Welcome to Gaia! ::

Far away from the main village yet still within it's territory sat a large bell tower several stories tall , a shrine built for celebrating special occasions like weddings and the new year. It sat in the middle of a large park, the woods pushed far back to give people gathered their room to congregate.

The general area was filled with several benches, a few picnic tables, a gazebo and a small pavilion with built in bathrooms. Basically anything you'd need to host a out door gathering. Not far off from the tower was a koi pound, with a bridge crossing over it. A point famous as a meeting spot.

But today Midori was standing on the top of the tower itself. On the Flat roof above the bell free waiting for her foe to arrive.

Midori didn't so much see Rai arrive as she felt it through the shifting air currents and the heat admitted from his flames. "Trust him to make a dramatic entrance." She thought with a slight grin from underneath her own Anbu mask which was painted black to look like a starless abyss.

Shifting her right arm slightly several plain looking plastic capsules dropped out of her sleeve heading towards the floor where upon impact they would release a cloud of deadly Sulfuic acid vapor while she dashed away.

She had chosen this type of gas not so much because of it's poisonous properties (thought those didn't hurt on the slight chance it would actually affect Rai in that manner, which she doubted) but rather because it was extremely corrosive, enough to effect even Metal. Nothing that would instantly dissolve it obviously, but with luck it's presence would weaken the structural integratry of Rai's threads even if only slightly.

Midori was not suprised that Rai had easily been able to evade her first strike. She hadn't seriously expected the gas to work, but at least it had served it's secondary purpose by getting Rai to move further away from her giving her more space.

His comment about banter was just ironic enough to make her smirk slightly under the mask. Once she slipped into battle mode she was a through and through professional, rarely talking unless it suited her means. When used properly banter was as much a tool as a kunai to her. While she was tempted to reply she wasn't sure she could really say anything that could put Rai off balance considering the sheer amount of exerpince he had to have giving his age.

Midori's eyes widened in shock as Rai trust his palm to the floor causing the entire tower they where standing on to shake along with the ground around it. The fact that he could effect the ground even from this distance was enough of a surprise that when the shock wave hit it was enough to make Midori stumble and she would have even fallen over if she hadn't thought quickly and opened up her wings using their long span to balance herself out.

The tower had been built to withstand earthquakes to some extent, but If Rai kept this up for too long he was lible to bring the entire thing down. Whipping out a boomerang Midori tossed it straight towards Rai's torso knowing that when it neared him it would act similarly to a fragmentation grenade and explode dispersing a wave of shrapnel which she hoped would be enough to disrupt his concentration and with any luck what ever jutsu he was setting up.

Midori was surprised to see Rai simply step off the side of the tower. A rather cleaver way of avoiding her attack, or at least it would have been had she been using a normal boomerang and not a trick one.

To some eyes it might seem foolish for her to be using such low level tools in such a high level fight but she was using them for a reason. Since she had only vague ideas of what Rai's powers where precisely she was following her standard protocol and trying to feel him out in an energy effecent manner. After all it was a given that his chakra pool was larger then hers, and no matter how proficient her control was she had to use her energy wisely if their was to be any hope of victory.

She watched the explosion accelerate Rai's fall and as the tower continued to quake followed by a lord boom her foe impacted the ground hard she frowned, instinctively not liking where this was going. What ever jutsu he had been doing should have stopped when his hand lost contact with the floor, and her boomerang simply didn't have enough boom inside it to shake the tower like that which meant that something else had to be behind it. That something else obviously being Rai.

With a push downward of her feet Midori kicked off the tower taking to the sky above it, circling over head and using her avian like binocular vision to try and see through the plum of smoke and survey the damage her opponent had taken. Her mind told her that A fall like THAT had to have hurt, but ninja where known for pulling off the impossible so she had to be sure.

She caught sight of him just as her began to emerge from what looked to be a sphere of metal threads and besides his mask seemed relatively unscathed. "He's tough all right. I guess he wasn't just joking when he likened himself to a metal chaos." She thought to herself as she calculated her next move thinking of ways she could test his metal to see what properties it had in common with other metals, properties which she could prehaps exploit.

But Rai practically made her next move for her as he began making the classic hand seals she recognized as being the trigger for paper bombs and realized he was about the bring down the tower. She had thought it might come down at some point, but she hadn't counted on it being this soon. Still she had been prepared for that eventually and decided to switch tacts to another plan even if it meant busting out one of the moves she had initally meant for using against Chaos.

