Chapter 16: Balaz-aruk
"I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another."
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
/Unknown
/The Shallow Sea
/The Island of Pear
Danzo Shimura
The former Hokage of Konohagakure watched massive plumes of ash rise over what once was the island nation of Pear, wafting in gigantic clouds out into the sky like a funeral pyre.
In a way, it was.
When Shinno, Orochimaru, and he had originally sat down to discuss the future of their shared worlds, so long ago, one thing they'd touched upon was that both Pein and the Seifuku-sha, as powerful and driven as they both were, could not be trusted with the absolute power of being the head of a united Elemental nations.
The Kojiki, the mysterious throne-weapon that drove Akatsuki and gave Pein his potency, wasn't something any of them understood-let alone could operate. So other measures had to be found to combat the two men that stood the most to gain and to lose.
Sheer numbers would have to make up for quality.
Orochimaru fiddled with genetic experiments and seal-based transformations. Shinno created his own armies and outfitted them with the most advanced weaponry possible.
And Danzo?
Danzo took a leaf out of Shinno's book and set his sights on something none of the others had even believed existed.
For a long time no one, save the people of Pear Island, had even known of the unexplored continent waiting on the other side of the Shallow Sea. Those gatekeepers, as it were, claimed the lives of everyone who sought the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
No information was to be found in any of the many libraries Danzo had visited throughout the years looking, searching for some hint of what lay beyond. None in the Hokage's secret libraries, none in the Nine Beast Temples guarded by the Questioners, and none resided in any of the Sage regions either. The Toads were closed, the Slugs were closed, and Danzo dare not speak to the Snakes lest Orochimaru become aware of his inquiry.
So, Danzo had asked Shinno for help-only a little-giving paltry things in return for something of greater value. Something Shinno could only dream about.
And Pear now burned under a blitz of fire and metal.
The library in the royal palace of Pear gave him everything he needed.
All that remained was to find a guide.
The vessel they'd procured to make the harrowing passage was one of Pear's famous Ironclads. Danzo stood at the forefront, leaning against the gunwale as their guide, a small nut-brown man clothed in furs that went by the name of Dondi Algonye, trembled amongst the masked figures on the deck of the ship.
Ahead of them, rising into the sky like an impossible tidal wave frozen forever in the shape of walls that glittered with striations of black and gold, was what Dondi claimed were the reason no one ever went through or came back, save the appointed messengers of Pear. The walls almost blocked the sun from where they were, yet they were days distant yet.
Just how large were they?
How were they made? By who?
For what purpose?
Their current course would put them at what Dondi called, 'the Gatehouse' in less than three days time.
"What did you call them?"
"The Shining Walls of Balaz-aruk, eh, Danzo-man."
"And you claim that chakra doesn't exist beyond these… walls, do you?"
"Eh, no. Eh, chakara do exist, people just forget. Eh, memory gone of this thing."
Dondi waved his hands in the air frantically.
"Eh, no one do it. Chakara, but not chakara. Rocks do same ting. Power for lights. Eh, power for our trains, our aeroplanes, our soldiers. Eh, you understand, yes?"
So, they had… magic rocks?
The idea was absurd.
"Can you use chakra... if you have it?"
The man tittered like a tree-mouse.
"Eh, no. SLOOP. Chakara gone when we try." Dondi made a motion like he was trying to catch something that left him, then laughed like a lunatic.
Danzo was disgusted. Working with savages made his life a living hell, but this was the only man they'd found that Shinno hadn't murdered. Coincidentally, he also knew a great deal about the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and specifically the Gatehouse.
Claimed he was a Pear smuggler.
His men worked diligently behind him at the various stations; their navigator a man of few words they'd contracted in Black Ichiman named Penmen. Before they'd murdered them, several important people had corroborated the rumors that he could operate and pilot any vehicle they'd care to name. Penmen was proving a deft hand at steering a ship that looked far more advanced than anything the continental navies used. Turning, Danzo fixed Penmen with his one-eyed gaze.
"How much longer till we reach the Gatehouse?"
Penmen shrugged, unconcerned about the clearly on-edge ANBU stationed all throughout the ship. A man with such steely nerves could be an asset passed his expiration date which, if the man was right, was about…
"An hour. Maybe less if this loony is right. I'll have you there sir, no worry."
Danzo nodded, turning back towards the monstrous walls that slowly became larger, going from amazing to horrifying when one considered how far they must stretch to effectively wall off an entire world. What being created such a thing?
Idle thoughts occupied him while his second-in-command, Fuu, sorted the men out and readied them for hostile action.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the wall loomed closer. Darkness fell, impossibly, under a noon-day sun, the mere shadow of the colossus turning the air colder as the approached a slender, ever so slender, slit in the striated stone.
The Gatehouse.
Two enormous piers made of the same stuff as the wall jutted out into the shallow water like giant fingers. A gate of some sort, four times the height of the ship, lay closed in between the piers. Danzo could see from where he'd moved closer to the prow of the ship that the docks themselves were simple, unadorned things making way for towering stairs carved into the wall like columns.
A thousand feet up lay the real destination.
At this angle, so close to the thing, Danzo could make almost nothing out. Their guide swore on his mother's grave that the key to passing through the wall lay in the Gatehouse.
So that was where they would be heading.
Danzo left it to Penmen to gently ease the chakra-powered ship into a mooring position parallel to the docks, the ANBU effortlessly disembarking and tying off their mooring lines. The head of ROOT waited patiently as they completed their tasks with robotic efficiency.
Finally, breathing in the salt air and smelling the distinct odor of fish left in the sun, Danzo left via the gangplank and faced the stairs.
With a simple gesture, Danzo directed Member 341 to attempt to bypass the stairs using chakra. The man launched himself from a standstill onto the wall and abruptly had to spring into a backflip as he was unable to adhere.
"No give Lord Danzo. The wall… it resisted application. Orders?"
This would be… an interesting hurtle. Fuu dragged their guide off the boat, planting him next to Danzo. Dondi seemed unconcerned, despite the frantic way his eyes darted around. Nervous? Afraid? Hard to tell through his dark features, Danzo decided.
And what was the fear directed at, the ANBU or something else?
"What other defenses does the Gatehouse employ besides this anti-field?"
Dondi was now obviously sweating.
"Eh," the man shrugged. "Big metal-man inside. Is it."
"Big… metal man?" Fuu looked just as confused as Danzo himself was as he contemplated the odd speech patterns of their native guide. How did the man end up on this side of the wall if there were deadly defenses stopping one from entering? Or was it just entering that was forbidden? There was a commotion by the stairs; shouting and the clash of weapons with a grinding, rumbling noise echoing across the water.
