Foreword:
- Apologies to those who arrived here before this was all fixed... or... I hope it is fixed, now... apparently some weird formatting cues were added in.
So, it's been a while. I have a cat on my chest.
This chapter is going to be a bit on the longer side of things. A lot is going on, here, so hang on.
There will also be a follow-up chapter that is a jog to the side, but I feel it is incredibly important and time is running thin. I care more than is reasonable for any stranger to, and that is why I will refrain from biting my tongue any longer.
I will also post a short review/findings/musings/etc regarding the new Boruto series. For those who care.
Chapter 9: Ruin
Silver hair crackled in the hiss of vented nostrils. Kakashi Hatake, the legendary Copy Ninja, found himself … disturbed. The note delivered in the form of some kind of origami-like jutsu sat beside the bed, its contents weighted heavily in his mind. Gai rolled in a brief fit from his slumber in the room's other bed.
The note wasn't anything outrageous. It was simply the location of a drop point where further correspondence could occur. It wasn't unusual for two parties of ninja who didn't completely trust each other to negotiate indirectly, at least at first. Meetings were a great pretense for assassinations. Using public drop locations in neutral territory didn't completely eliminate the chance of an ambush or assassination, but it was better than showing up to a "fuck you" party.
What was unusual was the jutsu. It was, if memory and allied intelligence served him correctly, only known to be used by Konan, the current leader of the Hidden Rain and prior Akatsuki member. Kakashi hadn't expected her to be here, waiting – if she actually showed up at all during these talks. In his mind, he could almost see her; eyes searching between shifting shoulders, knees crouched atop a nearby roof. He could swear a hint of her scent was on the note, as well – though it didn't seem to be an intentional addition.
One part of him saw her as a predator; eyes piercing, brow narrow, movements sharp. She was a woman playing her charms in a game lost by death; a ninja, a lethal tool, who brought about an end their victims could only ponder in the fleeting moments of defeat. It was a dangerous image, but one he could still only awe.
Another part saw her in flight; feet light, arms tight, and her eyes weary. She was a woman stalked by death in the shadows and hunted by justice in the light; 'damaged goods' in search of a purpose. This image, he found quite compelling. Of course, it also was the image the predator would try to cloak herself in. Always head games with Kunoichi...
Still... Damaged goods... he could certainly empathize. To say he didn't trust himself with women after he stuck his arm through Rin's chest would be an understatement. The girl adored him, and the ease with which he killed her was... frightening. He wasn't quite as naive to the looks he received from women as he played off, but any adoring looks simply burned at his soul. If they knew how easy it was to kill a girl who'd given him the same look, would they still give him that same glance? Would they still care to see his face?
Konan, at least, had a bit more firm of an answer than he did. Many would kill her, if they could. Her crimes were innumerable, no matter what ends were used to justify them. Frankly, he wasn't sure if her village accepted her leadership or simply couldn't do anything to change it. The report from the interrogation of Jiraiya's captured Hidden Rain villager suggested the latter.
The only lingering threat of death he felt loomed over his lost pupil. The last Uchiha was death on roller skates and God only knew who would end up dead as a result of his antics. The boy had almost no chance at a return to life... let alone something approaching a functional one. Who would seriously allow him in their midst? The boy was... Damaged goods...
The ninja world needed a support group. The thought of which prompted images of Naruto's shadow-clones. "Yep. It's time for bed." Kakashi muttered aloud.
[music: Thea: The Awakening (OST) – 12 "Fires of Ivanje" - Youtube reference v=SRQGDTrnSII ]
[Note: I have to interrupt here for a little exposition on this piece... it's absolutely beautiful. It comes from a game I recently stumbled across built upon Slavic lore. It's a great game, and that is an exceptional piece within its OST that captures the theme. It's also interesting to note the overlap of themes within various Slavic mythologies and customs and some of the Eastern philosophies. The Slavic areas of the world are perhaps some of the least understood by the West, and there are a lot of lessons to be found within the history of that region and the people in it.]
Crimson streaks of red flashed in the shimmers of a bonfire that danced amid the shifting echoes of shadows. The ancient shamans of the tree cycled around and even through the wafting embers of the fire in beat with the rhythmic chant of some language lost upon her. Wrinkled skin pressed a cool cloth to the tender lump of flesh consuming her forehead.
"The legends of the Star Beings have some merit, I see." The elderly woman smiled beneath her perfectly crimson bangs and pursued the body she was attached to in her attempts to retreat. "Even our own sages wither before the power of Bogdan."
She and Kaguya both winced at the persistent touch of the woman. Knowledge of bio engineering practices in use for centuries coursed through her mind in shadowy concepts that belonged to another time and another life. "A legend I'm apparently not cut out to fill." Frankly, she wasn't entirely sure how she 'lost.'
While void manipulation was something of an art that spit in the face of metered sciences; it still seemed to have 'rules.' Until she encountered this... Bogdan and his tribe of fire-haired hotheads. Space and time as she understood them didn't exist in their fight. He was always an arm's length away, always at the corner of her vision, and always a split second faster. It was obvious to her that it wasn't so much a challenge she was expected to win by defeating him in combat as much as some kind of evaluation. After … time … the amount of which seemed to be in question, he apparently judged her unworthy and struck her with the wings of that ridiculous dragon form of his.
He was the master, she was the student – and class was over with her being told to sit the fuck down. The whole scenario was bullshit. She wasn't exactly here by choice and had no idea what the hell she was supposed to do. Then a tree-humping dragon schools her with a nonchalant smack to the head. And what the hell was with the jumping through fire?
"Life is far from failure, young one." The woman chuckled as her eyes searched Kaguya's features. "It is a celebration of the passing of an era for one of our oldest trees."
She felt her brow quirk. "So, the tree died and you are jumping through its cremated remains?" Her mind dared to ask what these people would do in the event a mine was exhausted. Or was metal a taboo to these druids?
The woman laughed in the only raspy cackle she could muster. "Perhaps it is that simple." She turned to face the warmth of the flames. "It is the sun that gives us light. It may be but one star to you, but it is the irreplaceable source of life for our world." Her gaze followed a young man as he lept through the fire. "Fire is the closest we can come to the warmth of a star. It may not be a star, but it can keep us warm in the darkness of winter, smelt our ores, and cook our food. Fire is the closest thing to the divinity of a star that man can achieve."
Images of processes flashed through her head, the fabric of matter fused to unleash massive amounts of energy and scientific unraveling of the source of the universe's energy. Fire, indeed, was a bygone element in the world of Kaguya. "But we've developed far better than fire, even better sources of energy than the fusion within stars." She contested.
"Oh, there is always someone working to build a better fire." Valleys of shadow danced behind the warmth of the fire. "But it is still just a fire. In the end, you still have that lump on your head."
This woman... "Alright, I get it... I'm wrong for forsaking the tree and angering the wooden gods. Your way of life is better because an arbiter of the tree spirits hit me on the head."
The smile on the woman's face never lost its warmth. "Still so young..." She sighed. "I do not know what manner of arguments separate those among the stars, but it would be the height of insanity to suggest that those who can travel between stars without the sacrifice of trees have a lesser way of life than those of us who dance to the ashes of fallen trees."
The woman continued, motioning toward the embers beneath the flames. "Trees serve to store the divine light of the star. They turn the Earth into form with which we can build, and when burned, release a portion of that divine light back into the world for us to use in other ways. Trees are our window into the divine, and it is through their cycle of life and death that we both survive and advance. This is a remembrance of our role in that cycle. We may cut the tree to build or burn, but we are not masters of the tree; it is the tree that truly stands as the master of our way of life."
"We plant trees for decoration. We really don't even need them for food, anymore." She felt she had a better idea of where the woman was going with this than Kaguya did. If not the tree, then something stood in its place.
"Indeed. Curious words from someone who traveled the stars … for a tree." The woman motioned to the deep shadow cast long against the haze of the stars.
[music: "Thea: The Awakening OST 01 – Awakening" Youtube reference: c-zBmGPRZjM ]
Naruto used to believe that abandoned places felt downright creepy – echoes of lives long gone and mysteries whose answers had been swallowed by time seeped from behind every tilted door, every cracked drawer. He would have expected the island of his ancestors to be similar. Instead, aqueducts that were slabs of granite inserted into the ground coursed and swirled with a pulse. Birds and breezes hummed through the trees, and the ocean churned like a sighing breath. The life of the island seemed almost to restrain itself in the hope that the creature of man would return. Streams flowed unhindered by growth, streets were only reclaimed by grass, and only the most crumbled and damaged of buildings had been consumed by wild growth.
