I do not own Naruto. Speaking/Thoughts
Chrome scowled seeing the boat had already taken off. "Who the hell told them to take off?!" Chrome demanded slamming his foot against the ground kicking up dust.
"Oh hello you are the ones that took care of our sea monster problem we really can't thank you enough." the soldier that had hired them said happily. "Anyway thanks for the help you can pick up your check at the town center, I hope that we can rely on you and your crew in the future."
"Who the hell told you to send that ship out?" Chrome demanded grabbing the man by his collar.
"Your leader he sent us this letter." he said incredibly scared trying to pry off Chrome's hand, but his grip was impossible to break. He handed the letter over to Chrome, and he was released.
"This isn't even Zale's handwriting his kanji isn't nearly this proficient, the person behind the attacks must have sent this, so they can steal the money on the ship." Chrome said the soldier already having run away in fear of him. "We need to move fast come on." Chrome ran across the water followed closely behind by Gaara, Kira, and Aria in that order.
"What are we going to do about Zale, who knows where he is?" Kira asked.
"I'm sure he's okay, and if anyone knows where Zale is then it's going to be those old team mates of his." Chrome said picking up the pace.
*On the Boat*
"Looks like clear waters today, and thanks to those mercenaries we're going to be able to keep our relations with the neighboring lands." someone said, and everyone cheered at this the political unrest finally going to come to a close.
"Hey look someone's running out across the water." a rope tier said pointing to running people.
"Probably the mercenaries I'm sure that they are looking for some extra pay; give it to them if they want they deserve a bonus for capturing the creature." The captain said. Their movement stopped without warning throwing everyone besides the captain to the ground. "What on earth?"
"Captain the waters have frozen!" someone screamed, and sure enough the water around their boat had frozen keeping them in place. "Who's doing this?"
"You may have taken care of the little sea monster, but you still have us to worry about." a man with green hair said with a sneer. "Take all the money, and then I'll give you your cut."
"Actually I wanted to talk to you about that." Suzy said, and Amichi turned to receive a sharp kick to the center of his chest. "You see we decided there would be a lot more money in it for us if we decided to cut out the middle man, or you, and unfortunately we can't have you getting in the way of that. We're going to take this ship for ourselves. The rest of you sailors get all the money up here, and give it to Cole while I raid the place for what I deem valuable."
No one put up any fight dropping their weapons, and doing whatever they were told. "This was too easy, I almost feel sorry for taking out Zale and his crew; it would have been way more fun if they were alive." Cole said receiving a nod from Suzy. "Is that all of it?"
"No there's a hidden supply under the bathroom tile." a sailor that no one recognized said, and no one had any idea of this secret cash supply.
"Then come with me and get it." Cole said and three more unidentifiable soldiers came with him to the bathroom.
Cole bent over easily prying off the fake bottom from the bathroom floor. "Hey there's nothing down here." Cole said.
"Now there is." Chrome said slamming a metal rod against Cole's forehead knocking him back.
"God damn it; it's you guys again." Cole said holding his forehead trying to recover from the sudden attack. "Ah!" Water shot through the floor, but it hit no one his semi delirious state leaving him unable to aim. "God damn it; stop spinning!"
"Go into your hole." Chrome said pushing the easily off balanced boy hitting his head, and effectively knocking him out. He fell into the hole which they sealed up. "Gaara you're up."
Gaara nodded silently and left.
"I don't like this Cole's been taking too long." Suzy said looking and seeing him walk out of the hall he had walked into. Behind him was a small crate that just drifted along in the air. "Where's the guard that you took with you?"
"I killed him." Cole said and Suzy nodded seemingly in approval. "When are we going to leave?"
"Stop being so impatient Liam's going to be here in a little while with the boat and Zale's body." Suzy said, and when she saw Cole's normal confused expression she sighed. "We talked about this Zale was crushed in the wreck when we blew up the labs along with Isaribi and that little girl that she forced us to bring with us. We need Zale's body to see if we can extract that red chakra that he uses."
"Right." Cole said his chest rising and falling a little heavier. "Is that Liam over there?"
"No that's." Suzy squinted to look at the dot in the horizon that was quickly advancing. "What the heck is that?"
"That's Zale!" Cole said surprised.
*With Zale*
"I can't believe that they sent you of all people to retrieve my body Liam." Zale said squeezing this throat slightly tighter. "Now tell me where you were supposed to meet up, and how." Liam was incapable of speaking, so he pointed to a door that housed a well-built ship that was meant for speed and quick escape. "The cargo ship, you're hijacking it right now aren't you?" Liam nodded. "You're lucky that I don't have enough time to kill you!" He threw Liam to the ground, and he spluttered there for a moment before falling unconscious.
