[The Renegade] Chapter 18 - Letter (Patreon)

2Chapter 18 - Letter

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She raised her hand at him and clenched it into a fist, triggering a chain of explosions all around him.

But, at the same time, Kisame also shouted:

“Suiton: Bakusui Shoha”

Just as the exploding tags mixed with her papers were triggered, a massive torrent of water poured out of Kisame’s mouth, creating a gigantic tsunami wave seemingly out of thin air and dousing all the exploding tags in the surroundings.

⁂

‘He truly has a stupidly enormous amount of chakra,’ Konan was forced to acknowledge when she saw the colossal amount of water that the shark-man had conjured.

Exploding Water Colliding Wave; the technique truly lived up to its name. It was as if a mythical flood had been summoned to earth. The large, V-shaped canyon was submerged under an ocean of water, crushing and drowning all the animals and birds underneath.

Konan immediately spread out her large paper wings and took to the air, avoiding the violent torrents of water below.

The water under Kisame’s feet started rising like a pillar, lifting him in the air rapidly and throwing him towards the flying Konan above. However, his charge was met by a barrage of exploding tags.

The powerful explosion blasted him back, but fortunately, he had shielded himself against the brunt of it with the large sword before he was smashed back into the water.

Swimming back to the surface, Kisame quickly went through a series of hand seals and slapped his hands on the surface of the water. Over a hundred enormous water tendrils shot up like the tentacles of a gigantic octopus, all aiming at Konan above. But they hit nothing but empty air because Konan’s body dispersed into countless tiny butterflies, making it impossible for them to hit her.

“That works just fine with me!” Kisame said with a smirk and dove back into the water. Merging together with Samehada, he started swimming away faster than some shinobi could run on land.

From the start, his intention was to slip away, not to have a battle with Konan.

‘I’ve been told that she and the Kyuubi jinchuuriki are inseparable these days. That means he must be somewhere in the vicinity. I can’t waste too much time here.’

Considering that Uzumaki Naruto had defeated Pain and now even had his Rinnegan, Kisame didn’t like his chances in a scenario where he had to face both Naruto and Konan at the same time.

Swimming away at a speed that put real sharks to shame, he didn’t notice before it was too late that the mass of water ahead of him had been filled with dozens of sealing tags.

“Shit!”

Due to his high momentum, he couldn’t stop right away. His eyes widened as a purple cloud burst forth from the paper tags, tainting the water like a curtain of death.

‘Poison?!’ he thought alarmed as he performed a frantic series of handseals.

“Suiton: Mizurappa!”

A powerful jet of water was expelled from his mouth, pushing away the tainted water mere moments before it was about to engulf him.

Not wasting a second longer, Kisame swam upwards as if there was a demon on his tail and jumped out of the water like a bullet.

‘Since when did she start using poison?’

Kisame and Konan had been colleagues in the Akatsuki for years, so he was familiar with her skillset and special abilities. During their entire tenure before Pain’s death, he had not seen her use a poison attack even once.

‘Poison was Sasori’s thing, not hers.’

He wasn’t allowed to ponder and strategize in peace for long because Konan had already materialized her body again by the time he came out of the water and aimed her paper wings in his direction, hurling a deadly rain of paper projectiles at him.

A wall of water rose in front of him, but even that jutsu wasn’t enough to fully stop the paper senbons. He was stabbed all over his arms and legs. Luckily, he had protected his torso with the large body of the shark-like sword.

But those were only flesh wounds. Making a one-handed ram seal, Kisame said:

“Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu!”

A thick curtain of mist blanketed the entire area, obscuring him from view.

To his surprise, Konan formed a bird seal with her hands and took a deep breath.

“Fuuton: Great Breakthrough!” (1)

As the powerful gale of wind blasted the curtain of mist away, Konan’s inexpressive face was marred by a frown at the sight of the five identical shark men running in completely different directions. He had cast a Water Clone Technique while taking advantage of the cover provided by the mist he had summoned.

“You won’t escape!” she said in conviction as four paper clones appeared next to her.

