Chapter 18: The City of a Million Bells
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
-H. L. Mencken
/Garasujo Apartments
/The Village Hidden in the Leaves
/Fire Country
Naruto Uzumaki
Sounding so much like a honeybee hive, humming and fluttering, Naruto listened to the sounds of the street while he lay in bed, attempting to summon the energy to rise.
Over and over, like a movie stuck on loop, Naruto replayed his conversation with the Hokage back in his head, yet only her lips moved and all he heard was the idea that it was simply this chakra-issue that was holding him back from moving forward.
The room he slept in was a simple guest bedroom; the same place that Shizune had set-up for him earlier as a place to study. Narrow bed and frame meeting a fairly serviceable desk with a lamp. The rest of the bedroom was spartan, at best.
A plan had come together in his head; a bold one and also one that would be impossible without Shizune's help. Energy returned to his limbs, the restlessly manic kind that felt like the aftermath of pounding caffeine.
Rolling to sit up, he realized that he hadn't gotten any of his clothes yet from the dormitory. He'd need to do that today. There were some old clothes of his father in the trunk, so he shuffled over to it on socked feet and knelt, throwing open the already-unlocked container.
There were many things in this trunk that he didn't quite understand yet; various scrolls, a bracer of strangely-shaped kunai wrapped carefully, tri-pronged with a wildly-complex array of fuin-sigils that he was fairly watering at the mouth to dive into, and from what he saw, the unfinished technique his father talked about in his journal was part-and-parcel of this array.
Indulging his curiosity and spotting the worn leather journal, he gently removed it and opened to a random page.
Within minutes, head spinning with ideas and theorems related to the fuinjutsu, Naruto realized that what his father was working on fairly opened the floodgates of his mind as it related to what he'd already begun thinking was Kaguya Otsutsuki and her origins. The work suggested there were such powerful space-time ninjutsu that it could simply manipulate the walls between what appeared to be different dimensions; realms, or merely exponentially-long distances between planetoids.
It might, really, be possible that Kaguya wasn't lying.
If she wasn't lying about her origins… then this technique was more important than he first thought. The ability to simply materialize in a space with no requirements other than a massive chakra expenditure? Could that be reduced using a sealing array and multiple shinobi?
Or built into a permanent frame?
His father used this technique with a throwable anchoring point, but was it possible to bypass that like Kaguya had insinuated?
Any amount of sleepiness disappeared as he spent close to two hours perusing the journal and speculating. The whole experience, sitting at a desk and reading and writing about fuinjutsu, felt like a call-back to his time in Master Ouran's smithy going over arrays and etching quietly, time slipping away from them both.
Simpler times.
Naruto couldn't believe he'd been so naive as to take that time for granted; what he wouldn't give for it all back? Homesickness shot through him and it made him close his book, realizing that breakfast had come and gone and it was now the strange hours or so in-between that and lunch.
Real life awaited; obligations, objectives, and his future to reclaim.
Padding out, Naruto headed to the kitchen where he smelled something delicious being made and there he found Shizune, predictably pouring over some reports and had a book propped at the table against a jug of orange juice.
"Morning."
"Good morning."
It was an easy silence yet, despite that, there was a weightiness to it- like two people unwilling to acknowledge something they both knew to be true. The boss summon in the room.
They both bustled, moving easily around each other grabbing food and drinks and eventually sat down to eat and for a few moments there were only the sounds of a good brunch. With the sun shining slanted bars of golden light, Naruto imagined this was what a real family did every morning.
"Naruto, we have to talk about this."
At the, 'this' she gestured around with a piece of buttered toast.
He paused, three lumped french toast pieces half-way to his mouth.
"I want you to stay here. With me, I mean. We'll… we'll figure things out, do some more intense training to get you to where you need to be."
"No amount of training is going to 'fix' me, Shizune."
"I beg to differ. Tsunade can teach you the Creation Rebirth. We just have to convince her you're worth taking on as a student. And that means-"
Naruto gaped at her. What? If Shizune couldn't even do the technique…
"-I'm sorry, if you can't even do the technique, then what the hell makes you think I can?"
Her toast became a spear pointing at him.
"You want this, need this, more than I ever did. Wanting doesn't mean you get what you want obviously… but it gives you an edge that I never had. My chakra control was never where I wanted it to be, but I also didn't take the time out of my life to really hone it like I should've."
She looked like she was seeing somewhere else as her gaze became unfocused.
"Too busy trying to keep Tsunade alive, I think."
Naruto leaned back, dropped his fork with attached food and looked away. But he was still listening.
"If I wanted it badly enough, maybe I could've done it. But now my skill set lies elsewhere. You though? You need this, Naruto. Need it. How else will you do all the things you've always said you wanted to do? What happened to all your bitching about the way things are in the cities and the way things are done in Konoha being, and I quote, 'ass backwards?'"
"...you aren't wrong."
"I know I'm not."
"That doesn't mean Tsunade will become less of bitch allofasudden and see the light."
"No, but it does mean you don't give up till she gives you what you want, right?"
"...right."
"And."
"And what?"
"And you need to come stay with me-hold on, before you say no, just until you figure your chakra out and rejoin the Academy."
"Uh, no."
"Where the hell else are you going to live?"
"...a box? I don't know, I'll figure it out. Maybe I'll work for a blacksmith making, who knows, weapons or something? And rent an apartment."
"Nobody is going to rent to a child, we literally have laws against that, nor will they let you work unless you're a genin. Genin are lawful adults in the eyes of the courts."
Naruto rolled his eyes and jabbed his food into his mouth and chewed furiously. Man, this is really grinding my gears. She's got me by the avocados.
"No."
"You don't have a choice."
"Yes, I do. You definitely aren't my mother. She's dead, in case you haven't noticed."
"Kami, Naruto, show some class."
"Definitely not. It would ruin my reputation. Besides, she's not going to mind as she's dead."
Shizune sighed and Naruto knew he won. Sort of.
"Well, I've already alerted the school that you'll be staying here. You couldn't have properly moved out without adult supervision anyway. I've saved you a step. Not to mention, you're going to be interning at the hospital until you know enough iryojutsu to really work. You don't get to skip your punishment, my newest coffee-bitch."
Naruto thunked his head on the table and whispered defeat.
"...but you still need to go grab your stuff. That I'm definitely not doing for you."
"I hate you."
"No, you don't."
"...yeah, you're right."
Shizune smiled at him and he couldn't help feeling like a heel for even declining in the first place.
Fifteen minutes of pile-driving his face with food saw him dressed in hand-me-downs from his father's trunk and hitting the road. Garasujo Apartments was in a fairly well-to-do part of the city, with mostly residential neighborhoods and very little hustle-and-bustle. As he walked, it was impossible to deny how much of an impact his lack of chakra actually was; everything was built with shinobi in mind. He couldn't reliably or safely use the 'private' shinobi Skyway which was the most efficient and fastest method to travel because of his deteriorating Lightning Mark.
