__________ POV Narration__________
As soon as Ken made his clones and started forming as many whirlpools as possible, A descended into the waters.
Unlike before, the sensors could pick up on the use of ninjutsu, and they were able to direct A properly.
The son of the Raikage didn't hesitate for one bit, he plunged into the depths as his body sparkled with lighting, he cut through the water as steam rose up from all around him, bubbles rose to the surface as electricity spread out everywhere the Kage went.
A managed to keep his eyes peeled open even under the salty sea, his cloak of lightning preventing the salt from harming his eyes.
And finally, A saw it.
A strange humanoid-looking creature. Scaly, with fish-like features. A short black hair and a grey fox Anbu mask...
The strange transformation immediately reminded him of Ken, but there were also plenty of differences.
Ken didn't seem to have any gills or fins, nor did he seem to have a human torso while transformed.
There were plenty of other differences, but A didn't have any time to consider them all, as he rushed in towards the closest clone to him.
He now understood how the whirlpools were happening as well... The clones of the masked assailant just seemed to be spinning with enough velocity to create an underwater current strong enough to suck everything in.
It was impressive, but A didn't have the time to marvel at it either. He knew that he had to stop the Whirlpools from happening.
The first clone he attacked was what first made him realise that his mission wasn't going to be as easy as he had hoped it would be...
As soon as he reached the depths and came closer to the middle of one of the whirlpools, he felt his body being pulled towards the middle of it.
Even he found it difficult to resist the current, but that wasn't the only issue...
The clone of the masked man noticed him almost immediately, and instead of facing off against him, it decided to start running away.
Underwater, A's speed seemed to be no match for the man-fish hybrid. He was left in the 'dust' as Whirlpool had already become self-sustaining.
'Shit! At this rate, I won't be able to catch any of them!'
That was when his father joined him.
The Raikage had been trailing behind A from the moment that he had jumped into the water.
With sickening precision, the Raikage sliced the clone that had been fleeing from A in two.
The clone exploded into a flurry of lightning, which sparked the waters around them even further, but it wasn't able to do any harm to the Raikage.
The father and son duo reunited wordlessly underneath the waters, and the two of them teamed up to go after the other clones.
Together, they were slower than the man and his clones, but together they could work to catch them by surprise... Or so they thought.
When they approached the next clone, it was ready for them. Its claws were already extended.
it used the momentum from the underwater tornado it had been forming to fling itself towards A, its tail spinning towards him like a cleaver, aiming to decapitate him right away.
The Raikage was about to interfere, not willing to just sit by and get ignored in that way... But he wasn't being ignored at all...
Before he could even react, something extremely heavy crashed into him and sent him reeling, plunging further and further into the depths of the sea.
The Raikage was forced to exhale a bit as he was smacked into the bottom of the ocean. It was then that the Raikage noticed the actual speed of their opponent.
'Shit! This thing is as fast in water as I am on land... We need to get out of here!'
The Raikage now knew that he had no chance of facing the shinobi in water, so he immediately went all out.
Black Lightning extended from his body as all light vanished around him. He was in the abyss of the ocean and as soon as he turned to his Black Lighting, all of his vision was gone.
Maybe it was a foolish thing to do, as he had no way of knowing how the man he was fighting fared in the dark, but it was also the only way that the Raikage saw himself matching his opponent in speed.
The only problem?... The Raikage had been completely separated from his son.
'Shit!'
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The water around him bubbled as he started swimming upwards at renewed speeds.
It was then that 4 figures circled around him, like Sharks circling around freshwater fish.
One of the figures passed by the Raikage, hitting him with a tail strike that caused the Raikage to spin underneath the water.
The Raikage grabbed the man-fish hybrid by the tail, tugging him closer as he tried to escape.
He didn't hesitate for a moment as he snapped the neck of the figure, only for it to explode into lightning once more.
More clones seemed to gather around him though, which was proving troublesome... Especially now that the Raikage could hardly see them.
The Raikage scowled as he realised the intentions of his enemy...
'He's trying to slow me down... Shit! I need to get to A!'
And while he was struggling to fight and reach the surface, A was off trying to fight who he assumed was the original Masked Man...
He had witnessed him making more clones after all, so it was a rather obvious conclusion.
He realised that there was a speed difference, but he knew that as long as he managed to grab onto anything, he would win.
The original seemed to have started forming yet another whirlpool, most of them had already died down, as the clones were focusing on the Raikage now, so A had an easy time spotting the original in the eye of that whirlpool.
He dashed towards the fish-man hybrid with fury, his hand outstretched and hopping to latch onto the man's tail at the very least...
The Masked Man seemed to notice him, he immediately turned tail and ran, but he seemed to get snagged into the current of the Whirlpool for a few seconds, and A knew to take advantage of that!
With a confident smile on his face, he grasped onto the tail of the original. The Raikage's lighting burned bright as he prepared to pull himself towards the masked man...
