Do not fear the mindless creature. Ready yourself for the monster who thinks. Flee swiftly from the beast that dreams.
The first is common. The next is scheming. The last is god.
- From Codex XIX of the Otsutsuki Galaxidom
A lone frigate appeared suddenly and silently above the endlessly stormy ocean of a nameless dwarf aquaplanet. It was a blocky and menacing machine, its hull dark and worn, a nearly scratched-off sigil of an ancient fan from before the Starflight Era - red head, white base - on its starboard engine. It was built for function. The little amount of 'form' the spaceship possessed was dedicated to intimidation.
A lone man stood on the bridge of this vessel, coal-black eyes gazing through the main viewport at the angry ocean he loomed over. His pale face was cold but curious, wondering only for a moment if he was in the right place, before a casual glance toward the excitedly-glowing egg-like beacon in his hand reassured him. He lowered his head, and his eyes glowed red for several moments.
"AI, the legionnaires are on their way to the launching bay. See that they're prepared for aggressive landing. I'm going topside," the man orders, and a calm, synthesized voice answers from all around him.
"As you request, Sasuke. The relocator is ready. Analysis indicates an oxygen-rich atmosphere. The rebreathing function of your cyberweave armor will not be necessary."
Sasuke turned toward the bridge's rear and stepped onto the glowing platform that marked the readied relocator, and in a flash of light, he was taken from the quiet safety of his frigate's bridge to the cold and volatile conditions outside raining down upon his ship. The wind and rain flattened and battered his dark hair, and with an expression betraying his annoyance, he walked forward, the soles of his full-body cyberweave armor magnetized to the hull of his ship and securing his safety.
Sasuke walked forward until he could look down at the writhing expanse of water stretching across the horizon. He raised the beacon high, and the deafening roar of thunder and bright, violent bolts of lightning streaking through the air seemed to respond to its presence. There was a noticeable shift in the air.
Sasuke squeezed hard, and the beacon screamed. A ray of light shone from the beacon down to the ocean's surface. After several moments, the beacon went quiet and dark. After several more, the ocean heaved and retched up something massive from its depths. The loud hiss of violently-displaced liquid accompanied the powerful geyser that sprayed straight up into the air and filled Sasuke's vision with mist. The whipping wind did quick work to scatter the fog and reveal the massive temple that had been summoned from the restless depths.
Pillars of silver lined a path of glowing ivory that led to a long, tall structure with a small entrance but a broad body with few corners or edges. The temple's surface was decorated with glowing rings of light and the structure itself was flanked by towering spires that shone brightly through the dark haze of the dwarf planet's eternal storm. As hauntingly beautiful as the structure was, there were signs of wear on its surface as well, and the ever-falling deluge had no trouble pounding against it. The temple was not impenetrable.
"So there you are..." Sasuke murmured to himself before turning and walking back toward the relocator atop his ship. "AI, re-lo to launching bay. Take aim and fire main cannons on my order."
"As you request, Sasuke. Target locked on. Awaiting further orders."
"Wake up, Naruto."
... ... ...
Sasuke returned to the platform, and in another flash of light, he was taken in an instant from the cold and volatile conditions outside to a hallway within his ship, filled with the sound of steady humming and the occasional hiss and whir of moving parts. Lined up on either end of the hall were large metal pods, vaguely shaped like pointed bullets, and from inside those bullets, Sasuke could hear the growls of agitation from their living payloads. He made his way to an open pod near the end of the launching bay, climbing into the seat inside. When the pod sealed itself closed, Sasuke spoke out again.
"Arm and fire."
At once, Sasuke felt his pod shift backward then quickly to the right. He closed his eyes, tensed his body, and held his breath as thick, heavy foam filled the pod's interior. The ship turned, opening ports under its nose, from which the barrels of two large cannons extended and took aim toward the surfaced temple. A loud barrage of cannon fire followed, launching ten metal pods toward the temple, which burst through the ceiling and smashed into the floor with shocking force.
