The Fifth Raikage looked around examining the losses. Having the might and numbers of the attacking force in mind they were few, there were several casualties and multiple more injured but the injured ones were being taken care of. From the process of healing it appeared that the medical ninja had started treatment well during the battle – their trust for their Lady Raikage was that great that they were willing to leave their backs exposed. Imasu drew her katana and drove it to the ground kneeling by it as it tore through into the snow and ice. Wet and cold chills passed down the woman's body as the water soaked through her trousers and her poncho.
"This lowly swordswoman is sorry for all the casualties, that she is!" Imasu shouted out. Her heart was quite literally eating itself over every life lost. She was trained by some of the world's most potent masters and there she was letting someone die. That was unacceptable, how could these people even tolerate a woman like her as their leader was a complete mystery for the Raikage. A Kumogakure ninja stood up and walked up to the kneeling woman and patted her on the shoulder, "We'll forgive you this but just this once, now get up and do your job, Raikage-sama!" he gently replied. The man knew well that this woman needed to be spoken with differently, she always degraded herself and needed to be berated even more to get anything done. Such was the trauma on her feeble mind that training with Haoru – one of the four swordsmen wielding the God Sword techniques forged. A lifetime of traumatic experiences was not easily broken, still, seeing how she was the Raikage even as one handled Imasu the way she needed to be handled she still had to be respected which constantly made insults sound rather weird.
"Water Style: Water Trinity Jutsu!" a loud and low pitched strong male voice reached everyone's ears. Those that had enough time to look up and notice a bulky male in the sky falling down with his hands raised and a gigantic sphere of water above his head would've seen one of the three Kirigakure Sannin – Wakashi Moya also known as "Executioner of the Clouds". The man was called that because of his strong lower body and his style of combat which involved high and powerful leaps, acrobatic flips and having his gigantic Executioner's Sword in mind – he always cut people down from high above. The man was a handsome and well-built one – his body perfectly suited his great blade and he was a bit taller than the average individual which helped his muscle even up throughout his body. He had wild blonde hair and wore strange ragged clothes that gave him that certain "bad boy" vibe that most women loved, still, only the dumber and inexperienced ladies messed with this man when they saw him at the bar due to his wild reputation.
As the water sphere slammed into the area it exploded into countless bursting streams of water that soon formed crashing waves and flushed every tree and everything that wasn't deeply rooted into the ground. After the destruction ended the entire battlefield was covered with an even thicker surface of ice once again, this one by far surpassed the previous one that covered the ground due to the collective Water Dragon jutsu hitting the field. Strangely enough not a single person was hurt. All of them were tossed down rather rudely onto a higher hill where the destruction was less severe. It seemed that even the impossibly fast Raikage had trouble this time – while she didn't leave anyone behind she lost her poncho, the people were scattered around suggesting extreme haste and she was not even able to stand tall and was on her knees breathing heavily in front of the attacker.
"Samaya Imasu, I am the Kirigakure Sannin – Wakashi Moya and I intend to destroy you!" the man spoke with serious eyes but his lips couldn't help but twist slightly suggesting that the man was a bit excited.
"Is it because of this woman's – Shirona's orders? May this one perhaps at least know what this one had done to her to deserve her hatred? This one would like to know if there is something this one could do to perhaps fix that, that she would." Imasu asked before she finally broke through the fatigue and stood up clenching the handle of her katana and taking a fighting stance preparing to fight this man.
"Initially my orders were to kill you but even Shirona-sama seemed to have miscalculated your abilities. None of our soldiers even came remotely close to matching you and so the best course of action, having my orders in mind, would've been to rejoin with the Mizukage-sama and assist her in taking you down instead. However after seeing your power, Samaya Imasu… I see that you are an amazing woman and I am one who wanders through the bars every night looking for a good brawl. Not to fight you would be completely dismissing my ideals and that I could not forgive myself, your men can stay calm, I don't give a shit about weaklings like they are, you are all I want and I want you to just focus on me and not bother defending them!" Moya shouted out removing his Executioner's Blade and taking an offensive stance.
"You bastard, you keep talking about pride and wanting to challenge our Raikage but she just fought an entire army of elite Demon assassins!" one of the Kumogakure ninja shouted out waving their fist at the Sannin.
"You retards, those trash weren't the real Demon Corps. Had they been you'd all have been dead, they were normal soldiers dressed as the assassins in order to properly utilize their reputation, to instill fear into your hearts. Kirigakure doesn't throw their Demons around, you know, a single operative is worth more than an entire squad of ordinary ninja." the Executioner replied with a cruel smile.
"This one sees, that she does. Then it is alright. This one shall fight you, that she will!" Imasu responded.
