Resolve is a hard thing

The kunoichi was useful. It took some work, but she gave them information, important and powerful. It wasn't enough to let Shi and his teacher destroy their pursuers, but it gave some important schematics on how the organisation functioned, and how to exploit it.

Firstly, intel was given only when it was needed, and relating to how much the organisation valued you and your loyalty. The agent had been working for them for years before she realised it, and even then, that was only after they revealed themselves. Positions are rewarded depending on how safe you are. Ambition is dangerous, and people are only allowed to have it and be accepted members if they were reincarnates and had been recognised by the order before. A fair number of the order are non- reincarnates, yet had been accepted and the information on the order's plans revealed just like any other.

Essentially, the order was secretive as all hell, and coveted information like gold. It believed it to be the key to victory, and hence, safeguarded it at every turn.

What that meant to Kumori though, was that you could halt their actions by threatening to break their masquerade, either by population, or by direct action. They also wanted to protect the status-quo of the 'original canon', as Shi put it, by any means necessary.

The real question though, was would they sacrifice that masquerade for the status-quo?

…

Shi had spent most of his life being trained by those that guarded him. It was really only rudimentary stuff, wielding a katana, a few water jutsus, escape based genjutsu. The kind of power you give when you want to be able to take it away at any moment.

He only really began to get stronger when he escaped. He had always hidden his strength, but he had to use every bit of that hidden skill to escape. Distinctly, he remembers when he covered himself in mud and filth to mask his scent, to camouflage himself, the traps he set up, the diversions he made. It took him two weeks to lose his pursuers in the swamps of The village hidden in the Mist, and he nearly lost so many times. His body was 12 years old, but he only really started living then, in the wake of his freedom's chains.

Mercenary he considered a step up from prisoner, but it was much harder. Mercenaries only really get paid well if they are strong enough to take it. At that point, the partnership is not only useful, it's profitable. Shi would only get to that point after his first few battles, twin katanas soaked in blood enough to rust. He meandered about the other nations, and though he longed for a home (a family) he never really fit in enough to reach for it.

He could count on one hand the number of times he had to use the 3-tails power, and each time he awoke after some time had passed, covered in organs and in the midst of a creature-built hell, water clogged bodies floating like forgotten meat in a neglected bowl, and huge carvings of the country around him, his rested sore body the epicentre of this ungodly well of pain.

Kumori was really his first friend. Some part of him wanted to see him out of idolisation, another out of pride and power, the want to prove himself. The last part wanted to know how he felt, having his world taken from him. He didn't remember his first life too well, but Shi thought he could relate to losing everything.

The truth was, Kumori never lost anything. He never had it in the first place.

…

A growing logistical problem for the two's camp was the growing litany of battle earnt weapons found and deposited at the northern part of the camp. Shi had joked that soon it would block out the sun, then Kumori remarked it was already unsightly enough. It was too large to sell off at any regular pace after they left, and they were specialised enough to make it so they couldn't learn how to use all of the esoteric weapon's shinobi made their keepsake.

There was a story behind that, actually. If a berserker, red haired Uzumaki, legends of the second shinobi war, ran through entire groups, pilfering weapons like swords and using them as disposable death dealers to just keep on killing. The hope was, given enough specialisation, their own weapons wouldn't be used against them. In theory, it works. In practise, they end up dead anyway.

The Order could only send small groups at a time, and only from one direction, as to not arise suspicion. They started with Mist ninja, but some Kumo and even Sand shinobi had been caught in the death pit just south of them, a gathering of trees and mud quickly becoming a no mans land of traps, corpses, and pilfered supplies. They stopped counting after the 10th squad, and that was months ago. Assumedly, they weren't all members of the Order, some had to have been unwitting pawns in the secret war being fought, unlucky fools sent to die for a purpose they do not understand. Kumori had stopped shaving, as he wasn't going into public any time soon, but Shi had paid close attention to his appearance (Though one day he had come out with a blue moustache and was promptly thrown out the camp by an amused Kumori with the order to become at least a little presentable). It seemed for a while that they wouldn't let up, but they had had a week now without any bullshit. Shi was optimistic, but Kumori was less so. It was nearing the 3ish year mark before Minato turned 24, meaning it was the approximate time the 3 tails to need to die to reform for the Mist to use it.

