"Thought Or Telepathy"
"Character Communication"
"Loud Speaking"
"Emphasis 'On' A Word."
Madara: A New Journey
The darkness relents from the ground up as the corner of the room is slowly illuminated by the light of the candle. The residences of the room gasp at the sight revealed to them.
Before them is Madara. His clothes parted in the middle leaving his chest and lower torso exposed. His skin is similar to that of a corpse, gray with blackish undertones, his veins are pronounced and the liquid that flowed through them seems almost like tar.
Red orbs are moving from one point of his body to another seemingly fighting off this – infection. The light moves further up to reveal the two horns that protrude from the hair, sticking high and mighty ten inches or so, scales - gray in color - cover them like velvet covers deer antlers.
"My god…" Kaba says in a fright. His appearance is so demonic and has changed so much that it's a surprise that he resisted the erg to run altogether.
Madara Leans his back against the wall behind him finding momentary comfort in its solid support as he clutches with a singular cough. The poor lighting creates an eery shadow over him. He remains silent, his sharp purple eyes shining out from the dark.
"W-What are we doing back here?" Kaba asks with a quizzical expression. "What happened to you?"
Madara begrudgingly removes himself from the wall. The orbs follow as he stumbles towards Kaba. He stops to look down upon him before turning to continue into the more natural starlight of the entrance that leads to the garden with a hand resting on its frame.
He looks into the star-filled sky breathing heavily as he sighs. "I'm not this person I have claimed to be, nothing I have told you is the truth, but that…was for the best. The easiest way to explain this to you is that I'm a being of limitless power, from another land, far from here."
All wonder what he actually means. "A land far from here." Is he from some distant land or village? "A being of immense power." Is he some deity or demon as the villagers say?
"What do you mean?" Hatsune stammers finding his words questionable.
"You would not understand what I really am, the difference in our knowledge is too great. But…" He turns around to face them. "I can try to elaborate. You see, I've lived a long time, relative to those present. I thought I knew much, however, events have shown the flaws in my ideology, although ironically in truth it eludes me."
He smiles before correcting himself. "Well, that's not entirely true, perhaps I'm just stubborn. Following?" Noting the dumbfounded stares he takes that in the negative. "I figured. Well besides that as you can see, my appearance has changed. These 'injuries' were delivered by something more then I, at least that's my speculation."
"Are you a demon? You have the horns of a devil." Hiroi asks finding them rather daunting, they are like the symbol of a demon incarnate.
Madara raises an eyebrow with an almost unnoticeable smile. "I wonder…" This child and his special ability it all seems like a little too much coincidence. "You may not remember but during our visit to the hot spring we were attacked, apparently these would-be attackers believed me a demon and as such sought to kill me in the name of some retribution."
"~This proved to be their undoing, as all who have ever entered conflict with me have encountered. But I am no demon I swear, I did something shortly before I brought you back, something I probably shouldn't have, although maybe not. It either revealed my affliction or acted as a trigger. Either way, the problem was there, better to face it sooner than later."
"What was this something you shouldn't have done?" Hiroi knows what Madara is talking about, at least he thinks he does, he felt it back then, the cries of nature, as if the life was being sucked out from the world around him and something horrible was about to happen. Is this affliction the revenge of the world he wondered? "This affliction, what is it exactly?
"Telling you would be pointless. I've been trying to find a way to revert the damage whilst you all slept, but, my endeavors have proven less than successful." The energy that he discovered earlier caused some sort of reaction, like a tripwire, at the moment, he assumes the trap to be from the reaper that he took control over in order to come here.
The reaper is a being beyond his comprehension but it seems to be held down by some rules, otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to control it in the first place and it would simply come here and kill him, something created that creature and set rules upon it, control over life and death was simply a job given to it by a master. How small he felt now.
This didn't matter, at least not for now. He's still unable to control the energy from leaving his body in its misty form, and after hours of visualization and faulty attempts he finally understood that to conceptualize this energy would take something different altogether, it isn't chakra, not in the form he understands it at least.
