"Talking"

'Thinking'

Jutsu/ Bijuu/ Summons

Flashbacks, Letters, and Setting

I don't own Naruto

Chapter 35: The Bloodline Rebellion Part 6

At the Rebel HQ

The battle between the Rebels and the Loyalists raged all across the island, with around 4000 Loyalist shinobi arriving on the island to face 2700 Rebels. Compounding to the disadvantage in numbers, the Rebels had been caught off guard, and most of them were drowsy and not fully armed after a night of drunken revelry. There were legends of some fighters that fought better when inebriated. Unfortunately, no such fighter existed amongst the Rebels.

The emergency response teams were almost totally destroyed in the first wave of attacks, and the drunk shinobi were definitely not in the best condition to fight.

However, despite the fact that the rebels were losing ground on the whole, there still were pockets of successful resistance, especially where powerhouses like the Rebel leaders were present.

With Mei

"That should teach you to come here uninvited." Mei stated, as she stood over the smoldering and molten bodies of the Loyalists battalion that had been completely wiped out by the counter attacking Rebels led by her.

"Mei-sama! Our allies on our right require assistance! They look like they might crumble at any minute!" One of her shinobi reported.

"Those who are tired may rest for 10 minutes before joining up with us. The rest of you, follow me." Mei commanded, and she headed towards Zabuza's position.

With Zabuza

"There's no place to run! Fight to the death!" Zabuza ordered the frightened shinobi around him, as he swung his massive sword to dice his enemies into pieces like a human meat-grinder.

He and his band of Rebels were at the center of the camp, where the fight was fiercest. The close proximity to the center also meant they were the ones who felt safest, and in turn, were the drunkest. Zabuza himsself had been heavily drinking, and was not in the best shape.

However, Zabuza was still… Zabuza. The regular Jonin and Chunin Yagura had available after the death of 500 of their most brilliant shinobi were not really a fair match for Zabuza, slightly drunk or not. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the other Rebels with him.

Zabuza stumbled to the right to dodge a blast of water that was aimed to take his head off. "Shit! That was close!" He growled to himself, as he raised his massive sword to block a hail of shuriken and kunai that were thrown at him.

"There's too many of them, Zabuza-sama! We need reinforcements, or we need to retreat!" One Rebel told Zabuza.

Zabuza quickly went through the hand seals necessary to create water clones to give him some breathing room, and to add to their diminishing numbers.

"Oh yeah? And where exactly do you think we can escape to? Our overcrowded ships, which is going to be closely tailed by Yagura's men?" Zabuza sarcastically and angrily responded, as he formed some more hand seals for another jutsu.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu! (Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique)" Zabuza called out, releasing a massive amount of water into the air, which fell upon the Loyalists like a gigantic waterfall.

Some of the slower Chunin and the dead bodies around were swept away by the technique, but being skilled Suiton users themselves, many of the Jonin were able to escape the jutsu that was weakened by Zabuza's bad condition.

"Ah shit, that should have been much bigger and powerful." Zabuza lamented. "Still, that gives me more room to maneuver, and less enemies to deal with."

Zabuza brought his sword to his side, and ran towards a platoon captain, who was getting up from the attack.

He intended to cut him in half, but was stopped by the combined effort of 5 shinobi and their swords. The massive size and momentum of the Kubikiribocho drove them back, but it still gave others the opening to fire upon Zabuza with their own jutsu and shuriken.

He used his sharply honed reflexes to dodge most of them, but was pushed back by a water jutsu that clipped him, which disoriented him just long enough to be pegged by several shuriken. He was able to position his arms in front of his body to minimize the damage, but having sharp objects sticking out of your arms was a dangerous position to be in, especially if you were a swordsman, and used jutsu.

"Zabuza-sama!" a concerned Rebel called out, before turning her attention back at the enemies bearing down on her.

"Shit!" Zabuza snarled in anger. If he didn't drink so much last night, he would never have been put in this position. Damn that drinking contest he had with Mangetsu.

His bleeding arms hurt to move, but he didn't have time to focus on that right now. He'd worry about that when every Loyalist scum around him was dead.

He was still able to cut down the fodder shinobi that came at him, but his movement was noticeably slower and less precise than it had been earlier.

Some of the sharper Loyalist shinobi noticed, and pounced on the wounded Zabuza.

Zabuza maneuvered his blade to block attacks from 5 shinobi at the same time. Despite being fairly successful in blocking and parrying the attacks, he was unable to attack, and was being driven back.

The Rebel resistance in the area had been anchored around him, so when he began to be pushed back, the Rebels began to be pushed back, and their morale was dropping.

