Chapter 9: Ignited
The air around the black lake was a mixture between fragrance camellia petals and a pungent smell that usually associated itself with death. It wasn't the smell of decaying and rotting bodies or fresh dirt being thrown on top of a wooden coffin, but the smell that made the hairs at the back of your neck stand.
It was seeing your loved one being killed before your eyes, merciless and ripped apart into pieces. The blood slowly moving to you, drenching itself in your body but you can't move. It was a smell that didn't only inhabit the inside of your nose but spread throughout your body and made a home in every little space within you.
Naruto fell to the ground, his hands over his mouth desperately trying to create a barricade of flesh so it wouldn't go inside him anymore. His body was starting to reject the strange odor and the food he had eaten earlier was threatening to spill out but he forced the bile back down.
His breathing came out ragged and heavy. The air was sucked in like struggle and escaped in a rush. Daisuke smiled to himself at the kneeling boy before him, "please, you're hurting my feelings. I don't smell bad do I? I thought you ninja of the leaf were more mannered than this."
Naruto glared up at him, "just what the hell are you?" he asked against his hand.
"What do you mean?"
"Your chakra, it's different."
"How so?" Daisuke asked moving around the black lake, the water stayed still beneath his feet.
The blonde headed ninja sent daggers with his eyes at the man in front of him. After Kiba had dispersed his shadow clone and rejoined the team, he was going to follow the route they had taken and met up with them. But that was before he felt the presence of something evil.
It was a strong chakra, one that he hadn't even felt when he went up against Pain. Pain was strong but inside of him there wasn't any real evil. Just muddled and mixed emotions that led to bad judgement. What he felt was something far from that. The chakra radiated like dense black clouds isolated in one area and slowly grew. But it wasn't the color or the feeling the chakra pulsed through his body.
It was the fact that the chakra was feeding off something.
That's why Naruto had followed the sinister trail to the cryptic lake. Now that he was closer to the source, everything was much clearer now. The black clouds he had sensed earlier were now above him, above the body of water, in the shape of a dome. The outer edges of the abnormally still black water rose smoke and continued to add itself to the condensing clouds above, enclosing Naruto and Daisuke in a black clouded dome. Daisuke was in the middle of the lake, his eyes mad. "Don't play dumb," Naruto said. "What the hell are you! What the hell is this lake and where the hell is Kazuhiko?"
Daisuke smiled and opened his arms out to Naruto, "come now young shinobi, there's no need for the anger in your voice-"
"Shut up! Just tell me what the hell you're doing!"
Daisuke's features settled and he raised an eyebrow, "I see." His hands fell to his side and he strode towards Naruto, his black robe dancing behind him like a set of black wings.
"Why did Kazuhiko attack us before? Was that you?!"
His lips formed a small smirk that was barely there but still had the same effect a gun to the head would have to someone who feared death, "wouldn't you rather have me show you?"
Tsunade's eyes squinted at the sickly gray man on the examining table before her. His body was bare with only the alien symbols across his chest, it wrapped around his torso and all the way down his back in the form of an 'x'. It didn't seem like black ink from a tattoo but a strange birth mark that the man was born with, as if it were already embed onto his skin.
She reached a latex gloved hand to a manila folder at one end of the room and then walked back to the examining table, skimming through the folder until she found what she was looking for. It was a piece of paper with the translation of the symbols. Her eyes skimmed from the white paper stained with black inked words to the foreign symbols on the man's body. She pointed a gloved finger to one of the characters, "this one, it means moon?"
Yurika nodded, "yes, we deciphered the symbols to our best ability. It's an ancient form of script, not familiar with any of the Five Great Shinobi countries, minor countries, or even any of the hidden villages. We dated it back to the fourteenth-century, it was a common script in the Land of Sakuraso. The country didn't stand long, dying out and disappearing from the world around the fifteenth-century."
Tsunade nodded keeping her eyes on the paper until Yurika's words finished entering through her ears and processing in her brain, "Land of Sakuraso?"
Yurika nodded, "what today is known as the Island of Camellias."
She gritted her teeth and looked back over at the dead man on the steel table, just what are the Island of Camellias plotting? What was this man doing with them? "What is the full translation of the symbols?"
