[REWRITE STATUS]: Previous Chapter 12, no changes.
Hiruzen stared down his nose at his opponents, who could only stare in shock. The West Wind, in particular, was stupefied at how much he had underestimated the Third Hokage. Said man merely smirked, every part of him exuding confidence and power.
Underneath his foot, three Suna ANBU lay in a broken heap, each one unconscious. The reason being that Hiruzen had taken care of them in a blink of an eye, before his opponents were even fully aware that the battle had started.
He now fearlessly took a bold step towards the enemy, despite the superior numbers and visible weaponry. But this action was actually meant to hide the fact that the spiky '8' tattooed on his achilles tendon was disappearing.
Speed Forme probably won't work a second time, Hiruzen acknowledged.
He leaped forward, but only as a feint, as he quickly turned a cartwheel and lashed out with his foot at one of the ANBU to the left of him. The unfortunate ANBU was struck with spectacular force, but was skilled enough to jump back at the last moment, reducing some of the damage.
But this didn't throw off Hiruzen's calculations at all. He merely jumped towards another ANBU and then struck, a dark grey blur suddenly appearing from his hand, extending the reach of his attack. It slammed into porcelain mask that the ANBU wore and shattered it, the chakra imbued object not providing any resistance to Hiruzen's power. The ANBU wearing it was sent flying into the Dirt Domination Rampart, crashing into it and then dropping to its base. He didn't move.
Hiruzen finally stopped his whirlwind movements, coming to a stop in a guarded stance. In his hands, a dark grey steel bo-staff pointed steadily at the throat of yet another ANBU.
The pause was only temporary, as Hiruzen only stopped for a second before lunging, the staff's point aiming to seemingly impale the unfortunate ANBU. But a second before the connected, it was swept aside, a flying blur crashing into it and knocking it away.
Hiruzen was confused but didn't try and regain his balance, instead deciding to continue with the unexpected movement, spinning his body in the same direction, righting himself and getting back into a ready stance.
He raised an eyebrow, wondering what had deflected his blow. Upon seeing so, his lips curled in a grim smile.
The South Wind stood in front of him, his hands held out in front of him in a taijutsu stance. Putting two and two together, Hiruzen immediately deduced which ability his opponent possessed based on the limited information he already knew from Jiraiya's spy network.
Streamline…
'Streamline' was a technique that infused the limbs with wind chakra, increasing speed and power. There were also a number of nifty bonuses, but Hiruzen wasn't too sure about the details. He had heard rumours, but as with all information concerning the Five Winds, he wasn't certain about their authenticity.
Despite this, he still readied his staff, confident that he could still win.
The match-up against me is actually quite good, he thought, the West Wind is helpless once I take out every one afflicted with the Winds of Change, and the South Wind is a taijutsu fighter… not well suited to fighting against weapons.
He grinned and leapt forward recklessly, aggressively swinging his staff like a whip.
Meanwhile, Jiraiya was having a much harder time dealing with the North Wind. He had hoped that his Cyclonic Firestorm would have finished him, but his opponent had effortlessly sliced apart the dense chakra-fuelled fire with a couple of slashes from his Diamond Peacock.
Jiraiya was now back into his Agility Forme as it had become clear that his Fire Forme was useless. Although he had a number of Formes and options he could use, against such a powerful S-class opponent wielding a natural counter, many of them were rendered useless. Jiraiya actually had a great number of non-combat Formes, because he had adjusted his shinobi jurisdiction to be more suited to an espionage and intelligence/counter-intelligence type shinobi, which somewhat limited his fighting potential.
His combat skills were more along the lines of sheer power, which was then replicated many times through Splitting Leaves, Flying Shadows. But against the North Wind and his Diamond Peacock, all his ranged jutsu were ineffective. Even chakra-enhanced constructs such as the super durable Demesne of the King was effortlessly sliced through. And although the Diamond Peacock was indeed a wind technique, even a relatively powerful fire attributed attack was negated.
Out of all his Formes, Jiraiya was now left with a number of Taijutsu Formes, as well as his Weapon Forme. Using taijutsu against the Diamond Peacock was pure suicide, as a single solid hit could immediately incapacitate if it wasn't an instant kill. Which, by process of elimination, only left the Weapon Forme to try and fight off this terrifying opponent.
