Chapter 2/2 posted 3/10/24
As fun as it was to bully the future Yondaime Hokage, it was time to get serious. Two scrolls appeared in his hand, and I tensed as he slammed them onto the ground on either side of him, their ends sticking upwards. Then, he sped through hand seals, and there was a great puff of smoke as the scrolls burst off of the ground, each unfurling theatrically and spiraling around one another in a double helix. An instant later, Minato jumped up high, right through the empty center, and the seals must have kept him up there somehow because he began to hover.
A neat party trick, but that wasn't all they did. It was hard to tell with all the spinning, but from my vantage point, I could identify storage seals. Minato was quick to access them, pulling weapons—different variations of kunai, shuriken and Kama—from thin air, and throwing them through the gaps in the swirling scrolls with practiced ease.
My first instinct, as I dodged the first round of projectiles, was to snipe him out of the sky with my stone pistol. But as I did, the cloth, parchment, whatever, stopped the solid rock cold, dropping it like a, well, stone. There must have been a barrier component to the fūinjutsu. And Minato was skilled enough to arc his shots around my projectile, so I didn't even get a reprieve.
I had never given it much thought before, but Minato did choose to tie his most ferocious (future) technique to special kunai. It stood to reason that he must have an uncommon degree of weapons expertise, and that was certainly corroborated by the fact that I was barely avoiding becoming a shish kebab. Minato was pelting me with too many weapons—my only means to survive was by drawing my own kunai to deflect them. Of course, that meant I couldn't mold hand seals, which was the real bitch in this situation.
A weird shuriken with fang-shaped prongs flew around me in a manner I was unused to, scoring a gash on my forearm and drawing a hiss of pain from my lips. I had always derided bukijutsu specialists in my head, because they were kinda lame. But Yoshiro-sensei had hammered into my skull a respect for simple, non-flashy weapons, and this was his case and point.
Fighting against the tide, deflecting weapons with my own, I pressed forward, weaving with intentioned footwork towards Minato's obnoxious pillar. My mind was forced to move even faster than my body—was this his endgame? Was he baiting me into another move that would play to his advantage? What else did he have in his arsenal? I needed to regroup, and to do that I needed shelter. But if I unburdened my hands to form seals, I'd almost definitely get stabbed to death before I could get a defense out.
However, I was a fuinjutsu user. I always came prepared. So, my best option was to capitalize on the one major weakness of Minato's technique: its stagnation. Most would make distance, but I did the opposite, weaving between the sharp bits of metal dart towards him and changing the angle at which he attacked.
I was forced to take more hits in the attempt. This wasn't like when I fought Sasori's puppet; I wasn't faced with a random storm of projectiles. I was up against an intentioned storm, and I had to defend against all angles. I began to take nicks and scratches of varying depth, and soon I was covered in blood.
But I made it close enough, and stamped a foot on the ground, activating a seal inscribed into the sole of my sandal. A written version of my Doton: Shunkan Iaku no Jutsu (Earth Style: Instant Tent Technique), modified in size and wall thickness. Slabs of stone rose out of the ground on either side, converging above me and entirely blocking Minato's angle of attack, and I could finally think.
Didn't I recognize his jutsu? Twin Rising Dragons, I believe it was called—but wasn't that TenTen's technique? How the hell did she get her hands on something the Yondaime used?
Oh, who was I kidding? It wasn't original to either of them. It came from the same place as every other Konoha jutsu.
Fucking Nidaime. He was a major asshole, but he sure knew jutsucraft.
Because I knew what I'd do in this situation, if I were him, I grabbed the end of the Lightning Sealing Method scroll and unfurled it as far as it could go, pressing the face against the roof of my shelter. Not to disable a Raiton jutsu—I knew he knew I'd detect it and defend. Plus, he'd have to abort his Twin Rising Dragons, as it would probably harm the scrolls if fired from within them.
No, what I predicted was another weapon, one well-known to anyone with passing familiarity with fuinjutsu. One that was harder to sense until it was too late, that was more than capable of blasting right through solid rock and even damaging me if I attempted to withdraw into the ground using the Moguragakure, which he was surely aware I was also capable of.
However, I knew Exploding Tags better than almost anyone alive. I knew that, counterintuitively, fire had nothing to do with how they worked; it was more of a byproduct. What really facilitated the reaction was Doton and Raiton, one of which I could seal away.
I wasn't sure which of the collisions I heard against my refuge were supposed to be accompanied by world-shattering explosions, but it didn't matter. Every one of them within my Sealing Method's limited range had been disabled, burning away with their fuse. And I didn't need to see to know that my prediction was spot on because there was a gust of wind, and the bottom portions (all that I could see) of the Twin Rising Dragons scroll were blown away from one another.
Minato landed on the ground before me with a scowl, already most of the way through a sequence of hand seals. But so was I, because, like him, I knew exactly what his next correct move should be.
