IMPERIALS – MADA VS SABINE

South Cheqitori

The south of Cheqitori is lined by volcanoes. It makes for spectacular scenery and a tremendous range in temperatures. It also means there is very fertile soil in the area, soil that can be used to grow all kinds of vines and plants. It is this area where Hinata now finds herself searching for her mother. She uses her class 9 powers to move at high speeds, carrying with her Shao Chin, the hunter who is providing her directions. He is just as good at tracking as he has always been.

Shao Chin was surprised at Endou Hinata's solution when she swapped places with her other-self. Hinata believes that the likely cause of Naruto's condition is technology from the Dark Dimension. That technology is, according to her, probably being used by the Empress of the Dark Dimension. He was surprised to learn that Hinata set her son and daughter on the path to finding Empress Helion, something that would surely have placed them in tremendous danger. Nobody is willing to rebuke Hinata for it though, she was reluctant to let them meet Ashen in the first place, and if Boruto and Himawari are dead it will hurt her more than anyone.

"You can change now?" Shao Chin asks, pointing to the side, signalling to Hinata that he wants her to change direction yet again.

"Yes."

"Is that going to cause problems."

"Problems?"

"You were having official private engagements with Naruto weren't you? He has known your other-self for much longer than he has known you. Is her return going to cause difficulties between the two of you?"

"I don't think so."

"You don't think it will bother Naruto that his partner has dual personalities?"

"I don't think we will have dual personalities much longer. Neither does the other-me."

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since she determined how we can switch which soul is controlling this body things have changed. At first I could feel her emotions if I tried, but every minute things are becoming easier. We have worked out how to send each other yes and no messages."

"That's what you have been whispering about? You've been asking her questions?"

"Yes."

"And does she think things will work out?"

"She does."

"Why can you feel each other's presence now? Why couldn't you do that before?"

"I think that the 'water' element corresponds to her soul and the 'fire' element corresponds to my soul. When I understood tier 2 'water' energy I started to have more visions of her past. Now that the 'water' and 'fire' are both tier 3 I think our souls have reached an equilibrium. I not only find that I can feel her emotions now, but I am also asking these yes-no questions and I find myself her agreeing with her on most things. Things I disliked before I now like, even different foods seem appealing to me."

"What do you think it means?"

"If my prediction is right it means that our souls are merging. We share one another's senses, that is the first step. Now we can feel each other's emotions, that is a second step. Soon we will move past yes-no messages and will be able to communicate in full sentences. After that I think that even our subconscious thoughts will bleed into each other's minds. After a while we won't be able to tell which thoughts belong to ourselves and which belong to our other-self. Our minds will completely meld together and our souls will merge to create one being. Endou-Hyuuga Hinata."

Shao Chin smiles, that is good. It sounds like in time things will become less awkward. He points to the right, telling Hinata to arch around the volcano. They move around to what seems like a farm with a few large buildings dotted around. This is clearly ostentatious accommodation that could only be owned by someone like an aristocrat. He tells Hinata that her mother is inside there and the two of them rush into the building.

When they enter there are several rebellion fighters who clap and cheer their arrival. They each want to greet Princess Hinata but there is no time for that. Hinata apologises and pushes her way through the crowd before walking up a flight of stairs and approaching her mother in a room down the first corridor.

"Hinata?"

"Mother, we don't have a lot of time, did Boruto and Himawari find you?"

"Yes, they found me."

"They were looking for the Empress of the Dark Dimension's location. I said that you were the only person who could help them with that. Did you help them, did you point them to her?"

"I told them that the portal to the collapsing Dark Dimension was at the very bottom of the Crystal Caves. I did not give the information to them lightly Hinata, I said that they needed to defeat me before I would reveal the location to them. I thought it would be years before that happened, but Boruto broke through on the spot. I had no grounds on which to refuse their request."

"Naruto has… something has happened to him. I think it's the result of Dark Dimension technology."

"If that's so Boruto and Himawari might be…"

"I need you to summon them, now." Hinata is alarmed, both Endou and Hyuuga.

"OK."

Northern Ewoa

Mada sits in the crater he has replaced yet another village with. He drinks some water while resting for a short while. He is making good progress towards the capital. This may be the most efficiently anyone has ever worked their way through Homeworld. He doesn't know where the empress is now, but he knows that he is making the Dark Dimension's Empire proud by eliminating so many Homeworlders. The war is far from over.

