Here with another update. Took longer than expected to get the chapter after this one done, but such is the nature of the beast.

Gonna be catching up with review responses. Should have most of them sorted by the end of the week. Despite that, I really want all of you to know that I appreciate you guys taking the time to read and leave a comment. Thank you very much!

On with the show.

Chapter 13 - Crackling Doom

Kurosuki Raiga was an experienced enough shinobi to know that things weren't always going to go according to plan.

He'd been leading his Raiders for almost a decade now, and this was one of the very few jobs they had where they'd had to deploy en-masse to do something. Under different circumstances, he'd have probably sent maybe half what he'd brought with him. Most ports he and his boys had attacked didn't have the manpower to keep away ninja-trained attackers - even only basically-trained ones - with the numbers they could bring to bear.

That had changed when the old man at Midorimiya had told him it was a Namikaze port they were to burn.

Raiga accepted the job, of course. It was good money, and his boys were more than excited to get a shot at the Namikaze Corporation after spending all these years avoiding their ships on Raiga's own orders. But that'd been with good reason. Raiga was a Kirigakure missing-nin. He'd had experience in protecting Namikaze ships, and seen how they handled the security of their ports, too.

So he brought all his men to bear, and had Karashi make sure that Ranmaru was there, too. Just in case.

And it turned out to be the right thing. Even just on their way, they'd run into Momochi Zabuza of all things, alongside his genin team. It'd not have been too much of an issue. He could match Zabuza blow for blow if it was purely swordplay, but he could definitely edge out advantages with jutsu. His old colleague was good by anyone else's standards, but against another member of the Seven Swordsmen, small advantages decided fights.

But then he'd had the Mizukage's daughter with him, alongside that blue-haired kid, Chojuro. Three of them managed to make up for whatever edge Raiga had against Zabuza. Terumi Kagami's mirrors, especially. They could more or less take his jutsu almost entirely out of the fight. His men had arrived just in time to grab their attention. He'd have probably had Zabuza then.

Unfortunately for him, they were interrupted by that damn iceberg and the wave it rode on.

Kisame and his partner's timely arrival managed to turn what should have been a loss for them into an enemy route, and the extra information they got from the Uchiha boy's scouting was one hell of a blessing. It'd have been a waste of his boys' reserves to bombard the port with jutsu only for it to get blocked by that barrier.

It had even given them an easy way to not only get around the fuinjutsu-based protections, they had a great way of finding it, too.

Apparently, the Wall of Denial glowed a bright sky-blue when it was absorbing chakra. Made it quite conspicuous, even in a dark and stormy night like they were in right now. So easy, in fact, that the moment the barrier had come into contact with Raiga's Hiding in the Rain jutsu, it was bright enough to guide them.

When, hours ago, they'd been using the barely-visible sight of Keiga, they now had a much brighter star glowing blue to tell them they'd reached their target.

The plan, after that, had been simple enough that they could adjust it as necessary.

Both Akatsuki members would try to sneak in, and, in case the defenders expected that and intercepted them somehow, he'd send in three of his ships straight through the barrier to overpower the kids that undoubtedly stayed to defend the port while the actually threatening shinobi tried to stave off the Akatsuki.

If Kisame and Itachi managed to sneak past, all swell and good, and they had themselves and easy win. Not terrible if it didn't work out.

And that's exactly how it played out.

Raiga's rain could give him a vague sense of what was happening around him. He wasn't as fine-tuned with sensing through the falling water as Yagura might have been, and he couldn't summon a storm of the magnitude they were in, but he could certainly add the light drizzle of his to the existing precipitation. That same sensing ability was what told him that there was fighting going on outside the barrier, as fuzzy as it looked to him with choppy waves and the wind.

So he'd sent his ships and prepared to see what would happen.

He'd expected other defenses, of course. As impressive as the Wall of Denial might have been to him, he was cautious about attacking Namikaze property because of how fiercely they were usually defended. An unfinished port, with only hours to prepare, could hardly have anything that was truly dangerous, right?

But the fact that they had hours to prepare was what would matter. Had things completely gone to plan, they wouldn't have had time to prepare at all. The fact that they'd run into that Kirigakure group mattered much.

All the same, that explosion of red-orange fire bursting from the side of the port. It lit up the night sky like a falling star. Raiga hadn't expected that.

Detonating explosive seals thundered in the night as the very water was set ablaze. Even from where he was, Raiga could see the lead ship of the three almost blasted apart while the two that followed rocked with the force. All of them had come alight with flame.

