WAR NEVER ENDS – MIRACLES
The Battlefield
Brooks has victory in her sites. With Hiruzen desperately flailing around at this point, Tsunade's morale shattered and Peterson on death's door defeat is almost unthinkable. She dares not be complacent at this point though. If the reports are to be believed then one of these locals actually defeated Clyde, someone much stronger than herself. If one of them were capable of doing that then it isn't unthinkable that the same could happen to her.
She runs towards Hiruzen, the childish smile from before now gone and replaced by a laser focus. For her this is the closing stretch.
Hiruzen's deep breaths are telling of his position. He is exhausted, hanging on by his fingertips. He has resolved himself to losing this fight and is instead hoping to weaken Brooks, if only slightly, for the fights she is yet to have.
Just as Brooks is about to reach the 3rd Hokage, he creates an 'earth' wall between them, creating a momentary respite.
The respite is just that though, momentary. In less than a second Brooks has thrown herself around the wall and behind Hiruzen's back. She jumps up so her waist is level with his head before kicking his face into the stony wall. A small dent is left in the 'earth' wall as Hiruzen's head separates from it and he falls towards the floor.
Brooks smells blood, literally and figuratively. Her opponent lands on his back but she wants to see this end. She wants to see the look on his face when she defeats him. She uses her foot to roll him over onto his back. The light in his eyes is gone now. There is a decided lack of determination about him. She brings out some movement on him by brutally stamping on his chest, an attack that would make it difficult for him to breathe.
Hiruzen feels done, looking up at her, he wonders what he could have done. There is an air about her different to General Clyde. Hiruzen, even without fighting, could feel a humanity from Clyde. Although he didn't fully understand it at the time, Clyde was fighting to protect his comrades. Brooks is different, fighting with a machine-like efficiency where no such positive emotions come through in her body language. All there is to her is a frantic self-preservation instinct and a childish pleasure in her own superiority. Could anyone have won this fight?
Brooks raises her hand into the air, a golden 'ice' sword slowly forming in it. She too understands that he has given up.
'Could anyone have beaten her?'.
As the sword lowers, four people come to mind as an answer.
Uzumaki Boruto.
Uchiha Sarada.
Senju Hashirama.
Uzumaki Naruto.
A brief moment of defiance, he stretches his hand forward and catches Brooks' wrist, stopping the lowering of the sword.
That light is back in his eyes.
Brooks pulls her sword back, throwing her hand sideways as if to slap someone. As she makes this gesture, golden 'ice' raises from the ground and freezes Hiruzen's hands in position, preventing any possibility of him moving.
The brief moment of defiance was for nought.
He closes his eyes. 'Biwako, I'm sorry…'.
It is over.
Or so he thought.
His eyes are opened again when he hears a deafening thunderclap.
He sees a flash of golden 'lightning' knock the sword from Brooks hands. He immediately knows that such an attack could only be Peterson but is certain that the previous attack should have put him down for the count. The attack causes a temporary blindness but after he recovers he looks to his left to see the same sight Brooks is seeing.
Tsunade is holding Peterson upright.
Brooks shoulders drop. She sighs in a way that a child should never sigh. It is like she has been fighting for a million years and has just found out she needs to do another thousand.
"Haven't you had enough yet?".
"Don't underestimate… a colonel who… has served under General Clyde".
"Is that supposed to be a joke?" Brooks mocks a laugh, "Do you honestly think you can beat me how you are now? You couldn't even beat me in your best shape".
Hiruzen knows this to be true. 'Tsunade… Peterson…'.
There is something to the look in their eyes though. A confidence. A determination not to lose no matter what.
Peterson pulls his arm away from Tsunade's grip, standing proudly on his own two feet despite his injuries. He knows that she hates him and that the conflict here is destroying her emotionally. The warrior within him refuses to permit this conflict to last any longer.
"With that jutsu, will you survive no matter what I do to you?".
"Yes" Tsunade answers.
"Then we can do this, just don't stop attacking".
Brooks laments. "It seems like you two have a plan. You just don't seem to get it, no matter how much you suffer. It looks like I'm going have to kill you until you stay dead, Peterson".
Brooks dashes towards Peterson. Her feet of the golden 'ice', her pace slowed. She has little concern though, there is no way that the colonel can out run her now.
"Go" Peterson commands.
Tsunade runs forwards and for the first time has a head on collision with Brooks that neither can escape from.
Tsunade throws her fist forward with tremendous power. Brooks immediately knows that she has lost the contest of strength but can win the contest of ability. She coats her fist in a glove of golden 'ice'.
