A fine red dust was floating through the air, as if weightless and immaterial.
Keiko could immediately tell that this mysterious dust was the source of the interference messing up her senses.
As for the culprit behind it all, it was obvious Beni and her Shuigan, now fully taking advantage of its illusory capabilities, the girl showed proficiency beyond what Ranmaru had demonstrated in the original series, not only masking her chakra signature like he could, but also her form.
Chakra sensing, dojutsu, regular sight, smell and even hearing could no longer detect her due to the Shuigan's interference.
Like a deadly shadow, Benihime's blade flashed towards Keiko from behind.
'Shura Style: Chikage'
With her sword covered in reddish black chakra, the girl went for a decisive single strike to kill.
Alas . . .
As Shiki had experienced, Keiko was not that easy to take out.
Immobile until the last second, when Beni's enhanced blade was mere centimeters from her neck, the Swift Release user instantly dropped into a ducking position, unleashing a backward kick so fast it created a powerful shockwave with pure speed.
There was simply no time to dodge and the gap between Keiko's intent and action was so short to the point of non-existence that Beni could not even raise a block in time.
The Swift Release user's foot was planted straight onto her flat chest, launching her backwards, crashing through rock and trees.
Keiko instantly moved to capitalize.
However . . .
'Fuck!' She cursed in her mind.
Her jump towards the position where Beni landed was completely off course.
Clearly, the girl was still conscious enough to mess with her senses and divert her move.
Keiko stopped again and just waited for another chance to counter attack. The opponent definitely could not keep up the jutsu messing with her forever.
'Either they run away, cancelling it, or they make another attempt to take me out, giving me another chance to end them.' The Swift Release user thought.
And she was right.
As Beni carefully observed her target, she could feel the strain on her Shuigan mounting.
She had been using it non stop so that Keiko could not leave the area and now to mask her own presence as well, she would hit her limit soon.
Beni could see a thin film of Yang natured chakra surrounding Keiko's form, very close to her body.
The girl had known her attack was going to be detected as soon as it touched the film but it was so close to the enemy's body that she didn't think that the enemy could dodge, much less counter, regardless of her immense speed.
Clearly however, she had underestimated the limits of Keiko's acceleration.
Since the moment Shiki's attack tagged her, the Swift Release user made sure to be ready to hit her max acceleration at any moment and clearly, that decision had just paid off.
*
A fair distance away, Shiki's Kukyo - Seven Senses clocked that Keiko had stopped moving.
He increased his focus to the limit and finally noticed a blur on the area, created by floating red dust.
'Beni-chan . . . When she's trying to hide, even with my current sensory abilities which are among the best in the world right now, I can only tell her general location based on the area affected by her interference.' The boy noted.
More importantly however, it meant that Beni had managed to stop Keiko from escaping.
'Maybe with her help, taking out that speed freak is not impossible . . .' A plan began forming in Shiki's mind and he wasted no more time, heading towards the direction of the fight.
He was still hiding so the others, on the move to regroup, had no way of knowing his and Beni's actions.
*
Back to the battle, Benihime was weighing her options.
She briefly considered using the immobile Zee as a way to put Keiko into a disadvantageous position but quickly dismissed it.
'Ever since she realized I trapped her, this woman's focus on that Kumo kunoichi dropped to almost nothing so I doubt that'll work.' The girl thought to herself.
Beni was beginning to think about retreat as she saw no way of pinning her enemy down, just like Shiki before her.
However, her Shuigan detected a familiar figure approaching.
'Shiki is sneaking up. He must have a plan.' Beni concluded with more belief than actual reasoning.
In this case however, she was right.
'I can't let this woman get suspicious.' The girl determined.
And so, she elected to start harassing her from a safe distance.
Ranged attacks would be far too easy to see coming so Beni moved just beyond the range of Keiko's instant counter and unleashed a storm of red flying slashed.
'Shura Style: Chikaze'
The barrage of slashes manifesting so close by would pose an enormous threat to the grand majority of Shinobi, even Elite Jonin would require some effort to defend or evade.
But for Keiko, this was child's play.
Her body blurred as if phasing out of existence, allowing the Swift Release user to effortlessly weave her way through the barrage.
Unfortunately, the slight distance along with the obstruction of the slashes was enough for Beni to shift positions before any counter attack could come.
'Trying to make me slip up?' Keiko wondered.
'Fine! Let's see who outlasts who without fucking up!' The Kunoichi internally scoffed, letting nothing show on her outward demeanour.
Unfortunately for Keiko, she was an open book for the Shuigan and the fluctuation in her thoughts was enough to let Beni know that her plan was working perfectly.
As long as she kept up these harassing attacks, the enemy kunoichi would not suspect that there was someone else planning on coming in from the side.
And so, the game continued.
Chikaze after Chikage, was launched in expertly determined intervals, not letting Keiko relax but not having Beni burn herself out either.
Meanwhile, Shiki was already in the general area and began setting up his trap.
He was the type to prefer killing traps, designed to eliminate his enemy in a single decisive blow but Keiko proved too fast for his usual methods so the boy was cooking up something different.
The same method he used to take down Ay junior with more time to set things up perfectly.
Fuinjutsu.
Its uses were endless and they were the key to solve the current impasse.
The boy underground, leaving special Sealing Paper Tags in specific places, just beneath the surface, creating a spiral formation.
He knew Benihime was definitely watching his movements. Shiki's hope was that she would trick Keiko into the center of the sealing array he was creating.
After that, it was just a matter of taking out the Swift Release user while the sealing trap pinned her down.
The boy was going all out.
The Super Scroll Bomb was already grossly costly in terms of sealing resources like special paper and ink and the 64 special Sealing Tags Shiki was now placing, were just as costly.
Sincerely, if not for Mito's support in acquiring these specialized supplies, each of these expenditures would have hurt his soul.
Only true masters of fuinjutsu who had complete and full understanding of their seals, could neglect these material requirements, and even then, that was only possible for certain jutsu.
Whatever the case, the setup was complete, all Shiki had to do now was wait for Benihime to guide Keiko into position at the center of his sealing trap for him to bring it . . .
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -