Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Eric]

Eric could tell from the shifting shadows that Ichirou was still alive by the time all of his attacks were said and done. The man would sigh. There had to be a way to somehow defeat Ichirou. At the rate that he was going, they were going to be back to where they had started last time.

The man would think for a moment. Even as the 5-tails host, he considered his chakra levels at this point. While they were sufficient for a continued battle, there would be no telling when he would get another breather quite like this. And yet, taking a chakra pill now would be such a waste.

He needed to get back into sage mode, somehow. His shadow barrier scroll was long gone by now, so unless he wanted to spend the chakra and time to make another one, he was going to have to find another way to enter sage mode. It didn't seem very likely, at this stage, that Ichirou would miss an opportunity to strike at him while he was idle.

Perhaps summon Rita? No, she had too large of a profile, and she would hardly be any help anyways, since sound genjutsu was completely useless against Ichirou. Pyro? Well, his scorch release might would come in handy, but his opponent could absorb most ninjutsu without batting an eye. He couldn't win with brute strength either.

Eric cursed. There had to be some way for him to defeat Ichirou.

While deep in thought, Eric reached into his tools pouch. He thought back to his previous fights, when stuck in a similar situation, on what he might could do. His only logical option was to force Ichirou to confront him. Withdrawing an empty scroll, Eric would unroll it, resolving that he had little choice but to attempt to re-enter sage mode. It had nearly killed his opponent once, it surely had to work. He could only hope that his opponent had not learned from the last time he had attmepted age mode.

After performing a long series of handseals, Eric's palms would glow a grey-ish green tint. Eric would slam his palms onto the scroll. In response, the scroll would suddenly begain to exhibit writing and signs, spreading out along the scroll with the space between Eric's palms the epicenter. Once the entire scroll was filled with this surprisingly legible writing, Eric would begin surging chakra into the shadow of the scroll.

The end result, after doing all this, would be a mildly exhausted Eric and a new infinite embrace scroll. In order to ensure that he gave himself enough time, Eric would have surged enough chakra into the scroll to last awhile (4 turns). Such usage of chakra naturally weakened the man, and it would be with reason that he would normally have this prepared and ready before a fight even breaks out. If only he could just enter while in full sage mode, oh how much easier his life would be!

Not wanting to leave the dimension weakened, Eric reached into his tools pouch, withdrew a wrapped up chakra pill, unwrapped the pill, and then consumed it. While it would not fully invigorate him to his peak chakra levels because of his increased pool from being a jinchurikii, it would at least make do, restoring him to about 70% once it fully took effect (1 turn).

He would not make his move until he was re-energized.

[Garō, Ichirou]

Ichirou rubbed his neck as he idly floated, remaining out of the range of the shadows with his Miseigakure technique, but with his chakra being recently restored it was not a damper as of this time. This fight with Eric would be considered nothing less than taxing. But there was still fight in the both of them, thus this went on. However having to keep his chakra concealed he needed to find a way to get a sensory feel for the area.

Shikyaku no Jutsu - Four legs technique

Ichi would activate this technique, tapping into his Inuzuka abilities. this would cause his appearance to become more feral and dog like (though this would be unseen) which only added to the demonic look provided by the curse seal level two as it spread over his body, turning his skin a dark grey, and producing large white horns from his head, as well as a dinosaur like tail. His sensory range would increase in the sense that he could now smell the battlefield in a literal sense, it would not take him long to familiarize himself with the smells of a forest, having spent plenty of times in places of such, just as everyone else, but he would not wait for a smell that he was not familiar with, the smell of eric. He hadn't taken the time to quite burn the smell of his opponent into his memory in their last encounter, but could just as easily assume a foreign smell was him, depending on the circumstances, and his hidden location would assist in him not being easily fooled, at least not for long. now he would continue to wait. There was a plan that he had, he just needed his opponents return..

[Eric]

Feeling reinvigorated, Eric would pick up the scroll, roll it up, and return to the battlefield at last.

What he returned to was not quite what he had left. The place was charred, burning, and frankly, rather dead. The licking flames threatened to finish what Ameratsu had started as far as his clothing was concerned, but Eric kept his distance fair. He knew that Ichirou would be waiting for him, and would have some sort of trap set and ready.

