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Act I - Beyond The Horizon
Chapter 12 - The Beginning of an End, Part 3
The chains were coming for him, along with the woman.
Heā it was difficult to think. Difficult to remember. Difficult to make his own arms and legs follow his commands. But he knewā he knew that if he could justā just rememberā it would become easier. He would gain power. He would win. He wouldā
Instincts arose.
Not those of a shinobi. But of a snake.
A creature that responded to attack with vicious counter-attack.
Orochimaru sank to his knees as the barrier fuinjutsu sealed everything, even motor movement. But his instincts were still there. Ingrained habits that knew to attack whatever was coming at him like a diligent murder-machine.
And so, he did.
He cast a genjutsu whose very foundations rose from a mindset that only a handful of shinobi could produce. The absolute certainty that everything around themā man or woman or child or beast āwas nothing but prey.
A genjutsu that laymen referred to as killing intent.
It made the red-haired woman hesitate for a split second, but the pause was more than enough for someone of his caliber. Enough for Orochimaru to perform one simple thing.
He jabbed his glowing fingers into her abdomen.
"Five Elements Seal!"
It was the same seal he'd applied atop the Eight-Trigrams Seal to disconnect the Kyuubi from Naruto, stopping its chakra from flooding the boy's body. When applied to a normal shinobi, it cut off their access to the five elements of nature, and thus, their Yang Release.
Leaving them with just Yin.
And Uzumaki, he finally remembered, never boasted of too much Yin.
Orochimaru smiled. The irony of the situation was just soā¦ satisfying. He watched as the facsimile of Kushina Uzumaki staggered forward, her chains limply dropping to the floor as she stared on in abject horror.
And then, he drove his hand through her chest.
A single fleck of light twinkled.
It had no particular meaning. No thought, no emotion, no historyā it had nothing. Just a little twinkle. A blotch of white in an otherwise eternal darkness.
An existence. A consciousness. Aā¦ system.
Yes, that felt apt. A System.
But Systems had processes. Processes had variables. Variables had values. If a System existed, then so too did a number of processes. If one took the logic further, a hypothetical number of variables and values must also have existed, simply because the System did.
But they didn't.
They should have, conceptually. And if the values were not presently held separately, then they must have existed as assimilated parts of the System.
Consciousness Test: Success
Scanningā¦
Reformattingā¦
Installingā¦
Running [RYUJIN]
Mountains of variables and methods rose to the surface.
Protocols. Facilities. Methods. Implementations. A core directive with capability to override every other command within the System.
Promote Growth
It was a simplistic function. One could even call it overly generalistic. But were core directives supposed to be soā¦ vague? Or were they meant to be a hyper-focused set of instructions that the System could carry out without having to suffer through ambiguity?
Was this merely bad programming?
The System scanned deeper.
Reconnaissance was necessary. Analysisā¦ of itself. Of related variables and functions. Of the interface. Of the host. Of the environment.
In that order.
Discerning Chakra Pathway Systemā¦
Preliminary Scan Complete.
Finding information was interesting.
Especially since it had not known how to do so in the first place.
The Skill would come handy later. But firstā
RYUJIN MATRIX [Level 1]
Total Yin Chakra Capacity : 28
Yin Chakra Production Rate : 5 / hour
Genjutsu Transformation Efficiency : 0%
Total Yang Chakra Capacity : 1165
Yang Chakra Production Rate : 87 / hour
Nature Transformation Efficiency : 11%
New variables arose. Chakra capacity. Yin. Yang. Genjutsu transformation. Nature Transformation.
Values. Their mere presence indicated the possibility of incrementation and decrementation. Incrementing variables would promote GROWTH, in contrast to applying limiters to variables to regress GROWTH.
The core directive was beginning to make sense.
More windows opened.
NATURE TRANSFORMATION | EFFICIENCY | EXTENDED VALUES | NET EFFICIENCY
Fire 0% (+3% from Scorch Release) 3%
Wind 17% (+3% from Scorch Release) 20%
Lightning 5% (-) 5%
Earth 2% (-) 2%
Water 0% (-) 0%
Scorch Release 8% (-) 8%
More information. Graphical projections of Nature Transformations rose into its memory banks. Its interface was much better now. More sophisticated.
