A/N: Amsuhl has outdone herself once again with her amazing artwork! I received several wonderful pictures: a picture of Yugito and Shinobu together, a lovely picture of Riko and Gaara together with excellent shading, a painting of Freyja and Moriko together in a forest, a portrait of Katashi fishing, and an amazing picture of Riko and Shinobu together in a scene from last chapter. Go worship and leave many, many comments: her pictures really inspire me and help me get out chapters faster. All the pictures are linked in my profile. This chapter, like all the others, was betaed by the amazing AisCrim. Hope you enjoy the chapter!


Skin against skin blood and bone
You're all by yourself but you're not alone
You wanted in now you're here
Driven by hate consumed by fear
Let the bodies hit the floor

- 'Let the Bodies Hit the Floor' by Drowning Pool


There was one distinct advantage to traveling with Katashi, Naruto reflected as the team settled down to camp in the branches of a sprawling oak.

The Isonade, like all sharks, could tune in to the Earth's magnetic fields, with the result that no matter where they were, Katashi always knew which way was north. It'd come in handy more than a few times in the past two days: Kiba tended to get completely disoriented after a skirmish, of which they'd had ten on their way to the sea.

Naruto watched Katashi clean his sword, bent over it with a cloth and a small bottle of oil, the blade gleaming blue-silver in the dim green light filtering down through the leaves, the ripple down the blade mimicking the ocean Katashi loved so well.

He watched Katashi's fingers move in deft motions, hands already used to the feel of wiping off sticky, viscous blood and bone fragments. Remembered Katashi vibrating at his side like a chained wolf, eager for the hunt, secure in the belief that he was invincible.

He believed he was invincible- because he was young-

but no one was invincible anymore- not even a jinchuuriki.

"Katashi…" Naruto said, waiting until Katashi turned to face him, his eyes wary, "promise me something."

Katashi studied him, his brow furrowed, before he finally said, "Okay…"

Naruto leaned back against the tree, the bark digging into his spine, and tore the wrapper of his ration bar to shreds between his fingers. "You know how Noboru always tells you to slow down and be patient?"

Katashi's back stiffened, his brother sensing an oncoming lecture. Naruto closed his eyes and ground the heels of his hands into his eye sockets, muttering,

"Don't worry, I'm not going to lecture you. Remember how Noboru used to make me sit there for hours while he talked about different element combinations? After going through that, there's no way in Hell I'm going to subject you to one."

"You're the one that wanted to know all the combinations," Katashi said, grinning at him as Naruto opened his eyes. "So it's your own damn fault, anyway."

"I didn't think he could talk about it for five hours straight!"

Katashi raised an eyebrow. "This is Noboru we're talking about, remember? He could talk about a cup of tea for days if he had to."

Naruto flopped onto his back, groaning at the prospect. "Oh, god, he'd probably go on about each tea having nuances of toast and an audacious character or something, you know, the way he talks about sake."

Katashi wiped the blade down one last time before sliding it back into the sheath, the blue shine of metal disappearing, and laying it aside. He scooted over to Naruto's side, screwing up his nose as he caught a whiff of Naruto's aroma.

That was the worst part about being on campaign: the complete lack of hygiene. They all had one change of clothes, a bar of scentless soap each, and a bottle of shampoo each, but there hadn't been any time to bathe, and anyway there weren't any convenient rivers nearby. Katashi was the worst off, honestly: Naruto could only thank his lucky stars that he'd finally stopped having acne, because poor Katashi was breaking out like nobody's business.

"Oh, screw you," Naruto said, catching the frown and elbowing Katashi in the hip, "at least I don't look like someone rubbed my face in bacon grease."

"Ow," Katashi deadpanned, but he finally couldn't resist grinning. "You wanted me to promise you something, right?"

It felt as if someone had drenched Naruto in ice water. He didn't know what to say; he didn't have the words to express his fear that Katashi would see the chance to make a difference, to have his life matter, and he would grab onto it with both hands and…

That he would be so arrogant that he would think that he could take on the world, and the world would beat him down as it had beaten him down so many times before.

That his foolish, arrogant, adored younger brother would try to be a hero.

He took a deep breath, but that didn't help the festering knot in his stomach. "Promise me," and the words fell flat in the silence, too small to hold his fears, "that you won't try to be a hero."

Katashi rested his chin on his knees, arms wrapped around his bent knees, the posture of an abandoned child.

Sickness twisted in Naruto's gut at the reminder that Katashi, for all his skill and all his strength and all his stubbornness, was still only fifteen years old.

"I don't want to be a hero. I mean, I do, but not- not that kind of hero. Not a true hero."

'Whatever did he mean?' Naruto sat up, blinking. Katashi glanced sidelong at him, his voice softening as he spoke of the woman that meant more to him than anything else in the world.

"Rei used to tell me something. She said that heroes get to come home, because they didn't do something that was truly heroic, worthy of being remembered. True heroes do something so brave and stupid and amazing that they're remembered forever, but it comes at a high price," Katashi said, glancing sideways at Naruto. "She used to say, 'True heroes don't get to come home.'"

