BACK TO SCHOOL – MUTO SORA VS FURST JONAS
A Short Distance from the Academy, Naruto's Group
Naruto and the Uzumaki family stop running, claiming to one another they need to catch their breath. The truth is that their eyes are drawn back to the academy like magnets. The feeling hasn't died down, even though Furst is no longer using his divine energy. The energy levels alone aren't what frighten them, it's the aura that he has brought along with him. It seems that a sensation of absolute terror descends whenever he arrives, one that even has Naruto shaking.
Dai catches up with them a few moments later.
"Thank god you're OK," Dai says, coming to a halt alongside them, "That's all he wanted when he started yelling."
Dai looks at Naruto but receives no response, the 7th Hokage is still in shock. Ming Dai looks around the group that have followed Naruto. Hinata, Himawari, Minato, Kushina, that's it, just his immediate family. This is by no means ideal for a rebellion, Dai knew that Furst's sudden arrival had split them into smaller groups, but he had hoped that Naruto would be in the largest one. Just six of them, that's not the best starting point he could have hoped for.
"We have to go back," Naruto says eventually, "He can't win alone."
"He may be able to survive alone," Dai counters, "But not if he has to cover the rest of us too. Even if everyone who hated Furst attacked him together we couldn't kill him. That's why we need you to become strong Naruto, so we keep running, got it?"
Naruto grits his teeth and nods. They continue to run away.
A Short Distance from the Academy, Lara's Group
The largest fleeing group is the military, who thanks to the opportune meeting between Lara and her generals were all grouped near one another. Lara knows this is a pity, that this group is the one Naruto was supposed to lead, not her, but all she dares to do is run. She used to boast that she would be the one to kill Furst, but now as she looks back at the menacing emperor, she knows that she was delusional.
"Where are Sarada and the others?" Mirai asks.
"They must have run in a different direction," Elliot says, "Come on, we can't stop, we have to keep running."
Mirai ignores Elliot. "Lara, you're a teleporter, you have to group everyone together, we can't let ourselves be split apart like this."
"There are too many of us to reunite with teleportation alone," Lara says, "Our group is the largest, if I left traces of divine energy there is no way Furst would miss it. If I try to unite us, we will be discovered, we will be killed and the resistance will be over. No, we will keep running."
The Military Academy, The Central Clearing
Nina rushes to Sora's side to help him. She emerges from one of the academy's corridors and moves at what most would think a remarkable speed. Her speed is pitiful in this arena though. She stands in the clearing with two royals, the academy's headmaster and the emperor himself.
"Headmaster, let me help you in this fight," she says, "There is no way you can do this alone."
Sora simply smiles and takes hold of Nina's shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Nina asks.
Sora doesn't answer. He simply spins on the spot, lifting Nina powerfully by her shoulder before throwing her over the academy's roof. He watches as she flies into the distance, shrinks until she is less than a spot in size. When she is gone he breathes a sigh of relief, now the academy is clear of the innocent. Now only the guilty parties are here to be hurt.
"Sorry about that Jonas," he says, "Sometimes the lessons don't stick and you have to help them out a bit."
"There is a pocket-worlder with Akashi's element?" Jonas asks, ignoring Sora's statement.
"I guess there is no point in denying it anymore. Yes, a pocket-worlder used 'life' energy, I saw it with my own two-eyes. This young man's name is Uzumaki Naruto."
"Does he feel like Akashi did?"
Sora laughs. "Are you worried about feelings now Jonas?"
"If he makes people feel the same way Akashi did then I would be foolish to underestimate him," Jonas explains logically. "The way Akashi made people feel is more powerful than any divine energy he ever used."
Sora groans in his head. He wishes that Jonas weren't like this, that he were just another fool who denied the power of morals. The emperor is no fool though, he knows well how most people believe in a right and wrong. Jonas considers himself a god, immune from human feelings and unable to care about other people who he believes are insects compared to him. However, Jonas doesn't deny that humans have strengths. He would be much easier to deal with if he didn't consider a rebellion as a threat.
"Naruto isn't Akashi. Do you want to know the difference?" Sora asks rhetorically. "Naruto is still alive."
Without warning, Sora activates his golden divine cloak. Dark blue with specks of gold, his furious divine energy ignites in a powerful display that can be felt for miles around.
Sora pulls his hand back, creating a javelin of golden 'enhancement' energy before he casts it towards Jonas with as much power as he can muster.
Jonas catches the gold-blue javelin, consuming it with crimson energy the moment he touches it. He dissipates the attack from the headmaster as if demonstrating the basics of combat to a pupil.
"Tell me where Uzumaki Naruto is," Jonas demands impatiently.
