.: This chapter is going a totally different direction from the content before. I was getting the impression that to write a good villain, you have to give them a good backstory. And I believe Akuma has a lot of potential to be liked. Whether you like him or not is up to you, but I think going deeper into his past will make this story even better. I tried to not make it cheesy ;) And Thomas, I think you'll be surprised by what Sai finds after reading the next few chapters about this backstory! :.
The Archangel of the Hidden Leaf
Chapter 22:
The Shinobi - Origins of Project Archangel, Part 1
Being on the coast was vastly different from being inland. There were not as many clouds in the sky, and the temperature was much warmer. The salty scent of the ocean filled their nostrils. Every once in a while, the putrid scent of chummy water and barnacle-ridden wood wafted over from the nearby marina.
It had been a long time since Sasuke was in the Land of Waves, but he remembered these smells vividly. Memories of Naruto scrunching his nose in disgust and Sakura calling him a baby flew through his head. Quickly, he pushed away from the fondness he felt for Team 7. Those bonds were broken and long gone. The knowledge that he could face them again in a few days, too, did not bother him much. They were not his concern.
Akuma sat with Kyojin and the Uchiha in a small establishment for a bite to eat. They had flown the entire time the moon was in the atmosphere and only touched the ground recently. Although he was satisfied with their progress, he had to admit that he was tired. It had been a while since he flew such a long distance without stopping, and they still had more distance to cover within the next few days. The least he could do was treat his comrades to a meal before they made their way to the Southern Hideout. Besides, the burn on his back was bothering him, too. He hoped Yume could help him treat it when they reached her.
Lost in thought, even when their food was delivered to their table, Akuma kept his gaze fixated on a sculpture that was placed in the center of the room. It was white in color and had disfigured features. Abstract was the word he would describe it as.
I want to see that kid again. Having him join us would make everything perfect, he thought. He picked up his chopsticks to begin eating, but reminiscing took over without permission.
"RUN!" someone shouted through the brush. Instinctively, Akuma tensed up as he laid on the dewy grass with fellow Hidden Stone shinobi. Their chins were mere centimeters away from touching the ground. Sweat droplets dripped from their skin riddled with stress as screeches erupted in echoes from the cave being investigated for an infestation. It appeared they were right.
"Stay down," Akuma instructed his team clad in red garments with brown flak jackets. They were all apprehensive, especially him. This was his first time leading the backup group on such a mission. Finding an infestation was like being sent to your death, and it was just getting worse with each passing year. Soon the screams of dying shinobi rang out louder as they approached the designated rendezvous, all of it bloodcurdling and traumatizing to the ears as they drowned out or suddenly cut off. Some of the shinobi behind him averted their eyes as they saw crimson liquid spray through the mess of trees from bodies running to escape from the flying creatures.
"Help me!"
"No! Please!"
"IT'S EATING ME!"
Akuma gritted his teeth as his comrades pleaded for mercy and a savior. He wanted to send his team into the fray to ward off those demons, but he felt frozen. Doing so would be nothing but a death wish. The Hidden Stone had already lost enough military force because of infestations over the years. Selfishly, he did not want to be another statistic. But it was clear that the set rendezvous was too far to reach. The members of his team began to look at him with ragged breaths. Would he do it? Signal them? They were the medical team that was meant to treat any wounds, but they were armed to fight as a backup as well. Akuma was best suited for the leadership position since he was talented in both skillsets. If anyone was ready to retaliate against these creatures, it was him.
But he refused to give the signal. His own breath was labored with petrification. He only heard the awful sounds like the ones he was hearing now. He had never seen one with his very own eyes! The few stories from survivors described them as faceless beings before transformation turned them into something hideous with eyes as black as the hell they spawned from and jagged teeth that could tear through any kind of material. The worst part about them was that they could fly with fleshy wings as a bat had. He tried to picture it in his head, but it was presented to him in person instead.
They were satisfied after their meal. The intruders were all eliminated. Any sense of danger was now gone. Dragging some of the dead bodies that were still warm, the creatures took to the sky as a curtain of bodies. Akuma looked up above the trees to see their daunting silhouettes against the blue sky. Human beings with large fleshy wings full of cartilage were flapping like birds up into the endless atmosphere. The mutilated bodies of his comrades they took with them dripped and poured blood over the small glade they were hunkered down in. Blood-rain splattered over them, darkening their garments into a darker pigment of red.
