---

Agni sighed as he realized he going to be able to simply finish this off without drawing his blade. The young whipper-snapper... so smug. She deflected both his kido, though he wasn't that surprised. Just disappointed it would take a little more fire than that. One who played with fire was going to get burned. How ironic, it seemed like she had an ice-type one from his now frozen flame infront of her. She was still walking quietly, as if taunting at him to get serious. The chilled air was something he disliked. It taunted him with the fact that he didn't have much time. Her Reiatsu and influence was growing. He couldn't just fall behind, or he'd never catch up. He wondered how she would react to him going a step over?

He wondered if he was going to get a rise out of her with this. The smug little one, who was more than likely his complete equal. He held his blade infront of his mouth, whispering to it.

_{"Burn, Yūrei-en, no more for now"}

Swiping his sword infront of him, his Reiatsu spiking, he screamed.



Mid swing flames danced from it, blazing from the guard as it changed shape. The guard grew in sized, shifting up an angle of 30 degrees. The blade itself grew to be more like a scimitar, though with the flames dancing around it, it looked like a living flame itself.

The motion of the swing sent another arc at Harime. It was in truth a pecular flame. It did not care for flammability, it burned off of the Reiryoku of whatever it touched. It would spread as soon as it would touch anything made of Reiryoku.

"Come at me if you dare!"

---

Noting his change in demeanor and then her eyes widening slightly at his utterance of that fabled word, Harime was briefly confused, but she recovered just as quickly. With the flame flung towards her, Harime dodged out of the way and slashed, her fingers twitching, thus causing ice particles to gather where she had been. When the reiryoku burning flames made contact the ice would immediately begin to spread. Her brow knitted and she pulled her gaze away from the spectacle. She had kept Agni in her field of vision all the while, so a sneak attack was unlikely to be successful.

She called upon Seishin and then, in a sudden shift of action, vanished. First she appeared 6 meters ahead of him and 3 meters above before she flew downwards at him through the air.

Seishin flew feverishly around where the ice princess had appeared and where she was going. In fact, the spirit was rushing slightly ahead of her. It was miraculous that none of the ice crystals had touched her yet.

Why had her tactics changed...and why hadn't she gone into bankai upon hearing Agni's words?

The first was a mystery, but the second was because of a sneaking suspicion she had.

Who knew if she were right.

---

Agni's flames spike from his sword, and he jerked his head to the side to avoid it.

"Yeah, yeah."

His zanpaktu 'playing' had set him on fire....several times. Everytime it bitched he ended up with that. His opponent had decided to get more serious, as espected. She didn't enter Bankai however.

"I see you dared to."

Following her shunpo as he twirled his hand, she moved above him. Watching her, it seemed her speed rivaled his.... almost exactly.

He held his sword slightly in front of the twirling sword aimed at her, and his twirling hand behind it stopping suddenly.

"Hado #58, Tenran"

A wide area tornado of wind fired upward at her.

However, an odd effect happened. As the winds passed the tip of the blade, they ignited, the flames attempting to eat the Reiryoku that composed the kido spell, but being unable to instantly consume it. The wide flaming tornado pushed upwards with high force... and with fire.

---

There it was, the flames expanded. She moved just before the flames fully surrounded her. Agni would still maintain visual confirmation with the reflected light clone she left behind. She directed Seishin to escape int he same moment, but go in the opposite direction. The result would be Agni tracking two of her, rather than just one as the Seishin generated a moving light clone moving to the opposite side of the real Harime. She had even managed to gather enough ice crystals on the ribbon of her blade to release in a trail behind her. On both sides, she would get near, not touching the roof itself for fear of her ice making contact with her person as it fell to the ground, and slash diagonally at the man. There was a slight delay in the movements, but it was incredibly subtle.

As both attacked, Seishin passed behind Agni, not touching him in the least.

Agni groaned he saw two Harime's coming out the fire tornado, apparently hitting a 3rd inside. He needed to stop sending waves, he was using more reiatsu than he liked to no effect. His style was to at least burn someone before he went all out. Without a spark, there could be no fire.

One thing he did notice was the flames lapping at something as they passed in the air. There was something there beforehand. There wouldn't be now however. Whatever the flames hadn't touched would be sent into orbit anyways.

His hands were already close together. His zanpaktu whimpered, it's flame dying.

