If he wants a fight, well now he's got one

[joinmyreunion]

The Palace felt quiet. A number of the Arrancar were out on a mission with Aizen; only the weak, or the unpredictable, had been made to stay behind, but that number had not, apparently, included Grimmjow. Kadaj and Tayuya had been left to their own devices without him and Yylfordt around.

Three days ago, they'd had a quiet conversation. Kadaj hadn't done much talking, just nodded, and then later in the day had crept into the laboratories down the wing of the Palace that Orochimaru had made his own. Kadaj used to go down there a lot, three years ago. He'd stopped just after the Arrancar arrived. He'd fallen out with Orochimaru once and for all shortly after that.

He emerged from the labs a couple of hours later, showered, and then went into the underground training facility. He didn't come up again for a couple of days, although there weren't really people around to notice, except Tayuya, who went down to check on him a few times.

He'd slept when he came back up, and then went to look for Nnoitra, one of the Arrancar who had been judged too unpredictable to head off to a freshly made Necrohol. He found him in the kitchen.

Kadaj made his way over; an unusual intent certainty in his expression, and spoke quietly. "Want to let off some steam?" His manner was all wrong to be an invitation to spar, but that was what it sounded like, at first.

Comments

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra was still annoyed at being left behind. The mission itself ... he didn't care. They could do whatever they wanted, good or bad, to any city in the world and he wouldn't ever find it in himself to give even half a toss about it. He just hated being told to hang back. To be told that he wasn't the Arrancar for the job when other, lesser members were taken. It made his blood boil.

He couldn't help but feel like he was missing out on something by being at the palace when almost everyone else of note was out there, doing their job and probably getting some action in the field. Denied the opportunity to go along on the first real mission they'd undertaken, he had taken to lurking around the kitchen more than usual. Nevertheless, he was steadily coming to terms with his current fate, even if he wasn't accepting it.

He looked up when Kadaj entered the room. The whole palace had been quiet since the majority of Aizen's subordinates had left and it was something of note whenever anybody walked in. Kadaj ... wasn't that interesting. The two had little between them. They rarely communicated and, when they did, it was edged with a certain amount of latent antagonism thanks to outside factors.

He did not expect to be addressed.

He fixed Kadaj with his single eye when he spoke, gauging the seriousness of his question. It did sound like an invitation to spar, but there was something off about the question, even aside from the fact that he had never approached him in that capacity before nor shown any interest whatsoever in sparring with him in the past. It was something about the tone and the clandestinely quiet way in which he made the offer that made him suspicious. Nnoitra, contrary to popular belief, was not stupid. He didn't miss the subtle lack of Kadaj's trademark brattish arrogance.

All the same, he was feeling somewhat ... caged. "Yeah," he said abrasively, his half-covered brow creased halfway between a question and a scowl.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj was wary of saying too much to anyone. Gods knew if any of the other clan members got wind of what Kadaj was planning they'd put a stop to it, with one possible exception that was not a sure enough thing for Kadaj to want to risk it. Still, Nnoitra was another matter, because where this was concerned, he and Nnoitra had common ground.

"There's gonna be a fight," Kadaj said, and bared his teeth in disgust as he admitted, "but I won't be able to win on my own." That stung to admit. Kadaj's strength had grown considerably in the past few years, but he was still nowhere near the level he needed to be for this.

"It's a fight you won't want to miss," he promised, with a trace of unhinged sadism, "so I'm making an offer."

[prayingmantis]

"So," Nnoitra began, his tone uncharacteristically thoughtful. He wasn't quite able to resist savouring the moment that a full member of the Clan needed him to win a fight. "You need my help."

The smile that resulted from that little revelation displayed a lot of eerily perfect teeth. He tilted his chin up and inclined his head, the movement positively oozing egotism. He didn't take his eye off him, hardly having to look up even though he was sitting and Kadaj was not.

He was right, though. It was a fight he didn't want to miss. He didn't even know who it was against and he didn't want to miss it. That was just who Nnoitra was.

"Who're we fighting?" 'We', not 'you'. He'd already decided his answer, even if he hadn't said it directly. Not that there was ever any doubt as to what it would be.

