WAR NEVER ENDS – BATTLE OF THE TRANSCENDENT
The Battlefield
Naruto and Hashirama stand opposite one another and the whole world seems to stand still. It is Naruto's first time understanding that expression. A silence has encapsulated the whole battlefield with Sarada's declaration that they will fight. People should be running but they are on their toes, electricity coursing through their body as they wait. Even Sarada's attention has now wavered slightly and come to focus on the two mightiest warriors to ever come from the Hidden Leaf village.
Naruto is the first to act; without shifting from the spot he activates six paths sage mode. The same orange chakra that Kurama controls surrounds his body. Flecks of orange chakra float for a few centimetres as they detach from Naruto's newly wielded aura before dissipating and becoming one with the atmosphere. The small whir of energy accompanies the orange light as the sole indicators of Naruto's incredible energy. Comparatively the light is dim, the sound quiet, barely any energy is wasted. It speaks volumes to Naruto's control, the insane power that he has mastered combined with the subtle façade with which he hides it.
Hashirama too is a sage. He need not wait for the minutes to pass, as he used to when he first learnt sage mode. With just a flicker of will, nature chakra comes flooding towards him at an alarming rate. A technique comparable with Naruto's six paths sage mode but perhaps even more subtle. The dark green markings on his face are the only change, dimmer than the orange glow, quieter than the mechanical whir. He wonders if perhaps he has superior control over nature chakra to Naruto but quickly dismisses the idea. This is not a man he can underestimate.
Not a single person on the battlefield is left to guess at the power the two of them wield. Even shinobi who have no conception of divine energy can feel it in the Hokages' chakra. In this moment, and perhaps forever, Naruto and Hashirama have earnt their titles as the mightiest wielders of chakra the world has ever seen. Yet their reactions barely account for the speed with which the fight begins.
Naruto kicks the ground, launching himself forward. The sound of him cutting through the air is just as before, and the awe of the shinobi who watch him only comes after he has skidded to a halt. He is just in front of his opponent.
Hashirama is not like the others though, the only person on the battlefield who can truly keep up with Naruto, he can follow these movements, he can react to them in time. He pivots backwards slightly on one foot, leaving Naruto with a lesser area to strike with the inevitably incoming punches, and putting his favoured right hand between the two of them.
Naruto sees this but doesn't change anything. He has the momentum with him from when he kicked the ground and he cares not to waste it. Furthermore, this is his opportunity to put Hashirama on the defensive. He throws the first punch with his left hand, arching his arm up into Hashirama's body as he aims for the Senju clansmen's protected chest.
Blocked. Hashirama lowers his hand beneath the pivot of the elbow and thrusts it downward to push the incoming punch away.
Just according to Naruto's calculations, for the next punch he jumps slightly, giving him the angle to throw a right-fisted punch down into the side of Hashirama's exposed head.
Hashirama is too quick though, pushing the same blocking arm as before in the reverse direction, he uses his elbow to protect his skull from the 'life' coated fist of his enemy. Punches like this come in threes, that is always how they are planned and there will always be an opening when the third comes. To that end he pivots back to his original position and anticipates the incoming blow.
You need to take advantage of your openings, especially in a fight like this. Naruto knows this basic fact, as does Hashirama, and the blonde shinobi is depending on it. He throws the telegraphed left hand he planned from the beginning, this time targeting his enemy's throat.
There is an easy escape from this punch and Hashirama knows it, step backwards or duck. Keep the same horizontal position relative to your opponent so that you may revert to the exact position quickly and continue to attack them. He doesn't do that though, his years of fighting experience against opponents like Madara compel him to act with superior style. Instead he slips backwards and sideways, moving to allow him a strike at the unprotected region left by Naruto's arching left arm, a region he strikes at with his own right hook.
As the powerful fist flies at Naruto he doesn't panic as most would. It is a superior punch, one that only a true genius could position themselves to do. It is a style that Naruto has fought against for his entire life. He ducks, allowing the right hook to pass over him. To attack he now must swing himself to the left, leaving his preferred right arm as the fastest moving part of his body. Now he is going to let his fist fly, his first truly powerful strike in the exchange, with his high-speed preferred arm against Hashirama's unprepared weaker arm.
