An Old Grudge Pt. 2 (Natsu/Takao/Tao)

Trees. Tall-ass trees as far as the eye could see. They made for an odd effect to the naked eye, their great canopies reaching towards the heavens gave the Deepwoods a sense of grandeur and scale that was hard to match. Looking upwards was almost dizzying, but there was an odd sense of oppression to it as well. The canopy's dense foliage meant very little sunlight reached down this low, casting creepy shadows across the dense loam of the forest floor. This place was extremely tricky to navigate...

Unless you were a pair of Hyuugas with your Byakugan's active to scan far and wide for threats. Natsu chuckled to himself as him and Takao moved through the Deepwood and a steady and careful clip, combing the area where Tao had been last spotted. After getting confirmation from some of the locals as to where exactly that might be, along with a night of rest after traveling for a few days, the two young men got to work. The swordsman from the Land of Reeds' days were numbered. "Do you see anything, Takao? He's a slippery bastard, that's for sure."

Takao followed along, taking Natsu’s lead on this mission. His mission briefing was short, this was little more than a hit job and he knew it. While he had no illusions as to what his role in shinobi society was, Takao preferred to think of himself as more than a run of the mill cutthroat but with days like this he had started to wonder.

The deepwood was rough terrain, that was certain. With little light and the constant threat of the denisens of the forest appearing they had to keep an eye out. They’d passed further on toward the side that stood in opposition of the Sound village. As a natural barrier, most shinobi wouldn’t brave the dark and contend with the ninja of the Glade on their home turf. All but their target, and another figure that Takao couldn’t recognize.

Takao’s training in refining his extended vision had paid off, by sacrificing the coverage he could push the distance out. “Straight ahead, big clearing… two of them.” He motioned forward and let Natsu lead the charge.

It wasn’t hard to find, the clearing itself was caused by the death of just one of the enormous trees that filled the deepwood. The sunlight that broke through was almost blinding, and standing atop the ancient remains of the dead tree were two figures.

Daichi Kurosawa and Tao Yutaka, seemingly working their way through the forest. Talking about something in the distance.

Takao took a vantage point higher up, perching on a branch to spy on their quarry. “Mission didn’t say anything about that guy. What do you think?”

"Are you kidding me...?" Natsu grumbled as he took a moment to get a look of his own with the Byakugan. Sure enough, there were his last two Chunin Exam opponents. Their signatures clear as day, just having a nice and chill time together. Of course, this was a simple assassination. Simple didn't mean easy, though. Tao was a fair hand with the blade before, and in the years following Natsu was positive he'd only gotten better. Daichi was another pretty big issue, drawn-out fights tended to be his preference based on the last time they fought... Which was also quite a while ago.

"Daichi's going to be an issue. Remember? He was the guy Hiroshi jumped into save me from..." Natsu flashed a soft and wistful smile at Takao at the mention of the racist Senju with his trash taste in men on full display once more. "Don't break his mask, I made that mistake before and it screwed me over. He's strong, but I'd say we've narrowed the gap between us. If you can pull Daichi's attention away from me and Tao, keep him distracted, I can take down the swordsman. We'll stay within each other's sights," Natsu said while tapping his eyes, the veins bulging from the Byakugan's increased focus, "That way we can keep tabs on each other passively. If one of us manages to take down our quarry early, we'll go help the other to finish up. Sound like a plan?" Natsu took out his own ANBU mask, that of a mongoose (he got that mongoose in 'em) and put it on over his face. He'd just had it made. Unfortunately Sayuri already called dibs on the fox mask so he had to go with the mongoose instead. Once again, just because she was first... Irksome woman.

Takao nodded, donning his own mask. His wasn’t adorned with any specific theme, though it lacked eyes as he relied soley on his byakugan while wearing it. He hadn’t found anything that he felt he connected with enough to really go to the effort. “I’ll see what I can do.” While Natsu took the time to reminisce about Hiroshi, Takao took it as a challenge. If the Senju could handle that clone guy, he could do it too. He’d do it better, in fact. “Alright, I’ll try and split them up. I'll head to the clearing through that way.” He motioned off towards his goal and then waited for the signal to move out.

He opened by breaking from the treeline with smoke bombs, specifically aimed to shower Tao while Takao lunged for Daichi. A quick fight was a good fight, but his blade was caught with a swift deflection from his target conjuring a blade from his forearm.

Daichi fended his masked assailant off, cut off from Tao in an instant thanks to the smoke bombs. No matter, he’d deal with this one first and worry about the rogue Storm shinobi later. He had caught an errant stab and responded with a swift forward kick that caught the ANBU who managed to brace himself for the bone shattering strike as he was sent back into the forest with Daichi close in tow.

