Tea Capital
Laughing Smoke
He fingered the hilt of his sword as he watched the immense form of Gamatsu fall from the sky, an immense bladed hurricane crashing into his underbelly and tearing into his wings. One of the mightiest warriors of the moth clan felled in one stupendous wind jutsu. A hurricane that must have been three hundred meters long and a third as wide, coiling up from the top of the military-tower, shredding the rooftop apart in the process, and striking down the immense moth like an angry wind god.
The wind-fan ninjutsu of Sunagakure were some of the most feared techniques in the Elemental Nations. In sheer destructive potential, only a handful of powers could match it. The potential for collateral damage and lack of acceptable targets for such techniques kept their usage relatively rare. That rarity had caused him to err, he had thought the missing arm of the warfan user would prevent her from unleashing her devastating techniques.
He had been wrong, and now he was suffering a significant setback for it. He rolled his fingers across the hilt of his blade for several long moments as Gamatsu returned to Manaslu Tsum in a massive burst of smoke. The green light of his meditative scales winked out of existence, and soon the attitudes of everyone in the Tea Fortress would grow agitated. If he waited too long, they'd become uncontrollable.
If she hadn't been here, Gamatsu would still be in the air. Only the arrows of a truly exceptional Samurai could scratch his carapace, and all of the most powerful samurai in the Tea Fortress were co-conspirators or long reassigned away from the upcoming conflict by Commander Tenchi. All except that one that was ripping the guards apart earlier, whom Tenchi ignored for whatever foolish reason.
No other ninja present could harm Gamatsu- not without revealing something truly exceptional and unexpected. Too high in the air for any to leap to him, too large for any normal weapons to damage. Only that warfan was a concern, and the Ogress had told him she had torn it off. That should've rendered the only obvious threat here impotent.
It hadn't. Why hadn't it? Could war-fan ninjutsu be used with only a single arm?
Water the Earth.
He sighed. Oh well. You learn new things with each passing day. "Start executing the hostages." He called out over his shoulders, keeping his eyes on the ongoing battles of the fortress. "Drain their blood into the flower-basin, waste not a drop."
"...Lord Takamura?" One of the ashigaru nervously called out, stopping him before he could begin another round of rousing thought. He restrained the urge to sigh, stopping his fingers along the hilt of his blade and letting the silence linger for a few moments.
"...Ashigaru. Are you suffering from some impairment?" He called out very deliberately and cooly. He could practically hear the winces and flinches from the gathered men as they watched over sedate hostages.
"I- I apologize Lord Takamura." The shuffling told him that the guard had dropped to one knee. "Forgive me my trespass."
He turned around, letting his shadowed blue eyes cast over the scene. A garden built into the side of the mountain, slightly higher up than the palace itself and overlooking the fortress courtyard. A shrine had been hastily converted in the center to prop up the brightly-glowing Fire Blossom upon its ivy pillar, and the many dozens of noble hostages captured from the activities of the night were sedately kneeling. Gamatsu's spell upon them would soon break.
"You're wondering why I commanded you to do that, aren't you, ashigaru?" He declared, taking smooth and steady steps towards the kneeling warrior, but voice meant for everyone in the courtyard. "Worry not, your Daimyo will enlighten you."
There was a much harsher flinch at that, and sweat pooled upon the kneeling man's brow.
"Ideally, the hostages would be kept to ensure the cooperation of our neighbors as power is consolidated, that is correct."
Feed the Roots.
"But that ideal is only possible if we first succeed here tonight." He pointed a deliberate finger towards the distant courtyard, just in time for the side of the military tower to explode outwards in a burst of smoke and fire. "The battle has turned against Commander Tenchi, and his loss grows more likely by the moment. By the time we move to reinforce him, the elite ninja I had previously lured away will have returned, and by then our loss is inevitable."
He leaned down to grab the man by his collar and hoist him upwards, glaring into his muddy eyes. "The only path that results in sure victory now is the Fire Lotus. If we feed it sufficient chakra to achieve its radiant bloom, I can devour it for unprecedented levels of power. With that power I can sweep aside our enemies, and all of you will be remembered as liberators instead of failed rebels."
His hand tightened around the man's collar, even as his face remained perfectly calm. "Do you understand, ashigaru? Every second I've wasted explaining this to you is another moment that victory slips further from our grasp."