With this resolution now in his mind, Jiraiya stopped his dodging in order to try and switch Formes. But he was suddenly interrupted by the Diamond Peacock nearly decapitating him as it spun through the air like a whirling star, having been thrown by the North Wind with deadly force. He barely managed to dodge it, but was subsequently left in his Agility Forme with the North Wind bearing down on him like a rampaging elephant.
Wait a second, he thought suddenly, the North Wind just threw the Diamond Peacock at me! Which means he's currently unarmed! I can take him now!
Jiraiya turned and somersaulted over where he anticipated the North Wind would keep moving too, turning once more as he landed, trying to land a hit to his opponent's back. However, his plan was unsuccessful, as his opponent was much faster than he had believed, already ready to counterattack.
However, Jiraiya didn't even land the expected hit, as just before he attacked, he noticed with shock that the North Wind was, at the moment, holding not one, but two Diamond Peacocks. Luckily, his Agility Formes blessed him with the reflexes needed to stop his attack mid-motion and retreat.
Deciding that he could spare enough time to look backwards, he glanced to where the North Wind had thrown the Diamond Peacock earlier. It wasn't there.
"What, surprised?" asked the North Wind mockingly after seeing the movement, "My Diamond Peacock is a chakra construct… of course I can create as many as I have the chakra for."
As if to demonstrate the point, he flipped the one in his right hand into the air, where it promptly disappeared, before four identical copies appeared in its place, still spinning with dangerous momentum. Each of them sank into the ground without stopping, sliding down endlessly, leaving only a thin chasm to mark their presence.
"By the way, the Diamond Peacock isn't only just a blade, you know. I can create anything I want with its supreme cutting edge. That's how I managed to keep up with your speed. I assume you're using some sort of speed-enhancing Forme from your Splitting Leaves, Flying Shadows, and although I am quite fast, I can't hope to catch up to you. However, by replicating the Diamond Peacock as a shroud on my limbs instead of manifesting it as a blade, the air resistance my body takes is reduced by a massive amount."
The North Wind lifted his forearm, where, sure enough, an inconspicuous white glow was emitting. He then swung it through the air, and indeed, it moved so fast it seemed like it teleported.
"Now," he said with a confident smirk, "Even if you are one of Konoha's legendary Sannin, you cannot stand up to the mighty Diamond Peacock. Your annoying Splitting Leaves, Flying Shadows doesn't have any tricks that can counter this."
Jiraiya ignored the banter. He had used the short reprieve to discreetly change to Weapon Forme, and had already rolled up his left sleeve behind his back. Also, his free hand had begun to collect various shinobi tools from a number of places around his body. Although in Weapon Forme the act of finding and drawing a weapon was almost automatic, the number of weapons someone could have on his person at one time was limited. And because the Weapon Forme was capable of volleying hundreds of projectiles at once, it was easy to run out of weapons before you realised it yourself.
Being well aware of this weakness (having experienced the phenomenon several times and only managing to escape each time with his life using a hasty Forme change), Jiraiya had taken to sealing entire stockpiles of weapons on his body and clothes via fuuinjutsu. However, his Weapon Forme lacked the chakra control to unseal them efficiently, which could be a problem in a high-level fight.
Even so, because he did not plan on using projectile weapons much (he doubted he could get them past the North Wind's super-fast Diamond Peacock), he now gathered them with abandon. Ridiculous numbers of kunai, shuriken and senbon were grasped in his suddenly flexible fingers, and the ones that didn't fit were shoved into his sleeve.
While ninja wire was also an important part of his arsenal as part of Weapon Forme, the sharpness of the Diamond Peacock rendered it useless, so Jiraiya neglected to touch it, actually having to make a conscious decision to force his relentless fingers avoid gathering it up.
So when the North Wind stopped talking and was about to resume his assault, Jiraiya was ready to take the initiative from underneath him. He immediately flung out his right arm, and the literal rain of metal showered down upon the unfortunate Suna nin, blasting down on him like so many angry hornets.
However, the North Wind was not an S-class shinobi for nothing. Instead of trying to dodge the massive hail of steel with his Diamond Peacock-enhanced speed, he instead leapt towards the flying death.
