Chapter 12: Of Gods and Men Part 1
By: DragoonMen
'Human Thinking'
"Human Speaking"
Technique/Jutsu Use
'Bijū/Non-Human Thinking'
"Bijū/Non-Human Talking"
Published: 03/Oct/2020
Pre-Chakra Era Arc
Year of the Chakra Event
Chapter 12
—Land of the Ancestors—
Ōtsutsuki City State
One Year Later
White eyes examined the surrounding area in a vigil manner, inspecting every single detail on their shared vision range.
The man patrolled the area quite actively, searching for any kind of illicit activities on his watch.
There was a blade strapped on said person's back in case any breaches of the law took place during his oversight.
People from the town he was currently patrolling bowed slightly every time they looked at him while he returned the gesture with respect.
The people around here were already accustomed to the man's routine.
Hamura policed the streets of the city and nearby towns as per orders from his mother.
He and his brother ever since they reached their teens had been held accountable for keeping the peace in these lands while she was away in any of her errands.
'Another quiet day' Hamura reckoned with apathy. He wished something exciting would arise to make his boredom disappear.
After he and Hagoromo had been revealed the truth about the Shinju from Gamamaru a year ago, he has been more lonely than usual.
His brother has confided to Shin about the vision were they were fated to battle Kaguya and have requested his help to which the man accepted.
Since that day, Hagoromo and Shin had been training in what he later came to knew as the land of Toads, more specifically in Mount Myōboku.
Hamura would be training alongside them but unfortunately for him, he was not very adept in the mastery of Sennin Mōdo.
The younger twin had discovered this fact after he had tried for nearly three months to comprehend Sage Chakra but was unable to grasp it properly.
Due to his inability to control said skill, he had been unofficially left behind from their practice regime.
He had self-imposed himself with that action since he would only be a deterrent to his brother and Shin, who were already kilometers ahead in their training.
The younger twin had come to terms with these facts but it still hurt him even when he would like to deny it.
His brother was more gifted than him, not to say anything about Shin who was on a whole new level on his own.
Hamura could not help to be curious in Shin since then.
It was only after Shin had entered his life in a completely strange set of events that had his daily life had taken a completely different path to what he was accustomed to, like if Shin's appearance had triggered a chain of reaction that it has finally ended up at this point where now the three of them were ready and willing to fight the Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. His mother.
Aside from keeping the law in his family dominion, he retained the mission of watching out in any case his mother would abruptly return.
He returned to the line of thoughts starred by his cousin again.
Hamura had to accept that his cousin was in another league of his own and maybe from his brother. It was a probability after all.
Shin had been teaching them everything that they have been neglected by their mother, like their Clan's history and heritage.
It was these reasons that made Hamura look at Shin not as a cousin but also as a big brother, someone that you could trust to guide you.
The raven-haired man was still an enigma for him but he would be lying if he did not say that Shin had also opened their eyes metaphorically alongside Gamamaru which meant the man was good in essence.
Hamura had told his brother and Shin that he would keep a lookout for his mother while they prepared for the oncoming brawl and in any case that something went bad, send them a message.
Now, all he was left to do was to alert them.
Hamura stopped his patrol when he felt a familiar presence behind him. A powerful one.
The aura was nothing like the one from his brother or Shin. The atmosphere steaming from his back was so oppressive that he had trouble conserving his cool facade. By now, he had discerned who was behind him.
'Only one person left with such quantity of power' He felt a gust of wind from behind meaning she was right there.
The male Ōtsutsuki turned to greet her. "Mother! You came back." He instantly kneeled before her much like a Samurai before its master but Kaguya remained silent.
His head was inclined in her position. He had learned from a young age that her mother did not tolerate any kind of defiance against her own person.
Kaguya just watched him with her standard unreadable expression.
The woman had been looking for her elder son in the villages in the surrounding region but could not find a single trace of Hagoromo which was rare.
She knew her oldest son was angry at her but that did not mean he just would do as he pleases and disobey her, or in this case, ditch his duty.
However, she just dismissed this observation and determined to make the concerns in her mind be recognized. Mainly the location of her missing son.
"What is Hagoromo doing right now?" Hamura was nervous but he regained his wits in order to answer the bombardment of questions to come surely.
"My brother is still policing the neighboring villages." He lied with his head still inclined in a calm manner. The massive sword on his back tilting some degrees to its right because of his kneeling position.
Kaguya began to think that maybe she had missed out on Hagoromo accidentally. She continued to look at him until she saw her son gulp.
The action was so subtle that it could pass as simple involuntary movement but to Kaguya in her thousands of years of existence, it was the telltale of a lie.
"Hamura!" She erupted, raising her voice on her son.
"It is useless to attempt to hide something from me." The veins around her eyes bulged out. The action was noticed like a sore thumb on her pale skin.
Her hair began to move erratically in every single direction and while she did this, she spread her arms to her sides just like an eagle would do and Chakra began to exude out into the environment in overwhelming portions.
Hamura looked at her mother figure with fear. He had fucked it up.
"How does she knows?!" Hamura struggled mentally to formulate an answer to that riddle but he would never know that he was the one who had told her inadvertently.
