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Post by Jackstraw on Nov 4, 2009 1:36:02 GMT -5
"Oh God, that's it." There was a small whirl of sand far below amidst the rubble and ruin and the Lady Hokage warped into view, landing lightly in front of the warp tag and staring up at the large thing. The roar of the flames and the carrying sound of combat were her music, the monstrous technique before the feast she couldn't wait to sink her teeth into; a twisted smile settled onto her lips, eyes wide and alive behind the fire-reflecting surface of her glasses, all telling a story all its own about how far gone she was, only hinting at how much worse it was yet to become. "Of course you wouldn't disappoint me, handing me an ancient tome such as this, so rich and strong that no one but myself could devour it with a smile." She grinned, head tipping back at the ecstatic thought of taking this thing on, killing this thing, hurting him more. Amazing. "Let's not wait any more then; do it like I like; handle me, Kokoro.
"Suppai."
Papers bloomed from the warp tag, surrounding the woman in a whirlwind before assaulting the large creature before her.
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Post by Danna on Nov 4, 2009 1:55:08 GMT -5
The massive sand Buddha held firmly, pressing the whirlwind back with sheer force as its arms moved and its hands pressed together like the sound of thunder. It formed a complex single seal, spreading its arms again and lifting one high into the air, a flurry of sand dripping from its finger tips, swirling its way into the whirlwind, down, then back up into the sky from high above.
"Buddha's Art: Black Sky, White Bolt."
The sand swirled back downwards, packing together into a single, highly condensed stream, like a massive spear falling from the sky and striking the ground with massive force, sending a burst of sand and debris into the air, with a shock wave that seemed to shake the desert as a whole.
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Post by Jackstraw on Nov 5, 2009 1:49:28 GMT -5
"All flash and no bang. Is this all you're going to throw at me, Kokoro? I thought you were going to kill me." The woman stood still amoung the showering debris as though it were nothing, staring up toward the thing; she was curiously unscathed, completely fine save for an unimpressed look on her face as she took a few steps forward through the clearing around her. "Stop holding back on me. Come on, give me a taste of that pain I know you feel so that I may make it my own."
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Post by Danna on Nov 5, 2009 4:17:58 GMT -5
"Then taste the culmination of Suna's arts, combined!!" His voice echoed, cold and murderous in its tone.
The massive Buddha began to move once more, its hands spreading as a large portion of sand swarmed into the air, swirling around a number large slabs of rock that had been drawn together with chakra strings, similar to the puppet technique. Sealing these slabs together, the massive object began to take shape, spread out wide across the sky, like a massive fan in the hands of a god. Holding it in one hand, the sand creature formed a one handed tiger seal with the other, a burst of flames erupting from its palm and engulfing the fan and racing from one end to the other, coating it in flames that danced wildly into the sky, as though the creature had reached out and plucked the very sun down for its purposes.
"Forbidden Art: Buddha's Final Pyre - Self Found, Others Lost!"
Its body lurched, the fan falling and obscuring the sky like a meteor falling from the heavens, the wind howling and roaring as it whipped in every direction as the fan plowed into the ground, sand, rocks, and sheer destruction bursting forward amidst a wall of flames that tore through sky and earth alike with its unrelenting judgment. The entire desert seemed to have erupted in destruction, the gates of hell having opened and unleashed its fury upon everything above.
There was no mercy.
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Post by Jackstraw on Nov 5, 2009 4:58:42 GMT -5
"Kamen." Papers flew out of the seal on the ground behind her just as the force overtook the sealing barrier around; the inside virutally exploded into a flurry of paper as the barrier worked at a phenomenal rate sealing all the fire and general destruction into paper and ink. The woman stayed low, invisible amoungst the bizzard of paper whipping around her from the force of the wind, the flames consuming everything around her. Such power.... she'd never be able to bring herself to kill something so great; it was too amazing for that.
