Everyone gasped at the same time. Aiko stopped mid stride to put her hand on her chest, disbelieving the sudden change.
"I cannot feel my chakra," Gaara said numbly. He turned in a slow circle, as if it might be behind him. "What is this?"
Karin was fighting for air, eyes wide behind her glasses. "I can't see," she said, bewildered. "It's- I can see… is this how you see?" She grabbed at Aiko's sleeve and clung on.
Aiko let her, despite her instincts barking for her to shake off any restriction. Everything was so quiet now, and she wasn't getting all the sensory input that she expected. Unsure, she glanced back at Utakata. He was dashing to her side, running to catch up. He had been less than 20 feet away but she couldn't smell his lotion anymore, or even his shampo.
Her stomach roiled. "Enemy action?" She asked quietly. "My best guess. Karin, Gaara, get to the closest shelter." Before they could protest she added, "I want you to protect it. Do you have steel?"
Karin put a hand to her hair and pulled out a fine needle that glinted in the fading sunlight of a cold October day. "I have senbon."
"I do not." Gaara hunched in on himself. "I…"
Utakata pulled out a kunai and flipped it to hand over. "I trust you are proficient."
Gaara took it reluctantly. "I am… adequately trained." He looked unmoored and unsteady.
'He looks more out of place than usual,' Aiko thought, suddenly stuck by his desert tans and red in the middle of an island. Something about it left her feeling very unsettled. 'Maybe I should keep them with me.'
She bit her lip and didn't countermand her own order. They weren't just children, they were soldiers. She took a deep breath and looked around the street. The civilians hadn't seemed to notice anything was amiss, but every shinobi in sight was looking around. "May I have your attention?" She said, projecting her voice. "All civilians please proceed to designated shelters."
The vast majority of the civilians were still walking and talking, ordering street food or cracking open a drink.
She… she couldn't project her voice very far without chakra use. She glanced up at Utakata, a little surprised by her own inability. His black eyes met hers and then flashed away.
"Evac!" He called, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Evac!"
Someone else took up the call and it grew until it was ringing through the streets. Aiko nodded a goodbye to Karin and Gaara and then set off at a sprint for the tower. Any intelligence reports would come in there.
It took an unnervingly long time to hear anything at all. Communication was slow without chakra. Aiko found herself thinking about Gai. He wouldn't be at all inconvenienced.
'Wait, is Konoha affected? What's the radius of this?'
She fidgeted, flipping a senbon between her fingers rapidly. That was about when a Chuunin runner relayed that the phenomenon was covering the entire main island.
"Just the main island?" Aiko asked. She stopped pacing.
The chuunin was ramrod stiff. "I do not know, Mizukagesama. Without chakra, we cannot verify the status of the other islands."
It took her a moment to understand. No chakra meant no water walking, meant no way to make the air bubbles to access the underwater paths. There were some boats, yes, but they didn't belong to her. The harbor had several fishing vessels and trade ships.
Aiko got to her feet. "Do we have wartime powers?" She asked Nishikawa.
His expression didn't change. "Pardon?"
She blinked at him. "To commandeer one of the ships in the harbor," she explained. "I want to know how far this extends. It could be an attack on the capital, or action against the whole nation. I'd like to know what we're dealing with."
"You are the Mizukage," Nishikawa said. A crack appeared in his cool, when he didn't quite manage to hide confusion. "If you wish to take the ship then you may."
Aiko felt her brow furrowed. That was really cavalier. Konoha was definitely stricter than that.
'Perhaps Konoha has well-established protocols because they are invaded annually,' Sanbi said practically.
Ouch. But point taken.
Aiko squashed down any guilt and had two ships commandeered. They went off with skeleton crews of shinobi and civilian volunteers who knew about sailing.
"It should just take a couple of hours," she said to herself, looking out the window. The ships had left an hour ago already. "They're only going to the closest island on either side."
She bit her lip. The sun was fully down now, kissing the horizon goodbye one last time. There was still no sign of motivation or overt enemy action. Only suffocating stillness and the lingering fear that they were vulnerable.
