The rubble settled, but the earthy smell still clung to the grass tips.
No one on the other side moved. No one on this side did, either.
The first movement came from the cliff.
Kin drew her hand out of her sleeve.
The row of brass bells in her hair was already off, held between her fingers.
The bells began without warning. Their thin notes wound up the ravine walls and crept behind their ears.
The sound was quiet, but its force was not.
It rang on the left, yet echoed inside the right ear too. Its direction was scrambled.
The force poured through their ears and down to their feet, leaving them barely able to stand. Naruto shut his eyes briefly and shook his head, trying to shake the tune out.
A thin layer ran through that string of notes, burrowing straight into the ear canals.
Listen long enough, and your body swayed with the tune.
Sasuke's sword hand wavered.
Sakura pressed her hand against her pack strap. Her fingers loosened, then tightened; only on the second try did she get a firm grip.
Their limbs were sluggish, not their ears. Whatever governed their hearing had slowed.
The tail of those notes curled upward, and Kin was already just ahead of Kiyoshi's flank. Her skirt brushed the ravine grass, barely bending its tips.
Kiyoshi met her, keeping his sword low and horizontal.
His fingers caught her outstretched wrist and pulled her inward. He drove his bent elbow up, then thrust his shoulder forward. She was levered clean out of that string of notes, her toes skimming the rubble as she retreated far back. Her sleeve had already closed on the way out; her withdrawing hand was faster than it had been when she entered the ravine.
His blade never