Thanks to Darkblade243 for pointing out an issue with the chapter, it should be fixed now.
Chapter 19: On the Brink of Death
Monday, August 10, CCY 3381
Naruto floated along a black void of a world. No content existed in whatever this realm was. In a way, it was similar to Shin's own Realm of Judgment, but also different, in a way Naruto couldn't put to words.
Inside this endless void, Naruto wandered aimlessly, considering the grave mistake he'd made in using a jutsu he'd already figured was potential lethal. As a result, he wandered in this infinite realm of nothingness, unable to interact with nothing and unable to comprehend its non-vastness.
As he floated forward, he noticed a pinprick of light make itself known, disrupting the endless black quality of this realm and slowly making its way toward him.
He paused in his floating forward, hovering in midnothing as he waited for the light to reach him. When it did, it revealed a weird figure that looked like it had been constructed from a cavalcade of mismatched body parts. A horse's head and the horns of a deer and a goat, a windigo's long, noodle-like body, two wings, one of what appeared to be a bat and the other of a pegasus, an eagle talon and a lion's paw, and two legs, one of a goat and the other of a lizard. In addition, he also sported a dragon's tail.
Naruto took a few moments to recall this creature's designation… the draconequus. If I remember from my old classes, only one exists on Earth, a trickster god by the name of Discord. If this is that same one, how did he escape his prison?
The draconequus he presumed to be Discord touched down on the ground. "My, my, this is quite a pickle you've gotten yourself into, isn't it?" Before Naruto could offer an answer, Discord finished speaking, as if he hadn't stopped. "Rhetorical question, you don't need to answer, nor do I want you to. Anyway, you might or might not have heard of me if you've been around that pesky pretty pony princess and her little sister. I am Discord, and I've come to extend an offer to you."
Sounds like this Discord and Celestia and Luna have history, Naruto absently thought. "I've read about you in the books and learned everything I could from professors who knew more than the books told. Why exactly should I trust you when you tried to subjugate an entire planet? More importantly than that, weren't you trapped in stone?"
Discord bellowed a hearty, deep laugh, wiping a tear from his eye. "Oh, you child, I'm not trapped. At least, not the way you should think I am. But we can't let the puny little Princesses know that, can we?"
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the draconequus. "What exactly is this offer you want to give me?"
"Oh, not much of importance, just life. Get back on your feet, kill a few people, that sort of thing."
Alarm bells were going off in Naruto's head. "What do you mean life?"
"You mean to tell me you've not realized it yet? You're dead. At least, in one sense."
"And what would that be? I'm on cordial terms with the Death God, I'd know if I'm dead because he'd have personally greeted me with one of his sadistic tirades about how eternity awaits, or some bullshit like that."
Discord's brow hiked up in surprise. "So there is a God of Death, I'll have to file that information away for later. Anyway, your physical body is fine, for the most part, but I watched you pull that stunt of yours. You shattered your own spirit into countless fragments with that stunt, and I had to piece you back together. And don't get me wrong, it was an impressive move indeed, but you cannot return to your body as you are."
"So you're telling me I've undergone a form of spiritual death, and I can't return to my body unless you can do something about it. What kind of power do you even have over life and death? I'm being trained by literal gods who can only marginally influence that aspect of the universe. And from what I remember, you're only supposed to be able to hold dominion over chaos and entropy."
Discord snapped his fingers, and suddenly the two were falling from the sky of Earth – only, an Earth from the far past. Discord laid back as if in a chair, like physics meant less than nothing to him. "Welcome to the past, youngster. I-"
"I am over a million years old. I am not young."
Discord shrugged. "Mentally maybe, and besides, I have existed since the dawn of time, you are but a newborn babe to one such as me."
Naruto growled. His patience for this pointless banter was wearing thin. "GET TO THE POINT!"
Discord raised his hands up, as if surrendering. "Okay there, pal, no need to lose your head. My offer is simple: beat me in combat and I shall repair your spirit and enable you to return to the waking world."
"Easy." Or at least that's what Naruto thought; before he'd even had a chance to move, Discord was holding a katana made of tree roots and held together by sap to his neck.
"Easy, you said?" Discord lashed out with a vicious kick that sent Naruto into a chocolate cloud. Naruto growled and moved to attack, but was sent hurtling to the ground when Discord summoned a massive sledgehammer and pounded the chocolate cloud out of existence. "Please. I have more experience battling deities in a week than you've had in your entire life.