As a result, only taking a single second to register his surroundings, he would re-open the scroll and once again place it onto the ground, activating it in that same instant. The Shadow Trap: Infinite Embrace once again active, with the amount of time on the chakra counter, Eric would waste no time in starting sage mode while he was mildly sheltered.

He stayed standing this time, however, and would merely close his eyes in meditation this time. He would be able to pick up on the natural energy absorption of Ichirou while in this meditative state, in part because he himself was gathering natural energy. His quarry's general vicinity was all he could gather, but with his quarry being half a mile away and in the air, Eric reasoned that he would have at least a bare amount of time before he would have to be concerned with having to interrupt his natural energy gathering in order to defend himself.

Natural Energy gathering turn 1


Brief review of barrier characteristics straight from the description of it on my profile page(s):

Kagewana: Mugen Hōyō ; Shadow Trap: Infinite Embrace- A barrier technique that is more useful as a defensive or preventive tool than an offensive weapon. The user imbues a series of commands into a scroll, into which they release a large amount of chakra. Once released from the scroll and actually activated, the barrier springs forth, covering a pre-determined amount of surface area. The barrier is sustained by chakra, with this initially be supplied by the chakra within the scroll.
The barrier itself, once erected, generally has a cube or rectangular prism shape. Used to prevent access to an area, the surface area of the barrier is designed to prevent entry by binding the opponent’s shadow immediately upon entry. Additionally, the barrier also drains chakra from both jutsu and potential casters at an accelerated rate, partially to maintain itself, and partially as a defensive mechanism. A second layer persists, presuming the first were to fail, that would trap objects, jutsu, or even enemies within the shadow realm, essentially doomed as they do not possess free movement within the realm (without a shadow seal), or the ability to escape using conventional means (including space-time ninjutsu that do not have a pocket dimension directly attached, such as hiraishin no jutsu and the summoning technique).

Ultimately, if the second layer is penetrated, then the third layer is simply a hardened wall of black chakra with very sharp points that protrude upon the second layer being dismissed. They protrude, in no coincidence, in a fashion similar to the shadow sewing technique, intending on going through the quarry and rapidly absorbing their chakra, increasing in strength both rate of absorption and hardiness. A consequence of this is that a greatly condensed pack of chakra could penetrate this layer with relative ease compared to other methods of penetration.


*The barrier's dimension are the same as last time: [about 6 feet on all sides and 8 feet above, and is cube-shaped]

[Garō, Ichirou]

As Eric reentered the battlefield, Ichi could faintly recognize the feel of his barrier, the one that he had used multiple times in their encounters, and one that gave Ichi an idea. he knew it did not have much time before he would be spotted, as he could tell that Eric was gathering Senjutsu chakra once again, however he still had time to move, and move quickly he did, as he closed in on eric utilizing the feel of his chakra as well as the smell of the area, he weaved a few seals and bit his thumb, forming the summon seal seemingly in the sky, though he had actually created a small space of chakra to deploy the seal on, this would cause a large creature to appear, Theinin the Great Sphinx. One of Ichirou's strongest Sphinx. Upon his arrival into the battlefield it would be seen that he bore the Rinnegan, and that Ichirou himself had switched to the Rinnegan once again. Theinin would form a single hand seal, and a blinding barrier would be constructed,

Kekkai: Pyramid of Light: Coliseum of the mortals.

This Barrier would take little time to form when cast by Theinin, the great sphinx was strong with Senjutsu and his levels were greater than the other sphinx. The barrier would encumber the space surround Eric, roughly 350 feet in any direction forming a square, with the walls forming up into the tip of the pyramid roughly 350 feet in the air as well, Theinin himself floated in sky directly in front of the tip of the pyramid, flying via his large wings, on the side eric is facing to be specific. At first the barrier would be bright, but translucent. It would be at this point Ichi would float into the barrier, still under the effects of his Miseigakure technique, once he had entered the technique (which eric would be able to notice if he paid attention due to the weird "hole" forming in the barrier for the moment it took Ichi to pass through) the barrier would then solidify, producing more light, as well as locking the two of them within. If his opponent attempted to use chakra, he would find that it would be nigh impossible. The effects of this Senjutsu barrier causes chakra tax to increase thirty-fold. It would be difficult for a shinobi to even utilize an E rank technique in this barrier. It was designed by the Sphinx to force Shinobi to fight hand to hand, something that would prove valuable to Ichirou. Appearing as if from no where Ichirou would stand 50 feet away from Erics barrier, which was also used in spotting his location as it would stand out to Ichirou's Dojutsu, his Dinosaur like tail flipping a little here and there as he awaited his opponent. He was unsure if the effects of this barrier would cease Erics, but he hadn't tested the barrier in this manner before, and was unsure to say the least. However for now he stood watching the barrier, his Rinnegan vigilant. His smell, vigilant. He would fail to mention to his opponent that he bore a small black ball in a tight pouch on the back of his belt, this being the barrier pass to his Sphinx barriers, having one universal instead of a multitude of them for the differing barriers produced by the Great beasts.