Yurika moved towards a drawer and pulled out another copy of the symbol translation and pointed towards the symbols she translated, "this line moving from below his pectoral muscles to the center of his torso says 'on the night of the fifth moon,'" she reflected her finger from the position opposite, "and this line says 'woken from their slumber, two will become one.'"
"Two will become one..." Tsunade said to herself as the brown headed women moved through thick folders of pictures and pulled out one, it was the back of the sickly gray man. Without wasting another, moment her fingers moved to the third line that continued the 'x' on his back, "'the instrument will be drawn'" she moved her finger to the last leg of the 'x', "'to the Land of Sakuraso'."
Tsunade could feel the vein probing in her forehead, every time she thought she was moving a step ahead of Madara and his scheme, she was already a step behind, and now she had the Island of Camellias to worry about as well. She kept her face composed and tried to calm her muscles, she was Hokage of the famous Hidden Leaf Village, she couldn't let her people see her stressed and she couldn't worry. This was something she had to handle and without fail.
"I'm going to need a copy of the full translation and the test results of the purple foam," she took off her gloves and placed them on the table.
Yurika nodded, "yes, Hokage-sama."
Tsunade walked out of the room, a half smirk dressed on her pink lips. Madara might believe that we're a step behind but I'm about to jump five in front of him.
The sun was wide awake now, standing tall over the four running shinobi, providing yellow light for their journey. Hinata was a bit more farther than the rest of the group but still in range for communication through their earpieces. Her vision scattered 300 meters in front of her. Kiba was just a few steps away from her, with his nose he could smell out anything out of the ordinary. Sakura was in the center of the formation, a worried look taking over her face but quickly being squashed when she noticed she was losing focus. Kakashi brought up the rear, his face hidden beneath the navy mask was neutral.
He couldn't worry about Naruto finding his way, he had to focus on the task at hand. He'd find his way eventually but right then their priority was focusing on recovering the prince and stopping whatever was going on, even he had no idea what was happening anymore.
"Hinata, do you see anything?" Kiba said into his ear piece.
Hinata answered no and Kiba raised his hand up, index finger and thumb out, into the air and brought the formation to a stop. "There's something up ahead but Hinata's not seeing anything," Kiba said to Kakashi. He looked over at Hinata and asked her again the question he had before, getting the same answer after she doubled checked.
"What do you smell, Kiba?" Kakashi asked.
"I don't know how to explain it but it just smells wrong and Akamaru is all tense."
"Are you positive you don't see anything out of the ordinary, Hinata?"
The girl nodded but closed her eyes and then reopened them. She skimmed through everything the others couldn't see: the trees had thinned out into a clearing and further on she could just make out the dirt and rock path that would lead them to the temple. Her eyes pushed another two-hundred meters and she barely made out the end of the rock trail and the entrance to the temple. Something purple, with fading electric black chakra radiated off its body, slithered out of the stone pavement and then back in.
Deactivating her bloodline she looked towards the others, "something at the foot of the entrance of the temple, almost like a snake with black chakra..." she hesitated. "Its chakra network was barely there."
Kakashi nodded, "there's a chance that maybe this enemy we're about to go up against is immune to your Byakugan. We just have to rely on Kiba's nose for a while. How much further until we reach the temple?"
"Five hundred meters."
"Keep a tight formation, we can't rely only on Kiba and Hinata anymore. We'll have to keep our senses even more heightened now. Lets go!"
They moved out again, going faster than before. Hinata hadn't said it earlier but as they drew nearer to the temple she could feel her vision growing weaker and blurrier. Her breathing was becoming ragged and irregular, but she pushed these symptoms away and focused on her running. She would not get in the way of this mission.
Why are you bothering to fight me? Kiyoshi's voice echoed inside Inoichi's head.
He was deep underground under the Intelligence Division. His hand had a metal bracelet on his wrist and another one on his ankle that traced back into the wall where he stayed chained like a dog on a leash. The three walls in the room, minus the one where his bed lay, were one way mirrors. He knew he was being put under high surveillance, he was glad for it. Even he didn't know how much of a threat he was posing.
