"Ruby-nee?" Naruko rubbed her eyes, hoping that she was just delusional and it wasn't the actual Ruby next to her, "What're you doing here?!"
"Huh?" Ruby gave her an incredulous look, "Well, duh, silly. I'm crossing the bridge." She paused to take a look around, raising her eyebrows as she took in the mirrors. Leaning in close to one, she examined it carefully with her hand on her chin. "Didn't know they installed these ice mirrors though. Not exactly my taste but hey—this isn't my bridge."
"T-The bridge! It isn't even finished!" Naruko spluttered before shaking her head, "Never mind that. Did you not see a group of grown men running past you? Screaming their lungs out? Was that not a clear indication to turn around and leave?" Haku had paused, staring at the appearance of the woman with bewilderment.
"Why—it sounds as if you want me to leave, Naruko-chan." Ruby feinted a hurt look, but ended up breaking it with an uncontained smile.
The girl palmed her face. "That's exactly what I want you to do." Naruko retorted with a grimace. This was not good. Now she had to make sure that Ruby-nee would come out of this unscathed while also watching her own hide. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Haku raise his hand, senbon between the knuckles of his fingers.
Ruby waved her hand as if she were waving away Naruko's fear, "Don't worry, Naruko-chan. I'll protect—Whoa!"
Naruko jumped at Ruby and pushed out of the way, dodging the senbon that flew at her from her side. Ruby yelped as she was taken to the ground, watching with wide eyes as Naruko straddled her waist.
She chuckled despite the situation. "These mirrors are quite dangerous aren't they?"
"Damn it!" Naruko cursed, "You need to leave. Now!"
"I'm sorry," Haku apologised, "But that won't be possible." All at once, the mirrors held the same image of Haku with senbon between all ten of his fingers.
Naruko bore her teeth at the many mirrors, spinning her head and body around in circles as she watched every single one of the reflections. For the first time since the battle had started, she felt the feeling of fear and anger ebb into her heart.
In the darkness, the shut-eyed Kyuubi's lips pulled backwards to reveal an ominous grin.
Raiga thrust his sword forwards, missing Haruto by a significant margin. The younger boy was much faster than him, and if he didn't know any better, would have said that he was toying with him. But those eyes... They were glued to his, staring and glaring at him at all times. He didn't even have to look at his attacks to avoid them, damn it!
It was wise to note that the man was around the same age Gai's father was, so Haruto admitted that he had him beat in terms of age.
"GAH! STOP. DODGING. SO. MUCH!" Raiga roared as he swung wildly. His fingers had recovered at least enough for him to use his other blade, and he followed up by spinning around, jumping and carving the air with impressive agility. However, it still was not enough to hit or even touch Haruto. The blades begun to spark and crackle even more than before as Raiga channelled electricity through them. Haruto ducked as another slash passed him and spun on his heel before his leg shot out, heel crashing into Raiga's chin. The man was launched backwards, lifted off the ground, before he caught himself in the air and landed on his knee.
The back of his palm brushed past his bloodied lip before he glanced up at Haruto. Desperation and madness was present in his eyes and Haruto knew that Raiga was now begging to land a hit on him.
"Raikyū (Lightning Ball)!" Lifting his blades up, he brought the two upper prongs of Kiba together. The electrical charge that had been building up in the blade began to travel upwards and towards the two fangs, creating a ball of electricity the size of a man's fist. "DIE! JUST DIE!" Raiga brought his swords down and essentially fired the ball at the blonde.
"I think not." Haruto rushed forwards, completely fearless at the approaching attack with his right hand held out. His left immediately went over it, beating the air above his palm and moulding and shaping the chakra he released into his palm, visualising a palm sized ball in his hand. A swirling ball of chakra began to manifest in the middle of his palm, forming almost instantaneously. It grew and grew until it was the size of a kick ball before turning from blue to white. The air around him began to filter into the ball, forming a visible vortex of wind above it. Small, stubby blades grew from the sides of the whirling white ball as if a shuriken of sorts was growing in the middle of it, leaving all who witnessed it in surprise.
The appearance of the Rasengan was also accompanied by an ear-piercing wail that made everyone but Haruto cringe.
For a brief second, Raiga actually thought he had won. While Haruto may have created his attack, his electrical ball was too close to be dodged and there was no way that Haruto could even lay a finger on him!
Victory was his!
The attack connected with Haruto's chest and the blonde widened his eyes as the ball dissipated and entered his body as a surge of electricity that electrified his nerves completely. Haruto would've at least grunt in pain but turning into a blackened log of wood made it rather hard to voice anything.
"What?! No!"
Haruto appeared right in front of him and Raiga finally realised just how out of touch he had been this entire time.
He had been had! Played like a fucking fiddle!
And there it was again. Those damned eyes staring at him as if he was lesser than him.
He was Kurosuki Raiga! One of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist! He wasn't going to be beaten by some god damned, blonde haired, snot nosed pun—
"Fūton: Rasengan."
His thoughts were cut short when the swirling ball was driven right into his sternum. The sounds of flesh being torn and shredded and bones being ground to dust beneath the whirling Rasengan were followed up by Raiga's blood-curling screams.
Lee and Neji cringed at the gory sight and horrible sound, looking away as Raiga died before their eyes. Gai stared impassively, sighing deeply as he did. He was reluctant to do it, but he had to take Haruto down now that Raiga was dead.