[AN: Chapter Continuation]
Glowing white eyes opened, accompanied by a massive shockwave of devastating psychic power that spanned a wide radius and flung Naruto at a significant distance. Shedding the wings, fangs and antlers; and regaining back his true and much more human form of a handsome seventeen year old boy, Alex stood up and telekinetically lifted himself in to the air and out of the crater.
"Such overwhelming power. I must utilize it prudently least I be consumed by my own flame." Alex thought apprehensively. Suddenly, he heard a slow clap then as he lifted his head he saw Naruto walking towards him with a sinister grin on the shinobi's face.
"So, you still got some fight left in you huh?" Naruto said as he walked towards Alex while the latter paced back. "It would be a shame if you would expire so soon without paying dearly for the atrocity you committed." He then continued, hell-bent on making the young man suffer for destroying Ipanema with his reckless energy blast that resulted in the deaths of many innocent people.
"My power levels have now increased by ten orders of magnitude. Know that once I unleashed this power there will be no turning back, for either of us. Challenge me at your peril." Alex vouchsafed his final warning in a tranquil voice though the shinobi sensed a certain tension and disquietude to it as he spoke, as if the young man was in pain from sustaining an injury or is privy to something he is not letting him on.
Hypothesizing that Alex has expended his last strength from the massive psionic wave earlier, Naruto speculated that the young man was bluffing either to escape or was buying more time to charge a spell.
"I'll take a stab!" Naruto exclaimed, zooming with a confident grin on his face knowing that he has already won the battle as charged with chakra coated fists and proceeded to give the young man a bone shattering punch in the face. Though to his surprise as the punch connected for Alex didn't even flinch, while the bones on the shinobi's hand broke like an ordinary person punching a wall of solid titanium.
"Very well." Alex said coldly as from his glowing eyes shot azure beams of entropy that seemingly made the air scream in agony from its passing.
Naruto was able to avoid them but to his surprise when the beams changed direction, homing at him then connected; hitting him in the upper torso that caused him to be envelop in a strange energy that seemed to have vaporized him with a bright flash of white light.
The next thing he knew he was in space, more accurately in a geostationary orbit, thirty five thousand kilometers above Earth.
"What just happened?" Naruto muttered in bewilderment as he felt the coldness of the void though he remained well and unharmed due to his chakra cloak protecting him from the vacuum of space. At this point the shinobi decided to summon his battle avatar once more, reforming his Six Path Sage chakra cloak in to a gigantic humanoid construct.
Out of the blue however, Naruto beheld as Alex manifested like a stray thought that has been given form. Once again he underwent some sort of transformation. The hue on his skin turned golden, as if he was a statue carved by a master sculptor from the renaissance out of a large piece of gold monolith. While all around him radiated an aura of energy that renders his form somewhat hazy and indistinct, as if the young man was not completely corporeal.
In truth by being empowered by the unfathomable cosmic energies of the universe Alex has ascended to a being of pure energy, a liminal entity that exists half in one plane of existence, half in another. The golden membrane that has now plated his skin is actually shards of crystalized time that not only blocks all incoming enemy attacks, regardless of power and strength, but also allows him multiple abilities such as to see his opponents attack before they happened and multiple possible outcomes it may engender as it happens and after it happened; another is it causes reality to shift around him; perspective and geometry twist out of phase until it is impossible to tell the difference between up and down as an enemy stares at his reflection on the golden armor. At this state he also gained the ability to completely freeze the flow of time as compared to merely slowing it down.
On the ground Naruto always takes constant care not to use too much of his power to limit the collateral damage and fear of getting innocent bystanders caught in the destruction. Though being tossed in to space by Alex has freed him of such limitations and opened the doors for the shinobi to unleash the full venom of his wrath. "You just made the worst possible mistake of your life fairy boy." He then said telepathically with a derisive grin on his face as he decided to utilize his most powerful jutsu.
From the arms of his avatar Naruto formed Wind Release: Ultra-Big Ball Rasenshuriken and Tailed Beast Ball Rasenshuriken, both infused with natural energy. Then with a grin he hurled both vortexes of whirling destruction upon the young man.
"One of us did." Alex retorted in a composed and indifferent manner as he extended his hand, and with an exertion of mental strength telekinetically nullified Naruto's attacks as both the Wind Release: Ultra-Big Ball Rasenshuriken and Tailed Beast Ball Rasenshuriken seemingly stopped on their tracks, violently warped and stretched like a sheet of rubber before they dissipated in to the cold emptiness of the void.
"What…" Naruto gasped in shock as he saw his opponent just shrugged off the most potent jutsu in his arsenal. "What just happened?" He then muttered in disbelief.
"My turn." Alex said impassively and in a flat emotionless voice as he materialized behind him and with a flick of his wrist manipulated the fundamental forces of the universe to forcibly drive the still dazed shinobi in a direct collision course to the moon, at a faster-than-light velocity.
Naruto tried to escape however he found it quite impossible due to the massive inertia that held him in place, unable to move; along with the fact of time-dilation due to the extreme speeds from which he traveled has made time slower from a perception of an observer outside the effect.
The impact was visible to Earth as a brief unnoticeable flash and seemingly insignificant but on a much closer perspective it was a far more violent sight. Unlike Earth, the moon doesn't have an atmosphere to slow down and burn incoming objects and thus the ludicrously fast moving Naruto in his battle avatar impacted with so great a force that he pummeled in to the moon's surface creating a massive crater and actually chipping a very small section of the planetoids surface. These fragments, the biggest of which is a floating space rock the size of a small mountain, were hurled in to space which then drawn by the Earht's gravitational pull.
Even with the protection of his battle avatar Naruto was significantly injured and found himself drifting along with the other lunar debris. Turning his gaze to his arm he saw blood leaching from the wound and floating in to the zero gravity of space from which it then boiled away due to the extremely low pressure.
"I'm not done with you yet." Alex said as he suddenly appeared out of the blue. He grasped Naruto's face in his left palm and forcibly drove him into and through the floating debris of rocks that has once been a part of the moon; then continued to push the shinobi back with a massive burst of iridescent golden energy that burst like a giant rocket, propelling them with faster than light speed across the void between Luna and Earth; using the shinobi's body to crush every obstacle in their way, until they were once again back into geostationary earth orbit, all the while crushing the blonde's head in his grip.
At his command, Naruto called upon his Truth Seeking Balls to once again combine and form in to a sword which he swung at the young man, but to his surprise when his weapon just passed harmlessly through the latter's body.
With a backhanded slap Alex then sent Naruto tumbling in to space. "You're ego carried you too high." He then said in a cold telepathic voice. Though the shinobi sensed something wrong with the former, as if deep inside, a sickness is slowly eating him.
"Pretty good. You're the only person able to force me like this in a long time….but you're crazy if you think you stand a chance against a shinobi of the hidden leaf!" Naruto exclaimed as he prepared to go in to a berserkers rage and tear the young man apart but he soon found out that he can't move for he was bound by a magical ethereal chain.
