Chapter 17: Fog or Mist?

There isn't much in this world that can shake Shogo's resolve. Once he decides to follow through with an idea or goal, it is pursued with tunnel vision. His one-track mind is so powerful that it is somewhat detrimental. Not having a good grasp of your surroundings and being inflexible isn't the best trait for the shinobi trade. Speed and strength are all well and good, but the mind is a ninja's sharpest tool.

Shogo POV

*Shhhhnnkkk!*

After my body unconsciously moves to the right, something pierces straight the back of my left shoulder to the front. The pain is horrendous. Pain is all I can feel and think about now. I kneel and curl up on the ground.

I touch my shoulder only to recoil at the pointy thing sticking out of it. I look down to see that I have a metal stick sticking out of my arm. Panic starts to spike through my body as the disorientation makes me wonder if I should try to pull it out now or not?

I think Hana said something about not removing projectiles to prevent blood loss, but it could have been the opposite.

I hear a pulling sound behind me, and I look behind me to see the boss hiding behind the desk pointing a wooden contraption at me with a similar metal rod jammed in the middle with a wire straining behind it.

Everything is a bit dizzy now, but I lock eyes with the boss' fearful ones.

*Twang! *

Since I saw the bolt fire, I am able to at least roll out of its path to the left of the door frame fast enough to avoid getting impaled once more. The pain causes me to pause to catch my breath as I watch the bolt travel all the down the hallway and through the door at the end.

My left arm is starting to go numb and I feel the blood slow dribbling down my arm. I try hard to block out the pain in my shoulder to hear what the boss is doing inside the study. I hear a bit of shuffling around, but my ears perk up at the sound of the wire tightening.

'So, he has to reload that wooden thing after every shot…'

I struggle to formulate a plan on how I can get inside the study without getting shot by the boss. I need to hurry up as I only have four minutes to get back to the meet up spot in the bushes. Suddenly, I hear a ton of movement toward the window in the study that breaks my train of thought.

'Shit!'

"Help!!! Help!!! Assassin! There is an injured assassin outside my study door! He's already killed the commander!"

'Fuck! Now I have even less time to end this annoying bastard. Reinforcements are going to flood the house in no time. I need to move and fast!'

I stood up from my crouched position and the dead body of the commander caught my eye. I wince at the katana hilt sticking out of top of the corpse's head and all the blood pooling around the hall. Not only am I injured now but I am also without a weapon.

The cleaver is still on the floor in front of the doorway to my right, but I doubt I can yank it out before one of those bolts pierces my brain. I need a shield and hopefully this muscle-bound body is as sturdy in death as it was when it was alive.

The body of the commander is lying down a little more than a foot away from my current hiding place. I jump toward the front of the corpse and sprawl out on the ground. The blood on the ground seeps into the front of my black clothes, the feeling and smell of it so close makes me gag.

*Twang! *

*Shhhunnkk!*

I feel even more blood splash over me as the bolt sinks into the corpse's upper back. Quickly, I push myself off the ground and pick inside the study to see the boss hastily fumbling for what I imagine is another bolt.

I slip my right hand under the corpse and begin to pull it up by one of the shoulders. The body is extremely heavy, and I have to strain my right arm muscles to the max to even lift it up more than a few inches. I glance at the boss and see him slowly aiming the now drawn bolt before locking it in place.

'Shit!'

In a moment of panic, I channel my chakra through my body and flip up the corpse by the right shoulder before lying flat under the right side of the corpse to shelter myself from the bow.

*Twang! *

*Shhhnnnkkk!*

"Gah!"

I grunt as I feel the tip of a bolt stab into my upper back as it had penetrated through the corpse's torso, but it did mitigate the potential damage a great deal.

"Fuck! Stay still you-"

I push myself up, my eyes tear up from the pain in my left shoulder and my back. With a burst of chakra, I quickly lurch my head down toward my lap. I feel the bolt rip out of my back, but using the momentum, I complete the somersault and bring my feet up to the hips of the corpse.

