"We are under atta--" Keiji threw down his book as the village began to stir. Konoha was on the attack, and he had to admit he was impressed with its swiftness. However, when the rest of the world is on high alert for an attack, a sneak attack can only be so effected. They may have drawn first blood, but neither Keiji nor Takigakure as a whole was off-guard. This is where their little empire would be cut short.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Wanayamori!" Keiji quickly bit into his thumb and called forth six of his trap geckos. In one, he placed a mudslide scroll, in one he placed a stink bomb, in two he placed 20 poison senbon, and in two he placed a dozen shuriken. The geckos scattered darting out into the streets and finding their way into little nooks to hide until they were needed. Keiji's mind buzzed, but at full strength, he could handle six without it affecting the rest of his techniques. Next, Keiji needed to assess where his enemies were, so he darted outside and and took a vantage point atop the nearest tall building. It was dark, indeed, and the only think open at 9PM were a few bars and restaurants, and they didn't provide nearly enough light. Still, He would be sure to notice a large army's movements, if nothing else by the ambient noise of their collective footsteps and breathing, despite the cover of night. "Small elite team it is... There!"

He spotted on of the leaf ninja, pulled out his whistle, then jumped down the rooftop to meet him. The geckos read his intentions and stealthily crept though the shadows shifting their positions to correspond with Keiji's movements; the cover of night would help both sides in this battle. "Leaf scum!" he called out as he dropped down to confront the enemy. "This is where your little parade ends. For too long you've slaughtered the innocent and oppressed the righteous. Now you will see that your so-called "Will of Fire" is but a dull ember when compared to the light of justice!" Keiji wasn't one for dramatic speeches, but he needed a bit of time for his geckos to get into position. Monologues just happened to be good for buying time, and were especially convincing when coming from a rogue ninja whose village was already taken over; the leaf ninja would be able to discern that much from Keiji's headband. Perhaps he would even gloat. Whatever the case was, those couple of seconds were all he needed to a a pair of geckos hidden in the shadows behind the ninja. If all went well, this battle would be over in under a minute.

Io rested on the rooftop of one of Takigakure's taller buildings, staring out at the view of the city. Though he was mostly just wandering anywhere, there were two aspects that got him to return again and again: it was easy to get supplies there, and it was refreshingly peaceful. "Hey," he said, not shifting his gaze towards the huge, coal-colored wolf, nor the falcon, tortoise, or muddy samurai seated next to him. "Would this be called a Shinobi World War if the Land of Fire won?" Since Io had already asked the question, several different responses filled his head, not all of them being directed towards him.

"Shut up! Why can't you just quit being so air-headed and actually remember what we say for once?"
"You're too tense, Kiri."
"Of course not. After all, good and evil are determined by the victors. Which, we likely may not be."
"Not quite. It's a world war regardless of the victor, and someone is bound to pass on the truth."
"What did Io ask?"
"Be quiet, birdbrain!"
"Ha ha, you're really cute when you're angry~"
"W-what?!"
"Ah, she's quite cute normally, in that case."
"WHAT?!"
"Calm down, it was a compliment."

Not really paying attention to their conversation or the fact that Kiri was pawing Kurogane's head back into dirt, Io finally recalled that he'd asked that already. "Ah wait, nevermind. I thought it seemed familiar." At this, Kiri collapsed as she remembered that it was futile trying to deal with most of these idiots, and the others just nodded(Kurogane would have, if his head were completely reformed) and simultaneously agreed that this was normal for Io.

Eventually, they heard a piercing shout that was suddenly cut off, and several silhouettes began leaping through the town as chaos began to break out. Unlike the others, who were stunned, Kurogane quickly took action. "Whoa, whoa, where are we going?" Tama asked as Kurogane suddenly took control of Io's body and leapt towards the ground. "It's obvious!" Kurogane said aloud, using Io's voice before he giving back control. "We must protect this village from them!" Them, though vague, had enough meaning. "H-huh? Who?" Tama asked as she sat confused while the others moved out. "Does it matter, dammit?!" Guru, as the slowest and the least combative, moved as fast as he could to mobilize people that could fight. "Tama, just tell us where stuff is happening." Having finally steeled her nerves, Tama took flight. "Yes!"

Tsubaki slowly opened her eyes, becoming aware of the all-encompassing darkness that surrounded her. There was a strong smell of earth, that musty organic smell that was neither pleasant nor distasteful. The air was warm and humid and verging on stale. How long had she been down here anyway? And why? Her head suddenly hurt something awful, reminding her as to the why. So now the question was why had she awoken so suddenly? She was alone, that much was certain. So whatever it was must have been above her. She reached out her hand blindly into the pitch blackness and concentrated. There was a commotion above, presences moving in an aggressive fashion. An attack perhaps? She was no sensor type so she could not be more accurate than that. She allowed her arm to fall back to her side. Tsubaki sighed. Time to earn her keep.