She started hovering some feet from the surface, emitting torrents of wind from her position.
Hamura just raised his arms to cover his eyes from whatever harm that could come his way.
"I am really screwed!" Hamira gritted his teeth. He was really screwed this time.
The younger Ōtsutsuki could feel some kind of an intrusive sensation try to pierce his head.
Unknown to him, Chakra tendrils were being sent in his direction by Kaguya, more directly at his encephalon. A Genjutsu.
Kaguya could feel Hamura's Chakra flaring up in an unconscious effort to reject her Mind Control Technique.
"That is for naught..." Hamura continued to put resistance, even activating his Byakugan, not paying any attention to her mother's words.
"... even if you are trying to reject me with your Byakugan." Kaguya's monotone voice replied at seeing her son failing to evade her control.
"My Byakugan is superior to yours." Hamura tried to resist but alas it was futile.
Hamura could see the Genjutsu being sent at him thanks to the Byakugan but was unable to break it.
Her mother's Chakra was too powerful and even with his dōjutsu activated he could not sever the technique.
Suddenly he felt a sleepy, the Chakra affecting his brain was making him really drowsy.
Hamura fought the Genjutsu with all his willpower but after a minute he just couldn't keep it anymore and plummeted into the ground.
The only thing Hamura saw before losing consciousness was the image of the green pastures and a pair of pale feet.
OoOoOoO
—Land of Toads—
Mount Myōboku
'Damm, it's cold up here' Jigen cursed with eyes closed, his body shivering thanks to the cold winds hitting his skin.
Jigen could feel the breeze from his current position above the ground. He was experiencing goosebumps with the cold gust of wind caressing his warm body.
Jigen bit his tongue and successfully stopped the annoying clanking of his teeth and he opened one of his eyes to glance at Hagoromo.
The twin was in a peaceful state as always, even in this unique predicament they were both in.
Hagoromo and Jigen were meditating. Of course, they would be doing that if meditation means being put on a wooden platform suspended above the ground and under your position was a sea of spikes ready to impale you at the tiniest disbalance on your part upside.
Jigen concentrated again and tried to enter a deep state of mediation despite the chill, where he could gather the Natural Energy necessary to use Sage Mode effectively but he could not avoid letting his mind to wander off to all the things that had led up to this moment.
It has been one year since Jigen had been training in Sennin Mōdo on the land of Toads under guidance from Gamamaru.
He and Hagoromo had started the training after said Ōtsutsuki had gone to their typical meeting place in the forest a year ago and requested his assistance.
Hagoromo had explained to him why they had not met up with him at that time and the reason for his visit was to invite him to train in a new type of Chakra ability.
Apart from that, the twin had told him of everything.
Hagoromo began his explanation with the Divine Tree Ritual and how a friend of him had been forced to be an offering to the Shinju.
He then confided to him that during those two weeks where they had not seen each other he and Hamura traveled to the Shinju site against Kaguya's wish and discovered that just as Jigen had told them, it was a necropolis.
He had explained very thoroughly the images he had seen in that place and of how thousands of bodies were mummified in some concoon kind of stuff and that they had ultimately found the girl's corpse inside one of these things.
Hagoromo continued to explain what happened after that, like the secret reunions with Gamamaru and the so-called prophecy involving him fighting Kaguya alongside the twins.
Jigen already knew of that particular set of events since he had been spying on them but what really got his attention was Hagoromo's eyes at that moment and even now.
The eyes of the eldest of the twins did not show anymore the icy white color of the Byakugan but now they were blood red with a ring and three tomoes in each eye, something that he had failed to notice the day he had trailed them all the way to Mount Myōboku.
Some weeks after that, Jigen had questioned Hagoromo about his eyes during training. The twin said he had got them after learning of her friend's death, like if grief had triggered it or something similar
The brown-haired teen had said that they were called the Sharingan and with them, he could predict attacks and cast illusions among other things but sadly it did not allow him a vision of his surroundings like the Byakugan.
Unknown to Hagoromo, not only Jigen was curious about this new development but Isshiki too was very interested in those eyes for personal reasons.
The supposedly deceased Ōtsutsuki had seen those red eyes once on a Shinju that had transformed into a Jūbi. The tailed beast had attacked him and Kaguya on a distant planet some centuries ago.
They had managed to subdue the Ten-Tails but it did not allow them to harvest his fruit so they had just left him alone and trapped.
Isshiki wondered if the rage of that Bijū had finally dampened and it had changed back to its original form that was a massive tree.
"You both need to clear your minds and feel the Nature Energy. Bring it inside you." Gamamaru words interrupted Jigen's pseudo meditating exercise. He had already got this but they were once again repeating this in case it was just a fluke on his part.
Jigen turned to look at the other single human there.
Hagoromo looked the same as when they had started. If Jigen did not know better, he would have thought that there was a statue next to him instead of a human being.
Jigen chose that moment to induct himself again in the practice, reaching easily the level of psyche necessary to gather Nature Energy.
'They are both astonishing. Hagoromo is dominating Sage Mode in a blink of an eye' Gamamaru watched as Hagoromo continued to gather more energy from his surroundings, a no easy feat for anyone.
'Jigen while not as fast as the former, he sure is getting a hang of it...' Nature Energy was visible around Jigen's form but not at the same level as Hagoromo in the reptile eyes.
After some hours, Gamamaru decided to test both individuals and see how far they had come by now.
"Hey! Get down both of you." The summon animal called out to both men above. Jigen was quick to comply and stood up from his sitting position while Hagoromo opened one of his eyes to look at the source of the voice disrupting his inner peace.
Jigen jumped down and Hagoromo followed close enough, they landed before the presence of the toad after avoiding the pointy spikes, waiting for him to speak up.
"Let's test your progress now, shall we?" The summon said before he began to jump away, clearly telling them to follow him.
The small group began to walk until they found themselves in front of two huge trees. Jigen did not know the names of these kinds of trees since they seemed to be native of this place, unlike any he had seen in the Elemental Nations. Either way, these trees looked pretty solid.
"You go first Hagoromo." Gamamaru raised one of his paws and signaled to one of the strange trees before jumping away.
Gamamaru and Jigen stood from the sideways, not wanting to stand in the way of Hagoromo's technique.
Hagoromo, not one to be told twice joined his hands under his sleeves at his chest height and closed his eyes. His body already gathering Natural Energy to amplify the power of his next technique. When he opened his eyes again, he began with the test.
Lighting started crackling all around the Ōtsutsuki twin upper body before concentrating it on his hands and launching it into the giant plant. The force behind the attack traveled through the ground until reaching his objective, enveloping the plant in electricity before imploding. In the end, the only thing that could tell that a tree was here was a tree stump.
"What do you think? I think I had achieved complete control of Senjutsu." The nineteen-year-old smug tone didn't go unnoticed by Jigen. Hagoromo clearly was pleased with his result. Gamamaru nodded at the statement.
"Your turn, Shin." Hagoromo made a gesture as if to let him pass and taking a spot next to the toad.
Jigen did not let Hagoromo's words affect him and began to gather Nature Energy.
The man from Ka just closed his eyes and prepared his own attack.
Hagoromo and Gamamaru watched with curiosity as the air around Jigen began to get incredibly hot.
Hagoromo's eyes widened when the air started to gave of a hissing sound much like a kettle would do if you let in on the fire too much time. This was the result of the water particles in the oxygen vaporizing all around Jigen.
All of the sudden, Jigen's body and form were covered on fire.
Hagoromo raised a hand to cover his eyes when the fire spontaneous appearance gave off a slight breeze of heat, so intense that it watered the eldest twin's sight. Gamamaru did the same thing but continued to study him.
Jigen was on fire quite literally, the earth around his feet melting due to the use of Senjutsu to increase its fatality.
'Watch this, Hagoromo!' Jigen shouted inside his head once he targeted his tree.
Jigen pushed his hands forward and extended his fingers inside the blazing aura of fire.
Hagoromo watched with incredulity clouding him as the massive fire technique began to concentrate around Jigen's hands, becoming more pressurized and miniature in size until it transformed into a glowing ball of fire.
'To see such perfect control over the Fire Element is astonishing...' Gamamaru frowned, this was good and bad for him.
Good because now they were ready to face Kaguya with their new development and bad because this meant that Jigen was becoming too powerful. Perhaps even more so than Hagoromo.
Gamamaru continued to watch as the technique was released from Jigen's grasp. The Fire Ball raced against the tree at an impressive speed, leaving a trail of fire even though it did not touch the ground as it was traveling in the air. The green pasture becoming a charred line connecting Jigen and the soon to be an extinct tree.
Gamamaru swallowed his saliva when he watched the technique clash against the tree. The tree being engulfed in fire in a single instant after contact. The trunk turning into ash in mere seconds.
In just three seconds, the vibrant purple tree had become a smoking pile of ash.
It was an impressive feat that even Hagoromo would have struggled to reach even when he is an expert in fire attacks. However, Hagoromo was not strong as he would like on this specialty, he was better accustomed to the lightning element.
Gamamaru frown returned when he saw the devastation caused by Jigen's technique. The reptile did not hold any amount of trust in the alleged cousin of Hagoromo even after interacting with him for nearly a year and was fearful of what would the future become if Jigen decided to use his new abilities for his own gain like he has before.
The reason for the distrust and disdain the toad held for the Kāma Seal user was because of the web of lies that the man had created before establishing a relationship with the twins.
Gamamaru's opinion of Jigen had been biased thanks to the Memory Stone. The magic object had shown the summon animal the story of Uesugi Jigen or at least what it has allowed him to see.
The toad had been good with the initial part of the memories of Jigen since it indicated to him that the man was not evil in nature but also not good either, so the toad did not what to make of it.
Also, there was something strange with Jigen's memories, once Gamamaru had reached the man's more recent recollections, the toad had found that the images were becoming blurry and glitchy meaning that some ulterior force was being involved.
The Memory Stone could only record events on Earth and of beings native to it, so whatever Jigen had found in that abandoned village was something unearthly in Gamamaru's opinion.