At the tail end of the torrent, the papers exploded outward into a ring of fire and general destruction, unleashing their freshly sealed contents; two whirlwind-like forces shot out in either direction, two Hokages that left a trail of running fire in the middle of the cleared paths their force created, ringing around the thing with incredible speed fueled by the fire at their tails. As the great sand monstrosity's attack reached its inevitable end, so did the set-up for it's downfall. A large ring of fire knotted by more circular rings remaining from its attack and Aya's own devices now circled it; the clones that set it up vanished on the other side and Aya came back into visibility in a flutter of papers, already kneeling in the center of the largest of the rings.
"Unbridled fury doesn't suit you, Kokoro-san. You should know by now that anger and flames will only fuel the machine." She formed a quick series of handseals, slamming her hands to the ground with an unnatural force that shook the earth; a large network of seals spread from her palms, webbing out to the edges of the ring where the flames burst into intense white walls of fire, carrying the seal all around to the point where the whole area the village used to stand was cast its eerily harsh light, tracing over the seals that ran outward into the desert. "I've been waiting for such a show of force; it takes a lot of energy to jump start something this big. I knew you had it in you, and now you can't escape this circle you've helped create; you're sealed in here. Please just submit to me, Kokoro-san."
She stood smoothly, staring up at the frozen sentinel before her, hair fluttering about in the wind created by the flames around them.
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Post by Danna on Nov 7, 2009 20:28:11 GMT -5
Atop the slowly falling, weakened sand Buddha, Kokoro emerged again from atop its head, his arms raised high, the far, echoing sound of crazed laughter drifting through the air to the woman. It was a bizarre, almost terrifying noise that seemed unsuited to him, even in the face of insanity. There was a reason for that, however. It seemed that things were not quite what they seemed...
Having used the giant's previous attack as its own cover, Kokoro had used his genjutsu to cover an escape, amidst the wide array of fire and debris. Now that her personal barrier had come down in place of the new seal, it was time to move...
The puppet Zentori erupted from the ground a short distance beside Aya, Its body flipping and its wings spreading as it swooped towards her, its chest compartment opening and firing a wide mesh net out to cover her. But there was something off about even this; in the middle of the net was and odd, crumpled mass. And suddenly, it became clear where Kokoro had been hiding the entire time.
His body jerked and cracked, his contorted form realigning itself as it slammed against the woman, flipping a kunai into place in his left hand and dragging it across Aya's face without a second thought. He let the kunai go, attaching it to a series of chakra strings, and yanked it back down, wrapping it around her arm and digging into her wrist.
His eyes wild and tired, his body beginning to grow too weary from the sheer amount of chakra that had been used, this was the best he could manage. With a firm pull, the blade returned to him, drenched from the spray of blood that erupted from the now severed Hokage's hand...
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Post by Jackstraw on Nov 7, 2009 21:31:13 GMT -5
The woman grunted, swallowing a scream as she watched her own hand fly away and into the fire surrounding them, tracing a delicate arc or blood away from her. Without a second's hesitation she drove the elbow of her bloodied arm into the Kazekage's face with a satisfying crunch that suggested she'd broken the man's nose, driving him back several feet; her knee found its way into his exposed gut before the fist of her unarmed hand hammered into the back of his neck, driving him down face first into the sand.
"God, Kokoro-san..." She pushed him over with the toe of her shoes, breathing heavily as she stared down at him through the film of blood that covered one of her eyes, streaming from the jagged cut that crossed from the top of her forehead down to the corner of her mouth. She sighed, staring down at a face just as broken and bloody as her own, before her eyes drifted to where her hand once was. "Must you continue to complicate things? I won't be able to write poetry now. How cruel..."
Her eyes turned to the dilapidated sand creature in the center of the vast seal; she could see how it would work now, with those puppets exposed through the sand. Ingenious.
