A/N: Mito Power Revealed!
Boom! Boom! Crash!
Thunder roars, and the waves dance as they hammer the Mist Village fleet, tossing the ships like leaves in a storm. Thunder split the sky, flashes of lightning revealing faces tense with resolve.
"All hands on deck!" Yagura's voice cut through the chaos. His cloak whipped violently in the wind. "Brace for the storm and use it to our advantage! Under its cover, we strike the Hidden Leaf by surprise!"
"Yes, Sir!" the Mist shinobi responded, moving with practiced urgency.
Amid the chaos, seven shinobi stood apart, their unique weapons strapped to their backs, catching brief flashes of lightning.
A jagged bolt tore across the heavens, turning the sea into silver fire for an instant. Then darkness deeper than night swallowed everything.
From the black depths beneath the waves, shadows began to rise.
At first, the Mist shinobi thought it was the reflections caused by the continued thunder until the shapes started climbing onto the surface, walking where no man should walk. Cloaks of shifting black mist trailed behind them, eyes burning crimson like coals in the rain.
"The hell… is that?" Raiga murmured, gripping his sword tightly.
From the shadows emerged a giant blackened ship. At its hull stood a figure, crimson hair and eyes ablaze with murderous intent.
The figure stepped forward, boots echoing on the slick deck. Shadows bent toward her, eager to obey.
"I am Mito Uzumaki," her voice rolled like thunder. "I am here to exact vengeance against the Hidden Mist."
For a moment, even the storm seemed to pause.
The name rippled through the Mist fleet like a curse carried on the wind.
"Mito… Uzumaki?" whispered one of the younger shinobi, his voice trembling. "That's impossible. She's been dead for—"
"Silence," Yagura snapped, though even his own voice carried unease. "Whatever she is, she stands against us now."
Mito lifted her hand. Shadows coiled around her arm like living ink, forming spirals pulsing with crimson light. The patterns twisted, transforming into sacred Uzumaki seals.
"You drowned my bloodline in blood and mist," she said, eyes glowing with hatred brighter than the lightning. "You hunted the Uzumaki to extinction, tore our seals from our corpses."
The sea churned violently beneath her words, waves rising as if summoned by her fury. Shadows behind her solidified into ghostly warriors, hollow-eyed, chains etched with the same crimson spirals.
"These are the souls your blades claimed," she continued. "And tonight, I return them to their killers."
Raiga grinned, though unease flickered behind his eyes. "Heh… Looks like the sea's spitting out its grudges."
Yagura's cloak whipped in the wind as his own chakra began to flare around him. "Then let the storm judge whose hatred runs deeper."
Mito's lips curved into a cruel smile. "So be it. Let the sea remember."
Thunder split the heavens as the first wave of shadowed Uzumaki warriors surged forward, their chains lashing like vipers. The Seven Swordsmen met them head-on, blades flashing in the storm's fury.
Steel clashed against shadow, a sound almost lost beneath the roaring thunder. Above, lightning split the sky, revealing Mito standing atop the bow of her blackened ship. Her crimson eyes burned through the storm, the seals across her arms pulsing like living hearts. With a flick of her wrist, dozens of spectral warriors surged forward, their chains snaking through the air, dragging shinobi off the decks.
Yagura's chakra flared, water spiraling around him like a halo of violent energy. "Form ranks! Protect the fleet! We cannot let her control the sea completely!" His voice was steel, yet even he flinched as a shadowy warrior leapt from the waves, impaling a mast with an ancient Uzumaki sword.
Raiga's eyes gleamed with feral determination. "Then we give them a fight worth remembering!" He lunged again, lightning dancing along his blades. Every strike shattered a ghost, yet the tide of wrathful Uzumaki only grew.
Mito's laugh rolled across the storm, calm and deadly. "Futile. Every soul here thirsts for retribution. Your blades cannot undo the wrongs of your village." She raised both hands, and the sea obeyed: waves twisted into serpentine shapes, sweeping dozens of ghostly warriors across the fleet at once.
Ameyuri's eyes widened. "That's… impossible!"