"What's wrong have you decided to cease your attack Naruto? Alex said with a mocking grin on his face. "If so, then I shall bring the battle to you." He then continued, cupping his right hand and gracefully raising it to the heavens that caused the very space to tear itself open, and from the rifts crackled massive blazes of lightning that smote right through Naruto's battle avatar.
"Arghh!" Naruto screamed for the pain was unfathomable. Like the worst pain one has ever had multiplied by a factor of a thousand.
"Today you shall pay the price for murdering my friend." Alex said with a sharp angry voice as his glowing eyes narrowed at Naruto.
"You're friend killed everyone I knew!" Naruto lashed out. "If it's all up to me, I will kill him a thousand times for every life he took." He then continued, glaring at the young man with such intensity that it seemingly taken the latter aback.
"Do you know the truth why Errealth destroyed the elemental nations?" Alex said coldly, the expression on his face was that of a detached being, distant and uncaring to the pain he invoked upon Naruto.
Hearing this Naruto clenched his teeth though strangely he did not say a word, wanting to hear what the young man is about to say though he was aware that it wouldn't be pleasant.
"Judging by that look in your eye, you are hungry for answers. That's why you didn't cut me off with one of your crude remarks. Am I right?" Alex smirked with a mocking scorn then looked at Naruto with a knowing gleam in his eye that implies he is well aware of a dark secret that the shinobi is oblivious about. "I will tell you, and you must understand if you can." He then continued while the shinobi threw him a sharp and fierce glare.
"The world created by Hagoromo is a failure. Chakra has become a disease that consumed the mind and soul of whomever it has afflicted. For thousands of years the denizens of the elemental nations used it as a weapon of war and for petty squabbles of greed, pride and outright blood thirst. Errealth was dismayed as he observed from the heavens your people's capacity for bloodshed and how they are slowly destroying the Earth. Seeing the humans he had loved more than anything else kill each other in cold blood and desecrate the very planet that cradled the species and gave it life he had no choice but to intervene, to scour the Earth in order to cleanse it of chakra. Errealth has never attacked your people out of malice, he was doing his responsibility as a protector; pruning away the infected lands so that the disease would not spread, and so that in time the world will once again bloom and the humans who inhabit it prosper. Why he spared the likes of you, I do not know."
"And you expect me to believe that?" Naruto sneered. Though in truth the demigod's revelation struck a chord deep inside him and stirred an innominable vortex of emotions that made him ponder, and indeed his subconscious mind was telling him that what the latter spoke was everything but a lie.
"I don't care what you believe." Alex said coldly with an equally indifferent tranquil countenance on his face. "The foolish sentiment of a dying obsolete warrior from a forgotten bygone era is irrelevant to me. Believe what you will for it is the only thing that will give you solace on your way to hell." He then continued in the same manner.
"Liar!" Naruto exclaimed, brushing off the young man's statements.
"Reality hurts, doesn't it?" Alex said as he laughed in a deep metallic cachinnation of a preternatural being.
At this point Naruto noticed the drastic change in the young man's demeanor. The shinobi hypothesized that some dormant aspect of Errealth's personality is awakened or amplified when Alex is in such a state, mainly his arrogance and powerful indifference.
The truth however is far simpler, he has gone insane. Though part outer-god, for all intents and purposes, Alex is still very much human, and wielding the incalculable energies of the living universe that he harnesses and channels through his body as a catalyst has caused him to quickly descend in to madness.
"What? now you'll give me a grand speech on how you're gonna kill me? Think you can? Give me all you got you miserable little punk!" Naruto roared adamantly in defiance. Like a true shinobi he preferred to give fate the finger rather than simply succumb in despair. With all his strength he then broke free of the ethereal chains binding him then with all his power rushed to the enemy in a golden blaze of glory.
Seeing this, Alex furrowed his brow and put on a face of deep and serious contemplation. However, it didn't take too long before a nasty grin emanated from the countenance of his face. "Behold the almighty powers of creation." He then said in a cold reverberating voice as seven micro-universes were called in to being by his new found reality-warping powers.
These artificial universes looped on his open palm akin to electrons orbiting the nucleus of an atom; and at his command he made them coalesce in to a single pulsating amorphous oscillation that became more and more unstable by the second from the unimaginable energies released by the chain reaction.
As the micro-universes collided with each other they were immediately destroyed, releasing unfathomable amounts of energy that is being held together by a barrier created by the demigod around it. Interestingly, these energies engender short lived nano-universes to form and collapse instantly, adding more power to the already chaotic flurry of energies they were birthed from. In return, this creates a cycle of creation and annihilation as smaller and smaller universes are formed and destroyed, exponentially energizing the original reaction.
At Alex's injunction the unimaginable destructive power of dimensional dissonance was set loose upon Naruto that took the form of a cascading colossal fulgurous beam of such intensity that its brightness alone illuminated half of the globe and temporarily dispelled the darkness of the night with light measured in quintillions of lumens, millions of times brighter than the rays of a million suns that those unfortunate enough to gaze upon the light instantly collapsed where they stood, permanently blinded as their retinas burned from receiving so much energy; while satellites were knocked out of orbit if not directly destroyed from a massive burst of energy shockwave as the beam traveled and burned its way through any obstacles.
The raging torrent of undiluted destruction quickly engulfed the shinobi before he could react, forcing him to be brutally pushed back downwards to the Earth's atmosphere, surging at extremely high speed as the said beam blasted him while the planet's gravity pulled him down.
Even with his battle avatar on full power, the shinobi could feel the immense punishment as heat upon heat, along with obscene pressure wave smote right through the golden construct of chakra. He covered his eyes from the immense effulgent glare but could feel his hands burning. First it felt like a slight tingling in his arms and palm but it wasn't long before the sensation worsened in to an intolerable degree of agony. He could feel his flesh burning, crisping, and charring then crumbling off his bones.
Finally the beam descended into the Earth's inner atmosphere then soon impacted the ground near Puerto Tolima in Colombia, near the Brazillian border; producing a massive explosion mankind has ever seen.
The ensuing fireball was a hundred miles in radius visible from space like a blooming crimson flower of pure devastation that ignited the air and fused the ground, and turned to ash every living being touched by its petals of scorching heat.
The earth trembled with seismic shock, along with a deafening explosion and a cloud of dust and extremely hot gases that formed from the explosion. In just under a second these hot gases expanded, creating a gigantic moving wall of air traveling at incredible speeds and smashed through everything in its path; this extremely powerful blast wave is such that it was strong enough to be measured on its tenth passing around the globe.
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(Puerto Tolima – Colombia)
Azure eyes slowly opened, with hazy vision Naruto realized that he was lying on a riven and tilted heat blackened pavement. His mental processes were benumbed and painful, and confused to the last degree. With great effort he pushed himself to rise only to realize that his left arm was no more and half of his face was seared, but nonetheless he could still fight. Indeed his injuries were just a minor horror to what he saw next.
"What the hell…." Naruto muttered in shock for it was hell indeed. The entire landscape now resembled the stereotype of a fiery world of eternal damnation, filled with rivers of liquid fire, molten rock, ash hills, smoking pits, all wracked by tremors and earthquakes. He also saw massive glowing blobs of horrifying heat that was once proud and mighty mountains, and from them oozed rivers of less viscous molten stream that was once the metallic minerals of which veins were hidden deep beneath the mountains core.
As he raised his head he saw an aurora in the burning sky that was like a magnificent emerald arras that hanged from the hall of the gods in Valhalla. The said light show was an effect due to the obscene amounts of electromagnetic energy saturating the atmosphere around the vast area of the explosion's radius. Disconcertingly, there was also a strange hissing or crackling sound from the heavens caused by charged particles in an inversion layer of the atmosphere that formed as a side effect.
Out of sudden, Naruto beheld as the stars in the sky seemingly brighten and flicker in a strobe like configuration, finally expanding by the moment like spheres of bluish-white radiance.
Only then that the shinobi realized that these were not stars but energy blasts unleashed from the heavens by Alex. Naruto saw the first of them approaching, there were twelve in total coming at him fast.
"Kurama, Shukaku….I need your help guys." Naruto said in a weary voice that reflected only his unwavering tenacity as a shinobi of the hidden leaf.
"You got it kid!" Both Kurama and Shukaku answered Naruto's call in unison.
With help from the Bijuus, Naruto converted the six of his seven truth-seeking balls into Tailed Beast Balls, and adds wind-natured chakra to create shuriken-like blades around them then hurled them high in the sky, in an interception course to the speeding energy bolts.
As the two attacks meet the resulting explosion was unsurprisingly devastating. Naruto's Bijūdama Rasenshuriken dwarfs regular Tailed Beast Balls in raw power while each of Alex's energy bolts exploded with force roughly parallel to that of a one megaton nuclear explosion.
"Impressive." Alex said telepathically that reverberated inside of Naruto's head like an eerie echoing voice that issued from the heavens. "But how about the other ones?" He then said in the same manner and with such a maniacal glee that the shinobi could hear his demented cachinnation.
Slowly, Naruto lifted his head above and saw more bolts of azure energy, millions upon millions of them, descending from the heavenly firmaments like radiant down pouring rainstorm of destruction. Such is the nerve paralyzing fear that these harbingers of destruction preceded that the crimson and ochre of the burning sky and the emerald of the aurora that dangled from it was quickly superseded by a wan unearthly azure glow.
"Naruto, we must get out of here." Kurama said inside of the shinobi's head, of which Naruto concurred. However, to their horror when they realized that they couldn't Hiraishin out of danger for Alex has greatly strengthened the fabric of spacetime in the area, making teleportation all but impossible.
"We must take it and survive!" Shukaku cried, lending Naruto more of his chakra.
Utilizing the last truth seeking ball on his back Naruto formed a spherical barrier then called upon the other black balls of chakra to come to him and do the same in a layered configuration. Subsequently, with Shukaku's help he engendered the scorched stones to be crushed in to sand and draw from them the hardest minerals of which he compressed under extreme pressure to form a virtually indestructible miniature replica of the tanuki that encapsulated the barrier in its body for additional protection. While deep inside his seemingly indomitable defenses the shinobi focused all his Six Path Sage chakra to create a golden armor of condensed chakra around his body for good measure.
After a short interim, the first azure bolt from the second wave of energy blasts impacted, exploding with a kilometer wide fireball; soon after the others followed, scouring the ground clean with their touch of concentrated annihilation.
The earth trembled as millions upon millions of energy blasts descended upon it. Even deep within his reinforced stronghold Naruto could feel in all his tissues the painful pulsing of the thunderous vibration as the bolts pounded the upper half of South America.
For twenty six sanity-shattering and horror filled minutes the massive explosions reverberated like Titans beating macro-cosmic drums in a grand requiem of obliteration.
The aftermath of it was less than pleasing to the eye either. It was hell on earth in both literal and figurative sense for the total damage wrought by the demigod's attacks were approximately similar to that of a three and a half teraton explosion, or more than twenty seven million times more powerful than the bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
It caused massive shockwaves across the continent, which resulted in magnitude 10 earthquakes and waves of lava to spill out of the planetary crust from a massive and deep depression produced by the initial beam attack, while all around it were smaller smoldering scattershot craters that stretched from Nicaragua to Paraguay killing millions of people, as in his insanity, Alex advertised his discontent far and wide.
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There was nothing but darkness and the ice cold touch of the river Styx as Naruto seemed to float away in to empty and desolate regions of his own subconscious. He had lived for quite some time now in this brave new era since he awakened from his ten millennia long hibernation in 1855. There was a feeling of weariness, as well as that of emptiness in his soul that the idea of death was seemingly a good prospect to welcome. Then, as he was just about to give up and let himself be taken away by the gushing currents of the underworld something happened, something not short of a miracle.
"Hey no fare Buroto!" In the opaque blackness of his mind Naruto heard a voice, it was of a little girl's.
"Catch me if you can Himawari!" He heard another voice, this time it seemed to belong to a boy playfully teasing his younger sibling.
"Buruto, Himawari…stop running all around the kitchen one of you might get hurt." The third voice said in a gentle maternal tone. This voice was familiar to Naruto, it was Leah's. Though the shinobi must admit, it was weird hearing her in such a loving and motherly tenor, not the hot blooded woman she usually is, or used to be at least.
With the full strength of all his mental faculties Naruto forced his lids up to give way to his azure eyes. The glare of light was uncomfortable at first for someone who seemed to have slept for so long but as his sight adjusted to the brightness he found himself in a cozy house, sitting in a dinner table having his breakfast and reading his morning paper while about him was two cute children.
The first one whom he identified as Buruto is a spikey haired blonde blue eyed boy that much resembles himself when he was younger, even to the loud, energetic and stubborn personality. But nonetheless he can sense the boy is extremely loyal to his family and friends, and deeply cares for them despite the mischievous pranks he always pulls, mostly at their expense.
The other one, the girl named Himawari is a cheerful, considerate, and kind-hearted individual. She has blue eyes like that of Naruto's along with a fair white skin and dark-blue hair that mostly resembled a member of the Hyuga Clan rather than a Quileute, though this is unsurprising given that Leah is Hinata's reincarnate.
"Naruto…." He then heard Leah called the shinobi in a sweet and gentle voice but was too distracted looking at the children.
"Are they my kids?" He then asked himself with a smile on his face though he already knew the answer to that question.
"Naruto" Leah once again called the shinobi by name, though this time her voice broke through the latter's deep contemplation.
Naruto turned her gaze and saw her wife Leah, she has a longer hair now, wearing an apron and looking more beautiful than ever. "Ah, yeah." The shinobi then babbled incoherently looking at Leah, whom he speculated to be his wife now as he noticed the gold wedding rings on both their fingers.
"…..I said would you like more coffee?" Leah asked holding a coffee kettle, giving Naruto a weird look.
"Yes please." Naruto smiled in gladness, wanting the cozy and heartwarming moment to not end if it is but a dream.
"Is there a problem Naruto? You seem a little distracted." Leah inquired in a concerned voice.
"No." Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "I can't just believe we're married now, and parents too." He then continued in a hollow but joy filled voice.