Turning to his first mate, Raiga growled, "Get Inazuma and Kogeki to start making landfall on smaller docks to the east. Start torching the town. Let's see if they're still willing to hole-up in the port then." He wouldn't risk sending any more of his ships into the port directly. Raiga was going to assume they lined every side with whatever that was. "And get us closer, we're going to save who we can. Have the Hikisaku do the same."

"Yes, Raiga-sama!" And he was calling for runners immediately after. In under a minute, three men had jumped overboard and were starting to navigate the storm towards their other ships. His first-mate was on his way below-deck afterwards to get the oarsmen to start rowing towards the burning wreckage that now dominated the night.

Then he felt it.

Half a second later, he heard it.

A blink of an eye after that, he was blocking the attack, lightning meeting lightning.

"Hatake Kakashi. You got balls trying to fight me on the deck of my own ship."

Raiga then kicked the man so hard he flew off the deck and into the darkness of the storm. But Raiga knew exactly where he was. He was after the Konoha jounin right after. His men already knew what they needed to do, and he couldn't let Hatake fight atop the Hamatsu. Who knows what damage they'd both do to his flagship.

No, he'd deal with this personally.

~TtT~

Namikaze Naruto wanted to look away, but he couldn't. He didn't know long he'd been staring now.

And even if he wanted to, he didn't think he could let himself.

Distantly, over the sound of the pouring rain and the howling wind, over the almost-quiet that overcame him when he'd heard the directional explosive seals go off, he could hear the screams.

He'd caused that. He'd killed those people.

Not by his bare hands, and certainly not close enough to see their eyes, but he'd done that, aware enough to realize he did.

But he had to, didn't he? They were here to destroy Kinami-ko, maybe even attack the town beside it. Hurt Tazuna, and Tsunami, and Kaiza, and Inari. Hurt the other kids.

Hurt his team, hurt his mother. Naruto had been able to see the charred wreckage of the Uchiha compound from his mountaintop home. The man responsible for that kind of destruction was out there. Naruto couldn't afford to hesitate. The lives of people that mattered to him were on the line.

Was this what it cost?

Wood had splintered at the force of the explosion. The bow of the first ship had just barely passed through the Wall of Denial when it was torn asunder. Even from where he was, Naruto could feel the heat of every one of the seals lining the southern side of the port going off, the toad oil igniting after being spewed all over the roiling waves and onto the ships.

Naruto could see decks aflame, little figures running to and fro like little candles dancing in the distance.

Those were people.

"Holy shit, Namikaze." One of the twins seemed to whisper. Naruto finally managed to turn away from the sight. It looks like the Demon Brothers weren't quite done yet.

Was that awe or fear? Naruto couldn't tell.

"N-Naruto?" Sakura, he could read a bit better. Known the girl long enough to be able to. Her jade eyes reflected some definite surprise. She knew he was capable of something like this, she'd been one of the first besides Jiraiya and Rin to see him use this particular seal combination. Maybe not on this scale, but she knew going in that something like this was going to be the plan.

He was thankful when he saw concern rather than fear in her eyes.

The same couldn't be said about Sasuke, who continued to look like he was somewhere else entirely.

Naruto had been about to call out to him when he heard a long, drawn-out sound come from the east. The call sounded through even the storm, and pulled the attention of all five of them, the fires at-sea now a passing thought.

"The town's being attacked."

An orange spark of firelight, and then another, and another, until many were now dancing in the distance of the night.

Naruto had summoned two clones and was moving to the gates shortly after, the other four following after him.

~TtT~

Hatake Kakashi did his best to steady himself, moving from wave to wave as the wind tried to push him into the drink and the rain made his life an unpleasant experience. He could only really see anything right now thanks to Obito's eye. Unfortunately, the darkness and the water greatly hampered that, even with the little light he was getting from the Tide Star, somehow still shining through even the storm.

And even then, chakra suffused the night, falling with the rain and filling his Sharingan with lines of sky-blue.

On the bright side, that meant that Uchiha Itachi was, wherever he was out there, probably dealing with Rin, was likely having as bad a time as Kakashi was, if not worse. He really hoped Itachi was having it worse.

Besides, his main objective had been to separate Raiga, anyway. Any time he spent trying to take out Kakashi was time spent away from attacking Kinami-ko directly. It also kept his cute little genin out of the way. Even if they were pretty darn competent for their age, Kakashi had no illusions about their ability to deal with S-class missing-nin.

As it was, Kurosuki Raiga had certainly been as strong as reported. Kakashi still wasn't sure how the missing-nin had managed to realize that he'd been attacking in-time to block his Lightning Blade with a lightning jutsu of his own, but he'd managed to lose him in the storm for a time.

Well, he had until a literal whip of lightning chakra was sent to cut through a swell he had been traversing.

He'd barely managed to dodge, before going in for a quick exchange of blows. Something was then made very apparent to Kakashi when they crossed strikes:

Raiga was better in close-quarters than he was, at least at sea.

Not unexpected, since the man was a part of the Seven Swordsmen, and Kakashi's own close-quarters training was limited mostly to taijutsu, and the few kenjutsu skills he'd developed during his time in ANBU. No way was he winning in the latter, and while he'd been working with Gai on improving the former, he hadn't gotten off scot-free when trying to make physical contact with a man that specialized in lightning manipulation. He'd have some rather uncomfortable burns right now if he hadn't managed to disengage before his opponent managed to make direct contact with his arm.

The missing-nin wasn't on the same level as the Raikage was reported to be, but he was good enough that Kakashi was unlikely to get a solid hit in unless he could get the full drop on the man.

If only they weren't fighting at sea. Not having access to his earth jutsu severely limited his options.

Well, he wasn't out of options. He wasn't out of advantages, either.

Allowing a wave to toss him up, Kakashi tossed several kunai as he was flying across the night towards the chakra-light of Raiga's water-walking jutsu, the glow strong enough to the Sharingan's sight that Kakashi could see his opponent's before Raiga could see his own.

The swordsman's lightning whip was lashing at him shortly afterwards, his kunai glinting in the night as they were swallowed by the merciless sea.

He dodged the whip, if only barely, with some midair acrobatics of his own. Unfortunately for the jounin, this cost him most of his momentum, and sent him hurtling towards the water.

A quick breath, closed eyes, a splash, and he was under.

Without taking any more time, he dove. Dove as quickly as he could before he could be hit by another attack. Just in time, too, if the flash of heat and the tingle that passed through his legs were any indication, Raiga had not hesitated to send another lash in the location of the splash.

After quickly replacing his mask with a small rebreather that he'd been given, Kakashi swam deeper, eventually opting to swim downwards while looking up to the poorly lit surface to see if any other attacks followed. His Sharingan eye trained on the pool of light that he knew to be Raiga and his lightning whip.

No attacks followed.

Could he not see into the water? Kakashi knew that Raiga didn't seem to attack him until he'd lept off the wave. Even before that, it had been when he'd been moving from one swell to another that Raiga had struck.

That merited some testing.

He'd considered not using any jutsu to move through the water, but thought better of it. While he could conserve chakra that way, Raiga might just decide to return to his ship or worse, make a break for Kinami-ko while the opportunity presented itself.

A few quick hand seals, and he was jetting over to Raiga's other flank. He needed to thank Zabuza for showing him the technique when this was over.

Light seemed to move from one side to another. Kakashi supposed it was his enemy swinging his whip around to strike randomly. How long could he maintain that jutsu for? That looked costly on the reserves.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't permit him to just peek his head out. He was likely to just get tossed about or pulled back under, so with a burst of force and water, he leapt up before sending more kunai his opponent's way.

Just like earlier, the ship intercepted the kunai. This time, it only narrowly missed Kakashi, and he returned to the water. He heard something muffled sound from above him, and Kakashi figured Raiga was shouting.

Okay, so he was definitely masked from Raiga while he was down here. Maybe Raiga figured Kakashi had gone for hiding under the water? Could he tell when Kakashi went in or out?

Again, he swam to another flank, and prepared to send a few more of his kunai. This time, he tried to throw them from underwater while moving. It wasn't easy, and he needed to reinforce the kunai with some chakra to make sure they'd make it out of the water. Even then, he doubted they'd be able to actually get close enough.

This time, when the whip knocked them out of the air, there was no follow-up made against Kakashi's person.

So he could sense the kunai, but not where they'd been sent from, or at least not exactly enough for him to be able to strike at Kakashi.

Well, that was an option, then. It seemed a little too easy, but it was definitely worth a shot.

Seals formed, his hands in position, and the water movement jutsu moving him forward at a speed enough to cause his Sharingan eye even more pain, Kakashi was hurtling towards the two small rings of light that were Raiga's feet.

And just as his hands cleared the water, just as his wrists were out of the sea and exposed to the wind and rain, came his Lightning Blade.

