A kitsune yokai. Uehara never expected that he would find one this soon. Chizuki was also shocked. She never even imagined that the woman who's house she was residing in was a yonbi no kitsune.
Shikibu stood there majestically with her four tails swishing about. Her fur was red and rose-coloured flames covered her like a cloak. She stood majestically on all fours with crimson-red eyes that had her opponent in sight.
Uehara on the other hand, had a golden fiery aura around him, making his clothes also appear golden. His knee-length hair was completely golden and had slightly spiked a bit.
He locked his gaze on her, his voice coming out neutral but with a tinge of anticipation.
"I never expected you were a kitsune, much less one of tailed-beast status."
Shikibu smiled as she transferred her words through chakra.
"And I never expected that I would meet such an alluring young drake, much less one with the blood of a surin~. "
As the air grew tense between them, Shikibu gave off a predatory grin before suddenly vanished from the area.
Uehara turned to look at Chizuki.
"Help me clean up."
She lowered her head.
"Yes master."
Giving an affirmative nod, Uehara also vanished. When the two behemoths were gone from the vicinity, the remaining shinobi and martial artists who were observing from afar let out sighs of relief.
"Quickly report back to the head family. There's a child out here who actually managed to force Lady Shikibu into her true form!"
Murmurs were constantly heard as other martial artists and shinobi commanded their subordinates to report what they saw to their respective families.
One of them glared at Chizuki with nefarious intentions.
"You! Come quietly with us!"
Unfortunately, he offended an existence more powerful than him. Chizuki directed her gaze towards them.
"None of you will live long enough to divulge master's existence."
All of them were immediately alerted by the unnaturally cold alluring voice of the woman and before they could react, ice pikes emerged from the ground and impaled their bodies.
"W-what?.."
They couldn't even let out any curses or self-explode as Chizuki had directly pierced into their respective energy cores.
The ice pikes that impaled them turned into hooks and pulled them underground. A slight smile formed on her face.
"They will make good fertiliser for master's tea garden."
Looking into the distance, she could feel that several dozen kilometres away, Uehara and Shikibu were already engaged in a vicious clash.
"I should clean up the rest of the pests here before they divulge master's existence."
With her prowess and talent in the manipulation of water, she could already detect any changes to the water-vapour in the air. Using that, she was able to detect dozens of other humans in the vicinity.
"No one must leave here alive."
She turned into mist and vanished.
…
Far away in the horizon, in the mountain range 80km north-east of the capital, Uehara and Shikibu were in a standoff. All around them were mountains with very little greenery apart from a few oak trees.
As her tails fluttered about, Shikibu grinned.
"How about it Aoki? If you satisfy me, I may tell you a few things."
Tilting his head to crack the bones on his neck, Uehara spoke.
"Murasaki. You're starting to annoy me."
Her tails fluttered as if Uehara had praised her.
"Annoying a surin. Check~ Now I should-"
Before Shikibu could comment any further, Uehara charged forward. The last thing he wanted to do was talk pleasantries with the enemy.
CLASH
With Uehara's fist and Chizuki's paw clashing with each other, a massive shockwave occurred that blew away all the rocks and rubble and nearly tore off the branches from the trees. Unwilling to relent, the both of them began fighting. To the naked eye, all it would see were two streaks of red and golden light colliding in the skies.
Uehara and Shikibu were engaged in high tensity combat. Uehara used his small form to get into Chizuki's underbelly but the latter would use her tails to drive him away. But with his agility being boosted by lightning, it was very hard for Chizuki to land a proper hit on him.
A myriad of techniques would occasionally be released, causing huge collateral damage to the surroundings. Using his mastery of fire and lighting, Uehara was able to instantly react to all of Shikibu's attacks while also releasing bursts of powerful flames mixed with lightning.
But Shikibu wasn't completely at a disadvantage. Although her illusions weren't fully effective since Uehara could always see through them with his eyes, she could temporarily slow him down as it would take a moment for him to see through them. Using that moment, Shikibu was able to land a few blows to him.
Uehara was getting annoyed by the constant illusions and there wasn't much he could do. His brain was already processing reality as fast as it could in order to instantly adjust to any changes in the environment.
Even when he closed his eyes, he could still be affected by her illusions since they also targeted hearing and he couldn't turn off his hearing since he needed that sensory input.
Gritting his teeth, he managed to block a claw swipe from Shikibu after seeing through an illusion just in time.
