Asuma had his trench knives out and his eyes peeled for anything. He had managed to easily dispose of Zabuza's mist, but the man was still renowned for his stealth skills. It wouldn't have been a stretch at all for someone like Zabuza to be able to get the drop on him in a wooded area like the forest they were fighting in. It wasn't even a clearing, they were fighting among the trees, 'Okay. As long as he can't get the drop on me then I have the advantage. He can't create his mist and we aren't near any water for him to use any of the Suiton ninjutsu Kakashi told me about.'
Zabuza already knew where Asuma was, he was clearly just waiting for an opening to strike. Running around the area to look for him would do no good so the only thing he could do was try to pinpoint his location from where he was standing, otherwise he'd just be giving Zabuza a license to stalk him down and kill him, mist or not.
"So why didn't you heed Naruto's warning?" Asuma said, actually sounding rather cross at how this whole thing actually worked out, "Gato's still not going to pay you even if you finish Tazuna off."
Zabuza's laughter echoed evenly all around him, causing the laid-back jounin to let out a curse at not being able to use voice to find him, "I'm not going to believe the words of some bleeding heart brat just because you found my base and tried having a heartfelt conversation." He said, "And when I kill you and Kakashi and then the bridge-builder I should still have more than enough energy to deal with things even if Gato's as foolish as you said."
Asuma let out a chuckle, "I know I don't have any cool nicknames like Kakashi has to help people recognize me, but I didn't win my ranking in a raffle or something you know." After saying that he jumped aggressively to the side to avoid a slash that took down an entire tree with one swing. Asuma turned to face the tree that had just been felled and could have represented his headless body had he not been faster, 'And I'm going to have to prove it for the first time in a while…'
Zabuza's voice rang out again, "I'm sure you didn't. But Konoha ninja like you just aren't made of stuff that tough… the same thing I told Kakashi. When I was the age of your brats I had already taken more than my fair share of lives. "
"Good for you." Asuma said dryly, not seeing what that had to do with him at the moment, "Do you want me to tell you how cool you are or how scared I am? Oh I know, you probably want a cigarette right? Sorry, I don't share with people that try to kill me."
"Funny man." Zabuza growled out, "Well I'll clear-cut this entire forest if I have to before I slice right through you. You'll be dead before the sun is fully up."
Asuma sighed and held up his trench knives in a defensive taijutsu stance, "I'd love for you to stop talking about it and go ahead and try it if you're actually going to do it."
"With pleasure." Zabuza said before a shadow dropped to the ground from behind and rushed at Asuma. A diagonal slash from a massive sword nearly sliced through Asuma as it cut into the ground, but Asuma was able to get himself to the side of the move and cut into the figure's hip with one of his trench knives. As he heard the splash of water hitting the ground it was too much for it to be blood from a wound and he kept himself ready and composed for the next attack.
The next attack was Zabuza's sword flying through the woods swiftly, aimed right at Asuma. Seeing this almost made Asuma's jaw drop were it not for the fact that if he had stopped to gawk at it, it would have been the last thing he would have ever seen. Jumping into the air to avoid the blade, Asuma missed Zabuza darting from the dark points of the forest that had still not been touched by the low light of the sun.
Before he could touch the ground and regain footing, Asuma was knocked aside harshly from a kick by Zabuza that shot his body into a tree with a dull crack… hopefully the crack of the tree trunk and not one of his vertebrae, 'Man my taijutsu is getting sloppy. I either need to take a more hands-on approach in helping Naruto develop his or I need to find Gai when we get back, that was pathetic.'
Growling to himself at getting his solidly so easily, Asuma stood back up and noticed that Zabuza hadn't taken to hiding again as he had been before, choosing to instead retrieve his sword from the tree he had imbedded it in. Asuma pulled out a kunai and threw it directly at Zabuza without any set up or indication of his actions.
Zabuza merely rolled his eyes when the kunai was launched as he simply stepped aside, "Do you really think that a simple kunai is going to-?" He was silenced when the kunai punched straight through the tree his sword was caught in. He looked and saw that it had been where his head had previously been level with. Turning back to Asuma he saw that the Konoha jounin had vanished from his sight, and while he didn't think Asuma on his level in that department he was aware that a Konoha jounin hidden among the trees was a damnably dangerous thing. They all damn near grew up in the fucking forest.
He preferred being in the open and using his mist to mask his approach. With something like a forest this thick and with the trees so close together, any ninja worth their salt could find a way to turn the tables in this environment, and much like himself, from what had just been shown Asuma would only need one shot at him to end the fight as well, 'When he comes out I'm going to lop his head off and move on. But that kunai he used… is he a wind user? He must be for the kunai to go through the tree that easily. Throwing Kubikiribouchou couldn't even get all the way through the way that little kunai did.'
Zabuza was beginning to realize he might have made a miscalculation. If this dragged into a battle of attrition then he might not even have enough left in the tank to keep going and take Kakashi on after he won. A jounin, no matter the village, even if he believed it was soft or not, was not to be taken lightly. However having a genin like Naruto who seemed to be so pacifistic on his squad he believed that the jounin was much the same way, "You're not that bad for a Konoha ninja."
"Heh…" Asuma said from where he himself was hidden, using his wind mastery to distort the air around him and space out the sound of his voice, "Well I'm kind of the son of the Hokage. If I didn't kick ass I would never hear the end of it."
Not being able to locate Asuma from the sound of his voice, Zabuza had to refrain from chuckling to himself, 'Apparently I'm not the only person that likes taunting people from the shadows.' He thought to himself as he finally yanked Kubikiriboucho from the tree.
Just as the blade was freed, Asuma dropped from the branches above and immediately broke into a taijutsu attack with his pair of trench knives. Zabuza was able to use his massive cleaver to keep Asuma from striking him and cutting into him before he retaliated with a hard swing of his own. Asuma held his knives and defended the attack, but Zabuza's raw power broke through his guard and threw him back and away.
Stopping himself by backing against a tree, Asuma lifted his arms over his head to block a downward swing from Zabuza's sword, coming so close to being cut by the blade that it actually smacked against the metal of his headband, lightly enough to be safe, but hard enough to make an audible ping noise.
Asuma grunted in effort of blocking the mammoth weapon. Shoving it over to the side and ducking out of its way as it finished its descent to the ground, Asuma rolled back to his feet and leapt at Zabuza from the side to make an attempt on him.