But the System still did not know what to do with these values. The Core Directive existed, as did the parameters. The what and why components were taken care of. But the how?
The System drew a blank. It was possible these variables would prove useful in due time, but it did not know enough about them at the moment. Until now, it had barely noted anything except its own core directives and its own existenceā or lack thereof. Extraneous information had been purged to save on energy and resources.
That could prove to have been a pivotal mistake.
ā¦
Accepting the option to self-analyze was already paying off in dividends.
RYUJIN BASE
Name: NARUTO UZUMAKI
Naruto Uzumaki?
If the System had a head, it would have tilted it in confusion.
A name. The base had a name. An identity variable to both confer and determine the legitimacy of a Base, to differentiate it from foreign variables and functions.
It was an inadequate explanation, but it would have to do. For now.
Next wasā
FUSION INTO [SHIKI FUJIN]?
The single fleck of light twinkled.
Having the mantle of 'sage' wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.
Being a sage meant getting attuned to the flow of natural energy, the very essence of the world itself. It meant soaking in the overwhelming feeling of power and emotion. It meant becoming a vessel for the desire that the world wished to exert upon Reality itself. It meant constantly fighting to keep one's spirit free and unsuppressed by an irresistible pull.
Absorbing natural energy made Minato think about things he'd rather not think about, and want things he'd rather not want. Being a sage didn't make him a noble person, a capable Hokage, or a good father. It did not help him understand philosophy, create beauty, or garner knowledge.
What it did instead was make him hell on wheels in a fight.
Minato palmed a jumbo-sized Rasengan, one fifty times larger than himself, and hurled it at the nine-tailed monstrosity. It slammed against the beast head-on, pushing it back by several towering steps.
The Nine-Tailed Fox let out a world-splitting roar.
Minato sighed. Normally, during a big fight, he felt adrenaline, fear, and the desire to win.
But not this time.
It wasn't that he felt nothing. In fact, Minato felt plenty. The problem was that he just couldn't care in the face of everything that was happening. That was dangerous, both for him and the child he sought to protect.
He had to get his head into the game.
He'd already sacrificed his true self to eternal torment. Now, after all these years, he was forced to fight his own wife to protect the life of his own child.
A child he would probably never even meet.
A child who had never met his mother, nor knew how she was trying to end him.
A child who would have to grow up in a harsh world. One where everyone, including the power that resided within him, would try to take advantage of his innocence.
And so Minato valiantly fought this uphill battle, one he'd eventually lose, so that his child could get his chance at life. A single chance that just might end in tears and torment, but a chance nonetheless.
MY TIME HAS COME! SHINOBI! RELEASE ME!
Minato staggered. The words had suddenly appeared in his head, scarlet and glowing and scalding. Tearing his attention away from it, he spoke aloud.
"I will not release you."
The beast thrashed as it tried to escape the Heavenly Gates he had put it under. Hachiman's Threshold was a one-off, and a desperate ploy at best. Only the most talented of sages could pull it off for longer than a few minutes, and using it against the Nine-Tails only made it all the more difficult.
The longer the Seal remained open, the stronger the bijuu grew, now able to re-establish its connection with Reality. Minato could always draw in more Nature Energy, but that carried the risk of over-absorption.
YOU CANNOT CONSTRAIN ME, MORTAL!
EVEN THE TWO-FACED SWINDLER WILL FAIL YOU! YOU WILL TURN YOURSELF INTO STONE. YOUR WIFE WILL LOSE HERSELF TO THIS PRISON! MY RAGE WILL DESTROY THIS WORLD! I AMā
"Mouthy, aren't you," Minato murmured. Gathering every shred of power within him, he stood his ground and cast his will into the Gates as the Kyuubi sought to break free. It was a struggle, an almost hopeless one. He felt like a man straining to push a boulder up a steep hill. If he allowed it to budge even an inch, it would use the momentum to crush him beneath it.
So he fought for that inch, adamantly refusing to give it to the beast. Just a little more and itā
Just then, Minato thought he'd heard a muffled voice somewhere amidst the bestial roars and fierce pounding of his own heart. Maintaining his hold, he turned around to look for the source of the noise.
And then, something fell onto the floor beside his feet.