Then there was a rush of power, force bursting from his target, and Kakashi knew that he was in terrible danger.

Two puffs of smoke, a kick to his stomach from his shadow clone, and a very immediate sense of nausea later, Kakashi was flying through the air and looking down at what his opponent had done.

Where Raiga had been a beacon in the darkness before, he was bright enough to cause Kakashi's Sharingan physical pain with how much chakra he was emitting. Closing one eye and opening the other, Kakashi balked.

Charred ribs wrapped around Raiga's torso, a great skull hung over his head like an oversized hat. And around him, lightning crackled like a cloak that lit up the night and cast the bones in shadow, black on incandescent white.

"Raiton: Inazuma no Hone Serei (Lightning Style: Lightning Bone Spirit)"

~TtT~

Hoshigaki Kisame grit his teeth as he barely dodged a swing from Kubikiriboucho that would have taken his head.

If he had to deal with another swordmaster after this mission, he was going to throw a fit.

Between his old colleague's ability with his weapon, and whatever the woman was doing with that katana of hers, he was barely keeping his head above water, figuratively speaking. Kisame could only wish he was underwater right now.

Unfortunately for him, Ghost was clearly told not to let him do that.

Kisame had almost managed to pull away from Zabuza when the explosions went off. The loyalist of the two had been briefly distracted by the light and brief wave of heat that hit them, and Kisame had been more than happy to drop into the water.

That was when Ghost arrived, katana threatening him alongside the same water dragon that had attacked when this whole fight started.

Her blade forced him back to the surface, and a partial water prison jutsu he used on himself managed to stop Zabuza from landing a hit. The dragon was easy enough to deal with after that. A swing of Samehada and the chakra construct fell apart in short order. Kisame had been halfway to getting out of that fight and making a break for Kinami-ko right after. Be done with this farce.

And then black chains wrapped around his arm.

Kisame couldn't even remember the last time he'd gone up against anyone that used a kusari-gama.

Kisame had managed to get the chain off him by using Samehada to shear it off, but Ghost had managed to summon more from the seals on her armor. The sickle had been thrown at him, and he'd barely been able to put his sword between him and the primed weapon before the seals on it caused it to explode, sending shrapnel everywhere.

Zabuza, of course, took that opening to go for him.

Kisame was on the backfoot the whole time after that. He'd get caught, or nearly get caught by one of Ghosts chains, then Zabuza would take the opening if Kisame managed to break free. On the occasion that Kisame could get the upper hand on Zabuza, Ghost would come in from behind or even below with her katana bared and several chains flying about trying to trap him, or explosives and damaged weaponry to harry him.

Samehada had already been healing any minor injuries he'd taken, and whatever gashes he'd received from either of their blades were already closing, slow as it was.

His sword needed chakra, and neither of his two opponents were giving him any to use since they weren't bothering with any ninjutsu.

Kisame was almost tempted to pull out all the stops to win this fight, but even doing that was difficult when he kept on having to use Samehada to protect himself. Stopping to merge with the blade would leave him too open. Against any other opponent, Kisame may have been willing to take the hit and do it anyway, but Kubikiriboucho was only one clean strike away from ending it at any given time.

He needed an opening, even just a small one where he could break away.

He'd started taking desperate measures, spitting water bullets that could barely do more than stagger his opponents. Get them to trip or get pushed into a bad wave they may have missed in the darkness and the strong wind. Buy himself that second to get away, that second to use hand seals. He needed enough time for just one of his real jutsu to win this fight, or to be able to make full use of Samehada's abilities. Either way, he'd get his win.

Above him, lightning flashed, illuminating swinging blades while the pale-blue light of the Tide Star reflected off the choppy waves.

~TtT~

Terumi Kagami managed to keep her composure when the third of Namikaze's clones arrived to tell them that the response team had gone to reinforce the town and the regular security forces.

She grit her teeth and scowled enough that Chojuro was giving her worried looks, but that was all she did.

This wasn't unexpected. They'd planned for this. That all of this was happening meant things were going smoothly.

But Kagami had two years of experience in the field now, and her sensei, Ameyuri Ringo, had taught her well enough to know that plans didn't usually go this smoothly.

And now, they were spread thin, with only two chunin and three genin left defending the port, supported by six or so clones of the little monster that just took out a third of the enemy's fighting force. Despite that, they were still heavily outnumbered and outclassed.

There were still three S-ranked missing-nin outside that barrier, and she had no idea if the three jounin-level shinobi could win.

