| abstract | - Akemi reached into her tool pouch and removed a small folded piece of paper. She unfolded the paper and stared once more at the photo of her target, a young man by the name of Daichi. Akemi had memorized every detail of the individual the simple head shot depicted, form the short blond hair and green eyes to the triangular birthmark on the side of his neck. From her vantage point, Akemi had spotted the merchant camp her Daichi was believed to be hiding at. Although she hadn't spotted her target among the merchants enjoying a handful of fish they had caught from the nearby river, she knew he wasn't far from them. She had waited long enough without spotting her target and was growing impatient. "If your not coming out, I'm going to have to drag you out." Akemi muttered to herself. Flames began forming off of Akemi's feet, slowly spreading upward as Akemi's body disappeared and the flames dissipated against the wind. In an instant, Akemi was among the trees surrounding the collection of tents that made up the merchant's camp. Akemi trudge through the foliage and emerged from a patch of bushes, casually making her way to the men eating fish around a small fire. One by one, the merchants looked up at Akemi, surprised and confused by her presence. "Where's Daichi?" Akemi demanded. None of the merchants answered, not yet sure how to react to the demanding stranger. "Where's Daichi?" Akmei repeated. One of her merchants stud up form the log he had been sitting on. "Why are you looking for Daichi?" the merchant asked calmly. "He's a wanted criminal." Akemi explained, retaining a demanding edge in her voice. "I'm here to take him in." None of the merchants knew how to respond to what Akemi had just told them, shocked that one of their own was a wanted man. Before anymore words could be spoke, Daichi emerged from on of the nearby tents, immediately making a run for the treeline. Akemi, making use of her speed, blocked Daichi's path. Daichi skidded across the ground as he made a futile attempt to run in the opposite direction. "I'm innocent!" he squealed as he sprinted away from Akemi. "Then stop running!" Akemi ordered. As Akemi expected, Daichi kept running. Akemi took a step forward, but that's all she managed before the sudden blast. The explosion echoed through the mountain range, sending flocks of birds scurrying for safety. The blast occurred before Akemi could think, only allowing her time to throw up a crude Diamond Shield for protection. Even so, Akemi was dazed as tons of rocks and derbies began crashing down the steep mountainside in the form of a landslide. Stunned by the sheer force of the blast, Akemi could do little more than slump against her shield as the landslide swept across the camp, crushing the collection of tents and engulfing the merchants, along with Daichi. The earth trembled, animals moved to hide their kin; the wind blew fiercely across the mountain side in response to the explosion. Barely outside of the range of the erupting mushroom cloud of debris and smoke, Sannoto grabbed his hat to prevent an unfortunate tragedy: losing his favorite hat. “That’s in the direction of the caravan,” Sannoto spoke, his tone overlapped with a sense of speculation as if he questioned the explosion's existence. "Who'd want to attack a Caravan?" With relative haste, the man turned around and charged back up the mountainside and towards the center of the mushroom cloud. Minutes had past since his arrival; everything was dead/ The trees which were once plentiful no longer radiated life. Their leaves were gone, and their remains were without color as if someone plucked the life directly from them. Dead carcasses of may animals, dens of rabbits, nest of birds, and pits of snakes were drowned in blood and littered by their own bodies. If he was younger, this death would make him cringe. Hell, it would make any average people cringe. But not him. As a combatant of the third and fourth shinobi world wars, he had experienced death to such an extent that it didn't phase him as much. He had grown use to it. Especially in a world like this. Approaching the caravan site, with scattered carriages and buried bodies, Sannoto spotted a single figure in the distance. Her hair was a bright red, exactly like the blood that stained the ruins of a forest whom's life was plucked in an instant. Donning facepaint of some sort, she plucked up rock after rock, tossing bodies aside with little respect for their well being. She didn't care. His blood boiled. "Why?" was the only word Sannoto could say. It was his only question. Suddenly, she plucked a survivor out of the mix. He glared at her, gritted his teeth, as tears streamed down his face while she held him up by the collar of his torn shirt. "Why?" he questioned immediately, his tone filled with pain and despair. "WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO MY PEOPLE?" Sannoto simply watched. Before Akemi could claim her innocence, the man closed his eyes and went