But before he was about to be impaled countless times by the kunai and shuriken, he abruptly turned in the air, a sudden gust of strong wind appearing in tandem with the movement. What happened next was could not be seen, as the action was much too chaotic. But the sound that had been produced provided a huge clue to what had occurred. Instead of the expected thwump of defenceless meat being pierced or the clanging of deflected metal, what was heard was instead a weird whooshing sound, like the hollow sound of a flexible cane being swung through the air.
This continued for about ten seconds, before Jiraiya's initial weapon barrage ended. And the white haired shinobi could only stare in shock... because the North Wind was completely unscathed.
Said shinobi was crouching down amid a small forest of broken ninja tools, all effortlessly sliced through into many small fragments. But now, in addition to the two Diamond Peacocks he had held in his hands, numerous other arrow-shaped blades were sticking out of various parts of his body.
Jiraiya surmised that the North Wind had probably used a wind jutsu (he was a Suna ninja, after all) to spin himself in the air, where his Diamond Peacock could destroy all incoming damage.
He clicked his tongue in irritation before leaping at the stationary opponent, his hands blurring into motion. He still had a few more tricks to try, after all.
The North Wind smirked as he contemptuously kicked away the pieces of scrap metal that littered the ground at his feet. However, his happy expression soon faded as he realised something.
The destroyed remains of the weapons carpeted the ground around his feet like grass, so much that he couldn't even move without likely impaling his own feet. Although he could apply Diamond Peacock to his body in order to move faster and attack people, if he used it on his feet, he would just sink through the ground.
"Tch," he hissed and cast a minor wind jutsu to clear it away a bit.
Although he did know some wind and utility jutsu, the North Wind disliked using anything that wasn't his signature move. The Diamond Peacock was something that he viewed as the pinnacle of his skill, and the very thing that would allow him to carve his name into the history books.
So annoyed was he that he almost missed when Jiraiya leapt upon him, his arms drawn back to strike a decisive strike. However, he was still an S-class shinobi, and the Diamond Peacock Shroud on his arms allowed him to snap them into a defensive stance much faster than Jiraiya could bring his own arms down.
And even if he does have more power in this position, he thought gleefully, the fact that I'm blocking with my Diamond Peacock means that any weapon he has will be sliced in half immediately. Even kinetic force can be sliced with my Diamond Peacock. I cannot lose!
Wham! With a strike like lightning, a heavy impact shuddered down the North Wind's arm, which couldn't bear the force. He was slammed into the ground, all the breath forced out of him. To make matters worse, as he fell, the Diamond Peacock in his hand had glanced across his leg, and now it was… half amputated. Mere skin and flesh and bone could not hope to withstand the supreme knife-edge of the wind, and as a result, the North Wind now sported a huge, perfectly straight wedge cut out of his leg.
He stared at the mutilated limb in shock and disbelief and his mouth involuntarily opened to scream before his battle-hardened instincts warned him that Jiraiya was likely going for a killing blow now that he was distracted.
Quickly, he burst pure wind chakra beneath him, launching himself away from his opponent while restraining the urge to scream. His Aerial Acrobatics wasn't very refined, but he had enough control over it to direct himself over to a tree.
Staggering as he landed, he leant up against the sturdy wood, trying to block out the pain while figuring out what went wrong. His eyes travelled up Jiraiya's form, before alighting on the source of his newfound strength.
Jiraiya, seeing his once-cocky opponent's scrutiny, smirked as he raised the item that had given him the power to defy the Diamond Peacock's unparalleled edge.
"Yes? Oh, I guess I should explain," he said, "This is one half of the Hakai no Tsuin'akkusu- the 'Twin Axes of Destruction'. Its name is Shoumetsu, and its title is 'the Great Axe of Annihilation'. It will not be sliced by your Diamond Peacock. That is all you need to know."
He raised the giant bronze axe and swung it through the air, aiming at his opponent.
The North Wind bared his teeth in a defiant snarl as he raised his own blade to block it. Although (if what Jiraiya said was true) it could not cut, the Diamond Peacock was sturdy enough to block a couple of hits.
He parried one massive cleaving blow from the axe and deflected another. However, his free hand soon materialised a second blade, as he could already feel the effects of the sheer power that each stroke of the Great Axe held. He fended off yet another giant hammering strike before he realised something.
