I really couldn't think of a damn thing to write for this chapter for the longest time. x.x
No, I'm serious. Writer's block fuckin' sucks.
In any case, this chapter will hopefully have an extra long length to make up to the extra long wait.
Story stats as of the beggining of the chapter: 580 views, 15 favorites and 35 followers! Damn, guys. x.x
Enjoy the chapter, you reading rascals.
Episode 4: Deadly Genjutsu!?
Shinsei sighed as he stared up into the sky. It had been about an hour since Kushina passed out, and he didn't want to be there when she woke up, so he had left to take a walk.
Minato had called after him, probably not wanting to endure Kushina's wrath either. Poor guy, though Shinsei had an inkling that he'd probably get over it soon.
'After all, they are already madly in love.' He giggled a little as he walked, thinking about the completely obvious way that Kushina would stare at Minato when she thought no one was paying attention. But Shinsei was. All the time.
Like the way Minato would sigh after the door to his bedroom in the shared apartment closed for the night, muttering her name under his breath when he thought no one was listening. But Shinsei was. All the time.
Wait, hadn't he just thought that? Odd, maybe the two were more similar than he first thought.
Well, he had more things to think about than his guardians' unnoticed absolute love for each other. Unfortunately.
His train of thought had changed lines already, though, thundering down into the depths of his soul. He looked down from the sky, staring at the dirt beneath his feet instead as he thought over what Death had told him. He reached down into himself again, but all he was able to draw out was his chakra. A mixture of both his spiritual and physical energies. Not what he wanted.
Death had said it would be hard because his physical energies were in the way, but still, he wanted to get on to the whole, scythe thing already.
Now, what could possibly help someone get more in touch with their spiritual side?
Meditation! Of course, he was a geniu-
"Ow! Watch where you're going, you rickety old man!" He was on his ass. Again. He glared up at the 'old man' he had bumped into, and his eyes widened as he saw who exactly it was.
"You were the one who bumped into me, gaki! And I'm not that old, this white hair is natural!" Shinsei sighed a little and slowly stood up, brushing himself off.
"I'm sorry, old man, but I highly doubt that." He mumbled, and walked right past the man before he did something stupid. He couldn't alter the story too much...
"Don't you know who I am!? I am Jiraya, the great Toad Sage!" Jiraya jumped into the air, clapping his sandals together at the apex of his jump. Shinsei sighed.
The boy turned around and did a mock gasp. "Oh really? You mean you're Minato-san's sensei?!" Shinsei then gave a pretty convincing 'fangirl squeal' and ran right up to Jiraya...
Before kicking him in the shin. "That's for the time you trau- trauma- damnit... For the time you really scared Minato-san with the whole squirrel thing!"
He didn't know what it was like, as he hadn't been born yet, but he had heard stories from both Minato and Kushina that he never wanted to re-live in his head. One thing that stuck out about the story at the moment though, was that Jiraya was one persistently annoying bastard.
"Wait... You're the little devil Minato and his love-interest are looking after!" Jiraya gave himself a mental pat on the back, for recognizing the boy from description and the small amount of hints he had gotten, but Shinsei just twitched.
"Minato-san... Likes Kushina, true... But. She is not just his 'love interest', this isn't a romance nor an action novel, where the girl is only there to be looked after or saved! She's Uzumaki Kushina, the best aunt in the world, dattebana!" The boy huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.
Somewhere in the distance, said Uzumaki's anguished cries of "Corrupted!" could be heard.
However, this didn't seem to faze either male, and Jiraya simply glared at the kid. What nerve this little gaki had, talking to him that way! "I know that, gaki! I write enough romance novels to know that!"
Shinsei twitched at the 'gaki' thing, but paused at the mention of romance novels. Icha Icha... Hmmm... "Oh, really? I do enjoy reading..." He mumbled, smiling up at Jiraya as innocently as he could. "Could I... Read one?" He asked, and the result was hilarious.
Jiraya stepped back as fast as he could, tripping over his own feet and scrambling away. He stood up again a few feet from where he had stood before, looking down at the innocent looking child with horror on his face.