limp. Akemi sighed and let the man fall to the ground. Although she felt terrible for what had just happened, now wasn't the moment to grieve. Whoever set of the blast was likely near, but without a doubt making their escape. Akemi had to act fast to find the culprit. Biting down on her thumb to draw blood, Akmei rapidly strung together a series of hand seals, ending in the hitsuji seal. Akemi slammed her hand down at her feet, bringing forth a cloud of white smoke. A moment later, crows began flying from the smoke, scattering in all directions. As the smoke faded away, Akemi watched the crows fly away as they began searching. Someone needs to pay for this. Akemi thought, clenching her fists. Sannoto watched the woman drop the life-less man, than summon her own crows. “Checking for suvivors? What a sadistic thing,” the man muttered to himself, glancing from side to side. He tucked his body close to the portions of debris and kept his head low, moving from chunk to chunk in secrecy. With every movement he made, he glanced from side to side. “Did anyone survive this”, his tone was drenched in regret almost. It ached to watch a once prospering society to fall in the blink of an eye. Twenty minutes ago, he walked with these people. Ten minutes ago, he ate with these people. And now, he mourned for these people. As Sannoto silently grieved over the unnecessary loss of life, one of Akemi's summoned crows flew overhead, spotting him with its dark, hollow eyes. The bird cawed loudly, signalling to the others it had located something of interest. Akemi perked her head up from the dead man's face at the sound. Sannoto looked up and instantly realized the crow had given away his position. The crow swooped down on Sannoto, aggressively pecking at the man's head. Throwing his hands around his body while shrieking “Agh! Stop it” with each stop it expressing his annoyance just a little more than the last, he attempted to avoid the unusually blunt beak that the crow possessed. Regardless of his maneuvers, how his hands flew into the air, the crow didn’t stop pecking at him. Soon, the several other crows that Akemi had summoned too, followed their fellow avian comrade in pursuit of the terrorized victim. Each crow more aggressive than the last crow, they pecked at Sannoto’s body. He threw his elbow into one of them, his fist into another, his knee into one another, but they only seemed to stumble midair from his blow and then return back to their pursuits. “These damn things just don’t give up, huh?” he rhetorically inquired. “Enough of this then”. With those words, massive amounts of potent chakra shot from his tenketsu, blasting the crows backwards. They flew into the ruins, their small bodies accelerating so quickly that the force they had on the ruins were equivalent to that of a flying boulder. Upon colliding with the ruins, their bodies poofed out of existence. “Annoying birds,” Sannoto claimed, brushing the feathers off of his clothes until his hand rubbed against something wet on his left shoulder. He pulled his hand away and looked at it; it was shit. He shook his head in annoyance, sighed and wiped the stuff on the earth beneath him off of his hand. Without looking towards Akemi’s direction, continuing to remove the bird’s breakfast from his hand, he inquired, “What’s your problem?” Following the crows as they began ganging up on a man that had been hidden among the stone. Observing your handiwork. Akemi thought, assuming the man to be the perpetrator behind the explosion. That'll be the last mistake you ever make. Akemi quickly maneuvered closer to the man, who was now surrounded by a full murder of her aggressive crows. Akmei stopped to watch the birds as they picked up their attack, even resorting to defecating on the man. Without warning, a blast of chakra emitted from the man's body, sending the crows in all directions. Akemi smirked as the man began brushing the crow fesses from his body. Above the man, two more crows flew in a steady circle, vertical of the man' position. The crows, unlike the rest, were actually summoned explosive devises, set to detonate on demand. "It's never that easy!" Akemi shouted to the man, gaining his attention. As the man looked Akemi's way, the two crows made a nosedive for the man, preparing to explode just above his head. A female voice bellowed from the face-painted shinobi, "It's not that easy!" she yelled, causing Sannoto to turn his attention directly to the woman. "It's not wha--" the birds above him exploded, their feathers spreading out into the air and pushed into the wind. Debris and dust rose high into the air, masking the Senju during the explosion. Was he alive? That was always the question every shinobi asked after an explosive attack. Suddenly, shuriken the size of two humans themselves with runes built into the metal shot from the mist. Hidden in the fog, Sannoto wiped the dirt from his forehead. His body was covered in bruises, many of them, but fortunately he wasn't