"Sacrifice is an inevitable part of missions...Didn't you receive emotional training?"
Temari
In the Hokage Building, Danzo, Mito, and Tobirama stood before Hashirama, the Fire damiyo, and the other leaders. Clustered together at the center of the room, they faced the assembly of chairs or cushions in which everyone was seated, and awaited their respective responses. Outside, the light was starting to pale as it grew closer to night's descent across the city.
"We have felt the reverberations from here." Tadakki advised in his stern voice. "You were correct in your assessment."
Koichi nodded his concurrence, his smooth face expressionless in the dim light. "The Fire country's coast, surrounding countries, and the entire mainland's coast has been invaded...At the very least there's been severe breaches everywhere."
There was emphasis on every word he spoke.
"The Water damiyo has many resources and many soldiers." Kiyoshi agreed.
Hashirama felt a rush of satisfaction on hearing the words, a vindication of his insistence on working together and forging ahead as a single mind. "The Water damiyo and not those clans will be our target?"
He didn't make a declaration of triumph. It was still too early. There was an uncomfortable silence as everyone looked from one to the other before their eyes settled on the Fire damiyo and his Chief Commander.
"No, those clans will be our targets as well." The commander said quietly.
"However, the Water damiyo is the main enemy." The Fire damiyo added.
Hashirama's face remained stoic, and there was fire in his eyes as he glanced quickly at the Water damiyo. "Is there a navy fleet?"
Hashirama was able to hold in his disbelief, and he was able to cover up his shock. He tried hard to ignore the look Mito and Tobirama had given him just a second before he had to compose himself.
The Fire damiyo nodded, dark eyes steady. "The Fire country does, but it is primitive at best. We don't have the advancements that the Water damiyo or the other neighboring countries have when it comes to naval warfare."
Hashirama was incensed, but he held himself in check. This decision made some sense. The Fire country was land, most of its conflicts were on land, so it only stood to reason that a rudimentary naval fleet was needed. But, this neglect could not be allowed to stand anymore. "We need that naval fleet and we need those advancements. You must be able to see it." He insisted vehemently.
Danzo cocked his head contemplatively. "I seen the coast. As it stands we will only be able to move ground units in small numbers. If we were to send out a naval fleet we'd be heading right into the storm."
Kiyoshi looked at everyone for a brief second before nodding his acceptance. "Too much is masked by the conflict taking place as we speak and Danzo needs to go and set another trap."
Tadashi grunted softly, narrowing his eyes. "I think those two may be right."
Hashirama searched the faces of the other members, but found no help. He straightened and nodded his acceptance of the decision. "Very well. I will do what I must to produce a strong naval fleet that can compete with the siege going on. We may not have a choice but to take this war into the heart of the Water country-there is a reason he is spearheading across the ocean."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tobirama stiffen in agitation.
He saw the sudden flicker of hope that crossed Mito's face.
He did not respond to either, keeping his gaze directed toward the Fire damiyo and the assembled leaders.
"You and Kiyoshi have filled out a great deal of Konoha's infrastructure and have built solid walls." The Fire damiyo pointed out sharply.
"It would be impossible for you to take on a task like creating an entire naval fleet-even if your Mokuton can allow you a certain amount of levity-it won't be enough to finish." Danzo further explained.
"We can't stretch what resources we have right now. The clans are all just about gathered within the walls of Konoha or close enough to it, but there's still much that must be done." Tadakki advised darkly.
"I can use clones to get the job done."
"I can as well!" Tobirama agreed heatedly, trying unsuccessfully to mask his zeal at his brother's unexpected decision.
The Fire damiyo's eyes shifted. "Would it not be too much for the both of you? What about Konoha and the infrastructure?"
Hashirama and Tobirama exchanged quick, hard looks, and the measure of newfound antagonism was palpable. The breach was widening so quickly it could no longer be mapped.
Tobirama took a deep breath and turned back to the Fire damiyo. "Hashirama and I can handle it. There are members of all of our clans here, so it only stands to reason they can pitch in to help."
Koichi nodded slowly. "We can pull our end in whatever must be done. The Hatake have always been craftsmen and we are refined in certain trades."
"This Water damiyo is a nuisance." Tadashi stated with finality.