He sees someone interesting approaching him, causing him to smile. Only class 9 warriors can move that fast. He remembers Naruto fighting against Nadia and Swen at the same time, he knows that he was able to defeat Hannah, there are likely very few people who can keep up with him. Unlike his counterpart he has no qualms with absorbing excessive amounts of 'life' energy from his opponents. However, one person who can challenge him is she who is approaching. It is the Queen of Ewoa, Queen Mauer Sabine.

Sabine comes to a halt in front of Mada.

"I hear you've been killing a lot of people up here," Sabine says. "Wasn't there a town here before?"

"Yes there was. I don't remember what it is called, but I can tell you that there was nobody strong here. This place put up even less resistance than the other towns. Why are you here Queen Sabine? Are you upset that I am rampaging through your country? Have you come here to defend Ewoa?"

"Defend Ewoa?" Sabine laughs loudly. "Have you forgotten me so quickly Uzumaki? I don't care about the people of Ewoa. I don't care about this country. I don't care how many people you kill. I just want to spread as much 'chaos' as possible. Whoever survives in my world of 'chaos' will prove that they are the strongest. I want to be that perfect survivor."

"A pity, I have no intention of letting you live."

Sabine smiles. "I like you, why weren't you like this before? I hate testing my skills against weak minded fools who refuse to kill, it always feels like they are holding back. I get the feeling that this time our fight will be much more fun. Tell me, what happened to you Uzumaki?"

"I am not Uzumaki Naruto. I am Ugokanai Mada."

"Ugokanai Mada? You are Naruto's alter-ego? It doesn't matter to me; your actions speak for themselves. You are much stronger than the real Uzumaki Naruto, if not in power then in mind alone. Tell me Mada if you win will you cause chaos throughout Homeworld?"

"Naruto and I view 'life' energy very differently. He views it as something beautiful, I see 'life' for what it is, pure chaos. There is no way of controlling life, it spreads and spreads everywhere, ruining everything. Doctors refer to tiny lifeforms as diseases and parasites, but they fail to look at the bigger picture. 'Life' itself is a disease, most people who are given life do not deserve it and corrupt this reality."

"You believe life spreads chaos and death cures it?"

"That's right, that is why I will not cause chaos throughout Homeworld as you have done. I hate chaos, I will destroy the Homeworlders and remove the most chaotic parasite from this realm."

Sabine smiles. "You really want to kill me, don't you?"

Mada stands. "Have you any final words?"

"I am going to enjoy this. Ugokanai Mada, let's have fun."

Mada begins by trying to grow vines through the floor of the crater he created; a strategy that Sabine sees through straight away. She slaps her hand on the ground, spreading threads of golden 'chaos' energy through the earth below. These threads act on a smaller scale than most her attacks, although not on a scale that could rival Furst's Milli-Control. She expands and contracts the threads quickly but regularly, vibrating the ground at high speeds. The vibrations create heat, heat intense enough to destroy the quickly forming plants.

Mada grins, Sabine has a rarely seen competence and unlike Hannah doesn't rely on instinct alone to fight. There is an aspect of Sabine's fighting, an unpredictability and adaptability that goes beyond most other people. She is one of those people who has fought against emperors before, someone who has only ever lost in single combat to Endou Akashi and Furst Jonas. This puts her in the same position as Empress Helion Ashen, an elite bracket. That is fine, Mada plans on showing that he is on that level, a level where he could compete for the throne of a great realm.

Divine oddity activating, Mada's legs each shine a brilliant white-yellow colour. He has power-transferred to those legs. He throws himself at Sabine, travelling at superhuman speeds. Excluding teleportation-like abilities there is nobody who can move faster than him in class 9. He rushes towards Sabine before power-transferring to his right arm. He plants his feet less than a yard in front of her, bends his knees slightly and prepares to unleash his full force attack against her.

Mada strikes powerfully towards Sabine. Sabine shifts her body weight to the side from her hips, dodging the attack and creating a golden opportunity to attack Mada from an outside position. She grins at him for an instant before taking that opportunity. She grabs his powered-up arm and holds it while she strikes his face twice with her other hand. She then sweeps towards his leg. Something he counters by pulling his arm free and jumping over her sweep. Sabine smiles, thanking the benefits of her golden 'chaos' energy, because when Mada lands he slips to the ground without any external force applied.

Sabine stamps towards the fallen counter-aspect. He creates a golden 'life—fate' shield to block but as her foot connects with it the vibrations of the impact hurt his arms, causing him to drop the shield onto his chest. Sabine stamps on the shield three times before it begins to crack. Mada uses his Energy Projection to lift the shield up into her field of view and she slaps it away with surprisingly quick reactions. In the moment his opponent's vision is obscured Mada leaps up and strikes her with Detonation Martial Arts, driving her backwards.

