Chapter IV
"Hehe is good to be back, sensei" Grinned the possessed Naruto, purple foam dripping from his mouth as his teeth twisted into fangs. He pushed more power into his warp spawned Rasengan, that twisted with the images of a billion slaughters and screeched like uncountable tortured soul.
Jiraiya´s eyes widened in recognition.
"Foul Thing! How dare you!" He screamed, his eyes lighting up with blue fire as more power flowed into his Rasengan. Holy seals flickered around his own sphere, as the room began to swirl with the clashing energies, wisps of blue and purple lashing against the walls and the floor.
"Hahaha! You never knew me at all! Even after all this time you still don't know the truth, how amusing!" Said Naruto, his grin widening. The purple aura around him began to darken, and shadows started to flicker on the part of the room not invaded by Jiraiya´s own chakra, the massive amount of warp energy staring to erase the boundaries of reality.
"I WILL ERASE YOU! FOR TAINTING NARUTO AND DEFILING MINATO¨S MEMORY, YOU –WILL- DIE!! GATE OF LIMITS: OPEN!" Jiraiya´s muscles bulged beyond measure, and with a cry that cracked the walls of the room with his strength, he pushed the Rasengan forward.
Naruto´s eyes widened, before he was consumed by the swirling ball of energy.
Hinata was walking towards the hospital, when suddenly, an explosion wracked the building. She saw one of the walls burst open, and a figure shot trough it, crashing against a building next to it.
"Byakugan!"
She gasped in horror as she focused in the figure. It was Naruto but his chakra….his chakra was the most horrid, loathsome thing she had ever seen. Not the red, hate filled he displayed during their mission, but a purple that seemed to twist in maddening and terrible shapes.
She looked around, trying to see if any alarm signal had been sent, and no seeing anything, began to make hand seals.
"Fire Release: Flare!"
She spat an intensely glowing ball towards the sky. The flare would warn all shinobi in the village, that is, those that hadn't already felt the explosion. Then, she ran towards the hospital, fully intending in finding out what was going out, but not before turning off her byakugan so she wasn't forced to endure the sight of that horrible chakra.
-Symphony of Hatred-
Minato, servant of Slanesh, snarled as he stood from the crater he left on his impact.
"How could that old fool be that powerful! No, the sannin isn't powerful; it is me who is weak. The Shattered One and the soul of that bastard spawn of mine are pounding away at the Five pronged seal. I need blood to sustain my hold on this pathetic flesh…" He looked around, and saw behind him one of the dwellers of the building he had almost completely destroyed with his crash. It was a woman, about twenty years old, a civilian obviously, since she was huddled on a corner, terrified of his power.
He chuckled.
"hehehe, you don't know how lucky you are, wench…" He moved in flash in front of her, and just as the woman opened her mouth to scream, he plunged his hand, crackling with tainted energies into her throat
Foul seal s began to write themselves in the woman's flesh as she began to bloat, reality bending itself around her. Minato removed his now bloodied hand from her mouth, and smothered the blood one the seal holding the Kyuubi, entrapping it and the five pronged seal in an eight pointed star.
The woman continued to twist, her mouth opening more and more until her body was little more than a gigantic maw from were a purple light shone, and then, the first came trough.
It was a monstrosity of twisted meat and snarling mouths, a hundred eyes glaring at everything with burning purple fire. It was the size of a horse, and minato wasted no time mounting on it, just in time for a massive sword to crash in the building. The monstrosity jumped away, even as the woman turned gateway continued spewing more monsters into the leaf.
Jiraiya stood atop of a large war toad the size of a small house, unwilling to summon Gamabunta in the middle of the village. He saw many ninjas pouring into the area, just as Tsunade landed next to him, winded and ruffled, probably having been thrown away by the explosion at the hospital.
"Tsunade, we need to evacuate all civilians before they are tainted. The Horror Bearer has already created a Gate" He said, grimly. This was not Jiraiya the pervert, or Jiraiya the toad hermit. This the Jiraiya that killed a thousand ninja with a single command from his voice, the Jiraiya few knew and lived to tell about. The hidden war against taint waged in the elemental nations was fought in a level not meant for normal men and ninja to witness, and as such, it had its own legends and rules. Jiraiya may be a legendary ninja to the normal populace, but against the horror bearers he was no legend, he was a God. No single bearer of taint had escaped him, even those that ROOT´s was unable to destroy.
