Shattered Destiny
Chapter 27: Reincarnation
"You look exhausted." Goro notes as I enter the academy through the window.
"Why the academy, Goro?" For a moment I thought I was the first one here, but then I spotted Junchi out the corner of my eye.
"Team Cohesion." Goro states. "We are four shinobi from four different teams expected to launch an assault on the Land of Lightning, we need to know each other's limits."
"Alduin probably doesn't have one." Junchi-san states flatly, the name alone sends a shock through my heart.
"How do you change into him, anyways?" Goro asks, noting my panic attack.
"I have to say his name."
"That's it?" Goro asks, and I nod. "That sound problematic." He rubs his chin. "Does it have to be the full name?"
"I… don't know?" I've never tried, but the center of Kirigakure isn't the best place to test the limits of an angry soul eating dragon.
Junchi-san shakes his head sadly. "Not even a jinchuuriki has such ready access to their Bijuu's power."
"Sorry I'm late!" Mei-chan comes in from the door.
"Fifteen minutes until we need to leave, your early." Goro reassures her.
"Oh good, I thought I was going to be late." She lets out a breath of relief.
"We should leave early, that way we can get to our first stopping point sooner and we'll do some training."
I wonder if we'll be back when Yoshiyuki-sama finishes my armor. "Training what?" Mei-chan asks.
"Teamwork, find our limits and figure out how to minimize our weaknesses." Goro further explains.
We left a shortly after that, it was just idle chat around the group, and each second made me antsy. I know that Goro's going to make me test the limits at which I can call Alduin.
I don't want to b engulfed in the rage again, I don't want to lose myself in the gullet of a god.
"What's that?" I point at the boat, I've seen boats before… but never that thing on the stern.
"A motor, Keiki-kun." Goro says setting down next to the device.
"Where're the oars?" Mei-chan asks the same moment I notice it too.
"This is the oar." Goro pats the machine.
"Really, it was made to be a better oar because it is?" Junchi-san wonders.
"That's an interesting way to put it, but yes." Goro ushers us into the boat, and once we're all in he pulls on a cord and the engine comes to live with a soft rumble.
He grabs the lever attached and pulls it, the growling increases and we're pushed forward.
I'm left staring at the sorcery happening as we're pushed forward, he turns the motor and we turn. This could make my papa's fishing so much easier if he were to catch a large fish. Immediately I'm watching it unfold in my mind's eye, papa catches an enormous fish and can't use the oars, so he uses the 'motor' instead to get back to the fishery while wrestling with the fish to keep it in the boat. "Papa would love one." I say, still not taking my eyes off of the wondrous machine.
"Indeed he would." Goro laughs at my wonder, but I don't care. "Shinobi get access to technology that civilians don't."
"Why?" I look up at Goro.
"Not enough being made for everyone in Kiri I'm afraid."
Jin leaps out of the water and onto my lap, and then curls up into a ball and falls asleep.
"Sure. Why not!" Junchi-san throws his arms into the air.
Mei-chans' eyes widen in surprise. "That wouldn't happen to be Otter Clan, would it?" Goro asks intrigued.
Conflict fills me, on one hand I don't see why not I can't share with my fellow shinobi, but the Otter chief told me that they'd rather as few people as possible know about their existence. That and this is Goro. "No, a pet." I lie. Jin looks up at me for a moment before returning to being adorable.
Goro doesn't say anything, instead turning the ship around a bend. Mei-chan pets Jin. "Does it have a name?"
"His name's Jin."
"He's cute." Mei-chan says, and Jin squeaks in response.
"And he knows it." I say as Jin begins play biting Mei-chan's hand. I can't think of any better shinobi than an otter like this.
"Once we leave Kiri we're going to switch to silent running and lay as low as possible until we reach shore." Goro informs us.
"Where're we going?"
"We're going to the Land of Frost, there should still be a few shinobi maintaining a small area of Shimogakure for recon purposes, and from there we continue onto the Land of Lightning."
"What about Hot Water?" Junchi-san asks. "They won't be too happy to see us."
"As far as I know they've barricaded themselves inside of their village, mostly against fire." Goro shakes his head. "Maybe we can sway them to our side."
"What's fire doing?"
"Our scouts say that they've practically declared war on the neutral nations for 'their treachery'." Goro says disgusted. "Keep your eyes peeled, it's time to hide."
Goro opens a container and pulls out a tarp with many shades of blue in no particular pattern. "Be quiet, be still, be observant."
You are now hidden.
The tarp neatly covers the raft, all except for the engine puffing out tiny clouds of smoke. From my position I can sort of see out, but it's really dark and we're not carrying lights. I wonder if there's a dark vision jutsu?
We encountered nothing during the boat ride, the motor barely making a sound as Goro guided the boat along the coast of Hot water and Frost.
