A/N: Sorry for the late update! It's only a day but it still irks me that I broke the streak of scheduled upload I had, sad days. Anyways, enjoy and have a good day peeps.
A/N2: AH! I posted the wrong chapter! Thank you so much for the person who reviewed and told me! Sorry!
Chapter 13: The Glory of Absolute Territory
Religion is a tricky beast to tackle. Too much makes the whole ordeal seem fanatical and crazy. Too little then people won't believe anything and just brush it off as some sort of made up story. There was a balance to these things, like how all things should be.
"This is worse than a poorly written fanfiction about God and Lucifer."
Sure, there are a lot of religious texts out there in the world, but all the successful ones have one thing in common. An end goal worthy enough to sacrifice countless hours and money for. Whether it be reincarnation, Heaven, or nirvana, the most popular religions have that appeal.
"Jesus Christ, that exists?"
"Trust me, Jesus was involved too but in a… um, really unpleasant way. I never thought I would read Jesus acting like an infant before."
"Holy shit, I knew humans were screwed up in the head but that's a step too close to insanity for my liking."
Sera shot a questioning look towards her illusion master of a familiar and squinted her eyes, "Are you telling me you have never used your powers to conjure up some sort of sick fantasies for your viewing pleasure?"
Kyubel had the audacity to look shocked at Sera's words, "Who do you think I am?! I don't have any of your weird human or Devil desires to breed twenty-four seven! I have never and will never use my powers to 'get myself off' as you say."
The ice magic user continued to stare at her tiny friend with a calculating look, "We'll see. We'll see about that."
"Dear Lucifer, why did I ever agree to become your familiar," the fox-like creature sighed deeply as he shook his head. It had been several centuries since he first met the girl in the Familiar Forest, and he had yet to develop an immunity to her filthy personality. He didn't know whether to be proud of the girl or disgusted at her for it.
"Because," Sera said proudly as she rested her hands on her hips like some sort of superhero, "I have a fantastic personality, an amazing collection of jokes, and perky boing-boings."
She even went out her way to pick up her furry friend and snuggled him against her chest to prove her point. Sure, Kyubel was biting and scratching to get away but she had long reinforced her clothes with defensive magic and seals. Anything below a triple S class weapon would barely leave a smudge on her outfit.
"No, no, and NO! Curse you and your indestructible clothing!" Kyubel yelled fervently until Sera finally let him go.
The king of illusions jumped backwards with a hiss before settling down once more, "One day I will pee on your rotting corpse and dance on your grave. Mark my words Serafall Leviathan, mark my words."
"Ooooh, spooky," she dramatically shook her hands, "Big words for such a little man. Speaking of, why are you still in that form? Don't you have enough magic to keep a bigger form?"
The creature shook his head in response, "I won't take any chances until I find a way to generate my own source of magic again."
Sera just shrugged and went back to glaring at the "Holy Bible" if one could even call it that anymore. The so-called Christian text was a sham at best and a forged copy written by an aspiring fictional writer who had their own agenda at worst.
Almost everything in the book was wrong. From how God created the universe to who the ruler of Hell was. An atheistic child would know that the Christian ruler of Hell was Lucifer, not Leviathan. Also, Jesus Christ wasn't some sort of zombie who rose from the dead due to a power bestowed upon him by God. What kind of bullshit was that?
All that the book had given Sera was a massive headache and an urge to strangle the dumbass who wrote the book. Either someone had misinterpreted the Holy Bible so much that it turned out to be this mess, or it was purposefully changed in order to keep people from finding out about the actual Christian pantheon…
"This might be an issue," Sera muttered.
If Christianity existed in this place, even a scuffed version of one, then the supernatural world might exist here as well. Sera knew for sure that Shintoism was a thing since that was the main belief throughout the entirety of the Elemental Nations, so there is no evidence saying that other pantheons couldn't exist.
There was one other thing that lingered in her mind.
The Rinnegan, the Samsara Eye. A visual prowess powerful enough to create and destroy. The only account of its existence is that of God Himself. Eyes meant to be wielded by the creator of everything.
Sera felt a chill run down her spine just at the thought of its existence. Seals and visual kekkei genkai existed in the Elemental Nations, so who's to say that this Rinnegan didn't also exist? Hell, the Forbidden Scroll back in the Hidden Leaf Village had techniques that could resurrect the dead! Don't ask her how or why she knows, Sera was just very bored one night.
Even if the account of the Rinnegan being "God's eyes" is fake, the idea of such eyes being real was a possibility.
"This could mean the end of the world," Kyubel realized in a hushed tone, finally catching up to Sera's train of thought.
"Or a world enslaved under a single fanatical psychopath who calls themselves God," Sera said bitterly. She detested false idols and dictators. That was what the Old Devil Faction embodied and look how the world ended under their rule the first time around, chaos and war. Millions of Devils dead at the hands of Angels and Fallen Angels all because the old fucks couldn't keep their pride boners in their pants.
