(A/N) The new computer did not work out. After a month and a half of dealing with tech support, troubleshooting, and budgeting issues, plus (I'll be honest) a week of some of the worst writer's block I've ever experienced, I gave in and wrote this chapter out on my phone. After the stuff that happened the last few times I promised, I'm hesitant to make any promises about updates, but I can guarantee that I'll never let such a long time between chapters pass ever again. Right now, I'm shooting for one chapter per week, maybe more.


Alright, I'll admit it, Kame thought, the ocean sucks. Upon arrival at the massive expanse of water that encompassed much of the Land of Water, he'd had some decently high hopes. In fact, even walking up to the boat he'd been convinced that taking a ship would be a novel experience.

Unfortunately, the combination of remembering that he couldn't swim and realizing that, apparently, he got seasick very easily, left him where he was now: sitting on the deck of a merchant's ship, unwilling to go to the edge for fear of falling off but unwilling to retreat belowdecks for fear of throwing up. Instead, he sat there and wondered how he could possibly stay like this for another six hours before they finally arrived at their destination; a small island that served as a shipping hub.

There they would have to charter a ship to go to Orochimaru's lair, which was located on a rocky spit of land that was considered uninhabited by the Mist. The lair itself was accessible only by moving a massive, massive hunk of rock, easily forty meters wide and thick, a task that was normally accomplished via earth-style ninjutsu from within. However, in this instance, Kame was fairly sure that their ex-compatriots wouldn't be rolling out the welcome mat, and getting through that huge obstacle would be an issue.

An issue that he realized he would not be having time to think through, as a familiar and yet still jarring voice came from behind him: "Hey, Kame, how's it going?"

It's not fair, Kame whined internally, glancing back at his teammate who looked, if anything, more healthy on the ship, sea breeze tousling his hair. Awadatsu had grown up in a port town, Haku seemed too resilient to be brought low by simple seasickness, but Miriki… Miriki looked far too comfortable for someone who'd had exactly the same level of experience as Kame.

He continued with a hint of patronizing pity in his tone: "Anyway, I just wanted to talk about the fight from a couple days ago, the one against… what's her face? The six-out-of-ten?"

"Kirai?" Kame asked, then regretted it as a surge of nausea swelled back up and quieted him back down.

"Was that her name? Eh, whatever. Look: I think that after what happened, this is a good chance to talk about how we can work better together." What? Kame hoped his confusion was visible, as voicing it wasn't worth it at the moment. Is this seriously Miriki right now? When has he ever actually been serious about this kind of thing? "So obviously the problem is clear; you can't seem to improvise very well."

Oh.

Miriki continued with the tiniest little hint of a smirk beneath a mask of calm consideration. "See, the thing is, I came up with four solid opportunities for you to get her, and you only actually did something in… what, two of them? Maybe three? Meanwhile, you made one plan, and I totally figured it out and went along with it right away."

You bastard, Kame thought furiously, now I realize why the hell you started this. You just wanted to get this talk out the way while I couldn't argue back.

"Anyway, I guess the takeaway here is that you need to work on team strategy." Miriki's grin finally broke through- Even he can't say that with a straight face, Kame thought sourly.

"Shut… up…" Kame finally responded through gritted teeth.

Miriki reigned in his expression back to feigned seriousness. "Okay, fine. Look, I'll take some of the blame here. The important thing is that we make some ground… if we're gonna be working together, we need to actually be able to… well, work together."

For a brief moment, Kame's gut reaction was continued annoyance that Miriki was actually trying to take the high ground of maturity, but he quelled that instinct as best as he could. If he had learned anything, it was to stop judging Miriki of all people so harshly, and as his eyes picked up the slightest waver of the other boy's composure, Kame realized that this was new ground. He's treating me like an equal and starting a conversation he probably doesn't care about for my peace of mind. The absolute least I can do is meet him halfway…

Of course, he only got through a few words: "We need to… come up with… code-" and then the rest was cut off as he stifled a dry heave.

Thankfully, Miriki got the gist of it. "Yeah, you're right. I definitely need to make it easier for you to understand my complex strategies. Maybe some kind of code to keep the bad guys guessing?"

"S'what I just…" Kame made one last effort to respond and immediately regretted it, lapsing back into silence as Miriki just kept talking.

