Hey guys, before I post, I have an announcement:
The Bloody Oracle of Kiri will be going on hiatus until August.
My family is going on vacation next week, and I won't have time to edit/post while we're gone. Beyond that, I'm also starting classes again in mid-August, so I should probably focus on building a buffer. At earliest, you can probably expect the next chapter around... August 11th, maybe? At the very least, I plan to update Echoes of Light first.
On that note, if you haven't read EoL, please do. Everyone's freaking out over the latest twist, and I am absolutely ecstatic because I've been waiting for this twist for over fifty chapters. I am not kidding. I won't lie: while Bloody Oracle is the more popular story, I'm honestly prouder of EoL. That one takes a lot more effort and planning to write, and while it's admittedly slow at times I think I've managed to twist most of the common Naruto tropes on their head. To give you an idea of what I mean: the Land of Waves arc features Team Seven forced to try to protect Tazuna without Kakashi there to guide them.
So yeah, please read it! I am so proud of it and where it's going! Anyways, enjoy the chapter. Sorry if it's a bit rougher than usual, I'm still trying to get fight scenes down.
So far, Sute's first official ANBU mission felt exactly like every other patrol, save for one key detail: most of her patrols took place during the day.
"Why the hell did I like horror stuff so much," Sute muttered under her breath as she trudged along. She'd been given a solo route through the swamps, having only a dim, flickering lamp to light her path. Night had started to fall and shroud the world in blackness, the sky cloudier than usual to create an even darker night than typically experienced in Kiri. The water looked particularly black and murky as she lightly walked across the surface, slimy seaweed and moss shifting under her feet.
For all her skill and fighting ability in this life, Sute was not immune to the imagery her imagination could produce. Junji Ito's art had been the tip of the iceberg of her fascination with horror; she'd had a love-hate affair with horror books, comics and manga. She'd read everything from Stephen King to online copies of those old horror comic anthologies like Tales from the Crypt, always looking for something new to chill her. Walking through the dark, foggy swamp at night—alone—brought back plenty of snippets of creepy imagery.
"At least the fog's thin tonight," she murmured to herself as she paused next to a mangrove tree, pulling out a paper tag from the pouch on her hip and pressing it against the trunk before moving on. Sute had prepared a small stack of perimeter-alarm seals, each connected to a temporary seal inked around her wrist like a bracelet. If anyone passed them, it would detect their chakra and one of the diamond-shaped symbols on her wrist would light up to let her know which ones had been triggered. So far she'd placed four, all at various strategic points.
As far as ANBU missions went, she suspected this to be tamer than the usual fare she would face. She hadn't expected anything too flashy for her introduction to ANBU life, but she hadn't expected a glorified midnight patrol in a horror movie-esque stretch swamp.
Granted, she didn't expect to find anyone. Up to three hours had passed since the guard had been knocked out. Either the assailants would flee Kiri immediately to get ahead of the patrols, or they would lay low at least a full day before leaving. Leaving in the middle of the night just screamed of suspicious behavior and intent.
So one could imagine her surprise when she heard a distant bang from the direction of another patrol and looked up to see a red flare shooting high into the sky, the streak of white and golden sparks bright against the cloudy night.
Red. That color indicated the other patrol had encountered an unknown hostile and engaged in combat. Sute immediately stood on edge, knowing it likely wouldn't end up being some sort of false alarm or misunderstanding with another Mist ninja. More importantly, the angle and direction of the flare's path told her it came from the patrol group nearest to her route, which meant other intruders could be around as well.
She stepped into the shadows of a nearby mangrove tree at this point, her chakra folding in on itself to mask her presence as she glanced at the seal on her wrist. Sure enough, she soon felt a tug on her chakra and one of the diamonds took on a dull glow, the upper corner containing a particularly bright red dot.
Movement detected near the seal, heading north of seal's location, she thought. Her mental map placed the seal not too far from her current location, and after briefly pulling out a compass to quickly confirm her location she realized the person would be heading her way from the same direction the red flare had been launched. Most likely whoever came by wouldn't be an ally.
Years of training kicked in instantly, the kunoichi flashing through hand seals to form a small air bubble to breathe as she allowed herself to sink into the inky depths of the water. Pressing her hands against the slimy algae coating the swamp floor, she pulsed her chakra through it and let it ripple across the vegetation spanning the swamp, providing her an active mental map. Soon she recognized the faint vibrations of footsteps walking across the water's surface, light and careful from years of practice.
A devious smirk played across her lips, her eyes sparkling with delight as she began swimming towards it, the algae swaying out of her way to provide her a clear path and help mask her movement. Gliding stealthily towards her ever-approaching quarry, she began molding her chakra in preparation for an ambush, letting her instincts take over.
