Chapter 15: Mist on the Water
The Silent Sea
The ocean was calm. Too calm.
The Gilded Lotus cut through the water with a rhythmic creaking of wood, but the seagulls that had followed them from the port had vanished. The sky, previously a brilliant blue, began to grey as a thick, unnatural fog rolled in from the direction of Mother Island.
It wasn't a natural weather pattern. The mist moved against the wind, heavy and smelling of brine and old iron.
"Visibility is dropping," Kakashi said, snapping his book shut. His lone eye scanned the white wall surrounding the ship. "Stay close to the cargo. This is the Hidden Mist Jutsu."
Sasuke stepped forward, his hand drifting to his kunai pouch. A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. "Finally. I was getting bored."
Sakura moved closer to the center of the deck, holding a kunai with trembling hands. "Sasuke-kun, be careful. We can't see anything."
"I don't need to see them," Sasuke replied arrogantly. "I can sense them."
And Naruto?
He was sitting on a barrel near the stern, peeling an orange he had swiped from the galley. He didn't even look up.
"Naruto!" Sakura hissed. "Get in formation! We're under attack!"
Naruto popped a slice of orange into his mouth. "Relax, Sakura. The Uchiha needs his moment in the sun. Or... the fog, I guess."
Sasuke shot a glare over his shoulder. "Just stay out of my way, dead-last. Try not to fall overboard."
The Ambush
Thwip. Thwip. Thwip.
Three shuriken flew out of the white void. Sasuke deflected them effortlessly with his kunai, the metal clanging sharply in the quiet air.
"There!" Sasuke shouted.
He wove signs with blinding speed. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!)
A massive sphere of flame erupted from his mouth, tearing a hole through the mist. The heat was intense, evaporating the moisture and revealing a small boat approaching the Lotus. On it stood four pirates.
"Get them!" one pirate shouted, launching grappling hooks onto the merchant ship's railing.
Sasuke didn't wait. He leaped onto the railing, his Sharingan blazing to life. "Too slow."
He moved like a blur, engaging the first mercenary in mid-air. A swift kick sent the man crashing into the ocean before he even touched the deck. Sasuke landed, ducking under a sword swing from the second attacker and countering with a vicious elbow to the gut.
It was a massacre. Sasuke was faster, stronger, and more skilled.
"Is that all?" Sasuke taunted, weaving through their attacks effortlessly. He felt powerful. This was what it meant to be an elite.
Kakashi watched from the bridge, guarding the captain. He nodded approvingly. Sasuke's skills have improved. His movements are sharp.
Sakura cheered from the deck. "Amazing, Sasuke-kun!"
She threw a kunai to intercept a mercenary trying to flank them, pinning his sleeve to the mast. "I won't let you pass!" she shouted, surprised by her own courage.
Within minutes, the first wave of pirates was defeated, their bodies tossed overboard or unconscious on the deck.
Sasuke stood amidst the defeated foes, chest heaving slightly, a triumphant grin on his face. He looked back at Naruto, who was still sitting on the barrel, looking thoroughly unimpressed.
"See that, Naruto?" Sasuke scoffed. "That is the difference between us. While you sit there eating fruit, I'm protecting this ship."
Naruto tossed the orange peel into the ocean. "You're good at fighting the small fry, Sasuke. I'll give you that."
Sasuke bristled. "Small fry? These are Chunin-level missing-nin. You wouldn't last five seconds."
The Abyssal Sovereign
Before Naruto could retort, the ship lurched violently.
Wood groaned and splintered. The entire vessel tipped to the port side, throwing Sakura and the sailors off balance.
"What was that?" Kakashi shouted, his eye widening.
"Beneath us!" Naruto said calmly.
From the dark waters near Jiro Island, something massive rose.
It wasn't a normal summon. It was a nightmare. A colossal mass of black, oily water held together by sludge, driftwood, and skeletal remains. It towered over the Gilded Lotus, a liquid giant with hollow white eyes that glowed with Negative Chakra.
The Umibōzu.
The mercenaries remaining in the water screamed as the creature's liquid tendrils snatched them up, absorbing their bodies into its mass.
"What... what is that?!" Sakura screamed, backing away.
Sasuke froze. The sheer scale of the thing paralyzed him for a second. It was the size of a small building.
"Don't just stand there!" Kakashi ordered, leaping down to the deck. "Raiton: Raikiri!"
Lightning chirped in Kakashi's hand as he dashed forward, thrusting the blade of electricity into the creature's torso. The lightning scattered the water, blowing a massive hole in the monster's stomach.
But the water simply flowed back together. The wound healed instantly.
The monster roared—a gurgling, wet sound—and brought a massive fist down toward the ship.
"Sasuke, Fire Style, now!" Kakashi commanded.
Sasuke snapped out of his shock. "Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!" (Phoenix Sage Fire Technique). Multiple fireballs struck the creature's face, boiling the water. Steam hissed, blinding them, but the monster didn't stop.
Its fist slammed into the deck.
CRACK.
The Gilded Lotus groaned as the wood splintered. Water rushed onto the deck. The shockwave sent Sasuke skidding backward, slamming into the mast.
Kakashi stared up at the liquid giant in horror. It was invincible. Physical attacks passed through it. Energy attacks were absorbed or dispersed. It was a natural disaster given form.
"It didn't strike the deck this time. Instead, massive, sludge-like tendrils erupted from the ocean surface, wrapping around the hull of The Gilded Lotus.
"Hold on!" Kakashi screamed, driving a kunai into the mast for stability.
With a groan of twisting metal and splintering wood, the Umibōzu lifted the massive merchant ship into the air.
The vessel was hoisted fifty feet above the sea, dangling precariously in the monster's grip. Below them, the ocean churned—a dark, oily abyss waiting to swallow them whole. The creature brought the ship closer to its face, its hollow white eyes glowing with malevolent energy.
"Sasuke, Fire Style! Aim for the eyes!" Kakashi commanded, though he knew it was desperate.
"I can't!" Sasuke grit his teeth, clutching his arm, staring down at the dizzying drop. "My fire just sizzles out against that sludge!"
Sakura screamed as the ship tilted, sliding dangerously toward the railing. The monster opened its maw, a gaping hole of swirling black debris, ready to devour the ship and everyone on it.
The Monk Steps Up
"Man, you're making me dizzy."
The voice cut through the panic, calm and utterly bored.
Sasuke looked up, fighting the vertigo. Naruto was standing on the railing of the bow—the highest point of the lifted ship—staring directly into the giant monster's face. He didn't look scared. He looked annoyed.
"Naruto! Get back!" Sakura shrieked, clinging to a rope. "We're in the air! You'll fall!"
Naruto ignored her. He looked at the monster, examining the thick, oily substance it was made of. It wasn't water. It was rot.
"Hey, Sasuke," Naruto said, a smirk playing on his lips as he balanced effortlessly on the tilting ship. "You said I wouldn't last five seconds, right?"
Sasuke blinked, confused by the idiot's confidence in the face of death. "Shut up! We're going to die!"
Naruto chuckled. "Watch closely."
He didn't weave a hand sign. He didn't throw a weapon. He simply reached back and unslung his brush.
The Umibōzu roared, its breath smelling of decay, preparing to bite the ship in half.
Naruto didn't flinch. He looked the creature in the eye.
"You're big," Naruto said, his voice dropping an octave, carrying that strange, heavy resonance. "But you feel empty."
Naruto pointed his brush at the creature's chest.
"You have no name."
The monster paused. It shivered.
"A nameless lump of filth leaking from a crack in the world," Naruto continued, his eyes shifting, the pupils vanishing into pure white. "You are just a mass of black sludge."
Naruto dipped his brush into the air, and ink began to drip from the bristles. But this ink was different. It was darker than the night, darker than the monster's oily body. It was Absolute Black.
"And everything black belongs to me."
Naruto swung the brush in a casual, downward stroke.
A splash of his ink hit the monster's arm holding the ship.
Usually, ink would wash away in water or sludge. But Naruto's ink acted like a virus. The moment it touched the Umibōzu, the monster's oily black body turned a matte, void-like black. The creature shrieked—a sound of pure panic—as it lost control of its own form.
"Since you don't have a name," Naruto said coldly, "I don't even need to cut it."
He clenched his fist.
"Be crushed."
The Umibōzu obeyed. It had no choice. Its body now belonged to Naruto.
The massive arms holding the ship didn't let go; they gently lowered the Gilded Lotus back onto the ocean surface.
The moment the ship touched the water, the monster retreated, its massive body collapsing in on itself. It didn't splash. It imploded. The mountains of oily sludge twisted and compressed, obeying the Monk's command, crushing down until the entire giant was reduced to a dense sphere of black liquid no larger than a marble.
Naruto hopped down from the railing onto the deck.
The marble of ink fell into the ocean and vanished.
"Five seconds," Naruto said, turning back to his terrified team with a grin. "Think I beat the record."
The Void Walker
Sasuke stood frozen, his hands trembling. He controlled it. He didn't fight it... he commanded it.
Kakashi lowered his guard, his single eye wide with shock. It had no name... so he enslaved its concept. That isn't Ninjutsu. That's... divinity.
But before anyone could celebrate, the air pressure dropped.
Naruto's grin faded. He looked up.
Hovering in the air above the ship, unaffected by gravity, was a man in a black cloak with silver trimmings. Ryūjin looked down at the scene with dull gray eyes.
"Impressive," Ryūjin said, his voice smooth and cold. "The specimen was mutated by Negative Chakra. It should have been uncontrollable. But you..."
Ryūjin floated down, stopping a few meters above the water.
"You dominated its nature because it lacked an identity."
Naruto narrowed his eyes, lifting his brush toward the floating man. "And who are you supposed to be? Another nameless ghost?"
Ryūjin smiled, and the space around him fractured like broken glass.
"I am Ryūjin. The Host of Kūkan. I came to see if the rumors were true."
He looked at the dark ocean where the monster had vanished.
"You painted the beast because it was black, Monk. Now... let's see if you can paint the Void."
TBC