Katashi let Naruto loop an arm around his shoulders, leaned into the embrace. Naruto tightened his grip, his throat clenching as he felt Katashi's bones press against his skin.

Katashi's shoulders rose and fell like a ship in a storm as he sighed, before he turned his thin face to Naruto's.

"Promise me," Naruto repeated, and he hated the note of pleading in his voice.

Katashi smiled with bloody lips, the motion opening further cuts, the expression of joy causing pain.

"I promise."


On the seventh day, they came to the sea.

The sky was gray and brooding, roiling with storm clouds as they stood on the cliff and gazed out where the gray sea, marked with white foam, met the monochromatic sky.

"There they are," Kiba said, waving at a dully-colored bird that soared overhead, its eyes penetrating.

"There who is?" Katashi asked, bouncing from one foot to the other, gazing down at the churning water with naked longing.

"The scouts-" the bird screeched, folded its wings in and dove in a flash of beige, backwinging to settle on a rock, golden eyes harsh.

Hinata performed a seal, the rock shimmering for a moment.

A rope ladder, encrusted with salt and bleached from time, appeared before them, leading over the edge of the cliff.

"Akamaru, you stay up here, okay? I'll be back in a little bit." The nin-dog grumbled, butting his head against Kiba's hip, but settled down a little ways back from the edge, gazing after them as they descended the ladder.

Naruto went last, the wind howling in his ears, nose pressed to the gray stone of the cliff, pockmarked with wind and wave. The salt crystals cut into his palms.

He glanced down once.

The sea churned in a white storm at the bottom of the cliff, rocks piercing the surface like spears, the roaring of the cataract almost enough to drown out the wind. He whipped back around, pressing himself closer to the rock face, swallowing as the blood pounded in his ears.

Eyes closed, he inched down the rope, opening his eyes once his feet finally touched soil.

Two strange shinobi sat cross-legged on their pallets in the tiny rock cave, woven from the stiff grasses of the coast. One woman, one man, their faces worn and weathered as stone, impassive in the flickering torchlight, hands callused from rough living. Their clothes were ragged, stitched together from leather.

"Takumi and Manami are part of our scout network," Kiba said, plopping down on a nearby rock. "They've been in charge of this section of ocean for… ten years, something like that." Shino stood in the corner, arms folded, his hair plastered to his forehead with crusted salt. "Anyway," Kiba continued blithely, "what's the situation?"

Manami spoke first, her voice clipped with a strange accent. "Tsubame-" she nodded at the bird, which perched on a stick propped against the wall, tearing apart some hapless small creature with its beak, "-has seen twelve ships, approximately three miles out."

"How many masts?" Katashi demanded.

"Three ships with three masts, ten with two, and two with four."

"That's not good," Katashi muttered.

"How so?" Shino said.

"A four-mast ship is a big deal," Katashi explained, leaning back on his hands. "See, Kiri doesn't have much wood, and the surrounding islands are mostly rock. We have to import most of our lumber from some of the islands outside of our boundaries, which makes it really expensive. And a four-mast ship is the biggest you can get; Kiri only had two when I left, so they're really going all out if they're sending the best of their navy over. Probably about two-thirds of their shinobi are on those ships."

"In case you've forgotten," Shino said dryly, "this is all-out war."

"Hah. Hah," Katashi said. He turned back to Manami, leaning out of the way of Takumi, who went by him and hauled a rope up from the cataract below. Clams were encrusted on it, and he cut several off and started to pry them open.

The contents looked vaguely like undersea snot.

"So what's the ocean floor like around here? Shallow, deep, any big drop offs or reefs?"

Manami leaned forward a little, sketching a map in the sand littering the cave floor. "Two miles out, there is a large trench in the ocean floor that is approximately three-thousand feet deep. A plain is here-" she sketched out a curvy line.

"Why's the depth so important?" Kiba asked.

"Water pressure," Katashi answered, coming up off his hands to crouch above the map, watching as Manami finished sketching the map. "If I need to, I can drag people down far enough that they're crushed by the pressure."

Hinata winced.

"Better than drowning," Katashi said, catching sight of her expression, "and anyway it's really hard to drown a Kiri-nin."

Naruto joined Kiba where he sat at the edge of the cave, staring out at the ocean. The ships of Kiri heaved into view, black spots like algae bobbing on the water, their masts trees without branches against the sky.

"How come I never heard of this scout network in Academy?"

Kiba glanced sidelong at him, baring his teeth in a distinctly unfriendly expression. "Because most of them are missing-nin from other countries that escaped here after committing terrible crimes. We offered them asylum and assistance if necessary, as long as they scout for us."

Naruto got the feeling Kiba still considered him a missing-nin.

"And those two?"

Kiba rolled his shoulders, cracking filling the air. "Takumi and Manami?"

"Yeah. What're they here for?"

"They're from Kiri, originally. Had a connection to one of the clans that got wiped out- they were retainers or some shit- and went berserk. Flooded a hospital full of civilians, burned down a bunch of houses with people inside, then fled here."

"And what keeps them from leaving?"

Kiba nodded at the seals inked on the back of Takumi's hand. "The minute one of them leaves this cave, bam. Dead."