"Not fast enough." The former Kiri ANBU said as he stepped out of the way and let Asuma pass by him, only for a rather deep slash to form on his chest. Zabuza watched his own blood fly through the air and seemingly saw some of it stick to an invisible surface in mid-air for a moment, 'What the hell just happened?' He thought to himself. He wasn't hurt enough to quit, not by a long shot, but not knowing what happened could only be a disadvantage.
Asuma slid to a stop from his rushing attack and looked back at Zabuza and the wound he had made on the imposing ninja, 'Nice. Okay, let's get this started for real. Hopefully the kids are doing okay against their opponent. It's three-on-one, it should be fine.'
XxX
(Team 10 vs. Haku)
'This is so not cool!' Naruto thought to himself as he took another set of senbon to various places on his body, 'Which one is real damn it?' He thought to himself, picking the needles out of his body as he stared at the dome of mirrors surrounding him. Haku's reflection, staring at Naruto impassively with the mask on her face, gave him no indication of where the next attack would be coming from.
"Please surrender Naruto-kun." Haku said, almost in a pleading fashion, "I do not wish to kill someone with a good heart like you."
"I'm not going to quit Haku." Naruto said, gritting his teeth at the mere thought of giving up when his team and tons of people were counting on him, "I think I've had enough of your funhouse mirrors from hell. I think I'll leave now." He said before letting the chakra under his feet fade, allowing him to fall under the surface of the water. As he tried to swim his way under the dome of mirrors he learned that it wasn't a dome, it was an entire sphere of ice mirrors… and the ones underwater all had Haku's reflection brandishing senbon, ready for attack, 'Son of a bitch! Give me a break already!'
Trying to swim back to the surface was his only option as he was far slower underwater than he was above it. Creating some clones to form a defensive shell to surround him he quickly made his way back up just as they were all punctured by Haku's metal needles and dispelled.
Placing his feet back on the surface of the water, he began making movement, any kind of lateral movement. If he kept staying still he would only be making himself an easier target for Haku, which she didn't really need him to do for her. It seemed that for as much as he had worked on his physical conditioning after seeing and being rag-dolled by Rock Lee once, he was still nowhere as fast as he wanted to be, 'And Haku seems faster than Lee did…'
In his mind at the moment, the only solace he could take over the present situation was that he was the only member of his team currently stuck inside of the dome and getting systematically picked apart by the ice wielding ninja.
Naruto was far from slow, he was the fastest one on the team, not counting Asuma of course, he was leaps and bounds ahead of Ino and Shikamaru in that department. But he wasn't fighting Ino or Shikamaru, he was fighting Haku, and as long as he was stuck inside of this deathtrap he was just doing nothing but dragging the fight out for as long as he could. Neither of his teammates could beat Haku, of this he was certain. Confident in them he was, not for this. How would Shikamaru trap her if he couldn't even determine where she was? She was too fast for Shintenshin no Jutsu to hit her, how would Ino even begin to go about fighting her? If he couldn't win or if Asuma didn't show up then they were screwed.
"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" If he couldn't touch Haku then everything he had learned about taijutsu to this point was useless, thus he needed to switch tactics a bit. "Chakura Hankyouteii no Jutsu (Chakra Echolocation Jutsu)!" From within a thick shell of Kage Bunshin that attempted to keep him covered as best they could, Naruto tried to pinpoint the exact location of Haku. Which mirror was she actually hiding in?
After several attempts of trying to get a lock on her he found himself unable to exactly do so. Every time he did it again it would always say a different spot then it had previously. As the last few clones were defeated by Haku's speedy attack from out of his effective range he came to a conclusion, 'She's moving between the mirrors. The reflections are an illusion, she only is really in one at a time, but she moves too fast for me to see.
Creating more clones, Naruto watched as Haku seemed to stop playing around and obliterated them before he could even begin any kind of effort at freeing himself. She seemed to be his exact opposite style-wise. Naruto's entire fighting style was to close distance and batter his opponents into submission or incapacitation, either by himself or by the use of his clones. From what he had seen of Haku she wasn't very good up close for someone trained by a guy carrying a big-ass sword like Zabuza. She chose to remain out of his range of effectiveness and pick him apart from afar. The senbon were beginning to wear on him.
XxX
Shikamaru had his fists clinched tightly as he watched Naruto desperately try to escape from whatever Haku had formed to separate them from him. They had attempted to throw a kunai with an explosive note attached, however it was knocked from the air by a group of Haku's senbon and diffused in the water. Part of him just wanted to say to hell with it and charge out like a samurai or something, but he knew that would make him more of a liability than a help in this case… and then there was the key fact that he couldn't walk on water.
Every plan he could think of would have Ino heading out there instead of him, and that would be worse than if he had been able to attack directly, 'So our strongest direct fighter is already out there in a fight and trapped against someone that's his exact antithesis. He wouldn't even need our help if we could just get him out of there.'
Ino on the other hand, could walk on water, and she was having to physically grab onto the bushes they were hiding behind to keep from heading out there, because she knew once she got there, she would be of absolutely no help whatsoever. There was only one thing she could think of that would get him out and she was the only one that could do it.
"Shikamaru." She finally said to him, gulping down some fear, "There's only one thing I can think of to help Naruto, and you already know what that is."
"No." He said firmly, "We don't need to do that. There's another way, there has to be." Naruto's Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was the most battle ready technique they had at the moment. If this were a board game of some sort he would be the piece meant for attack and maneuvering around defenses. Without Naruto any strategy Shikamaru could create wouldn't have as much weight as it otherwise would have. They all knew who the workhorse of the squad was, and their team dynamic was centered around that fact.
Ino wasn't stupid either. She had seen the fight up to this point, and she had also known just as well as Shikamaru did that Naruto in open space was perhaps one of the most dangerous genin period, rookie or not. Without him they were as good as a one legged man in an asskicking contest. Actually, more akin to a no legged man in an asskicking contest since Naruto was their most mobile member.
"Shikamaru…" Ino growled out dangerously at the usually lazy ninja, "You know those strategies that we've spent so much time learning and drilling? Well this is one of those situations. This is actually the best situation for one of them and you'd better know which one it is. You were the one that came up with them all."
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at the scene and analyzed it as best he could while watching another hoard of Naruto clones split up in an attempt to fool Haku and allow Naruto to escape. As he saw Naruto's clones and thought back to the team training they had done in the past and then realized how Naruto was surrounded his eyes popped wide open, "Do you think he'll know what it is once you start it?"
