A Fight to the Death, Water vs Shadows. ((Non-canon))

Setting:

A clear evening sky sets upon a vast mountain range with the center contain a deep reveen that then feeds into the tallest mountain of them all. Dotting this mountain numerous rivers, small ponds, and hot springs, hinting to a more sinister nature. Numerous crevices and caves let loose a light gray smoke that flows out effortlessly. While the over all mountain gives off the illusion of stability, this is not the case. The pseudo sturdy structure is anything but, with a loose build and hardly any molecular adhesive holding it together, rock and mud slides frequent its slopes. Yet the true illusion lies in its appearance as a mountain.


Senko found himself at the peak, the crater that deep inwards was filled with boiling water. This boiling lake was easily two miles wide and a mile and half in length.... there were some shallows but they appeared to quickly drop off to depths which could not be viewed with normal eyes. Digits had been placed in pockets, and his gray garb loosely danced around his slim figure as the wind passed by kissing his tanned cheeks. The red scarf that wrapped around his his neck and traveled down both of his forearms holding firmly to his body. A sigh escaped his lips as anticipation grew.... this place... it was suitable for what was about to go down.

When knowledge of a battle was afoot, a fighter always placed themselves at the most beneficial point of the field—thus Amaya, being the distant fighter she was, would be found upon one of the smaller mountains that marked the halfway point of the boiling lake/spring. While she would have preferred to be at the highest point of the mountains, Senko had occupied the space—but this would be sufficient enough. She could see the boiling water, which she would without a doubt use to her advantage and she was high enough and far enough to see his every move without being too close. In addition, all the other water beds were very nice allies as well. Details were unnecessary. Grasping the flute within her head, a prideful and excited grin flourished. Finally she’d be able to test her skills one someone worthy.

Senko shifted as he brought his gaze to look down upon Amaya, a frown moving across his visage. There she was, the traitor, she had left them for Oto... she had to be destroyed. Senko wouldn't give her a chance, he wouldn't hold anything back. Friendship would not be a factor, and emotion would be discarded for pure tactical thoughts. Suddenly his form would disappear into his own shadow, vanishing without a trace.

Within the realm of shadows Senko's hands moved together forming several seals. Suddenly a poof of smoke would burst from around him, and as it cleared two shadow clones would be floating next to him in the darkness. With a simple nod of his to the left, one of the shadow clones would shift its form forward moving through a portal. This shadow clones digits ran together chaining together seals, and as it burst from the portal its left hand would thrust out and up near its mouth, its index and thumb touching forming a loop. A deep exhale given as a freezing cold stream of gel shot out towards Amaya. This shadow clone had appeared from the shadow cast by a rock about 25 yards below and to the right of Amaya.

Senko was right when he thought emotions should be cast aside to the wind. Amaya had chosen a new family, new friends—everyone else didn’t matter. And as an assassin for Oto, her job was to destroy the biggest threat to their cause. Amaya couldn’t think of anyone better to destroy first but Senko—his powers expanded too quickly and too greatly to be left alive too long. Thus Amaya placed her flute to her lips—she had made her choice.

When Senko was within the shadows, there was little Amaya could do but prepare and prepare she did. Senko couldn’t hear the melody being played, but as he was casting his jutsu so was she. Amaya knew he could reappear where ever a shadow was [her biggest concern being her own]. While his transition made her blind, it made him blind as well.

Tsuin no jutsu… Boyou Mira Baria

The boiling water rippled in four places if Senko eyes could see that’s all that would be seen. When Amaya caught him appeared in her peripheral view, his mouth open to obviously propel something at her, Amaya leaped forward towards the lake, landing uncannily it seemed on something in midair before she leaped again and settled on a warm rock protruding from the spring’s surface. However, being perplexed from this or even witnessing it would have to wait because Senko might notice the scenery distorting about 10 yards to his left, he would not have the time to see a distinct outline, but a large tendril of water was slamming down towards his form. Invisible until it attacked.

Amaya had combined her Water Mirror Barrier and her Mizu Buyou—a jutsu mixed with a genjutsu to made her tendrils completely invisible until their large movements, distorted the reflective images. Gradual movements, kept them invisible though. Four ripples revealed that there were four tendrils, but Senko was in the darkness when this happened. Their locations, except the one that attacked, a mystery to all but Amaya.

Senko shifted his free hand up instantly placing a single glowing finger within the stream of gel as he readjusted the size of the hole between the index and thumb. Immediately the stream split sending a sudden burst of the gel towards the tendril, the other portion of the stream now directed at Amaya's new location. The gel upon impact with the water, even though it was boiling, would instantly freeze the tendril in place, due to how cold it was. Of course the fact that the tendril was composed of boiling water would mean that the gel would begin to rapidly heat. This subject of course would be touched on later.

Now it was also obvious that Amaya had planned a trap, and this meant that there could be several others waiting for him. So with little thought, Senko would maneuver his fingers so that the stream of liquid would travel in a 180 degree path and saturate everything around him, hopefully deep freezing anymore of the girls surprises. Amaya was good, but a trick like that was purely inane, and would not be nearly good enough.

