Madara struggled, but it was no use. As much as the thought traveled to his brain and filtered into his nerves-those nerves didn't fire. Tendons and ligaments didn't wiggle free, joints didn't crack as they came out of their dormant slumber, nor was he able to even crane his head a centimeter in either direction. It was paralysis, but not quite.
"Wh...What?" Madara muttered, shocked.
He felt hot, more than he had been before.
Like he was being cooked from the inside out.
There was an overwhelming pressure bearing down on him as well, like the gravity had been intensified by a million. The air was electric and strumming with chakra, it pulsed and rippled, like a heartbeat.
Is this feeling coming from Mikito?
Is she causing this?
Impossible, at this rate, she'll...
Mikito's aura which glowed blue and green, suddenly surged fire red and orange. It burned yellow and gold. Then, it just flashed into pure light. It grew brighter, battling with the blue and green, with the red, the orange, the yellow, the gold, and the landscape, until a twisted maelstrom of energy erupted from her center in columns. Her aura surged, expanding in size by three times. It began to coil around and around, until it picked up enough force, and began to spin, cutting apart the landscape around her.
I will not...
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Her aura waved violently for several miles, cutting into the ground like lightning axles. At this point she was completely consumed by it. Her body wasn't visible. Only a shining silhouette of what could possibly be a body was in the center of the turbulent aura.
The ground yielded under the ferocity of the aura. Lightning erupted radically above, reacting to Mikito's shrieking scream that threatened to pierce a hole through the very heavens themselves. It reacted to her aura that dared to ascend beyond the heavens and into space.
Mikito's scream turned into a pained howl. It wasn't of physical pain. It was of emotional pain. Every act of cruelty. Every death. Every innocence killed. Every genocide. Every massacre.
They were like cement blocks tied to her ankles.
That is why the Domou are misanthropes.
In these walls and behind them, there is harmony.
But, outside of these walls is war.
Genocide and other atrocities are committed.
Like the saying.
Hell on earth.
We slay evil.
Those who perpetuate these deeds are evil.
"Stop! Before you die!" Madara hissed, coughing violently. "Your chakra...! Mikito! Stop!"
She had been saved from genocide, as a child.
She had the vague memory.
Very vague.
Something, that, somehow dredged up while she was in here.
A woman standing above her with her arms out, a man was beside her. There were dogs beside them. Cats. Cows. Other animals. People. And kids. There had been blood. And screams. And cries. People fell face first and back first. There were holes in their throats. Blood gushed from the holes like water rushing down a ravine.
The crazed laugh of adults...
Of adult men...
Of adult Shinobi.
"STOOOPPP!"
I was powerless...
I was weak...
Those people...
Those animals...
Those children...
They died because of me...
Protecting me...
The Shinobi...Those clans...That clan...
That man...
Killed them all...
Mikito clenched her teeth letting out a scream. Whatever remained of her popped and shattered-she could feel it like a glass window breaking. There was nothing left of her-nothing but her personality, who she was. No ego. No pride. Only her personality. Bright red and orange power flickered wildly, growing more and more terrible with each passing second. Her mouth gaped open, jaws about to dislocate as her face tore.
The brightness grew to unbearable heights as did her scream. She was powerless at this point and couldn't even resist-no matter how hard she tried. She fought and fought, but the creeping knowing sensation...That this was it...
I looked to the sky and wailed.
I fell to my knees.
I would bite my lips until they bled.
I would pull my hair out.
I...
Would...
Cry.
Crying at my own weakness.
Because I was weak...
Because others died for me...
Because others died.
Men.
Women.
Animals.
Children.
Infants.
Plants.
Nature.
I wept over death.
The agony of sacrifice.
The agony of being...
Weak...
The agony...
Of...
Being human...
I will never...
Ever...
Experience that again, I will not...
I will not...
I will not allow others to die for me...
To protect me...
To sacrifice themselves for my sake...
I will not...
I...
Mikito's eyes trembled as they narrowed.
Her unstable rage and fury began to gleam through them. She was barely hanging on. Reliving past horrors. Events and scenarios she hadn't been able to overcome and could never suppress. They flashed before her eyes. The blood. The screams. The bodies. It all taunted her. Haunting her.
Even to this day, in the dark, in the light...
Those flashes were still there.
That feeling of being powerless...
Of being weak...
Of being...
Disgusting.
It never went away.
To be weak, was disgusting.
It was infuriating.
To be weak was to lose everything.
To be trampled.
To be weak makes others sacrifice themselves to save you.
It makes others protect you..
Blood is still on my hands.
The blood of innocence.
Power is the only absolute.
What lies beyond power is the only certainty.
Power...
Without power...
One is nothing...
She made a fist-going through the motion to make a fist.
She had always struggled to let it all go. She clung onto it all as tightly as she could. The death of Gentatsu just made everything worse. The death of her brother and sister made it worse. She had never forgiven nor forgot. She had never recovered or healed. She never would, but that's because she refused to let it go.
But, was there harm in letting it all go at this point? Her siblings and Gentatsu were all at home now. They were free from this sham of a reality that she was forced to endure still. But, could she let it go? Even knowing it was the right thing to do? Was a world free of shinobi and warriors so bad? A world where no one knew of war or conflict, or classes and division.
They could be like children under the blue sky until they passed away.
Mikito wept.
She knew that was impossible, and that is what broke her heart.
Even if they could retain that innocence, in some way, shape, or form-they would still suffer. That innocence would be used against them. The reality of the world was something that couldn't be broken or changed. Not in the long run. The Elemental Nations, the villages, the landmasses, even their coalition, was nothing compared to that. They were all a part of it.
There was no escape.
Innocence would be lost and innocence would die.
Greed, war, slavery, hubris, conflict, enmity, hatred, strife, cruelty, avarice, lust, debauchery, and worse will always be present.
Why...
Why does it have to be this way...
Why...
Why was I born...
Why were we born...
Thrown into this world.
Fragile and blind.
Naked and afraid.
Thrown onto battle zones.
naked and afraid...
We never had a chance.
We were all born without a chance of redemption.
Born into war.
Born for a life of blood letting.
We know nothing else.
I hate cruelty, with a passion.
I hate slavery.
I hate avarice.
This dark era, is so cruel and ruthless.
All of these things exist and happen...
Was in not irony to be born into this mess?
A cruel joke.
Filled with mocking laughter.
Power...Is the only means...The only way...To stop strife and cruelty. To accomplish anything, any goal, any thought. I will become so powerful that I will surpass Rikudo. I will surpass Kaguya. I'lll...I'll...I'll be so powerful nobody will ever think of challenging me! I'll end all cruelty and purge those who perpetuate it. I'll end everything so no one will ever think of doing anything nefarious, cruel, or...
I will purge them.
I will purge those who perpetuate cruelty in all manner.
I will purge those who enslave others.
I will purge those who are hubris.
They will fear me.
The shinobi will fear me.
Nefarious men and women will fear me.
The nobles will fear me.
They will fear my very name.
My chakra.
I will strike terror in their hearts!
The shinobi villages will tremble before me.
The Elemental Nations.
The world.
I will erase Ashura's inheritance!
I will lay waste to everything.
My brother...
My sister...
My comrades...
They all died.
They will never come back.
They are gone.
I will...
I...
One final scream escaped her lips as she was blown apart from the inside out, chakra exploding from her like a geyser. It ripped the ground, shredded the debris around them, and it ruptured the landscape as it erupted in spherical domes, covering miles and miles around them. They carved wide gashes across the landscape, moving sporadically.
I will...