Of course, it could be all for not if stopping this energy doesn't stop this infection and he's limited in what he can do, this energy is in some way connected to physical energy that he knows as it's draining him of it, so stopping it will be a benefit regardless. He has a solution though, a seal, one to suppress any and all kinds of energy from escaping.
This seal will use the laws of space to put up a thin barrier around his body to stop anything from entering or leaving, in case this doesn't work he also designed the sealing array to layer in a chakra barrier formation as he has already confirmed that chakra can interact with the energy and even stop it for a time but it in some way it breaks free and stopped working.
He's been working on the sealing array for hours in this world and studying the theory for decades in the other world in hopes of creating an indestructible defense in his younger days, subjective as that is seeing how he was over one hundred years old at the time.
Unfortunately, he failed to separate the laws of space and time to simply use space, as a result, he created the barrier and was indestructible, but the time law affected him. He never expected that time and space were so intertwined as they ended up being. The consequences were enormous.
Back then, the law of time was so beyond his comprehension, with no way to control the time it froze the space around him and separated him from the world's space-time as soon as he activated the array, he couldn't see past the layer of space-time that he created, he was effectively a statue in a realm of no space-time, not that he knew that at the time.
As a result, he was like that for nine hundred years in which he could do nothing. His frustration and boredom grew so much that it pushed him to awaken the Rinnegan and gain a lucky ability that allowed him to briefly surpass that level of space-time to get out of the projection array.
Luckily, he planned for something unexpected and placed a practice array on the ground in a projection format around his throne and not directly on his body, otherwise, even that powerful ability would be pointless to remove him from that trapped technique in such an early stage of development.
To his shock, once he had escaped, nothing had changed around him, everything was exactly as he left it hundreds of years ago. It was then that he realized that although time seemed to went by for him, the world around him stood still waiting for him to awake, either that or time went on and he simply appeared at the time he entered, both are possible.
If he had known that it would have happened that way, he would have prepared some sort of way to train while in that state. There must be a way to do it, he sadly lacks the knowledge, but imagining it would immensely stimulate only the most patient of beings, one could get hundreds, no forget that, even billions or trillions of years of training in a single moment on the outside!
Now it was time to try again. The consequences are still the same if he fails but his understanding has recently improved thanks to his travels through space-time with the reaper he was able to improve upon his most powerful Rinnegan ability, if all goes well, he should be able to separate the laws of space and time. Allowing him to perfect his indestructible armor.
Madara looks up from his deep thought. He makes his way to the exit, setting his hand on the frame of the door to rest momentarily. "You've had a taxing day and it's late. I'll be taking my leave soon after I mend my wounds. I have to burden you further until then."
He lifts his hand from the frame and begins to walk out and towards the garden. However, before he gets halfway, a hand suddenly grabs hold of his wrist. He signs. It's the teenage girl.
"I can't speak for everyone, but I want to help you!" Hatsune implores and deepens the pull. "You can't just leave like that!"
"Listen." He speaks in a calm yet clearly annoyed tone as he pulls his hand away before continuing without looking back. "Do not mistake me for a good person. I do not warrant your concern. People have a tendency to get attached too quickly, you don't know anything about me. I am leaving soon and there is nothing you can do about it."
Madara turns to face them. "Although it may have been short or seemingly ordinary when I ate at your table and engaged in mundane conversation, I think I saw a glimmer of what it's like to be a part of a normal family. My appearance has caused you trouble and for that, I'm sorry. But I am not without gratitude for what you've done for me, what currency does this world use?"
"Currency? You think we want money!" Hatsune is hurt that Madara could think that she's someone who would seek money for a good deed.
Madara didn't have time to waste here but he felt he owed something to this family, if she wouldn't tell him he will simply find out himself, he expanded his sense through the ground and everything in a hundred-mile radius. Everyone, for the most part, seemed to hold onto some silver coin, with fewer holding a gold coin or two.
Gold must hold more value in this land due to its rarity amongst the populace, silver seems to be a common resource. There are also tons of copper coins, much more than silver so he assumed that was the lowest currency, considering that copper is plentiful in the ground, it shouldn't have any value but they're formed into coins with an insignia on it.