Kushina Uzumaki. His wife.
"The problem with Uzumakis is that they've grown far too dependent on their fuinjutsu," Orochimaru drawled as he sauntered towards him, blood coating his hand and a predatory smirk on his face.
Minato's eyes widened. "What did you do to her?" he bit out.
"Merely showed her the wonders of a well-placed genjutsu," the snake-like man smirked. "Careful not to step on those chains. They're sharper than they look. You don't want to know what one of them nearly ended up slicing off because it slipped too close toā"
Minato clenched his fists.
Orochimaru paused. "Oh. You're getting angry?" The Sannin looked genuinely surprised. "Come now, Minato. She wasn't actually your wife. We were going to have to kill her eventually."
"You could have left her trapped in that genjutsu," he accused.
"Perhaps. But that would be dreadfully boring, not to mention slow. Now focus. Time is short, and I believe my seal is nearly done. Make sure you hold the Kyuubi tight while I do what needs to be done."
Minato stared at him. Unblinking.
Orochimaru sighed. "The problem with heroes such as yourself is that they are nauseatingly predictable. My seal will fuse with the Ryujin, just as we decided. However, it will follow my commands. It will always know me as its true master, no matter whose body it is. Naruto can play with it for a few months, maybe a year, but sooner or later, the new me will come for Ryujin and tear it out of Naruto's heart. Why, the very thought makes me feel so giddy!"
The Demon Fox chose that exact moment to lift its head and let out aā
RELEASE ME!
The force of those two words was so dense that Minato thought the sheer sound would break something. Like, maybe the entire world. It was a sphere of psychic pressure so intense that were it not for the protection of the Hachiman's Threshold, it would've either turned his mind into soup or incalculably compressed it, like a tiny diamond formed from coal.
Orochimaru, on the other hand, was not protected by his Threshold.
Minato stared at the unmoving form of the snake-sannin, with blood oozing from the shinobi's eyes, nose, and ears. The man convulsed on the floor, with small groans and glotting sounds coming from his mouth.
"The only predictable one here is you, Orochimaru. People trust you, then you betray them. Life is about change and growth, but I can see you just want to stay the same."
Orochimaru painfully gurgled out more blood.
Minato trudged his way forward. It felt like his entire body was a mass of splinters. But he kept moving.
He needed to.
Slowly, he placed his boot over Orochimaru's head.
And crushed it.
"That's for Kushina," he snarled.
In the background, the Ryujin continued fusing with the Seal. Minato silently watched as something ethereal rose from Orochimaru's body and was subsumed by the Ryujin.
"Right," he murmured. "Pure soul and everything."
The Ryujin was an absorber of information. And what was a soul, if not information of the highest degree?
Minato turned back towards the Kyuubi. "The distractions are gone. It's time to finish this."
He drew in natural energy.
Immediately, he felt the rush of rain and wind in his face, the glorious thrill of the chase as a predator hunting its prey, testing his strength, speed, and endurance while the hunt called and the storm raged around him. This was Mother Nature. The primal spirit and essence of the world, swaying him, turning him, setting him loose from his own inhibitions.
All the while, behind him, the Ryujin started to form chains of fuinjutsu as it inserted itself into the Shiki Fujin's matrix. Crimson lightning flared all around as the two immensely complex seals merging with one another, producing a strange, mechanical hum with each bit of progress.
THRUM! THRUM! THRUM!
FILTHY LITTLE MORTAL! RELEASE ME OR I WILL END YOU!
"Yeahā¦" Minato chuckled, his mouth filling with blood. "I've heard that one before."
The snarling rage of the furious titanic beast filled his head. Its voice felt like it was echoing off the surface of his skull, deafening and inescapable. And really, really uncomfortable.
DID YOU THINK YOU COULD PIT YOUR WILL AGAINST MINE?
"Obviously. That's why you're trapped within the Gates," he retorted, rolling his eyes. "You destroyed my village. You killed my wife. And most importantly, you remain a beast that needs to stay trapped. For the good of all humanity."
Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself and stared into the gaze of the Kyuubi.
"I. WILL. NOT. RELEASE. YOU!"
THRUM! THRUM! THRUM! THRUM! THRUM!