Edit: better description of the pyramid/Theinin

[Eric]

In mere moments, the tide of battle would be shifted, though at first, Eric would not realize this. He had been expecting traps; but he had not expected to have his natural energy gathering so abruptly cut off. What had cut it off you might ask? Why, the erection of the barrier, and the beginning of the chakra suppression.

Using senjutsu to suppress chakra, while effective, did have one small problem; it was senjutsu. A described earlier, at least one layer of Eric's barrier had the ability to absorb chakra, and the initial rush would immediately tip Eric off to the nature of what he was faced with.

Truly panicking, for the loss of his barrier would mean the end of him at this current juncture, the man would seemingly drop to the ground, hand slamming upon the scroll. Thought he barrier could absorb the chakra and use it to maintain its form, the significant amount of chakra presumably being exuded would pose an issue of capacity rather than capability.

Nonetheless, the moment his chakra tapped into his barrier, he removed the original size limits, which had been designed to preserve chakra usage. This would cause the barrier to instantly expand in size, spreading rapidly acros the ground and through the air in a 3 dimensional fashion akin to a tailed beast ball expanding. Of course, this end result would not be detonation, but continued expansion as long as it was greedily taking chakra from its oppressor.

The expansion would be rapid. The cube-like barrier would swiftly grow in size until either the flow of chakra stopped (and even then it would maintain its size and stabilize if Eric were to once again place size restrictions), the barrier itself were destroyed, or it physically had no more room to grow.



Some math is required to properly understand the situation that Eric is faced with. A pyramid with a width of 350 feet, a length of 350 feet, and a height of 350 feet, the volume of the pyramid is about 14,291,666.67 feet cubed presuming that the volume of a pyramid is found by multiplying the 3 dimensions together and then dividing by 3.

The initial volume of the barrier that Eric is using is about 150,000 times smaller than that at a measly 288 feet cubed. This means that while this barrier completely dwarfs Eric's, it also would consume far more energy to use and to maintain, no problem for the sphinx in using nature's energy.

However, this also means that an incredible amount of chakra resides within the volume of the pyramid, since it presumably suppresses everywhere within the barrier at an equal rate, with the only exception being the area where there is a pass holder. Since Eric's barrier can and does absorb chakra, both to maintain itself and to defuse attacks, then it can absorb this mass amount of chakra as it comes towards it. However, though the barrier has no stated limit, it would be nonsensical for it to be able to remain at the same size despite the large amount of chakra that it is absorbing.

By increasing in dimensions, the barrier uses up the chakra that it is absorbing as it operates. Because of this huge amount of chakra bearing down on it, the barrier would very swiftly have a strong and full source of chakra, expanding immensly fast after it is released from its size restraints. The barrier could theoretically expand into eternity, but the pyramid vs prism limit this possibility. Once it reaches a certain size, its dimensions are going to beyond some of the boundaries of the pyramid.

The volume of a pyramid is 3 times less than that of a standard rectangular prism, so the dimensions of the prism would be approximately 3 times smaller than that of the pyramid before it encompasses about the same volume (doing the actual math, the volume it can encompass, the prism, is a little greater, but the point has been made that the prism doesn't have to have the same dimensions as that of the pyramid in order to encompass the same volume (I.E, have the same area within it as the pyramid).

It would have to go beyond the surface area boundaries of the pyramid, so before having the same volume as the pyramid it would be more prone to actually breaking the pyramid barrier by absorbing some of it boundaries.

While all of this is going on, naturally, the battlefield is not going to be still. All the same, Eric's barrier, once able to expand with the amount of chakra it receives, would be capable of thus dealing with the effects of the opposing barrier with or without his foe dispelling it.

