Ancestors and Ascensions
I don't own Naruto and other copyrighted content: All content goes to their proper owners
Co-writing credits to Uzumaki Ricky and Tsukuyomi the prototype
The Mountain of Death
Coastal border of Land of Fire and Land of Hot Water
12 years after the Kyuubi breakout
The border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water has always been a quiet one. The smaller nation did not want any trouble from its shinobi equipped neighbor. It is simply content to have trade and hire its shinobi to deal with its problems. The corner of its border that touches the sea however has long held a foreboding artifact from tectonic activity long ago, lovingly known as the Mountain of Death.
A wide based and craggy peak, its peak reaches above even the clouds. Some claim it even is taller than the tailed beasts themselves, though that claim has yet to be confirmed. Yet despite the serenity of such a monumental piece of tectonic glory, it has more than earned its name to the Shinobi world. Many have entered its cavernous tunnels over the years, yet none have returned. During the World Wars, many sides have tried to use it as a fortress and staging point for invasions, yet no matter how many shinobi any nation sent into that mountain, none also returned.
On the eve of the class of the Konoha Twelve's first missions, a daring team of three shinobi from Otogakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the Sound, stood outside the imposing peak, ready to ply its depths for all its worth. The three, a female and two males, cautiously make their way to one of the common entrances. The corners and sides were worn and cracked, practically slimed by some form of intense heat.
"Perhaps a battle went on here?" One of the males asked.
"This place has been plyed in every single world war and no one's came out. Of course, there would be battles. Now come on. We have to get in and get out quick." The other male said.
"How bad can it really be if Orochimaru-Sama asked us to salvage stuff from this place?" The female shinobi asked, adjusting her collar.
"If other shinobi call this place the Mountain of Death, then I'm taking no chances." The first male said, cautiously moving through the opening in the mountain.
"Come on, let's go!" The female shinobi said, taking brazen steps down the tunnel.
Very quickly she stepped on a specific segment of the tunnel floor. Feeling some heat come from under her feet, she saw a burning kanji in a very odd, archaic style. She didn't have long to ponder this as her reflexes forced her to dodge due to a whistling sound. Forcing her body to the right, she barely avoided a large spear that had embedded itself in the thick stone. Even her teammates didn't know where exactly it came from.
"I think being careful might be the best course of action…" The female Sound shinobi said.
"Good to hear." The second male said as he began his own cautious approach.
What happened over half an hour to the shinobi felt like days. The inside of the mountain was the dizzying combination of cavernous, yet maze like. The further they went, the more traps and more powerful ones they had to deal with. Yet also they began to see signs of former habitation. Entire village sized living areas, markets, old forges, water canals. This was more than just some mountain. It was clear it was a city. But who could live underground like this?
"What could Orochimaru-Sama even do with this place once we scout this place out? This place is way too big for all of us to ever fill." The female said.
"We aren't here to take it. Look for anything to loot. There has to be something around here we can use." The first male said.
"Let's check that over there. Likely that has some shit in it the boss will like." The second said, pointing at something further into the mountain, making them all look.
Like the heartwood of the tree, the mountain had a much darker stone core. Harder to crack and a deep gray in color, compared to the dull gray of the outer layers, this core was carved and cut by this mountain's long-lost occupants into a colossal carved tower. Its height seemed to go on forever, disappearing into the darkness above, but what they could see was easily as tall as the fabled Hokage Monument. If they were in a city, then this was a city within a city.
"Who the hell built this place?" The first male asked in stunned amazement.
"Whoever they are, they clearly aren't good at fighting. How else could a place like this not have people?" The female retorted.
"There's no signs of fighting. No damage. There's no way they could have all died in a fight. We would at least see skeletons of some kind." The first male shot back.
"Shut up you two and start searching this tower. We get something, grab it, and haul it out. This place gives me the creeps." The second one snapped at them.
"Didn't know you believe in ghosts." The first male said, surprised.
"Don't need to believe in ghosts to find this place eerie." The second said in a huff as he started searching the ground floor.
As they begin to look through the detritus of this ancient ruin, the more questions they all had. Many of these artifacts, goods, and weapons they did not understand what they were, and the ones they did know of were so old they questioned if they could work. It felt like something was missing from them and trying to inject chakra into them didn't do anything. Moving aside a box, the female shinobi found a console with weird runes and lettering on it.
"The hell is this?" She asked.
"Don't touch the buttons." The second male said.
"Why? It likely doesn't work." She said as she started pressing buttons.
"Are you sure you want to tempt fate?" The second male asked.
"Let her. If she dies it's her problem." The first male said, swinging a sword around.
"I am surrounded by idiots." The second male muttered in frustration.
She then pressed a button near the center of the console, and it began to glow with a blue light. The blue was similar to that of chakra, but deeper and cleaner, as if more refined and directed somehow. Then it spread throughout the console and into the room. Rapidly this blue light, no energy, spread throughout the entire mountain.
"What did I tell you about pressing the buttons!?" The second male yelled.
"It's fine! Nothing will happen." the female answered.
"Stasis release protocols activated. Warning, only partial activation available. Readjusting power." The console said.
"You were saying." The second male said, pointing to the console.
"What can this hunk of junk possibly do to harm us?" She asked.
Soon the energy reached into the deepest chambers. Stuffed inside these cavernous chambers were various glass and metal pods, made of a polished metal of a kind no shinobi knew of. Soon a minority of these pods were touched by the energy and began to charge up. One of them then began to open up.
