Long-ass author's note at the end. Mostly a retrospective on this arc.
Chapter 15 - Breath of Fury
"We're done."
Gin Karashi turned from the blasted, burned wreckage that probably used to be the main docks of the Land of Waves. The boss was sheathing his twin swords and eying the battlefield. Raiga's Lightning Lance only managed to stop the fighting for a little bit. The defenders had been quick to take advantage of the spectacle to pull back.
But with the boss taking out the guy making all those clones, Karashi was sure they'd more or less have the fight won as it was.
"Boss?"
"Kinami-ko's been trashed, just like we've been asked to do. Let's get our boys and get out." Stormy blue eyes turned to him. "I'll keep Hatake and anyone else there distracted, and you bring back as many as you can."
Karashi understood. The boss could put down enough pressure to force all of the remaining enemies on the backfoot. That'd be all the opening he'd need to break their boys away and start gathering their injured. No way they'd get everyone, but that's how it was, and this was a much harder job than usual.
This wasn't the first time they'd fought against ninja, but tonight reestablished to Karashi why they kept away from Namikaze ports. He'd definitely advise the boss against bothering them in the future.
Still, they'd done what they came here to do.
"Grab ya' blades, boys!" His shout called over the din of the storm, the ten men that manned his reserve ship turned to him, hands going to their weapons. "Boss wants us to break up the fighting and get everyone back to the boats!"
Karashi heard a splash behind him. Raiga had likely gone overboard to start being their distraction.
"You ready to save some sorry asses?"
The resounding cheer and raised weapons was the answer he got.
Looking down, his eyes met the red of little Ranmaru. Karashi had to suppress the urge to frown. He couldn't leave the boy here, and he'd contributed so much to the fight once their ship had finally joined in. If it weren't for the kid, they wouldn't have been able to finger the original from all the clones. Ranmaru was able to do it so well, the boss managed to snipe the Konoha shinobi with one of his longer-ranged jutsu.
Karashi was going to have to be the one to keep the boy safe. Not the first time he'd done it, but they'd also never gone up against anything like this. Even from the rear, Karashi could see the large fireballs, the giant dome of water that covered Kinami-ko. That kind of stuff he'd only ever seen the boss match, and the boss had been put on the back foot several times, enough that he'd opted to regroup with them after his fight with that Hatake guy broke off.
The reinforced basket that he carried Ranmaru in for fights always felt heavier in the rain. He figured it was all the extra weight from the water. Karashi tightened the straps, and looked over his shoulder to spot the glowing, red pinpricks coming from the slits behind him.
"Ready?"
"Yes!"
~TtT~
Under the soft light of the Tide Star and the faint glow of her mystical palm technique, Haruno Sakura worked.
She didn't know when she'd managed to get to him, when she'd put both her hands on his chest and began. One moment, she'd turned around after he'd been struck, another she was trying to save his life.
His hair was gone, his clothes were singed. She could still smell how clean the air was, over-sanitized. Tell-tale signs of lightning. She could feel the dryness of his skin, the heat still coming off of him. Flecks of bright red on his flesh glowed like fire even in the stormy night.
But he was still breathing. It was faint, but it was there. She kept a hand in front of his nose to make sure. The warmth told her it wasn't the storm.
She could feel her chakra work its way through him. His heart was still beating. It was slow and erratic, and she worried it would stop. She didn't know how to fix that. Maybe Rin would. She hoped Rin could, because Sakura didn't know if Naruto would survive the night.
Spirits, Sakura didn't know how he survived in the first place.
Chakra began mending burned flesh and skin. Naruto's body gobbling it up and directing it in ways that made Sakura tense in both relief and confusion. That never happened before. All the same, she could feel his skin become less dry, the blotches and bumps turning smoother, softer.
His hair was still gone, and his heart still stuttered. His breathing was still weak.
But he might just make it. Good.
"Haruno-san!"
She blinked, her focus breaking. The green light of her hands flickered then died, but she wasn't worried. Whatever she could have done for Naruto she already did. She needed to get him to his mother now, but she was likely still fighting.
Then she felt blades brush her hardened skin, scrape her clothes. Sakura threw her body over Naruto's before she knew what was happening.
Wind, stone, and fire rushed over her. Rain turned to steam, and her soaked hair dried. Gravel and debris rained down on her, as hardened skin brushed off the larger bits that would have hurt a softer body.
Jade eyes opened when the rock stopped falling. Any dust still in the air was likely blown away by the wind, or washed away by the rain. Raising her head, she looked down to check Naruto for injuries. She'd managed to stop the worst of it from hitting him, but now he was covered in mud and grime. Sakura couldn't really tell how much he'd been hurt by the explosives, but she could feel his chest rising and falling under her hands.
Cries echoed through the night behind her. The fighting had started again.
The guards!
She looked over her shoulder to see the few that held the line giving ground. Quite a few of them looked to be on their last legs, others had already fallen to the ground, one or two cut down by the raiders before they stepped forward to push back the line further. If the raiders had any more explosives left, they weren't using them.
Meanwhile, they had explosives in spades. Naruto had only held back because protecting the city was the whole damn point, and the fighting was too close quarters to be safe for their allies.
But there were so few of them left, and the docks and the streets they'd been fighting on to stop the raiders from getting into the city were pretty much totalled.
All Sakura wanted was to make sure everyone they had left were okay. Naruto… she'd come so close to losing him. She'd already lost some of the friends she'd made among the guards, and spirits knew how her sensei and Sasuke were doing.
There was a cry of pain behind her. Looking back, she saw Komamura, the bear of a samurai, stumble. He was at the center of the line and was fighting off three men at once.
Sakura remembered early morning spent with the older man over tea while keeping watch. He'd been the one to introduce her to Genma and Soun. Helped her get settled with their work at the port, even taught her some tricks to stay up while doing the sometimes monotonous work.
Reaching for the rocks and the explosive tags after that was easy.
~TtT~
The cold was the first thing that Namikaze Naruto noticed.
The faint light was the next, a warmth on his eyelids that reminded him of days where he'd slept in and his mother had to pull away the curtains to wake him. He felt the grass, then, felt the crispness in the air that wasn't tinged with the saltiness of the sea. This was fresh.
Ultramarine eyes opened to the darkness of an iron canopy. Golden light coming in from every direction. He didn't need to look around to know he was in the seal.
"You're awake. Good."
The Kyuubi's voice seemed to come from all around him, but the hot air started from somewhere near his left foot.
Getting up, Naruto saw the fox seated close by, its towering form still somehow shorter than the dark trees that made up the seal.