Tsunade nodded, accepting Jiraiya´s command for once. For all their petty squabbles and her usual disdain towards him, she couldn't help but fell a thrill when she saw him like this, turned into this avatar of hidden knowledge's and forgotten powers. This was a man she, many times in the past, had thought she could love. Sadly, these outbursts of transcendent might were so few and far between that it was easy to forget the hermit's merit and tag him as a mere annoyance.
"RELEASE!" She shouted, bringing her hand in half seal just as she jumped from Jiraiya´s toad and making the seal on her forehead expand; covering her in strange geometrical patterns and making burst of green fire explode from her body. She trusted him. If Naruto was truly tainted, Jiraiya will not allow his sentiments get in the way of his duty, but if there was some way to save the boy, he would do it.
Beasts were already pouring from the ruins of the building, horrible beyond telling. Tsunade was not too concerned about that. The horrors by themselves weren't a threat, at least in the physical sense. They were strong and resilient, but stupid and single minded, and most trained gennin could dispatch one. The problem was that few men were trained to stand their fearsome nature and the dark energies that they exuded. The battle against those enemies was a matter of pure mental fortitude. She had seen chunnin dispatch dozens single-handedly and civilians stand against them while jounin and ANBU ran in fear. That didn't happened often, since physical and mental fortitude tend to go hand in hand, but it was a measure of why the war against taint required different training that every day ninja duties.
She landed in the ground with a thunderous crash, the earth wavering under her power. A creature approached her, snarling from misshapen limbs, but her fist vaporized it in a fine mist of black, foul smelling blood even before it made contact with its flesh. She walked with the deliberate calm of someone with the certain knowledge of the inferiority of his foes. She needed to rally the ninja pouring into the battlefield and destroy the dark gate.
She spared a hateful glare at the possessed Naruto as he leaped towards Jiraiya, craving the knowledge of how to utterly destroy the ethereal enemies that turned good man into those cruel shadows of themselves.
As she did, she could swear the attacking beast laughed at her, before she destroyed them mercilessly.
-Simphony of Hatred-
Minato launched himself outside the building mounted in a horror, his eyes blazing with purple tainted power.
"Jiraiya, Jiraiya, Jiraiya, you think I am some horror mimicking Minato? I am Minato, I am the one who defiled a hundred maids to seal the Kyuubi into this body, the bastard spawn of mine and a thrice dammed wench bathed in the blood of her family. You were always so proud of me…hehehe. Every night I left the village to praise She-who-thirst. Every night I violated and destroyed the weaklings of this world in the name of chaos, cursing this pathetic village and the usurper that took Lord Madara rightful throne. But today I will avenge him, oh yes I will. I will make every man kneel in the glory of chaos, and I will offer the souls of the woman to the lady of whispers! And with the power of the shattered one, that you so kindly sealed, the very stars will follow!" He said, as his steed leaped at the toad, whips of flesh crackling with purple fire lashing against it. The toad jumped high to avoid the attack, while the hermit began making hand seals.
"I couldn't care less about who you are. Only what you are matters now. ANCIENT TECHNIQUE: PURGING FIRE!" Jiraiya inhaled, and then spat a ball of blue fire towards Minato. Minato´s eyes widened in recognition of the jutsu. With his horror airborne, he couldn't dodge, so he jumped.
The ball crashed against the horror and imploded, consuming the horror as if had never existed, the only leftover several glowing seals that crackled for a moment were the ball hit before disappearing.
Minato landed on the ground, panting a little. His navel felt like it was on fire. He looked down, only to see the eight pointed star being burnt by a mix of crimson and blue fire. The essence of the shattered one inside was stopping him from calling upon the power of the dark ones, making the warp step, the "technique" that these mortal called thunder god impossible to use.
Jiraiya narrowed his eyes, seeing the markings on Naruto´s navel, and realization dawned on him. The Kyuubi´s and a pure human chakra were fighting the containment seals he had placed upon the shiki fuujin, and the possessed jinchuruuki had even draw the symbol of the taint to further fortify those seals, which means, that whatever the Kyuubi was doing was in detriment of the being possessing Naruto´s body.