Mortified and furious, he shifted onto his hands and knees. Blood was on his hands this time. The Tsuchikage never should have given him such a responsibility. This was all his fault. "Dammit!" Akuma cursed, beating a fist into the ground. "Dammit! Dammit!"
Akuma stood in front of the Tsuchikage of the Hidden Stone to give him a report of the investigation. His skin was covered with the dried blood that had rained from the sky in the aftermath of the carnage. The dejected expression on his face was all Onoki needed to see to know that more of his shinobi were eliminated. He thought having Akuma in charge of the medic team would bring home some survivors for once, but he was mistaken.
"Tell me what happened," Onoki requested as he sat.
Akuma did not respond at first. He was prepared for this to be the end of his tenure. Without lifting his gaze, he began to speak. "When the investigation team decided to check out the crying in the cave, I brought my team away to set up a rendezvous point. The plan was to lure the archangels out and properly ambush them at the rendezvous when the others arrived…But they weren't fast enough." He balled his fists tightly as tears welled in his eyes. Guilt for not doing anything was eating him alive. When he choked back a sob, he threw his head up to show the streams pouring down his cheeks. "And I did nothing to help! I was nothing but a coward!"
Onoki watched his emotions get the best of him. This was not the first time a witness to an infestation investigation reacted to the gruesome bloodshed in this manner. It was much different from combat with opposing shinobi. Bodies were ripped apart limb by limb and shredded open to expose internal organs. It was difficult to get a hold of encounters because they hunted together as a single unit. And having dwindling numbers made everything harder each time they tried to drive them out of an area in the Land of Earth.
Akuma reached for his forehead to slip off the brown Hidden Stone headband he was wearing. "I am unworthy of this," he declared, throwing it at Onoki's feet.
The old man exhaled and looked down at the article that signified shinobi rank. "You're wrong," he replied, grabbing his wooden cane to stand up. "You're not the first to freeze upon first seeing them, and you won't be the last by any means."
"But they all died because I just watched!"
"Exactly. You watched the way they kill. Did you notice it was collective? They work together, not individually."
Akuma sniffed, trying to calm down. "What are you trying to say?"
"I'm trying to say that I need you. Too many people have backed out of this problem after one first-hand experience. I need you to be the one who will exterminate these vermin from the Land of Earth permanently. Please, do not back out now."
The man with chestnut brown hair stood in silence from shock. He was being asked to return to the site? "I-I'm just a medical shinobi, sir…"
"You are one of the most exceptional jonin in our village. Have more confidence in yourself, Akuma. Take a couple of days to gather yourself and come up with a battle plan. I want that cave cleared."
By the time the sun had set, Akuma had cleaned himself up. He left his home that he lived in alone to go visit the stone building he had grown up in. His mind was still foggy from all the events that happened during the day. Even though he had already planned to visit his sister when he returned, having a conversation with her was probably what was best at the moment. She was someone he could fall back on and help direct him to the right endgame.
Once he arrived, he pressed his knuckles to the door and knocked just loud enough to be heard from the inside. It flew open without hesitation, surprising him. The woman on the other side met his eye and her face immediately twisted with emotion. "Akuma," she addressed, throwing her arms around his neck.
"Hey, Hikari," he said, exhaling deeply and embracing his sibling close in return. The feeling of having his loved one back with him comforted him greatly and was already alleviating his stress.
"I was so worried that those monsters would get you," she shared as she pulled back to show off their matching blue eyes.
His hand brushed past her soft golden hair as he walked inside the abode. When their parents passed, she received ownership of the home and began making it her own. It was clear she did not live alone based on the furniture and other objects present, but her husband was nowhere to be seen. "They didn't, but it was still a disaster," he confessed as he slipped his sandals off and took a seat at the table.
Hikari went to brew a pot of tea for them both. "Were there any other survivors?"
"Outside of the backup team…no–" He brushed a hand down his face "–They didn't come for us since they finished off everyone else."
"Are you okay?"