The delicate thing about her tendrils were that they could dodge with greater agility then their conjurer and thus scenery disrupted again as the invisible ribbons of water distorted their reflections, curving down and under the spray of liquid till it passed, before two [only two] of them jolted up and begun to spin together in a rapid dance. If the water was visible it would looking at a spinning drill.

What was the point of this if the water was already powerful enough to spear him though?

Aside from assurance, remember that scenery was distorting with their movements, it was the only reason Senko was able to see them, by spinning together rapidly, the world was swirl around in an chaotic maelstrom of colors. As if looking into a hypnotic wheel of black and white lines, this would produce the visual effect of dizziness—the world literally looked like it was spinning and make it impossible to tell, if looking directly at the tendril, its distance, speed, exact target. If Senko lacked coordination, staring would mess would with his brain enough to cause an intense lack of balance—making jumping and landing gracefully and on point difficult. The drill of water aimed direction for his chest vicinity once the acid at had. Amaya made the mistake of allowing him to perform another hand signature on the spot, not this time, the drill would be moving at an intense speed at a closer distance. Amaya, of course, was focused to leap again upon immediate landing—she destination towards the mountains behind her. f this was enough, two more ripples were formed in the water 10 yards from the left and right Amaya's next landing point.

Between the spray of the gel and the lurching and activities of the water, the mountain side would become heavily disturbed. This resulted in hundreds of small beige colored lizards darting out from under the rocks and crevices surrounded the mountain. Obviously these little lizards had no intentions of being caught in this battle.... which was good because with the way things were going.... there would not be much of a mountain left when these two were done.

Now Amaya seemed to think that spinning water covered with some fancy shield would distort Senko, and it might very well do so if it would be given a chance to do anything, alas this would not be the cause. The above mentioned gel which was saturating the area was fuel gel. Fuel gel in its stable state is several hundred degrees below zero, and in its unstable state is roughly room temperature. While it was clearly extremely cold right now its ability to absorb heat was astronomical. This ability in itself allowed the fuel gel to freeze other objects, it was also this ability which allowed the fuel gel to reach an unstable temperature in seconds. A sudden explosion would annoyance itself when massive amounts of debris and flaming material shot out. Senko's form would immediately be consumed in the explosion, and while the tendrils might be invisible, they were not impervious to damage. Regardless of how swift they were, escaping a giant omni-directional shock wave would be nearly impossible.

Phase II even after the explosion cleared there would still be hundreds of flames burning brightly and beautifully across a good portion of the mountain. But where was Senko? He had been lost somewhere within the explosion, his form concealed in the bright light. And now that the explosion had cleared? Senko's form was well above the battle field, several hundred feet above it. Gliding ever downward towards Amaya, his digits holding roughly thirty four shuriken with red tips. His arms darted out as he saturated the shuriken with positive chakra, and then released them giving them a burst of negative charka causing them sail downwards towards his opponent at hypersonic speeds.

Amaya landed...good thing she was on the other side of the lake. The explosion was surprising and not to mention frustrating—that liquid made her tendrils very difficult to maneuver easily towards him, but that would not be her concern right now. Amaya knew damn well that Senko wouldn't saturate the area surrounding him with an explosive substance—specifically explosive in the presence of boiling water—on accident with her sending catalysts left and right. That was clearly a tactic. Thus the first thing Amaya did when Senko disappeared within the flames was glance around the area—was he in a shadow or the surrounding area? A glance left, right, up—Senko was spotted, armed with shuriken. And while Amaya wouldn’t be able to dodge something moving at sound speed, she could produce something that did. Unaware of the speed the shuriken were going to present, she merely tried to hit him before he threw them. A new melody was played.

Kyoushin

The melody burst from Maboroshi Yokobue as the tools were thrown and her resonance waves met metal half way between the airborne Senko and the grounded Amaya. The tricky part would be the reaction, her waves made substances vibrate and shatter, but would they activate the red tips beforehand? Amaya assumed them to be explosive. Would they explode though? If so, Senko would be falling into an explosion, shot back and would have to deal with her resonance wave [which silly shuriken couldn't stop], while being tossed. If not—he’s luckily only have to deal with the resonance wave and pieces of sharp metal alone in midflight.

Meanwhile, Amaya took the time to distance herself once again. Senko was air born and thus she didn’t have to worry about him popping from a shadow behind her—thus she leaped backwards from mountain ledge to mountain ledge, Kyoushin still playing and the waves pulsating forward in Senko’s general direction. She didn’t want to shatter the mountains she was landing on afterall.

Sadly it seemed that Amaya misunderstood the concept of resonance. There was no general resonance for everything. Resonance was matching the frequency of something be it sound, or light, or whatever, to the frequency which another object vibrates at. This she obviously understand, what she failed to understand is that the resonance of say something like steel, was different from glass, which was different from water, which was different from diamond. There wasn't a single all encompassing frequency that affected all of them. So the choice came down to, was she trying to vibrate Senko apart, or the shuriken? And even if Amaya opted to vibrate the Shuriken apart, and then switch notes to say match the resonance of water in Senko's body, or to match the resonance of calcium and break his bones, or whatever nature was irrelevant.

