Chapter Seven
The Deity in the Deep Caverns
I...Itachi...my brother is here! But what the hell?!
Who would have thought they'd run into aniki here, and did that mean he'd have no choice but to turn them all in for breaking in? Sasuke began to think that maybe Neji was right in that Gaara did get them all into this...
And one more thing: who did his brother mean by "he"?
"You can start by explaining why you are here before we go any further," Itachi told them coldly as the group approached him much more closely, the crystals above and around them completely forgotten for the moment. "I don't intend to call the police, but you're not getting away without knowing what this place really is." You mean...our secret is gonna be safe with you. But this means we're still in trouble. Just great.
"I think I should speak up," Naru stated, looking at the elder Uchiha brother hard. "Does this have to do with why Gaara's brother and the others died - or whatever it was he saw here that we came to find?" She meant it as a direct accusation, since it would make sense that this could have been a coverup of sorts and Itachi knew everything - and would make sense if it was part of why he was almost never in his own little brother's life - and the slight surprise in his face was confirmation...or so Sasuke thought.
"You're right, Naru. But what happened to those men didn't directly have anything to do with it. Just follow me now. Still late night, but there's time wasted the longer we are up here." Itachi then turned on his heel to lead the way, having no need for a flashlight, for some strange reason. He said nothing else, but that didn't mean the rest of them wouldn't.
"Alright, this has gotten more strange," Neji grumbled. "I was just considering you really did get us into it, Gaara, and I would have broken your nose myself."
"So it indeed was my fault, after all," Gaara deadpanned. "But this place is so ancient we never would have guessed someone else was actually in these caves - much less Sasuke's brother."
Hinata shivered audibly. "I really hope he keeps his word." She inched closer more to Gaara, and that was when Sasuke noticed the slight pink on the guy's cheeks, which made him think of that familiar feeling in himself over just about anything that came out of Naru's mouth, or the simple close contact...
Itachi heard her loud and clear; his senses were ever better than anyone guessed. "Rest assured, Hyuuga-san. Here we are now." And here they stood over the edge of a cliff in the cave. It was estimated to be about thirty feet high...and at the bottom was darkness glittering with blue.
There's water down there.
"What the hell are we doing here, Itachi?" he demanded, wondering if this was his idea of a joke. "This is just -"
"This is the entrance to where I am taking you."
He blinked in disdain and disbelief. His brother really expected them all to just JUMP down there?! Are you shitting me? What the hell are we gonna do - swim the rest of the way when there is nowhere else to go? Gaara stayed silent and just stared down the distance, whereas Hinata protested over the lack of swimwear on all their parts, and Neji scoffed in that they should have thought there'd be water in this mountain. Naru was ever the loudest of them all. "Might as well just have a large floatie waiting for us while you're at it, Itachi." He jerked his head in her direction then and there.
"Just jump, all of you. No one is going to drown or get wet," he said, then being the first to literally jump off the edge and gracefully fall in a straight line towards the sparkling abyss waiting. Sasuke and his friends stared after him in collective apprehension for a long moment, before it became clear they had no choice. They came all the way out here for one thing, only to wind up with something different, whatever it was.
Well, they were about to find out, so they took the big leap and landed into the underground pond in no time.
Sasuke was unsure of how to explain what had happened: they were all in the water, but it was as Itachi had said in that if you touched it or submerged, you didn't get wet. Not only that, but when you decided to stay under for a long time - but you had to get out eventually - you didn't feel like your lungs were going to burn.
The group followed him, venturing deeper and deeper until they came to the most amazing sight ever in the form of a mirror within the water, composed of the same matter, but when they first stuck their hands through and then their heads, following their entire bodies, the group ended up sliding through this "water entrance" into another world entirely, dry and alive and breathing as Itachi promised.
"Now...this is so unusual," Neji noted hoarsely as they stood on their feet to examine their surroundings. It was the equivalent of an underwater cave, though the water was well above their heads now like any of their homes. Or better yet, in the weird way you said, Neji: it's like an aquarium, but with natural rocks and without the fish and other aquatic wildlife.
Naru grunted. "Gets weirder and weirder, if you ask me." Hinata just looked on with a gasp, enraptured by the beauty.