Sora smiles, he didn't think that would work. "He's got you all worked up hasn't he, that's good. I've seen a hundred people look at Naruto as if he's something special but that isn't important. What's really important is that you have never even met him and you're still afraid."
"You mistake caution for fear," Jonas responds, "Swen, Nadia, search the academy for students."
Nadia steps towards Jonas, "My Emperor, I'm sure I don't need to tell you that if they ran from the Headmaster's voice in a straight line there is no way we will be able to find them."
"And yet you have told me anyway, do you have anything else to say Nadia?"
Nadia and Swen take the hint, the emperor is clearly not in the mood to play around today, no surprises there. They immediately move into the corridors of the academy and begin to search frantically for any remaining signs of life, just a clue that would lead them to the whereabouts of their target.
"I will give you a final chance to tell me where he is," Jonas offers, "If you decide not to then I am going to kill you."
Sora presses his thumb and finger together, ready to use his paralysing divine ability the perfect stun.
Unfortunately, Furst Jonas has seen the perfect stun many times in his life.
"That will paralyse me at most for a quarter of a second, you should think about this very carefully. Do you really think you can hurt me in a quarter of a second?"
"It's not for you," Sora answers.
Sora brings 'hot' energy to his right hand and 'cold' to his left. The energy rushes out from within his inner world with hurricane-like force. The red and blue energies are then blasted into the walls of the academy with perfect precision, arcing as they move to strike their targets from behind.
The 'hot' and 'cold' energy strikes Nadia and Swen, bringing them back into the middle and away from their search.
The two royals manage to regain their senses after a few moments of delirium and then angrily return to their feet, ready to help their emperor battle against the headmaster.
Jonas raises his hand to stop the two of them.
"Sora, 'hot' and 'cold' aren't your elements, there is no way you have become so proficient in the last few days," Jonas points out, "Just what have you been up to."
Sora chuckles knowingly. "You may recall during the last war the empress of the dark dimension used the ultimate energy source, the stone of all transcendent element, her crown. Did you ever consider that the dark dimension may have created a second crown? Did you ever consider that their empress wasn't the only one powerful enough to use its power?"
Jonas pauses for thought.
"Jonas, I didn't stay here to sacrifice myself for Naruto," Sora says, "I stayed here because I genuinely believe I can beat you."
Sora gathers the elements of 'hot' and 'cold' on his hands once again, unleashing energy blasts of each towards Jonas in turn. He doesn't stop with just the two of them though. 'Space' and 'time', 'strength' and 'speed', 'fire' and 'water', 'ice' and 'flame', he continues, unleashing everything he can think of on his opponent. Furst Jonas is a man of tremendous power, but he is surely not a man without weakness.
If Jonas has a weakness, this is not the moment he shows it. As the various elements are launched towards him, his gold-crimson 'destruction' energy lifts through the pores of his skin, creating an aura around him that destroys all of the incoming attacks without exception. Without so much as raising his hand, Jonas totally stops the power of the dark dimension's crown.
Sora remains surprised for just a moment before he refocuses, there can be no room for hesitation. He launches at Jonas who has still yet to move and attacks from a much closer range. With one leap he closes the distance between the two of them, the headmaster then plants his feet into the ground and pushes his fist into the face of his adversary as hard as he can.
Jonas grabs Sora by the wrist, retracting his former friend's fist and with the tiniest movement of his wrist throws his arm aside.
Sora leaps backwards, this time unable to hide the shock.
"This is ridiculous, you're not human," Sora says angrily, "I know that you're skilled but you've never been this powerful. Akashi wasn't so hopeless against you, I know I must at least be on par with him."
"I may not be moving but my 'destruction' energy is going exactly where I will it to move, even on the particle level. This is part of my divine oddity, Milli-Control is what I call it," Jonas reveals, "Nobody else believes that divine oddities exist, but you and I know better, don't we, just like Akashi did."
Sora is hesitant to believe it, even having contemplated the existence of divine oddities himself, even having believed Akashi when he said it was true. For Jonas to be able to control divine energy on such a microscopic level without even gesturing with his hands, surely that is not possible.
Sora decides to test Jonas' boasts, creating a large blade in his right hand and a much smaller projectile in his left. He throws them both in an arcing path at his adversary, watching as they whistle in the air and swerve to strike him from the side. He is sure that Jonas saw the smaller projectile, that isn't something that could be hidden from the emperor, but will he be able to knock it from the air.
As it turns out he can. Two strands of 'destruction' energy stem from Jonas body, the first large and the second one tiny. The two strands bash into the weapons that Sora threw just a moment ago, evaporating them on contact. Sora recognises that this was a deliberate counter and that Jonas just executed inconceivable control over his energy without any kind of gesture.