"So clever... I'd prefer not to be enemies with a force such as yourself Kokoro-san, but you keep forcing me into this villainous role." She kicked the kunai's blade idly away from the man, out and into the fire as she stepped back, seeming morose. "You really don't understand what it is I am work towards, what all this sacrifice really means to the world. To me. I want to you truly feel my pain, Kokoro-san. To hear how it aches and screams for this new world so greatly that it makes me lay my head underneath the guillotine's blade. You make it even more difficult for me, playing that hooded executioner."
The little owls that still flocked overhead dropped down into the seal as she spoke, gathering in a large mass amidst the sand where there returned to a paper form, plastering themselves over something and sealing it away in a poof of smoke. A single little bird fluttered over the flames, depositing a single sheet of paper into her hands. She stared at it a moment, expression growing grimmer.
"But enough of justice and fairness. There's no such things in the world. I lied earlier; I do have my own, petty reasons for acting occasionally." She looked over at the man, increasing the distance between them with slow, calculated steps. "I told you earlier, Kokoro-san; I loved my brother. The idea that he fell at your hands was tolerable, reasonable, I could deal with that; but not even the slightest gleam of the fact that you would desecrate the bodies of the dead, of my sibling, of my very own blood? No. No, that was too much. Just cruel. You're nothing but a cruel man, Kokoro-san, and you force me to be cruel in response. And now I am to take the man who's life I have already stolen away from you once to make mine again; and I will continue to take from you, yes. One by one I shall search out and destroy those things and people you hold dear to your heart; I will make die everything around you until you have no one left to turn to but me. And then we shall strike each other down."
She stood before the small warp paper on the ground, blood pooling at her feet and the flames reflected on her pale, blood-stained face.
"All in the name of my brother and the scorned heart you've left me with in the name of your own revenge, I shall lay down my life to take yours."
Then her form distorted and disappeared. A mere moment later, the seals on the ground vanished, the fires turning from white to red before slowly dying out. Things became quiet once again, save for the rush of wind and smoke through the destroyed village.
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Post by Danna on Dec 31, 2009 0:45:03 GMT -5
Kokoro dragged himself back to his feet, exhausted, sick, tired and confused. He mentally searched for the woman, panic settling in when he realized what she had taken. Again, and again, she took him. Every day since then he had recalled that day, and now, again...he was left alone.
In a rage, he scrambled forward, yanking a tattered Zentori from the rubble to take him into the air. He couldn't let her escape, not after taking his family from him, not again. He had to catch her before she escaped...He had to.
In the distance, he could see some other movement, fleeing towards the outskirts. From Konoha, no doubt. He'd catch them ALL!
.......Pokemon!
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Post by Jackstraw on Dec 31, 2009 1:28:57 GMT -5
Aya stumbled along, one of her kunoichi tending to the hand on the fly; she couldn't tell who now, her vision blurred the the jumblefuck her mid had become and the blood staining her vision in one eye. The dog boy was up ahead with his partner, loading up the little spy they'd be assigned to take care of. Everything seemed to have gone according to plan. They just had to meet up with that quiet shinobi she'd left with the warp tag back to Konoha, and they'd be home free....
"Hokage-sama, someone pursuing by air--" The blind kunoichi stuck close, pointing off toward the village. Even with one eye out of commission she could see the bird-like form of something closing in fast.
"Hyuuga, Inuzuka, move ahead and have Asane take the girl back to the village, then stay in position to cover the rest of us as we catch up to get out of here. Looks like we may be up against the Kazekage again..."
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Post by Danna on Dec 31, 2009 1:53:16 GMT -5
Seeing their numbers breaking up, Kokoro wasted no time in moving. He threw a handful of kunai, following them with the remaining supply stored in Zentori, sending a barrage down upon the escaping team. With strings attached to them, he led them, twitching the strings in a vibrating motion that caused the flying weapons to wobbled back and forth in the air, making their trajectory all the more difficult to trace and evade.
