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As Taka tossed the kunai at Kei, the jounin ran forward towards the building Taka was on top of and jumped up, planting a foot against the building's surface. Running up the sheer surface of the wall, Kei tossed a kozuka blade from under his haori up above the building's roof and formed a handsign that activated the substitution jutsu. Unlike Taka who had used it to escape, Kei used the technique to change positions rapidly and get the drop on the enemy.

As the two explosions went off behind him and kicked up a cloud of debris and dust that obscured the street below, both Kei's form and his kozuka knife were lost to sight. Using the veil of dust to his benefit, Kei fell from the air above Taka and landed on the tiles of the roof, audibly cracking them. Having switched positions in the cover of smoke and dust, the jounin had made it through unscathed.

The cracking sound was meant to do two things, play of the instinctual response to locate the origin of a unknown noise that was hardwired into every person, especially a shinobi who had to pay attention to their surroundings and were trained to do so. Secondly, the loud and sharp crack that was pitched at such a loud decibel range would cover up the pop as Kei's whip slashed towards Taka's midsection.

[No, there is an initial chakra output to draw in and establish the shape of the whip but after that the chakra used to create it is still bonded to the air and still connected to me through physical contact with the host source. Nekage used explosive arrows formed of pure chakra, they only exploded when they were disconnected from the source and destabilized; using the precedent that he created so long as the chakra and whip remain physically attached no further chakra expenditure is necessary to maintain it unless it is damaged by fire.]

As the building beneath Kei began to crumble, the raven haired jounin used his bloodline to create a platform of air that kept him suspended above the falling structure. "How swiftly you speak of hiding Taka, I'm stunned by your use of the term. You've done nothing but flee the entire match as of yet and now that you decide to hold your ground you call me a coward after arming yourself like you should have done in the first place." Kei retorted and gave a bark of harsh laughter from his lofty position above his colleague.

Striding forward over empty air the wind user mocked his fellow by taking on his same battle ready stance. "You want me to fight you on even ground, warrior to warrior. You wouldn't stand a chance at holding up against me Taka, not with your kamas and not with your gauntlets! A simple yari would keep you at bay in my hands!" Kei shouted down with another derisive burst of laughter.

Maintaining his position above the other jounin, Kei used his height to his advantage. Pulling out four kozuka blades, he tossed them around Kashin and boxed him with the "Sealed Bomb Square Release" technique. Each kozuka was wrapped in an sealed tag that detonated remotely or when a subject within the area attempted to flee. With the use of the Ichijin bloodline and his experience from the Tashu clan, Kei created blocks of air that held the blades suspended in the air in a circling ring around Taka.

While this technique would require a steady drain of chakra it was so low leveled that it wouldn't hurt him unless he maintained it for several hours. If Taka attempted to flee and breached the ring he would be running into a full scale explosion. If he tried to substitute out of it, the escaping object would trigger the explosion upon breaching the lines. Taka had two options come up and meet Kei in the air which would be difficult considering how high Kei was. Or go down, which was the safer move but would be a greater drain on his reserves.

"I'll tell you what, destroy your weapons and I'll lose my whip and we'll fight inside that ring mano a mano. Hand to hand. What do you say?"

Taka had made his mistake and Kei was going to make him pay for it, the poor b*****d had tried to ascend skyward into the jounin's domain. Kei didn't need his whip to battle in the air, everything around Taka was a part of his arsenal and Kei would prove to the other just how broad his arsenal was.

Shaking his finger at Taka, Kei used his bloodline to create several new platforms. One invisble barrier above Taka for him to ascend into, one below for him to fall down onto and four around him so that he could understand just how screwed he was. A box of wind to contain the jounin unaffected by gravity, nothing threatening about it and something easily escapable if he wanted to use a fire jutsu in an enclosed space.

