Reborn in the Mist

I was thrust out from my Jinchuriki seal not because I was losing to my opponents, or waking up from Harusame’s reinforcing the seal, no, in fact, Harusame had yet to come close to where Juzo, Fuguki and I fought.

Samehada’s weight tore into my stomach, grinding the flak ANBU vest I wore to ribbons as its teeth gnawed at my flesh and ate away the Three-Tails chakra. The blow sent me flying and the lessened amount of Bijuu chakra cleared let my head clear enough that I plummeted into the water as I woke up fully.

I still felt it. The torrential rage of the waters Isobu’s chakra holds absolute command over, his chakra within water felt as wide and strong as the oceans themselves.

Yagura…

With the strict warnings from the split personality I have lounging in the seal still fresh in my head, I leapt out of the water with ease. Isobu’s chakra had already done some major damage to my clothes, skin and muscles, rippling them to lengths and girths that hurt but remain strong nonetheless.

The clang of swords awaits me at the top of the ocean, Harusame lands beside me his fingers blurring with chakra as he wastes no time thrusting them at me, “Three Sealing-!”

“Harusame!” I still had a single tailed chakra cloak boiling over my skin and muddling my features so my voice came out as a growl and the gaze I set on him far more intense by the look of terror that scars him upon seeing it.

“Yagura..?”

“Leave, I will finish this.” Even though I said so I wasn’t sure how I’d do so. I felt my chakra reserves had been drained from Fuguki’s strikes with Samehada but the Version-1 chakra cloak provided enough for me to move on them regardless.

I just have to be careful of Samehada…or do I? With a one-tail chakra cloak boiling over me I exhaled and inhaled, bringing my chakra to the surface and moulding it so it grinds against Isobu’s. A measure of balance returns as I sense Fuguki’s curious gaze land on me.

I raise a smirk and flex my fist. Accept that you’re Yagura right? Okay then, I am Yagura. I told myself as I pressed my fingers into a hand-sign and summoned my Bo-staff from the depths of the water to my hand. Fuguki’s eyes narrowed.

Juzo, miraculously still hanging on, slammed his blade against Samehada and spat out a shot of water that only managed to wet Fuguki’s hair further. He’s exhausted but still fighting if only out of spite. Fuguki roars, his hair spiking out viciously at Juzo, skewering through all the open spaces in Kubikiribocho and angling to stab the wielder.

I twirl my Bo-staff as the last of the Version-1 cloak chakra is grinded and moulded into my own, refilling my reserves to match Fuguki’s stolen one with ease. I shut my eyes and call on the knowledge with all its implications, wincing as memories of slaughter and murder fill my mind. I gritted my teeth and accepted it wholeheartedly.

Two hand-signs later and three water dragons roar to life from the waters, “Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!”

Kicking off the water I sprinted faster than I ever thought myself capable of, my three dragons roaring after me. I directed one at Juzo who’s skewered like a kebab on Fuguki’s hairs and still stubbornly swinging his blade— If I don’t take him out now he’ll force Fuguki to kill him.

It wasn’t an exaggeration, Fuguki, Juzo, Raiga and Kisame, they’re nothing like the compassionate Konoha shinobi I watched in my past life. They’re killers who will murder and massacre in the name of their village and in the name of strength.

The water dragon roared and swallowed Juzo before Fuguki could deepen his strikes. I slammed my Bo against Samehada, catching Fuguki’s attention for a second before my second water dragon roared below him, leaping at his feet from beneath the waters.

His eyes curse me as the jaws of the dragon carry he and Juzo into one another, dispersing in an explosion of water. Not trusting that to be enough to incapacitate two of the strongest Seven Swordsmen, I set the third dragon on their plummeting bodies.

Fuguki wrapped himself in hair at the last moment and the torrential wave of water from the dragon smacked Juzo’s unconscious form against a loose rock. I whipped through hand-signs, knowing Samehada feeds chakra right back into Fuguki to heal his wounds and recover his reserves.

At the last hand-sign I pressed my fingers together, bracing against the bloody memories of this jutsu’s use. “Wind Release: Blade of Wind”

My dragon swirls Fuguki into the air, tossing him higher and higher before dispersing in a shower and giving way for my manipulated blades of wind to lacerate and rend at Fuguki’s hair covered form.

“I’ll give you a haircut if that’s what it takes!” I yelled out, pressing more chakra into my nigh invisible blade of wind. The A-rank jutsu seeps a lot of chakra from me but I have enough to spare and the drive to steal more from Isobu if that’s what it takes to put Fuguki down.

He crashed into the water, purposely expelling chakra as he does so a wave taller than the largest rocks explodes outwards. I cursed and released my Wind technique to clench my Bo-staff as the semi-tsunami comes crashing down at me.

With a twirl and flick of my Bo I cut the tsunami in two only to find Fuguki riding a giant shark towards me. He flips through familiar hand-signs but before I can remember the jutsu dozens of linear waves glide ahead of him, judging by the pressure I know they’d rend through my flesh if I let them.

Eyes narrowed I decide now of all times to become the revered Repluse-nin.

Sensing my decision, my body moves on its own, channelling chakra through my pathways in a complex manner as my hand releases a circular pool of water in the face of Fuguki and his incoming attacks.

The water becomes clear as a crystal mirror in but a second and without thinking about it I brought my Bo-staff’s large hook down on it, pulling the mirror towards me in a violent ninety-degree angle.

“Hiden: Water Mirror!”

In response a doppelganger of Fuguki, the giant shark he’s riding and all fourteen razor sharp water waves erupt out of my mirror and roar towards their copies.

Fuguki doesn’t have the chance to react or even manoeuvre out of the way— I bet he wasn’t expecting me to use the Karatachi Hiden since I haven’t all this time. Either way, he slams face first into the doubles with enough concussive force to knock him off his now bleeding summon.

Seizing the opportunity, I flick my finger into a half-Tiger seal and a watery whip wraps around Samehada, tossing it far from either of us. I pressed my Bo-staff against his hairy, injured back, feeling the stress of speed casting so many times catch up to me as I gasped, “Submit.”

He rolled over and I let him do so cautiously, his eyes burned with desire to fight, to put me down and curse my name but he’s on his back and at any moment I could have water dagger through him or drown him in a [Water Prison].

“I…submit, Mizukage-sama.”