Been a while. Three months by count. Real life's been keeping me busy alongside other commitments. Still, I've been plugging away at both this chapter and the one to follow. I'm unsure if there's still anyone reading this, but if you are, I hope you enjoy this.
Chapter 14 - Thousand-year Storm
They were wrapping up when Sasuke found them.
Most of the raiders had already been dispatched, one way or another. Namikaze Naruto had been helping out with finding their own injured and getting them pulled back towards the barricades around the city..
"Two more ships." His teammate said, hands on his knees and panting. "They're coming."
Naruto frowned as he looked at the state of their group. That wasn't good. They had maybe ten or so of the guards remaining, and the five ninja. They'd just managed to fight off two of the ships, and now there were two more?
"How long?"
The blond clenched his teeth when Sasuke just shook his head. Damn.
Sakura was in the rear barricades helping with first-aid while the Demon Brothers assisted with restraining the prisoners. It was just Komamura and his largely uninjured veterans, who made up the bulk of the remaining guardsmen, keeping an eye on the area.
Options. They needed options.
They hadn't been able to put any seals down on this part of the city on account of not having enough ink. He had his personal stores, but a lot of it hadn't been infused yet. He couldn't do the infusion with the storm going right now, either. It'd just get diluted by the rain. There wasn't enough time to get into a house to do it and make it back to the fighting in time.
Naruto blinked.
He was never stuck using only ink. He'd worked with infused water just yesterday.
But could he get them to work as seals?
In one swift motion, he'd drawn one of his tanto and made a cut on his palm. Holding it out over a particularly deep puddle over the street, he squeezed.
"Naruto?"
Drops of darkened blood fell, staining the water a murky black-red. Willing his chakra through the blood hardly took any thought now, and he had the water swirling around his closed fist a moment later.
"Just trying something."
Now for the important bit.
The water rushed up and formed into his most-frequently used seal, though this one with its power was set as low as he could make it. When it was finished, he raised it up above him and charged it.
He didn't know if the water would disrupt the form. He'd never talked to his mother about it, and it hadn't come up before, and he couldn't recall ever training in the rain. But the form had held in his head, and he could feel that the seal was steady.
With a small amount of trepidation, but with no small amount of desperation, Naruto activated the seal.
The pop was all he needed to hear. He grinned.
Immediately, he swiped his tanto against his palm another time, deepening the cut before spattering it all over the ground.
"Naruto!"
He ignored the call, focusing on shape manipulation. Naruto watched as his blood spread itself thin and sought out whatever pools of water there were. Puddles small and large around him turned the same black-red as the infusion happened.
This wasn't as much as he'd have liked, but it'd have to do.
And then one of the burning ships were blasted out of the water, knocked up a story, maybe two before it fell, crushing the docks and making a crater in the cobblestone street. Even from where he stood, Naruto saw some of the patrolling veterans dash back to regroup. He heard Sasuke gasp beside him.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"
Five of his clones were running to the front with swirls of water following them. Naruto was moving closely behind, this time ink swirling around his hands as he readied a directional explosive seal in one hand, and a Wall of Denial in the other.
Just in time to block the barrage of jutsu that had flown through the opening. The guardsmen had run past him while the seal did its work.
Even now, Naruto could feel the seal heating up, filling up with chakra that wasn't really going anywhere.
So he made a third seal, this one connecting the array on his right hand to the one on his left. It glowed as the ink was activated.
He felt the surge of power in the directional explosive seal he'd formed. It was charged now.
Up ahead, his five clones had gone around, using the ships on the sides of the opening as cover to approach the breach. Even from here, he could see the black-red water being molded..
And just as the barrage of jutsu had started to slow, Naruto's own clones had activated the seals they made.
Raiga's Raiders weren't the only ones that could use the terrain to their advantage.
A light flashed brighter than the flames. Explosions thundered as the debris of the burning ships were blasted seaward. Naruto could now see the first of the two ships Sasuke had seen as the masts, beams, and boards lit the sea aflame.
People dotted the waters, running around the raining wood and iron. From here Naruto couldn't tell if he'd managed to get anyone, but the barrage had certainly stopped. The guards had managed to fall back.
"Naruto!" Sasuke had followed.
It was then the memories hit him. A crush of water as it rushed from the center of Kinami-ko. The force alone crushing his body before he could realize what was happening. Another of his clones had seen it before it had managed to get some protective seals on Kagami and Chojuro.
Briefly he'd turned to the port, seeing the hard-to-miss dome of water. It shone red-orange from the fires he'd lit. The sky-blue light of the Wall of Denial was gone.
They'd lost the port. He could only hope the others were okay.
Unfortunately, they had their own fight to deal with right now, and they couldn't afford to put the city at risk. Much less when this group seemed able to take out the clones he'd sent.
"Incoming!"
Naruto had turned in time to see his teammate give him a confused look before the Uchiha decided to back away, too.
The splash had come soon after, and both boys were then sprinting as quickly as they could. Cries equal parts panic and excitement sounded around them. Naruto couldn't tell which was which. He didn't have the time.
The wave that was rising up from the sea was very good motivation.
He felt the rush of the wind as he was swept up by the wave before he'd felt the wetness around his feet. They hadn't made it far enough. He and Sasuke were tossed up and over, only two summoned clones managing to stop them from landing face-first on the stones.
And then came the sounds of battle. The new wave of raiders had likely ridden the wave up to land ashore. It gave them an opening, and Naruto wasn't close enough for his readied explosive seal to matter.
More clones were summoned to act as shields against projectiles while he and Sasuke tried to move towards the other side of the street. Naruto looked over his shoulder to see what was happening.
The remaining guardsmen had rushed in after the wave broke. To protect them or to stop the raiders' advance, Naruto wasn't sure, but the sky-blue glow of chakra-charged blades were now clashing with the various attacks of the raiders.
One of his clones dispelled. Struck down by a kunai. Naruto wasn't sure if it was a stray or intended. It didn't matter.
