Azula dashes forward half the distance, but keeps her distance and throws two fireballs once she gets better visibility. Throwing fire jutsus with one hand while having difficulty breathing is not easy, but she pulls through. Her intention is for the explosive component of the fireball to shock his brain and give him more of a concussion.

Even though Kisame is not aware of the hole in his head, he’s not an idiot. To some degree, he had been playing weak, because his senses in the mist reached farther than Azula’s and he had known she was close.

The moment Azula throws the fireballs, he turns towards her and fires back four vicious water jutsus. He shouts, “Gotcha! Haha!” Two water jets erupt from his palms, followed by two water blades from his arms. The first water jet misses, but everything else connects, despite Azula’s best efforts to strafe. Her injuries hamper her evasion more than she expects.

The second water jet extinguishes the first fireball, the first water blade causes the second fireball to prematurely explode, and the second water blade cuts deep into Azula’s foot at the ankle! “Gah!” She falls over and quickly uses thrusters from her one good leg and hand to drag herself across the ground into an alley to hide from Kisame’s continuing rapid fire water jutsu assault.

If two combatants are at the same level in soul, chakra, and Gates, normal elemental jutsus would have to break through both passive chakra shielding and Gate-reinforced flesh in order to do effective damage. It’s not simple and usually, it’s an inefficient use of chakra to even bother with long-distance jutsus since they are so easy to dodge. The best method is to activate all Gates and wear the opponent down with direct, chakra-empowered physical attacks such as Chidori, which Kakashi used to defeat Azula in their earlier duel. Technique in martial arts in particular is key when evenly matched shinobi face each other.

In the case of a much stronger opponent fighting a weaker one, simple jutsus increasingly gain relevance. If Azula had a similar level of chakra and opened Gates as Kisame, her skin could shrug off that water blade like a slap on the wrist. In fact, if Kisame simply chucked jutsus at her nonstop from the beginning while keeping his distance, she wouldn’t have stood much of a chance; but he confused her for someone at his power level, allowing her to get close enough to use lightning, his natural weakness.

Kisame curses under his breath as carefully heads towards the alley, “Damn it. I can’t believe I got pushed this hard by a weakling. They’ll never let me live this one down.”

A fireball pops up near his face the moment he enters, but he expels a watery discharge from his mouth to extinguish it. He dodges the next one with ease, allowing it to explode harmlessly a few meters behind him. Azula stands mostly on one leg several meters away from his position, breathing heavily. She gives him a death stare, but he simply chuckles and starts to approach her with confidence.

He takes a single step before his eyes widen, he looks up, and says, “Shit!”

Azula follows his gaze, only to see Terumi swoop down from above with two arm blades, one of which is blocked by Kisame’s kunai-punctured arm and the other which is blocked by.. of all things.. his teeth. Terumi seems to have expected this course of action though, because she pulls back and stabs forward again without hesitation. This time, Kisame’s disorientation prevents him from properly reacting. A blade goes several inches into his abdomen, followed by a stab to his shoulder, and another to his thigh. He shouts like a cornered animal at how he is not able to mount a proper counterattack in the least.

Azula forces herself to stay conscious despite her chakra and chi exhaustion. Eventually, Kisame loses too much blood to move fast enough for his strength to be any threat. Terumi leisurely swivels around and knocks him out with a sharp elbow to the spine. “Azula..” she says in a remorseful tone, but before she can say more, she sees Azula collapse on top of Kisame. Both are heavily injured and unconscious, but a quick scan of Azula's body is enough for her to make out that the injuries are not as bad as they look.

Seconds later, Ao drops into the alley. Terumi doesn’t acknowledge him. She provides some medical chakra to Azula’s shoulder and ankle. Ao approaches, kneels, salutes, and says, “I beseech your punishment, Mizukage.”

“And you would deserve it!” whispers back Terumi in a scathing tone, loud enough for his ears alone. “The plan did not count on you and your team being LATE! If Tsunade hears of this debacle, she will demand lower prices as reparation, we will have no choice but to comply, and our people will suffer!”

Ao slams his head on the ground.

“Stop that.” Terumi spits out with clear distaste. “Just tell me the reason.”

Ao hesitates, but raises his head to explain, “Several of the trusted men who I planned to bring with me were attacked at the same time..”

“Fuck Kisame and all the rest of these damned traitors. They’re a plague upon Kiri!” Terumi’s eyes blaze with cold fury. She doles out orders, “Tell the Konoha convoy that Azula is spending the night with me. Find all of Kisame’s known former associates. We need information and we need it fast.”

Noting that Azula has stopped bleeding, she picks her up and seals Kisame’s wounds with chakra so he won’t bleed out, which could allow others to trace her location. “I’ll be gone for a bit. Good men like you don’t deserve punishment, but remember where we failed today. Do whatever you have to do, bar antagonizing the other nations, to start expanding our sources of intel. If we had better intel, Azula wouldn’t have been hurt.”

“Yes, Mizukage.” Ao accepts the orders  with deep sentiment as he lowers his head in a bow, “For Kiri.”

“For Kiri.” repeats Terumi, before grabbing Kisame’s leg and shooting into the misty sky with both bodies in tow.

~ ~ ~

Azula awakens from her stupor and pulls her body up to a sitting position as she swings her legs over the side of the bed. It is the same way she gets up every morning. Upon seeing though, that she is not in her apartment, but rather in a dark cave and that her ‘bed’ gives off strange crunching noises, she remembers that she had recently been in a fight to the death.

She bolts to her feet and turns around to find Terumi leaning on the wall of the cave and Kisame lying on a pile of seaweed over rock some distance further. That explains the bed sounds. “Mizukage..” mutters Azula as she checks her own shoulder for bite marks and ribs for internal damage. Finding none, she feels some relief, but she still angrily asks, “..What the hell happened?!”

With a neutral tone, Terumi says, “Well.. you held rather admirably against Kisame’s assault. I intend to interrogate him and keep you safe, so that’s why we’re hidden here.”

“Why were you, the Mizukage, attacked in broad daylight with me, a foreigner, without a single other guard present?” interrupts Azula with narrowing eyes. The beams coming out of them start to sizzle against the exposed skin and fishnet portion of the clothes over Terumi’s cleavage. Azula awkwardly looks away, spots her red goggles, and puts them back on.

Terumi chuckles teasingly and approaches Azula. Once closer, she bows slightly and states as genuinely as she can, “My apologies, Azula. I used you as bait.”

Azula already had an inkling that was the case, but Terumi’s apology throws her off. She straightforwardly replies, “.. I figured that was the case, but shouldn’t apologies imply that you regret something? I don’t hear any regret in your tone.”

“Everything I do is for Kiri.” Terumi vows as she straightens her spine. “I don’t regret using you as bait, but I do regret that my forces were diverted long enough that you got hurt.”

“You..!” Azula is angry, but she is weak to Terumi’s charm, given how much she reminds her of Nuwa. The anger lowers into irritation. In the first place, she had voluntarily and recklessly walked into danger with Terumi looking for some sort of adrenaline high, of which she got more than she bargained for, so she has a hard time justifying her rage. In the end, she waves her hand dismissively and says, “Okay. What now? I’m not dead, so are you planning to bargain for my silence in this matter?”

Although Azula hates politics, she has still picked up quite a bit from Nuwa. She can sniff out that there are benefits coming in her direction for all the danger that Terumi dumped on her head. Some nice secret techniques, jutsus, or weapons, ideally.

Instead, Terumi wets her lips, pinches around the small hole that Azula’s eyes burned in her clothes, and flaps her shirt as if the room is too hot for her comfort. This has the effect of sending her bosom into a ballyhoo. In a sultry voice, she says, “You catch on quick. What do you think about using my body whichever way you like?”

Before Azula can react, Kisame coughs lightly. Terumi immediately abandons the seduction and turns to Kisame to slit his wrists. After letting out a good pint of blood leak out, Kisame once again slips into deep unconsciousness and Terumi applies medical chakra to his head. She remarks, “I didn’t know you were a daoist.”

Azula tenses somewhat.

Terumi continues, “The powers of Dao are strange. It makes sense that Konoha would pick you up.  You know you almost accidentally killed Kisame while you were unconscious? I had to coat the hand I used to carry you with dense chakra or my skin would be missing a layer or two.”

With slight nervousness, Azula asks, “Er.. how?”

“Your body seemed like it was ‘eating’ Kisame and me. Even your severe injuries were recovered in almost no time.” conjectures Terumi. She puts a finger to her chin and says, “Huh.. reminds me of a certain set of big beasties..”

Goosebumps start to rise on the back of Azula’s neck. For a moment, she feels an intense killing intent from Terumi. Just for a moment. Compelled to explain herself, Azula crosses her arms and retorts, “I’m not idiotic enough to fall to corruption.”

“Is that so..? Well, it doesn’t matter.” Terumi shakes her head and declares, “All that matters is Kiri overcoming this storm.”

The response sounds more like she is speaking to herself than Azula. What Terumi leaves unsaid is that Azula isn’t strong enough to make a difference either way, but the woman in question picks up on the implication anyway.

It leaves Azula.. dissatisfied. She closes her eyes and recalls Nuwa and her children. Even though Nuwa had told her not to take overt action on Zina’s supposed fate, there was a burning urge to get stronger within Azula so that she might be able to protect their child. If she is strong enough when the time comes, no one will be able to harm Zina.

With a grim expression, Azula thinks, ‘In the battle with Kisame, I was hopelessly outmatched. If I hadn’t gotten lucky that my lightning counters his water specialization, I would be dead. There is danger on the horizon as well. It is practically inevitable that Tobi will try to hunt me down at some point. I cannot allow myself to remain this weak..’

She lets out a defeated sigh, sits down on her makeshift seaweed and flat rock slab and admits to Terumi, “I want to get stronger.” The admission isn’t only to Terumi. It’s also to herself. She cannot afford to continue holding back.

Having finally finished repairing Kisame’s skull with medical chakra, Terumi slits his wrist again. The sharkman’s natural regeneration will stop the bleeding, but the purpose is to prolong his unconsciousness. The Mizukage dusts her hands off and displays a seductive smile once more. She raises her brow and requests clarity, “What are you asking?”

Azula had made promises to herself long ago, despite knowing that Nuwa wouldn’t mind. She frowns deeply and her body lightly trembles with frustration. Perhaps flexibility is a virtue and promises are indeed made to be broken. Her apology to her lover would have to come later. Whenever she makes up her mind, she never regrets or overthinks.

Azula swiftly removes the tool belt on her hips and pushes her trousers down to her knees. Her half-flaccid cock is revealed. She says somberly to Terumi, “Dual cultivate with me. Make me stronger.”

(A/N: Long hiatus due to no inspiration. /cry)