Reborn in the Mist

Much of the excitement I had coming in dissipated after hearing my escort’s translation of the songs eerie lyrics. I reminded myself I was merely visiting the summon realm as a formality, an introduction to the animal path I’d be relying on for the foreseeable future and that I’d be out of here momentarily.

I am Yagura Karatachi, the Fourth Mizukage and I wield knowledge vital for the future of this world…I will not die here. Steeling myself with strong thoughts I gave a curt nod at the unagi leering down at me and it in turn signalled the guards at the giant brown door with the Uzumaki spiral.

Neither of the unagi guards seemed to move but the door hinged open either way, moaning as it released a great cascade of water into that I was already in. There was no point fighting the waves and so I let it swallow me completely, like an arm of their beast god reaching out it the waves pushed then pulled me through a pressure stream so fast I barely glimpsed the massive doors as I was dragged in.

The sudden maelstrom persisted even after the giant doors— that went farther to the ground than I initially thought— slammed shut. The water darkened immediately afterwards, the visibility plummeting to the point I could hardly tell my left from right. The last glimmers of light did illuminate large parts of the colossal serpent that entwined the tower, there was an entire coil of it here and if I was truly in the right place then it meant within these waters was the boss summon.

The strange, foreboding music continued even here, deep underwater and twirled around in the maelstroms that randomly snatched me from place to place. The darkness, the eerie music and the meaning behind their lyrics, the idea that I was in here with the beast of the paintings and the hieroglyphs. My stomach filled up with dread as I imagined the consequences of never leaving this place.

That was the story each and every carving in the walls told. Arrogant men come to seek power only to be devoured by it. Even now the words of my impending doom were being sung through the water in some mind baffling manner. I would be a fool not to be afraid.

Yet a greater one to let that stop me.

“Indeed, such is the nature of man, but you are not alone.” Isobu concurred and I felt him pass along enough chakra for a full cloak but not enough for a tail.

This is plenty, thank you, Isobu! As my body was engulfed in the corrosive energies of the Three-Tails Chakra I felt my Water Perception enhanced and the ocean around me boil vigorously. As I suspected, the boss summon was in the room with me; Water Perception plus Isobu’s [Stage 0 Chakra Cloak] didn’t negate the boss’s will over the water but it made its intentions clear.

The tidal force that has been tossing me around from one underwater cyclone to another increased the moment I activated the [Stage 0 Chakra Cloak] I could sense the giant serpents will to grind me into nothing until I submitted or drowned in the dark.

But it wasn’t dark anymore. Earlier Water Perception was useless as shit to me but Isobu wasn’t a Tailed Beast for jokes and laughs, his grip on the Element far surpassed mine and easily trumped this boss summon, at least enough to allow me to sense the flow and form of the water again.

With my ‘eyes’ opened I righted myself away as one cyclone spat me towards another, I gritted my teeth as the corrosive chakra cloak enhanced the rage and impatience within me. I let my chakra seize the water around me at last, all this time I’d restrained myself but it was time this fucking bath ended.

“Water Release: Chakra Control!” I swatted a hand at the cyclone meant to eat me up next and released my Water Nature chakra over it. I sensed my chakra clash with the boss’s and grinned as mine won the tug of war easily. The chakra components of the cyclone dissipated instantly.

I didn’t pat myself on the back just yet, I was enough of a master at [Water Release] to know that one of the few weaknesses to a technique like this was its scale. The boss summon might be able to fund and channel chakra through the technique but for a creature as large as it was it would be difficult for it to focus on singular aspects of the otherwise large scale. And I happened to be quite small.

I shot myself towards where my Water Perception sensed the boss’s coiled up tail but quickly found resistance. Cyclones, whirlpools, and even giant blades of water were thrown at me, but I wasn’t blind and best of all, I was nigh impervious to such attacks within the [Stage 0 Chakra Cloak].

I clapped my hands together and dispelled two cyclones that nearly merged together to block my path. One recovered its crumbling form and the other was cut apart by a sundering pressure wave of water coming for my head.

“Rarrgh!!” Chakra exploded outwards from my pathways, repelling the wave, disrupting the whirl of the cyclone and claiming some of the water around as my own. I quickly formed hand seals for— “Water Release: Water Shark Blast!”

Kisame wasn’t the only one to peruse the Hoshigaki’s contributions to Ninjutsu. The jutsu seized the water in my control and formed three moderate sized sharks that bolted out towards where I sensed the Boss’s tail. I hitched a ride upon one of them, holding onto its fin all while switching up my Nature Transformation.

Bullets of water shattered my two of my sharks and I hopped off the one I held onto just in time as a wave destroyed its form completely. Twisted in the water, I channelled the gathered Wind Nature chakra at the soles of my feet and turned  myself into a bullet. As I rushed at the great serpent I forced a Wind Blade to form underwater and over a thin senbon needle.