A number of hot springs fed the interior of the island, and one in particular fed a waterfall that was just perfect for meditating. Typically, one would meditate under a cold waterfall, but the water burst forth into the pool above in a boil. Meditating under a hot waterfall was an interesting change of pace.
The blonde sage felt the water flow around him, felt where it tore away from his skin to form pockets of air, how it slipped back together beneath him, and how it tugged on the rocks from which it fell. His mind briefly touched the question of how many of his ancestors had used this very spot for something similar. In this moment, the seemingly foreign memory of his shadow clone from before unfolded. It seemed to touch something around him, and unfolded into a different memory.
He rose from his folded posture beneath the boiling water. Steam trailed in wide ribbons from his skin in the cold air of the first lunar cycle of the year. It had taken her eight cycles, but the child of the stars had succeeded, in a way. He brushed aside a crimson red bang of hair. He really should look at tying it back.
A shimmering streak of white silver caught his eye. "I knew I'd find you here."
A flutter swam through his chest for a moment. It wasn't just because she was foreign and exotic, he was pretty sure... though that was certainly part of it. "Well, being you kind of spoils the fun of guessing games." He opened his eyes wide for emphasis.
"Honestly, I didn't cheat." Kaguya tilted her head "I'm not into spoiling my own fun."
"Ah," He tried to rub and fling the water from his hair "so you're just a killjoy for the rest of us?"
"I am not a killjoy." Her lips turned into a slight pout. "Just because your little brother thought 'hiding in plain sight' meant he could hide the frog he caught on the kitchen table does not mean I have to pretend I don't see it."
"You just had to ruin family fun night." He let his head drop in a sigh.
"Yes, what a bore I am for giving you all a reason to tease me." Somehow, seeing someone with the Byakugan roll her eyes made it even more dramatic. She even gave a slight dip of her knees with the gesture as he approached.
"Your actions are just so gratifying, though." He placed an arm around her shoulder.
"Don't make me rip out your kidney, again." He felt her relax a bit into his gesture.
He looked across his arm to her and found his eyes drawn to the slope of her jaw as it met her neck."There you go, being a killjoy, again." Her eyes found his as she returned his gaze, and her lips broke into a slight giggle as he quirked his eyebrows.
Naruto's veins froze beneath the searing heat of the falling water. A shimmer of violet caught his eyes, and he turned to see Hinata standing there, precisely as the memory a moment ago showed a girl named Kaguya.
Perhaps this was why cold waterfalls were preferred for meditation.
[Music: Ivan Torrent: "Before I Leave This World" Youtube Reference: v=-dhMjbrn9Lw
Konan let the door slide shut on the 'Do Not Disturb" sign still hung inside her hotel room's handle. It was a simple trick and anyone wise to the ways of counter-espionage would simply replicate what she just did... but it was nice to get an idea of who you were dealing with. Anything of any real importance was on her person, anyway.
Nerves crawled like insects in her stomach. It was much different now that Nagato was gone. It was easy to turn a blind eye to the insane arrogance of the Akatasuki with the belief that she was there for her friend... the friend who'd longed for her affections. It was, perhaps, a tinge of her own arrogance, but part of Nagato's will to change the world was to make it a better place for her – and a Yahiko neither of them could share it with. It had been so easy to simply support a friend who would have become unpredictable without her... and, yet, it was so glaringly obvious, now, how wrong she'd been.
She took the stairs at the far end of the hall, this time. Not that it would matter to Tobi if it came to that, but the idea of him sitting awkwardly for an hour outside the elevator in the hotel lobby while reading a newspaper gave her a slight chuckle. Tobi could just blow up the whole place and kill anything that survived the initial chaos.
He had to be stopped, she allowed her footsteps to slam slightly to express her determination to herself. Tobi... Madara... whoever the hell he was, he needed to be stopped at any cost. Naruto had been able to give something to Nagato that had been dead since Yahiko: hope. Nagato wasn't searching for an answer to suffering, he'd simply settled for one in the absence of hope.
Konan took a breath and brushed her tan jacket flat against her denim pants at the bottom of the stairs. As she exhaled, she pushed the door open at a determined, yet modest rate and began an apparently focused walk into the world beyond. If anyone asked why she took the stairs, she just enjoyed a bit of extra exercise to maintain her shapely figure.
Nagato had been promised a weapon to administer punishment as he deemed necessary. However, she often doubted that "madara" had, indeed, intended to just give Nagato such power. Nagato didn't think so either, but even Tobi was careful to not provoke a direct confrontation with Nagato. The fact that Tobi seemed not to be phased by the loss of Nagato made it even more clear that Tobi's plans for the Ten Tails were not at all close to what Nagato had envisioned.
She'd heard "Eye of the Moon," before... and that didn't sit well with her. As one who had surrounded herself with paper, she'd become intimately familiar with the stories written upon them. Ancient tales told of destruction during a red moon, of silver monstrosities in the sky, and of wars among the gods. Whatever happened, it echoed through the stories of many languages and many cultures. Gathering together such powers as those of the Tailed Beasts and talks of it involving the moon made her stomach churn.
Nothing from such a plan could possibly bring about anything that would satisfy Yahiko, Nagato, or be a world she wished to live in. It had to be stopped.
The scent hung heavy and sharp within her nostrils. Gangrene – flesh so infected with bacteria that it is literally no longer part of the person it is attached to. Her people recognized it as progressive kidney failure with an onset of diabetes. Rare for people in pre-industrial lifestyles, but possible. The people of this region couldn't possibly treat this man.
There was an exception. The Shamans of the Tree – they could restore him. Their powers of healing, she'd observed, were beyond exceptional – and, frankly, intimidating. It wasn't just that they were manipulating the void – they were doing so in ways that should require immense focus and calculation as if they were just giving a passing wave to someone.
"You could heal this man..." She turned to red-haired man at her side.
"'Can' and 'Should' are two different things." His voice was stern.
"Okay..." She huffed. "Why shouldn't you?"
"Why do we close up our food and suspend it in trees away from where we sleep at night?" He paused. "Just because a bear is hungry does not mean it should be fed. If it is fed, it will stop hunting and begin to try and elicit more food from those who fed it."
"These are human beings, not animals." She flung her silvery, white hair back over her shoulder.
"The being is an animal. The human part is an optional feature easily lost in desperation. If they would club each other upside the head to steal herbs that might cure them – what would they be willing to do for a guaranteed cure? Our abilities are neither to be used to rule, nor can they tolerate slavery."
"For God's sake! He's a dying lord who will be forever in your debt and you throw out allegations of slavery?!" She fumed.
Bogdan locked eyes with her. They weren't angry, they seemed to simply search her. "Very well." He placed his hands on the man. "It is not him, however, who I am concerned about. Every action ripples, and once a drop of water has fallen, no number of water drops can still the pond afterward."
Auburn brown hair briefly swept into her vision before her hand wiped it away. Hanabi didn't need to check the book to make sure she wasn't imagining it. The description the warrior in the book gave of the island of his childhood friend fit this place like a glove. What felt like electricity danced through her fingers as the implications flooded her mind.
She wasn't oblivious. After Hinata showed signs of distress, Hanabi saw her in fitful dreams on more than one occasion. The name "Kaguya" came up a few times after such dreams. At first, it was just an odd coincidence that the name "Kaguya" happened to exist in her book. Now, however... It was more than a little creepy. This wasn't a mere legend. Something... quite profound... occurred – here, in this place that stood in defiance of time.
"Something bothering you?" She heard Konohamaru place his foot heavily against a rock.
"Sort of." Most certainly. What, however, was to be done about it? Hanabi recalled how she used to be the first to give voice to new knowledge or insights. After a few hard lessons, she learned that sharing knowledge of things on the fringe can make things worse.
There was a palpable silence. " … Is it something you need to be alone for?" A part of her mind noted that she was still getting used to someone who seemed to want to engage in conversation with her.
"Sorry – It's just... I don't really know how to explain it." She propped herself against a tree.
"This place is wrong, but feels right." He traced his hand across the surface of a rock.
"Yeah, that's part of it – and a good way to put it, by the way." She caught eyes with him for a split second. Whatever was happening – it was supposed to happen... but that didn't always mean it would be favorable.
"What's the other part?" Sarutobi had suddenly become very preoccupied with straightening his scarf.
"Well, it's kind of crazy..." She would leave the part about Hinata out of this, no matter what. The last thing anyone needed after village-destroying pseudo-gods was possession by thousand-year old space aliens... or whatever.
"I'm a ninja who wears a blue scarf and my mentor wore a bright orange jump-suit." There was a smirk plastered like cheese across his face.
Hanabi caught her cheeks tighten with a smile. "Alright. Let's go test this out, then. There should be a sort of underground temple not too far from here." She pushed off the tree and began walking toward a set of waterfalls on the edge of the village.
