Operation HURRICANE Part VII
The fires around them continued to rage, sending out plumes of greasy smoke into the air. Wood crackled and a loud 'pop' echoed throughout the devastated outpost as a supporting wall of a small building collapsed, caving in the roof. Above them, high on the cliff, the lighthouse also burned, sending down glowing red-hot bits of debris. Naruto stood on the shore of the base with Yuuka, Komachi and Rat behind him, observing the surroundings grimly.
The Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, stood before him. His child-like face was expressionless and he regarded the destruction of one of his military outposts apathetically. All around him, and the burning buildings, stood his elite guard, the imposing blank-masked ANBU. Naruto and his small team were surrounded on all sides by a more powerful, larger force.
Team Sigma had been through a lot over the past year, but things had never quite been this bad.
"I asked you a question," Yagura said tonelessly. His voice and demeanour were- quite frankly- dull. There was no expression in either his tone or face, and here merely stood there with his arms folded. It was almost like he was speaking to a child. "Why are you here?"
The more time Yagura spent talking to them, the more time Naruto had to think about his options. He licked his lips behind his mask and took a step forward. The intense pressure of the other man's chakra continued to fall upon him, but Naruto had served the Third Hokage for years, and the sensation was not unfamiliar. He considered his responses as Yagura's attention was drawn to him.
"Orders," He answered quietly.
Yagura's brow furrowed and a slightly pensive look came over his face. "Has your village declared war on mine?" he questioned them. "If so, I have not been informed."
"No war," Naruto replied as shortly and succinctly as he could. His eyes flickered over the burning buildings, counting the number of TIDE operatives he could see- and searching for the ones he couldn't. "Just a mission."
"Unacceptable," Yagura stated firmly. "You will surrender into my custody immediately. Failure to comply will result in your deaths."
Naruto didn't doubt that.
"Why are you here?" Naruto asked instead, intent on buying as much time as he could. His fists clenched and he exhaled noisily. "You shouldn't be anywhere near the mainland."
"The Resistance, despite their annoyance, can be a useful source of information," Yagura informed them emotionlessly. Something glittered behind his eyes. "Your presence in my lands has not gone unnoticed, Leaf-Nin."
Naruto held himself rigidly, feeling a familiar well of frustration and dread rise upon from within.
They'd been sold out.
Yagura took a step forward and the pressure that had settled around them intensified. "This will be your last chance. Surrender peacefully. Your lives still may be spared."
Spared so that they might be bartering chips used against Konoha. Spared for interrogation and torture. Spared so they might find themselves in the brutal grip of the Bloody Mist.
Naruto folded the chakra in on himself four times and expelled it from his tenketsu in a single, continuous wave. The air around them crackled and popped as Naruto's potent chakra forced Yagura's away, and the ground and water around them shuddered and rippled under the strain of hosting such powerful energies. Yagura blinked, and for a moment Naruto thought he looked slightly surprised. He took another step forward.
"You know we won't surrender," he retorted firmly. He gestured at the Fourth Mizukage with one hand, while he brought his other hand behind his back. "Why don't you let me make that offer to you? Walk away, Yagura, and you might just live."
Yagura stared back, seemingly unimpressed.
At the same time, Naruto wiggled his fingers behind him, using a shorthanded variant of the ANBU hand-code.
: Retreat southwest towards Wall – I will hold them off – wait for signal :
But before Naruto could do anything more, movement flickered into existence in front of him and a single TIDE operative was kneeling before the Fourth Mizukage. Yagura cocked his head and regarded his loyal soldier.
"Report."
"Milord, a small merchant caravan has left the Bloody Cove and is making its way to The Wall," the woman said.
It took a moment for Naruto to recognise her as the woman who his squad had encountered on their first trip to The Wall, the one who had cut down the refugees fleeing towards them. Yagura took the news with a slight nod.
"Take Squads 1, 2 and 5 with you," he ordered. "And find them. At the very least, they have disobeyed emergency protocol." He turned to assess Naruto carefully. Then, he said, "Once you have found them, kill them all."
The woman nodded and made a series of unfamiliar gestures. Almost immediately, about ten of the black-robed operatives surrounding them disappeared from sight. Naruto could only hope that the rest of Team Sigma was able to reach The Wall in time.
"Now then," Yagura began, but Naruto wasn't paying any attention.
The sudden departure of shinobi had opened a path, if only briefly, and given Naruto a chance to act. In the split-second before the rest of the formation moved to fill the gaps of their departed comrades, Naruto let the chakra that he was pumping into the surroundings grow. A sudden intense pulse of chakra shot through the air as Naruto brought his hands together.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!
Fire Release: Great Wave of Flame!