Yet another thing with which a normal person would have no access.
What good was the Sage's Oath if chakra itself set you apart from others and gave you special privileges? Didn't power also come with heightened responsibility to use it properly?
Turning a corner, disgusted with his line of thinking, Naruto found himself on the main thoroughfare and less than five minutes from the Academy; the closer he got, the more he wondered what his classmates would say.
Would they even care that he was gone?
Probably not. He hadn't been the most well-liked student...
Pulling his head up, Naruto pushed the handle of the door in and entered into the stairwell that would take him up to the dormitories.
Fluted arches were everywhere outside holding up the spiraling architecture, like the delicate tracery involved in a wasp's nest. Inside was a different story. Naruto bumped his chest against the push-bar and entered the apartments. Warm colors dominated and carpet lined the hallways, lending the whole thing a sort of muffled sound quality. No doubt so that the kids could still study if their next door neighbor's were throwing ragers.
Finding his number, he stood in front of it for what must have been forever wondering why he was so afraid to face these people; he felt like he didn't give two shits about them, but Shino's disapproving face and Hayato's disappointment cut at him. Shikamaru had been right all along, hadn't he?
I'm a coward, right?
He hadn't faced them after the Choji thing, despite attempting to visit him in the hospital. Visiting hours were over by that point.
Had he really done something so wrong as to listen to what Nakata had said?
Fight each other… and that's what he'd done.
But it felt like a betrayal still, even in his head, he knew what he'd done was wrong-by every measure of honor his grandfather had instilled in him.
Yes.
He'd fucked up. Big time.
He'd almost killed Choji. Almost, almost could he believe he'd deserved to lose to Nakata for that.
The door opened and Kiba stood there, in much the same way that he had done so when he'd first arrived with Raido in tow. Or vice versa as the case may have been.
"Hey, can I come in?"
Kiba whistled.
"You got a huge nutsack showing yourself here again with Shikamaru out for blood. Surprisingly Ino, too, but hey, no girls here so you're safe on that account. Shikamaru, not so much."
Contrary to his words, the Inuzuka held the door open, stepping to the side, and allowed him space to walk into a place he once thought he might grow comfortable enough to consider home.
Startled, Naruto caught the box that had been thrown at him from where Shikamaru stood glaring.
"Get out. I packed up your stuff for you, you're welcome, so you didn't have to stay a moment longer than necessary."
Naruto was so taken aback he just stared. The level of animosity… there was an odd moment, as he stood there listening, that he realized it was deserved. Like puzzle-pieces clicking into place, he had the realization that he'd never had someone genuinely, thoroughly enraged at something he'd done-and actually deserved it.
It was one thing when someone was upset with you and you understood that it was their feelings and there wasn't much control one had over another, if at all, but it was entirely something else to come to the conclusion that you'd actually fucked up; that it was all on you.
That it might be entirely justified.
Naruto remembered, vividly, the kids back in the Gutter who bullied Kazan for being a little slow, or different, and how volcanically he'd been enraged by it. The Uzumaki did horrible things to those kids in defense of his friend.
Shikamaru was doing the same…
...but now Naruto was the scum of the earth who attacked and almost killed his friend. Did it really matter that it was in pursuit of a class assignment? Something must have shown on his face because Shikamaru seemed to get even more pissed off. Shino and Hayato came tentatively out of their rooms.
"We heard about your expulsion. How? Satsuki Uchiha came by trying to find you."
Opening his mouth, Naruto closed it, realizing there was nothing to salvage here. Or was he just being a coward?
"For what it's worth-I'm sorry about Choji. I…"
"N-nobody wants to h-hear it. You d-don't do that to f-friends."
No one seemed shocked to hear Hayato speak up. Clearly he was making strides speaking for himself. But somehow it hit all the harder being Hayato.
This was going nowhere. He had bigger fish to fry.
Naruto gripped his box and left.
#
"Naruto!"
His return trip through Konohagakure proper, complete with the susurrus of humanity moving and haggling and mingling like the Iron markets in summertime, was quicker than his trudging, grudging first one.
Naruto didn't necessarily even watch where he was going as he walked, relying on his peripheral vision and some subconscious mechanism to avoid the numerous and thick crowds, vehicles, and general chaos.
But the shout, close to him, brought up him and out of his circular going-nowhere thoughts about why he was so bothered by his encounter with his former classmates.
Professor Raido and his advisor, Iruka Umino, were speaking quietly near what looked like a shop of some kind. Raido waved. Iruka smiled. Naruto wanted nothing to do with either one of them. So he turned without acknowledging them and kept moving.
A hand came down on his shoulder and Naruto shrugged it off without even looking.
He didn't even bother to modulate his voice.
"You guys don't have any responsibility towards me anymore, in case you haven't heard. So go be a professor or whatever."
Raido exchanged concerned looks, that Naruto missed, with Iruka.
The Geopolitical History teacher stepped in front of him and looked at him steadily.
"Some of us care about you. Our students are more than just numbers in seats, you know?"
"Well, I'm not a student anymore."
Iruka was quiet. "Just because you aren't a student of ours doesn't mean we can't care what happens to you. If you need anything, please, don't hesitate to reach out, okay?"
"Yes, where are you staying? Do you have a place lined up? Who is taking care of you?"
"What are you two doing?"
The two men exchanged startled looks.
"Looking out for one of us, Naruto. That's how the Will of Fire works."
"Well, you can stop worrying, I'm staying with a woman named Shizune. She's a friend. So go back to benign neglect, yeah?"
Raido sighed, but Iruka ignored his snark, stepping up and handed him a sheaf of papers in a manila folder.
"What are these?"
"Discharge paperwork. There is some stuff in there about liabilities for combat-based chakra usage. Dumb stuff like that. But listen, it says discharge on there, but- and I don't know about Raido- but I became a teacher to help students. You'll be a student of mine, period. So anything you need, I'll be in my office, just come on in, yeah?"
Raido pauses, "...don't push us away, please. If you need us, I promise we'll be there."
Raido waves and the two men leave into the press of the crowd.
Naruto stared at them for a long-time, not really seeing anything, before he moved on.
#
Shizune had cleared most of the office space and had already converted some of it into a nice-looking bedroom, still with the desk and the narrow bed, but cozy.
Naruto called out that he was back and went through the hallway, dropping his box of odds and ends, clothes mostly, onto the bed and started pulling things out and putting them away. The task took all of ten minutes and at the end, it felt a little bit more like a place he could live in.
Shizune, somewhere in the apartment called out, asking if he was ready to get to work.
"Yes!"
His medical textbook, the primer on medical ninjutsu and anatomy, had been upgraded two weeks ago at the demand of Shizune as he was starting to get into a place where knowledge needed detailed application to flesh out context. Basics turned into intermediate then into advanced, after that was practicum, or hands-on practice.