Ino scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Well he'd better know. If he doesn't then I'm screwed… but at least he'll be out no matter what. That's what's important about this. If he's outside then we can win this no matter what happens to me in the end."
Turning back to Naruto's bid to stay in the fight against Haku somehow, Shikamaru narrowed his eyes, "Well go then. And be careful." Ino grinned as she formed three hand-seals and prepared to enter the battle.
XxX
Naruto had taken to making formations of clones to get through, but no kind of set up he tried would throw Haku off enough to allow him to escape, 'I should have figured that a phalanx only really works when you at least have shields though… man I'm stupid. But the four diamond formations of five clones should have confused her enough for me to get out.'
As fun as it was for him to be looking like a human porcupine and feeling like he rolled around on the ground with an actual one, he needed to get the hell out of there. He had been getting his ass kicked for long enough in his opinion, since letting go of his hold on his chakra and dropping underneath the surface of the water for a short nap started seeming like a more appealing idea than standing up with metal needles protruding all over his body and moving around.
"Naruto-kun I'll only ask you this one more time. Please give up or I will finish you this time." Haku said to him, brandishing even more senbon from her person. What the hell, did she had entire bandoleers of the things strapped to her body underneath the kimono?
"There's a word that I'm looking for." Naruto said to her before creating ten more clones and trying doggedly to get out one more time, "No!"
"I'm sorry then." Haku said before blasting the charging mass of clones with her weaponry. One of the clones thought fast and shoved Naruto out of the way of an attack, keeping the original from taking damage on this particular counter-attack by Haku.
Naruto growled to himself as he looked around at all of the mirrors, "If you were sorry we wouldn't be fighting! I wanted to help you Haku, because I thought we were friends! We could have just attacked you and not warned you at all and this is what we get for trying to tip you off?"
"It is Zabuza-sama's will." Haku said sadly.
"Fine…" Naruto said with a low growl in his voice, "I guess I don't have anything left to say. You're going to try to kill us, and there's nothing I can do about that but put you down before you actually pull it off." He said that, but he couldn't think of a damn way out, he hadn't even touched the damn mirrors yet to see how durable they were! And then there were the damn huge gaps that he could have easily darted out of if he could have gotten to them, but no matter what he tried he wound up getting hit by acupuncture hell and thrown back.
"Goodbye Naruto-kun." Haku said, holding the senbon up, prepared to throw them. Suddenly she went on her guard as a puff of smoke surrounded Naruto's body. As it cleared it simply revealed… Naruto. But this Naruto didn't have any needles in him or any wounds on his body at all, "What just ha-?"
Before her statement could finish, the grinning, unscathed Naruto in the dome was surrounded by another puff of smoke, and as it cleared revealed a battle weary looking Naruto, the one that had been there at first. That Naruto turned to run away and escape, but he didn't get far before Haku put him down with her senbon, and behind her mask her jaw dropped as it burst into smoke, leaving her alone in the dome.
She looked at the lake area surrounding her dome of mirrors and saw nothing. Naruto was nowhere in the area that she could see, "What just happened? Where did he go?"
XxX
Shikamaru smirked as a ruffle of sounds next to him signified someone's presence, "Well I have to say, I didn't think one of our plans would work in this situation. Ikkaku Sankakkei Buratsuku ou Hokai (Collapsing Point Triangle Swing) complete."
Next to him, Naruto, holding Ino bridal style before crouching and setting her down low like both him and Shikamaru, was grinning like mad despite his injuries, "Ino when you used Kawarimi to switch with me that scared the hell out of me. I didn't remember making any clones that got away from Haku that would have been able to do that."
Ino's smile was so bright it could have lit up a dark room, "Well watching you get people all the time with Henge made me realize that it's not a bad plan. I'm just glad you realized what was happening before she threw those needles at me. You sure hightailed it out of there with me once we were clear. Do you like holding me that much Naruto?" She joked before actually paying attention to his appearance. Now that they were free and clear for the moment, she was able to see all of the wounds that Haku had inflicted on him, "Kami Naruto… are you going to be alright?"
"I'll be fine." He assured her tensely as he began pulling the needles out of his body, "I feel more drowsy than anything…" Naruto said, blinking back some fatigue, "I'm never tired though, but all I want to do for some reason is shut my eyes."
Shikamaru helped Naruto pull needles from places he couldn't see or reach, "Team 7 said that the hunter-ninja that got Zabuza away from them hit a pressure point on him that put him out cold. Maybe that's what was happening to you."
'Shit, I hope not.' Naruto thought to himself as the last of over a dozen and a half needles fell from his flesh to the ground. He couldn't afford to start feeling sluggish because some pressure points took some good hits, his team needed him, they were about to come up with a counter-attack and whatever the plan was, he was probably going to be vital to whatever it was.
XxX
(Asuma vs. Zabuza)
The fight between Zabuza and Asuma was becoming a rather brutal close-up affair. After it became clear that neither of them much felt like jumping around the other, beating around the bush, they simply began trying to cut the other one down with their respective weaponry.
However Zabuza was having a smidge of trouble with Asuma for some reason. Zabuza held his blade up as a slash brushed the width of the sword. The thing about it was, Asuma's trench knife blades weren't even touching his sword. Trying to use his reach advantage for some reason just wouldn't pan out for him… maybe because when he thought he was several feet out of Asuma's range the man would still wind up hitting his sword.
There was also the fact that Asuma was actually faster than he was. More than once Asuma had caught him flat-footed and had almost taken out his head while barely needing to get in range to take shots at him, 'Whatever he's doing is expanding the reach of his weapons. I can't see it so I can't accurately judge the range that he's attacking at.' That style was dangerous for someone who relied mostly on close range fighting the way that Zabuza did to face off against.
Asuma's taijutsu was purely intended for him to come close to making contact with his trench knives. His style was very hand oriented. Something of a hard boxing style that even when he missed would allow him to cut his enemy if they were close enough, and most of the time they were. Zabuza seemed to have gotten the message early on and tried blocking Asuma's trench knives themselves instead of trying to dodge, 'So he's already worked out how Hien (Flying Swallow) goes has he? Points to him I guess.'
Zabuza let out an angry grunt of exertion as another swing of his sword saw Asuma dance back out of his range., 'I can't keep wasting time with this guy, there's still Kakashi to deal with!' "Hasn't Haku gotten to finishing off those brats yet?"
