Shattered Destiny:
Chapter 17: Bandits of Lightning
The firebolt explodes as it meets the spear in an eruption of sparks and flames.
+20 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (89/275)
The explosion catches him, but it doesn't do much. "Get out of here, I'd feel bad killing a one armed kid." The missing nin tells me.
I bite my tongue, he's out of range of Unrelenting Force.
-24 chakra.
He dodges the firebolt, it explodes behind him taking out the already damaged wall of the building he came from.
People run out of the building from the opening I created, coughing and choking. "WHY!?" I scream, throwing my arm wide.
"For this." He hefts the spear into the air. "Quite the weapon, never seen anything like it before."
One moment he's far away, the next he's behind me. "Last chance to flee, it'd be a shame to kill a cripple."
"Don't underestimate me!" I grit my teeth, spinning around and- "FUS!" Shout as I leap away.
He wasn't expecting the shockwave, nearly knocking him off balance. I smirk at his surprise. Fifteen second before I can shout again. "What are you, a sound shinobi pretending to be water?" He twirls his spear, electricity arcing behind it.
Never thought about it that way, without taking my eyes off of him I shake my head slightly to clear my mind of distractions. Where're the other three missing nin?
-24 chakra.
Again he cuts my firebolt in half, detonating it away from him to avoid the flames. "I don't want to fight you." He shakes his head.
"Why not!? You're killing civilians left and right, so why am I so different!?" I throw my arm wide, gesturing to the burning village around us.
"Killing a kid's never easy… And you're a cripple on top of that." He says with pity in his voice, making my blood boil further. "I'm giving you every opportunity to run, or I will kill you." The pity is gone, replaced with certainty.
"FUS!"
[Unrelenting Force] is still on cooldown.
Crits sustained. -34 health. -30 health. Chakra depleted. -30 health. Chakra depleted.
Koi took point, forcing herself to stick with Zabuza and Satu. Chances are that the missing nin are in the village causing chaos, but it's not worth risking assuming that.
The screams can be heard as flames come into view. They're just in time to see Keiki impaled and pinned to the ground, spear through the chest. "Zabuza."
"Y-yes, sensei?"
"Mind if I see your sword for a minute or two?"
Zabuza speeds up and Koi takes the blade from his back, while she's not proficient with something so large, it's by far the strongest weapon at their disposal. "W-what about us?" Satu interjects.
"You two are going to see if that boy is still alive, and if he is get him out of the way." It's hard to tell who she's more angry with, Keiki or the spear wielder.
There isn't time for anymore talking, Koi leaps down from the tree swinging. There is a flurry of frost and lightning as the spear and sword collide. The momentum of her charge pushing the missing nin back several steps before he can regain his balance.
"And you must be the rest of his team." He says, very calm as to what he's done.
"Where'd you get the spear?" Koi demands, the craftsmanship looks very identical to Zabuza's sword. Not much of a stretch to assume that they're related.
"Where'd you get the sword?" He returns, very interested in the weapon in question.
A short distance away Zabuza and Satu stop next to their teammate's body. "I-I think I'm going to throw up." Satu shoves her hands under her scarf and turns her whole body away from the sight.
"I would be amazed if-" Zabuza holds a hand near Keiki's mouth. "Son of a…" He's breathing, but it doesn't sound like it's easy.
"H-he's alive!?" Satu gags, spinning back around long enough to remember why she turned away in the first place.
Without a word Zabuza takes the tonfa's off of his teammate's belt. "I can move him, can you keep an eye out?" He turns to Satu.
"Y-y okay." Satu readies explosive kunai in shaky hands as Zabuza gingerly grips Keiki to pull him out of the warzone. "Over there!"
The other missing nin come out into the open. "Stay behind me." Zabuza says.
"No! I'm tired of being useless." Satu changes her grip, hands covering the tags on them. She steps up next to Zabuza.
"Grew a spine?" Zabuza asks glancing at his teammate.
"S-shut up." She glances back at Keiki, he's yet to open his eyes. "Idiot…"
"Say something?"
"N-nothing!"
One of the missing nin points them out, then takes the spoils they've been pillaging and heads off. The other two walk at the genin of Team Four. "Remind me to kill you when you get up." Zabuza tells Keiki.
Of course he doesn't reply. "Why're they walking so slowly?" Satu asks.
"Intimidation, or arrogance." Zabuza notes.
Without warning Koi and the spear nin clash between them. "D-do you think that they'll team up on Sensei?" Satu asks worriedly.
"Only one way to guarantee that doesn't happen." Zabuza almost charges off, but then glances back at their fallen teammate.
"S-should we leave him?" She echos his thoughts.
"It'd be better if we could bring them to us." Zabuza says gritting his teeth as the missing nin start ganging up on their sensei.
Satu starts throwing kunai, detonating them as she can. Koi glances her way momentarily. Pride fills the young Kunoichi's heart, but it's quickly replaced with tension as the two missing nin break off to engage the genin.
"At least it's a fair fight." Zabuza grunts, settling into his usual stance…. Which isn't for tonfa.