"Yeah, brother, this just gets better and better. Now, you gonna tell us where we are?" Just when he thought they'd have answers, there was more secrecy and "just follow me" bullshit. Itachi led the way once again, taking them through a massive archway displaying a miraculous, disbelieving catacomb which might be a naturalistic meeting room. The center was composed of a glowing blue liquid - like a magical pool found in popular media - surrounded by more of those blue crystals his group found. Enchanting as this place was, that foreign sensation got stronger.
The stairs they took descended down into this space, and his girlfriend finally broke the silence. "We're really in another world, and do you guys FEEL that? It's been happening ever since we touched those crystals! Itachi, we in a spirit world or something? One of those creatures from our legends live here?"
"Just calm down, Naru," Itachi said, not hard but more patient than she was. "This is it: the heart of this part of the mountain. He's been waiting for you, for thousands of years. Step lively and take your places around the center." By center, he meant that pit of blue whatever-it-was ringed with the jewels which would have been their goldmine. Noticing their hesitance, Itachi's frown deepened, his brows forming a single line. "Don't worry. Nothing will happen that you don't want."
He took his place at the head of the circle, and the others followed, the first being Hinata who started to take this better than the rest of them, and her best friend Naru joined in, which left the boys. Sasuke purposefully let himself be last, avoiding eye contact with his nii-san and keeping it on that glowing liquid thing...
...and as soon as they were all joined, a great rumble sounded as well as formulated, causing them all to nearly fall from their standing positions, at the same time the small pool shone bright and then began to swirl like a miniature whirlpool, before doing something you'd only see in the movies: the water began to rise, keeping its swirling form like a tornado, reaching mid-air and stopping altogether to begin taking another shape. The crystal-like liquid began to separate itself from the pool and join the collection which morphed into a great circle, shrinking and taking the shape of a human being in the lotus position...a man.
It was extremely difficult to tell what the hell he really was, since he looked human and yet couldn't be, based on those horn-like things protruding from either side of his forehead, as well as a third eye in the middle. It was red and bearing black rings. Not only that, but his own two eyes were PURPLE also with many loops around the pupil. He had a strong jaw sporting a goatee tapering down to his lap, his hair dark and spiky, reaching shoulder-length. Those deep wrinkles in his features told Sasuke and company that he had to be very old...and how pale he was, just like two people they knew.
The man in white, floating above their shoulders, regarded them with a somewhat stern expression combined with curiosity, that long black staff topped with metal rings laying horizontally on his lap. And when he spoke, it echoed the highest authority as if he were a god.
"Itachi - these are the ones? The ones whose hands the world now rests in? Oh, yes...I can see it and sense it. Their powers awoke when they touched the crystals."
~o~
Okay...who would have thought we'd end up being caught between fantasy and reality? I said all of this was weird, but this pushes it!
Naru thought she was in a dream when she saw the stuff that would remind her of what she and her friends grew up with in the books, comics and media, but they saw the same thing she did, and hell, Itachi led them right here. It was enough to say he'd been here all this time, involved with whatever this crap was.
That old guy, mystic or whatever he was, levitated just above their heads and spoke like he was a kind of deity. "Itachi, these young ones - these teenagers - they are the ones the world rests on now that they have found this place," the weird man stated, ringed purple eyes flicking as he took in each and every one of them. "The five of you have touched the chakra crystals and therefore are the ones I waited millennia for."
The same word left them all in unison: "WHAT?!"
From the way he was saying it, it was again just like the stuff they read and watched, with this scenario: heroes chosen by whatever-it-was called fate to save the world. It was as if a bomb had been dropped on all of them, and it was too much to take in - especially Naru herself. She snapped out of it to do the talking now. "Okay, whoever you are, it's nice to meet you, but who are you exactly, old man?"
"Naru, seriously?" Sasuke asked her, though not admonishing. "This is honestly some kind of god, except he's in front of us unlike the ones we know of."
Neji snorted at them both before looking back at the floating old man who didn't seem bothered by their banter. "Excuse us, but who are you, as my friend asked?"
A blink of those eyes again. "I am known as he who sought to obtain peace and order in another life. Young ones, my true name is Hagoromo...known in the legends you may have heard as the Sage of the Six Paths."
This guy - she would have guessed him to be some kind of alien, but he said he was - "Did you say...sage?" Naru repeated, and then snapped her head in Gaara's direction, while paying heed to the equal amazement on both Neji and Hinata's faces as well as her boyfriend's.
"Sir, would you by any chance be THE Sage of Six Paths who, according to myth, saved the world from a monster with ten tails?" Oh, I remember everything now: no one knows where that creature came from, but the Sage of Six Paths was also said to possess maybe more power than the Kami we know of. Who the hell does that? And apparently, he's right here in front of us! It's like we were really taken into a fairytale of our own, first coming into these caves, through the water, and now in these catacombs where he's been all this time, but how?
The weight seemed to settle on her friends and the guy she loved. Even Itachi showed no element of surprise. The incredible being went on as he seemed to sense this off all of them. "Before I ask any of your names, I am a being of the past, long physically dead but my spirit kept alive amongst these caves. I founded the Ninja Creed, otherwise known as ninshu - a peaceful sect meant to give people understanding and teachings of their inner selves and others. However..." His face hardened. "...it seemed humanity struggled more with obtaining and keeping peace than I envisioned it would have."
Naru clenched her hands into fists at her sides, not disagreeing and wishing that the past hadn't existed as it did, and that there were bad people today causing issues here at home, and so much more in other countries. Trouble was everywhere. But what did that have to do with her, Sasuke, Gaara, Hinata and Neji being here to listen? And why was her boyfriend's brother here?
"It goes back long before my creed was established, with my mother and my two sons," Hagoromo told them all, now raising that ringed staff of his, but it would have easily been mistaken for a striking warning. It made Hinata flinch a little, but he assured her with a small smile before becoming sober. "Beginning with my mother, a princess of our clan far away from this universe - she came in search of the Divine Tree, namely its fruit."
Sounds similar to the forbidden fruit in the Bible. And his mother...was she stronger than him?
"Mother was far more powerful than even I was. I was born of her, as was my younger twin brother, Hamura. One day, we would battle against her great weapon known as the Ten-Tails - an incarnation of the Shinju Tree - and it was sealed away...inside of me. Where it remained until my death. Much later, I would have two sons of my own, Indra the elder and Asura the younger. But before I carry on, any of you know what chakra is?"
Hinata chose to speak up. "Elemental life energy, primarily five key points in our Buddhist religion, and this is vital in meditation to focus our energies," she said with a nervous smile, to which he nodded.
"Yes, but it is also so much more. To keep it short and basic to make you understand, chakra had once been weaponized since my passing, especially in the time of ninja - or Shinobi - during one of the many great wars of the past, but it has since slept if not dying off completely. My brother and I first inherited the power because of Mother devouring the fruit of the God Tree, thus did my two sons." He turned his attention to Gaara who interrupted.
"Lord Sage, would this happen to be the very same God Tree that lives outside the town, heavily guarded at all times?"
The air might have grown cold around all of them when the answer dawned on them before the god answered. "Yes, the very same. Anyway, Indra was the exceptional of the two sons while Asura was what you'd call average at best, yet he never let it get the best of him. They walked different paths in life." Now his voice took a more...somber and sad tone as he told them of his two sons whom he loved so much but were so different they ended up fighting each other.
Indra possessed powerful visual abilities which thus made him gifted, but Asura seemed to have the short end of the stick despite his heart of gold...but eventually, he had people around him who helped him progress to the man he became. Love was his primary motive above power itself, which ended up being that of his brother who seemed to do everything by himself. This was what caused their father to believe that a possible brighter future could be in the hands of Asura, through cooperation.
Unfortunately, Indra agreed with nothing of this, therefore leading to a battle to the "death", and from then on, their chakra and spirits would reincarnate over time. Hearing this...
...it's coming together. Hearing about these two brothers - it sounds like me and Sasuke, and we're not even blood-related. And I'm a GIRL; damn, there's a boy within me, but I guess I sometimes am more guy than girl!
"Naru, Sasuke," Hagoromo said, eyes flicking back and forth between them, "you must have figured it out yourselves. You don't seem surprised, for you've heard my story."
"That means I'm Asura reincarnated, but I'm a damned female," Naru said, trying not to laugh, prompting Hinata to cover her mouth and stifle her giggles, her cousin and Gaara chuckling in their throats. Itachi even smirked to one corner of his mouth. Sasuke, on the other hand...
"And Indra is me." He shook his head. "No, I'm nothing like him. I was a long time ago, but not now. I learned all my lessons, thanks to these friends of mine who helped me when I didn't ask for it." He refused to look at his brother whose smile stretched now to both sides of his face.
