The Battle of the Block

The Warden had stepped out from the Command Castle, naturally and without disturbing the seals created by his hired help. The man was dressed in a set of armour that espoused royalty. He had removed his ceremonial headgear and allowed his long hair to fall loosely along his shoulders. He had numerous Flying Thunder God branded kunai on his person and a pair of glowing antennae sprouted from his head. They continued to relentlessly draw natural energy from the area around him. Block C was still mostly under control although there were still pockets of fighting across the block's expanse. The area closest to the Blood Prison was still within the Warden's control and even the mightiest of criminals had failed to breach the castle's walls. Raijin had come close but he had been defeated through the cunning and wit of one Akihiro Uchiha.

Now Tenma would face a bigger threat.

The World Champion of the Shinobi World Tournament was making her way to Block C. She was taking her time which he assumed was a display of arrogance. He didn't get a sense of urgency from her actions or movements. She seemed eerily calm and he genuinely wondered if she'd execute Gin on her way here. The guards and deputies maintained a respectable distance. Those who were not engaged in battling Merryweather's numerous minions, were standing by and awaiting instructions. He told them not to interfere. He knew Nozomi would let loose if she felt cornered or totally incapable of dominating the situation. He wanted to minimize casulaties and collateral damage to his prison. The Warden's strategy was simple: Play to her ego. If Nozomi beleived that this was going to be a one on one fight not much unlike the Tournament she had won, she would refrain from losing her shit. If he kept her within that narrow mind frame then he'd be able to take her out surgically before she even felt the need to destroy the prison from the ground up.

It was a simple strategy, but he was positive that it would be effective. The man folded his arms and waited for her to arrive.

Nozomi's appearance as per last thread, with an abridged version of her looting:

Nozomi lowered herself down the side of the wall, her earlier precautions seemingly for naught. Nobody noticed her, or if they did, there was no fallout from it. Thinking nothing of it for the most part, Nozomi moved through Block C, heading towards the Castle with her defenses still up and Gin still a hostage. The flattened sheet of water became a wall of needles once again, but she didn't appear to have a need to use them in this block.

About halfway there, she noticed that everyone was actually avoiding her. It wasn't that this place was unguarded, but every effort was made to not be around her. Was she noticed as that big of a threat? Perhaps, after all, the Warden did directly speak to her. He had been monitoring her progress, which meant that he knew his men wouldn't stand a chance against her. She wouldn't be stopped before getting to the castle, and the lives of his men were more important to him than attempting to whittle down her reserves even slightly.

After this realization, Nozomi no longer saw a need to be stealthy, and moved out into the open, although she kept a shield of water around her in case snipers tried to take her out from afar. She kept her senses outward on anything that seemed out of the ordinary. It wouldn't take long before she found herself walking towards a man who appeared to be waiting for someone, who she assumed was herself.

Nozomi's gaze shifted to the Warden's side, and she noted a lack of Chiheisen there. The Jinchuuriki hadn't expected that he would change his mind and bring out Chiheisen, but there was always some hope. If he wasn't there to give over Chiheisen, then he was there to stop Nozomi's advance personally. Still holding her blade to Gin's throat, Nozomi spoke one final time. "If any of you fancy yourself an ally of this man," she nudged the blade in her hand at Gin, "I only care about Chiheisen. Bring me the girl and you all will live, as will he. If not, this entire place will be destroyed, with none of you left alive to see the fallout."

She'd presented the Warden with this offer, but he had declined. Now she left it to his men, giving the same offer one final time. The needles of water around her seemed to bristle as if with eagerness to kill someone, giving away a little insight into Nozomi's more intense fighting spirit. Many of the needles had taken on a red tint, having killed many people and taken in their blood a little bit.

---
-3 Water Heaven's Convergence
Stamina: 207/210
UA Chakra Drain cap: 42/105

Isobu: Lower's Suiton tech costs by 1 rank.

UA- Body Like Steel: Nozomi has been training and fighting for years, and her body has been well conditioned to pain. Unless caught off guard via sneak attack, whenever Nozomi is in a fight, her constitution is raised by 1. Freebie UA.