So the assumption would be made that Amaya's ultimate goal was most likely to destroy the shuriken, not Senko. Since she clearly stated she couldn't avoid something moving at ultrasonic speeds. This would cause the shuriken to crack, not break apart. This was in fact due to their composition. Rather than being only of iron or steel, they were made of flint, obsidian, steel, and contained fuel gel, meaning that several different frequencies would have to be met to compromise the whole structure. This break would of course happen in the steel, since this would most likely be the resonance that Amaya was attempting to target initially.

The results?

Amaya would not destroy Senko with the wave of sound, rather his form would simply travel through the tune, the shuriken would have their structural integrity compromised, but would not shatter, but rather soften. So that when they did impact whatever object that they would hit, they did not produce the needed spark but rather splattered spreading fuel gel everywhere. Since there were a total of thirty four shuriken and they were not thrown specifically at Amaya but rather the area she occupied, it meant that she'd only need to avoid a few of them, given leaping through the air increased her chances of hitting more. And even if she did get hit she would only be covered in a small amount of fuel gel and maybe gain a few small cuts and scratches from the obsidian.

The counter.

When Amaya landed on the next surface, if she was observant, she would notice a small lizard standing on it. As her foot touched the surface the lizards form would suddenly expand and then a powerful and devastating explosion would rip from it causing rock based shrapnel to fly in every which direction. Why?

Senko and a second shadow clone were still within the shadow realm, utilizing the Kage hentai technique, Senko had converted this shadow clone into one of the lizards, had it exit the shadow realm through Amaya's forming shadow which was generated while in the process of landing, and then utilized his ability to cause the shadow clone to explode, effectively creating a concealed proximity mine. Now the power of the explosion is obviously dependent on the amount of chakra contained within the clone, and while Senko's clones did not have a massive amount of chakra, they had enough to cause minor burns, broken bones, and dislocations. Fortunately any shrapnel generated by the explosion would not have enough force backing it to pierce deep enough into the female to damage vitals.

This presented a problem in which Amaya would have to utilize an intense matter of thinking in a very short around of time. Starting from the beginning, Amaya leapt into the air with no intention of placing herself within the path of the shuriken that she could see so obviously in front of her, but at the same time, her resonance waves were supposed to shatter the shuriken—not Senko [although she did expect some matter of effect from a sound that would have to be pinched enough to scatter steel in the first place]. When this turned out not to be the result, things became very difficult very quickly.
The first problem was the shuriken coming at her whilst she jumped. Amaya's tactic had failed in countering them but succeeded in revealing the secret about the shuriken—the damn fuel gel. Luckily the gel had been forced from the shuriken and thus was not traveling at the high speeds with the tools, but it still presented a problem and was still traveling fast. Knowing the nature of this liquid allowed a plan. Good thing her fingers moved fast because this would all be done before she landed.

Phase one—When Kyoushin was formed the mizu buyou was dropped and the two additional tendrils that had formed near her landing spot were revealed and began to drop. However, Kyoushin was a fast technique and when it did not work and a new situation presented itself, the mizu buyou was activated again before the tendrils got chance to fall more than a foot. They activated again and the closest one, the one she leaped backwards towards, swirled in the form of a rainbow and was used as a shield, freezing immediately upon contact. Most of gel came in contact with this large tendril while a few hit the ground around her.

Phase two— Mizu Buyou was a general water controlling technique, this included ice that incased with his fuel gel. It shattered as if hit with a resonance and hundreds of piece propelled at the fallen Senko. However, they had gotten perhaps several feet from contact before her second tendril, closest to Senko, washed over the pieces. The pieces were heated along enough for the shadow clone to fall just a little more…then—Explosions. Each piece exploded many, mini bombs setting off until the sky was filled with fire.

Now for Amaya’s problem that she didn’t know about. Midst playing, Amaya had to check to see where she was landing in order to obtain accuracy. Perhaps it was luck that she noticed a lizard crawling from her shadow, but it alarmed her enough. However, she couldn’t do anything about it—all her falling time was spent on the shadow clone. What could a lizard do to her though? Amaya would guess it was physical. Amaya's feet landed a new melody just beginning to transpire when the explosion occurred. Though the initial pain, she managed to finish the melody.

Suika no Jutsu


Amaya’s form vanished and water was scattered from the explosion, droplets dispersing within the air before they gathered together again and formed a falling Amaya who hit the ground harshly. She was bruised, bleeding, but whole. The jutsu had reduced the damage to the point where her bones would be intact, only experiencing the beginning of the explosion. She stood and took in the environment once again.

The clone was an irrelevant factor, if Amaya wanted to focus time and energy on destroying it, let her. The clone would be caught in the numerous mini-bombs and explode into a poof of smoke, all for the better anyway. Now a little known fact, the knowledge that shadow clones obtain he transferred to the caster upon their dispersal. What was relevant about this? Amaya's exact position as she fell.

While the shadow clone was destroy, the combination of jutsu, and explosions would most likely coincide with the explosion of the other clone. Human's fell at a rate of 1.8 meters per second, so unless she had put herself way up there in the air the transition time between gel interception, redirection, and explosion would be close enough to a few seconds. This being said the shadow clone would have one final use, observing Amaya reappearing and falling as it was then destroyed.

Significance?

In the time span between events, Senko had produced one more shadow clone, and with the knowledge gained by the other two clones, his hand would move to a single pouch and produce a normal kunai which would be thrown through a shadow portal. His own form exiting through a different portal all together, while the shadow clone remained hidden within the shadow realm.

