Night time held the Elemental Nations captive, and a small spring rain drizzled on the overbearing tree cover as a reconnaissance team from the Village Hidden in the Leaves crossed the border into Grass Country. Their objective was to gather intelligence of ever changing enemy outposts in the region. As they attempted to sneak past a small invading force of Iwa ninja the Hyuuga had detected so they could send one ninja back to warn the nearest Konoha outposts ahead of the impending threat, one inexperienced chuunin accidently stopped suppressing his chakra for a second too long.
The more experienced ninja in the group- those with the reflexes to jump away- could only watch as a supremely controlled wave of dirt and soil deftly squashed the other half. The leader of the party quickly went through the handsigns for a cloaking genjutsu, but it meant little to the tracker sent with the Iwa team to pick up stragglers. Unable to reach the border or any friendly reinforcements for miles, the retreating Konoha team had to make the decision for a last stand on a higher grove of trees. Using the precious few seconds of lead that the invisibility jutsu had gotten them, they set up a small ambush that actually managed to snag two young chuunin who broke rank in order to arrive at the enemy location first.
Out of the smoke of the exploding tags the rest of the Iwa ninja arrived, and the fighting began in earnest. It began with a simple ninjutsu exchange that ended with some injuries on the part of the Konoha ninja, fireballs, kunai and a small stream of lightning ineffectually combating a hail of rocks and senbon from the Iwa ninja. Even as the Iwa taijutsu specialists began to close the distance in order to fully utilize their art against the unprepared for open combat, some sort of divine intervention occurred.
A giant blast of purple blew open the ground under the combatants' feet, effectively causing an involuntary ceasefire. Konoha and Iwa ninja alike were thrown back from the explosion, ending the lives of the taijutsu specialists who happened to be directly in the blast radius.
A strange figure now lay within the crater that still held the mangled body parts of the unfortunate Iwa nin. A monster of a man clad in orange pants with metal gauntlets and a weapon of a strange design. Some sort of gas mask adorned his face, one of the eyeholes plugged in by rubber. The weapon looked akin to an axe, but the business end was circular with sharp ends pointing out. Tied to the weapon was unmistakably dynamite.
Guided by surprise and fear, ninja from both sides flung jutsu at the bloodied, stirring figure in the crater. Large bloody holes appeared in the body of the man, eliciting mad laughter from him. Screaming a nonsensical stream of words, he charged at the outnumbering Iwa ninja side. An unspoken truce passed between the ninja present, veterans and newer ninja alike feeling the maniacal bloodlust the hulking figure had brought to bear. They would fight together to put this monster down.
The closest Iwa chuunin on the ground, however, was among those paralyzed by fear. The strange man's weapon cleaved him in two before he could react, and he exploded in blood- catching those nearby and unprepared for it. That started a chain reaction, those killed by the explosions also exploding. The veteran ninja not paralyzed from the display managed to jump back from the explosions before they too were consumed. The trees that they were standing on, however, weren't so lucky.
While the first shock had paralyzed the less experienced of the ninja, the second dose of horror convinced even those hardened by battle to break rank and flee: the wounds the man had just sustained from the ninjutsu and weapons flung at him initially simply closed. Traveling by trees gave little respite as battle-scarred veterans of previous Shinobi Wars began to flee in any direction they could, pursued by exploding flying axes and the delighted laughter of a madman.
It did not take long for Krieg's original personality to awaken. Whatever had happened had knocked him out for a little while- enough time, apparently, for the bloodthirsty psychopath in him to take control and leave a gruesome crater full of gruesomely dismembered corpses. He sighed inwardly. At least there were signs that the killed enemies were indeed combatants, such as the odd weapons strewn about.
What had happened? He remembered all that had happened in his quest to open the vault of Ares, and the significant reduction in local bandit population he had enacted. His memory extended to the part where he was about to open the vault with his party, and to a dramatic fight with the alien creature inside. He… had won that fight, hadn't he?
He had, he was sure of it. He remembered his dominant personality being sated by the flow of blood that flowed from the great beast after the kill. The vault had definitely contained something else, as well: he had approached… something that fell from the beast. After that, he drew a blank.