Chakra Drain (Drawback only, as she is not maintaining the drain atm): Nozomi is one of the precious few people who can drain chakra from people. This UA allows her to app techniques that can drain chakra, although those techniques leave her more open to receiving damage from chakra as well.
Without using techniques, she can choose to drain 5 chakra from someone by making physical contact with a them using her forearms or hands, although she has to consciously do so. This is able to be used through gloves and clothes, but does not extend to other tools or weapons.
Every time she makes contact, she can draw out chakra from a person (capped at 15 per person per post) or 15 chakra per person if she sustains contact the entire post. However, doing so opens Nozomi up to increased damage (+1 rank of damage) from tangible chakra techniques for the rest of the post round. This is all elemental jutsu, and all attacks with tangible chakra, such as Chakra Flow and other such techniques. The amount that this UA allows for non technique absorption in a thread is capped at half of Nozomi's base stamina cap, even if taken from multiple different people. This can not set her over her maximum pool of chakra either.

Strength: B
Constitution: B -> A (w/FUA)
Stamina: B+
Speed: A -> Not exceeding B currently so the water can keep up
Coordination: A
Intelligence: C
Perception: A

The ruffian had the audacity to offer his men terms of surrender. He had already soundly rejected her proposal but she appeared to be under the impression that she could sway his subordinates. The men scoffed and some of them tossed out words that were very unpleasant and disrespectful to a young lady. The jeers and cries of defiance were silence when the Warden brought up his right hand. The man spoke in a neutral voice. Normally, someone would be angry at such a vicious display of disrespect. To insinuate that a leader's men could not be trusted to take orders was tantamount to calling him weak. Yet Tenma did not take it personally.

"You're a fool Nozomi. My men would never accept terms of surrender without my explicit authorization. I can tell you do not want to fight me and rightfully so. For the sake of the mother that bore you I will allow you to leave here alive. Turn back and run away"

It was an extreme display of generosity. He had warned her against advancing into Block C, but he was giving her a second chance. An opportunity to walk away without dying. The man retrieved a single kunai and bent his knees in anticipation of the fight. He doubted she'd take the offer and so in his mind the battle had already begun.

Nozomi nodded her head as they jeered at her. They were fools, all of them. Her generosity had run out, and unfortunately for Gin, that meant that he was no longer useful to her. She couldn't hold him the entire fight, and she couldn't put him down or someone might take her hostage away from her while she was fighting. The Warden offered her one more chance to turn around, and Nozomi came to the realization that he wasn't looking forward to fighting her. She nodded once more. "Very well then. Death it is."

The needles around Gin's face, temples, neck, and eyes plunged forward, burying into his head, and her hand dragged the tanto smoothly across Gin's neck, slicing it immediately as she transitioned directly into combat mode. Hurling the limp body of Gin at the Warden, she lunged herself forward, without actually moving from her spot, just needing a lower angle. The countless needles spread out and around, moving in towards the sides and above, circling around the Warden and trying to give him no option for backing away. Nozomi herself followed through her lunge by flowing into the stance of her Awakened Spring Chant.

Using the potential distraction of the ragdolled Konoha nin, Nozomi launched her Tanto at a gap where Gin's body was not, but she could see the Warden, aiming to slide the Tanto past the body and into the Warden. If it were to hit, it would have slid past Gin's hip, as he was mostly horizontal, and straight into the Warden's left hip joint, assuming he didn't dodge or block. It would make walking difficult to do, which meant taking him down would be easier as well, and catching him with the needles that were fast approaching would be inevitable.

The idea was that people tended to try and catch other people out of some sort of natural reaction when thrown at someone, and the Tanto would be moments behind, ready to lock the Warden down and the needles would immediately follow up and capitalize from above and around the sides and back. Nozomi kept her focus on the entire battlefield, in case some of his men decided to interfere, although most of her attention was on the Warden himself, as he was her biggest concern.

