hit his now completely covered Susano'o - keeping him safe from their impact. It was clear that his task in battle was defense; Yuzume's determination has convinced Ameshizu that she is more than fit for the job of offense... At least for the time being. Yuzume gasped in surprise as the lightning simply disappeared in front of her. She had been preparing herself for the attack, but now that it was suddenly gone, found herself with a clear path to Raiden. She thought quickly, but did not immediately rush forward. The net of steel wire and kunai that Raiden had ignored from earlier became caught over his shoulders as he moved up into the sky, and with the sudden discharge of electricity had no doubt caused the metal lying across his skin to bite down painfully with a sharp shock. From the corner of her eye she saw the streams of lightning that had not been absorbed by Ameshizu’s kamui strike the wooden platform, and bright flames crackled into existence. The fire was spreading too quickly for her to prepare a shield, and the wall of heat licked towards her, threatening to consume her. It seemed as though she would be completely swallowed, yet she remained motionless in the face of the attack. Fire flashed across the entire platform, blazing into the sky, and Yuzume had vanished. But of course, shinobi of her caliber were not defeated so easily. At the last second, Yuzume had employed a basic justu to sink into the surface of the platform beneath her, having phased all the way through the wood. Now she found herself on the underside of the floating stage, clinging to it lightly from the chakra reverberating in her hands and feet. She had avoided most of the oil that Raiden had flung out over the field, but her jacket had been caught by the slick liquid. Muttering a curse, she threw it off and allowed it to fall 10,000 feet to the island below. The gerbil clung to her shoulder desperately, obviously terrified from the dizzying height. “Hold still,” she said, as she executed a series of hand seals. A few seconds later, Yuzume could be seen running along the underside of the platform. The gerbil, however, had disappeared. She did not stop when she reached its edge, instead free-falling off into the sky. But at the last second a wire and knife snaked out behind her, anchoring into the edge of the wood. She swung out and her body arced gracefully through the air, using her own momentum to throw her up and over the lip of the platform. The flames had died down somewhat since the initial explosion, and when she landed they seemed to jump away from her. Straightening up, she extended her hands and curled the flames in towards herself, allowing them to circle her without touching her, before redirecting her attention to their opponent floating above them. The surface of the platform was scorched and black, but still intact, and she crouched low to it for a split-second before launching herself up towards Raiden. The force of her take-off drew the flames up from the platform in a slipstream, and as she neared him her hands came down from over her head. She did not use a formal jutsu, instead manipulating the fire by its pure nature alone, turning its own destructive will back upon the one who had originally conjured it. Following her own trajectory, a wide, snapping arc of fire followed her momentum. The flames cut through the air, a blade unto themselves, and at the very last instant of release, ignited into a screeching inferno as they rushed to incinerate the ensnared shinobi before them. From behind, the rushing lightning hit him straight in the back. However, instead of severely electrocuting him and inflicting deadly burns it seemingly just went into him. The truth of the matter was that Raiden had absorbed, well in actual matter Shinzoku had absorbed it. It was converted into chakra within his body replenishing is chakra reserves. Immediately after, Raiden entered his Jinchūriki Version 1 state. Purple chakra shrouded him in cloak, as three tails grew, with, he escaped the wires and braced for impact, holding his arms in an 'X' in front of himself. The flames hit Raiden head on at full force. While Shinzoku's chakra provided some form of defense his three-tailed state wasn't enough, Raiden plummeted to the ground. He laid on the floor, with severe burn marks as smoke rose from his unmoving body. Shenron is the type of god that likes to see his opponent's capabilities before "ending" it. Yet he is not one to just sit back and watch mongrels play. Having him sit back and "watch the show" was only a show of his own. He has been slowly preparing himself for the moment he can "end it", while still being in sync with his partner. The clouds that were created by Raiden would suddenly become pitch black and were filled with thunder and lightning. Not even a moment later the ground would begin to tremble, slowly but surely cracking the wooden ground that held the four shinobi. "In this world, there are goats and there are wolves. In some situations you may be even considered a wolf, but today you play the sheep in our little skit." he said grinning as his masterpiece began. From heavy thunderstorm, to violent winds, to even cold blocks of hails, dozens of Natural Disasters would occur simultaneously, causing the battlefield to break apart. He would smile as he reflected on his unique strategy. Flashback "A blonde Uchiha, possessing what I can tell is the Mangekyou, no the Eternal Mangekyou due to the dual design. Having it just open like that he probably has significantly large reserves, or possesses more offensive Mangekyo ability, kamui amaterasu maybe. Because both are activated I assume he possesses the third ability, Susano'o. Without turning away, Shenron spoke to his ally. "I have no interest in playing with these mongrels, despite all I have said. So either you don't get in