It's a Jungle Out there! (Discovering Tiger Country-- Peninsula south of Konoha) (Reward Dice)

Taking his attention to face the black tiger still hearing the voice of Asura he sighed lightly only to answer back about the cat within the tree. "Simple when a cat is scared it usually runs up a tree...which you are in currently." Hearing the voice shouted across the jungle it was clearly noted that he was getting agitated by Tsukiyomi's remarks. Sighing to this Tsukiyomi had turned slightly as he entered a strange pose for a small second.

Soon the tiger started to deliver a dance of several slashes at Tsukiyomi whom took the damage but with his eyes widen within the mask would melt away like a thick coat of black smoke mixed with water. It was then Tsukiyomi was already leaning against a tree trunk staring at the tiger from a small distant.

"Well now, you seem to have missed me with that one...I can promise you the next one will not even come close to touching my body."

Knowing the strength and the tactics used in the battle Tsukiyomi came to see that the enemy he was facing was some how going on with a test in a form. This left him to stay relaxed as he stayed focus on his target.

' Though I'm using "it" I promised not to show too much more of "it" all. I better start with the use of them at least...they can cause some damage together.'

He kept his hands lightly pressed on the hilt of the yamato and another blade that was under the cloak. Asura was having his own issues but Tsukiyomi did not really worry about the shinobi as he figured he could handle himself in a battle.

"So...we going to dance or fight?"

The black cat was perplexed but still upheld his attack on Tsukyomi. HIs slashes were means to try and find a weakness in his opponent, but they were all just slicing through the body as if made of water. "Waht the hell?!" he gasped, and realized that this method of physical attack was not helping.

At that moment, the black cat threw a smoke bomb-- designed to disorientate the enemy and confuse it. Perhaps the attack was by focus and if he attacked with his vision obscure and defenses lower, he could strike without him seeing the attack coming!

Meanwhile Asura was using his own sword, trying to swipe it at the other cat-- but soon the enemy tugged the chain while Asura's back was turned. At first Asura didn't know what it meant but with his Tengan he could see-- the motion of the chain was to the other end of the kusarigama in the trees and now lodged loose. It came for him, trying to catch and slice into him with his back turned.

Spinning around, Asura deflected the blade with his sword, and spun back just in time to stop the next one from the tiger. It was a dance of steel between the blades and chain around him. Soon, one of the movements of the cat caught his attention-- After tossing chains and blades about, one of the chains wound its way around Asura's body, the motions having been so complex, it soon made him entrapped in the chains again!

As the black tiger would continue attacking the black water vapor would continue to perform its task. Tsukiyomi was wondering what the black tiger was even up to if anything. Sighing to this his eyes still kept hidden perfectly through the shadow of his tengu mask.

'Really...this is sad...then again "it" was meant for this reason after all.

Turning his attentions over towards the black tiger they suddenly released smoke bombs to the ground trying to cover themselves, however the young males eyes went from black to becoming a scarlet red. The vision for him changed as he was able to see his enemy clearly as day because of their chakra. Yamato was screaming to be released from its sheath while the other two blades stayed calm. Tsukiyomi just waited to see the next action from the black tiger would be.

'Yep, this sounds about right...throwing this means one of three things, a. he's trying to catch me off guard, b. he's waiting to see if its a time limit to my technique. or c. tiger became and became the prey.'

"Oi, im not going to fight you...if anything you don't seem to be really focused on me."

Tsukiyomi came to notice it already but came to keep his thoughts to himself, If they were truly going to kill them. They would have earlier with their speed at the entrance of the jungle. This was a test and it was not a test for Tsukiyomi as he figured it was for Asura. He started thinking about carefully for everything. Placing the order from start to finish.

'These guys...are not here for a kill they are here to test, even more so the speed they went at was to scare us even thinking we could not beat them. But as soon as they appeared they only aimed at him, meeting they are testing him and proving his strength, as they must have been told ahead of time about how strong he is and wanted to test it. In theory assassins always take out the strongest one they have information on, but the one that do not know they wait to strike until something is shown or even more so what form of attacks are being used. These tigers have already shown three advantage points for them, they take in speed to strike...they take in teamwork to destroy others and they only fight saving their energy until they learned everything about their target. However our advantage points are higher...one being they have no information on my fighting style, they have no idea where were I'm from nor what clan I'm part of. and finally they only see part of my real style.'

