"San!" Mei screamed. In her wildest thoughts it never occurred to her that… He's hurt!
Sprawled between a crumbling of bricks, San's forehead bled profusely as he struggled to rise. A lightning charged fist dashed his jaw, sending volts of electricity coursing through his convulsing body.
"Bastard!" Mei hissed, chakra burned through her fingers and over the kunai in hand. She sent it free with the combustive force of her Fire Release.
The shinobi towering over San tilted his head, letting the kunai zoom by and pierce through the concrete wall. He was huge, almost as large as Fuguki but far more muscular. Covering his broad shoulder was an all too familiar one-strap white flak vest, his shins comfortably protected by red and white shin-guards.
He turned, stepping from San to have a good look at his next opponent, Mei. She grinded her teeth and barked out, barely restrained rage as his headband flashed in the moonlight— Kumogakure.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing here? Both of you!" Already crouched atop the gate's wall, Kozu hauled over his shoulder was another Kumo-nin, ready to leave or jump in. "I am a Kirigakure shinobi and that man is our ward, hand him over or else—"
"Or else nothing." The kumo-nin said, his voice nearly a roar. He stomped forward, arms rippling with power, his dark skinned face bore a predatory glare as he looked down on Mei, "That scumbag made a cuckold of our client and now, he really needs to be six feet under."
Chaos reigned at the waystation. In less than a minute everything had devolved. The lodge was destroyed, the walls broken into and Kuzo taken. With every mercenary guard standing in the way laid out, twitching as volts of lightning coursed through their beaten bodies it was no wonder none of the other merchants or even the waystation's guardsmen didn't move to interfere.
Mei gulped, eyes narrowed hard at the Kumo-nin she was beginning to recognize as— "I know you, you're Raigo Arashimaru."
Raigo chuckled, "So you know of my Lightning Fist," he knocked his knuckles together, releasing streams of crackling blue lightning as he grinned widely, "that doesn't make things any better for you…and who are you?"
Retrieving another kunai from her pouch, Mei twirled it by the hole and flung it right at the Kumo-nin with Kuzo. The dagger was deflected in time but more than that, she got Raigo to look away from her. She dashed past the giant of a man, right for San who was once again climbing to his feet.
"Don't you dare!" Raigo roared behind her and from how San's eyes widened, she knew there wouldn't nearly be enough time to erect a proper defence.
She came to a skidding halt, chakra rushing to her forearms just as she ran through hand seals in blinding fashion. Soaring above their heads was Raigo, his fist cocked back and jets of lightning flaring as he descended upon Mei with a roar, "Lightning Release: ThunderClap Strike!"
Roaring right back, Mei raised her hands to catch the blow, a thick layer of earth crawled out of her moulded chakra just in time to make a gauntlet of her forearm. Lightning erupted in a flash of blinding light as Raigo struck true, the ground cratered around her feet, broken from the impact. Muscles in her right arm spasmed wildly before taming as she continued transforming her chakra to the Earth Elemental, reinforcing the brittle defence of her earthen cloaked arms.
Raigo's eyes went wide with surprise. He cocked a brow and the force of his fist lessened for just a moment, one Mei quickly punished. An earthen cloaked foot cracked against his sternum sending him skidding back a distance just large enough for Mei to turn to San and yell, "San, if you can move, don't let them get away with Kuzo!" she eyed the man carrying Kuzo like a sack of beans, he smirked down at San with the same arrogance Raigo carried but she didn't recognize him from the Bingo books. San's injured, Raigo's ThunderClap Strike is no joke but…he's a Chuunin…it should be okay, it should be!
Shoving aside the rising regret of not taking on more Chuunin for this mission, Mei declared, "I'll take care of Raigo. Don't try to fight if you can't but do not lose sight of Kuzo—!"
A surge of electricity buried itself in Mei's stomach. Pain seared through her core, her breath vanishing in a single, choked gasp.
Then—impact.
Her back slammed through concrete, the world exploding into dust and shattered stone before she ploughed through to the other side—sprawling across the sparse grass. She barely had a second to breathe before another blue crackling fist came for her skull.
Move!
Mei twisted, dodging just in time as Raigo's thunderous punch pulverized the ground where she'd been.
Heart hammering, she darted back to a safe distance, a forest of trees behind her— the same one she'd buried those bandits in— and the Lightning Fist of Kumo ahead. She spat a glob of blood onto the sand and narrowed her focus on her opponent. She didn't catch the direction his accomplice or San went but once she was done here she'd find out.
