Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the
characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.
Author's Notes: In contrast to the previous chapter, this one is extremely long, be patient with it. It is also the last chapter that takes place in Konoha, at least for some time. Getting out of Konoha took far long than I anticipated, and the story arc I have in mind is shaping up for immensity (This chapter brings things to over 30,000 words just in Konoha). Again, please leave a review if you read, regardless of what you think.
Gathering Charge
Vision returned with a slow, cloudy feeling, as the veils before him parted to reveal a white background, and featureless walls. The hospital again? Neji wondered. How did I get here? He lay unmoving for a moment, noticing that he felt healthy, for there was no pain anywhere, but terribly weak. He could tell that his body seemed to have no energy, and no chakra. I used too much, he realized immediately. It must have been that last move.
"Getting awfully familiar with this room aren't you?" Neji heard the sarcastic voice of Draci Xi. "Best not to make too much of a habit of it, I believe the nurses are getting irritated."
"Heh." Neji exhaled the weak sound. He turned his head and saw Xi sitting quietly in a chair next to his bed. The older ninja appeared to have been reading some sort of report. He looked fine. Damn, Neji thought. Has he been watching me like this? He hated the idea of showing weakness in front of the dragon ninja, no matter how strong the man was. "I'm fine." He said with as much strength as he could manage. "I'll be up in a minute."
"You're not fine." Xi said, without blinking or moving. "You could have seriously damaged your chakra permanently. Still, sleeping for two and a half days ought to have restored your health. Feel free to get up whenever you decide you can manage it, I don't care as long as you don't try to mold any chakra. If you keep to that you'll be fine tomorrow, which you'd better be, since you have an appointment to keep with the 5th Hokage."
"Appointment?" Neji wondered, not willing to try and dredge through the fog of memory right now.
"To prove you've become a dragon ninja boy." Xi replied irritably. "It works like this, you show her rend, the witch stops bothering me, you sign the scroll, I show you how to summon a dragon, and then we go on a mission."
That was a lot of information at once. Neji processed it slowly, his mind still only partly awake. He'd heard most of what Xi mentioned before, but one word snapped him fully awake, and actually upright. "Mission?" He asked crisply.
"Caught your attention?" Xi mused. "Yes, mission. A team of chuunin from Konoha went on a courier mission for a lord in the northwestern part of the country. They were supposed to deliver a prisoner exchange agreement. A team of ninja from Hidden Waterfall ambushed them. Konoha's team escaped with the documents, but they were wounded, and the Waterfall ninja are blocking the path. I've offered to have us clean the mess up."
"We take the document through?" Neji asked, assuming that was the mission.
"No." Xi admonished. "Are you forgetting what we are? This is a minor matter, but if Waterfall discovers Konoha can't put forth the strength to stop this sort of thing, Waterfall might think they can annex Fire territory. Our job is to go up there and break the Waterfall ninja, either force them to flee or kill them. That's why I've chosen to offer to do this mission."
"Go and kill them." Neji repeated the words, turning them over in his mind. It was an unpleasant prospect, extraordinarily unpleasant. Yet it was one he'd known would come, ninja were always called to make assassinations eventually. If this could prevent a war...and the Waterfall ninja had interfered...perhaps it was necessary. Neji nodded. "All right, I'll go."
"It's not like you have a choice boy." Xi said, rather angrily, but Neji saw that his eyes said something different. He was glad Neji had made the choice freely, it confirmed something indefinable but vastly important. "It's my mission, and I'm bringing you along. The witch won't like it, but once you prove you're a dragon ninja she won't have grounds to object. After all, this is what I promised her, a ninja who could do this sort of thing."
Those were more dark words to sit deep within Neji, the promise of a life of killing missions. It was a hard thing to think on, that he would be doing this. He recalled what Xi had said of it. That someone must do these things. Better me then, he determined, and discovered he meant it. He recalled Naruto, and Shikamaru, and even Hinata of the head family. Better me than any of you, I've already brushed the darkness, I understand what this means. You, you should never have to do this, especially you Naruto, its not your way. My choice to kill, my skill, I should be the one to do it.
Xi watched Neji silently as he thought about the dragon ninja's words, but said nothing. After a moment he turned away, and then stood up, a sudden jolting motion that disturbed the quiet equilibrium of the hospital room. "Do what you want for today, so long as you don't try to mold chakra, the day is yours. Walk around; see people, talk to people. I doubt many of your friends are here, but take the chance to see Konoha well. You should appreciate the village, since you never know when you'll see it again." Xi paused, and then added in a truly dark tone, one that seemed to resonate from mysterious place deep within the dragon ninja. "If you ever see it again."
With that ominous warning, that spoke of something dark hidden in the dragon ninja, Xi turned and left.
Neji was left trying to consider the meaning of his sensei's words as he lay upon the hospital bed. In the end he could not come to any conclusions. I have trained side by side with him for two months. I know a technique that no other in the shinobi world knows besides him and me, I have seen him practice his own lethal techniques, and yet I know nothing about him beyond what Gai sensei told me. Neji tried to reflect not on that knowledge, but on what he had seen and sensed of Xi. His perception of the dragon ninja was that of a withdrawn man, one who had lived for the most part alone for much of his life. A man who had been an oddity, who had a background he would hide, not for himself, but because he felt it was his own responsibility. Neji saw Xi as a conundrum among ninja, a lone operative, among people who worked almost entirely in teams. He had not been able to find any reason why Xi decided to take him as an apprentice. Every moment training under the man Neji had realized how uncomfortable Xi was with the arrangement. He is not a teacher, that much was obvious.
This perception of Xi only partly matched with what Neji had been told. Gai had spoken of an ANBU member and a Hunter-nin, and not captain of either. He used to serve on a team, until eight years ago. Something happened then, something that changed him. Neji could see that, but he could also see that Xi would never tell him. I think he would probably die before revealing what happened eight years ago, at least now. It was obvious that was part of what had happened to Xi, but there was another reason why he worked alone. Draci Xi is so powerful. He dwarfs Gai sensei with his chakra, and all that chakra is focused to kill. I don't know how he compares to the Hokage, maybe I will see tomorrow, but even a skilled jounin cannot equal him, he does not need teammates. Why does he bring me along? Even though Neji knew it was essential that he go on missions to further his training, he was certain of this much: to Xi I am merely a hindrance.
I will not stay that way, Neji resolved. Xi was not his friend, the disparity between them was to great for such a thing, but he respected the man as much as he ever had Gai-sensei. I will become worthy of this dragon ninja. He has said I can, so I will. This was hardly something Neji had to confirm, for he was always focused on becoming as strong as possible. His vision was focused on the future at all times, and with his sight he could cast his glance far further in that direction than most ninja. Xi's character might be a darkness he could not penetrate, but he had seen the dark glimmers in the dragon ninja's eyes. Something is coming, and soon. I will need to match him, Neji realized. Or the dragon ninja won't last past this.
At length Neji came to a dead end in his dour thoughts, and decided he needed to get up. He had one of the nurses bring him breakfast, and ate heartily, trying to replenish his stamina. When he was done Neji left the hospital, though he agreed with the nurses that he would come back before sunset, they were apparently very concerned with young ninja running off these days.
Hyuuga Neji walked up and down the streets of Konoha with no particular destination. This was not something he did often, as a focused person he preferred to travel from one place to another, and not meander aimlessly, but he had no destination. Konoha seemed strange to him. It was not the happy, pleasant place he remembered, even if he had never been happy and the village had seemed like a cage. Now though, it seemed poised on the brink. The streets had few people on them, and many of those were ninja moving about hurriedly. The happy air so common to the days of the 3rd Hokage was gone, everything seemed different. Has it truly become so bleak? He wondered. Or do I simply see things differently now? Neji was unsure. Perhaps it is both, he decided finally, after spending a great deal of time on the streets. There was still happiness, and if the sheltering walls provided less of a sense of safety than before, perhaps that had been a false sense in the first place. This was a world of ninja, and as such it took a great deal of strength to impose any stability upon it. The 3rd had been the cornerstone that anchored the rest of the wall of trying to hold back the tide of war beyond. Orochimaru had removed that cornerstone, and the wall balanced precariously on its replacement. The image stuck with Neji as he walked, and through it he got a better realization of his path as a ninja. Some ninja try to build that wall higher and stronger, like Naruto or the 5th. Xi and I, we try and lower the tide beyond. It was an image Neji decided he liked.
Konoha was not deserted, and there were people for Neji to speak to. He met several genins he had known in the academy, or those he had met while serving under Gai-sensei. They were not truly friends, but he was able to catch up on the news of Konoha, which he had largely missed while training constantly. Some of it was positive, some of it saddening, but by and large things had not changed greatly it seemed, and would not likely change for some time. Neji took heart from that. He had drifted away from Konoha in the past two months, but it had not drifted so far away from him.
