“Padme,” Lilian placed her hand on the other teen girl’s shoulder, “Snap out of it.” She glanced to see the female shifter walking closer to them. “Padme!”
She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t expect a mission to go south. She knew missions would go bad, but this early in her career? It seemed impossible since the only missions she would be taking would happen in the village, not some remote part of the Kingdom. It should have been safe to take missions.
Tears filled her eyes as she looked pleading up at Padme and tried to get her to snap out of it. The other teen didn’t move as her eyes were glued to the large shifted named Douglas. Lilian took a breath trying to calm her shaky nerves. She turned to face the female shifter.
She remembered hearing the name of the female. It had to be the female name..Yukina, right? She widened her stance and pulled out a pair of kunai, holding them in front of her. She had defend Padme until the other teen managed to snap out of it, even thought Lilian questioned if she would.
She sucked in a deep breath. She steadied her nerves and stared at the approaching shifter.
Yukina paused and let out a giggle before she spoke, “Well, sweetheart, you are going to be fun to play with.” Yukina flickered her long icy blond hair over a shoulder before she widened her stance and hunched forward as she started to shake. Icy blond fur grew from her form rapidly.
Lilian held back a wince as she felt the color drain from her face when she heard the popping of bones. That had to be painful. She watched Yukina’s body twisted into a deformed version of a wolf. Yukina landed on her forepaws and shook her head causing her icy blond fur to fly around.
Lilian’s heart leaped to her throat as she watched the she-wolf stalk them. She wondered if her second kill would be easier then the first. She fought to keep her hands steady, trying to hid the fear she felt in the face of the possibility of killing again. She noticed Yukina walking toward her expose side. She didn’t know if the enemy wanted to take a bit out of Padme or not, but she reacted the same. She took a side step, trying to stay between Padme and Yukina as she mentally went over the jutsu she knew.
Thanks to her family, she knew a number of them and had master them, especially after she had informed her father of her elemental affinities. Her family wasn’t surprised in learning about them. Her father had claimed Lilian had shown them for years, but he didn’t feel it was the right time to teach her about them until she exited Basic Training and had promised when she had a few days off in a row, he would train her how to use the family techniques in those elemental affinities. That was something she could do, but she figured now, with the mission going south inside the village walls, she could be put on bed rest for a couple days by the Nurses, assuming she survived this encounter.
The sound of dirt shifting reached Lilian’s ears and she blinked, turning her attention back to the shifted Yukina. Yukina arched her back, her maul opened wide, and a blue light filled her opened mouth. Lilian gulped. The rumor of the Luna Shifter clan having a fire spitter was true.
Putting her kunai away, Lilian spun and grabbed Padme around her waist, pushing the older teen onto her shoulder before she pushed off the ground. Padme jerked and Lilian heard her gasp in surprise as they flew in the air, dodging the stream of blue flames a few feet below.
Padme gasped Lilian’s name as gravity forced them back to the ground and Lilian immediately went into a crunch, setting Padme back down onto her feet. Padme straightened up and met Lilian’s eyes before she nodded her thanks then she turned her attention at the she-wolf and the situation they were in.
Lilian stood up and faced Yukina, pulling out her kunai, spreading her stance out. She chewed on her bottom lip. She had some of her family’s unique poisons in a random pouch, disguised as tea packets. The problem she faced was how to use them because she was drawing a blank. She was taught how to use the poisons in the various drinks, thanks to her family’s history with tea making, but not in battle. It was something not covered in Basic Training, in general.
However, the Kunoichi Classes was a different story. All of the female ninja had to take a special class, going over the more unique and dangerous aspects of being a female ninja. Lilian had learned how to defend herself from a possible rapist, but their teacher had warned the techniques taught don’t always work for various factors and simply said, in a warning tone, there were ways to around the defensive techniques. When it came to poisons, Lilian had shined, often being called on when she knew the answer and her mother had been invited to teach the Kunoichi Class over the different poisons.
She sighed, going through her supply of poison, mentally. She knew she had Bloodroot, Foxglove, Wolf’s Bane, Larkspur, various lilies, and Morning Glory. Most of the poisons eventually led to death, but it would slow, starting off with hallucination before it would transition to vomiting or diarrhea and perhaps organ failure, depending on which floral poison she used.
