---

As the earth crumbled into a tunnel beneath him, Genmyou allowed himself and his barrier with him, to fall out of Kobuto's sight. Then he stuck the barrier rods into the wall, used two extras to afford him footholds, and sent his second chidori nagashi through the ground, utilizing its conductivity and earth's weakness to lightning, straight towards Kobuto. The action took barely three seconds.

He wasn't however done and he made his move by sending chakra through the ground and into several locations around the battlefield. He utilized his pure anchor seal, and ported transformed shuriken to those locations. There were eight shuriken spread out evenly from one another, each about 3 meters from the hole arranged in a circle. They were transformed into pebbles too small to be noticed as they "appeared". Really more like grains of dirt than anything else.

The chidori nagashi which he'd attuned his barrier rods to exuded lightning into the barrier, making cursory contact with Genmyou. He smiled beneath his mask. The barrier he had active within the tunnel was the same as the one he'd had before.

"My assistant is a man and yes, he is a cold hearted bitch," he said to himself with a chuckle.

---

Kobuto watched the hole intently, his finger still halfway to Snake seal. He decided after a moment the Raikage seemed comfortable in his new home, and it was best to give him a housewarming gift, when he suddenly felt chakra surging, though Genmyou's chakra made it hard to feel it's direction. It felt bigger, did that mean it was -

Bzzzzzz.

A sudden shock of electricity ripped through Kobuto, who grunted as it hit. The electricity arced towards his book.

"Da-ah-ah-ah-amnit."

As soon as it initially hit, Kobuto muscles caused him to drop the book which was nuzzled between his elbow and side. It took less than half a second from the moment it initially hit for it to hit the ground. As soon as the book was on the ground, the attack changed targets as the book attracted chakra towards it, drawing it away from Kobuto. The extremely short time meant the damage had been minimal, but it had still had hit, and his muscles still twitched.

Kobuto ripped off his glove by biting the index finger, and panting, pressed his hand against the wall, half to pour his chakra into the rock wall, half leaning on it for support as he made his way to the right.

Earth Style: Earth Flow Wave

The concrete at the top of the building started to gather together, in a wave of earth, on the cieling above Genmyou and shaped itself into a stalactite, before it's weight pulled it down and the stucture fell down on his hole. The stalactite was 4 and a half feet wide, and 10 feet tall, weighing 16 tons. It took a bout 3 seconds to form and drop.

Meanwhile, the pages in his book charred at the electricity, the cover still intact. The book still buzzed occasionally as it continued to aborb the attack. The pages were now useless.

---

Smiling as his methods completed and his attack succeeded, Genmyou used his other chidori nagashi to finish attuning the barrier rods and once he had done so he simply substituted himself with one of the weapons he'd sent to the surface. He appeared 12 meters from Kabuto in the location that the transformed piece of equipment had been. "I thought you more observant," he stated. Simultaneously the other transformed weapons swapped with his charged barrier rods, which had transformed into specs of dirt, making the change visually undetectable.

As Kobuto was recovering Genmyou summoned Seigennashi no ei from its 'sheath' and into his left hand. He took a step forwards and used his pure anchor to summon the kunai back to himself, which he then substituted with the rods further from his person, positioning them in the air around them. They were floating and emitting a light yellow glow as lightning chakra sparked off of their forms.

He had linked the lightning chakra with his own and attuned it to the rods, thus allowing him to use the small aura of chakra around himself to effectively control the rods telekinetically without disrupting the barrier. The barrier remained a square shape and was about 10 feet tall, giving plenty of room for him to move within it. This freed up his remaining hand to utilize handseals while his left hand wielded his infamous blade. "So how shall we proceed?"

---

Kobuto hand left the wall. He watched the stalactite drop, and at the sound of a shattering barrier got to work, starting a series of handsigns. He still twitched from the brief contact, his speed on it's own was shot, if he wanted it back, he would either have to find some distance, gain a tempo, or....

Genmyou reappeared, something he hadn't quite expected. Kobuto groaned as he noticed Genmyou's position, and decided against his strategy. It couldn't be that easy, it wouldn't be worth the effort.

"I'm not sure why you would think I've be so observant. I don't possess a dojutsu, nor am I very able with genjutsu. My taijutsu and ninjutsu are decent at best. I think you're overestimated my abilities."

Despite his 'humility', Kobuto still had a devilish smile on his face as kicked up his book against the rail, catching it with his gloved hands.

"I suppose I'll just have to flee, thank goodness these walls are so thick, and earthy."

Kobuto stepped back against the wall, and seemed to disappear into it.

