Blood Marco

I think meditation helped with stimulating chakra growth, but honestly at this point I wasn't sure anymore.

I had been noting something like an increase in my apparent progress, having shifted to a three nights near chakra exhaustion, one day of normal rest, and three days of above max capacity by way of a popped Shadow Clone or shuriclones. The 'stretching out' did something, but I wasn't sure if it was helping with my conditioning or progress, so I might move it to a five days of exhaustion, two days of rest split soon.

But on the days I meditated I was definitely seeing some kind of blip.

The problem was that no real objective metric existed for measuring chakra. Most ninja who could sense chakra just seemed to subjectively measure people and compare that to themselves and others they could sense, saying stuff like "Yeah he has so much chakra, it's just, like, huge."

And the measurement of 'stamina' we had been taught in the Academy was more about the ability to just do things.

Like the 'three normal clones' graduation test... The amount of chakra that most people used for that was waaaay more than was actually necessary, so as a measure of stamina—it wasn't—it was just terrible and inaccurate. It didn't matter to ninja whether you had a buttload of chakra or if you just had great control - what mattered to them was how many jutsu you could throw.

But I wasn't just a ninja, I was something of a scientist.

Well, not really. More like a natural philosopher, considering how wooly my work still was. I had been using the Shadow Clones as a measuring stick, but could I be certain that the portion that did not return to me was actually consistent and constant? Would my growing or personal physique affect that amount?

How about my skills with the jutsu - did repeatedly using it improve its efficiency without my notice?

And did this amount vary between individuals?

For all I really knew, all the stamina increases I had been observing—based on how many Shadow Clones I could create daily—was just reflecting my improving chakra control and finesse with the jutsu.

I had no way of telling because I hadn't found any damn measuring sticks that weren't subjective.

One of the biggest hurdles for early science had been simply how difficult it was getting accurate data and then transmitting it correctly onward, hence why a lot of knowledge had to be passed down orally and by example—usually through an apprenticeship of some kind—or why alchemists developed their own notations for their various elements and procedures.

Anyhow, I had been meditating a lot lately, and I think it was doing things to me.

Not only was I much calmer and my ability to sense chakra and intent sharper depending on how I had meditated, but it did seem to affect the amount of chakra I had. Like after certain sessions I had more chakra than before I started, recovering at an abnormal rate?

But was that a false positive, an expression of my 'spiritual energy' growing, or then just something else I wasn't aware of yet?

How frustrating.

Because much like with my stamina and chakra, I couldn't tell if one particular way of meditation was actually working, either...

Tummo was a Tibetan style of meditation I had picked up because it was used to raise the body's temperature, and that was always handy where I lived back before, where the temperatures could drop to pretty harsh levels.

It basically worked by contracting and relaxing the muscles, especially near the pelvic floor—that is to say, raising your balls and puckering up your butthole, and then relaxing them(I vaguely remember some Japanese swordmaster complaining about how the importance of the anus for deep breathing makes people uncomfortable...)—in rhythm with your deep breathing, pressuring the torso from above and below to force the warm blood from your organs to circulate into your limbs, which in turn forces the autonomous nervous system to regulate the torso's body heat higher and raise your overall body temperature.

Essentially burning through more calories to keep yourself warm, when normally the body wanted to conserve calories and keep your innards safe at the expense of maybe losing a finger or toe, or three...

It was the kind of thing, where naked monks sit in their cold mountain monasteries and put wet towels on each other and compete to see who can dry out the most with just their body heat.

I had used it to warm my fingers where gloves continuously failed me.

But I had no idea whether it would actually prolong your survival when facing hypothermia since the only big, serious study into how well humans could survive in the cold that I knew about had been done by the Imperial Japanese 731 Unit, who effectively tortured prisoners with ice baths to see how long it took for them to die.

So nothing any ethics board would have greenlit for a more modern study, I suspected.

Anyhow, I knew how it was supposed to work, having done it a fair bit back before.

But I couldn't seem to get my body to heat up properly, not to the levels where I would start sweating and get red in the face that I was used to. I had thought it would be a good idea to practice it, now that I was in the relatively chilly and damp Water Country, but...

I kind of wasn't feeling that cold anyway?

I didn't even need the tactical turtleneck sweater I had bought, so I mostly wore it because I just liked it.

Most Mist ninja—Zabuza and Haku included—didn't seem to mind the chill as much as the civilians did. So, yay for chakra regulating and insulating body heat?

Another weird data point to ponder over...

I had been filling a little black notebook with all kinds of weird observations recently, and I think I was getting close to figuring out a Global Positioning System, even without orbital satellites.

But I think I see a familiar ship finally docking by the port, so time to end this line of thought - You've made me wait, Zabuza.

You know that feeling when you get somewhere too early, and it's still closed, but it's not so early that you could justify going back and returning later, forcing you to just wait there?

Yeah, I hated that.

But I had been exploring the island of Suwo to make up for that and I know it pretty well now.

The overall layout and the port itself, where people tended to work during the day and where they gathered for the nights, how money and goods flowed, and who was in charge of what. I could now recognize some of the bigger factions here aside from the Mist ninja, such as the various criminal organizations, some of which were directly competing with Gatou's shipping business along with piracy, smuggling, and other shenanigans on the side.

Chief among them was a guy who seemed to have some beef with Zabuza, too. Some highborn member of the Daikoku clan, who had it pretty good back in the Hidden Mist Village, too.

Right now they seemed to be up in a tizzy about Gatou having been bed-ridden and out of action for over a week.

I think they were gearing up for some kind of sabotage or attack on the vessel that was coming to port right now, so I would have to inform Zabuza about that and see what he thought about it. He probably didn't want to have that bridge burn out beneath him just yet...

Taking off on black wings, I soared over the ships among the myriad screaming seagulls.

They had been taking umbrage with my presence on behalf of the Water folks, which had made for good aerial maneuvering practice—since ravens were supposed to be absolutely prodigal fliers—and by now the white flat-footed birds knew the steer the hell away from me, lest I took ahold of them with my talons and dive-bombed them into the ocean.

I think I had made an orca friend by feeding it three seagulls.

Or maybe it was hoping to eat me, too.

There's Haku... and there is Zabuza.

They're moving separately, striding forward with clear purpose and ignoring everyone around them, though a lot of the crew is giving them wary looks. Is that because they have a reputation as hardass bosses, or because they're worried for them?

Because lone civilians strutting around the port usually don't come back in one piece.

Whatever, I'll just follow them and join up once they're alone and together.

Which seems to be the right call, since as soon as they break line of sight from the dockworkers, they drop all pretense of civility and take to the shadows, parallel courses heading beyond the settlement's borders at a clip.

A meeting by the forest without the cover of nightfall?

Well, I guess there would be less skulduggery than I had expected.

I plot out their course and land up ahead, taking to sitting against a tree trunk in my human form.

One last gear check before it's showtime: tactical turtleneck sweater, pants, bandage wraps around both shins, sandals, kimono-turned-coat, two Holdings in each kimono sleeve with sixty shuriclones and five Shadow Kunai each, and one Holding inside my kimono's waist with all my other gear and stuff.

Chakra-levels... topped off, maybe a few percent below max?

Yeah, I think I'm good to go.

I drop down from the tree, hand raised in greeting.

"Yo!"

