Chapter Thirty-Eight

"We again graciously thank the Hidden Leaf for such promptness," said the mayor of Renga Town in the Land of Rivers. "This monster has been lurking around our town for too long. My people are worried."

"Happy to help," Tomoko said, Ken behind her and watching closely.

The day after Ken had shown his family the site of their future clan compound, Team TAK had been issued a B-rank mission in the Land of Rivers. Lord Hiruzen had explained that the mayor of Renga Town had contacted them over a so-called "monster" and was not confident in the ninja of his local shinobi village to handle it. He'd handed them the mission scroll with apologies for the vague information, explaining that the mayor wished to inform them of the details upon their arrival.

"So what is this 'monster' you want us to handle?" Tomoko asked. The mayor sat before them at his desk with a few officials at his flanks, the Konoha nin facing them.

"A heinous wild man that has been frightening the farmers around our town," the mayor explained. "Witnesses have described a towering redhead who burns everything in his wake."

"Man?" Tomoko asked. "When you wrote 'monster,' we assumed it was some sort of animal."

"It might as well be," an official spat. "Lurking about the woods and destroying everything. Probably steals from our valued farmers while he's out there."

"Where can we find him?" Tomoko asked neutrally.

The mayor unfurled a map on his desk and gestured for one of his officials. "Somewhere in here," the man said, gesturing in a circle about two miles from the town. "Our woodmen have reported that he is most often seen in these areas." He penciled in some smaller circles within the area he had first indicated. "Probably a cave or some such for an animal like that."

Tomoko pursed her lips and picked up the map. "Well, we'll report in when the job is done," she said. "Good day, gentlemen."

As they left the mayor's office and began making their way through town in the direction they had been given, Ken glanced backward. "I smell something rotten about this," he said. "They're not telling us everything."

"They're politicians," Tomoko said. "They never tell us everything, and it always ends badly for us." She shrugged. "But we have a job to do."

"True," Ken replied, and they started for the site of this "monster."

They did indeed find the "lair" in a cave about two miles from the town proper. And it did look like it was inhabited by a person or other sentient creature, with a bedroll, books, a lantern, some pots and utensils … and a small collection of shinobi equipment. Ken and Tomoko traded a glance before slowly entering to poke around for clues. Tomoko searched through his clothes while Ken thumbed through the small collection of books.

"Looks like he's from the Land of Earth," Tomoko reported, holding up a woven undershirt. "This is woven in their style."

"How do you know that?" Ken asked, still searching through the books that seemed to range from fiction to natural philosophy.

"My grandmother taught me when I was a kid," she explained. "I was never that good at textile work, but the trivia stuck."

Ken continued to page through the books, neatly stacking them as he did. "What I don't get is the books themselves. Your average thug or boogeyman isn't usually an eclectic reader." He rubbed his temples to perhaps stimulate his brain. "What kind of 'monster' are they trying to get rid of?"

"This kind," a new voice said. Ken and Tomoko flinched and spun to find the opening of the cave occupied by a lone man of average height and build. His red hair was bound in a topknot, the color matching a full mustache and beard, and his dark eyes were hard with suspicion. He was dressed in a magenta long-sleeved kimono and pants with mesh armor beneath, a fitted dark undersuit, and calf-high sandals. He also wore a piece of dark armor over his cheeks and the bridge of his nose.

"Oh no," Tomoko whispered in obvious fear.

"I'm guessing the local townsfolk hired you to send me packing, eh?" the man asked. He scoffed. "And they really went the extra mile and called in from a Great Village." He hissed in frustration. "Why can't they just leave me alone?"

"Sir, we don't want any trouble," Tomoko said, her hands up in a gesture of surrender.

"You're shinobi rifling through my things," the man said, his voice quiet but harsh. "And you don't want trouble?"

"Who are you?" Ken asked, his instincts plucking at fragments of memory and stories. "You seem familiar somehow."

The man eyed the pair blankly. "Familiar, huh?" He clenched his fists, his lips twisting with further frustration. "You'll find out soon enough. I need to blow off some steam." He stepped aside to clear the cave entrance. "You've got ten seconds."

"Run!" Tomoko shouted, bolting for the entrance and past the target.

"What?" Ken shouted, hastily following. "The mission!"

"This is beyond us!" Tomoko shouted. "We need to message Uncle and-" She was cut off by the fall of flaming rocks crashing past them and blocking their escape. Wait, flaming rocks? The duo spun around to find the man slowly approaching with a straight face, though his posture was tense and his eyes were narrowed with hidden anger.

"I am so tired of people calling me a monster for something I can't control."

