The shadow clone shaped like Vale disappeared as its thin veil of chakra burst under the attack, the Akamatsu clone holding him barely had time to react but the same attack turned him into vapor as well. Even Anzu’s clone was to precise to block. To anyone keeping score that would put her three points ahead, three shadow clones and their invested chakra gone and not so much as a touch on her.<br/><br/>The two knives stuck into the dirt sending up a spray of dust but hitting nothing and the frightened birds squealed and whirled above them flapping toward the sky. The real Akamatsu emerged from their shadow on the ground leaping toward Anzu's back with his last kunai clutched in a thin pale hand. Like a shadow himself he flew at her, his cloak flapping, his hood low.<br/><br/>He knew that the Byakugan let the members of the Hyuga clan see chakra and some stories had it that it saw through other things, walls, trees… cloaks. Before he impacted her, before he got close enough to touch her with his knife he tried a simple stop-step to reverse his direction, but his cloak, which he had loosened in his approach, did not stop. Still fluttering and flapping it lifted from his shoulders, hood still full and dark, it swept forward as if to cover her from behind.<br/><br/>When Akamatsu slipped back out of his cloak the sun shone on his white hair, wild and tangled. His face was every bit as angular as the shadows of the hood would lead one to believe and the sharp end of his nose jutted just under a messy flop of hair that hung just over his cool blue eyes. He now looked more like a traditional village ninja with his olive vest and belt, blue shirt and pants.<br/><br/>With any luck, the stories were correct and she would see him, his chakra, his movement but not the oncoming cloak, if it fouled her hands, slowed her down for even and instant he would have a chance.<br/><br/>With a quick movement, he launched his final knife into the swirl of his own cloak and then followed it in with a leaping midsection kick. He could no longer afford to keep his distance.<br/><br/><br/>