A/n: Re re posted the first chapter. I updated the wrong document by mistake.
I stood magnificently in the exact center of Isha Rimfaxi. The location was a large flat spherical realm of existence. A small slice of a space that existed on the immortal faction, held in place by the will of the goddess Rimfaxi. It was also a popular battle site for god hands. Only the oldest, and greatest of the isha sinfaxis used it, twelve era and older. To fight in such a place without the raw expertise was asking for a quick death and bordered the fourth sin.
It was a enormous colosseum. There were no cut outs to hold spectators or any thing to mar the smooth perfect marble. The base of the land was flat, with a distinct lack of a horizon. Water that fell within the level portion of the stadium never ran from the site it fell, rather set motionless. Mist danced playful across the basin and up the ascending walls. The basin measured a precise two hundred and ninety nine thousand seven hundred and ninety two meters kilometers, and was half that number in depth. It was constructed of a composite stone that changed in appearance and composition over its massive length.
That didn't stop it from being entirely unbreakable, as such should be.
The distinct lack of air made the single light source, a perfect sphere of immaterial light, visible from any location within the arena. Today was another battle, another point in the endless vying for the title of greatest god hand of all time. The terms was limited to a single school of battle of personal choice, to the winer of the first dance. In the tradition of such ways, I accepted the center point as part of my rights as challenged.
My opponent was the overly lethal and slightly skewed, Talus Azaroth. I was aware of his strengths in the high profile combat every isha sinfaxis was taught in their training period. I was also aware that they had become something of a myth amongst the god hands that had yet to live more than three eras. Thirty three eras of my own existence had given me a plethora of opportunity polish to my own style of destructive combat and earn a similar mythic status.
Master Azaroth for his part was half a light second out. It would take light a total of one second to cross the entire arena, and that was more than enough yeda to react to the god hand traversing the hundred and fifty thousand kilometers between them.
I had no need to start observing the events at the yeda level. Master Azaroth was accelerating at an ascending number, one thousand two hundred and thirty four gravities (12093.2 meters per second squared). He had always been fond of using small things to great effect, one of the things that made him so lethal with the isha rashins. It was where my name, strength, came from Rashinga Raelando, Strength given form.
He would be approaching the limit of his speed in another hundred yeda, what mortal scholars would have refereed to as .99c. Read ninety nine percent the speed of light. In the world of mortals, many strange things are said to happen as one started to travel that fast, here in this place ruled by the will of gods behest to the laws of a world that was forgotten from the mortals who had shaped it in the fifth era, that was simply how fast one moved, mass and force be damned. God hands headed only the will of the Almighty and the deity we served. Master Azaroth seemed to have forgotten this as he held no allegiance to any one. A flaw I had yet to rectify in proper manner.
On the side note, the choice to use the measurements of the first human world, was the result of their victory in the second war of reality. Earth prime, the birth place of all human life within existence, had been destroyed in what heralded the end of the ninth ear and started of the tenth. The god hand Talus Azaroth, who destroyed the planet just prior to as part of the unorthodox method of training, archived his god hand status at the very begin of the tenth ear irked me greatly. It was against the order of things for a god hand to only require first blood to gain rank, something he did within his first era of existence.
The achievement itself didn't bother me. As the Almighty made the first life, establishing the path in which all things move forward, the great lord of existence dictated that his creations would continue to do that which had not been done before. Despite my misgivings, I had contested the former god hand of Twisted since my second ear of ascendancy. As long as he followed the old ways when he issued his challenge, I would meet him honestly and honorably on the filed of battle.
The mist was guided into a lens to spot the other god hand, my sight was hardly better then any other human being, as were the rest of the human senses that I had not been born with. It was an idle task, one done by my natural influence of the reality around me. His form was no longer the human shell we wore just as mine wasn't. Though both vaguely human his legs were no longer jointed properly, nor were his arms. His feet had gained long claws and appeared to be more like talons than human feet. His hands retained the human shape with a slimmer set of dark jade talons. His entire form had become long cords of taunt muscles, his ribs formed the bias of an animal like structure that would look odd in motion but less so when still. He still adorned the vestments with the large bent oval upon his back. His large feathery white wings cast a deceptive air on his skills with the creationist arts.
His form in motion was poetry to those who were looking at things properly. Perfectly efficient to gain the maximum strength from every single moments. Flashing claws failed to scratch or scuff the polished floor as he arced around the far edge of their arena. His long braid present, flowing seamlessly as if it was commanded how to move in sync with the rest of his body. His tail, a long whip like appendage twitched in a flowing pattern matching the gait.