All I saw was him bringing the Tora seal to his mouth before I altered my stance and stamped once more on the ground. Two more walls rose up, covering the remaining openings in my shelter, but I wasn't plunged into complete darkness because my construct immediately began to glow cherry red, and I felt the heat of a Katon jutsu a mere foot away. If I was even a millisecond late, my refuge would have become a blast furnace.
There was a cardinal rule in ninja combat. If a line of sight between two opponents was obscured, it was safe to assume that, when said line was reestablished, one or both participants would be replaced with a clone, illusion or trap. And who was I to spit on such a tried and true tactic?
To escape the heat and retreat to a more favorable position now that it was safe to do so, I flew through the hand seals to the Moguragakure, leaving behind only a timed explosive that definitely won't accomplish anything against a natural sensor, but hey, might as well. Besides, I needed something to occupy his attention, because this environment was seriously hampering me.
Why are there so many goddamn roots? There weren't even any trees around; this was ridiculous! It took three times as much effort to team my way through them closer to the surface, which was more than annoying when mobility was all I had going for me here.
Sure enough, when I popped up behind where I felt Minato's presence, and put a kunai through his neck, and he popped into a muddy ooze. He'd had more than enough time to sub with a clone.
Another kunai sped towards me, this one with chakra was channeled into it, making the weapon far more dangerous than those before. But that only meant I could clearly sense it, unlike the others. Knowing not to block, I bent backwards, discerning the weapon's point of origin in a split-second and molding the hand seals for a Tosshin, casting my tether at a piece of rock clone leg in front of Minato. I exited at my current maximum velocity, and even the future (but presently still very impressive) Yellow Flash couldn't fully make it out of the way in time. A flying knee clipped his hip, knocking him off his feet and into a dizzying spiral.
Laughing, I let momentum carry me past his position, molded hand seals and, once there was a clean line of sight once more, replaced myself with the emerging clone I had placed as a seed with the foot I had just pushed off of. My intent forced it to cut off its own gestation, so it was little more than a torso and an arm. But do you know what it did have?
BOOM!
Minato hadn't even regained his footing before he was caught at the edge of my explosion. It blew him back towards me, where I had a lariat waiting for him. Only a superhuman could shake off the disorientation and pain to react in time, and I guess that's what Minato was. He grabbed my arm like a gymnast on a high bar, pushed off with his shoulders and somersaulted midair into a kick.
Which didn't land. I didn't even dodge fully; it should have clipped me. However, his leg spasmed, and he was forced to abort. I understood why when he also failed to stick the landing. The knee I landed did more damage to his hip than even he realized.
Yes!
His speed, arguably his biggest advantage over me. It was neutralized.
And he was panicking. He threw down a smoke bomb, simultaneously cutting off his chakra channeling so I couldn't use my active sense to follow him. I immediately threw a kunai at the last place I saw him, but it didn't hit.
Not immobilized, then. He could still run.
With obscured visibility, Minato, as a sensor and a skilled bukijutsu user, had a distinct advantage. However, the chakra-less weapon barrage I expected didn't come. Instead, my vision began to swim.
Poison, I realized, beginning to panic. Now that I thought about it, the smoke smelled off. Kami, of course. I should have expected poison. I can't see him, I'm completely vulnerable. I'm going to die!
But then—
So what?
I began to feel a chill seep into my bones. Not from the poison, but from something else entirely.
Why should I be scared of death? I've already died before, and it wasn't so bad. Panicking at the end of my second life makes no sense.
The cold grounded me, cutting through the panic. And I began to think. And realize.
Minato doesn't use fucking poison. That's not his style at all. Genjutsu, however? Well, he apparently did have an Uchiha as a teammate.
Sure enough, as I searched, I found it. An olfactory type, which used the scent of the smoke as its activation requirement, attached to a certain bulb in my forebrain. I'd experienced several just like it while training with Daigo and his father. I displaced the chakra glob in my brain just a little, and suddenly my vision was no longer swimming.
I looked around wildly, as if still caught in its grasp. The smoke was starting to disperse, which I wouldn't have been able to notice otherwise. As I backed away, I saw Minato as well. I raised a kunai with shaky hands—not at him. In whatever direction I "heard a sound."
Minato was approaching, limping towards me. Circling like a hyena. He was smiling, something akin to relief on his face. He raised his own weapon.
"She's faking it!" his kunoichi teammate suddenly screamed—oh yeah, was that Sasuke's fucking mom? "She's not under the genjutsu!"
My hand snapped in Minato's direction, loosing the kunai I had held so limply a moment before. Unfortunately, his teammate's warning did the trick. He dodged, though I was satisfied to see the smirk wiped off his face.
"Fucking Uchiha cheater," I grumbled. "Ah, whatever." I pushed the chakra out completely. "It's probably for the best. I don't think I could convincingly pretend to actually be scared of you anyway."
"It wasn't how I wanted to kill you anyway," he grumbled, trying to disguise his limp now that he knew I was lucid. Too little, too late.
"That dopey grin on your face said otherwise," I shot back, and he gritted his teeth. He took a page out of my book and substituted with a Mud Clone of his own to make space. He hadn't put all his eggs in the genjutsu basket; he'd made that guy under the cover of smoke just in case.