Become a monster...
I am a monster...
I will be a monster...
They will...
Call me...
Monster!
Power is the only absolute.
To be weak is to lose everything.
Everything is meaningless without power.
To be weak is to be meaningless.
Just like back then...
I will never...
Go through that again!
Humans...
I...
Hate...
Humans...
There are too...
Many...
Bad ones...
No matter what system is established and changed a million times...
Humans...
Shinobi...
Will always bring discord...
My war...
Is...
With...
Humanity...
Shinobi...
All of them!
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Mikito felt her control slipping away. Her restraint shredding. Her conscious waning, everything was getting darker. Darker. Her conscience sizzled.
"Raaaaggghhhhhh!"
Her head shot up towards the sky.
A loud scream tore away from her throat, her eyes flickered for a moment.
"What the hell? Madara roared as he stopped himself from his wild tumble, glaring at the sphere of power and heat meters ahead of him. "Where did she get all of this energy?!"
Madara held a look of disbelief and horror. He wasn't expecting Mikito to suddenly get this powerful! It had never even crossed his mind. He gritted his teeth, it was faint-hidden inside of the overbearing golden energy but he could see it. Wild hair that was constantly swept off to the side, burning away and turning brighter, as if it were coalescing into chakra, or some other energy source.
"RAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Mikito screamed as the aura grew more intense, the ground shaking and tearing, lightning raged through the sky, and Celera's scream only grew louder and more fierce. It rang with sorrow and fury.
"RAAAGGHHHH-AAAHHHHHH!"
Madara gasped, hastily throwing up what guard he could as he was nearly blown away by another gargantuan eruption of chakra. It split into the landscape, punched through debris, and lanced all the way into the ocean in the far distance. The after effects were typical of such an attack. Water gushed, and from his vantage point, Madara could see the faint trace of a mushroom cloud, or something damn close to one, of pure water.
"What did she just do? Did she just kill herself? And, that eruption of chakra just now..."
Madara frowned, struggling to see, struggling to sense.
I don't think so...
Madara looked into the overbearing light, grimacing as it grew more intense. Sparks and crackles of pure energy ridged around it. The radiation of the chakra was so great that sparks of lightning began to strike the mass, forming inside, and around it. He could only liken this to a natural disaster. Mikito had literally, for all intents and purposes, became a natural disaster.
She's still in there...
This appeared to be some sort of transformation, maybe?
It wasn't far fetched to think that Senjutsu could cause such a thing.
It was known to, in a more negative way.
An explosion of chakra, maybe?
He had definitely seen, heard, and felt that eruption before.
The Seven Gates being open must have had something to do with it, correct?
Madara wasn't sure, he didn't know...
They had done something extremely reckless, and well...
There would be consequences.
Neither of them had the medical expertise to even begin to break down what happened to them.
Regardless of what it was. Whatever happened just now, and was happening, he couldn't guess what it could possibly be. Many strange things had happened in the Elemental Nations and not all of them were believable by conventional thought processes and belief, at least. But, he knew this was something he had never seen before.
Something that never happened.
But, looking into Mikito's aura was like looking at the sun.
There were rays and flares. He could see them. They made him squint. An overwhelming warmth that kissed everything. An overbearing heat that sweltered and penetrated. There was a heat radiating off of her entire being that was soaking him, threatening to consume him whole and leave him a charred husk of a corpse. He had never seen something so magnificent, nor frightening in his entire life.
Mikito appeared to be on fire, but shining at the same time, in the center of a flaming mass that was as ferocious as it was bright. It wasn't a chakra cloak. It was far from that. A cloak would cover and enshroud her. That wasn't what was happening.
He strained, struggling to see better.
Something looked different about Mikito, more than her aura.
More than the heat surging off of her.
Is that-
Certainly, it was Mikito, but...
The amazing sight of her dark skin, now completely gold-yellow, shook him to his core. Never before had he ever seen such a sight. He never had the opportunity to behold something so unique, so strange, so awe inspiring, and yet, so terrifying. Her eyes were set and focused. Her pupils and irises were both not visible. Rays of chakra beamed out from her sockets, as if her body were a conduit. It looked as if chakra were burning through her pores, flaking off her very flesh. It was a surreal sight.
It was almost like she was...
Chakra...
A sun, or sorts.
A star...
A mini supernova, of sorts...
A sun for all intents and purposes-there were even rays of chakra shining off of her.
Flares of chakra lashing out like powerful solar flares.
Bright.
Her hair almost straightened and had the same glow, spreading out as tangible rays of light. Even her follicles were glowing with chakra. Her skin color, or body, more likely her body, also appeared to have a yellow, gold glow to it. Rays and flares erupted from her mass, like he had observed before...
He wasn't imagining that, it seemed.
Chakra was really shining out of her. Chakra was gushing out of her so immensely, it changed the tone of her skin. Maybe she didn't even have skin at this point, which would make more sense. There was no considerable change in her features other than that.
It wasn't a cloak or coat of chakra. It wasn't even an aura, though she seemed to have that, too.
It was so much more than that.
It was almost like her body was shifting between solid mass and chakra. Like chakra was trying to consume her physical mass, and animate her through sheer force of power. Or, perhaps, she was long past disintegrated at this point, and the body he was seeing, was actually pure chakra, maintained and kept together through her willpower.
Pure energy.
Mikito was pure energy.
It made sense...
Somewhat.
In any case, he was having a hard time seeing and getting a read on her, which was strange. His sensory perception had always been acute and his vision had always been sharp, even before he activated the Sharingan. The fact he couldn't do either of those things right now meant he was about to die, possibly, or the fact Mikito tapped into something new.
Dived into an ocean of power, and before she had totally drowned in that power-she emerged from that vast ocean.
Now, she was that ocean of power.
Or...
Perhaps...
She had drowned in that power...
And, was still drowning.
Madara blinked hard, keeping his vision focused.
What-?
What had happened?
What happened to Mikito?
And, then-Madara felt Mikito's chakra. It stabbed into him, drenched his skin, and filled his pores. Almost as if he were in the middle of a beach and the sun's rays were beaming on his skin full force. It sweltered. It vibrated. He struggled to search into its depths and was consumed by the same oppressive heat he had felt before-on the surface, though.
He hadn't used his perception of chakra nor his ability to sense it, when he had first observed Mikito. While second nature, he was in no condition to even perform those simple feats. It was with great effort he performed these simple feats.
The sheer ferocity of her chakra-how dense it was, the sheer gravity and heat of it.
Its texture.
Madara knew that it could have incinerated anything or anyone else. Even Hashirama would have been effected by this. He would have suffered a wound. The only reason he wasn't scorched to black was because, perhaps, on a subconscious level, Mikito was keeping herself from harming him. But, this only applied to him.
It wouldn't apply to Hashirama, who, would be shocked to the core. Fear ridden and shaking to his knees. He would likely retreat and the assess the situation. But, truthfully, what was there to assess? Mikito had...Done something, that he wasn't sure had ever been done before. He was the first one to see it, and at the back of his mind, though he didn't focus on it, he wondered if this was how Mikito would always look.
Something about her chakra changed, the very chakra system, and now...Her body underwent a transformation, of sorts, or something, and that was to house whatever went on with her chakra. The body changing in order to house chakra. In order to sustain and maintain it. Is this what she had been talking about before...Or had it been something different?