"And being stuck in this cave is better than being dead?"

Kiba's smile was sharp. "You know what they say about Kiri-nins: stubborn to the end."

The ships rose and fell, dark against the gray sky, and the wind roared like an enraged beast.

"Let's just hope these guys are exceptions," Naruto muttered.

Katashi made a noise of affirmation, then bounced to his feet, joining them. "Got a plan!"

Naruto rolled his head back, staring upside-down at Katashi. "Spill it."

"I'm going to swim out and transform, break the ships apart, and drown the ones I can get in the trench. The others are going to head straight for land; I don't know if you've ever tried running on the ocean before, instead of on a river, but it's a lot tougher. Most of them should be exhausted by the time they reach the beach, so you guys can just cut them apart. I mean, there's going to be a lot, so don't freak if they get by you. They'll all join up anyway, so we can just take them out on the way back from the coast."

"T-transform?" Hinata said.

"Some of the jinchuuriki can do that," Naruto said, very carefully not looking at her.

Just another reminder of how different they were, how much more powerful, and the price they had paid for that power.

"Oh." The sound of clams frying in the pan came from the back as she looked down, then up at him. "Can you?"

"I've only done it once," he shrugged. "But Gaara, Yugito, Katashi, and Noboru can all do it at will."

"The Isonade isn't as powerful- shut up, dick-"

"I didn't say anything!" Naruto protested.

"You were smiling," Katashi said primly. "Anyway, the Kyuubi's too powerful to go all the way. Shinobu transformed once, but she only got to five tails. She said that going any higher probably would've killed her. So Naruto could maybe do three tails, if he had to."

'Could you just shut up? I never wanted them to know in the first place, never wanted them to see what lives inside me.'

"Can we go now?" Naruto interrupted. "And where's this beach you mentioned, anyway?"

"About half a mile that way." Katashi pointed. "Pretty rocky and small, but it's flat, so it's where they'll head. They'd usually just drop anchor about half a mile out and let the shinobi swim to the shore."

His smile was fierce as the ocean currents. "But they're not going to get that far."


The beach was in a small bay, gravel crunching beneath their feet as the wind lashed through their hair. Boulders littered the landscape, moss and dead seaweed draped over them like dead men's fingers. Crabs plopped into tidepools, and seagulls stared at them with bright, suspicious eyes.

Shino glanced around, the kikai humming disconsolately beneath his skin, annoyed by the wind. "Kiba and Akamaru will take the middle. Hinata and Naruto will take the front while I pick off the stragglers. Katashi?"

Katashi glanced up from where he was already standing waist-deep in the gray water, his expression one of total bliss.

Naruto watched Katashi cup some water in his hand, an idiotically joyful smile on his face, and wondered if he was jealous that his bijuu didn't have any particular elemental affinity. Gaara knew joy in the desert, Katashi in ocean, Moriko in gardens. And while the Kyuubi was supposedly tied into fire, he'd never felt that all-consuming sense of peace the others seemed to have.

"Yeah?" Katashi asked, letting the water fall as he turned around, hair waving in the burgeoning storm.

"We need you to destroy as many of the ships as you can before nightfall," Shino said.

Katashi sloshed out of the water, his sodden pants clinging to his legs. "They were going to land after sunset, anyway; try and get in under cover of darkness."

"You're g- g- going to n- need to hurry," Hinata said, her face drawn and pale in the dirty light. "The sun's setting fast."

"I can handle it. It'll drain all my chakra, but you guys can handle the ones that escape," Katashi scoffed, waving away her concerns as he grinned at them, all teeth and wildness and anticipation. "I'll only have a problem if the Isonade doesn't cooperate, but that probably won't happen."

Naruto glanced at Kiba, whose expression showed his opinion of entrusting their lives to a 'probably', before he clapped a hand on Katashi's shoulder and leaned in, smelling sea-salt and sweat as he whispered into his ear, "If the Isonade refuses to give you enough help, tell it this:

These are the ones who killed you."

He stepped back, glanced out at the waves as Katashi squinted at him.

"What's that have to do with anything?"

"Just-" he blew out a sigh, raked his fingers through his hair. "Just use it if you have to, okay? I can't promise it'll work, but it should help."

"Whatever you say," Katashi said, turning away to start stripping, wrestling his shirt off over his head and yanking his pants off, his ragged shorts flapping in the chill wind. The black seal of waves spanned skinny shoulders, rippled over protruding shoulderblades.

Naruto reached out and grabbed him around the shoulders, bestowing a one-armed hug. "See you when you get back."

Katashi nodded, then tore himself free and ran into a sea that parted to welcome him home.

"How'll we know when he's transformed?" Hinata asked.

"Trust me: you'll know," Naruto said, watching as Katashi's dark shape moved further and further away from him into the darkness of the sea and the war, until he disappeared into blackness, waves rippling on the surface with each stroke of his webbed hands.

The ocean calmed, flattened, became a mirror reflecting the dimming gray sky, an expanse of silver metal. Waves subsided into nothing.

Silence reigned, broken only by the soft sighing of wind, as if the world was new.

And everything was still.