I take a deep breath and I hear the notch of the bolt once again. All the chakra I can muster I push into my legs. Not one millisecond before I feel my legs are close to bursting, thrust my legs to push the body. I can feel pops in my knees, calves, and ankles but the weight of the corpse disappears from above. I try to stand up when I complete the roll, but my legs give out. My flop down on my stomach a few inches from my desired target; the cleaver.

"What the flying fu-"

*Twang!*

*Thnnkkk*

The bolt that the boss had loaded harmless veered to the side of the study door as he is entirely focused on the giant corpse now soaring toward him. As he is distracted, I fling myself toward the cleaver lodged into the floor and yank it out with a few desperate pulls.

*CRRSSHHHHH!!*

The desk broke in half from the force of the collision; the boss narrowly dodges the getting caught by the weaponized corpse of his former associate. 

My eyes lock on the boss's stunned form kneeling on the ground near the study window as his eyes still have not left his now destroyed desk. I tightly grip the handle on the cleaver before winding up my right arm all the way over my shoulder and hocking the cleaver with all my remaining might at the head of the boss.

The cleaver spins in the air as it travels through the doorway and toward the boss before the blade sinks into the side of his head with a wet thud. The boss turns and gives me a confused look with the cleaver sticking out of his head. Blood gushes from his face and then the light leaves his eyes as he slumps down to the ground.

A shaky breath exits from my body that I didn't realize I had been holding inward.

'It’s finally over. Now I can go to sleep, right?'

My drowsiness starts to overtake me, my left side is beginning to go completely numb and it feels like my legs are one hundred pounds heavier.

Then my heart jumps at the sound of numerous feet stampeding upstairs from the staircase down the hall. I push myself up from the bloody floor and limp to the sole window behind the desk in the study. All pretenses of fatigue were gone almost instantly as I knew if I am caught by the men, it would certainly result in my death.

"Lord Yosuke! We're coming!"

I heard the yelling from down the hall of the study clearly now, but I didn't even look back as I leapt out of the window breaking the glass and dicing up my skin further in the process. Like a man possessed, I hop from the second down to the ground floor and charge the ship in the middle of the camp.

I zigzag through all the confused now highly alert bandits and leap over the ramp and on to the banister of the ship. I use both my feet and hands to scale the banister to the top, sometimes adding chakra to make it easier.

Once my feet touch the top, I launch off the pole and don't quite clear the top of the wall with my shins clipping it causing me to go headfirst into the bushes outside the camp.

Multiple head impacts later, I lay crumpled on the ground in what I'm sure is the place of the meeting that Gengetsu had assigned. A sigh/whimper of relief and pain escapes my clenched teeth. A few more seconds pass as I lay here in the bushes, trying to keep myself awake by monitoring my breathing.

The bolt that had been in my shoulder wiggled out of place at some point during my mad dash from the camp so there is a small gaping hole in my shoulder but to my relief I didn't feel any pain from it or anything else for that matter. My eyelids are beginning to get heavy, and this bush is becoming more comfortable by the second.

*Slap!*

I jolt awake by the spike of pain in my injured shoulder. My eyes snap open, everything is blurry for a moment before they focus on a familiar look of disgust from the blonde asshole that should have been here what felt like hours ago.

I try to speak nothing comes out in fact I could barely move my mouth let alone elicit words. Overwhelmingly panic begins to seep in but it is interrupted when Gengetsu crushes a red pill in his hand and sprinkles the dust in my mouth.

I gag from the taste of the powder as I has to be by far. The red powder dissolves in my mouth after what feels like forever, and I struggle to shallow the little bit of liquid in my mouth.

After taste is horrible however the reaction is instantaneous. In one moment, I felt like twitching a finger would have been a momentous effort and in the next, I am leaping off the bush and have to keep myself from bouncing up and down in place. 