Because of the axe's weight, Jiraiya's attacks, albeit powerful, lacked speed. In contrast, the Diamond Peacock's own weightlessness and air-rending speed bonus meant that he could strike in between blocks. Although he was currently leaning against a tree to take the weight off his injured leg, the North Wind was confident that the limb would hold for one more thrust.
He subtly shifted his weight while repelling another sweep and then, with decisive power, thrust directly at Jiraiya's unprotected chest, leaping to be as close as possible to his opponent, to make sure he ran him through completely.
Even as he jumped, the North Wind could feel a triumphant smile spread across his face. He knew such a speedy strike couldn't be blocked while you were off-balance on the off-swing of a deflected weapon. Jiraiya couldn't possibly block such an attack- he didn't have time.
The North Wind revelled in the liberating feeling of his weightless thrust fly through the air. The very atmosphere parted before the Diamond Peacock. No resistance could possibly be thrown up… not even the body of a legendary Sannin posed any type of obstacle to the blade that sliced through everything.
Wait a second, thought the North Wind with a surprised thought, even if it is the Diamond Peacock, it shouldn't have felt that light…
It was not until he spied his severed arm flying through the air from an unseen slash did he truly realise why the strike had been weightless.
Impossible! he thought, I didn't see him swing at all!
That was all that had time to run through his head before the very physical blade of Shoumetsu cleanly cleft through both his legs, sending him tumbling to the ground.
The North Wind's thoughts were in disarray. The strikes had been too clean and too fast for him to register the fact that the only limb he had left was his left arm. The pain had not yet set in, and the only clue to him having lost a huge percentage of his body was the dizzying numbness that fizzled at the stumps of where his limbs had been previously.
Despite the fact that disbelief was slowly, ever so slowly, slipping through his mind, the North Wind still had his pride and dignity as an S-class shinobi. His remaining arm snapped up, and a huge, crescent shaped wave erupted out, the signature glowing white hue of the Diamond Peacock shimmering without it.
But Jiraiya effortlessly dodged out of the way with an inhuman leap and almost casually swung Shoumetsu, even though he was nowhere near his enemy. Which is why the North Wind gaped in horror as his remaining wrist seemingly detached from his forearm of its own accord, the blood spraying out almost as an afterthought.
Then the blunt side of Shoumetsu slammed into his skull, sending him into unconsciousness, thankfully before the pain set in.
Meanwhile, Jiraiya resealed Shoumetsu with a sigh, stretching out as he did so. His back let out an audible crack and he hissed. His Senjutsu Forme, which allowed him to manipulate the natural chakra that surrounded everything was the reason why he had pulled off such a surprising win. Its limited precognitive ability allowed him to sense the thrust and dodge accordingly, and then counterattack with the natural energy left in the wake of Shoumetsu's swing.
The Senjutsu Forme also allowed him to collect and store nature chakra without staying still (as would normally be required) for a limit of five minutes at a time, but this instance didn't require enough senjutsu to fill a full Sage Mode. However, it laid great stress on the muscles, and Jiraiya always felt extremely stiff after using it for any period of time.
But thinking of the situation at hand, Jiraiya bent down, pulling out a scroll as he did so.
Although he was well within his rights to execute the somehow still alive North Wind, perhaps it would be better for Konoha if it had a couple of bargaining chips with Suna… it was better than a hostile relationship, especially since Konoha was still recovering from the Kyuubi attack.
Jiraiya efficiently tried to seal away the North Wind without exacerbating the wounds the unconscious enemy had. Although the Transportation Seal would hold his body in stasis, if he died beforehand, it was too late. Better to be careful than sorry.
However, Jiraiya was more pre-occupied about whether his sensei had bothered to leave any of his own enemies alive to worry about the safety of the North Wind.
Jiraiya walked through back into the clearing, nonchalantly tapping the scroll that held the North Wind against his thigh as he walked. When he entered, he raised an eyebrow at the scene in front of him.
Hiruzen was sitting on a pile of defeated Suna ANBUs, having stacked them all haphazardly after knocking them unconscious. He was twirling a short half-staff absentmindedly while listening to the South Wind's heartfelt apologies, who was bowing repeatedly from the waist as he did so.
Jiraiya cleared his throat.
"Where's the West Wind?" he asked.
The South Wind, upon noticing his arrival, immediately turned and opened his mouth, presumably to start apologizing to him. Hiruzen raised a palm quickly to stop him.