"Whoa... did you see it with your Byakugan?" He bounced behind her.
"I wish it was that simple." She sighed.
[music: Smooth McGroove; Megaman X Stage Select Acapella – Youtube: v=ncitrYnA8SM ]
The last Uchiha wished, desperately, he could wipe the shit-eating grin off the face of Kabuto as the breathy chants of Zetsu continued. It wasn't that the Zetsu sounded bad... it was that Kabuto seemed to draw some kind of amusement from this and Sasuke was left completely ignorant as to why the lab rat found this so hillarious. "Why do you tolerate this?" He directed to the orange mask in front of him. Ninjas in orange. Once he was done using this self-asserted Madara, Sasuke would burn this man to ash.
"Now, Sasuke – our goal this entire time has been the establishment of a peaceful world order. Our past image of doom and gloom has been overdue for restructuring." The man had to be doing an eye-smile behind the mask. Sasuke would make sure to rip the fucking mask off before reducing him to ash.
"Whatever." He angled toward the exit from the cave's chamber. "If you have nothing for me, I'm leaving." He was not going to stay for whatever joke he was apparently a part of.
"Your choice of one of three missions that need to be carried out immediately." Maskara – that is what Sasuke would call this man. A man who wears a mask claiming to be madara.
"Go on." Sasuke turned more to face Maskara.
"The Hidden Leaf has dispatched a sizable force to the ruins of the Uzumaki village on their native island. We need to recon their activities and interrupt any substantial discoveries they make there. Reports place Naruto and Sakura of your old team there." Maskara paused.
"Sounds boring, but we need to capture the Nine Tails at some point." He would not give this man the gratification of trying to play him against his rival. He would choose when to deal with Naruto. Frankly, the move to the Village Hidden in the Tides didn't make any sense to him. Sounded like an Orochimaru type of curiosity to him.
"True, but that is not the point of this. Naruto is formidable on his own, but he is surrounded by capable ninja as well." Maskara raised a hand as if holding up an object. "We do, however, know the location of the Eight Tails. He is due in concert in the Land of Hot Springs and has a penchant for slipping his escorts. We need to put someone in place to wait for that opportunity and seize it." The man paused again.
Sasuke felt his brow knit together. He had put together an assassination team. Still, sealing wasn't exactly his specialty. Perhaps Karin... "I'll keep it in mind."
"The last mission is a recovery mission. Nagato had the Rinnegan. Those eyes are extremely valuable to our cause. We know Nagato's body was returned to the Hidden Rain. Konan, one of our former operatives, is highly likely to be present and put up strong resistance." Maskara folded his arms behind his back.
"That one sounds personal." Sasuke let his voice fall flat. He felt his stomach turn slightly at the proposition of snatching a valuable eye. "I don't really have a choice, here – so I hope you've had your fun with this."
"Of course we had fun. You'll have yours while waiting for the Eight Tails." There was that implied eye-smile, again. Ash... to fucking ash.
"Whatever." Sasuke turned toward the exit.
"You know, Sasuke, you should try to enjoy yourself a little more. That constant frown of yours is going to wrinkle your skin. You don't want to wear a mask by time you're my age, do you?" The man tilted his head.
"I'm going to prepare my team for our mission." He continued walking toward the tunnel. He would burn the ash to something even more burnt than ash, even if he had to invent a new state of matter to do it.
The Byakugan was a curious thing, Hiashi mused. While the abilities of the white eye were not nearly as bedazzling as the kaleidoscope of capabilities offered by the Sharingan, it was perhaps the more confusing of the two. It didn't so much 'see' as 'make aware.' Hence, it didn't 'see' destiny – it simply made one aware of things and links within it.
Anyone else would have considered it a fluke. But Hiashi's Byakugan led him here. Thrift shops were the guilty pleasure of any collector hoping to find a store selling something they didn't know the value of... or hoping to salvage some precious history from the fate of being consumed in the lifestyles of the lower classes.
In the Hyuuga head's hands was an artifact he'd almost forgotten about, the box that had been passed down for generations through the head branch of the Hyuuga. Or, a substantial fragment of it that had been incorporated into someone's idea of a wall decoration. A slight chuckle caught his breath at the thought that it had been through three village-destroying experiences in the past two decades. The strangest things survived.
What caught his attention, though, was a detail he'd missed long ago. In truth, he never paid much attention to the box. It was something important – don't break it. A good way to break things was to open them up and look at them – so he squashed that impulse like every other Hyuuga head had done. It would seem, however, errors were made in doing this.
Engraved into the stone was something very similar to the seal he'd seen upon the Uzumaki boy through the Byakugan, years ago. He paid it little mind at the time, but he now recognized the Eight Trigrams, Four Movements and the Two Changes of Yin and Yang. However, rather than being arranged into a more typical Taijitu with two tomoe circling each other, Yin and Yang were depicted as two parts of a spiral pattern.
The spiral just happened to be the symbol of the people of the Uzumaki boy's heritage, as well as the ruins they were currently investigating.
Hiashi was not quite sure what to do with this information, and it only prompted more questions. Was something sealed in the box? Why was it sealed in the box? Why did the Hyuuga have it? What's the story of the box with the symbol to seal the fox? Oh hell... Hiashi's mind loved to torture him with riddles in public places.
"And," Hanabi strode in front of him, "there should be a waterfall up here we can walk behind."
"I would still like to know how you know this..." Konohamaru was watching – she wasn't using her Byakugan. Either the girl would destroy him at a game of "Memory," or … she was not telling him something. The teen also found his eyes kept resting on … places... while following Hanabi. His mind was honestly focused on what they were doing, but every time he turned back to his eyes – there they were, on some feature or another.
"It's all in here." She tapped at where she'd stored a book from earlier. "It's an old legend … that … is looking less like a legend."
'Legend' … yay. "Uh..." They paused as she activated her Byakugan near the waterfall. "A legend of what?" He shouted over the roar. Legends are usually about something legendarily -bad-.
"I'll show you." She jumped through the waterfall.
"She's not stupid, Konohamaru – she wouldn't charge head-first into something more dangerous than we can handle." He sighed before jumping through the waterfall after her. Or... tried to. The cascade of water slammed him awkwardly to the stone on the opposite side.
"Yeah... I should have thought about that one." Hanabi groaned next to him. "I'm not broken. You?"
Sarutobi polled his limbs. "Just bruises, I think." He pushed himself up. "So, about this legend..."
Hanabi sleeked her wet hair down her back. "As the story goes, this was the home of a tribe of shaman who took care of an ancient tree." They continued down the corridor as Konohamaru produced a palm sized blaze of fire from his hand. "It was part of some kind of rite of passage for a foreign people."
"So... we're looking for a tree?" He eyed some roots poking through the walls.
"No," She cut short. "The tree was destroyed in the war. But there was an even older temple-"
"Shh!" Konohamaru shushed her. It was faint, but he heard it. "You hear that?"
The Hyuuga paused and seemed to focus through her Byakugan "I do... but I don't see anything."
He strained his ears against the voice that was most certainly coming closer.
"Man, he took his time in the sun, had a dream to understand – a single grain of sand." The voice sang. "He gave birth to poetry, but one day will cease to be; greet the last light of the library!" The flicker of light from Sarutobi's palm revealed a blaze of red hair bound into two tight buns as its owner slid from the shadows.
"That's-" Hanabi started.
Konohamaru needed nothing more – he had Hanabi's arm in his hand before her voice struck his ears. "Run!"
[music: Nightwish; Endless Forms Most Beautiful; "Shudder Before the Beautiful"]
"So, is Naruto teaching you that Sage stuff he does?" Sakura wiped the pink strands of hair from her eyes. It would be time to trim them, soon.
"Sort of." The Hyuuga interrupted her humming to reply as she skillfully maneuvered a set of tongs.
"What do you mean?" Sakura quirked her brow.
Hinata finished placing a few coals on top of a the cast iron container. It was at this time Sakura realized the other girl was humming along with the song playing from the Karaoke machine. "How much do you know about natural chakra?" Hinata stood up from the fire, a gentle breeze brought wafts of sweet cinnamon to tickle at Sakura's nose.
"Uh..." Sakura actually had to dig through her mind a bit on that one. She never really discussed it much with Naruto, and it wasn't exactly a widely covered field of study. "It's... like chakra that is all around us?"
"Wow, something you don't have behind that billboard of a brow you have, Forehead?" Ino popped her head out from a nearby tent. The pinkette allowed herself to shrug in response. Point to Ino.