As the sun began to set there was a final thing that occurred to Neji. I do not really belong in Konoha now, he thought. I am somewhere else, partly here, partly in the world of Draci Xi. Perhaps though I can fit back into this village when I have fully achieved myself as a dragon ninja. He hoped so, for he had found that this village he thought he despised, really came surprisingly close to being home after all. With that though in his head Neji cemented the image of all that Konoha was in his mind, determined not to forget it wherever he traveled beside the dark dragon ninja.
At sunset he returned to that blank white room in the hospital.
The morning would come early.
* * *
"Wake up boy." The harsh speech of Draci Xi brought Neji to instant alertness, as any ninja ought to be when coming awake. "We've got a lot to do now. So move." Xi called from the door of his room.
Neji got ready quickly, not wasting any time. He understood the importance of today just as much as Xi. I have to prove that I'm a dragon ninja, not just to Hokage-sama, but to Xi as well. He got dressed, bound his long hair with ribbon and forehead protector, and wrapped the bandages about his limbs. Doing this made him feel ready, and allowed him to confirm that he had regained his strength and ability to mold chakra. Perhaps not full strength yet, Neji determined, but close enough. In a few short minutes he was on his way out of the hospital.
Xi walked beside him, and did not hurry, something Neji found odd. The dragon ninja usually had a strange purposeful pace for a ninja, a focus about his actions that many other ninja either lacked or did not wish to portray. Today he walked calmly, taking in the early morning sun, and seemingly unconcerned. It made Neji wonder. Is he not confident? That would be strange. There was a mysterious quality to Xi, but Neji wouldn't have thought he was doubted so much. I proved I could use Rend, and I will do it again, so what is there to worry for?
"Neji," Xi spoke, with an uncharacteristic seriousness that seemed to break rocks, and he used Neji's real name, something he almost never did. Always it is Hyuuga Neji, or just boy, never 'Neji.' Why now?
"Since we have a spare moment I wanted to ask you something." Xi said cautiously in that incredibly serious tone. "I don't know if you will precisely remember the circumstances, but I would like to know what you did right before you passed out."
"Right before I passed out..." Neji realized he hadn't thought heavily on the incident since then, but that it remained clear in his mind. He'd focused on making certain he would be able to use rend today, and so had mostly ignored the unpleasantness of his collapse. Now thinking back on it, Neji saw that he had made some form of discovery, though it was had to get from the fog of his memory of that moment exactly what had happened. What was it...oh, those channels. He looked up at Xi. "When I used rend the second time I saw channels in the wood."
"Channels?" Xi asked, apparently thinking the reference random.
"Yes." Neji said carefully. "There were channels in the wood, tiny runnels where the chakra that leaks out from the blades goes."
A momentary look of shock passed over Xi's face, as he apparently considered the implications of what Neji had said with almost the same rapidity Neji himself had discerned them. Yet he said nothing, only nodded that Neji should continue.
More hesitantly now, the genius continued his description. "It seems like I did something to those channels the third time." He spoke even lower, unwillingly to be confident in speculation without confirming it himself. "I think I filled them with chakra."
"Filled them with chakra?" Xi muttered. "So that they burst?"
"Burst?" The question was surprising. Neji could remember anything past filling the channels with chakra. Had that been what I was trying to do? He simply could not recall, he had collapsed before the move was even finished. Yet he was not about to simply let Xi's words go. The dragon ninja had certainly meant something by the remark. "I can't remember, by why do you say they burst?" He asked harshly.
"Because the half of the log you completed the rend upon burst into splinters." Xi replied without inflection. "Your explanation seems to make sense, though I can really only guess. I am unable to see chakra channels or anything of the sort." Xi gave Neji something that approached a smile, though it felt hollow to the younger ninja. "Still, it seems my original guess was correct, with your Byakugan you can do things with dragon techniques that have never even be dreamed of. For today though, just rend in the regular fashion."
"Ah." Neji replied.
They walked the rest of the way in silence, in the quiet early morning of Konoha. The quiet that had settled over the Hidden Village with the death of the 3rd Hokage had yet to be dispelled, and perhaps would not lift for a long time. It was so different from how lively and happy this village had been only a few months before. Neji, who had spent those days considering Konoha to be his own prison, felt little for the change. I am still here, he knew, even if he had discovered that the village meant more to him than he previously thought, he could not really appreciate what Konoha had lost until he truly knew something else.
Xi's reaction to the quiet and tension that saturated the city was a far more potent thing. It seems as if the Leaf lost it soul when Sarutobi died, and now, it is still waiting to be reborn. Xi had been a spy in Konoha off and on for over three years. He had seen the city at its best, in those happy years. He had watched Naruto paint the stone faces of the Hokage's in bright colors; he had seen countless genin train, and the happiness of troubled ninja who found a safe place. There was something that had been created here that other places lacked. The other hidden villages are not like that, Xi knew, for he had been to them all, perhaps the only ninja in the world who had seen every home of the ninja. Stone, Sand, Mist, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, even my own Cloud, they are not like Konoha was. The Leaf rested at peace, and imposed its peace upon the rest of the shinobi world. Even I, the killing lightning stroke who exists only for conflict, I did not break this peace. Perhaps that is why I am willing to fight for the Leaf now, because I have seen the other visions of the world, and do not wish them to take hold. The Dragon ninja did not like the quiet in Konoha, but he had no solution to it. As always, I have only one thing I can do, kill the enemy. Neji, you have your chance to prove you can do so as well today. Xi hoped he would succeed. Two dragons scare off far more circling sharks than just one.
They arrived at the training field. Tsunade waited for the pair of dragon ninja, accompanied by two chuunin burned by tremendous stacks of reports. The sennin had a grim expression as she stared at one, and seemed on the verge of ripping the page apart.
Neji saw this and was amused, though he would not be so disrespectful as to let it show. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Xi, expecting to see that half-smile on the older ninja's face, since he appeared to dislike Tsunade this situation should satisfy him. Instead he saw something that frightened him, and made him instantly serious.
Xi had shifted his motion, he moved with a deliberately relaxed appearance, but his muscles chorded at the ready, and his body had tensed. Chakra gathered within him, surging and ready for release. Eyes sharpened and focused, tracking targets, strengths, and weaknesses. The hands clenched stock still, and his arms hung low, ready to arm his nekode in an instant. Turning back to Tsunade, Neji saw that she had tensed up as well, strength gathered in her limbs and she seemed to actually sink into the ground with the force of her steps. Chakra hung laden in the air about the training ground.
Why? Neji wondered. What is all this killing force for? We are not enemies. It confused him for only a moment. But neither are we allies, and Xi, for all that I know him, was still a spy in Konoha for a time. He is not trusted for that. A more disturbing possibility eked up from the bottom of Neji's mind behind that. Or is it because he is a dragon ninja, and is therefore dangerous? He hoped that was not the case. That it was simply ninja of such power from different villages could never truly relax around each other, because otherwise they would give far too much of an opening. Regardless, Neji gathered his own chakra and focused himself, not wanting to be caught off guard if something strange happened. Though he could not, being honest with himself, decide what he would do if a fight should break out between his Hokage and Draci Xi.
Tsunade tossed her report angrily at one of the Chuunin. She gave Xi a baleful stare. "All right, dragon ninja. You said you were going to show me your progress today. I'm busy, so let's get this over with."
Xi did not take his eyes off Tsunade. "Pick a target boy, and use the dragon jutsu I taught you." He ordered Neji, voice flat.
They continued staring at each other as Neji walked over to one of the remaining logs. The two chuunin seemed unsure where to place their attention, at the staring contest between the two powerful ninja, or on Neji. A short cry changed their minds easily.
"Byakugan!" Neji called, holding the seal to activate his bloodline limit. His eyes clenched, and the veins and nerves behind them swelled. The hidden pupils formed into being, outlined by a fractioned lens that allowed him to see through anything. His vision expanded out to encompass almost a complete sphere about him, so that he could see the four ninja who stood behind him. His gaze sharpened, revealing the chakra circulation in all the ninja, and all about the environment. The eyes of the Hokage bored in on him, judging.
It was simple to remember what he had done during the heat of that day. The image of blades of chakra was bored into his mind, graven there, and he knew what it would take to wield them through this wood. He gathered the energy with care, making sure everything was ready, then he let his gaze drift down to his hands. The moment crystallized, and Neji recognized that the step he was about to take was irreversible. His confidence was boundless; he could complete the move with ease, and rend the log and tear it as a dragon ninja would. Yet it was his choice to do so or not. If I do this, I become a dragon ninja, and no one will ever consider me anything else. Should I fail, I will be taken away from Xi, and given a chance to become just another ninja of Konoha again. For an instant Neji was tempted to fail, to throw aside pride and what he had learned so that he would not have to walk the dragon ninja path side by side with the killer he barely knew. During that instant he looked into the faces of both Tsunade and Xi, feeling their eyes upon him. One the Dragon Ninja, the cold killer who lived the dark and burdened life that he had not hidden from his pupil, the other the kind Hokage, a medical specialist, a healer, and perhaps the savior of Konoha. Each represented a possible path, and Neji was torn, not sure which he wanted to chose. Chakra lingered at his fingertips, ready but not yet used.
