Author's Notes:
Hi there! This story kind-of feeds off my AU story "The Place Where Souls Collide", though I'm going to place some information here so none of you need to go digging through that monster of a tale.
'Eidolon' means a ghost, phantom, or spirit of an idol or an idealized person. This links to the concept of ancestor worship/spirit guides and links with some canon themes found within the Narutoverse. (Specifically evidenced by the descendants of Ōtsutsuki Hamura in "The Last: Naruto the Movie", and we could go further with specific types of kekkei genkei, and the importance of genetics for shinobi in general but… I'll stop while I'm ahead.)
The Ōtsutsuki in this story continue their history according to what is found in my AU… being that there is an internal conflict on a massive scale, and that is what first forced Kaguya away from her people. Furthermore, the corruption of Ōtsutsuki individuals does not represent the norm in their society.
This story begins two years after the events of "Boruto: Naruto the Movie".
This was it… the world she'd tracked them to, after so much time and effort. There was no mistaking their initial mess, though the harvest here had occurred several hundred years ago. The cracked wasteland showed significant signs of battle, dust and debris hung as if her foes had returned to this already exhausted planet only to face off against… who? 'The Tree's been felled,' Yasu recognized that fact from orbit.
She hadn't bothered to enter the atmosphere, as it wasn't necessary. Even from a distance, safe in the Eidolon as she was, the Ōtsutsuki grimaced in disgust at the expansive, desolate landscape below.
There were no signs or trails showing that another Eidolon or vessel had visited, so the possibility that one was to blame for this extra destruction was easy to rule out. The only other option would be a noble, but who was left among them that could oppose the enemy alone?
'No,' Yasu mused, 'that can't be the case.' The trouble was that nothing else made sense.
Her hand flicked forward, adjusting the sensory equipment of her Eidolon as she pushed the thing forward, closer to the planet – in-depth scans of this kind put her at a momentary risk, but the data came back within the fraction of a breath.
Yasu's empty brows shot up, "What!?"
The data suggested residual signatures of chakra from a Rinnegan's warping ability. 'Impossible,' the royals were dead. That, or missing – one had gotten spaced, the other abducted and not seen nor heard of for millennia. The only remaining, their queen as it was, would never have put herself at risk by coming to this world – she wouldn't even be able to do that if she'd wanted to. The royal guard was far too cautious… Besides, it was her highness who'd demanded of Yasu to track these traitors in the first place.
The woman clicked her tongue in agitation, ran the scan again, and received the same report. Yasu checked and rechecked the equipment, then scoured the raw information herself – still, the same hard and stubborn fact stared back at her from the glow of the digital interface before her.
'Well…perhaps it's not too impossible.' She'd be taking a big risk. Following this lead could send her straight to the one true enemy they all feared… or, it could lead her to whatever was left after all this time of their missing princess. Yasu swallowed hard, and fired the Eidolon's thrusters – now entering the atmosphere to get a closer look at that residual chakra, the very thin traces of it left hanging in the air, so that the machine-organism could deduce exactly where its user had come from.
"That's not what I meant by it," the Seventh stated, a bit firmly. His son had been a little more difficult lately, and it was a fact that neither he nor Sasuke missed. Their wives just found it funny, amusing. For the time being. "Yeah, yeah," the drawled-out response with both arms up over his head came back, though Boruto wasn't being disrespectful. He knew well enough by now... and things had changed.
The team's report ended, and Naruto was left to his quiet office space once again – those moments were few and far between. The Hokage stretched his own arms up over his head, arching his back too. These long days had their disadvantages.
A tone emitted from the laptop on his desk, it was a message from the shinobi Alliance – marked urgent. Naruto opened it, and the attached picture file. He didn't quite understand what he was looking at, until he downloaded and read Toneri's message – that was when his heart skipped a beat.
The Hokage stood, exited his office, and asked the aide where Sasuke was.
"Is everything alright, Hokage-sama?" Naruto rarely ever left his office in the middle of the day, and he wouldn't be asking about the Uchiha – who was about to leave later that afternoon – if it weren't urgent. The aide's eyes also told him everything he needed to know – they all feared a repeat of that event two years ago, but no one had the gall to talk about it right at the present moment.
They both knew however, what could be the case.
"For now," Naruto replied, "Get Anbu on alert-" "Should I have them escort your son?"