Takao had taken the clone’s attention pretty easily, leaving the sputtering Tao escaping the smoke cloud with sword in hand, alert for attackers but with no cohesion with his ally. “Well at least something interesting is happening today.” Even without a foe, Tao was more than happy to open his palm with the keen edge of his blade. Readying the blood needed for his techniques.

Natsu smiled beneath his mask as Takao immediately threw smoke bombs at Tao before charging Daichi. Takao was always helping him, whether he knew it or not. It was a shame he was so against Lord Seiryu... But that just meant more knowledge for him to devour and monopolize. He was the one Lord Seiryu had chosen, after all. All these thoughts ran through the Hyuuga scion's head as Natsu leapt out of their hiding spot and made a beeline for his target. Tao was a swordsman, but Natsu knew very little about his fighting style besides that considering how handily he'd been defeated the last time they clashed.

Well, there was an elegant solution here that Natsu could take advantage of. The Hyuuga flashed through hand seals as he got close, Ram → Horse → Bird → Ram. Water enveloped his arms before forming into a pair of sharp slashing and mantis-like claws which he swung with Tao in between them to try and bisect him from the get-go. Of course, the likelihood that such an outcome would play out was unlikely. Natsu preferred more drawn-out fights, all his abilities were geared towards that. You could call it a methodical approach, but Natsu knew the truth was he enjoyed playing with his food. Then again, Tao was how Natsu met Hiroshi in the first place. Very well, he'd make his death painless.

Jutsu Used:

Natsu’s attack was intercepted, with both mantis blades caught by the rogue shinobi’s weapons. The second katana was a duplicate of his original, only stained red. Tao’s smirk twisted into a grin “Ooh, scary!” He chortled, only to lash out with a savage kick to centre mass to break their clash. He wasn’t quite as quick as Natsu would remember, his training had been paying off.

Regardless of the outcome of his kick, Tao moved right for the offensive to begin raining down wild attacks from his paired blades. Untargeted, seemingly aiming only for bloodshed. He wasn’t taking the fight seriously, that much was clear.

Conflict had been Tao’s default state for some time, from fleeing the chuunin exams to winding up working with the Sound Village he had rarely spent a day where he didn’t end up in some sort of fight. Today was no different. While the mask did its job, he assumed it was more Leaf shinobi meddling where they aught not to. With that freak fighting on his own against the other masked assailant he had the chance to really go all out.

So that’s what he did, beginning his assault and seemingly not stopping. If anything, his bloodlust only grew with every deflected or dodged attack. Not content to stop until his blades met their mark.

Natsu saw the kick coming, but chose not to evade it as that risked putting him in a worse position overall in this battle. Instead, he used the momentum of the blow and rolled with it, flipping backwards as his water blades swept outwards to break the virtual killing corridor Natsu had created. There was no time to rest, take a break, or re-asses as Tao immediately rushed in like a crazed madman and began wildly swinging his sword with little to no finesse behind it. It was an act of pure violence and distilled slaughter, but did this mean Tao was looking down on Natsu?

Fine, then. Let him have it his way. Natsu's gaze focused from behind the mask as he deflected the wild and heavy swings of Tao's twin weapons with his water blades. Drawing on his training, Natsu activated Okuninushi and began to predict as his pale-eyed gaze sharpened, his eyes flickering slightly as he peered into Tao and read his moves as he was about to make them. Based on the way Tao's chakra flowed through his pathways, it quickly became evident that the man had more skill with the blade than he was currently letting on. To well and truly break him, Natsu would need to start drawing that potential out of the man. At an opportune moment, Natsu would feint as if to meet one of Tao's swings with his water blade before dispersing it at the last moment and shifting into the man's guard as he thrust two fingers at a tenketsu near the shoulder with one of his personal favorite moves - Chakra Point Needle - to try and limit chakra flow to that shoulder.

Jutsu Used:

Tao was mildly surprised that his target wasn’t laying in tatters before him by now, the shinobi he’d been fighting with around here hadn’t been all too noteworthy. Instead, the masked figure deftly responded to the wild flurry of slashes. If anything, this just heightened his mood more, a good fight was all he wanted. Amped up and keener than ever, he lunged only to find the water blade he expected was gone and the sting of the gentle fist.  An unfamiliar sting it seemed, it didn’t light up any memories for him, but it did earn a sweeping follow up kick to try and make some distance to figure out what was happening.

In the background, Natsu could see Takao fighting admirably against Daichi. The clone shinobi had clearly grown since his last sighting, but Takao was no slouch. He wouldn’t need to worry about that front.

With the strange loss of sensation intermixed with an intense case of pins and needles in his shoulder Tao seemed to be kept at bay for at moment as he considered his options. This mask guy wasn’t a normal shinobi, they’d barely managed contact with that attack and it seemed to have had full effect. “You’re stronger than you look.” The rogue grinned, deciding to utilize a neat little trick his bloodline provided.

His system was suddenly flooded with chakra, accompanied with a concerning beating sound from his chest. Tao’s heart seemed to be getting forced to work overtime, to the point a medical expert like Natsu might have guessed it would explode on the spot. Yet it kept beating, even accelerating. A diagonal marking bled across his face. “Alright then, lets see what you’ve really got.”

Tao’s system was invigorated, a rush of energy and adrenaline had him moving at intense speeds. The sealed tenketsu was still closed off, though this boost did enough to compensate. Natsu’s ability to predict movement was more than capable of assisting him though, showing just how much, he had grown.

The blood-forged blade melted away, shifting it’s form to something closer to a dagger with a jagged, flowing edge that he attempted to mix up his attacks. Using the longer blade to shift from heavier swings intermixed with precise jabs from the dagger. From an outside perspective the fight might have seemed as chaotic as it had been before, but even without his heigntened level of insight he would have noticed the proper stance from his foe and measured strikes.

Spoiler:

Natsu ignored the dull ache in his arm as he swept it up to block the kick thrown his way. He was still pushed back enough for Tao to get some distance between the two of them, though. As the two stood across from each other, having gained some small insights while formulating how to approach the battle going forward Natsu idly noted that unlike what he had initially expected with Takao fighting Daichi the two seemed to be going at it on a more even playing field. Promptly shutting his companion's plight out of his mind, the Hyuuga's eyes widened behind the mongoose mask as he saw Tao's chakra system flood with red power. It wasn't too dissimilar to what he had seen the little jinchuriki Sho do, though the scale was quite reduced as he could see the plugged tenketsu still holding.

What was really worrying was the way his musculature shifted as he compressed the bloody sword down into a more vicious-looking dagger. If Natsu didn't know better he would have taken it to be some ceremonial or sacrificial object due to it's jagged nature. Such weapons were often not used due to the simple nature that a ripping weapon required immense strength to use effectively lest your weapon get caught in the other's flesh. Samehada, one of the legendary Seven Swords, was one such example.

However, Natsu knew Tao was not so simple. The jagged edge had a flow to it, likely to increase tearing power and the low surface area of a dagger's edge reduced the risk of it catching even further. All in all, a dangerous weapon to face. In some ways though, being able to push this man to even this point spoke volumes as, again, the last time they fought it wasn't even a contest. The swordsman from the Land of Reeds' body tensed as he leapt back into the fray, the flow of his chakra along his tendons telegraphing the heavy sword swing with one hand. The problem was the easily dodged heavy strikes where quickly followed up with precise strikes of the dagger. Tao appeared to shift between the two and used the strikes to corner and control the flow of battle. One particular moment had Natsu caught when he saw Tao's incoming slash with his katana only to notice the gathering power in his other arm as he prepared to strike with his dagger.

To Natsu's eyes, it seemed as though he was trying to bait him into a more optimal stabbing position so the Hyuuga decided to do something unexpected: not dodge. The katana's edge raked across his chest and left a line of red which began to ooze blood. Natsu twisted his upper body in preparation, generating torque with his torse, down to his hips, ankles, and feet as he erupted with chakra in a spiral pattern. "Eight Trigrams: Palm Rotation!" As soon as the revolution was complete, Natsu followed it up with a throw of a kunai with an Exploding Tag to force Tao backwards and press the advantage of momentum in this fight.

Jutsu Used:

Tao’s relentless storm of attacks paid off in the end, the brief skirmish had shown the tide turning in his favour. There was hardly a response to the assault, just dodging and defence, but it was getting frustrating how agile his masked foe really was. When Tao landed another decent attack, he figured that this was just a step towards final victory. All he had to do was follow through and this was all over.

Of course he hadn’t accounted for the resounding wave of force that Natsu unleashed. Tao was sent flying due to close range of the defensive rotation when it hit. He crashed through the dense forest to collide with a tree with some force. It was enough to stun the swordsman long enough for the tag to do its job. Once the smoke cleared Tao fell back to the forest floor and regathered himself. He had managed to avoid the worst of the blast, but the explosion had scorched an arm leaving him clutching the dagger as he moved back into the fray.

Natsu had a moment to take control, despite his wounds Tao seemed as worked up as ever. It would take something more than this to take him down now. The beating of his overworked heart hadn’t faltered for a moment. By now it should have torn itself apart from the strain, but it powered on flooding his system with chakra.