Incoherent yelling, in a language that Danzo could not begin to understand, came from a small space near the left-most stairwell. Danzo's ROOT were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with… extremely tall men in armor of an unfamiliar style.
"Who are they? What are they saying?"
Wide-eyed, their guide was now visibly afraid, constantly looking back towards the ship as if he could magically teleport himself away from the confrontation. Taking in a deep breath, Danzo turned away from the battle which was going very poorly for the strange men in armor, he fixed his one good eye on the colorfully-dressed guide.
"I'm so sorry that I've given you a false impression, Dondi Algonye. You see, I've led you to believe that you're survival was guaranteed if you merely helped us arrive at our stated destination."
Danzo let a little sympathy bleed into his voice, hanging his head as if with great sorrow. The stern, but compassionate grandfather routine worked with most people. Dondi seemed to relax just a tiny bit.
"But I'm afraid this was terminally incorrect. You see, I want what is on the other side of this... thing. I've betrayed a man I cared for, murdered thousands, started wars over less important matters than what we are about today, and personally slaughtered children for the greater good of the world itself."
Dondi shrunk back, eyes darting like a deer cornered in the woods by a pack of wolves. Danzo was that pack of wolves.
"Eh, mister…"
"So if you think for one second I won't peel off, inch by inch, every piece of skin on your body until you tell me what I want to know… well," Danzo smiled with no teeth, just a mockery of one using only his lips and a twitch of facial muscle. "Then I'm afraid I owe you a deep apology for misrepresenting how far I'm willing to go. I hope you forgive me for such a gross oversight. I'll be extremely happy to correct that."
Suddenly eager to please, Dondi started talking.
Within minutes, Danzo's forces subdued and killed most of the defenders. Kneeling by one of the corpses, Danzo flicked back the slim visor attached to a helmet made with some darkish metal. Under it was a pale-faced youth with sandy brown hair, even paler with the rigor of death. Most of the continent had folks with skin ranging from a light brown, like in Konoha, to the deep black of those in the mountainous regions of Kumogakure. These folks were extremely pale, reminding Danzo uncomfortably of Orochimaru's unnaturalness.
Quick inspections of the other bodies revealed varying degrees of that same white skin with eye-colors doing the same; some blue, some green, some a dark color that resembled oak. The armor and clothing underneath was uniform indicating a military discipline. There was an emblem of a wall on top of which lay an eye, with sunbeams cascading out of the wall and eye both, with two crossed swords in the foreground.
"What does that mean?"
Dondi scrambled over himself to answer. "Eh, is Order of Balaz-aruk, you see. The wall is Balaz-aruk. Eh, eh, I am only one to make it through you see. No one think Order exists. Spooky sea, wall is bad magic, right?"
Feeling the beginning of a headache, Danzo irritably waved a hand.
"What does Balaz-aruk mean?"
Dondi swallowed hard and Danzo could see the lump in his throat move.
"Eh, 'beautiful death' close enough, right meaning."
Hm. The wall itself didn't kill… and ROOT made quick work of the defenders...
Danzo eyed the stairs.
That was the only way up and they needed to get through in order to, presumably, open a way for their ship to sail through.
Up they'd go.
The flight of stairs took them roughly an hour, merely an inconvenience to well-trained shinobi. However, the fall would kill anyone under a highly-skilled Jonin given that they couldn't adhere to the wall via chakra control, so Danzo reminded Fuu to disseminate that information amongst the fifteen other members he'd brought with him from the ship, leaving half his crew on the ship with Penmen.
Dondi led the way from the back of Member 342.
Wind whipped and scrabbled at them, attempting to pull them all off the thin stairs. Dondi didn't know how to operate the hidden wall that the Order had poured out of, nor did they have any alive to interrogate. So stairs was it.
The final length of stairwell opened up into a wide stone courtyard all made of one piece it seemed, the crafting so perfect that there was no visible seams, nor evidence of welding. Impressed despite himself, Danzo relished the lack of dangerous open air to stare out into the world from in the shadow of the wall. Open sea, bluer than the sky and almost clear spread out in front of him.
Danzo felt himself a god looking down on the world from his throne.
It felt right.
Turning, Fuu motioned to a few shinobi to follow as they headed into the massive atrium of a glass-covered Gatehouse. Glowing lines started the second they opened the strange, solid-glass doors. Thicker than his arm was wide, the luminescent patterns flowed outward like carved rivers into a… contraption… in the center of the room. Four doors flanked them from where they stood, two on each side of the room, Danzo couldn't see everything from where he stood, but he thought maybe the doors led into the wall itself.
The most interesting thing in the room, however, was the contraption he'd noticed earlier. Built like a sphere, it was made of slowly rotating spindly arms that held a diamond, or what looked like a diamond, in the core of the device.
Was this what powered Balaz-aruk?
Danzo had a hunch that he was correct as the feel of chakra pouring off the contraption dwarfed anything he'd ever felt in his life. This close, it almost felt like his mind was peeling apart if he focused too long on the feeling.
A white glow, something resembling staring at the sun too long, pulsated in the diamond held suspended by absolutely nothing amongst the rotating arms of the device. Dondi gaped at it and Danzo suspected the ANBU, without their masks, would be staring too.
A supreme force of will stopped him from doing the same.
A one-tone alarm sound blared out from high above them. In a language none of them save Dondi could understand, a monotone voice announced something.
More calmly than he felt, Danzo turned to their guide. "Well, what is it? I'm guessing nothing good."
The sound of an alarm triggering was almost universal.
A curved surface, bulging away from the wall in between the leftmost doors hissed, steam curling up towards the ceiling as what was now revealed as a door opened and something stepped out. Footsteps rang as well from somewhere beyond.
Danzo stared up and then up some more, realizing the thing that stepped out was shaped like a man, yet resemblance stopped there. Ten feet tall at least, with unnaturally elongated arms and legs, this armored monstrosity hissed at them in what sounded like a thousand voices; all of which penetrated Danzo's brain like needles.
Those long arms that hung down its sides, almost to its knees, were tipped in sword-length reticulated fingers, ending in points that looked like it could rend a man in half just by swiping. The thing held in its hands the largest sword he'd ever seen accompanied by a shield in the other that felt like it could be the top of an autobus.
By far, the worst part was the head.
"What the hell is that Dondi?"
So far, it hasn't been hostile. But an alarm made that only a matter of time.
The man looked paler than the corpses outside, eyes wide as if he'd seen Yomi itself open and swallow him.
Danzo snapped. "What is it Dondi?"
"A-apex Knight! RUN!"
Their supposedly brave guide lunged for the door, but was caught by Fuu within seconds.
An Apex Knight? What the hell was that?
Whatever it was, it would fall as easily as those men downstairs.
Danzo had prevented himself from looking directly at the Apex Knight's head.
He looked up.
What he saw would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Danzo could hear Fuu behind him, interrogating Dondi. "Is it hostile? What is the alarm? We need to get the gate open for Penmen, where are the controls?"
Dondi babbled incoherently.
Danzo stared, endlessly, into eyes of soulless green flame that matched the massive gemstone embedded in a raised floating circle in its chest.
The Apex Knight was death walking.
Faster than Danzo ever expected, the Apex Knight lunged into motion, the enormous, jagged blade bisecting an ANBU in a spray of blood that was almost impossible to follow. The shield splattering another through sheer blunt force trauma. Two down, thirteen remaining, his ROOT Team scattered and faster than he'd ever done in his life, Danzo sped through hand-signs, suddenly engaged in a desperate fight for his very life.
Breathing outward, two glittering Vacuum Spears the size of building columns materialized and sped towards a horror he could never have dreamed up in his life.
Whirling like some dangerous feline predator, a hiss that sounded like a chorus of snakes filled the room as its shield absorbed the very chakra of the Spears.
For the first time in his life, Danzo wasn't sure if he could triumph.
How did he beat something that ate chakra?
/Training Ground 48
/Konoha Shinobi Military Academy
/Land of Fire
Naruto
There was no blood on the ground of the sand-choked training field, of course not, but Naruto could smell it there. The air was thick with the scent of life-blood spilt; a metallic soupy musk, hot and salty on his tongue and Naruto could taste it in his mouth, flashing to Lionel's terrified face, once strong, crumpling as he slit his throat. The rage had been strong then.
No one noticed, but all of a sudden he wasn't at the Academy, he was worlds away, under burning lights and the stare of an underworld full of monsters, in a dirt ring. Tremors pulsed in him and he could feel his hands vibrating against his pant leg.
No one noticed the smells, but Naruto could.
The world appeared in front of him as if he was a thousand miles away peering through a keyhole.
No one noticed, but Naruto was watching again, yet again, as his world collapsed and young children were murdered by the cleaver of Seiryu as a...a...test.
He'd never let that happen again.
Yes, the man was dead and yes, Naruto had killed him; felt his soul leave his body and he'd seen the light leave his eyes. Seiryu was dead, but Naruto felt his weight in that arena, in that place he'd done a good thing and saved Kazan. Despite his claim he'd never let it happen again, Naruto knew his ability to prevent it hinged on his personal skill.
Seiryu was still strong in his mind.
Haunting him.
Following him.
Before that, too, there were ghosts in his mind, that ANBU that had massacred the house staff in Iron; his family. The parallels were undeniable. Sounds, scents, the sheer terror of knowing his death approached with the soft crunch of boots on sandy terrain.
There were two sets of boots.
Two sets of sounds.
Naruto stared, again, into the eyes of the Lightning Dragon, stared into the smiling face of a man who didn't care that Naruto needed to get revenge, didn't care that the scales were heavily weighted in his favor, stared into the face of a man who didn't care about anything but battle and the death of his opponents.
Was that the kind of person he wanted to be?
Or was that the kind of person he needed to be?
Mingling in his blood was the static, cleansing fire of the Lightning Mark.
When did I…?
But it hadn't been a conscious thing; he was a prey animal scenting a predator. The Mark activation was like his hair standing on end.
A warning.
Naruto didn't even hear his classmates talking quietly as they surveyed the man, their teacher, in front of them. To Naruto, he would swear he saw double; a man that resembled a blade, whip-cord thin and strong with solid white hair shaven short against his skull, a single black stripe running through the center, blurred with an enormous, thickly-muscled and tattooed savage.
In-and-out, the images swung until Naruto got a headache. Breathing deep, he found himself crouched on the ground with both palms pressed against his eyelids, feeling his heart racing in his body.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
Deep inside, he knew. He was marked. More than the Fuinjutsu giving him some agency, he was deeply marked by his life, by Kurama, by Kaguya, and even more so by the memories.
What did that mean for this stage of his life?
Was he doomed to freeze and tremble?
"I am Professor Nakata. Welcome to Physical Combatives. Some of you may be confused by this term, but worry not as I'll explain this class in full to you-but first, some housekeeping."
The images in his head, past and present, stabilized and he could see that his teacher was not Seiryu, alive and haunting him. That strangely-deep bass rumble twinged with an accent came from a man significantly more lithe than the brutish Gutterknife. Intelligence, not animalistic ferocity, stared out of deep-ocean blue eyes. So too did this man have a gravity to him that his other teachers, and Seiryu, did not, save Professor Mitarashi or Headmaster Saito.
There was… an intention in the air.
Questing with a part of him he barely understood, Naruto realized the man's chakra felt… solid. Unyielding. Stonebound.
What did that mean? What am I feeling?
"I must inform you all that, prior to admission into the Academy, you signed a form that waived away your right to protest any harm that may come to you, whether mental or physical, in pursuit of the calling of shinobi. Danger, in all its beautiful shapes, will accost you at any time and at any place. Like today for instance."
Most of the class just blinked. Naruto tensed.
Professor Nakata smiled. It was not a nice smile.
"Grading emphasis will be placed on intelligent aggression and skill-based execution of taijutsu. I will attempt to teach you all to be like fire; strong, fast, and all-consuming. I will explain, in detail, how to reinforce your bodies with chakra properly to become faster, stronger, and more durable with the least amount of chakra used. You will be tested, again and again, on how well you learn these lessons."
In his gaze lurked something close to condescension. Naruto knew that look very well. The rest of the class, save Shikamaru and Sakura, looked like they were eager to begin. Those two seemed to pick up on exactly what Naruto himself had. This man was not their friend.
"You must strive to control yourself at all times. Our goal here is to make you as fast and as strong as you can just using internal manipulation. Ultimately, we will be learning a mix of hard and soft taijutsu to accomplish this, blended with the martial philosophy that the Leaf practices."
A hand went up and the instructor waved it away.
"Let me finish, then I'll open up the floor for questions."
Ino hesitated, then put her hand down. Satsuki, standing next to Naruto, snorted. Confused, Naruto gave her a quick look, but she was staring at the instructor.
"The Headmaster has given me special instructions for this particular class."
Looking back, Naruto felt that blue gaze.
"You see, the class is too large. Therefore, I need to remove two of you-"
Shikamaru frowned. "That's impossible as the classes are evenly divided. Twelve to a cohort. Unless there are training accidents...?"
"Don't ever interrupt me again, Nara."
The man didn't raise his voice or change his expression of bored dismissal, but they all got the message.
"This class is too large. The Headmaster has given me notice that I need to cut down."
