As soon as the strange device was exposed to air it began to spark and throw off arcs of electricity like a malfunctioning firework, much to the wide-eyed amusement of Endo. He himself wasn’t in great condition and his muscles twitched at random as he rotated the device in his palm and felt the power that breathed into it. His scorched black lab coat, coated in blood from the nearby shredded corpses, flapped in the sea breeze blowing through the large holes blown in the hull by the fight. Endo didn’t have the breath to laugh but the sound of the cloth whipping around his body almost gave the impression of a chuckle.
Eventually a breathy, relieved sigh came out of his lips. Total satisfaction. Tension released from his shoulders like a man released from his shackles.
“Why don’t we find out together,” Endo wheezed, looking at Ren in the smoke but aware the man could have been displacing his image. Using the hand not holding the spitting and sparking detonator Endo revealed a small handheld device that looked like a radio, “What you just helped me blow up?”
-
Back in Kirigakure no stormy weather plagued the skies. Instead, the storm erupted from within.
The entire village shook and trembled as a massive concussive blast, almost like the erupting of a volcano, shook through the island. Massive plumes of fire rocketed skyward and engulfed the docks, and within seconds anyone and everyone was running out of their homes and buildings to see the towering pillar of smoke now pouring out from the shipyards.
Phones and radios in the Medical Corps’s branch office in Kirigakure began to ring off the hook. Shinobi who remembered their drills reported for emergency rescue duty immediately- those that didn’t were very quickly given new orders anyway as alarms went up all across the village. Komon Yamanouchi, the head of the Medical Corps, burst into a meeting with the department heads while still in his scrubs. The Mizukage herself was absent, still recovering in some undisclosed location, making the gathering of high-powered Kirigakure staff all the more unsettling without her forceful guiding presence.
Minami Nijo, officially only a diplomat but currently working as the hospitalized Mizukage’s second in command, looked Yamanouchi in the eyes with an emotionless stare. “The Cavalier blew up in port.” He gave a quick hand gesture to a chuunin waiting by the door, and a single large device that looked like a stereo was brought in. “We need you here for a consult.”
For a moment Yamanouchi paused as if processing this information. Then he responded with a voice full of indignation. “I was organizing triage teams, and you pulled me out to tell me this? You couldn’t have waited another-”
Nijo gave another gesture and the radio was flipped on by the chuunin. After a short screech it buzzed into life, a signal recognizable to Kirigakure’s top brass that they were now listening to an encrypted radio communication. “Kakatsyuki Endo, Kirigakure’s department heads are all here.” He spoke with a grim but unyielding tone, despite the solemn nature of the words he spoke next.
“What are your demands?”
-
”Hear that?” Endo swung his handheld radio around and clicked it off so that he could gloat without interruption. ”That’s what respect sounds like.” He gave a hacking cough into his handheld radio, then resumed his infuriating gloating. ”This device, this detonator- this weapon, was built with Kumogakure technology, but infused with that hideous Konkaji Senmitsu’s ability- the Gougoukai. The Water Lord thought only he would get to use it since only that Leviathan ship of his can generate enough electricity, and nobody in Kirigakure would be smart enough to figure that out...”
A waterfall of sparks burst from the tip of the detonator, prompting Endo to wince as the embers blackened his lab coat further. It didn’t damper his spirits at all though. “The Water Lord spent all that time and wasted his precious blockade just to end up with a weapon that's mine now. It’s got a deadman switch- if I let go, all the bombs go off, and everyone dies. And if you make any move, I’ll use it again- oh, I don’t need to say anything more, do I?” Endo wiggled the detonator, which threw off more arcing coils of electricity at the dripping remnants of the corpse now splattered across the frigid cargo hold. “Let’s just hear it right from the source.”
He flicked the radio on and cackled out in an unhinged tone. “Your man Gushiken Ren is all ears, gentlemen. Why don’t you tell this good lad to stand down before my trigger finger gets itchy again?”