"Well, if we're gonna try to make something as endless as my skill simple enough for you to understand-" Miriki paused briefly and then added "No offense" halfheartedly before continuing: "So here's how it's gonna work. If I want you to attack, I'm gonna put a spicy taste in your mouth, if I want you to run away I'll do… I don't know, bitter? And if I want you to chill out, it'll be sweet."

Kame immediately thought of several issues with that plan, not least of which included the previously enormous chakra drain of Miriki using his kekkeigenkai. Moreover, those three options were incredibly vague and he could already think of many situations in which they wouldn't work, most obviously the tense negotiations of their fight against Kirai. If that kind of interaction, where Kame needed to know the actual details of Miriki's plan, were to arise again, then they'd be just as unprepared-

For once, Miriki's tendency to pick up on Kame's more… frantic thoughts didn't actually annoy him, although to be fair, it was likely only because it spared him from having to attempt to give voice to those thoughts in his weakened state.

"Look, I'm sure we can figure out something better, but we get to port soon and from then on I don't exactly think we're gonna have time to come up with something more complicated." At this point, Miriki's tone had become all business, the slight edge of humor gone for the moment- but it returned far more rapidly than it had fled. "Come on, this isn't fun. You're supposed to deal with the boring planning stuff. I'm sure you can figure out the details of what I mean from the situation when the time comes. Am I really that confusing?"

And it was that question that finally tempted Kame into pushing himself just a fraction too far. He managed to squeak out "Yes" before promptly having to charge to the railing of the ship and empty his stomach, even as the first little specks of land came into view.

( ) - ( ) - ( ) - ( ) - ( ) - ( ) - ( )

"Hey, Miriki?"

"Yeah?"

"I…" Kame hesitated one last time, but quickly overcame his second thoughts. "I think you should handle this one."

Miriki didn't even blink, he simply nodded and stepped off towards the doors of the tavern with Awadatsu trailing in his wake. Kame was left standing outside with a fair bit more confidence than he'd thought he'd have, but that wasn't saying much. Still, he reasoned with himself, if there's one thing I need to be able to trust him with, it's people. We need a person to take us to a place they think is uninhabited, and he's better than me at this kind of thing.

He tensed for all of half a second when he felt someone touch his side, but almost immediately registered the familiar pressure and the person behind it. A slight turn revealed Haku with a slight smile that belied a greater understanding of what had just occurred between her two teammates, making Kame feel slightly self-conscious.

"What?"

She ducked her head, saying: "Nothing. Just…" but trailing off before replacing the knowing smile with a simpler one. "Wasn't the ocean awesome?"

"Uh…" Kame genuinely didn't know how to answer that one.

Thankfully, he didn't have to, because Haku shook her head and laughed. "Kidding, kidding."

That proved enough to break Kame out of his overseriousness, and it also coincided with him realizing that the last traces of seasickness were, as far as he could tell, gone. For the first time in a while, he actually felt comfortable and… calm. Calm enough to look around the port and wonder "Hey Haku, do you want to go see if there's anything interesting here?"

She nodded and with that they were off. The island- Anzen, Kame remembered it was called- served as a sort of halfway point for travelers going to the Hidden Mist, and for that reason Kame noticed an unusual number of ninja scattered throughout the small town.

However, his ingrained habit of tensing up around legal shinobi seemed to be gone, at least for the moment, so when Kame noticed a weapons shop he altered course towards it immediately. Stepping through the doors, he found himself looking at a surprisingly pristine store, given the general grime of the town outside, and his pleasant surprise only grew as he inspected the weapons themselves. Everything was of excellent quality, good enough to cause him to consider actually spending some of his money (a modest sum that he'd amassed from various unrelated sources during his time as a Sound ninja) and making some purchases. The shop had three or four other customers within it, all Mist shinobi, which was another mark in its favor.

After testing the weight of some kunai, Kame's attention was drawn towards the back wall, which was covered by paperbombs that could be bought in varying bulk. A quick glance at the seals was enough to confirm for him that the majority of the bombs were of standard make, although towards the right end there were a few types with combinations of timing and trigger mechanisms that he hadn't come across before. One in particular sparked his interest: two bombs, set to go off with separate triggers, one atop the other. The first one is to drop peoples' guards, he realized as he peeled them apart to see that the second had a much more powerful explosion.

"Find everything all right?" A voice trailed from the shop counter, which brought Kame's eyes over to see a grinning elderly shopkeeper. "Ain't seen you 'round here before. You new?"