He thought it was the calm before the storm, and so, like always, he kept training, and meditating. He had made a technique allowing him to stay awake through the night, an expansion on the mental link expanded by shadow clones, strengthening his own mind's fortitude, having the side effect of increasing his pain tolerance. It gave him that extra edge, as he watched over Shi through the night, waiting for his foe to come. He had learnt medical techniques, a budgeted version of the mystic palm, but he had fitted it to be suitable for sealing purposes. He could put chakra into it ahead of time, and it would release the healing wherever it needed to be, though at the cost of taking longer than the Slug Princesses technique. Combine that with the time he had spent training with Shi, as well as the proximity and alert seals he had placed in the swamp below, he though they had a pretty good chance at winning.

So, he waited.

…

Night followed, and no traps were sprung. The chakra signals they were meant to send, the technique based of the shadow clone, never being transmitted. The night was silent, and cold, as it was getting towards the end of the year and though the elemental nations' climate was nothing but spontaneous, his former world's seasons served as a decent approximation.

The silence reminded Kumori of when he was younger. His squad had been cut off from support, and a huge detachment of Leaf Nin were meant to be passing by. The only thing they really could do, was stay silent. He remembers being so scared, terrified of being spotted.

When his squad got caught, he ran and never looked back. All this time, he had been running, and he wanted to stop. He wanted to turn around and stop them.

It was the memory of that time that ticked him off. The silence isn't what you are hearing, what you are hearing is the thirst for battle being hidden, as a predator surrounds you.

You are hearing the suppression of killing intent, and that was enough.

Kumori turned twisted his neck to the side, allowing his head to dodge the Kunai that had been aimed at him, He twisted his body next, avoiding a few more projectiles, then prepared a water bullet mid air from the moisture around him to counter the jutsu that he had felt the chakra building up for form the tree line to the west of the camp. Just as he had thought, the jutsu was a fire natured one.

From that interaction he learned a few things; The team was highly competent. They managed to sneak past their defences without a sound, and they were both smart enough to use a chakraless attack as to not alert him, and quickly switched to chakra to deal more potential damage.

They were also probably either from Leaf or a varied force, as fire natures are rare in Water. If it's the latter, it is very likely they are higher level members of the Order, and hence, very strong.

The two jutsu collided, creating a blanket of steam enough to allow Kumori to check on the rest of the battle

Kumori looked to his left to check on Shi, watching as he slammed his sword into the defence of another swordsman, their features obscured but them seeming shorter than average. The distraction was enough for another ninja to body flicker, steam trailing behind him, moving faster than Kumori could react and thrusting a kunai at his stomach. Kumori barely managed to deflect the blow, leading to a shallow cut with the assistance of his armour, but the sand haired boy continued attacking, quick stabs and wide slashes delivered with a speed faster than Kumori had ever seen. Kumori was kept on the defensive, while they unleashed a flurry of strikes with a determined look in their eyes, both fighter's eyes straining as they clashed. Needing to push back, Kumori unsealed a kunai of his own, and the two blades clashed. The larger fighter unleashed heavier strikes, but the smaller one used their speed to force them back as much as the force did to them. They were matched, each pushing one another back by meters only to be pushed back the same. Eventually the assassin threw another kunai up from behind themselves as their own clashed with Kumori's, them dropping the one locked in a clash in service of catching the new one that had came from over their back and slashing again, which was blocked once again by Kumori. Then, there plan was fully revealed, as with their foot, they kicked up the blade, slotting it in their free hand allowing him to attempt to stab Kumori in his opened chest.

In response, Kumori Unsealed a pistol from his free hand, and shot the kunai out of the boy's hand. He then aimed to fire at the closer target, who had overextended, firing a bullet square at his head. Yet, the fighter pushed with a burst of speed, curving his body around the bullet, and sinking his remaining kunai into Kumori.

