Shattered Destiny

Chapter 34: To leave to Rot

"Wakuni Sekine, retired Samurai and master of the Bushido." Bugman notes. "You weren't supposed to get involved, but it can't be helped now."

"You should have thought of that before attempting to kidnap my grandson." Grandpa's katana starts to glow, overshadowed by the famous Samurai Saber Technique.

Bugman whispers something to his companions and steps back, putting his companions between him and us. "Are you going to fight, Koi-sensei?"

She lets out a laugh. "No, I'd get killed." Koi tightens the bandage hard enough that it hurts. "That's for throwing firebolts at me."

"I just lost my hand!"

"I've seen you missing an arm and part of your rib cage, I've seen you with a hole straight through your chest, and you were in the same explosion that left me crippled… i get the feeling that you'll be fine."

"When you put it like that it sounds like I'm invincible."

"Now you know how I see your bloodline."

Goro-sensei makes several hand signs, and charge chakra, water spirals form in the palms of his hands, a bulge appears in his mouth.

I have no idea what he's doing, but I get the feeling that he's not playing around. One of bug man's companions throws a massive fireball towards us.

Goro-sensei throws water from his hand, which propels itself far faster than he threw and pierces the incoming inferno, collapsing and extinguishing it. Grandpa swings his katana and a wave of chakra erupts out of it, the fire shinobi leap out of the way, and a barrage of flames comes rushing at us.

"Fus!" And nothing happens, leaving me speechless. "W-why can't I..."

Grandpa's arms become a blur as he sends out wave after wave of chakra to counter the incoming threat, and then leaps into the smoke created.

There is a cry and bugman hits the ground, followed by the rest of him. The remaining insects that were inside of him go ballistic. "Koi-chan!" Goro-sensei leaps out of the way.

"I got you!" She makes hand signs, puts a hand in the snow and rips a tidal wave out of the powder, sending it at the body and berserking insects. It hits a good portion of the insects, but the rest are still coming. I step up and with my one good hand, throw out flames.

-6 Chakra. +12 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (205/300)

A brief sweep of flames beats back the rampaging swarm. Goro-sensei spits at the swarm with enough force to send it all the way through the swarm. "How many did this guy have?!" I ask exasperated, making another sweep.

-6 Chakra. +12 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (217/300)

"Billions, if not trillions." Koi-sensei says making more hand signs.

"We need a solution if we don't want to die via chakra exhaustion!" Goro-sensei urges, throwing more water into the swarm while I burn it.

-6 Chakra. +12 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (229/300)

"Hidden in the Mist!" Koi-sensei shouts, a thick grey mist erupting from her body, the temperature plummets further and I can see the swarm succumb to the water and the cold almost immediately.

"I need to learn that trick of yours." Goro-sensei chuckles appreciatively.

"I'm sure you'll pick it up faster than Zabuza-kun did." She chuckles, dropping the jutsu, no insects left flying.

Grandpa lands nearby and rips off his burning coat, revealing the armor beneath. There's just one shinobi left.

"I'll help!" I run to stand besides my older man.

"Stay back, I have this."

"I can still fight!"

"Even while missing a hand?"

"Yes!"

Summoning is now 8. +8 Character XP (189/750)

How much Chakra did Alduin give me? My bound blade forms in my hand, and I hold it at the ready.

"I'm far stronger than you give me credit for." I mumble.

Rather than stick around, the last shinobi attempts to make a break for it, But Grandpa's having none of it. He crouches, sword in its sheath and held lightly.

And then he teleports past the shinobi, and the dead Shinobi falls to either side. "Wow!" I let the jutsu drop, that was something out of a storybook! "So cool!"

Grandpa warps back to us, just as more samurai arrive. "Wakuni-dono, we saw the fighting and came to assist." The two of them bow to my Grandpa.

"Pft, a bit late for that." Grandpa scoffs. "They seem to be Fire Shinobi, but I want to be sure before jumping to conclusions."

"Yes sir!" The samurai go collect the pieces.

"Make sure Mifune knows about the Skirmish." Grandpa tells Goro-sensei.

"Yes, Samurai-dono." He bows deeply before leaping for the village.

"You." He points at Koi-sensei. "I want to know everything about my Grandson, and I know that water would have kept detailed information about him given his 'bloodline'."

"As long as he doesn't die he will heal any wound naturally, he has a secondary Chakra supply, and can see 'stars' that can augment his abilities, but seeing them means he's blind to the rest of the world." Koi-sensei quickly divulges.

"And that sword he made?" He looks at me curiously.

"A jutsu special to his Bloodline, as far as I understand he can learn more through certain books with specific constellations on the cover that aren't found in this world, but any scrolls containing said jutsu can be used by anyone."

They continue talking, and my heart sinks. I rely way to much on Alduin's power.