No one spoke, afraid to disturb the unnatural silence.

Naruto's fingers curled tighter around the hilt of his tanto, his mouth dry as stone, every muscle hard with tension, with waiting. Akamaru leaned into the wind, sniffed, Kiba's fingers curled in his ruff.

Then the sea exploded.

Water rose in a towering cyclone, a blue pillar of fear, and something primeval emerged from the depths, three tails parting the water, fins and hooked horn piercing the sky like blades.

The Isonade, blue-black as night, fifty feet long, rolled in the water, its fathomless eyes darker than space, chakra that smelled of darkness and felt to Naruto's senses like the crushing pressure of the depths whipping in harsh torrents over the surface of the ocean. Its mouth opened, bloody-toothed and crushing, large enough to swallow a human whole.

It made no noise, gave no sign of humanity, and Naruto stared into its black eyes but did not search for his brother.

"Is that him?" Kiba whispered.

Naruto nodded slowly as the beast sank once more, the sea returning to its natural state, the cyclone bursting into salty rain.

Drops landed on his face.

He licked at them and they tasted like tears.


Masaru's toes curled around the rigging as he strained to see the rocky beach, their landing site hidden from view by distance and the fading light.

"Fuck it," he muttered, springing back off the ropes and landing on the deck, the ship rolling beneath him. "Hey, Shinji, run and tell the captain that I can't see it so he'll let me borrow his spyglass." Shinji loped down the deck to go grab the spyglass, while Masaru jammed his thumbs in the loops of his shorts and squinted out at the other ships surrounding him.

The other shinobi manning the sides didn't even look up as Shinji passed by, too busy with cleaning their swords, sharpening their spears, yanking on tattered leather armor to test the strength. One woman muttered a curse as her leather tunic came apart in her hands, rotted from the salt and wind.

The four sails flapped in the breeze, the sound like the bones of a fish crunching between teeth.

The war should be easy, maybe three months, tops. It wasn't like Konoha had any sort of chance at all, considering the other Great Villages were all united against them.

And the war would be good, an easy victory to give Kiri back the pride that Kumo stole when they struck down the Mizukage and ground Kiri into the dust with their numbers, when they forbade the festivals and the language of the islands, when they took away everything that was the Kiri of his childhood.

A ripple passed through the people on the left side, the shinobi standing up, shading their eyes and leaning out over the railings.

"Do you see that?" Hibiki said, his eyes wide.

"See what?"

"That- that big black shadow. It was there for a second, then it disappeared." Masaru joined them, frowning.

"What's going on?"

"Hibiki said he saw something. You been drinking too much sake, Hibiki?" one of the shinobi jeered.

Hibiki snarled at him, wheeling on the deck and pointing out beyond the bow of the Youta.

"I swear it was there- thirty, maybe forty feet long."

"Could be a whale," the woman with the torn tunic suggested, sounding pleased to have something that wasn't her tunic to focus on.

"Whales don't-"

The shinobi on the Youta began to scream, the clarity of their shouts torn by the wind, but Masaru saw Hibiki's face go as white as seafoam, his mouth half-open as he blinked, seeming unable to believe what he was hearing.

There was a noose around Masaru's neck, and he felt it tighten.

"Hibiki? Hibiki, what are they saying?"

Hibiki's whisper sounded like the last breath of a dying man. "They're saying 'Isonade.'"

Shinji skidded to a stop beside Masaru, the spyglass falling from his hand as he heard Hibiki, the instrument shattering apart into shards of glass that sparkled like fallen stars.

"The Isonade? It can't be here, come on- Katashi can't- why would they fight for Konoha? Come on!" He glanced back and forth between them, skinny fists clenched, practically vibrating, casting fearful glances at the Youta as the crewmembers began to run for their weapons, several pointing at the water. "It can't be here. Right?"

The sea answered the boy's question with a roar, the Youta leaping in the air as something hit it from below, a horn- an all-too-recognizable scythe- tearing through the bottom of the hull, ripping a giant hole. The crew screamed, two flying through the air, arms and legs windmilling, only to hit the ocean with deadening thuds.

The horn withdrew, water flooding the bottom of the Youta. The beast struck once more, piercing the side and pulling upwards, rolling the doomed ship upside-down. Then it reared up from the water, black eyes- he remembered those eyes, remembered the way they gleamed with insane joy as the ocean crashed down over the mesa and swept most of the population of his village into the sea- dead as the water came up over the Youta and swallowed it whole.

Paralyzed, he watched the shape of the Youta disappear into the blackness of the depths to be crushed into matchwood, its crew into rags of flesh.

The entire attack had taken less than a minute.

"Get the bows and arrows! Get the spears!" he roared. The crew scrambled for their weapons as the Isonade dove, the beast disappearing beneath the waves. Masaru grabbed his spear and joined the captain at the stern.

"We need to evacuate the other ships!"

The captain's hands were shaking on the wheel. "We can't- all of our ships are full. Adding more shinobi will just make us go below the waterline. I tried to tell the Mizukage that we shouldn't load the ships so much, but he didn't-"

The Isonade leaped into the air beside the Kaede, dark eyes rolling as it came down on the Ran.