He jumped from his toad, letting it dispel and ran towards Minato, eyes blazing. Two Rasengan formed on his hands and he jumped, ready to plunge them upon the tainted jinchuruuki.
"RASENGAN!"
Minato´s eyes widened for a second, before his face set in the visage of twisted hatred that only an enemy of all that is righteous could have. He rolled to the side, just as Jiraiya slammed into the ground, making it shake and explode with the power of the Rasengan. Minato performed several hand seals, wincing as the burning on his navel intensified. He couldn't manipulate this body's flesh as his old one, but he still had a vast arsenal of techniques to rely upon.
"Witness the power of the warp, TROUGH ME!!"
A shadow took shape in front of Minato, turning into a spectral horrendous dragon drooling purple fire, which raced towards Jiraiya.
The hermit climbed form the crater left by his attack just in time to see the warp monstrosity racing towards him. He gathered chakra to his feet, and jumped in a pillar of blue fire, the dragon twisting in the last moment to avoid the ground a pursue him. Jiraiya, unable to dodge air bound, was defenseless against the warp spawned monstrosity. His eyes blazing with blue fire, he shot a glance of pure unadulterated loathing at the possessed Naruto, who had severed one of his fingers and was using the blood spilling from the wound to rewrite the foul chaos symbols.
But just as his eyes made contact with the crimson and blue fire on Naruto´s navel, he heard a strange sound, a whisper, ancient and decrepit yet incomprehensibly pure, like the voice of a dying god.
"Help him…" It said, and Jiraiya on the edge of his vision saw the sillouete of a sickly double headed eagle for a fleeting moment.
He made a fast hand sing to replace himself, but for some reason the jutsu failed. He only had a moment to feel surprise.
The dragon crashed against him, and he felt his very soul being burnt by the warp spawned monstrosity. He was seen careening against the floor, purple fire surrounding him as he fell from the sky.
Finally, he crashed on the ground, unable to move as the warp fire consumed his soul. He could hear the chorus of laughter of the warp mocking him, the foul whispers of endless tortured soul clamoring for his surrender.
A sea of purple filled his vision, filled with billions of maddened eyes glaring at him only allowing trough the sight of Naruto advancing upon him, a perverse grin on his face.
"Do you see how weak you are, sensei? The dark ones are the masters of the warp. They won't allow you to navigate in it to escape the wrath of their true servants. Those taint bearers you fought, the ones you took so much pride in defeating, were nothing compared with the powers I wield, even dimished as they are in this body, and my own power is nothing compared to lord Madara´s."
Two tendrils of warp energy shot from Naruto, raising the still burning body of Jiraiya from the floor so its face was at eye level with the possessed jinchuruuki.
"Before you become a plaything for the dark ones, let me show you what your prized student did, what the hero of this foolish village was, so you understand fully how little effort took me, a mere messenger of the dark ones to fool the best this world had to offer, and how meaningless is your struggle."
A third tendril of warp power slammed into the forehead of the toad hermit and he saw.
How Minato´s once sincere grins turned into mocking smirks as soon as he turned his back.
How he prayed to dark gods and rejoiced in the suffering he caused.
How he disguised himself to commit rapes and murders, at first, and genocides and even more despicable crimes as he grew older.
He saw how he attacked Uzu no kuni, summoning terrible beings to do his bidding, and how he mutilated and defiled Naruto´s mother.
Again, and again, and again.
He saw him pleading to the council, feigning sorrow as he explained how to seal the Kyuubi trough human sacrifice. He was there, and even trough he knew that human sacrifices were only used in dark rituals, he trusted blindly in his prized pupil.
He saw how Minato turned, a lone tear on his eyes as the council accepted, only to see a depraved grin appear on his face as soon as nobody saw him.
And finally, how he baptized Naruto in the blood of the innocent and offered him to his foul gods.
Even as those images appeared, Jiraiya was consumed by hatred, a hatred that only a man that has suffered the ultimate of betrayals can feel. Even trough his soul was still burning, and his body was being consumed by the warp, he gathered all his willpower in his arm, and punched Minato in the face.
