Ch. 2: End of Day 1!
As the first of the infiltrators, I had a King's Choice for myself. Filling my rucksack with storage scrolls aplenty, each filled with Fuinjutsu Scrolls, bundles of Money, gold pieces and bars, special seal matrices and Uzumaki sealing formulas for innumerable Sealing techniques, and much more. I was happy with my loot, despite the rows of dead bodies left to obtain them.
Intruding the clan compound was easy, as after the first confrontation, I saw no other enemy in sight save for servants and grunts who were easy to deal with. Finding a lot of hiding places and hidden stashes, I filled the scrolls to the brim, and came quickly to the beach, and the Terumi Clan Forward Post, where I saw the Clan Leader, and the woman I call Elder Sister issuing commands and directing troops.
Seeing me enter, a few people nodded at me, as I was quite well known to my clan members who were very polite and kind to me.
Seeing me without the head band was weird, as I wasn't injured around my head to warrant my removal of head band. And taking it off, during battle or Combat Operations was illegal, save for covert operations.
Therefore, I had pulled the headband and openly displayed it in my hand, as soon as I entered Kirigakure's base as sun set behind the horizon.
"We'll discuss this later. Send Team 4 to line check and confirm stock supply. I want a over night watch on their east side for ambush or evacuation. Shoot down any boats or ferries coming near without the Alpha Call sign. Dismissed."
The woman ordered as the man struck his chest proudly with a fist and walked briskly out of the tent.
As soon as the last man was out, she looked up with a tired smile. "Hello little brother. I missed you during routine check. Because I saw you myself, I told them to keep an eye for you as I saw you run into the northbound forest."
Seeing me nod, she didn't give me a chance to speak. "You broke ranks, but it was a messy situation. If you don't have a valid excuse, you will be punished as per clan rules. Even my darling brother is not above clan laws."
The stern young woman said seriously, as she set down and set a few scrolls in place, and finally looked at me.
"Well I saw that the beach was easy to handle, and I knew Uzumaki reinforcement would be appearing soon. After that, it would be a long drawn out battle, where I would be useless, apart from another grunt fighting the strong red headed army."
With that I took out a few scrolls that I planned to hand over to appease my fiery sister.
Even if we were cousins, my mother was the youngest sister of the current Clan Leader's father. And as a clan leader relative, I was separated from mother, training with other clan children for the sake of the village and for the clan, not necessarily in that order.
And therefore, due to my genius talents and abilities, the then Clan Leader of Terumi Clan had decided to bring up me and his own daughter together as real siblings for the future of our village. We had grown close, and while she was not much older than me, merely five years older, she had taken immediate liking to me.
After the Second World War, where the Clan Leader died, Saeko Terumi the current clan leader took over at a tender age due to her genius talents and outstanding field records and war accolades during the war.
And I put that behind my mind, as I used a sliver of chakra and opened all the scrolls one by one. Hidden stash of gold and money, weapons of excellent craftsmanship and tools and accessories for Shinobi which could keep our own stocks filled.
"Well well. I never expected little brother to go treasure hunting during ongoing battle." She said, and I immediately relaxed due to her playful tone.
"But still, all this needs to be sent back at the earliest, otherwise we would have to share our spoils with other clans." She said as I saw her smirk.
"We could send the scrolls with the injured on the ship first thing morning. And I have a few scrolls hidden in the stash too."
I answered with a grin, which she shared.
"And you already have your own personal stash too? Quite a loot baby brother. Are you going to keep our clan stuffed even tomorrow?"
She asked and I felt my smirk disappear, while hers got bigger.
"Fine! But I am not sharing." On the record, I am incapable of pouting! Seriously! Men don't pout! It's the hormones, I tell you! Hormones!
She laughed at my face, and covered the distance between us, before I could blink.
"Oww oww. Let go, nee-chan!" I wailed as she dragged my pre-pubescent cheeks with a Cheshire Grin.
After making sure, I was swollen on both sides, she kissed my red cheeks as I tried to smack her kissy face.