Zabuza comes to a sudden halt, his Transformation-disguise long since discarded as he looks at me. He's a lot more relaxed, now that he's in his usual gear, with the big sword on his back and face absolutely covered in bandages—cool, cool—and Haku by his side, but his low-key emotions are pretty odd.

Not angry, nor relieved, but... Expectant and grimly amused?

Weird.

Since when was he amused by me? Guess I should be expecting something to happen when we meet this partner, considering the rush Zabuza and Haku are in.

"Ship treat you okay?"

Zabuza grunts, before replying.

"I see you weren't confident over nothing."

I smirk. "Yeah, been here a while now. Bought some clothes, tried out the cuisine, took in the sights..."

"Hmm." He only nods, glancing at Haku, with his wariness and worry spiking again for a moment, where nothing is visible externally. "Now we'll see just how far your willingness to help will extend. Come, she awaits."

Huh. Ominous.

I like it.

"Lead on, boss," I reply with a lazy-soup-ladle salute that would have gotten me a hiding in the military.

Zabuza takes point again, running forward as I assume a position at his rear-right—mirroring Haku on his left in a triangle formation—nominally placing me at a position of trust at his back.

But, if I remember my Musou Shinden Ryu murderhobo-logic for positions behind someone properly, I would be attacking Zabuza with my left hand and Haku has his right to me, meaning my ability to backstab with my right hand is compromised and I need to turn, allowing Haku to retaliate against me more quickly.

So he's baiting and checking me, still.

But well, I'm ambidextrous and I wouldn't do it from this position anyway, so whatever.

We come to a clearing, which I know leads to the eastern end of Suwo, closest to the main island of Kiri—imaginatively, as it meant Mist—when I start wondering that weren't we going to meet someone? This feels more like we're rushing to get off the island before someone catches us...

"Hah! To think you would be this foolish, Zabuza! Have you finally lost your mind, or have you come to accept your place beneath my heel?"

We stop, Zabuza looking a little tense but not as if this was unexpected.

Haku sighs, then straightens up when he notices me looking at him. So they know this person? Up ahead in the clearing, I can sense a dozen ninja as the mist clears a little.

At the fore stands a statuesque woman with long red hair, done in some kind of top-knot but still reaching all the way down to her shins. She's exuding prideful amusement, like she's caught a bunch of rats in a masterful trap.

Yeah, uh...

I swallow, nervously, as a shiver runs through me.

There's this thing called the Uncanny Valley effect, which has to do with human-like but not quite human features being eerie to look at because there's something wrong with them, but you can't quite spot what.

I had a personal weirding out for certain things like that back before.

Like when muscular characters—usually, but not always, male—in art look wrong, because the muscles appear inflated or the bones and overall shape aren't accommodating how actual muscles would work and sit on a skeleton, contradicting what the picture is trying to portray. Like a 'buff' person who just looks puffed up, with the muscles' contours painted on their skin.

Or when body-builders with steroid gut—because their liver is bloated to three times the size of a normal liver—lose a lot of weight for competitions and just start looking alien, because they've starved themselves for more muscular and vascular definition. It doesn't look natural or healthy, because they're quite literally at their weakest then, but are trying to exude power anyway.

A superficial masculinity that's become an empty parody of itself.

But specifically in this case—relating to this shouting red-headed lady ahead—it's a feeling of alienness of the opposite gender.

She's got long legs with light muscular definition, but nothing one would expect from a taijutsu specialist, wearing a blue dress with some mesh beneath, covering one of her bright green eyes with her voluminous red hair.

And She's exuding chakra and emotions like a normal person, too.

So nothing specifically looks or feels out of place, but something about her is just off to me. I don't like her. I don't think I will ever like her. I doubt I will ever even be able to get along with her.

"Uh... Do you know her?" I ask, quietly, not taking my eyes off the group ahead of us.

The only other female character that had achieved this effect in me before was Bayonetta, from the game by the same name. I think she was supposed to be designed as a very sexy woman, but there's just something eldritch there that makes me think of a looming long-haired spider or some other poisonous predator.

Is it just the long hair?

Can't be. Rider from Fate was like that, too, and she was specifically a bloodsucking predator that was supposed to be very tall, too, and I didn't get that feeling from her at all. Was it just a subtle design thing when the Japanese tried and failed to make tall women?

Something about their proportions, like with muscles?

This isn't an anime anymore, jackass. Get your head straight.

"I see you were expecting me, Terumi," Zabuza finally replies, ignoring my earlier question. Or answering it indirectly, I suppose.

"And why wouldn't I, when you've finally fallen into my lap." She smiles, lone visible eye crinkling with delight that makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise up further.

Danger, Sasuke Robinson!

I don't like this lady!

"She is Terumi Mei – the..." Haku whispers, searching for words. "Other figurehead of the rebellion, I suppose?"

Terumi Mei, Terumi Mei, Terumi Mei...

Right, that's the elite jounin overseer of Suwo and a high-ranking member of the Hidden Mist. So it's not just a rebellion with Zabuza, but there's also some kind of hidden internal power-grab movement going on?

"...Sounds complicated?"

He nods at my assessment.

Right, then. Zabuza you fuck, this was definitely a trap and you sprung it on purpose, didn't you? Is he going to sell me out now, or...?

"Your faked death was almost enough to fool me, but it wasn't enough for that damn Yagura," Mei says, clicking her tongue scornfully as her killing intent spikes. "If only – I could have removed that maniac from his stronghold, had I but received an audience to present him with your mangled corpse. Know when to die already you low-born filth."

Zabuza chuckles, matching her murder-made-manifest with his own. "I couldn't stay out of the country too long and let you melt it all down in my absence, the way you do everything else, Terumi."

Several of the ninja behind the woman pale and turn to look at each other, hesitating at Zabuza's killing intent. Even without the Sharingan active, I can lip-read the uttered "demon of the mist" again and again.

Her eye narrows as she grits her teeth, temple pulsing with a throbbing vein.

"You're court death, Zabuza. Maybe it's time I finally finish you off, then!" Mei's hands flash together in a series of handseals as her chakra flexes and swells.

Her allies shout in panic, jumping back as she spews out a thick, rolling mist towards us, that—

Wait, is that mist melting the grass and trees?

Acid breath? She has a mist jutsu made out of fucking acid? Oh fuck, I don't have any counters for that. How is she even doing that?

Fuck plausible deniability, Sharingan time!

I missed her handseals, but I can see the continued chakra patterns swirling as she powers the approaching mist-front, time slowing down for me to analyze it before I make a move.

She's... doing some chemistry shit. That's... not good - I can't remember a damn thing about chemistry beyond some of the electrolysis and oxidation stuff...

And that was despite me writing it in my high school finals as a subject and getting a decent grade. Because chemistry always bored me, which now in hindsight so goddamn stupid of me that I wand to brain myself. If chakra can be used to force chemical reactions, then...

The realization almost slaps the fight out of me with the sheer potential there.

Holy shit, I can do electrolysis for hydrogen gas and pure oxygen! I can reduce rust back into iron—the process for making normal steel wastes a lot of iron to rusting in the smithing, this is huge if it also applies to chakra steel too, I can—consider implications later idiot, solutions to jutsu now!

If I remembered any more of the subject, I could have probably copied whatever the hell bullshit she's throwing at us now and one-up her, but that was no good because I was a big, stupid dumb-dumb who was too lazy to remember it! I even had a friend with a Masters in Chemistry back before, and I still couldn't remember a damn thing!

