The black form slowly covered Naka, coating her in black smoke. At first she struggled, but knowing she could not fight it, Naka obliged. The smoke seeped into her, until every wisp was inside. Naka coughed, and was released from the jutsu with Phoenix's help. A gruff, husky voice spoke in her mind. 'Don't worry, honey, I'm here...I'll lend you my chakra...'

Naka gulped, and took out Shinkan from its sheath.

Phoenix glanced over Naka, her eyes a piercing pair of yellow slits now. Her claws pulled back, throwing the wires away then she hissed slightly, her head thrown back. With her worry for Naka, even in her demonic state, the man had threw a punch to the back of her shoulders. The crunch of a bone heard before she wheeled around, two pairs of black dragon wings snapping out of her back to throw him into the trees. The base of her wings bled, staining the back of her now ripped kimono. She made the smell disappear though, as to not bother Naka and she shivered before walking into the foliage after him.

Naka saw him punch her friend, and she gripped her sword tightly. The chakra around her was different than the normal type she felt, but it didn't matter. She cut her thumb, and blood flowed onto the sword, flowing along channelr and lines. Naka knew she was barely a warm-up, compared to Phoenix, but who cares? At least she could inflict some damage on him. She had no special features, but she could fight. A bit. Naka created clones of her sword, and threw all of them at the stranger. If the others missed, the original would definitely hit him.

The man grinned at Phoenix's advance and barely blinked at the sword. His own spread out to the side as he held out his arms, letting the swords pierce his body. Falling back before he vanished in a rush of blue fire as a clone. He appeared behind Naka, lifting his sword to stab at her back, but Phoenix appeared in front of Naka, her sword around her as she blocked his and she growled, glancing to Naka. She mouthed the words 'are you okay' away from the man's vision.

Naka nodded, and the black chakra drew the sword to her. She jumped out of the way, and rolled an exploding tag around the neck of a kunai. There was one technique she had never used, though she had seen it and guessed it was quite easy.

"Secret Ninja Finger Technique: Thousand Years of Pain!" With her hands in the tiger seal, she dashed behind the man, and gave him an all-poweful poke in his a**.

The man growled at Phoenix as she didn't let him move away very easily, pinning his blade under hers. The man paused a bit and glanced behind him just as Naka starting running up. He growled then twisted his hand in an odd seal just before she stabbed forth. A log appearing in his place like a substitution jutsu. The only change, was that a number of vines shot out, wrapping around her arms legs, neck, chest and stomach restrictively. A different notion attacked Phoenix, a black shadow type creature in the shape of a tiger, tackled her, taking her arm in his jaws as her sword lay on the ground.

Naka's attack hit the substitute log, but she was caught in its vines. The green snake-like things wrapped around her body, preventing movement. Her sword was out of reach, and she couldn't get to her kunai. Then, the black chakra flowed from her body onto the vines. Whatever non-flesh substance it touched disintegrated.

Phoenix grappled and struggled with the tiger herself, her face twisted in slight pain, but more infuriated, her eyes turning a diluted red as her shoulder bled heavily. The tigers fangs were stained with it as it leaped and pounced relentlessly. The man growled as he appeared on the other side of the clearing, watching Naka and Phoenix closely.

"Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naka did a series of handsigns, and multiple copies of her emerged. They were only illusions, but she didn't need them to fight. The Nakas ran around the target in a wide circle, fast enough to make a blurry image. The real Naka was running as well, holding the explosive kunai. As soon as he touches the wall of clones, she would attack at him.

The man chuckled absently as he watched. a small flash of his own and three clones of his emerged without so much as a twitch of his hand. The all held a massive sword, held out in angles as he watched the clones. Before he smirked, and two extra tigers lunged at the circling clones from the trees, along with his two clones as the real one leaped over them towards Phoenix.

Naka smiled, he was a cocky one, and sent in more clones. They ran towards the target's clones, and upon contact, disappeared. "Kawarimi no Jutsu! Substitution Technique!" All her previous clones were changed to exploding tags, that had made contact with the target's clones. The tags activated, creating a powerful enough explosion. Naka wasn't any good with high-rank, flashy jutsus, and her battle arsenal was made up of mostly Academy-rank jutsu. She only knew a handful of element jutsu, and only had one trump card. "All right! Chikusho no Jutsu!" Naka closed her eyes, and did a very long string of handseals, muttering as she did. The black chakra covered her, shading her from view except for her torso. She opened her eyes, still doing the jutsu handsigns.

The man had stopped halfway, looking between Naka and Phoenix with a grumble. In Phoenix's place was a sunset colored dragon, panting and growling at her supposed father. The man paused with a sigh, seeming to ignore Naka as he turned to Phoenix, pulling out what looked like a black diamond with red veins. The half dragon demon paused then backed up a few feet, lowering her head cautiously.

Naka noticed this, still doing the hand signs. "Inu, Mi, Hitsuji, I, Orochi, Inu, Saru!" With a great big poof, colorful smoke covered the whole area. It gave zero visibility, hurting the eyes, and the smell was utterly disgusting. Naka had done the handsigns for no reason; it was just a set up for her to gather up the smoke bombs she used. She held her breath, against the smoke, knowing it might be poisonous. The bombs she used were all random, and she only used the big dark ones. Naka felt something tug her hand, and she followed it. Some of the rancid smoke disappeared and she saw Phoenix.

Phoenix kept herself from fanning her wings at the smoke, instead, she had lightly wrapped the thin edge of her tail to tug Naka back. One of her wings unfolded to hold it protectively over her, clearing the smoke only under the wing so she could breathe before she fanned it away, her triangulated head swinging around slowly to look for the man. He seemed to have disappeared completely though, making the dragonic form growl almost weakly in irritation, her velvety wing still loose around Naka though as heavy drops of blood rolled from her maw and shoulder, painting the ground a dark crimson.

Naka's nose twitched again. 'Darn! The experiment effects are kicking in!" She smelled something similar to the substance that Phoenix had used to make her antidote. Was it...dragon blood? She looked down, and saw that there was a patch of red on the ground. Tracing it up, she figured out that her friend was bleeding. "Phoenix-san, you're hurt." She took out a small white jar, and was going to dab the black ointment inside onto Phoenix's wound.