Anxiety-spiked in him as he realized his career could be over right now. He couldn't be one of those two leaving! Was he even really able to do that? After coming this far? Naruto considered himself barely in the door.
"I gratefully agreed. So, here is the new plan: all of you will fight like you mean to kill each other-right here, right now. The first two to fall will leave… mostly unharmed."
Everyone looked around at each other, similar faces staring back: muted horror, mixed with confusion. Nakata folded his arms and hands behind his back, staring straight at them.
"T-the other?" Hayato looked ill, face whiter than a bedsheet.
Naruto's 'attack' at the beginning of class had largely faded, some small flutters of anxiety riding around in his skull.
"Or...I am going to personally dismantle all of you and two of you will die; here and now. By my hand."
Suddenly, the tingle of the lightning chakra in his veins and the low-level agony that followed throbbed in time with his heart; a thousand miles a minute.
"Choose. You have one minute."
Think, Naruto. Think!
Headmaster Saito, nor the Hokage for that matter, seemed the type to sacrifice children on the altar of performance. That much he knew. But was that really the question he needed to answer? How much was he willing to stake on that certainty?
This was a shinobi village.
The backbone of the entire political system hinged on powerful, deadly, focused shinobi. Would this 'weeding out' serve that end? Yes, that was the real question… Naruto didn't know either Saito or the Hokage well enough to say with any certainty, though he did know how far she would go to retrieve something she wanted.
So, yes-this very well could be possible.
But-kids though? Her own?
A chill went down his spine.
Every ill-word Mifune had ever spoken about shinobi came flooding back; the disgust, the weariness with their cut-throat politics, the horror.
'Shinobi are nothing more than self-replicating tools for a Kage's use, Naruto.' Mifune had just come back from a difficult meeting. This was about three weeks before… before the massacre. 'Why would you ever want to be a dishonorable puppet tainting the beauty and interconnectedness of chakra?'
Having dismissed it as the product of jealous rivalry with their counterparts, Naruto now thought that perhaps, just perhaps… Mifune might have had some legitimate concerns about this world he'd been thrust into.
Was it any wonder now that Iron had stayed so isolated for so long?
Thoughts racing a mile a minute, Naruto realized his mind was skipping; trying to distract itself from the terrible problem at hand.
"I guess we've chosen, then children. No choice is a choice. There is no jutsu allowed."
Before he could open his mouth, his instincts spiked and something came at him fast from the side. He couldn't even process the scene visually, simply reacting without thought. A fist flew by his ear and he ducked backwards, pushing Satsuki out of the way, Shikamaru stumbling on the other side as Sakura came at him hard and fast, face cold and intent. Small adjustments of his head and shoulders, frantic back and forth, kept the fists from finding purchase.
Twice now today, images overlapped; this time it was Kazan overlaying Sakura. That betrayal stung and Naruto felt that pain all over again, but this time it hardened, that drifting Rage in his chest rising again in time with his chakra.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the class devolve into a grand melee. Kiba attempted to punch Shino in the face.
Nakata stood there looking pleased with himself.
Then there was no time for thought.
Right and left, he threw his arms up at hardened right angles, one then two, to ward off two hammer blows that landed along his upper-arms and hurt. She was unexpectedly strong and fast. Retaliating, Naruto converted more chakra to lightning, pain surging in response, and put on speed. Ducking under a head-level roundhouse kick that would've taken his head off, he sank down and powered his legs into a spear-tackle that took her full in the chest.
Naruto landed full on top of her.
Like a cornered wild-cat, Sakura struggled with Naruto taking several heavy blows to the face and neck, her hips bucking him as she landed haymaker after haymaker. Taking it as best he could, Naruto slugged her in the face and slapped her fighting hands away from him to grab her hair.
His weight kept her down, but she was struggling hard. Naruto slammed her head into the ground, once, then twice, blood splattering. Dazed, but not out, Naruto punched her full in the face again, breaking her nose, and relaxed as she slumped.
The entire encounter had taken minutes at best.
Levering himself off of her, it was only the raging torrent of chakra in his body that gave him the reaction time to brace himself as Choji plowed into him, lifting him clean off the ground. Wind flew through his hair as he found himself six feet from where he'd stood before, airborne.
The realization of his having been thrown registered faintly as shock, that Choji of all people was so goddamn strong, fuck!
The wall was hard and didn't seem to care that it was in his way as Naruto felt himself slam into it, an arm twisting, pain lancing all the way up his shoulder and into his neck.
Awkwardly positioned against the wall, Naruto pushed himself up on his good hand just in time to duck as Choji's stupidly huge fist almost took his head off, dust cascading off the wall as it smacked into it. Apparently no pain registered whatsoever in his fist as Naruto stared at a focused Choji Akimichi who simply withdrew it from its place.
Choji shrugged, a small smile on his face. "Sorry, Naruto."
Naruto didn't have a chance to respond as a snap-kick was rushing towards his face. Ignoring the pain in his arm, which was becoming something that was easier and easier, Naruto crossed his arms and took the kick. The force threw him back into the wall and he saw stars as his head thunked against the stone.
Fuck this.
Naruto was done being a punching bag.
The two of them exchanged furious blows, pain registering with each block. Choji was strong, not just for his age, it was unbelievable. This way and that, Naruto attempted to avoid direct confrontation, slapping away blows and attempting to retaliate. But Choji was clearly slower and as a result, he backed up and attempted to body-check the much smaller boy.
Perfect.
Choji rushed forward and Naruto stutter-stepped out of the way, ducking down and spinning underneath an outstretched fist. Planting his feet, he torqued his hips as he grabbed the back of Choji's head and sent him, with all his might, straight into the wall. Choji slumped, head wound opening with a spray and sending blood everywhere against the wall. Naruto heard his groans and didn't let up, kicking the single leg still holding him up in a kneeling crouch. There was faint movement, so Naruto snapped out a kick that landed on his ribs, lifting the kid up slightly.
Most of the sounds died after that.
Eyeing the big kid, suffering on the ground in front of him, Naruto decided he was down and out.
Wind rustled behind him and Naruto heard rushing footsteps.
Diving, Naruto cleared four feet and landed in a rolling crouch that had him up and spinning back to see Sakura, her snarling face covered in blood, very much awake and aware.
Not out.
And pissed.
Naruto set his feet, raising his hands in a defensive position as Sakura did the same.
Taking a quick second, Naruto realized most of the fighting was still going on; Shikamaru was contending with Kiba, Hayato fighting Shino, Ino fighting both of the twins, and Ami was fighting with Satsuki. Rather unsuccessfully, it seemed. This needed to end, quickly, if he was to have enough energy to fight anybody else.
"Sakura."
That snarl smoothed out and her face was perfectly blank. Eerie.
"Sakura, we don't have to fight. We have just have to make sure two go down-then we can both win. You realize that right? Choji's already down."
She hesitated. Yes. Come on.
"Come on, we're friends." Yeah, right.
Slowly, he uncurled from his defensive position and walked forward, holding his hand out. She too, slowly untensed, moving forward to grasp his hand.
Blinding light and exquisite pain burned through his Mark, enough that Sakura's eyes briefly widened, as Naruto-fighting through both the mind-wiping agony of his mark and his injured shoulder-blurred towards her, wrapping one arm around her neck and taking her back position, throwing himself onto the ground from behind. Snaking, his left hand grabbed the crux of his right, the right arm curling behind her head to lock the technique in place, Naruto constricted like those jungle snakes, pouring all of his considerable, deceptive strength into putting her out. Both legs scissored and locked across her body, latching her into a constrictor position.
Traitorous bitch!
Sakura sputtered, gagging, flailing spittle flying off her lips. Fists, stronger than they had any right to be, what were they feeding these kids? Hit after hit landed on every available inch, nails dug bloody furrows on his thighs, tearing holes, but with each flail she got weaker.
After what seemed like an eternity she was out completely, head lolling.
Quickly, he unclasped and stood up, wincing at the pure soreness, having reduced the amount of chakra speeding through him.
A fist, a foot, something hit him from behind and everything went black.
Waking up was the most unpleasant thing he'd experienced since coming to Konoha.
"I have to say today has been a rare treat."
Naruto found himself paralyzed, unable to move. Panicking, Naruto jerked and struggled only to realize he was buried in the sand up to his neck.
What the actual fuck?
Sakura was next to him, in the same position, but several feet away. The rest of the class was battered, bloody, clothes ruined, but they were all awake, if in various stages of that. Only Satsuki seemed totally unharmed. Though Choji and Ami were gone. Where'd they go?
Arrayed in a semi-circle, slumped or reclining on the ground, everyone watched their Professor who smiled and Naruto wanted to punch him in the fucking face.
His gaze rested directly on Naruto.
"Never in all my years have I seen someone take my words so literally. Well done. I told you to fight to kill and you certainly did that, didn't you?"
Most of the kids aside from Satsuki were studiously avoiding his gaze. Shikamaru, though, was pissed. What the hell was his problem?
"Unfortunately for you, you put the poor Akimichi in the hospital. Satsuki also had her partner meet with an unfortunate accident. But that happened to actually be an accident. Unlike yours."
The sand dissolved around him, loosening his position, and Naruto felt himself rocket upwards by a force moving through the earth. Nakata held a handseal that he formed in milliseconds, but dropped it as Naruto fell on his injured arm. This sent a shockwave of pain, again, racing up into his neck from his elbow.
Kami damnit.
Headmaster Saito's words came back to him just then, as his blood boiled and the vicious rage that always lurked in his head thundered through him, fighting against each other like cats and dogs. "...NO, incidents of disobedience, cheek, insubordination, or disrespect towards either instructors or students."
Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. This was bad.
The Professor stood over him looking for all the world like he was wondering why Naruto was even allowed into his presence. Tapping one finger against his chin, there was barely concealed contempt in his voice. Pitched low, Naruto wasn't sure if Nakata' voice carried.
"The Hokage and the Headmaster both briefed me on what a loose cannon you might turn out to be and I have to say… they were right. You showed no signs of the Will of Fire. No signs of caring who you were hurting or pulling any kind of punches. I strongly suspect Choji has a fractured skull thanks to that stunt you pulled."
"Cut the shit, Professor. This is on you."
Satsuki sounded angry. Naruto wasn't sure, but of them all, he sort of expected her to be the last one to come to his defense, if that is what this was.
"Shinobi Code, rule number fifty-six. 'A shinobi must follow their commander's instructions.' Isn't that right? You asked us to fight. We did."
Tori Nakata stared at the Uchiha, looking for all the world like he wished she'd burn to a crisp on the spot. But she defied that stare in a way that nobody else in their class seemed ready to dare.
One of the perks of being the daughter of the Hokage?
Or just huge balls?
"Right you are Satsuki. I guess I shouldn't be surprised if a young aspiring shinobi from a family like yours doesn't understand Shinobi Code, rule number fifty-five, 'A shinobi must see the hidden meanings within the hidden meanings.' The Hokage certainly does and so does Itachi. But you..."
He stepped forward and Satsuki didn't step back.
"The Will of Fire is about relying on the person next to you-always having their back no matter what. I ask you to fight and none of you, not one, even hesitated. That must change. This… gutter trash over here that your mother picked up is someone who I fear will never understand the importance of comrades."
'What a delightfully-vicious human.'
All of a sudden, Naruto had bigger problems than Tori Nakata.
She was back. Why? Why now? What happened to her being frightened off by the Sharingan?
'Why, seed, I'm pleased you missed me. Let us show this flyspeck what happens when you challenge might. My gift is yours to use as you see fit. I trust you.'
Naruto could see her impossibly red smile in his mind.
Horror clouded his thoughts. She trusted him? Why? What technique-
All of a sudden, chakra unlike any he'd felt flooded him and he understood in a way that seemed impossible. What that scarlet technique really was; a dense, form-creating jutsu that folded chakra into layers like a skilled weaponsmith folded steel to create a katana. They were his entirely, complete extensions of him. It was there, the jutsu, lurking inside him now. Horribly expensive in terms of chakra, it was the reason he'd nearly fainted and had fainted every time he'd been too out of it to stop himself from using it. The amount of chakra packed into even the small knife he'd killed Seiryu with had been mind-boggling in intensity.
Satsuki was still talking, the class glued to this back-and-forth.
"Funny. An ex-Iwa-nin like yourself lecturing the rest of us about loyalty is quite rich."
Naruto didn't even see the dangerous blankness cover Nakata's face. Satsuki did and she paled.
Tool-creation Technique.
What an unassuming name for such a… ridiculously powerful thing. How can I even… use this?
All the knowledge laid bare, right in front of him, inside him, in his head. Like flipping a switch; there was a pattern in the internal manipulation of his chakra, almost like a fuinjutsu created inside the body…
This was impossible. Was Kaguya acting as a conduit, perhaps?
How was she bypassing his ruined system?
"I am responsible for one of the most important classes at the Academy, Satsuki Uchiha. Have a care with how you speak to your Professors."
Thoughts racing, Naruto made connections and realized this was the secret that Chiyo had been talking about all along. Unconsciously, Naruto had done this very thing when making the Lightning Mark, carving the same fuin-matrix inside as Kazan had scribed outside. This was an important understanding that he'd thought maybe he'd known all along, had danced around with his fuinjutsu training, but never put together with how jutsu worked as no samurai would ever deign to use chakra like that.
