REBIRTH OF THE LEAF – THE TRUTH REVEALED
That Night, Shinki's House
Shinki awaits his guest, standing next to the front door, eagerly anticipating his imminent arrival. He has waited for this, he has waited a long time for this, the final piece of his puzzle, the last thing he needs to succeed. A dark plan, formed in the shadows yet Uzumaki Naruto, supposedly the strongest shinobi that has ever lived, is walking into it without a clue in the world. One word crosses Shinki's mind. 'Naïve'.
Thinking back to what he has lost makes this plan all the more worth it. He has lost his father, the Kazekage clan's Gaara, the man who raised him without any obligations, who loved him despite them not being connected by blood. He has lost his uncle, the Kazekage clan's Konkuro, the man who taught him everything he knows about puppets and their manipulation. He has also lost all the others, all his friends and all his subordinates from the Hidden Sand Village.
Two quick successive knocks come on the door, followed by the loud voice of the teenage Uzumaki clansmen. "Yo, Shinki!" he calls, his voice reverberating through the door.
Shinki smiles and shakes his head for a moment. He quickly reprimands himself though, he is not here to be drawn in by Naruto's charisma, he is here for his father, his uncle and all the others.
He opens the door with a practiced smile, much like the one Sai wore when he first met Naruto. "Welcome Lord 7th, please come in".
Naruto smiles at the warm welcome, it is clearly different from Shinki's attitude back when they first met. Back then, Shinki had been aggressive, he had been unwilling to listen, his resolve to kill Clyde and the other invaders was unwavering. Now he is completely different, or so it would seem.
Naruto smiles as he enters. "You can just call me Naruto".
Shinki leads Naruto through his largely open-plan home, taking him straight to the dining table. He notes, as they travel, Naruto's inquisitive looks around the sparsely populated rooms. Of course, something that everyone forgets about Naruto, is that he is still young. Blinded by the overwhelming power of the 7th Hokage, most people forget that he is only 17 years old.
Shinki pulls a chair back from the table before gesturing to it with his open hand. "Please have a seat at the table".
Doing just that, Naruto's nose begins to wrinkle as he looks towards the nearby cooking implements. "Something smells good" he compliments the Kazekage.
"Thank you. I've always been proud of my cooking skills" Shinki reveals. Thinking back to his youth, he recalls that he cooked once or twice on behalf of his father. It was during one 5 Kage summit that Naruto was particularly enthusiastic about his food. To be praised by one of the world's saviours, that was one of the happiest moments in Shinki's young life. "I know your favourite is ramen" Shinki recalls, "I hope you don't mind me trying my own recipe".
Ramen is never a bad thing in the mind of the young Hokage. "I can't wait to try it".
"I'll do my best not to disappoint you".
Naruto leans back in the chair and relaxes as he tries to think of an appropriate conversation. "So, you're Gaara's son" he questions with a chuckle. "I can't imagine Gaara having kids". Despite saying this, Naruto always believed that Gaara would be an excellent father. He believed that to be a good father meant not only knowing the light, but also knowing the darkness, two sides of life's golden coin that Gaara knew very well.
"Actually, Gaara is my foster father" Shinki confesses. There was a lot of debate, when he was first adopted, about whether Shinki could succeed Gaara as Kazekage. The only other possible successor was Nara Shikadai and having a Hidden Leaf shinobi as the Kazekage was deemed embarrassing, thus it was decided that Shinki could officially join the Kazekage clan.
"He was also my inspiration" Shinki continues as he raises his hand. It is at this moment that Naruto's eyes are first drawn to a nearby gourd, just like Gaara had used during the war. Out of this gourd lifts a grey-sandy substance. In the same vein that Gaara can control the movement of sand, Shinki can control the movement of iron sand.
"Amazing". The wide-eyed Hokage looks on with astonishment, every time he witnesses this ability, or anything similar, he marvels over how difficult and how complex it is, as well as how convenient and powerful it is for the user.
"I've done my best to copy his defensive style" Shinki explains as the iron sand thinly dances around his hand in a spherical shape. "Unfortunately, I have to concentrate in order to use it". This is the greatest difference between the abilities of Shinki and his father. Gaara's defence is automatic, allowing him to maintain concentration even when being attacked, however, Shinki has to concentrate in order to defend using his iron sand. Shinki can form a spherical defence with a radius of one meter, this cannot be used while he is attacking though, as that requires focus.
Shinki cannot use his perfect defence while he is attacking. That is its greatest flaw.
"This gourd is filled with the perfect amount of iron sand. By making use of all of it, I'm convinced that nobody can get within one meter of me" Shinki proudly boasts. "Well, nobody except some rare exceptions, much like you, Naruto".
