Disclaimer: I do not own NARUTO.

WILL OF STONE

CHAPTER ELEVEN: "Asylum, Part One"


In the dawn Maito Gai ran towards the Asylum for his duel to the death.

Gai was back to his usual self; he seemed to be entirely recovered from whatever had been making him depressed in the Rain Country before. This despite the fact that he was about to fight one of the most dangerous ninjas in the world to the death. He ran through empty streets toward the Asylum, pumping his fist about "burning with the flames of youth" and how "youth never waits!" Lee and Sakura could barely keep up with him.

Neji and Tenten met them at the gates of the Asylum. Sakura noticed the blood vessels around Neji's eyes were already pulsing with chakra. He had activated his Byakugan. Sakura gripped the chakra-cast kunai more tightly and rested a hand on her shuriken pouch. Somehow she was glad she had brought her ninja gear along with her.

There were rain-nins waiting for them at the base of the Asylum. When they saw Gai they pulled open the sliding doors which led into the bottom of the black metal tower. The five of them went in, and the rain-nins closed the doors after them.

Vertical columns of dim electric lights washed over the inside of the Asylum. The Asylum was a giant hollowed out shell; Sakura could stare all the way up from the base to the roof of the spire at the very top. In the roof there was carved a golden symbol, the four parallel lines of Amegakure laid within a larger pictogram, an eye shaped into a snake eating its own tail. Sakura recognized it as the personal standard of Hanzou the Reaper.

The hollow of the Asylum tower was crisscrossed by various platforms, walkways, and what seemed like giant metal tanks and tubes and bundles of electric cables. A staircase spiraled along the edge of the tower, and in one wall there was also an elevator. The Leaf ninjas walked toward the elevator now, on a raised walkway above large pools of water. In the water there were—

"My god, look," Tenten whispered. "Look."

In the water there were hundreds of insane people.

They appeared to be catatonic. They hung half-sunk into the pools, suspended by cables, or knelt motionless on metal platforms in the water, their limbs and heads dangling limply. Feeding tubes ran into their stomachs. Their eyes and mouths stared forward, open and empty and blank. The insane people were naked, but here and there richly-livered Rain Priests threaded their way among them, attending to them, speaking to them in muttered prayers, or sprinkling them with holy water, or cleaning their defecation. The priests were old men. The insane were men, women, and children.

"Are they dead?" Lee whispered.

Sakura shook her head. "No. They're soulless…"

"What is this place?" Neji asked. "What is the Asylum?" Even he seemed shaken by the ghastly spectacle. For once Sakura was glad she could not see with his eyes.

Maito Gai's voice was soft, and serious again, but this time he told them.

"The Asylum is the place where Hanzou the Reaper keeps the insane victims of those whose souls he has sacrificed to the Death God. In return for these sacrifices, the Death God has granted him… a terrible, forbidden power."

Sakura knew. "Death Demon Seal," she said. The forbidden jutsu that summoned the Death God to harvest your enemy's soul, at the cost of your own…

Gai nodded.

They entered the elevator and took it up. The elevator rose clanking, slowly toward the top of the Asylum. Now Sakura could see what were in the suspended metal tanks: more pools of water, more victims, naked and insane and soulless. Thousands of them. Maybe tens of thousands. The horror was almost beyond comprehension.

Gai continued. "Death Demon Seal is the forbidden power which the Third Hokage tried to use to seal Orochimaru's soul, the power which the Fourth Hokage used to seal the Kyuubi, and the power from which the Torment genjutsu of the Fifth was originally developed. It is the power of Shinigami, the God of Death! It is absolutely forbidden because any who uses it must sacrifice their soul in return—that is the fate of all who make deals with the Death God. But Hanzou… somehow he found a loophole. Instead of sacrificing his own soul… Hanzou created a jutsu to transfer the sacrifice to someone else. Sacrifice someone else's soul. In exchange for immortality and the ability to use Death Demon Seal, Hanzou gives to the Shinigami a constant supply of fresh souls… thousands and thousands of them…