"Yoton: Yokai no Jutsu! (Lava Release: Melting Apparition Technique)"

A huge blanket of lava suddenly appeared over the heads of around 30 Loyalists that were pressuring the Rebels.

"AGHHHH!" Screams were quickly cut short as the piping hot, viscous lava adhered to the unlucky souls, and painfully burned them to death. The stench of burning flesh and cloth filled the air, making many of the surrounding people gag.

"Look! It's-" The Loyalist shinobi trying to warn his comrades had his windpipe crushed when Mei drove the heel of her high-heeled shinobi sandals into it with a flying side kick. He broke his neck and died when Mei landed on the ground with her foot still on his neck. She immediately threw a kunai with an explosive tag attached with each hand, causing deadly explosions amongst her clumped up foes. Mei immediately followed through by forming hand seals, and then blew a deadly pink heart of acidic steam with a kiss at an unlucky shinobi, which instantly dissolved him and formed a deadly wall between the Rebels and the Loyalists.

"Zabuza! Are you alright?" Mei asked with concern in her eyes, as the reinforcement she brought with her quickly reformed defensive lines.

"Y-yeah. It's just a scratch." Zabuza replied.

"A scratch, my ass. You look like shit, Zabuza." Mei chastised Zabuza, who had the decency to look ashamed.

"Look at you. Drinking like we had won the war, and now you can barely fight. If you were sober like Ao, this fodder would never have had the chance to do this to you."

By now, the Loyalists reorganized somewhat, and used a combination of water jutsu to clear the air of the acidic mist.

"Get some first-aid, Zabuza." Mei commanded without facing him, as her attention was on the enemies in front of her.

"I can still fight!" Zabuza replied, reluctant to fall back while his leader fought without him.

"Who said I was letting you get away from fighting? Just get basic treatment so you won't be a hindrance. I better see you back in the fray as soon as possible. Now, stop wasting time and go!" She said with authority.

Zabuza nodded and fell back to get emergency treatment.

Mei glared at all of the Loyalists in front of her, who looked wary and reluctant to engage in battle with her.

"Hurt my boys, will you? I guess I'll have to show you, just how hot I can really get." She said with a suggestive, yet frightening smirk on her face as she winked at them.

The Loyalists in front of her gulped.

"Yoton: Yoryudan no Jutsu! (Lava Release: Lava Dragon Bullet Technique)!"

With Mangetsu and Jinpachi

Jinpachi swung at Mangetsu furiously with his strange, yet deadly blade. Mangetsu however, was a master of all of the 7 swords. He knew just how deadly the Shibuki was. However, his experience with the sword also meant he knew how to fight against it.

Mangetsu used the chakra forms of the Hiramekarei to keep Jinpachi at a distance, while changing the forms to keep his attacks unpredictable. The explosions from the Shibuki were meant to kill a single person with a direct strike instead of blowing up huge areas, and this meant Mangetsu was mostly safe from the deadly explosions.

Jinpachi gritted his teeth as he tried his best to deliver a fatal blow to Mangetsu. He had always hated Mangetsu, and had a bit of an inferiority complex towards him, even if he never showed it. Mangetsu was the only one among them with a bloodline, but he also happened to be one of the strongest, even without the bloodline. Jinpachi was a skilled swordsman, and feared by his enemies, but he was still considered one of the weaker members of the 7 ninja swordsmen, forming the unofficial B-team of the order, along with Kushimaru, Raiga, and Jinin. They made up for it by being crueler than the others, but it had always been a sore point for Jinpachi.

Even though Mangetsu was not at his best, due to the drinking competition against Zabuza from the night before, Mangetsu was a prodigy when it came to kenjutsu. He grinned as he parried each of Jinpachi's blows and smacked him around with the flat side of the Hiramekarei, in an effort to humiliate him.

It worked. Jinpachi was absolutely furious. Even with all of the training he did after the Rebels broke off from Kiri, he was still unable to match, let alone best, Mangetsu in a sword fight. However, just because he couldn't defeat him one on one in skill didn't mean he would lose.

Jinpachi calmed down, and even grinned back at Mangetsu when he came up with a plan. He had been observing and learning from Yagura, serving as his right-hand man. If you can't win head on, then use devious methods to achieve your goals.

Jinpachi jumped back to avoid a swing from the hammer form of the Hiramekarei.

Mangetsu smirked and placed his sword over his shoulder, with his free hand on his hip. "Heh. Realize you're no match for me yet?"

Jinpachi analyzed the scene around him and smirked. He pulled out several kunai with explosive tags on them.