Hinata seemingly ignored the comment, "Chakra can be thought of as belonging to domains of wills." She scooped up a few bird eggs from her pack on the table and began breaking them into a bowl. "Chakra is simply chakra, what makes it different is the domain that is its driving influence. The mind is one of those domains, the body is another." She swooped over to a small metal cup of water that had begun to boil and took it off the fire. "Ninjutsu is the combination of the will of the mind and the body to direct the flow of chakra into patterns to create techniques." The Hyuuga dipped a strainer full of thinly sliced leaves into the water. Sakura recognized a tincture when she saw one. "Nature chakra is that which belongs to the domain of nature – the shifting of the tide, the leaves in the breeze, the sturdiness of a rock, and the setting of the sun. It is the ebb and flow of the world around us."
"So, Naruto has learned to use that to form techniques as well?" Tenten tightened some gear around her waist.
"In a sense." Hinata mixed the tincture with cool water and began to beat it into the container of eggs. "By incorporating the will of nature into a technique, it allows it to work in accordance with the force of nature." She paused in the middle of whisking her mixture. "It's like running with the wind or swimming with the current."
"Wait... what happens if the will of nature isn't keen on exploding rasengans?" Kiba set a few pieces of fish from what he was cleaning in front of Akamaru.
Hinata panned her eyes across the girls. "'Wait', he says; do I look like a waiter?" Sakura noted the Hyuuga's remark as... odd. "That is why the process for taking in nature energy requires him to be entirely still and to be devoid of action. In a way, he is storing the time in which he was completely passive to the will of nature in order to cash in on it at a more opportune time."
"That's how Naruto explained it?" Sakura really had a difficult time seeing Naruto explain such a thing... and the mental image of him trying so hard to not do anything, including try, required her to suppress a giggle.
"No, it's just what I see." Hinata pointed to her eyes before resuming the whipping of egg and tincture.
"So... have you learned how to do it, then?" Ino arose from her tent, tying her hair.
"No self-respecting Hyuuga would ever attempt to subjugate the world in such a way." Neji strode in from the path leading to town. "We've held it as a forbidden art for as long as there are records."
"Sounds like a stupid reason to lose a war." Kiba sat a skewer of fish over the fire.
"Danzo's Foundation has investigated the use of such techniques in the past." Sai emerged from the same path as Neji. "The training is extremely risky and has around a ninety percent failure rate. One loses control over the intake of chakra very easily and is destroyed by the run-away reaction. The conditions where it is useful are also quite limited for most operatives."
Hinata nodded. "It would be of very little use to us to use nature chakra in such a way, in either case." She went back to humming the tune that was playing. There was an extended lack of conversation as the group continued their routines. For a moment, Hinata could be heard singing: "The music of this awe, deep silence between the notes deafen me with endless love. This vagrant island, Earth; a pilgrim shining bright. We are shuddering before the beautiful, before the plentiful, we the voyagers!"
"Is this your tape, Hinata?" Ino sat down with a cup of tea.
"No, just something one of the genin left in." She rocked her head to the beat a bit.
Sakura noted that the screen for karaoke wasn't on and there were no words to read. "Ah, I didn't know you listened to this type of stuff."
"I don't. Just singing what comes from the song." The Hyuuga tapped her foot for a moment and began to sing lightly again. "The unknown! The grand show! The choir of the stars!" Her voice rose to be heard across the camp. "Interstellar theater-play, the nebulae curtain falls! Imagination! Evolution! A species from the veil – walks in wonder – in search of – the source of the tale!" Hinata clenched her fist with the last emphasis.
Sakura caught Tenten's eyes. "Yeah... some kind of Hyuuga thing."
"You know, Hinata..." Ino almost sang, herself "there's no way in hell you're getting out of Karaoke with us, again. That was awesome!" The blonde paused with a pamphlet in her hand. "Not to mention creepy as shit. Those were the words..."
Hinata shrugged. "Just because we don't take in nature chakra doesn't mean we can't feel it."
"Well, let us hope the Akatsuki are terrified of karaeoke." Sai sat some of his gear down on the table.
"I think that is his way of trying to say that your singing was good." Ino peeked out from her spot next to Sai.
"Speaking of..." Shino spoke from against a tree, "Do you think you could use those eyes of yours to roll a bardic knowledge check on our genin squads, Hinata?" The Hyuuga nodded and activated the mentioned ability.
Sakura couldn't help herself. "I don't understand how we were 'speaking of' that."
"The thought jumped through a few hoops in my mind, I admit." Shino turned his head toward the branches above.
"Flaming hoops or the normal variety?" Kiba shifted the skewer of fish.
"I believe there was a pool of sharks involved." Shino stroked his chin.
"... I'm not following..." Sakura tilted her head. Kiba, she understood. Hinata, she could relate to. Shino... hardly seemed to exist, much less as an understood entity.
"Jumping through hoops over a pool of sharks..." Shino let his head fall a bit "Nevermind, it wasn't all that good, anyway."
Sakura shrugged. "So what is that you were making before your solo?" She turned to Hinata just in time to see her brow furl.
"All of the genin squads seem fine..." the Hyuuga trailed off. "Except for Hanabi and Konohamaru, I'm not seeing them anywhere on the island."
"No way!" Kiba stretched. "They're around here somewhere, their scent has hardly faded."
"The last time I saw them, they were heading up that stream that crosses on the west side of the village. Did they check with you guys before they left?" Hinata's mouth turned into a slight frown.
"I'll ask the rest of the section to see if it didn't get passed along, but it's news to me." Neji sipped at some tea.
"I was just getting ready to try out some of my newer scrolls before my shift comes up." Tenten cinched a strap down on her tool belt. She pulled a glove tight to her hand and flexed. "I'll go hunt down our rogue duo. We've been over this island a hundred times – they probably just found some weird Uzumaki rock that blocks your eyes, or something."
"The thought of that is almost as troubling as the alternatives." Neji took another sip of tea.
"Imagine that, a Hyuuga who is required to look around objects like the rest of us." Sai cast an eye toward Neji.
The Hyuuga shrugged. "I do not understand why you try to instigate animosity with someone who shares a destiny of subordination."
Sakura grimaced. "Cut him some slack, Neji, he wasn't around for that whole episode."
"Ah, yes, because lives can be flipped through like broadcast channels when you find one you don't want." Neji held his tea cup in place at his mouth.
"Whoa... Damn, man..." Kiba sat at the end of Neji's table. "Did someone kill your puppy or something?"
Neji began to mumble something before Hinata cut him off by setting a portion of her mixture down in front of him without a word. The Hyuuga retrieved the container and immediately strode from the table. The group simply sat in silence for a few moments.
"By the way, Hinata..." Sakura turned to face the Hyuuga "What was-" there was a plastic container being placed in her hands by Hinata.
"Use it like you would a conditioner, just not in the hot springs." Hinata smiled.
"So..." Shikaku was fumbling through this 'game' of Shogi. "I'm having trouble reading your moves, here."
"My mind has been a bit beyond the game, recently. Some old memories." Hiashi hovered over a piece he hadn't touched in many years – the piece for his wife.
"I'm sorry to hear you're having a rough time. Did something happen?" The answer to this was obviously going to be a no – but the gestures would point in the right direction.
"Not really, with Hanabi and Hinata gone, I've just had a bit more time to feel lacking, these days." His hand moved to the positions of pawn-object-knowledge. Something that gave him more knowledge about his wife? They didn't play this game for 'I need a shoulder' moments.
"I see. You're always welcome to join us for dinner, if you like." He motioned his need for a bit more detail.
"Thank you. The same offer is open to you, too, though." While true – this was more of a 'better to talk in Hyuuga-land' statement from Hiashi. Whatever this was, the consequences of the Hyuuga elders catching wind of it must have seemed better to Hiashi than if Danzo did. Shikaku would say that he hated knowing dangerous things... yet, he had extreme difficulty turning down the opportunity to learn such things.
[music: Nightwish; "The Greatest Show On Earth" - Part 3, 'The Toolmaker' – Youtube reference: v=GrtBDMMu5nU ]
Tenten pushed large, overgrown leaves out of her way as she ducked under a series of low trees. There was something about this island that seemed to call to her. She couldn't place her finger on it, but her heart seemed to beat with the breath of the wind and her mind flowed to the trickle of the streams. To be honest, she literally felt an itch to wander the entirety of this island, to tear into its surface with her bare hands and see all there was to see. It was a primitive, uncouth feeling to be sure. Yet, it was there.
She wasn't sure if Hanabi or Konohamaru felt the same, or if it was simple childhood curiosity; but she was nearing where Hinata last saw the developing dynamic duo. There was a sound just barely heard above the churning of a waterfall ahead. Splashes began coming from the nearby stream "Konohamaru?" Hanabi's voice choked with an edge of panic evident in her voice.