Zale threw the door open seeing the ship, and something else. Isaribi was strapped to a table struggling against leather bounds that held her down Kimiko knocked out against the wall. "Help me please." Isaribi said seeing that Zale was in the room.
"There's no reason for me to help you, you're the enemy and if I leave you here then I can say my job is done, and because of you my army has been severely injured." Zale said getting the boat ready to set sail. "You have been nothing but a nuisance, and I'll be glad to get rid of you."
"You have no idea what it's like to be a monster I did what I did because I wanted to look normal again, what's happened to me is a curse that I have to live with. Now that I know that they were going to leave me here I regret what I did." Isaribi said tears streaming down her face as she spoke; her head now laid flat on the board not looking to be saved anymore just wanting to confess her demons. "Haven't you ever done something you're not proud of?"
Zale remained silent focusing on the boat. "Could you at least take Kimiko?" Isaribi asked a smile on her face actually happy about having admitted her demons, and how selfish she was. Zale was silent, and she turned her head. "Ah!" Zale brought down a blade hard, and her bounds were severed. "I thought that you didn't want me to come with you."
"You offered to be a part of my army a while ago, and since you're no longer with the enemy that means you'll be a good soldier for me." Zale said cutting her loose and putting Kimiko on the boat. "Get on."
"Don't you need some help pushing?" Isaribi asked.
"No, now get on before I decide to leave you here." Zale said, and she got in the boat deciding it best if she just went along with what he said. Zale hopped onto the boat, and moved his arms. The ground split open followed by wall giving them an open path to sea. "Alright then let's get on it." The water sloshed around throwing them forward at a fast pace. 'I'm coming for you, and you're going to pay for what you did to my team.'
"Why are we stopping?" Isaribi asked seeing the boat come to a halt.
"Get out, and if things go bad then come out from under the water. We'll leave Kimiko in the boat to keep her out of trouble when things get messy." Zale said and Isaribi nodded hopping into the water. His signature black wings shot out of his back ripping his clothes that were already in tatters, and he flew across the water as fast as he could.
"How the hell did you survi!?" Suzy was cut off by a sharp blow to her cheek sending her skipping across the surface of the water.
"Cole!" Zale yelled turning to punch the boy his fist stopping an inch away from his face seeing he was now a redhead. "You should really be more careful." Gaara nodded, and Zale turned to look at Suzy who had recovered from the kick.
"How the hell did you survive that explosion?" Suzy asked shocked to be seeing him alive and kicking. "What did you do with Liam?"
"He's alive because I didn't have time to hang around." Zale said simply his wings twitching slightly. "Get the boat out of here Gaara, and don't stop moving until that money is in the hands of whoever it's going to."
"Yes sir." Gaara said turning to the men still frozen in place on the ship. "You heard the man get your butts in gear, we don't want to be anywhere near this place when they fight." The men scrambled around getting the sails up and dumping any unnecessary cargo to move them faster. "Aria, get up here, and move the water!"
"I'm busy trying to keep Cole on ice." Aria said struggling to keep the boy from busting out of the ice she had made to incase him.
"That has priority over that go, and we'll keep him caged for as long as we can." Chrome said and Aria nodded running to the deck leaving him and Kira to deal with Cole. "Do you think we're going to live?"
"Not really." Kira said strapping on his hand claws.
There was a loud explosion at the back of the boat, and everyone froze watching the mist clear. When it did three figures were revealed standing on top of the water. "What are you waiting for; move it!" Gaara commanded and they practically skipped across the water Aria and the strong winds keeping them at a 45 mile per hour speed.
"See that, Cole's coming to help, and you won't be able to do anything." Suzy said with a sneer.
"Actually he might have his hands full with Chrome and Kira." Zale said bringing his hands up and forming a hand sign. "Multi demon clone jutsu!"
"What the heck is a demon clone?" Suzy asked slightly curious looking at the smoke as it cleared. There were literally hundreds of Zale all of them with feral features and glowing red. "Oh shit."
They charged at her none of them even looking human making noises that a beast would going for any kind of logical attack just wanting to make some kind of damage before Suzy knocked them out of existence. Suzy tore through the clones delivering a knife to Zale's abdomen. "I knew that you were going to hide out behind the clones, so I just had to attack the one that wasn't going after me." Suzy said twisting the knife hard before the clone turned to nothing. "What the heck?"
"I'm no coward not back then not now if I need to settle a fight then I'm going to be settling it myself." Zale said before driving a rasengan into her stomach.
"AGH!" she screamed in utter pain as the spiraling sphere of destruction dug a hole deep in her stomach. "You bastard, I'll make you pay for this."
"I'd love to see you try." Zale said and she launched away the rasengan fading out of existence. He stood ready waiting for her to come up from under the water knowing she wasn't out. Steam rose up from the water clouding his vision, and keeping her hidden. "Hiding like this is cowardly!" Two hands wrapped around his ankles, and pulled him deep into the water.