Zabuza she'd worked with long enough to know he could hold his own. Hatake Kakashi was a man known to her purely by reputation. While Konoha and Kiri were on friendly terms, they were so far away from each other, opportunities to work together were few and far-between. And even then, Kagami wasn't important enough for that kind of work, anyway, Mizukage's daughter or no.

That Murasaki woman was entirely a mystery to her. Her brother's sensei had some experience working with her, but didn't have any gauge on her ability. For all Kagami knew, the three of them were already dead and Kurosuki and Hoshigaki would cross over the burning sea in a few minutes.

How they'd manage that, Kagami didn't know, but that's exactly what she expected would happen.

Still, they were as prepared as they could be. Kagami eyed the two clones that now hid around the barricade with them. The one that had activated the defenses had dispelled after expending all that chakra. She was certain the Namikaze clones had another trick up their sleeves if things went sideways.

Kagami certainly did, and she had no intention of holding back, not against these people.

And especially not against one of the people that may have had something to do with the death of her father.

~TtT~

When Haruno Sakura and her team had first departed on their mission, she expected it to be a relatively quiet month. Why wouldn't she? She'd already heard from people older than her that their first C-ranked missions tended to be pretty quiet. By nature, very little happened on those, anyway. Only so much could happen during escort missions or deliveries, or similar things, especially in peace-time.

And they'd been living in over a decade of peace now, and from what her grandfather had told her, it was likely to stay that way for a while yet.

So if there was going to be any kind of fighting involved during their first mission outside of the village, Sakura expected it to be a nice and easy fight against people that probably didn't know better.

In hindsight, it had been terribly naive of her, but she'd actually gone and asked around about it, dammit. What they were dealing with was not the norm.

How far out of the norm? Well, how many steps up from C-rank was dealing with a small army and three S-class missing-nin? As far as she was concerned, they were only barely managing to keep it together thanks to their hardly-normal upbringing, and the fact that they lucked out on the jounin they were with. Also, the Kirigakure teams that decided to help them.

Even then, it still looked dicey as hell.

Sakura wondered how any other team of genin would have managed.

Their group of five got to the fisherman's docks to see that battle had already been joined, both groups lit by the wall of fire that the ships had become, the security forces spread and engaging the raiders in groups of three to five. Scorch marks littered the cobblestone of the docks, and some of the buildings closer to the water were already smouldering wrecks.

"They have explosives." she called.

Kaiza wouldn't be too happy about that, probably. Her group certainly wasn't.

As they crossed the gates, the five of them agreed to split up and help the security forces wherever they could. How the twenty-man security group managed to hold off the raiders that probably doubled them in number, Sakura didn't know.

There was a puff of smoke, a shout, then a chorus of battle cries as Naruto sent his clones ahead of them into the very middle of the melee, shouts of alarm preceding what she suspected were transforming kunai and striking tanto.

Sasuke and the Demon Brothers separated, circling towards the town to deal with anyone trying to make a break for the empty buildings.

And her? Just like in their team training, she burst into the fray to take advantage of the confusion that Naruto created, her friend closely behind her. They'd stop anyone from getting past them and going for the back of Kinami-ko.

They'd been spotted, and there were a few kunai thrown at them. Sakura had dodged, or deflected them with her kote.

She'd seen an opening when one of the raiders parried a swipe by one of the guards. Naruto leapt past her towards the two creeping up on the fight while Sakura sank her chakra-charged fist into the defending raider's side.

The man was sent flying, and she heard the shouts grow briefly as she turned away to knock away a kunai that had been sent her way.

"Sa-chan! Tag!"

Jade eyes darted to the weapon that had fallen at her feet. When she saw the sizzling tag, she couldn't have kicked it out into the open stones fast enough. Her arms shielded her from the worst of the rock and dirt kicked up by the blast.

"We need to relieve the others." The guard she'd assisted said, moving towards the nearest skirmish that was happening while Naruto sent two in the direction where the explosive kunai had been sent from. Both ninja followed the guard to see another pair of swordsmen that were now surrounded, five to two. One of them was already leaning heavily on the other.

A cry from the guard distracted some of the raiders enough to turn hesitant, and Naruto had tossed a transforming clone to turn that hesitation into an opening. The kunai turned back in time to land behind the defending guards and trade strikes with raiders there.