Tenten shot to a sturdy branch she felt would overlook the stream. "Shit!" Hanabi cursed and began splashing more violently. There was the sound of something heavy being dragged as her eyes fell on the scene below.
Hanabi had a limp Sarutobi pulled to a bank of gravel and the veins on her face indicated her Byakugan was active. Tenten began to pull a signal flare from her pouch before Hanabi suddenly tensed. At first, Tenten thought it was in response to her presence until Hanabi snapped herself into the Hyuuga's trademark 'palm revolving heaven.' Trees suddenly shot from the bank around her and slammed down atop the spinning barrage of chakra.
The signal flare had barely left its launch tube before Tenten was withdrawing her combat scrolls and falling into place next to the teens. "How many?" She threw open her 'steel rain' scroll and unleashed a barrage of metal in every direction.
"One." Hanabi immediately returned her focus to Konohamaru. She said something else that Tenten couldn't hear over the pounding clash of steel.
"Say again!" Tenten shouted. "Where?" She forced her eyes to remain steady and not dash between the swaying leaves.
There was a finger cast upstream. "Mito!"
"That's Ms. Senju, or Ms. Uzumaki, if you must." A woman with blazing red hair tied into tight buns stepped lightly from the foliage along the bank.
There was a thing Ninja would often refer to as 'pucker factor' – those moments where one's butt hole tries to hide further inside the body to escape what the eyes are seeing. Tenten was sufficiently puckered at what stood in front of her. "Madam Uzumaki," Tenten tried to project some level of authority "you are in an era you do not belong."
"It would seem my brother-in-law's jutsu is causing some trouble." The woman sighed. "I warned him of this when he began work on it." She shrugged.
"I suppose you couldn't just go back to sleep." Tenten literally knew nothing about Mito other than she was wife to the First Hokage and could hold her own in a sparing match with him. The First Hokage could put new geography on the map. Tenten could not. That was all she really needed to know about what was in front of her.
"I'm sorry, child. You and I both know that is not how this works." The woman began making hand signs.
Tenten felt the motion before she processed it. This woman could not be allowed to finish hand signs. A pair of tonfa rods were unsealed and she was in full sprint as the itch in her legs began to sigh in relief. Mito blocked the overhead tonfa strike with her forearm, and Tenten took the brief moment for a statement. "I was afraid of that."
It was an indulgence she couldn't afford. A strike fast enough to give Lee pause connected with her gut to knock her off balance. Mito followed seamlessly with a proper side kick to connect with a recoiling Tenten's ribs. A crunch sent waves through her bones and set her nerves alight. At least two ribs were fractured, she knew, moments before her tucked body bounced between a few boulders conveniently placed to break her fall.
She forced herself to roll, splashing slightly into the bank and jumping to her feet. Breathe. She commanded herself to suck air in despite the pain. Think. Of what, she wasn't sure. She expected Mito to be strong, but not to hit like a ton of bricks.
"It looks like her chakra does something like the Gentle Fist and weakens the body." Hanabi called out between sharp prods to Konohamaru's chest.
"Sharp, even for a Hyuuga." Mito stepped closer.
Tenten spared a glance toward Hanabi, things were getting far too close to the genin. She had to gain some ground. "Yeah, well..." She pushed chakra into one of her scrolls. It was the 'Tail of the White Dragon' – a javelin arced from the seal into the air, trailing a streamer of additional seals. Tenten poured more chakra into the technique and each seal released streamers of yet more distinct characters denoting seals. At this point, the technique began to pull the chakra it required from her body as the stored shrapnel within the seals began to stream from nearly every seal.
A torrent of steel and explosives fell in sheets upon the battlefield in front. It wasn't exactly the perfect solution to an indestructible opponent, but it was about all she had at her disposal. There were enough general purpose chakra sealing tags within the technique to give such opponents pause, however. Confirmation came as Mito opted to retreat toward the edge while ignoring a few of the exploding kunai that found her.
Tenten had to, now, hold the Uzumaki at that distance from the genin. She released the technique and shot up the stream as the Uzumaki came to rest on a small bluff. "Interesting use of seals..." the Uzumaki chirped from above. "Might I say that you have an excellent sense of hair style, as well?"
The pain in Tenten's ribs began to shift into what she could only describe as an itch... "Yeah, I suppose you would." She needed to seize and hold the initiative. Hand signs from this lady were probably way worse than punches – and she was making them again. She threw some exploding kunai toward the undead woman and began to dash in her direction.
Apparently, Tenten wasn't fast enough. A tree burst from the ground to swat the kunai aside and Tenten felt something wrap around her ankle. She slammed into the ground with a grunt. "Fu-u-uck!" She spat blood-tanged dirt from her mouth with a curse. Tenten tucked to hack at the vines ensnaring her ankles and caught the shadow of Mito descend on her. She quickly pushed chakra into a scroll held in her opposite hand and drove the kunai into her leg.
It happened in a split second. Where a normal substitution would leave a log, this one left a bomb with exploding kunai for shrapnel. This was, however, just the first iteration. Tenten appeared a few meters away where another summoned kunai triggered a second substitution. This process repeated to leave Mito in a circle of exploding kunai hell and Tenten safely away from the spectacle.
Tenten's head spun from the disorientation as the ground shook and the shockwave rippled the air. She hoped it would slow down an edo summon for a little bit. Immortal was immortal, but time was beginning to skew in her favor.
"Now, I'm impressed." She heard Mito from the distance. "I knew it wasn't just the hair."
Tenten's bones began to shiver amid an inferno of rage. Why did immortal opponents have the ability to talk? Their very existence was insulting enough. She really needed a seal for times like this – to seal their undying arrogance in a dark hole, or at least shut their mouth forever. She cast a glance at Hanabi, who was dragging a coughing Konohamaru into the brush. That was better than before she got here – small successes.
"I'm curious..." Mito began rushing at her.
It was a change from the bombastic botanical display, at least. She cast a few kunai half-heartedly toward the advancing Uzumaki and readied her tonfas. If she blocked with the tonfa and kept it between her and Mito's body... it may keep whatever she did earlier from happening again. Her broken ribs -itched- as she fell into a defensive posture.
Mito's first strike was blocked surprisingly easy. Either Tenten's theory was correct, or Mito was no longer interested in using that technique. A few more strikes were thrown at Tenten, and it became clear that this woman was very well versed in taijutsu. She partially failed to block a tap to her injured ribs, and the shock sent an indescribable rage through her.
Her veins burned, and she lashed out with the tonfa. There was a loud crack as the 'bones' of Mito's forearm shattered. Tenten swept with the opposite hand to land a strike solidly into Mito's kidney, a part of the edo's body disintegrated on contact. There was a grinding sensation from her broken ribs that felt simply delightful.
Tenten adjusted her position, strafing a circle around the elder Uzumaki. Each strike landed with immense power, every snap, every cruch – it was all becoming a sort of music to Tenten. In the middle of her tonfa flurry, she pushed chakra into another scroll to bring forth a large two handed sword that she brought in an overhead strike through the crumbling visage of Mito. "Ye-he-he-esss..." Lord, that felt amazing – her ribs ground with each heave of her chest.
"I suspected that was the Uzumaki's Blood Rage in your eyes..." The woman's words were sand against the raw nerves of Tenten's ears. She lashed with the sword at the red haired nuisance – not only was it continuing to move while dead, it was talking! Why did everything that needed to die have to talk as if it had seen everything of life there was to see?
Time seemed to slow as Mito made for a forward strike at Tenten. The inferno that had become every bone, vein, and muscle in her body seemed to seize control of her actions. Tenten grabbed Mito's outstretched forearm and pivoted to throw the Uzumaki into the ground while driving her hand into the abomination's chest. The fire was absolutely starving, and it would eat a fucking heart.
There was a moment of clarity as Tenten's eyes fell upon a single-handed seal that Mito had formed. Words seemed to flow from the Uzumaki like water from the nearby stream: "Greet the last light of the library." A massive force passed through her chest like a wave and took her breath with it. Mito seemed to crumble to ash while Tenten's world faded to black.
Konan eyed the delegates from both Leaf and Sand from a distance. They seemed to be following direction honestly. She tried to put herself in their shoes – she would suspect an attack, and while they certainly had to be taking precautions, it did not appear as though they were readying an ambush.
She sighed. At some point, you had to take an action while accepting the risks and uncertainties. She began to move in the direction of the table. Perhaps the most terrifying thing, at this point, was that she had no idea if she would resist an attempt to seize, or even kill her. She truthfully wanted no harm to come to any of those in front of her.
She stopped in front of the table. "May I sit?"
"Never any harm in bringing such aspiring youth to the table!" the reputation of Might Gai was, apparently, deserved. She caught him deliver a rib to the masked Kakashi.
