A glimmer of light beamed as she forcefully swung the blade across the jugular vein in his neck. Gaara leaned back, dodging the attack and countered it by pushing her arm away from his body. In a swift motion, he wrapped his arms around hers and grabbed her wrist to keep her from trying to stab again. Yue struggled to free herself, but her short small frame proved it to be very difficult. Clenching her unused hand into a fist, she attempted to release herself by planting it on his cheek, but it was a futile attempt. His tall stature had proven to be nothing but beneficial in this battle and all he had to do was lean back to dodge. The grip he had on her wrist had become incredibly painful, with so much pressure that the only way she could find relief was to drop the weapon. Annoyed, she let it fall to the floorboards. After hearing the metal clang in defeat, Gaara finally loosened his grip and freed her. She took a few steps back to try and catch her breath, watching him once again pick up the kunai.
"Why do you always go for the head?" he asked curiously, pointing the back end of the blade to her. She took it with a shrug. "At your height, facing an opponent with my stature will make head shots difficult..." He took her hand until the tip of the blade lightly touched his torso. "Take advantage of your height by striking the chest and back areas. There are more fatal points there than here." He clarified by moving it to the crevice of his neck. Yue nodded, receiving the information, and backed away to crouch down again. Gaara crossed his arms just as before and stood idly waiting for her to make her move. "I want you to attack me again, but this time I want you to hit lower... Remember, when you are going to strike, don't just stab me, go through me..."
After a short pause, she lunged towards him. Gaara uncrossed his arms to try and capture her arm again, but amazingly failed as she turned on her heels and ducked to counter around him. Quickly, she swept a foot across the back of his heels to trip him. Unfortunately, it didn't work as Gaara jumped out of the way. That was a good play to say the least, and the time that they spent training, it definitely showed promise in her skills. Soon, she would be able to fend off an enemy's attack just enough to get away. When her powers return, he was sure that with more training, she would no longer need him for protection. Now that he could see where she was, he waited once again for her to move. Tired, she scraped herself up and ran towards him. Swing after swing, she continued to throw herself at him. Each hit missed its mark. To make things fair, Gaara agreed to not use his sand defense, not that he really needed to. Even though she had proven that she had endured combat based on her reflexes, he detected a hint of hesitation with each movement. Whatever it was, it was causing her attacks to fall short. At first, he wondered if maybe she had over exerted herself, but that didn't seem right. Whenever she got close enough to actually pierce his skin, she failed to follow through with it. The more he tried to read her motions, the more agitated she looked until soon enough, she reverted back to her previous notion of going right for the head. He immediately stopped her hand.
"What's wrong?" he asked, grasping her full attention. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she lowered her weapon.
"What do you mean?"
"You're holding back... Training is meant to practice as if you were truly in combat. I need you to attack as if you plan to kill me."
With a heavy sigh, she stared at the floor. "I don't think I can. I don't want to hurt you."
"You won't if you keep this up. Treat me as if I am your enemy and strike me down."
"It's not that easy." she began, feeling the volume of her voice rising "I don't know how you put yourself in that mind-set when you train with others. When I saw how many scars you had, it bothered me to think that I could end up giving you another one... I don't want to do that."
"Do you remember what I said when I explained them using the transformation jutsu?" She nodded. "Then they could just as easily transform into me... You must cut off your emotional ties when in the face of danger."
"How?"
"Remember the code and the charm... and being what we are now, I'm sure you have several ways to tell if it's truly me, a clone, or a spy. Follow through with that and you will know." he explained. "And about my scars... I've earned them through countless battles. They're a reminder of what I did to protect those close to me... I may be the Kazekage, but I can still be harmed just as anyone else... I'm still human. Receiving one from you isn't bad, but at this rate, you aren't even able to touch me."
"Because I know it's really you fighting me. It's because of that that I can't help but to stop myself." she explained. Gaara quietly sighed and thought for a moment. It's good that she was mentally capable of holding herself back compared to others who let themselves get carried away, like him. This was normal for first time trainees to be skeptical of sparing their own teachers, as well as their comrades. Back when he was younger, his hatred for the world and everyone in it made it very easy for him to cut off any emotions, but it also made him more savage in battle. What she had going on, that was proof of good mental health. They were so alike, and yet so different in many ways. As her sensei, he had to think of some way to get her past this obstacle to become a better fighter, something that would apply to her best. Out of nowhere, an idea popped in his head.
