Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter. Here on time! Next five chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
The first one to reach him was the first to die. Suiren would have recommended a counter charge to scatter the horde by putting fear into them. The boy went for a different... less efficient approach. He sprung up like a snake to the first man, his kunai parting flesh, muscle, and cartilage with ease. The head fell in one direction, the body in another. The second was already on him before he could land. His body was brimming with chakra. He lashed out with a single foot, shattering the man's knee, forcing it to bend in the wrong direction and making him lurch forwards.
He fell upon the kunai rather than have it stabbed into him, but the squelching sound from his eyeball being pierced only lasted a second before his brain was the body part coping with a sudden metallic intrusion. Another inefficiency, stopping to kill enemies that had already been taken out of the battle. That was a luxury he could not afford in this situation and it was only a matter of time before he paid for it.
The third lashed down with a sword, the boy was forced to abandon the kunai in the other man's head and roll backwards to avoid the downward slash. The blade hit the ground and a flick of the boy's wrist buried a shuriken in the man's neck. Ninjutsu was not an option with one arm rendered non-functional. Whatever damage the jutsu had done to his shoulder had clearly rendered the arm non-functional. With only one arm, he had no hope of weaving seals, and so no hope of using ninjutsu or genjutsu.
Taijutsu was his only option and the blood flowing down his sleeves made it clear to Suiren that it was not an option the boy would have for long. So what would he do now?
The answer it seemed, was more of the same. He waited for each enemy to attack and then dispatched them in a matter of seconds with a brutal efficiency that Suiren had not thought genin could achieve. But this was Kiri. So why was he shocked when the boy leaned down and sliced along a man's thigh, dropping him to one knee and stabbing the same kunai into his brain through the bottom of his chin. He was dead before he even hit the ground, and the boy moved on.
But in acting as he did, he showed his youth. The right thing to do had always been retreat. He was wounded. He was facing a numerically, if not martially superior enemy, along with at least one revealed shinobi of unknown skill. Continuing to engage only served his pride. It did not serve Kiri, because he would fail no matter what. It did not serve the client, because even numerically diminished, the pirates could still be a threat. And it did not serve him because he would die. Perhaps a different commanding officer would have seen it as grit or dedication. Suiren only saw foolishness. And Suiren did not abide foolishness.
He took a second too long in opening a second smile along one man's neck and then took a kick from another for his troubles. He grunted, but had managed to use his chakra to adhere himself to the ground at the last second to prevent him from being tossed away. Of course that meant the full force of the kick went into his body. But it was a civilian doing the kicking. Even their best did not hold a candle to what academy children were capable of.
The boy wrapped his sole good arm around his opponent's leg, restricting the limb and then using the kunai he had just killed one of his fellows with to stab the inside of the man's thigh. Once, twice. The man screamed in pain even as the few that remained of the pirate band cursed and tried to pry the boy off. He turned, releasing the man's leg and springing onto his next target.
Chakra adhesion, Suiren thought with a small smile. Quaint. With only his thighs, he held himself tightly to the next man, piercing the side of his neck with the kunai. As the man fell, he took his kunai and jumped on the next one. At least, he tried to.
A high speed water ball hit him mid air, sending his body rolling into the distance.
"What are you looking at? One of you should be removing his head now," the missing-nin snarled at what remained of his crew. He looked incensed. Clearly he had not expected the resistance Yagura had been capable of. Suiren sighed and prepared to move in to put an end to it all only for him to feel an alarming level of bloodlust coming from the boy. The red chakra that bubbled up from his body screamed wrongness, foulness, to Suiren's senses.
The chakra of a tailed beast. The Sanbi in this case. Suiren was taken back to that day. It had felt like an eternity ago. Bringing the best he had, levying the strength of not just himself and Kubikiribocho, but of the others as well. Shibuki, Samehada, Nuibari, Kiba, Hiramekarei, and Kabutowari brought together in combat against a single foe for the first time in the history of Kiri and they had almost lost. Suiren knew better now. Could understand how the tailed beasts worked just a bit better. If the fight came again, he would win. Alone, he would win. He was better now.
So where some would have felt panic at something that the best sealmasters in Kiri had assured him was impossible happening, Suiren only felt a bit of excitement. If the boy rampaged here, Suiren would stop him. And if the Sanbi went free, well, Suiren would stop it too.