What happened? The weapons lying on the ground were primitive- swords, needles, and oddly shaped daggers- but so was the buzz axe he wielded. Strangely, however, there were no gun parts lying around. Unless he had just slaughtered a clan of some VERY strange psychos, there should definitely have been gun parts. Hell, wasn't he supposed to be wielding a gun as well? What had happened to all of his hard-earned weaponry? His shield, his relic?
There weren't any trees on Ares, as far as he knew. The flora around him lacked the distinctive look of Ares flora, too. This planet was not Ares. The Eridium must have teleported him off of the planet- that was a first. Must have been an enormous amount of Eridium. He was extremely lucky to have been teleported to a planet with a livable atmosphere as opposed to say, deep space, but he was still royally screwed if this planet did not have any spacecraft on it. So what was his other half doing right now?
The dominant personality was, unsurprisingly, currently busy examining his handiwork. He beat one torn off arm against another, each movement spraying more blood in every direction. Not properly enthused with the idea of continuing this activity, Krieg's original personality attempted to talk to himself.
"(Hey, what happened while I was out?)" he asked.
"Don't you dare interrupt my time with the former filthy flesh fruit. They gave me all of their beautiful pain and screamed in my soul and now I need to remember and feel all of the blood again," was the response he got.
"(Were they deserving?)"
"Oh, yes, yes YES! They sent me all of their power tools and I felt their sting drill into me and the flies began to eat my meat chunks and I KILLED THEM. Except they RAN, I didn't get to feel it all. They wouldn't give me all of it."
"(…Forget it. How about you get moving so we can find out where we are? We can find more of the deserving and kill them, if you like.)"
"STOP IT! STOP IT! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU!"
And with that, Krieg stabbed his buzz axe into his face, dropped one of the arms and picked up half of a skull instead. His inner voice sighed and bided his time.
The Sandaime found the reports of what happened at the Kusa border slightly disconcerting, even though he barely had time to look at them between the long, drawn out meetings with his military commanders about troop movements and assigning missions and dealing with civilian complaints and meeting with ambassadors from small countries and the myriad of other responsibilities that came with being Hokage, especially during wartime.
But he digressed. The only teleportation jutsu he knew of period was young Minato's Hiraishin, and he had lived a very long time. Whatever it was that had attacked his ninja apparently had one, along with strange explosive and regenerative jutsus. He might or might not have the manpower to deal with this potentially S-rank threat while fighting a war with Iwagakure, and he couldn't let this psychopath rampage that close to Fire Country's borders. Perhaps he could be used against the enemy?
The man certainly seemed to be bestial, and he had ninja among his fighting force that could potentially lead him along while staying at enough of a range that the man's improbable accuracy with his strange weapon would be an avoidable threat. Of course, he also wanted a ninja that could disappear from the maniac's radar long enough for him to find Iwa nin. And for that, of course, there was only one soldier. He would have to be separated from his team for the duration of the mission, but another jounin could assume provisional responsibilities as the sensei of team Minato.
The Sandaime made a handseal and an ANBU operative uncloaked in front of the Hokage.
"Find Namikaze Minato. Tell him to meet me in my office."
Minato, meanwhile, was busy training Taijutsu with his close friend and secret girlfriend, Kushina Uzumaki. The spar was intense- both of them were intensely focused and traded blows fairly equally. Minato appeared to have a slight upper hand, to be sure, but not one that terribly unbalanced the fight.
After some back-and-forth, Minato landed a solid punch on his lover. She slid a few feet back and wiped some blood off of her lip, smiling to let her partner know she was alright. She then charged right back into the fray. Minato was visibly slowing down- they HAD been practicing for a rather long time, to be sure- and she wouldn't have any real problems in getting him back for that one.
Kushina was proved right in the next few moments as Minato took a solid hit to the ribcage, making him reflexively bend forward to his left, right into Kushina's next hook that sent him sprawling to the ground. Standing over him with a wicked smile, Kushina teased, "Had enough for today, honey?"
Minato laughed as he rubbed the bruised spot on his face.
"Yeah, I think that may be enough. You win. Want to go get some dango?"
"The food's on you, loser."
"I know, I know," Minato replied with a smile as Kushina helped him up. He rubbed the back of his head with his left arm.
"Maybe hit a little less hard next time?"
"Depends on how good the dango is," Kushina said, laughing.