Kame blinked a few times before responding. "…Yeah."

"Good, good," the man said, stroking a long beard, "You let me know if you need somethin."

"Okay," Kame said, turning back to the paperbombs. However, his rebellious mind that was growing more accustomed to his new situation of being accepted obeyed an impulse and had him talking before he could think about keeping a low profile: "Sorry, I was just- uh, you have some paperbombs here that I haven't seen before."

The man grinned wider, seemingly happy to talk about his wares. "Yup! We got your normal types, 'course, but yessiree we do also have some more interestin stuff."

"Why?" Kame asked. None of the stores in the Hidden Sand had bothered to carry paperbombs of the diversity and complexity that this tiny island's shop did.

"Started with one guy, what you'd call a specialty customer, but I realized pretty quick that makin' these things is hard enough. Figured I might as well make as much money as I could off 'em, right?"

"Makes sense," Kame replied, finally letting his guard down and allowing the man's infectious smile to draw one from him in response. "Have you tried using different kinds of chakra? Changes of nature, I mean?"

"Oh yes," the shopkeeper said, stepping out from behind the counter to proffer a hand. "By the way, my name's Chorosi."

Kame looked at the hand for a few seconds before it occurred to him to shake it. "Oh. Oh! I'm Kame, Kame Hakiara. Nice to meet you."

Half an hour later, Kame was fishing out a lot more of his ryo than he'd originally intended, eyeing a stack of paperbombs on the counter before him as well as a travel set of craftsman's tools. Chorosi's ideas in some areas far outstripped Kame's own and his two natures, water and lightning, both produced paperbomb varieties that Kame was not familiar with. Although I will be soon, he thought as Chorosi slid his cash register shut and turned the ever-present smile back towards him.

"Thanks for swingin' by!"

Kame pulled out one of his three storage scrolls and released the seal, allowing the container within to burst into being with a small scatter of smoke. Loading the purchases into it proved a little more difficult than he'd thought, mostly because his organized dividers had no place for these brand-new types of bombs, but he figured it out quickly enough. Finally it was only the crafting set left on the counter, and that too disappeared into his pack.

Surprisingly, Haku stepped up beside him and laid down a few items of her own: a pair of boots and patches of reinforced cloth and metal that Kame couldn't identify. Her bill came up to less than his own, but rather than pack her things up she moved to put them on; first the boots to replace her own worn pair, then she wrapped the cloth- bracers, Kame realized- around each of her forearms, with the metal plates facing opposite her palms.

All of those thoughts flew right out the window when Kame saw a new customer enter the shop, recognizing first the massive weapon strapped to the man's back, then the distinctive armor. "Haku, this might be a problem," he muttered under his breath to her.

"Shibuki! You're late," Chorosi said to the man while rummaging under his counter for something, finally popping up over it with a large crate of what looked to be paperbombs. "I got your order right here."

Shibuki barely spared Kame and Haku a glance as he stepped up to receive his goods. Is it possible that he doesn't recognize me? Kame dared to let his guard down and start to walk out the door, only to have the paperbomb-covered edge of the Explosive Blade brought to bear inches before his face. Shibuki, still not even looking at them, growled in measured tones: "I'm on vacation, my one vacation per year, and I don't want to spend it dragging you two back to the Hidden Mist. Because of that, I'm gonna to choose to ignore you two, but if you pull anything, I will personally hunt you to the ends of the earth. Understood?"

"Under…" Kame swallowed. "Understood."

The blade dropped, allowing Kame and Haku to exit towards the docks they'd originally come from. Kame's spirit lightened when he spotted a familiar figure in white standing right at the entrance, and lightened even further when said figure in white spotted him:

"Hey, guys! Guess who got us a boat?" Miriki shouted, pointing towards a massive floating fortress. Kame had a brief moment to wonder about how Miriki had gathered that particular one before he noticed the man standing behind Miriki and Awadatsu- a huge man, larger than Shibuki himself, who was clad in a ragged coat that came down past his knees and stood there with crossed arms.

A few more details came into focus as Kame closed the final bit of distance: the man with Miriki had to be in his forties or fifties and everything about him looked grizzled, from his unruly beard to the rough and scarred skin of his hands. In addition, he had two massive metal things strapped to his back, although Kame couldn't tell what they were from his angle.