And then the pieces clicked into place for Ken. A redheaded man in his fifties, Lava Release, his being called a monster … this man was a jinchuriki. And if he didn't miss his guess, more specifically … "Roshi of the Lava Flow," Ken whispered in horror.

"Finally got it," Roshi said, clapping sarcastically. "Now let's see if the body is as slow as the mind, shall we?"

The jinchuriki flicked through hand seals and took a deep breath, then spat lava that coalesced into boulders of molten rock flying at them. Ken and Tomoko scattered, desperately trying to avoid the onslaught. Tomoko moved with the agility of her clan's namesake, flipping and spinning to avoid the molten boulders, while Ken ducked and wove with more rigid grace. He distantly noted that fires were starting where the molten rocks landed.

"We need help!" Tomoko shouted, having already bitten her pinkie to draw blood as she wove hand seals. She slammed her palm to the ground and Yama appeared in a burst of smoke.

Roshi's bushy eyebrows lifted at the sight of a monkey. "Sarutobi clan, eh?" he asked rhetorically.

Before Tomoko or Yama could respond, another even larger burst of smoke heralded Lady Katsuyu, this form the size of a small house with Ken perched on her head. If Roshi had been surprised at Yama's appearance, his mouth fell open in shock at this twist. "Lady Tsunade's slug," he whispered. "Didn't see that one coming." His lips thinned and the air around him began to shimmer. "Guess this calls for real effort."

With that, Roshi's body began to glow with red-orange light as he was covered in molten lava, heat wafting off of him in waves. Yama sucked in a breath at the sight, arming his kanabo. "Lava Release. Real Lava Release," he said. "This man is the jinchuriki of the Handsome Monkey King."

"Wait, what?" Tomoko asked. "I thought King Enma was-" Tomoko was interrupted by Yama kicking her backward and himself away too as Roshi rushed forward to strike at her. Tomoko recovered and bound away, unsealing her naginata. She shivered at the sight of the lava coating Roshi like armor — even a single hit landing from that could be crippling, assuming it wasn't fatal.

"Have you gotten yourself into trouble, young Ken?" Katsuyu asked.

"We were sent on a mission to handle what the Hidden River Village called a 'monster'," Ken explained, "and it turns out he's the Four-Tails' jinchuriki."

"Oh dear," Katsuyu commented. "Let us not waste time, then."

Her mouth swelled and acid burst in a stream from it, arcing toward Roshi. The old ninja looked up and flicked through hand seals to erect a dome of rock for protection. Everyone who had been alive during the Second Shinobi War had heard of the potency of Lady Katsuyu's acid.

Ken unsealed his black wakizashi and leapt from Katsuyu's head with a battle cry. But as he landed, half a dozen Earth clones arose from the ground and formed into images of Roshi; to make matters worse, they all erupted into the Lava Release Armor.

"Well, that's just great," Ken snapped, arming a little something he'd been experimenting with on the journey to the Land of Rivers. He unsealed a kunai with a sky-blue sealing tag and tossed it at one of the molten clones. The tag flared with orange light before it could burn from the lava's proximity, and in a flash the clone was rendered solid, even coated in frost. As the rest of the clones charged, Ken made another hand seal and the tag flared with red light to release a deafening explosion that destroyed the first and knocked the rest to the ground, starting small fires everywhere.

"That was my only Thermal Seal," he groaned. "And I don't even know if it would work right." He'd devised the Thermal Seals based on an older Uzumaki design that slowly absorbed and stored thermal energy, or heat, to cool down rooms and food storage. This one worked much faster to hopefully flash-freeze opponents before releasing the stored heat as an explosion. It had certainly chilled the lava clone, but that left its effects against normal opponents unsure.

Scoffing and getting his head in the game as the lava clones returned to their feet, he armed his wakizashi and charged the clones with Lady Katsuyu right behind him.

Tomoko, on the other hand, was having a hard time against the real Roshi. Every time he attacked, she couldn't afford to block or else be seared by the heat of his armor. It was only with Yama's intervention that he hadn't left her as a pile of charred briquettes yet.

When he wasn't beating away Yama, Roshi swept and flowed through katas that Tomoko could barely avoid, the heat still singeing her skin and clothes from mere proximity. Soon enough, she got unlucky. Roshi swiped his hand at her and she instinctively blocked with her naginata — and the shaft was blown to splinters, the blade sent hurtling away.

"That was a gift from my mom!" Tomoko screeched.

"Sorry," Roshi said snidely before he continued to fight.

By now, Ken had dispatched one of the lava clones with his wakizashi, the Earth chakra flowing through it resisting the intense heat, while Katsuyu had handled the remaining four with founts of acid and swipes of her massive tail.