"How'd I get here?" he asked.
The last thing he remembered was seeing the world turn white, and then pain. More pain than he could ever remember feeling.
Naruto blinked. "Am I alive?"
The giant fox made a noncommittal gesture that reminded him of a shrug. "Well we're talking," he answered.
So he wasn't dead yet. Because both his parents and the fox made it a point to tell him that his death meant the Fox's death, too. But Naruto doubted he was in a good spot, either. Not if he was in here instead of out there.
"What happens now?"
"We put you back together, obviously."
"Just like that?"
The bijuu seemed to laugh, his shoulders rising and falling in what might have been a chuckle. Fangs shown in the darkness, the gold light from the trees reflecting off of them.
"No. Not really."
~TtT~
Hoshigaki Kisame parried two strikes that would have taken out one of his arms. He hopped a sweeping kick then used one of his own to get some distance between him and his opponent, only for a flying Kubikiriboucho to come from out of left field to threaten his head.
But he'd had enough time, even one-handed seals were enough for Kisame's most practiced jutsu, and a stream of water was forming into a shark and softening the blow just enough for him to be able to block it with Samehada.
The boy was already rushing towards him before Kisame hit the ground. Grunting, he cycled through several quick seals.
"Suiton: Taishoku no Kyodai Same! (Water Style: Voracious Greatshark)"
Water rushed up around him, drawn from the rain, from the pools made in the cratered and broken earth. The jaws formed first, snapping shut, and threatening to take the bone-armored hands the Kaguya boy had been threatening Kisame with. The kid had only barely managed to backpedal before he'd lost his limbs.
The greatshark dwarfed even Kisame himself, teeth bared in a snarl as chakra fed it and more water was called to it. It'd be a floating river with teeth very soon.
Now, the fight was two on two. And Kisame liked his odds much better.
His greatshark blocked a spear of bone that might have taken out something important before rushing to deal with the kid that sent it to them. To his right, Kisame spotted Zabuza recovering his sword, and sent a torrent of water for the jounin's troubles.
Not so threatening when he couldn't get close, wasn't he?
Laughing, he formed another set of seals.
"Suiton: Ameshikou! (Water Style: Four Shark Shower)"
Four more swimmers sailed through the air towards the other swordsman.
There, that'd keep him preoccupied. See how he liked having to deal with being locked up by close quarters combat.
Kisame turned towards his other opponent, who was still struggling to get past the greatshark, which moved faster than its size would have implied. Did he care that he was technically cheating by having the water-shark be propelled by its own floating river? No.
Still, he looked off to the now open route out. He and Itachi had done what they were hired to do with the destruction of Kinami-ko. The city was extra, and after all the trouble, Kisame didn't really feel like he could be asked at this point. Just wasn't worth it. He could take the plunge while his jutsu dealt with the Kiri loyalists, nab Itachi, and tell Raiga to hightail it outta here.
Hmm. Maybe he could ask Raiga if he'd be interested in becoming one of them. They had a spot open, didn't they?
Then he heard the roar. Under different circumstances, he might've found it nostalgic.
Instead, he clicked his tongue. Typical that Terumi would put the three-tailed beast in her own daughter when her husband was the last host. Not that she had much of a choice in the matter, looking back. Still, this did confirm their suspicions.
And it did make him pause, if only to think about catching the girl and bringing her in early. Sure Madara might take issue with their not having anywhere to put her, but they could figure it out. Madara was a smart guy.
He looked just in time to see the lava spear streak towards him.
Kisame's first instinct was to raise Samehada to block the attack. Bad idea. The sword was screaming at him moments later.
What the hell? That wasn't chakra? No, no way she managed to pull out lava without any chakra.
Before he could consider anything else, another spear was thrown at him, forcing him to dodge. He siphoned away his own chakra towards Samehada to let the blade repair itself.
Dark glass flew towards him as the spear shattered against the earth, the cooling shards still steaming hot and the lava splattering all around him. Kisame had barely had time to raise his arms and protect his face.
Sure, he could heal himself if ever it happened, but getting glass in his face was never a pleasant experience.
And then she leapt and started vomiting lava at him.
Spirits.
Kisame responded with an immediate flashing through of seals, water rising from the sea and around him.
"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu! (Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique)"
The water dragon shot forward and up. It would collide with the lava blast and Kisame planned to rush underneath the glass before it landed, get in close and start feeding all that chakra to Samehada. He was sure the sword would appreciate the meal as an apology.
Water burst mid-air. The dragon bullet misting then evaporating in the heat of the falling lava. Kisame was forced to break his charge. Just in time, too, since the molten rock landed along the path he was going.
Steam clouded the space between him and the jinchuuriki, but even through it, he could see what caused his jutsu to fail.
Glowing red and shining, the mirror was framed in molten rock. But the shape was the same as he'd remembered it when it was made of pure water.
The girl already knew how to use Yagura's mirrors, and somehow managed to make them work with her mother's lava.
Kisame would have cursed if he didn't have to dodge attacks from both Zabuza and the Kaguya kid.
~TtT~
Terumi Kagami's claws smashed into the rock below as she landed. Her lava mirror bursting into drops of molten rock before cooling and hardening into dark glass.
Her captain and brother engaged Hoshigaki in close quarters, or at least attempted to. The Akatsuki member's shark jutsu were still tailing them, after all, and acted with minds of their own to stop their quarries from getting away.
Jaws that dwarfed even her cloaked form rushed over the wrecked port towards the fighting trio, the smaller fishes that had trapped her captain jetting after. They crashed into the melee before Kagami could ready another spear, the fight splitting up again as Hoshigaki took the opportunity to prepare more jutsu.
She drove her claws into the earth, while her tails shot out to buy her allies some time.
Hoshigaki didn't need much of his own, however. Another one of his tidal waves blasted from his mouth and threatening to drown them all again. Unlike the first time, this one came out like a wave and sent Kimimaro and Zabuza away.
Kagami only had moments to draw her tails back before Samehada swung in her direction. Hoshigaki's sharks followed, jawes agape. She raised her claws from the earth, lava dripping where she'd been liquifying it to form another spear. Instead, she raised raw earth and covered it in the beast's coral.
The blade struck the wall, and it held.
Jaws of raging water struck the wall, and it crumbled.
Kagami roared, one with her beast as a boulder pulled from the wreckage was swung Hoshigaki's way, with only moments for them to leap out as it was again smashed by the sharks and Samehada came shortly after.
"Get back here, girl!"
