Celestial Twilight
Naruto raced through the Sound village, cutting, hacking, slashing, blasting and obliterating any enemy Ninja stupid enough to stand in his way. In a whirlwind of bloody chakra and fire Naruto tore through anything in his path. The demonic chakra around him boiled and frothed as he set buildings ablaze with a bolt of energy or demolished them altogether with a flick of his hand, exercising Kyuubi's power to a frightening extent.
The single tail of Kyuubi's energy thrashed about behind Naruto like a wrecking ball, tearing up the streets and smashing apart even the sturdiest looking structures as the fox guided it with his will.
No time to demolish the village entirely, Naruto thought to himself as a Sound Ninja fled in terror from him. He didn't finish the retreating enemy. I've got to get to the palace and hit Orochimaru directly.
Naruto looked up to get his bearings, surprised by just how much damage he'd already done. Every one of the barracks-like buildings within a hundred yards of the Kage-Jounin was either laying in utter ruin or quickly burning to that same point and belching sooty clouds of smoke into the air. Naruto grimaced, remembering Kiri, but spotted the spire and quickly ran for it, ignoring everything else in his path.
In an almost effortless bound Naruto jumped over the ten foot wall surrounding the palace and landed gracefully in a large, open courtyard of polished marble. He glanced around, his vision crystal clear and his hearing picking up every snap of every burning timber within the village. At the far end of the yard an oiled and shining wooden porch led up to a massive door made of oak set into the base of the palace and wrapped in steel bands.
"Naruto!" shouted a feminine voice.
He turned and saw the Sisters, without even a scratch, sprinting across the courtyard towards him. Alicia almost stumbled when he turned to her, fear etched in her face. It occurred to him that none of the Sisters had seen him using this much demonic chakra, but he didn't banish the aura but he did let it cool to a dim glow around his features.
"Where's Jirai-" Naruto began, cutting himself off as a section of the courtyard wall exploded in behind him with a thunderous crash and a spray of rock. "Never mind," he finished, seeing the cloaked Sanin sprint through the breach.
"Stop your chatting and get to work," shouted Jiraiya, running past them towards the door at the end of the courtyard.
Naruto and his guard instantly fell in behind the Sanin, but all five stopped at the base of the large porch as the heavy looking double-door opened up wide. Skidding to a stop, Naruto gasped as Sasuke, dressed in the same outfit he'd worn at the Valley of the End, stepped out onto the porch.
"Sasuke," barked Jiraiya, crouching down and readying to pounce. "Are you on our side or not!?"
"Whoa, hold it!" Sasuke said tersely, holding up his hands and stepping away from the door. "I'm here to help you."
Naruto glared at Sasuke for a moment, then turned to Jiraiya and the Sisters. "It's a clone," said the Jounin. "It's a long story but this is a clone sent by the free part of Sasuke's mind. I've met these before. Sasuke," he said, turning quickly to the shadow-clone. "What can you tell us? We don't have a whole lot of time."
Sasuke's clone shook his head. "No we don't, things are happening faster than I'd planned. I've been slowly freeing myself from Orochimaru's seal and if you'd waited another few hours I'd be able to help you directly. All I can do for now though is tell you where to find everyone."
"Out with it," said Jiraiya, "we need to get moving."
"Of course," said the clone as the five Leaf Ninja jumped up onto the porch. "Orochimaru and I are down in the basement labs. You're not going to meet any resistance from the cloned Ninja he's been throwing at you, but he's holed up pretty tight. I think he's trying to perform some kind of summoning, but I'm not sure what he's calling. I suggest you hurry to stop him before we all find out."
"Thanks Sasuke, we can find our way down there," said Naruto, "Don't worry, we're going to get you out of this mess."
Sasuke grinned and looked away. "I'd appreciate that," he said. "If you can draw most of Orochimaru's attention away from me, I should be able to break his hold on me long enough to help you against him."
Jiraiya walked forward. "We'll do what we can to help you Sasuke," he said, "but you need to tell me where the Fourth is. Is he here?"
Sasuke turned and looked over his shoulder through the open door to the palace. "He's waiting for you in there," said the Uchiha. "I'll hopefully see you all in a bit. Good luck everyone," said Sasuke's clone, disappearing in a poof of smoke.