my way and I finish quick or I'll sit back and let you kids have your fun." he said not moving an inch from his spot. The man said he'd handle it and he has given Shenny-kun no reason to not believe him, so the Red-Haired Mage would sit out on this one. Pulling out his cigs, Shenron tapped his foot on the ground, creating a comfy king-sized chair for him to sit on. "You got 15 minutes to have your fun. Nothing more." he spoke putting the joint in his mouth and lighting it with his index finger. At the sight of seeing her reach for her sword, Raiden grabbed a scroll and leaped into the sky. When he reached the peak of his jump he opened it and summoned thousands of kunai, scattering them through out the battlefield for his signature technique later on in the battle. These moments in battle were crucial in the completion of Shenron's plans. Shinobi use hand seals to mould their chakra to perform ninjutsu genjutsu and other things. Shinobi train for many years to increase the rate the perform these hand signs, but the true masters have the ability to perform the technique with only one or two handsigns. This decreases the amount time to set up the technique as well as the time for the opponent to react. Yet, Shenron finds hand signs completely useless, believing they cannot keep up with his mind. Thanks to the teaching of his sensei Magai, Shenron is able to mold his chakra through an art known as Kotodama. With it Shenron mould his chakra through words, or enchantments, allowing him to perform the techniques. Thanks to his increased neural pulses, Shenron can speak up to 15 words per second, making it almost impossible for an opponent to detect because it just looks like he is mumbling and masks it through conversation. Using the art of kotodama (amongst other things), Shenron was slowly able to control the battlefield. He would first use the words, dual, I, large reserves, and the hidden word, mask to create two clones of himself that were hidden by chakra and appeared under the platform. Next he would use the word mongrel, to place a seal on his partner so they can be in permanent communication. When he tapped his foot on the he would signal clones to begin their push under the platform to locate the nearest wall. Due to the issue of having no wall or pre existing barrier, Shenron asked Raiden to throw thousands of kunai around the battlefield. Using some of Raiden's kunai, Shenron used the placed seals on four seals on the four kunai closest to the edges of battlefield. Before dispersing the clones he saw how his opponent using his mangekyou Sharingan technique, so he placed another seal on the kunai. Flashback Ends Utter chaos. That is what Yuzume observed from her precarious position beneath the platform. Her clone version, formed from the wood of the stage above her itself, had successfully managed to attack Raiden. Ameshizu seemed to be holding his own as well, although the battle field was already littered with the detritus of conflict. Through the clone’s eyes she also noticed that Shenron— of whom she had always been suspicious, seemed to be enjoying himself a little too much. As if to confirm her suspicions, four clones of the red-haired man appeared beneath the surface of the platform. Miraculously she was in a position where none of them had spotted her, but before she could pause to question their purpose they had once more vanished at four separate corners of the platform. Yuzume frowned. Her cautious nature dictated that she remain in hiding, but for some reason she felt compelled to follow one of the clones. She also knew she would have to move as quickly as possible before the "Yuzume" fighting up above was revealed to be a clone. With a flash she had appeared at one of the corners, and clinging to the edge of the platform like a spider, she peered warily over to see what it was the clone had been working to accomplish. What she saw was one of the kunai she had failed to remove, only this one had a distinct seal attached to its blade. Her eyes widened as she quickly recognized the symbol as being a barrier. The information Yuzume had been given regarding Shenron had not been in vain, afterall, and while she did not know the exact capabilities of the seal, she knew she should move as far away from it as possible, as quickly as possible. As the real Yuzume now swung out from the platform and into empty air on a thin wire, she could not help but wonder why Shenron had not yet activated the seal. But just as she had landed on a small, floating island of earth that she had formed beneath her feet to support her, she discovered his reason: A massive explosion began from a point in the center of the platform behind her, quickly spreading outwards and threatening to obliterate everything in its path. Quickly forming the hand seal for “Snake,” Yuzume allowed her wood clone to dissipate and spread apart in a thin film of wood, connecting the material of the platform below to that point in the sky from a distance. A sphere of wood emerged even as the stage was torn apart by the force of the blast, rapidly growing to encompass the entirety of the explosion in an instant. Seconds passed, and for a moment the only sound was the deep reverberation in the air from where the explosion had been neutralized. Yuzume panted with exertion as she focused on keeping the sphere of wood suspended in the air. She had no idea whether or not her partner had survived, despite her best attempts to halt the destruction, as he was nowhere to be seen. “Damn it,” she muttered as sweat dripped down the side of her forehead. The gerbil on her shoulder seemed concerned, his whiskers twitched nervously as they waited for the reaction of the opposing team. Alone and drifting dangerously in the middle of the sky, Yuzume knew she was cornered.
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