"You sure love explosions, don't you?" Mangetsu said tauntingly. Meanwhile, somewhere in the wilderness, a blonde missing-nin sneezed. "When will you learn your petty explosions can't touch me? Now, maybe if you had those Uzumaki explosive tags? That might do something."

Jinpachi gave Mangetsu an ominous smile, though Mangetsu couldn't understand what he was looking so smug about.

Jinpachi surprised Mangetsu by throwing the explosive tag attached kunais at the surrounding civilians, and the ships they were boarding.

Mangetsu's jaws opened in shock, and he quickly used his hydrification bloodline to try to disarm the explosive tags flying at the ships. He managed to stop a few, but failed to block all of them. Dozens died in the surprise attack of explosions, and 2 ships began to leak water, after massive holes were blown in their hulls. They began to sink.

Mangetsu looked on in horror as he watched 2 ships slowly sink, as people jumped overboard into the cold waters, trying to survive.

Jinpachi used the distraction to quickly close in, and smashed Mangetsu's sword with the Shibuki, causing an explosion which sent Mangetsu flying.

Mangetsu was able to use his liquid body to avoid taking too much damage from the tumbling, but he had been separated from his sword in the process.

"Heh, for such a great swordsman as yourself, you seem to be doing a bad job of keeping your sword on you." Jinpachi taunted with a toothy smirk.

Mangetsu scowled. "You fucking bastard! Those were innocent civilians!"

"No one's truly innocent in a war. Not even civilians. They chose which side they wanted to support, and they paid the price." Jinpachi countered, as he stepped closer to stand over Mangetsu.

Mangetsu was in trouble. Even with the hydrification technique, he knew taking a direct hit from the Shibuki would be difficult to recover from. "You're a real cunt, you know that? You knew you couldn't beat me, so you went and targeted civilians."

Jinpachi cackled in response. "Look at your pathetic excuses. We're shinobi. We use whatever we can to win. If killing some bloodline loving, traitorous scum gives me that edge, I'd gladly kill a hundred, no, thousands of them. Their noble sacrifice was necessary to put you in your place: at my feet, groveling for mercy. Now beg!"

Mangetsu just grinned back. "Beg? Beg you for what? Even if you kill me, you'll know deep inside that you never defeated me as a swordsman. Enjoy living your entire life without the chance of truly defeating me, knowing you'll always be a B-tier swordsman, who got lucky. So go ahead. Kill me. I'll wait for you in hell, so I can kick your ass in this life and the next."

Jinpachi was absolutely livid. He tuned the whole world out to focus on killing the bloodline bastard in front of him.

"Hmph. You'll regret saying that, when I find your annoying brother, and torture him before I kill him too!" Jinpachi raised his sword above his head, to destroy Mangetsu.

Mangetsu didn't want to give Jinpachi the satisfaction of seeing him disturbed, but he couldn't help but have his smirk falter at the mention of his brother. "Fuck you Jinpachi. Fuck you, and the whore mother who gave birth to your rotten ass."

Jinpachi smiled when he realized he got to Mangetsu. "Goodbye, bloodline freak! I'll send your brother to join you real soon, drop by drop!" He yelled as he began to bring down the sword.

Mangetsu stared Jinpachi in the eyes unflinchingly as he faced his death. He only blinked when his face was splashed by a warm liquid.

"What the hell?" Mangetsu wondered what got on his face when he reopened his eyes, only to be shocked by the sight of the massive blade of the Hiramekarei penetrating Jinpachi's torso.

Jinpachi trembled in pain, as he slowly looked behind him to see who had stabbed him from the back.

Chojuro stood behind him, holding the two handles of the massive sword.

"Y-you!" Jinpachi gasped out, before coughing up blood.

Chojuro pulled the blade out, and the massive gaping wound on Jinpachi's torso spilled out his blood and organs. Jinpachi passed out from the rapidly dropping blood pressure, and collapsed onto the ground, where he died in seconds.

"A-are you alright? Mangetsu-sama?" Chojuro asked timidly.

Mangetsu chuckled and wiped Jinpachi's blood off of his face as he stood up. Chojuro was brave one second, and timid in the next. What a weird kid. He ruffled the teen's hair.

"Good work kid. I thought he'd never shut up." Mangetsu replied. "Now, about that sword you're holding…"

"O-oh! Sorry! I found it on the ground, and intended to return it to you! Promise!" Chojuro said defensively.

Mangetsu laughed again. "You're not too bad with that sword. Why don't you hold on to it, and show me what else you can do with it?"

Chojuro's eyes widened. "S-surely you don't mean that! This is your sword! Besides, only a member of the 7-ninja swordsman of the Mist is allowed to wield these legendary blades!"

