Change 19

Part 3: From Kiri With Love

Out of all of us, the Wani is the first to react, with a low, thundering vibration of a roar. The oldest of the Kiri-nin falters with the rest of them, but is the first to recover.

"So sorry about the intrusion, but we're going to search your ship."

Chinatsu-sama is already on her feet, sword in hand and the scattered Wanitei around the room, edging into more secure positions, drawing a variety of weapons. The younger Kiri-nin turn back-to-back to defend themselves; interesting, given their appearances. Common myth has it that ancient Mizu no Kuni was inhabited by Samebito, shark-people, who then interbred with the humans; people from Kirigakure do have a tendency towards grayish/pale skin, sharp teeth and noticeable lack of facial hair. Ones like Kisame are known as Throwbacks, considering how more definitive fish-traits like the gills, blue skin and eyes pop up every two generations or so. Nobody's entirely sure how much of the infamous Kiri bloodlust and lack of empathy is Samebito instincts passed down, or just a screwed-up environment. Nature vs Nurture; that old argument.

All four Kiri shinobi have the sharp teeth, but two of the younger ones, the boy and one of the girls, have the gills on their cheeks. The red-haired girl has a tooth missing, giving her a slightly snaggle-toothed appearance as she smiles and grips a two-handled razor-chain whip. Oh, so she's advanced enough to qualify for a custom weapon, but her two cohorts are still stuck with shuriken and kunai? She's going to be the one to watch.

"Get off my ship." Chinatsu-sama growls-where did that dagger come from? It's casually deflected by the man, who's being almost frustratingly amiable in the face of such reptilian aggression.

"Now, now. We just got a tip off that shinobi have been seen skulking in this area. We've been hired to defend the Harbourmaster and preemptively killing threats sounded quite productive." Oh, look. There's the bloodlust. "Surely you'd want the Harbourmaster to remain safe? Just a warning, we won't tolerate no for an answer."

"You mistake me for a fool, shinobi. Take your little lemmings and leave, before you get eaten for your troubles; Ani-ue is hungry." The Wani hisses in agreement, and the boy with the gills shifts a little at the sound; weakness.

Wani can move surprisingly fast on dry land, apparently.

The one-ton crocodilian grabs the kid's thigh with over five thousand pounds of force and shakes him like a terrier would a rat in the space of a single lunge. The older shinobi immediately draws a tanto and aims for the neck in a stabbing motion, but it's caught between the thorny scales and wrenched aside by the violent movement before he can come close to driving it through. Despite being rag-dolled, the kid's wildly flailing kunai manages to land a slash on one of the Wani's nostrils and down over the lip, prompting a sharp grunt and his mangled, bloody release.

Snaggletooth girl snaps out a sharp wordless cry and, the older man being preoccupied with Chinatsu-sama and a few Wanitei attempting to sneak up behind him, goes straight for the Guard I'm hiding behind. He has the dual offence-defence weapon here and a very pointy one it is too, but those thorny gauntlets are poorly matched against a weapon meant to entangle. Her razor-chain doesn't cut through, but it digs in and holds, and now he's down the use of one arm and polearm defences really do work best with two.

The gilled-girl joins her, coming in from the side so she's the first to see me hiding behind him. I don't even look like a Wanitei, but I do look important to the guard so she changes course and goes for me. Before I can react, the guy sacrifices his own balance to use a backwards kick to launch me away from the struggling trio. Fortunately for him, another Wanitei comes to his aid and drags Snaggletooth off of him.

In the background, the Wani known only as Ani-ue is slowly making progress in dragging it's still pitifully weakly screaming chew toy back down the corridor and towards the open deck. Crocodiles like their food drowned and rotting, after all. Poor kid. Then again, not like he's going to be much use even if he gets rescued; his legs are far too mangled.

Being small makes it easy to slip through the tussle and put him out of his misery with a kunai to the throat.

But my mercy mission gets me noticed.

