It was soon approaching the time for the audience to reconvene and for the grand finals to start. Suigetsu arrived at the waiting room to find Torasame was already there, leaning on a wall with his arms crossed… but no one else.
That's strange… I know that Kukyo said he was going to cheer from the stands and Jugo was looking for Tenten's missing Soldier Pill, but Gekido and Tia should have come back by now… Argh… Right now I can't afford to think about anyone else… My only concern is…
"Hey, Torasame!"
The orange-skinned giant turned his head Suigetsu's way with what seemed to be irritation coming from his face. "What do you want? Make it quick; the longer we talk the more chances we have of giving away our strategies."
"I just wanted to ask: could you pick Kabutowari as your prize? I want Kiba, Tia wants Nuibari, and Yuri wants Shibuki. You picking Kabutowari would give us everything we want."
"Sure. It makes no difference to me which sword I acquire anyway."
Suigetsu grinned. "So you're in it for the wish, then."
"That's none of your business. Better yet, why don't you surrender right now before anyone else gets hurt?"
Suigetsu shook his head. "Fat chance! There's a lot more riding on this fight than just the tournament. I wouldn't give up even if I wanted to."
"That's suicidal bravado. For your own sake, don't hold anything back."
"Same goes for you. If you don't give it everything you've got out there, you'll end up in even worse shape than Yuri."
"We've spoken long enough."
Torasame turned his head away and closed his eyes.
"Fine."
Suigetsu turned to face the stadium. He saw several spectators return to their seats, but the crowd was smaller than before. He figured that was only natural, of course; the grand final match was between a traitor and an outsider, so some people were bound to stop caring about the results. However, he was certain the ones that remained were on his side, wanting someone born and raised in the Hidden Mist to defeat the man who appeared out of nowhere and proceeded to decimate the entire village at its own tournament.
But despite the pressure, Suigetsu was calm. He knew what he was doing in this upcoming fight. Jugo warned him that Torasame could not be defeated through conventional methods, and Suigetsu admitted that to be true.
That was why Suigetsu began thinking about unconventional methods, and so he felt confident in his ability to win in spite of the odds stacked against him.
At that moment, Chojuro suddenly appeared and jogged passed him and Torasame toward the arena, which Suigetsu could see was cleaned during the intermission. It was as bright white as it was when the finals started.
"That was a lot of work… thank heavens I made it on time." Chojuro said. "Give it your all, you two…"
Within the next few minutes, the Daimyo and his guard, the Fifth Mizukage, and Killer B emerged from within the king's statue. Mei stood to address the crowd from her previous spot, and the Daimyo's guards were each holding a wooden box.
"Welcome back to the Strongest Under the Mist tournament! During the intermission it came to my attention that Yuri Joki has yet to recover sufficiently for the battle to determine third place! Hence by a previous agreement between the contestants, Yuri Joki forfeits third place to Tia Terumi, and we may begin the Grand Final Match right now! Suigetsu Hozuki, Torasame Hoshigaki, please come out and bring an end to the Strongest Under the Mist tournament!"
At the end of her announcement, Mei sat down. Meanwhile, several members of the audience left their seats and exited the stands, having only come to see the battle for third place.
When Suigetsu and Torasame walked out of the waiting room, initially no one made a sound. However, one person in the front row began chanting:
"Hozuki! Hozuki! Hozuki!"
The voice belonged to Kukyo. After repeating his cheer enough times, several others joined him, and by the time the fighters got into the starting position the whole crowd was rooting for Suigetsu to win.
Chojuro got into position and raised his right hand, then issued the same signal he'd used six times already today:
"Begin!"
The very moment Chojuro said that word, Suigetsu brought his hands together and fired water bullets at Torasame with all ten fingers. Torasame managed to dodge most of them, but one of the first ten bullets made him flinch for just long enough that Suigetsu could move his hands such that Torasame would be hit with all ten finger guns at once with each proceeding set of shots before Torasame had the time to react.