After that single memory, Jigen's reminiscence has become more dulled and short much like when Gamamaru had tried to look upon Kaguya's past and found only bits and pieces. It was the same case in both scenarios.
The truth is that the Memory Stone failed to do its work properly because of the unnatural nature of the Ōtsutsukis.
The Celestial Beings were something foreign to the magical device capable of watching the past but since these beings were acting on Earth it was bound to happen that some of their actions could be recorded and documented, even if they were brief.
Jigen's recorded history inside the Stone had been hazy from the incident at Nichitsu and onward thanks to his new status as an Ōtsutsuki's perfect vessel but he was still human and that fact anchored him to the apparatus just like the twins thanks to the human ancestry of their father.
The toad was also none the wiser to know or notice that Jigen did not age in the memories since the exact dates were not being shown by the Memory Stone.
So, all Gamamaru was left with were only the distorted brief memories as pieces to solve the puzzle that called itself Ōtsutsuki Jigen.
Now, Gamamaru was left alone to wonder how an ordinary man like Jigen had managed to attain a level of power similar to Ōtsutsuki Kaguya and her progeny.
However, if Gamamaru knew something for sure it was that Jigen was not someone to be trusted or believed. He was a deceiver and deceivers once they lied, they would always lie.
'How I wished I could tell them the truth' The reptile thought while glancing at Hagoromo but refrained to do so. They need Jigen's help in this matter and telling the twins the truth would only shatter all his work.
"With this knowledge, you both will manage to defeat Kaguya." Gamamaru told them after seeing how far they come from the beginning. They were finally ready to confront Kaguya.
They continued to talk among other subjects until from a distance they saw a purple toad jumping closer and closer to their position.
'He is quite fast for something so small' Jigen would say that the purple reptile was in a hurry.
"Is that a messenger toad?" Hagoromo inquired after seeing the small satchel on the toad's back. Gamamaru did not reply since he was busy figuring out why one of his own had come to see him now.
The purple-colored toad closed off on their position and started talking in some kind of gibberish dialect with Gamamaru for a while.
"What did you say!?" Gamamaru gasped when he heard the terrible news that his fellow toad had just told him.
"What is going on?" Jigen asked. Whatever that toad was saying sounded like something bad.
Gamamaru turned to look at them with worry. "It seems like your mother has returned to the city and we have lost contact with Hamura." There was no reply, only silence after that.
"Does that means...?" Hagoromo asked apprehensively after getting over the news.
"Is very possible that she had discovered our plan to bring her down." Gamamaru closed his eyes. Things seemed to get worse every day.
"This is the moment of truth." Jigen said and Hagoromo agreed with him. This was the last straw and they were ready to put a stop to her.
OoOoOoO
—Land of the Ancestors—
Ōtsutsuki City State
Jigen watched as the people left the Ōtsutsuki led city in droves. He and Hagoromo had warned everyone in town that a massive battle was about to come and for their security, they needed to evacuate the land. Thankfully, the people heeded their words.
From an aerial point of view, it looked like a massive migration of people. Everyone was leaving the city, taking their most basic belongings on their backs or in carts, some even strapping them on in their cattle.
Jigen could recall what he was seeing and compare it to what he had already experienced during his time as a levy troop of Ka.
It was a quite similar image he has grown accustomed to during the last war when he and his fellow brothers in arms would try to take a town but they would find it already abandoned. The people from said places choosing to leave their patrimony behind and keep their lives intact.
This scene was no different from those of his past, the locals knew that something big would happen and they would be the ones on the receiving end of it if they decided to stay here and find out.
Jigen stood idly next to Hagoromo, waiting until the last pockets of villagers left so they could approach Kaguya. Hagoromo had been extremely stubborn when he said that he did not want unnecessary casualties of civilians.
He turned to see the eldest of the Ōtsutsuki twins waving a hand to a woman from afar.
Hagoromo watched from some distance as his old handmaid and caretaker bowed in farewell and departed with her grown son.
The old woman had been appointed by his mother to took care of them when he and Hamura were kids and after that until they reached their teens.
Hagoromo waved a hand at her, knowing that he would miss her but there was nothing he could do unless he wanted her to suffer from the aftermath of the ensuring fight.
"I am sorry my friend." Gamamaru said while standing on a rock. He saw the interaction that Hagoromo was having with an elder woman.
"But there exists no other way to save this land. Isn't it?" Hagoromo said without turning on his back to face the toad, continuing to look at the retreating form of the woman.
"It seems so..." Jigen crossed his arms and looked down upon the former Inner Citadel, now home to the Ōtsutsuki Clan of the Earth.
After an hour and with the last of the villagers out of town, the toad told them. "That was the last of them." Gamamaru pointed out after he saw no more people leaving the city.
"Let's put an end to this." Hagoromo snarled and began his trek to his home. Gamamaru and Jigen some meters behind him.
They started walking the road that led into the Citadel and into the former Daimyō Palace now converted into Kaguya's own private quarters.
The two men and the toad stopped once they were outside the main complex that leads into the sovereign's throne room.
"Stay here." Hagoromo said to Gamamaru when he saw they were before the structure that lodged the Rabbit Goddess. The toad looked at him with a raised eye.
"This could become dangerous so stay hidden. For your own sake, Gamamaru." The toad nodded, understanding that he would just be a nuisance if he decided to take part in the oncoming fight.
"I understand but if you both will fight Kaguya I have come up with some ideas in my mind." Jigen looked puzzled at that.
'What is this frog talking about?' Anything from Sennin Mōdo to Senjutsu would be helpful but nothing more than that would just be a waste of time.
The toad suddenly started to regurgitate something until he finally introduced a limb of his own in his mouth. With the help of his own paw, he extracted a piece of salivated paper.
"Take this, Hagoromo." The twin received the still wet scroll in his hand.
"What is this?" Jigen asked after inspection the scroll in Hagoromo's hand from his position, noting that the paper has the Kanji for 'Sage' and gave off an incredible amount of Nature Energy like if the object was coated with it.
"Don't you feel an incredible force coming from it?" The summon animal asked them.
Both men nodded.
'So Hagoromo feels it too' Jigen observed which meant that Hagoromo could be probably a sensor too.
"This is a legendary treasure from Gama no Kuni. I was forbidden from giving it to you but in the oncoming fight depends on the future of the world." The toad began to lecture them and give some insight into his gift.
"This amulet is embedded with a great amount of Sage Power." Hagoromo turned once again to look at the object on his hands in awe.
When Jigen heard the word amulet his mind instantly went to the collar around his neck. His mother's lucky amulet was the only thing he had left from his family.
"My ancestors risked their own skins to create it. Use it only if even with all the Sage Power at your disposal it isn't enough to defeat her." Hagoromo nodded and saved the scroll inside his kimono.
"It could also save you from death claws but only once." Gamamaru finished. Jigen looked stupefied at that and did a once over the piece of paper, trying to engrave into his mind the details and traces on it.
'Interesting...' The Celestial Being residing in Jigen's body thought, taking special interest in the legendary object in the custody of the offspring of his enemy.
"We are indebted to you." The twin bowed slightly.
"I will pray for you both." With that said, Gamamaru left jumping.
"Are you ready?" A nod answered the brown-haired twin's question.
They started going up the stairs into the former House of Sovereigns, each step feeling as if they were carrying tons of rocks on their shoulder.
The tension was so thick that Jigen swore he could cut off some of it with a knife.
They were finally met with the image of Kaguya sitting on the throne chair, waiting for them, looking regal and every bit the despotic tyrant.
The banners of the land of the Ancestor were still being held on the wall on both sideways in the room.
Jigen recognized the symbol of Lord Tenji's faction but Hagoromo did not. It was Kaguya's only way to pay respect for her late lover.
"Mother." Hagoromo's Sharingan began to spin wildly at the visage of her mother but he kept his cool.
"Hagoromo. You broke one of my laws." His mother spoke the truth but Hagoromo would have none of it. What his mother was doing was wrong and cruel so she was in no right to reprimand him.
"You went to the Tree, didn't you?" Kaguya asked after seeing the new dojūtsu in her son's eyes.
She has been away ever after the Divine Tree ritual ended and had been busy bringing other lands to her rule with force, cementing her power in the Elemental Nations and the Distant Lands while also quelling rebellions of people foolish enough to challenge her reign, killing other figures of power and taking over their dominions.
"And what if we did, huh?" Hagoromo huffed as if it would matter by now.
"It's fruitless to try to hide it. I can read your face." She had known her sons long enough to know the pattern of their emotions. He had received her answer long before Hagoromo could know it himself.
"And who is this?" She turned her head to look at the black-haired man next to her son. She did not know him but something from the man felt familiar, like if she had already known him.
"You should know him, after all, you were the one to kill his father." Hagoromo's Sharingan continued to spin with fervor.
Kaguya frowned at that, she did not remember this man from anywhere unless he was the son of one of the many Daimyōs that she had deposed.
After seeing her mother not reply to his argument, Hagoromo decided to do it for her.
"His name is Shin Ōtsutsuki..." Kaguya's eyes widened slightly at the name of the man. Millions of questions started going off inside her head.
'How? He is human but at the same time I feel something familiar around him' She scrutinized him up and down but the man named Shin did not flinch under her judging gaze.
'Or have they already decided to come here' Could be also a fair argument but she did not remember any of her clan members to look like him.
After seeing her mother's lack of reply, Hagoromo decided to answer the question for her.
"He is the son of Isshiki. The man you killed." Hagoromo accused her.
Kaguya's white eyes widen slightly at the revelation. "Impossible! Isshiki did not have any descendants inside or outside the clan unless..." She refused to believe that because it was the truth. The woman had killed Isshiki after landing on the planet. However, Hagoromo did not know this and as such was skeptical to everything her mother said.
'He would have to survive to do so' It was the only reasonable explanation on the mind of the Ōtsutsuki woman.
"Unless what?" Hagoromo asked.
"Unless he survived after our fight." That settled any kind of doubt Hagoromo had on Jigen's testimony. Her mother just admitted to murdering his relative's father or so he thought.
"Despite it all, it is incredible to believe that Isshiki had an offspring with an earthling. He used to despise other intelligent lifeforms and belittle them."