Fire Release: Blazing River!
Fire Release: Soaring Flame Bullets!
Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet Technique!
Naruto had never stacked so many techniques simultaneously, and he had never done so with just himself and without any clones to assist. Nonetheless, he had several things going for him. Firstly, his chakra was all around him, spread through the ground and the rubble and the fires that raged around the outpost. That put less of a strain on his body. Secondly, all of the techniques were of the same elemental type, which made the formation of the chakra within his body much easier.
Thirdly, his teammates were in danger. It had to work!
Yagura reared back as the fires around him suddenly raged with a sudden increasing potency. Plumes of flame rose up into the air and a gigantic wave five times the height of the Mizukage swept towards him. Air popped and a terrible boom roared over the village as dozens of streaks of searing balls of flame shot out in all directions. The ground glowed and turned red-hot, glowing rocks, mud and dirt setting everything they touch alight. One of the remaining buildings of the outpost simply disappeared as a ball of flame enveloped it, sending a rain of wooden and metal shards down on everything around it.
And then a thin, tightly-condensed stream of fire so hot and bright that it hurt to look at rose into the air. It lanced forward and tore through the concrete spire of the lighthouse with contemptuous ease. Bits of rubble and debris fell to the ground as the technique sheared the lighthouse in two, and suddenly there was tons of rock falling down upon the outpost as the top half of the lighthouse was separated from its base.
"Go!" Naruto roared, not even looking back. His tenketsu burned from the strain of releasing so many techniques and he grimaced as he moulded the chakra for another technique.
The fires raged unabated, a conflagration of immense proportions as the rubble from the lighthouse struck the water behind them. The ground shuddered and a huge wave of water exploded outwards from the collapse. Within that, a squad of three shinobi darted forward and moved to engage the ANBU operatives standing on the surface of the ocean. Another squad moved to the north, peppering the operatives with kunai, while a third and fourth squad moved west and south. Amidst all of these shadow clones, the real alpha team darted between the rising smoke and rubble and sprinted at top speed towards the southwest, toward The Wall and an army of friendly shinobi to save them
Naruto didn't. Their enemy was a Kage, and they would never be able to escape an S-rank shinobi so easily. Instead, he clasped his hands together and concentrated.
He has been ordered by the Hokage to survive, even if it meant blowing his cover. Besides, Yagura seemed to know exactly where they had come from anyway.
A wave of chakra washed over the outpost and water rose from the oceans to sweep the fire away. Huge clouds of hissing steam and plumes of smoke obscured the area, but Yagura's unconcerned form was still plainly visible.
Naruto reached down within him and drew on the power of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. He ignored the sudden fatigue and darkness that tried to overtake his mind as the feelings of anger and rage and sorrow and so much crushing guilt that he had repressed came rising up with the power. The sound of rattling chains filled his ears as the mental representation of his emotional issues drank greedily from the foul power of the demon within him. Something chuckled darkly in his ear- it wasn't the Nine-Tailed Fox but something else.
As all of that was happening, a crimson miasma of power exploded around his form. The potent, dark chakra formed a visage of a large, sneering fox, and a terrible ear-splitting howl rose up into the air. Naruto panted and gasped as he wrested the power where he wanted it with practised ease. His teeth were sharpening, his fingers popping out of their sockets as they extended and formed claws. He could feel his lips stretching and his vision grew darker, but at the same time everything was more pronounced.
Two tails made up on crimson chakra swished behind him as Naruto pressed down on the ground and launched himself at the Fourth Mizukage with everything he had. Emerging through the smoke and steam, Naruto caught a single glimpse of the first true emotion the Mizukage had displayed- shock. Then his fist, wreathed in crimson fire, lashed up to take the man's head from his shoulders.
The Mizukage, despite his surprise, reacted smoothly as he reached for the long, hooked staff from his back and swung it at Naruto's face. It was a counterattack done in less than a second, and the cool metal of the back of the staff struck him in the cheek with incredible force. The miasma of chakra around him dampened the blow, but the force behind it was enough to send Naruto skidding sideways and he batted aside. He skidded along the ground and slammed into the fiery remains of a building by the pier. The building collapsed as Naruto tore through the walls and disappeared into the fire.
A roar filled the air as Naruto emerged from the building a second later. His cheek had been split open and blood dribbled down onto the ground, curdling, blackening and disappearing as the potent chakra around him boiled it. His jawbone was visible, but even as he stood there, the skin began to kit itself back together. Naruto was panting as he glared at the Mizukage.