Suigetsu unloaded into Torasame incessantly, hundreds of bullets penetrating Torasame's clothes and flesh. When Suigetsu was finished, Torasame had been pushed to the corner of the ring and covered in tiny wounds, blood dripping from every last one. Against any other opponent Suigetsu would have already gone too far and killed them in direct violation of the rules.
"That's -"
Chojuro tried to intervene and stop the match, but someone stopped him:
"No. He can still fight."
It was Suigetsu, whose arms dropped to his sides in slight fatigue.
"What are you saying, Suigetsu-kun? Just look at him!"
"I'm saying he still has a trump card left in store for us."
Suigetsu looked at Torasame with a grin. The giant instinctively recalled their conversation before the match.
"Dammit… Is this what you meant back then?" Torasame asked.
Suigetsu winked. "Bingo! You're going to lose balance and fall out of the ring any second now. If you don't want that to happen, then show us your real power! Come on!"
Torasame looked up to the Water Daimyo for a brief second before resolutely nodding and, using all the strength he had left, he pulled a pill out of his pant pocket.
Right at that moment, Jugo – whose Sage Mode had run out during the recess - arrived at the waiting room.
"Sorry I'm late! I came as quickly as I could after telling Tenten I didn't find the -"
Jugo then raised an eyebrow and dropped his jaw upon seeing the heavily-wounded Torasame:
"… pill…"
Really… Did Torasame take Tenten's Soldier Pill while we weren't looking?
Jugo's thoughts would be dashed when he saw what happened next.
Torasame put the pill in his mouth and swallowed it whole. Then he clapped his hands and stood completely still in that position. In the next few seconds, Torasame started to roar, and such an intense chakra emanated from his body that the entire pool was forced out of the ring and drenched the front row, including Kukyo. Furthermore, Suigetsu braced himself by sticking to the ground with chakra and Chojuro ran into the waiting room for his own safety, but still kept an eye on the match due to his job as referee.
Also in response to this wave of chakra, Samehada started to shake uncontrollably. Killer B tried to placate it by holding its hilt and feeding it some of his own chakra, but that only went so far, and Samehada continued to squirm.
Noticing this, Mei immediately stood up and addressed the stadium:
"Audience, evacuate immediately! We will inform you of the results later! It's for your own good!"
In response to the order, the platoons of Hunter Ninja stationed in the stands began to take everyone out of the stadium. Most of the audience left without complaint, but one member was kicking and screaming, begging to be let go so he could see the battle to the very end:
"No… Hozuki's my comrade! He needs my support to get through this!"
Again, the voice belonged to Kukyo.
He fought back desperately enough that one of the Hunter Ninja was forced to stab him with a senbon and place Kukyo in a temporary death state to pacify him before being carried out of the stadium.
While the audience was evacuating, Torasame was transforming. All the wounds on his body regenerated in seconds, all of his orange skin turned great white, and the black stripes began glowing orange. In addition, fins protruded out of his arms and a larger one protruded from the back of his head to his mid-back while his hair receded into nothing. Furthermore, the top of his gi - already riddled with holes thanks to Suigetsu - burst apart completely leaving his large, toned chest and ab muscles bare for everyone to see. And lastly, he grew a tail out of his lower back and the gill-like markings on his face became actual gills.
In the middle of all this, Suigetsu tried shooting him once, but the bullet bounced off harmlessly during Torasame's transformation.
Jugo gasped as he recognized the form from Gyuki's memories. "This is…!"
B shook with terror-filled nostalgia. "Hey, hey, hey! That's just like when I fought Kisame!"
"Are you serious, Lord B?!" Mei asked.
"No doubt… But without Samehada I don't see how…"
"So I was right!" Suigetsu remarked as he saw the transformed Torasame before him. "You are a Shark Sage!"
"How did you figure it out?" Torasame asked. His voice notably hoarser than before and a little distorted.