"Would it help if I attacked first?" He asked, realizing that he had been making her learn offense this whole time, not defense. Her eyes peaked with interest in the suggestion, but faded at the sign of hesitation again. Training or not, she didn't want to hurt him. In truth, he wasn't sure he wanted to go through with it either, but he knew it had to be done. His feelings for her couldn't overshadow what was absolutely necessary for her survival. Learning to fight is essential. If she were to go though another attack, she had to know what to do about it. It was for her own good.
"Can we take a break first?" she asked, seeing this to be the only way to try to delay the sparing. Using his eyes, he glanced from her head down to her feet. Although he had trained others much longer and more beat up looking than this, he could tell from her slouchy physique and shortness of breath that she was getting exhausted. He decided to agree to her request and sit with her on the same bench as before to look over the ocean. The view still looked peaceful.
The storm had finally gone away yesterday afternoon, but the sky was still much too cloudy last night for the crew to be able to use the sextant and stars to navigate. They understood which direction they were heading, thanks to the trusty compass, but it wasn't enough to sail blindly through the water. From what they could see, they were now the only ship in the open water. The other ship following them had to have been pulled terribly far away. This wasn't very stressful for Gaara, seeing as how he currently didn't need to worry about those two sailors, but with half of the fleet missing and no navigation, they were sitting ducks. He didn't want to wait too long if he could help it to be able to tell where they were. Sadly, they had no choice.
"Gaara?" Yue called, to which he turned his head. "When do you think Yumi will be back?"
"I cannot say..."
Meanwhile
The cool feel of the water brushing through her grey scales felt incredibly soothing as she continued swimming around the area. The temperature was getting colder, as it should be due to the seasonal change. Winter was creeping up on them. This would normally be the time for Kappa to migrate towards warmer waters with the rest of the schools, but at the moment, he couldn't because him and his host had a mission to carry out, not that he minded it. They had a very understanding relationship with each other. He trusted Yumi's judgement when it came to protecting Yue, even though it was against his old-timely beliefs. For most of his life, Kappa had been known to avoid most of the struggles with the human world. It wasn't the fact that he was cowardly; he didn't feel the need to put his effort into things that didn't appear worthy of his time. He was a peaceful and free spirit that roamed the seven seas as he so pleased. Master Haguromo had entrusted the entire ocean unto him since the beginning, to keep it clean and prosperous. The task seemed much easier compared to the problems on land. At least, that's what he thought then.
Much like Tsuki, Kappa grew a dislike for the humans while observing their behaviors across the waters. They took pride in their greed, what with capturing and slaughtering his fish brothers for their gluttonous appetites. Animals eating other animals was a natural process among creatures, but seeing how many were wasted on shore, he couldn't help but feel disdain towards them. It wasn't too long before they made an impact on the environment that he started to pay more attention to them. Trash had begun to fill the water, killing off several species and poisoning the very little oxygen supply in the water. As his duty, Kappa migrated fish towards cleaner areas to avoid the toxicity, but what seemed like a reasonable solution, it turned out to be a terrible choice. Fishermen had adapted to new areas, following the schools and bringing their filth along the way. Kappa attempted to lead the schools away, but was captured by a group of fearless sailors in a fish net. He was shoved in a large tank and upon careful examination by the humans, they realized they had discovered the long lost fish demon from the old folktales. Their desire for fish turned into a lust for power.
Before he knew it, he was brought on land and forced to be sealed away into the Captain as his first host. It was then that Kappa got to witness firsthand how the humans interacted on both sea and land. The years went by of his host siphoning his power to use in abuse against anyone who challenged him, most of whom were the human's own kin. Behind new eyes, he learned a lot. The nature of this rapacious species collaborating against each other did not bother him. What hurt the most was having to watch them continue to ravage his watery home while he unwillingly resided within a monster, unable to save his fish friends. For years, he fought against the Captain for total body control, but the man was as strong as he was cruel. Many more of his comrades were slaughtered before his eyes. To save their lives, he submitted to him. It wasn't until many generations later that he was able to escape the family of the abusive Captain by transferring into his great grandson, Anai. Being transported into him brought much horrible pain among the family, primarily in their efforts of taking Kappa's power back. The very memory of the abuse he took still grieves Kappa's cold blooded heart to this day. When Anai turned fifteen, he left them by faking his own drowning and fleeing on one of the distant crew ships. From there, he started a new life.
