DECLARATION OF WAR – BREAKTHROUGH
West Aturia
Ming Dai grinds to a halt as he is sent backwards by a strike from Shao Chin. He thinks that perhaps Naruto's words from before made him underestimate his opponent. Shao Chin is not a battle specialist, but that doesn't mean he is weak. The two of them are both class 7 warriors. Ming Dai has been trained from the very beginning by one of the greatest fighters to have ever graced Homeworld. While Shao Chin cannot boast such experience, he has faced countless beasts in head-on combat, surviving every encounter.
Shao Chin readies his bow once man before firing an arrow at Ming Dai.
Ming Dai quickly dodges the arrow, simple given the distance that Shao Chin has put between them. However, as he dodges, Shao Chin begins to move forward. Ming Dai is very much a close-range fighter and has few ways to counterattack. He tries to step forward but as he does so another arrow comes flying in his direction.
The situation becomes stuck, a loop which is worse for Ming Dai every time it occurs. Each time Shao Chin takes another step closer to him, making the arrows harder to dodge and more rapid in frequency. Meanwhile, Ming Dai has no way to fight back. Even the environment works against him, as there are no sticks or stones he can throw in the desert. Sora's student just keeps gambling on his own ability to dodge the increasingly difficult attacks, hoping that he can get close enough to attack.
Eventually it happens, seemingly a slip up from Shao Chin, the hunter arrives within attacking distance. Ming Dai leaps at Shao Chin, but the latter slips back away, letting himself be carried just off the floor by his 'gale' powers.
Sora's student naturally pursues Shao Chin, wanting to press his advantage and remain on the offensive. As he goes after him, he realises that there was never any advantage to begin with. As Shao Chin had been advancing towards Dai, he had been placing traps along the floor. It is a strategy that he enjoys using, especially against beasts. It almost always works, with Hannah's instinct making her a rare exception to the rule.
Dai finds his leg caught in a snare and brings his 'strength' energy to bear, tearing it apart. This small bit of wasted time is enough for Shao Chin to fire another arrow at Ming Dai. This time the arrow connects, striking him painfully in the upper arm. Ming Dai quickly removes the arrow and rolls to the right, hoping to avoid the next shot.
The arrow wooshes past Dai's head. Thankfully Shao Chin has proven himself unable to completely see through his battle tactics. This is the first moment in their duel that Ming Dai has felt his experience has been to his advantage, the first time he was able to outfox his adversary, even if just for a moment.
Regardless, they are caught in the same loop once more. Endless arrows rain down upon Ming Dai, following quickly one after the other. It's a very low risk ranged tactic for Shao Chin, and a very high-risk defensive strategy by Ming Dai. However, Ming Dai continues to dodge, even as the seconds and the minutes tick by. Shao Chin grins to himself, any normal warrior would have been hit by now. Ming Dai has spent time hiding in the shadow of Uzumaki Naruto, now he is starting to show just a bit of his true potential. He is beginning to show the talent that makes him a genius warrior.
Nearby, the Uzumaki family are continuing to sustain the diving attacks from Claude the Owl. He dives down on them in order. First Kushina, then Himawari, then Minato. While he may be their enemy, he is a good person in control of his actions and does everything in his power to avoid hurting Mito. His job is to keep them busy so that they can't intervene and save Naruto's life.
Each time he swoops down, Claude leaves a trail of golden 'flight' energy in his wake. He uses this energy to knock the shinobi off balance, to stagger them and leave them with minor injuries. People seldom know how to counter him at first, most people have never fought against a bird before and are used to dealing with human adversaries, this usually gives him the advantage for a good while.
While Claude does this his heart is torn. He looks down on the shinobi from up high, watching them shout to each other to come up with a strategy. From this height he cannot hear them, and he is not sure that he wants to. He finds himself in the unusual position of fighting Uzumaki Naruto's family, yet Naruto is the man he is relying upon. The 7th Hokage is the only hope left for someone decent to defeat Hannah. He is fighting her alone, with honour for the moment, that alone is more than anyone else can do. Claude just prays that when all this is over Hannah can laugh together with these people and that they will not hold a grudge.
He watches them pass one of their metallic weapons between each other down below. These things are so easily avoided by one such as him, the warriors of this world generally lack the accuracy to hit him with projectiles. Even those that are capable of hitting him, who are few and far between, are unsuccessful. Claude can dodge any such attack, he is not just any bird, he is a master of 'flight' energy. He flies with a speed and dexterity uncharacteristic of his species.
Claude swoops down once more, moving this time towards the woman with the strange eyes. She is good at watching where he is going, but even with perfect eyesight she won't be able to hit him with that metallic weapon.