"My name is Shin and I am here to end you." Jigen spoke up, his voice full of conviction.
Kaguya smirked evilly.
"Please by all means try but I will warn you... there is a reason why I am standing right here and Isshiki is not." She said with a cat-eat-the-mouse kind of smirk plastered on her porcelain face.
"The nerve of that bitch!" Isshiki raged inside Jigen. Even in death, the woman continued to make him lose it with the comments she dropped, tainting his memory.
Jigen decided to glare at her with fury. Hagoromo decided to step in and take the reins of the conversation once again.
Hagoromo stepped between them. "And you Hagoromo? Why are you defying me?" Kaguya asked when her son stood before her sitting form and Jigen.
"You already know why I am furious with you, mother." He spat bitterly.
Kagura smirked. "You loved that woman, right? What was her name again? Haru?" She tried to guess the name of her eldest son's first love interest.
Kaguya remembered how both of her sons had asked her to stop the God Tree Tradition a year ago and Hagoromo was the most insistent of the two. Now, she knew why he had done so.
"Her name was Haori and not only her but I love all the people in this land." Hagoromo felt insulted that her mother did not even deign herself to respect the dead and at least get the name of her deceased friend right.
"Tch..."
"Such is my love for these people that I am willing to challenge you if that means stopping this sick tradition." Jigen agreed with him, but for other reasons however.
"I know that you once knew that feeling long ago." Kaguya stared at him as if trying to figure out if he was talking about him.
"Why are you doing something so horrendous then?"
"You don't know how dangerous are they? That is why I need warriors." She disclose the reason for her doing.
"Are those warriors to you, huh?!" Hagoromo was getting riled up and signaled to the town outside, meaning the villagers.
"What are you mother? Where do you come from?" He calmed down before questioning her again.
"I come from a place far away in the sky and beyond. A place that you will never hope to reach." That was her vague answer.
"Sooner or later, they will come to seek me." Jigen looked confused at that.
"Love will do nothing to them, only strength. That is why I need to prepare for their arrival." Kaguya explained.
"You won't tell me that, Kaa-san, even you would have to care for the people in the past. Me and Hamura are proof of that." Hagoromo could not see the reason behind his mother actions.
"Those people you speak so fond of also tried to do awful things to me." She still remembered how Aino had been killed in a hail of arrows that have been directed to her, shielding her from danger.
Her late handmaiden had done this selfless action just so she could reach the God Tree unharmed.
She touched her back shoulder with delicacy where an arrow had managed to hit her.
"Now you... which I divided my power and risked my life in so doing... betrays me." She mumbled with an emotionless tone. The Sharingan wielding twin and Jigen did not know what to expect from her by this moment.
"Mother, please! If you have ever loved me and Hamura just stop the Shinju tradition. I beg you!" Hagoromo pleaded but his request would fall on deaf ears.
"It doesn't have to end like this." Jigen said in a threatening way.
"Never!" She stood up from the chair, making the men tense at the sudden action.
"Mother!" Hagoromo tried once again but was ignored again.
"What I protected. What I built in this place. Everything was in vain." The woman said in sorrow.
"An empire built upon the blood and ashes of the innocent is not something to be proud of, Kaguya-san." Jigen mentioned. He had seen the atrocities Kaguya had done during her two decades reign and it wasn't pretty.
"Shut it, you will not criticize what I had accomplished." Kaguya glared at the man in anger for pointing that.
"In the end, we will never understand each other. So Hagoromo..." Bells started going off in Jigen's head after seeing the aura in the room become menacing. Things were about to go down at any moment.
"... you will lend me back my power!" She ordered him.
From behind her, Hamura leaped into action from the shadows. His leg was raised in the air and directed in their direction.
"Watch out!" He warned Hagoromo as he jumped back.
Hamura downward kick made contact with the wooden floor, pulverizing anything under his feet. The younger twin quickly pulled himself out of the hole he made and proceeded to attack his sibling.
"Hamura!" Hagoromo screamed at him as he evaded the vicious kicks and punches that Hamura was sending him. Jigen watched from the sides, waiting for an opportunity to subdue the twin.
"What is going on with him?" Hagoromo noticed the lack of reaction of Hamura.
"He must be under the control of Kaguya." Jigen said. This was a similar scene to the one when Isshiki had taken control over him in Kinpu and had avoided being tried by the monks.
Jigen positioned himself behind Hamura and ran to meet him. In just a second, Jigen managed to grab Hamura from behind and locked him up with his arms curled around the white-haired twin's neck.
"Do something, Hagoromo." Jigen struggled with his grip. He had really underestimated the youngest Ōtsutsuki strength.
Hagoromo heard Jigen's plea of help but he just could not bring himself to harm his brother.
Not long after that, Jigen grip loosened and Hamura profited from it with a reverse kick, launching himself forward and escaping Jigen's steel lock.
The white-haired twin continued to viciously attack both men now, putting Jigen and Hagoromo on the defensive.
"What did you did to him?" Hagoromo said after evading a punch directed at his trachea. His Sharingan predicting the trajectory of all attacks directed at him.