Anai was not like his predecessors. After his escape, he made an agreement with Kappa to only use his powers when necessary. In return, he would live close to the shore on the opposite side of the country near The Land of Fire for their protection from them. Also, as part of their agreement, he agreed to remain close to the water so that Kappa could continue fulfilling his duties as the Water Elemental. Overtime, he grew to find a bit of peace with the humans through Anai's influence.
They worked together on the crew of the ship that took Anai in, performing an honest job transporting small cargo between The Leaf and The Mist. Later, he met a young, conserved woman named Tatsu and sought to marry shortly soon after. When Anai realized that he was ready to start a family, he pleaded with Kappa for them to move closer towards the inner city of Konoha. It took him a while to decide, but in time, he allowed it. With Kappa's blessing, they moved. After abandoning his job as a member of the cargo crew, Anai pursued a career as a combative medic, seeing as it was suitable thanks to his healing powers. It wasn't an easy decision at first, seeing as how Kappa didn't want to go back to being only a source of energy for battle, like his grandfather had done. Anai was very encouraging. With that, he determined that his powers could be useful to both the land and the sea, something that he was sure his Master would agree to. It wasn't long until Tatsu had become pregnant that the task of aiding the human world came to a halt. Yumi was a lot like her father in many ways, but she had too big of a heart for this world. She desired to follow in her father's footsteps and become a great medical ninja, but after Anai died in the battle of Konoha Crush, her heart darkened. He couldn't lie if he said that he didn't change too. Out of all the humans in the world that showed nothing but hate, the emotional scars Anai had could have shown bitterness, but rather, he chose to show kindness. His death changed Yumi in a way that made her become the focused and clever girl that she is today, and despite the pain of losing him, she persevered in carrying the torch towards bringing joy back to the world, just as he did, much more than just a medic, but in her own special way.
Yumi closed her eyes and opened her lips to release her sonar. The sound traveled through the currents outside her radius to the open ocean. The storm may have gone, but it was still very cloudy for her to rely entirely on her normal vision. It will soon be even darker than it already was, and when that happens, it would be the time where the predators of the deep begin to feed. Not that she couldn't protect herself from them; however, she knew her friends would worry if she didn't return soon. She needed to help the team get back to proper navigation. The crew didn't bring enough supplies for them to be stranded out in the open ocean for long. In a matter of seconds, a massive family of Jack fish approached her side. She communicated a small cry while waving her flowing silver fins to ask for directions. The school responded by moving together in a circle, and then swimming past her right side. Without any hesitation, she followed them. Time passed as the sun behind the clouds started to fade further and further away to make room for the midnight blue. The Jack fish continued to swim on, but Yumi was starting to become irritated. Just how much longer was this trip? It wasn't like the fish to take her anywhere suspicious, so deciding to put up with it, she trusted them.
Suddenly, they changed direction by turning upwards to the surface. A relieved bubble escaped her mouth as she excitedly followed them to the surface. They must have brought her near the perimeter of the island of The Mist. If so, then that means that they weren't as far off as she thought they were. Out of nowhere, the school broke apart and frantically swam past her. Curiously, she called for them to come back, but stopped herself at the faint sight of what appeared to be two large vessels floating on the surface. The very shape of it tied in with their behavior gave her an ominous feeling. Whatever caused them to react in such a way couldn't be good, but she had to find out who it was. They wouldn't have brought her here for nothing. The storm had broken up the brother crew ship and it was still lost at sea, more likely struggling with their navigation as well. They agreed to rendezvous in The Mist, but she couldn't completely rule out that one of the two boats weren't them. She had to be sure, but this would require a great deal of caution. At least one of them was definitely not part of the crew. She understood for sure that that could mean trouble if she were to be discovered. If her luck would have it, it could turn out that both of them were enemy ships. Either way, this had to be investigated before she went back to her team. Squinting her eyes, she noticed that they floated side by side with a couple of lines faintly crossing them together. Whoever they were, one had boarded the other. Before taking to the surface, Yumi emitted a faint cry signaling her fishy friends to beware.
'Stay near the stern. Be wary of nets.' instructed Kappa from within her. To avoid releasing another bubble, she responded with a raised fin and proceeded to swim to the left-side boat. Keeping near the stern, she quietly rose her head from the depths to the cool salty sea air above. Yumi checked her surroundings before peeking around the butt of the ship. What she saw, she almost couldn't believe her eyes. There it was, the sails of the brother ship still stained with the mark of the fisherman crew, The Golden Koi. It was the only distinct symbol of the crew's fishing business. Her heart lifted with excitement to have found them, but who owned the other vessel? She slunk her body back under the water to take position behind the stern of the brother ship to get a better look. Once again poking her head out of the water, she was bewildered to see the dark black sails of what could only be an enemy ship. Their jolly roger flag pridefully waved in the wind, immediately catching her attention. It wasn't like any pirate symbol she had ever come across before on these waters, but nevertheless, it didn't read friendly. It pictured an open-mouthed skull crossed with katana swords and what appeared to be an unusually shaped shuriken inside its mouth.
