Reborn in the Mist

I was quick to displace the attack with the backhand. A wave of water obeyed my call and deflected Kaizoku’s tail before it could crash into me. He was still lurking behind his gate, only his massive tail extended outward, but in the hollow light of the water and with my sage abilities I could easily make out his eyes gleaming in the dark and then a vicious grin. I knew what was coming next.

Kaizoku was one that loved to train with brute violence. There was barely any conversation during our training sessions and his movements through the water alerted me to his next move quite easily. He thwipped his tail below me, sending a rippling spout of water rushing up at me but I had already read his next move and moved away, swimming as fast as a bullet through the water. Kaizoku was understandably reliant on the [Dance of the Serpent], a fluid, evasive taijutsu technique that focussed on slithering past defenses and constricting the enemy all while without incurring any damage on his own. The solution to such unfair strategies was simple brute strength.

And so I surged forward, preparing my [Straits Fist] the moment I passed the threshold of his gates and saw his full form or at least as full as he would allow. I thrust my fists right where his tail curled, sending a blast of high-pressure water such that it created violently boiling air pockets as it raced towards him. But Kaizoku was a thick, giant serpent; even if the strike landed it would hardly faze him. He shifted his mouth, slithering his tongue out at me as he hissed at my successful strike. I knew it hardly did any damage but he liked to taunt. He snapped down at me. His massive head was larger than Unaimaru by at least ten times yet I still caught it.

Using the leverage of the very water beneath me to halt his advancing strike, I muttered to him, “You've given me your crown,” I said as I delivered another strike right on his nose. It repelled him violently but even still I doubted that it did anything.

Sage Mode empowered me greatly but Kaizoku was an ancient serpent and the source of many of the Sage techniques I was currently using against him. He reared back his head and with it I sensed his tail coming up behind me. I tried to shift or duck away but it was too fast; it smacked me, throwing me several meters into the depths of the drowned tower.

His eyes glowered down at me, two menacing green pearls glittering in the dark of the water. He advanced even as I fell, I cursed inwardly and commanded the water as best as I could, challenging his own dominion over it with my own. I felt him deny me the right to command the water continuously but I only needed a little, not the entire ocean. I forced my will onto it by suffusing chakra into every molecule I touched as I fell.

With a trio of hand seals I manifested fourteen sharks ahead of me, each of them immediately dashing out towards Kaizoku’s approaching form. They did little to slow him down, some of them dissolving the moment they came in contact with his will and others turning against me but by then I was ready.

I surged forth once again, wielding and commanding the nature energy that suffused this realm into another [Kaikyo Ken]. This time I didn't let him or the turned sharks come too close. I punched forward around five meters before he could snap his mouth around me. That punch alone sent a blast up into his throat and dispersed the sharks but I wasn't done. I swam around his stunned form, quickly commanding the water into a cyclone as I circled Kaizoku’s massive form. Without limbs he could do little but crane down to snap his jowls at me but it wasn't enough to reach me, not while being spun around. Taking advantage of my petite form, I ensured the cyclone formed in full and twisted him about enough to knock and slam him against his own gates.

Kaizoku audibly groaned and as I moved forward for another blow of [Kaikyo Ken] he hissed, his eyes narrowing dangerously at me. I knew to stop then; despite his vicious training methods, I knew he was merely holding back and could certainly flip the table and wipe the floor with me if he wanted to and if I pushed it any further I’d be asking for it.

I stayed my hand and hovered in the water waiting for him to say something. He gestured upward at me and together we swam up to the surface where we took our first breaths in over several minutes. Standing on the water, I looked up at him expectantly.

“Well done Sea Sage. You continue to make me proud. Your Kaikyo Ken strikes viciously. Soon you will be ready to learn the next of my Sage techniques.” Kaizoku said, his voice booming.

I nodded along, knowing that the next technique was indeed going to be as powerful and as vicious as the other two. [Kaikyo Ken] was one I most often abused, delivering devastating punches with a fist one shrouded in water. Then there was [Dance of the Serpent], the precise skill to slither past defenses and incapacitate an enemy's by their weak points without being impeded. That was one I still hadn't gotten a handle on, and I was worried he would skip over it in his enthusiasm.

“Let's focus on the serpent dance,” I said. “I still haven't gotten a handle on that, and if I'm being honest, I'm not sure how I could. My body isn't made to slither and snake around.”

Kaizoku chuckled, his laugh booming around the tower, trembling it. Though I wasn't afraid, he reminded me warmly of Uncle when I often asked him how to do the most—in hindsight— obvious things.

Kaizuku leered down at me, his barbells wiggling around his scaled form. He spoke briefly, “Worry not, young Sea Sage. I will teach you. Your body alone is not a limitation to learning these techniques but rather your willingness. As a Sea Sage, you have the innate ability to transform your body and parts of your body into that of any aquatic beast of your choosing, even summoning servant eels right out of your arms.”