Her mind darted through the various combinations as she glanced toward Quill to see he was in the middle of his battle. She couldn’t ask him if she had permission to use deathly poisons. Deciding to take the risk, she directed her gaze back to the she-wolf and sucked in a shock breath as the she-wolf leaped at Lilian with her jaws opened.
Padme slid between Lilian and Yukina with a short blade up, along her arm. Yukina’s eyes widened, but it was too late as her maul latched onto Padme’s forearm and the short blade bit into the corners of Yukina’s mouth. She growled as she landed on her hind legs before she jumped backwards. Blood trailed down from the corners of her lips. Yukina glared at Padme as she licked at her wounds and half turned before she stalked the two ninja in a circle. Padme and Lilian followed her, keeping the she-wolf in their sights.
“Thanks,” Lilian glanced at Padme before she slowly reached to her pouch on her waist for a mixture of poisons.
“You’re welcome,” Padme replied. She didn’t take her gaze off of Yukina. She took a step toward the she-wolf before she launched herself at her opponent. She swung her short blade from left to right, once she knew her blade would reach Yukina.
Yukina crunched under the blade as it cut the air above her. She leaped up with her mouth open wide.
Padme dodged to the right, allowing Yukina to sail past her and twisted around, not showing her back as Yukina landed and shifted halfway between a wolf and a human. Fur covered Yukina’s chest and hips while her mouth held the sharp teeth of a wolf and her hand were covered by fur and ended with claws as nails.
Lilian frowned at Yukina. She didn’t think the she-wolf would have the ability to do that. From what she had studied of the shifters, depending on what kind of animal they could shift to, the origins of the ability was granted to them by an extremely powerful demon many years. She shook her head. She could think about that later. She charged Yukina. She threw a small ball of poisonous flowers at Yukina’s head. It exploded a few seconds away from hitting the shifter in the head, scattering the poison in the air.
Hoping that would work, Lilian took a deep breath before she disappeared into the cloud of flowers and raised her right fist over her shoulder. She saw Yukina suck in a breath then shake her head. Lilian drove her fist forward into Yukina’s cheek. She tried to ignore the throbbing pain in her knuckles as she followed through the right hook. She felt a rush of pride went through her. It had been a while she had gotten into a physical fight with someone else outside of training and she often wondered how well she would do in an actually fight.
Yukina’s head went to the left as she turned, stumbling to the left. She growled then coughed. She recovered and glared at Lilian, anger flashing across her expression. She crunched and threw a punch into Lilian’s midsection. It landed, hard.
Lilian gasped as her breath rushed out of her. She wanted to bend forward, to protect her stomach. She remembered her older cousins’ lessons when it came to fighting - Don’t drop your guard. She took a step back, fighting the urge to cover her stomach and keep her arms up in a guard. She stepped to the left, covering her right side. Her hands went through a basic Earth Jutsu sign as she gathered the spiritual energy needed to preform the attack.
Padme jumped at Yukina, her leg swinging up. Yukina lend out of the way. The older kunoichi muttered a curse as she landed and spun on the balls of her feet and brought her sword blade around in a low arc. She had been hoping that would work to help slow the she-wolf shifter down.
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Yukina rolled her eyes with annoyance as she flipped backwards over the blade. She landed on her hands, momentarily, then swung her legs over and stood up right. She didn’t know how much power to put behind her attacks, not used to holding back while she was fighting. She didn’t want to kill any of the ninja since they had, technically, a treaty with the Hidden Bark Ninja, but something had changed with Madam Luna, in the last couple days. She had been ordered to attack the ninja when they started to clean for the day. She knew Douglas had wanted to go after the older Kunoichi, to finish the job he had started
Coughing slightly, she glanced toward where her Alpha was fighting with Master Quill in a deadly dance of claws and blades. She sighed then had to fight a coughing fit. She turned her attention back to the two kunoichi. She spotted the younger one, Lilian, pause on a hand sign and frowned, thinking, before she felt the ground rumble beneath her feet. She glanced down see cracks forming around her. She crunched and pushed off the ground. The ground opened up when she left the ground. She raised an eyebrow at the amount of power Lilian had used. She recognized the jutsu as Fissure Earth.
In normally circumstance, Fissure Earth was often used in the farm land to create long narrow rows to plants their crops in the spring and early summer. Yukina had spent a few summers working on some of the farm lands the Luna Pack had on the edge of the Village. However, this time was different, the attack Fissure Earth rippled out.