Directing and controlling the chakra of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox were two different things. You couldn't really control it as such. It reacted on instinct and impulse. Naruto would have a problem and the chakra would seek to resolve that problem in a variety of different ways. These flashes of insight were incredibly difficult to predict or plan, and instead came to Naruto as he needed to do it. As such, all he had to do was direct the chakra to a specific goal and unleash the power on it.
The goal here: Kill the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura.
The chakra bubbled and boiled around him as Naruto launched himself at Yagura again. Yagura slid into a two-handed stance and the staff flashed as it lashed out at Naruto. The young Jinchuuriki dodged and lashed out with a strike of his clawed hand, which was blocked by the back end of the staff. The claws ran down the metal staff and sparks flew through the air as he gouged a single scratch into it.
Amidst the ruins of the outpost and the battle between shadow clones and TIDE operatives, Uzumaki Naruto engaged in combat with one of the Five Kage of the Hidden Villages.
Bravo Team had left The Bloody Cove right on time, ushered through the gates with expediency as whatever people Terumi Mei had put into place played their roles perfectly. They were given another cursory inspection, but then quietly let through. Squads of loyal Kiri-Nin sped towards the south, and Sasuke could see smoke rising up into the air as the Resistance-Nin began their attack. Naruto was somewhere in the north, razing another. Between the dual attacks, plus trouble on the archipelago, the Kiri-Nin would hopefully be too occupied to notice that a caravan had left and never returned.
There were six wagons, each pulled by a horse, and they lumbered on the rocky, flat road. The trees and foliage around them was all dead, the ground salted and the plants destroyed so that nobody would be able to sneak up on them. It was an effective measure considering they were bordering the Land of Fire, where Leaf-Nin were quite adept at using the vast forests there to camouflage their movements. It also meant that Bravo team had an unhindered view of the surroundings.
Sasuke stood to the left of one of the wagons, his sharingan spinning on at random intervals as he kept his eyes peeled for pursuers. Kage took the lead with the Resistance-Nin team leader, a woman with large black bangs covering her eyes. Daichi stood on top of the middle wagon, doing the same thing as Sasuke with his byakugan. Even though he appreciated his eyes, Sasuke couldn't help but feel that the byakugan was infinitely more useful on missions such as these.
He suddenly shivered. There was a chill in the air, and it was making the hair on the back of his neck stand up on end. Despite the warm sun beaming down on them, Sasuke could feel his limbs shaking. He eyed his arm, blinking in languid fascination as it shivered uncontrollably, and he was barely aware that he had stopped moving.
The whole caravan had. The shinobi there stared to the north-east, and Sasuke raised his eyes to gaze at the far horizon as well. In the distance, plumes of smoke were rising up into the sky. The wind howled around them, but the breeze was soft on his skin. Then, Sasuke activated the sharingan.
It was as if a blanket of cold terror had been swept off of him. There was a horrible, foul power radiating throughout the air.
"Shit," Kage muttered. He turned to his Resistance counterpart. "That's a problem," he told her grimly.
"Is that…" she began.
"Contact!" Daichi interrupted loudly. "Northeast- approaching rapidly and fanning out to surround us! Kiri ANBU!"
Sasuke stiffened in alarm and he whirled around. There was nothing he could see at the moment, but he trusted his teammate's eyes. There was a fluster of movement at the front as the Resistance team leader jumped up to where Daichi was standing.
"How many?" She demanded hoarsely.
"I count eleven," Daichi replied evenly. "Four squads of two and a squad of three."
The Resistance-Nin whirled around. "Kiri, Junko, Shiro! Form up!" She turned to Kage, who had joined her. "We'll go out and meet them," she told him quickly. "You get the refugees to The Wall."
"Understood," Kage gave her a brief nod.
He turned to the wagons as the Resistance Team sped off to intercept their pursuers. They had been loaded so that only the second one carrier all of the barrels that the refugees had hidden in. Several of the refugees played the parts of merchants and many of them had paled, looking fearful and frightened.
"We're going to split the wagons up," Kage ordered. "Secure the reins and then whip the horses into running at top speed. You'll join our wagon and hopefully the ruse will buy us some time. Go!"
The civilians burst into movement as they jostled around the wagons, setting things up. A few moments later, five of the six wagons shot out away from them as the horses galloped forward at top speeds. One went down the road they were on as Kage led the wagon over the rocky ground, but still in the direction of The Wall.
"Fall in, move out!" Kage ordered and the wagon began to move quickly.
They ran for at least five minutes. Behind them, a series of small pops burst into existence, explosions and the sounds of fighting beginning to rise in the air. A heavy mist was settling down on the area as the Resistance Team fought against superior numbers to hold them back.
