To the outside observers almost nothing transpired between the two combatants. “I didn’t know the Jellyfish was an angry drunk.”
“I don’t think he’s drunk.”
Daizi’s eyes didn’t betray whether or not he lost track of Ren. His voice made his intentions clear enough regardless. ”If you want to die a monster, I’m happy to oblige!"
In one flash of movement, Daizi seemed to have drawn another sword. Rather his blinding speed gave the immediate appearance of two blades slicing into the water at his feet, smashing into the surface like the hooves of a bull crashing into the earth. Two, then four shimmering ripples of water cascaded out of his swords as they swept through the air. The sharpened liquid zipped through the air and cut through the steamy mist as they hurtled forward, each in their own different arc much as Dazai had attempted earlier with his River Devils. This attack, though, almost seemed blind, as if Dazai was guessing where the wily Ren might appear next.
Stage Four Jaws of Death Special Techniques
Fukahire (Shark Fin) [Used Twice]
Special Stat Requirements: Willpower 10, Tactics 10, Intelligence 8
Description: A two-part technique, performed on top of water. When the user swings, the tip of the blade pierces the top of the water. Using chakra as a magnet, droplets of water follow and attach to the non-cutting side of the blade, forming a thin film of water with sharp edges that fan out in a triangle. It looks as though a watery shark fin is sitting on the sword's back. When the user swings again, the fin can be launched at the opponent like a big shuriken. Enough water gathers on the sword to launch 2 water fuuma shuriken in succession.
Ren's sword did cause the surrounding MLEA agents to tighten their perimeter. The sight of the lightning above brought them all into tension in unison. Rumors of the chuunin's mastery of raiton looked less like an exaggerated boast and more tangible with every passing moment. Naturally, as outnumbered as their target was, there was no way he could win regardless of his skills...
But Cloud shinobi were known for making rather quick exits. Death, in this case, was better than having to deliver news to the Water Lord that they let an important fugitive zip away on a lightning bolt. All eyes stayed glued to Ren, ready to pounce the moment their prize threatened to escape.
Archetype special used:
Speed Artist
Archetypes: Taijutsu Specialist - Quicksilver
Combo Special: Once, the user may perform one Taijutsu special technique twice.
Hidden in a swirling cloud of mist, Ren was already sliding across the water as silently as he could manage, timing his breaths with the pitter-patter of the water. He was moving low to the ground to keep his ambush as disguised as possible, but his approach would only be unseen to Dazai- if any of this allies pointed out his location, the whole ruse would go up in smoke.
He could see the shape of Dazai forming his technique. Ren’s heart pounded in his injured ear. Dazai’s wildly aimed attack would force him through a path that would reveal his location, or impale Ren if he chose to tank it. Neither option felt like a winning play.
The fuuma rocketed through the air and cut through the drizzle. Ren sucked in air and tossed his hands together. He formed quick, practiced seals and came to a stop, crouching on the water, and slammed his hands down. He looked towards the first volley, then the second.
But it seemed he was too late. Dazai’s Shark Fins cut through the mist in four vectors, leaving behind a gaping tunnel of clear air, and Ren was looking up from his own jutsu just as the first slammed into him. There was a splintering explosion of shrapnel, then three more thunks in time.
Ren spiraled in the air, wildly, the log he had prepped atop the mangrove taking his place at the last possible second. It was a narrow dodge as it was, and the stress performing the maneuver nearly snapped Ren’s knees in the process. He wouldn’t get another freebie like that again and he cursed at having been forced to put his body under such strain so early in the fight. Ren’s eyes were locked onto Dazai even as the Shark Fins splintered his replacement log. Chakra surged through his body, invisible to the naked eye, like strings attaching him to the surface of the water where he was a moment before.
Kawarimi no Jutsu (Body Switch Technique)
Requirements: Power 2, Tactics 2
Description: A common jutsu - used to quickly replace a body with a close by object. Creates confusion among the opponent(s) - creating a chance to escape, or return with a larger strike. Useful for avoiding attacks and hiding from potential enemies. Kawarimi may be used twice.