"Good job, Miriki," Kame said with what he hoped was a convincingly serious face, "Never doubted you for a second."

Miriki just smiled back with knowing eyes that clearly said, Yes you did, and that was the end of Kame's straight face. The facade cracked as he laughed, only laughing harder when Miriki joined in, but eventually he composed himself enough to incline his head in deference to the man, who he assumed to be the provider of the boat.

"Hello. I am Kame-"

"-Hakiara, I know," the man said. "I'm Shunsetsu." He narrowed his eyes in Kame's direction, but after a few seconds Kame realized the man was actually looking over his shoulder. Turning around to see what the subject of Shunsetsu's attention was, Kame was totally unprepared for a massive metal object to suddenly come flying from behind him, off towards the dock entrance, followed by a trailing chain that stretched back to its origin.

Only when it slammed into the stone of the street with a massive noise of impact, throwing up chunks of rubble, did Kame get a good enough glimpse to identify it as a ship's anchor. Slightly incredulous, he turned to see Shunsetsu with one arm outstretched and the chain going from his back up along his arm. A large hand grabbed hold of the chain and then Shunsetsu yanked hard, hard enough to go flying off towards the docks' entrance twenty meters away, while Kame could only gape.

"Miriki, who is this guy?" Kame probed his friend.

Miriki seemed to mull it over for a second, then finally responded: "Okay, he's a self-employed treasure hunter, and he agreed to help us in exchange for free pickings of whatever's in the base."

Awadatsu snickered at that, which set Kame's innate Miriki-lie sensor on red alert, but it was Haku who seemed to figure it out first: "Miriki, is the treasure that he hunts the property of other people?"

Awadatsu nodded, and it all clicked for Kame. "So he's a pirate."

"No, he's a sea-faring property manager," Miriki said, not a trace of mirth on his face. "In that he manages other people's property for them indefinitely."

Maybe it was just the general building gloom Kame'd been dealing with giving him more appreciation for dark humor, but that one got an honest laugh out of him- only for that laugh to stop when Shunsetsu's low grumble came back into earshot. It was now accompanied by a similar semi-familiar voice: Shibuki. "What're those kids doing, Shunsetsu?"

"They're clients. Be nice," Shunsetsu responded, which drew Shibuki to shoot Kame an infuriated look before speaking again.

"What'd they hire you to do?"

"Break into a Sound base," Shunsetsu said.

Shibuki turned a death glare upon Kame and said "They're Sound ninja, and they're leading you into a trap." He unslung the Explosive Blade from his shoulder and shook his head, uttering out "I did warn you" through gritted teeth.

"Now, hold on, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for-" Kame's protest was cut off by the Explosive Blade sweeping up towards him, forcing him to detonate his emergency Windbomb on his chest to send himself flying backwards.

It was Miriki who ended up actually managing to get through to the angered member of the Seven Swordsmen. "We're done with Orochimaru!" was enough to bring pause, which he then exploited to deliver the rest of the information: "We're done with Orochimaru- or, they are at least- and… okay, there was a lot of politics involved, but long story short we got sent on a mission to wipe out what's left of his stuff."

Shibuki didn't fully drop his guard. "You're lying."

In response, Miriki reached into a pouch on his belt and drew out a folded piece of paper, then tossed it to the man. Kame half-expected Shibuki to blow it out of the air, but instead he caught and read it briefly as Miriki narrated: "That's the documentation from the hearing. There are multiple Kage seals on that thing, one of which is your own Mizukage's, and it explains exactly what I just said."

Shibuki let out a long breath but finally straightened up and snapped the sword onto his back, tossing the paper back towards Miriki. Miriki reached out to catch it and missed, nearly letting the vital piece of paper fall straight into the sea water, but luckily Haku was fast enough to dive for it and reach an arm over the edge to snag it just in time.

Meanwhile, Shunsetsu, who'd been quiet the whole time, just grunted and stepped off towards his ship. "Get on board, everyone. You coming, Shibuki?"

"…Yes, brother," Shibuki finally said, trailing his… brother?

Wait, what? Kame narrowed his eyes as he realized that one of the champions of the Mist, a member of the Seven Swordsmen, was the brother of a pirate. Hold on a minute, they were planning to meet up anyway, which means…

However, as the genin stepped on board, any of those thoughts were quickly erased from his mind and replaced with an internal moaning as he tried to keep what little was left in his stomach from following the rest into the sea.