"Toss this one in your mouth as well. I'm not carrying you back so you better hop you can last the whole way back."

Gengetsu lazily tosses another pill toward me, and I hastily catch it then pop it in my mouth. Swallowing the pill proves somewhat difficult without any water but a short time after it goes down my throat my feel my chakra surge inside me. I feel untouchable, like I could do any number of crazy tasks this blonde shithead could subject me to and come out without a scratch on me.

"Follow me… the humidity on this tiny island is frizzing up my hair."

Gengetsu takes off without another word and I immediately start hopping the trees after him.

*BOOOOMMMMM!!!*

My head snaps back to look at the huge dust cloud kicked up above the treeline where the outpost is located. We had made it a little more than a mile away from the meeting spot before the explosion. The dust starts to accelerate towards me at an alarming rate, so I pick up speed not wanting to get caught in the aftermath of whatever the hell Gengetsu had used to blow up the whole damn camp and a good amount of the surrounding forest.

I turn my head back around to see that I have lagged behind the bastard too much. I need to catch up before he fully leaves me behind.

That evening…

*GASP!*

My heart jolts as I lurch out of unconsciousness. Everything is black and I can't move anything. I try desperately to open my eyelids, but I can't twitch a muscle. Panic sets in fast and hard, the only thing I can hear is the frantic thumping of my heart.

A sudden pressure rests gently on my forehead, and faintly hear a familiar voice through the sound of my beating heart.

"....calm…...calm down….safe….rest for a moment… ."

I try to slow down my uncontrolled breathing and try to focus on the voice more.

"You'll be fine, Shogo. Just rest for a few minutes and you should be able to gain control again. Don't be scared I'll stay here with you… ."

The minutes go by, and it feels like an eternity in pure darkness. Alone with my emotions and thoughts. The men I had a hand in killing today contribute a great deal to my paranoia. I didn't care greatly about the men I had killed in that office. I'm sure someone else would have done it even if I hadn't. They were marked men, basically destined to die by ninja hands.

All the dead human bodies I've found in alleyways and along the beaches of the main island have desensitized me to the act of killing but not death itself.

Were they really dead and gone forever? Was human life really that fragile? Would I die the same way no matter how much of a fight I put up?

I don't fear death, but I don't want to die anytime soon. I know that death comes for everyone eventually, in fact it's the only thing that makes life fair in my opinion.  

However, I want to go out on my own terms, not on the whim of some cocksucker with a fancy hairdo. No, me dying isn't what is stressing me the fuck out right now.

It's the vulnerability.

That's what is causing me to break as I lay completely helpless in this bed, entirely reliant on someone else's charity once again.

An hour later…

I sigh in defeat as I look at the giant pile of books that Hana had set on the table next to me. The pile includes large books filled with multiple subjects ranging from math, science, geography and etcetera.

I look up to see Hana's stern frown at my pained expression,

"Fix your face! I told you that I would be filling the holes in your education and expanding your overall knowledge. Now that you're going to be bedridden for the next five days, we can get a head start on your studies for the next few years."

"Ugggghhhhhh!"

Then Hana proceeds to nag me about whining when she had to patch up my laundry list of injuries once again.  The medical journal under the math book tells me she intends to teach me how to care for my own injuries which I am all for. It did not seem right to constantly burden this old woman. No matter how annoying she is when it comes to education.

The fight never stops for me it seems.

Gengetsu POV

On the beach at sundown….

I stare at the small yet intimidating back of the most powerful ninja on the island. The old man's ridiculously long hair and beard combo blew with the ocean breeze. His ever dangerous hands folded neatly on his lower back likely there to alleviate slight pain. To an ignorant observer the scene might look like a tired old man enjoying the limited view of the sunset on one of the shores of the island.

'Let's just get this over with already. No more second guessing!'

I have been thinking about what the rusty battle axe of a man could possibly want to meet up for besides killing me of course, but I can only think this meeting has everything to do with the silence of the mainland.

