Devil From The Heavens

Chapter 21: Know Death

Guy turned to his closest friend and flashed him a brilliant smile. Over Kakashi's shoulder, he could see his students and their friends staring at the green in the distance save for one. Lee looked at him with worry but Guy lifted a thumbs up to him. Broly crashed down behind the Blue Beast. He had so much to say to his students but no time to say it. They'll just have to sit back and enjoy the show.

Guy took off running and he caught Broly's attention like he wanted. He pushed a thumb into his chest right above his heart. Chakra flooded his body as every gate within opened at his command. Flecks of red burst through green of his chakra.

"Eighth Gate of Death!"


Might Duy, with tears streaming down his face, socked his son in the face. "Guy, you insufferable fool!"

Guy, barely five years old, fell onto his back after his father struck him. "I'm sorry, papa...I couldn't complete 500 laps around the schoolyard!"

"Don't apologize! That's not what I'm scolding you about! Do not beg pardon for you effort! It's insulting and disrespectful toward your effort, Guy!"


His father held a thumbs up. "Knowing your shortcomings will highlight your strengths! Your taijutsu is already shining brilliantly in my eyes! I've discovered my own child's strengths when he's still such a tender age!

Guy smiled while his father spoke but as the words sunk in, he frowned. He didn't believe his dad. "Papa...you're just blowing hot air, aren't you?"


Duy looked at him with disappointment. Guy couldn't look at his dad out of shame so his stared at the wall of the hospital. He didn't stand a chance against those guys but he couldn't just let what they say pass without doing something. Did his dad endure that everyday?

"Papa...how can you stay so positive and optimistic? When does one's youth come to an end?"

Duy smiled, a small thing, as the words came easily to him. "As long as you never turn your back against youth...it never ends."

Guy squeezed at his sheets. How could he just say that? "Then your youth doesn't come to an end when you die?!" He demanded with an explosive yell.

"C'mon Guy!" Duy's own voice rose along with his son's not out of anger but in conviction. "That is when youth climaxes! When it burns brightest!"

Guy squeezed his eyes as he tried to hold back his frustrated tears. "You're crazy! Youth doesn't matter when you die? You can believe in it until you die, but there's no guarantee you'll win against someone strong! Like what happened to me today!"

There was a moment of silence. As Guy started to regret yelling at his father, a warm hand rested on his head.

"True victory isn't about winning against someone strong. It's about defending what's important to you!"

His voice cracked as he failed to dam the tears, "I...I just...wanted to defend this youth you keep mentioning!"

His father pulled him into a loving embrace.


Guy, older and now a Genin in his own right, stared slack jawed at the transformation his father had undergone. His skin was darker and a violent cloak of chakra burned on his skin.

"What's this?!" The young Genin asked incredulously.

Duy smiled but his blank eyes made the sight less comforting than intended. "The Eight Inner Gates...a type of forbidden jutsu! As a genin, I trained day after day and finally grasped this unique jutsu after 20 years! This is the one move that I can pass down to you as your father and it shall become a most special jutsu to you!"

"Special?"

"You've become a splendid shinobi!" Du's prideful grin fell away into a severe grimace. "But I shall impose one strict condition upon the use of this move!"


His father stood tall against the seven Jonin in the green aura of the Eight Gates.

"You don't stand a chance against any of them!" Guy's voice cracked as he yelled at his dad. They could still get out, they just had to run! "They're the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist!"

"I've got the Gate of Death, I can open it and unleash the Eight Inner Gates Formation!"

"But that's...!"

His dad gave him a small smile.

"The self-rule."


Guy silently thanked his father. For the care. The love. The lesson.

'Now's the time to protect something precious enough to give your life for!'

In a grand sweeping gesture, Might Guy, the Blue Beast of Konoha, slid to a stop. The unmistakable blue of the Gates shifted to a deep crimson as the blood in his body began to boil.

"Open! Eight Inner Gates Formation!"


Broly adjusted his chains. He tried to look away from what his body was doing and just let it pass but these people made that impossible. Those last two actually did something even if they don't realize it. When that man with the toads threw the woman, he felt something pop in his chest.

It hurt but it wasn't truly hampering. Maybe they could do it. Maybe he'd be force to leave them alone. Madara's orders were to just cripple the village; surely, he'd done just that already? That he cared at all left him...shaken. The ruin he brought to this world. The slaughters he committed. Flashes of planets collapsing hit his mind. Maybe it was better that he died?