Back in character:

Eric would, upon letting loose his barrier to begin his fortune counter (for nothing else in his arsenal would have helped him in nearly the same way) he would still be connected to the barrier. Taking in some of the excess senjutsu, Eric would immediately enter sage mode. This "borrowing" of the chakra absorbed by the barrier would slow the barrier's growth considerably, but very shortly after recieving just enough to enter maximum sage mode, he would proceed. This would buy Ichirou another good 2 seconds to escape before the barrier completely rams into him, sending him to the shadow dimension and sapping at his chakra.

How could Eric possibly go into sage mode with another creature's senjutsu? Natural energy is a universal product, the only difference being in how it is gathered. Since all animals sense the world slightly differently, the differences between animal sage modes would largely be within how to gather natural energy on the personal level; how that energy is then used is also dependent on the creature.

Here, however, raw senjutsu was used in an attempt to suppress chakra, so it would be ripe for the picking. Once in sage mode, Eric could more easily detect his surroundings. He sprouted wings and claws, his skin became like a dragon's scale armor, and his eyes attained the trademark crimson shading and brille. Albeit, the brille were not down at this time, they were present.

All of his senses, strength, and general abilities were increased. The chakra he obtained from the sphinx would of course add to his overall pool, restoring him ever closer to 100% (100% if he were to get the chance to enter "full" sage mode).

If Ichirou had his creature stop the barrier early (which he would be very prone to do once he understood that it was doing more harm than good) then while Eric could still go into sage mode (as the chakra suppression of the area of the pyramid would still be present even if the barrier itself is removed, unless said senjutsu were also re-absorbed. Even then, the initial pressure plus the small amount of natural energy gathered would be enough to enter sage mode, albeit, not with nearly as much senjutsu to work with for the remainder of the fight.

[Garō, Ichirou]

As the barrier began to expand, Ichirou knew he had little time to react, but still had a secondary plan. Though Erics barrier expanded, Theinin's barrier was still solidified in the physical world, trapping Eric within, which would be safely preserved as Theinin formed a "Floor" to the barrier underneath the ground. As Erics barrier became a problem Ichirou had to act fast, slamming his hand to the ground once more he would utilize the animal path of his rinnegan to summon his next Kuchiyose faster, as with his chakra levels much lower than one hundred percent, he would have to rely on his beasts for assistance, as the plume of smoke emerged a dark shadow quickly darted outwards and away from Erics barrier, though his opponent may not notice it, this new Kuchiyose was Lin-ya, the queen of the sphinx and Ichirou's strongest summon, of greater strength even than Theinin in her ability. She bore a collar made of Ichi's Kokushin to allow him telepathic communication with her, needing not to speak in order to communicate, allowing for faster reaction time.

Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Summoning technique

Of course Erics barrier would be unable to disperse Theinin's quickly, the great strength of the sphinx allowed him to counter act the drain and sustain his physical barrier, while Lin-ya went to work on a different technique, the large blue beast bore the breast of a woman, but was still very beast like in nature, not bearing the humanoid upper torso as most, but instead more of a lion like body, the beast could see through Theinins barrier, as though it was solidified it was like a one way mirror, not allowing those within to see out, but allowing those outside to see in. And spotting her opponents barrier she knew he target, clasping her paws together she would sum a great deal of her chakra to destroy her opponents barrier at the source, and cease it's actions against the original, with the Sphinx skills in barriers, she knew far to well how to perform this technique, and while it would take a great deal of her chakra, it was still within her reach,

Barrier Shatter Technique

this jutsu would work from the inside out, her sensory ability allowing her to sense the center of the barrier's chakra, being the scroll. And attempt to undo the barrier from the inside out, hopefully succeeding, if not then possibly Ichirou's next move could. Either way the beast performed her action quickly upon entering the battlefield, using Erics hindering of the barrier growth against him,

[Eric]

Eric would note that Ichirou had apparently not learned from his earlier venture that this barrier is multilayered. With the sphinx maintain the barrier, not only would Eric have a replinishable source of senjutsu, his barrier would be nothing short of running on senjutsu. Needless to be reiterated the dragon man could sense the unmistakable action of summoning. The proportion of chakra that it takes to summon a creature is in direct proportion to the amount of mass and chakra being transported. Therefore, based in the power of both summons, Ichirou by now would have been noticeably drained of strength compared to the last time Eric could sense his chakra. Not enough to foil him though, for he did not bother trying to dodge the barrier and its expansion.