A hissing, cackling voice came out from behind the radio. “Chuunin Gushiken Ren, you are ordered by the authority of the Mizukage...to do what Endo says.”
Honor was a complicated thing. There were some lofty ideals that came to mind. Being true to one’s word. Looking your opponent in the eyes. Not being a coward. Some forms of honor seemed entirely universal to the human experience. Loyalty. Friendship. Charity. Others were more difficult to define. Honoring one’s family, honoring one’s memory. A thousand-thousand years ago, the caste of people now known as shinobi decided to give away their honor. To find honor in dishonor. To do what the kind and just people of the world would not or could not – and in that way, find honor to themselves. A pledge to the darkness, a promise to take on the sins of this world so others might not.
At some point, it became tradition. The old ways were fuzzy, difficult to understand. Being a swordsman, or a sailor, or an assassin – these things were jobs. They didn’t describe honor or dishonor, they seemed to lack the weight of those old ideals.
Ren was born from a man who was called a traitor. Traitors to the Hidden Mist weren't uncommon. There was yet another job, steeped in the confusing mire of honor and dishonor, specifically to reclaim these traitors. To execute them or rehabilitate them. To bring them back into the fold, to keep the traditions alive. Or to execute them and protect the honor in dishonor of Kirigakure, that great and terrible tradition of islander shinobi. Ren’s mother had been a common woman, from another country. She did not know the ways of the shinobi, nor did she know the ways of Kirigakure. She was made a target.
Ren was made a target. Those lowly peoples had always been treated as a target, as suspicious, in the land of water and mist. And yet Ren had endured, for he had his own honor to consider – the honor of his very name, his own body and identity. That identity of violence, of glory, of killing, the honor in conquest, wasn’t unique to him alone. Something thrummed inside of his heart, a melody that had been started in the days a thousand-thousand years ago. Conflict, war, violence. The thin line between honor, and dishonor, where one could be a tyrant or a protector, a gallant or a blackguard.
What was the difference between a mad man like Endo, and a mad man like Ren? Those who bathed themselves in conquest, those who would debase themselves to find victory in violence? Was there any difference?
As the dust started to settle between the two men, on that flaming and sinking boat, Ren held out his blade to the side, the full broad length of the blade visible to Endo. It was something like a salute – permission to gather one’s wits and to raise their blade. There was an intense stench of gasoline, burning flesh, almost like pork. There was the smell of paint and wood burning away, the screams of emergency crews trying to either save the vessel or get to safety. Yet Ren looked on with his single left eye at Endo, his jagged teeth clenched together.
He – Ren – was a fool. How often had he glorified the bloody, civil destruction of Kirigakure, that Bloody Mist? How he longed for a village of absolute mad men, ready to cut through their very allies if it meant to find glory and purpose and conquest? Somehow, now that he was faced with it, he was disgusted. There had to be some method to it.
Some honor in dishonor.
He dropped his sword. The massive blade clanged loudly as it fell into the puddle of burned blood, ash, and shredded corpses at his feet.
Where was the respect for the village that birthed you? The village that trained you? The conflicts and tribulations and pressures of the peers that molded you, made you strong and callous? Made you a warrior unlike any other on the face of this ninja world?
“Kakatsyuki,” Ren finally said. His voice was rough and sore. He was forcing his words out around coughing up the dust and debris. Every sniff of the burning flesh was acrid. He started to pace to the side, not coming closer lest he risk Endo’s finger squeezing out another explosion.
The dust and smoke between them was billowing. Two distinct sections of the ship were starting to sink separate from one another. It obscured each other, each few moments.
“I had always hoped if I were to test my blade against a Jōnin of Kirigakure, I’d see a real battle.”
The sea winds thrashed and the smoke between them flared. For a moment, Endo couldn’t see Ren again – but then there he was, stepping out of the smoke, many more paces away.
“That I’d learn something. I’d feel the thrill of battle. The exciting stuff.”