Minato was not even moved by the weak attack, and just laughed.
"Ahh, strong willed to the end huh? There is only thing the dark ones enjoy more than a corruptible soul, and that is one incorruptible. Now, ill send you to meet them." A blade of warp energy materialized on Minato´s hands, and he prepared to drive into the hermit's neck.
Jiraiya saw the blade approach even trough the sea of warp energy covering him, and looked straight into Naruto´s purple maddened eyes, feeling sorrow and hate and regret all in one.
"I'm sorry boy; I should have trained you better…"
Just as the tip of the blade made contact with his neck, time stood still, and he saw it again, the sickly, ghostly image of a two headed eagle, staring at him from behind Naruto.
"You…must…help…him…...we…need…help..."
The decrepit but noble voice said again with great effort, and Jiraiya´s eyes widened in recognition.
"Ominisiah?" he asked hesitantly.
The eagle cooked his two heads as if trying to remember, it's pale, almost dead eyes sparkling with some unknown thought.
"Ominisiah? ...once…we……we were called that…many in…a…single…flesh…we were…...we must…you must……help us…unite" The eagle said, and it flew towards Jiraiya. A single, spectral feather desprended from the almost naked body of the dying bird, and it hovered softly until it landed on Jiraiya´s head.
Then time began again.
-Symphony of Hatred-
Hinata was running towards Naruto frantically, becoming increasingly unnerved as she began to hear inhuman screams and cries of pain fill the usually peaceful village. She had her byakugan deactivated, afraid of seeing more of that hideous purple energy she had seen filling Naruto´s body, so she could not know exactly what was happening, but she did note that strange figures were pouring from the building were Naruto had crashed.
She almost tripped on her feet when she saw one of those figures leap away from the building, chasing after a great toad that suddenly appeared out of thin air.
"If Jiraiya-sama is involved then this must be serious. I must hurry!" She thought, sending more chakra to her legs. However, she was forced to stop when a great shadow appeared in front of her.
Her eyes widened in panic, and in her haste to back away from the nightmare, she stumbled to the ground.
It was a great bird like thing, with a thousand long tentacles dripping purple ooze in the place of head. It wings, a rotten pink color like the rest of its body, had many misshapen eyes, looking at her. Eight taloned feet sustained the beast, placed in positions that should be anatomically impossible to all but a creature born out of the darkest fears of man.
The thing extended its wings, at the eyes in them glared at the unison at Hinata. The tentacles on its head reared back, revealing a circular maw filled with saber like teeth and a crackling purple fire beyond them.
Hinata mind awoke in that moment, her survival instincts overpowering her fear. With the practiced agility of a kunoichi, she back flipped gracefully from the ground, preparing to run towards the nearest emergency staging ground were ninja gathered in case of invasion from enemy forces. However, she only had time to take two steps forward before a lighting quick tentacle wrapped around her waist.
She howled in pain as the strange purple ooze burned her in a way that no normal acid could, searing until it reached the fringes of her soul. More tentacles wrapped around her, the pain becoming to intense to allow rational thought. Her eyes only caught sight of the maw opening above her head, the fire inside suddenly crackling with a chorus of voices pummeling at her sanity.
It took all her might to close her eyes, but just as she did, something wet landed on her face and the pain stopped.
She lay there, unwilling to comprehend what she had just gone trough, until a harsh voice raised her from her stupor.
"Stand up girl!"
She opened her eyes, seeing a bandaged figure above her. The beast that had attacked her was nowhere in sight, only a acrid scent the trace of it ever being there in the first place.
"W-what h-happened?" She asked, struggling to stand.
The figure witch now she could identify as a one eyed, one arm man, looked at her with distaste.
"What's your name?" He asked, ignoring her question. She eyes nervously how he began to grip tightly the tanto hanging at his side.
"H-Hinata H-Hyuuga" She answered nervously, finally having stood up. She noticed idly how despite having felt like she was being burned, her clothes were in perfect condition. "Maybe it was a genjtusu? But it felt so real…" She shuddered at the memory.
After hearing her name, the man let go of his blade.
