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In the time Takuma had served with the Inquisitor Unit, his boss hadn't once been part of any live combat situation. His role had been purely supervisory because handling multiple squads was a time-consuming task when done right, and he had operatives under him to handle all on-field matters.
"What are you waiting for, Ratel? Do you want me to start?" Barbary walked towards him with a grin on his face, his mountainous figure closing in. The metallic gauntlets on his hands and forearms looked menacing as he spread his arms. They were his weapon of choice as a melee fighter.
"Oh?" Barbary muttered curiously when he saw all the tentacles strike at him with kunai at their tips like stingers. He skipped back, relaxed as he avoided the kunai, keeping himself out of their range.
Until suddenly, some of the tentacles shrank while others suddenly lengthened in turn. A kunai loudly clanged against the thick metal of one of his gauntlets. Before the tentacles could pull back, he grabbed one, but as he tried to pull on it, the surface became slick and slipped right out of his grip, leaving only the kunai to screech against the gauntlet's metal.
It was an application of water's principle of cohesion that Takuma liked to call the sub-principle of — Stick and Slip.
"Interesting—"
As the kunai stingers increased pressure, Takuma moved in for a direct strike. 'It's thick,' he thought as his fist hit the gauntlet, noting how sturdy it felt. It had to be a special weapon forged from a chakra-metal alloy.
He ramped up the aggression as the tentacles began moving chaotically, attacking from all directions to put more pressure. Barbary stayed within range for only a couple of seconds before the kunai stingers were too much, and he immediately leapt away.
Chakra Augmentation: Second Form.
A pulse of contained chakra shot out of Takuma's fist and hit Barbary right in the chest, taking him by surprise. He staggered as he backed away, offering Takuma an opening. The kunai stingers flared, ready to strike, but just as he got close, Barbary's gauntlets suddenly emitted an earthy-yellow glow.
"Shit!" Takuma cursed because he had seen a similar glow countless times in the past while sparring against Masaaki, who was a bukijutsu user.
A powerful punch sent him flying only a couple of metres before he tripped to the ground, the tentacles retracting all the way into the water mass on his back to cushion his fall. His lower, right chest was buzzing with pain as he stood up.
Barbary had multiple cuts around his body. He had traded damage to land that shot.
"Good! You must make an opportunity out of everything, even when you're about to get hit!" Barbary said, his wide smile not one bit dim. "Should we step it up?"
"Yeah, that was a good warm-up," Takuma said, dusting off his chest. His tentacles extended out again before rushing forward.
Barbary retreated only for the couple of seconds it took him to finish forming hand seals that bathed his body in a reddish-brown glow. Takuma didn't recognise the hand seals, but suspected that it was an Earth Release ninjutsu. He didn't have the time to think about it as Barbary suddenly sped up and laid down a barrage of nimble punches.
The gauntlet's metal dug into his body as he blocked, forcing him back with each successful hit. As he expected, Barbary was strong even without his bukijutsu; his size wasn't just for show. But since Barbary was in range, the kunai stingers attacked. He did nothing to dodge them, and when the sharpened tips sliced at his skin, reddish spots of dirt appeared where the kunai struck—small shields that blocked them from piercing his skin. Without the threat of injury, he stepped close and swung an uppercut. Takuma brought his arms together to block. A jolt lifted his body a few inches off the ground. Barbary's gauntlet burst with the earthy-yellow glow as he swung again.
Takuma's body stiffened. The tentacles jerked to life, swallowed the kunai and sent them back into the water sack on his back; a pair of tentacles wrapped around Barbary's incoming fist. Takuma's eyes widened when the glowing arm came to a stop a few inches away from his face, then he grinned as Barbary swung through the tentacles.
The tentacles couldn't stop the punch, but they bought Takuma enough time to block it.
Barbary tried to pull his arms free from the water, but they remained stuck. He had to use his other hand to rip them apart, putting more power into pulling the strands of water stretching to keep the tentacles whole.
"So, this is what you wanted to test out?" he asked while staring at the water sticking to his arm. He touched it, and it was sticky with the consistency of syrup.
Takuma nodded, feeling a slight numbness in his arms. He couldn't afford to get hit by too many of those bukijutsu-augmented strikes.
With his training in the principle of cohesion, he had strengthened the tentacles. At that point, it didn't take too much to rip the tentacles with brute force, so they were only useful for a surprise tug here or there before the opponent freed themselves**;** but now, even though they were by no means sturdy and could be ripped with enough effort, as Barbary had done, in the heat of battle, the time taken to do that was important.
In return, Takuma had to sacrifice some of the tentacles' flexibility because the water required a thicker consistency, but it wasn't a real sacrifice because he never used the tentacles' full flexibility in the first place; even with all of his experience, using tentacles like natural limbs wasn't something he had perfected, especially when they were nothing like human limbs.
His modifications were by no means perfect because he was implementing them to a ninjutsu that wasn't built for those changes. Each thing he added required a tedious trial-and-error process to get right, slowing progress more than he would like, but maybe he was going somewhere with this.