He turned around, ordered two of his clones to stay with him.
"Naruto?"
Ultramarine eyes met black. "I'm better off closer to the center. Let's do what we were doing earlier, yeah?"
Sasuke kept moving, but looked over his shoulder. "You need backup. The ones we fought couldn't use that water jutsu."
Right. These ones were probably stronger. Naruto frowned. Sakura was still behind the barricades. If she was helping seriously-injured people there, he couldn't ask for her to cover him while he fought closer to the front.
He turned to Sasuke. The Uchiha nodded.
A hand seal later, ten blond boys were rushing forward to the sounds of clashing steel, shouts of pain echoing through the night while thunder rumbled overhead.
~TtT~
Yuki Haku barely managed to raise a shield of ice in time.
It had been impossible to miss the tidal wave that smashed against the Wall of Denial. It towered higher than the masts of the ships that had attempted to sail past it and the walls of fire that blasted them down.
But then Hoshigaki Kisame flew from the crest of the wave as it was consumed by the barrier, and shot a jet of water towards the ground.
The jet became a torrent, which became a wave.
He dropped a lake on top of Kinami-ko. On top of them.
Water smashed against her barrier, Haku willing her ice into a form that could resist it, putting roots deep into the concrete foundation of the port as the white waves sent the misty spray over and around them. She could feel it on her face and on her arms alongside the panicked cries of her teammates.
She shaped the front of her barrier into a point to help part the water, the walls that made the ends tapering outward as she pulled the back in to close a wall.
"Haku!" She couldn't tell who said it.
"Sensei warned us!" Was all she could manage to say in response. Her eyes now shut, and her hands in the ram seal, Haku focused on the jutsu. "Hyoton: Hyougan Doumu! (Ice Style: Glacial Dome)"
The roof closed up just as she started to feel water begin to drip unto her back. All the while she pushed her chakra into the barrier to reinforce it from the oncoming tide as it grew stronger, hoping her shaping of the jutu was enough to withstand the force.
When she was done, things had grown quiet. All she could hear was her own labored breathing. Or perhaps she was too tired to even pay attention.
"S…Soldier pill." she croaked.
Suigetsu was the first to respond, lifting the pill to her mouth when he realized that she was too tired to take them for herself. Despite her exhaustion, and the almost-pain that she was certain came from her exhaustion, Haku managed to swallow.
Almost immediately, her senses returned to her.
"You didn't have to make it so thick, you know."
She turned to look into purple eyes. Suigetsu was frowning. Haku grinned at his concern.
"Had to." She looked from Suigetsu to Kimimaro, who was looking at the frosted dome that protected them from the water. It was so dark Haku couldn't even see her other teammates' faces. Turning back to Suigetsu she continued. "The clones?"
It was the eldest of them that answered. "Likely dispelled. They weren't in the dome."
Haku nodded. "I couldn't make it big enough to fit them." Not without making it too thin.
There was a thunk as something bumped into the ice.
And another, and another.
"Is that what I think it is?" asked Suigetsu. Haku could hear the frown in his voice. No one answered. No one needed to.
Sharks. That was why Haku needed to thicken her dome, why she needed to dig its base into the earth.
"Alright. Good call, Haku-chan." Suigetsu was likely looking in the direction that the first sound had come from. "The crash after your pill wears off is gonna be killter, though."
Two soldier pills in under twenty-four hours. Yes, she'd be pretty dead after this. Well, she probably didn't need to worry about that right now.
They were trapped inside an artificially created-lake made by an S-class missing-nin, after all.
"We need to regroup with the others." Haku frowned. She managed to protect them from the water, but she didn't really have a way for them out of this, not without opening the dome and letting the water - and thus the sharks - in.
Huh. That's a pickle.
"Haku-chan." She turned to Kimimaro. Even in the barely-there poor light, his sea-green eyes seemed to glint. "Doesn't ice float?"
Yes. Yes it did.
She sighed. And she just replenished her chakra, too.
~TtT~
The first thing that caught Terumi Kagami's attention when she breached the surface of the water was how bright it was. The second thing she noticed was the heat, which really wasn't normal when you were not only at sea, but caught in a storm, too. Oh, the rain and the waves she found hard to miss. She immediately worked on pulling herself out of and unto the surface of the rough waters.
All things considered, the heat was almost pleasant.
She was surrounded by patches of fire that crackled loud enough in the rain to be heard over it. The waves crashing into them only making them spark and flare up all the more. All Kisame's jutsu managed to do was break up the flames, it seemed to have done nothing to put them out.
Really, that worked out in their favor. Kagami could only imagine how bad it would have been had they been thrown into the sea of flame that Namikaze had created. She'd have to thank the kid after this was all done. The seals his clones had stuck onto Chojuro and herself had saved them from that.
Kagami took several deep breaths while she looked around for her teammate.
The smaller Walls of Denial failed to stop the oncoming tide, but it did stop the impact from killing them. Or she was very sure the impact might have. She'd had a lot of water dropped on her before, and knew exactly how dangerous it could get. And it was nowhere near as voluminous as this.
"Kagami-sama!"
Even in the dire situation, Kagami failed to suppress her twitching eyebrow. "Glad to see you made it, Chojuro-senpai."
Much like her, the older boy had been climbing out of the water a few meters away from where she was balancing on the waves. He looked just as rough as she felt, more soaked to the bone than they'd been when they were standing in the storm, and still uncomfortably warm from the heat of the fire around them.
He didn't look too hurt, though. That was good. She definitely needed to thank Namikaze later.
When Chojuro got to her, she contemplated the dome of water that had replaced the barrier protecting Kinami-ko. Even with just the orange light of the fires and the soft blue of the Tide Star, she could see the black forms moving inside.
Beyond, she could hear it, the rumbling sound of breaking rock that sent shockwaves through the Bakusui Shouha.
Kisame was destroying Kinami-ko, or what was left of it.
"We have to regroup with the others. See if they're alright."