Himawari throws the kunai just over Claude's head.
If the owl's heart were in this fight he might have realised something so very important. If he had dodged that would have been OK. However, Himawari missed. There is no way that she could have done that from such close range by mistake.
Claude suddenly feels a tremendous energy pressing down on his back. Golden 'wind' energy is pushed into him with a steadily increasing force. It suddenly explodes and sends him crashing down into the ground below.
Claude turns his head and sees that it was the blonde-haired one who managed to hit him from behind. A clever use of the teleportation technique he is blessed with to bring down a much more mobile opponent. Good teamwork from the shinobi group. He doesn't feel sad to have lost.
Now Claude turns his head towards Hannah, and her fight.
"I know what you're thinking," Kushina tells Claude.
"I'm thinking that he can't win," the owl says, "I'm thinking that you will all die here, and that Hannah will be stuck forever."
"That won't happen. Naruto won't lose here, not even to someone as special as her. He is the one who will save this world. You'll come to realise that in time."
Meanwhile the arrows continue to move at Ming Dai. Having become slightly fed up with waiting for something to happen, Shao Chin switched to firing arrows in pairs. Somehow though, his opponent continues to dodge, seemingly with a greater competency than before. The hunter wonders if Ming Dai is evolving as the fight goes along, or if he is unlocking competencies hidden away over years of inactivity.
Ming Dai's thoughts aren't fully on his fight even now. He watches Naruto's fight out the corner of his eye. It doesn't matter if he loses here, he doubts that Shao Chin will go on to help Hannah in her fight. No, doing that would likely cost him his own life. What matters is that Naruto defeats Hannah. If the 7th Hokage does win then Hannah will be on their side, even if Shao Chin does go mad it won't matter.
Shao Chin observes Ming Dai as he continues to dodge. He is now too far above him to touch. Sora's student must have developed extreme evasion technique during his training with his master. Even at a range of ten yards he is dodging pairs of arrows while not fully concentrating on Shao Chin. This is not what the hunter detected when he fought Dai previously though. There is something he is holding back, something that he is refusing to let out that could make him so much more powerful. He refuses to stop until he at least feels a taste of Ming Dai's true power.
The hunter comes up with a plan. He too begins to watch the fight between Naruto and Hannah out the corner of his eye. He tries his best to keep the pressure on Ming Dai, but it does cost him some precision, he is not good at multitasking in combat. The fight between the two mightiest class 7s is a sight to behold, a collision of power and skill far in excess of their own. He doesn't care about their power though, there is a moment he is waiting for, a moment when everything can change.
The moment arrives.
A key collision between Naruto and Hannah.
Shao Chin turns his bow on the duo. He sees Naruto withdrawing his arm and he watches as it lights up, flooding with divine energy. He is powering-up his arm to use his divine oddity. Shao Chin waits just a few milliseconds for Naruto to be in the right position. When he is ready, he unleashes his arrow, sending it strategically to the position where he assumes the Hokage's head will move.
Ming Dai rapidly looks around at the others. Kushina, Himawari, even Minato, none of them are going to make it in time. If the arrow hits Naruto at such a crucial moment it is almost certain he will be defeated. He doubts that he could beat Hannah even if he teamed up with Shao Chin, there is no choice but to stop it.
Ming Dai closes his eyes, just for a fraction of a second. He reaches into his subconscious and activates a power deep within that he swore a long time ago he would never use. He stretches out his hand, pointing his palm at the arrow and wills it to fall.
A burst of golden 'lightning' rushes from Ming Dai's hand, knocking the arrow from the sky.
The shinobi trio look at Ming Dai in confusion. That doesn't make any sense. Dai can't use 'lightning' energy, or at least he never has in the past. It's possible that he has had it all along but has refused to use it, but that seems unlikely. What possible reason would he have for hiding 'lightning' energy from them, if anything it's quite a neat trick?
Ming Dai turns back to Shao Chin, but the hunter raises a hand, gesturing to the warrior that he can stop now.
"That will be enough," Shao Chin says.
"Enough?"
"I only wanted to make you stop holding back. Now I have seen a glimpse of your true power."
"Yes, I suppose you have."
"You can't fool me though, Ming Dai, I know that there is still something you are hiding away. I know that I have yet to see the full extent of your power."
Ming Dai sighs. "I'm sorry for not honouring you with my full power, but I am ashamed of my full strength. I swore a long time ago that I would never use it, no matter the circumstances nor how desperate I had become."
"You will use your full power. I probably can't make you do it today, or tomorrow, but if you stick with this man Uzumaki Naruto it will be forced out of you eventually. You will find yourself a servant to a cause you feel more strongly about than any you have ever followed before. It is inevitable really, that's just the kind of man he is."