Unfortunately, their (romantic) excursion to the dango stand was interrupted by the appearance of an ANBU operative that materialized in front of them.
"Minato-san, Hokage-sama requests your presence at his office for a mission."
Minato sighed internally. He really did not like to leave Kushina, especially before a dinner together. He was likely going into a warzone- he knew she would worry about him. She looked into his eyes.
"We'll have our meal when you get back, and you're still paying. Just… be careful, all right? There's a war out there."
Minato nodded wordlessly and Hiraishin'ed into the Hokage's office the next moment. It was time to do a mission- someone else would have to watch his team for the time being.
Four days later, the Minato was in a tree, observing the clearly insane target as he drank blood from a cooling corpse. It had been rather easy to find the target- the behemoth reeked of blood and inexplicably left a trail of witnesses along the way. Minato couldn't quite understand why he stayed his hands for the innocent, considering he was more bloodthirsty than any other individual the ninja had ever met and his abilities WERE uniquely suited to slaughtering masses. He was hardly worthy of the title of ninja- the man relied on his strange-looking axe almost exclusively, cutting down ninja and bandits who happened to cross his path. He hadn't made hand signs, but he had breathed fire seallessly.
Minato had never seen a jutsu that literally blew up a human's body when they died, nor one that seemed to absorb the life force of victims like that. Perhaps the axe was some sort of legendary chakra weapon? He hadn't heard of any weapon with those properties. It kept re-appearing in his hands after he threw it, for goodness's sake! The psychopath had yet to repeat his teleportation jutsu, so he couldn't analyze it in comparison with his own. He did assume that it was a non-combat jutsu, though, since had yet to utilize it. It could also be someone else's jutsu, teleporting him away in an attempt to escape.
He resisted disarming attempts (would those matter, if he could make his axe reappear in his hands?) and overwhelmed unprepared chuunin and lower level jounin with ease using that axe, meaning he was definitely A rank, if not S rank- Minato knew he could probably beat him since the man fought like a wild animal and he had the Hiraishin, but it would be a very long fight unless he managed to nick an artery. Then again, would that even kill him? He took far more punishment than any normal human should be capable of. Oh, well, decapitation would work.
There was no doubt about his insanity. The bloodlust should have been enough, but the man would constantly hit himself in the face with his own weapon mid-combat. It didn't even seem to matter that he did so, continuing on and putting it in someone else's flesh next. All in all, it was rather… unsanitary.
So who actually WAS this man? His attire was strange, some sort of unfamiliar white mask with baggy orange pants and off metal gauntlets. No ninja fought like that, either- perhaps he was from beyond the Elemental Nations. Perhaps he wasn't even human.
There had been a recent skirmish nearby- nobody had come to retrieve the bodies yet. Looters had immediately flooded the scene- usually these were civilians from nearby villages made poor from proximity to the war, but they seemed to be bandits made poor from the civilians' poverty in this particular case. The man, by intention or happenstance, was headed in that direction, so Minato followed.
What followed suit when he reached the site was fairly predictable- the bandits, confident in their numbers and made desperate by need, put on a brave face.
"This is our loot, punk! Back off!"
"DON'T CRY WHEN I PULL YOUR LUNGS OUT THROUGH YOUR CHEST!"
"Kill him!"
And then it was over as soon as the strange axe hit soft flesh, the most of the looters dying in an explosive chain reaction and the rest being pursued by more axes. This wasn't a battle, it was a slaughter. Minato had killed before, and knew the horrors of war- he was nevertheless rather disgusted with the flagrant display of mindless cruelty.
He could probably kill the man right now, actually- he was still distracted in his pursuit of the bandits. A simple kunai to the throat would more likely than not end his life then and there.
Minato sighed inwardly. Orders were orders, and he had to try to make the target Iwa's problem first. The psychopath appeared to have finished his murdering streak, and Minato had already prepared his Hiraishin kunai in the path that he would lead the target. Although Minato was almost sure that it would not work, he decided to open conversation to try and talk him into leaving.
"Hey, efficient handling of those looters there," Minato began. "I'm Minato Namikaze, jounin of Konohagakure. Who are you and how did you get here?"
Minato tensed when he saw the man's weapon rise, but it went down a second later as a surprisingly sane, quieter voice spoke. The ninja-turned-diplomat had to strain just to hear him.
