Ch131. Yonbi

Roshi stared at the blue-haired woman in black garbs. Surprisingly, her attire had a hood that she decided not to use for whatever reason since she was clearly here to fight him if the slight chilling aura in the air was any indication. Roshi really couldn't understand. What he did understand, however, was his immediate need to get serious. The woman was standing there as if she was completely uninterested in him and yet, it was so obvious she was there for him.

'I can't read a damn thing from her body language!' Roshi mentally screamed. That was bad. That was a skill only the most skilled learned. The girl in front of him was bad news... was what the instincts that kept him alive for the past several decades and through two shinobi wars.

Alas, becoming old as shinobi was something that made Roshi quite arrogant.

"Whose way do you think you are crossing, kid?" He straightened up to add the additional inch to his already pitiful height and sneered. "I survived the God of Shinobi, Hiruzen Sarutobi, do you really think some pathetic upstart like you can block my way? Begone!" He said in a wizened old tone but the bluenette in front of him, much to his dismay, only tilted her head without even a single twitch in her expression.

"I am... that doesn't matter." Konan impassively stated. "Yes. I can block your way. In fact, I just did. You stopped, and I am blocking it." She said in a 'are you blind?' kind of even tone. "As for what I want... would you be amenable to parting with some of Yonbi's chakra? I can promise it will be quick and painful." She stated, her expression still ice cold but her piercing eyes staring straight through him.

Roshi's face darkened. 'Quick and painful? Part with Yonbi's chakra? This bitch wants to kill me? Ha! Not gonna happen!' He prepared for a battle.

'I hope this Iwakagure's pathetic imitation of Konoha's monkey has half-brain to comply. I am still not sure I can draw the chakra painlessly with me being completely talentless at using seals and the jinchuuriki chakra containment seal is quite complex.' Konan depressingly thought. It would be so much easier if the man relented and let her draw the small amount of chakra.

Neither noticed the misunderstanding between them growing.

"What do you need the chakra for anyway." Roshi tried to get a bit of information from his would-be assailant and Konan was impressed.

'So he can use brain? Hm, from what I saw of Iwa ninjas, that's a very rare ability, indeed!' She mentally praised. "Ah, we just want a sample. I doubt we have much of a use for it but having it wouldn't hurt. At worst, we can leave it to rot in storage."

'She wants to drain Yonbi's chakra from me, to kill me... without even knowing what to use the chakra for!? Rot in their storage!?' Call Roshi dramatic but that kind of death... he couldn't accept it!

The air became heavy.

"So this is just for some research subject not worth shit in your eyes?" He snarled, making Konan hum as she thought about it for ten seconds in complete silence.

"Pretty much..." She answered at last.

"Argh! Fuck you! I won't die!" Roshi had enough and charged at Konan.

'Die? Who wants to kill you?' Was the only thing Konan could think of before she had to engage in hand-to-hand combat with obviously more experienced ninja in such discipline.

The fight continued as the two exchanged blows, Konan keeping on the defensive. By now, she was very proficient in deflecting and parrying blows. Many broken bones during spars with Tsunade taught her exactly how to redirect the force of a much stronger punch or kick than what Roshi could currently dish out.

From Roshi's point of view, he was winning, and winning easily at that. Sure, he might not have landed even one proper hit but the woman being pushed back without even a chance to retaliate! She was trying to get out of the deadlock of his furious punches with no luck! He was winning!

All the while Konan was frowning. 'How the heck do I activate the chakra draining seal?' She pondered in frustration, failing to do so for the 20th time during their taijutsu fight. 'Why the heck was I sent to do this!?' Konan mentally angrily huffed. Rei had to know about how stupidly untalented she was with seals. There was no way she could use, much less create complex seals. The only kind of seal she knew and could do was simple storage one and various kinds of explosive seals and that was quite enough in Konan's opinion!

Unfortunately for Konna, this was one of these instances where Rei wanted to show her she needs to pull her weight and start learning more about seals. Her suffering was appreciated. It was all for the Greater Good of the Sealing Arts, after all.

The fight continued and no matter how it seemed that Roshi was winning, the mental pressure on him was raising when even after minutes he still didn't, no... couldn't land even a glancing, much less a solid hit on the petite woman who was still looking at him utterly unimpressed without even breathing hard.

"Gah! I've had enough! Lava Release: Lava Stream!" Roshi spat out a river of lava right into Konan's face and jumped back onto a nearby tree as the ground disappeared under the searing orange liquid.

He watched as Konan's body started sinking into the flowing lava, her expression was still impassive which impressed him a lot considering how much pain she must have been in.

The top of her head finally disappeared under the lava and Roshi released a sigh of relief. "Well, that was a nice warm-up." He grinned but his grin fell almost instantly as the spot where Konan sunk suddenly erupted in a fiery explosion and the bluenette just apathetically walked out of the slowly solidifying lava.

"What? How!?" Roshi exclaimed, not believing his lava couldn't hurt her! Not even her clothes were signed!

Konan just rolled her eyes and fed more of her mix of water and earth chakra into her paper, water chakra countering the fire attribute of lava and her earth chakra overpowering Roshi's own. 'As if lava attacks could faze me after training Mei...' She suddenly froze. 'On second thought, that's probably why Rei sent me against this man. His attacks are primarily Lava-based. Hmm~, food for thought later, perhaps.' Konan relaxed and looked at Roshi. "You are really unlucky, you know? No matter what kind of Lava attack you use, I can just brush it off." She said in an apathetic tone with a hint of mocking pity which made Roshi mad.

He gritted his teeth and decided. 'Getting into Lava Chakra Mode might take a bit of my lifespan but for this bitch... I am quite willing!' Yonbi's Chakra erupted around him, enwrapping him in dark orange bubbles mixed with a light orange aura as the temperature around him rose to searing heights. He was about to gloat, trying to unnerve his enemy when he froze, noticing a small and calm, barely present smile on his opponent's face.

And then... nothing.

Konan deadpanned, looking at the idiot who actually went into Bijuu Chakra Mode knowing there is somebody trying to get his chakra, meaning somebody knowing seals. Naturally, Rei would never send her against full Bijuu, not because he thought she couldn't take it but because he would loathe to endanger her. Konan's first order was to get a seal that would knock her opponent out the second he tried using Bijuu chakra in their fight.

"I see... Rei added something-something to his anti-bijuu seal." Konan slowly started giggling, watching as Roshi's body slowly morphed into a female. "So this is the added function of providing a month of despairing doom he was talking about." She calmly nodded, her lips still twitching upwards as she kneeled next to the newly-changed redhead. It took her about a half-hour of trying until she finally managed to siphon Yonbi's chakra... needless to say, by the time she was finished, Konan was utterly peeved and needed some much-deserved relief.

"I was told to leave a message... hmm~." Konan's eyes gleefully glinted in a mischievous light that didn't spell anything good for poor Roshi.

Poor lad, ahem, gal, gained a new tattoo right across her chest saying...

'Yozora was here.'

For the following month, Roshi hid in a forest and refused to show his new feminine charm due to shame. To his complete delight, after a month he finally changed back into being male but something stayed the same. For some reason, his female self was unlocked and Roshi felt weird and...

Yozora... was still there.

Until the end of his days, Roshi never went to public baths anymore.