"Thank you, Milady," Ken said, swinging his sword. "Shall we handle the real thing?"

"Yes, we shall," she commented. Ken leapt back onto Katsuyu's head and they charged, the slug covering ground with shocking speed for her size.

Roshi was engaging Yama — the monkey's kanabo leaving cracks in his armor from his sheer strength — and Tomoko pelting him with shadow-cloned shuriken when Katsuyu crashed into him and sent him flying. He rolled and tumbled to a halt before flipping to his feet, the Lava Armor having absorbed most of the impacts, and studying his opponents. He heard the distant echoes of the Four-Tails shouting in his head, something about leaving his liegeman be, but ignored it. He also clearly heard the Ape calling him the most stubborn human to ever live, which wasn't unusual. As if the Ape could point fingers about being stubborn.

"Let's get rid of that slug, shall we?" he asked himself, flicking through hand seals. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth as wide as he could … and a tight stream — more of a beam — of verdant flames roared from his maw to crash into Katsuyu with devastating force. Katsuyu screeched in pain, her body reducing to fluids to protect itself, and she disappeared in a puff of smoke … but not before a clone the size of a large sports ball had separated and lunged to land on Ken's shoulders.

"My apologies, Ken," she said, "but that was quite a powerful technique."

"Will you be alright?" Ken asked in shock.

"I will be completely fine given time to recover," the clone said. "Now focus on the jinchuriki."

Ken did just that, instinctively preparing his wakizashi as Roshi charged again, his footsteps searing the grass. Tomoko wove hand seals before she took a breath and blew a powerful gale — Wind Release: Great Breakthrough — that pushed against Roshi and slowed his advance. But it also seemed to fan his Lava Armor even hotter.

"Note to self," Ken said, "start learning Water Release." Then he remembered something in his pouch and chuckled before hanging back to search his person.

Roshi snarled, refusing to be beaten by a couple of whelps, and charged through the last of the wind, pumping chakra into his Lava Armor to make it flare even hotter. He leapt at Tomoko, his fist blazing with unrelenting heat to char and shatter her, when he was struck to the side by the savage force of an Adamantine Staff. The staff whirled and struck again before hurtling toward Tomoko to stop in her waiting hands.

"You should have asked me from the start," Yama chided, his voice emanating from the staff.

"I know," Tomoko sighed, as Roshi returned to his feet, the Lava Armor having seemingly protected him from even the power of the whirling Adamantine Staff. "A jinchuriki, and an old one at that, and I try to fight him with a spear? What am I, an idiot?!"

"You're still breathing," Yama said. "So it's a learning experience. Now use that experience to survive this encounter. I fear that Roshi will not be easily dissuaded."

Tomoko nodded and whirled her staff to loosen up before leaping into the air and bringing it down, her grip on a gold-capped end, in a vertical swing. 'Devastating Treefall!' she thought, the staff elongating to close the distance with Roshi. The sheer speed of the swing, combined with the weight of the staff and the shift in leverage leant incredible force behind the strike that smashed into Roshi's Lava Armor with crushing power that sent chips of molten rock flying.

Tomoko landed and swung on the horizontal, her entire body shifting to compensate for the expanded scope of the staff. 'Storm-Swaying Bough!' With the same physics behind it, the staff once again struck with brutal impact that further cracked the lava covering the jinchuriki.

"And now-!" Tomoko shouted, again leaping into the to this time curl into a flip and spin on the diagonal, "Tumbling Cliffface Rockfall!" The staff grew again, this time widening as well as lengthening, and with Tomoko's spinning momentum behind it, she struck harder than ever before …!

And she grunted with shock as her momentum was arrested by Roshi's raised arms, his arms and upper body augmented by more lava that made his lean silhouette resemble an ape. His arms were trembling from the force of the blow, and his breathing was heavy with pain, but he stood strong in the face of one of the Sarutobi clan's most effective weapons techniques.

"Pretty good, girl," Roshi growled, "but I didn't live this long by falling for pretty little tricks!" He roared with effort, and even without moulding sensory chakra Tomoko could feel it rising up. The ground beneath Roshi liquified into white-hot lava that burst into a geyser in the shape of a blooming flower, the heat crashing into Tomoko like a wave. She tried to shield herself with a burst of chakra, and Yama swung away to push her from the brunt of the explosion as the indestructibility of the Adamantine Staff form resisted the unbearable heat.

Even so, Tomoko tumbled and crashed into a tree with a shriek of agony, her skin steaming and charred as bones broke under the impact. It wasn't enough to knock her unconscious, but it was close and she curled into a fetal ball to try and manage the pain.