She'd been about to reach into the earth when the wave Hoshigaki had summoned finally caught up to them, crashing over the pool of lava she'd been forming. She was forced to spit lava from her mouth, instead.
The sword cut through that and the lava shattered like sand against the living blade. The traitor laughed.
"So that's how you did it!"
Kagami growled at the plan being uncovered, not that it had been working anyway. Both her opponent and the weather just didn't allow them enough time for her to truly turn the battlefield into a hostile one for the shark-man.
"Tessenka no Mai: Tsuru! (Clemantis Dance: Vine)"
It was choreographed, but Kagami knew that's exactly what her brother wanted. Hoshigaki halted his charge in time to duck the whip of bone sent at him. Zabuza landed on the genin's shoulders with Kubikiriboucho brandished in both hands.
The water sharks were on them before any other follow-ups could be made. Zabuza wreathing his sword in water to enhance its size, the only time he could wield chakra against such an opponent.
Kagami sent lava spears at the sharks that the Akatsuki member easily intercepted with his sword. He closed in again, forcing her to retreat.
He knew now that she needed time to form the spears from earth to get around Samehada. He wouldn't allow her that time. He also knew that she couldn't engage him in close quarters, so he'd make sure that's all he'd let her do.
Ironic that it had been the exact strategy they'd had Kimimaro and Zabuza use against him.
Now he was using it against her. And every strike he'd land on her would only make him stronger.
~TtT~
Uchiha Sasuke had never seen so clearly.
Even in the poor lighting of the battlefield, he could see the forms of everyone around him, see how they were moving, the way their weapons would move before they moved them. It was like seeing the future, or maybe seeing everything in slow motion. Maybe both.
All the same, he seethed.
Wires constricted as he wrapped his kunai around one of the raiders. More of them had come after Naruto had been taken down by whatever lightning jutsu that was. He didn't know if Sakura was able to do anything about it, but he'd seen her trying to do something from where he was.
Unfortunately for him, the enemy reinforcements stopped him from pulling back to check on them.
Six hand seals, grit teeth, and a flash of his newly awakened Sharingan later, Sasuke cried: "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu! (Fire style: Great Fireball Jutsu)"
The blaze rushed forward. He heard cries of alarm in the night as the three men attempting to cut his quarry free leapt away. The man Sasuke had bound was not so lucky.
He'd recalled his tools with a puff of smoke and was looking for a new target before the screams had died.
At this point, they weren't fighting to minimize damage to the port or the city. The port was wrecked, the fishing docks smashed and on fire, the seaside streets ruined.
Now they were fighting for survival.
Rocks flew overhead, landing amongst the raiders before quickly exploding. It looked like Sakura was bringing out the explosive tags.
Sasuke supposed he ought to do the same.
His eyes caught the movement, every instinct demanded he move.
Some sort of slime hit the ground where he stood, black as the night above with none of the light from the fires or the stars above reflected off of it.
Then it ignited.
"You must be one of the Konoha shinobi."
Firelight danced from what Sasuke suspected was burning tar. It certainly smelled like some of the stuff Tenten had shown him when the Aikuchi had gotten a shipment. The raider was covered in a heavy cloak with a large, hunched back. Even with his Sharingan, Sasuke couldn't quite see many details.
Other raiders rushed past him, seemingly uninterested in striking him down. Sasuke briefly considered attacking their backs, his fingers wrapping around his kunai.
"Don't even think about it."
Sharingan snapped back up in time to see another wave of tar sent his way, this time being ignited partway through. The Uchiha responded with several of his kunai and a few wire-bound shuriken for good measure.
A blast of air and chakra sent his weapons flying uselessly away before he summoned them back to his pouches.
The guy didn't even have the decency to form anything other than a half-ram seal. Not exactly useful for the Sharingan.
Looks like he was going to need to focus on this one.
~TtT~
Hatake Kakashi was very thankful that Itachi's non-genjutsu attacks were so flashy.
Honestly, how that kid managed to shine in Anbu, sometimes he didn't know.
Still, the bright flash from the Akatsuki member had gotten Kakashi the opening he'd needed to get away from Raiga. He wasn't able to remove the man from the fight entirely, but he'd managed to delay him for long enough. Besides, making sure the kids were okay was a higher priority.
And while he could use every element under the sun, he wasn't as good at using them as he was with earth and lightning. It was much more advantageous for him to fight the man on dry land, as dangerous as it would be for everyone else.
And lightning had been proving to be a bust by itself. He couldn't beat Raiga at his own game.
So he'd made his way back to shore. He'd spotted Rin fighting Itachi, as fake as that was, it at least kept someone potentially very dangerous out of the real fighting, though it also locked up their only actual med-nin.
It was also when he'd spotted that the remaining raider ships were staging a rescue for those that survived Naruto's trap. That was likely the only reason why he'd managed to beat them back to shore. He suspected Raiga had returned to his flagship to regroup instead of following right after him. It explained why the man was so late.
He was proud of his kids. They'd done so well under extraordinary circumstances. Most genin would have already buckled under the kind of pressure they were dealing with right now. This kind of fighting, essentially a pitched battle, was something he only ever saw during wartime.
Despite that, they held the line against more numerous and more experienced opponents. Something no genin should have been expected to do.
He'd been looking forward to treating them when they got home.
And then that jutsu - whatever it was - struck Naruto, and suddenly all of Kakashi's worst nightmares were happening again. Black hair replaced blond and brown hair replaced pink. He'd wanted to badly to drop whatever he was doing and check on them, but the pause had signaled Raiga's arrival, and letting the man have free reign would guarantee their doom.
So he'd turned around and directed all his fury at the person that killed his sensei's only son.
But Raiga had been expecting him this time, that lightning spirit of his towering over him sending lightning whips his way and calling down bolts like some god of the storm. Even his genjutsu bounced off of it, not that he was particularly good.
So he called on his earth to both protect him, attack, and allow him free movement while he sent his dogs back to support the rest of the fighting. They weren't much good against someone they couldn't make contact with.
He barely managed to dodge another lightning whip before it tore through the mud wall he'd been standing on.
A quick cycling of hand seals raised several more earthen pillars for him to jump from as Raiga lashed the whip at him several more times.
"Doton: Doryuudan! (Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet)"
The fallen walls and pillars liquified into a single, large dragon head before the barrage came from its mouth. They splattered against the raised barrier of Raiga's lightning spirit, the bones superheating the mud shots till they dried and shattered.
A lightning-charged kick followed, crashing past the spirit's arms before they could be raised to stop him and aiming at the far less protected missing-nin within its ribs.