As the paper bombs began to go off and the tower started to crumble inward Midori began to preform a complex series of hand seals of her own
"Sealing Art: Koryu yellow dragon of the center." She called out. She hated having to say it out loud, but some jutsu simply worked better when spoken and she doubted Rai could hear it over the cacophony of a collapsing building anyhow.

With those words a glowing glyph appeared and descended onto the bell as it fell among the rubble marking it in perpetration for her larger plan before fading from sight, ready to be activated.

By the time Rai's clone rose from the ground Midori had already begun to weave another series of seals. However the sight of the clone caused her to frown. She had once had a talk with Rai about the use of clones and it almost seemed out of character for him to be using one like this, especially since he knew that she could spot the difference instantly no matter how identical on the surface it was. "Well if he wants to waste energy all the better for my plan." she thought to herself.

Traditionally in a ninja tournament one could win by meeting various conditions. Usually by direct ko, having the foe surrender or outright killing them. Sometimes based on the rules it was also possible to win by knocking them out of bounds. But their where other less conventional ways to win if one was creative enough and so that was what Midori was aiming for since it would fall in line with her vow not to cause Rai harm.

She watched curiously as the clone brought forth Red Diamonds from the ground, prepared to deflect them with an unseen weapon if they where shot towards her and wondering what the color signified only to blink in surprise when the diamonds burst open squirting balls of lava at her.

Instead of wasting energy trying to dodge Midori spread her wings wide as possible as the lava rose up at her with a slight smirk on her face. The problem with lava was that it was hot, really really really hot and it's mere presence was generating a powerful thermal column which rapidly was lifting her higher in the air and outside of the trajectory that the magma had been aimed at.

She had gotten somewhat lucky there. If she hadn't been so high to start with their wouldn't have been enough time to get out of the way. Plus that trick would only work once as someone as experinced as Rai would no doubt be able to compensate for it with the next barrage.

Even thought she had avoided direct contact, the heat that the magma was emitting was so powerful that even indirect contact was causing the parts closest to it like her silverish greaves to blacken as she exited the stream rather then risking prolonged contact, her body soaked in sweat despite being well conditioned towards extreme temperatures.

Taking stock of the damage she noticed that the souls of her boots had melted slightly despite having protection seals that could stand up to direct contact with a low level fire jutsu with out harm. It was clear that specialized equipment would be required to defend properly against such a powerful force, but the problem with specialized equipment was always the trade offs which is why she had gone with her general purpose armor rather then one of her other sets.

"Right then. That decides the next part of the pentagram to make, even if it means sacrificing some of my strongest attacks in to process. At least then even If I can't get all five parts finished a partial pentagram will still be effective." She thought to herself as she finished the series of seals she had started earlier.

"Sealing art: Suzaku vermilion bird of the South." She called out causing another glowing glyph to appear at the other edges of the clearing for a few brief seconds before it too vanished. The problem now was the Rai would catch onto the fact she was up to something. If she was going to get the next three parts finished before being drawn into direct conflict she would have to really show him why she was considering a Seal Sage.

(ooc: Sorry if my post isn't up to my usual snuff. Had a shitty day between going to my granny's funeral and not feeling well)

Midori cursed as the clumps of lava burst into a shower of red hot diamonds realizing that she had fallen straight into Rai's trap. Her defensive options where limited if she wanted to continue making the full five point seal pentagram.

That was the problem with using it. It wasn't that it cost so much chakra wise but it was one of the most time consuming seals that she had that wasn't completely impractical for using in a battle. Sure she could still use the incomplete two points, but it wouldn't be anywhere near as effective as the full array, and even the full version would not be anywhere near enough to actually defeat Rai on it's own, especially since she would pay the price as equally as he for what it took away.

Each point corresponded to a constellation, direction and an element. Koryu yellow dragon of the center was Earth and Suzaku vermilion bird of the South was Fire. All that left was Wind, Water and Lightning. Each corner post on it's own could be set to weaken or strength the use of it's element depending on how the seal was set. But together they could suppress the use of elemental chakra in the zone of effect almost entirely.

It wouldn't be entirely impossible to use elemental chakra. Just extremely difficult. Using any would take a much greater amount of effort and control then usual making it extremely draining on stamina and it only got worse the more complex the jutsu you where using was.