Yet the gaze of the Byakugan does not look in only one way, and even as he weighed those faces, Neji saw the log before him. He remembered those strange channels he had seen, what he had done with them, a technique that unleashed a force he could not imagine. Seeing that he realized something. I could chose either path, neither option calls to me stronger than the other, but one path is shorter than the other, and ends without what I did last that day. No, I will choose the longer path. Neji made the irrevocable choice. There is something I see in the dragon way that gives me a chance to escape the fate Hyuuga gave me. I must take that chance, for it will never come again.
It was an instant, and then it was done. Chakra flashed forth from Neji's hands, already descending at brilliant speed. They shifted into blades with a simple focused thought, brilliant edges of life energy, with the unmatched sharpness of the mind. "Rend!" The sound expelled in time with the chakra, as the force churned around Neji in a tempest of power. His hands came down, and made contact with the wood, but his vision was already seeing what would happen, the chakra shifted, but his mind had already moved faster, with the speed of thought, it had adjusted, and the blades retained their brilliant edge as they moved through the wood. Before that cutting surface the hardest and most aged wood was as dust, and the claws of Neji's chakra slashed through them without slowing, indeed he hands gained speed with the momentum of the move.
Down, cross, down once more, and then up.
The crossed slash pattern of rend was completed, and the dragon's claws scored and ripped apart all before them. Brilliant perfect lines stretched in the wood as Neji took a single step back, revealing the damage he had inflicted. Four lines from each hand, matching the tines of the nekode, lined up with the fingers, in the pattern that assured the destruction of the body. For that moment the hands of Hyuuga Neji had become the dragon's claws.
The jaws of both observing chuunin dropped wide open in shock, and they were dumbstruck. To see a jutsu of such unbelievable lethality, and such perfection of execution! It had been impossible to follow, the Hyuuga's hands moved, and the log was ripped asunder. Both sank to the ground, barely holding their reports.
Tsunade's reaction was much less extravagant. She was impressed, and her face flashed with it, visible to Neji's eyes, but then came under rigid control. Anger spread over her countenance like a landslide about to break. "So, Draci Xi. You have taught a boy to kill." She bit off each word as if it were poisoned. "I hope you are proud of it."
Draci Xi had said nothing, seeing what Neji had done. His own face was absolutely blank, but Neji thought he saw something in the older ninja's cold eyes. He was not sure what it was, but he was sure it cast the moment as important. He knows what I chose, Neji realized. He approves.
When Xi said nothing Tsunade continued. She turned first to her chuunin aides. "Get up!" She barked. "We're leaving. Your student has passed my test Draci Xi, you can have him for good now, and may take him on your mission." Her tone softened, but only marginally. "Hyuuga Neji." She said with utmost seriousness, her expression every bit that of a Hokage. "You will become a dragon ninja now, but recall that you are still a ninja of the Leaf. Konoha is your home, and it is whom you serve. This man, though he may be your sensei, is not your master. Know also that if it ever comes to war between Leaf and Lightning, you two dragon ninja will likely face each other on the field of battle. Now, we are done here. You will both report to me when your mission is done." She walked past them and back toward Konoha, chuunins following. Tsunade's face was grave, and her heart troubled, but she was the Hokage, and it was her burden to order these most dangerous weapons of the ninja to be unleashed.
Neji let out a breath he discovered he'd been holding since taking his step back, and watched her go in silence. Xi did not break the moment, letting the three ninja disappear below the hill before speaking. "You have mastered rend, good." He said dryly, though Neji was sure the tone was at least partly forced. "It means I'll have to decide what to teach you next, however, the key first step has been taken. Even with your Byakugan as a crutch, you have greatly improved your ability to control and shape your chakra. Your little demonstration of making the move as artistic as possible here proves that. All other moves build on the same principle, though their details are more complex. Regardless, we have a mission." Xi said with rigor. "But there is one last thing to do before then."
"And that is?" Neji asked, equally focused.
The dragon ninja reached behind in his flak jacket and pulled out the multicolored scroll. He tossed it to Neji. "You must sign your name on that scroll, and leave the Hyuuga name behind."
Holding the scroll, Neji felt the power in it. It seemed to shimmer, as if its presence went beyond its simple physical form. With care he removed the dragon sealing band, and opened the scroll. The weight of those names, written in the blood of dozens of ninja from hundreds of years crashed down on Neji. With this, I will join that fellowship. Though he had been raised with pride as a Hyuuga, somehow this seemed a far more ancient and potent arrangement. These ninja lived and died as the path the chose, dragon ninja, not something they were born to. The names crept left, filing the small columns of squares in dark red script. The last box before the squares continued empty was filled with a single character. Xi. So my name goes in the box below, Neji saw. It was the third box from the bottom of the row.
"Bite your left index finger, and use the blood to write the character." Xi instructed.
Neji bit down gently, tasting the metallic tinge of blood. He moved his finger to the scroll carefully, making sure none got in other boxes. With quick and sure motions, so that the blood did not clot, he marked the square. Neji.
The blood turned instantly dry and dark when he lifted his finger away, as if the paper had drunk it up. The cut on Neji's finger closed instantly.
"Seal the scroll once more, and then give it back to me." Xi told Neji, who did as he asked in silence, contemplating what had just happened. As Xi took the scroll back from Neji he gripped tightly, and then quickly secreted it beneath his flak jacket. "The scroll will pass to you in time." Xi said, and he smiled, the first true smile Neji had seen on the man yet. It was a soft motion that changed his mouth only a little, but relaxed the rest of his face, letting the harshness of his grim image fade away, an action obviously only rarely taken by this man. "Draci Neji."
Draci Neji? The name felt surprisingly right to Neji, who had not expected that feeling. He found suddenly that he did not think of himself so much as a Hyuuga anymore, though that still dominated his thoughts, the cursed seal on his forehead did not immediately enter his mind when he pictured himself. Instead, he caught a shadowy glimpse of a serpentine form behind him.
Xi pulled him from his thoughts. "We will embark on the mission later today, after provisioning. For now though, it is time you learned how to summon a dragon." Neji's face went instantly blank and studious. Xi continued. "It is not particularly complicated, being built on the same principle as other summon techniques. However, the seals are slightly different than those you may be familiar with. They are: Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, and Circle." As Xi said the seals his hands moved through the motion of them. Neji watched, and noted that he was indeed unfamiliar with many of these seals; they were different from those used for normal ninjutsu techniques, but not any more complex. "When you complete these seals you prick your index finger, not the thumb as is done for many summon techniques, and place your hands on the ground in front of you in the summoning form." Xi mimed the form, one hand placed atop the other, with fingers of both spread. "It is that simple, at least, to simply summon a dragon. However, if you do the summoning that way, you incur the debt to whichever dragon you summon. You can avoid this by calling in a debt, either to the dragons in general or to a specific dragon you done a service for. To these summonings you add 'a debt I call' or 'I call in a debt owed to me' when you perform the final seal."
Xi walked over to an open area. "I will demonstrate the dragon summoning for your sake, but you incur the debt to me because of it, Neji." Xi told him. "Expect to spend a good deal of your time in the next few years incurring debts, until you gain the power to pay them back. Do not worry about it overmuch, I think you will garner great debts in your day." Xi motioned for Neji to stand back. "When you summon a dragon you must be prepared. They will stare at you with a dragon's eye, as I did, though with far less malice than when intended to attack. Still, you must be ready. Know also that you must not move until you have agreed on the service the dragon is to render, or they are within their rights to attack you."
"How do I get a dragon to owe a debt to me?" Neji asked. "If summoning one implies a debt on my part."
"Simple." Xi replied. "You ask them before they return. Now stay back, and do not move. There are many varieties of dragon, from the infant Yu Lung, little more than vessels to borrow chakra from in need, to the mightiest T'ien Lung dragon lord. The one I am to summon is Sirachi, a shen lung, a messenger, courtier, and bodyguard among dragons."
Xi's hands flashed through the hand seals of the summoning, and Neji felt a great deal of chakra gather in the man. He bit his finger with a snap-quick move, and slammed his hands to the ground. Seals and symbols crawled out into the dirt as he placed them down with a shout. "Dragon summoning no jutsu!"
Air, leaves, and dust blasted and whipped about the training ground, and Neji closed his eyes just as Xi did, unable to see through that flash of noise and energy.
Then all was calm again.
Neji opened his eyes to observe Xi standing stock still, facing...facing...facing a creature from legend. The dragon must have been fifteen feet long if he uncurled fully, a breathtaking serpentine form that shimmered in many colors of scales from red to green to blue. His legs were blood red and adorned with claws sharper than the sharpest steel. His back had a great blue fin upon it, rather like the dorsal fin or a fish, but it vibrated with energy and highlighted the coiled musculature of incredible form beneath. These features were things Neji noted only gaspingly though, for his gaze was locked upon the head. Majestic, no imperial. He tried to categorize what he thought of that great head, with teeth as sharp as razors, the great whiskers rolled down from above the crocodilian jaws, showing the age and wisdom of the dragon. Then there were the eyes. They were yellow, not red, and focused on Xi, but they bored into Neji all the same. He saw something deeper than human there, something that belonged to a world beyond this one, a world of gods and spirits, where the greatest heroes barely glimpsed. An aged glance form a mind beyond human ken, a mind that saw the world with a greater scope and vision than even the Byakugan could possibly offer. Of course we are indebted to summon such as these, Neji realized with a flash. A great mercy that they will serve us at all, the dragons.