The sweating man raised a hand up in a salute, practically slapping his forehead in the process. "I-I understand Lord Daimyo!"
He dropped the man, letting the common-born warrior stagger back and stumble for a moment. He turned his head and nodded sharply, making sure to look at each and every ashigaru in the garden in the process. "Start with the oldest ones- every drop upon the roots. Time is of the essence."
"Yes Lord Daimyo!" With that the ashigaru began to hoist the gathered nobles up by their shoulders, dragging the sedate elderly over to the large central basin that held the roots of the Fire Lotus. With knives they cut throats in quick but choppy motions, and red blood began to spill over the twisting tendrils. The bodies were hoisted up by ankles and allowed to drain completely before being tossed aside and the next set of sacrifices brought up to the hungry flower.
Three, six, nine… Every set of sacrifices made the glow of the fire lotus just the bit more radiant. He walked over to the prepared stovetop, adding another ashwood log to the fire, inspecting the teapot for sabotage, and letting out a low exhale.
He closed one eye, cycling through the vision of his various corpse-clones. Only one third of them were still active, the preparation of months lost in a single night. A dozen or more fights were happening at the moment, and most on the shrine-island were already disabled.
A handful were still alive, doing their best to avoid the screaming molten-rock ninja from Iwa and his spittle-riddled gesticulations. It was honestly rather shameful to look at, shouldn't the man be embarrassed to act like that?
Then the docks- there were no clones at the docks. That meant the elite ninja were already in the city proper, making their way up. They should be running into-
No clones left in the city. He almost threw himself up as his vision cycled through views, the roadway, the courtyards, the tower-
They were already at the gates of the Tea Fortress. He snarled, glancing up to inspect the Fire Lotus. The bloom was almost perfect- but it wasn't quite all the way there yet. He needed to-
Feed the Roots.
-wait…? No. That was stupid. He was about to lose everything right now. He waved a hand at the ashigaru, practically leaping over to the fire lotus. "Enough- ashigaru, to the palace. The elite ninja have already arrived, delay them long enough for the Tea Ceremony to conclude!"
"Y-Yes Lord Daimyo!" The ashigaru dropped the most recent nobles- late teenagers by the looks of it- on the ground and ran off, leaving them alive and sedated on the ground of the garden. They didn't matter, what did was the Fire Lotus.
He leapt once, sword flashing once before raising up and to the side. The ivy pillar slumped as the golden-fire Fire Lotus glowed, carefully balanced on the flat of his blade as he carried it over to the hot stove and tea pot.
He knelt, resting his sword to the side as he quickly washed his hands in the garden-stream, then a basin of water, then a vial of blessed water. The Fire Lotus was grasped- almost burning his hands from the sheer radiant heat of the bloom.
He had made sure to practice the mincing for many, many hours before this. Mostly on onions. If he never saw an onion again, it would still be too soon. Eight cuts this way, eight cuts that way, then a rapid series of downwards slices as he shredded the bloom and then added the entire thing to the interior of the teapot, setting the pot to boil over the ashwood fire.
A low, tense sigh escaped his lips, as he inspected his slightly-burned fingertips and charred surface of the cutting board. He reached over and started a little mechanical timer, setting it for the bare-minimum time for the tea to saturate.
He was out of sealing-tags for the corpse-clones. The battle was progressing at a rapid pace in the fortress. There were no more guards around him. He was out of things he could do to prepare, all that was left was to wait for the tea to finish.
The teapot glowed with an inner fire as the water boiled. An explosion echoed in the distance. He closed one of his eyes and cycled through active corpse-clones. Vanishingly few now, barely a tenth of the number he started the night with.
Soon, it would just be him and his sword. His chakra was still full, his blade sharp, and his spirit hardened.
He brought his hands together and focused. He exhaled slowly, letting a thin trail of smoke out from his mouth. Gradually, the viscosity and quantity of the smoke increased, growing out across the garden and filling the space with a thick layer of white chakra-laden airs. The air rolled across the ground, covering the earth in a thick fluffy layer.
Fire Art. Field of Smothering Smog.
A useful sensory technique he had learned from the monks of Fire Country. Anything that moved within the smoke, he would feel. Six hostages still alive, barely moving in the smoke. A number of small lizards and insects in the garden. Nothing else in the courtyard.
