Death and Loss
Tanuki didn't brief them on their mission.
It felt weird, especially after what Danzo said. He was scared, because he didn't want to lose them, and because he couldn't for the life of himself figure out why.
"Captain, what are we travelling for?" Kitsune asked, his age lending itself to more confidence than me or Onryō.
He stayed silent for a moment, before talking. "An assassination. We have to go to the borders of Taki and take out a high priority target."
"Yes, but what are the parameters? What are we doing, who are we killing?" I asked, the pit in my gut getting bigger by the second.
"The… The Seven tails' jinjuriki."
And then silence. When ninja are surprised, we tend to be trained to not open out mouths, shut them straight, even grind our teeth so we keep quiet. It was only because of that that we didn't cry out, or shout or scream or anything else.
"Why? Are we the only squad?" Onryō asked, and even though she was supressing it I could hear the panic in her voice.
"We are the only squad left. Everyone else has left ANBU or is dead. Danzo is trying to get rid of anyone who can talk about the shitshow our generation of soldier was."
And then I put it together.
"Tanuki, captain, please don't tell me you didn't take Danzo's offer."
Because Danzo would have had to have lied about the mission being the one after the next, but that is exactly what he would do. Make us think our decision is independent, that we are alone, to make our ideas, our own selfish ideals more distant from others making it, to make us make the decision we would have made only for ourselves.
Tanuki didn't answer, but the silence told more he ever could.
I couldn't turn back now, I would be a deserter, killed and dumped in the bottom of some ditch like anyone else.
"Well, even if we are fucked, we need a plan." I stated. "Any ideas?"
…
The woman who was the jinjuriki had a striking similarity to the Fu you'd see if you watched anime filler back when Naruto was still on air. Mint green hair, tan skin, orange eyes. It was a distinct phenotype we didn't know much about. She was older though, wrinkled skin and her minty hair looked sprinkled with wisps of cobwebs, the second jinjuriki from what I can tell so maybe above 60. Konoha had the genetically predisposed containers in Mito and Kushina, Kumo ran through hundreds of candidates for the 8 tails, and the 7 tails needed someone with a specific appearance, maybe genetics or clan or whatever. It made the woman easy to spot at least.
Taki had, like everywhere else, declared war on Konoha, but they had their ace in the hole. Konoha, and the other nations that decided to dogpile on them, after the initial losses, been decimated by one Kunoichi. Rū was her name, though that doesn't really matter.
What mattered was the terrain, scattered bodies on almost ash grey ground, witness to many a battle, blown apart trees and scattered dirt in an open expanse, rocky terrain dotted with miniature rivers. And the only one standing in that expanse, was her. Our target.
Onryō was near useless against a jinjuriki, her gentle fist unable to seal her tenketsu for long, so was Kitsune in regards to internal genjutsu, but they would be our support. Me and Tanuki were the heaviest hitters, so we resigned ourselves to the actual fighting.
And so the plan started. All 4 of us disappeared in unison from the branches we were perched on, Kitsune shielding us from view, placing a still image in front of the kunoichi of the land before we had body flickered to the ground. Onryō went left, Kitsune went right and me and Tanuki looked at each other, for maybe the last time considering what we were facing, and rushed in.
We flashed through hand signs, chakra building in my palms, a supercharged bolt of electricity readied to fire, as Tanuki took a seal filled water, released it, and concentrated the pool of liquid into a mid-air bullet, launching it at the woman, my bolt amplifying it, increasing its speed and damage. We both body flickered again before it even hit, dashing to both sides as the bullet impacted her square in the body, electrocuting and launching her through the air, limp body rolling across the ground.
She eventually stopped, forcing herself to get up again, where a genjutsu from Kitsune shielded us once more as we both stabbed into her with one final burst of speed, tantos thrusting into her. She grabbed mine before it could hit, holding the blade even as it sliced into her fingers, but Tanuki was just that bit better, and his blade pierced her stomach where it couldn't her heart.
Red chakra began to envelop her, swiping an arm at Tanuki, then spinning and kicking me, barely managing to pull up my guard in time, my arms aching under the force, body sliding back a good couple of metres. Kitsune caught me, pushing me ahead back into the fray.
She was faster than Tanuki already, 3 tails behind her, assuming the 4th is where she loses control. We needed that to not happen, needed to end this quick. Tanuki used every trick he knew, clones, substitutions, jutsus, body flickers to avoid her onslaught of crater creating hammer head blows. That was all before I got back in, a slide tackle passing underneath her as she jumped, preparing to kick down. Her legs smashed into the earth, but I had already substituted with a kunai I threw above her, the blade piercing her foot, and my own stomp smashing her downwards, her face crushing the rock below with the force it impacted it with.
Me and Tanuki wasted no time preparing Justus, his flushing her underground and mine launching an explosive ball of flame at the hole she was in, a massive glow of fire rushing from it as I landed.
Then she burst from the ground below me. Fuck.
I flipped to get away but she grabbed onto my now upwards facing leg, swinging me around, supposedly to smash my skull against the hard ground, when a kunai hit her arm at the apex, courtesy of a hidden Onryō, releasing me and allowing me to fire a gust of wind at the enemy below, pushing her away, her feet skidding across the floor. Good, she was injured, but not enough!
She had a target now, dashing at a near too fast to see speed unless you had my perception stat. I waited, a second, two, and there! I uppercutted, slamming my fist into her jaw with an insane precision, pushing her back just a step. Taking advantage, I attacked again, a lightning fast jab to her nose, but she caught it, might have crushed my hand had she hadn't needed to block the drop kick coming from Tanuki. She was forced to step back a couple of times, Tanuki laying on a few precise blows, one after another in hot pursuit after landing his backflip.
"Now!" Kitsune spoke in my mind, using a communication genjutsu that I let enter, him highlighting a part of her body, her kidney. His genjutsu cloaked my approach, as I sunk a kunai into that precise point, the blade entering cleanly, me ripping it out sideways to do the most damage.
She screamed, high and painful, grabbing my arm, punching me in the gut, kicking Tanuki away in the stomach, then swinging me around, throwing me into him, then releasing a small army of kunai and shuriken from her chest. With me still in his arms, Tanuki committed to a seal-less wind gust, knocking away all the projectiles, but leaving him focused, and vulnerable.
At that moment a clone ripped through the dirt behind Tanuki. I tried to yell, but by then the clone's arm had already ripped through his chest, ripping out his heart, the flesh hanging just above my head.
"K-Kizashi…"
He dropped me, and I spent no time rising to my feet, running into the jinjuriki and slamming a fist of rage into their torso, near all of my strength pumped into it, actually pushing them back, back from the mentor they had killed! Then I turned, kunai in hand, speed so fast I slashed the clone stepping over Tanuki's body before they could even react, then turning with the momentum of before, a right hook into their attacking face, then another and another, another, a left finally being caught, allowing them to flip me over, a fist coming down on my face, right before Kitsune tackled them.
He dodged back as soon as they retaliated, weaving in-between strikes like a leaf in wind, eventually feigning a fall so I could drop kick her in the chest. I kicked off, launching a lightning bolt mid air, her earth wall paltry defence as it stuck right through smashing into her again.
It was superficial though, the only real damages being the ones to organs, those that take longer to repair. She takes enough of those in a short time, she dies, we all go home.
That plan quickly devolved into nothing as she burst out with a hot glow of red chakra, and a 4th tail.
The beast, because at that point she really was a beast, started charging and charging a large purple orb getting bigger and bigger underneath her skull, pulsating with an evil powerful energy.
I needed to dodge. I could. I know I could. I just needed to focus, to dodge at just the right time, a pin point body flicker.
Then her jaw ate the ball, and a beam came, and I moved. Kitsune didn't. He couldn't.
He died on impact. The scream was horrific, skin peeling off flesh, bone turning to vapour as the black silhouette of his skull stretched to reflect his agony. He didn't stand a damn chance.
If I was angry before I was hate personified now.
I pumped 20 points into strength, then charged at the beast. I smashed their skull with a hook so hard she flipped over sideways, then grabbed her mid-air body with one arm, slamming it into the floor once again, smashed their head into the ground with my fist, and finally stomped them, so hard they collapsed underground. The skin around my knuckle burnt. Her body was on sizzling, feeling immolated. Even touching it hurt.
I didn't care though, preparing a water jutsu right as they came back out. It hit, the liquid turning into hot steam on impact. They stumbled into a tree, but I pursued still, my leg slamming into them. They retaliated in a bloodlust fuelled rage, their scratches and swipes utterly predictable. I grabbed an outstretched arm, bent it out of place, then slammed down on the joint, causing it to snap. They could heal very quickly, but broken bones took longer. They were incapacitated for a moment, so I took out the seal that had been gifted me, one that was meant to seal the Nanabi's chakra, even briefly, but then I was launched away by a punch, it vaporising the seal as well as burning away my body armour.