[joinmyreunion]

The 'we' was reassuring, but Nnoitra wasn't a complicated person, especially where fights were concerned, and it wasn't hard to find the right buttons if you wanted him to fight someone.

"Orochimaru," Kadaj answered, his voice soft and his pupils thin slits, gauging the reaction.

There were so, so many reasons to have this fight, and a couple of really important ones for having it now instead of waiting. Kadaj wasn't sure how many of those reasons he'd have to explain, if any at all.

[prayingmantis]

Orochimaru.

Nnoitra's eye went wide when he said that name. At the same time, the grin abruptly dropped from his face.

He sat frozen for a moment, staring at him in shock. He tried to work out whether he had actually heard what he thought he had and gauge the likelihood of Kadaj winding him up.

No. He was too quiet and calculating for that. This was serious. His hand clenched into a fist on the table in front of him. Aizen wasn't here. The vast majority of the other Arrancar were out of the Palace. Not only that, but a good number of the resident members of Khamja were also away for their own reasons. There was no better time. Kadaj had been planning this. He'd picked his moment well.

Nnoitra, for the first time since the Midgar mission had been announced, stopped being angry about being left behind.

His teeth became visible again, but it wasn't in amusement this time. He raised one side of his upper lip in a silent snarl as he narrowed his eye back to its characteristic slit.

"Now?" His voice was low. It sounded rougher than usual -- his throat had gone dry. He'd waited so long for this chance and he wasn't about to let it get away from him.

[joinmyreunion]

"Yeah," Kadaj answered, sounding like he was looking forward to it himself, for so, so many reasons. "We need to get him alone, and now's our best chance. Are you up for it?"

Of course he was. Kadaj was as ready as Nnoitra, and not just because time was running short.

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra stood up without another word. He looked down at Kadaj, half-visible eyebrow cocked and his expression almost unchanged.

"I've waited a long time for the chance to get even with that bastard," he growled, his voice like a saw. "Like hell am I gonna miss this."

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj smirked a little, and nodded just the once to acknowledge what Nnoitra said. He knew the feeling all too well, and was a little relieved that he didn't have to tell Nnoitra any details.

Nnoitra didn't seem to need them.

"I'm going to bring him to the training facility in the basement," Kadaj said. "You can wait there, or come down after. It's up to you."

They'd need the space to fight, and starting a fight against Orochimaru in his own labs was a bad idea, not least because Kimimaro pretty much lived there, and no matter how sick that guy was, he'd almost certainly drag his sorry corpse in waiting off the table to fight for Orochimaru. Kadaj didn't want to face off against Kimimaro as well, and he didn't want to fight Orochimaru on his home turf, where the environment was his own. The training facility was more neutral.

It would also be much, much more difficult for anyone else still hovering in the palace to notice anything going on, and they could do without the interruptions. Even if the interruptions weren't members of the Sound Five.

He didn't want Tayuya to have any idea of what he was going to do. He hadn't told her about this part of his plan. He'd only told her he was going to leave for a while, soon.

It'd take her a long time to forgive him for this, no matter how things turned out.

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra nodded. The training facility was ideal. Neither side had the home advantage and noise was expected from there. It wouldn't seem out of the ordinary, even if someone heard the sound of fighting. Bouts, even just sparring, rarely got an audience. They should go undisturbed.

Even so, he knew which option he was going with. "He sees me in there when he walks in and he'll know it's an ambush." Orochimaru wasn't stupid. "Get him there. I'll follow."

Nnoitra didn't care about the Sound Five. He had no personal ties to them. He didn't even think about Kadaj's relationship with Tayuya. He wouldn't feel a shred of guilt about what they hoped to achieve.

[joinmyreunion]

He'd known Orochimaru would come.

Going down into the labs, talking to him, had left Kadaj feeling ill. He covered it well, biting down his discomfort as he made his offer to Orochimaru.

One meeting, one chance, gauge his power, take the readings, analyse his abilities. Kadaj would co-operate this one last time, on the condition that Orochimaru stopped trying to make Tayuya lure him down to the labs.

Orochimaru had consented, and then Kadaj had added, "Not here. I'm not being stuck down here with you for two hours."