"Please, Minami-dono. It was of no fault of your own. You don't need to keep apologising. And Jiraiya-kun, the West Wind is in a very safe location."
Saying this, he held up a scroll, similar to the one Jiraiya himself held.
"Oh, okay," Jiraiya acknowledged, handing his own scroll to his superior to hold on to, "What happened on your end? And where's Naruto?"
"Well, our ANBU arrived about halfway through the battle and started engaging the Suna ones. With them out of the way I could take care of the West Wind without trouble. And without the Winds of Change controlling him, Minami-dono peacefully surrendered. He was outnumbered and outgunned, anyway. Anyway, I got one of the ANBU to take Naruto home."
"Are you sure that's wise, sensei? Some people don't exactly like Naruto, you know. He's been attacked before, both by civilians and ninja alike. He's gotten smart enough to avoid most of the attempts, but his body is kind of bad, and sometimes he just can't get away."
"Well, Jiraiya-kun, I think I trust the ANBU corps enough not to make silly assumptions and to do foolish things such as attacking one they explicitly know is close to me. I think they are mature enough for that. Don't you agree?"
Jiraiya shivered as he saw a flicker of unrelenting steel shoot through his sensei's gaze, showing absolutely no tolerance to those who would cross him.
"Yes," he said with an uncertain smile, "They'd definitely know better."
I hope… he added mentally, actually scared of what might happen if Hiruzen Sarutobi actually got truly enraged while in close proximity with civilians. Too much work had been poured into rebuilding Konoha for it to be destroyed again.
Meanwhile, Naruto sat in his room, trembling. However, this time, instead of the cause being his body's tendency to do so, it was instead because of what he had just witnessed.
Such tremendous power wielded so casually, he thought in awe.
Naruto placed a hand against his chest in order to calm his still-racing heart as he recalled the breath-taking speed and skill with which his superiors fought. It had been so confusing, but at the same time; Naruto, ever the opportunist, had tried to analyse as many of the techniques that had been used as he could.
Who could tell what might be useful in the future? Maybe he could adapt some of the principles into a couple of his own techniques to improve them.
Suddenly, a knock at the door interrupted his thoughts.
"W-who is it?" he asked in surprise.
"It's me, Naruto-kun," came the reassuringly calm bass tone of the Hokage.
"A-ah, yes. I'll just unlock the door," Naruto said.
But before he could get up, the door gave a soft click and opened of its own accord.
"No need, Naruto-kun," said the Hokage as he stepped through.
Naruto raised an eyebrow. There were three separate locks, two bolts and a number of chains attached to the front door. It was almost inconceivable that someone could dismantle all the security measures in such a small time frame. However, he decided not to say anything of it, reaffirming to himself that, as shown just a few hours before, Hiruzen Sarutobi was capable of a lot more than one would usually expect from someone of his age.
"Anyway," continued the Hokage, "I just came to ask you if you are okay… you know, its not everyday that a… what… eight-year old-"
"Five, actually."
Hiruzen scratched the back of his head ruefully, with an embarrassed chuckle on his lips.
"Wow… only five? I could have sworn you were older… but anyway! As I was saying, it's not everyday that a five-year old sees a life-threatening battle between S-classes right in front of his bloody eyes! Are you okay, Naruto?"
Naruto's lips curled in a slight smile.
"I'm fine, Hokage-sama. You know me, I'm not the sort of person to be affected by something that should become commonplace to the daily life of a shinobi."
Hiruzen leaned in close to peer closely into Naruto's own bloodshot eyes, a deathly serious expression on his face.
"Listen to me, Naruto. Death should never become commonplace. Even if you're fighting for your life, killing an opponent is not something to be taken lightly. I've experienced each of the Great Shinobi Wars and every second of those bloody years was filled with the stench of blood. It's not an experience easily forgotten. I hope you never have to go through something like that yourself. Even if it's you, the impact of seeing death might really affect your subconscious, even if you aren't aware of it," he said in a grave tone.
Naruto only nodded. It was a possibility that had occurred to him, but he had neglected to dwell on it, because nothing of the sort had yet happened, and why waste time and concentration wasting time on something that may or may not happen when his intellect could be spent on more pressing matters?