"They grow up so fast don't they?" Leah supplemented, while a soft smile emanated from her lips, gazing upon Buroto and Himawari waving at them goodbye as they went to school.
"They certainly do." Naruto said, smiling as well. "Ya'know, the kids are out and I don't really have to go to work until…..uhmm…..who gives a damn when. The point is we could fool around a little bit." He then said mischievously.
"Naruto!" Leah said, prinking herself while her cheeks blush a little. With powerful arms the shinobi then swept her off her feet then carried her to their room where he kissed her torridly as he gently laid her on the bed.
The kissing got more and more intense as Naruto removed his shirt and quickly stripped down nude, exposing his rippling muscles and bulging manhood. He then tore Leah's clothes off then took her hand and made her caress his sculpted body from his muscular chest to his defined abs and then a bit lower to the nine inch of meat that is his pride, all without breaking the kiss, and indeed it only intensified some more.
Naruto's hands then caressed Leah's breasts with artful stroke while his other hand traveled south. "Wow is she working out or something? Her body is really chiseled. I think my hand stumbled on a six pack on the way down to her treasure trove." Naruto thought as he kissed her in the lips, going down to her neck. Out of sudden the blonde abruptly stopped while his azure eyes widened.
"Is there something wrong Naruto?" Leah asked with a confounded countenance on her face as Naruto suddenly succumb to mute-like silence.
Gradually, Naruto's lost ability to vocalize words and assemble them in to speech came back to him. Then without looking at Leah he spoke in a voice that was trembling with shock and consternation from a seemingly huge predicament that suddenly popped up. "Leah, why do you have a penis? And why is it bigger than mine?" He then asked, sweating like a whore in church.
"I knew you like me." Said a pleasantly melodic but trolling voice that wasn't Leah's but quite uncomfortably familiar.
Hearing this Naruto immediately froze then after some interim slowly lifted his head only to see that it was Alex with a cheeky grin carved on his face.
"Surprise!" Alex exclaimed trollishly that horrified Naruto to the point that the word 'mind fuck' is no longer good enough to describe the nightmare in steroids he's in.
"Wha….Wha!…..wahhhhhhhhhhhh!" Naruto screamed in horror as he jumped out of the bed. Rubbing his eyes in hopes that when he opened them again everything would have evaporated to oblivion but it was of no use for the young man was still there when he opened them, and this time he was laughing like crazy, finding the shinobi's torment very funny."Aaaaaaaaaaahhhh!" The shinobi then wailed in a pitch that was quite rare to be heard from a man.
Suddenly the entire landscape before him seemingly cracked and then shatters like a glass blown in to incalculable shards by the cyclonic forces of night and destruction. He then found himself falling on a bottomless abyss while blackness and illimitable emptiness seemed to wrap him round in a dizzy swirl.
Naruto felt as if he was falling down with the wreck of shattered worlds in a roaring sea of vortical space and force, descending into some intra-dimensional pit, some ultimate limbo to which the shards of forgotten suns and systems are flung. Then, after a measureless interval, there came the sensation of violent impact, as if his soul crashed viciously back to his body.
He could feel the scorching heat from the environment, he could feel the arching pain from his bodily injuries, he could feel his blood slowly gushing from his wounds, and it made him feel weakened.
It seemed to require the labors of a Titan to lift his lids, and his body and limbs were heavy, as if they had been turned to some denser element than human flesh, or had been subjected to the gravitation of a black hole.
Though afraid of what horrible abominations waiting for him on the other side Naruto courageously opened his eyes. With hazy vision he saw the barren molten landscape, the hell hole oozing with lava from the planet's core, and most of all he saw that he no longer have a left harm and he could no longer feel his legs.
"Oh god, this is so much better." Naruto breathed a deep sigh of relief. Anything is better compared to the ineffable terror he has been so sadistically exposed to. Then suddenly, as he lifted his head he saw a pair of incandescently glowing eyes looking back at him, its owner stood or rather floated invertedly in a parallel position to his own.
"Hello!" Alex greeted in a jovial and somewhat puerile tone. Looking at the shinobi with glowing white eyes that reflected a mind being consumed by a violent raging madness. "Did you like the dream? I made it myself. If I only knew earlier that your mind is this pliable then I should've created a scenario where you were being violated by a thousand demons." He then chuckled blamelessly as he casually floated all around Naruto whom he telekinetically lifted from the scorched ground.
"You're a psychopath…" With half-masted eyes Naruto ponderously muttered in utter contempt as he spat on Alex's face.
To this Alex snickered maniacally as he squeezed the flesh of the still bleeding wound on Naruto's shoulder but the shinobi desisted flinching from the pain. "Yes, your torments have driven me in to insanity. I merely wanted to live a peaceful life and perhaps prove myself and earn your friendship one day…..but I was a fool then. You made sure that I realize in the harshest possible way that such things are impossible for even my very existence is a heinous transgression to you, an affront to your delicately nurtured sensibilities." He then said that caught the shinobi's attention.
"You tormented me night and day. You killed my friend then you turned my other friends against me. But that wasn't enough for you, it wasn't horrible enough so you then decided to alienate me from the woman I love….do you have any idea how it is like to be hated, to be alone? While the loneliness and anguish nibble at your soul and on your sanity little by little until finally you can no longer take the pain but still you have to because you have no choice! Of course you don't. You are mister popularity, the center of the universe. Why did I even bother to ask?" Alex said in a voice that was hollow and somber, it wasn't the ramblings of a deranged lunatic but rather the angered and despairing inner thoughts of a pained individual that, due to the onset of insanity, finally burst out where it was deeply hidden.
For a moment Naruto's contempt was eclipsed with pity for Alex was wrong; the shinobi was well aware of how it is to be alone and hated for that's how he lived his entire childhood, surrounded by people who view him with disdain for something he never chose. He wanted to speak, to tell him he knew very well what he's going through and he can help him, but perhaps out of fear or pride, no words came out of his mouth.
After a short interim of silence Naruto was finally able to form words and utter them as he regained some of his composure. "You are many things, many annoying things but you're not this monster. Snap out of it!" He said in a much calmer voice, trying to appeal to the young man's better senses that still haven't been eroded by madness.
"You…forced me to become a monster Naruto." Alex muttered somberly, then after a while burst in to an evil laughter, dashing Naruto's hope that there is still some sanity left in the young man. "It's like you're Dr. Frankenstein and I'm the monster you created."
Alex continued to laugh from his own twisted statement, finding it very funny in his deranged state of mind as he moved his face uncomfortably close to that of his counterpart. Then like a child, a demented child, he ran his bloody hand on one side of Naruto's face, smearing it with the shinobi's own crimson life essence.
"Aw shucks Naruto…you made me say all those sissy stuff around all these dead people." Alex whispered to Naruto as he leaned through the latter's ear in a somewhat childishly affectionate manner. "Do you want to know a secret?" He then cooed, curling his finger on the shinobi's spikey golden hair.
"I'd rather not….but what the hell." Naruto concurred albeit hesitantly, buying more time for him to accumulate more chakra and devise a strategy to defeat the latter.