"All honor to thee Shen-Lung Sirachi." Xi intoned with solemn seriousness.
Neji saw Sirachi give Xi the slightest nod in return, and he wondered upon it. This creature is familiar with him. "You have summoned me Draci Xi, and incurred a debt from me, what task requires my aid?"
"Nothing in this world honored Sirachi." Xi replied, his tone the same, with respectfulness far beyond that he had given Tsunade. "I would have you look upon my student, Draci Neji, and tell your relatives that another dragon ninja now walks the world."
"Yes, all felt the signing of the scroll." Sirachi replied, his voice deep, inhuman. His tones were partly reptilian, and partly different. There was an ancient presence behind those words, as those of a great wind. The Shen Lung turned to look at Neji.
The eyes bored into him, and with them came a terror. The otherworldliness of the dragon when examined so closely was too much, and Neji felt the fear flowing into him. Yet, as before, he felt the chakra flow within himself, and recognized that not all of his body was afraid. He almost instantly began to realign the flow within him, and the fear ebbed and faded.
Sirachi saw this and smiled, a great toothy expression accompanied by the motion of his mighty tongue. "I recognize you, ninja. You are a quick youth, and strong. You bear the marks of the Byakugan, the fateful power of all-perception, and the scars of one who has found his focus." His head turned back to Xi. "You have chosen well Draci Xi, I will carry word to my relatives, and warn the aged ones that they may indeed be summoned once again."
Xi bowed his head. "Go then, old ally."
The Shen Lung disappeared in a flash of light.
Xi sat down for a moment. "It is always a challenge to do that." He muttered. Turning to Neji, he said. "Now, for you. We will see what you are capable of. Dragon summoning is not something to be practiced like other summonings. So, we will take this opportunity to learn just how powerful a dragon you might summon. Then in battle you will know the limit of what you can hope to summon. The first dragon you call is likely to be one you call often. Sirachi was the first dragon I summoned. He is fast, clever, and solid in a fight when needed. It was he who carried you back to Konoha when I found you collapsed fighting the Sound."
That dragon was the one? Neji remembered the shen lung. Such a great creature carried me back all broken, and then said Xi had chosen well. What does it mean? I will not allow his words to be wrong! Neji swore to himself, a promise to increase his strength like the one he had made to embrace his strength and be the strongest Hyuuga.
"Gather all your chakra Neji, everything you can pull together, and release it all with the summoning. The dragon will try to bore into you, but fight the eye off and do not move. Ask only for the name of the one you have summoned, and offer to do him a favor should he wish it. Then dismiss him. Be respectful, but do not bow down overly. Politeness is the rule, but in this world dragon and ninja stand on equal ground." Xi grimaced as he was done. "I am confident you will do this." He gave Neji one of his half- smiles.
The new dragon ninja did not hesitate. He felt the chakra circulating in him, his strength, and his essence as a ninja. He felt the flow of the tenkentsu. He grasped that flow firmly now, and pulled. Grabbing and channeling the river of his essence, every ounce of strength he could manage. His hands moved with absolute concentration, following the hand seals: "Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, Circle!" He brought his left hand up and bit down carefully, then slammed his hands down with all his strength, releasing the chakra with enough force to push a circle of dirt almost an inch downward. "Dragon Summoning no Jutsu!" Neji cried the words, his voice hoarse with the strain, but loud and confident. Sigils, signs, and runes spread out from where he had crushed the ground, as the blast of chakra took on a form and fury.
A whirlwind of air and force blew Neji back with tremendous power, and even Xi almost fell. The air swirled and shifted, as winds scourged the ground and wrung moisture from the air. The sound of it was as a burning storm, the sun whipping the dust across the open plains, the earth made subservient to the sky.
As suddenly as the fury had appeared, there was silence. Neji and Xi opened their eyes.
Baleful red eyes, with their red upon red double irises stared into Neji. They reached into him, and laid him open. He felt fear, a mind numbing terror that reached all through his body, laying into all but the very core of him. Yet that very core held, something Neji knew could not fall. His mind held the unbreakable image of Uzemaki Naruto, staring at Neji with anger in his eyes and a clenched fist, "I will win!" he stated, and by shear will he made it so. Neji knew that he would not be conquered. He was himself, and nothing could set into all of him. He took that fear, and though he could not deflect the gaze, he channeled it throughout his body, dumping it into unfeeling places, taking out through his chakra holes and ridding himself of it entirely.
It took an eternity, and all Neji could do was force himself to focus and not slid down in the river of fear that gaze offered. He held himself firm, his pupil-less eyes staring back into those brilliant red ones. I will not lose to you, dragon or no! I am Neji, and I have a purpose beyond this!
Slowly that fear left him, but that piercing gaze did not, it had seen into Neji, and weighed him, and even as he struggled to rid himself of the fear he wondered what he had seen.
For Draci Xi, the summoning was beyond his imagination. He had taken one look at the brilliant golden form, eighteen feet in length, with a bright mane of many colors, blaring bright whiskers above the nostrils, those red on red eyes, and the bearded mouth that held teeth to rip even the armor of dragon scales, and had collapsed to his knees. A T'ien Lung! A dragon lord! Masters of the dragons and servants of the gods themselves, the T'ien Lung were the most potent of the dragon races, the celestial dragons, and lords of the skies. Xi himself could summon them, but did so only at the greatest need, for they were masters, not servants, and gave little respect to mortals. That Neji had summoned this dragon on his first time was portentous. It is not just the power, this T'ien Lung is young, and he could have called an older dragon from another race with the same amount of chakra. There is something at work here; the destinies of dragon ninja are in some way linked to those they first summon. Was I right about you Neji? Xi hardly dared to wonder. Are you to be the one who leads the dragon ninja to their rebirth?
Neji took in the dragon slowly, trying to categorize the creature, trying to make sense of this great golden being before him, this creature that surely knew all his secrets now. He considered many things, and only barely remembered what Xi had told him, I must ask only the name. "Who are you, honored one?" Draci Neji asked, forcing the words to be level, to not be timid.
"I am Wusashu, T'ien Lung, The Wind that Flows Beneath Leaves is my title." The dragon's head shifted, and he spun in midair. "You are the first to have summoned me, Draci Neji. I am pleased by this, for I have wished to see the mortal world. You have strong eyes for a human. I deem this bodes well. Now, why have you summoned me?" The voice of Wusashu was deep, and contained endless levels, like the wind. It surged with great force, but there was no malice to the dragon, only its overwhelming presence.
Neji gathered his strength of will. I must answer. "I offer to do you a favor, should you wish it, honored T'ien Lung, Wusashu." He mimicked the forms Xi had used.
"A favor?" The dragon curled back in the air, moving his face away from Neji's. "There are many favors I could ask of you, youth who has become a dragon ninja only this very day." The dragon appeared to consider, raising a clawed leg beneath his jaws. "Perhaps I shall test your competence. You are going to the Hidden Village of Waterfall. There is a ninja there named Ryukin who stole a gem that does not belong to him. Take the gem back, and return it to me as a favor, and as proof that you are fit to summon me."
"As you wish." Neji replied, agreeing without even thinking about the task, feeling he had no other choice. "You may go honored Wusashu."
"Yes, I shall leave, you give me much to think on human." Wusashu said imperiously. "Know that I will be watching you human, for there is something about you that intrigues me." With that the dragon was gone in a whirling flash of wind.
Xi looked over at Neji, watching the withdrawal come over him with an inner chuckle. Not bad Neji, not bad at all. Xi did not even notice that he had begun to think of the young ninja as Neji once he had signed the scroll, or call him that. He had intended to do so all along, and had slipped into it flawlessly with the dramatic change. You handled that well. That much was satisfying, but Wusashu's words were troubling. There is something going on among the dragons for this to happen. Turmoil in that world reflects turmoil here. The Akatsuki have all the Shinobi countries poised on the edge. While I am sure the key is the boy Uzemaki Naruto, there is something important for us to do as well. Good, Xi decided, I'd rather not just be an accessory. Yet how much do I tell him? He was uncertain.
"Impressive Neji." Xi told him, and picked the youth up, steadying him on his feet. "It will become easier with time. I was not expecting you to summon such a dragon; you have a gift for this it seems. I caution that this task Wusashu has given you will not be easy, especially as I cannot aid you beyond the mission from Konoha, but I believe you will succeed." Xi paused. "You look tired. Let's go down and get something to eat, looking a dragon in the eye saps your strength like nothing else. Then we can gather our provisions and depart this afternoon."
"Ah," Neji nodded. "Ah." He said again. "That would be best."
