Ch187-A Sage Knows

I was halfway across the Kaizoku Sea when the memories flooded my mind. At first, I wasn't sure how to feel. Most tasks I assigned my clones were simple—straightforward jobs with clear beginnings and ends. But what had happened in Kirigakure while I was traversing the seas atop Unaimaru's head wasn't something either I or my clone had foreseen.

Mei…always like this. I'd have to return much earlier now—more out of excitement than necessity. The clones I'd left to manage the office had exhausted their chakra, but at least they hadn't caused any problems. If anything, I had sealed the date, hadn't I?

I shook off my thoughts as the cold water splashed against my face, grounding me in the moment and the mission. The giant Unagi plunged, gilded and soared across the top of the sea at his fastest. Motivated by hunger and perhaps even just the lingering taste of blood. The Class-C summon deftly navigated the rocky islands guarding Haran Bay.

I won't deny it—I was a little jealous that my clone had experienced a date with Mei. Impromptu and bureaucratic as it began, it had ended with a kiss on the cheek and an unspoken promise of a proper one next time. But there were things clones simply couldn't be responsible for.

The ANBU's operation with Baron Watanabe had paid off, revealing the routes and timing of Kumogakure's trade networks. Those Nobles barely knew who to speak around and what questions not to answer. Extracting information had been almost too easy, even with a coerced contact like Watanabe. 

Fortunately, that fool will do whatever we ask lest we deliver him to the Daimyo. Aside from securing trade secrets, Watanabe's mission was to confirm whether Kumo's interference in the Water Daimyo's war was sanctioned by their Lightning Daimyo. That answer would dictate Kirigakure's response—severed heads were merely the beginning.

Unaimaru began to slow down, his serpentine eyes and barbells far more sensitive to movements in the watery dark. "Found something?"

He nodded towards one of the islands of Haran Bay we'd been swimming around for the past eight hours. At first, I saw nothing, but then candlelight flickered against the broadside of a sailing ship

"Many men, goods in crates, bags and nets. Coming out of the Haran Bay." Unaimaru described with a hiss in his words, "Fits the description of the last ship like it, what do you say?"

The last ship like it was now a wreck drifting between the Bay and the Kaizoku Sea. It would take weeks for Kumo to notice their losses, but the more we sank, the likelier it was that locals—or the nearby Land of Waves—would take notice.

I'd already thought that far ahead though. For this mission I was wearing nothing that could identify me as a Kirigakure shinobi much less the Mizukage. Underneath my brown rain coat, I wore tight fitting swimwear and spared myself the use of any weapons, no senbon, kunai and especially not my Bo-staff.

Unaimaru had circled around the island's crevasses and canyons for the past eight hours, most of them without me riding atop his head. The closer and more frequent rounds he made the more I was certain someone among the few living on the sparsely populated Haran islands would see him. Perhaps a child or even an aged adult, no matter who it was, would describe the giant Sea Serpent much better than the raincoat infrequently riding alongside it.

And then, if Kumo ever deigns to investigate, they'll only have legends and myth to go off of. I patted Unaimaru's head and hopped off, giving him permission to stalk, terrify and capsize the incoming ship.

The sea bubbled as Unaimaru let out a low chuckle, serpentine slit eyes cornered down at me as he rose to dive, "Are you sure?"

"Yes." I said without hesitation. My heart flexed and eyes glossed over the unknowing sailors coming up the strait.

Unaimaru grinned, his body moved underwater so he could have a better look at me. I glared in annoyance but before I could reprimand him I understood what that question actually meant.

But I turned a weak smile to his mocking leer, "Go, Unaimaru," I stared distantly at the ships, not a shinobi or rogue aboard, "I condemn them to death."

Heard all he needed to Unaimaru dove, his scale-feathered form vanishing under the dark of the water in a few seconds as he swam towards his target. The ignorant innocents. Just like the Nettou clan…no, not like them, not nearly like them.