With 'life' coating his hand, Naruto is an intimidating presence to Hashirama. The leader of the 'death' controlling group clad his own hand with his element, running through the possibilities, unsure of how he got the worse of that exchange. Then he understands, it isn't because Naruto is a genius, it's because he is the best at fighting against them.
The strong hand of Naruto and the weak hand of Hashirama collide. With a resounding thud and a strong wave of pressure spreading around the battlefield, the Senju gets the worst of the encounter and is forced to step backward three steps.
A shinobi covers his face after being hit with the pressure wave. "Incredible… did anyone see that?".
"I could see it happening but wouldn't be able to think at that speed" a captain answers as she lowers her hands from her ears, "They're fast, too fast for us to even imagine fighting".
Hashirama continues to step backwards, slower but more controlled than before as he creates space between himself and his opponent. He begins to weave a series of signs which Naruto doesn't even bother trying to follow. At the speed and proficiency Hashirama has reached now, it would be easier to react to the jutsu, only those with visual prowess like Boruto and Sarada would be able to follow such a sequence of symbols.
The ground rumbles slightly as spikes of wood start to appear. The wood looks aged and cursed, like the trees in a wintery graveyard. Naruto notices a thin grey layer around each spike. Impaling him would not be enough, but it would be if each spike were coated in 'death'. Feeling the ground start to rumble beneath him, he backflips up into the air, just in time to avoid the sharp rising object beneath his feet as it exits the ground.
The spikes continue to propagate as the Hokage is airborne. Depriving him of a safe landing space, it leaves him with but one choice, to create one. Two arms, each the size of his body, grow from his back. Each arm is formed by the bubbly orange chakra sourced from the nine-tails. Each arm is quickly blessed with the presence of a rasen-shuriken, doped with a healthy serving of 'life' energy. The arms cast the rasen-shuriken forward one after another. Thought the two masses of energy are not as refined as Minato's rasen-bomb, the 4th Hokage would never be confident pitting his own attack against this one.
The pair of rasen shuriken bounce backwards and forwards through the newly formed forest of death, the quickest deforestation the world has ever seen as they slice through branch after branch, rapidly changing direction every quarter of a second.
Naruto carefully controls his landing, finding his feet in a small region cleared of the harmful energy by his own. Upon landing he lowers his centre of gravity, certain that in the time it took him to safely escape that trick, his adversary will have conjured another one.
His prediction proves to be accurate. Amongst the production and demolition of the wooden array, Hashirama weaved another series of signs, spawning the growth of an enormous tree root. It grows towards Naruto at an alarming rate, rising and falling on its path like the body of a snake. Enhanced with 'death', the much larger counterpart to Naruto's previous attack knocks his rasen-shuriken from their path, up into the air, before continuing towards the 7th Hokage.
Naruto concentrates his power, bringing the weapons he used to wield to him once again. Behind his back manifest a series of truth-seeking balls and in his hand appears a staff, forged from the same concentration of chakra. He takes hold of the staff at one end, emblazons it with strategically positioned 'life' energy and waits for the opportune moment. He must maintain the momentum of the staff right up until the moment it hits the growing tree. He finally unleashes it. Chakra and divine energy intermingle as the staff spins, moving at an incredible velocity, it strikes the growing root, stopping it in its tracks.
Hashirama, intent on following the root's path of destruction, dodges to the side of the staff with one step and the back onto his original route with the second. The distance between himself and Naruto has decreased vastly now.
Naruto foresaw this a few moments ago. He set up a trick, playing with his enemy's senses as his best friend and his student had taught him to do. Suddenly, the Naruto that Hashirama rests his eyes on disappears, it was a clone, a distraction. The real Naruto appears behind the 1st Hokage, his hand tightening around the staff he hurled just a moment ago.
Hashirama uses an enhanced kunai to block the incoming attack to his back, quickly spinning on his heels as he deflects it. His blood is pumping at an incredible rate and his eyes open wider than they have done throughout the entire fight so far. He quickly decides that if he had been just a tiny bit slower in reacting, Naruto would have defeated him right there.
