"Maybe this world is another planet's Hell."
- Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
The world around me smells naught but of ash and cinder. The earth weeps from the torment it has been subjected to, water collecting into a newly born valley that now stands as a monument to my weakness. I awake from my mental prison to find a physical cage somehow binding me in place. Thick fingers of tempered wood encase every limb from snout to tail, constricting and suppressing even the most rudimentary attempts to escape its unyielding grasp.
I am given no other choice but to watch the two humans who bound me bicker at one another. They shout and yell, scream and slash for what seems like hours in an unending dance of combat. In that time I come to realize that the two fighting are the most recent reincarnations of Indra and Ashura. Their chakra signatures are all too familiar and I can't help but let out a growl of disappointed disgust at the realization. I secluded myself away from humanities self-destructing idiocy for nearly a decade only to be dragged back by these two of all people. Indra's cursed eyes have placed me in this situation but I feel that controlling my mind is not the only thing he has done. A vague recollection of fuinjutsu scrolls passes through my mind but the specifics elude me even now that I was free from his genjutsu.
Eventually, the struggle concludes with Ashuras victory though he seems rather disheveled by the battle. He walks toward me and is soon joined by a woman who seems to have been watching from the sidelines. They converse for a moment before coming to some agreement and approaching my shackled form.
"Nine-Tails, your power is simply too great. Regrettably, I cannot let you run loose." The man says solemnly.
I am actually rather curious what these mortals thought they could accomplish against me. Even the wood caging me will break soon enough due to my chakras constant pressure. That curiosity is shredded into pieces when the woman begins writing seals onto her navel. I was no fuinjutsu novice, I knew a master's work when I saw it. There is no way I will allow this incredibly intricate seal to activate anywhere near me.
I can't mold chakra for a bijuu dama in the normal way since my muzzle is clamped shut but I will not be contained so easily. Inside my throat, I gather energy whilst being careful to not show what I was planning to do. The woman caught on that something was wrong regardless and shouts something to her partner.
"Too late," I thought before swallowing the miniature energy sphere. The blastwave threw earth chunks for miles and creates a dust cloud that obscures the whole width of the recently created valley. The branches restraining me are torn asunder but I felt that the two humans are still alive, having somehow domed themselves in a wooden bunker in the time it took for me to sneeze.
Still, I was in no shape to fight, I am drained and that last move has decimated my sinuses, nearly blinding me as well from the resulting earthen shrapnel. I make my exit before the dust has cleared from the area. I hate fleeing from a fight but these humans are not to be underestimated. I will fight them once I regain my full strength, after all, it wouldn't be wise to underestimate a fellow son of the sage of six paths.
XxxxX XxxxX
Three days after the fight at the valley of the end three humans track me down to my mountain den. I was expecting more but it appears that Ashura's reincarnation is arrogant enough to only bring a few people with him to fight me. It doesn't matter though, I am at full strength again and I am aware of his ability to suppress my chakra with his wood jutsu. I take note of the other attendees making sure to analyze any tactical advantage they might impart to Ashuras fighting style. One sports red eyes and white hair but I observe that these eyes are not sharingan, meaning that the man is likely unimportant. The other is the woman from before, though she appears to be staying well away from the entrance.
I guess that she was more a support fighter than a front liner or perhaps her only purpose was for her fuinjutsu prowess. Regardless I won't be letting her anywhere near me, I know that father defeated the Juubi using seals, thus I know to be wary of letting an unknown use experimental seals on me.
Just as the two humans began to reach the entranceway of my den I whip my tails forward and unleash a wave of razor-like wind chakra. Before the attack could hit a half dome of wood springs into existence around the two, deflecting the wind blast around them and dispersing the chakra within the technique, leaving naught but a gentle breeze in its wake. So the suppressing properties extend to chakra transformations as well. This should be more troublesome than I originally anticipated.
My thoughts prove true as any and all techniques I knew are disrupted by the wood users defenses. There was a moment in the fight were I almost skewer Ashuras incarnation when I extended a tail underground but something impossible happens. The red-eyed man grabs his brothers shoulder and the two simply vanish from existence. They reappear directly underneath me and nearly pin me in branches, but I manage to leap away at the last moment. As the fight progresses I find out that the white-haired man is able to teleport to a marked location via some kind of seal. Normally this would not be much of a problem, simply destroy the markers and he wouldn't be able to evade me any longer. The problem was that the man had devised a jutsu that created copies of himself as well, each with their own copies of the seal. The two men work flawlessly together like they had been fighting together all their lives. I find myself truly outmatched for the first time in my life. The sheer maneuverability and defensive abilities are ridiculous and the two seem to have stupidly high chakra reserves on top of everything else. They are also quick to adapt to my combat strategies and I find myself quickly being set on the backfoot, my offensive attacks now being used merely to stop the grasping wood instead of trying to target the humans directly.