Author's Notes: In contrast to the previous chapter, this one is extremely long, be patient with it. It is also the last chapter that takes place in Konoha, at least for some time. Getting out of Konoha took far long than I anticipated, and the story arc I have in mind is shaping up for immensity (This chapter brings things to over 30,000 words just in Konoha). Again, please leave a review if you read, regardless of what you think.
Gathering Charge
Vision returned with a slow, cloudy feeling, as the veils before him parted to reveal a white background, and featureless walls. The hospital again? Neji wondered. How did I get here? He lay unmoving for a moment, noticing that he felt healthy, for there was no pain anywhere, but terribly weak. He could tell that his body seemed to have no energy, and no chakra. I used too much, he realized immediately. It must have been that last move.
"Getting awfully familiar with this room aren't you?" Neji heard the sarcastic voice of Draci Xi. "Best not to make too much of a habit of it, I believe the nurses are getting irritated."
"Heh." Neji exhaled the weak sound. He turned his head and saw Xi sitting quietly in a chair next to his bed. The older ninja appeared to have been reading some sort of report. He looked fine. Damn, Neji thought. Has he been watching me like this? He hated the idea of showing weakness in front of the dragon ninja, no matter how strong the man was. "I'm fine." He said with as much strength as he could manage. "I'll be up in a minute."
"You're not fine." Xi said, without blinking or moving. "You could have seriously damaged your chakra permanently. Still, sleeping for two and a half days ought to have restored your health. Feel free to get up whenever you decide you can manage it, I don't care as long as you don't try to mold any chakra. If you keep to that you'll be fine tomorrow, which you'd better be, since you have an appointment to keep with the 5th Hokage."
"Appointment?" Neji wondered, not willing to try and dredge through the fog of memory right now.
"To prove you've become a dragon ninja boy." Xi replied irritably. "It works like this, you show her rend, the witch stops bothering me, you sign the scroll, I show you how to summon a dragon, and then we go on a mission."
That was a lot of information at once. Neji processed it slowly, his mind still only partly awake. He'd heard most of what Xi mentioned before, but one word snapped him fully awake, and actually upright. "Mission?" He asked crisply.
"Caught your attention?" Xi mused. "Yes, mission. A team of chuunin from Konoha went on a courier mission for a lord in the northwestern part of the country. They were supposed to deliver a prisoner exchange agreement. A team of ninja from Hidden Waterfall ambushed them. Konoha's team escaped with the documents, but they were wounded, and the Waterfall ninja are blocking the path. I've offered to have us clean the mess up."
"We take the document through?" Neji asked, assuming that was the mission.
"No." Xi admonished. "Are you forgetting what we are? This is a minor matter, but if Waterfall discovers Konoha can't put forth the strength to stop this sort of thing, Waterfall might think they can annex Fire territory. Our job is to go up there and break the Waterfall ninja, either force them to flee or kill them. That's why I've chosen to offer to do this mission."
"Go and kill them." Neji repeated the words, turning them over in his mind. It was an unpleasant prospect, extraordinarily unpleasant. Yet it was one he'd known would come, ninja were always called to make assassinations eventually. If this could prevent a war...and the Waterfall ninja had interfered...perhaps it was necessary. Neji nodded. "All right, I'll go."
"It's not like you have a choice boy." Xi said, rather angrily, but Neji saw that his eyes said something different. He was glad Neji had made the choice freely, it confirmed something indefinable but vastly important. "It's my mission, and I'm bringing you along. The witch won't like it, but once you prove you're a dragon ninja she won't have grounds to object. After all, this is what I promised her, a ninja who could do this sort of thing."
Those were more dark words to sit deep within Neji, the promise of a life of killing missions. It was a hard thing to think on, that he would be doing this. He recalled what Xi had said of it. That someone must do these things. Better me then, he determined, and discovered he meant it. He recalled Naruto, and Shikamaru, and even Hinata of the head family. Better me than any of you, I've already brushed the darkness, I understand what this means. You, you should never have to do this, especially you Naruto, its not your way. My choice to kill, my skill, I should be the one to do it.
Xi watched Neji silently as he thought about the dragon ninja's words, but said nothing. After a moment he turned away, and then stood up, a sudden jolting motion that disturbed the quiet equilibrium of the hospital room. "Do what you want for today, so long as you don't try to mold chakra, the day is yours. Walk around; see people, talk to people. I doubt many of your friends are here, but take the chance to see Konoha well. You should appreciate the village, since you never know when you'll see it again." Xi paused, and then added in a truly dark tone, one that seemed to resonate from mysterious place deep within the dragon ninja. "If you ever see it again."
With that ominous warning, that spoke of something dark hidden in the dragon ninja, Xi turned and left.
Neji was left trying to consider the meaning of his sensei's words as he lay upon the hospital bed. In the end he could not come to any conclusions. I have trained side by side with him for two months. I know a technique that no other in the shinobi world knows besides him and me, I have seen him practice his own lethal techniques, and yet I know nothing about him beyond what Gai sensei told me. Neji tried to reflect not on that knowledge, but on what he had seen and sensed of Xi. His perception of the dragon ninja was that of a withdrawn man, one who had lived for the most part alone for much of his life. A man who had been an oddity, who had a background he would hide, not for himself, but because he felt it was his own responsibility. Neji saw Xi as a conundrum among ninja, a lone operative, among people who worked almost entirely in teams. He had not been able to find any reason why Xi decided to take him as an apprentice. Every moment training under the man Neji had realized how uncomfortable Xi was with the arrangement. He is not a teacher, that much was obvious.
This perception of Xi only partly matched with what Neji had been told. Gai had spoken of an ANBU member and a Hunter-nin, and not captain of either. He used to serve on a team, until eight years ago. Something happened then, something that changed him. Neji could see that, but he could also see that Xi would never tell him. I think he would probably die before revealing what happened eight years ago, at least now. It was obvious that was part of what had happened to Xi, but there was another reason why he worked alone. Draci Xi is so powerful. He dwarfs Gai sensei with his chakra, and all that chakra is focused to kill. I don't know how he compares to the Hokage, maybe I will see tomorrow, but even a skilled jounin cannot equal him, he does not need teammates. Why does he bring me along? Even though Neji knew it was essential that he go on missions to further his training, he was certain of this much: to Xi I am merely a hindrance.
I will not stay that way, Neji resolved. Xi was not his friend, the disparity between them was to great for such a thing, but he respected the man as much as he ever had Gai-sensei. I will become worthy of this dragon ninja. He has said I can, so I will. This was hardly something Neji had to confirm, for he was always focused on becoming as strong as possible. His vision was focused on the future at all times, and with his sight he could cast his glance far further in that direction than most ninja. Xi's character might be a darkness he could not penetrate, but he had seen the dark glimmers in the dragon ninja's eyes. Something is coming, and soon. I will need to match him, Neji realized. Or the dragon ninja won't last past this.
At length Neji came to a dead end in his dour thoughts, and decided he needed to get up. He had one of the nurses bring him breakfast, and ate heartily, trying to replenish his stamina. When he was done Neji left the hospital, though he agreed with the nurses that he would come back before sunset, they were apparently very concerned with young ninja running off these days.
Hyuuga Neji walked up and down the streets of Konoha with no particular destination. This was not something he did often, as a focused person he preferred to travel from one place to another, and not meander aimlessly, but he had no destination. Konoha seemed strange to him. It was not the happy, pleasant place he remembered, even if he had never been happy and the village had seemed like a cage. Now though, it seemed poised on the brink. The streets had few people on them, and many of those were ninja moving about hurriedly. The happy air so common to the days of the 3rd Hokage was gone, everything seemed different. Has it truly become so bleak? He wondered. Or do I simply see things differently now? Neji was unsure. Perhaps it is both, he decided finally, after spending a great deal of time on the streets. There was still happiness, and if the sheltering walls provided less of a sense of safety than before, perhaps that had been a false sense in the first place. This was a world of ninja, and as such it took a great deal of strength to impose any stability upon it. The 3rd had been the cornerstone that anchored the rest of the wall of trying to hold back the tide of war beyond. Orochimaru had removed that cornerstone, and the wall balanced precariously on its replacement. The image stuck with Neji as he walked, and through it he got a better realization of his path as a ninja. Some ninja try to build that wall higher and stronger, like Naruto or the 5th. Xi and I, we try and lower the tide beyond. It was an image Neji decided he liked.
Konoha was not deserted, and there were people for Neji to speak to. He met several genins he had known in the academy, or those he had met while serving under Gai-sensei. They were not truly friends, but he was able to catch up on the news of Konoha, which he had largely missed while training constantly. Some of it was positive, some of it saddening, but by and large things had not changed greatly it seemed, and would not likely change for some time. Neji took heart from that. He had drifted away from Konoha in the past two months, but it had not drifted so far away from him.