As Amaya approached the ground to land, a kunai would burst from the forming shadow, its tip set to embed itself deep in her left thigh. A less than lethal hit, but one that could be debilitating none the less. Senko's form would emerge from the shadows several yards to her right, his hands chaining together the last set of seals. Suddenly his shadow would extend and become more defined, its appearance holding enough details for someone to mistake it for a painting of a person done in all black, rather than being a shadow. Senko's left leg jutted out in a snap kick like fashion, as if he were fighting an invisible fiend in the air, and as he did so the corresponding limb of his shadow moved out towards Amaya's shadow.

The explosion had taught Amaya not to turn her back to a backing unless she had no choice. She mentally lectured herself for every allowing herself to think she was safe from one in the first place. And the annoying fact that what she had been fighting as a shadow clone, told her and even now there could a multitude of them hiding in that shadow realm. If she lived through she, she swore she was going to develop a technique specially to kick shadow people’s asses. Anyway, as stated, she learned not to turn her back to a shadow and thus when the water formed back into her body, she was facing the shadow, saw the kunai and easily deflected it with her flute. Amaya saw Senko from her peripheral view as she landed, flute to her mouth again.

As cool as that technique might have been, Amaya wasn’t going to allow whatever he meant to do occur when she was so close. She him forming, she started playing. Accept her jutsu was faster than his in a sense of sound. It was meant to be, to beat forming signals.

Keisei no Mugon

The song of silence penetrated the air and in a matter of expectations, should have canceled his jutsu. But Amaya wasn’t done.

Tsuin no Keisei…Ookami Kirigakure

Amaya disappeared behind a blanket of mist. Immediately after her disappearance, Senko was attacked—by the very mist that covered him. Originally her Ookami Mizu turned water into a vicious wolf and while Kirigakure Ookami would have a less impacting effect, you couldn’t run from it as long as you were in the mist. Completely surrounding Senko, random wolf heads would appear around his body, condensing striking his skin with the forced of many sharp needles. Almost as immediately at the wolf head struck, it vanished and appeared again in another spot. The acts were so random and so quick that patterning and predicting their movements were near impossible. It was like a swarm of bees attacking his body and as long as he was within the mist, they’d be there. Having the effect of needles, they issued painful cuts all over the body--constant pain so long as they kept striking.

Amaya had fucked herself really. To say that Amaya could spin out a tune faster than Senko could finish the hand seals for a justu he had almost finished was questionable. Never mind the fact that it wasn't a controlled fall, and that she'd previously stated she hit the ground, or the fact that she was falling face to the ground and would need to catch herself, or especially since she would have to land and pick herself back up, and the flute wasn't readily at her lips. She had moved it to block a kunai by her thigh. BUT who cares. WHAT was important now was the mist. Amaya had provided Senko with unlimited shadows, allowing for him to transition into a completely different technique. As Amaya switched tunes Senko's hands switched to a different set of seals. Sakashima Kage Oni Kagami!

This technique was a combination of shadow boxing and shadow meld, and what it allowed was for Senko to effectively avoid every single attack dished out at him. His true form became that of a shadow, and where he once stood a three dimensional illusion of him now existed. The physical manifestation of Senko was Senko's shadow, and Senko's shadow, was the physical Senko. This would be a continuation of his previous attack, a front snap kick directed at Amaya. Now, since Amaya did not move and only disappeared within a blanket of mist/fog, meaning that she was no longer visible due to this, and no mention of physical location changing was made. It could be assumed that this shadow kick would indeed close in on her, even if it didn't hit.

As the shadow closed in, almost instantly mind you since the speed of shadow is relative to the lack of light, and since when light is blocked the shadow forms once the last of the light rays that weren't blocked have passed by, gives the speed of a shadow the relative speed of light. Which at this distance would be nearly instant. So anyway as the shadow closed in from it would burst the shadow clone, his fist jutting out for Amaya's face. Yet the true surprise of this technique was not the shadow clone, but what would come from it.

The shadow that the shadow clone had popped out of would vanish instantly, and the shadow clones form would instantly ripple causing it to fall apart. Yet as it fell apart another form would burst from it, that of Senko's. His right hand jutting out, the sound of electricity crackling radiating from it.

The play out of events:

Amaya generated her wolf fog, senko converted into a shadow, even if the wolf fog was canceled seconds later it would mater. Because almost immediately after Senko converted into a shadow, his range extended to Amaya, and a shadow clone burst from the shadow. At this point Senko used the shadow walking ability to transfer through the shadow clone and inches away from Amaya. This would all happen before she could stop playing her current song and initiate different one. The significance of this all? The crackling right hand would contain concentrated electrical energy which would immediately discharged at Amaya's mid section. At this range a lightning bolt would probably be moving too fast to dodge, and with its concentrated piercing intent, the metal of the flute would not attract it. Rather it would simply burn a eight inch hole straight through Amaya. A kick, punch, or leap back would prove unable to change the outcome as jumping back from the shadow clone would not generate enough distance, and kicking or punching it would not be able to destroy it fast enough to prevent Senko from traveling through it, and since Amaya was by no means a taijutsu specialist, as she even admitted at the beginning of the fight, it seemed improbable for her to strike Senko in this short time frame. OF course, even if she did hit him, it would not stop the deadly kill blow.