I immediately realized why he decided to sacrifice it right away when my active chakra sense prickled, and a wind cutter pierced right through the body that blocked my line of sight. I still dodged with little trouble.
"Your elemental sealing methods are cute," the real him said, a solid distance away. "But allow me to show you what someone talented can do with them."
I was forced to dodge again as another wind cutter came at me from the side, but that was wrong. Minato definitely hadn't cast another jutsu.
"What is this?" I mused, leaning back once again, keeping another wind cutter from cleaving my face off. Taking a risk, I broke my gaze away from Minato, watching the jutsu…redirect itself? Was that chakra control?
When I was forced to return my gaze to Minato, seeing him mold more signs in my periphery, I realized that wasn't the case. Maintaining and manipulating a jutsu while casting another should be well beyond even him at this point. I had to dodge another wind cutter, then again the first as it came back towards me.
The second jutsu stuck around as well, but it didn't just about face and pursue me. Neither did the first. They seemed to be flying around at random, not targeting me but placing themselves in my path by chance.
Minato cast the jutsu once again, and then there were three. Then four. Then…three?
The vanished one didn't expire, it was lost, sent spinning away startlingly close to Minato's own team.
"I see," I said, eyeing the ground with interest, specifically the weapons strewn around by his Twin Rising Dragons. I was so focussed on defending myself, I hadn't noticed the ones he hadn't intended to land at all. Kunai spread all around our battlefield, all bearing their own seals. "I understand what's going on."
The tags on each special weapon sealed away Futon chakra before releasing it, molded into a wind cutter using a preset shape manipulation seal, in a random direction. Impressive; I certainly didn't know how to utilize the elemental chakra I'd sealed. Minato had created a fucked up game of pinball/brutal kill floor, which would dismember any enemy caught inside.
"Then I hope that understanding will bring you some comfort in death," Minato spat, and in moments there were too many wind blades to count. And, unlike the physical weapons from earlier, they couldn't be blocked. My kunai would be shredded, and even my defensive Doton jutsu wouldn't last for long.
Using my Wind Sealing Method was too risky too; it only absorbed chakra of jutsu that approached it head on. If I unwound the scroll, and it was hit from the wrong angle, I would be fucked. And that was almost inevitable, with how many jutsu Minato was still pumping into the relay.
My only real choice was to retreat below ground and use the sensing property of the Moguragakure to locate each weapon through the root systems (metal felt different, so it was possible) and pull them down with me, out of the path of the jutsu. I even had the perfect means to do so; the failsafe that had saved my life when I found myself in the confines of Minato's original technique. A clone that I spawned underground, which I could replace myself with. Normally the earth would act as a pretty unforgiving barrier against the tether of the Kawarimi, but I had created a seal version of the Moguragakure that softened it beneath me. The clone would poke a single finger up for my tether to latch onto, and we could swap in the blink of an eye.
But I hesitated to use that now. First off, because I only had one more combination Kawarimi/Moguragakure seal inscribed on the other sandal, so using it now could be a waste. And secondly, because it seemed like too convenient of a solution, especially since Minato knew exactly what I was capable of.
Was that a trap as well? Like with the Twin Rising Dragons, was there a failsafe built into the scrolls themselves? I should definitely expect there to be.
One thing was for sure—
"It would sure be nice to have a Katon jutsu right about now," I shouted out, pointedly.
There was a long-suffering sigh from behind me.
"Ryu, Ushi, Inu, Tora," Biwa-sensei called, and I grinned, flipping through the seals without hesitation. Feeling the jutsu in my tongue, I brought my hands to my lips and spat out what I recognized to be Katon: Endan (Fire Style: Flame Bullet). Simple, but undoubtedly effective.
The fire chakra consumed every bit of Futon chakra it encountered, gorging itself and growing wild. I was forced to use an application of Suiton: Mizurappa (Water Release: Wild Water Wave) to protect myself. Blessedly, it wasn't only the jutsu that were destroyed; so were Minato's elemental tags.
"Sensei!" Minato called over the hiss of steam around me. "Water Jutsu!"
"Tora, Mi, Ne, Mi, Inu!" Jiraya called, and I grinned as Minato spat a water wall against the conflagration. Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Style: Water Wall)—score!
Our battle ground was nearly silent for once, apart from Minato's and my gasps. We were both exhausted, and in pain. The wind blades had given me an unfortunate degree of insight into the death by a thousand cuts torture method. Meanwhile, Minato was still hobbling, and I could already see him turning into a patchwork of bruises. Especially his exposed left forearm, from my very first punch.
"You're not as skilled as you pretend to be," Minato said between heaving breaths.
"Oh?" I asked, just as worn out. Guess my stamina isn't as great as I thought. "How do you figure?"
"With the jutsu in your arsenal, you should have been able to bury those tags from a distance," he stated, and my heart stuttered. He spared me an annoying smirk. "You have terrible external chakra control, don't you?"
