CHAPTER II
TORN-NOSE
The original story is in Spanish. This story is 100% translated with DeepL. Please forgive any errors.
Chapter one has undergone some changes, check them out!
This chapter two took longer to be released because I have decided what direction the story will take.
There is a map of the Primeval Lands in Pa-treon completely free. Go check it out!
Konoha, 10,000 B.C. Sasuke
The River Lands were benevolent to their fellow man. Located between the arid Lands of Fire and the whistling Lands of Wind, they had become over the years the refuge of wildlife. Under the shelter of their domains both beasts and humans converged in an endless cycle: one of life and death.
Sasuke Uchiha knew better than anyone that in the Rivers one did not hunt for the delight of new pelts, one hunted to protect and feed one's own. Hunting was, after all, an act of survival. You gave a life for a life. Those who understood this maxim could adapt to the Rivers. Whoever chose to disregard it ended up impaled on the campfire, ready to be dinner.
The flames of the fire were high and fierce, and they licked the skinned carcass of a leopard. It was a huge beast, the width of a male ox, so large that the wooden spit threatened to break in half at any moment. The meat crunched and toasted slowly. The fatty smell it gave off was almost intoxicating. The skins, all around him, freshly laid out in the sun, only reminded him of the fact that the thing had no business being there.
The habitat of a leopard as large as that one was far to the east, near the rocky ranges that separated the Rivers from the Firelands, and it was known that they liked to spend more time on the arid side than on the wet side. Within the mountains they were the top predators; within the rivers reigned the constant threat of crocodiles and giant anacondas. What would have made a young male dare to brave such dangers? Sasuke first thought of the threat of some powerful human coalition that was beginning to gain ground in the northern Firelands, driving the remaining predators from their aggressiveness, but he quickly dismissed the idea: those lands were controlled by his father. They were well protected. Then he thought that a murderous curiosity had led him there: mountain leopards liked to kill for the sake of killing. Especially prey smaller and weaker than themselves: cubs. So when he heard the boy's growls on the other side of the creek where he was fishing, and then the animal's characteristic roar, he knew that time was against him.
"Letting him live would have been a mistake, Karin," he told her.
Karin, sitting next to him on the same rock, narrowed her eyes and nodded. Her crimson hair was long and unruly. When she turned to face him they fluttered like tall grass being blown by the wind.
"I suppose chasing him away wouldn't have helped either."
He shook his head.
"More killing," he said after a moment of silence, before turning his attention to the child sleeping in the woman's arms: her son.
Karin may have feared Mother Nature's retaliation for her actions against the cycle of life, but Sasuke did not. He did not share the same sentiment. He knew that had he let the beast live, that had he not made use of his spear to pierce it through his thorax, it would have returned at nightfall, stealthy as a shadow, atrocious as a nightmare, and would have descended over the crest of the rocky hills to the entrance of the cave that was his home, and he, in the midst of the darkness, would have been unable to contain his thirst for vengeance.
When Sasuke stroked his flushed cheeks, the boy stirred in his sleep without waking, but at the sudden movement, his golden hair shimmered in the setting sun, and his little hands clenched tightly in his father's huge hand as if aware of who he was.
The Uchiha smiled. Boruto was barely seven years old. He knew nothing about the dangers that awaited him out there, far from the mangroves, far from the forests, far from the protection of a cave; but he had faced the wildcat with the rage of a wolf undaunted by the bear. Thanks to his son's animal courage, he had arrived in time to rescue him: the same courage that would one day lead him to conquer the Primal Lands as an adult. Just like his grandfather.
In the meantime, it was up to him to wait and learn. Soon he would accompany him on his hunts beyond the mangroves. He would learn to track the pace of a young deer and differentiate it from that of an adult. He would set his own traps for hares and fish. He would throw his first spear on the back of a buffalo. He would know the most dangerous routes on his way to new refuges. He would have knowledge of the best hunting areas in the Rivers. He would be prepared to fight large carnivores. He would even learn how to interact with other people.
That was what he was thinking when Karin got up from the rock, with the blond boy in her arms, to go inside the cave and cuddle him on the bed of furs where they slept at sunset.
Sasuke watched her closely. He had met her eight years ago, in the wilds of the Grasslands, by mere chance. She was an orphan. She had been wandering the forest for days in search of a little food, for she was unable to pick berries from the brambles at her feet without fear of being attacked by the monster that devoured her parents. Despite this, and despite the fact that the first contact between the two was a contest of brute force and intimidation, the girl saw fit to stand by his side ever since. At that time, he was a young nomad who aspired to know the Fertility Islands: lands where it was said that only beautiful women lived. He didn't have to go far to find one, he thought. Eight years later, Karin was still a fire of desire: with long, shapely legs that blended perfectly with her ass like a giant ripe peach, and an innate concupiscence that made him hard as stone. Plus, she was a good mother.
When Karin turned around, her crimson eyes flicked past his, and stared at something behind him. Sasuke grasped his stone spear out of mere instinct, but the smile that soon lit up the woman's face made him relax. She had been waiting for him ever since she had sensed his presence in the distant morning.
