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Meanwhile, two pairs of hands reached up from out of the earth beneath Hanabi's feet and grabbed her ankles, she found herself being dragged to the ground.

It happened so fast that she didn't have time to react, with only her torso sticking out, the clones kept holding either side of her legs, refusing to allow her any form of movement, she focused on the original Arikurin ahead of her.

Witnessing two shurikens flying towards her, Hanabi stuck out her hands, preparing to reflect them using her Explosion Release: Exploding Palm technique, however, no sooner had her opponent thrown his third shuriken, did each shuriken begin to multiply rapidly.

Overwhelmed and faced with what appeared to be certain death, Hanabi screamed and shielded her eyes with one arm while using her exploding palm with the other.

The first shuriken grazed and ripped the right sleeve of her yukata. The second shuriken, Hanabi deflected into the dirt with her exploding palm.

The third shuriken struck her left arm, which she was using to shield her face. At that moment, she felt a biting pain but was confused at the fact that she was still alive. Had it been an illusion?

There was no time for questions. Hanabi was alive and she knew she had to act fast. Quickly placing a hand on the head of each clone, she once again used the exploding palm technique, causing them to dissipate.

Wiggling in place, the earth around her legs loosened, allowing her to push herself up out of the ground and slip her feet out of the dirt.

Even though she had acted as fast as she could, Hanabi barely had enough time to defend herself from Arikurin's follow-up attack, as another multitude of shuriken rained down on her position.

Again, most of them passed right through her, as if they were illusions, but several seemed to be tangible. One struck the top of her right shoulder, and another grazed her right thigh, cutting through her yukata.

Realizing that she had potentially been caught in a Genjutsu, she concentrated her chakra and released the spell.

Quickly removing the shuriken that remained lodged in her body, Hanabi prepared another attack. As she raised her right arm up to perform it, she winced in pain but continued on nonetheless.

Fanning out her hand in a wide arm, she threw several Explosion Release: Sparkler Senbon across the terrain, as well as into the hole at Arikurin.

...

Hyuga Arikurin had his teeth grind as the entire area was filled with what seemed to be whitish-orange sparkling senbons. He could hear the cracklings and popping as multiple senbon came into the hole, forcing Arikurin back to jump up back to the surface.

Based on the sound of the sparklers, he knew he only has mere seconds before he would die.

Arikurin fired 5 Vacuum Palm Senbon from his right hand's fingertips toward the direction of Hanabi and aimed at her vital points using his Byakugan.

This was all he could do with the senbon still lodged within him. It also provided him with a few seconds to remove the sparkling senbon lodged in his chest.

He focused a burst of sonic waves from the bottom of his feet to gain immense speed by temporarily breaking the sound barrier.

Arikurin zig-zagged toward Hanabi with great speed, leaving his after-images to explode behind him. He dashes closer and closer to Hanabi as the thrown senbons exploded each after-image.

It wasn't long before Arikurin was finally within a short range of Hanabi but the battle took more of a toll on his chakra than he had wanted. He knew his after-images were cloaked in sound energy and once struck, caused blurred vision, vomiting, and dizziness on the attacker.

...

As Arikurin rushed towards her, her senbon sparklers exploded behind him. She had already used up a lot of chakra when she barraged him with her Majestic Firework Technique earlier, but she still had enough chakra to continue the fight; she just wouldn't be able to use that jutsu again for a short while.

Reaching into the sleeves of her yukata, Hanabi pretended to grab metal shuriken, before quickly fanning out both of her hands in front of her simultaneously, throwing a total of 8 Explosion Release: Firecracker Shuriken in a wide area, hoping to keep Arikurin at bay.

The shuriken quickly whizzed through the air, crackling loudly like actual firecrackers. One missed its mark and hit a nearby rock, causing an immediate explosion slightly smaller than that of an Explosive Tag.

...

"You sure are a hot-headed one I must say", Arikurin says as he reached behind him with his right arm and unsheathed his blade.

In an instant, Arikurin had closed the remaining gap between himself and Hanabi. He lowered his blade and prepared for a fast upward slash.

Even after just using a Jutsu, Hanabi was able to dodge a direct blow by bending backward. The shockwave from the attack, however, caused a large tear in front of Hanabi's Yukata.

"Though you are quite a capable Kunoichi", Arikurin said again. His attack has failed and she was somehow able to make his left side partially paralyzed.

If it results in a trade, it would have been alright, but his slightest hesitation and caution allowed Hanabi to dodge the horizontal swipe he directed at her. One could say that she really did come out on top in this exchange.

He stood and stared at her as she reposition herself resulting in them staring at each other.

"If leader saw me struggling like this he would be so disappointed", He laughed, his killing intent soaring to a greater height, "Hanabi of Iwagakure, You certainly are the most talented Kunoichi I have ever faced to date. Pity, I am still better"

He held his sword in front of himself; using his speed Arikurin continued to attack Hanabi with the intent to kill. All she could do was dodge the direct blows and try to remain at a distance, but each swing of Arikurin's blade made more tears in Hanabis yukata and minor cuts to exposed skin.