John Mulaney's voice rang through my skull. Nooo, that's the thing I'm sensitive about!
"Seems I don't have to worry about you using my jutsu after all," he said, more satisfied with the fact than he should be.
"First off, that won't exactly stop me from teaching it to other people. And second, every technique you've shown me has been over-engineered and unnecessarily convoluted. I can easily tell you have a weakness much greater than mine."
"Oh, yeah?" he panted. "Please, enlighten me."
My lips split into a tired grin. "You don't actually understand fuinjutsu."
He shifted, beginning to circle me again. "Oh, please. I don't understand fuinjutsu? My seals make yours seem amateurish."
"Oh, you understand how to make seals," I allowed. "You can parrot the teachings of a master with centuries of clan knowledge to fall back on. You can even invent pieces with complex effects. But you don't understand how seals work. It might as well be magic to you, right?"
He didn't reply, his face blank, and I chortled. Minato had skipped past the understanding and the self-discovery phase that I had been stuck in for so long. He hadn't explored his own canals, hadn't figured out that the chakra network was one malleable work of fuinjutsu. Even if his Uzumaki master had told him about the secrets that lay buried in the human body, he had no idea how to apply that into his seals, or even into his original ninjutsu which were essentially the same thing. Minato couldn't do anything simply; he had to take the most winding path possible, because that was all he knew.
"Maybe this will show you what I mean," I said, clapping the dust off my hands. "This fight was a blast. Seriously, props to you. Never thought I could get this much of a challenge from someone my own age. And from Konoha, no less."
I was just being a dick at this point. Still, when in Iwa, slander Konoha like the Iwan's (nobody calls us that) do.
"Let me guess," he groaned, which mostly ruined the condescension he tried to force into his tone. "You're going to say that it's time for you to end this. Like you're capable of that, and chose not to do it until now because you're having so much fun."
Hah. This kid was fucking hilarious. I grinned widely, like I did when I wanted to creep my team out (I'm quite self-aware).
"I haven't shown you my original technique, yet," I said, and his eyes narrowed.
Before he could stop me, I sped through the hand seals for a Moguragakure no Jutsu, modified to its greatest range, which took a decent chunk of what remained in my reserves. Necessary, because the seal version attached to my fuinjutsu cluster had expired long ago.
There was no question I was going to use this technique, so I had placed it at the very beginning of the match. It had been gestating all this time, and Minato knew it was there. He even commented on it early on. He just didn't know what it did.
I was ecstatic to finally show him.
The ground rumbled, and Minato leapt back, alarm visible on his face. And then it appeared. My masterpiece.
Doton: Jūtan Bakudan no Jutsu: Sanjūni no Kao (Earth Release: Carpet Bomb Technique: Thirty-Two Faces)
The goliath erupted into the air, faster than it ever had before, and I let out a sigh of relief. I was worried the roots underground would hold it back, though with the amount of force I put behind its propulsion, I probably shouldn't have been. This was the pioneer flight of the most expensive, single-use weapon to ever grace the Elemental Nations. And already, it was glorious.
Minato, staring more in revulsion than horror, immediately began cycling through hand seals, ending on Hitsuji. Because, of course, using a Raiton jutsu would cancel out anything Doton related, right?
I began to laugh in glee as the arc of lightning struck my masterpiece and did…nothing.
Part of why it was so expensive. It had thirty-two exploding tags, obviously. But it also had sixteen other modified exploding tags for propulsion, four Moguragakure seals, and thirty-six Lightning Sealing Methods.
That was a lot of tags. And something that was easy to forget was that writing seals only costs some paper and special ink. But activating them? Well, that took as much chakra as a proportional jutsu.
I sank into a crouch, not necessarily by choice, as all of those eighty-eight tag activations hit me at once (even the exploding tags that hadn't detonated were primed the moment the entire fuinjutsu cluster exited the earth).
But the moment the clusters first split, and I saw true fear break out onto a future legend's face? That made it all worth it. And the fun was only just beginning.
With another mighty crack, all thirty-two faces separated, and began to pick up speed as they drifted to the ground. Towards Minato. He leapt out of the way of the first two, but stumbled as they exploded around him. He wasn't expecting that. I savored his panic as the kabooms ramped up in frequency, clustering more tightly together. And when he realized they could follow him? Oh, chef's kiss!
Then, his eyes locked on mine, and resolve overtook him. I could see his thoughts as they came to him, even as he gracelessly threw himself out of the way of each explosion. Racing through hand seals, he engaged the shunshin, heedless of how it further damaged his lower half. Weaving between the impacts, gauging the uniformity of each one to predict what chunks of ground were safe for him (something to remedy in the future—variation of explosion radius equals unpredictability), he made his way towards me.
Because no sane person would use physical contact as an activation condition in this circumstance, right? They would have to use sensory activation, with their own signature blacklisted. Otherwise they could find themselves in the line of fire, same as their enemies.