Lost in thought about his next move, he heard something from the front of the apartment and opened his door, realizing it was Tsunade's voice he was hearing and at somewhat of a raised volume.
Naruto padded into the living room in his socks and raised an eyebrow at an agitated Tsunade who was pacing.
What was up with the Slug bitch?
"Local liquor store run out of your favorite hooch?"
"Oh, I thought I smelled midget."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yeesh, I'm a child still. What's your excuse?"
"Shut up brat. I want to speak to Shizune alone."
"Fine. Listening to you is bad for my health anyway."
Tsunade made a flicking motion. Shizune gave him the thumbs up and the two of them sat together at the kitchen table as Shizune started brewing hot water in a kettle.
Naruto made a point to walk away then crouch behind the corner of the hallway, out of line of sight of the two women, but close enough to hear everything. No way was he missing out on juicy gossip.
Why was she so agitated?
"Ay is missing. Lightning has been hit by a massive terrorist attack- their news outlets, the ones that aren't completely in shambles, are blaring, proclaiming Leaf the culprit. Frankly, I can't blame them considering everyone who isn't an idiot realizes it had to be the Tsuchigumo clan. A Leaf clan. Not a prominent one, but definitely a Leaf clan."
Naruto heard a gasp. Shizune.
"Those poor people. Lady Uchiha wouldn't have… she wouldn't have ordered Fury to be used peremptorily, would she?"
There was a contemplative silence and Naruto didn't know what to make of it.
"I… don't know. I mean, most of the city is wiped out, the whole country is in chaos and refugees are pouring over the borders in the tens of thousands. Even their Daimyo has been assassinated in a precision hit, apparently. This isn't a shitstorm, Shizune- this is a kami-damned shit-typhoon the size of Earth Country. Would she have done something like this? I can't say for certain. That woman hasn't been the same since the Betrayal."
"So what does this mean for us?"
"It means the Hospital needs to be ready, which means you need to be ready. The Iryonin Program needs to go into effect before we have to field functional battalions. That is what it means."
Shizune was quiet. Tsunade sighed, continuing.
"It gets worse. Earth has declared war against us, formally, which has pulled most of their defensive alliances into orbit as well on behalf of Lightning. So that means Grass, too and the subsidiary countries."
"So that means, if we let this go rather than challenge it, Wind and all of our satellite states will be dragged in… igniting another Shinobi World War. A Daimyo was assassinated. That cannot go unanswered, can it sensei?"
Naruto could feel the grim silence from his hunched position.
It occurred to him that it must be hard, sheltering him and staying neutral with her very own teacher. A person she must care about greatly.
"You don't need me to call me 'sensei' anymore, Shizune. I'm hardly the best role model."
"Can't argue with you there, but you will always be 'sensei' to me."
The sounds of more pacing, the scrape of a chair, came to him and he moved slightly over just to be safe.
"I just came from a meeting with the Hokage who believes this is part of a larger plot, obviously. There are some… rumblings from that idiot Jiraiya- who doesn't seem his usual self- that Wind Country is also dealing with a third-party… and Earth Country is buying new munitions from possibly the same mystery third-party."
"What about Mist?"
Unconsciously, Naruto felt his knuckles tighten and his nails scrape his palm.
Fucking Mist.
"Nothing is coming from Mist either; ominous silence is not good. Jiraiya did relay that Yagura is gone, but apparently someone else is stepping up that isn't the Seifuku-sha."
Silence stretched after that. Naruto imagined the two, who he realized most likely lived through a war themselves and knew what was coming, were scared. Nothing more familiar than the stench of fear.
"So, the Academy training is being accelerated and Fourth through First Years are now being prepared for their Field Exams, regardless of actual preparation level. I'm more worried than ever and I wanted you to understand why I'm going to be pushing you harder than I ever have to train these new medics."
There was some part of him that knew, with a certainty that lit his nerve-endings on fire with rage, that the Seifuku-sha was at the heart of all of this chaos. Urgency tipped the scale in his mind towards anxiety. He wasn't doing enough and he knew it, but nothing was possible without solving his main issue.
"Did you hear?"
"Hear what? I literally just told you a bunch of things I've heard- be more specific."
He could almost hear the eye-roll.
"Naruto has been ejected from the Academy on account of his chakra issues and his encounter with that… teacher, Nakata. The less said about him the better, but I had to practically barricade Naruto in the apartment to make sure he stayed here."
There was an awkward silence; Naruto shifted himself to sit cross-legged against the wall. I don't get what Tsunade has against me… I should've had Chiyo teach me, not that we had a ton of time together… but still…
"That kid... you're good for taking him in."
"I can recall a time when you would've done the same, especially for someone so close to Jiraiya. You know what he'll say when he comes back."
"He has no right to lecture me about responsibility."
"Even I know the only reason he isn't here taking care of Naruto instead of me is because he actually is doing his job. You also know he'll be right when he gets pissed."
"I don't have time for this shit, Shizune. None of us do with war on the horizon."
There was a hard edge for the first time in Shizune's voice. Scary.
"You have a top-rate, ready and willing student in the other room. He's a good kid, just been through a lot. He deserves a chance. He reminds me of a weird hybrid of the hyperactiveness of Nawaki and the genius of Dan."
"Don't, Shizune. Don't."
"Are you joking? Me, of all people, get to say these things; he's a good kid, and quick. I've never asked you for anything… do this one thing for me. Teach him to fix himself."
"I don't have time."
"Bullshit. All you have is time. I do most of the administration of the hospital. I do most of the work getting the internships and Residents up to speed. I do the curriculum- and I work as a shift-iryonin! Don't give me that you don't have, 'time!'"
"Whatever, Shizune. What do you want? You want me to make him my next apprentice?"
"Yes! At least until he fixes his chakra. Is that so much to ask?"
"Yes, it is. He's not iryonin material. He doesn't give a shit about anybody else but himself. I'm not teaching someone who I'm not sure is going to use what I teach for the right reasons. You KNOW my rules. Especially regarding Creation Rebirth. You want another Orochimaru?"
He couldn't take anymore and levered himself up, stepping out and cutting Shizune's response off. They both looked surprised. Tsunade didn't even look abashed.
"Forget it. Thank you, but forget it. She's the selfish one. For all she proclaims how righteous and noble being an iryounin is, she can't even bring herself to help someone she thinks is useless and destined to fail. Isn't that right?"
Shizune looked pissed- at both of them.
"You can't keep doing the lone wolf routine. You need to accept that everyone needs help sometimes; the Conqueror has help, Orochimaru has help, Tsunade has help too, so does the Hokage and every great shinobi on the mountain. They had help. Nobody can do things alone, it's just not how humans are wired. We need each other."
Tsunade scoffed.
"Does he even know what it means to give a shit about something other than himself? It's always about his chakra. Always about him. You see what he did to that Akimichi kid?"
Naruto was incredulous; but felt off-balance when she mentioned Choji.
Tsunade and Shizune didn't miss it. Naruto snapped back, defensive.