"Well, yeah…"
She turned around and pressed an index finger to her temple. "Up here, I mean."
He looked away. "Lord Tsuchikage wants me to take a couple of days off and then go back."
"No…No, Akuma, you mustn't! Those archangels will definitely kill you if you go back!"
"I'm not going back without a plan. I just don't know where to start. You were always better than me at strategy."
"But this situation is grave, and many have tried to remove them from locations in the past but to no avail. I don't know if there's any strategy I can come up with that'll be any different from what was attempted before." She brought over two cups of tea and took a seat next to him, her gaze sullen as thought about any possibilities.
He placed a hand over hers. "I'll take the two days to think of a plan and then confide with you to get your advice. How does that sound?"
She picked up the cup to hold it to her lips with her other hand. "I'll do whatever it takes to keep you alive."
He laid in bed wide awake, his mind whirling. Come up with a good enough plan or die. Those were his options. It had not been a full twelve hours yet, but yet he could not get himself to rest. The idea that he was Lord Tsuchikage's man for the job terrified him. If he could not go through with a plan successfully, then the task would be passed on to another doomed individual.
It was a perpetual cycle he was now a part of. If it did not stop, then there was a chance that the Hidden Stone could be in danger of going extinct, and the Land of Earth being swallowed up by archangels completely. Akuma knew that was to never happen. Even after the Third Great Ninja War, when the Hidden Stone had lost much of its military force, Lord Tsuchikage was determined to recover numbers and have the village heal. These vermin were putting up a fight with such progress, though.
Akuma sighed and sat up in his bed to hang his legs over the edge. If he could not sleep, then he was not going to waste time. He put some decent clothes on and left his home to return to his office in the village's hospital. The outside was made up of stone like every other building, but the inside was renovated and clean with smooth walls and tiled floors. The lights that hung from the ceiling flickered above his head as he walked down a hallway. A woman's groan could be heard from a closed room as she strained to give birth with the help of trained professionals.
I have to make this world a better place for little children coming into it. There will be a day when archangels won't challenge our existence, he thought to himself.
When he stepped into his cold office, he slipped on the white coat to signify his position if he were to exit. The room was a little bit cluttered with papers strewn around the floor and desk. He was a busy man, so cleanliness in his personal space was not his top priority. Pushing aside everything that was in the way, he pulled out an unused patient file and opened it up. With a pencil, he scribbled "Archangels" on the tab and found a new sheet of paper that could be used for notes.
"They lure you in," he wrote down. "Then when you're too far in, they attack collectively as a single unit, overwhelming us with numbers and ferocity." He paused before continuing. "They prefer to reside in caves for shelter. Currently, more than ten are being occupied close to the border with the Land of Fire." He paused again.
There isn't enough information to go with. I can't possibly come up with a plan like this.
He put the pencil down, crossed his arms, and leaned back in the chair with an audible creak. The paper in front of him was only written on an eighth or less of what was available. The rest of the blank white mocked him for the half-hour he stared. It was so eerily quiet that he could hear ringing in his ears.
Akuma was a medical shinobi on the battlefield and a skilled doctor and surgeon within the village. He had seen plenty of bloodsheds before and helped save many lives. There were times when he felt that he was able to solve any problem that came his way, but this was something very foreign to him.
No, don't think like that. You can find a way. Just…start with the basics, Akuma. If a patient is showing symptoms of some kind of ailment, the first thing you do is an examination… examination.
He leaned forward into the new file he started. He had instinctively thought to make a patient file without a patient being present. Perhaps that was the first wrong thing. He hastily closed the file and stored it in a safe place so he could return to it soon.
"You want to capture an archangel?" Onoki repeated back to Akuma.
"Yes, sir."
The short old man exhaled through his mouth and pinched the bridge of his nose. When he told Akuma to come up with a plan, this was not what he meant at all. "Those vermin would never allow such a thing. You know that."
"I do, but that's why I want to lay traps. I also would like to study their behaviors in secret while we wait for one to take the bait. That's my plan so far."
"That isn't an adequate plan, Akuma. We need to exterminate them as soon as possible. The longer we wait, the closer they'll get to surrounding villages and put people's lives in danger."
"I understand your concerns, my Lord, but I'm afraid our options are limited. If we go after them again, we'll only have more casualties, and they'll still move closer to surrounding villages. I believe that if I can know more about them, I can find some kind of weakness to target when we do go after them again."
Onoki grunted and looked down at the floor to think. He trusted Akuma, but this was still risky. He did not want him to get himself killed while piddling around.
"Give me a few days and I'll bring you back a single specimen to dissect. I promise you I won't fail."
Waiting a moment longer to make a decision, he finally answered. "Very well. Do you need a team to help?"
"I would prefer to go alone. There would be less chance of the archangels being alerted if I'm the only one sneaking around. I'll study their behaviors from a distance and then set the trap when I find a pattern. I'll return to the village when I've successfully captured one – dead, of course."
Akuma did just as he told Onoki. When he was not helping patients in the hospital, he was building a contraption made of metal that would work as a trap for him to plant. After many tests in his home, he confirmed there were no malfunctions to be worried about. The following day, he would set out for a week-long trip full of silent observation and waiting around.
While he was packing his things, a knock came on the door. The time of day was very late, which confused him about who it was wanting to pay a visit. Akuma opened the wooden entrance to reveal Hikari on the other side. "What are you doing here?" he questioned his younger sister.
"I heard about your little expedition," she began, holding up an oversized pouch of goods, "so I made some extra scraps for you to take. I bet you would rather have this than food pills."
"Of course, I would," he admitted as he took the pouch from her offering hand. "But you didn't have to do that for me."
"Hey, this trip you're taking could save the Land of Earth entirely. The least I could do is cook you something."
He stepped aside and motioned for her to come inside. The first thing she saw was the metal trap in the middle of his floor. "What is that?" she asked, seeing its spiked teeth and pressure plate in the center.
"It's how I'm going to capture an archangel. Wanna see how it works?"
"Uh, sure."
He put the pouch on a table but grabbed a little sock of rocks and tossed it precisely on the pressure plate. Upon impact, the teeth gnashed together with enough force to cause the entire thing to jolt into the air slightly. "Pretty nifty, huh?"
Impressed, she nodded. "But will it be enough to bring one down?"
"It can't kill one by itself, no, but I think catching a hand or foot will be enough. I'll tie it to a tree so they can't fly away, and I'll make the finishing blow with my own hand. Then I'll wrap it up and head back to the village. Simple."
"What if–"
"It has a buddy with it? I'll take the opportunity to see what happens. Their intelligence is really unknown to us right now, but I'm sure I can learn about it some if a situation like that arises."
Hikari smirked. Perhaps he did not need to confide with her much before setting out. Her brother had always been smart, but this was a test that would prove just how smart he was. "What'll happen if this plan of yours doesn't work?"
"Then I guess I come back to the village and build a better trap. I won't let small mishaps get in the way of finally getting rid of these monsters. There will be a method by the end of all this."
"Do you promise?"
"Promise? Of course, I promise. Why are you making me promise?"
"Well…" She brushed some of her golden hair behind her ear as an elated smile crossed her face.
He relished in the beautiful smile his sister had before continuing. "Yes? What?"
She giggled. "I haven't gone to make sure yet, but I think I'm having a baby."
The face he gave her must have been a dumbfounded one, because she giggled harder. "What?! Really?" he exclaimed with joy.
"I just felt a little weird today. So…you better not die on your little trip if it is true."
"There's no way in hell I will," he vowed, wrapping his arms around her shoulders to hold her against him in an embrace. He felt her hand clasp her wrist to hold him tight. With his lips pressed into her soft golden fibers, he continued his vow.
I'll help make the world a better place by driving them out before your baby is born. I promise one thousand times over.
Before the break of dawn, Akuma set out for the infested cave that was last visited by Stone ninja. He brought a bag full of materials that would be suitable for an outdoor trip, but nothing to build a camp. Instead, he planned to suspend himself in trees during the night and anchor himself so he would not fall out when he slept. But he made sure to bring along the pouch of food Hikari brought him and the trap he built, along with a journal to write notes in and other important tools like syringes to extract blood.