Good thing I put my coat on before we hid, because there's no room to put one on without disturbing the tarp. Despite this, I can feel the cold nipping at my face and let out a breath, watching it steam in front of me.
Goro pulls the engine up and out of the water and makes a hand sign. I don't know what he's doing while we coast to shore, but the silence is welcomed.
"We can leave this by the rocks." Goro says, looking around.
"Out in the open!?" Mei-chan silently blurts out.
"Help me pull it over, and quiet down, whisper yelling is still yelling." Goro pushes the boat out so it floats, and then pulls it over to a rocky outcrop with Mei-chan and Junchi-san's help. "Keiki-kun keep an eye out."
I don't need you to tell me what to do. But I do it anyway, staying with the group, beneath my sleeves my arms have turned into chakra, only my claws are visible.
Sneak is now level 21. +21 Character XP (109/200)
"Someone's here." I hiss, going on alert.
Goro places a piece of paper on the raft and turns the thing into a misshapen rock. "Everyone get down." Goro drops to the ground, facing the boreal forest.
We follow suit, hopefully it's too dark to see us.
A patrol of ghost soldiers passes by, hard to see with snow falling around them. They get close, close enough that I let my arms return to normal to stop the glow. Something about them is familiar, something very vague.
Alduin didn't know these men or the colors they wear, but he knows that Skyrim was steeped in conflict and that one person in a coat of arms would fight with someone wearing a different coat of arms.
I think they called themselves Stormcloaks. The soldiers pass by quickly, they're on their way somewhere and they can't be gone fast enough.
Sneak is now level 22. +22 Character XP (131/200)
And they're gone. Probably off to burn a village or something… Why am I so nonchalant about that? I shake my head clear of the dragon's influence. He may be dead, but it doesn't feel like it sometimes.
"Those are the things that've been coming from the tunnels." Goro says once the coast is clear.
"They're ghosts, not things." I correct him. "My old team's fought them before."
"How dangerous are they?"
"Not very, but if you kill them their weapons and armor materialize."
"That doesn't make any sense." Mei-chan furrows her brow.
"You're telling me." I agree.
Goro ushers us towards the cover of the trees. "Is there anything else you've seen them do?"
"Oh, some of them can do this." I ignite my hand and hold it up for everyone to see.
"They can use specialized chakra that Tutorial gave you?" Goro asks with understandable concern.
"Tutorial?" Mei-chan asks as we weave through the trees.
"Tutorial tells me anything that happens with my Bloodline."
"So now you have your hand held?" Junchi scoffs.
"He's not particularly helpful... half of the time." I admit.
"You guys alive down there?" Someone above us calls.
A team of Frost shinobi in the trees. "You're far from your village." Goro notes hopping up into the branches, the rest of us follow albeit slower.
"We were keeping an eye on an army of ghosts, and more join up every minute."
"Define 'an army of ghosts'."
"Just that." The frost shinobi take off, and we follow. "It looks like they're going to march out towards Fire, so we've been staying out of sight we well as we can."
We stop and cling to the pine trees, and before us is a sight that makes my blood run cold. Before us is an army of Stormcloaks, a sea of phantasms.
How many of these are waking up beneath Kiri? If Frost, one of the smallest nations, could have this many hiding beneath the ground, then it must be an absolute staggering number. "If they're all trained shinobi, they could take out half of Fire without stopping." Goro notes.
"But they're not… Right?" I ask.
"Let's assume they do, and try to stay out of sight."
"They're not particularly observant, I hid in the shadow of a pine and they couldn't see me." One of the frost genin informs us.
"If that's the case, a fourth if they march none-stop." Goro sighs.
"But that's not the worst of the damage, our war will go public."
"It wasn't before?" I scoff. "What did the kage tell the villagers when he evacuated them?"
"The truth… sort of."
"Death to the Imperials!" A battle cry rages from the army of ghosts, and they charge westward.
"I feel bad for the villages in the way of that." Junchi-san says honestly. And I can't help but agree with him.
"Can't we do-"
"No, I heard about what you did when bandits attacked a lightning village and we're not having a repeat of that." Goro snaps.
It'd be different this time, but I relent. "Off to Lightning then?"
"You know it."
"We've seen more ghosts across the border, be careful."
"We're shinobi, we're taught paranoia."
They weren't lying, there was a camp on the border between Lightning and Frost. "I didn't think I'd ever see a camp of ghosts." Mei-chan notes.
The camp doesn't mirror the spectral troops manning it, one of them is splitting wood for the bonfire in the center of the camp. I don't think any of us were expecting to see spirits eat, sleep and work. I kinda just expected them to just… exist.
"Do you think that they're not aware that they're ghosts?" I ask aloud.
