Authors Notes: Time to set up the final act. So, this chapter is a slight bit of spacing, though there's still some combat. Next comes the big fight to end all fights for this story. It's almost over now.
It's almost a pity I couldn't kill Itachi off, but I try to mess with the plotline as little as possible. I love how people seem to so enjoy him getting smacked around.
Thanks to all reviewers!
Chapter 25 – Payment Rendered
"Shiro!" it was a ragged scream that ripped Yi awake, an impossible knowledge of what had happened, of the reality she now faced.
The moment Yi came awake Ise stopped, and put her down, holding her with both arms to steady her.
She collapsed weakly against him. "It was Shiro wasn't it, all in black and wrong, impossible, but it was him."
"True, that is what that apparition said," Ise said softly, sadly. "He told me to tell you that it was Shiro."
Yi shuddered against Ise, burying her head against his scaled chest. "Twice, he died for me twice Ise, how am I supposed to bear it? How Ise?" Yi slammed her fists against him, desperate. "How?"
"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know," Ise repeated the phrase over and over again. "I don't know Yi," he wrapped his arms around her, and proceeded to stop her shuddering. Still, Ise discovered that his tears had joined Yi's in that moment and he somehow felt terribly sad as well, that this sacrifice was too much, too much for anything. "Still, I think we can't give up. He told me to see you to Mist, to complete the mission, and I will honor that pledge."
"To go to Mist?" Yi looked up at Ise, and the tears receded. "That's what he wanted?"
Ise nodded.
"Then maybe, just maybe I made the right choice?"
"I think we may never know," Ise said with all truth. "But perhaps that shadowy one was able to see something you and I cannot. Do you believe I can trust that?"
"Yes," Yi whispered, then again, stronger. "Yes, yes! We can trust him, he was my friend, my confidant, he would never lie, not to me, and not to you I'm certain. Shiro," she turned to stare back the way they'd come. "I will try. I will try to make it worth it, to pay you back for everything you gave up. That is my promise."
"Then we had best hurry," Ise said, banishing emotion. "I don't know what happened there really, you beat my uncle I think, he's wounded for sure, but that other one…" Ise's voice trailed off. "I'm sure Shiro bought us some time at least, but even if he defeated those two, our other pursuers have not vanished."
"Then let's hurry to the coast," Yi replied. "I'm alright Ise, really," she pushed away from him gently. "Whatever that one tried to do didn't work fully, I'm ready to go."
"Okay, let's hurry."
They began to run.
Two days passed, long, desperate days. Ise knew by the end of the first night that the two Akatsuki were not after them, he could not smell the presence of his uncle or the other one, Itachi, behind them anywhere. Yet the other ninja remained, still far off, but now closing in to catch them. Ise could not tell exactly where they were, but he suspected a group was ahead, attempting to close the ring fully. It was hard, for it had rained on the first morning, and the scents were obscured. If they slipped past us then, I could have missed it; rain clouds the shark's nose here on land. Damn!
Still, there was no choice but to continue on. Ise took solace in the previous battle. I could not beat my uncle, but it was close. I have become strong, stronger than I ever thought I could be, and Yi is even stronger than I. If our enemies are not numerous or powerful we may be able to simply smash through this containment.
Ise would have liked to try, but with only the weak information of distant scents there were too many risks. If we attack a group too numerous we could be trapped and slain. There are techniques to counter my abilities and perhaps even those to match up against Yi's. It was depressing, but Ise saw no choice but to run on, and to force the issue at the last moment possible. So they ran on.
The day was a bright one, and now they had entered the lands of sound through which Ise had passed once before. This country, though not familiar, was at least known, and Ise took some small comfort in that. Also, he recognized that the area was certainly reduced in danger from the fall. Winter will have killed or banished many of the bandit groups. We should only have our own pursuers to worry about.
Yi followed Ise's path with all the speed she could manage, having learned to lengthen her gait over the winter in order to better keep pace with her taller companion. They walked very fast, and ate up the ground as they went, but certainly those who followed were the same.
If was late afternoon, as the two crested a hill, when Ise smelled blood.
It was carried on the wind, wispy and ephemeral, but nothing hid the scent of fresh blood from a shark, and this was human blood, strong, metallic, and vibrant. He could taste the tang of it in the air. Close, closer than I would expect, and serious. Ise looked down into the valley below. Where I wonder?
"What is it Ise?" Yi asked.
"Blood, recent and close. There's been either a fight or an accident, and out here, I suspect a fight," Ise's eyes narrowed.
"Then let's go," Yi answered, and leapt up to the trees.
"Right."
They converged with great swiftness, guided by the shark's nose. And then by noise, for there indeed a fight and it was still going on.
