Chapter Thirty Five

Suigetsu couldn't sustain the elemental for long, not if he were fighting members of the Five.

Killing Kasumi had been blind luck, but he was pleased at the way Sasuke seemed impressed. It turned out that she hadn't been able to fall into her shadow without being in contact with it, so once he'd gotten her off the ground she'd been finished.

Or maybe she'd run out of chakra, she must have been fighting Hyuga Neji before after all.

Suigetsu saw the pressure on Sasuke; luckily Juugo was keeping Hatake at bay. The boy was working overtime to resist Juugo's berserker rage.

Suigetsu was still irritated over the loss of Karin but unlike Juugo he wouldn't lose his cool. He was aboard an enemy vessel without any real support, he'd just lost his tactical advisor and he was up against four members of Orochimaru's Five.

But he was one of the Ninja world's Five, one of the Five Kages; he had to be able to beat these little whippersnapper sons of--

"Ahh!" Sasuke roared and Suigetsu's attention was torn away from Yukio--his blood spirit was an adequate defender--and looked to see Sasuke was losing his battle against both Shiroi and Kurai.

Odd that . . . an Aburame's insect swarm was tough but not invulnerable and the Hyuga clan had many shortcomings, especially ones that a Sharingan user would notice.

Was Sasuke up to something? Suigetsu couldn't chance it; he couldn't let Sasuke fall into Orochimaru's hands.

He sprang forward, willing the spirit to go after Aburame.

Cover the bugs in blood and stop them from flying, if there were blood suckers or drinkers it should still take them a while to get back into the fight.

He raised his sword to deflect a blow from Yukio, and then threw himself backwards; Hatake Kotaro had run towards him, leading an enraged Juugo along.

In such a state Juugo wouldn't tell friend from foe, Suigetsu's thoughts to cover Juugo in blood were suddenly not so brilliant.

Juugo was berserk enough from the blood on the deck, applying that blood to him had just thrown him over the edge . . .

He dodged and Juugo slammed into Yukio's sand.

The boy had probably expected it to hold the monstrosity back . . . it didn't.

Yukio had the sense to substitute out of the situation as Juugo tore his sand barrier, but the enraged transformed Juugo smelled him or something and threw his claw out, slashing Yukio's back as he reappeared.

With his sand still scattered he had no proper defense, at least not so far as Suigetsu could see.

But the blow wasn't enough to take him out of the fight, or kick him out of his avatar.

He summoned his sand back, transforming it into spikes which slammed into Juugo but didn't actually pierce into him. He roared and Suigetsu charged for Yukio with his sword.

He saw from the corner of his eye the flash as Hatake Kotaro sprang forward, Chidori in both his hands.

Yukio was trying to pin Juugo so that Kotaro could kill him . . . Suigetsu wasn't going to allow that, he still needed Juugo, at least for now.

He continued running for Yukio now intending to finish off the sand shinobi and stop Kotaro before it was too late.

He lashed out with the sword, the blade buried itself in Yukio's torso, the man dropped to the deck like a rag doll, his features melting back to those of the unfortunate but now permanently free host as Suigetsu realized his mistake.

Yukio had meant to be defeated, he was probably low on chakra and his body was already damaged.

So he'd used it in a manner that proved most useful, he'd used it to get Suigetsu's blade stuck.

With Kotaro oncoming Suigetsu had no options, he understood now that he and not Juugo was the primary target of the attack; with Yukio down his sand was no longer dangerous and Juugo should be free to evade Kotaro.

Which meant that he was bound to be Kotaro's primary target.

But then . . . he wasn't the typical opponent. Things like this could have doomed any other member of the Seven Swordsmen but for Suigetsu . . .

He simply took on a liquid form and with him came the blade, freeing itself of the corpse so that it could join the rest of him before he returned to human.

Juugo too was free of the sand that had impeded his movement and being a puddle wasn't such a bad thing for Suigetsu since being as close to him in a human body now was pretty dangerous.

He solidified his head and watched as Juugo sprang for Kotaro.

