Sage or Death(P2)

Kaizoku had blown away the sphere of Nature Energy, leaving me to sit and recoil as the world with [Sage Mode], however fleeting, was brighter than I imagined. It was the most startling change to my perception, more so than the rippling strength I felt pulse within my hands.

Kaizoku's personal sea chamber was full of Nature Energy, the water glowed a bright blue-green to my eyes, fine particles of debris, carcasses and scum floated around in it making me cringe at the thought I'd swam in it. But at the same time, the colour appealed to my senses as a natural born Water Nature user, I could sense a stronger attunement with the element, stronger than I did with my Wind Nature even though both had increased.

The air was heavy with the same otherworldly glow. There were clumps of gas or perhaps just Nature Chakra that lit up the room in a manner that made everything I'd seen feel like the descriptions of life from a blind man.

Kaizoku had his secrets too but perhaps a summon animal like him didn't have enough enemies powerful enough to make him bother hiding them better than under his bed. Both the clumps of Chakra in the air and the luminosity of the water were significantly increased in certain spots. I counted two before I sensed the residual Nature Chakra still in my body begin to waste out of my pores, leaking out uselessly even as I quickly shut my eyes and breathed in a vain attempt to claw the power of the Sage back.

But it was gone and all I had left was Kaizoku's hot breath against my neck. He snorted down at me, thoroughly amused, "I have had few students but all made that sour face once they were plunged back into darkness." He held me up above the water on the feathered part of his tail and let out a low rumble of a laugh.

I merely smiled, "So I'm a student now, that's good. We can move on to the next lesson."

His barbels reached over, longer and thicker than any actual human arm, it poked my neck and I felt more of the Nature Chakra fall out of my body, "You must be prepared to become kin with all this haste. The power I have given you a taste to meddle with is not one that should be taken lightly or for granted."

"I know that." I said.

"No. You know only the augmented strength, speed, stamina, perception. The enhanced justu and all the destruction you may wrought upon your enemies with it." Kaizoku shook his head at me, "I will give you these things and I will show you the path to more if you do not die first."

"I have the Three Tailed Beast within me, the one you so call turtle as if you hold more strength than it. I will not die from what you have to impart on me."

Kaizoku reared his head away and looked upon me with an intensity, "Arrogance…as always. Very well, I will gift you more to balance, more to learn and master."

Pleased, I fell to a crouch on his tail and waited, "That's great. When you're ready."

"No. When you are ready. You have not brought me another five score drowned lungs, until you do."

My eyes flew open at that but rather than yell at the great summon whose eyes were hastily becoming the only things I could see, I nodded and asked, "What do five hundred drowned souls do for you, what do you benefit from the dead, Kaizoku?"

Though I'd already glimpsed carcasses drifting near the bottom of the reserved sea Kaizoku had for himself, I doubted he was going through all the trouble of bargaining with a greedy summoner just to break a meal.

Where I had doubts I also had theories. There were at least four of the floating corpses in the Nature Chakra rich sea and all of them, as I saw, had features of aquatic life. Gills, fins, webbed hands and feet. They could be his past…failed students or they could be life itself.

Something that has intrigued me about Kaizoku's realm was the variety of the creatures within it. I understood from my memories that the Toad and Snake summon realms did have differently built creatures that still fell under the animal path in question but Kaizoku was different.

He himself seemed like an amalgamation of a Sea Serpent, Unagi and perhaps even a slice of dragon by the way his head was shaped and decorated with stalactites of ice. I wondered if the corpses bloated from drowning had any path to becoming one of the denizens that lived within his colossal, underwater tower.

"Do not extend your newfound arrogance unto me, Mizukage. I do not question what you wish to do with the power I bestow nor do I care for your curiosity. Answer my bargain or be gone."

I bit my cheek in annoyance. The great serpent was short and to with everything it seemed. But I'd already anticipated that beyond all its wisdom as a Sage or what not, the serpent would lust for death continuously as long as it got a taste. This was no honourable test of worth and truth of inner strength, Kaizoku didn't care about his summoners as long as they fed him what he wanted. 

It might be more likely those corpses are past students then. I blinked away from his gaze as I thought this. In that case, what choice do I have? 

Isobu spoke within me, "None. The perception Senjutsu will allow you is essential to anticipating the enemy within your walls, isn't it?"

I sighed, ignoring how Kaizoku growled, "So…I guess another five hundred."

"Criminals, scum of your human world, unwanted as much as I am feared. You will not be judged."

"Comparing yourself to criminals isn't making it any easier to sacrifice them to Kaizoku's mysterious whims."

For a moment Isobu was silent, I thought he'd said all he'd had to say when he spoke again, "Don't you feel any closer to chakra now that you have bathed in its most natural form?"

I quickly picked up on what he was implying without him needing to go further. I shut my eyes and searched myself for a change, if there was one. "Yes, I think…I think I can tell the difference now. There's a light inside like Nature Chakra but…not."

"That is Yin and Yang, Yagura, you have finally found them but it is not enough and neither is Kaizoku's bargain if it means you are buried under guilt."

"I have no guilt for criminals due their death and justice. But this, if I can't know what he does with them I can't be sure there is justice in any of it, it just feels like another horrid crime and with me as its perpetrator."

"How long will you take to decide, Mizukage? Or perhaps you did not feel the strength you could have in the palm of your hands long enough?" Kaizoku spoke as a devil on my shoulder and I gritted my teeth in anger for I had no else to turn to.

"You try to extort me and won't even let me think about whether or not I want to be scammed?" I sneered up at the yellow eyed predator.

"Yagura, what I mean is, now that you can perceive Yin and Yang, you only need to continue with Kaizoku's demands until you can gather and contain Nature Chakra. If you focus on learning how to contain it, I will help you to gather it."

"You can do that? Oh, I remember." Indeed, Tailed-Beasts in harmony with their Jinchuriki were capable of bolstering their chakra reserves so absorbing Nature Chakra came quick, easy and free as the cost of the balancing act was hoisted on the Tailed-Beast. But…. "But I would need to remove the Three Pillar seal, wouldn't I?"

"Only if we are friends."

I inhaled deeply and met Kaizoku's eyes, they widened and I allowed myself a smile knowing my dilly-dallying had made him anxious enough to be expectant, "Very well, Kaizoku. You will have another five score and the next time we train, don't cleanse me before I'm satisfied."

The great serpent let an evil rumble of a laugh, "I do not wish to see you die so soon."

I rolled my eyes, suddenly far less impressed with the character of the great serpent of the realm. He looked at humans as food and at best, interesting fodder and for the moment I was no different, "No, I'm sure you don't."