[War Event] The Border

After leaving her most trusted and talented advisors in charge of operations in Konoha, Tomoe heads to the front lines of this war with the Raikage. Along the way she surveys the ongoings that are visible, although everyone seems to be fairly spread out to take care of key locations along the battlefield. She becomes increasingly wary of what they might find as she nears the border between the Lands of Fire and Grass.

As Kei and Tomoe approach the border he notices that they are not alone in the field before them. Across it stands Zaru. "I wondered when you would arrive, Raikage. The Hokage as well? All for little old me.." He is standing on his own. In his hand is a bowstaff with a snake wrapped around it. The snake is alive, and hisses silently at the two Kage's. "So why wait for us Zaru? Are you that confident?"

Tomoe activates her sharingan and scans the scene in front of them, taking particular note of Zaru and looking for some signs of Senna, or perhaps her puppet master that Urimono fellow. "Perhaps he is waiting for back up," Tomoe replies. "Perhaps one of his friends, or perhaps one of those that pulls his strings?"

"Puppet? Tell me Hokage, do you know why Kumo chose the Raikage?" Zaru looked at Kei and laughed. "I was there when Kumo's Little Bolt killed the Otokage. Oto had lost its assault on Kumo. They decided to ask for a treaty, knowing that they would suffer greatly for their miscalculations. So one day, Kumo sends a team to Oto to negotiate. Peace is finally on the horizon, even if Oto will pay in dividends. But Kumo's Little Bolt lost his leader in the fighting, and he was angry. So the day Oto and Kumo were to find peace, the Little Bolt murders the Otokage and slaughters his higher ranks. He goes back to Kumo a hero. But I was there. I watched him shake the Otokage's hand before stabbing him through the heart with the other." Zaru stares at Kei intently. Kei quietly returns the stare.

If Zaru was hoping to cause dissent between the Hokage and the Raikage with this story, he will be disappointed. Tomoe waves a hand dismissively at this tale of Kei's questionable morals. "Tell me, Kei, does it seem like he's stalling for time to you?" Her sharingan eyes dart this way and that, looking for the person who will be sneaking up while Zaru spins his tales and tries to hold the Kages attention on him.

"It certainly does. Oto would of broke that treaty the day they signed it." Kei prepares to move forward, the bracelet on his right hand starting to glow but before he can his body is forced to the ground. In the distance Zaru is as well, his body crumpling and cracking under the horrendous gravity force that has intensified the gravity in the area ten-fold. Suddenly it releases as clouds begin to form around the trio. Kei is staring at the Earth below him, absolutely mordified. His body begins to shake and tremble. Zaru looks up to the sky, his legs were crushed in the gravity force. "No, No, NO! I can help. I attacked Konoha, I HELPED!" A Lightning bolt releases from the clouds above, killing Zaru on the spot.

"He was the wrong person for the mission." Senna walks behind Zaru's body, but she isn't alone.

"Nggh…" Tomoe also finds herself forced to the ground by the gravity. "Stalling. Of course," she grinds out, trying to resist the effects of the gravity and letting out a suddenly breathe of relief as the force relents.

Standing up, she takes up a defensive stance and studies Senna and this new arrival with her sharingan.

Senna:

Shunsuke:

Senna stands with her arms folded, a wicked gleam on her face. Before she can speak a dark voice erupts from the masked man next to her. He is taller than her, and his wooden mask has the symbol of the cloud village scratched out. "Senna, we have killed Zaru. Our secrets won't be spilled. It is time to go-"

"There's only one person who has that sort of control over Gravity." Kei stands up next to Tomoe, his face stunned with shock. "How...?" The man in the wooden mask looks back at Kei, momentarily paused. "There is a truth to the world that you don't want to hear."

"Someone from your past?" Tomoe asks curiously, waiting for any more information from the Raikage about this fellow, not all too keen to rush in blindly when it seems that Kei might have some insight into this situation. In a lower voice so that there's no chance of Senna or the masked man overhearing, she asks the Raikage, "Which of them did you want?" She's clearly eager for some action.

"I've got Shunsuke... After all, he's my sensei." Kei prepares a bit of Black Lightning around his fist. His muscles are tensed, he's ready to fight. "Watch out for the surroundings to change, he specializes in Gravity and Storm Ninjutsu." A lightning bolt streak from the sky to Kei, but he has already raised his hand and sends a lightning bolt from it. The bolts crash in the night like a canon.

"Urimono is going to be pissed if we're late. But this could be fun." Senna withdraws a small butterfly knife. Its edges are dark, obviously dipped in poison. "We were told the locate it, it's not here. There is no need to waste our time."

Tomoe gathers up some chakra and draws her battle fans, fanning them out to prepare to deflect a starting volley. She nods her head slightly at Kei, acknowledging that he can take his sensei if he would like. There's a tiny mental note to ask him about that later as she studies her opponent and the battle field with her sharingan.

Senna
Senna springs forward in a blur of speed. She sends three poison senbon at Tomoe. She continues to run to Tomoe's side and uses Acid Release: Rain of Death. This jutsu sends hundreds of acidic raindrops from the sky onto the battlefield. It is an S Rank technique that is notorious for murdering villages. She created it herself. As the Acid drops hit her they simply dissipate. She has a strange immunity to poison, acid, sludge, and toxins.

