REBIRTH OF THE LEAF – JASHIN'S POWER
In the Land of Wind
Shinki and his pursuers have hit a big landmark in their race towards the temple. This is the point at which grass turns into desert, at which hope starts to slowly change into despair. Shikadai concludes that they must be well over half way through their journey. They are fast approaching the temple, the location at which the Hidden Leaf's destiny will be decided. ChouChou can't help but question one thing, why?
"What's going on Shikadai?" the Akimichi clanswomen asks as she runs alongside the brains of the team, "Why are we still chasing him?".
Previously, a pair of attacks, each co-ordinated by Shikadai had shattered Shinki's formation of amulets. Initially, ChouChou herself had used her expansion powers to snatch a whole group of them at once. After that, Shikadai forced Shinki to overexert himself, to use all of his iron sand at once before penetrating the defence using raw power, much to Shikadai's detriment. Due to these facts, it should all be over, why are they still running?
Shikadai looks at the surroundings and the sense of achievement begins to fade by the second. For whatever reason, his cousin is running. What does he hope to achieve, without any amulets, what sort of plan could he have formulated? Or is this Shinki's plan at all, could this be the plan of the voice in his head, could this be Jashin's plan.
"Shikadai!" Inojin shouts, bringing The Circle's administrator back to reality.
"I don't know why but he is still running" Shikadai points out with desperation in his voice. If there is another way for him to obtain power, if there is another way he can gain strength, then it would be disastrous should he take out his rage on the Hidden Leaf. If Shinki is running so that he obtains more power, this could be the most important moment in the history of this world.
"What are you talking about?" ChouChou asks, still confused about the nature of this pursuit.
"If he didn't have another way to complete his plan, he would have just taken the amulets back" Shikadai declares as he looks sideways at his teammate. "If he fought us head on there is no way we could win".
This is only natural, the only reason they have been able to do so well so far is that they have caught Shinki off-guard using the tricks that Shikadai has thought up. If the Ino-Shika-Cho was to clash with the Kazekage head-on, there is no way they could win. Despite that, Shinki has not attacked them, he has made no efforts to reclaim the amulets. Shikadai is right, there must be another reason, another way to follow through his plans.
"Couldn't he be running away from us?". ChouChou still hasn't realised what Shikadai has, that there is still something truly dangerous about this situation. "He could think that we are chasing him before imprisoning him".
Shikadai doesn't speak the words aloud but he knows there are flaws in this logic. Not only is Shinki too strong for this but he is not someone who is afraid to face the consequences for his actions. Gaara hadn't believed in being hard on Shinki during his youth, he had wished to show the same love to his son that his mother had shown to him. This left it up to Shinki to discipline himself, to ask others to discipline him. Shinki, the Kazekage, the shinobi, even the gennin, he has always been disciplined.
"We wouldn't have the ability to arrest him". The Nara clansmen shakes his head as he labels this deduction as fact in his own mind. "He still has another plan".
Shinki terrifies them with his actions. The previous look of desperation that he wore has now been replaced by one with hope. His smile increases in size with every passing moment. One of them rises from the pit of despair, the other falls further into it. They both come to realise, this is it, the temple must be close.
Shikadai gasps as he realises his one oversight.
"He still has one amulet" he stammers as his face turns white as a sheet.
Inojin and ChouChou search their brains, looking for the evidence that Shinki has one more amulet. They start to realise it to, not every amulet had been in that formation of iron sand. There is one more amulet.
There was one amulet Shinki placed into his pocket.
Shikadai declares the worst-case scenario.
"He still has Lord 7th's amulet!".
Inojin's father sacrificed himself for the village. He has been one of the Hidden Leaf's many officers whom have lead the fight against the invaders. He has as much of a stake in the fate of the Hidden Leaf Village as anyone else. That is why he understands just how important Naruto is to the village. Soon Hashirama may be strong enough to protect them from Clyde, maybe after that even Boruto and Sarada will be, but for the moment there is only one person who can. Only his father's saviour can protect them, only Uzumaki Naruto.
"If Lord 7th is sacrificed, we're done for" Inojin shouts.
They come over the top of a hill, passing the final of many false peaks in a sand dune. Over the other side, the outlines of a building can be just about made out. Judging from the euphoric look on Shinki's face, this is the final straight, that is the temple of Jashin. This is it.
ChouChou screams as she points to the giant structure. "That's the temple".
