Chapter 13: The shadow in the mist

"Hey, Tazuko?"

"What is it, my beautiful Sarada?"

"Are we going to end up fighting a lot of Wave ninjas?"

"An interesting question, my dear."

"Then answer it already."

"Alright, alright. Yes. Due to my allegiance, there is the risk that you will be facing more official ninjas of the Hidden Wave."

"I knew it." Sarada sighed, "I mean...I should've know. But the thought of fighting other official ninjas...leaves a sour taste in my mouth."

"Oh, how I wish I could sweeten that for you!"

"Why don't you turn yourself in then?" Hanafuda called.

"Not until I finish what I started."

"Hmph."

Boruto glanced around, keeping a close eye on their surrounding.

"See something, Boruto?" Mitsuki asked.

"No."

"Don't let your guard down." Konohamaru said, "We've entered the Wave Village's territory now so we might get attacked at any moment."

"By more Wave ninjas too I bet." Sarada muttered.

"If it makes it any sweeter, you might very well end up facing one of the mercenaries."

"Oh joy. Yet another faction of people to worry about." Sarada rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry, Sarada, I'll protect you."

"Well if you're so strong why don't I just go home?"

Everyone stopped when Konohamaru suddenly raised his hand. The group stood silently, listening carefully. In the distant was a sick squicking sound. The sound of delicately tearing flesh.

"It's in front of us." Sarada whispered.

"What do we do?" Boruto asked.

"...Stay here and protect our target. I'll go in and scout out the danger." Konohamaru replied.

"Are you sure?" Tazuko frowned, "You are the senior ninja. If you come into any danger you'd be leaving behind a series of inexperienced ninjas. And Boruto."

"I take umbrage with that statement on multiple levels!" Sarada hissed.

"Relax, it's just because Boruto isn't a ninja." Mituski said, "Not the idea that Boruto might be more skilled than us at the moment."

"Wait what?" Boruto blinked.

"Focus!" Konohamaru whispered, "It's too late now. Look."

The group turned their attention back to the road which had begun to be encroached by mist.

"If I'm not mistaken." Tazuko bit his lip, "That's a ninja from the mercenary camp, Akuka The Mad Kraken."

"Mad Kraken?" Konohamaru frowned.

"His signature is that mist jutsu." Tazuko explained grimly, "It pours out of his kote constantly so that nobody knows where he is."

"He uses a kote?" Sarada asked.

"All the mercenaries do. That's how they gained the advantage over our ninjas." Tazuko scowled, "Blindly using high level ninjutsu inexhaustibly."

"When you put it that way, it's a miracle you guys have survived this long." Sarada winced.

"Be extremely careful." Tazuko scowled, "Akuka is known for using two kotes."

"Two kotes?!" Konohamaru and Sarada cried.

"Yes. One of them constantly emits mist and the other is loaded with all sorts of dangerous ninjutsu."

"..."

"You seem intrigued, Boruto." Mitsuki noted.

"Yeah...Never thought about wielding more than one Kote..." Boruto mused.

"Can I just cut in to say that this is NOT the time!" Sarada shouted.

"I-I-I-I suggest w-w-we run." Hanafuda whimpered.

"Run?" Mitsuki frowned.

"I thought you were a ninja." Sarada added.

"I AM!" Hanafuda snapped, "But...I'm only a genin. You're all only genins. I've seen the bodies that man has left behind. They're..."

…

"Is there a way around?" Konohamaru asked.

"Hmmm..." Tazuko crossed his arms. "The only other way in is the Naruto Bridge. And the mercenaries are camped right outside it. They're always searching for a different way into the village beyond the bridge so they often have people patrolling the area."

"So we have to face one of the mercenaries sooner or later." Konohamaru scowled.

Tazuko nodded.

"O-Okay but it doesn't have to be the Mad Kraken right?" Hanafuda whimpered, "If we just wait maybe some grunt will come along and-"

"Not happening." Boruto said.

"W-Why not?!"

"He's coming."

Glancing down, the group could see the mist that had begun to wrap around their feet. And in the uncertain cloud in front of them, they could all feel a menacing bloodlust that stabbed into every millimeter of their skin. The squicking sounds had ceased, leaving only their heavy breaths hanging in the air.

"What do we do no-" Hanafuda whispered.

"First to strike wins!" Boruto smiled nervously as he channeled a rasengan and threw it into the mist.

The rasengan cut a clear path through the fog, hitting nothing as the mist returned once more.

"You idiot!" Hanafuda hissed, "What if you had hit him?!"

"That would be a good thing wouldn't it?" Mitsuki blinked.

"No! That'd just make him angry!"

"Well what do you want us to do?"

"I don't know! Hide low, maybe he'll pass us by!"

The group gripped their heads as a loud foghorn suddenly sounded, filling the air with a heavy noise that grinded into them, shaking them to the core and sending them to their knees.

"What's going on now?!" Sarada cried, barely able to hear herself over the foghorn.

"It's starting!" Tazuko scowled.

The ninjas and Boruto sans Hanafuda struggled to their feet amidst the noise and fog but even before they could ready themselves, Hanafuda was suddenly snatched away. The group cried out in shock as they looked around for any signs of where she could have gone.

"There!" Mitsuki cried, directing all of their attention to a single rock that poked out from the fog. On top of the spire was a tall and thin figure, cloaked in fur and leather. He held Hanafuda at arms length as she struggled against the deceptively strong grip that his hands had over her throat.

