After a restful night, I woke up to the sound of yelling, clashing swords, and fighting. Opening my tent and stepping out to see what all the fuss was about I came to view a battle erupting right before my eyes. A few men were brawling with each other, while swords and knife fights skirted around it, sometimes mingling with the unarmed, fist fighters. Surveying the broken and tangled pirate troupe, I couldn't find Bearpaw anywhere to be found. Had he been on the ship? I wondered how many might have survived the flaming, drifting ship as it collided with the rocky shore and cliff face.
As the fighting unfolded below me, a sharp bellowing called down from behind me, thundering through the cavern. All the men stopped their fighting and turned around, their eyes transfixed on something behind me. I slowly turned, the loud thunderous bellow having made me just a bit nervous. What lay behind me, was Bearpaw. He stood, six feet and ten inches tall, his claw-like weapons sprung out three inches from his knuckles. The sharp steel dripped with the blood of two mutinous and dead crew mates that lay at his feet.
"Quit you're pathetic squabblin' you bloody idiots!" Bearpaw roared, his voice still thunderous and loud. Everyone lowered their arms and waited for his response. "Obviously this is sabotage. A foreigner is in our midst. It ain't me lying to ya just to get rid of ya! Hell, I loved my ship! My beautiful, beautiful ship…" He sounded as if he was about to cry, the depression of the captain echoed through the crew mates as their heads went down as well in remembrance of their lost ship. Bearpaw sniffed once and returned to face his men. "Now, everyone line up! I ain't gonna let this spy live a second longer!"
This was not good. Things had been good when the crew decided to turn on each other. Several bodies littered the floor. I made my way to the rest of the crew, forming up in the line while I counted the number of dead or dying that littered the cavern floor. Seventeen. Calculating, it meant there were only twenty-five of them left. They were in no shape to try and attack the village now. I suppressed my grin, instead using my Kekkei Genkai training to put on a confident swagger as I stood with the rest of 'my' ship mates. A few heads leaned out to look at each other, as if they could spot who the traitor was among them.
Bearpaw slowly strode towards us, his candid walk revealing years of trained sea legs that were still being re-accustomed to the solid and unwavering earth. His eyes flicked from one man to the next, squinting at those who locked eyes with him before he looked them up and down, tilting his head back and forth. As he made his way down the line, Bearpaw would abruptly clash his claws together, the scrape and sparks going straight at the person's face to make them jump. He stopped two men down from me.
The man Bearpaw gave extra attention to was just a bit shorter than Bearpaw was but just as big. His dark skin tensed up, his muscles flexing in nervousness and fright while Bearpaw leaned his brutish face against the shorter man, stopping only an inch away. A few sniffs and Bearpaw sunk his claws into the man's gut. "I told you Naomi was mine, Tsutsu. Hope she was worth it." The dark-skinned Tsutsu gasped for breath, blood spat from his mouth as he collapsed onto the ground. Bearpaw resumed his search.
I cursed under my breath. For a second I thought I was going to get out of this. Instead, he kept on going, breezing through the other two men that stood beside me. Finally reaching me, his eyes began to gleam when he looked me up and down. I arched an eyebrow in questioning whether he was checking me out as a captain of the ship or as something else. His eyes met mine and he couldn't help but chuckle. "Oi, doll, can't remember noticing pretty here before."
Uh oh. The jig was up, I felt it in my gut. My hands gripped my tonfas that were hooked on my belt loops, ready for the lunge of his claws. However, Bearpaw just kept his smile, turned sideways and moved on to the man on my left. I still watched him, thinking there had to be something about what he had said to me. In a quick moment, Bearpaw thrusted his left hand out as if to strike the man next to me. The adrenaline rushed within me and the moment seemed to take forever as I watched the trajectory of the claws slowly arc towards me. My left arm reacted, swinging out my tonfa and adjusting the trajectory of Bearpaw's left hand back to the man on my left. The blades sunk deep into the guys flesh.
Bearpaw swung his right hand for me, his anger boiling at having killed another one of his crew. My right arm swung out the other tonfa, tucking it inside Bearpaw's thrusting right arm and pushing it out and away. The blades sunk instead into the man on my right, his head lurching forward from the weight of force in the thrust. So Bearpaw did indeed figure out that I wasn't one of his crew. Now the only solution was to fight my way out. With these two men dead and Bearpaw already killing Tsutsu, the numbers were down to fourteen men and Bearpaw. I jumped two meters back as Bearpaw pulled out his claws, the rest of his men brandishing their own swords as well. Time to see what i was made of.
The men surrounded me as Bearpaw waved them to attack me. He couldn't wait very long, anger overtaking him as he launched forward into the air, both claws surging ahead of him, aiming for my head. I placed my hands on the ground where I stood, forming a seal that activated in time to form a dome of fire around me. The swirling flames burned Bearpaw, his howls being the only thing that went through the flames and reaching my ears. I placed another seal in the dome, making the flames rush around with greater intensity and speed until balls of fire rushed out in different directions. With that, six of the crew members burst into flames after being hit by the fireballs. Their screams echoed as they jumped into the water to save themselves.
Releasing the seals, I came out of the fire dome with three kunai in my right hand, both of my tonfas pocketed for the moment. I charged up these kunai with Raiton energy, tossing one into the water and using the electricity shock the six pirates resting their burned bodies in the water. Six down, eight more to go, and then Bearpaw would be all mine. He clambered up to see my glowing kunai in hand. He barked for his men to charge and so they did, all of them yelling as they raised or pointed their swords at me.
Two men came from the right, one had his sword raised for a slashing movement while his partner pointed the blade to strike at my heart. At the same time, a third man rushed from the opposite side of me, pointing his blade at my gut. Ducking and sidestepping to my left, I passed the solo man's pointed sword, letting me elbow him in the back, surging him further. The man's sword pierced right through his compatriot on the other side, the one that had raised his sword up, not being able to adapt to my sudden dodge. The angle of their attack was perfect for me and brutal for them as the third man that had come in partnering with the slashing pirate, pierced the solo man with his own sword. I ran around to face him as he was the only one that didn't get a gut full of sword, stabbing his chest with my left kunai to stun him before slitting his throat.
Three more down, five to go and then Bearpaw would be mine.
The other five had also charged in, but seeing what happened stalled them. They backed back up and seemed to mull over what to do. I slowly sidestepped in a circle, viewing each one of the crew as they planned their next move. Taking advantage of their hesitancy, I reached back into my pouch and pulled out my pack of metsubishi, holding them in my hand with my kunai. I made my hands dance in the air, letting the knives flow through the air gracefully, all in an attempt to distract them of what I was planting on the ground around me. One full circle of metsubishi finally planted, I stopped and waited for their next attack.
They rushed me in waves, one man coming at me head on while being closely followed by two more which then had three more to arrive shortly after them. They had spread themselves out to surround me and throw me off, and to be honest, I was slightly impressed. Changing my tactics, I cut off my Raiton jutsu and switched to a Katon bukijutsu. My two kunai were instantly lit aflame and I began to twirl with my arms stretched wide at my sides. The flames grew and grew til they could grow no more. A spinning inferno five meters long spread out from me and scorched all three of them as they closed in on me, my timing of the jutsu impeccable. The brushing of the hot air against my face as I twirled lit me up in waves of happiness. I was dancing again. How long had it been since I had a good dance like this one? I could not remember.
The men fell down and tried to put out the flames but they were scorched, their bodies gradually stilling from their frantic and chaotic movements as each died by the flames. Now only Bearpaw remained. He stood, tall and brooding in his depressing situation. Heavy breaths noisily billowed from his nose as he huffed and puffed. His eyes frantically took in the dead as he furiously cursed at me. "You little bitch! You've ruined everything!"
After I had stopped my spinning fire jutsu, Bearpaw made another leap at me, the same as before. Was he really so stupid to use the same move? I ducked low under his leap and raised up my hands to grab him, pulling against his momentum and slamming him to the rocky cavern floor. He spun around his body to face me, but it was too late for another attack. My hands were on his legs, a seal being formed over his body. The blotches of ink rising and wrapping around his body, paralyzing him completely. Reaching out with one hand, I picked up one of his crew mate's swords. Crawling up onto his chest while maintaining the seal, I sliced down at his neck. I kept cutting and cutting like it was steak until finally his head came off.
Silence overwhelmed me and the cavern as I dropped the sword to the ground, leaning back against my folded legs. I was actually tired, having used quite a bit of energy for this fight. The endorphins rushed through me, the heighetened adrenaline still flowing. The feeling was glorious. Oh, how great this mission had been for me to take it on! I clambered to my feet and walked back to the tent I had claimed the day before. The day was nearly over and there was still the walk back to the town that had to be done. Exhausted from the fight, I went to sleep in the bloody and scorched campsite.
Training Fuuinjutsu A-->S 4135/4000 COMPLETE