Scarlet Justice: Full Blossom – ep. 31
"Walk the Waves"
[Life Aquatic, Part 1]
After many interruptions, the day has finally come. It's time to explore the open sea.
"Good luck on your trip, Lili."
"Thank you, love."
I shrug on my backpack, filled with contents optimized for my journey, and give Fio a kiss.
"Remember, you can call me if you need anything. If I'm busy, you'll know."
She nods. "Okay. Be safe."
"I promise. See you soon."
I leave our hotel room and head into the Leaf proper. The sun has just made it over the horizon, and most of the village is still waking up. For me, it's the perfect time to get moving ahead of the inevitable traffic.
"Lilith Kobayashi, reporting in. Good morning, my lord."
"Good morning, Lady Kobayashi. Ready to go, are we?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good, good." Hiruzen is the only one present at the mission desk this hour. I rather like it that way. In fact...I've always been a little touchy about people cutting into our time together. Well, it's fine. I'm his favourite, after all.
"Are there any further instructions for me?" I ask.
"Nothing that I can think of. I will be interested to see your report on the creature. You also plan on getting ahead of our friend Obito, from what I recall."
"Yes. A seal with a unique tracking signature for that purpose. If anything should happen to the tailed beast, or it is moved, we'll know after some analysis. If possible, I would like a team on this doing checks every three hours or so."
"We may be able to do better than that. I will speak with Shikaku regarding this, but I might be able to allocate resources so that this is done on a full time basis."
"That would be splendid. Thank you, sir."
"Of course. I have received no additional reports from our operative in the area...we will have a few vessels nearby conducting sweeps, and they will be ready to assist if you should need it. We have notified the Hidden Mist that we are doing exercises, so their focus should be on the ships instead of you."
"Right."
"But I want you to be careful either way."
"I promise not to start trouble. Finishing it is another story."
"Fair enough."
I set down my bag and walk around the desk.
"Did we need a hug?" Hiruzen asks with a smile.
"Yes, please. For luck."
He chuckles and stands up. "You were going on the other day about growing up and not being a little girl anymore."
"Don't be like that."
"It's only the truth."
I pout at him. "That doesn't mean you have to say it out loud."
He's just a bit shorter than I am now. Smaller, I suppose. But it doesn't make me respect him less, or think too much of myself. And...it doesn't change how good it feels to be held in his arms. I've always felt safe like this. As if it were meant to be, as if I really did belong here from the start.
The moments we share together are so precious. I don't want to forget any of them.
"Thank you, oyaji. I'll come back to you safely."
"I'll be waiting, Lili."
I smile and kiss him gently on the forehead, then hop over the desk and grab my bag. I leave before the next person heads in, and make my way out and onto the village streets. One more quick mental check of my inventory before I start my run towards the village entrance, and then out entirely. Cutting east towards the sea, along well-worn paths. There's no rush this time...I'm going to get this right. The future of the shinobi world may very well depend on it.
Water Country is a great collection of islands. No place is the same, and there isn't any true unifying force between them. The one thing that keeps them nominally connected is the existence of the Hidden Mist and its military.
Out of necessity, their naval forces are among the best out of the five nations, working on a lower budget than their direct rivals in the Hidden Cloud who have an advantage in funding and subsequently equipment. Boats roam around within sight of each other, on rare occasions firing warning shots in acts of sabre rattling. Nothing has come of it yet. The Hidden Leaf is their largest rival to the west, and we have not been interested in bothering them for any reason. The same can be said of this mission. Our aim is to gather intelligence on a certain creature and tag it for our own purposes.
Will the Hidden Mist be out looking for a chance to recapture what was once theirs? I would not know. If they do so, it's more of a boon to us than they would know, as it would at least keep the tailed beast away from Obito for a season longer. He would have to search for the new host and figure out how to capture them. Though...even that might be cold comfort considering that what is supposed to be the other village asset, the host of the Six Tails, is currently on the run after the disastrous reign of the Fourth Mizukage.
"..."
The current timeline and Obito's bag of knowledge means that he could be responsible for that mess too, but I wouldn't be able to say to what end. Thinking about it, the current state of affairs is almost too convenient in some ways.
