Walking in a swamp is hard.

Walking in a swamp where everything wants to eat you is very hard.

Walking in a swamp where everything wants to eat you while carrying a 5-meter-long, 600-kilogram alligator corpse that tends to tip over with almost vindictive frequency… well, that was the sort of thing where everyone could agree you were having a bad day and you deserved a cookie and a bit of a lie-in.

The whole experience was a misery. There were bugs the size of kunai—well, not literally, but it seemed like it—buzzing everywhere, and they all seemed to think that lightly-poached-by-the-sun genin was a tasty treat.

Hazō cursed and swatted at the latest flying monstrosity that had just delivered a stinging bite on the back of his neck. The motion destabilized his grip on the alligator and the thing promptly twisted out of his hands, sending all three genin into the muck.

Aside from Hazō's muffled "Sorry", none of them said anything as they got themselves straightened up again, the swampwater brushed out of their eyes, and the alligator hoisted overhead. None of them had the energy; they'd been burning chakra to deadlift more than their combined bodyweight worth of dead meat and carry it overhead. They stopped every twenty minutes to refill their chakra reserves by drinking from Wakahisa's cask. During the rest breaks they would work their fingers to shake out the cramps, and wipe the mud out of the blisters they were getting from where the 'gator's rough, scaly hide had been slowly sanding away their skin.

They'd tried floating the corpse and pushing it along like a raft, but that hadn't worked well; it didn't float evenly, so it tended to roll lazily over while yawing to the side. On top of that there were enough shallow spots, reeds, and snags that it had become easier just to carry the damn thing overhead.

They'd noted the location of the strange maybe-a-shelter-maybe-not on their map but headed home without investigating. Hazō was carrying the head of the gator, Mori was on the tail, and Wakahisa was in the middle. Each had their own threat axis to watch: Hazō was responsible for the 180-degree forward arc, Mori had right and rear, Wakahisa had left and rear. Both of the other two genin had stabbed kunai into the gator corpse and used ninja-wire to fasten their signal mirrors to them so they could see behind themselves without turning around. Under the circumstances it was the best they could do, but none of them were terribly sanguine about their ability to spot attacks from behind. Wakahisa had volunteered to maintain a continuous, low-level chakra drain so as to be aware of nearby sources. Mori and Hazō thought it was more than worth having their chakra slowly leeched away in order to get even a moment's extra warning.

This area of the swamp was "hilly", the underwater topography varying a great deal. There were strips of ground where the water was only ankle deep, but one step to the side the bottom was ten feet down. Generally, the high ground had reeds or grasses growing on it, and there would be a mat of rotting vegetation alongside it. Of course, then there were the reeds, grasses, and mats that took up station out in the middle of a random patch of deep bog just so they could trick people. That didn't make finding the high ground any easier. Mori had pointed out, in a voice that was already exhausted, that the reeds were hollow and the dead-and-dried-out ones would make excellent tinder, as they stayed upright and really did dry. The two boys had nodded, not wasting the energy to talk, collected a few stalks as samples, and shuffled on past.

They had found a very high ridge that ran in the direction they wanted to go, and had eagerly scrambled up atop it. With the water barely over the toes of their shoes, they were making excellent time when Hazō saw the mat of dead reeds in the water beside them shift in his peripheral vision.

They'd seen similar things throughout the day. A fly would land on the surface, causing ripples. An amphibian would blink and twist its head. Small motions, not of any particular significance. To his dying day, Hazō would never know how exactly he knew this one was different, but he found himself instinctively throwing himself backwards, sending all three genin tipping off the high ground to the left, into the water on the side opposite where the monstrosity was rearing up.

It was eight feet long, massive—blubber and muscle both—and covered in fur so matted and caked in mud that it became ersatz armor. It moved too fast for Hazō to consciously sort out what he was seeing; there was no time for processing or thinking, just for smooth and carefully-drilled action, the power of his family's blood singing through him as the world became slow and smooth, his awareness expanding to integrate everything around him, imaginary lines drawing themselves through space to define a series of form-fitting tunnels down which his body could be propelled. The fight played out in his head in a series of flashes:

Enemy's speed too great; activate boost; lightning/fire surging in veins, body burning with speed/power; enemy assaulting team — KILL!Disemboweling strike inbound from enemy's left-second leg; leap backwards, spilling gator and team into water but avoiding strike Chest-deep water is suboptimal combat environment. Pull-up back onto high ground, roll to feetRanged attack from mouthparts—sticky rope??; sway to sideHurl kunai? No, enemy too fast, chelicerae too heavily armored. Must closeCrouch/pivot around overhead strike from right-front legPeripheral awareness: spark of light on enemy's forepaw; jump before paw lands; yes, discharge flash indicates Lightning Element shock delivered through waterNote cries of teammates for laterDrive kunai into enemy ankle joint to incapacitate leg. Maintain grip, allow self to be carried forward as leg withdrawsStrike incoming from right; kip up, twistStrike incoming from left; release grip on kunai, dropCat-twist / pike to land three-point on enemy's backStrike!

Hazō blinked and the world came back. As always, it seemed faded and bland after the thrumming speed and power of chakra boost. The bear...spider...spiderbear…thing was collapsed in the water under him, all eight legs twitching furiously but uselessly; Hazō's kunai strike had severed the spinal cord and cut off all contact between the primary brain and the limbs. Apparently there were sufficient reflex centers to maintain some movement, but nothing like enough to be a threat.