"The enemy has been stalled, but several have moved around the Resistance-Nin and are still pursing us!" Daichi called out as he monitored the situation with his Byakugan. "They're splitting up to check the other wagons, but it won't take long to catch up, and two of them are heading our way!"
"Towa, come with me. Daichi, you're in charge. Keep moving towards The Wall!" Kage ordered briskly.
The older ANBU left with Towa following behind him as Daichi and Sasuke urged the wagon onwards as fast as they could.
In the first fifteen seconds of combat, Naruto and Yagura had exchanged over fifty blows. Naruto had manifested the power of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, but he was being slowly overwhelmed by the Mizukage's offense. The other man was barely as tall as Naruto was, but he wielded his staff expertly, possibly even better than anything Naruto had ever seen Sarutobi do. His crimson miasma clashed on the metal again and again as Naruto whirled around the enemy, hands, feet and tails lashing out at every angle.
Yagura blocked, ducked and side-stepped, countered and moved in, only for Naruto to retreat, pause and advance once more in a never-ending cycle of attack and counterattack. Stray memories began to filter in as the TIDE operatives quickly overwhelmed his shadow clones, and Naruto pressed the attack furiously. Yagura blocked with his staff, a dull metal clang echoing amidst all of the crackling fires and continuing secondary explosions, and then he brought the staff down to bash Naruto in the head. Naruto avoided the blow, but the staff turned and the hook at the front end caught him by the edge of his body armour. He was yanked forward and it was only his reflexes that saved his skull from being caved in as Yagura unleashed a devastating blow with the other end of his staff.
Naruto felt a growl in the back of his throat, but his mind- bombarded with negative emotions and the constant, maddening sound of rattling chains- was relatively clear. He had practised and trained this form with Jiraiya, and he knew the limits of his control and direction. His two tails extended and his lashed out at Yagura, who jumped back. A second later, the tails extended around two burning stumps of wood- far larger and heavier than anything he could have carried by himself- and they hurled the rubble at Yagura with ease.
Yagura blocked one with his staff, but the impact the sent him skidding back on the sand. The other one soared over his head and crashed into a building behind him, shattering brick, wood and glass. He gave Naruto a measuring look as the Jinchuuriki began to hurl more and more stuff at him.
"How unnecessary," the Mizukage scoffed.
He brandished his staff and water formed in front of him, a large, flat circular pool coming at the end of his staff. It formed a reflective mirror of water which hooked on to the end of his staff. Naruto hurled another piece of debris at him, a chunk of blackened concrete, and then another, a piece of burning wood. Yagura stood where he was and something flashed from his mirror, shooting forward and destroying both pieces of debris. Water splashed to the ground where the objects had collided.
The same thing happened for the next half-a-dozen pieces of rubble that Naruto hurled at him. The ANBU Captain felt the chakra rumbling in the back of his throat, expressing his dissatisfaction even as Naruto did his best to analyse the scene. His Jinchuuriki form didn't have many long ranged options, but he had already experienced how the other Jinchuuriki was stronger and faster than he was. He wasn't going to be able to beat Yagura in close-combat, especially while he had a much longer range than him courtesy of his staff.
He also didn't want to get into a ninjutsu match with the Kage of the Village Hidden in Mist while he was standing right next to a body of water.
Naruto felt heat burning at the back of his throat and he focused the chakra of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. Fire spilled from his lips and mouth as Naruto reared his head back and spat out a single streak of condensed demonic chakra. It surged forward, but was countered by the mirror as something shot out to intercept it.
Naruto grinned, a somewhat manic look, focussed the chakra in his throat and then spout of more and more streaks of fire. One became a dozen became a hundred became a thousand, a constant, unceasing barrage of fire that peppered Yagura without pause. The mirror shimmered as it countered each streak with a watery reflection, and fire and water met in a spectacular hiss of boiling water and scalding air. A steamy haze began to rise and the humidity went up, obscuring the distance between the two Jinchuuriki even as Naruto continued to spray fiery streaks of dense chakra at Yagura.
Then, as the steam rose and hid all from view, it abruptly stopped. Yagura paused for a moment, waiting, and then walked calmly out of the steam. His elite ANBU joined him, kneeling down in a semi-circle around him.
"Go and get him," he ordered.
"Yes, Mizukage-sama!" they intoned and disappeared in a flicker of movement.
Naruto was panting as he fed the chakra of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox into his limbs, pushing them past their limits as he sprinted past the burning wreckage of the outpost and out towards the desolate forests with their twisted, dead trees. He was heading in the opposite direction of the wall, further away from his team to give them as much time to escape as possible. His mind raced as he bounded past rocks and fallen logs.