Hagoromo nodded, then looked at the other three separately. "You two - you have the same eyes. I assume you are related, I sense the same chakra, and that means you in a way descend from my brother, Hamura. Finally..." His purple gaze now rested on Gaara, the last of the group. "You might be indirectly tied to both sides, but you possess an equally strong will. The five of you are the first in thousands of years to finally find this place, as I have said. Now that you know why you're here, I will get to the matter at hand that is my mother.
"Long ago, she came to this world, took the power for herself. She put an end to the chaotic times centuries ago, ruling the remaining with her power...which in turn bred arrogance within her. Mankind began to dread the existence of that power. She was known as the 'Rabbit Goddess' - perhaps due to the old tale of the figure on the moon, as you know - before she became feared as a demon when anyone opposed her. Which is why if one person is concentrated with all the power in the universe, they are possessed to the point where they are difficult to stop. My mother used not only the Sharingan and the Byakugan to enforce her will, but the Rinnegan which is the result of the two brought together. Which is where the Divine Tree and its true usage comes in..."
So, it does suck the life out of whoever comes into contact with it, huh? It's been heavily protected...does that mean the government knows about this?! Suddenly, another horrifying thought occurred to Naru:
It's also where Granny Tsunade disappeared. Did that mean -?!
Her thought process was interrupted by Sasuke. "What exactly is its purpose?"
The old sage bowed his head. "The Infinite Tsukuyomi is the first step, named after the moon god himself, and the power is linked directly to the moon itself in order to shine upon the world and its people. It entraps you in dreams where there is little to no conflict - what you could only imagine in your wildest dreams - but that is not all. The user keeps you trapped so they can harvest your individual chakra and life-force while preserving you alive, attaching you to the roots of the Shinju Tree...and in turn, you become living slaves."
Gaara's face clearly displayed surprise which might as well be permanent. "Living slaves - what exactly does that mean?" he asked, sounding more hoarse than before.
"...far more than your worst nightmare - a fate worse than death. Mother believed ordinary humans were not suitable in battle, so she converted them...let me show the five of you how it was done, so that you know and are fully prepared, but I will once again warn you that you will likely lose many nights of sleep."
Then and there, he lowered his staff to the water below himself and between all of them. The largest ring in place touched the liquid crystalline surface. Before long, images began to float before their eyes, showing what was clear as the water as well as the images on their televisions and mobile devices: the tree as the media displayed, but this time, it was before the moon which was RED instead of white, like the rare blood moon. And hanging from the insides of the roots - some laying flat on the ground, others suspended in the air - were cocoons like those of caterpillars transforming into butterflies, except animals weren't in there. Those are human beings, my God!
And then, the vision zoomed in to the cocoons up close and personal, on a handful glowing with a spooky kind of blue, which Hagoromo told them was the chakra force within...and then flashforward to the cocoons tightening on the bodies, showing male and female alike, but the nightmare he promised didn't stop there. The longer this went on, the more sweat broke from the pores. She and the others were "gifted" with the inside of the cocoons, seeing clothing destroyed and nakedness exposed. Onward, which apparently took months or years at most, the bodies were drained and left as shriveled up white mummies, the skin shrunken over the bones to the point you didn't recognize who the people were anymore. All there was were women's sagging breasts, only for that to change altogether; just as the men regained their body structures, the females wound up matching them in the same physique...
...and the overall appearance they now shared was ghoulish at its finest: white-skinned, green hair buzz-cut like a soldier's just as the bodies were fit, and of course there was no gender separation. In fact, what the hell did sex matter? These things were NOT human at all even though they looked a little like that. The skin was also cracked, the eyes a gross shade of yellow like mustard, and the teeth were rounded, making you wonder if they'd eat plants, humans - or both. Naru shuddered; she didn't want to know if these guys would really be cannibals. She was having a hard time with this as it was.
The cocoons released the newly formed creatures in no time, and this was when the vision ended. It was as if a vacuum had been turned on and suctioned you in.
Everyone was on their knees now - actually, Hinata was the one, and she was supported by both her cousin and Gaara. "Oh, God...how horrible!" she gasped, sounding like she couldn't breathe, which Naru knew she was feeling herself, and next thing she knew, Sasuke was by her side. She really needed his hold right now, so she let him wrap his arms around her waist, leaning her head against his shoulder, her back against his chest. "You mean to say that -?!"