The small ship shattered apart beneath its weight, the demon smashing through the deck and hull straight into the water below, the crew sliding into the water, several unlucky ones crushed into pulp beneath the Isonade's bulk. The bow and stern turned up, slanted like mountains before the ocean opened to pull them down like the others.

The shark returned, rammed the Kiku. The two masts splintered apart as the ship rolled onto its side, water flooding the deck.

"Ropes!" Masaru screamed as the few escapees of the Kiku ran towards the Kaede. The crew tumbled ropes over the sides, the escapees grabbing onto them-

The Isonade came up from below, its mouth a giant dark hole rimmed with bloody teeth, one woman screaming as the teeth closed around her belly and ripped her in two.

"Pull!" someone howled, the Kiku's crewmembers plastering their feet with chakra and running up the side of the ship in an attempt to escape the Isonade.

But the ocean rose in great tendrils, coiled around their waists and yanked them back into the embrace of the sea, pulling the hapless people who had been holding the other end of the ropes in with them.

"Katashi!" Shinji screamed, leaning over the railing, his face contorted with rage. The Isonade surfaced, rolled onto its side to meet his eyes.

He could see hatred there.

"Shinji!" he yelled across the deck, scrambling to get across, to grab him, to throw him below. "Shut up! For God's sake, shut up!"

But Shinji shrieked into the wind, "You know Rei? You know what happened to her bones?" Someone lunged for him, but Shinji sidestepped.

The Isonade was utterly still, the sea flattening out into a mirror. Blood stained it black, planks of wood floating, a few shinobi clinging to them.

Shinji's lips peeled back in an inhuman snarl, "We dug up her bones and threw them into the sea! She didn't deserve to have a grave-"

Hibiki, taking advantage of the Isonade's distraction, hurled a spear. A whip of water lashed up and broke the spear in two, then the other spears that the crew from the other ships flung. Someone hurled a water jutsu, and the Isonade ignored it and the thirty paltry attacks that followed it, dismissing them with a flick of its tails.

'If only,' Masaru thought with a sudden clarity that only death could bring, 'we hadn't destroyed the Clans. If only we knew something other than water jutsus. If only we weren't so arrogant to think that the sea could provide everything. If only.'

"-and now she'll never have one, all because of you!" Shinji finished, his grin psychopathic with glee.

The Isonade's mouth opened in a silent scream of rage, the demon twisting and diving with a flick of its three tails. Masaru saw the crew on the other ships shimmy down ropes and start to sprint for the shoreline, the water splashing up in their wake.

Even if they made it, they'd lost their supplies.

Spray flecked his face as he leaned over the edge, searching for the beast below.

It must have gone too deep-

The Isonade breached the surface, almost flew, spitting a stream of water that crashed straight through three of the smallest ships. Boards and barrels flew into the sky, dark blots against the setting sun, then landed, splintering apart.

There was nothing for them to do.

But they were shinobi of Kiri, and they pressed on, throwing spear after spear, jutsu after jutsu, if only to give the people fleeing over the waves the best chance they could.

A few spears broke the chakra barrier, sticking in the paler belly. The beast's mouth opened in a silent roar as it twisted in the air, trying to get its softer underside out of the line of fire.

Hope swelled in Masaru's chest, even as his shoulder began to cramp, his fingers to shake with cold and fear as he tried to perform a jutsu. "It's beginning to weaken! Keep going!"

The beast crashed down atop the Aoi, pushing it down into the water for the ocean to swallow up, drag down to the bottom to crush, to leave the crew as food for the fish, before wriggling off the deck, its tails smacking the people that rushed it into the water, churning with blood and boards.

The remaining five ships began to evacuate as well, the shinobi's faces white as they stepped onto the water, testing it, before they all hitched their packs up and began to sprint over the waves towards shore. The Isonade twisted in the water, almost grinning, and snapped up three of them, shaking its head once, wet chunks of flesh sailing through the air, splattering blood across the deck, flecking Masaru's face. Shinji used a Kokuun jutsu, a cloud of water expelling black oil onto the Isonade, the oil slick around the creature a greasy rainbow cloud, the oil spattering across the side of the Kaede.

Hibiki ran to grab the lamp by the captain and sheltered it against the wind with his own body as he rejoined Masaru.

People were still grimly attacking, hurling weapons and jutsus even as the Isonade seemed to leer contemptuously at them.

Katashi had done that- had grinned as the boys tried to drown him over and over, even as the beast that lived within him prevented his death.

"Aim for its eyes!" Masaru cried.

Hibiki leaped overboard, his clothes flapping in the wind, balanced on the waves, and held the lamp up high.

"Hibiki! Goddamnit, what are you doing? Get up here!"

Hibiki didn't turn to him, his gaze focused completely on the Isonade, which raised its head above the water as if in curiosity.

"You killed my mother," Hibiki whispered, his words almost lost beneath the crashing of waves and the screaming of shinobi.

Someone flung a spear, and as the Isonade turned to deflect it, Hibiki hurled the lamp. It shattered just above the Isonade's eye, and the oil burst into flame.

