Dreaming of Jashin Part 1
Hello everyone, Chaos here. This is an AU based in the Land of Hot Springs arc of Dreaming of Sunshine by Silver Queen. Originally posted Feb 2017 in the Recursive Fanfiction forum in the We're all just Dreaming of Sunshine! community. Has been spruced up slightly, but I would recommend re-reading the arc for full impact and understanding. All original notes can be found at the end of every chapter.
"You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have." J. R. R. Tolkien
you
Seethed a voice from far away. It skittered across souls, leaving agony in its wake. Agony it used to communicate its will. Its contempt.
beloved of the little god
Disparate and scattered across the elemental nations, twenty-two different shinobi faltered in their steps.
you will see
Inexorable as gravity, it pulled the bright sparks of their conscious minds closer to where it had broached the boundaries between worlds. Its powers in this world were waning, because of that cursed child-goddess, but it would use the suffering of her followers to reclaim its powers. The mighty Jashin would not be so thwarted by such a little thing.
see how she suffered
It was dusk in Konoha, and no one noticed as Yoshino and Shikamaru collapsed in their home, having just put Kino down for the night.
No one commented when the Jōnin Commander slumped at his desk.
Tenten was already partway unconscious from training with her team, and it was not particularly unexpected when her eyes slid closed all the way.
Anko and Yakumo were training in one of the quieter Kurama training fields, and no one saw them fall.
In the medics' lounge, Sakura fell face first into her textbook. Thoughtfully, one of her fellow students closed the lid on her bento and resolved to take over the rest of her shift if the pinkette didn't wake up in time.
Shizune stepped into the Hokage's office and sighed, a sudden twitch overtaking her control of her left eyebrow. "Really, Tsunade-sama…" she muttered, looking at the Hokage unconscious at her desk with a sake bottle and saucer by her outstretched hands and drawing, for once, the wrong conclusion. With practiced ease, the assistant removed the alcoholic beverage from Tsunade's vicinity and set off to destroy it.
In the War Operations room Kakashi's snores disappeared as his mind was pulled away from his body, and it fell into true sleep.
In Asuma's favourite training ground, Teams 10 and 8 lay sprawled across the grass after a long day of training. Asuma, understandably detracted by other things, finally noticed that the kids seemed to have stopped yelling half-hearted advice at one another. The Jonin looked, saw that they had fallen asleep around the shoji board and huffed a laugh. He'd thought that the challenge of playing a strategy game without Shikamaru there to make the game unwinnable for team 8 would have been engaging enough to at least keep them awake! Even Shikamaru had never fallen asleep whilst playing the game. He was about to wake them up with a nice friendly wind jutsu when Kurenai laughed softly, and he turned to see her smiling fondly at the assorted passed-out children. Then she turned her warm garnet-coloured eyes to meet his, a new smile on her face just for him – and decided they could sleep a little while.
Exhausted from the ANBU mission he just returned from, Sasuke's body bled off the tension constantly exuded by all back-ops operatives as his mind slipped away.
Sai had experienced reprogramming before, and doubtless would experience it again. The relief he felt as consciousness fled would not last.
to protect you
Temari and Gaara were alone in his office when he suddenly collapsed. She darted forwards to catch him before he hit the ground entirely on instinct, which was a good thing because his sand wasn't responding.
His. Sand. Wasn't. Responding.
Neither were his eyes, when she pulled back the lids. Temari had only been this afraid once before in her life – on her knees before the ones she now calls friends during the failed invasion. She couldn't wake him, but at least Shukaku seemed to be affected by the same phenomenon – seeing as he was not tearing their village apart screaming for blood. Their position was still too weak for Gaara to be seen in such a state, so Temari summoned a weasel to fetch Kankuro and canceled the remainder of Gaara's appointments.