Might of Alduin has been removed from active effects.

My health and Chakra plummet until I'm at half of both, I wonder if I could die if when the buff fades it leaves me at zero. That sounds terrifying. "Momma and Papa will be worried about me… I should go show them that I'm alright." I tell my Grandpa and sensei.

"Mifune is now aware, and at some point would like to speak to both you, and your grandpa when you've recovered from the battle."

"I bet two days."

"I'm betting a week."

"Listen to you two." Grandpa says, disgusted with how casual they're treating my lost hand. "I don't care if he can heal any wound, that's no excuse to write it off… what if his wounds get infected because 'he'll heal it off anyways'?" He scolds the Jonin.

"But… he doesn't get sick." Goro-sensei tries.

"I don't care! If your enemies notice that you don't disinfect his wounds, then they'll start poisoning their weapons to kill him, as you won't even check for poison until it's too late." Grandpa pulls me close in a hug. "If you thought my son and daughter in law could get mad, you haven't seen anything."

Silence, with an atmosphere of fury of which can only be rivaled by a raging Alduin. "I'm sorry, after seeing what he's lived through it's become a bit of a joke." Koi-sensei admits guiltily.

"That changes now, take him home and clean his wounds, who knows what got in there before we showed up." Grandpa orders, and the shinobi bow in respect.

"Wakuni-dono!" A samurai approaches with two headbands. One bearing the emblem of the Hidden Leaf, the other of the Hidden Cloud. "This was just under clothing." He holds up the Fire headband. "But this one was in a hidden pouch."

"No Lightning Shinobi has insects, those are Fire shinobi trying to pass themselves off as secretly Lightning Shinobi." Grandpa lets me go to examine the headbands. "Are these the new designs or the old designs?"

"New sir, see?" The other Samurai pulls out a booklet and flips the pages until it's the Hidden leaf, one older design and the newer design. The older design was just the Kanji for Leaf, but the newer one is a leaf.

"We'll see what Mifune thinks, in the meantime bring the corpses in before anyone can come take them."

"And we can guess who they actually belong too by who comes knocking." Goro-sensei surmises.

Grandpa turns. "Aren't you supposed to be taking my Grandson back to his parents?"

Goro-sensei clears his throat. "Off we go Kiddo!" He takes my good hand and the three of us quickly make our way back to the village in record time. I'm not ready to show my parents my hand, but there's no avoiding it

"KEIKI!?" My Mama screams upon seeing my stump. "What- how?!" She pulls me into a tight, paranoid hug.

"A group of shinobi tried to kidnap your son, he fought back and lost his hand in the fighting." Goro-sensei explains.

"And neither of you were with him?" Mama asks accusatory.

"He ran off, throwing firebolts at me to stop me from following." Koi-sensei says coldly.

Mama holds me at arm's length. "He did, did he?" I'm going to die now, aren't I? My life starts flashing before my eyes.

"He was rather distressed, might have been Alduin acting." Koi-sensei says quickly in an attempt to spare me.

Alduin wasn't in control though, I was… No need to correct them though. Mama sighs. "I've known about him for three years, and it's still unsettling to hear that name."

"So… you aren't going to kill me?" I try with a nervous smile.

"You're grounded for the rest of the week."

I bite my tongue, at least I'm not dead. Papa walks out. "What's the commoti-What happened to his hand!?"

"Wouldbe kidnappers." Mama gives him the long and short of it.

"He kill them?"

"Keiki-kun held off three jonin long enough for your father to show up, Sekine-san." Koi-sensei tells him.

"Knowing my dad, he was furious the entire time." Papa chuckles knowingly. "Where did the unlucky Shinobi, come from?"

"The Samurai are trying to figure that out as we speak, until then we can sit back and relax." Goro says, giving me a pointed look.

"I'm not going to run off this time! Sheesh what am I, suicidal?"

"Yes." Both of my Sensei's say at the same time.

"He's grounded for the rest of the week." Mama calls after Papa as he goes back inside.

"Sounds good enough for me!" He calls back.

No more outdoors for four days, great.

My hand took two days to regrow, my Sensei's have seen me regenerate worse, but my parents were still expecting me to be their normal preteen. Well, normal in that I could shoot fire out of my hands since I was three.

The silence is finally broken when Mifune himself came to visit me, once I realized who he was my heart skipped a few beats. "General!" I bow deeply out of respect, and terror.

"I'm told you were the target of a recent skirmish, correct?" The General stands by the window, looking out.

"Y-yes." I gulp.

"Iron has remained a neutral party in every conflict the shinobi world has found itself in, but not once has any of them had the guts to try antagonizing us… until now." Mifune walks over and sits in the chair opposite me. "Alduin must be quite the game changer if they're risking our involvement in this 'war' of yours."