As the sun began to set there was a final thing that occurred to Neji. I do not really belong in Konoha now, he thought. I am somewhere else, partly here, partly in the world of Draci Xi. Perhaps though I can fit back into this village when I have fully achieved myself as a dragon ninja. He hoped so, for he had found that this village he thought he despised, really came surprisingly close to being home after all. With that though in his head Neji cemented the image of all that Konoha was in his mind, determined not to forget it wherever he traveled beside the dark dragon ninja.
At sunset he returned to that blank white room in the hospital.
The morning would come early.
* * *
"Wake up boy." The harsh speech of Draci Xi brought Neji to instant alertness, as any ninja ought to be when coming awake. "We've got a lot to do now. So move." Xi called from the door of his room.
Neji got ready quickly, not wasting any time. He understood the importance of today just as much as Xi. I have to prove that I'm a dragon ninja, not just to Hokage-sama, but to Xi as well. He got dressed, bound his long hair with ribbon and forehead protector, and wrapped the bandages about his limbs. Doing this made him feel ready, and allowed him to confirm that he had regained his strength and ability to mold chakra. Perhaps not full strength yet, Neji determined, but close enough. In a few short minutes he was on his way out of the hospital.
Xi walked beside him, and did not hurry, something Neji found odd. The dragon ninja usually had a strange purposeful pace for a ninja, a focus about his actions that many other ninja either lacked or did not wish to portray. Today he walked calmly, taking in the early morning sun, and seemingly unconcerned. It made Neji wonder. Is he not confident? That would be strange. There was a mysterious quality to Xi, but Neji wouldn't have thought he was doubted so much. I proved I could use Rend, and I will do it again, so what is there to worry for?
"Neji," Xi spoke, with an uncharacteristic seriousness that seemed to break rocks, and he used Neji's real name, something he almost never did. Always it is Hyuuga Neji, or just boy, never 'Neji.' Why now?
"Since we have a spare moment I wanted to ask you something." Xi said cautiously in that incredibly serious tone. "I don't know if you will precisely remember the circumstances, but I would like to know what you did right before you passed out."
"Right before I passed out..." Neji realized he hadn't thought heavily on the incident since then, but that it remained clear in his mind. He'd focused on making certain he would be able to use rend today, and so had mostly ignored the unpleasantness of his collapse. Now thinking back on it, Neji saw that he had made some form of discovery, though it was had to get from the fog of his memory of that moment exactly what had happened. What was it...oh, those channels. He looked up at Xi. "When I used rend the second time I saw channels in the wood."
"Channels?" Xi asked, apparently thinking the reference random.
"Yes." Neji said carefully. "There were channels in the wood, tiny runnels where the chakra that leaks out from the blades goes."
A momentary look of shock passed over Xi's face, as he apparently considered the implications of what Neji had said with almost the same rapidity Neji himself had discerned them. Yet he said nothing, only nodded that Neji should continue.
More hesitantly now, the genius continued his description. "It seems like I did something to those channels the third time." He spoke even lower, unwillingly to be confident in speculation without confirming it himself. "I think I filled them with chakra."
"Filled them with chakra?" Xi muttered. "So that they burst?"
"Burst?" The question was surprising. Neji could remember anything past filling the channels with chakra. Had that been what I was trying to do? He simply could not recall, he had collapsed before the move was even finished. Yet he was not about to simply let Xi's words go. The dragon ninja had certainly meant something by the remark. "I can't remember, by why do you say they burst?" He asked harshly.
"Because the half of the log you completed the rend upon burst into splinters." Xi replied without inflection. "Your explanation seems to make sense, though I can really only guess. I am unable to see chakra channels or anything of the sort." Xi gave Neji something that approached a smile, though it felt hollow to the younger ninja. "Still, it seems my original guess was correct, with your Byakugan you can do things with dragon techniques that have never even be dreamed of. For today though, just rend in the regular fashion."
"Ah." Neji replied.
They walked the rest of the way in silence, in the quiet early morning of Konoha. The quiet that had settled over the Hidden Village with the death of the 3rd Hokage had yet to be dispelled, and perhaps would not lift for a long time. It was so different from how lively and happy this village had been only a few months before. Neji, who had spent those days considering Konoha to be his own prison, felt little for the change. I am still here, he knew, even if he had discovered that the village meant more to him than he previously thought, he could not really appreciate what Konoha had lost until he truly knew something else.
Xi's reaction to the quiet and tension that saturated the city was a far more potent thing. It seems as if the Leaf lost it soul when Sarutobi died, and now, it is still waiting to be reborn. Xi had been a spy in Konoha off and on for over three years. He had seen the city at its best, in those happy years. He had watched Naruto paint the stone faces of the Hokage's in bright colors; he had seen countless genin train, and the happiness of troubled ninja who found a safe place. There was something that had been created here that other places lacked. The other hidden villages are not like that, Xi knew, for he had been to them all, perhaps the only ninja in the world who had seen every home of the ninja. Stone, Sand, Mist, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, even my own Cloud, they are not like Konoha was. The Leaf rested at peace, and imposed its peace upon the rest of the shinobi world. Even I, the killing lightning stroke who exists only for conflict, I did not break this peace. Perhaps that is why I am willing to fight for the Leaf now, because I have seen the other visions of the world, and do not wish them to take hold. The Dragon ninja did not like the quiet in Konoha, but he had no solution to it. As always, I have only one thing I can do, kill the enemy. Neji, you have your chance to prove you can do so as well today. Xi hoped he would succeed. Two dragons scare off far more circling sharks than just one.
They arrived at the training field. Tsunade waited for the pair of dragon ninja, accompanied by two chuunin burned by tremendous stacks of reports. The sennin had a grim expression as she stared at one, and seemed on the verge of ripping the page apart.
Neji saw this and was amused, though he would not be so disrespectful as to let it show. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Xi, expecting to see that half-smile on the older ninja's face, since he appeared to dislike Tsunade this situation should satisfy him. Instead he saw something that frightened him, and made him instantly serious.
Xi had shifted his motion, he moved with a deliberately relaxed appearance, but his muscles chorded at the ready, and his body had tensed. Chakra gathered within him, surging and ready for release. Eyes sharpened and focused, tracking targets, strengths, and weaknesses. The hands clenched stock still, and his arms hung low, ready to arm his nekode in an instant. Turning back to Tsunade, Neji saw that she had tensed up as well, strength gathered in her limbs and she seemed to actually sink into the ground with the force of her steps. Chakra hung laden in the air about the training ground.
Why? Neji wondered. What is all this killing force for? We are not enemies. It confused him for only a moment. But neither are we allies, and Xi, for all that I know him, was still a spy in Konoha for a time. He is not trusted for that. A more disturbing possibility eked up from the bottom of Neji's mind behind that. Or is it because he is a dragon ninja, and is therefore dangerous? He hoped that was not the case. That it was simply ninja of such power from different villages could never truly relax around each other, because otherwise they would give far too much of an opening. Regardless, Neji gathered his own chakra and focused himself, not wanting to be caught off guard if something strange happened. Though he could not, being honest with himself, decide what he would do if a fight should break out between his Hokage and Draci Xi.
Tsunade tossed her report angrily at one of the Chuunin. She gave Xi a baleful stare. "All right, dragon ninja. You said you were going to show me your progress today. I'm busy, so let's get this over with."
Xi did not take his eyes off Tsunade. "Pick a target boy, and use the dragon jutsu I taught you." He ordered Neji, voice flat.
They continued staring at each other as Neji walked over to one of the remaining logs. The two chuunin seemed unsure where to place their attention, at the staring contest between the two powerful ninja, or on Neji. A short cry changed their minds easily.
"Byakugan!" Neji called, holding the seal to activate his bloodline limit. His eyes clenched, and the veins and nerves behind them swelled. The hidden pupils formed into being, outlined by a fractioned lens that allowed him to see through anything. His vision expanded out to encompass almost a complete sphere about him, so that he could see the four ninja who stood behind him. His gaze sharpened, revealing the chakra circulation in all the ninja, and all about the environment. The eyes of the Hokage bored in on him, judging.
It was simple to remember what he had done during the heat of that day. The image of blades of chakra was bored into his mind, graven there, and he knew what it would take to wield them through this wood. He gathered the energy with care, making sure everything was ready, then he let his gaze drift down to his hands. The moment crystallized, and Neji recognized that the step he was about to take was irreversible. His confidence was boundless; he could complete the move with ease, and rend the log and tear it as a dragon ninja would. Yet it was his choice to do so or not. If I do this, I become a dragon ninja, and no one will ever consider me anything else. Should I fail, I will be taken away from Xi, and given a chance to become just another ninja of Konoha again. For an instant Neji was tempted to fail, to throw aside pride and what he had learned so that he would not have to walk the dragon ninja path side by side with the killer he barely knew. During that instant he looked into the faces of both Tsunade and Xi, feeling their eyes upon him. One the Dragon Ninja, the cold killer who lived the dark and burdened life that he had not hidden from his pupil, the other the kind Hokage, a medical specialist, a healer, and perhaps the savior of Konoha. Each represented a possible path, and Neji was torn, not sure which he wanted to chose. Chakra lingered at his fingertips, ready but not yet used.