She'd frowned. She wanted to go in there, take her chances on the sharks, take her chances on him. Challenge him on his own home turf.
"We can't beat him, Kagami." No honorifics, this time.
She hated it when he was being reasonable.
"Terumi, Chojuro!"
"Zabuza-taichou!" Her teammate was the first to turn to meet their captain.
The older man had clearly been in a hurry, though he didn't look like he was overly roughed up. More soaked than anything, really, but weren't they all?
"We need to meet with my team." the eldest of them said. "Let's regroup and figure out how we can deal with Hoshigaki."
Kagami looked over her captain's shoulder and out to sea, to the flashing red-orange lights in the distance. That wasn't lightning.
"Murasaki's dealing with the other Akatsuki member." Zabuza answered the unasked question. "Hatake was dealing with Kurosuki. He's probably fallen back to support his own genin."
The three began to move around the water dome. Kagami eying the many sharks swimming inside while she continued to hear the sound of destruction coming from within.
No way were they going to beat Kisame on his own turf, not with how much support he created for himself. She'd barely managed to survive fighting him out on the surface of the sea, much less underwater, much less when he had a shiver of sharks to help him. They're best bet would be to make him want to come out, or dispel the water dome himself.
All three of them talked about how they could do that as they circled the concrete foundation of the port that the dome sat atop.
Wait.
"Zabuza-taichou," Kagami turned to the man as they rounded towards the western berths. "I have an idea."
~TtT~
Komamura Isamaru, captain of the Namikaze guard of Kinami-ko, was a storm of steel.
His katana bat away the swing of an oncoming staff as his wakizashi deflected a kunai aimed at his head. Two more blades landed upon his clothing but failed to penetrate the thick layers he wore.
A kick to the staff-wielder sent him rolling back with another of the raiders attempting to take his place. An axe and a katana struck out at him from his two other opponents. Isamaru backed away to avoid the attacks and swung his own blade at both weapons.
The Chakra-charged blade glowed a bright sky-blue in the smothering darkness, overpowering even the soft light of the Tide Star.
For the briefest moment, Isamaru saw their eyes widen. If they had the presence of mind to pull their weapons back, it was too late. Both weapons were up in the air a moment later, followed by a gurgled grunt of pain as Isamaru's wakizashi swooped in to take down one of the men.
He'd been about to finish off the second when he was struck by a ball of fire from his left side. There were cries of alarm, and calls of his name. His men worried. They'd already almost lost Goro earlier. He managed to retreat, but there were precious few left of his veterans.
"Yamada, Hojo!" The loud shout, angry rather than pained, would temper his mens' resolve. "Left flank!"
The swordsman raider had pulled back, taking the opening for what it was. The axe-wielder lay on the wet concrete in a pool of water and his own blood.
Three more rushed him, all the while calls confirming his orders came and he spotted Yamada and Hojo throwing themselves at the four or five raiders that tried to get around them. Cries and clashing steel sounded to him louder than even the thunder overhead. Even now, outnumbered and possibly outgunned, his men fought with him.
It wasn't going to be enough.
Even if he fought ferociously enough to take down half of these men by himself, he couldn't hold the line alone. And while the veterans of his group could certainly do so, the newer members could not. In fact, all of the fresher guards had already been put out of commission. The survivors had been taken behind the barricades and into the city to be tended to by their medics. All that could fight were here with him.
And Isamaru knew they'd stay here to fight till either the raiders were repelled, or they fell. Raiga's men had already shown they were willing to strike at the city. They couldn't be permitted to do so.
That just meant he and his men would have to triple up. It was no small thing to ask, but every inch they could hold was more time bought for reinforcements to arrive.
Besides, it wasn't like he and his men were alone.
Isamaru grinned at his new opponents as he heard cheers from behind him. The young master was definitely a blessing to have here, with his clones that could fight as ferociously as any one of his men with ten times as much cunning.
From what he'd heard, they still had more challenges to face. There were some actual monsters on the opposing side, but dealing with them wasn't Isamaru's job. The guards had a duty to hold the line here against the raiders. He'd trust the ninja to deal with the stronger of their ilk.
A burst of smoke marked the young master's arrival, two of his clones literally getting the drop on Isamaru's opponents.
Taking advantage of that opening was child's play.
~TtT~
Haruno Sakura found it difficult to focus on the task at hand. Her eyes would dart down to the bandages she was tying off only to then look back over the barricade to see the fighting intensify with the arrival of the raiders' reinforcements.
Eyes down. She'd make sure she wasn't actually hurting the guardsman she'd been taking care of. He'd been taken out of the fighting by slashes over his stomach. He'd gotten back in time, but had lost enough blood to be out of the running.
Eyes up. She spotted Naruto dive into a group with several of his clones supporting. Sasuke was in the distance behind him making sure the blond wasn't getting overwhelmed. The Demon Brothers were covering the right flank, making sure no one could get to either the city or the port from that side. Komamura and his men held the center and left.
Eyes back down. She tied the bandages off. Not too tightly, not too loosely, just like she was taught. He needed room to breathe.
She was cold and wet, even with the fires of the buildings beside them lit, she'd been out in the rain for most of the night, and she hadn't been out of it long enough to really dry. But the warmth was mostly for the injured, she knew, and most of them had been stripped of their clothing to get them some much-needed warmth while the overhang kept the rain away.
The cacophony of the battle rose then fell. Sakura looked to see bursts of smoke from every part of it. She resisted the urge to leap over the barricade.
"Goro-san!"
Sakura turned to see one of the injured men she'd helped treat just earlier getting up and putting on his robes, his brown hair had fallen out of the tail he'd had when he'd arrived, and hung about his face in long strands. Beside him was the group's doctor, Onigumo, a man in his mid-thirties that Sakura always thought looked far younger than his age, trying to push him back down.
"You're still injured!"
Goro did not stop and did not meet the doctor's eyes. "I can still fight."
