Chapter 240   - Ch240. Pakura vs Rasa 1

Pakura stood twenty feet apart from Rasa in the Sunagakure's 'arena', her right hand on her hip while the other arm leisurely hung alongside her body, prepared to snap into action at the slightest sign of need. Her slight knowing smile unnerved Rasa who eyed her for any kind of information he could discern before the fighting began while his mind quickly started sifting through what he remembered of Pakura from her time of service to Sunagakure. Rasa wasn't about to be careless. He knew well that Pakura was one hell of a kunoichi and Grudge Match was... a fight to the death.

Looking around, Pakura noted the arena didn't change in the slightest since she left the village. Even the boulders were in the same area where she remembered them. Unlike Konoha's colosseum-like arena, Suna used vast open space akin to a desert littered with many boulders, occasional trees, and even a small lake on the side. Maintaining that lake was quite a problem for Sunagakure so they only filled it with water during the Chuunin Exams. Considering neither Pakura nor Rasa had water affinity, the lake was currently completely dry.

In the stands around the sand-filled arena, the Daimyo and the important people of Sunagakure watched as Pakura and Rasa were about to fight. Excitement filled the ninja and civilians alike in expectation of witnessing two Kage level titans go at each other with the intent to kill.

"How exciting," Pakura dryly commented when she heard the boisterous cheers from the audience, "Who would have thought killing would be so popular."

"Anyone who ever heard of hidden villages." Rasa snorted and took two scrolls out of his pockets. "Seriously, what do they teach traitors nowadays?"

"Administration," Pakura shrugged, letting her light jacket fall from her shoulders onto the sandy ground, "You know... the stuff that actually helps to keep the village rich and running." She added in a dismissive yet mocking tone that had Rasa's eyebrow twitch.

"Your utter lack of denial concerning treason is not lost on me." Rasa coldly countered.

"Rasa," Pakura drawled in a slightly fed-up voice, "Your pre-battle taunting sucks." She deadpanned. "Honestly, cut the crap, golden boy. You were always good at straightforward things so try to focus on those. Psychological warfare is not for you." She retorted dismissively before starting to stretch and roll her shoulders in preparation for the fight.

Silence ensued between the two combatants, signaling both were done with their pre-battle talks. Seeing it, Chiyo sighed, knowing the village would lose one of its S-rank ninjas today, no matter who won. Without further ado, she connected a chakra string to a basic puppet between Pakura and Rasa, causing it to stand up and raise its wooden arm, raising the tension to the utmost extreme. With another twitch of Chiyo's finger, the arm swung down...

Both combatants burst into action.

Rasa instantly threw the two scrolls upwards into the air and had to quickly move his head to the side as a kunai whizzed through the place his eye was only a split second ago courtesy of Pakura who was now sprinting straight at him at jonin-level speed.

Cl.i.c.k.i.n.g her tongue at the two scrolls in the air, Pakura briefly lamented that her initial throw didn't prevent Rasa from throwing them and bought her time to get close. As she was halfway through the distance between her and Rasa, the two scrolls burst open in a copious amount of white smoke before it was brutally dispersed by the literal mountain of gold dust falling right onto Pakura in a crushing attempt at ending the battle.

Within a blink of an eye, the golden dust landed right on Pakura's head, sending a small earthquake through the area as if a giant just stomped onto the ground. Rasa's tensed body slightly relaxed... and kunai found its way to the nape of his head, razing its way upward straight into his brain.

Pakura who appeared behind Rasa had to let go of her kunai as Rasa's body burst into golden dust that instantly snapped into action, trying to engulf her in its crushing embrace. As she jumped right and left, evading tendril after tendril of golden dust, Pakura suddenly tripped, only briefly noticing that some grains of sand under her feet glitter in a bit too sparkly way while her body was falling towards the ground. Rasa didn't give her even a half-second of contemplation as the golden dust wrapped itself around her body and squashed...

Throwing himself onto the ground into a roll, Rasa barely evaded a swipe at his jugular from his blind spot. Arming himself with a kunai in mid-roll, the second he found himself again on his feet, Rasa had to block Pakura's kunai only for his eyes to widen as she noticed her dual-wielding them a second too late.

Pakura's second kunai buried itself into Rasa's heart straight through the gap in his ribcage, his body again bursting into golden dust as Pakura jumped back and threw kunai to her right before using a quick Kawarimi with it as the golden dust was about to compress around her.

magic Coincidentally, the kunai landed right in front of Rasa's feet, giving him a shock of a lifetime as the second Pakura appeared in front of him, her fist smashed straight into his nose, sending him flying backward with a satisfying crunch...

Spikes of golden dust rose from under Pakura, piercing her body while the flying form of Rasa dissolved into golden dust. Pakura spat blood with a wide-eyed expression, giving her only a second to comprehend what was happening before the spikes in her body twitched... her body was completely and brutally torn to pieces from inside out, dirtying the sand with her blood, torn muscles, pieces of bones and organs.

Rasa was cautiously rising from the ground a few feet away from the horror scene when the temperature experienced a sudden rise in his vicinity, only giving him a moment to realize a genjutsu was at play.

In a scorching flash originating right above Rasa, the audience was briefly blinded. Only the most experienced ninjas of Suna noticed the place the Kazekage was rising from was now completely turned to superheated glass from the sheer searing heat before the temperature rose so much it evaporated water in the air, resulting in a cloudy vapor obscuring the spectators.

Nobody got to complain however as a second later, the Kazekage used Futon: Great Breakthrough, sending a crushing pressurized air through the battlefield, dispersing the vapor in a matter of milliseconds before he was forced to duck yet another swipe at his neck courtesy of Pakura who used the brief distraction and lack of vision to sneak near him.

This time, however, Pakura anticipated the dodge and Rasa found her foot implanted in his stomach the second he ducked... the knife in Pakura's hand quickly flipped into backhand grip as she violently plunged it into the back of Rasa's head... almost growling as he yet again burst into golden dust.

A split second later, her upper body was torn from her lower parts by the sheer pressure a tendril of golden dust that smacked into her generated.

As chunks of Pakura's organs showered the sands of the arena in the southern sector, in the eastern one, Rasa barely managed to block a strike from the real Pakura with his own kunai, cursing at the disadvantage yet happy that this time he was wholly prepared for it.

Golden dust under his feet snapped into action, aiming for Pakura at breakneck speeds while she simply flicked her wrist and let Rasa's kunai slide on hers, getting into his guard in one masterful deflection of Rasa's block... when the golden dust tore her legs to shreds.

Rasa didn't manage to dodge the kunai she threw a moment before she was dispelled as he was too distracted by the fact Pakura knew a Konoha Kinjutsu, his eye socket getting a new kunai-sized piercing with blood squirting out... only for a log to appear in his place a moment later.

The battlefield was once again empty, the audience looking for the two hidden combatants with silent anticipation and barely hidden trepidation as chills passed through their spines at the fast pace of the combat and the various supposed deaths they witnessed in short order.

Everybody knew even the slightest mistake would be the end of the battle and THAT was a sobering thought even for most of the jonins as they pondered if they would even be still alive with such a deadly pace and every strike more lethal and brutal than the previous one.

Seeing the wide-eyed people around her, Chiyo bitterly smiled, 'To think neither of them used anything but the basics of their personal combat style yet... Such a monumental waste.' She let out a muffled groan at the loss of such a ninja that would certainly follow at the end of the match.