Okay, take it from the top and think, what is she doing?

It looked like she was creating an extremely hot plasma with Fire chakra and then using that to continuously combine something in the air, before mixing it with water to form the final acid?

So what's in the air that could be turned acidic...?

Oxygen and nitrogen, mostly—Oh! That shit better not fucking be aqua regia!

My hand finally moves, flashing to my waist Holding inside my kimono and I grab a single golden ryo coin and toss it into the incoming acid mist.

It doesn't melt.

Oh, thank fuck.

Which means it's probably just aqua forte—nitric acid—and will still melt my goddamn face off in a violently exothermic reaction.

What do I do? Create a chakra construct around me from gold to keep myself from being corroded?`No, that's stupid. Bury myself with Earth Swim? That affinity is still pretty rough and I would be slowed down too much to fight effectively. I can use Warp to disperse gases and airborne particles around me, but that's still like trying to shovel back an incoming flood...

Take to the air and make distance?

But I don't want to abandon my new comrades if this wasn't a trap for me - I glance at Haku and Zabua finally, blinking as I realize they're still completely calm in the massive slowdown perspective of the world I have right now. Though Haku is still curiously looking at the gold coin I threw out.

Oh right, if they're old enemies they probably have counter-measures in place already.

I let time snap back into regular play, ignoring Haku's curious glance at my gold coin toss.

"Haku," Zabuza commands.

"Yes, Zabuza-san."

The ice-user pulls out a storage scroll and unfurls it, stepping forward and flashing through the familiar handseals for the unsealing technique as he calls forth a tidal wave of water.

Zabuza had already assumed the extended Ram-seal variant of the Hiding Mist jutsu, which I now am able to recognize and understand the function of fully. Normally for the Ram seal the chakra is shrouded on top of and just around the ninja, but with the other hand raised up into the air it's instead dispersed into all the mist, becoming like an extended aura for the user.

The acid mist and regular mist collide two-thirds of the way to us, hissing and spitting in an exothermic reaction at parts, calmly mixing and swirling together at others.

But Mei's jutsu is stopped, as around us none of the grass is melting, and she lets the flow from her mouth cease.

And she doesn't look a bit surprised, even as her allies scramble to stay away from her in the midst of the airborne acid shrouding her. "You have guts to come back after last time. Did you think the scum on our shores would rise up again to die for you? You should have stayed in exile, Zabuza!"

"Which is it, Terumi? Die for your benefit or stay away - make up your damn mind for once, you vapid woman."

Another vein pulses on her forehead as her eye lights up, another set of handseals flashing by which I manage to catch this time.

"Lava Release: Melting Apparition!"

"Hmh!" Zabuza grunts. "Water Release: Water Wall!"

The water that Haku had released earlier that had already begun to soak into the ground, leaps up and forms a wave-like wall that pushes against the apparent lava, but it doesn't cool it down enough to stop it.

But it does somehow redirect its internal heat and cause it to change course from us.

Zabuza and Mei stare off, letting their respective jutsu die.

I would be acting around all this spectacle, flanking, throwing kunai and shuriken, putting pressure on her or her allies... but I'm still kind of unsure what these people are to us. Potential allies? Sort-of enemies? Enemies of our enemies? And all the other ninja with her are standing back, too, so my herd-following instinct is keeping me back.

Hey, this is turning into a shounen anime where we all just useless gape at the two people actually fighting now!

I lean over to Haku, whispering: "So... Are we enemies?" I point between use and their group. "I'm not really following any of what's going on here."

Haku gives me a small smile, nodding as he leans closer to me.

He smells way too good.

"Zabuza-san and Terumi-san were both high-ranking Mist ninja, but the difference in status has always been a source of friction between them, ever since they attended the Academy..." he answers as quietly, looking a little uncertainly at his master's back as well. "Of the two major movements against Yagura's reign, she heads the other. We would prefer her not to be our enemy, but to her... we are something like an eyesore, I suppose?"

But it seems like we were overheard as Mei sneers at us, finally tearing her eyes loose from Zabuza for a moment.

"I see you've stuck to your habit of picking up strays again, what wastrel clan is this one from, then—Huh?"

Oh, right.

My Sharingan.

Would have been a perfect opportunity to genjutsu her, but I hold back, still not sure what we're trying to accomplish here. Also, it would probably look bad if I did mindwhammy her since the Mizukage being mindwhammied seems to be the big root issue here.

"Are you mad, Zabuza?! You must be to bring someone like that back with you! Or have you fallen prey to his illusions already!?"

See?

"I told you I had a source on that new intel. And he's willing to work with us," he answers through bandages and gritted teeth, crossing his arms and flexing his neck, clearly bristling at her implication.

Or rather, still uncomfortable and unsure whether or not he has been genjutsu'd by me. I did kind of imply I was now an unholy terror at that stuff, back in Konoha before I left.

Really need to see what the bingo books say about me, though.

"As if any of us would risk it!" she shouts, looking over her shoulder to her allies now. "Ao! This is a chance to prove yourself capable of what you've promised."

One of the ninja, a tall man in a greenish kimono over a sweater—he doesn't manage to make it look good the way Haku does: it's the garish color combination—steps forward and nods confidently. I note that he's got an eyepatch and weird talismans stuck to his ears, but he appears otherwise unexceptional.

"Uchiha Sasuke, I believe," he says loudly, smirking at the rippling reactions behind him, with even Mei and Zabuza letting him talk now.

Or maybe they're just waiting to see if the other is distracted enough to leave an opening.

"You're Wicked Eye Fugaku's youngest, I hear. You know..." Ao says, raising a hand to pat at his eyepatch. "He took this eye from me in the Third Shinobi World War. But since then..."

"Ao," Mei interrupts. "Shut up, or I'll kill you."

He looks chastised, none of his aggression turned towards her but flaring up at me instead like a good little doggy.

I scoff.

"Don't mistake me for my father. I'll take more than just an eye..."

And then add my own, not inconsiderable killing intent into the mix, Zabuza and Mei having never let up for a second, matching up to them with relative ease. Haku shuffles beside me, clearly uncomfortable.

I'd call him a pussy, but honestly, it's what makes him so moe and probably the root reason why I'm helping out in the first place. Because with Haku, Zabuza just looks like the average, run-of-the-mill murderous maniac like myself.

"Boss, what's the plan?" I ask Zabuza, wanting some damn clarification as to what the hell we're doing out here and some guidance for Haku.

"Leave her to me, handle the rest."

Well, that could mean anything, reminding me of terrible project leads with ADHD who micro-manage and give no clear directives at the same time. But I guess in this context, it's a test to see how I react, not giving me any clues as to what he wants because he still doesn't really trust me.

So...

"Gotcha."

"Yes, Zabuza-san," Haku replies, resolve reinforced.

Mei scowls, glancing back at her other ten ninjas still behind her, before giving her own order: "Take them out!"

"Yes!"

And as one they assume the extended Ram seal, the rolling mist now so thick that my Sharingan turns useless.

I can barely even see Zabuza and Haku beside me. But with this, I don't have to worry about the acid too much, I guess? Just one problem...

I'm garbage at silent killing.

