_______________________________________________  | Instead of turning around, her massive target jumped off the cliff and spread its arms, floating in the wind. From below its kimono, something large and round and white flew at Ichika at tremendous speed. What?! That's the chicken?! Then that means- Ichika thought to herself as the enormous bird vaulted off of the side of the cliff, with little time to react as the projectile came hurtling her way the Uchiha fell to her knees and slammed her back to the ground; allowing her to narrowly evade the attack. The Jōnin felt something brush her pointed nose as the attack flew overhead, although she was unsure if it was the egg itself or the immense wind pressure left in it's wake. Were it not for her Sharingan, Ichika would almost certainly have been struck head on by the attack. With a roll of her hips and a twisting spin, the Uchiha twirled her legs in the air and turned herself to face the direction of the mysterious voice she had previously heard. Her armour clanging together slightly as she stabbed her blade into the ground. The egg crashed into a boulder and split it in half before splattering on the ground.
"Lookin' yerself, swamp lady" said a voice from behind. What... appeared to be a giant chicken in a kimono gaffawed while turning some circles in the air with an exceedingly feminine "hoooohooohooo!!!"
It would have been a lie for Ichika to say that her current situation did not leave her bewildered, even with her prior knowledge of Ondori Toutenkou's methods, however minimal that may have been. This confusion was confounded when she realised the rogue shinobi was casually sitting atop a rock, nonchalantly cutting an apple into slices and eating them with a kunai. A mane of tan hair beset upon his dark skinned head, wearing a tattered gi of the same primary colour with a slate grey trim. His form was monstrous, larger than any shinobi she had previously encountered in her lifetime; let alone her career as a kunoichi. Were it not for the comically large chicken beside him, and her own fearless nature, Ichika woud be quivering in her boots at the sheer scale of the man. But Ichika Uchiha, was not one to scare easily.
"So then, you have heard of me. But clearly not enough, if you believe that this vapid display of masculinity would be enough to intimidate me- She had begun, before being interrupted by the missing-nin.
"Oh, I can't do nothing about mah face, masculine or not", he said, looking a little hurt. He held out an apple slice for Ichika.
Seething with rage at the man's impertinence, Ichika audibly snarled and bit her lip, before continuing. Clearly agitated at the man's interruption. "I will allow you a singular opportunity to surrender yourself, even despite your discourteousy. If you choose not to, then I shall gladly suffer you the consequences. Ichika finished, pulling the tip of her wakazashi from the ground and flourishing it before bringing the blade level with her eyeline, its steel tip pointing directly at Ondori. He seemed to take this to mean that she wasn't interested in the apple slice and he shrugged and swallowed it whole.
"Well, that seems awful serious, it do. Y'know, maybe I should think about it", he replied and leaned back on his rock and tapped his chin, "Lotta angles here... lotta angles..."
He sat around and muttered a bit to himself with occasional phrases escaping his lips like "carry th'one... add the... uh... remainder value... uh..." but this was interrupted with a big yawn and a, "Wait a minute, what were we talkin' 'bou-hah, oh. I gotta solution fer yeh. How about you give me yer armor 'n I say yer dead. Could fetch a pretty penny fer it 'n technically speaking, I'd be doin' m'job. Technically speakin'."
Ichika was not an unreasonable woman by any stretch of the imagination, and in fact she had utilised diplomatic actions with hired ninja to further her own goals in the past during assassination missions. The removal of personnel through nonviolent means was always optimal, she had come to learn. But what this man asked was too much, it spat in the face of the values she held dear...if he wanted her armour, he would have to take it from her cold, dead corpse. And she had no intention of that coming to pass.
"If you want my armour... Come and claim it." she growled as she sheathed her wakazashi.
