Another C Rank mission. She was happy to be getting these higher ranked missions, but this would be the ninth C Rank mission that they have gotten in six months. She had barely any time to train and hone her adamantine sealing chains. Which she was determined to master after learning about Naruto's status as a jinchuriki and why she had been betrothed to him. She didn't know if she would love Naruto like her mother loved her father or how the elders said Lady Kushina loved Naruto's father and Lady Mito loved Lord First, but she would be damned before she let another one of her family die. If her power was the secret to protecting Naruto from the beast sealed within then she will gladly stand by his side both as his wife and partner.
As they were traveling alongside the riverbank to the Joren falls, she felt a growing sense of unease ahead of them. It was oppressively dark and evil. It felt like the demons that had attacked them on their first C rank mission yet even darker and more evil. It was absolutely disgusting and almost made her feel sick.
Hayate sensei held his hand up to bring the squad to a halt. They stopped, and gathered at the foot of a large boulder by the river.
Hayate sensei said, "This mission just got a whole lot more difficult. It isn't bandits like the townsfolk thought. It's a demon, and a strong one at that. Normally, a Jonin squad leader would order an abort of the mission and return to the village to gather reinforcements, but frankly this is Uzumaki clan business and any further delays mean more innocents are killed. So I will continue the mission, but you three must keep a distance and only support from range".
Hayate sensei quickly performed the summoning jutsu and summoned a pair of eagles.
One of the eagles said, "What's up"?
Hayate sensei said, "Haru, I will need one of you to head back to the village and deliver a message requesting reinforcements. Aaishi will fly and see if there are any other Leaf squads in the area"?
The Eagles said with a wing raised in salute, "You got it Hayate".
The eagles flew off to complete their mission. Hayate sensei then pulled out a scroll and summoned a large array of weapons ranging from kunai to various types of bombs.
Hayate sensei said, "These weapons are laced with a poison made from the Wisteria flower, fairly mild to humans but crippling to most demons. No matter what you are not to directly engage with the demon, but you can support via the use of these weapons. Seal them into your weapons scroll so you can pull them out as needed. Obviously you guys know the payload difference between the types of bombs right? The explosive tags have a standard amount and type of powder along with the larger fragmentation bombs, the difference being that with the tags they release gas made from wisteria. The smaller bead bombs are a bit different, they use a more volatile powder and striker so they pack more of a punch than their size suggests, as before made with wisteria. Some of the other tools and weapons you don't need me to go over," he turned to her and said, "You should get your nichirin katana ready. We don't know the abilities of this demon, so we have to be prepared for anything. Your Water breathing should be adequate to protect the others".
Hatate sensei paused before saying, "After you three have divided the weapons between yourselves we will get moving, we still have about two hours of daylight left, so we should hurry and prepare a trap for the demon. After all, if you found yourself in a fair fight, you have made a mistake. Oh before I forget, take these".
He threw them some small bottles, and said, "These are some wisteria based purgatives and antidotes that help the body purge any demon poisons. So keep them in a safe spot. Hopefully we won't need it, but you never know".
They took it and stored it away.
Hayate sensei said, "Alright, let's move".
They leapt towards the waterfall using the body flicker technique.
They spent the waning hours of daylight preparing the traps and taking position for their ambush. As the sun fully set the demon came out of the cave. It had the appearance of an admittedly beautiful and curvaceous figure, one she admitted to being jealous of. She had to stifle a chuckle though, her sensei and cousin had developed a bit of a reputation as someone who was constantly chasing after beautiful women while also never being able to maintain any serious relationship, so it was easy to imagine what he was thinking. The creature shoots what could only be described as a harpoon made from a spider's web. It sticks the explosive shadow clone that Hayate sensei had transformed to resemble a normal wood cutter. The clone is quickly dragged to the beast and as it gets to her it explodes.
Yet something was off. Karin focused her chakra and saw that the explosion didn't get the beast. It had managed to evade the blast. The beast had fast reflexes with the speed and agility to take full advantage.
Hayate Sensei sensed the beast's evasion and changed his strategy. Summoning a shadow clone before releasing a barrage of wind enhanced Fire Dragon bombs. The wind enhanced flames flew across the lake towards the beast as it ran up the stone that formed the waterfall.
The flames hit the stone with incredible destructive force, that sent flame engulfed stone shrapnel flying.
The beast managed to evade both the blasts and shrapnel and leapt over the last blast and onto the water.
