Escape [Sasuke Uchiha]

Chapter 52: Not A Threat, But A Promise

She took a deep breath, attempting to steady her heavy breathing and creating a quick plan in her mind. Kimimaro glanced down at her arrows that she grasped firmly. The thin weapon shimmered in the glaring sunlight, adding more fuel to his curiosity. Believing that it was not harmful to ask, he spoke, "Your arrows... they are created with steel, am I right?"

The young girl stared intently at her opponent, contemplating if it was a good choice to tell him the truth. After a couple of seconds, she answered in all honesty, "That's true. And I bet your bone have the same solidness too, yes?"

"You are correct," replied Kimimaro, "This bone is compressed to maximum density and is as hard as steel. You should experience its hardness with your own body."

She curved her lips into a small smirk, "And what if you fail to hit me this time?"

"I will not fail. You shouldn't assume that you know my powers just yet after analyzing me for a short moment. You already witnessed the Tsubaki no Mai. I will show the other four dances for you."

Those were his last words before he sprinted over to the girl, tenacity clouding his features. His opponent pulled out a bow and clutched it in her left hand. Her vigilance soared as she waited in the wings. I need to catch him off guard first before I launch this technique!

Her emerald-eyed opponent reached her in a few seconds and straightaway shoved his bone sword at her. The dark-haired girl evaded some of his attacks when she detected an opening for her to perform a hasty plan.

Now that his front body was fully exposed, she stretched her right leg upward and slammed her foot on his chest. Gathering a big amount of force, she jumped and spun in the air gracefully, using his chest as a wall, simultaneously kicking him away and putting enough distance between them. But that's not all. While she was still in the air, she readied her bow and arrow and fired it straight at Kimimaro after a speedy moment of transferring chakra into it.

The white-haired man was caught off guard receiving the kick and also upon seeing an arrow rocketing towards him at full tilt. He hastily threw his arms up to chest like a barrier, bracing himself for the inevitable impact.

The shaft collided with his arms and, instead of exploding as usual, swept him backward with astounding force. Ayuda could vaguely notice that he tried to stick his feet in the ground to hamper the force, but since the arrow was terribly vigorous, he ended up skidding across the field.

After driving him toward the back ferociously, the arrow finally exploded, adding more excruciating damages to the enemy... at least that's what Ayuda hoped for. Something told her that one arrow wasn't enough and therefore she drew and prepared another arrow. Although silvery smoke obscured Kimimaro from my sight, she was still able to pinpoint his spot accurately and launched it.

The freshly-launched shaft winged its way into the thick smoke and detonated loudly. Ayuda trained my eyes on the smoke the whole time musing, "Did I get him...?"

"So that's how your techniques work, huh?" the unmistakable deep voice that belonged to the green-eyed man enacted from his spot, making the purple-eyed girl's hair stand on end.

The snowy smoke reduced to colorless air, presenting Kimimaro to her vision. He looked totally fine if she disregarded the dirt on his skin and a few weird holes on both of his arms. The holes showed white surface underneath his skin which bewildered her greatly. She faintly discerned tiny trails of blood seeping down those holes.

Kimimaro noticed the manifestly puzzled look on the girl's face and elucidated, "It looks like I underestimated you. If I didn't create a layer of bone right under the skin of my arms, I would've lost my limbs by now."