Ming Dai is almost stunned by Shao Chin's audacity. He's talking to him now like a friend after a sparring match. If that had all gone wrong or ended differently, they would have all died. Now he reveals that all that was some elaborate training exercise to make him a bit more powerful. He yearns for the day when he doesn't have to worry about this kind of thing anymore. He yearns for a dawn that only Naruto can bring when the sun rises over a free land. That day may still not happen, depending on how this fight goes.
Claude begins to berate Shao Chin for stopping, but the hunter ignores the owl. Claude soon catches onto this; he realises that the hunter was never on their side to begin with and that it was all a trick. Now there is only one thing left to do, watch this man, the 7th Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, and see if he can do what nobody else can. Watch him try to free Hannah.
The fight isn't going well for Naruto, contrary to their hopes and expectations. Every combination of attacks Hannah adapts, every flurry she counters just a little bit more effectively. The biggest difference is Naruto's divine oddity, specifically that Hannah is adapting to it. She hasn't identified a tell or any way to predict when Naruto will use his powers, she has just worked out a way of moving such that it doesn't matter. Her natural fighting style is so far beyond anything that anyone can imagine that not even Naruto can defeat her as he is right now.
He powers-up his leg, firing himself at Hannah. He powers-up his arm, throwing a forceful punch towards Hannah. She dodges, just as she has done with all such recent blows. She counters with two powerful punches to Naruto's head and a kick to his chest. She sends him backwards, having endured his double use of his divine oddity without any harm.
Naruto grinds to a halt. He is more amazed by Hannah's divine ability by the moment. General Rana is one of the most skilled people in Homeworld, yet she could not dodge when he used his divine oddity. Rana is a whole level above Hannah and has a wealth of additional experience. Perhaps this instinct is something that cannot be overcome.
"Don't give up Naruto," Kurama encourages his host, "It's taken her this long to adapt to your divine oddity. Push yourself further, it will take her longer to keep up. All you have to do is find a way to advance quicker than she can!"
Nearby Claude looks on in despair. He has concluded that there is nothing left that can be done, even by this miraculous pocket-worlder. With every exchange Hannah's timing is getting better, her movements are becoming more practiced, her skill is building. It is as if her instinct, all-powerful as it has always seemed, is only getting stronger, like a muscle developing as she exercises.
Hannah emerges from another tussle with Naruto the victor.
"This is unfair," she says.
"Huh?" Naruto starts.
"Your little trick is really cool, and really strong. Nobody has ever done any better against me than you have done, but it's not enough to beat me."
"Don't be so sure, I'm not giving up yet."
"You don't get it do you, it's your concentration that's lacking."
Naruto is startled by Hannah's suggestion. He has been concentrating on this fight, giving his opponent all the respect that she deserves. He has always been a one-minded warrior, never lacking in focus or determination. Hannah says that he lacks the concentration to execute his own divine ability, has she gone mad?
"It's the way we all move divine energy, moving it in two separate directions at once is tricky enough," Hannah begins tearfully, "But what you're trying to do is too hard. You're moving divine energy internally and externally at the same time. Moving energy that way is too difficult."
"Don't count me out yet," Naruto replies.
"Even I couldn't do it!" Hannah yells. "I tried before I came here. I didn't detonate my core, but I tried to move energy in a similar pattern. Even with all my instincts I couldn't do it. You want to do it with a single human mind, unaided! That's impossible, even for the most remarkable genius in the world that's impossible!"
Naruto cannot answer Hannah's claim. She's right, her mind is certainly better suited to these tasks than his own. His superiority to her in this aspect is likely only down to the 4000 attempts he made to escape the pit. Hoping to use this method to defeat someone of such sublime instincts was probably fruitless from the very beginning. Then again, perhaps there was no technique that could have helped him to defeat her.
"I'm sorry, it's time to end this," Hannah says.
Hannah leaps towards Naruto.
Naruto thinks though, does he feel helpless having realised the truth? He doesn't feel any more or less powerful than he has done at any point in his life. The reality is that he has never really thought of himself as being special, he's just worked really hard to get this far. He's made it with the help of so many people. He's had teachers from both worlds, friends of all shapes and sizes, he's learned from people he once thought of as his enemies. His journey has been called impossible right from the start, but he's always found a way because of one simple reason.
He is not alone.
With Hannah half-way from her starting point to Naruto, the 7th Hokage's eyes snap wide open.
He knows what to do!