Much to Kakashi's surprise, Raiga evaded, he and the large half-skeleton leaping backwards in what he might have considered comical under different circumstances.
Good. That meant Raiga could actually feel threatened by lightning.
In response, the missing-nin threw a barrage of lightning bolts from the spirit's hands that Kakashi dodged.
Forming the seals for the Earth Dragon Bullet again, Kakashi doubled up and formed two more dragon heads, tripling the size of the barrage, immediately following with a little trick he'd seen the Hokage do one time when he'd had the honor of observing him train with councilman Shimura.
Just like when he saw it, he tripled the amount of chakra he poured into the technique with exactly one goal in mind: superheated flame.
"Katon: Gokakyuu no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique)"
The light of the blast in the dark would overwhelm Raiga's field of view in much the same way the absurd fire jutsu that Itachi brought out earlier got Kakashi the perfect opening to disengage and regroup with his genin.
Mud bullets dried then melted, turning from earth to lava. There was enough volume in there that Kakashi knew something was going to stick to the missing-nin.
And just in case that wasn't enough, his chakra-charged body cycled through a very familiar set of seals.
"Raikiri!"
Fire burst and lava splattered, seeming to bubble on bone before the arms scattered it. He heard Raiga's cry of alarm. Chakra glowed like a star to his Sharingan eye, but he powered through.
Skeletal arms came to intercept him, and Kakashi lined his feet with chakra before leaping on the arm and then past it, his own arm raised to strike.
Then the skull of the spirit came crashing into him.
He was swallowed by the earth below as he dispelled the Raikiri, softened mud pulling him into itself and away before he burst out to catch his breath.
Raiga stood around the steaming ruins of his collapsing jutsu, his swords readied and the steaming puddles of lava cooling into glass. Kakashi could see some of the man's outfit was singed, but it looks like he'd managed to avoid the worst of the combination attack.
But it cost him the lightning spirit he'd created. He probably dismantled the thing and used the body to protect himself.
The man gave him a nod, grinning.
"I have a deal for you, Hatake."
"What?"
He vaguely gestured his left hand in the direction of Kinami-ko. "We came here to trash the port. We did that. Now we're just trying to get out."
"You just committed more people."
"I ordered my boys to get the others out. We don't leave people behind when we can help it, Hatake." There was something familiar in the man's eyes just then, and Kakashi knew that his opponent could see it in him, too. "You understand that, right?"
He did. Oh damn if he did. But that didn't make things square.
"You killed one of my kids."
Raiga shrugged. "That Namikaze brat killed more men tonight than anyone else. I don't think you even scratched ten, that boy's killed at least four times as many as you did. Couldn't really let him run around."
"That doesn't exactly help your case, you know." Maybe he could catch the man in a genjutsu now. Something simple like the ones Sakura had been picking up. He could probably manage one of those without any seals.
"Ah!" He saw the chakra pulse before he felt it in the air. The infant technique he was forming shatted before it could truly take hold. "None of that. Besides, it's not like we didn't lose people on either side. Doesn't mean we have to waste more lives, eh? Or would you rather risk the lives of your remaining kids to take a shot at revenge for one?"
Kakashi grit his teeth. He knew Sakura and Sasuke were still out there. Hells, he could hear Sakura as she threw around explosives and sending raiders into each other like bowling pins.
But would they last? They were exhausted, outnumbered, and outgunned. The Akatsuki members were keeping Rin and the Kiri contingent busy, and it had clearly not been enough to actually protect their objective. And while Kakashi was doing much better now that he could use his earth jutsu, he was only managing to fight Raiga to a stalemate. He could probably keep buying time until their reinforcements arrived, but that still raised the same question that Raiga brought up.
Was it worth it? Would it be worth it for Naruto?
"And how do you suggest we do this?"
"You call your people off, and we let you pull back. Recover your wounded, treat them, whatever. I get anyone that isn't dead back unto our remaining ships and we sail off into the night before your reinforcements arrive."
Kakashi stiffened, Raiga laughed.
"Educated guess, Hatake-san." The missing-nin answered in a sing-song tone. "You're not stupid. The moment you saw us coming, the right move was to call for reinforcements. Really, I'm impressed you lot managed to hold out at all."
"What about the Akatsuki?"
Again, Raiga shrugged. "I don't order them around. You get Raiga's Raiders off your back. The Akatsuki can decide on their own if they want to leave or stay here. But if I know Kisame any, he probably wants to be done with this job, anyway. Unless Terumi's kid managed to wrangle him into a grudge match."
"And how do we know we can trust you?"
His opponent stared at him pointedly, as though he expected Kakashi to know.
Well, he did. It was pointless to go through all of this negotiating if they could just win the fight of attrition, which they were. Kakashi knew that they'd make it costly, but they'd lose all the same, and if what he'd seen earlier was any indication, Raiga really did care about his men.
He didn't like it, but he'd much rather go home with two of his students than none at all.
"Alright. You have yourself a deal. At least until our reinforcements arrive."
"Fine."
~TtT~
Haruno Sakura felt her face warm as pillars of fire and stone rose from the explosions she'd caused.
Panicked screams came from all sides when she'd first done it, Naruto's explosive tags landing behind enemy lines and - from the sound of it - spooking even the veteran raiders.
It had gotten her the time she needed to pull back and put Naruto in with the other injured. As angry as she was, it wouldn't have done her friend much good to still be in the fighting when he was incapacitated.
And even from behind she'd tried to help, tossing more explosive covered rocks with her enhanced strength.
Unfortunately, most of her shots had missed, either going too long and into the water or too far left or right where they served as distractions at most. She was never really the marksman of their group, and trying to aim while carrying someone and moving at the same time didn't help. That was Sasuke's thing in the team, and Tenten's out of their group of friends. She was more the type to find something large to toss, since larger projectiles were harder to miss with.
Her eyes narrowed. That was definitely something she'd want to consider in the future.
After she dropped Naruto off with doctor Onigumo, she returned to the fighting to continue helping, more explosive rocks announcing her return. That was when she spotted Sasuke fighting one of the veterans.
Well, it was easy for her to assume it was one of the veterans when the raider was conjuring walls of persistent flame in the middle of a storm.
And just like with her return to the front, she announced her approach with a flurry of explosive kunai.
"Sasuke-kun!"
Red eyes turned to her, eyebrows raised before they turned back to their opponent. The smoke of the explosion blown away and the fires around their opponent, put out.