The boy sprinted forwards. This time, he did not wait for his foes to come to him. Just as well as he did not seem to care about the wound on his shoulder. It did not heal, but it did not seem to bother him much as well. He hit the first pirate in the midsection with a punch and misted him. The middle of his body was just gone. A red mist spreading where it had once been. Legs planted on the ground were all that remained. Such power. He jumped, leaping above the rushing pirates straight for the missing-nin.
A missing-nin who had begun understanding just how bad his situation was. He spat out a lance of water. The boy, red chakra wafting off him, walked through the jutsu and it just parted. Hitting with no effect. He reached the man and he tapped him on the chest. It was a slow, almost delicate gesture. One could have mistaken it for affectionate. Coral began to grow from the point of impact until the man was entirely entombed, and only then did he turn to face the horde. The horde, on seeing their new leader fall, began to run. But this was not an enemy that could be outrun.
And he relished in the chase. Not a single one made it out of the beach. Minutes later, he stood still in the middle of the carnage with a single tail floating almost languidly behind him. Suiren body flickered down before him.
"Passable work," he said. And that is what it truly was. Passable. Great work would have been to not get pushed to this point in the first place, but getting the mission done in the first place was at least worth a pass.
"Thank you, Sensei," he said, voice garbled, but still coherent. So he did have control then. Suiren had indeed suspected it. The way he had dispatched the rest after that first one had just been too clean. Not the work of a beast.
"Can you fully control yourself in that state?" he asked, just to be sure.
"Yes, Sensei," he said.
"Show me," he invited, and if he hadn't been able to see the way his knees had been practically shaking or the way his eyes had been drinking him in from arrival, he would almost have been shocked at the sudden sprint in his direction. He wanted the fight. Was chomping at the bit for it.
Suiren body flickered backwards as the boy chased, his feet skating across the ground with a deft application of an offshoot of the chakra adhesion technique. His feet treated sand like it was ice and he moved across it with the requisite fluidity. With the tailed beast chakra, the boy was fast. Perhaps fast enough that he actually stood a chance now. But speed was not all that made a shinobi, and Suiren's own speed was nothing special when he was not using that technique.
He brought Kubikiribocho to bear as the boy reached him, his feet soaring off the ground as he sought to kick Suiren's head off his shoulder. He clearly hadn't needed a reminder to bring his best to bear now. Suiren stuck his feet to the ground, water flowing through his vessels to bulk up the muscles of his right hand. It grew to become the size of his head. The dropkick hit, and Suiren did not even flinch.
Whatever the boy had hit in this mode before now had yielded way to him. He had been an unstoppable force. But now he found himself to be very stoppable. Suiren flicked his wrist, pushing outwards and tossing the boy away. He moved with the force exerted on him, twisting in the air to allow his hands dig into the sand and slow him down. He came to a stop some hundred paces away from Suiren and then his feet hit the sand as well. Now he was on all fours. His eyes, darker than ever now, narrowed at Suiren in either concentration or rage. He shot off, the sand exploding into the air as he did so.
Suiren formed a single tiger seal and shot two lances of concentrated water from his mouth. Not really a jutsu really, just an application of his chakra nature and control. The boy continued on heedless. He did not make an attempt to dodge, perhaps expecting what had happened with the missing-nin earlier to happen here. Who did he think Suiren was? The fight gained a new purpose at that. At first, it had just been about testing the limits of his control and what the tailed beast chakra did to his worth as a weapon, but now it was about showing him that some people just stood above. It was a lesson every genin needed to learn. Those who didn't? Well, they died.
The first water lance hit him, the force of the jutsu bringing his momentum to an abrupt halt. He strained, pushing against it, and perhaps might have succeeded. But then the second hit. He flew backwards, ass over teakettle. This was no controlled flight. He flew until his body buried itself in the sand near a thousand paces away. His body submerged up to the waist with only his legs and new tail peeking out. But he was still in the fight. He lurched, pulling himself out. He looked angry now. Good, let's see what that rage does.
He roared, the sound creating a shockwave and gale force winds that buffeted at Suiren's form. His feet held fast and tight to the ground. Chakra adhesion making it so he did not even need to exert himself to keep his footing. The winds stirred up the sand on the beach and said sand began to sting in his eyes. Suiren blinked and that had been exactly what his student had been waiting for. The boy shot forward again. Suiren could not see him, but no shinobi worth their headband needed to see to fight.
He bent backwards at the waist, avoiding a kick that threatened to turn his body to mist. He straightened as the boy's form passed. He brought himself to a quick halt, twisting and trying to punch out at him. Suiren weaved out of the way, his waist bending to allow the punch sail past him. Another came and he did the same with the other direction. He twisted and tried a sweeping kick at head level. Part of Suiren's lower section liquefied and he was suddenly a foot shorter.