⁂

‘This isn’t working,’ Kisame thought, frustration starting to bubble within him as Konan’s paper clone easily caught up to him and his clones, dispelling them with a rain of paper projectiles from above and forcing him to cast a Water Wall technique to defend himself again, thus thwarting his escape.

‘Her flight is faster than my swimming speed, and she can also turn the water into a minefield with her poison and exploding tags. It looks like escaping quickly is no longer an option for me.’

Now that he had reached that conclusion, he decided to stop holding back and fight her at his full power.

‘I don’t know where the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki is now. I have to kill her before he gets back. The sooner I kill her, the better.’

Resolved to focus on killing her instead of escaping now, Kisame’s hands became a blur.

“Suiton: Thousand Hungry Sharks!”

The mass of water under his feet trembled as dozens upon dozens of water sharks burst out of the water in an ending stream, filling the sky with their numbers.

Her wings beat the air powerfully as she performed all sorts of acrobatic manoeuvres to dodge the swarm of countless shark attacks, but even with her remarkable dexterity in the air, she couldn’t avoid them all. In the end, she was cornered. Left with no other choice, she was forced to disperse her body into a swarm of paper sheets again to prevent the sharks from ripping her to shreds.

That game of tag between her and the hundreds of water sharks controlled by Kisame continued for five very long minutes. Over a hundred sharks had perished under the attacks of her paper weapons, but she had also been forced to disperse her body into paper sheets many times, thus draining a significant portion of her chakra in the process.

‘This technique is unending. At this rate, I will exhaust myself long before I manage to destroy all his sharks.’

Bearing that thought in mind, Konan decided to go all out and annihilate all the sharks in one big attack.

Her body turned into a myriad of paper sheets again to evade two sharks’ gaping maws, but she didn’t stop at only escaping this time around. The swarm of paper sheets in which she had dispersed her body started to spin in a clockwise motion. Only three seconds passed before the spiralling paper tags transformed into a giant vortex of wind and paper, tearing apart and shredding all the water sharks it touched, clearing the previously crowded sky.

Even Kisame couldn’t help but be impressed and let out a low whistle.

“That jutsu was formidable. But it looks like it took a lot of chakra out of you,” he said, grinning when he saw how, after materializing her body again, Konan appeared to be out of breath.

Although she managed to destroy one of his most powerful jutsu, that paper tornado of hers seemed to have drained a large amount of her chakra reserves. Meanwhile, Kisame’s chakra reserves were still as vast as the ocean. They didn’t call him the Tailless Tailed Beast for no reason.

“You’re almost out of chakra now. I win!” he said and five more Water Clones rose from the water to stand next to him, all of them wielding the monster-like sword, Samehada, in their right hand.

Six pillars of water rose, lifting Kisame and his five clones in the air and launching them at Konan like cannonballs.

As she was low on chakra now, she could no longer disperse her entire body to escape from his encirclement like before. She had cast the Dance of the Shikigami dozens of times already (and that was a rather chakra-hungry technique); on top of that, the large paper tornado she cast earlier drained a massive amount from her reserves too.

Therefore, her only option was to fly away and attempt to block her enemy’s charge.

With that in mind, Konan sacrificed her legs by turning them into paper sheets, and six large origami chakrams appeared at her side. With a cry of exertion, she hurled the chakrams at Kisame and his five clones.

Such an attack was hardly an issue for the real Kisame, but his five water clones were split in half by the paper chakrams despite their attempt at blocking with their cloned Samehada.

His water clones were destroyed, but Kisame laughed out in glee as he easily swatted away the chakram coming his way with his sword and willed the water pillar underneath his feet to push him even higher in the air.

Now, he was right in front of her. It had been tough for him to close the distance but he had done it and he wasn’t going to waste his chance. Lifting Samehada above his head with both hands, he slammed it down on Konan as if it were a club instead of a sword.

Konan quickly transformed her left arm into a paper shield to block Kisame’s vertical strike.

Her paper shield technique was so formidable that it should have been able to withstand several powerful hits even from a fire release jutsu, but it crumbled like dust after Samehada smashed into it once.

“Surprised that the shield you sacrificed an arm to create had crumbled that easily? It’s thanks to Samehada’s chakra drain,” Kisame said leisurely.

Konan appeared to be in a deplorable state. Her legs and left arm had disappeared. Only her right arm, head, and upper torso remained. Looking at the state of her body and knowing how low on chakra she was, there was nothing to stop him from killing her now.

“What will you sacrifice next? Is it your right arm now?”

His cocky smirk was suddenly wiped from his face when his eyes fell on Konan’s remaining arm and noticed that her hand was holding a ram seal. Alarm bells rang in his head when he realized that she had been holding a one-handed ram seal the entire time.

“You let your guard down,” Konan said calmly, answering his unasked question.

One of the 6 origami chakrams that she had cast earlier had not dissipated with the rest, and she had been controlling its trajectory from the start. (2)

As a sharp whirring sound came from behind, Kisame abruptly turned his head and instinctively tried to twist his body.

Although it was too late to evade the large chakram entirely, his attempt at dodging had saved his life for the moment at least. Instead of bisecting his body from the waist, the large origami weapon looped his right arm from the elbow.

Kisame let out a hoarse scream of agony as his right arm and his sword fell into the turbid waters below. The water pillar that had been elevating him this entire time also collapsed when the loss of his arm momentarily cancelled his control over the technique,

“This is the end!” Konan said and willed her paper chakram to deal the finishing blow.

Kisame was still in mid-air, having yet to hit the water below, when the ringed origami weapon reached him. With his body in a free fall, weaponless, and missing an arm, the shark man could only bring his remaining arm in front of him in a desperate attempt to defend himself. But it was futile. The chakram easily severed his body in two, from the waist.

His vitality and toughness were so impressive that he didn’t die right away even after being cut in half. Twenty seconds after smashing into the waters below, he was still clinging to life despite having lost the entire lower half of his body.

“I had it in the bag… if only I hadn’t…” were his last words before he breathed his last.

“If only you hadn’t let your guard down, is what you wanted to say, right?” Konan said, panting in exhaustion. But she didn’t receive an answer. Kisame was dead.

It was a tough battle. Although her flight advantage had given her a clear advantage in the fight, Kisame’s masterful use of Suiton and his seemingly endless reserves of chakra had almost tipped the scales in his favour. Once Konan ran out of chakra, he gained the upper hand and managed to drive her into a corner.

“You were a powerful shinobi. At the very least, I will give you a proper burial,” she muttered, paying her respects to her fallen adversary.

It wasn’t through strength but through her cunning and tactics that she pulled a win from the jaws of defeat. She felt compelled to give him the credit he deserved.

After saying those words, Konan floated down to the top of a cliff and lay down on her back, looking absently at the clear blue sky.

‘In hindsight, I should’ve summoned Naruto the moment Kisame appeared,’ she thought in regret. ‘I didn’t think I would almost lose to someone like Kisame.’

Compared to the likes of Deidara who could blow up an entire village, Kakuzu who had the fearsome Jiongu, 5 chakra natures, and 5 lives, Itachi Uchiha who could ensnare people in a genjutsu with a glance, or Sasori who could kill anyone with a single hit of his poisoned weapons, Kisame appeared to be a simple Water Release user with a large amount of chakra. As for his chakra drain ability, Konan had considered it a non-factor due to thinking he would never be able to get close enough to her to touch her.

Considering that Kisame had been recruited by Uchiha Obito and due to the fact that she had rarely left Nagato’s side, Konan had never had a chance to see the Monster of the Mist go all out in a battle. She knew that he was powerful, and she could feel the vast amount of chakra he possessed thanks to her sensory abilities but she hadn’t expected him to be that skilled with his Water Release techniques.

‘I thought that with Hanzo’s poison and my flight advantage, I would make short work of him, but his application of Suiton was transcendent. I’ve never seen anything like it before.’

A lack of information had led to an error in her calculations, which in turn almost caused her to lose her life.

Laying down on the rocky ground, Konan could do little more than wait for her reserves of chakra to be replenished in order for her to regenerate the missing limbs of her paper body.

‘I should be more cautious from now on,’ she thought. ‘I can’t afford to die now. Not when our dream is within reach.’

She had just solved her country’s coal problem; she had managed to sign a trading agreement and a pact of non-aggression with Konohagakure no Sato; Amegakure had also more than doubled its territory after she occupied the Land of Rivers and, if that wasn’t enough, she had also found a lover, a best friend, and a powerful ally in Uzumaki Naruto. Her dream of peace appeared to become clearer and more real with every passing day too. Therefore,

‘I can’t afford to die,’ she told herself again. ‘I promised him that I would support him in achieving his dream of peace.’

⁂

“Gyah! It’s getting to that time of the year when Ramen really hits the spot!” Naruto exclaimed in bliss, his face rosy from the hot ramen he had just inhaled.

A heavy sigh came from Konan.

“Naruto, you’re very distracting. Again. I’m trying to focus on work here. Go eat ramen somewhere else.”

“You know I can’t do that. I’m never leaving your side from now on.”

She rested her temple on her fist, a tired expression on her face.

“Nobody is going to attack me in my office, in the middle of Amegakure.”

“I can't leave anything to chance," he said stubbornly. “I have to protect you. From now on I’m your bodyguard.”

“Then act like a bodyguard, not like a nuisance! Bodyguards aren’t supposed to talk to me or distract me from doing my job.”

“But you’re the one who talked to me first.”

He sniggered when he saw the pen in Konan’s hands snap in half. It was all the more hilarious because her face was still inexpressive despite that she was fuming with annoyance.

Several months passed since he began living with Konan and Amegakure, and the wounds his former village and comrades had created were mostly healed by now. He was slowly returning to his cheerful and energetic self. But, along with that, his habit of annoying the people he liked returned too. First, it was the prank that he pulled on Konan with the Curry of Life a few days ago, and now he was pestering her to the point where a calm and stoic person like her felt like wanting to strangle him.

“Okay, I promise I’ll be quiet, don’t kick me out,” he said, making a zipping sign on his mouth when he saw her standing up from her seat.

“Fine. But you better keep your word!” Konan said in a fed-up voice. She did not know whether to laugh or to cry.

After her death battle against Kisame in the Land of Rivers, Naruto became exaggeratedly overprotective of her. Although she thought it was sweet on the first day after the incident that he was that concerned about her safety, she grew tired of it on the second day. Now, three days after the incident, she was downright exasperated.

Despite the fact that she had told him not to talk to her and to stop distracting her, this time it was she who started the conversation:

“You don’t have to treat me like a porcelain doll, you know? It’s not like I’m suddenly going to break. I’m a strong kunoichi in my own right. There aren’t many people who would be able to kill me. I’m not a damsel that you need to protect at every step. Remember, I’m the one who defeated Sasori and forced him to join the Akatsuki, and I killed the Monster of the Mist too only a few days ago.”

“But you almost died to Kisame,” Naruto muttered, not able to refute her words but also not wanting to admit that she didn’t need his protection.

“That’s how it goes in a fight between shinobi of such high calibre. Furthermore, Kisame was stronger than most kage alive today.”

“Was he really that powerful?” he asked in surprise.

“I reckon he’d be able to beat anyone in a 1vs1 fight except for the Mizukage.”

“He’d be able to beat Gaara and Tsunade?”

“The Kazekage and the Hokage? Definitely,” Konan said confidently. “Kisame’s Water Style counters the Kazekage’s sand, and taijutsu fighters like the Hokage would be hard-pressed to deal with someone like Kisame. It goes the same for the Raikage as well. His speed would be nullified inside Kisame’s water and his toughness wouldn’t amount to anything if he drowned in a water prison technique. Only Mizukage would have the upper hand against Kisame. Her lava and boil bloodline limits are too powerful for mere Suiton techniques to deal with.”

“Then, does that mean you’d beat most of the Kage too?”

“It doesn’t work like that,” she said with a soft chuckle. “Styles make fights. For example, my flight ability would give me the upper hand against someone like the Hokage and the Raikage who are close-ranged taijutsu fighters. They would have no way to deal with me. On the other hand, I would have a hard time against the Kazekage and his sand because he can fly, he can attack at range, and his defences are formidable.”

Naruto thought about her words deeply. He had never considered such things before. He had never truly cared about elemental weaknesses and advantages or different fighting styles. He had not needed to do any of that because most of his opponents would be overwhelmed by the hundreds of Shadow Clones coming at them with a Rasengan in their hands. And if Kage Bunshin and Rasengan didn’t cut it in a fight, Kyuubi had always been there to save the day.

It brought him a sense of novelty to realize that most shinobi and kunoichi had to strategize and consider their options before engaging someone in a fight. Very few people had the leisure to just jump headfirst into fights like he used to.

“That being said, nothing is going to happen to me. There are barely a handful of people who could kill me in a fight.”

“It wouldn’t be much of a fight if they assassinated you while you didn’t expect it,” Naruto said and turned his back to her, looking at Amegakure’s skyline through the tall and wide office windows.

Sensing her disapproval, he added:

“You said it yourself that Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri have painted a target on your back. They want their bijuus back, and they would stop at nothing to get them. But-,” he made a pause to swallow the node in his neck, “-you’re all I have left. I can’t lose you.”

Standing up from her seat, she walked to him and embraced him from behind, resting her chin on his shoulder.

“You won’t. Next time I'm in mortal peril, I’ll make sure to summon you from the start,” she said, pressing a soft kiss on his cheek.

“I’ll summon you too if I ever get in trouble.”

She laughed. “You have the Rinnegan. Who would be able to push you that far?”

“Nagato also had the Rinnegan and he lost in the end.”

“Nagato was crippled. His 6 Paths of Pain are far from being as powerful as you are now. We should also not forget that he had fought against the whole of Konohagakure before you arrived, wasting a large part of his chakra in the process. And, different from Nagato, you also have your Toad Sage Mode and the Nine Tails’ power as well.”

“You never know,” Naruto said, shrugging his shoulders. “If anyone told me a year ago that I would be framed for a crime and sent to prison, that I would defect from Konoha, and that I would fall in love with a member of the Akatsuki I would have never believed it.”

As she giggled at his words, he started chuckling too. Embracing each other and making light conversation like that, Konan forgot all about the stacks of paperwork on her desk.

It was the arrival of a pigeon carrier that finally broke them from their little world of happiness and reminded Konan that she was supposed to be working. There were dozens of reports and documents that she had to go through before the end of the day.

Opening the window to let the bird in, she grabbed the scroll tied to its legs and unfurled it to read the contents.

To Konan, the Leader of the Land of Rain and Rivers,

In light of the recent events, as the Leader of the Land of Iron, I thought it would be appropriate for the Samurai and the shinobi of Five Elemental Nations to meet and talk about the emergence of a new power.

The Elemental Nations are currently enjoying a fragile peace, one that could very well be broken by the appearance of a new player on the international scene. Amegakure had had no diplomatic relations with any of the surrounding countries during the past regime. That's why I believe it would be wise for us to get to know each other’s goals and intentions for the future in a neutral and peaceful setting.

For the sake of maintaining the peace and prosperity of our continent, I'm extending you an invitation to participate in the Kage Summit that will be held three weeks from now, on the 20th of January in the Land of Iron’s capital, Hōfuna.

The summit will tackle important matters such as trading agreements, diplomatic relations, military operations against terrorist organisations and dangerous rogue nins, and last, but not least, a vote will be held in regards to offering you the title of “Kage” and elevating the Land of Rain and Rivers to the status of a “Great Nation”.

Let us know your decision in the next three days.

Mifune, General of the Land of Iron.

⁂⁂⁂

AN:

(1) Konan is stated to also have a Wind affinity in the canon besides her Paper Ninjutsu. More exactly, she has Wind, Water, Earth, and Yang releases. In retrospect, it makes a lot of sense. She probably created her paper techniques by making use of [Water + Earth + Yang] and she must've gotten the ability to fly due to her [Wind].

(2) As shown in the fight against Obito, Konan can control her chakrams and change their direction in the air.