"Who among you do you call the Captain?!" belted the booming voice of an unfamiliar stranger on board the brother ship. As much as she wanted to honor Kappa's advice to avoid the port and starboard sides of the ship, she sought to seek out the owner of that voice. Whatever happened prior to her arrival didn't go well for their circumstances to become like this. Releasing her chakra, she decided to transform into her half-human state, which quickly caused her fins to protrude webbed fingers. Quietly, she grabbed a hold of the large clusters of barnacles stuck to the wood and climbed up. This wasn't very easy as she couldn't use the water to help lift her up. There weren't enough big waves to mask the sound, and it would no doubt call attention and give away her spot. Straining her arms, she forced herself up to the railing and peeked through the small opening to view the upper deck. The entire crew, including all the Leaf ninja were beaten black and blue, captured, forced on their knees, bound in ropes and chains. They were surrounded by several dirty, grim-faced men of many shapes and sizes armed with swords and clubs. This was bad. She counted all the heads to be sure that all of the crew and the ninjas were still together. Unfortunately, there were some missing. The ominous feeling she had before turned into a twist of anger and fear.
All of a sudden, she heard the cringing sound of a blade slicing through flesh and a loud groan in pain. With an alarming thud, the victims lifeless corpse fell overboard, right past her concealed body, and plopped into the ocean with a single splash. The water turned red as he started to sink, instantly welling up the sickening terror inside her. To calm herself down, she took a deep breath in before daring to take another peek. The pirate crew started to laugh, showing off their heartless nature, as the executioner stepped up to the center of them, wiping the blood from his blade with a dirty rag. His back was turned, but he looked to be a very tall individual with broad bulky shoulders, a black trench coat with matching black pants and very worn boots. He sheathed his sword and looked up to them, revealing a shiny bald head with a massive red burn scar across the back cowl. They continued to remain silent to his question, the brother crew out of fear, and the ninjas out of fearless pride. There was a moment of uneasy silence that seemed to go on forever as he was awaiting their response. Knowing them, they wouldn't give up the Captain so easily, but how many more bodies could they spare before he found him? Yumi counted the heads once again to find the crew's Captain. Unfortunately, he was still missing. Grief had stricken her at the possibility that the dead body thrown overboard was him.
"I am your Captain now. The name's Hiruko. If you don't want to meet the same fate as your little friends there-" he pointed to the railing, which Yumi immediately tucked her head away to hide. "I suggest you stay out of my way. We're taking this ship. Once we get to Black Rock Island, then we can decide whether you're fit to join my crew or not." He maniacally laughed with the crew copying his sinister actions. Black Rock Island? She had never heard of such a place, but regardless, whatever they were planning on doing to them once they got there, it wasn't going to end well. "Lock them in the brig! Tow the ship!"
His henchmen started to scatter about the deck, signaling that her position was no longer safe. Along with the sound of the commotion, Yumi crawled back down the sides and quickly assessed her situation. There were too many men for her to face on her own, even with the majority of Kappa's power. She may have spent years training herself to controlling the power, but there's no telling that it wouldn't go haywire, especially out in the open ocean. If she were to lose control, the remaining crew and fellow ninja could get hurt even more or drown. This task was much to big for her to face on her own. If what the enemy said was true, then she still had time to save the crew before getting to Black Rock Island. Hopefully, there wouldn't be anymore casualties with them being stowed away in the brig. She had to get back to Gaara and Naruto fast! Navigation towards The Mist was no longer a priority. As fast as she could, she crawled down the stern until she deemed that it was safe to drop in without causing a big splash. She immediately dove in, and concentrated her chakra to transform back into her complete demonic state. With her powers restored to normality, she called forth her most intelligent, trustworthy species by releasing a massive cry of sound waves. Within the traveling of the sound, she sensed something unusual. It wasn't her friendly school of Jack fish, nor was it a single large fish. The shapes didn't feel alive at all. Cautiously, she slowly swam towards it, still unable to clearly see due to the light of day fading. She opened her mouth once more to sense where they were. She was close.