It wasn't a lethal strike though, so Kumori slammed a fist into the ninja after dropping his handgun, preparing to execute him with a kunai stab, when a kunoichi slammed two legs into him from the side with a titanic strength, shooting him across the camp, further away from Shi.

…

Shi himself was still clashing with the ninja from before, who seemed to have a natural skill with the weapon that outclassed Shi, ducking and bouncing around the weapon and lashing out with their own blade, accruing thin cuts across Shi's skin, the swords moving faster than the air around it, cutting through the sound such that they could only use their eyes to find where the next strike would be. What Shi did have however, was strength and grit. The heavily robed ninja vaulted over Shi's slice, leaping of the tip and aiming to strike Shi right in the throat by dashing forward. Shi, seeing this, smirked, and pushed his head down wards, letting the smaller ninja fly over his head. Shi then grabbed the shinobi by his arms from behind, and slammed him down on the floor, cracking the ground with the force. Lacking any other tools due to his unpreparedness, he aimed to slam his fist into the shinobi below him, raising it, until it stayed raised when he tried to pull it down.

He looked at his arm and saw a senbon sticking out of it, clearly inhibiting his movement. The, now revealed, kunoichi's mask had been pulled down, displaying full lips and a collection of senbon, as well as bloody gums from the earlier impact, situated beneath the cloth. Eyes wide, Shi pulled his head back as a flurry of senbon shot out aimed at his face. He transitioned into a back flip, before having to dodge over a massive glaive, wielded by a very tall man, dressed in camouflage. Looking back to his sword, Shi used an application of chakra to activate the seal that his teacher had keyed into his wrist, making the sword slice the kunoichi's leg as it made its way to his hand just in time for him to block the massive man's powerful attack. Unfortunately for him, Shi was stronger, blocking the strike with only one hand, whilst he used the other to prepare a jutsu. The glaive wielder slashed horizontally to interrupt him but Shi bended just enough to duck under its, slashing across the man's midsection, then leaping up to blast him in the face with a water bullet, knocking the figure far away as Shi turned around to spot the massive number of shuriken aimed at him from the trees around him. Shi moved to quickly use a water prison on himself, but saw ninja wire somehow converging on him, sharp enough to cut him to bits if he was caught by it. Instead, he analysed the pattern of the wires, jumping and twisting to avoid it, and firing off water senbon, impacting with the shuriken and reducing its lethality. He leapt through the pattern of the attack, keeping his limbs, but with the cost of having a litany of metal stars piercing his body

Blood dripped down his person, as he stood still, silence aside from the battle nearby.

From all around, a voice came: "Wow. I was expecting that to kill you, but you really are crazy. It doesn't matter though. You'll never find me."

Shi, really, ignored her words.

He was more focused on the genjutsu covering the man rushing up behind him. If he wanted to win he needed to get rid of the man and get out of the trapped hellhole he was currently in. His head turning, he had a pretty bad plan lined up, and he was stubborn enough to do it.

"There!" He yelled as he launched a kunai at the large man, without dispelling the illusion. By an entire metre, it went wide. The man stood still, questioning if Shi could see him or if he was just throwing shit randomly. After a tense moment, the man continued to creep towards Shi.

Recognising his ploy had worked, Shi continued his 'attack', sending mud bullets and wind blasts to the left of the massive ninja, bit by bit forcing him to the left. Shi then disrupted the genjutsu, and rushed at the glaive wielder, shouting "I found you!".

The man reacted with a smile, as Shi had ran within his range, the man channelling chakra through his large weapon, and arching a blast of thunder natured chakra at Shi. Shi substituted next to the man, then flipped over the destructive weapon, the lightning carving a line through the tree behind him, and as he retreated further, destroying more and more of the surroundings. The destruction was such that Shi had nowhere to go, and he was trapped with only one way out, behind him. The man started an overhead blow, then Shi smiled, as he caught the glaive, jabbing the but end under the man's groin, and using it to flip him over and behind, allowing the kunoichi's lethal trap to take him and slice him to pieces with the ever-tightening wire. Shi then had to dodge as the kunoichi launched fan after fan of projectiles, explosions rippling behind as he parkoured through the destruction the large man had wrought.