Inoichi lay against a thin pillow thrown over a plain cot bed. He shifted, so he would face the mirror across the room, the bed moaned under him. His eyes were red from the lack of sleep and beneath them were hallow pits that made the years show in his face. His hair was matted against his head and his cheek bones were more defined.
You wouldn't look so dead if you simply let your will go.
Inoichi closed his eyes, "and what good will that do me?" he said aloud.
You'll get so much power.
"I don't need it."
Laughter filled his head, one that wasn't his own. It's not like you have much of a choice.
Inoichi smiled to himself, "I'm doing well fighting against you."
But how will you do against Azukitogi?
Inoichi ignored his question but it lingered in his head like a sour taste. His mind was being drawn back, purple liquid pulled him back until he opened his eyes again. You'd be able to sleep if you let me win.
"This battle won't have a winner," Inoichi said.
Something inside him slithered through his body and raised the hairs on his arm and neck. With the same effect as a cool whisper in your ear and clear as water, Kiyoshi said, you're too late.
Naruto twirled a kunai knife out of his ninja pack and clutched it in front of him tightly. He stood still for a few seconds, taking in what route and the distance between him and Daisuke, before charging with his full speed.
Daisuke was in the middle of morphing, his mouth was stretched in a bare smile. His lips pulled away from his gums, revealing sharp white teeth. His eyes bulged and contorted in weird angles. His face was becoming a whirl pool and his body shook with every abnormal twist and bend it did.
But Naruto didn't give him a chance to finish his morph. Kunai in hand he balanced his chakra and leaped on the water, but it didn't move even when he ran towards Daisuke in the center. The kunai was released from his hand, quickly replaced by another two and then he released those. They hit their targets effortlessly, each one lurching him back and freezing his face in a different phase of his morphing.
Without stopping after releasing his kunai knives, he did a hand sign and summoned a shadow clone. Energy swirled and compacted itself in the form of a blue sphere in the palm of his hand and his shadow clone quickly turned him around and threw him towards Daisuke where he slammed his rasenshuriken into his chest.
Daisuke fell against the still water and Naruto quickly jumped three feet back in a ready stance, but the man wasn't getting up. He lay still in the water until the black liquid beneath him began to finally shake. The ripples started at the base beneath his back and then slowly spread until the whole lake was filled with vibrating ripples. Naruto glanced around, everything was shaking around him. He ran towards land as Daisuke's body began being absorbed by the black liquid, taking him slowly until he was finally swallowed whole.
"Tch- now what," Naruto said under his breath. His Sage Mode was about to warn off soon, but even if he could sense where different chakras were, he couldn't sense Daisuke's. It was as if he had disappeared off the island completely.
His guard was on high alert, if he couldn't rely on Sage Mode he'd have to do it the old fashioned way. His eyes shifted from every edge of the scene and his ears stretched themselves to hear any vibration in the air. But nothing was happening, the water had returned back to its stationery setting.
It happened too fast for Naruto to process it. First he was standing on land, adrenaline pumping through his veins, and then he was in the air, black liquid gripping his leg so tight he gritted his teeth. The black tentacle waved him around like a blonde flag of surrender, throwing him up in the air and then catching him just to slam him down on the ground over and over again. It released its grip and then threw him towards a tree, where his back connected with a loud bone crushing crash against the wood.
Naruto's vision blurred as he slumped against the trunk of the red camellia tree, blood slid down his temple and dripped down his neck. His body ached all over and his arms were paralyzed at his side. He blinked dirt out of his eyes and tried to see through blurred vision at what the black lake had formed.
The black liquid had morphed into a monster with the form of an octopus but instead of having eight tentacles, it had four long ones, two of which were sharpened to a killing point at the end. It's head protruded three large spikes out of its black skin and its face was smooth and naked besides a menacing mouth at the center of its full face. It was twisted in a smile, bending up in the corners and pulled back to show threatning teeth like a shark's.
Naruto shifted in the spot he had fallen in and tried to stand back on his feet. He wavered back and forth, falling on his face until he was able to stand on his knee. Gripping the tree as a support he shakily rose from the ground and smirked at the giant black thing in front of him, his stomach growling in approval. I'm ready for some seafood.