It would cost her the use of Fire, Wind and especially Light jutsu but it would be worth it if it gave her the opening she sought in the long run. Gritting her teeth Midori formed a hasty erected wind barrier around her.

Created with out seals it wasn't as complex or as strong as she would have liked. It had no chance of actually stopping the diamonds but then it wouldn't have to since it's powerful currents would be enough to both slow the ones that hit it down and cool them off considerably as she weaved around trying to dodge as many as she could.

Several diamonds made it throught the barrier bouncing off against her armor leavings nicks, scratches and dents. While Midori couldn't tank nearly as much damage as Chaos or Rai her armor was still first class and could withstand at least this much, thought it would have torn through the second rate suits she used to wear when she was younger like butter.

However she was not covered head to toe in such protective material simply because doing so would have restricted her mobility and agility which she couldn't afford. The only parts covered with metal where her chest, shoulders, elbows and forarm and the knees

That meant that parts of her arms, legs where relatively exposed. The cloth she wore under the armor to make it more comfortable was enhanced with seals to strengthen its durability but that wasn't enough to stop a stray diamond from cutting it to shreds.

Together with her barrier, armor and dodging skills Midori was able to avoid taking any sever damage, but during a high level battle even a minor wound could make a huge difference and she had gained several cuts and scrapes along both her arms and legs.

Hitting upon an idea to buy herself time, Midori decided to act like she had been hit harder then she really had. Letting out a scream of pain she pretended to faint and began to plunge head first towards the pond trailing black blood behind her as she fell making sure her back was to Rai so that she could continue forming seals with out him noticing.

Taking drastic measures she began to doing two sets of one handed seals at the same time. While she didn't have to use them for a lot of her elemental jutsu due to her bloodline, she was still extremely proficient in the use of hand seals, but she rarely went this far since the risk of screwing up was normally higher then it was worth. But right now she needed to complete her Array and fast before Rai began throwing some of his really big jutsu at her.

"Sealing art: Seiryuu Azure Dragon of the East, Byakko White Tiger of the West" she whispered as she continued her decent. Wind and Lightning, two more down... One more to go. Would she possibly be able to make it in time?

Midori felt Rai approach her as he entered her personal space before he spoke. Probally both to insure she could hear him since it was hard to hear anything when you're falling at speed and to make sure he was in range to attack her if she was faking or just to deliver an extra blow for insurance if she wasn't.

She bit her lip in frustration realizing that their was little point to continue playing possum if he was going to strike anyhow. Her best chance now was to act suddenly and unexpectedly and she did just that as in the blink of an eye she whirled around screaming "COOKIES FOR THE COOKIE MONSTERS" in an attempt to throw Rai off as her Jouhyou shoot out of her left sleeve, the rope glowing with a built in binding seal as it tried to snake around Rai's form and capture him.

This was yet more slight of hand. If (and it was a big if) she could tie him up in the first place she doubted she'd be able to hold him for long and so she had placed a gravity seal like the one she had used against Kuroi's puppet on the metal tip ready to be transferred onto it's next victim.

Thought it all her right hand continued to preform one handed seals. Just a little more and the last part of the puzzle would be in place

Midori had been expecting Rai to punch her, or maybe kick her not hug her and was shocked enough at the intimate contact that she actually paused just before she was about to complete the final seal.

"WHAT... ARE YOU DOING?" She hissed, her face flush with embarrassment underneath her mask. "FINISH HIM!" A voice in her head screamed at her to use this opportunity to kill him. He was so close she could easily end his life. But she had sworn on her word as a mother not not harm him and did not want to break her vow. But what was more important? Her word as a mother or her word as an avatar of death?

"Humans are not meant to last for centuries. His presence distorts the balance of nature. Do your duty reaper. That is your purpose in life, do not fail me" The voice said. But Midori refused. As long as Chaos and his ilk were around she needed Rai. His presence was helping her to maintain the balance not destroying it. The voice seemed to consider this for a long second then silently relented as the pressure of it's presence in her head died down.

All that paused in the blink of an eye, and Midori suddenly realized to her horror that the gravity seal she had placed on her Jouhyou was in the process of attaching itself to Rai and if he was holding her that meant she too was in the range of it's effect and that it was far too late for her to do anything about it. "Oh s**t." She thought as the seal flared to life with an erie purple glow, the added gravity accelerating their decent and sending them plummeting into the murky depths of the pound below.