Shimo leaned back taking a stance that he favored when using quick sword drawing techniques. He planned to very much finish this fight with this technique, he had already gotten hit by a First Gate shadow ninjutsu technique and he undoubtedly could not keep up with First Gate for too long as a result, let alone the Second. Mana stood up and got back onto her air current, she wanted to interfere, this was clearly too much. Sugemi was using Second Gate which, based on the damage on his own body from the First was quite as likely to kill him as it could have killed Shimo. Shimo was clearly setting something big up too.
As a drop of sweat fell from Shimo’s chin hitting the small puddle on the damp rocky floor the Yuki swordsman kicked off the ground sending his body to crash against his opponent who was still standing in his Second Gate opening stance, completely open to attacks. Shimo’s hands went through a set of handseals sending a small scale twister of snow that formed an incomplete figure of a large wolf. The snowy avatar of Shimo’s started to catch the gust of the blizzard winds and moved behind the Yuki who at that moment dashed forward using all of his speed and overflowing the chakra to augment his movement speed flashing right to Sugemi. The wolf of snow and ice swung his long reaching paw which was made of snow and sharp icicles made out of chakra. At the same moment Shimo drew his long sword to cut his opponent down on two fronts making a singular defensive tactic pointless.
“Ice Style: Wolf Blade Draw!” Shimo shouted out as his sword cut through the air, freezing small particles as it went along cutting the air, showing off the intensity, power and speed of the technique.
Sugemi’s arms shot forward, an immense shockwave shielded him from Shimo’s sword blowing Shimo back and disintegrating his ice wolf construct. Sugemi’s irises were completely whited out from the intense pain and stress to his body that the technique provided, the body was stressing out so much that the heat from his muscles working overtime cauterized smaller wounds instantly and while that would’ve looked like a positive in the short run, it was hard to say what such abuse would do to one’s body if used for a bit longer.
Sugemi’s body disappeared, appearing right in front of Shimo and punching with such speed that his hand never even appeared to have moved. A powerful force sent Shimo right through the stone wall into another corridor of the lower levels. The entire building could not contain a battle of these two enraged genin who were now way past their friendship and just wanted to straight out murder one another. The only clear thing in this insanity was that if Shimo had not used chakra to augment his body’s endurance his bones would’ve been grinded to dust in an instant. Now the Yuki managed to roll back and get back into the battle, letting his feet touch against the wall at the end of the other room.
Sugemi’s body blurred and moved in an instant right into the next room, Mana followed levitating through the gap in the wall that was breaking down further. These two didn’t even seem to be worried about being quiet, nothing but their fight made sense to them anymore. Sugemi jumped up in the air and flashed right up to Shimo who leaped at his opponent as the two passed one another. A small wound opened up on Sugemi’s body as he got cut by the swordsman passing by whereas the taijutsu user slammed the ground with all of his Second Gate force opening up a great crater in the lowest level of the Police Force HQ causing the whole building to shake and rumble. The two were flashing around, trying to beat one another down, Mana couldn’t even see them move most of the time as they moved in an instant, only returning to visible state as they wind up for a punch of a slash. Sugemi clearly had an upper hand.
Shimo’s body was flung around, busted through the ceilings and walls blowing the stone away as if it was cardboard and it was apparent that the swordsman was taking damage even through his chakra augmentation. Using an intensified chakra flow as an armor was just that “ an armor which was dependent on the level and size of one’s total chakra level and the level of chakra invested into withstanding the blow. Shimo was putting everything he had into it, also speed to be able to at least fail keeping up with Sugemi by an acceptable margin, even more, he still returned some blows but his sword appeared to have gone dull as hits no longer cut Sugemi but hit him bluntly tossing the taijutsu user aside momentarily before he recovered to resume his rampage. Mana would’ve never imagined that her friends were capable of fighting on such a level even if such a battle was shaving at their own lives with each passing moment.