"Well, that's a shame. I was hopin' y'd be more reasonable. Well, Ah'm gonna have ter beat yeh then. When yer losin', feel free t'reconsider" he said standing to his full height and staring directly at Ichika's armor, maybe covetously. Before he had a chance to make the first move, Ichika began weaving seals so rapidly that onlookers would have merely witnessed a blur. Horse, Dog, Bird, Ox, Dog, Ox, Ram... Snake. As her hands slammed together into the snake seal, Ichika bellowed forth "Earth Style: Earth and Stone Dragon Jutsu!" Ordinarily, Ichika Uchiha was not one to resort to such grandiose, large scale attacks at the start of a battle, but this rogue ninja had crossed a line. He had flagrantly disregarded the entire reason she wore her armour, speaking of it as though it were a mere trophy, and not the honoured garment of times passed that it truly was. With a mighty roar escaping from her own lungs, the gaping maw and neck of a dragon erupted from the ground between the two warriors, leaving the earth cracked and split at its point of emergence before immediately arcing and beginning to crash down towards both Ondori, and his summoned chicken. As the dragon barrelled towards Ondori, he threw the remains of his apple pips at the charging dragon and then set about to make hand seals of his own. They weren't as quick as Ichika's, but there also fewer to be made. His face had taken on a sternness that hadn't been present in their previous conversation at all. Beneath his feet, an enormous stone egg rose from the earth and he leaped behind it, kicking the thing into the dragon's open maw and then charging into the big rock from behind, splitting the dragon down the middle. Meanwhile, his kimono-wearing chicken beat her wings down at Ichika sending huge blasts of wind in her direction, "See how you like that, you hussy! Hooooohoooohooohoooo!!!!"
Planting her feet and attempting to bear the force of the incoming winds as best as she could, Ichika responded to Ondori's taunt with one of her own. "How adorable, you believe that paltry trick has defeafed my dragon. HIYEEEEEAAAAAUUGH" Screaming at the end of her comment, Ichika poured more of her chakra into the attack; forcing the two halves of the dragon's head to curve around the enormous rock which had previously slammed into the dragon's gaping maw. As they descended upon Ondori, he paid them no mind and pushed forward instead towards Ichika, though he only managed to get the egg to roll twice before it started spinning hectically. He didn't let go of the egg and was swept up in its spin. As the dragon halves came together at Ondori, he suddenly let go using the force of the spinning egg to throw himself closer to Ichika. The dragons crashed into the egg smashing all three into rubble and causing the cliffs to shake with the impact. The flying chicken dive-bombed at Ichika and started firing eggs at her from... beneath her kimono. Ondori grinned dizzily, "Yeah, I've fought you red eyes before. Hear tell yer eye works by tracing chakra. Can't trace it if I ain't know where I am is."
"You are partially correct, even if you worded your analysis like a buffoon." Ichika replied, mockingly as she darted in between the rain of eggs with various rolls and sideways jumps before changing direction and rushing at the gargantuan mercenary head on. As she did so, the ebon-haired woman's gloved right hand drew forth her wakazashi and instead of clutching it with a full grip, she held onto the handle with her thumb, ring and pinky fingers. Her index and middle ones pointing stark upright as her left pair crossed with them, her blade almost resting on her shoulder as she performed the shadow clone jutsu once again, a conjured copy of herself appearing beside her as she ran towards her foe. Just before the two came within range of Ondori, one of the Ichikas suddenly dropped to one knee, and the other jumped onto her shoulder just as she then began rising to her feet, launching her into a somersault overhead of the mercenary.
Whatever she had planned, Ondori didn't seem to be phased much and rushed towards the very first Ichika in range... or so it would seem at first. He missed her completely and his path resembled the pattern of a snail shell. He swiped at the air and rolled away, turning around and lying prone.
"One o' yeh, six o' yeh, same thing", he muttered and summoned another egg, this one the size of his body, from underneath him, "Ah'm hurt! Ah think yer not takin' me serious."
"Pitiful excuse for a shinobi, I must have been mistaken in believing you were aware of just whom exactly you are facing. Ichika replied with ire and condescension in her voice, her facial features morphing into a disgusted expression as she spoke.