"The ramen house you frequently visit at Port Angeles, do you know the secret ingredient of their miso ramen that you're so crazy about?" Alex said in a voice that while still that of a crazy person penetrated the shinobi's soul deeply.
"Well, if I'm gonna die today at least I'll know one of the world's greatest mysteries." Naruto thought, feeling some life ran back to his worn out body, he has never been so happy, though off course he has to project a countenance of a calm battle hardened warrior. "Fine, hit me." He then continued with an outwardly solemn expression on his face.
"It's rat crap!" Alex chortled in a weird, snorting open mouth laugh, similar to that of a stoner high on hashish. "That dreary eatery is infested with rodents and they defecate on the stock pots every night, the lazy staff don't even bother to clean them up…..that extra umami punch of the broth, yeah that came from the rats' furry backdoor."
"Ughh…..ughh.." Naruto groaned for the revelation not only seemingly amplified the pain of his injuries but also faded all the colors of his world in to gray, not to mention turn his stomach upside down.
"Like I said earlier, reality hurts." Alex said to Naruto, chuckling some more.
"Fuck you!" Naruto lashed out in anger.
"Yes….now that you know my rage and my pain I shall share them with you." Alex said in an eerily calm voice as from his lips emanated a demonic smile. "Die now, knowing that after I'm done with you and your family, I'll turn my attention to Leah…" He then continued but was cutoff as Naruto suddenly thrashed out with rage after hearing him.
"Don't you dare touch her you insane son of…argh…." Naruto exclaimed an unrestrained roar of fury but was cutoff as Alex psionically crushed his vocal chords.
"Ssshh…ssshh…sshh…I'm not done talking yet….don't you know it's rude to interrupt people when they're still talking." Alex said in a twistedly gentle and blameless voice, tilting his head a little to better see the shinobi as he coughed out blood and gasped from the difficulty of breathing due to the recent injury that was inflicted upon him. "As I was saying, after I'm done with you and the Cullen's I will turn my attention to Leah and to the child in her womb."
Hearing the last part of the young man's statement Naruto's eyes widened. "A child? In her womb? Mine?" He then thought. In some strange way, that tiny glimmer of hope assuaged his torment before the full gravity of his current predicament quelled that spark of future happiness in both a literal and figurative sense as a rift has now opened beneath his feet and from it emanated a strange pull, and the shinobi felt that the area where he was suspended from was slowly descending in to the void.
"Ah yes, you still don't know it yet. I forgot." Alex said in a mocking and derisive manner.
To this Naruto stared at the young man, confounded and at the same time meditative, analyzing if Alex was telling the truth while a drop of his blood raced from his forehead, in to his eye, and finally ran through his face like a crimson tear.
"Seriously dude, it's like you're the last one to ever know. How dense can you be? Alex said, laughing from the awkward hilarity of it all. "But yes, it's all true…it's a boy by the way, though I suppose it won't matter anyway….since I'll incinerate both mother and child in a short while." He then continued, speaking softly with an evil demonic smile on his face as he affectionately hugged Naruto with the childlike enthusiasm of a dangerous sociopath.
Naruto threw Alex an angry glare. "Stay away from them. This is between the two of us, they have nothing to do with this you batshit crazy bastard!" He groaned madly, wanting to shout every word to his mentally unbalanced opponent but his voice reeds were crushed by the latter.
"What was that?" Alex said, rearing his ear to Naruto's bleeding mouth as if to hear him better, though this was just a mockery wrought by lunacy for he was perfectly able to read the shinobi's thought through telepathy. "It's not enough to just kill them? You want me to also completely obliterate their souls? Well, that's a little too much I think but, okay…they will live for weeks and weeks, in a long and extremely agonizing existence then afterwards, when I grow weary of their begging for death, only then will I extinguish their lives and snuff their very souls as per your last request. It will be…..exquisite!"
"No! Please, don't do this!" Naruto groaned again in protest, this time wilder than the last, practically begging for Leah and their unborn child's life to be spared.
"Goodbye old sport." Alex said in a soft but singularly penetrating voice as he let go of his hug and relinquished Naruto in to the dark rift.
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"Damn" Naruto muttered with a smirk as he tumbled down for quite a while now in to the emptiness of the void. The flickering chakra cloak has protected him from the vacuum of space but not forever as he felt getting weaker and weaker by the moment.
"So this is how I would die huh? He then continued brooding with half closed eyes. Suddenly he felt something or some force is violently pulling him; as he shifted his gaze he realized that he was in the lethal grasp of a voracious cosmic destruction.
In his deranged sadism, Alex decided that it would be funny to jettison Naruto in to the center of the Milky Way where there is a supermassive black hole devouring everything within the spear of its influence.
The black hole itself is quite far even by stellar standards but its immense power could be felt nonetheless. Soon, the gravitational pull and the tidal forces around the shinobi grew inescapably and what few light reaching him was bent as he was pulled closer and closer in to the event horizon.
Even at such distance the shinobi could see the monstrous cataclysm as it fed on several stars and devoured what's left of their shattered worlds. He beheld how streams of glowing stellar matter swirled in the roaring sea of vortical space and force that was its accretion disk, before descending violently and inevitably swallowed by the singularity, from which there is no return. It was a frightening sight but strangely stunningly beautiful as well.
Naruto felt the racking pulls of the tidal forces becoming stronger and its grip absolute. He closed his eyes and prepared to meet his doom as in his mind flashed the story of his life. He saw that winter day when he first met Hinata; his days in the academy; that day when he became a part of team Kakashi along with Sasuke and Sakura; their first mission to the Land of Waves; along with the recent memories of his new found family, the Cullens, and of his new found love, Leah. Every picture of his memory flashed so vividly, so full of color and splendor that it slowly restored his broken will and led him to make a choice.
Azure orbs suddenly snapped open. "Not today!" He said with such tenacious conviction while his flickering chakra cloak once again soared with great golden intensity as rippled patterns appeared in his now purple glowing eyes.
Subsequently, something unexpected happened. From his forehead opened a third eye with red sclera and irise, along with a ripple pattern spreading over the eyeball and nine tomoe. He has just awakened the Rinne Sharingan, and at the same time the battered Kurama and Shukaku have also awakened from their deep slumber within his mind.
Naruto could feel every cell in his body reacting to his new found power as his injuries heal with ungainly swiftness due to cell division forcibly stimulated by vast amounts of strong and potent chakra flowing within him.
This, coupled by his natural regenerative abilities he genetically inherited as a member of the Uzumaki Clan has revitalized his body, reconstructing all damaged organs and tissues similar to that of Tsunade's Creation Rebirth jutsu but evidently more powerful as the stump that used to be his left appendage instantly regenerated a new and stronger arm.
"What happened kid?" Kurama inquired, dazed. The last thing he remembered was when they formed barriers around them and braced for impact then everything when in to oblivion from that point.
"Yeah, what happened?" Shukaku supplemented.
"Well, it would seem that we're back on business boys!" Naruto exclaimed with great enthusiasm as he used the power of his Rinne Sharingan to cast Yomotsu Hirasaka, opening a portal to Earth so that he could deal with the insane demigod once and for all.