He grimaced, almost closing his eyes completely. The radical sparks surging around Mikito were too much, and almost like she were swallowed by an ocean, the power and light around her, consumed her body. The beaming rays were almost too much to bear. He had to brace. A blast of pure destructive force shook the landscape, threatening to send him flying off like a rag doll. Mikito's arm was fully extended, fire, power, destruction, and force eclipsed everything-shining brighter than the sun, for a second.
The gorog roared in fury, deftly holding the attack at bay. Its arms shook under the tremendous strain, fingers clutching at the unbearable heat that was about to consume it. With effort, it launched the attack away-making sure to focus on the fact, that when it hit the desert, everything flew into the sky.
The very earth itself had been ripped apart.
Madara screamed.
He had seen many things, but he had never seen a landscape being ripped apart by the chunk.
With a start, he seethed, struggling to come to grips with what he was seeing. Struggling to get his chakra under control. To keep it from lashing out. He tried to embrace the pain, but now he was at his limit. He was spent. He couldn't tolerate it anymore. He barely had the energy to scream, let alone struggle against all of the pain that was striking his body.
He cursed.
The blinding light speared upward, rocketing towards the giant mass. Everything swelled with color. He had to squint in order to even open his eyes, and even that was a tall task. There was little he could do to brace against the shockwaves pounding the landscape. It thudded into his chest. It shook his ribs. It dug deep into his marrow, pulsing relentlessly.
Vaguely, he could hear screaming. Over the wind. Over the shockwaves. Over the crackle of thunder and lightning. It shook him to his core and made him jolt. The scream was enough to make him claw at the ground with what fingers could still move. It was a scream of madness. Of destruction. It didn't stop, there was no end in sight.
He realized it was Mikito.
Every scream rocked the landscape, sending it into a heap of ruin. Every shockwaves and every flare of power grew in power and clarity. The surges of molten chakra gushing across the ground became more and more ferocious. They swiped outwards in long waves, like lashing whips, striking out against the landscape and trying to lash out at the sky itself.
It looked as if they were all alive, but Madara wasn't so clueless or inexperienced to think those flares of chakra were alive. To some extent, they were, because they were chakra. However, they weren't sentient. Their movements were guided by sheer power and ferocity. Not even Mikito seemed to be capable of controlling them, and how could she?
She had been swallowed whole by the ferocious storm. The sheer force of her exertion forced the surge around her to charge upward, turning into a spreading cloud. Madara knew there was no way he could get her out of that mass. The only person who could do that, now, was Mikito herself. Madara liked to think that she'd be able to overcome it, but the constantly raging and changing landscape said otherwise. The flares and storms of chakra and power that skewered the landscape showed otherwise.
Just like you...
To stand back and watch others.
Die for you.
Suffer for you.
Weak...
Madara wasn't sure where the thought came from, but it provoked him.
It provoked so many different emotions and feelings inside of him, and none of them were good. They were all bad. Negative. Anger and hatred. Angst and sorrow. He tried to push the thought aside, but it remained. It didn't budge. It taunted him. Taunted him with death. The death of his foes. Of his brothers. Of his cousins. Of family. Of strangers.
Of innocence.
The taunt worked, and Madara found himself snarling. He seethed. He gritted his teeth and fueled the overwhelming rage and fury inside of him. He couldn't help it. Every single battle and death, death caused by his hand, or another, all assaulted him at once. He felt the pain of each death, like a stroke of a sword, like a stab of a kunai, the burning of fire.
Sit there with no resolve or determination while others die around you.
Like you have choice in the matter!
This is how you've always been!
That's why your brother died that day!
That's why your comrades died.
That's why those children of that village which had nothing to do with that battle...
That's why they all died.
THEY DIED BECAUSE OF YOU!
Because YOU'RE WEAK!
Pathetic!
PITIFUL!
No!
He was powerless.
He was powerless to stop children from dying. He was powerless to stop woman from dying. He was powerless to stop anyone from dying. He couldn't prevent everything. The animals and nature, and all of the innocence, that had to suffer. He wasn't all powerful. The faces of his dead brothers reared in his mind as haunting flashes from a distant time, their laughs, faces, expressions, and everything that they desired...
It seemed so far away.
Like it wasn't around.
Gone like they were.
For all of his prowess, what did it ever amount to? For all of his strength, what did that ever amount to? No matter how strong he grew, he was suffering from the broken system like they all were. For all of his power and strength, he was bound to a broken system. So fractured and an in shambles that if one were to take a deep breath and exhale, that broken system would crumble.
He couldn't...
Stop...
People from dying...
What were you going to do?
Talk about pouring drinks and sitting around the campfire?
About showing each other guts.
We hate each other.
Shinobi pursue strife.
Humans pursue strife.
You never know...
What that person is thinking in their heart...
Humans have killed each other.
Long before Hagoromo.
Long before Kaguya.
Clans have killed each other for the longest time.
It has nothing to do with missions and jobs.
It is in the nature of shinobi.
Strength is what wins disputes.
Not words.
Through war, the strongest are determined, the strongest win.
Power is what makes peace.
Uchiha and Senju will always be oil and water.
We don't mix.
Senju fear our power.
They will always try to oppress us.
He seethed silently, frustrated at his inability to move. Angered at the thoughts swarming through his mind. He had the foolish of notion of peace in his mind, always, at the very back of it. That is why he met Hashirama. That is why Hashirama was the only one he could speak to about his foolish dream. But, it was this same dream that cost his brothers' their lives.
That cost everyone their lives.
Power makes peace, but the dispute of power brings war.
Only the strong survive.
That is the only peace.
Strength.
If he hadn't been concerned about his foolish dream, and just killed.
If he just turned off everything inside and became a killing machine, like his father wanted...
But, he couldn't do that. Not by a long shot. He had goals he wanted to complete. More importantly, he didn't want to throw away that part of his humanity. If he just cut himself off, from every emotion, and everyone, and everything...That was too terrifying to even ponder. But, if he had done that, it's possible, that, maybe, just maybe his brothers..
If power makes peace, then what makes war?
Cooperation?
Discord?
They would still be...
It's not your fault, big brother.
But, I was right there.
Izuna's tears shook Madara.
So was I...I'm sorry, big brother.
If I were stronger, like you, like Jin...
I could have saved our comrades and those innocent people in the village.
It's not your fault, little brother. You're only six, you and I can't fight in an adult's war.
It's not our place.
We shouldn't have to.
But, if we don't fight, we'll all die, big brother.
Genocide is the only way the adults know.
That whole village was wiped out...
For no reason.
I know.
Can we change it?
Big brother?
So that our cousins and brothers don't have to die?
So people like those inside that village, that got destroyed...
So things like that never happen...
Madara bit back a sob before he wept.
Izuna had given up on that...
He finally broke, screaming in fury and anguish. He had clung to that dream with every shred of strength he had. More than once, he had come so very close to throwing it away. Tossing it aside with so much vigor and fury he'd never consider the idea again. But, he didn't do that. Instead...He had been naive and idealistic, and he held to that dream.
He met Hashirama and shared that dream.
Hashirama, had a similar dream.
But...
Power doesn't make peace...
Nor does cooperation make peace.
Peace is impossible.
True peace is impossible.
The Uchiha...
The Senju...
The Shinobi...
All founded on lies.
Lies and bloodshed.
Madara wasn't sure what was happening. He was shaking. He was trembling. He was screaming. He was roaring. The pain was too much. It broke him. The anger and despair. The rage and fury. The hopelessness. It all started consuming him, pulsing, burning, manifesting overhead as storm clouds and bolts of lightning. Chunks of debris broke free from the ground floating around him...
And he felt something new.
