Author's Notes: And the Mechalich proclaimed: Let there be violence! Yes, new chapter, lots of nasty, serious, and painful action in here, with more to come, just like I said. Plenty of other good stuff as well I think, but I have a feeling some readers have been waiting for an action sequence or two. Things will move fast after this point, and I'll try to post appropriately rapidly to not break the tension too much.

Thanks to all reviewers!

Meggido: I must say, one of the reasons I like reviews is sometimes I find really interesting things in them. In this case the phrase 'doubtfully human glory' had me laughing for a long time; it's somehow perfect and perfectly amusing. As to Saki's resemblance to Kimmimaro, well they are both taijutsu focused ninja with things growing out of them and a tendency to stab their enemies with parts of their own bodies. Of course, at this point Saki would probably break Kimmimaro in half, but that's cause Stomatopods are ridiculous.

Chapter 22 – Move or Die

"Wake up you scum!" the barked command was accompanied by a firm slap, followed by a grunt of surprise.

Ise's eyes snapped open to the pain, feeling the sting on his cheek.

He looked into the eyes of a rain ninja, a face familiar to him, Keisuke, the ninja who guided to the village the very first day. The rain ninja held his hand in pain, and an aggravated grimace sealed his face.

Heh, Ise thought, should have known better than to slap my scales. It was only a moment's dark amusement, for as Ise took in his surroundings he realized his situation is quite desperate.

They were in a cell. That much was clear. Bars stared back at Ise just slightly behind Keisuke's form, bars marked with the flowing script of a seal, a cage designed specifically to hold ninja. The walls are metal, steel probably. Ise supposed they were placed over wood to create a firmer cage. Probably warded behind as well, so they can't be broken, Ise decided immediately.

He turned his head, and his body reflexively tried to follow. To no surprise Ise discovered he couldn't move. There were shackles around his wrists, ankles, shoulders and knees. He was held spread eagled, an awkward position, one he could recognize from what was revealed to his right.

Yi hung there, staring forward with a desperate gaze, trying to simply stare her way past all about her. She had been stripped down to her undergarments, and Ise was certain even those had been searched thoroughly. He knew immediately that his own situation was the same, even as the different feeling of having his scaled skin exposed to the air made it perfectly clear.

Ise looked out, but beyond Keisuke he could see only the bars and two other rain ninja watching carefully. There was no sign of any of his or Yi's equipment. Damn, Ise decided, they've been smart about this. There's no way out. He exhaled loudly, his disappointment evident.

Keisuke simply watched as Ise made his little scan, watching the eyes of the shark-blooded ninja with care. Seemingly satisfied with what he saw there, he decided to speak again. "I believe it's clear that you won't be going anywhere, yes?"

"Don't bother playing games, you rain dog," Ise snapped. "Just say what you have to say and have done with it."

"So boring," Keisuke muttered. "Are all Mist ninja so terribly uninteresting? Aren't you curious as to what's happening to you?"

"It's pretty obvious," Ise retorted.

"Well certainly it's obvious that you've been captured, and I think it's clear enough that it's due to your companion's little blunder at our ceremony, but do you know the rest?" Keisuke's tone oozed superiority, as if he believed Ise could never answer.

"There's not much," Ise muttered. "You know from other reports what you found within, and you took a move to seize it."

"Partly right, I'll admit," Keisuke replied. "Yes, I did recognize the Mizuho in use; it clearly matched those interesting little reports from grass country. Not being a fool, I acted quickly. I must commend you two, your present mindedness almost got you away, but you should have gone farther."

"Was one bloodline limit worth breaking the pacts with Mist?" Ise asked the one true question he had, for it did not make sense to him. "It will mean a war dog."

Keisuke laughed, slowly and with true amusement. "I told you he wouldn't guess it," he gestured to his companions. He moved very close to Ise's face then, and hissed out his next words. "We didn't break the pacts."

"What?"

"You think Shiori put me up to this? That little leech of a woman? Ha!" Keisuke stepped back, speaking louder. "That little schemer would never dare break the pacts with Mist, she's too afraid, but I, I represent a far different group, one that would be most interested in this little girl's power, oh indeed they would."

"What?" Ise was completely confused now and thinking desperately. They aren't acting for Rain? Then for who? Some other village? No, this is too involved for a few spies. It must be a whole cell of traitors, but who do they follow? He decided to ask, hoping to get something out of Keisuke, certainly it provided the illusion that the information might matter to him in the future. "Who's this group?"

