Author's Notes: Hmm…no reviews in a chapter with Shiro, again, do people not like him or something? Well, anyway, back to Ise, and, since I know people are waiting, combat at long last. This chapter includes a major combat sequence with the appearance of a character from the actual Naruto story (though I won't say which one). So, this will serve as an opening glimpse at what Ise is really capable of, and the true nature of his bloodline.
Please review if you read, I really appreciate them!
Chapter 7- Beneficent Plague(one week later)
The day dawned far more pleasantly than any of the previous days Ise had spent in Grass country. The chilly clouds that had rolled slowly over the land for the several days he had been present had hardly been interesting. It had only rained one of those days, and Ise found that irritating. Mist hardly ever had long spells of torrid overcast; it either rained, covered the land in fog, or was sunny. To a ninja like Ise rain or fog was a perfectly comfortable state, in fact it was preferable in many ways to sunshine, for rain did not irritate his hardened shark-like skin, and he always felt more secure with water all about.
Today, however, it was sunny, and pleasant yellow light shined over the sound country. It cast the land in a more favorable light, and Ise decided the country was not so bleak and hopeless as he had previously determined it must be. It helped that he was now walking through a more wilderness dominated land, the forests of the southern sound country, near the Fire country border, a land with few people. There had been ninja activity here, of course, as the Leaf ninja had reasserted their ability to keep the Sound off their land, but it had not destroyed the landscape.
So, the mission was more or less enjoyable for Ise at this point, he walked through the land, avoiding everyone, and training with his spear in spare hours. He was attempting to make the best of this time, for he knew it wouldn't last. He had determined he had only two more days in the Sound country, then perhaps a week's journey across countries lacking in ninja and the southern portion of Waterfall country before he reached the territory of Grass country. There his search would begin in earnest and the leisurely walk would end. So Ise made the best of the time he had, setting a sufficient, but not hasty pace. I will conserve my strength for the trials ahead, he had decided after the first day's travel.
Yet, though things were relatively peaceful here in the forest, Ise felt a tendril of doubt within. This has been too easy, he thought. I have not been attacked, or even bothered in all my travels through sound, save the first day. True, he had avoided the roads mostly, camping in the forests and eating his supply of trail food, going into town only once to replenish it and his water supply, so he was hardly a tempting target, but he expected more. These rogue ninja must surely know I am here, do they not care that I cross their lands? Have I been protected by traveling close to the Fire country? Ise wondered, but did not dwell on it, there seemed little urgency to the matter anymore after a succession of peaceful days.
It would never occur to the Mist ninja, accustomed to a land of sea, spray, and endless fog that the Sound ninja might be waiting for a nice day.
When the forest cleared away ahead of him suddenly Ise was surprised, but he kept on, until he entered into a wide field covered in tree stumps. A cut, he reasoned, and recent, for the undergrowth was still beaten down. This was not in itself surprising; the nearby villagers certainly had need of wood for many things. Ise saw the forest continued to the west beyond, so he simply kept walking.
It took several minutes of walking through open land before Ise realized the size of the cut had initially been deceiving, and this was a much larger cleared area than he had believed. I am not so good at judging distances after all that time in the forest; he smiled, thinking it something important to catch now. Then a step later he spun around, worried. This is a major lumber operation, surely, but there is no one anywhere near. Ise cocked his ear to the wind, searching for sound. Nothing. He immediately grasped his spear with both hands and fell in a fighting stance. "Damn!" He cursed openly, berating himself for being a fool. I've been in the open for too long, I've surely been seen. This place must have been raided, and recently. They will not want me to get away, this will be a fight, but where? Ise spun a full circle slowly, searching the edges of the cut, looking for any signs, but of course he found nothing. His enemies, and he was certain someone was there, were waiting.
Stay calm, Ise told himself. The situation may not be bad; you knew an attack would come. Think about it as you've been trained, just like in other battles. He told himself this, and as he stood there went through a quick reasoning process, trying to categorize the situation and determine a response. There cannot be too many, and they must be scattered, Ise reasoned quickly, if they were raiding the timber harvesters. If so, they must be coming together to plan an ambush. Where? He recognized the simple trap with ease. At my heading! Then, I should avoid them, try to prevent them from coming together, it's a large cut, I should run in another direction. Which way? Which way would they least wish to pursue? Toward the village? No! Toward the Fire country!