"She probably won't ever." Asuma said with a smirk on his face as he stayed ready in his boxing stance, "My 'brats' as you like to call them are damn effective. They have all kinds of premeditated plans for dealing with people stronger than them. They train against me after all." He neglected to mention that they had never really gotten him before but that was because of his raw experience that helped him out when they made mistakes, "Three-on-one they've got all possible bases covered."
"Yeah I'm so sure." Zabuza said sarcastically, "That blonde brat that walked you right to my front door and thought he could leave… I'm certain he's a real killer."
"And there you go again." Asuma said in a rather disgruntled manner, "The only thing you believe that makes a good ninja is how well they can kill. That's why your dream of overthrowing the Mizukage will never gain any traction." He could sense that he now had Zabuza's ire, "Who was going to lead afterwards, you? You don't know the first thing about being a leader. Your closest confidant is someone you see as a tool, expendable, and you're too aggressive for your own damn good. You couldn't even wait to hear what Naruto had to say towards Gato, didn't even listen for a moment."
Zabuza rolled his eyes at having past events from Asuma. He was there he knew what he had done, and he still couldn't care less about it. He had planned on killing Gato once they had gotten paid, the little runt seriously needed to watch who he was talking to like he owned them in the future… if he actually lived past today. All Naruto's admittance told him was that he was right on the money and needed a plan once the job was complete. But Asuma continued, "That kid has more leadership qualities than you do despite the tactical error he made getting us out here, and I don't really see it as being that bad. We can win, because I don't have any problems at all with killing you myself."
"You're a really big talker." Zabuza said in amusement, "You do know who I am right? Even Kakashi was wary of me when he fought me."
"Yeah, yeah…" Asuma said, "That's because his genin were there and he had to watch them and Tazuna at the same time. I don't have to. I can just focus on kicking your ass and to hell with the collateral damage. I don't have to hold back like he did. Plus you can't use your mist on me, I'll just blow it away."
'There's no body of water for me to use.' Zabuza thought to himself, 'Damn that brat for discovering me before they could get closer to water.' Setting his sword for another attempt on Asuma's life he prepared to come at the man again.
Asuma narrowed his eyes in preparation for the charge and made a set of hand-seals, "Katon: Haisekishou (Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning)!" From Asuma's mouth, a thick black powder spewed forth and covered a wide-scale area all over the immediate area of battle.
Zabuza immediately shut his eyes, and the wraps around his nose and mouth were able to filter out most of the bad air generated by Asuma's technique, 'Does he really think this is a disadvantage? He might as well have set my mist back up for all the good this will do him! If he can't see me that's all the better.' He thought as he began moving through the ash to find an angle to attack Asuma from.
"Time to smoke you out." Asuma said before clicking a piece of flint in his mouth with his teeth, creating a spark that ignited the ash and caused a massive explosion.
XxX
(Team 10 vs. Haku)
Haku stayed within the confines of her ice mirrors on the lake as she eventually located Team 10's hiding place not far from shore. She would have attacked them but it was three of them against one of her, she would have to leave the mirrors, she didn't think she could trap them all especially after they had already seen the move, and attacking them would mean having to again engage Naruto on his terms and she had learned a rather painful lesson the last few time he had hit her telling her that a fight where he had the opportunity to close the distance wasn't to her advantage.
For both sides at the moment they were at a stalemate. Haku wasn't about to leave the mirrors, but the longer she stayed in them the more chakra she wasted, on the other hand Team 10 didn't have to move at all. Haku was their responsibility to handle and they could just keep her there if they had to, however depending on who won the battle between Asuma and Zabuza raging on meantime it could either be a good move, or the strategy that would seal their fate.
That was the plan for both sides at the moment. Hold out for the time being until the other two finished their battle and arrived to help them finish. It was the plan until the sound of an explosion came from within the forest, easily getting the full attention of Team 10 and especially Haku, who knew that Zabuza didn't use attacks that had fiery explosions involved, 'Zabuza-sama!'
Haku rushed from her mirrors and let them fall into the water as she took off across the surface of the lake to head towards Zabuza and ensure that he was safe.
She started moving faster as she saw a shadow move from the brush towards her across the surface in an effort to cut her off at the pass. Haku diverted her direction to dodge the shadow moving at her. She had no clue what it did, but she wasn't curious enough to let it catch her so that she could find out.
Moving to avoid the shadow as she made it to land, she almost wasn't able to avoid the attack from a contingent of Kage Bunshin that had been lying in wait. Once Haku started to move back through the trees she found herself utterly bogged down from going any further by a coordinated assault from Naruto's Kage Bunshin, 'How can he still keep going? He can still make so many and have them fight so well.' Ignoring that train of thought as she had to get to Zabuza if that fireball that had erupted from over five miles away was any indication of how his fight was going, "Get out of my way! I need to get to Zabuza-sama!"
"You aren't going anywhere!" The clones shouted as six of them moved in while five more stayed back and attempted to pelt her from above with weaponry.
Naruto, and by proxy his clones, weren't Tenten, thus all that the kunai and shuriken from above did in the end was force Haku off of her intended path. It didn't even slow her down or stop her, as a pair of Naruto's infantry clones were put out of commission swiftly by two well placed senbon from Haku.
After dealing with five more clones that attempted to cut her off and stop her it was quite clear that she wasn't going to be facing off with the original as long as she was rushing to reach Zabuza. Naruto would simply stay in the shadows and keep swarming her with clones, and her speculation was proven correct as she systematically found herself forced to take detour after detour lest she find herself surrounded or cornered by the dogged pursuit of the never-ending clones.
Trapping Naruto truly had been her best option, even staying on the lake to fight him would have been better than what was currently taking place. In the forest it was his world, and for the time being the denizens of the woods were him and his Kage Bunshin and they reigned supreme.
As the sun was now high enough in the sky to stamp out all traces of night and leave no doubt that a new day had risen, Haku was moving as if she were a trapped animal that had not resigned itself to capture yet. Anything that moved in her field of awareness was completely out of luck, as she lashed out quickly and violently with her seemingly endless supply of senbon, not sparing a second or in some cases single glance at her target, only letting the popping sound of dispelling clones tell her that she hit her mark.
She couldn't lose them, for every clone she killed off, several more would emerge. He had two ways of tracking her. One was to use his sonar jutsu to hone in on her general direction and then send Kage Bunshin that way to check for her, the second way was when Haku killed a clone he would be able to tell where she was. However if she just let them live they would still find her anyway. She had long since passed the point of panicking.