She was actually a little excited to fight the Warden, to see how he stacked up in combat in comparison with Shimiko or Honiko. It would be an interesting one, she hoped. The average jailor here had fallen to her with ease, and Gin had seemed to provide some sort of challenge at the start, but he had quickly been overwhelmed, so she was still unsatisfied with the quality of fights she'd gotten here so far. If the Warden was a pushover as well, she would be horribly disappointed. If he wasn't though, then this would be one of those fights that she remembered forever.

-

-5 Awakened Spring Chant
-3 Water Heaven's Convergence
Stamina: 199/210
UA Chakra Drain cap: 42/105

Isobu: Lower's Suiton tech costs by 1 rank.

UA- Body Like Steel: Nozomi has been training and fighting for years, and her body has been well conditioned to pain. Unless caught off guard via sneak attack, whenever Nozomi is in a fight, her constitution is raised by 1. Freebie UA.

Strength: B -> B++ (ASC)
Constitution: B -> A (w/FUA)
Stamina: B+
Speed: A
Coordination: A -> S (ASC)
Intelligence: C
Perception: A

The Warden narrowed his eyes as Nozomi murdered Gin right then and there. The young man's corpse was then thrown towards  him, as an innumerable legion of needles moved into position. Tenma instantly activated Sage Mode, poofing the clone he had in Chiheisein's cell to add to his own natural chakra reserves. The Warden's reflexes were far faster than that of the needles and in an instant had moved from his location. Skirting around the needles before they could block off all available escape routes, in doing so he'd avoid the ragdolled Gin. He zig-zagged his way towards Nozomi ensuring that any previously thrown projectile thrown would miss. He threw three kunai at Nozomi aiming for her chest, head, and leg. Another two were thrown behind her, another two 30 meters in the air above. Charging chakra into his fist, the Warden would aim to collide with Nozomi at full force, using the power of Chakra Enhanced Strength to obliterate the girl with a single punch. If successful, there'd be little left to identify Honiko's favored disciple.


Perfect Sage Mode Activated
Chakra Enhanced Strength Stage 2

[Will do Chakra and Nature Chakra later if necessary]

Strength: B - > A -> S++
Constitution: B - > A
Stamina: B
Speed: A - > S
Coordination: A -> S
Intelligence: C
Perception: A -> S

Nozomi was glad she expected the Warden to be a very fast individual. It let her keep her guard up and not expect to be able to take him out with that little maneuver. On the contrary, she would have been disappointed if he hadn't been able to dodge away. He activated his sage mode, something she only recognized as such because of Honiko, and from there began his own counter assault. She let the water needles stick into the ground and disperse back into the water, only maintaining the Water Heaven's Convergence so that she could have the water later without hand signs if she needs it later.

As he started to zig zag towards Nozomi, her focus was more on his hands and feet than anything else, looking for the weaponry she was sure that he had. Kunai and shuriken were actually pretty dangerous if left ignored, and in the hands of someone skilled, they could be more deadly than Jutsu on occasion. As the weapons left his hand towards Nozomi, she'd already slightly twisted, shifting her form to the left, before twisting back, her body using the small twists without breaking line of sight to not only move herself out of the line of the kunai's, but also keep herself in more or less the same position and still facing Tenma.

Her focus had widened out and around, seeming to encompass the entire battlefield, using the wind, sound, her sight, hearing, sense of touch, the smells of everything all encompassing for the sole purpose of letting herself understand the battlefield and flow around it rather than simply seeing and reacting. Her body, as durable as it was, as strong as it was, was more fluid than anything else, loosening to allow her to shift without wasting thought, while she could still muster a mighty punch if she needed to. She utilized a mixture of Spring's Leaves and Springtime's Halt, maximizing her defense instead of her offense. She began to channel a little bit of chakra into her hands and feet, but didnt do anything further.

She was a counter attacker, rather than an aggressor. Winning by inches rather than a single blow. She knew how to take a hit to deliver one, and that was part of her plan. Having never lost her line of sight on the Warden, when the two came from 'behind' her, Nozomi had still kept her track on his arms, as regardless of his throwing speed, his blades could only come from a line that he had accessible. Like aiming an arrow, if you could read the trajectory before it launched, you'd know where it would go. She narrowly avoided the kunai again, and then noticed that he launched two kunai into the air.