The young magician kept following the battle as it moved, with each floor it ascended or descended, to the southern wings and to the western. She could’ve tried to concentrate, control her chakra flow to see their movements more clearly and not just bunch of blurs and shockwaves busting down walls and destroying public property in their wake. But Mana didn’t even want that, she didn’t want to see her friends killing one another. “Stop it now!” she yelled out but no one heard it, maybe just a cowering guard who hid under a table as things started to blow up and bust around him.
“Don’t you guys see it? It’s no longer about saving Sugemi or avenging Tanshu-sensei. You’re fighting because of your stupid pride, because you want to beat the other one who feels just the same and so you just… Won’t… Stop… Fighting…” Mana tried to tell them as she followed the battle but she just couldn’t. Finally the pace slowed up, Shimo’s body was covered with bumps, bruises and his clothes were torn up from his body rubbing against rock. He had bleeding nasty gashes all over, his forehead had an especially nasty wound which he quickly temporarily mended by tying up his torn up sleeve as a headband as his own got lost somewhere in the debris of this battle.
“You can’t fight me anymore” Sugemi spoke for the first time after opening his gates, it was the first intelligent sound he let, everything else was just cries of battle, grunts and shouts.
“It’s true I cannot compete with your Second Gate. Regardless I’ve won already. If I get a lucky shot in and beat you quick you’ll go down, if I drag this out you’ll still go down because you cannot fight your own body for much longer either. It’s only been a couple of minutes and you’re already losing flare, you’re barely keeping up with the demand of the technique. Show me your last flares before you pass out.” Shimo grunted out angrily as blood made it impossible to see his enraged eyes from further away. “Don’t worry, Mana-chan, I’ll beat this fool senseless and we’ll go back to being how we were…”
It looked like whatever damage Shimo’s head took was getting to him, he clearly didn’t see the damage he had caused to the building, he didn’t see the damage the two have caused to one another and so he still believe there was a point of friendship that they could return to. In fact, getting imprisoned for this and having their ninja status taken away was the best option, them outright murdering one another was by far the worst but at the moment the most likely. If this didn’t stop… Mana was desperate and prepared to stop them, she’ll throw herself into this battle, maybe once they severely injure or kill her they’ll snap the hell out of this.
“If only I had perfected that technique… I could stop them from right here…” the girl lamented that she invested so much time in training her physical stats instead of focusing on things she was actually good at like Tanshu-sensei suggested.
Sugemi’s body disappeared, his fist shot right through Shimo’s figure as the shockwave of drilling air currents around his immensely fast fist tore through the cold air mirage that the genin actually hit.
“Ice Style: Cold Mirage Double Team Jutsu!” Shimo’s voice echoed through the wrecked office as a bunch of Shimo’s mirages started floating around faking out an attack. Sugemi stood still, he must’ve believed that they were all fakes because he had already seen the technique twice now. If he opened himself up hitting a fake, he’d give Shimo a chance at a freebie and the Nara must’ve known that he could probably only take one or two blows at best without passing out. A loud bumping sound emanated from Sugemi’s body as it was hit by two solid Shimo figures with his body being trapped in between two mad sword swings. Sugemi was lucky that Shimo’s sword had dulled up and didn’t outright slice him into pieces.
“These were… Real?” Sugemi coughed out some blood mumbling pathetically as his figure collapsed like a sack of potatoes on the ground with the jets of blue chakra ended. The second real Shimo collapsed into a puddle of water, it appeared that the Yuki had learned to make at least one Water Clone which he shuffled in with the mirages. Shimo looked below at the level in which they were supposed to be fighting in, the one where the Demon was still unconscious but free. He looked at Mana. “We need to get down there, I’m not confident about his containment with that guy being unshackled…” he said.
Mana smiled for the first time in a while, she was glad that the battle had concluded not in the way where it was heading to and that a decisive victor was found. She was starting to believe that without her sacrifice these two would never get back to reality. Mana could hear guards rushing in, she leaped into the large hole, letting the air currents soften her landing and keep her slightly afloat, upkeeping this continuous jutsu was strenuous, but not nearly so as these two had strained each other. Shimo picked Sugemi’s unconscious body up and landed below with a jump as well.
“Oh… Good, he’s still here, I thought he’d escape…” Shimo smiled looking at the unconscious frame of the Kirigakure prisoner.