"Do you know how lucky you are? Do you know how powerless and frightened- you know what? Fuck you. You don't care to know what it's like not having access to your precious chakra. Shinobi take that shit for granted. At least when I was in Iron, people understood what a gift chakra really is. We don't need you, I don't need you. I'll figure out your super-secret technique all by myself."
Naruto walked away, turned- thinking of something, then turned back.
"For what it's worth- you think I wanted to hurt Choji? You all claim the 'Will of Fire' is what guides Konoha shinobi… but the kind of shit that Nakata asked us to do was what I ran into in The Gutter. That place was hell- but I did what I thought I had to, as I've always done and will continue to do, got it? So it's not my fault- it's KONOHA'S!"
Tsunade combined disgust, some part of what looked like guilt and anger into one look, turned and left with only a cursory goodbye, slamming the door on the way out. The whole wall shook.
Naruto stared at the door, shaking.
Shizune sighed and leaned heavily against her countertop. Carefully, after a minute, she turned and poured the hot water into floral-designed tea cups.
Naruto didn't know what to say. His mouth moved and sometimes it said things that he definitely meant, but wanted to keep to himself. That was always getting him in trouble.
But it was still awkward and it was a person Shizune considered family.
"...we don't need Tsunade, I can recreate it myself, I just need a better look at the seal… and a ton more practice with medical chakra."
"I don't know where this confidence is coming from, but the real world doesn't work like this-where you can just," she snapped her fingers, "...and can fix things."
Frustrated, Naruto just looked at her, his mind racing.
"Bottom line is this: you won't be able to make medical chakra do what you want if you don't fully understand the human body and what you need to be fixing when you use it."
She pointed a finger at him.
"That requires STUDY, practice. The elephant in the room is this- you can't USE medical chakra at the moment… and I don't know how we're going to get around that. All I know is that, before anything else, you need to study more and that will give us time to think about this."
Connections started forming in his head as Naruto looked at his hands.
I still have more real-estate to cover on my body… what if I…?
"I have an idea on the 'using medical chakra' part. But I need your help, like real sit-down, walk-me-through-it-type help. I know you'll be busy…"
She held up a finger.
"I'll help. You know that, but on one condition."
Warily, Naruto nodded. "What is it?"
"Stop fighting me on living here. Only someone completely irresponsible let's a child live by themselves in an empty apartment. Recipe for disaster."
Naruto grinned. "Fine, fine. Can we get started though?"
Shizune put a hand out dramatically. "Lead the way!"
#
/Ruins of the City Proper
/The Village Hidden in the the Clouds
/Lightning Country
Mikoto Uchiha
The western edge of Lightning Country was home to a beautiful, if arid desert. Different in scope from the vast swathes of sand dunes covering Wind Country, the desert was a bit of an outlier as Lightning was known especially for its ferocious and plentiful storms due to its unique proximity to both an extremely warm oceanic current as well as massive, steep mountain ranges that give the country its moniker regarding clouds.
The warm air from the current is forced upwards against the face of the mountain ranges producing the exactly ideal ingredients for truly powerful storms. Pre-existing storms helped Lightning Country, and the plentiful number of Lightning Release-affinity shinobi, defend their home. Most would find it suicidal to directly attack any Hidden Village, but aside from Mist and Earth, Lightning was the least vulnerable to direct attack.
Which is why, Mikoto concluded as she stood amidst the vast ruins of the Village Hidden in the Clouds, someone was very clever to use sabotage. Truth be told, Mikoto had entirely forgotten about the agreement Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, had made with the reclusive Tsuchigumo clan.
Last intelligence on Hotaru was that she was off wandering the world making a name for herself selling herbal supplements and practicing water ninjutsu with a somewhat mysterious teacher, just so happening to be one of the illusive jinchuuriki, Utakata.
At the time that En no Gyōja, the leader of the Tsuchigumo, had spoken with Sarutobi and herself, she'd thought the idea of letting a village-flattening technique-inscribed on the back of their Heir-completely out of their village insane.
She'd said nothing, as it was not her place.
A small part of her revelled, in a schadenfreudian-way, in her being right.
That part also blamed Sarutobi wholeheartedly for his kindness.
A hundred thousand people, maybe more, lay dead because of it.
Hayate and Kurenai, her two loyal blades, flanked her in cold-weather gear. Mikoto needed no such thing as a manipulated fire technique warmed her from the inside. She was only clad in her regular outfit; a Jonin's uniform, minus the flak jacket, covered by her official robes and hat.
No doubt she stood out to any observers. That was the point.
The space-time ninjutsu emanating from her left eye swirled shut in grey-scale behind her. Almost at once, Mikoto could feel hundreds of moderately-strong sources of chakra flitting around the city. To her, the pattern seemed just that; a deliberate searching array, widening out from where she knew the Raikage's headquarters to have been.
Overhead, something screamed a mechanical whine and a shadow covered them briefly. Hayate and Kurenai ducked in twin blurs, but Mikoto stood, almost carelessly, watching it pass.
"It seems I'm always a step behind you, if this is you, Nagato. Or is this your pet Shinno-or your circus animal, the Seifuku-sha? Or all three? These threads are slithering, if we're not careful they will pull tight like an Uchiha's wire trap."
She'd said it to herself quietly, but Kurenai opened her mouth as if to respond, then closed it.
Hayate and Kurenai both stood back up, and if she had to guess sheepishly, though she'd never chastise them for that. Entirely reasonable is the reaction to a flying machine that, if memory serves her, could drop something called 'bombs' created using scrap metal and fuinjutsu exploding tags.
Even a Jonin could die by accident.
"Gekko, my blades please."
"Yes, Lady Hokage."
Her Blade, the title she'd created for Gekko, was what amounted to a squire position; entirely devoted to holding her weapons. Kneeling on the ground, he unsealed a cloth-covered bundle seven feet long and a foot and a half wide. Unrolling the padded linen, seven blades, longswords all- each with a uniform length of five-and-a-half feet, carved all-of-a-piece in black iron- were inscribed with special runes created by her for her.
Delicately, she slid off the gloves covering both hands and on her palms were the same black runes. Twitching her fingers, the blades rose unaided, fluidly, and started orbiting her head slowly, like a crown.
"I need you both to fan out and find Ay, the Two-tails, and the Eight-tails. I know he's not dead, perhaps cornered? If he is trapped, he'll need help. We need them alive for what is coming, much as I dislike him personally."
Both of her subordinates looked at her like she was crazy.
"You really think Ay is alive? After Fury?"
Gekko seemed skeptical at best. Kurenai shrugged.
"If anyone could survive that thing up close, it would be those three."
"I agree, though it might be better for all of us if the Two- and Eight- are dead like the Ninth. More time to prepare while we wait for them to reform."
Kurenai, red-eyed and pale, seemed to get paler.
"Oh, hush, my dears. I truly want them to be alive and well, I'm just saying."