And the boy ducked low, thrusting both his hands out, it was still far too early for the Chidori to stab Juugo but--

Twin bolts of lightning shot forth from Kotaro's hands, slamming into the deck, one puncturing it and leaving a hole the other slashing across Juugo's left arm and knocking the much larger man to the ground.

Suigetsu wasn't pleased.

With a roar he resumed his human shape and leapt for Kotaro but before he could strike a swarm of insects engulfed him.

He coughed and regretted having shouted a battle cry because his mouth was full of bugs now.

Yomiko stayed close to Shikamaru-sensei, his shadow weaving through the throng of enemy sailors and forcing them to turn their weapons on each other.

Shikamaru-sensei's Shadow Puppetry Jutsu was terrifying indeed, Yomiko shuddered to think of what it might be like to suddenly find her moving to harm a comrade or be intentionally harmed by a comrade against her own will, unable to control her body.

Then again when these men had control of their bodies they chose to aggress against Konoha, Suna, the alliance, the young ninja felt little real sympathy for them.

She was careful not to throw too many shuriken, some allied soldiers were mixed in the throng, some ninja were fighting as well and she didn't want to hurt a friend on accident.

The battle seemed to be dying down, the enemy's fleet was split up and hadn't effectively attacked on their own, or so it seemed to Yomiko.

Though she was sticking with Shikamaru-sensei Naomasa and Kyoko were both off on their own. The enemy's fleet was made up of many metal war ships but also a fair number of wooden vessels, the wooden ships being cheaper and easier to make Yomiko assumed.

They were exactly the sort of thing that Kyoko, gliding overhead on her battle fan and directing however many minions she'd summoned to this fight could easily take out. Sink the ships and they were effectively useless.

And Naomasa's job was to make sure nobody killed Shiho-senpai, who'd been underperforming during the battle.

Yomiko's job was to guard their Sensei more or less, since losing him kind of put their nation in danger of losing the war. She wondered if Shikamaru-sensei had secretly taken measures to prevent that in the case of his death.

She had faith that her Sensei would have a way for them to win even if he died, maybe a manual of tactics for Shiho, or something.

But even so she wasn't interested in letting her Sensei get killed, not because she didn't want to test the theory but because . . . well, he was her Sensei.

Even if she was all grown up and a Jounin now he was still and would remain her Sensei.

It was like guarding family.

An enemy soldier sprang towards them; Yomiko's sharp eyes spotted the shadow that connected him to Shikamaru-sensei so she moved out of his way while keeping herself between him and Shikamaru. The soldier rushed past them and slammed his spear into an enemy Samurai, who in turn spun his katana and decapitated the man.

The battle on deck was just about over; the remaining soldiers were either trying to flee to lower decks, or surrendering.

But Yomiko could see the look they all gave her Sensei . . . looks of unbridled fear, they knew it was him who had controlled their friends, had controlled some of them, and he probably seemed every bit the demon that recent legends had made ninja out to be.

Nara Shikamaru: Konoha's Genius, Legendary Lazy-ass Ninja, Chief Strategist . . . demon.

Yomiko wondered what she looked like to the defeated soldiers.

"Scuttle the ship, Shikamaru?" Shiho asked.

Shikamaru shook his head, "Remove their weapons then leave them be, the ship can pick up any survivors."

"But the men aboard, if we let them they'll only rise up to fight us again." Shiho said.

"That's their decision, but there are a lot of living men in the waters and I won't leave them to drown without knowing there's at least one ship to save them." Shikamaru said, "They're our enemies today but they're also human beings, individual souls and many of them didn't sign up for the army, many of them didn't want to be here today."

Yomiko considered that. It was true that the enemy was largely made up of conscripted soldiers, she hadn't forgotten that . . . but it'd been easier to pretend it wasn't true. Thinking that she might be essentially executing someone else's slaves wasn't nearly as acceptable as telling herself she was killing off dangerous enemies who would kill her, her mother, her whole community if they had the chance.

It helped that the latter was true . . . it didn't much help that the former was as well.