Shikadai is also screaming in his head, "We have no time left…".
Inojin recalls his father's sacrifice and digs down inside himself, finding his resolve.
His scroll unrolls at a rate his teammates haven't witnessed before. As images of his father flash through his mind, images of birds appear on the sheets. Ten, twenty, forty, one hundred.
He creates one hundred ink-birds.
"Inojin…" Shikadai starts.
"I'll force him to spread out his perfect defence" Inojin roars as he pursues Shinki, his eyes unmoving as he looks at his target. A target which threatens the peace built on his father's blood.
"I can buy you one shot, don't miss".
Shikadai doesn't dare to waste time staring, instead he looks to his side and speaks a single word. "ChouChou".
She doesn't even need to ask what he is going to say, what he is going to request. She uses her expansion technique to enlarge her hand to an appropriate size. She takes hold of Shikadai and lifts him into the air.
This is their final chance!
In a perfectly co-ordinated instant, all of the ink-birds dive towards Shinki at once. Inojin doesn't suffer that severe a backlash from this but his chakra reserves are very depleted. This is his power, the power he has achieved after years of training, a power he is dedicating to Sai.
Shinki throws his hand out to the side of his body unceremoniously, creating his copy of his father's perfect defence. There is not a single opening in this defence but there is a weakness, it can be penetrated by raw power, something ChouChou can generate a lot of. He saw what they were preparing to do before, he saw their plan, that ChouChou is going to throw Shikadai at him. Unfortunately for them, Shinki is ready.
'You won't find it Shikadai' the Kazekage declares as his cousin is thrown towards him at full speed.
'I remember. I remember where you put Lord 7th's amulet back in the Hidden Leaf" Shikadai says in his head. The two know what one another are thinking on an almost telepathic level.
'You saw me put it into my pocket' Shinki muses to himself.
'The smoke bomb complicates things' Shikadai notes.
Back then, the only time he couldn't see Shinki was when the smoke obscured him.
'You dug your own grave when you threw that smoke bomb. You have no idea where I put it' Shinki struggles to keep himself from laughing, 'I've outsmarted you this time, Shikadai!'.
As Shikadai hurtles towards the sand he has one final thought on the matter.
'Nobody outsmarts a Nara'.
As he bursts through the sand, he focuses on the calculations he made mid-flight. He computed the possibilities, where would Shinki put it. No matter where it was, if Shikadai could work it out he would be able to take it. Shinki would have thought of that, he would put it somewhere that Shikadai is least likely to expect.
He would put it in the most ridiculous and predictable place.
Shikadai reaches for it and squeezes his hand into a fist, praying that he takes hold of something.
He reaches for Shinki's other pocket!
Bursting through the other end of the sand, Shikadai tumbles along the floor before regaining his balance.
He lifts his hand into the air to reveal Naruto's amulet.
"I GOT IT!" he shouts.
"He got it Inojin" ChouChou runs to her teammates side and pats him in the back, supporting him in his exhausted state, "He actually got it".
"That's Shikadai for you" Inojin smiles, thankful that he entrusted the village to his childhood friend, "He actually worked out where Shinki was hiding the last amulet in a split second".
In the distance Hashirama watches on with a smile.
'It's over'.
'Shinki won't be able to keep his cool when trying to retrieve the amulets'.
'You've defeated a Kazekage consumed by vengeance, Ino-Shika-Cho'.
'You can take pride in this as Hidden Leaf Shinobi'.
At the same time, the opposite emotions are passing through Shinki's head as Jashin berates him.
"Failure, absolute failure, you are incompetent, Shinki" the frustrated deity scolds his final disciple, "You are not worthy of my power, you do not deserve your vengeance".
Shinki follows Hashirama's predictions perfectly. He loses his own talent as a shinobi as he launches towards Shikadai. "Give it back" he screams. In this moment, he has lost all rational thought, he has been consumed by rage, consumed by the emotions that Jashin has bread within him.
ChouChou's club like enlarged arms swing through the air, batting Shinki through the nearby walls of the temple.
In his rage, the Kazekage forgot to activate his defence. That is its greatest weakness, it requires rational thought and manual activation.
She and Inojin run over to the bloodied Shikadai's side. Unlike before, it is not just his arm that is bad condition, his entire body is covered in small cuts. They are slowly starting to close but his body is, temporarily at least, died red.
