Recommended Story: 'A Little Help From a Blonde' by hinatasgreatestfan, for those of you who also like my other story 'Walk a Mile'
Chapter Thirteen
"If anyone can get us out of here don't keep us waiting!" Tsunade told everyone in the almost full water trap.
Hinata had her byakugan on. "I don't see a weak point to strike at."
Before more could be said, the panels suddenly reverted back into the walls and the water spilled out.
Misami stood there wide-eyed and slack-jawed. "What? But how?"
Shino addressed his group as they stepped away from the once-confined area. "I send some insects into the walls where the panels came out. I suspected they could short-circuit the mechanisms involved. I'm glad to see I was right and they could do it so fast."
"Thanks Shino. Be on alert for more traps."
Misumi was now a bit worried, but he was one of those 'Never say die' kind of fighters. To him if he was going down he was going to make sure to take a few with him. And if his partner Yoroi recovered quickly, maybe they could accomplish more.
Before Yoroi could even stand up, Tsunade rushed forward at Misumi, chakra-enhanced punch at max power. And with Misumi's fighting style based on him being close to his enemy to attack them, he wasn't a good dodger and took the hit dead on. His ribs shattered and cut into his organs. Death would come slow for him as blood filled his lungs and drained from his heart.
At the same time, Shizune got out some of her poisoned weapons and attacked Yoroi while he was still incapacitated. The wounds he got weren't great, but the toxins would compensate for that. "Let's get out before something else happens."
No one argued. Unfortunately though, a steel door came down from the direction they came from, blocking their retreat.
Tsunade looked it over. "Reinforced steel with reinforced locks. Whoever designed this place obviously wasn't a tightwad. We're going to have to find a different way." She would risk battering it down herself, but her fist still hurt from shattering the diamond-reinforced glass earlier.
"Where is he?" Naruto asked when he was outside. Kushina and Ayame were helping him look over the area as Sakura, Ino, and Isaribi came out to join them.
"Not sure. He could be anywhere, but he's bound to be close and where he can see us." Ayame replied.
"I'll get a better viewpoint." Kushina said before reaching for her back. Naruto and Ayame now could see that hidden by her hair had been two cuts in the back of her blouse that had been buttoned up. She unbuttoned them and quickly a set of demonic wings emerged from her backside. At the same time a long demonic tail emerged from above her ass.
Not bothering to say a word, she flapped her wings and took off into the air, circling around the base to find their target. All she saw was the island instead and the sea around it, nothing out of the ordinary and no people either. 'Damn, he's hiding. Luckily there are only so many places he can hide without actually leaving the island.'
All of a sudden there was a burst of water aimed at her from the sea. But this didn't look like an ordinary water jutsu, no it felt like something else entirely.
"What the hell was that?" Ino said, pointing towards where the water came from.
A second attack came, and this time everyone got a good look at it. If it was a water jutsu, it was different than any other they'd seen. Most water jutsu attacks look like a small geyser; this looked more like a tendril made of water kept in a uniform texture and color. Not only that it looked like it was moving as if alive, not jutsu-controlled.
Kushina saw it was trying to grab her, like some sort of octopus made out of water. 'He's got to be close by, maybe even under the water. I should try a-' She was cut off by a second tendril she didn't see behind her come up and wrap around her.
"OKAA-SAN!" Naruto screamed at seeing his mother engulfed in water much like when Zabuza first fought Kakashi.
"What's going on here?" Sakura asked Isaribi, hoping the girl knew.
"I don't know. I've never seen anything like this before."
The problem got worse. From the water arose a gigantic being made completely of sea water. It looked like some sort of monstrous amoeba that was capable of standing up. Inside it there was something small and green, but from where they were they couldn't see what it was. But they could see that Kushina couldn't break free of its hold.
'Damn, I can't use any incantations underwater, or I'll drown.' She told herself, resorting to struggling against the water to reach some air.
"I've got to help her." Naruto stated.
"How?" Sakura and Ino asked.
He rolled up his sleeves. "I'll bring us a little help." He then jumped onto the water and flashed thru four hand signs. "Summoning Jutsu!"
At his feet appeared Gamakichi. "Hey Naruto. What's up?" He friendly greeted.
Naruto suppressed a groan. "Sorry Kichi, I need your father instead."
The orange toad then took notice of what he was standing on. "Wait a minute, is this salt water?"
"We're at sea. What's the problem, You toads can swim right?" The whiskered boy asked as his primary toad partner jumped onto his shoulders.
"Yeah but we're fresh water animals. This stuff drives our skin crazy. My feet are already getting itchy. Pops would be pretty ticked if you tried to get him to do something here."
"Kichi, look over there and tell me how I'm supposed to get rid of that thing without him?" Naruto said, pointing to the water blob.
As Gamakichi took in the sight of the umibozu, Ayame, Sakura, Ino, and Isaribi jumped down beside Naruto. Ayame, Sakura, and Ino could stand on the water but Isaribi could not, thus she just bobbed in the water. "Naruto, where'd that frog come from and why is it wearing a vest?" Sakura asked, a bit disturbed at the sight of the amphibian. She had never been a fan of amphibians, reptiles, or basically any animal except for birds or mammals.
Gamakichi looked right at the pinkette. "I'm a toad, not a frog."
Sakura paled for a moment. "It can talk?" Ino looked almost as surprised. Ayame wasn't surprised, no stranger to summons even though she had none of her own.
"Everyone, can we please focus on this and not him?" Naruto asked firmly. "Kichi, I'm sorry if your old man doesn't like it, but he's the best idea I have."
"Naruto-san, let me try something first." Isaribi asked. When everyone turned her way, she saw her remove her bandages, revealing her scales. "I'm sorry I got you all involved in this. Let me try to get you out of it." She then closed her eyes and in a matter of seconds her entire body transformed into a human-fish hybrid. Suddenly Gamakichi didn't look so weird to the girls.
Isaribi dived underwater, grateful to her gills and new body for once. She swam effortlessly and made it right under the umibozu. With a small amount of hesitation, she swam up and found it quite easy to get inside the water creature. 'Well, it is made of water after all.' She told herself.
"I think we need reinforcements for something like this. Naruto, try to keep it busy with some clones. I'll go try to get the others and bring them here if they're not busy with something else." Ayame told her pseudo-brother who nodded.
When the ramen chef/kunoichi disappeared back into the lab, Naruto created a lot of clones to distracting the umibozu by attacking it from the outside so it couldn't do anything to her. Thus allowing her to swim thru it's body and try to reach Kushina to free her. Easy, right?
Wrong.
Something else was inside the water creature too, and it lunged right at her. Isaribi, well used to being aware of her surroundings underwater and reacting appropriately, dodged her ambusher with ease. When she turned to see exactly what it was, she gasped, something that feels quite strange to do underwater.
What she saw was a second kaima, this one clearly male and looking a bit more dangerous than she did. The fins on its head and pure yellow eyes certainly gave it a bit of an intimidation factor. 'What the...? Where...? When did Amachi make another kaima? He couldn't have... unless...'
"Hello Isaribi, your services will no longer be required." The kaima said, and even with the voice muddled by water, she heard it clearly and could tell exactly who owned that voice.
"Amachi? You do this to yourself?"
"Of course. I knew you wouldn't be reliable for much longer, but you gave me enough to create the perfect ocean soldier, me. Now I will rule the seas."
'So this entire time he never intended to help me return to normal, only help him become this creature. He's been using me as a lab rat and errand-girl for this twisted ambition? Robbing me of my humanity with empty promises to return it if I do his dirty work?' Isaribi told herself, getting angry.
Amachi decided to lunge at her again like a shark. Isaribi however had the advantage of more experience at this and was now in the mood to fight. She dove forward but angled her thrust to dodge then turn to bite him on his dorsal fin, ripping the appendage clean off.
Outside the umibozu, two of Naruto's clones ran up the side of the water construct and reached the captured Kushina, who was starting to run out of breath. The two had already formed a rasengan and thrust it into the water, creating a gap large enough to allow Kushina to get some air back into her lungs.
"Thanks son." She said as she clawed her way out. With her being wet and out of breath, she would have a hard time getting airborne right away. So instead of trying, she just jumped out and used her wings to slow her descend back down to beside the girls who watched Naruto try and attack the liquid golem. "Why are you two helping?"
"What can we do against that?" Ino asked. "None of my techniques will do anything here."
"And I've got nothing special other than a good hit, which is worthless against water." Sakura added.
Kushina gave them strong looks, not the kind that made them cower but the kind that told the girls to listen and listen good. "And I can't use chakra anymore and I'm not that good at mana either except for some basics. But as long as I can move, breathe, and hit, I'm not going to settle for being part of the audience. Will you?" Flapping her wings a bit, she got some excess water off her and took back to the air. Once there, she conjured up a gold chain and fired it into the umibozu, trying to ensnare Amachi but she missed.
Sakura was amazed to see everyone fighting despite the overwhelming odds, and she was trying to build up her courage. 'Dammit Sakura, how long ago did you swear not to let Naruto do all the hard work? And here you are wanting to retreat. If you've got any guts at all, prove it and do something for crying out loud.'
With that, Sakura ran forward, fists balled and ready to hit something. Most of the clones gave her a break to give her a chance to do something. Screaming a battlecry, she ran up the umibozu and dove right in to help Isaribi after inhaling a deep breath.
'What the hell is she doing?' Ino asked herself before instinct took over and she ran to provide some form of support. Naruto joined her right away, Gamakichi gone since he saw nothing he could be good for. But as they climbed, the umibozu created a new tendril right under their feet that swept them away and threw them right towards the stone cliffside of the island. Ino screamed, but Naruto grabbed her and created a cluster of shadow clones around himself to cushion the impact.
It worked, and they got to the ground harmlessly. "You okay Ino?" He asked.
Ino nodded and smiled. "Yes, thank you Naruto." She then blushed when she realized he was holding her in his arms bridal style and she was holding onto him. "Uh you can put me down now." Now he realized the position they were in, and carefully lowered her. "What do we do now?"
"I've got no choice but to try this." Naruto said before gathering as much chakra as he could, even dipping into the Kyuubi's reserves, to perform one jutsu. Ino could feel the chakra emitting off it and could tell right away this was way more than she ever thought possible.
'How is he doing this?'
Naruto felt his body burning up, which was normal when using Kyuubi's chakra as if often raised his body temperature, but this time was different. His body radiated orange chakra instead of red, but he didn't notice it as he completed his jutsu. "Summoning Jutsu!"
Tsunade's group had been going down a maze for several minutes, finding room after room but not way outside the lab. Nothing significant about the rooms, just a few things like washrooms and kitchens, basic commodities to make being on the island easier. A few more guards had attacked, but they were civilian level at best, probably only good at defending the place as a group.
Eventually they reached a dead end.
"Damn!" Tsunade yelled, hitting the wall with her hand in an angry show of futility.
"Are we trapped?" Hinata asked.
"Yes, like mice." A voice said from behind them. They all turned to see Yoroi wobble towards them. "Whatever you injected into me didn't work as well as you hoped."
In a rare display of bravery, Hinata stepped forward ready to juuken him into unconsciousness. "You're outnumbered. Why should we fear you?"
Yoroi pulled out a large number of bomb kunais, enough to kill them all before they even realized they were dead. He applied chakra to one, and then he jerked as if hit by something and fell face forward.
"What the...?" Tenten asked, but if the confusion had enough sense to grab the explosive tag and cut the tag before it detonated, making it useless.
Hinata, having already seen the attack coming with her eyes, already knew what caused it. "Thanks Ayame-san."
"No problem." The older kunoichi said as she came forward. She had apparently struck Yoroi in his neck with a kunai, a near instant death if not instant. "We need you on the outside."
"We're having a hard time finding our way out." Shizune told her.
"Have you tried the windows?" Ayame asked, referencing how she even got in this part of the sealed lab in the first place.
Everyone was stunned silent, then groaned at their mistake. Tsunade even palmed her face. 'Oh course, the rooms have windows and they probably aren't sealed if she could get in.'
Not wanting to think about this any longer, Ayame showed them the way out.
Back at the umibozu, Amachi was gaining the upper hand in his fight. He designed his kaima form to be stronger and faster than Isaribi's ever could be. Her advantages were more experience in this form and she had greater agility, meaning she was harder to hit. Amachi was wounded but he had managed to clip her left side with his claws too.
Sakura wasn't much of a fighter, but she was analytical. Seeing one possible way she could help out, she gathered chakra in her palms, hoping to gather as much as she could. It wasn't much, given her small reserves, but she knew when to stop. Once she had enough, she thrust her hands together like a clap. The result was as predicted, a sonic burst underwater that went right to the male kaima. The recoil fromt he blast make her go flying backwards and out of the umibozu, and she was high enough that landing on water without chakra to cushion the fall would kill her.
Kushina dove down and caught her. "Attagirl, good thing you tried something. And nice idea too, quite unexpected. You might have made a good succubus." She then placed the girl on the beach by Ino.