"Take care of me? Buahaha, I hope you mean in the kitchen and in bed." Raigo cackled, his grin widening with each step forward, "I didn't think you would—"
Mei didn't dignify that with a response. She blurred into the forest. Raigo clearly had no qualms pulling out the destructive force of his jutsu where there were civilians and innocents but Mei was different. Her jutsu was…invasive on so many levels.
Weaving through the trees, Mei led Raigo on a chase he was most willing to give. Raigo's laughter echoed behind her, trees splintered in his wake, the air filled with the sound of wood cracking and trunks crashing as he tore through obstacles like they were nothing.
Mei didn't stop. Didn't slow. As she ran she prepared herself, the river she'd heard flowing downstream much earlier in their travels finally came into view.
The moment she broke through the last line of trees, she pushed harder—
"Oh no you don't!"
Raigo's chakra flared. He smashed against the trunk of a tree, the weight of his force alone tearing its roots from the ground. He vaulted off it and descended like a human bolt of lightning in front of her.
The force of his impact sent dirt and rock flying, a wall of debris that made her eyes sting. Cracking his neck, he rolled his shoulders, his grin never faltering. "I don't know you but I know Kirigakure, you're not getting any water."
The tree thumped loudly behind him, raising a gust of dirt across the now sparse edge of the forest, the river precious metres away. Mei held his gaze.
She didn't stop molding chakra.
Her deepening scowl was the only warning she gave. "You should be more concerned about why you don't know me."
Tiger, Rat, Snake, Bird, Tiger.
Before Raigo could answer Mei stomped her heel in the dirt, a small smirk forming on her lips as a crack rang out immediately, spreading and splitting widely all while steam hissed out between the fissures. Before Raigo could do more than take a step back lava erupted, the molten fire poured from the shattered ground, eating through dirt and stone, devouring the battlefield.
Mei wasted no time circling around, her foot creating more magma veins wherever she stepped. "Lava Release: Volcanic Lands!"
Burning fumes light up the forest as lava flows. Raigo stood in the centre of her trap, vulnerable in the burning orange light and the rolling waves of heat. But he wasn't shaken.
"Listen!" Mei urged, knowing that bloody grin plastered on his face meant he thought this was all just another challenge to hurdle over. "I don't know what your mission truly is but I don't want to hurt you and you don't want to hurt me."
He chortled, the boiling lava continued to sludge around his little island of earth. Mei ensured to leave a patch of earth intact while her lava broke everything else down to fuel and gas. Behind his cackling form the forest was well ablaze, "Hurt me? Like you could, you haven't touched me once."
"Because unlike you, I'm aware of the repercussions. Kumogakure doesn't want another war does it? Because this is how it starts, attacking us under the guise of a mission to kill our client? You really think the Mizukage is going to buy that!"
Raigo shook his head, "I don't think anyone cares what your little Mizukage believes, all I know is, you're obstructing my mission and I remove obstructions!"
"I don't want to kill-!" Mei yelled but it was too late. He roared forward, leaping from the his island to bash her face in with the—
"Lightning Release: ThunderClap Strike!"
Tiger!
Lava shot up all around Raigo. His lightning speed saved most of him but a wave of lava caught his ankles just before he escaped the [Volcanic Lands]. His fist thundered, blowing away the earth where Mei stood a second ago but this time he didn't stand immediately, too busy howling in pain.
"Arrghh! My foot! I'll kill you!" He cursed.
Mei watched from above, crouched atop a still-standing tree. She shook her head and prayed she didn't end up having to kill Raigo.
That should slow him down.
She inhaled, chakra surging. "Fire Release: Dancing Smoke."
Thick, black smoke—choking, noxious, blinding—rushed from the forest fire she'd inadvertently created, swallowing them whole.
Raigo coughed, whipping his head around, trying to find her through the thickening haze. A gut feeling slammed into Mei's senses. She let herself drop from the tree and good too as the tree exploded.
"Lightning Release: Fist of the Lightning God!" A roar of blue light crackled through the battlefield. Raigo stood in the choking darkness, his body sparking with pure energy. "Come out and face me!"
Mei bit her lip. She looked behind her, contemplating abandoning the fight entirely so she could catch up to San and Raigo's accomplice. No, can't underestimate Raigo, he'll catch up even faster and then…
The image of San, broken against the wall flashed against her eyelids. She shook her head and found her resolve— there was still a way to immobilise this idiot without killing him and starting a war. Even though she didn't especially like using it, there was little choice now.
In the dark of the smoke, with Raigo coughing and raging at unsuspecting trees Mei brought her fingers through painfully familiar hand seals and began, "Boil Release: Skilled Mist…"