"Oh…wow…" Naruto trailed off with a gasp as soon as they surfaced, within the middle of a huge lake.
And Daiki couldn't blame him.
They'd had to swim upwards thousands of feet to reach where they were right now, finding themselves within the confines of the top of the mountain, where the waterfall led from.
In front of him, he could see a mass of land, filled with beautiful greenery, with a village settlement spread throughout it.
Meanwhile behind him, there was another landmass, this time, an island right in the middle of the huge lake, the only thing atop this island though, was a single tree.
An absolutely gargantuan tree.
It had to be at least five hundred feet weight and stretched so far up into the sky he couldn't even measure it properly, but he could tell from the get go, it was at least, as large as tall as the mountain it resided in.
Huge tree branches spread out over the top, creating a massive green camouflage with the many tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, or even millions of thick, healthy green leaves. The branches were so thick, they spread out over the entirety of the top of the open mountain top, blocking it more or less, completely.
Village Hidden In The Waterfall indeed. That meant, the only entrances to the village were either through the actual raging waterfall, or the holes Daiki and his companions just came through.
'That tree…' his thoughts trailed off as he stared at it. While even with its size, it still couldn't compare, it did remind him of it.
The Shinju, the god tree from which the chakra fruit sprung from, which Kaguya Otsotsuki her power.
'The Hero Water comes from this tree as well.' Daiki's eyebrows furrowed in thought. Was there a connection of some kind?
"Daiki." Sasuke called to him, breaking him from his thoughts. The Uchiha met his eyes and gestured with him to follow along with them as they swam towards the shore of the village.
He nodded, putting his thoughts aside for now and made his way to the shore with them.
"Man, I've never seen such a pretty place." Naruto looked around in awe when they reached the surface, "Man, I wish Sakura could have gotten to see it too!"
Daiki frowned, looking around.
It was quiet, eerily quiet. And there was not a single person in sight.
He caught the frown on Sasuke's face and knew he was thinking the same.
It was only then, Daiki noticed something else, 'Where the hell is Shibuki?' he wondered.
He was right behind him, so how did that coward give him the slip?
Daiki's senses went haywire and he jumped back, just as a series of shuriken screamed through the air towards him.
Sasuke moved at the same time, pushing Naruto out of the way of a set going after him, and deflecting them with a drawn kunai.
"The hell was that f-" Naruto growled as he landed in the water, before realising what was going on.
From behind the closest village houses, dozens of shinobi dressed the same as the ones from earlier came rushing out, blitzing towards them.
"Go protect Shibuki!" Sasuke shouted at Naruto.
The blonde growled again, but dove into the water, out of the way despite his reluctance, leaving the pair of Daiki and Sasuke to deal with their approaching enemies.
Just like the ones before, Daiki noticed, they all wore headbands depicting the symbol of the Village Hidden In The Rain, each with slashes through the middle.
Honestly, it was quite a lot of rain shinobi, In total, this time he counted twelve, which made for twenty at least.
It was like they deserted en-masse.
Had Nagato already taken over the Rain Village and killed Hanzo?
That didn't matter for now he supposed.
Whipping his hand out, Daiki flared his chakra, summoning and shooting forth a series of kunai, shuriken and swords, a small wall of pointy death straight towards the approaching shinobi, before shooting forward himself.
Most of them avoided easily.
One did not, and was riddled with the weapons, falling dead a moment later.
See, that was the problem with rushing in a group, it left you little room to dodge if you were focused on by the enemy.
"Tora!" one of them roared angrily, rage filled eyes settling on Daiki.
They were spreading out, trying to flank them from all sides and surround them, but Daiki wasn't about that shit,
He made a beeline towards the one who shouted.
"Die!" the man shouted as they approached one another, just as they were in front of one another though, Daiki whipped his hand out again, unleashing his Force Palm Jutsu from his left hand and spinning.
He torqued around the mans lunging stab with his kunai, aimed for the tan teens throat, and man didn't even have time to register his make before Daiki's massively momentum enhanced knee strike smashed into his temple and crunch went his skull.
Then, not taking anytime to admire his handiwork, he thrust both hands out again, unleashing the Force Palm Jutsu a second time, jettisoning him backwards through the air like a bullet.
He flipped backwards, coming down into a handstand right below another of the men and thrust up with a double mule kick right up at his chin.
He, like his fellow, was far too slow to react to the sudden spastic movement and his head snapped up and backwards, his neck breaking audibly and tumbling backwards from the sheer force of the blow.
He was just in time to get an upside down view of Sasuke leaping into the air, his hand cupped around his mouth, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
He unleashed a huge fireball down below, catching four of the rain ninja before they could escape the blast radius, and their screams echoed loudly as they were burned alive.
Daiki didn't have time to admire it, because a third changed paths, rushing towards Daiki, twin kunai held in his grasp.
Thinking quickly, Daiki unleashed another shot of the Force Palm Jutsu from both hands into the ground, shooting him up into the air above the man, just as he shot forwrd, slicing his kunai where Daiki's belly was just a mere moment ago.
Flipping around above, Daiki copied Sasuke, running through hand seals of his own, before inhaling and exhaling powerfully, spitting out a quick fireball jutsu of his own.
The man, like his fellows, screamed in agony as he was cooked to death.
He landed, and looked to Sasuke, surrounded by the the remaining shinobi, only four of them.
But he didn't have to.
Sasuke unleashed a rain of shuriken from his hands, wide and winding, easily dodged by the rain shinobi…except for the wires wrapped around them that bound them in their attempt to dodge.
Wires leading back to Sasuke's hands and up to one single one in his mouth, the Uchiha teen running through four rapid hand seals, before flames sparked into existence, before travelling along the wires and lighting the trapped shinobi alight.