An Orchestrated Coup [Exemplary]

[Kakashi Hatake]

“Windforge,” the brutish woman snarled, her chest heaving with rage. Despite her ire she spoke the words as if they brought her great amusement. Her filthy fingers twirled the gnarled quarterstaff she had conjured for a moment. “I’ve been expecting you.”

The noble elf made no reply, his steely eyes peering downward at the pair of shinobi. He bore a pair of ornate, polished daggers akimbo, crimson mist radiating from their lustrous surface and trailing into nothingness. The midday sky was visible behind him, the vibrant sunlight nearly obscuring his stoic face. “Minato. Kakashi.” He recited the names as if practiced. “Thank you.”

“For?” Minato replied, slightly out of breath. He didn’t wait for a reply, glancing away from the Sin'dorei to keep the battle-hungry orc in his sights. 

“Elf scum,” the Makhel woman snarled, gripping her staff tightly. The splintery implement began to glow with sinister light, leaving her opponents mere moments to wonder before a bolt of chaotic energy sprang from the tip, rocketing toward the newcomer.

Not taking his eyes from the two ninjas, Galan leapt nimbly into the air, somersaulting forward to land beside his comrades just as the perch upon which he once stood was blown to rubble. A slough of expletives could be heard from the other end of the arena as he continued to ignore the treacherous shapeshifter. “For coming here. There is no telling what she could have accomplished had she completed her ritual. It seems you arrived with mere moments to spare.”

Kakashi instantly recalled his notes from earlier, the rusty smears of blood still visible through the rubble that had blanketed the chamber following the explosion. “That does explain the decor.”

“I AM SPEAKING,” a familiar voice boomed from across the chamber. This time they would not be allowed the luxury of spectating; the raging orsimer was bringing the fight to them. With a flick of her wrist her staff extended, a darkened, jagged blade tearing itself free like a butterfly from a chrysalis. No sooner had she readied her weapon than she took off full-tilt toward them, her eyes white-hot coals. 

Minato had been the first to react, his brow furrowing as he sprang into action. The Kage’s haori billowed behind him as his superior speed drove him toward his goal. Kakashi watched as his mentor brought his kunai to bear, catching the head of the orc’s glaive one-handed between its prongs. His opponent could gawk at the man’s strength for an instant before he drew back his free hand, at once summoning a miniature typhoon of chakra and slamming the orb into the matriarch’s gut. Kakashi watched spittle spray from the ‘woman’s mouth as she doubled over in pain, pure stoic determination present in his mentor’s eyes. That look. 

“GRAH!” the warmaiden cried out, leaping backward to avoid an almost imperceptibly fast slash of the Kage’s blade. Thinking quickly, the orc brought her halberd down hard against the rough floor, sundering the stone and sending a fissure crawling rapidly toward the observing combatants. 

“Kakashi!” Minato called, breaking his focus to ensure his companion’s safety. The silver-haired jonin quickly sprang to his left, Galan mirroring the maneuver in the other direction. The fault continued until it reached the wall, still more rubble raining from above as the granite wall was rent by the seismic anomaly. Despite the disturbance, the men stood unharmed. With his comrades’ safety momentarily secured, Minato turned his attention back toward his opponent. His amphibian-esque eyes narrowed as he caught sight of his foe, now again murmuring some long-forgotten tongue.

“Down!” Galan roared, his composure breaking as he vanished from his position. A moment later he appeared beside the chanting brute, raising his blade just as dark cracks tore their way down the Makhel’s flesh. Before his blade could find purchase he was thrown violently backward, a second pair of arms tearing their war free of her armor. Inky black ichor dribbled onto the rubble as she let loose a menacing roar.

The scarecrow found his nerve as Minato at once dove back into the fray. Kakashi soon appeared by the blonde shinobi’s side, a fine haze emanating from his flushed skin. They could not spare the moment to ensure Galan’s safety; this was their moment to strike. The super-powered duo clashed with the quad-armed orsimer, each burying their blade of choice in the fiend’s bloodied flesh. The Makhel clanswoman cried out in agony, lashing out in every direction with her tetrad of limbs. Kakashi was forced to stumble backward as balled fists barely missed his noggin. Before he could raise his chokuto to parry an incoming strike from the savage glaive, another of the foe’s many arms caught him across the chest, knocking the wind from his lungs as he was tossed back some ten meters in the direction they’d came. Diaphragm spasming as he attempted to force air back into his deflated lungs, Kakashi glanced up in horror to see Minato caught in the orc’s grasp, now lifted into the air by his neck.

“Pathetic,” the Orc spat, voice slightly distorted. White-hot light burned beneath her cracked skin, her eyes now nothing but blinding beacons within their sockets. She pulled back one of her free arms, parrying an incoming assault from the might Galan. Without paying the elf a second thought, the fiend’s free hand materialized a demonic-looking shortsword, it’s wide edge managing to parry his gleaming daggers. “All of you.” Her voice seemed almost calm as she caught the elf by the wrist, lifting him from the earth only to slam him down once again.

Kakashi quickly brought his hands before him, rapidly forming hand signs as he got shakily to his feet. On the final seal he allowed his right hand to drop, fingers curling around an invisible orb. His free hand wrapped quickly around his wrist, steadying it as lightning began to crackle down his forearm. The scarecrow’s determination began to ebb as the bestial orc let out a sinister laugh, her extra limbs taking hold of each of Minato’s wrists. At his distance, he’d never make it. The orc’s remaining arm hefted the bardiche, raising it high over the head of the pinned shinobi. In that moment, Kakashi caught sight of the Hiraishin kunai, still clutched tightly in his mentor’s hand. Yes.

In an instant the sharingan-wielder vanished from sight, only to appear between the Kage and his captor. A smile spread across Minato’s face as Kakashi spun his arm up in a high arc, the chorus of chirping birds giving way to a symphony of screeching falcons as the Raikiri separated the monstrosity from her prey, cleaving the trio of arms at the elbows. 

“Flying Raijin’s Lightning Blade!”