It was unlike anything he ever experienced before. It was an unbearable heat, screaming to be let out, the roars echoing through his mind. The cries screaming through his heart. The agonizing molten fury that ripped at his chest, clawing through his rib cage, and ripping at his heart. He was well beyond words by now, one thought raced through his mind.
It was one thought, the same thought. The same thought that had always been there, since the beginning. One he knew. One he was familiar with. But, age, and war, and strife, and angst sucked him dry.
He grabbed a firm hold of his growing awareness. The heat surged into his body, rocking his shoulders and throwing his head up, and this time a flash of chakra ran through his hair, pulsing through his body.
The gorog swept its hand across its side, in that moment it felt a sliver of something...It wasn't doubt or fear, but it was still something that kept it rooted into place, wary. Madara shook, screaming at the top of his lungs, enveloped and consumed by his own chakra. It burned deep inside of him, spreading to his pores, fuming from his pores, and gushing across the landscape like steam.
"Rrrrrgggggghhh..."
It was growing...
The heat burning his veins and coursing like lava.
The pain that was wracking him.
Was genocide the only way?
Why were we born...
What can we do...
Was a world free of shinobi...
And warriors...
and the idea of conflict...
Better?
A world of no strife.
Of no conflict.
My whole early life...
I stood behind others...
Behind my father...
Behind my cousins...
Behind my siblings.
I was afraid...
Cracks rippled through the ground starting from Madara's body. Any nearby sand was scorched, turned to glass by the super heated charge of his chakra before it even had the chance to wither away.
I was weak...
Pitiful...
It's disgusting!
To be weak is disgusting.
It is putrid.
That is why I hate when people stand behind me.
It is why I hate weakness and the idea of weak.
Larger rocks dislodged themselves and began to float in the air around him, rising around his fiery visage. They shattered overhead from the shock waves radiating from his body and fell to the ground as ash.
"Rggggghhhhhh...hggggghh..."
Madara's aura which glowed blue and green, suddenly deep purple and indigo. It grew brighter, battling with the blue and green until a spiraling columns of energy erupted from his center. His aura surged like jagged spikes, expanding in size by five times.
"Ngghhh...Rgghhhhh!"
I ran away into the woods to cry.
I looked to the sky and sobbed.
To cry at my own inability.
At my own weakness.
To cry over my comrades lost...
My enemies lost...
My family...
My friends...
The rain would always swelter.
But, when my tears had reprieve...
The sun would break through those clouds...
I would still cry.
Day in and night out.
I would sob.
His chakra erupted, forming a stormy aura, billowing out around him, spearing into the ground like tentacles. At this point he was completely consumed by it. His body wasn't visible. Only a shining silhouette of what could possibly be a body was in the center of the turbulent aura of chakra and energy mass. Finally, the ground yielded under the ferocity of the aura.
Even if we establish a village system...
Nothing will change.
War will always be around, like cancer.
Like sickness.
So long as shinobi...
As long as humans exist...
So will war.
It is something that cannot be avoided.
To avoid it, to think it could be stopped-it was ignorance.
But, a world free of strife was a fool's dream.
Humans would always pursue strife and conflict. Shinobi would always pursue strife. It is how they made their living. It was in their nature. Even if it was a small group. That chaos would descend, and it would rot out the entire population, like it had many times. Like it was right now. People didn't reach the age of twenty five because violence was so rampant.
There is no sense to this...
Any of it...
None of it.
The Elemental Nations had always been home to Shinobi. It was their birthplace. It was home of Kaguya long before. It was the home of Hagoromo and Hamura. It was the place where Ninshu and Ninjutsu were invented. To erase the shinobi, was inevitably, impossible. So long as the Elemental Nations remained, so would the shinobi, and so would the broken system Hagoromo established.
Destroy or preserve.
Destroy.
Preserve.
There was another flash and Madara struggled to lift his head, glaring at the gorog, who remained frozen, watching. Lightning crackled and thunder roared through the sky as Madara's body began to go into fits of violent jerking from the building tension and pain. The scene was playing over in his mind engraved. All of them, just dead. So simple. Without a question.
Children.
Men.
Women.
Infants.
Animals.
Plants.
Lives taken.
Life taken.
If it wasn't his fault, who's fault was it?
Someone had to be blamed, right?
Someone had to be made to take account for it.
That was the right thing to do.
Someone had to account for it all.
I just wanted to live in peace under the shade of the tress with my brothers and cousins...My friends...Why did...I...Why did we...Why did we have to be put on war zones at such tender ages!? Why were we forced to fight in a war started by the adults!?
I wouldn't have minded just skipping stones with Hashirama and sparring and having those contests...
But...
Uchiha and Senju...
Even more so...
Shinobi...
And...
Me...
We can't, not anymore...
We were just naïve children, back then.
Why did we have to fight...
Why...
Why couldn't we be friends and remain in ignorance?
Overbearing light exploded from within. Deep purple and indigo. It started out from Madara's very center. It spread like lucid fire through his veins. It lathered his tendons and ligaments, incinerating them. It spread to his chest, burning through his lungs and sternum. From there it seeped into his neck, engorging it, forcing the same overbearing light burning inside of him to shoot out of his mouth.
Why were we born?
Why were we born into such a bloody and dark time?
Why...
It is like we were doomed from the very start.
No redemption.
No saving.
Destined for a life of blood letting.
A life of death.
We were thrown into this world without a care.
Naked and afraid as infants.
Crying as we came out from the womb.
Naked and afraid as children on war zones.
Crying as we cut down many and watch many more die.
This is all we've ever had.
All we've ever known.
It is all we've been given.
War...
Hatred...
He couldn't even scream or choke. The light speared out of his nose, cracking his face. It surged through his skull, burning through the back of his eyes. It engorged his optic nerve. It flooded into his retinal blood vessels. It spread into his optic disc. It smothered his fovea, macula, and retina. It enveloped his choroid, ciliary body, and sclera.
Kaguya...
Hagoromo...
Hamura...
Indra...
Ashura...
They are responsible for all of this.
The state that the Elemental Nations and the world at large is in.
Kaguya with her thirst for unlimited power.
Hagoromo with Ninshu and his fragile ideology.
Indra with Ninjutsu.
Ashura with his inheritance from Hagoromo...
Power.
Love.
Only they can take account for this, but they are long dead.
Have been long dead.
They can't take account for it.
They are to blame, and should be punished, but...
But...
It's...Not...Right...
They left the world in shambles, and to this day, to the day I was born...
It is still in shambles...
It continued its surge. It boiled madly. It pulsed into his suspensory ligament of lens. It drowned his anterior chamber, posterior chamber, uvea, cornea, pupil, and lens. The light focused, circulating like a network of veins. Madara had enough semblance left to fear an overwhelming pressure press down on him as vitreous humor and hyaloid canal burned like they had been touched with a blade spread across molten lava.
This world...
This world of shinobi...
This reality...
I will destroy it all, in that case.
That inheritance.
I will destroy all of it!
I will erase the mistake!
I'll destroy all of it!
All of it!
Whatever remained of him popped and shattered-he could feel it. Just like a scroll was ripped to pieces. There was nothing left of him-nothing but his personality, who he was. No ego. No pride. Only his personality. Bright violet and indigo light flickered wildly, growing more and more terrible with each passing second. It lashed out as wild as Madara lashed out in combat, spearing across the landscape and erupting in ling rifts.
The shinobi must be destroyed.
The Elemental Nations.
The broken system.
It all must go.
It must by destroyed.
No question.
It is evil.
It has nurtured and created evil.
Shinobi. Samurai. Nobles. Villages. Countries. Continents.
