(Elemental Nations – Ten Thousand Years Ago)
It was in the hour of the wolf when the blood drenched chaos settled in to soul crushing silence, glowing embers flickered from the once great conflagration that consumed the entire village atop the high-plateau; the Imaskari are now gone, their spires that held the recorded lore of a civilization stretching for thousands of years has crumbled and burned, their great athenaeums upon which contained the wisdom of ages has succumbed to fiery destruction, and indeed even their people are now ashes and cinders.
Though it would seem that despite the shinobis' thoroughness with their extermination a handful of survivors were able to flee from the genocide. One of them, a teen boy no older than fifteen of age, emerged from the dark forest covered in his own blood, barely able to keep himself conscious from the injuries he sustained.
By some luck or misfortune, no one knows how he survived but for some reason he did. Hobbling from the thorny thicket where he fell and later on regain consciousness, he rushed to a burning hovel that was once his home but it would seem he didn't saw what he's looking for. Frantically, he limped from wreckage to wreckage, calling for his mother in a weak and tired voice, hoping that somehow she survived the onslaught.
Then, as the boy reached the town square he saw many charred remains of what used to be his people. Slowly, and with a trembling heart he approached one of them, tears fell in streams from his eyes as he saw a familiar necklace half-melted and hanging from the neck of a heat blackened skeleton, confirming his greatest fear. Out of anguish and despair, and pained with the hatred for those who mercilessly slaughtered his people without provocation, the boy fell down to his knees and let out a cry of purest heartache.
After what seemed to be forever, he held his head up as his sobbing gave place to meditation, and finally to prayer. He stretched out his arms toward the now rising sun of dawn, calling upon the most terrible of their gods to exhort justice and vengeance for the destruction of his people.
And it would seem that whatever being he implored heard his voice for the ground has begun to tremble while the skies took strange shapes. Anon, the last remaining darkness was dispelled by an overwhelming empyrean illumination as a strange creature from a higher plane of existence descended in to the mortal realm.
The awe inspiring being took the form of a solid black silhouette of a youth riddled with iridescent starry-like spots akin to that of a cloudless night sky. A great platinum halo etched with unknown gleaming runes, and eternally burning with iridescent flames of emerald and azure hovered above its head like a crown. Its body, along with what looked like diaphanous wings or tendrils on its back that seems to be made from long streams of light gracefully flittered in to the air and was engulfed in a fiery blue-white aura that seemed to distort the very fabric of reality and decussate the boundaries between the material, spiritual, conceptual and metaphysical planes while numerous flickering orbs of energy akin to that of miniature stars continuously form, pulse and nova as they orbit around the being like electrons on a nucleus that coruscated with eldritch glints making it all but intolerably dazzling and blinding to behold.
"Tell me friend, why are you so disconsolately sad?" The deity then spoke in an eerie echoing voice as its tendril like wings fluttered like streams of daylight wavering in to the night.
"The shinobi…..they killed everyone….. we do not deserve this cruelty." The boy replied in a most broken voice, due in part to the heart wrenching sorrow and from beholding an outer-god. "My lord, I beg you please avenge us…..I have nothing but my life and my soul to offer you in return for what I'm asking….please take it, it's all I have left. "
"There's no need for you to die, for I shall aid you with my powers. Justice will be held in all balance...I give you my promise." The deity said kindly as he gently held the face of the boy to comfort him as he spoke in a voice that was like the light of distant stars translated in to sound. "This is my pledge and my bond to you dear cousin, I shall keep you safe with me. Every time the sun sets and each time it arises you will forget the pain as your wounded heart heal little by little, and when the right time comes, when the storm has passed, when the anguish is no more, I shall rouse you from your spiritual rest to fulfill your purpose. Come, sleep for now….."
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(Hoh Rainforest)
Azure pupils widened out of shock from the unpleasant surprise as the fiendish form of the dreadful creature melted, revealing a familiar face amidst the sulfurous demoniac corruption. "Charlie…." Naruto gasped in dread as he gazed upon the chief of police whose life he extinguished with his own hands.
He knew that Charlie was no monster, he was aware that the latter was involuntarily used as a vessel by a demonic entity without his volition to assuage the latter's hellish hunger. Then, without hesitation, the sapphire blue of the shinobi's eyes suddenly became ripples of cascading purple silver.
He knew the risks, he was fully aware that using the Samsara Reincarnation Jutsu could very well drain his life-force even if it was backed by the immense power of the Juubi and reinforced by the divine vitality of the demigod who shared half of his power to him before the latter crossed to the purlieus of eternal night.
However, before he could weave the seals to activate the jutsu he suddenly felt his strength enervating away like a feeble flame amidst a dreadful polar storm; furthermore, he could have sworn hearing eerie voices in to the ambient air, whispering rhythmically measured words in an unknown but peculiarly acquainted language which mounted and fell as if in some unholy litany of dark gods. Imperious, exigent and cruel it seemed to implore the consummation of forbidden powers and summon forces that are antagonistic to life.
As the chanting reached its crescendo Naruto suddenly felt what he could best describe as an eldritch pain, as if his heart was struck by a blade of flaming ice and his soul torn asunder from the mortal realm. Almost immediately afterwards, he felt the lethargy of impending death and couldn't find the strength to even stay upright; collapsing in to the ground he inchmeal his way in to a half-broken tree and grabbed its lichen encrusted bole, summoning all his strength to stand up but it was of no use for both his body and soul has now irrevocably succumbed to the unforgiving curse of the undead Imaskari High Priests whose pentacles have power over the forces of the netherworld, and whose magical incantations are swifter and more potent than the venom of demonic vipers.
Once again he fell to the ground; finding no strength to even move his fingers for the night of the priests' powers has now imposed its yolk upon his soul. He felt the weariness of the tomb and the weight of harsh eons grew heavy upon his shoulders; slowly oblivion took dominion over his sight and one by one the colors he knew faded away like a mural eroded by the desert winds, leaving nothing but stygian darkness and distasteful memories of everlasting agony.
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As Naruto opened his eyes once more he saw nothing save darkness; darkness which hid the nebulous empty shadows of immedicable anguish, and the gray dust of ages long forgotten, and of things that should've been but didn't; He felt that the air was ripe with death. Everywhere, in the shadow-curtained crypts and deep-shelved recesses, he felt the innumerable presence of the dead.
He thought that there was a sad sighing of stirred cerements, a breath exhaled by long-stiffened cadavers, a dry clicking of lipless teeth beside him as he groped his way. But darkness walled his vision, and he saw nothing except what his imagination could conjure.
Like a man who tries to flee from dream to baleful dream he wasn't even given a chance to rue his dreadful damnation for, anon, a dreadful demon from the hellish abysses of the netherworld manifested like a sudden harsh simoom amidst the reticulating lightning of the stygian heavens. Its nature was difficult to discern at first glance for its form constantly convulsed with the similitude of burning sulfur in a hellish pit, and terrible billows of thick noxious smoke enveloped the beast's body whose flesh seems to be constantly undergoing some unholy metamorphosis.
It would seem that as part of the terrible curse imposed by the Imaskari High Priests the nightmarish creature was summoned from the blackest recesses of Gehenna and was magically compelled, by virtue of their impious incantations, to torment the shinobi for eternity, until his soul shatters like glass.
Naruto weaved his hand in to seals to commence a preemptive strike with Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu but to his horror, he realized that he wasn't able to use any of his nature transformation techniques nor was he able to utilize any of his jutsus at all; then came the grim conclusion, he was powerless against the beast. With terror quickening his heart, he beheld the demon took notice of his presence. He blenched as he saw its three glowing eyes malignly fixate upon him with an open intention to kill. Then Like a vicious predator, it darted upon him with meandering movements, partially revealing its true form. On its ineffably deformed ape-like head was a gaping maw full of dagger like teeth, its limbs were not those of any creature he has ever seen; and its members undulated, bending like heated wax as the abominable creature closed the distance with incredible agility.
Evasive measures came to the shinobi's mind but he suddenly realized the heavy links of iron binding him to an obsidian obelisk etched with dark arcane glyphs pronouncing his curse and stipulating the innumerable tortures he has to suffer for eternity.
Terror has now mounted on his soul for he knew that this would be his end but nonetheless it did not erode his fortitude, he gently closed his eyes and stood up with the dignity of a warrior, which he had maintained through all the vicissitudes of his ten thousand year old life.
However, even with his eyelids shut tight he noticed a lurid burst that was as blinding as the darkness his vision is now accustomed to; this was accompanied by a sweltering pulse of heat which seemed to have issued directly from the heart of stars, quickly trailed by the terrible sound of crackling bones from all consuming stellar flames and the noxious odor of burning flesh as it sizzled and hissed in to ash. When he opened his eyes darkness prevailed once again, but as his vision slowly adjusted he saw that the demon was no more but a pile of unholy cinders and dimly glowing embers.
"What the hell just happened?" Naruto muttered to himself.
"It would seem that fortune still favors you." A strangely familiar voice said which made the shinobi quickly turned to its origin only to see the face of someone who was also strangely familiar.
"What the….." Naruto gasped. "You're that weird geezer from the bathroom." He continued, recognizing that the person or entity in front of him is the same old man he encountered on the lavatory of the restaurant during that time when he was about to propose to Leah, and accused him of committing a plethora of horrid crimes of which he doesn't have a single clue about. "Who are you?…no, what are you?" He then inquired as he gazed upon his interlocutor.
"Come with me, for your fate has summoned you." The old man replied nonchalantly, not caring to answer the blonde's more direct queries but flicked his wrist and engendered the heavy iron chains binding the former to shatter.
There was a wan phosphorescence that clung always about the old man, enough for Naruto to see him clearly but apart from that there was no illumination, and darkness still claimed dominion over the sphere of eternal night of which they thread.
"I'm not going anywhere until you answer my questions, old geezer." Naruto said in a serious voice as he eyed the latter with an ominous glare.
"Stay then if you wish. It will be just as well." The old man said, raising his right hand of which a miniature sun came in to being; flaring wildly, it illuminated the stygian realm, revealing to the shinobi the horrors that darkness had curtained from his eyes.
He saw the bones of men that were piled in repugnant confusion with those of fell monsters, and the riven sarcophagi from which protruded the half-decayed members of innominate beings; members which were neither heads nor hands nor feet. And soon the catacomb divided and redivided before him, so that he must choose his way at random, not knowing whether it would lead him back to the land of the living or into a more terrifying depths of perdition.
"What the hell…..!" Naruto said under his breath in a moment of both despondence and horror. "If I could only reawaken my Rinne Sharingan l'll be able to escape this hell in a blink of an eye." He then thought to himself in indignation.
"Make your choice shinobi for time is brief." The old man said in an authoritative voice as he was gradually engulfed by a bright light, transforming in to a towering and stout creature with the body of a man and head of a falcon, and above his head luridly burned a solar disk of which coiled by a golden serpent.
"Whoa I know you…." Naruto began as his eyes widened in both wonder and awe. "You're Ra, the sun god." He then added as the temple reliefs and statues of ancient Egyptian deities in Abu Simbel during his archeological days with Dr. Armitage flashed vividly before his eyes like a vision.
"How perceptive of you." Ra responded in a sere jaded voice while maintaining an austere expression on his face. "Now, are you coming or not?" He then said as he started to move forward while his entire person was partially levitated from the ground.
"Hey wait for me dude, I'm coming." Naruto responded as he picked up his pace, trying to keep up with the deity who moved as if with titanic strides. "Where the hell are we? And where are we going anyway?" He then inquired as, on their way, they came upon a lonely chamber of which there was an immense sarcophagus wrought of a dull, fretted limestone; there is no sculpture or inscription engraved on its surface that would help discern the identity of its occupant but seemed, from the proportions, a giant must lie within.
"It would be no wiser if I should name the region of which we thread or even that of your destination for; these realms are not listed on any mortal charts, nor maps of the starry heavens; they are hidden from mortal trespass and only exist in the purlieus of unformed dreams." Ra answered cryptically as he passed athwart the chamber without pausing.
The statement mystified the shinobi, purveying more questions than actually quenching his curiosity. Multiple times he tried to ask the deity more questions concerning it but the latter no longer care to vouchsafe any response.
Naruto felt that he had strode thousands of leagues in to networks of endless crypts and catacombs, until finally the deafening silence was broken by the flowing sound of some hidden underground stream of which direction there was a dull dawning that intruded upon the shadows.
Then as they passed upon a great portal of tarnished bronze he saw a vast river that was wide as an ocean, and peppered with bizarre geographical features. Some of them seemed normal enough at first glance like a nearby island that caught his attention. But upon closer inspection the shinobi realized the true nature of the surreal landscape such as the trees of iron and turquoise growing mightily on the unearthly soil of carmine stained silver, roaring lakes of fire from which strange cyclopean creatures dwelled, as well as grotesque spirits with heads of animals that guarded the island and always stood vigilant to obliterate any trespasser with spears and swords that burned with ghostly flames.
"Come" Ra beckoned in an authoritative echoing voice while he stood on a superbly magnificent solar barge that he manifested in to existence with magic.
"Awesome" Naruto muttered under his breath in astonishment as he embarked the divine vessel, though his attention was momentarily diverted as he suddenly heard a metallic clangor, and saw that the heavy doors of tainted bronze had closed in the cavern-entrance. Only then he realized the predicament which has led him in to the strange journey. Mustering courage he proceeded to query the sun god in a much more reverential tone. "Am I dead?"
The question caught Ra's attention. Looking at the shinobi an enigmatic beam emanated on his face. "Perhaps." He answered in the same esoteric manner. "But that is ultimately up to you young one."
It would seem that through the barge time and space were surely outpassed during the strange voyage; and as if he had gone beyond mortal existence, Naruto experienced neither thirst nor hunger. But it seemed that his soul drifted upon seas of strange doubt and direst alienation; and he feared the misty chaos about him even as he had feared the nighted catacombs. Often he tried to question the deity concerning their destination, but received no answer. And the wind blowing from shores unguessed, and the tide flowing to unknown gulfs, were alike filled with whispers of awe and terror.