"I've got you now, and I'm going to destroy you right here." Suzy said wrapping herself tightly around him, and squeezing. "I don't need to breathe for hours thanks to this oxygen seal on my neck; from the looks of things you're not going to last for another ten minutes." Zale scowled struggling against her, but she squeezed him tighter until he was purple circulation cut off leaving him unable to use his limbs. "How does it feel as your body functions are slowing down; your brain must have cut off your ability to use Manipulation to keep itself alive."
Zale was unable to speak left trying to hold onto his last bit of oxygen. "Leave him alone!" Someone pried Suzy right off of him leaving Zale to swim to the surface, and gasp for oxygen refilling his lungs as best he could.
"Who did that?" Zale asked looking around coughing out water. "Isaribi?"
"Yes sir." Isaribi said popping up next to him.
"You really know how to prove you were worth saving." Zale said looking around to see the water swirling around violently. "This is Suzy's doing, and I can't use Manipulation for a while."
"I'll take care of things until you can fight again." Isaribi said.
"Don't be crazy she can use Manipulation you wouldn't stand a chance."
"Even if she can use Manipulation we're in water, and this isn't a field that I'm going to go down in." Isaribi said and Zale nodded leaving her to dive, and take care of the situation temporarily. Isaribi looked around seeing Suzy on the sea floor her hands up and violently thrashing the water around.
"You had the nerve to get in the way of me killing that nuisance, and now you dare to come and face me. You'll regret not running away when you had the chance." Suzy said, but before she could make a move Isaribi was in front of her and delivered a sharp blow to her rasengan wound causing her to scream in pain. Suzy moved to grab her only to be thrown back by a sudden burst of water. "AH!"
"Kira gave me a basic understanding of Manipulation if you can't think straight then you can't use it." Isaribi said shooting several more jets of water straight into Suzy's wound causing her to scream in absolute pain. "It seems that you can't use Manipulation to heal yourself."
"Don't you dare think that you know my limitations." Suzy said now panting hard.
"I can fight down here all day and night if need be, but you're limited by the need for oxygen." Isaribi said Suzy glared at her, but she knew that it was the truth.
"You win this round just don't think it's because you're better than us." Suzy said swimming away rapidly, and Isaribi knew to let her go.
"Are you okay Zale?" Isaribi asked coming to the surface seeing that he seemed to have recovered.
"Yeah I'm fine, but we need to check up on the others they're facing off against Cole." Zale said pulling himself up on the water looking over to the battle that was still in place.
With Chrome and Kira
"You little punks are going to get it." Cole said angrily the water moving in response to his emotions. It was a problem he always had to let his emotions heavily influence his Manipulation. "Take this!" He waved his hands and a jet of water shot forward.
The water was blocked by a weak shield of iron sand the little that Chrome was able to gather, and the coins he had in his pocket at the time. "This will last for a while, but we need a strategy." Chrome said frowning. "If we had everyone here then we might stand a chance, but with just the two of us we're going to get our butts kicked."
"You always tend to look on the bright side of things don't you?" Kira asked.
"It's a habit." Chrome said with a shrug squeezing his fist tightly before launching across the water creating a stream of water.
"Ah!" Cole yelled running across the water to meet Chrome on impact. Suddenly Chrome dropped into the water shocking Cole. "What the heck?" Out of the mist Chrome had created Kira's fist came and punched him hard the claws on his fists cutting him deeply. He went to grab him only to be burned by Kira's body flames, and Kira dropped into the water. "Come back here!"
The water started to evaporate leaving him blind standing there waiting for them to make their next attack. "Over here!" Chrome called, and Cole took the bait launching at the sound of the voice. "Missed me!" Chrome delivered a sharp blow to the back of Cole's head.
"You little weasel." Cole said grabbing his leg and throwing him down into the water.
"Forgot about me!" said Kira attaching himself to Cole the fire on his body singing him.
"AHH," Cole yelled angrily ripping Kira from his person holding him by the neck. "I'm done playing with you idiots, now you're going to die!" He shoved his hand into Kira's stomach the organs immediately rearranging themselves in an incredibly painful way.
Kira was left unable to even scream feeling his innards shift around his heart almost in his throat. "Kira!" Chrome yelled coming out from the mist tackling Cole, but he was caught by Cole's hand that had pulled away from Kira's stomach.
"Now I've got you both." Cole said with a vicious smirk squeezing them both tightly causing them to cough up blood. "Now you little parasites are going down, and you'll never bother us again."