A few days of uneventful travel pass. No new reports come in from any of my sources. There isn't anything of note from the outposts, either. I continue on towards the edge of Fire Country before finding a cliff, then jogging down its side casually until I reach the water. My destination is one of the many tiny islands that don't yet exist on maps, not terribly far from the shore. I step onto the grassy patch of land and take out my radio procured for this mission, then turn it on and find the first frequency I am to use. Earpiece goes in, microphone on a band that goes around my neck.
Seven whistles. Three quick, two long, one quick, one long.
Wait five minutes.
I go to my knees and meditate for a while, until I sense someone approaching. The chakra is familiar, and so I know that this is my contact. Still, as always we follow proper procedure for everyone's safety. We make the agreed upon sequence of handseals, and everything is confirmed from visual distance.
"Ma'am. Good to see you again," a deep voice calls to me.
The fine gentleman in front of me goes by the name of Genshi, or Gen for short. He says he picked the name when he was much younger and it stuck, but we both know he kept it because it sounded cool. Having spent a long time as a shinobi and at sea in general, he has a wealth of knowledge about how these things work, which is why I requested his help in the first place. Strong looking and very fit, as evidenced by the body he likes to show off by wearing his wetsuit halfway when not on duty. He has a pair of sharp, focused brown eyes. His black hair and beard are smooth and gently greying in that way that tends to make women swoon and fall over themselves.
Honestly...it's frightening how parched straight women get at times. It can be appalling to watch.
"Thank you. I hope you've been well since we last spoke," I say to him as we shake hands.
"Well enough, ma'am."
"Good. I'm quite ready whenever you are."
Gen will be my navigator and overwatch for this mission. The plan is to head to a small island where we can set up and remain hidden. I'll move into the water, using the Leaf vessels to help with my cover, then I'll go towards Water Country stealthily with Gen giving me constant updates on where other vessels are located and possible threats as they arise.
"Alright. We can head out now, then. I found a place that's well covered." Gen slips his arms back into his wetsuit and zips it up. We head over to a barren looking part of the island where he makes a seal before reaching into the dirt and pulling a boat out of it with one hand. He flips it over and sets it down in the water. "After you, ma'am."
"Thank you kindly."
I hop into the boat and take a seat at the front, while Gen settles in and brings the engine at the back to life.
And with that, we are on our way.
As we move further towards Water Country, one might be forgiven for forgetting that we're in the latter parts of spring. It's cold and moist out here, with plenty of fog to go around. I reach out into the air to make sure we're not getting too close to any ships, but our route is safely away from anything that might detect us. The engine moving us forward is relatively quiet, and the waves are not terribly high or rough as we cut through them.
Our breaths condense in the air as we pass by the shadows of small islands. My senses start to pick up people, individuals who are are either sailing around themselves or doing some sort of activity. We have yet to reach the Water Country side, so I suppose these are hobbyists. I couldn't imagine living out here, so far from either shore, unless you had plenty of resources that these lonely islands couldn't possibly provide.
"Gonna slip through behind our patrol."
Gen's voice brings me out of my thoughts, and I hear the engine get a bit louder as we speed up. We skilfully move alongside the nearby ship and head into foreign territory officially. The profile of a sizable island comes up after a few minutes, and Gen slows us to a stop, letting the small boat drift until it bumps against the rough shore. We hop out and he pulls the boat onto land, then hoists it onto his head as we walk. The uninhabited island has plenty of spots for cover and actual tree growth. Gen sets down the boat after we get to his preferred area, and starts on a fire pit as I go through my things.
"Routines are the same as usual, from what I remember."
"Yes. No changes," I say to him. "I'm going to get into my work outfit."
"Aye. Fire should be ready by the time you get back, ma'am."
I nod and move a bit out of sight before taking off my clothing. I went out and had this wetsuit custom made, since fit is very important and I wouldn't want to injure myself by merely swimming in something that was too tight. It covers my arms and legs properly, with proper sealing around the wrists, ankles, and neck. This will keep me warm and dry while I'm exploring underwater. More than flexible and durable enough for this mission. The zipper at the back is easily reached, and I seal myself in fully before putting up my hair into a ponytail. I fold up my clothing and put it into a sealed bag before walking back.
"All done."
Gen is making sure the fire is burning as I return. "Great. I'll get our little radio post set up, and then we can get ourselves started."
"Anything to eat before then?" I ask.
"I have the usual stuff."