Describing the disappointment of her mist wolves not working was irrelevant, only the move to avoid the deathblow. Senko mentioned that her flute would not attract the blow because of its penetrating strike—while her flute was in fact metal, it did not attract lightning and electricity because of this—in fact it did not attract it at all. Her flute was used to channel charka and the reason lightning was absorbed by it was because it was pure energy in no matter what form it struck.

Amaya should have moved away in the mist, and while she was surprised that Senko knew exactly where she was [despite a lack of mentioning her movement], it did not stop her from one: seeing the shadow elongate towards her, and two: seeing the shadow clone moments before electricity came into her vision. Amaya’s instinct was to jump back, but seeing the electricity caused her to lower her flute in its direction of fire, knowing it nature to absorb. She wasn’t fast enough to block the attack, but her flute did hit the top of his hand, moments before contact. Thus, the flute took the initial blow of the electricity and absorbed it—like it had done so many times her their previous battles as allies—but as also in the battle, the flute never absorbed all of the energy and Amaya was sending skidding back from the blow.

Her stomach was nude due to her choice of clothing and thus was thatched and burned from the electricity. Blood lightly streamed for the five points his fingers touched her and she shivered from the pain. Her flute vibrated violently within her hands, sparkling with electricity. Skidding across the ground she maintained balance, her flute immediately rose to her lips, charged with his electricity. The mist was clearing but Amaya did not hesitate to leap to the side in case Senko made a quick follow up to his attack, the mist giving her a few last moments of cover. She landed upon another boulder protruding from the hot spring.

Keisei no Mugon…

When the song of silence was played and with charged energy, it became Amaya’s most devastating song. Aimed at his charka gates, the song played with an amazing effect of shutting them off. The potency of Senko electricity was not enough to charge her flute for a permanent effect—but it would last a couple hours—this battle wouldn’t last that long.

Senko knew taijutsu and Amaya knew this. However, he couldn’t retreat into shadows and if he punched her, couldn’t use his charka to implode her body from the inside out. Amaya prepared to either switch her jutsu or move again. It depending on if Senko was even hit by her attack.

Senko's left eye brow tilted up as he watched Amaya play. He was familiar with this technique, he had seen it once before, of course on a much greater level. If Amaya wanted to negate Senko's jutsu by closing down his chakra ports, then she was going to be in a huge surprise. As Amaya completed her song of silence Senko would release a massive amount of built up spiritual energy into the area around. This invisible energy had an odd effect on people who lacked high spiritual energy, and since Amaya was not a Holy man/woman, nor had she been reborn as a shinigami much like Senko, it was safe to assume that she had no natural defense to this. Now the effect cast by high amounts of spiritual energy is known as Spiritual Pressure, due to the overwhelming potency of this energy type people who are exposed to it feel as if gravity had suddenly multiple five fold, making them fall to the ground, if they are strong willed, take to a knee. Natural energy and chakra consumption then speed up as their body freaks out trying to compensate for this new pressure resulting in them fatiguing at an extreme rate. Even if Amaya could stand, her movements would be hampered, and while she would still be able to perform jutsu her chakra would be drained five times faster than normal. Further more the increased pressure on her body would cause her to fatigue from normal easy physical movements.

While obviously these affects weren't permanent the effects would last for several minutes and would happen so suddenly that he doubted she would know what hit her.

His form moved forward, and while he couldn't use chakra to enhance his speed, he was still naturally insanely fast. The gab between them would be closed within a blink of an eye, his left hand thrusting out, open palm moving towards her chest.

Amaya was familiar with the three different types of energy that she had been taught was a part of the body and this was mental, physical, and nature’s energy. Charka was a combination of physical and mental energy, to which she closed off—she was certain the only one left was nature’s energy—but Senko certainly wasn’t standing still. He utilized so many things that she simply did not understand and thus when this new type of energy hit her, Amaya really didn't know what hit her. Legs weakening, she fell to her knees. Again although the mist wasn’t as potent as when first cast, she had used its last fleeting moments to assume the new position upon the lake, but Senko managed to locate her and travel form the mountain and towards the lake without a problem. On top of that using such a different energy that was potent enough to make her feel its effects for several minutes didn’t seem to tire him at all. Even before this mysterious attack, Amaya was running low on energy, using so many techniques along with her charged jutsu just performed, so this didn’t help. If Senko could still utilize his full strength, speed and not to mention this energy—he was still on a well different level than her and she couldn’t win this battle.

But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try. Giving the choice between dying from Senko with still some charka left in her battle, and dying from using up all her charka—Amaya would pick the latter.

The grand part about melodies is that transferring from one song to another didn’t not require a pause and the hell if Amaya was going to stop playing cause she felt a little heavy and drained, Senko suddenly appeared and if he was truly striking a palm to her chest, he’s be disappointed that she had fallen and have to aim his palm downstairs, giving her the time needed to perform shushin and disappear from his sight.