In truth there was only one serious threat to Eric and that were those beasts. Rather than permit the overload of chakra, Eric would begin focusing all of it within a single point above gin, maw open wide with his foot upon the scroll. The absorption and theft of the chakra significantly sped up the process if this powerful ball of senjutsu, which continued to build as it was fed and compressed. It would be the size of a basketball, and with all of the space enjoyed thanks to the previous move, Eric could maintain this for some time.




* dine on mobile  lacking usual finesse. The barrier shatter technique us pointless to be used when the barrier would just absorb the chakra. The chakra would have to filtrate the barrier in order for it to shatter it from the inside, hence that power too being absorbed. The only issue, as temporarily resolved, was what to do with all of that excess chakra since the barrier was no longer growibg 

[Garō, Ichirou]

As her technique did not proceed, Lin-Ya Informed Ichirou who now had one last thing he could try, since Erics barrier was not otherwise stated to exceed Theinin's, Ichi assumed it was not, and would have been able to tell otherwise via Doujutsu, Ichirou fired a kunai from his waist, applying the Light weight rock technique to it as he did so, causing it to fly faster and reach the point of the pyramid Ichirou desired (about half way up) before he Hiraishin'd to it, floating next to the barrier he would place his hands to it, simultaneous with Lin-ya placing her paws against it closer to the base, the telepathically communicated this tactic, and more or less considered it a last ditch effort, as Ichirou only had so much to hold out with at this point, In unison the two would activate their technique, assisting one another in the overall formation of the technique

Barrier Fuinjutsu: Pyramid Of Light: Prison for the guilty

This Fuinjutsu is ironically almost the same as Eric's shadow sealing technique, however a solid barrier is used as the catalyst (in this case the still sustained Pyramid of light) and seals the targets within the barrier in the Dimension of Light, a dimension not even Ichirou could reach, but his Sphinx could. And this was a technique of their design. The technique should transport the barrier and all it's contents, including eric, erics barrier, and the land between his feet and the floor of the barrier, into the Dimension of Light. Hopefully sealing his opponent away and ending the fight. The effects of the Fuinjutsu sealed all remaining chakra within the barrier inside of it, as a means of covering all bases. Ichirou would now be (providing all things went planned) on the ground, panting. His curse mark receeding, he would take a second chakra pill to help him sustain himself for the time being.

[Eric]

Time would be of the essence. One simply does not trap the shadow imitation master in a world of light. Indeed, for the moment Ichirou threw his kunai upwards, light-weighed or not, halfway up the pyramid was still 175 feet up in the air.

Before we continue, some basic assumptions have to be made at this point. Though not stated, Ichirou would have to have long abandoned his position a mere 50ft from Eric and outright left the barrier, otherwise he would be sealing himself along with Eric. This would not end the fight, but rather, merely prolong it, and force Ichirou to fight Eric while still ultimately disadvantaged.

Additionally, it is presumed that both summons are also outside of the barrier at this point. This means that all three of these characters are outside of the pyramid, which means that they are underneath the shadow of the cloud cover.

Which Eric cursed.

The moment he left the pyramid, was the moment he would seal his own fate. All of these assumptions work more in Ichirou's favor up until this very post, as otherwise he would have certainly been teleported to the netherworld within the confines of the pyramid barrier, 50 ft away from Eric.

For judging purposes I make note of all of this, and for comprehension of the remainder of this post.

Now, back to the post itself:

While Ichirou permitted Eric to use the same trick three times, Eric would not return the favor and allow Ichirou to use the same trick even twice without consequence. The ball of chakra, condensing yet again to the size of a golfball, entered his mouth at the very moment the kunai reached its maximum height. However, what Ichirou would find the moment he hiraishined there was the ball of chakra waiting for him; the large condensed ball of senjutsu had been shadow migrated to its destination.

Subsequent detonation would be instant. The absolute instant that Ichirou reached his destination (taking a play out of Uetto's book), he would come into physical contact with the ball, at nigh point blank range. Regardless, the bomb would be set off, releasing all of the pent up energy that earlier had been condensed into it.

Senpō: Ryūdama no jutsu- Sage Art: Dragon Ball Technique

The explosion would be comparable to that of a tailed beast bomb explosion, and while at point blank range it would be nigh overkill, both sphinxes would be completely obliterated as well, or at least severely hindered to the point where they could no longer maintain their barrier(s). The barrier itself would be even be obliterated, the detonation large and powerful enough to completely level the forest area below it as well, despite the great height that it started at (as a demonstration of the great widespread damage). Ichirou himself would be reduced to dust if hit with the full brunt of the attack as intended.