This is the other flaw of Shinki's defence. It can still be breached by someone with overwhelming power like Naruto or the others who competed against the invaders in the captained six contest.
"It's still impressive" Naruto asserts, "I know Gaara would be really proud of your abilities and the way you've led the Hidden Sand Village".
"Thank you. Although, my most proud achievement revolves around my ability to create puppets". The Kazekage explains this with a hint of a smile on his face.
"Puppets" Naruto scratches his chin, "Ah, that's just like Konkuro".
"That's right" Shinki declares with a nod, "I'm sure you have heard of my greatest ability". An ability that has been witnessed by Minato, by Boruto and by Sarada, three of the closest people to Naruto.
"I can create a puppet which will let me know if you are alive or dead".
Naruto thinks back through recent events. Since Shikamaru's heart attack The Circle has been called off, so he has been trying his hardest to spend time with his family, like Boruto and Himawari as well as with his student, Sarada. "Now that you mention it, I think Boruto said something about that to me".
"Boruto has a puppet. If I were to use it, I could confirm that he is alive" Shinki explains.
"Amazing, that's a really useful ability given our current circumstances". Naruto is correct. Imagine, for example, that Clyde were to go back on his agreement to halt hostilities. He could invite the forgiving Naruto to the invaders' camp to talk with him. When Naruto arrives at the camp, Clyde could use a surprise attack to kill him. Normally, the result of the encounter would be unknown to the shinobi who stayed behind, however, using Shinki's puppet, the result would be known and a decision could be made from a safe distance.
Undetectable to the young blonde shinobi, Shinki's plan finally starts to come to fruition.
"Would you like to make a puppet for you, Naruto?".
"Of course, that would be great".
From his pocket, the dark-haired shinobi pulls a puppet in the shape of an amulet. The same type of amulet that he has given the others. "If you will put your chakra into this, it will be done".
Both Kage stretch out their hands and exchange the amulet. Then, the last piece falls into place.
Naruto puts his chakra into the amulet!
He marvels at the sensation as he feels a synchronicity develop between his life force and the amulet. As he senses the chakra flowing from his very blood to and from this small trinket. It is this sensation which confirms to him that this amulet really can be used to determine whether he is alive or dead. However, his positive emotions are insignificant when compared to Shinki's.
A menacing smile creeps onto Shinki's face and he does his best to prevent himself from laughing.
"I've done it. It's all in my hands now".
"Father, Uncle, I can finally take revenge for you".
Outside the Hidden Leaf Village
Laying with his back on a branch, the 1st Hokage gazes at the tree before him. He is in a position of responsibility. Following the captained six contest, it became clear that he was the village's second strongest shinobi. If one took away Naruto's ability to control the invaders' power, Hashirama may actually be on par or stronger than Naruto. However, to get stronger he must also understand the invaders' power.
It is for this reason that he is gazing at the tree.
He is trying to understand the element of 'wood'.
'I'm convinced I fully understand the element that is wood' he tells himself as he looks up and down the length of the tree. He has been sat here for hours and has been doing this for a couple of weeks now. Not only that but he has been using the wood-release for years as the central pillar of his power. 'To think that Naruto understands 'life' even more than I understand 'wood', just how thorough does your understanding need to be'.
Realising that he is making no progress, he allows his attention to wander away from the tree to the open field nearby. Normally, that open field is vacant at this time of night. Right now, however, there is a single occupant in the field.
Most people wouldn't be able to spot this single occupant. Hashirama is no ordinary man though, while he does not boast any visual dojutsu, his eyesight does exceed that of a normal human. His vision is something he attempted to train ever since Madara first reluctantly proclaimed himself to have better vision than Hashirama. Naturally, Hashirama's vision never bested Madara's but it is still something he is proud of.
It is something that allows him to identify the fields occupant.
Uchiha Sarada.
'Sarada huh…'.
In the centre of the field, Sarada has not noticed Hashirama watching her. This is despite her vastly superior vision and is because of her nervousness in this moment.
Running her hands through her hair she does her best to separate strands that have become entangled with one another. She continues this for several minutes before finally stopping, questioning what she is doing.
"What am I doing. Tidying my hair" she says as she drops her hands down to her sides, "Who cares about that sort of thing anyway".
"I think it looks quite nice" a voice calls from behind her.
Sarada turns upon hearing the familiar voice, the voice of her shadow Hokage. "Boruto…".
"Your hair that is" Boruto explains as he approaches his teammate and Hokage. "I think your hair looks quite nice".
Sarada blushes lightly at the compliment. "Yeah… thank you, Boruto".