The Wanitei aren't chakra-users after all, despite their competence and the older Kiri-nin isn't so distracted as to not notice me; white hair stands out among a sea of black curls. And white hair isn't that common; the Henge is effective at what it was originally designed for and his eyes widen. Out of the corner of my eye, Kakashi-shishou is emerging from the rafters where he's been trying to sneak away and trying to get to me.

"Kai!"

The Kiri-nin tries to shake off whatever genjutsu he thinks my looks are. But my Henge is ninjutsu not genjutsu, and held in place by a seal. Kakashi-shishou's however...

The Kiri-nin spins around at the sound of a Henge dispelling behind him, glances back at still-possible-Hatake-child-me in shock, and looks back to come face to face with Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Ninja, the Man of a Thousand Jutsu. He makes the visual connection between us, even as Kakashi-shishou blurs past him.

But he's just as fast, and shoves Kakashi off to the side to land in a heap of brass and silver items.

"Komi! Mon! Take care of the kid!"

The two girls promptly disengage their respective opponents, and begin to stalk me. Ah, well. Let's see if I can beat them without Shikotsumyaku.

With a slight puff of smoke I grab a kunai from the storage seal on my own wrist. "One at a time now, ladies. Don't worry, I'll go easy on you."

Kakashi wasn't particularly worried about Kimimaro losing, even to Kiri-nin, even stuck physically at four years old. But he was worried about the brat being blindsided since those girls were trying to capture not kill; the red-head was roughly Chunin-level, the same as Kimimaro and hadn't the kid only got out of his Clan's suicide run because he had been berserker and therefore unpredictable?

Yeah, he was going to stick around and help out. Although, it seemed as if this guy had much the same idea.

This narrow corridor wasn't much good for a protracted battle. Time to take to the water, even if it meant giving the advantage to the other guy.

"What are you playing at Hatake?" He scoffed as they eyed each other up. "So, that's the reason nobody's seen your face in the last few years outside of Black Ops, let alone you seemingly vanishing off the face of the planet for the last fourteen months. Still, I didn't think fatherhood could make you this slow on the uptake."

Oh great. This again. Still, it could come in useful. "Hmm. What say we leave the kids to their playdate and settle this outside like responsible adults? Houzuki."

He grinned. "So, you know my abilities then. And you still lead me out here?" His smile suddenly dropped. "You've already thought up plans to counter the Houzuki Liquidation, haven't you? If I Liquidate, you'll just use Raiton jutsu to shock me. If I take to the water in human form, you'll either use Raiton or leave me to the horde of Wani below us, or both. If either of us use area-affect jutsu, we'll wreck the harbour and either rack up the property damage bill, discourage people from hiring shinobi again, or both. Why haven't you attacked me yet? It's bad form not to take advantage of a monologue."

"Buying time without any effort. Now then...'"

Rengetsu Houzuki bit back a howl of pain as his ear was sliced off in a spray of blood, too fast for him to Liquidate in time because who went for the ear rather than one of the eight kill points? The fucking shitspawn was mocking him! First he needed to take care of the bleeding.

"Katon: Fire Bloom." His hand is wreathed in a flicker of flame and the hissss of his own flesh cauterizing echoed loudly over the water. Oh oh oh, was that a preoccupied glance over to the boat behind him he saw? Maybe a different, safer approach was in order. "Aw, don't I get to see that infamous Sharingan, Hatake-san? Maybe I should-"

A Shunshin and Rengetsu is behind and above, swinging his tanto down. "-convince you!"

The water bunshin dissolved, splattering back down to reveal Kakashi standing a few metres away with one red eye unmasked. "How about you catch me first?"

Finally.

The Hatake is fast, but the Houzuki Liquidation isn't so straightforward as many think and Rengetsu can merge with and push against the water beneath them to go faster, faster-

He lands a strike- nothing much, just a light brush of his hand on Hatake's elbow- but that's all the contact he needs to make the water in the skin cells of the arm ripple and squirm for a second or two, rendering the arm useless for the next 12 hours, possibly less.