I was stealthy, even for a ninja, but that was mostly my jutsu and chakra suppression under normal circumstances. Compared to most others, I wasn't anywhere near the quietest or most able to fight without my eyes. In fact, the thick chakra hanging in this mist is doing a damn fine job blinding me as it had Kakashi in Wave.

Which means I'm the weak link for those who can silently kill.

I turn to Haku.

"Split up?"

He blinks and then nods back, before fading into the mist completely silently. I blink and only then realize that Zabuza has been long gone.

I need to learn that shit.

But for now, let's run that list by again...

Intent sensing is mostly useless because the mist acts as a disperser, Sharingan doesn't really work, I can't stack up in silent killing, running out of the mist would just leave me taking potshots at anyone I see which could cause friendly fire, big jutsu will just drain me, so...

"Guess I'll just bait them out. Marco!"

A kunai comes flying at me, but I hear it coming and shift aside to let it pass by harmlessly, noting that there's no explosion tag on it first - because that's what I would do.

I cross my hands, reaching into the opposite sleeves into the Holdings—I can just pull up the hands into their own sleeves too, but this is faster—and pull out two Shadow Kunai and six shuriclones. I toss one of the kunai the way I had been attacked from, before tossing out three shuriclones in a fan pattern out into the mist around me.

The kunai impacts somewhere but doesn't pop, meaning it must not see anything, and the shuriclones pop in succession, returning mostly useless flashes of white insight.

In this mist, it all looks the same – washed-out white from the chakra-laden water droplets in the air.

I drop the second kunai by my feet, allowing it to cover my blindspot and consider my options.

I could pull out that jutsu now...

It would ensure no one got behind me, but it would also guzzle through chakra needlessly and scare anyone off from attacking me, nullifying my bait. So maybe not.

A Sound jutsu does sound good right about now, though.

But first...

"Marco!"

Nothi—I duck, avoiding the soundless pair of kunai that almost burrow themselves into my liver from behind, retaliating with three shuriclones that ping nothing again.

Right, Zabuza used the mist to disperse where his voice was coming from, too. Meaning it can be used to blot out and dampen sounds, too. I just sensed the spike in intent through the mist instead.

A kunai comes whizzing from behind and I side-step it. Except nothing flies past me.

Making fake sounds to mess with me.

They would start mixing it up now, surrounding me, and throwing false positives and negatives until I didn't know what was what anymore. I reach in and throw out three more shuriclones around me, just to see if I could ping anything with them.

But nothing.

"Marco!"

Another kunai, this time with a sound-dampened explosive tag tied around its handle. I dodge and kick it past me into a random direction and sense a spike in intent—like a muffled wave through the mist—a second before there's a pressure wave through the mist along with the muffled sound.

Intent transmission really is fast, I observe distractedly.

But more importantly, did I get someone?

"Hmm..."

—Mist-nin with cleaver-sword raised high above his head in a two-handed grip, aiming for my neck from behind.

I drop into a crouch and hook out my foot in a Strong Fist low sweep behind me—ducking under my executioner's swing—taking his feet out beneath him and leaving him mid-air and flailing. Switching to the pivot foot, I explode upwards in a rising knee kick that cracks the earth and shatters his floating ribs, causing him to gasp and drop his sword.

I catch it in the air, twirling it up into a mirror of his earlier overhead stance.

"Urgh...!" he groans, falling to his knees as he throws up.

"Polo," I declare and cut off his head with his own blade, the limp corpse falling over with one last impotent spurt of blood.

Shadow Coaching is so damn useful - I would have just totally died there without it.

I glance and nod, noting that the Shadow Kunai managed the partial dispel without issues—since they're hollowed out inside the fat blade section, filled with parts that can be dispelled without problems—and that its Sharingan or chakra signature is almost indiscernible in this thick mist.

"Now I have a sword, Ho-Ho-Ho..." I call out into the mist, savoring the dispersed intents of panic and rage for a second, flicking clean the blade of any blood and inspecting it.

It's a bit heavier than a katana, more like a meat cleaver extended into a full sword's length than a sword, really. It's not even got any real taper or proper geometry for structure or stiffness, and I know from just a glance that it's not chakra steel, just something made sturdy enough to handle ninja combat.

So, the kunai of swords, I guess.

Well, not going to complain about a free sword.

"Marco!" I call out again.

But nothing. No one's coming. No kunai. No false positives.

I guess they're regrouping?

Time to get back the momentum of this fight. I stab the cleaver into the ground, not caring about the sensation of rock and dirt against the steel transmitted through the hilt, as I raise my hands in the Ram seal to gather chakra.

Then I extend the left hand up into the air, connecting myself into the mist.

I could just try to forcefully take control of it and disperse it, but that would just turn into a tug-of-war of chakras. I have a good stockpile of shuriclones, but there's a lot more of them.

Besides, I can think of better things to do with it.

The left hand in the air shifts from a half-Ram into a half-Dragon, index and middle fingers curling back down as the thumb and pinky extend out.

Chakra is a funny thing...

I'm not so sure what it actually is anymore.

Because it can be used to control things like solids—Earth—without being a solid, or liquids—water—without being a liquid, or even gases—air—without being gas either, sure... And it's definitely not plasma. And there's probably no point in even considering the fifth state—which I forget—or dark matter or whatever... Because I have no idea what that would mean and prejudicing myself like that would be counter-productive.

Because chakra can also be attached to things which aren't really things.

Like shadows in the Nara clan jutsu. As shadows aren't really anything - they're just a slight absence of light, an illusion of the way we looked at the world. If we had slightly different eyes—which I do—I could point out a dozen other, just as valid methods for doing similar things—I think?—as with something as insubstantial as fucking shadows of all things.

Like soundwaves, as that galaxy brain Orochimaru had apparently figured out.

See, a sound isn't a thing really, either - it's not like a particle in the air traveling from the point of origin into say, a sensory organ like your ear where it's registered as being heard. Not like the nose which actually samples airborne particles. No, sound is a wave that travels along the air, or water, or even the ground.

Yet chakra can still ride along with it, as if it's affixed to a tangible thing, like a thrown kunai or something.

It's like how electricity isn't really the electrons flowing through a wire, but rather an electromagnetic field that refreshes itself at the speed of light across the entire circuit. Meaning electrons don't push electrons along in the wire like water molecules would each other in a pipe. No, it's electrons moving causing an electric field which causes a positive charge to form around a wire which then causes electrons to move to avoid the positive charge.

All over the circuit. Essentially instantly, at the speed of light.

I think...

I was probably skipping out a lot of the steps there.

Because this was one of those really hazy parts of electrical theory which I often forgot, simply because of how confusing and complex it could be. See, with electrical engineering and wire schematics, for every electrical component there is a matching component found in water pipes, which essentially works exactly the same way.

So it's not just a mildly useful analogy, it's a very useful analogy for understanding how to build electrical circuits.

But it's also kind of wrong.

Despite how well it had helped me with Lightning chakra.

See, it's actually quantum mechanics, even if we pretend it's not most of the time.

Back before we had just worked out all the annoying quirks by standardizing wires and schematics, so we could just think of electricity in simple—intuitive—water pipe terms for teaching most people.

Why did this matter now?

Because intent and chakra transmission are also quantum mechanics, because they refresh at the speed of light, too. Be it a Shadow Clone popping and returning a set of thoughts and memories, or the intent projected by another person, that was all happening waaay too fast to be anything else, as far as I understood it.