Izuna Uchiha was his father's younger brother. He was a man who lacked modesty: he made his way through the underbrush with the slow, sure gait of a great lion of the Valleys. He was as tall and thick as I remembered. But the roar of elation that accompanied the sight of him was one that Sasuke would always recognize.
He rose to meet him with a hug.
"Sasuke, it's so good to see you!" Izuna rested her forehead on his in a fatherly manner. "Your eyesight will never be what it was, but you don't seem to need it! You're still alive, in one piece..., One-Eye!"
Sasuke smiled at his uncle's hilarity. It had been ten years since the Western nomads had been driven from their land. The Young Bear, as they used to call his father's brother, was then a man with an elongated face, black eyes and a well chiseled torso. He was half a foot taller than he was, and when dressed in the skin of a huge cave bear, he gave the impression of being a real monster. He would scare away even the wildest beast with his mere presence.
The last time Sasuke had seen his uncle was five long years ago, when a collation of four males ravaged his father's lands from the southeast. They called themselves "Hatake Greatness" and were led by the heinous White Fang. Since that afternoon when two of the old Hatake's sons lay dead at the feet of their vigorous father and younger brother, where Izuna got a nasty scar on his nose and Sasuke a deep cut over his left eye, his uncle had lost some weight. He sported a grizzled mane as coarse as stubble and prominent dark circles under his slanted eyes, but he remained just as herculean.
It was good to see him still healthy.
"Torn-Nose," was his greeting. "You're late."
The sun was dipping through the treetops of the forest in the distance, and the strange shadows it formed as it passed would soon converge into absolute blackness. The finches and the monkeys were silent.
The silence of the night was broken only by the dismal crackling of the fire. It was not long, though, before his uncle's steely voice was raised again. He told him something about being cautious in unknown lands, for the extent of his territory was small and he was surrounded by numerous coalitions, albeit secluded and anointed by Mother Nature's blessing, they were still territorial and he doubted they would let him get out of there alive. Then he turned to Karin and her son. He greeted the former with a nod and they exchanged a few words about how he was coping with his life in the Rivers and how the boy's health was. He looked at Boruto for a long time, wordlessly, with hard eyes.
"We need to talk," his uncle told him when he returned to him.
The tone of his voice made Sasuke nod slowly as he stood up. His heartbeat was infected with a nauseating regret; having Izuna visit his land couldn't mean anything good. Something bad was happening with his father. With his territories. With his family. No more needed to be said. He hadn't heard from them for years; worrying about the state of his mother and siblings sometimes kept him awake at night. Yes: they had to talk.
Sasuke accompanied him on his tour of the dark surroundings of the cave. The sun had disappeared. The creatures of the night were howling and mooing.
"Was that a mountain leopard by the campfire?" Izuna wanted to know, although he did not wait for an answer. "I never thought they would flee from the mountain ranges into the heart of the Rivers. Well, I thought it, but I didn't believe it."
"Who or what would they flee from, Uncle?"
"From the Ōtsutsuki," Izuna said gravely. "They came back from the Ice Lands over a year ago. Maybe you still remember them"
"Yes, I remenber them," Sasuke replied. Images of three pearly-haired young men, led by an old man with whitish skin, came to his mind. "Nomads with no territory of their own."
"There are seven of them now, and they're at their best. Seven, Sasuke! Seven!" Torn-Nose let out a snort. His brow furrowed. "Have you ever heard of such a large coalition?"
"I know what you know," Sasuke said. "That there was once a coalition of five males. The one that ended Grandfather's reign: that of Hashirama Senju."
"I would give anything for Hashirama and his brothers to stalk our lands instead of those bastards," Izuna said. "They were strong and domineering, but also fair and noble, unlike the Ōtsutsuki. The Senju didn't cold-bloodedly kill everything that got in their way."
"And we Uchiha are tough," said Sasuke. "How many of our people are the ones who have fallen at their hands?"
"So far..., that's ten," his uncle answered after a long silence. "As far as we know. Our power does not extend beyond the border of the Rocklands. When your brothers were expelled from the pride, unlike you, One-Eye, they saw those wild lands as an opportunity to be kings. And so they did. They conquered the occasional clan and sired the occasional offspring, while an unknown threat loomed over them. Your father warned too late of their presence on the Rock, and his sons, I fear, fared no better. Four are missing. Six of his cubs as well." Izuna's lips pursed bitterly. "The rest fled." Her black eyes narrowed, accentuating the wrinkles on her face. "The nomads consecrated themselves with most of the Rocklands in a short time. They made their presence known as new kings by roaring loudly day and night. Something your lord father did not like at all. He went north alone, leaving me in charge of the heart of the pride, and let them know that the Firelands already had their rulers. Since then he has kept them away from the Aburame women and their children."
Madara Uchiha was a true king. He was made to rule with an iron fist since he was a child. A cub. Protecting his own had been a law of life he learned from a young age, but Sasuke knew that time was his father's worst enemy. Twenty years ago, his presence would have been enough to drive the seven Ōtsutsuki back to the ice and not just to keep them at bay.