This time there was little in the way to stop me and I struck hard and fast, the boss unagi didn’t so much as twitch when the senbon drilled straight through, nearly taking my arm into its flesh from the piercing power behind the stab. It was very little damage and though Isobu’s chakra was boiling away the skin, scale and feathers only the boss’s hide, I knew I’d need to expend far more chakra to do any true damage, especially under water.

My chakra soared, rotating and grinding in response as I prepared to do just that when Water Perception pick up actual physical movement from the boss at last. Part of its tail twitched, unravelling rapidly and creating a natural cyclone as it winded about its domain.

Colossal as it is its mere movements sent me soaring away from it but that was the least of my problems as Water Perception sensed something I didn’t expect would happen at all, least of all to me.

The water rose, every part of it gathered and lifted like someone was hauling a bucket and I was the poor rat in it. There was little use fighting against the flow as Water Perception told me it came from all directions. Every bit of water above, below and around me was soaring into the air and taking shape around something I was too disoriented by sheer pressure to discern.

I couldn’t hold my breath any longer, the water was condensing against itself, forced into form by the wielder of this domain and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was what the Kaguya felt when I trapped them in my [Giant Water Prison]. It was likely worse as I’d added Wind Release to grind up and rend the house against them.

Fuck! I managed to right myself long enough to push against the water’s sudden thickness in an attempt to swim to an edge so I could escape and breathe but then a gleaming yellow light illuminated the water body so my true eyes could see at last.

I was in an orb of water far larger than I’d accomplished with the Kaguya. The orb and I were sat upon the coils of the boss’s tail and that yellow light were its eyes studying me like an egg in its clutch.

Defiant, I brought my fingers together to make hand seals but then a voice boomed through the water, cutting through the unnerving song that played all this while, “You swim well for a turtle.”

It’s recognition of Isobu within me meant very little right now. I flipped through hand seals as quick as I could and felt the excess chakra I’d prepared drain away as I directed my palm below me, “Wind Release: Gale Palm!”

For the second time I’d turned myself into a projectile, this time I rocketed straight and up towards the top of the orb. Large as it my watery prison was I overcompensated for the presence of water and it’s compounding pressure when charging the jutsu. But I wasn’t in the least bit concerned about preserving chakra— I busted out of the orb, the gust of my jutsu enhanced as I entered the open air below the boss summon.

Isobu! My partner was quick to respond and renew the [Stage 0 Chakra Cloak] around me as I prepared to be swallowed and forced to fight out of the boss’s guts.

However, that wasn’t necessary. The boss merely observed as I crashed against the wet, slimy floors of its domain. The room was at least forty feet tall and wide and just a second ago it was full with water, yet all that was compressed into the orb I just escaped from.

The boss unagi’s coiled up tail itself was several feet tall, certainly taller than my Kage Tower back home. It’s head was clouded in the darkness of the ceiling I couldn’t see but it hunched just to stared down at me— there was so much more of it.

The little I could see of it was thanks to the light of its eyes bouncing off its body, it was a hybrid of hybrids, a difficult thing to simply call it an unagi or serpent as I glimpsed and even sensed wings while I was within its domain of water. It had silver scales in some places and feathers in others. It’s head though was scaled green as emeralds, it had barbels but they were feathery and underneath its chin was stalactite of what looked like ice.

I don’t think I can beat this thing without your full cooperation, Isobu. I confessed to my partner. Not only was it massive, it was clearly a master of Water Release in a way I hadn’t thought of. Worse, it had allies right out the giant door behind me and all this time it had yet to present as fully hostile.

“Good thing we are not here to defeat it, or are we?”

I nodded and gulped as the boss unagi lowered its head further, its yellow eyes narrowing on me. That’s true, I guess, now’s the time for some dialogue? I cleared my throat of all nerviness and called out, “You know me…or at least the one within me. I am Yagura Karatachi, Fourth Mizukage of Kirigakure and I have come to bargain for your strength.”

Its mouth didn’t move yet its voice resounded throughout the room as its giant expression took on an amused look, “Bargains…it has been long. Mizukage? We shall see won’t we?”

What the fuck does that mean? I put aside the confusion, I couldn’t stay here long and I wouldn’t be caught off guard by any traps, “I signed your contract, great one, it brought me here to you, what would you have of me or would you see me dead as you have displayed?”

A chorus of chuckles and giggles echoed through the room, it was the same voices that sang of my doom. The great unagi reared back so all I could see were its glowing yellow eyes and the shine of its teeth, “Any creature can sign a contract, few can uphold it and even fewer are worthy of it.”

Unfazed I asked, “So? What must I do to be worthy of it and what cost must I pay forth?”

“You swim well for a turtle, you are worthy. You must fill five score lungs with the water of my sea, then shall power beyond that of a worthy swimmer be yours.”

I scoffed though I was quite relieved to hear that, “And just who are you exactly? Have you no name?”

Another chorus of laughs surrounded me and the great water serpent answered, this time it’s mouth moved as it spoke a single word that trembled the entire tower, “Kaizoku.”