hurt too badly. Slamming his palms together, the man prepared his next assault, slowing weaving his chakra into the debris to transform it into a much more fluid substance. The two massive shuriken flew from the cloud of debris and made their way to Akemi. "Never that easy." Akemi muttered to herself as she rapidly strung together a short series of hand seals. As Akemi completed her seals, a massive earth wall erected from the ground beneth Akemi's feet, pushing Akemi high above the potential threat and blocking both the shuriken. As Akemi stud on top of the wall, surveying the cloud of dust as is began to clear, two explosions went of in rapid succession at the base of the wall, rattling the earth beneath her feet. Explosives built into the shuriken? Akemi thought, mildly impressed the man was able to deploy such devastating weapons on such short notice. There's no way he was simply carrying those massive shuriken. He either used Fūinjutsu or Metal Release. Either way, I need to be cautious till I can determine his abilities. From atop the damaged mud wall, Akemi again formed a quick series of hand seals, holding back on her technique until the man's figure was visible through the thinning dust. Once Akemi spotted the man's silhouette, she fired a volley of fireballs, spreading them all around the man, making the attack more difficult to dodge. I'll see how he handles this attack, then make a strategy from there. It wasn’t quick enough. It was never fast enough when he truly needed it to be. The golden dust was forming rather slowly; breaking the debris apart seemed to take a lot longer than it usually did. Pushing his palms against each other with more force, a natural response to an increase in chakra and focus, he analyzed the transmutation process. The speed didn’t increase even after he put more focus and chakra, not in the slightest. Across the bits of debris, his eyes could make out small parts of ink or something of that sort. “It’s the runes!” Sannoto exclaimed, readjusting his eyes to a fireball that rapidly approached him. He ducked, just barely however, the very ends of his hair catching bits of the heat. He gritted his teeth in response to the pain that rested upon his crown. He was lucky his hair didn’t catch on fire; but unfortunately he faced issues of other fireballs. Another one came plummeting through the debris, igniting every rock that it could to create other flaming comets that seemingly were directed to Sannoto. For every single fireball, the same thing happened; it created tens to twenties of other mini fireballs with a rock center. Putting more chakra into the center of his palms, a dome of Vibranium flashed into existence around the Senju in all directions. The comets and fireballs slammed into the iron wall and stopped, their kinetic energy seemingly dissipating into thin air. Sannoto rested in his dome, continuing to keep his palms pushed against one another in hopes of being able to transmute what he needed to survive. Within his dome, splintering off from his main body, a clone appeared before him, dawning an appearance similar to the Senju, except a dark brown complexion. A poof quickly fixed that; it had skin, blonde hair, fair skin, blue eyes. It was exactly like the original Sannoto. “Stay safe..”, the original muttered, yet again preforming another transmutation. Unlike the last however, this one was yet again inanimate. Instead, it was a giant drill that spun into life around his arm. The iron drill slammed against the earth, the sound slamming against the vibranium walls and disappearing; noise didn’t escape the clenches of the dome. With every penetration, Sannoto sank deeper and deeper into the ground. “It’s your turn…”, he exclaimed to the clone. The clone tore through the vibranium dome, creating an opening large enough for him to slip by. “What’s your problem?” Metal Release. Akemi though, seeing the large metal dome appear to bar her fireballs from the man's flesh. The I shouldn't take him lightly, especially going off of limited experience with what the limitations of such a Kekkei Genkai. Akemi looked down at the clone, unaware of the switch the man had made during his defense. Assuming the clone was indeed the man she presumed to have set of the unnatural landslide, Akemi glared at it with hate in her stare. "I have no need to explain myself to the likes of you." Akemi shouted down at the man. "The atrocities you have committed before me should be answer enough." Without giving the man time to process what she had said, Akemi bit down on her left thumb, daring a drop of blood on the process. Quickly after forming the appropriate hand seals, Akemi smalled her hand down at her feet. A puff of white smoke engulfed Akemi, shrouding her and removing her from the man's view. Moments later, dozens of crows began emerging from the smoke, cawing angrily as they swiftly few in all directions. When the smoke cleared, Akemi was no where in site. As the man began scanning for