The action was strikingly odd, and so it was a point of note, but then he was on her, and there was little time to think except for flowing. He launched his strike forward, and Nozomi did something one wouldn't expect. Moving towards the punch, she let loose the chakra she'd stored up, and immediately began to charge up Raiton chakra inside her left arm, enhancing her strength and would deliver a small shock to his system as well. The Thunderclap Drill was a decent ninjutsu technique that complimented her nintaijutsu style.

Her hand accelerated towards his arm from the inside, propelled by a burst of her signature petals, while her feet became almost coated in a layer of chakra that let off petals as well, but only upon moving, acting as a layer to skate her across the ground. Her arm would catch the inside of his with the back end of her own, at the elbow to begin cutting off the power of his strike before it quite reached her. His own strength was far above her own, something she had anticipated given the speed of his kunai, and so her own body began to shift backwards diagonally as she gave resistance to deflect his strike off to the side.

However, that had been the reason that she had activated her Misty Petal Step, so that in combination with her attempt to kill the power of his strike, her body would slide harmlessly backwards, and if a strike were to actually connect after she began sliding backwards, it would be negligible as she was moving away from it propelled by his own strike. A tiny trail of petals issued out from her feet, marking the area that she skated on.

Nozomi's left arm, while used to block the Warden's strike, kept them connected through the punch, which would move over her shoulder more than likely, given he didn't have the angle to connect a strike, and her body was easily moved currently. Her right hand balled up into a fist and she let loose a punch towards the Warden's jaw, as an upper cut meant to both target a weak spot of most people, while also drawing his attention towards her counter. Her left hand formed the seal of Confrontation, and she let loose more of the Raiton chakra she'd been storing up in a pulse around her.

Electromagnetic Repulse was a very short range technique that Nozomi had developed for defending against jutsu, but she knew that it was something she could use with some offensive application as well. However she was acutely aware that this was a more one off surprise tactic that she couldn't rely on too often, given that the entire set up to the counter was incredibly chakra intensive for her. If the Electromagnetic Repulse hit him, he'd feel like he was being lightly shoved away and moderately shocked, and while he could fight through it, the longer he stayed in the range of the technique, the harder that he would find himself being pushed backwards and the stronger the current's damage would be.

-

-5 Awakened Spring Chant
-3 Water Heaven's Convergence (maintained)
-1 Misty Petal Step (Skate)
-1 Misty Petal Shift (Propelling)
-3 Spring's Leaves
-3 Spring's Halt
-5 Thunderclap Drill
-10 Electromagnetic Repulse

Stamina: 168/210
UA Chakra Drain cap: 42/105

Isobu: Lower's Suiton tech costs by 1 rank.

Taijutsu Perk: Lower's Taijutsu tech costs by 1 rank.
Ninjutsu Perk: Lower's Raiton tech costs by 1 rank.

UA- Body Like Steel: Nozomi has been training and fighting for years, and her body has been well conditioned to pain. Unless caught off guard via sneak attack, whenever Nozomi is in a fight, her constitution is raised by 1. Freebie UA.

Strength: B -> B++ (ASC) -> S (TCD)
Constitution: B -> A (w/FUA) -> S (SH)
Stamina: B+
Speed: A
Coordination: A -> S (ASC) -> S++ (MPS)
Intelligence: C
Perception: A -> S (SL)

Important Offensive tech:

Spoiler:

The girl opted to try and out-fight him in close quarters. It proved to be a fatal error. The Warden was not only the most skilled hand-to-hand fighter in the Blood Prison, he was also a master tactician. She had opened weakly and he had every intention of punishing her for it. The man's body continued to draw in nature chakra from his antennae as his Kata abilities activated. The Slug Kata was unique among the trios. It granted its user the ability to secrete a dense aura around their limbs, essentially nullifying the effects of physical blows. Nozomi's strike was impressive but ultimately its effectiveness was dampened by the effects of Slug Kata. The blow was reduced back to her base level of strength which was woefully inadequate with respect to skirting the attack or generating enough force so as to accomplish physical movement. The punch would then likely hit its intended target before she could unleash her Electromagnetic Pulse. Fortunately, Nozomi was far tougher than the Warden anticipated and rather than encountering a mist of blood and organs, he'd send her soaring across the block (assuming it hit). The blow would leave a nasty bruise and would probably hurt like hell but otherwise it would not do any debilitating damage.