Eventually he reached the centre of the piles of destroyed trees and upturned mud, a vantage position as he looked over the rest of the area. The kunoichi used the darkness as a shroud, and she wouldn't leave it without a way to attack. Tunneling would take a lot of chakra to do it quick enough to threaten him, running across would be obvious unless she could teleport, and genjutsu was even easier to find ironically, especially for him.

She wouldn't pick any of these options, as it doesn't fit her fighting style.

Then she did, a clone, and so Shi sent out 5 of his own. They wouldn't kill her of course, she expected this, but it would halt her plans enough for Shi to complete his.

Explosives rattled the battlefield, but he did not move.

Fireballs were sent at him, but his clones set up dirt walls.

The prime even came from underneath, taking out all 5 clones with a well-aimed fan of kunai, and rushing at him, but he did not move because he did not need to. He had already won, as all the chakra he had been moving into the surroundings had payed off.

By the time the Kunoichi looked into the sky and saw the wave of water crashing down, it was too late. A massive splash of water fuelled by a jinjuriki's latent power swept through, turning the bog into a sea and the trees into wreaks. Pure devastation.

…

Minutes before this, Kumori picked himself out of the tree he had been slammed through, exhaled, and began to rethink his fight. He could deal with this like he did before. He would need to utterly dominate them. So, he thought back to when he fought the 2nd raikage, that feeling of calm, of understanding the flow of battle, and he breathed.

A bullet, from the handgun he had dropped, flew past his head as he leaned to avoid it. The faster one reached him first, wielding the firearm as he rushed close to give him no room to dodge. Kumori saw the way he would move, the only way he could move, and moved his fist to intercept his face, then grabbed the firearm, and shot at the ninja's head. He body flickered above to avoid it, as Kumori expected, him then grabbing a leg mid-air, and pulling it towards him. He moved his head out the way of a downwards kick, then put his entire body behind a blow to the chest, smashing into the boy and pyshing them away, their body sailing through the air. Kumori then used a body flicker to dash behind the flying body, grabbing the back of the boy's collar and slamming him into the ground, making him bounce into the air again, spinning just in time for Kumori's kick to slam into the fast shinobi's face, sending him flying once more.

He aimed the pistol to fire it, but had to drop it as the kunoichi from before broke through the dirt below, arm full of strength ripping through the air. Kumori stepped back as the kunoichi pushed forward, black braided hair behind her as she moved forward with a pace slower than her ally, but still fast, as the strength from her steps cracked the ground and she neared. Kumori knew a hit from her would damage him irreparably, so he aimed to dodge instead of block. As she aimed for his head, Kumori moved under the haymaker, grabbing the woman's arm and launching her over his shoulder with a massive force. He aimed it higher than the ground though, so she would be suspended mid -air, vunerable to the wind blast he had prepared the hand signs for with a single hand behind his back. The blast went out, and just before it hit the woman launched a small ball of fire, neutralising the jutsu before its arrival. Kumori followed up with a water bullet, generated from the water from his armour's seals, creating a blanket of steam, as Kumori used the silent-killing technique taught to him by Shi to sneak up on the woman, slamming an elbow into her ribs, a kick to her leg, then dodging her blows, the strikes only moving mist. Eventually, the woman saw a figure, and making sure it wasn't a genjutsu, striked it with all her might. Her fist found armour, and only armour, as it penetrated a decoy Kumori had set up. To her right, a now armour-less Kumori stood, a revolver aiming at her head. She raised he arms to block the shot, plating them with earth chakra she had kept in her clothes fabric, so Kumori aimed lower, pumping 5 shots into her sternum, 2 of which being thermal shots.

