THE FOUNDRY – HIVE MIND
The Marshlands, West Cheqitori
There are no longer any secrets amongst Tao Ma and his accomplices. He is in charge, even if he is not the strongest, and as the man who hosts the Hive Mind, he is not going to take any risks. He has sent Hashirama and Tsunade, his strongest subordinates, to the nearest Imperial Guard encampment to eliminate more enemies of his true masters, the Dark Dimension.
Since Boruto left their group they have been performing much more efficiently. The Shadow Hokage was the only one amongst them that the Hive Mind couldn't control yet he was the one Tao Ma had the highest hopes for. Boruto had an honest rage against Homeworld, a great power to enforce his will on the residents of that world and a potential so great that he may one day have stood at the top of this world. Teaming with Boruto had a price though, Tao Ma had to conceal his true nature in order to keep the shinobi on side. That is no longer a price he must pay.
Tao Ma suddenly feels something through the Hive Mind. The number under his control is dwindling by the second. He has felt this before, during late nights when the others have fallen asleep. He questions if someone is using such a technique to induce slumber in his subordinates. He rises from the comfortable wooden chair that Hashirama made for him and leaves his tent.
When Tao Ma gets outside even, he is surprised by the enormity of the attack on their camp. Only one person remains standing amongst the many subordinates that were patrolling outside just moments ago. A man in a dark hood, concealing his presence from the host of the Hive Mind, at least initially. This is the same hood worn by all those who follow Tao Ma and judging from the familiar energy that continues to surround the camp, it is obvious that this can only be one person.
He pulls back his hood. It is Boruto.
Tao Ma throws his head back and laughs maniacally into the air. Even if he were to command Hashirama and Tsunade to return they would not reach him until it was too late. He is at Boruto's mercy. His life has been dedicated to raining down death upon the people of Homeworld, it is ironic that this would be how his story should end. He stands laughing in front of the only other man to have understood this element naturally. They should understand one another perfectly yet somehow, they have become polar opposites in this most unusual time for Homeworld.
Tao Ma is baffled by it all. He was so certain that the circumstances surrounding Boruto's understanding of 'death' energy were perfect. He felt so sure that the Shadow Hokage would be a greater champion of their cause than even he was. Somehow that has all changed, and he thinks he knows how. It is the people of that pocket-world, they are beyond all of his expectations. Boruto's fiancée, his former teacher, his grandfather and grandmother, his sister, his mother, but most of all his father, they all keep dragging him back towards his former ways. The people of that pocket-world, in his mind, corrupt more than anyone else.
"You've come back to kill me," Tao Ma chuckles to himself, "Did your father approve? Did your other master approve? Or was it your wife-to-be who sent you to do what was necessary? Tell me who it was Boruto, who sent you to do what they lacked the stomach for? Whose assassin are you today?"
"Did you ever know?" Boruto asks.
"Know what?"
"Did you know who my mother was?"
"Your mother, Hyuuga Hinata, possessed by a strange power that nobody could identify. Your mother was a nobody Boruto, she was a warrior of average talents who got lucky to have a strange defect to her power. Her death was inevitable when she came to this world, only the strong survive in this place."
Boruto sighs. Tao Ma really had no idea who he was all this time. Headmaster Sora must have been the only one who knew the true importance of the Uzumaki-Hyuuga family. It makes sense now, if Tao Ma had known all this time who he was would he have allowed him to live? The man who despises Homeworld and all those from within, forced by a cruel power to kill indiscriminately, how could he have allowed the Crown Prince of Homeworld to survive for so long?
"Who did you come here for?" Tao Ma asks once again.
"I am here for the people of Homeworld, my people. I cannot allow you to kill them anymore. I am here for the people of the pocket-world, also my people. I can't let you control them anymore with that sick ability of yours."
"Homeworld almost destroyed your world yet you defend it? You are insane Uzumaki Boruto."
"Homeworld is my world, Tao Ma, and I will not allow it to make the same mistakes again," Boruto says. "First I need to ensure the survival of these people. So, I made a promise to my father. I promised to ask you if there was any other way. Is there a way I could stop you from killing the people of this world?"
"There is only one way to stop me killing these animals, kill me!"
Boruto sighs, "I was afraid you would say that."
Boruto activates his divine 'death' cloak. He raises a single hand to his face, he controls the 'death' energy on that hand. He slows the rotational speed of the particles, decreases the intensity of those particles, and then decreases their number. He transforms that energy into the shape of a terrifying mask and rests it on his face.
This is Death Mask!