Taking to the highest branches Ise and Yi looked down, and then they could see it.
Two ninja fought against a third, and a body lay on the ground, stuck full of kunai and shuriken. The two ninja and the corpse bore the uniforms of hidden rain, while the other ninja wore a long green coat that hid his features.
That coat…Ise thought, and then he noticed another smell. I can't believe it…
The combatants did not notice the arrival of the two observers, but continued. One of the rain ninja flipped back from an exchange kunai to kunai, while the other completed a jutsu.
"Have your damn bugs stop this! Green Rain no Jutsu!" Droplets of rain fell from the sky, great big droplets green in color, and when they struck they burned into everything they touched, leaving gruesome marks.
Acid, Ise recognized, and then he watched the rain's ninja's opponent caught by technique. The ninja was not burned, but seemed to melt apart, and he crumbled down into a black mass, a mass that tried desperately to fly and crawl away even as it was burned by the rain. Bugs, so, it is him. The true form of the jacketed ninja leapt away behind another tree.
"Yi," Ise turned to his companion. "We're going to defeat these rain ninja and save the other one."
"Why?" she asked. "Wouldn't it be better to wait until the battle is over and then strike with maximum surprise?"
"Yes," Ise acknowledged. "But I owe this ninja. If you want, you don't have to help, it's my problem."
"Ise," Yi put a hand on his right arm. "We're comrades; your problems are my problems."
Ise nodded. "Then take the jutsu user, I'll get the other one. Five seconds."
"Right."
They moved.
"Why don't you come out bug boy?" the rain ninja taunted. "Scared of us, don't worry we can just kill your bugs in the meantime!" the man who had summoned the acid laughed.
"Water element: Water shark missile!"
The massive blast of water arched upwards to blast in at the place where the kunai-wielding rain ninja stood. The man was quick, and he dodged away in a leaping flip, but it made him exposed.
Heh, Ise noted. You need your companion to cover for you.
Even as the other rain ninja moved to strike at the source of the water jutsu, he was forced to block two thrown kunai, and then dodge aside as a quartet of shuriken followed them.
The rain ninja landed even as Ise's spear whipped out. "Water razors!" the lethal disks of spinning water cut into the branch beneath the rain ninja, dropping him to the ground. The moment he landed Ise was upon him, driving a kunai into his heart. "Too bad," the shark-blooded ninja muttered. "You got caught playing around."
At that same moment the other rain ninja spun around to face Mizain Yi. "Hehe," he laughed. "What terrible aim you have, all those shuriken have hit my backpack, not me."
"That's the idea," Yi smiled, pointing at the stream of water that now leaked down from a puncture made in his right water bottle. It was seeping out onto his left arm and shoulder. "Mizuho!"
Flames burst out and the man screamed, as the water burned into him, hot and murderous.
Yi did not wait, but ran up and slammed a kunai into her pained enemy's chest, taking no chances. "Are you finished Ise?" she called.
"Yes," he replied. "All done."
"Ise?" the jacketed ninja poked his head around from the tree trunk, a kunai still held ready. "Hoshikgake Ise? You don't look the same."
Ise looked up at him. "Sorry. Henge!" he enacted the jutsu, replacing the old disguise. "This what you were looking for?"
"Maybe…" the ninja's voice was cautious. "This is a suspect situation."
"Not really, I told you I'd pay back the debt Shino," Ise called up. "So really, you don't have to hide behind that bug clone."
The real Aburame Shino stepped out from behind Yi, to the Mizain girls' great shock. He was still holding a kunai, but his hands rested at the edge of his pockets. "How can you tell?"
"I can smell the difference between humans and bugs. It's part of being a bit shark." Ise answered, jumping up to stand next to Yi. "Likewise, you don't smell hurt, or at least, not cut."
"No, but they would have had me otherwise," Shino answered formally. "Your debt is paid. However, I have to know, why are you here?"
"We're traveling to Mist," Yi answered. "Ise's nose led us to you."
Shino shifted his gaze, moving his head minutely, and staring at Yi behind those dark eyeglasses. "Last time you were going the other way," he said to Ise without turning his gaze from Yi.
"That is how escort missions tend to work, yes?" Ise replied, amused.
Shino only nodded.
"What about you?" Ise asked.
"Looking for a thief, but what are these rain ninja?"
Ise noted that Shino was careful to deflect the conversation away from his own actions, but it only made him respect the leaf ninja more. I wonder…he thought. He decided to trust Shino. "They are pursuing us. It seems you ran into the group meant to close the ring."
"Why?" Shino's gaze continued to search Yi, as if he was looking for something.
