Reborn in the Mist

“Give up! Give up now while you still have the chance!” Owl mask yelled down at the large fishing dock, ANBU crowded around it, perched atop light posts, rooftops and even the sails of anchored ships. “Come out, kneel and accept the chakra seal as you surrender and you will receive consideration from the Mizukage!”

My generosity knew no bounds. I stood at the forefront of the house that served both as home and workplace to the lower caste folk living here. Ao stood behind me with a box of Harusame’s Chakra-Suppressing Seals in hand, we could beat them into submission but according the Sensor HQ there was another A-tier lurking in the occupied house.

It took hours but Sensor HQ finally got their act together and studied enough Kaguya chakra that they could thread the pattern and identify them from a crowd of shinobi. They quickly alerted us to this place, where the largest gathering of Kaguya clan members was.

Somehow over thirty Kaguya had fit themselves into the house, it was a large house considering it doubled as a fishing dock for active sailors and fishermen but not large enough that I held hope the Kaguya kept any of the original owners alive as hostages.

The fact they haven’t bothered to negotiate…

I was beginning to wonder if this was some kind of butterfly effect or time paradox. It felt like the universe’s schemes for the Kaguya’s genocide were firmly in place and no matter how much I delayed or had compassion for them, their deaths were written and meant to be played out.

Owl mask assured me that her ANBU reports a clutch of the Kaguya clans people but given this secret invasion of theirs I figure all that makes up the clutch would be women and children.

And even then, I wondered. The silence after another round of Owl masks demands grew and the horde of ANBU gathered were tensed, waiting for my word to move into the house and end every Kaguya life within. Instead I looked over my shoulder and asked Ao, “What do you see?”

He promptly activated his Byakugan and peered into the lair, “Same as last, they’re eating, lounging and discussing. Some have taken up guard near the windows and doors but otherwise they’re ignoring us.”

In that moment I wanted to give the order more than anything. Lounging? After killing so many innocents? My people? Jason calmed me down, a slaughter wasn’t the solution I was looking for here. No matter what, I didn’t want to be the Yagura that follows the Sandaime’s Bloody Mist trend.

So I shut my eyes, breathed out and started walking towards the house. The ANBU flinched to move but restrained themselves, I hadn’t given an order. With my Bo-staff well in hand I knocked on the barricaded door and spoke.

“Shinobi of the Kaguya, I am Yondaime Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi. You have my attention.”

For a moment silence continued to prevail as it had but then something shifted by the door, the all too familiar noise of tumbling furniture before the door knob twists and opens enough for a grinning face to peek at me.

“A child? The Mizukage is a child! Bwahaha!”

I frowned and the laughter ceased as the killing intent Jason suppressed as I approached surged out like a flood. The man at the door was stunned silent as fear paralyzed him, so much so that he forgot to keep a hold on the door and it swung open for me.

“Who speaks for the clan?” I already knew. At the end of the furniture scattered corridor was a silhouette of a strong man. He stood and turned with a possessed looking grin on his face as well.

“And you…speak for the entire…Hidden Village. Hahah, haha, ahahaha!”

They all seemed genuinely disturbed. I crossed the threshold without my ANBU and instantly felt dozens of eyes on me. True to Ao’s word they were crawling in every nook and cranny of the scattered house.

“You attacked my people, you understand you’re not going to live, don’t you?” I informed him as gripped my bat and settled into a ready stance. “I have only come to ask you two things.”

The man crossed over one obstacle before deciding to simply push them away with his strides. He was tall, far taller than the average Kaguya not to mention well-toned.

He stopped at the front of the second door on the left, his eye shifting into it before darting back onto me, “Ahh, you have come to beg mercy and bread, a fine choice. Your people only have fish.”

I narrowed at him, “Why have you attacked us? Are there more Kaguya out there or have you brought your whole clan to die with you?”

Shuffles from the rooms became louder as more of his men approached, they peeked out and stared but didn’t make a move, their bloodlust barely disguised in their eyes.

“Why? Why else but to show all of the Land of Water that the Kaguya are superior to all! Even their so called Hidden Village.” He pressed his fingers to his head as he chuckled, then cackled, “You know, finding this damned place was the hardest part, there’s mist everywhere and you can’t see your own foot half the time. But then, then the battle begun, one person becomes two and two becomes three and in time there was a line of corpses long enough to lead us right…here.”

He licked his lips at me and dared step forward, “Who do you think is at the end of that line, Mizukage?” Chakra flexed within him and bone swords began to protrude out of him.

“Very well, then, are there still Kaguya out there?”

He snorts, “You fear retribution from my grandmother? Tahahahaha! Let’s kill him, Kaguya warriors! Let’s kill them all! Let’s have it all!”

He lurched at me and I twisted, instantly batting him away while raising a handsign— “Good then, this won’t be genocide. Die.” — my chakra long fed into the waters below and around the house exploded into it as Kaguya members surrounded me on all sides.

It was too late for them though, I held my breath as water broke in, quickly flooding the entire house, shattering through wood, iron and every obstacle in order to fill it to the brim and drown every single Kaguya.

“Water Release: Giant Water Prison.”

The fools fought hard even as the water began to raise them away from their footing, I controlled the water and drew myself away from it, stepping out of the house to watch with some fascination as my favourite jutsu enveloped it entirely.

With a little more chakra from my massive reserves I contained the jutsu as the foolish clan head and his minions flung bone out through the water. The house creaked and groaned, complaining as the pressure doubled, shatter the foundations.

Even with my borrowed skill I wasn’t channelling Yagura as much as I do, I didn’t need him for this, I didn’t need to depend on him to bring them retribution. My jutsu strained under their barrage of assaults, conflicting chakra in a confined space, all fighting to be the dominant force.

I could feel some of them trying to cast Water Release techniques but I gripped my Bo-staff, using it to guide my chakra better and follow my unspoken will. Their techniques proved useless, weak, fodder.

Warbling above all our heads the [Water Prison] trapping the entire house began to visibly shrink as I twirled my Bo-staff at it. A little maelstrom fuelled further by my Wind Affinity churned the house and in seconds it lost all resemblance to a place of living, the transparent blue turning red as Kaguya fed the maelstrom of splintered wood, fish hooks and dozens of blades typical to a fisherman’s home.

Defiant to the very last, a burst of bone splintered through my [Water Prison] agitating the silent ANBU watching me work. I didn’t care for any more struggles though and with my Bo-staff I raised the warbling sphere of bloodstained water, ignoring the bones piercing through its surface.

I raised it over twenty feet before, with some strain, shifted it over the street on my left. It was a wide and empty concrete walkway with no one in sight and nothing of value, the ANBU present sensed my intentions and made themselves scarce.

With a final swing of my Bo-staff I brought the [Water Prison] crashing down from on high. The explosion and swell of water fractured the ground as it dispersed, flooding the street and flowing back into the sea I pulled it from.

The splintered bone construct broke here and there but remained, I glanced over at Ao, he still held the box of seals and wore a solemn look on his face watching bloodied water rush against our feet.

I breathed deeply and found Mangetsu behind him, looking up at me with no small amount of awe. I clipped my Bo-staff to my back and gave a general order, “Make sure they’re dead.”

Jason held hope this would be the last time a Bloody Mist incident like this occurred but reality seemed to have a different story in mind. Still, I latched onto that hope, he mentioned a grandmother so the old and infantile Kaguya could still remain.