BORUTO'S MASTERS – FREEDOM FROM HATRED
The Camp
Boruto takes stock of his trio of immediate adversaries. Hashirama is the greatest threat, him being the only other class 7 warrior amongst them. Still, Tao Ma and Tsunade are each a significant threat on their own, both of them class 6 warriors. Fighting all three of them at once will be practically impossible, especially given their hive mind giving them a near perfect rhythm. However, if there is one person who can defy these odds it's him.
Boruto blinks, and when his eyes open, he is shrouded with the green chakra cloak granted to him by the tenseigan, with that aura surrounded by another of grey 'death' energy. This is Boruto's full power with both energy sources.
Boruto raises both his hands, pointing his left at Tsunade, his right at Tao Ma. Suddenly, golden-grey energy bursts from both hands, the golden wheel reincarnation explosion, enhanced by 'death' energy drives back the two warriors. With the time that this buys Boruto he leaps forward, rising slightly off the ground and delivering a powerful flurry of strikes to Hashirama, knocking him back just far enough to give Boruto some breathing room.
"Run!" Boruto yells back to his shinobi allies.
Shikadai and the others run immediately, but the forces of Tao Ma are quickly after them. They're coordination perfect as it has never appeared before, Boruto seeing with his incredible eyesight that their steps occur in unison realises their power now.
Tsunade gets to her feet and ignores Boruto, instead opting to pursue Shikadai and the others, presumably at the behest of the hive mind. Boruto knows that Shikadai will be in survival mode just fighting the others, if Tsunade gets to him he will be unable to survive the onslaught.
Hashirama and Tao Ma run at Boruto in tandem, their strategy obvious from their movements. Boruto will have to dodge Hashirama's attack, the 1st Hokage being his most powerful opponent, but that will leave him vulnerable to Tao Ma. He will not let that happen.
As the duo bear down on him, Boruto draws one of his kunai to his hand. Drawing on one of the many techniques he has developed through the years, he throws the kunai to the right of Hashirama before ricocheting it off an invisible wall of wind and back towards the 1st Hokage. As the kunai bounces Boruto uses his chakra to convert it into a rasengan. Hashirama ducks to the ground to avoid the attack, even though it would be more of a nuisance than a killer, but that was all Boruto needs.
As Tao Ma reaches Boruto ahead of Hashirama, Boruto throws a dummy left-handed punch towards his former ally. Tao Ma falls for it like a fool, at which point Boruto grabs him by the back of the head and throws him into Tsunade's path, putting the two class 6 warriors temporarily out of commission again.
Meanwhile Shikadai keeps the other shinobi ahead of him, agonised by their lack of speed and their inability to use divine energy. He follows them moving backwards, using his 'darkness' divine energy to pick off the quickest of their pursuers one at a time, but every second they get closer and he cannot keep it up for long.
Tsunade and Tao Ma rise, running towards Boruto, designating him too much of a nuisance to leave to chance for now. As they get closer Hashirama trades fists with his student. Boruto holds his ground well against the onslaught of punches, letting as many as he can glide past him or deflecting them, but he can't keep it up. Eventually, Hashirama's volley of strikes breaks through Boruto's guard. The 1st Hokage lands a powerful punch to the gut of his former student, driving the wind from his lungs and a foot up into the air.
Boruto's vision omni-directional, he simultaneously sees Hashirama's hand reaching for his throat and the muscles in Tsunade's leg twitching. Tao Ma believes he has the advantage, so the hive mind is directing Tsunade to pursue Shikadai and leave Boruto to the other two. He absolutely cannot allow that, no matter what he must keep the focus on him and away from the others.
Boruto resists the temptation to grab at Hashirama's arm as the 1st Hokage grabs hold of his throat, slamming him down to the ground. Instead Boruto creates a pair of rasengan in his hands, throwing them towards Tao Ma and Tsunade before they disappear in the air. The invisible rasengan knock down Tao Ma and the 5th Hokage once again, giving Boruto a moment to focus on his former teacher as his back slams down into the ground.
Boruto creates a rasengan in his hand, swinging it twice into Hashirama's arm before the 1st Hokage uses his other hand to block it. Boruto is astonished that his former mentor was able to endure those two direct hits without even loosening his grip, but he needs to attack again. He grabs hold of a kunai from Hashirama's belt, throwing it past his shoulder and bouncing it off an invisible wall, converting it to a rasengan just in time for it to strike the back of Hashirama's head.
As Hashirama is hit by the rasengan his grip on Boruto's neck weakens. Boruto lands a single punch across his face before creating a small rasen-shuriken, swiping it across Hashirama's body as if it were a sword. Hashirama releases his grip on Boruto just in time, hopping back to create separation between them.
Hashirama slaps his hands on the ground, creating a tree down beneath the sand. That tree spouts from the ground below, a perfect rectangle lifting Boruto up off the floor and standing him right in front of his opponent. The Senju clansmen strikes Boruto in the chest with his full power, a fist enhanced by 'death' energy, driving Boruto back through the wooden construct itself.
