"Grrnn! Get away!" Raigo yelled bloody spittle as Mei dragged his body towards one of few intact trees. His body twitched violently in Mei's grasp, each ragged breath dragging a pained wheeze from his throat.
"Stop struggling, you'll tear off what skin you have left." Mei hissed. She'd done her best to dull the corrosive effects of her technique but it was barely enough.
His exposed skin was a sickly raw pink, subcutaneous tissue glistening beneath the moonlight. Even the smallest movement sent fresh agony wracking through him, yet the idiot still attempted to channel Lightning Release through his arms. The jolts crackled through his open wounds, sparking bright against the wet sheen of exposed flesh. Instead of empowering him, the current surged wildly, pain eclipsing whatever strength he had left.
With a grunt, she forced him up against the tree, its bark blackened by fire. His body jerked, feet kicking up ash, but Mei held firm. "Don't make me knock you out."
"Nnngghh..!" He clenched his teeth, voice rasping through a ruined throat, "That would be a mercy…I take no…mercy!"
Mei exhaled sharply, brushing damp strands of auburn hair from her forehead before retrieving some binds from her pouch. She yanked his arms behind the tree and the second his raw skin met the rough bark, Raigo screamed. "I warned you." she muttered, tying his hands around the tree's stem.
"Not so tight!" He yelped.
"Sorry, no can do." Her tone was devoid of sympathy. She crouched beside him, her emerald eyes gleaming cold in the dim glow of embers still smoldering in the distance. "Next time, try not to—" She paused, tilting her head. "Well, there won't be a next time, will there?"
Raigo merely chuckled, the sound bubbling wet in his throat. His lips, peeled and seared, made it sound like he was drowning in his own blood, "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Mei rose with a deep inhale, the charred woods stench infiltrating her nostrils. She looked around, getting her bearings before deciding, "When you return, make sure the Raikage knows that this was Kirigakure's mercy. Her voice was even, steady, but there was an unmistakable edge to it. "Leaving you alive, well-steamed but alive. The Blood Mist could do so much worse. And if you push us—"
"Yada yada yada." Raigo spat a glob of blood, saliva and bile streaked down his chin, "Don't you have a client to rescue?"
That she did. Mei stared out in the distance she felt San and Raigo's partner went off to, a knot tied in her stomach as she feared the worse. I can't let San…I can't let either of them die. Her feet left the ground in an instant. The charred trees blurred past as she leapt through the night, Raigo's wet, mocking laughter trailing behind her like a phantom.
With the winds at her back, Mei's eyes scanned the gloom of the forest for signs of struggle or even movement— footprints or damage from battle. There was none for a long time. There was simply too much of the forest to cover on her own and even as she broke through its canopy to follow the river, the pit in her stomach grew in size as each second passed felt like an eternity of uncertainty.
"San!" She began to call at a point, his name escaping her lips and fading in the dim lit night, "San!"
A flash caught her eye, the sort of glint that could only come from a well polished blade. Mei's breath hitched. She veered toward it, speeding across the river, her feet barely skimming the surface before the next lunging step. She continued until she bumbled into a thicket of tall grass to fetch the source of the flash— a kunai. By its make and design it belonged to Kiri, to San.
"San!" she yelled out into the night,desperation clawing its way into her voice. She opened her mouth to call for her Chuunin again, ignoring the sense of futility sinking in her bones, "Sa-!"
A streak of lightning arced behind her. Mei whipped around, legs bursting her forth in a single leap that set her on the river's path once again. The river rushed ahead, tumbling over jagged rocks before spilling down into a small lake below. More flashes of lightning painted the waters in blinding strobes of white and blue. Heart pounding, Mei sprinted and leaped off the edge of the short waterfall.
She spotted them— Kuzo, San and Raigo's partner. Relief blossomed in her as she saw San hoisting the bundled Kuzo by the scruff of the sack he'd been crammed into. But he was on the back foot, Raigo's partner— a young dark-skinned shinobi with a jagged scar across his cheek— shot streaks of lightning from his fingertips in relentless fashion, giving chase the moment San escaped the electric bolts.
Mei didn't hesitate.
She flung the kunai with every ounce of explosive force she could infuse into it without destroying the weapon outright. It cut through the air, whistling as it struck the water just ahead of Raigo's partner—then detonated.
A thunderous explosion sent a towering surge of water into the air, waves rippling violently across the lake, drenching everything in its wake. The Kumo-nin barely had time to react, throwing himself back in time to escape the blast radius.
"San! Get Kuzo out of here!" Mei yelled the moment she landed, her fingers already flipping through hand seals as her eyes narrowed on her new opponent. To his credit he'd made it away from the kunai's blast radius by jumping away in time, but he was no Raigo. "Water Release: Hidden in the Mist!"
The air around them thickened instantly as a dense, rolling fog bled from the lake, curling and twisting as it swallowed the lake whole. Mei wasted no time hurrying to San and Kuzo with the mist in place, "Are you okay?"
Yagura's lookalike nodded, not giving a word of complaint even as his arm and leg muscles spasmed, "I'm fine, but Kuzo…" he pulled the sack open to reveal their client with his eyes closed.
Mei checked for a pulse and sighed, "He's still alive. Go, I'll take care of—!"
"Wind Release: Gale Palm!"
A powerful blast of wind exploded through the mist, tearing through it like a blade through silk. Mei barely had time to brace before it slammed into them.