Turning around she found more clones on her tail, however when she turned forward to work out a path to take to lose them or prepare to dispose of them she saw that damned shadow moving along the ground towards her again, and this time she couldn't run away, she was moving right towards it, and stopping on a dime would have brought her efforts to reach Zabuza to an end.
The only option she had left was an attack in the general direction of the shadow. She couldn't see the source of it, but she could estimate as her eyes worked double-time and found what she figured to be a good 45 degree estimation of the origin of the shadow. Figuring that no matter what she was going to be hit by the technique, whatever it did, Haku decided to at the very least go down swinging, or throwing in this case, as she let loose two fistfuls of her rather deadly senbon in front of her and behind her to rid herself of Naruto's clones.
Her gamble paid off as not only did she destroy the clones, the shadow retreated away from her and in the direction she threw, a rustle of bushes determined that someone had dodged and had been forced to let go of whatever jutsu was being used. Narrowing her eyes at the sight, she honed in on a tuft of black hair sticking out from the cover of the plant life. Quickly letting loose a barrage of needles the figure stood up, just as the needles hit him, "Ugh, troublesome." Shikamaru grunted out as he staggered back from the hits he had taken, "That almost worked…"
Sick of having gotten the run around from this team of rookie genin for so long and having had them keep her from getting to Zabuza to assist him, Haku didn't hesitate as she let fly with another set of senbon that hit Shikamaru dead on and got him to let out a gasp before falling back against a tree and slumping to the ground.
Haku moved in to ensure that he was out of commission, but a feminine shout of, "Shikamaru!" alerted her to the blonde female member of the squad heading out from her own hiding place nearby as she tried to cut off the ice wielding missing-ninja from doing further damage to her teammate.
Ino tried her best to engage Haku in close as she saw herself as the only defense Shikamaru had until Naruto was able to catch up to her himself and fight. His clones had served their purpose for what they had been intended for, but that plan had fallen to hell once Shikamaru was hurt.
Unfortunately for Ino, after dealing with Naruto and his clones which had a far greater capacity in close than her and with the fear, adrenaline and anger moving through her system by Zabuza's unknown fate and the fact that she was being held back from helping him by these kids detaining her, Haku was quick and merciless to the young girl. While Haku would be the first to admit that her taijutsu was absolutely abysmal she had her senbon in hand, and Ino wasn't as good at defending attacks as Naruto was from someone faster than herself.
Ino let out a desperate gasp as Haku seemed to float around the punch she threw to make her way to the girl's back. Ino desperately tried to turn to defend herself, but there was nothing she could do, 'She's so much faster than Naru-!' She was never able to finish her thought as a needle found its way to the side of her neck, forcing her eyes to roll into the back of her head and dropping the girl to the ground.
With the two genin around her overcome, Haku didn't feel like sticking around to try and deal with Naruto once he was able to arrive with his seemingly infinite backup. Sparing one glance back at the unmoving genin duo, she kept moving towards where she saw the explosion from earlier.
XxX
Haku's barrage on him inside of the dome of mirrors had taken a toll on Naruto. Once the needles were removed from his body he realized that he had been hit in areas by Haku that would intentionally slow him down. A few more and he wouldn't have been able to even stand up, let alone continue to fight. Ino had gotten him out at the right time. His mobility shot, Naruto made up for his new lack of speed by making 3 Kage Bunshin, his chakra dispersed evenly between them, and forced them to provide the raw chakra for his clones that he would use to corral Haku towards Shikamaru's shadow.
After bouncing her around for a bit and allowing Shikamaru and Ino to get into their positions his clones did their jobs perfectly. They were slower, but the sheer amount of them that he was able to create made up for his own physical deficiencies. He also discovered that if he used Chakura Hankyouteii no Jutsu his clones could get the same sight of the area that he could, this was by the main Naruto who lagged behind to triangulate Haku's position and guide his clones.
He had been impressed and unnerved when he realized the rate that Naruto was cutting a swatch through his clones, especially when she started taking out his platoon commander clones, eventually keeping his company of Kage Bunshin from being able to reform.
When she finished off his original three clones, keeping him from continuously flooding the area near Haku with clones his blood ran cold, especially when a quick check of his sonar jutsu let him know that Haku was right by Shikamaru and Ino. His legs had never burned so intensely in his entire life as his muscles seemingly demanded him to stop and rest, but he continued on. Another check revealed that Haku was no longer there, but two bodies were, and they weren't moving.
As he burst into the area, Naruto first laid eyes on Ino, on the ground face down and not moving, "Ino!" He ran over to her and turned her over to find that she gave him no reaction whatsoever, "Ino come on, wake up!" Reaching to test her pulse he pulled his hand back like he had been burned when he didn't find one, "No! Come on, you're tougher than that, just wake up!"
A cough to his side forced him to turn his head to find Shikamaru sitting against a tree, his body full of needles as opposed to the single one in Ino's neck. Carefully picking his blonde teammate up, Naruto carried her over to Shikamaru and set her down by him so that he could check him over, "Shikamaru I'm sorry! I just wasn't fast enough to keep up, you guys can't die on me here, this was our first real mission!"
"Second real mission idiot." Shikamaru said quietly with a smirk on his face, "We finished that first one so I guess we weren't completely worthless right? And as long as that bridge-builder guy is safe and finishes the bridge we finished this one too."
Naruto shook his head desperately as he felt tears stinging his eyes, "No we didn't damn it… this mission isn't successful if we all don't make it back to Konoha. Come on you lazy bastard, show some fight for once! Don't you fucking give up!"
Shikamaru's eyes started closing, "Crying Naruto? Man that's so uncool… but then again you weren't ever really one of the cool guys, just like me and Chouji… that's what I like about you." He finished as his lids closed completely. After saying that, Shikamaru's body went limp against the tree and didn't move again, just like Ino.
Naruto looked back at the young Yamanaka girl and couldn't keep his eyes on her as he looked down at the ground. With one hand he closed her eyes before punching the ground repeatedly, hard enough to break his hand. With his good hand, Naruto gathered the chakra to make Chakura Hankyouteii no Jutsu and let out a pulse that allowed him to see Haku moving swiftly towards where he presumed Asuma and Zabuza were.