Naruto nearly growled, but restrained himself, and retreated into his mind. He let his instincts take over, and his body landed in a perfect crouch on a massive tree in the center of a forest made of… licorice?
No time to dwell on that. Naruto quickly gathered as much natural chakra as he could and moved to attack Discord, but was swatted away with less effort than would have killed a fly. The hell?! I should barely have felt that, but he just dislocated my jaw! Naruto cracked his jaw back into place, letting his superior healing ability take over, his ability to speak returning. "How the hell did you manage to bypass my natural chakra?"
"That ability doesn't work here because I don't need you trying to gain hax powerups. You'll attack me with only what you have." Naruto cursed under his breath and tried to move back, only to get swatted by the backhand of a suddenly-behind-him Discord and eating dirt as a result.
"Hurry and get the adrenaline shot! His kidneys are failing!" Nurse Redheart, the head of Ponyville First Hospital, yelled with the utmost urgency. Naruto Otsutsuki, the comatose patient she'd received three weeks ago due to an attack on Canterlot's hospital resulting in the entire facility being rendered useless, was now beginning to violently convulse on the hospital bed in his urgent care room.
Three nurses ran into the room and gave Redheart the shot, and she quickly made her way to the IV drip, injecting the adrenaline into Naruto's system.
"Check his pressure and get a sample of his blood! And someone, for Celestia's sake, please get the neurologist on the dial! I've been waiting for a week and a half for him to get out here and take a look at our patient's brain!" One of the nurses immediately answered an affirmative and ran out of the patient room.
Redheart cursed under her breath, staring at Naruto's convulsing body. "Damn, why can't I help you? I've always been able to help my other patients, but your body rejects almost every treatment we try to give it. Yet still you hang on. I just can't understand it…"
Naruto dragged himself out of a crater in the mountain that would eventually house Canterlot, and put on a burst of speed to get behind Discord, only to stare at the sky. The hell?! I swear I had him!
An instant later, Naruto coughed up blood when a clawed hand speared his side, his insane reflexes the only thing that saved him from taking the blow right in his chest. He managed to kick Discord back, barely, and held one of his shaking hands to the wound in a vain effort to staunch the bleeding. Damn, I must have lost my healing factor! The wound's not even closing!
7%
Naruto put on as much speed as he could, gathering some chakra in his very core, waiting to be unleashed. Even with the loss of his healing factor, a plan involving a technique Žiara completely forbid him from using started piecing itself together…
"Buck, someone get a crash cart! His body's going into shock!" The EKG was blaring wildly, Naruto's heart rate going all over the place as if his body was engaged in some exhaustive activity. More importantly than that, though, for the last few minutes, Redheart watched in a mixture of morbid fascination and abject horror as wounds of varying sizes and depths, from punctures to deep cuts to blunt force trauma, began appearing all over Naruto's body.
Dammit, what's happening to him?! I've never seen anything like this before! Redheart, realizing she was beginning to panic, stooped herself and performed one of the many breathing exercises she'd been taught at the Horseton Medical Academy for handling oneself under extreme stress.
After a moment, she managed to being herself back together, at least for now. Alright, I've done some crazy things as a doctor, and this is just one more of those cases! I haven't lost a patient yet, and I swear I'm not going to let you be the first, Naruto Otsutsuki!
Naruto panted, using as much of his energy as he could spare to stand, holding a pitch-black pre-chakra-era Warhammer in his other hand. Discord stood in front of him, his arms crossed, drumming his claws on one of them as if he'd been bored or was unwittingly biding his time for something. An arrogant smirk Naruto swore he'd seen on the old Sasuke's face more than once marred Discord's expression.
"This is disappointing. I'd expected more of a bite from someone who says he's seen gods like myself. I admit it, Naruto, I am completely bored. And do you know what happens when I get bored?"
"What… what would… that be…?" Naruto managed to force out, barely keeping himself from falling out of the sky due to the severity of the wounds he'd taken. Meanwhile, Discord remained virtually unharmed, the trickster god having been toying with Naruto from the start of the fight.
"I get bloodthirsty."
"MOVE! Get out of the way!" Tsunade Senju and Žiara forced their way into the hospital room, only to stop and briefly stare in barely restrained horror at Naruto's convulsing, bleeding, very gruesome body. The heart monitor had been sounding its alarm for the last two minutes, its somber tone piercing the atmosphere in the vicinity, viciously tearing it to shreds and filling the void with anguish and melancholy.