Chakra, babe, I love you and adore you... But you keep pushing me with this shit and we're gonna have to have words soon...

Because I was not fucking equipped mentally or mnemonically—fuck you, that's the word now; relating to memory or capacity to remember—for dealing with fucking quantum mechanics! But hey, I'm already casually warping space-time and crying about not remembering basic chemistry, so fuck it, throw quantum mechanics in that pile, too, why not!

Back before once you got into stuff like tensors and local conservation of energy, a part of my brain would just play the Windows XP shutdown sound as my eyes glazed over.

Because while I liked science, I had my damn limits, too!

But for you, babe, I'm willing to work on it. Willing to work on us... Okay?

Unlike other relationships, this isn't one I'm just willing to walk away from once it gets a little rough. Because it makes me a better person, it sparks joy in my life, and it lets me do shit like this.

I push my chakra into a modified variant based on the Sound jutsu Orochimaru had taught me, wiggling the half-Dragon in the air as I call out: "Marco!"

"Polo!"

"Polo!"

"..Polo!"

"..Polo!"

"...polo..."

Comes the return signals from other unique people's chakras.

That's how you play this game!

My hands flash into the opposite sleeves again, pulling our ten shuriclones and I let loose into the mist. Four return their chakra along with confirmations of hits, while the rest ping against nothing - those further away must have reacted in time.

I grab the cleaver and Flicker towards the nearest two wounded before they can move.

"Wha—!"

I Dynamic Entry the first into unconsciousness, slap aside the thrown kunai of the wide-eyed second with the cleaver and then drop an illusionary unkindness of ravens on him through our eye contact.

I look at the unconscious ninja on the ground, shrugging without finishing him off as I step over to the now-flailing and screaming second one, dropping another genjutsu on him by way of handseals—sixteen of them, sheesh!—that don't require catching his eye again, to ensure he doesn't break free anytime soon and to keep him from falling unconscious.

His screaming is creating all kinds of nice noise since I'm no good with silent killing.

"Marco!" I call out again, without the jutsu, just to repay the earlier mind-games.

But surprisingly, this time someone plays along without prompting or cheating.

Ao shows up through the mist, walking with slow, sure steps that echo way too much to be natural. But I can appreciate a sense of drama.

I raise the cleaver to my shoulder in a relaxed one-handed stance, tilting my head at him.

"Oh-ho, you're approaching me?"

He grunts, eye narrowed at me, but not looking me in the eye. Guess he did say he fought my old man back in the day.

And then he explodes forward, physique and Flicker perfectly complemented in a manner that speaks of years of taijutsu training.

Fast!

I swing the cleaver at his head from above, stepping back to generate hip rotation for my one-handed swing.

But he whips out a chakra-covered hand and repels it before it can make contact. I let go of the hilt, not bothering with trying to keep a hold on a useless weapon that wants to drag me along with it, stepping back and raising my hands, recognizing this.

Thurst, wind, wind, coil, sweep, side-step. Thrust, left cross-over, shift. Push, wind, slide. Snap-wind, thrust and he's wide open, the fool actually fell for the basic feint combination into the Coiling Heaven Bridge!

I punch him square in the face, feeling his nose break beneath my knuckles. I use that surprise and opening to snap a double knife-hand thrust into his throat from both sides, of which he hastily tries to slap one aside, which I then in turn leverage into a two-point joint-lock that puts pressure on his shoulder with the elbow and wrist as fulcrums.

Ao grimaces, eye wide, choking as he jumps back to make distance, choosing to dislocate his shoulder to break free from me.

But I pursue him, now grinning maliciously, eyes spinning and glowing as they draw a sanguine trail through the white mist.

I see how it is.

Bastardized Gentle Fist, is it?

Three guesses as to what's beneath eyepatch number one, and the first two guesses don't count. And now that I saw them, I don't know how I missed those bulging veins by his temple before.

A pretty good plan.

He's bigger, stronger, faster—excluding Flickers, probably—than me. But too bad, pops, you really didn't do your homework, trying to taijutsu me with the Hyuuga style. I guess the bout against Neji got overshadowed by the whole invasion and Orochimaru thing.

Anyhow, this is probably how that red-headed woman was planning on taking out the Mizukage.

Not exactly sure how they plan to do it, since jinchuuriki can power through closed tenketsu, but maybe they're trying to free him from the mind-controlling genjutsu or something by disrupting his chakra circulation.

Meaning Ao is more valuable alive than dead, as a bargaining piece for the boss-man.

Well, I'm a good henchman—henchboy?—so far be it for me to go and waste such a good chip. Besides, I've turned over a new leaf. Killing is bad, m'kay?

That other guy?

He started it. Also, my Shadow Kunai are a bit bloodthirsty in their Coaching. Not sure if that's because they're frustrated about being stuck as kunai or because they've internalized the whole 'infernal sentient weapon from hell'-look with a little bit too much enthusiasm.

So I practically had no say in killing him. It just happened.

Anyhow, what about Ao here?

Heh, guess I get to put into practice what failed against the real thing with this faker.

I stop, ending the chase and giving the Mist-nin a chance to catch his breath. He's lost his earlier calm, now full-on wary and wanting to make distance. No doubt he thought it was check-mate the moment he disarmed me and closed into taijutsu.

"Marco," I say again, raising my hand in a half-Dragon.

The thumb and pinky shake, my chakra and the mist as my extended aura respond with the same frequency.

"Maaaarcooo..."

Ao blinks, eyes bulging as he gags, trying to step away and retreat from me—and accidentally—his lone visible eye meets mine and my spinning tomoe sink into him.

I still can't really affect someone with two Byakugan, but someone with one normal eye?

Oh yeah, I can throw in all kinds of wacky shit there.

Back before, there was this phenomenon in VR known as VR sickness. It's like car sickness and seasickness, really. A super-powerful nausea caused by conflicting sensory data. Basically on a boat, if your inner ear reports movement and your eyes don't, so which should the brain heed? Or reverse, as in VR, where you appear to move but your body doesn't, depending on the mode of locomotion used in any given app or game.

So what if you had two eyes that work completely differently plus his inner ear?

"MaaarcoOoOooo..." I continue attacking his inner ear as I apply a mild shake, tilt, and delay to his normal eye's vision with genjutsu.

Ao raises his good hand to his mouth, holding back the urge to vomit and fall over, swaying on his feet, trying to wrangle his chakra under control to kai.

I let go of the half-Dragon.

The thing about nausea is that it wants to persist. For hours. I was so glad that I had apparently been born with 'VR legs' as they were called, and simply could not get sick from that dissonance. Hell, I slept better on rocking boats than I did on dry land.

But, next jutsu to pile on the bullshit and just see what sticks.

Ram, Dragon, Raven.

Let's shake it up with some space-time waves, baby!

"Urp...!"

And there we go.

Ao falls to his knees, throwing up, looking sick and pale and sweating like a horse as his limbs shake uncontrollably.

I walk up to him and kick his good arm's elbow, breaking it too. Just in case. Then I grab him by his faux-hawk haircut and shake him a little, getting another reaction from him, much stronger than his reaction to his arms being broken.

Tough guy.

But nausea is fucking bitch, your own brain revolting against you.

I drag him up and make a half-Dragon seal again, raising it beside my head like a pretend telephone to re-connect with the chakra in the mist.