Yes traveling was very, very hard and thus Amaya would only manage to travel another 60 feet away before she was forced to stop upon another hot spring rock, breathing heavily through her noise and hunched to a knee again—but the melody still changed and around Senko, who stood in the middle of the lake, ten smaller tendrils would form two slithering like snakes towards his ankles to tie him down while the eight soared higher into the air, two of those whipping down towards his body. Changing the jutsu would be too strenuous at this point with his energy causing her charka to drain rapidly, Amaya wouldn’t be able to conjure another.

It seemed Amaya was getting closer to her limits, that was unfortunate for her. What was also unfortunate for her was her lack of knowledge regarding Senko, and the seals on his body. While Senko had divulged information to Rin regarding them, Amaya had never been privileged enough to be told about them, or even see them. Upon Senko's back in between his shoulder blades, a large seal had formed. This seal being a combination of three separate seals. The Bat Demon Yasha's cursed seal. The Dragon God Ryujin's Divine Seal, and the judge of the dead, Lord Yama's Ghost Seal. While the last two had been acquired only months ago, the cursed seal of Yasha had been given to him a long time ago, and this seal was very important. It stored both his and ambient chakra in it for his extrasensory jutsu, as well as allowed him to control his other chakra types more effectively. And while this seal had originally been used so that the extrasensory jutsu wouldn't drain the chakra he used for battle, while using it, he was able to tap into as needed for other things. Such as fighting when his natural reserves were depleted, or inaccessible.

The bat wing like portion of the seal on his back began to glow as the chakra was kneaded into his body. Amaya had used shunshin to move away from him and was currently manipulating several tendrils of water. Visible flares of platinum chakra would form around Senko's limbs as the tendrils closed in. His spiritual essence which had been pouring out ceased to saturate the battlefield and merged with the seals released chakra, and as the tendrils wrapped around his legs to hold them in place, they would be met but an unseen force which appeared to be protecting him from the heat and any crushing force they might exert. Senko's form dropped down, his right hand balled in a fist as he slammed it into the rock he stood upon, his chakra flaring out in an ever expanding cylindrical like shape. Yet this wasn't his normal force push through technique. ~Ketatamashii Kaze~ The Piercing Wind!

Water had a single resonance which it responded to, and due to this by matching it once Senko could continuously reproduce this frequency with his chakra. It did not change between humans, animals, water in the air, or water in a pond, it was still the same frequency. So as his chakra resonated outwards into the water source, the water would begin to vibrate and ripple violently, the tendrils which were connected to the water source would almost immediately fall apart, and as Senko's crimson optics shifted over to glare at Amaya, his form would vanish into his own shadow.

After everything that had been happening, Amaya banished that thought of being surprised when Senko was still able to utilize charka somehow—another likely unique trait about him, but she didn’t stop her concentration. This was a matter of his jutsu against hers and the resonance breaking the tendrils would do was buy him time. Amaya could pull the tendril together again moment after their breakage, offering Senko perhaps a mere extra half second leisure to escape, which he utilized before the tendrils destroyed the rock he had landed upon.

Surprisingly Amaya took a seat from her knee as he did so—she had not the energy to run around and would be playing her mizu buyou until Senko managed to reach her. This was a new state of concentration. She would be calm and relax there, digits dancing upon her flute. As a result, the spiritual energy's effects were lightning as she almost seemed to go into a state of meditation. When Amaya went into a calm state as such, focusing on a technique, it ultimately became stronger and faster. Senko might send more shadow clones, he might use more of the fuel gel. Or he might pull some trick of using tools from shadows. Amaya didn't know how long or much a seal could give him charka--in fact for all she knew, he opened his gates again. Five whip sized tendrils accumulated around the rock she rested on which the ten large ones remained placid.

She waited, continuing to play.

It was a shame Amaya didn't move, but rather opted to remain stationary, opting to take a seat. Her ass on the ground, prevented light from reaching the rock, and generated a darker larger shadow than the one she had been casting by just standing on it. AND Senko was once more aware of her location before he vanished.

From the shadow realm Senko's hands ran together forming a series of seals, a black flame forming in his left hand. This phantom flame that burned of obsidian was not a flame, but rather the opposite. It was a phantasm, it did not exist. Rather it was a representation of physical matter at absolute zero. It generated a vacuum which pulled matter and energy in as it tried to warm itself, and matter which had its energy sapped away lost form. This resulted in the flame appearing to burn things. Yet the clue that it did not burn was that it lacked heat, and caused condensation. This small flame within his left hand was thrust forward and through a shadow portal, sending it to the real world.

Under Amaya's ass an explosion of darkness would erupt sending towering phantom flames high into the sky and all around here. She had experienced this powerful jutsu once before, but before it wasn't meant to hit her, now it was. Water would be lifted from the pounds and lacks, loose rocks would become air burn, and the darkness would consume it eating away at everything. Even if Amaya jumped when she felt the chill and pull of the vacuum she would simply be sucked back down into it. And while maybe her water tendrils might be able to position themselves under her, their structure would surely give away before she could even land upon them.

Kage Kaji, a powerful A Ranked jutsu. One of the strongest in Senko's arsenal, and it was extremely chakra consuming. In fact the seal which he utilized to empower himself did not contain enough chakra to use this move, but the blending of spiritual energy which charka produced a more potent energy, which mean less could be done with more. So what state did this leave Senko in? The seal contained 25% of its full load left, and Senko was down to 5% of his full spiritual energy load. The blending of energies would have to end, and Senko returned to just utilizing chakra.

