Chapter 45: 45: If Looks Could Kill
Steel fingers met steel blades as the clash continued. Saboten's new weapons sparked with electricity as they cut into the steel flesh of Seija's fingers and palms.
The paired wakizashi were significantly smaller and lighter than the katana they had replaced, reducing the maximum leverage and strength behind each swing. But, paradoxically, the blows were now landing far harder than the blows of the previous blade.
Before, Seija was slowly overwhelming Saboten's stamina as every time he swung the katana she would turn the blade away or interrupt the swing before it could pick up speed, or even before Saboten could find an angle to attack from in the first place. Now that Saboten was wielding these shorter, less unwieldy blades, it was Seija who briefly found herself on the back foot.
But she was not without defenses, and his switch in style was not without consequences.
'Ugh... Hmm, his swings are so much faster now... however...'
*Clang*
She knocked away a strike aimed at her left side and stuck out with a jab, causing him to groan as her fingers dug into his left bicep. Her Sharingan recorded in fine detail the spasms of the muscles in his arm, and she grinned as she dodged towards the side she'd struck, far outside the angle that his right blade could strike her from.
Saboten quickly got his arm back under control, but the momentary wince in his eyes told her that moving that limb wasn't going to be painless anymore.
'He's increased his speed, and his attacks are more vicious, but he clearly isn't anywhere near as practiced in this style as he was with Iaijutsu. He's full of openings, and it doesn't take a genius to know that that's a bad thing for him.' Seija had realised. It was especially bad for Saboten in particular as he was fighting a wielder of the Gentle Fist.
With every blow Seija landed, she could shut off one of his Chakra Points. She'd only landed a sparse few hits scattered across his body so far; once on his right shoulder, once on his left bicep, and twice in the area around his right thigh and hip. But those strikes could build up more and more and eventually the chakra pathways to his limbs should start to malfunction, finally shutting down altogether once enough damage built up.
That was what she was aiming for, and it didn't seem like her foe had realised it yet.
She struck out again and clicked her tongue when he managed to meet her strikes with his blades this time. Clearly he hadn't slowed down much, yet.
- - -
As she parried his blows again and again she started to notice something odd.
'The movements of his muscles are shifting. Is he changing his target?' Seija wondered.
Thus far Saboten had aimed almost exclusively for her neck and torso, which was likely a hold-over from his Iaijutsu techniques that were designed to kill in a single strike. Seija had gotten used to these movements and had recorded them with her Sharingan, but now his aim was shifting.
Frustrated that she couldn't figure him out, Seija lashed out with her left hand towards Saboten's neck, forcing him to move and hopefully reveal his strategy.
But Seija only realised that this was a mistake after he tilted his head, evading the blow as a mad grin spread across his face.
"I have you now, girl!" He shouted as his right wakizashi tore through the air towards her head yet again.
She quickly retracted the arm she'd used to attack him and blocked the heavy blow, causing a spray of sparks to fly from the back of her hand. She thought she'd blocked the worst of it... but that attack was only a distraction.
His left blade, which she'd believed would be aimed at her neck from the other side, slipped past her defending right hand and cut towards a different target:
Her left hand, which was stuck blocking his other blade!
'SHIT!'
*Clang- Crack!*
Sparks flew.
'[Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm!]'
Seija eyes went wide as a loud clash of metal echoed throughout the area and she took the only chance she had while both of his weapons were occupied to hammer a Vacuum Palm strike into his gut with her right hand, causing him to cough up blood and launching him away from her. A solid hit that would close off three or four chakra points in his torso...
But, looking down at her left hand and removing what remained of her shredded glove, the damage she'd received from the interaction had evidently been far worse.
Deep cracks criss-crossed through the steel flesh, some wrapping around her fingers, and one huge one on the palm of her hand that she could almost see right through. If she used that hand for defense anymore, it'd shatter like glass, and she wasn't skilled enough to repair it using her Steel Release. She imagined that it could be possible if she had learned enough about the Kekkei Genkai to create weapons from the metal, as then she could simply manipulate the steel to fuse back together...
