Chapter 114   - Ch114. Northern Shores 4

Kushina relished seeing the annoyance and frustration on the face of her foe after she used the chakra of the fox to heal herself. Admittedly, even the demon had its occasional uses. Kushina made sure her expression was that of confidence as she learned fast enough in her first months spent in Konoha that showing how despairing one was, was the biggest mistake she could make. The others would just capitalize on it, and so, new, always cheerful, and completely confident Kushina was 'born'. Nevertheless, seeing the crushed, frustrated, or resigned looks of her opponents always brought her some kind of sadistic joy. Well, she personally blamed that on being raised in Konoha...

"Prepare yourself!" Kushina exclaimed as she ran at Himeno, swinging her katana in a wide arc from the right side only for Himeno to perfectly dodge by jumping back... exactly as Kushina wanted. Himeno quickly found three kunai flying at her while she was in the air due to her jump. She was forced to Kawarimi, appearing behind Kushina before her hands started weaving hand seals, sending an ice spike hurling at Kushina who just sidestepped it.

Kushina was about to brag in order to show her confidence when a pained cry resounded through the surroundings, erasing her smug grin. Half turning in a way that would make it possible to look behind but also not lose sight of Himeno, Kushina's eyes almost bulged as she realized a Konoha ninja was hit by the ice spike because she didn't block but dodged. Anger flared in her chest as her head whipped back to Himeno with a heated glare.

The tables have turned and Himeno just smugly shrugged in a 'what can you do?' manner while it was Kushina who was aggravated for once. "Can't save them all." Himeno playfully exclaimed in a mock-sadness. She knew endurance-wise there was no contest between her and Kushina so she went for the oldest trick in the books. Mind games.

"You..." Kushina said darkly in a low tone, gritting her teeth. Sure, she knew people die in war. She killed her fair share, after all. She was not even pissed the Konoha ninja died, rather she was pissed he died due to her blunder. If someone saw it, her reputation would be ruined, dammit!

'Anger, huh? Simple enough.' Himeno hid her smile as she realized Kushina's biggest weakness.

Kushina was livid but despite that, no Kyuubi chakra leaked from her due to her superb control. She instead decided to beat Himeno with her own strength as she lunged into yet another melee sword clash, exchanging strikes with Himeno in a rapid flurry of deadly slashes at speeds most chunin would be hard-pressed to follow with their eyes. Both women started to acc.u.mulate slashes on their bodies but most of those could be said to be akin to paper cuts compared to the scale of their sword fight. Himeno and Kushina's clothes were bathed in their blood, either theirs or from the unfortunate ninjas who came in between them, and were promptly diced into pieces without the women even noticing as they uncaringly continued their fight, focusing only on their respective opponent.

Kushina was fine. She lost quite a bit of blood but overall, she felt fresh as daisies. She could go on and on for a few hours yet. Himeno was... f.u.c.k.i.e.d. There was no other way to describe it as she was bloodied, dirty, battered, messy-haired, and worst of all, tired. She had had enough. 'Clearly, mixing Jinchuuriki with an Uzumaki would create a freak of nature that... just... won't... stop!' She thought with apparent frustration ringing in her head. But... thankfully Kushina was too noble for her own good and Himeno quickly noticed her penchant for not using her biggest advantage, ninjutsu, when her opponent doesn't use it too. Frankly speaking, Himeno knew she should have been dead by now if the redhead actually played according to ninja rules, meaning dirty. 'She is more like a samurai.' Himeno mentally snorted, calculating the best plan to continue the fight.

With a smirk, Himeno straightened herself. "So..." She drawled, "up for another ninjutsu fight, princess?" And Kushina was instantly annoyed and angered again. Not much but enough to change the way they fought. Himeno no longer needed to engage in a sword fight with the horrendous disadvantage of a shorter blade and less experience compared to a kenjutsu prodigy with a clan-based style like Kushina. During their long clash, Himeno led Kushina exactly where she wanted her and that was the end of her need to fight with kenjutsu.

"Bring it!" Kushina's eyes flashed, realizing they were far away from any ally who could be injured by large-scale attacks, her hands instantly started weaving seals as she failed to notice the small smirk on Himeno's face. Kushina finished her seals and clapped her palms together as she shouted, "Water Release: Whirlpool Torrent!"

A massive amount of swirling, whirlpool-like torrent of water appeared and quickly flew at Himeno, destroying trees all around. Himeno just enhanced her legs with chakra and jumped to the side, evading the Jutsu as five ice needles appeared in front of her with one one-handed seal.

"Ice Style: Ice Needles."

The needles flew at Kushina who grinned and clapped her hands together.

"Water Release: Water Wall."

A wall of condensed water that rotated around Kushina appeared, blocking the Ice Needles before Kushina started creating an inhuman amount of water.

"Water Release: Mega Water Prison!"

The water created a humongous sphere, a hundred meters tall with the previous position of Himeno right in its middle, and Kushina released a strained breath, holding the water in a spherical shape. She then conjured her chakra chains and sent them into the sphere to seek and skewer anything that moved inside. This was her finishing move...

Because of Kushina's incredible focus, she didn't notice Himeno rising from a small patch of frozen, mirror-like ground. This was nothing like Haku's speed-enhancing mirror technique. This was a real space-time ice mirror transportation. The thing that made Himeno into a famous assassin. Kushina paid dearly for lowering her guard as a long ice spike lodged itself right through her abdomen, and even then she was quite lucky she instinctively leaned to the side otherwise she would be dead.

Kushina was not one to forfeit the fight. She let the water prison end and the water came crashing onto the ground, causing the forest around to be changed into a small lake with crowns of the trees peeking from the surface. Kushina changed the environment to suit her best.

Himeno used water-walking to stand on water, as did Kushina, but her eyes widened when she got a glimpse of Chakra Chains going under the water from Kushina's back. Only barely did Himeno manage to dodge the chakra chain shooting from the water below her as Kushina made her run around, chasing her with chakra chains while occasionally throwing a Water Bullet or some other Water Release Jutsu at her all the while Himeno did her damnedest to dodge, create more mirrors on the water surface, sadly they were being actively destroyed by Kushina so Himeno had to run more, and from time to time, Himeno even hurled ice Needles and Ice Spikes at Kushina.

An hour passed and both disheveled women stood opposite each other, panting hard. Even the chakra powerhouse Kushina was almost floored due to exhaustion. While Himeno dodged and focused on precise attacks, often guessing where Kushina would dodge and throwing an ice spear there right after throwing an attack on Kushina, Kushina focused more on her chakra chains and large-scale chakra-exhaustive massively destructive Jutsu that could level the surrounding country. Hence, despite Himeno having much lesser chakra reserves, Kushina was also spent.

"Haaaaa~. You are goo-'' Kushina started praising Himeno in between gulping air. She could respect the woman for being so agile and nimble. Hour of throwing S-ranked Jutsu at her and not one hit her. That, in Kushina's humble opinion, deserved recognition. Himeno Yuki was a damn good ninja, especially with her bloodline that allowed her to use some kind of space-time bullshit to teleport through the ice. Kushina's eyes suddenly widened as she reached her hand in Himeno's direction, making her look at Kushina funny before horror appeared on Himeno's face when she realized Kushina was not feigning it.

"Watch out!"

Alas, it was far too late...