In that moment, Sera felt a prick on the back of her neck and something warm running down her back.
"Look lively, Kyubel, we have company," Sera hissed as she spread out her magic throughout the entire temple area in search of the intruder.
"I haven't had human in a long time," Kyubel grinned as his body convulsed, giant lumps forming beneath his skin as it writhed around until the form of a giant wolf-like creature immerged. He bared his teeth with a feral grin, "Ready to party?"
Sera closed her eyes as she focused on her detection magic, searching in all directions for the person who was dumb enough to enter her bounding box.
"All the time," Sera smirked as she opened her eyes, turning her head to look at the wall near the entrance of the temple where the surface shimmered like the surface of a lake and rippled lightly.
A few seconds passed before a figure started to emerge from the wall. A large Venus fly trap like object followed by a black cloak with red clouds scattered across it. The head ornament, if one could even call it that, slowly cracked open to reveal a face of two colors, one white and one black, but both sides had one thing in common: beady yellow eyes that Sera could never forget.
"You've grown," the intruder smirked and cackled, its smile twisting upwards a little too much for comfort, "How long has it been? Six, seven years?"
In a normal situation, Sera would have answered the intruder, even humored them for a while before jumping into action. However, this was different. No, she wouldn't give this thing a single second of banter. This was as personal as it got for Sera and that was saying something.
"You dumb bitch," Sera mimicked her familiar's feral grin before whipping her wand to the side to extend it into a staff and slammed the butt of it on the ground.
For a single moment, the floor of the temple glowed with a deep purple hue before fading away just as quickly.
"Bounding box, complete," Sera smirked.
"Oh?" the intruder said with a raised eyebrow and a smirk of its own.
"Think fast," Sera said before whipping a kunai at the plant looking ass and watched it faze right through the intruder and embed itself into the wall behind it.
"And I thought you were the smart one of the family," the thing said with an exaggerated frown, "Guess I was wrong to overestimate you Uzumakis again. I really hope you put up a decent fight."
All Sera did in response was keep smiling.
"Out of the three of us here, I think you're the one lacking in the brain department, no?" Sera tilted her head to the side cutely.
"Get ready to swallow those words girly, because only one person is going to exit this temple alive and it sure isn't going to be me," the plant man growled before dashing towards Sera with a black rod in hand and a chain in the other.
"Oh, I'm going to enjoy this," Sera bounced on the heels of her feet before meeting her attacker halfway, with Kyubel right behind her.
However, before the three could start to trade blows, the room was suddenly filled with an intense light and the sound of thunder roared throughout the abandoned temple.
Where was it coming from?
Of course, from the tri-pronged kunai that Sera had thrown against the wall.
In a burst of chakra, the room dimmed, and the sound of thunder hushed in an instant. In its place stood a man wearing a large white cloak with a single phrase stitched on it in red.
Fourth Hokage.
"Like I said," Sera's grin grew larger as she stared deeply into those disgusting yellow eyes, "You dumb bitch."
"Ice Style: Absolute Territory!"
In an instant, what once was a sacred… ish temple of the "Christians" was demolished and replaced with a giant cylindrical column of ice. Waves of frost rolled off the ice structure, threatening to freeze anything and anyone that dares to lay their hands on it.
"You know, people make fun of me for my naming convention but sometimes I feel like you're even worse at naming things then I am."
"Really dad? Spinning Spiral of Doom That Will Shred Everything Because It's Awesome?"
"That… is an outlier."
"Super-Fast Lightning Thunder Zoom-Zoom Boom You're Dead?"
"I retract my former statement about your naming convention."
"Yeah, thought so dad. Also, my naming convention makes sense AND it's not a bazillion words long. Seriously, you could conjure, perform, and finish the attack before you say your technique's name fully."
Minato scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly. Usually, people just nodded along and told him that his naming schemes were great and amazing, but he knew that they probably didn't argue with him because, well, he's the Hokage. The only people who ever called him out on his bullshit were his family and his close friends.
"Wait, how is a giant column of ice being called 'Absolute Territory' makes any sense?" Minato asked.
"Look, the middle part of the column bulges out a little and there's a line towards the top and bottom right?" Sera said, pointing at her masterpiece.
"Yeah? It just looks like you sectioned off the ice into three areas and the middle part is slightly raised," Minato responded.
"Exactly," Sera nodded proudly and rested her hands on her hips with a large grin.
"That explains nothing," the blonde Hokage deadpanned.
To which his daughter just scoffed and pat him on the back as if she were consoling him, "Oh dad, you don't get it. You're too old for this joke I think."
"Hey!" he yelled, shrugging off his daughter's pats, "I'm barely in my thirties! I am not old!"
"Tell that to your grey hairs," Sera smirked before turning around and prancing off towards civilization, leaving behind her father to grab at his hair in a panic and trying his best to look up at his hair with not so great results.