Kei created a chain of handsigns and smiled at Taka as he muttered the words, "Wind Release, Iron Maiden Technique"

Like the much famous torture device of lore, spears of wind formed on the exterior of the box and began to shoot into the space containing Taka. Taka could escape the trap with a blast of flame, but he would get burned in the process of escape. Then again, the alternative to the burns he would self inflict was death. All together, the jutsu wasn't a death sentence since it was escapable, but it wouldn't leave Taka unscathed.

Kei looked down at Taka and observed him from his perch, with keen eyes and a highly inquisitive nature it didn't take long for Kei to appreciate the nature of the 'Gravity Suit.' Much like the Tashu 'Wind Armor,' that Kei had learned and understood this barrier that protected Takayuki was similiar in design but it had it's weaknesses.

Primarily the fluctuating nature of the gravity suit as it recycled itself, considering how the jutsu was created it made sense that as the chakra exited the pores in its greatest volume the gravity would increase around Taka and from there on it would decrease until it was reabsorbed by the chakra pores.

Taka's speed wasn't enhanced like Kei's was through his technique, but rather the amount of gravitational force exerted onto his body was lessened for a small amount of time allowing for actions that were unhampered by the physiological compensations for the earthly force.

Reaching into his haori, Kei extracted a vial and let it fall the tens of feet to the ground below where the glass container shattered and littered its contents. A strong breeze blew through and picked up the iron filings that had been deposited and carried them over to Taka where Kei established a field of air that the iron shavings were contained in.

The action was totally nonthreatening but intriscalely necessecary for Kei's reconassaince. The floating jounin was conducting a field experiment in mid-battle and after some minutes of observing Taka he nodded in a satisfied manner and met the other's eyes as he complimented the fighter. "I commend your abilities in creating such a jutsu, Taka. Very unique!" Kei stated with a smile as before he continued, "But you will still lose this fight despite it." Kei said as he glided through the air and came to rest on another rooftop. "Sorry to tell you this, but that defense is meaningless; corrupted and flawed from the beginning it would be simple to get through it."

However Kei still did not attack, why was this? Was he being wary? Did he see something that looked suspicious? No, it was far simpler than any of that; the young shinobi had already attacked. He had met the other shinobi's eyes and in doing so established the connection he would need to weave his genjutsu. Kei had picked up some things from Westly, such as how a weaker fighter could over power a superior one simply by deceiving his eyes.

With the power of the illusion, Kei swept his hand towards Taka and enclosed the wind barrier around him over his gravity barrier where the iron particulate existed. The genjutsu was simple and had the added benefit of being entirely plausible. As Taka's gravity barrier entered its state of flux, the iron particle drew nearer to him and the air density increased as it was drawn in. As the gravity lessened and pushed things away, the air maintained its pressure and so the iron particulate couldn't escape because wind in and of itself was immaterial, a gaseous state that was not effected by gravity's pull beyond the fact that it established the atmosphere.

As a matter of fact, the greater the gravity, the more atmospheric pressure in that area. Every time Taka's jutsu increased the gravity around him and enshrouded him in a field that slowed him down to tortoise speed the iron filings drew nearer his eyes, his nose, his mouth, his ears. In effect, the genjutsu reinforced by reality's concepts appeared to Taka that he was being suffocated by his own gravity barrier. And the downfall, was that even if he dropped the barrier the over bearing atmospheric pressure as a result of the air density would continue to smother him due to external influences.

The snare was so simple because it was based on fact, that Taka's mind wouldn't conceive of it being anything other than the simple truth. How sad that the truth is sometimes much more influencing then fiction.

While fully within Taka's ability to escape a genjutsu how would he be able to tell the difference from reality when nothing about it conflicted with reality? Therefore Taka would 'suffocate' and pass out as a result of the illusion, he would pass out from holding his breath as a result of not inhaling, he could attempt to burn away the atmosphere around him and severely burn himself, or he could dispel an undistinguishable genjutsu.

A scenario that held only a single positive outcome, and that one was the riskiest of all as it required the absolute denial of reality and who knows what mental effects could occur by denying everything their sense told them.