He has confirmed it, Furst Jonas uses a divine oddity.
"Give up Naruto," Jonas demands again, "I will spare the homeworlders and half the pocket-worlders if you do so."
Sora hesitates before smiling, "You think you've won already Jonas, ridiculous. The one thing I have truly mastered is 'enhancement'. What do you think will happen if I enhance these other elements?"
Jonas raises his eyebrows as if curious, but his greatest defect is his vanity. He believes that there is no way that this attack could possibly hurt him. The emperor's vanity is usually justified, in a world with such tremendous population he has never met another individual on par with himself. He once thought that he had found peers in the likes of Akashi and Sora, but now he believes that they can't touch him, that he's a god. That's exactly what Sora wants him to believe.
Sora once again gathers 'cold' energy in his left hand, and 'hot' energy in his right. However, this time he 'enhances' those elements.
The moment the 'enhancement' energy mixes with the others, they intensify many times over. Each element flickers, shining as brightly as the sun. The world to the right of Sora begins to scorch just by being nearby to his 'hot' energy, the world to the left freezes. At the point of intersection where the two energies are most intense, the air begins to shake, superheated and supercooled simultaneously it vibrates with such ferocity and intensity, switching between plasma and solid states within the same second. Even Sora feels the pain of standing next to the epicentre of these energies, the second-hand damage worsening his condition with every second. Regardless he smiles, the second-hand damage is nothing compared to what this will do when it hits Jonas in his smug face.
Sora leaps at Jonas, hoping that in his vanity he will not dodge and he is delighted to see that he isn't going to do so. The headmaster closes the distance, the bells in his head signalling his imminent victory. As he reaches striking range from his adversary, he pushes the two elements forward as hard as he can, ready for the explosion they will make when they collide.
But there is no explosion.
There is no sound at all.
The second the enhanced 'hot' and enhanced 'cold' energies hit Jonas' aura they disappear without a trace.
Sora is speechless.
"I thought you may at least be able to do a bit of damage Sora. Still, this is good news, even the mighty Headmaster of the Military Academy can't do anything to me," Jonas muses, "It's just as the old woman foretold all those years ago. It was your future she saw Sora, she saw the coming of a god, she saw me."
"You haven't even moved?" Sora asks.
"Your attack was more powerful than anything Akashi ever managed," Jonas admits, "I had to use the second stage of my divine ability, Micro-Control."
"A second stage… micro-control… you can't have become stronger since he died, you can't have."
As Sora gazes at Jonas, he realises that the emperor may be right. Sora considers himself the strongest person alive other than Jonas, and this is the gap between them. Sora has combined the strongest techniques from Homeworld and the Dark Dimension and even with that union it wasn't enough to force Jonas to move. Never mind being unable to defeat him, he couldn't even make him fight back. Jonas was right, it must be like stepping on an insect for him, why should he care for humanity when the difference between him and the rest of them is so great.
"You shouldn't define a god by the limits of man, that is your failing Sora," Jonas explains patiently, "You should take me up on my offer. Akashi would consider it honourable to show mercy in your final moments. Tell me where Uzumaki Naruto is."
A Short Distance from the Academy, Naruto's Group
Naruto stops once again, causing the rest of his group to do the same. He turns back and looks in the direction of Jonas and Sora, maximising his use of the one true sense to detect what is happening.
Naruto is just as stunned as Sora. He could feel the change in temperature even from this distance when Sora used the two temperature based energy sources. If Sora had thrown that energy at him, even if he used up all the 'life' energy in his body he couldn't survive. Yet now, as he feels Jonas energy, it feels like it hasn't changed from the moment before the attack. This is not the same as a one class difference, this is an overwhelming difference in proficiency. Likely, Jonas is not only the most skilled homeworlder, he may even be more talented than anyone in any pocket-world.
"How is this power possible, I knew he was going to be strong but this is ridiculous," Naruto utters, "The Headmaster's power can't even compare to it."
"I thought be stronger too," Hinata adds, "But I didn't imagine the difference would be this great."
"Shut up!" Ming Dai yells at them.
"Dai…"
"Yeah, we get it, he's going to die. He's going to die so that you can get away!" Dai screams at Naruto, "So, you turn around and you start running. You run and you don't stop until my master's avenged, you got that?"
Naruto nods to Dai, realising the pain he must be in right now, and together they keep running. Unbeknownst to them a threat is lurking nearby. The mercenary Mars is watching from the wings, ready to land the biggest catch of his life.
The Military Academy, The Central Clearing
Sora suddenly starts to laugh.
"So, you have accepted your death," Jonas observes, "Tell me, what is so amusing about meeting your end?"