This made the shinobi ponder the mysteries of his journey almost to madness; and the thought came to him that, after passing through the region of death, he was now traversing the gray limbo of uncreated things; and, thinking this, he was loath to surmise the next stage of his journey; and he dared not reflect upon the nature of its goal.
Though, nonetheless, compared to the horrifying depths of the catacombs were he felt that he strode its abomination filled maze for an eternity, the voyage of the solar barge went relatively expedient as they reached a tall island hove with verdurous trees and light, shell-shaped domes and blossomy gardens hanging far up in the dazzlement of noon. There, with a sleepy purling, the surf was lulled on a low, grassy shore that had not known the anger of storm; and fruited vines and full-blown flowers were pendent above the water. It seemed that a spell of oblivion and slumber was shed from the island, and that any who landed thereon would dwell inviolable forever in sun-bright dreams.
Naruto was seized with a longing for its green, flowery refuge; and he wished to voyage no farther into the dreadful nothingness of the mist-bound river but before he could utter a word the sun god spoke in the same voice of authority.
"My dominion ends here." Ra said looking at Naruto. "You must walk deep in to the forest. There, you will find your next guide." He then added while pointing his finger to what looked like an untrodden foothpath leading directly in to the heart of the woods for the shinobi to follow.
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Obeying the injunction of the sun god, Naruto walked the footpath for what seemed to be days. Traversing ever deeper in to the heart of the ancient forest he passed a strange lake of which hueless liquid hissed like a thousand serpents when a fragment of stone that broke beneath his footfall dropped in to the pool, serving as a reminder to the shinobi of the perils of his journey.
Passing many more peculiar terrains Naruto finally reached the tablelands of a great mountain from which ancient ruins still stood. "What is this place?" He muttered to himself in both curiosity and troublous acquaintance. His musings however was cruelly severed for, with his acute senses, he felt a lurking presence amongst the crumbling pillars of the immemorial city.
"Welcome Naruto" A gentle voice said behind his back that led the shinobi to instinctively turn to its origins in a defensive stance, only to find an elderly woman smiling kindly.
"Who are you? What is this place?" Naruto inquired, dumbfounded; seeing the friendly looking stranger that was somewhat familiar to him. "And more importantly, do you have any food? Please, I'm so famished!" He then supplemented with a humorously exhausted expression on his face while his tummy growled on cue as if in agreement.
"Oh you poor thing." The old woman said maternally. Then, with a flick of her wrist, food of every kind materialized out of thin air. There were fruits and berries that were saccharine and plump, roasted game birds spiced with aromatic herbs from the highlands, a delectable assortment of cheeses and wheat bread, along with butteries stuffed with an abundance of wholesome fare to quench his thirst. Though, it would seem that there is only one thing throughout the great selection that caught Naruto's attention.
With childlike excitement his azure eyes lit up as he went straight for the chashu ramen. "Soooooo gooood!" He then exclaimed with such wonderment as he slurped the noodles and the broth of which overwhelming goodness was like pure euphoria in a bowl.
"I'm glad you like it." The old woman said kindly with an amicable smile on her face. "Please, help yourself to some more."
With hunger a little mollified the shinobi suddenly remembered the first two questions he asked earlier and ventured to inquire once more. "Hey uhmm, Oba-chan." He began in a probing yet respectful tone. "I appreciate the great food, really I do. But please tell me, are you my second guide? And what is this place? Why does it look so familiar to me?"
"My name is Ishizu of the Imaskari. It is my greatest privilege to serve as humble a guide in this remarkable journey of yours." The old woman replied, bowing politely as she introduced herself. "And for your second and third questions….well, take a guess." She then continued while the beam on her face turned somewhat playful.
"Ishizu, your name sounds very familiar as well." Naruto involuntarily muttered as he sifted through the pages of his memory. "Okay, I got nothing." He then sighed comically as he eventually gave up.
"Already? You're still that same adorable little boy when I first saw you." Ishizu smirked like a mischievous if not eccentric grandmother.
Suddenly, like a spark Naruto's memories came back to him. He remembered that on one of their journeys, he and Jiraiya spent a few days on a strange village atop the high plateau of one of the great mountains that lie between the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Air. He remembered that the inhabitants of the said village were kind and gentle beings but were hated by the people of the outlying towns and was vilified by the cutters they met on their way.
Then looking at a bowl of cerise colored berries he remembered one of the healers on that village, of which name was Ishizu, giving him a handful of them before they left for Konoha. "I remember now. You're one of pervy-sage's friends from that village, along with Kaede and Tatewaki." He mumbled like a person who thinks aloud before bursting with excitement.
"I thought you'll never guess." Ishizu smiled at the shinobi." I remember when Jiraiya brought you to our village. You were no older than twelve back then…how you've grown in to such a fine young man." She then continued.