"The force of an explosion can knock the fires off the tar." She told him. Again, she found herself looking at his face even if only briefly. "Also, is that-"
"Sharingan." His answer was clipped, his attention on the veteran raider. "I think seeing Naruto get hit activated it."
Nodding, Sakura turned back to their opponent, who was now observing her. The raider was covered in a tattered cloak and looked to be hunched over pretty badly. Where did Raiga find this guy?
"Naruto?"
"Okay. Out cold, but okay." She wanted to smile at being able to tell him that, but the veteran had other things in mind, and a stream of tar flew out from under the hood at them with a flash of red light. It was lit on fire shortly afterwards.
Sakura was the first of the two to respond, a reinforced fist smashing into the ground and kicking up blasted earth. The combination of the force and the crater stopped the tar from reaching her, and the flame covered her next move. She circled right, hoping the wall of fire and piles of stone would cover her.
Metal struck metal on the other side of the wall, overpowering the crackling of water striking lit tar. Sasuke was trying to get her an opening.
Raising her first while readying a genjutsu, she decided she'd take it just as Sasuke's attacks started slowing down.
The blast of the force kicked the tar back, some of the air putting out the fire or smothering it. She could feel her genjutsu taking hold with the sound as her trigger.
Sakura charged, her first swinging.
All she met was air, the tattered cloak fluttering as the raider leapt over the strike.
He'd seen through her genjutsu? At the very least he should have realized she'd moved half a second after she did so.
She was flipping end over end a blink of an eye later, stone scraping against hardened skin until she managed to punch an arm into the earth to get a grip.
Only a cry of warning from her teammate gave her enough of an opportunity to leap away as another wave of tar was sent at her.
"So, the Sharingan." She asked him as they regrouped. Sasuke sending several explosive-charged kunai at both their opponent and the fire to get them more room to move. "Think you can copy what he's doing? It can do that, right?"
He grunted in response as they both backed away to avoid the raider's own kunai.
"Sadly, I don't have any seals to copy." Sakura almost turned to him at the sheer disappointment in his voice as he said that. "He's just been using the half-ram seal to do his jutsu."
Well that sucked.
"The genjutsu not work?"
Sakura shrugged. "It didn't seem to. I know it worked. I felt it work."
"I saw the chakra for it." Was his answer. "Guy didn't pay it any mind, though."
"So genjutsu sticks, but doesn't do anything."
"Or he has a way to get around it."
"Want more info?"
"Sure."
This time it was Sakura throwing out explosive kunai, this time aiming wide and letting the baldes scatter about. Their opponent wasn't very keen on seeing what would happen, immediately using some sort of wind barrier jutsu to knock the closest ones away and actually dashing towards them while actually forming hand seals.
"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Holy Phoenix Flower)"
Sasuke groaned as he got behind Sakura while she kicked her feet into the ground to raise a slab for them to use for cover.
"I already know that one!"
The barrage of fireballs came while Sakura activated her genjutsu. Sasuke moved left while she made a leaping dodge to the right. Her foot smashed into the wet stones with an audible crash as she spotted Sasuke drawing their opponent's attention with another flurry of kunai and shuriken.
Her half-ram seal was ready, the sound of her hitting the ground activating the genjutsu, the illusion taking hold almost immediately to delay the sound and sight of what she was about to do.
Tumbling at the landing, she took a handful of small rocks and sent them flying towards the raider before righting herself and jumping to attack from a different angle.
She gave herself half a second's delay. Enough time for the rocks to hit, and her to clear most of the distance towards him.
Her teammate's kunai were knocked out of the sky before crouching, clearly preparing to get out of the way of Sakura's attack.
Instead, the raider staggered when the first of her rocks hit his hunched back. Sakura heard the sound of stone striking hardened wood.
A yelp came from beneath the tattered cloak.
Sakura was thrown to the earth a blink of an eye later, her hardened skin scraping against shattered concrete and digging her body into the mud. She barely had time to get up before a river of already-lit tar was rushing towards her.
"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu)"
Her teammate's intervention broke the stream and got her the opportunity to dodge away without the raider following her. She could feel the heat splash around her ankles as she leapt away and regrouped with Sasuke.
She hoped the rain would wash away the tar.
"I don't think he can see through illusions." Was the first thing she told him. "He was reacting to me, but didn't notice the rocks."
Sasuke nodded. "And did you hear what happened when the rocks hit?"
"Yeah." She turned to look at the raider that had taken the spot that Sakura had just vacated. He had the puddle of still-burning tar between them, but seemed to be observing them, quietly. "We'll need to watch out for their teammate, too, I guess. But projectiles are the way to go."
He chuckled, reaching into one of his back pouches and taking out a soldier pill to pop into his mouth. A crunch and swallow later, Sasuke was grinning. "My kind of plan."
Scanning the area, Sakura spotted a relatively whole stone slab, mostly just frayed around the edges from all the chaos, but still very useable.
The pulse of chakra that had sent Sakura flying had broken her genjutsu, so she readied another one while as Sasuke finished his hand-seals and sent a two-part attack of a great fireball, followed by a barrage of smaller shots.
Instead of dodging, though, the raider raised a wall of earth to block it.
Perfect.
Quickly disengaging she made a break for the slab, covering her retreat with several exploding kunai she directed at the mud wall. The sound of the boom would be the trigger for her latest genjutsu.
She kept an eye on the wall as she got to the slab, seeing the wall shake as Sasuke added explosives of his own to the mix before it gave and was replaced by tar that seemed to reach out for her teammate like a malicious spirit from the old stories. It reminded her of Naruto's ink shadows, almost.
Reaching into her pouch, she pulled out another bundle of explosive notes and stuck them to the slab before picking it up. Chakra rushed to her hands, collecting at her fingertips in the same way Tsunade's notes said she should, the same way she was still trying to master.
One turn, and then another, and the slab was sent flying. The chakra gathered in her hardened fingers exploding to send it spinning faster than a frisbee thrown at the parks back home.
It went wide, veering off to the far left with no way to really hit their target.
But that wasn't really her problem.
Her genjutsu hid the slab, directing an advanced illusion that rush straight past Sasuke while she used the force of her throw to jump up and over.
"Sasuke-kun!"
The raider's tar wrapped over and around him like a shell while stone spikes rose in anticipation of Sakura's attack. Just like she figured, the raider could sense them, but not what they were doing.
So the raider wasn't at all ready for the wirebound slab that Sasuke had managed to coax into the shield, the force of the explosion blasting through the tar and rock and splintering the slab into concrete shrapnel.
