Chapter 95   - Ch95. Ringo vs A

Ringo's swords quickly slashed at A, their blades streaming with lightning aura and A barely managed to activate his lighting armor to block the strike with his forearm. As the lightning armor and lightning-enhanced chakra blades met the ground under them cracked and lightning started flying discharges around, frying some unfortunate Kumo ninjas.

"Bitch!" A shouted when he saw her aim was from the start to kill the ninja around rather than fully focus on attacking him and tried to push the blades up to parry them while creating an opening for an attack.

Ringo smirked and the second she felt him trying to force her swords up, She let go, and retracted her swords which made A's arm jump upward. A could only widen his eyes at being outsmarted when Ringo's feet covered in lightning chakra impacted his chest... again, it was only the lighting armor that prevented him from being injured as his body was flung to the ground, creating a small trench by rolling like a ragdoll while mowing some more Kumo ninjas as if he was a lightning bullet.

A finally stopped himself and looked at the bloody trench with pieces of his soldiers that were torn to shreds when they got in between the ground and his lightning armor... his anger was ignited. He raised his head to look at the smug face of the redhead who yet again obviously did this not to injure him but to kill his ninja... with his own body at that! Growling, A stood up and pounced at Ringo, mentally swearing the bitch will pay!

Ringo barely managed to take a half-step to the left and lift her left blade in order to block A's fist. As the fist hit her blade, she slightly jumped, making her feet in the air when the force of the punch impacted her which made her body fly backward at breakneck speed... straight at a group of three Kumo jonin who tried to team up in order to have a better chance at retaliating. She spun her body mid-air and lightning coursed through her right blade as she was passing the jonin group. They didn't even manage to widen their eyes as Ringo's sword cleaved through two of them with one swing and her feet kicked the ground, slowing her flight and sending the dust into the air.

Ringo used the cover provided by the dust to steady herself and slashed her sword in a downward strike at the last jonin. It was about to cleave him as it descended from the sky when A appeared in a burst of speed in front of the man and raised his palm, catching the sword. "Are you alright?" He asked the jonin with rage apparent in his tone. A was downright pissed! The woman yet again used his attack as a means to kill more of his ninjas!

The jonin gulped in relief at evading certain death. "Yes, sir!" He said and jumped away from A and the dangerous redhead. He knew there was nothing he could do between the two lightning-clad monsters so he ran away, deciding to engage someone else. He was a jonin and while he could somewhat see them, he was still unable to react! It would be better to vacate the field so Commander A doesn't have to worry about anything else than putting the redhead down.

A's hand was trembling from the strength the woman exerted through her sword but the blade didn't manage to get through his lighting armor on his palm. Ringo's second blade was thrust at his chest but he also caught the blade and smirked. "Too slow. I wonder what you will do now that both your swords are unusable, woman!" His boisterous voice reverberated around with an angry undertone. He thought he had her but her calm smile stopped him short.

"Idiot." Ringo jeered as she discharged a large amount of raiton chakra with a frequency close to the frequency of A's lightning armor through her blades. Her lightning chakra resonated with A's which made his palms to be pushed away from the blade, creating an opening as his arms shot to the sides. His chest was wide open and Ringo wouldn't let such an opportunity go. Both of her blades gleamed blue as lightning coursed through them while Ringo started a high-speed slashing combo impacting A's vital places. Two, Four, Six, Eight slashes...

She managed to get in eight slashes before she was forced to jump away as A managed to get his arms under control and send a punch at her head. Ringo frowned and felt hopeless as she saw the very shallow cuts on A's neck and chest. She poured a lot of speed, strength, and chakra into these eight strikes, and yet... he barely bled. 'What the f.u.c.k is he made of? That should have killed him!' Ringo bitterly thought.

"Haah," A let out a shaky breath. "I must admit, I was scared for a second there. Your technique is incredible... but you lack power." He said, grinning at Ringo, his killing intent flared around. He knew the woman in front of him was the commander of Kiri forces, therefore responsible for... "You killed my fiance, I will enjoy beating you to the ground but don't worry, I won't kill you! That would be too merciful! I will drag you back to Kumo, strap chakra restraining seals on you, and make sure you will be tortured and r.a.p.ed until you crack before killing you off, you bitch!" He bellowed out. The angrier he got, the more his lightning armor flared, becoming stronger as his chakra spiked.

"Is that so?" Ringo crouched down, mischievously narrowing her eyes as she saw A's body also preparing for a clash. "You will have to catch me first." She smirked and with a spin on her heel, she dashed in the opposite direction from him.

A was left standing there with wide eyes and slowly, the vein on his forehead started pulsing as his anger reached new heights. "Bitch." He ground his teeth together and dashed forward, starting to chase her. He didn't realize she was basically leading him away from his troops which would enable the Kiri forces to have undisturbed happy hunting time.

A was obviously faster than Ringo so he managed to catch up almost instantly... but as he was about to grab her, he could feel her suddenly spiking her lightning chakra and as his hand closed, he grabbed only air. Ringo was a bit to the left, clearly evading him. Their game of catch continued for the whole two minutes as A numerous times tried to grapple Ringo. He tried to catch her clothes, her leg, arm, even hair! But every time, she would somehow use her lightning chakra in her body and dodge, pissing him off. She was unable to hurt him. She was slower than him. And yet... she was so goddamn annoying and slippery he wanted to tear his hair out!