"Well, jeez thanks." Naruto blushingly chuckled back, scratching his head. "Oh, wait…can you tell me. What is this place again? The architecture is so familiar but I don't think I've seen this place before when I visited your village. And these things, they aren't just for decoration, aren't they?" He then inquired as he gazed upon the colossal rune etched moonstone monoliths that surrounded a series of trifold concentric circles carved in to the ground with infrangible glyphs, of which very center was a strange ancient tree with ghost-white wood and of whose leaves were metallic and silvery.
"This is the Elder Tree." Ishizu replied in the same kindly and mellow flowing voice. "Thousands of years ago before the age of the Elemental Nations, when my ancient ancestors were just beginning to settle on the high plateau of Mount Imaskar, they discovered a bizarre yet marvelous wonder that helped shape our society and changed it forever. It all started when a shepherd boy retrieved one of his lambs who wondered from its heard and in to the narrow bole of the Elder Tree, only to realize that the inside of the trunk was far tremendous from the outside."
"But, how's that possible?" Naruto queried, perplexed.
"Well, it turned out that Mount Imaskar is filled with naturally occurring interconnected portals and extra-dimensional pockets that expand the size of even the smallest crevice in to vast spaces. With time and study my ancestors were able to determine that behind this strange phenomenon the Elder Tree served as a nexus. Hungry for knowledge, they began performing arcane rituals on the tree, channeling its power to open a portal in to another plane of existence, the realm of the gods."
"Interesting" Naruto muttered involuntarily in a low breathy voice, eager to hear the rest of the curious tale. "Please go on." He then supplemented with childlike eagerness.
"My ancestors were avid to behold the gods, like children who long for their parents." Ishizu responded, the gentle expression on her face suddenly became stern as she continued. "However, we were gravely mistaken to think that the gods were the kind and benevolent creators we thought them to be. For from the magical portal my ancestors conjured a voice came…..the voice of the deceiver"
"The deceiver?" The shinobi echoed in a confused tone. "I don't think I understand Oba-chan"
"He is known by many names and he takes many forms but to us he is known as the outer god Nyarlathotep." Ishizu replied in a quivering voice of palpable trepidation after a lengthy interim.
"I definitely know him." Naruto thought grimly, while at the same time he can't help but notice that Ishizu hesitated more than once to give a response and when she finally did, she answered quite cautiously; choosing her words carefully as she spoke.
"Even in those days strife and war was prevalent. Our ancestors used their power to hide us from the rest of the world. However, they knew that it wasn't a permanent solution, they've feared that it was only a matter of time before one of the warring factions see through the wards and enchantments of illusion they've erected; and thus they decided to search for another place we could call home. Utilizing their arcane knowledge and with their will in unison they've sought to open a portal to another plane. But before a permanent dimensional gateway could be established, the dark god Nyarlathotep deceived the high-priestess, Kaguya Otsusuki, whispering to her ear of a great tree that grew from soil drenched in the blood that has been spilled from countless battles, he told her that eating the fruit of the tree will give her the means to end all wars."
"That very night, Kaguya left Imaskar in search of the god-tree. Some years later she found it and consumed its fruit. It made her so powerful to the point that she was single-handedly able to stop all wars in the land. However, any gift from Nyarlathothep has a steep prize. Slowly, chakra has poisoned her mind. She became tyrannical and paranoid, descending in to insanity to the point that her sons, Hagoromo and Homura decided with a heavy heart that she needed to be stopped. I believe you already knew what happened next."
"Feeling partially responsible for the dreadful incident our ancestors decided to stay and help the world heal in any way they could. However, since Kaguya is one of us, the people of the outlying lands have always viewed us with both distrust and fear. Many times they have assembled armies to exterminate us but our magical wards have always kept us hidden for centuries."
At this point Ishizu stopped as if something has upset her. She was somber and taciturn like a person in a deep and serious contemplation.
"Are you alright?" Naruto inquired worriedly. He already knew at that point that the next part of the anecdote is a tragic one.
"Oh, Naruto dear. How I wish things could've been different, that peace and understanding could've prevailed instead of war and hatred. However, it matter's little now….." Ishizu responded in a voice that was gentle but evidently in pain as she uttered every word with teary eyes. "Whenever you're ready we could continue to your journey." She then continued, regaining some of her composure.
To this Naruto nodded, signifying his assent though didn't know what to expect.
"Very well then." Ishizu said making a strange symbol with her hand; in answer to the sign a coruscating rune traced itself in to the air like a glimmering ice that was bathed in the rays of the moon.
Like a strange phantasmagoria, images and visions flashed before the shinobi's eyes like lucid dreams as the elder narrated what happened in the ancient past.
"A thousand years has passed since the time of Kaguya, most people have forgotten what happened but their hate for our kind was still potent. We were accused of being demons, dark conjurers, immortal monsters and so many more unsavory things."
"We were a simple people living a peaceful life. We were a society of scholars who deeply revered nature and study the inner workings of the world for it was our goal to enrich our knowledge of the esoteric and the arcane, and live in all balance with the natural order. We worshipped the old gods of the earth and the outer-gods for we were the direct descendants of them and as such lived a far longer lifespan than any ordinary human being. Though it is true that we know the pre-human runes that disintegrate the elements, the dark spells that instantly rots the heart of men more effectual than any lethal philter, and the blasphemous incantations that raise the dead from the nothingness of the tomb, we have employed them not, deeming their use an abhorrent thing. We were a pacifistic people though our ways would seem strange when viewed by an outsider. This has caused the other villages to view us with suspicion, and act towards us with utter contempt and disdain. Indeed, they treated us worse than animals whenever we come down from the high-plateau to trade our fare. Even so, we never planted the seeds of ill-will in our hearts and unfailingly showed them kindness in hopes that one day they will see us in a better light. We wanted them to see that just like them we were trying to live our lives peacefully, and we never meant nor wished any harm to anyone."
At this point Ishizu stopped and seemingly, for some reason hesitated to continue. An unmistakable expression of sadness and anguish assumed from the countenance of her face while her eyes turned dark like a pair round lapis that has been dulled by the passing of harsh eons.
"If it's too painful for you to recount, you could stop?" Naruto said in reassurance though curious to hear the rest of the strange tale."
"Don't worry about me dearie" Ishizu said as she turned his head towards him and beamed a maternal smile. "Now where was I? …..Ah yes, the war." She then spoke in a somewhat sad voice as she was finally able to assemble the words to continue her narrative. "I could never forget that moment when the fifth great shinobi war erupted."
"There was a fifth war?" Flummoxed, Naruto inquired in horror.
"Yes" Ishizu concurred glumly. "It began as a series of skirmishes from the survivors of a mysterious plague that swept through the elemental nations like lightning from a cloudless sky, killing countless in its wake. Dire was the plague; and none knew the secret of its contagion or the cure. Swift as an impending nightmare, it came from one nation to another, overtaking the very messengers who ran by night to give warning of its nearness. Those who were smitten felt an icy, freezing cold, an instant rigor, as if the outermost gulf had breathed upon them. Their faces and bodies whitened strangely, gleaming with a wan luster, and became stiff as long-dead corpses, all in an interim of minutes. The only reason our village remained fortified from the plague's virulence is because our ancient ancestors, in all their wisdom, had foreseen its advent thousands of years ago and has placed magical wards that protected our people since time immemorial. They, however, could have never predicted the ensuing ripples that will cause the extermination of their descendants."
"The shinobi thought we were the purveyors of the malicious epidemic that afflicted them and claimed so many lives of their comrades, so they decided to launch a retaliatory strike and wipe us all out."
"I remember waking up in the dead of the night hearing the horrified screams of people, some of them from young children. I could clearly recall that bright orange blaze from the lozenge shaped window of my room. Peering in to the window my heart shrank in horror as I saw the village being consumed by a great conflagration. Quickly, I got off my bed and ran out of my room but to my dread as I beheld how the shinobis of the leaf and sand mercilessly slaughter everyone in sight. The high priest beg them to stop this madness, all the while assuring them that we're of no threat, but they have no intention of listening to him. One of them, I heard from the other that his name is Konohamaru, coldly launched a kunai that plunged in to the right eye of the high-priest, wasting the elderly scholar within seconds. Then like beasts who just found their next prey, they turned their attention to Kaede and Jiraiya's son who happened to be standing nearby. He tried to run but it wasn't long before a kunai unleashed by one of the leaf shinobi sank on his back. Immediately losing cohesion and balance, I saw him fell down in to a nearby precipice…"
"Wait…wait…what! Pervy sage had a son?" Naruto inadvertently spewed out of shock.
"Yes" Ishizu replied in a calm and dignified voice. "His name is Kagerou. I believe he was already a young man, around fifteen years of age when it happened." She then continued, flashing an image in to the shinobi's mind which visage was so eerily familiar that the latter suddenly turned taciturn with widened eyes from being stunned in to shock."
"He looks exactly like pretty boy ….…that's definitely him." Naruto thought as he ponderously scrutinized every detail of the vision before a heavier feeling of realization sank in to his heart. "Konohamaru killed him…." He then muttered his former pupil's name in both sadness and dread that such a good kid was turned in to a cold blood assassin by an unfortunate happenstance that no one wanted nor chose.
"He was born with an especially strong link to the realm of the gods which manifested as potent psionic abilities and an innate understanding of magic. Through spies, some of Konoha's elite who still secretly followed Danzo Shimura's doctrines became aware of this and suspected that we, the Imaskari, are creating living weapons. Under their orders they had Kagerou abducted and experimented upon. He managed to escape their clutches and return to our village only to see it razed a few days later…." Ishizu muttered with a heavy heart, overhearing the shinobi's airy mumbling; though her voice turned sharply from pensive but clear to that of a quivering cadence induced by much horror. "I know not what happened but somehow he survived the onslaught, many others however didn't."
"At the town square, he saw the remains of our people burning…..the baker where we get our bread, the old story teller in the bazaar whose extraordinary tales he and his friends often listen in amazement; and indeed his friends of which some were just mere children…..non was spared, they were slain without mercy. Then there came the thing he had dreaded most. Near a still burning oak he saw the heat blackened skeleton of Kaede."
"In that anguish he bethought to supplicate the aide of the outer-gods; vast and unfathomably powerful entities which ruled over the infinite universes and all its chaos. We worshipped them but we also feared them and never call upon them, for it is said that whoever implore the succor of an outer-god is considered blessed if the great entity ignores him; however, should the outer-god chose to aid the foolish soul, that person is doomed to an eternity of sanity shattering events and a fate worse than death. Though, at that time the boy's heart was filled with so much hatred and a burning desire for vengeance. He unleashed a prayer to avenge the cruelty their terrestrial followers have suffered on the hands of the shinobi of the elemental nations; to smite those who have slaughtered our people in cold blood without provocation and out of malice."
At that point Ishizu's voice became hollow as if something unspeakable has frozen her tongue.
"The outer-gods…." Naruto muttered coldly in a calm but mirthless voice, reminiscing Errealth's terrible wrath that obliterate everything in its path in to everlasting nihility, and Nyarlathothep's cunning cruelty that bend and shatters the strongest mind in to insanity. "Please tell me what happened next?"
"Our gods answered his prayer." Ishizu said in a tremulous voice while a palpable expression of dread emanated on her face. "The most fearsome of them all, Lord Errealth, came from the heavens and used the boy as an avatar; he then proceeded to destroy those responsible for the genocide of our people."
"No matter how hard I try I could not remember what happened, there are lacunae in my mind of which memories the great one has purposely expunged from my cognition. I am certain that I died with the rest of my people during the shinobi's raid yet I found myself with a handful of survivors on a strange barge heading on even stranger lands; among us was Tatewaki, the one who cursed you to die."
"Tatewaki did this to me?" Naruto mumbled in an airy voice of disbelief upon knowing who was responsible for his current predicament. "But why….why would he do that. He was our friend, right?"
A tear fell from Ishizu's face as she gazed upon the blonde's staggered reaction. "The intense anger in his eyes that day, the hatred he began to nurture at his heart…..it has turned him into an inhuman monster." She then said to Naruto in a somewhat broken voice. "He used terrible sorceries to destroy the settlements and cities that were established by the descendants of the shinobi, and hunted the survivors. Though, at the time he was already an old man and had sought to extend his lifespan to achieve his goals."
"Naruto, dearie. In the past you may have come to wonder how vampires came to be, did you not? Listen well for I shall tell you their origins. Tatewaki knew that even with our long lifespans he cannot get all the survivors so he made a deal with Nyarlathotep to cheat death. The god indulged his petition and taught him spells that reap the souls of living beings and use their energy to reinvigorate his body. With this perverted form of immortality he hunted many descendants and drained their souls. After being nourished with so much life-force his outward appearance started to become much more youthful, though a most terrible and unquenchable hunger has now burned in his core that could only be partially quelled by consuming the vitality of another living being."
"Years later, Amel, an Atlantean scholar who Tatewaki formerly took as an apprentice, also sought to acquire eternal life. However, having neither the skill nor knowledge of his master he resorted in to distilling a potion from the blood of humans. This has also extended his life indefinitely but there was a terrible price for he now found himself stricken by an unquenchable thirst for mortal blood that he fed and drained entire civilizations until the god, Ra, smote him before he could cause more harm. With his body destroyed Amel became an incorporeal creature; seared by the power of the sun god, the light of day has forever become his bane. For thousands of years he roamed the Earth until he stumbled upon the twins named Maharet and Mekare, who among their mother, lived in a land not far from the land you know now as Egypt, where they practiced the art of witchcraft and communicated with spirits."
"Amel boasted to them that he could drink human blood and liked the taste of it. When they dismissed his claim, he demonstrated this ability on them and the twins found tiny puncture wounds on their flesh with their blood being taken by him. After being told by the witches to leave, Amel issued a warning that someday they would need to call on him."
"Shortly thereafter, their mother died and Mekare and Maharet prepared for a ritual feast wherein they would consume her body and absorb her knowledge and power. The ritual was interrupted by soldiers from Kemet who had come to take them to the court of King Enkil and Queen Akasha. Their subsequent mistreatment by the queen leads Mekare to call on Amel, despite her sister's warnings against it. Amel responded by bedeviling the royal household and the sisters were ordered released, but not before being ritually raped in front of the whole court by Khayman, the king's steward, by order from Akasha."
