Chapter 83: When the Levee Breaks
The walls of his padded cell began to bulge inward and creak, the pads popping off and tearing. A whirring noise grew and grew and grew so loud Kannin thought he was going to go deaf; but despite this, Kannin put all his focus on sucking out as much chakra out of the room as he could. The walls started shaking even harder, like three category 10 earthquakes all happening at once
Just when he thought the room couldn't take anymore, it all collapsed. The cell was sucked into the center, conveniently where Kannin was dangling, helpless. Giant clumps of sheet rock, wood, and padding came flying in at Kannin, striking him on the chest and legs. After a healthy barrage, the space fully collapsed in on itself, shrinking into a singularity, before expanding infinitely outward.
-
Kannin appeared where the block of jade was once lying on the ground, which had now exploded into a fine green mist all around him. The moment he felt the free air on his skin, he was also finally able to sense that elusive natural energy. It felt as though he was submerged in an icebath as a chilling sensation crept along his flesh, from the crown of his scalp the very depths of his toes.
He focused on that feeling, and let it sink into his skin, where he sensed a new energy type invading his body, an energy so volatile and dense he was surprised it didn't start shutting down his organs instantly. He still couldn't fully control the absorption of the natural energy, but it seemed like it had been perfect this first time around. Complete absence to virtual inundation made his sensitivity extremely acute.
For those who were watching, Kannin appeared through the creamy-green haze with a wild look in his eyes, and they saw strange markings flash on his face--deep black lines which traveled from the inside corners of his eyes to the corners of his mouth, and a paleness covered his lower cheeks. His eyes changed from their normal greenish-blue with a circular iris, to a reddish orange with vertical slits. These markings flashed on and off as Kannin tried his best to balance the natural energy with his physical and mental energy.
Kannin looked around and saw Anbu he didn't recognize, and Warai embroiled in a fight with another Anbu. Seeing the red light flashing from behind the Cat mask, he got an idea of what happened. The first thing he did was flicker towards the Anbu squaring off with Warai, only to completely overblow his speed and trip on a tree root, and was sent flying into a nearby tree trunk.
'Woah,' Kannin thought, 'the power boost from Sage mode is even better than promised. My body can't even keep up with it.'
Getting up from the ground, he rushed at the Bird mask again, this time careful with his pace. To the outside observer, he was still moving at ridiculously rapid speed, and Kannin simply slammed into Bird with his shoulder and sent her flying. He then ran over to Mouse, who was somewhat in shock after seeing Kannin escape, and chopped his neck, knocking Mouse out cold.
Kannin sped over to Tetsu, but before he made it, his Senjutsu chakra ran out and his speed slowed down to a snail's pace. In fact, the massive change in velocity made Kannin throw up a little in his mouth and stumble, but he found his way over to Tetsu anyway.
He was a little confused as to why he was crawling around on the ground until he saw the sealing tag on his spine,
'Clever bastard,' he thought, looking at the tag, 'probably something Orochimaru came up with'
He ripped the tag of Rabbit's back and helped him up, patting him on the shoulder. He led Rabbit back to the rest of the group before asking,
"Where's Kiyo?"
Cat mask scratched his head before saying, "I saw her trapped in a jade box over there" pointing to where she had disappeared into the brush with Dog at the beginning of fight.
Kannin ran over and covered his right hand in lightning chakra, before plunging it into the glassy surface of of the jade prison, shattering it into pieces. The shards were still sharp though, and left a nasty gash on Kannin's arm, which started to bleed profusely as the massive vulpine form of Kiyo leapt out at him.
'Okay the arm thing isn't so cool looking' Kannin thought, wrapping his arm with some spare cloth.
Stumbling over to the rest of the group, leaning on Kiyo, the exhaustion hit Kannin. That seal took an immense toll on Kannin's mind, and just a few moments after getting out, his brain was demanding sleep, just as he started to call out to the trio before him, "Nice to see y-" he collapsed to the ground.
-
When Kannin woke up, he was in a familiar hospital bed--the one he was put in after getting slashed to bits at the hands of the Iwa army. When his vision cleared up, he saw his mother sitting by the window, perusing a magazine, and a nurse checking a folder at the foot of the bed.
His entire body ached like it never had before when he tried to move his arms. He moved himself up to get a better view of the room, at which point both the nurse and his mother put their papers down and turned their attention to the boy in the bed.
The nurse rushed over and put a flashlight in his eyes and pressed her fingers on his neck. After a quick examination, the nurse went out to inform the doctors that Kannin was awake. Usagi, on the other hand, came to his bedside and held his hand.
"How long was I out?" Kannin asked hoarsely
Usagi rubbed his hand a little before saying, "3 days."
Kannin grimaced hearing how long he had slept, and rubbed his forehead muttering, "Oh man, I missed my date with Warai."
"I'm sure she'd understand," Usagi sighed, "for me, though, you need to tell me what happened."
Kannin looked at his mom and hated the fact that he was going to have to conceal the truth a little.
"I..." he faltered, trying to think of the words, "I can't really tell you right now--shinobi stuff and all."
Thankfully, the awkwardness was broken by the sudden appearance of Namikaze Minato on the other side of the bed. Usagi jumped at his sudden appearance, and Kannin probably would have too if he wasn't so tired.
"What happened" Minato said, the tone more of a demand than a question.