The principle advantage of subterranean jutsu was their ability to mask a ninja’s presence even from sensor types, never mind normal ninja no matter how observant and there were very few exceptions to that rule. Which was why the Konohagakure ninja did not perceive her approach as he readied his blade to strike down a defeated enemy sentry. Ideally Tsubaki would have used Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique to disable him at once, however that technique required direct contact and the sentry didn't have that kind of time. So Tsubaki opted for a less direct approach. Instead of a direct attack the enemy ninja felt the earth directly beneath his feet start to give way, stone cracking and mud turning to fine sand. He had no choice but to leap away to avoid being sucked to his death beneath the earth.

Earth Release: Antlion Technique, a jutsu that creates a sinking pit of earth reminiscent of the trap created by the insect that shares its name. Tsubaki didn't need much chakra for such a small pit. Any larger and she would have drawn the sentry in as well. However she was not done yet, the sentry was still in danger and the invader was still active. Active and aware that someone was beneath him. Before he could react further she burst out of the ground in front of him, his vision obscured momentarily by a hail of dust, stone and sand. He expected an attack and prepared to meet it. But nothing happened. The dust cleared a moment later to reveal that not only was there no one attacking him but that the injured sentry was gone. He was alone, slightly confused and covered in dirt. Elsewhere an equally confused ninja came back to his senses in the relative safety of an alley, covered in a fine layer of dirt.

A small house. A taut canvas. Adept brush strokes slowly and painstakingly coming together, mixing hues, connecting lines, and caressing each other in intricate patterns. And the sound of screaming outside.
A pale hand dabs at a bright, viscous blob of paint on the ground, then raises itself to touch at the canvas, hesitating first, then changing position and hesitating again. It repeats this for several minutes without adding anything to the painting in front of it, then abruptly drops the brush.

Kurai Gensō is a quiet man with few likes and many dislikes. Most prominent among these are inefficiency, being forced to work, and, currently relevant, the inability to concentrate.
Wordlessly, he stalks to a nearby table, attaching several long wires to an apparatus by his ears on the way. When he arrives, he snatches the pair of gauntlets lying on it and quickly dons them. His next path leads him directly to the door.
Pushing it open, his ears are assault from many directions at once; this is no singular matter but a coordinated attack on the city.
"Just my luck," he mutters, then reaches inside and grabs his umbrella, then proceeds to leap towards the nearest annoyance in chakra-infused bounds across rooftops. As he had expected, a Konoha shinobi standing in a pool of blood comes into view, verbally and physically assaulting a woman, whose husband is presumably the fresh cadaver at her attacker's feet.
With a flick of one of his kunai, Kurai attracts the attention of the invader. Silhouetted by moonlight and standing atop a building, he cuts an impressive fugure, not that it seems to phase the Konoha ninja. Softly, barely audible from the distance between them, Kurai begins to speak.
"I can guess what it is you're doing here. I assure you: I couldn't care less. You can fight. You can kill. You can plunder. All I ask is that you do so quietly. If you cannot do this...we will have an issue. I do not wish to be disturbed. If you can respect this, I will return to my home and you may continue your business. If not...I find that I can create my art with some 'assistance'.
I give you two options now: we do this the easy way, or the 'I kill you' way."

Konohagakure Ninja’s POV

The Konohagakure ninja held his ground as he calmly analysed the situation. His vision had been obscured by dust prior to the disappearance of his target, which alone didn't suggest anything concrete. He himself could cloak himself in a similar technique by utilizing Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning technique. Most important was not the fact that he saw nothing but that he heard nothing immediately after the explosion of earth and debris. His opponents had not made their escape above ground. Which meant that his opponents had most likely escaped underground. The use of what was most likely Earth Release: Antlion Technique just prior to the rescue only confirmed his theory. He was dealing with an Earth Release ninja. Which meant that their next attack would most likely come from below.

At once he became wary of the ground directly beneath his feet, lest he be caught unaware by a second subsidence style earth technique. He held his tanto close in a defensive stance as his eyes scanned the area around him, his ears straining for even the slightest of sounds. And for that reason and that reason only he heard the earth start to crack beneath his feet. Without waiting he leapt forward into the air in a spinning motion. Without hesitation he expelled a large volume of explosive ash from his mouth and into the air where he had been stood. Using the flint hidden in his mouth he ignited the ash, causing a violent, localized explosion. But he was not finished yet. As soon as his feet hit the ground he immediately formed the hand seals required to use Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere, creating a blast of air straight into the black, soot ridden cloud.