Hinata's shoulder grazed a branch, if it wasn't for her sweater she was sure it would have scraped through her skin. She focused on jumping in a straight path but it was a lot easier said than done. Something was weighing down on her eyes, forcing them to be shut but she continued fighting the urge to fall into darkness. Her legs were becoming heavier and her tongue felt like it was stuffed with lead. She didn't know how much longer she could last but in less than ten minutes, the remains of team Kakashi would be running through a clearing and would be closer to their destination.
From behind, Kiba watched as Hinata's body swayed as she jumped, moving from right and then suddenly to the left until trying to keep steady and stay in one single side. It seemed as if she was struggling to stay away, he spoke through his earpiece, "Hinata, you alright?"
She turned her head just enough to nod at him and then turned back. But Kiba wasn't convinced. He continued behind the girl, watching her with questioning eyes. Soon enough they were out of the holds of the thick forest and out into a clearing. The four shinobi continued their route following a stone path. The terrain was wavy, large stones thrown and scattered at random intervals. If someone weren't careful enough, falling would be evident.
The blue haired girl turned her Byakugan back on and moved through the stone path much faster with her eyes than her body until she could clearly see the stone temple with her vision. Just like the first time, something slithered in her vision. Black-purple chakra emitted from this snake like creature's body as it came out of the dirt. But unlike the first time she had seen it, where it had simply vanished from her view, it seemed to slither towards her and spring at her.
Without her doing, her Byakugan slipped to its off mode and her eyes finally won the battle against her, closing themselves off from the setting sun. Just at the same time, all of the energy was sucked out of her. She fell to the ground motionless, collapsing and banging her head against a rock that soon became her cushion.
Voices around her raced, her name was shouted in worry. If she weren't so tired she would have smiled, it seemed like on this mission all she would be doing was holding them back.
Tsunade bit her thumbnail as she watched Inoichi through the one-way window. She didn't know whether it was her body or if the room was becoming ten times warmer than it normally was but she ordered someone to lower the heat so she could have some time alone- at least in the room since anbu black ops were on strict surveillance on the Yamanaka.
She clasped the hand that was raised to her mouth and pushed it away from her, she really had to get rid of the habit. Keeping her eyes on Inoichi as she backed away, she reached for the manila folder that had the full translation of the odd symbols on Kiyoshi's body and the test results of the purple foam. Reaching blindly with another hand, she clasped two stapled papers that had Inoichi's test results from the exams that were done on him.
Traces of the purple foam were found in Inoichi's blood stream, whatever it was, was growing at a rapid growth through his body. She turned the page, on the second page was a black graph with white lines in the form of wild waves on the paper. If the purple foam wasn't enough to worry about, Inoichi's brain waves were still delta waves. As if he were in a state of unconsciousness.
Ino had said that she saw her father strapped to a wall with purple liquid spread around him. The purple liquid could most likely be Kiyoshi's soul inside of him. No doubt this meant he was losing the battle of control with his mind. She placed the paper back and focused her attention on the purple foam test results. In Inoichi's report he said that the purple foam came out after Kiyoshi died but that he had also seen it in the form of smoke while he was inside his mind.
He had told her that the smoke changed his emotion, obviously this was when Kiyoshi had clung himself to Inoichi's mind and then when he had pulled back after sensing trouble, Kiyoshi had found a home inside his conscious as well.
So Kiyoshi's body rejected itself after losing its soul? Causing the purple foam to spill? But Madara had injected Kiyoshi with something before sending him to invade Konoha, something purple. That's what Inoichi's report said. She scratched her head and groaned.
So somehow Madara had gotten his hands on something that could willingly allow someone to transfer their souls to someone else, the only con being that their original body would reject itself and evidently perish. Surely Kiyoshi knew this so why did he do it? Why would anyone willingly give their life away?
And then there was the matter of the cryptic translation the characters on Kiyoshi's body formed. 'On the night of the fifth moon/ Woken from their slumber, two will become one/ The instrument will be drawn/ To the Land of Sakuraso.'