She sat, but caught the increased tension among the group. She was still quite well disguised. To them, she could be just a genuinely random person or an accomplice hoping to distract them from a setup for some variety of ambush. She caught their eyes scan roof tops, linger on windows, and dance toward movement.
"Forgive me for being rude," Kankuro leaned forward, "But you wouldn't happen to be someone we are expecting, would you?"
"I..." Her voice caught, and she cleared. "I am."
"Hmm..." Gai stroked his chin. "I don't know..."
"It's common for intermediaries to be used in cases like this." Kakash said from behind his famous smiling eyes. Although, Konan couldn't help but feel that look was directed at her.
"Well, let's get down to business. If the Rain gets confused because of all of this, they have only themselves to blame." The blonde, Temari, slapped a note pad down on the table.
"That's some youthful philosophy!" Gai trumpeted.
"The Leaf apparently will be doing business in 'youth.'" Temari turned to the disguised Konan. "I hope you all can come to a better agreement than the Sand managed."
"If you need more youth to satisfy your nation, then all you have to do is ask!" Gai slammed a fist down on the table.
"Thanks, but we don't need to regress back to conception." Temari rolled her eyes and Konan suppressed a giggle. These people were nothing if not amusing.
There was a look shared between Gai and Kakashi, the masked ninja apparently vetoing some additional comment. "Anyway..." His eyes smiled, again. "Let's start with introductions. I'm Kakashi Hatake. This is Might Gai," he motioned to the youth-obsessed man, "and these two are Kankuro and Temari."
There were a few moments of pause. Those smiling eyes across the table from her wanted a name. "I'm Konan."
"So," Jugo began, keeping stride next to Sasuke "are you not concerned about this... 'Madara's' intentions?"
"He has been more than honest with me." The Uchiha began. "He exposed the lies of the Hokage and wishes to bring an end to that system. Our interests are aligned."
"One of our elders," Jugo allowed his voice to remain somewhat passive "used to talk quite a bit about the difference between interests and visions."
"Hnn..." Sasuke replied.
"I'm not sure I follow." Karin walked up closer.
"Interests are very easy on the surface. Everyone will get hungry and need to be fed at some point. Interests are things that we want or need." Jugo allowed himself to look at the sky through the leaves. "Visions, however, are more discrete. We all agree that no one should starve."
"I don't remember agreeing to that." Suigetsu tapped the edge of his mouth.
Jugo continued as if he didn't hear. "But where one man insists the elders should control what is planted and by whom, another insists that it is best to allow people to freely grow and trade crops. This is a conflict of visions that is not immediately obvious when both men are working to slay a dragon that has burned the crops." Jugo paused to watch a bird. "Neither man wants anyone to go hungry, even though that will be what they accuse each other of. They simply have very different ideas about how to achieve that goal."
"So..." Karin fumbled with a part of her jacket. "What you are saying is that we should be more concerned about what Madara is doing in the long term rather than seeing what we get out of the short term."
"In a way." He nodded. "While Taka was formed to visit justice upon the Leaf, and we see that Justice as the elimination of individuals who have abused power... it must be noted that we are striking against the Cloud and sowing the seeds of chaos that corrupt and unjust individuals often thrive in." Jugo decided to add a final thought. "I suppose my question is... After we succeed in killing corrupt people within the Leaf... what is our vision for the future beyond that, and does it mesh with the vision this individual claiming to be Madara has?"
"I get it." Sasuke squawked. "You all are concerned we are being used."
"It's obvious that we are." Suigetsu dropped his usual smirk.
"I'll take care of it when the time comes." Sasuke stalked forward slightly faster than the group.
Jugo saw Karin make a start for the Uchiha, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "That wasn't meant just for Sasuke. We are not being used by Madara – Sasuke is. That said... our interest is to assist Sasuke... yet, what is our vision?" He saw a momentary bit of confusion on her face. "That same elder also used to say that those who act without vision act without freedom."
His head piece chimed an iconic tune as he released it from his grasp of adjustment. Yamato wasn't exactly sure why he wore the steel tuning fork, but it seemed like such a part of him that it would simply be yielding to some sort of external sense of conformity if he were to go without it. He'd been a project of other people for far too long in his life to like the idea of conforming to fashion normality.
There were, however, more pressing concerns. "How is she?" He watched Shizune prod around the unconscious form of Tenten.
"Broken ribs, chakra exhaustion, moderate internal bleeding, numerous hairline fractures everywhere..." Shizune threw her head back.
The list sounded more painful than life threatening. "It seems like you're more frustrated than concerned..."
The medic sighed. "I guess. Sakura and I can handle the internal bleeding, but the rest is painful and somewhat slow recovery."
"Still, from what Hanabi and Konohamaru are saying, it seems we're lucky she's still with us." He stepped toward the exit of the tent. "I've got to do a more thorough debriefing with them."
"Going to chew their ass?" He couldn't tell if that was a question, or her suggestion.
"I don't know enough to make that decision, just yet." He paused before taking a steep breath. "Well, I'll stop back by after my death by paperwork." He let himself out of the tent.
Her voice called from behind him. "I don't have any prescriptions for that!" He knew his cheeks tightened into a smile, and didn't particularly care.
He turned into the common area of the camp to see Naruto and Hinata both pinning Hanabi and Konohamaru to a boulder with their glare. Yamato halted and decided to observe what had to be a rather rare phenomena. It was also prudent not to undermine the authority of the two senior ninja.
"Who did you check with before leaving the perimeter?" Hinata's voice was deathly flat, as only a Hyuuga could produce.
"No one..." Konohamaru seemed to speak from beneath the rock he was studying on the ground.
"Keep your eyes up." Naruto commanded. "You were looking forward when you made your decisions, you should keep looking forward when you are receiving the consequences of those decisions." The two genin straightened in response.
"Did you remember that you were supposed to when you left?" Hinata's voice seemed to balance between the two possible answers.
The two genin exchanged a timid glance. Hanabi took a breath. "I did not think about it. We patrol there so much that I just started going."
Naruto and Hinata both shared a look – of what Yamato couldn't tell. "And you?" Naruto looked back to Konohamaru.
"I kind of put her up to it, I think. She was trying to explain why this place is unusual and she mentioned a cave... so we went." The Sarutobi's eyes seemed to bounce between the two older ninja as he finished.
"A cave?" Naruto's glare faded.
"Before we derail..." Hinata's voice rolled the mood flat, again. "You must check with one of the on duty patrols before you leave. You cannot rely on myself or Neji to keep track of everyone at all times. I did not know you had left without checking in, and if I had not been asked to look for you, no one would have noticed for quite some time or had any idea where to begin looking for you." There was a pause. "Do you understand?"
"Yes." Both genin replied.
"Now, I think Captain Yamato is here to talk more about what, exactly, happened." Hinata turned to face him. "I apologize for the trouble."
"It is part of the job of senior ninjas and Jonin." Yamato stood. "If there were ever a time when this type of thing did not happen, then it would mean the Leaf has lost those who would become its future." Yamato wasn't sure where that line came from, but he liked the sound of it. It was also his job to try and have lines like that in store, wasn't it? "Let's all sit down and get the details of what happened."
The five all sat and the genin recounted the events leading up to the encounter with Mito Uzumaki. After Orochimaru's assault on the Third Hokage, it had become part of the standard curriculum to recognize and counter (or survive) the presence of an Edo Tensei summon. "And you are sure it was an Edo Tensei form?" Yamato furled his brow while studying a cup of tea. It took some practice to break him of the habit of showing such expressions while making eye contact with someone he wasn't upset at.
"It fit everything we were taught about them." Hanabi nodded. It was true enough... God only knew if there was something other than an Edo Tensei that otherwise acted exactly like it. Ninjutsu was troublesome enough before it started bringing the dead to life and messing with the concept of a soul. To say it made Yamato's skin crawl was an understatement.
"Did she give any indication as to who summoned her or why she would have been in that cave?" The issue of why the Hyuuga had a book on an Uzumaki cave would have to wait until the end. Although the looks coming from Naruto and Hinata as they read through said book were causing him some alarm.
"Other than she was singing some kind of song when we encountered her, she didn't really say anything about that." Hanabi's eyes were locked on her sister. For a Hyuuga to abandon all precaution and another Hyuuga to be so engrossed as to not notice it...
"Alright... now for the white elephant laying on the table... the way you all are engrossed in that book is freaking me out." Yamato let his signature, ominous glare fall upon the table.
Shino let a few of his insects crawl along the walls of the cave. This was a relatively simple recon-in-force. The research teams would arrive within the next 48 hours and this cave was now the most suspicious thing on the island. Get in, find any bad things, destroy said bad things, hope the Uzumaki didn't skimp on building.