That intrigued him because it meant that there is some sort of ruling force such as an established empire or ruling lord to turn a plentiful resource into a currency with value. The family he was taken in by has mostly silver in the thousands, but also two hundred thousand copper coins, and thirty golden coins in the household.
"I see, I can sense that these copper, silver, and gold coins are the currency of this land." Madara commands one of the truth-seeking orbs floating around to move into his hand. "I'm trying to undervalue your help by giving you money but I simply feel indebted to you're family and I don't have the time to repay you any other way, this is easy for me so I hope you'll accept."
The orb leaves his hand and goes to the ground in front of him to quickly form a cube that is one meter on each of its four sides. The family is stunned when the cube changes to a cube of solid gold. Madara touches the cube and it explodes into a heap of perfectly shaped gold coins. The amount is seemingly countless as it spills everywhere like a liquid.
Kaba drops to his knees as he touches the coin lightly. "My God, with this much we could buy our way out of the lord's domain!" Kaba looks up to Madara with a face full of tears. "Thank you, thank you, with this much we can escape the oppression of that bastard and maybe even get into a large city under sect protection. I may even be able to join a minor sect."
Madara's glad that Kaba is so happy with such a small gift, hopefully, it will more likely push the others to accept and they look happy with this gift, apparently, the lord of this land is cruel and with this amount they can buy their freedom or something like that. All it cost him to make that was a truth-seeking orb.
Admittedly, a single truth-seeking orb is nearly impossible to obtain. They're composed of all elements and Yin and Yang. You need Six Path's Sage Mode and the Rinnegan; the body of the sage provides Yang and Six Path's Sage chakra and the eyes of the sages provide Yin and the other elemental elements, together all things are formed.
Another way of looking at it is that all the other things formed from the truth-seeking orb and he's simply forming the elements back into their original form. This was something he considered for a while and will test the truth-seeking orb with his new power after the sealing is over and done with.
Most of the family is ecstatic about the exuberant amount of gold, but Hatsune and her mother look very apprehensive. "This is too much, we don't need it. All we did was help someone in need, we never expected anything in return." Misaki grabs Kaba from the gold. "You can use this gold to buy your way in this world, please take it."
Kaba tries to say something in protest but is stopped by a sharp look from his mother. "I made this gold in front of you and you still think it has value to me? Ridiculous, I don't want it. You can do whatever you want with it. My debt to you is paid if you feel it is too much then repay it by leaving me alone." They don't move, they just stand there ready to protest again.
Madara's rage grew. "Go, before I lose what little patience I have and show you what kind of a person I really am!" He turns around and continues on his way.
The harsh tone and the threat to their life shook Hatsune the most. She moves to grab his shoulder again, only to have Kaba grab her arm. "Don't!" Kaba speaks with a look of reservation and fear.
She resists against his hold. "Let me go!" She howls in frustration as she breaks free. "Fine! If you want to put up a lie like that then go die for all I care." She screams this with so much anger her balance is almost thrown off as she swings around storms off to her room, leaving behind her stunned family.
Hiroi is the last one remaining as everyone heads to bed. He looks back with a concerned and thinking gaze before heading to bed as well, finally leaving Madara to himself once again.
Madara drifts his hand through his hair with a sigh. He can't help but feel exhausted dispensing with people when killing isn't involved. As he exits the garden into the woods that surround a majority of the house towards his sealing array, he thinks about what to do after this, at best this will be a temporary fix.
He's already tried to transform his body back into the pure nature energy state that the Ten-Tails is composed of however that failed and bones and cells still continued to break and tear apart and the infection continued to grow in correlation. He's tethered to this mortal body and all its problems.
He hasn't completely exhausted his ideas to stop this but he's quickly running out. If he can't stop this then his greatest fear is that he will lose this body. Seeing how he can persist his soul after death this won't kill him but he'll be pulled up to a different realm and only return through chakra temporarily, limiting the impact he can have on the world.
He will also be in the hands-on the reaper, who's most likely waiting for him with an eager grin. One thing is for sure, he can't lose his physical body and if he can't save himself he must search for outside help. The Uzumaki clan doesn't exist this far back but the books in their library show references to strange techniques being practiced many thousands of years back.
