Hands of Time
(English version)
Prologue
A perfidious deity's hands
The battles eventually demolished the homes of small birds and many countless animals as well in less than a fleeting moment. Huge craters marked the earth around the vast and desert plain, along with the bodies of hundreds of shinobi too, who had passed away, forming an extensive abstract painting of death and desolation. Still, the livings were the ones who really marked that plain's immensity.
It was the men and women whose chakra roared with the force of a raging storm that marked this place as something . . . more.
It was also the place where a man became a god—an unstoppable being.
Million of renowned ninja glimpsed with creeps, surprise and astonishment as that man—once known as Uchiha Obito—shattered the chains of mortality ascending to something beyond human's comprehension. He ascended to the omnipotence leaving any vestige of its former humanity in mere oblivion. Thunder roared, piercing clouds as jet-black destruction spheres shaped in his hands, spreading like a warrior's spear, piercing, and blasting away through which countless shinobi supposed was an indestructible shield. The Susanô struggled to repair the damage, but it had fulfilled its purpose. Sasuke casually allowed skeletal structure to repair itself as Naruto landed behind him, having evaded—hardly—his best friend's last attack that was addressed to the omnipotent Uchiha.
Out of balance from his redirected attack, Obito took a moment to steady himself glaring at the young Uchiha in the distance. His demonic body began to glow with an unfathomable power, the same power that radiated in his mismatched eyes.
Anyone who looked towards the newest jinchûriki was filled with a sense of profound danger. His body mismatched as his eyes, starting from the bottom in the middle. Every area of his body screamed unnatural!
Obito's left side was, however, somewhat . . . normal. This skin was smooth and human, if a little ashen. The exception being the bijû dama floating behind his arms and spikes sprouting at the top and bottom of his back.
His other side was entirely different . . .
Completely covered with white gray scales. This firm armor overlaid him from his bare feet right up to the line of his hair, evidence of that the influence of Jûbi was not completely contained even by the rinnegan cerulean wavy eyes.
Even Obito's hair had gone from common black raven Uchiha a striking white color bone, another proof of the immortal beast now trapped within him.
On the jinchûriki's back, it had ten, long beaks white as bone, five in the top just below the shoulder joints, and five in the bottom along the lower back. Located right in his shoulder blades rested the scariest symbol of a giant magatama with concentric circles on their heads. Nine tiny magatama situated in three rows.
Both boys shuddered when they saw the monster's eyes shimmering with such unprecedented eyes glaring over them.
Sasuke watched silently, his mind showing him images of serene and quiet days with the moron good for nothing golden-haired of Naruto, the teacher who was ever attentive that was Kakashi and his useless fan-girl who was Sakura.
Now, everything was so different, they were strong and they were there now confronting a man that bordered on omnipotence. Still, no matter how powerful they were in that moment, Sasuke was unwilling to let them change the twisted ninja system that subjugated the entire world, it was his duty as Uchiha be the visionary that would guide the world to a new era.
It was Itachi's last will.
That Sasuke tame the destiny by the horns.
Brandishing the sword of Kagutsuchi—controlling the flames, shaping its form merely by wishing it, as an artisan does with clay—an enormous blade forged by the Amaterasu flames controlled with his own eyes, he looked at Uchiha Obito and Naruto at the same time, preventing the imminent blow directed to the golden-haired pointed like a sun boy.
"Not you . . ." he murmured. Both in the same way, Uchiha Obito and Naruto looked confused at the young Uchiha without actually fully understand what he meant with that icy phrase.
Wind around Sasuke completely changed, had begun to lash out at powerful Uchiha and carrier of the immortal beast. Violent hurricane winds took the leaves and earth, throwing them somewhere in the vast and desolate plain.
With the grace of an Uchiha, Sasuke looked down. In the darkest area of his thoughts, he could see that happy picture they had taken days after they become a team. However, someone did not fit there. Sasuke did not hesitate a moment to eradicate Naruto there, causing the severed piece of the picture so treasured by them disappeared into the blackness of oblivion.
Then the eternal Mangekyô flashed crimson amid the grim darkness Uchiha Sasuke's indigo hair. Grudge overflowed in that gaze while the purplish blue Susanô fanned their resentment flames.
"I will erase the past." The enormous infernal flames sword howled as it rose in the middle of the purple and black night sky.