Weighing the scales of my sins against Kumo's did nothing to peel the guilt. I breathed in the sea air as the first of the screams were yelped out, Unaimaru playing the curious sea beast. I took a step forward, the winds billowing as his chakra began to jostle the waters, the sailors spinning out in confusion and a building fear.

"What are you waiting for, Yagura? Innocents may die but you should not make them suffer." Isobu chided.

My Tailed Beast companion had been silent more than usual and I knew he avoided me because I often received memories of conversations with my clones. Advice given, jokes shared and plans made. But little to me, the original. There were other reasons for that but I knew why he spoke now.

I clenched my hands to fist and for a moment they felt dirtier than could ever be cleaned. But the hoarse screams of sailors snapped me to. Unaimaru surged out of the water, baring fangs all while his eyes glinted with glee at the feast of terror he inspired in his prey. 

That's enough.

I clapped my hands and slammed them on the water surface. My chakra leapt out through the water with ease, covering the distance between the ship and I in nearly an instant. "Water Release: Giant Water Prison"

Tendrils of liquid coiled around the ship, rising like vines to form a cage. Water filled up, surging from the bottom of the ship and poured down from the cage my tendrils formed. The prison was complete an instant before Unaimaru shrieked at me.

I quickly formed a Tiger seal as he lurched for the prison. "Water Release: Water Shuriken" a less brutal version of the [Water Shark] but also faster. The Shuriken sought out every heat signature and sliced through until it became cold and silent.

Unfortunately Unaimaru's jaw and head were stronger than my hasty [Water Prison] he broke through, chomping at the blood that'd begun to stain the waters barely cognizant of the ship wood he was mostly swallowing.

The bloody wreck splashed into the sea, few corpses falling along with it. It was impossible to tell from where I stood but I hoped my jutsu had killed enough of them before Unaimaru had his way. The Unagi glared but the sea was soaked with blood and corpses; he wouldn't resist slurping it up to pointlessly knock heads with me.

I sighed and waited for him to be finished. "Perhaps this will be the last sacrifice of innocents," Isobu murmured, hopeful for my sake.

But I'd long known better, I sat cross legged on the sea and accepted the bloody reality, "I am the Mizukage, a shinobi. This will never be the last."

***

I stood atop Kaizoku, his scaly hide harder than stone, its surface gleaming with an unnatural luster beneath the dim light. But it wasn't his armored body that held me still—it was his eyes.

Destroying the ships took care of the 'payback Kumo' part of Kirigakure's posturing but the sacrifice of those innocents couldn't be wasted, especially if I could get Kaizoku to infuse me with Senjutsu Chakra once again.

Instead, he loomed, unblinking, scrutinizing me with an unnerving intensity ever since I'd commanded Unaimaru to bring me here. To be fair, neither of us had spoken much—I had simply stared back, mirroring his silence. Yet, I knew what he saw in my gaze. Something he did not like.

The longest staring contest of my life ended with a deep, rumbling breath from Kaizoku. A gust of frigid air, reeking of brine and rotting fish, swept over me. My nose crinkled, but I held my ground as he finally began to speak.

"Turtle…you test the limits of my generosity." The walls of his tower trembled from the quake of his voice alone, but I didn't, I leveled a glare at the accusation as he continued, "Five hundred lungs filled by my waters are what I demanded of you, for each attempt at death."

There was something like amusement curling at the edges of his words, a mocking reminder of the frailty of shinobi. I refused to react, just as I had when Unaimaru had sneered at me earlier.

"And what did you receive?"

"Less than." Kaizoku answered, intentionally vague.

My frown deepened, "You received five hundred dead or more, swallowed in the belly of Unaimaru and brought here…however that works. I've done your-"

"No! Drowned not executed. Lungs filled with my waters and not emptied of air and blood." He slithered, his colossal form shifting against the tower walls, scales grinding over stone as he encircled me. His anger burned, cold and sharp. He leaned in, his nostrils—each the size of my head—expelling another wave of putrid breath that tangled in my hair, "Do not fail me again, turtle."