It's a stretch but Madara knows that is his only lead with their knowledge. Find the precursor to the Uzumaki clan's secret techniques that surpasses all other clans of his time.
He reaches the sealing array after fifteen or so minutes. His thoughts drift to the boy. He hasn't encountered that type of ability in his life since he came to this world. If one of the first people he's met has some power that he's never seen then it's likely that there are others like him. "The boy doesn't seem aware of his ability either." Madara thinks to himself.
Having put that to the back of his mind it is time to finish the seal and begin. He takes a finger to his wrist and slices downwards along the vein as the skin splits apart and blood drips down to his fingers. He squats down to finish the seal. The seal will have three phases: the projection phase, the detachment phase which has two steps, and the transference phase.
Within the shared room of Hiroi and Mika, Kaba brings them to bed, often tucking the aforementioned girl in. Kaba had just finished putting the gold in the family treasury room. It took a long time even with buckets and it was very heavy, but he wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste, even if his mother and sister didn't like it he knows that their wrong to be so foolish.
Kaba had also already made sure Hatsune went to bed and didn't do anything foolish; that girl hasn't acted rationally since she got back and was worried she'd try to go out to find Madara. He sits on the bedside of his little sister tucking in the sheets before kissing her on the head. "Sleep well." Kaba soothes.
Hiroi rolls over in his bed to look over from the other side of the room. "Are we just going to do nothing?"
"What can we do?" Kaba pauses as he looks down before continuing in a low whisper. "I...look, nothing can be done. I don't think he'll kill us but even still I don't know anything about what he has, it's not a disease I've seen, it's just not natural." He rubs the back of his sleeping younger sister. "I can't afford to lose my reason for living. I will always put my family first."
"You're…!" Hiroi is interrupted by Kaba.
"All I know is this money can change our life!" Kaba brings his finger to his palm. "We can get away from the regional lord and join a sect and train together as brothers. Hatsune, Mika, and Mom won't have to worry ever again, they'll be safe in the city and we'll get strong enough to make our way in this world like dad did before us."
"Dad's dead!" Hiroi rises from his bed. "Why did he bothering making his way in this world only to die and leave us here with essentially nothing?" Hiroi asks rather upset.
"The Hiroi I know would never say that about dad!" Kaba could feel the trembling and sniffling of Mika, she's awake and crying but scared enough to pretend to be asleep. "You worshipped dad, I did too, his strength was immeasurable, he could cut dozens of men down with a single swing of his sword..."
Kaba can't finish as Hiroi jumps in. "Then why is he dead and not here to protect us from the lord moving in to tax and starve our people to death, so many of our friends are dead because of that bastard and his goons that raid the town weekly to take whatever that catches their eye! We've survived by paying them a tribute of are crops and silver like sheep."
"I don't know!" Kaba grabs the ridge of his brow and lets out a long sigh. "I'm going to tell you something, I don't think dad's dead either, I never did. I know I always told you that he was and to move on because that was what was best at the time, we had to focus on survival, but now with this, we can find him or at least get an answer to what happened."
Hiroi can't believe what he is hearing. This is the first time that anyone but him had said anything about father still being alive, he thought he was the only one to not give up. "Do you really think we have what it takes to join a sect, even a minor sect isn't easy to get into, where would we even start?"
Kaba reaches into his pocket and pulls out a purple medallion with a triangular symbol on it. "Father was an elder of a sect! Dad always kept his past somewhat secret and I don't know which sect it was but I do know that it's in the same city he disappeared in. With this sect medallion and our father's name, they'll give us special consideration!"
"Brother, that's genius! We can also search for information about dad's disappearance while we train." Hiroi gets out of bed completely. "Wait! Do you think the sect would be able to cure Ryuu?"
Kaba nods in affirmation. "Yeah I think so, I heard that they have healers that can heal almost any disease far past my knowledge and the masters in a major sect can even bring back the dead I hear." He recalls some info he learned from the journal of his father.
"We have to tell Ryuu then, let's go!" Hiroi grabs his brother by the hand and both run out of the room to find Madara.
Madara: A New Journey