Hatake spins, turns on a dime one kick spraying water-muddy with waste, they're near the docks now- in his eyes, his eyes- the kunai that follows it he barely dodges and it slices his cheek. He blinks and wipes away the tainted water. Hatake's not playing now, actually running, but still playing safe, trying to lead him away, not risking damaging the buildings and boats. But he's serious, taking him seriously, and all Rengetsu has to do is find the right lever to push it up to fear.

Kakashi cursed himself in his head. Why oh why had he committed himself to ANBU? He had practically become a Career, if it hadn't been for the recognition he had gained as a child, as the son of Sakumo Hatake and for his (small yet noticeable)presence in the Third War. Covert ANBU mission after covert mission he had taken and never set aside time to train in ninjutsu, genjutsu or even some of the rarer weaponry his father had trained him in as a boy.

Only his stealth and assassination jutsu were top notch now and they were not made for this. Kami, he'd memorised a thousand jutsu with Obito's eye, but did he bother to work at them outside of just recalling them whenever an opponent tried to use them on him? Fuck, he was hopeless.

And this guy knew what he was doing. He had heard rumours of the Houzuki creating their own response to the Gentle Fist, but hadn't expected this. Water manipulation, huh. Well, he was down an arm and hand for the foreseeable future so that went about 99% of his jutsu; he should have trained to do at least a few without hand-seals, dammit! He had the Sharingan, but had the Uchiha even bothered to teach him the visual genjutsu that went with it? No, they were too busy muttering about whether to ignore Obito's dying wish and rip it back out of his head!

He had to lose this guy in the city first, then he could circle back and grab Kimimaro, retreat and regroup, figure out a plan and heal his arm.

Kimimaro could hold his own against those two girls long enough for him to double back, and the Wanitei would pitch in.

"Oi, oi! You thinking about if your brat's going to last against my girls?" Houzuki calls, his arm extending as they leap from a tall pagoda rooftop to another lower one, putting him above and behind Kakashi even if only for few seconds. But Kakashi sees with his Sharingan and slashes with a kunai.

Mistake! His gut screams as the fist dissolves in a splash and the droplets arc over his face, closing around-!

He switches with one of the many rain-spout shisa dog statues that decorate the rooves; just in time. The statue's terracotta head is crushed by the orb of water. "Just so you know, don't be surprised if you find the kid's body with a bite or twelve taken out of it. I keep telling Mon she needs to get her adrenaline-crash binge eating under control; kids these days can be so unreasonable, y'know?"

"Oh, well last time someone tried to kidnap my brat, they were a finger short when we got there. The boy's got a pretty strong jaw; don't be surprised if your student ends up missing some digits." Kakashi's kage bunshin is popped in a cloud of smoke. Ideal cover.

He dashes from the smokescreen, shedding Exploding Tags to flutter down behind him and create a temporary mid-air minefield.

And he lets himself fall.

Gleaming glass streaks past him as the Tags thunder above him, the crowds below screaming and pointing up.

He reaches for the weighted chain he keeps in his weapons pouch. There's a protruding billboard from the corner of the building and it snags.

His one functional arm strains, muscles screaming as he swings to the side, deaccelerating and taking his own weight as he hits the walkways of a construction sight running. The workers open their mouths to yell but he's already past them, f forcing up chemical reactions in his brain and running through them as fast as he can but not fast enough.

Water begins pouring from the sky.

The rainwater tanks on every roof is dispelling it's load through the mouths of the hundreds of shisa dog rain-spouts above them. The plank walkways turn slick almost immediately as a sharp-toothed grin cuts through the curtain. "Please tell me you weren't planning on mixing me into cement, Hatake, it's so cliché. This is an island; I'll have the advantage no matter which way you run. And what jutsu are you going to do with one screwed arm, hm?"