Mangetsu rubbed his chin with his hand. "Hmmm… you're right…"

Chojuro slightly deflated as he handed the Hiramekarei to Mangetsu.

However, Mangetsu didn't accept the sword. "However, there seems to be one less member as of 5 seconds ago." He said as he pointed to the now pale, disemboweled body of Jinpachi. "Looks like we'll need to add a new member."

Chojuro's eyes widened again. No… he wasn't about to say what Chojuro was thinking. Right?

Mangetsu gave Chojuro a toothy smile. "Welcome to the team Chojuro."

"M-mangetsu-sama!" Chojuro shouted out with teary eyes.

"As your initiation mission, your job is to use your new sword to send these Loyalist bastards to hell, where they belong. Consider it your hazing. Now go!" Mangetsu ordered, and Chojuro saluted Mangetsu and ran off to help the others.

Mangetsu pried the Shibuki out of Jinpachi's cold hands. "Now, you can get comfortable and lie right there, as I show you how you're supposed to use this sword, amateur." Mangetsu taunted the dead Jinpachi, as he jumped into action.

With Naruto

Naruto had walked for hours to the most remote corner of the island. After that altercation with Mei, he wanted to be alone, and far from all of the festivities.

He sat down, and leaned against a rock, as he faced the open ocean before him, watching the shimmering reflection of the moon on the water.

He sat there, letting his mind cycle through all of the thoughts he had pushed to the back of his mind, thoughts he had been too busy to deal with, being occupied with the civil war in Kiri.

Naturally, he began to think about his sister, and his team back in Konoha.

'Narumi… how are you doing? Is Sasuke dealing with his issues well? Is Hinata doing better with her family? Did Kakashi catch Suien? Are you keeping in touch with Fuu? I bet you'd love to see Haku again. She'd love to see you too.' Naruto thought to himself, as he thought about Narumi, who he missed dearly. He hadn't been away from her for such a long period before. She was almost like a daughter to him, with the way he had raised her before she even turned 1.

'How long will it be before this war ends and I get to see you again? Maybe Mei is right, and I should just hurry up and assassinate Yagura.' He shook his head at that thought. 'No… as painful as it is, watching people I got to know die, I have to let them have this, for themselves. It's the only way to have a stable Kiri. They need this for their own identity. I can't let my feelings get in the way.'

He then remembered the argument he had with Mei, and the accusations that were thrown at him. He didn't show it, but it had hurt. He had gotten relatively close with a lot of people, and quite invested in this rebellion. To say he was barely making himself useful, and to say he didn't value their lives, it was frustrating, to say the least.

"How dare you say I don't care, Mei. How dare you." Naruto whispered to himself, as he threw small stones into the ocean.

He watched the ripples the stones he threw made, until he started to notice other things. Small bits of wood and cloth floated above the water. He didn't think much of it at first, but more and more became visible.

'What the hell? Who's throwing away all this trash?' Naruto thought to himself.

He got closer to see what the floating debris was.

One of the pieces of wood floating towards him was a piece of carved wood. He fished it out of the water, and examined it more closely.

'Is this… a piece of railing from a ship? It doesn't look like it's been out at sea for too long… which means… it was recently broken off…'

He took a look around, and began to see larger objects floating out at sea. He used the water walking technique to get a closer look at a particular object that caught his attention.

It was a corpse of a Rebel shinobi.

"What the fuck? What's going on here?" Naruto gasped out to himself. He immediately got an ominous feeling, and looked behind him. He saw smoke rising.

"Is that… from our camp?" His heart sank when he realized what could be going on. "No… it can't be…"

He immediately started to run towards the camp, as fast as feet would take him.

With Mei and Zabuza

Even with Zabuza's return to the fray and Mei reinforcement, the center of the base was a terrible place to be. The defense they had set up in the passages guarding the center of the base quickly crumbled with the surprise attack, and the center was forced to take on more and more fronts on different sides.

The retreating Rebels from the outer areas of the island did come with a few benefits, in that they brought more man power and consolidated the center, which was a huge step up from the rag tag group of drunk shinobi that were barely held together only by Mei's fierce leadership and prowess. With their help, Mei was able to slowly move her forces backwards, until they had their backs to the docks where Ao and Mangetsu had formed a stable defensive zone. Still, they were surrounded on 3 sides, and escape seemed unlikely.

The Rebels were down to just below 1400 shinobi, having lost almost half of their men in the nighttime raid, while the Loyalists still had over 3000, more than doubling their forces.

The western flank of the Rebels was struggling the most, having been hit particularly hard at the start of the battle, with the fewest number of reinforcements joining them.