But unlike Naomasa Yomiko wasn't going to let thoughts like that keep her from doing what she needed to do. She was a Jounin--okay a Special Jounin--and she'd serve her country, and her village in accordance with that capacity.

So she met the scared or hateful states of the enemy soldiers and just scowled at them, "You're lucky, Shikamaru-sama is going to let you live to round up the survivors . . . live to fight another day, I guess."

"That's the risk they take," Shikamaru-sensei said, "If they choose to come after us and ignore their comrades then clearly I made the wrong decision and they need to be wiped out at that time. If they gather up their comrades and continue on to their objective, whatever it was, they probably won't meet anyone as generous as I am there. Their best option is to gather all the survivors and return to port in another day or so."

He said it so the crowd of surrendered soldiers would hear it.

It was up to them now what they decided to do with the time he'd given them, they could die one way, another, or they could choose life not only for themselves but for the survivors left behind after this battle . . . preferably the survivors of both sides, Yomiko was pretty sure there would be some allied sailors or ninja who got knocked overboard, or who were wounded in the water.

She wondered about sharks.

She decided she was just glad she wasn't in the water.

Sasuke's Chidori cut through the swarm of insects, he knew that Kurai couldn't possibly have an unlimited amount of them and at the rate that his former student was losing bugs he'd soon be forced to resort to other methods of attack.

Shiroi had successfully sealed several of Sasuke's chakra points but not enough to really stop him or to make that little Jutsu of hers lethal.

Nevertheless she'd tried to use it twice already and Sasuke was being very careful to avoid being hit with it.

Shiroi was wearing down, Kurai was almost out of bugs.

It meant this battle was almost over, if Sasuke could outlast his students he'd be victorious.

Another victory on his road.

He sprang for Shiroi, she'd thrust her hand out to seal a chakra point and instead quickly used it to deflect Sasuke's Chidori.

She grabbed his wrist and threw his arm wide, his other hand shot out and connected with her stomach though, doubling her over.

She lunged forward, head butting him in the stomach.

She had a kunai, her hand moved to stab Sasuke in the gut, Kurai's insects chewed away at Sasuke, draining his chakra and diminishing his Chidori.

He was still able to raise his hand and bring it down on Shiroi's back, the lightning of the Chidori burning her clothes and had it been at full strength it would have tore away a portion of her torso.

Such as it was it still left a horrible burn that would never heal and would probably be fatal for her host.

Her kunai should have clattered to the ground but resolutely Shiroi managed to bring it up to Sasuke, she would have stabbed him but he substituted and appeared outside the swarm of insects, twisting in midair he blew a ball of flame that consumed both Shiroi's body and the bugs that had surrounded him.

He was starting to feel weak, many of those insects must have had poison, possibly a paralysis poison so that the Five could take him back to Orochimaru to have his eyes extracted or his body possessed, whichever Orochimaru decided to do.

But Sasuke would hold out just a little longer.

Kurai came at him, a kunai in each hand. They fought, Sasuke was moving sluggishly, Kurai was moving brilliantly, Sasuke had always considered the Aburame boy to be his best student.

Kurai wasn't too aggressive despite Shiroi having just been burned to a crisp, perhaps it was because he knew she wasn't in any real danger or perhaps he was simply that in control of his emotions.

Either way as Sasuke grew slower and weaker Kurai just kept moving at the proper pace.

Then a massive arm came and knocked Kurai off his feet.

Juugo pinned the other Shinobi and raised his claw in the air, the insects that Kurai had left--they had been keeping Suigetsu detained--swarmed onto Juugo but it was over the minute Juugo had the Aburame traitor pinned.

Juugo brought his heavy transformed arm down on Kurai's head, there was a loud crack and in an instant what was left of Kurai's features changed to those of an older man with a different hair color.

The insects dispersed, some continuing their attack but most just flying away aimlessly. It wasn't typical, Sasuke had been told that with the death of an Aburame his insect swarm would fight on fiercely, still defending their hive as if they didn't realize that their host was dead.

Perhaps Kurai retained some control over the insects over a distance and had called them away, Sasuke wondered if the Aburame bugs could make the trip across the ocean, then decided "why not?"