Regardless, people will never see the bigger picture.
They will protect only what they see or what is of value to them.
They will sacrifice what they see as valuable to them.
People.
Friends.
Companions.
Hashirama only focused on the Fire country, that is proof...
That is proof, that no matter what...
Things will never change...
The cycle is doomed to repeat...
Konoha protects its best interests...
Kumo protects its best interests.
Others suffer.
Three more major villages form.
Smaller villages form.
Smaller villages are trampled upon by the power of five major villages.
They only care about their own interests, not maintaining the peace...
That we would have fought so hard to...
His mouth gaped open, jaws about to dislocate as his eyes widened to their limit. Once they reached that limit, they began to peel back in both directions. Madara's scream lasted all but a few seconds. This scream was different. It was filled with anguish and hatred. Remorse and sorrow. Anger and rage.
Evil must be slain swiftly.
Immediately.
Death to the shinobi.
Death to the shinobi creed.
Death to the failed world of Hagoromo.
Death to the failed world of Indra and Ashura.
Death to the inheritance.
All of it must be wiped out without a trace of anything left behind...
If I have to become a monster, then so be it.
I will gladly become a monster.
I will be a monster.
I will be a monster and strike absolute terror in the hearts of all!
Of everyone!
I will be a monster.
I am a monster!
The Senju are Ashura's descendants...
They are Hagoromo's legacy.
They were the chosen ones.
Perhaps a world free of strife was impossible, but a world free from genocide...Free from slavery...And other atrocities, was possible...
Maybe...
Even now...
It was, but...
In order for that to be...
Shinobi had to cease existing.
Indra..
The Uchiha...
Hagoromo feared that power...
The power of the Sharingan...
The preternatural growth.
In the end...
Indra...
The Uchiha...
They were the bane of Hagoromo...
He let that fear consume him...
It made him wary...
It made him...
Bias...
Perhaps, even back then...
When we shared our dreams...
Maybe they are not the same...
Or we have a different means of going about to make them into a reality...
Like you have, Hashirama.
No matter-we are on opposite ends.
You are Senju.
You are the favorite.
You are the Hokage...
Tobirama will be Hokage after you.
One of your students after you two.
And so on.
And so forth.
But, you will not reign supreme...
Konoha will not reign supreme.
I will challenge your supremacy...
I'll wipe out Konoha like dust in the wind.
I know, now, without a doubt...
You have to die, Hashirama.
As does Tobirama.
By my hand, or all of my comrades' hands.
The burden is no longer just mine to carry.
Hokage...Raikage...Kazekage...Tsuchikage...Mizukage...Konohagakure. Kumogakure. Sunagakure. Iwagakure. Kirigakure.
The five Kage.
The Five Great Nations.
The Five Great Shinobi Villages.
They all...
Must be...
Wiped away...
They are all evil.
Evil...
Must...
Be...
Slain...
Swiftly.
This has all gone on...
Long enough.
It must end.
It will end.
No more cruelty.
No more conflict.
No more war.
The light could no longer be contained in a mere physical vessel. The fact it had been contained for so long was no doubt a testament to Madara's will, and even if his will could go on forever, his body simply couldn't keep up.
No...
More...
No...
More...
It all ends...
I don't care...
It...
Ends...
The body had its limits.
It was made of organs, and blood, and bones, and tendons, muscles, and ligaments, and other things that connected the mass together. The light encompassed at last, and it spread and finally, Madara was blown apart from the inside out, chakra erupted from eyes like flaring lights-before finally splitting him to pieces. The indigio and violet light from before hadn't vanished, nor had the Uchiha's flares of chakra wracking the landscape-both of these things grew worse, and as the light eclipsed to such a point the gorog screamed in agony.
Madara reached forward through that light. He screamed at the top of his lungs as it tore through his body, burning through his pores, scorching into his blood, erupting in his veins, and blistering across his skin. Slowly, the light dimmed to a bearable level, and a loud sigh escaped Madara's lips as he found himself rising to his feet. His feet left the ground as he floated into the air, with no conscious or visible effort. It was as if his body were as light as air.
An indigo and violet glow enveloped his entire body. His eyes lost the dark iris he had always shown. His three tomoe were just barely visible amidst the now pure menacing crimson glow. It even appeared that the white of his cornea was gone. His pupils were gone. There was only a ferocious and intense crimson in his eye sockets. So ferocious and intense that it actually glowed and shined, oozing out from his eye sockets.
He could feel it the whole time, and he struggled to comprehend it.
Madara stood silently for a moment, frozen in time as he took in his change. His skin hadn't taken on a hue like Mikito's, but, it was a bit darker than before, and his hair underwent a drastic change. His skin was now more olive and brown, than fair. It was a stark contrast to his former appearance, a clear sign, that his growing conclusion, was indeed correct.
He had somehow...
Perhaps...
Transformed...
His hair grew to his waist and was spiked to end, but also straightened out enough where it was free flowing. It was long on the sides, top, and back. The same fiery indigo glow that burned through his flame-like aura enshrouded his hair, allowing it to wave out around his back and sides. It shared the same color as his aura, but that was only because his hair was dark enough to reflect off of the color of his aura.
There was a flash before his eyes. It was blinding at first. There was no color except for white. Then it began to get darker. Faces emerged. Emotions to those faces were etched in. Those faces and emotions has bodies that moved, growing in clarity. Madara felt as if he could reach out and touch them. Then, the whole scene shook as if he were in a cage and someone threw him for miles.
Crimson splattered across his vision. He fought against it. He tried. But, a new emotion overtook him. He scrambled back and away. A scream tore into his ears. The crimson grew worse. It flowed all over. It sped towards them. With fear ridden eyes, Madara watched it streak towards him without any sign of stopping. There was a mass behind the crimson.
Black, and like a person. One arm was raised.
Madara shook, a feeling washing over him. A feeling of death and despair. Somehow, deep in his heart, he knew this mass killed his brothers. It killed his father. It killed everyone he ever loved and cared for. It now stood over him. He couldn't make out any of its features, but then again, this was death. Death was chasing him his entire life and now he was seeing it.
He was staring right at it.
A black featureless mass. No eyes. No ears. Nothing. It was just pitch black. There was no body. There was no silhouette. It was like emptiness. A bottomless pit that could never be filled. There was no where he could run. No where he could hide. All he could do was brace himself. Even that would do him no good. When death came, it came.
It was about to plunge inside of him.
It was going to plunge so deep that it was going to tear right through him. It would impale him. He would slide down, choking, gasping. wheezing. There would be nothing he could to stop the pitiful display. His body would simply react in a way to preserve its own life. At that point, it would be out of his hands. Before that, it had been out of his hands.
The mass grew, it towered above him.
Madara felt like a small child cowering before a monster.
No!
I will not!
The mass slammed into him.
I will not...
I will not die!
Madara snapped rigid, fists clenching. Immediately, he encased by the violet and indigo power that surrounded him. He could feel it burning through his flesh, melting his bones, and vaporizing his cells. It burned through his hair, pouring into his scalp and scorching his follicles. It poured in and out of him at the same time, forcing colors to surge around him that all morphed to white, ripping away at his heart and shredding away at his sanity.
Madness and blood consumed his vision, and distilled fury surged through him. It jabbed into his spine, cracking his body in two. It felt like someone had taken a pole arm and impaled him with it before ramming him into a tree. The pain was beyond any sort of comprehension. There wasn't a word in the human's vocabulary to describe the agony that erupted throughout his entire body.
I will live!
I will transcend life and death!