'No... If I showed him my art, Kushina would castrate me with a frying pan... With that damn thing's power, so the area would never heal of the intense burns!' In Jiraya's mind, a chibi version of him had appeared clutching his groin and weeping on his knees, as a smiling chibi-Kushina with a fox on her head was holding up a victory sign, a frying pan in her other hand that was resting against her hip.
"Heh... Sorry, gaki... It's pretty complicated stuff..." That seemed to get a rise out of the kid, who narrowed his eyes, and slowly began stalking towards Jiraya. "Oh, but... I guess I could let you read the first chapter or so, if you manage to show me a shinobi skill they don't teach at the Academy in the next week!"
Shinsei smirked widely. Oh thank you, aunt Kushina. He snickered. "And in return, you have to help me with my Genjutsu! I suck!" He pointed up at Jiraya, who blinked, staring at the finger in his face (when had the kid gotten closer?), and then back at the boy's own face.
Then, he twitched. "Gaki, I'm already letting you read my works of art!" He screamed, getting into the kid's face. "I'll have you know that I suck at Genjutsu too!" He huffed, and pointed back at the tiny Uzumaki.
Shisei sighed and face-palmed, before mumbling "He's a Jonin?" under his breath. He was really starting to loose faith in the villages ability to create fully competent Jonin. "In any case," He shouted back. "you can still help me, old man!" He huffed and kicked Jiraya in his other shin. "Or I'll keep kicking you!"
Jiraya growled and knocked the boy on the head, sending him tumbling to the floor. "You still have to show me that skill not from the Academy!"
Shinsei blinked, and smiled pleasantly. "Don't blink, old man, you'll miss it!" He suddenly nicked his thumb on a small nail coming out of a wall, and drew a line on the floor. "Uzumaki Fuuin: Rakugaki!" He slammed his hand on the line of blood, and it began to twist in on itself, forming a red spiral on the ground with Fuuinjutsu markings inside the red line.
Jiraya stared down at the red spiral on the floor, and the black markings within, and blinked a couple of times. He sighed loudly to himself, and hung his head as he muttered "Damn Uzumaki sealing teachings...".
Shinsei just grinned widely, and giggled loudly. "Yes, Genjutsu teacher!" He waved his hands in the air happily and skipped off towards a training ground near the Academy, Jiraya following dejectedly behind.
-{&break&}-
It was a few hours later when Shinsei had returned home, panting heavily and slightly red-faced. He had been allowed to read the first chapter of Icha Icha Paradise, the first book in the series. The first chapter had practically nothing explicit in it, and was a set up for an extremely compelling plot. He didn't honestly see why everyone freaked out about it.
Well, except how well written it was.
So, when he got back, he decided to demonstrate his newly discovered skill in Genjutsu on his dear aunt Kushina...
She was peacefully sitting on the couch, reading up some advanced sealing theory and humming gently to herself. She was concentrating quite hard on something that looked far to advanced to even exist, so Shinsei took it as the perfect opportunity.
The young boy weaved a few hand signs, and placed both his hands on Kushina's head, which seemed to jolt her out of her reading, and she smiled to herself.
"Hello there, Shinsei-kun~ How are-"
"Uzumaki Genjutsu: Seigyo bijon!" He channeled his chakra into his aunt's head suddenly, casting the illusion.
Kushina suddenly found herself in a pitch black area, and she looked around, nodding a few times. "I see... You finally got it down, huh?" She nodded again, a wide proud smile on her face. "Now, come on... Release the illusion, you little... Rascal..."
She trailed off as a spotlight suddenly came into view, shining on a stand from some kind of market. There, was Shinsei, her adorable 6-year-old nephew, wearing nothing but a pair of some kind of baggy trousers, a gray color, and a backwards cap of some sort. The stand was piled with books, all with... Blindingly orange covers... "No..."
She fell to her knees as Shinsei jumped over the stand, back in his normal clothes, but waving around a banner that said "The greatest books of all time!", and he began marching, and chanting...