The thing about Sute was, she knew the terrain around Kiri. She knew which routes would be most likely to be used by an ill-informed outsider, the ones where one wrong step would have someone sink into the bog and where the water hid dangerous predators waiting for an unsuspecting bystander. No, the patrol organizer had been absolutely correct to assign her a solo patrol to this area.
Sute was a swamp monster, and this was her domain.
Coming to a halt, she slowly rose towards the surface, moving carefully to minimize ripples. Her hair floated about her freely, the murky brown-green hue blending in with the algae and helping to hide her even more. Keeping close attention on the movement of the approaching figure, she began cycling through hand seals with practiced ease. Two inky tendrils of water exploded from the surface, snagging her prey's ankles and snaking up his legs.
The intruder started, mouth opening to shout in alarm, but before he could make a sound Sute emerged behind him and slapped a hand over his mouth, prematurely muting his screams. She felt him shudder briefly as she leaned her head forward, her hair falling into his line of vision like a curtain while her free hand reached into her pouch. Slowly his head turned towards her, just enough for her to glimpse a large black eye full of apprehension and alarm.
"Sweet dreams," she crooned with a twisted smirk, and slapped a paper seal onto the back of his neck. Instantly his eye rolled up and he went limp, making her grunt as she quickly hooked her arms under his armpits to catch him. Huffing, she dragged him to the land and laid him out on the marsh, taking a moment to look over his face.
Though she couldn't get a clear look at him in the darkness, she had a good hunch he didn't belong to Kiri. He had the typical dark brown hair common among civilians, and his skin tone held a slightly deeper tan than normally be found in the ever-foggy Land of Water. Beyond that, his clothing seemed a bit more shinobi-grade than most civilians wore—specifically, the armor plates she'd felt underneath the shirt when holding him.
Shrugging it off, she pulled out one of the modified explosive tags used for the colored flares and tied a blue one one around the handle of a kunai. Enemy captured, awaiting backup. As she reeled back her hand to throw it she felt a tug on her chakra though, and her eyes quickly flitted to her wrist to see the same diamond glowing again. She stiffened, suddenly wary.
There were two explanations. One, one of her colleagues had moved to pursue the enemy who had come her way. Two—another enemy was coming.
Her grip tightened around the kunai's handle, her mind racing. Either option could be true, but the second one had far more potential and risky paths associated with it. Worst case scenario, the enemy had eliminated the other patrol team and had moved on to fight her alone.
Quickly weighing her options, after a moment Sute slowly slid the kunai back into the pouch on her hip along with the others. Sending the flare into the sky would give away her position; if the newcomer was an enemy she'd work best with the element of surprise. She grabbed her uncosnscious captive and dragged him further from the water's edge towards some bushes, hesitating briefly before quickly slamming her hands together into a seal to cause the plant to grow a bit bigger and help conceal his body.
With that done she slunk towards the water's edge, once more submerging herself and silently gliding towards the newcomer. Once more she could feel the faint ripples of light footfalls atop the water, this time faster and slightly heavier than before. Rising higher, she let the figure pass overhead before carefully emerging just enough to peek above the water's surface. She spied a familiar figure running away from her, prompting her to call out in surprise.
"Mangetsu?" The teenager skidded to a halt, spinning to face her in surprise.
"Huh? Wha—what're you doing underwater!?"
"What are you doing here?" Sute retorted, climbing onto the surface and crossing her arms. As far as she knew the mission had been just for ANBU, and Mangetsu hadn't struck her as the type to join the organization. Not out of a lack of skill—no, he had plenty of that—but his personality didn't fit the discreet organization. Or so she thought, anyway.
"I'm patrolling, what else?" he asked with a huff. "Same as you, I'm guessing. Anyways, a guy got away from the team over there so I thought I'd see if I could catch him for them. See anything?"
Sute frowned faintly, walking past him towards where she'd stashed her captive. "Yeah, one guy..." She trailed off, a curl of unease in her stomach even as she listened to Mangetsu walk behind her. Something didn't feel right.
In her old life, her father had taught her to always listen to her gut feeling. He had taught her both through example—watching him lure victims to their home with an easy charisma that lowered their guards—and also through direct lessons and lectures. People had cultivated that so-called "sixth sense" as a survival mechanism, their subconscious picking up on small details they otherwise didn't recognize. When their instincts said something was wrong, something was.
"Yeah? Where is he?" Mangetsu asked, and Sute paused with a light hum.
"Well... First, reflex check!" she sang, twirling around with a roundhouse kick. Mangetsu jumped back with a yelp, narrowly dodging her foot.
"What the hell!?" he sputtered, staring at her with startled violet eyes.
"Oh, come on," Sute laughed, flashing a teasing smirk. "You never complain when I do it back home. Aside from the head-turning-into-a-puddle thing."
"Yeah, well, right now we're working," Mangetsu snapped back, relaxing minutely. "There's a big difference between doing that there and here." Sute's smirk turned more malicious, her eyes twinkling.
"You're right," she agreed lightly. "Except for one thing: I never do reflex checks." The other teen tensed at her words, and then both of them moved, Sute lashing out with a kunai from her hip pouch while "Mangetsu" reeled back. As he did his features shifted, the transformation technique fading.
One look, and she knew he definitely came from Kumo. He looked to be around her age, his skin almost dark enough to blend in with the soil and offset by his shaggy white hair which covered one eye. His clothing looked rather ordinary, the kind civilians wore, but with the transformation gone he clearly had a sword strapped to his back. He regarded Sute warily, already palming a kunai and keeping a wide gap between them.
"You saw through it, huh?" he muttered.
"Always trust your gut," Sute said, her earlier smile gone and replaced by professional cool. Something about the boy in front of her felt oddly... familiar. She shook it off for the moment though, shelving the curiosity for later consideration. "You're not exactly in an ideal position to fight, you know. You should just surrender peacefully."
"Do you really expect me to do that?" he asked dully, and she snorted.
"Of course not. Only an idiot would surrender willingly to Mist custody. But it doesn't hurt to ask."
The other teen just sighed, looking quietly resigned to a difficult fight. For a moment they stood still, just staring each other down. Then, they moved as one, launching into action.
Sute surged forward as the boy reached for the handle protruding behind his back, throwing her kunai at his chest. He ducked to the side and barely dodged its tip, managing to wrench his sword free from its sheath and swing it at her. She dodged easily, feeling a light tingle from electricity that barely missed her as she did, and skipped back to get some distance. His sword was surprisingly short and square-shaped, sort of like a cut-off version of Kubikiribocho, with electricity crackling along its edge.
Raiton-charged weapons had to be some of the deadliest out there; Sute remembered all too well the corpses Ameyuri and Raiga left with the Kiba during the time they spent together on the battlefield. Getting close to it would be dangerous, she needed to keep her distance. She offered a silent notion of gratitude towards Ao for the accuracy training; though the first kunai had missed, her aim had greatly improved. She only needed to make a little nick and one of her poisons would circulate through him.
Still, long-range battles definitely weren't her strong suit. This battle placed her at numerous disadvantages, the only advantage she had right now was the terrain. To that end she rushed through hand seals for the Water Fang Bullet and the swamp water began to rise, two twisting spires shooting towards him like drills. The Cloud ninja jumped out of their path and only narrowly avoided them, the hem of his pants shredded as it brushed against one spire. He yelled as he swung his sword at the other one, cleaving through it with a rippling current of lightning and sending it crashing back to the water.
At the same time Sute hurled two kunai at the location he'd been forced to dodge towards, and while he tried to twist away from them this time one managed to graze his arm, making him hiss lightly. She wasted no time, rushing through more hand seals to cause four more water spirals to shoot towards him. This time he had a harder time dodging, his body contorting as he tried to avoid them only to yell as one grazed his leg. Blood swirled and mixed with the spinning water as it crashed back into the swamp, the Cloud ninja skidding back and gritting his teeth. His leg itself looked rather gory, the pants torn along the shin and completely coated in red.
With this, Sute had gained the edge once more. With a few quick hand seals she formed three water clones and began running in a large circle around him, all four of them flinging senbon at him with deft precision courtesy of her training with Ao. The Cloud ninja growled in frustration as he tossed his sword at one clone to collapse it and dropped down, rushing through hand seals before slamming his palms on the water's surface.
Sute's eyes widened with realization and she quickly jumped away as lightning surged from his hands, electrifying the water. The two remaining clones jolted as the electricity rippled across their forms and collapsed into the water with a large splash. Retreating to the safety of a nearby tree, she stuck to it with chakra on her feet and then launched off. While fighting a raiton user at close range would be risky, she couldn't waste the opportunity now that he'd thrown his sword aside.
Clearly he hadn't expected her to immediately jump right back into the battle, because he started in surprise and began to turn to dodge. His reflexes were just a bit too slow and she managed to snag his arm, digging her nails into his skin as she barreled into the water, dragging him down with her.
Everything grew muffled as they sank into the murky depths, her hair fanning out around her. She could feel the Cloud ninja try to wrench his arm free from her grip, the water's current gently swaying as he brought his other hand towards it to form another hand seal. Sute reacted swiftly, jerking his arm away and yanking him towards her. Her other hand reeled back and surged towards his face, her fingers jabbing into his nostrils and tearing away.