"My mother would never sanction the deaths of students. Not directly anyway. I'd stake my life on it. If this was just to see us fight, you could've done this a thousand other ways."
Ignoring the byplay, Naruto stood up and flexed his hands. With this… he didn't need weapons. He could make them.
"Do you really think so, Ms. Uchiha?"
"Yes."
"If you have an idea, let us hear it. What do we think, class?"
Kiba grinned. Akamaru barked. The rest were silent.
A small voice in the back of his head was screaming that any gift from Kaguya could not be a good thing. But how could power, power he used how he wanted, be a bad thing? It wasn't the tool, but the user, right? No hard work involved either. Just… exactly what he needed. Help.
"I think you could have just tested all of us one by one, set the others to sparring."
Professor Nakata was right in front of him.
One thing at a time. He needed to see if he could get out of having Nakata report him to the Headmaster. A flash of inspiration struck. Will of Fire… self-sacrifice. Was that the key to this man? One on one sparring…
Naruto cut off Satsuki as he spoke. Her eyes cut to him.
"I'll make a deal with you Professor. Interested?"
"The vicious animal speaks. I'm listening."
"Since you love this Will of Fire so much. How about this: you and I will settle this one-on-one, like Satsuki said. If I win or lose, either way I promise I'll leave this class and won't come back. But if I manage to win, you don't tell the Headmaster about any of this, you pass me with an average grade for the year and I'll just… stay out of your way. I don't think I need this anyway."
The Professor eyed him, smirking.
Sakura rubbed the welts around her neck and sniffed through her almost-certainly broken nose, eyes with dark rings around them, still looking madder than a riled-up hornet. What the hell is she so mad about? She tried to sucker-punch me! Satsuki stared at him with those dark eyes, judging. Shikamaru snorted. Kiba and Akamaru both, looking much the worse for wear, were incredulous. Who knows what the twins or Hayato or Shino were thinking. It did sound cocky when he said it out loud.
"What happens if you lose?"
Naruto ignored Shikamaru, but answered anyway.
I really hope this play works and he's super moved by my show of loyalty.
Saying it like that really made it sound idiotic.
"If I lose… I'm out of the Academy. This is a core subject. If I fail anyway, I'm done."
Nobody in his grade knew about his issues or his bet with the Headmaster, so this would seem more drastic to them than it actually was. Naruto had known this would be an uphill battle anyway. But with Kaguya actually helping instead of just… being a psycho squatter in his mind, maybe he had a chance to become powerful without fixing himself.
It was also worth a shot, right?
Right.
Right?
"No jutsu. Pure taijutsu. Surrender or submission. I accept, Uzumaki."
Inside his soul, in that desert plain filled with the remnants of millions of broken blades, a goddess smiled.
A good first step.
/Training Ground 48
/Konoha Shinobi Military Academy
/Land of Fire
Satsuki Uchiha
This whole charade reeked, not of the Headmaster 'mysteriously' deciding that the class sizes decided an entire year ahead of time, but of her mother's particular brand of well-meaning, borderline-psychotic manipulation of the matter at hand to elicit a specific series of events.
Itachi had explained, some time after she'd turned eleven, that their mother had always been the spider in the web pulling strings in the clan. Their father had no idea because mother had always veiled her intentions behind implacable kindness and honeyed words.
It was a brand of power that very few people understood the limits of.
Satsuki felt herself appreciate the skill her mother had, just a little bit, as she witnessed this… poor boy… make a deal with the devil that most likely had been decided before he even stepped foot in Training Ground 48.
Tori Nakata, Satsuki knew from her many eavesdropping sessions on her mother, defected from Iwa several years ago and brought with him an extremely advanced understanding of Earth manipulation and potent jutsu. Satsuki had been compiling her own small 'bingo' book, a list of information on the people in Konoha she thought might have interesting techniques or jutsu, and what she'd found on Tori Nakata, newly instated Jonin, made her mouth water.
He wove genjutsu and his signature style into a gen-taijutsu, manipulating the weight and gravity of his body in each and every blow. Being able to hit with the force of an autobus one minute, and then being light as a feather the next-all the while weaving genjutsu around your movements-was potent.
Most other children in Konohagakure revered the Hokages past and present, Satsuki did not. She'd found out that, breaking with every tradition in the Uchiha clan, her affinity was Earth. Earth! Given that none of the Hokage ever wielded Earth, she'd sought out every strong shinobi that had stumbled across the Second Tsuchikage, the Mu of the Dust Release.
Ever since, she'd been hooked on attempting to replicate his extremely-rare bloodline limit. No information existed whatsoever. Rumor had it that it wasn't even a bloodline limit, merely a Hiden, passed down from teacher to apprentice.
His nickname, the Nullman, made more sense with each passing day.
Those investigations had led her to one of the only people in this place that even practiced earth-based ninjutsu; queue this asshole. He'd laughed in her face when she begged him to teach her.
So what if she'd been seven at the time and he, a newly-defected Iwa-nin trying to fit in?
Nakata had declared for all to hear in the park where she'd found him, that Uchiha were well-known for their under-handed tactics, 'stealing' techniques and back-stabbing their allies. When she'd screamed at him and ran home in a funk, her mother had just lectured her about her temper. Not a word about the slight against the clan. Itachi had warned her away from him, noting that he had not yet been cleared for citizenship at the time and was therefore suspect.
The irony burned.
None addressed the absolutely gargantuan elephant in the room.
Today had been the first time she'd seen him since she'd humiliated herself begging for his tutelage. Nakata, since then, had become a much-valued asset to Konoha and his becoming a teacher showed how much they believed in his loyalty.
If only it would be that easy for an Uchiha...
By all indications, there was nothing special about this blonde boy, this Uzumaki. Despite the subtle, yet clearly massive splash he'd made amongst the Jonin when they heard his clan name, so far Satsuki was not impressed. Frankly, she agreed with the 'gutter trash' comment. Anybody could be vicious and make themselves look 'skilled.' Triumphing over clearly unfocused peers, even if they were more technically skilled, was easy.
Yet, this was an opportunity to watch and do exactly what their Professor had been afraid of all those years ago; she was going to steal anything she could get her hands on!
"No jutsu. Just pure taijutsu. Surrender or submission. I accept, Uzumaki."
Satsuki refused to believe she was the only one to notice the subtle glow from the back of Naruto's hoodie. But since she didn't give two shits about any of the other kids, there was no one to ask what he could be hiding. Sakura, she'd once thought had potential as someone to tap in regards to information on her classmates; particularly Naruto. Now?
After that?
Not so much.