"Well, officially you are to submit a report of your intrusion and make a rough layout of the map, and the things you remember of the place. Anything that can help us, add it too. Tomorrow you will go to Supply Barracks and report to Kamatsu. He is in charge of Sabotage and Infiltration Unit. Give him a Mission Scroll you'll receive from me after breakfast. Outside of this tent, your mission is to try and push our intel on the village by sabotaging key nodes of their information system. But in truth, I want you to keep our storage scrolls stocked. Fill the rationing scrolls and raid what you can."
She gave him a map and a key pointing at the trunk behind her.
"Since you would have a need for it, I want you to practise summoning Jutsu. Trying it on a fly is not recommended, but given your impressive chakra control, I trust you. Signing into the summoning contract there, you will be able to summon large sized scrolls, which can store rations and also be summoned with summoning jutsu. The trunk has the summoning sealing formula, and you use the smaller scroll, to call the larger ones."
I took out the scroll from the trunk.
"Each summoning scroll is precious, and directly summons the scroll from the clan war centre. We use these special scrolls for this very purpose. Your mission tomorrow is penetrate further into their clan compound and since they would be alerted already, use Kirigakure no Jutsu and Silent Killing technique if necessary. There will be a large scale Release of the Jutsu to aid our Shinobi, as the Sanbi Jinchuriki will be using the Jutsu to aid us tomorrow. So expect the Jutsu to cover the entire island. Find their secret stashes, and when you are done, store it all in the Summoning Scrolls. Don't fight unnecessarily, the Island will be decimated tomorrow. Uzumaki can restrain Bijuu, but they are powerless against a rampaging Bijuu who uses long scale Bijuu attacks."
That sealed the deal and I left the tent, eager to practise the Summoning Jutsu to call the Large Summoning Scrolls.
It was now two days, since my arrival in this strange world, and even if I took it all in a stride, the morning after I slept in this world, I woke up with cold sweats.
My breath was caught, as I felt the heaviness in my chest and the faces of all people I killed to keep my façade up. I saw their face, their pale cold eyes staring into me, their dead bodies leaking blood that kept drowning me.
I felt my hands sweat, my palm shiver and throughout the day, I had unsteady hand and palpitating chest beating out of rhythm. I felt my blood rush in my mind, as I acted on instincts trained in this body. But the ease with which I could now kill was a traumatic thought.
There was no need to kill the next day, as I managed to scout and hide my presence for the entire day, without coming across a single enemy.
The day after, however, I had to fight a woman. The woman looked anguished as I had seen her kill a few Kirigakure Shinobi after a berserk rush to kill the people looting a body. Perhaps her relative. Perhaps her lover.
But she was another victim to my blade, as I felt the woman rush towards me with a blade drawn. Instincts beaten into my body made the blade draw in a single swift unending motion, that pulled the Tanto out, the incoming strike deflected, not defended, as she was bigger than me, as I was still a growing boy.
The gravity brought more force with the strike and therefore when someone strikes overhead, you deflect the strike away from your body, and use the reaction force of their attack to maneuver your blade to attack. This was how swordsmen fight. Expend the least energy for maximum impact! Deflect and dodge. Defend as a last resort. Use your body to give the blade more force, or less when required. And always look for the opponent to falter and make a mistake.
Competent Enemies rarely overreach, and when a blade comes at an impossible speed to defend, you simply choose the least amount of damage you could safely take and endure it.
And as my training was ingrained in my mind, I chose a large gash on my thigh to avoid a thrust into my kidney. Chakra or not, internal organ damage was a kill shot, as medics rarely had time before the wound infects and sepsis sets in.
But the pain from the thigh was neglected for my deflected blade was now in a position to strike. And I gained the upper hand, as instead of the deep cut on my thigh, I dealt a critical strike to her neck. Not through her throat, and not on her artery, but to the right.
My blade gashed through some major blood vessel, and even if there was no arterial spray, she dropped her blade to instinctively put pressure on her wound. And as the blade dropped to the ground, I reacted without thought as I slipped the blade in her face, the sharp edge carving through her cheek and going through her skull.
The sensation of my blade cutting skin, flesh and muscles to go through her skull, while I felt each movement and cut in slow motion, made my stomach clench.
The woman's corpse remained in a kneeling position and when I released my hold over the sword to empty my stomach, I belatedly realised my thigh was bleeding profusely.
The adrenaline was still burning through my muscles, so I am sure I didn't feel it. But I would, when the rush wears off. I was on the Eastern Harbour, unofficial port, where there were no piers, no signs of usage, just a rough wild coast.