"Nothing is impossible tonight," Mito replied, her voice like the clash of steel and the rumble of thunder combined. She stepped forward, boots gliding across the water as if the ocean were solid stone. Shadows shifted under her, forming jagged spikes that erupted from the decks, knocking shinobi off balance.
Yagura roared, water spiraling around him like a living armor. "Then let us test your vengeance! Mist, strike as one!"
The Seven Swordsmen surged, a whirlwind of steel, water, and lightning. They struck with precision born of years surviving in the Mist. For every spectral warrior that rose, they found a weak point, shattering the chains that bound them to Mito's wrath.
But still she advanced, calm and inexorable, crimson eyes fixed on Yagura. "You cannot escape the reckoning."
Above the storm, Mito's seals flared brighter, the sky itself reflecting her fury.
The storm raged, yet even wind and wave could not drown the clash of steel against shadow. Raiga pivoted, lightning tracing the edges of his blades as he cleaved through a surge of ghostly Uzumaki. Still, for every phantom that vanished, two more rose, their chains writhing like snakes.
Ameyuri's eyes narrowed, scanning the battlefield. "There's a pattern!" she shouted over the wind. "The ghosts follow her focus. Distract her, and we can sever the chains!"
Kiba growled, slicing another apparition in half. "Then give her a reason to look away! Everyone, split! Attack from all sides!"
The Seven Swordsmen moved as one, striking from unexpected angles. Raiga leapt onto a broken mast, blades flashing in a storm-lit arc. Ameyuri swung her chain blade high, scattering phantoms across the deck. Kiba, agile as ever, twisted through the air, severing chains mid-flight.
On her blackened ship, Mito's crimson eyes narrowed. Her lips curved into the faintest smile, almost imperceptible beneath the storm. "Clever," she murmured. She lifted a hand, and the sea rose like a living wall, threatening to crush the Swordsmen beneath its weight. But even as she summoned the full fury of the ocean, one of the chains binding a spectral warrior snapped.
A fleeting pang of frustration flashed across her face. "Hmph… clever, yet still inadequate," she said softly.
Raiga's grin was feral. "There! Keep hitting them! Their connection to her is the key!"
The Seven Swordsmen exploited every opening. Each severed chain caused a spectral warrior to dissolve, whispering mournful cries before vanishing. For the first time, the army of vengeful Uzumaki was not infinite.
But Mito's voice cut through the storm, calm and terrible. "Do you think this is enough? These souls are mine, and I am their anchor. Break one link, and ten more rise."
Before the Mist shinobi could reach, more shadow emerged from the sea that had turned crimson.
Four of the Seven Swordsmen failed to reach in time and got dragged into the depths.
The sea boiled like molten iron, crimson waves crashing against the remaining ships. Raiga and the last two Swordsmen, Ameyuri and Kiba, skidded to a halt at the edge of the deck, panting, their blades dripping with ethereal shadows. Below, four of their comrades thrashed in the churning waters, chains wrapping around limbs, dragging them down into the abyss.
"Hold fast!" Raiga shouted. "We—can't—let them—take the rest!"
But even as he roared, the crimson water erupted again. Shadows rose like jagged spikes from the depths, splitting the waves with unnatural speed.
Yagura, seeing the situation going downhill, could no longer stand by.
Yagura's eyes flared, chakra surging like a living tide around him. "Release the Third-Tail!"
The storm seemed to pause for a heartbeat as Yagura's command echoed across the crimson waves.
One of the shinobi brought out a caged boy and stabbed him in the heart before throwing his body into the sea.
A pulse of golden light surged from the boy, rippling through the air like molten energy. The sea shuddered beneath the chakra's resonance, waves parting and twisting to form a swirling vortex. Thunder split the sky, and lightning danced across the spiraling waters.
From the depths, a massive shadow began to rise. The Third-Tail, Isobu, emerged in a geyser of water, its enormous form glinting beneath flashes of lightning. Its three jagged tails whipped the sea into towering waves, sending sprays of saltwater across the fleet.
Mito's crimson eyes narrowed as she studied the scene. "Ah… so this is the Hidden Mist's trump card. Clever. But do you think a beast, even one of the Tailed, is enough to turn the tide?"