The ground would shake given the immense strength and power at play during this close quarters encounter. Several of the inmates had stopped charging forward and were now standing back and watching as were the guards. If the punch landed then Nozomi would be sent tumbling across the ground. The Slug Sage made a handsign and created a clone. He had received a minor shock from the Thunderclap but other than that he was alright. Nozomi was extremely dense and her constitution rivaled his own. He'd need to find out about nullifying whatever she was using to protect her body.

Slug Kata:
-2 Tiers to Nozomi's Str

Chakra Enchaned Strength Stage 2
Perfect Slug Sage Mode
Shadow Clone Jutsu

Stats:
Same (but coor debuffed by a minus)

[Will do Chakra and Nature Chakra later if necessary]

Nozomi's movements were perfect, her process had been planned out methodically. She fought people all the time, so her process had been well tuned. However, the Slug kata wasn't something that she had encountered before and that was apparently enough of a room for error that it through her off enough to take a strike. Luckily, Nozomi knew how to roll with a punch, and despite the monstrous strength that Tenma possessed with his Sage Mode she was able to take it well enough. Tenma certainly wasn't one of those people that she could toy around with. Even a few tiny mistakes on her part and he would be more than capable of taking her apart, same as Shimiko.

Unfortunately for her, she realized as the strike had connected, her shoulder moving backwards as she had loosened her muscles and shifted with the strike to mitigate damage as much as possible, Nozomi didn't have the luxury of just enjoying the fight. She had a job to complete, and enjoying the fight wasn't part of it. Letting her skate-like jutsu and the force from his strike carry her backwards, Nozomi's arm tingled with the force from his punch. She focused on keeping her balance rather than tumbling. She'd more than likely have a nice bruise where he struck, but luckily, Nozomi's body was durable and she wore high quality armor that stopped at her shoulders, but still covered them.

Having taken the hit though, Nozomi had built up a distance of 40 meters between her and Tenma. Grimacing, she shook her arm, and put her hand into a pouch as if to draw a weapon or item from it. If Tenma advanced towards her, she'd avoid him, but if there was no reason to, she wouldn't bother. "Alright, I admit that's impressive." she said, while her hand in the pouch had been making single handed seals. Bird, Ox, Ram, Snake, and Dragon. She finished the last sign, and pulled out her hand, finger pointed at the Warden and his clone. "Bang." A large serpent of Raiton energy blasted from Nozomi. The jutsu was an S rank technique, 10 meters wide, 100 meters long, and incredibly devastating to most physical objects. The thing was, if he avoided it, he would be allowing Nozomi to blast a large hole into his command castle, opening it up.

If he didn't, he would be taking a direct hit from one of Nozomi's most powerful jutsu. Sure, he could probably block it with a jutsu of some sort but Nozomi was fine with that. The lightning serpent dug a crater through the ground, carving a few feet down and around it, but the serpent did not care. It was Nozomi's strongest jutsu without her using any Bijuu related abilities, something she had developed so she could use Kirin, but something about the Blood Prison kept the thunder clouds from forming above them, at least so far. If the jutsu travelled as it usually would, and managed to create clouds, it would be a bonus, but Nozomi didn't expect it to.

-

-5 Awakened Spring Chant
-3 Water Heaven's Convergence (maintained)
-1 Misty Petal Step (Skate)
-3 Spring's Leaves
+10 since I didn't use Electromagnetic Repulse
-15 Viper's Wrath

Stamina: 151/210
UA Chakra Drain cap: 42/105

Isobu: Lower's Suiton tech costs by 1 rank.