Earth Style: Hiding in Rock

The wall itself started to bulge, and those bulges headed downwards at a 45 degree angle towards the hand signs statue. The walls weren't THAT thick however, they would barely fit a man his size, skinny or not.

Earth Style: Tunneling Technique

---

Summoning a sheet of Inshō-shi to his free hand, the kage began conducting his chakra through it, channeling it into patterns to craft a seal on the sheet's surface. As he did this he moulded chakra internally before channeling it into his Seigennashi no ei. Thus he stored a raiton technique within its form.

"If I did not know better, I would call you a terrible liar," stated the raikage as his seal finished manifesting on the surface of the sheet. It was the Kōshin kankei seal that he had placed on the sheet, but he had done so multiple times. In fact, he'd done it 10 times on the same sheet. He began folding the sheet into squares in his hand. After a two seconds he'd finished and it was at this point that he physically manifested some of his chakra, thus cutting the sheet into 10 smaller pieces. Each was 1x1 inch in size. He then charged the edges of the sheets with his raiton chakra, which he linked to his person. For a split second his barrier flickered. Something that Kobuto might not even notice.

The sheets of paper altered their composition utilizing the transformation technique, making them as hard as iron, though not even vaguely as heavy. They drifted to the ground in various locations around the battlefield, sometimes moving once more at Genmyou's behest. Once they were properly arranged Genmyou suppressed his chakra to its lowest state, giving off only enough to be identical to that given off by the pieces of paper. When he moved, so did the sheets. If he had known genjutsu he would have had them assume his appearance. He could have used the shadow clone technique or transformed them, but one required a fair deal of chakra and the other drained him gradually over time. This whole time, roughly a period of 15 seconds in total, he had continued to slowly supply chakra into his sword. It wasn't filling any of the 6 other slots.

He wondered if the Tsuchikage intended to collapse something on him or beneath him.

Kobuto watched somewhat entertained. He also felt something interesting, through his book. Useless as the pages were, the volume itself continued to function. He intended to fix the paper issue as well however.

The Chakra's smaller.... no, that's not it. It's feeling scattered across those papers. Some feel larger as they are closer, others no so much. Your main chakra is less dense, you must be lowering it. Your chakra is unique, and hard to figure out, I've not felt any like it before. It's like doing a rubix cube...while blindfolded... and drunk. So nothing I haven't done before.

Now should I render his chakra scattered techniques moot, or study it a bit more? It's a hard decision, letting a man like that have what he wants is always dangerous, but my other option would render me even less able. I'm still recovering my mobility a bit, and he just might catch on soon enough. If he does, I might just be a bit hurt. If he doesn't, well, that's his problem.

Kobuto started on a series of handsigns, tucking his book under his elbow once again. Once 3 were reached, he would use Jade Books of Heaven: Jeweled Spear Creation to refresh his book. He would continue to prepare himself with more handsigns afterwards, Genmyou was, he didn't want to be caught offguard. A smile flashed seeing the barrier flash.

Well.... this might work out well. A barrier that he can control.... how unfortunate for him.

The bulges in the wall would reach the ground, then much to Genmyou's prediction, they did not simply flee the building. They headed at him at an angle. They wouldn't come straight under him, but would taunt him in a circular motion, closing in on the barrier, but not touching it.

---

With each seal linked to his chakra, Genmyou was nearly prepared. Storing a Fuin kakari within his blade and linking the two slots prepared him for his maneuver. Immediately he released raiton chakra into the Fuin kakari and allowed it to transfer into the papers he had hidden. Thus the earth technique was disrupted for a 4 meter radius around each piece of paper. He released the same amount of raiton chakra from his body into the ground around him as well. The maneuver went off in all the locations at the same time, making it impossible to designate which was the source. Then, tapping the tip of his blade to the ground, Genmyou sent a wave of static through the ground, striking the chakra of the earth technique Kobuto was using so as to abuse its affinity weakness. This took place in a space of 6 seconds.

Moving on he tapped the ground once more and arcs of lightning struck out from each of the pieces of paper, and the rods around his form all at once. The bolts struck the paper shuriken surrounding him setting them off and obscuring whatever line of sight Kobuto might have had of Genmyou. Nonetheless, he knew the man could sense him, the question was, how would he cope when there wasn't just one. With this in mind he preformed three sets of handseals, two were seals, and one was a kage bunshin. The seals completed first, then the clone appeared, but strangely its chakra was sealed as it came into existence. It had another seal on its person as well. As it drew its own Seigennashi no ei, the clone began channeling chakra into the blade. The clone's chakra system was sealed completely, except for a seal of the spider bite upon its palm and using a fuin kakari it could channel this chakra into its blade. Genmyou smiled beneath his mask, having essentially created an invisible entity in regards to chakra sensing as there was only one leak from the clone and that leak was a controlled one.