His own fuuma constructs boiled up from the water and exploded forward, each large enough to be a threat on their own – and each large enough to obscure Ren’s movement behind their watery forms.
Name: Suiton: Mizu Shuriken no Jutsu (Water Element: Water Shuriken Technique)
Requirements: Power 6, Control 6, Intelligence 4
Description: Multiple small projectiles are created from any water source in eyesight of the user. These projectiles launch themselves towards one or multiple targets. Upon collision, these projectiles revert to water. Any projectile in a shinobi kit may be created and launched. A number of projectiles equal to twice the number of Stage known in this list may be formed per usage.
Ren and Dazai’s pieces exchanged hands like the swapping of chess pieces. The Shark Fins violently sprayed water in all directions as they collided with Ren’s log, and Ren’s own water projectiles whistled around in all directions, tearing up whatever they made contact with. Several of the surrounding agents let out panicked yelps and ducked for cover as the chuunin’s ninjutsu obliterated their positions. Those not in the path of destruction began to form their own hand seals.
”Hold!” A man standing farthest from the perimeter checked his watch and held up his hand. No bombardment of counter ninjutsu came from the onlookers. ”He wasn’t aiming for us. Give the old man a few more minutes.”
Dazai's eyes only had seconds to dart between the multitude of shuriken. Yet, he held his sword firm and unmoving. Even the novice shinobi in attendance recognized the error as the few shuriken aimed directly at his location landed direct hits.
“Has he gone senile?!” The youngest of the group finally tore his eyes off the fight to look towards his superior officer. “Just like that, it’s over?!”
Indeed, as the razor sharp water collided and a spray of blood erupted from his torso where the projectiles made contact, Dazai’s face contorted into one of grief. He fell to one knee and used his free hand to prevent himself from tumbling into the water altogether. His other hand still gripped his sword but it was in no position to counter attack.
Ren tumbled forward over his waist and landed with a splash in the water. As he took a step forward, he stepped up to balance atop the water once again. He raised one hand up to the hilt of his sword, still stuck to his back, and pointed his hand at Dazai, accusatory.
“What the fuck? Genjutsu!” Ren sounded offended, though in a very exaggerated way. “You made me think I was afraid of that little well-fed well-trained no-life-experience snot?”
He grumbled and shook his head. Still, something remained deep inside him. “Look, I’ve won, right? No reason to kill you or maim you any worse. Why don’t we trade your life for mine, and you let me get back to the Mizukage.”
“Accepting a surrender? Feeling fear?” A dark, guttural chuckle rumbled out of the kneeling Dazai. An unnatural steam rose off his shoulders, and poured out of his open wounds. “Those don’t sound like the words of a monster at all. Did the Jellyfish lose his spine?”
“I'm out of practice, but let’s see if I can't do better than that.”
There was barely a ripple from the water underfoot as Dazai’s stance changed in an instant. First, he stood. Then before mist even had time to part, he jolted forward. The speed with which his body moved and accelerated was so fast that the blood dripping from his body didn’t even have time to fall, leaving a red streak in the air as he flung himself with reckless abandon at Ren. Even his shredded cloak didn’t stand a chance as the burst of power from within blew outward with the old shinobi’s tremendous lunge.
The Celestial Gates
Dazai has opened the 4th gate.
Sho-Mon (Pain Gate)
Requirements: Stamina 18, Strength 14, Speed 11, Willpower 14
+3 to all Taijutsu levels (Not cumulative)
His sword he left behind- instead he lashed out with his ragged, veiny claws, like a hawk raking at an unaware fish just below the surface of the sea.
“He...he’s fast!”
Ren, dumbstruck at the sudden eruption of speed, tried shifting back to a battle stance. His eyes widened as Dazai moved so quickly that it was as if the man just appeared, and then spread even more wide open as Ren felt his opponent’s claw sink into his stomach.
The strike came so fast and hard it didn’t just knock the wind out of Ren. Inside him he felt something snap. He couldn’t even get in enough air to howl in pain.