Naruto gritted his teeth because he remembered that Sasuke had mentioned a similar thing with the same icy tone as a snowstorm just hours ago when they confronted the Jûbi face to face. It was when both had rammed the demonic creature with an almost unstoppable combination of wind and dark flames—combining Naruto's devastating rasen-shuriken with Sasuke's risky blaze element, creating an even more overwhelming variation—the scorch element.
The Bijû are still inside that huge thing too! When it is weak enough, turn off those black flames! Kurama and I will bring the Bijû there!
No! He had responded with imperative tone. All will burn as it is.
Naruto felt emptiness in his stomach when reality hit him in the depths of soul, because nothing had changed between them. Sasuke wanted to change the world system shinobi, for that, he needed to immolate the Bijû ... that implied that he soon would go for Kurama too.
Moreover, just think that made Naruto's vision taint red.
For harsher and severe than had been the young Uchiha's words, Uchiha Obito's face had not changed at all or had not reflected the least expression but pure and inhuman tranquility; Sasuke's statement had not affected him in the slightest. He was beyond him, beyond any other shinobi in all that vastness of ninjas who were in the desolate region where this loss and no joke battle raged; this conversation took place, alone and only because he was consenting to.
After all, would a god stop to contemplate a cockroach? What one would do is enjoy its insignificance before crushing it as insect it is.
At that moment, Uchiha Obito was no more a human and he was not chained to the limitations of one. Now he was a god in the full meaning of the word. He could feel each energy and life form throughout the region, he could feel the emotions of despair of every shinobi that sobbed almost in panic, and he could feel every living being from animals, people, and even the flora itself. He was entranced with those emotions that revealed despair, fear and bitterness, they knew that the end had come, there was no way to defend themselves from the wrath of the god of hatred and destruction!
Everyone, absolutely every one of those beings under him was nothing but vile cockroaches: insignificant, pathetic, and irritating cockroaches. Above all those shinobi was the young Uchiha seemed to cry out that he crush him as such.
Like a ripple in the middle of a pond, something changed in Obito, none of the boys could say whether it was his face or his stance was it that had changed, but suddenly, he looked more dangerous than ever before. The power that resided deep inside of him, finally started to become present, preparing its strength as the scourge of a tsunami to end all in a simple, brief, and short implosion.
As a complete rejection of Sasuke's declaration, Obito's rinnegan pulsed with terrifying power, paralyzing each Shinobi in the near area. There were millions of shinobi, thousands of them, famous ninja in within their regions, all of them with impressive combat skills that turned them into efficient warriors; but only experience the power of that god made man, brought an unexpected effect into everyone of them: every shinobi froze in the middle of ruthless efficiency.
Everything suddenly seemed to freeze. The wind pierced and Obito disappeared like a specter. There was a quiet, serene, and quiet breeze hovering in the air, but suddenly, a Titanic burst! The sound barrier being destroyed by god's supersonic speed! When Obito assaulted, he did so as an angry deity, with an iron grip and footstep a mark in the middle of the night breeze.
Materializing with a sample of supersonic speed, Uchiha Obito appeared before Naruto and Sasuke, and before either of them could react, its hands gripped the boys' face. A grip able to flatten titanium. Sasuke's skull held before crushing.
When his world succumbed to darkness, he knew there was no chance to win. After all, this was it this was the end. The last thing he knew was that Naruto also was dragged into his own personal hell also with him. He heard Naruto's father—Namikaze Minato—scream at the same time were the two Bijû bombs that rested in the Uchiha god's hands—capable to demolish nations—soared in their faces.
There was an explosion, that was all that Sasuke knew, then absolute nothingness, his conscience completely ended fading into oblivion, and their soul succumbed to eternal darkness.
For a long time, only the sound of the wind, quiet and gentle zephyrs kicked up clouds of dust that were lost in the darkness of the night could be heard. Something began to move, but nobody were sure what it was exactly.
Clouds reflected a spectrum there, a person who had his fingers stained with crimson essence. There was no one else there, not even a single chakra, or even a remnant corpse.
Naruto and Sasuke were gone. However, Uchiha Obito no. The winds shifted suddenly, they were now frightened and full of despair as the deity's eyes gleamed.
Thousands watched in helpless rage and sadness. They had lost! They had lost! And there was no turning back.
The world shook when the god rinnegan carrier roared in the full moon sky.
However, this was only the beginning of another story . . .