Hagoromo was grim, nodding. "Yes. I regret traumatizing the lot of you, but it was necessary to make you understand." He looked over his shoulder at Itachi who hadn't said a word once, but now felt he had to.
"The people who ended up attached to the tree and imprisoned within their own dreams were evolved over time - into those goblins called White Zetsu. As far as we know, the ones from the previous Infinite Tsukuyomi are still there deep within the tree's roots, having lived but slumbered over the centuries...and one of them was Lord Hagoromo's own father. Not all of humanity had been wiped out, but those that remained attached were created for one thing only: to serve as his mother's soldiers, protect her and what she guards and harvests from."
Neji hissed through his teeth. "She is...so disgusting!" he spat, literally and figuratively at once.
"Yeah, repulsive in every sense," Gaara agreed, letting a sobbing Hinata hold onto him and bury her face into his shoulder.
Naru burst on the spot, not minding that Sasuke held her back. "You mean to say that if this happens to everyone we know and love - ourselves included if we don't do something - if they get caught up...they'll end up just like those White ZETSUS?!" It's so ghastly, to have your self erased as a fate worse than death like you said, old man!
"Yes. If all chakra is united again, a new chakra fruit will take shape. It must be prevented at all cost," Hagoromo said with the deathly monotone of the drum of doom, "or else this world is doomed."
~o~
As soon as they'd touched those crystals, they'd awakened the chakra forces in their bodies. It meant they could do anything with it, and the old man's spirit would be there to train them...
There's no written prophecy like the movies and old stories, but we're the first group to happen upon this place, as if it was meant to be. I don't know how to really feel about this, but I don't think we can turn back now.
Gaara felt responsible for even bringing them into this, never mind they couldn't have expected anything like this. Nor did he think that what was hidden would have been something of a higher power only seen in the imagination, making him wonder what would have happened had Kankuro and the other men lived, and if they found Hagoromo's deep cave, winding up touching those crystals instead of him and his friends...
Now that it happened, it meant he, Naru and Sasuke, Neji and Hinata were chosen ones. Hagoromo's mother was still alive somewhere, and the God Tree was filled with all those creatures, what had been left of the past victims who she enslaved just to end turbulent times; it made Gaara wonder if that ghostly white thing he saw had been one of them, and it caused him to shiver in his bed as he struggled to sleep that night, upon sneaking back home and being lucky enough to not encounter Temari or their father, or both.
Hinata had broken down and cried after the vision they were gifted with, and he'd been there to hold her, glad to do so. It was a miracle he was composed himself. He tried not to think about what he wished he could forget, but there was no turning back. No matter if anyone was going to object - just like Hinata and Sasuke did. The girl he was silently in love with he understood, as did Naru and cousin Neji, because she first protested that it was frightening and could mean certain death, though she added that she knew it was the right thing for them to do. "Because despite everything we went through, Konoha is still home and always will be. We're not kids anymore, so it's time to grow up and do something about it."
Naru was enthusiastic even after witnessing the horrific mutation of human beings in a vision from the past - and what would come if they stood by and did nothing. She didn't like any of this and was all too eager to say yes, with Neji and himself joining in, but one more person had reservations.
"Why should this be our fight when we are still young people and with lives ahead of ourselves? I don't agree with that bitch who wants to exterminate humanity, but why does it have to be US of all people?!"
Sasuke was the sole voice of dissent, making a valid point about their youth, and this sparked heated debate which was broken up by his elder brother who suggested they all head home and dwell on this before they would join up again. It was far from over, and Gaara wished he could permanently dream about his one-sided love until that meeting time would come.
Kaguya being called the "Rabbit Goddess" - comes from the fact that her horn-like appendages resemble rabbit ears, which symbolizes the "rabbit figure on the moon" that's another legendary figure in Japanese lore, besides the fact Kaguya herself comes from "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter". Solidifies that in the final boss battle against Team Kakashi, she takes the rabbit-like form after Naruto hits her with his Sage Art: Super Tailed Beast Rasenshuriken. :D
Did anyone also know that Kaguya and her White Zetsu together are inspired by Izanami (goddess of the dead and Izanagi's wife) and her minions, Yomotsu-shikome, the hags from Yomi the land of the dead in darkness. In the myth, when Izanagi broke his promise to not see his dead and decayed beloved upon retrieving her from the underworld, she became enraged and sent the hag after him.
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