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(Isle Esme – Brazil)
We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow.
But now alone I lie and weep beside the tree.
Singing 'Oh willow waly' by the tree that weeps with me.
Singing 'Oh willow waly' till my lover return to me.
We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow.
A broken heart have I. Oh willow I die, oh willow I die.
Alex sang eerily like a deranged agent of annihilation while Edward screamed in pain as he leisurely carved the vampire with his psionic powers that manifested as blasts of ghostly lightning-like energy that sheared his victim's atomic bonds, literally stripping his body apart atom by atom and molecule by molecule very slowly, making sure that the latter suffers unimaginable agony that would kill an ordinary human in seconds if exposed to the same ordeal, not from the injury itself but from shock as the sadistic flaying is incredibly painful beyond normal mortal threshold.
Out of the blue Alex was suddenly cutoff his sadistic activities as he suddenly found himself in a lava-filled wasteland. Turning his gaze, he saw a large volcano spewing up molten rocks and beside it is a construct that looked very much like a citadel. In truth Naruto, through his Rinne Sharingan, has utilized Amenominaka to teleport Alex in this dimension not only to stave him off from causing more destruction but also because he can instantly rewrite all aspects of the said dimension in battle, giving him a much needed edge against such a psychotic but extremely powerful opponent.
"Come out Naruto, I can see that you learned new tricks, it won't help you. It wouldn't change a thing." Alex said sniggering, as if all of this is just a game to him. "I'm starting to think you're refusing the gift of death that I'm giving you. You're hurting my feelings you know." He then said like a pouty child as his mind was continuously warped by the power he wields.
"This will be your prison now." Naruto said sagaciously as he decided to reveal himself to the young man.
"Ha! I see you Na…." Alex exclaimed with rapturous exhilaration but wasn't able to finish his sentence as Naruto, utilizing Yomotsu Hirasaka opened a portal directly behind the young man and kicked him brutally in to the lava. The jutsu's speed along with the shinobi's inhuman swiftness is such that even Alex who, in his current state, has the power to see the near future wasn't seemingly able to react.
"Didn't see that coming did you!" Naruto said exuberantly as he engendered the searing rocks to seal the fiery lake where Alex has fallen then slammed his hand to the ground. Sealing formulas then spread from the shinobi's palm and in to a vast area and sealed those unlucky enough to be in its fold. "It's finally over." He then sighed.
"I did see it coming actually." Alex said perched on a nearby rock, leaning on Naruto's ear, much to the shock of the shinobi. "But the question is did you see this coming." He then continued, pointing at the ethereal lance piercing the shinobi's chest.
"What…when did he..." Naruto muttered in a hollow voice as he just felt the sharp corrosive sting in his chest.
"Like I said earlier, it wouldn't change a thing." Alex said as the shinobi screamed in pain, desperately trying to remove the weapon impaling him but to no avail. The elegantly slender, translucent crystal like lance seems to be a construct of glowing azure ethereal matter. It is coated in fiery bluish-white energy that crackles and arcs lightning to the ground and in to its unfortunate victim causing much agony.
"But how did you…" Naruto gasped, confounded on how the latter landed the attack without him noticing a thing.
"It's simple really." Alex said as he evaporated from where he stood then materialized some distance away with another ethereal lance in hand. Without warning he hurled his weapon contra-parallel to the shinobi with great force; forming shockwaves in the air and warping the space where it travelled before vanishing on to the very spot where the latter was struck earlier. "I can call an attack from the future to aid my present self in battle….or past self if we go by the technical chronological definition." He then explained, smirking in amusement at the sight of the shocked countenance on Naruto's face.
"What a cheap sideshow trick." Naruto scoffed.
"You know, that third eye of yours is kinda bothering me for a while now. It's like you have a nasty case of pink eye. Let's close it shall we." Alex said with a demonic smile carved deeply in his face as he branded on Naruto's forehead a glowing esoteric rune that dampened the shinobi's powers and sealed the Rinne Sharingan.
"Then we will die here together." Naruto smirked derisively with a revenant grin on his face. "The only difference is I would die sooner, while you will linger here for who knows how long….this will be your prison, and you will stay here forever." Though the shinobi was in pain he laughed mockingly at the young man until another bolt of lightning from the lance silenced his laughter in to a groan.
Hearing this Alex laughed hard, pounding the ground out of amusement. "Oh, you silly beaver." He said as he sobered up a little. "I can't believe you're this stupid!" He then continued chuckling in an insulting manner as if reveling in a joke that he alone is aware of.
"What the hell is so damn funny!" Naruto hissed as he threw a fierce angry glare at the young man.
"Well you see Naruto…." Alex said with a sassy voice. "…even in my base form I don't have any problem traveling between dimensions. In fact that's how I can turn invisible, by partially phasing myself out of existence and in to other dimensions….and currently, in this form, I can exist in more than one dimension at the same time. To put that in layman's term my other self is still back on Isle Esme torturing Edward McMushroomCloud while I'm doing this little technical explanation to you. "He then continued, looking at Naruto with a haughty smile.
"What" Naruto gasped in horror.
"You did get the mushroom cloud reference did you?" Alex shrugged. "You know because his stupid hair looks like a mushroom cloud." He then continued, indifferent to the shinobi's plight.
"You Lie!" Naruto exclaimed with quaking intensity.
"Jeez say it not spray it dude…so uncool." Alex then said wiping some of the shinobi's saliva that landed on his face. "Well, there's only one solution to that problem doesn't' it?….a demonstration!" He then said jovially as he snapped his fingers.
Before Naruto knew it they were back on Isle Esme and he saw with his own eyes the other Alex flensing Edward while still singing that creepy song.
"Told you." Alex chuckled as his two halves merged together in to a single being which subsequently made a strange magical gesture then traced a symbol in to the air. A glyph formed that was wrought of cold fire and a deeper evil that just looking at it Naruto instantly felt darkness befell his senses.
But before the darkness fell complete Naruto made a last gamble. Forming a seal of confrontation he then utilized all of his remaining strength to dispel Bella's hypnotic slumber then telepathically gave her the details and instructions of his do or die strategy.
Then, with unspeakable agonies it seemed that the shinobi died; and his soul float free, and again he saw everything, though with bodiless eyes. And discarnate he stood in the islands shores of white sand illuminated by the pale silvery light of the moon interlaced with the crimson glare of the burning islands all around, with his body lying as if dead on the ground beside him.
At the same time, Bella opened her eyes. Still naked she took the sheets of the bed and wrapped it around her body. The last thing she remembered was the image of her disrupted honeymoon, it wasn't long however and her brain was bombarded with information.
With a mind jumbled with frantic thoughts Bella rushed outside to make certain that the vision Naruto has vouchsafed her isn't merely an illusion or a dream. "Oh my god….." She gasped in a hollow voice seeing the sheer amount of carnage as she stood on the threshold.
She saw Alex standing near the prone body of Naruto. Suddenly, the young man seemed to haves sensed her presence as he turned his head to her direction and looked at her with a confused gaze.