Lilian’s eyes widened. She knew what she did wrong. She had used too much power in the attack and the jutsu was spreading out toward the other fights. She cursed. She didn’t know a way to counteract the jutsu. She was sure there was a way to do it, but she hadn’t had the time to research it. She hoped the others would be able to get to safety or at least avoid falling into the fissure. She glanced at her teammates and saw one branch of the spreading fissures were heading toward Ralph. She screamed his name.
Enzo glanced at Ben. He didn’t know what exactly happened between Douglas, Padme, and Ben. However, he knew it didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened. Padme stood there, frozen like a wild animal. The fear in her eyes was gut wrenching to Enzo. He knew what had caused that fear, the reason why she stood a bit closer to the men on her team and away from him, Ralph, and Raizen. It was disgraceful for a male to do that to a female. It didn’t matter how race, or social status. Females were precious. They were the reason families happened, how a house transformed into a home, and in Enzo’s household, his mother’s word was law and be respected until he moved out and took a wife, then his wife’s word was law and be respected. He was planning to raise his son the same way.
Enzo grabbed a scroll he had bough the other day on his day off. It was a simple storage scroll. He placed a knee on to the ground and opened the scroll, letting it unroll a few feet. He didn’t have much to store inside the scroll, yet, but he was planning to change that. He bit his thumb, drawing blood before he pressed it against one of the storage scrolls. A series of leaves erupted up from the seal. Once the leaves settled, Enzo saw he had summoned his spiked ball and chain. He smirked. He was still trying to memorize which seal he had storage his weapons.
The spike ball and chain was one of his favorite weapons. He had been working on mastering it for nearly half a year now. It was the prefect weapon for both close quarters fighting and range, despite the fact it was clunky to use and it took a lot of strength to handle. He had learned, the hard way, if he wasn’t careful, he could easily destroy something important. He reflected, briefly, on his punishment for destroying the item important to his father and ended up cleaning the entire blacksmith shop. A task that took him nearly a week to do and during his school break after that, he had to help his father build the item. That had took nearly a month to do.
Enzo straightened up, holding the handles of his weapons, letting the chain connecting them hang in front of him. He was excited for the chance to use his weapons. He hadn’t been able to use them, yet. Mostly due to the fact, this was his second mission, but his real fight as a ninja. He took a breath to calm his excitement. He could enjoy a fight, but he worried if he got too excited, he would mess up and do something stupid.
“So, you two are going to protect what is left of that whore’s honor?” Douglas laughed, “She doesn’t deserve it.”
“She’s not a whore,” Ben’s voice held a hint of a growl in it as he spoke, “She deserves to be protected and cherished, just all women. You will pay for what you did - with your life.”
Douglas grinned at Ben when he spoke, “Were you planning to make that whore your wife, worthless ninja?” he shook his head unimpressed, “I should have finished the job and slit her fucking -“ he grunted in pain.
Enzo saw the glint of mental flying through the air before Douglas’s voice was cut off by the grunt of pain as one of Ben’s kunai sunk into his shoulder. Blood flew into the air and trailed down from the cut. He turned his attention to Ben.
Ben had a stoic expression, but his eyes blazed with fury. He stood, still, with his arm outstretch in front of him. The air around felt a bit to warm for Enzo, despite the fact he had grown up with a forge attached to his house and often had to help his father with his workload when he had the free time. Ben dropped his arm and growled, “You shouldn’t have even touched her in the beginning, you worthless pile of flies.” He half turned and walked to Douglas’s right.
Enzo’s eyes darted back and forth. He didn’t know if he should get involved or not. From the way it looked, Ben was more invested in protecting Padme then just averaging a teammate. If that was the case, Enzo probably should stay out of it. However, if it was just averaging a teammate and defending a woman’s honor, he could jump in and help. He didn’t know what to do, but he tightened his hold on his weapons and half turned, going to Douglas’ left. He glanced at Ben, but the older ninja either didn’t see him or didn’t want to acknowledge him.
Ben lunched himself across the space between himself and Douglas with his red color fist raised high. He brought it forward and slammed it into Douglas’ cheek.
Douglas grinned as he stood still. His eyes sparkled with a joy. He spoke in a gravelly voice, “Nice punch. I can do one better.” He curled his right fist and punched upward.
