Author's Notes: Time for the final battle or more accurately, battles. Everybody gets there licks in here, and then some. There's only one chapter after this and a short epilogue, I hope to have everything up before the weekend is over. So, enjoy.
I note I had four reviews for the last chapter, I think that's a new record, thanks all!
Chapter 26 – Oceanic Destruction
"Warlord?" Ise could barely believe his eyes.
"Not what you expected Hoshigake?" the Warlord turned to face Ise. "You should know that even a general must sometimes be willing to see things through personally. Now, report the situation."
"Yes, Warlord," Ise immediately obeyed, for the Warlord's countenance fostered instantaneous obedience. "We are about to be attacked on all sides by fifteen rain ninja of at least chunin rank. They are apparently tracking a signal from their dead comrades. There is at best five minutes until they arrive."
"This is reliable data?" the Warlord questioned.
"Entirely," Shino answered, staring up at the taller man.
"Who are you leaf ninja?"
"Aburame Shino," a simple answer.
"Bug user, so your intelligence is good then," Akai turned to Yi. "You must be the Mizain then."
Yi nodded.
"Alright, fifteen enemies from all sides," Akai told them. "You killed three here, so its five groups of three in a broken-ring attack pattern. There's no time for an elaborate plan, so we'll perform a simple counter. I'll take the north and north-east groups. Ise, the west, Aburame, you get the south, Mizain, the southeast. Counter hard to prevent them from uniting the moment they appear. It's probably five jounin and ten chunin, so concentrate on killing the chuunin. Once I'm done with the initial six I'll wheel down to support from Ise's side and we'll collapse to the Mizain's position. That means you have to hold out the longest Mizain. Are you capable?"
"Yes, Warlord," Yi answered without hesitation.
"Alright, get to your positions then," Akai smiled, a cruel, dark motion, and his eyes bespoke a hunger to destroy his enemies. The Warlord had been frustrated for some time, fighting only match after match against the impossible Saki. "It will be good to destroy something," he muttered so no one else could hear.
The four ninja fanned out, taking up positions high in the trees, waiting for their enemies to approach. Akai stood with his sword out, but beside him, his hands holding a seal combination ready. Ise waited with spear in hand, focusing on all that the extended shark's senses could tell him. Shino's bugs were already before him, hidden in the environment, ready to pounce. He held a kunai in his right hand. Yi positioned herself carefully, holding a kunai in her right hand and a waterskin in her left, ready to surprise her enemies.
They all appeared at once.
Akai watched with a cruel grin as his six targets approached. He held his position carefully, waiting for them to close in just enough. The six ninja came down from the trees together, well coordinated as they approached the bodies of their fallen comrades. Close enough, you're mine. The Warlord's hands flashed through seals and when completed he grasped his massive sword in his right hand and spun the blade down into the ground. "Burst of Geysers!"
It was one of the many techniques Akai had made famous, a massive blast of chakra induced destruction, with no room for resistance. It was avoid or die.
Geysers of boiling water burst up from the ground all about the enemy ninja, filling the clearing with scorching liquid. Fountains of death surged toward the sky.
The six ninja had only a moment to dodge that attack, which came so unexpectedly from below. Four made it, but two were not fast enough, and were swallowed and scorched to death.
Akai was already moving as they dodged. The ninja closest to him managed only to draw a kunai and turn as the Warlord swung the massive blade down, hitting the kunai and simply altering the angle of his stroke with brute strength to cut a jagged gash through the man's torso.
As the mist master ripped his blade free he spun about to see the first counterattack.
"Heh," Akai grinned as his enemy came down from above with sword raised. It was a move designed to draw him into a deadlock and leave him vulnerable to the other's attack. Akai, however, was not playing such a foolish game.
The Warlord took his sword in both hands and spun it, turning the massive blade into that lethal cutting lathe which no normal weapon could withstand. He brought the spinning blade in an overhand chop that passed completely through the rain ninja's sword and left his a ruined pulp of his torso. Akai did not wait for the next move, but dashed right, searching and assessing as he did so. Only two remain, one on each side. Your move, rain ninja.
Running to the right, Akai simply waited for the nearby ninja to attempt a jutsu, knowing the other was out of position due to his swift charge.
"Rain Element: Chilling Hail no Jutsu!"
Massive hailstones the size of a man's fist, and hard and cold as arctic ice streaked from the ninja's hands at Akai.