Barbary sprinted towards him, and it was a little frightening to see someone that big move so fast. The moment he was in range, the tentacles struck once more. Barbary swung harder. This time, the tentacle pulled, but could only slow the arm rather than stop it; however, that was enough.
Takuma shifted so it passed by him and moved in with chakra building in his fist, striking the other gauntlet. The metal didn't dent, much less scratch. The lieutenant showed no reaction, but he was forced to take a step back to balance himself.
"I remember this technique," Barbary grinned as his gauntlet burst into light. "It's gotten stronger since then."
Takuma felt danger from the bukijutsu and hastily pulled more chakra into his arm and countered the incoming punch with his own. Their forces cancelled each other out. Just as he felt confident from the perfect counter, Barbary's other gauntlet burst with the same glow. He couldn't charge his augmentation that fast and barely moved out of the way.
The gauntlet nicked his shoulder, almost spinning him around, and he immediately leapt away to put some distance between them so he could use a ninjutsu.
'No,' Takuma told himself, stopping himself from moving away. He was here to test out what he wanted to do with the improved tentacles.
The two melee fighters charged at each other, and as they clashed, their movements resembled a predetermined choreography as they exchanged blows and pushed each other. Takuma kicked Barbary in the knee to slow the big man down before launching a series of blows, but they were all blocked by the heavy gauntlets. He raised his foot high and hooked his leg around the gauntlets raised in guard to pull them to the side while launching a second-form augmentation that struck Barbary right in the face, then tried to do it again.
Barbary tried to back away, but Takuma didn't give him any space, and Barbary was forced to block an augmented strike aimed for his body, his feet digging into the ground to keep in place. Takuma immediately pressed the advantage and charged another augmentation, wanting to take advantage of the momentum, but suddenly, Barbary's hand shot up and grabbed the arm that was being charged.
He pulled him close with a jerk and swung an elbow at Takuma's jaw, who managed to block it with his other hand. Barbary let go of his hand and smashed the metal glove into his side. Four of the tentacles wrapped around the four kunai flying up their lengths from the storage sac and attacked Barbary, who immediately backed away.
Takuma was getting used to Barbary's fighting style. It seemed his protection ninjutsu had run out.
He charged right in with the kunai stingers ahead of him to keep Barbary on his toes. The other four tentacles combined into two. One of them latched onto his wrist and pulled him down while he was avoiding the kunai. Takuma took the chance and landed a solid kick to Barbary's stomach, but was forced back by Barbary's free hand. He tried to tug him down again, but Barbary pulled as well, trying to drag Takuma towards him instead, and it turned into a tug-of-war for a moment before the kunai stingers forced Barbary away.
Barbary's gauntlet glowed, and Takuma stepped back, which was a wrong decision because Barbary punched the ground instead. The ground shifted under Takuma's feet, causing him to lose his balance. Barbary rushed ahead with his other gauntlet glowing and swung while Takuma was stuck in place.
The combined tentacles re-split and plunged into the ground to move him away. Barbary's fist narrowly missed his chest, but instead of stopping there, he spun into a kick instead, slamming a foot into Takuma's chest.
The kunai stingers dug into the ground, preventing him from flying away, and then flung him back towards Barbary. He barely and quite awkwardly managed to augment his shoulder as he slammed it right into Barbary, launching him away and slamming him into the ground. The tentacles whipped some of the kunai after Barbary, while Takuma sent chakra flooding down to his foot.
Barbary didn't try to get up, and instead, both of his gauntlets began to glow brighter than before. He smashed his gauntlets together with a cheeky grin on his face.
Takuma's eyes narrowed as he felt a forceful wave of energy thrum outwards, repelling all the kunai. He frowned and changed the target of his augmentation, letting the chakra flow out in a second-form augmentation. The two forces cancelled each other out, kicking up a plume of dirt and debris, but in doing so, Takuma lost all of his momentum in the air and fell to the ground.
Barbary shot out from the dust plume, forcing Takuma into sending his tentacles forward to earn himself a second or two.
Barbary's gauntlet shone as it once again released a pulse of chakra that pushed the tentacles out of the way for only a second, but that was enough for him to break through the tentacle barrier and enter Takuma's personal space. He raised his arms to block, but a powerful jab forced one of his arms aside, giving Barbary a direct line to his throat. Takuma gritted his teeth as he let the tentacles take his weight and slammed both his feet into Barbary's neck just in time. The gauntlet's warm metal scratched his neck and lower jaw, but Barbary stumbled back just before he could tighten his grip around his throat.
Takuma immediately backed away to gather himself, only to see Barbary standing there with his hands on his hips.
"Let's take a break, shall we?"
———
.
"You have something good on your hands with this jutsu, Ratel," Barbary said as they sat on a patch of grass. "You gave me a lot of trouble there."
"You were holding back," Takuma said, feeling a little down. While the performance had been good, it wasn't what he had imagined. As it was right now, Deep Sea Arms would be great at crowd control, effective against enemies not as skilled as him, but against strong opponents like Barbary, it was still lacking.
