Ch281. Rei vs Toneri 4

Toneri looked at his hand, his mind blanking out from not understanding why nothing was happening after he pulsed his chakra. It was only when he saw Rei's smug face did he understand what had exactly gone wrong.

"What did you do?" He asked in a low accusing tone full of restrained anger.

"I privatized your possessions. No need to thank me for taking your burden away." Rei nonchalantly quipped.

"Privatized? ... You," Toneri realized what Rei meant and his expression twisted, "You thief! Return it!" He shouted, his anger overcoming his reason. "Return the legacy of my ancestors, you filthy robber! For this, I am going to kill you in the most painful way possible! Return i-!"

Toneri completely lost his vigilance at that moment and Rei instantly capitalized on it. For the first time during their fight, he enhanced his body with chakra and Toneri couldn't possibly react in time with his mind flooded with impotent rage as Rei slugged him right in the face, sending his body flying upward and crashing right through the roof of the excavated vast place where the moon palace was built.

For that single punch, Rei held nothing back and used even Blackie's chakra to give it an extra oomph, which ensured Toneri was blasted right through the hard rock bed all the way to the surface of the moon.

Fortunately for Toneri, his special chakra mode made such a blow just a slight annoyance. He was bruised quite a lot but nothing was broken or damaged enough to get him out of commission. Rei could only marvel at the hardness of the guy's body. This was the very first time he got a glimpse at the ability of the Otsutsuki bloodline and it had to be said, Rei was definitely impressed. The guy in front of him was far from 'pure' Otsutsuki, yet, the innate strength of his chakra was incredible.

This only made Rei deadset on following his previous decision of hiding from the Otsutsuki clan. His planet was simply not ready to face them if even a mutt like Toneri was capable of so much.

Rei followed Toneri to the surface, glad the real battle would be fought far away from the underground castle. From the chakra levels Rei felt from Toneri, he knew the guy was so far just fooling around at best. His arrogance simply didn't let him see that he had to go all out from the start.

Rei didn't fight to the fullest either as in his opinion, Toneri was not really a skilled opponent. He was just an overpowered child who never faced someone who could match him and was always told he is special. He was just your everyday spoiled brat. Rei really couldn't muster the will to go all out from the start against him.

When Rei finally got to the surface, he found Toneri already prepared for the continuation of their battle. His anger seemed to cease but Rei had enough training in reading people to know Toneri was still seething deep inside. The punch just made him see that blind anger would not solve anything.

Toneri's chakra pulsed to heights that even Rei's eyebrow rose at the absurdity he was feeling. It was as if the guy's chakra reserves expanded thrice over. An impossibility in itself according to the current common sense Rei was using.

Then again, these things usually needed frequent updates and adjustments in the ninja world.

"I've had enough of this." Toneri proclaimed and as quick as his chakra surged, it again dropped and started seeping into the ground.

Rei instantly prepared to deal with strong large-scale Earth-based ninjutsu but when even twenty seconds later nothing happened, he had no idea what was going on. Toneri didn't move, he just watched Rei, waiting for him to do something in complete calmness.

Rei knew his opponent did something but he had no clue what. 'This projection technique of his is starting to be a real pain in the ass.' He thought.

Being able to dodge attacks with it, fool chakra sensing, and to some extent, even nature sensing was a massive advantage but doing that for techniques?

Rei was just glad Toneri didn't yet realize what a powerful tool he had, otherwise he really just might be forced to take the kid seriously in this fight.

This time, Rei was at a disadvantage. He knew that waiting would be of no benefit to him, so after observing for twenty seconds and getting no conclusion, Rei decided to attack.

He stepped forward in preparation to lunge at his opponent...

But his would-be attack instantly ceased as the ground shifted underneath him as if it was liquid. It engulfed his right leg and squeezed... only his chakra enhancement prevented his limb from being torn away.

Rei quickly realized what happened. It was not that Rei couldn't find the area of effect of Toneri's Jutsu. He felt nothing out of the ordinary because the entire vast area they were in was already under Toneri's influence when he checked for the first time. With the passive cloaking Toneri's chakra possessed, it simply seemed nothing special was going on despite him soaking the ground in his chakra.

Cursing, Rei used a surge of his lightning elemental chakra in his right leg to break through the rock trapping it, and leaped backward, pushing some of his chakra into the ground below him to somewhat mitigate Toneri's influence over that area.

Rei could feel the bones in his right leg creaking and winced. The rock of the moon was obviously a lot harder and tougher than the one on Earth. Being bathed in the residue of Kaguya's chakra would do that to a planet. This brought a nasty disadvantage for Rei though. He was a lightning element user, which was supposedly weak against earth element, and the 'earth' on the moon was so damn hard he had to increase the potency of his chakra if he wanted to even scratch it.

His previous surge into his right leg was supposed to utterly obliterate the ground around him, creating a crater, yet, it was only barely enough to free his leg from its bindings.

Rei quickly realized that his strongest element was basically next to useless against his newly determined opponent.

Toneri calmly watched, no longer smug, as Rei got out of his initial attack and secured some ground for himself. Toneri no longer played around, understanding his opponent was someone tough. Puppets would be of no use for him in this fight, not even as a momentary distraction.

It was time to start using the real Jutsu...

Rei didn't have a lot of time to be idle. The ground around him decided to mercilessly attack him, creating spikes, tendrils, and sometimes even hurling itself at him in a mud-like substance that looked to be semi-solid enough to carry quite a lot of blunt force.

Rei weaved through it all, evading attack after attack while also feeding the ground under himself with his chakra, fighting for dominance over the ground with each step.

For a whole ten minutes, Rei was on the run, evading Toneri's attacks that tried to flood him in waves of rock while he tried to find a weakness to this technique. Eventually, Rei indeed found it and started to seep his water element chakra into the ground in a way that prevented Toneri from instantly reclaiming his control over it. This slowed the pace of his attacks a lot, making the deadly dance of offense and evasion almost a breeze for Rei.

Toneri naturally realized this flaw of his strategy and decided to change his plan.

The attack from the 'liquid' ground ceased, giving Rei room to breathe for a moment. That didn't last long, however, as the ground behind Toneri shifted, starting to rise in three piles towards the black sky of the moon, not stopping until three rock golems the size of bijuu stood in front of Rei, whose brain momentarily halted.

"You gotta be kidding me." He muttered. 'This might really require Blackie's help, after all...'