I will not die!
"HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Looking into Madara's aura was like looking at the moon through a lucid pond. There was a power and heat radiating off of his entire being that was soaking him, but it was calm and lucid. It wasn't raging nor was it torrential. But, it was intense. It made the air shiver. Never before, had anyone seen something so magnificent, nor frightening in their entire life. Never felt something so fierce, so brassy, and so calm at the same time.
So intense, yet to subtle.
So thick and dense, that it was almost...
Madara appeared to be glowing, swallowed and enveloped, in the center of a lucid bright mass that was as powerful as it was ming boggling. It spread out around his body for several hundred feet, moving like a slow river. The glorious and amazing sight of his fair skin, now a little more olive and tan, took Mikito by surprise. His eyes were set and focused.
The only thing she could see was the glow of crimson. Every single time Madara moved, even a little, a hazy glow would trail behind his eye sockets. Pure energy and nothing less. It pulsed, as if it were alive, as if it were breathing. She could barely make out the black of his tomoe amidst the crimson glow.
If it was the design of his Mangekyo, the crimson glow was so overwhelming, it even obscured that. It was totally different than before. Even when he had activated his Mangekyo and went wild, there wasn't such a crimson glow to his eyes. They didn't have the appearance that they were oozing out power, so thick and so dense, that it clung to the space around him.
Something in Madara had changed, clearly.
But, as quickly as he was there...He was taken. Swallowed up by his own chakra and aura, that surged even more wildly. The constant waves that buffeted the landscape turned into mile long energy fissures, glowing with the same potency as his power. His lone scream echoed through the landscape, overshadowing the sound of his energy, the gorog, the landscape, and everything else crumbling around him. The same burn on his skin began to burn him deep inside.
It was beyond painful and he had no control over it. He was barely conscious of the fact his chakra was tearing the landscape asunder, partially. What he could only equate to pure molten chakra was splashing on everything he could sense, and the ever present of the gorog was still above him. But, the pain taking him over was more than enough for him to forget all of this. It was almost like his skin was flaking off, almost like he was being peeled apart, and all of those pieces made his aura grow more turbulent.
Is it war with humanity...
It is war with the system...
Father never bothered to educate me on such things...
Is my war with humanity...
Or the system...
He took a firm grip of the sword at his side. He didn't draw it out like lightning. Rather, he didn't have the thought. It never came. Instead, he simply performed the action, without any conscious effort. As one, his body and mind aligned. He watched the landscape heave from his attack. A long line stretched from where it began, to where it ended, meters in width.
With a keen eye, Madara stared at his arm. He stared at his hand. Finally, he stared at his blade. He looked at the destruction left behind from his one attack. The landscape now had a rift torn across it-swaths of his blue and indigo aura smoked off the sides of the scar. The surrounding area around the scar was riddled with spider web cracks.
Any debris close by had been utterly wiped out. There wasn't even dust to be seen left behind.
Madara adjusted his grip, eyeing the gorog. He had missed its trajectory by just a few meters. It was too much for his taste. Normally, he wouldn't have missed. He never missed once he set his sights on a target. They couldn't escape his line of vision. Once sighted-the only way to deal with him was to attack head on. There were those who could battle him to a stalemate, or long enough to retreat.
But, he still didn't miss his target.
He carefully raised his sword, gripping it with his free hand. He kept it gripped in front of him, tip pointed up.
That ball of energy must be Mikito...
Mikito set her sights on the gorog. The monster was tearing across the landscape in a mad dash towards them. Perhaps...Madara's attack had startled it. Perhaps what happened to them was also sending fear through the beast. Or, more likely, it just wanted to kill them.
Mikito clenched her fingers. Her elbow snapped back. She waited until the last possible second to shift her right foot back. Her body aligned on its own. Her hips snapped, her arms extended forward, her fist rocketed. The air and space around her burned from the ferocity of her attack-it shot forward, propelled by the force of her punch. It cut across the landscape like a monsoon, shot itself into the air at a steep angle-and flashed past the gorog.
The shockwave continued on its course, striking the land close by-erupting into nothing but light. When the light finally dimmed down, more than a portion of the desert had been wiped away, along with the debris. It was like a layer of the landscape had been peeled off and tossed away to rot. It was pure destruction and nothing less. Dozens more blasted alongside where the first had struck, and the sheer magnitude of each was greater or equal to the first.
Madara knew she was barely conscious, if that. Like himself, she was being consumed, and it showed. The sheer destruction they were bringing to the landscape was staggering. There was a feeling of joy that coursed through him as he felt his chakra burn brighter. The sounds of explosions, destruction, the landscape rumbling, the high pitched screech of Mikito's, or his own chakra, it all made thrill burn inside of him. He nearly gave into it as the sounds and sensations grew more intense.
The gusting winds finally eased after a few minutes.
He was struggling to maintain his conscience. The ability to know right and wrong. The ability to reason and use logic. To exercise restraint. Everything inside of him was screaming destruction. To kill. To wreak havoc. It was starting to eat away at his mind, and he could barely fend it off. If he went berserk, while using Susano'o, right now...He didn't want to imagine what would happen. He never experienced something like this before-every fiber of his being wanted to destroy and obliterate.
A silent scream erupted from his core.
The rumble beneath the earth halted Madara from asking the stupidest question. This shaking was something that couldn't be fought against. Even from his perch in the air, he was horrified as cracks began to spread for miles. The same cracks trailed across the entire landscape. They rocketed through debris, striking it into pieces as if lightning had collided with it.
The rumbling turned into an insatiable earthquake. The cracks that had spread turned into gouges, almost as if some creature were gripping the surface from a place far down below, tearing itself free from a shell. Then, something not so strange happened. Hundreds of trillions of gallons of water erupted from the rifts spreading across the landscape.
The streams trailed far beyond the clouds, spreading across the vast sky as far as it could. Though it had been raining before, the addition of so much water, suddenly flung up into the sky, along with a portion of landscape, caused the thunder to boom, the lightning to strike, and the rain to grow even worse. Chunks of earth slammed down violently, cracking to pieces.
Mikito noted how the gorog turned towards the source of the sound. Its eyes narrowed, its massive body swelled with power, life force, and pure energy. It clenched its hands and it let out its own bellow.
The gorog was responding, which could only mean...
Madara growled loudly.
He seen something move, deep in the earth. It had been quick, swift, and elusive. Almost like a worm. He couldn't even get a proper read on it. Mikito had blasted the whole damn thing away, crusting the landscape with her fury. Before he had time to ponder what it was, and why Mikito decided to do something so stupid; the head of the creature emerged with lightning speed. It tore the earth apart as it protruded out. It blotted out the rain. It towered high into the sky, scattering the clouds and sending them into a spiral.
Shaken by its roar, and more over, the fact it caused the clouds to do such a thing, Madara could make out the head. It towered through the thunder and lightning. Larger than anything he had seen, it was on par with gorog in sheer enormity. The head was easily as large as the gorog's torso, and that wasn't anything to scoff at by any means.
The new monster was turtle-like in appearance. Its mouth dipped, splitting by its lips, where four tusks protruded up and down. Two spikes protruded from its jaws, extending a few feet ahead of its spiked maw. It had a thick, leathery skin. There were scales, weathered, wrinkled, and ancient. But, they were still strong, even after so many centuries.
With surprising speed, it slammed both of its front legs down onto the earth. Part of the desert caved in, sand rushing towards the gaping hole like it was being drained. Debris and rain smothered along the way, causing mudslides and rifts.