The light was back. Strongly. A steady white glow that was hard to see for anyone that wasn't an Uchiha. From pregnant stillness to motion, Satsuki had to fully-activate her Sharingan to follow the explosive battle properly.
There was a snarling rictus, as if he was in pain, plastered over Naruto's face as the two mismatched combatants exchanged rapid blows; high, low, again and again, in a subtle dance that Satsuki could already see would end with Naruto's defeat. He was fast, definitely faster than Satsuki herself, which was itself unexpected, but he was clearly unpolished, despite his clever positioning and footwork and wildly unorthodox reversals.
The two were locked together in close-quarters, very close, attempting to land elbows, knees, fists, and subtly rearranging their center of gravity. Naruto's was lower, Satsuki could see, so it made it just that much harder for Nakata.
None of that seemed to matter.
Nakata might as well have been playing around.
A Jonin didn't lose to an Academy student. That was an immutable fact.
The close-quarters combat came to an abrupt and painful end as Nakata did something bizarre; a throw that saw Naruto tangled and kicked so far away he hit the wall; almost a dozen feet away. Frozen in the side-kick, Nakata slowly lowered his leg, perfectly balanced.
"You are fast, Uzumaki. I'll give you that. But not fast enough and nowhere near skilled enough to even land a hit. You're lucky this is pure taijutsu or you'd already be dead. I'll let you give up now and save face. If you continue, you'll force me to hurt you."
"Fuck you. I've faced worse. Ever heard of Orochimaru?"
What? Orochimaru? He must be lying.
Nakata scoffed.
"The boasting of a braggart. How fitting."
This next exchange happened just as quickly as the first; blow after blow, redirected and defused by subtle wrist realignments, Naruto's sweating, furious efforts in vain. Something changed.
Then it got vicious.
Openings started to appear as they fought, Naruto slowed down, a fist slipping through his guard to hit on his upper arms, a side-swipe leg nailing a not-fast-enough thigh. One-by-one, the blonde took hits that, if you weren't specifically looking for it, you'd miss the effect.
One devastating hit landed cleanly on Uzumaki's jaw, launching him backwards, breaking his guard totally, and flooring him. Sprawled on the ground, Naruto looked dazed to Satsuki's sight. There was determination written into every line of his body, a startling rage that made him seem older, despite him being about her age.
A subtle red glow, only something a Sharingan or apparently a Jonin, would notice started in his hands.
What was that?
Then it was gone. Nakata didn't wait for his opponent to get up.
Their Professor was dressed as a typical Jonin; blue-uniform, a pants jacket combination that was overlaid with a many-pocketed flak jacket and various pouches strapped to both thighs and against his lower-back. Most Jonin chose the standard-issue sandals due to the heat and the thinness of the sole, which made for an easier time channeling chakra through the soles of the feet. Nakata was no different.
That sandal hit her classmate's chin like a meteor, slamming him again into the wall of Training Ground 48. He made the same sound that Choji had and like Choji, splattered the wall with blood from a vicious head wound.
Satsuki wouldn't admit it, but she'd been terrified when faced with the startlingly potent rage of Neji Hyuuga. In one moment, she'd actually thought he'd kill her. Really, truly kill her.
She'd known her comment regarding the dark fate of Hizashi, his father, and the concept of loyalty, would resonate strongly with Neji. However, the level of killing intent that flooded the room when she spoke of that terrible event...that had her questioning whether she really was as smart as Itachi claimed she was. What saved her in that moment was those six, who'd been next to her too when Danzo's goons had kidnapped them all.
Someone had stepped in because what they saw was wrong.
Intervening was the right thing to do.
Who would intervene with their own professor? Who could?
Satsuki knew she'd selfishly looked forward to seeing Nakata in action… but she hadn't gleaned anything from this; and Naruto obviously was going to lose.
Again and again she watched thick, thumping blows land against Naruto's face and chest and the hastily, slowly-crossed arms. That barely blunted the force as she watched, again and again, as Naruto was slammed backwards into the stone that filled with the blood from where his head and back slammed repeatedly into the stone.
Rage shimmered on both their faces. One was now barely recognizable.
Satsuki found herself moving, blocking the blow that would've fallen on a collapsed Naruto.
"Stop! That's enough."
"Hmph. This is the second time you've interrupted your Professor."
"You're going to kill him!"
"I did tell you I was going to kill two of you. Are you volunteering?"
Satsuki found herself, to the absolute shock of everyone involved, most of all herself, standing in front of Naruto's downed body.
A voice from behind her, slurring through bloody lips, sounded raspy.
"I don't need your fucking help Uchiha. I haven't… lost yet."
A hand, not as weak as he looked, pushed her aside. Her classmate, more tenderized meat than human, his white hoodie covered in blood and spittle in streaks and splashes, held himself upright by what looked like sheer will. There was a… strange look in his eye that made her want to move.
"Where...were we?"
Satsuki could barely believe her eyes, but she watched as they continued to trade blows that were even more mismatched than before; many slipped by, thudding purposefully into Naruto's chest. He winced as Nakata, for the tenth time in as many seconds, broke his guard and landed a single, devastating kick to his chest that had a strange, crunching quality to it.
On the ground, slumped on all fours, Naruto panted, blood slipping from the corners of his mouth. Satsuki found herself mesmerized. Even the twins, as aloof as they'd been since she'd met them, were wide-eyed. Hell, even Kiba looked stunned. Only Shikamaru seemed unmoved though if she knew him at all then he was simply playing it cool. Shikamaru's mouth tightened, just slightly, and she knew he was definitely being Shikamaru.
One by one, Naruto rose.
Hands levering him up, then to one foot, then another.
Nakata had that dangerously blank expression she knew was code on most Jonin's face for 'encountering something unexpected.'
Satsuki took a step forward again, but then she saw the light again from his ripped hoodie, shining so strongly she heard a gasp from behind her. Ino or Hayato, maybe.
Come to think of it, Hayato might know what was under that hoodie…
One moment he was wavering on his feat, the next something bright and red like arterial spray made solid, a sword made from a dwarf star, shone in his hand and it was striking out so fast her Sharingan could barely process it.
The blade of red slid through Tori Nakata like butter, a hissing sound with a smell like cooking chicken wafted through the air and it repulsed her and made her mouth water, which brought on nausea. That horrified realization made what happened next even stranger.
The scene blurred and Nakata wasn't impaled.
No, he was sideways, a hairbreadth away from the blade his whole body a shimmering heat mirage. The expression on his face was a mixture of pleasure and unpleasant surprise, like he'd come face-to-face with something he hadn't believed, satisfied in the end to have seen it, but uncomfortable with the fact it almost killed him.
Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back, right?
Naruto was face-down, beaten, oozing blood in an expanding pool around him with no shining sword technique thing to be found. Replaying the scene with perfect clarity, she realized her Sharingan couldn't even replicate the technique in her head; just a blur.