Being bunched up in a statically was the worst position for shinobi to be in, especially if you didn't have many defensive jutsu. The Rebels periodically used Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Release: Water Encampment Wall) for defense, but the chakra cost for the jutsu meant it was heavily inefficient as a means to stop the rain of kunai and shuriken that came their way, which cost absolutely no chakra.

The Loyalists had the numbers to simply throw jutsu as bait to make the Rebels use the wall of water for defense, wait for them to cancel the jutsu, then throw a barrage of projectiles and jutsu at them, killing many with each wave.

"Sir, we can't keep this up. We need reinforcements, or we need to change our tactics. Something needs to change or we'll all die here like sitting ducks." One shinobi told the officer in charge of the flank.

The officer pulled a kunai out of his bloodied shoulder. "And what would you have us do? Charge at them? That's exactly what they want! Once we're out of formation, they'll surround us and cut us to pieces! Then they'll hit the exposed rear of our allies! No! Even if we can only serve as glorified meat shields, we'll stand our ground and protect our allies to our dying breaths!"

That's when the shinobi around him realized how bad of a situation they were in. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before they would all be killed. They weren't even expecting to win or to get away. It was hopeless.

"Suigetsu! Kimimaro! Formation B!" a voice called out from behind the Loyalist lines.

"Got it!" Suigetsu called out, and created a dragon of water which flew straight towards the middle of their formation.

A few unlucky Loyalists were blown away by the attack, but most of them wisely stepped to either side of the dragon to let it pass by them harmlessly.

Suigetsu grinned, and released his jutsu. His part in the formation Naruto had created for his team was set up.

Haku immediately followed through by freezing the long puddle that was left behind, forming a trail of ice that led all the way to the Rebel lines.

The three teens jumped on the ice, and used the slippery ice as a highway towards the Rebel lines. Loyalists on either side of the ice trail tried to attack the three teens, but Kimimaro in the front of the formation easily dispatched them with his sharpened bones, using the speed from skating on the ice to boost his momentum and penetrative power, while Haku and Suigetsu provided ranged attacks from behind him.

Leaving a bloody trail of bodies behind them, the three arrived at the exhausted western flank.

"Kill those bastards! Focus your fire on those 3 bloodline freaks!" A furious officer of the Loyalist battalions on the western flank ordered.

"Suigetsu. Haku. Formation E." Kimimaro ordered calmly, using the next formation of the playbook Naruto created for them.

"Everyone! Use the Suijinheki (Water Encampment Wall) on my command!" Suigetsu ordered.

Despite outranking the technically still Genin shinobi, they were awestruck at how powerful and efficient the three were, and they obeyed Suigetsu and cast their jutsu when he gave the word.

"NOW!"

Walls of water covered the entire front, blocking the hail of kunai and shuriken that were thrown at the Rebels.

"It's fine! Just wait for them to release the jutsu, and throw the next wave!" The Loyalist officer commanded.

However, Formation E wasn't done just yet.

The Loyalists watched in shock, as the water wall in front of them began to solidify into ice.

Haku fell to one knee after she froze the entire wall. Even though she had saved a lot of chakra by freezing the existing wall of water instead of creating her own wall of ice, she had expended a huge amount of chakra, and was running dangerously low.

"Well done, Haku. Now, Suigetsu, a boost please." Kimimaro asked Suigetsu.

"Got it. Suiton: Water Pillar Jutsu!"

The water below Kimimaro began to coalesce underneath him, until it created a pillar that raised him above the wall.

"There! Everyone! Aim at that Kaguya bastard!" A Loyalist officer roared, and his men responded by throwing projectile after projectile after Kimimaro.

Kimimaro didn't even blink or show any expression on his face as he danced around each projectile, while firing bone after bone out of the tips of his fingers in every direction, which tore through dozens of Loyalists.

Meanwhile, even the kunai and shuriken that hit Kimimaro did nothing, as he made sure they hit his hardened bones instead of any of his soft and vital organs.

The Rebels were in awe as they watched their reinforcement of 3 Genin, who were only that in name, literally stop the Loyalists dead in their tracks.

The Loyalists fell back to catch their breath and to come up with a new strategy, and Kimimaro hopped off of his platform. He walked up to the officer in charge of the flank with Haku and Suigetsu at his side.

"Now, where is Mei-sama?" He asked.

With Mei

The Loyalists were having trouble approaching the center of the Rebel formation, with the pools of bubbling lava that dotted the land between them, and the acidic mist that hung above them, obscuring their view, the work of Mei.

However, this defensive set up wasn't without cost, as Mei was left terribly exhausted after using so many chakra heavy jutsu for hours on end. She had pushed herself to her limits, as anywhere she wasn't present seemed to crumble, and forced her to keep moving around to stabilize the areas.