“If he had…” Sugemi’s barely recognizable voice echoed through the darkness of the room as he grabbed hold of Shimo’s back and slipped from his grip, flipping his friend over his own shoulder and slamming him into the ground face first. “I’D HAVE KILLED YOU!” he shouted out madly looking at the pool of blood gathering on the stone floor from Shimo’s broken nose and wounds on his face that were now open again. Any of those would’ve been a life ruining injury had Konoha not had the aid of medical ninjutsu and the ability to heal such battlefield injuries in mere hours. Still, if these two showed up in a hospital questions would’ve been asked and they’ve been recognized already. There’s no escape from being prosecuted in the Ninja Tribunal for the three of them now. Mana started to feel more and more hopeless. Her hand slipped to behind her and into the tool pouch, Sugemi’s body shot off mad jets of chakra rotating around his body and the green aura once again started glowing around his blushed skin.
“Stop it, Mana. You’d be able to take me out with your genjutsu in full strength but… I don’t want to hurt you. Stay out of this.” Sugemi’s voice finally sounded somewhat intelligible and devoid of any anger or hatred. That was the worst part of this day “ Mana finally realized that Sugemi wasn’t just following his emotions blindly, this was his conscious decision to hurt or kill this prisoner for what happened to the Hokage and Tanshu.
“What choice do you leave…” Mana started talking when Sugemi instantly flashed up to her slamming her into a wall and driving his elbow at her neck. The sudden force of impact made the magician lose her kunai and her pouch. Mana’s vision started to blur, she couldn’t use her legs or float any longer because of the pain in her thigh muscles and she was slowly being choked out. Shimo was out cold. She had to make a decision, she wore that fancy uniform for moments like this… Mana moved her palm away from trying to force Sugemi’s elbow from her throat and flicked her palm moving a steel edged card out of her sleeve. Mana swiftly swung her palm by Sugemi’s eyes, she didn’t intend to blind him but she’d have been able to if she wanted it “ just leave a shallow cut and move him further from her.
Sugemi shouted out in pain as a mad torrent of blood ran down his face leaving a scar on his face going just a tip above his nose. She must’ve damaged one of his eyes at least as he was clenching it this whole time and yelling out like a madman. Shimo’s elbow to the back sent Sugemi stumbling forward, Mana could’ve finished it all with a punch or a slash with her card again but she just moved to the side and let Sugemi hit the wall. Shaking the girl collapsed on her knees, losing all of her will to fight. She’d just hit her friend, probably blinded him in one eye… The magician just fell down on the floor and decided to stay down until a guard picked her up or if Sugemi decided he wanted to kill her as well.
A mad burst of chakra busted the wall where Sugemi slammed into, the Nara activated his Second Gate again and lunged right at Shimo.
“You bastard! Look at what you’ve done, you forced Mana-chan to hurt you!” Shimo yelled out when Sugemi’s shadowy construct decked the swordsman right in the face, several teeth flew out and for a moment there Shimo lost consciousness “ Second Gate seemed to enhance the strength of Sugemi’s technique since they drew their strength from the willpower and concentration of the user. First Gate unlocked the complete control over one’s body, 100% of muscular potential was used which meant that the Second Gate enhanced that furthermore, closing the strength to somewhere 120% percent of the body’s potential.
“Shadow Tendril!” Sugemi yelled out following up his attack, then he made that same hand seal letting a second one shoot out, whipping Shimo at the chest and making his body bounce off the floor from the sheer force of it. “Shadow Tendril Jutsu!” he repeated as the tendril wrapped around Shimo’s neck and then swung the boy’s body around throwing him into the air. Sugemi used his shadow tendrils to throw his body up as well, the giant shadow construct wrapped around his entire body, hundreds of fists started forming as the entire construct now reminded of a tree of sorts.