From the clearing mist, came the boy from before, wielding two daggers, expression murderous. He dashed forward, flurries of steel flashing as he aimed to cut Kumori, him always just out of reach of the blades, as the former Leader of Rain slammed powerful jabs into the boy, always intercepting his attacks, stopping the more lethal ones, poking holes in his defence bit by bit.

It was then that Kumori noticed that the woman wasn't dead on the ground, but charging towards him, the bullet holes in her chest already healing with a green glow, and the cuts on her arm from his armour already sealed. The two attacked at the same time, thinking their combined might would allow them to win. Kumori was going to prove them wrong.

The woman attacked first, powerful fist redirected by Kumori's hands, pushing her to the side. He ducked beneath a kick lashed out, then substituted with a rock he had thrown above when the boy threw a kunai at his head from below. Kumori greeted him with a mid-air axe kick, slamming against his block, when he then pushed of it with chakra, pushing the boy further away and kumori next to the kunoichi. She reacted with a jab, which was dodged as Kumori slammed his entire body into a blow directly into her stomach, him then almost floating with fluidity as he moved to her other side and hit her head with a counter clockwise reverse roundhouse kick. He then turned behind to the boy hoping to catch him unaware, and unleashed a flurry of blows, punishing his face with blow after flow, blood splattering across the ground, before the boy unleashed a wind jutsu that battered the surroundings, just as Kumori had backed off.

The two picked them selves up, as Kumori stood still, waiting for their next move. The two unsure, looked at one another, as they slowly moved together, looking at Kumori's unimpressed expression the entire time. When they reached each other, they whispered, nodded, and rushed at Kumori simultaneously. They timed their attacks such that the woman fired of a fist at Kumori's stomach and the boy aimed a spinning kick at Kumori's head at the same time.

Kumori saw this, then with an almost prophetic understanding of their attacks, and the eloquence of the most brilliant dancer, simply moved around the kunoichi's fist, then grabbed the boy's leg, rotating and slamming him into the woman. He unsealed and fired another revolver at the boy who was now in the kunoichi's arms. She threw him away, as expected, letting the shot hit her in the throat, as well as allowing Kumori to dash in closer, pushing the barrel to her chest and firing with more chakra, ripping a fist sized hole through her lungs. He flipped back to dodge the fan of shuriken aimed from above by the now mid-air boy, who pulled a block of wood to his legs using a rope and body flickered down, a barrier of wind around him as he shot down. Kumori raised an earth pillar from below, aiming it into the boy's stomach. The blonde missile switched positions by substituting with a nearby kunai, skidding across the floor to dash at Kumori again, where he had to body flicker to dodge a bullet as Kumori took out another revolver, then another flicker for another bullet, until the two were in the middle of a sort of lethal dance, flickers for bullets in a rhythmic beat.

One thing that you have to learn as a ninja is that every technique has a weakness. Kumori had 2 6 shot revolvers, so he had 12 shots, which meant 12 body flickers before the boy would chance an attack. On that 12th shot, he would exploit the fact that a body flicker impairs your senses for just a moment, to strike.

The 12th shot came, and Kumori body flickered too. The dash, and thrust came, and met thin air. A slash came at the boy from the side, so in his excitement he attacked faster than Kumori could, and met not blood, but smoke. Behind the boy, Kumori charged chakra into his cannon, powerful enough to kill a Raikage, the massive thing aimed directly at the boy after being retrieved from the wrecked armour on the ground next to Kumori.

The moment before, a substitution replaced the speedster with the kunoichi. A massive blast of concentrated chakra shot out, and the woman's solemn smile aimed at the boy, was vaporized along side her entire upper half, and a massive row of trees about a kilometre long, the screech of the cannon accompanied by the sand haired shinobi's scream.

The boy's horror tuned to anger could not be fully appreciated however, as a massive wave crashed down on both him and Kumori, interrupting his anguish with the crushing weight of water.