"Oh, a certain organization that intends to remain nameless. It has a great many agents, and I'm certain they'll find the Mizuho a most useful power to have in their hands. After all, it seems even that damn Mizukage swallowed his pride to seek it."

"Don't malign my Kage you traitor!" Ise spat.

Keisuke let the spit hit him, and then responded with a straight punch to the face, this time with his gloved right hand.

Ise's head snapped back, and he grunted with the pain.

"You're in no position to dictate to me shark boy!" Keisuke shouted. "Handing you over will be a bonus, a minor one perhaps, but still useful. However, you certainly won't survive past this. They'll be here soon, and then you're a dead little shark. Have fun until then." Keisuke stepped back, and closed the cell door with a slam. "I wonder how you'll deal with despair, little Mist fools."

That done Keisuke left, and the guards went with him. Following the sound of their footfalls on the wooded floor beyond Ise was certain one of the guards traveled some distance away, but the other remained just out of sight, a securely posted sentry.

When they were gone, Ise saw Yi turn to him, and with tears in her eyes whisper. "I'm sorry Ise, it's my fault."

"Partly it is," Ise replied harshly in his own whispers. "But you'd better make up for it by offering a way out. You've been awake longer than I have, tell me the situation."

"It's hopeless," she rolled her head away, despairing.

"I don't care," Ise replied. "And it's not completely hopeless, these are traitors, this facility can't be permanent. If we were in the rain village dungeon then it would be hopeless, but these are traitors, they must have made a mistake."

"The only one I can see is that they had to put us together Ise," Yi whispered. "They searched us completely, all our tools are gone. The shackles are tight and shielding against jutsu even if we could form seals. The bars are also shielded, so even if we got loose, how could we get out? Besides, any noise will bring that guard, and he's no fool I'm sure."

"They're only shielded against jutsus?" Ise asked. "They don't block chakra?"

"No, they don't, but it doesn't matter, the way they've hung us the shackles are way too strong to break, no matter the chakra," Yi's voice was filled with guilt.

"Dammit! There must be a way!" Think!" Ise searched desperately for a solution, combing his mind for everything he'd been taught about escape, every maxim of ninja work he'd learned from the Warlord and his other teachers. Nothing came to mind, only dead end after dead end. His mind raced, faster and faster, and Ise suddenly opened his eyes to realize his breath was ragged and he was starting to spasm uncontrollably. What? What's…happening to me? Then he felt it, an ever growing spike of desperation and rage from inside him, from that place at his core where the shark urges slept, a raw and visceral reaction that screamed for escape. That cried at Ise to throw himself forward, to shatter the shackles and bars. It was desperate, it was angry, and the red rage of that voice cried out for freedom.

Snapping his teeth down hard Ise threw himself away from the pull of that voice, trying to fathom what was going on. He looked over at Yi, but saw only a grim look of desperate hopelessness on her sad countenance, not the maddening raging panic about to overcome him. Why, why is this happening to me?

Then Ise remembered something his brother had taught him. They had been fishing outside the village. Ise had caught a small shark, a dogfish, and thinking it a curiosity, had put it in a small tank of salt water to hold it for a while. Yet only a few minutes had passed when the shark started thrashing furiously, and threw itself out of the tank onto the deck of the boat. Naki had seen it then, and quickly snatched up the shark and threw it back into the sea. "Ise, were you trying to kill it?" his older brother reprimanded him. When Ise replied he had just wanted to watch it for a while his brother had sighed, and admonished him. "It won't work Ise; you can't keep a shark caged like that. They have to move; have to keep swimming, in order to breathe. If you hold one in place it will eventually die."

So that's it, Ise realized on the edge of panic. It brought him no solace however to recognize that the shark within him was about to completely lose control in the face of captivity. Stop it! He bit down hard, I must focus! There has to be a way out of here. Think! He brought this raging emotions a bit under control. Okay, Ise thought, reason it out, one step at a time. If Yi's right the shackles will still allow me to mold chakra. So, I can still control my own body. Somehow I need a way out using that. Think, they're too strong to smash aside, but there must be another way, think!

Rip! Tear! Slash! Rip! Tear! Slash! The shark's voice refused to be pushed aside, it demanded attention, and it demanded Ise. This was his blood and it would have him.

No! I won't lose myself to you! That was his first reaction, but the voice continued. Rip! Tear! Slash! Tear! Then suddenly a revelation came over Ise. That's it! If I can't smash the shackles I must cut through them. It would be possible if I had a tool. This obstacle threw Ise into a moment's despair, for he knew everything he had that could possibly cut or tear had been taken away from him.

Then he remembered Keisuke's hand.