Why was this so powerful despite only being charged for one turn? Every inch of it was senjutsu; the sphinxes powerful senjutsu, mixed with Eric's own chakra naturally. How did it get to Ichirou in the first place? Recall the earlier assumptions. Ichirou is outside of the pyramid; otherwise, he would have sealed himself along with Eric, defeating the whole purpose. Not only that, but he would have also been engulfed by the rapidly expanding shadow barrier of Eric's (albeit, whether it had reached maximum distance was not stated, but it was clearly stated that Ichirou had 2 seconds extra before the barrier would do him in the turn after that post. It has definitely been 2 seconds, but that is nitpicking at this stage).

Earlier, Eric had cursed the cloud cover while Ichirou was still in it. Therefore, upon leaving the pyramid, he would once again enter Eric's terrain. Even if one were to argue that Eric could not open the shadow dimension while still surrounded by suppression, one must recall that the space-time dimensional nature of his barrier technique would have granted access to the alternate Shadow Realm. This in turn would provide access to the other "side".

Nonetheless, just to be on the safe side, Eric would perform a special handsseal (for he did not want to get flattened by the blast, nor did he want to get trapped) and, in a black flash, warp back to a safe distance from the blast.

Hiei no jutsu ; Flying Shadow Technique

This distance would be roughly half a mile off, in fact, very near to where the beginning of the fight had started. Even now, the shockwaves and bright flash would hit his frame with enough force to make him almost let down his guard and assume Ichirou dead.

But he was still in sage mode. And he was already ready with another handseal, knowing the tenacity of his foe rivalled his own. Granted, transporting that mass of chakra had been a toll, but not nearly as great of a toll as the hoped for payoff.

*Slight edit to include size of ball upon being transported, and include reasonable cost for warping it*

[Garō, Ichirou]

It would be in this instant that Ichi would use something that had been Nigh forgotten about in the battle, something left alone. His clay bird. This bird, just like all his other ninja tools and special items, was marked for Hiraishin, something Ichirou had been saving, hoping his opponent would forget about it, which he had. This would be the pinnacle of quick reaction time. Ichirou was rather familiar with Senjutsu chakra as a general thing, but one thing he could recognize more than anything was the Senjutsu of his Sphinx. which was what had mostly powered the Ryudama, so as Ichirou arrived, with the ball waiting for him, he was aware of it. Grasping the kunai and Utilizing the remaining chakra of his curse seal as well as the most of his own, he would activate a barrier technique spawning just in time to save him. Needing not the entirety of the seals due to his skill as a shinobi 

Hiraishin: Dōrai - Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder

Lin-ya had proceeded with her sealing technique, which would continue on as Ichirou activated his barrier, Ichi's barrier would allow him to "move" the explosion to the location of his bird, far from his current location, far enough to keep it away from him long enough for the sealing technique to finalize, and remove Eric from this plane. However Ichirou was unable to move the blast before taking extensive damage, and due to this Theinin was quick to come to Ichirou's side as the barrier would disappear, grasping Ichi and unsummoning himself, bringin him and Ichi back to the Pyramids of the Sphinx, where Lin-ya would journey as well. To avoid the explosion reaching them by any means.

[Eric]

Frankly, Kamui is going to be the judge of the last two posts of this fight. I'm done discussing it unless he has questions pertaining to the posts.

[Garō, Ichirou]

If that's how you feel, as long as I can discuss my wrongs with the post just like you can discuss yours

[Eric]

Naturally, as I'm sure Kamui will want to hear both sides of the story, especially if he has to play catch-up on what has so far happened in the fight.

[Camel]

Mails have been sent top both parties and naturally I would love to hear both sides of the story.
However I also made some time to catch up on some things and this fight was one of 'em; my ruling was also sent along with the individual mails.

[Camel]

DOUBLE POST!

Minato used several handsigns for that high-level Hiraishin technique and he was at Hokage-rank. (The Water-Dragon technique still required you to clap your hands, thus molding your chakras in preparations for it)
I honestly feel it would be a tad bit unfair to use that high-tier technique without at least one-handseal formed...so my ruling stays and as of now Eric is the default winner.