If I were to be frank, I didn't want that sort of ability. It felt too alien.

Kaizoku seemed to sense my discomfort and leaned closer, almost resting on the water with me. “Do not be discouraged. The transformation is already in place as you stand before me.”

I couldn't help but raise a brow at that. The only things that had changed about my physical appearance were my eyes, the barbell sticking out of my cheeks, and the mist that followed wherever I went, shrouding me from my enemy's sight.

He seems to sense my sustained confusion and so he explained. “The Sea Sage is one whose affinity increases exponentially the closer they are to a body of water and its beasts. The more attuned you are to them, the stronger you will grow.Why do you think I remain here within my domain?”

I paused to think about that. I never really gave it thought why any of the summons would remain in their own dominions. I just figured they wanted nothing to do with the Shinobi world. I offered that answer. “Because you don't want anything to do with humans? With Shinobi?”

Kaizoku bellowed in laughter, his fangs glimmering in the soft blue light of water. “Of course not! Humans, Shinobi, they are the source of my many, many delicious meals. After all, you yourself served me hundreds of sacrifices.”

I grimaced at the reminder.

“Why do you think I remain here?” Kaizoku asked again.

Once more I paused and thought. If the closer he was to the body of water, the stronger he was, that meant he didn't want to leave because his power would wane. Or perhaps it was something else. He was already extremely powerful after all. I struggled to find the answer but I gave another guess anyway. “Is it perhaps because you would lose the connection to this body of water if you left? That it would diminish your power?”

Kaizuku shook his head disappointedly. He then said, “It is because I do not have to leave. The power granted to me by my realm allows me to empower vassals such that anything I desire is brought here to me.” He smirked down at me, eyes devilishly devious. “You should consider it: create a dominion of water, attune yourself to it, and grow stronger. Let it feed you infinitely until you can feed others immense power with a mere thought.”

That surprised me. I knew Kaizoku could certainly empower summons like SlipFang and Unaimaru but I simply thought that was just because they were his children. I then thought of all the other summons, the ones that were denizens of his realm, the ones that were protectors, warriors, and all. It started to make some bit of sense though I couldn't entirely be sure.

Either way this hardly concerned me. I looked up at him and narrowed my eyes. “I am not interested in drowning my village in water just to empower myself. The power I seek is to serve others, to serve my people.”

Shaking his head as if disappointed with my naivety, and I knew he thought me naïve as he'd said it many, many times.

“As you wish, Sea Sage. But if you wish to master the dance of the serpent, then you must attune yourself closer to the water, closer to a body that would empower you with the affinities of a Sea Serpent, much like myself.”

At this point I could imagine what transformations would happen to allow me to master the dance of the serpent and they truly weren't appealing at all. I shrugged and said, “That's fine, let's move on to the next technique then.”

Kaizoku continued to smirk; he seemed amused by my revulsion to the transformation but he did not press me any further. As is, without the transformations the [Dance of the Serpent] was strong enough for me to breach most enemies' defenses even if I wasn't completely enshrouded in water. It was mostly about swift, agile movement and I was quick enough.

Kaizoku raised his body all the way as if stretching as he spoke. “Very well then Sea Sage, I shall grant you the next of my Sage techniques. This one is called Riptide Step.”

I waited expectantly for the demonstration and the strangest thing happened. Kaizoku's chakra surged within and then rapidly around him. It was molded into an all too familiar form, one that I wasn't expecting the great Sea Serpent to ever use. In a puff of smoke his nearly 50-foot-long body disappeared, displacing water into waves as they reclaimed the space his massive body occupied.

In place of where he once was, now a 7-foot-tall androgynous man stood. His eyes and appearance were just as mine and the mist surrounded him just as mine, except more pronounced. I was looking at the human form of the great Sea Serpent, Kaizoku. When he spoke, his voice was still booming with grand authority.

“You seem surprised, young Sea Sage. Did you think I never learned a single one of your kind's techniques?” He laughed at my slackjawed expression. “Your kind has created many ingenuities. It would be foolish of me to dismiss them all and for the riptide step you need a human form.”

This can’t be any mere Henge, could it? His body had fully vanished, shrunk into a mere seven feet form. This transformation couldn’t be an illusion like the [Henge] was, his seemed all too physical for that to be the case, even as he admitted copying shinobi Ninjutsu. Perhaps he adapted it? After all, if I could transform my body into aquatic beasts with greater affinity then…

I put those thoughts aside for an even more worrying realization. His admission of copying shinobi Ninjutsu gave me pause; it implied a lot more and it made sense now why Kaizoku would choose to remain in his realm even with all his grand power.

If he could transform into a human at any time then he must have had terrifying adventures on the surface, destroyed, ravaged lands at his will. I could almost smell the blood on him even if there was none. The fact that this Sage technique required a human body meant that Kaizoku had created it during one of those adventures.

“Are you ready to learn?”