Chapter 41.1- Gamer of the Desert

‘He’s fucking fast’ was the first thing Mei thought the moment the fight started. Nary a second had passed since Ao dropped his hand to begin the battle, but in that time, he’d closed much of the distance between them, hand coming straight at her face in a closed jab. Taijutsu first. Of course, it was taijutsu first. They always thought themselves so clever. Oh, she’s a ninjutsu specialist, let me close the distance so I can punch her in the face and end the fight quickly. Idiots. She leaned back, easily avoiding the jab while completing her jutsu at the same time. When her mouth opened, it was to release a storm of acidic steam, prepared to melt the skin off his bones. The boy jumped backwards the second my jutsu activated, but even that wasn’t completely enough to save him, she noted. The skin around his fists had a reddish tint to them that they hadn’t had before the fight began. 

She smiled, a savage, smug thing. First blood was hers, and they both knew it. This time, the boy moved slowly. Slow enough that she could see his every action. The scroll on his waist was opened and he began by unsealing the very first of the swords. Himarakei, the Twinsword. She didn’t need to rack her mind to figure out what exactly the sword did. Like every child that attended the Mist academy she could recite the names and functions of every single one of the Seven swords with ease. Himarakei’s power, chakra storage. The ability to store vast amounts of chakra and unleash it by either increasing its size or changing its shape. The First Mizukage, seas keep his name, had famously used the sword to cut through the shell of the Three-tailed Turtle and gave it that famous scar across its eye. 

Luckily for her, Mangetsu Hozuki was nowhere near as strong as that fabled weirder. The sword in his hands had a bright blue glow and when he slashed it at her, she had all the time in the world to dodge the arc of blue chakra that followed the blade’s movements. Of course, it had been a feignt. She’d seen it coming miles away. When he attempted to close the distance this time, he found himself to be just a hair’s breadth too slow. 

She completed her seals before he could take that crucial first step and she did not hesitate to bathe the ground between them with steaming lava. He was forced to jump backwards again, playing her game, and only hers. 

Multiple balls of lava followed his path as he tried to do his best to block them by cutting across them with the Twinsword. He landed, placed a hand on each of the sword’s handles and separated it into two separate blades. That was where the name, Twinsword, had come from after all. “Too little, too late” The Terumi heiress spoke before blanketing much of the field between them in mist. 

“They call you the Second Coming of the demon” She said, disappearing into the mist. 

“But do you even know who had the privilege of being on a team with Zabuza Momochi? I fought by his side more times than I can count, and he was a monster of a man. Dangerous with or without his blade. The Mist is lesser for his absence. But you? You are nowhere near that strong” Her voice sounded from every corner of the mist, boxing Mangetsu Hozuki in. 

He felt it for perhaps the first time in years, that chaotic feeling. The feeling that made ones heart beat like a drum. The feeling that brought men to their knees. Fear. He clenched his fingers around the blades in his hands. He was the last of the Mist’s swordsmen. The last of the Seven. Some Kekkei Genkai bitch that had everything handed to her would not be the one to beat him. Her stayed still and concentrated, using his hearing to try to pick out her approach. 

There. He thought to himself as he caught a passing flicker. He jumped with all the force his body could generate and brought both blades down on the form of Mei Terumi, smiling in victory. It was not to be as the blades passed right through her before he landed on the ground. A dsrtrange sound caught his attention, and it was all he could do to jump backwards and cross the blades in front of him to block much of the force of the explosive tag on the floor. She was a crafty one, he thought to himself. But she wasn’t winning. Sure, he hadn’t killed her yet, but the only reason for that was this pesky mist. If she could have taken him head-on, she’d have done so. 

He picked up the scroll and sealed the Twinswords while unsealing the Blastsword this time. The goal, use explosive force to get rid of the mist. If he knew some wind style, this would have been easy, but his only element was water. He could have sunk into the mist and challenged her in silent killing but she was Zabuza’s teammate. No one was as good as the Demon when it came to silent killing and he wasn’t going to risk it against her. 

“Eight points: Larynx, spine, lungs” her voice began to echo all around Mangetsu, and he swept the blast sword in an arc, explosions drowning it out for a second as he cleared a bit of the mist around him. 

It was pointless and the mist rushed back in again, “ liver, jugular, subclavian artery” her voice returned with the mist. He could feel himself suddenly beginning to feel drained. What the hell was this? “kidneys, and heart” She finally said, her voice never changing pitch as she listed all the killing points to him like she was reading out from a list. 

He swept around again, rotating his body and activating the blastsword as he did so. The explosions, just like before, sent the mist away, but it was quick to return. This time, however, he’d gotten a glimpse of her. He knew where she was. That was why he sealed the blastsword back before unsealing his latest acquisition, the Kiba blades. The lightning blades with jagged teeth hungered for his chakra, and he was more than happy to feed it to its fill, pointing the blades right at where he knew she was. “Dieeeee” He shouted. 

Mei Terumi watched the boy flounder about with a smug smile on her face. He never even noticed her chakra enter his with the mist that scarred his hands. The Second Mizukage’s notes had been extremely instructive on the matter. He controlled his mist based genjutsu like an artist, weaving it and tailoring it to the recipient while subtly altering their chakra with his own and making his way inside. Her way could not have been more different. Where he was cautious, she was bold. Where he was subtle, she was brash. She used her boil release to control the toxic mist that she wove with her chakra. Right from the beginning, when she burned his hands, she’d gotten in. 

It was only a matter of time for her to skirt past whatever natural defences he had and begin to fool his senses. She’d done well in genjutsu classes in school, and even under her sensei, but what she just did would never have been possible without Genets Hozuki’s help. That was why she was going to give his descendant some measure of dignity, even if the boy was a little piece of shit. When he sent the massive blast of lightning at the sky, he fell to his knees, surely almost drained of chakra. 

That was when she removed her genjutsu. She could see his confusion as his view of the situation instantly changed. It took him nearly a m minute to figure out what had happened, and when he did, the scowl on his face was a sight to behold. He knew it was lost. He’d exhausted himself fighting an apparition. Nothing more than a ghost. While she was fresh and untouched. He’d had little chance against her when they were both fresh, but now he had to know it was impossible.

Credit to him, though, he didn’t give up. He got to his feet again. He was finished. He had to know it, but he had to have this last act of defiance. Mei allowed him close the distance, swords raised above his head, all the form he’d learned forgotten in his present state. He brought the both of them down on her, and like the mist her people hid in, Mei Terumi slipped between his attacks before slapping one of the kiba blades out of his hand before punching him in the midsection, knocking the wind out him before slipping his legs out from under him in a quick leg movement and then placing her foot on his neck before he could stand. 

“Yield” She asked, nay commanded. 

“I yield”

A/N; That’s the first bit of the new chapter. How’s it looking?>