Still, I refuse to be bested so easily, If I couldn't win this fight then I would retreat and think of something later. Worse case scenario I could hide until they died of old age, though I doubt my patience or pride would let me truly follow through with such a plan. Firing a quick overpowering bijuu dama at the ground I create enough cover to begin my retreat. It took three more dama and an hour-long chase before I lost the two and even that is only due to their inability to keep up with my limitless stamina.
With wounded pride and bleak thoughts of what the future entailed I decide to seek out a sanctuary, one I had only ever been to when I was very very young. My temple, one of nine that the sage and his followers had built for his children. One for each of the Biju, the temples were scattered across the elemental nations and once served as homes for the nine of us during our first years after father's death. I had not returned in almost a thousand years so I had little idea if it is even still standing. With how many seals fathers followers had reinforced it with Id honestly be surprised if it weren't still standing.
Sure enough, after a two-day run and a treck up a secluded mountain path, the massive structure still stood in all its glory. Its walls look just as pristine as the day I left, standing before its massive gates I can't help but wonder if any of the sages true followers existed anymore. After Indra and Ashura's original feud escalated the sages followers split apart into many different factions, many ninshu users becoming the precursors of today's ninja when they converted to using ninjutsu.
Scum the lot of them, twisting fathers teachings like they did. All father ever wanted was peace for mankind yet his true teachings seem to be all but forgotten in this modern era. I thought to myself.
Having nothing better to do I explore my old living quarters and simply enjoy the nostalgia of remembering simpler times. The interior is just as I remember with the exception of one new structure that is hidden behind a false wall. Exploring the passage reveals a large empty room with only a library of moderate proportion taking up a section of one corner, altogether housing a few hundred scrolls and books of all genres. A corner table with a massive magnifying glass is the only other furniture besides the bookshelves, providing me with a perfect method of reading the comparatively tiny letters.
This addon must have been made with me in mind, I wonder why no one ever showed it to me before?
On my third straight day of binge reading, I find a scroll wedged under one of the bookshelves that answers my questions about this addon. The followers of the sage built the room hundreds of years after the sages death in an attempt to stop a prophecy that foretold of the juubi's resurrection. Father had once spoken of the bijuu being reunited but after a thousand years, my siblings and I had agreed that the prophecy was likely not going to happen, or if it did then it would be far into the future. Still, the scroll is fascinating, it details various fuinjutsu experiments that would shunt chakra into extradimensional space in an attempt to permanently remove a bijuu from the world. Other methods were detailed within but none were as complete as the first entry. At the end of the scroll, a note details the last of the follower's experiments and how they gave up on their endeavor due to the dangers involved.
All this work for an asinine prophecy and they didn't even do anything with their knowledge, typical humans. I thought morosely
Scouring the library for any more hidden gems leaves me disappointed so I decided to take a break by walking the perimeter of the temple. Upon taking a single step outside the boundaries of the temple a flair of discomfort washes through me and a memory from my brainwashed state returns. Madara had somehow bound me to a summoning contract while I was enslaved and the bastard was still alive!
The summoning nearly immobilizes me while I fight its pull. I WON'T LET MYSELF BE PUPPETED BY THAT WORM AGAIN EVEN IF IT KILLS- wait. Can that experimental fuinjutsu break summoning contracts? It supposedly worked by manipulating dimensions after all so there is at least a small change of it working.
I am caught in between my fear of using dangerous fuinjutsu and my hatred for being used as a tool by someone else. My hatred wins out, and I begin drawing.
XxxxX (Throne room, Urû'baen) XxxxX
Galbatorix chuckles as his mad plan to create a perfect shade comes closer to completion, his test subject screaming as more and more spirits shove at one another in their new cage. Just before the process is supposed to reach completion the scream suddenly stops and an unearthly roar takes its place, the caged spirits shoot out of the vessel as they are forced out by a much greater power.
Galbatorix watches on in fascination even as he mutters spells to re-enforce the room from the concussive shockwave that emanates from his new creation.
Eventually, the roar fades into deep jagged breathing and the shades blood red slitted eyes begin focusing on its surroundings. Soon the two meet eyes and the king begins to laugh once more.
"This is most unexpected. Still, you will be a perfect pawn to assist Durza."
The shade takes a moment to understand the words but when it does a look of rage fills its visage.
"I am no one's pawn human," it speaks in a deep baritone that brings a chill to the king's spine
Before the king can react a purple ball of energy begins to form before quickly destabilizing and igniting in a thunderous explosion that tears a chunk of the castle asunder. In the confusion and panic, the shade like creature makes its escape, heading toward far-off cliffs and forests that line the coast that it somehow knew to be called 'The Spine'.