Rematch I

Having managed to split the enemies so nicely within the barrier, the team immediately abandoned the decision of fighting the enemy in three separate one on ones.

That was because at the moment, they had the much better possibility of all three of them ganging up on one of the enemies, defeating them and then moving on to the next.

The barrier could only take so much punishment before breaking however so they needed to be fast, the traps were also meant to occupy their opponents so that the barrier lasted even just a bit longer.

"Let's go for the wind style user first." Sasuke proposed.

"I'll counter him with my fire style and create an opening for you two to approach and disable him with your gentle fist." He added.

The two girls nodded their heads towards the plan and they all got ready. The Hyuga sisters circled around while Sasuke just made a frontal assault on Setsuna so as to draw his attention.

"You again brat? But this time I'm prepared!" Setsuna shouted.

"Wind Style: Rotating Shuriken Jutsu!"

Razor sharp shuriken coated in wind and infused with wind chakra floated around Setsuna and flew towards Sasuke at high speed.

Sasuke immediately countered.

'Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu – Scarlet Claw Jutsu!'

He breathed out a mass of flames and then tossed multiple shuriken into it which became infused with fire chakra as they flew towards Setsuna's jutsu.

When they collided, the shuriken were knocked out of the air and the wind chakra in Setsuna's was devoured by the fire chakra in Sasuke's, resulting in enhanced fireballs, though now without shuriken.

Setsuna jumped away, dodging the exploding fireballs with only a little leeway but stepping right into a trap that exploded, knocking him of balance despite dealing very little actual damage.

Hinata and Hanabi did not miss this and, with a Chakra Burst assisted Body Flicker Jutsu, the closed the distance and struck Setsuna's chakra points, disabling the enemy shinobi.

Then placing an paper tag on the unconscious Setsuna, he turned into an easily storable wooden doll.

"One down, two to go." Sasuke smirked.

"Nee-sama. How are the other two barriers holding up." Hanabi asked Hinata who was the one in charge of the barriers' operation.

"Still holding fairly well." Hinata replied.

"The traps did their job in hampering the enemy but they are mostly expended now. Still, I can now redirect the power of this third of the barrier to the other two so they will hold for a fair bit. The big earth style user seems to have damaged his more so we'll go after him next." She xplained.

"Sounds good." Sasuke agreed.

"He seems to be using mainly earth style but also combined with some fire style as well. From what I can tell with my Byakugan, he seems to have covered himself in a chakra infused rock armor so our gentle fist will have limited effectiveness." Hinata said.

"I agree." Hanabi echoed, also evaluating Gitai with her Byakugan.

"He seems to through rocks that explode as his main method of attack. Nee-sama and I will distract him and Sasuke-san can lie in wait for an opening to deal the finishing blow with your lightning style." She suggested.

"Take advantage of chakra nature interaction again. Alright, I'm in." Sasuke said to which Hinata nodded as well and so, the three readied themselves for their second fight.

This time, it was the two sisters taking the role of frontal attackers.

"Finally showing yourselves huh?! I'm gonna blow ya both to pieces!" Gitai shouted, maniacally laughing as he began tossing explosive rocks the Hyuga sisters.

They on the other hand, did not find him worthy of their words and just moved forwards, using their superb vision to detect all of Gitai's projectiles and gracefully dodge them, all the while closing the distance between themselves and their opponent.

"Little jumpy rats! Don't get tired of jumping around!?" Gitai provoked as he laughed maniacally, trying to bait the sisters into rushing him instead of dodging.

Hinata and Hanabi looked at each other and nodded. They decided in that instant to use that opportunity to rush forward, making the enemy think they had fallen for his ploy.

Hanabi went first with Hinata close behind in single file.

Gitai internally scoffed.

'Hmph! Brats are still brats no matter how powerful.' He thought with a smirk.

"Die!" Gitai screamed as he launched a barrage of exploding rocks nearly twice as powerful as the previous ones at the Hyuga sisters.

What was about to happen next, was utterly shocking for him however.

Hanabi who was in front suddenly started spinning rapidly in mid air.

'Eight Trigrams: Burst Palm Rotation!'

A Chakra Burst enhanced rotation that was far more powerful than the original in terms of protection, area of effect and attack power. A rapidly revolving chakra barrier formed around Hanabi as the exploding rocks collided with it to no discernible effect.

Hinata ducked behind her sister and used her as a shield to weather the barrage while building up her chakra for a powerful strike and, the very instant the barrage ended, she jumped up from behind Hanabi and unleashed her own jutsu.

'Gentle Step: Soaring Lion Fist!'

A big blue chakra lion head flew from Hinata's fist and barreled towards Gitai at blinding speed, too fast for him to dodge, smashing his rock armor and sending the shinobi flying with some internal damage despite the powerful protection he had.

Gitai tried to right himself in the air for the landing but, before he even reached the ground, he was intercepted.

'Lightning Style: Godspeed!'

Using Shiki's very own original lightning style jutsu, Sasuke intercepted Gitai and drove his hand through his back with a lightning chakra enhanced nukite. Since they were going for capture rather than elimination, he simply avoided any vitals and just shocked him unconscious.

Hinata and Hanabi approached him and, after he was properly sealed, there was only one enemy left, Shizuku who was still hammering at the barrier around her, trying to get out and having long triggered just about every trap with her indiscriminate attacks.

She was using a jutsu called the "Water Style: Water Gathering Gorgon" too keep around and control a large mass of water she had brought in from somewhere else. Sasuke deduced they had come from the direction of the canyons where there was plenty of water.

To attack however, Shizuku used another jutsu in combination with the previous one as well, the "Water Style: Water Dragon Whip", which created countless whips of pressurized water from a spherical water barrier she had surrounding herself.

"She seems harder to deal with than the others . . . We don't have any particularly skilled earth style users to take advantage of the elemental chakra weaknesses like before either." Sasuke said.

Hinata fell into thought, trying to figure out a plan of attack but Hanabi already had one in mind from analyzing the situation.

"It seems like that woman need large amounts of water for a her jutsu and can't produce it herself, or, at the very least, it would significantly drain her to do so. In other words, if we get rid of the water she currently has, she would most likely be severely weakened." She explained.

"But how do you propose we do that, Hanabi?" Hinata inquired.

"If Sasuke-san can use a sufficiently powerful fire style jutsu to evaporate the water, then, nee-sama and I can move in and finish the job." Hanabi suggested.

"With enough time to build up and mould my chakra, I get out a fire style of that level but I'll be too drained to fight immediately after and will need to hang back." Sasuke said.

"Since that woman is the only enemy left in the barrier, all power has been diverted there and it will last quite a bit even if she keeps damaging it at the same rate." Hinata said, confirming the giving Sasuke time to build up a powerful fire style jutsu was no problem.

"Then let's do it like that, get you preparations ready Sasuke-san. After you fire your jutsu, Nee-sama and I can take care of the rest." Hanabi declared, to which Sasuke and Hinata nodded in agreement.

'Very nice, very nice . . . But you're forgetting something important my dears . . .' Shiki thought as he observed everything from a distance with his White Eye of the Kagura, reading their lips to know what they said to each other.

As they calmly and perfect dealt with the three members of the Gang of Four, the last one and their mission leader, Kusuna, realized they had no chance of winning and moved alone to get the target while the defenders were busy mopping up his team in the middle of the forest.

Shiki had previously said that if he needed to take care of a member of the Gang of Four, their extra assignment as members of Mugetsu was failed and they had completely forgot the fourth member who was now reaching Shiki's position where he stood guarding Shion . . .

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