"Shikadai, you're all cut up".
"That looked like fun" Inojin pants as he digs deep within himself to find some chakra for medical jutsu.
"It was a complete pain, I hope I never had to do it again" Shikadai sighs.
He smiles. "What a drag".
As the trio exchange smiles, they realise that this is their victory, they have won. They have overcome the danger that was confronting the Leaf.
This is the power of the Ino-Shika-Cho.
A groan comes from nearby, from Shinki.
"What do we do with him?" ChouChou asks. At the moment, he seems in no-state to fight, they could probably even arrest him without bother.
Shikadai hands over all the amulets he has to ChouChou. "You guys take these back to the Hidden Leaf as quickly as possible".
"I'm going to talk to him".
"Will you be alright?" Inojin questions, paying no heed to the fact he has no power left to call upon.
"Yeah, I'll be fine".
"Shouldn't one of us stay with you at least" ChouChou asks, Shikadai's injuries have been reduced but they are still very much present. "You're all beaten up".
"ChouChou" the Shika element of the trio places his hand on his Cho counterparts shoulder, "I will be fine, trust me".
She can only smile at that confidence, he isn't doing this as a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf, now he is acting as Shinki's cousin. "OK, let's go Inojin".
As ChouChou and Inojin depart, Shikadai enters the temple andq approaches his cousin for the fateful conversation.
The Kazekage coughs up blood onto the floor next to him as he gazes helplessly up at the man who overcame him. "Have you come to gloat cousin?".
"No" he answers, "I've come to save you".
"Save me" Shinki starts, "Save me from what".
"From revenge, it consumes people, changes who they are and it's never pretty". A lesson the Hidden Leaf Village knows better than any other. A lesson that is known particularly well within their household. A lesson learnt by the likes of Gaara, Sasuke, Obito and even Madara. They have only been happy in their death when they worked against the force of hatred, when they acted with the will of fire.
"That's what you would say" Shinki snorts disdainfully, "But you don't know how much I have lost, how I feel. I lost my father, my uncle, my village".
"Shut up!" Shikadai shouts, momentarily angered by this assumption, "Konkuro, Gaara, they are my family too. I may not have lost as much as you but I don't want to change that".
"I don't want to lose my cousin".
Shinki gasps before closing his eyes, these are his cousin's words that have finally reached him. They have touched his heart.
"You could have just let me kill them" Shinki sighs, referring to Clyde and his invaders, "They deserve to die for what they have done".
"Maybe they do but The Circle has made its decision".
The Kazekage laughs at this, that is a governmental system that he is part of. A decision-making process which rendered a decision he doesn't agree with. "Your system of government, where the people of today are ruled by those of the past. Are you sure I am the one who has lost myself?".
"I am" Shikadai declares as he looks his cousin directly in the eyes, "Shinki, just now when I took that last amulet, when I stole away your chance at revenge, something snapped inside you".
"You lunged for me, you tried to take it away and dropped your defence completely".
"ChouChou could only hit you because you went mad, you lost your sense".
"It is you who lost himself".
Shinki remains quiet for a long while, keeping his eyes closed before finally reopening them and looking sincerely towards the man who has defeated him.
"Shikadai, can I ask a favour?".
"Anything" the Nara instantly replies.
"Will you… save me…".
That is what he has been waiting to hear. That is what finally makes Shikadai feel his mission is complete. He had wanted to save everyone when he set out from the village. After getting Lord 7th's amulet there is only one person left to save. The Kazekage.
"I will".
Shinki takes a deep breath before lunging into his subconscious to do the deed. He is going to end the most terrifying cult to have graced this Earth. He is going to end the cult of Jashin.
"I'm letting go" Shinki smiles as he declares this to the voice that has been following him, "Lord Jashin, I no longer want your help".
Something different happens.
Jashin's voice doesn't resound in Shinki's head.
Jashin speaks aloud, for them both to hear.
Jashin laughs hysterically, maddened just like Shinki had been not a moment ago. "That Shinki, I cannot allow"
"This voice" Shinki mutters as he looks frantically left and right. He knows the terrified expression on his cousin's face must mean his suspicions are true, Jashin just spoke aloud. "It's Lord Jashin".
A crack opens in the temple floor and blood begins to flow out of it.
"What on earth is going on?" Shikadai asks as he watches the blood defy gravity, raising up into the air.