Wasn't he ready for just that back when Madara gave him the order? He laid there and accepted it but now he'd had a brush with death, he found he lacked the stomach. He hoped to pull off a last moment miracle. He freed himself from his dad, he'd do the same here. That's what his Saiyan blood said.

But it took a once in a lifetime meeting to make that happen. That wouldn't happen twice.

But that moment of desperation, to breath in boiling oil, quickened his heart's pace when he thought of it.

How much would that have hurt?

How long would that have hurt?

Would it have been worth it?

A hand on his shoulder anchored him.

"Breath."

The Saiyan did just that and the tension in his body left. He was back in his head.

"Focus on what is in front of you."

The thanks came to his mind faster than he could prevent it. Hagoromo would know regardless if it left his mouth or not. Broly took in another breath and let it out in a drawn out exhalation.

The struggle was still present. As damaged as it was, his pride was still kicking. "...Thank you."

He looked through his own eyes. The heat hit him instantly but right after was a putrid stench. It was a rare smell but, on the rare occasion he took a more intimate approach to his destruction, he would indulge in it. The stink of burning blood. This one was just giving his life away.

A desperation technique then. A last resort. It made sense he supposed.

An ethereal thought passed through him. Hagoromo's own.

'He can open the Gates?'


"Sekizo, Evening Elephant!"

Guy bent and pushed. A crimson trail followed him and filled the fissures left in his wake. The Akatsuki's eyes widened; the only sign that there was something behind the chaos. Guy's fist didn't move; it shifted into place with the impression of movement and collided the air with adamantine strength. It wasn't sound that escaped contact; it was a bludgeoning hammer that crashed against their heads.

"First Step!"

A column of air, wide and round like an elephant's foot, crashed against the man and he heard it. A cry of pain. Guy flashed forward above the Akatsuki and he pulled back for the next step.

"Second-ergh!"

The bones in his arm cracked from the movement. Every inch of his body felt like it was being stabbed with a red hot knife. 'This pain is unimaginable but...!' He took a moment to focus himself and, while the pain didn't lessen, he could still move. 'I'm already acclimating. I should be able to do the Evening Elephant without having to stop!'


In that moment, Broly's righted himself. He didn't know how it felt to be flattened into paper but that was damn close. 'Where the hell was this?' He yelled in his head to the Sage. 'You had people on this planet that can do that this whole time?'

'I must admit, I am confounded as well though not for the same reasons.' His eyes focused in on the red shinobi. 'They learned how to weaponize the Eight Gates.'

'What the hell are those?'

'All shinobi have natural limiters within them that restrict their flow of chakra. Theoretically, opening them would release all of your latent strength but the consequences are dire. The limiters are there for a reason.'

The crimson warrior appeared in front of his vision with his arm already in motion.

"First Step!"

The air cannon crashed against a hastily formed barrier and shattered it like glass but it arrested the momentum of the attack like the Saiyan wanted. He reached out for Guy but as his hand fell onto the Jonin's vest, he disappeared.

'What?'

He reappeared mere inches to the left.

"Second Step!"

His punch flashed out of existence. Behind the Akatsuki, a blade cut the earth in two before it collapsed into plasma. There was no impact to be seen as the imprint of a fist was carved out of the Saiyan's chest. Broly was seemingly forced from his own body into the sea of superheated air and it assaulted him like no storm could. A flash of red burst through his vision.

"Third Step!"

He saw the red in front of him and he raised his arms only for the blow to come from below. The Saiyan was like a ship as his body rocketed to the sky above. He couldn't move as the wind rushing past was too much for his limbs to contend against. A trail of vapor appeared sprinted ahead of him.

"Fourth Step!"

An unstoppable force met an equally unstoppable force and it felt like he was sandwiched between two colliding planets. Blood burst out of him and bones all around bent and cracked under the weight.

It was like some deity pressed the pause button as Broly hung in the air. Guy crashed into the earth and rubble for hundreds of feet floated as the ground was compressed. Guy jumped and left ruin in his wake.

"Fifth Step!"

One final punch to his back, and it was a punch not a simple blast of air, and Broly blew past the cloud layer above into the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Within his mind, he was equally confounded. He reached the apex of his flight and his momentum quickly reverse. Globs of blood, spittle, and who knows what else were taken from his body by the wind rushing past his body as he fell back to the earth.

If his back wasn't broken, it certainty felt like it was in a state close to it. He didn't think this kind of agony was possible let alone it was possible for him. He flooded his veins with all the ki he could muster and the pain dulled as his body hardened but the seals refused to give him more.

'He could kill me.'