"Moshi moshi - Terumi-san! I have your little Byakugan-boy. Come on out if you want him alive!"

My voice echoes loudly through the mist, overriding all the damping with a forceful spiking of chakra, ensuring that everyone hears me.

For a moment, nothing happens.

And then the mist dissipates all at once.

The three I had run into before remain unchanged, only the one genjutsu'd Mist ninja still on his feet and screaming. Haku appears next to me, appearing a little bedraggled, but unharmed.

Zabuza and Mei are unharmed as well, but are breathing a little bit heavier.

The rest of the ninjas are covered in needles, bleeding and limping, but still on their feet. Huh, I had the only decisive kill here. Were we playing softball, after all? Shit. This is why I wanted a clear directive on the terms of engagement.

Fuck it, just roll with it.

"Good plan, lady. Byakugan is the king of countering genjutsu," I call out, letting go of the half-Dragon sound control that's already slipping away with the mist anyhow.

The lone screaming ninja stumbles and falls then, his voice having started to grow hoarse. Now he's just an annoyance, so I whistle sharply, cutting the two genjutsu plaguing him with the dispel trigger and finally let him fall unconscious and rest.

"But, clearly not good enough."

Zabuza snorts, returning his sword to his back as Mei seethes at me.

She had been dismissive of Ao's importance, but she had also been protective of his secret: the Byakugan. This probably isn't just an issue for her plans against the Mizukage, it's also a huge blow if she loses such a valuable and heavily guarded doujutsu now.

She turns to glare at Zabuza.

"Gatou has already been burned by your arrival - he is useless to us now. You have nothing to offer the cause, nothing but your corpse, Zabuza."

Zabuza snorts again.

"That hardly matters. We have a faster and more reliable smuggler now."

Mei blinks, then her eyes narrow.

"Impossible. Tenzen would never work with you."

Zabuza looks over at me, tilting his head smugly.

I guess we were in cahoots now for real? Because I'm the only possible smuggler here.

"Yo, lady," I say, finally deciding to let go of Ao. His hair is just greasy enough to make me queasy. "I've been here for like three days already."

Her face goes completely blank.

She begins to call me out, but I interrupt her.

"Two days ago you had a lumber shipment from Fire, which that Daikoku guy took a big cut off, while your Mist ninja overlooked the whole affair. Yesterday, a money shipment was sent over to Kiri with sixty guards. Today, three pirate rakers without Mist flags returned to port a few hours before their ship rolled in." I nod Zabuza's way.

Mei blinks, processing all that.

She's trying to think her way through this – trying to check me if it's a bluff. So I reach into my waist Holding and pull out another of my Grass Country green tea boxes. It still smells fresh, the way the slowly traveled stuff just can't.

I toss it to her after taking a deep whiff.

Hesitating, she does too, exhaling angrily as she recognizes the scent. Can't be older than a week after the final processing, or it loses like a third of its taste. Which is why it sells so well in Earth while fresh. Of course, my Holding is a sealed environment, which helps, but she doesn't need to know that.

"You..." She hesitates, trying to find some angle.

And I see it in her eyes before she even says it, as she finds her next tack. "I'll pay you double whatever he is. And unlike him, I can guarantee payment."

My turn to snort.

She looks vaguely insulted. Good. She should.

"Lady, if you come within ten meters of me, I will run. I wouldn't even touch the money if I knew you had so much as breathed on it."

She snarls now, fists clenched as she glares at Zabuza, no doubt wondering what he could have possibly done to secure my loyalties.

So her next attack will be on Zabuza's end, making him question whether or not I've got him mindwhammied. So I need to keep the momentum in this conversation.

"Meanwhile, Haku..." I point beside me.

The effeminate boy blinks and shrinks a little as everyone's attention turns to him, having been very comfortable out of the spotlight until now.

"Is sugar and spice and all things nice."

The baffled silence is deafening.

So time for a serious point, now that their guards are down. Rhetorics 101: blindside them for the kill-shot.

"And if he," I continue, more loudly as I point at Zabuza, "of all fucking people is worried about the Hidden Mist's future, then holy shit you people are fucked at this rate - and he doesn't want that."

No one has a single objection.

Because this is the guy who still gets the warm jollies when he thinks back to the time when he murdered a hundred kids.

"And you know it, you power-hungry hag. You've been playing that card against him this whole time to get him out of the picture!"

"H-hag?" She takes a step back as if I had slapped her.

And of course, she would get hung up on that part. Shit, did I just torpedo my entire argument with swearing for emphasis again? I usually did it to make sure people paid attention...

Zabuza starts laughing, his eyes closed as his entire back arches and his chest shakes.

"He has you pegged, Terumi."

She works her jaw, clearly flustered. The other ninjas with her are of no use either, still looking around wearily. At this rate, even if Haku doesn't want to kill them, knocking them out and then ganging up on Mei will still be easy.

"Why is the Uchiha helping you, Zabuza. What could he possibly hope to gain from this?"

Zabuza just laughs even harder, raising a hand to his eyes before he calms down enough to talk.

"He wants to help."

Everyone goggles and then turns to look at me again like I've grown a second head.

Right. Fucked-in-the-head sociopath land.

"Aaand..." I pipe up, raising a finger. "I want a custom-made chakra steel katana. Don't forget that part, boss. It's important."

He snorts, knowing by now that I just tacked it on as an afterthought.

Mei looks at me, frowning, and I vaguely feel like I forgot to put on pants. Which, even if I did, I wouldn't normally mind anymore, but somehow she's got that judging look thing down pat.

"You... You're all compromised. No one will trust you, even if you worm you way back into the Hidden Mist, Zabuza," she objects finally, more than aware of how weak that argument is. "You've gone and burned Ao, too!"

Well, now she's just down to spite.

She points at me, still looking at Zabuza. "If you wish to work with me, he must give over his eyes—"

"Yeah, no. The last two guys who tried that kind of shit... You might have heard of them: Orochimaru and Shimura Danzo?"

She pauses, not finishing the sentence, but I can see in her eyes that she's growing surer of this avenue of attack against us.

That I'm too unreasonable and dangerous to work with, that even if they get rid of the current Mizukage, they would only be exchanging one puppet for another. And if we somehow reason through that argument, she'll just switch again completely irrationally and heedless of contradicting previous arguments, because this is now some emotional hang-up for her.

Meh, I'm overflowing with chakra right now from all the shuriclones. Time to make a statement.

"Zabuza-sensei, Zabuza-sensei!" I turn to him, my hand raised up as in a classroom for a question.

Everyone blinks, but he knows me best and points at me, playing along.

"Sasuke, go ahead."

"I've been holding back, not wanting to make too much noise and attract more attention, but is it okay if I show off the results on that jutsu you taught me back for the bridge?"

He inhales slowly through his nose, one brow rising.

"If Mei is already here, no one else will come and risk her wrath," he replies, clearly enjoying this.

Alright.

I bring my hands together, walking away from the groaning Ao. Don't want to vaporize him by accident.

Ox, Rabbit, Dragon, Ram.

My chakra flares out into the surroundings and snaps back to me, a crackle in the air heralding what's to come.

Chidori variant – Wingbeat Intent Amps.

Name—obviously—still in progress, much like this jutsu.