As such, after setting up several layers of deadly traps, she retreated to the defensive line set up by Ao and Mangetsu at the back to catch her breath and get a moment of rest.

That was where the trio of Naruto's team approached her.

"Mei-sama!" Haku called out, as they walked over to her.

Mei gave her a soft smile. She always did like Haku. "Good to see you three all safe and sound. We could certainly use your help."

"Mei-sama, where is Naruto-taichou?" Kimimaro asked.

Mei's smile faded into a frown, as her countenance fell.

"I-I don't know. He stormed off after… I foolishly accused him of things I shouldn't have."

"Mei-sama, we need his help! He always has a plan! Don't you have any idea where he might be?" Haku asked.

"We sure could use that big-ass fire attack from earlier. Or a storm of his explosive tags." Suigetsu added.

Mei sadly shook her head.

She looked around the make-shift triage she was resting at, and looked at all of the injured and dying shinobi around her. They had lost too many men to keep this rebellion going after tonight. There was only one thing left that could salvage this situation, and that was defeating Yagura. However, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn you, Yagura… throwing your men into this meat-grinder while you stay behind in safety… you coward…" Mei cursed Yagura under her breath.

With Yagura

Meanwhile, Yagura sat at one of the empty watch towers with a spyglass, and looked over the situation. His forces were winning everywhere, and had all of the Rebels backed into a convenient corner. Everything was going according to plan.

Everything except one thing. That damn Uzumaki mercenary had yet to show up.

"Where are you, you damn rat?" Yagura muttered to himself as he looked around the island for any signs of the Uzumaki. He wanted to save his energy for who he perceived to be his most dangerous foe, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"The Rebels are at the brink of defeat, and he's yet to show his face? What game is he playing here?" Yagura wondered.

"Perhaps you're wiser than I thought. Yes… that must be it. He knew we were coming and fled alone… he was simply a mercenary after all…"

Yagura put away his spyglass with a grin on his face.

"Well then. I suppose it's time for me to put an end to this little rebellion. I'll let you guys go out with a bang."

Back at the Battlefield

The battle continue to rage on, and while the Rebels were doing a great job of holding off the Loyalists for a good while, they were beginning to grow tired and run low on chakra.

The Loyalists had no such problem. They had always been much more organized than the rebels, and they used their training and system to split their forces into battalions, some of which would attack, while others rested. Even their logistics were better, even though the Rebels had the home ground, with efficient supply lines forming behind their defensive lines, distributing weapons, water, medical aid, or even chakra pills to resting shinobi.

Meanwhile, the Rebels were already low on supplies, but were put in an even worse situation when they lost supplies to the Loyalists in the surprise attack.

"Mei-sama, we're out of chakra pills!" One kunoichi reported to Mei.

"Shit. Could things get any worse?" Mei sighed. They desperately needed chakra pills and soldier pills after the hours of exhausting fighting.

"MEI-SAMA!" A shinobi shouted out in panic as he ran towards her.

"What is it now?" Mangetsu complained to Mei.

"Yes? What is it?" Mei asked the shinobi.

"Mei-sama! We're in trouble! The Loyalists are chanting Yagura's name! I think he's arrived!" He reported.

Everyone around felt their hearts sink.

"Well… it looks like things got worse, Mei-sama." Ao commented.

Mei didn't have the time to deal with Ao's comment. She had wished Yagura was present so they could somehow salvage the hopeless situation, but now that Yagura actually showed up, she realized she didn't really want to face him right now.

"I see… Alright. It's time for me to get back out there. Thank you for letting me know." Mei replied as she stood back up. "Yagura… so we finally meet…"

The Rebels and the Loyalists had been clashing and then separating all throughout the night, clashing and separating several times, as the Loyalists came in waves, trying different methods.

When Mei and Zabuza dragged their exhausted bodies to the front of the Rebel lines, they were on one of these breaks in the battle, where both sides faced each other, but stood outside of each other's ranges.

They looked towards the Loyalist lines, and saw the Loyalists chanting Yagura's name, before they split down the middle to open up a path.

From that path, a shortish young man appeared, twirling a black staff in his hands.

"Ah, we meet at last, Mei, the great beauty of Kiri." Yagura said with a smile.

"Kill him! If we can kill him, this war is over!" A Rebel officer yelled, and 3 squads followed him as they charged Yagura.

Yagura's men were about to go out to defend Yagura, but he simply held up his hand to stop them.

"I don't need your help for trash like this." He remarked, as he went through several hand seals.