"Even I," continued the wizened old veteran, "am affected by the constant threat of death that hangs over my head. All the battles and wars I've fought… the toll all the years have taken on my body and chakra is enormous. What you saw in that battle just then is about the limit of what I can do now. And even that battle started to reopen up some of the old battle scars that litter my body. I'm getting older, Naruto, and weaker. Death quickly comes to claim my soul. There are so many people that are stronger than me in the Elemental Nations. And those are only human. Much more terrible things inhabit this world, Naruto, things like the Kyuubi- terrible demons… and above even them, the Pantheon. Don't ask me who they are, as even an old man like me doesn't know. They might be good, they might be bad, but all I know is that they possess powers so far out of mortal comprehension that it scares even the Kyuubi…
…but enough of the depressing talk."
Hiruzen, serious speech over, now gave a wide smile.
"Alright. Good news. Because of the… ah… difficulties earlier, I managed to persuade my secretary to let me have the rest of the day off. Also, Minami-dono... oh, he's one of the Five Winds of Suna, who me and Jiraiya-kun just-"
"I know who he is. He's in the Bingo Book."
"Oh, right, okay. Well, he took his "comrades" back to Suna. He said that the delegation had been a failure, and Suna's terms would be scrapped. He'll be back later, though, with a revised copy of the arrangement. So… I've got some free time on my hands. Anyway… how about we carry out the ritual for Splitting Leaves, Flying Shadows here and now? You busy?"
Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"You can do that in my apartment?" he asked incredulously, not believing that such an important technique could be performed impromptu.
"Well, there's a funny story in that. Splitting Leaves, Flying Shadows technically doesn't need to be "initiated" as I'm about to do here. But it's a lot safer, which, as you know, is better in any matter concerning mental jutsu. Also, you are a… let's say, 'special' case, and we can't risk doing anything to the seal that binds the Kyuubi, after all."
He gave a nervous laugh and continued his explanation.
"But true, the initiation ceremony is usually carried out by three jounin-class or higher shinobi each an active user of the technique itself. But that's just for chakra and concentration problems, and as the Hokage, I think I'm more than qualified to fill in for three jounins.
It's also usually carried out in a special fuuinjutsu chamber dedicated to Splitting Leaves, Flying Shadows. There are a number of them all over the village, but if you get a reasonably proficient user of fuuinjutsu like me, you can get by without it."
Naruto almost jumped for joy, but his mind was already thinking up the worst-case scenario.
"Have you thought about what will happen if the ritual agitates the Kyuubi?"
Hiruzen raised an eyebrow.
"Please, Naruto, have a little faith. Even if it is the Kyuubi, your father's seal will hold strong. He was the Fourth Hokage, after all."
Naruto shivered as a cold breeze caressed his bare skin. He was currently sitting on the floor of his apartment wearing only a pair of shorts. Despite how cold he felt, he didn't dare try and move from his cross-legged position for fear of disturbing the delicate-looking black marks that covered his body.
The fuuinjutsu that covered his body had been applied only a few minutes ago, but had seemingly already dried, but Naruto still didn't want to take the risk. To keep his mind off the temptation, he watched Hiruzen painstakingly inscribe a similar set of seals on his own body with the help of a mirror.
Finally, the old man finished up and put aside the sealing brush with a flourish.
"Okay," he said, "done."
He offered Naruto his hand, which the boy questioningly took.
And with a roar of chakra, the seals on both of their bodies lit up in a glorious light display. Naruto's eyes widened as the hard-earned control over his chakra disappeared into nothingness, and energy started to flare off of him like flickers of flame. The seals on his body glowed a blindingly bright blue and pierced through the early evening gloom like a beacon.
Across from him, the Hokage's seals radiated in a similar manner, although instead of the strong, pure azure of his own, they instead shone with prismatic brilliance, dancing with every colour of the rainbow.
The Hokage raised his free hand slowly, and then tapped Naruto's forehead with it, his finger pressed firmly against the centre of the boy's brow. At that moment, something slipped through Naruto's mind, a darting quicksilver flicker of thoughts and emotions.
Despite his attempts to try and grasp and comprehend it, it remained elusively out of reach. Idly, he noticed that a barrier made of chakra had formed around them, a seeming prison of light that wasn't quite opaque or translucent, instead possessing a texture that reminded one of the way artists attempt to recreate the untouchable sky in their earthly paintings.