Akemi, several of the crows clumped together near the ground, molding their matter into what became Akemi's figure. After the first clone had formed, several more crows molded together a few meters away, forming a second Akemi, the another, and another. Withing mere seconds the man was surrounded in a semicircle of 8 Akemis. "Time to die!" The Akemi clones shouted in unison, the remaining dozen or so crows giving angry caws in support. Each Akemi clone formed a hand seal, half forming the Mi hand seal and half the Torā seal, alternating back and forth. From the Akemi clones utilizing the Torā seal, each unleashed a stream of harsh flames from their mouths, mixing together with the barrage of flying rocks form the Akemi clones that utilized the Mi seal. The massive wave of earth and fire encircled the man in a semicircle, quickly closing in on his position and threatening to quickly put an end to his life. The comets tore across the earth, moving at speeds that caused the world to screech in fear of their arrival. Even before being within arms reach, the heat emitted by the scorching projectiles basically slapped him across the face. The flames were no longer a comforting orange and yellow, but rather a foreboding red that resembled the color of freshly drawn blood; a scary sight to behold. Regardless of the obvious threat, the Senju clone stood still, refusing to move in the eyes of adversity. With a single fluid motion, a swipe across his body, a wall of golden sand rushed to his defense; finally the debris had transmutated after all that time. The golden particles collided with one another, bonding with the other to withstand the force of the miniature asteroids. One after one, the fireballs slammed into the golden wall, unable to make any progress; failing to break the bonds of a million metal particles working in perfect harmony. That was the power of synergy, to cover up for the weaknesses in one another. Under the earth, several feet, he rested in a small bunker that he had drilled within those few moments. He slammed his palms together, focusing the chakra into the epicenter of his hands and released a beam of energy. The fossils and earth beneath the surface began to take the form of a silver-liquid that spread rapidly across and upwards. "A sea of quicksilver..." "I refuse to die!" Sannoto's clone retorted, snapping his fingers and pointing towards the painted-face stranger. The golden dust responded to his command, the wall breaking apart and shooting towards Akemi in the form of condensed bullets. Several hundred, created from breaking apart his own wall was all that was needed to hopefully force Akemi on her heels. In all directions facing Akemi, that semi circle that she managed to create, balls of condensed bullets of gold dust ricocheted off of the earth, ruins, rocks, etc. and towards the eight clones and the original. The balls of condensed Gold Dust sped towards the semicircle of Akmei's with blinding speed. Gold Dust? Akemi thought, surprised that her opponent possessed such an ability. The bullet-like spheres struck the clones center mass, each clone dispersing into the crows that had been used to create their form. However, much to the surprise of her opponent, Akemi did not appear among the clones, leaving the location of the original a mystery. As the man began deducing where the original Akemi could have possibly gone, the murder of crows that remained began flying lower, encircling the man in as vortex of black feathers and angry caws. A single crow broke from the group, flying directly towards the man from an upwards angle. Once the crow reached the man, it would detonate. Should the first crow fail in its suicide mission, there were dozens of others waiting to succeed it. The crow exploded in front of Sannoto, removing the transformation technique; a puff of smoke took appeared from both the explosion and the release of the technique. Another bird slammed into the smoke, exploding, followed by another and then another. Over and over again they exploded, causing the earth to shake in fear that it would be the bird's next objectives. The clone was gone, long enough, its copper pieces spread across the ground. But, truth being was the clone was simply a hoax, someone to distract Akemi and hopefully waste some chakra. It didn't last long at all, but long enough for the original Sannoto to complete his next assault. While underground, he had been working heavily on the earth, transmuting from the base upwards. He lay several tens of feet underground and everything above him had become quicksilver that consumed the ruins, replaced the earth and the pieces of his clones. Under the quicksilver, the original Sannoto remained, hidden under a chamber of Iron that he created from himself to prevent the mercury from reaching him. Your a tricky one. Akemi thought, sensing the vibrations deep within the ground. From within the very earth wall she had created, Akemi began carving away the stone of the wall and