He fell to his knees and felt familiar hands on his back, and a horribly scarred arm thrust in front of him.

"Come on, Sasuke, before you black out!" Karin told him, "Bite my arm!"

Sasuke did as she said and he felt a bit better.

But he didn't take too much of her chakra, when he felt good enough to stand he shoved her away, "What happened to you? You fell off the ship!"

"And clung to the side," Karin said, "I decided I'd be a nuisance so I didn't climb back up until I sensed that it was over and you were hurt."

Sasuke nodded as Karin went over to Suigetsu who was leaning on his sword trying not to look winded.

"Hatake got away." Suigetsu said, "He just vanished."

"I sensed that too," Karin said, "He leapt overboard, went underwater then took off at a ridiculous speed . . . I didn't sense a summoning Jutsu, and I don't believe he has aquatic minions anyway."

"Got away on a ship then." Suigetsu said.

"Underwater?" Karin asked.

"Not that farfetched," Sasuke admitted.

"Wouldn't I have sensed the crew?"

"Not if the ship were designed to keep you from doing so." Suigetsu said, "There are plenty of Jutsus for tricking sensors, even ones as powerful and precise as you. One of them could have been applied to a ship."

"Then why did I still sense Hatake for so long?" Karin demanded petulantly.

"If it's underwater it'd probably have to surface before he got in the ship, come on woman why does my Chief Strategist need these things explained? In Kirigakure we've been experimenting with submersible war ships, looks like Sound's beat us to the punch is all. Next time we should try to capture it."

"Stealth submersibles isn't a good sign, they could doom our fleet!" Karin snapped.

"Yes, see here the damage they've done what with out utterly shocking victory over the enemy . . . Is anyone going to pull Juugo off that carcass?" Suigetsu asked, unfazed.

Sasuke put a hand on Karin's shoulder, seeing this as a good opportunity to gain favor without having to resort to sexual acts, "It's a concern, Karin, but nothing we shouldn't already be prepared to handle. Right now the thing to do is lick our wounds and get back to the road to war."

"And scuttle this ship," Suigetsu added, and waved his hand.

His Blood Spirit poured itself over the side, a moment later the ship shook violently enough that Juugo stopped pummeling the dead body of Kurai's host and seemed to manage to gain a measure of control of himself as Suigetsu ordered the return to their own fleet.

The Konoha command vessel was closest to them, and it was where they headed, depleted as their chakra was it made little sense to take a long stroll to the Amagiri over open waters.

Kotaro slid into the hatch of the submersible, "Captain, turn this boat around."

"Sir, shouldn't we get back to Waves?"

"No point. My comrades will have returned to the Emperor to tell him the news, Waves will be as prepared as it can be. I want to follow the enemy fleet. They shouldn't be able to detect us unless we surface. When the fighting starts in Waves this ship will be in position to start attacking their rear and I'll be in position to assassinate their head."

"Very good sir." The Captain said, and ordered his men to dive deeper and follow the fleet.

Kotaro was glad that the vessel didn't have any windows, he imagined the scene beneath the waves was a gruesome one.

Ships sinking to the depths, bodies being fed on by sea creatures, many of the bodies were probably sinking to the ocean's floor now too.

But even if the submersible had been transparent Kotaro would gladly have looked at the sacrifice the Empire's soldiers had made not because it made him feel patriotic but because gruesome as the scene might be it was better than returning to the palace, or some other Imperially controlled zone . . . since he'd come out to sea he hadn't forgotten anything that had happened, had forgotten little of what was said, his memory was . . . normal.

Maybe it was because it wasn't his real body, whatever was happening to his real body, his physical mind wasn't affecting his host body or his conscious mind contained within.

It was freedom . . . he wondered if it was the reason Kasumi went on so many missions for the Serpent Shrines, and why she was the one most aware of their problem.

Perhaps he and Kurai by restraining themselves had been damaging themselves . . . it was food for thought.

And while he could think Kotaro planned to.

To Be Continued . . .