"Mizukage sama, does your fuinjutsu still work?" Nishikawa asked.
Utakata made a sudden sound of comprehension. "Ah- that could be it."
She blinked at them and drew a hand across the air. Nothing sparked. "No, I…" she trailed off, remembering that she didn't have to write with only chakra. She went back to her desk and pulled out a pen and a piece of scrap paper. She scribbled out a containment seal and tested it with a finger.
"Oh." She touched it again. "It's very faint. But it has some effect. I think…" she rolled up her sleeve and pinched open a wound near her elbow. She let it drip into her empty coffee cup.
"Oh," Utakata said, disgusted. "Aiko." He crossed the office floor to her with brisk steps. "Let me."
Without looking she held her left arm out at a better angle so that he could take it. She didn't pay attention to how he wrapped it, though she did notice that he carefully folded her sleeve up and his warm hands lingered on her upper arm. She used the blood to draw a new seal and tested it a little less cavalierly.
"Ah! She pulled her hand back quickly, shaking it. "Yes, that has a lot more bite to it. So, yes, that works… access to chakra is cut off, but I can still use it this way."
She felt her gaze soften as she thought.
This didn't seem like… well, it was a pretty big oversight to a technique. If she was going to attack and wanted to prevent someone from fighting back, she would also curtail seal use. On the other hand, fuinjutsu was a rare and dying skill. Maybe the person who had created this effect thought it wasn't worth accounting for.
"Maybe we are dealing with someone who uses fuinjutsu," Aiko mused. She leaned against Utakata, who was conveniently near enough to function as a wall. "That would be an advantage that could overcome numbers. If our people are unable to use chakra against others fighting with their main skillset…"
"Whoever did this spent a lot of preparation," Mei said. It was the first time that she had spoken. "I have heard nothing through intelligence that could be connected to this. And yet they must have formed a barrier around the full area covered. A barrier around an island nation, that prevents them from using chakra as well as us. Even with fuinjutsu, they cannot water walk. So how do they plan to reach us? Does this mean they're already on the island?"
Aiko frowned. She lifted her hand in signal. The head of her guard knelt before her. "I want another check," she said. "Search the capital. Buildings, sewers, forests- all of it. If someone is here I want to know about it."
"Mizukage sama," she muttered, bowing low enough to press her forehead on the floor. And then the special agent was gone.
They had a tense cup of coffee, at least one of which had an unpleasant aftertaste as Aiko possessively drank her own blood to keep it from going down the drain or into unknown hands. They waited another hour. And then a runner informed them that the first ship had returned.
"Already?" Mei stood with a frown. "It's too soon. Why- are they unable to navigate? Did they encounter the enemy?"
"This ship could have been taken," Utakata murmured. "We may have provided them with a way inside the zone without chakra use."
They went to the dock. Aiko waved the others back, making sure that none of the chuunin got too close to the harbor. The ship they had sent out moved gently on the waves, dark and silent.
Something roiled in her gut.
"We sent ten on this, yes?" She confirmed under her breath.
Nishikawa agreed quietly. "And twelve on the larger ship."
There was no sign of movement. It was fully dark now but the lights were all off.
"I don't think our people are on there," Aiko said. She scowled. "Utakata, with me. The rest of you wait here."
The ship hadn't obligingly fastened itself close enough, so she had to take it at a bit of a run and jump to clear the distance from the harbor. She landed on board in a crouch and immediately looked around.
Nothing. It was dark and still.
She straightened, feeling the hair stand up at the back of her neck. It felt like she was being watched. "Let's go," she murmured. With Utakata a silent shadow she checked the upper deck and then went below. There were no signs of people, no signs of a fight. If there was any enemy they were beyond her detection.
She caught the faintest hint of something in the air as she went back outside. Aiko paused midstep, face pointed up.
"Aiko?" Utakata asked quietly. She put a finger up, asking him for silence as she concentrated on following the scent she had caught. It took her over to the side of the ship. She had to squint to see anything by the reflection of the moon, but there it was. A dark gash against the wood was there. It showed where someone had lost a lot of blood as they were dragged off the ship and down into the water.