Sasuke's pod opened quickly, moments after landing, and the thick foam that cushioned his impact vaporized upon contact with open air. He climbed from the pod, and the sound of his feet touching the polished floor echoed through the vast and yawning space he found himself within. Silver pillars like those outside spiraled toward the ceiling, and shimmering, metal statues of long-haired nude figures in reverent poses stood in pairs on either end of each doorway.
The sounds of roaring, growling, and angry breathing bounced off the temple walls and past Sasuke's ears, and his face grew firm. His black eyes glowed red once more, and at once, the angry sounds quieted. From other doorways and other locations around the room that Sasuke landed in, men and women wearing cyberweave armor much bulkier than his own began to gather together. Their faces were hollow and ugly, scarred and furrowed, like the very essence of their being had been carved out in some brutish surgery, and the resulting scars had no chance of healing. Against their backs were their weapons, clunky and heavy-looking compact boxes by appearance, that could unfold and extend themselves into large and bulky rifles - also built for function and intimidation - when drawn and activated.
Each legionnaire had a pair of glassy red eyes that looked attentively at Sasuke as they gathered around him.
"Stay alert, AI. Scan for any peculiar movement in and around this system," Sasuke spoke into his wrist
"As you request, Sasuke."
Sasuke started forward, his team of legionnaires on either side of him as he made his way deeper into the temple, his expression becoming dark and determined. "Now, where are you hiding, Jinchuriki?"
"Can you not sense that you're in danger? Wake up and defend yourself."
... ... ...
Straight forward and straight down. Reaching his destination in the heart of the once-drowned and derelict temple was easier than Sasuke would have imagined. An elevator platform brought him and his silent, obedient legionnaires below sea level, to an empty, spherical antechamber with filthy windows staring out into the night of the ocean and a rounded entryway into a much larger room.
Sasuke stopped, and let one of his legionnaires enter the chamber first. The rounded edge of the entryway's arch shimmered and flickered, and the faint scent of ozone touched the air.
"A broken arc trap. Hmph. The Otsutsuki should have thought twice about their defenses before waterlogging their-"
Sasuke's idle criticism was cut suddenly and surprisingly short by a loud surge of electricity. By fortune, one of his other legionnaires was slightly ahead of him as he moved forward to enter, and the 'broken' arc trap suddenly shone to life. Electrodes hidden in the doorway launched bright tendrils of energy straight toward the unfortunate legionnaire, and Sasuke hopped back just in time to avoid one of the electric death rays that had started to seek him out for a moment.
The legionnaire's blood-curdling screams and violent convulsions shattered the abandoned temple's solemn air as she was thoroughly electrocuted, and after several seconds passed, Sasuke reasoned that the trap wouldn't cut itself off any time soon. He looked through the archway toward the legionnaire that had successfully crossed the delayed trap, and the hollow-faced man thoughtlessly obeyed the silent order, coming back toward Sasuke and running himself straight into the trap, adding his cries of agony to his fellow legionnaire's.
What Sasuke hoped would happen did. The archway's electrodes only zeroed in on one victim each. The electrodes more to the right arced to the rightmost legionnaire only, and the same went for the left, which opened an avenue of safe passage in the space between those two victims. Sasuke ducked low to the floor and crawled through the archway, between the two sacrificed soldiers. Besides the electric humming in his ears and the shiver that crawled through his entire body as he went, he stood up completely unharmed on the archway's other end.
Sasuke took a quick look around and noticed an indentation along the wall beside the archway. When he pressed it down, the trap was disarmed, and the legionnaires caught in it fell to the floor, wheezing out their last breaths and twitching in their death throes. Smoke vented from their orifices, and their skin boiled where the arcs of deadly energy had vaporized their armor. The other seven legionnaires simply stepped over them without a second glance, joining Sasuke in the vast room.