Ken, who had been mesmerized by Tomoko's techniques with the Adamantine Staff, was jarred from his trance at the sound of Tomoko's scream. His eye twitched as denial rose up in a wave … followed closely by unrelenting fury. "You bastard!" he shouted.

Roshi turned at the shout to find his fellow redhead snarling before he … put on a mask? A deep-blue mask carved in the likeness of an oni with a gaping mouth. He formed the Dog hand seal — and in a flash of blue light, a wave of water came rushing from the mask's gaping maw. Roshi was shocked enough to be swamped by the wave, the water smashing into him and leaching the heat from his Lava Armor.

As the tide of water washed away and left him on the sopping ground — the water having also doused the massive fires from his Lava Release techniques — Roshi sputtered and spat some up before spinning to his feet. Most of his Lava Armor crumbled into simple broken stone; it would still offer protection, but not as much and it wouldn't be near as flexible. Roshi hissed and looked up at the redhead, only to find him removing the blue mask and screaming in challenge as chains of faintly-golden chakra tipped with jagged spearheads tore from his back and surged toward him. He leapt back to let the chains plunge into the ground, the sight of them vaguely … familiar?

Another howl of challenge and Roshi's instincts snapped, his reflexes sending him leaping into the air as the chains erupted from the ground below to try and ensnare him. He landed lightly and observed as the chains tore up through the ground as the redhead seemed to jerk them backward to retract them into his back.

Roshi narrowed his eyes and tried to think ahead. He was fairly certain he could win this if he pushed. Even with the string of chakra-heavy techniques he'd performed while maintaining his Lava Armor, he still had quite a lot to spare — one of the few perks of being a jinchuriki. But he'd gotten the fight out of his system, and to draw it out now would be gratuitous. It was probably best if he called a truce and let them leave so he could gather his belongings and find another hiding place.

With that in mind, Roshi flicked through hand seals for the Earth-Style Rampart Technique, which shifted the ground and lifted a huge cliff of earth to separate him from the Leaf nin. "Hold it there, boy," he called down. "I think you've had quite enough. Leave now and I won't pursue you or yours. You have my word."

"Your word?!" Ken shouted, his temper straining his clarity of mind. "I'll show you your word when I tear your throat-!" He hissed as the chill of robbed chakra invaded his body and left him feeling weak.

"Enough, Ken," Katsuyu chided. "You have more important things to worry about than a pointless and costly battle. The girl is hurt!"

That poured cold water on Ken's rage and he turned to look at her. Yama was standing over her, cradling her battered form in his long arms. Ken gnashed his teeth and looked up at Roshi, waving his hand in a gesture of acceptance. Roshi waved back and disappeared behind the lip of the cliff.

Ken grunted as the chakra was pushed back into his body and he sprinted to Tomoko, falling to his knees to lightly run his hands over her forehead and neck to check her vitals. "She's breathing," he said with relief, "barely."

"What will you do, young Ken?" Yama asked.

Ken shivered and bit down on his lip before shifting her upper body into his arms and rolling up his sleeve. He placed his wrist between Tomoko's lips and said, "Bite." Tomoko moaned in pain and gently shook her head. "Tomoko, please," he said, his eyes burning with unshed tears at the sight of her so obviously wounded.

"Take your arm away, Ken," Katsuyu said from his shoulder. "I have another idea." Katsuyu's clone split into two, the resultant slugs each the size of a cantaloupe, with one hopping to latch onto Tomoko while the other stayed on Ken's shoulder. He once again felt the chill of chakra absorption, the strength leaving his limbs. The slugs began to glow with faint green light … and Tomoko's wounds began to slowly, ever so slowly, disappear. The burns faded, her bones crackling as they mended. Tomoko jerked in discomfort with a rattling gasp, but Ken took her hand in both of his and squeezed to let him know he was here with her.

"It's okay, Tomoko," Ken said weakly, his strength draining away. "It's going to be okay." Tomoko whimpered in continued pain, but she squeezed back.

There was a sound like rushing air and Ken looked up to find Yama gone. 'Must've unsummoned,' he thought, his mind hazy from creeping exhaustion as Katsuyu worked. His thoughts so clouded, he didn't notice that there had been no traces of a summoning's telltale smoke.

"Rest, Ken," Katsuyu advised. "This will take time, and while the potency of your chakra will make certain she lives and recovers, you should not waste your strength."

"Not until she's better," Ken said stubbornly.

Katsyuyu remained silent as she continued to work.