Ben jumped back, avoiding Douglas’ first attack. His hands flew a series of hand signs and flames erupted around his fists. He lunched himself back at Douglas before he threw a series of punches at Douglas. His expression was cold while his eyes glowed with an internal fire.
Douglas’ eyes widened and tried to dodge the flaming punches. He brought his arms up in order to defense him. He grunted whenever Ben managed to land a fiery punch. He lend to the side and managed to throw a right hook at Ben.
Ben cocked his head to the side. The right hook sailed past his cheek. He stepped forward and drove his left fist into Douglas’ midsection. Douglas took several steps back. Ben didn’t allow him to recover and kept pushing him back.
Enzo’s jaw dropped. He couldn’t believe Ben or anyone was capable of doing that. He really thought Ben was a sword-user with a limited jutsu abilities, but he was wrong. He noticed Douglas backed up toward him and he tightened his grip on his weapons. He took a deep breath as he tried to calm his thundering heart. He couldn’t believe he was about to have his first real fight.
Ben continued to drive Douglas toward Enzo. Once Douglas stepped into Enzo’s battle zone, Enzo brought the spike ball behind him. He took another deep breath and snapped his arm forward. The spike ball arched up before it flew down. It racked down Douglas’ back. The ball landed on the ground with a thud and a small dust cloud rose.
Douglas let out a pained filled yell. He arched forward. Ben paused and took a deep breath. The flames on his hands expanded. The older ninja strike out and landed a hard punch along Douglas’ jaw. There was a crack. Douglas’ scream increased as flames licked up Douglas’ skull. He side stepped, trying to avoid Enzo and Ben as he tried to put out the flames with his hands. However, the fire engulfing Douglas’ head turned blue as it flickered and grew.
Enzo watched, frozen in place. Horror filled his being. His eyes widened. His breath came out ragged and harsh. He knew what the fire was doing. It was cooking Douglas’ head to a crisp. The scent of burnt flesh swept through the area. It caused Enzo’s stomach to roll. He dropped the handle for the spike ball and lifted his hand to cover his mouth and nose. It smelt horrible.
Douglas’ screams died away. His knees gave way and hit the ground. The rest of his body slammed against the dirt. The blue fire faded away into smoke. He didn’t move.
Enzo wanted to walk over and check to see if Douglas was breathing, but he didn’t. He watched Douglas’ back to see if it moved. It didn’t. He glanced over at Ben.
Ben unclenched his fists. The flames went out as a small stream of smoke rose up. Enzo blinked, surprise, as he finally noticed there was a faint golden glow surround Ben. That must have been the Tiefling’s rage, he mused. He had heard rumors of Tieflings’ glowing rage. It was a power unique to their race. Ben must have inherited from the Tiefling parent he had. Enzo didn’t know if it was his mother or father.
Right now, Enzo didn’t want to ask. He didn’t want to bring that rage on to himself. He glanced back at the body of Douglas. He had the smell of burning flesh in his nose. He rubbed at it, trying to clear it of that sickening scent. He had a hand in this. He had helped to kill Douglas. He wondered briefly if he could count that as his first kill or not. He would figure that out later.
“Are you alright?” Ben’s voice rang out as he placed a hand on Enzo’s shoulder.
Enzo jumped. He wasn’t expecting Ben to do that. He looked up at the older and taller ninja before he nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
“Was that your first kill?” Ben asked.
Enzo nodded as he fiddled with the chain of his weapon. He didn’t know if he needed to keep it out or not. He glanced toward the other fights.
Ralph and Anakin was still facing off against Nas. So far, the fight appeared to be in Nas’ favor.
Lilian stood off to the side in her fight against the female shifter as she preformed a series of hand signs. Padme had her short sword out and tried to slice her enemy to pieces, but she was having trouble.
Master Quill faced against Madam Luna and they traded a series of blows as they fought. It was amazing to watch Quill, a skilled sword master, to fight against a shifter.
There was a faint rumbling sound as the ground shook. Enzo and Ben grabbed a hold of each other in order to keep their balance. Enzo glanced at the battle field, hoping one of the ninja managed to find the barrier rune and managed to destroyed it, but he saw the reflective shield still up.
“RALPH!!! WATCH OUT!” Lilian screamed across the battle field. Enzo spun and saw the ground had a series of fissures, spreading out like cracks on a windowpane. He wondered which jutsu Lilian had used to do that. He sucked in a breath. He reached down and grabbed the handle of his spiked ball. He ran.