The Senju is not out of the woods yet though, as he occupies himself deflecting a melee attack, a ranged one arrives instead. One of the truth-seeking balls flying behind Naruto's back launches past him, hitting Hashirama in the chest. It is a thump, a big thump as the traitor amongst them is sent rolling lengthways along the floor. He lifts himself up only to see himself under attack again, this time a rasengan heading straight for his shoulder.
That is a mistake. Naruto's arm is curving too quickly, and it has left Hashirama a chance. He grabs Naruto's rasengan-holding wrist with his opposite hand and because of Naruto requiring a trailing hand to maximise momentum, he leaves an attack open to Hashirama. He reacts by trying to shift his centre of gravity backward but only makes it worse as he puts himself off balance. Hashirama, like he did with Lara and Clyde, lifts Naruto off his feet, over his head in a big arc, and down into the ground, treating him like a ragdoll.
The kunai slips back out of the 1st Hokage's pocket and he slams it down remorselessly towards Naruto's chest.
The Uzumaki grabs hold of Hashirama's wrists and holds on as tightly as he possibly can. The blade sways side-to-side just an inch above his chest. For the longest period in the battle so far, the two remain relatively motionless as they each push as hard as they can, one to cause a certain death, and the other to avert it.
After a moment's struggle, Naruto directs one of the truth-seeking balls up the length of his body, towards Hashirama's head. Naturally, his opponent pulls himself back out of the way just in time to avoid being knocked unconscious and the slight separation gives Naruto a chance. He grabs Hashirama by his new attire and, pulling it as hard as he can, slams their heads together.
The pain of the headbutt reverberating in each man's head, they get to their feet and stand opposite one another, just as they had started the fight. They each take a step back to improve their balance and throw the stronger leg forward. The collision of flesh sends out another massive shockwave, knocking both shinobi and captains off balance.
Minato watches on, a mixture of happy and dispirited about what he is seeing. On the one hand, he is watching his son do something absolutely incredible. He is watching his own descendent move at speeds faster than he thought possible, attack with a power that belongs to the gods and act with a moral standard greater than even his own. On the other hand, he sees Hashirama, fighting back with equal talent. The two warriors have such might between them, such impressive strength. He wonders, even if he reaches his maximum potential, will he be able to fight anything like that.
His assessment passes his lips.
"This is a godly level of combat".
The shockwave from another kick heads in his direction. As it travels it shows itself by lifting dirt from the ground and cracking the earth. Discarded weapons are blown dangerously in many directions and the dead are shifted from their resting places.
"Old man" Mirai calls to Hiruzen as she forces herself to her feet. "We need to get everyone out of here".
Mirai has distinguished herself greatly in this battle. As the leader of the military, many expected her to play a pivotal organisational role, somewhat similar to what the Naras have done in previous conflicts. She blew those expectations out of the water. Not only did she fight on the level of the Hokage, she actually outperformed them, save for those that have come at the last moment. Hiruzen can still feel the pride in his chest knowing that she is his descendent. It is not her strength that impresses him the most, despite impressing him greatly, instead it is her spirit and determination. She has suffered a setback, watched a friend die at the hands of a terrifying enemy and then come back to overcome that enemy.
He swallows his pride and shouts at the order. "Retreat, everyone retreat! We can't afford to distract Lord 7th and Lord 9th, so retreat".
Peterson and Elliot respectively echo the command to their followers.
"Everyone, get away from here!".
"Pull back, get as far from here as you can!".
The forces clear rapidly, running not only for the sake of their leaders, but also for their own lives. They leave them in the lion's den, leaving behind only Naruto and Sarada with a whole army of people who they now know to be their enemies.
Only two people initially refuse to move. Clyde and Lara.
They stand there, looking the enemy in the face while their army stands behind them. This is where Clyde has been from the start. This is where Lara should have been all along. There is a peace between them, one uncharacteristic whenever Lara is about. Now she has lowered her guard and is simply just allowing the flow of the world to dictate her actions. Standing like this with Lara relaxes Clyde. In this moment she is not an enemy. Perhaps for the first time she doesn't seem to bear any hatred towards him and simply accepts his existence. He wonders how much they could have accomplished if she had been like this from the beginning.