Naruto felt the air around him chill. His father, the Fourth and greatest of Konoha's Hokages was all that stood between him and Orochimaru.
"If the Fourth is alone," said Trina, glancing between Naruto and Jiraiya, "then all five of us can hit him at once and we'll end it for sure."
"No," said Jiraiya, "you four go and stop Orochimaru. I'll handle Minato and join you as soon as I can." His voice was icy and stiff. "Make sure he can't complete whatever Sasuke was talking about."
Naruto grimaced. "The Fourth isn't going to just roll over and die," he said quietly. "You sure you can manage this?"
Jiraiya nodded curtly. "Let's get on with it," he grunted, crossing the threshold with the other four Leaf Ninja on his heels. Trina, Karenna, and Alicia all seemed strangely pale as they entered the lavishly decorated entryway, their padded boots thudding on the shining marble entryway.
Naruto swallowed hard. The wide, expansive hall was lit by chandeliers and lined with closed doors, and stairways leading up to a second level, but he knew that only one door would lead to down to the labs, to Orochimaru. That door was one level beneath this one, and the only stairway descending to reach it was at the end of this hall. Naruto could see it easily enough. It was guarded by Minato.
The broad passage terminated at the top of the ornate steps, all too inviting of a target, but Namikaze Minato stood in front of the first ivory step, his arms folded in front of his chest as he watched them enter. As Jiraiya neared, Minato stirred. He smiled and walked forward, dropping his hands to his sides and balling them into fists, making his leather gloves creak.
He wore the same white, flame-decorated cloak that had been his trademark in Konoha. His hair hadn't changed, still resembling a blond sea-urchin more than anything, and his piercing blue eyes scanned the intruders like they were old acquaintances.
"Jiraiya-Sensei," said Minato, swaggering up in front of the group and stopping in the center of their path, standing tall with an air of well-earned pride about him. "It's good to see you again; been a long time." He turned to the Sisters and grinned widely. "And here are three faces I thought I'd never see again. Girls, I haven't seen you since your days in the Academy… and Naruto," he turned to the Uzumaki, "Naruto, you've... grown up," he smiled wider, "that's all I can say. And you've learned to use the Kyuubi's chakra just as I hoped." He glanced at the flickering red aura.
"Minato-Sama," said the Sisters, almost sheepishly, refusing to look at him. Alicia even inclined her head towards the Fourth.
"Father," Naruto acknowledged, his skin going cold despite the hazy red aura churning around him.
Kit! Kyuubi shouted, leaping in. Now's your chance. Take him down.
Naruto hesitated as Minato looked between the Sisters and Naruto, then turned to a very quiet Jiraiya. I can't, he muttered to the Demon. The whole way here I was preparing to fight him, but now that I'm actually here… I can't.
Naruto, now's not the time for sympathetic pacifism. Attack! Where is that ruthless cunning and mercilessness now that we could actually use it?! You're going soft.
"Jiraiya, I would say I'm sorry it had to be this way, but... ... it might sound disingenuous," said the Fourth. "Now, I'm assuming you're all here to kill Orochimaru." Minato crouched down a little lower and instantly Jiraiya mirrored his pose. "That's something I can't allow."
His mind belongs to Orochimaru now, Naruto told himself. He's not Namikaze Minato. He's just one of Orochimaru's puppets. The blond Ninja glanced over at the Sisters, each posed to fight, but utterly without any fire in their eyes. They knew him somehow, Naruto guessed. They must have known him while he was alive.
"Minato," said Jiraiya coldly, "you won't be able to stop us all."
"You're assuming I care," said the ex-Hokage, his voice deeper than before. His eyes were sparkling unnaturally blue and his hands had begun to glow. "At least I can weaken you enough for Orochimaru to finish this. More likely though-"
Kit, Kyuubi growled. This Minato is not a pure-blooded Maiban anymore. I sense none of their power in him but he is still dangerous, obscenely so. Your teacher may require your help. Strike now!
Right… even if he could be saved he would never be my real father again. Naruto clenched his teeth, but began drawing on more of the demonic chakra.