Only after ten minutes of chase did Ringo finally stop and as A was again trying to grab her and she yet again flared her lighting chakra into her body... he suddenly found himself staring at the lighting-enhanced edge of Ringo's blade approaching his head. He was unable to dodge as his body was still moving forward and he had no time to change the direction. The sword was also closing in on him quite fast. The world slowed down almost to a crawl for him and in his panic, A forcefully put pressure on his neck-muscles in order to slightly lower his head.

Ringo frowned as blue lightning sparks flew when her blade impacted A's head but she quickly jumped away. She could barely react to his attacks thanks to the Territory-exercise Konan put her through so staying close to the speed-monster was not a good idea.

A felt himself being drenched in a cold sweat as his neck muscles hurt from overexerting. His shocked wide-eyes blinked in the reassurance that they were indeed still intact and looked at the redhead cautiously staring at him with her sword in front of her body. For the second time during this battle, he felt fear ran through him. "Hehe," He dryly laughed. "You are one hell of a woman. So dangerous." He said almost tonelessly as his mind processed that he almost lost his eyes a moment ago. She used his speed against him and attacked at a spot where his lighting armor was weakest, aiming to cut his eyes. If he didn't lower his head which made the sword impact his eyebrows instead... He shuddered at the precision of the swordswoman in front of him. "To be able to find the weakness of my technique so quickly." A muttered.

"Well... I am a lightning user, after all." Ringo chuckled, amused at the shallow cut that went through his eyebrows. It was only her eyes that betrayed just how irritated she was he managed to evade the deciding blow. Now he would be cautious since she showed she knew his weakness. Nobody could infuse large amounts of lightning chakra to organs without managing them. It took a large amount of control to do at least some enhancement of them. Eyes were a fragile thing so the layer of armor was weakest there. "I must say this lighting armor of yours... I will definitely try to copy it later." Ringo smirked, trying to provoke him. She was outwardly the epitome of calm and collected with a bit of playfulness but inwardly she was seriously hoping Rei would come fast. She knew when she was outgunned and the man in front of her was a large obstacle to get through. The most she could do was to keep him guessing and make him tip-toe around her in fear of being surprise-attacked again.

"As if." A harrumphed. "There is no 'later' for you." He dashed at Ringo, punching in her direction only for a lightning bolt to descend from the sky, impacting the ground in front of her, blocking his punch. As his lightning-clad fist met the lightning bolt, a light flashed through the vicinity, blinding A.

"Lightning Release: Descending Strike." Ringo's voice entered his ears as his battle instincts flared, making him quickly put his arm over his eyes.

Seeing that. Ringo redirected her sword and instead of going for the eyes, she slashed at his neck, pushing a large amount of her lightning chakra into the blade with the same frequency as his lightning armor.

A could feel the repulsing force between his lightning armor and his enemy's lightning chakra on his neck. 'Oh, shit.' He thought as an inhumane amount of pressure was put on his neck, making him feel as if it was put through a blender while his head snapped forward and his body was thrown neck-first backward like a ragdoll.

The slash was unable to directly damage his neck but the woman again used her control over lightning release to use his lightning armor against him and 'repulse' him. Worse yet, she used it at his neck with considerable force and A could feel quite a few muscles in his neck damaged.

He didn't have time to contemplate the worst pain he ever felt in his life as he had to roll away from another thrust of Ringo's blade. Springing on his feet, he did something Ringo didn't expect. As she was about to thrust her blade at him, instead of dodging to the side or backward, he stepped forward while changing the frequency of his lightning armor for a second at his abdomen. This weakened the armor in that spot but it also parried Ringo's blade, throwing her arm to the side.

As the frequency of their lightning was different, neither was pushed away and Ringo found herself in a pinch. Her eyes widened and she barely managed to put her arm in front of her head before... blinding pain overloaded her senses as her world went white.

A gleefully watched as his fist aimed at the woman's head impacted her arm. He could feel as her bones were being crushed in that arm and his punch indeed slowed a bit and became weaker while the arm did become a sort of a cushion but nevertheless... his punch struck Ringo's face as it pushed her arm into it, snapping her head back. Her feet were lifted from the ground as her body was head-first sent through the air before hitting the ground. It powerlessly bounced from the ground a bit while wildly rolling before it stopped. Still holding her swords in her hands.

A panted and looked at the motionless body of the kunoichi that caused him so many problems. She almost killed him with that strike to his neck. His eyebrows furrowed when he heard the woman's raspy groan. "So you are still alive?" He slowly walked towards the redhead and watched as blood poured out of her head, staining the nearby ground red. "Heh, idiot, why are you trying to talk to her? She probably can't hear you anyway with the amount of damage to her head." He admonished himself as he crouched above Ringo's motionless body. "Hmm... so you enhanced your face with lightning chakra before the impact and jumped backward, heh. It probably saved you from having your head torn from your shoulders. A pity you are an enemy." A praised with a nod. "I wondered why I didn't feel your jaw and cheekbones snapping. Hmm," He thought if he should follow through with his threats and take her to Kumo as his personal whore but in the end, he couldn't. "You were strong. If I don't count my father, you were the strongest ninja I faced since I mastered lightning armor. You deserve respect so I will grant you a swift death." He raised his fist, about to kill Ringo...