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Post by Jackstraw on Dec 31, 2009 2:13:47 GMT -5
A massive wind kicked up, blowing the weapons about and out of the way, effectively clearing a path for the pair. Nariko formed another hand seal, the wind funneling the weapons together and back at the man.
"Hokage-sama...!"
The woman had already produced a scroll from her sleeve, unsealing it before tossing it into the whirlwind. It burst into flame, spreading throughout the funnel into a tornado of fire that encircled the airborne man.
"Move, the extraction point isn't much further ahead." She ordered firmly, sending the other kunoichi running ahead. She formed a seal, inhaling deeply before blowing out an insanely large current of flame that consumed the other with such force that there was a small explosion as the hot air escaped. All she had to do was delay him while the others got away...
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Post by Danna on Dec 31, 2009 18:30:13 GMT -5
The flames tore through the air, demolishing the flying pair in an explosion of wind and flames, leaving only a billow of smoke and dust drifting in the sky. But far below it, hurtling towards the woman at a high speed appeared the Kazekage and his puppet once more. The kunai had only been a diversion to distract from the fact that Kokoro and Zentori were actually flying along the ground, in the shadow of the object above; a hefty rock made to take their form with genjutsu, the vibrating strings attached to the kunai making it easy to cover the switch.
Now, propelling himself off of Zentori, Kokoro hurled another kunai, following not far behind it, though he formed a handseal before it had a chance to make any impact on the woman, bursting into flames from the explosive tag attached to it.
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Post by Jackstraw on Dec 31, 2009 23:16:32 GMT -5
The woman whipped around papers fluttering out of her sleeves just as the knife detonated. She couldn't believe she didn't pick up on such a simple trick; she was just too worn out to fight much more at this point....
The blast exploded outward, passing through the handful of warp tags and back out toward the rest of the explosion and the Kazekage; Aya was sent skidding back, stumbling on the loose footing of the sand. She twisted, turning and whipping her Jinchi scroll off her back by the unfurling end, flinging the heavy roll around as it ignited. It unrolled quickly, carving a large spiral of flame and smoke through the air right at the man.
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Post by Danna on Dec 31, 2009 23:47:28 GMT -5
Kokoro skidded through the sand and debris, yanking the strings attached to Zentori forward, the puppet hurtling into him and scooping him up, swooping out of the way of the flaming scroll narrowly. Kokoro knew that neither of them could keep this up for much longer; he was practically out of weapons and chakra at this point. Skidding through the sand in an attempt to stay in the air, the Kazekage continued to charge, hoping he could catch her before she escaped....
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Post by Jackstraw on Jan 1, 2010 1:02:41 GMT -5
Aya took off again, the scroll furling back up into her arms and she ran under the cover of the remaining smoke from her previous attack. While she was exhausted both mentally and emotionally, her techniques were never as draining as normal shinobi and therefore she would be able to hold out physically against him should it come to it It didn't seem like they would have a chance for that though; she could see her other shinobi waiting anxiously not that far ahead. She really didn't want to put more of her people in danger, best to end it soon....
She whirled around, throwing a rather large explosive scroll right at the swiftly approaching Kazekage. It unfurled quickly, about to explode right in the man's face when something shot right through it, pinning it into the ground a safe distance away where it exploded.
"Dammit--"
WHAM
The earth underneath the Hokage's feet exploded upward in a shower of sand and debris, sending the woman hurtling forward into the clutch of her waiting allies. She struggled to her feet, favoring her freshly bleeding stump again as she looked around at the clearing air.
"....Asane-sane, I need you to take the girl and go now. This wasn't in my calculations..." She gestured the waiting shinobi with the hostage on, eying their newest predicament. The Raikage stood in the clearing debris, the roped spear of her weapon whipping back into place as she stared at the other woman with her sharply condemning eyes. She could make out more reinforcements following the explosions and carnage leading out of the village to their current location. Maybe that had been his plan all along....
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