Compared to the rest of the temple, most of the chamber was unremarkable. Floors of ivory connected to tall walls that curved into the ceiling, more large windows peered out into the emptiness of the lifeless waters the temple once rested in, and larger metal statues of long-haired nude figures posed just ahead. What made the chamber stand out was the glowing tree planted in its center, its white bark pulsating slowly with life that its leafless stillness did not betray. The tree and its many long, naked limbs grew all the way up to the ceiling, fanning out in a beautiful, if slightly haunting display.
Cradled within the tree's shining roots was a lone stasis pod, a gilded cocoon of glinting metal and glass. Sasuke squinted as he approached the machine quickly, noting idly that it seemed to be wired to nothing except the tree whose roots encircled it, and yet it hummed with functionality. The glass front of the pod was dark and tinted, revealing only the shadow of a figure sleeping inside. Sasuke raised the beacon once again, and it shimmered in time with the steady pulse of the white tree's curious light. The stasis pod hissed, and the gentle, harmonic sounds of moving parts filled the air as the front of it unlocked and unfolded.
Seated inside, fast asleep, was a blond young man, faintly tan, with thin lines across his cheeks, and an orange-and-black cyberweave armor suit of ancient and intricate design clinging to his toned form.
"Worthless body... Perhaps your enemies will have better luck stirring you."
... ...!
Stasis released its firm, comfortable grip all at once. Naruto awoke with a deep breath, and the first thing he saw when he opened his bright blue eyes was the barrel of a pistol aimed right at his face and the cold red eyes of the man holding it. He had little time to be confused. The red-eyed stranger pulled the trigger, and the heat of a plasma round turned Naruto's first waking moments into a living hell. He lost his mind in the haze of intense, white-hot pain as it pushed straight through his skull, to the point where he couldn't register his own screams of pain or the reflexive motion of his hands rising and clutching at where his face once was.
Naruto's vision had corroded into nothingness, like a flame that had eaten through the center of a photograph. He jumped as two more plasma rounds found home in his chest, and then his vision went bright red. Though he couldn't hear it or feel it physically, he sensed a powerful outpouring of energy from his being, an incredible force that emerged from the depths of his being and seemed to explode outward from all around him.
Along with that sudden surge of energy came healing. Liquefied innards, melted bone, and boiled flesh all wove itself quickly back together, the pain and heat departed, and Naruto could feel his face beneath his trembling fingers once again. He opened his eyes, climbing free from his pod before falling to his knees as a wave of nausea and weakness washed over him. A flurry of questions whirled around in his head. Where was he? What just happened? Why was he awake? Why had he been in stasis to start with?
"I figured it wasn't going to be that easy."
Naruto panted as he lifted his head toward the voice, taking note of the large group of people that he swore had been closer a moment ago, but now all looked as if they'd been blown back by some sudden gust of wind, or the force of an explosion. The one who spoke, the red-eyed man who shot him, secured his pistol against his side as he rose to his feet again.
Naruto furrowed his brows, struggling both for strength and comprehension. He grunted as he pulled himself up to one foot, and then the other. "Who... Who are you? And what the hell was that for?" he asked, his voice brittle from disuse.
"Sasuke Uchiha, Centurion of the Independent Uchiha Sovereignty's Grand Legion," he introduced himself curtly as he drew a short rod from his other hip. With a click, a blade flipped up and extended, turning the rod into a longsword whose edge glowed a dangerous, thermal red. "And for the glory of the Sovereign, you and all those like you must die."
The waking disorientation that clouded Naruto's mind had mostly faded, and as he looked around, he could feel the pure, mindless hatred venting from the twisted-faced soldiers that Sasuke commanded, and the emotional shroud of ice that Sasuke himself put up before himself. Sasuke aimed his blade forward, and the legionnaires at his sides understood the silent order and opened fire, unleashing a roaring barrage of gunfire straight ahead. Naruto's eyes widened and he raised his arms quickly. The pain of the first few bullets piercing through his armor and biting into his arms and torso forced the weakness to flee from his body, and with a sudden surge of energy coursing through him, he leaped quickly away from the gunfire, high into the air to land on one of the upper branches of the great white tree he'd been sleeping against, taking cover from most of the gunfire.