Come on, come on...' Frantic, Kakashi pulls on the chakra inside his arm, and he can move it, but it's slow. He'd be as good as dead trying to do hand-seals like that. Hang on, aren't nerves supposed to run on electricity? Given his Clan Affinity, turning the raw chakra inside his arm into Lightning-natured is the work of a thought. It hurts so bad he can barely stop himself gasping in pain, he has to focus to twitch so much as a single finger and his arm is steaming in the downpour, but he can move it normally. Hopefully he should only need this one jutsu.

In the meantime he runs, into the seedy underbelly of Benisu. He needs a crowd, needs confusion.

He follows certain sounds and smells, bounding through streets that get tighter and tighter between older and older buildings with hanging eaves and grimy yellow lantern-light in the shadows. Houzuki is staying on his tail but at a distance; good. The cheering and growling grows louder and he slips down a flight of stairs, through a warehouse of hanging fabrics and then a heavy wooden door hidden behind a heavy blue rug. A dog-baiting ring.

Dogs of every shape and size pace and snarl inside cages and pens; most of them starved and mad. Down the way, a mob surrounds an arena, cheering the blood and carnage.

Hand-seals. His arm hurts so much. Puff of smoke. His pack awaits him, uneasy as they realise where they are. He only has a few seconds at best. "Set the dogs free into the crowd, I need chaos. I need to lose a tail."

They set to work without question, the smaller dogs pawing at the latches to open them while Buru merely bites or crushes the bars and frames. A slavering, howling tide of fur and teeth whirls down the stairs and into the horde of spectators. It's easy enough to duck and weave through the confusing mass of bodies, out the other side and round, up a rusty iron staircase and into a seedy fast food kitchen, ignore the yells of the grubby cooks, out onto the street.

Hang on.

He couldn't sense any pursuer at all.

Where was Houzuki?

I stopped going easy on them about five minutes into the fight. It's a bit of a blur, but I was doing pretty well until we somehow ended up on the water.

The shark-girl has gills.

It wasn't until she grabbed hold of my ankle and pulled me under the surface that I realised how effective this tag-team is. The moment I break free and head for the surface, Snaggletooth slashes at me with her whip and I just have time to take a breath before shark-girl pulls me back under. So I stabbed her, as a matter of course, but I only managed to get her in the arm and HOLYMOTHEROFGRENDEL!

The Wanitei didn't bring just one Wani; they brought the entire freaking...herd? Horde? Shoal?

Who cares because the BLOOD GOT THEIR ATTENTION from the kid they were already EATING, LET'S GO ALREADY!

The Wanitei with the spear comes to my rescue, offering me the butt of his weapon from the side of the warship. "C'mon, Bitesize, up ya come."

Once I'm on board, he promptly reverses his spear to stab down at the two girls also trying to climb the hull. One of the barbed points tears into the hand of Snaggletooth who falls back down, then proceeds to yell up a very impressive insult; telling the guard to go and do something unrepeatable and anatomically impossible with a pig, a harp, some rope and a slice of buttered toast.

Then she has to avoid the snapping jaws of a Wani, who it seems can leap vertically out of the water a considerable distance, and Sharky is trying to swim but has to keep popping out of the water like a dolphin to avoid much the same thing. This is prime entertainment right here.

In a blink, they're gone. Everyone watching goes on alert, scanning the area, but they've just disappeared into thin air. Or a Shunshin, most likely. But those two don't know Shunshin or they'd have used it in the fight, so-"

"Hi, Hatake brat."

Their sensei. The guard raises his spear, but-

A starburst of pain in my shoulder and the deck rushes up to meet me, only for an arm to wrap around my middle.

Then sweet, sweet unconsciousness.

The Houzuki taijutsu thing I used is technically canon. When Sasuke and Suigetsu retrieve Zabuza's sword from an army of thugs, Suigetsu isn't allowed to kill anyone. During the scenes where he's fighting with taijutsu only, there are odd cuts of shots of water droplets. Evidently he's using his water abilities to augment his strikes somehow.