As Boruto tries to slow down he laments the lack of friction offered by the desert floor. He is stopped instead by the fist of Tsunade, hitting him in the back of the head and pushing his face down into the sand below. As Hashirama runs over, his granddaughter and Tao Ma relentlessly strike Boruto, mobbing him and giving him very little opportunity to strike back.
Hashirama bears down on them and Shikadai isn't escaping anywhere near quickly enough. Boruto has to get up before he can be mobbed by all three of them. Barely able to move his arms, he opts to try anything he can. Crossing his fingers, he creates a single shadow clone. Unable to draw divine energy, a shadow clone's battle power is practically non-existent in Homeworld, but it does create a distraction. As Tao Ma's fist hits the shadow clone it slows slightly. Emerging from the smoke left by the clone, Boruto strikes at the hive mind master with his fist, following with a spinning kick to Tsunade's head.
Hashirama is close behind him, too close. Boruto throws his elbow back in the hope that he can strike the 1st Hokage in time, but he cannot. Hashirama grabs him under each arm, locking his fingers together behind Boruto's neck. Tao Ma begins to punch Boruto's head relentlessly, driving him closer and closer to the brink of unconsciousness. As he does this, Tsunade begins to run after Shikadai's group again.
Hashirama's grip is iron tight, giving Boruto minimal room for his arms to manoeuvre but his legs are another matter. He is the prodigious son of Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata, that is enough for him to defend himself here. He pushes his weight back into Hashirama's chest, bringing his legs up to knock Tao Ma's hands away, showing a monkey-like dexterity. Only a shinobi of his calibre could fight with his feet as if they were his hands.
He can defend himself, but defending Shikadai will be harder, and he cannot get free of Hashirama's grip. Once more he manages to pull a kunai from Hashirama's person, throwing it a pitifully short way up into the air, but that is enough. He uses wind style chakra to propel the kunai towards Tsunade.
Tsunade knows the moment the kunai is thrown it's coming for the back of her neck; the hive mind gives her a complete advantage in this situation. She leaps into the air, flipping around to look at Boruto's incoming attack and throws her own kunai to counter it. She underestimated Boruto, once airborne, all kunai are his weapon. He creates an invisible wall of wind chakra, bouncing Tsunade's kunai back at her on the left while his kunai approaches from the right.
Sending enough chakra to ricochet a kunai from this distance is manageable for Boruto but sending enough energy to turn the kunai into rasengan is different, even for someone as powerful as him. He closes his eyes, committing all his focus to those kunai, disregarding the continuing strikes of Tao Ma. He manages to send just enough chakra in that direction, transforming both kunai into rasengan.
But it doesn't work. Tsunade dodges both attacks. Now there is nothing Boruto can do to stop her. He resumes defending himself against Tao Ma with his feet and searches desperately for a way to free himself from Hashirama's grip with his tenseigan. There is nothing though. There is no way for him to free himself.
Shikadai does his best to slow Tsunade on her way towards them, but there is nothing he can do. Barely able to hold back the others, there is no way he can stand against the excessive power of Senju Tsunade, especially now that she has been enhanced by 'death' energy.
Shikadai tries a quick strike towards Tsunade's head but she is too quick for him. Tsunade dodges gracefully to the right of Shikadai's attack before wrapping her arm around his neck, flipping him over her back and slamming him powerfully down into the ground. The others try to intervene, but Tsunade has no intention of showing mercy as she strikes towards the quickest of them with her full power.
Tsunade moves to attack Mitsuki.
But, to everyone's surprise, Tsunade stops.
Mitsuki feels hope for a moment. "Tsunade, you just stopped, you don't want to hurt us, do you? However hard it is, you can still control yourself somehow, you are still the 5th Hokage, our 5th Hokage. Please, dig down deep, remember Dan, and your grandmother, and the man your grandfather used to be. Find it in yourself to help us."
Tsunade's fist shakes and she sheds a tear as she pauses in front of Mitsuki.
"I'm so sorry," she says as she pulls back her fist once again.
From afar Boruto is horrified, there is nothing he can do. Mitsuki keeps his eyes open, vowing to stay with Tsunade until the end, knowing that staying with her is his duty as her master, he smiles. Shikadai tries to get back to his feet, but he knows that he is too weak to fight back against Tsunade. He prays for a miracle, he prays that he can break through at the last moment, that he can understand the second stage of darkness.
No matter how hard Shikadai wishes for it though, he is not going to break through here, that is not what destiny has decided for him.
However, destiny isn't always cruel. Today it has decided that Mitsuki will live.
Tsunade is hit by a counterstrike, pushing her back down into the ground and throwing sand up into the air. Shikadai can't see exactly what just happened, but he knows that the miracle he wished for just came to pass. They were saved. A save like that could only have been one person, and if she is here it can only mean one thing.
Shikadai smiles, he can't believe it.
"He's here!" Shikadai yells.
Suddenly Boruto disappears from Hashirama's grip. The 1st Hokage is forced to react quickly to grab the sword that appears in his place, just about saving himself from a quick death. When he looks up, he sees exactly where Boruto has gone and it's just as he feared.
Boruto was teleported away.
Now he stands next to a swirl of powerful divine energy.