Hayate sensei leaps from his hiding spot. Swords drawn.
Sensei and the beast are fighting in vicious close quarters combat. Karin can hear the gale like swings of sensei's blades when he uses wind breathing. Yet for the most part the demon is able to evade most of sensei's attacks and the few cuts it takes heals very quickly. The beast is quite skilled, but sensei is the better tactician. Driving it towards the forest where they hid in order to open her up their ranged attacks.
It bent backwards to avoid a crosswind slash, but it opened itself to an attack from one of her teammates. Iada threw a barrage of kunai at the beast but it pulled the root of a large tree out of the ground to block the kunai.
Not only was it fast and had insane reflexes, it was strong as well. That wasn't good.
Sensei switched to the Third Form, Cyclone Dance. Which managed to cut off an arm, and force the beast to retreat into the forest. If Karin was a betting woman, she would bet that she planned to use the tall trees as cover.
It healed fast and then came after Sensei. Though this time it changed tactics, shooting bolts of spider silk and quickly creating complex layers of webs to change the terrain and throw off sensei. It slowed Sensei down, but he used the First Form to charge through cutting through the webs. The wind enhanced nichirin blades cutting through the webs as if it was nothing.
Yet, with the added webs and projectiles it made it so that the form didn't have enough speed and power to slain the demon. Which left Sensei open and he got sent flying with a powerful kick.
The demon's hair stood up and appeared to harden. The beast said, "Demon Blood Art: Spider Needle Barrage"!
It launched them at sensei, Karin took out a scroll from her pouch and summoned half a dozen kunai with explosive tags already attacked and threw them in the path of the attack. The tags exploded as the needles reached them. Destroying some and sending others off course.
Sensei yelled, "Thanks for the assist, now get back! I'm going to turn up the heat".
She felt the sudden spike in his chakra, he was charging a lot of chakra in his hands and it felt like it was being both concentrated and superheated.
Karin yelled, "Iada! Aisahi! Fall back now"!
Iada and Aisashi would grumble at her for giving them orders, especially ones they already knew, but they trusted her senses and knew that she wasn't the sort to expose her position or theirs without good reason.
She sensed them hurry away as she made her way back towards the lake.
Sensei leapt into the air, and said, "Fire Style: Hellfire Kraken"!
Ten tendrils of superheated and concentrated chakra came out of his fingers and struck the forest. Cutting and burning everything in their path.
She sensed the beast evading the tendrils, but what the beast didn't know is that Sensei could manipulate each tendril like a puppeteer manipulates a puppet.
Hayate sensei crisscrossed the flames again and again. Shrinking the available space the beast could evade or hide from the flames.
Unfortunately the jutsu ran its course before she could get hit. Karin could sense the beast undergoing some kind of transformation that made its presence feel even more disgusting and hideous. Which she inferred as a transformation to increase its power.
Which was bad news as she sensed Sensei land back on the earth. Hellfire Kraken takes a large amount of chakra even for an Uzumaki in order to create the pressure and heat needed for the powerful flames. Plus his previous wind enhanced flames and the constant channeling of wind nature chakra for the wind breathing was concerning as well. They weren't in danger yet, but it wasn't a good sign when the enemy was getting even stronger.
She hit the trunk of the tree she was standing on, cracking it.
She said under her breath, "Damnit! Why couldn't I master the chains already"?!
While within three meters she had an excellent amount of control over them, and could manifest four separate chains, she couldn't yet extend them farther. Which meant that she had a long way to go before she could even compare to Lady Kushina or Lady Mito.
Sensei and the demon reengaged in vicious close quarters combat. They're battle was an incredible demonstration of speed and dexterity as their strikes moved so fast her eyes couldn't keep up and she was only able to track them through the use of her kekkei genkai.
Their fight drew closer to her. Both locked in vicious mortal combat. It seemed like Sensei was about the gain the upper hand but then the beast grew four spider like arms which parried his blades into the earth. Sensei used the swords to enhance his movements and launch a powerful reverse kick, but the beast blocked and she sensed a small flicker of pain from her sensei. The beast must have used the spiders to impale sensei when he kicked. Sensei managed to pull the blades out of the ground and tried to gain some distance but the beast was on him. Attempting to impale her sensei with the spider legs, but sensei parried two and evaded a third. The fourth though, impaled him through the lower torso. The beast pinned him to the ground.