"Is that all? Ha!" Akai laughed, and his hands ripped through seals. "Maelstrom Burst no jutsu!"
It was the most basic of all strategies, smash your enemies force with greater force, and it was the method Akai most preferred. From all directions about his body, as he whirled his massive spinning blade, a spiraled whirlpool of water blasted out. It smashed aside the hailstones with a far greater force, and tossed the rain ninja aside like a spinning top. The man landed against a tree and gasped a desperate breath only quick enough to see that brutal sword descend on his head.
"Damn you, bastard!" the sixth and final rain ninja shouted, leaping at Akai and hurling a storm of shuriken.
In return Akai leaped higher, launching himself above the canopy and his rain ninja enemy.
"Got you!" the man shouted. "Replicating needles no jutsu!" He hurled sharp needles from each between each finger, and then made the same seal repeatedly, again and again, and each time the needles all replicated, doubling, and doubling into a massive wall of razor points.
The Warlord's hands jerked back and his sword spun with even greater speed, and then he snapped his arms forward, throwing the massive blade down at the oncoming blast of needles, now spinning along the axis of its blade and about its center a well, a whirlwind of force that carried a great wind with it, smashed through all the needles and sending then spinning uselessly through the air.
The rain ninja dodged away from that massive blade, but Akai had landed and already begun his final jutsu. "Waterspout!"
It came down from the sky, a whirling torrent of water, spinning and swirling faster than the eye could follow, and it tracked in ruthlessly. The rain ninja screamed once, and then was silenced by that raging fury.
Akai turned, and moved to aid the others should they need it.
Ise watched as the three ninja in his arc advanced. He could smell all of them, of course, but he had to focus only on the three in front of them. I must trust the others to do their part, and worry about my own. Ise confirmed the Warlord's orders to himself. Strike fast, strike hard. So he waited for them to reach his range, and then leapt out, whirling his spear before him.
"Water Element: Water Shark Missile!"
The storm of water Ise formed from chakra smashed past the oncoming ninja, blasting them back against trees and leaving bodies crumpled and bones broken, but when the water receded Ise saw only the bodies of three farm workers, and no fallen ninja. "What kind of hideous transformation was that?" Ise gasped. Then he realized something dangerous. The others have hidden their scents, where are they?
"Black Darkness no Jutsu!"
"All Silence no Jutsu!"
Genjutsu! Ise recognized even as the world went black and silent at the same time. He dodged aside hastily, for he suspected his enemies could still see in the illusion they had summoned. They masked all the senses, sight, sound, and smell. Damn, what do I do?
Then Ise felt a tingling near him, a strange sensation, but he immediately, instinctively, he dodged aside. What? He wondered, even as he felt a strange crackling in the back of his skull. It was an odd sensation, but one he knew he had felt before. What is this? These, tingling, crackling sensations then resolved themselves, even as he moved about blindly. He could sense direction to them, and even movement. Then the shark's voice spoke up from inside him again. Life. With that Ise began to understand. These signals, they are given off by living things, and I can sense them. Ise focused in on those signals of energy, and they slowly resolved into crackling images of moving men, three who dashed about him, moving swiftly to pin him against a thicket.
They are trying to trap me, Ise saw without seeing, but with this strange feeling, a sense no human, no creature of warm land possessed. But I know where they are. Ise's face, though he could not see it, opened into a wide grin then. Let us see how well you do without you own senses, fools. His hands moved deliberately through seals. "Summoning no jutsu: Depths of the Abyss!"
There was no apparent difference in the world, though the darkness might be said to now be thicker than before, and all seemed oppressive and closed in. Ise felt, through that unearthly tingling sense of his, an almost electric sensation, his enemies stumble, as their senses were likewise robbed.
Now! He acted, charging the nearest foe.
The enemy reacted as most ninja would, caught in a genjutsu, he clasped his hands together and made the sign to dispel the effect. Ise had time to sense the man's shock before he ran him through. Too bad, this isn't a genjutsu, I've summoned the blackness of the greatest depths of the ocean. You can't see in this, or hear, or smell in the current-less water. It affects me as well, but that doesn't matter now, since I can feel your life.
The next ninja had tried to dispel and failed, and was desperately running, attempting to clear the affect of the jutsu. Ise's whip-spear lashed out and caught him about the ankles. A moment later a sharp kunai plunged into his neck. Interesting, Ise noted, I cannot feel the one I killed a moment ago, and the signal is fading from this one. So, this sense functions only on the living.