As he was about to respond, he noticed that they were back in the warmth of the campfire. Trembling shadows danced beside them like ghosts of the dark. The stench of grease was nauseating.
Izuna urged him to sit down, and Sasuke complied, but not before glancing in the direction of Karin and Boruto. Both were asleep. The crackling of the fire echoed through his eardrums like unnatural whispers and awakened in him memories of a life he did not recognize as his own. The grasslands were ablaze. Women and children groaned in pain inside, running to and fro, with the fire devouring them alive. The men in white stood out of harm's way, unperturbed by the chaos.
At last, Sasuke came to and extinguished the bonfire. The darkness blanketed them like a shroud, but at that point it didn't matter to him; the night brought real dangers; the hallucinations were all in his head. Sasuke didn't want to think about it.
"There's more," his uncle told him suddenly. His eyes stared into nothingness, as if paralyzed by fear. "A threat coming from the south. His voice was dry and deep with the gravity of the matter. Golden Mane."
"He...?" Sasuke's countenance tightened. "Is he still alive?"
"He must have died in his passage through the Sunagakure delta, devoured by floods or some beast, more than five years ago... But the Tea Lands bring him back to us."
"I haven't felt his presence," Sasuke told his uncle. "Not at any time. Not even now, when the silence was all-consuming."
He had felt the presence of other young males. Sons of the southeastern coalitions in search of their own territory. Some were just passing through to unknown lands. Some others lurked for several weeks before they turned back. He remembered one that was almost as big as he was, with twice as much muscle, alone on his way to the Pass of the Ranges. He ignored his identity, but his presence was faint in comparison to the others. Sasuke had let it pass him by as it posed no threat.
"Neither do I," his uncle said after raising his face to the dark firmament and sharpening his senses. "Only your father."
"And what did he say?" Sasuke wanted to know.
"That he plans to conquer," Izuna said sternly.
Golden Mane was a lone male. A nomad with no territory of his own since his father banished him from the pride. Madara Uchiha had confronted him on the plains of Konohagakure, near the Senju pride, at the imminent threat of a young male. The skies blackened and the dry grass stained red to the sound of their roars as they crossed blows again and again. The Old King was ten years older than Golden Mane, a boy with no battlefield experience at the time. Despite this, the fight was hard-fought and close. Naruto only fled when he saw Izuna appear in the distance. Izuna found his older brother badly wounded, covered with wounds like never before, and he knew then that this stranger was going to represent a real problem in his kingdom.
"It won't be long before he decides to take over some southern territory to have his offspring and start a war against us. But it is uncertain."
Sasuke remained silent.
"I suppose you know why I came to the Rivers," his uncle said.
"To spend more time with your favorite nephew," Sasuke replied with a bittersweet smile. He didn't want to touch the subject. "And to warn me about my son, Boruto. Though you know I will not allow you to speak ill of him on my lands, Torn-Nose. That child is my son, and he will never be like..."
"That child does not have your blood, One-Eye," Izuna interrupted him. "In seven years he will be an adult and... Bah, forget it. There are more important problems to talk about. An unparalleled war is coming to the First Lands. With the disappearance of your brother Itachi almost three years ago, our kingdom is weak. We need a replacement."
"What about Shisui...?" Sasuke wanted to know.
"We haven't heard from him."
Sasuke's chin began to quiver. His teeth chattered, chattering, and he had to force himself to speak so as not to fall prey to superstition.
"Shisui was King of the Dragneel pride in the Windlands. There were few who could compete with him."
"Well, some turned out to be stronger than he was," Izuna said. "It has been months since we last felt his presence. He's probably dead, Sasuke."
"Shisui could not have fallen so easily. He was more cunning than any of us. Though I don't know if love for his family would have driven him to sacrifice himself. He was always the most attached. Someone should have warned of his ultimate position."
"No one did," Izuna frowned. "At least no one with our blood. Being so far away, the resolution of his fate slips through our fingers." There was silence. "Be that as it may, Shisui is not with us. Neither he nor Itachi." He looked him in the eye. "Only you are left, Sasuke."
"I have my own territory to defend now, uncle. I can't abandon it." His answer came with raw sincerity, despite everything.
"Nothing you can't conquer again... Didn't you do the same when Hatake Grandeur attacked from the southeast? These lands will be here even if hundreds of years pass, your mother and siblings will not. Some are the age of your son, Sasuke. They are not ready for war. We need you. Today more than ever." Izuna let out a sigh. "I know they're not your problem, but I also know you care about your own, like your father and me. If we let the Ōtsutsuki take confidence in their numbers and let Golden Mane burst in from the south with all his power, the children will be the first to die. You know well in what way..."
"That's enough," Sasuke interrupted him when he heard Boruto stir among the furs at the echo of their voices. Then he said, "I'll think about it."
"Think about it as much as you want. If the answer is yes, I will wait for you with the heart of Uchiha pride." His uncle stood up from the rock, adjusted his bearskin and looked into the darkness. "If it is not, wait for news about us in a few months and pray to Mother Nature for our victory."
As Izuna began to walk, Sasuke knew that whatever decision he made, his life would never be the same again.
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