He would keep them occupied for five more minutes, and then he was going to turn and flee right into the Land of Fire. His identity would have undoubtedly been compromised and Yagura would connect the dots. What happened afterwards would be something to worry about after his escape.
He turned to gaze behind him, crimson eyes narrowed as he spotted the pursuit of the TIDE operatives. He spat out more fire and it licked against the dead bark and branches of the forest around him, and within seconds a wildfire burned uncontrollably all around him. Two black figures darted past the flames to approach him, but Naruto turned and used his two tails to push him forwards, avoiding their tightly-compressed water bullets. They smacked on the ground, leaving visible dents. A second later, a dome of water rose above and around Naruto, trying to entrap him, but he broke free with little effort. He gathered his chakra and roared, a loud, bestial sound, and the very force of his voice pushed everything within a five metre radius away from him.
Smoke tickled his sensitive nose, but the rest of Naruto's body was burning and it mattered little to him. He approached the nearest TIDE operative and swiped his hand, ready to take off his head. The man was faster, or he had great reflexes, because he dodged the swipe and delivered a devastating kick to Naruto's stomach. Naruto gasped, eyes bulging, but recovered almost instantly and roared at the man. The force of his voice pushed him back and he went tumbling and skidding over the ground, disappearing into the wildfires that surrounded him.
The chains rattled noisily in his ears, and Naruto growled in annoyance. Then, a second later, the second TIDE operative darted towards him. Glowing yellow chakra lit up her fingertips and something had been written on his hand. Naruto jumped up and avoided the palm thrust, using his tail on a nearby tree to swing away. He saw the woman miss, her palm striking a rock, and glowing yellow fuinjutsu wrapped around the rock like chains.
Suddenly, darkness blotted out the forest. Naruto looked up and saw a huge wave of water rising up to block out the sun. It was an immense tidal wave as tall as the Hokage's Tower, and it came crashing down with the force of a thousand explosive tags. The sound of roaring water blocked out anything else as it swept aside burning trees, rocks, logs and anything unfortunate to be in its path. Naruto barely had a chance to cross his arms over his chest before the water was upon him, striking him harder than any punch, pushing him off his feet and pulling him along the current. The crimson miasma surrounding him hissed and spluttered as the water boiled as it came into contact with it, but there was more to come.
The young Jinchuuriki was pushed along the tidal wave, his back crashing into whatever was in his path. His lungs burned with the need for air as he struggled against the power of the water technique for a good minute, before he manage to attach the rebreather to his face and took in a grateful gasp of air. The water was freezing and it surrounded him, but it was slowly receding as the chakra that fuelled it began to dissipate. The water level fell until it was all gone, leaving Naruto to stand on top of a soggy, muddy wasteland with nothing except the piles of mangled remains of trees.
Yagura approached him, looking faintly annoyed. He opened his mouth to speak, but Naruto wasn't giving him a chance. The chakra around him bubbled and hissed, and with a flash of movement, Naruto was lunging at the man again. He bowled over the three TIDE operatives close to him, and let out a giant billowing cloud of demonic-chakra empowered fire. Yagura swiped at it with his staff, the hook at the end glowing as it ripped the fire apart like it was a piece of paper.
"My turn, now," Yagura intoned.
A hazy, azure chakra bubbled up around him, and a horrible, sickly sensation settled down upon the area. Many of the TIDE operatives stepped back or retreated to a safe distance as their leader brought forward a cloak of chakra similar to Naruto's. Yagura's was of a different hue, but a single bubbling tail swished behind him. Naruto darted back, but then Yagura was dashing forward and he struck Naruto once in the stomach.
Something let out a cracking noise and suddenly there was a dull grey substance crawling all over him. The smell of salt and seawater filled his nostrils as the growth clutched to him, writhing and rolling down to his legs and up to his arms until his movements were impaired. Naruto tried to retreat but found it difficult, even with the chakra miasma around him. He was breathing harshly as he tried to break free from the bizarre technique.
"Konoha's Jinchuuriki, you are now my prisoner," Yagura. The chakra surrounding him bubbled away ominously, and he didn't even look winded despite a series of burns on the edge of his green cloak.
Naruto let go of the chakra of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox and immediately sagged against his restraints as a sudden wave of exhaustion and fatigue shook him. He had pushed his body past their natural limits, and now the aftereffects were coming through.
Still, despite his bindings, Yagura had done exactly what he wanted him to. Naruto closed his eyes and went limp, giving off an impression of misery and defeat to the enemy. At the same time, he reached deep within himself, close to the seal of the Demon Fox, but past it. Instead, he reached into the deep, dark pit that existed within his mind. The gluttonous chain, having snacked on the chakra of the Demon Fox, leapt eagerly to his command.