Tsunade reached for a pen and leaned against a table as she wrote notes in a rushed hand throughout the paper. 'On the night of the fifth moon', she tapped the pen on the paper until it hit her. It was that night. She had sent Kakashi and Naruto and the rest of the team on the mission to the Island of Camellias four days ago, today being their fifth day.
She didn't waste time worrying about the time and continued translating; 'Woken from their slumber, two will become one,' Inoichi could be said to be in a state of slumber. Although his body was physically awake, his mind was in a state of sleep as if he were set on lock in a genjutsu. "Two will become one," she said under her breath. Clearly that meant Kiyoshi and Inoichi becoming one with the demon Azukitogi. And the last two lines, 'The instrument will be drawn/ To the Land of Sakuraso,' the first one was self explained and repeated. But the Hokage still couldn't wrap her mind around that one question: what did the Island of Camellias have to do with Madara?
Was this whole requested mission just a trap? Had they been plotting with Madara all along? She slammed her fist against the desk and walked towards the door and walked into the room where a sick looking Inoichi lay.
She didn't have time to waste stressing over questions she couldn't answer herself, she had to get answers. And fast. Inoichi didn't move from his bed or even seem to acknowledge her presence in the small cell. Instead he continued to look at himself at the mirror across him.
"Kiyoshi, we know about the plan already. How you're working with the Island of Camellias, how Inoichi is fighting to rid his mind and body of you," Tsunade interrogated.
For the first time, the man on the small cot stirred and began to rise, sitting himself up on the bed. A smirk was growing on his face and he was beginning to look alive, even if it was in a mad way. "You really think you can fool me, Hokage?"
"Inoichi is going to be summoned to the Island of Camellias where Madara plans to resurrect Azukitogi," Tsunade paused before continuing. "Just what does the Island of Camellias want with Madara? Why are they helping him? Do they still have Azukitogi's body? Why does he need Inoichi?"
He didn't answer her questions, he stared back at her with challenging eyes. Neither one broke their stares. "Answer me one thing," Tsunade said. "Knowing your original body was going to die, why would you go along with this suicide mission?"
He pulled his gaze away from her's and stared down at his hand, "what's a body and soul to a man full of sins?"
Tsunade heard something like sadness in his voice and decided to pry into it, "is this your way for repenting for killing your loved one... what was her name..." she said drifting off.
"Aika. Her name was Aika."
Tsunade nodded and shifted her weight onto her other leg, "you were from Kirigakure and became a ninja under the Fourth Mizukage's reign; you had to kill your classmates, correct?"
He clenched his fist together but didn't answer. "Helping Madara, the man who was pulling the strings and controlling the Mizukage, won't help with anything." She looked towards the clock, it was six o'clock and the sun was beginning to set. She had to get her answers quick, she knew she wouldn't be able to do anything from stopping the summoning. "Madara made you kill your friends, your lover."
No movement.
"Or did you enjoy seeing the blood of your comrades? Did you like the rush and surge of adrenaline it gave you as you took their pulse away, as you sliced through their body and their blood ran through your fingers and stained your skin?"
Nothing.
"You did, didn't you? Their screams, their begging, you loved it. And Aika, you enjoyed killing her. You stabbed the back of her head, even after you promised not to go along with becoming a ninja and killing her, you wanted to. You wanted to get rid of them all so you could be number one, you never loved her. You never loved anyone-"
"Shut up!" He sprung to his feet and just as he did those simple movements, four masked anbu were around the prisoner. Tsunade raised a hand and they stepped away and retreated. She was just getting started.
"If answering for your sins and guilt is what you want, siding with Madara isn't the way."
"What do you know."
"What does the Island of Camellias have to do with Madara?"
He hesitated for a moment before answering, "they gave him the purple syringe to use on me. It was developed a while ago..." he clenched and unclenched his fist. "It was planned with the Fourth Mizukage."
"But why?"
He shrugged, "you overestimate me too much. I'm just a puppet. I'm here because I was promised the rush to kill again."
"Could you release yourself from Inoichi?"