The mist chunin's eyes gazed down at his arms, now completely bare, revealing the blue scales that his skin had become. They were most pronounced at his hands, but they continued all the way up past the elbow before gradually fading into simply bluish skin. More importantly, while most people looking at those arms saw only that they were covered in scales, these were the scales of a shark: denticles. Teeth.

So, that is the answer. Ise decided. He decided and he saw a path open for him, saw exactly what he must do. He looked inside himself then, feeling the shark there, with its desperate panicked rage. "Yi," Ise whispered. "Be ready to move in an instant." He slurred the last words; his voice loosing control, for his closeness to the shark's emotions was already eroding his sense of humanity.

Damn it! I'm a ninja, a ninja and a shark! I need that rage, and I'll take it, but you will obey me, shark, you will obey! Ise growled beneath his breath, his eyes closed, every effort focused within. He felt the rage within him, felt its surging, terrible power. A bloody haze came over his vision and the world seemed to turn red and slow to a crawl. Every pulsing pounding of the heartbeats of himself, Yi and the guard could be heard like thunder. The scent of their blood burned through his nose, calling forth a killing hunger that burned cold, demanding swift death. Ise let all of it rage through him, he let that cold frenzy pound through his veins, and as it did he felt things seemingly unlock, felt his strength grow in leaps and bounds until it seemed nothing could stop him, he felt his senses sharpen to a degree he had not believed possible, and he felt his whole body coil to within an endless razor's edge of an unstoppable strike. He was a shark hinged on the edge of the deathblow, endlessly.

He was also a ninja. Ise took that energy and channeled it, he let it pour down though his skin, surging through his body into the denticles there, filling them, empowering them, making them grow more and more pronounced, filling out to the full potency of a shark of mammoth size, until the teeth-scales cascaded along his skin as a covering of living knives.

I am a shark! I am a ninja! I will not be caged! I will not be opposed! Ise's arms snapped taught, and he dragged them along the shackles, twisting as he went. The metal screamed, but his chakra surged with cold rage, the contact only strengthening the shark's fury, and the metal gave, slashed and ripped, until the shackles fell away from Ise's arms as torn and ragged pieces of metal. He did not stop, but pulled his arms across the bonds on his shoulders, knees, and ankles.

The shark-blooded ninja struck the cold metal floor of the cell then, but did not stop. With a smooth, fluid motion he raked his arms and legs across the shackles holding Yi. Her eyes caught the fire burning in his cold and colorless orbs as he passed over, and Ise saw only admiration there, not fear. Yi dropped to the floor but did not fall. She fell into a fighting position, ready for whatever would come.

The rain traitors were not fools, and their sentry had reacted almost instantly when he heard the shackles tear. He dashed around the corner to the edge of the bars with a kunai in hand, ready to throw, but his eyes went wide in absolute shock when he saw the figure of Ise standing loose, his body covered in raised razor-edges, his eyes filled with something so absolute and terrifying it belonged in no human gaze.

Ise's arm shot out at the guard's face through the bars.

The moment of hesitation had left the guard trapped too close, Ise was tall for a ninja, and his reach was long. Still, the man was no fool, and his kunai was in position to block the blow to the face well before Ise's arm could reach.

Or it would have been, had Ise been striking where his enemy expected.

Intuitively, instinctively, Ise had discovered how to fight with his limbs as razor teeth, and his arm did not strive to connect with the rain ninja, but instead his left wrist went out past the man's neck, and then pulled back in, grasping the skin.

Blood fountained from the ripped throat, and the rain ninja could only gurgle and grasp his ruined neck as he felt death take him.

Not stopping, Ise ran his arm along the bars, trying to rip them apart, but the hard metal did not even scratch. "Damn!" his voice rasped. "The seals have strengthened them, I can't break through."

"Don't worry," he heard Yi say from beneath him, a dark and deep anger in her own voice. "Let me deal with it. After all," she said with a strangely idle curiosity. "There's enough here."

Ise turned to see Yi stand, her hands drenched in the blood of the rain guard. She put her hands to the bar in front of her then, one high and one low. "Strengthened against blows maybe," she raged. "But let's see what it takes to melt you! Mizuho!"

Raw red flames burst from the blood on Yi's hands, surging and rippling. The iron bars grew orange and then red, and then began to run.

Ise watched in awe. I thought the seals would protect against jutsu…wait, the Mizuho simply makes the water burn, the flames are not a creation of chakra, they burn themselves, the chakra is applied to the water, or in this case the blood, so the seals are useless.