"Where?! What grey hairs?! Sera! Young lady you come back right now!" he yelled as he speed walked to catch up to Sera while trying, and failing, to see if he actually had grey hairs.
The two had completely forgotten about their defeated foe who laid inside Sera's ice "jutsu", forever trapped as only the flames of the goddess Amaterasu could even come close to melting it. Granted, even if the structure were to thaw, there wouldn't be much left to find as the father daughter duo had thoroughly shredded their opponent into fine powder.
Zetsu, a name that will be forgotten to time and also because he was a douchebag who kidnapped pregnant women and held babies hostages.
He won't be missed.
"It's nice to see you use your ice again. I feared that you lost that ability too," Minato said with a heavy sigh, cracking a weak smile as he walked next to his daughter.
Sera shrugged, "Never needed to use it I guess. The war's been over for a while now and no one dares to fight me ever since that 'Run on Sight' order from the other Hidden Villages."
"Kind of boring, wasn't it?" he responded.
"What, the fight with plant dick or peace times?" Sera asked.
Her father barked out a laugh at her choice of words, "Plant dick."
Sera leaned backwards and let out a loud hum as she thought back to the fight which was more of a massacre than a proper battle, "I mean, we basically just beat it to a pulp with our fists then dismembered it with our weapons. It wasn't much of a fight since I took away its ability to phase through stuff."
Ever since the Nine-Tails attack six years ago, Sera had dedicated a portion of her time to develop a counter to the perpetrator's phasing ability. It wasn't very hard to develop a magic spell that converted at non-solid object in the casting area back into a solid, but the magic required to maintain it for a long duration was the issue. Luckily, her magic pool had grown drastically over the years.
"Eh, I came up with it a while back. I just needed to refine it and actually come across the thing," Sera said.
She didn't need to tell her dad that it wasn't a jutsu at all but rather a spell. The little detail about her being a Devil and using magic would be the one thing she would take to the grave. Sera knew that her dad would love her no matter what she was, but she wasn't going to take that chance.
"So, would it stop me from teleporting if you really wanted to stop me?" Minato asked, curious about the technique's extent.
"Yeah," she nodded, "But it would take a TON of energy to maintain it. Think of it like this. Every time you try to teleport, I would have to apply an equal amount of energy pressure to keep you grounded. So, in the end it would just turn into a stamina contest."
"Huh… neat," Minato said, falling into a comfortable silence afterwards. He felt… oddly happy at the realization that his teleportation technique wasn't an end all be all delete button. It meant that he could still grow and that he had weaknesses like any other human beings. He also felt proud of Sera for coming up with a counter to the Flying Thunder God. Rock and Cloud had been trying for ages to counter his rapid teleportation only to come up with nothing.
"So, what now?" Sera asked.
They had defeated the foe who had caused so much damage, physically and emotionally, to the entire Hidden Leaf Village and brought them to justice. The other Hidden Villages left the Leaf alone due to the sheer amount of fighting force the Leaf still held. Trade deals were ideal, and their economy was finally booming again.
"Jiraiya gave me some news before he left the village a week ago," Minato said with a blank face, "Apparently, there's an organization out there made up of the world's strongest missing-nin."
"The Akatsuki?" Sera asked.
"Of course he told you," Minato shook his head but wasn't surprised by the fact. He knew that Jiraiya trusted Sera greatly and believed in her ability to use any knowledge he gave her correctly, "Anyways, Jiraiya and I were thinking about forming a group to nip the bud before it blooms."
Sera hummed and nodded at the idea. It was smart, and pretty standard. No sane person would allow their enemy to grow stronger right under their nose, "Well, they're down a member already."
"We can't gauge their skills with Zetsu, sadly. He was most likely their scout with his whole phasing ability."
"Information is power. They're basically blind now."
"Either way, I'm pulling you back from your vacation. We need to take care of this before it grows into an actual issue."
"Ay ay, captain."
Sera gave a half-hearted salute before putting a hand on her dad's shoulder.
"Can I back on vacation after?" she asked as she felt her dad mold the proper amount of chakra to perform his signature technique.
"Sure, kiddo. Maybe we could take a family trip when this all blows over," he responded with a smile.
A crack of thunder rang throughout the area and a flash of light surrounded the two figures before disappearing, taking the Sera and Minato with it.
Except, they had forgotten one thing… or rather one someone.
"Oh, I am going to KILL that annoying bitch," Kyubel growled deeply, flashing his fangs at the empty spot where his master and her father once stood.
"Pray to your dead god Sera because you're gonna need a divine intervention to keep me from gnawing face off."
Kyubel grunted as he conjured up a teleportation circle beneath his feet, "I am so going to drain that girl of all her magic for making me waste it on teleporting of all things."
In a flash of purple, the wolf-like creature disappeared at well with a howl.