As the first punch collides the golden 'ice' is shattered. This is no obstacle to Brooks, she can remake it again. She has the talent to redo this sort of attack all day. Tsunade is different though, each time their fists collide the golden 'ice' shatters. The sharpest of the shards bury themselves between the Hokage's knuckles, giving her a deep and painful cut. Though, she is not hopeless, for she too can keep doing this, thanks to her hundred healings jutsu.
The punches keep colliding, each warrior determined to outlast the other. Something has to change and it does.
Peterson summons divine energy to his right hand and blasts golden 'lightning' towards the pair. The target of his attack, much to Hiruzen's surprise, is Tsunade.
The shock would hurt others tremendously but Tsunade is different. Combining her hundred healings with her newly acquired sage mode, her recovery rate and ability to take damage is unrivalled.
While the Hokage is shocked constantly, each time fists collide Brooks is also given a tiny shock.
'This method of attacking is suicidal´ Brooks notes as she continues to punch. It is only a mild pain for her so she has no qualms with keeping this up. 'It hurts her three times more than it does me'.
Her confidence is shattered when she spies something over Tsunade's shoulder. It's Peterson's smiling face. She then realises that she has fallen into a trap.
'That's right'. Peterson knows that she has understood. 'You couldn't imagine a local being able to take an attack like this, could you Brooks? This may seem like suicide but this woman is different. Combining her healing technique and sage mode, her endurance is FOUR times higher than yours'.
Brooks is confused, considering possibility as if she could read Peterson's mind. Is that possible, four times the endurance? This woman is a local, she is a general. A local defeating a general is unheard of. One of them having an endurance four times greater? Then she is unsure of whether that is possible. If a local were to give their all towards developing one attribute, could they outdo a general by four times?
Her distraction costs her.
Tsunade dodges Brooks next punch and replies with one of her own, this time catching Brooks in her forehead.
A perfect circuit. For an instant, Peterson greatly increases the strength of his lightning. An enormous thunderclap to match the one from before sounds and both Brooks and Tsunade fall down to the ground.
Tsunade is paralysed but that won't last long, if Peterson can win this fight now then her temporary sacrifice will have paid off.
Brooks feels a tremendous amount of pain. As her back falls towards the ground she begins to make a plan of how to dodge the next attack.
She hits the floor quicker than expected. Not only that but her back seems to be rising, propping her feet up against the ground.
Shocked, she looks a few yards to her side. Hiruzen has pulled one of his hands free and raised the 'earth' beneath her.
"You…"
"Do it!" Hiruzen yells at the top of his voice.
Once more the thunderclap sounds and the golden 'lightning' strikes Brooks in her chest.
The very 'earth' behind Brooks back collapses and seemingly without control, she falls down to the ground.
Peterson takes a few steps closer and looks at the downed body of Brooks. He rolls her onto her front and inspects her eyes.
Unconscious.
He cranes his neck back and howls like a wolf at the moon.
"YES!".
They have won.
Tsunade cannot fully control her movement yet but can force a smile. She knows what that sound must mean.
Hiruzen breaks his other hand free and walks over to his student's side before helping her to her feet.
"You're OK?" Tsunade asks.
"I should be asking you that. But yeah, thanks to you and Peterson, I'm OK".
Tsunade, once on her feet, sits straight back down again, taking a moment to allow her body to recover.
"We won sensei… we won…".
Elsewhere on the Battlefield
Lara looks slightly confused as her eyes are drawn towards the conclusion of the battle. Of all those under her she always rated Brooks highly, believing that her power was being held back only by her non-transcendent element. To see her lose like this is both shocking and disappoint. It leaves a bad taste in her mouth.
"Brooks and Blackburn, both those fools are just the same. All these big shots posing as generals, they are all just trash".
She starts when she looks back towards Clyde. He has gone.
She senses a tingling on the back of her neck as the air pressure changes. As a precaution she teleports to the position that Clyde disappeared from and narrowly avoids the incoming punch from behind.
Clyde used a sneak attack!
"Lara, don't be distracted by my sides victories. You will need to concentrate, since I am your opponent".
"Clyde!".
Elsewhere on the Battlefield
Mirai smiles at Elliot's sideward glance. "What's the matter? Are you flustered now that your ally lost?".
"I'm surprised, I thought Brooks was better than that. No matter".
"Are you trying to tell me you aren't shaken? You're going to need to be at your best if you want to beat me".
Elliot snickers slightly. This whole situation is ridiculous. "I'm not flustered, simply surprised".
"That's going to change when I win".
Elliot feels the divine energy approaching and the air changing in pressure. Unlike Lara, he senses the change on a great scale, in whole batches as Mirai manipulates the 'wind'. He waits patiently for the moment that he knows will be coming, her attack.
Mirai flicks her wrist, a small fiery chakra exiting through the tips of her fingers ignites the condensed air on mass. As the oxygen concentration increases so does the intensity until eventually it arrives right before Elliot and detonates.
The general flies sideways at the last second to avoid the detonation, though he notes that for all his freezing 'cold' battles, this one feels relatively warm.
"Beat me? We will have to see if you are capable first, little local".
Elsewhere on the Battlefield
Minato is also sensitive to the change in momentum. It's not like before where they started to believe that victory was possible. This is different, the odds are now in their favour. They haven't lost yet, not a single battle.
Georgia furiously launches poison attacks at Minato, repeatedly stretching her hands out before throwing the mauve liquid towards him.
Naturally, for someone of such a speedy disposition, avoiding this attack is not difficult. He dances left and right through the air to avoid the first few attacks before he notices what is happening. She is not acting logically, there is an opening here, if he can take it. He dodges once more to the left before launching a pair of kunai at Georgia, a two second delay between the two throws. He then dodges to the right and waits for the exact right moment. When the exact moment arrives, he begins to condense chakra in his hand and teleports.
Georgia realises instantly what has happened and starts to condense her own divine energy into a spherical shape. She turns around just in time.
The two spheres collide and both warriors are knocked backwards.
"Sister!" Martin yells as he watches the exchange in blows.
Minato regrets what turns out to be a missed opportunity. He spent too long planning the attack instead of doing what he should have done, acting on instinct.
Still, the momentum is with him. "Do you feel that, the momentum in this fight where you thought we had no chance? It's shifted completely, our side is winning. Perhaps the next one to win, will be me".
Georgia curses him. "Damn you monkey, damn you".
When she came here she never believed that this would happen. It was unthinkable. Yet now she stares defeat in the face. She must hold off until Minato has exhausted his power, otherwise she will be the next to lose.
Elsewhere on the Battlefield
Shinki puts up a powerful barrier of iron sand but it is not enough. A grey tentacle bursts through the sand, hits the ground just in front of him and sends him spiralling back toward his cousin.
Shikadai catches him with a cushion of 'darkness'. "Do you feel that; our side is winning".
"Yeah" Shinki nods, "No matter how steely your resolve, you must be feeling slightly concerned".
Tao Ma's face is the picture of surprise.
"Me? Concerned? Not at all" he says. "I don't care which side wins here. After all, it will all be useless once my leader arrives".
Shinki is unsure but Shikadai can see that this isn't an empty bluff. Even if Clyde's side win this battle, there is something worse coming and this random alliance of shinobi and captains may not be enough to stop it.
Clyde's Headquarters
Sarada feels almost nothing, no control over her muscles as she looks into the eyes of Sheer. So resolute yet at the same time so conflicted. To hear so many voices saying so many different things yet shut them all out, save one, that is truly difficult. Sarada appreciates this because she has seen it on a much larger scale. Sheer clings to the orders of her heroic general but Naruto didn't even have that, he only had his own conviction against those who claimed he was wrong.
She tries to straighten her spine and consider the possibility of fighting. She realises there is none. Unlike many of the other Kage she has no control of divine energy, she only has chakra. Without divine energy, not even Naruto was able to defeat a general one-on-one, what chance would she have? Additionally, while Sheer has broken through to the general level she is not alone, she is flanked by several colonel level fighters.
She has only one option left, words.
"Sheer, please help me. You have to free Naruto".
"You know that I can't do that Sarada".
Sarada looks to the others, her rinnegan now deactivated. "All of you, you have to listen to me. You can feel it can't you, that woman is stronger than Clyde. If you let this go on, your general, your friend, he will die".
"You're going to have to do better than that" says Dred solemnly. They have heard this several times now.
"A lifetime of suffering" Grace recalls, "The general is willing to sacrifice himself to stop it".
"And don't act like he's going to lose just like that" Burns snaps angrily, "We believe in the general, he is going to win".
Sarada shakes her head, her energy gone from her body. "But you can feel it, there is another strong aura there. An aura I know well, the aura of the man who took Boruto. Even without divine energy I can feel it. You haven't accounted for him… shouldn't you at least go and fight him Sheer?".
