Nazomeku, Kazayatsu - Kuroyaju
Iwagakure | A | Tsuchikage
Jaakuna had left him high and dry, but he managed to keep himself somewhat composed while the chuunin were in hearing distance. The lava around him vented steam and plumes of toxic ash into the air as he breathed steadily. Slowly it cooled and then began to dissolve, but it took him around ten minutes to do it. Typically he could do it faster, but he was angry and itching to show those sorry criminals a glimpse of retribution before he struck them down...one by one.
He closed his eyes, face screwed up as he worked at banishing the violent thoughts, the destructive impulses...the pulsing in his chest that was not
just his beating heart. He grit his teeth and bore it. When his retainers approached, along with other shinobi he greeted them and assured them—seemingly with calm—that he was just fine, no worse for wear in fact.
He attended the funeral, sad to see that Ginsho was gone, and unsure about the revelation that was his twin brother's existence. At the very least he was grateful that Konohagakure would have a Hokage in these troubling times. Through it all a fire simmered in his gut. He ate very little and drank more than usual from his flask of sake.
The journey back home was rough, but he was happy to see that his chuunin had survived largely intact, he was not particularly pleased with the looks of sorrow or disappointment on some of their faces. A few of them looked terrified at the prospect of returning home and this disturbed him some, but he drank and stored it for later.
The entire journey home he stayed put and whenever offered food, company, or drink he declined all but the third.
When he arrived home he sent his retinue, his accountants, assistants, retainers, servants, and office workers on a mandatory vacation for three days. He did it through writing, still as silent as he had been on the way home.
Finally, when it was night and his manner was empty with no one to see or hear him through the sound proofed walls he let the rage that he had fostered finally boil over.
He screamed...and screamed and screamed. He yelled and roared until he was spent and his throat hurt. He did it until he was hoarse. He let the tears run down his face from the pain and the anger. When he was done he summoned a healer and while they worked on his torn up throat he wrote a hundred and one letters, each addressed personally to someone in his village.
He put the village on high alert, but not as he usually did. Knowing that something was brewing after the blatant attack on Konoha and the attempt on his life, he informed everyone in the village—civilian or otherwise—that they were to cooperate and be on the lookout for strange activity. The barrier nin were put in place, rotating in shifts on standby.
Chakra was charged into the system of seals concealed deep beneath the earth of Iwagakure as preparations were made. At some point the Mizukage was delivered to them and he was secured. Kazayatsu made no effort to speak with him for a time, but the man was fed and treated more as a guest than a prisoner.
The Tsuchikage may not have liked the man's methods and he certainly did not trust him, but he did not believe the rumors or proclamations of criminals either. Still, he was a cautious man. The Mizukage remained in a cell that suppressed and locked his chakra completely. He would be incapable of jutsu of any kind while within it. Numerous failsafes were in place, including one that the guards were only to activate if someone infiltrated and attempted to capture the man.
Once all the preparations were in place he made an announcement. Ai Kabe was elected as his second assistant alongside the eminent Kisuke. Everyone questioned his reasoning, but he kept his mouth shut and they soon stopped asking.
Thus, with the stage set he took to waiting.
On the seventh night since the Hokage's funeral they infiltrated his territory. They killed or incapacitated the barrier nin along one path to the village, but those nin did not die in vain. Their deaths and subsequent inability to report was what tipped the kage off, and so he rose from his bed and no more than two minutes following their death, the Chiki hyōryū-sha(Earth Drifters) were deployed.
When Sano unleashed his attack, many buildings crumbled, and some were shaken, but only the former flooded. As the criminals dispersed, Kazayatsu watched from the top of his mansion, one hand on his spear, the other behind his back, clenched into a fist. His fingers dug into his palm, a serious expression on his face, brow faintly furrowed, his mouth a flat line.
As Sano's wave struck his home, it remained, immovable with its kage atop it. His spear raised once before coming down, striking the roof beneath him. His chakra shot through the ground like lightning, going deep, then shooting forwards as he performed handseals quickly behind his back.
Doton: Chidōkaku(Earth Release: Moving Earth Core)
The earth buried beneath the waves of Sano's jutsu erupted upwards in a path 10 meters wide, the water parting as it shot upwards. The kage raised his hand into the air and signaled.
The huge path of stone suddenly split apart into numerous thinner pillars, each which positioned itself throughout the village. He struck his spear against the ground again, but this time nothing happened immediately.
Moments passed, the roaring waves and the wind the only sounds to be heard. Kazayatsu hit the earth again, this time a much smaller pathway, only 3 meters wide, formed and he stepped down onto it. As he approached Sano, his steps carrying him across the pathway, the earthen pillars around the village seemed to sag. The water around them began to boil hotter...and hotter. Steam began to rise from the water he'd unleashed as the pillars became lava, and the lava heated the water.
The kage met the shark's eyes and if Sano though himself a predator, than he would see much the same in the eyes of his adversary.
“When I am done with you, they will not call you the shark nin. Indeed they will not call you human. They will look your way, but not see you. Instead they will see only ash.”The pathway below him, and the water that lapped against it, began to heat up, the stone turning red, the water boiling, then releasing steam.
Amidst the destruction and chaos, Kuroyaju stirred.
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