Orochimaru had agreed to that, as well, eventually, and Kadaj led him to the training facility, making sure to stay out of touching range. Orochimaru probably knew something was going on, possibly even suspected that Kadaj had some fool notion of fighting him, but Kadaj didn't consider that to be a problem.

The element of surprise didn't lie in the fact that there was going to be a fight; it lay in the methods in the fight.

[snakeface]

Kadaj's appearance in the labs hadn't been much of a surprise, although his offering a deal had been. Orochimaru accepted it, with a slight smirk, and then when Kadaj had made further stipulations had agreed to that as well.

The boy was up to something, and Orochimaru was in the mood to indulge him. He'd become very self assured, lately, over-confident, even, with some of the other members, and Orochimaru was perfectly placed to bring him crashing back to earth.

It would be helpful in the long run, as well as the short run. Breaking that confidence again would make him easier to work.

He didn't make much use of the training facility, personally; he had his own facilities, better suited to the sort of abilities he preferred to encourage, but he had been there before. It was a large, open space, and probably made Kadaj feel better about being in his presence.

"So, Kadaj," he said, saying the name as if caressing it, "why don't we begin?"

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra, true to his word, hung back. He followed Kadaj's reiatsu as he moved through the palace. He did this by pressing his hand to the floor and using that as a conduit through which to feel his chakra. A unique method, but nevertheless useful. It was accurate, silent, lacked a reiatsu signature of his own and left him alert. Moreso than that, it prevented him crashing that particular party prematurely.

He tracked Kadaj to the training area. He gave it a moment or two and then made his way down there, neither weapon nor mask fragment yet manifested.

He stood in the doorway when he reached the 'room'. It wasn't long before his neutral expression gave way to a smirk.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj didn't even lift his eyes when Nnoitra came in, not wanting to give too much away, and releasing his own reiatsu so it flared out, though not quite to full power.

He never did that inside the palace, normally. There were only a few people who lived there who had ever felt it let loose, especially recently. Orochimaru had last felt it just over two years ago, and Kadaj knew there'd been an increase, but he didn't want to reveal how much, yet.

He drew Souba, slowly, not making any sudden movements, wanting to make it seem like things were pretty much as Orochimaru was going to expect; maybe Kadaj would try his luck, but he'd be put down again quickly. That's what he wanted Orochimaru to expect. "I have some new abilities," he said. "I suppose you'll want to see them?"

[snakeface]

Kadaj had grown stronger in the last couple of years, but, unless Orochimaru had misjudged him, he was still holding back. The boy never had been stupid, just impulsive and easily led.

"Naturally," Orochimaru answered, waiting for an incoming attack. It wouldn't be the first time; back when Kadaj had been new in the palace he'd suffered a severe case of violent overconfidence, and had been put down swiftly. Then, with a little grooming, he'd become loyal, and then....

Then other people had got involved and undone a lot of careful work, but it was not unsalvageable.

"But first," he said, silkily, tongue wicking out with a quick flicker that he knew would bring back memories, "why don't you stop holding back?"

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra's reiatsu was suppressed as much as he could manage. He didn't generally go to that extreme -- his chakra was a constant feeling in the Palace, part of the ambient.

He didn't let it go when Kadaj flared his own, allowing it to effectively mask his presence. Good. That gave him the element of surprise. Usually, he would have rushed in with a wordless shout and his weapon glinting as he swung for the first blow, but Orochimaru was powerful and dangerous and he knew as well as Kadaj that they'd likely only get one shot.

If they failed, they'd both be pulled up in front of the present members of Clan Khamja and while Kadaj might get away with it on the technicality that death by another member is an occupational hazard, he would not.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj narrowed an eye, and the spiritual pressure increased further. He shifted his grip on his sword, and altered his stance slightly.

If he tried to hit Orochimaru with geostigma now, the creep would be expecting the attack. Perhaps not that exact attack, but he was on his guard already. Kadaj could see it in the subtle way Orochimaru held himself ready to spring, ready to evade and counter in a heartbeat, and overpower Kadaj.