"Not this time!" Zale yelled launching a jet of water direct at Cole knocking him off his feet, and releasing his grip on Chrome and Kira. "Are you two okay?" They were unable to respond gasping for air their bodies trying to make sense of what just happened. "Alright just bear with me this is going to hurt a lot." Zale struck their stomachs with one finger this returning their breathing patterns returning to normal, but it left the rest of their organs to slowly move back. "Just hold on you'll be good as new in a little while."
"AHH!" yelled Kira his vocal cords now functioning. "Kill me, kill me please!"
"Just hold on Kira hold on." Isaribi said pulling him and Chrome onto a little island as they screamed and pleaded for death.
"Saving them like that; the rule is if you can't fight then you don't live." Cole said with a frown staring Zale down. "Did you forget the rule that you enforced so harshly?"
"I'm not the same person that I was back then, but you're the same devil you always were." Zale said his eyes shadowed by his hair red chakra restoring him. "Now I'm going to show you why I was the lead devil!" Zale shot forward on all fours kicking Cole into the air delivering sharp blows to keep him in the air.
Cole suddenly turned in the air avoiding Zale's kick. He grabbed Zale's foot as they hurtled toward the ground holding him under his body as they hit the water making a large splash. Cole and Zale stood on the water quick to recover from the feeling of slamming down on hard concrete. Zale launched forward ducking and weaving between the punches Cole threw.
"Hold still so I can hit you!" Cole yelled going to grab him only to be put in a body lock his limbs bent to the point of snapping like twigs under the strong grip Zale had on them. Zale was shocked when something struck him in the stomach taking him off Cole's back. A white sharp stick was sticking out of Cole's spine.
"You used your own spine?" Zale asked shocked by what he would do to win.
"Do whatever it takes until your opponent is begging at your feet." Cole said straightening up the sharp white shank sinking back into his spine.
"Shadow Clone jutsu!" screamed Zale forming the hand sign, and an army appearing behind him. Half of them stuck out their hand the other half formed purple rasengans in their hands. "Rasengan!"
Cole was hit with one rasengan after another each one demon empowered with demonic chakra tearing apart his body leaving withered flesh. "Did you kill him?" Chrome asked weakly sitting up.
"No." Zale said with a shake of his head. "He substituted himself, and escaped after the first few rasengans, he probably took off with Suzy." Zale fell to his knees panting hard the red chakra cloak receding leaving him exhausted.
"Well now that you took care of them for me how's about I take care of you!" Amichi said and they turned to see the green haired men in full fish form his red eyes sinister. "Summoning Jutsu!" None of them were in a condition to fight watching him as he formed a hand sign. Without warning a figure darted across the water a sharp wind following its movement, and it tackled Amichi attacking him harshly, and forcing him out of fish form. "Alright I give just get her off me."
"Yes!" a familiar red head cheered, and they saw her face finally. It was Kurumi her fluffy tail waving around behind her as she celebrated her victory over the man. "Hey guys I feel a lot better, and now I even got some of my chakra back!" She was completely excited.
"Hey guys did we miss all the fighting?" Satsuki asked and they turned to see her. "Kurumi said that she felt a lot better, and insisted on coming to help fight."
"As much as I hate to admit it she probably saved us." Kira said finally back to par flinching as he sat up forced to lay back down by Isaribi resting his head on her lap. "I hope that Aria and Gaara got the ship where it needed to go; it would suck to not get paid after all that."
"I'm sure they did." Zale said standing wobbly before falling unceremoniously on his butt. "Kurumi did you have a tail when I saw you before?"
"No." Kurumi said.
"Alright then." Zale said before laying back on the ground his eyes closing.
*A Week Later*
"We really can't thank you enough without you we would have never made the delivery in time if you all hadn't done the job. It was genius to lure out the sea monster by having us take off, and to think it was a male from the reports it sounded female." the person that hired them said shaking Zale's hand once again.
"Yeah it was a great plan." Zale said awkwardly everyone stone faced behind him. "Anyway thanks for the bonus it'll really help out."
"No problem, and if you're ever in town we'll treat you to some drinks." he said happily and Zale nodded before they left the village.
"Hey Zale?" Kurumi asked and he turned to face her. "Isaribi told me that you were planning on leaving her there, but that you cut her lose right before you left. What changed your mind?"
Zale turned away. "Nothing she said she would work for me, and if so then she'd be a valuable asset." Zale said.
"Don't lie you just hate to see a girl cry." Satsuki said and Zale blushed. "Aw we love a big softy."
"Anyway what happened to Kimiko?" Zale asked not looking either of them in the eye.
"We left her with a decent couple that couldn't have kids." Kira answered. "We should head out soon things are going to get sticky if Isaribi's seen."
"Why?" Zale asked questioningly and they looked at him. "I fixed her genetic code, although I can't take away her ability to transform I was able to make her human form completely normal."
"He's right." Isaribi said and they looked at her. No bandages just standing their wearing a happy smile. "Where are we going now?"