"T-they're Fire, right?" I ask

Mifune sighs and rubs his bandaged head. "All signs point to it, but I know that the nation that sent them would have pulled every string to ensure we never found out it was them."

"So… neither Fire or Lightning?"

"Who knows about Alduin's true power?" He looks me in the eye.

"Water and Lightning, every time Alduin's taken control it was always against lightning, and I'm a water shinobi."

"Hmm." Mifune closes his eyes in thought, if only I could read his mind.

"Have you fought anyone else with Alduin's power?"

"No, on the way to Lightning we fought some Hot Water Nin, but this was before I learned that Alduin was inside of me, or who he was."

"For now we wait, you cannot leave the village until this is resolved, understood?" Mifune orders.

"Y-yes General-dono!"

"Sekine-san, you can come in now." Mifune calls, and Grandpa enters, who bows in respect.

"And about the boy's request?" He asks the general.

He actually asked him?

"I know he's your grandson, but jutsu is off limits, you may instead teach him how to make and maintain his own gear."

Dang.

"Understood, sorry Keiki-kun."

-48 Chakra. Summoning is now 9. +9 Character XP (198/750)

My bound blade forms in my hand and I put it on the table, keeping a finger on the edge. "I already have a variant, why can't I learn the actual Jutsu?"

Intrigued, Mifune places a hand on the blade, silently asking if he can pick it up.

"If it leaves my hand it disappears."

He nods understandingly. "Fine blade, why do you want to learn our Jutsu if you've already mimic'd it pretty well?"

"I want to forget all about Alduin, and he's tied to my bloodline." I explain, and the old man sighs.

"If you do not control him, he will control you, and then you'll wish you hadn't forgotten about him." Mifune explains flatly.

"I don't need him, or anything tied to him!" I seethe, then I face the open door. "Wuld!" nothing. With an exasperated sigh I get out of my seat and storm out of the room.

"Keep a close eye on him, he's volatile and it'll only get worse as he becomes a teenager… we can't risk letting a Bijuu equivalent threat loose in Iron if we can help it." Mifune tells Wakuni.

"Goro-san and Koi-chan say they've searched his body multiple times for a seal at Keiki-kun's insistence, and they've found nothing every time… They claim that Keiki-kun is a fragment of Alduin's soul." Wakuni tells the general.

"An interesting theory, if true it would explain his aggression… This changes nothing, keep an eye on him and if anything happens I want to be the first to know."

"Understood."

I close the door to my room quietly and calmly, a single tear rolling down my cheek, and I ignore it. It's too late to cry, dragon, you've had your chance. For a brief moment I am angry, but i reign it in.

Sitting on my bed I focus my chakra into the palms of my hands, not Tutorial's chakra, my chaka. If I want to phase out the jutsu I got from Tutorial, I'll need something to replace the ones I have… Even the shouts need to go.

By the time I'm done there won't be anything left reminding me, and the world can forget all about him. The thought brings a smile to my face, a boy can hope. "Hey Keiki-kun." My mama enters the room. "How're you doing?"

"Fine."

"You don't sound very 'fine'." Mama sits on the bed next to me. "What's wrong?"

"I want to go back to before I found Alduin." I admit, abandoning my meditation to cling to her.

"Boy or Ryu, you're still my little boy." She kisses my forehead. "Do you remember when you could start 'doing fire'?" She reminisces.

"Something to do with rats?" I guess.

"Yup, you went downstairs against my wishes and killed a couple of them with an axe and your flames, when I went down stairs you were covered in bites and you you asked me what Rabies were."

"Why would I ask you that?" I furrow my brow.

"Because then you said 'I got rabies', just like that… Raising a living flamethrower was a bit… challenging, until you realized that being a flamethrower is as dangerous as it is 'awesome'."

"Why're you telling me this?"

"Because despite it, I loved you, your father loved you, we tried our best to make it work and I think we raised a good son, although while we taught you restraint when it came to your jutsu, we forgot to make sure you understood that for everything else." She chuckles. "I honestly thought you would have had scars the day you went to go take care of our rat problem, but you don't have a single blemish."

"Why are you here?" I ask again.

"Because it pains me to see you like this, full of self loathing and believing that you're a monster, you aren't a monster, you're my little boy." She twirls a finger in my hair. "Alduin or not, you'll always be my son." Mama gives me another hug.

"Thank you… Mama." I hug her back, if anything happened to her because of me… I don't know what I'd do. Her and Akatosh.

"One of these days I'd like to speak with Alduin, think you can do that for me?"

"W-what, why!?" I jerk away from her.

"Because I'd like to speak to the other part of my son at least once." Mama says with a warm and understanding smile

"Because we are one, that's why." A memory, Alduin's memory while he was in control of me, and it sends a shiver down my spine, I don't know when or where, but it doesn't matter. "Never." I shake my head in defiance.