"(Don't kill him! He doesn't look he's attacking you!)"
Then his voice returned to normal. "I AM KRIEG THE PSYCHO! AND MY SPLEEN ABSORBS THE PAIN TRAIN LIKE A GOOD SPONGE!"
"(Don't tell him that! We might have a new ally! Remember what that was like? Axton? Maya?)"
"GRAAH! STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!"
Minato observed this exchange with a growing wariness as Krieg, as apparently his name was, hit himself in the face with his bladed weapon. It was clear he was not going to get any results attempting to explain that they were in the middle of a war. The man sounded like he had more than one person in his body- perhaps he could appeal to the saner side to leave Grass Country for Earth Country?
"Look, Krieg, or whoever is in there- I need you to leave, alright? Can you head in that direction for me?" Minato made calming gestures with his body language as he said this, hoping that the apparently dominant personality would calm down enough for the other to listen.
Krieg licked his lips. "Will there be more little pulsing meatbags for me? MY AXE IS THRISTY!"
"Yes, yes, there will be… plenty of people for you." Minato felt a little bit sick. "I can show you where there are plenty of enemies."
"SHOW ME!"
"Put your axe away. I can teleport you there." Minato was hesitant, of course, to get close enough to Krieg to use the Hiraishin on him, but the alternative was spending FAR too much time in the company of a bloodthirsty psychopath in hostile territory. As Krieg complied, Minato was on full alert and readied his reflexes in case Krieg decided to turn on him.
Much to his relief, Krieg merely stood still during the teleportation.
"That was weird…" he commented.
Minato directed him to the Iwa nin outpost nearby. This appeared to have a higher level jounin as a squad leader, one that could possibly adapt to Krieg's fighting style long enough to try and combat him.
"There… see that camp over there? There is where your targets are. Anyone wearing the same headband of them is who you need to kill. Avoid killing those with the same one as mine. We are the good guys."
Krieg's saner voice piped up for a moment.
"(You're just making me fight for your side of some kind of war, aren't you? What makes you any better than them?)"
Minato hesitated a moment before answering.
"We are fighting to uphold our ideals. They of Iwa are fighting a war of aggression, and we need to protect our own. If you help us, perhaps Konohagakure will have a place for you."
Minato definitely felt sick saying that. He had to embellish there; after all, the man was an outsider and was far too murderous to be taught the Will of Fire. That wasn't the problem, though: he had just offered a clearly insane and bloodthirsty psychopath asylum in Konoha. It wasn't under his authority, granted. He could even perhaps be directed as a bounty hunter for Konoha under close supervision. But his morals still rebuked under the thought of helping someone so… evil.
Maybe he wasn't all bad, though. His inner voice did seem to ask if those people were "deserving." Perhaps there was some sort of "angel of justice" thing going on in his head? Regardless, the man was unstable and needed to be institutionalized. If he did seek Konoha after the war, perhaps that's what Minato would petition to offer. He wouldn't have technically lied in offering him a place, then.
He needed to stay and watch this fight. He didn't know the extent of Krieg's abilities and perhaps a more prepared upper level jounin would give him enough of a challenge in order to showcase them.
The jounin in question was a specialist in Earth ninjutsu. When one of her team members- one of the four chuunin assigned to her guidance- alerted her to the presence of an approaching figure, he told his team:
"Approaching figure at 6 o'clock."
The composite team of genin, chuunin, and one jounin knew their orders. Any non Iwagakure individuals within detection range were to be killed on sight. This was no Iwa ninja, and he had to die. The outpost was fairly close to the front line, after all.
One of the chuunin, the genjutsu specialist of the team, cast a small on Krieg as he entered combat. It affected his perception of the world to the extent that the Iwa nin and their attacks appeared slightly to the left of where they actually were. A penetrating spear of rock (courtesy of the Earth Lance technique) greeted Krieg in the side along with a hail of kunai. Full of projectiles, Krieg laughed off the giant piece of rock stuck directly where his lung should be and charged the surprised taijutsu specialists that had only dashed forth a short distance before assuming him dead from his wounds.
And Krieg started missing his swings. He couldn't accurately tell where the actual combatants where because of the genjutsu, which made him more angry and confused. The fight lasted a few seconds before a kenjutsu student managed to stab him in the side, and the jounin, coated in Earth Armor, had snuck up behind him and stabbed him in an artery.