They all groan. That was a pathetic attempt to make Sheer leave and they all know it.
"I'm not leaving. I am making sure Naruto stays here" she says, "And if it's any consolation, we believe in the Hidden Leaf Village too".
With Hinata on the verge of tears, Sarada's energy returns to her.
Rage, it's a powerful tool when used correctly.
Sarada has endured years' worth of death and this is her reward.
"You believe in the hidden leaf village… is that supposed to be some sort of joke...".
"If you believed in us, you wouldn't be keeping Naruto in there".
"If you believed in us, you would fight alongside us, we would all use our full power".
"You haven't got as much to lose as we have" Sheer rebukes, "We have to avoid the risk of losing Naruto".
"Who are you to decide that we have less to lose!".
"There are billions of people in our world who are depending on Naruto. There are simply thousands in your world".
"Who cares about the damn numbers? Aren't you ruled by your heart, aren't you even a human being?".
"You've only just rebuilt, you have already lost everything. My people… my people still have a home to lose…".
Sarada goes quiet for a moment. Is that what it really boils down to? Do the villagers have nothing left to lose anymore? She thinks of her own losses, of her father and her mother and Boruto. For a moment she is selfish but then remembers her duty, she is the Hokage, everyone in the village is her family. In the last war, so many lives were lost, so many people lost their family, their friends, their homes, they lost everything. Yet since rebuilding, smiles have returned. That sense of affection is still there for the village. Everyone still wants to live.
"You don't understand what we have been through and what we've built" Sarada shouts.
"We went through hell to survive against you".
"We gave everything to the fight, we left nothing behind and sacrificed everything".
"My father, my mother, my teacher, they all gave their lives because of what you did".
"But from the ashes of everything we built a home… we created a home…".
"We created an emotion… a desire to live once again".
"Do you know how difficult that is, to create a home?".
"So don't you dare tell me to throw it away because of your pathetic numbers!".
Exhausted, Sarada can only lower her head.
Since the beginning, Sheer and Sarada have been the ones fighting one another. Sheer raised the army of deceased warriors that Sarada sacrificed to hold back. Sarada brought the Hokage to the future to hold back the enemy tides. Sheer resurrected her father and forced him to kill her mother. Sarada destroyed Sheer's most powerful ever resurrection. Sheer mercilessly attacked Sarada in the tournament. Sarada saved Sheer from her own hopeless situation and made her believe again.
Sheer feels a connection with Sarada. It must be fate she tells herself. Perhaps there is some cruel element in destiny that has connected their suffering. She vows to herself that after this she will do everything she can for Sarada. She vows that there is nothing she will not do to keep alive the hope that both their suffering may be alleviated.
Sheer approaches Sarada and places a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sure that it has been hell for you. That is my fault and I will never be able to tell you how sorry I am".
"Even more than Naruto, you are the local who has influenced me most in this world. That's why it hurts me to do this".
"But I'm sorry Sarada, I am duty bound to save my world, just like you. And for that, I'm willing to do anything".
There is a pause.
Total silence ensues.
Then Sarada takes a deep breath and starts to raise her head.
Sheer swears that she can feel something in her fingertips.
'Oh no. No way' Sheer curses in her mind, 'No, this can't be happening'.
Hinata gasps looking at Sarada, something has changed!
Sarada's head draws level with Sheer and she opens her eyes. Not to reveal the rinnegan but just her normal, unaltered eyes.
Except one thing has changed.
A small wispy powder comes from her tear ducts. A jade powder.
Sarada clenches her fist. The powder intensifies and concentrates around Sheer's chest. Then the newly enlightened colonel is knocked back by ten steps.
"What the hell?" Dred bellows as his comrade is knocked back.
"This is…" Grace starts.
Burns knows.
"It's an element… a transcendent element…".
"You mean like the general's? An element that…".
"No, not like the generals. He can transcend only one level. This is like Naruto… an element that transcends two levels…".
They all stare awe-stricken at Sarada. A doubly transcendent element has never appeared within the military, at least not to their knowledge. They are so incredibly rare that not one has ever appeared. Yet in this tiny pocket world which puts up so much resistance all the time, not only has one appeared but a second one as well.
"Creation" Sarada tells them.
They hadn't been expecting that. 'Creation'? Here? Unthinkable!
Hinata smiles widely. "Sarada… have you really… the stone tablet…".
"It says 'creation'" Sarada repeats.
"Sarada…" Sheer begins.
"Sheer" she replies. "Open the prison".