Tsubaki’s POV

Tsubaki didn't have time to find out if the man she rescued was OK. He was breathing still and that was good enough for the moment. No sooner had she propped the man up against the wall she had burrowed back into the earth using Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage to move at relatively high speeds back to where she had been moments before, the earth becoming fluid like water at her passing. By now she guessed that the Konohagakure attacker would be more than aware of her presence. Not her precise location of course as being underground provided her protection from even the most observant individual. However it still meant that he would be on edge and therefore that much more difficult to ambush after she emerged. And without knowing his capabilities a failed ambush might well result in her own death. However if she did nothing more would likely die as a result. It was time for Tsubaki to take advantage of her well-honed adaptability.



Konohagakure Ninja’s POV

As the remnants of the explosion slowly dissipated following his wind attack the Konohagakure ninja stood ready, not allowing his confidence to dictate his actions. There was no doubt in his mind that he had hit something, no, someone with his explosion attack. And even had they survived that they would have been in no position to evade his second attack. But even so he kept his tanto raised aggressively in one hand, his other hovering just above his shuriken pouch. His caution was well founded, the ninja grimacing to himself as a figure emerged from the smoke and ash, shards of blackened, charred earth crumbling from their form like a snake shedding its skin. He ground his teeth in annoyance but held his ground as his opponent drew her sword from behind her waist and levelled it in his direction. He knew her face.



Tsubaki’s POV

Tsubaki had been right to prepare herself as she did, using Earth Release Armour before she attempted to attack him from below. It had still hurt of course, two separate and distinct explosive impacts hitting her one after the other. The first had been some kind of explosion, a bomb maybe or a fire jutsu, the second some of kind of mono directional impact from the front. The fact that the combined assault destroyed her armour spoke of her attackers skill. The fact that she was not dead or injured told her that neither of those attacks had been Lightning Release. Which was good, since she was rather fond of being alive. As the last of her defence crumbled away she drew her sword and levelled it toward her opponent. Tsubaki smiled in a deceptively kind fashion.

Natzu Raikimaru had heard whispers of a Konoha attack on Takigakure and even though it wasn't a proven fact at the time, he knew that it was truthful. The Leaf Village had taken his village from him and any words about a Konoha attack interested him. He would be joining the side of their enemies and then slaughter the leaf shinobi with his hellish hate. Natzu craved battle and he wished to see the blood of his foes spill out before him. He had never forgotten the day Konoha took his parents and clanmates away from him in the battle of rebellion against them and he felt the momories of that dark day come flooding into his mind.

He saw the pools of blood that his parents were laying in after being nearly hacked to pieces and his terrible rage began to stir up. His chakra began to flare up and his eyes started to glow red. All he wanted in the world was revenge and his Hate Release technique would give it to him. He had driven the emotions of love and compassion out of his body to replace it with a desire for violence and pain. Natzu was crazy and he would show the Leaf just how crazy he was.

Natzu was heading towards Takigakure and then heard the sounds of a battle. His excitement rose and he dashed quickly towards the origin point of the sounds. He soon saw the battle between Konoha and Takigakure, and ran in that direction.

"Finally a chance to kill some Konoha ninja!" he said to himself with a grin. Natzu put on his clawed Gauntlets and used his Hate Released. His chakra turned red and his eyes glowed like a demon. His speed increased by a great amount and entered the fray. Natzu slashed into the skull of a Konoha shinobi and viciously kneed another in the face. His eyes spotted Keiji Anjou fighting Konoha, but he was too caught up in his blood lust to recognize him and focused on killing Konoha shinobi.

"All of you Leaf Slime will die!!!" he shouted furiously and continued to slice into Konoha ninja. His vengeance was at hand and the only love that was left in him was the love of battle and it was raging fiercely within him.

"Ah, Io!" Tama said, spotting a person jump away after setting something on the ground. Shortly after the shadow left, a glob of dirt began to morph into a wolf. Looking around, she noticed several other figures doing the same thing. "There are a bunch of people putting things on the ground! It looks like they're making wolves." Looking around as Kurogane and Kiri fended a few wolves off, Io replied, "Ah, thanks. There are a few over here, too." They seemed to be similar to Kurogane in that they could reform after taking damage. However, it seemed to be limited in the amount of times they could recover, and they didn't seem to have a core.