Sora grins. "He will definitely be back one day, Uzumaki Naruto, I can feel it in my blood. That man from the pocket-world, he will be the one who ends you, Jonas!"
"The numbers don't lie old fool, it is physically impossible for Uzumaki Naruto to equal my battle class. No matter what he does, no matter what you have taught him, he will never be able to reach my level, he will never be able to defeat me."
Sora continues to smile, how like Jonas it is to talk about what is and isn't possible in this way. It is the mark of this emperor to see all reality as numbers and probabilities. There are forces at work that influence reality that have been given different names throughout time, names such as destiny and fate. These are words that Jonas knows, words that he uses but which have meanings he cannot truly understand.
"Let me teach you one final lesson so that I can die as I have lived," Sora says, "Jonas, telling people what they can't do, that will be your undoing in the end. Whether that comes at Naruto's hand, or whether it comes at mine!"
Sora's entire body starts to shine an intense dark blue and his divine energy rises far beyond what it was before. A light so intense that it is almost blinding, that it completely obscures Sora from the emperor's sight.
Sora is preparing to detonate all the divine energy in his body at once.
'This old fool is going to detonate all his energy at once, a class nine warrior?' Jonas asks himself, 'This will be the biggest explosion in the history of Homeworld!'
Nadia and Swen instantly run, moving away from the headmaster as fast as they can. To detonate your core is to go down in an intense explosion of divine energy, it is an attack that can kill warriors levels above yourself. To their knowledge, nobody with class nine energy has ever detonated their core. This may be the biggest attack in the history of the world and they need to get away fast if they are going to have any chance to survive.
Jonas knows that he is the target, that if he is going to get away from Sora he will have to attack.
The emperor tries to punch Sora in the hope that he will knock him unconscious or even kill him before the headmaster has the chance to detonate his divine energy.
However, as the emperor's fist bears down on Sora, he looks down and notices the headmaster's thumb pressed firmly into his finger. As his thumb and finger slip away from one another there is a deafening crack and all of the emperor's senses become jumbled. It is just a split second and it requires a bit of luck, but it works.
Jonas' attack misses Sora.
Sora uses this moment of poor balance to wrap his arms tightly around Jonas, hugging him firmly into his chest where the divine energy is gathered in the strongest concentration. In these few seconds Sora's energy and power is so great that not even Jonas will be able to escape.
"Akashi and I will be waiting for you," Sora says.
Then he does it!
All the divine energy in the headmaster's body detonates at once.
The dark blue energy explodes, reaching for miles around and moving faster than any person could hope to run. Nadia and Swen stop and use as much divine energy as they can muster to defend themselves against it yet still get swept up in it's currents from miles away. The energy extends and extends, keeping going for miles further still, stopping just short of the shinobi who fled with Sarada previously.
Once the expansion of energy finally stops the students who ran from it turn around and look back in shock. The crater is enormous, far larger than the already massive academy. Looking back into the middle is like looking down from the top of a mountain.
'Naruto, don't let this go to waste,' Sora prays, 'Come back when you're ready and show Jonas the power of your resolve.'
When the dust clears and everyone can finally see what happened, it all seems so hopeless. Jonas and Sora remain in the middle of the crater, the latter burnt to a crisp struggling for his last breaths of air, the former without a scratch on his body.
The explosion did nothing!
"You really had me worried there old man," Jonas admits as he sighs with relief, "I wondered if micro-control would be enough to preserve the imperial robes. It seems I had nothing to worry about."
Sora continues to pray in his mind. 'Akashi, can you hear me? It looks like you were right, divine oddities are definitely the real deal'.
"It's time for you to sleep now old man," Jonas says, "The prophecy has been fulfilled."
'Naruto is not the only nasty surprise coming your way,' Sora thinks cheerfully.
Jonas gathers a small amount of 'destruction' energy on his hand.
'Good luck Jonas, you will be needing it'.
Jonas strikes forward with the crimson 'destruction' energy, dealing the blow that will hurt so many people around the world.
Headmaster Muto Sora is dead.
Author Note
Hi All,
Here is the mid-week chapter I spoke about. I hope you enjoyed it.
Thanks for your support as always.
Regards,
Me
Response to Guest Reviews
C: I have never read The Giver novel series I'm afraid.
Engineer: The class system is a bit convoluted I admit, I'll try and explain Naruto's class. Naruto's class without any divine energy was class 3, that means as a shinobi he woudl have been able to take on a military general. He couldn't defeat General Clyde as a shinobi because Clyde had a transcendent element and was a class 4 warrior. When Naruto understood 'life' energy his class instantly jumped three levels. One level he jumped because he understood his element to the most basic level. Two levels he jumped because he understood a double-transcendent element. So Naruto is class 3 without divine energy, class 6 with divine energy.