| [Nov. 16th, 2016|09:06 pm] |
At the signal, a chuunin sliced the young pig’s throat. Blood fountained, the pig staggered. Kakashi’s hands flashed. He felt the chakra lash out, strike, catch. The pig screamed, and for six lurching heartbeats Kakashi could feel the living network of its circulatory system: the aorta’s thick pipe, pulsing arteries, thinner veins, the delicate, hair-like capillaries feeding down into multi-layered structures too small to comprehend. Countless different connections moving countless different ways, all dependent on a panicking heart.
He tried to grip it all and felt the first shuddering tremble as the system backed up on itself, thrown into chaos. It writhed, fracturing, and the pig’s falling body gave a weird ripple. Kakashi ground his back teeth, focusing. Ox—
No, not Ox. He aborted the seal, converting it to Half Bird. Chakra flexed sickly, twisting into shapes that felt deeply unnatural. He eased back, letting go of the periphery. He didn’t need those small vessels. Or these emptying ones. He just wanted the throat, where the stricken carotid still pulsed.
The pig was gasping now, trying to pull air into a system that could no longer transport it. Spiraling above its head, a crimson shape coalesced.
Reverse Horse.
It did make a difference. Half the blood immediately dropped out of the air, splattering over the ground, and Kakashi hissed, but what remained pulled densely together. Then it stretched, lengthening. The center split into a jagged web. It had none of the delicacy of Iebara’s latticing, but the structure held, sharpening, becoming blade-like. Kakashi uncurled his fingers and the weapon turned, trembled, and cut down in a lethal arc. A single mercy stroke. The pig died soundlessly.
The moment its heart failed, chakra sparking out, the blade reacted. It darkened. Fragments began to shear away. Kakashi redoubled his grip, sweat pricking at his temples. His own chakra was in revolt, desperate to pull away from this dying thing, but he had it, he had it—
Lightning broke away from him.
Instinctively, Kakashi flung a hand up to cover his eyes against the flash. The blade spun away and exploded, right over the watching group. Burned blood showered down.
Kakashi dropped into a crouch, catching his breath. When he lowered his hand, Otani stood wide-eyed, clutching her clipboard with both hands. Blackened red dripped off her hair, and her paperwork. Next to her, Ryouma turned his head to the side and spat. Genma sighed and removed his ruined senbon.
Kakashi said, “Oops.” |
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