He wondered how this would play out.

Kobuto slowly observed Genmyou, continuing to make handsigns. His heart wasn't in it initially, but as he noted Genmyou's chakra scattering, it sure became it. Kobuto weaved handsigns as fast as he could manage.

Noting the release of chakra from Genmyou, he inched to the side, avoiding the lightning shocking the chakra he had been using to conduct his tunnels. Kobuto continued watching invisible by the stone, having barely moved from his initial position.

Genmyou built up jutsu after jutsu. Kobuto continued on his one. He silently mouthed what was prayer. He wasn't religious overtly so, but now wasn't a bad place to start.

Across the field, the paper shuriken's exploded. Shrapnel would blast across the field, scattering Makibishi across it, though they became hidden by floating dust as soon as they touched the ground, thanks to Kobuto's earlier Earth Release: Hidden Makibishi. Without a dojutsu, they likely would be completely unnoticed.

Kobuto finished the last seal, and dropped to one knee, appearing to literally fall out the wall. His book fell out his hands open onto the ground. Struggling forward, he grabbed the rail infront of him. His chakra was suddenly weak. Genmyou probably couldn't see him, but he could hear him, and that was good enough. Kobuto liked a bit of psychology, what would the man do when Kobuto, a noted coward, was ready to fight? Of course, Kobuto couldn't sense the clone.

"Come, Genmyou. I will show you how a fox fights when cornered. If I hadn't discarded what I didn't need, I would be able to fight now."

A lightly blue wave shot out from infront of Kobuto through the air. It would feel heavy, yet hardly affected even the dust in the air. It also explained where all of Kobuto's chakra went. Chakra no longer flowed towards Kobuto's book, but away from it.

---

As the shrapnel settled, all having passed through his static chakra which had been scattered by the explosion Genmyou walked towards the statue at a diagonal, moving more to its right as to pass it by rather than meet it. As he took this path the clone concealed itself utilizing its cloak, turning entirely invisible even to the eye. Its blade continued to fill with chakra as it canceled its emitted sounds by using chakra to dampen and scatter the waves or soften its footfalls as it ran through the cloud of debris towards Kobuto its movements amplified by lightning chakra running through its form. As chakra burst from Kobuto's book the real Genmyou raised his eyebrow, nonetheless he had figured out the man's method of sensing. Nonetheless, the burst, and his words, appeared suspicious and so it was that 4 meters from the statue he planted his barrier rods into the ground and threw a kunai with wire through the cloud of smoke and towards Kobuto, altering its trajectory several times so it would come from his last position rather than his current one.

The rubble was electrically charged.

The clone sped up its chakra flow, sending more chakra into the blade until its own body was nearly empty. "At least you know that you're cornered," he said in reply. What was Kobuto up to?

Kobuto listened carefully through the debris around them. Without his book, he couldd focus elsewhere. Kobuto rather expected a grand attack on him. He was rather disappointed by the quietness. Did Genmyou expect to assassinate him? That was... very Kobuto-ish of him.

Kubuto continued listening, hearing a whistling sound combining towards him, and a shadow appearing through the rubble.

Kobuto reacted by kicking his book at it. He was glad it wasn't more, kunai and shuriken were annoying. Honestly, the hardest part of his ninja carrier was before he was a jonin. Chunnin tended to use tools way more. Jonin tended to use less tools.

The kunai would imbed itself in the book, and luckily by accident, it would shove more of it's chakra directly through the wire rather than the air. The book would then fall from the platform, appearing the real Genmyou that Kobuto had jumped down, though his clone would know better. The chakra from his shockwave would also attempt to enter through the hole where the wire connecting to his kunai.

Out of the corner of Kobuto's eyes, he noticed something emerge from the smoke and debris, leaving an empty hole as it left, though once the shape of a man had passed, nothing seemed to be there. Kobuto would have been apt to miss it had he been relying on his book sensing once again.

With a smile, Kobuto threw a smoke bomb down, and yelled:

[color=brown]"I'm totally not going to use that hiding technique again!"

As soon as the smoke was up, he would jump into the tunnel, without any jutsu. He doubted Genmyou would buy the bluff, but messing with him was still fun. He wished he could see his reaction, but the fun thing about a mask was he could imagine it.

His earlier shockwave from earlier then took effect.

Jade Books of Heaven: Pure Land Devastation

The flow of his book would violently reverse again. All chakra that had spread out from it would mold and combine with whatever sources they could latch onto: jutsu, barriers, seals, equipment. Latching onto those surfaces, when the flow was reverse, they would be ripped out, draining all chakra in the area, and making whatever it touched dry of chakra.