"However, Hanzou's soul transfer jutsu has a weakness! In order to keep the souls of his human sacrifices sealed within the Shinigami, the bodies of the sacrifices must remain alive in the physical world. If they die, the souls are released, and Hanzou will no longer be able to command the Death God's favor. This is the reason Hanzou built the Asylum. Here Hanzou holds the thousands of human sacrifices which are the source of his power. As long as the Asylum stands, Hanzou is invincible. In Amegakure Hanzou is worshiped as a god… but to those who hate him, to those who have flocked to the banner of Akatsuki… he is the devil himself. And to his enemies this place, the Asylum, is hell on earth!"

As Gai finished his story the elevator had already reached the top of the Asylum. It opened out onto a short staircase which led to the roof, a slick black metal plane without railings or walls. The wind wiped at them violently, and below them the dark towers and spires of Amegakure shot out like arrows driven into the ground. Sakura took a deep breath, and let the cold rain fell on her face.

Tosuken the Chameleon and his three students were waiting for them.

Gai and his Leaf students lined up on the side of the roof opposite from the rain-nins. In between the two groups was nothing but the flat metal ground and the rain.

Tosuken spoke. "So you came. I half-thought you would run away again… like the coward you are…"

Maito Gai flashed a grin. "I never ran."

"Stop lying!" Lee shouted. "Gai-sensei is the greatest, bravest ninja in the whole world! You're the ones who sacrifice innocent people to the Shinigami to get power! You're the weak ones! You're the cowards!"

The Ame genin who had laughed before—he was the grandson of Hanzou, Sakura realized—grinned with malice. "Close your mouth. It is unseemly to perform blowjobs on your sensei in public."

"What—…" Lee sputtered.

The genin continued. "We're not cowards, and we don't sacrifice innocents. Every single one of the people you saw in the Asylum willingly volunteered to give their lives in order to protect their country. They are heroes of Rain. Martyrs."

"Martyrs?" Neji asked. "Or fools?"

"Save your breath, Aumono," Tosuken said. "They don't understand. How could they? Pampered leaf-nin children… they could not know what it is like to live in our world… what war truly is…"

"Too much talk," one of the other Rain genin said. The girl. "Not enough blood."

Maito Gai laughed. "So the flames of youth still burn in your students, Tosuken! Doesn't the sensation intoxicate you? But no… you're an old man now. What happened to you? Where's your youth? Eh, Tosuken?"

"Don't talk to me about youth!" Tosuken screamed. "You dare… in the very place you murdered Mamoru… to use that word! Prepare yourself, Butcher Beast…"

Tosuken stepped forward, throwing back his reed cape and brandishing his bamboo staff. He took off his straw hat and tossed it to Aumono, letting his long dark hair flap in the wind.

A chilling thought had occurred to Sakura then, but it was Neji who voiced it. "Gai-sensei, I must object to this duel. Tosuken the Chameleon is the former student of Hanzou. If Hanzou uses Death Demon Seal…it is likely that your opponent can also use that jutsu."

"No, boy," Tosuken said. "That would be too easy. I will break Maito Gai's neck with my bare hands."

So saying Tosuken threw his staff in the air like a javelin. It plunged with shattering violence into the ground halfway between the two groups.

Gai nodded. "Enough talk! Let's get on with it!"

The two ninja leapt forward at each other.

Their speed was incredible, far too fast for Sakura to even follow with her eyes. It was as if one moment they were standing still and the next they had met halfway on the roof, where the staff was jammed. Gai punched. Tosuken caught the punch with one hand. There was a tremendous noise upon impact, like a thunderclap. A shockwave exploded outwards from the force of the punch, exploding through the rain and shaking the very air. The watching young ninjas had to bring their arms in front of their faces to shield themselves from the blast. What incredible strength! Sakura thought.

"Pathetic," Tosuken said.

"I'm just getting warmed up, old man," Gai said.

"Go kick his ass, Gai-sensei!" Lee called.

"Konoha Leaf Whirlwind!" Gai shouted. He spun into a blindingly fast series of roundhouse kicks. Again Sakura could not even see the attack, or Tosuken's counter. But the impacts of their punches and kicks shook the Asylum roof itself. Tenten was actually forced back a few steps by the force of the shockwaves.

"They're moving so fast…" Sakura said.

"Gai-sensei already opened five Gates," Neji said. He could see into the dueling ninjas' chakra circulatory system with the Byakugan. "Tosuken opened six."

Already opened five gates! The fight had just begun and it had already escalated to that extreme. This battle was deadly serious. At that level even one good strike could be fatal…

Suddenly Tosuken was gone. One moment he was there, dodging Gai's uppercut, and the next he had vanished.

Neji was shocked. "Tosuken… he just disappeared! I can't see him…"

"My sensei is the Chameleon, the master of stealth and assassination jutsu." Aumono laughed. "Your Butcher Beast is dead… now!"

BOOM!

"ANGUISH STRIKE!"

There was a flash above Gai, and from nowhere Tosuken punched Gai in the face. Gai went down, slammed into the roof. The supersonic punch went off with the force of a great bomb, an explosion of not only power and sound but also deadly fear. Sakura, Lee, Tenten, and one of the rain genin were knocked off their feet. The Anguish Strike was so powerful it made a large crater in the metal roof around Gai's body.

Maito Gai lay in this crater. For a second he looked dead. Then he started to laugh.

Gai got up to his feet slowly. A steaming red chakra surrounded him, like a protective shell, hot and burning. Fire Chakra Armor, Sakura realized. Where rain touched the chakra armor it turned into hissing steam. Gai spat blood from his mouth, and there was a nasty bruise across half his face. But the :eaf jounin seemed to be in a great mood.

"That was… youthful…" he said, grinning.

Tosuken stood on the edge of the crater, shaking out the hand he had punched Gai with. "Warmed up yet? You almost broke my hand."

"Haha! It's my turn now!"

Gai charged forward, the Fire Chakra Armor burning around him.

Tosuken disappeared.

"That won't work this time!" Gai shouted. He spun around—so fast it was like he was teleporting—

"SUPER DYNAMIC ENTRY!"

Gai kicked a space in the air. A massive impact, and an earsplitting crack like the sound of a mountain splitting in two. Tosuken appeared in the shockwave of the impact. Gai's kick connected brutally with the rain jounin's jaw, sending Tosuken flying upward in the air.

At the same moment one of the skyscrapers next to the Asylum blew up.

"Wow!" Lee shouted. "Such awesome power, Gai-sensei! You destroyed an entire building with your Super Dynamic Entry!"

"Uh… I didn't do that," Gai said.

Tosuken collapsed in a heap on the roof hard, grunting in pain. But almost right away he stumbled up back on his feet. "Shit!" Tosuken said. He didn't look at Gai but at the exploding skyscraper.

Another skyscraper exploded, this time on the opposite side of the city as the first tower. And even closer to the Asylum.

"What's happening?" Lee shouted.

"Damn," Gai said. "It's Akatsuki."

"Traitors…" Aumono hissed.

Sakura rushed over to the edge of the roof of the Asylum to look down. The twisted remains of the destroyed skyscrapers lay strewn on the ground, obscured by clouds of smoke and dust. But she could just make out a stream of ninjas running out from the ruins of the skyscrapers. The enemy shinobi were wearing the black and red cloaks of Akatsuki. At the same time a string of smaller explosions were going off everywhere around the city; every sector and strategic point. It was a coordinated, planned attack. The sounds of violent fighting were already ringing in the streets.

"I don't understand," Neji said. "Why is Akatsuki attacking now? With the UC Embassy in Ame the city is too well defended for a frontal assault."

"You are misinformed, boy," said Tosuken. "At this moment, neither Lord Hanzou nor the Queen of Torment is in Bliss. A few hours ago they launched a surprise attack on the main Akatsuki base in the Rain Country with a large percentage of our total military strength."