Someone in the distance shouted, and there was a sudden percussive boom of an explosion – likely a fuel container succumbing to the heat. Ren didn’t lose his gaze on Endo. His sword at his feet glittered against the flames and sparks, like an oily color sliding up and down the blade. Ren tilted his head to the side and held out his palms, like one surrendering.
Was he waiting for the radio response?
“You disappoint me, Endo. There’s no...vigor. No determination. Just selfish greed. Gluttony. Distractions.”
“Words of a loser.” Ecstasy sputtered through every word Endo spat. “Strike your leg one more time, Jelloshot. Do it or I’ll annihilate half the village you hold so dear.”
“Can’t finish the job yourself, even in the end, huh?” Ren seethed, balling one of his hands into a fist. “Typical. Endo always leaves his partner unsatisfied.”
The smoke surged as Ren’s section of the ship started to sink faster, water having rushed up into the exposed spaces in the decks below. Ren waited, seemingly in hesitation, even as he rose his fist up. The water continued to rise, as did Endo’s agitation.
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“Do it now!”
Barring his teeth and with a primal howl, Ren slammed his fist down onto his cursed leg. There was an unmistakable thunk of a solid blow, bringing a smile to Endo’s already grinning lips. No illusion could produce that noise- Ren had stuck himself! He’s struck his leg!
He seized up immediately, his other hand clutching his heart as he toppled backwards into the dark waters. A splash and spray of seawater obscured his body for a moment, even though Endo didn’t take his eyes off the chuunin. But, sure enough, the man’s body floated back up seconds later, the unmistakable black coat he wore draped over him like a death veil.
Bloodshot eyes quivered in their sockets. Endo felt the natural endorphins pulsing through his veins, so much better than the artificial stuff made in a lab. Ren’s electricity danced across Endo’s flesh as the empowered detonator sizzled and fizzled. After breathing heavily and waiting to see if Ren would jump back to life, Endo began to cackle out words into his radio. “Next time, don’t send a bum to assassinate a genius.” His grip tightened around the sparkling cylinder, which started to grow brighter. “I think I’ll blow up a few more bombs, just to let you know I’m serious, then we’ll talk about my demands. What should I explode next? The hospital? The schools? I’m all ears, gentlemen. Any suggestions?”
There was a sudden crashing noise – but it was just cargo, snapping free from its bindings, rolling down the listing ship towards the sea. Endo’s ship crumbled around him but he seemed entirely unwilling to acknowledge it. Why would he? Top of the list of his demands would be for a new ship, a bigger ship, a whole fleet of ships- who was left to oppose him?
“I suggest you come up with some better last words.”
Behind Endo, one hand on his shoulder, was a coatless Ren. The other hand pierced Endo’s back with a melted, destroyed sword, the same one Endo had dropped once it served its purpose.
Gushiken Ren is Mist Village’s Silent Killer.
The Silent Killer is a master of stealth. Once per target, per thread, he can approach a target undetected. This stealth effect is broken upon taking any offensive action, but otherwise continues as long as the Silent Killer remains in cover.
"A jellyfish is just as lethal dead as alive. But I guess only a genius would know that."
Caught off guard, Endo's arm flexed in an apparent attempt to use the detonator again. Ren pulled his blade free and swung his stolen sword in a crescent moon angle, one handed. It seemed completely absurd, a man his size moving so fast, swinging a blade so damaged one-handed with deadly accuracy.
Ren’s other hand snatched at the air, closing Endo’s fist around the detonator. The arm, severed from the body, flopped below his grip. He grimaced and let go of his sword, jumping back, and gave a shout hoping the bigwigs on the radio could hear him.
“Got the damn thing!”
Where, exactly, did the soul reside? Medical science certainly hadn’t discovered the answer, and despite Kakatsyuki Endo’s dissection of hundreds (both dead and alive), the truth still eluded him.