"How hard is it to spark this fire? Guess I need more kindle. Bakudō #21. Sekienton"

Knowing when to fold'em was the idea. His injuries feebled any zanjutsu he would have, and he didn't even want to try to feel lucky. He needed some time to build up a spell to hit so hard she couldn't defend. A red smoke screen blasted around him. Covering the area with smoke.

Inside the cloud, at the center, the smoke made contact with his flaming blade, the flame started to expand from the center outward, not being visible to anyone entering. Anyone who attacked where he was would find embers ontop of them, which would grow.

For the first time that fight he moved, using shunpo covered by the roof, heading to the only side without someone incoming. The fact he was using the Kido unchanted made it significantly smaller, it would only cover the rooftop, and nothing beyond.

Despite his quick movement, there was no exit cloud, and when the smoke faded(or rather burned up), he wouldn't be inside the cloud either.

He talked to himself, outside hearing distance.

"Humans, this may be your best invention ever."

He pressed an up button on a machine that read 50, pressing upward til it said 72.

---

The kido's name reaching her, both Harimes slid to a stop, back stepped and then shunpo'd backwards. The one on the left however, flickered and vanished after several moments. Seishin had returned to her side even as she shunpo'd to gain more distance from the smoke, noting that it had ignited. "Dangerous," she said under her breath, glancing around. She didn't see where Agni had went, but it only took her a moment for her to locate his reiatsu signature.

Knowing she had a few moments she held her blade aloft and called Seishin to her blade. Rapidly the spirit spiraled around her zanpakuto before it dissipated entirely, all that remained being forty-three 6 inch long shards of ice. With his location apparent to her She aimed her blade's tip at his precise location within the building, uttering words under her breath as she did so, "Fly true, Seishin."

The next moment she swiped her blade through the air so fast that it looked like 3 slashes rather than 43.

The first 33 slashes were not towards Agni himself, some went through windows and exploded into ice that spread rapidly over surfaces, whereas others hit the roof or the base of the building and did the same. Some of them expanded into the structure of the building, freezing it and strengthening it with the secondary effect of Harime's zanpakuto.

Then, compensating for any change in location Agni had made her other 10 slashes were occurred, now appearing like a blur, sending the shards all on the same trajectory, Harime watched.

The shards hit one after another, those that came after shattering, or augmenting, the ice that hit and froze things before.

The result?

A spear of ice suddenly erupting from the ceiling above Agni and stabbing down towards his head.

Agni walked away from the thermostat, looking out at the shadow cast over the office window.

He had hoped for peace for 5 seconds. Harime had other ideas she formed more ice shards than he could could count at an instant.

"No."

In a decisive moment, the butt his sword smashed the window and his other hand shot out. His zanpakuto whimpered. It had realized the seriousness after the repeated misses. It would bicker at Agni later.

Agni's mind returned to the ice that had expanded upon touching his ghostly flame. He was curious of something. If it expanded on something ethereal as his flames.... He fired at the incoming shards.

"Bakudo #37, Tsuriboshi."

A blue blob shot out his hand, before shooting out anchor points into nearby buildings, creating an extremely elastic net.

4 of the first 5 shards would rip through the elastic net, their trajectories changed however, slamming into random parts of the building. One was slammed into the thermostat, ruining it.

"Damnit."

Where the holes were, and where the one stopped shard lay, ice began form across the surface, creating a layer across the surface of it.

The next few, only 2 passed, the rest slamming against the freezing center, adding their ice to it, and stretching the legs of the kido. As more and more shards would slam into the net, only one more made it through. The rest would push more and more against the net. After the last shard would hit, the net at it's limit, it snapped back, flinging back towards Harime.

The legs snapped where they connected to the ice center, and send a giant ball of expanding ice flying back at Harime.

Agni grabbed his sword with both hands, ready for whatever Harime would throw back. His zanpakuto burned brightly in anticipation.

Walking down a quaint road on the way to Onteimura, a woman looked around at the scenery. Brooks, trees, flowers, chimney smoke in the distance. It was picturesque.

"That is beautiful. My, my. Pity it won't be here much longer. Give it a few years though, it'll be even more beautiful without the chimney smoke. Hehehe, I finally get to kill a god. What they get for betraying my family."

Continuing on her way, she noticed a woman in her way. Umichi was in a happy mood, and had no place for her normal carefree facade. She drew a blue tessen.

"Helloooo there! I'm going to have to ask you get out my way! Things could get ugly around here, I really recommend running away."

Umichi didn't slow down in the least.

