Rina pressed her back to a tree trunk, then threw herself behind it as the ground beneath her heaved up a projectile expulsion of rocks, shaking the bark with shuddering drumbeat impacts. She ducked away, spinning off two immaterial clones paired with quick genjutsu splashes in the mud, trying to buy some time.

This wasn't good. She couldn't hide underground, she'd drown in seconds. And somehow, these Kumo-nin--she didn't even know how many there were, they just faded in and out like specters--had been able to track them even through the unnatural fury of the storm. It shouldn't be possible--how had they gotten past her seal so easily?

The best conclusion she could come to, though she didn't like the implications, was that they'd been out there since before she'd put it up. Waiting.

Rina gasped in a breath, then wrenched her dregs of chakra into shape as three lightning bolts crashed down with incandescent fury, leaving two puffs of smoke from her clones--and one blackened log. Already flinging herself away to the next tree, she felt a twist of satisfaction as, behind her, she felt the tag on the log ignite.

The next leap stopped her short; there was a shape leaning against a branch, silhouetted against the sky in a flash of angry light. White hair in a shock of verticality stood out against stark black skin and gleaming yellow eyes. Pearly teeth glittered in a fierce, joyful grin.

Shit.

As electricity whipped the air into tingling anticipation, and Rina gathered her chakra around her again, she grasped at the thought: two can play the explosion game.