His decision made, Ise started to run, moving as fast as he could without breaking into a sprint, he had to hope there was enough distance to make this a long chase. His endurance was good, though he couldn't move as fast over open ground as through the trees, and so he knew his enemies would be able to circle around faster, possibly much faster if they were quite skilled. Still, that could benefit him, anything to isolate his opponents, even if he had to fight the most skilled first.
Now, out of the corner of his eyes Ise could catch flashes of motion in the distance, glimmers of metal taking in the bright sunlight, and he knew he had guessed correctly. They are coming; I must hurry, he thought, but dared not quicken his pace. He had been trained well and knew he could hold this speed for a great while without tiring, any faster and his endurance would not last. I must be ready when they come, not tired. Indeed, Ise hoped to tire his enemies by forcing them to come to him in this way.
The treeline was still far however, hundreds of meters distant, too far. Ise knew, measuring the speed of those glimmers in the woods that must be ninja. I won't make it, damn! He gripped his spear more tightly. He would have to fight, and against enemies whose count and skill he did not know. It was not a promising situation.
Ise was a chuunin, a mist ninja of moderate skill, and he had fought other ninja in battle before, ninja from Lightning in one of the endless border skirmishes between the two countries. He was a good fighter, though his skills were nothing special for a ninja of his rank and age. Never before had he fought enemy ninja alone and isolated, save in one on one matches, and so Ise did not know precisely how to act in this situation. He was forced to rely on the lessons of his teachers and the Warlord. How many in a bandit team? He wondered, and then dismissed it. He could not think on that, only take them as they came. What is my strategy?
"When you are alone against many enemies the first action is the most important," He remembered Akai's words, the words of a master of ninja warfare. "Strike first with your best techniques, and you must strike down enemies. In this way you reduce the numbers of those against you and intimidate the others, for they will not know your strength. In this way you may defeat a large group by destroying only a small portion of it." That was one part of the strategy, and Ise took it to heart, especially as the strongest foes might reach him first. These are bandit ninja, if I can kill one or two, will the rest retreat? It seemed his best chance.
There was another lesson that replayed in the shark-blooded ninja's mind as he ran. "When you are alone, insure your fights are one to one or one to two at most, make each fight its own. If you do this, and keep multiple enemies from focusing upon you, then you force either a single foe or fatigue to defeat you." It was not an easy thing to do, Ise knew, for when he had fought in groups they had always concentrated on bringing their force to bear against sole opponents, but it was his best strategy. These sound ninja are rogues; I must remember that, they may have little discipline.
All time for thought was then gone, for the trees were but a short distance away, perhaps fifty yards, when Ise saw the first enemy with clarity. The sound ninja was older than he, a grown man, but age means nothing in the measurements of the ninja. The man wore a tattered uniform of gray, with a ripped mask covering most of his face, and Ise knew that the sound ninja were indeed bandits. He also saw that the pouch holding the man's shuriken was clean and sound, and so the man was ready.
I must strike him swiftly! Ise decided and he launched himself into a full sprint, pushing himself as fast as he could run, easy enough since he did not need to change direction or anything else. His stride lengthened swiftly, the long legs of his good height carrying him swiftly toward his foe.
The sound ninja reached behind him and pulled out a quartet of shuriken, flinging them into the air to intercept Ise's charge.
Ise's eyes tracked the missiles, and he confirmed his plan. Instants before they would intersect his path he swung his spear through his hands, and slammed the point down into the soft earth. At the same instant he focused chakra into his legs and leapt.
The mist ninja pole-vaulted high into the air with suddenness shockingly apparent in his enemy's eyes.
Timing his arc carefully, Ise made certain to hold to the spear behind him. At the precise moment he strained his arms and brought the long trailing weapon around under him, to point it at his enemy, thrusting forward sharply.
The sound ninja had not thought the move an attack, so he had little time to dodge backwards, but even so, as he did he ripped a kunai free from his holster so he might counterattack with the dagger-like weapon.
Spears were not common weapons among ninja, who rarely used such large and obvious tools, and Ise knew this well. It was the key to his deception and attack. The sound ninja stepped back, thinking himself out of the way, but Ise shifted his hands, and slid them further back on the eight-foot long weapon, giving him an additional foot and a half of distance, for he had been holding the spear too close before.
The sound ninja's shock was clear as Ise's spear took him in the chest.
