*Chapter 16*: Chapter Fourteen: The Fox and the Snake
Previously: The Second portion of the Chuunin exam has begun... but Naruto has snapped. Stuck in a constant state of violent, hyper-awareness, Team Akachi must survive five days before they can reach the tower, with possibly every other team in the exam gunning specifically for them. But the real toss up is who is more dangerous to Team Akachi — the other teams, or Naruto himself? Of course, that's all academic if Naruto doesn't survive his fight with the third, and most deadly, of the Kusagakure nin, because if he falls... They all die.
Chapter Fourteen: The Fox and the Snake
Orochimaru's genjutsu held them all paralyzed. Team Eight stood shaking and staring. This is the best that Konoha has to offer? Orochimaru wondered. Best that I left when I did. I might have been tainted by association.
The Uchiha boy was lost off in another direction. It had been easy, as the first two dropped like bags of rocks when Orochimaru ambushed them. At first the Uchiha had seemed as if he might not be so easy, but Orochimaru engulfed him in a genjutsu that showed him exactly what he was expecting to see — a fight. That left Naruto charging ahead. Orochimaru had fully expected his two comrades to easily defeat the blond kid without his team to support him. Instead, the jinchuuriki had shown a remarkable display of subtlety in his almost berserk state, taking down his opposition with almost absurd ease.
For a moment, Orochimaru had hoped the boy might actually be a challenge. But now, he was ensnared like the rest of them. Pathetic… but not entirely unexpected.
Orochimaru drew a cluster of kunai, targeting each genin's throat, when suddenly everything went to hell.
One moment, the skinny blond kid was staring straight ahead into the distance, and the next, the thrown kunai were deflected, Naruto charging forward. And the blond kid had Sharingan eyes. Mangekyou Sharingan. There was little finesse in the kid's attacks, sword strokes and kicks interchangeably thrown, with force behind each to tear through anything in his path; as demonstrated by a massive vine he chopped through on his backswing while preparing another attempt at taking Orochimaru's head. Naruto was all blinding speed and terrifying strength and relentless savagery.
Orochimaru found himself immediately on the defensive as the enormous sword in the blond's hands sheared through the kunai he'd tried to deflect it with. The last two fingers on his hand flopped uselessly; the same stroke had severed the radius in his left arm and the tendons attached to it. Until he could repair the damage, he'd be down to forming seals onehanded. But Naruto's rapid, relentless assault hadn't left him enough time to do so, or even the ability to withdraw enough to catch his breath.
Damn the Sharingan eye! Orochimaru learned quickly that Naruto had somehow gained a mastery over it much alike to Kakashi the Copycat Ninja. He'd unintentionally taught Naruto the Shunshin jutsu, and since that moment, Naruto had been pursuing him relentlessly.
This was not the first time Orochimaru had encountered a berserker. Berserkers were dreadful opponents to the unwary and unprepared. Many a good warrior had fallen to a berserker of far less skill. But to fight berserk was to go all out, leaving nothing in reserve; fighting berserk was an all or nothing affair. Should you survive the first few seconds of combat, chances were good you'd live, and your chances of victory went up with each second that passed thereafter.
Nor was it his first time facing a jinchuuriki. Jinchuuriki were often a hurricane of destruction but very little finesse; given to overwhelming force to win a fight. After all, they had plenty of it to spare. To defeat a jinchuuriki was to evade their massive attacks with precision, place yourself in position, and strike out at their weak spot.
It certainly wasn't his first time fighting a skilled shinobi. He'd met many; a large number of them were more skilled than this boy, although his skills were certainly better than those a genin needed to be to advance to chuunin.
No, the trouble with this fight was that, in this opponent, Orochimaru was facing all three rolled up into one, and wielding a blade of the Seven Swordsmen of Mizugakure. Had he but the split second of space to retrieve Kusanagi, this fight might even out. Unfortunately, he couldn't for the life of him get that split second. Unlike most berserkers, Naruto's stamina wasn't falling off. Unlike most jinchuuriki, his attacks were skilled and aimed. Unlike most shinobi, even a glancing hit from this kid could kill him deader than the Shodaime Hokage.
To his vast surprise — and, deep down, his growing excitement — he was actually going to have to take this fight a little seriously.
The chakra pulse seemed to have caught Naruto off guard. In the start of the fight, he'd pushed his opponent onto the defensive, and Team Eight watched in a fearful hush as the genjutsu faded, revealing the two ninja fighting. The serpentine Kusa-nin slithered, darted, lashed out with kunai and shuriken, and attempted to shunshin and kawarimi; but at every turn, Naruto was there.
Suddenly, things reversed; and the turnaround was almost instantaneous. With a rapid swipe at the blood on his arm and a one handed seal later, there was an explosion of earth and smoke, knocking Naruto backwards. Naruto charged from the ground; a massive tail, easily seven feet across, whipped up and around, a tail attached to a monstrous snake, with the Kusa-nin perched atop its head. Naruto flew backwards again, but the snake had its own injuries, Kubikiri Houcho buried to the hilt, serpentine blood flying everywhere. The force of the blow smashed Naruto's body through a branch thicker than he was tall, which first groaned then, with cracking noises like thunder, the whole branch gave way.
A rush of wind and roar of leaves preceded its multi-ton impact with the forest floor, causing the ground to shake hard enough to knock everyone within a quarter of a mile off their feet.
Team Eight did the only thing they could do in a battle like this. They got to their feet and hid.
Only two hundred yards away, Sasuke slammed into the suddenly shuddering ground. The jarring blow broke the genjutsu's hold on him, and he realized the entire fight he'd been engaged in was all in his mind. More crashing and popping sounds came from the east, not far off. He turned in the direction of the clamor and took off at top speed.
Naruto blinked slowly as he came to awareness of his surroundings and... pain, specifically pain in the left side of his face. Everything was dark on the left side, as well. Reaching up, he felt something embedded in his face just above the cheek bone. It felt like wood. Trying to move it produced no results other than more pain. Leaving it alone let the pain subside to a dull throbbing. For better or worse, whatever-it-was was stuck ... CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
Naruto cast about, trying to understand why the mental voice was so familiar. He felt a strange sense of... emptiness, as though there was something missing, but wasn't certain of what it could be. Somehow, everything was the same, flavorless grey. He felt... nothing. No fear, no pain, no insecurity; it was kind of... relaxing. But there was a distant sense of urgency, something that needed doing.
With a jolt, Naruto remembered the name of that 'that'. Bii-san. What- what's happened?
SHUT UP, GAKI. I'M BUSY. THIS IS TRICKY WORK.
Even as Kyuubi spoke, Naruto felt a burning sensation in the left side of his face, and smelled wood smoke. He felt something hot land on his arm. Looking over, he saw hot ash and embers falling onto him from... His face? Chakra welled up around the side of his face, and splinters of wood and more charred ash flew out, accompanied by a stinging sensation. The ache stopped, followed by a tingling sensation.
YOU HAD PIECES OF WOOD LODGED IN YOUR BRAIN. I'M TRYING TO RESTORE YOUR RIGHT HAND
MOTOR FUNCTION RIGHT NOW. YOU ALSO HAD SEVERE DAMAGE TO YOUR AMYGDALA, BUT AS LONG AS YOUR SUPPRESSED EMOTIVE RESPONSE IS KEEPING YOU COHERENT, I'M AFRAID IT'S GOING TO WAIT UNTIL THIS FIGHT IS OVER.
My amo- what? Emoting response, what the hell is that?
NEVER MIND THAT, KID. YOUR HAND SHOULD BE WORKING NOW.
Naruto looked around desperately. THE SNAKE! Where is it!
HOLD ON, KID, I'M NOT DONE YET.
But Naruto was already running, heedless of the splinters of wood sticking out of him in various portions of his back and side.
Naruto followed back the trail of devastation, to see the snake rearing up over a group of bushes, while Shino and Hinata cowered behind them. But where was Kiba? KAMIGAN!
Naruto found his answer. Near the end of the fallen tree branch, was Kiba. The branch was incredibly heavy; there wasn't much left of him. Naruto's senses roiled at the sight. As his Mangekyou activated, he felt the world slow down again — not nearly as much as before, but he didn't have as much chakra left as before either. He leaped at a nearby tree trunk and SHOVED, imparting as much kinetic force to his leap as he could, flying straight at the giant snake.
Hinata froze at the sight of the monstrous serpent towering over her team. Shino directed his swarm at the snake, but it ignored them, its hide too thick for the insects to draw out its chakra. The insects dispersed as they suddenly drove upwards at the Kusa-nin, who exhaled a gout of flame at them, killing many. The snake reared back, lunged downwards…
And the side of its head was struck by a meteor shaped like Naruto's fist. The sound of the blow was like cannon shot. The first half of its body flew sideways and upwards, before crashing to the ground seventy feet away. In a gout of smoke, the snake disappeared.
Naruto hung suspended in mid air, all his forward momentum from before having been transferred to the snake, and the Kusa-nin hung suspended above him. But while Naruto had no leverage, the Kusa-nin needed none to reach his target. His long tongue launched from his mouth, coiling around Naruto and binding the blond's arms behind him as the two dropped towards the ground.
Yamato sat at the table near entrance one. He was enjoying a bowl of rice with steamed vegetables, some of which he had grown himself. His meal was interrupted by a pair of proctors, whose shunshin placed them almost directly in front of Yamato's table. "Sir! Terrible news!" said one of them.
Yamato blinked in confusion. "Already? What's hap—"
Before he could say any more, a shockwave shook the ground, followed closely by an enormous crash from within the forest, as though untold tons of solid object had struck the ground. "What the—" said the other proctor.
Yamato felt a trilling of dread. Has something happened to one of the Ancients? he wondered. Out loud, he said, "Call all of the jounin representatives for the participating teams. We may have to cancel the second exam." "S-sir? But why-?"
"We do not have time to discuss this," Yamato said tersely. "If one of the Ancients has been wounded or killed, we may have reason to fear not just for the teams, but for Konohagakure itself." The first proctor nodded and shunshin-ed away.
"Sir, the bodies..." the remaining proctor said. "We left them with Akamichi Katsuo, our medic, but... There's something strange about them..."
"Strange?" Yamato asked. "Strange as in... How?"
Within the space of a minute, Yamato was examining the bodies where they lay, mere dozens of yards within the boundaries of the fence surrounding the Forest. I recognize these three... Yamato thought to himself. But their faces are gone. "How long have these bodies been here?" he asked.
"By my guess," said Katsuo, "based on limb stiffness and blood coagulation, I'd say at least an hour and a half."
Yamato stared at the proctor with numb shock on his face. But that means... they were dead before I... "Call ANBU!" he snapped. "Get every available squad here now! We have at least three infiltrators impersonating genin, they may be here to assassinate—"
Sixteen pops and puffs of smoke arrived like a staccato of firecrackers. Kakashi, Kurenai, Anko, and Asuma were in the lead — they were the instructors of the Rookie Ten, after all, and despite their earlier confidence, were terribly worried. "What's up?" asked Kakashi. "What's all the— Ah. Dead people."
Anko had frozen. Kurenai looked over at her in puzzlement. "Anko-chan? What's wrong?"
Anko's eyes were riveted on the three dead bodies. Then she all but yelled, "Get ANBU, fast OROCHIMARU'S here!"!
Orochimaru held the struggling kid suspended above himself with his tongue as they began to fall. Look at that! he thought, getting a close look at the blond genin. Burned and bloody flesh adorned the left side of Naruto's face. His right eye remained Sharingan, but the left did not. A hole extending from the boy's left temple all the way into the bridge of his nose clearly demonstrated that the eye was no longer there. Bone was visible, but something — presumably, the boy himself — had found whatever caused the wound stuck there, and burned it away to reduce the inconvenience.He dispelled Vashda with one attack! And he can't even see on his left side! marveled Orochimaru. He certainly can struggle, though. He's pretty damned strong for someone his size. Then again, I suppose he'd have to be, to fight the way he does with a sword THAT size. There is more here at work than mere tenacity and strength.
The tip of his tongue lifted the shirt. There, on his belly, the sealing pattern on his flesh. He could sense the chakra flowing from the seal, infusing the boy's chakra pathways. As I thought. The Kitsune no Kyuubi's chakra is working in harmony with that of the Uzumaki brat's. Symbiotic... Orochimaru braced for the landing, letting his legs absorb the impact of their combined landing, as he gathered the five chakra types at the tips of his fingers.
But for the laws of inertia, Orochimaru would have ended the fight right then and there. But Naruto's weight bobbed him downwards, and Orochimaru paused, as Naruto's feet scrabbled at the ground, almost caught purchase, but then was lifted higher by the Snake Sannin's tongue. He tried to stick himself to the ground to gain leverage, Orochimaru thought to himself with a grin. Even at this disadvantage he still tries to fight me. Quite spirited. Even now, large clods of dirt stuck to the soles of Naruto's right foot. Orochimaru pulled him closer, preparing to drive the seal into the blond's stomach, when Naruto's right foot suddenly spun around, and organic matter fell away from the sandaled foot, revealing a glossy sheen on the top of his foot.
Orochimaru blocked without thinking, without hesitation, and an explosion of glass shards blasted into his face from less than six inches. Whipping his face to the side, he avoided total blinding. But the left side of his face, including the eye, and the top and left sides of his tongue were blasted with hundreds of tiny, razor sharp shards. His cheek was a shredded, bloody ruin, his eye an oozing, bloody, gelatinous mess. Reflexively, in pain, Orochimaru's tongue withdrew back into him, as he gave a staggering shudder. The blond genin hit the ground running... towards his sword.
Now we're even, you think? An eye for an eye? thought Orochimaru with a snicker. Should have finished me off, instead of going for your sword, brat. Orochimaru opened his mouth wide, climbing out of his ruined shell of a body. The new form was slightly weaker than he'd been; it would be a day or two before he'd regained his full strength. But the jutsu did its work. Even though he'd taken gruesome damage from the glass attack, so long as his brain, his spine, and his chakra pathways were more or less intact, he could recover from virtually any kind of damage with it, given the time to do it.
The only real downside is that my disguise is lost. But that was of minimal importance; Naruto had retrieved his sword.
Time for me to show him the meaning of swordsmanship, Orochimaru thought to himself, opening wide his mouth as the Serpent Sheath extended from his mouth and revealed the handle of Kusanagi.
Naruto swept in like a hurricane, Kubikiri Houcho whipping overhead in a blinding flash. The Kusa-nin— no, his hitai-ate revealed the symbol of Otogkure now — raised his hands overhead, a long, slender katana in them. There was an enormous clash of grinding metal, accompanied by a loud ringing, as the two blades met. Then, Naruto felt an incredible shock as something completely unexpected happened.
For the first time since he'd acquired it and taught himself how to use it, Naruto encountered a weapon that Kubikiri Houcho could not break.
Orochimaru was truly impressed. At first, he'd toyed with the blond genin, his superior swordsmanship an all but insurmountable advantage, inflicting small cuts, humiliating him, demonstrating his inadequacy against a real swordsman. He'd laughed as Kusanagi's lighter construction let him get around the larger, slower blade, delighting in inflicting ever increasingly severe wounds, then backing away enough to watch them heal. But as the fight wore on, Orochimaru found himself working harder and harder to get around the boy's guard. The boy's eye was growing back. Orochimaru wondered vaguely if the eyes could be repeatedly carved out and implanted in multiple people: an entire army of sharingan.
Then something inexplicable happened. He peeled away the boy's defenses, lashing out to meet the flesh between the boy's ribs with Kusanagi's steel, but instead of the expected grunt of pain and splatter of blood, there was instead a flash of sparks and clang.
Orochimaru stepped back, staring into Sharingan eyes, only to be met with a modified version of one of his own combos, suited to the size of the weapon he was using. Orochimaru countered with the most effective defense… and the Uzumaki boy smiled. The little teme is learning... memorizing... USING me! he realized. The little rat is absorbing my skills!
Orochimaru cursed himself mentally. He'd known of the power of the Sharingan, but had assumed that this blond brat couldn't possibly have understood the power at his command. He'd toyed with the boy, secure in his superiority, but as he now was forced to defend himself against his own skills, he was forced to watch as his hard earned talents were analyzed, assimilated... and used on him in ways harder and harder to defend against.
The only way to gain the Sharingan was to be born with the trait, or else to steal the Sharingan from the body of someone who was. Orochimaru already knew the boy couldn't possibly be an Uchiha. Itachi had quite thoroughly exterminated the clan, save for his younger brother. Had he missed one? The evidence pointed to it, that the eyes had been stolen from one, at the least. Possibly salvaged after the night of blood. But implanted eyes were supposed to be inferior to those inherited by birthright, and still this boy's use of the Sharingan was excellent, bordering on outright genius.
He'd come for the Uchiha... but...
He skipped backwards. The kid was using him, now, to train his swordsmanship... but that gave him the room to do what he did next. He released Kusanagi, formed a seal one-handed, and used his left hand to control the sword now hovering in mid-air.
Naruto found himself defending against arts that no swordsman could hope to enact. To do so with hands would require flexibility — and joints — that a human didn't possess. "You're impressive, gaki," Orochimaru said. Naruto narrowed his eyes at him, but made no further moves as Kusanagi hovered expectantly. Orochimaru continued, "Your mastery of the Sharingan exceeds that of most members of the Uchiha clan." He snickered. "In fact, I had come for Sasuke, but... I think I want you, instead!"
Kusanagi lunged; Naruto almost instinctively parried. Kusanagi twisted, turned Naruto's parry into a downward thrust that embedded the weapon in the ground — and Naruto learned something else about the Sharingan — that if he didn't know what a foe was capable of, he couldn't predict what would happen next. Orochimaru's neck lengthened, his mouth opened, and venomous fangs sank into Naruto's trapesius. Naruto felt a wave of dizziness as... something... coursed through his veins. Then he shook, his hands let go of Kubikiri Houcho, and he collapsed to the ground with a single hoarse scream of pain. He thrashed for a few seconds before lapsing into a shivering mass of silent agony.
Orochimaru laughed delightedly. "I'll see you again, Naruto-kun. Do be a good boy; make it to the next stage of the exam. If you do well enough, I'll take you to a place where you'll never be shunned, never rejected. I'll take you to the Sound, my home. And it'll be your home, too." Orochimaru smiled, as he turned to face Sasuke, who'd just stepped from the tree-line. "Or, maybe I'll just take him with me now. I'd thought to take you, Sasuke-kun, but I can see where the real talent in your team lies."
"You won't see him again," Sasuke replied. "I've seen how you fight... and I know where Naruto was going wrong."
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow. "Aw... Are you feeling rejected? Feeling left out, at the idea that he might leave you here... and come to me?" He put away Kusanagi. "Come then, little boy. We can take our time, and you can show me all your tricks."
Sasuke pulled out six kunai, two explosive notes, a windmill shuriken, and some wire. No time like now, I suppose, he thought to himself. If I can't at least try to face this guy down, I'll never be able to look Naruto in the eye. Ten seconds ought to do it.
"Hey, Snake-face! Catch," he said, throwing two kunai, each of them with an explosive note attached. Eight seconds...
Orochimaru dodged the two kunai, letting them slip to either side of him, as he darted forward. The windmill shuriken he ducked, noting the coating of glass on it as it passed by. Hm... good thing I didn't try to catch that. I'm have to learn that jutsu they're using; it strikes me as being almost as useful as explosive notes, and far more convenient. Another kunai nearly hit him; only a hasty dodge prevented it from hitting his knee. Another rapid dodge of another kunai, and a third he ducked that sent him back on his original course. He's very controlled and precise. I know he pulled out six kunai, one left to— huh? String?
Sasuke stood by a tree, one end of the wire clenched in his teeth as the fifth kunai's force created a pulley effect with the tree he was standing by. Orochimaru's eyes followed the string to the windmill shuriken that was coming straight back at him. He bent himself backwards, avoiding getting tangled in the wire to either side as well as the last bit attached to the kunai directly above him. The throw had been carefully calculated to box him in. And bent over backwards, he got to see the sixth kunai heading directly on a collision course with the incoming windmill shuriken, still coated in its deadly sheath of glass… and both just out of reach of his hands.
Three... Sasuke counted mentally, as the snake nin saw the shuriken flying back at him. He ducked — backwards, interestingly enough. How flexible he was! — to avoid it, as Sasuke threw the last kunai at the shuriken.
Two... The enemy saw the incoming kunai; was out of position to do much of anything. The kunai struck as the shinobi latched onto the nearest piece of wood large enough for Kawarimi no Jutsu.
One... The glass lashed outwards. The oto-nin threw himself flat as it passed over him, to land on two hard objects. Sasuke grinned as he saw the snake ninja attempt to get back to his feet, but it was too late.
"Katsu." said Sasuke mildly, with a grin.
Orochimaru's eyes widened as he'd remembered the first two kunai the Uchiha kid had thrown, with the explosive notes attached to them. He deliberately steered me so I would use Kawarimi no Jutsu at the exact moment — and with the exact target — that he wanted me to. How elegant his execu—
Then the notes went off with stunning explosive force.
Sasuke looked at the enemy nin with first satisfaction then surprise, as his aged face, scorched and peeling, tore away at a swipe of his hands to reveal... a kid?
"So... I see you managed to perfect your technique... Eh, Orochimaru sensei?"
The snake nin smiled and looked past Sasuke. "Hello, Anko, my dear. Such a pity you all had to crash my little party, but it was getting rather boring anyhow. I was already planning on leaving. But don't stop the exam on my account. Or you'll end up destroying Konoha in the process."
"And what makes you think we intended to let you go?" asked Asuma.
Sasuke spared a look behind him. There, with Asuma and Anko, were the majority of the Konoha jounin instructors, along with one from Amegakure, several from Sunagakure, and even one from Takigakure.
"What, my dear boy," responded Orochimaru lightly, "makes you think you can stop me?"
"Why are you here?" demanded Anko. "Is it assassination? Are you here after the Hokage?"
"Heavens, no!" laughed Orochimaru. "I lack the hubris — and number of expendable subordinates — for something that ambitious. But I am a talent scout, of sorts. And I always like to know who's who among the up and coming, sort of a means by which I can find out who is... dissatisfied with the boring curriculum and strictures you place on them here in stodgy old Konohagakure."
"You won't be recruiting anyone today," Kakashi stated.
"Oh, I beg to differ, my dear Kakashi-kun. You see... I already have..." smirked Orochimaru as he sank into the ground with no warning or hand-seals.
Yamato formed several seals, before slamming his hands on the forest floor and extending vines into the ground. After a moment, he cursed. "DAMMIT! He's GONE!"
"Where's Naruto?" asked Sasuke suddenly. Where Naruto had been, there was now only empty soil.
"N-Naruto-kun?" asked Hinata, as she looked around the clearing. "Naruto-kun?" she said a little louder. As the beginnings of hysteria took her, Kurenai gently walked up to her and struck a nerve cluster at the base of her skull, and caught the girl as she collapsed.
"As Team Eight is now officially unable to complete the second exam, I am... pulling them from training ground forty-four on my own cognizance," Kurenai asserted.
Shino, trembling slightly, picked up Akamaru from their hiding spot and carried him while Kurenai carried Hinata.
"What about you, Anko?" Kakashi inquired, staring straight ahead at a tree, not wanting to look at Team Akachi.
Anko looked indecisive. Two members of the team were unconscious and a third missing. But it was Sasuke who answered.
"If we're withdrawn from the test..." he began, while checking Haku and Shikamaru, "...then that means we'll no longer be here in the Forest. Right?"
"Correct," replied Yamato, who had finally calmed himself.
"We refuse," Sasuke said flatly. "Naruto is missing. But we wish to look for him while there is still time."
"We?" repeated Asuma. "So far, it looks like you're the only member of your team still standing."
"We," repeated Sasuke firmly. "Haku and Shikamaru are only unconscious. Orochimaru didn't bother to hurt them when he attacked them. They'll wake up soon, if I am any judge. If Naruto is still out here, then we'll find him — and Haku would kill me if I didn't give him the chance."
This drew chuckles from Kakashi and Anko and puzzled looks from the other jounin.
"And if you don't find him?" asked Yamato.
"Then we fail the test... as would any team that didn't arrive at the tower with all their team members," Sasuke answered.
"And at least we'll know we tried."
The impact of the shattered tree branch was felt throughout the entirety of the Forest of Death. Had it been in another area, or even a different branch on the tree, there would have been no response, no thought of reprisal. Most likely, there wouldn't have even been a disturbance of their slumber. But the branch landed on the exposed root of one tree in particular.
Most of the Ancients had been napping for fifty years or more. An eye-blink in their estimation, really. But their consciousness was slow to rally — it could sometimes take hours, or even a few days for one to fully awaken from its slumber — much of the reason why they had entered into the agreement with the biped animals that made their lairs so near the grove. They could alter the behaviors of such things as termites and boring beetles, but the bipedal animals were actually capable of thought, in a crude fashion. Forming instincts in creatures that could think was more trouble than merely speaking to them, so long as they had the ability to manipulate wood chakra, an ability exceedingly rare amongst a people who most commonly had an affinity for fire.
This tree, however, had been approaching torpor for only about six months, just nodding off. And when the branch had fallen on the equivalent of its toe, its consciousness was roused within minutes. Only to find a strange tableau before it: an assembly of the bipeds who identified this area as their territory facing off against another, who had about him the aura of a serpent. There were several bipeds cowering; another in a pain-induced state that was rapidly approaching unconsciousness; and a poisoned quadruped with the aura of another biped that lay dead on the forest floor. The tree noticed something interesting about the biped in pain: he had an affinity for wood chakra.
Something was interfering with the wounded biped's organs and chakra flow — several somethings, in fact, although only a couple of them were actively harmful. A strange parasitical energy was attempting to alter the biochemistry of the biped, one of the ATMA- the sources of power from the power stones granted to the negotiator biped who had called himself Shodaimehokage- was bound inside the biped and desperately attempting to fight off the parasite while simultaneously attempting to repair other severe damage to the thinking structure of the creature, repairing minor damage that was accruing due to a chakra overload from several imbued genetic abilities. And to top it all off, the thought matrix of the creature — the gestalt of energies and choices that collectively made up what the bipeds referred to as souls — was hiding within itself as new memories and emotions resurfaced when certain portions of its thinking structures were repaired.
The creature was an impressive piece of work… if you liked fixer-uppers. And loved repairing living things almost as much as he loved creating new ones.
Judging by that fallen branch, the agreed upon security seemed a little lax. But then, all the damage was to one of the younger, uninfused spirit shells. And it was a rather unhealthy specimen, anyways.
The attention of all the bipeds — those which were standing, at any rate — was focused on the one with the aura of serpent. Chakra bubbled and welled up, the ground gently parted, and carried the fixer-upper to the core of his root system where "Ishi" could manipulate chakra the best.
When the creature got there, Ishi focused all his attention inwards at the living creature held under his roots. He immediately began funneling oxygen to it. He was quite familiar with the needs and necessities of creatures such as this. New details began popping up as it began a more thorough examination. This specimen was suffering from unhealthy degrees of nutrients obviously hadn't been taking in proper nutritional balance for a long time, most of its life, if he was any judge — especially of late, where not only had vitamins, minerals, and such been imbalanced but calories entirely insufficient for its needs. The poor creature's fat reserves were all but gone, even those stored internally in the liver. Examination of the mental gestalt revealed the reason for this, feelings of guilt and insecurity, of having been forced into actions contrary to its nature. Loathing for itself. It seemed to base its self-image on the judgments of the other bipeds around it. What a silly notion. Didn't it comprehend the nature of its…
Its gifts were all self-imbued? That took some talent. And the ability to manipulate wood chakra was also self-imbued? As well as half a dozen other talents and abilities the creature had woven into its genetic matrix. Finally, he touched on a chakra weaving embedded on the biped's belly. How ingenious! So that was how the bipeds managed the implantation of an ATMA directly into the host creature from one of the remnant power stones. Of course, its power would be better used from a power stone to benefit more of the creatures around it, but it certainly ensured that the host biped would never run out of energy to activate its genetic abilities. And because of this, the biped was able to effect its own empowerment. All this at a stage where most of its species were still all but larva. Clearly a natural talent here. Ishi couldn't wait to fix it and wake it up so he could communicate with it.
It was amazing what these crude and dim bipeds could accomplish with the meager scraps of information the Ancients had traded for the security of their Grove. He would repair this creature and send it on its merry way. It would be done in a flash. He briefly considered just repairing its damage and letting it go... but... Oh! the biped could be such a work of art when he was done! So many things mixed up into one package. He would polish the rough edges of their work, and demonstrate what a finished product was supposed to look like. With a masterpiece like this under his bark, just think of the bragging rights it would give him among the other Ancients! All it would take was a tiny smidgen of time.
After all, the bipeds wouldn't be likely to miss it. It would only be a few days; not very long, even by their ephemeral standards.
End Chapter 14
-AN: is pronounced Ish-ee-lah-foo-near-ee-key-lah-war-uh-ta-hah-gah-tay-tah. In case anybody asks or cares- which I highly doubt anyone will. Yes, I came up with a way to pronounce that monstrosity. It's a name from a story I wrote eleven years ago that was crap, utter and complete garbage and I cringe to think that I was once proud to have written it. But my favorite character was the dragon, who I still have a soft spot for in my heart, and the name above was his name. I recycled it. Remember to recycle, else you'll have a lot of names cluttering uop your mental landfill and making new ones is always more costly in dying brain cells than simply reusing the old ones. And I can't afford to lose brain cells- I have too few as it is.
I know I could have added an Omake here but honestly, I didn't really have one. This chapter was rough on me, as I had to wrench everything word by stubborn word from the depths of my mind. So if you have questions I'll do my best to answer them. I've got a forum up for Rogue Fox, it should be available on my profile, if I did it correctly. I look forward to any reviews and commentary- your reviews help keep me motivated.
-AXENOME