Tsubaki wasted no time with formalities and charged straight toward the ninja, her speed closing the gap between them in a heartbeat. Fearing a close quarter confrontation the Konohagakure ninja responded by launching a ranged assault consisting of shuriken, the small bladed weapons twirling rapidly through the air toward Tsubaki. Tsubaki jumped to the side to avoid injury, buying her opponent a moment of respite which he used to press home his ranged assault. Her forward momentum broken Tsubaki responded by circling him at speed, dodging only those shuriken that came close to hitting her as she searched for an opening. And seeing no opening she decided to force one instead. Tsubaki sheathed her weapon and in its place withdrew a giant shuriken from her back. 

Tsubaki jumped into the air, spinning around as she did so that she was facing the Konohagakure ninja and launched the giant throwing weapon toward him. His eyes opened wide as he saw the giant weapon hurtling through the air toward him in an arc whose trajectory was clear. At once he was presented with two options, he could attempt to block the attack or try to evade it entirely. Using a jutsu was out of the question considering the speed of the attack. And even if he skipped a few hand seals to speed up the casting time there was no guarantee that his jutsu could affect the giant shurikens path enough to avoid injury. He opted to evade along that same line of reasoning, his tanto clearly not up to the task of repelling the attack.

Seeing her opponent dodge to the side as she knew he must Tsubaki had already significantly closed the distance between them, using the giant shuriken to momentarily distract her opponents full attention. By the time he realized his mistake her blade was already coming free from its sheath. Tsubaki propelled herself forward in a spinning motion, cutting down at her opponent. Responding in the only way he could the Konohagakure ninja raised his tanto defensively just in time to intercept the vicious downward blow, sending him skidding backwards several feet, his arms shaking from the force of the impact. Tsubaki realized then that he was not a close quarter fighter. However her opponent was by no means beaten yet.