Hello fans new and old, I'm elated to be giving this another go. This re-write is wiping the old story from existence.
This is set two years after The Fourth Shinobi War during the "Blank Period"/Hiden Light Novels, and three years after the defeat of Chaos, leaving the Senshi and Konoha 11 roughly around 23-24.
This is more of a Makoto-centered fic, with secondary characters being Rei and Hotaru. The other Senshi, especially, Setsuna and Usagi, will have more of a main role in the beginning, but once the plot picks up it will focus on Mako, Rei, and Hota.
Pairings remain the same:
Makoto/Deidara
Rei/Itachi
Hotaru/Hidan
and slight Setsuna/Kakashi
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Beautiful Disaster
Prologue: War
Sailor Pluto grasped the silver-haired woman's hand, "Please! Please, don't do this! I can change time! Please, let me sacrifice myself for you!" The normally stoic Senshi of Time was now crying freely in front of her queen.
Queen Serenity sweetly placed her hands on Sailor Pluto's, her thoughtful and calm eyes never giving any indication that the crumbling Moon Kingdom around them was a concern.
"I will not allow that. You must look after the reincarnation of Princess Serenity and the others. They will need you, and if you change time, you will not exist. I gave you that rule myself… Besides, we've already lost too many lives today, I could not bear to lose yours as well." Just as Queen Serenity finished speaking, a large portion of the palace fell in front of them.
Serenity turned to the still crying Pluto, her silver eyebrows furrowed together, "She is here. You have to go. We can only seal her once you all have been sent to Earth," Another large crash was heard outside the door of the room that they were in, the voices of people screaming could now be heard.
"I will ask one more thing of you," Serenity whispered as she reached out and touched Pluto's planetary mark, her hand and Pluto's forehead began to glow, "No matter how many times you are reincarnated, you must never forget that she can never find Princess Serenity or the other princesses… And you must never tell them of this part of their past. I have now imbued that into your soul forever."
She pulled her hand away, and Pluto's eyes slowly opened, looking back at her queen for what she knew would be the last time.
"I swear to you, I will always protect them from her."
-:- Present Day, Tokyo Japan -:-
Sailor Jupiter dropped to her hands and knees, her form shaking with each heaving, jagged breath her lungs could claim. Suddenly an arm was around her waist helping her stand.
"What hell was that!?" Sailor Uranus shouted to the other Senshi, shifting Sailor Jupiter's arm over her shoulder to distribute her weight.
Sailor Mercury scrambled over to what was left of the body, pulling out her mini-computer and scanning the remains with her glasses.
"There's hardly anything I can identify on this body!" She cursed, typing furiously on her computer.
The rest of the Senshi began slowly walking closer to the remains. The creatures' skin was dark black and milky-white, bulky inhuman limbs were encasing its head.
Sailor Pluto stood silently while leaning on her staff, her hair disheveled, and eyes glaring mercilessly at the body. She knew exactly where that was from.
"We need to leave. Now." Her voice struck through each of them like an arrow.
"What are you talking about?" Sailor Saturn was the first to question the tall Senshi of Time, all pairs of their eyes now focused on the woman.
"I know where that creature is from. I know where we need to go to seek answers for this. Hurry, we'll reconvene at the shrine. I'll take care of the body, you all go home and pack lightly. Meet there in one hour." Before they could protest, she had made her way to the remains, and in a flash had warped herself and the body out of their sight.
Sailor Moon delicately clutched Tuxedo Kamen's sleeve, and he placed a sweet kiss on her forehead, "Don't worry, everything will be alright, Usako." He whispered into her hair. She closed her eyes leaning slightly into his body; he always knew how to calm her down.
Patiently all seven Senshi and their future king and queen waited for the Setsuna to make her way to Hikawa Shrine.
Makoto hugged her knees gingerly to her chin, very aware of how sore her body was from the recent fight against the monster. Her eyes somberly stared at the outside steps that she and the others were currently sitting on. Her thoughts focused intently on every mistake she made in the fight. She couldn't help but be disappointed in just how weak the one monster made her and all the others out to be.
"The sky seems to be reflecting our emotions this evening," Michiru commented, regarding the darkened sky above them as they all waited outside.
"Do you think she's alright?" Asked Minako to no one in particular, as Ami finished inspecting and bandaging everyone's wounds ending lastly with Minako.
Rei stood up dusting herself off, "I'm sure she's fine. She most likely is just dealing with preparations for whatever it is she is about to have us do." She began collecting the empty teacups from her friends. She had made tea to calm them down and help pass the time, but that was two hours prior.
"I'll make more tea if anyone would like some?" Rei asked, balancing the last cup on her tray.