Even from here, Sakura could see the older man's face morph into one of anger. "You nearly lost that arm, Goro-san. If it wasn't for Haruno-chan's med-nin training, you'd not even be able to get up right now." He gestured in her direction, causing Goro to turn briefly to her. Their eyes met, and she could see gratitude in the nod that followed.
"My wife and sister live in this city, Onigumo-sensei." Goro tied his obi and put on the thick and sodden haori that all the guards wore like armor.
"You can't fight with your left arm. You can't wield both your swords."
For the first time, Sakura saw Goro look at the doctor directly. "Then I'll fight twice as ferociously with one."
Sakura felt herself in awe at the iron in the man's answer. It was the stuff she'd read about, or heard from some of her grandfather's men on the rare times they'd tell her their stories. And this man wasn't even a ninja. Jade eyes found themselves now eying every one of the Namikaze guardsmen that lay injured or dead there.
She and Onigumo hadn't been able to save everyone. Her hands still shook as she remembered how they slipped away from her, even as she tried healing them. Two of those that died, she'd spoken to and shared tea and snacks with after she'd done patrols. Sakura still remembered Soun talking about his brothers, Genma his young kids.
Her hands held theirs as she told them she couldn't do anything to save them, that Soun had lost too much blood and Genma a lung. Onigumo had to pull her back from them, and he'd been the one to cover their bodies. She'd found herself looking back there a few times before the battle picked up again.
But what she also remembered was the iron in their eyes before they fell, and in the others, the lack of fear. Most of those hurt were inexperienced, some having seen only training, in much the same way Sakura and her friends had. Still they fought.
That was resolve she could respect.
"Let me go with you, Goro-san."
Both turned to her, Goro almost surprised. Onigumo, she couldn't tell.
"I'll let you go if Haruno-chan goes with you." was what the doctor eventually said to both of their surprise. Onigumo turned to her, "Most of our survivors are stable now, and the best thing for them is to make sure the fighting doesn't make it here."
They couldn't afford to move them. They didn't have the manpower to do so.
Beyond the barricade, Sakura heard the din of battle rise again. Even from here, Naruto's voice resounded from every side of the fighting.
"I'll cover your left until we regroup with the others, Goro-san."
The guardsman was older than her, maybe in his late teens or early twenties. Definitely old enough to be married, in any case. Sakura wasn't sure if the look of surprise was at the idea of a younger girl covering him or something else. They didn't really have the time.
Goro clearly agreed because he nodded and finished putting on his gear. The both of them were leaping over the barricade and running towards the front moments later.
She, like Goro, had people to protect, and she could best do that right beside them.
~TtT~
Naruto knew that the Rasengang was possibly the most powerful technique he had available to him right now, and had seen several times now how lethal it could be if it connected.
He ducked under a strike at his head, the clone behind him deflecting with his tanto while Naruto rushed in with the spinning ball of chakra in his hand.
A puff of smoke later had him tumbling on the concrete as a cry of pain was followed by his clone dispelling.
He was being pulled to his feet a moment later, the Rasengan dissipating.
"We found the real one!" It was one of the raiders. Cheers followed as weapons clashed around him.
It was another one of his clones that had pulled him up. This one was surrounded by three other guardsmen. Naruto recognized Yamada's shaggy mane of dark hair, but they had their backs turned as they met the oncoming raiders. Over Yamada's shoulder, Naruto saw the Demon Brothers diving in for an attack.
Just as the chunin landed, another puff of smoke preceded a kunai being thrown over the guardsmens' heads before it transformed back into the Naruto clone. Twin swirls of deadly chakra in-hand.
Naruto was moving back to the center just as he heard the screams. He saw a flash of terrified, green eyes in his mind before they were ripped apart. He tried to suppress a scowl at the thought of those eyes being a different shade, closer to jade than emerald.
He failed.
A blur, a splash of water, a flash of iron. The club seemed to have come from nowhere and he barely managed to raise one of his tanto to deflect it.
That was a bad idea.
Pain lanced up his arm, Naruto jolting from the force of the blow, and only conscious effort kept his balde in his hand.
Two shadows passed over him as the clones moved in to support, too late to substitute him out, but in-time to stop things from getting worse.
Blue eyes spotted another one of the raiders forming hand-seals.
A pulse of chakra saw his tanto stored, and his hands flew up to the Shadow Clone hand-signs. He'd get a clone thrown over to-
Pain.
Naruto grit his teeth. His hand wouldn't move, wouldn't form the seal. No clone, no kunai, no intervention.
The great fireball made a line of steam as it flew towards him. The club-wielding raider managed to dispel one clone and dive to the left while the other had been consumed by the fire. Naruto wasn't sure he'd be able to get out in time.
"Suiton: Bakusui Shouha!"
But a water jutsu from the demon brothers certainly got him the opportunity. He used the cloud of resulting steam as cover for his retreat. A pained cry and a gurgle followed his escape.
He'd have to get Gozu and Meizu some good food when this was over. Maybe a drink? His parents seemed to like those.
The Rasengan was a powerful technique. It looked like the raiders had noticed it, too. He and his clones had become the highest priority targets since the raiders noticed he could use it, even taking priority over the veterans, or getting through to the city and port. It had Naruto a bit worried, actually. That last one had been a close call.
Now, he couldn't summon his clones, not unless he could get his hand healed. And they'd barely been holding the raiders back, too. There was still that other ship coming, and it was the largest of them he'd seen so far. It made sense that if these were Raiga's better fighters, whoever was on that ship was even better than them.
His mom was out there fighting. His sensei was probably doing the same. Zabuza would be, too. They needed something that could swing things in their favor, or at least give them enough time for help to arrive.
Any kind of help.
~TtT~
Nohara Rin broke the surface of the sea and leapt away just in time to avoid the barrage of jutsu that rained down. If her water dragon survived that, whatever was left of it evaporated in the fires of concentrated flame summoned by her primary opponent.
That was the second dragon that got destroyed that way. First signaled by an explosive kunai from a range Rin never expected anyone to be able to throw, then a barrage of jutsu. At first she thought it was a fluke. Now, she was certain they had a powerful sensor onboard that ship.
But she needed to stop both that ship and Raiga's flagship from making it to shore. They were outnumbered as it was, and having additional forces would just make things more difficult.
If only Itachi wasn't in the way.
Not that she could really blame the young man. While they were technically on the same side, Itachi still had his cover to keep, and he really wasn't stopping her as hard as he could've.
Light flashed above her as three great fireballs came down, briefly lightning the sea around her red-orange, the sound of steam overpowering the crashing waves. Rin was backing away a moment later, raising a summoned tanto to deflect several kunai the Akatsuki member had following the attack.
This was followed by a barrage of small fireballs. Rin evaded some and caught the smallest of them with her soaked robes..
Itachi's entire combination of attacks from fireballs to kunai and fireballs again was woven so quickly, Rin suspected no seals were needed for them. The boy's become that much better. Likely only the largest and most powerful fire attacks actually still needed seals from him, like that Demolisher jutsu of his that managed to destroy one of her dragons.
Still, it wasn't a watertight defense, pun intended. And while it was a testament to Itachi's ability with fire jutsu that he still managed to be as startingly effective as he was, the rain and the storm still had some effect on his attacks. Rin could imagine how terrifying that kind of jutsu speed would be with genjutsu.
Rin would have complimented Itachi if it didn't put her son at risk to let both those ships make landfall unhindered.
A pass of her fingers over a hidden seal in her robes and a pulse of chakra had her taking out and downing a soldier pill. Keiga could be a demanding dragon, and while Rin might've been adept at her fire and water jutsu, she'd created enough dragons tonight to assemble a crew of her own..
With the surge of chakra filling her, she made a break towards the flagship.
Just like with her previous attempts, the other, smaller, ship saw her coming. The telltale hiss that Rin only knew from how fond her son was of using explosive seals gave her just enough time to roll forward and avoid the worst of the shock wave. Streaks of light, the jutsu of those onboard, sailed over her head.
Smoke puffed and immediately ceased to be in the wind of the storm as she pulled a scroll from her sleeves. The paper began falling apart as soon as she rolled it open. It wasn't going to last long in the rain.
Rin didn't need it to.
Her practiced hand passed blood over the inkwork, another burst of smoke would have signaled her new position to those on the ship. She could already feel Itachi sending more fire her way, this one another of his larger attacks.
Clones moved to her defense.
Rin didn't have much ink left, most of the stock she'd brought was used in preparing Kinami-ko, even if Naruto had been the one to bind with the seals ultimately. The rest of what she had used to secure the lighthouse as an early warning system. This was the rest of it. Alongside clones she prepared.
The sky-blue glow of the Wall of Denial protected her from Itachi's attack, the rest of the flame dissipating over the crashing waves as Rin took her sword and cut her palm upon it. Black blood splattered and fell. She winced at the sensation. Rarely did she ever need to bleed herself so much over such a short period.
One of her clones managed to knock away the explosive kunai and another supported the first in raising another Wall of Denial. The jutsu from the ships broke against it.
Lightning arced through the sky. The clone raising the barrier disappeared in the flash.
Raiga.
Rin was out of ink, but she wasn't out of options.
It wasn't the ink that was truly the important part of skyscribing. It was blood. It had always been blood.
Water rose, infused red-black and beholden to her will.
"Go!"
Rin moved forward, the clones outwards. The movement was so sudden and powerful, water was kicked up in their wake.
But this wasn't enough to stop Raiga's sensor from identifying the real one. The explosive Kunai was evaded, the oncoming jutsu now tracked her. She was close enough that they might have been able to see her movement or her chakra despite the darkness of the storm.
Waves rode high, partially blocking the attacks, at times making it more difficult for her to advance. Lightning struck the water, bright and terrifying.
Her Wall of Denial, now supported by chakra storage seals, held it back.
When she was close enough to see the heads of the men that manned Raiga's flagship, she drew the secret of her attack.
A black stake of iron flew out of her hand, the throw aided by force-application seals so strong, the water around Rin was blasted away. Blue light from the seals on the iron streaked through the sky before it struck into the ship's hull with a crash.
"Shi no Shirushi: Gokakyu no Jutsu! (Deathmark: Grand Fireball Jutsu)"
If water didn't work, she would see if fire would.
Blue light first flashed in the night, the chakra in the seals molded in an instant what hands might have taken two or three times as long.
Then night turned to day as innumerable balls of fire sailed over the water, painting a wall of steam that shone with the light of the Tide Star. Forty, fifty, sixty missiles raced towards Raiga's flagship, converging on the stake and marker that was Rin's Deathmark seal.
Lightning flashed, crashed into the sea before the ship.
Charred claws ripped into the the flame, solid despite the lightning from which it came. The skull burst through the crackle in what Rin might have called a snarl.
From blue-tinted almost darkness, to the red-orange of day, to the incandescent white of this monster. Water, to fire, to lightning. She could see why Kakashi might have had trouble, especially without access to his preferred elements while fighting at-sea.
When jets of fire from Itachi started coming in from her left flank, easily taking down her exhausted clones and threatening her position, Rin scowled. Things really weren't working for her right now.
Drawing her blade, and readying a new set of seals to use when she closed the distance, she moved to engage Itachi and whatever it was that Raiga had conjured up.
All the while, the two ships she'd only barely slow down sailed ever closer to the shores of the Land of Waves.
~TtT~
Red tinted Kagami's vision.
It stung. Pins and needles poked at her skin, through even her thick robes. She knew her eyes were red-gold. Even now she could feel her sharpened teeth as she ran her tongue along them.
Behind her writhed the three tails of her chakra cloak.
Through the chakra she could smell the sea air, the faint saltiness in its spray, and the whiff of ozone from the lightning of the storm. From here she could also smell the faint traces of blood and burnt wood coming from the fires of wrecked ships. Kagami could even sense the chakra in the rain now.