Kurenai looked at Hayate in a quick look that Mikoto probably wasn't supposed to see.
Pale bandages dangling in the mountain wind, Kurenai bowed and set off at a blurring run. Hayate, dressed as he was in conspicuous clothing, though not nearly as obvious as Kurenai's, set off at a more sedate pace. Her job was to make herself known and so she waited, patiently, standing in the same spot, for almost thirty minutes before another of those flying machines roared overhead.
This time the machine didn't make it within fifty feet of her.
Mikoto didn't hesitate, nor move an inch, except the blades.
Above her head, the slowly rotating blades shot upwards, expanding violently, exploding into the kind of weapon a colossus might wield in two hands. The five massive blades came up and without any resistance fairly melted straight through the machines.
Calmly ignoring the flames erupting from the vehicle and the screams that were cut off, so loud as to be audible from the ground, Mikoto Uchiha watched both halves of the plane slowly diverge from each other and end up on two different trajectories eventually bursting into a thousand pieces and blowing up against the mountain walls. Her blades, floating as extensions of her will, returned to their normal size and resumed their places above her head. This time, they were not floating point up, but rotating like the engines on the flying machines.
Turning, she ignored the wreckage and waited.
Her objective was to draw the watchers, yet after twenty more minutes, it didn't seem like they'd take her bait. That meant Hayate and Kurenai were in more danger, potentially her targets as well.
More drastic measures would be necessary.
But- no- she felt Hayate and Kurenai returning swiftly.
"What news?"
"They've left, definitely deserted. I'm guessing they've retreated to somewhere neither we nor they can get to, my Lady."
There were several possibilities, all acceptable.
"There is only one place the Raikage would fall back to and it isn't anywhere near here. Given that the Two-tails and the Eight-tails aren't wreaking havoc or dead… we know at least some escaped."
Kurenai, she could see out of the corner of her eye, hesitated.
"Out with it. Speak your mind, Kurenai."
"This power… Fury can't be used again, can it?"
"Thankfully, no. Poor Hotaru is dead. Though that doesn't rule out another attack like this, suicide-style. I encountered something similar in Iron, though that was a simple compound Exploding tag, whereas this uses a far more potent source of energy."
"Which is…?"
"Natural chakra, Gekko. Are you familiar?"
Her Blade shrugged, hilts above his shoulder jangling together.
"Can't say I am."
"Potent, but unwieldy except by a master. Fury bypasses even that requirement. No, I don't think we'll see it again."
"Hokage, I hesitate to suggest it… but I think we need to triple the guard. This cannot happen to the Leaf."
"I agree with you, though I am reluctant."
"What, you think we shouldn't prepare?"
"No, no- not that Gekko. I'm just wary of trading our peoples freedom for our security. Often it doesn't come back once it's lost."
At that, her two bodyguards fell silent, uneasy, she thought.
More chakra signatures were finally coming towards them, but her errand was done. A bleed in reality opened up and all three didn't hesitate, stepping through and into her office, the ruins of Kumogakure smoldering behind them.
#
/Garasujo Apartments
/The Village Hidden in the Leaves
/Fire Country
Naruto Uzumaki
Carefully, ever so carefully, Naruto opened the mouth of his beaten and worn backpack, a remnant from his time in the Gutter, and let the specially-wrapped items gently roll onto his desk.
His Etcher, the ink-gun Kazan had used to make his Lightning Mark. Check. The tightly-sealed chakra-ink bottles came next. Slightly shaking the bottles to check fluid levels, he had enough for only one more design similar in size to his Lightning Mark or two smaller designs that were more constrained and simplistic.
The plan was a simple one as his usually were; develop a seal, similar to his Lightning Mark, that would focus on squeezing his chakra into a finely controlled matrix that was a vital necessity for medical jutsu- and not causing damage to your patient.
In order to do that, he'd need to figure out the right array to convert the balance of unstable chakra in his pathways into the overbalanced Yang percentage that medical chakra consisted of- and on top of that, the chakra needed to be in absolutely perfect amounts in order to perform the jutsu he'd read about and studied, but hadn't actually had a chance to perform. That meant straining, as with a sieve, and filtering out the Yin to the proper amount then converting it into usable and, here was the issue, a controllable fuin-symbological matrix that allowed him to manipulate it at the finest of levels.
The thought was more than daunting. This was the equivalent of Tsunade's technique in miniature. He'd need to replace a decade of medical jutsu practice with one tune-able array.
Was that even possible?
No, no it wasn't… and what about the mental strain? Was that something he'd be able to get around? Trying to focus through the agony of something like the Lightning Mark while doing fine motor control work would be…
...difficult.
Then again, the amount of chakra would be exactly opposite the Lightning Mark, wouldn't it? By definition? The array would give him what he needed in small amounts and his controllable seal would let him manipulate it and, unfortunately, there was no seal that could replicate the medical knowledge required to accurately use the jutsu. So he'd need to keep studying, keep putting in the hours with the books to truly understand what he was doing.
So: Seal first, then he could push his practice to the next level…
Then?
Then he would enact his plan and con Tsunade out of her jutsu.
A thought occurred to Naruto, as he began to absentmindedly sketch out potential symbol arrays, that this- all of this- was just to fix his initial issue. This would do nothing but get him to the starting line… while everyone else would then be so far ahead it might be difficult, if not impossible, to catch up.
Now, with the war definitely speeding towards them and the Academy sessions now condensed with an end-of-year Exam being planned now instead of three years from now. Konohagakure was on a war-footing.
That was good for him, but also terrible.
Good in that he doubted they'd object to yet another expendable soldier, for what else was a Hidden Village that conscripted children not yet trained, but desperate?
Bad in that his deadline, tight as it was already, was now down to months instead of years. No one, not his 'allies' nor his enemies, were giving him any time to prepare or get up to speed.
Naruto put his head down, dropped his pen, and rested his forehead on the cool wood of the table and clenched his fists and relaxed them, over and over in a nervous habit.
Such was life, right?
As Mifune constantly said to him after any and all occurrences that he felt like bitching about; life is about separating what you can control, from what you can't.
Thinking back to his father's words, written out for the first time so he could see them, look at them, feel them, he realized that his father was clearly the type of person who did exactly as Mifune said; focusing his energy only on the things that he could affect in the world. He knew his death would be, if not likely, then probable and he did his best to give his son the tools he needed to affect change.
Yet, there is no way his father ever imagined this was the life his son would be leading. Hunted like an animal, stricken, weak, powerless in a world of monsters.
Chakra-less.
Like Mifune, Minato had believed that peace was worth everything and striving towards that would be the highest good one could do which, in Naruto's eyes, made him unbelievably naive. The man wasn't just a shinobi… but literally the deadliest shinobi of his age. How did he square his reality with his ideals?
And peace?
