For at least a hundred yards around the explosion it rained. It rained not water but debris, chunks of wood and the remains of the ship that had been torn apart from the inside, the bodies of the now-dead crew falling from the sky and into the water. With them there was blood flying down in small scarce drops, tatters of clothing falling slowly, ever so tediously slowly, to hit the ground eventually, yet only in its place find water. Sakura placed a hand over her mouth, and the injured Hinata could barely do anything in the shock. Everyone on the ship had seen the blinding flash, heard the deafening explosion, and turned away only to see the horror once the flash was gone and their eyes once again upon the spot.
Naruto tried his best not to act pained but he was flying through the air, at least ten yards from the ocean below, and to add insult to injury he was smoldering with the upper body of his clothing shredded to bits, just barely hanging off him. He had not only had some sort of predesigned explosive blown up in his face, but it'd also send him through a sturdy wooden wall and ceiling. Behind him blood was flowing through the air and below him the water hadn't even began to approach, speaking for the power of whatever had exploded. He couldn't even move or create chakra to cushion the blow.
When he hit it was like hitting hardened blue cement, cement that gave way to waters which burned his skin, his cuts infused with salt and his body infused with suffering. Had he been anything less then a ninja undoubtedly he would've died then and there, not even given a chance to drown, but he knew now it was bad. Naruto would never give up however. He wouldn't let himself sink and die a painful death. He began screaming at his body for a reaction, something before he had to gulp in the salt water, the foul tasting concoction that would fill his lungs and rob him slowly of his chance. Yet deeper he went, sinking like a brick towards the floor of the ocean, one that simply did not exist below him.
Elsewhere Neji turned midair, hid the water, and stumbled back on his feet, having managed to get chakra quickly enough to defend himself well enough. The entire front portion of his body burned horribly and his back was probably covered in wood splinters, and large ones at that, but he was still in combat and wasn't about to let up. Raising up to a defensive stance he moved to reactive the Byakugan, which he hadn't been capable of concentrating on even minimally after such an extreme attack, only to feel something lash over his back.
The sound of a chain retracting came from behind him as he hit the water, his chakra just barely saving him from sinking, but not saving him from the fact he could no longer move. When he tried to move his entire spine burned like a fire, and it was his first reaction to get up. Lying on the water he was forced to scream in immense pain, he couldn't even move his head. He just barely managed to see out of the corner of his vision unaided by the Byakugan's normal bolstering the shadow of X-san rushing off towards Naruto. Neji felt his chakra slowly slipping away, the water giving out under him as if he were slowly being drawn into some syrupy substance refusing to let its surface break but unable to resist his weight.
Naruto was forced to scream underwater as something dug into the flesh, and then bone, of his ankle. It was horrible, some sort of sharp object that curled around the exposed bone that was suddenly burning from seawater. Worse yet he wasn't removed from the water until he had taken a massive gulp of the water both into his lungs and his stomach, the foul taste the least of his worries. Yet he was removed eventually, sent flinging up from the dark depths at a ludicrous rate, breaking through the surface, only to feel a knee connect with his chest. He coughed up a spray of salt water at that, onto the blurry figure before him, only to feel the chain attached to his ankle pull him back with amazing pain and the figure to grasp him by his neck. More and more of his consciousness was lost as whatever he wasn't suffocating on was slowly being squeezed from his neck, his limp body wreathed in pain and unable to make the smallest motion.
Lita glanced at Koy who, to everyone's surprise, had sobered up. They had both felt it, and behind him the two ninja followed. Lita was impressed at the Hyuugan's determination despite her horrible injury, especially when traversing salt water. Getting it into wounds hurt hellishly, she knew. For Lita it was a simple task to traverse the water on foot, about as difficult for any ninja to do it at least. Koy did it even more effortlessly, his kimono trailing behind. Their strategy had been thanks to the Hyuugan's Byukugan, though Lita knew from glancing back that some great strain was being put on her brother or cousin or something Lita didn't really care about, as she was crying, even if determination drove her on. Lita was more impressed with the girl that seemed to be a healer, who had held it together despite the strain.
Koy had told them, after the basic information had came, that the two samurai were to deal with the 'unnamed' figure whilst the ninja got the wounded. This had came to a great amount of protest before Koy had hastily explained that Sakura was the only one who could heal, there were two injured, and that Hinata was too injured to fight. The protesting stopped there, but the ninja, understandably, were skeptical. Samurai, however, weren't prone to being capable of walking on water that seemed to give the two ninja something to trust, no matter how small the thing in question was. The monk had been left to deal with the civilians. Koy, on the other hand, usually detested lying, but figured there was no other choice.