Minato's gaze snapped to Naruto and in an instant the Namikaze disappeared. Naruto gasped as the gloved fist stopped a mere inch from his face. Somewhere in the nanosecond since Minato vanished, Jiraiya had followed suit and caught Minato's wrist before he could land the hit on Naruto.
"Go!" shouted the Sanin, wrenching Minato down and throwing him off balance for the most infinitesimal second. Jiraiya spun faster than Naruto had ever seen him move and pressed his hands together in a frenzied series of seals. Minato turned to the Sanin, recovering his balance almost as soon as he'd lost it, and jumped back, cackling with blue chakra, his cloak whipping so fast around him it looked like a sheet of glass.
"Go!" Jiraiya repeated, throwing a swirling ball of black energy, howling like a gale, at Minato. The Namikaze dove to the side as the orb smashed into the tiled floor and sent a shockwave of blue chakra out in all directions, tearing up the tiles for several feet and splintering the wood paneled walls with a deafening crack. "He's out of your league!"
Naruto and the Sisters didn't hesitate. They dove for the stairs as Jiraiya and the Fourth charged each other again, colliding in mid air. Minato grabbed Jiraiya's wrist and whirled him in a circle through the air, smashing him into the ground. The four Leaf Ninjas leapt down the stairs and turned a corner. Trina threw open a door and waved Naruto and her sisters through, then slammed it behind herself.
Jiraiya only let his eyes dart to the stairs for a second, then turned back to Minato, who got up from the pile of what had been a table Jiraiya had thrown him against; the Fourth dusted himself down and looked at his old teacher.
"So I'm not the only one who has improved," said Minato.
"I've made a point to get a little stronger every day for the last fifteen years," said the Sanin.
Minato straightened up. I'm not running at full strength, he mused. Orochimaru may have reconstructed my body perfectly but he couldn't give me all of my old Maiban power. This battle between Jiraiya and I should be more evenly matched, although… I'll still have the advantage.
"Minato," Jiraiya said in a sigh. "What Orochimaru did to you is unforgivable…"
"Look at however you want," said the blond Ninja. "I don't really care. I serve him now even though he is a snivelling, cowardly weakling compared to either of us. It's just my purpose."
Jiraiya bit his lip. "Purpose… Purpose? You've utterly lost your free will," he said, standing up straight and throwing his brown cloak off his shoulders. Underneath was the same black armor Tsunade had worn to Suna: The Hokage's personal armor.
Minato raised an eyebrow. "I see you commissioned yourself a suit," he said guardedly. "So you anticipated dying here?"
Jiraiya shook his head. "I didn't want to make this any easier for you than it had to be," said the older of the two, holding his hand in front of his face as a small orb of chakra, the Rasangen, coalesced in his hand.
SC
"It should be down this way," said Trina, leading the sprinting Leaf Ninja down a side passage.
"I don't want there to be any 'should be' about it Trina," said Karenna. "Get us there."
The four Ninja had gone immediately from the confrontation between Jiraiya and the Fourth towards the main stairwell that, according to Tobi's maps, would lead them down to the complex's labs. Following the well down hundreds of steps had left them in a world that might as well have been alien.
The empty hallway, several dozen floors beneath the surface, was devoid of any life or decoration. It was sheer concrete without a soul in sight, and freezing cold. Alicia's lips and fingertips were as blue as Karenna's icy lipstick and the Ninja could see their breath as plainly as though it were smoke.
"I don't like this," said Karenna. "Where are all the guards?"
"Don't complain. Sasuke said there wouldn't be any," said Naruto.
"And you trust him?" countered Karenna. "Are you sure that's wise?"
"I trust that he's doing whatever it takes to get free of Orochimaru and if that involves helping us then that's what he'll do. Here we go," said Naruto as they stopped in front of a large, iron plated door. "This should be the entrance to the labs according to the maps Tobi gave us. You all ready?"
The Sisters nodded and Naruto reached out, twisting the large handle and pulling open the door. A wave of arctic air slapped them all in the face as the door opened with a loud hiss. The air smelled much the same as the Village of Kiri on the night they slaughtered the town: like rotten corpses.
"What the hell is this?" Alicia whispered as Naruto pulled the door open fully and stepped inside.
"Orochimaru's cloning facility it looks like," said Naruto, stepping over the threshold and out onto the catwalk suspended a whole story above a massive chamber filled with rows upon rows of near-opaque glass pods. Inside each one was a lump of flesh about the size of a human fist. "This must be where he grows his armies."
"It certainly explains where he got all of those worthless Ninja he attacked Konoha with," said Trina, stepping forward and setting her hands on the railing. She looked out over the field of obscure glass. It was a maze "We're supposed to find Orochimaru in all of this when he's waiting in ambush for us…"
Naruto pointed a finger down into the room. With a shrieking crack a bolt of red chakra flew from his fingertip and smashed into one of the pods which exploded in a flash of glass shards and boiling water. The unrecognizable blob of tissue tumbled to the ground.
Trina jumped in surprise and turned to look at Naruto as he fired again, destroying another pod in an identical display. "Orders sir?" she asked.
"Flush him out," said Naruto as the red chakra bubbled up around him. "Destroy them all. Make sure none of this is left when we're done here but stay together. I'm not going to have anything happen to you."
The Sisters nodded and jumped in unison down to the lower level. Naruto watched for a moment as the three of them set about tearing open and incinerating the pods in numerous small explosions that sent splashes of boiling water everywhere.
"C'mon you bastard," he mumbled. "Where are you…"
Naruto set one hand on the railing and jumped over the edge. Landing crouched with a growl he flung out his arms and loosed a red shockwave of energy. The demonic chakra slammed into the containers all around him and shattered them open. Naruto twisted and roared, making a big production of it all to let Orochimaru know he was here for him. All around Naruto and the Sisters, pods shattered and spilled their fleshy contents to the ground as the team worked deeper into the laboratory.
He'd almost begun to think Orochimaru wasn't going to show, when Naruto caught a flicker of movement and stopped dead in his tracks. He'd lost it, but something had moved and it wasn't one of the Sisters.
Acting on instinct Naruto whirled around, wrenching the amber sword free of its sheath and throwing it up in defense. The air split with a howling gust and blue sparks exploded from the two swords as they met in midair. Naruto shoved forward, throwing Sasuke off balance and leapt back.
"Sorry Naruto," said Sasuke, gritting his teeth and starring at the blond through his Mangekyou Sharingan. "I don't have much of a choice yet." His whole body was trembling, struggling against the long and elaborate seal that covered him from his fingertips all the way to his neck.
"Where's Orochimaru?" growled Naruto.
"Here," said Sasuke, his voice strained. "He's here. Naruto, hurry up and finish him. I'm fighting as hard as I can but-"
Sasuke's Mangekyou spun and loosed a torrent of white fire straight for Naruto. Naruto charged forward, shouting and staving off the white fire with a massive blast of red chakra, parrying Sasuke's midnight weapon to the side and slamming his fist squarely into the Uchiha's jaw. Sasuke toppled back, but recovered and spun around, swinging the sword straight at Naruto's neck as the Uzumaki stepped forward.
Naruto caught the blade against his own and jumped in close, smashing his elbow into Sasuke's chest and spinning to kick Sasuke in the stomach. The Uchiha shot backwards and slammed into one of the concrete walls. To Naruto it was all too obvious that Sasuke was barely fighting. He was torn, trying desperately to regain the control of his body the seal had taken away.
Naruto stumbled as the floor shook and an explosion rumbled from deeper in the lab. Both Sasuke and Naruto turned towards the epicenter. "Orochimaru found your friends," said Sasuke, his limbs shaking as though he were having a seizure. He held one hand up in front of his face as Naruto looked back at him.
"Almost Naruto, I'm so close," he growled. He dropped his hand and looked at his long time friend resolutely. "Orochimaru's hold is breaking Naruto. Go! Please! Destroying Orochimaru is your number one priority but-"
"I'm getting you out of here Sasuke," Naruto interrupted. "As soon as Orochimaru is dead, we're going back to Konoha together."
Sasuke nodded and screwed his eyes shut. "Go!" he snarled.
SC
"You're getting slow old man," Minato sneered.
Minato vanished, darting around behind Jiraiya in the blink of an eye and slamming the Sanin between the shoulder blades with the heel of his boot. Jiraiya toppled into a wall, leaving a sizeable crack in the paneling and spun around, flinging a handful of kunai at the Fourth that all thudded harmlessly into a nearby portrait.