forming a sphere of diamond Akemi had hidden within the wall upon summoning her crows, believing it would be the perfect location to launch a followup attack should her clones and crows fail. Ironically, the attack had effectively masked the vibrations the man had created while traveling underground and continued to hide his presense as he schemed beneath the surface. Whatever the man was planning, it spanned over a wide area. Akemi could sense something moving in the earth, but whatever it was moved as a liquid. Regardless of the material, Akemi knew it was unlikely to penetrate her diamond. With the barrier near completion, the diamonds momentarily stopped growing, leaving the space above Akmei's head open. Akemi placed a hand on the stone, channeling her chaka as she she made a seal with her free hand. Hope you don't mind if I take a page out of your book. On the outside of the mud wall, a figure began forming from earth on the face of the structure, taking on Akemi's likeness as it emerged. Standing at the base of the wall, the clone made its way over to what remained of the enemy clone, observing the shards of copper that remained after the chain of explosions. Akemi had only heard rumors of the rare Metal Release Kekkei Genkai, never having witnessed its use first hand. It was certainly an interesting ability, allowing the user to manipulate and conjure various types of metal at will. Even so, the man had used quite the variety during the short confrontation, suggesting he was no amateur ninja. Akemi would need to be cautious moving forward. The clone quickly formed hand seals, following up the action by placing both of her hands on the ground. The rocky earth in front of the clone, where the man had dug into the ground, began folding in on itself, forcing thousands of pounds of rock into the earth, but much to the clone's surprise, beneath the surface came a hidden sea of a thick silver liquid. Quickly washing up the the clone's shins, the liquid spewed from the ground in ever increasing volumes, covering the entire area. The instant the mercury washed upon the clone's shin, images of Akemi shot into Sannoto's head. Resonating the energy within himself to the energy of the quicksilver, he took command of the massive sea. Manifested mercury limbs emerged from Akemi's sides, clenching her limbs. The boiling flesh turned a bright red in response to the blood that splashed everywhere after the skin-formed bubbles popped. The quicksilver washed against the clone's knees, then the clone's hips and then the shoulders and so forth, until Akemi's duplicate was no longer visible. Under the massive sea, the cremated clone faded from existence. The ocean of mercury extended hundreds of feet under the earth and several tens of feet above the ground as well, replacing the entire forest with nothing but a viscous acidic liquid. The liquid rubbed up against the diamond shelter that Akemi had encapsulated herself in. "I-I won't let you escape!," the Senju roared. A deafening roar escaped his lips as the amount of energy he resonated was immense as the ocean he had created. The quicksilver around the haven was glued together with one another, hardening to turn the diamond haven into a prison; the quicksilver would become as hard as tempered steel. Akemi had been unprepared for such a massive scale counter attack, but she remained calm. Her diamond barrier proved to be an effective defense against the sea of liquid mercury, but it left her with few options for offense. Whoever her opponent was, he was certainly formidable. To create such a vast amount of material in such a short amount of time was nothing short of amazing. Regardless, Akemi was confident in her abilities as she always was. It was part of who she was, who she was made to be. Doubt had never been an aspect of her mindset, nor would it ever be. When her opponents did something impressive, it was Akemi's pride bound duty to do something spectacular. Remaining her her meditative stance, Akemi focuse her chakra, pulsing it into her barrier. The diamond walls surrounding Akemi began distancing themselves from her as the sphere of diamond began expanding. Making use of her Earth Release to sink the sphere back to ground level, the diamond continued to expand, quickly reaching a radius of 10 meters and growing larger still. With her sphere now covering a vast space, the top of the structure opened as the sphere began flattening and continuing to expand. Within a single minute, the entire area around Akemi had been gilded with diamond, trapping the vile liquid underneath. With everything within 50 meters of Akemi layered with her diamond and the man's attack neutralized, Akemi casually formed a short series of hand seals, following which diamond spikes began emerging from the diamond surrounding the area, shooting downward into the ground reaching depths of 25 meters. No mater where the man had been hiding, the spikes would surely force him out of the ground, if not