Tao Ma suddenly loses sight of Boruto and begins to panic. He questions what is happening around him, he knows that the Shadow 9th Hokage is still there, but he cannot find him no matter what he does. He brings forward all of his golden 'death' energy and lashes out. He attacks in every direction that he can think Boruto may be hidden but he doesn't connect with his target.
Death Mask is effective because people dislike death. Although Tao Ma has mastered the element, that doesn't make him immune, instead it makes him the opposite, just like Boruto. They understood the element when they watched countless people die around them, when they suffered a trauma the likes of which few ever experience. Boruto knows that Tao Ma may suffer the effects of this technique more than anyone else.
As Tao Ma fires his last panicked attack, he suddenly feels a sharp pain in his torso. He feels a loss of clarity in his perception of the world. Then for a final moment something becomes clear as Boruto removes the Death Mask. He sees the Shadow Hokage standing right in front of him, just where he has always been. Tao Ma wonders why he couldn't see it before, but then he realises that it is the mask. This was the effect of Boruto's divine oddity, a technique he couldn't possibly have countered.
"The Dark Dimension has no hold on you anymore," Boruto says, "Rest in peace Tao Ma."
In the final moment of Tao Ma's life he feels the Hive Mind's grip release him. It is the first time he has experienced relief and happiness in such a long time. Somehow in his heart he knows the truth about the man in front of him, his saviour.
This is not Uzumaki Boruto, the Shadow 9th Hokage of the pocket-world.
This is Endou Boruto, the Crown Prince of Homeworld.
Boruto closes his eyes and wishes the best for Tao Ma on the other side, he has suffered so much unnecessarily despite caring so much for others in the days before the Hive Mind. He deserves so much more than he has been given.
The Crown Prince also wishes that he can be forgiven for what he has done today. It was necessary for the sake of Hashirama, Tsunade and all the people of Homeworld, but it did involve taking a life, something his father was rightly reluctant about. At least now it is all over and Homeworld is safe.
Boruto's thought may indeed be that Homeworld is safe. But that is not entirely true. The Hive Mind is not killed so easily.
A Short Way East
"Senju Hashirama."
Hashirama had been feeling great relief just a moment ago. For the first time in years he has been free of the control of Tao Ma. Now this voice is speaking in his ear. It sounds deafening, so loud that he struggles to perceive anything else when it talks. He is consumed by a feeling of dread when realises what it might be.
This voice is the Hive Mind.
"I am taking control."
The 1st Hokage suddenly feels an agony pour through his mind. The intensity of this pain is almost unbearable, but he has felt this pain before, it is familiar. This is the same pain Tao Ma used to control him during the moments after his wife's death before he returned to the village. Since then he has been a helpless servant to the master of that pain, to Tao Ma and by extension the Hive Mind.
Now the Hive Mind is trying to gain control of Hashirama's mind directly, forcing itself first into his inner world so that it can shout commands at him, second into the pain centres. Hashirama dangerously floods his own brain with chakra, doing everything in his power to resist the energy of the Hive Mind. Any lesser shinobi wouldn't be able to do this, but even with just chakra he is a class 3 warrior, that is all that gives him any hope of controlling himself.
As the Senju clansmen fights back the pain becomes greater than any he has experienced, but he can feel himself winning. He tries to find all the resolve he can to hold on, to keep resisting against this terrible disease, this warped power. It is no ordinary divine ability though, ordinary divine abilities cannot empower pocket-worlders, but this ability has a mind of its own, it is sentient.
Hashirama thinks of all the people he has failed since losing control the first time. He thinks about how he abandoned his brother. He thinks about how he let Tsunade suffer alone after Dan's death and about how he set her on the path to becoming Tao Ma's pawn. He thinks about Hinata and Naruto, how he almost killed the two of them. He thinks about Boruto and the way he failed as a teacher, telling him things he knew to be untrue and making him betray his family.
Hashirama knows he can't allow those he cares about to go through that again, no matter how much pain it means he must endure. However, no matter what he tries he cannot fight back any harder. That is until he hears a second voice in his mind, a voice from beyond the grave.
"Fight back!" the voice tells him.
Hashirama doesn't know if the voice is a hallucination caused by the pain, but he doesn't care. He recognises that voice and has yearned to hear it for such a long time now.
It's Mito.
The 1st Hokage feels so weak when he hears his wife's voice. He would be happy if everything just ended then. He feels so tempted to take the other route out, to detonate his core and not give the Hive Mind the satisfaction of using him. Fortunately for the pocket-world, and for Homeworld, Mito's voice is not so inclined to let that happen.
"You made them a promise when you became the 1st Hokage! You're not allowed to give up now! Don't let it take control of you the same way it controlled him. You have to be in control Hashirama, so fight! Fight!"