"That won't be necessary, Rei." They turned to see Setsuna walking up the last of the stairs in her civilian attire. She no longer had the creature with her and looked utterly exhausted.
"Setsuna-chan, what's the meaning of all of this?" Usagi asked, stepping away from Mamoru's side, and walking closer to her Guardian of Time.
Setsuna gave Usagi a small smile, and held her arm out to usher her back towards the others, "I have spoken briefly with the person in charge of the lands where the monster we faced came from. Come, let's all sit for a moment." She spoke quietly, gesturing for them all to go inside and sit somewhere a bit more private.
Makoto could feel her heart fluttering in her chest, she knew Setsuna was acting very strangely, and for her to be this rattled was certain to mean nothing good.
"That creature is from a land on our Earth called The Elemental Nations. This place consists of villages hidden throughout desolate parts of our world, and they have purposefully locked themselves out from our more modern society. Two years ago, their land underwent a catastrophic war, and at the center of the evil that caused it, was the monster we just faced. Many years it plotted and schemed and turned families, villages, and nations against one another to get the results it wanted… And now it has spilled into our world…" Setsuna had to stand now, she was already having a difficult time keeping herself calm, and sitting was not helping.
"I felt that one day our two worlds would break the barrier and overlap, I just hoped that I was wrong. The shinobi of their lands have always done a great job at containing their crises to their portions of the world, keeping the rest of modern society safe. Each village has many warrior shinobi that protect their world." She had begun to pace as steadily as she could through the room, the eyes of her king, queen, and fellow Senshi following her every step and emotion.
"But now… I'm afraid we cannot ignore this. If we are to keep this evil from entering our world, we need to return to where it is from, and ally ourselves with The Elemental Nations. We cannot do this alone, and they cannot do this without our help." Setsuna's eyes fell directly to her king and queen, she could not help but feel terrible for not being able to prevent this from happening.
"But there's still so much you haven't explained. What was the monster? What does it want with us? I understand that we have to leave to put ourselves at the front lines of this and unite with this other nation, but… Why are you so afraid, Setsuna?" Makoto asked the question everyone wanted to know. Silence clung to the room as Setsuna had to avert her eyes from the brunette.
"I'm sorry for worrying you all. I-… My concern comes from that fact that I did not see this as a part of our futures. But I assure you that this will be resolved, and we will all be able to resume our lives here in Tokyo once more." She glanced at Usagi and Mamoru again, they had only been married for a year and a half, and she knew they were going to be trying for a child soon. Their happy ending had already begun, and now a future was happening that was never meant to happen.
"I know you all still have so many questions, but I think that it's best that we make our way to the village of Konoha, which is where we will all be staying and beginning our mission of helping the Shinobi of their world. I have already spoken to their leader, the Hokage, Hatake Kakashi and he is prepared for our arrival. We will be meeting with him as soon as we arrive." She watched as Usagi stood up first, a warm smile on her face.
"Thank you, Setsuna for always looking out for us," Usagi now turned to face the girls as they as well began to stand up, "Alright everyone, let's transform and get going!" She shouted, rallying her Senshi as best as she could.
"She's really grown up…" Thought Setsuna while trying to swallow the pang of guilt thrumming through her body, she did not deserve her queen's praise.
"Hokage-sama," Kakashi looked up, his brows furrowed apprehensively as he locked his gaze with Shizune's, "The Sailor Senshi have just arrived, are you ready for them?"
He nodded his head slightly and clasped his hands together, "Yes, go ahead and send them up. I would like to meet with them first without the council here." Shizune paused, knowing it was going to be difficult to keep the elders out of Kakashi's hair while he was in a meeting of this magnitude, but this was her job now.
"Of course, sir." She shut the door quietly behind herself and made her way to the group that was waiting anxiously at her desk.
Per Setsuna's instructions, after they teleported to Konoha, the girls had detransformed as soon as they arrived. She explained that a group of women walking around in fukus was incredibly out of the ordinary in this part of the world. Maintaining a low profile was imperative at this time.
Makoto stood with her arms crossed looking down upon the villagers through the large expansive window, the rest of the Senshi were speaking softly amongst themselves in the quiet waiting room behind her.
"It's beautiful here don't you think?" Hotaru asked, standing next to her taller friend with a smile upon her lips. Makoto glanced towards her briefly, reflecting the same smile that she had received. Hotaru had grown up into such a lovely and intelligent young woman.
Makoto looked back down at the people, "You know, it's just shocking me a bit I guess that all this exists in the very world we live in too. All of these people, and we would have never even known they existed until now."