It tackled me, hands gripping onto my throat with a vice grip, my legs wrapping around her neck despite the pain in my limbs from her toxic body, forcing her backwards in a roll, me rising as she did. a huge bellow of fire ripped out of my palm, torching her face and sending her reeling back with a blast of kinetic power. The beast screamed, loud enough to turn the trees' leaves to dust, as their body began to change once more.
Waves and waves of red malevolent chakra came out. Grass withered, trees greyed and died, the wind itself seemed to cut my skin, nature itself corrupting as crimson black fused whips of almost flesh lashed around, cutting scars into the earth, as its owner shifted and grew.
Then finally, the transformation was complete, a 5th and 6th tail had spurting out of her body, and they were stronger still. The red chakra had crystallised into a skin, red and hard and like rubies slotted together into a suit of armour, adorned by insect growths, wings like a butterfly, eyes like a fly on their head above a human mouth and nose, crimson shine too, their arms and legs blending into green and white carapaces. She walked, slow, intent, power in each of her movements and yet a chosen restrictiveness. The tails looked like bone, but were more segmented, like an insects. She looked less like a beast and more like a machine, like a huge bug, soulless and emotionless, with only one goal. Killing me.
The she disappeared. And she was too fast, I knew I couldn't get up. I resigned myself to fate.
And then Onryō flickered in front of me, and took the blow instead. She wasn't just killed, she didn't get anything that humane. Her body was ripped apart. And she left me her seal as well, the paper flowing in the wind towards me, just like her blood, a rain of scarlet. She should have lived. It was a waste.
But it was enough for me to get up.
All I needed was one hit, one blow where I could hit them with the seal.
She seemed calmer, her mind better made. The additional tails somehow made her smarter, not dumber, and definitely more monstrous.
We both dashed at each other, her speed faster than mine, but I was imbued with both passion and rage.
The first clash. Her skin no longer burnt, but it was harder, heavier. A blow to the arm wouldn't work, it needed to be the chest, where we assumed the seal was. She followed up with a flow of erratic and powerful strikes, even using her wings to stay airborne, kicking down with a lethal flurry, the only thing keeping me alive being my perception. I lashed out a couple times, kicks and punches but the connections were weak, no damage at all. That was fine, they were cursory attacks, not offensive ones. Pokes to see how she reacted to punishment
She kicked the ground, movement robotic, the shrapnel from the destroyed rock forcing me to cover my eyes, the shards of rock slashing my arms, blood pouring down the limb, allowing her to fly, hitting my torse with a sideways kick. It hurt a lot, but I rolled up to duck underneath a flying clothesline, hitting the back of her head in retaliation, kicking her side as a follow up, but her arms grabbing the leg, swinging me around into the floor again. She then kicked my stomach up into the air, flying up and tackling me even further into the sky.
I struggled with her insanely strong grip, but my body was so worn and torn at that point that miracle strength had activated, so I used my full power to throw her arms to the side, then held onto her body, swinging her back to the ground. She smashed into the it with an incredible explosion of dust and debris, but I didn't stop there, spawning a clone which I got to throw me at the jinjuriki, using a wind gust to change my trajectory, then launching several wind bullets at her, further wounding her, internal bleeding across her entire body. I used all my speed then, leaping into a flying knee, smashing into her skull. She held onto me though, powerbombing me onto her spiked knee, piercing my back, a sickening squelch ringing out, echoing in the empty battlefield.
I rose back up, but she tackled me again, me swinging her to the side, diving in, smashing her in the face with my fist. Blocking her two retaliatory strikes no matter the pain they caused, I kicked her leg, flipping her to the side, took out the seal, and slammed it into her chest, the impact pushing her far away.
Then the carapace began to peel from her skin, and tan and mint green crawled from the floor, eventually rising.
"You're strong." She said with a smile and a pant, clearly exhausted.
She looked straight at me though. "We are both weakened, me by my use of the Nanabi's chakra, and you by overexerting yourself. No matter how strong your muscles, you will hurt like crazy tomorrow. That is if you live though."
I stopped caring about her speech half-way through, stomping over to her before bellowing out a low, hate filled battle cry and taking out a kunai.
She did the same.
I spawned 3 clones and swarmed her.
The first, she danced around, killing with a pin prick of her blade. The second dodged her pre-emptive slash but failed to dodge the shuriken from her other hand. The third rushed into her and was taken out from a throat slash.
And the 4th me? I used the smoke of the previous clone to stab into her stomach.
Then I twisted and cut it open.
She gasped, old wrinkles relaxing as the pain ran through her. I chose it to be painful, having your stomach opened is a slow painful death.
