A New Power

I held on dearly as Unaimaru swam up through the darkened depths of the sea, chasing the soft glimmer rays that broke through the surface and surely trying to shake me off if he could. I wouldn't let him.

My thighs pressed against his length and I wasn't afraid to clutch fistfuls of his blue-green mane as he swayed through the thick pressures at speeds that would set anyone else awash of him.

Unaimaru, the sea snake Kaizoku sent with me to receive the first of many offerings, was a Class-C summon and has lived decades without being beholden to the orders or even requests of a human, shinobi or no. I could understand where he was coming from a bit and why even as we cut through the water towards my first offering to Kaizoku he not-so-subtly tried to wriggle me off his back.

He didn't want to serve any being that he thought of lesser than him— that's fine. I had no qualms about proving myself again even after I've faced his master and Class-S boss summon. Beating Unaimaru into submission would have to wait after I'd fed the other numbskulls loitering at sea to the Boss of my new summon contract.

After what felt like an eternity of holding my breath, Unaimaru broke through the surface and glided forward, coasting towards the lingering five ships of Baron Tetsuya's men I'd scheduled to be devoured.

It was easier and trickier than I expected returning to the shinobi world and the war I'd left raging. The seams between Kaizoku's realm and where the sea named after him were thin as paper but as invisible as wind. Even mounted on Unaimaru, I couldn't understand how or what the summon beast had done to pierce through the endless gloom of Kaizoku and into the sea I've known and traversed.

It certainly wasn't reverse summoning that's for sure. There were no hand seals or even the equivalent, Unaimaru just seemed to swim ahead after getting the location of where my prepared offering would be. I figured it had to be some kind of spatial shenanigans, two realms overlapping each other. It would certainly explain how Kaizoku happened to be…well, Kaizoku.

I put those thoughts aside as Unaimaru picked up speed, we'd broken through some ways away from the point I intended but the five ships were just ahead as I promised and the summoned beast grew eager to plunged the bargained souls to their watery deaths.

A smile creeped on my lips as the waves rippled away at our approach, the ships fully unaware of us and currently in the middle of a hopeless flanking manoeuvre on the one Kirigakure warship still charging towards Umehebi island, the numerous [Water Shield] still intact after hours of canon fire and pelting.

"Remember now, the ship with the shields is off limits." I reminded Unaimaru— I wasn't sure how petty he was willing to be about serving as a summon and I wasn't going to take chances.

I'd gotten quite lucky with Kaizoku and the contract. It wasn't as pay-per-use as Orochimaru's snake contract but certainly not as lenient as Jiraiya's toad contract. The price I paid now, five hundred lungs filled with water from the Kaizoku sea, would allow me to return to Kaizoku and ask that he share his power— Senjutsu.

I wasn't sure what the process would be like but he'd made one thing clear— if I failed to master the power it was likely I would die and if I didn't a thousand water filled lungs would be the price for a second attempt.

If Unaimaru heard my reminder, he didn't indicate so. Once I could see the enemy running about on their warships, manipulating its sails and turning useless cannons to fire, Unaimaru plunged us back into the sea's depths, a move that took me completely by surprise and robbed me of a chance to hold my breath.

I managed anyhow and clung onto his body, trusting that my summon wasn't fleeing. My trust was well placed. Unaimaru had dove deep and fast but he rose just as quickly, the tip of his head, his nostrils and mouth flaring open as chakra swirled into the surrounding waters. A bowl of water formed in a blink of an eye as we soared towards the keel of one of the ships.

He's going to—! Unaimaru smashed right through the bottom of the ship, the bowl, or rather, helmet of water tore through the wood with unsettling ease. In the split second we speared through the ship I glimpsed sailors, Samurai, the enemy scream as their vessel was torn asunder by a soaring water serpent, a veritable water dragon of legend if Unaimaru could be seen as such.

Cannons, supply crates, men and tools capsized into the sea. Many would know how to swim well but few would ever make it to shore. Unaimaru soared, his momentum only stalled at a peak over thirty feet above the sea, with his full length barely out of the water.

I braced myself for re-entry, ignoring flashes of Jason's memories likening the experience to a rollercoaster. Unaimaru took the plunge, gravity enhancing the speed at which we plummeted. He put that momentum to good use, rather than take out another ship through its keel he manipulated the dorsal fin at his back, extending it just a bit and taking an angular tilt to his swim so they sliced through any vessel unlucky enough to come in contact with it.

He shot out again, dove, then shot before turning about so I could examine his fine work— three ships were now swallowing so much water there was no amount of buckets that'd fetch it all away. Two ships remain still and this time they had the sense to split up, both sailing away in opposite directions of the other, abandoning their ship wrecked allies to the sea monster they screamed, wailed and flailed in terror of.

I absorbed the sight of it. Of men, broken off planks of wood used as rafts for the desperate, some even fighting for a space even as Unaimaru leered. They trashed and screamed, prayed and begged, their voices were all mobbed together in a chorus of annoyance and insignificance that gnawed at me more than I thought it would.

Their pleas reached my ears in halves, overlapping one another in repentance. Only few cursed my name, cursed Kirigakure but I heard them and I couldn't blame them. As much as Jason's presence of mind sought to flinch away for the sight, bar my ears from the sounds, I didn't turn away and I wouldn't.

"Which one should I sink next?" Unaimaru spoke with a bored tone. Clung upon the length of his thick neck I pointed at the warship fleeing towards the west and he moved to dive, his jowls hinged open as he sank and swallowed a few of the men swimming away from the site of their shipwreck.

I buried the pangs or remorse, guilt, fear of repercussions that infected me alongside Jason's memories. I shut my eyes and held my breath as the water washed over, when I opened them more bodies greeted me, bloated already drowned and counted towards my sacrifice for power.

All inevitable. I told myself. Jason's premonitions…this is the best I can do to prepare against far more death and blood. They struck first, they always do. This is what it means to be Mizukage.