That scared him. He thrashed against the chains and he pushed and pushed and pushed. He remembered feeling stronger than this! When Pain released his power before the desert village!

A dread arrested him and the hairs on his body stood on end.

Broly shot a beam that pushed him out of the way of another devastating punch. Pain seized him as his body bent to accommodate the movement. Broly could only be gobsmacked as the man flew by kicking the air beneath him. He quickly turned around and blasted towards him. Guy's fist ripped the sky in two but the Akatsuki responded with a ball of ki. A swift kick and the Jonin was out of its way but thrown off course for fractions of a fractions of a second.

'Come on!' He yelled at his body as it was pushed to a near breaking point to narrowly twist around another fist. A noise escaped the Saiyan as his spine demanded he stop whatever the hell he was trying to do. Broly swung out on instinct and the back of his arm collided against the man's temple.

As the man's body became a speck in the horizon, the Saiyan spasmed before he forced to double over and release the contents of his stomach and then some. It was a deep red, nearly black, that fell from his mouth and onto his hands.

'That doesn't look like food.' Broly looked back to where he last saw the red shinobi. That red spec was getting noticeably bigger. 'Old man, tell me you have an idea. I don't think I can survive another one of those barrages.'

From within, Hagoromo white knuckled his staff at the Saiyan's admission. Broly was right but not in the way he thought. He was dying. Even if that shinobi dropped dead now, he'd have maybe ten minutes at most before Broly followed.

'Hagoromo? Please, say something.'

'I have an idea.' The Sage responded. 'But I don't know if it'll work.'

He focused for a moment and a soft green. like the grass that seemed so far away now, enveloped his hands. Already, he could feel the technique taxing his diminished reserves. The Sage of Six Paths had restricted what he could do with Broly but one area he was given free reign was in healing. That was centuries ago. He didn't know what difference he could make if any.

'This'll be a moment.'

Broly met eyes with the crimson beast across the sky. He didn't know if he had that. He slammed his hand together in front of him. Force the man to move, take extra time to get to him. Big and loud. The beginnings of an Omega Blaster formed where his hands met but he crushed it, molded it, and let it build. He could feel himself lose altitude; this was all or nothing.

'Gigantic Omegastorm!'

From Guy's perspective, it was like an ancient serpent was woken from its slumber as Broly released his attack. A roar befitting such a creature could be heard for hundreds of miles and heat like the depths of Hell scorched his skin from so far away. Its gaping maw threatened to touch the horizons and Guy knew there was no avoiding it.

The Akatsuki couldn't hold under a physical battle and they both knew it.

If there was no avoiding it, there was only one thing he could do. His hands instantly formed the tiger seal.

"Daytime Tiger!"

A massive wave of concentrated air pressure, its own form in the shape of its namesake, raced towards the Omegastorm. The two gargantuan attacks met and engaged each other in a war of attrition. It was a brilliant show of emerald fire and pale wind as the two legendary creatures fought one another.

'What the fuck is this guy?' Broly screamed as he felt vessels burst in his nose from the strain. 'He just fought it?! He wasn't supposed to do that!'

Worse still, he felt himself waver. His arms shook. He had the energy to spare but he was too hurt; he couldn't keep this up. His back screamed in pain and Broly gasped as if a bucket of cold water was poured on him. His concentration fell for just a moment.

Guy noticed the integrity of the Omegastorm falter. One good application of force and it'd shatter!

"Morning Peacock!"

A thousand fireballs from a thousand lightning fast punches flew towards the Daytime Tiger. Fire mixed with air and the Daytime Tiger was set aflame.

Broly noticed immediately that something had gone horribly wrong. The instant he thought so, a flaming tiger the size of a village broke through his desperation attack. It bit down on him but its jaw would not close as Broly held its teeth and braced his boots against its jaw. His back screamed and he was losing feelings in his legs.

"Dynamic Entry!"

A red missile burst through the back of the tiger's throat and crushed Broly's chest.


Hagoromo put his hands to the floor of Broly's mindscape. This whole domain was part of the Saiyan; his healing should work from here. He could only hope he had built enough chakra for this. Normal methods would be too slow, he had to go for a massive burst of healing. This shinobi would do far more than he was capable of fixing otherwise.


Might Guy landed with less grace than expected. His breaths were heavy and his tolerance for the hellish agony in his body was beginning to crack. He didn't have much time left. He was starting to see things too; he swore Broly turned blue right before his body hit the ground.

He raced over to the Akatsuki's crater. As he reached the edge, the ground beneath him collapsed as Broly surfaced, his hair a dark blue. He fell back as Broly's fist sailed above him and the force of the blow blew a hole straight through the Hokage monument.