I shove eight Chidoris' worth of chakra into the electron capture and chain formation and sprout roaring lightning from my shoulder blades. Or rather, they hover just a few inches away from my back, giving me massive crackling wings made out of Lightning chakra.

Because I have a theme I'm running with and it looks fucking metal.

Primarily they act as a reservoir for Lightning chakra so that I don't need to get more and more electrons in-between the Chidori, paying it all up-front instead.

It also essentially renders my un-backstabbable.

Because Lightning chakra isn't really electricity, it's more... plasma chainsaws? So I have a pair of crackling, barely controlled plasma chainsaws at my back, ready to eviscerate and blast to hell anyone who stands behind me.

They are kind of useless otherwise right now, except for one tiny application.

The Dragon seal.

Remember that ungodly noise the Chidori normally makes? Ever heard the Star Wars Imperial March played on Tesla Coils? Yeah, I can do that now. Loud enough to blow out your ears and make you bleed from your eyes.

Not my own, of course. Noise-canceling by matching opposite soundwaves near my head, you know? Eye of the hurricane, like.

Also...

Sound is an excellent amplifier of intent transmission just as mist is. Just as Zabuza's signature killing intent demon-head shroud is, what I've based this entire jutsu on.

This is doubling as proof of my relationship with Zabuza, erasing any thoughts of trying to pry us apart with half-assed measures.

On the bridge when I fueled his version of the jutsu with Haku's help, I was using hypotheticals and second-hand experience to fuel my killing intent. It had been barely passable by Zabuza-sensei's standards.

Now...

A hundred people burning. Kunai sinking into flesh. Surprised gasps, blood turning it into a gargle. Danzo dying, dying, dying. His ANBU and bodyguards burned and torn apart. Executing Orochimaru before the time-wimey causality control bullshit. Danzo being dismembered, crippled, torn to bits, and blown apart. The sensation of flesh being cut by my wings and talons. Danzo's naked fear, regret, and despair as I burned his village around him and turned everything he loved against him...

And executing a man already neutralized, just because I had his cleaver in hand already.

Now I have plenty of first-hand material to work with.

I spread my wings and let them beat once, crackling thunderously and carrying forth one spoken, otherwise drowned completely out.

"Enough."

Bitch, I'll kill you so hard you wished you were died.

Mei actually swallows, taking a step back, the other ninja paling, the grass and dust all around us shaking with the excess of the chakra.

That's right, I'm a fucking rockstar.

Never mind that I can't walk or move at all for fear of cutting off my own legs or arms right now.

I let go of the jutsu, flicking a hand towards a tree and allowing all the built-up charge to slam into it. The tree explodes, the sap flash-vaporizing exactly the same was as if it had been struck by lightning.

"Whew." I wipe my brow and turn to Zabuza. "How is it, sensei?"

"Too slow. Work on it."

I give him another soup-ladle salute. "Yes, sir!"

That good enough to convince her she's out of moves?

Mei's pouting now, I think, still glaring at Zabuza who is ignoring her.

"...Fine," she finally spits out when he won't look at her.

"Mei-sama... But, he's..." one of the flunkies almost looks my way, before hesitating, terror about the Sharingan too strong.

"But he can't be allowed free movement, and he can't publicly show those eyes. We don't need to make this any bigger of a mess than it already is," she continues. "Yagura will be impossible now that Zabuza's presence here cannot be covered up, and the only possible conclusion left to reach is that I failed to catch him."

And whose fault is that, huh?

This whole fucking mess? Who went and burned the Gatou shipping thing and then tried to checkmate Zabuza to force his hand, huh?

But...

"Fine. I can wear a blindfold and disguise while I'm around any of your other allies." I need to train blind anyway and this was a great start for an alternate persona. "You can call me Zatoichi from now on."

Po-po-pow, the blind swordmaster from Water Country!

With that, I turn my skin darker, like I had been in the sun all day every day, and lighten my hair to a more common shade of brownish-black using the Chameleon jutsu.

Zabuza walks up to me, eyes narrowed and analyzing me, but it seems I've finally earned some measure of his trust now.

Well, I damn well better have since he used me in a gamble to get access back to Water Country.

For all that I called out Mei for being a ruthless strategist, Zabuza's little different. Because if I'm reading this situation right, he was powerless while outside of Water's borders, beyond smuggling in support through official channels that were under Mei's control, and to get back inside and in touch with his own powerbase he had to risk that card and put himself in his rival's power first.

So he just wagers with his own life instead, knowing that I could have run away at any moment if I could get here on my own. But I guess that validates my intentions' honesty to him more than anything else could if he's grown up in intrigues and deals like this all his life.

"I will send someone over once I'm ready to meet the others."

And now it's time to consolidate Zabuza's side of the rebellion, I guess?

He turns to leave, Haku assuming his position at a flank again as I jog to catch up, taking a wide berth around Mei. We cross the rest of Suwo and reach the eastern end from where the island of Kiri is visible, where we finally take a break.

Haku looks and feels a little peaky, so he'll need a break to cross over unless I carry him.

I don't mind, but I think he would refuse.

"So... Why didn't we just..." I mime cutting my neck with my thumb and then point it back the way we came as I turn off my Sharingan. "Her."

Zabuza grunts.

"She's a high caste."

That means nothing to me.

"...And?"

He turns to look at me, but with the bandages, it's hard to judge his expression, and since I'm still riding my bloodlust high it's hard to read subtle emotions again. That Chidori thing didn't help, either. All of my skin is tingling and I think my hair's spikiness has doubled.

Need to meditate after this, maybe jot down a few ideas in my black notebook first.

"How much of what you told Terumi about observing in Suwo was true?"

"All of it. I visited Kiri, too. Bought these there." I point at my pants and then my blue sweater beneath the kimono. "But I honestly don't understand the people and divisions here at all. I mean, I get that there are three castes, and I guess she was born in the highest one or something...?"

The man grunts again, crossing his arms as he looks at Haku, who is studiously keeping up appearances of not needing this breather.

"The social castes in Water are based on how your clan or family participated in past battles. The highest caste are the founding members of the Hidden Mist Village and the victors of the many internal struggles. The second caste is for allies and those who joined later, and some founding members who have been disgraced in some way. The last, lowest caste is everyone else, mostly those whose clans were annexed and forcibly brought in to bolster numbers."

"Oh..."

I purse my lips.

I had kind of guessed that much but when put in such clear terms...

This shit is fucking Sparta all over again, with the Helots.

Not the 'oorah best warriors' idealized propaganda of pop culture, but the absolutely brutal pit of hell, filled with the cruelest that humanity had ever produced, who put pretty much all of human savagery through all history to shame. And among their myriad practices, culling the workers—slaves—periodically to keep their numbers down was only par for the course.

"Let me guess, that whole 'kill someone in the Academy to graduate'-thing was for the lowest caste only?"

Zabuza scoffs, nodding and then there's a hint of bloodlust resonating with my own.

He really did enjoy it that much, huh. It's weird how he's like this school shooter who not only went on to cause massive social change in teaching curriculums, that in the net probably reduced student deaths, but also now some kind of icon of the downtrodden and poor.

Hidden Village of the Bloody Mental.

Still, in the light of him being the bottom scum of this society his whole life, it all kind of paints him in a different light. All that 'ninja are nothing but tools' stuff sounds like exactly the kind of thing you would tell someone to keep them controlled.