Though he'd have to work around the limits, this could definitely be used to design some new puppets. "Hah," Io chuckled to himself, a fire beginning to flare up in his eyes. This was incredibly intriguing. Sensing that glow, Guru quickly cooled him down. "Now is not the time for that." Io knew Guru was right about these things, but still... "Anyways," Guru carried on, making sure Io didn't fall back into what he was thinking about before. "There seems to be someone fighting ahead with a few of the wolves. I'll be assisting him, if you wish to come and ask about the situation."

It's a bit annoying having to walk over, Io thought to himself, Guru's attempt to keep Io away from the thoughts of designing puppets quickly becoming pointless. If he were to just graft someone's voice box into one of his puppets, then they could just-- "Just move your ass, dammit!" Kiri sharply cut off Io's thoughts by taking control of the body, and sprinted off towards Guru. Io had stupid ideas every so often, and they really, really infuriated her.
________________________________________

Guru reached the boy after the three wolves he had defeated began to reform. While he seemed perfectly capable of handling it himself, Guru figured that helping wouldn't be a problem. Planting his feet, he launched a shell of water, blasting through two of them. Kiri, absolutely pissed by how inferior the wolves were to her puppet body, started curb-stomping it. She roared, enunciating each word with a well-placed stomp. "FUCK OFF, YOU DAMN, CHEAP COPIES!" After taking a deep breaths, Kiri gave back Io's body as Kurogane, Tama and Kiri, now possessing her normal body, arrived. "Hello," Io said to ninja, completely unaware of the disturbing dissonance caused by the sudden change in personality. "Do you know what's going on right now?"

Knowing that the bright orb currently traveling towards him at blistering speeds would be impossible to avoid entirely, Kurai twists his upper body, firmly anchoring his feet to the floor beneath him. In the instant he does so, the concentrated ball of wind tears through a portion of his chest, causing no serious or lasting injury but leaving the affected area in searing pain and open to the brisk air. As needles shoot through the injury, Kurai slings one arm just below the site of the wound and winces. Strangely, his grimace turns to a grin, then outright laughter.
"Wind Dancer, huh? My name is Kurai Gensō. Perhaps...perhaps once this is over, I will paint you. I was running low on red."
While talking, the limb caressing his injuries meets his other and silently begins weaving signs.
"Fire Style: Flame Body Armor!"
As his body apparently bursts into flames, illuminating the night sky, Kurai wastes no time in sending three more of his kunai at the Hidden Leaf shinobi in the hopes of distancing them and buying time for his next attack. Already weaving the signs, Kurai speaks.
"Does Konoha teach you nothing at all?
There is no honor...in killing the dead."

Amon was standing quietly in one Takigakure street when the attack had begun, knocking the boys hope of a quiet rest to the ground. He ran in a seemingly opposite direction to the fighting to try and avoid getting caught up in it, but when he heard the screams of those fighting, he knew he couldn't just run away again and again. Turning back around to the village, Amon spotted something appearing out of the shadows.

"Shit..." The boy mumbled, pulling out his katana and cursing himself for trying to run in the first place, if he hadn't of turned around, whatever was following him would've most likely gotten the advantage in a surprise attack. As the being came closer, Amon realised there was 3 of them, wolves from the look of things, wolves made of dirt. Amon let out a relieved sigh and ran towards them, thinking to himself how easy this would be.

---

The first wolf attacked without much warning, and Amon was nearly bitten by the creature as it jumped at Amon from the side, only to be struck by Amons' katana and thrown to the side as the other two wolves jumped forward almost immediately after, Amon striking one away by continuing his swing from wolf one, but the last wolf made contact and Amon was pushed back.

"Fuck." Amon grumbled, now knowing this would no longer as easy as he thought. The three mud wolves began to stand back up, even the first one which Amon was sure he had destroyed. The blond ninja placed his hands together, still gripping his sword. "Lightning Release: Channelling Technique!" He yelled into the night air as a force of habit and ran forward again, this time with electricity covering his sword. He swung again at Wolf 1, effectively separating its face from its body for the second time as he jumped over its falling body before forming more had seals as he flew through the air above Wolves 2 and 3. "Lightning Release: Shadow Clone!" He yelled again as a perfect copy of himself appeared behind wolf 3, who had been straggling behind. The wolf proceeded to attack the clone, just as Amon had wanted, and once the clone has dispersed into a cloud of smoke and lightning, the 3rd wolf was left momentarily paralysed, allowing Amon to focus on wolf 2 as he cut it down. With wolf 2 'dead' on the ground, Amon swung at wolf 3, managing to pierce it in the side, before the electricity encasing the sword did its job and the last wolf fell to the ground.

---

Amon breathed a sigh of relief, he had successfully taken down the wolves without much effort and was free to continue on with his 'peaceful' night. At least, that was what he had thought, until the 3 wolves began to reform, their bodies repairing and their strength returning. "Seriously!?" Amon yelled into the night, gritting his teeth and preparing himself to finish these wolves off, he would not have his quiet night after all.

Keiji kept a stoic expression, but grinned internally as the leaf ninja responded to his taunt. Gora even gave away a potentially useful bit of information. Deathflinger, eh? Had this man earned this name due to deadly accuracy with his shuriken throws, or was their some kind of jutsu hidden within them. Or perhaps it was just a name bearing no significance. Still Keiji decided to cover all bases and ducked under them rather than blocking them; it would be best to avoid direct contact with them until he knew what the name meant. As he ducked, he dashed forward in pursuit, a kunai in hand just in case those shuriken had any tricks to them.

Keiji wondered if Gora knew the wisdom of his flight; with constant motion it would be difficult to get his geckos into a position where their would trap the enemy, but Keiji had a feeling that this man's demeanor was simply well-suited for the situation. He took a glance at where the man was running, though, and became a bit more optimistic. Was he simply changing their arena to a more favorable location? That was fine. He urged all but one of his geckos over to the tree where they would seem perfectly natural, having one gecko with poison senbon stay close to him, and then called back to Gora in his pursuit.

"Well, Guura-kun," he began, deliberately mispronouncing the name, "I suppose I should return the courtesy and tell you my name. You would know me as Zekkyouha, the Screaming Blade. You can run all you like, but unless you're faster than the speed of sound, you'll never escape my jutsu." And so Keiji's ruse began. The name he borrowed was that of a low ranking missing-nin that would have appeared in several Bingo Books. It was likely that any high-ranking shinobi would have heard the name, but unlikely that they would be familiar enough with the enough with the entry to know that Keiji looked nothing like him. This Zekkyouha was known for using sound based jutsu, and that was just the background information he hoped his enemy had; if Gora had never heard of him, well the alias was enough of a hint.

With that, Keiji took out his whistle and began making the signs for his Nise Zoufuku no Jutsu. His false persona was established, his genjutsu was ready, and Keiji finally blew on the whistle. To everybody else, the whistle would seem like just a mildly annoying note, but Keiji's genjutsu multiplied the volume of the tone manyfold for Gora, making it sound like an indescribable screech. Gora's ear drums would feel like they were rupturing from the magnitude of the sound, but his hearing would, in fact, be in tact, leaving him susceptible to a constant barrage of sound. And that completed Keiji's school of red herrings. He didn't care if Gora saw through the false identity, he didn't care if Gora realized that there was absolutely nothing special about his whistle; he didn't care if Gora managed to identify and break the genjutsu; all he cared about was distracting Gora long enough to get the geckos into position.

Tsubaki wasted no time with formalities and charged straight toward the ninja, her speed closing the gap between them in a heartbeat. Fearing a close quarter confrontation the Konohagakure ninja responded by launching a ranged assault consisting of shuriken, the small bladed weapons twirling rapidly through the air toward Tsubaki. Tsubaki jumped to the side to avoid injury, buying her opponent a moment of respite which he used to press home his ranged assault. Her forward momentum broken Tsubaki responded by circling him at speed, dodging only those shuriken that came close to hitting her as she searched for an opening. And seeing no opening she decided to force one instead. Tsubaki sheathed her weapon and in its place withdrew a giant shuriken from her back.

Tsubaki jumped into the air, spinning around as she did so that she was facing the Konohagakure ninja and launched the giant throwing weapon toward him. His eyes opened wide as he saw the giant weapon hurtling through the air toward him in an arc whose trajectory was clear. At once he was presented with two options, he could attempt to block the attack or try to evade it entirely. Using a jutsu was out of the question considering the speed of the attack. And even if he skipped a few hand seals to speed up the casting time there was no guarantee that his jutsu could affect the giant shurikens path enough to avoid injury. He opted to evade along that same line of reasoning, his tanto clearly not up to the task of repelling the attack.

Seeing her opponent dodge to the side as she knew he must Tsubaki had already significantly closed the distance between them, using the giant shuriken to momentarily distract her opponents full attention. By the time he realized his mistake her blade was already coming free from its sheath. Tsubaki propelled herself forward in a spinning motion, cutting down at her opponent. Responding in the only way he could the Konohagakure ninja raised his tanto defensively just in time to intercept the vicious downward blow, sending him skidding backwards several feet, his arms shaking from the force of the impact. Tsubaki realized then that he was not a close quarter fighter. However her opponent was by no means beaten yet.