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Dazai’s other bare hand collided with Ren’s face a split second later in a perfect double-attack. Ren flipped over onto his back and skipped across the water’s surface like a tossed stone. The massive blade tore loose from his back and clattered away. Ren didn’t even get the chance to slow down and stop skipping across the water before Dazai was atop him again. The man’s face was blurred by the speed of his movements but the fury in his strikes made his attitude apparent enough.
A choking gasp was just about all Ren could manage as Dazai’s fingers slammed into him again, shattering the ceramic plates of Ren’s chuunin vest. The sheer pressure from his grip sent the shards of that broken armor directly into his flesh. It reminded Ren, briefly, of seeing a shark shred a man up alive. At least sharks didn’t make it so personal.
Ren’s trajectory and momentum came to an immediate halt as Dazai’s hand then slammed into Ren’s face and hurled him under the water. The throw came down so hard that the back of Ren’s head sank into the mud underfoot. It was such a violent display of Dazai treating Ren’s body like a ragdoll that even some of the onlookers had to cringe at how nasty it looked.
Sensation finally returned to Ren’s lungs just in time for him to realize there was no air to breathe. His chest screamed out conflicting demands- he needed to breathe, but he also wanted to scream in pain. Dazai’s iron grip remained firmly in place on Ren’s neck and prevented either action. Ren couldn’t even put up the slightest resistance against the force as his body recovered. Imported back alley medical drugs could only do so much.
But he did still have arms, even if his torso and head were rapidly taking on the consistency of shredded pork. Among fishermen of Water Country and the Kirigakure shinobi population, keeping a hooked knife on a loop of string attached to a reel on your belt is common sense. Often, you need quick access to a blade and you also don’t want to lose it if you drop it in the water. Ren’s knife, hooked almost like the end of a fishing spear, flashed out of the water and cut directly into Dazai’s ribs. A direct hit!
And a pointless one. A quick backhand from Dazai’s free arm sent the weapon flying with such force it was comical, as if the knife was a kite snatched away from the wind. The sound of the reel on Ren’s belt was punctuated by the steady rumble of thunder in the air.
The crowd remained silent. Everyone felt the same sensation; the duel was about to conclude.
Dazai pulled Ren’s face up from the water but a splatter of blood met him from Ren’s mouth. The Jellyfish seemed more boneless than ever, and barked out a wheezing laugh. It wasn’t clear just how much sanity was left in the man. One part of Ren’s head was a bloody mess, and a bloody rupture on half his face revealed at some point during the beating, one of his eyes had just...left his skull. The other eye was rolled back like it had nearly been squeezed out, only the blood-stained whites visible.
Sane or note Ren’s laughter couldn’t be mistaken for anything else. Dazai expected some level of derangement from the man who mutilated his son, but nothing quite as detached as what he was staring down at that moment. The chakra released from the opening of the gates sizzled at his fingertips as he held his prey and dangled it like a caught fish and for a moment, perhaps, a look of pity flitted across the bulging veins on his face.
Esumi flinched under her mask and started to turn away. In all the excitement, she had forgotten what side she was supposed to be on – but even the other hunters without a personal connection were murmuring to themselves.
That barking, mad laughter was assuredly massive brain damage. The last actions of a dying man.
The end of Ren’s reel snapped as the kunai broke away, but it was followed by a warbling, whipping sound like an old steel cable, instead of the expected nylon fishing line.
Somehow Ren found enough teeth in his jaw and enough functioning brain cells to spit out intelligible words. “I’m fuckin’ lightning.” Ren’s hand, limply extended from his battered body, snapped at the end of the steel cable on his fishing knife and erupted into a shower of sparks.
Raiton: Denki no Henkan (Lightning Release: Electrical Transformation)
Requirements: Power 10, Control 10, Intelligence 8
Denki no Henkan allows the user to momentarily abandon their physical form to become electricity. They can move along conductive surfaces at a rate equal to their speed, even when such a route would not normally attract electricity, making light sparks and emitting a smell of ozone that can tip off that something is off. The user remains aware of the area around them within five feet, even while transformed and can leap to any metal object they can sense and have a clear shot too. Some shinobi have been known to use this as a method to trace power lines or move secretly by affixing themselves to a metal object in order to avoid suspicion. They can be forced out by violence or by being drenched in water.