How was peace possible in a world that had such power in it, power that could literally reshape the world in the desired image, and in the hands of people who don't deserve it? Like the Seifuku-sha, or Orochimaru? Or even low-level assholes like the Guttermaster or that asshole who ran the Department of Children's Welfare in the capital?
Losing count in his head of the amount of times Mifune waxed poetic about the horrors and dangers of the shinobi system, Naruto realized that he may have had a point.
Was all of this really the best way? To rely on the better parts of human nature, in a system that churns out powerful shinobi with almost no scruples and loyalty only to their village- not peace- to protect the lowest denomination, power-less civilians, from exploitation from the top?
Viewed like this, Naruto realized his father was either insane or naive.
Everyone else? Everyone else was complicit in a system that rewarded you for being terrible, or at least didn't stop you, as it should.
And yet… his father was, had been, Hokage, but maybe he didn't have enough time to really do anything about it before he was killed? Perhaps there was more to the story- and he did have his journal. Could more of the story, more of his thoughts, be waiting for him in there?
Naruto felt himself relax; breathing in and breathing out, feeling the fine grain of the desk with his fingertips, grounding himself from the overwhelming anxiety of his life. Focus on what you can control. He could build the array. He could fix himself with it, eventually, and he could continue to train. To push forward, to surpass his limits and figure out each new step as it came.
Yet…
Kaguya Otsutsuki, one of the most powerful things he'd ever encountered, was sitting in his soul… perhaps it was time to have a chat.
A real chat.
Where Tsunade is unwilling to teach what she knows, the thing that would save him; Kaguya was all-too-eager to share.
Kaguya is an unknown and most certainly dangerous.
But did I not use the Kyuubi the same way?
Did the reason he used an unquantifiable variable like Kaguya justify the danger? Just how dangerous was accepting even more help from a being, an entity, like her?
A small voice, getting louder with each trial, whispered in his mind that power was a tool: what you did with something mattered, intention. An evil power used for good made it all fine- right? Who was to say what was evil and what was not?
Would the world be better off without the Seifuku-sha in it?
Yes. Unequivocally.
Would that end, therefore, justify using any means necessary? At what point would the justification stop? He didn't know, but that meant he needed more information; hence, the conversation with Kaguya.
Ripping the safeguards off his seal was bad… and letting loose the Kyuubi, arguably terrible, yet it wasn't enough to defeat that monster.
His gamble with Kurama paid off, sure, and he'd escaped, but the consequences had been...devastating. A catastrophically annihilated chakra pathway system and his home destroyed? Had that been better or worse than him being dead?
That was a sobering thought, wasn't it?
If he took the Seifuku-sha with him… then the answer to that would be yes. But it had failed.
There was a web of lies and plots and subtle maneuvering going on around him and he hated it- mostly because he couldn't do anything. Naruto had the idea thrown in his face, over and over again, that he couldn't remain this powerless gnat for long or all that he'd done, all that he'd sacrificed- both his parents and him and Mifune and all the rest of them- would be for nothing.
That… was intolerable.
Stomach churning and his insides twisting, Naruto felt a burning in his eyes and his fists clenched at the thoughts. He sat up, staring blankly at his hastily scribbled fuin-array. The array was wrong, but he felt he was on to something, maybe.
The Uzumaki needed to focus; one thing at a time.
Deep breath.
Okay, this new seal… what to call it? Control Seal? Focus Seal?
Eh, I'll workshop it.
Naruto started to write.
He needed connective symbologies that both drew and converted, yes, that was similar to the Lightning Mark. One thing he hadn't yet understood from the original seal was how he mentally flipped the switch to activate it. Clearly that function was a mechanism related to his ability to internally control the flow and purpose of his own chakra, independent of whether it was in a functioning system or not. He couldn't 'express' it outside his body… but he could direct it while it was inside to what he now considered to be the 'internal' part of the seal. That was the caveat that he decided to focus on; how does one create a controllable array that also automatically scales the percentage of Yang versus Yin?
The sun had been high in the sky when he finally settled down to write. Now, as the hottest part of the afternoon had come and gone, there was a veritable junkyard of discarded, rolled, crumpled paper surrounding him.
"I see you're the king of trash today."
The issue that he was running into, with each successive array, was that he was attempting to do too much with one seal. Perhaps if I make two smaller ones?
Yes. Yes!
Now, my biggest worry is gone. Creating a controllable funnel conversion matrix will mean the pain-issue will be fairly manageable, as the flow of power is so drastically reduced that even with the strain of having two Fuin-tattoos, I should be fine to focus on the minutiae of actually doing medical jutsu.
"Naruto?"
The blonde knew he needed far more hands-on training than he was getting, but the whole thing felt like a catch-22; the more training he needed, the more he needed the seal, but the more he needed the seal, the more he realized he needed to have a deeper understanding of the healing process.
"Hey, kiddo."
Wait- no, all he needed was a vehicle to allow him the availability of channelable medical chakra and the rest would be up to him, right?
Naruto hunched back over and started scribbling furiously.
A painful flick on the ear jolted him out of his thoughts and set him cursing, clapping ink-spattered hands to his tender ear.
Shizune raised an eyebrow, impressed.
"Wow, you have quite a range. Don't let Tsunade hear you or she'll want to become your apprentice."
"No danger of that. Woman is the worst."
"You know, if you pull this off and convince her you're worth it, you'll have to put up with her… like, a lot. You should start treating her with some respect, even if just to her face."
Naruto just stared at her and they both mentally agreed that wasn't going to happen.
"What are you working on?"
He shuffled his papers, throwing the discarded remnants of unworkable ideas onto the refuse pile growing on the ground.
"So, I know my chakra pathway and tenketsu, most of them anyway, are smashed and that means I have no ability to direct my chakra outside my body, but I think I may have an idea on how to internally convert my chakra into medical chakra. The issue after that is becoming proficient enough to direct the flow with fine-enough control to accomplish the iryojutsu. Follow me?"
Shizune looked like she was struggling not to laugh.
What the hell?
"Yes. So all of this is just to… what, be able to use jutsu?"
Naruto winces. "I wish, this is just so I can practice medical jutsu and eventually to do whatever I need to in order to use Creation Rebirth."
Shizune frowned. "So why can't you just… bypass all this hubbub and make a seal that lets you use jutsu properly?"
Naruto rubbed his eyes and realized he had ink splattered all over him and he looked like a raccoon.
Shizune was trying not to laugh.
"Kami's left nutsack, you couldn't have told me it was all over me?"
"I don't know, you looked like you were so serious. I didn't want to spoil the mood."
"Dick."
"Watch it young man."
Naruto sighed. "Whatever. To answer your question-"
"Wait- I know. Oh man, that must be extremely painful."
"You have no idea. There most definitely is a reason we have pathways that lead in and out of every single muscle, vein, artery, organ, everything. Chakra belongs in pathways… not free-floating. I'm shotgun blasting myself with hot knives every time I use a seal that draws chakra in. I'm asking chakra to come to it… and it comes through my muscles, organs, everywhere not bound to the proper pathways."