Tsunade and Žiara rushed to Naruto's body. Žiara used one of the few divine abilities she had left to restrain Naruto, holding him still as Tsunade furiously went to work patching Naruto's most severe wounds. "What the hell happened to him?!"
Redheart, now observing from the overhang in the front of the room, quickly responded. "I'm not sure, Ma'am. We got a code on the pagers and rushed in here as quickly as we could. He was convulsing and we tried to restrain him, but he was too strong, and eventually wounds started appearing on his body as if out of thin air. This kind of thing has never happened before!"
"Then tell me what you know now! Wounds don't just randomly sprout up on a person!" Tsunade growled in barely restrained rage.
Redheart quickly found the underlying accusation. "We have done nothing to Sir Naruto! No one has any reason to! I even checked, and there have been no magical signatures near him at all other than myself! I explicitly forbade the unicorn staff from entering this room whatsoever!"
Tsunade growled, but under her breath, Redheart managed to hear something that was probably private. "You had better be telling the truth, because if you aren't, so help me Kami…"
11%
Discord blurred, and Naruto lost his entire right arm, having lost enough energy that he was unable to react to the movement. He screamed in agony, clutching the profusely bleeding stump where the dexterous part of his arm used to be.
That was the catalyst needed to shut Naruto down, and his screams gradually petered out as he began falling from the sky. I'm sorry… everyone… It doesn't look like I'm coming back from what I'm about to do…
15%
Closing his eyes and letting his body slow down its basic function, Naruto gathered the last dregs of his chakra, focusing on one purpose, his last chance to come out of this… slaughter with even a pyrrhic victory.
20%
The laws of nature stated that things worked a certain way, and no being on or below the same level as the laws themselves were able to do anything about it. Customs and norms were formed for the explicit purpose of ensuring the universe's continued existence.
However, an anomaly had appeared over a year ago, one that seemed to be directed by a higher power that the laws could not control. But, futilely, in a vain attempt to stop the rising tide, like an ant about to be stepped on by an elephant, they swore they would not lose control, even over a being not of their plane.
But, like all those beings that went against the man who defied death itself, reality forgot one thing. One key aspect of this man that persevered in the face of insurmountable odds, this man that had faced destroyers and not only lived, but came out triumphant.
Even though that alone would have spelled certain failure, it seemed Destiny itself favored this new champion, this paragon of… some mortal concept even the gods themselves could not comprehend. And, in that instant where the laws of nature realized that this anomaly had finally gained dominion over its own existence, chaos reigned supreme, before being tightly reined in by powers even the laws themselves could not understand.
Naruto Otsutsuki was defiance.
And… reality gave in.
Right as Discord flashed in front of Naruto's falling body to finish the job, his eyes snapped open. The Awakened Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and Awakened Byakugan stared Discord right in the face, but more importantly, he noticed the tiniest flecks of gold in the blonde's transformed eyes.
Naruto used his remaining arm to grab a hold of Discord's clawed hand, locking him in place. Finally, he allowed his chakra to burst forward with a singular goal in mind.
He'd spent over a million years refining his chakra control to utterly ludicrous levels, and finally, in the last subjective five thousand, his tireless labor bore the fruit he'd been looking for: control refined enough to use medical jutsu. He took to the lessons with an unabated fervor not seen before, as he poured his heart and soul into learning a field he'd chased exclusively to prevent other people around him from dying like so many had before.
He also realized, though, that not everything could be healed, for one reason or another. For one thing, he'd learned that Hagoromo's chakra gift could not heal wounds inflicted by magical means, and that meant he'd needed to find a way to overcome that obstacle without endangering the person on the other end. Unfortunately, he realized one key thing: in order to overcome the universe itself and stand defiant against the natural order of things, a sacrifice had to be paid.
That day, he chose the hardest path of all. If the day were to come that he would need to use this jutsu, he would pay that steep price himself.
Naruto hadn't stopped there, though. He discovered the potential of the jutsu as an offensive technique instead of just a support technique. He trained himself into the ground to unlock this hidden aspect of the jutsu, but he had never found a way to make the jutsu work in an offensive capacity.
Until now.
"Heavenly Retribution." Naruto whispered, barely even loud enough for him to hear, and he forced his chakra into Discord's body in two parts. First, he imbued the physical side of his chakra with an unconscious command even the deepest parts of his brain was unaware of, itself composed of three very simple words: reflect and revert. In the second part, he tethered his physical and spiritual sides directly together in a way that could normally only be done with natural energy added into the mix, and tied the volatile end of this combination to Discord's very essence.