It was only then that he noticed it... A white light was quickly approaching him from above.
A immediately recognised it as the Tsuchikage's Dust Release.
He immediately let go of the tail and tried to move and dodge the Dust Release Jutsu, he wasn't as fast as he would've been on land, but he could still avoid it maybe...
But then the tail that he had let go of coiled around his arm, pulling him back in.
A's eyes widened in fear as he only got one last look at the masked man...
'Curse y-'
He didn't even get to finish his thoughts before his entire being was erased alongside the Whirlpool that he had been struggling to escape...
__________ POV Ken __________
And just like that, only an outstretched hand was left of A, still clutching onto my tail.
I couldn't help but let a smile reach my lips. I flung the arm back to the surface, I've no need for it. But it will serve a nice message for the Raikage and the Cloud Village.
I've done enough damage for now... From here on out, I just need to lay low and observe...
Now, I can finally allow myself to vanish into the depths of the sea, hiding in places that even the sun can't reach...
The Raikage finally managed to deal with my clones by the feel of it too.
He seems to be on his last legs, running out of air, but I don't feel like killing him, he had proved useful in that meeting from earlier after all...
Still, so much for A... His impulsiveness is what got him in the end.
I set up a rather obvious trap, he should have known that the Tsuchikage was working to undo my Whirlpools... He just got blinded by the prospect of catching me. Oh well, good riddance.
He was always hostile to me, I wouldn't have trusted him to be as agreeable as his father once he took over as Raikage... It's better this way.
Still, I couldn't help but sigh internally as my senses washed over the multitude of bodies that had accumulated at the bottom of the sea, all trapped there by the pressure.
The bodies are so warm that Nature Energy still exude from some of them, some even still have Chakra Signatures... But they all are just as good as dead.
So much bloodshed... All because Shinobi can't even try to coexist peacefully...
In the end, I can only shake my head in disappointment and let the pressure of the sea massage my somewhat tired muscles...
Well, at the very least, I hope that the Raikage learnt a lesson from this...
__________ POV Narration__________
The Raikage returned to the surface in a flurry, he noticed that the fight was over, so he assumed his son was already somewhere on the ships...
After looking for a few minutes, he ran into the Tsuchikage, who was still resting.
Old Ōnoki didn't seem to have any idea of where his son could be. He was merely catching his breath and had been doing so ever since the situation had concluded.
The Raikage continued looking and eventually ran into Yusuzo as well... Looking intact and clean, like he had just watched from the sidelines the entire time.
But the Raikage knew better than to assume that. He knew that Jinchuriki were powerful, and very rarely were they cowards.
"Oi, Jinchuriki!" The Raikage shouted, he tried to appear calm and authoritative, but panic somewhat seeped into his voice.
Yusuzo didn't seem to have any reaction to meeting him.
"Yes, Lord Raikage?" Yusuzo answered, his voice devoid of any fear, his eyes hidden by his hat.
"Have you seen my son, A? He's basically the spitting image of me, just younger..." The Raikage provided a basic description as he clenched his fists.
"... The last time I had seen him, he had plunged into the waters... You followed after him, did something happen?" Yusuzo tilted his head slightly as he observed the Raikage.
"SHIT!" The Raikage lashed out when hearing that, not at Yusuzo, just in general, he kicked a plank and cracked the wooden pieces of wood they were floating on.
"... We got separated in the middle of it. Our enemy seems to be specialized in underwater fights..." The Raikage was still able to compose himself and give a basic explanation as he rubbed his forehead in frustration.
"... I see... But I assume most of his attention was focused on you, right? I'm sure your son can handle himself, who knows? Maybe he's giving chase and trying to catch the enemy?" Yusuzo quickly attempted to calm down the Raiakge, to soothe his thoughts...
And it seemed to work out just fine.
The Raikage sighed and shook his head. 'That man didn't seem able to damage me even in my regular Lightning Mode... A should be just fine...'
"Thank you for the assurance, I guess we'll have to go on with the mission while waiting for him to catch up to us..."
The Raikage was clearly still worried, but he didn't seem to want to prioritise his worries instead of the mission.
Instead, he went back to his people, they needed his guidance.
Meanwhile, Yusuzo's gaze narrowed as he scowled.
'... It's safe to assume that A is dead...'
He had already studied that arm, he had hidden it in a scroll before the Raikage had arrived there, so he knew who it belonged to.
The cut was too clean... To the point where it didn't even look like it was cut.
It wasn't hard for Yusuzo to assume what could have done that. Just earlier, the Tsuchikage had been spamming a jutsu capable of causing such wounds...
The arm had some marks on it, as something extremely strong had coiled around it and exerted a lot of force...
It was almost as if he had been held in place...
'I can easily paint a picture of what happened down there... A is dead, and the Tsuchikage may have unintentionally killed him...'
Yusuzo could only clench his teeth together as he realised just how much that fact complicated the situation.
'... This 'saboteur' really is fucking with us, isn't he?...'