"Icha Icha, dattebana! Icha Icha, dattebana! Icha Icha, dattebana!"
"Oh. Hell. No."
The illusion crumbled, and Kushina's hair was whipping about, looking like nine tails that wanted to constrict and strangle something to death. Her eyes were practically glowing, and she growled like a woman possessed, her voice coming out a few shades deeper.
Shinsei snickered.
"Minato! Today I rip your sensei to shreds!" She ran off into the kitchen, and then ran back, barreling head-first out of the window and smashing it to pieces with her frying-pan assisted dive, rushing off into the distance.
Shinsei bit his quivering lip.
"What..." Minato, completely bewildered, stood there in his boxers, a toothbrush hanging from his mouth and a towel on his head, staring out the broken window, and wincing as Jiraya began screaming loud enough to be heard all over the village.
"Kushina! I'm sorry!"
Shinsei began giggling.
"Nooooo, not there! Please, I need those!" Minato gulped, going white as he took a few steps beck, his legs squeezed together.
Shinsei couldn't help it, he toppled backwards and began rolling around, laughing like a madman.
-{&break&}-
Hours later, Kushina had calmed down, and banished Shinsei to his bedroom, leaving him on his bead, giggling every so often as he remembered the awesomely hilarious show he had gotten earlier.
To think Genjutsu could be so amusing...
He snickered, and went back to his current task, meditating. It was what he had been trying to do for the past three hours. He was straining, trying to imagine his chakra as its two main components, spiritual and physical energy. He took deep breaths, and like he had practiced, he placed the diagram of the chakra coils onto his image of himself, drawing his focus down to his core. He tried to imagine fire, like he had seen when he first encountered his pure spiritual energy in the 'void', as Death had called it.
He saw the fire, but it was a deep dark blue, rather than the light aqua it had been when it was pure spiritual energy. It was chakra, not what he needed. He tried to imagine it splitting, breaking off, wearing away... But in the end, he tried a different approach. He imagined a hose, a stream of water to douse the fire within him. He doused it smaller, and smaller, until he could feel himself getting weak. He didn't know what he was doing, but it surely was going to kill him if he extinguished the fire completely.
He smiled happily as he felt the fire stop shrinking, so small that he could barely see it flickering inside him, like a candle. He took deep breaths, and it seemed to flow... The same searing hot liquid ran through his coils, much like before, but this time it brought pain with it.
It was physical. The physical half of his body's life energy had burned into his coils, away from his core... And right back. There, two different flames. One, aqua blue and soothingly burning his insides. The other, a brownish color, what was most likely the reason that chakra was darker than the spiritual energy that was its other half. It burned like an actual fire, searing hot and painful in him, purely phisical. He released a breath he didn't know he had been holding, letting the two flames burn into each other and slowly grow, back to the blue life-giving flame of chakra.
He smirked to himself, and punched the air in victory. "Take that, asshole..." He murmured, before closing his eyes and letting sleep take him.
-{&break&}-
When he awoke, though, he was...
"OH COME ON! NOT YOU AGAIN!" Shinsei huffed and sat up slowly, glaring at the grinning, brown haired man... He was shirtless again.
He had the same baggy grey trousers, although they were a little tighter and less... Clown-like than before. Which was good. His smirk was still there though.
And those... Those... Abs...
"Wah! Stop doing that!" He whined softly and rubbed his head where he had again been bonked loudly on the head by the shaft of a scythe. "What is it with you and hitting me over the head!"
He glared up at Death, but instead saw... A woman!? She was wearing a pure white kimono, and a pair of white sandals on her feet. She slowly sat down, her black hair falling down her back to her waist, and contrasting with her light skin and attire.
She smiled sweetly at him, letting out a small giggle. "I hope he's not too much of a trouble, but he seems to really enjoy riling you up..." She was wearing some kind of necklace, the silver chain glinting a little. It had a charm of... A scythe?
"You're... Camilla, was it?" He shuffled slightly as she nodded to him, and let out another small giggle.