Mei and San were sent sprawling across the lake, the sheer force of the impact tearing the air from Mei's lungs and setting Kuzo free from San's spasmed fingers. Quickly applying chakra across her body, Mei caught herself on the lake before the winds could blow her away any further. San was worse off. The wind flung him clear out of the water, hurling him onto the sandy beach with a harsh thud.
Kuzo!
Their client, sack and all, was a couple feet ahead of Mei and quickly sinking into the lake. She dashed forward to save him but her opponent wouldn't give up— a well placed shunshin and the scarred Kumo-nin appeared in front of her, his blade already in a lethal downward arc.
Uncaring, Mei let the blade slice into her shoulder, trading the injury to drive a bone-rattling uppercut into his jaw. The impact sent him flying. His head snapped back, blood spraying from his mouth as he crashed into the lake with a splash.
She gritted through the pain and yanked the short blade out of her bleeding shoulder. The slash could have been worse—her flak vest's shoulder pads had taken some of the damage—but if there was anything Kumo-nin were known for it was lightning enhanced weapons.
Ignoring how the muscles in her shoulders twitched, Mei continued forward. Kuzo was sinking, drowning in the sack he was drugged and stuffed in. She made to dive down and retrieve him but the threatening crackle of lightning over the water surface stopped her.
Her opponent had recovered, standing just ahead of her. His lip was split, blood smeared across his chin, but he only grinned—a slow, bloody grin that sent a ripple of unease through Mei's gut.
Lightning danced along his fingertips, jagged bolts snapping between them. The air around him thrummed with raw energy. His hand hovered just an inch above the lake's surface.
"Take another step and we'll find out how that leecher dies." He threatened, lightning dancing from his fingertips, "What did you do to Raigo?"
He stole a glance up the waterfall and at the tame smoke rising from the forest, "Did you kill him?"
Mei said nothing, eyes narrowed dangerously at the Kumo-nin. She counted the seconds past, hoping Kuzo could survive underwater long enough for her to decide what to do. But there wasn't time, he was actively drowning. It could already be too late.
A curse slipped past her lips, lost beneath the hum of the charged air. Blood trickled down her arm, warm and sticky against her cooling skin. She clenched her jaw, forcing her focus away from the pain.
Then, an idea struck.
She fed chakra down her legs, letting it bleed into the lake. The moment it touched the water, she tilted her head slightly, voice steady despite the fire in her veins."You're running out of chakra. You can't keep up with me, Raigo couldn't. You don't want to."
"Answer me! What did you do to Raigo?!" He barked and as if to prove a point the lightning's charge increased in intensity, crackling louder, faster, brighter.
But Mei continued anyway, she took a step forward, "I don't know who you are but your technique is nowhere as strong as Raigo's, even if you pour all your chakra into it, it'll never be strong enough to travel through this much water."
"I said-!"
Mei stopped humouring him. Her palms slapped against the water surface, transforming the chakra she'd fed into Water Release. In an instant, her chakra surged—water answered.
The lake roared to life beneath the Kumo-nin's feet, a wave bursting upward, swallowing him whole and hurling him skyward. He barely had time to scream before the surge sent him spinning over six feet into the air.
Defiant bolts of lightning struck Mei in her chest, many more zipping past to strike the water. Volts of electricity surged through her body, constricting her muscles and rendering her body still as she gnashed her teeth in agony. She allowed it, allowing herself to sink down into the charged waters. Her mind screamed at her to move, to fight, but her limbs wouldn't listen. Her chakra flickered, barely within reach, her thoughts scrambling for something—anything—to ground herself with Earth Release.
Just…a bit further…
But his lightning held firm. It didn't spread far, barely reaching past the water surface as she predicted, yet it was enough. Enough to ravage her nervous system, to flood her body with unbearable heat, to steal the air from her lungs.
For a brief, terrifying moment, darkness took her.
A second later, the cruel burn of water filling her mouth and nostrils snapped her back. Mei kicked and dived through the lake, her eyes set on the sack and Kuzo that had now reached the bottom of the murky lakebed. He was unmoving, unbreathing, not a single air bubble escaped his open mouth or nostrils.
No!
She grabbed a hold of Kuzo and rose, kicking at the water with all the strength her electrocuted muscles didn't have. As Mei and Kuzo surfaced, she heard San calling out for her at the lake's shore, she didn't answer, eyes searching for the Kumo-nin but he was nowhere to be found, likely gone to retrieve Raigo.
"Kuzo, Kuzo wake up!" Mei screamed into the royal's ear as she sidestroked all the way from the centre of the lake back to shore, hauling his body as deadweight. The moment she hit sand, she flipped him onto his back.
San was already there, dropping beside them. He wasted no time—pressing down hard on Kuzo's chest, forcing air into his lungs, counting every compression.
"Don't die, don't die, don't die." she muttered between pants.
San kept going. One compression after another. Desperate. Frantic. His hands trembled, yet he didn't stop. He tried his chest, his stomach, breathing into him, willing him back.
Minute after minute passed. Nothing.
Mei felt it first.
The stillness. The eerie quiet of the night in the Land of Hot Waters.
"Stop, he's…he's dead."
"No, we can-!" San argued.
"He's dead." Mei deadpanned, Kuzo's corpse was pale, bloated and barely a drop of water escaped his lungs. She stood, the next words left her mouth like poison, "We failed the mission."