"Spineless terrorists!" Aumono said. "They're trying to counterattack…"

"The Asylum," Sakura said. "They're going for the Asylum."

That was the clear implication of the Akatsuki attack strategy. Farther out, in the lower city, a small number of Akatsuki ninjas were occupying strategic points to try to hold off reinforcements from the rest of Ame, while the main Akatsuki assault force came out from the two destroying towers near the Asylum. The terrorists were heading directly for their present location.

"Then rain will wash away traitor blood," the girl rain-nin said.

"Shit! The sky!" the third rain genin shouted. "Look!"

Sakura looked up. Ninjas were dropping out of the storm clouds above the Asylum.

They plummeted down headfirst, like a formation of hawks in dive, impossibly fast, making for the roof of the Asylum. No ordinary ninja could come down out of the sky like that and survive. They have to be jounin, or stronger…

Maito Gai jumped up and punched the first Akatsuki terrorist to arrive in the face. The terrorist was blown off the roof with the force of Gai's punch, screaming. It was a long fall.

"Tosuken!" Gai shouted. "We have a bigger problem right now!"

Tosuken nodded. "So it seems... I'll have to break your neck later…"

Now Tosuken picked his bamboo staff back up and spun it. "Bamboo Hurricane!" he cried. The staff suddenly extended out twenty meters in length. He thrust it up and impaled another of the plummeting Akatsuki terrorists through the chest. Then he swung the long staff like a bat, crushing yet another ninja in its arc and slamming them far off the Asylum roof. The Akatsuki screamed horribly.

A fourth terrorist was extremely unfortunate to pick a landing spot in between Tosuken and Gai. Tosuken and Gai's punches both connected at the same time, squashing the man's head between them like an overripe peach.

But the shinobi who followed were stronger, and they were able to dodge or counter Gai and Tosuken's attacks. "Water Release: Exploding Darkness Wave!" one of them shouted while still in the air. A giant blast of black water poured out of his mouth, flooding the entire roof. The defenders were blown off their feet, carried away in the immense current. Sakura barely managed to cling to the bottom of the roof as she thrust her chakra-cast kunai into it.

"Sakura-chan!" Lee shouted, his voice faded in the water.

"Damn!" Sakura shouted back. "We got to get out of here!"

Out of the blue Gai was there, a rocket in the water. Gai picked up both of them under his arms as he ran. Neji was carrying Tenten at Gai's side. "Get down into the Asylum!" Gai said. "These Akatsuki freaks are too dangerous!"

As he was speaking some sort of arm segmented by black tentacles shot out at them. Gai had to throw Sakura and Lee away in order to block the attack. More tentacles, a web of them, rushed at Gai. "Maito Gai the Green Beast, so we meet again! Do you remember my name?" a voice laughed in the murky depths of the water. "It's Kakuzu!"

"Go!" Gai shouted.

They went. Finally now the water from Kakuzu's water jutsu drained off the sides of the roof, and they could see properly. The four of them ran as fast as they could toward the stairs in the center of the roof which led down into the Asylum. Unfortunately, Akatsuki was also trying to get to the same location. One of the terrorists was already there, blocking their way through the stairs. "Kaiten!" Neji shouted, going into a superfast spinning rotation of chakra. The terrorist fell back before the Kaiten, and the way was open for a single moment.

Then Tosuken was there, appearing in a flash from thin air. The three rain genin appeared next to him, also protected by the camouflage jutsu. Tosuken whirled his staff, keeping the Akatsuki at bay. The opening was sustained.

"Aumono!" Tosuken said. "We have a greater enemy now! Fight together with the leaf-nins."

"I understand, Tosuken-sensei," the rain-nin said.

"Then this is your mission! Protect the Asylum at all costs!"

The six young ninjas, plus Sakura, dove down through the stairs, away from the pouring rain.


Next: CHAPTER TWELVE: "Asylum, Part Two"