Seeing Sarada blush amuses Boruto. He has witnessed first-hand her actions as the Hokage. She has always been fair to all her allies and has put the alliance ahead of the Leaf on many occasions. She has never been afraid to voice her opinion though and she has always been unintimidated by threats to the alliance and to her village. To see her unflustered by all the things she has had to endure in her role, only to be flustered by a small compliment is not something he had expected to see.
"You wanted to see me?" Boruto smiles.
"That's right".
"Is the village in danger or something?". Boruto has been called by Sarada on many occasions to discuss something critical that is to be kept secret between the two of them. Holding the two most important positions in the village, they have also been the two people with the most responsibility for the villagers' safety. It has been important that they keep secrets to prevent the spread of panic.
"No, it's not about the village" Sarada breathes out, "It's personal".
The shadow Hokage smiles and relaxes slightly upon hearing there is no imminent danger. "Then I'm all ears, Sarada".
"You remember when your dad saved me" the 9th Hokage asks, referring to the captained six contest and the substance that leaked from Boruto's body. "When I woke up again and you embraced me".
Just as soon as Boruto has relaxed he tenses again. "Oh" he mutters, averting his eyes, "That".
"Yeah, that. After I was saved, I was still worried that we were going to die" Sarada admits. Back then, it had still been unclear if Naruto was capable of defeating General Clyde or not. "I told you that there was something I had to say to you".
Boruto recalls this. Unfortunately, back then Tobirama had used the flying thunder god technique to appear before them and take them away. Whatever private words Sarada had wanted to say, she couldn't say, she instead joined in with Boruto and the others in praying that Naruto would win.
He looks at Sarada with a curious expression as she continues.
"And I've decided that I am going to tell you tonight".
Shikamaru's Room, The Hospital
Shikadai racks his brain as he tries to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
"I just feel like I'm missing one vital piece of information" he explains as he holds his hands together in a triangular shape, "I feel like I'm one fact away from understanding what's going on here".
"Is there anything I can do to help?". From the moment Shikadai informed Mirai that he had a hunch, she truly believed that something unusual had happened here. It is not simply a case of her considering the Nara's like family, it is a judgement she has come to after years of working with Shikadai. After Shikadai took the job as Konohamaru's assistant, he looked over lots of paperwork and missions. Nobody, not even Shikamaru, has had as much success and been as effective in strategic planning as Shikadai.
"I don't know" Shikadai admits, "Have you noticed anything strange lately?".
"No. Nothing".
A voice interrupts them.
"T… Temari…".
Shikadai's head snaps around towards the source of the weak sounding voice.
"Dad!".
"Sh… Shikadai, is that you?". Shikamaru's voice is weak but he manages to speak coherently through his pain. A result of years of enduring pain as a shinobi.
"Yes dad, it's me. Mirai and I are here for you".
Shikamaru shifts his head to the side, looking through his slightly blurry vision at the concerned faces of his and Asuma's children. He manages a weak smile as he notices they are both alright, "I see… what happened".
"You had a heart attack, dad" Shikadai explains this as he considers whether he should call a doctor or nurse now that his father has awoken. Overstressing him would be a bad idea in his current condition, even given his past as a shinobi.
"You would have died if Lord 7th hadn't saved you" Mirai continues.
"A heart attack?" Shikamaru asks as he reaches his hand out towards his son.
Shikadai takes his hand and places it back on the bed. "That's right, you had a heart attack".
The elder Nara shakes his head side-to-side and the rate of his breathing noticeably increases. "That… that can't be right" he says as he tries to look into Shikadai's eyes, "As I was dying… I felt an… another chakra… I felt something clawing… at my vitality".
Shikadai starts as his suspicions are confirmed. There is something else behind the heart attack of his father, there are unusual circumstances surrounding his heart attack. "There must be a way we can find out more about this".
Mirai clicks her fingers as she thinks of a way. "What about Shinki's puppet, perhaps that could help us find out more".
"That thing?" Shikadai asks as he reaches into his pocket. "That thing with the weird symbol on it. I still have mine in my pocket".
Outside the Hidden Leaf Village
Sarada tries to explain to Boruto what she was going to say that day.
"It's not easy for me to say this".
"Hey" Boruto says as he places a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder, "You can tell me anything, we've been through hell and back together".
Sarada nods. Of course, he would say that, despite their differences, they've witnessed the hell of the village being destroyed. They've worked together to overcome a duo with supposedly perfect teamwork. They grew up together, understanding the motivations and feelings of one another better than anybody else could.
"It's just that I don't know where this will leave us" Sarada admits.
"Sarada, it doesn't matter what you say, I'm with you for the long run, understand?".
Nodding, Sarada readies herself. "Boruto, I called you here to tell you what I was going to say on that day".
"What were you going to say Sarada?".
"Uzumaki Boruto… I'm in love with you".
