(Listen to /watch?v=NxpunCC8HDQ on YouTube. This will set the mood. Listen and repeat.)

The Beginning Of Everything

The clear, dark night was filled with terror, pain and suffering. This night would be remembered for eternity.

He huffed with exertion, his shoulder length grey hair slick with sweat. His armour weighed him down quite a bit. He looked down at the piece of paper that had once held key to existence on earth, now just blank. He ripped of the last of his haori, left with just his shoulder pieces of armour on. Not that they did much good anyway. He saw on his toned stomach, a seal. Not much of an intricate looking one, just a circle and a few squiggles. But a lot more than that. A cage. A cage for the monstrous creature he was currently warring. He looked up at said creature, and glared with perfect concentric circles rippling in his eyes. It certainly couldn't be called beautiful. He felt repelled by its very existence. He felt appalled the gods had created such a monstrosity. A monster by the very meaning of the word. An entity created to destroy. He supposed he should feel awed. But he just felt disgust. Disgust and fear. He would and could not deny his fright. Only a god would not feel fear, but at least wariness. It was in essence, a pseudo-god. And he was in its way. Nice move, idiot.

He felt no pride in what he was about to do, only nervousness. He wasn't even sure if it was going to work. The seal had been crafted carefully by him – it took a year and a half – but he wasn't going to be arrogant. Not with lives he would be sacrificing if he failed. Essentially, the continued existence of humankind rested upon his shoulders. No pressure.

He saw a giant black tail swing towards him, the fur rippling with the resistance of the smoky air around them. He held out the hand that had once held the seal on paper, and shouted.

"Shinra Tensei!"

In a spectacular display of gravity manipulation, the tail went flying back, an invisible force throwing it back. He was safe, for a very short period of time. In an amazing display of his skill, he started to fly through seals in his head. He added the mysterious chakra that he possessed. He instinctively knew it came from his mystical eye.

Unfortunately, in the few seconds it took for him to activate the technique, one of the legendary ten tails swiped passed him, and with the speed it flew, the fur turned razor sharp. It never hit him, but the fur sliced through his stomach, leaving behind what would be a fatal wound. The sudden burst of pain caused him to halt in the sealing, in order to control his reaction of falling to the ground. He succeeded in calming himself, and held the chakra moulding in the same position. In a true show of willpower, he activated one of his more powerful techniques. His hands flew into the three small seals needed. Rabbit. Boar. Ram.

"Izanagi!"

He fazed out of view, then reappeared four seconds later, with his wounds gone. His nose was bleeding from the strain of concentration. He restarted the sealing technique, his mind now focussed on the ten-tails and on the technique he was creating and using at the same time. He could feel it leeching of his eyes, and knew this would make it stronger. All the better. After all, he doesn't want some wild animal wandering his mind freely. He jumped out of the way of another tail, and jumped over another. He was running toward the gigantic beast, knowing that to seal it, he would have to touch the great and terrible ten-tails. A few drops of sweat ran down the side of his face. He was panting with exertion. The pressure of the thick black chakra was beginning to corrode his body. The sheer amount of it was astounding. Nothing else would ever have the same amount, in the entire future, nothing. It was, safe to say, infinite. He began to slow, being only about quarter of a mile away from it. He stopped and huffed. He wasn't going to manage. He would be dust before he got close enough. A piece of his skin on his right forearm had already worn off, blood running down his arm. It was literally acid in the form of gas. An instant killer. He had no idea how he was going to get close enough to hit it. He was dying already, and he wasn't even near touching it. He didn't know what to do. Then, he knew.

He held the completed technique in his mind and glued his to the tails that were spinning and waving around. He spied another speeding towards him, the view magnificent. He was about to brace himself, but one came from behind, clipped him and sent him flying through the air. He hadn't enough time to use his gravity protection. The soon to be legend landed in a heap, but he leaped up. He ran back again, and managed to get slightly closer. He stopped and looked around for the highly dangerous tails. Only one was coming. Perfect. He raced himself, and held his arms out. Time seemed to slow down as he looked at the black appendage that was but a foot away. He narrowed his eyes in unchallenged triumph.

"Kore o toru!"

He held out his hands and in the split second the acidic energy surrounded his hand, he grabbed the surprising soft fur. The lock holding back the technique in his mind was released, and the chakra exploded. He saw a large white light for the fraction of a second, and then returned to reality. The drain on his reserves was tangible. He literally felt the valuable and revered energy seep out of him.

He looked up, and saw one of the most incredible sights he would ever see in his entire life. The body of the greatest beast ever walk the face of the earth was thrashing wildly. Instead of the deep roar that had been sounding earlier, a high frequency screech that was almost deafening was ripping through the air. He felt the overpowering need to cover his ears, even though his mind knew it would do little good. He gave into his instincts, and clapped his badly burnt hands over his throbbing ears. But he continued to watch, he saw as black energy was sucked slowly out of the tailed beast, flowing through the already heavily saturated air towards him. He screamed as it entered his stomach. He continued to wail his pain of being made a demon vessel, a jinchuuriki.