The one nearest Sakura let out a yelp when she'd caught him with her shoulder mid-turn. She shoved the raider she'd caught into his compatriot and kicked at the knees of the third on her left. He yelped in pain before stepping back, just in time for the guard to run him through. Sakura blocked two kunai swings with her kote shoving her two opponents back and punching the first and catching the second with the following elbow.

"Toshi!"

Her eyes darted two the two guards they'd been assisting. The taller of the two, the more injured one, had fallen to his knees, and it was only then that Sakura saw the multiple kunai that had peppered his back. From the red that had already soaked his kimono, he'd already lost a lot of blood.

Something scraped against her thigh, her eyes snapping back to see the second raider's eyes widen when his wakizashi failed to pierce skin.

The next moment, he was head over heels after the punch she'd given him.

Careless. If not for her reinforcement technique, that could've gone much worse.

"Toshi! Toshi! Can you hear me, Toshi?"

Sakura was beside them moments later.

The mystical palm technique was something she'd only started practicing with Murasaki a week ago. Really, she hadn't even been cleared to do this to anything but the fish yet. She'd managed to get those fish healed, though, so there's that.

But there wasn't a lot of time, and judging by how Toshi's skin was growing paler by the second, he likely wouldn't make it if they waited for Murasaki to get back.

Ultimately, it was advice she'd gotten from her grandfather that made her act. Better to act now and be wrong than to not act at all. Because the worst that would happen was that Toshi would die, and he was already well on his way to doing that.

The man was laid on his stomach, and Sakura got to work while Naruto and the two other guards kept them from being attacked.

She suppressed a flinch as she heard explosions in the distance. Instinctively, her eyes darted to Naruto's back for a brief moment before she turned away. Still, the Namikaze's three slashes, akin to the marks of a claw, burned into her mind.

Naruto was good about the safety of his explosives. He knew better than to use them now with so many of their own allies mixed in with the raiders in the melee. More likely than not, it was the raiders. Unfortunately for Sakura, that meant explosives were being used on them.

With a deep breath, and a muster of as much steel as she could manage, Sakura focused on Toshi and got to work.

~TtT~

Namikaze Naruto felt his blades slide against the back of his opponent's knees. He felt a burst of warmth near the bottom of his palm. The raider he crippled let out a yelp that was followed by the cries of his compatriots. Grunts followed as the Namikaze guards took advantage of the opening to disable the rest.

A moment later, he was pulled away through a puff of smoke and saw himself meters away, the clone that substituted with him taking the hit from the three kunai that were coming at him. The memories followed soon after, telling Naruto which raiders had tried to help their compatriots when the Konoha ninja struck.

He spotted the first now facing off against one of the guards, the second disengaging from the fight as a whole, and probably looking to head towards either the town or the port. The third, he'd lost in the chaos.

With a flick of his wrist, he had a kunai flying towards the first raider, and he'd gone off to pursue the second. A quickly-formed seal created two clones that had remained to keep an eye on Sakura while she treated the injured guard. The moment Sakura either finished up and moved on, or they were attacked by more than they could handle, one of them would dispel itself to inform him, hopefully giving them enough time for Naruto to get back.

It was better to be proactive about things, however. He'd already managed to stop several explosive kunai from detonating too close to them. They'd really have a better shot at not being attacked if they were either on the move or outside of the fighting, but the guy that Sakura was treating probably wouldn't survive being moved. Toshi barely looked alive as is.

So he'd started engaging any enemies that were even remotely hostile, usually by cutting into the fight while they were preoccupied with the guards. A few well-timed attacks, crippling or no, could give their side enough of an upper hand to take the skirmish before they'd move on to assist the others. His clones would do the same, though he always made sure to leave a few with Sakura and keeping an eye on him so he can be substituted out in case of an emergency.

Really, he'd have had an easier time if he could use his explosive tags, but their allies were too mixed-in for that to be a safe idea.

The raider he'd been chasing had gotten caught up in a fight between another of their group and two of the Namikaze guards. It didn't take Naruto long to immediately recognize the towering, dark-haired man as Komamura. The captain held off three of the raiders, though it looked to Naruto that he was barely doing so. Komamura's younger companion ran what interference he could while facing off against his own opponent. Naruto's quarry would likely tilt the engagement in the raiders' favor.

On the bright side, that meant the raider wasn't getting out of the fighting and into town.

Still, he had to step in or either Komamura or his companion could get killed. And he'd already seen enough of the Namikaze guards slumped and unmoving on the docks. He wouldn't let that be the people of the Land of Wave, or anyone else.