"Are you just going to stand there quaking in your boots, boy?! Or are you going to man up?!"

*Tch!*

I storm toward the arranger of this shitty meeting and stop a few feet away from the right of him. Not that the space would matter if the old man truly wanted to kill me.

"Out with it, Byakuren! What did you call me for?!"

In response, he simply glances at me with his milky right eye. Then he sighs before talking back,

"You truly have no respect for your elders nor your betters. Your apprentice exhibits the same qualities as you."

The comparison to that little shit worsens my already poor mood.

"My respect is earned, and you haven't done anything to obtain!"

"True as that may be, Gengetsu. Remember that you will always need to respect my power for it could spell your end."

The threat hangs in the air as Byakuren goes silent, continuing to look at the sunset. Sweat drips from my brow as I knew that no matter how tough I acted in front of him, what he said is indeed true.

"The Senju and the Uchiha are joining forces soon."

The simple statement shocks me to my core. Out of all the things that could have come out of the old man's mouth, that had to be by far the last thing I expected to hear.

"And where in goddess name, did you come across that bit of rubbish?! They have been at war for centur-"

"They've already signed the treaty, boy! That news will be coming out within the next week, what worries me is what they plan to do afterwards! There have been whispers of both clans and all their allies conjoining to make a large super village!"

I grasp a chunk of my hair struggling to make sense of the ramifications of such a power move.

"B-but that's insanity! This could destroy the balance of the world as we know it. We have to stop it somehow!"

At my suggestion of interference, Byakuren simply shakes his head in refusal.

"What's worse about the move is that it is something so colossal in scale that it can't be stopped by outside intervention. Something on this scale lives and dies by the strength of the leadership, and however crazy that Hashirama is, he possesses godlike strength and leadership ability."

The reality of the dire situation begins to seep in, and I ruffle my hair while looking down at the sand. My mind races with scenes of the entire ninja world falling under Senju-Uchiha rule. No other clan had truly been able to contend with either clan besides the other. If they truly join forces, then I doubt it would take even a full calendar year for them to conquer the globe.

"In retaliation, we need to start amassing power ourselves!"

I look back at Byakuren in confusion, he is now completely turned toward me, his eyes locked on mine.

"Separately, the many islands of Water Country would fall to this collective within less than a day but if we were all brought together under my rule, we would be able to put up a damn good fight. However, my goal isn't just to gather the people of the water country to fight against the mainlanders. My vision is for all of us water ninjas to rule the oceans and seas, seize all the power that is up for grabs on shores across the elemental nations like we once did. Let the Senju and Uchiha have the mainland all they want but if they want to touch the water it will have to be with our permission."

I shake my head at Byakuren's passionate speech.

"How can you ever hope to unite a whole country of ninja and their clans to follow you to your goal? It's pure madness!"

Byakuren widely grins at me flashing all of his yellow razor-sharp teeth,

"With my power of course!"

The manic look in Byakuren's eyes makes it clear that he wasn't backing down on this, and he clearly wasn't taking no as an answer from me either.

"The daimyo won't stand for such a massive shift in power. The Shimizu clan has overseen the country for decades!"

"Bah! They only rule with their money but none of them will oppose my power because they will meet a swift end if they rebel. The daimyo will fold like a house of cards if I truly will it."

I fall silent at his response as I know it is all too true. Byakuren, the Samurai Killer, has been an unrivaled water shinobi for decades. There have even been rumors that he could slice entire oceans in half with just his bare hands. In short, no smart person in this country would oppose him seriously no matter how much money they possess.

"Now that you understand what needs to be done, we're done here. We start creating "Kirigakure" tomorrow at dawn. Meet me here so I can tell you our detailed plan of attack."

With that the old man turns around and disappears in a burst of speed.

I look at the veiled sunset and sigh,

"Of fucking course, the name has something to do with this damn mist of all things."