She growled as she approached Hoshigaki's water dome.
Kagami felt her arms shake as they drew closer. Her fingers trembled, her jaws clenched.
It would be so easy to just dive into the water, to rip through the summoned and jutsu-formed sharks. She could practically feel Hoshigaki Kisame in her claws as she tore his throat open. It would be easy. It should be easy.
She was the three-tailed beast.
No.
She was Terumi Kagami, daughter of Terumi Mei and Yagura the Wise.
Yagura the Wise. Pink eyes, sandy hair. Kagami remembered the photo of her parents when they had been younger. Her mother had it on her desk in the office of the kage. Yagura who had started to lead Kiri into a new age.
Yagura, who had last been seen broken and bleeding and dying beside a seal and a baby. His mind fraying at the edges, his wife at his side while his biju went into slumber to recover.
And Hoshigaki Kisame had been one of those responsible. Had worked with the one that took control of Yagura and the Sanbi's minds.
She would see them drowned, crushed, broken, for taking him away from her.
Red-gold eyes widened. Kagami gasped, blinked, looked about. Most of her team was around her now, waiting for her to take the next step of the plan. They'd gathered after Haku's ice boat had gotten her team out of the water dome.
Her captain, Zabuza, was eying her carefully, though he tried to look relaxed. Her brother didn't bother looking at her, instead keeping an eye out to the water and on his two teammates. Chojuro gazed in open concern, which Kagami found funny. He'd probably seen her wielding her biju's power the most.
But then again, he probably knew that her biju wasn't normally as angry as Kagami was now. So rarely were they both aligned in one emotion. The Sanbi was always level-headed. Kagami, more aggressive, if cold in her approach. Her mother liked to say, she got that from both her parents.
Kagami snarled.
They were in position, and waiting on her. And as much as she wanted to, there was no way she was beating Hoshigaki on her own. She couldn't even take her sensei yet, much less get her mother to actually try.
But they had a plan, and she needed her bijuu's chakra to pull it off.
She just needed to stick to that plan.
Two clawed arms and three tails reached into the water dome and pierced it.
Her bijuu was known for wielding water and coral. Kagami wielded that and her mother's fire.
Then we shall boil them in their own water.
~TtT~
Kaguya Kimimaro turned away from the sea as the light of his sister's chakra tinted the water red.
He'd seen her use this form many times in the years they'd grown up together. Their mother wanted them to be comfortable with fighting side by side while wielding their most powerful abilities. For Kimimaro, it was Kagami's jinchuuriki abilities, and for Kagami, it was Kimimaro's bloodline limit.
Because when you wielded your own bones as weapons, people could very get uncomfortable very quickly. He understood how… unnatural it could seem at times. But it was because of that exposure to each other that he wasn't bothered. He doubted even her actual teammates, Gozu and Meizu saw her wield the Sanbi's chakra all that frequently.
He exchanged a quick nod with his teammates. With Haku now recovered enough to at least be able to use her sensing abilities, he could join their sensei in observing the water dome.
It took a minute or two before the first signs began to appear.
First came the warmth, coming off in waves from not only Kagami, but the water as well. Then he started to see wisps of steam, little streaks of white that were immediately swallowed by the wind and rain.
And then the bubbling, small at first before growing larger, spreading outward from his sister like a ripple in a calm pond. Even the rain began to hiss as it touched both her and the water.
The water was being consumed by a rolling boil, though he knew that it would take a little more time for it to spread to the entirety of Hoshigaki's jutsu.
Spears of bone pierced through his palms as he readied himself. His sensei reached for his sword.
Hoshigaki's dome burst apart, water hot enough to boil them alive splashing towards them before a conjured wall of coral diverted the flow away. Even still, Kimimaro felt himself sweating as the temperature rose even as ice-cold rain fell on his head.
"Now!" His sister cried. The walls crumbled on her command and Kimimaro and Zabuza rushed forward to meet the beast.
Bone spears parried the first strike of Samehada while Kubikiribocho swung down towards Hoshigaki's shoulder.
Water surged up from behind the missing-nin and pushed their sensei backwards. Kisame backed away at the opening while Kimimaro tried to kick at him with his foot, blades coming out his ankles.
The sweat he was covered with washed off as he was struck by something from his left. Sea-green eyes widened when he felt the water engulf him, the water prison jutsu sealing him off and killing his momentum before the shadow of a conjured shark closed in.
Claws ripped through both prison and animal alike, the water dropping to the ground as his sister's chakra overpowered Hoshigaki's.
He'd been about to nod in thanks when he saw red-gold eyes widen before she jumped back. The blow meant for his sister swung right in front of his face, the shaving scales of the weapon causing him to take a backstep for his own safety.
The missing-nin was retreating before Kimimaro could even ready his counterattack, a rush of water and conjured sharks covering the man's return the darkness of Kinami-ko. Waves rode over ruined concrete like serpents with jaws that could crush his bone weapons and rip him limb from limb.
"He's luring us in." Zabuza said as he cut through the first of the waves, his second taking out another.
"But we have to get him anyway." It was Suigetsu. Kimimaro said nothing, but agreed. They theoretically had him boxed in, but if Hoshigaki felt he was in any actual danger, he could potentially just escape into the city, and cause untold damage there. Better to engage him and try to force him out.
"We do." His sensei replied. "You don't." The man looked over his shoulder to look at Suigetsu. "Get Haku-chan out of here. Neither of you are going to be very useful against someone like Hoshigaki in a close-quarters fight anyway. Especially not when Terumi starts what she's been planning."
Suigetsu hesitated, Haku nodded. She spoke first. "Suigetsu-kun, help me get to the fallback point we agreed on with the guardsmen. I can at least provide medical help, and you can start helping in the fighting there." The girl looked in the direction they'd be heading in, doubtlessly seeing the wall of flame and flares of used jutsu.
His other teammate frowned, but accepted. "Fine."
And they were gone.