"How dare you awaken her!" Alex quaked in rage as he chided the disembodied phantom of Naruto.
"Why? Afraid she'll see the monster that you truly are?" Naruto responded deridingly.
Alex didn't answer but instead conjured a flask in his right hand and through his necromantic art he commanded Naruto to enter his new prison cell. Though unwilling, the shinobi was magically compelled to obey by necromantic forces that was like the biding of some angel of death; and thus, powerless, he did what was asked of him like a stringed puppet.
Subsequently, Alex shook the bottle briskly in a comedic manner causing the disembodied Naruto to feel stomach turning nausea and vertigo that he would've made him vomit violently if he was in corporeal form from the magically induced motion sickness.
Slowly, Bella approached the young man. The truth has now begun to trickle down as she saw the extent of the devastation.
"Hey Bella!" Alex greeted jovially as he waved amicably and hovered around Bella.
"Alex…..what happened to you?" Bella muttered in a quivering voice. For some reason he found it difficult to believe that the naively friendly and kind hearted boy she met and befriended in high school who believed that all life is precious is now an unfeeling and remorseless killer; a demented monster incapable of mercy. As she looked at those incandescently glowing white eyes that reflected the pain and anguish of how he's been treated and driven in to violent madness, she knew that her former friend's psyche was torn beyond recovery.
"Well….you abandoned me; broke my heart in to a million pieces; I went insane…but just a little; then I killed about forty five million people; well, fifty million if you count the chaps that's gonna kick the bucket once that particularly big piece of moon shard impacts Earth, in approximately ten minutes, give or take…So I guess that's four things that happened to me." Alex replied in a voice that while childishly amicable to Bella seemed coldly indifferent to the millions of people who died and the millions more who will die.
Bella's stomach turned as she realized that, in his madness, Alex no longer bothers to make any distinction between the innocent and the damned. He kills them all the same, for all those who oppose him or merely unlucky enough to draw his attention is his prey.
"You look tensed Bella." Alex said in a friendly voice that he always sports when talking to her, even before his mind was consumed by insanity. "You want me to play for you?" He then offered, conjuring a Stradivarius violin in his hand.
"I don't know you could play the violin." Bella inquired. Surprised, she temporarily forgotten her fear of him.
"I've been taking lessons from Lestat." Alex responded, smiling. "I have to find a way to distract myself when…you know….you abandoned me." He then continued.
"Okay, okay just play." Bella sneered a little. The fear she felt earlier has just converted itself in to irritation from the young man's constant guilt tripping, considering the fact that he just chipped the moon and razed half of a continent, not to mention killed millions of innocent, all in the interim of less than six hours.
"Okay" Alex said with an enigmatic smile on his face that made Bella think that while it may be true that the young man is now a dangerous sociopath, it is also undeniable that he is quite fine looking.
Alex then played Danse Macabre with fairly impressive proficiency that caught Bella by the throat by the musical splendor and couldn't help herself but enjoy the sweet melody created by each note wonderfully arranged in an intoxicating cavalcade of euphoric ecstasy.
Seeing the young man play such wonderful music gave Bella a hunch that there's still some humanity left in him and a patch of sanity still not ravaged by the consuming hatred that wrought his madness. It gave her hope that she could still save Alex, and in turn, he could still correct the mistakes he committed.
Everything was going well so far when a squadron of four JAS 39 Gripen flew at low altitude to investigate. They have been scrambled from a near airbase by the Brazilian Airforce to investigate and if need be, destroy any hostiles. Their engines roared and drowned the music of Alex's violin, infuriating him.
Deceptively, the rage building inside the young man was absolutely silent up until he directed his baleful attention to the destruction of the interlopers as his wrath pulsed like a light in his eye. With a flick of his wrist the jet fighters disintegrated in to thousands of individual parts, their engine's flying chaotically in the air. The pilots managed to jettison but was one by one targeted by Alex.
Extending his forefinger, Alex unleashed a bolt of lightning energy that hit directly the first pilot, causing him to violently explode into clouds of flaming ash.
"Alex please stop!" Bella pleaded but her words fell in to deaf ears.
Alex targeted the second pilot as from the tip of his forefinger charged a luridly iridescent energy of pure and undiluted destruction but before his power could unfold he heard Bella's now angry voice.
"Alexander Storm stop this at once!" Bella said in a loud and stentorian voice of authority that made Alex look at her with those incandescently glowing orbs that feels not an ounce of compunction in exterminating those the young man sees as inferior to him and feels no kinship with.
A moment of uncomfortable silence ensued. Bella felt increasingly frightened as Alex's spirit crushing sight fell at her.
"Okay" Alex shrugged casually, conceding to Bella's wishes.
Bella sighed and all of her fears evaporated. Feeling empowered and emboldened with hope she then confronted Alex more directly. "Alex what did you do to Edward and Naruto?"
"Edward stupid-hair is still alive, don't worry about him." Alex pouted as he crossed his arms like an immature child.
"And Naruto?" Bella inquired worriedly.
"Who?" Alex queried back with a confounded countenance on his face.
Though Bella knew he was just playing dumb she decided to be as patient as possible and play with it. "Naruto, is he dead?"
"Who again?" Alex inquired again in an even more childish manner.
"Naruto" Bella asked, nearing the threshold of her temper.
"Ooooh…him" Alex then said, seemingly ready to give Bella some answers. "his what?"
"Alex!" Fed up, Bella practically screeched irately.
To this Alex chuckled trollishly but stopped as he saw Bella looking at him with a raised brow. "Okay, okay….He's not dead I just removed his soul." He then sniggered like a child.
"You removed his soul?" Bella said with a weird cadence on her voice, not knowing how to react to the ghastly revelation that had been revealed to her with sprinkles and cherries on top by the young man.
"Yup" Alex said nonchalantly.
"Why would you do that?" Bella queried.
"Well….it's a long story. We were having some fun then he acted nasty and all, so I threw him in to a black hole, but he came back….I'm starting to think he don't want to die…..and that's where I removed his soul and put it on a bottle. I will make him watch as I destroy the souls of his whore and of her unborn bastard." He then said it in a quite matter-of-course way and without bitterness, as if he was just talking about trivial little things in a casual conversation.
Revulsion filled Bella's heart. "You will kill Leah while pregnant with Naruto's child?" She then expounded in a voice filled with abhorrence, hoping that some glimmer of reason and conscience would make Alex think otherwise and reconsider.
"You make it sound like I'm a hitman Bella. No I'm not gonna kill them that quick. It's a pain filled but not necessarily brief process. Trust me, you don't want to know the details as it's quite distasteful." Alex said as if he was just telling a joke. He then laughed and laughed till it was enough to make a person sick to hear him.
At this point Bella remembered one of Naruto's hypotheses that were telepathically conveyed to her earlier. The shinobi speculated that Alex's new found powers is causing him to be mentally imbalance and violently mad, and perhaps by somewhat cutting him from that power or making him voluntarily severe his connection to it he may regain his sanity back.
"Alex…I think there is something wrong with you…and it has something to do with your new found abilities." Bella said in a gentle voice, taking as much care not to anger the young man.