…

Kumori surfaced. Water swept up trees all around, and the landscape has been changed to one of shifting waters flowing in one direction, rubble and foliage collecting around the now grey waters, flushing across the horizon with a massive weight behind it. Using his well-trained chakra control, Kumori pushed himself up the water, standing on the liquid, his skin slick with the moisture, as he looked across, trying to orient himself. Day had risen, the sun a rising sentinel in the sky painting the dull water a lively orange hue, a contrast to the destruction wrought.

The moment was almost calm.

Then from underneath, came the boy from before, wind natured chakra around his body pushing him through the water as he cut above the surface, aiming for Kumori. Defensively, he flipped back as the ninja came upwards like a missile, Kumori's feet landing on the surface of a floating tree, as he looked up at the mid-air opponent. They pushed on with even more chakra, pushing air behind as they shot off toward the wooden platform. Kumori threw a couple of kunai at his foe, guns lost in the chaos, ye the boy flashed two daggers of his own, deflecting them deftly and forcing Kumori to dash back as he landed, wind chakra pushed through the blades as the tree was carved with the length of the attacks. He pushed on, aiming to take of Kumori's head, as he was forced to weave in between blades of air, ducking and flipping around the extremely fast attacks, as the boy continued his charge, screaming with pure rage and a newfound strength.

After gaining enough space to be safe, Kumori went through 3 seals in a flash, flashing an explosion of heat from his palm, the fire igniting the wind and immolating the boy. However, from the wall of flame came the boy, still on fire, slashing at Kumori's head. When he ducked under, the boy had somersaulted, now over the water, and used wind chakra to push of the air itself and rocket into the newly made river, extinguishing the flames.

Kumori now stood on a half-destroyed tree, with a killer teenager swimming under him, and he was feeling exhausted. Calmly, he walked the length of the tree, even crossing the medium sized gaps that had been lengthened from the boy's earlier outburst. He took a deep inhale, then a deep exhale.

Then as the boy came up, with the blade just a millimetre away, he body flickered to another tree. Anticipating an attack, he launched a stream of fire, both to block the boy's vision and counter any fire jutsu. No jutsu came, so he looked to the water expectedly. It was only the flow of battle that allowed him to dodge the attack that came from behind, the blocked vision a double-edged sword as it allowed the boy to dash across the water and fire at him like a missile. Anger made the boy smarter, not dumber, Kumori thought as the boy flew ahead. Kumori tracked the boys eyes, and spawned a shadow clone in that direction, allowing the boy's clone to smash into it and for Kumori to tear it's chakra built throat out. The other clone he made popped, making sure he didn't miss where he went, underwater, and probably charging from underneath.

This time however, Kumori didn't dodge.

The boy burst from the tree below, and took a kunai to the throat.

No clone this time.

Kumori looked impassively at the young body and young eyes that looked back. Kumori didn't like killing children, call it a moral principle if you will. He will be as cruel and evil as needs be, but he would never willingly touch a hair on a child's head.

The boy in front of him couldn't be a child though. At least, that's what he told himself. What he had to tell himself.

Kumori walked across the settling lake, water seeping across the land and bringing them back to earth bit by bit. He walked across the water, and when he landed, walked some more. He walked until he saw the body of a black robed kunoichi, head gone, and body waterlogged. Shi was sat nearby, usual cheery smile faded with tiredness.

Master sat by student, and the two looked at the destruction wrought, as the glow of the sun blanketed them both.

"I need to take up smoking"

Shi looked at his master. He then scoffed, looking back at the orange marble on the horizon.

"Yeah"

…

A/N: Longest chapter yet, which again, was supposed to be even longer. The longest fight scene I've done I think, and it was an experiment with changing perspectives which was fun. Here I wanted the relationship between the boy and the strong kunoichi to be vague, and for there to be an emotional response, so give feedback on wherever it worked.

The worst thing about war is how awful it is, yet how silent the sufferers are. You can speak about the pain of a stubbed toe, as it isn't personal, and it's relatable. Victims of war though, on both sides, feel the worse thing imaginable, but shoulder the burden of not wanting to taint other's innocence.

Thank you for reading and reviewing.