Jiraiya huffed, glaring at Minato who, aside from a few rips and tears in his cloak and a bleeding cut across his cheek, was virtually fine. Jiraiya on the other hand, was struggling to stand. The armor was dented and dinged all across his back and chest, scuffed from the several solid hits Minato had landed.
"I never did teach you to read your opponent well enough," the Sanin chuckled in a deep, strained laugh, wiping a thin trail of blood from his lip. "Anticipating the obvious solution never was fully within your grasp."
Minato looked incredulously at his old teacher. "It's obvious enough you don't have a chance against me," said the Fourth. "What could be more blatant than that?"
The ground beneath Minato exploded up in a flurry of stone splinters. A red toad the size of a man broke through the floor and hacked at him with a short wakizashi.
"Not enough!" Minato shouted, catching the sword between his thumb and index finger, jerking it from the toads hand and shoving it point first into its owner's forehead; the frog disappeared in a blast of white smoke. "You're-"
Jiraiya's knee slammed into Minato's chin, snapping his head back and knocking him off balance. In a flash the Sanin was right beside Minato, moving almost too fast for even Konoha's yellow flash to see. He grabbed his old student by the throat and thigh and smashed him over his knee, trying to break his back.
Before Minato could even scream Jiraiya had blurred through a series of hand seals and slapped his palm on Minato's chest and knocked him down to the ground. A slimy orange flesh raced from between Jiraiya's fingers and covered Minato in a second, gluing him to the floor and racing all through the hall. Within seconds the entire chamber was covered in the flesh, floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall.
Jiraiya jumped back, his eyes alight with new and fiery energy. No way that was enough, fretted the Sanin, staring at the lump in the ground he knew was Minato. Three celestial gates and a jutsu he knows how to get out of wouldn't finish him. "Hey Minato," he shouted, seeing the lump stirring a bit. "You should stay down. The esophagus of a mountain toad suits you."
Minato leapt from the floor with a loud tear and a flash of blue chakra as he burst from the fleshy growth, covered in a thin veil of slime. "Sly devil!" he shouted, jumping back and landing with a squish. "Of course that's what you'd do, you suicidal dolt. It's the only way to beat me." He was almost laughing. "But now you're the one missing the obvious."
"There's no escape for you now Minato," shouted Jiraiya, holding his hands in the ram seal in front of his chest. Dark lines appeared beneath the Sanin's eyes that spread to form an intricate tattoo like design all over his face. Warts sprung up on his cheeks and chin and his nose bulged into an almost bulbous growth. "We're both dead now!"
"You just had to cross that line," muttered Minato. "Are you really willing to sacrifice yourself just for this, to kill a man who's already dead?"
Jiraiya nodded in fierce motion. "You're an abomination Minato. Orochimaru made you into a monster. Now to give Naruto even just chance to make all this right I'd die a thousand times over if I had to!"
"It might just come down to that!" Minato roared, charging forward, tearing up the slimy floor with every step. Jiraiya burst to one side, running in an inhumanly fast zigzag towards Minato with his hands crackling in a haze of blue chakra.
Minato vanished in a rush of air and Jiraiya did the same. They collided in midair, Jiraiya slamming his fist into Minato's defending forearm, then they vanished again and appeared on the opposite end of the hall less than a second later where Jiraiya was on the defensive, parrying off Minato's brutal Taijutsu.
Over and over they appeared and vanished, smashing into each other and colliding in a flurried tangle of chakra fueled fists and kicks. Jiraiya grabbed hold of Minato's leg and leapt into the air, spinning around and flung him into the floor. A wave of chakra rolled off the Sanin as he landed and clenched his eyes. As Minato sprung to his feet a reddish hue seeped into Jiraiya's exposed hands and face turning him pink then red, and finally deep scarlet.
As Minato charged again Jiraiya's pallid, pupil-less eyes burst open and he roared, shaking the palace. Minato pressed two fingers to his lips and blew a fountain of flame towards the Sanin, who didn't move out of the way.
The almost magma-like fire peeled away from Jiraiya like boiling paint, impacting an invisible dome of energy that surrounded the Sanin. The kunai and shuriken following immediately behind the flame rebounded as harmlessly as the fire from the shield of pure energy.
Taking less than a second to cross the hundred feet between them, Jiraiya appeared in front of Minato, a fully formed Rasangen screaming in his hand. "Enough!" Jiraiya roared through clenched teeth as another wave of chakra rolled off of his shoulders as he shoved the orb against Minato's chest.
Both figures rocketed towards the rear wall as Jiraiya drove them on, the Rasangen tearing into Minato the whole way until they slammed into the paneled wood and shattered it like balsa. The Rasangen exploded and a hurricane of miniscule blades went everywhere, slashing into both Minato and Jiraiya, skittering off of the metal armor.
Minato flew back through the destroyed wall and pulverized a huge cabinet full of dishes and china in the kitchen on the other side, disappearing under the debris. The Sanin didn't give him a second to recover, but slapped the ground with the heel of his hand, propelling a wave of invisible chakra throughout the kitchen and hall. The wave left the floor in its wake a sickly black muck into which everything not hung from a wall began to sink: Jiraiya's underworld Swamp, the most massive he'd ever created.
Jiraiya leapt back and perched like a crow on the banister of a staircase, watching with narrowed eyes the rubble of the ruined cabinet as it began sinking into the swamp. If the maps are correct, Jiraiya though, Naruto and the Sisters should be far enough away and down far enough to avoid any trouble from this… They can use the emergency exit to get out.
The Sanin jerked around as some flash of movement behind him exploded in his peripheral vision. Minato had jumped from the swamp right behind him and whirled around, throwing a kick for Jiraiya's face.
Jiraiya jerked his hands up to block the blow but still took the brunt of the force and tumbled back up the stairs. Rolling to a stop, he looked at Minato in utter horror. The once beautiful man looked more deathly and evil than Jiraiya ever would have imagined him. His skin was the same burning red as the Sanin and his eyes were the same featureless white, though his features were stretched tight over his bones. He'd released seven of the locks.
"You're not the only one who can open Celestial Gates Jiraiya-Sensei," growled the Namikaze, his voice undulating with unrestrained energy and near infinite power. "You just had to push it to this didn't you?! You just had to cross that line!"
Before he could move or even think, Jiraiya found Minato's iron fingers locked around his throat. The ex-Hokage wrenched Jiraiya into the air and shook him like a rag doll, his grip crushing the Sanin's wind pipe and making his world spin.
"You did this Jiraiya, you did this," he hissed.
The Sanin kicked and struggled, sputtering to get out of the deathgrip, but nothing broke Minato's hold and the world was beginning to blacken already. So it comes to it now, Jiraiya thought as he heard his larynx crack painlessly beneath Minato's fingers, consigning him certainly to death. Seven Gates weren't enough… and now I'm dead anyway.
Jiraiya stared into Minato's molten eyes and snarled feraly. All he could feel was the sea of energy rolling through his body in searing tides. Already, even now on the brink of death, there was more power coursing in his veins than he's ever felt, breaking only on one last bulkhead. Jiraiya felt the Eighth Gate rip open and the energy coursed through his heart.
Everything stopped.
Minato's fingers stopped tightening and Jiraiya saw his world through a whole different spectrum, a vast array of countless new and indescribable colors as the Eighth Gate released his senses from any kind of mortal constraint. His mind was utterly clear and his every thought trained on the one new purpose he suddenly understood: destroying this abomination, this falsehood, this pathetic copy of a great man. Jiraiya understood perfectly. He'd been born for this, for these brief seconds, for his moment. For this brief instant in time, an eternity to Jiraiya who was suddenly timeless, the Sanin was nothing less than a god.
So this is why they call them 'Celestial Gates' he thought, almost amused. What a misnomer. Only the Eighth is truly celestial… heavenly… godlike.
Minato gasped as Jiraiya's eyes washed over with crimson and his skin changed instantly to a shade of black darker than the deepest pit of Hell. Jiraiya's steely hand locked around Minato's wrist, crushing the bones into powder even before he squeezed, and nearly tearing the Fourth's hand from his arm as his fingers tightened only the tiniest bit.
The Sanin wrenched Minato's arm from its socket, ripping the limb cleanly away from his body even before his heart could beat to pump the blood through the wound. He tried to speak as he easily pushed the fingers of his free hand into Minato's chest, to tell the Fourth it was truly over for him and that he was not Namikaze Minato, but only a twisted and weak copy. The words wouldn't come.
Of course, thought Jiraiya watching the frozen terror on the posing Minato's face for what, to him, seemed like hours. I'm dying, he laughed in his mind. I forgot my windpipe is crushed. Of course I can't speak… It's been so long since I thought about it. Ah well, to business now.
Through his new and perfect eyes, eyes that saw everything, Jiraiya looked curiously at his enemy. He could see the entire spectrum of light; radio waves humming through the air like tiny pulses in the wind, ultra-violet light like a thin sheen of sunlight around everything, and gamma rays beating out of the sun and punching through the wooden walls like a phantasmal mist, he could see it all.
Jiraiya nearly gasped when he looked through Minato, not only past, but through him, and saw hanging in the air what looked like a fabric of the tightest weave, laying layer on layer on layer from the ground to the sky. It bent around every object, every splinter of every piece of shattered furniture. Jiraiya could see the very fabric of space-time, the very weave of the universe right before his eyes, laid open like a book.
He could see just how false Minato had become. It was indeed the Fourth's soul, but Minato was not himself. His soul was no longer his own. It belonged to Orochimaru now. He had sealed it as his own, and it pained Jiraiya to see it.
At least Ino is free, thought the god. Orochimaru never sealed her soul. She is hers and she is Naruto's… This is it then…
With little more than a thought, Jiraiya loosed such a wave of chakra from only the tips of his fingers that the surface of the swamp burst into fire and the fleshy growth all over the walls shook and cooked in the blast, turning black and sooty in the sudden and invisible wave of infernal heat.
The resurrected Fourth disappeared instantly; vanishing into less than dust, less than soot as the heavenly energy ripped him apart on a subatomic level.
Jiraiya stood there on the stairs a moment, an eternity, longer and watched the fire spread from the surface of the swamp up the walls as the cooked frog throat fell away and splashed down into the muck. The black faded from his skin, though his eyes remained red, stained by the blood vessels that had ruptured, and he fell backwards onto the ivory steps. Not one muscle in his body was moving or even working. They'd all been completely ripped apart by the Eighth Gate.
The Sanin rolled down the stairs and splashed into his own swamp, completely unaware of the fire licking at the edges of his face or encroaching on his armor. He quickly sank beneath the surface and the light instantly faded. The fires left him alone, unable to follow him down as the swamp consumed its master.
So it's up to the next generation to correct all of the sins from the last one, thought the Sanin as his lungs collapsed. He felt no pain, most of his nerve endings had been destroyed, but was completely aware of his body shutting down as the Oto Palace burned down above him. He was blind but could feel it as rafters and beams fell from the ceiling and splashed into the swamp. At least mine isn't going out quietly.
Then another thought occurred to him as the darkness wrapping around mind became more and more total. It leapt to the forefront of his mind almost randomly, like an epiphany, but in his mind it made perfect sense to think about it now.
Naruto is going to be the one to lead this generation into a shining new place. He will, he will… I know he will. He will.
Jiraiya smiled, and died.
AN: Alright, I'm sort of exhausted lol. Again, to everyone who signed on to help with the Resident Evil project, thanks very much. I finally recovered all of the materials and got the ball rolling after a rather unfortunate incident which shall henceforth never be mentioned ever again. Anyway, ... (no easy way to say it) I need everyone who said they would participate to send me a pm or an email containing an address to which I could send the materials necessary for them to actually get this underway. That would be extremely helpful.
As to The Gambit, I really struggled with whether or not I wanted to keep the original ending to this chapter the way it was. Initially my plan had been to have Jiraiya survive and see things through to the end, but then it struck me that to do so and let Jiraiya see how everything played out would virtually destroy the theme behind the theme that I've been trying to write into this and which will become much more prominent in Book 3. Here's hoping you enjoyed and that everyone will review, yes, even you there in the pink shirt.
Thanks again for all of your help and input!