She looked into the water. For a moment she thought she saw a face looking back at her, a face like her own. Then the wave moved and the image was gone.
"Just my reflection," she whispered. "I…" she touched Utakata for reassurance. "Let's return now."
"What did you see?" He asked in an undertone, hurrying across the deck.
"Blood over the side of the ship," she said, omitting the face in the water. "At least one person was dragged in."
Silent Night
Part two
The next few hours felt very long. The second ship didn't return at all. No attack was launched. Most of her people returned from searching without anything to report.
"Everyone who is left…" Nishikawa flipped the paper up on his clipboard. "Mizukage sama. We have reports for the forests, and most of the city. However, we have disproportionate amounts of late reports from people who went to search either the sewers or the coastline."
"The sewers?" Aiko repeated, leaning back in her desk chair. "That's… there's two points of ocean access to the sewer system, correct? If we are dealing with someone using the water, as it seems, then they may have infiltrated that way." She looked up to the ceiling as she thought about that. The sewer had access points throughout the city. She couldn't possibly put guards on them all, especially not if whoever was down there was competent enough to be keeping her chuunin and tokubetsu jounin this late. She had the unease that came from suspecting she had sent people to their deaths.
It was her job to do that, of course. But in their home? In the shadow of the statue of Aiko, it felt more than a bit like she had failed in her duty to watch over them.
"We need to consolidate," she decided out loud. "We can't secure a whole city against an unknown threat." She pointed at the city map. "I want this evacuation center emptied- everyone should go to one of these three. Retract all search teams and see if we can find what's happened to our people. No one lower than jounin goes out alone now. Chuunin in groups not less than 6. I want people here, here, here and here. I will be here."
Utakata leaned over to watch her hand. Mei merely nodded and left to convey the new orders. "Mizukage-sama," he said stiffly. "I don't think it is wise to place yourself near the harbor. It seems our enemy controls the water."
She considered a couple of responses, firstly that the city was centered around the harbor. It made sense for her to be in the middle, so that information could reach her quickly, no matter where it came from. But instead she shook her head. "This is Mist," she said. "We control the water."
A wave of appreciation went around the room at that one. She stood and slung on her jacket, feeling something about the kanji on the back centering her. She was the Mizukage and this was her city.
She went to her assigned station, making sure to portray calm assurance. Nerves were strained by this point. It would have been a lot better if an enemy had leapt up throwing steel: that was something they could fight. The long, cold wait was something intolerable.
As the hour dragged on, the list of people who hadn't yet returned from searching began to look like a list of missing people.
In the distance, she heard a scream. Aiko straightened and faced the sound. She looked at Utakata. He wordlessly obeyed. She waited, tapping her side with an index finger.
He returned in a flutter of silk and leaned in to whisper to her. "One of the search members was found alive, but injured. He's describing an attack, but…" Utakata trailed off. "It doesn't make sense." His dark eyes met her gaze seriously. "It sounds like an animal, more than a person. He said that his partner was overwhelmed by numbers and eaten." His gaze slid off her to the harbor by them. "They came out of the water."
Aiko reflexively grimaced. She knew eyes were on her, but the concept was hard to take without a flinch.
She was not surprised when she heard a quiet splash in the distance. Aiko turned to look at the ocean, uncrossing her arms. She tapped at the handle of her katana and narrowed her eyes.
A figure had stood up out of the ocean. Light glinted off of angular armor. It was bronze in color and old fashioned in design. The figure raised a hand.
Others stood up out of the waves. Aiko blinked rapidly now, because it seemed like they were insubstantial. As in- she could see the moonlight reflected on the waves through gaping holes in the bodies that otherwise looked like an invading army.
"Those aren't living people," Aiko said, suddenly recognizing the feeling that had been crushing down the last few hours. "They're corpses."
"Being controlled?" Utakata asked, jaw hard. "Do you think that's the puppet master?"