I could see the exact moment he realized that wasn't the case. He got pretty close to me, a face followed him, and it exploded instead of merely colliding with the ground. He grew even paler, noticing no less than eight faces directly above us, and I grinned.
"Aight. Ima bounce."
Then, I dug deep and used the last combination Kawarimi/Moguragakure seal on my sandal, swapping with the final failsafe clone poking its finger out from below. The moment I was underground, I commandeered the seal's Moguragakure, diving deep into the earth as it shook above me. The moment I was safe, I shot back upwards at top speed, tearing frantically through nets of roots as the last vestibules of chakra drained from me.
If I wasn't already in darkness, I would notice my vision going black. But I would still definitely be able to feel it when I lost control of the technique, and I began to suffocate. That's what would happen, any second now.
I didn't really consider that it would happen. I thought I would have some plot armor, or something. I would resurface the victor, and everything would be epic.
But I didn't. I ran out of chakra. I began to suffocate to death, for the second time.
And that was that.
Psych.
I mean, that did, in fact, happen. But I didn't die because—and I truly did forget this for most of the fight—I wasn't alone. A moment after I ran out of chakra, a strong arm grabbed me, ripping apart the roots my limbs were tangled in and hoisting me out of what was so nearly my tomb.
Before I could well and truly fall unconscious, I had been wrenched onto the surface, and my vision returned as I began to heave in breaths. Desperately, I swung my head from side to side, finally seeing Minato lying on the ground, shaken, bleeding, but alive. Crouching above him was Jiraiya, ignoring the devastation around them and muttering what I assumed to be hushed words of reassurance.
"Ah, man," I groaned. "Did I lose?"
"No, actually," Biwa-sensei said, and my heart leapt. "Jiraya intervened in the fight to save his student. By the rules of the match, that constitutes a disqualification. You are the victor."
Jiraya's head snapped up to glare at us. "Oh, really? What exactly would you call what you just did, then?"
"The match was already over," Biwa-sensei stated, his lip curled in disdain. "The order in which these things occur matters."
"Yet she would have also died if you didn't act," Jiraya said. "I felt her jutsu fade just as well as you did. To insinuate the outcome was anything other than a draw is obtusely pedantic, and I won't accept it."
Biwa-sensei cracked his neck, setting me on the ground. I barely had the means to push myself into a sitting position.
"It was your idea to enact standard protocol twenty-one, and now that the outcome isn't to your liking, you say you're not going to respect its resolution? I shouldn't have expected anything less from Konoha."
"After how hard he fought, I'm not going to let my student leave this place thinking he lost," Jiraya snarled, and holy shit. That was actually really sweet.
"So be it," Biwa-sensei declared, and suddenly I was in Iwao's arms, flying back towards Daigo—we would only get in the way here. Sensei was already blitzing through hand seals, and an endless sea of stakes burst out of the ground, all extending towards Jiraya like spears in a massive greek Phalanx formation.
Doton: Doryūsō (Earth Style: Earth Flow Spears)
Before they could make contact, however, they began to tumble in every direction, like cars caught in bad flooding. Which was almost exactly what happened, as the earth supporting them turned to something worse than muck.
Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld)
Right off the bat, they were throwing off jutsu dwarfing what Minato and I had used in scale. But why wasn't Biwa-sensei using the Dust Release?
Then I remembered something from earlier, and realized.
In the anime, couldn't the revived Lord Mu not use Dust Release while dividing himself with his Fission Clone technique?
Fuck, Biwa-sensei was at a disadvantage here. And it was only a matter of time before Jiraya realized it.
Luckily, it turned out not to matter. Because a strange voice, inhuman, barely loud enough to be heard, called out.
"Stop."
I was as shocked as all the other genin to see both of the sensei do so immediately. Biwa-sensei skipped back over to us in a single bound, falling into a defensive stance and hushing me as I opened my mouth to speak. Jiraya did exactly the same.
A tense few seconds later, I saw exactly why. An off-white, rotund, slippery-looking creature the size of a Bichon wriggled up onto one of Biwa-sensei's fallen spears. It looked to have no eyes, and was possibly the least menacing thing I'd seen in either life. The present S-Rank ninja included didn't seem to agree with me. Something more than wariness colored their expressions as they tensed under its not-gaze, which flickered between them.
"You're both high-caliber men. I would expect the Tsuchikage's son to act with more dignity, no? And you," it turned back to Jiraya. "I have my own standards for you."
Jiraya wet his lips. "Ohayō Gozaimasu," he greeted formally, and was there a light tremor in his voice? "Hisashiburidesu, Hanzo-Dono."
I knew it was Hanzo, of course. The salamander was a bit of a give away. But that was just a summon, right? Surely all this was taking it too far.
"I apologize for my graceless actions," he continued. "I did try and keep them away from your people."
Biwa-sensei twitched quickly to draw his eye and mouthed brown noser. I stifled a giggle; the creature didn't have eyes, so it was a clever work around. Kami, it was incredible to see my uptight sensei act like such a child.