And I had trailed the smuggling force along with a small squad who came here to save a few village secrets and squirrel them away.
The woman was the last of those squad left, as our fight took us to the wild untouched coast.
The terrain was rough, the rocks were slippery and wet, and water came gushing with the tides that hit with the tides.
As I looked down however, water was steadily mixing with the blood I was leaking, and the sliver of blood washed into the seas. But something amazing was happening!
As the blood was touching the sea water, it started to channel back. The blood flowed back from the receding water, as more and more blood began to climb up my leg and back into the wound.
My wound looked red and ugly, as the cut was deeper than it should be. But somehow, the blood was closing in, and slowly, water that crept up was cauterizing and then closing my wound. As I stared in shock and wonder, I saw all the blood go back into the wound, and I may have been hallucinating, because I could swear the blood had a golden tinge which made it glow.
Within what felt like seconds, my wound was closed, all the blood pulled back inside the wound, as I felt my skin grow itchy and then the gash simply disappeared. The wound disappeared without a scar, without any sign that I had a deep cut across my muscles, which could probably have led to something severe without proper care.
But somehow, my wound was fixed, with nary a scar to show for it. I wondered about it, as I stood in place, lost in thought.
No clan in Naruto had such a weird Kekkai Genkai. To heal from sea water and close wounds at visible speeds. But I may be over reaching. Did it need water, or was it in general a rapid reversing regeneration? Was it a Kekkai Genkai, something forbidden Jutsu that takes life force of your kills and heals you in return?
I had millions of questions and absolutely no answers. No direction forward. This never happened before. I clearly remember all the fights and injuries I sustained with this body during my childhood. My graduation exam also had normal water on the ground, because one of the civilian students had used a large scale water Jutsu, hoping to drown us out in the closed space.
But I had not recovered like this before today, nor had I any recollection of something like this happening before.
There was never a sign of something like this appearing, nor the knowledge I had told me of such a power. Granted, other fictions had innumerable such skills and abilities. There was instant regeneration from different worlds, plus the famous Wolverine regeneration, not to mention the bullshit Deadpool could do.
And then again, Marvel was utterly filled with such abilities not to mention the gods and godlike abilities from DC. Ah! That reminds me, there was that stupid movie I watched with Delilah, when it came out. Something about the Gods living in the States. Yeah...
Hm...
Wait a minute!
Now that I think about it, the boy was the son of Poseidon, wasn't he? Something about stealing Zeus's Bolt and Hades finding it and extorting him? Yeah, I remember, because I hated the Medusa there, but loved the Hydra.
Yeah, now that I think about it, I can remember a lot about that movie. Despite watching it for a few scenes only. And a brief mention about the second and third parts too. Frankly, who watches stupid fantasy movies when you are with your girlfriend? Your attention is spent drawing her eyes and teasing her with naughty things. And Delly also wanted to watch the movie only to criticise it for changing plots from the books.
Yeah, that brings back memories. I never thought about Delly for a while now, didn't call her up too. Things got bad between us, but we could've worked it out. But I didn't want to make a move, and given I was going to another country for my Master's, seemed like a moot point to get back, only to lose touch.
But that memory of Delly does remind me the scenes I remember watching from the movies, and the ultimate plot point of Hades being responsible or something because he found the bolt in Tartarus.
Frankly, Clash of Titans and its sequels ruined us for Greek Mythology. No movie can ever show a Kraken, Medusa or the fickle Gods and blasphemous men as apt and brilliantly as the movie and its sequel did. And granted Rosamund Pike was in Female Lead, and I had to rush to the Big Screens to watch the sequel. And that got me interested in the Greek Mythology, and even rent the movie Troy, if only to watch the famous Achilles vs Hector fight scene!
But I was brought to my thoughts as I heard a thud and forced to register my senses, to look for enemies. I saw the body of the woman I killed collapse, as the waves dragged the sand beneath her. She fell face first, her body must now be getting rigid, and the sword fell on the ground.
Blankly, I walked to the corpse, held the stiff shoulders and dragged her upright. Grabbing the Tanto stiffly, I jerked it loose, and used my foot to separate the body from the Tanto.