Clinching his jaw shut tightly as tears were freely falling down his face, he couldn't comprehend how angry he was. It was his fault. He knew he was the one that needed to be near them in case of trouble as he was the only one that was suited to deal with an opponent as dangerous as Haku directly, but his body chose to crap out on him when he needed it to go a bit longer. And now his teammates were dead. All because he wanted to warn someone that he thought was his friend. All because of Zabuza and Haku.
Naruto stood up straight, pulled down his goggles over his eyes to hide his tears, and finally let out an anguished yell of rage and sorrow, "Haku!" He then immediately charged after Haku, dead-set on finding her and keeping her from bringing harm to his sensei the way she had done to his other squad members. This was a situation that he had created, and it was his fault. He was the one that had to handle it the best way that he could.
XxX
(Asuma vs. Zabuza)
Asuma had cleared back from the explosion he had caused, as it had started something of a small forest fire. Asuma was sure he could put it out, but at the moment he needed to confirm his kill. He just really wasn't looking forward to going inside of a fire to find Zabuza's corpse.
There was no way he survived that though. Zabuza had tried to conceal himself inside of the ash from Asuma as a poor man's substitute for his mist, too bad for him that was only part of Asuma's jutsu, "Whew, blew his ass to kingdom come…" He said looking at his handiwork, trying to peer through the flames, "Wish I could see in there though…"
A yell of pure anger erupted from within the flames as Zabuza emerged and swung a deeply cracked Kubikiribouchou at Asuma, who jumped backwards but still got slashed violently across the chest of his flak jacket. The density of the jacket was probably the only thing that kept Zabuza's attack from getting through to his organs and finishing him off right there.
Dropping to one knee momentarily before standing back up, Asuma clutched at his wound and glared at Zabuza, "How did you possibly walk away from that? You were right in the middle of it." He then noticed that much of Zabuza's body was covered in deep, intense burns. Most of his front was horribly wounded. His facial wrappings were burned mostly off of his face, revealing his shark-like teeth as he breathed heavily, trying to keep himself out of shock.
"Kubikiribouchou kept me from kicking the bucket on that last one." Zabuza admitted, pointing at the crack on the blade that seemed to cover the entire sword, that was until it seemed to absorb Asuma's blood that it had been coated with. After taking in all of his blood that it had taken on it reformed to its original perfect appearance, not a crack or nick on it, "Got to love this thing."
Asuma groaned in exasperation as he got back into a shaky taijutsu stance, 'This is ridiculous. I'm seriously losing blood here and that last attack should have blown some limbs off. A sword is that dense that it was able to take most of the blunt concussive force from the explosion?'
"You're good." Zabuza said, slowly lifting his large sword up in a basic kendo stance, "You and Kakashi are the best fights that I've had in a long time."
"You say that like I've already lost." Asuma said, gripping his trench knives tightly. Zabuza had gotten him good with that last attack, but from looking at Zabuza the former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist had also taken some serious damage from their battle. His injuries were more numerous than Asuma's but the blood loss from the Konoha jounin could be detrimental to his success in battle if he couldn't end it quickly or stop the bleeding somehow.
Before they could continue their battle further a smirk came to Zabuza's face. Before Asuma could wonder about what the issue was he was forced to dodge needles launched at him, and he bit back a curse as the person who had attacked him came from the surrounding forest, 'No, did she beat them? Did she kill them?' He thought to himself worriedly.
"Haku." Zabuza said as he watched her draw closer to him slowly, keeping her eyes on any move Asuma might make on her master, "You certainly took a long enough time to deal with those brats. Had some trouble?"
Haku nodded, "I'm sorry Zabuza-sama. I finished up as quickly as I could after I saw the explosion take place. They were better than they appeared to be."
Asuma's eyes widened before he started growling angrily at what Haku was insinuating and was preparing to attack when everyone felt a crushing presence surround them. Asuma immediately had a flashback to twelve years earlier and swallowed down a lump of fear in his throat, realizing who it was, 'Don't panic. You know who this is, and it might actually be a good thing for this once.' He thought with a wait and see attitude, all the while preparing for a response, just as an orange blur jumped through the trees and slammed hard into Haku.
The movement was so sudden that Zabuza's sword, which he had prepared for an attack, didn't come close to touching the person before whoever it was hit Haku with full momentum and propelled her and himself out of the area away from near Zabuza.
Forgetting about Asuma momentarily, Zabuza turned to chase after and attack the newcomer before Haku could be killed. With the power he felt and with the amount of bloodlust he felt from it he knew that Haku had no chance. Unfortunately, forgetting about Asuma was the last thing he needed to have happen, as it ended abruptly and without warning. For claiming that Haku was just a tool he certainly cared too much about that 'tool' for one instant, and that was all that someone as wily as Asuma needed.
Asuma threw one of his trench knives at Zabuza, and as anticipated he lifted his sword to block it with the flat of the blade, however with the chakra flow going through the special metal of the weapons it was more effective than the kunai that he threw earlier and it pierced through Zabuza's sword, burying itself into his chest up to his sternum. Zabuza's eyes went wide and he let out a gasp as Asuma got around to his side and took an angle before using Hien to cut clean right through him.
Zabuza stood perfectly still before a massive spray of blood flew from his torso and he dropped to the ground, cut almost clean in half, dead.
"So stupid… You didn't have to die here you idiot, that's why we were here in the first place." Asuma didn't spare him a glance as he began hurrying in the direction that Naruto and Haku came from, "I've got to see for myself what happened to Shikamaru and Ino… Naruto can wait for now."
XxX
Again and again it happened, like clockwork almost. Haku had stopped flying through the air and had almost come to a stop, rolling violently along the ground before trying to get steady and use the momentum to reach her feet, but each time she did she was punted or bashed away further, rather violently, by the orange blur that had hit her in the first place. Eventually her body hit the trunk of a tree with a sickening crack and she slumped to the ground, sitting against it.
Behind her mask her eyes were fluttering open and closed before she realized why she had run away from the genin she had been fighting in the first place. She shakily tried to stand up, tasting the blood in her mouth, and knowing that she had broken more than five ribs at least in addition to a broken right femur due to almost falling as fast as she stood up. Instincts suddenly started blaring for her to move somehow, and she rolled to the side just as a punch shattered the bark of the tree she had been against and cracked the trunk itself.
She was finally able to get a good look at her attacker and fought back a gasp, "N-Naruto-kun…"
Naruto growled at her angrily, his appearance now radically different from the boy that had met her not one morning previous. She was unable to see his eyes behind his goggles, but his brow was furrowed in pure malice, his nails were longer and more resembled claws, and his canines were more pronounced and sharper. His spiky blonde hair looked wilder and his whisker-marks were thicker and darker than normal. He looked thoroughly enraged from the intense and deadly glare he directed at her.