After a series of slashes, Arikurin started to get some feeling in his left arm again. He took a step back to regain composure. He tightly gripped his blade with both hands, jumped slightly into the air, and swung the blade downward.

Arikurin winced in pain, as Hanabi's exploding palm Jutsu succeeded in knocking the blade out of his hand and out of his reach.

It didn't, however, fail to stop Arikurin in midair as his body was still propelling toward her. He landed in front of Hanabi and quickly delivered 3 two-fingered strikes to Hanabi's left leg, targeted at her chakra points, in an attempt to impair her mobility.

Followed by a Sound Release: Vacuum Air Palm to the chest, blowing Hanabi off of her feet and sending her tumbling backward.

As her tumble came to a halt, Hanabi lifted up her head to look at her opponent. Resting on all fours, she scrambled, trying to pick herself up, only to collapse to the ground again.

Clamoring away on her forearms, she tried to escape Arikurin. Her left leg wasn't responding and she couldn't stand.

Trying with all her might to limp away from him, she managed to raise herself up onto her right leg, though her left leg trailed behind her and her hands were still touching the ground. Looking behind her at her advancing opponent, she finally caught sight of his byakugan

Desperate to keep him away from her, Hanabi formed the hand seals needed to perform a certain technique, however, her chakra wasn't responding; nothing was coming out.

Finally understanding what had happened, she reached into her right sleeve and withdrew a small Flash Bomb which she quickly threw at Arikurin's feet, hoping to buy herself enough time to escape.

As the brilliant light went off, Hanabi made a break for it, willing her body to move as best she could.

Gripping her injured arm and shoulder, she stumbled along with her leg dragging behind her; it was so numb she could barely even feel it, let alone walk or stand on it.

Suddenly, Arikurin appeared right next to her. She could only use her Kunai to make a desperate attempt at him. But it was too late already.

Arikurin widened his stance and went on the offensive. He channeled chakra through his index and middle fingers-thrusting his arms forward toward several tenketsu points in Hanabi's arms making the Kunai fall off her hand.

"You are finished", He spoke calmly as he struck 8 points in each of Hanabi's arms in quick succession.

She was blindsided by the sudden series of fierce internal blows and attempted to move it, but the precision of the strikes from Arikurin's kekkei Genkai enhanced vision could seal tenketsu in an arm and stop her from channeling any strength.

She was thrown back some distance by the attack, but she remained on her feet, though she staggered. Hanabi took on a fighting stance but her arms just swayed lifelessly in the wind.

She grits her teeth when he calmly took out a communication sealing tag, "Package secured. Heading back to the location"

'What?!!!'

Seeing her shocked reaction Arikurin chuckled and simply walked toward her while throwing the intel about Iwagakure's Explosion Corps and their Kinjutsu to the side like a useless thing

"The bait was a good one, wasn't it?"

She scoffed at him, "Indeed, I never suspected a thing. Never thought that I am the target you were after, all along..!!", Laughing slightly she shook her head, "Sorry to burst your bubble though, but you can't get anything from me, I have gone through worst of the tortures"

"We have our ways", He simply chopped her neck making her wince in pain and forcing her to close her eyes.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself bound on a chair by the chakra-sealing chains in a very dark corridor with shadows giving her company. She can't see their faces, it's very dark in here. But given the situation, they might be wearing masks anyway.

"You really are a tough cookie, to think your mind has a permanent Genjutsu etched in it, just in case a Yamanaka catches you. It must have been a hellish experience", One person spoke.

'Is he the leader that one talked about?!!!'

Getting no response from her, the masked man smirked, "Let's see how long does your arrogance last, you two can play with her body for a while, humiliate her, torture her, break her. Make sure by the end of this, no shred of dignity could remain on her body like her clothes..."

"Heh", She smiled and leaned back on her chair, "Is this all you got..?! I have faced way worse. You might want to upgrade your torture skills, It's... way too lame and old"

The man behind the mask had his lips curled, "This is nothing but a start dear, by the time we are done playing with you, you will be begging to tell us everything we wish to know"

She chuckled as well, "Indeed, this is nothing but a start, ah, one of your men asked whether the bait to catch me was a good one or not. I think it was alright, But I wonder... whether you will survive this onslaught or not"

"A mass of Chakra is heading our location, It was a trap", Arikurin said with his byakugan opened up.

"..."

"The bait was a good one, wasn't it?"

"We need this interrogation at any cost, you, do what you do best, just get us enough time", One of the shadows ordered.

"Hai"

'A woman?', She shook her head, "You are going out there despite knowing that it's a suicide mission? Wow, you really are quite naive, aren't you", She laughed loudly as she stare at the shadow that was going out.

"Do you think they will hold your death as heroic or something? No, people like you are just sacrificial-"

"Don't care", The masked Anbu said as she kept walking out.

"Don't you have family or boyfriend-", She chuckled when the shadow was out of her sight, she looked around, "You guys are really loyal to your village I must admit. But is the village loyal to you guys? Do you want to know a secret? I am sure you will be shocked... It was your village that sold you guys...", She laughed

"Don't care..!! However, you should keep that smile after we are done playing with you..!! Take out the tools, let's see how long she lasts under us..."