*Sigh*
For now, all she could do was change tactics to accommodate this weakness.
Looking back up at her foe, she saw that Saboten was quickly rising to his feet, but wasn't as steady as he had been. The damage to his core muscles must have been even more painful than what was done to his arm. But with the sparse and scattered nature of the hits she'd landed, it was clear that her plan to slowly wear him down with the Gentle Fist was a total wash.
Her hands wove through the signs for a Wind Style Ninjutsu. She might not be able to use the damaged hand to take a hit anymore, but at least she could still move it and channel chakra through it.
'Rat... Rabbit... Dog..'
"Oi, Saboten." Seija called out to the samurai who had risen to his feet and - seeing her weaving hand signs - put up his guard with both of his electrified blades crossed in front of him. She smiled seeing his reaction.
Because it was the wrong one.
'You're gonna want to dodge this one, man.' Seija mused as she inhaled deeply and felt a significant portion of her remaining chakra drain into the technique...
...Charging the strongest Wind Style attack she had learned from Danzo's collection.
"[Wind Style: Great Vacuum Sphere!]"
She exhaled through the Seals inside her mask that allowed air to pass through, launching a huge, roiling sphere of wind straight towards her enemy, who braced himself for the attack.
*Thoom*
Saboten grimaced as his blades met the technique and his arms and legs began to shake and buckle under the sheer force of the attack. The Lightning chakra he had infused into his weapons was torn away and blended into nothing by her Jutsu. He quickly cancelled the technique, swapping the electricity out for regular chakra in an effort to maintain his defence and reduce his chakra expenditure.
Dust scattered as the ball of wind altered the air currents in the surrounding area, before finally petering out after several seconds passed in stalemate.
Seija panted and felt the weight of her metal limbs dragging her down more and more as her chakra supply dwindled. Clenching her teeth, she let the last shadow clone she'd left guarding Kyusuke dispel, returning its chakra and memories to her.
Briefly reviewing the memories, she was relieved to find that the clone hadn't needed to spend any of its stored chakra. Kyusuke, Kie, and Daibutsu were all safe, hiding in a bunker made from Kyusuke's Lava Release: Quicklime. They hadn't run into any other enemies, and none of Saboten's initial flying slashes had struck them.
With her chakra restored to about twenty two percent of her maximum, she gazed through the dust with her Byakugan...
'Fucking hell, samurai... Just go down!'
...To see the Jonin-samurai stagger to his feet once more.
He was definitely in worse condition overall than she was. His chain-mesh shirt was completely torn away, leaving his upper body completely bare. His chest and arms were covered with tiny, bleeding cuts from her Wind Style, and several large bruises marked the spots she'd struck with her fingers and palms. The edges of his blades were also chipped and damaged, and he wasn't channelling chakra into them any more. It was difficult to tell even for Seija without spending the chakra to activate her Mind's Eye of Kagura, but she got the feeling that he had even less chakra left than she did.
He gasped for air as he shook himself and stepped forward.
*Cough*
"Well... I certainly never thought this could be my fate. Defeated by a child? If a fortune teller told me that yesterday I would have probably punched them." He chuckled and raised his damaged blades.
"I suppose I will have to work to ensure that that is not my ultimate fate. Your hand is broken, girl. I can see it. With only one hand to defend yourself, how will you face me, Seija of the Akatsuki?"
Hearing his words, she looked back at her damaged hand again. It was true, even if he didn't have the chakra to enhance his blades' cutting power anymore, she doubted that she would be able to keep up with his attacks with only one hand to block them. The physical force of the strike alone could still cause her to lose fingers from the damaged hand if she tried to continue using both.