"Mito! Without you I don't think I can—"
"I've always been here with you" Mito's voice says, "But when you lose yourself you cannot hear me. Don't let it happen again! Take control!"
Hashirama feels a renewed determination. The amounts of chakra in his brain increase even further. He feels the rage of the divine ability as it is chased from the pain centres of his brain and back into his inner world. Its voice may still be there, shouting at him, but it is growing quieter by the second, the voice of Mito rising to fill it's place. He feels the control of his own body returning to him and finally the pain diminishing.
With one final push and a mighty battle cry, Hashirama does it!
He gains control for the first time in years.
"That can't be allowed to happen Hashirama. Nobody can have control of this power but me! It is my power and I must be in control, of the hive and of you! You are not worthy! You are too weak!" the voice of the Hive Mind rants, "There will be a moment of weakness! You won't be able to control me indefinitely! You may have control now, but I will rebuild my strength! I will siphon your energy! During the crucial moment when you least expect I will take back control! I will kill Homeworld!"
The voice of the Hive Mind is loud in Hashirama's mind, but he has the willpower to ignore it, a willpower trained throughout his youth that he harnessed to create the Hidden Leaf Village. What gives him willpower more than anything is the other voice he can now here clearly in his head. It may be a hallucination, a self-deception, or some strange form of genjutsu. But perhaps it truly is Mito's voice from beyond the grave.
"I will always be here with you, Senju Hashirama," Mito's voice says softly, "I love you."
He is in control.
He is the 1st Hokage once more.
He is finally Senju Hashirama again.
South Ewoa
Colonel Misfar returns from Dunstone, the capital and largest city in Ewoa. There he was expecting to meet with General Alaa or Queen Mauer Sabine, fortunately he met with neither, instead receiving information from one of his fellow colonels. General Alaa tends to be restrained with his subordinates but given recent events Ewoa he is less likely to be so. Queen Sabine is much less restrained, there is every possibility she would kill you at random. Misfar is glad he met with someone on his own level.
Misfar returns and meets with Colonel Saood in the fort. This place is well defended, one of many strongholds in Southern Ewoa, but again recent circumstances mean they are less comfortable than usual.
"Do we know who is attacking us?" Saood asks.
"We don't know," Misfar admits, "I asked if it might be the doing of Yuuki Terukatsu and the War Council, but apparently they're not heading towards Ewoa yet. Apparently, the General doesn't think they'd attack so recklessly anyway."
"Nobody would attack this recklessly!"
"What about that pocket-worlder, Uzumaki Naruto?"
"The last we heard about Uzumaki Naruto he was in Fayoth," Saood says, "If he is such a big shot why would he do this anyway? He can't win a war if he dies."
"Then who else could it be?"
"I don't know."
An enormous explosion breaks through one of the walls of the fort. Misfar and Saood run outside to see the hardened bricks flying up in the air. It seems that they are the latest of the Ewoa Imperial Guard to come under attack. The walls of this fort were supposed to be reinforced against such an attack, but they just crumbled like paper. It seems that their opponent is someone with power. That was one of the largest explosions they have ever witnessed.
An adversary who is both powerful and reckless, truly this is someone to be feared.
Someone appears between the two of them instantly. The speed of travel is so great that it must have been the result of a divine ability, perhaps instantaneous movement. They recognise the golden jacket over the green uniform, it is the signature of the Homeworld military, in this case a general of that army.
As the man raises his head revealing his aqua eyes from behind his slightly wavy chestnut hair, they recognise this man. He has been presented to them before as a shining example for all Imperial Guard personnel, they should aspire to be like him. That is because he is one of the greatest two recruits in the history of the Homeworld military. Right now, this great recruit looks ready for a fight.
It is the treacherous General Clyde!
Clyde quickly lashes out at the two of them. All of them class 7 warriors, they begin to fight with one another. Misfar and Saood are initially confident of their victory as they were chosen for the Imperial Guard, a greater calling than the one that was given to Clyde. That is a mistake, Clyde has been fighting his all life while they have been guarding, they empire. Now that he is on their level, his experience and skill shine through.
Misfar and Saood expect the other occupants of the fort to come to their aid but they do not receive the help they were expecting. The captains seem to have their hands full battling other famous members from the military.
General Elliot seems to be leading the battle to take the fort. He brings Generals Blackburn, Brooks, Peterson, and Shear with him. Together they cut through the captains rapidly. They prove worthy of the rank bestowed on them in the military, but they have greatly increased their power since that time. Now they are a fighting force capable of competing with anybody in the Imperial Guard.