impaling him and ending the fight quickly. Beams of chakra shot throughout his body painfully. "Ugh! Smart gal," the Senju murmured, allowing his energy to resonate with the metal once more. This time, the metal responded with a bright red glow, transforming into a new metal; solid-titanium. The diamond spikes suddenly found themselves immobile, embedded into the metal like a fossil trapped in amber. Sannoto refused to stop there however; the big ball of metal that was once the mercury and had become titanium erupted from the ground. It was underneath of the diamond shield Akemi had turned the surface into, allowing him to carry her up into the air as well. The area was thrown into the air by the Senju with the exception of everything within his line or below him. Where he rested had become the new ground, and everything above him had become a flying projectile. The ball of metal flew into the air, then suddenly stopped soaring, and had begone plummeting towards the earth. As the land beneath her feet began to rise, the sheer capabilities of her opponent became apparent. This was no ordinary opponent. The sheer amount of chakra required to move such a vast amount of material was staggering. Not only that, he had been able to match Akemi move for move the entire course of the confrontation. He was no doubt an expert utilizing Metal Release, being able to conjure various types of metal in large quantities with such impressive speed and efficiency. Holding back was not an option. One misstep would be all her opponent needed to end the battle, leaving Akemi a smear of blood and flesh on the stone. As the mass of metal and soil began descending back down to Earth, Akemi refocused, realizing now was not the best time to be admiring her opponent's techniques. Pushing hard off the suspended earth beneath her feet, Akemi separated herself form the descending landmass gracefully spinning in mid air, allowing her body to become parallel with the earth far beneath her, Forming our rapid hand seals, Akemi formed a massive pillar of stone that emerged from an oblique angle, it's point of origin just outside the area that have already been devastated from the battle. It took more than the regular amount of chakra required to keep the structure from being pulled down by the forced of gravity, the odd angle being far from ideal for structural support. The pillar shot outward, ended in a spear-like point that provided the descending Akemi with a flat point to stand on. Akemi flipped forward, placing her feet landing on the flat end of the pillar as it intercepted her decent. Though the rough landing jarred her genetically enhanced skeletal structure, it was for form enough to seriously damage Akemi. The massive pile of damaged land crashed back down to Earth with a thunderous roar, clouds of debris shooting upward. It took many long moments for the cloud of debris to clear, Akemi waiting in anticipation to see how the man had evaded being crushed by his own attack. Him having been at the epicenter of the lifted landmass, it was unlikely that he simply dodged the falling projectile. In addition, the layer of diamond on top of the land would have been impossible to drill through quick enough to avoid being crushed. Surely such a powerful opponent had been crafty enough to evade such as mistake, but Akemi's mind simply raced with the possibilities of how he could have done it. The mushroom of debris masked his idiocy; under tons of metal he lay, his faces pressed up against a sheet of metal. Shards of titanium poked his ribs, blood soaked the ground, and his teeth were clenched together like a baby Akimichi’s hand to a lollipop. “I really…,” the Senju moaned, slowly removing the protrusions from his body, “should have..ugh!.” He stopped after removing the fifth shard from his side, and took deep gasp of air. “P-Pain,” he grunted, placing his hand on the last shard, “Is just an illusion!” He ripped the titanium spire from his back; blood shot from his back for several moments, until the wound finally closed. “Man, if I couldn’t like..damn, I’d be..Wow,” Sannoto jumbled up, snapping his fingers. Waves of chakra shot from his fingertips and outwards, using him as the epicenter of it all. It pushed the debris away, all of it in every possible direction: left, right, north, south, east, west, etc. In mere moments the area had been cleared, revealing his uninjured flesh and a sort of genuine smile. He put his hand behind his head, scratching it very lightly, “Can’t believe you dodged that. Did better than me, per say.” “Question. Does it hurt when you get hit by a meteorite, like a lot? Or has that not happened to you, yet?” Akemi's highly perceptive eyes scanned the man for any sort of injuries, but none seemed present. Had he used metal release to escape damage from the mass of land and metal that had crashed down on him? If so, it was an amazing display of his abilities, potentially rivaling the durability of Akemi's Diamond Release. Whoever