Ise turned to finish the final ninja, but then the world snapped back into light.
"Truth Revelation no Jutsu!" the last ninja shouted. He then spun about, and with a look of utter shock saw Ise standing over the body of his comrade. "Impossible!"
Ise sneered at him. "Did you really think you could blind a shark? I know things in ways you could never imagine!"
"Damn!" the other ninja threw smoke bombs at his feet, and even though they did not inhibit Ise in the least, the man's swift blind retreat prevented the shark-blooded ninja from following.
"He's escaped, now what?" Ise wondered. "How do the others fare?"
Every step the enemy took as they approached was fed continuously into Shino's ears as his bugs, strung out in a web far in front of his actual position, passed the word almost instantly along the line. He waited patiently, confident in the setup he had prepared.
Shino was cautious in this battle, for the three rain ninja he had fought previously had proved too much for him. From observing Ise and Yi in combat he knew his strength was not equal to theirs. It was somewhat irritating to him to be the weakest person on the battlefield among the four, but he had no intention of letting the others know that. If he properly performed he would defeat the three rain ninja and no one would recognize the true extent of his abilities. The other three had beaten him, but that had been when they encountered him off-guard and unprepared. Now the situation was reversed and Shino was ready.
He was not even where the others, excepting perhaps Ise, who seemed immune to the trick, supposed him to be. The person standing by Ise and Yi was simply a bushin. In front of that image, three different trees held his bug clones in them, and two of those clones were trapped with his weapons. He had his bugs positioned everywhere throughout the battlefield, ready to converge at a moments notice if any of the enemy ninja stopped for longer than it would take to complete a quick jutsu. Between the jutsu Shino himself had planned and the trapped clones he was certain he could arrange that, all without ever revealing his true position inside a termite hollowed tree-trunk.
The three ninja crossed his outer screen. Shino made the bushin advance, revealing it to the enemy ninja.
"A leaf ninja?" one of the rain ninja spoke. "Helping Mist? Odd…"
"It's not important," the ninja in the center returned. "Kill him and find the targets, no witnesses can be tolerated."
"Heh," the rain ninja pulled out a fistful of shuriken. "Hope you can dodge little leaf ninja."
The shuriken streaked through toward the bushin, only to be knocked away by shuriken from above.
"Huh?" the rain ninja looked up. "A clone!" the scattered, spinning outward, with one toward the first bushin, one toward the bug clone who'd thrown the blocking shuriken, and one away from both, his hands flashing to prepare jutsu. That last one stopped for a moment on a branch near the second bug clone.
This clone attacked.
The rain ninja aborted his jutsu, and whipped out a kunai to block a downward stroke. "Another clone?" he slashed through the bug clone's guard easily then, just as Shino had intended.
At the same moment the center rain ninja burst apart the first bug clone with a swift sword stroke. "Bugs?" he reacted immediately. "Watch out, it's a trap!"
It was already too late for the second ninja. He cut into Shino's bug clone and the clone burst apart, the insects retreating every way, but they triggered the explosion note at the center of the trap first, propelling the shuriken, kunai, and caltrops buried inside the swarm's form in every direction. The rain ninja was pierced by a dozen metal weapons and collapsed instantly.
One down, Shino noted.
The center rain ninja jumped backward, avoiding the clone he had just destroyed, even though it had not been trapped, while his other comrade slashed apart Shino's bushin. The clone dissipated in a puff of smoke, but it had served its purpose. The rain ninja had isolated himself from his comrade, who was still much further out.
Bugs rose up from the branches at Shino's command, creating a wall of swarming insects between the two ninja.
The rain ninja in front panicked, for now he couldn't see any enemy. Shino decided to provide him one, and revealed his last bug clone.
Having seen the fate of his comrade, the rain ninja did not engage closely, but held back, throwing kunai and shuriken at range.
The bug clone responded, but its limited skills could not compete with a true ninja and its form was shattered in moments. It burst apart, splashing darts everywhere, but there was no one in range, so the trap failed.
The rain ninja smiled.
However, that momentary fight with the clone had provided Shino with all the time he needed to complete his jutsu. "Caterpillar Silk no Jutsu!" he whisper, and the tree branch where the rain ninja stood became rapidly encased in gooey, clinging threads, wrapping about branch and ninja alike.