Choosing to abandon close-combat, he jumped back while weaving hand-signs.
[Dog-Ox-Horse-Pig] (Water-Earth-Light-Fusion)
Placing his hands on the ground, thick and sturdy vines emerged from the ground and threatened to wrap around Shikibu. Using her reflexes, she was able to jump up in order to evade them.
Spotting an opportunity, Uehara quickly weaved more hand-signs.
[Monkey-Bird-Monkey-Tiger-Horse-Pig] (Concept-Water-Concept-Fire-Light-Fusion)
Placing his fingers and thumbs together to form a square, a golden prism formed inside. Seperating his hands apart to make space for the prism to expand, he quietly muttered.
"Sage Art: Vulkan Flash."
A golden-light burst forth and enshrouded everything within a rectangular prism while everything inside it was eviscerated. Although Shikibu could fly, her reaction speed would be much slower in the air. Hence, she had already shielded herself using her tails and she did her best to withstand the attack.
When the attack struck, chunks of red fur was cut off while blotches of blood were forming on her fur.
Uehara wanted to repeat the technique again but just by feeling how his chakra coils were vibrating consistently, he hesitantly lowered his hands.
[Disgraceful. I still can't utilise the light element well enough.]
Shikibu took the chance to land on the ground and the moment her paws touched down, a massive quake occurred. Immediately, she rushed forward in order to take advantage of when Uehara would be unbalanced.
Never did it occur to her that waiting for her was a bone fist so large it was about three-times the size of Uehara's body. Looking like a massive malignant tumour that covered his entire shoulder, Uehara swung his fist forward and it collided with Shikibu's face.
BOOM
Shikibu was sent crashing into the mountains. When she tried getting up, Uehara had already appeared in front of her and launched a massive uppercut, sending her shooting into the sky.
Not willing to let go of this opportunity, the large bone fist retracted into his body and almost immediately, his two iconic tri-bladed bone chains came out of his palms. He didn't waste time and immediately swung them towards the giant fox in the air.
Shikibu had by now, recovered. Seeing the chains coming, she let out a furious howl in a bid to blow away the chains. But how could Uehara's chains be so simple? With wind chakra infused into them, they were impervious to Shikibu's howl and they directly pierced into the roof of her wide-open mouth.
When the chains pierced her mouth, Shikibu ignored the pain and instantly switched places with an illusory clone. Appearing on the ground discreetly, she was surprised to see Uehara already directing his gaze towards her.
Retracting his chains, he weaved another set of hand-signs.
[Monkey-Bird-Goat-Tiger-Snake-Pig] (Concept-Air-Temperature-Fire-Darkness-Fusion)
He brought two fingers to his lips.
[Sage Art: Darkness True Fire]
When Shikibu sensed the sudden gathering of dark chakra and saw how Uehara pursed his lips, she immediately blew out a plume of rose-coloured flames.
Maintaining a steady upright posture, Uehara didn't even flinch as he watched the rose flames coming at him like a comet. Focusing on mixing the different chakra attributes in his chest, the final solution rose up his throat and with Uehara's two fingers acting as an igniter, he released the ice-cold dark flames just as Shikibu's rose flames were about to reach him.
With the clash of the two different flames, Uehara's dark flame instantly started devouring Shikibu's flame. Maybe if she had infused the element of light into her flame, there may have been a contest but with her flame only containing the fire-attribute, it was no match for Uehara's flame that had the attributes of darkness and fire as well as the concept air and the deviant element of temperature.
With the freezing cold temperature of Uehara's flames, Shikibu's rose flames were being consumed rapidly while the surroundings became chilly in an instant.
Seeing that she was on the losing end, Shikibu was shocked. Knowing she would lose this power exchange, she quickly switched with an illusory clone and ran to the side. Although it was an illusion, it could still affect reality to a certain extent. By creating an illusory clone, she would be able to switch places with it.
It was how she managed to escape from Uehara's impalement as well as his tri-bladed chains piercing her mouth.
Seeing the illusory clone get devoured, she prepared to counter-attack but never did she expect that two Uehara's would appear out of nowhere and impale her with disgustingly long bone pikes that covered their whole arm like a tumour. The two clones each pierced her sides.
Letting out a roar of pain, she was going to replace herself with an illusion again when all of a sudden, the real Uehara appeared next to her on her head.
In his hand was a spinning golden sphere consisting of raw water and fire chakra infused with nature energy.
"Talk, or die."