Ch280. Rei vs Toneri 3

Toneri was not getting away unscathed from his counter-attack either. After all, his explosive yellow ball exploded quite close to his body as well. He, however, had the advantage of having his body enhanced by the chakra mode and as such, he only suffered some superficial scratches and slightly burnt skin.

Pulling Rei's torn forearm away from his face, Toneri gave it a disdainful sneer before he threw it to the side as if he was just discarding trash.

Rei stood up and looked at the handless arm he now sported, getting amused at the small spark of superiority that entered Toneri's gaze when he noticed where Rei was looking. Then again, Rei was not here to entertain him. He instantly used nature energy in tandem with Blackie's chakra to stimulate his cell growth, regrowing his forearm and hand at a visible pace.

It was kind of a weaker form of a knock-off from what Tsunade was capable of doing but after numerous spars with the said woman, it was of utmost necessity to develop a skill like this.

Rei lifted his gaze back towards Toneri, flexing his new forearm, "I told you it will take a lot more than that." He said, making Toneri frown.

"We will see about that." Toneri quietly said, getting ready for an attack.

Rei instantly reacted, readying himself too but what he didn't expect was puppets bursting from the ground around him, flooding him with their bodies in an attempt to obstruct his movements as they grabbed his various body parts.

Not for the first time during the battle, Rei inwardly wondered how exactly could he have been sneaked upon despite his sensing capabilities. He almost understood it by now and was pretty sure it had to do with Toneri's projection-like Jutsu.

'I still don't know if he can project the presence of his puppets somewhere away, which would be awesome if applied correctly, or if he is simply projecting a feeling that nothing is trying to sneak up on me, which... wouldn't be too shabby either.' Rei thought.

Clearly, Toneri was using his Jutsu, they simply were of the more subtle variety.

Rei was about to use a Jutsu to get rid of the puppets restraining his movement but Toneri was a step ahead and flashed near him, punching him in the gut which sent Rei flying back despite the puppets rooting him in the place. The punch was quite powerful too, and the puppets anchoring him to the ground actually got ripped in half upon impact. Not that it prevented their remaining parts from clinging to Rei's body with all they got.

Rei's body bounced a few times on the ground, every time that happened, Rei made sure to twist his body at a right angle so some of the puppets were flung away from him. When the momentum from Toneri's punch was almost gone, Rei flipped his body mid-air, landing on his feet and sliding back a bit.

Toneri was again right there, trying to maintain his current advantage and keep Rei out of his rhythm. His fist aimed at Rei's gut again, Toneri clearly wanted to strike the exact same spot as before.

Rei, however, wasn't idle either and managed to use his right foot to land a kick to Toneri's unguarded knee, unbalancing him enough that his punch to the gut went off its intended path and only briefly glanced Rei's hip.

Rei instantly followed up with an elbow to the face, breaking Toneri's nose and dazing him while a small blade made of lightning chakra formed on his other hand. He promptly jerked his right side of the body backward, propelling his left hand forward, aiming it alongside the lightning chakra blade at Toneri's chest.

And for the second time during the battle, Rei was stumped when Toneri's form simply disappeared the second he almost got him. Instead of feeling flesh, blood, and burnt organs, all Rei felt on his hand was nothing.

Toneri yet again used his projection to somehow fool him.

Despite himself, Rei couldn't help but feel a grudging respect for that. Evading a killing blow two times in a row was something else.

'At least, I got to know he can't use the projection during attacking. If he could, he would have used it at the start when I tried to exchange a lethal blow for a lethal blow with him.' Rei inwardly nodded to himself, putting the information he collected about the technique together.

He was also looking around, trying to spot Toneri but before he managed to do that, another batch of puppets burst from the ground, showing that Toneri was trying to employ the same tactics as before. This time, however, Rei was expecting it and before the puppets could yet again engulf him, a shockwave spread from his body, smashing them to such small pieces that puppets or not, they were no longer getting back up.

'Earth Release: Magnetic Push.' Rei thought. He didn't need to be able to sense the attacks. Expecting it was enough for him to deal with it. But... 'I finally sensed a spark of... something as the puppets appeared.' He excitedly realized and indeed, it was very brief but his senses gave him an inkling where Toneri was hiding.

Looking straight ahead, Rei assumed a relaxed stance while lifting his eyebrow in an expecting manner as he asked, "Are you quite done yet?" He might not have been able to see him but he knew Toneri was right there, in front of him.

The battlefield stilled.

Toneri appeared in the spot Rei suspected him to be at and looked at Rei with a weird expression, not expecting to be seen since he was projecting himself inside of the castle. For some reason, his second assault was a complete failure. Rei was not caught off-guard for the second time and as such, Toneri couldn't follow up the puppet attack with his taijutsu. He really had a hard time trying to understand what exactly happened there but...

"So be it." Toneri sighed. "Never in my worst dream would I think a ninja from Elemental Nations could force me to this state. You should be flattered that you made me do," He raised his hand with a grave expression, his palm facing Rei as he pulsed his chakra. "this!"

... Nothing happened.

Rei smiled at Toneri, sensing where his chakra went. "If you are looking to activate the nice devices of mass destruction inside of the castle, you are so shit out of luck." He laughed.

While he was entertaining Toneri, Rei's clones already snuck inside of the castle and sealed away both the Tenseigan ball thingy that was supposed to be some kind of mass destruction weapon and the activator for the accumulated chakra in the moon. Toneri would no longer be able to use either of them and watching his disgruntled expression was simply golden for Rei.

After all, there was a reason why he didn't go all out right from the start...