Then, Naruto shuddered as an onslaught of persona struck him. There was simply nothing else to describe it. A slice of Hiruzen's very being resonated within his mind, and, at the forefront of the sensation was the old shinobi's twenty-five different Formes that each uniquely made their impact on his young mind.
Power swirled around in his mind, and his chakra spiraled rapidly in strange incomprehensible patterns. The seals on his body crawled and moved all around his body- an itchy, yet energizing experience.
How long these confusing and conflicting phenomena went on, Naruto couldn't tell. His senses had blurred out long ago, blinded by the thrilling rush of energy. In this state, he could barely tell left from right or up from down, but it seemed to him like he was no longer in his apartment.
He was lying on something soft and warm, but he couldn't turn his head to see what it was. His vision was still fragmented by the dazzling spectral colours of Hiruzen's chakra, the brilliant afterglow of the seals dancing in his eyes.
However, even in the midst of such overpowering sensations, he felt the soft, delicate touch of something on his face. Was that someone's fingers? Naruto couldn't perceive anything past the radiant curtain of energy, except a hint of vivid crimson.
But he stopped thinking about it when Hiruzen's voice, somehow simultaneously otherworldly and piercing, cut through to his very core.
"Naruto. Listen to me. The ceremony is nearly finished. Now I just need you to repeat these words after me… you got it? This is the last part."
Naruto heard the words, and struggled to comprehend it. It took about a second for the words to register but then everything became crystal clear to him. He nodded, even though he had no way of knowing if Hiruzen could see him. The dizzying energy continued to swirl around him, but Naruto managed to hold onto his wits, holding strong onto the steadfast pillar of determination and pure stubbornness that was an integral part of his character.
He heard the words, still with that strange phantom-like tone to them, and began to repeat them, passion and determination colouring every word he spoke.
"We are the Leaves: shinobi of Konoha who bear its insignia on our brow. We are the Shadows: shinobi of Konoha whose dark deeds sink us into the night."
As he spoke, Naruto seemed to register a voice that spoke concurrently with him. It was a soft, melodious voice that seemed to suggest flutes and wind chimes, but it only accompanied his own rough words as an undercurrent, acting only as the harmony in their lonely performance.
He didn't question it, as although he was positive he had not heard that voice before in his life, it seemed very familiar to him, as if it had been a part of him from the moment he was born.
Together, the two voices continued the pledge, following the wizened leader who guided them through a rite he had carried out countless times before.
"The Will of Fire burns within us. We find the strength to split our very selves in order to embrace the darkness of that night. We are the split leaves… we are the flying shadows."
Hiruzen looked up from the book he was reading as he heard Naruto stir. The boy had passed out after the ritual, which wasn't surprising, and Hiruzen had dutifully carried him back to his bed.
Because he still had quite a bit of time before he was required to tend to the backlog of paperwork that was sure to have been accumulating in his absence, Hiruzen had decided to just wait until Naruto woke up again to see if there were any adverse effects from the ceremony. Knowing Naruto's ridiculous recovery rate, he likely wouldn't have to wait long anyway.
Sure enough, within an hour, Naruto had started showing signs that he was about to wake up. Instead of the motionless calm of unconsciousness, he had begun to move around slightly and make noises, almost like he was merely asleep.
Hiruzen gave a silent sigh of relief as he watched the boy sit up and blearily rub at his eyes. It seemed like everything was fine and the ritual had gone on through without a hitch.
But then, that illusion was shattered in an instant.
Naruto looked up, saw him, and then broke out into the biggest, sunniest smile that Hiruzen had ever seen him pull.
"Jii-chan!" he yelled joyfully and he leapt from the bed and wrapped the surprised old man in a powerful bear hug.
Here were a couple more firsts. Naruto never showed such dramatic bursts of emotion. He also never referred to Hiruzen in such a familiar manner. It seemed more like something Kushina would do…
Hiruzen belatedly wrapped his own arms around the boy, chuckling ruefully all the while.
"Oh dear," he said half to himself, "What have I done?"
But despite those words, the enormous smile on his aged face was only matched by the one on the face of the child in front of him- a child, who had been, for all intents and purposes, repressed for five years.
But now… now, that child was free.
And the sky was the limit.