But while it was impossible to pinpoint where a soul might exist, it was definitely possible to determine where it didn’t. As the man screamed out in pain black smoke erupted from his severed arm. He staggered back incredulously as if he couldn’t comprehend just what had happened, how everything had slipped from his grasp-
No, not yet, not in a literal sense. Endo’s severed limb twitched and spasmed as if alive- the muscles clenching and contorting from the vile chakra he infused it with at the last moment. The detonator sizzled and popped and began to grow much, much brighter, almost painfully searing the retinas of those who would stare at it. It didn’t take a technology expert to realize something awful was about to happen.
Spittle and rage erupted out of Endo’s mouth as he howled loud enough for everyone on the ship to hear. “I’ll put every fucking ninja into the ground before I lose to a chuunin!” While his severed arm twitched, Endo made one last play, a straight kick for Ren’s cursed leg. Somehow the man had fooled him- no, in Endo’s frantic thoughts, he immediately pieced it together.
Stage Four
Requirements: 15 Willpower, 15 Tactics, 13 Intelligence, 14 Speed
Stage Bonus: +3 Speed
At this stage, the practitioner of the style has furthered their knowledge of the mechanics of the feint ability, as well as become more and more experienced in using it while fighting. They can now alter their physical location by one foot any which direction. Also at this point, they do not have to be within physical contact of their weapon. As long as the weapon is six inches or closer to them, it is still under the feint ability effects.
That asshole Gushiken Ren had displaced his own attack! He hadn’t hit his leg at all, and faked it- and somehow swapped out one of the multitude of bodies floating around with his own coat in the brief moment when he was out of sight. Endo knew the trick because he’d done it himself in their first fight- a thought that made him seethe even harder.
“Words of a loser.” Ren grunted, smashing Endo aside with his own (not cursed) leg as he wrestled with the fingers of the severed hand as it convulsed around the device. He peeled the fingers back, breaking the bones in the process, much like he was peeling a fruit. Then he tossed the hand behind him – it landed in a skittering, flopping thunk onto the deck of the sinking ship. Despite his best efforts Endo’s attempt worked- the detonate now resonated with such energy that it burned just to hold it in his bloody hands. It felt ready to pop at any moment. It wouldn’t be any danger to Ren, of course. Only Kirigakure would suffer. The thoughts surged through Ren’s head.
What did he owe the village, really? This wasn’t even his fault, it was Endo’s and the Water Lord’s! Any moment now the detonator would send its signal, or perhaps it already had, and everything he fought for would have been for nothing. Ren made a face of disgust. He was dumb. He was so dumb. He had no knowledge on how any of this technology worked, and had never bothered even learning how any of the fancy stuff in Kirigakure operated. The radios, the telephones, the power lines- basically all just magic, right? A soldier didn’t need to know how a weapon worked, he just needed to know how to kill people with it. Consuming lives like a fire, mindless, empty, devoid of...
An idea sparked in his head. A dumb idea. Ren opened his mouth.
His eye bulged as he took the large unit in his mouth, carefully pushing it down over his tongue. All twelve inches of the throbbing thing was shoved into the back of his throat. It raked against his sharp teeth as he leaned his head back and choked and struggled, the veins in his throat illuminated by the device as it threatened to explode. His jaw snapped shut, and he formed a hand sign.
His raiton powered the device. His energy, his body, his soul kept the detonator charged. And, recalling a class he slept through in the Academy, radio communications couldn’t function without a physical device to emit from. Gushiken Ren, the Jellyfish, had one gimmick that made him special among all Kirkgakure shinobi: he was the fucking lightning.
Raiton: Raikou Shunshin (Lightning Release: Lightning Instantaneous)
Requirements: Power 12, Control 11, Reserve 10, Willpower 12
The user disappears into a lightning bolt that arcs into the sky, rain and shine, and disappears. Another lighting bolt appears--no more than a mile away, that the shinobi has been before, and the lighting turns into the user ten feet before it reaches the ground. In combat it may only be used to escape.