With a sudden inhale of breath, Naruto opened his eyes and chains shot out from his body, bursting from his tenketsu. They were a physical manifestation of the darkest parts of his psyche, and their emergence mangled his flesh and sent blood dripping to the ground. The chains were rusty, and corroded, several of the links looking seemingly fragile and broken. They let out a terrible clanking noise that resounded in the skulls of everybody around them, almost like they were letting out a roar of their own, and then they leapt eagerly towards Yagura.
The Fourth Mizukage was struck before he could react, the chains binding around him eagerly. They coiled and writhed against him like snakes as he stood a staggered step back. Less than a second later, five TIDE operatives lunged at Naruto with the intent to kill. But Yagura had either lost his grasp on the binding technique or it had been weakened with the emergence of the chains, because Naruto broke free from his bindings and managed to avoid a fatal blow. One sword scraped against his arm while another clipped the side of his armour, scraping against the ceramic plates inside. As he rolled away, his hands formed in a single hand-seal.
Detonate!
A series of explosive tags, dropped as Naruto had charged at Yagura, exploded in a wave of concussive force. The ground rocked as the Grade-1 tags tore through the dirt. One of the TIDE operatives was enveloped and disappeared, standing directly over a tag. Another two members went down as they were bombarded by a rain of debris sharper than and as deadly as a hail of kunai. Yagura was thrown off his feet, still struggling against the chains, while Naruto used the momentum of the explosion to roll away. Triumph flared in his mind at his successful ploy as he brought his hands together for another technique.
Arise, Titan!
The ground shuddered and rumbled again as a mountain of rock and fire tore its way free from the earth. Two large hands emerged first, covered in thick, oozing tar with veins of fire. Then came the upper chest, reinforced with slabs of thick granite that dripped with molten rock. Finally, a head emerged, a human skull made of stone with a leering, frozen smile of razor sharp teeth and two eyes sockets filled with flame. Its legs were submerged in the earth and it remained immobile, but it loomed up into the sky as large as a Class-4 summon, higher than most buildings. It blotted out the sun similar to how Yagura's water technique had done so.
Naruto stood on the head of it, and with a furious roar, the construct raised a hand and brought it down. The earth shuddered once more from the impact of the blow and a giant plume of dust and dirt shot up into the air as the blow left a crater bigger than most houses in the scorched dirt. The remains of one of the TIDE operatives would be somewhere down there, mangled and splattered beyond recognition.
Yagura had recovered, avoiding the blow by jumping back, and he was wrenching the chains away from his body. Many remnants clung to his body like slugs to a wall, but he ignored them as he glared up at Naruto. Whatever demonic chakra he had been using was gone, and Naruto was sure that it wouldn't be returning, especially with those chain fragments on him. Yagura looked furious now, and there was no more talk as he brought his hands together. Naruto brought the Titan's arm back up to deliver another devastating blow at the Mizukage.
As the house-size fist came down, Yagura brandished his hands together and a column of spiralling water exploded forward to meet it. The sheer power of the technique sent the Titan staggering back and water turned to steam as it met the fiery hand. But, the water technique was strong and the granite fingers began to crack as the fires were quenched. Naruto kept the fist up blocking the technique as he made a series of hand-seals. He layered his chakra three times and winced as an aching burn flashed over his tired body.
Earth Release: Rising Stone Spears!
Earth Release: Rising Stone Spears!
Earth Release: Seismic Upheaval!
Spears of rock burst out of the ground around Yagura, intent on spearing him, and the Mizukage aborted his technique. He batted four of them away with his staff and retreated as the spikes continued to emerge from the ground, shooting out as fast as a thrust of the spear. There were dozens of them, hundreds even. At the same time, several parts of the desolate, battered ground burst apart like more explosive tags were going off, shooting debris and tiny bits of dirt and stone all around them. Yagura shielded his face with his cloak as he leapt back, gaining some distance on Naruto and his Titan Summon, and when he landed his hands were twisted in the Ox-Seal.
Giant geysers of water exploded all around Naruto, giant twisting columns of water on all sides. Naruto gritted his teeth as the water began to crash down upon him- four giant waves from every direction coming together to meet him in the center.
Earth Release: Underground Excavation!
His feet sank into the Earth Titan and he dove down up to his knee, anchoring himself in the construct even as he adjusted his rebreather. The water crashed down on the Titan with tremendous force and the mighty summon staggered on spot. Naruto made several hand-seals again and layered his chakra twice, ignoring the agony that spread through his taxed body.
Wind Release: Great Wind Breakthrough!
Wind Release: Great Wind Breakthrough!