He broke eye contact with the screaming monster at his front, and tried to stem the tears flooding from his eyes. The pain was excruciating. He felt as if he was being torn into millions of tiny little pieces very, very slowly.

And so he continued to shriek along side his ultimate enemy, one with the pain of losing, and one with the pain of receiving.

The process seemed to slow after what seemed like hours, and the sage felt some welcome relief. The process soon halted completely, and he fell to his knees, the gain so overwhelming. He vaguely heard the screaming stop, and a large thud that shook the ground violently. He wobbled, but stayed sort-of standing. He released the strain, and was overcome the emptiness of his mind. He toppled over, and collapsed unconscious.

He awoke very unwillingly to a pain that stretched his entire body. It was quite disorientating to discover his surroundings. He looked around, seeing the landscape shrivelling and dying. He frowned and was confused. Didn't the seal stop the ten-tails chakra from affecting the land?

He looked at his stomach, but saw no outward effect. Then something caught his eye. He looked up wearily, but gasped and woke up quite fast.

The body.

The giant mass was still there. He thought the demon was just a group of foul chakra, not a physical entity! He still didn't notice the problem. He stood up, and staggered towards the body. It was best to solve the problem now, as if he left it any longer it could get worse. His body was almost completely exhausted, but his chakra levels were rising well. As he grew closer to the corpse, he suddenly became aware of a tugging sensation in his stomach. He looked down and saw a thin black tendril of energy slithering towards the dead body. Hs eyes widened in shock, then narrowed in anger and frustration. The tailed beast was using his old body as a conductor to get free! The seal was breaking faster as he got closer to the corpse! And the body still had chakra seeping off of it, letting it make the connection and causing the decomposition of his surroundings. He had to act now!

He stumbled away as faster as he would go, and felt a fierce tug in his mind. The beast was obviously angry its plan was discovered. He went as far away as he dared, and tried to think of a solution.

He couldn't think. He couldn't burn the body; it was inflammable, as he had found out earlier. He couldn't sink it in the sea; the excess chakra would infect the water. He obviously couldn't leave it to decompose; who knew what disaster that would cause. Then he was hit with an idea. An untried, untested, reckless, foolish and downright stupid idea. Nothing new.

He turned to the body with determination blazing in his eyes. He would keep the world safe. No matter what.

He rubbed his hands together and tested his chakra levels. Not really high enough to be doing this – the corpse was gigantic – but this was the only option.

He clapped his hands together and concentrated his chakra. This was going to be a killer on him.

"Chibaku Tensei!"

His hands began to glow. He slowly uncupped them, revealing a small silver, roughly surface ball. This sphere flew out of his hands and into the sky, where his eyes lost sight of it. He could feel it though. It was time to see if his experimentation paid off. He willed the ball to stop when it passed the lone cloud in the farthest reaches of the sky. He slowly raised his arms with his hands spread wide, the muscles aching and begging him to stop. He refused.

He released chakra, and the act began. The earth slowly rumbled, and huge chunks of rock and earth rose from the ground, attracted to the sphere. The highest form of gravity manipulation. It stuck to the sphere, enlarging it. The sphere grew so big, he felt it could block out the sun. that was big enough. He slowly and carefully attracted the earth that the corpse of the fearsome monster as resting upon. As careful as he was, it worked. The body rose with the earth, and flew up towards the large rock in the sky. The body smashed into the sphere, causing it to move, and the sage to have blood running from both nostrils, the concentration to keep it in the air overwhelming. He increased the chakra input, and more rocks and boulders flew up to the newly formed coffin faster and in larger quantities. He was determined to end this.

Suddenly, the technique ended, but the rock stayed suspended above the earth. It was now so large, it covered the whole sky; he could only see the stars vaguely on the horizon. He knew he had reached he technique's limit, and also that the coffin couldn't stay there. He snorted, clearing his nose of blood, and threw more chakra into it, more he didn't have. Suddenly, black chakra surrounded him, the tailed chakra. The ball was repelled into the night sky, further and further away. The crater left would one day in the distant future fill with sea water as water levels rose, and would become the hiding place for the yet-to-be-formed three-tails.

He was in awe as he fell to the ground; the ball was glowing. Sunlight was reflecting on it.

Beautiful.

His last thought was on the irony that the beast had unwitting sealed his own demise.

And on his success. He had saved the world.

And that's a wrap!

Shinra Tensei –

Literal English - Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God / Divine Judgement

English Dub – Almighty Push

Izanagi –

Unknown translation, only that it is a technique which converts physical injuries into illusions and cannot be used for more than a few seconds.

Kore o toru –

Literal English – "Take this!"

Chibaku Tensei –

Literal English – Heavenly Body Bursting From The Earth

English Dub – Planetary Devastation

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- Floating On An Akatsuki Cloud

xxx