Air bubbles exploded from his mouth as he released a muffled scream, his free hand quickly moving to claw at his nose as a cloud of dark red mixed with the water. Sute released his arm long enough to dig her knee into his abdomen near the solar plexus, causing him to gasp on reflex. Between that and his earlier scream he was rapidly losing air, and Sute quickly grabbed his wrists and dragged him deeper down to the swamp floor.
It took about four seconds for him to begin struggling, but it was sluggish and weak, the poison from her kunai finally taking effect. She kept a firm grip on his hands and held them far apart to prevent him from forming seals, staring him straight in the eye. She could barely see him in the inky depths, the water too murky from both his blood and the blackness of night, but she could glimpse the panic in his eyes. As his struggles lessened more and more his lips parted, forming a single syllable, and then his eyes closed and he soon went limp.
After a moment she pushed off the swamp bottom and swam to the surface, pulling him with her. Breaking to the surface she dragged him to the shore, dumping him unceremoniously on the boggy ground. Her hands lit up with chakra as she pressed them to his chest, guiding the water in his chest away from his lungs and to his mouth so he wouldn't drown. As she did she took the opportunity to glance at her captive once more, idly noting the torn cartilage around his nose from where she'd used her fingers to tear it underwater, only to stiffen as she one more interesting detail—or rather, two:
Two tattoos, one on each arm with stylized kanji—the left for lightning, the right water.
Her stomach sank as she stared at them, a sudden pang of pity washing over her—pity, and also a bittersweet sense of homesickness she hadn't felt in fourteen years.
"Fuck," she breathed, looking at his face once again. Looks like she knew at least one Cloud ninja after all.
Darui's day could be described as 'kami-freaking-awful.'
As a proud shinobi of the Hidden Cloud, Darui tended to be more mellow than most of his peers, but no less loyal and determined to serve his village. In fact, his work ethic and incredible potential had secured him a place as a personal student of the Third Raikage at a young age. Now at thirteen, he had become the sole inheritor of his Black Lightning techniques—a fact denoted by the recently administered tattoo on his left shoulder with a stylized character for "Lightning"—and was on track to a jounin promotion.
In short, Darui was an all-around badass and not someone to be taken lightly.
That said, he still had a lot to learn. And this mission just exemplified it.
He grunted as he stirred to consciousness, feeling groggy and sore as he struggled to take stock of his situation. He was leaning against a tree, his wrists bound in front of him with wire. As he exhaled shakily he suddenly coughed, doubling over and hacking up small bits of water. Gasping, he raised his head and looked around, struggling to get his bearings. The Mist ninja he'd fought sat cross-legged nearby, drumming her fingers against her leg.
"Two minutes," she remarked idly. "Lucky you, Cloud ninja-san, you probably won't have any brain damage." Darui glared at her weakly, his hackles rising as her neon green eyes glinted in the minimal light available on this dark night. Those eyes felt familiar, niggling at a memory of the bingo books he'd combed through before leaving on the mission. He couldn't place a name or face to it though; most of their intel on Mist ninja was old and outdated due to its insular nature.
Swallowing harshly, he forced himself to meet her gaze. "My arm's numb," he noted flatly. The arm that had been grazed by her kunai earlier had gone completely numb in the time he'd been unconscious, and he could feel the pins and needles feeling extending to his chest from his shoulder. "You poisoned me, didn't you."
"Of course," she replied with a shrug. "Poison is so useful, a shame people don't use it more. The toxin I used causes temporary paralysis. You won't die but by tomorrow morning you should be totally immobile. Fortunately for you, it'll flush out naturally by sunset thanks to the usual biological processes."
"Lucky for me?" he repeated warily, and she shrugged as she got to her feet.
"You have until dawn to get as far from here as possible and find a place to hide yourself. If you're still alive after that, get the hell out of Water and never look back. I suggest you hurry up, your leg's pretty messed up so you'll have a pretty bad limp, though I fixed your nose for you. Your mission's a total failure, so consider it a learning experience." Darui froze at that, his eyes briefly widening with surprise before he squinted at her suspiciously, his instincts on edge.
"Why not just kill me?" he demanded lowly, and she glanced at him briefly before turning away.
"Because I'm a sentimental idiot," she said flatly, and Darui stiffened, eyes widening with shock as he watched her vanish into the darkness. After a long moment of silence he finally forced himself to get to his feet, hissing as he felt stabbing pain in his leg where the muscles had been torn up by the suiton jutsu. Shifting his weight onto his good leg he began limping away silently, his hands dangling in front of him uselessly for the time being and his mind racing.
To anyone else, her words would have sounded like gibberish, but any decent Cloud chuunin could recognize the near-extinct native tongue from the Land of Lightning. The question was how she would know it.