A crackle of thunder shuddered the air as Ren’s body made contact with the conductive line, gripping his old knife in between his teeth. His chuunin vest had been left behind, torn inside of Dazai’s hands. Ren’s body was just in too bad a shape to properly travel along the wire but it moved him just far enough away from Dazai to escape the man’s monstrous claws, and with a kick of his one still working leg Ren shot high in the air, bare chest exposed. Blood was pouring freely from him from the clawed out wounds of the Razorfin, and it was a wonder the movement didn’t tear open his abdomen and spill his innards out right then and there like a morbid pinata. Ren’s one remaining eyeball glared down at Dazai, not filled with rage or murderous intent, but with absolute madness. His pupil was so big it was as if it had eclipsed his entire eye.
Then he pointed at Dazai, finger and thumb mimicking a crossbow, and snapped his fist shut.
A small, pathetic spark struck instantly between his finger and Dazai’s own chest, down there on the surface of the water. It was practically imperceptible, except that it momentarily caught both men alight.
Raiton: Den'atsu Kasui (Lightning Release: Volt Spike)
Requirements: Power 8, Control 8, Reserve 6
Holding out their hands, a surge of lighting leaps from the user's fingertips to into the ground where the user indicates. It is nearly instantaneous and leaves no room to move, but it seems to have no influence in the first place. Lightning then screams from the ground into the sky a moment later, searing through the area designated.
Old sharks often had trouble knowing when to let go. Unwilling to be intimidated by Ren’s ascent to the heavens, Dazai leapt up with his own absolute confidence. The chakra, blood, and mist swirling around his palms swung together in unison as he brought his claws together, reminiscent of a beast rising from the water’s surface to engulf the rising chuunin. Even if this jellyfish controlled the lightning, an apex predator like Dazai could cleave through it in one fell snap of his jaws!
...but despite what the man might have boasted of in his prime, in this state, slicing a lightning bolt in half was beyond his grasp.
Dazai’s fingers raked the air as the lightning shot through them before crashing into his chest. The flash of heat and current immediately lit up the air and for a brief moment, blasted all the surrounding mist clear. A look was frozen on the man’s face, one of transition between his unbridled rage and a dawning realization.
If he hadn’t drawn it out...
...if he hadn’t made the same mistake as his son...!
Though the enormous crack of lightning that sounded immediately after the flash deafened every nearby ear, some swore they heard the bellowing of a dying beast that roared even louder. The next moment after the bolt struck the surrounding area erupted from steam thrown off by the explosion. Visibility fell drastically, and at once the worst fears of the MLEA hunters came to pass.
“Bloody hell- how did that asshole summon an actual lightning bolt? Was that a ninjutsu? I knew it, that’s enough!” The voice of their leader screamed out to be heard over the reverberations of the thunder. “Kill him! Bombard the whole area with kunai if you have to, don’t let him escape!”
A feeble looking body floated face up, his hands charred and blackened stubs from where he had foolishly attempted to grab Ren’s lightning. He was completely unresponsive.
Electricity ran up Ren’s head-chopping cleaver, the handle sticking up from the water from where it had been yanked off his back, and with a soft crackle, Ren was standing atop the blade, one foot on the hilt, the other resting near the body of the blade. It shifted under his sudden weight, but bit into the ground underneath the mud, underneath the water, and held firm.
The last of his electricity sparked out, disrupted by the moist atmosphere. The stench of burned flesh hung around him like a cloud of ozone. One side of his face was unrecognizable, beaten in, ripped and torn, bloodied and mangled. The other was at least still human – but his remaining eye was swollen and bloodshot, his ear crumpled. Electric burns ran along his wounds, seemingly having cauterized them. He stepped forward off the sword to the water, and slipped and stumbled like a genin learning water-walking for the first time. Even so Ren found his footing and slowly made his way over to the body of the Razorfin.
His jaw worked, as if he was speaking, but any sound was drowned out by the sound of shouting and jutsu being flung at him from all around.
He smiled, or grimaced, and then was completely obscured by wind and water and steel and blood.