The yeda ticked by, the smallest of change to realities clock. Talus Azaroth was now just over half a light second away from me, a yead later he was just under a third of a light second out His leap had been directly at me, silhouetted by the frothing miasma that separated this arena from the rest of reality.
He was still three yeda away, three chances to change what he was attempting. Three chance for me to react. Three yeda from the first move in the first dance. He was a snap shot as the infinity small gap between indesmal slipped by. His jade talons flashed in the light as his blades materialized from the mist. His piercing blue eye visible.
Two yeda, now my own killing steal weapon, a large spear materialized in my hands, I ignored its appearance as Talus's clawed feet touched down a mere twenty thousand kilometers from me. I had fallen into a simple readiness as the we ticked off to one yeda. The blue was gone now, the matte brown opened as his face remained unchanged.
One yeda, ten meters in front of me. He was no longer on the ground, rather in a low flat arc. Both eyes rested upon me; slightly curved blade of the Light and Dark Sides of Twisted, gleamed in the pale light. I prepared my own weapon, the Cry for Order.
Zero yeda, The point of my Cry for Order paried the Dark Side, and my leap carried me over the Light Side as it flashed through the space my body had occupied the yeda before.
The first dance had begun.
* * *
"The Kyubi no Kitsune indeed fell into the hands of a women child." The third hokage spoke as he was seated at his desk. Beside me, Naurto fidgeted as he kept bringing his hand to remove the bandages warped around his back. I slapped his hands every time and he kept shooting me reproachful looks.
"So Naurtos not a demon?" I asked, the whole encounter seemed surreal. I wanted to believe it was a dream. That my sensei was going to break into the room at any moment.
"To the best of my knowledge Naurto is not a demon of any sort. This however returns us to our more pressing mater. In order to understand why you must not speak of this, beyond of course my own orders, I will tell you of the events that ended the fourth hokage." With a show of clearing his throat my leader steepled his hands together.
"As you know the demon fox was stopped by the fourth hokage." His eyes seemed to fixate on Naurto, I ignored it and waited for him to continue. "The events that led to the destruction of said fox are still shrouded in mystery. This includes exactly what became of Minato Namikaze. It is because of this, I sent young Naurto, as well as several others who were orphaned in the attack out to become the first generation of information ninja. These ninja were to develop and refine techniques that would hopefully led to the origin of the demons as well as any clue what happened to on that sad day in Konoha history." The third hokage unsteepled his hand and brought a gnarled hand to pointed hat. He swept the hat off and placed it lightly on one of the shorter stacks of forms.
"Unfortunately, the tenuous peace that was the result of the temporary ceases fire just prior to the Nine Tailed Foxes attack was not to last. The other major ninja villages stood poised like vultures to strike at the scared remains of our village. In order to avoid certain destruction two steps were taken. First was the proposed alliance with the hidden village of sand, second was the rumors I deliberately spread."
"The sand village was still reeling from earlier decisive defeats against the harsh stone ninja. The alliances was born out of need more than any desire to relate or prosper. It was fortuitous that the foxes destruction was hidden well enough, that my rumors took root. After all a sealed demon, even one sealed in what would have been a one and a half year child, was more than a sufficient threat to prevent any large scale action against leaf village. As the ninja villages returned to strength, the reinstatement of the chunin selection examinations cerated a more solid and stable peace."
"I understand Sakura," He held his hand to forestall the interruption that rested on the tip of my tongue. "That this does not necessarily mesh with what the history books tell us. However, until I can validate what happened on that night over twelve years ago, I am at a loss to correct what is already widely believed." Silence filled the air, as the moments stretched on I waited for hokage-sama to continue. I wasn't sure how long I stood waiting with more question than answerers buzzing about my head.
"I believe," The hokage continued after what seemed an eternity "That you understand not to speak of the fox in any such capacity." He now looked directly at me now and I gazed at the floor unable to meat his eyes. "Is this understood Sakura?"
"Yes hokage-sama." I spoke quietly.
"Well than I shall have some one met you outside to escort you home. Tiger." He spoke the name crisply and no sooner than he had, a swirl of leaves announced the presence of an anbu. Even than I stumbled backwards at his appearance. "Fetch Panda and have her escort Sakura-chan home." With a nod and another swirl of leaves the dark clothed ninja vanished.
"If you will kindly wait outside, I wish to have a quick word with Naurto-kun before I dismiss him as well." I turned and wobbled my way out the door. Shutting it behind me I collapsed against the cold wood as I heard the hokage's voice filter through. "Well what do you think of young Sakura, its rare to have some one so young stand up so remarkably well, given the circumstance."