The question had him pause, "No, just keep an eye on things-" he wasn't going to initiate too much concern, the document read that the object had been motionless for over half an hour. "I'll be back soon," he added, with a small smile that suggested this may not become a problem at all.
He hoped that would be the case.
"How long has it been there?" Chojuro asked, "About forty-five minutes now," came the reply. They were in a conference call, complete with video. Though, that didn't do anything for Toneri's end.
"We still have the cannon," Darui mentioned – the cannon his predecessor had used to blast away lunar debris about fifteen years earlier. "It's outside of your firing range," Toneri corrected, "If it does come any closer-" the Raikage asserted over him – "We'll use it."
A brief silence took over the room, before the Kazekage broke it, "Have you gained any intel on the objects' composition? Has it attempted to communicate at all?"
"Nothing has been received, and we haven't tried sending any communications as of yet-" that may or may not put the world, or the moon, at risk- "and our scans are showing… mixed results." "Define 'mixed'," Kurotsuchi prompted, and a haze of data readouts appeared in the holographic projection before Naruto.
"It seems to contain both organic and inorganic compounds," Toneri began, "and while it's obvious that the object has machine components, the data also suggests signs of biological life-" "You're saying it's some kind of cyborg?"
"That would seem to be the case," Toneri affirmed Sasuke's question.
'Signs of life… civilization,' Yasu wasn't surprised by that. What she was surprised by, was that the civilization was not of her own people. 'The hells is going on here!?' She was certain that there'd been an error, that she'd stumbled onto the wrong coordinates. That, or she'd be needing backup if one of their own was being harbored here – enemy or not. A warning signal flashed before her eyes, this planet had a moon – a shield world, to be precise – and it was attempting to get a read on her Eidolon. 'Good luck,' she positioned it a bit further away, within a few minutes the shield world would disappear around the curve of the planet.
Another warning flashed – they had anti-orbital capabilities. 'So you do have teeth,' Yasu was glad that these people weren't incapable, it was a welcomed change. Even so, she needed to be cautious – the Eidolon drew back a bit farther, still gradually disappearing from the moon's range.
It had moved enough that Toneri's scans wouldn't work, but not close enough for Darui to open fire. They were able to get more pictures of it, in fact Toneri had gotten some that were closer, and much more detailed. The thing was massive – 2.5 kilometers tall, and shaped like a tapering diamond: its deepest point was a bit over 1.3 kilometers by 0.9 wide, and the shallowest tip – pointing towards the surface – was around half a kilometer deep by just over a third wide. Despite its shape, the luster was far more pearlescent than anything; the coloring like smooth, polished, blank moonstone.
Suddenly, the object halted its descent over the horizon – a flash of light emitted from it, and Toneri's comm-link went dark. "Damnit!" Darui hesitated for a moment before ordering the cannon to aim. Apparently, he wasn't going to take any chances and had already positioned and charged the thing.
Some argument broke out, though Toneri's end came back online before it could really escalate – "I'm fine, we're okay." They hadn't sustained any damage, but the thing had simply wanted to put them in the dark for a moment, it seemed. "It's gone…" The object had disappeared. That also meant the Raikage couldn't try to blast the thing out of the sky.
They had no idea where it'd gone. Discussion went around, and a jounin approached the Kazekage twelve minutes later, whispering something in his ear – it'd been sighted south-southwest of the Wind Country, rapidly approaching the southern sea. Gaara reported this – it seemed the object truly had momentarily 'disappeared' – literally, as nobody had noticed its rapid descent into the atmosphere. There'd been reports of noise, but the object had been spotted after that, not at the same time.
They decided to link up via radio to the watchtower site; reports stated that the smoothed, opalescent form rushed by overhead, air whipping along after it. The thinner end was pointed forward, with the thicker end behind and pointing skyward. There was no emission, physical or sensed via chakra, from the object. It was directed towards Kohohagakure.
Naruto grimaced – this was exactly what they didn't want. Sasuke moved, "I'll get our team," he meant the kids and the adults, and Naruto nodded as his friend disappeared from sight. "Get the village to safety," he commanded Shikamaru, before getting ready to step out of the room – "Naruto!" The Kazekage's voice, "Stay safe," the blonde affirmed him, "Yeah, I will!"
It'd stopped miles away from Konoha, hovering beyond a hilled region so that the thing remained out of sight and just out of reach from the cannon's massive firing range.