The cascade of ninja techniques came from every direction, every angle, cutting off every path of escape. Bursts of steam from the north, a swirling torrent of projectiles from the south, a mixture of elements and jutsu from every Mist Law Enforcement Agent standing around the perimeter of the fight. Each one wanted to add their own justice towards their perceived foe, towards what they could only perceive as a monster. That the Water Lord wanted Gushiken Ren dead as well meant almost nothing at that moment. This was far more personal than just doing the dirty work of a corrupt politician.
That rage, righteous or not, blinded the MLEA shinobi from what swirled beneath Ren’s feet. Seconds before the battlefield turned into a crater of chakra and kunai, a massive upward geyser blew the chuunin and the body of Dazai clean into the air. The geyser twisted, twirled, and took the shape of a funnel as it blasted the two upwards and far out of the way of the MLEA assault. They had attacked from every direction except the obvious one: from above.
Stage Six Suiton
Name: Mizubashira no Jutsu (Waterspout Technique)
Requirements: Intelligence 23, Tactics 23, Willpower 22, Control 16, Reserves 15
Description: Can only be used on a wet target. A swirl of water appears, ringing a target's feet and then spiraling upward in a 3 foot radius. This twister will lift anything in the radius it off the ground, searing anything inside with boiling water while it does so. The Waterspout is 50 feet tall and can move after being formed at Level 6 Speed.
And from above stomped down the originator of the jutsu. She landed with a massive splash that reverberated through the ground and even shook some fronds off the nearby trees. Both her hands separated from the last hand seal she completed and she drew both her swords in one rough motion. As she roared a lit cigar danced between her lips. “If you think,” the tenth Mizukage Nehoma Maya bellowed, “that I give an urchin’s ass about shrimp-lord Shuzamaru, then I welcome you to stay so I can convince you otherwise!” She swung her blades out and the swirling mist and smoke parted in her wake.
“Which of you bastards wants to learn the hard way, huh?”
As the churning tornado behind her spun and sputtered, the storm clouds above swirled and thundered. Nobody else needed to be told twice. Without as much as a whisper the surrounding MLEA agents faded into the remaining mist. Honor or not, facing the Mizukage was as near a death sentence.
After a few moments of nothing but the sounds of the roiling water behind her, Maya stomped one of her feet. The jutsu instantly ended and the rapidly spinning water dispersed outward in a spiral like a blooming flower. She squinted up, and sheathed her swords quickly. “If I hadn't seen that lightning...well, whatever.” she grunted, “How many bodies do I need to catch on the way down?”
In the deepest heart of Ren’s mind, the very core of his being – his ninja way – he believed violence was the purest method to determine right and wrong. The Bloody Mist. Might makes right. All that old-fashioned barbarian methodology. It helped him sleep at night even after washing the blood off his hands.
He could still smell his own blood, tinged with the chemical ozone and steam in the whipping tornado air. A slow death, then, waiting to bleed out or die of infection. Not as heroic, but it still had the poetic punctuation he was looking for, like a beast on the side of the road.
Ren felt small arms wrap around his torso as he descended. Was that old bastard still alive, somehow? He tried to force himself to drag a kunai out from the hidden pocket in his trousers, but his muscles simply refused to answer his commands anymore.
“Easy…” Esumi breathed into his ear.
She twisted his body around in a modified weasel drop, protecting his neck and head rather than exposing it to the force of the fall, and traced her movements along the spiraling water from the Mizukage’s technique, sliding down to a rest at the water’s surface. She had pulled her mask up to reveal her face, brown skin wilting a deep purple around her eyes with exhaustion and worry.
She didn’t make eye contact with the Mizukage, but she rested Ren down at her feet and barked out some quick medical jargon – fractured this, exposed that – and bowed as she disappeared in a splash of water. She was the last MLEA agent to leave, not counting the body of Dazai that still lay nearby.
Ren’s head lulled over on a spongy neck, and he split a shark-toothed grin at Maya.
“’ey, boss...” His good arm patted at his trousers, like he was making a lewd motion towards his groin, before he managed to yank out the perfectly average sized cylinder with one last bit of strength. “Gotcha a souvenir.”
Then he went completely limp, joining Dazai in defeat.