The entire process took less than a hundredth of a second.
Discord was aware of what was about to happen, but even his chaotic energy could not prevent it from happening, and Naruto's grip was too strong for Discord to be able to pull out of. He tried snapping his fingers the very instant Naruto whispered two words that sent a chilling crawl down his spine, but something was preventing him from getting a full link to his energy.
That instant was all it took to unleash hell.
All of Naruto's major and minor wounds sealed themselves up instantly, and the damage he'd suffered was reflected onto Discord's body. Now, while a god would not have been phased by such an underhanded tactic under normal circumstances, this was not one. Discord had cast his mental avatar into the depths of his own memory, and dragged Naruto's spiritual remnants along for the ride, and thus they had battled in a world where the core laws that reality upheld did not apply.
Under any other circumstance, Naruto would have killed himself with a stunt that would do nothing to Discord save for make him have a sneezing fit. Here though, Chaos no longer ruled supreme, and the anomaly that was Naruto Otsutsuki became the triumphant being.
Tsunade was forced to begin chest compression and CPR when the heart monitor began making the one noise she'd feared since coming in: one long, continuous, droning beep.
Žiara immediately noticed something inside Naruto's very being shift, and she dried her tears, knowing Naruto would not die here. She immediately set her hands on Tsunade's shoulders to aid the medic-nin in healing the external physical damage to Naruto's body, while the nurses and Redheart paced outside the entrance to the room, unable to support Naruto in any way.
Discord screamed in pain he'd never felt before as the sum total of the wounds he'd given Naruto were instantly inflicted back on him, the bottom half of his right arm falling clean off and blood spraying into the sky.
Vaugely, Discord was aware of the sensation of vertigo that meant he was falling to the ground. He mustered the strength he had left to look in Naruto's direction. The man was now unconscious, falling to the ground that was now fading back into the black void discord had found him in.
He chuckled, a dull, hollow laugh that rang false, and extended his remaining arm out, engulfing Naruto with the remaining energy he had.
Discord closed his eyes and slowly faded out of the realm. You win this time… but when I break free, I'm coming to deal with you first. I will not let this trickery go unpunished. You'll rue the day you made the God of Chaos your enemy.
A pulse of extremely concentrated energy flew out of Naruto's chest, and Tsunade was sent flying back and through the window at the front of the room, shattering it and leaving her sprawled out on the floor, groaning in pain as she picked herself up and clinically assessed the damage.
When she returned to the room, Naruto and Žiara were staring intensely at each other, and Tsunade could see the love in their eyes, though she very much doubted the two of them noticed it themselves. She quickly decided to make herself and the hospital staff scarce and leave the two alone.
Žiara still couldn't believe it. Despite knowing Naruto would be okay, it was an entirely different thing altogether to actually see Naruto looking at her. He was not only healthy again, he was awake, and the first thing he'd seen after waking up was her. Tears sprang to her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
Naruto finally broke himself from the trance he'd been in and weakly raised a hand up to her face. "Hey now, quit the crying, it doesn't suit you. What happened to the tough, no-nonsense goddess who's calm no matter what's thrown at her?"
Žiara let the tears of joy fall upon finally hearing Naruto's voice, for the first time in four months. She did not hesitate in leaning down and wrapping her arms around Naruto, burying her head into his shoulder. "You happened… you big idiot. Don't ever nearly die again…"
Naruto chuckled as he patted her back. "Can't make any promises there, but I'll try my best, okay?"
Žiara briefly chuckled. "That's the best I'm going to get from you, isn't it?"
"Yeah, probably."
Discord stretched his wings and arms as he walked around to get some feeling in his legs. "Hmm, being released by a bickering couple isn't exactly the best way of announcing my return, but it'll do. I imagined it more like a few fillies bickering about some silly school issue, but eh. Even I can't have everything the way I want it a hundred percent of the time."
Discord turned around to appreciate the view of Canterlot Castle. "Now to pay a visit to a couple ungrateful "Princesses. And then… him."
And that's the chapter! Honestly, I struggled to write a bit of this when I started working on it earlier this afternoon, but I got lucky, because Word managed to recover the first draft of what I had written, so I could continue down the same line I had already been working on. Luckily, here we are now.
Not much to say, really, but either way, I hope you enjoyed! I'll see you guys again the first half of July!