Shinku stared down at the snake man. He didn’t know who this person is, but him and his friends seemed to be pretty strong. Maybe they would give him a challenge. Well. His friends seemed to be down for the count actually. So that left him alone.

“Hey, hey.” Shinku called out with a grin “Aren’t you rushing things a bit? You don’t even know what scroll I have do you? Maybe we don’t even need to fight.”

The opposing ninja giggled “It’s not good to lie, you know. Or if you’re going to, at least make it more believable. You’re leaking so much bloodlust…” He licked his lips. “It’s giving me the shivers.”

Shinku shivered in a whole different way. He felt something precious of his was in danger in this guy’s presence. Creepy.

“Well then since we’re gonna fight it out anyway. How about we confirm which scrolls we’re holding just in case. Eh?” Shinku suggest.

“Well, that’s fine.” He giggled, both him and Shinku, putting their hands in their tool packs and taking out their scrolls. Heaven for Shinku. Earth for the grass ninja.

“Looks like this is also gonna be the ticket to the next stage for whoever wins too.”

“I suppose so.” He said, giggling, before opening his mouth wide and placing the scroll over it.

“Hey. What are you doing? Stop!” Shinku cried out, as the ninja’s tongue wrapped around the scroll, but didn’t receive a reaction. ‘Damn it, I need that scroll, who knows when I’ll find another team with an Earth one!’ He hesitated for a moment, before deciding. Him and this guy were probably gonna fight to the death after this anyway. It didn’t matter if he saw. Shinku closed his left eye as he grabbed a kunai from his pouch and threw it up casually within his periphery. His sharingan changed into a much more complex pattern as he fed it an increasing amount of chakra and he called out in his mind ‘Amenominakanushi!’ The kunai disappearing with the scroll falling in Shinku’s hand and his opponent being left to eat the sharp end of piece of metal.

The grass ninja’s eyes widened, as the kunai fell in his mouth, though he quickly swallowed it, causing Shinku to wince. “Mangekyo Sharingan…” The ninja spoke out. Huh? What was that? Was that what the advanced sharingan was called? The grass shinobi giggled once again. “To think you’ve improved to such a degree… You’ve made me want you more and more.” Shinku got a chill down his spine again. What was wrong with this freak? Well, whatever. He got the scroll. Now he can enjoy himself to his heart’s content. He put away the scroll in his pouch.

“Let’s do this then.” Shinku declared as he let himself fall from the tree, forming signs as he descended. The grass shinobi moved towards him faster than Shinku had seen anyone move before. As the ninja elongated his body like that of a snake and slithered up the tree, Shinku kicked off of its surface, distancing himself from both the tree and his enemy, at the same time finishing his seals and taking a deep breath of air. Upon exhaling he starts spinning his head, the stream of sharp wind following it and acting almost like a sharp whip, covering a large area and leaving little room to dodge, little room that the snake man easily exploits to slither through an opening, jumping towards Shinku and leaving the attack to cut into the tree behind him. ‘Damn. Looks like I’ll have to use a bit more than brute force here.’

The ninja threw a punch, which Shinku blocked and deflected, as his lower part transformed back into legs. A kick followed it, the Uchiha blocking that with both hands, before spinning around and trying to kick his enemy in the stomach, only to have him place his hands on the kick while it was incoming and using it as leverage to flip up over Shinku and land behind him. The ninja threw an elbow strike at Shinku while spinning around, which caused the red-hair to jump back, deciding Taijutsu is getting him nowhere. He forms a single tiger seal as he takes in deep breath, moulding fire chakra inside himself before spitting it out at his opponent ‘Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu’. The kusagakure nin screams in pain, but Shinku knows it’s fake, the figure of the man melting into mud inside the flames.