For many shinobi, a situation like this would be enough to make them panic and try something desperate in order to survive. Now, Seija wasn't panicking per-se. Sure her heart was hammering in her chest, but that was from the thrill of the fight, rather than fear.
Still... She wasn't above a little desperate action herself. Her plan to slowly wear him down had completely fallen through.
All she could do now was take a risk.
"You wanna know something, Saboten?" She asked the samurai, who continued to slowly walk towards her even as she spoke, "I've got this trick, you see. It's restricted by how 'worthy' I am to use it. If I'm not worthy enough, it'll probably fail to slow you down at all."
Saboten raised an eyebrow but continued walking.
Seija squinted. Scratch that... he was definitely getting faster with every step. He was almost running now.
'Better get a move on I guess.' Seija internally shrugged.
"But here's the thing, Saboten. I'm standing here, a little over eleven years old, fighting a Jonin-level combatant more than double my age." She said as Saboten's glare hardened and he broke into a dead sprint. She quickly hammered out five hand signs rapid-fire.
"So... right now... I'm feeling pretty god-damn worthy!"
A splatter of blood poured from her left hand as she deactivated the Steel Release flowing through it. Before the pain could register and cause her movements to falter, she slammed the blood-covered palm on the ground in front of her as Saboten leapt into range to cut off her head.
"[Summoning Jutsu...]"
- - -
An immense cloud of smoke burst from her hand and an ear-splitting, feline snarl hammered into Saboten's eardrums, staggering him like he'd just taken a baseball bat to the head. In his dazed state, it was a pure miracle that he managed to get both his blades up in time to block the incoming attack through the whispy haze of her Jutsu. A giant, spiked tail - longer than his whole body - shattered his left wakizashi on impact, the shockwave running up his arms and making his muscles sting. He was forced back, sliding on the wet ground as he regained his footing and raised his remaining blade in case whatever just hit him tried to do so again.
"[...Nargacuga]"
The smoke cleared and Saboten's jaw dropped. A quadrupedal monster, massive enough to pull an entire merchant's convoy behind it with a rope, stood protectively over his bloodied foe. It was large enough that she could comfortably sit beneath its chest as it towered over her.
She laughed - cackled, even - as she knelt on the gound holding her blood-soaked hand by the wrist.
"Hahahaha! Aahhh... fucking hell! My hand really fucking hurts, you know that, Saboten? Guess that's the price I pay for slapping it on the damned floor while it's all torn up like this..."
She took heavy breaths between each sentence. Saboten figured that she must have completely exhausted herself by summoning such a powerful beast. All he had to do was defeat it, or somehow get around it, and she would be completely defenseless!
After a split-second decision, he swapped his remaining wakizashi to his empty left hand, and his right hand fell back on the hilt of his katana, still sheathed at his waist. It wasn't ideal for him, since the katana was made to be swung with two hands, not one, but he didn't have the luxury of choosing between his remaining blades. The beast had shattered one of his weapons with a single swipe of its tail, and he couldn't afford to be left empty-handed if he ever needed to block it again.
Saboten pushed a tiny sliver of chakra into his legs and Body Flickered to the left, aiming to get around the beast's side and lure it into flinching or moving to face him. He hoped to get it away from its summoner, so that he could finish it off.
To his shock, Nargacuga's eyes tracked his movement perfectly, following his every step. He heard Seija chuckle again.
"You don't have to worry about me, Narga. You can run! You can chase! Go get him, full speed!" She shouted up to her summon's head.
In an instant, Saboten was forced to pivot on the spot and Body Flicker again as the creature's bladed wing suddenly shot past him.
'What in the world?! This creature's acceleration is absurd! It crossed the distance between us faster than I can move at top speed!'
He glanced over his shoulder to see the monster skid to a halt and turn to leap again. Thinking fast, he jumped, letting the creature's sudden attack strike him on its second try. With his feet off the gound, the force it could transfer into his crossed blades was lowered, and he let the blow launch him away to a safe distance.