"That won't do. I brought a few things for us, even if you would rather live the rugged life out here."
He chuckles while setting up his transmitters. "You must have boys chasing you all day whenever you step out."
"Well, saucy rumours aside, they think I'm too high maintenance," I say as I rummage through my bag. "And a snobby bitch, I suppose. Not that they're wrong on either count."
"Better for you, I guess."
"Very much so. Beef or chicken?"
"Beef sounds good."
"I thought we were watching our figure over here."
"We're taking advantage of our good genes to do so. Could you tune to our active frequency for a bit, ma'am?"
"Of course." I reach for the belt around my waist and adjust to the common frequency for Leaf naval operations.
"This is Gen reporting, over."
"Red Oak here, we read you Gen. Holding steady in section 2, over," a woman's voice calls back.
"Here with Red Queen. We are about to move a few squares onto the board. Within the next two hours is our estimated time frame, over."
"Two hours, we read, over."
"Blue Elm here. Two hours, copy. We have the seal monitor ready to go, over," a man says.
"This is Red Queen, starting test frame," I say while making handseals. I press my hand into a nearby tree and push chakra into the resulting construct.
"Red Queen, we read. Blue Elm detecting chakra pulses, test success. Over."
"Red Oak, we copy."
"Thank you. Be safe while out on patrol," I say. "Red Queen, out."
"We appreciate that, ma'am. Red Oak, standing by for next transmission. Out."
"This is Blue Elm, we copy. Thank you, ma'am. Out."
Gen nods and gives me a thumb up as the transmissions end. "As long as you don't go too deep, the microphone should be fine once you come back up."
"Excellent." I hand him one of my sandwiches, and he takes it gratefully. "We can have the chicken ones later."
"You're not watching your own figure?"
"I watch it enough. A sight to behold, as you are already aware."
He smiles and nods sagely. "Of course."
We eat quietly and clean up before getting ready to work. I inspect my diving mask, which is a half version that covers the mouth and nose, and my rebreather, which should easily allow me half a day of swimming before I make any moves towards conservation. Another check of my suit, a few stretches to get properly limbered up, and we should be ready. Oh, I knew I forgot to put something else on. A quick rummage through my pouch and I find my depth gauge, shaped like a large wristwatch. I secure it over my right wrist. Good. Now we should be ready for sure.
"Good luck," Gen says.
"Thank you. As I said earlier, be safe while you're here."
He nods and powers on the radio. I do the same with mine and make sure the earpiece is snug before stepping onto the water. The coolness flows through the chakra under my feet and into me. Visibility is low for as far as the eye can see, and it's definitely not getting any warmer on the surface.
Alright. Here we go.
"Red Queen, starting routines," I announce. My hand leaves the microphone around my neck as I slowly reduce the amount of chakra beneath my feet. I slowly sink deeper beneath the water with each step. The rebreather goes into my mouth, and I slip quietly beneath the waves, getting a small jolt from the cold against my face. It quickly passes and I start to move my legs smoothly, heading forward for the first leg of my tour.
I can see some of the aquatic flora beneath me, not terribly far down. The fauna are crawling about or swimming freely past me. The sharks with their silvery sheen pass me by with little attention paid, perhaps a quick glance before moving on as they always do. Not that I worry, but this material is also rated for shark bites. They're curious little things, and they bite things to figure out what they are. Outside of combat applications, they're usually harmless to humans. People have complexes about them like they do snakes, which is unfortunate.
"Mist patrol at bearings 315 and 070. Over."
Gen's smooth voice comes through the earpiece. He's relaying those positions relative to me, based on his radar data. It takes someone skilled and experienced to process the data and feed it to me in real time like this, and I very much appreciate it. Doing this on my own is more than possible, but also unwise. I would rather not cause myself trouble at this stage.
"Blue Elm, reporting. No sign of the big one yet. Mist patrols taking it easy, just watching the joyriders over the border, over."
"This is Gen, copy."
No action yet, then. I give three quick taps on my microphone as a signal.
"Red Queen descending to two bar," Gen says. "Travel speed will be increasing, over."
"This is Blue Elm, we read. No changes, over."
"Mist patrol at bearings 229 and 080. Over."
I slowly descend to twenty meters and make a series of handseals. The familiar shark made of water appears in front of me, and I quickly press a hand against it while pushing chakra outwards. This level of adhesion should do. Time to advance.