"Well, how curious," Yasu spoke, "I hadn't been expecting to find you here." Another Eidolon… though this one, had been divvied up something horrible. And, it was clearly not in good condition – it'd been corrupted, or at least a significant portion of it had been. The thing seemed to be in long-term stasis, however. 'Amusura, get me a read on the planet's veins,' she commanded her own Eidolon telepathically, 'And I want to know what to expect from these people.'
The being's findings would surprise her yet again.
Sasuke didn't want to wait. Nobody did.
The Land of Tea, which the thing was halted over, would certainly take action. Moreover, people in the surrounding area may attack or provoke the thing – they did not want that to happen if it could be helped.
The other Kage were asked to arrive in Konoha – the old teleportation seals they'd all set up a long time ago were reactivated to this end. Sasuke then was able to warp everyone over, it was much quicker than trying to physically travel there. 'Still,' the Uchiha thought to himself, 'that sudden speed it moved with…'
The object was obviously designed for spaceflight. This conflicted with Toneri's claim, about it being 'alive' – how could anything survive the vacuum and rigors of space? Even with mechanic or scientific aid, they shouldn't have been able to detect signs of life from that far away. This left Sasuke wondering if, perhaps, this didn't have anything to do with the Ōtsutsuki at all.
Of course, they didn't know that – they just knew the risk if they didn't behave as if it did.
The warp appeared – not too far beyond the hill Amusura was hiding behind. 'So you came out…!' Yasu was curious, perhaps excited even – if this were what she hoped, so much could change for the better. It was clear these people weren't the enemy she was fearing, but perhaps they'd harbored one of her own? She still needed to be careful, 'They may be harboring an enemy, after all,' experience had taught her the better part of caution. Plenty of it.
The pair – Eidolon and Partner – waited. Finally, she tracked chakra signatures moving to do reconnaissance – one of them held a division of the other Eidolon. 'Hmm,' Yasu wondered as to its functionality, and about the parent's state.
'What do you think, Amusura? Shall we continue waiting?' They hadn't attempted to communicate. 'Sending a message may provoke an undesirable effect,' the Eidolon responded, 'Let us see what they do,' it was a good measure to assess the people's general response and potential knowledge base by. And so, they waited.
"Whatever this is, it must know that the cannon is on the other side of that hill," the range would be very difficult to land a shot from, but technically, it could happen. Following some discussion, they'd tried to send a radio signal to the object, but received no response.
"I don't like it," Kurotsuchi commented, "Why come all this way just to float there?"
They took action – the Land of Tea's residents and government were getting more trigger-ready by the minute, despite being glad to have international aid in this moment of crisis. Regardless, they needed to get this thing out of there or risk an international incident.
Sasuke manifested his fullest Susano'o, encasing that around Kurama – it was more than enough to get the bijuu off the ground. They didn't know if revealing him would prompt this thing to respond – if they might try to harvest the energy – and so the others had surrounded the object before the Uchiha and Uzumaki took action.
Sand rose from the earth; while Kurotsuchi worked with the Kazekage to prepare a very specialized sealing technique. Meanwhile, Darui and Chojuro readied their own attack – though they didn't get a chance to release it due to the blinding light the thing emitted.
Amusura screamed in Yasu's mind – it'd been truly surprised by the appearance of both a physical manifestation of a portion of another Eidolon, which was confusing enough to her in the least; but that coupled with a Susano'o? The being shot backwards, apart from Yasu's will, only to have its front-end portion and belly encased in sand and some form of sealing technique.
'You little-!' Yasu directed Amusura to pulse the sand and chakra off itself – in its current form, that was possible. It would also blind their attackers for a few moments, enabling Amusura to elevate itself beyond their reach. An explosion and shaking rocked the Eidolon, and Yasu within it, as some form of explosive coupled with lightning-release struck and detonated on Amusura's side, near her narrowest point.
The damage was completely negated, barely.
High enough that Amusura would be able to effectively dodge their ranged attacks – though she was careful to position the being so that it wasn't at risk from that AA-gun off in the far distance; Yasu cut into their radio lines: she'd been listening, and had deduced the language. "Is this how you treat all of your guests?" She held Amusura's position there, waiting to see if they'd bother to respond – maybe the inhabitants believed she might attack. 'So ignorant,' the Ōtsutsuki thought bitterly for a moment, before not completely purging the line of thought from her mind. "You'll notice I haven't returned the favor," that was stupid. She shouldn't have said that… But Yasu was not an emissary, and the many long years of this war had taken their effect on her.