He dropped one hand, keeping the other in a focused handseal, and reached over to pick up the mechanical timer. Less than a minute left.
A series of familiar explosions rippled through the air, making him work his jaw and raise his hand to scratch his chin. The sound of a number of explosive tags going off in sequential order, he was willing to bet on that being the puppeteer from Suna.
He reached into his robes and withdrew his sword-polish, both an oil and a poison, and steadily applied it to his blade as the pot continued to boil. As he performed the meditative preparation, he considered how he was going to fight the man that was so much like himself.
He could only watch a single view at a time through the eyes of his corpse-clones, but that was more than enough to get important information.
The first movement of the Onimask was clumsy, a great leap and then staggered, almost deliberate movements during his first attack. The second battle showed a much greater degree of mobility than the first, as the Onimask moved and leapt in much more agile ways. The difference was the presence of the puppeteer by the puppet's side.
The absence in the first battle implied one of three things, a jutsu to hide himself, the ability to pilot the Onimask from a distance, or perhaps a compartment on the inside of the puppet for him to pilot it from within. Potentially all three were true.
The presence of the puppeteer in the second battle dramatically increased the level of agility, but the cut in his side had bled sand. Even as weak as that clone had been, it should've cut deeper than that. Armor or a clone, and again perhaps both.
…The man was entirely too similar to himself, even their brief and distant fights had been enough for him to determine that. With that in mind- he should assume all of the above was true simultaneously.
The outermost perimeter of his smoke was disturbed by a large movement. The trees in the distance shook as a large figure leapt up the mountainside, towards the garden.
Calmly, he removed the teapot from the heat and started to chug, ignoring how the scalding water burned his lips and throat and swallowing as much of the godly fire as he could.
Pain
If all of the previous was true, the real body of his enemy was inside the Onimask, the body outside was a clone with an armor-jutsu, and he had the ability to hide himself from sight on demand. Most likely he wouldn't be able to force a confrontation to the point of actually killing him. That was fine- he didn't need to kill the puppeteer to achieve his goals, just destroy his puppet and drive him away.
Pain
His body spasmed, rebelling against him as liquid fire filled his veins and the body of the Fire Blossom settled into his stomach. It was like being burned alive and having entirely too much energy with nothing to do with it all. It was like he had just drank bottles of burning honey, so sweet and delicious, but leaving a burning in his chest that refused to abate.
PAIN
Calmly, he set the teapot down, and stayed completely still as he got himself under control again.
PAINPAINPAIN
Another titanic leap followed by a landing. Two sets of feet crashed down at the Torii gate leading into the garden, smoke rolling across the ground.
"Ryoma." Dragon-Horse. What a fine name for an enemy. He slowly opened his eyes.
PAIN
His body was covered in flickering embers, his robes slowly burning away and his skin faintly reddened by the immense heat coming from within. If he was a lesser man, he'd be burning alive right now.
Pain
But he was not a lesser man. All of this was exactly what he had been expecting from the sweet-pain of the Fire Blossom. He raised a hand and stared at it for a moment, barely willing chakra to his fingertips.
Pain
His hand immediately burst alight, shrouded in white-hot flames. Every passing second the flames grew hotter and brighter without any increase in effort on his part. The power of the Fire Lotus was already coming to him as he digested it. He rose to his feet, carrying his poison-polished sword with him. "If you've come to stop me, I'm afraid you're too late. The ceremony has already concluded."
Wings of fire sprouted from his back, four broad flames venting off excessive heat from his body. His hand clenched as he raised his face, and locked eyes with the puppeteer.
He was standing next to the immense wooden puppet, commanding it with a single hand of strings, and holding a kunai. Behind the straw hat and white veil were dark eyes.
There wasn't a hint of fear in those eyes. Only a flat, almost bored expression. Dead wasn't the correct word, the eyes were most certainly alive, but there was little if any emotion in them. Only a detached calculation and slightly annoyed furrow to the brows.
"Stop is a strong word." Ryoma called back, stepping fearlessly into the smoke-laden garden. "Both of my clients are alive, and one of them has asked for your head. The Fire Lotus was never really a consideration."
He cracked a grin. As if all of this was just a job to the puppeteer, and all of his efforts thus far have merely been another daily inconvenience.
How infuriating.
"Takamura Gendo. Of the Takamura line, branch family of the Imperial Clan." He introduced, raising his sword and settling into a relaxed stance. Embers drifted away from him as his robes continued to smolder away. "Remember it as you flee- It will be irritating to remind you of it while you attend my inaugural ceremony."
"Are you going to keep talking or-"
He tossed his sword up and brought his hands together in a tiger seal. "FIRE RELEASE : FIREBALL!"
A comically basic attack, to test his growing power. Flame welled up in his throat, building from his core, before coming out in one great exhale from his lips.
A ball of white flame as large as a small house emerged from his lips- an astonishing increase. A blast of red fire roughly on par with a food stand was his previous best, and this eclipsed it threefold in size and heat. He grinned, and repeated the jutsu twice under the cover of the first fireball.
Of course- his enemy already had a counter to this prepared. "Fire Eater Seal!"
His immense plume of white-hot fire crashed into an immense cone of vibrant green chakra, before being twisted into a spiral and sucked into the eye of the Onimask, the eyebrow of which slammed down to cover the newly sealed jutsu.
Now, what will he do about the second and third fireballs?
The puppeteer's eyes were utterly unchanged as the Onimask stepped forwards, another bright spiraling cone of green emerging from the other eye to capture the second fireball, sucking it inside and sealing it away. That he had been expecting. He raised a hand and caught his katana, crouching in readiness to attack.
He leapt forwards, chakra coursing through his legs and sending him far higher into the air than he wanted to go.
Annoying, but this gave him a good vantage point to observe as the puppeteer and the puppet… Sank into the ground, no indication of a jutsu being cast as the ground turned to sand beneath them and they disappeared into the earth.
The fireball soared over their heads, turning the Torii gate into ash before going straight off the mountainside and over the fortress. He smashed into a tree, barely feeling the impact as he righted himself and adjusted his stance. The bark charred and dried where his fingers met it.
He narrowed his eyes, staring at the sandy hole in the ground, letting his smoke pour into it. The hole followed down and then into- nothing? No movement at least.
Hiding like a rat. He let his lips tug into a frown.
If he lost track of-
He jumped, needles thunking into the charred wood where he was crouching. He soared over the garden, eyes scanning around for the attack-angle.
A distant 'thunk' sounded out, as more needles sailed through the air. His sword flashed, scattering them about. Faint, tiny drips of poison were carried on their ends.
He landed in the center of the garden once more, letting his burning eyes slowly trail.
Another faint whistling as needles sailed through the air, this time from opposite directions. He jumped-
Another barrage of needles, from yet another set of opposite angles. His sword could only deflect one set, not both. He let go of his sword- hands coming together in a control-seal.
"Fire Art : Smokeshield!"
Swirling smoke rose from ground and rapidly twisted around him, sending the needles from all angles wide and defending him from the barrage. He grabbed his sword again as he fell, landing and-
His foot fell through sand. The ground was glowing.
"RELEASE!" The muffled sound of the puppeteer's voice called out from below.
Two immense pillars of fire engulfed him from below.
Through the burning that covered his body, Takamura grinned and grasped his sword with both hands. It was engulfed in white-hot chakra, roaring to life above his head as he brought it down.
"UNDERWORLD CLEAVING STROKE!"
Fire cleaved into smoke, then grass, then earth.
A new ravine burned to life beneath his blade, the entire garden splitting in half where he swung, the roaring fire washing down and through- utterly disintegrating the charred Torii gates in the process.
And there under the earth- the Onimask glared up, eyes spiraling as it devoured his sword-stroke.
He started the second swing-
A fist smashed into the side of his face, sending him tumbling through the air, over the earth, and crashing into the side of a sturdy oak. The oak immediately started to char and cinder under his touch. He pushed up in time to roll away from another hail of poisoned needles and swing his sword again in a horizontal swipe.
The puppeteer dropped back into the cloven earth, avoiding the arc of incinerating fire yet again. The arc continued on, splitting the tops of trees from tier trunks and setting both alight as it passed before disappearing into the sky again.
Gendo started to laugh as he rolled away from another hail of needles. Kunai were interspersed this time, exploding promptly in an effort to corral him into another attack.
Only his luck would have him find such an enemy immediately upon consuming the Fire Lotus. It was entirely too funny.