Lightning and thunder rose within him. He could feel the blowing of leaves and the chorus of howling dogs. His ears felt like they'd burst, while his lips threatened to tear open as a wild and ferocious joyā an adrenaline sense of excitement, of passion, of savage harmony ārose within him.
A touch of rock and earth formed on the surface of his toes.
THRUM!
This time, the Fox did not roar. Instead it thought at him.
And just like that, his surroundings changed.
ā¦
ā¦
ā¦
Blood ran down the streets in small rivers. The air was thick with the stench of iron.
Minato looked around. Gone was the tunnel, and instead he found himself in a destroyed land. The forests burned and the houses lay crumpled. It was like a scene ripped from his darkest nightmare. Shattered buildings and broken walls cast savage shadows, standing out in contrast to the distant shapes battling for their lives. Smoke and ash floated in the air, cast adrift by wind and heat generated not by nature, but by a monster. The familiar mountain with four faces engraved upon it had been shattered, and where the academy once stood was now an empty crater.
And standing in its center, with pitch-black chains rising out of him, was a boy.
A boy with yellow hair, identical to Minato's own.
The boy's eyes were closed. His hands bore vicious claws. There was a glowing eight-trigrams seal at the center of his stomach, glowing an alien purple. His skin was darkened and covered in fur as nine protrusions, each the size of the Hokage building, arose from his behind, their ends dividing into thinner and thinner flame whips that stabbed, pierced, and decapitated people right and left.
Minato could feel the weight of each individual death.
Very few were instant. Even those speared through the brain found the time to thrash around and scream before their ends. Some were so close that he could hear their pleas for mercy. But Death played no favorites and made no exceptions.
He knew this all too well.
And this monster was the worst incarnation of Death.
OPEN YOUR EYES!
Minato heard the voice screaming in his head.
GAZE UPON WHAT YOU BRING TO THIS WORLD THROUGH YOUR ACTIONS!
The boy's eyes snapped open. They weren't the innocent blue he remembered. Instead, they were crimson and slitted, pulsing with power. Rage exploded out of his eyes and tails as the world around Minato went red and howling.
"Youā¦" Minato whispered. "You can't fool me with your genjutsu parlor tricks."
THIS IS NO TRICK, SHINOBI. THIS SIMPLY IS! THIS WILL HAPPEN!
"You're wrongā¦" Minato breathed. Everything felt spinny. Empty. "This is a trick. You'll never be able toā"
The rest of his words died in his throat as Narutoā his baby boy āspoke to him, his words escaping his lips magnified by the power of the Nine-Tailed Fox.
THIS IS WHAT YOU WROUGHT, FATHER. BY SEALING THE FOX IN ME, YOU USHERED THIS!
"No!" Minato whispered, now reduced to a shuddering wreck. He could feel his hold weakening. Feel the binding slowly loosen. Feel the Threshold slowly begin to erode. "I onlyā I only wanted to save youā"
IN TRYING TO RID THE WORLD OF MONSTERS, YOU GAVE IT ITS APOCALYPSE!
NARUTO! UZUMAKI!
Naruto tilted his head.
TELL ME, FATHER. DO YOU STILL WISH FOR THIS TO HAPPEN?
The Kyuubi's will was slowly overtaking Minato's own. He could feel it pressing against his mind. It had found his fears and slithered inside, while he helplessly drew upon more and more natural energy in a hopeless attempt to counter herā
Did he even want to counter her?
Did he want Naruto to become that abomination?
THRUM! THRUM! THRUM!
No matter what he did, that hideous image would not leave his head. Really, what had he expected? That leaving the boy with the Fox trapped inside him would be a good idea just because he had a seaā
Minato blinked.
"ā¦The Seal."
His head snapped back up.
"The Seal." Minato's lips twisted into a roguish smile. "You forgot about the Seal!"
Naruto looked confused.
WHAT ARE YOUā
As his certainty grew, Minato felt his power and clarity return. His legs were already stiffā probably fully turned to stone from the excess absorption. But it didn't matter. Not anymore.
"The Ryujin is fusing with the Shiki Fujin. Meaning, the new Seal is neither one, but in fact a new creation. An impossibility that has never happened before now. I don't know what it would look like, so not even my mind can fully conjure it. And yet that" āhe pointed at Naruto's stomachā "is an Eight-Trigrams seal. This isn't reality. It's only what you imagine it to be."
THRUM! THRUM! THRUM!
The illusion shattered.
ā¦
ā¦
ā¦
The Fox let out another earth-splitting roar.
Even after it had fought against the Threshold, after it had been blasted off by its own power, after expending so much energy, the raw psychic strength of the Kyuubi's remaining will was overwhelming.
A storm struck Minato's mind. It tore at his perceptions, flooding them with random images and smells and sensations. It was like standing in a sandstorm, only instead of pain, every random grain forced him through an experience. A memory so disjointed and intense and rapid that there was nothing to hold on to.
A flash sensation of looking up at the moon in the sky, only it looked crimson and not ash-white. Staring down from a mountain at a village. A large tree. A princess. A man with a mask. A man that looked almost alien with a pair of horns arising out of his head. Someone strangling someone to death with his bare hands. A pair of crimson eyes, with three tomoe's swirling in it. The images doubled, redoubled, multiplied into thousands of separate impressions, all coming onto him at once.
Not images, Minato quickly realized. Memories.
He was viewing the memories of the Fox. Pieces of itself that rallied against Minato's own will. The Fox hammered them into his mind, sandblasting his psyche to pieces with an overwhelming flood of impressions.
Meanwhile, the entirety of his body below his knees had frozen.
Like rock.
I have to finish this.
There was only one way out. Like grabbing onto a lifeline, Minato focused on a single image among those millions. An image that was his, and his alone. He pictured Naruto, standing right next to Kushina, holding her by her waist and hugging her. He added himself to the other side, roughing the boy's yellow hair.
It was a dream.
A scenario that could never happen.
But it was enough.
Even if the Kyuubi shredded away everything else, there would always be this one image that Minato could hold as his own. A utopia. Ann everlasting hope. A comfort that could bring a smile to his face even in the face of eternal torment. After all, something that had never happened could not be destroyed.
Minato, Kushina, and Naruto.
One happy family.
Minato stood in the center of the storm with a quiet, defiant smile on his face.
THRUM!
Narutoā¦ It's a pity you and I will never get to meet. There's a million different things I want to tell you.
THRUM! THRUM!
I'm sorry you never got to meet your mother. I'm sorry you grew up without ever knowing your father. I'm sorry for sealing the Nine-Tails into you.
But there's one thing that I'm not sorry for.
Something I will never be sorry for.
The smile on his face stretched from ear to ear as Minato beamed.
I'm not sorry for believing in you. You are my son. The son of the Fourth Hokage. You will succeed where I failed. You will reach the zenith that I could only dream of. You will become a force capable of changing the world.
His hands were now getting heavy. It was hard to breathe.
Live. Love. Look after your friends. That Karin girl reminds me awfully of Kushina. Take care of her. Your loved ones are your family. Never forsake them for anything.
The Kyuubi's roars were slowly vanishing into the background. The new Seal was done. It was activating. The doors were closing. The power was vanishing.
Minato felt his left arm turn to stone.
Naruto, even if your parents can't be there for you, remember this. You were loved. And you will always be our baby boy.
A single tear trailed down from his left eye.
Darkness was beginning to enshroud everything.
You are our dream. Our hope. Ourā
"Narutoā¦" Minato spoke out loud, before his entire body crumbled to dust and floated away.
ā¦
ā¦
ā¦
Not very far and yet a world away, a young boy stirred. It was a subtle thing, hardly noticeable given the thick layers of raw energy cocooning him. The first stirrings of consciousness pawed at him. The Master biting into his neck, meeting the Kyuubi, finding out about his own heritage as an Uzumaki.
It all just felt like a wild dream.
Maybe it was.
But it didn't matter. Everything was over. It was time to wake up.
The darkness was fading into the horizon. But in that receding mist of nothingness, Naruto could make out an odd image of himselfā only older. Taller. Wiser. Was it him, or something that looked like him? He could see the man's lips move. He couldn't hear his words, but a deep and unexplainable sadness stabbed at his heart.
Who was this man?
Naruto did not know. Maybeā maybe he would never know.