Meanwhile, the chicken swooped at the somersaulting Uchiha, opened its beak, and let out a huge jet of fire! As it did so, the airborne leaf kunoichi tossed her wakazashi directly into the center of the stream of flames, paying no heed to the burning onslaught of the auburn kimono clad chicken. As the roaring jet of flames burned forth towards Ichika, its onslaught was momentarily halted by the thrown wakazashi, before being blown away by the intense stream of fire. In this instant, the airborne Ichika, which had now been revealed to have been a shadow clone clasped her hands together in order to form the rat seal. Her eyes widening intensely as she stared the ninja chicken dead in the eyes; pouring her own chakra into the beast's tenketsu network with her Hell Viewing Technique. Whatever it was that the chicken saw, seemed to make her very very angry and the stream intensified! Evidently the Uchiha's plan had backfired, seemingly sending the chicken-nin into a frenzy. In the next moment, the flames of the animal's jutsu collided with the shadow clone; dispelling it after the scent of burning hair and flesh filled the air for a time, however brief it may have been.
"That's my man! Get your own! Boc", said the chicken, doing loop-de-loops in the air and then divebombing at where the clone had been. A wide grin creeped across Ondori's face. He pulled his headband over the top part of his eyes and said "Thought y'might try somethin' like that. You red eyes are so predictable. When she's in a state like that, she's gonna be hard to handle, even fer me."
He stood on top of the stone egg, stuck his chest out in the air and let out a loud, ear-splitting crow. The flying chicken seemed to take notice and swooned in the air, looking over to where Ondori was standing and then back at where she'd been dive-bombing, as if she just figured something out.
"Aright. Let's see who's king ah th'mountain, or queen, if'n y'like", and with a strange and random series of leg contractions, wobbled the egg towards Ichika with surprising speed! Although the jōnin did not seem to be fazed in the slightest. Almost calling a bluff, Ichika held firm and sheathed her wakazashi, raising her left hand in order to level it to the rogue shinobi. Ensuring that even with his eyes partially covered; that he could see her hand beckoning him torwards her. Her chakra flooding toward the earth tenketsu once more. Ondori crouched down and did a jump with the egg towards Ichika, but the egg slipped out from beneath him and flew into the air while Ondori fell towards Ichika, belly first.
With a blur of rapid hand seals and a dirty smirk, Ichika weaved the seals for the Earth Style Mud Wall and slammed her left hand into the ground as the brute of a man came hurtling towards her. The thick earthen construct rising from the ground rapidly enough before her to cause Ondori to fly belly first into the wall with a loud thud or so one would think. Unbeknownst to Ichika, as he fell to the earth, he was inhaling. And when he exhaled, it was with an earth-shattering crow, which ripped apart the coming wall, the ground below, and a large segment of the cliff, sending him flying upwards towards the large stone egg, which he'd earlier seemed to slip from. Realising what was about to occur, Ichika burst to her full speed, sprinting up the cracked and shattered debris of her earth wall, towards Ondori. Her ears rung from the sheer volume of the caw as she hopped and skipped between the falling chunks of earth. Drawing forth her blade once more as she made her vertical advance. By this time, Ondori was just getting his hands on the stone egg that he'd been previously standing on and getting ready to throw it into the huge fissure in the earth while his chicken flew at Ichika with red hot rage in her eyes!
"You made me doubt my Ondori-kun! As a woman, you should have some consideration", she yelled, attacking with her talons; allthough Ichika saw the strike coming from a mile off with her Sharingan. Springboarding from yet another piece of debris, the jōnin performed an airborne pirouette in order to evade the razor sharp blade-like talons. As she sailed past the chicken's attack, the Uchiha brought her blade forth, slashing out at her enraged adversary's back. The chicken cried out in pain and faltered in the air, but it gave Ondori just enough time to launch the egg down and crack the cliff down the middle, sending half of it crashing towards the sea and, presumably, towards the slug and the other invading shinobi. As it began to tremble and fall, slowly sliding away, Ondori looked towards his hurt chicken and grinned, letting his body fall where it may. Ichika's skull began to rattle from the force of impact alone, realising exactly what Ondori's attack had just caused her face dropped. Instead of pressing on, and attempting somehow to ensnare the bizarre duo's escape, Ichika raised the index and ring fingers of her off hand. In the not so far disstance, she noticed the smiling Ondori Toutenkou free falling on a course for his companion. Locating the seal upon her marked kunai, Ichika watched as the chicken caught the rogue shinobi with its claws, and with an endearing smile and a flash of black light, the Uchiha vanished.
Until we meet again, Ondori-san. |