Tsukiyomi's anazlyed carefully on everything making sure detailed was noted as he continued to wait within the smoke screen. With that being said he closed his eyes to relax his mind more and see the next action being played out.

'The other uses chain with a scythe at the end, so he must be a weapon user while this one attacked me head on with hand to hand, that would mean if he was going to strike me. He'd use something to catch me off guard. Not many options leaving the smoke cloud would prove to him that he could strike me at a blind spot. But staying here I have the advantage...if that's the case...then...I'll choose this plan.'

Quickly opening his eyes with the sharp glare outside the smoke screen a black blade was seeing flying outward of the smoke aiming directly at the black tiger's head. As another was one was coming directly from the left side of the black tiger's stance. Tsukiyomi then smiled as he kept hold of Yamato on his back. But the young boy was already airborne from above waiting to see the reaction. As he took the moment to jump from above with the cloud of smoke still around the area.

The black cat was surprised by the sudden blade that actually flew at him. With his own blade, he ducked and parried the swung blade! It came close, missing by just a whisker. Pun intended.

With a growl, the tiger was still trying to get a feel of Tsukyuomi's style of attack and abilities. The smoke screen was meant to obscure his vision but it seemed it was not that effective. Perhaps it was accurate, perhaps not-- as the tiger then drew a hand full of shuriken! He threw it into the mass of smoke, and weaved a few hand signs. "Shadow Shuriken Jutsu!!" he growled, causing the one shuriken to become many!! He aimed to try and distract the enemy's attack from the front... and then he sprinted forward.

Through the smoke, despite Tsukyomi's ability to see, the tiger moved quickly and soon attempted to attack from an angle. As the shuriken storm had came from the front, the cat now aimed seconds away, attempting to strike on Tsukyomi's 5 O-Clock. His short sword was ready as he closed in, attempting to stab him in the ribs!

Meanwhile, Asura saw as the chains had wrapped around his body again. "Damn, not this again!"

The violet tiger growled with pleasure as he gripped both scythe handals. He had his prey trapped and bound as he charged. This time, he would slash him to ribbons, and the chain too had hidden shuriken like shrapnel inside it, to deploy the moment he gave it a tug--

sadly, the cat never had the chance.

Asura's eyes flared with fiery might-- and suddenly crimson flames engulfed his form the very moment he pulled! Asura's very body simply dissolved into the bright crimson flames scattering into the air above the tiger. The cat looked stunned as he saw the display of Ninjutsu as Asura's body literally vanished in the flames. IN the matter of seconds, the flames coallesed-- and out emerged Asura once more, now in mid air. The flames almost acted as a means of teleportion! It allowed him to slip free of an enemy's movement and then reappear in a new position to counter-attack!

"There's more than one way to skin a cat," Asura gloated as his eyes burned with power.

Asura inhaled, and prepared to cast one of his fire jutsu! "Katon: Dragon Fire Storm Jutsu!!" he roared, spitting out a series of flames, that splitted off and divided, taking the form of tiny little dragons of fire that swam/flew for the tiger.

Tsukiyomi witness the actions taken from the black tiger only for him to smile watching as the shurikens went into the cloud of smoke with the tiger following. That moment Tsukiyomi landed with the point of Yamato at the back of the neck of the black tiger. Only for Tsukiyomi to suddenly change his voice sounding a bit more hellish to causing fear to be generated within the veins of his enemy.

"You failed...though I could cause the nerves connecting to the brain causing you to become paralzyed from the neck down which would leave you and your body in a worthless state only wanting nothing but death. Because in the end, no medical techniques can truly repair a damaged by back to 100% even the highest level of medical knowledge could give you a survival rate of 51.111% chance of living if the nerves can be connect."

The fear generating Tsukiyomi knew that the moment the black tiger had deflected the blade he'd charge in thinking the boy would be defenseless as two weapons were thrown at him. Though Tsukiyomi had released his swords of frevor and jumped into the air in order to gain a birds eye view. This caused Tsukiyomi to become a falcon watching as the black tiger was the mouse. The helpless prey could not help but fall for the bait of running into the smoke cloud again.