That was when Sakura sent her charged punch into the smoke with a cry.
"Hell yeah!"
Smoke was set alight before a blast of wind turned it into an explosion of its own.
"What the-"
"Sakura!"
Shrapnel that had aided in her attack was sent outward alongside the force of the wind-empowered flame. While the force was something her hardened body could handle, the heat not so much. She could feel burns break out on her skin, and the fingers inside her kote get distinctly uncomfortable.
From the edge of her eye, she saw Sasuke get thrown back by the force. She hoped he was spared from the worst of it.
She landed near him, immediately sending healing chakra and dealing with the worst of the burns while she crawled to make sure he was okay.
There was blood, but she could hear him coughing and cursing as the smoke was pushed away by the storm.
"He got my left shoulder and right thigh." Sasuke got out after he finished. Red eyes looked at her. There was worry there that she was sure was reflected in her own.
Pulling back was probably the smart move, at least enough for her to get him some first aid so he wouldn't die on her then and there. Spirits, she didn't even know how serious it was. For all she knew he'd be losing use of those limbs permanently. It's not like she could see well enough to tell.
"Nice try." It was the raider. Turning, Sakura was greeted by the sight of cleared smoke and a cloak ripped to shreds in places, burnt away in others. Their opponent was just a few years older than they were with soaked hair that clung to his face and belt straps criss-crossed over his chest that must have been made of sterner stuff than some of the armor she'd seen since it survived their whole exchange.
Hard to miss was the large wooden barrel that the belts were attached to, and the slit that housed two red pin-pricks of light.
Sakura slid in front of her downed teammate. Her now-healing arms raised with her fists clenched. She was thankful that the cold water of the storm was cooling her kote.
"I didn't think you'd see through how Ranmaru's bloodline limit worked so easily. You even managed to make genjutsu effective, too." He nodded at them. "Pretty impressive for genin. Most aren't even able to use elemental ninjutsu that well." The raider seemed to consider them for a moment, and Sakura felt like she was being studied. Behind him, Ranmaru's - or at least she guessed it was Ranmaru's - red eyes seemed to brighten then dim.
The night lit up again, in much the same way it had many times tonight, as a bolt of lightning shot up into the sky this time. Sakura felt her legs tense, expecting another lance to come down the same way it had for Naruto.
Instead, it branched out like some sort of incandescent tree.
"Looks like the fighting is over" She turned back to the raider, who was also looking at the signal.
"It is."
Sakura almost stumbled back in surprise when she saw her sensei drop down between them, almost falling unto her bleeding teammate. Sasuke made his displeasure known by grunting in annoyance despite the pain he was clearly in. Sakura decided that was a good sign.
Hatake Kakashi looked to the raider, "We've agreed to terms with Kurosuki. You lot can collect your wounded and what dead you can manage and pull back. We'll be doing the same."
The raider nodded. "How long do we have?"
"Till our reinforcements arrive."
"Fair enough." Looking over his shoulder with a grin confident enough it confused Sakura, he said, "Looks like we're finally going home, Ranmaru-kun."
And he was off.
Minutes later, and a brief update on how Naruto survived his encounter with a bolt of lightning, a much-relieved Kakashi had helped them get to a more covered position beneath a tree that had somehow survived all the fighting. That it was nestled right up against a sturdy looking boulder on the edge of the street to the far side of the neighborhood probably helped.
"Is it actually over, sensei?" She asked after they'd picked Sasuke off the ground and she'd started to deal with the worst of his injuries. The raiders had approached with their arms raised as they picked through the injured and dead. Guards on their side did the same.
Doctor Onigumo had even come by to inform her that Naruto was still stable and helped her with Sasuke very briefly before going to deal with the more serious cases. Sakura was going to be helping them, too.
"For us, yes," said Kakashi, "the fight against Akatsuki's still going on, though." He waved his hand in the direction of what was once Kinami-ko.
Looking there, she could still see flashes of blue, orange, and red light.
"I'll explain the rest to you later." He told her before she could ask any more. Gloved hands landed on her shoulder and pushed her away. "Let me keep an eye on Sasuke here while I make sure the raiders are staying true to their word. The others still need your help."
"O-of course, sensei."
He gave her a thumbs up and a smile that, despite how grim the past night had been, managed to comfort Sakura just a little bit.
"You did good, Sakura. All three of you did. I'm proud of you."
~TtT~
Sharks came out through the fog of cooling steam and the darkness, their teeth bared and maws open.
Kagami swung with her tails, crushing the faux creatures and turning them into bursts of water and steam. Immediately after, she leapt to avoid the strike from Samehada when Hoshigaki burst through the mist to strike at her.
The jinchuuriki responded by tossing a miniature spear of superheated coral at him.
All it did was slow him down, sadly, Samheada draining the chakra-generated heat from the coral before Hoshigaki's enhanced strength crushed it.
Four strikes.
That's how many he'd managed to land in the minutes since he'd started rushing for her while using his conjured sharks to deal with her captain and her brother.
And in that time, he'd managed to drain enough charka for him to just keep creating more and more of his favored animals and throw them carelessly at them as means of finding them, keeping them occupied, or outright hurting them.
It resulted in a terrible loop. Hoshigaki would land a strike, use the chakra to create more water sharks. The water sharks would fly about the storm and use the cover of night to strike at them and keep her allies preoccupied. Since they were preoccupied, Hoshigaki would have free reign to strike at Kagami without giving her enough time to make attacks that could get around that sword of his.
Just as the living blade was about to take another bite out of their reserves, however, the Akatsuki member was struck by an icicle. The force of the blow was strong enough to stagger him and for Kagami to coat her arms in thickened coral. Her claws protected, she swiped at the sword to get herself the opening to pull away and assist the others.
That help from Haku and Suigetsu was maybe the only reason they hadn't been completely overwhelmed. Several times they'd already done it, usually going for potshots at Hoshigaki just as he was engaging Kagami and making her enough of an opening to get an attack in or to get away.
Under normal circumstances, she'd have wondered how they'd known where she was, but between the glowing form of the chakra cloak and the steam she made whenever the rain touched her or her lava jutsu, it was pretty obvious.
Kimimaro was the first she'd found, swarmed by the faux beasts, but managing to not be overwhelmed by covering himself in spines. She managed to scatter them with a few swipes of her tails.
"Kagami."
"Nii-sama."
Without missing a beat, she turned and thrust her arms into the wet earth below, pumping her chakra into it. Her brother stood behind her, his eyes on the fog.