( ) - ( ) - ( ) - ( ) - ( ) - ( ) - ( )

The seasickness kept Kame from really participating in the planning or discussion. He tried his best to at least listen and in the end, as they approached the rocky cliff face that concealed an entrance to their objective, he hd a full grasp of what the plan was.

Unfortunately, that was probably for the worse, as the conversation had gone about as one would expect; Miriki using a lot of words to say essentially nothing, Haku's occasional useful contributions getting talked over, Awadatsu not really understanding enough to contribute meaningfully, and the Mist brothers using all of their combined cunning to come up with the greatest battle plan ever conceived: a direct frontal assault.

"Alright, boys, it's time to give 'em hell!" Shunsetsu was standing on the very bow of the ship, which had a metal armor probably designed for… ramming… things…

Wait, there's no way that he's actually going to- but he was, because the ship showed no signs of stopping or slowing down as it came closer and closer to the rock wall. What the hell!? Haku had explained the basic floor plan well enough, and the rock walls may have been only six feet thick or so, but still, ramming into them seemed like an exceedingly stupid idea. Oh, shit, Kame thought as they closed the final twenty meters or so, What a stupid way to die.

Then they hit the wall, but rather than stopping or shattering like he'd expected, the iron ram held firm and punched right through, even keeping some momentum to the point that they retained momentum. As the defenses around it crumbled, the ship listed slightly but drifted forward into the cavern, giving Kame a moment to glance around and take note of what was going on inside the docking bay of the base.

Due to its function as a storehouse, as well as its location in the middle of the ocean, the base had to incorporate a place for ships to be docked. As a result, the majority of the base consisted of a massive hollowed-out cavern, the walls spiderwebbed with catwalks and carved-in living quarters. The only other major portion was the vault itself, but that was another issue entirely that would have to come after they dealt with the many minions currently frozen still and staring at them.

For the most part, the faces consisted of complete shock that the solid rock wall had just been penetrated- a few of the shocked expressions might have even been laughable if the situation weren't so deadly serious- but most of the confusion was soon replaced with panic or anger. Scattered voices started to shout alarms, but most of them were dwarfed by an oddly gleeful Shunsetsu:

"Take no prisoners!"

His point was underscored by the massive anchor he sent flying off towards one of the docking platforms, which sailed across fifteen meters of water and instantly crushed the unlucky target, even splintering a few inches deep into the wooden platform. That seemed to break the stalemate as Shunsetsu's ensuing yank on the chain that brought him flying off towards the dock was accompanied by attacks from all sides involved.

Kame, still feeling the remnants of his seasickness while the ship ground to a halt on the furthest stretch of wooden dock, groaned and weakly drew a kunai in case he needed it for defense. Attacks were coming fast and thick towards the ship, a mix of arrows, kunai, and spines from flying-type Cursemarked, but thankfully the elemental ninjutsu and paperbombs that would prove harder to defend against were yet to come.

Most of the crew, which consisted of both missing-ninja and well-trained civilians, began jumping ship onto the docks to follow their captain in his charge. Shibuki himself leaped off the side towards the water, disappearing momentarily, but then Kame heard the thunderous sound of the Explosive Blade being triggered and saw him go flying off towards the wall.

That left Miriki, Awadatsu, Kame, Haku, and a skeleton crew to defend the ship- at first, not really a tough task given that the rain of projectiles was slowing to a trickle. However, Kame soon saw why as hordes of underlings began raining from the walls down into the water. Shit, that's right, this base has the-

"Look out! They turn into amphibious soldiers!" He tried to warn the crew and struggle to his feet, still in no shape to actually fight anything. If I could just get another minute or two… but unfortunately, his time was up. Splashes from all around the boat heralded the veritable army of Cursemarked swarming up onto it, each one with the same monstrous features: widened jaws with row after row of shark teeth, clawed, lengthened digits on their hands and feet with webbing, and skin patched with scales.

Thankfully, they were more of the same when it came to intelligence. Their fighting, while fast and vicious, was not particularly skilled, their teamwork nonexistent, and so the crew members were able to take them on-

For the most part. One of them shouted out in pain as an enemy that he'd assumed dead suddenly animated and bit down on his leg. Whether due to his resulting fall or the blood being spilled, all of the Cursemarked on deck rushed him with snarls and obscured him in a mass of blood, teeth, and claws.