"If you truly love the people as you say, then you will not harm your brother." Kaguya sat up and left the throne room. Leaving both men to face the wrath of his youngest son.
These actions continued for a while longer, Hamura on the offensive as Jigen and Hagoromo thought of a way to bring him out of the Genjutsu casted on him.
"Let's take this outside, Jigen." Hagoromo signaled to the courtyard outside.
Meanwhile, Jigen countered the strikes from Hamura until the twin got tired from Taijutsu and decided to use his Ninjutsu repertoire on him.
Hamura stomped on the ground and a big cube of earth came through the wooden floor. Immediately, he kicked the cube with such force that it sent it skidding through the ground and into Jigen.
'Ohh shit!' He managed to jump just in time, avoiding being rammed over by the solid earth attack. The attack smashed the wooden wall and went through it, leaving a large square-like hole as a reminder.
'Time to get serious, then...' Jigen began to channel Chakra into his Kāma Seal, successfully activating it.
The raven-haired closed his eyes, channeling Chakra to his ocular organs and once he opened them again they were white, signaling the use of the Byakugan.
Hamura jumped in front of Jigen, adopting a well-known stance that left Jigen reeling back in alarm.
'Jūken!' It was unmistakably his fighting style. The open palms being a dead giveaway and thanks to his Byakugan he could see the Chakra lacing the outline of the twin's hands.
Quick as a snake, Hamura closed the distance between them before unleashing a barrage of blows but unsurprisingly Jigen continued to dodge the attacks by bending his body in unnatural angles and occasionally deflecting them.
'So he had been copying my Taijutsu' He intercepted a palm directed to his chest at the wrist and with the other he delivered a powerful blow to his opponent, sending Hamura flying until his body met a wooden pillar.
After his counterattack, Jigen followed Hagoromo's lead and jumped into the courtyard from the hole that Hamura had previously created with his Elemental Technique.
"We have to beat him into submission... together." He said after reaching Hagoromo's location outside.
"I know, but..." Hagoromo fidgeted. He could not harm his brother, no matter the circumstances.
"Then don't interfere. I will take care of this." Jigen's harsh voice made Hagoromo feel useless because he could do nothing other than watch.
Jigen contemplated the irregular shaped hole in the building until a shadow began to move inside.
A second later, it revealed itself to be Hamura that looked certainly ready for more.
The three stared at one another. Hamura's icy white eyes looking straight into Jigen's serious scowl and Hagoromo's worried face.
This dragged along for a minute until Hamura leaped off once again, landing in front of them and springing into battle.
"We are not the enemy" Hagoromo pleaded to his brother but the only response he got was an enormous amount of strikes directed at them.
"Do something, Hagoromo." Jigen hissed after one of Hamura's open palm strikes grazed his shoulder slightly, the Chakra laced behind the hit entering his body and stinging the area affected.
"I can't..." Hagoromo responded. He just could not harm his little sibling.
"Then you leave me no choice." Jigen jumped back and prepared a technique on his own.
Jigen raised his hand as if to grasp something from the air above when suddenly said arm lit up on fire.
The fire spread all over the black-haired man raised limb until finally it receded back into his hand and took the form of a fire blade. A wakizashi.
With his newly created weapon, Jigen charged against Hamura.
Hagoromo watched with the corner of his eyes as Jigen raced against the engaging form of his brother and vacated the spot which a moment later would be occupied by the fire blade user.
Numerous slashes were delivered by Jigen only to be dodged by Hamura. The younger of the two recognized that a battle of Taijutsu against Kenjutsu would only result in failure, so the Ōtsutsuki twin decided to even the things out.
Hamura outstretched his hand, the moisture water from the air compacting into a sword of his own.
Jigen smirked when he saw this scene unfold and signaled him with his finger to attack him which Hamura complied. He had never been a fighter but after becoming the vessel of Isshiki he had discovered that the thought of fighting thrilled him.
Unbeknownst to him, these recent changes in his personality were the result of the entity in his body merging with his mind, something that he was unable to detect.
Dust was raised off all through the path where Hamura sprinted like thunder to try and surprise Jigen.
The former Ka citizen, ever calm and collected just waited for him to clash swords. He had already devised a plan to beat him.
He watched as a path of dust was formed from Hamura's former position, circling around him into his unprotected backside.
'A bold move...' Jigen raised his wakizashi into his back without turning, just in the nick of time to stop a wide arc slash from a water sword cleave the nape of his head in half.
'... but not enough' In less than a second, Jigen ducked down and allowed the lock of blades to disengage but not for long.
The hissing sound created from the contact of water and fire sounded in the courtyard. The two elemental blades clash against one another much like their metal counterparts for several moments later until Jigen decided to put an end to it.
Jigen slashed his fire sword and stopped when it clashed against the water counterpart but instead of disengaging, they remain connected.
Jigen watched as the veins on Hamura's neck strained on his pale skin as he struggled to defeat him. Jigen smirked evilly.
Still engaged in a death lock, Jigen inhaled sharply, bending his head back, containing his breath inside for one last surprise.
Before Hamura could even react or discern what happened, Jigen had exhaled a Fireball point-blank on his chest.