"Which I appreciate," he said, though there was heavy irony in the alien tone. "But it's not just your physical actions that disturb me. You may be willing to risk war this early, but with my nation's position, to me there is more at stake. So I must insist you cease this childishness. Save the Rain for another day."
Oh my god, Hanzo the Salamander's got jokes. Wait, was that intentional? Did the rain, rain go away song exist here? Or was that just a double entendre?
"We are on a simple protection detail, escorting one of your valued merchants," Biwa-sensei spoke up. "All we wish is to do so without harassment."
"Tadakuni Mizuno," the salamander acknowledged, and though he was too good to show it, I got the sense that sensei was alarmed to know that he'd been personally watching us, or at least following our mission, for quite some time.
"Yes. You wouldn't want harm to come to him, would you?" Biwa-sensei asked, shooting Jiraya a look.
"Actually, I quite despise the man."
Biwa-sensei's gaze snapped back to the creature, his posture even tenser than it had been.
"I'd given some thought to eliminating him myself. However, that would be bad for Rain's reputation, not to mention its commerce."
"Then we would be doing you a favor by removing him from your nation," Biwa-sensei was quick to point out.
"Perhaps. But on the other hand, accidents happen all the time, especially in the uninhabited countryside. Don't presume that I care about doing Iwagakure any favors. Not after your actions against my people during the last war."
Biwa-sensei shifted in discomfort. Though I shouldn't be, as my home was on the receiving end in this situation, I was glad that such a prominent figure in Iwa's government was reminded that shitty practices could have consequences.
The salamander, somehow, rose up to stand on its hind two legs.
"You both agreed to protocol twenty-one. And the result of your champions' match is a draw."
There was no compromise in his voice, no room for argument. It was decided.
"As you well know, that means there must be a tiebreaker fight between two different champions."
Iwao and Daigo both tensed—so did Mikoto and their third teammate.
"However, I don't have the patience for this to be dragged on any longer. All of you, leave my country. No detours, no breaks. Kamizuru-san will lead his team due north into Grass. Jiraya, east back into the Land of Fire."
Jiraya folded immediately. Biwa-sensei, possibly because he'd never actually fought the speaker, held a bit more reluctance.
"Would you allow us to pick up our client first?" he asked.
"No," was the immediate response. "Your clone is still escorting him. That will have to be sufficient. It must also leave immediately—I don't care about whatever business your client is attending to."
Biwa reluctantly nodded, but didn't argue further. Meanwhile, I was in a fair bit of awe.
What a fucking reputation to have. Hanzo wasn't even here. He was talking through his summons, and it wasn't even a threatening one! Yet two quarreling S-Ranks were all but running with their tails between their legs.
Jiraya scooped Minato off of the ground, but before he could do as ordered, my rival stopped him.
"Wait. I've got something to say to her."
There was no question he was talking about me. Jiraya cast a wary glance at the salamander, but when no reply came, he turned back to face us.
"You're a curse on this world," he said to me, but despite his words, he didn't seem as furious as before. His gaze was almost pitying. Of both me and the circumstances he thought must have led to my existence. "A symptom of hatred. If you rise to any position of authority, you will only cause more devastation and pain. I wasn't able to end you today, but I swear, one day, I will. Because if people like you prevail, there will never be everlasting peace."
I snorted at his self-important soliloquy. Seems Jiraya's already infected his mind with idealism.
"Oh, so you're one of those people," I sneered, grabbing Biwa-sensei's arm to shakily pull myself to my feet. "I should have known. You think, just because I'm not afraid to show violence, you think I'm a barbarian? Grow up."
Scoffing, I met Minato's vibrant blue, narrowed gaze.
"Peace is great, sure. I'll fight for peace. I would love to not have to worry about my comrades, my family, or my neighbors dying. But the idea of wanting a world utterly devoid of conflict is shit. You're so lost in your fantasies that you haven't stopped to consider what they'd cost."
Running my hand through my hair—the band had snapped, cut through by a wind blade—I felt it matted by mud, sweat and blood. I would definitely need to seek out a stylist right after I got out of the hospital as well; my locks had been chopped to bits.
"What does a world without fighting look like to you? You must know that people will still have disagreements, right? And the number of disagreements will only compound when large groups are brought together. Disputes between villages will still exist; how are they supposed to settle them without fighting? Compromise? No one gets what they want in a compromise. Resources are finite; no one will get to live in prosperity."
You could make the argument that, if there weren't periods of widespread conflict, those resources would become significantly less finite. And it would be a good point to make. But this was the Elemental Nations, not twenty-first century Earth. We hadn't overcome nature. A single natural disaster or crop disease could ruin nations. Which brought up another point Minato was—possibly willfully—ignoring.
"Besides, you have to realize how disingenuous that is, coming from a citizen of the Land of Fire," I pointed out. "You have the best climate, the best environment for gathering resources. Do you not understand why you've been the first target in every war that's broken out? You have the most intrinsic privilege out of any Elemental Nation! Now that I think about it, I can give you the key to your everlasting peace right now—no need to wrack your brain over it. Share your food, your considerable resources, with every other struggling nation. Then we'll have no reason to fight, will we? Go ahead, propose that to your Hokage, to your Daimyo. Oh, and invite me along as well. I'd love to see their reactions."
