"You're pathetic." Ameyuri scowls.
Slashing Taiju's right shoulder open, blood gushes from the wound but the maniac continues his attack.
Woosh
Slash
She ducks under a horizontal slice aiming at her neck, she stabs his lower-back with Kiba. High units of voltage coursing through his body.
"Ughhh..." He groans, body littered with Lichtenberg figures littering his body.
He slashes wildly at her, Ameyuri blocked his blade with her forearm plate, barely making a scratch.
"Strikes from the back is cowardly." He growls.
"There is no honour among shinobi. "
Bang
Ameyuri kicks his back, outsole digging into the stab wound.
"Arghh!" He drops to his knees, stabbing his blade into the ground for stability.
'This is bad.' Taiju thought to himself. Analysing his situation, he barely made an impact in the one-sided fight.
Every clash he was outclassed by Ameyuri, his swordsmanship honed from the barbaric nature of the maggots pits. She is levels above anyone he has ever faced even when he fought Might Guy, the Green Beast was merely toying with him.
"So this is what it feels like to be weak." He chuckles softly.
Bang
His face slammed into the snow, Ameyuri stomps on his head rapidly.
Bang
Bang
Bang
The last stomp made him release his blade, fingers slipping down the body of his weapon, blood tailing after his fingers.
Thud
"The fact you are still alive is annoying." Ringo huffs,toying with her enemy is getting boring.
"I-Im not done..." He breaths out, voice swallowed by the snow.
"That stupid power-up of yours is killing your body, it's a miserable imitation of the Eight Gates." She smears.
Lifting the twin blades Kiba, sparks start snapping around her, "So this how you wish to die?"
Taiju lifts his head, body shaking in resistance of the movement, his bloodshot eyes looks at her charcoal eyes.
"Kill me already–"
"No." She points her blade at his neck, his pulse jumps at the feeling of cold steel meeting the warmth of his flesh.
"Why do you neglect your blade?"
Taiju raises his eyebrow, "What are on about?"
"You're blade has no connection with your soul, it's just a medium for your chaotic chakra."
"It's just a weapon."
Bang
She kicks his face, blood splattered out of his nose.
"This is not just a weapon." She spits out,
"A sword is an extension of it's wielder, this weapon was forged with care from a blacksmith to be battered in battle as a show of respect for the duality of its creation. When the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were formed, the only thing keeping us from killing each other wasn't companionship or duty to our nation... It was the respect we had for each other's devotion to the blade, our will lives in our blade and in return we live to die along with our weapon...well that's the dream." She adds.
Taiju had no response, he tried to regulate his breathing so he could get up, stubbornness still persistent even at the face of death.
"Nice speech, I almost got inspired. "
"Pfft –you're a fool." She chuckles.
"Does your sword have a name?"
"No."
"Such a shame...I would've liked to known it's name." She walks over to his blade, her dual blades still cackling with lightning.
"What are you doing?"
She lifted her blades over his neglected sword.
"Wait–No!"
Clang
Ameyuri cuts his blade in half, the Lichtenberg figures imprinted on the steel before it shattered into pieces.
Taiju's eyes lost its colour, looking on at his shattered blade resting on the snow just put of reach of his battered body.
Ameyuri sheates her blades, the Mist nin, looks over at Taiju.
The man's lip is quivering, eyes swelling with tears.
"Please don't kill me." He beggs for his life, eyes darting at his massacred teammates.
"Tayuya...Kin...Yugao. " Please be okay.
Looking up at Ameyuri, he never felt so inferior before in his life, not even Danzo has ever stimulated this emotion of absolute defeat, his mind urges him to end it all, seeking to get rid of the pain.
"P-Please..." He closes his eyes, holding back the sob wanting to escape his mouth, years of suppressing his pain is about to burst.
Ameyuri looks at him with a stoic expression.
"Don't close your eyes, this will be your rebirth. "
He chokes out a sob, voice sounding like a dying animal awaiting the killing blow.
Ameyuri unsheathes her blades, channeling lightning to coat her blades, she raises her weapons into the sky like an executioner,
"You still haven't told me your name?" She demands.
Swallowing down dry blood and saliva, he speaks up.
"Taiju."
Ameyuri smirks, a canine showing as she licks her lips.
"Taiju~don't die yet, I wish to fight you at your strongest. "
Taiju looks at her dead in her eyes, mustering the last of his courage into this final moment.
"Our next clash, I'll kill you." He smirks.
"I'm looking forward to it." She descends her blades.
Splash
Crackle
In a swift motion, she slashes his chest to form an X-shape, starting at his shoulder blade, aligning at his sternum and ending at his hip bones.
Blood paints the snow as Taiju's pupils are white, mouth open as he falls back into the snow.
Thud
-----
[Konoha]
Back at the village, the weather has gotten worse, the clouds are ash-grey, thunder roaring across the skies and rain hammers the villagers who have scattered to shelter.
Tsunade looks out the window, watching the storm thrashing on her village.
The whole day she has been suffering from a nagging feeling, she thought it was stress from daily tasks or the lingering emotions of her situation with Taiju.
A sharp pain hits her heart, taking in a sharp breath, her eyes looks out at the window, searching for something not visible.
"Taiju..." She calls out his name, hoping he returns from his village and not end up like her previous partner.
"Even without the necklace, Death follows me." She grimace.
As Konoha bares the brunt of nature's fury, in a distant land covered in snow, 4 people hang between life and death.
[End of chapter]