“Me-mercy, please lord, shinobi-dono, plea-No, please! Please!” The man begged for his life like he’d never taken a blade and cut down another man like an animal.

Kisame massaged the man’s skull with greater intensity, he felt a part of his temple crack under his thumb and his tired smile grew. The man felt the change in his skull as well and his mutters for mercy began to mix with prayers to outer gods.

Samehada thrashed against the mud slick ground, an arm stuck out its serrated jaws as it gnawed and grinded the whimpering man’s comrade. Kisame let out a half-hearted chuckle and continued to massage the man’s head— there wasn’t much left to do but wait now.

The mud field that served as their battlegrounds was soaked with almost as much blood as it was water from rain and jutsu. It amazed Kisame at times just how much blood a human body carried, it was enough to fill buckets and that was only from the average sized person.

Samehada gave one final crunch and gulped its meal entirely, with that Kisame got moving, dragging his pet beggar along by the skull even as he scrambled to put his feet under and ahead of him. The mud field was littered with beggars just like the one he had, their hearts busted, legs skewered and heads chopped off all by the same substance.

Ice.

The harsh fact that every scummy human, beggar or lord, was full of blood and thus full of water made Kisame’s partner the very thing the Daimyo’s plethora of enemies feared and loathed the most.

He approached the edge of a jutsu made landslide where the blood from Reina’s many victims pooled together and fell after she and the crusade of Ronin and mercenaries still breathing. Careful not to slip down, Kisame watched the agile kunoichi wield a frosted blade against six well-bodied men.

He should help, he could help but at the moment Kisame wanted nothing more than to watch her wield that ice.

Reina was dirtied, filth pasted against her uncovered skin and mud stuck to her feet and legs. Her opponents weren’t much better, in fact, they were worse. One had only one arm to clutch his weapon, another had two arms but could use neither due to the frostbite eating him and the others were bled and frozen in minor areas.

They kept on their feet as they danced warily around Reina, a respectful distance between them but one that would be covered in a single, murderous bound should the opportunity presented itself.

Reina shifted her stance, set her frosting blade straight ahead ignoring the three men creeping on her sides in favour of the other three sluggishly closing in. From his vantage point even Kisame’s pet beggar would be able to tell that they’ll box her in if she lets them close in any further.

However, this was a kunoichi of the Hidden Mist, a high A-rank easily creeping in on that S-rank status. The ronin never stood a chance.

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She swung her blade in a straight line ahead of her and the three at her front scrambled pathetically for a defence, one even lost his footing and face planted. And yet Reina’s swing was merely a feint, she lunged at the single ronin at her right and her blade pierced through his unprepared torso.

He stifled his scream through gritted teeth and managed to lock her frosted blade for all but a second before his tolerance broke, “Arrhh!” He fell to his knees clutching his frozen side and Reina yanked the blade out in time to parry a flailing kunai strike from a mercenary.

She danced with him before catching a glimpse of a potential partner behind him, then she twirled, flinging patches of mud from her body to distract as she slammed a palm against the wet ground.

The terrain underneath both their feet froze, sealing them in place for Reina to blitz through, lopping off their heads before they could even comprehend their demise. Three more remained.

Kisame looked and laughed; two had taken off running already, “Should I?”

Reina she sprinted at the one fear stricken mercenary standing and impaled his knees with kunai. Keeping the momentum, Reina seized water from the atmosphere to form four seven inch senbon between her fingers. A flick of wrist had them buried in the necks of the fleeing ronin.

She stood straight for a moment before looking around her handiwork, only one man remained somewhat alive. His knees were useless now and her blade had already frozen one of his arms. He’d gone unconscious from the agony of his injuries and lay at her feet.

Kisame watched her consider what to do with the man while massaging dents into his pet’s skull. The answer was obvious but she still seemed to consider the alternative for longer than he expected, eventually though, her blade pierced the unconscious mercenary’s skull.

Reina leaped up the landslide, the scowl that owned her face grew as she noticed Kisame’s pet. He stopped massaging the man’s skull and his body fell forward, sliding down the mud slope to lie among his peers. “Sorry, idle hands.” Kisame grinned.

“Get his head and let’s go, I want that ship.”

“Aye.” Kisame leaped after his pet.

As it turned out, moving an entire village across islands, even islands under Kirigakure jurisdiction, was a tall order. The Daimyo wasn’t respected in the Land of Water, not just by his rivals but by the common folk who suffered and were disillusioned by the war. Whatever the case, the lack of respect extended onto Kirigakure.

A ship was required, a large one. There weren’t many places to get that or even multiple ships at once, even if you had the word of the Mizukage or Daimyo that payment is assured, it didn’t mean squat— not to the civilian shipbuilders, not to the sailors who’ve been sunk, boarded and pirated, not even to the pirates who’ve been taken a fool by their own ambitions of lordship in the Daimyo’s civil wars.

What was left were the local lords that reigned over city and villages along coastlines and marshes. But they too had problems; they were at war and Kirigakure wasn’t a part of that war…officially.

A problem for the Mizukage huh. Kisame recalled Reina’s words after they accepted the Lord Yakubi’s mission to decimate the army camping in his territory. Bring the leader’s head and they’ll have their ship, a simple task complicated by the fact no Kiri shinobi has been given order to participate in the Daimyo’s infighting.

But Kisame understood, the mission came first and their mission was to shepherd that annoying flock of old and young. Reina was ANBU as well and if Kisame’s learned anything from his time with her, it’s that she can’t fail the Mizukage another time.

And so as Samehada separated the pet’s head from his shoulder, Kisame knew whatever fallout came from helping the Lord Yakubi would be as Reina said, a problem for the Mizukage.