Kadaj gave away another subtle clue, shifting his foot, showing he was going to move with that one just before he did, flying forward in an attack that he hoped to hell Orochimaru was expecting.

[snakeface]

Orochimaru smirked faintly, sidestepping the incoming attack, but not a bit disappointed. He deflected the incoming sword with a firm kunai, gripped Kadaj's other arm, and pulled him in too close to strike with that silly zanpakutou, drawing the kunai up to Kadaj's throat, and stopping just short of slicing it open.

He smirked with delight as Kadaj's eyes went wide, and leaned in to whisper, intimately, "You've improved, but you're not disciplined enough to defeat me that way, Kadaj."

He felt the sword drop, resting harmlessly against his leg.

"Geostigma."

He moved away from that sword quickly, letting go of Kadaj's arm, but it was already too late, and the sickly feeling of a whole host of powerful status effects shot through him and he staggered.

"Ungrateful whelp," Orochimaru hissed, angrily. He swerved out of the way of Kadaj's answering slash with his sword, and tutted to himself.

He'd have to put Kadaj down properly.

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra, in the second flare of reiatsu from Kadaj, wordlessly went to Shikai ... or the Arrancar approximation of such. He needed no command -- he simply had to access the power of his implanted Hollow. He did this under the blanket of Kadaj's second power surge, manifesting his patch-hidden mask fragment and double crescent moon axe while the chance of detection was lower.

He continued to mute both his and Santa Teresa's chakra, keeping both fairly low-key as he watched the ensuing scuffle between Kadaj and Orochimaru. Kadaj had used something on him, some Shikai ability judging by the command he'd used, and Orochimaru was suffering and pissed off.

Good. Anger made an opponent stupid. Nnoitra knew this well -- it ususally hindered him -- but in this instance the tables would be turned. He chose the pause following Orochimaru's avoidance of Kadaj's strike to intervene and used Sonido to get directly behind his hated uncle.

Once there, he dropped all pretences and lifted the limiter he had on his unpleasant mixed-source chakra all at once. It was enough to knock almost anyone sick for a moment and, looking at Orochimaru's state once he was close enough, he didn't need much help.

[snakeface]

Orochimaru scowled at Kadaj, already forming the hand signs required to perform one of his trademark techniques. Black ooze crept down his leg, staining his clothes, and it was clear the sapping effect of Kadaj's attack was making him suffer.

All of a sudden, reiatsu like a lead weight hit, eclipsing Kadaj's, and Orochimaru's eyes went wide. He knew that reiatsu well.

With an effort, he sprang out of the way, using his chakra to boost the power of the jump, taking himself to a spot where he could see both of them.

Nnoitra, and Kadaj.

"So, it comes to this after all," he said. "How pitiful."

They were serious, extremely so to have teamed up in such a way, but despite his current relative weakness, and whatever Kadaj had used, a nasty kido based move, from the appearance of it, they weren't a match for him.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj adjusted his hold on Souba as Orochimaru leapt away. He still had it in him to jump like a flea, but it was nice in some heart-healing way to see the vile bastard flit with a look of surprise on his face.

The force of Nnoitra's reiatsu washing over him made Kadaj have to brace against it as well, and he'd known it was coming. It must have really freaked Orochimaru out to suddenly have that right on top of him.

"Aren't you having fun?" Kadaj asked, mocking in his tone. "This is what you wanted, isn't it? Or am I too early?"

Kadaj flew at him, using the same trick as Orochimaru to propel himself forward, meeting in a clash of sword against kunai again, and instantly swinging with a kick that Orochimaru had to duck.

Every step Orochimaru took left behind a trail of thick black sludge. He was playing through the pain; Kadaj knew it. Let it carry on, keep him moving, don't let him to try to relieve it, let it wear him down, and then kill the bastard once and for all.

[prayingmantis]

Pitiful. Hah! He was the one leaking black ichor and he was calling them pitiful? It really was too much.

He held his weapon ready and watched the proceedings until he saw an opening. Usually he wouldn't care about injuring a so-called ally, but they needed to be a team, if not necessarily a cohesive one, to win this fight. This wasn't a battle to prove himself the strongest, this was a long overdue extermination. Most of the reason he had signed up for the Arrancar Project was for this and he was damned if he was going to let the chance slip by him by playing foolishly.