Kame heard a stifled noise from beside himself and turned to see Miriki paling rapidly and visibly trembling. Right, he hasn't… Kame, Haku, hell, even Awadatsu had been witness to the extremes of Orochimaru's cruelty, but Miriki had no such preparation. That was never clearer than now, when seeing someone eaten alive rendered the Kosuki boy seriously drained. Maybe it says something about the rest of us that we can see that and shrug it off, Kame wondered, but that was a thought for another day.

"Miriki!" Kame said, finally shaking off the worst of his seasickness and taking command of his teammate, "We need to get off the ship." Haku was trading bone-shattering blows with the Cursemarked, but one slip-up could spell disaster. Penned in as they were, they'd be perpetually surrounded if they didn't find a way to leave soon.

"Uh…" Miriki blinked a few times, then his eyes flashed back into a full awareness. "Oh. I…"

Kame threw his kunai at a Cursemarked that was particularly vulnerable and drew two more to replace it, all while continuing his stream of instructions. "Miriki! I have a plan, but it needs you to work."

"Of course it does," Miriki responded with a smirk finally coming back to his features. "Good luck trying to make a plan without-"

"Good, you're back," Kame said as he loosed another kunai. "Now listen up. These things get vicious if they smell blood. They'll swarm it, understand?" Miriki nodded. "I'm gonna booby-trap the boat, then we ditch it while you leave behind a genjutsu of an injured person to draw them all in, got it?"

"Heh, you said boo-"

"Got it!?" Kame had to briefly turn his attention away as Haku retreated back into the raised area with her companions, breathing heavily.

"Do you two have a plan?" She asked.

Miriki beat Kame to the response: "Yep, I came up with one. Kame's gonna rig the boat to blow, then we leave it behind as a trap for all these monsters."

Haku raised an eyebrow, not particularly convinced of Miriki's claimed authorship of the plan, but then had to dart over to the ladder and slam a kick into the face of a Cursemarked that was scaling the thing. There was a short crunch of bone, then she launched it flying off the ship entirely, turning back around to respond: "Well?"

Kame hesitated one final time. "We need to figure out if we can… okay, we can't let anyone escape, right? We need to go over and guard the exit, but none of us can swim."

Awadatsu shook her head. "Naw, I can."

"So can I," Miriki added. At the two incredulous glances of his teammates that had grown up in the desert, he shrugged: "Hey, I've been on a lot of family trips to- you know what, nevermind, not important."

"You're right," Kame said. "Everyone knows their part of the plan, right?" Nods all around. "Good, then let's get to it."

Haku was already midair by the time his sentence was over, somersaulting forward before slamming a heel down onto the head of a Cursemarked hard enough to splinter the deck beneath its feet. Most of the enemies on deck turned to focus on her, which gave Kame time to draw a whole sheaf of maximum-power paperbombs and begin folding and launching them all over the deck while shouting warnings to the remaining crewmen. "Everyone, we're rigging the ship to explode! When I give the signal, you all need to run to the dock!"

"The captain's gonna kill you!" came the response, but other than that most of the others seemed to register it. Kame, not in the mood to argue over his plan, decided to ignore that dissenter and finish up with his liberal spread of paperbombs.

"Miriki?"

"On it." Miriki's eyes spun into their four-pointed state, after which the monsters on the dock all seemed to refocus their attention on a central point and began swarming it.

"Everyone off the ship, now! I'm setting off the explosives in ten seconds!" Kame leaped off towards the docks, crossing the large ship with a few long strides and giving momentary thanks that his enemies didn't even understand verbal communication. "Come on!"

One by one, people streamed off the ship, even as more and more Cursemarked clawed their way aboard. Miriki and Awadatsu jumped off the back towards the shattered entrance, leaving only Haku, who soon launched herself off of a Cursemarked and onto the dock beside Kame.

With a single handsign, the ship was ripped apart in a ball of fire, catching every monster on deck and even those in the water all around, sending a shower of splinters over Kame and his allies. The brief pause in the fighting gave Kame an opportunity to look around and take stock of everything else that had been going on. The general trend seemed to be that it was all going well.

Shibuki was cleaving wide swaths of the platforms with explosions from his sword and immolating rooms without even having to enter them. Shunsetsu, for his part, was still sending himself flying around like a madman- Kame watched an actual shinobi launch a few Earth jutsu at the man, all of which were batted aside by massive anchors. The Sound ninja turned to run, but an anchor buried itself in the ground before him and was soon followed by its master, who then dispatched the foe with a single brutal blow from his weapon.