Lara watches the battle, awed by the back and forth taking place before her very eyes. She has yearned for years to prove herself the best in the military, placing only Clyde in her eyes. She never bothered to compare herself to members of the aristocracy, their advantage was unfair from the beginning. Against Clyde though, she could have a competition of raw talent. She could wholeheartedly contest him to see who the best at accumulating power was. For years, that was her only way of thinking. To see what she though impressive talent dwarfed by a few locals dulls her, removes the edge that so many have come to fear.
"Do you see what I mean now Lara? This is what you were up against, what I was up against. Even if it were the right thing to do, even if we threw everything against them, we couldn't beat these people".
Lara sighs reluctantly. "… I admit it".
"You do?".
"There is something special about this world. It's not like those stories you hear about places that people like, this is truly special. It's virtually unheard of for a local to unleash divine power. Yet here, four of them have unleashed a power that transcends even mine. There must be something different about this world".
"I completely agree".
Amongst the retreating forces, Peterson spots one group of people coming the other way. It is a very familiar group of allies he had never thought he would see again. "You guys…".
"Peterson".
It is Sheer, leading a group of her fellow colonels and the remaining visitor who came to their headquarters, Hinata.
He looks Sheer dead in the eye, a disappointed look on his face. "You weren't supposed to free him. You were supposed to keep him locked up no matter what happened. You knew that was important".
"I know".
"You put the entire future of our world at stake by freeing Naruto selfishly. That was a terrible, terrible decision".
"I know".
Peterson speaks emotionally, placing a hand on Sheer's shoulder. "Thank you… thank you Sheer".
Himawari runs past the group from Clyde's headquarters and then spots the most important person in the group to her. She spots her mother. Running towards her, she embraces her in a tight hug. It was only earlier today that they last saw one another yet each feels like a lifetime has passed since then.
"Mum!".
"Himawari, what's happening here, what is going on?".
"It's Boruto, he's turned against us. He's just as strong as dad now and he's trying to kill Clyde and the others".
Hinata watches a travelling shockwave, flinching with the others when it blows past them. After it passes, she smiles and nods to her daughter.
"Don't worry, everything will be fine now, because Naruto is here".
While Hinata says this, she notices that while there is an orange glow to her right, there is a different yet equally distinct glow to her left. In contrast with Naruto's six paths sage mode, Boruto is using his tenseigan chakra mode. The bright green and bright orange glows appear a perfect opposition to one another, as if the two powers were born to clash. Hinata has a strange feeling that she has seen this before and considers that perhaps somehow the memories of her future-self may be leaking to her. She quickly dismisses this suggestion with a sigh of disappointment, her son really is fighting against them.
Boruto, unlike his teacher, is relying more on speed than strength to strike. He pivots not once but several times, dancing around Sarada like a boxer as he throws repeated punches and kicks at her. While each connection fails to generate a shockwave of the same magnitude as the other fight, the smaller shockwaves are far more frequent. The frequency of the shockwaves makes it appear that Boruto and Sarada are trapped within a semi-clear dome like structure.
The blows come thick and fast but Sarada is a specialist at this sort of combat. Her rinnegan moves around in her eye socket so fast it would appear blurred to an average spectator. Up, down, left and right, it directs her to each of Boruto's incoming attacks just in time for her to block them. Eventually it perceives an opening in his form and she casts her leg forward at him, connecting solidly with his gut.
While Boruto skids back along the floor, Sarada uses the force of the connection to flip herself back additionally, creating a separation between them. She uses the separation to create a full body Susano and fires a 'creation' arrow at Boruto.
Boruto uses the powers of his tenseigan to manifest a golem, along with an enormous shield of 'death'. Using said shield, the golem deflects the arrow upwards, the ground beneath its feet tearing as it does so. With an almighty push, a pair of small craters are made in the ground, but it does indeed manage to deflect the arrow away. Noticing that Sarada has not attacked him again, Boruto makes use of his opportunity, launching the shield at the Susano like a frisbee.
If nothing else, Boruto concludes that Sarada will need a lot of divine energy to stop the attack. The Susano's hands reach forward and wrap around the flying shield but he knows this to be a trivial effort. Without any sort of enhancement, the Susano, a pure chakra construct, would be worn away in an instant, and the shield would continue its course toward Sarada.