"Yeah, it's a bit scary to think about it. Our world just got a lot bigger… A lot more people to protect." Hotaru felt an arm on her shoulder and looked up at Haruka's reassuring grin.
"Don't be afraid, little firefly. Everything will be alright." Haruka assured her adoptive daughter. No matter that the girl was 20, Haruka would always view her as her child.
"You know, I'm really glad that even though this is an awful situation, we've ended up in such a beautiful place." Makoto said softly to the two of them, keeping her eyes on the distant trees swaying in the wind, while Haruka stared up at the faces of the Hokages' on the side of the mountain.
"Well, I'm happy to hear that you're liking our village already." The three turned around, along with the other Senshi, to see the smiling woman they had spoken to before.
"Hokage-sama is ready to see you now," Shizune spoke kindly to all of them, leading the way to his office door. She quietly knocked, and then opened the door, "I present our Sixth Hokage, Hatake Kakashi. Hokage-sama, our honored guests, the Sailor Senshi, and their King Chiba Mamoru and Queen, Tsukino Usagi." Each group bowed respectfully to the other.
"Please, have a seat." Kakashi gestured after all formal introductions were made from each Senshi.
"I'm pleased to meet all of you, I only wish it were under better circumstances," Kakashi scratched his head as he spoke, scanning the eyes of each of the persons before him, he let his gaze linger a noticeably longer time on Setsuna than any of the others.
"I'm certain that you all have a lot of questions that you would like to have answered, and I assure you that I will do my best to provide them. But first, I feel I should start with a short background as to how your situation relates to ours. Does that sound good to all of you?" He watched as all of the members eventually nodded in agreement, some apprehensive, and some clearly having complete faith in him.
Setsuna looked to be the most apprehensive. She had shown up in his office with the body of White Zetsu at her feet a mere three hours prior to this meeting. She'd clearly had a plan of exactly who and where to go to if this situation had come to light, he only wished he could have met her sooner to prepare a little better himself.
"The monster you faced today was called White Zetsu. To our knowledge, it was killed two years ago during The Fourth Shinobi War that took place here. It was a part of a group called the Akatsuki, which consisted of many deadly shinobi who wished to do whatever it took to achieve their goals. In the end, they resurrected a demon by the name of Otsutsuki Kaguya. With the efforts of all the nations together we were able to seal her once again." Kakashi paused momentarily to take a sip of his tea, and clear his throat.
"That's actually an incredibly short version of what you should really know, but I'll be sure to arrange to have someone speak with you all to give you a much more detailed description of our past. At this point in time, it is imperative for you to have that knowledge to figure out how to combat this situation." At this point, he stood and walked slowly over to a book that was on a shelf near the window.
"I had no knowledge that any of you even existed before three hours ago. The moon in our current times is looked at with fear and disdain because the only thing to come from there has been the evil that overpowered our world twice in history. Most recently only two years ago." Every one of the Senshi's eyes had the same look; shock.
"After meeting with Setsuna-san earlier, I quickly instructed my closest allies to assist me in researching for anything to do with the Sailor Senshi within our restricted history section. This book had the only reference that I could find in our short time of searching," He held up a particularly plain book, which was tattered showing its age.
"When Otsutsuki Kaguya was in her reign and out of control after eating the fruit of the god tree, her two sons, Hagoromo a -" Kakashi was interrupted by Haruka standing up angrily.
"Can you just get to the point and tell us why the hell this monster nearly killed us today!?" The other Senshi grimaced in embarrassment, while they too wanted a quicker explanation, they were shocked Haruka had actually said something so rude.
Kakashi shut the book while still holding eye contact with the fuming Haruka. He hoped to tell them gently, but he shrugged and sat down with a plop.
"Well, I believe that it likely has something to do with the fact that you are all descendants of the Otsutsuki Clan that attacked our nations, and that your deceased Queen Serenity from The Moon Kingdom was Kaguya's sibling… But there's more to it if you wish to be patient."
Author's Note
I know this is a cliffhanger and also incredibly short, so I apologize for that. I will say too that it will be a bit before I update this again. So please bear with me as the installments in this will come out much slower than in Desert Rose.
All around this story is a bit darker and much more stressful for the main characters than in Desert Rose, so I have to really be able to put myself through their emotions to write it well.
I really want to be sure this story has no in plot-holes, and that characterization is on point for everyone so I'm really going to take my time. I had a lot of difficulties writing the original version of this story specifically because of trying to find the human side of Hidan, which is still a problem I'm running into now. I really love the ideas I have for the main plot for this story, and I hope you'll all stick around to read as it unfolds in the future!
As always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcome!