Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Tsunami found herself much busier for the last few days. Wave had long needed a hero to help save them. Apparently that hero took the form of a pale woman and an orange clad loudmouth. Gato had hurt Wave in every conceivable way; financially, physically, but most of all spiritually. The souls' of the people were so beaten and battered, just barely maintaining a spark of hope due to her father's bridge.

Though it seemed that the human spirit was more resilient than she thought.

It had started with Naruto bringing her a child, badly in need of some food and someone to care. Then Tadashi, who she had thought died in the fire with his son. And then another. And another. And another.

Somehow these lost and lonely people managed to be convinced by a twelve year-old that things could be better. The hope in people, once a dying ember, had managed to become a small candle. A fragile flame that winds of adversity could snuff out, but a far cry from what it once was.

The wonders of what a heartfelt speech, a hug, and some food could accomplish.

So, every day, while her father was out working and the ninja were out training she went by the local town hall. The place had been useless for years anyways. Now it was being used to house those that trickled in needing help. Some of the lost came to help other, and find a reason to get up in the morning. Others because they desperately needed help. In the end Tsunami was proud of their work and what she had managed to pull together. Even if Orochitama had managed to disappear.

Kakashi had assured her that her new friend was perfectly safe, but when a woman just disappeared it was rarely for good reasons.

"Tsunami-san? Did we have any of that stew left over? Some of the kids are saying they are hungry." Tadashi asked. The old man having more life in that sentence than any other time in the last two years.

"Sure. Give them another bowl, but water it down just a little since it's their second one." Tsunami responded as she continued to organize the various boxes of food they had left. Even with the entire crate she started out with, feeding more than 30 people every day had a way of running through supplies quickly.

The peace of the simple task of sorting was shattered with a sudden scream of fear. The sort of scream that came from sheer panic and pierced straight into the part of humans that made them form communities and allowed for things like empathy. It let them know that someone was in danger and made you incapable of ignoring that.

Tsunami rushed out of the small kitchen to see two of Gato's wannabe samurai standing at the entrance. One of them raising a sword to cut down Emiko where she lay on the ground, trembling before the two men.

"Stop it!" She shouted immediately as she ran for the small child, ready to throw herself over the girl to protect her from harm.

It took several confused seconds before Tsunami realized that she was not dead nor in pain.

"What the hell Zori!?"

"That's our target dumbass. We're supposed to take her alive."

Tsunami looked up. The two men were familiar on closer inspection. Zori and Waraji were often the enforcers Gato sent out to get something done. Zori, a man with a young face and long unusually well-kept hair, had one hand on his partner's arm, which had apparently saved her life.

"Yeah, but all the rest of these guys are fair game, right?" Waraji asked with the grin of a feral dog. "We don't need them for shit."

The tension in the room became stifling and Tsunami's blood filled with winter's snow. The dozen people in the room looked to around in a panic before every single gaze fell on her with question in their eyes.

"Do whatever you want. But we got a schedule to keep." Zori said with the same tone that she would tell Inari he had five more minutes to play before going home.

These people were here for her, but they were willing to hurt everyone here. No. Not willing. They didn't do this because they had to. They wanted, more than anything to hurt these people. These monsters in men suits hurt her people, her family, until they just enjoyed pain.

"Mom!" Inari yelled, drawing her attention. Her son, her baby, was only barely being held back from running to her by Tadashi. The old man struggling against the desperation of her son.

"Hey! That's the Tazuna's grandkid right? That means I can cut up Mommy right?" Waraji asked with a sneer.

They would hurt her son?

Tsunami stood, reached into her apron and pulled out the one gift Orochitama had left her that wasn't food. She held a kunai in two hand in front of her and did her best to look threatening.

Going by the two men's laughter, she wasn't doing a good job of it.

"Do you even know how to use that?" Waraji sneered.

"I imagine the pointy end goes into the other person." Tsunami threatened. "Now leave! You aren't welcome here!"

"Oh come on. You're a housewife. You don't have it in you." Zori said with a shake of his head.

Tsunami glanced behind her at the rabble of people behind her. A group of cripples, children, and the elderly. None of them could beat the swordsmen. It would be a hopeless fight.

Then she remembered Orochitama's words.