Taijutsu Perk: Lower's Taijutsu tech costs by 1 rank.
Ninjutsu Perk: Lower's Raiton tech costs by 1 rank.

UA- Body Like Steel: Nozomi has been training and fighting for years, and her body has been well conditioned to pain. Unless caught off guard via sneak attack, whenever Nozomi is in a fight, her constitution is raised by 1. Freebie UA.
One Handed Seals: Nozomi has become so used to intertwining her taijutsu with her ninjutsu that she has learned how to cast jutsu with only one hand. All seals made one handed are produced at a tier less of coordination.

Strength: B -> B++ (ASC)
Constitution: B -> A (w/FUA)
Stamina: B+
Speed: A
Coordination: A -> S (ASC)
Intelligence: C
Perception: A -> S (SL)

Important offensive tech:

Spoiler:

In a strange twist, Nozomi accomplished both of her goals without having to worry too much about it. Not only did she manage to catch out the Warden with a surprise attack, but his lack of defensive actions blasted him through the wall of the castle, carrying him with the Viper's Wrath jutsu through the walls, and more than likely out, either through the other side, or through the roof after the serpent travelled 500 meters, launching itself upwards into the air. He might have managed to throw himself out of the path during its travel, but he took a direct hit from the attack, and was no longer an immediate concern of Nozomi's.

The serpent, for what it was worth, traveled through and up into the sky, rending through the castle. As it would reach the sky, the serpent would flash in a magnificent jolt of lightning energy, lighting up the entire sky around the prison, which up to that point had been the only part of the area that was cleared of any weather anomalies from Merryweather's abilities.

Depending on the amount of damage that the Warden received, and how his ability to keep the skies cleared of weather worked, the sky would either remain perfectly clear afterwards, or storm clouds would finally start to move into the prison's sphere of influence. Nozomi stood still for a moment, a sense of smugness about her plan having come off very well. It was as she had thought when they started to come through in the first place. The prison's defenses were extensive for sure, and it would keep out ordinary shinobi.

However, there was an army assembled against them. And among them was Nozomi. There wasn't a threat that could stand against her for very long to be found here. While they had slowed her down, Nozomi wasn't stopped at all, and so she found herself the first to penetrate into the castle. However, before she entered, she had one thing to take care of. She had promised the Warden and his men that if Chiheisen was handed over, she wouldn't kill any further, but she had also promised that she would kill all of them before destroying the prison.

Lowering her hand and dropping her fighting stance, Nozomi's posture and composure relaxed back to her usual non-chalant nature. There was a stunned silence as the men of the prison watched her blast away the Warden, and then realization seemed to dawn on the remainder of the men. Loyal as they were though, they weren't about to let Nozomi just advance through, and running away simply wasn't an option with the army of missing-nin and criminal scum surrounding the prison. They did the only thing that would make sense, and gave at least an effort to take down Nozomi.

The water she had previously used for the needles spun around her, blocking kunai, shuriken, punches, kicks, and the occasional jutsu as Nozomi stood still, monitoring the area, getting a count for the amount of guards around her. More importantly, while she stood protected by her water defense, not a single attack making it through, she funneled more water underground, letting it build up under each guard. Once she had done so, she brought the water up, engulfing the legs of the loyal guards, and the water kept rising up, until each person's head was engulfed in water. With a single crushing motion, each head experienced a large amount of pressure, and the battlefield was silent, engulfed in bursts of red water.

Nozomi released her jutsu finally, no longer controlling any of the water and the sounds of bodies dropping simultaneously, mixed with the sounds of falling water as the area around her experienced a small flood of blood, bodies, and water from her previous actions would reach the sounds of any who was listening. At this point though, it was just Nozomi. Making her way into the castle through the hole she'd blasted into it, Nozomi's main regret was that she had to end it so fast, and couldn't properly enjoy the fights.

-
Exit to Command Castle
[I'll calculate chakra if I have to, but it doesn't seem necessary to me currently]