“Nara Hijutsu Secret Technique: Shadow Yggdrasil Jutsu!” Sugemi yelled out as the fists started hammering at Shimo’s general direction. Shimo regained his consciousness just in time, drawing his blade and drawing a circle with freezing blue circle forming around the area of the air that he had cut. “Ice Style: Cold Air Pillow!” Shimo chanted out as the fists started pounding on the pillow of air that worked almost like an invisible shield that softened up the blows. The Yuki’s body was still sent up through multiple floors landing right on the first. The fists kept pounding relentlessly at the pillow of air making it lose air with each hit. Such a technique would’ve broken many bones undoubtedly, added bonus with Shimo’s body being flung through multiple thin stone ceiling tiles would’ve broken his spine as well.
Finally Shimo’s body landed on the first floor ground with the technique finally ending. Shimo was breathing heavily with his eyes closed, painful needles were emanating all through his body. Powerful flashes of light were popping in and out even if he had closed his eyes. Stupid Sugemi… Making such a huge deal from it all, now they’re all screwed and will have their ninja licenses taken away, they’ll be lucky if they avoid imprisonment in the Correctional Facility. That stupid bastard. Sugemi’s loud roars of pain and him writhing around could’ve been heard further away. The boy kept rolling around on the floor in pain “ this Second Gate must’ve really hurt for him plus a technique like that…
Countless guards started flooding the floor, this must’ve been every guard present at the HQ at that time, they kept asking those two questions. They must’ve still assumed that the two were on a mission just because they recognized the two. They saw these kids in the files when the Demon of Kirigakure was brought in for containment and daily interrogation attempts. That obviously meant Konohagakure Interrogation squad did their thing on the prisoner giving him minimal amounts of food and water, sometimes beating him up for refusing to cooperate. “What could’ve those kids been doing here”, that’s what must’ve been on all of those people’s minds.
“Where’s the Demon? What have you guys been doing?”
“Wait, I don’t think these guys are supposed to be here now…”
“I’ve sent people to go check at the Administration, we’ll get our response soon, for now let’s just take these guys in, assuming they’re going rogue on us.”
“Guys, there’s a girl on the third level, she’s mostly OK but her eyes don’t respond to stimuli, I think she’s just really shocked or something”
“I think these three are the Sorceress’ team that means all three of them are here. What were the three of you doing here!?”
The guards kept shooting questions at the two of them. A guard ran up the stairs with Mana in his arms. Some guards started trying to ask her some questions but Mana remained silent, her eyes still stared at some point of the room, completely distant from everything that was happening. Sensei was dead, the Fourth was dead, Shimo and Sugemi were just trying to kill each other. The world had gone insane and Mana was struggling to keep up with it. She had been insane once in her childhood and her mind was now wondering if she had not returned to that insanity. Her state was no different from when she failed to understand facts and relate them to specific things, she now failed to understand the world just the same.
A loud shout of four guards hitting the floor alerted everyone and the guard that carried her to the top level placed Mana by the wooden wall, her eyes sunk to the floor as her hair covered up her depressed and blank face. “What the… The Nara is resisting!” a guard yelled out when Sugemi’s Second Gate shot open again. “Hold back, this is Konoha ninja, he might be on a mission we don’t know about! Talk to us, Nara, damn it!” the guards stood no chance, they were almost equal if not stronger than Sugemi but they were confused, they were holding back and oblivious to Sugemi’s killing intent. Police Force weren’t ninja who fought ninja too often, they mostly dealt with either captured or contained ninja or just common villagers who were misbehaving. Fighting rampaging avengers was beyond their paygrade or experience.
Powerful currents of air and shockwaves from Sugemi’s punches aimed at just blank air sent the guards down and crawling to cover. Further aside Shimo got back onto his feet, stumbled down onto his knees and then stood back up. Shimo took his sword drawing stance, making the hand seals for his “Ice Wolf Jutsu” as well forming a construct of ice shaped as a wolf behind the Yuki. Sugemi’s shadows went mad forming countless tendrils and whipping the knocked out and injured guards out of the way.
“Everyone, hold them off for just a moment longer, Jounin are on route right now!” a guard read a note from a pigeon that was dropped as the bird flew by through a hole in the roof.