"Hyuuga…you don't know how lucky you are girl. Any other would have to be purged." He said, and the way in which he said purged made her believe that he didn't mean anything friendly.
"go tell Hiashi that the dark ones are coming. We need him to help in the closure of a Gate"
Hinata was about to question the man's cryptic words, but he just vanished in swirl of leaves. Not wanting to face another of those creatures, and sensing the importance of the man's words, she made a great effort to put her concern for Naruto to the side for the moment.
"Jiraiya-sama was there. There is nothing I can do for him that one of the sannin couldn't" She thought to herself, disappointed at being useless to the man she admired above all else once more.
-Symphony of Hatred-
Tsunade had lost count of how many horrors she had annihilated before reaching the nearest staging ground. The building, totally inconspicuous to stop enemies from targeting them, was ablaze with activity. While she knew from previous experiences that the gate from were the horrors poured could only remain open for a certain amount of time, it was not uncommon for the creatures to use their victims to summon more of their numbers into a battle.
As it was, dozens of creatures and raving civilians were throwing themselves at the building, surely feeling the shinobi barricaded inside. She knew that the horrors had a predisposition to targeting those with large chakra pools.
She saw a particularly large horror ramming against the side of the building, shrugging of the fireballs coming from the windows as possessed civilians threw at them pieces of their own bodies that exploded against the walls in showers of black blood and purple fire.
She snarled in fury, as she exploded into a frenzied charge towards the enemies swarming to the building. Her fists moved like lighting, causing shockwaves that vaporized entire ranks of possessed men and horrors in one hit. The air thundered with each blow and the earth shock beneath her feet.
She was Tsunade the Destroyer. Healing had no place in the war against taint, for the enemy targeted the soul, not the body. She had lost everything she loved to the Great enemy. Her brother, turned into a hellish spawn of blood thirst. Her lover, becoming a creature of decay and disease. Her teammate, obsessed with obscure knowledge's that drove him to madness and treason. Even her granduncle, the Shodai himself, had succumbed to the taint in the end, leaving to wage war against it to never return.
To her whatever dark powers were responsible for taint were the ultimate enemy, entities against who she spared nothing but the deepest hatred, and her chakra coils burned with that searing hate, increasing her already formidable might to the level of a force of nature.
She never had the wisdom of Jiraiya, nor his unflinching resolve, but just like him, she had never failed to exact revenge on the forces of taint that had taken something from her, and today she was the Hokage of Konoha, and they were taking away her citizens.
She somersaulted trough the air, dodging a piece of flesh thrown her way, and gathered chakra around her. The air crackled with green energy and the veins on her body bulged, before with an explosion she felt like a comet of vengeance upon the hordes of enemies.
She crashed against them, blood and guts exploding everywhere. The staging building was repainted with the blood of daemons and possessed men, while the shinobi inside, taking advantage of the distraction caused by their Hokage, threw themselves out of the windows into the fray, flocking to the great monstrosity trying to level the building to destroy it once and for all.
Tsunade continued her carnage, her eyes almost closed to avoid the sight of a familiar face amongst the possessed men that could weaken her drive.
The great monstrosity was trashing as two dozen shinobis poured fire and lighting jutsus into its body, trashing angrily against them until its shape began to waver only to finally dissipate from the material realm.
The remaining horrors began to flee seeking easier victims to feed upon, but not many managed to escape before being destroyed by Tsunade or the shinobi.
Finally an eerie calm descended upon the area, only cut by the distant screams of he stragglers that didn't evacuate the area quickly enough and the inhuman howls of more beast pouring from the gate.
Tsunade approached one a kunoichi who seemed to be barking orders left and right.
"MOVE MAGGOTS! THOSE THINGS ARE NOT VILLAGUERS, THEY ARE NOT MEN, AND ABOVE ALL THEY DON´T DESERVE PITY. BURN ALL OF THE BODIES NOW! YOU KID STOP PUKING AND GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF! I DON´T GIVE A DAMN THAT SHE WAS YOUR MOTHER! BURN THE BODY NOW!!" The woman yelled. Tsunade noted that she was covered in far more blood than any of the others shinobi.