Briefly, lightning flashed above, overpowering the glow of the burning ships, and Naruto could imagine his friends and family among the fallen, their clothing soaked in blood and rain.

Naruto grit his teeth and focused on the danger in front of him. Another flick of his own wrist and he'd sent a kunai up and above the fighting men, before a poof of smoke revealed it to be another of his clones.

Both sides, quick to register a threat dropping in the very center of them, disengaged. The raider Naruto had been chasing, however, had noticed the kunai and thrown his own at the clone.

The substitution had been seamless. Another poof of smoke, and the thrown kunai was deflected by a practiced swipe of his tanto. A blink of an eye later, Naruto had tossed both his tanto at two of the raiders, and rushed up towards the remaining two. These two had swords out and prepared to cut him down.

His chakra came to the fore at the palm of each hand, swirling.

It was all shape manipulation, something he'd been doing since he was nine. Take the chakra and make it spin, then spin it faster, and faster. Spin it in every direction, and let it be free to move as it likes.

Then compress.

"Rasengan!"

A cry, blades sent flying, followed by both his opponents crumpling to the force of the jutsu before they were sprawling on the pavement when the Rasengan detonated.

The sound of clashing steel echoed behind him before it was overtaken with something clattering on the wet stones and a gurgle. Alongside that, a pained gasp and a thud.

Naruto focused on looking at Komamura's eyes.

"Namikaze-sama. Thank you for the assist." Naruto returned the nod, but neither bowed. No real time for that.

"My clones are helping out as best they can. We need to finish this quickly."

Komamura agreed. "We'll split up, and start supporting the other groups. Turn this numbers disadvantage around."

The group of four agreed, and Naruto went back to Sakura to find her on the way to meet him, weaving through the fights in the process.

"Toshi-san's okay. Mirai-san's taking him to the rear, and Sorahiko-san's regrouping with the others."

She looked unhurt. Wet as hell, and covered in grime and blood, but unhurt. Good.

"I was able to talk to Komamura-san." Naruto said, as the pair started making their way back into the fighting. "We're moving to end the fighting now."

"About time."

He sent her a grin. "Let's help them end this quickly before Sasuke-kun gets bored keeping an eye on the city with the Demon Brothers." Well, bored meant nothing bad was happening, so Naruto figured that wasn't a bad thing. He'd deal with Sasuke's complaints later.

Rain fell and the light of the fires danced on the wet stones as he and Sakura dashed towards one of the larger fights, Komamura and the two with him stepping into what might have been the largest group of raiders.

Sakura had bared her arms and overtook him, taking to the sky with an empowered leap with a cry.

"Hell yeah!"

~TtT~

Uchiha Sasuke had to suppress a smirk when he saw his target trip and likely plant his face on stone and concrete.

He loved ninja wire.

Sasuke also realized that he could practically see the look on his target's face, even as he started to reel him in. Saw it through the rain and the relatively poor firelight from the docks. It was coming, and coming soon. He could literally feel it.

It just wasn't quite there yet. But it wasn't going to be long now.

Movement from the corner of his eye. Someone was trying to get past him. His hand had reached into his supply pouch and had thrown several shuriken in the raider's direction before Sasuke had even fully turned. Being mindful to keep one hand on the ninja wire until he could actually knock the already-disabled guy out or tie him up, Sasuke saw the person he'd peppered with shuriken to have now crossed unto the street beside the closest row of buildings.

Tenacious, that one. Sasuke clicked his tongue in annoyance, but withdrew another set of shuriken and sent them flying, this time aiming ahead of his newest target. A pulse of chakra, and a just-right tugging on the wire by his fingers, and the small blades were turning around and wrapping the wire around the raider.

He, too, dropped to the street with a thrud and a most satisfying curse. Sasuke could practically see how the raider broke his nose on impact.

Good. That meant there were two fewer raiders that the rest of his group needed to deal with.

Patrol the fringes of the battle and make sure none managed to get out of the melee and rush towards the town or the port. They couldn't really afford that, since their forces were already spread so thin they were both outnumbered and outmatched.

And out of the five of them in the response team, he was the best marksman, with only Shino edging him out in that regard, if only barely. Not that Shino was here. Besides, with how much of a mess his teammates were making, there hadn't been all that many raiders that had managed to make it out of the fighting to try for Kinami-ko or the city. Including the two he'd just disabled, there had been only six in total.

While he waited, he took the odd potshot into the mess closer to the fisherman's docks, taking care to only attack those that weren't locked in close quarters. He didn't want to risk hitting any allies.