"It appears that we may have no choice but to invest the time and resources needed into a naval fleet. If the only way to win this war is to go into the Water country, we will need a fleet to do that. Katsu Yotsuki and the Kumogakure force, we have been notified are mobilzing, which will put pressure on the Water damiyo and could widen the confrontation. It could spread to the outside lands and nations if it goes unchecked. Those performing any task must be quick to act." Tadakki lamented.
"We will be able to draw out certain attackers who have been hiding in the shadows up to this point." Mito whispered.
"Events are moving too fast for distractions." Kiyoshi added.
Danzo took a quick look about at the others sitting, then turned once more to Fire damiyo.
"Very well. Hashirama and Tobirama will work on a naval fleet, while everyone else assists in whatever capacity the are able to. Perhaps going to that blood drenched country is the clue we need to unravel this whole thing." The Fire damiyo's nod was slow and broke no argument.
"We could focus on certain clans later on. The Kaguya and Akebino will be particularly problematic to deal with."
Hashirama took a deep breath, filled with calm and slight disappointment at the turn of events. A naval fleet would be made, but would not be trained, even though he had offered to do just that. Worse, he had offended the Fire damiyo, not intentionally perhaps, but still did nevertheless. The rift was not permanent, but it would take time for the pride to heal-time they could not afford.
He bowed his acquiescence to the the Fire damiyo. "I am Hokage. Everyone here will stay in my charge. We have nowhere else to go except for Konoha. This is our home now."
The Fire damiyo nodded. "There is no need to dispute that."
"Don't worry about those clans." Danzo admonished sharply. "We won't have peace until them and their damiyo are gone."
The words stung, the force behind them unmistakable. Hashirama flinched inwardly, but said nothing.
"The Kaguya being the first that need to be culled." Tadakki added.
Hashirama looked on gravely.
Outside, the last of the twilight faded into darkness, and the lights of the city began to blink on.
"Danzo, finish setting the rest of those traps then come back here. That should be enough to hold off their full on assault until the rest of the mainland is ready." The Fire damiyo said finally, signaling to everyone that the audience was over.
So many times before he had attempted to tap into the deepest strata of chakra, and each time the projects ended in failure. Syrus had no intention to fail this time. He knew that one false move at this stage and all his work, literally months of preparation, would be undone.
Yet he also knew that he had no choice but to find a way to deal with the pain and continue his work.
He had made his first attempt seven years before. Using relics of Subatsu tomes as a blueprint, he had attempted to recreate the intricate matrix of lattices and vertices that were the key to storing nearly infinite amounts of knowledge and chakra.
It had taken months to gather and fashion the filaments and fibers of the interlaced network, followed by weeks of delicate and painstaking meditation as well as minute adjustments. The matrix had to fall within highly exacting specifications, and Syrus had spent thousands of hours making thousands of precise alterations through the power of chakra to ensure that each crystalline strand was properly in place.
Once the crystal matrix inside was ready, he had carefully transcribed the ancient symbols of chakra power onto the surface. The markings were part of a powerful ritual that was critical to maintaining the stability of the matrix and chakra after it was infused with the energies of life itself. Unfamiliar with the exact purpose or meaning of the arcane glyphs, Syrus had once again used dusty tomes and scrolls as his guide, studying the markings etched on the surface, then copying them exactly on his own creation.
But when he tried to activate it by channeling his chakra through it, the delicate lattices imploded, collapsing in on themselves and reducing him to writhing in sheer agony as crackling white flashes erupted. He had tried again several months later, only to be met with the exact same result. He had tried again two years after that, and he was still met with the same result.
Forced to admit that the secret of tapping into the deepest strata of chakra was still beyond him, Syrus had begun a campaign to discover everything he could about it. With aid, he accumulated a vast wealth of knowledge on the subject. He devoured every tome, scroll, book, historical account, and personal memoir he could find that theorized on the steps needed to tap into the deepest strata.
He came across millions of veiled references to, and thousands of theoretical speculations on, the art of tapping just not into chakra, nature energy, or even Kekkai Genkai-but the pure root of it all and its highest stratosphere. However, he was unable to find a single source that explicitly set out the steps and details required, and their secrets still eluded him to this day.
Syrus refused to give up. He continued his research, seeking out rare tomes, hidden documents, and forbidden works of lore. It took three more years until he learned the purpose and meaning behind the glyphs and strange symbols...
In doing so he found an answer to why his first efforts had failed.
He discovered that each person's chakra was emblazoned and was uniquely tied to them, and was responsible for the jutsu creation. The scrolls and tomes were far more than a simple collection of raw data. Learning was imparted through the wisdom of the one who wrote it, there were even notes that acted as an advanced simulated personality that mimicked the creator's own identity in words.
The right combination of will, applied in conjunction with specific chakra ratios and outbursts of chakra, would allow Syrus to capture his will, strength, knowledge, and cognitive processes. Within the structure of the deep strata, they would be transformed into the highest power to guide and direct anyone who was able to tap into it. The cognitive network also stabilized the interwoven lattices and vertices of the chakra matrix within, keeping it from collapsing as it had done on Syrus's previous attempts.
Armed with this new understanding, Syrus had made another attempt to tap into the infinite strata of power two years ago.
He had proceeded carefully. The process required to inscribe the proper symbols onto the chakra's surface were mentally and physically exhausting. Ever wary of making a mistake, he had drawn the process out over two long months.
Ironically, his caution proved to be his undoing. As he began manipulating the inner structures of the chakra matrix during the final phase of the project, he sensed that the power of the symbols had faded. The cognitive network had degraded to the point that it lacked the ability to support and stabilize the chakra matrix. In desperation, he had sought some way to restore it, only to realize his efforts were futile.
Enraged at yet another failure, he had crushed a large stone to dust with his bare hands while screaming in pain. Before beginning his most recent attempt, Syrus had vowed that he would not fail again. Time was the real key. He had to finish aligning the chakra matrix and infuse it with his own energies within a few days, before the cognitive functions of the matrix began to degrade.
Now, after weeks of meditations to focus his power, and seven straight days and nights of intense focus and concentration, he was finally nearing the end. Only a few dozen minor adjustments still needed to be made, but Syrus was keenly aware that time was running out. Seven days of constantly drawing upon chakra without food or respite had left him exhausted in body, mind, and spirit.
He was particularly vulnerable to the intricate networks of the matrix.
Normally they fed off the energy that naturally flowed through him, but the creation of the matrix demanded that he channel all his power directly into his work. The crystalline networks were slowly starving, and in response they were flooding him with impulses intended to drive him into a mindless fury so they could gorge themselves on his chakra as he unleashed his rage.
The spasming muscles of his feet, legs, hands, and fingers were a direct result of their efforts, and there was nothing Syrus could do but wait for the tremors to pass. He had only a few hours left to complete his work, yet he couldn't risk making a mistake and damaging the delicately interwoven fibers of the matrix's internal structure. Slowly, he was able to reassert control over his convulsing body, ruing each precious second that slipped away as he did so. When his hands at last became still, he took a slow, deep breath to refocus his mind and will, then reached out with his chakra to touch the matrix once more.
A ribbon of electric blades raveled itself around the muscles and nerves of his spine, causing him to arch backward as he screamed in agony. The pain momentarily broke his concentration, and an uncontrollable surge of energy shot through him and into the sky making him scream. An instant later it exploded, spraying Syrus with a shower of debris and dust.
For several seconds he simply stared at the empty space in front of him, feeling the pulsing hunger of the lattices and his own gathering fury.
A red veil fell across his vision, and Syrus surrendered himself to the fury.
He stepped down from the mountain's peak, frustrated beyond reasoning, but still not willing to give up. Slowly, he turned in a great circle, as if he expected to find the secret scrolls lying in a corner of the forest close by.
There was nothing.
Syrus hadn't been sure what he expected to find, nor what he could achieve this time, but it wasn't this. The spirits of the Subatsu were pure energy. They were as eternal as chakra itself. The spirits would linger for hundreds of centuries- hundreds of millennia, even now-until a worthy successor came along for them to impart their knowledge to.
Or so the texts in the archives had led him to believe.
Yet the harsh evidence before him in the wasteland was undeniable.
The ancient manuscripts had failed him.
He had gambled everything on the truth of their words-even defying some of the elders-and he had lost.
He failed miserably.
In desperation he threw his his head back and slammed his hands to the uneven rock of the arched pathway that towered over him.
"I'm here! I've come to learn your secrets!" He paused, listening for a response.
Hearing nothing, Syrus shouted.
"Show yourselves! By all the power of chakra, by the deepest strata of power within chakra itself, by Rikudo himself! Show yourselves!" His words reverberated off the landscape, sounding empty and hollow.
He dropped to his knees, his arms falling to his sides.