Hinata continued on with the two samurai when she announced where Neji was, on the verge but not quite to drowning. Sakura had grabbed him and turned around, veering back to the ship at full speed with leaps and bounds. Naruto was much, much farther. For all of fifteen to twenty seconds running at breakneck speeds it lasted an eternity for Hinata, who was suddenly watching Naruto being choked steadily to her death. The same force of caring which drove her to look away, to just stop and break down and cry, drove her to get there and aid Naruto, and that side of the coin had won a battle for once. Suddenly she was right beside the 'samurai'. Then the illusion faded away.
Naruto was thrown upwards and Hinata leaped for him, the chain coming off his leg, the abrasive object covered in spikes and such which let it dig in to such surfaces. In effect it fell to the earth at an arc which was adjusted to cover a good twenty feet of the battlefield. Hinata was glad to find that she wasn't stopped from grabbing Naruto midair. Thanks to the Byakugan she already knew why she wasn't being attacked, but she didn't have time to think it over. She held Naruto over her shoulder and turned to the boat, rushing as fast as possible over the deathly calm seas.
Lita had forced various Bunshin's out rapidly enough, though the majority of them were destroyed when the chain swept the battlefield. She had dropped her chakra usage at her feet and then popped back up when the chain was gone, however she had moved underwater. It was that strategic advantage that gave her the first blow, even if it was at the sacrifice of her eyesight which was, sadly, drenched in blinding seawater. She hit 'X-san' directly over the chest with her katana, then again his mask, causing a gash but not having come close enough to cut it in half, the his leg only to push her chakra-supported katana into the wall and kick his side. Koy had done his part, and with X-san maneuvered directly away from the ship Lita was pleased at her part, but knew immediately Koy wasn't going to wait for her to feel warm and fuzzy.
Koy, stereotypically, had left his sword and not even bothered acting. X-san grunted as an open palm sent him skywards in a rising uppercut, only to see Koy there in front of him. Koy grinned slightly, but it was only a momentary thing, "Long time without seeing you." Then Koy proceeded to do his signature non-standard seals, X-san realizing with his upwards momentum he himself was driven by G-forces too quickly to actually stop the jutsu. Koy finished then pushed a hand against X-san's chest, locking his joint.
X-san felt all his internal organs smack into one side of his body as the single open palm strike sent him flying forward and slightly down to the water at speeds upwards of perhaps sixty miles per hour. He positioned himself for the inevitable, unavoidable striking of the water, though in the wrong way as he performed a hand seal under his cloak to stand on the water. When he hit his legs, no matter how powerful, simply gave way and he 'tripped' backwards to slam into the water with his upper back, shoulders, and head, then roll various yards before his speed had decreased.
Lita had already made her way there, sprinting the distance that looked around an eighth of a mile from her reckoning. It was decent for Koy in combat, though she wondered why he had put such a length between them and the boat unless he expected to loose. This momentary thought cost her when the chain wrapped various times around her blade, X-san's instant recovery not only a feat of constitution but of dexterity as well. She knew she couldn't let go the blade and thus was flung forward by a jerk of X-san's left hand. She was surprised at his agility as, halfway, he met her from underneath and kicked her upwards.
X-san rolled backwards and onto his feet and grinned, proceeding to jump up only to find moments later that he was proceeding towards the ground instead, perhaps dragging Lita with him, but hardly at a harmful rate. Lita managed to just barely catch the water with a foot and thus right herself, causing some worry as she had nearly broken her ankle, yet avoided such. X-san was once again relatively unamused as some sort of jutsu was causing his cloak to weigh heavily on him. Moments later he watched in disdain as Lita did a dropkick towards him, yet put an end to it by a heavy strike with his left hand. It was hard to move it, it was heavy, but he did it in time. She had dropped the blade to attack, too, and he gladly snatched the blade from his chain. It was in good, but not exemplary, condition considering he'd snared it with the chain.
It was then he felt something smack his back, which would've broken it had he not shifted an inch away, and thus he went underwater with whatever idiotic weight was covering his back. Thrashing around a while it felt easily moveable and when he finally managed to get from underneath it, something that was ridiculously hard, he floated up with chakra and automatically lashed out at where Koy had been. However, Koy was no longer there, thus X-san continued the swing of the chain in an arc.
Lita wasn't expecting such an illogical move and thus hadn't left herself enough room to dodge. She felt it tear into her back, the chain which made the horrible rattling sound, and wrap around her waist. She tried to stop it but couldn't, and worse yet her right, and primary, arm was caught in as well. Blood began to flow and it was unbearable, her arm getting the most damage. Koy descended from the heavens like some sort of angel, however, and whipped out his blade in an iatjustu technique.