Seconds after, the three of them were charging towards the center of the ruined port. Kagami brought up the rear with tails, claws, fire, and melting concrete that put their plan in motion.
~TtT~
Uchiha Sasuke could almost see in perfect clarity how his target flipped end over end before dropping to the ground. Yells followed, Sasuke couldn't tell if it was horror, rage, or excitement, or from whose side it came from. Things had gotten so chaotic he couldn't tell.
The fighting had gone from one straight out of the books to a slogging grind with everyone in a single pile. On the bright side, that meant that people had stopped trying to sneak past them, though the port looked pretty gone on account of the giant dome of water covering it.
Unfortunately, the main reason for everyone forming some sort of dogpile was Naruto, who apparently had gotten his hand injured, which meant he couldn't make any shadow clones, while also being among the most successful at taking out the raiders.
Two puffs of smoke signaled to him the use of the substitution jutsu, and likely another one of Naruto's clones gone. It had been sixth one he'd seen in three minutes. Naruto was going through his remaining clones like Kiba went through Sasuke's cookies.
The Namikaze was the highest priority target now, and it was in their best interest to make sure he survived.
Sakura really needed to get here.
Using the seals he'd been provided, Sasuke summoned his kunai back. They'd come unattached from the ninja wire, but that was normal. Re-wiring them gave him time to observe and pick out a new target. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't really pick one out easily since everyone was fighting so close together.
He'd considered using explosives. After all, Naruto made sure he was very well-stocked on that, but Sasuke couldn't really risk hurting any of their people.
So he'd been forced to snipe at along the edges, or those that somehow managed to allow him a particularly clean shot. Those that went for high-flying attacks, especially.
The Demon Brothers had done much the same, though they'd periodically dive into the melee with swirling chains and flashing claws to strike at the raiders' flanks. The surprise was usually enough for the veteran guardsmen to take advantage of and turn the tide of the engagement.
From range was the best way he could cover his teammate in the meantime. Naruto moved too frequently and too erratically for Sasuke to stay close without getting cut off, and he was best striking from range, anyway.
Again, the noise swelled, several puffs of smoke rising from somewhere in the mob, followed by flashes of bright blue blades.
What was going on over there? There was too much movement, and too much distracting him. The rain, the wind, the shadows cast by the remains of the blasted ships. He wished he had his Sharingan. He'd be able to see more clearly, maybe even get in there and get his teammate out.
Steps thundered, shaking the post he'd been standing on.
Looking down, he spotted a blur of red and pink stomping past, one of the guardsmen covering her right side.
"Naruto's injured!" He called. "Hand!"
Sakura's response was to roar her signature 'hell yeah.' before driving in like a runaway cart into the thickest collection of raiders.
He could vaguely see how her chakra wove around the group, weaving her favorite genjutsu through the cry. Kunai and jutsu flew over her and her companion's heads, the attackers gauging distances and positions incorrectly.
It was like watching that same cart crash into a stall when she closed in. Men flew up and about at the strike while those close enough had their blades blocked by reinforced kote and hardened skin. Those same attackers got punches that tossed them up into the sky for their trouble, Sasuke's blades finding home in their guts or arms before they fell to the ground. Every one he took down was another that wouldn't be getting back up again.
Blades returned and were in his hand for only a split second before he had them flying out again, this time aiming for three more targets that had been tossed out of the melee. Sakura was moving towards the center of the fighting, and if the cheers were any indication, the guards could tell that she'd returned.
Good. Meant she'd get to put Naruto back together. He was beginning to see what their sensei meant that Naruto's fighting style was particularly risky. Between their exam and now, it was Naruto that tended to get hurt first out of the three of them.
The rewards were plain to see, though, so Sasuke could kind of respect that.
In any case, he could probably get in there for a bit, really keep the momentum go-
Light flashed in the distance, night turning to day for a moment. Sasuke blinked away the spots while the image of what he'd seen burned into his mind.
Two more ships had joined the one waiting off-shore.
But before Sasuke could act, the night was once again lit up by streaks of white arcing from the largest of them. Lightning.
He only had time to call out a warning, "Incoming!" There was no way he was going to be able to do anything about it. No time to act, or abilities that could stop such a jutsu.
"Doton: Doryuuheki! (Earth Style: Mud Wall)"
"Fuinjutsu: Hitei no Kabe! (Sealing Jutsu: Wall of Denial)"
Concrete shattered as a wall of dark stone rose from it. Some of the raiders were pulled down before being pushed out by the rock just as bright seals rose from all over the melee. It looked like Sakura managed to get Naruto's hand fixed up if he had this many clones active again.
Stone walls shattered and blue chakra flared when the bolts made contact. In the light, Sasuke realized something.
Raiga's aim was superb. Each and every one of the bolts shot would have landed on one of theirs, and there were three that had struck where Naruto and Sakura stood. The girl was fighting besides the guardsmen to fend off the raiders that were rushing in. Several of the clones had already disappeared in puffs of smoke, killed after their jobs protecting their side was done.
Tying his kunai to ninja wire for better control, Sasuke dove into the melee while the barking of dogs began to mix into the cries of battle and sound of clanging steel. At this point, it was a fight against time, to take these guys down before even more of their reinforcements arrived. They couldn't afford to play it safe anymore.
~TtT~
"Someone's coming."
Hatake's ninken, Pakkun, had been the first to notice. Whoever it was, their sensors weren't able to pick up on them at all. Hyou, root-trained that he was, considered it a cause for concern.
Not that they had been given much of an opportunity when a cloud of dust was kicked up by what must have been a terrifyingly powerful impact. The ANBU members of their group were already in front of him with their hands on their weapons while the jounin were reaching into their pouches.
Hyou, instead, watched as two glints of gold shone through the cloud, eyes appraising them in a way that unsettled him.
It wasn't the light. It was the fact that Hyou couldn't feel any presence from inside. His eyes saw, his ears heard, but his chakra sense told him nothing was there. Something he'd only ever encountered with one person that wouldn't have already killed them.
"Jiraiya-sama!"