Using her Head band, I wiped the blood and gore from the blade and threw the dirty band away. Walking to the corpse now, I muted my disgust and checked the vest for useful stuffs. Resupplying your weapons and tools from dead fallen corpses was simply good foresight. Dead have no need for them, and living can never have enough of them!
Finding two kunai pouches and a few tags and seals, I put the pouches on my arms and healed shoulders. The spool of ninja wire was placed in one of the pockets towards my back, while a few dry exploding tags went in my front breast pocket.
"Not much. Travelling light. Not expected an ambush, but prepared none the less." I began to scavenge useful things from the corpses, at least those not washed away too far.
The enemies were all closer to the land, and their weapons were easier to get. Nothing too extraordinary, and since I had good stamina, I could carry the stuff to the base. The war was almost drawn to a close, after the giant Bijuudama (Tailed Beast Ball) spit towards the village destroying everything in its path.
That one Bijuudama, by a Three Tails, was enough to decimate a village and lay waste to everything that stood in its path. As someone standing diagonally opposite, he saw the effect of the attack, as it destroyed everything to dust. Not even broken splinters remained in the after math. The attack was unimpeded, even as it lashed through the giant Rashomon Gates he saw in the way. The three gates simply disappeared in thin smoke, as the attack was unfazed by the giant gates.
And as it reached the village, the attack simply expanded in area and caused a giant mushroom cloud as dust and smoke rose up in air after the attack. That moment was carved in his mind, as the limit and scope of his strength. A world where the a monster can cause such damage, and there are people in this world, who can surpass the strengths of such monsters to such ridiculous limits, that they can simply chain and drag them away in their prisons.
And if fate is unkind to me, this young body will live long enough to face such monsters, and he could either bend the knee and forfeit his freedom and life to such beings. Or follow in their cannon footsteps and snatch that power away for himself.
With that thought etched into my mind and every waking conscious thought, I had decided to do something about it. I had to slowly make my way in this world, every slow unwavering step at a time. I had to carve a niche for myself in this world, and to do that, I had outperform my family, my clan, my immediate region, my village, the five great villages, and finally the world and the world ending threats.
I had time, as far as cannon is concerned, and there is no meaningful way to rise and grow in this world without creating obstacles. I could either stagnate my growth and rapidly gain power, or take my time, and go to New heights.
And given we were before the Third World War, I had plenty of time now.
With that decided, I raced back to the Kiri base, having disposed off the bodies of enemies and taking the remains of my allies back home.
I hadn't forgotten the strange phenomenon that reminded me of the Greek God Movie, and to further experiment with it!
Okay good news bad news situation! I have the powers of Percy Jackson as I could sense the increase in control over Suiton Jutsu. I also secretly experimented and with nary a thought, I could wield water from any source.
I have gained water based sensing ability, which allows me to sense even the minutest displacement of water and dew everywhere around me. And with us being in seas, I took a break and found out that I can swim in the seas at break neck speeds.
I don't tire if I am in contact with water, and it works better in seas, where I am nigh invincible.
Well, given my thoughts and the monsters in this world, it is a grossly wrong and stupid statement. But you understand my feelings!
I could breathe underwater, I could live forever underwater. I had no gills, but I could breathe indefinitely. No cuts stay open in the seas, no wounds bleed, and no matter what I do, I don't tire underwater. It was true for seas, but very nerfed in other sources of water.
But I could wield water without chakra. And all I needed was an image of what I want water to do. I asked Nee-chan for a spar, and she quickly found out that I was nigh unbeatable in the seas.
She could not sense any chakra, and water had formed tentacles around her arms. I had wrapped my fingers around her waist and gave her a kiss at her scrunched up face.
"I will not let such an insult pass gaki! Once I find a counter of that sealless Jutsu of yours, I am taking my revenge." Her curses were such sweet words on my ears. Almost like music!
And then, I had spent the entire time, preparing water and oil in seals, to practice this magic. For what could it be, if not magic! There was no chakra involved at any rate! And since these powers come to a demigod, Son of Greek God of Water, Seas, Horses and Earthquake, I had a lot of things to test out.
I had found no ability to create earthquakes, but it could simply be that I lack focus and training. But I had made up my mind to practise and test my abilities every day in parallel with my attempts to gain higher power in this world.