"Who put you in charge bitch? They were under some gentjutsu! We can't kill them like that, they're innocent people!" Protested one of the shinobis
The woman reached for a kunai from her trench coat, and was about to throw it at the man when she felt someone grip her wrist.
"LET GO OF ME YOU SON OF A …." She started, turning to look at Tsunade. "h-hokage-sama" she said, her voice suddenly failing.
"You will not attack a fellow shinobi in a time of war, Anko" warned Tsunade seriously, letting go of her wrist.
"Tsunade-sama thanks kami you're here. This bitch wants us to hunt down civilians that are obviously under a gentjutsu!" said one of the shinobi running towards her, a simple seventeen year old in a chunnin vest.
"They are not under a gentjutsu. Listen and listen well all of you!" yelled Tsunade, and all of the shinobi formed in front of her.
"We are attack by an enemy force, whose nature would take too long to explain now. This is all you need to know: The area between the hospital, the eastern training ground, this staging ground and the southern staging ground are as of now under lockup. Anything you see that isn't wearing a shinobi plate in this are must be killed at once. If you see any wounded shinobi wandering alone in the area you must approach with caution and execute them if they displays aggressive behavior. Operate in teams of four; never wander into the area alone. If you are attacked by any creature you are allowed to use all means to destroy it, including forbidden techniques. Any bodies in the area must be burned without exception. I need two teams to go to the southern staging ground and find forces to set up a perimeter. No enemy must leave the area! This is of the vital importance, the enemy must be keep contained. It can subvert the civilians against us and even the shinobi if given time." She explained seriously. "Also, be warned. Any shinobi trying to flee the area is to be executed for dereliction of duty. This threat surpasses by far anything you have ever faced, and because of that, there can be no hesitation! No doubt! No cowardice!" She bellowed.
The assembled shinobi seemed shaken by the fierceness of the speech, before a bolt of purple fire shot one of them, vaporizing his head.
"INCOMMING!" yelled one of the shinobi. Tsunade turned around to see a mass of horrors charging towards the staging ground. She prepared herself, as the air began to crackle as the shinobi prepared their jutsus
"CHARGE! FOR KONOHA!" The shinobi sprung into action, and the air crackled with lighting bolts, fireballs, water dragons, wind jutsus, pieces of burning daemon flesh, and the screams and howls of the warriors and demons.
Anko was almost grinning a she danced trough the daemons, two kunais in her hands cutting them in ways a skilled sword master would be hard pressed to match. She had been forced to see this horrors day by day when she was in Orochimaru´s tutelage, and if anything, it only built up her willingness to destroy them. Just as she was going to destroy him.
She saw one of the gennin turn around and run away, and with a flick of wrist, a kunai impaled the thirteen year old in the skull.
"YOU HEARD THE HOKAGE! NOT ONE STEP BACKWARDS!" She yelled, and the warriors around her redoubled their efforts. She held no pity for the boy. They were shinobis –granted, nowadays most gennin expected it to be all play- but the power of a shinobi didn't come for free and if they didn't stand their ground when the village was in danger, then they deserved death.
Just as she was about to resume her carnage, a golden light shone far in the distance towards the hospital, and a wave of massive chakra descended upon her. The demons howled and hesitated for a moment, a moment that they paid for dearly
Tsunade saw the light even as she downed another score of horrors with her fists and her eyes widened.
"Jiraiya…don't you dare die on us…" She thought, afraid of losing one of her last loved ones.
-Sympony of Hatred-
A/N: I'm sorry for the long delay. Exams have been tough lately, and I don't have much free time. However, I enjoy I lot writing this, so I will continue, albeit slowly. I am very happy at my reviews, hell, not a single flame. Well, I suppose I will get some flames for this chapter…I am not fully satisfied with it, but meh, if I wait to be fully satisfied before posting then you guys would never get to read anything written by me, hehehe.
I hope you enjoy it, and if you can spare a few seconds, review. Or commissar Anko will put you in trial for Gross Laziness!
Nest Chapter: The Order of the Lily and the 17th Khudai regiment join Fabricator General Tabris´s Task Force, while He-Who--Was-Once-Itachi makes his appearance. Also, the Jiraiya becomes something never seen in the elemental nations. The Symphony of Hatred continues.