Urgh!
The force behind the Fire Style attack sent the twin flying back in the air and skidding once upon contact with the ground.
"Otouto..." Hagoromo mumbled after seeing his brother's burned form became still on the dirt. Smoke beginning to raise from his body.
Jigen walked in front of Hamura's unmoving body on the ground and watched as Hagoromo raced to his younger sibling's side.
"I am sorry, Hamura..." A single tear trailed down the face of the eldest of the twins. He turned his sibling unto his side and gasped when he saw the large burn mark on his brother's torso.
Hamura's clothes were burned off at the center amidst the jutsu it withstood. However, the flesh was singed and look to some degree fatally burned. Hamura opened his eyes and spoke in a tone belonging to a dying man.
"Hagor..." Hamura could not finish the sentence when a coughing streak deters him from doing so.
"Mother was controlling you." Hagoromo eyes watered at the image of his brother so badly wounded. He felt terrible.
"This is my fault..." Hamura went still after saying such words. His body going into failure.
"Don't talk, I will heal you." He quickly extracted the piece of paper that Gamamaru gave to him before the battle and put it to use, extending it over his fallen brother's head.
Hagoromo touched Hamura's chest above his heart but there was no beating. The trauma of the elemental technique attack took a deep toll on the younger twin's organ and pushed it into systematic failure.
Unknown to him, the eyes of Hagoromo morphed again in an unknown pattern, turning a glowing purple with rings extending to the sclera of the ocular organ.
Also, a strange red-ringed circle appeared on the center of the forehead, something that did not go unnoticed by Jigen.
While this took place, Hamura started to glow green. The burn marks around his torso began to vanish as if he was never hit. The seal used to heal Hamura's injuries destroying itself in the process.
Jigen looked at the scene in wonderment. It was a good thing that he had managed to take a look at the seal made by Gamamaru's ancestors.
Hamura woke up and immediately raised half of his body. "My wound, where did it go?" He began to pat his chest but the only evidence that he had been blasted was his shredded white kimono with burn marks.
Hagoromo smiled at seeing his brother alive. "Just thank Gamamaru, okay?"
The ceiling from the House of Sovereigns exploded outwards at that moment.
The revealing form of Ōtsutsuki Kaguya made itself known, raising from the ground and standing still in the air.
Her Byakugan was now activated and the slit between her forehead opened revealing a strange dōjutsu consisting of a red sclera and irides with a ripple pattern and nine tomoes. The Rinne-Sharingan (Samsāra Copy Wheel Eye).
However, instead of receiving her with fear, they just smirked. They were reunited and ready to deal with her.
"I would have to thank you, mother. For helping me awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan (Kaleidoscope Copy Wheel Eye) and the Rinnegan (Samsāra Eye)." Hagoromo gloated as six truth-seeking orbs appeared behind him. One of the orbs materializing into a dual-headed Shakujō on his hand.
Hamura stood next to him taking a defensive stance.
Jigen clenched his fist and began channeling more Chakra into his Kāma. Marks spreading all around his body in sunburst patterns.
Kaguya just scowled at them from high in the air.
The earth began to rumble in that moment. The tremors devastating the landscape. Hagoromo and Hamura laced Chakra on their feet to avoid being knocked down by the force of the earthquake.
"No way..." Jigen's jaw dropped. The twins heard him and turned to his direction to know what had stunned him.
They watched as the Shinju tree started to morph into something hideous with hands and feet forming from previous roots. The God Tree began to move, leaving his site inside the Peaks of Demise and moving into the path of the Capital City.
"What the hell is that!?" Hamura shouted. He had never seen anything like that in all his years of life.
"It's Chakra... is immense." Jigen sensed the Chakra from the creature. It was immeasurable.
The creature closed on them. Jigen noticed that the Shinju had a new eye similar to the one on Kaguya's forehead and had ten tails that looked like hands behind him.
'Could they be linked?' It was plausible but he did not have any proof to assume this.
Then, the Ten-Tails let out a horrible sound.
ROAR!
The sonic attack traveled in the air and into the Ōtsutsuki Clan compound, destroying the buildings where he and the twins were standing moments before they vacated them after watching the massive build-up of Chakra on the Bijū's mouth.
"Well, looks like things are about to get settled once and for all." Hagoromo began to float upwards.
"So it seems..." Jigen's body marks began to glow red. He would need every ounce of power if they were to defeat her. Hamura and Hagoromo looked at Jigen's marked body but did not comment, they would do so afterward.
The Jūbi stopped his march once he stood under Kaguya, staring viciously at the three men on the ground.
"Let's do this!" Hagoromo dashed off, followed by his brother to meet the Tailed Beast while Jigen flew above them to attack Kaguya.
This would be a battle unlike the world had ever seen before, one so earth-shattering that it would scar the earth forever.
End of Chapter
AN: So here it is my readers. Damm, I never thought that one of my chapters would take so long to write but hey at least I did not abandon this.
So here you go, next one we will have the continuation of the fight so be patient.
Like I have tell you my job makes writing next to impossible but I strived to do it.
Fav, Follow and Comment if you like my work.
See you soon
DragoonMen