I had also found out, that I could control water at a distance and in all states. Be it as Ice, Water, Steam, mist and even dew. Why does it matter? Because I cannot change water to ice, but I can change mist to liquid water or vice versa.
Magic is weird, I enforced in my mind, as I use Kirigakure no Jutsu and stab one of the man with the spear made from water. And because the spear is not made of chakra, the sensor who found me now had two extra holes in his body, as the spear turned to mist and followed me.
Since I could control the mist, I didn't need to use a large scale Jutsu and simply cover an area and use my demigod magic to control the Mist Cloud.
Killing the fifth man with this technique, I saw the man had shiny greyish silver Chokuto. Large and flat, the blade was too goddamn sharp from an initial examination. Using my thumb to slide over the edge, I notice the gash as my blood flowed only to flow back and heal, as I draw a little water from the mist and heal the cut.
This could be a dangerous weapon, as despite its size, it is not heavy. It's spine is very rigid, and knocking on the blade's flat side, I held it close and heard it's ringing.
Amazed, I sent a small amount of chakra, and saw the sword carry it to the tip, where it dissipated. Willing the chakra to flow through the edge and then repeat back but in opposite direction, I noticed the sword glow in a bright blue colour.
Water Shape Transformation was not much useful for swords, as water was very malleable with water chakra being used for Shape Transformation. But it had no edge or cutting ability, and thus it was useless. Plain neutral chakra worked better than water, fire and lightning causing burning and shocking effect when used with weapons. Only wind gave the cutting effect, and thus only sword users who had primary wind chakra affinity used chakra metal swords, as they were too costly to use so much of the precious metal for the sword.
Of course those Samurai from Land of Iron used swords regardless as they never used Chakra Nature Transformations, merely impressive Shape Transformation to fight.
Third Person POV
Pocketing the sword, he wondered if he could fight with a sword made of water with demigod powers, as he already tried the Trident made of water.
He had to say, it was much easier to hold the construct with his mind, and the trident was quite easy to wield. Almost too easy.
For a weapon the original inhabitant of this body had never seen before, and the man from the different world never having even seen a trident in real life, the weapon almost felt second nature to him.
And to try that, he sealed the weapon he just obtained, looted the body again, and jumped on the ruins of one building as he spotted a few enemies casting a lot of long scale Jutsu his way.
Jumping in air, he made a rope that dragged him and threw him to the people, his Mist Cloud following him. The rope dispersed into mist, as Arashi held his hand out. The mist changed into water as it quickly collected itself in the shape of the trident as he landed amongst the group.
Stabilising his footing with a small burst of chakra, he thrusted his trident into the shocked man, as saw the man gurgle blood as Arashi pulled the trident back.
Dodging the sword, he jumped away, as the mist settled blinding the men. But his sight was never compromised, as in the mist, Arashi could see clearly because of some magic, that replaced the mist with the sight of the people, as if the mist isn't there.
"Kuso! He is that Kiri bastard. Kill him. Don't stay together. The bastard can hear us."
He saw the hand signs and the signals, as he knew the Uzumaki troops were now aware how the Silent Killing worked.
But he didn't need the sounds to locate them. He threw three Kunai around each of the men, and made a small kill zone. The kunai acted as a distraction and his boundary as he leapt in air, and used the trident in his hand as a spear and threw it in to the other guy.
The man was pushed back by the force, as the trident was now buried in his guts. Mentally dispersing the trident, he saw the wound caused by the trident open up, as the construct became water and collapsed into a puddle which became mist again.
Meanwhile, he had made two more tridents and used them to spar and fight the men. There was no waste of chakra, as he felt drained mentally and tired by focusing for so long with the construct, but he could instinctively feel that the strain would lessen with continued use.
On the other hand, it was less tiring and stamina draining as chakra was, and he felt he could keep up all night, if he had access to sea water. But for now, the fight was fun, as he was learning different ways to use the trident. He thrusted and parried blows, and even dispersed the trident to throw the man off balance, only to reform it again and leave a large gash on the man's face.
"You bastard, I will gut you like a pig."
The curses were monotonous now, and Arashi found he preferred to silence his mouth and instead retort with his swift sadistic blows that rendered the opponent "speechless".