Naruto's voice filter through afterwards, and its tone was unlike any thing I had ever heard before. A soft fox like baying mixed with cold harsh jagged stone. It wasn't until three years later that I understood why or even how he spoke like such. I puzzled the words he spoke at length without the courage to ask him; I never learned until he explained it to me over breakfast.
"She one of the most dangerous beings I have ever met."
Panda had shown up right after and I never got clarification.
That had occurred two weeks ago. At the moment however I was at my wits end. My voice exploded out as my rage and frustration of the past two weeks.
"We are not taking another stupid D rank mission!!! Naurto can't handle it! Hes destroyed two dishwashers, broken at lest four other major appliances, gotten old man tendo sick from his attempt to make something that isn't ramen. The last kid we had to watch still won't turn his lights out after Naurto read him a bed time story!!!"
Iruka-sensei looked scandalize and some chunin who was bringing the hokage an updated mission report stopped to stare. The hokage rose his eyebrows until they disappeared under his hat.
"I fail to see the logic, if your team mate can not handle the lowest of ninja ranking missions, why should I place him at risk so you wont have to sit through "Stupid D rank mission"?"
"Hokage-sama, despite the fact that dope here can't seem to grasp some of the most basic of task, He isn't helpless. Without him we wouldn't of passed the bell test that Kakashi-sensei gave us. When the idiot wants to he can come up with a decent plan." Sasuke's cold measured uninterested tone almost made me squeal. Naurto was siting on the floor ignoring both myself and the hokage.
"I had a really good sea food ramen last night, but the curry one that the old man made this morning was something else." I heard him mumble to Kakashi who looked on with polite disinterest. The hokage looked at the ninja in front of him before his worn chuckle washed over us.
"Well it seems that your jonin has already been teaching you lessons in how to ignore your esteemed leader." He chortled mirthfully as I stared at the age spots on his worn face. The hokage might want to do something about those. How could you face down any ninja looking like that? He continued refocusing my thoughts. "I have an simple escort mission that will take you out of the village. If thats acceptable?" He asked, his eyebrows climbing into his hat once more.
"Of course hokage-sama." Our sensei spoke for the first time since arriving over the teal covered book that he had recently acquired. "We will have to meet the client later if possible, id like it so they had at lest some respect for us." Again our aged leader chuckled, the rich laugh falling over us. "Very well."
Kakashi sensei began to escort us from the hall when his leader requested that he stay behind.
* * *
Naurto was troubling. One day he breaks into my library and the only evidence that someone broke in was a missing scroll and a shattered door. The next he ignores me to discuss ramen. It was hard sometimes to remember that child was almost entirely unknown. Despite our agreement I still knew very little. He was here to repay a debt incurred and the method was to treat Sakura Haruno as his lord and master. The other thing I could be certain was his devout following of Meta Na, or the nine sin.
Where ever Uzumaki was from, they didn't quite treat them the same. That was matter for another day.
"I couldn't help but note Kakashi-kun that you happen to be reading a different book?" I asked the copycat-nin. He closed it for a moment staring at the cover, a set of symbols that I was starting to associate with isha sinfaxis, as Naurto referred to himself as. It was teal and didn't look thick enough to be more than hundred and fifty pages.
"Its a bribe, At lest thats what I let it be." I paused, than slowly raised a pure gray eyebrow. Just one. The look clearly had the desired effect as he fixed me with a fairly expressionless gaze and continued
"Naurto convinced Sasuke-kun and Sakura-chan to distract me while he went and got this book to bribe me." He didn't seem to want to elaborate further, but he didn't need to.
"Hes smarter than he looks. To determine the true intent of such a test as well as fulfill it even if he failed to bribe you with such book. Sometimes I wonder just how smart and dangerous he really is."
* * *
I happen to despise walking. Its slow, boring and takes more effort than its worth. I would much rather do single kilometer vaults in order to travel, takes less time and effort for the return.
Compared to my usual travel, walking was so unbearably slow. In my presence form I could manage an impressive one thousand three hundred and seventy four gravities (13465.2 meters a second squared) within atmosphere compared to my unfavorable top acceleration of one thousand six hundred and eighty two gravities (16483.6 meters a second squared) out side it. The fastest of god hands belonged to that devilish sprite of a god hand Caladice, with one thousand three hundred and thirty six gravities (13092.8 meters a second squared) and one thousand eight hundred and forty seven respectively (18100 meters a second squared).
Due to the lying obnoxious drunk we were making five kilometers to the hour. For conditions that was average. Both Sakura and Sasuke could do better and I could top speed in atmosphere just pushing past seventy to eighty percent c. Kakashi-sensei would rather walk slow so he wouldn't have to work so hard or at lest have more time to read his book. The man was extremely good at concealing his actual feelings.
