[Kaguya Toru]

I would know him in death At the end of the world Suzuki Taru

Toru noticed the arrow, and he managed to step out of its way, stumbling, dancing, in his stumble out of the way as he fell to the side and the woman returned to attack him again. They continued to move against each other, and soon enough he would allow her to best him a precisely measured and calculated amount of missteps with his swordplay would lead him to being knocked overboard. He grabbed onto the edge, holding on as if for his dear life, then suddenly the blunt end of the sword collided with his fingers, and he to complete the act let out a shout before falling down into the sea.

Cold water rushed in all around him, he was like a bullet falling down, bubbles fizzling all around him, his sword hand clasping onto the sword hard, his knuckles white as he held onto it. Once he dared to open his eyes, salt water rushed to the soft tissue, making him squint as he held his breath. There were sharks here, sharks and other creatures of the great wide and dark deep. But for now, he saw nothing but endless blue and endless darkness. Toru was not sure if that was a good thing, but the din of battle was subsumed here, gone from his senses.

But not for long.

Slowly he would pull himself up, gasping for air as he swam up to the side of the ship where none would see him, but none were too concerned, he moved using the thick water logged wood as his guide to get back to the pirate ship.

Was Taru still alright? That arrow had been hers and now he was returning to their ship to lie low until their 'captain' called for them to retreat and the act complete.

OWL

[Suzuki Taru]

Watching battle unfold was interesting. Shinobi upon the desk clashed, the physical combatants keeping close, in a constant rush. Even from over here the rush of battle was loud, singing out on the air with every collision of steel on steel. It seemed everyone who rode these ships had a little experience with the blade, but still some of them seemed more inclined to ninjutsu and tried to find space to press back, to make ranged attacks in support of their allies, playing a role similar to Taru's own.

She tried to keep some pressure on those groups, to break them up and sow confusion with the flight of arrows. After all, her opponents seemed to have a similar idea. Eventually they tired of her rain of arrows and turned a strike towards her, lightning sailing overhead and making her duck down from her perch.

When she peeked up again, it was in time to watch Toru fall from the ship and into the water below.

Everyone in Kirigakure, by necessity, was a good swimmer, and they were not far enough out on the water for the dragging force of the ocean to be inescapable. Toru would be fine, but she couldn't help by watch the water's surface anyways.

Keeping low to avoid any further ranged fire from the enemy, she crawled along to the side of the ship, then peeked down in time to spot Toru's ascent, waterlogged.

"So in our performance, you were killed by drowning and I was electrocuted to death," she greeted him. "Two fitting ends for a couple of pirates?"

[Kaguya Toru]

I would know him in death At the end of the world Suzuki Taru

Toru pulled himself up slowly from the water until he was up onto the ship and there was the announcement that the troops should retreat. Good thing too because otherwise the act would have met a more bitter end. His lungs were expanding heavily from how long he had held his breath. Completely water logged the little Mizukage splayed himself out on the deck out of immediate eye view from their opponents and just staring at the sails, ropes and blue skies above.

Soon enough, someone else joined him - Taru. It seemed that she had survived the encounter, but frankly why shouldn't she have when she had been firing from afar. Not too worse for wear the both of them, the ship starting to make an escape and being a smaller pirate ship it went pretty quickly. Though not without sustaining some fire damage from a few fireballs that rocketed it further ahead and also caused it to rock and lurch, knocking Toru against a mast pretty aggressively. He let out a pained and annoyed groan before he rolled over to sit up against the mast he hit.

"Fitting indeed, let's hope they do not catch up to us." He grumbled, sticking his sword firmly into the deck of the ship as he yanked at the top of his outfit so he wasn't sitting there in totally wet clothes, at least his top needed to dry.

OWL

[Suzuki Taru]

The call for a retreat came, the captain calling back the forces and turning the vessel to beat an escape. The crew of Kirigakure forces would fire after them and damage the vessel slightly, but luckily not enough to sink it. The smaller, lighter vessel was able to make good ground by the wind and avoid close pursuit. So long as this ship was out at sea and not troubling people by port, it was probably best left alone until another time - the shinobi they'd fought were probably just satisfied with a well enough job done and the idea that several pirates would be dying from injuries sustained in the battle.

Toru was thwacked against the mast as the ship moved quickly, then sat up, looking all the world like a drenched cat.

"We're sailing quick enough that they shouldn't, right?" Taru asked, finally peeking her head up over the side of the boat again to watch the retreating form of the ship. She pondered what they would do if the ship did catch up and they did have to fight again - higher ranked missions really were complicated in that regard. They didn't want to kill their own forces, but the Mizukage getting caught doing something shady like this would be a big scandal, so they'd of course never let that happen.

Maybe they'd just knock the forces out and perform a token robbery? Then mount a second, larger mission to clear out the pirates...

She looked back down at Toru.

"Do you have extra clothes packed you can switch into? You might catch a cold if we sail the whole way back drenched like that." That was a superstitious thought, but, well, Taru was superstitious.

[Kaguya Toru]

I would know him in death At the end of the world Suzuki Taru

Toru knew just enough about ships, being the leader of the entire military, he had to. But not enough in the way that a grand admiral might know about ships. He still listened to his shipmasters closely for their advice, in this way Toru was humble. He wanted to make good decisions, so when Taru's question, he glanced towards where they had battled and were leaving the larger Kirigakure ship behind.

"Mm, no we are substantially smaller than the other ship. Our speed should exceed theirs." It was a brief calculation but he felt the correct one.

Toru had heard of such beliefs, and he took those too heart. Mostly because there was simply not enough education in their world to know any better, superstition or not.

"I'll just use Katon."

Though he had to admit that it would be awkward getting down to nothing but his underwear in front of everyone, it was hardly on anyone's list - or so he figured - to see the Mizukage and Daimyo in his skivvies.

But he stretched for now and lit a little fire in a contained area on waterlogged wood - it would have to be a lot larger to catch the ship on fire - and started to warm up his top. Once it was dry he would put it back on and cover up his lower half as he got out of his trousers to dry those off.

And just like that it seemed the mission was complete, and they could sail towards home. Another one for the books.

[end]

OWL