When they are separated Sabine grins maniacally at her opponent once again, it is obvious that first exchange went better for her than it did for Naruto's counter-aspect.

"Your reactions were never that quick before," Mada says.

"After the last fight I decided to learn the Future Sight technique."

"Ridiculous. Learning a technique like that so fast, hardly anyone meets the requirements for it. There is no way you could have done that."

Sabine laughs. "You are fighting with the best of us now Ugokanai! Don't mistake me for a general. We are the greatest prodigies the world has ever seen, the most powerful warriors who have ever lived! If we couldn't do amazing things like this nothing would ever be any fun, would it?"

Mada reluctantly smiles, Sabine is right to embrace this challenge. He is an opponent stronger than she has faced in a long time, she is the strongest opponent he has ever faced. If he wants to list his name in the same bracket as the emperors' of course it would be difficult. However, Sabine is not the only one who has learnt a new technique since their last fight, he has as well. He creates a ball of golden 'life' in his hand before letting it expand rapidly. It changes from an orb to a bubble and from white to red as it engulfs them both.

This is his life-absorbing technique, allowing him to constantly draw 'life' energy from Sabine, weakening her progressively. Sabine feels the technique working sooner than the colonels did but she seems unbothered. She can see why this would be a major hindrance to a general, why it would make fighting very difficult even for a royal, but she is different. Sabine's divine ability is a regenerative power; it easily compensates for the constant drain on her lifeforce.

Mada forgot that she had that power for a moment, she is a truly fearsome opponent. However, long as this bubble remains her lifeforce is going to continue to grow weaker and it will feed his. If this becomes a battle of attrition he will win. Sabine's only option is to try to resolve this fight quickly, a strategy that greatly favours Mada. She runs towards him and begins to exchange strikes from a standing position. Of course Mada is the faster of the two and throws strikes more quickly but Sabine is able to avoid a good number of these with the Future Sight, returning her own counterpunches.

Eventually Mada tires of the strike exchange and power-transfers to his legs. He uses a quick two-step movement to shift himself behind Sabine. He then grabs her shoulder and begins to absorb life directly through that shoulder. She tries to break free but he uses his Energy Projection to hit her repeatedly, making it more difficult for her to act. Sabine pushes golden 'chaos' through her feet into the floor and the ground detonates, sending exploding rock in all directions. She expects this to create a momentary separation between them but Mada protects his eyes with projected energy and keeps hold of her.

Sabine laughs for a moment, realising the predicament she is in. She spins and strikes towards Mada's eyes with one hand but he catches her wrist, beginning to absorb energy through it. She then tries attacking with the other hand and the same thing happens. He now has control of both arms. She tries kicking him but he counters by power-transferring to his legs, outpowering her significantly. She laughs once again; it looks like there is no way out of this for her. She was right, Mada is much stronger than Naruto.

However, if she dies here the fun is over. She is not willing to settle for that, not when things are getting so interesting. She decides that if they are going to be in contact she may as well make use of it. She funnels golden 'chaos' through her hands into Mada's body, hoping that somewhere something important will go wrong. But nothing happens, she continues to grow weaker at an alarming rate and he remains strong. Then she considers that she might be able to make something happen, she tries kicking him one more time.

Thinking that Sabine had stopped fighting back, Mada stopped using Detonation Martial Arts. He is happy to resume, so he power-transfers to both legs. The second he does so the effect of Sabine's golden 'chaos' energy occurs, a misfiring synapse, he directs the healing 'life' energy to the wrong place and his leg detonates in an explosion that throws them away from each other. Mada is swift to heal that leg with his 'life' energy.

While Mada is down Sabine takes the only chance she has, making use of the chaos to escape. She knows now that while a man like this is running around Ewoa is doomed. As far as she is concerned there is only one person who can stop Ugokanai Mada, and that man is Emperor Furst Jonas. So she runs to the north, into the emperor's nation, the most powerful nation in Homeworld, and towards the Imperial Palace.

With his leg healed Mada decides this is not the time to pursue Sabine any further. His power is increasing far quicker than hers is, the next time they meet it will be an easy victory for him. For now though her retreat means something very bad for this country. There is now no royal to defend Ewoa, he is the most powerful man in the country.

Unless Furst decides to intervene personally, there is only one person with a chance of defeating Mada now, and that is his trapped counterpart. In the void Naruto continues to train, desperate for the chance to return and save everyone. Everyone is working against a time limit. Hinata must find a way to release Naruto quickly, otherwise Dunstone and Ewoa will be destroyed.