The defiant urge rose, searing in my chest and throat. Generosity? What generosity? What had he given me to fight Kurama or Obito? What power had he bestowed to save Junichi or Minato? My hands are empty.

But I swallowed my fury. Let it burn in silence. I lowered my gaze, obedient, 'remorseful.' 

Kaizoku slithered across, his serpentine body wrapping a full platform around the tail I already stood on. He brought his lips above me, pursed them and in his eyes I saw the same amusement Unaimaru had when urging me to join his slaughter. Like father, like child. 

Kaizoku commanded a sphere of Nature Energy soaked water around me and as I shut my eyes and put my training to use, I quickly noticed how much denser it was than the first shot he'd given me. This snake…he doesn't intend for there to be a next time, does he? 

"Let's show him otherwise, you can do this." Isobu cheered on within me and he was right, I could and I would do it.

I remained motionless as the water encased me, a living cocoon of raw Nature Energy. My body had changed since last time—chakra pathways abused, broken, and reforged stronger. I am stronger.

I pieced apart the Nature Energy, first identifying how much of Yang and Yin it was composed of and then measuring them against my reserves. I'd spent quite a bit maintaining my clones and all but two had dispersed, returning their memories and freeing up the mental toll the [Shadow Clone] technique weighed on my Spiritual Energy.

With those clones gone and my chakra reserves nearly at max, [Sage Mode] was merely a few heartbeats away. Gradually, still as a rock I spun my chakra with the Nature Energy sphere around me. Bit my bit I could feel the Nature Energy shrink as I absorbed and mixed it in with my chakra but things were already changing about my being. 

I heard the very moment Kaizoku backed away in surprise, his heartbeat sounded like a knock beside me. The water that encased me seemed to want to talk to me and I wanted to talk to it, but not as much as the overlooked molecules up in the air above, the ones that grazed every part and those that were breathed out of my own body. I could sense water everywhere, I could sense it in Kaizoku's thumping heart, his eyes bulging in shock as he watched me. The water communicating almost as freely as I did Iso-

"Focus! Your body is transforming into…something you might not like!" Isobu cried out in my head and truly, I'd gotten absorbed in the whispers of the water, its sensitivity and mine that I failed to notice other changes happening as I began to lose balance.

Unable to breathe out I simply gritted my teeth and refocused my efforts. Becoming unbalanced now was something I couldn't afford. Last time Kaizoku blew away the sphere before the Senjutsu Chakra could eat at me but I knew he wouldn't be so eager to save my life this time and I didn't want him to either.

And so I continued, managing to absorb and mix enough bit by bit until I sensed only a sliver of Nature Energy left in the sphere of water I was cradled in. More transformations, physical, mental and spiritual had taken place and I battled an eagerness to test as much as the stuffing of the last sliver of Nature Energy left in the water.

I may have overestimated how easy this would be. A mild panic flickered beneath my resolve. I hadn't breathed in… how long? My lungs felt unbothered, yet my mind rebelled at the silence in my chest. Still, I couldn't help but panic as I reached for the final sliver of Nature Energy to absorb into my pathways.

"Balance, Yagura, balance."

Isobu's voice grated against my strained focus, but… he was right. I stopped. Rather than force the last drop of Nature Energy into myself, I opened my eyes.

The sphere of water around me exploded outward.

"Who gave you permission to stop!" Kaizoku roared, his forked tongue slithered out at me and his beard of icicles raining down below.

I stood, unfazed and unbothered by the noise. My hands—clenched into fists—felt different. Heavier. Powerful. I examined them through new eyes, and for the first time since Konoha, they did not look empty.

I raised my gaze to Kaizoku.

"A Sage knows balance above all." My voice was steady, unwavering. "To absorb all is greed. To reject all is ignorance. I am neither greedy nor ignorant."

I exhaled.

"I am a Sage."