The water shark speeds forward, allowing me to cover a great distance efficiently. One can also ride inside of the shark, but I want to keep myself free to properly move and steer if anything should arise.
"Mist patrol coming up at bearings 318, 356, 075, and 086. Over."
A cluster of them milling about. Hopefully they're not monitoring things too closely. I have my construct slow down a bit so that I might seem like a normal shark passing through if they do decide to investigate. That's an acceptable scenario at least. The worst case is if they decide to drop barrels. Unlikely since they're all so close together – I can simply leave if they think I'm a threat.
"Mist patrols at bearing 221, 190, 131, and 105. Bearing 010 seems to be an island, likely uninhabited, over."
Somewhere to stop up ahead. I'll take it. I have the shark disappear and then I flow along with the momentum for a while, scattering fish to and fro as I pass near them. I steadily start to kick once I slow down, very carefully drifting upwards while breathing in and out steadily. This is one of the most dangerous parts of being underwater, since shinobi are not immune from internal injury. Especially that of the parts they need to breathe.
I swim cautiously and check my depth gauge to see that I'm at one bar of pressure, or approximately ten meters from the surface. After that, I rise a bit faster and keep my breathing steady until I hit the surface. A quick visual sweep says that I'm alone, and some chakra sensing confirms it. I swim up to the island and continue monitoring things as I walk onto its flat surface, removing my rebreather.
"Still quite cold. A bit miserable, isn't it..."
I sigh and take off my diving mask, then check my location again. Everything is wrapped in fog...nobody could see me unless they were passing right by in a small boat or something similar. Not much here, anyways. Some vegetation, but mostly rock and a smattering of pools across the surface. Probably a bird roost if anything.
"Red Queen, do you read?"
I touch the microphone switch on my neck. "This is Red Queen. I read, Gen."
"No patrols in your immediate area, over."
"Understood. Going to do a manual scan of the immediate area, over."
"We'll keep an eye out for anything unusual, over."
"The visibility here is quite low. I shouldn't have any issue, but I will continue listening for your advice. Over."
I slowly sit down and hug my knees, then close my eyes and focus on my surroundings. Surface readings of the water are a bit distorted, as one would expect, but beneath it things are much easier to discern. All of the aquatic wildlife is easily picked out and identified. Not as many ships as I assumed are nearby, which is good for us. The crews aren't that big, either...which makes sense.
"Let's try and reach out...a little further."
I stop feeling for vibrations as I expand the range of my sensing. There are inhabited islands, more ships with Mist shinobi in them, more fish and animals...
"There. Something...really big." I reach for my microphone. "Gen, do you read?"
"I read, Red Queen. Is everything okay?"
"I'm doing well. My manual scan of the area has revealed something to the northwest, about twenty kilometres from my current position. I am facing north at this time, bearing 360. The target should be...bearing 336. Over."
"Copy that, Red Queen. Bearing 336. Blue Elm, do you copy?"
"Copy, Gen. Extending radar search towards area, Red Queen at bearing 336, twenty kilometres. Stand by."
"Standing by."
"Standing by," I repeat.
"This is Blue Elm reporting in. Confirming that there is an unidentified object moving in the area that Red Queen has specified. Fits the profile of our target, over."
"Red Oak, please advise," I say.
"This is Red Oak, we read you loud and clear. Red Queen, you are authorized to head along bearing 336 from your current position, ships will be pulling back from target area and will remain within visual range for assistance. Red Queen, we advise careful travel at depth of 025 meters and 35 knots, over."
"This is Red Queen, I read and acknowledge. Thank you. Heading out now, over."
"This is Gen, I read. Monitoring will continue. 025 meters at 35 knots, over."
"This is Red Oak, we read."
"This is Blue Elm, we copy. 025 meters at 35 knots, bearing 336 from last position. Continuing radar observation, over."
I stand up and stretch again, secure my diving mask, and make sure my rebreather is functioning before stepping into the water again. I let myself sink beneath the waves again before making handseals, and having the water shark form itself around me this time. With clearance to go straight for my heading, this should be the most efficient means of getting there.
Full speed ahead, then.
"Red Queen steady on bearing 336. 020 meters at 27 knots. Over," Gen calls over the radio.
So far, so good. Hopefully it stays that way.