"Coral Release: Branching Spear Jutsu!"

Several sharp branches of coral grew from his staff, and impaled each of the 12 shinobi that were charging at Yagura, killing them.

Yagura smiled and released his jutsu, dropping the dead shinobi on the ground unceremoniously.

Mei glared at Yagura, who spat on the closest body to him.

Yagura looked up and smiled.

"Come on. You didn't really think something so pathetic would work on me? Did you? I'm insulted if you thought some trash could beat me."

Mei was furious at how he treated her dead shinobi.

"Yoton: Yoryudan no Jutsu! (Lava Release: Lava Dragon Bullet Technique)" Mei yelled as a dragon made up of bubbling lava erupted out of the ground in front of her.

It flew straight at Yagura, who just smirked. "Suiton: Mizukagami no Jutsu! (Water Release: Water Mirror Technique)" He twirled his staff in front of him, forming a round mirror of water in front of him. A lava dragon emerged out of the mirror, and smashed into Mei's dragon, effectively cancelling out the attack, much to Mei's surprise.

Yagura chuckled. "Come on. Don't tell me that was your strongest attack? I've heard so much about the fearsome beauty that was the Rebel leader. I assumed she'd be quite strong from what I've heard, but if this is it, then I'm disappointed."

Mei scowled at him.

Yagura gave her a smirk. "Now, now. No need to be so angry. All that frowning will give you wrinkles. Besides, I wasn't saying I was disappointed in you. I was disappointed in myself that I let a weakling like you oppose me for so long."

"Yoton: Cannon Eruption Jutsu!" Mei yelled out in fury, and the earth in front of her split open as a huge glob of lava erupted out of it, and shot at Yagura at breakneck speeds.

Yagura simply created the water mirror again, and a similarly sized glob of lava shot out of it, colliding with Mei's and cancelling out her jutsu once again.

"You done?" Yagura asked teasingly.

Mei was trembling with anger and frustration at Yagura's incessant teasing.

The Rebels morale hit rock bottom, when they watched their most powerful fighter, their leader, being toyed around with by Yagura. What could they possibly do against a well-rested force more than twice their size, and a perfect Jinchuuriki waiting to annihilate them?

Yagura looked over the Rebels, and could see the disheartened faces. He grinned. Time to end this rebellion here.

"There is no chance for any of you to live to see the morning, if you continue to resist. However, I'm a merciful man, despite the propaganda you might have heard from your leader. If you surrender to me, I'll allow you to live." Yagura announced in a loud voice.

Murmurs began to break out all over the Rebel side. People were debating if they should just give up now and live, or die a dog's death.

Mei couldn't help but be concerned at seeing the will of her shinobi shaking. She wished she could say something to give them hope, something to motivate them, but what did she have to offer? Was surrendering the right thing to do? Was there a chance she could save some of her men?

Yagura saw the effect his speech had on the Rebels, and smirked. However, he wasn't done yet.

"However!" He yelled out, capturing the complete attention of the Rebel forces once again, and quieting them instantly.

"There will be no mercy for bloodline users. I know many of you have been roped into this pointless war by empty promises from bloodline users and their clans, but they are nothing but lies! Remember how Kiri was under their rule! A village, divided between bloodline users as nobles, and the rest of us as nothing more than glorified peasants! Is that what you want to return to?" Yagura reasoned, causing fierce debates and suspicions against their comrades to break out on the rebel side.

Mei could do nothing as she watched her shinobi slowly turning against each other, and camaraderie crumbling apart. They were minutes away from fighting each other.

"Make them pay the price for destroying our village! If you turn against your bloodline wielding comrades, and fight against them on my behalf, I'll pardon you of your treason against Kiri, and allow you and your family to rejoin the village, no questions asked. In fact, I'll reward you for each bloodline wielding clan member you kill!"

Yagura smirked after finishing his speech. That should be the nail in the coffin.

"Hey! Why are you looking at me like that? There's no way you're actually considering what he's saying? We've been fighting together for years!" One Rebel shinobi said to another standing next to him.

"You'd prefer if we all die? It's either you get to live or we all have to die? You selfish bastard! I've got a family to think about, and I don't want them to end up as fish food!"

Similar arguments began to break out all over. Mei looked over at the infighting, and realized the rebellion was basically over. All of the bloodline wielding clans would be executed, man, woman, and children, whether they displayed the ability or not.

As for herself, she hoped she'd simply be executed. The alternative was too insulting and degrading to even consider.

She held a kunai with a trembling hand, as she debated if she should slit her own throat right now.

The sound of arguing and infighting was interrupted by shouts from the Loyalist side.