Instead of answering, Satu gulps as she draws two new kunai, one of them isn't explosive. "To think, we contemplated leaving you alive." One of the missing nin says clashing with Zabuza.
"But you weren't going to."
"You didn't know that."
"I think I did." Zabuza blocks the katana with one tonfa and rams the other one into his solar plexus. The nin's eyes bug out as he collapses to the ground in a bundle. "Huh, I thought you'd be good." He says to the collapsed nin.
The other nin jumps back from Satu as a kunai detonates close to her face, arms brought up to protect the head. Once the smoke clears she sees her comrad on the ground. "What did you do?" She seethes.
"A decent shot to the solar plexus ends fights before they can begin." Zabuza says twirling the tonfa clumsily in his hands. "I thought all nin were taught this?" He looks to Satu, who shakes her head nervously.
"Tch, nobody told us there'd be a fourth shinobi team here." She holds her kunai up protectively, gauging Zabuza with wariness and murderous intent.
The Killing intent washes over Team Four. "You can hang back now." Zabuza tells Satu.
"N-n-no, I-I can-" The nin jumps at her.
Zabuza puts himself in the way, blocking the kunai with his tonfa but earning a leg to the gut, forcing him to drop his guard as he tries to regain his breath.
Without hesitation the missing nin twirls a kunai and- a swift gust of steam shoves her back with roughly the same power as Keiki's Unrelenting Force. "Thanks."
Satu gulps, steam rising from her hands and wrists and wrap around the metal of her kunai, making it glimmer in the light. Steam escapes from beneath her scarf as her nerves start getting the best of her.
Thankfully the shinobi Zabuza downed hasn't moved, he might be dead already.
The other shinobi returns, wielding steel batons. "What happened to him?" He asks, looking down at his fallen companion.
"The boy knows which vitals to hit, don't underestimate him."
"What about the girl?"
"Steam release."
"Sounds like someone would pay a pretty penny for her to be returned." He chuckles darkly, getting into a stance.
"There's a thought." She sounds as if she hadn't thought of that.
Satu gulps. "You'll have to get through me first." Zabuza growls, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"That won't be-" With an audible thwack an arrow suddenly appears in the missing nin's shoulder, electricity arcing from the arrow making him yelp in pain as he's paralyzed by enough electricity for smoke to come from the wound.
Satu and Zabuza look behind them, there's an archer several yards away notching another arrow. "Tch, I'm not dying here, forget this!" The last missing nin leaps away at a blur.
"Look out!" Zabuza turns around and jumps at Satu, knocking her to the ground as the explosive note left behind detonates. The flames lick at his back, but they're safe.
"T-thank you, Zabuza-san." Satu manages to get out.
"No problem." He turns to look at the archer. They stare at one another, unsure what to do about the other. Both of their headbands are visible and both of them are aware of the war going on… but neither of them know what to do at this exact moment.
...
"Lightning lance."
"Water prison."
"Discharge."
"Water Dragon."
The enormous water dragon hits, and a log is revealed. "Hah!"
"Kyah!" Koi puts chakra into her blade as she blocks the lightning spear, sparking madly.
She can feel the sparks hit her, numbed by the cold from her borrowed blade.
Suddenly there are two shinobi at Koi's side, their gear tells her that one's a jonin and the other's a genin. Their headbands have Lightning's logo on them… worrying.
"I don't know why you're here, and I don't care." The jonin says. "Thank you for the help."
Koi doesn't say anything, instead charging her blade making the cold aura thicken around it.
"A fine weapon, Water shinobi." The missing nin says. "It behaves like my spear."
"The one you stole, Shunichi." The genin spits.
"No, that you stole… My team and I went through those ruins, risking our lives only to have Lightning shinobi force us out and take the spoils." Shunichi spits in return.
"You're an A-rank Missing Nin, you actually think we'd let you roam around freely?!" The jonin exclaims.
Shunichi scoffs. "I got what I came for, and it looks like my companions have been bested…"
"Oh no you-" There's a flash as lightning strikes the ground, temporarily blinding the three of them, Shunichi is gone by the time the afterimages start. "Pah." The jonin lets out a puff of air.
The genin and jonin step away and stare at Koi, unsure what to do. "I get it." Koi says expectantly.
With a groan my eyes flutter open, unfocused but at least I'm alive. I inhale sharply upon seeing my health bar, it's mostly yellow… as are my stamina and chakra bars. "Ow." Breathing hurts.
"Your awake?" Is that Zabuza?
"Zabuza-" I'm cut off short.
-5 health.
By a punch to the head. "That's for scaring us!" Zabuza says angrily.
I can't say anything, I'm busy being in agony.
"Oh what, is the extent of your injuries finally getting to you?" He thwaps my forehead with a crooked finger. "Maybe next time you won't go running off on your own like that."
"Where are we?" I finally ask as my eyes focus.
"In the village you rushed off to save." Zabuza says. "While that sinks in, I'm going to go get sensei."
Fear gathers and I gulp it down, making it settle in my stomach. Trying to get up sends shots of pain through my chest, I remember pain followed by more pain… not much else.