"If I tell you, can I also ask you a favor?" Ise responded.
"You can always ask," Shino answered.
"They're after me, damn it,' Yi spat, exasperated. "You saw what they're after; I just used a minute ago."
"Bloodline limit," it was impossible to tell if that was a question.
"Yes, but don't misunderstand Shino, they aren't working for rain, they represent someone else," Ise interjected.
"Who's that?"
"My uncle's one of them, you might have heard of him: Kisame. The other one we met was one of yours, Itachi was his name. They seem to call themselves 'Akatsuki.'" Ise let Shino have the full truth.
"And you're alive?" was the only response.
"We…um…had some help, but it's…gone now. Still, it's only the rain minions that are still after us," Yi answered here.
"So, what was the favor you wanted?" Shino asked Ise, finally turning his head.
"Can your bugs scout?"
"What do you mean?"
"How far can they range?" Ise replied. "Here in air my sense of smell only carries so far. I can't determine the enemy's number. If we knew how many there were, then we could consider fighting instead of just running. Would you help us that way?"
"Leaf gets to interrogate any prisoners," Shino named his condition.
"Fine, we can't stay anyway. It's a deal," Ise extended his hand.
Shino took that blue-scaled hand without hesitation and shook. Then he stepped back.
Yi watched with surprise as bugs crawled out of Shino's body them and took flight, dispersing in all directions. Shino watched them go, and then sat down. "It may take some time. They can only fly so fast."
"That's alright," Ise replied. "We could use a rest anyway."
They passed an awkward moment in silence, and then Shino spoke again, turning to Yi. "And your name?"
"Mizain Yi."
"Aburame Shino."
He fell silent again, and the three ninja waited.
Perhaps two hours, perhaps three, passed in strange silence on that tree branch, as the ninja waited, neither enemies nor allies, uncertain what could safely be said to each other, and none inclined to chat idly.
Then Shino's bugs returned.
They landed on his hands, and he brought them to the lip of his jacket, near his mouth. A moment passed, and then the bugs crawled back into Shino's body. "Fifteen," he said, his voice stony. "Fifteen enemies, five groups of three, all at least chunin level, and they are converging rapidly. There must have been some kind of tracking signal on the ones who died here."
"How much time?" Ise asked, concerned.
"Five minutes at most," Shino seemed immune to worry.
"Fifteen and only five minutes," Ise thought for a moment. "So, overwhelming odds and nowhere to run. If we ambush one group the others will only fall on us from behind during the battle."
"I am sorry to have dragged you into this," Yi said to Shino, bowing. "My apologies."
"A solution is more important," Shino answered.
Damn it! Too many enemies. Why did they have to all come at once? If they were dispersed we could take them. Ise felt angry, a nasty, desperate anger at having come so far only to have doom so calmly revealed to them by this imperturbable leaf ninja.
"Ise," Yi spoke. "We can try to break through and run."
"No!" Ise slammed his fist into the tree. "No, dammit! It's too risky, and I'm through running. I won't run anymore. This time, I'm standing."
"The odds are not favorable," Shino said calmly.
"I know!" Ise shouted. Have to think, there must be a way, we have five minutes, what can we prepare? He thought about it, wondering what he might have done had he had five minutes to prepare for the battle against his uncle. His hand ran over his equipment, kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, and then, deep in the darkest part of his flak jacket, his hand clasped something else. It was a scroll, a thing he had long forgotten about, sitting there next to the information scroll on the Mizain family, buried in the depths of his belongings, never used or even glanced at in all the months of travel, but now Ise remembered it, and he remembered what the warlord had said of it. There are two other things here as well, one should only be used at greatest need. This scroll was that item. Well, Ise decided, if there is any time of greatest need, it is now. He pulled forth the scroll.
"I'm through running from my enemies." He ripped the scroll open.
There was a complex seal pattern written there. Ise was not certain of its complete meaning, but he understood swiftly that it was summoning scroll. He bit down on his lip and spat blood onto the scroll, and then smeared it down the length with his left thumb. "Summoning no jutsu!"
A burst of mist washed over the three ninja, carrying with it the briny scent of the ocean, and a darker tang, the scent of destruction.
When the mist cleared, a deep and cruel voice spoke, filled with absolute command. "So, it seems your mission has almost been a success, chunin. Now what is your crisis?"
Ise, Yi, and Shino looked up to see a tall man standing before them, a man built with all the strength and power of Ise's uncle Kisame, and who likewise bore a massive blade on his back. Yet, this man was not Kisame, his skin was tanned dark by the sea, not blue-scaled, and his blade was not Sameheda, but a long, wave-edged weapon.
The Warlord Akai.