Right as the words left her mouth the Executioner of the Clouds charged forward, swinging his gigantic blade. As fast and powerful as he was, by the time his swing was completed the Raikage was right below him having ducked under his blade and drew her sword cutting deep into the man's flesh and sending him upwards into the air. Just before the man fell down the Raikage sheathed her blade and drew once again from an upwards position slashing in an arc-like motion to crush her opponent's body into the ground. With a powerful shockwave emanating through the ice and the ice shattering making cold water cover the battlefield the Executioner was sent underwater. This must've been some cold shower for the man in both literal and figurative of meanings.
With a wild roar the man burst from the ice and charged at the Raikage kicking off of one of the floating ice platforms – he was incredibly fast for a man wielding the blade of that size. Imasu was completely caught by surprise by how fast the man had recovered and she used some of her speed to try and dodge the attacks but she slipped and fell into the water just barely avoiding getting hit. Moya laughed out and jumped back onto his platform.
"Be careful, Raikage-sama! Your speed might not be suitable for slippy surfaces like solid ice!" he shouted into the depths of cold water. The woman's hand shot out of the water and caught onto the icy platform dragging her tired and freezing body onto the surface. The woman removed her poncho as it slightly got in her way.
"Your skin… What was that when this one cut you? It was like it turned black and spikes emerged from it, that it did?" Imasu asked reminiscing a moment just before when two of her cuts hit the man but his skin hardened making him avoid getting cut and just getting thrown around by the force of the swing.
Moya turned his head to the side and spat out some cold water and then smiled at the Raikage, "That's for you to find out" he added as he leaped at the woman again. This time the Raikage had learned her lesson and didn't use any of her steps, she simply twisted her body sideways to avoid the crashing of the sword and while using the momentum of her movement drew her blade jumping up and cutting all the way from the man's groin through his stomach and deep into his chin. Only sparks flew out as the Kirigakure Sannin's skin once again dyed black and some weird spikes shot out from it, the sheer force of the blow still tossed the man's body up into the air.
The man recovered from the hit faster than the Raikage could follow her attack up as he swung his blade diagonally, the Raikage just barely avoided getting cleaved in half by flipping her body sideways. Then Moya slammed his sword downwards as if he was crushing the woman with a heavy object, while the Raikage's blade lit up with chakra and managed not to break her body was once again sent violently crashing through the ice into the manmade icy lake below. The water started washing the icy platforms away and they started crashing into the shores. The Raikage once again barely dragged her beaten and tired body onto the icy platform and started crawling further where there was no water. She was freezing and was beaten around so hard that it reminded her of the times when she trained with Haoru. While she was fast it didn't matter if she couldn't properly use that speed on ice, while her speed was an amazing way to easily cut people it didn't matter if her cuts didn't count and just slammed into whatever armor that man had on him.
"Step of Sound: Sonic Boom!" the woman shouted out as her voice revealed to anyone that heard it just how hurt and afraid she was. It took her only one strong and impossibly fast step, accelerating from nothing to half the speed of sound and then drawing the blade transferring the force. This technique was different than "Supersonic Draw", it did not involve the breaking of the sound barrier and enhancing that shockwave, instead it focused drawing the sword so fast that the air particles were pushed to fly faster than the speed of sound forming an actual sonic boom projectile – it traveled far and hit hard. The cannon of air shot forward violently tearing through the ice and throwing the water to the side splitting the whole lake and making the water leak outside its borders. Now the whole place again reminded of the desolated wasteland of ice and snow – the water and the solid ice surface was now gone!
Moya covered his body and bent his knees, his body once again dyed black but as the cannon wave of air hit him he realized that it won't help – his armor started cracking, as the air became so think that the armor couldn't even keep him on his feet the man's body was tossed around like a ragdoll and shot into a small hill and bashed into the rock. Any man would've been killed by such brute force, their skin and flesh would've been torn off from their bodies from the intense air pressure and yet… When the smoke and the whirlwinds of snow cleaned up a giant sphere reminding Imasu of a turtle being wrapped in its shell was etched into the icy hill. The woman slowly made her way forward – the strenuous workout from using her technique heated up her muscles a little bit and she could at least act like she's ignoring the effects of the cold.
A large armored tentacle shot out from the armored sphere and bashed into the hill sending the shell forward, in mid-air the shell reformed into the man that made it and that man mercilessly swung his sword – the woman tried to step backwards but the sheer size of the sword left its mark as a giant scratch from her left shoulder to her hip made her white out for a moment. Warm blood shot out from the wound but it somehow felt good, the pain didn't feel nearly as bad as it normally would have but to Imasu… It all just felt nostalgic! The man tried to follow up his attack by swinging again and again but the woman's incredibly agility made her body blur even in his eyes as she near effortlessly evaded every strike while looking the man right into his eyes angrily. Her stare secretly made Moya's heart freeze, it couldn't just have been the cold. Such terrifying killing intent!? Where could this woman have learned something like that?! What sort of monstrous power could those eyes restrain?