"Bastard!" The cry was savage and raw, and accompanied by a thrown kunai.
Ise ripped his spear free, a brutal move savaging the body of the impaled ninja, spraying droplets of blood down to the forest floor. Then he spun, parrying swiftly with a spin of the long weapon. He saw the others then, seven ninja leaping toward him through the trees, even as it dawned on him that he was a dead man, for he could not defeat so many foes, there was no hesitation. He had a moment as they approached, a single space of time, for the nearest had wasted his throwing weapon. Desperately Ise used his best technique.
Hands flashed through seals, as Ise drew on the powers his shark blood granted him, the techniques usable only to those of his bloodline. "Shark's Spit Missiles!"
Ise's mouth ripped open wider than a normal human's could go then, as his jaw extended its different bone structure. It was confusing to his enemies, for his disguise could not accommodate the move, but the effects were no less potent.
Shark's teeth burst from Ise's mouth in a great and powerful stream, the little deadly knives blasting free in the hundreds, forming a cone of destruction that widened as the teeth ricocheted off each other to fly in new and novel directions.
His opponents had not anticipated such an attack, as the blast of teeth struck at the whole body, and no specific part, and they found there was nowhere to dodge as they sprayed everywhere, all were struck by at least some of the tiny missiles, and felt their cutting edges rake through their skin with serrated pain.
All the seven ninja were affected at some level, with nasty and cruel lacerations opening on their bodies and cuts in their clothes, but the ninja closest Ise, the one who had wasted his throw without discipline, he caught the worst of the blast directly, and the teeth ravaged his body, taking his eyes, his ears, and ripping so many cuts through fingers and feet that he fell to the ground and could not move. The bleeding would kill him in moments.
Two had been slain, but six remained. Ise grasped his spear, and turned to face the onrushing foes.
A great scream broke through the woods.
It was a horrid noise, made by no natural human or animal, and Ise felt it pass through him and knew it was a jutsu. He took a step and tried to dodge away, but the world blurred and spun. The ground and sky swam before him and his ears told him nothing but lies. Damn! He attempted to scream, but found he could not speak, and he stumbled from the tree branch where he stood to slam into the ground.
Ise could not control his body, though he spun about all he could sense was the terrible sound ringing through him, an awful, overwhelming blast of vertigo so great he could barely move. He managed to place the butt of his spear down on the ground and lever himself to standing.
Then a new pain took him, as Ise felt cold steel penetrate his flesh. A kunai, he could feel the wound, stuck into his back. He could only cringe and hold his spear. I must have focus! Ise told himself through the vertigo and the pain. Focus now or die! He tried, but everything slipped away beneath the maddening distortions the sound had inflicted.
From nowhere a fist slammed into Ise's head and he fell to the ground, barely holding his spear. I can't see anything real! Ise realized. The vertigo had so totally overwhelmed him. So he lay there, confused and unable to act.
"Bastard!" Ise heard a voice spit through the screaming noise still in his ears. "Stinking meddler, you killed two of my comrades!" The voice was laced with raw anger, but still held discipline, and Ise knew this one must be the leader. "Why are you here Mist ninja?" The sound ninja kicked Ise in the side, it was painful, but Ise didn't care about the pain anymore, he was too desperately trying to focus on regaining control of his senses. "Answer me and I might let you die quickly. Well?" The sound ninja demanded.
Can't see, can't hear properly, sound coming from everywhere! Ise's thoughts swam, but he desperately tried to find a focus. All my senses have been scrambled! He was desperate, and tried to scream, but he managed little more than a croak. The pain provided a brutal counterpoint to the confusion, but it also provided a stabbing moment of clarity for a moment. I can still feel pain! Ise recognized, the pain in my side! You idiot Ise, he told himself, its only sight and sound that have been scrambled. Fool! Don't rely on those, a voice within him spoke. That's a human failing, you aren't a human, you have other senses.
Ise closed his eyes.
"Don't ignore me!" The sound ninja barked. "You've one second to answer or I'll cut off one of your arms."
Ise wasn't listening; he was focusing on something he had discovered suddenly. He knew where the others were, exactly, perfectly. There was a redness to them, he could sense them perfectly, knew every one of their wounds and cuts he had inflicted. He needed only a free moment to strike. He knew also, that he didn't have that moment, even as a voice inside was shrieking at him to lunge and kill. He was already doomed.