this man was, he was a shinobi of veteran instinct and tremendous ability. It was battles like this that Akemi relished, having an opponent that can hold their own against her abilities, enemies that are able to let Akemi display her strength and how far her training has brought her. This confrontation would be placed high on Akemi's list of most impressive adversaries, ranking high among her most memorable encounters. Such a battle, yet she didn't even know the name of her opponent. Standing high on the end of her slanted pillar, Akemi shouted down to the man, ignoring his question. "What is your name?" "Oh, my name? Well, most people call me Sannoto: The pride of the leaf!" He brushed the remaining dust off of his clothes. "Man, I am dirty. Anyway, you never told me your name either?" The mention of the Hidden Leaf immediately registered in Akemi's mind, as did the name Sannoto, though she could not remember where she had heard it. Forming her Mi hand seal once more, Akemi expanded the stone pillar in a downwards arc, stepping of as the end of the pillar reached the ground in front of the man. Akemi raised her arm with her palm facing outward, revealing the Hidden Leaf's emblem on the underside of her wristband. "My name is Akemi. I'm a jōnin from the Hidden Leaf Village. I think we should sort some things out." "You're from Konoha?!" Sannoto almost leaped backwards from his current position. "How in the? If you're from Konoha, then why did you kill all of these people? People from the leaf aren't supposed to do this!" "To be honest, I thought you killed them." Akemi explained, her tone level and calm. "I was attempting to capture a fugitive when there was an explosion that cause a rock slide. When I found you sneaking around, I assumed the one who caused the rock slide had come back to see their handy work. But after fighting you, it's obvious you wouldn't of had to resort to such tactics. Nor do you seem to be the type." "Wait, then if we both didn't kill them.." Sannoto paused between his statements and glanced around. He didn't pick up another chakra signature, perhaps because the woman standing before him possessed a chakra so massive that it clouded his perception. "Who did this then?" he finally inquired. "I have a bad feeling about this." "Unfortunately, we've given them plenty of opportunity to escape the area. Assuming they were near when our confrontation began, they're more than likely miles away from us by now. It's hard to say whether or not it was they intended to have us fight, but regardless, we lost our opportunity to find the real culprit as soon as we started fighting." "That's a bit of a downer. I was really hoping to find the culprit behind this all. But yeah, I guess we both messed up, didn't we?" He let out a light chuckle and extended his hand towards Akemi in a gesture that suggested he wanted a hand shake. "I'm sorry about all the trouble I caused you. Anyway, my name is Sannoto again just in case you didn't catch it.." Akemi simply looked at Sannoto's hand for a moment before a strangely cheery smile crossed her face. The air around Akemi seemed to shift as her demeanor suddenly changed to one of cold and calculating to one more bubbly and cheerful. Akemi grasped Sannoto's hand in what was a surprisingly firm grip for a girl appearing so slender, accepting the man's handshake. "It couldn't be helped." Akemi stated is a voiced that matched her sudden personality shift. "But someone doesn't start a landslide like that without good reason. I doubt they will evade justice forever." Pulling his hand back away, Sannoto took a few steps backwards from the Konoha woman slightly. "I guess you're right..." A short pause split his second statement. "Well, I guess this is where I take my leave. Indeed? It was a pleasure meeting you.." In that instant, he was gone. "Impressive speed." Akemi said aloud. "For an old man that is." With nothing keeping her in the site of her epic encounter, Akemi turned east, towards the Hidden Leaf village and began walking. The encounter left Akemi with many questions, mainly who had set off the explosion that started the whole ordeal. Had someone been attempting to silence Daichi? Had the merchant caravan or even Akemi herself actually been the real targets? What was there to gain form either of these alternate targets? Had Sannoto been a part of the plan? So many question that only lead to more and more questions. In addition, Akemi couldn't shake how close she had come to defeat in her encounter with Sannoto. Even Akemi's constant and rigorous training routine hadn't prepared her for such an opponent. The man was nothing short of extraordinary. What was even more shocking, what that deep down, Akemi knew that Sannoto had pulled his punches. "I wonder..." Akemi though aloud, her focus on her feet as she made her way onto a narrow trail between the mountains. "What would I have to do, to achieve power like that?"
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