Koy managed to move his head just in time to avoid the blade that would split it in half, the blade that had outright broke against the chain, the blade that otherwise would've sliced through such an object at the momentum he'd built up. Koy was to efficient to dwell on it and whipped the rest of the blade and hilt at X-san and followed behind it. The hilt was struck away by Lita's katana and Koy stopped in his tracks as X-san pulled the chain tighter, causing Lita to drop to the floor and scream in pain. Reacting purely on instinct Koy grabbed the chain, which caused the spikes to pierce his hands, and then gave an extremely strong pull to send X-san in his direction.
There was, naturally, no real way to react to Koy's pull and X-san felt the mask dig into his face when the fist contacted him. He felt the first few relatively soft blows to his stomach, ones that hurt hellishly, followed by a kick upwards. Grabbing the chain again a sharp tug failed to sever it, rather it just worked against X-san again, who was treated to another series of blows aimed at his torso before Koy grabbed his mask and shoved him underwater, moving to grab his neck. Koy was satisfied at the failing, Lita, slowly trying to rid herself of the suddenly loose chain, very slowly however.
Slowly the flailing stopped in due time as the submerged figure drowned, unable to even look afraid from under the mask. Koy slowly, very slowly let himself relax, yet held him there nonetheless, making sure. Sadly, his concerns were met without aiding him in the least. He could feel something sharp go straight through his body. The katana had been dropped from the pummeling he'd given the figure, but looking down suddenly at the kunai stuck in him he grunted in pain. He made another mistake too later for him to realize.
As he reached for the kunai it seemed the hand had left it, and the minute he reached for a wrist he felt another kunai buried into his neck. It was instinctual due to the fact it pierced his throat to reach for that one, not a choice as the last, but that cost him even more. The chain, originally having looked inert, suddenly glowed with a few runes as chakra was siphoned into it. Lita screamed in pain as it reached an unbearably painful amount of pressure, the chain having snaked around her again and also having bound her left arm in the process. Koy could do nothing when the chain, as if given its own life, positioned itself around his neck just above the kunai that had practically killed him.
Koy looked up breathlessly at his opponent, who had blood seeping out of his mask, indicating whatever he'd done the damage may've been fatal. It was hard to tell due to the cloak which X-san wore. When he tried to let himself just outright standing on the water it occurred to him that he nor Lita were bound by their own chakra anymore, rather the chakra pulsating through the chain was what was supporting them in a stasis of some sort. It was checkmate, and X-san was going to rub it in:
"It was nearly noble, the amount of pain you put me through there. I wasn't expecting that from you Koy, such an underhanded tactic. Now I have to run farther! Perhaps had you not played games with you ninja friends and dropped the charade you could've dealt with me on the boat and you might've won. I mean, I though I was dead! I didn't want to drown, though, and, you know, all these countless years of studying seals counts for something. Thus I just activated the seals on the inside of this mask, played a little… oh, you know the works.
"So long hunting me, just so you can die. It must be depressing. Must you hunt nogitsune so avidly? Sure, reiko, who wants them alive, but people such as I? It's shameful, all I want is a good time on this world, it's not that much is it? Or maybe it is, maybe you just dislike me in some great amount for being capable of acting so free. Oh, Koy, Koy, Koy… what should I do with you, playing with humans to get your own means.
"It's sad, as hunters you're allowed to do what nogitsune do for free! You should just let us live so you can reap the rewards as well, then everyone would be happy. But no, not. It's all about honor, the old way of doing things. But, no, you're missing the point here. I have what I wanted, the Sharingan! At its peak usage as well. I have the chakra to spare, just imagine the damage I could do, my brother and sister! As kitsune this should be our playground, the world like this, not some sort of forbidden grounds, and with such trinkets as these we're ensured prosperity.
"Yet in all my generosity I know, and you know, that we cannot currently coexist. Though, I must admit, Koy, your wonderful selection in terms of apprentices is… is just astounding! It would be so generous to kill you and her, but… I'm afraid all these chase things have turned me just slightly bitter. I'm so, so, sorry. I tried reasoning with you, but now you not only get to be disgraced in death, but bear more guild on your shoulders. And you know I can be cruel, Koy, so very cruel."
Koy growled heavily, the only sound he could make with the kunai in his neck, then felt the chain get tighter around him and Lita. X-san chuckled and walked forward at a leisurely pace, and then set the katana on Koy's shoulder as if to knight him. Lita watched, struggling worse then before, as X-san raised up the sword and brought it down. The chain idly slipped off Koy's neck and began restricting only Lita as Koy's body loosely floated atop the surface, blanketing the area around his lifeless body in blood. Lita screamed in rage but could do nothing as X-san slowly began moving closer to her, picking up the slack that the chain slowly gained.