She'd tried this several times already, but buying time was the most they could do right now. With full access to his jutsu and overcharged on chakra stolen from her, Hoshigaki could easily deal with whatever it was they had to throw at him.
The growing lake of lava lit up the night and created a wall of steam. Another pulse of chakra into it, and she started to raise spears, the same ones she'd managed to hurt Hoshigaki with, heated and formed with chakra, but not maintained by it. There'd be nothing in these for Samehada to consume. These could hurt both him and the sword.
But the sharks would return, crashing themselves into the lava pool and cooling it into brittle glass.
Still, Kagami was persistent, and could still use glass spears just as well as ones of lava.
"You're a stubborn one, kid." The monster said as he dodged the first two spears and shattered with his arm, the shards swept away by the rain. "I can respect that, but this is getting real annoying."
Her brother stepped in to engage the swords, man. Predictably, the sharks came in to prevent the genin from engaging in close quarters, harrying her brother to allow Hoshigaki access to her.
Kagami entered the melee, rushing towards her brother while engaging the Akatsuki member with coral-armored limbs to protect her from a few strikes of Samehada and maybe relieve her brother.
If she was lucky, Haku could get another shot off, or Suigetsu could go in and help out the captain.
But that didn't happen.
Even through the chakra cloak, she felt the burst of air and heard the shattering of stone and glass as something crashed in front of her. There was a cry, the sound of Hoshigaki being tossed into the darkness of the storm.
Looking over a shoulder was a single, golden eye framed by white hair.
"Ji-Jiraiya-jii."
"Hello, Kagami-chan. You're a long way from home, aren't you?"
The sage was gone before she could answer, disappearing into the night with a burst of force that sent back the rain.
~TtT~
Kisame knew he was in trouble.
Jiraiya was here.
Jiraiya of the fucking Sannin was here.
Why the hell? This was supposed to be a low value target!
How lucky were these kids? It was already crazy enough that people like Momochi and Hatake were here, much less someone like Murasaki that seemed to be able to keep Itachi preoccupied. Sure, Hatake made sense. According to Itachi's intel, he might have been the assigned jounin sensei, but for the rest to be here? A jinchuuriki of the Mist no less.
He knew being lucky was a thing, but this was on a whole different level.
It had to do with the blond kid being a Namikaze brat, didn't it? Made sense to give him a good teacher since he was the Yellow Flash's kid. But why the hell would one of the Sannin be here? How'd he even know to come?
Was this supposed to be some sort of test? Kisame could see that happening if this wasn't Konoha. This was certainly something Kiri would have done before Yagura and Terumi took over. Besides, the earliest warning they had of an attack was hours before they arrived. Hells, even Kisame hadn't known that this was going to be their job until they met the client, and they went straight here after.
Still, there was no way he was going to be able to hold off fighting that man, Momochi, and the Kaguya kid in order to take the jinchuuriki.
Besides, the boss said it was early anyway. It only looked convenient at the time. Might as well just take their win and go. This was still a hefty payd-
Kisame barely had time to block the flying punch thrown at him, Samehada coming up just in time. Despite that, he felt the force of the blow going through his body, throwing him up and away from the older shinobi.
His vision seemed to lurch, his mind swimming as the force of the punch knocking him was suddenly stopped. Kisame heard, through the howling wind, the pop of his ankle dislocating before he felt the pain.
The old man grabbed him before he could get out of reach.
Fighting the disorientation, he swung his sword wildly, hoping the threat of his sword would get the man to let go. Jiraiya caught it with his geta. His geta.
And then he broke Kisame's leg with his elbow. The man was strong enough to do it with one motion, even through Kisame's chakra-empowered body.
He'd have screamed if he didn't get punched in the stomach instead, sputtering as the air was pushed out.
Jutsu. He couldn't beat this man in a fistfight like this. He needed his jutsu.
Desperate, he let go of Samehada, the living weapon falling away from him as he cycled through seals and pushed his chakra into the rain around him and the sea below.
His greatshark materialized from the air, forming faster than any other time he'd called on it. It drove itself into the Sannin as he called the other sharks he'd made to him, those that had been keeping the Kiri-nin busy.
A fist drove into the water-shark's maw, chakra blasting the head away in what Kisame knew should have been a shower of gore. That same fist rose to drive another strike into Kisame just as they splashed into the water.
Then the rest of his sharks came. They bit into the sage, reminding Kisame of a carcass falling into a tank filled with piranhas.
But he saw no blood, and the hand around his injured ankle held fast.
It was Samehada that saved him. His weapon landed in the water and rushed out of the blue to take a swipe at the man, smashing through several of his sharks in the process.
Unlike the sharks, Samehada's scales struck home, blood bursting into the water from the arm that held Kisame.
Jiraiya let go.
Lightning flashed overhead.
Kisame saw the snarl of razor-sharp teeth under the water as golden eyes glared.
The Akatsuki member took hold of Samehada and jetted off into the sea.
He needed to find Itachi and get out of here.
~TtT~
It was eerie how calm the sea was inside the dragon-water-shell his one-time mentor had created. The water barely moved, and none of the rain or wind got in. It actually might have gotten stuffy if it wasn't large enough to sustain its own air current.
He'd disabled his Sharingan a while ago, seeing little point in just having his sight polluted by the sky-blue glow of chakra that came from everywhere, and it wasn't like they were really fighting, anyway.
"So the Akatsuki have more than just the S-rank missing nin for members."
Itachi had been passing Rin every bit of information he'd managed to squeeze out in the time since he'd joined the organization.
He nodded, though he was pretty sure that Rin couldn't really see it. The dome was only lit by what little could filter in through the dragon. Even then, it was faint and inconsistent, mostly coming from the lightning flashing overhead.
"We have people hidden all across the elemental nations, and they're able to function as part spy network and logistics."
"You're not aware of the exact numbers." It wasn't a question.
Itachi shook his head, anyway. "No. And the leader's been cagey about introducing us to them. The only reason why I know about it is because parts of that group are introduced to us when it's necessary, like if we're handling a mission at a location that requires non-combative support."
At this Rin chuckled. "Sounds familiar."
On that, he'd agree, though he definitely got to see more of the Akatsuki's support organization in action than he did the one Konoha provided. He'd learned near the end of his tenure in ANBU that most information was relayed to the council directly by some means and didn't pass through lower-ranked shinobi hands when possible.
He suspected that the Akatsuki was much the same, and wondered if someone in the non-combatant division had more access to their leader than the 'main' members did.