The scarlet eyes continued to stay active but the tip of the blade was touching the skin of the black tiger as Tsukiyomi kept calm and was firmly holding its blade ready to stab him causing damage to his nerves. Tsukiyomi's thoughts were not even set on Asura as their battle continued it was now for the deciding moment for Tsukiyomi and his opponent.

"This little test you both started was great I'll give you that, but you had an problem...something tells me you were not expecting to see Asura-san over their have someone come with him. Or worse, you did not know any information about me so this caused you to be a bit of a problem as you tried to solve it on a one on one. Sadly, against me one on one's cause problems to evolve into issues which you're in right now."

The boy did not talk much unless he was questioning someone though Tsukiyomi's way of questioning was always placing pressure on someone by reading how their mind works and what actions they took. The dangerous among his clan was not him but within his own family his father taught Tsukiyomi to keep his mouth shut on information and obtain information by bluntly speaking causing one to remove the strings slowly. In a manner of speaking this left the a mark but it came in handy during times like so.

The black tiger had attacked but in that brief moment, Tsukyomi had turned the tables on him, now a blade poised for the back. However, the tiger grinned. "True, your very intuitive to figure out half our tricks... but we are not done, yet" as he made one hand sign before the blade had been positioned.

The tigers almost seemed to exchange glances with their partners-- as if to send a message and then...

POOF! The tiger had vanished well before Tsukyomi would/could of attacked with the blade. It perhaps would confuse Tsukyomi... till the next attack came from above! Much like what he did, but this time it was the rattle of chains and the slash and roar of the other tiger! The violet furred one. Somehow, the tiger brother of the first was now in the battle against Tsukyomi, after he had been fighting Asura!

Back in the tree branch, Asura had struck with his dragon fire storm, the little dragons swarming and exploding on impact. While the thick tree branch remained, the area was well burned-- but no tiger. Not even a few burned scrapes.

"Huh, when did--" Asura said but stopped as he caught movement form the corner of his eyes!

CLANK!! Asura had brought his blade up just in time as an attack came from behind. This time it was the black furred tiger-- the one Tsukyomi had been fighting. "When did you get here?!" Asura shouted at the tiger, who only grinned.

The tiger now attempted moving closer and swung a leg between Asura's tripping him and causing him to lose his balance, falling out of the tree!

The black tiger had done it-- using a jutsu that some how evaded enemy attacks and also freely swapped themselves around the battlefield. The jutsu somehow acted like a replacement technique. But instead of an object, it used their teammate to act as a means. It allowed one to escape attack, and give the other one the chance to counter attack by trading places or opponents. A tricky jutsu indeed.

Asura soon landed on his back but easily flipped up and was on his feet. He saw Tsukyomi nearby in the soon fading smoke screen, as he looked to them.

"I guess there is some truth to that nine lives thing, huh?" Asura joked, his way of lightening the mood.

Seeing as the tiger did have a trick up their sleeve Tsukiyomi would quickly recover from stabbing the ground but not surprised as the young boy figured something like this would happen. It was a form of switching position it seemed though sighing to that the sound of chains would be heard the echoing sound vibrated from the trees around and the large field but it was not something that would catch him off guard as he closed his eyes knowing what it meant.

'The echoing of the chains...the opponent isn't on the same level as me...'

Opening his eyes sharply Tuskiyomi launched backwards only with Yamato aiming dug into the ground pointing directly up into the air with him sliding back to pull both blades from the trunk of the tree they had made contact with. As he was against the tree Tsukiyomi placed his feet against the trunk and launched himself by pushing off the tree with the sword of frevor in front of him crossed over one another aiming into the air of the other tiger.

'As they say, if not on the same level, then always above the level.'

Tsukiyomi was skilled with the sword but the violet chain-slinging tiger was skilled with this kind of combat. While the sword did reach close, the chain also wrapped around the base of the blade, thick enough that it wouldn't cut easy but just enough to divert the trajectory of the stab, allowing the tiger the chance to try and slash-kick into Tsukiyomi in retaliation.

The fight was starting to get more challenging. WHile one on one, they were decent opponents, but the tigers specialized in combo-tactics. Even if one was in danger, they just switched out with the other in order to keep their opponent surprised and evade danger.