Shizune was staring at him in horror.
"Every time you use your Lightning Mark? How do you stand it? I mean, that's the entire reason you can hurt people badly with unfocused medical chakra; chakra in the human body and not in the right amounts is painful without the proper focus and visualization!"
The look he gave her made her close her mouth and give him a sympathetic one.
"Say no more, mister. You," she stabbed a finger at him. "-need dinner."
"Dinner?"
Naruto looked at his desk clock and gaped.
"Yes. You've been here for six hours and you aren't going to do anything more until you've eaten. You can study after. Those books aren't going to read themselves."
His stomach betrayed him- loudly.
"You… may have a point."
"I know I do. Besides, you'll have all week to do this as you won't see me much. I'm all third shift until Monday."
He made a face at her and she smiled. "I'll train you next week. I have off for three days. Don't worry so much. What's your rush?"
Naruto didn't want to ruin the mood by explaining, so he just kept his mouth shut and tried to smile.
There most definitely was a reason to rush.
#
Despite the frankly delicious dinner of a honey-roasted, garlicky mound of salmon with roasted vegetables, Naruto ate mechanically and listened only with half an ear to Shizune's monologue about office politics.
"...so then Mishima apparently was caught in the closet with Toshiro- you remember that guy, right? The one with the huge-"
"Shizune, I've been thinking-"
"-clearly since you haven't been listening. I was getting to the good part too."
The older woman sighed. "What?"
"How does Creation Rebirth work, exactly? Do you know anything about it?"
Shizune looked thoughtful, staring out at the paper lamps lining the streets and giving the place a soft glow.
"I've seen the ability a few times in my life. The thing is…"
Shizune paused, searching for the words.
"It's not actually one technique. It's two- the Yin Seal, that's the purplish diamond on her forehead. I'm sure you saw it, right?"
Naruto unconsciously furrowed his brows.
"...that was a seal?"
"As far as I understand it- yes. It's… I think she mentioned it's internally formed somehow. That's where the control comes in that Tsunade keeps mentioning. Or at least the first part of it."
"What does the seal do?"
"You have to understand, Creation Rebirth is a massive burst of all-consuming, immensely complex regeneration; she's remaking, or dividing individual cells, recreating organs, muscles, bones- from those new cells. She's doing all of it, all at the same time. Producing life from pure chakra. Mitotic regeneration is the single-most advanced medical jutsu in history. It can be… a 'one-off,' so to speak or it can be something that she holds active to regenerate injuries before they even affect her. She's basically doing the equivalent of playing an entire orchestra's worth of instruments by herself at the same time; splitting flows of medical chakra and doing ten thousand different tasks with them."
Naruto was gaping.
Somehow, he didn't realize just what was involved with Creation Rebirth… hearing it explained like that… Tsunade was, in a word, amazing. She deserved the title of the greatest medical ninja in the world. She was a raging bitch, but clearly still deserved the moniker- and the credit. The yawning chasm between him and his healthy body opened just that much more.
Was this entire fool's errand possible?
Shizune looked at him, her eyes softening.
"You need to walk before you run. One step at a time, yeah?"
Naruto shook his head, shoveling some vegetables in his mouth.
He didn't even taste them.
"So, the Yin Seal, you said that does what- exactly?"
Shizune shrugged.
"Specifics, if that's what you're after, are something I don't have… but I do know it is pretty much a compressed chakra-storage seal- in theory. Creation Rebirth takes far more chakra than any ten shinobi combined, even just to use for less than ten minutes. Tsunade-sensei continually stores small amounts of her chakra over time into that seal. She then releases it all at once to power the Creation Rebirth. Make sense?"
Naruto nodded, thinking quickly.
Maybe there is a way to force Tsunade's hand?
If I can do the Yin Seal… maybe, that will be enough?
Naruto smiled suddenly, remembering something he'd once heard about the legendary kunoichi.
"She likes to gamble, right?"
The blonde stood up, starting to clear the table, scraping his scraps into the trash can.
"She does. Probably more than she enjoys medical jutsu, if I'm being honest."
"Perfect. Do me a favor- don't tell her what I'm working on, will ya?"
"Yes, but what…?"
Somehow, grinning innocently at Shizune didn't seem to make her feel better, if anything she grew more concerned.
"What kind of nonsense are you thinking?"
Naruto hummed and waved her off, starting to hand wash the dishes.
They don't call her the 'legendary sucker' for no reason, do they?
She wouldn't know what hit her.
"Hey Naruto?"
"Hmm?"
"Not to be 'that' person… but how are you going to make up the year when you eventually fix your problems?"
"One thing at a time, right? Besides," he grinned at her again. "...with a properly working chakra system how hard could it all be?
#
/Triscoll Palace
/Zhanzhu, The City of a Million Bells
/Empire of a Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Aloiysius Nefessian
Lord Aloiysius Nefessian the Thirty-Second, First Minister of the Council of Six, head of the governing body of the Empire of a Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, could feel the bells' pure notes from all around, echoing through his body like an all-encompassing heartbeat.
The other sounds of the city rumbled outside the carriage like a thunderstorm overhead; hawkers, reputable merchants haggling according to the proper Articles regulating such things, beggars authorized to beg via Police Order #431, and even street performers who obtained the proper forms all created a chaotic noise that would deafen the most hard-of-hearing members of society- had not the decibels been regulated down to their proper tone.
Despite the muffled quality of the susurrus of his city, the sound still managed to get through, yet he was still lost in his thoughts and heard almost nothing specific.
The less-than-gentle sway of the horse-drawn contraption slammed periodically down onto the cobblestone streets. Only some of the paths had been newly-converted to the most recent automobile design from Toyo. The restructuring proposals were on his desk right now and going from a mere Memo, brought before Parliament, to an actual vote from the Council of Six, and an Enactment from the First Minister wasn't an easy process.
From there, hopefully, the city would begin a conversion to a smoother, less shit-covered alternative to this bedlam of horses and human-flesh begging on the street, choking an otherwise respectable and more importantly beautifully-ordered city.
Human trash is just as culturally-damaging as physical refuse.
Order was the virtue of the day and the City of a Million Bells had a form for everything. So far, so good.
If only I could get a handle on these damned Revolutionaries.
While he knew opposition existed, most folks were good, law-abiding citizens and were as horrified as he was that there were dissenters of any kind hiding out there amongst normal people. This was something his predecessors contended with, fought against, and failed to stamp out. What was different now was something no one else in a thousand years had to deal with like he did- mana was spreading, awakening, and the Priory of the Bloodwillow was, for the first time in that self-same thousand years, sending representatives outside the vale.
Their Cullers were working overtime to find violators of the mana-usage ban and suppress and eliminate them, but it was tough and they only had so many of their specially-trained anti-mana personnel. More budget for training meant going back to Parliament to request funds.
That would take time and Aloiysius didn't know how much time they really had in the grand scheme of things.