"A trap!" the rain ninja moved quickly to free himself, and likely would have escaped in moments, for the binding threads were not particularly strong, but Shino did not give his enemy those moments.
With a simple command the Aburame clan member collapsed his screen of bugs down onto the rain ninja.
The man screamed, and then fell silent as bugs poured into his mouth, eating his chakra away to nothing.
Shino had already put the ninja out of his mind, focusing on the final opponent.
That man had fallen back, away from Shino's wall of buzzing bugs.
"Stinking bugs," he hissed. "Flash of the storm no jutsu!"
A blinding flash split the forest, blinding everything, even Shino behind his dark sunglasses. When he could see again the enemy had retreated to a distance and his bugs reported shortly that it was past the edges of his screen. The escapee irritated Shino, but he knew he would have to insure the others' condition before pursuing. Forming another bushin, he sent it and his bugs to scout the situation.
Yi waited for her opponents with a strange eagerness. She was confident, but controlled, her great triumph over Ise's uncle had been paired with her equally shattering loss to the one called Itachi, and so while she understood the potency of her powers she was not going to be foolish. Still, Yi stood openly, willing to let her enemies see her clearly. This is my first true battle as a Mist ninja; let me show these fools what it is to fight a Mizain of a village!
The Warlord's appearance had shocked and awed Yi, this massive man who commanded with such ruthless ease, and the tremendous power of his voice. He spoke with an authority she had not seen in anyone since her father, and she understood that in Akai there was a true commander of men, whatever else he might be. He had placed his trust in her ability to complete her portion of the battle, and she absolutely refused to fail. Now that stubborn anger and surging pride fueled Yi, as she felt the power of Mizuho ready in her veins.
Yi saw he enemies approach, three rain ninja in a wide line, and jumped out to meet them. As she moved she threw the waterskin in her left hand, followed by the kunai in her right, so that she burst apart the bag above their heads as they came on.
Droplets of water spilled down before the rain ninja, and then burst into flame.
"Scatter!" the center one called, and the ninja dispersed.
Yi's hands flashed through seals. "Crashing Spray no jutsu!"
The massive blast of water streamed forth behind her right hand, surging toward the enemy ninja.
With simplistic ease the rain ninja dogged, and the blast of water fell to the ground.
Yet they had moved aside, which had been Yi's only goal with the technique, that, and to place liquid all about the battlefield. She jumped down into the aftermath of her jutsu, and came up on the ground covered in water.
"Burning Liquid Skin!"
"Monster!" one of the rain ninja spat.
"Maybe so," Yi answered. "But you're the fools who think you can capture me! Lurid Tendrils of Demon Fire no Jutsu!"
Thin tendrils, like those of a jellyfish, split of from Yi's burning form, moving as she directed, streaking towards her enemies.
The rain ninja dodged aside, knowing the deadliness of those tentacles of flaming liquid, but one was not fast enough. He avoided the tentacles, but was too close, and as they snapped back toward him he found burning water splattering all over his body.
With a scream of pain the rain ninja stumbled and fell, and tendrils of burning water wrapped around his body. Mizuho burned slowly in such small amounts, but paralyzed by pain the rain ninja could not escape, and his screams provided a horrid background sound to the continuing battle.
"Stand back," the lead rain ninja called to his companion. "We can't get close, so I'll settle it from here." He began a long count of seals.
"So, you think you can blast me down with jutsu?" Yi's anger rose at the thought. "How foolish," She placed her hands before her, holding them in the seals of Mizuho, with a gap of perhaps a foot between her straight fingers, and began to spin her hands in tight circles, counter to each other. "Do you know what happens in the deepest seas? Pressure can hold water so that it becomes far colder than ice, but is still liquid. Now, if such liquid is also made to burn…" Yi's hands spun faster and faster, even as the rain ninja's voice rose in crescendo. A strange spinning sphere of black water took form between Yi's hands.
"Metal Rain no Jutsu!"
"Sphere of Liquid Ice and Fire!"
The rain ninja's jutsu called forth kunai and shuriken as plentiful as raindrops and propelled with all the force of a mighty storm, they streaked down like falcons even as Yi sphere shot forth from wide-flung hands to rise upward.
The sphere unraveled as it did, forming a whirling blast of water that froze everything it touched. In the instant the sphere passed over a branch the unbearable cold crystallized it, and then the shattering affect of Mizuho came over it, and the branch shattered into a thousand flaming shards.
The same way went the weapons of the rain ninja. Metal darts smashed into that storm of water and fell away as nothing but molten bits of metal, falling to the ground with no force whatsoever.
The rain ninja tried to react, but Yi's sphere of destruction only expanded, and the first rain ninja's attempt to dodge was a failure, and his body was smashed into melted pieces. The leader, who had summoned his darts, understood that dodging would be futile. He ripped umbrellas from his back and spun them about him. "Wall of Rainclouds no jutsu!" he desperately completed the technique as Yi's inconceivable blast struck him.
When the blast cleared Yi watched through her flaming covering as the rain ninja staggered out from behind his umbrellas, his clothes smashed and smoking, but still alive. "Bitch!" he hissed, and he dropped smoke bombs at his feat and retreated.
"Running won't save you!" Yi called.
The Mizain girl let her covering of burning water fall away, and leaped up into the trees once again. There she saw Ise and Shino advancing toward her.
"Yi, what's the situation?" Ise called out.
"Two dead, one escaped," she answered.
"So, the same for us all," Shino noted.
"It must be the jounins who escaped each of us," Ise told the others. "They'll circle back I'm sure."
"So let's meet them head on," Yi replied. "They've already run once."
"They could have a few tricks left," Ise cautioned.
"I think we can override everything they do," Yi overrode with a savage grin. "Shino, can your bugs catch them at full speed?"
"Yes," Shino answered. "But not in a high enough quantity to do any damage."
"Don't worry about that, I'll provide the damage, they can survive getting a little wet right?"
It suddenly dawned on the others just what Yi had planned, and Ise couldn't help but smile as well. "How harsh," he grinned. "They probably won't expect it. Shino hide the bugs above. I'll provide a wide ranging water jutsu, one they won't be able to dodge, and won't bother, because it won't be enough by itself to burn seriously. Yi ignites it, and you bugs finish the job."
Shino nodded, and bugs emptied out from his body, headed in the direction noted.
Only moments later the three rain jounin appeared on tree branches before the trio.
"You've been major pests," the one on the right noted. "But we'll get rid of you now."
Ise wasn't in the mood to hear them talk. Better to strike now, while they think to goad us. "Enveloping Mist no Jutsu!"
Mist wafted up from below, blanketing the area. It was normally a concealment measure, one designed to confuse an enemy. The rain ninja, being versed in water techniques, easily knew how to navigate the mist, and would get around it almost instantly. Ise, however, was betting on them anticipating it would catch fire.
They reacted appropriately, jumping free of the mist to avoid it becoming a flaming mass of water. They completely missed the bugs falling through the blanket of mist from above.
By itself, the water in the mist was much dispersed, but as the bugs fell through they accumulated it on their chitin, becoming slicked in cases of water, carrying in on their legs, backs, jaws, and wings. As the jounin burst out, they looked back to see the bugs blast out behind them.
"Mizuho!"
Then the bugs caught fire.
The swarm, burning with rippling flames like a dark cloud summoned from hell, turned and ran down the rain ninja. The men tried to dodge and weave, and succeeded in avoiding the vast majority of bugs, enough so that they would be useless if attacking on their own.
But they were attacking with Mizuho.
Rain ninja screamed as the bugs grasped and clung, even when they tried to slap them away the bugs simply flew to another part of the body, the splashing of this motion creating more burning points. The jounin struggled for a moment, and then resistance ceased, as they were burned away beneath a clinging coating of water.
"Not bad," Akai spoke from behind the three ninja, making them all, even Shino, jump slightly. "A highly creative technique that would have few counters. All the enemies are accounted for now then?"
"Yes Warlord," Ise answered.
"Good, then we're done here," Akai turned to Shino. "You," he began harshly. "I hope you understand that your presence is somewhat difficult. There's no treaty between our countries and there likely never will be. Your assistance is appreciated but you'd best get going. If you meet any of us again it might well be as enemies."
"Understood," Shino answered, and he turned to go.
"Shino," Ise interjected. "I do thank you for this." Standing next to him Yi nodded as well.
"I'll keep it in mind," Shino replied, and his bushin faded away into a puff of smoke.
"Heh," Akai grunted. "Not bad for a leaf ninja, not bad at all." He turned back to Ise and Yi. "Let's go, that summons brought me here, but unlike a summoned beast I have to walk back, so the sooner we return to Mist the better."
"As you command," the pair answered in unison.