Amaya had of course taken special note of the shadow underneath her and anything, including something that might destroy the rock itself was taken into account and that was why the tendrils were hovering so close to her body. As said, Amaya wasn’t going to move…on her own at least.

In this meditative state that Amaya was in, she was incredibly attentive and her water was able to move as blinding speeds so long as she specifically focused on them and did not move [which of course the exception of her fingers]. She sensed the charka, she saw the explosion of darkness, and interrupted Senko’s plan. It was a familiar feeling that Amaya had already experienced when she first met Senko, and the small tendrils acted. The first, since water did not affect the flames was to distort and destroy the shadow before the flames could flourish to a dangerous level.

Three tendrils amazingly grasped Amaya’s waist and lifted her into the air, pulling her against gravity. With Amaya gone, the shadow was gone as quickly as it came, however in case this wasn't fast enough to block the portal...Meanwhile, rock and shadow were destroyed, the first strike slanting the shadow so the flame's path was diagonal, before the tendrils swirled destroyed the rest of the rock in a blink of an eye just as the flames were beginning the sprout. Without the shadow, the flames could not continue into their world and thus exploded with a back fire into Senko’s dark realm.

How close was Senko to the portal that was suddenly closed? Would his flames bounce directly onto him? Maybe the shadow realm would now be two dangerous to hop in and out. On top of that, Senko could have been weakned by using this technique. Amaya recalled that Senko strained to control these flames at full energy, just how much could he control now? The few that did flourish would fill their purpose in destroying the two tendrils as they destroyed the shadow, but the water did its part. The flames would have no choice but to fall in the water, perhaps the size of a basketball. The black flames seemed to have the ability to destroy water, but the lake was huge. The three tendril’s bases would be destroyed by the flames, tossing her towards her ten large tendrils. Amaya remained in her meditative state.

Amaya did not know if water could ever consume the flames even as gallons collapsed onto her, but it should take some time for the lake to disappear. Amaya was still playing, tunes changing strangely although none of the visible tendrils were moving.

Strange it seemed that even with diminishing energy, Amaya's senses were only sharpening. Senko's right hand moved dispersing the flames through other portals causing them to ignite randomly throughout the battle field at random locations. It seemed that Amaya was catching on to some of his tricks, maybe it was time to change things up? Or maybe it was time to destroy her ability to to defend against him. Senko's analytic mind ran the facts. They were on a mountain dotted with hot springs and other water sources, a crater in the center of the mountain was field with huge amounts of boiling water, smoke and gases were emitted from caves, crevices and other natural forming vents. The conclusion? They in fact were not fighting on a mountain, but something more reminiscent of a volcano. For the hot springs to exist there must be active geothermal activity, this was most likely in the form of magma. Could Senko trigger an eruption? Yes. It was possible. Senko could generate a shadow clone to occupy Amaya, and while the shadow clone fought her, Senko could then dot numerous locations with exploding seals. The exploding seals could be triggered and the explosions would probably create enough seismic activity to cause an eruption. This eruption very well could kill Amaya, but even if it didn't, he could remove the majority of her water sources..... as well as release poisonous fumes into the air.

Senko pondered this a bit longer before a conclusion was ultimately drawn. While this was an excellent plan, and held tons of destructive ability, it simply required way too much time. While time was something that Senko had, he simply had no desire to spend that much on a being as trivial as her. His hands slid together producing another shadow clone. A nod giving to the being as he moved towards a portal and exited it. His form reappearing several thousand yards down the mountain and way out of sight.

Senko's right hand moved as he pulled the red scarf from his form and fed it a small amount of chakra, a poof and the scarf was replaced by the Marquis. The scythes blade gleaming even in the darkness. Maneuvering the staff so that it rested on his shoulder, with the blade behind his head, the tip pointing in the air, Senko would then emerge from the shadow realm behind Amaya. Roughly sixty feet away he stood, silent, simply sizing up the woman. Total chakra levels now at 18%.

Senko, leaving beyond the mountain range would see what was happening beyond its barricades and why Amaya's tunes were playing so frivolously when the tendrils had not moved much at all. Maybe Senko passed a river while he was moving towards his destination, and noticed the water beds were all moving against their natural current and trembling slightly. Then again though, if Senko or his clone had appeared so incredibly far, his may have been out of her melody's reach and the pools of water he was near were perfectly normal. Amaya said that she was going to fight until the very last bit of her charka was gone and she meant it.

Amaya landed on one of the large tendrils, seeming unbothered by it supposedly hot nature, perhaps she was regulating the temperature with her chakra. While sensing Senko should have been a simple matter, his tendency to move through shadows and Amaya already limited sensory array due to her fatigued nature was barricading her ability to sense him retreat to attempt and blow up the mountain. It would have been a very disturbing fact had she known about it, but Amaya merely remained in her meditative state. Senko appeared and Amaya was immediately suspicious. He sized her up and did not attack her, completely unlike Senko to waste time like that...something was definitely amiss but Amaya was no choice but to dismissed it. Learning that Senko always did something devious and tricky when he was within the shadow realm, Amaya keep her senses sharp. For all she knew, this was not Senko. Thus Amaya focused on everything in the environment, her countenance almost seeming tired from looking so relaxed.

