I put aside my burning questions about Kaizoku's ability to transform into an evident physical manifestation of a human body; however he did it, it wasn't sothing shinobi knew how to employ. Otherwise certain missions and enemies would be trivial to accomplish and defeat. I considered for a long ti making a deal with him to gain the knowledge of how he managed such a complete, physical transformation but it seed that even he didn't realize what he'd done was exceptional. At the mont he only thought that he'd copied shinobi's techniques rather than improved on them.
Strangely, I found that likelihood quite believable. If Kaizoku had co upon shinobi using the [Henge] technique, he might have been so deceived by the illusion that in order to reverse engineer the technique he worked blindly around the fact that it was an illusion to make what stood before now: a physical manifestation of a human form.
For now I put those thoughts aside and quickly nodded my head, answering his question, “Yes yes, I'm ready to learn. Show .”
Kaizoku stepped forward as he spoke, “The riptide step is one sage technique quite similar to the Dance of the Serpent, except this one requires you to have feet.” His stress on the word ‘feet’ brought my attention to his bare feet and, sure enough, there was sothing strange going on with them. Every step he took didn't seem to affect the water beneath his foot at all, not so much as a ripple exuded from his footfalls, yet he walked with all the sa confidence in his stride, placing his full weight with every step.
As he approached, I strained my ears to listen for a sound, a splash or sothing, but there was none. He smirked at and nodded. “Good, good, you catch on quick, young Sea Sage.” Kaizuku said. “The riptide step requires a delicate balance of your Sage Chakra. You exude your will over the water, all while ensuring your feet are well empowered. If you do it right then…” he trailed off as he vanished without a sound, appearing behind .
My senses alerted to his presence only seconds after the fact. The speed at which he had accomplished this startled and I dashed away the mont I turned around and found him grinning ear to ear behind . His human form was startlingly handso and with the Sage appearance he looked more like so aquatic incubus.
He raised his hands as if to surrender. His grin never left his face. He shook his head at . “You are so flighty, young Sage. Co now, you need to be closer to sense exactly what I'm doing and learn it.”
He vanished more, but this ti I was prepared. I was expecting him. But rather than appearing behind , he shimred into form right before my eyes. His fist cocked back, bursting with Sage Chakra as he moved to strike with an all-too-familiar [Kaikyo Ken]. I raised my hands to block the strike, but I barely got there in ti, my unprepared fingers grazed a ek defence while the rest of his fist smashed into my cheek and sent flying, plinking along the water like a pebble.
I let myself sink for a mont, allowed the water to embrace and empower for just a second. The extra speed boost from being subrged in water allowed to dodge his next strike even more easily. As he appeared right behind , I shifted my head to the side and let his fist pass harmlessly. The force of his punch sent rippling, boiling, water surging forward. I caught his arm and flipped him over my shoulder while I swam upwards to the surface. But once again, he seed to vanish and reappear right on top of the surface of the water, and this ti he punched it. There was no dodging that.
The blast of his [Kaikyo Ken] strike displaced water in a great swirl of chaos, sending spiraling around in confusion and a haste to secure my footing. I gritted my teeth and thought— He wants to learn, but... How the hell would I do that if I can't even get close enough to sense what he is doing?
I caught myself, or tried to, everywhere I looked as the water crashed against itself, hurrying to fill the void Kaizoku's strike displaced. His voice echoed throughout as his presence shifted from place to place. “Oh young Sea Sage, you're holding yourself back. You're holding your true potential from . Is there any reason you should be afraid or hesitate to feel your true might in this form?”
His challenge was enough of a wake-up call. Kaizoku was right. In his human form things were more or less even. For one I couldn't take advantage of his colossal size and my miniature form to slip by unnoticed and strike from behind where he is more vulnerable. Facing a human too would allow to deploy more of my taijutsu and kenjutsu techniques without fear of badly injuring my opponent, sothing I had been consistently worried about ever since I gained Sage mode and would be moot against Kaizoku.
There were too few challenges I could sharpen myself against but I quickly agreed that in his human form there was no need to hold back my arsenal. I felt excited at that thought, at the idea of being unshackled and so once again I let myself be swallowed by the water, except this ti my chakra exuded outwards, infusing the waters deeply, I prepared it for my will with a pair of hand signs. Two Water Clones went bursting out towards Kaizoku while I continued to swim in the other direction even though the void was filled. I intended to use its settling waves to my advantage. I weaved through half a dozen hand signs and muttered inwardly, “Water Release: Shark Tidal.”
Instantly a frothing wave of sharks spawned from edge to edge of the water, leaping over themselves, jaws gnashing at the air, bloodthirsty and eager for violence.
Kaizoku laughed loudly. Already he dispersed my water clones but I was ready to face him as he quickly got occupied smacking away my wave of sharks. Strangely he didn't simply dismiss them by overpowering my chakra and will. Instead he punched, kicked, and dodged, fighting just like a human would, though he certainly wasn't the most proficient in Taijutsu from what I could tell.
I reached into my sleeve and peeled open the summon seal on my wrist. Saring a drop of blood across it, my Bo-staff appeared in my hand in a puff of smoke. I prepared myself, twirling it in hand while I extended my senses to keep Kaizoku in my line of sight and range of hearing. The tidal waves of sharks didn't last long against him, even with their surmounting numbers, it would take more than that to keep him truly occupied.
The mont before he struck the last of the Sharks, I dashed forward with as much force and speed as I could muster under my feet, which was a trendous amount. I wooshed by like a bullet, my Bo-staff tight in my grip. I swung hard as I approached Kaizoku and successfully landed a hit against his arm. He grunted under the force of strength behind it, but his grin was permanent. He threw his fist at but I kicked off before it could land, sumrsaulting backwards, yet he proved quicker— he used the [Riptide Step] against again, shimring in and out of sight, but by now I'd gotten a hang of what the trigger was.
It was like he said, the power was in his footing, so I watched it, I listened for it. His steps were shrouded, unknowable, but there was still sothing I could track, naly the trendous amount of Sage Chakra piled in his feet. Tracking that with my own senses, I could predict where he’d appear at least a second before he did. It was still too close.
We exchanged blows that barely connected, brushing against each other's fists and kicks. My Bo-staff strikes only landed with about half of their strength as each ti I went to hamr against Kaizoku's imposing form, the great Sea Sage shimred away. We continued like this for several minutes, and in those minutes, as we exchanged blows in rapid succession, I noticed quickly that Kaizoku was controlling and pacing the battle, allowing the ti and breath to analyze his exact technique. Fortunately I hadn't stopped taking notes, even though I was quickly being overwheld.
But I’ve caught the pattern.
The Sage Chakra accumulated around his footing wasn't needlessly filled to the brim. He wasn't overwhelming his muscles with as much energy as he could fathomably manage. Instead, each ti he shimred away from a strike or dodged to lessen it, I sensed a spike in how much Sage Chakra was inserted into his footing. There was certainly so kind of balancing act concerned with the [Riptide Step].
There was little ti to truly understand the balance, but I was getting a hang of it, or at least enough to want to try. Yet none of my Sage abilities, not the mist, the superior strength, the speed, and enhanced eyesight or sensory abilities, none of that could match up to the great Sage. I was quickly being put on the defensive, even losing half of the split second warning my senses afforded as Kaizoku ramped up in speed and ferocity.
I withstood a particular offensive backhand from Kaizoku, so strong it rattled my teeth. I gritted them still, grinding against the rising anger in my chest and steeling my emotions against the urge to wanton rampage. It was difficult enough to be put on the back foot but I was consistently trying to see it as a positive. Kaizoku! The great sea sage would be the first one throughout my reincarnation in this world to fully set back and put apace.
If anything it was a complint to my stalwart survival in this brutal world. Yet that didn’t change how easily he absorbed each of my strikes. His predatory grin had yet to fade. I found it especially frustrating coming off of my half won battle against Killer Bee.
My ‘victory’ against the Eight-Tailed Jinchuriki was by the skin of my very teeth and would have been an international embarrassnt had I lost instead. The thought of losing to Kumogakure after everything incensed greatly.
I lurched at Kaizoku, ordering twelve whips of water towards his limbs with a swing of my Bo-staff. They latched on tight, and I imdiately had them pull in every direction. Yet the sea-sage wasn't fazed. He shrugged the attack off, almost cancelling out my chakra with his re thoughts. I growled at this and prepared myself just as he shimred out of view.
This ti I barely knew where he would co from and any defense I could think up would fall against his superior affinity and control over the water. Kaizoku appeared right above , sohow having leaped into the air despite all prior uses of [Riptide Step] needing a surface of water or at the very least a significant spike in Nature Chakra. This ti there was none of that, and he struck down like a fly as he descended.
I plumted Bo-staff and all through the surface of the water, unable to keep afloat against the impact of his blow. Within , I could hear Isobu so groaning in annoyance “Why don't you just call upon my power already? If you use my power in tandem with your sage mode, Kaizuku would be trivial to defeat.”
I didn't know if that was true, but I wanted to find out. At the sa ti, I knew I couldn't, or at least wouldn't, not today. This training was for my Sage techniques, and if I couldn't match up to Kaizoku with just that, then what was the point?
I fetched myself from the depths, dashing through the water, swimming up the current with a spout of water manifesting right beneath my feet. I ford it into a Water dragon, and let it rise before I did. It roared to life.
It roared at Kaizoku, who rely retained his grin and looked at . “You seem frustrated, young Sea Sage,” he said, almost taunting with that strangely unnatural human voice. I shook my head at him and pointed my Bo-staff, ordering the water dragon right at his head. It roared forward violently, crashing into Kaizoku. The resulting bounty of water was little more than a smoke screen as I knew he had once again used the riptide step to evade the attack but this ti was ready.
I spun frantically around, spinning my bo staff into a direct clash with his appearing form behind . He caught it in his hands, audibly straining at the force of my strike. This ti I had managed to get the full weight of my swing in. He stared down at still, his grin never faded though I noticed how he clenched his jaw.
“Well done but I still sense so frustration. Perhaps we should take a break?” I considered it but before I could open my mouth to decline, Kaizoku was already casually walking off, speaking as if we were in normal conversation.
“It seems that you were more than prepared to acquire more strength, desperate even. This is a great change from before. What changed you, young Sea Sage?” He asked and quite fairly I couldn't deny that I was desperate for new power, for greater power, and there were more reasons than just Kumogakure or the Akatsuki...
Rather than demand to continue the spar, I sat against the water, folding my feet and laying my Bo-staff across my legs. I stared down into the depths, the murky water darkening the further away the light was, and I found it at least similar to my position as I muttered a strange new truth.
“I think I might be a father soon.”
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