Just to be sure, he stabbed his kunai into its brain a few times, then into the shoulder joints, then into the brain a few more times. The skull was so thick that the tip of his kunai chipped off, but he kept punching it in again and again until the skull was in fragments, the brain had splashed, and the legs were not moving at all.

The spiderbear's Lightning Element attack had been powerful enough that, had Hazō been in the water when the attack hit near him, he probably would have died on the spot. Fortunately, Wakahisa and Mori had been far enough away that they'd only been stunned. Hazō helped them climb back up onto the high ground and the three of them surveyed the kill.

"What does it eat?" Mori asked.

"Us, it thought," Hazō said.

She rolled her eyes. "Normally, I mean. A predator this size must need an incredible number of calories to maintain the speed it displayed. Clearly, it's an ambush predator, which will save it considerable energy, but the question still stands."

"Does it matter?" Hazō asked. "It's dead."

"Yes," Mori said. "But there's a piece missing here. We've seen too many apex predators and not enough game for them to feed on. Maybe there's a lot more fish than we saw, but evolution fitted this monster to take down large prey, not the occasional watersnake. One explanation would be that there's something deeper in the swamp that's recently arrived and is dangerous enough that it's been pushing apex predators out of their normal hunting ranges."

Hazō didn't say anything and carefully kept his eyes on the body he'd killed. When he'd poured chakra through himself, spending it profligately in the face of an otherwise-overwhelming foe, he had briefly been a god. Now, he was back in his mortal body again, and facing the letdown that came with that. It was so small, so slow, being merely human. He'd needed to be more to deal with the spiderbear, and still the battle hadn't been as easy as it must have looked from the outside. The creature had been so fast; a little more speed on its part, a little more clumsiness on Hazō's, and it would have been him lying there in the water, his brain spread out over ten square feet. And now there was something worse?

He sighed. Well, that was what a team was for; this time, he'd been fast enough to cover for them. The next time, when "worse" showed up, they'd cover for him, or the three of them would take it on together.

Mori waited for him to respond; when he didn't she started fidgeting. "It...might be something else, of course," she finally said. "That was only the first thought that came to mind. There are other possibilities. It could be that—"

Hazō waved her to silence. "Let's talk about it back at base," he said. He paused for a moment, then turned back. "Wakahisa, I need some water, please; I had to burn chakra to take that thing down."

See? Covering each other's weaknesses. They could do this.

o-o-o-o

An hour after they left the site of their battle, the team was slogging through thigh-deep mud with the gator held above their heads. Hazō stumbled on a root but caught himself; he was about to warn his companions about its presence when he noticed the snake up ahead.

It was just coming into sight, twisting sinuously back and forth at the surface of the water; he couldn't see the far end of it, but there must have been at least twenty meters of its bright red, shiny body in sight already. It was wiggling sidewinder-style across the surface towards them at a human's slow walking speed. Without even thinking he pulled out a kunai, clipped it to a coil of ninja wire, and hurled it unerringly at the snake, severing it just behind the head...at which point the "snake" dissolved into a swarm of millipedes the size of Hazō's pinky. They'd been traveling in a nose-to-tail chain, and when the kunai severed that chain the millipedes burst apart and shifted gears from "gentle mosey" to "pants-wettingly fast charge".

At Hazō's yell, Wakahisa and Mori grabbed their non-waterwalking teammate under the arms and leaped up onto the surface of the water, putting a dozen yards between themselves and the insectile horde. Fortunately, the bugs weren't interested in the genin; they swarmed up onto the alligator corpse and started feasting. It was an eerily coordinated pavane; an insect would jam its pincer-equipped head into one of the wounds made by the genin's weapons, tear a gobbet of flesh out, and then step aside to let the next one have a turn.

The former Mist-nin watched the disgusting yet oddly hypnotic process for a full minute before Mori observed, "We should probably put a stop to that."

"Yeah," said Hazō. Pause. "Any idea how? I'm not going over there."

In practice it turned out to be simple. Tedious and time-consuming, but simple. Wakahisa manifested his Water Whip and used it to crush the bugs. It would have been unworkably slow but for two things: the bugs liked to cluster together, and they couldn't breathe water. They had a natural water-walking ability, but sufficient impact would disrupt it and push them under, at which point they would drown in under a minute. Wakahisa must have killed hundreds of the creatures, but the majority of them just left. The bugs simply had enough to eat, connected with some other bugs, and went off in another long, twisting "snake."

By the time the creatures had left and the genin had carefully inspected the corpse to make sure there were no millipedes inside it having an after-dinner snack, forty minutes had passed and the sun was stumbling heavy-footed towards the horizon like an exhausted laborer heading home for the night.

"On the bright side, the corpse is lighter now," Wakahisa said, clearly forcing himself to sound cheerful. It was true; the millipedes had eaten easily two hundred pounds of meat before departing. "Unfortunately, we lost forty minutes," Mori said. "We are not going to get back before dark if we carry the alligator." Mori and Wakahisa both turned and looked expectantly at Hazō. Inwardly, Hazō cursed. Leadership was a mixed bag; the authority was nice, but having to make decisions that could get them all killed was stressful.