*Clang!*
But it wasn't safe for long. The Nargacuga pressed the attack, performing the same dash yet again, and forcing Saboten to allow himself to be thrown yet again. This repeated twice more until the creature seemingly grew tired of using the same tactic over and over to little effect. After the fifth leap it dug one of its front claws into the ground and used it as an anchor point to swing its body around, its tail rippling with sharpened feathers.
Saboten pushed as much energy into his arms as he could when the beast's tail whipped through the air in front of him, launching a hail of those feathers at him like a shower of kunai. His blades whirled in front of him, slicing as many of the natural projectiles as he could before a second volley forced him to run away once more.
Two feathers stuck into his body, and Saboten couldn't tell if they had struck his vitals or not. They probably hurt like hell, that he was certain of, but his body was flooded with so much adrenaline at this point that he barely felt it.
He realised that he had one tiny opportunity while the monster unstuck its claw from the ground to survey the battlefield. To search for some way to close the distance to his enemy.
The summon had forced him over fifty meters away from his target, who was still kneeling on the ground creating a glowing light within her palm. Likely tending to her wounds. She must have been confident in the creature's ability to slay him.
Saboten swore that he would prove her wrong.
'Maybe... Aha! That might just work! It'll be risky, but it's my only shot... I have to do it! I MUST NOT DIE HERE!!!' Saboten's mind roared as he put his plan into action.
He channeled chakra into his blade, dropping him to less than three percent of his maximum energy remaining, but it was worth it!
"[Kenjutsu: Flash!]" He called out as he swung his wakizashi, launching a flying blade of pure chakra towards the black-furred beast. The blade cut a shallow gash into Nargacuga's back, causing it to snarl again in rage, and he felt its eyes lock on to him as if it were some sort of primal instinct. The creature charged at him again, its speed accelerating to the point where its movements became a blur.
'NOW!'
*CLASH!*
He jumped and swung his wakizashi at the incoming wing-blade, trying to generate as much force from the impact as possible. In mid air, he used his shattering blade to redirect the trajectory of his flight, abusing the monster's own speed and strength to catapult himself...
...Straight towards Seija's position!
He let the hilt of the sundered wakizashi drop from his hand as he sheathed his katana mid-flight. He let the last drops of his chakra - besides that which he would need to still live after he slew his foe - funnel into his blade as he screamed through the air towards her faster than he could ever move with the power of his own legs.
"The power of your own summon is about to be your downfall, SEIJA OF THE AKATSUKI!" He roared as he closed the distance in his flight. He saw Seija look up at him and stagger to her feet, and he was stunned by her determination as she began sprinting straight at him!
His thumb pressed against his katana's tsuba and he felt the *click* of the blade's release shudder through his fingers.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the gap between the two closed.
Five meters. His blade began to leave its sheath and his foe pulled back her less-damaged right hand. He could see the glowing light up-close now. It was some sort of spherical ball of blinding-white chakra.
Four meters. His eyes widened in shock as the girl's mask dropped from her face. It wasn't held up by straps or strings, so it must've been stuck on with chakra. The same principle as the Leaf Sticking exercise.
Three meters. The tip of his blade finally left the sheath! Just a couple more meters, one more split second, and his blade would remove the girl's head for good!
Then, in the tiny microsecond before the distance could close to two meters...
He met her gaze. The real face beneath her mask.
'W... h... a... t...'
His arm stopped moving, right as the blade left its sheath, and she thrust the spherical Jutsu forwards. His thoughts had slowed to a crawl, and his body no longer responded to his commands.
All he could see was a pair of swirling red eyes.
'Ah...'
Saboten sighed within the deepest depths of his mind.
'I am sorry, Lord Mifune... I am afraid we will not be having... our... rematch.....'
And thus, with his blade halted mid-swing...
Saboten Kurogane's chest met the swirling chakra core of Seija's Rasengan.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone