47: A Plight of Chance

Dan Katō felt his blood pounding.

Hiding behind a tree, he brushed a hand past the stab wound on his waist.

The strike went right through a side gap in the metal plate armor on his chest. Barely missed the kidney.

No poison? No discoloration. Likely nonlethal.

Peeking between some fern branches, he eyed the still forms of his teammates sprawled amidst the muddy clearing at an angle in the distance. The bloody mud all around their necks suggested they were already gone. Drops of sweat running down Dan's forehead mixed with the dampness of the light drizzle raining down on him from above.

His elbow-length pale-blue hair had become disheveled in the chaos, so with one hand he retied it into a tail that rested against his back.

Only Manokawa had managed to set off his warning signal. If he hadn't, Dan would already be dead.

Chilling, but Dan's nerves were steady. He had killed far too many before, and...  lost too many comrades to be phased so easily.

In the instants he was thinking that, the blast of a smoke bomb flushed his surrounding. Streaks of blades clashing amidst the smoke rang out until the sound of a death cry echoed out.

Dashing backwards up and out of the smoke, Dan landed upside-down under a tree branch above him. Blood dripped from the kunai in his hand. His eyes and ears barely confirmed the sound of an assailant's body crunching against the ground as the smoke traveled off with the wind.

No sooner than he landed had another two figures flung out from the trees on either side, wielding spiked quarterstaves and cackling insanely. With one hand Dan reacted instantly and swung himself around the branch, delivering a straight kick directly to one figure's hooded face.

Dan launched himself up with the hooded man's jaw as his platform, a kunai stabbing into the now-exposed throat for good measure. With the momentum and height gained from his fleshy foothold, a followup axekick chopped straight down into other assailant's neck, shattering it instantly.

Both figures fell, slamming onto the forest floor below with choked gurgles.

That made seven. But he was still alone. There was no telling how many more were out there. His team's sensory-type, Miyashiro, must have been the first one slain in the surprise attack. It's what Dan would have done anyway. His enemies were likely capable of decent strategy, hmm?

The weapons clanked as the bodies rolled away. Indicative of some hefty metal.

Rather than just worrying about the spikes on those staves, bludgeoning damage from them would be severe as well. Tactical evasion would be optimal.

Dan panted heavily now, landing back onto the ground. He'd had to pivot around his injured waist, exaggerating the wound. It had successfully caught his opponents off-guard though, he'd read their attacks aiming to intercept his other leg.

An ambush... but how were they located? The mission was remote by nature, recon and assault via his signature Reika no Jutsu.1Spirit/Ghost Transformation Jutsu His original targets were kilometers from here, an investigation into disappearances and wagon crash-sites along some important roads.

No one would suspect him here in the wilderness. They weren't even around the Land of Fire's frontlines!

Yugakure2Hidden Steam Village (Shinobi village in the Land of Hotsprings/ Hot Water) had promised a hefty reward for dealing with the culprits, one Konoha couldn't easily refuse with the war coffers draining. There was certainly no way they had inferred his deployment pattern. Unless...

"Treachery, is it?" Dan's lips formed a tight frown as his deep and smooth voice rumbled out, his eyes fully scanning for enemies. Thirteen bodies lay in sight, some were comrades, most were his assailants.

"No, let's not assume too hastily..."

His assailants too, they were strange. All wore similar robes of black, most frayed or heavily worn-out. They all laughed or giggled maniacally, throwing themselves at him with vicious tenacity. When he'd chanced a look at one of their faces, it had been bloodied and severely mutilated. Monstrous in appearance, they had sliced through his team from behind the treeline.

He'd only barely managed to return from his jutsu's spirit form as his body was stuck with one of the spiked quarterstaves. Since then he'd already deployed a substitution, ready to draw out his attackers should they manage to strike him once more. But none had managed to strike him again so far.

He was the only jōnin in the team. Perhaps they were not prepared to actually face someone of his skills in battle, hoping to kill him before he could even return. They had underestimated the speed at which he could travel while incorporeal, luckily.

His Chunin guards were only an afterthought, really, meant to make certain no one randomly stumbled across his body while transformed into his ghost-form, and to provide basic logistical and security support. Or more cynically, buy Dan a few seconds to return to his body.

If the opponents had known that, his team and his limitations... then it likely was treachery.

More experienced shinobi were needed on the frontlines, but the virtue of Dan's signature jutsu was its vast range and versatility. He could be deployed from anywhere, though closer to the target was preferable. After all, his chakra had its limits.

And his team... still didn't have a medic shinobi accompanying them.

'Tsunade, you've always been right. Our squads need a better balance of skills. The fatality rate of wounded shinobi on the battlefield is almost 100%'

"100%, huh? I don't like my odds" he murmured, a hand to his bloodied waist with grim amusement. This was the feeling and thrill of adrenaline which had gotten him through life and death before.

A toss of shuriken into a bush forced another robed assailant to dash out into the open, where he was promptly caught by an explosive kunai that Dan had hidden in the trees while fighting his last engagement.

Another corpse hit the ground, charred and mangled.

"But I won't die that easily." he finished, with a click of his tongue.

Were his opponents not well versed in ninjutsu? Many failed to perform even basic substitutions, transformations, or clones. About Chunin-level with their martial skills, though. Those quarterstaves were brutal.

Even so, they were wearing him out with these wave tactics.

Dan couldn't enter his spirit form and leave his body alone as long as he was uncertain how many enemies lurked nearby. Nor could he flee them due to his injury. Nor could his chakra hold up for days as they pestered him, preventing any rest. So he was unable to get a message off, unable to summon reinforcements, unable to escape.

He would have to last until his team failed to respond to the routine checks Miyashiro was supposed to perform every hour. That would be faster than any message he could reliably send now anyway.

Only then would any Konoha shinobi be alerted to the danger. Only then would reinforcements even be deployed. It could take days.

A waiting game. A classic battle of attrition.Which would run out first: the ranks of his enemies, the time it took reinforcements to arrive, or Dan's ability to defend himself?

What terrible luck. He had never been fond of gambling. Gambling...

With one hand, Dan caressed the necklace hanging under his flak jacket and armor. A relic of the first God of Shinobi, the First Hokage himself. A legend's legacy... and a symbol of the dearest wishes of his most beloved.

"Tsunade... I don't want to leave you so soon."

Under his hand, the turquoise crystal flickered with a faint bright green as he dashed away among the treetops.

Where he stood mere moments before, resting against the base of a tree, lay a carved stone with the symbol of a swirling whirlpool etched into it. The briefest glows of chakra illuminated the grooves and etchings with a pale blue light before it petered out.

As dawn's light peeked over the horizon, Kana walked down the wide empty hallways of the medical suites over towards the central barrier control room, the sealed area where she had first been admitted to see Fuzō's parents.

Her sense of focus had sharpened over the last few days and the fervor at which she consumed the information supplied to her had only accelerated.

In addition to providing her some long-coveted satisfaction, the questions Kana had initially explored opened doors to more intricate and problematic concerns. The places where she began investigating her origins were turning up many more possible leads and connections she could explore.

The construction of mask temples all across the coastlines of the Haran Bay and deep into the Land of Fire. The patterns of Uzushio's political influence and underhanded deals apparently amassing influence on the continent. Complex family trees and alliances tying clans and powers together. The mysterious components of her supposed homeland's excellence with sealing and barrier techniques.  And particularly intriguing, select branches of the Uzumaki who possessed extraordinary kekkei genkai. One such... described as the very chakra chains like those which enabled Kana to claw her way back from the brink of death.

She had so many threads in her hands now, following them to their ends would surely piece the puzzle of her past together bit by bit.

And in her excitement she grew more reclusive, scouring the Yamakuni's records and absorbing oral history like her life depended on it. Which in a way, the quality of her life in the future directly did. From within Kana emerged her ferocious desire to understand it all, the roots of her power, the nature of her true name and her past, and... the possibilities available to her.

Let alone her powers and altered body, the nature of who she once was could itself reveal opportunities and connections.

As it had done with Fuzō and the Uzumaki. Which, if she could take advantage of those, might drastically reduce the odds she would have to reveal her absurd potential, buying Kana the crucial time she would need to explore and master those abilities on her own.

Still, often Kana shared her progress with a slowly recovering Fuzō, who despite sleeping for most of the day would express a general interest topics about the Uzumaki clan and her estranged homeland. Though Kana kept most of the serious matters she considered to herself, Fuzō took the initiative to explore topics about the culture, art, architecture, and festivals of Uzushio. Vestigial attitudes and mannerisms of the long-discarded Lady of the Manor resurfaced from somewhere deep within the former 'Young Mistress Fuzō-sama'.

But all of Kana's efforts had culminated in another set of difficult decisions. Which had intensified and consolidated after she was presented with her own Uzumaki demonic mask.

A personal demonic mask was another internal proof of identity for members of the Uzumaki clan. As long as you had one, it could be used to verify your identity and reveal the presence of spies or deception. Never again would she be caught up in unresolved suspicions among Uzumaki officials like with Kaoru and Hisao.

It was a bit shameful, but anyone would admit they did not wish for a repeat of her arrival here to occur somewhere else. It was almost endearing how emphatically Kaoru insisted on making the mask for her as soon as possible.

Unlike the Yamakuni's specialized barrier formula, which was static unless its creator constantly updated it, the masks were for generalized use.

Merely stealing or capturing a mask was not enough to use its functions. Hiding or disguising your chakra signature would also fail. Only if the owner controlled their chakra with a specific output flow, pattern, distribution, and duration would the mask activate.

As such, they were only ever prepared and given to shinobi and artisans with exceptional chakra control, the only people with a hope of mastering it's functions.

These redundancies and contingencies were all in order to ensure the utmost secrecy, with multiple methods of verification and attestation incorporated in their design. Any clan member owning one was proof of their status and credentials to access sensitive information... the price being that who knew what information was strictly controlled.

And what were these functions? Well the most inherent one Kana was on her way to test out this very morning, deep within the inner sanctum of the sanctuary.

Where and what exactly awaited her, Kana did not know. But at Kaoru's suggestion, today she was to receive a demonstration.