As the echo died away, the only sound was the shrill sounds of the monsters and beasts all about him drawn to him by his voice.
Syrus surrendered himself to his fury.
Haji stood stone still within the office. Kata examined past damage to his face in a broad expanse of wall mirror, near vanishing scars that had once trailed over his eyes.
Haji couldn't tell if the older man's expression was revulsion, rage, or if this were merely the new shape of his features.
Kata simply shrugged.
"So it appears the mask becomes the man...I shall miss the face of Hashirama Senju, Katsu Yotsuki, and their contemporaries...But, I think for our purpose, the face of Kage will serve. Yes, that title will serve us just fine."
He gestured, and a hidden compartment opened in the office's ceiling above the desk. A voluminous robe of heavy black floated downward from it. Haji felt the currents of chakra that carried the robe to Kata's hand.
He remembered playing a chakra game with a stone, sitting across a long river from Syrus and other kids in his age, in the forest retreat they'd always embark to. He remembered how grumpy some of his peers would be to see him use chakra so casually.
Kata seemed to catch his thought.
He gave a yellow, sidelong glance as the robe settled onto his shoulders. "You must learn to cast off the petty restraints that you have tried to place upon your power. It is time Haji. All of us, including you..."
Haji didn't respond.
Kata continued. "We will seek to kill all shinobi. The shinobi villages and those who join them will be our enemies on pure principle alone. Just as the rest who do not join us."
A wave of tingling started at the base of Haji's skull and spread over his whole body in a slow-motion shock wave. "I don't know if I can pledge to all out genocide. We'd be killing people who surrender."
"Of course you can."
Haji set his jaw and found that his body threatened to begin shaking. "I thought we were going to speak on possible alliances and ententes."
"We are."
Haji clenched his hands into a fist.
Kata snorted softly. "Alliances and ententes with shinobi villages will not have meaning. It's not going to happen."
Haji could find no answer.
"And do you think that task is finished? Do you think that killing all shinobi doesn't correlate to alliances and ententes?"
Kata seated himself on the corner of the desk, hands folded in his lap, as he had always done when they spoke in private, the yellow of his eyes made the familiarity of Kata's posture into something horribly menacing.
"Do you think that killing one shinobi or striking one shinobi will end it? Do you think the shinobi, collectively, or as clans, will ever stop until all of us are dead? Until none of them remain standing?"
Haji stared at his hands.
They were shaking.
He clenched his fingers, jamming his hands into steep fists to stop the shaking.
"It's them or us, Haji. I should put it more plainly. It's them or Hitomi. It is them or your children, as you know from this whole ordeal."
Haji made his right hand harder, tightening it into a bony knot. "It's just...I have been working with diplomacy...I've been a mediator and speaker at times for my brother and certain members of our kin for so long..."
Kata offered an observant smile. "There is a place within you that you found as a child. A place as briskly clean as ice on a mountaintop, cool and remote. Find that high place like you always have, and look down within yourself. Breathe that clean, icy air as you regard your fear and guilt. Do not deny them. Observe them. Take your horror and sadness in your hands and look at them. Examine all of it as a phenomenon. Smell it. Taste it. Feel it. Come to know it as only you can, for it is yours, but you already know this."
Haji knew the words were true.
From a remote, frozen distance that was at the same time more extravagantly, hotly intimate than he could have ever dreamed, he had always handled his emotions. He dissected them. He reassembled them and pulled them apart again. He still felt them, if anything they burned hotter than before, but they didn't have the power to cloud his mind.
"You have found what few of our kin find. I can feel you there. That cold distance—that mountaintop within yourself—that is the first key to the power needed to crush the shinobi once and for all."
Haji opened his eyes and turned his gaze fully upon the ghastly, flinty features of Kata. He didn't even blink as he looked upon the mask of hatred, the fury he felt was real, and it was powerful.
He lifted his hand of flesh and bone and stared into its palm as if he held the fear and rage that had haunted him for his whole life, and it was no larger than the piece of fruit he'd once stolen from his mother's basket to make pies.
On the mountain peak within himself, he weighed Hitomi's life against the Shinobi Clans, the Shinobi Hidden Villages, and the Elemental Nations.
It was no contest.
"Yes."
"Yes to what?
"Yes...I will move forward with the plan. It is protocol, after all."
"The shinobi betrayed both of us...The Domou, and everyone with us. As you just said yourself, Haji...Are you ready?"