He smiled and then broke out into laughter. It filled the room and bounced off the walls like invisible balls, hitting her in the face. He clutched his sides and fell to the ground, his face contorted in a mad look, his eyes wild. "Why would I do that?" he laughed. "You were right, I love killing." He raised shaking hands to his face and laughed again, "I love the rush, the adrenaline it gives. The high it shoots through my body-"
Tsunade punched him square in the jaw, the force sending him back against the bed and denting it. She turned around and stopped at the door before leaving, "that was nothing. Be grateful you're inside the body of one of my citizens or I wouldn't have held back."
The laughter began to fill the room again, "you're too late. You're all too late," he shouted. And he was right. He ripped the dirty shirt that clung to his body off and let it slide down his body in shreds. Symbols began to form in purple ink across his chest and danced to his back where they slid down in diagonals from his spine. His body fell to the fell like a rag doll, vibrating and shaking on the ground, the masked shinobi were back and clutched at his body and held him down. The effort was futile, he continued to shake until he finally went still and then disappeared. Leaving behind nothing but white smoke in their hands where they had been holding him.
"His chakra isn't anywhere in the building," one of them said.
Tsunade relaxed her tensed muscles and continued to walk, "leave it," she said. All we can do right now is count on Kakashi's team.
Far away from the beach were foreign boats with supplies for the people of the island docked at, beyond the small towns and all civilization scattered throughout the island, and even further away from the thick, different colored trees, through a clearing and up a stone path, is the highest mountain on the Island of Camellias, or as it was known when the strip of land was discovered, the Land of Sakuraso.
Legends say that if you were to stand on top of this mountain you would be able to see the whole world, but no one could prove this. Although there were many stories about the mountain, heroic, mysterious, and even horror ones, no one who lived in the Island of Camellias dared tread the path that lead to this mountain. Not because it was dangerous, or because it was too long, but because of where it led to.
On top of the mountain sat an ancient temple. Long white stoned stairs led to four tall pure gray granite walls. Its roof was a flat arrow with the head pointing directly at the rising moon, waiting for it to be aligned. Its door's edges was carved with ancient stories of man defeating demons, of angels coming from the sky, holding a camellia that shone light, killing the demon once and for all.
The citizens of the Island of Camellias knew the temple was a sacred place but not for worship. What was held inside was a secret that not even the citizens of the island were aware about, it was the physical body of Azukitogi. They believed the body had been rid of and destroyed, but that was far the case. The body was still in the temple, inside a marble encasing.
Inside the temple, candles, held snugly in their designated holders on the walls, were lit; red flames lighted eerily the dark temple. Two shadows were created by the light against one of the walls near the marble encasing, a young boy and a masked man. The masked man was kneeling down, an 'x' had been drawn on the ground with different characters forming its legs. His hands were pressed down on two of the legs of the 'x' while the young boy stood over the other two, his hands clasped together as if in prayer. He was mumbling something rapidly under his breath until smoke began to crawl around the 'x', forming a circle around it.
The smoke rose around the strange symbols on the ground and yellow chakra began to emit from the two legs of the 'x' where the boy stood, spreading throughout and then connecting with the circle of smoke until a body emitted and formed on to the center of the 'x'.
He wiped sweat from his brow and moved back against the wall for support. The masked man stood and stared down at the man below him, "it's time to begin, Inoichi."
Author's Note: *wipes sweat from forehead* phew, that took too long to write. If anything it was difficult to figure out how I was going to word everything without being repetitive (crossing my fingers I did a good job to please you guys!). Anyways, I guess (for real this time) the ball has been rolled and the shiznit is about to go dowwwwn! I decided it'd be a lot better if I write the Author's Note at the bottom than at the top because it's sorta interrupting your reading and then you can choose easily not to actually read it. To sum up this whole chapter if I didn't do a great job at explaining: whatever Hinata saw completely nullified her Byakugan and made her collapsed. Naruto just got brutally handed his ass by a black octopus thing, and Tsunade probably did a better job at interrogating the sadistic criminal Kiyoshi than Inoichi or Ibiki did (mostly because she wasn't possessed by him). Oh and the most important thing, Inoichi was finally summoned! But why is he needed by Madara? And what the flip are those fake motherfluffers of the Island Camellias doing with him? All shall be revealed next chapter, Chapter 10: The Awakening. Don't forget to leave me some feedback so I can know how I'm doing!