Naruto powers-up his leg, using it to push himself to the left. Hannah quickly changes direction, following him. Naruto then powers-up his other leg, sending himself to the right. Hannah once more follows him, thinking this is now just a silly game of cat and mouse. However, what happens when she catches up with Naruto this time shocks her. She is struck powerfully across the face by his arm, burning bright thanks to the use of his divine oddity.
Hannah is knocked from her feet to the ground.
She quickly scrambles back to her feet, a look of pure shock on her face.
Shao Chin frowns, not understanding what just happened. The Uzumaki family are the same, they don't know what could possibly have changed. Claude is lost as well. Even Ming Dai cannot work out how the tide changed so suddenly. A second ago, it looked like Naruto could do nothing against Hannah, but now he is back on top again. It may just be for an instant, but he seems to be in a position of control.
Only Hannah has realised the difference, only she has been keeping track.
She jumps away from Naruto, but he pursues her.
First, he powers-up his left leg, then he powers-up his right, arriving before her at such a tremendous speed, there is absolutely no way that she could have avoided him. Then, he powers-up his arm and pushes it powerfully into her chest, knocking her backwards once more. This time Hannah manages to stay on her feet, but her suspicions have been confirmed.
Before now Naruto has been working hard to control his divine oddity. He even changed his fighting style from the first time they fought, adopting a slightly inferior set of movements in order to facilitate his divine oddity. He has abandoned that weaker move set though, reverting to his superior movements without hinderance from his divine oddity. There is an even greater tell-tale sign of improvement though. Something even more telling than his old moves coming back.
Until now Naruto has only been able to use his divine oddity twice in quick succession.
He just used it three times.
It took him 4000 attempts to advance his divine oddity the first time around. However, he just made another improvement in an instant. This wasn't because of practice or training, he just realised something and was able to apply it right away.
Naruto has made a vital breakthrough!
But just how did he do it? He remains a class 7 warrior and the quality of his divine energy has not changed at all.
What is going on?
Battle Classes in this Chapter
Per previous comments, I have included the battle classes of people mentioned this chapter below.
I hope that the format is acceptable and easy enough to understand.
The "?" represent something that has not been revealed yet.
Unless anyone sees any reason not to I will be continuing this in future chapters.
Uzumaki Naruto (7) = Life (2) + Transcendent (2) + Shinobi (3)
Hannah (7) = Light + Darkness (3) + Transcendent (1) + Combo (1) + Manual (1) + Divine Ability (1)
Ming Dai (7) = Strength (3) + Transcendent (1) + Manual (2) + Divine Ability (1)
Shao Chin (7) = Gale (3) + Transcendent (1) + Manual (2) + Divine Ability (1)
Namikaze Minato (6) = Wind (3) + Shinobi (3)
Claude (6) = Flight (3) + Manual (3)
Himawari (?)
Kushina (?)
In Response to S's Question
About the location of certain landmarks
Homeworld consists of seven continents, six outer continents ruled by the royals which surrounded one inner continent under direct rule of the emperor.
Inner Continent = Okarin
Outer Continents = Aturia, Ewoa, Gavaria, Seblix, Cheqitori and Fayoth
Both the Imperial Palace and the Military Academy are in the inner continent Okarin.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to Engineer's Question
About Yuuki Terukatsu's level
You're spot on! It's really encouraging to me that someone has understood it so well.
Yuuki Terukatsu's 'silver' element is indeed transcendent.
Level breakdown:
Yuuki Terukatsu (8) = Silver (3) + Transcendent (1) + Manual (3) + Divine Ability (1)
Thanks for reading.
In Response to tarunfiction1's Question
About possibly using fuuinjutsu
Well, I naturally can't say whether it will ever be used or not.
That would be spoilers.
I will always consider suggestions like this though, they're very helpful.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to 4Sigma's Question
About what happened to the other bijuus
If my understanding of the original manga is right, they can die but they will just reappear some time later.
Given that this is the case they're probably alone in Naruto's pocket-world right now.
If this isn't correct then they're just dead following the original war with Clyde.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to utlimusred's Question
About when part 10 will finish
I can't be exact without giving spoilers, but it will probably be some time this month, assuming my mental maths is right.
I'm afraid I also can't say when (or if) certain people will reunite without giving spoilers either.
Sorry that it's not a very helpful answer.
Hopefully you will enjoy the rest of part 10.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to C's Question
About if it's possible for Naruto to reach Jonas' level
Indeed, at the moment it appears to be a mathematical impossibility.
Who can say what will happen in this story's future though, perhaps Naruto will lose.
I'm sorry I can't say more without giving away spoilers.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to Kinguuu's Question
About the role of chakra in the story going forward
I can't be specific without giving away spoilers, but chakra will still feature in the story going forward.
Sorry that I can't say more.
Thanks for reading.