“They won’t be here in time…” Mana realized as she finally had a first conscious and material thought about something in a while. Her blank eyes looked at her friends, they were struggling to even draw breath and they were preparing their strongest techniques. Ice Style: Wolf Blade Draw was about to clash against Sugemi’s Shadow Yggdrasil and whoever lost would undoubtedly die. Mana stood back onto her feet, no air currents or anything, just her own burning feet. Every step made her want to shout in pain but the lives of her friends were in danger.
“It hurts. Hurts to walk!” Mana thought.
“Can I afford to stop? Stopping means one of them will die, no. No I cannot stop!” a thought followed.
“What will I do? I’m hurt, I can’t fight them! No… I have to use that…” the girl desperately tried to come up with a proper response for the situation.
“But… It’s incomplete, I can use too much chakra and die… What other choice do I have?” it was almost like Mana was fighting against her own instincts, her mind told the girl to just stay down, she had no obligation to kill herself to stop this madness but then a part of Mana realized that this was a moment like those she had been thinking about. Violence was in control of the world around her and death of her friend was about to happen, this was her chance to show to herself and Tanshu-sensei that she actually COULD be a hero. That she wasn’t useless or toothless or whatever. Even if it would be her last deed on this cruel world where people dear to you died and then other people dear to you tried to kill each other as a result of that death. Mad world required even madder actions to take control of it!
“Ice Style: Wolf Blade Draw!” Shimo’s body moved forward, completely oblivious of Mana’s frame that entered into the center of their crossfire.
“Shadow Yggdrasil!” Sugemi shouted out leaping forward, he didn’t care if his shadowy constructs break Mana’s back or her neck or her own ribs pierce through her heart in the process “ it was the girl’s responsibility to consider her actions and his reaction. She made a choice to mess with his fight for justice, now she could die for all he cared.
Mana made a single handseal.
A gentle whistle killed the silence. A whistle of a lullaby that Mana had heard so many times as a little girl, one that her mother hummed to Mana so many times to put the girl to sleep. The ice wolf dissolved into snow and ice dust that quickly melted, Shimo dropped to the ground with his body completely paralyzed and his sword fell to the ground breaking in two from the abuse that the boy had put it through that day. Sugemi’s shadows disappeared and faded in an instant and his body also hit the floor completely paralyzed and so did every guard within a circle around Mana, close enough to hear her whistling. Her lullaby.
“H…How…” Shimo grunted as he failed to move a single muscle. The melody then stopped and Mana fell on her knees.
“My stupid best friends… There are no winners in a fight between friends.” she said as the guards finally stopped shaking and approached the three putting stickers with chakra seals around Sugemi and Shimo. One tried to put another one on Mana who was silently moaning in pain from abusing her legs too much after her body got used to not feeling a thing from when she levitated. A jounin stopped that guard as the entire cavalry arrived.
“Hold your horses for now. This girl just stopped the fight, she may not need that seal.” Mana felt a hand softly pressing against her shoulder and someone’s breath close to her ear. “I’m sorry, Sorceress-chan… You’ll have to answer some questions, please understand, we will let you go after and we’ll be very brief.” Shimo grunted, desperately trying to move but being unable to. Another jounin bent down and tried dispelling the illusion but failing, she looked at Mana confused.
“I’m sorry, it’s an experimental technique so… I messed plenty stuff up…” Mana whispered as her exhaustion from using way too much chakra in one go made her lose her ability to speak loudly. “It should time out shortly” she concluded.
Shimo tried to move but then he managed only to talk. “Guys, please let Mana-chan go home, she isn’t to blame for all of this, we came here to stop Sugemi and she wanted to talk him down. I was the one who escalated this fight, I’ll answer all the questions and take whatever punishment you have for me.”
The head Jounin scratched his back pulling a smoke from his coat and lighting it up. “Fine, it’s not like Konoha’s Sorceress can run anywhere, her face is on the posters for her shows and all that, plus she doesn’t look in any condition to be able to run either. Someone take her home.”
It was going to be a long evening for Mana, an even longer one for Shimo, ironically enough Sugemi, the instigator of this huge scuffle, was completely out cold.
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