"Woe to you, ninja of the waves." The Kracken creaked, his voice seemingly blending into the foghorn that still bellowed at a lower volume, "Such is your position, as is the position of your entire false country. A country of shallow cowards, living off the teat of greater nations. Suddenly creating a military so paltry. So trite. What goes through the mind of your newly elected Hyogun? What manner of ideals has infested this land?"

Hanafuda choked as his grip on her tightened. Kinada reared his head and snapped threateningly at Akuka's face. Unamused, Akuka lifted his other arm, an arm that was clouded entirely of descending fog, feeding the pool below him. He passed the fog over Kinada, wrapping him up and then threw his hand to the side, throwing the snake across the ground.

"Kinada!" Mituski cried.

"Woe to you, ninjas of the flames." Akuka said, "This path you walk is rotten. And with a single push, you will all fall screaming into the abyss."

"Water Release: Shooting Tide!"

Akuka disappeared as Tazuko's arrow of water flew through the empty air.

"Woe to you."

The ninjas and Boruto suddenly stood shock still as they felt Akuka's presence behind him. And even as they turned, their mind seemed to slow as well as their body, watching or a split second too late as Akuka grabbed Tazuko by the head and pushed him down onto the ground.

"Poor villager. Unknown to power. Too weak to grasp power. You live a life of a seed on a stream, pulled and pushed by forces greater than you, never to take root."

"Rasengan!"

Everyone jumped as Boruto acted first, pushing a rasengan deep into the side of Akuka's body. The rasengan dug into the mercenary's body and then flew out the other side, carving only a misty hole in the mercenary's side.

"What the?" Boruto blinked as Akuka stood there, unfazed.

Sarada drew a kunai and Mituski pushed a snake from his sleeve. The snake bit through the Mad Kraken as Sarada slashed away at his arms. All left only a misty absence in Akuka's body.

"It's a clone!" Konohamaru cried.

"Water Release: Shooting Tide!"

Tazuko called upon his kote once more to shoot another arrow of water through Akuka's stomach, creating only another misty hole.

"Weak."

"Wind Release: Scaleforce Palm!"

Boruto attacked again, filling his hand with wind chakra and slamming it against the mist clone, the powerful burst of wind scattering the mist clone away. Along with Tazuko.

"What's going on?!" Sarada cried as the Tazuko suddenly began disappearing with the clone, "Is this a Genjutsu?!"

"No." Konohamaru scowled, "This is...he kidnapped Tazuko in a split second and left his form in the shape of his clone. Why? Is he...mocking us?"

A soft dripping sound drew the group's attention again. The foghorn had lowered to a soft rumbling as the dripping seemed to take over the attention of their ears.

Glancing at each other, the group gulped and began to make their way towards the sound, stopping only to jolt when they realized that they were suddenly knee deep in water.

"Gyah!" Sarada jumped.

"What's wrong?" Konohamaru asked.

"I...I think I saw something in the water."

"What?" Mitsuki frowned.

"No I...I think it was a fish." Sarada frowned, "But...when did this water get here? And...when could fish have gotten into it?"

The group slogged through the water, electing not to stand atop the water to conserve their chakra. There was little doubt that Akuka already knew where they were so making less noise was not a concern. And the dripping was still audible amidst their splashing, painting a straight line through the fog. What laid at the end of their travel were two spheres of water. Two water prisons and two prisoners. Hanafuda and Tazuko floated inside, unconscious.

"Do you see him?" Sarada whispered.

"No." Mitsuki frowned, "He's nowhere around the two prisons."

"That's odd." Konohamaru frowned, "Normally, one has to keep a hand inside for the prison to remain in effect. How are the prisons retaining their shape if he's not around?"

"If it was Zenshin Kakumei, I would be able to run a chakra circuit between the kote's internal storage with the executed jutsu and set it as an automatic and continuous process."

"What?" Sarada blinked.

"That way, even if I dropped my kote, it would continue to run until the tank was out of chakra, keeping the prison alive." Boruto mused to himself, "But...that's if it was my kote. This is Katasuke's design, a scroll based kote. And I don't believe that those kotes have any function in retaining jutsus for the long term."

"What are you going on about?!" Sarada hissed.

"He means something's going on." Mitsuki sighed.

"If he's still moving around then that means those prisons are being held by water clones." Konohamaru thought aloud.

"I don't see any water clones." Sarada frowned.

"Neither do I." Konohamaru frowned, "What's going on?"

"...Rasengan."

"Boruto!" Sarada hissed as Boruto drew together a rasengan, "You can't just throw a rasengan all the time!"

"I don't see you doing anything."

"Boruto, be careful not to hit the hostages." Konohamaru frowned.

"They're in a prison. They'll be fine. Rasengan!"

Boruto hurled one of his rasengans at the prison as his kote whirred and deposited another Rasengan into his other hand.

"And have another one!" Boruto said as he threw the second rasengan at the other prison.

The two rasengans impacted against the prison's surface, grinding against the water but to no avail.

"See? Nothing."

"Chakra Shift: Base."

The rasengans began to unravel as the chakra covered the surface of the prisons.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

The chakra came together once more in a puff of smoke as two clones stood atop the water prisons.

"Whoa!"

"Nice going, Boruto." Mitsuki smiled.

"How do you do that?!" Sarada frowned, "I still don't know!"

"It's simple chakra control." Boruto shrugged, "Well, that's the theory anyway."

"Theory?"

"I didn't write it." Boruto answered as he turned his eyes towards the clones.

The clones scanned the area around the prisons. There was no way they could break the prisons on their own so they scanned the area for any signs of the Mad Kraken. There was no sign of the thin mercenary around but the clone kept scanning, turning their eyes downward. And all of a sudden, Boruto's blood froze.