“Raiga!”

Crackling with lightning armour, Raiga braces against Samehada’s strike, buckling under the weight of the chakra eating blade. His armour withers from mere proximity with the legendary Shark Skin Blade and his open injuries from it only serve up more of his chakra to the weapon and its user.

Fuguki rips Samehada away, grinding Raiga’s chakra as he lifts the sword in time to parry Juzo’s wild strike. “Bwahahah! Water Release: Senbon Barrage!”

Relentlessly ignoring the massive chakra drain Juzo released a fury of sharp moving senbon right in Fuguki’s face before he kicked away. Samehada absorbs most of the chakra but several manage to find purchase, skewering through Fuguki’s cheeks and slicing into his neck before he can move his orange hair to bolster his defence.

Raiga and Juzo skirt further away, keeping distance from the chakra draining leader of the Seven Swordsmen. Fuguki roared and lashed out against the water, twisting it with his chakra so a whirlpool grows around him.

In response, Raiga’s Kiba bursts with lightning again and a ball forms between the tip of the blades above his head, “Lightning Ball!”

Hasty, Raiga launches ball after ball into the growing maelstrom pushing he and Juzo further out, threatening to swallow them unless—

“Wind Release: Divine Wind!”

“Water Release: Water Torrent!”

All three swordsmen turn their attention above as Fuguki’s maelstrom dispels in place of a greater technique. The great winds sweeping over the water form tornadoes up to five metres in height that then smash into the torrential swirls of water that whip and grind rock to nothing.

My clone and I land safely away from the terrestrial destruction we’ve wrought and even though Fuguki manages to escape— wrapped in a thick of orange hair— I can’t help but marvel at the effectiveness of combining Water Release with Wind Release. The two jutsu on their own barely cut it as B-rank but together…

It’s also my first time casting most of these techniques…as myself anyway. That said, I could already feel a drain on my stamina from casting concurrently and a bit ineffectively. Immediately after ensuring Kisame was out for the count I rushed back here to get the drop on Fuguki and hilariously found all three fighting each other.

Kirigakure isn’t a village built on teamwork, I shouldn’t have gotten so nervous. From what I observed Raiga is on his last legs having the least amount of chakra to sacrifice to Fuguki in the first place. And Juzo…I can’t predict him.

Water rains as my jutsu exhausts the last bit of chakra sustaining it. I squint into the mess, searching for signs of my opponents while my clone watches my back. Yagura’s library of jutsu is so much more accessibly when I’m in battle for some reason, likely battle trauma or just the wave of bloodlust I feel rising within me every time I successfully land a technique or blow.

Either way, [Water Clone] felt strange, I knew it wasn’t more conscious than a released jutsu but I also felt it could get more complex if I kneaded the chakra I used to create it in a more refined manner. For my purposes though, I merely needed some extra help casting the secondary jutsu.

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An unease spreads through me as I continued to watch the area my jutsu tore through, I can’t see as good as I should and a rolling thunder carries through the air, tensing with electrical charge.

Raiga’s still moving…somewhere. I gripped my Bo-staff and continued to knead chakra throughout my body as I watched for opponents nearing me. As I thought, the entire thing is suspicious and an unnatural mist rolls over the water. I consider leaping over to higher ground but there aren’t many rocks left to stand upon.

The air grew tense and I considered casting a Wind Release technique to clear out the thickening mist when suddenly a lightning bolt fell from the sky onto my clone, dispersing it and stinging me with excess lightning.

I grimaced but a sixth sense told me to guard instead so I buckled my Bo-staff just in time to catch Juzo’s Kubikiribocho as he leapt up from the water, “Yagura-sama!”

My teeth gnashed together under the weight of the blow, I thought he’d cut through my Bo-staff entirely but it held. With scary ease, Juzo lifted the executioner blade and struck again and again, each strike eating at my stamina and rattling my body so much that I lost control of the chakra I’ve been kneading in preparation.

Cackling, he twirls and kicked at me, this one I managed to duck under but I quickly regretted it as Kubikiribocho came tearing through the water, chakra coating it and bolstering Juzo’s muscles as he struck dead centre on my Bo-staff.

This time I’m thrown off my feet, the blow carries me through the air and shattered remains of the rocks my jutsu tore through. Behind one of them is Fuguki.

Shit!

With no time to react, a completely unfurled Samehada rips against my skin as Fuguki receives me from Juzo like a baseball. He sends me skidding over the water, seeping blood into it as I bounced off before finally sinking in.

Desperate, I kicked onto the surface where I found Raiga waiting, my eyes go wide as the Twin Kiba crackle with lightning. In an exhausted voice he mutters and their light grows, “Lightning Burial: Banquet of Lightning!”

The bolts come charging through the water before I have a chance to pull myself up and in a numbing flash of light I lose all sensation. Water grips my lungs, flooding them fully as I let out the last of my breath involuntarily.

My eyes blink through the darkening water, I search for my Bo-staff in my line of sight but all I see is Fuguki fending off Juzo. For a moment I wonder who’s going to confirm I’m out for the count, Harusame maybe? A Hozuki more likely. Or maybe Raiga since he’s spent all his chakra and there’s literally nothing he can do against Fuguki.

No one comes though and I continue to sink until I reach the darkest depth where none of the sun’s light reaches. My back bounces off something before landing firmly against it. Sensing my fingers regain feeling I spread them around the surface and find its rough and harder than anything, almost razor sharp even though I’m just gliding my lightning stiffed fingers over it.

I try to summon chakra but very little responds. Fucking Fuguki.

Again, I wonder if I’ve had myself fooled this entire time, if I never had a chance at becoming Mizukage even though I’m impersonating the one person that should.

An impersonation is not the same, it can never be.

“You’re right.” I hear myself say and blink in the darkness, “You have to be the truth, you have to face the reality and stop treating this like a predetermined game.”

I’m sure of it. That’s my voice…or Yagura’s voice? Yes, but I’m underwater?

Someone snaps their fingers and a soft light emits in the distance, illuminating the cold, dark sea as they drew closer. The light comes from my Bo-staff and the green flower petal at its neck, a man with a stern, cold baby face is carrying it.

“When will you stop faking?” He asked, no…I asked.

The light from the petal spread, chasing the darkness and enveloping me in a cool warmth that raises me to my feet. I glanced around, trying my best not to have an aneurysm as I stared at myself and then at the creature beneath my feet.

“Three Tails…oh shit, I’m rampaging, aren’t I?”