The sound ninja above Ise raised his kunai, preparing to bring it down across Ise's left arm.
"How stupid," A voice suddenly interceded. The sound ninja turned, and saw a ninja had descended from the trees. "Typical of you sound ninja."
"Stupid?" The sound ninja shrugged. "I would have thought a leaf ninja would have known better than to show himself to us, one against six."
"You should not attack other ninja for no reason," the other answered, his voice crisp, matter-of-fact, and not using unnecessary words.
Ise sensed the newcomer, just as the others, this one was not bleeding, but there was something else. There was a human shape to what he detected, to the shark's perfect awareness of scent, but this newcomer was not human. No, and beneath that Ise noted something else, a sharp tang. Metal. Ise's face broke into a predatory grin from the ground. A cunning trap.
"I had questions for the Mist bastard, but I have no questions for you, Leaf ninja." The sound ninja answered. "You will die now! Sound Ripchord no jutsu!" The sound's hands formed a seal, and he screamed a pitched blast of sound powerful enough to shatter human flesh at the leaf ninja standing before him.
The body exploded.
It exploded, but not into flesh, a cloud of blackness came apart in a swarm of insects, and within those, kunai and shuriken. The sound blast scattered them apart like a bomb, and the sound leader found himself impaled by a storm of jagged darts he himself had unleashed without even a moment to dodge.
A smoke bomb exploded among the gathered ninja, and another scream broke out as the true leaf ninja dropped from the trees and stabbed one of the sound ninja in the back. Brown dust and grit covered everything, blanketing vision and reducing ninja to vague profiles in a cloud.
Ise rolled to the right, leaping upward to the nearest foe. He came up behind the man, who, confused and unready, had expected no attack at all from this source. Ise grabbed his throat with both hands, crushing him to the ground.
"You…im-possib-le…" The sound ninja gasped. "You…you…can't…see!"
"I can't see," Ise growled, "But I can still smell you, and your blood." Chakra flowed into his hands, increasing his strength, and he wrenched the man's neck swiftly, dropping him.
Ise spun around again then, relying only on memory and scent to guide him. The vertigo was gone now, and the smoke bomb was an aid rather than a crippling hindrance. He came up with his spear as he felt shuriken pass over where he had stood moments ago. Ise twisted a space on his spear with his left hand, as he grasped the butt of his weapon with his right, and he felt its segments fall apart, revealing the long, coiled string between them. He snapped the weapon out, a long whip now, taking another of the sound ninja, tripping him, and pulling him in.
The sound ninja screamed, but Ise pulled a kunai from his holster and stabbed him through the heart with a single motion.
Shark-blooded ninja spun around now, snapping his spear back together into its solid form, his nose hunting for the enemy.
"Bugs! Bugs! Get them off!" One of the remaining sound ninja screamed in panic, and then was suddenly silent.
Ise's nose found the remaining ones then, sound ninja and the strange scent of the leaf ninja, human and yet not. He advanced toward the sound ninja with his spear ready, stabbing in.
The other man blocked it with a drawn kunai, and they traded blows for a moment, until a shuriken took the sound ninja in the back of his left knee, and he stumbled.
The mist ninja did not hesitate at all, but ran him through with the full force of his spear.
Only then did Ise open his eyes.
Vision swam for a moment, but then it cleared, and he found his senses restored even as the residue of the smoke bomb cleared. All eight of the sound ninja lay dead nearby, one just finished moments ago, for Ise turned to see the strange leaf ninja pulling a kunai out of the one who had screamed about bugs.
The other ninja was not quite what Ise had expected, he was a young man, Ise suspected younger than he himself was. The Leaf ninja wore a long green coat covering his whole torso and reaching up to blanket most of his face. His eyes were hidden securely behind dark lenses, the Leaf forehead protector, with its spiral symbol, tied down cropped spiked hair, similar in some ways to Ise's own. The leaf ninja had his hands casually in his coat's pockets, as if nothing had just happened. Though those arms appeared at rest Ise could tell the leaf ninja could bring them up quickly and readily, it was a pose meant to lull others into a false sense of security.
Now what? Ise wondered. The situation was likely to be tricky, but he could feel nothing but gratitude for this young ninja, who had saved his life for certain. He was silent as he felt the other's eyes upon him, hidden behind those frightfully concealing black glasses.