Shunsuke | Kei
Shun is still reluctant to fight, but as Kei blinks in front of him with a lightning bolt he is forced to leap backwards. His leap sends him floating high into the air, the gravity around his body released. He then uses Heaven's Wrath to send a ton of force onto the earth below. Kei uses his Lightning Flicker to escape the technique before it shatters the earth in a 10 by 10 meter radius.

Tomoe uses her fans to deflect the senbon. They hit the metal and clank to the ground harmlessly. To deal with the rain of death, Tomoe swings her fans and channels fuuton chakra into them, creating a massive gust that blows the acidic raindrops elsewhere, where they hit the ground and eat through grass and soak into the dirt.

Tomoe whips up a counter attack on the heals of that, a massive tower of fire that fans out in front of her and swiftly roars towards Senna. Those who are familiar with fire release techniques would recognize it as Great Fire Annihilation.

Senna
Senna avoids the attack by creating a clone of some sort. The clone then throws the real Senna away from the fire attack. Senna lands a few meters away and pulls out a few more poison dipped senbon. She releases them at Tomoe and then creates a ball of sludge with her saliva. The ball of sludge is thrown on the ground in front of her where it turns into a large swamp-like creature.

Shun / Kei
Kei throws a few Black Bolts at Shunsuke, but every bolt is show down by lightning from the sky. The battle between the two of them are getting no where fast.

Tomoe once more uses her fan to deflect the poisonous senbon, keeping them and their vile contaminants away from her person. Studying the swamp-like creature made of sludge for a moment, Tomoe watches it using her sharingan before choosing a bolt of lightning with which to attack the creature, sending it shooting after the beast to see if that has any luck at cutting through it and/or reacting poorly with the moisture it must contain within it.

Senna
Senna's sludge monster raises up, two long arms spanning out and attempting to collapse on the Hokage. It is releasing a poison fume from its mouth. The fume is dense and begins to wilt the grass below.

Kei
Kei continued to throw various ranged attacks at Shun. Lightning bolts and lighting rods were flying left and right at Shunsuke but he continued to block everything with lightning. After a few handseals Shunsuke created a typhoon that went tearing through the the fields, sending water and wind everywhere, ripping apart the earth.

Tomoe jumps back from the poisonous fume, using her fan and some wind chakra to create a gust that aids in pushing the noxious stuff away from her. Using the poison cloud as a cover to hide her actions from Senna, she creates a clone that will distract the sludge monster and focus primarily on evading it's attacks while using the Underground Fish technique to travel undetected beneath the ground, where she intends to pop up behind Senna and deal a strike to her lower back with her bladed fans.

Senna is surprised by Tonoe's sneak attack, but as Tonoe's attack lands she laughs. Her entire body turns into a cloud of fumes after the attack. The fumes travel up into the air where it turns back into Senna. It appears she can change her body into a gas. She spits a piece of sludge towards Tomoe. It fans out into a sticky net.

Kei has managed to get close to Shunsuke, but everytime he attempts a strike Shunsuke alters the gravity and force around him, slowing his punches to the point he can evade them. The Taijutsu combat is a farce however as Kei expels a large amount of chakra that turns in Black Lightning. The ball of Black Lightning releases around Kei and explodes around him. Shunsuke has used a lightning flicker of his own to escape the attack.

As soon as Senna turns into a fume, Tomoe is backing up and she creates a genjutsu. Within this genjutsu it appears that Tomoe has been hit by the sticky net and is weakened by the attack, yet burning her way through the net. In reality, Tomoe body flickers to just evade the attack and uses the genjutsu as a distraction to place a Five Elements Seal on Senna to disrupt the flow of chakra in her body.

Just before Tomoe reaches Senna Gravity stops her in her tracks. Shunsuke has moved towards Senna and grabbed her by her wrist. "Enough. It is not here. We're leaving." Senna yells obscenities in objection.

"Wait!" Kei was fighting against the heavy gravity restraint. "Shun, what is this?!"

"The future." And with that Senna and Shunsuke vanished like smoke into the air.

Tomoe huffs a bit as they make their get away. Presumably with them gone, the gravity has relented and movement is easier. She looks around to see where the Raikage is.

Kei walks over to Tomoe, kicking at the dead grass as he does. "Whatever they're after, It can't bode well for us." He looks towards Zaru's dead body. The puppet was finally cut from his strings.

Tomoe looks a fair bit displeased by their sudden departure. She was quite sure she was close to besting Senna, if that other fellow hadn't interfered to turn tail and run. "Certainly not. And the situation in Kusagakure has certainly changed once more." She heads over to Zaru's body, recovering it for Konoha's expert medical-nin to examine and uncover what secrets they may.

Kei examines the situation. "We need to find this Ayaka. If she has started an uprising in Kusa, she may be the key to change in Kusa. Change that is much needed." Kei was trying to focus on one thing at a time, and ignoring the fact that Shunsuke was now an enemy.

"She'll need help," Tomoe points out. "While she may be able to instigate something and get supporters, a genin cannot hold power over a village easily or keep it. Especially if either of those two," referring to Senna and Shunsuke, "Decide to intervene. Though considering their disregard for Zaru, I wonder if they really care about the fate of Kusagakure, or if it was all merely one big distraction."