Ken brushed the hair from Tomoko's face, the strands almost miraculously surviving with hardly any singes. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him. "Ken?" she asked, her voice cracking.

"Don't speak," Ken croaked. "You're hurt. Lady Katsuyu is using my chakra to heal you."

"…Like the bite thing …?" she whispered.

"Yeah," chuckled hoarsely, realizing the truth of the question, "like the bite thing. Just slower and, I guess, maybe safer."

She looked up at him with those coffee brown, doey eyes and nodded before they fluttered shut again, though her grip on his hands remained tight. Ken brushed her hair again, his breathing becoming labored from chakra drain, and an epiphany struck him like a bolt of lightning: He liked Tomoko, not just as a friend but romantically. Memories of their time together these last nine months flashed across his mind's eye, little things, and it became so unbelievably clear.

He might even love her!

Oh, blessed son of the Sage …

As Ken was dealing with this revelation, Tomoko sighed with relief as the pain very slowly subsided. She leaned into Ken's warm embrace and smiled … and like a sunbeam breaking through the clouds to light her path, memories of her and Ken's friendship lazily played in her half-dreaming mind. And she suddenly realized with a flash of clarity … that she had come to like Ken as more than a friend.

She might even love the man!

By the trees of the Leaf …!

One very minor positive about constantly relocating due to human prejudice was it gave Roshi practice packing his belongings very quickly. He was ready in a matter of minutes and jogging out of the cave — when he felt his instincts scream and he lifted an arm covered in rocks to be blindsided by a kanabo. Even with the block, the force of it sent him reeling and slamming into a tree.

"That was for the little one," came a rumbling voice, and Roshi shook his head to find the rotund, orangutan-esque monkey from before with his kanabo settled on the ground and his hands folded on the pommel.

"I called a truce," Roshi growled.

"And that is one of two reasons you still live," the monkey said, his tone heavy. "The other is your occupant. Should I kill you, Lord Son Goku will take time to reform."

Roshi stiffened at the name. "How do you know it's name?"

"His name, human," the monkey snapped with deceptive calm. "Son Goku, the Handsome Monkey King, a 'King' of the Sage Monkeys, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven." He snorted. "And to be thorough, I am Yama of the Mountain of Fruit and Flowers. The Long-Armed Ape Monkey, General of Monkey King Enma, friend to the Sarutobi."

"Wait, I thought you said the Four-Tails was the king of the monkeys," Roshi noted.

"Son Goku," Yama rumbled to emphasize, "is a king among us. The title is informal, a mark of his great power and prestige. Enma is our monarch, our literal king."

"So if you monkeys like the Ape so much," Roshi asked, eyes narrowed, "why not just kill me and free him?"

"Because life is precious," Yama replied. "And even more, I doubt you chose to be Son Goku's jinchuriki. Your life is yours, Roshi." Yama sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I only wish to deliver a message before I return to little Tomoko."

"Message?" Roshi asked.

"To him," Yama said. "Lord Son Goku, I hope you can hear me. We have not forgotten you, Great Sage. We all await your return to the mountain. And when that day comes, we will hide you away from humanity for as long as you wish." He paused, his expression becoming remote. "And my offer of old still stands, for you to join us in support of the Sarutobi clan. They are better than most." Yama nodded. "Jinchuriki." With that, he turned and bound away toward the battlefield.

As Roshi stood and collected his spilled belongings, his thoughts were turning.

"Mountain of Fruit and Flowers, eh?" A smile twitched his lips. "Sounds like a pretty place."

Chapter thirty-eight - one I've been so eager to share!

*The name for Renga town comes from the word "brick," which comprises most of the buildings.

*Roshi's epithet is technically "Roshi of the Lava Release" but I wanted to change it up a bit.

*"Handsome Monkey King" and 'Great Sage Equalling Heaven" iare some of the titles the Four-Tails gives himself in canon, and are shared with Sun Wukong. The idea that his "king" is an honorary title is my own concept.

*Roshi was a lot of fun to write - I seem to have a ball writing jinchuriki - and his arc may continue. I hope I can muster it up.

*The "Long-Armed Ape Monkey" is a reference to Journey to the West. According to the Buddah, there are four individual simians who do not fit into the ten categories of animals of the world and are all roughly equal in power and skill. Sun Wukong is the "Intelligent Stone Monkey", the "Six-Eared Macaque" is a minor antagonist toward the end, and two others are mentioned: the Long-Armed Ape Monkey and the Red-Bottomed Horse Monkey. In "Spirals," Yama is on-par with King Enma and one of his most trusted generals.

As always, I hope you enjoyed it! Leave a review, and good luck with your own projects!