Shinki drags himself to his feet. Now that his cousin has vowed to save him, he resolved to protect him. He is not going to let Shikadai be the victim for his mistakes anymore. "Cousin, we need to get out of here…".
As Shinki begins to step towards Shikadai, the blood revolves around him in a helical pattern. Starting from his feet, it revolves around to the back of his legs before rising to come level with his chest. When it gets high enough, it forms a sphere, much like Shinki's perfect defence, only smaller. That sphere is not hollow, it is solid blood, and it engulfs Shinki's entire head.
Shikadai watches on in horror as blood pours into Shinki's brain through his ears, mouth and nose. It is a terrifying sight, his body twitches as he is drowned in the red liquid.
When the blood finally stops flowing, it takes Shinki a moment before he steadies himself.
"Shinki, are you alright?" Shikadai asks as he cautiously steps towards his cousin.
A red glint appears in the eye of the latter. A red glowing ball appears nestled on his shoulder. The shade of red is very much reminiscent of the blood that was flowing into Shinki not a moment ago, it is reminiscent of the glint seen his eye. Shikadai has no evidence on which to base his assumption but he is certain of how to identify this floating ball. It is Jashin.
"Shinki, you may have failed but I still require sacrifices" the red ball explains with a voice identical to the one Shikadai heard a few moments ago, "I've given you a portion of my power. Now you will do as I wish".
"You bastard" Shikadai curses as he clenches his fist, "You were never going to give him the power you promised".
Jashin chuckles deeply at this outburst. "I intended to give him the power I promised. I have given him the power I promised. However, I never promised I would allow him to retain his free will".
Grinding his teeth, Shikadai pulls out a kunai and bends his knees. He remembers his promise and vows to keep it. "Don't worry Shinki, I will save you".
"Shinki" Jashin begins, "This is the first sacrifice I require, kill him".
Following the orders of his god, Shinki lifts iron sand into the air behind him. Not only does he lift iron sand though, he also lifts another substance, it is the blood that entered his body not a few moments ago, acidic blood. He slams them both down towards Shikadai like waves crashing against rocks. The force of the attack is greater than what Shinki had been capable of previously, Jashin has indeed given him the power he promised. This is a power that could threaten even a colonel.
Shikadai spits out some blood of his own before forcing his way back to his feet. 'Shinki has lost his self-control' he concludes, 'His fighting style isn't as good as before but he has calmed back down somewhat, how am I supposed to defeat him like this?'.
As the Kazekage raises the two offensive substances once again, Shikadai decides to run. He evacuates, sprinting out of the temple and into the desert. 'How?' he asks himself again and again, 'How am I supposed to defeat him?'.
Hashirama watches on, clenching his fists so tightly that blood is pouring down from his hands. 'How am I supposed to keep calm while seeing this?'.
'I decided to think more rationally, more like Madara. I decided I would fight not for the will of those who haven't suffered but those who have. I decided to fight for Mito's dying wishes. I decided to kill the invaders'.
'If I leave Shinki to it he will probably go and attack them. If he tries to attack the village, I can protect everyone. However, if I am going to let him, I have to sacrifice Shikadai to him'.
'Dammit Hashirama' the 1st Hokage curses himself with a lowered head, 'Aren't you still a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village'.
He pauses for a moment before unclenching his fists. 'Sorry Shikadai, I'm going to carry through the will of the dead. I'm going to use my head before my heart. I'm going to change, for the sake of Mito's dying wishes'.
Shinki exits the temple and leaps towards Shikadai as an opening appears.
'There's nothing I can do' the Nara clansmen observes as he watches on in terror.
Just as the space between the two of them contracts, a burning ball of fire slams down from the sky, exploding between the two of them in a ball of flame.
"This is…".
'I can't feel any chakra' Hashirama frowns as he looks at the fire, it must be the invaders' power but who could have done that'. As he sees the newcomer to the fight he gasps. He never expected it to be this man.
"I felt something strange so I came as fast as I can" the newcomer explains as he walks up to Shikadai from behind. "And I'm glad I did, it looks like the village is in real trouble".
"You're…" Shikadai begins.
"Kato Dan!".
Dan's arms begin to burn. Flames appear along their length, flames more powerful than any he could have created using chakra.
"I don't know who you are but you're clearly being controlled" Dan says as he first meets the controlled Kazekage.
"It doesn't matter though, I'm putting a stop to your plans".
"Right now".