"Either yes, or we are meant to think so." Aiko raised her hand, signaling that her people should wait. "Let them come. I don't think we want to be in the water with them."
Part 3
The dead came out of the waves in eerie synchronicity.
Her first impulse was to reach for the power from the death god and order them to leave their bodies. It made no difference. She reached and reached and couldn't touch the power. Scowling, Aiko lifted her katana in front of her and confronted the closest body. It crashed into her with frenzied strength.
It was hellishly strong. She nearly lost her footing in the sand. Her opponent grinned at her.
"I don't think so," Sanbi said, disgusted. "That is merely how an exposed human jaw appears. There is no intelligence inside."
He was probably right. The body was relentless, but it wasn't very tactical. Aiko got her sword up and through the remains of its neck. The head flew off and plopped into the water. The body swayed for a moment. Then it dropped with a squelch.
"Ew," Aiko said to herself. "I hate that." She darted to help the next person struggling with a corpse. And the next, and the next, until the person in bronze armor let out an annoyed yell and strode to her, walking on the waves as though their chakra was unaffected.
She met it with a clang of metal. The warrior had a larger sword than Aiko did, and it came down heavily. The sheer force jarred her elbow joint when she caught and deflected a blade.
"Who are you?" Aiko asked, conversationally. "I'm Aiko. Fifth Mizukage. First Kage of Wave- well, I'm working on that. How are you liking my city?"
The only answer was a scream.
She flinched back. "I'm not sure where to go with that!" Aiko dodged under a blow and bent to scoop up a handful of sand. She tossed it at her opponent's eyeholes. It did absolutely nothing, of course, but she thought it would probably piss them off. She used the moment to dig a purposeful line in the sand. She kept at it, mentally tracking her position as she danced around her opponent. It was clearly better for her to try to avoid direct blows- Aiko was faster, but this person was strong.
"But not the brightest," Aiko said to herself, as her opponent stepped inside the containment seal Aiko had just finished drawing in the sand. It flickered to life, a little reluctant but powerful enough.
Her opponent's body language changed entirely. Slowly, they looked down and examined the sand around their feet.
Aiko watched, wondering what they'd do.
"Traitor." The word echoed strangely inside the metal face protection her opponent wore.
...She hadn't considered that possible comment. Aiko cocked her head, trying to think of who could possibly think of her that way. Danzo, who was dead in her home universe? Maybe...someone who thought she should be in Konoha? It didn't sound right. She couldn't imagine Konoha taking this route, and didn't think they had anyone capable of this type of fuinjutsu. So she shrugged and smiled. "Take off your mask, if I know you."
"You don't," came the bitter reply. But her prisoner removed the mask anyway.
Aiko stared, something hurting in her chest. It was the first time she had ever seen eyes the same color as hers. They were the same shape as Naruto's eyes.
"Do you know me now?"
Her heart shuddered. "You're Uzumaki," Aiko said, not knowing how this was possible.
"Yes," the other woman hissed. She had short-cropped red hair and a gaping wound on the left side of her jaw. "Release me, unfilial child. I have waited a very long time for this."
Comprehension slotted into place. "You died in the invasion," Aiko realized. She couldn't stop drinking in the face, so like her own. "You- the people who did that are long dead."
"Their children are not," the other woman answered promptly. "And yet our children are. Our children were taken into waves with hands bound and then dropped to drown."
It took real effort not to react to that. "That was a long time ago," Aiko repeated. Her chest hurt. "Crimes committed by those who are now dead. Why are you here?"
The dead woman made an impatient sound. "Little girl, it isn't the kind of offense that time heals. While it may have been optimal to act sooner, it was only this year that the old barriers came down."
"Barriers?" Aiko trailed off. "Barriers to keep out…"
"Uzumaki." Her ancestor's eyes shone where they reflected the moonlight. "You must have broken it. This does explain why they changed their minds about taking the little ones. Your mere presence let us in…"
'I don't think she's intending to be merciful just because of our shared blood.' Aiko shifted to a more defensive posture, unsettled even though her opponent was still restrained. 'I think she's buying time. I… Karin.' She kept her expression still even as fear coldly gripped her heart. 'I can't let this woman pass. She's too dangerous.'