Out stepped an impressively tall man, with sun worn bronze skin, deep sapphire blue eyes, and spikey crimson hair. His body was well formed, covered in corded muscle, but still maintaining a balanced figure. Clad in silks and heavily inscribed red samurai armor, the helmet being enclosed in a fearsome dragon mask. Sharply turning his head, he gripped a great round shield with thin edges and affixed it to a thick gauntlet, he strode to the upper floors. Then with a series of great leaps he made up the ground and arrived in a service shaft on the ground floor, and opened it by kicking it open, sending the doors flying off its rusty hinges.
"What the hell!?" The first male asked, looking up at the man, who rivaled even the Raikage in sheer height.
"I will give you three a chance to leave this place unharmed, and only one." The tall, armored warrior said in a thick and regal ancient accent, one akin to that spoken in the oldest traditional plays.
"No chance, gramps! We are shinobi of the Sound! And this place is now Orochimaru-Sama's to do with, not yours!" The female yelled at him, drawing a katana in one hand and a kunai in the other.
"It matters not if your master prescribed themselves to that damnable serpent. If you are this serpent boy's wyrms, then I will be the devouring hawk." The man answered simply, drawing an elegant silvered warhammer, a cusped hammer head on one end, and a thick curved hook on the other.
The kunoichi let out a battle cry as she launched herself at the tall, armored warrior, slicing down at him with her katana. However, as her blade got close, his shield was up to block her blow in the time it took her to blink. She didn't even have time to be surprised and counterattack before a push of his shield sent her flying into a wall, cratering the wall with the force of the impact. As she gasped in pain, she didn't even have time to scream before the ground broke beneath the man's feet from his high-speed movement. It was then that a hammer blow smashed into her, cracking and cratering the wall further as it turned her into a red paste on the wall and ground.
The other two, much more cautious now, tried to surround him. One drew a tanto as the other drew two kunai. They charged in simultaneously, trying to attack him on two fronts. However, this tactic was all for naught as the tall, armored warrior simply blocked the two kunai with the thin edge of his spinning shield, the edge cutting through the bladed knives like a katana blade through a vegetable.
The armored warrior swung with his shield arm, the instrument of defense turned into a circular blade of spinning death. The Oto nin stopped moving as the tall man came to a stop behind him. However, as soon as the shield ceased its rotation, the top half of his head slid off from the lower half along with the brain as his corpse fell to the ground. The tall, armored warrior turned to look at the last Otogakure shinobi, who had his tanto held in his trembling hand as he staved off a panic attack.
Whipping out a barrage of kunai with exploding tags at the ends, the Sound Ninja threw them at the living armored death engine. However, the tall man simply raised his shield as it began spinning again. The kunai bounced harmlessly off of the spinning shield, stabbing into nearby rocks as the tags exploded. It was then that the tall, armored warrior raised his arms towards the little lamb coming to the slaughter.
From his hands, two strange chains came out from his forearms. Too shocked to react, the left massive chain wrapped around the upper half of his body as the right wrapped around the lower half. The massive warrior then began to pull his arms apart as the Oto nin screamed in pain and panic.
"N-No! Please…! Have mercy…!" The panicking shinobi called out.
"If you wanted mercy, then you shouldn't have invaded a king's domain." Was all the man ominously said.
The man then pulled his arms apart as the Otogakure shinobi screamed in agony. With a sickening ripping and tearing sound, the last ninja was torn in half as if he were nothing but tissue paper. Holding up the two halves of the shinobi with his chains, the man looked on coldly as the nin's internal organs fell out of the two halves of his body.
"Must you make a mess of things, big brother?" A voice said from the shadows. The man was similar to the first, but a few inches shorter, and significantly thinner.
"Duan, must you be like this now after a sudden break in? With unknown foes, no less." The tall warrior answered, annoyed.
"Sorry Oda. Stasis gets me in a sassy mood. So, what do we do now, brother?" Duan asked.
"Being in stasis does not give you an excuse to be disrespectful. Organize who woke up and look into this stasis failure after that. We need everyone available to get things up and running again as quickly as possible." Oda answered sternly and distinctly.
"Yes, brother. Though with how horrid this place looks, how long do you think we were in stasis?" Duan asked.
"I don't know brother, but regardless of how long, it's been too long. And these shinobi pose a potential threat. One that must be properly gauged." Oda answered somberly and ominously, unsure of what lies ahead.
Hello my fellow shinobi fans and tailed beast wranglers. I have returned from various other ventures, including writing an actual novel. Me and my friend Uzumaki Ricky have returned to our roots and are back in the shinobi saddle. This story I had the idea to make for many years, maybe as many as six, and this being my side project, my main being Red Wolf Saga, a RWBY story. This means this will be more infrequent on the updates and only on my spare time from helping on other fanfic projects, but I will be working on this long term.
So, if you've read any of my Naruto story's, you know this is about to go off the rails. A word from my co-writer Uzumaki Ricky now.
Uzumaki Ricky- What's up, everyone? Uzumaki Ricky here! I'll be honest, I missed writing Naruto stories. It was a lot of fun helping my bro MHG with this chapter and I hope you all liked it.
By the way, be on the lookout for my next Naruto venture. The Life of a Shy Jinchuuriki reboot, which will be named "Shy Fox Chronicles", will be coming up some time in the next week or two. We'll eventually be doing a crossover between the two stories, so keep an eye on both. Aloha and good night to you all, my fellow shinobi fanatics!
Anyways my friends, you all have a good day, and see you next time.