His insects flew back. It seemed there were no traps or said bad things lying in wait at the entrance. He flashed a hand sign to the 4 teams under his command. Naruto's team, as one of the heaviest hitting teams and those most familiar with the cave, would take point. Hinata's team would anchor at the entrance and provide a lookout for any bad things coming back to the cave. His team and Ino's team would anchor and secure crossways while keeping the teams coordinated.
It was at this time that Shino found it humorous that he was given tactical command of an operation that was to be done silently. Later, he would find it even more hilarious that nothing more was found. He could, however, take pride in the flawlessness with which the unremarkable mission was executed.
[Music: "Monument of Non-Existence" Remix of "Dancing Mad" Youtube reference: v=cLEgTIcsYyE ]
She felt her hair tug against her scalp in the throngs of the Dragon's roar. As her focus slipped into the void, she felt the way Bogdan drew the power of the tree as much as she saw it. His was the power of the Earth, a power so immense it was virtually impossible to sway.
"I do not care about the fruit." The voice that wasn't Hers swept across the distance. "I do, however, care for the people outside of this island. With the fruit, there is no need for their wars. I will be taking it, today."
"Alas, a star fell from the heavens to be reborn from the Earth as a Rabbit of Steel." He referenced the raised hairs stiffened to the likeness of steel atop her head. "Come."
She felt Kaguya stretch herself into what She knew to be natural chakra around her. "No. You will be where I want you." Kaguya pulled a vortex into the chakra, 'stepped' through its eye, and struck with a portion of power pulled from the chakra around her. Bodgan was simply 'there,' a smirk tugged at the edge of his mouth as he sat with Kaguya's hand in his own.
"Better." He connected a kick to her stomach she followed too late. The resulting shock sent her sailing toward the tree line. Kaguya recovered, and She felt her slip through another vortex before she would have collided with a tree. Now airborne along a chosen trajectory, she stiffened her back to collide with Bogdan.
Almost to the girls' surprise, her bones rattled with the grunt of their collision. With no time to recover, she thrust her elbows hard into what should have been the man's kidneys. For his part, Bogdan appeared unfazed before he grabbed said elbows. "Why are you here?" He asked as he pulled her over his head and paused for a moment. She gave no response, and the sandy beach closed suddenly to embrace her face with unparalleled passion.
Flakes of crystalline calcium blew from her skin in the wind after she arose. Engineering concepts shot through Her mind – modified adrenal response, bio-ceramic excretion from sweat glands, tubules connected to the bone designed to absorb energy by shattering under extreme shock. It gave the void-weaving alien an idea.
Kaguya pulled the anomaly of the void through her bones, into her skin, and weaved the 'ceramic-sweat' into a thickened exoskeleton. Pain shot through her muscles as she began to flex pinched muscle through microscopic pillars. The original idea of the gene mod, centuries ago, was a 'cringe' response before enzymes broke down the calcium in less than a minute.
"I don't understand." She noted Bogdan showed no sign of injury. "Why do you squander this power away when you could easily settle their wars?" Kaguya cringed at the mere act of breathing. The alien entered a state similar to meditation and killed her feeling of pain. The knowledge that She was in pain was still there, but the cells of the body were disposable in the pursuit of the mind's goal.
The man's eyes seemed to hold a solemn droop; sadness? "I can feel your pain."
"Start making sense!" No sooner did the Steel Rabbit spawn another vortex than the heat of the Dragon's wing washed through the opening ahead of her. Heat splashed from around the pulverized plates on her forearms as she guarded. Thought momentarily stopped at the realization of the power thrown her way.
"This is not a game, as you so kindly demonstrated a moment ago. That was but a gentle shrug." His eyes were staring... through Her, beyond her existence.
"Keep gloating." Kaguya had already spread her will to the tides of the ocean. From the depths of time and probability, in a process that felt to Her shockingly similar to the Empty Palm, Kaguya pulled a rogue tidal wave down upon the beach. A convenient vortex later, she emerged well above the scene and allowed herself to free fall as she surveyed the flooded beach.
She knew Kaguya hadn't really expected much, but to see Bogdan simply standing atop a personal mini-island amid the swirling riptides around him still sent a shiver through Her spine. The quirk in his brow could have been surprise at the extent of Her abilities, or amusement at the insult the attack amounted to... probably both.
His response was relatively simple. What Kaguya understood to be a tail streaked from the ether down upon her shoulder and the ground manifested almost instantly into her opposing side. Muddy sand adopted the fluffy suppleness of concrete as Kaguya felt fractures in her collar bone, pelvis, and multiple ribs even after the plates absorbed a portion of the energy. "You are making quite a mess, little rabbit."
Blood stung at Her tongue through choked gasps. Kaguya could barely sense her own body well enough to tug the flow of the anomaly into something to heal Herself. She noted Bogdan was smeared with the mud of her impact. Briefly, She allowed herself to ponder the fact that he could have easily avoided or deflected it.
"Well, I suppose that is it for now." He turned and allowed his foot to sink into the receding waters.
Kaguya, already healed, sucked a breath of rage from both air and void alike. "Do not dismiss me so casually!" She could see him breathe a sigh in the face of Kaguya's charge. Plates flashed into being around Her body once more, and metal claws slashed through the pillars of earth that would erupt to block Her path.
Her hands swept and the final pillar yielded effortlessly to Her advance. She caught his own advance from behind the pillar, but only just in time to block his foot aimed to connect with Her head. The bones in Her forearm crushed beneath the force of both his foot and several overlapping vortexes She'd set up to act as an ethereal wall. As of yet, only She could really interact with the vortex.
In the same motion, she opened Herself to the void and drew the flow into Her hair. She twisted and thrashed Her hair into hardened spikes that lanced into the body of Bogdan. She noted his body appeared to fall limp.
In that moment, everything stopped. Her breath, Her heart; only her mind dared to race through the events to this point. What other end did She expect? The man before her seemed to stand upon such a peak... and yet... a tinge of anger gripped her. Did he allow this? Is this what he wanted?
A voice came as a low growl from near the body before Her. "You believe you can use my power?" She could feel a set of eyes staring straight into her skull. "Very well. May its depths consume you."
Beneath Her, an unfathomable abyss opened, and the world she knew slowly crept higher. The depths pulled at her being, the impulse to explore countless possibilities. Here was everything that was not, but could be. The finite mind of a humanoid could not, even within the span of eternity, explore even a fraction of the depths that demanded answers.
What if gravity were a bit stronger? If electromagnetism were a bit weaker? What if everything tasted like chicken, instead of chicken tasting like everything? What does purple taste like?
Even as Her body faded into obscurity... just what did Her hand look like, anyway – so many possibilities had already been explored... and Her mind found itself powerless to control the impulse to wander, She found herself in awe at the judgment that had been handed Her. Memories would soon be replaced by an endless exploration of alternative history; Her own personality would end up explored to the point where no definitive answer remained as to who or what She was. She would simply dissolve until there was nothing left but another endless possibility – Her very soul erased, reduced to something akin to a Bose-Einstein condensate.
What if he was still here?
What remained of her vision snapped to the world above Her. The only dragon She knew soared, that same distant look seemed to be staring straight into Her, now. Was this what he saw the entire time?
What if I'd learned?
"By rite of intercession," the dragon spoke, "the Brown Dragon submits his domain to the will of the White Rabbit." A blast of wind from his wings parted the depths above Her.
There was a deafening roar from the dragon. Heat flashed over Her skin as it boiled from the abyss of infinity. Her hand gripped the sand of the beach and the dragon's roar became a command: "Arise" It bellowed. "Walk upon your Earth, Kaguya."
Naruto bounced through some disarrayed undergrowth. Dry wood was, ironically, easy enough to find next to the ocean, but try finding a decent rock to cook on. It was a spontaneous idea during the … date … ? Whatever it was – both he and Hinata decided to take a long walk along the beach, and the idea of cooking fish marinated in coconut oil and wrapped in long shavings of said coconut's meat hit them. It could be awesome. It could be horrible. That was what made it fun.
As he broke back out onto the beach, he saw her propped up to the side, her head turned away from him. Her posture stood out to him as being rigid, and he noted a coating of sand that stretched fully along her side, arm, and shoulder. She was allowing sand to filter through her fingers in her opposite hand as she fixated on the grains. A wisp of wind brought the whisper of her voice meant only for the void: "I was such a fool, back then."
There were several possibilities as to what that meant... and Naruto would really prefer she was just talking about her fears of being forward with him earlier in life. That would be easy to deal with. But, given the track record of Naruto's life... He stopped his mind from wandering. As a wise man once said, one shouldn't let the mind wander, it's too small to be left alone. Granted, that was advice given to a fool, but Naruto wasn't fool enough to believe himself to be anything other than a fool.