The smaller battles between individual Sound forces and pirates were not as lopsided, but for the most part ended with more losses on the side of the Sound. Kame frowned as he looked over the bodies, searching for the more dangerous mercenary ninja but finding only run-of-the-mill henchmen and Cursemarked.

Then his attention was yanked back to the present as the waters around the dock they stood on began frothing moment before releasing more sharklike Cursemarked. As many as Kame's plan with the detonating ship had taken out, there seemed to be ever more of them, which made sense given that this base had to cover arguably the largest domain out of any of them, but was still annoying.

Kame drew five new recently purchased waterproofed paperbombs from his pocket and folded each into a shuriken shape, launching them one after another in a rough circle around himself down into the waters. He wasn't sure about how fast objects would sink, but Haku's blitz of attacks in a circle around him bought him enough time for them to drop to a safe distance (he hoped). After about ten seconds, he made the handsign-

Oh shit, he thought as the resulting explosions sent huge plumes of water spewing all over him and his allies. The harmless soaking, however, was far from his mind almost immediately, because the wooden stilts that the dock was built around began to buckle. I didn't think this through! Shit! I can't swim!

Without the presence of mind to gather the necessary chakra, Kame leaped up and backwards to tilt his body diagonally in the air, then detonated a weakened Windbomb on his back to launch himself towards the safe patch of dry land. Dry, rocky land, that's coming at me way too fast-

"Wind Style: Wind Cushion Jutsu!" Kame released a buffer of air that slowed him down sufficiently, landing on his feet and stumbling a few steps but managing to stay upright. However, when he looked up, he found himself staring into the eyes of a mercenary shinobi only a foot away from him, brandishing a kunai at the ready.

For some reason, in that moment Kame instinctively took a page out of Miriki's book and smiled weakly at his foe: "So, heh. Uh… how about we just talk about this?"

It bought him about two seconds, which was incidentally just enough time for Haku, with her Cursemark's second stage in full force, to teleport in and slam a fist into the mercenary's chest, hard enough to crush the man into the wall and shatter bones. Dead or alive, the man didn't stir after that, so Kame straightened up and nodded a simple thanks to Haku- after months together, they'd saved each other at the last minute enough times that they were past the point of spoken gratitude.

Still reluctant to use his own Cursemark's second stage, as his two-day recovery time was a lot longer than Haku's five-hour period, Kame drew two kunai, one with a paperbomb in the hilt and one without, and proceeded forward up a series of stair carved into the rock. Haku carved a path before him, as the thin stairway made a perfect battleground for her one-on-one skill to shine in repeated duels against Cursemarked foes. With that said, as they reached the end, Kame saw the makings of a trap in wait for them and muttered "Swap" to her while preparing a jutsu.

She turned and nodded, then backflipped over him to clear a path as the stairs opened up to a plateaued area that held no visible enemies. However, Kame knew from his time under Orochimaru that the situation was likely a lie- the plateau had trapdoors under several key patches of ground that led to hidden rooms, used for ambushes and stealth. Unfortunately for the enemies likely hiding down there, the airholes necessary for such a network were right beneath Kame's feet, and it was a simple matter for him to release his chakra as a smoke: "Fire Style: Burning Ash Jutsu."

This time he held the jutsu for longer, exhaling a massive amount of the stuff for about ten seconds until he saw the airholes on the far end of the plateau start to leak as well. Kame dropped a Firebomb and backed away from the killing field just as one of the trapdoors slammed open to reveal a Sound Shinobi hacking from smoke inhalation, and then the bomb went off and ignited the entire tunnel system with a muffled explosion noise.

Little tendrils of fire poked out from the airholes but the one open trapdoor was the only real indicator of the devastation that had just been wrought, as a pillar of flame roared out and caught the Sound Shinobi squarely within it. All in all, it was only a matter of moments before all that was left was trails of smoke leaking out of the graves of their would-be ambushers, leaving the path safe for Kame to tread forward.

Kame briefly remembered Miriki and turned around to glance all the way across the massive cavern, catching sight of the entrance that his friend had secured. For some reason, the tiny white-cloaked Kosuki appeared to be simply crouching on a piece of rubble beside Awadatsu's green, both unmoving, while the water beside them was polluted with a toxic bright green miasma. Oh, I get it, acid in the water that Miriki disguises so enemies run right into it, Kame realized. Smart.