Naruto grit his teeth, watching as the bullets that had struck him forced themselves out of his body, harmless pellets raining down to the floor below. His body and suit repaired themselves, and the pain that had begun to roll through him suddenly ceased.
"Heh... You just burned a hole straight through my head while I was pretty much asleep, and I'm fine now! What makes you think you can kill me?" Naruto called down toward Sasuke.
Wit was the only weapon Naruto could arm himself with at that moment, against a commander with his blade, and his seven soldiers, armed with mindless hate in their eyes and dire-looking rifles in their hands. Sasuke returned Naruto's smirk with something closer to a sneer before responding.
"Immortals don't bleed. And they definitely don't scream," Sasuke called back
Immortals don't bleed... Something about that statement pushed a button in Naruto's mind. It was a familiar phrase that he felt he had heard before, but he couldn't remember where, and he didn't have the time to sit and ponder over it. As he held his hands over his head, crouching down in the tree's boughs to avoid as much gunfire as he could, he wracked his brain, trying to come up with some way to defend himself...
"Danger. LADAR anomalies detected and closing in fast, Sasuke. Likely incoming cloaked Hyuga Federation vessels."
The calm voice from below caught Naruto's attention, and from what he saw below, it greatly disturbed Sasuke as well, who looked down at his wrist with a surprised, angry expression. "Hyuga, here? Why?! Signal the rest of the century, AI! How close are they?"
"As you request, Sasuke. Remaining nine century vessels inbound. Confirmed Hyuga Federation vessels have just entered the lower atmosphe-"
The synthesized voice was cut off by static, and moments later, a loud explosion sent a terrible shudder through the entire temple, shaking the branches of the great white tree and knocking Naruto suddenly off-balance. His heartrate surged as he struggled to right himself and failed, and he yelled out as he fell to the floor again as quickly as he had leaped up to the branches, crashing onto his back on the floor with a dull, echoing thud. Naruto's vision flashed white, and weakness and nausea once again rocked his body in waves, but through the pain, which wasn't as much as he expected, he rolled onto his side, bracing himself to be fired at again.
Naruto raised his head and blinked, relaxing when he saw that Sasuke and his legionnaires had lost interest in him and were storming as quickly as they could out of the chamber and back toward the elevator. The pain was slow to leave Naruto this time, and he struggled to try and rise to his feet once more. Before he could, and just as Sasuke and his legionnaires approached the elevator, another explosion rang out, accompanied by shattering glass and buckling steel. A massive column of water rushed down from the elevator tunnel, bursting into the room and sweeping away the Uchiha soldiers immediately. Naruto's eyes widen, and the rapid advance of water crashed into him as well, the sudden force sending everything back into blackness...
"You're not listening. You've forgotten yourself, Naruto."
... ... ...
"Eons of stasis have dulled your mind and weakened your connection to your Jinchuriki armaments... This is the only time you have enough focus to hear me, isn't it? When you're unconscious and can't even respond or comprehend."
... ... ...?
"Hm... A flicker? Perhaps there's hope for you yet... If you can understand me, Naruto, remember your strength. You think yourself unarmed, but you wear your weapon. You ARE your weapon. Wake up, and face the war that has come to this place."
...!
Immortals do not bleed. Whatever bleeds, whether it carries blood, water, or electricity within it, carries life that can be drained away to nothing.
- From Codex V of the Otsutsuki Galaxidom
(A/N: This is something that's been sitting on my computer for quite a long time. It's the first part of a prologue to a story that I suppose I abandoned before even posting the first chapter.
It's been so long that I'm not sure why I scrapped the idea to start this story, but since this part is actually finished, I figured, why not put at least this part up and see what kind of response it gets. If people like it and tell me they want to see more, perhaps I'll try to figure out what I wanted to do with this story and post more. xD
So tell me what you think, I guess.
~M.H.C~)