The beast reared like an enraged horse as the fire raced orange-red like the setting sun around its eye, mouth opening like a great cave, before it dove, then leaped from the water once more, swallowing Hibiki up even as he looked up to Masaru and smiled.

Only his hand, pale, blood-smeared, remained outside the gaping jaws. It stiffened, curled into a fist, and then fell limp, disappearing between the teeth.

"Hibiki!" Masaru screamed even as he knew it was useless, that his friend was gone.

The Isonade circled the remaining ships, seeming to plot the best way to attack, even as black blood streamed from its eye, shards of glass embedded in the burnt flesh. The ocean slapped against the side of the ship, trying to overturn the Kaede as it had the Youta, but the Kaede was too heavy to do so.

Spears rained down upon the demon, piercing the chakra barrier and sticking in the sandpapered skin, black blood springing from the wounds and boiling the sea where it hit, the spears swaying back and forth like a macabre forest. The Isonade rolled, bleeding eye fixed on them, promising vengeance, before it sank into the depths.

Demonic chakra hummed in the air, a harsh cacophony that made his teeth rattle in their sockets, as Masaru stared out at the shore, shrouded in darkness.

A shoreline he would never step foot on.

But the others had, and that was enough.

"It's going to come back, isn't it?" Shinji said from beside him, vomit spattered across his shirt and chin.

Masaru turned to see his eyes, red-rimmed with tears, and squeezed his shoulder, seeing that he was young.

Heartbreakingly young.

"We'll be remembered," he said quietly, in a vain attempt to appeal to the idea of glory and honor forever.

Shinji's mouth twisted in a smile bitter as wormwood. "Yeah. We'll be remembered, all right.

As part of the biggest failure in Kiri's history."


Katashi found himself standing before a pane of glass, the seal of the Mizukage a white blot against the translucent material, his hand pressed to his left eye even as blood poured out from between his fingers.

The Isonade made its slow circuit behind the glass, endless circles, curling in on itself like the spiral in a seashell, three tails drifting side-to-side, the current carrying it along, a shadow against the gloom. Black eyes rolled in its head.

::Boy,:: it said in a voice of crashing waves and churning currents, ::why do you seek more from me?::

"Because it's not enough! I can't get those big ships with what little you're giving me!"

The Isonade, for the first time in fifteen long years, left its path, slipping through the water to hover behind the glass, its eyes impassive, its teeth white and gleaming, its sheer presence beating against the glass, against Katashi's palms.

::You think what I have given you is little?:: There was nothing in its voice. ::Power over the sea, a compass to rival the North Star, chakra that can tear three jounin to shreds? You would call these boons small?::

"If they don't do what I want them to do, then yeah, I'll call them little! I need more!"

Black eyes flickered as the Isonade's tails stilled. ::Perhaps what I have given you is all that I have to give.::

He slammed his fist against the glass. "God damn it, that's not all! I know it's not all, because if it was all I'd be dead! They desecrated Rei's remains, and I'm going to make them pay!"

::You think I am the Kyuubi, with infinite chakra to give?::

Katashi stepped back, folding his arms across his chest. "No. I know you're not the Kyuubi, although sometimes I wish you were."

::If I were to give you more, there would be only enough chakra left to sustain myself and you. So I refuse.:: The beast turned away, about to resume its course.

Katashi blew out a frustrated breath, shifting from foot to foot, before he lunged for the glass, plastering himself against it, the cold seeping into his skin, cold like the bottom of a trench.

"These people of Kiri," he said slowly and distinctly, "are the ones who killed you."

The Isonade paused, and for a moment he saw a small shark beside it, floating in a billow of red blood, fins and tail lopped off- a shadow, or an echo.

It turned, its eyes- if it were possible- even colder.

::The people around us now?::

'Gotcha.'

He did not smile. "Yeah. Them."

Teeth shone white in the shadows. ::Then let me through. Let me through, and I will give you all you need. Let me through-

And we shall show them what it means to drown.::

Katashi smiled, the glass suddenly yielding beneath his hands, and stepped into the shadow.

The ocean opened.

And suddenly there was no water beneath the ships, and in silence they plummeted through open air to the bottom, sails flapping in the wind, the shinobi on the rigging screaming, clinging tight as if to save themselves-

Wood splintered apart, exploded into shards as the ships hit the stone of the seafloor, people thrown from them, skidding across the ground, skin tearing off, bloody smears painting the gray plain, barrels and bodies strewn across the expanse. Fish flopped upon the ground, unblinking eyes seeing the sun for the first time.

And the sea roared as it escaped its boundaries, came crashing back upon the scene, buried the ships and the shinobi and the pride of Kiri beneath two thousand feet of sea, the churning flood howling with all the fury of the Isonade.


"Here they come," Kiba said. "I smell them."

"How far out and how many?" Naruto asked.

Kiba inhaled, closing his eyes. "About a mile. There's around three hundred of them, I think. Hard to tell, really- they all stink of fear."

"Wouldn't you, after seeing… that?" Shino said.

Kiba grunted vague agreement.

Naruto nodded, dropping into a crouch and placing his hands on the gravel. He felt for the earth beneath as he stared out at the roiling ocean, seeing the dark specks of shinobi moving closer over the waves, away from the terrible whirlpool behind them.

It was waterlogged already- perfect.

The gravel in front of where he stood turned into an expanse of mud, dark-brown and slick, becoming muddy water as it met the shoreline.

He could hear screaming in the darkness ahead, and took a deep breath as he pushed more chakra into the mud, pulling his hands back and forming seals, whispering, "Doryuudan."

Something stirred within the mud, spikes rising like mountains made of needles from the pond, followed by a serpentine head, eyes gleaming dim brown. The earth dragon towered above them all, its eyes fixed on the people running over the ocean.

Mud plopped onto the ground from its maw in an unnerving imitation of drool.

Naruto reached out with his senses, feeling the chakra signatures incoming.

"Two hundred feet," he muttered, reaching for his tanto and covering it with wind chakra, extending it past the blade, an invisible danger that no one would see unless they looked for it.

Hinata sank into the Juuken stance, her eyes white in the gathering gloom.

Kikai whirled out of Shino and up into the sky, a dark cloud heralding death, Shino's eyes gleaming darkly behind his glasses.

"One-seventy-five."

Kiba uncorked a small vial, a smell like rotting bodies permeating the air. Naruto's stomach disagreed violently with its presence, but he swallowed it down and crouched, tanto at the ready, Katashi's sword slung across his back.

His tongue felt thick and heavy in his mouth, and it was as if a steel band had been wrapped around his chest and was slowly tightening, as if gravity had grown stronger and was pressing him down into the earth.

The shinobi running at them burst into clarity, a few almost skidding to a stop on the waves before they kept going, unsheathing swords, their chests heaving.

The dragon began to spit mudballs, catching several of them in the face and toppling them back into the water.

One of the jounin opened his mouth and spat a wave of water, boiling-hot, sizzling as it raced over the waves toward them-

'Shit-' Naruto slammed his palm onto the ground and shoved chakra in, creating a haphazard wall of earth between his team and the onslaught. As soon as the wall erupted, he leaped onto the top, summoning clones and flinging kunai into their hands, the clones coating the kunai with wind chakra and taking off, racing on either side of the battalion.

The kunai didn't touch the Kiri-nin.

They didn't need to- the long blades of chakra did the work for them.

The water was dyed red with blood and bile as viscera plopped into the ocean like macabre stones, dragging the gashed-open shinobi in with them.

Kiba flung the pungent liquid out in front of him, spattering the enemy, before he joined Akamaru, his dog taking his form, the two of them crouching on the gravel, ready, low, twin growls rumbling from identical throats.

The first Kiri-nin's foot hit land. Naruto leaped from the wall, noting distantly that his clones had been destroyed, into the fray, twisting into a kick, before letting a bolt of lightning fly from his fingers, splitting out to arc from shinobi to shinobi, water boiling off their skin, the smell like cooked meat.

He would have vomited if he had the breath.

Hinata launched into a Sixty-Four Palms, limbs moving as if they were water, every motion fast, smooth, and utterly practiced, beautiful in their simplicity. One of the attacking Kiri-nins was bisected straight down the middle, the others backpedaling. It would have been comical, if they didn't move straight into Kiba and Akamaru's attacks.

Claws tore through leather and skin, Kiba's arm sinking straight through a girl's belly, before he ripped himself free, his arm dyed red with blood.

Most of the Kiri shinobi swerved, leaped out of the way of their attacks, sprinting for the forest, seeming to Naruto's senses like flickering candles, their chakras drained almost to nothing by their headlong rush across the waves.

Shino's kikai came together into a black cloud, diving, the shinobi screaming in horror as the kikai tore what little chakra they had remaining away from them, stumbling, falling, sobbing as the life drained from them, the kikai enraged by the lack of chakra to feast on.

Blood spattered across Naruto's face, and he shook his head like a beast, trying to fling it out of his eyes. His gore-soaked hair smacked against his skin, even as he whirled and flung a kunai. It sank into a man's throat with a squelch, red-black blood pouring in a waterfall from the gaping hole. The man's head fell back, too far to be natural, to the white rings of his spine in the darkness for a second before the corpse toppled over.

Another shinobi attacked while he was distracted, sword slicing across his thigh, ripping the muscle and tendon. Agony lanced white-hot into his spine, rose up it like a knife dragging up the spinal cord, burst in black clouds behind his eyes as he threw himself back. Blood fountained from his wound as he fell to one knee, rolled, gravel digging into his skin and adding more pain to his burdened body, tanto falling from nerveless fingers.

Hinata came to his rescue, touching the back of the man's head with her fingers. His eyes clouded over, black as night as blood filled them, before he spat blood-tinged phlegm and fell to the ground.

Naruto couldn't stop the scream of agony from breaking free, but he slammed his hands together into a seal and summoned shadow clones, these laced with unstable demonic chakra. The clones dispersed, each running after a Kiri-nin, reaching for them-

Exploding in crimson fireballs, the fiery chakra of the Kyuubi melted the flesh off the shinobi's bones, boiled the sea into foul-smelling steam, and left charred skeletons crumbling to the earth.

He rolled onto his front and pushed himself up, the Kyuubi's chakra knitting together the wound. It held when he stood on it, although he'd need to-

There! Katashi was dragging himself out of the water, his face white with exhaustion, a gaping wound in his belly streaming blood, but he scrambled out of the way into the outcropping of boulders, leaving the others to finish his work.

A two-headed, white wolf- Kiba and Akamaru, merged as one- roared and struck out with claw and fang. It crushed a woman's head beneath its paws before spinning like a white cyclone across the beach, slashing apart shinobi in the wake of its passing.

A man was flung against the rock outcropping. His head broke open like an egg, brain matter spattering the gray stone, but he-

He wasn't dead, and it was so sick to watch the way his chest rose and fell, struggling for life. Naruto spat on the ground, his heart slamming against the inside of his chest- no air, no air to breathe, no air to scream with, no air to give voice to the sickness of it all-

Screaming filled the air, high, thin sounds, ragged with agony, a girl no older than Konohamaru would be now dragging herself up the beach, the entire right side of her body charred, flesh falling off with every movement, and she was screaming for her parents, for someone- anyone- to help her because she'd gotten caught in one of his shadow clone's explosions, and he had-

He had just killed a child and the guilt burrowed into his soul with black claws.

Kiba and Akamaru broke apart, drained of chakra, but that was okay, that was fine, because most of the Kiri-nin were gone already, slipped away. Kiba caught himself on one hand, scrambled upright, and looked around.

Shino was broken and bloodied on the ground, his arm bent beneath him in a way that no human arm should do. Pink-tinged bone thrust from the skin into the air like the head of a spear.

"Retreat!" Kiba yelled, and Naruto whirled, hurried to the rocks, found Katashi sprawled loose-limbed, chest shuddering as he tried to breathe.

Bile rose in his throat as he saw-

The entire area on the left side of his face around his eye was a burned ruin, black and peeling, spanned with red tributaries, blood mixed with water smeared over his closed eyelid, the Isonade's blue-black chakra flickering, dim as a dying star, over the wound.

He couldn't fix this-

His brother might be blind, might be crippled, might die, because of him, because of his village-

He scooped him up in his arms, flung him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and sprinted after Kiba and the others, Shino draped over Akamaru's back as the dog limped on three legs, casting a glance over his back-

Good, the Kiri-nin weren't interested in following them, just in fleeing into the forest to regroup. Not that that would save them, when they had orders to wipe them all out.

And the skyline was on fire as the last hint of the sun cast bloody-red light over everything-

His shirt was drenched with sweat and blood.

There was water streaming down his face- sea water, had to be, because it was salty and warm and almost like blood.

And in the distance a child was screaming for his mother, and Naruto looked and saw that it was a boy even younger than Katashi, whose guts were sitting in his hands like a macabre offering, and he turned away and ran on, and every breath he took was a prayer-

'God. God, I am too young for this.

God, let me go home.'

But God didn't answer.

They sprinted on up over the beach, gravel rolling beneath their feet, across the scrubland into the welcoming darkness of the trees, a thin whine escaping Akamaru with every step. His leg burned like someone had cut open his bones and replaced the marrow with coals, his heart hammering in his chest.

"Guys," Hinata whispered from a dry throat as they entered the forest, "do you see them?"

Naruto skidded to a stop.

Black cloth, emblazoned with crimson clouds, waved in the gloom beneath the branches, pale eyes pinning them in place.

'It's them.' Weariness unfurled in him, dragging him down as if someone had strapped leaden weights to every inch of skin. He let Katashi slide off his shoulder, holding him up with an arm around his shoulders.

A silver-haired man- Hidan, the devotee of Jashin- leaned on his scythe as his partner, Kazuku, glared at them through goggles.

Kiba tried to straighten, but he was so drained from the Garouga that he stumbled forward, only Hinata's arm at his elbow kept him from falling flat on his face. Akamaru glared at them, one leg curled protectively underneath him, teeth glittering white in the dimness.

"Who're you?" Kiba snarled, struggling upright, teeth bared, blood streaking his face, making him look like a werewolf, some ancient spirit of the forest.

"Nobody of consequence," Kazuku said, his voice a deep baritone. "To you, at least." Black threads slithered beneath his skin, disgusting serpents.

Katashi's working eye rolled to focus on the Akatsuki members, his muscles tensing beneath Naruto's arm, a harsh sob of exhaustion whistling from between windburned lips. Naruto dropped his shoulder and ducked his head, letting Katashi's sword slide off his back into his brother's grip.

"To those dickweeds-" Hidan jerked his head at where he and Katashi stood, his scythe clanking with the movement, "-we're rather more dangerous."

"Naruto," Hinata whispered, settling down into her stance, "what do we need to do?"

He swallowed past the lump in his throat and the slowly building fury scalding his lungs as he met Hidan's eyes, the eyes of a man who wanted to kill them for no reason than that his psychopathic god demanded he do so.

"Run."


A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! All comments and criticism are loved, and don't forget to check out the amazing fanart linked in my profile!