Barbary scoffed. "And you weren't?"
Takuma had used one ninjutsu, and only once at that, when he could've used it again to counter the kunai. Plus, he had only shown three variations of bukijutsu and had only used the most basic of them most of the time, and even those, he hadn't kept up continuously.
He knew from Masaaki that bukijutsu was often very efficient and could be sustained for extended periods, unlike how Barbary used them in their spar. Barbary likely had a ton more options, too. There were only two types of people who got themselves custom chakra-metal weapons. The first type were, of course, idiots who thought that getting a chakra-metal weapon would solve all their problems.
The second type were those who would actually benefit greatly from having that kind of special weapon. In both cases, it cost a tremendous amount of money in materials, time, and the labour of a grandmaster blacksmith to make a custom piece like that.
Barbary definitely belonged to the latter group and his combat style most probably revolved around those gauntlets.
"My advice is to strengthen those tentacles. If you can get them to take a beating, they'll become a real problem against anyone. As they are now, I think you could use them to pressure those who don't like fighting up close."
Takuma nodded. "That's what I think as well. If I can make them more durable, I could be more aggressive in how I want to use them."
"I think the manoeuvrability they give you is a strength you can focus on right now. We were fighting on an open field, but think about how you could move around if you were in a forest, an enclosed space, or any uneven terrain. You could do so much more."
Takuma thought about it and nodded again. Eight tentacles, or just four of them, were much better than his two feet when it came to balance. And now that they were stronger than ever, he could push around his body weight much more aggressively and do things that would've popped the tentacles before.
That would, of course, require extensive training to perform complex manoeuvres in high-stress situations, but at least he had the option now.
"Oh, and invest in grapefruit-sized forged copper balls."
"Copper?"
"Like how you had the tentacle hold the kunai, have one of them hold a heavy metal ball and swing it around. Imagine what'll happen if one hits someone at sufficient speed. Crunch," Barbary said, eliciting an image that made Takuma gulp.
It was like swinging a sock with a brick in it or using a flail. The thought of hitting something at high speed, probably splitting someone's skull, was gruesome, and these days, it took a lot to make Takuma squirm.
After all, he had once killed a man by caving his chest in and causing his heart to rupture.
"Why copper?" he asked.
"It's not going to rust."
Takuma sighed. Procurement was going to look at him weirdly again when he asked for yet another chunk of metal.
Barbary then asked him about his chakra augmentation.
"Self-made, huh. No wonder. You can't use it in quick succession, can you?"
Takuma shook his head. "So many things to do and not enough time to do it... the story of my life."
"That's the life of a young shinobi!" Barbary laughed.
"May I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"Chakra enlightenment. What is your experience with it?"
Barbary gazed at him for a moment. He eventually sighed, "I have some insights, but I'm nowhere near that level of understanding." He stared at the sky with a faraway look on his face. "When I was in my twenties, and still into my mid-thirties, I was serious about increasing my understanding of chakra. I really wanted that enlightenment because I seriously thought I had a chance, you know. The people around me said so, too. ...Unfortunately, it never came."
He chuckled, but it was a laugh without humour. Barbary's story was the same as many chūnin around the hidden villages who failed to attain a transcendent understanding of chakra and failed to take the next step.
"I haven't given up, but I'm not chasing after it," Barbary answered the question Takuma wanted to ask but couldn't. "I realised that I was good at other things, so I switched my focus. In doing that, I ended up becoming the Lieutenant you see today, and hey, who knows? I might make it tomorrow or next year. Chakra is fickle and mysterious; who knows what it has for me in the future?"
The median age for jōnin promotions was the mid to late twenties. Barbary was in his forties and out of his physical prime, and would only decline in the years to come. Statistically speaking, the chances of him making jōnin were low.
But like he said, chakra was mysterious.
"Try not to think about the goal too much," Barbary said, patting Takuma on the back. "I know in our profession, it can seem that the ends justify the means, and often results are more important than how they were accomplished, but don't look at life like that. With something like enlightenment, the journey is more important than the destination. I hope you'll understand that."
Takuma frowned. That was a difficult ask. He needed to gain chakra enlightenment so he could take the next step, because only then would he be in a space where he had a high enough chance of survival and could protect those he cared about to take things easy.
He didn't care how he got there, so long as he did.
"Don't let it consume you," Barbary said, an uncharacteristically soft smile gracing his lips. He then clapped his hands, and his usual wide smile was back on his face. "Come now. Let's go to our next destination."
"Huh, where?"
"You didn't think we were just going to spar, did you? We trained hard, now it's time to enjoy ourselves. We are going drinking!"
"I don't drink..."
"That's okay. I'll drink for both of us."
Takuma had a bad feeling about it because he had been in the Inquisitor Unit and knew how Barbary got when he wanted to party. It wasn't going to end soon, and it wasn't going to be pretty.
And the worst part of it all, it was barely lunchtime.
"...Alright, sir. Let's go."
.
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The link is in the synopsis!