The air hit my face as I jumped into the air, using Hirenkyaku to return to the camp as quickly as possible.
"Cheer up, kid. There are allies you need to keep alive," said Kurama.
"Yeah... I feel like I've killed more than enough for the rest of my life today," I hummed under my breath as I neared the camp, the plains covered in my crystal coming back into view.
I quickly descended onto the crystal plains, recharging my chakra to full. From where I stood, I could see that the camp was a complete mess. The hasty defenses we had erected were either ignored or blown through, and no wall of the camp remained intact. Prominent breaches littered the outermost wall, and I could only guess that the inner ones fared no better.
I felt out for the most pressing fights, uncertain of how many of the contacts were on my side. I decided to free up Zabuza first; he was surrounded by what I assumed was an elite team, with every opponent exceeding the usual jonin in chakra reserves, except for one.
The last contact was intriguing. He felt almost like a civilian, but when I focused my Observation Haki on him, I felt power thrumming beneath his skin. He was either capable of using Haki or was some kind of taijutsu master.
Hiruzen claimed that Conqueror's Haki felt exactly like something Hashirama could do. If Hashirama could use Haki, even subconsciously, then it was technically possible for someone else to figure it out. I didn't like that line of thought at all. Dealing with Kage-level opponents was already challenging enough; I really didn't need them to know Haki on top of their already ridiculous arsenals.
As I neared Zabuza's position, the mist grew thicker. His mastery of the Silent Killing and Hidden Mist Jutsu was likely the only thing keeping him alive against so many opponents who should be close to his level of power.
Thankfully, I didn't need to see my opponent to strike true. My right hand flew through a series of five hand seals, and I took aim.
"Lightning Style: Charged Beam!"
My exclamation accompanied a thin beam of plasma that shot from my mouth, piercing directly through one of the ninjas. I turned my head to try and bisect another, but he raised his katana and cut the beam in half. He was the one I suspected of being a Haki user, and his sword seemed to be covered in a layer of Armament as he defended himself against my jutsu.
"Ryuuzaki?! You're back?" Zabuza's voice came from the mist, and he quickly regrouped with me.
"I managed to destroy their camp. Their reserves are either dead or routed," I quietly informed him; our enemies didn't need to know what had happened.
"Good. Let's take care of these clowns, then!" He grinned, his bloodlust prevailing even through clear exhaustion.
He wasn't severely injured, but I could see a few cuts along his arms. It seemed that the Haki user managed to catch him by surprise a few times or even cut through Zabuza's sword.
"Do you have enough in the tank for a big water jutsu?" I asked Zabuza, who quickly buried the tip of his sword into the ground to free up his hands. "Heh, I always have enough in me for a jutsu," he grinned as he went through the hand signs that were becoming familiar to me.
"Water Style: Great Waterfall!" he announced, aiming directly into the enemy formation, intending to split them up. The enemies, however, decided to face his jutsu head-on and erected a massive water wall.
On its own, the Great Waterfall jutsu would not even splash over the wall they created, but that was before I added my touch to it.
"Shiden!"
The massive surge of deep purple lightning danced across Zabuza's jutsu, transforming the violent vortex of rushing water into a vortex of electricity that effortlessly pierced the water wall. I heard pained cries from two of our opponents who couldn't avoid the attack, the lightning shredding their bodies as it traveled, cutting them apart.
"Three left..." Zabuza grumbled as he picked up his sword.
"I'll handle the swordsman; can you take care of the other two?" I asked him, eager to fight another Haki user. That fight would be interesting, no matter how strong he was.
"Yeah. Be careful though; that guy is dangerous," Zabuza warned me before vanishing back into the mist, likely looking for the best way to attack.
—
I quickly created three Shadow Clones before making my way toward the swordsman. With so much chakra siphoned by the crystals, I could replenish my chakra quickly and make the clones more than capable of assisting my allies. The crystal had spread this far on its own; all the chakra-saturated water splashing onto the ground made it grow much further than I had anticipated.
This fight deserved a better location than the middle of Zabuza's misty playground, so I dashed toward the swordsman, preparing a slash that would blast him away from the camp, just in case things got too destructive.
As I charged at him, he blocked my sword swing, his eyes widening as he was knocked off his feet and thrown back. As we clashed, I could clearly see that Armament Haki coated his katana and part of his hand.
He was sent flying by my Haki-enhanced strike. It wouldn't hurt him, but it would give us space to fight. I was baffled by how a ninja had figured this out on his own; Haki worked in a way that was almost antithetical to chakra control.
Haki was a manifestation of spiritual energy through one's willpower. Ninjas were used to mixing spiritual energy with their physical energy to create chakra. Even if a ninja were born with Haki, there was a very high chance they would never learn to control it due to their training focusing solely on creating chakra inside their bodies. If I hadn't known what Haki was from my past life, I doubt that I would have been able to figure it out.
I landed some distance away from my opponent. He was a rather average-looking fellow, all things considered. He was slightly shorter than Zabuza and looked like what one would expect a ninja to look like.
He had a muscular build and a few scars on his forearms, no doubt from previous fights or rigorous training. His hair was blood-red and only long enough to shade his eyes as he shook his head to reorient himself. There was a scar running across one of his eyes, reminiscent of Kakashi's.
"You have an interesting fighting style," I said, a smile returning behind my mask. This was much closer to the kind of fight I was looking for.
"Oh yeah? You pack quite the punch for someone who has all those cherry blossoms to kill for him," he snarked, getting into a fighting stance, his sword gleaming with the black sheen of Armament Haki.
I responded in kind, coating my sword in Armament and assuming my own stance, giving him an opportunity to take the offensive. His eyes widened as he observed me.
"You can use it… you're only the second person I've met in my life who can." He sounded suddenly unsure of his next action.
"Name's Sharaku, Uzumaki Sharaku," he introduced himself, a grin eerily similar to Zabuza's creeping onto his face.
"Haruno Ryuuzaki. Quite rare to see an Uzumaki these days. Didn't your clan carry a kekkei genkai too? Why help eradicate those like you?" I asked, shifting my stance to be more defensive.
"Try being born without it," he retorted, charging at me and swinging his katana down toward my body.
I met his attack head-on, testing his Armament against mine. The clash created a powerful shockwave around us, crushing small rocks into fine dust and blowing away the small pools of water beneath our feet.
I knocked his blade aside and attacked, maintaining my Haki enhancement, which was slightly better than his own. At this point, I was curious if his Haki would grow in battle like mine usually did.
"So, you were born without the ability to harden your chakra into constructs? Or are you lacking the sensory ability?" I asked as we clashed again, my superior enhancement pushing him back.
"Can use neither. I'm completely normal. It wasn't fun growing up back in Uzushiogakure," he replied, focusing up and moving to the side to evade another of my attacks.
"I would be lying if I said I missed my clan much. My will to live and grow stronger was clearly superior to theirs." He cackled and counterattacked, drawing on more power as he did.
"Truly? Then show me that willpower," I challenged, releasing a small blast of Conqueror's Haki as he charged in to attack again.
He didn't stop, and this time, as our blades met, the air crackled with power, and I could feel the will of two Conquerors clash. It wasn't a large clash, and I doubted it would affect anyone nearby, but it was still significant.
He probably couldn't do it consciously, but he clearly had the right disposition and limited access to even that power. A hoarse laugh escaped my lips before I could stop it.
"Finally, someone else who can use it," I murmured, attacking again and pushing more Armament into my sword, trying to push his Haki further.
Not having Itachi around was painful for my Conqueror's training. Until today, he was the only one I knew who had it.
"You said you met someone else with this power... who was it?" I asked as our blades clashed violently, making the ground shake as we fought for dominance.
"One crazy bastard from Kumo... He went rogue over ten years ago, though," he replied through gritted teeth, his Armament slowly but surely growing in power.
I disengaged from the clash, sliding my sword along the flat of his blade to attack again, forcing him to jump back to avoid being cut. His grin didn't waver; it seemed he was just as eager to face another Haki user.
"Your Armament is good... and you seem to have access to Conqueror's too," I commented. "But I wonder, can you actually use it?" I posed this question as I unleashed a powerful blast of my Conqueror's Haki, limiting the area but not the strength of the attack.
His own Conqueror's flared instinctively, pushing back against my will. His back hunched as he took a step back, but he didn't kneel or fall. That alone set him above most ninjas I had ever faced.
"So, Conqueror's is what you call this, and Armament is the enhancement. Those names fit well," he commented, flaring his own Haki, trying to mimick my usage of it.
"Yeah. Haki grows through adversity. Just like strong will, Haki strengthens when encountering resistance. The more danger, the faster it grows," I explained succinctly. I wouldn't divulge details about training methods in case he survived this fight, but sharing something he most likely noticed on his own didn't feel too risky.
I charged again, infusing my sword with Conqueror's Haki; the blackish-red lightning, visible only to the two of us, danced across the blade as I swung it.
His katana couldn't withstand the attack.
The sound of shattered steel filled the air, echoing through the eerie silence for a few seconds as my sword broke his in our clash. He barely managed to twist his body, so my attack only caused him an injury, but the force flung him to the side, landing roughly.
Despite being outmatched, his gaze held no fear. He got up as I approached, switching to enhancing his fists instead of relying on his sword.
I sealed Senbonzakura into my arm, ready to demonstrate that even without my sword, I could pack quite a punch.
—
"Why do you fight? For Yagura, I mean," I asked the stubborn man, unsure if I should just end it and go help my clones or show him the full extent of what Haki could do.
"I fight for the Daimyo, not Yagura." He corrected. "He gave me home and hope. That man showed me more respect in a single day than my own parents ever did," he said, making me pause.
Being born unable to use a special clan technique could be quite harsh for a child, and some clans were extreme in dealing with such so-called failures.
"I fight this war so that we, normal folk, won't have to compete with monsters. So that nobody dies on a battlefield because of some bullshit jutsu that only a specific family can use," he elaborated, a clear distaste written across his face. "Hijutsu, I can understand... keeping techniques a secret. But being able to win far more fights than you should just because you were born 'better'? That, I cannot allow." His distaste made some sense, even if in a very twisted way.
"Funny. I fight so that a child won't be killed simply for the sin of being born," I tell him in an ice-cold voice. "Neither of my parents, nor their parents, were ever ninjas; I come from a civilian family." I state bluntly.
"And yet, had I been born here, I would be killed for having my Crystal Release. Kekkei Genkai appear randomly; you cannot prevent that from happening." I remind him, although I hold little hope for convincing him. "I was born different from my family, just like you were."
My words clearly don't reach him, and he attacks. His foot misses my body as I dodge, using Observation Haki to predict his every move.
"Do you think I didn't notice the fear when they saw me best a chunin, even though I was still just a child?" I ask, finally voicing what I've been ignoring for some time.
"And the looks I get from my sister's friends. Or the whispers of fellow ninjas when they think I can't hear them?" My fist connects with his ribcage, sending him skidding back. "Any anomaly is treated with caution, sometimes with hostility." My mind wanders to darker thoughts as I try to shake myself out of them.
"The world sees me as a merciless monster to be hunted down. Being born with a bloodline isn't all that fun, especially if you show talent on top of it." I sigh, knowing part of this was my own fault.
Maybe if I had stayed at the academy and coasted a little instead of rushing forward all the time... Unfortunately, I would never know.
"Tough shit, kid. I guess we both do things differently. And I'll be damned if I don't give it my all," he spat on the ground and got into a stance again.
"You pointed a weapon at the world when you killed so many ninjas in that 'One-month War.' Did you really expect them to just accept it?" His mocking tone made it clear he considered me a naive child, which, to be fair, I definitely was naive back then, hoping that Itachi would take most of the credit.
"Once you draw a weapon, you better be prepared to have a weapon drawn at you." He breathed heavily before charging forward, his arm glowing with Haki infusion.
"I expect nothing from the world anymore. I can only hope that the corpses I leave behind will lead to a better world by the time I lie among them," I sigh, enhancing my fist far beyond my opponent's ability.
I meet his charge with my own, cocking my fist back.
"Meteor Impact!" I cry out as our fists collide with a screeching sound.
The Haki on his arm holds only for a fraction of a second before his entire left arm explodes in a shower of blood and bone, completely gone almost all the way to his shoulder, and His body is flung backward, flying a good hundred meters before hitting the ground at an awkward angle. If he isn't dead now, he will be soon due to the heavy bleeding.
"Guardians for the Daimyo are no joke. I can only guess that a team of top jonin could handle him reliably." I sigh heavily, finally understanding why the Kage can't simply seize power.
Daimyo have people like Sharaku serving under them, and something tells me he wasn't even the strongest one. Even Asuma, one of the Fire Daimyo's Guardians, was no pushover, so having someone even stronger is not out of the question. Not to mention the sheer number of samurai on top of such powerhouses.
I turn my gaze back to the camp-turned-battlefield. It seems to be dying down; most of the ninjas are escaping to the ocean, where the surviving rebels can't safely follow them due to the presence of the Hozuki sentries.
My head turns back to Sharaku to check on him, but by the time I look, hes body is already gone, perhaps taken by his ally, or maybem he found strenght to run on his own. I sgh, and my thoughts return to the rebel survivors. I can only speculate until I receive the memories from my Shadow Clones; they'll be no doubt interesting once they pop.
At least it seems that some people were able to survive this chaotic extraction, or at least what was supposed to be an extraction.
As I rush to the camp, I count those I believe to be our survivors and come up with twenty-eight, not counting myself and Zabuza, who is also on his way from his own fight.
Exactly thirty survivors out of almost four hundred who were in this very camp just last night. It's more than I reasonably expected, but much less than I hoped for. Even with my rampage, the numbers were too much to handle.