She had to continue with her ultimate plan with the mizu buyou. But she couldn't utilize it until she was certain of success.

As soon as Senko appeared, two of the large tendrils lashed down upon the land of which he stood with enough force to create crevasses. The two of them furiously whipped down upon Senko while the others laid passive in wait for his counter or evasive maneuvers.

A single movement would be his defense, the weapon which rested on his shoulder would be brought out and swiped, the blade of the scythe moving through the tendrils of water as they fell. Immediately the lines of chakra, the heat of the boiling water, and the kinetic energy which carried them would be lost within the blade as it greedily devoured all that it touched. In fact the severed portion of the tendrils, which should fall on Senko's form a splash of water, never made him to him, instead vanishing within the weapon. This intense greed, the powerful gluttony of the weapon, that was the might of the Marquis.

Amaya would feel her body being drained, it would become extremely obvious. Why? Because the chakra which flowed from her into the two attacking tendrils, was now being sapped away. Even if the remnants of the tendrils moved away from Senko, chakra would still be pulled from them and consumed. This same concept applied to all that the blade cut. If it were to cut Amaya she would hemorrhage not only blood, but life force, chakra, and maybe even her soul.

As Senko continued to stare down Amaya, a translucent image of a man in a red suit with a red wide brimmed hat would begin to materialize behind Senko.

Thousands of yards away the clones hands ran through a series of seals, its limited chakra source separating and it held a single seal. Negative chakra was saturating this jutsu, and as time passed on it would become apparent as to why.

Although source of draining her charka? Senko was just a hungry little bugger for her energy. This problem was a matter of observation, as her first tendrils were to test to see the effects of that scythe. Though it was an interesting concept of her charka being drained, but this wouldn’t be a much as Senko would have perhaps hopped. Her charka was channeled through the melody, not the water—which was controlled by the melody itself. However, she’d give him the fact that some of her charka was within the water, but it was not connected to her in a continuous manner. He’d get charka with every connection of his scythe, but that was it. Her charka was within the sounds, which channeled into the water—distribution that disconnected her from the water itself. With new tunes and patterns, connections were continuously being severed and rekindled. Sound was fast though, so it obviously couldn’t be visually seen.

As stated before this was matter of observation, when Senko swung down the tendrils, they learned to avoid the scythe. It was an interesting concept, slicing water because water couldn’t be sliced so the scythe seemed to depends on the destroying the charka that controlled it. The tips of the tendrils were disconnected and fell to the ground, more or less perhaps splashing him, but the sides that were still connected to the water burst into a multitude of smaller tendrils, still very much influenced by the music He’d have to slice her flute to stop these tendrils completely. Thus given both the element of surprise and speed, Amaya used the recovery time Senko should have needed after swinging such a large send fifty tendrils with the diameters of large nails jabbed vigilantly at him from head to toe. The point was to not let him rest.

What the...

Senko's clone using the negative charka a mile away, penetrated her meditative state. It was very, very slightly, but it was something out of the ordinary. At least Amaya thought maybe it was another shinobi, gradually the tendril she stood on began to rise higher into the air, the other still focusing on nailing Senko through. The seven passive tendrils still remained in wait, swaying threatening to Senko's every movements like a snake's head, ready to strike like one.

The clones through the series of hand seals again, more negative chakra being generated into the jutsu, his form rippling a little, he was losing the energy to remain stable. A shame but it was an acceptable price to pay.

It seemed that Amaya had some level of false logic. For her tendrils to exist and to defy gravity they required a constant source of chakra. If they didn't have one they would be in a constant state of falling apart and reforming which would prevent them from ever being able to accomplish anything. Further more for them to have a constant source of chakra she would have to continuously feed chakra into them. This of course is for structural integrity only. The fact that they could move up or down, or left or right, jab, and retreat, would require more chakra for movement, and while command based chakra may not be a constant, the chakra which kept the jutsu active was. So unless Amaya was stopping and re initiating the jutsu millions of times per second, their would be a clear connection of chakra to follow from the water, through the sound, to Amaya. Which would mean that the scythe would continue to leech away her energy.

As for Senko's defense, there wouldn't really be a need for one yet. The tendrils would find their forms continuously diminishing and all of their strikes altered. They were compelled to move towards the scythe's blade. Why? Because they were caught within the will of the blades greed and gluttony. Their was a constant act of assimilation going on, after the water had been cut and blade began to eat, generating its own vacuum, it wasn't just eating chakra, it was eating kinetic motion, thermal energy, and the physical mass of the jutsu, the water. Of course the tendrils were connected a large source of water, one that would not be easy to drain away, the point was it the blade was feasting on them, and simply retreating and pulling away wasn't an option. It would be like if a human were in a space shuttle and the hull gave way. Explosive decompression, a powerful vacuum would be generated that would blow everything out of the shuttle. For Amaya, the scythe was space, and the tendrils were the shuttle.

Manuevering the blade so that his right arm crossed over his mid-section, he swung the marquis out causing it to slash horizontally through the air. Yet as it moved the staff of the scythe would extend, the joint that made it rigid releasing one another as muscles and tendons within the living structure stretched. The blade would be extended far enough to catch Amaya with its tip if she didn't move.