Guy braced himself against the ground and aimed a kick for the Akatsuki's chest right above to his heart. Another shockwave and the sky parted once more. Guy pulled back but his hand refused to budge. He looked. Broly had caught his leg.

Broly twisted around and threw him towards the village. Guy flipped back onto his feet, his momentum continuing to drag him along, as the Akatsuki charged him once more. He smacked aside the man's wild punch, the impact blasting away the remains of a restaurant, and he responded with a gut punch that carved a trench behind the Akatsuki.

Guy swung his leg at Broly's neck but he ducked and the Taijutsu expert found himself grabbed by the head. Broly slammed his head into the stone three times, each blow deepened the crater they had created, before the Akatsuki dragged him out and viciously swung his body into whatever obstacle he could find. He swung up once more and at the apex, Guy found his chance at escape.

With all the force he could muster, he struck at Broly's temple with his heel.

The blow flattened trees miles away and the Akatsuki's head was nearly parallel to his shoulder. The bones in Guy's feet shattered but the Akatsuki let him go. He jumped away on his good foot as Broly stumbled. Blood poured over his face as his hair jumped between black and blue.

His heart murmured and sweat poured down his own brow. He had enough for one more attack. The pain had to be ignored.

Guy slid a foot back as he planted his hands on the ground.

"CHARGE!"

Red steam exploded out of his body. Veins of magma cracked along Guy's skin as the stone beneath him melted. The steam, an indistinct cloud before, coalesced into the form of a dragon and came alive roar that shook the village.

The Sage could see Broly was only half aware of what was going on. He was seeing triple. Hagoromo felt exhaustion creeping up as he poured more chakra into fixing the Saiyan's most egregious wounds. That last one actually cracked Broly's skull.

'Old man, I don't feel so good.' Broly slurred from his chains.

The Saiyan wouldn't know what to do. He didn't even know what was going on.

Hagoromo grabbed the sides of the Saiyan's head. 'Broly, do you trust me?'

Broly tried to look at him but his eyes were unfocused. 'I do.'

'Put everything you have into a barrier.'

Outside, Broly's body lit up in a geyser of green power. He exploded into his Supressed Super Saiyan power once more and put his arms forward. A thick, jade wall of power formed in front of him. He poured everything he had into it.

"FLOW!"

The dragon roared as Guy burst forward. Every step tore the ground up into a shower of shattered stone and lava and the very space in front of the Taijutsu expert distorted. Might Guy leapt and threw his leg forward in a blaze like the core of the sun.

"NIGHT GUY!"

Lightning and streams of plasma reached for the stars above as he collided into Broly's barrier. The bones in his legs started to break one by one as the instants went by but, like his bones, the barrier own cracks started to form.

"That is when youth climaxes! When it burns brightest!"

The barrier fell apart and the dragon crashed against Broly's arms. The dragon lifted them high into the sky, its very body setting the sky alight in flames, before it twisted around back to the earth. Its head crashed into the Hokage Monument and the structure, tens of thousands of tons in weight collapsed on the creature of chakra and entombed both it and the Akatsuki.

Might Guy faced the Sun as he fell like a leaf from a tree in autumn. Its nurturing warmth would grow new leaves from those that fell today including his own. He reached out and held a thumbs up before he closed his eyes for the last time.


Author's Notes

Sliding this in as a Valentine's gift for all the guys, gals, and nonbinary pals on this site. I'm single myself but this day is all about love and who could hate that? Hope you all enjoyed! Please leave a follow, favorite, and review!

Ent out.


Review Responses!

There was a lot of reviews last chapter (26! Holy Cow!) and I want to get this out on time so I won't answer most unfortunately BUT let it be know I've read all of them and I appreciate every single kind word from you all!

p6lishb6kser: Now that'd be telling, wouldn't it?

Rosco Peeko Trane: This is true but something tells me no one would appreciate such an abrupt ending. (And this reminds me of a common thing from DBZ fans being that Krillin could have just ended quite a few fights with a Solar Flare + Destructo Disc combo or Piccolo with the Special Beam Cannon he never uses.)

Abyss Emperor: Hope it lived up to expecations!

Johannes293: I mean, it may not eclipse this in pure power but that doesn't mean the intensity won't be there. As for Konan, she'll be involved soon. Very soon. Like, next chapter soon.

SuperSaiyajin4Vegeta: He is full power within the limits of the seal so the overwhelming majority of it is still inaccessible to him.