"All the same, this is helpful information." Rin had never taken her hand off the hilt of her katana even though she sheathed it, and Itachi was smart enough to know that just because she appeared relaxed didn't mean she couldn't pull out any number of weapons or seals at the drop of a hat. "It gives us an idea on what to watch out for, if not a concrete idea on how to deal with it."
Itachi was much the same, his hands crossed beneath his sleeves while still armed.
He'd considered his once-mentor someone he could trust, but should the show need to be sold, they had better be ready to make it look like they had been going at it for a while.
Still, he was galled at not being able to be out there to help his brother, but he also knew that there was little to no reason why the fighting wouldn't immediately end once he could start plunging entire parts of the battle as a whole into genjutsu they couldn't hope of breaking out of. It was part of how Rin had justified her taking him on to the rest of the defenders. She was practically immune to his genjutsu.
The jury was still out on whether his Mangekyo would work on her. He'd never tried. In fact, he wasn't entirely sure if she was even aware it existed, or that she knew that he had it. That had been one of the few things he'd kept from her. The Tsukuyomi was an entirely different beast and both used enough chakra to implant the illusion that it was unlikely that her strategy of using a chakra barrier to stop it from entering her system would be enough.
Shame they'd never really had the chance to test it out, and now wasn't the best time. He wanted to be ready to step in should something go sideways. The technique left him drained afterwards, and he still couldn't keep himself up for very long.
Unfortunately, Itachi was playing a dangerous game, being part of an organization of powerful ninja that seemed to be partially lead by someone that wanted to destroy Konoha and had attempted to do so. Madara made it no secret that he was working with the leader of the Akatsuki and not for them.
It would make becoming stronger a top priority should he ever need to get away.
Speaking of which…
"You mentioned that you'll be traveling again."
"That's right. With Naruto now a genin, we expect he'll be at home less, and I can handle his training whenever I'm back in town."
"Would you be able to take an appointment?"
"As your handler?"
"As a medic."
She considered him for a long moment.
"Does this have to do with your eyes?"
"Yes."
She seemed to shrug. "Come by the old inn, and leave me a message there with the staff. Let's schedule something."
Itachi blinked.
He didn't expect it to be that easy.
Rin noticed his surprise. Giggling, she added, "I'd offer to do it now, but I don't think we'd be able to stage a fight while I'm doing it."
What?
"In the field?"
"It wouldn't be the first time I've had to swap someone's eyes in the field."
Itachi had opened his mouth to ask about that, remembering that she'd been the one to give Kakashi his Sharingan, but never the story behind it. Instead, he paused, looking in the direction of the port.
That was Kisame.
"We-"
"- have company." Rin finished, drawing her sword. The world seemed to rumble as the water dragon that had protected them from the storm began to move, wind and rain coming through the gaps between its coils.
His Sharingan was active and he'd let the kunai in his hands fly. Rin deflected them with little thought before the water dragon's head was rushing downward at him. Rin charged.
Kisame arrived before the dragon could close the distance, blasting out of the water and passing overhead. If not for his Sharingan, Itachi might have missed the man reaching for his collar or the torn and bloody mess that was Kisame's coat. He could still spot blood dripping from the man's pants.
"Wha-"
And then he was underwater, jetting away from the fight faster than he'd ever seen Kisame swim before.
What the hell happened?
AN Starts Here
So we have one last chapter to really tie the arc together, but this was supposed to be its climax. For the most part, it's done, and I wanted to look back at how all of this happened.
This arc as a whole had two goals in mind.
Firstly, I wanted to recreate how the main kids (team seven) set the tone for their character development for the rest of the story. Relative to canon, I felt like that Wave mission had helped solidify the roles that they'd all be filling over the course of the series. This wasn't the case for everyone, but some of the start for that was there.
In this case, I made it a little more explicit, with Naruto having to come to terms with what costs it entails to protect what matters to him. This was visited on the brief time he had to coming to grips with what he did to the men on those first three ships before his attention was pulled away to the battle at-hand. In Sasuke's case, it's realizing that he's not okay with losing people close to him, and wanting to gain power to that end.
Sakura's is a little more explored since her role as a budding medic left her a little more time to be introspective while she did her work healing the injured.
This is supposed to inform what attitudes they'll be approaching life with following the events of this clusterfuck of a mission. Naruto with an awareness of the cost of the things he wants to do, and the responsibility that can come of being someone in charge of others, Sasuke with the demands circumstances might make of him to protect what matters most, and Sakura with an understanding that you can't always save everyone, but you damn well ought to try.
I hope that came across well even though the meat of their own reflections is set to happen next chapter with the real ending of the arc.
The second goal of this arc was to write out a pitched battle involving multiple fronts while keeping everything interesting and relatively understandable.
Mixed results would be the best way I can describe this. The battle felt hectic from what some of the reviews have told me. I'm glad it did, because that had been the goal. I wanted to show both the readers and the characters how chaotic actual battles could be on the ground while quite a few of them had to look at the larger picture and see what was happening on other fronts.
Stuff like Sasuke spotting ships coming closer, Kisame moving from the battle at sea to in the port proper, and eventually Jiraiya's arrival all reflect how changes on one front could affect the other, while the kids had to deal with the chaos that was their first real life or death battle.
This served to teach a lesson to them on how the battle moves and the results on one front can affect all the others, and as practice for myself as a writer. From the writing standpoint, I had to make sure that each part of the fight had effects that would echo outward.
An example of this was how Itachi managed to give Kisame the opening he needed to pull away from a losing engagement into one where he was dominant, and how Kakashi had managed to delay Raiga just enough that he wouldn't be making personal landfall till near the battle's end.
All this while jumping from perspective to perspective with action happening on all sides at the same time.
Did I succeed in creating an exciting and thrilling encounter where the stakes felt real? Maybe. Exciting and thrilling, I certainly hope so. Real stakes? No one from the main group of ninja died. It felt a bit cheap that no one did, but I also tried to show casualties in the form of the guardsmen who were largely the most at-risk anyway being the real frontliners.
Am I satisfied with how the arc played out? Sort of. I managed to do most of what I wanted, but I felt I reached to far with this, and had to write far, far more into this arc to make everything work than I intended to. I still wanted to add more, but felt it was going too long already.
This even reflects in Grim Tutor (the next chapter) with the goodbye scene getting cut in the interest of time. We already breeched.
But the most important bits, the lessons, the experience for the kids, the foreshadowing for future story arcs were there, so I'm satisfied.
Now, I'm excited to see how the next arc plays out, because it's surreal that I'm finally going to get to start it!