I snorted as our sensei lightly admonished us for our disrespect to old man third. It bothered him more than he showed. He was hesitant to open up to us; It was obvious that he wasn't ready to get attached to us and it showed in how he handled us. Given time or something drastic and he probably would begin to.
We continued on for another kilometer or two, and I took a moment to examine my soundings. Hard packed dirt road marred by cart and hoof traffic. The forest that sounded the leaf village was vast, almost a few hundred kilometers and we were only a few dozen out. It was green, bushy and dry.
The puddle was an interesting thing to see. From my eye alone it looked like a small puddle of water in a pothole in the road. The rest of my sense paint a picture of two people standing back to back. A large dark cloak wrapped around the pair, hiding the greens and browns of wavy color splotches that made up their camouflage. Heavy leather gauntlets were worn on the arm and they wore some kind of breathing um, thingy. The links flared as Kakashi glanced at the puddle and subtly begin to bring himself on guard.
I ambled slightly of kilter, out of the way of Kakashi. I gained clear unobstructed paths of Sakura-Chan as I did this. Again the isah ba taems showed that neither of them noticed. Even as the rose from their deceptions to assault the second strongest member of our team, they failed to note that he was waiting for them.
Glinting steel arced gracefully as the set of diamond shaped bladed chains dragged their way slowly to encircle Kakashi-sensei. Slow to me at lest; I just stood still and watched. The fact that they had severed the aggressive lines to kakashi and the quick use of substitution jutsu proved that the two mist ninja were ignorant that they had failed to kill the famed copy cat ninja.
Sakura cried out. Her long mass of soft rose pink splayed out as she jerked back in surprise. My eyes tracked the chain and the speed smear as they preformed some sort of flash sprinting technique to slip in behind me.
"Second one." The words were muted by the heavy breathing whatever they wore.
Sasuke refused to stand idle. As the demon brothers yanked the chains closed shredding the unfortunate log, Sasuke was jamming his hands within his holsters for a throwing star. A high leap brought the writhing chains in to line of site. They leapt at me, the dark hoods and mask Thick gloves with a massive ring of metal to hold the extending chain were sharpened with claws. Mist forehead protectors gleaming in the mid day sun. Their chains moved like fang bared snakes.
A flash of metal herald by the loud metallic grinding of shuriken blasting the chains into one of the many surrounding trees. The kunai that was thrown after was thrown into the holes in the two metal weapons, effectively locking them in place.
Sasuke wasted no initiative, flipping expertly between the pair of ninja and landed directly on the large heavy gauntlets as the chunin desperately struggled to grab them out. delivering two solid kicks with as he straitened in the air. Regaining his footing, the mist ninja severed the chains from their weapons. The first sprinted around making an attempt on the old man. The second did a quick back step and tried to juke around me and strike me from the back.
Sasuke heard Sakura's cry as she took up a guarded position in front of the drunk bridge builder. A brave panicked cry arose from her.
"Old man, stand back!" It was shrieked high pitched, and the soon to be dead mist ninja lunged at my charge, clawed hand out stretched. Sasuke turned his head at Sakura's cry.
If he had been a god hand, He would have noticed me immediately. All eighteen of the senses he didn't have would scream at him as I used every single amount of strength I had to reach my max acceleration instantaneously.
A yeda later my feet hit the trunk of a tree. My black ninja sandals burying through the bark and embedding them in the hard wood of the trunk. In my hand a gleaming sliver of god steal, untouched by the blood of the now halved ninja. The force dissipated outward behind me, creating a massive
wind gust that violently shook the trees as it washed through the forest.
His body had been cleaved by the reverse side of my ninjato. The lose baggy cloths hid the organs but couldn't stop the ground from drinking the dark red liquid. His hand was still out stretched his eyes still locked in focus. Even at the speed I traveled he was knocked a meter to the side, away from the drunk bridge builder. Away from Sakura.
Kakashi-sensei was still staring at the spot where I had ended the former brother. Even as he stood restraining the ninja I could tell he had lost track of me. The brother turned his captive head and his eyes met mine for the a mere instant. I smirked at him as the confusion rebounded around the clearing. It would have been a good time to say something along the lines of not threating Sakura, but instead I just stood vertical and watched the others react.
* * *
A/N: Most of the Oc god hands are foils to explain more about things that Naruto wouldn't relly stop to explain, as part of my effort to bring him closer to a his older characterization. Still looking for some one to beta read these.