"Jugo surrendering was my tipoff. Why would Jugo get the urge to transform the moment he stepped into the ring with you? It could have been a coincidence, but what if it wasn't? What if you had a source of concentrated Natural Energy with you? That pill you just ate, for instance!"
That makes sense… If Torasame could only gather Natural Energy fast enough to transform his right hand against Yuri, he'd have needed an alternate method to use Sage Mode in the heat of battle… Jugo thought. He brought a concentrated Natural Energy pill with him to the finals for just that purpose, but he didn't know the specifics of my Kekkei Genkai, unwittingly triggering me!
"Nonetheless… You will regret awakening the beast."
Torasame glided to the centre of the ring and made a hand seal. Suigetsu tried shooting his hands before his jutsu - whatever it was - could be completed, but the water was simply absorbed into Torasame's skin instead.
Suigetsu stared at the Shark Sage with anticipation. Okay, so any water I hit him with gets absorbed in Sage Mode… what now?
"Water Style: Water Prison Shark Dance!"
Torasame spewed out a liberal amount of water, which surrounded him in a sphere that began to slowly expand in all directions, covering more of the arena by the second. Instinctively, Suigetsu ran backwards at a slightly faster pace than the water approaching him, but he was forced to stop the moment he lost his balance and nearly ran off the edge of the stage.
B did his best to smile through the trip down bad memory lane. "Inside the dome or outside the ring; either way, Torasame's gonna sing." He rhymed.
It's a genius move on Torasame's part, I'll give him that. Jugo thought. If Suigetsu keeps running, then he'll go out of bounds. If Suigetsu goes in the water and stays solid, then he can't breathe. If Suigetsu goes in the water and becomes water himself, then Torasame will just sense and absorb his chakra, ending the fight right then and there… What are you going to do now, Suigetsu?
The dome of water kept expanding and Suigetsu had no choice but to take it head on. Seconds before the water consumed him, Suigetsu made a Tiger hand seal and in the next instant, two copies of Suigetsu appeared on either side of him from puffs of water. Suigetsu and the two Water Clones entered the Water Prison Shark Dance simultaneously and all three turned into thin bodies of water, camouflaged with the dome of water and themselves as the three spread apart and circled around Torasame.
Of course, the physical camouflage meant nothing for a Shark Sage.
"I can still sense your chakra!" Torasame shouted. One source has three times the amount of chakra as the other two… That has to be the original!
Thinking this, Torasame swam for the largest source of chakra. He bit into it and started to absorb the chakra, when all of a sudden the body of water exploded in Torasame's face, absorbing all the chakra at once as the water disappeared.
That's not right… The original should have turned solid, not exploded… Unless!
Torasame turned around in panic to face the two other sources of chakra that quickly merged back into one behind his back.
Deliberately giving a Clone more chakra than the original… That's insane! No matter… I'll just absorb all the rest at once!
Torasame swam up to Suigetsu - still a body of water - as quickly as he could. Suigetsu fled to the edge at the top, but no farther, and awaited the inevitable:
When Torasame was only inches away from Suigetsu, he suddenly stopped as he writhed in pain and the dome of water began to recede into Torasame.
"No… Not yet!" the Shark Sage screamed.
Torasame's entire Sage Mode transformation was reversing. His great white skin turned back into orange, his stripes stopped glowing, his fins retracted into his body, his hair grew back out, and his gills returned to being mere markings. Moments after his Sage Mode ran out, the water surrounding him disappeared, and Torasame fell down to the ring back-first near the edge, and Suigetsu fell to the ground beside him, still in the ring, right after.
At that point, Suigetsu solidified once more, standing tall above Torasame. He was gasping for breath and heavily exhausted. "Yeah… I totally get why… Naruto's the only one… who can pull off a stunt like that… on a consistent basis. You still there, Chojuro? ... Start counting…"
"Oh… Right!" Chojuro jogged back out to the arena. "1! … 2! … 3! … 4! … 5! … 6! … 7! … 8! … 9! …"
Before Chojuro could reach ten, however, Torasame began standing up, struggling with every muscle he moved. The effort paid off though, and with great difficulty Torasame was standing once again. Suigetsu noticed that, with his hair undone and his robe gone, Torasame looked very different. No longer did he appear to be a stoic, hardened warrior; he now resembled a wild animal desperate to finish off his prey at any cost.
Torasame looked Suigetsu in the eye. "The side-effects of the pill are kicking in… Neither of us has the strength… to continue much longer…"
"I propose… one last attack… We give it everything we have… at the same time…"
Torasame slowly nodded to Suigetsu's offer and raised his right fist for one final punch. "On the count of three. One… two - Argh!"
Torasame looked down to find that both of Suigetsu's fists were enlarged and buried in his stomach. "What?" he asked in shock.
"I can't beat you in a fair fight… so I made it unfair… If you were a ninja you would have… seen through it…"
With those last words, Suigetsu pulled his hands out of Torasame's abdomen and the larger man fell back from the impact, just far enough that his head landed outside the ring.
"Out of bounds… the winner is Suigetsu Hozuki!" Chojuro screamed with borderline elation.
Suigetsu let himself fall to the ground beside Torasame the moment he heard his name, too exhausted to stand anymore.
Torasame turned his head to look Suigetsu in the eyes. "How did I… lose? Sage Mode… it ran out far too quickly…"
"It was your fight with Yuri… Your right hand changed back right after absorbing Yuri's chakra… I guessed that the more chakra you absorb… the less time you have in Sage Mode… Seems I was right…"
"That's why you gave that clone most of your chakra?"
Suigetsu nodded.
"What was your wish, anyway?" Suigetsu asked. "No harm in telling now that it's over, is there?"
"I wanted to battle Killer B for Samehada. The rules might forbid asking for more swords, but they don't forbid asking for a chance to fight for one…"
Suigetsu chuckled. "Too bad… The only one that's going to kick Killer B's ass and take Samehada… is me. My brother was murdered by a third party in a battle with Kisame for Samehada… I have a right to finish what Big Bro started…"
In response to Suigetsu's words, Torasame slowly pointed to the statue of the king's mouth:
"Too bad… You aren't going to get the chance…"
Suigetsu followed Torasame's finger and found he was pointing at the Water Daimyo, who seemed to be grinning despite his champion's recent loss. Suigetsu gasped, and what this sight insinuated drove all the fatigue out of his system, sitting up on reflex as what happened up there occurred.
[X-X-X]
It's a shame you lost, Torasame… Now I am forced to take matters into my own hands!
The Daimyo had snapped his fingers. His guards immediately dropped the prizes and pounced at Killer B from behind.
Before they could reach him, however, the Mizukage quickly spun out of her seat, made a hand seal, and breathed a liberal helping of acid toward them, sticking them all in place with a smile on her face. The Daimyo panicked and stood up from his seat in another attempt at B, but B stood up and punched him in the face, sending a shock into his system.
In the next second, the Daimyo and all his guards were covered in white smoke, and what emerged were five humanoid sharks, like Torasame but smaller and varied in colour.
"How… How were you ready for our attack?" the shark that was disguised as the Daimyo asked.
Killer B started dancing in response:
"When we bumped fists, I could feel your heart of fish! And when it came to intermission, I informed the Lady of your mission!"
"So the whole time… from the very beginning you…"
B nodded with a grin. "That's right. Fools, ya fools!"
"Explain what you're doing here and what happened to the real Lord Daimyo now." Mei demanded.
[X-X-X]
Meanwhile, in the ring…
"What the hell? Five more Kisame's?!" Suigetsu asked with shock.
"It's a long tale…" Torasame said as he too sat up, "… but I'm willing to tell it. It all starts with the lives of those these statues are modeled after: King Ryujin and Urashima Taro…"