"Yup... You see, he wanted me to teach you to work with whomever your partner turns out to be, and how to get in touch with them in the first place." She nodded, seemingly to herself, and smiled wider at him. "So, all you need to do is sit there, and flare your spiritual energy as high as you can..."
"It's that simple?" He asked skeptically, tilting his head a little and shuffling nervously as her smile grew even further. "Oh but it is, little one. Curious souls will flock to your beacon, and see what kind of soul you posses... If you're compatible, then boom! They get turned into a weapon for you!" She clapped her hands in time with the 'boom', giving off a small giggle.
'They're both childish...' He thought, getting a chop to the head from her and letting out a soft whimper, rubbing his abused spiritual head.
He then shook it, settling into a meditative stance and taking deep breaths, looking into himself for the flame he had found before, and he found it easily. Much much easier than before. "No physical energy in the way..." He muttered. He tried to visualize putting fuel on the fire, something that would burn well...
The flame sprouted from him, causing the scythe in front of him to stumble back a little. "Whoa! It's huge~ You must have a great connection to yourself, huh?" She whistled lowly, looking on at the impressive light show the flame was creating.
Shinsei could hear voices, he could see odd shapes and figures... A triangle with a bow tie and a horribly charismatic voice, some kind of... bat thing... and the last he could semi make out was a small pure white skinned creature with a pointed nose, top hat, cane and... White suit...
"GO AWAY! I'm not taking you!" He sighed in happiness as the connection faded, and suddenly...
"Well, I say, that is quite interesting!" He was hit on the head by a shaft of metal, and he stared down at what had fallen. It was a scythe... But it was... Awesome.
The shaft was a purplish color, with a zig-zag line of slightly dark pink running along it, circling down the shaft of the scythe and stopping in a point at both ends. Out of one end, there was a cool silver blade, with a slight golden tinge to it. Purple and gold. Huh.
"Well, don't just stare, pick me up!" He had heard a voice. He was hearing voices. Oh Kami... "I said... Pick me up!" He yelped and suddenly picked up the scythe, the metal feeling cool and balanced in his hands. It had words etched into it, along opposite sides of it. It read; "Victims be wary, the afterlife has the worst tea!" The words, written in English, glowed blue for a split second, before fading back to their original plain state.
It was about 5'2'' tall, and as such was a little too big for his small 6-year-old body, but it seemed like it would be a well balanced weapon when he was taller and older. The voice sounded again. It was some kind of English accent from the olden times, from roughly the Victorian era. He sounded almost like Shinsei imagined Sherlock Holmes would.
"I do say, you are the most interesting one. From another world, much like myself." Shinsei looked down at the scythe, and what he saw shocked him. It was an... Interesting man. He held the scythe tightly, and glared at the image.
The man he could see was about 6' in height, and was wearing... Nothing, from what he could see. But, he could definitely see a brown top hat, and a golden monocle. He could also imagine the man wearing some kind of Victorian era clothing, and from what he could see, the lower half of his body was covered in shadow.
"I do believe the term is... Fuck off, and stop looking at me in the nude?" He sounded like a British gentlemen of old... He spoke like one of modern times and of times long gone combined.
"I do believe you're a dick."
"I do believe something's wrong with the lady over there." Shinsei turned his head, and rolled his eyes as he felt Death from behind him, pushing him into the floor as usual.
The scythe lady had laughed so hard...
Camilla was passed out completely.
Boom! Hello everyone!~ Lets see how you like that one!
Not much to say, only that I lied to someone that Jiraya was going to be saved for later. Nwehehehehe...
Translations(If I got them right)
Gaki - Brat
Uzumaki Fuuin: Rakugaki - Uzumaki Seal: Graffiti
Uzumaki Genjutsu: Seigyo bijon - Uzumaki Illusion Technique: Controlled Vision
I cant think of anymore. If I missed anything, tell me. x.x
As always, next chapter will hopefully be up by next Saturday, and I hope you enjoyed!
Happy reading, happy writing!~