The kick missed. He took that water and used it to lengthen his hand and increase its mass as well.
A punch that should have been well short connected cleanly against the boy's chest. And the force was enough that Suiren felt bone cave beneath his fist. He hit the sand and kept going. He rose again. His shoulder was bleeding. At least a few of his ribs had been broken, but the boy still seemed to want to keep going. Suiren sighed and decided that he had seen enough. Strength and speed at the bottom of jounin level, ability to fight through pain and wounds, the ability to turn anything he made contact with to coral. A good series of abilities. Improving his base ability should lead to corresponding gains in at least the first two traits. If he was naturally as fast as a jounin, would this state make him one of the fastest shinobi in the world? Perhaps.
"Enough," he said when the boy began to rise. He growled, ignoring, or maybe just not hearing and shooting forward.
He punched through Suiren's head, but said head turned to water as he did. Suiren manipulated his form, creating a bubble of water that he covered the boy's head with and reforming his upper body at the boy's shoulder.
The boy raged and twisted, trying to attack Suiren by every means but nothing he did could work and it was only a matter of time. It took him close to eight minutes to lose consciousness but he lost it eventually, and when his body dropped, Suiren reformed his whole form.
He began mentally composing his report as he gazed down on the boy.
"Acceptable," a voice rang from his side. Only his training prevented him from jolting or showing his shock as Zero seemed to appear out of the thin air, the world parting itself to reveal his form.
"You were watching," he said.
"The Mizukage would be a fool to just take your word for it, would he not? The boy has displayed an acceptable level of skill and power. He will continue under your tutelage," Zero said.
"And you can decide that? Is it not for the Mizukage to decide?" he poked at the Anbu agent. Something about the man just rubbed him the wrong way. He knew the man's origins—that red hair could mean nothing else. And what business did a hostage of war think he had giving him orders?
"Yes. Who do you think suggested giving the boy to you in the first place? If you fail, I will be the one to come for you, Suiren Hozuki. Do not disappoint Kiri," he said, and he was gone.
Suiren could feel his hand shaking at the threat. Was this fear? No. Of course not. What did it matter that a man who had more chakra than a tailed beast could suppress it down to the point where he was a blip to Suiren's senses and could just blend in with the environment? What did it matter that that same man could use the meisaigakure so well that he could step next to Suiren without Suiren knowing? None of it mattered. If the time came, Suiren would kill him. Because that was what Suiren did. He was the best killer in Kiri, and when it came to it he would back himself over any.
It wasn't fear. It was rage.
Whatever it was though, it had no place in the here and now, and he swallowed it. He took it all, balled it into a small enough package and swallowed it. It would stay in his stomach until he needed it. And when that time came? Well, Zero would realise that he truly was nothing.
Suiren bent at his knees to reach the boy, fingers glowing green as he used a diagnostic jutsu to discover the scale of the damage. The wound in the shoulder and the cracked ribs were obvious and expected. What was less expected was the damage to the rest of his body. Torn or strained muscles everywhere. The body could not handle the strength and speed it was bringing to bear. How interesting.
He made a mental note of it and began his work. The tailed beast chakra had done nothing to repair the wounds but had allowed the boy to keep fighting like nothing was wrong. Dangerous. The boy could kill himself while in its thrall and never even notice. He did not seem to have been in any pain all the while. Pain was useful. It told you your limits. An ability that took away that valuable signal was more of a hindrance than a boon. A true Uzushio gift.
First he repaired the shoulder best he could. The boy's chakra accepted his own with ease once again. Medical ninjutsu when used on someone else was always just that bit harder. With the boy, that difficulty did not seem to exist. His chakra was easily coaxed and put to his work by Suiren's own. It accepted his direction and the body did the same, not even fighting the foreign intrusion for a second. From the shoulder, he moved on to the ribs. He made sure the breakage had not caused any collateral damage and then set the bones. They would heal in time. From there, he moved to the muscles. These were easier to repair.
It was the work of close to an hour, and by the time he was done, the sun had begun to set. He sighed. It turned out they'd have to camp here regardless.
A/N: The scene with Yagura just took a life of its own. I wanted to end with the confrontation with the pirates and then move on to Konoha, but the fight with Suiren just came to me, and after that, the confrontation with Zero (whose identity you should have figured out by now), and now we're done. See you in Konoha next chappy. Next five chapters up on patreon (https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.