To his surprise though, the Susano doesn't wear away. Its hands do not wear at all, despite the enormous strain it is placed under. All the while, Sarada's divine energy is showing no major fluctuations. He wonders how this is possible, could she be defending against that last attack with chakra alone.
Finally, he realises it. The Susano's hands are being worn away, they are just being instantly reformed.
On her way here, Sarada didn't have much time to experiment with her powers. She instantly had a hunch though that like Naruto's 'life' had unique powers to bring people back from the brink of death, her 'creation' may too have unique powers. It does. As its name implies it allows her to easily create solid objects. So far it has worked with at least the first few materials she has thought of. The true beauty of this benefit though is in situations like this defence. Her power to create solid objects uses almost no divine energy. In many ways, the perfect foil to Boruto's highly lethal power.
With the spinning momentum of the shield finally halted, she concentrates, squeezing the hands of the Susano shut and crushing the shield.
Each protected by a massive construct, Boruto and Sarada shout to one another, engaging once again.
"Sarada, you must realise it by now!".
"Realise what?".
"You and I are just like our teachers. We are battling with transcendent yet equal powers. We are equal to one another. We could fight for days and not find a winner". He then finally explains the true reason why. "It is because neither of us could bring ourselves to fight with the intent to kill".
He is right, and she knows it.
"I'm not going to kill you. You are right".
"Then why don't we fight the person we should be fighting right now? Let's combine our powers and destroy the invaders while we can".
Sarada allows herself to think for a moment. She is certain that doing that would be wrong but there is so much else to consider. Would she be able to go to the afterlife someday and look her mother and father in the eye? Would her master survive this battle, would she be able to look him in the eye? If she were to go along with Boruto's plan, that would mean certain death for those following Clyde and Lara but what would it mean for her? It would mean that she could go back to the village. She and Boruto would be together, nobody to separate them. It would mean that Boruto and Hashirama would have both survived this ordeal, as would Naruto if she played her cards right. Still, she doesn't even need to consider it when she looks to her right. If she were a kid, still dreaming of becoming the Hokage, what decision would she have wanted to make in this situation? It would be the same one as Uzumaki Naruto.
"I have no intention of killing them" she says. "I have no intention of killing you either. I am going to beat you into an unconscious state. Then I am going to force you to come back to the leaf. You're going to see through your punishment and you're going to apologise. And then, you and I are going to be happy together, just like you promised before".
He casts his eyes away.
"I am sorry Sarada, I truly am. But I have to listen to the voices of my friends who can't be here now. I am not pursuing my own desire for revenge. I am pursuing their wishes for the freedom of their families".
"Then you do that" Sarada says. "But I will remember the oath I swore to the village. As the 9th Hokage, I will protect the people of today in the best way I can".
Their eyes meet again. Neither could believe it possible to convey such emotion through these eyes. Painful resolution through the rinnegan, reluctant defiance through the tenseigan.
Each nods to the other, a sign of their mutual affection despite their clashing philosophies. They then send commands to their constructs, ordering a charge. The golem and Susano close the distance and collide once again.
The battle of the transcendent continues.
Author Note:
Hi All.
I'm not sure that this counts as the 'epic level long' that was requested.
However, this is apparently the second longest chapter written for this story (and no, that doesn't include the author note).
I would like to address the power situation that a few reviewers have brought up.
Naruto's power in this chapter (and previous ones from 'The Battle for the Earth') may not be possible. Considering what was known when this story started and what has been written since, it may now be incorrect. I have written over one-hundred chapters now though, I am not going to go back and re-write it.
This situation is also mimicked with Boruto. I first wrote that Boruto 'unlocked' the tenseigan before the Jogan/Jougan was revealed in the anime (and possibly before it happened in the manga). It is too late to go back and correct this now, as I said previously, this is a long story and I only have so much time to write it.
I'm sorry if I come across as complaining, I am simply trying to justify my reasons. I am enormously grateful that people care enough about this story to notice these inconsistencies and suggest improvements in the first place. I would love to act upon everyone's suggestions and try to as much as possible. Unfortunately, sometimes that just isn't possible.
As always, thank you to everyone for reading, I am honestly very grateful.
Cbehrills