My head gets incredibly light and I have to stop. It's in this moment of respite I have before the storm that is sensei comes in that I can feel something wrong.
I'm not breathing properly. I can inhale and exhale just fine just… something feels off about my chest.
The door slams open, catching my breath in my throat as sensei enters, slamming it shut behind her. Zabuza didn't follow her. "What were you thinking!?" She screams at me.
-10 health.
She slapped me hard enough for my neck to make an audible crack. I find it best to just stay silent… not that I could think of any words with my head feeling lighter than a feather. "Ow."
"Oh I bet that hurt, and not the spear through the chest!" She continues shouting at me. "How close did you come to death."
I glance down at my mostly yellow health bar… there's barely any red left. "Don't hit me again, please?"
"I don't know, I think Satu would want to hit you next." Sensei hasn't changed the look on her face since coming in… and it's starting to scare me.
"She can hit me later, pleaea- Sensei!" A Lightning shinobi walks into the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click.
"Junzo." Sensei greets.
"Koi." He returns the greeting.
Not enough chakra.
My hand burns, but no firebolt. "I hope you weren't going to burn the building down while we're resting here."
"Rest-what!?"
"We have a truce while the village rebuilds, thank you for your help." Junzo bows thankfully. "When we recover enough we'll be taking some off time in Kumogakure, we won't mention your involvement and I hope you won't come visit."
"A truce?" oh my head feels so light, I think it's getting worse.
"If you don't mind me asking." Junzo clears his throat. "How did you survive a spear through a lung?"
"Eh?" I blink, thinking about thinking is starting to hurt… please stop making me think, my neck still hurts.
"It's… who he is." Sensei sighs. "I hope you'll understand if I don't want to go into detail."
"Understandable, I had to see for myself."
"Huh?" I watch Junzo leave the room. "What about the others?" It hurts to ask.
"I had Zabuza go inform them of our situation and that we'd be staying here for a few days and to continue with the mission."
"Oh." It's a struggle to keep my eyes open, it feels like someone's pumping my head full of air.
"Have you learned your lesson?" Sensei suddenly asks.
"I… couldn't just leave-"
"I don't know how powerful your bloodline is, but there is a limit somewhere." Sensei interrupts. "We can't afford to have you running off on your own, believing that you're indestructible!" The emotion in her voice continues to rise. "If you run off and get yourself killed on your own, what would that do to your teammates, to the family that loves you?"
"You didn't even- contemplate helping them."
"We haven't shared Bingo lists for decades, for all we knew all four of them were S-rank missing nin, and even if we did choose to help we'd have to deal with the Lightning Shinobi waiting for us." She thwacks my head with a finger, I can feel the impact through my hollowed skull. "We were lucky only one of them was A-rank, the rest B-rank."
…
...
"Keiki?" Koi snaps her fingers in front of his face, no response. Worried she holds a hand near his nose, then lets out a relieved sigh as she can feel his breathing… weak as it may be. The lack of oxygen is getting to him, he hasn't died yet so there's no need to worry about his survival… but it seems that he's not immune to the body's requirements.
Koi pulls out a piece of paper and writes down her thoughts. "H-he's awake?" Satu asks, gingerly entering the room.
"Just missed him, he passed out from lack of oxygen."
"W-will he be okay?!"
"If lack of oxygen could kill him, he'd be dead already." Koi puts a reassuring hand on her genin's shoulder.
"It was scary, seeing him like that." Satu says, hugging her sensei.
"Yeah, I just hope something's gotten through that thick skull of his."
"Will he wake up again?"
"If his arm is anything to go by, he'll come out of his coma when his lung heals." How long is that going to take? "It could have been worse."
"How?"
"He could have been stabbed through the heart."
Satu doesn't say anything for a time. "I want to go home…"
While a trained soldier, Koi's shoulders slump a little. "I know, I know." She pats her genin's back reassuringly. Early graduates fresh out of the academy and straight onto the frontlines… they're not ready for this. "When we get back to Kiri, I'll see about getting us some time off."
"What if we don't?"
"Then I'll see about getting a mission that's inside of water… that's a promise." Other thoughts come to mind, but now's not the time for pessimism.
"Okay." Satu says simply.
"Now then… about your fire." Koi begins.
"Did Keiki-"
"No, I'm a jonin and your a genin trying to keep secrets with the rest of the team."
Satu lets out a sigh and hangs her head.
"Is there anything else your hiding from the team?." When Satu doesn't respond, Koi continues. "Keeping secrets like this can lead to casualties, Satu-kun."
"I-I'm sorry."
"I won't keep record of it if you really don't want me too, but if we're to stay alive I need to know what you can do."
Author's Notes: And another one done! And a chapter where Keiki isn't part of most of it, I have some reservations but I'm content with the choice. I hope you guys enjoyed this bit and the previous bits and I certainly hope you'll stick around! ALSO really quick With shattered destiny hitting almost one hundred followers I want to do something special for that magical number (I'm still amazed by it) so keep an eye on my profile for updates regarding that! Peace!