Yet the gaze of the Byakugan does not look in only one way, and even as he weighed those faces, Neji saw the log before him. He remembered those strange channels he had seen, what he had done with them, a technique that unleashed a force he could not imagine. Seeing that he realized something. I could chose either path, neither option calls to me stronger than the other, but one path is shorter than the other, and ends without what I did last that day. No, I will choose the longer path. Neji made the irrevocable choice. There is something I see in the dragon way that gives me a chance to escape the fate Hyuuga gave me. I must take that chance, for it will never come again.
It was an instant, and then it was done. Chakra flashed forth from Neji's hands, already descending at brilliant speed. They shifted into blades with a simple focused thought, brilliant edges of life energy, with the unmatched sharpness of the mind. "Rend!" The sound expelled in time with the chakra, as the force churned around Neji in a tempest of power. His hands came down, and made contact with the wood, but his vision was already seeing what would happen, the chakra shifted, but his mind had already moved faster, with the speed of thought, it had adjusted, and the blades retained their brilliant edge as they moved through the wood. Before that cutting surface the hardest and most aged wood was as dust, and the claws of Neji's chakra slashed through them without slowing, indeed he hands gained speed with the momentum of the move.
Down, cross, down once more, and then up.
The crossed slash pattern of rend was completed, and the dragon's claws scored and ripped apart all before them. Brilliant perfect lines stretched in the wood as Neji took a single step back, revealing the damage he had inflicted. Four lines from each hand, matching the tines of the nekode, lined up with the fingers, in the pattern that assured the destruction of the body. For that moment the hands of Hyuuga Neji had become the dragon's claws.
The jaws of both observing chuunin dropped wide open in shock, and they were dumbstruck. To see a jutsu of such unbelievable lethality, and such perfection of execution! It had been impossible to follow, the Hyuuga's hands moved, and the log was ripped asunder. Both sank to the ground, barely holding their reports.
Tsunade's reaction was much less extravagant. She was impressed, and her face flashed with it, visible to Neji's eyes, but then came under rigid control. Anger spread over her countenance like a landslide about to break. "So, Draci Xi. You have taught a boy to kill." She bit off each word as if it were poisoned. "I hope you are proud of it."
Draci Xi had said nothing, seeing what Neji had done. His own face was absolutely blank, but Neji thought he saw something in the older ninja's cold eyes. He was not sure what it was, but he was sure it cast the moment as important. He knows what I chose, Neji realized. He approves.
When Xi said nothing Tsunade continued. She turned first to her chuunin aides. "Get up!" She barked. "We're leaving. Your student has passed my test Draci Xi, you can have him for good now, and may take him on your mission." Her tone softened, but only marginally. "Hyuuga Neji." She said with utmost seriousness, her expression every bit that of a Hokage. "You will become a dragon ninja now, but recall that you are still a ninja of the Leaf. Konoha is your home, and it is whom you serve. This man, though he may be your sensei, is not your master. Know also that if it ever comes to war between Leaf and Lightning, you two dragon ninja will likely face each other on the field of battle. Now, we are done here. You will both report to me when your mission is done." She walked past them and back toward Konoha, chuunins following. Tsunade's face was grave, and her heart troubled, but she was the Hokage, and it was her burden to order these most dangerous weapons of the ninja to be unleashed.
Neji let out a breath he discovered he'd been holding since taking his step back, and watched her go in silence. Xi did not break the moment, letting the three ninja disappear below the hill before speaking. "You have mastered rend, good." He said dryly, though Neji was sure the tone was at least partly forced. "It means I'll have to decide what to teach you next, however, the key first step has been taken. Even with your Byakugan as a crutch, you have greatly improved your ability to control and shape your chakra. Your little demonstration of making the move as artistic as possible here proves that. All other moves build on the same principle, though their details are more complex. Regardless, we have a mission." Xi said with rigor. "But there is one last thing to do before then."
"And that is?" Neji asked, equally focused.
The dragon ninja reached behind in his flak jacket and pulled out the multicolored scroll. He tossed it to Neji. "You must sign your name on that scroll, and leave the Hyuuga name behind."
Holding the scroll, Neji felt the power in it. It seemed to shimmer, as if its presence went beyond its simple physical form. With care he removed the dragon sealing band, and opened the scroll. The weight of those names, written in the blood of dozens of ninja from hundreds of years crashed down on Neji. With this, I will join that fellowship. Though he had been raised with pride as a Hyuuga, somehow this seemed a far more ancient and potent arrangement. These ninja lived and died as the path the chose, dragon ninja, not something they were born to. The names crept left, filing the small columns of squares in dark red script. The last box before the squares continued empty was filled with a single character. Xi. So my name goes in the box below, Neji saw. It was the third box from the bottom of the row.
"Bite your left index finger, and use the blood to write the character." Xi instructed.
Neji bit down gently, tasting the metallic tinge of blood. He moved his finger to the scroll carefully, making sure none got in other boxes. With quick and sure motions, so that the blood did not clot, he marked the square. Neji.
The blood turned instantly dry and dark when he lifted his finger away, as if the paper had drunk it up. The cut on Neji's finger closed instantly.
"Seal the scroll once more, and then give it back to me." Xi told Neji, who did as he asked in silence, contemplating what had just happened. As Xi took the scroll back from Neji he gripped tightly, and then quickly secreted it beneath his flak jacket. "The scroll will pass to you in time." Xi said, and he smiled, the first true smile Neji had seen on the man yet. It was a soft motion that changed his mouth only a little, but relaxed the rest of his face, letting the harshness of his grim image fade away, an action obviously only rarely taken by this man. "Draci Neji."
Draci Neji? The name felt surprisingly right to Neji, who had not expected that feeling. He found suddenly that he did not think of himself so much as a Hyuuga anymore, though that still dominated his thoughts, the cursed seal on his forehead did not immediately enter his mind when he pictured himself. Instead, he caught a shadowy glimpse of a serpentine form behind him.
Xi pulled him from his thoughts. "We will embark on the mission later today, after provisioning. For now though, it is time you learned how to summon a dragon." Neji's face went instantly blank and studious. Xi continued. "It is not particularly complicated, being built on the same principle as other summon techniques. However, the seals are slightly different than those you may be familiar with. They are: Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, and Circle." As Xi said the seals his hands moved through the motion of them. Neji watched, and noted that he was indeed unfamiliar with many of these seals; they were different from those used for normal ninjutsu techniques, but not any more complex. "When you complete these seals you prick your index finger, not the thumb as is done for many summon techniques, and place your hands on the ground in front of you in the summoning form." Xi mimed the form, one hand placed atop the other, with fingers of both spread. "It is that simple, at least, to simply summon a dragon. However, if you do the summoning that way, you incur the debt to whichever dragon you summon. You can avoid this by calling in a debt, either to the dragons in general or to a specific dragon you done a service for. To these summonings you add 'a debt I call' or 'I call in a debt owed to me' when you perform the final seal."
Xi walked over to an open area. "I will demonstrate the dragon summoning for your sake, but you incur the debt to me because of it, Neji." Xi told him. "Expect to spend a good deal of your time in the next few years incurring debts, until you gain the power to pay them back. Do not worry about it overmuch, I think you will garner great debts in your day." Xi motioned for Neji to stand back. "When you summon a dragon you must be prepared. They will stare at you with a dragon's eye, as I did, though with far less malice than when intended to attack. Still, you must be ready. Know also that you must not move until you have agreed on the service the dragon is to render, or they are within their rights to attack you."
"How do I get a dragon to owe a debt to me?" Neji asked. "If summoning one implies a debt on my part."
"Simple." Xi replied. "You ask them before they return. Now stay back, and do not move. There are many varieties of dragon, from the infant Yu Lung, little more than vessels to borrow chakra from in need, to the mightiest T'ien Lung dragon lord. The one I am to summon is Sirachi, a shen lung, a messenger, courtier, and bodyguard among dragons."
Xi's hands flashed through the hand seals of the summoning, and Neji felt a great deal of chakra gather in the man. He bit his finger with a snap-quick move, and slammed his hands to the ground. Seals and symbols crawled out into the dirt as he placed them down with a shout. "Dragon summoning no jutsu!"
Air, leaves, and dust blasted and whipped about the training ground, and Neji closed his eyes just as Xi did, unable to see through that flash of noise and energy.
Then all was calm again.
Neji opened his eyes to observe Xi standing stock still, facing...facing...facing a creature from legend. The dragon must have been fifteen feet long if he uncurled fully, a breathtaking serpentine form that shimmered in many colors of scales from red to green to blue. His legs were blood red and adorned with claws sharper than the sharpest steel. His back had a great blue fin upon it, rather like the dorsal fin or a fish, but it vibrated with energy and highlighted the coiled musculature of incredible form beneath. These features were things Neji noted only gaspingly though, for his gaze was locked upon the head. Majestic, no imperial. He tried to categorize what he thought of that great head, with teeth as sharp as razors, the great whiskers rolled down from above the crocodilian jaws, showing the age and wisdom of the dragon. Then there were the eyes. They were yellow, not red, and focused on Xi, but they bored into Neji all the same. He saw something deeper than human there, something that belonged to a world beyond this one, a world of gods and spirits, where the greatest heroes barely glimpsed. An aged glance form a mind beyond human ken, a mind that saw the world with a greater scope and vision than even the Byakugan could possibly offer. Of course we are indebted to summon such as these, Neji realized with a flash. A great mercy that they will serve us at all, the dragons.