The main escape from this was to disrupt chakra, causing the chakra from the technique to rip out without the rest of the system.

Kobuto was no exeption, and in the dark of his tunnel, he disrupted his own chakra system, a chunk being ripped out before ending. All his techniques around the battlefield would be ripped apart as well.

Kobuto's chakra system took a large blow from casting a large jutsu such as this. With his fairly average reserve, using near all at once put large strain on his chakra points. He would lose his flexibility and chakra control in ninjutsu, and he could only do that particular large jutsu once. Luckily, he had tunnels now. Genmyou didn't know he had lost anything, and he wouldn't know he had jumped into the tunnel either.

Chiyome rubbed her temple hunched over as she looked at the woman infront of her. Well, by woman, she supposed she should say Mizukage, but she wasn't in the mood for it. Chiyome muttered to herself.

"And here I was thinking peace talks would be nice and easy.... It never is, is it? What would Kobuto do? Damn, should have poisoned the teacup."

Chiyome stood up straight, and grabbed her staff and rushed forward. Despite being a drunk Chiyome's speed was impressive.

"Let's go, Seizetsu! One of us shames their country today!"

With that, Chiyome leaped forward, slashing forward with her staff. A line of fire erupted firing down at the Mizukage.

Cloud Style: Flame Beheading

---

One hand against a wall as she leaned, ankles crossed in a relaxed posture, Seizetsu couldn't help but smile at the inebriated kage as she dealt with what appeared a headache. Probably from a hangover, not that it mattered too much. "Mmm, shame, had quite enough of that," she mused aloud, faking a yawn as Chiyome jumped towards her and swung. In the moment of that attack her finger slid across the wood wall she'd been touching and set it on fire, collapsing it. This caused her to fall to the right, allowing her to dodge the strike, the staff slipping through the air above her.

The expression on her face was a bemused one as her body suddenly began to spin, the wind around her picking up and then suddenly igniting, a wave of searing flame spreading from her person. The motion simultaneously stopped her fall, allowing her hand to catch her so she could leverage herself and sweep her leg out in a low swiping kick. Were it to miss flames would follow the movement, sending a wave of wind and flames in the direction of the melee attack. If uninterrupted she'd continue the motion, spinning up and to her feet, making sure to end so she faced the direction Chiyome was in. "So yeah, I think I'll pass on the whole shame gig, hunny. Not really my thing anymore," she said as the remaining flames and sparks danced upwards through the air around her.

Despite the dangerous levels of heat surrounding her, none of her clothes appeared the slightest bit singed. Nonetheless she brushed her shoulder off, glancing to make sure she'd gotten the dirt off of it.

Chiyome nearly cursed as Seizetsu burned the wall down casually. Another fire user. They were not going to leave the area unscarred, that was for sure, and a bar she liked was relatively nearby. Still, didn't matter, she had picked her fight.

Still midair, Chiyome repositioned her staff, using the other hand than the one she had used for the fire jutsu to grab near the top of the staff, and slam it in the ground, checking her momentum. Chiyome would be left atop her staff, higher than the flames were likely to be.

Chiyome looked straight at Seizetsu as she did, letting out a small electrical current through her staff, into the ground. Chiyome made no effort to stop the woman's movements, feeling the warm air as it heated up. Chiyome noted her clothes not burning... that wasn't a good sign. Then again, Chiyome had a trick or two up her sleeves with fire as well.

"Anymore? What, did you end up shame already?"

Chiyome hoped her lips would draw attention from spark or two in the bottom of her staff.

The electricity would fan out, letting only a small spark to any targets nearby, it was more of a preparatory jutsu than anything.

---

Even as Chiyome used her staff to ground herself the flames around Seizetsu all died down into sparks, dispersing so thinly that each spark just drifted outwards as if on natural winds. Sadly the technique betrayed some of its deadly nature as several sparks made contact with the wooden building. The result was not positive as immediately the spark erupted in a flare of light before the flames dimmed somewhat and began rapidly spreading over the structure.

There were several screams, swiftly followed by civilians bursting through the front door to get out of burning building. Seizetsu didn't pay any of it much mind, merely looking at Chiyome as she raised her hand before her, fingers splayed and pointing upwards. Then in a split second tiny white hot flames appeared hovering only several millimeters above the surface of her fingers. She crouched and pushed off from the ground with both feet at once, wind whipping her hair back.

"Sūjimosu('Sear digits' _数字燃す)," she stated, wind channeling around her form and condensing as she moved. If or when she got near Chiyome she'd thrust her left hand forwards at the woman's chest.