"It's a possibility." We watch as a hunter comes back to the camp with a doe on his shoulders, hailed by cheers. "As much as I want to stick around and watch ghosts live a normal life… I can't believe I said that, we have a mission to do."
I fall silent. To release Alduin on an unsuspecting village. "Keiki-kun." Goro clasps my shoulders. "I understand your reluctance, I wouldn't have you go through this either."
"What, become a super shinobi for a short time?" Junchi-san scoffs.
Goro ignores him. "We'll… Think of something, okay?"
"You could have told me you were a shinobi." I tell Goro, I felt so betrayed.
"You're right, but that doesn't change what's happened… We can get some sushi as a team when we get back, okay?" Goro asks the team, I just glare at him.
"That sounds good." Mei-chan nods hesitantly, she was there.
"No thanks." Junchi-san says hotly.
Goro sighs. "Okay, fine, I get it." He stands. "Let's… just keep going." He sounds disappointed, but we continue.
Once we're farther into the Land of Lightning we stop for the night. "I think now would be a good time to try controlling the dragon, wouldn't you say?" Goro
"At camp!?" I sputter.
"I trust you." Goro smiles at me.
"You trust me to let Alduin butcher an entire country!" I shout at him, and then clutch my head as the dragon's rage gives me a migraine. I can't hear anything besides the throb in my head as I'm barely able to stay in control.
Might of Alduin Added to active effects.
But never before have I felt more whole, a conflict between pain and relief. And now I remember.
…
I was killed and my soul devoured, the firstborn of Akatosh… trapped within a mortal, and I wasn't the only one. Off in the endless darkness I could see the hundreds of dragons that were devoured to satiate the Dovahkiin's twisted appetite for the souls of my kin. I thought I was strong enough with the souls I accumulated, but I was wrong as that monster watched the light left my eyes before I was sentenced to an eternity in non existence.
The darkness stretched out for an eternity, but as broken as I was I could think of nothing more than to wander the dark expanse, awaiting the salvation my father would bring.
For awhile I held out hope that my father would pierce the darkness and let me out into the light, but with all things mortal it did not last. As time passed more and more dragons were devoured as well to feed the true monster.
I'd only seen the mortal three times, once on the throat of the world working with the betrayer, once in sovngarde where I met my end. And once… in the town I announced my return at, where the Dovahkiin was held under the blade to be killed.
I saved my own end. Some would call it poetic, some would call it ironic, I call it lucky.
Trying to interact with the souls of my kin was a waste of time, none of them were intact enough to remain whole. A part of us still leaves upon death that not even the Dovahkiin can take, I don't know if that should have brought me solace or dispair.
By the time the light came, I had become a hallowed husk. For a moment I thought that my suffering had come to an end, but little did I know that it had only begun.
The light fragmented my soul into thousands of pieces, each one calling out to the other fragments desperately wanting to become whole once more. But my torment did not end there, while at the time I was beyond even the concept of agony, but each fragment could remember what happened to it.
I was poked and prodded at, chunks of my soul were cast off into the endless abyss while others were collected, a small portion of my soul collected and combined. My innocence. With the deed done the malformed portion of my soul was taken from the rest. It wasn't until my name was called that the fragments of my soul found a way out of the hell they were trapped in.
I am Alduin Firstborn of Akatosh, and I am Keiki Sekine, child of the Land of Water.
With my soul no longer in endless agony the rage subsides, but this form cannot handle the entirety of a dragon soul, not for long at least. It won't be long until I return to being a clueless child, I wonder how much I will remember of my former self? Funny how I remember being a human but when I'm a human I can't remember being a dragon.
Where am I? Looking around this isn't the camp, it appears that in my rage I fled somewhere. There is a growl as a bear charges me. "Oh I will enjoy this." I can't help but grin.
Draconic Aspect active.
"Tiid klo Ul." The bear slows to a halt as time itself bends to my will. As I shout a bit of blood comes up with it, I must be careful with how much power I use, I'll only use the first words of shouts from now on.
I pull out several kunai and place them in the air in front of me. "Fus." The shockwave hits the kunai and propels them forward and into the bear at a rate I can watch the blades sink into the beast's flesh, as the blades hit the shockwaves slowly makes the bear reel back.
I allow the magic in my arm to consume it, changing it into magicka chakra. "Wuld." More blood as I shout. My claws dig into the bear and rake across its throat as the shout carries me past it.
Time returns to normal and I watch the bear collapse to the ground. My arm returns to normal, but dripping with blood. Dread fills me as I'm forced to splinter my own soul once more.
The sky around me darkens as my soul fragments once more, the tiny fragments turning into stars a part of constellations.
Exhaustion takes hold, and memories of my 'fight' with the bear becomes hazy as I come to looking at the skill constellations, wondering where I am and where my team is, barely able to move.
I dismiss the stars and nearly scream at the sight of the dead bear.