"The sound ninja ambushed you?" the leaf ninja asked.
"More or less," Ise replied, speaking simply, but assuring his voice did not sound overly guarded. "I seem to have encountered them at a bad time."
"Raiding the lumber camp?" he asked, and when Ise nodded, he continued. "It was suspected, I was to confirm it."
"You weren't hunting the sound?" Ise asked, for he had thought that was why the Leaf ninja was present here.
"Just scouting them," the leaf replied, "I was not about to attack eight of them on my own."
"Yeah, those aren't the best of odds," Ise chuckled miserably.
"No," His gaze shifted, drifting down to lower on Ise. "You're injured."
Ise had almost forgotten the wound in his back. He reached down and felt the kunai. A single tap brought a stab of pain, but he could tell nothing truly serious was damaged. His hand closed around the grip and he tugged with a swift motion.
The leaf ninja twitched slightly.
It did hurt, quite a bit of course, but Ise clenched his teeth and forced himself to ignore the pain. It wasn't that bad really, he'd had worse wounds, and pain seems somewhat unimportant when you expected to die only minutes before. Without taking his eyes off the leaf ninja he took gauze from his flak jacket and spread it over the wound, making a makeshift bandage to staunch the flow of blood.
"Do you need the aid of a medical ninja?" the leaf ninja asked, with a hint of concern in his voice.
"I'll be fine," Ise answered. "Besides, I can't take time off from my mission."
"The wound may fester."
"No," Ise replied firmly, "It won't." That was one benefit of being shark-blooded Ise didn't mind, it would take a wound far more grievous than this to bring him even close to disease vulnerability. "Besides, though I appreciate the kindness, it's not really appropriate."
"I suppose," the leaf ninja replied. "There is after all, no treaty."
That was indeed the crux of it, the Leaf and Mist were not allied nations, far from it, peace existed between them only on the prevalence of the balance of power, and the results of a single duel fifteen years before. The nations were not friendly, and though conflicts were rare that was more due to the nearly constant state of warfare between Mist and Lightning than any agreement between the two groups of ninja.
"You did not have to attack them, so you have my thanks." Ise told the leaf ninja.
"It was too good of an opportunity for an ambush," the other replied. "Besides, you helped greatly."
Ise nodded, and something came back to him about the fight. "How did you pull that trick with the bugs?" He wondered.
"I have methods," the leaf ninja replied, and as Ise watched he saw bugs crawl out from within the other ninja's body in great quantity. It was quite shocking, but Ise knew suddenly that here was a ninja similar to him, one with a strange ability that would make him a near outcast among others. It only strengthened his deep feeling of gratitude.
"Interesting," Ise replied, honest in his voicing. "It was an awfully good trap."
"Can you tell me why you're here?" The leaf ninja asked suddenly.
Ise had expected the question; actually he had expected it quite a bit earlier and not nearly so politely phrased. "I'm sorry," he said, trying to be equally polite, for indeed he was. "But I cannot, my mission takes me many places, but I cannot reveal it to you. I will say that I am merely passing through this land, and will soon be gone."
"I see," was the other's only response.
Ise hobbled over to the leaf ninja, using his spear to support him and to avoid aggravating his injury. "Though I can't tell you my mission, you did save my life, and I owe you a debt for it." He extended his right hand. "My name is Hoshigake Ise, ninja of Hidden Mist."
"Aburame Shino," the leaf ninja told him. "This is unnecessary."
"Perhaps," Ise replied. "But I do owe you my life, and someday, I hope I will get the chance to pay it back to you." He held out his hand. "I will pay it back," He insisted with a shark-toothed smile.
Shino took his own hand from his pocket and took Ise's carefully. They clasped their hands together for a second; shook once, and then let go, returning his hand to hiding swiftly. "I accept your gift."
"May we meet again, and not as enemies," Ise said when the moment had ended.
"Indeed," Shino replied. "Goodbye." He jumped back into the trees.
Ise saluted as the other ninja vanished into the woods, then collapsed down to a stump. "A strange young ninja," He said to himself, conscious that all leaf ninja were supposedly strange. They held strange ideals, or so it was said, but Ise had been impressed by Shino's actions, and he lay in quiet thought about this for some time. I will go no farther today, he decided, and made camp among the stumps, knowing a days rest would let his wound close fully so he might travel without hurting himself. The pain was already fading away.