"You mean to say that wielding the powers of the living universe makes me a little crazy? Is that what you want to say? Alex inquired with a demonic grin on his face.
Bella froze in fear but gathering all her courage she answered. "Yes"
"I know. I realized that like four hours ago." Alex shrugged then chuckled.
"Alex, listen to me. You must snap out of it." Bella said earnestly to the young man.
"Why? Why should I give up my power, it makes me feel good." Alex queried in a suspicious voice.
"Because it is messing with your head." Bella retorted in a concerned tone. "Trust me."
"Are you planning something, a subterfuge?" Alex said in a voice that was starting to get interlaced with distrust and cynicism. "Please don't play games with me Bella. If you force me to break your mental defenses and enter your mind, I assure you the results would be most unpleasant." He then continued in a demonic growling of a voice while his eyes now glowed so intense that it was like looking in to an empyrean wall of white light.
Bella was scared to death but nonetheless stood her ground. "I'm your friend Alex…but if you no longer trust me then just kill me now." She then said with courage that only a few individuals possess.
"I…..I….very well Bella, I will do what you ask of me." Though hesitant, Alex conceded and severed his connection from the cosmos. At this point the white glowing of his eyes ebbed, bringing back the bright sapphire blue in them as his senses raced back in to the threshold of consciousness and regain his nearly lost volition.
"Ughh what just happened?" Alex said, confused, holding his head as if he just woke up from a prolonged nightmare. "No…what have I done….." He then muttered remorsefully in an airy voice as he remembered the onslaught he had wrought and the millions of lives he delivered to death's welcoming embrace.
"You killed all those people Alex." Bella said in a low sad voice.
"I didn't mean to….." Alex said in a hollow voice, distraught as his conscience slowly ate through him. "I didn't know….that I would turn in to a monster the moment I merge with the living universe and become the conduit of its power. I never wanted to kill anyone." He then said with tears welling up his eyes; grabbing Bella's arms, begging his friend to believe him, to forgive him.
"You gave me your word that you won't bother us again." Bella said with a little sneer in her voice finding the young man's actions and presence contemptible.
"I have no choice Bella….I don't want you to die." Alex said in the most broken voice as if he knew something that Bella is not aware of.
"What?" Bella inquired with a furrowed brow, more confused than irate, stomped on the later statement.
"I can't explain it but please believe me." Alex practically begged.
"If what you say is true then release Edward and Naruto from your curse." Bella demanded firmly in a calm and collected voice.
"But they will kill me the moment I do that Bella." Alex replied, looking at Bella with eyes that reflected his anxiety.
"No one will hurt you." Bella said in a gentle voice of reassurance. "You're my friend. I won't let them kill you." She then smiled with a gentle smile at Alex, and to this he smiled back as he found solace in her kindness that seemingly proved Nyarlathotep wrong.
"You fool, she's using you. Don't trust her!" Nyarlathotep exclaimed in an angry stentorian voice, telepathically communicating to Alex from the other side of the barrier.
"I will do what you ask." Alex said with a gentle smile on his face, ignoring Nyarlathotep's voice. At that point the ethereal lance piercing Naruto's chest and the rune paralyzing Edward lost their power and dissolved.
"Thank you." Bella said, hugging the young man.
"Will you….take me back again?" Alex asked said in a voice that was interlaced with unease and hesitation but not without hope.
"Yes" Bella replied ever so gently.
It was the happiest day of Alex's life for despite the disaster which he was mostly responsible, Bella chose to still give her a second chance; and though they didn't end up together he was again part of her life and she a part of his, and that gave him much solace.
Out of sudden Bella pushed him away. "Now Naruto!" She then exclaimed.
Alex quickly turned his head then saw Naruto behind, with a kunai in hand piercing his back. "aghh….Bella….you promised." He muttered stutteringly in a low and crestfallen voice that reverberated his despondency and echoed the anguish that replaced the hope he once had; looking at Bella with half-masted dulled blue eyes in both disbelief that she could have done this to him, and despair as he later realized what a fool he was for being so trusting as he coughed up blood due to the kunai puncturing one of his lungs.
Seeing the pitiful display Bella turned her gaze away from the dying young man as she couldn't stand to see those eyes looking at her before he lay down his life, those blue sapphire eyes that were sad by nature as well as circumstance. "I'm sorry Alex. You've given us no choice." She then uttered inaudibly in downheartedness.
Subsequently, Naruto engendered cursed marks to spread from Alex's body that will trap him in a genjutsu for the short remainder of his life. Allowing the young man to pass away peacefully, preventing a psionic backlash that will kill everyone within his power's range.
However to everyone's horror when dark energies suddenly twisted and billowed about Alex subsequently enveloping him in what looked like a ghostly cloak that was being blown by eerie winds of the underworld. As the shadowy darkness ebbed the young man has also disappeared. This happened so fast that even Naruto wasn't able to stop it.
In truth, the gods beyond the barrier pooled their collective power to effect the physical realm and prevent the key to their release from dying without opening all the locks of their extradimensional prison, sending Alex to the shadow realm where their demonic servants can heal the young man from his fatal wound and help him recuperate.
Though verily the gods rejoiced for this short term defeat is nothing more than an actual victory, and the next step to their plan of returning to Earth and re-enslaving humanity for their prison has multiple gates placed by Errealth to prevent their escape; and today, the massive psychic shockwave that reverberated in the land of dreams from Alex's hopelessness, along with the prerequisite tribute of millions of angry souls lamenting their untimely death and crying for justice in the land of the dead has opened two of the three gates of the barrier.
"What happened?" Bella asked with a voice that was both laced with guild and horror.
"Is he dead?" Edward supplemented with another inquiry. It was already sunrise at that point and his body was sparkling like diamonds as the rays of the morning sun gently caressed his marble-like skin.
"No" Naruto said in a deathly serious voice.
"The next time we see him he will no longer listen to me." Bella muttered in fear.
"What should we do?" Edward inquired in the same mirthless tone.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there." Naruto replied, seemingly regaining back his more laidback, jovial and jesting personality, rejoicing today's triumph. "At the mean time do put on some clothes Edward. Jeez….the only thing worse than seeing you naked is seeing your family jewels sparkle in the sun."
-End
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Hey there Folks!
I hope you awesome people enjoyed reading. Originally my plan was to post this and the previous chapter as one but I realized that it's too long for just a single chapter.
Anyways, I decided to name this chapter 'Sanity's Eclipse' not only because one of the characters went totally bonkers but mainly because of the insane (pardon the pun) number of plot twists and mind bending scenes in this particular chapter that would shake the reader's previously held beliefs or assumptions about the nature of reality in the story and would keep him/her guessing what would happen next.
Also, in the past chapters you may have noticed that Naruto always win by overpowering the opponent and it has been a little bit predictable. So in this chapter I think it would be nice for a change that he would overcame his enemy by using his wits and cunning as a shinobi.
Thanks so much folks for the wonderful responses and inputs. They are always welcome and I always appreciate 'em.
See you next chapter!
Cheerio :)