The genuine article stepped out of the smoke, dark eyes glinting in the soft blue starlight that managed to pierce through the storm.
"Hyou, is that you?"
"Yes, sir. What brings you here?"
"One of my sources told me there was going to be trouble in the region." Was the Sannin's answer. The look on his face was somewhere between a scowl and a smirk. Hyou couldn't tell how Jiraiya managed that, but he did. "I figured I'd check it out. Minato's son is in the area."
Oh.
"Is he one of Hatake's students?"
Lightning flashed overhead as a pale eyebrow rose. "Yes, actually. Kakashi-kun the reason you guys are here?"
Hyou nodded. "Hatake-san sent one of his ninken to call for reinforcements. Said they were dealing with some high-ranked missing-nin." The Root graduate felt movement on his back, Pakkun likely sticking his head up from the pack he was being carried in.
Jiraiya clearly recognized the ninken, giving the dog a nod in greeting. Turning back to Hyou, "Guess we're here for the same reason." He looked to eye each of the others that came to help. "I'll see you guys there."
Behind Hyou, one of the younger jounin spoke up. "We'd be more than happy to go with you the rest of the way, Jiraiya-sama."
The smile the Sannin sent the young man was accommodating. Dark eyes flashed gold. "I'll go ahead. I think things have gotten more than a bit serious over there. See you all soon."
In the distance, a flash of white lit up the night. Hyou saw the pillar jump up into the sky before arcing down. What the-
A rush of wind almost knocked him off his feet. Behind him, the others gasped, even some of the ANBU.
When he turned back to where the sage had been, all he saw was the crater.
~TtT~
Despite the fact that their sensei had arrived and was decimating the enemy rear line, Sakura found the fighting at the center even more intense than when she joined in.
They'd only lost a few people, she'd been told. Komamura had managed to keep a very accurate headcount once the fighting had degenerated into a melee. If one of the veterans weren't there, they were probably dead.
And while they were still heavily outnumbered, and mildly outmatched, Naruto was able to balance that out with his shadow clones now that his hand was functional again.
So maybe it was desperation, maybe it was motivation, maybe it was both. The lightning attack from Raiga had certainly pulled cheers from the mouths of the raiders as they struck when the protections against Raiga's jutsu were raised. No hesitation from them at taking the opening.
The first weapon to come her way had been an axe. She caught the blade with her kote before punching that raider in the gut and kicking him into his friends behind him. They fell over like toys and Komamura had moved in to make short work of them, but twice as many men moved in to give the incapacitated raiders time to recover. The captain was pushed back by the sheer numbers, and had to be assisted by Goro.
"Hell yeah!" She cried before rushing past both swordsmen to make them an opening. The chakra-laced cry snapped her genjutsu into place before any of them could realize it, and any of them that would have noticed anything happening, would notice it far, far too late.
It was a low-level genjutsu. So easy to do that Sakura could now do it without hand-seals. A positional displacement illusion that made her appear nearer, further, more to the left or right of where she actually was wasn't the fanciest of things. It didn't disable your opponent, or really distract them for very long. It was also easy to catch. The moment you saw your attack pass through someone, you could tell it was an illusion and break it with a pulse of chakra.
But with her strength, Sakura usually only needed one good hit to disable most targets, or that was the case in theory. If nothing else, it was one hell of an opening attack.
This time, she had them see her half a meter behind herself instead. And with their weapons too slow to act, her fist struck ruined stone that sent rocks and raiders flying.
Blue swordlight overtook her soon after, followed by screams and wet gurgles.
Lightning struck again, streaking through the sky like arrows in the storm. This time they converged on their area. Sakura's world had turned a blinding white, her arms raised on instinct to protect her from it. Around her, cries of terror came from both sides, before it was overpowered by the familiar hum.
No one managed to take advantage of the opening, it seemed. Not on their side, and, surprisingly, not the raiders. They were probably as spooked as Sakura and the others were. As the three of them backed towards their group, Sakura looked to take stock of her teammate.
"Naruto…"
Quickly, she turned to Komamura, and the man had the remaining guardsmen close ranks around them.
His arms looked burned, his clothes somehow singed despite being soaking wet. Naruto's fingers shook in her touch as she ran healing chakra through it.
"Too much chakra. The seals couldn't absorb all of them."
So they burned out on him. Probably blew up really close, too. Naruto's range with skyscribing wasn't that far. He only cheated using his clones.
"That's twice you've gotten your hands hurt now, Na-kun." Her eyes met his, but she wasn't sure if her smile or humor seemed genuine. Naruto seemed content to play along, at least, chuckling. She could almost imagine him scratching his head like he sometimes did.
"Sorry you have to keep putting me back together, Sa-chan. I've been really clumsy lately."
She choked back something, maybe a laugh, maybe a sob while her chakra did its work. Already, she could feel his hands becoming steadier.
"You gotta be more careful." She let go of him, preparing to stand up as she started to hear the noise grow around them. Some of the guardsmen were already stepping away to engage approaching raiders. In the distance, she thought she heard Sasuke calling for them, too.
No, he was. He was coming from the other side of the field now, likely having regrouped with their sensei. Sakura could see his mouth moving, shouting, but it failed to overcome the din.
And then the world turned white.
Sakura was on the ground before she knew it, pushed. Her arms that had shielded her from whatever that was also protecting her face from the worst of the shattered stone and concrete. Water splashed unto her hair, but with the rain, it didn't matter.
Heat and wind came from behind her.
Jade eyes looked up to see plumes of smoke rising from all over the place. Just about everyone had been knocked down or stunned. From the light, the wind, or the sheer spectacle, she couldn't tell.
Briefly, she looked to Sasuke to see horror. His red eyes were wide.
She turned.
Behind her was the broken, smouldering form of one of her oldest friends.
"Naruto!"
Yeahp, cliffhanger ending. We have at least one more chapter for the battle proper. I'd love to hear what you guys think about the fight and the delivery.
Cheers!