Karin couldn't just sit back and analyze the fight to find the most opportune time to strike, she had to strike now to save her sensei. She threw a half dozen kunai. Five were normal kunai, but the last had the wisteria based poison gas bomb tag wrapped around the hilt. The beast casually evaded the kunai, but had not sensed the tag. Which detonated and released a large smoke cloud containing the poison. Karin focused her sensory abilities to find the precise location of the beast through the smoke and launched another barrage of kunai, this laced with the Wisteria poison. The poison cloud seemed to disorient the beast and allowed the kunai to strike it. The concentrated poison on the kunai now entered the beast's body.
The beast stumbled away from her sensei, moving more clumsy and slower than it had before.
She leapt down and carried her sensei out.
Sensei coughed before saying, "Thanks Karin. I'm sorry for needing you to save me".
Karin said, "It's no problem at all. I'm going to keep pressing the attack, catch your breath and then join me. Iada and Aishai are going to regroup with us".
She drew here katana and went to attack the beast. The beast had managed to move about a dozen meters from the gas, but the combination of poison gas and concentrated poison from the kunai had severely hampered its ability to regenerate or move. It turned towards her and she saw that the poison was effective, but she had not expected the one beautiful creature whose features made her jealous now revealed to be a monstrous beast with eight eyes and massive fangs. The poison had made it even uglier. Chemical burns covered its face and anything that wasn't covered by clothing. Blood dripped from its maw. It must have been coughing up blood from the poison.
She took her stance as she approached the beast and said, "Water Style: Water Breathing; Third Form: Flowing Dance"!
Her chakra channeled through her blade and she could feel the chakra envelop the blade and transform into water. Pushing her blade like water jetting out of a geyser. Her form was perfect. Not a step out of line or a hair out of place. She perfectly cut off the four large spider arms. The technique left her about a half dozen meters from the beast . It let a piercing scratch from the pain and turned to her. She sensed the beast was preparing a counterattack. It stored power in its throat and shot out a harpoon of web. Karin leapt in the air to evade the attack. The effects of her total concentration constant breath training were certainly paying off. She performed a somersault to increase her kinetic energy, as she let herself fall back to the earth, precisely behind the beast.
As she was just behind the beast, she launched her attack when she sensed her opening, saying, "Water Style: Water breathing; First Form: Water Surface Slash"!
With the swing of her sword she took its head. She rolled onto the earth to protect herself from the fall. The beast's head rolled about two meters from its body. She quickly flicked the blood off her katana and went back to Hayate Sensei.
Iada and Ariashi were already there with Sensei on his feet with his wound patched up.
She said, "It's done. The beast is dead".
Hayate said, "Did the body disintegrate already"?
Karin realized that she hadn't stayed to confirm, she reached out with her senses to see if it had, but it hadn't in fact it had grown.
Karin was about to speak when Hayate sensei said, "I sense it too. Let's go finish the job".
Before they could head back a large monstrous beast landed in front of them and let out a massive roar.
Hayate sensei said, "Oh great, it just has to have another form".
The beast attacked, but they evaded. It then spat out a massive steam of spiders. The spiders went after and her teammates.
They were surprisingly fast, but they weren't durable nor were they too fast for them. One thing they couldn't fully negate was how many they helped, but there were still so many. She cut through spider after spider, occasionally being able to sense or glimpse her team. Iada was using his tonfa to both attack and defend, smashing and cutting with the blades that were sealed with the tonfa. Aiashi was using his kusarigama's chain in high speed arcs to create a barrier with the chain. Slicing the occasional spider who made it past the chain barrier.
While sensei hadn't taught them their clan's hidden breathing styles he did ensure that they would never be found lacking with weapons nor would their enemies be able to outlast them.
Hayate sensei was fighting the beast again. Though this time he had changed tactics. A third blade was in his mouth.
He dodged a massive fist and was directly under the beast's body.
She heard him shout, "Esoteric Sword Art: Wind Breathing; Ninth Form: Dragon Twister"!
A massive twister engulfed them and it took the beast high into the air. Slicing into the beast with every rotation.
The spiders around her leapt into the air hoping to overwhelm her defense. She was prepared though.
She said, "Water style: Water Breathing; Sixth Form: Whirlpool"!
The combination of water and steel created a powerful barrier around her that kept the spiders off her and bisected a good number of them.
She then moved into the ninth form to continue her attack among the chaotic formation that her last attack forced the spider into.