The head of this lair, Gatei, had engaged his unique squid-like cursemark and grown in size, now laying waste with eight ten-meter-long tentacles. Several pirates were crushed before the rest backed off, Shibuki blasting himself in to aid them and trading blows with the enemy with neither seeming to have a definitive upper hand at the moment.

Kame turned back to the tunnel at the end of the plateau, which he knew to lead to the vault, this base's real specialty, which held Orochimaru's considerable horde of artifacts and currency. A short dash took him to the massive iron structure in question, which had a door enhanced through seals that would only open for Orochimaru and a select few of his lieutenants.

The door was closed at the moment, but Kame didn't even hesitate as he stepped up and placed his hand on the seal at its center. He'd been on the short list of people authorized to open the door, and even though the Sound villages knew him to be an enemy now, Orochimaru remained dead and therefore his seals remained unchanged. Just as Kame had thought, the door clicked a few times and then slowly slid open to reveal a stockpile of Ryo, weapons, scrolls, and other items worth a ridiculous total amount of money.

If there's nobody left in here, then… Kame turned back around towards the fighting, jogging far enough to get a good look down towards the docks, just in time to watch Shunsetsu drop a good twenty meters and slam an anchor down directly into the body of Gatei's octopus form. The impact sent up a spray of water even larger than Kame's bombs had, but as the misty haze cleared, it revealed a blood pooling around a Gatei that was no longer in a Cursemarked state or even alive.

That seemed to be enough of a tipping point for the tide- heh, tide- of battle to turn in the favor of Kame's allies. As he traversed the stairs down towards the docks, he could see the last few dregs being cleared out by a thinned but surprisingly healthy pirate crew. Finally, he made it to Shunsetsu's side and spoke: "The vault's open. Take anything you want from it." That had been the agreement that Mirki had struck- the location of the base in exchange for everything within it.

Shunsetsu, whose wide grin hadn't wavered once since the start of their charge, raised a weapon into the air and roared "Alrighty boys, let's load up-"

He stopped talking and did a double take that was honestly comical to Kame before he realized what the origin of it was. Shunsetsu was staring at the smoking remnants of his ship with something fast approaching bloodlust in his eyes, and it was all Kame could do to take a step back before an expression that promised violent death was turned on him.

"You let them destroy my ship?"

"Heh, the thing about that is…" Kame scoured his mind for a suitable way to phrase the circumstances that had transpired, preferably one that ended up with him not crushed underneath a massive iron anchor.

One of the crewmen beat him to the punch. "The kid blew it up, captain."

Shunsetsu's eye twitched a few times while Kame's life flashed before his own eyes, yet salvation came from an unlikely direction: Shibuki took the opportunity to slam to the ground beside the two of them and interposed an arm between them. In his hand, he had a bottle with a ragged label Kame didn't quite recognize, yet-

"These bastards actually had a stash of the good stuff, brother. What say we celebrate, eh?" It took him a second or two, but Shibuki seemed to piece together the situation and then shook his head. "Look, you can build a better ship with the haul you got here. If you don't come soon, I'll have to down the entire stash- not that I'm complaining."

"Yeah, sure," Shunsetsu muttered, turning to follow his brother off in the direction of the alchohol stores. Kame breathed a long sigh of relief built up not just from the tense confrontation he'd just been in, but from the entire battle. Three more bases to go, he thought, pulling out his little slip of paper that indicated not only that there were no Cursemark-bearing enemies within a few kilometers, but also that there were only 48 left to go.

Wait, 98? Kame looked around, because the last time he'd checked, there had been upwards of 500 enemies left for them to deal with. That may have been before the battle at the Hidden Lightning stronghold, but still- over those two fights, there was no way 450 people had been taken out. Did a legitimate village destroy one of the bases? Or…?

Kame felt Haku tap his shoulder in a familiar fashion, turning to see her smiling at him in a way that reassured him to his core. I can worry about the other stuff later, he told himself, jerking his head off towards a growing mass of pirates breaking out the food stores of the base. "Looks like they're getting ready to celebrate, huh?"

Haku lightly pushed him on one shoulder, turning him towards the hubbub. "I think we've earned a good party."