There were a few moments of silence, before they sent another signal directed to Amusura again, "Who are you and why have you come here?" In the time it took them to ask that, Yasu had gained a better picture of just who had used the Rinnegan's warping ability. 'He's a native…?' This kept getting stranger and stranger. Of all the races their people had interacted with over the millennia, through countless generations; none had ever been capable of bearing the Rinnegan. Not one. But here it was, staring right back at her – or rather, right back at the lens through which Amusura was using.
Yasu formulated her words, "I am an agent investigating reports of conflict on a particular world," she began, "A world which I am sure at least one of you has visited before." That should be enough to make it clear to them… These people had chakra after all. Yasu gave only a moment's pause before her question, "Where did you get your chakra from?" She attempted to use a non-confrontational tone, an inquisitive one. Vocal inflection seemed to take on a different importance in communicating among these people than it did with her own.
Another pause… "Are you an Ōtsutsuki?" There – they did know! They knew of her people… whether that was due to an enemy, or if some noble or even a royal had passed through here, she couldn't know for sure. 'Considering…' They still hadn't answered her question, and these people were clearly on the defensive as it was. She couldn't possibly guess what they did and did not know, and so Yasu decided to play a different card. "It is clear that you don't understand the nature of our war which has affected your world," she began, hoping to play on that even if they did know of it, that they'd understand that the war was much bigger than anything they might think they understand. "I am an Ōtsutsuki, and I don't know what your previous experiences with our people have been-" this was where things could get difficult – "but I can tell you what I do know-" her words were interrupted, "In exchange for what?" There seemed to be some commotion down below, but Amusura couldn't get a clear picture or read on it. Yasu kept that cannon in mind, "For you to answer my question," if she could at least find out if they'd been affected by the enemy or not, that was the most important thing – the one thing Yasu needed to take back with her.
"How couldn't she know…?" Darui spoke under his breath, the others weren't impressed nor convinced, either. "To travel here investigating you, Sasuke, and then only to want to know about our chakra?" Kurotsuchi scoffed, "I don't buy it." Above them, Naruto and the Rinnegan-bearer hovered, "I don't like this, either," the blonde admitted before responding to the intruder, "You're in our territory now," he began, "We don't have to answer you!"
The object tilted a bit, "Fine," they didn't know its capabilities, or why it had just moved – Darui and Chojuro decided not to wait. They'd had their combo-attack readied for some time now, and as soon as the distant thing moved along with that tone from its occupant, they let it fly – the speed was grossly increased thanks to the time the Raikage had to charge it up.
Their attack detonated and the object rocked a bit in midair, a shout started in their ears but was cut off before it ended – the thing began to plummet. As it did, the shape began to morph and shift; metal and flesh undulating in various directions and forms before it slammed into the sea just over a mile out.
The Five tore off after it, approaching the shore along with a host of other shinobi and the few brave soldiers from the surrounding area. "Get out of here!" They were warned, as a massive, reflective obsidian metal broke the surface. The thing shone briefly and changed color to a deep, forest green lined by indigo and gold – the patterns were not anything they were familiar with. This shape continued to rise, as the Five Kage and regiment of Alliance shinobi waited to see just what they were up against – whatever this was, it was in the form of a person.
Once Amusura had stood, Yasu was fully back in control – she'd been shocked by the sudden damage and subsequent fall. 'It was only because they'd managed…' Yasu realized her mistake, waiting too long and not thinking to check on the communicator's offensive capabilities. 'What a dirty trick,' she fumed for a moment, but set that aside as it was obvious – it must have been – that their prior experiences were exclusively with the enemy. "How unfortunate," their chakra had been gained through twisted means, after all.
This world would be harvested someday.
Another warning flashed – Amusura had fallen within range of that cannon! She'd noticed it too late.
It was a solid hit – smack in the left temple of the things' head.
The force took it off a foot, and it swayed for a moment before regaining balance. This new 'Juubi', armored and tailless as it was, hunkered down to avoid getting hit again. A noise emanated from it, some kind of shrill barking or shrieking, that had everyone within several miles of the shore pressing their hands to their heads. "We are not your enemy!" The radio hack forced its way through again, "Don't make me retaliate…" The tone was now, clearly, a threat. Even so, the massive humanoid remained, motionless, though faint cracking could be seen in the casing of its helm.