They were managing so far, which was good. Sasuke knew that he and his teammates were pretty good for their ages, it wasn't hard to see that when their grades reflected how they ranked versus the rest of their batch. He remembered what Iruka had told them about their batch being some of the best he'd ever seen, but he wasn't really sure how much stock he should put in that. He'd certainly never heard it from Izumi, or anyone else up on Azuchi.

Sasuke was almost thankful that this mission had gone sideways so badly. It helped remind him that even when he felt stronger, there was definitely still a way to go.

That stunt that Naruto had pulled to take out three of the raiders' ships was one hell of a reminder. Sasuke had nowhere near the chakra required to pull off something even remotely close to what was done. And to do that, both Naruto and the Lady Murasaki had spent hours putting the seals for that together.

Even now, dealing with the raiders and their two ships that had landed, would have put them at a significant disadvantage. While Sasuke was relatively sure their group of five could have won, they probably wouldn't have been able to hold the line without the help of the Namikaze security forces. The raiders would have just mobbed them and run right on through, to either Kinami-ko or the city.

And that wasn't even taking the three S-class missing-nin that had their sensei worried into account.

The thought of Itachi being out there made him nervous. Sasuke wasn't ready to face him yet, but there was a non-zero chance that was going to happen. He hoped that his sensei, the Kiri captain, and Murasaki would be enough to hold them off, but he'd heard from Izumi what Itachi managed to do to an entire team of ANBU agents by himself, and he hadn't really gotten to see their sensei pushed yet. He didn't know what Hatake Kakashi's limits were.

Sasuke hoped that he wouldn't need to find out.

But he had to focus on the here and now. There was another form leaping out of the melee and making a break for the gates of Kinami-ko, two shouts that Sasuke recognized as the Demon Brothers calling for assistance. The raider had likely managed to get away from them, somehow.

His kunai had been in the air while Sasuke had dashed to try and close the distance, taking a swipe at one of the men he'd taken down earlier to make sure they were knocked out.

Then came the flash, brighter than the soft blue light of the Tide Star, brother than the Wall of Denial, brighter than the fires that burned beside the docks.

A wave of white-orange light moved across the horizon, bright enough to make Sasuke think it was twilight.

There was only one person that could have done that.

But as the light started to fade, Sasuke saw something else that caused him to worry even more.

Turning back to his target, which had seemed to slow to a stubble at the sight at Itachi's jutsu, Sasuke pulled out several kunai and took out the man's legs from under him. The Uchiha was running towards the melee before the raider had even hit the ground.

He had to find the Demon Brothers and his teammates. They had to finish the fighting here as quickly as they could.

~TtT~

He was managing to push them back, but it was taking a lot longer than Kisame would have liked, and even Samehada was starting to get annoyed enough to not cooperate. The Akatsuki member wasn't sure if Zabuza knew of Samehada's idiosyncrasies, but it really hadn't been working out in his favor.

At some point, his sword might have just turned around and taken a bite out of Kisame instead.

Thankfully, he got his opening in the best possible way.

"Katon: Gouka Messhitsu! (Fire Style: Majestic Demolisher)"

Light of soft, pale-blue turned to red then orange then white as the wall of fire neared them.

Both Zabuza and Ghost had to disengage, opting to dive to avoid the attack.

Of course, Kisame did the same.

He knew that his opponents would try to chase after him. Stop him from getting past them. But underwater, he superseded both in speed and ability. Getting past them was child's play.

When the barrier was close enough that Kisame could see its glow from underwater, he leapt out of the water like a beast of the sea would, like Kisame always imagined himself to be.

Gleefully, he formed the seals. On his back, Samehada crooned at their shared satisfaction. She'd get to dine soon.

The waves surged, lifting him up, and up, and up, high enough to tower over the wreckage of the ships, over the docks, over the walls and the barricades, and even over the buildings of Kinami-ko. It threw Kisame forward, the wind of the storm overpowered by the wind created by his speed as he sent the summoned tsunami at the Wall of Denial.

But chakra was chakra, and the barrier would deny the wave entry.

Kisame, however, was practically thrown into Kinami-ko, sailing through the air and above both the sea of fire and the defenders he saw below. He heard them cry out in alarm.

He laughed.

Again he formed the seals as the ground rushed towards him, wet concrete carved with what he guessed were the seals that kept the barrier going.

"Suiton: Dai Bakusui Shouha! (Water Style: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave)"

The Monster of Kiri was here.