He brandished each of his palms out in different directions just as the churning, raging water came down crashing on the Titan's head. Huge gusts of wind blew out, meeting the water and holding it back for an instant, a barrier of wind against the force of a tsunami. Then the wind technique began to fail as water seeped through, dripping down on Naruto and the Titan's skull. But it had done its job, countering much of the force of the water technique, and when the water came crashing down on Naruto it was with the force of similar to pouring a bucket on his head and not a force that would crush him flat against the rock.
The water had enveloped the entire Titan, and Naruto could barely see through it. He was surrounded by it, the freezing liquid pressing against him warmed only by the steam that boiled as it struck the fiery lava of the Titan. He could see, however, that it was not receding, and it spiraled around in a never-ending sphere of motion. He looked down, breathing deeply through the rebreather.
Yagura stood at the edge of the giant dome of water, one hand placed within it. The Mizukage stared up at him and a pulse of his chakra shot through the water. Suddenly, the pressure surrounding him increased and Naruto grimaced. He tried to move his arms, but they were slow and sluggish as the pressure continued to increase and increase. His armour creaked and he could feel the strain in his bones. Finally, he brought his hands together in the ram seal and countered the pressure with his own chakra.
Almost immediately, the pressure around him subdued as Naruto lashed out with his own raw power, forming a sphere around him to keep the crushing weight off of him. He gritted his teeth as he felt the pressure beginning to return- Yagura intensifying his efforts. Below him, the Titan creaked and groaned. Large cracks and splits appeared in its carapace, the pressure tearing through the granite armour. The cracks were relatively shallow, but they were widening and beginning to get worse. Naruto tried to extend his chakra down on his construct, but the pressure surrounding him became intense and he relented, focusing on protecting only himself.
The blond Jinchuuriki glanced down at Yagura, hoping to see some kind of strain. Instead, Yagura had placed his other hand in the water and was focusing on something. To Naruto's disbelief, water rippled around each of his fingertips and five sharks of water formed. They swished their tails as they began to swim towards Naruto, intent on devouring him and tearing him to shreds. Naruto, his hand clasped in a ram-seal, desperately tried to think of a solution to Yagura's latest attack. His mind racing, he began lowering himself deeper and deeper into the head of the Titan. It was hard keeping the pressure from instantly killing him while trying to deepen the Underground Excavation technique.
The sharks swam closer and closer, darting through the water at incredible speeds as Naruto sank deeper and deeper into the Titan's head. Just as his head was submerging, one of the sharks was close enough to lunge at him. The last thing he saw before his head dipped beneath the surface of the rock was the shark's mouth mere centimeters away from his head. Then everything was dark and something thudded heavily above him. The crushing pressure around him was gone, shielded by the thick granite of the Titan, but it was continuing to weaken and groan as the pressure began to tear it apart.
Naruto kept his hands in the ram-seal, but refocused his chakra throughout the Titan. He used the Underground Excavation technique to keep moving through it even as he began to direct the Titan to move. The stone and rock around him was shattering and shuddering as he climbed upwards, travelling through the arm that was slowly but surely fighting against the pressure and rising up through the moving arm. Finally, he felt the Titan push through the thick, unyielding water and he burst out from the rock on the hand of the Titan, held above its head and over the dome of spiraling water.
Water dripped from his head as he looked down on the massive spiraling dome of water below him, his eyes wide. It was a devastatingly powerful technique, one that could end entire platoons of shinobi!
The water below him rippled, and then suddenly something was lunging at him! Naruto stepped back reflexively as a water shark burst out of the water, its jaws snapping towards him, and it was only the fact that he slipped on the rock that saved his life. Naruto fell from the fingers and back towards the dome of water as the shark soared over him, but he flipped in midair and desperately channeled chakra to his feet. When he landed on the dome of water, he managed to keep himself on top even as he began sliding down the edge and towards the ground.
Sharks leapt out of the water, snapping jaws and gnashing teeth trying to end his life, but Naruto avoided them with a mixture of water walking and just falling, his chakra struggling to stick to Yagura's water. He fell towards the ground, righted himself and managed to stick to the edge of the gigantic dome of water before slipping once more. The water beneath his feet, however, was beginning to recede.
No, it was moving inwards, forced in by Yagura's technique and Naruto abruptly lost his footing and fell helplessly to the round. He spun in the air, whipping around just as the water shattered his Titan's armour. A tremendous boom roared through the air- so loud that Naruto's hearing temporarily left him. A high-pitched whine filled his head as the Titan exploded in a shower of water and rock, the water dome destabilizing and exploding outwards with tremendous force. The force of the pressure and the explosion sent the rocky debris and water flying for kilometer. Something flashed at him and Naruto grunted as a piece of rock struck him in the chest. He was sent flipping wildly through the air as the force of the explosion pushed him backwards to a thirty-story fall with nowhere but the cratered, muddied and scorched ground to land.