So overwhelmed from the sudden aura of darkness from the boy she was hardly able to reach for her weaponry, but it did her no good anyway, as the senbon that hit him almost immediately dropped from his body to the ground and only elicited an angrier growl from him. He blurred out of her sight, leaving an orange haze in his wake to indicate the direction he had gone in. Haku couldn't even keep her eyes on him as he bounced around the area off of trees, keeping her off balance and leaving a trail of orange that then dissipated into the air.
As she looked around, he appeared in front of her and grabbed her around her neck tightly. Haku's eyes behind her mask almost bulged out of her head at the immediate pressure that had been applied from the strangling. Haku desperately clutched at his arm tightly, audibly choking and hacking as he held her off of the ground with his one outstretched arm and shoved her against a tree hard enough to again crack the bark with her body.
The intensity of the slam against the tree removed the mask from her face and revealed that tears were coming from her eyes due to the lack of air she was getting. She was barely able to choke out the loose syllables of the phrase, "I'm sorry Naruto-kun." Shutting her now blood-red eyes, she waited for him to finish her as she had seen him cock his fist back prior to shutting her eyes.
The smash that followed, she assumed it to be her face, and there was no pain as he hit her hard enough to concuss her to the extent that she couldn't tell how hurt she was. The following five smashes then followed soon after as the tension on her neck faded and she was dropped to the ground.
She felt wet drops fall on her face and she looked up to expect Naruto's hands to be dripping her blood, but saw him leaning with his forehead against the tree, tears dripping down from the bottom of his goggles, "You killed them…"
Haku wheezed and gasped for air desperately, having no idea how he didn't kill her from choking her alone, "Why did you stop?" She asked softly, her voice unable to go any higher due to the damage her throat had taken, "I killed your friends."
"It wasn't supposed to be this way!" Naruto yelled as he smashed the tree as hard as he could with his forearm and elbow three times, "We didn't have to fight! Gato wasn't going to pay you no matter what you did! Even if you beat us here you still had another whole team to deal with! Why?"
"Zabuza-sama told me to." She said as if she was explaining the reason that the sun rose in the morning, "No matter how I felt about it, it was his command. I am his tool."
"Stop saying that!" Naruto snapped at her, grabbing her collar and jerking her back to her feet, pushing her against the tree again, "People aren't tools! You're a human being damn it, and you have free will! All of this could have been avoided if you'd grown a backbone and just spoken up! You know you were wrong, you know that this was stupid, so tell me what was going through your head when you were coming out here!"
"Let it go Naruto."
Naruto turned his head to see Asuma walking towards him with Ino and Shikamaru over his shoulders. He slowly walked towards him and stopped short by a few feet, 'Did he beat it back? Did he even know what was happening? No, he somehow calmed down… that's good.' He walked directly behind Naruto and looked at Haku, who once she got a look at Asuma looked at him rather pleadingly, asking him a silent question that she knew he had the answer to. Asuma simply shook his head, no pity in his gaze on the girl.
Haku looked down, blinking back more tears as the color in her eyes began returning to normal, "I see… Naruto-kun please kill me."
Naruto looked at her in shock before his face turned almost stone-like, "No. You're not getting off that easily." He said, getting her to squirm weakly in his grip that was like iron. Naruto pointed at Ino and Shikamaru on Asuma's shoulders, "You're going to live with that. And you're going to live with Zabuza being dead, just like I have to live with being too weak to protect them the way I was supposed to." Tears started falling from behind his goggles again and before Haku could dispute and beg for him to kill her again, Naruto grabbed her forehead and abruptly smashed the back of her head against the tree, rendering her unconscious.
Naruto picked up her lifeless body and turned back to Asuma, "I'm ready to go back to the house Asuma-sensei…" Naruto said bitterly, listlessly, in a voice that sounded dead.
Asuma reached into one of the undamaged pockets of his vest, carefully so as not to disturb Ino or Shikamaru and stuck a cigarette in the boy's mouth, lighting it for him without a word as he did the same for himself, "And that's why I do this kid. Not because it's cool but because it's a coping mechanism. You handled this as well as you possibly could have." He motioned with his head and began to carry the other two genin back to the house, "Come on."
Naruto just stood with the smoke stick in his mouth, not even trying to enjoy it before he finally started moving behind Asuma at a reserved pace. They walked for quite a while, not saying a word between them until they stepped out from the forest signifying that they were near Tazuna's. As they neared the house they saw slashes on trees in passing and a cut up boar as well leading towards the house.
Gritting his teeth angrily, Naruto looked up at Asuma who nodded at him that what he wanted to do was okay. He set Haku on one of Asuma's shoulders along with the others and cracked his neck before rushing away in a Shunshin.
XxX
On the main path towards the village from Tazuna's house, the two bodyguards of Gato's that wielded katana were leading a tied up Tsunami who walked with her head down in resignation. She fell to the ground on the offside of the path once she was shoved there by one of them, the one with the eyepatch and a lack of a shirt.
"We're in no rush right?" He asked his partner with a sick grin on his face, "All we have to do is make sure the bridge-builder's daughter gets there, he didn't say when, and he didn't say that we couldn't have any fun with her either did he?"
The white haired man in the purple hat rolled his eyes, "Fine… just hurry up damn it. I don't want to be out here all day. Hearing that brat cry and yell for us to not take his mommy pissed me off, useless runt. You could hear him cry from half a mile out while we were leaving. I might have a go myself just to spite the bitch for creating the kid in the first place."
The first man began to drag Tsunami until a voice sounded out, "Please let her go." Both of them looked down the path to see Naruto walking towards them, "I'm in a really bad mood right now and I might be overreacting, but what were you about to do to her?"
The man whose 'fun' had just been interrupted whipped around at Naruto angrily and drew his sword, "Whatever the fuck I want brat."
"Hold up on Tazuna's daughter for a second Waraji." The white haired man said as he drew his own sword, "Look at the headband. This is one of those ninja brats that Gato told us to kill if we got the chance." They both started stalking slowly towards Naruto.