Heading northwards, cutting through Bleech Street towards Triscoll Palace, the leader of the free and ordered world wondered, worried, and tried to ignore a sinking feeling in his gut that the world would get worse before it got better.
Though the journey from the Parliament building to the First Minister's estates in Triscoll Palace was only a half bell, the real sinkhole was the fact he simply sat there, stuck as he was in his own thoughts and worries.
The trip seemed interminable.
The carriage halted and Aloiysius jolted out of his thoughts, pulling back the heavy-velvet curtains with a long, gloved hand and peered out into the bright light and mild humidity of an active summer in Zhanzu, the City of a Million Bells.
Triscoll Palace, named after the legendary minister known for establishing the Culler Brigade, crouched in a many-columned position like some beast made of stone, brick, and marble hunched over a kill.
The city on a good day was dark, covered as it was in the dark smoke from the industrial factories that produced the lifeblood of the city; the cut-and-polished mana-gems that powered everything from the newest version of the automobile set to come to market, to the standardized power plants that used gems to create convection currents.
That darkness manifested like a thick shroud swirling about the top of the palace and lent the glow of the powered lamps a greyish quality to them. Aloiysius handed his gloves to his body servant, Perang, without looking at him. The man was clad in the typical uniform of those blessed enough to work directly with him at the palace; a shin-length, dark coat of ice-seal pelt over a stiff-necked shirt with properly-polished silver buttons.
Orderly, as he expected.
Aloiysius gave his man a smile.
"I'll take my tea in the study at half-past, as usual, Perang. Please send in Tomas with the latest updates, will you?"
"Yes, ser. Very good. And what about the visitors from… abroad that Tomas mentioned earlier?"
The First Minister frowned. He hated frowning. That meant issues. The City of a Million Bells ran like clockwork and issues complicated that fluidity.
He continued walking, turning briefly in thought.
"Send them- and Tomas- as soon as possible. I'll deal with them directly. No one saw them?"
"No ser, I'm very certain. No non-staff at least."
"Excellent. I'll be off."
"Very good, ser."
Long hallways set with artwork that dated back before the Reckoning, or the establishment of the Priory- though well after the Bloodwillow's planting, depicted the expansive history of the struggle against the foulness of personal mana usage and the very embodiment of that horror, the Eye.
Glossy in most of the artwork, though more a smudge than a real outlined thing, the shadowy vagueness of the body was made all the more horrible by the vividness of the yellow jaundice of the pupils. The Eye was a historical fact, but it's defeat was not.
Here, as he strode through elaborately tasteful- yet extravagantly expensive- decor, he imagined the Host of a Hundred Thousand fighting against the evils of mana and smiled. Their sacrifice gave them their great city and he was reminded of this each time his silver-worked boots echoed in these passages.
Stepping through double-doors opened for him by two soldiers in full regalia, he spotted Tomas already sorting papers and preparing a proper Monologue. Tomas, dressed in a rather festive black storm-coat; high-collared, covering his mouth and muffling his Monologue as per his Order's rules, stood with a single sheet of paper clutched in a sleeve-shrouded hand. There was no hurrying a Order Monologue.
"Monologue Number Fourteen-sixty-five: to wit, I start with the most urgent Lord Nefassian. The Priory of the Bloodwillow reports that Balaz-Aruk is failing; their regular maintenance has uncovered… holes… in the defenses which is directly indicative of the increased instances of uncontrolled, unregulated outbursts of mana. The Apex Units have been found in an… agitated disposition."
The First Minister sat heavily in his own chairs positioned perfectly cati-corner to each other in front of his expansive desk positioned in front of a wide bay window looking over the Realmforest, a picturesque garden precisely trimmed and groomed to be so pleasing to the eyes that a man could weep.
He saw none of it, however, focused as he was on the cold, sweat-inducing words streaming from his Monologuer's mouth.
The Monologuer was so deadpan it was as if he was reciting the most boring and plain of recipes.
"The Tree, my lord, is crying blood. The Whispered are having more and more trouble tracking down unauthorized usage as it is now- officially- everywhere. Even the Revolution is gaining speed and traction with all the unrest. Their propaganda spreads like a virus. Some even claim and speak outright what we know to be the truth; the wall is failing."
Each new Truth hammered him into his seat.
"The unaligned Apex are waking; more and more death in the outlying villages and cities."
Aloiysius felt himself aging, sinking into the plush pillows against his back, as any one of these issues would be career-ending. What the people- and his re-election campaign needed was a distraction more than anything. A scapegoat. Thought whirling, he almost didn't catch the rest of the Monologue.
"The Hundred Thousand are clamoring for more information and some have even sent independent investigators directly to the Priory to ask the Whispered what they must do to alleviate their ills. We must address the members of Council and Parliament, something has to be done."
There was a frankly welcome knock on the door.
"What is it, Perang?"
Only one person would dare interrupt a Monologuer.
"Those visitors who claim to be… well, I'm sorry for the absurdity, ser. But, from beyond the wall? Just more preposterous nonsense, of course.
"What 'preposterous nonsense,' Perang?"
This was perhaps a welcome distraction?
"They seek the communication array."
"The...array?"
"Yes, ser. Though they are dressed… strangely. I find the whole thing suspect, as I imagine you would as well. Nonetheless...they said they were here on behalf of a man named, 'Lord Pein.' Does this name mean something or shall I see them out?"
The hands of the most powerful man in the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms clenched spasmodically as the mysterious conversation he'd had via spanner came back to him. This thread dangling in front of him came directly from two voices in the spanner. A way out of the wall falling and total anarchy descending like a locustia plague on the Empire.
A way forward.
The First Minister almost leapt out of his chair, snarling.
"Invite them in at once."
"But ser-!"
"I will hear no dissension. Order must be maintained. I do what I must, Perang. I will brook no more delay- bring them."
No protest was forthcoming. Perang was a good man. Loyal. That was rarer than the largest of mana-gems.
The rest of the Monologue would have to wait as the fate of his campaign depended on the meeting he was about to have- perhaps even the fate of their world.
After all, the wall was failing.
#
A/N: Sorry about the wait. This has been done for a while, I just didn't want to leave it on this note... but the next chapter is a fairly significant time-skip, so it couldn't be helped. For those of you waiting for the ramp up- shit's about to get real. We have maybe ten chapters left and a lot of them will be total action, so get ready.
For everyone that has reviewed- thank you! I read them all and it helps kick my ass when I'm feeling unmotivated, so thanks. To everyone else, I hope you're enjoying the story.
Quick question for people that have stuck with me so far- do you think that the first two chapters add anything of value, or do they slow the pace of the story down? I'm being told that the first two chapters are too slow/not engaging enough. I'm toying with removing them during a future re-write (or outright taking them out now).
I kept them in because I think it's important to have the set-up for events to come, but that's me. Thoughts?
Thanks!
-J.B. Macleod