The number of spiders were finally shrinking. Between the damage the beaster suffered after Hayate Sensei's jutsu and the ones her teammates and herself had slain.
While initially it seemed good it seemed the spider had returned to their progenitor and fused into the beast, healing it.
That wasn't good at all. Especially as sensei was below 50% of his chakra pool. She knew he was losing chakra faster than normal. Then she realized what was happening. Sensei had been poisoned. He was spending a good deal of chakra trying to slow the poison so he could still fight.
Hayate sensei said, "Damn, I have to admit you're tough. No wonder your eyes say Lower Moon One".
The beast spoke, "I was strong even before my lord turned me into a demon. I had been a shinobi of the Tscuchigumo clan, during what you would call the warring states period".
Hayate sensei said, "Man, you are an ugly old hag".
The beast was infuriated by that and launched a blind attack. Smashing the spot Sensei had been.
The beast yelled, "YOU MORONIC BASTARD! YOU COULD HAVE DIED SEEING ME AS WHEN I WAS MORTAL, YOU FORCED ME TO TAKE THIS HIDEOUS FORM! MY STRENGTH AND BEAUTY WERE RENOWNED THROUGHOUT THE LAND"!
Hayate Sensei said, "Yeah your original form was pretty hot, but this is a total downgrade".
He dodged another attack. Karin couldn't understand what he was doing, infuriating the demon more. He had been severely wounded by the demon, but now he sought to mock it?
The Beast yelled, "IT IS TOO LATE FOR FLATTERY! IF YOU HAD SIMPLY LET YOURSELF BE EATEN I WOULD HAVE LET YOU EXPERIENCE PARADISE! I HAVE ALWAYS DESIRED TO SEE IF THE RUMORS OF THE UZUMAKI'S LEGENDARY STAMINA WERE TRUE, BUT NOW I WILL RIP YOU TO SHREDS AND DRINK YOUR BLOOD"!
Karin grimaced, as she thought to herself how she really hoped that the creature wasn't talking about sex.
This time the beast launched a barrage of spines at sensei and he had parried or evaded most but some had gotten through. The spines would have injected him with even more poison. Purple splotches were surrounding the exposed skin where he had been wounded. He was bleeding considerably in addition the poison coursing through his veins.
Hayate sensei said, "Thank you. You have been a real help".
That took the beast aback and it asked, "What are you talking about"?
Hayate sensei said, "My ultimate technique, I need to be near death to use. To be at the precipice between life and death".
The beast said, "Nonsense you can barely stand, let alone attack".
Hayate sensei took a new stance that she had never seen before, she could sense his chakra suddenly spike and become red hot. Like he was about to launch a fire style attack.
Hayate sensei said, "Sacred Beast Dance; Blessed Summer Winds: Vermillion Phoenix"!
The chakra that engulfed sensei's body had started as wind nature chakra but was growing hotter and hotter.
Then he attacked and she couldn't track his actual body anymore only the afterimage of his chakra that ceased to be wind but had transformed into flames
She could feel the power within the technique and it was nothing like she had ever seen before.
The beast tried to fight back but it couldn't truly fight back. It was losing limbs with every pass before it finally lost his head.
It was burning both from the flames and the fact it was now and truly dead. Sensei had collapsed on the ground face first. His chakra was flickering but it was very low. She didn't know much about that technique, but that jutsu must have consumed a massive amount of chakra.
She and her teammates rushed to their sensei's side. They turned him over. They gasped, some of the poison was gone, but in its places were burns, and he was still bleeding heavily. She didn't know what to do. None of their trauma kits were designed to handle this amount of trauma, neither were they trained medic nin. Iada thought quickly and poured a wisteria based antidote to treat the poison.
That was a good start, but it wasn't enough. The eagles hadn't returned yet and they had no idea when reinforcements would arrive. Then she remembered. Lady Mito and Kushina could heal others by letting them bite them and have them directly consume her chakra. She was still pretty fresh considering she was mainly acting in a supporting role.
She said, "Aiashi, have him bite my arm"!
He looked at her like she grew a second head.
She said, "Don't just gawk at me, do it"!
So he did and a sudden surge went through her body. It was painful, but it was working. Chakra was flowing into sensei and engulfed him. It was healing him and he stopped bleeding and even some of his more minor wounds had completely healed.
She could sense he was about to come to, but as he was coming back she was starting to lose consciousness. She then sensed a group of four ninja approaching, but before she could identify who was coming, she saw nothing but darkness.