Its fingers were long, clawed, leathery extensions from its engorged, leathery shoulder. Portions of a shell, with spikes jutting out every few inches, began to glare into existence.
Madara realized that most of this monster, was underneath the landscape. He realized with horror that the entire landscape, appeared at least, to be about to flip over, literally.
And, perhaps...The landscape itself, was the shell of this saber turtle monster.
It was madness, but he had learned to confront that madness head on.
To confront it, he had to let it consume him.
And, that, he would.
I'll become a monster.
Madara extended his arm, arm flexing violently. Violent sparks surged around him. A second a flash of pure power and light-almost column-like in appearance, erupted from his flexed palm. The waves of force generated brushed aside any nearby debris, sending former mountains tumbling away end over end across the landscape.
The grand spectacle of his power raced into the sky, filling the horizon as it accelerated and grew. The hulking mass of the gorog was halted. The blast of power and light speared right into its outstretched hand. Light washed over its leathery skin and horrible claws. Its equally horrendous arm bulged at the bones, slowly, but surely, it began to push forward.
The gorog didn't flinch away, but it didn't exactly tear into the blast of power. It flinched back, as the same blast of power, seemed to catch a second wind a shove ahead violently. It was unfamiliar with...The feeling of resistance. It shoved the blast away, leaving it to blast the crumbling and flooding landscape into a pulp.
Madara took a second to look at his hand, mouth slightly open in surprise.
It was...
The same color as his aura.
One last time...
Let my chakra burn bright.
He spotted something gold and bright slam hard into both of the monsters, a blur of movement that sent a surge or destructive force scattering across the area, the impact making even heaps of debris stagger. Another brutish impact knocked into the gorog, and like a solar flare, a lash of pure destructive force went towards the turtle. It missed, grazing its shell, the majority of the attack rolled into the ground, speeding ahead until it turned into smoke and ash.
They were moving at speeds too fast to trace, giving monsters no chance to defend themselves let alone attack. Sure, they flipped the entire landscape over, caused a massive flood, and continued to pulverize everything, but he was beyond the realm of human. He could feel it, deep inside of him, somehow, he had transcended beyond those limitations, and it was consuming him.
Every attack was magnified by a billion. He couldn't move without ripping the landscape asunder. His attacks sent the landscape into a wild spill as his will clashed with the monstrosities before him. As big and massive, and terrifying as the beasts were, his will was far beyond them. The burn deep in his veins, that made him breathless, and made him crave more, far surpassed anything.
Then, he finally lost whatever semblance or rationality, sanity, and humanity he had. All at once, a giant hole opened up inside of him and was filled. The power stabbed into him like an iron lance crossing into his back, bisecting his spine, and tearing out of his front from his spleen. Indigo and violent power surged violently from his body and orifices, starting to flicker.
The sphere of destructive force and power ascended high into the sky, wrapping the landscape around it as it went. The molten fury that encompassed the landscape fought against this pressure with its own, pressing outwards with such a fierceness, not even a million barriers would be able to hold it back. The gorog and adamantine turtle were not effected by this, and only added to the destructive force of the spawning disaster.
My war has never been with humanity or people.
I wanted to sit down and share drinks.
To show my guts and my feelings and to have reciprocation.
To have rapport.
The sphere brightened, swirling with tints of black and orange as the energy grew volatile. The sheer magnitude and density of it forced a sound, high, and like electric, to echo through the area.
I never wanted to fight.
Genocide was never a solution.
My father believe genocide was.
I am different.
People...
Humans...
There will always be those who are nefarious.
Every system will bring chaos and war.
In every generation.
My war is with the system!
I'll destroy it!
Let me surpass my limits.
Let me break my limits.
I'll spill my guts to the world.
I'll...
Just...
Let it...
All...
Go...
The sphere brightened. It became blinding. The solar flares and eruptions of chakra caught up within it started to smash and shatter away at it, but the blinding energy only grew more turbulent and fierce. The flares only responded with more vigor, striking everything until the landscape began to wave and crumble apart from thousands of feet above.
They broke free from the energy sphere finally, using a wild and sudden rotation to smash through the barrier that had been set up naturally through force and motion. Without any time to think the flares erupted, condensing and solidifying as they shot through the sky. Hundreds upon hundreds of millions all sped for destruction. The streaks were bright, even as they smashed through the landscape, punching holes and rifts through it.
Each punch to the landscape was finished by the gorog and adamantine turtle thrashing it. They were no effected by the destruction or power-they had endured thousands, perhaps millions of centuries. They were as ancient as the land itself. Rather than be effected by the masses around them, they sought to destroy them, the two little ants that had come before them, and each other.
The landscape itself let out a low wail.
It finally gave in, starting to roll in on itself.
The wave speared through the clouds, and ripped across the thunder laden sky.
The energy in the indigo sphere condensed, so abundant, and so limitless, it finally lashed out in fury. It condensed. It coalesced. Thick and heavy, with unbelievable gravity. It swept through the area, above and below, and it coalesced more, solidifying.
Slowly, indigo droplets struck the entire landscape, soaking the ground like it were water raining down from the heavens. It picked up in fierceness, becoming more and more repetitive until there was a deafening staccato. The indigo droplets widened, forming a sort of wall that came from as a high as the clouds. It struck the ground, but left no destructive effect.
Instead there was a low, hum-like sound permeating through the area as Madara's chakra sweltered.
Even the most skilled and talented of sensors, and even Tobirama himself wouldn't have recognized it. They would draw assumptions and conclusions based on experiences, but they wouldn't be able to recognize it right away. It was so different. It would be unlike anything they felt before. It wasn't just a matter of strength and magnitude. It was a completely different sensation.
It was so thick and heavy that they would have thought it was something else entirely for a second. It would at least take a second to register it. It would take them even longer to come to the radical conclusion. It felt like there was an ocean above the sky. Like there was a great out pour. They would not have steadily recognized it, due to never experiencing such a thing.
But, the conclusion would have been the same.
Whether it took a second or an eternity.
The great out pour was indigo, it was definitely...
Most certainly...
Without a single doubt.
But, there still would have been a sliver of doubt in their minds. Doubt in their abilities, or perhaps, even underestimating their own abilities. The rays and flares that thrived in the indigo were a different thing entirely. They were thick, potent, and powerful. But, they had a sustained power that burned with intensity. It would take a second to register that it wasn't rays of sunlight.
It felt like there was an endless out pour. Like there was an endless expanse as much as the sky itself. It couldn't and wouldn't have been easily recognized. To have the conflicting sensations battling one another, and feeling that, would have driven any sensor mad. It would be like a high pitched distorted noise of static. With no possible way to discern it, the mass of noise would only be chaos.
Chaos, of a smaller scale. It would jar the mind and the perception of the sensor. But, if they could recover, and somehow assimilate the noise they had perceived, they would have known...
For sure...
Madara's chakra...
Mikito's chakra...
One last time...
I'll let my chakra burn.
Even if it incinerates me.
One last time...
He looked at the beaming rays and radical flares. He allowed them to come closer and strike with their vigor. He didn't resist the pain nor the agony that burned through him, instead, he opened his hands. He gave himself over to it. Slowly, he could feel himself slipping. Almost as if he were being lulled into a deep sleep, a sleep to never awake from.
The rays and flares coalesced and amassed, heading towards the earth, and the two monsters, like a meteorite. Madara, absorbed in the sensation of being weightless, merely watched the mass of destructive force hurl towards him. He felt no fear nor caution. It would not reach him. Not now. He was well beyond anything he knew at this point.
He felt...
Free.
Humans are a separate issue...