---

Having decided to take a walk out of Onteimura to enjoy the countryside and survey the area, Shūrei hummed to herself while she walked the path, the tune a peaceful one, till she noticed a woman heading towards her along the path. Well, she was headed in her direction, she supposed that didn't mean she had sought her out.

Then a wave of emotions hit her, causing her to stop in place as the woman spoke, drawing a tessen in the same movement. Shūrei frowned. "I'd really prefer they didn't get ugly," she began in reply, holding her left hand out to the side and summoning Nisō byōtō* into her hand. "I'd hate to see these poor people come to harm, perhaps you could reconsider," she suggested, her worried frown still in place. A light glow would become apparent around Shūrei as the stranger passed over the invisible 8 meter boundary that extended from her form at all times.

While she doubted she could de-escalate the situation, she might as well try, and if she failed she was at least in a position where she could keep the stranger at a distance from the village.

With that line of thought in place her chakra channeled invisibly into the light glow around her, which were in actuality a multitude of hitodama. She weaved onmyouton chakra into them, followed by wind, though no visible change occurred aside from her clothes** blowing slightly in the wind.. She continued to weave chakra into the spirits, finishing the first process with earth chakra before she weaved fire and onmyouton chakra into a smaller group of hitodama. All throughout her free hand weaved handseals, its movements hidden by the intensifying glow around her. Still, despite her preparations she hoped she'd not have to use any of it.

Umichi stopped as she felt the chakra in the air around her, and saw the shining. It wasn't a normal person. Well.... she did need some warm up before she slayed a god she supposed. Her gentle smile turned to a wicked slasher grin. Today was the only day Umichi could be herself, completely without facade, and she reveled in it.

"Aw, the poor woman want's to play. Well, if I can't make it ugly, I'll make it beautiful crimson. Curse the god's that put you in this position: Fukurokuju* curses you, and Bishamonten** smiles on me."

As she spoke, she tapped her water jug with the tessen, and pointed at the center of the glow.

Water Release: Fang of Orochi

A stream of water that could punch through a tree shot out of her jug at the woman.

She hadn't gathered much water at all, but counted on the element of speed to start off the engagement. Umichi was limited as a water user in that she couldn't make her own, but was talented in how well she used it, and the speed her tessens worked. She left her green tessen in her sash, she'd rather not get too rough.

The humidity around them began to increase dramatically.

_{*Kami of Longevity, more or less has deathnote
**Kami of War, fortune of the warrior.}

---

In response to the woman's words, Shūrei's frown deepened and she took a stance, positioning her staff further in front of her as she did so. Taking in a deep breath she opened her mind to the voices of the hitodama around her and to the emotions of the world. An intense look of focus entered her eyes and then her opponent struck.

In a single swift motion she took a step forwards and whirled her staff, eliciting a response from the glowing spirits around her. Immediately a vortex of hardened, glowing wind erupted forwards, the spirits spiraling around the stream of water and flying through it in terms, tearing it apart. The veritable beam of energies continued towards Umichi even as its master struck her staff against the ground and sent glowing red streams of energy coursing into it, the glow around her fading slightly as she did so. " Despite the wishes of the gods, I'm afraid I simply cannot let you do that," she responded, her tone both tense despite the calming sound of her voice.

Spirits coalesced around her staff, channeling into it, a mixture of fire and wind now.

She'd not be letting the woman hurt a single soul under her protection, not so long as she lived.

Umichi raised an eyebrow as her shot was spun away. She didn't expect much from a shot like that anyways, she'd need more water than that to really do damage. The humidity continued to raise around her as her tessen pulled more in. The waves on the brooks became uneven, pointing towards her.

"Defy the gods... I like that."

As the woman raised her staff, Umichi withdrew her tessen, touching the water jug once again. They stood 5 meters apart. Both moved in step as the woman slammed the ground with her staff, and Umichi made a 'iai' like motion with her tessen, 'unsheathing' the rest of the water she carried out of it's jug, combining with the water in the atmosphere, creating an arc of water of the same size as Umichi slamming forward at high pressure. The water was thickest at the center, and was continually airborn. Umichi prefered keeping the water she controlled that way.

Umichi didn't know the technique, but her defense was fairly straight forward. She was going to make a shield of water, and ram it into whatever technique her opponent threw at her. If it was solid, it'd hit the force of the rising water, and at least be sent upward. If it wasn't, it would still hit the water. If it was energy based, it would probably diffuse or refract in the water. In any case, unless it matched the water itself, the woman would have to deal with the water slamming into her. It was all of Umichi's current supply as well. It was never the amount of water Umichi used however, it was the high pressures she launched all water at.