He still couldn't hear anything as he hurtled toward the ground.
His body hurt all over. His chakra was exhausted. Blood dripped from his ears and nose.
Naruto desperately reached within him, seeking the power of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, seeking something that could save him. Rattling chains filled his mind, the only thing he could hear as they eagerly latched onto him, and he struggled against their grip as he sought out the Demon Fox. A single tendril of crimson power lanced through him and Naruto took it eagerly, using it to envelope himself in a crimson miasma of power just as he struck the ground with enough force to shatter boulders.
The chakra shroud bore the brunt of the impact, and it was the only thing that saved his life. He went sliding and rolling along the ground. His armour cracked, one of his arms snapped the wrong way and his mask shattered, falling off his face as he rolled along the ground, hitting debris, rocks and anything else in his way. A particularly strong blow to the head left him dizzy but his hearing returned, continuing to skid and tumble along until he finally came to a stop.
He lay on his back, staring up at the sky, his entire body aching and his mind just stunned. Water fell down on his face, dripping softly as the last of the water dome technique fell from the sky. It was almost like rain, and the sun beamed down on him from, thawing a bit of the freezing sensation that had surrounded him. Naruto let out a pained, gurgling rattle and rolled over. He was panting, each breath coming out in a labored wheeze, his eyes struggling to focus, and it hurt to move.
Nonetheless, he stood up, exhausted, wet and wounded, and gingerly cradled his arm as he turned, looking for Yagura.
The Fourth Mizukage was coming, walking with a limp as blood trickled down his temple. Clearly, he hadn't been expecting the explosive reaction from the Titan either, but he seemed to be in better shape than Naruto. He held the remnants of his staff, a single piece of broken steel, and one of his eyes was closed over, bruised and bloody. His face was set in stone, and there was a pressure in the air that Naruto just couldn't match.
But then he didn't need to. Yagura paused in his advance, his eyes widening with shock as a shadow loomed behind Naruto. The ANBU turned his head to see Terumi Mei standing behind him. Her wavy crimson hair swayed behind her as she placed a warm hand on Naruto's shoulder, smiling gently at him.
"Thank you, Naruto," she told him quietly. "You did well."
A man with an eye-patch stood behind her. He gave Naruto a considering look but kept his attention on Yagura, who had swiveled around to check around him. He was surrounded. A woman wielding two swords crackling with lightning stood with a large, bare chested man holding a gigantic sword over his shoulder. A boy no older than eighteen dressed in loose-flowing robes puffed on a pipe that was letting out bubbles, standing next to somebody wearing the mask of a Hunter-Nin. Chukichi, one of the Resistance members Naruto had met earlier, stood beyond them with several others, each man and women looking grim.
Finally, Mei stood in front of Naruto, radiating a deadly calm. There was no teasing smile on her face, no jokes, and after reassuring Naruto she had stepped forward.
"Yagura!" her voice boomed out over the cratered, devastated battlefield. "You're tired, injured and outnumbered. Surrender, or we will put you down."
Yagura looked annoyed. "Terumi Mei," he acknowledged stiffly. "What are you doing here?"
Mei smiled chillingly. "I'm here to end your reign as Mizukage," she replied. "This is the day of revolution, Yagura. Our forces are on the homelands overthrowing your forces as we speak. Loyal shinobi are subduing your forces and retaking control of our country. Today, Yagura, we announce that we are free!"
Yagura stared at her. "Bait," he said quietly. He smiled a tad ruefully. "Konoha was bait."
"I knew you wouldn't let it go unanswered," Mei answered. She folded her arms over her flak-vest. "You're far away from your forces, Yagura, and your empire is crumbling. Will you submit?"
"Don't you dare trample on my dream!" Yagura snarled. He threw away the broken end of his staff, his eyes wild. "I will end you today, woman, and crush your pathetic rebellion!"
Mei didn't look back at Naruto, but her next words were directed towards him. "It's time to leave, Uzumaki Naruto," she told him gently. "This is Kiri business, and you've done enough to help." She slapped her hands together as Yagura did the same, and the Resistance forces around him tensed and readied themselves for battle. "Leave the rest to us!"
Naruto, breathing deeply and with a wheeze, took a single last look at the scene. Despite his strength, Yagura was clearly not at his best, and Mei herself had been able to match him before. With the others, there was little chance that the tyrannical man was going to get away.
He was standing on the graveyard of the Fourth Mizukage.
He turned and didn't look back as he fled from the scene, even when the sound of battle began to rage behind him.