"I am."
He meant it. "I am ready. Just as my parents. I take the torch of war and carnage. The path of destruction, this will teach, and this will lead."
Kata raised his head and the shadow cast reflected the sulfur of his eyes. "Haji Subatsu."
Haji lowered his head.
"It is your will to join your destiny forever with the carnage and destruction of the shinobi and their creed."
There was no hesitation.
"Yes."
Kata's eyes burned through the shadows of the room.
"Then it is done."
A pause.
A questioning in the chakra currents.
An answer, dark as the gap between stars.
He heard Kata say it.
His name.
Haji
A pair of syllables that meant him.
Haji.
Haji.
"Thank you, Kata-sama."
"Every single shinobi, shinobi village, and shinobi clan, including your friends Hashirama and Tobirama have been revealed as enemies of our coming coalition. You understand that, don't you?"
"Yes."
"The shinobi are relentless. If they are not destroyed to the last one, there will be wars without end. To purge the Elemental Nations of the malcontents will be our first task. Do what must be done."
"I always have."
"Do not hesitate. Show no mercy. Show no compassion or remorse. We must leave no living shinobi behind."
"What of the other shinobi who are problematic?"
"Leave them to me, for now. After you and the others begin the campaign, your second task will be slaying the leaders of enemy clans and villages. Only when all of them have been killed, will we have peace and stability, forever. Now, rise Haji Subatsu. Warn your two friends of the coming storm, and let them know in full detail why it is coming. Let them feel it. Taste it. Hear it. Experience it. Let them know we have Yamanaka looking into the children who survived the confrontation with the Sarutobi and Hyuga. If anyone from the Sarutobi or Hyuga spoke to anyone inside of Konoha..."
Haji stood, drawing himself up to his full height, but he looked not outward upon Kata nor upon the room, nor out into the lands that would soon be running with blood. He turned his gaze inward. He unlocked the inferno gate within his heart and stepped forth to regard with new eyes the cold freezing dread of the dragon that had haunted his life.
The dragon tried again to whisper of failure, of regret, of weakness, and inevitably of death, but with one hand he caught it, and crushed away its throat. It tried to rise, to coil and rear and strike, but he laid his other hand upon it and broke it in half, and its power with a single effortless twist.
The shinobi all must be vanquished. Those who do not ally with or join us, will be enemies... He ground the dragon's corpse to dust beneath his mental heel, as he watched the dragon's dust and ashes scatter before the blast from his inferno heart.
He had become, finally, what they called his clan.
Savage.
Hitomi sprinted through the empty hallway of her home, the clattering echoes of her footsteps making her sound like three platoons worth of people. The main door of her home was slowly sliding open, in answer to the body moving it.
Hitomi could feel him.
Haji Subatsu.
Her husband.
Alone.
The door continued to slide, and as soon as it was wide enough for Haji to pass, he slipped through swiftly.
He stood in the doorway, shoulders hunched, head down against the dim candle light.
"Ji-san!" She gasped, running up to the man. "Something terrible happened!"
Haji looked at her. "Are you okay?"
"We felt something happen...Something awful. None of us thought that it could ever be..."
Her words trailed away.
Haji wasn't looking her in the eye, he wasn't even moving to come deeper into their home.
"Children..." Hitomi began to sob. "They killed children!"
Hitomi looked past him.
The night beyond their home was full of warriors clad in dark armor.
Battalions of them.
Brigades.
Thousands.
"Ji-san..." Hitomi said slowly.
"You are right, wife. Something's happened. Something horrible. Children were killed, and not just Subatsu children...This is...Only one thing can be done now...We only have one course of action now."
Hitomi wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tightly while she tried to compose herself. After a few minutes, she put some space between herself and Haji.
"What will we do now?"
Haji caressed her, kissed her, and drank in her very being. Kata's warning rang loud within his mind-it is either you or them, your children or them.
Hitomi or them.
"You will continue to train as you have been...I must go and warn Hashirama of what is coming."
"Why warn him? Isn't this his fault?"
Haji shook his head. "None of this is his fault. I don't owe the clans with the Senju right now anything besides the Yamanaka and Nara. The least I can do is warn them of what is coming, and confirm with Kiyoshi."
Hitomi firmed her lips, wrestling with her anger. "Isn't Usagi going with you?"
"Who did you think was going to be doing the talking?"