Just as soon as the sun touched the edges of surrounding mountains, Akuma noticed the gaping mouth of the cave looming ahead, so he stopped his pursuit. The dark spots all over the rocky terrain confirmed to him that this was the place he was at two days ago.
He looked around at the ragged forest surrounding him, morning birdsong beginning to chirp periodically. The trees were not thickly gathered, so there was room to be spotted easily. With that being said, he waited for something to move. A squirrel, a mole, anything. But everything was still. He cocked an eyebrow. Where was the wildlife besides the vocal birds? Something was not sitting well with him.
Remembering that the archangels were part of the ecosystem here, he quickly spotted the thickest tree and focused his chakra into the soles of his feet to walk up the trunk. One thick branch faced the cave's mouth, he found, when he stood on it. It was wide enough to fully support his body. Taking his bag off his shoulders, he slipped off his headband and stuffed it inside so the sunlight would not reflect off the metal plate and alert the creatures of his intrusion on their territory. His fingers brushed the clamping trap he made, but he did not grip it to pull it out. The time was not right yet. Maybe tomorrow he would set it out.
Pinning his bag to the trunk securely, he sat down with legs dangling and waited for the archangels to appear. The sun's rays were still awakening from afar, cloaking the area he was in with shadow still. The entrance to the cave was like a black wall that had been put up as a barricade. He could not see a single thing as he peered inside. And considering he did not see any earlier, he thought they were either using the extreme darkness as a shield to sleep or they had abandoned the area completely when they flew off with their leftovers. After all, when they came to investigate, everyone could hear weeping. It was the one indication they had to know the archangels were around. Since he did not hear anything other than birds chirping, he wondered if they truly had left.
But that kind of behavior wouldn't corroborate with their regular patterns. All previous infestations were conclusive with their kind, so this shouldn't be any different. They must sleep during the night as we do. And if that's the case, I probably could set the trap up during the night and not be in danger – or at least, I hope to not be.
While he waited for the archangels to awaken, he took the time to look around at the ground. In addition to seeing no wildlife around, he also realized that he could not find any evidence that people had been slaughtered here recently. Aside from the blood that was left behind, there were no bodies, body parts, or even shreds of clothes lying around. Did they scrub the territory clean? If so, that would be a sign of intelligence.
Akuma pulled out the journal he brought and began to write about what he was noticing. The Hidden Stone had always viewed the archangels as apex predators. Judging from the absence of wildlife, he could even say that they were an invasive species. They had devoured basically everything this area's ecosystem had to offer. But maybe there was more to them he was currently unaware of. Was it possible that the archangels were…humans?
The more he wrote, the more sunlight beamed over his head. The cave's mouth never illuminated to show what exactly was inside, but it was enough to rouse what was on the other side of the curtain of black. Akuma froze when a body emerged and stood just past the shadowy border.
An archangel!
It was male. Akuma could tell by the weight distribution in its upper body. And, well, there the fact it wore absolutely no clothes, so anatomy was in full view. But Akuma was more focused on the pure white skin complexion the archangel had. It lacked in pigment so much so that it could have walked right off a snow-capped mountain top. Then there were the massive white wings of flesh it had folded up against its back. He could not wait until it expanded them. Regarding other animals, Akuma wondered if their size asserted dominance.
The archangel stood still as it scanned the area with its bulging black eyes. The birds chirped louder with the increasing amount of sunlight hitting the trees. Akuma prayed the foliage around him was keeping him secret adequately in case the creature decided to look up, but it did not seem interested. The medical shinobi thought that was strange, though. Since archangels had wings, would that not mean they hunted from the sky like an eagle?
There was nothing to lock on to hunt. Akuma heard a hiss seep out from its jumble of jagged teeth sprouting from its lips. Then it unfolded its wings, shaking out any rigidity, and beat them down toward the ground with incredible strength. The amount of force and air it gathered was enough to lift it off the ground a little bit, but it had to repeat the movement to go even higher without sinking back down. Akuma watched as it lifted into the sky and began to fly away to a different area to look for food. Its stature turned horizontal, and the speed increased immensely until it was nearly out of sight.
Akuma tucked away his journal and leaped to the next tree, and then the next. He wanted to see what the archangel was going to do. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.