A thrust through their mouth, a strike to their knees shattering their bones, a swing on their ribs, a smack on their throat or a deep thrust in their face! Arashi had gotten desensitised and numbed to his killing. And with that numbness came sadistic tendencies when he either had to kill his enemies or suffer at the hands of his allies for insubordination. The village he lived in was the Bloody Mist, and it had very well earned its ill repute.
At the end, when six more bodies were added to his kill count, he wondered when he would be done here on this island.
A week, as it seems, was the answer to his question. Even decimating the forces wasn't enough, as the Uzumaki fought to their bitter end. There were a few dangerous close shaves as the Uzumaki in a fit of rage and desperation used some Kinjutsu that rendered the frontline attackers dead with all their blood drained and their bodies shrivelled.
The Iwa forces had joined hands with Kiri, and it seemed the Iwa forces were backstabbing bastards who tried to attack Kiri soldiers after the Uzumaki were thoroughly defeated. There was a short skirmish, but since the large number of forces affected by the Kinjutsu were Iwa forces, Kiri slaughtered the remaining Iwa even after they surrendered.
This was bad, as it could spell another war with Iwa, but Arashi was more focused on looting their bodies and finding something useful.
This might look miserly. But looting dead bodies was almost symbolic to Arashi who wanted something useful to come out of this wanton slaughter.
And as he wanted things to happen, things were indeed changing.
First Person POV
Being called into the tent, I entered to see a row of smiling clan elders and older clan council members. The war and invasion here was all but over, and the fights drawn to a still, when there was no more enemy left to kill.
The civilians were all allowed to escape and the ninja were all put to the blade, as Uzushiogakure was well and truly finished. And now in the jubilation of this victory, Kiri forces waited to be shipped back home with the sweet sweet win.
As I came to the tent, the outside was filled with drunk people and dancing folks surrounding the campfire. And inside the tent, the elders were appearing mildly inebriated, but overall still sober as they had a cup of sake in their hands.
As I entered all eyes turn to me, as I notice even Nee-chan smile proudly.
"Come Arashi, come in." I was beckoned as I saw a seat at the front of the table lay empty. My Sister motioned me to sit, and I bowed as I replied politely, "Please Pardon my Intrusion."
Then I saw the clan elders began to discuss things as if ignoring my presence, but I noticed a few eyes lingering on me.
I heard the stock measuring, as Nee-chan talked about the living, the dead, the injured the critical, the disabled, and the overall losses. After that she began with the resources expended and the final bill the clan footed for the invasion.
"Now that the grim things are dealt with, let's talk our gains. As you may have noticed, our Arashi brought our gains to a significant high. He has filled our coffers much more, almost tripling it in his ventures into the village, behind enemy lines all alone without support."
She then pushed a few charts and pointed to reports as she referenced the page numbers.
"We have beat the profits margin with his singular contributions of the past twenty years. And this is after official reporting and handing over clan contributions to the village. I am sure, we will get at least 4 to 6 percent back after the village acknowledges our clan's contributions."
She smiled as everyone applauded and cheered for me.
"If that is not all, Arashi also earned himself the nickname Kiri no Arashi, after using Kirigakure no Jutsu with such devastating effects. There were many scouts who reported of a Mist Cloud travelling in the village laying waste to anyone caught inside. And if that is not enough, Konoha has put a Bingo Book Entry for Kiri no Arashi with B-Rank bounty and 10 Million Ryo if caught alive."
As I remember, an entry in the Bingo Book was a thing to celebrate, as it showed the strength of the clan member.
And B-Rank Entry meant usually a Mid to High level Jounin skill level.
"And despite being a Chunin, Arashi has earned himself a name and enough reputation, that I am proud to promote Arashi due to his significant contribution in this invasion. Congratulations Jounin Arashi of Clan Terumi. Serve your people well."
And everything became a whirlwind, as things got hectic. Someone patted my head, other hand rubbing my back, someone shook my hand, while an old woman kissed my cheek. I saw a Jounin Jacket handed to me, as the new ID was put in my hand, and like a whirlwind, things settled and I stood with a scroll, my Shinobi ID, a key, a Jacket and half of my remaining pride.
"Congratulations Jounin Arashi. Please wait outside for the meeting to end."
And walking blankly outside, I noticed I now had nothing to do, but wait idly for the meeting to finish.