"What the actual fuck just happened?"
"Whatever that was, I want some of that."
"Shut up Kiba."
Multiple people echoed that.
Nakata shushed everyone, seemingly losing his obvious condescension for a more teacher-like calm.
"Satsuki, Shikamaru, take him to the hospital. You're excused. The rest of you? Pair up and spar while I write this up. No more shenanigans."
What a hypocrite. Yes, this definitely smacked of her mother's influence.
Shikamaru opened his mouth and Satsuki silenced him with a look.
He ignored it.
"Professor-"
"Do I need to repeat myself Nara? I really thought you were smarter than that."
"...no sir."
"Good. Dismissed. Get this piece of shit out of my sight."
/Unknown, Unknown
/Bay of Haran
/Land of Water
Hotaru Tsuchigumo
Hotaru Tsuchigumo knew precisely the moment she would die.
There was a time, a time in the not-so-distant-past, that the clan heir to the Tsuchigumo clan believed that she wouldn't be assigned that fate; of not only her own terrible expiration date, but that of everyone and every thing in a ten mile radius around her. Their fate, and hers, would be cast in stone the second the clans deepest and most hateful secret was used to its fullest.
No, Hotaru had known her death approached earlier than that, truly, when the darkness materialized, human-like, at her bedside, those lantern-yellow eyes illuminating the night and revealing the simple room she shared with her mentor Utakata.
Despite living a life wherein he was hunted like an animal, the holder of the Six-tails hadn't even fought, let alone made a sound of protest as his protege of three wonderful years was ripped from his side. Utakata had a smile on his not-face; a thing of pure wrongness, lop-sided and as inhuman as a puppet's. Her escape from the clutches of her own clan had brought her, wonderfully, into the company of a man she admired more than any other.
And he merely watched as she was taken away.
He stood there, limp, as Hidden Mist ANBU flooded her room and the man-shaped darkness peeled back like the layers of an onion to reveal a… flesh-and-blood figure, dressed in all red.
Those lantern eyes were the same, flashing with insanity.
A scream ripped from her throat, strong enough that she felt tearing in the back of her esophagus. The cry echoed in the small chamber as she attempted to lunge at Utakata, to wake him up, to prompt him to help, to show her the love she knew was lurking in his heart.
Something!
A fist of stone buried itself in her stomach and the shock of it pulled her to her knees, retching. Jade eyes shimmering with unshed tears, Hotaru knew that the thing wearing her mentor's face wasn't Utakata. The alternative was unthinkable. Therefore...
Again, yet again, she was all alone.
So, too, did she know why the darkness had come for her.
When the voice spoke, Hotaru couldn't help but listen. Instructions, precise and succinct, told her of the only way, the only chance, Utakata had of being saved, for there was no hope for her anymore.
They let her go.
Hotaru went.
Three weeks passed, slowly, as she followed instructions; walked, caught rides on autocars going north, and then took a pre-booked train that landed her a distance from the Land of Lightning. Kaminari was a beautiful land of peaks and valleys, of thinning oxygen as you climbed, and of stunning sunsets and sunrises. The people of Kaminari were dark-skinned and wore colorful clothing; their shinobi, vicious and cold like the air they breathed. The day that Hotaru knew she was to die, she also glimpsed the towering, precarious, impossible verandas perched on mountain peaks that characterized the village, more metropolis, of Kumogakure. There she saw a painter's pallet of colors, riotous in their vibrancy, rising with the sun, and complimenting the riot of blues, yellows, and greens that the city painted with.
Horror and disgust rose in her too, almost gagging her.
These… poor people.
A small wish fulfilled; the sunrise was beautiful.
"Utakata, I...I wish you could've seen this sunrise with me."
Hotaru walked through the three-story gates, carved with kanji for Hidden Cloud, ignoring the guards who she could tell had started to become concerned as she hadn't stopped or even so much as slowed at their orders.
Step-by-step, foot by foot, Hotaru walked towards the hangman, towards the ferryman who waited for her in the Pureland. Kami-willing, Utakata would be there someday too and she could tell him how sorry she was that she hadn't been strong enough. She did this for him, but it felt like fate anyway.
There was a fear lodged in her mind like a thorn that ripped the terror open, flooding her like a broken dam.
For what she was about to do, Hotaru knew she wouldn't be going to the Pure Land.
"St-stop! That's an order!"
Hotaru stopped.
This was close enough.
Numb fingers fumbled with the buttons on her simple white-collared shirt, one of Utakata's she'd stolen when he hadn't been looking. Button-by-button, she took it off.
The guards halted, stunned by the sudden glow emanating from a spider-like symbol sliced into the skin of her entire back; more scar than a tattoo, it burned with an inner ruddy light like a furnace starting up. The nakedness of her torso didn't seem to concern them at all.
Hotaru could feel the swirl of that energy; not chakra, precisely, but something else, something not of her body, as it gathered in such vast quantities that she felt a child staring into the emptiness of the sky.
"Ma'am, please-"
Hotaru stared upwards, through her own blinding radiance, towards the sunset-pink, yellow, and orange striations sticking in her mind-as the technique, Fury, finished coalescing inside her.
The moment her chakra system collapsed, Hotaru fell to her knees as she became a sunset of her own, the furious heat of an ocean of natural chakra triggering a special reaction with her tattooed jutsu. There were hundreds of thousands of people, living and breathing around her, let alone in the whole of Kumogakure.
Who could say how many would be left when she was done?
I'm sorry.
Hotaru felt herself annihilate, every particle ripped to shreds on a deep, metaphysical level. The rage of an angry god, hot like the surface of the sun, seemed to erupt from her in every direction; shockwaves that tore the immediate vicinity into its atomic components and created a silence so profound it hurt. The destruction unfolded upwards and outwards, gaining even more strength as it stretched for miles, the apotheosis of a goddess of destruction.
I'm so sorry.
Then there was less than nothing.
A/N: Hey folks, COVID-19 getting in the way of things again. I'm returning to work and the transition is exhausting. I finished this a week ago, but just didn't have the energy to post. So I'm doing this today and I'll also be writing Chapter 17 today, so hopefully, I can then start on 18 and 19 as quickly as possible. When I have 18 finished, I'll be posting that (maybe without editing, so if you see anything, please leave a review and lemme know!).
I'm eager to get into some world-building for the Western Continent. There will probably be holes... it happens. Eh, what else? Crazy stuff is about to happen?
Any bets on where our (second?) favorite trio is? Rin, Kakashi, and Obito are very much alive... but where are they? What are they doing?
Stay tuned-I would love to hear theories!
Cheers,
J.B.