At the peak of the detonator’s imminent climax, Ren became lightning, tapping into his own chakra swirling around in the device and transforming it both inside and out – attaching it to his body so firmly had let him treat the thing as if it was just any other part of his flesh. So he and the device, at the precise moment of detonation, were ripped away from the material plane, becoming pure energy, and with a mighty crack and boom, Ren zapped himself into the sky.
The last coherent thought Ren managed before his mind evaporated into excited electrons was a sensation, and an image. An eclipse. The coiling flames around the edges of the blocked sun illuminated a figure, devoid of all details. Yet that shadow resonated with Ren. A negative to positive charge – a magnetism that cascaded between them. He could feel something else to – the rage of the storm that struck him? Some place both cold and rain-sodden and yet burning hot, surrounded by the smell of hot iron.
Like a blacksmith’s forge hidden away on the storm-crested sea.
That man knew where he was now, somehow. The Flame Konkaji Senmitsu would find Ren no matter where he ran. As the lightning disappeared from where it seemed to have consumed Ren, leaving only a smoking smolder and the evidence of a singed blast – his manic laughter seemed to echo along the crackling thunder of the storm churning overhead.
Ren’s departure didn’t cause the chaos to end. All around the ship crumbled and flooded, parts of the ceiling collapsing as the remaining crew up above scrambled to prepare to evacuate.
As expected of a true medic, Kakatsyuki Endo need only apply a small amount of effort to stymie the flow of blood from his severed arm. Rage might have twisted his face into an unrecognizable scowl but for the self-proclaimed smartest man in Water Country, a little setback like this wasn’t going to break him! He rose up as best he could while the ship continued to list dangerously and shouted like an extremely unhappy boss.
Chiyute no Jutsu - Healing Hands Technique (Itashite)
Requirements: Control 8, Power 8, Reserves 6
Description: A ball of specialized healing chakra is formed in one palm, often characterized by a green glow. When directed into another body, this healing chakra is capable of repairing damage to tissue. Healing chakra may be redirected into the user's own body, but regardless of who the patient is, healing takes at least one post to complete. The healing which occurs is a rapid form of regeneration- thus, the medic can speed up the rate a body heals, but cannot heal injuries that a body wouldn’t otherwise be able to (such as regenerating a severed limb).
Stage Four: The medic can heal gashes, second degree burns, sprains, partial fractures and torn tendons.
“What are you dickweeds up there doing huh?!” Endo coughed and spat as he tried to find somewhere to stand in the ship’s hold that wasn’t full of water, smoke, or mutilated body parts. “Someone, get my- I can track that little loser, just fetch my- you!” His eyes latched onto a sailor just barely visible on the upper deck, who was staring down at him from a hole in the hull above. “Get down here and let me remove your arm! I need a replacement after what that asswipe did to my-”
His thought ended abruptly as a kunai embedded itself up to the hilt in his forehead. Endo let out a few sputtering, unintelligible statements, still clearly full of rage but without any coherence behind the thoughts, before he stumbled back and landed in the filthy water behind him.
The stone faced sailor spat down the hole. “That’s for making a pass at my daughter, prick.”
With that the man darted back above deck where the (too few) lifeboats were desperately trying to accommodate the large number of Endo’s personal guard that hadn’t bothered to learn the water walking technique. Gushiken Ren’s precise assault had, both fortunately and unfortunately, left such a large number of Endo’s crew that there weren't quite enough boats for everyone. Still, with no boss to yell at them the men (for Endo did not hire women) managed to lash together enough debris to get everyone out to sea as Endo’s yacht sank into the depths.
After the excitement died down someone asked where their boss was, and was smacked upside the head for it. “Boss wanted to be left alone, didn’t he?” The storm overhead no longer thundered so precariously, though with the evening coming the mist began to roll in. The large plume of black ash pumped into the air from the destruction of Endo’s ship faded away into the sky, but not before some other smartass felt the need to chime in.
“Guess the boss was wrong, smoking really does kill.”