"One of the most powerful weapons in the world." The pale woman had said, a wistful smile on her face as if picturing a fond memory. "Hope has been the cause of the rise and fall of more countries and causes than you can count. Hope is a powerful thing. It makes people act in ways that aren't in their best interest. It makes people stand up. Put their lives on the line. It makes them rise against tyrants."

She was in need of a powerful weapon. The answer of where to find that though came from a much more straight forward source.

Tsunami straightened herself, steeled her resolve and shouted.

"No! I'm a mother protecting her child. There's nothing I can't do." The cold in her veins was banished away with dragon's fire.

"Oh, come now. You can't-" Zori started to say.

His companion cut him off. "No. She's got it in her." Waraji's scared face, if anything, grew more predatory from this realization.

"Everyone." She said, more confident now than she'd ever been in her life. "I could die here, but that's okay. I have something back that Wave had lost. We've lost our hope and we've been desperate for someone to bring it back but..." A blonde child with eyes of steel flashed in her mind. "Hope is something we give ourselves! And if you don't believe me, I'll show you now!"

Tsunami stepped forward. She couldn't win this fight, but she had a chance at making them lose. Waraji was going for a thrust of his sword. If she threw herself onto the strike she could bury the knife in his throat.

But luck favored Tsunami. The swordsman stumbled at the last second, letting out a cry of surprise for just a moment as his sword went wide and his thrust hit only a little of her clothing, but his stumble also brought his neck onto her knife that much faster. Blood's stench filled the air and in spite of the man's death being her exact intentions she found herself surprised at his sudden demise.

"What?" Zori asked with as much surprise as she felt.

The the rest of her victim's weight fell forward and Tsunami struggled to keep hold of her knife, until it finally ripped out the side of his neck. The blood splattered all over her front and her hand dripped with freshly spilled life.

"H-hey! You'll pay for-"

A frying pan filled with the boiling left overs from breakfast came into her field of vision before dumping it's contents into Zori's face. The hot skillet followed a second after.

The burn covered arms of Tadashi came into view next as they lifted up and smashed into Zori. The attack was uncontrolled and chaotic. Zori managed to get maneuver his sword into the way of kitchen tool, though his other hand was placed on the blade of the weapon to stop the blow. Then Inari, Haruka, and Gin started to beat on the man with crutches, a broom, and a rolling pin.

Before the man could turn his sword against her overly enthusiastic son she ran up, hefted back a leg, and kicked Zori in the head as hard as she could.

He stopped moving.

Mei noticed something off about the sword. It had a dozen exploding tags along it's length and the tags were half a meter from her face. Then, the sword retracted with an even greater speed, helpfully leaving behind a small cloud of pyrotechnic eagerness.

Distance wouldn't be enough for an explosion that close. Mei pushes herself back even as a single hand sign causes the water between herself and the tags swell into a half-dome around the seals, directing the shape of the explosion away from her.

Though the explosion took longer to go off than she'd anticipated. Her foe was either not well versed in exploding tags or...or they were trying to manipulate her into a position!

Mei dashed away as the water under her surged upwards, revealing six cut logs, dragged to the surface by their buoyancy.

All the logs were also coated with a liberal application of exploding tags.

Splinters of wood shattered into every direction. Or at least they did for the brief moment they weren't ash. A quick fireball turning the projectiles into harmless dust. Though the explosions and water vapor were doing terrible things for her acid mist.

"Oh, I'm glad you knew how to protect yourself from my wood exploding all over you." The annoyingly cheerful voice called.

The joke made her eye twitch. It was low tier body humor, which truly was the lowest form of comedy.

"How uncouth. You have adopted the look of a mature woman, but clearly on the inside you are a twelve year-old boy that just learned he can say things about his parent's private activities."

Mei followed up the comment with a fireball. As the space between Orochimaru and herself ignited, Mei's hand flashed through seals.

Before Mei could get the technique off her fireball was taken care of in an explosion of water. Considering she hadn't seen any hand signs, that probably meant her offence was taken out by an exploding tag. Again.

"Suiton: Dueling Dragons!"

The water to either side of her foe bulged up until two serpentine forms made of water spiraled out and around the pale woman. They travelled at a break neck pace and swirled inward to rend flesh with their jaws. Though if one touched any part of the dragons they'd find that part of them missing in short order.

Mei attempted to throw in another ninjutsu to drop on her foe, but in moments her dragons were destroyed in an explosion of water and wind.

Standing in the same place, her foe flipped her wind tussled hair and straightened her untouched outfit.

"Futon: Great Breakthrough." The woman said, apparently in explanation to what happened to the water trying to bite her head off.

Mei restrained herself from attacking again. A difficult task for her, since she usually played where offence was the best defense. Her foe was stopping her ninjutsu at every step, but the woman was also playing on defense. The only attacks thrown by the Sannin were to get Mei to move and to disperse the acid cloud. It was unusual. Even the most defensive shinobi throw out attacks more often than that.

Internally she molded her chakra for an attack and then waited. It was time to see what her opponent would do when given the opportunity to go on the offensive.

"Ara ara." The woman said, passing a hand through her hair. "It's getting so steamy. My hair is going to frizz. Not the look I was hoping to have later today."

Her hair? This was a fight, not a day at the spa.

"Don't worry. You won't have to worry about your hair much longer." Mei taunted.

"Really, Mei-chan? With that coiffure? You must know that a woman always worries about her hair."

Mei did grant that line some credence. For a woman in the male dominated shinobi world it was not merely enough destroy your opponents, but you also had to look good doing it.

"Yes, well the dead are beyond such worries." Mei commented as she lowered her arms further, opening herself more for an attack.

An attack that didn't come.

Her opponent just stood there with a serene smile. "There is no need for either of us to die here Mei-chan. Just let the fight on the bridge resolve without interference."

The bridge fight? That's it? That's all she's asking for? That couldn't be right.

The woman was stalling for something clearly, and it wasn't this fight. The bridge fight might be something she cares about, but there's no way she was here just to make sure three brats didn't die to Zabuza.

Mei's mind raced as she tried to think things through. Continuing the fight would just draw out the clock longer on whatever it was that Orochimaru was going for. She wanted Gato's company. There was no way she'd actually be able to do that though, Gato had ensured that there was no way to have the business just be signed over to another person. Gato dies, the whole business fails.

"Just wanting me to sit back? Sounds like the logic of someone who thinks she will lose. Running out of exploding tags?" Mei asked.

It was a strong possibility for why she was wanting the fight to end. Exploding tags weren't cheap and she had been burning through them the entire fight. However someone of Orochimaru's caliber didn't need those to stall a fight. They probably knew hundreds of ways to be a slippery bitch.

No, the business was the key.

"Oh no. It just seems a waste of effort when I recently found this nice box of exploding tags going to waste in one of Gato's warehouses. So I figured I'd let that do the work for me." Orochimaru said before raising a single hand to her mouth and let out a soft giggle.

Wait. A box of...

Son of a bitch! The woman was holding her off with MIST'S EXPLODING TAGS!

So now, the longer the fight went on and the more Mei fought, the more those exploding tags would dwindle.

She cursed her decision to keep them in the warehouse. She had thought it the right decision. The rebellion needed food, clothing, and shelter. She figured the tags were safer elsewhere and it would be better to keep them offsite since they weren't needed until the big day. After all, food and clothes can be explained away. A giant crate of exploding tags was more difficult to explain.

But now that decision was blowing away her lava and her mist with judicious use of explosions.

She'd be impressed if it didn't piss her off so much.

"You are fighting me...with weapons we bought?" Mei growled out.

"Maybe pay on delivery next time?" Orochimaru offered. "Or maybe don't do business with tyrannical businessmen with an inferiority complex? The second one seems better advice."

Mei let out a scream of rage and launched a deluge of lava at her opponent. Then immediately aimed elsewhere.

The conversation had also made something click for Mei.

What was a business but it's assets? That was the misdirect. She was here stalling so that she could go for the docks and all it's cargo. And whoever was doing that probably wasn't nearly as strong as Orochimaru.

It was time for Mei to take advantage of her greatest strength.

Ninjutsu with area of effect techniques grew far more deadly when one had to worry about their allies positions.

With that, Mei launched three ship sized balls of lava at the almost completed bridge.