The jounin began to give orders.
"Matsu, Benkei, pick up the corpse and-"
She was interrupted by a bestial roar from Krieg, as the projectiles and weapons stuck in him clattered to the ground, his wounds closing. Even more alarmingly, his right hand grew humongous and his left shriveled while his back hunched over. In the surprise of the transformation, Krieg snagged one of the nearby Genin with his axe, creating an explosion of blood that tagged and exploded the other four taijutsu specialists that had charged him. The jounin managed to jump back.
The jounin had expected casualties if there was combat, of course, but not from a single unknown man wandering into the outpost. She felt a twing of regret, then squashed it. She had to kill her emotions for country right now once again.
"What the hell is that?!" exclaimed the genjutsu specialist, voicing what was on the minds of others. "Who the hell ARE you?!"
He felt the genjutsu having been broken by the extreme pain the enemy must have been in. He prepared to re cast it, but was interrupted by his head exploding in a fine red mist courtesy to a passing buzz axe. The jounin, recovering from her shock, sent Krieg flying a few feet with the Earth Dragon Technique. It fazed him none and the continued barrage of weapons from the one remaining chuunin and the surviving genin was shrugged off with little effort.
Krieg charged the ranged attackers and the jounin, still in her Earth Armor, went to intercept him while dual wielding kunais. The kunais broke almost instantly against the force of Krieg's axe swing and pierced through her Earth armor, cutting into the bone a bit. She stumbled for a moment, expecting the end with another lightning fast swing of the strange axe, but the man had taken a second to… hit himself in the face with it?
Realizing she would probably die in close range combat, she managed to jump back just as Krieg came to. She created a few Earth clones. She would have to entomb this man to kill him.
Meanwhile, the genin were keeping busy. The chuunin was a weapon specialist, continuing to rain down projectiles at the strange monster in hopes of slowing him down long enough for the jounin to kill him. The genin were mostly paralyzed and almost breaking down from the sight of the blood and the heavy feeling of killing intent emanating from the enemy. They were young and had not seen battle yet; that would likely be their downfall.
The Earth clones went in to engage Krieg, while the jounin herself stayed back and casted a small genjutsu on Krieg. This would slow down his reflexes directly, meaning it would be easy enough to create an opening for to-
There! Krieg had decided to hit himself in the face again, so one of her clones jumped onto him and dissolved into mud. While he was ensnared by that, the jounin prepared her Bedrock Coffin technique to end the fight. She watched the enemy's transformation recede while the walls closed in.
Minato, still observing the battle, frowned. Was that all that Krieg had to offer? He had clearly taken control of the skirmish he had entered in with the element of surprise, as whatever teleportation technique was used had instilled fear in the ninja. But still, he had expected more from the man. Despite himself, he was disappointed that Krieg had died so easily. He couldn't even place why.
Regardless, it was time to report back to the Hokage before he was detected. Minato activated his Hiraishin seal next to the front of the Hokage tower and walked in to give his report. His team would see him soon.
As Minato left, a roar had erupted from the slabs of Earth Krieg had been smashed between. The ground shattered in a massive explosion as Krieg threw his exploding buzz axes in an effort to escape. The jounin grimaced. What did it actually take to kill this… thing?
That Bedrock Coffin technique was fairly chakra intensive, and she felt she only had a few good moves in her before chakra exhaustion. Still, she had a chance to come out on top and she would take it. The genin, she noted, had already begun to creep away from the battlefield. The single chuunin had not even changed tactics.
"Everyone, run and tell Iwa to send any available reinforcements to the area. This is not your fight. I will stall it out as long as possible." The unspoken implication that she might not make it only lodged the need to run in the young genins' minds, and they happily complied.
So it was now her against this monster of a man. She renewed her Earth Armor and dodged a flying axe, her Earth Armor protecting her from the ensuing explosion. Like the last time, the axe inexplicably re-appeared in one piece in his hands. The jounin had never seen jutsu like this before.
She had to kill this man in one shot, else this transformation of his would save him again. The Bedrock Coffin was her go-to killer finisher move, but since that had failed she would try to revert to something else. She DID know some fire style- perhaps it was time to try that.