Asura glared as the black tiger hopped down from the trees and turned a glance at his brother. "Heh, livelier than the regular mice we catch, aren't they brother," the black one commented, their banter now just being mocking them.

"Yeah brother... though this one here is probably the most annoying" he replied, still locked steel with steel against Tsukyomi. The tiger gave off a pleased growl at him, as if enjoying himself.

"Either way, we can't just let you two live... This is OUR jungle, and trespassers pay a steep price," the black one said, readying his sword.

Asura grimaced and looked to Tsukyomi. They had to get some distance and think of a plan. These tigers were tougher than they looked. If only he could work things out with his annoying 'temporary partner' but he was a bit tied up right now.

They had to make some kind of plan to lure the tigers into some kind of trap! Otherwise, they would just easily hop out of any danger they found themselves in.

The blades of fervor blocked the incoming slash and kick but allowed Tsukiyomi to place one back as he reached pulling back his Yamato. Though the launched was changed from where he was aiming at it didn't matter as the young male was now making sure he was kept with his blades. Soon he sat down yawning at them for a bit before having to take out a rice cake. Slowly taking a bite of it he heard the tigers talking about them in general but laid down relaxing while still eating.

"This is YOUR jungle and you keep YOUR jungle I'm just here to help Asura-san because he asked for it...other then that...you guys are actually a bonus for a fight."

Tsukiyomi said as he cleared his throat finishing the rice cake but then laid down with his sharingan vanishing under his mask he kept relax even during the battle. Though he was unsure if he was wanting to continue as he knew he could team up with Asura, but that would mean timing the attack right which if anything Asura would be good at if planned right. Staring at his blades the fervors were the legendary blades that could easily control the flames increasing damage then with Asura's techniques would help them out a bit more. But thinking about it more it seemed off for him to do until Asura at least gave a signal that it was time for them to work together.

Then again Tsukiyomi did give him the signal about working together but he figured that Asura was not picking up on the idea.

"I do not really mind the fact that you want us to pay for entering YOUR jungle again I'm sorry...but Asura here wanted to explore so I just followed him so if anything he'd be the one you want not me."

Tsukiyomi had already started the plan and waited for the Asura to catch on to it.

Asura listened to his partner and kept his eyes firm but strict. At least he got his name right this time but the two tigers were reading their motions. It was bad as the two of them were skilled tag-teamers. They probably could tell how plans worked between allies and could guess their plans. They would be tricky to fool, let alone defeat.

Either way they had to form a plan. and one with code words were not going to help.

But they needed time and distance. In short they needed a destraction.

Asura didn't have a means or smoke bombs on him... but perhaps something big and flashy enough would do the trick. Tsukyomi was in the line of fire with the two tigers between them. So Asura soon weaved his hand signs, and inhaled-- and Tsukyomi had to do one thing.

Get out of its way.

"Katon: Tremendous FIrebird Jutsu!!" He roared, and exhaled-- but with an added hand sign, the flames that he spat out were blue in color! The flames roared, increasing in the destructive power the jutsu could do. THe flames shot foward, threatening to hit both tigers and Tsukyomi if he didn't get out of the way.

The tigers, both shocked by the violent and rather overkill method jutsu for just two warriors, dodged just in time as the scorching blue flames consumed several of the lush jungle trees in their path--

and now at least the two shinobi had a chance to escape and get some distance-- so they could plan a counter attack. Asura quickly jumped into the canopy, and soon sought out a grove for them to plan and strategize. They wouldn't have long, however...

Hearing the rush of flames coming that were blue in color it was amazing luckly for him he triggered his style which allowed him to faze within the flames allowing him to lift his blades up thursting them downwards as the blue flames would increase greatly from the swing from the swords of fervor.

'Good thing I had these on me after all, seeing how he used Katon before I figured they could help this matter out plus with the style on top of that evading isn't that much harder after all.'

Tsukiyomi would then reappear behind the blue flames safely from the harms way only to leave himself staring at the flames rushing at their target. Sighing to this though he waited to see what else Asura had up his sleeve.

'Its even worse...that he's showing more techniques then what he should any enemy would know about him now...

Shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders lightly he figured it was not an important matter at the time and remained focus on his goal.