"Halt! Who are you!? Stay right there!" A Loyalist yelled.

"Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu! (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Technique)" a voice yelled out.

Hundreds of large balls of fire arced over the battlefield, and fell upon the Loyalist army.

Though some of the more skilled Suiton users were able to extinguish some of the fire balls, many were killed by the intense blue flames, which burned the places they hit into ashes. Even the extinguished fire balls dropped the sharp shuriken hidden inside them onto the Loyalist forces, injuring many and even killing some of them.

Yagura looked behind him, and scowled. "Who dares attack my army!?"

"Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu! (Fire Release: Dragon Flame Technique)" the voice called out next.

Intense streams of extremely hot blue fire traveled down the ninja wires that had been attached to the many shuriken which were scattered amongst the Loyalist formation.

They were unable to do a thing to extinguish the quickly traveling streams of fire, as the fire evaporated the water jutsu that were cast on it in an attempt to extinguish it, as long as the figure maintained the flow of chakra.

The streams of fire consumed the unlucky Loyalists that were standing near the ninja wires, opening several paths of charred corpses in their lines.

"Heh, looks like your combo works pretty well, Sasuke." The approaching figure whispered to himself.

Yagura was shocked at how powerful these blue flames were. He had seen plenty of fire jutsu in his life, but he had never seen fire like this, which would overpower water jutsu, as if fire was strong against water, instead of it being the other way around. 'No… this can't be! Is this what Jinpachi was talking about?'

The approaching figure with the hunter-nin mask held up a single hand seal, and suddenly, he was joined by 20 shadow clones, who drew their swords and channeled razor-sharp wind chakra through the blade.

The clones charged into the gaps created by the Dragon Flame Jutsu, and began to slash around rapidly, a body dropping to the floor with each motion of the clones.

The Loyalists only recovered from their shock when over a hundred men had been sliced to pieces in seconds, each clone easily killing more than 5 people each. The Loyalists around the clones began to close in on the clones, hoping to overwhelm them with numbers.

The figure smiled under his mask.

"Futton: Bunshin Daibakuha! (Boil Release: Clone Great Explosion)"

The surrounded clones began to distort in shape, before the pressurized acidic steam inside them exploded out in a massive explosion.

Each one took out dozens, killing several hundred more in an agonizing death, as their terrified comrades watch them dissolve slowly and painfully. The screams of pain from the dissolving Loyalists gripped the hearts of each Loyalist with icy fingers of fear.

"Boil Release?" Mei whispered to herself in surprise as she watched complete pandemonium break out in the ranks of the Loyalists with the arrival of the masked figure.

The figure jumped and landed in between the Loyalists and the Rebels.

Yagura gritted his teeth as he glared at the new arrival. "So, you finally arrive…"

The Rebels were silent as they stared in awe at the familiar newly arrived figure, who was wearing a blue cloak with an orange Uzumaki spiral on his back that they hadn't seen before.

"Look! It's the Blue Dragon! We're saved!"

*Author's Note*

And that's the latest chapter of the Jinchuuriki's Brother!

It seemed like the Kiri arc was getting long for some of you, so I wanted to wrap up the battle in this chapter, but I failed. You'll just have to put up with a couple more chapters, it's close to the end now! I'll ask for your patience for just a little longer.

Also, I'll apologize if it felt like I was targeting some of you with my message about the release schedule. I wasn't intending to make any of you feel bad or anything. I felt bad at being unable to release at the schedule that you guys got accustomed to, and wanted to let you guys know my side of things, so you'd know what was going on if I don't release on time, instead of just wondering what was going on. That was why I started the whole discord thing, so I can communicate with you guys better.

Speaking of which, the discord channel went through some changes, so here's the new code for it, if any of you guys are interested: YeWD6wqvYU

So, I wanted to address one thing about the chapter some of you might have. The question is, why didn't Naruto just burn up everyone with the Gouka Mekkakyu (Great Fire Annihilation) when he arrived? The answer to that is: chakra. The technique obviously uses a ton of chakra, and when you're about to fight a perfect Jinchuuriki, who practically has unlimited chakra, you want to save as much as possible. That leads to another question some of you may have. How much chakra does Naruto have after the battle at the Black Cliffs, and how much did he recover? The subject of chakra recovery was sorta vague in canon, so I'm just gonna go with my headcanon. I'd say he still has more than half of his chakra left. As for the recovery? I'd say you'd need a good night of rest to recover your chakra, rather than just waiting it for refill. After all, after playing sports all day, it's not like just waiting will make you recover. You need sleep. That's the logic I'll go with for this story.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading, and I hope you guys all have a great day, and stay safe!

Until next time!