You brutalized a child soldier until the only thing it knew was brutality, and then it could be nothing more, predictable and malleable in that only dimension of human interaction it knew.

"Terumi and I weren't in the same year - she was a student in the same year as those I killed before I applied for the Academy..." he explains, eyes distant as he sighs and leans back against a tree.

His chakra, now that I'm this close, does feel a bit depleted too.

Even with that big Lightning Wingbeat jutsu, I'm still pretty good. And if I pop a few shuriclones more—right.

I cancel the two Shadow Kunai left behind, getting a little bit more info but nothing special, as my chakra is restored to near full.

Guess, I just wasted the one I threw out first for nothing.

And I totally forgot my cleaver behind.

Zabuza and Haku both turn to look at me, sensing my repleted reserves since I'm now practically swelling with power again. I give them a mysterious smile and then motion for Zabuza to go on.

"She was a high-born, heir to two of the major clans." He grimaced now. "There are a lot of low castes willing to fight, but few who can rule. She brings... legitimacy to this thing. Without her, it's not a fight against a small number of rulers and Yagura, but instead a fight against nearly all of the most powerful clans in Water."

So, practically impossible.

Slave revolts pretty much never succeed, excepting very long distances and extenuating circumstances.

By monopolizing resources, those in charge would ensure that once things did come to a head, they had the advantage. No, more than that, they could continue to push around the bottom caste and determine when things broke down by knowing that every push could trigger another revolt.

Okay, so the distrustfulness of the Danes, the inter-clan warring of Scotland, all built on a system of generational culling and oppression of the Spartans...

Yeah, this place is just fucked.

No wonder I wouldn't discern it at all. I have literally never before seen real shit like this in my life. It's like trying to describe the color blue to a blind person.

I still have no fucking clue what I could even do to try and improve it, however marginally.

"What would have happened if you died back there, and she succeeded in whatever scheme she's got cooked up against the Mizukage?" I ask, curious, trying to frame her power-grab a little more clearly.

"Mm... She would need a few years at least to stabilize her new rule. Few would trust her, having been a loyal administrator for so long."

If the population ratios are similar to Sparta, then the amount of low castes probably dwarfs the two other castes, even put together.

Haku chose to pipe in then. "Zabuza-san has many supporters among the lower castes, both among those like himself and those from persecuted bloodlines, like myself. To them, she is no different from Yagura."

I blink, wondering for a moment if Zabuza had picked up Haku because of that, by some instinctive political acumen? Not, if the anime flashback was to be trusted. There was no way a starving street urchin out in the cold would have any chakra.

But if he did somehow know, that put him in an entirely new light again.

Zabuza looks away and I wonder if I'm mistaken in thinking he's bothered by something. He looks like he's just keeping an eye out and with my bloodlust, it's hard to tell... But, I think he's feeling awkward. Or maybe guilty? Perhaps he had heard about Haku's parents' death, since I vaguely remember there being some ice manipulation in that event, approaching that urchin with less than pure intentions originally.

But, he does care about Haku now more than he'll admit.

That much I knew for certain.

Zabuza's eyes return to us, an exhaustion not entirely physical peering through.

"But after that, Terumi would have started changing things. It may be that she knows better than I would – how to rule and unify a nation."

I blink.

Huh, that crazy bitch?

Nope. Did not see it. No way. Not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening.

He sighed, crossing his arms again. "The only way any of this will end is with the two of us clashing, with enough witnesses so neither side can contest the result."

I shake my head, deciding that I wasn't going to stick my neck into the politics directly. I had chosen to support Zabuza because I knew there was a spark of something more in him and because Haku was pretty much the purest thing in this world.

"Haku, just one more time to be sure... Are really you a boy? Because if you're a girl, I will get on my knees and ask you to marry me right now and protect you with my life."

She—please god, grant me this one thing—smiles wanly.

"I am afraid I must disappoint you, Sasuke-san. I am indeed a boy," he says, smiling politely.

"God fucking damn it," I curse and spit at the ocean, crossing my arms and sulking.

"'Sugar and spice and all things nice'..." Zabuza quotes, raising a brow.

"Zabuza-san, please."

Well, anyhow, now that I'm started making good with these two, I can air some final questions.

"About the demon brothers... Meizu and Gozu, I think...?" They nod, and that's a bloody miracle. I haven't heard their names a single time in this world, remembering it from over a decade ago correctly. "I was the one who took them out. They're probably in some prison in Konoha, or have been extradited to Kiri..."

Haku raises his brows at the admission, glancing at Zabuza who remains impassive.

"And?"

"So it's not a problem?"

He scoffs. "We were enemies. It's a pointless regret."

But judging by Haku, it is a regret of some kind. Well, damn.

"I can't exactly apologize for it, but... I wish I had known that before."

He waves a hand at me, starting to look uncomfortable with the subject and I decide to drop it. At least Haku seems somewhat trusting of me now, even if he is clearly still keeping his distance.

"So, what's our next move?"

Because if I'm going to act as a smuggler, I need to work out the last few kinks in my GPS idea. But, I mean the jutsus using sound to carry chakra and killing intent worked, so the theory appears sound for me to just start scaling it up.

Light-speed signal transmission, yo!

"We will rest until we have the strength to cross the sea to Kiri. Then Haku and I will begin seeking out contacts and prepare a list of necessities and the money for handling the purchases for you to acquire and bring back, along with the necessary sealing scrolls."

I could interject that my Holdings can handle it, but better to keep it separate and by the book. Especially if the contacts want to have some kind of encryption seal on the storage scrolls to enforce chain of custody or something.

"Alright. That sounds good. Where should I meet you?"

Zabuza turns to look at Kiri in the distance. With my eyes, I can see anything he can... but anything visible from here is probably not particularly good.

So, time to cross the sea?

"I have a jutsu I want to show you two, if that's okay."

They look at me, interested but a little wary. I mean, I am kind of crazy so I don't take offense. So this will be fun.

"Come on, get on the water, and then put your hands on my shoulder," I motion, hopping to stand on top of the water's surface. With all the islands providing shelter from the open sea the waves are fairly small here. Much smaller than back in the Crescent Kingdom out in the middle of the ocean.

Haku appears a little woozy still, but they both obey.

Probably because I'm inverting the previous trust triangle, but putting both of them behind me now.

I take a step forward and they follow me with one step. With them touching me, I can feel their puzzlement through their chakras even without meditation's clarity.

Another step and they follow again.

Ram, Dragon. Raven.

Warp time, baby.

One step.

Their surprise turns to shock in an instant as we cross thirty meters in a second and keep going as I walk. A minute later, and with minimal chakra expenditure—except for my Warping—we're on the island of Kiri.

"That was..." Haku wonders, looking back at Suwo with no uncertain amount of disbelief, blinking and rubbing his eyes. "A genjutsu?" he tries, a little weakly.

I'm about to answer and tell them about my space-time jutsu – without telling them exactly how it works. That's limited to Uchiha from now on, as far as I'm concerned. Except if you can steal it, that's fair game, considering just how liberal I've been with my dick-ass jutsu thief ways.

"That was Swift Release," Zabuza says before I can speak up, though.

I blink.

"Uh... No?"

"No?" He looks back at me.

"I... don't know? I just made it up like a week back."

Zabuza blinks. I blink. He shudders and looks away.

"Insane child."

I grin. "You know it!"