The man spun around quickly trying to cut the woman in half at her torso but her blade clashed with that of his own! How was this possible?! How could she so easily compensate the immense strength and size difference? "She leaped back and then charged forward converting her speed into force!" the Sannin realized thinking to himself of the woman's secret as his body was pushed back with immense force and his balance broke, the man's body once again turned into a giant rolling black turtle shell and rolled backwards before another tentacle shot out stopping it instantly in its path further from the woman. The shell reformed into a man and he charged to cut her again but then suddenly the man just stopped and dashed back as his heart filled with doubt – he didn't feel like his full potential was behind that strike! This killing intent of Imasu Samaya was inhuman!
"What's the matter? This one was preparing to respond, that she was, you broke this one's rhythm, that you did." Imasu's cold and bland voice reached the man's ears, it wasn't like before, it now reminded him of THAT man. Haoru of the Iron Country samurai who without breaking a sweat fought off all of the Kirigakure Sannin and proceeded to challenge the Mizukage! What could the Raikage have in common with that man? Wait… He said something back then…
"I don't know who this young chick is, but she is most certainly not Samaya Imasu, I myself taught the young girl swordsmanship and I know her speech mannerism too well. This person is a fraud which makes me assume the rest of you runts are too…"
Moya's memory flashed back to the Kage Summit hall. So this woman was taught by him, he was her sensei? How that possible? Didn't samurai hate ninja and refuse to involve themselves into ninja matters? Why would someone like Haoru even teach this woman? Moya had to know that, he sheathed his sword and straightened his body. "Hey! Please reveal to me why Haoru of the Iron Country samurai trained you? I can see a lot of his dark deadly feeling inside of you. You reek of the same sort of killing intent as he did."
Imasu stood into a drawing stance, her cold eyes looked into those of the Kirigakure Sannin's. "Your power brought back the memories of those days to this lowly swordswoman, that they did! I cannot allow those precious days to sink away so I'll be short. This one's parents died during the Second Great Ninja War, this one left the village to find a death of her own and this one would have since she wondered into the Iron Country by accident, that she did. Master Haoru thought that "this one had balls to waltz into this country" and said that "this one's hairy eyelashes amused him" so Master Haoru took this one under his wing as a student, that he did. This one was an experiment if a ninja could be taught the Bushido ways, that she was. This one has told you all there is to tell, that she has, let us finish this so that this one can settle matters with Shirona-sama and crush her hatred for this one. This one wants to fight her the most, that she does, so draw your sword!" Imasu shouted out.
The tone of this Imasu was different, it was not confident but it was loud, while she still spoke with the same tone and had the same strange speech pattern she had a certain shade of imposed aggression in her voice. Moya smiled and weaved multiple handseals. Suddenly a thick mist started to cover the surrounding. "Hidden Mist Jutsu!" the man's voice reached every ear in the surrounding area. The man's figure completely disappeared into the mist, not even his footsteps could have been heard and having the man's speed in mind he could close distance incredibly fast. A wild swing of the blade appeared right in front of Imasu's eyes but it only hit the mist and then the ground making icy rubble shoot out from where she stood moments ago. The Raikage had dodged the stealthy assault even if she had mere moments to react.
"This is the ancient secret art, a style of combat only taught in Kirigakure called "Silent Killing". It involves the hidden technique of "Hidden Mist Jutsu" as well as strenuous training to make one's footsteps completely disappear into the mist, you cannot hear me, you cannot see me, you cannot feel me or taste me – as far as your perception is concerned I do not exist until I wish for me to exist!" a voice with only an implied owner and no clear direction as to where it came from echoed through the mist inspiring fear in many hearts.
"But you can't see this one either, that you cannot!" Imasu responded to which only a laughter came as a response. The woman instinctively jumped forward avoiding getting cut in two but a wide cut opened in her back tearing through her leather jacket. It appeared that the woman's reaction allowed her to react and dodge while she was hit – the moment that the opponent's blade touched her skin cutting into it she dashed away drastically reducing the degree of injury. This was impossibly not only for ninja, parents never dared even weave stories of such reaction time in their tales but it didn't came easy for the Raikage – she had to stand still and concentrate into her perception completely, center around a single sense of touch and react to the slightest impulse of pain.
"While I do not exist to you, your existence is as clear as if it'd have been mapped out to me: your heartbeats, your breathing, the mist that you disrupt when you move around – a master of "Silent Killing" senses ALL of those things. They manage to focus on the other senses just as you've felt with your skin that my sword was coming from behind. That being said, for how long can you keep yourself from dying, avoiding my blows in the nick of time? Let us see how many times you must be cut before you break!" Moya shouted out, each sentence came from a different place in the mist making Imasu more and more desperate and confused. If she didn't come up with a solution fast she may actually have died in that mist!
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