‘The real one is… there!’ He turns around throwing a kunai at the form of the ninja exiting out of the ground, though he catches it between his fingers giggling. Shinku had a bad feeling about this. In that case, he’d get serious. Closing his right eye, he called out as he focused his chakra in them once more ‘Takeminakata!’. The grass ninja looked surprised for a moment, then slightly confused as he felt the back of his neck with a hand, the form of a coiled snake now having formed there. “Heheh.” Shinku laughed. “You aren’t the only here who’s got a thing with snakes.”.

“Oh?” He giggled. “I wonder what this does, then.”

“It keeps you from running away.” Shinku explained, before forming a set of four seals and slamming his hands on the ground, three walls of earth rising up to surround his opponent. Before throwing four kunai at him. The ninja simply smirked before jumping up incredibly high and out of the confines, the kunai stabbing into the wall behind him. He once more became snake-like as he slithered and weaved through the treetops at speeds too fast to follow with normal eyes, Shinku ignoring this and forming the seals for his next jutsu, finishing right as his opponent stretches out from behind him aiming to slam into his body.

‘Idiot. Didn’t I tell you? There’s no escaping anymore.’ Shinku mocked in his head as he took a deep breath, one of the kunai stabbed into the wall being replaced by the grass ninja who slams himself into the wall, unable to break through the sturdy, chakra-infused structure. ‘You don’t have your scroll anymore so I can do this with no worries. Eat the pinnacle of Uchiha fire techniques!’ Shinku spoke in his mind ‘Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation’ he chanted out in his head as he spit forth a sea of flames, consuming not only the insides of the walls but also a large area outside of that. The screams of pain didn’t sound fake this time.

But Shinku wasn’t done, immediately weaving the signs for his next jutsu. ‘Wind Release: Great Breakthrough’. Again releasing a breath, he fired a devastating gust of wind at the fire, intensifying it even further, and so too does it do for the screams. Shinku felt in a moment how the enemy dug himself underground and started moving away at a great speed. “Did you forget what I said already again?” He spoke out loud this time. “Idiot.”

Half a minute passed, the ninja escaping as fast as he can when he suddenly found himself in front of the same scorched wall again, his eyes widening he looked back to see four of Shinku on the ground, four more standing on branches further away. Two of them suddenly spew forth a sea of flames, just like before, but now even more concentrated, two spewing forth gusts of wind, intensifying the flames even more just like before. At the same time, two of the others start forming seals, both of them surrounding themselves in a stream of water which forms into a dragon, the clones next to them touching the dragon and charging it with lightning chakra before it slams itself into the middle of the flames and into the ninja after he’s burnt to a crisp, slamming him with a large volume of water and electrifying him at the same time.

All eight Shinku poof out of existence as the real one looks on from a branch further away. Normally he would need to wait for the effects of the jutsus to subside in order to know the fate of his opponent, but his opponent was marked with Takeminakata now, after all. In no circumstances could that person escape Shinku’s sight. “So he died.” He mumbled before standing up and stretching. “Ahhh. That was fun. I haven’t had a good challenge like that in a while. It’s unfortunate I had to rely on my advanced… no. Mangekyo Sharingan was it? But well. That guy was way more durable than anything else I’ve seen. No way would I have enough firepower to kill him without that.”

He closed his eyes, opening them again, revealing the regular sharingan, which then reverted to his regular black eyes. “I really did use up a monstrous amount of chakra there though. Well. I still have quite a bit left in me, but it left me a bit tired. Guess I’ll go find a comfortable place to sleep it off.” He stretched again, before jumping away.

Time passed and the flames and electrified water cleared up. cancelling each other out. The scorched body of the grass ninja remaining in the enclosure of the walls, completely unrecognizable. Yet the body suddenly swelled up and its mouth opened unnaturally widely, two hands appearing and forcing it open even wider as their owner dragged himself out of it. He’d underestimated the boy by far. Just like Itachi, he doubted to be able to acquire that body. He would have to aim for something else. Something that’s not as physically and emotionally strong. The man grinned, his long tongue licking around his lips.