She fell, gasping for air again, and for some reason I can't explain, maybe tiredness, I sat down next to her.
And she spoke.
"I guess it had to happen one day. How many did I kill, just for you to come around and end it all? Konoha, you think you will change anything, that you'll go home and what, another jinjuriki won't ever be made? They'll use my child, and then the child after that to contain it, and war will go on. You will never win. Not for long at least, and you will always lose what matters to you. My husband, me, my child. All of them will die, and you aren't an exception. Your team wasn't at least."
Tanuki, who I loved like a father perhaps. He cared for me, trained me, taught me how to best work with a team.
"You killed him by ripping out his heart."
Kitsune, an older brother it felt sometimes. He was smart, analytical, and tired. So tired. I wished he had somewhere to rest, to retire.
"You killed him by vaporising him."
Onryō, I didn't know what Onryō was to me. But I know I cared for her. A lot. She was always a prisoner, of her clan, of ANBU, but I could tell she just wanted to be free to be herself, the way she fought and moved and talked. Her legs, her eyes, always rebelling. I wanted that for her.
"You ripped her apart."
"Haha, that I did." She was silent for a bit.
"Hey, Leaf. You think we can ever have peace?"
"I don't know."
"Well, if we could, would someone like you even want it?"
And then I looked towards her withered, old, scarred, dying face, and she was smiling.
I cut the wound up more, bigger.
And then I stared up in the air, her gasps for air and of pain playing to the side of me as I stared at the clear, blue sky.
[7 tailed jinjuriki killed! 200,000 xp rewarded!]
Special perk earned: Bug killer
Understanding of bug biology has given you the ability to deal 20 times more damage to bug type enemies! Good hunting!
Level up!
Level 21!
Level 22!
Level 23!
Level 24!
Level 25!
Level 26!
Level 27!
Level 28!
Level 29!
Level 30!
[2500/3000xp]
Points awarded, 200
30 points per level!
261 points
Stats:
Strength: 120
Agility: 100
Perception: 120
Intelligence: 100
Chakra: 250
Luck: 200
And that was all that I had gained. Power. Just more power, the only thing I had ever wanted.
I felt empty.
…
Iwa soon flanked the leaf. We just didn't have the men. I needed to get away, in my withered state, tired and exhausted and weak, so I retreated to their back lines, used their medical supplies after killing a few logisticians. There was talk about who had killed the 7 tails jinjuriki, a team, the hokage, the tsuchikage. Nobody knew, except me.
And they were gone. My team. I had nothing back in the leaf. Maybe that was why it was so easy to go deep into Iwa territory. Of course, once I had gone in, I couldn't go back.
Just my luck.
…
A/N: What a doozy.
For context the longest combat chapter I have ever done was in rainfall, at around 10k words. A ridiculous amount, but that the most important fight of a story that was mainly fighting. Maybe read that, it is chapter 15(I think?) Called 'Apotheosis of a planned narrative'. One of the best fight scenes I have written.
This one was pretty good too, and has been in the works for a while. I originally wanted Ru to be a more empathetic character, a slave to her village who was forced to fight and eventually tragically dies to Kizashi, but I decided to make her angry, to blame Kizashi. Part of this is because I want characters who are awful, who you can hate. She is an old, angry and bitter woman, who has lost everything she ever needed or wanted to be a weapon of the village, and has spent so long killing people in horrific ways it has become a part of her. She sees both every ninja in Kizashi, the ones who used her and the ones she killed, and herself, and so blames him for all of that. She is a victim of her own problems, having caused her own misery, and resigned herself to a life of regret, since she managed to save little considering her own death, killed many, and will eventually force her own child into the same life as her own.
Kizashi loses everyone he cares about. I wanted this to be a loss for him, a moment of destruction where in the last moments of himself he realises the only thing that matters is the people that make his life important, and interesting, and he will spend a lot of time trying to get that back.
I have gotten to the point where I get to use the gamer system as a literary device. Note the apathy conveyed in the 10 fucking levels Kizashi sees, and the lack of any care. Sure he got like 200 points which in case you don't know is insanity, but he just doesn't care, because what is even the point of power if he can't do anything with it but protect himself. At the moment, he is apathetic to even power, showing how low he has gotten.
Anyway, cya in the next one. Remember to review and thank you for reading.
Also, I have a 'cord if you want to harass me or whatever. Just look up greetanate (yes I have the same name there fuck you) if you want me to give you incomprehensible spoilers about random bullshit.
Have a good one.