Clyde continues to battle against Misfar and Saood. The new Head General of the Military knows that the Imperial Guard thinks he is being reckless with this latest string of attacks. They are right, every time he has attacked the odds of victory have been around half, by attacking so many times consecutively they should have been dead by now. The reason for their recklessness is also their source of strength though, something the Imperial Guard failed to consider. Throughout their lives the military are forced to forget their families, told not to make friends with one another, made to compete with one another and punished for failure. The Head General who made this stop, inspired by Clyde, was Head General Lara. Now even Lara has been taken from them. They are reckless because there is nothing left that can be taken from them.
Clyde teleports behind Colonel Saood and strikes him powerfully in the back of the head. He takes the 'lightning' using colonel down with this single mighty blow. Then he gets up and punches Colonel Misfar powerfully in the chest. Misfar is a powerful 'fire' user and Clyde could probably take him down if he wanted to, but he doesn't want all the glory in this fight, and his comrade still needs some practice.
As Colonel Misfar bumps into someone, he should realise something very important, but he does not. When the explosion took place it was accompanied by 'wind' divine energy but ignited by a fire not made from divine energy at all. That explosion was not the creation of the military at all, that explosion was the creation of a pocket-worlder, a pocket-worlder who also suffered greatly because of Lara's death.
Misfar turns around to see a pocket-worlder he doesn't know. This is Sarutobi Mirai.
Misfar tries to throw a series of strikes at Mirai, but the pocket-worlder's skill is greater than his own. Misfar is not one of those class 8 colonels, he is not someone of great talent and can only just keep up with the average shinobi. Mirai is not an average shinobi though, she is the former head of the Hidden Leaf's forces. Mirai dodges each incoming strike before executing a simple trio of her own strikes, the first to the head, the next to the ankle, the third to the chest.
Colonel Misfar drops to the ground for a moment before Mirai kicks him up into one of the fort's walls. She uses 'wind' energy to pack air and combustible materials into a super tight space about Misfar's chest and then uses some chakra-based fire to ignite those materials. This starts a chain of explosions that culminate on Misfar. He tries to use his own 'fire' powers to fight back but they only increase the enormity of the explosion that renders him unconscious and carries him through the wall.
Mirai realises something after seeing Misfar's attempt to retaliate with 'fire' energy, but this is not the time to consider it.
This reckless group has taken yet another Imperial Guard encampment. The continue to spearhead the resistance movement in Ewoa. They may not be the group who can win this war, but they are doing everything they can to make things awkward for their opponents. This is the group that has had everything taken from them. This is the group who dedicate their resistance to Lara.
What none of them realise is that they are about to bear witness to one of the most important moments of the conflict. A moment for which none of them are ready.
Power Ratings in this Chapter
Uzumaki Boruto (7) = Death (2) + Transcendent (2) + Shinobi (3) - Also has tier 1 fate energy
Tao Ma (6) = Death (3) + Transcendent (2) + Divine Ability (1)
Clyde (7) = Darkness (3) + Transcendent (1) + Manual (2) + Divine Ability (1)
Sarutobi Mirai (7) = Wind (3) + Shinobi (2) + ? (2)
In Response to Engineer's Questions
About various subjects
Marti Nina has resumed her quest for revenge against General Nero.
Enri's divine ability allows her to summon other people from afar. She summons people by the pattern of their energy, so she can only summon those whose energy she is familiar with or summon people at random.
Death energy and life energy can clash directly against each other when used for attacking purposes. This can be seen during previous battles between Naruto, Hashirama and Boruto. If they were to work together for other purposes something else may happen, but that has not been revealed yet.
Hannah is still travelling with Naruto. She is currently learning from him as his student.
I don't know what would happen if Death Mask were used against Hannah. You might find out at some point.
You're right, Hannah must make two more manual-type breakthroughs to become class 9. She would make a troublesome opponent for any royal.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to m'j doom's Question
About why Boruto should travel alone
Boruto chooses to travel alone because he believes himself responsible for the damage done by the Hive Mind.
As this chapter proves, he didn't need any other help.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to 4Sigma's Question
About how Hinata can use a divine ability
Hinata's physiology is unique. It is partially that of a Homeworld resident, partially that of a pocket-world resident. This is because her physiology had to adapt when she was born in order to facilitate the divine ability which Endou Hinata's soul already had. Other pocket-worlders haven't made these same adaptations.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to Rixxer's Question
About when Sarada and the other Kage will appear again
They will appear again but I can't say when exactly without giving away spoilers
Thanks for reading.
In Response to Tobito's Question
About if I will bring back other Naruto villains
I believe I already brought back Madara, albeit briefly, in chapter 18.
As for the others, it would be a spoiler if I commented either way.
Thanks for reading.