"What is this? How are you here? You should just be bones by now," Aiko said, gripping her sword that much tighter. "This isn't a genjutsu. So…"
"I was bones," acknowledged the dead woman. Her yellow teeth stretched in a smile that showed… that showed she had what looked like human hair stuck between her teeth. "I gained flesh and vitality today. Thank you for the gift you sent into the water, daughter."
The missing people. Aiko made a hand sign to ward off evil.
The dead woman laughed. "I don't think that works," she said acidicly. And then she threw herself forward at Aiko, breaking easily through the fuinjutsu hold. Aiko met the blow with her sword and kicked at the armored shins, aiming to fuck up her opponent's knee.
She absorbed the blow with no sign of pain and twisted her blade down, reaching for Aiko's head. Aiko moved like a snake, lithe and smooth to avoid it and keep her opponent's sword trapped by Aiko's little katana. It took the strength of both arms to keep the blow from coming down.
"Die," the cursed corpse hissed. This close, Aiko could smell blood on her breath. "You may even join us."
Aiko heaved off the other woman and darted around in a circle, falling back on Konoha swordsmanship. Of course there was no other Konoha nin to use the opening, so she was immediately pursued. Aiko moved to the side and then made her own aggressive leap forward, aiming to separate the horror's head from her body. The blow was caught and diverted by the other's blade.
"That doesn't make sense," Aiko said, eyes narrowing. "Unless there's a technique in play to manipulate Uzumaki corpses for this. If you killed me and I was a sentient corpse out for revenge, I wouldn't be helping you otherwise."
"You're wasted here," sighed the abomination.
'Karin is definitely in danger. If this woman is the one responsible, if she did something before she died… getting rid of her might end all of this. If it isn't her, I need to find who it is.'
Aiko clenched her jaw and looked for the weak points in her opponent's armor. They had to exist: the woman had already been killed once. The dead woman swayed. Aiko leapt through all the possibilities of the incoming attack— and was utterly unprepared for her opponent to sprint away. She hesitated a moment too long and gave pursuit. Without chakra augmentation, she was too slow.
"Move!" Aiko screamed, trying to get people to clear a path, to not be where that abomination was barreling. It wasn't enough. As she watched, two of her people were cut down unprepared. They had no warning, no chance to fight back.
"Aiko," Sanbi suggested. "This trap cannot possibly be prepared to absorb the amount of chakra that our forces possess. What do you say?" His tone was hard.
He didn't like seeing their people die, either, she realized. For the first time in their partnership, he was offering her his chakra.
"Yes, please!" Aiko bit out. "Can we flood it?"
"We can try." And then she had to stop dead, because her body was shuddering with the force of Sanbi shoving his chakra through her veins. She bit her knees, sand flying.
In the distance, she heard Utakaka cry out her name. She was safe, though, because the dead people ran straight past her. She clenched her hands in the sand and tried not to cry out. The pressure was incredible, as the Sanbi strained to push out chakra into a forcibly chakra free environment. It was all trapped in her body, it was too big for her body and
And the dam burst. Aiko felt demonic chakra flood through her body and flash into a blue light show. She felt her own chakra again. She bared her teeth.
The very same instant, there was the sound of someone enterprising throwing out a lightning attack that dropped a crispy corpse. Someone whooped victoriously. And then the beach was absolute pandemonium. The sound of metal and scuffling was drowned out by gleeful and liberal application of jutsu.
The enemy commander stopped her mad sprint to the civilian shelter and turned in disbelief. Aiko waved. She didn't get to see if there was any answer because some asshole took her opponent out in a wave of lava.
She put her hands on her hips and looked around for Mei. Mei pretended not to sense the bijuu fueled anger as she sauntered back to the beach, cheerfully throwing balls of magma.
"I'm going to demote her."
A/N
This is a year or two old, a previous Halloween story from another site that I'm just reposting. Obviously it could go another chapter or two which I might do if there's interest.