Viridian divine energy!
As the sand falls around Tsunade, she can finally see who hit her for the first time. Sakura has returned just in time to stop her master.
Boruto looks to his left and watches as his own teacher steps from the swirl of viridian energy, emerging as one would from a portal, having moved from so far away. Unrelenting relief washes through his body, his shoulders dropping and air slowly leaving his lungs as he relaxes for the first moment since he woke up.
Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura have arrived.
"You don't look very happy," Boruto smiles to his master.
"I'm relieved," Sasuke reveals. "You had me really worried that you weren't who I thought you were for a while back there. There's no doubting it now though, seeing you fight for what you are. You are Naruto's son and my student, I'm glad you came to your senses."
"Do you have any business here anymore?" Hashirama asks Sasuke.
"Yeah, I'm teaching Boruto a lesson. Unlike you I'm going to do it properly."
Hashirama quickly turns Sasuke's sword back against him, throwing it at the Uchiha clansmen with as much power as he can muster. Divine energy, chakra, raw strength, Hashirama is a monster in all three categories, when he casts the blade forward, he does so with all the fury of the gods.
He should have known better though, only one man has mastered the sharingan to the same degree as Sasuke, and Hashirama has fought him more than anyone. Against the strongest of the Uchiha, be it Madara or Sasuke, an attack like this was never going to be enough.
It takes less than a second for Sasuke's eyes to shift, one turning red the other purple. In the same time, he shifts his body to the right, not removing his feet from the ground, and catches the grip of his blade firmly in the left hand. With perfect timing even strength as great as Hashirama's can be contended with. Sasuke is a genius, his timing is perfect. He shifts back to his original position, now in possession of his weapon, not having moved from the spot.
"This sort of thing always happens Boruto, great people have been trapped in it before so you don't need to beat yourself up, but it's important you can recognise it. I too was caught up in this way of thinking once. I held the whole world responsible for the hateful actions of just a few people. I sought revenge for what happened to my clan and what happened to my brother. I'm sure my future counterpart must have told you the story at some point, but it comes with an important lesson.
"It's the same as what you were doing before. You took the actions of this emperor at the top of the world and you blamed all the people he forced to do his bidding. This is all part of the cycle of hatred as it was once called. Sometimes that cycle gets out of control, it becomes a spiral growing larger and larger. You started off blaming the military, then all the warriors, then the entire of Homeworld for the actions of that one person. Your hatred of Furst Jonas has grown out of control
"Cycles like this can be broken though, but it takes an endless will, infinite resolve and the determination to never give up. You may have learnt about it as a kid, but to my knowledge that cycle was only ever broken by one person. Your father broke the cycle in our time, bringing everyone with him into a new and better world. He even managed to save me, he refused to leave a single person behind.
"I hope Boruto, that you can be the one to end this cycle that we find ourselves in. Hopefully, whether it's tomorrow or ten years in the future, you will be able to save Lord 1st, Lord 5th and even Tao Ma from this cycle."
"I'll do my best," Boruto says, "But the hive mind won't let me do that right now, if we're not careful everyone is going to die."
"Yes, this fight has gotten rather out of hand, it's too much even for you," Sasuke admits. "You did a good job fighting until now, but there was a problem from the start. You weren't fighting to win; you were just fighting to survive. The numbers defeated you, not your opponents."
"We still need to escape."
"I agree, but we won't be able to get the others away while Hashirama, Tsunade and Tao Ma are keeping us busy, first thing we need to do is defeat them."
"We?"
"Yeah. The biggest problem with this number of opponents is keeping Shikadai and the others alive. You go to his side; Tao Ma and the others will surely be trying to kill him. However, if you protect him then I doubt they will be able to get past you."
Boruto notices Sakura for the first time. With his omni-directional vision she has been in his sight all along, but only now has Boruto's focus snapped away from his master and has he noticed that Sakura is here too.
"Will Sakura be alright holding back Tsunade?"
Sasuke smirks, "She'll be fine."
"And you?"
"I have a score to settle with the 1st Hokage. I know that you are just as powerful as he is, but I want you to stay out of this fight. It's important that between the two of us we can work out the truth."
"The truth?"
"We need to work out who your real master is."
As viridian and grey energy amass around Sasuke and Hashirama respectively, they prepare themselves to fight with years' worth of history behind them. The Senju and the Uchiha will battle once again.
Both of them step forward, summoning enormous strength as they do so.
Sasuke has been planning this from the moment he worked out what was going on in this camp.
Finally, the battle of Boruto's masters begins.
In Response to King Crimson's Question
About if I based divine energy off existing works
OK, so this is a tough one to answer. Yes, it is by no means an original concept, but it is used in many places. There are a lot of similar systems in all sorts of anime such as dragon ball.
The class system though (numbering classes to indicate strength) comes more from Chinese Xianxia/Cultivation novels in this case. I used to read quite a lot so I can't point to one particularly that inspired me.
And indeed, the class numbers will be going up in time I assure you. I don't think saying that in itself is really a spoiler. I think the story would be rather dull if they didn't eventually increase.
Thanks for reading.