"All honor to thee Shen-Lung Sirachi." Xi intoned with solemn seriousness.
Neji saw Sirachi give Xi the slightest nod in return, and he wondered upon it. This creature is familiar with him. "You have summoned me Draci Xi, and incurred a debt from me, what task requires my aid?"
"Nothing in this world honored Sirachi." Xi replied, his tone the same, with respectfulness far beyond that he had given Tsunade. "I would have you look upon my student, Draci Neji, and tell your relatives that another dragon ninja now walks the world."
"Yes, all felt the signing of the scroll." Sirachi replied, his voice deep, inhuman. His tones were partly reptilian, and partly different. There was an ancient presence behind those words, as those of a great wind. The Shen Lung turned to look at Neji.
The eyes bored into him, and with them came a terror. The otherworldliness of the dragon when examined so closely was too much, and Neji felt the fear flowing into him. Yet, as before, he felt the chakra flow within himself, and recognized that not all of his body was afraid. He almost instantly began to realign the flow within him, and the fear ebbed and faded.
Sirachi saw this and smiled, a great toothy expression accompanied by the motion of his mighty tongue. "I recognize you, ninja. You are a quick youth, and strong. You bear the marks of the Byakugan, the fateful power of all-perception, and the scars of one who has found his focus." His head turned back to Xi. "You have chosen well Draci Xi, I will carry word to my relatives, and warn the aged ones that they may indeed be summoned once again."
Xi bowed his head. "Go then, old ally."
The Shen Lung disappeared in a flash of light.
Xi sat down for a moment. "It is always a challenge to do that." He muttered. Turning to Neji, he said. "Now, for you. We will see what you are capable of. Dragon summoning is not something to be practiced like other summonings. So, we will take this opportunity to learn just how powerful a dragon you might summon. Then in battle you will know the limit of what you can hope to summon. The first dragon you call is likely to be one you call often. Sirachi was the first dragon I summoned. He is fast, clever, and solid in a fight when needed. It was he who carried you back to Konoha when I found you collapsed fighting the Sound."
That dragon was the one? Neji remembered the shen lung. Such a great creature carried me back all broken, and then said Xi had chosen well. What does it mean? I will not allow his words to be wrong! Neji swore to himself, a promise to increase his strength like the one he had made to embrace his strength and be the strongest Hyuuga.
"Gather all your chakra Neji, everything you can pull together, and release it all with the summoning. The dragon will try to bore into you, but fight the eye off and do not move. Ask only for the name of the one you have summoned, and offer to do him a favor should he wish it. Then dismiss him. Be respectful, but do not bow down overly. Politeness is the rule, but in this world dragon and ninja stand on equal ground." Xi grimaced as he was done. "I am confident you will do this." He gave Neji one of his half- smiles.
The new dragon ninja did not hesitate. He felt the chakra circulating in him, his strength, and his essence as a ninja. He felt the flow of the tenkentsu. He grasped that flow firmly now, and pulled. Grabbing and channeling the river of his essence, every ounce of strength he could manage. His hands moved with absolute concentration, following the hand seals: "Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, Circle!" He brought his left hand up and bit down carefully, then slammed his hands down with all his strength, releasing the chakra with enough force to push a circle of dirt almost an inch downward. "Dragon Summoning no Jutsu!" Neji cried the words, his voice hoarse with the strain, but loud and confident. Sigils, signs, and runes spread out from where he had crushed the ground, as the blast of chakra took on a form and fury.
A whirlwind of air and force blew Neji back with tremendous power, and even Xi almost fell. The air swirled and shifted, as winds scourged the ground and wrung moisture from the air. The sound of it was as a burning storm, the sun whipping the dust across the open plains, the earth made subservient to the sky.
As suddenly as the fury had appeared, there was silence. Neji and Xi opened their eyes.
Baleful red eyes, with their red upon red double irises stared into Neji. They reached into him, and laid him open. He felt fear, a mind numbing terror that reached all through his body, laying into all but the very core of him. Yet that very core held, something Neji knew could not fall. His mind held the unbreakable image of Uzemaki Naruto, staring at Neji with anger in his eyes and a clenched fist, "I will win!" he stated, and by shear will he made it so. Neji knew that he would not be conquered. He was himself, and nothing could set into all of him. He took that fear, and though he could not deflect the gaze, he channeled it throughout his body, dumping it into unfeeling places, taking out through his chakra holes and ridding himself of it entirely.
It took an eternity, and all Neji could do was force himself to focus and not slid down in the river of fear that gaze offered. He held himself firm, his pupil-less eyes staring back into those brilliant red ones. I will not lose to you, dragon or no! I am Neji, and I have a purpose beyond this!
Slowly that fear left him, but that piercing gaze did not, it had seen into Neji, and weighed him, and even as he struggled to rid himself of the fear he wondered what he had seen.
For Draci Xi, the summoning was beyond his imagination. He had taken one look at the brilliant golden form, eighteen feet in length, with a bright mane of many colors, blaring bright whiskers above the nostrils, those red on red eyes, and the bearded mouth that held teeth to rip even the armor of dragon scales, and had collapsed to his knees. A T'ien Lung! A dragon lord! Masters of the dragons and servants of the gods themselves, the T'ien Lung were the most potent of the dragon races, the celestial dragons, and lords of the skies. Xi himself could summon them, but did so only at the greatest need, for they were masters, not servants, and gave little respect to mortals. That Neji had summoned this dragon on his first time was portentous. It is not just the power, this T'ien Lung is young, and he could have called an older dragon from another race with the same amount of chakra. There is something at work here; the destinies of dragon ninja are in some way linked to those they first summon. Was I right about you Neji? Xi hardly dared to wonder. Are you to be the one who leads the dragon ninja to their rebirth?
Neji took in the dragon slowly, trying to categorize the creature, trying to make sense of this great golden being before him, this creature that surely knew all his secrets now. He considered many things, and only barely remembered what Xi had told him, I must ask only the name. "Who are you, honored one?" Draci Neji asked, forcing the words to be level, to not be timid.
"I am Wusashu, T'ien Lung, The Wind that Flows Beneath Leaves is my title." The dragon's head shifted, and he spun in midair. "You are the first to have summoned me, Draci Neji. I am pleased by this, for I have wished to see the mortal world. You have strong eyes for a human. I deem this bodes well. Now, why have you summoned me?" The voice of Wusashu was deep, and contained endless levels, like the wind. It surged with great force, but there was no malice to the dragon, only its overwhelming presence.
Neji gathered his strength of will. I must answer. "I offer to do you a favor, should you wish it, honored T'ien Lung, Wusashu." He mimicked the forms Xi had used.
"A favor?" The dragon curled back in the air, moving his face away from Neji's. "There are many favors I could ask of you, youth who has become a dragon ninja only this very day." The dragon appeared to consider, raising a clawed leg beneath his jaws. "Perhaps I shall test your competence. You are going to the Hidden Village of Waterfall. There is a ninja there named Ryukin who stole a gem that does not belong to him. Take the gem back, and return it to me as a favor, and as proof that you are fit to summon me."
"As you wish." Neji replied, agreeing without even thinking about the task, feeling he had no other choice. "You may go honored Wusashu."
"Yes, I shall leave, you give me much to think on human." Wusashu said imperiously. "Know that I will be watching you human, for there is something about you that intrigues me." With that the dragon was gone in a whirling flash of wind.
Xi looked over at Neji, watching the withdrawal come over him with an inner chuckle. Not bad Neji, not bad at all. Xi did not even notice that he had begun to think of the young ninja as Neji once he had signed the scroll, or call him that. He had intended to do so all along, and had slipped into it flawlessly with the dramatic change. You handled that well. That much was satisfying, but Wusashu's words were troubling. There is something going on among the dragons for this to happen. Turmoil in that world reflects turmoil here. The Akatsuki have all the Shinobi countries poised on the edge. While I am sure the key is the boy Uzemaki Naruto, there is something important for us to do as well. Good, Xi decided, I'd rather not just be an accessory. Yet how much do I tell him? He was uncertain.
"Impressive Neji." Xi told him, and picked the youth up, steadying him on his feet. "It will become easier with time. I was not expecting you to summon such a dragon; you have a gift for this it seems. I caution that this task Wusashu has given you will not be easy, especially as I cannot aid you beyond the mission from Konoha, but I believe you will succeed." Xi paused. "You look tired. Let's go down and get something to eat, looking a dragon in the eye saps your strength like nothing else. Then we can gather our provisions and depart this afternoon."
"Ah," Neji nodded. "Ah." He said again. "That would be best."