The man's face is revealed to be the same black ops ninja she spoke to before. His eyes appear as if they are slowly getting over being glazed over.
"He... got me."
Out in the darkness of the desert, a man with flowing black hair walks steadily away from the village, which by now is nothing more than a speck of light in the distance. In his hand is a red jewel, a prize from his recent exploit.
~Flashback~
He nods to her and then begins walking toward the entrance. "Ok then. Keep a sharp eye out. You might only get one chance, and he CANNOT escape with that jewel."
When he reaches the front entrance, he puts his hands together and performs the Kai sign, creating a large field-wide Genjutsu that appears to the nearby snake that the large boulder was being lifted and the exit was being examined, when in actuality the imposter was walking away from the village, removing his disguise after gaining a safe distance while everyone chased after a decoy - the REAL black ops ninja.
~End flashback~"They had already failed to stop me the moment they allowed me to set foot in their village."
Suddenly a voice is heard in front of him, causing him to look up from the jewel in his hand. "Your visual illusion may have tricked everyone else, but I was able to
feel the vibrations in the ground as you walked away, letting me know that someone was leaving the village. Had a feeling it had to do with that gem you've got in your hand."
The man then points a bluish crystalline sword at the perpetrator. "Care to hand it back?"
The black-haired man smirks slightly, looking back down at the gem in his hand. "You must be one of the Sand Seven, Tsuihāku. Tell me, Tsuihāku...." He looks up into his eyes with a cold emotionless stare. "... can diamonds feel pain?"
Before Tsuihāku can process that question, or how this man knew about his Diamond Release, the man is already inches in front of him, ready to strike. With quick reflexes, Tsuihāku brings his blade about to intercept and stab the man through his collar bone, but the man twists his arm around his sword, sliding it down around Tsuihāku's wrist and pulling his arm to the side while moving in to elbow Tsuihāku in the chest. At the last second, Tsuihāku forms a small breastplate of diamond to protect himself from the impact, which still sends him sliding back a few meters, clutching his chest in pain. He looks down and to his horror, the diamond protecting his chest has been cracked almost to the point of shattering.
'How could he...' He looks up just in time to see the man on top of him again, sending him a flurry of kicks that Tsuihāku is just barely able to block with his sword, causing him to take a step back each time to keep his footing. During one of his kicks, the man extends some hidden blades from his boots which hook onto Tsuihāku's sword blade, and with a flick of his ankle the sword is ripped from Tsuihāku's grasp and send flying into the air, which the man then catches.
"A finely crafted weapon, but you are not yet fast enough to use it against me the way it was intended. Like the village, your fate too has already been decided. Live or die, you will be left here with your goal to stop me a failure."
Tsuihāku's eyes narrow, and with a grunt, he focuses his power into the sword in the man's hand, which dematerializes back into a pile of diamond dust which floats back towards Tsuihāku and forms into dozens of tiny diamond needles in the air, which he shoots at the man all at once. With unbelievable speed, the man catches the first needle between his index and middle finger and uses it to deflect all of the other needles, throwing the one in his hand back at Tsuihāku.
Tsuihāku uses his power to return the needle back into a puff of dust at the same time that the man pivots his foot across the sand, kicking some of it up while pulling out a bunch of wires hidden under the sand which constrict around Tsuihāku, but before they can tighten around him, he summons small diamond blades to the surface of his skin to cut the wires and charge at the man, spinning his body so he can use the diamond blades to cut through him. The works perfectly, catching the man off guard and slicing him to ribbons, only for him to explode into a cloud of smoke which causes Tsuihāku to go into a coughing fit. He hears swift footsteps coming up from behind him and so he summons all of his power underneath them.
"Ryōton: Sawarabi no Mai!" (Diamond Release: Dance of the Seeding Fern)
Just like Kimimaro's technique, countless spikes of pure diamond begin to erupt from under the sand at an alarming rate stabbing upward. With speed almost unheard of, the man quickly leaps over one of the spikes that try stabbing through him and lands on it, using it to leap away from another one while landing on another, and continuing to do that until he lands in front of Tsuihāku, who summons all of his diamond spikes to surround the man and stab at him from all angles. The man's eyes flash an unseen color and he holds out his hand. Instantly a circle of ancient glyphs emerges from underneath him and spreads out on the floor, instantly disintegrating all of the diamond as the circle of writing spreads out underneath it, until it is surrounding both the man and Tsuihāku.
"What... what is this?"
The man, kneeling in the center of this circle, stands up. "This is Munashī." ( 空しい meaning "Void"). "In it, I hold power over all matter and its construction. I've taken your diamonds apart for my own reassembly."
Tsuihāku steps back wide-eyed. "Who- who are you?"
The man looks back at him with his emotionless stare. "Tsunokami Gai. I would hurry if I were you. I don't know how long your village can hold out trapped in a sphere of your very own diamond."
Back at the village, the same diamond that Gai had disassembled has reassembled to surround the village completely, even underground.
Tsuihāku narrows his eyes on Gai, who then speaks again. "Would you rather engage in a fight you have no hope of winning, or save you village? You should do it before I decide to squeeze it tight around them."
With one last angry stare at Gai, Tsuihāku vanishes in a swirling cloud of diamond dust and reappears some time later on top of the sphere of diamond, where he puts his hand on it and causes it to soften up and fall to the ground. He too lands with it, as the diamond dust is absorbed into the ground. In the meantime, Tsunokami Gai finishes his journey out of the Land of Wind, the gem still in hand.