The silence from the Konoha contingent was deafening. I scoffed, and shook my head.
"And that's just the logical side of things. How do you even think we'd get to that so-called everlasting peace to begin with, after we've spent all of human history shitting on one another? You want everyone to just forget the injustices committed against them? That's beyond naive, not to mention unfair. Asking that of a victim is like asking them to cut out part of their own brain. If you don't believe me, ask your Uzumaki friend that taught you fuinjutsu. Ask them if they'd be able to forgive the ones who destroyed their home. And then, ask them how peacefully they'd be able to spend their extended, war-less lifespans, knowing their family is rotting in the ground while their murderers get off scot free."
Minato wasn't blinking; I'm not even sure if he was breathing. Same with Jiraya.
"People are aggressive," I stated. "We want to fight. It's a part of our nature; I hope our battle just now proved that to you. Yeah, it's often necessary to rise above our instincts, but repressing them so thoroughly isn't realistic. It isn't even healthy. You're so desperate to find a difference between the two of us, so here it is. I'm not evil; I'm just human. And unlike you, I don't pretend to be anything more."
I took my hand off Biwa-sensei, swaying but not falling. I didn't want to part ways with Namikaze Minato hanging on to anyone for support.
"We will meet again. I'm sure of it. And when we do, we'll see whose ideals win out."
And that was that. Jiraya cast one last glance as the salamander, and I practically heard him decide not to push his luck any further. Minato didn't seem to have a rebuttal anyway, so with a quiet word to his team, they took off.
"We should go too," Biwa-sensei said, his voice soft. I looked up into his eyes, and found a complex cocktail of emotions, none of which I could discern. I nodded, but then my eyes fell on the summons and an opportunity struck me.
"Wait," I said. "I have a question for Hanzo."
Biwa-sensei's eyes widened a fraction. "Imai—" he barked out a warning, but was cut off.
"You do, do you?" the amphibian croaked. "I will hear it."
I would almost definitely get a scolding for this later, but for now Biwa-sensei had no choice but to hold his tongue, lips pursed in displeasure, a sharp warning in his eyes.
My mouth, admittedly, had moved faster than my brain. I actually have a question in mind; all I knew was that Hanzo the Salamander was possibly the coolest person I'd met in this life (though I used to word "met" lightly). It was important to me that I left with a good impression.
Wracking my brain, remembering everything I saw about the man in the anime, something finally came to mind.
"Do you think there can be peace without war?"
There was silence, and the salamander shifted.
"An interesting question," The creature croaked, and though it was hard to tell in its inhuman voice, it almost sounded entertained. "What do you think?"
I considered my own question. "If war didn't exist, then the word peace would have no meaning. It wouldn't be appreciated, or valued. But the same would be true in reverse. If there was endless war, and no one knew peace, there would be no hope."
It was the same in my original world. People who only knew peace took it for granted. Especially the politicians, who unfortunately had the ultimate say in deciding if we were to be shipped off to war.
The salamander made a throaty croaking sound, and I realized after a second that it was laughing.
"You are a perceptive child," It stated though its mirth. "It is rare to see such strong convictions at all, much less in one so young."
It climbed to the tip of the spear it rested on.
"I saw your fight with the Konoha child. You are proficient with exploding tags."
I smiled at the praise. "I have invented fifty-eight unique variants so far," I bragged.
"Fifty-eight," it repeated. "Impressive. Still, you wield them with little finesse. You have a ways to go yet." It stood up again, balancing on the point, and slapped its webbed hands together with a muted thwack. "As a reward for entertaining me, I will give you a demonstration."
My heart didn't even have time to race before the ground beneath my feet began to vibrate. As if there was something shifting far beneath us.
"Long ago, Ame would not have been an appropriate name for this nation," the salamander revealed as strands of something began to peek out from underneath the mud. "It was once a land of vitality, with vegetation as far as the eye could see. Inconceivable, I know; I can barely imagine such a sight myself. However, some phenomena must have occurred some time in the past—natural or otherwise. Now, it rains too frequently. The vegetation has been all but erased, above ground. But under it, remnants remain."
I had noticed as much; the heavy root systems were what almost killed me in the end.
It was those roots that were beginning to rise out of the muck. For a split, incredulous second, I thought it was the Mokuton. But no, that was something else entirely. The roots swayed, reaching towards the summon like grasping hands before they began to…disintegrate? Degrade into this paste-like substance, which melded together into a long, fluid limb.
At a certain point, I could see the water leach out of it, in an impressive display of Suiton manipulation, leaving behind a tan, twisted log of plant material. My heart began to race even faster as thin layers began to peel away from the end—it was paper.
I immediately remembered one of my favorite kunoichi in the anime. That badass, blue-haired babe should have ended the Moon-Eye Plan before it could truly begin, which she definitely deserved to. If not for the fucking cheat-angan, and its hax deus ex machina.
Were Konan's techniques a derivative of Hanzo's?
And that was only the setup. Pages of paper began to float, heedless of the breeze, circling the salamander summons, who reached out a webbed hand and traced the face of each page. I jerked up straight when I realized that each page that pulled away from its palm was no longer blank. It bore an incredibly familiar seal.
"No. Way," I gasped, resisting the urge to stumble forward for a closer look. Seals that could be placed with a touch? Who had ever heard of such a thing?
Wait a second. I had. Didn't Minato, in the anime, place Hirashin markers with a touch? It was never explained how; should I be surprised that the feat could be replicated with other seals?
The salamander spared me some approximation of a smile, and the rising pages began to fold of their own accord, turning into paper airplanes. More and more floated into the sky, soaring above us all and forming a giant ring. In a frighteningly short amount of time, there were at least one hundred exploding tags hovering above us.
That wasn't good for my team's nerves. Iwao and Daigo huddled close to Biwa-sensei, who appeared twitchy. Even without his dust release barriers, however, he could defend against this, so he probably saw no reason to insult Hanzo by interrupting. Besides, they were much too high up; if they moved to descend, he could begin to worry.
Meanwhile, I was awestruck by the art above me. Holy shit. And here I thought I was skilled with exploding tags? I was a bull in a china shop in comparison. I couldn't even be mad at his assertion that I held "no finesse." Compared to this, it was an understatement.
"How?" I whispered, begged.
The summons tutted in response. "Come now. I can't give you such answers."
Then I remembered myself, and grinned. "Forgive me. I couldn't restrain my curiosity. You demonstrated it was possible. That is enough."
He seemed impressed by the response, though I suppose I shouldn't pretend to be able to read an animal's body language.
"What is your name, child?" he asked me. I almost responded right away before I remembered my place and looked to Biwa-sensei for permission. He gave me a curt nod (oh yeah, the original point of this mission was to introduce our team to the world).
"Imai Kasaiki," I introduced. "Hajimemashite."
The creature cocked its head in confusion. "Umbrella Breath?"
I turned beet red. Fuck you, Kazuhiro.
"It's spelled with three kanji," I explained, eyebrow twitching involuntarily. "Ka, Sai, and Ki."
The salamander hummed, the sound even stranger than its normal speech. "I see. Names are a strange thing, are they not? They can completely alter one's perception of an individual, but they have no intrinsic bearing on their character. They are not chosen, only given. I can guess the origins of Ka-sai-ki, and they are bleak. Do you appreciate being bestowed such a name? Do you feel beholden to a destiny chosen for you?"
I shook my head immediately before realizing the creature couldn't see it.
"I will honor my past, and introduce myself as Kasaiki with pride. But only I can choose my future."
It let out a croak. "I see. Very well then. Leave now, Imai Kasaiki. I am eager to see what future you choose for yourself."
- - - { ワナビー } - - -
AN: So concludes the longest fight sequence I've ever written. Definitely the longest update block for this fic, coming in at a whopping 14000 words. Well over three chapters worth. See why it took me two weeks, now?
I began planning this scene the moment I started conceptualizing this fic, over a year ago at this point. I was worried I wouldn't be able to do it justice, but I think I kinda did. Do you? Did it meet expectations?
But it certainly would have been a lot less crisp without the help of my betas. I hadn't actually decided the setting (Ame) until several weeks ago. I hadn't begun to think about the mission details either. And I certainly didn't plan on Hanzo making an appearance. When they first proposed that, my initial thought was hell no. But then I thought about it more—two foreign, S-Rank nin entering his nation would justify drawing his personal attention, wouldn't it? And then, I refreshed my memory on Hanzo, consuming the few canon appearances he had, and I thought he tied in well with the ideological battle which was the core of Minato and Kasaiki's struggle. And after writing it, I'm very pleased with his inclusion.
Speaking of, that bit at the end about Hanzo misinterpreting Kasaiki's name was me poking fun at myself. I've gotten several comments from people who actually know Japanese pointing out that Kasaiki isn't actually a good name. It makes me feel sheepish every time. In my defense, Japanese is an incredibly context-oriented language. There are many different meanings for words that sound exactly the same. I did spend a considerable amount of time trying to pick a name—I definitely didn't just google translate the first thing that came to mind. Still, it's not great, but it's way too late to change it now.
Another small detail I want to address. I really tried to nail down an exact age/time in which Mito dies, and the Kyuubi is sealed into Kushina. I couldn't find anything at all, so I'm saying it happened around now.
I don't have a Ptrn. If you've gotten just five bucks of enjoyment out of this story, please consider buying my original work on amazon (information in my bio). Between the two sites this fic is posted on, I have over 2300 readers. If even half of you choose to support me in this fashion, I would have considerable bargaining power when it comes to getting future books published. More publishing deals means I can quit my day job, which translates into more time for fanfiction. It's a one time thing, and you even get more of my writing out of it.
Next week: the fallout. Look forward to it.