"I can do more." Sakura insisted. "I have to help Naruto. I can't be dead weight to him anymore."
Meanwhile, Naruto was atop a grumpy Gamabunta who was attacking the umibozu, trying not to hurt the kaima inside.
"You aren't, but you look tired. Stay still and I can help you." Kushina told her. Sakura quickly nodded, feeling her chakra was low. Kushina placed her palm on the girls forehead. "Tuumuthoxu."
Right away Sakura felt like she was struck with a tingle, bathing in hot water after being out in the rain, and woke up from a long nap, all at once. She was like all the fatigue she had been feeling suddenly never existed. She even felt like she was about to burst, but in a good way. Unknown to her, she was lightly glowing orange too.
When the glow faded, Sakura looked over herself and flexed her arms. "Wow, I feel great. What did you do?"
"Just refilled your chakra system, maybe expanded it a bit too, but I can only do this once for you. Too much will cause severe damage to your body. Now, if you want to help my son, now's the perfect chance."
Sakura nodded. "But how?"
"I have an idea, but I need your help. Both of you."
Meanwhile, Naruto and Gamabunta were arguing over tactics. The boss toad couldn't grip the umibozu and his sword was useless since Naruto didn't want him to risk hitting Isaribi, and Naruto didn't know any fire jutsu for a toad flare bomb attack to dry the umibozu out, which would also endanger Isariib. Not to mention the salt water was driving the toad angry. If something didn't change soon Gamabunta was bound to either leave or fight his way whether or not Naruto liked it.
At the same time, Kushina flew up while carrying Sakura and Ino, both girls surprised she could do this. Ino had a sort of cloth mask wrapped around her face, obscuring her nose and mouth. They reached right above the umibozu. "You ready?" Both nodded. Kushina then created a gold chain that wrapped around their midsections then she dropped them right into the umibozu.
Inside the water blob, Ino did her family signature hand sign. 'Mind Transfer Jutsu.' She then sent her jutsu at Amachi, and took control of him. At the same time Sakura reached out for Isaribi who took her hand. Knowing they had little time before Ino's unconscious body inhaled water and drowned, Kushina pulled them out as quick as she sent them down, allowing the girls to get out of harms way while Ino ensured Amachi stayed there.
"Now Naruto! Attack this thing!" Kushina shouted, bringing her passengers to land.
Naruto nodded. "Bunta, try your bomb now. I can add the fire after all." The giant toad spat out some oil on the umibozu and Naruto threw a kunai with a paper bomb attached and lit. The result was as expected. The umibozu was covered in flame that its watery body couldn't put out faster than the sheer heat was drying it up. And with Amachi inside as a kaima, he was as vulnerable as a lobster in a pot of hot water. Ino ejected her spirit as soon as the oil hit the water creature, and started coughing up what water did get in her body's mouth.
"Not bad kid. Now if that's all, I'm out of here." Gamabunta said before disappearing, leaving Naruto to fall into the ocean.
Ayame now brought Tsunade and her group out, and they went to Kushina and the girls on the beach. They were quite surprised to see Isaribi's kaima form. "What happened out here?"
"I think we got the guy responsible for doing this to her." Kushina answered, pointing to Isaribi. "Tsunade, can you check this girl for possible water in her lungs?" Now pointing to Ino.
Tsunade did an immediate diagnosis jutsu and found there was indeed a small amount of water in Ino's lungs. Not enough to kill her yet, but it could result in pneumonia or dry-drowning later, so she used an extraction method to pull it all out.
"What happened to you guys?" Tenten asked.
"Fought a water creature and a fishman. You?" Sakura told her, still feeling stimulated from Kushina's boost.
"We fought henchmen that almost drowned us, but we got out and killed them. Then we got trapped behind a sealed door and had to find the long way out until Ayame-san here found us and showed us the exit." Shino answered.
"What do we do now?" Hinata asked.
"With all the new commotion in the area, we should get out of here before someone can link us to it." Tsunade told everyone.
"But first..." Kushina added, looking towards Naruto. Everyone followed her eyes and gasped when they saw what she saw.
"What?" Naruto asked before looking at him, trying to see if he had an injury or something. Oh he wasn't hurt, that he could handle. This was worse.
His tail was revealed again, and this time a set of bat-like wings were on display on his back, poking out of rips on his orange jacket.