Closing her eyes, she concentrated her mind to gather all the deepest warm memories she could fathom inside until it welled up into a solemn glowing light. The chakra flowed visibly from her core throughout her body into a beautiful blue bio-luminescence. It wasn't often that she used this technique due to its massive drain on her chakra, but being alone and unable to see what was out there made her worry for her safety. Taking a deep breath of the salty water through her gills, she opened her eyes and instantly jolted. There it was, the cold lifeless stare of the dead crew member staring back at her. His skin was pale and there was an nasty open gash directly through his sternum, causing him to bleed out and surround them in a cloud of blood. Yumi felt her heart sink to the bottom at the sight of him. If only she had caught him a few moments earlier, she might have been able to save him. This man was not the Captain, but regardless it was tragic to see him meet such a brutal death. Right when she was about to turn off her luminescent light, she caught glimpse of another shape just behind him floating away. She motioned around him and was immensely surprised. The fear crawled back up inside her at the sight of not just one, but two other dead bodies bleeding out in the water. Quickly, she swam over to check their pulses. Unfortunately, none of them made it either. This pirate crew was deadly serious. If they managed to kill this many without remorse, then it's entirely possible that the slightest mishap could drive them to slaughter every last one of them. It was pure luck that none of these victims were the Captain, but it was still upsetting that this happened.
'I'm sorry, Yumi.' said Kappa sincerely. 'They died an honorable death. There was nothing you could've done for them. You must get back to the others. It's not too late for the rest.'
He was right. Like it or not, this is the hardest part on every mission. Death was always a possibility, she knew this. She wasn't able to heal these guys, but she was still able to save the others. Yumi immediately shut off her luminescent light and flipped her fins away from the bodies. No doubt predators would smell the blood and make their way over for the free food. That was the way of nature, after all. In late response to her previous sonar call, a large mass of black and white Manta Rays glided across her as well as a small squad of red squids. Yumi communicated her instructions in a combination of sonar and motions, or what she liked to call it "serpent swimming". Receiving her orders, the Rays began to follow the two vessels and every single squid dispersed back to the depths. What she asked them for was a long shot, but it was all she could do. If only Kappa was out in the open to be able to fight alongside her, but even then, she wouldn't be able to do much with a standard amount of human chakra. She still needed help. As she planned, she would rely on her fishy friends to lead her back to the ship. With all her might, she charged her way back into the direction of her friends with such incredible speed, she could match that of a torpedo. She pushed herself to the max, ignoring the strain that it was putting on her body until she finally arrived at the vessel anchored idly in the open water. Yumi breached her scaly grey body out from the sea, and crashed onto the upper deck, alarming everyone on board. Quickly, before her gills could suffocate her, she transformed back into her human self.
"Yumi!" called Yue as she came running over to her side along with Gaara and Naruto. She reached a hand out for her to grab, to which Yumi gladly took and scraped herself off the floorboards. She stumbled in her stance, still wobbly from the over exertion her body took as well as the sudden transformation from fins to legs. They gave her a few minutes to catch her breath.
"What did you find out? Are we close to The Mist?" Naruto asked, to which she suddenly shot a look that caused him to feel white with insecurity. Was she in pain? Or upset? Something was wrong.
"We have to leave, now!" Yumi instructed. "Get the Captain to raise anchor! We have to save them!"
"Yumi, what's wrong? What happened?" Naruto continued to ask, her story not seeming to make any sense at all. Yumi let out a frustrated sigh and looked to the wooden floor. "Who are we saving?"
"What did you see?" asked Gaara. She glanced at Yue, her face full of concern and took a deep breath to calm herself down. There was no easy way to sugar coat this.
"I found the brother ship, but they were under attack by an enemy pirate ship. They've taken the crew and the Leaf ninjas hostage." she paused, thinking back to that grotesque image of the bodies left for fish food. Yumi felt herself wanting to cry for them, but she pridefully clenched her fists to resist. "I saw their Captain murder the fellow crew members... They were looking for our other Captain, but no one would give him up. Those savages took their lives mercilessly and laughed about it, as if they have no shred of humility left in their wretched bodies!" She couldn't help but yell. "They commandeered the ship and locked them all in a brig. They say that they are heading for Black Rock Island. Once they get there, I'm sure they will finish the rest of them and turn the ship into another pirate vessel... I took the liberty of summoning Manta Rays to follow them, but we need to leave now!"
"Understood. Give the Captain your heading, we'll handle the rest." Instructed Gaara.
"Let's go! We can worry about reaching The Mist later." said Naruto.