He allowed himself to continue his approach as normal. "Sorry I took so long." He spoke between breaking waves. He raised the flattened stone he'd found, "Had to go pretty far inland to find this guy."
"It's okay." With a smile cast from what seemed a thousand meters away, Hinata sent the only good interpretation he could come up with out the window.
Review of Boruto:
Let's face it, no one really cares. The author, thankfully, is well aware of the fact that the fan base of Naruto is not all that concerned about seeing a re-hash of the "coming of age" story. We are concerned about a few things.
First: Naruto didn't have a real ending. That whole "Kaguya" ordeal is hardly settled and the whole idea of Naruto bringing peace to the world is hopelessly vague without a little bit more to clarify it.
Second: The characters we grew to appreciate and love – we care about them. What new growth have they undergone? What does a world of peace mean for their talents and arts as ninja?
The author of the series has taken this into account. The intro chapter opens with Boruto as a teen or young adult carrying Sasuke's sword, being told he will be 'meeting the seventh hokage' (Naruto), and activating a Byakugan from an eye with a scar running through it. The three characters we are likely to be most interested in – Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke – are all referenced in this scene in which it is obvious that some seriously tragic shit has gone down.
True – Sasuke could have simply given Boruto his sword. Naruto could be held captive or incorrectly assumed dead. Hinata could be alive and well, with the Byakugan coming from some place else or somehow awakening after physical trauma...
But that's not the point. The point is that we are 'duped' into paying attention to the series because it is threatening the characters we are concerned about. It's a somewhat 'cheap' tactic – but it works. There are also some hints that this all has something to do with Kaguya... although, frankly, it's an uphill challenge to work with what Kishimoto left everyone with as far as canon lore. Hence why I am rewriting all of it – because I have an ego... so whatever this guy does, it's probably not going to be all that good because it's not mine.
It's also amusing to see that he can't draw women with long hair – or has an extreme aversion to it. It is always kind of funny to see how some artists have a 'fatal weakness' – such as how the author of the Far Side cartoons couldn't draw concentric circles, so you would only ever see them depicted half-way (such as half of a floor mat drawn) – or how Kishimoto had trouble with Sakura's forehead.
Anyway – I will probably check on it from time to time. I like the length of each chapter and the greater level of maturity the author seems to have with the plot. He is exploring a subject that is rather proper for Japanese culture and for this era. The Bushido code is the merger of mind, body, weapon, and discipline. It is a deeply spiritual concept – not so much in the sense of after-life, but in the sense of the present life and one's place in it.
Don't get me wrong – Bushido and Ninjutsu are two very different things, historically – but Western Industrialization has long valued the easily obtainable power. There is a reason the gun deposed the sword and spear on the battlefields of Europe and America. Contrary to video game design tropes – the firearm is the superior weapon outside of niche scenarios. One can grab a firearm and fairly easily raise their combat effectiveness. Give a hundred guns out to a hundred peasants given basic drills and drop twenty highly trained royal swordsmen in the first volley. Then thrust the other fifty you have in front with simple spears to cover the reload.
The West – industrialization, innovation, technology – the focus has been on empowering the individual in many ways. From the cotton gin to the 3d printer and CNC machine – the goal is to give the individual the power to achieve quickly.
Contrast this with Bushido – where the focus is on training for a lifetime in the arts to master a sort of otherworldly discipline. Japanese culture accepts the notion that only certain people should be allowed to own a sword or firearm (non-American readers may not as easily understand why I bring this up). This is not just because of the various caste systems that have dominated the region, but also because of the culture that espouses weapons as a discipline.
This was even evident in World War II. Many would argue that it was the Battle of Midway that turned the tide in the Pacific theater against the Japanese... but the Japanese were already losing by the time the battle of Coral Sea played out.
The agricultural industries of the two nations were very different – and not just in terms of raw population numbers. The average American farm boy enlisting in the military knew what a wrench was and he likely had shot a rifle. Many enlistees from the city were familiar with factories, automobiles, and other tools. Contrast with Japan, where there was still a massive amount of traditional, pre-industrial agricultural farming. There was not the competitive rush to industrialize – much of the nation continued on much as it had for hundreds of years. Even the cities were only selectively industrial.
This had massive consequences for Japan once they began an extended military campaign in the Pacific. While their military was exceptionally well trained and much of their equipment was initially superior to its western competitors... the fact remained that their maintenance crews were not representative of the average Japanese citizen; their elite pilots were trained and drilled for years. Even if they had a very aggressive retention and training program in place (they didn't) – they were fighting a very one-sided battle against a nation that could throw a farm boy onto a carrier with a few days of training and he could pick up the rest on his own... while many Japanese draftees had never held a wrench.
As the pressure continued for military successes, commanders kept placing their most skilled pilots and crews on the front lines to soak up the bulk of the wartime attrition. They -should- have kept their experienced pilots and crews in reserve to train new recruits – an ironic departure from the culture of Bushido that had provided them the elite military force they had to begin with.
Other factors were at play. In the same time it took the Japanese to lay the keel of a carrier and put her to sea – the U.S. Placed eight into service (if memory serves me correctly – it was vastly more in either case). The difference in industrial capacity was next to impossible to overcome.
But I digress.
I am curious to see how this author takes on the subject of technology within the Naruto universe. I have issues with it simply using abilities without chakra … seems rather bullshit (but perhaps it uses trapped human souls or otherwise turns it into an abomination) – but it does work well as a means of highlighting the clash of culture and the need to resolve the conflict.
Addendum:
Another chapter has been published for Boruto that brings up something that should be mentioned:
"Red Earth" and "pills."
These are a direct allusion to the "Golden Elixir" or "The Golden Pill" within the notion of external Taoist Alchemy.
To explain – the "Golden Elixir" is the essence of true yang – the divine light of creation and the only way one can truly create within the philosophy of Taoism (everything else is a sort of 'destined' product of action and reaction). The concept of Internal Alchemy refers to the idea of passing one's self through the phases of being in order to attain the 'divine spark.' The focus is on self-discipline. External Alchemy is the attempt to use material substances and processes to reduce them to an essence of pure yang which can be consumed and then used.
Generally speaking, the External Alchemy approach as it applies to the Golden Elixir is something of a taboo by the very principles expressed within Taoism as True Yang is, itself, a state of Yin (or being receptive – in order to change the world or introduce something new into it, you must first be open to understanding the world as it exists currently – to reject this is to essentially 'act without vision' and therefor only amount to a factor within an action-reaction equation).
Author's Notes:
It is at this point that I realize my control over the tense of the story is horrid. It's probably not all that noticeable to most... but I try to fix it where I see it. I mean – I am not used 'incorrect' tenses. I do use 'improper' tenses in the way I told the story. At least, as I understand proper grammar; the tense should remain consistent throughout the story unless isolated by context to place the narrative in a different tense. I should be more professional and diligent in my editing of such things... but at this point, just getting the damned thing typed in any capacity is an accomplishment.
Tenten is actually one of my favorite "non-star" characters. I always found her lack of a backstory rather intriguing and delightfully open to speculation. While Lee is with her in terms of not having much of a back story or association with a prominent clan – Lee's personality makes him a bit of a chore, while Tenten is a more relaxed character to work with. She also seems to be one of the most adept at sealing techniques as far as what she is actually depicted as doing.
Sealing in the series is something that actually kind of pisses me off. It is initially depicted as a rather delicate, advanced, and archaic art. It would seem like the type of thing you would need to study and practice quite extensively to have much knowledge of or be any good at it. The Uzumaki were feared for their innate abilities related to sealing techniques. So, when characters just crop up and know fuck all about seals and using them in the series... it kind of pisses me off.
So, to me, Tenten is more of the expert on sealing than Kakashi or even Jiraiya. She actually uses them.
Further – I decided to go with a slavic theme for the Uzumaki. Why? Well – I'm on a bit of a Slavic study binge, but it's also because there are some similarities between a few of the cultures that likely influenced Kishimoto's design of the Uzumaki and the Slavic tribes. Plus, it helps give them the sort of exotic-yet-relatable appeal they are supposed to have. The land of the Slavic tribes is where there are still dragons as far as the western Germanic tribes are concerned. It's a bit of an older and more mysterious world that may as well be Middle Earth.
But, seriously – I highly recommend reading about the history of the Slavic regions – particularly the Balkans. You're reading real-life Game of Thrones if you do (well... if you can piece together the historical presentations as a sort of story in your head). That's another project I want to undertake if I survive the coming years – I'd like to try to novelize the history of the region in a series.