When Orochimaru got away from Kadaj's attack he took the opportunity to hurl Santa Teresa at him with monstrous force.

"You think you have a chance?" He snarled as he threw it, his lips twisted into a grin as he revelled in Orochimaru's discomfort. It was a miss -- it was a guaranteed miss at that -- but it was enough to make Orochimaru to keep moving or be bisected. "The only way you're leaving this room is by a Sending!"

The chain clinked as he tightened his grip on it. With a sharp flick of the wrist and a jingle of bangles, he pulled on the chain to retrieve his axe-sword after the initial strike. He caught it effortlessly.

Once it was back in his hands he hung back to allow Kadaj to get a strike in, waiting for an opportunity to get up close on his next attack. Wearing him down like a tag team seemed like the way to go for the first leg of the fight.

[snakeface]

Whatever Kadaj had struck him with only seemed to worsen with time. Orochimaru could feel his strength being slowly sapped away, but it was no cause for real concern just yet. He was powerful, and it would take some time for that nasty little trick to start to cripple him.

He suspected that was what Kadaj was counting on.

He neatly avoided Nnoitra's weapon, both coming and going, and leapt back to put some space between them again so that this time they wouldn't be able to interrupt him. Not even Nnoitra with that blasted sonido.

He completed the jutsu, and sent an army of black mamba forth. Their fangs probably wouldn't bother Nnoitra, but they'd keep Kadaj busy while Orochimaru dealt with his partner. He needed to split them, and deal with one at a time.

[joinmyreunion]

A scowl crossed Kadaj's face as he saw the snakes, but that was one of the good things about having a battle partner.

"Keep him busy," he said, charging a quake spell and aiming for the snakes, "but don't let him think he needs to step up the game yet." If he did that too early, they were screwed. Orochimaru needed a false sense of security that he could deal with this without resorting to the upper ends of his own power, and Kadaj needed him to think that for long enough for Geostigma to do its job.

He dove forward and slashed the heads off a couple of the snakes. At least it wouldn't take him long to deal with them, so long as he didn't get bitten.

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra's eye widened and then narrowed at the sight of those snakes even though he knew that their fangs wouldn't be able to penetrate his skin. That kind of jutsu wasn't easy to perform -- Summon-based Beastmastery was the upper tier of the art and was so much more advanced than simply exerting power over monsters and animals in order to control them. Summoning and controlling that many at once took a lot of power.

Furthermore, it was just creepy.

He turned his head to the sound of Kadaj's voice and nodded. That would be easy enough. His weapon was big and unwieldy and he could falsify being slower with it than he needed to be. He could more than make up for it in terms of strength, but he didn't need to let Orochimaru know that. He was, after all, a mere minion of Aizen. There was no reason to let him think that most of the Espada could feasibly bring something to Khamja on their own merit.

Kadaj's use of the Quake spell didn't affect him when it hit -- his Chakra was of the Air Element and, as such, he was immune. Unfortunately, so was his uncle.

No matter.

He used Sonido to get in close to Orochimaru, but not so much that he had trouble swinging Santa Teresa. He swung at him, and slashed, keeping him backing up, swerving and otherwise ducking to avoid being hacked in two.

[snakeface]

Orochimaru ducked and weaved with a surprising amount of grace. He was a ninja, trained in a hidden village, and he moved like one, as if this fight was more of an inconvenience than a real threat. Every step still left inky puddles and marks, something was still draining out of him, but that was the only thing that gave away any hint that Orochimaru might not be in the best of condition.

Nnoitra really did use an ugly, unwieldy weapon. It was to Orochimaru's advantage at the moment, of course, and he smirked as he evaded strikes with relative ease, knowing that it stood a chance of aggravating Nnoitra. "You're not really making an effort," he commented, "for someone who claims to wish to kill me."

In a flurry of movement he performed a hand seal and then slipped inside the range of Nnoitra's weapon, trying to strike him with the outstretched fingers of one hand. It was a technique which, if successfully applied, sealed off five of the chakra elements.

Including air, and earth. It would bring things to a neat end.