Kankuro was on the floor of his workshop when the summons found him, the weasel explained to the suddenly quite grey kunoichi as he hefted the dead weight on to the remaining chair of the office – the sofa was already taken by Gaara. For a second, Temari could do nothing but stand still and make sure that she continued to breathe. Then she put her face in her hands and croaked out a demand for the summons to bring her Elder Chiyo.
see her die for her insolence
Mei sat in her office, gleefully going over the minutia of grain trade and dispersal between Mist and Leaf. She'd been dragging it out for almost fifteen minutes now, in part because Haku had a skill with economics that put hers to shame – mostly though it's because she enjoyed the sight of Zabuza in all his muscular glory waiting with ill-grace for his apprentice to stop 'playing with numbers' and start their special nighttime assassination training session. She's glad for the delay in their departure any case, since they both suddenly collapsed without warning. When Ao spoke up from his position guarding the room, all he said was "Something has happened." and Mei was about to (mostly) verbally rip into him. Then she saw his face. She had known him through war, the darkest days of Yagura's madness, and the civil war that followed: never once has she seen such horror on his face.
your suffering will bring me strength
In the wilderness, a few days east from Hidden Haze Village, there is no one to see a Sage and a Jinchuriki flop to the ground insensate.
this world will be mine
NOTES:
Original Notes Before the story:
Hi, this isn't really linked to anything that's happening in the forum right now, so sorry about the disruption :)
I really like the idea of Reading!DOS – and most especially the Reading!DOS!Backwards , so Kudos to the people who are involved with that, I hope that you continue. I'm writing this piece because I need to express my (many) feelings about the latest chapter, and also because I have a terrible suspicion that Silver Queen had been pouring out so many chapters on an inspiration binge which culminated into the Chapter 129 as the crescendo, and will now leave us in a horrible limbo as we wait months for the next update (I sincerely hope that I am wrong of course – I have a terrible habit of catastrophising… and projecting my own behaviour onto others).
In this verse, there are no soulmarks or anything (hence my turning up in an unfamiliar forum – Hi everyone *waves hand like a socially awkward idiot*), but I was inspired by Dona and her idea way back when, that Nara form- I guess you could call them spirit bonds with their students. This is so they can reach out and pull them from the black when they are still learning the family jutsu, and vulnerable to its drawbacks. Shikako had grabby sprit hands, however, so she grabbed hold of a bunch of people she really cares about, works with, and respects as fellow shinobi, such as: her parents, her team, her brothers team (sans Asuma – sorry, she just doesn't know you that well), Jiraiya, Tsunade, Sai, Sakura, Tenten, Aoba (sobs piteously – this one is sadly broken before Jashin starts his Torture!Party, so doesn't really play role in this fic other than Chapter 129's sacrificial lamb), Team Kurenai (minus Kurenai, I debated just having Hinata and Kiba, but I didn't want to exclude Shino I want him to see that being included isn't always fun), Yakumo Kurama and Anko (I nearly said the kunoichi club – but I really just can't do that to the kiddies.) Haku, Zabuza, and Gaara and Kankuro (sorry Temari, I just couldn't find enough interaction to justify it :( ). I believe this is why she is mostly stable despite repeatedly tearing herself into pieces and burying the bits that are too damaging – a good solid network of other souls who unknowingly support her. (And also the Tailed Beasts come along for the ride, because they are sealed into their hosts (and we now know that seals can't be dismissed by the 'god') and I really can't think of a way to leave Shukaku and Kurama behind in their Jinchuriki's bodies without things ending in tears.)
So here I have done a kind of a equivalent of Reading!DOS!Backwards, except rather than reading, they have been pulled along the spirit threads so that I Jashin can torture everyone with the horror Shikako experienced from the moment he first touched her with his power (he's a very sore loser).
Original Notes After the story:
Things will really pick up in the next ficlet, but I think this really sets the scene.
Also, as a thanks for reading, have a bonus alternate way for how Ino was taken by Jashin
Taking stock in one of the Yamanaka greenhouses, Ino slid quietly to the ground. She had fought, unlike the others, who had no frame of reference for this kind of combat. Unfortunately, in the end there was little she could do against the power of this god but scream and scream and scream. It felt too much like then.)
***Edit***
Changed the time of day to reflect the time in the story - because I am an idiot :(
Okay, not much change here, but at least it's more easily accessible now...