She jumped onto a tree from her foe's charge and axe swing, then prepared to unleash the Great Fireball technique that she had picked up from watching many a Uchiha she had killed perform it. It was one of Konoha's techniques, yes, but that didn't make it any less useful.
Armed with the knowledge that the man wouldn't even try to dodge, she unleashed the fireball. She was going to roast him alive.
The fireball hit, but didn't even stop him in his tracks. He came out burning and laughing.
"AHAHAHA! I FEEL THE FIRE OF YOUR HATE! CLEANSE MY SOUL SO I CAN WEAR YOURS!"
This was unreal. He not only survived the fire, but was now relishing being aflame? The man was about to throw his axe again, so the jounin jumped out of the tree, trying to hit the man's eyes with some kunai.
Unfortunately for her, Krieg moved to face her and they… nicked the side of his head before bouncing off and clattering to the ground. Her eyes widened for a split second before she noticed that a fireball of the man's own was pursuing her. She jumped away, preparing to delay the man's approach with another Earth Dragon- and then the fireball hit her and set her on fire.
Burning, she ran through the seals to renew her Earth Armor and in doing so took her attention off of Krieg for a split second. That was long enough for the psycho to lob another axe at her. She managed to dodge in the nick of time, but the explosion sent her flying. She didn't manage to recover fast enough to dodge the second axe, which lodged in her calf before exploding and scattering her body parts in several directions.
Krieg, still burning, took a moment to relish the carnage and the pleasant feeling of fire burning away his skin. It would go out in a few moments, but the feeling of burning was sensual to him.
His inner self took pleasure in the moment, despite himself. That had been a satisfying battle and he didn't even have to kill any of the very young children that were equipped with weapons. Who sent children out into battle that early? Perhaps Minato was right, and this side of the war was full of monsters.
Simple mindless slaughter of the enemy, though, did not sit well with him. He wished he could get himself a companion, one to more easily direct his dominant personality into constructive purposes- like what happened on Pandora and a couple of other planets. He wished Minato had not left, he would have been a suitable companion.
It had been a good day for Orochimaru. His experiments had been going along nicely- he had gotten one of his test subjects to survive an infusion of Senju DNA. Whether the subject could now use the bloodline had yet to be tested, but the depraved ninja had high hopes for the subject. After all, there was no reason he shouldn't be able to and if he was, then Orochimaru could perfect the procedure enough to possible use it on himself. Having the Wood Release bloodline would be terribly useful.
His "peers" in Konoha (he had no equal) had yet to catch on. Danzo and his former sensei had no clue what was going on, that he had started his experimentation on human subjects or that he had rescued Kabuto to be his research assistant. Fools, the lot of them. They would never approve of his research, yet one only had to look at what amazing results he was receiving to know that that they would lead to enormous power. Lives of the worthless were a small price to pay for such results. When he became the next Hokage, perhaps he could move to get DNA modifications done to all of his village's people. The world would fall under the combined might of a village so adept in Wood Release, and he, by then immortal, would rule the Elemental Nations with an iron fist… for eternity.
It was in this mood that he caught a purple glint of light emanating from one of the nearby shrubs. His instincts told him to examine the object. Halting his tree-hopping, he descended to investigate the emission.
Squatting down and moving aside the leaves obscuring the object, Orochimaru discovered a strange purple, shiny purple rock. When he picked it up, he discovered that it was metal, and rather cold. It felt… strange, somehow, and he poured a little bit of chakra into it.
The result was a flood of strange, foreign chakra directly into his body. Cold water ran through his veins, and a tingling began throughout his entire body. He began to experience a sort of high, as if the entire world was his already… it felt amazing. He had never experienced such power within himself, and he knew that none could oppose him with such reserves and might in this state. Truly, he was a force to be reckoned with..!
The high disappeared as instantly as it came on. Orochimaru felt a strong feeling of emptiness and longing, as if something he needed to survive had been removed from him. He poured a greater amount of chakra into the metal this time, the same effects coming on but even stronger than before, for a longer period of time.
Orochimaru was already well and truly addicted to the feeling before a couple of minutes had passed. Konoha would have to wait, he had to find more of this, to go back to the lab and find out exactly what it could do to him and to other humans…
He couldn't help himself.