---

The beam traveling forwards, Shūrei noted the advance of the wave of water and immediately she struck her staff against the ground once and willed the conglomeration of beams to split into their constituent parts, curving outwards and away. In the same moment a fierce red glow erupted from the ground 1, 2.5, and 4 meters in front of Shūrei. Then, as they water neared each incision in the ground fiery red flattened beams 4 feet across fired forth, striking the water over its surface as they curved upwards along it to mirror its shape. The result was evaporated water, the wave having been dispersed.

The lasers which had parted around the wave converged into four beams and rushed for Umichi. Each "beam," was actually three seperate smaller beams packed so closely together that they appeared to be the same formation of energy.

The energies in Shūrei's staff focused properly, moulding together. The staff began to glow fiercely. "I will try to make this painless," the priestess said, worry knitting her brow. It appeared that she didn't want to hurt her adversary or at least not injure her fatally. If she was forced to, she would, but otherwise she had decided not to do so.

Umichi Kamimizu

Umichi eyes sharply watched to see what would become at her water when she saw a glow around the side of the water. She had no time to analyze the beams like she wanted, to see their composition.

"Shit."

Umichi grabbed her green tessen, and in a dance like elegance dove forward slamming her other at a 30 degree angle to the ground. A burst of concentrated wind shot out of it, slamming into the ground. After piercing a few feat the concentrated air expanded in a blast. Pieces of the ground flew perpendicular to the blast, sending several large, mansized clumps of ground into the beams, and couple's trajectory would threaten to crush her foe.

Umichi herself flew downwards into the depression created by her wind blast. The evaporating water would hide her movements.

Meanwhile, her water tessen continued to point at her foe. Whatever form the water turned to, it was laced with Umichi's chakra pushing it forward. Burning steam threatened to envelop the woman, as well as a small barrage of earth behind it.

The brooks near them started to crawl towards them.

Making me use my wind tessen already? What is this woman? What are those beams? I need to find out if she gives me a moment. Hopefully she didn't see what caused the flying earth. I can't hold back though... just don't make me use that.

---

Aware if the chakra that rushed forth, the priestess stretched her arm out before her, holding her palm up in a stop gesture. A layer of ice cold energy formed in front of her, glowing a faint blue. The hot air moved through it, returning to room temperature before it struck her harmlessly. Having noted the bits of earth flying towards her, she altered the constitution of the energy before her and wrapped it around herself before allowing it to separate slightly into beams, which spun around her at high speed. She moved forwards, weaving between the chunks of rock as best she could. What she didn't dodge was torn to shreds.

As she fully avoided the projectiles the shield dispersed outwards, each beam curving outwards from her form, some striking ground, others going left or right, while the last few went upwards, before curving back around and striking at Umichi from the sides and above upon all angles except forwards and backwards.

Shūrei's earlier beams were successfully blocked by the woman's efforts. She walked towards Umichi now. Her pace slow. Her expression was focused, but worried--though not for herself. "I do dislike this sort of thing," she said, sounding a bit wistful. Her staff continued to glow fiercely.

Walking across the overlook, Kobuto saw the Raikage down below. The Chunnin exams had just been held, and many genin had fought here this day. It was a great thing to grant him access to the Land of Lightning, he wasn't sure he'd get another chance like this again. Of all the kages, he was sure he could handle the rest who he understood. This man though, he was an enigma, even to his own country. Boozing around hadn't gotten him any information, and had even landed him in trouble a few times with the Antare Clan. It made his trip a little depressing. He'd hoped to learn a bit while here, now he'd just have to settle for this.

Of course, his genin had performed well as well during his trip, but that almost seemed like an afterthought compared to what he was hoping for. For now it was just him and the Raikage. In a few moments it would be just him. Kobuto made himself known, though he doubted he was hidden, despite his best effort. His favorite little book made him hard to hide.

"My, my, Raikage, quiet a showing. I think the genin are getting better every year."

Kobuto thumbed through his Jade Book of Heaven. As he did, his finger emitted chakra via finger carving seal. The mark it made across the paper spread, writing the word 'explode' in Kanji across. His fingers continued to thumb through the pages, making more marks.

---

His gaze having fallen upon the statue of hands, Genmyou made no move to turn as Kobuto made himself known in the room--not that he hadn't already been tracking the kage's movements. He took in the details of the man's movements, the intricacies of his posture, demeanor and what specifically he had decided to hold. That his book was not closed was telling, but nonetheless he made no mention of the Jade book as he replied to the Tsuchikage's words. "Yes, indeed they are," he began, his posture hidden by his robes, face by his mask. His fingers, hidden by his clothes, moved in handseals. Chakra of the electrical variety readied itself within him as he spoke again, "Though I doubt that is the only reason you've sought me out, Kobuto. It is not often that I leave my office without guards after all and when I do, few know I am gone." His head turned towards the man, silver eyes piercing and unreadable as they stared through the holes in the mask to observe Kobuto directly.

The Raikage made move to turn to fully face the man, but his fingers continued weaving seals, each hand preforming a separate set. So far he'd prepared two lightning techniques and two seals of a sort. "So, my question is simple. What is it you wish to discuss?" There was the sound of a smile in his voice, though his eyes betrayed nothing.

Perhaps he already knew.

---

Kobuto nodded as Genmyou responded. He was right to do this. The began thumbing through his book in the other direction, the word 'mikabishi' appearing on the back of each page, in the form of a summoning seal. Kobuto had gone through 15 pages. He continued to look down from the walkway on the side overlooking the arena.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about that bad habit we share. If something was to happen to us, what would our lovely assistants think?"

Another page turned. Kobuto's face had a grin spread across knowingly across his face. His book was ever so slightly heavier; Genmyou was raising his chakra levels as well. It was a bit odd though, the chakra was...odd. It didn't easily give it's direction as most chakra would due to it's odd shape as it collected in his book. This wasn't going to be as easy as Kobuto had hoped, then again, if it was, it wouldn't be worth doing. He'd be mostly operating without his main set of eyes.

"You know, you remind me of myself a little too much. It rather worries me. I could deal with any of the other kages without breaking a sweat, even that monster Hokage, Sukio. We, however, are a different sort of monster. I'm not sure how we should be dealt with. I do have to say though, nice to know you already know my intentions. Seeing as we both can read eachother, shall we both drop the act, and release what we've been preparing?"

With the statement calmly given, Kobuto's hand ripped forward, 75 pages of his 350 page book tearing out, 5 times as much as he had thumbed through, folding themselves as they fluttered forwards. Kobuto's teeth showed as they moved.

Paper Shuriken Jutsu

Across a 10 meter radius, the paper shuriken's rained down. They were extremely loosely based, there being more than 1 meter between each shuriken, though they covered a wide area. A fifth had markings across them.

---

Watching the Tsuchikage closely and listening, the Shade watched as he threw the shuriken. There was little time to consider the man's words while he made his defense, summoning two barrier rods into each hand and flicking his wrist in either direction. They flew down on an angle, he crouched, and preformed the necessary handseals all in the space of three seconds. The resultant technique created a pyramid shaped barrier which covered a relatively small space, keeping the kage inside itself. He weaved several more handseals as he began to speak, "Rare is it that someone takes issue with me due to similarities. I find it is more often the differences. In that way this scenario surprises me." His gaze rose to meet the Tsuchikage's, "Sadly that is the only way you've surprised me so far," with that he'd applied the generic sealing method onto his barrier via use of the fuin kakari(seal liking) and modification seal techniques.

His only issue now was mobility. To solve it he released the first of two chidori nagashi whilst still within the barrier. He allowed it to take in the electrical energies of the technique and store them within the four metallic barrier rods. He then released the second chidori nagashi, but focused the tendrils of electricity towards the rods themselves. Altering the charge of his chakra as he did so as well as shifting the orientation of the rods, he turned the barrier into a box whilst rising to his feet. The new shape afforded him the room to do so.

"I think you'll find my assistant quite fine by the end of this."

---

Kobuto snickered at the Raikage's comment as he formed the barrier. Not too surprising to him either, though Kobuto did like the concept of the Raikage boxing himself in, as he calmly made 4 handsigns. 5 shurikens would strike the barrier, one which was marked, the rest landing around the area.

"Your assistant sounds cold-hearted bitch. Chiyome would drink if anything happened to me."

Earth Release: Tunnelling Technique

The earth below the Raikage would start to collapse into a hole that had a 5 foot diameter, dragging the rods and barrier with it in a clean fall, down a shaft of 20 feet.

Kobuto continued making handsigns at the first show of sparks occurred, finishing by the 2nd. The dust around the arena subtly moved. floating about the area.

"Wish our genin could see us, how real ninja fight."

Kobuto's fingers half moved towards a snake seal, though he waited before committing himself.