Swiftly the bar melted, and Yi simply pushed it forward and away. "Time to go," She quipped, and slipped through newly created gap. "Where to?"

"Our gear should be nearby," Ise told her. "They would have wanted to present it to whomever was coming. We find it and then escape."

"Right, let's move then."

The pair dashed down the hall, finding it to be an unremarkable wooden hallway like those is most rain village structures. They turned a corner and found a staircase in their way, at the top stood the other rain guard.

"Wha-" he gasped, but attacked immediately, launching a flying kick straight at Ise.

The shark blooded ninja simply raised his arms.

The kick connected, throwing Ise back into the wall, but he slashed his arms apart, tearing into the rain ninja's feet as he was thrown back. Instead of landing smoothing the rain ninja landed and fell and pain shot through his feet.

Yi was on him in an instant, her hands grabbed his face. "Die!" Flames shot out all over the rain ninja, scorching him utterly in moments, a gruesome sight as flames burst through his skull to burn him away.

Ise didn't bat an eye, but got up and continued up the stairwell. At the top the two found a small antechamber, and there was stored a great deal of rain ninja equipment. They also found their own gear.

With swift motions not forgotten from the long journeys before this traitorous village, Ise and Yi slid into their ninja wear, placing weapons where they belonged and other tricks in all the hidden places a ninja kept such things. "Ready?" Ise asked Yi, hefting his spear.

"Almost," Yi spun about, holding two pieces of cloth. She tossed one to Ise, and began to tie the other about her head.

Their forehead protectors.

"Right," Ise nodded, and wrapped his own about his skull. "Now we're ready."

"I'm sure there are more guards," Yi noted.

"I suspect only a few, there cannot be that many traitors, and certainly not here at all hours. Probably only a pair at the entrance, and we'll get the jump on them. Keisuke is the one who worries me. He's around here somewhere."

"If I catch him he's dead," Yi hissed with a vengeful tone. "Dead."

Ise refrained from asking anything more. I do not need to know, he decided. "I don't think any of these traitors deserve to live."

They ran for the door.

Luck was with the pair of ninja, for it was light and the door to the outside was open past a long hallway. The two ninja who stood outside never had a chance to know what was coming.

"Water Element: Crashing Spray no Jutsu!"

"Mizuho!"

Burning, raging water pulled the two guards under and left nothing but ash in its wake.

Ise and Yi burst forth, spinning aside from the door immediately as the came, then rolling into a crouched position and scanning for enemies.

They saw the shocked form of Keisuke on his knees perhaps fifty yards in front.

"I-i-impossible…"

"Water Element: Water Ground Whips no Jutsu!" Yi cried, and whips of water stretched out from her arms to rip a passage through the ground before her, before snapping up into the air in waveform. It was a viscous technique, difficult to block and capable of dealing painful blows that could entangle the enemy. Combined with Mizuho, it was lethal.

Keisuke was nowhere close to reacting in time. Twin whips wrapped around his body, burning into his torso. Yi snapped her hands back and hauled the screaming rain ninja in before her. Only when he skidded to a stop did she quell the flames.

"It's impossible," Keisuke muttered again, his voice broken.

"No, it's not," Ise barked. "You underestimated us, and you underestimated the power you were trying to steal. Did you really think Mizuho so easily caged."

"You, you, you're demons," he muttered with his eyes held wide open. "Demons, monsters…" Then suddenly, horribly, he burst out laughing.

Ise kicked him in the side. "What the hell!"

"You're demons, demons, haha!" Keisuke's voice was losing coherency. "But it won't save you, no. They're worse, you may be monsters, but you're nothing like them. Don't think it will end with my death! My comrades will hunt you down, and so will they, oh yes, they will!"

"Who!" Ise kicked Keisuke again. "Damn you! Who it is you work for traitor!"

"Can't you guess little monster?" Keisuke's face split into a grin lit only by madness. "The true devil masters of the ninja, the ones who make you like nothing, the Akatsuki!" With that he suddenly kicked out a hidden knife from the back of his right boot, and brought his fought up, not in an attack against anyone else, but in a strike at his own heart. Neither Ise nor Yi reacted in time to stop him, nor did they truly wish to.

Keisuke collapsed, and Yi turned to Ise, some of the killing fire gone. "Who're the Akatsuki?"

"I don't know," Ise answered. "But I don't think it's good news." He looked up, trying to see the sun above the dim light of the rainforest. "I think we're a bit north of the village." He said after a moment. "We can head northeast toward the road, we'd best hurry."

"Right," Yi replied. "There's no time."