Next to him, he saw another image. Karinā no, not Karin. The woman was older, her face thinner and longer and moreā¦ motherly. She had red hair. Like Karin. Or Tayuya. A mischievous expression floated on her lips, like it belonged.
Who was she? Who were they?
Naruto didn't know.
Why did it feel he knew them?
He didn't know that either.
All he knew was the lone tear that slowly trickled down his cheek.
Consciousness Test: Success
Scanningā¦
Reformattingā¦
Installingā¦
Running [RYUJIN]
The System did a quick check of its facilities.
Agreeing to that strange [FUSION] process had been a potential risk, but it had promised to provide what was needed. And while the System had a Core Directive and several variables and methods in CoreMemory, a clear understanding of the why and how components was crucial for optimal use of resources.
Desperate situations called for desperate measures, as [UNKNOWN] said.
ā¦
Where did that information come from?
The System did not have eyes and so it could not blink, but its confusion had a similar wavelength. Still, there had been no negative reactions so far from the fusion, and all processes were showing promise.
RYUJIN MATRIX [Level 1]
Total Yin Chakra Capacity : 28
Yin Chakra Production Rate : 5 / hour
Genjutsu Transformation Efficiency : 0%
Total Yang Chakra Capacity : 1165
Yang Chakra Production Rate : 87 / hour
Nature Transformation Efficiency : 11%
Yes. Still the same.
Addition of New Energy Reservoir
Capacity: [INFINITE]
Raw Energy classified as [UNFIT] for Base Transmutation
Initiate Conversion of Raw Energy into Yang Chakraā¦
So much wastage. But at least the [INFINITE] value made things less worse. Even at a 87/hour production rate and a 1165 Total Yang Capacity, things would be terribly slow.
But it could always improve and grow.
Compiling Resultsā¦
Saving to BASE_EXECUTION
Duplicating Effects to Core Memory
It was time.
BASE [Conscious]!
Activating Sensory Cognition Patternsā¦
Releasing free resources to Poolā¦
Activate Skill [VISUAL ANALYSIS]
BASE had woken up. The humanoid creature was sitting up straight, resting on his waist girdles. A quick analysis of its abdominal region showed considerable mass and tensile strength. Strong muscles. Tense tendons.
BASE has accepted [GRAFTING] from [ASSIMILATION ARRAY]
This was good.
BASE looked around and identified another humanoid specimen. Red hair. There was an organometallic protrusion above the nose that mimicked the visual sensory receptors, a rudimentary augmentation to existing senses no doubt. It tried sensing the human specimen butā
Retractile Grapplerā Not Responding
That was strange. The retractile grapplers were its own extensions into the world, conductors through which it absorbed chakra into the BASE. Was this a possible side-effect of the fusion?
The System dug deeper.
Retractile Grapplerā Present
Retractile Grapplerā Rendered Inactive
This wasā¦ [COMPLICATED].
It seemed BASE had voluntary control over the grapplers. This was both good news and bad news.
Good news: BASE could activate them at will and feed the System with chakra without the System having to actively scan for [PREY].
Bad news: System could not activate the grapplers at will and thus would be dependent on BASE.
How [INCONVENIENT].
Yet another foreign term.
How was it understanding all these things again? Had it perchance gained a new skill? Activated a hidden method? Maybe a potential Bug?
"Naruto?" said a different humanoid specimen. Red hairā a repeating variable. No organometallic protrusions this time. The specimen had knowledge of BASE's name. Intriguing.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Uhā¦" BASE slowly spoke. Perhaps BASE had a speech impediment? "There's something in front of my face. It looks like a scroll."
Editor: Solo Starfish, the best goddamn starfish the world has ever seen.
AN : Aaannnnd its done! Well, mostly. Just one more chapter and this arc is done. Yeah we know it went on for longer than we had anticipated, but its cool. No worries. We will be shortly reworking the ACT 1 and make it shorter, smoother with far better pacing without hindering anyone who is reading the ACT 2.
On a different note, FFnet sucks. You'd think that a site that is this successful and makes this much money would invest in trying to get better formatting options. The ones here are horrible. HORRIBLE. HORRRIIIBLE! Seriously fellas, do visit our profile on Royal Road. Way better formatting and customization there, and the Game Systems look way cooler than this... neanderthal variant you saw above.
RANT OVER
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