Impaired Senses

50 Shinobi Prompt 10 — Thunderstorm

She hated fighting in a thunderstorm. The rain poured down hard obscuring her vision and blurring objects that should never be blurred. The lightning flashed brightly, momentarily blinding her from her surroundings. And quite possibly worst of all, the thunder roared loudly across the landscape blocking her hearing. It was like fighting with all your senses impaired.

On the positive side, the falling water cleaned her stinging cuts. No danger of an immediate infection.

Tenten stopped and tried hard to locate the position of the assailant.

How she wished she could just retreat. But this time she couldn’t. She could not just leave — her teammates were counting on her and she would not leave them out to dry.

Tenten cried out sharply as she felt a kunai embed deeply in her back. Turning abruptly she sent a barrage of weapons in the direction the kunai had been thrown. “Coward!” She cried. “Come out and face me!”

“Do I look stupid?” The trees whispered mockingly at her.

She pulled a scroll out, gripping it tightly in her hands, eyes darting around the landscape Where was he? She sense the next kunai coming and managed to move far enough to avoid any vital spots. The kunai instead dug into her upper arm. She pulled it out, wincing as she did so.

She had to do something soon or else she’d end up dead, and Lee and Neji could be next.

She pulled open the scroll, time to make her move. Blinking blearily through the heavy rain she bit down on her thumb.

Weapons spilled out from all around her, hitting each and every direction in a 360 degree radius. She smiled satisfactorily as she heard an audible cry of pain over the thunder. The enemy nin stared cruelly at her.

Tenten didn’t hesitate. Fishing her favorite blade from within her pants she made to drive it straight into his heart. A flash of lightning streaked as she brought it down momentarily blinding her. That momentary blindness was all the assailant needed to pull out his own weapon of choice and driving is straight into her. Tenten choked on her own blood, but didn’t halt her actions in digging the blade in further. “Die.” She sputtered blood dripping from her mouth.

“If I die. So do you.” He choked out. He dug his blade further in.

Tenten thought of Neji and Lee and Gai-sensei. She thought of her village and her friends and the life she’d led. Her lips curved up into a smile. “So be it.” She pushed her blade in all the way just as her opponent did the same. She felt overcome with dizziness and queasiness. The last thing she heard was a flash of thunder and she sunk to the ground.

Yeah, she really hated fighting in thunderstorms.

Maybe if she was lucky, she’d wake up to fight in a thunderstorm another day.