"A year later, the soldiers from Kemet came again, this time with Khayman commanding the troops. He told the twins that even after they had been released, Amel continued to cause chaos, inhabiting the royal palace and causing poltergeists as punishment for the humiliation they made the twins to suffer."
"The king and queen attempted to confront the spirit under the belief that they could tame it. However, assassins took them by surprise and stabbed the couple multiple times. Mortally wounded they then left them to bleed to death. Amel, seeing Akasha's soul leaving her dying body, snatched and intertwined it with his own essence, then in the form of a mist of blood, forced this amalgam of spirits back into the queen's body."
"With Akasha's soul back in her body which was now also inhabited by Amel, her wounds became fully healed and she became something entirely new; an immortal vampire, a powerful creature with a thirst for human blood. Akasha then turned to Enkil and replaced the blood he lost with hers, imparting part of Amel's essence into him, making him a vampire like her. Soon they made the entire royal court just like them; immortal, bloodthirsty and feared the effulgent rays of the sun. As the centuries and millennia passed their numbers silently grew as more of them were made from humans through exsanguination and then exchanging of blood."
"But how about the other kind of vampires? Those who possess a substance called venom as the basis of their physiology. Like my family? How did they come to be?" Naruto asked curiously. Ever since he awakened from his ten thousand year old slumber and found out the existence of vampires he has spent a significant amount of time trying to uncover the origins of these hemophage beings but eventually gave up after five decades of fruitless efforts. However, it would seem that all of his questions are now about to be met with answers.
"They are….." Ishizu began but seemed hesitant to answer the blondes query. "Well, you see Naruto. They are artificial beings, homunculi engineered by Tatewaki for the sole purpose of hunting down the descendants of the shinobi that escaped from his genocide. Realizing he was unable to do the task alone and secretly impressed by the achievement of his former pupil, he bethought to create an army of immortal undead creatures from his slaves to do the task. With impious magics he induced their cells to assume a crystalline nature triggering the flesh to become much harder and more durable than stone; through a combination of dark alchemy and high-wizardry he bestowed his servants many supernatural gifts such as enhanced strength speed and senses. All of whom bent to one purpose."
"Naruto, have you ever wondered why vampires find the blood of some humans to be absolutely irresistible? As if their blood is singing to them?" Ishizu queried the shinobi as if she knew what he was wondering about." Tatewaki has designed his creatures to subsist on blood to fuel their immortality in the same fashion to that of Amel. Cunningly however, through his sorcery, he imbedded an infallible command on the very core of these beings to instinctively seek and hunt down a particular group of humans…..innocent people…whose only fault was that the blood of his ancient enemies flowed within their veins."
At that point Naruto suddenly remembered Leah and his son. He knew that Tatewaki will surely come for them. "No…." He mumbled in an airy voice from the sudden fear of realizing that her family is in grave danger. "Oba-chan, please I need to go back to my family. I need to protect them from him!" He then implored urgently.
To this Ishizu nodded solemnly in assent. "Kagerou has the power to bring you back to the land of the living. Go to the Elder Tree, its magic shall bring you to where he is." She said, pointing to the great white tree. "A word of advice however before you go to him Naruto." She then supplemented in a caring but somewhat sere voice. "He inherited Jiraiya and Kaede's kindness but being a half-god he can be very…uhmmm….possessive to the people he likes. He will try to keep you for himself; he will tempt you with wonders and marvelous things beyond imagining….you must resist them all. The longer you stay in his realm the more you will forget. Make sure to always keep those you truly care in your heart, for they shall remind you of your true purpose.
"Oh believe me Oba-chan, I know how possessive that sheltered naïve fool can be. He once incinerated half a continent on a fit of rage after he saw Eddie-boy banging the girl of his dreams." The shinobi tattled humorously in a chibi-like façade that made his elderly interlocutor gasp from what she heard. "But no worries. Without Errealth or Nyarlathotep influence messing him up he's just a harmless big goofy baby..…and besides, he doesn't even like me so we don't have an issue with that." He then reassured, flashing a bright beam.
"I hope you are right Naruto." Ishizu said with a hopeful sigh. "May the heavens guide you on your way, and I pray you find the right path." She then continued, placing her palm upon the shinobi's forehead, giving him her blessing.
-End
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Hey there folks!
I hope you enjoyed reading. Been a long time. I took a hiatus from writing for a bit to focus on my apprenticeship, I've been wanting to update the story for the longest time though. Ironically, terrible COVID was, it gave me some much needed respite from work related stress as well as the time to write this chapter.
This chapter was actually 40 pages long so I've decided to split it on to two parts. This first part of the chapter explains the origins and connections everything in the past few chapters. While the second part, which I'll post next week, will contain some of the stuff you guys have messaged and requested me for the longest time. Not gon'na spill the beans though lol.
Anyways, I hope you folks are all safe and always take care.
Cheerio