Shikamaru's Room, The Hospital
As Shikadai pulls the amulet from his pocket, a funny expression comes to the face of Mirai. While Shinki had been cooking for her grandparents, he had been kind enough to invite her along, so she had an amulet corresponding to her too. That makes sense, after all, her life is of great importance to the village and her power exceeds many of those in The Circle.
"What do you mean?" she asks as she thinks to what Shikadai said, "What funny symbol?".
"This puppet that Shinki uses to monitor your vitality" Shikadai says while waving the blank side at Mirai, "It has an unusual symbol on the back".
An unusual atmosphere grasps the room and it does not escape Shikadai's notice. Both Mirai and Shikamaru are looking at him with complicated expressions. Their gaze tells him that he has said something beyond their expectations, perhaps something that they consider to be impossible. Their gaze tells him that they think he is talking nonsense.
"Shikadai" his father calls his name, "The amulet Shinki showed your mother and I… it was blank, not just on one side, it was blank on both sides".
Shikadai shakes his head, now it is his turn to pull an unusual expression and claim the others are talking nonsense.
"No, it definitely has a funny symbol on the back. Here let me show you".
Shinki's House
Shinki returns from the kitchen having put the last ingredient into his masterful dish. Naruto looks cheerfully towards his friend's son. He never would have imagined that the future Kazekage would be such a gifted chef. They exchange a few pleasantries and Naruto guesses at the secret ingredients that Shinki is using.
Shinki sits down before looking towards the amulet before Naruto.
"I will just put this amulet in my gourd with all the others" he says as he reaches across the table and picks it up by the string.
He's got it!
He has the amulet. The last piece of his puzzle, it's finally his!
Then something beyond his expectations happens.
Naruto grabs his retreating wrist!
Shinki starts before raising his eyes to look at the 7th Hokage. His expression is different from before, it is not calm nor pleasant. It is the look of a 7th Hokage who has realised something that nobody else has.
"You should know that your genjutsu won't work on me, I'm a jinchuriki".
Shinki frowns as he realises this. He has been foolish.
"But why are you even trying" Naruto asks, "We're allies, aren't we?".
Outside the Village
Boruto is stunned for a moment as he tries to look Sarada in the eyes. He cannot, Sarada's eyes are drilling into the ground at his feet, like a child who does not dare to look at a scolding adult.
"Do you mean that?" he asks.
"Yeah" Sarada admits after a moment's hesitation. "I promise, it's completely true".
"I see… I also have something that I have to tell you, Sarada".
Shinki's House
Slowly, Naruto's eyes drift from Shinki down to the amulet, the item that had been the focal point of Shinki's genjutsu.
The Kazekage has a hold on the string but not on the body of the amulet itself.
The amulet slowly turns.
The symbol edges closer to Naruto's view.
Shikamaru's Room, The Hospital
Shikadai flips the amulet around, showing the symbol to both his father and Mirai. A moment that would shape him for the rest of his life.
"Oh my god" Mirai mutters as he breathing quickens.
"This symbol" Shikamaru starts as he recalls his experience with it.
Shikadai looks between the two-distressed shinobi, clearly, they know something he does not. "What is it? What the hell is going on?".
Shinki's House
Visions of the past start to return to Naruto. Visions of a terrifying man. Of horrors that he, to this day, refuses to repeat to anyone.
"Shinki… you're…".
Shikamaru's Room, The Hospital
Shikadai leans over his father's bed and holds the amulet close to give him a good view.
"Dad, what is it? What is this symbol?".
"It's the symbol of something truly terrifying" Mirai says, causing Shikadai's head to momentarily turn in her direction.
"That symbol… it's been a long time since I've seen it" Shikamaru's shaky voice draws his son's attention back.
"This symbol…".
"… it's Jashin!".
Elsewhere a maniacal smile starts to dawn on Shinki's face.
To Naruto. To Shikamaru. To Shikadai. To Mirai. Everything starts to become clear.
The amulets are marked with the symbol of Jashin.
That must be the familiar chakra that harmed Shikamaru. It was the same chakra used by Hidan.
But then something far more terrifying dawns on them.
Shinki has given one of these amulets to the majority of the most of the powerful shinobi in the village.
Their lives are in his hands now!
Author Note:
Hi Everyone.
I apologize for not writing yesterday. I had an emergency that meant I could not write, you have my sincerest apologies for that. I know I have reiterated my schedule several times and have broken it just as many.
I appreciate that my schedule as of late has been unacceptable and I will make every effort to rectify that.
Additionally, that is a horrible cliff-hanger to give you for the weekend isn't it? I may write another chapter over the weekend but I make no promises.
As always thanks for reading,
Cbehrills