As are the shinobi...
The system is the problem...
The sensors would have been jarred by the collision. What had been noise would have turned into the highest of shrieks and pitches. A sound so deafening and high that it would pop the ear drums of any person or creature and send them writhing on the ground. It would eventually start to tear into the brain, causing massive internal bleeding.
The overbearing light that eclipsed the indigo, rays, and flares would have been sign enough to wait.
But, no good sensor would wait.
Madara inhaled, feeling a jolt of alarm. As quick as it had come, it passed. The shock still remained on his face. All he could see was a blinding light, a morphing of colors, and the land. He felt his shell break completely. His skin disintegrate. And, for the barest of moments, he felt light. Like a child running around. It was something that caught him off guard, but he was taken by the sensation.
The scenery was bright. His feet were smaller. His hands were smaller. He could feel how short his strides had become. But, he didn't mind it. It would only lengthen his journey, and he didn't mind that either. For a moment, he realized, that he was a child again. Or, at the very least, much, much smaller than he had been before.
He came upon a girl. She was smaller than him, obviously younger. Her eyes were wide and big. They were bright, but there was sorrow in them. There was rage and fury boiling deep beneath them. There was overwhelming sadness pouring out of them. Tears stained her cheeks, he realized. She didn't make a sound as they fell, nor did she blink.
Without thinking, he knelt down. He could see her irises pitch with red. It was bright, but it mixed with a murky red. Like the color of blood oozing from a deep and wide wound.
It shocked him.
"Are you okay?"
She stared at him, eyes searching, observing...
Discerning.
The boy maintained his patience.
It was easy to do.
He was an older brother, after all.
"Are you okay?"
He kept his tone soft.
Neutral.
She shook her head.
Her hands that were clenched at her sides, wavered briefly.
"They were killed..."
He took her into a hug, embracing her tightly.
She stood motionless for what felt like an eternity.
"It was because of me..."
She wrapped her smalls arms around him as much as she could, squeezing with all of her might.
She began to cry fiercely, wailing at the top of her lungs.
"It's okay."
The boy said. His voice while gentle, was firm with certainty. He made it so, keeping a tighter hold on her. It was as if he depended on it himself, to convince himself. To convince himself that it was okay. He held her tighter, gritting his teeth.
"It's okay."
"How...Can any of this...Be okay?" The girl asked in between sobs. "They put themselves in harm's way for me. I didn't want them to..."
"I know..."
The boy also knew it too well, and that is why all he could do was hold onto the little girl and cry himself.
He, too, suffered the same thing.
Someone who was precious to him, put themselves in front of him, to face the danger.
He seen blood.
"It's not fair!"
The girl yelled, tears falling down her cheeks without reprieve.
Her throat scratched.
"I know...But, you are alive. You can't let the lives of those precious to you, who died protecting you, go in vain."
"I have no one. I am alone."
The boy managed to smile.
"That's not true. We can be friends."
"Friend?"
The girl echoed, unfamiliar with the word.
"Sure."
The girl looked away from him, frowning.
"I hate people. Humans...Are cursed. That is all there is to it. They kill each other...And everything around them."
The boy blinked, shocked.
"What about the ones that protected you?"
"Bad ones killed them. Now they are gone. Bad ones always kill good ones. Bad ones live to be old. Good ones die young."
"Do you want to die?" The boy asked.
"Yes."
The boy knelt down so he was eye level. "You can't."
"Why not?"
"The good ones died protecting you." The boy reminded.
This only made the girl cry again and lash out with violence.
He didn't fend off the assault. Her strikes were light, but the boy could feel strength.
A terrible and horrendous strength that couldn't be controlled, nestled deep within the girl.
"They're gone! I want them here! They're not alive anymore! They don't breathe! They're gone!"
"I know."
"They are not here!"
"I know!"
"Shut up! Shut up and stop saying that!"
"If you die or kill yourself, then you'll be dead. Those good people didn't want you to die, and they didn't want you to kill yourself. They will live on in you, in your heart. Live. You carried the weight of their bodies, but you must bear a far heavier weight now. But, you don't have to do it alone. Nobody can do everything alone, we find strength in others."
"You can't change my mind! No matter what you say!"
"Will you kill all of them?"
"I will and then there will be peace and everything can live in peace."
The boy was alarmed.
"You wouldn't be human anymore if you did that. You would be..."
"A monster. A terrible monster." The girl finished.
"The good ones will live on forever..." The boy pointed to his chest, where his heat was. "In here."
The girl scowled, seething with fury.
"Shut up!"
"If I be your friend." The boy ventured. "Will you think about not doing that?"
"I already told you...I am not going to change my mind! No matter what!"
"Still. Be my friend. You're not alone. Not anymore. You'll have me."
The girl stared at the boy, a little puzzled.
She had known only despair, anger, grief, rage, fury, and hatred.
For so long...
And, now...
She fell to her knees, sobbing.
The boy met her halfway, holding onto her.
"We are only human. We are not steel."
Breath...
Life...
"No one can take on things alone. One gives the other love. The other gives one strength."
The surge of clouds and lightning and thunder bellowed high above.
It drenched the two of them.
"You agonize over death. The mere fact it exists and takes all things."
The girl didn't look at him.
"In rain like this...We can cry, and it's almost like we're washing ourselves of these emotions, but..."
"All of those people. All of those children and infants. All of those animals. They're dead." The girl bit out.
The boy slowly opened his eyes. It was long, exhausting, and painful. He managed to do it. All he could see was the sun's light, other than a blurry and non comprehending blur. His ears had perked up, as did his nose. He could hear the rush of water, like he was next to a waterfall that ascended high into the heavens and poured onto the earth itself. The smell was of water, and grass, and leaves. Of life. It stirred him from his lull.
The sounds of birds brought him peace. The sounds all melded together, and he could feel them resonate deep within him. They came and went, each sound meaning something, something intricate, something important. He couldn't move. He felt he didn't have the energy nor the will to execute such a foolish thing. Being still, and sinking into this harmony, was more important.
The sun warmed his bones and brought him vitality. The pricks of water offered him relief from the sun's heat. The land became a part of him, and he became a part of it, lying in the sun. He was one with the land.
He took a deep breath, noting he was on a green blanket. He could feel and hear everything around him. Every living creature, small and enormous. There were so many, he couldn't begin to comprehend an exact number. Knowing he was a part of them, and they a part of him, brought him happiness. Nature was the sole truth. Nature was the true teacher.
It is spring... He thought to himself. I feel like I am...In spring...
He looked into the sun's light, feeling at ease.
Beside him, was the girl, staring at the bright scenery.
Something in her was sorrowful, though.
"We can't stop death, that is impossible...But, we can help as many people and animals that we can. Give them all a place to call home. A place where they will always be safe and can live in harmony."
"Is that possible? Does such a place exist?"
The boy grabbed her hand.
"It starts inside of us. Inside of you. Then, we find like minded people."
"But..." The girl tilted her head. "Does a place like that really exist."
The boy shook his head.
"No, such a place doesn't exist."
"Then..."
"But, together...With a lot of like minded people, we can create such a place. Such a place can be created. It can exist. A place where all living things, big and small, can all live in harmony."
"We...Make the place?" The girl echoed, eyes growing wider.
"Yeah. So, what do you say? Be my friend. Let's help each other."
The girl nodded slightly, managing to smile.
"Okay. I'll do everything I can to help. It'll be like a nursery for me."
"Cool."
The boy grinned.
The girl smiled wide and bright.
A quiet place.
Where all living things can be free.