Naruto sighed and flicked open his kunai pouch, putting the men all on edge, "Do you know why thugs like you like weapons like those swords you're holding so much? I'm not going to say that it's some inadequacy thing that you guys have with your equipment downstairs because I don't know and I don't really care." He said, getting them to bristle in anger, "No, losers like you like weapons because a normal guy is automatically stronger than other normal people with a blade in his hand, and he can make himself rich and feared by pointing it at others with intent to harm. Because with a weapon, even pussies like you can be tough guys if you've got blades in your hands."
The man with the eyepatch stomped forward angrily in an effort to cut Naruto to pieces but stopped when he heard his partner cry out in alarm from behind him. He turned and saw that another Naruto had appeared behind him and had grabbed him around the waist and his arms, squeezing tight enough to get him to drop his sword on the ground, "Waraji help!"
"Genshi Kujo (Atomic Extermination)!" Naruto's clone lifted the white-haired man up and abruptly jerked his body back to bridge over and slam the man harshly on his head and neck, leaving it bent at an awkward angle as his body bent over in the direction he was slammed on it in.
Waraji was about to move to retaliate on the clone when he heard Naruto's voice in his ear from behind, "And what I really hate, is a pussy with a blade in their hands. Kuro ni Utsurou (Fade to Black)." He lifted his arm high above his head from his perch behind Waraji on his shoulders and slammed his elbow down as hard as he could on the base of his neck. The mouth of the hired thug twisted in agony before he bonelessly dropped to the ground in a heap.
Naruto and his clone that had attacked alongside him stared at the two dead men before turning their attention to a clone that was cutting Tsunami loose. Upon being freed she latched onto the clone for dear life and hugged it tightly. Naruto walked over and dispelled his clones before helping her up, "Are you okay?" He said with his goggles still down over his eyes.
She ignored the cigarette in his mouth as he wasn't even really smoking it, plus he had just saved her life and probably more than that, and nodded, "Yes. Thank you, you got here just in time. Thank you so much."
Naruto's lips quirked slightly before a frown found its way back onto his whiskered face, "Well… the hero always arrives at the last minute." He proceeded to assure that Tsunami was alright until he saw Asuma walking down the road, still carrying everyone, only Haku was now tied up. The man seemed to have a serene smile on his face as he walked through, even ignoring the corpses that now littered the path.
Naruto walked over to his sensei and began to speak, "I kept them from doing anything to Tsunami Asuma-sensei. Gato tried to kidnap her."
"I hope you fucked them up… Gato's a prick…" A feminine voice said weakly from Asuma's shoulder, getting the man to grin wider.
Naruto stood as still as a statue and stared at Ino on Asuma's shoulder, "Can you say that again? I think I'm starting to snap."
"Gato's a prick…" The voice said again. Ino weakly lifted her head, locking her blue eyes with Naruto's, "I heard you won." She motioned her head weakly to Haku on the other shoulder, "I can see that you won too. Way to go Naruto." She finished with a small smile.
"Ino…" Naruto said as he lifted his goggles off of his face and walked towards her slowly, putting a hand on her neck and feeling her pulse, getting her to arc a delicate eyebrow in confusion, "You're really alive! Oh man… oh man don't ever do that again, I've never been so scared in my entire life!" He looked over at Shikamaru, "What about him? Is he alive too?" He started shaking Shikamaru, "Shikamaru speak to me!"
The boy groaned lowly and kept his head lowered, "I finally get an excuse to sleep and the first thing you do is wake me up… you troublesome bastard…"
A smile grew on Naruto's face and he put his goggles back down over his eyes to hide the tears building in his eyes again, for a positive reason this time.
How to Train Your Genin: Tip 7
Appropriate retaliatory force
Moderation for a ninja is important. Use what you need to win and nothing more. Every new shinobi wants to learn the big flashy techniques that they've heard about ever since the concept of nin-, tai-, or genjutsu was initially introduced to them, but the knowledge of how and when to use the jutsu is just as important as the hand-seals needed to activate the technique in the first place.
Jumping into a battle and using your most powerful jutsu, or tool, or whatever is all well and good if your opponent is blind, deaf, and dumb… because any opponent worth a jutsu or technique of that caliber is going to need to be worn down before anything like that would even hit them in the first place unless they're so far below you it works right off the bat, and if that's the case then there was no need for you to even use a jutsu that strong in the first place. And most powerful jutsu are very chakra costly. Unless you generate chakra like a power plant you might want to keep as much as you can for when you actually need to use it, because most battles are never straightforward.
Also, with some ninja they have been shown to be wily enough to reconstruct and reverse engineer certain jutsu from sight and memory… for those of you that are short of memory there's actually an entire kekkei genkai based off of that single ability so jounin sensei teach your genin squads some discretion. There's a time and a place for everything, and when it's not that time and place you'll know it because you're going to be taking a beatdown when you try it.
-Shiho
Jutsu List
Ikkaku Sankakkei Buratsuku ou Hokai (Collapsing Point Triangle Swing). Defensive, supplementary, collaboration jutsu. When one member of Team 10 is trapped or surrounded, another will sneak to the scene and utilize Kawarimi no Jutsu to switch places with them. Uzumaki Naruto will then create a Kage Bunshin and will use it to again Kawarimi with the still trapped team member and free the entire team, leaving the Kage Bunshin behind to direct enemy attention until it is dispelled. By this time Team 10 will either have counter-attacked or will have left the immediate area to regroup. This can also be done with only two members of the team, but the necessary member must be Uzumaki Naruto for his use of Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to provide the last expendable body meant for the final Kawarimi.
Genshi Kujo (Atomic Extermination). B-rank taijutsu. Offensive. From behind, the user will grab their opponent around the waist and if possible the arms to keep them from moving and will sharply pop their hips and lift the enemy off of the ground. The user will then abruptly bridge their body back and fall, seemingly onto the top of their head, only the opponent's head will land far before the user's and will keep the user's from smashing into the ground. Using the full weight of both the user and the victim, the victim's head and neck will take the full brunt of the weight of both and along with the speed and power used to execute the move. After the first slam, the user will roll through their bridge and repeat the process as much as needed until the opponent is rendered unconscious or dead.
Kuro ni Utsurou (Fade to Black). C-rank taijutsu. Offensive. The user drives a 12-6 vertical elbow strike to the base of the enemy's neck. This move can easily paralyze and/or kill an opponent if used by a skilled practitioner. It is fast, and is a very violent and sudden way to attack someone. It is best used while undetected by the enemy, but can also be used in a full-scale fight when used on the top of an enemy's skull where it can fracture a skull and kill an enemy as well.