Noctis Eternum
Chapter Fifteen: Red Cold River
Author Notes: I wonder if anyone has picked up on the hints about Shuujin's father. I have left some clues in previous scenes but I want to see if anyone can guess correctly.
III = Interlude/ character perspective switch.
Bold text = Inner voice/ something important speaking.
There will be no crossovers, or characters from other shows.
Naruto stood on the bow of their ship - The Tidebringer - looking off to the general direction of the land of Rice. A sense of foreboding sent a cool chill down his back as he stared at the dead rocky wasteland. 'This is unnatural' He thought.
They skies were grey, but without rain. A slight breeze blew through his hair and gently lifted his cloak. He was silent, thinking seriously about the journey ahead. He was rethinking this vacation of his. When he had agreed to this plan he had thought he would simply travel to hotsprings and enjoy a nice day on the beach with his friends.
"I'm getting a bad feeling about this."
Naruto fingered the kunai in his pocket, honed instincts taking control.
"Getting cold feet already?" Came a gruff voice.
He didn't bother turning, "It's nothing Kushimaru."
"Something you want to share?"
Naruto paused, before nodding slowly.
"I have this bloodline you see. I recently discovered it, and I don't know how to explain it..." He fidgeted a little, "I just get this weird tingling whenever I feel like something big is about to go down."
Kushimaru frowned, "Why are you telling me this?"
Naruto tried to come up with a response, but failed, "It's just...something about this place feels wrong." He waved to the lush grassy plains of fire country, and then pointed at the land of rice.
The land around Rice Country was desolate, mostly just damp rock with hardly any vegetation. Gnarled decrepit trees reached out to the sky in a decaying grasp. There was the odd shack, but the entire country seemed lifeless. The people who seemingly lived in the shacks wandered around, looking starved and half crazed. Naruto and Kushimaru watched curiously as the strange people moaned pitifully and reached towards them.
"I see what you mean..."
III
It was later that day, and Naruto had made quite a bit of progress. They had almost crossed over the border of Rice country and were close to Hot Springs country. The sun had left him a while ago as it went on its way to the land of Fire, and was itself out of sight.
Naruto sat in a small dining room in the lower deck, which he had been fortunate to find. It was a simple place, kind of peaceful. He sat in a white leather chair and lifted a silver fork in the lamplight; He stared at the fork questioningly, unsure what to make of the elegant carvings.
"Find something interesting?"
Naruto blinked, feeling a new presence make itself known.
He turned his head to meet the orange whirlpool mask of his sensei, "Tobi-Sensei."
The man sat down opposite of him, "You have certainly been busy"
"I have." He stated. He wasn't sure what Tobi had dropped by for. 'Is he upset?'
"You have certainly caused Pein a headache with your shenanigans as of late. First it was the daimyo incident and now you are gathering a group of your own."
Naruto sighed. Already plans had begun forming in his mind in the situation his Sensei disapproved of his new friends. He knew he couldn't really defy Tobi but he knew him enough by now that he was somewhat certain he could win the strange man over, "I am sorry Sensei, but I believe I am taking the correct course of action." He apologized.
Tobi simply nodded, "As long as you take responsibility for your new 'team' you can use them however you wish."
Naruto's mouth twitched into a smile "You're the best Sensei."
Tobi stiffened and cocked his head; the man paused as he collected himself.
"I sense something is not right."
"What is it?" Naruto asked, with a concerned look.
Naruto closed his eyes hearing complete silence, broken only by the thumping of feet on hardwood floorboards and the occasional creaking.
A loud knock of the door caused them to jump, and by reflex draw kunai.
"Who is it?" Naruto demanded. He wasn't in the mood for any of Fu or Shuujin's games and the tension in the air was making him twitchy.
"It's Fu, hurry open the door!" yep, that was Fu alright, and whatever had her panicked it couldn't be good.
Fu walked inside, white cloak flapping behind her, "We are surrounded by those weird starved people we saw earlier."
Naruto closed his eyes in thought, giving him a fox like appearance, "How many and what are we dealing with?"
"I...I don't know." Fu whispered.
Naruto flinched as the normally confident Fu looked shaken by what she had seen.
"I can transport you all back to Amegakure, but you will need to leave the ship behind." Tobi offered.
"No" Naruto snapped. There was no way in hell he was quitting halfway through his journey. He had promised Fu a nice relaxing vacation on the beach and he was going to give her just that, "No way I'm quitting now!" He declared.
Tobi sighed at his stupidly stubborn student, "Very well but I can at least offer my assistance."
The boated rocked violently throwing plates to the floor and almost bowing them over.
"What was that?!" Fu alarmed threw the door open and ran to the stairs heading outside.
Naruto looked towards Tobi with a frown, "I have a bad feeling about this."
Tobi snorted, "With our combined might nothing short of a hidden village could threaten us."
Quickly making their way outside Naruto stepped up the staircase below the ship's bridge. Rain pelted against his skin and the howling wind threw his cloak against him. He growled as blinding flashes of light ignited the dark clouds obscuring the sky.
"What the..."
Surrounding the ship on all sides were hundreds of small vessels ranging from small canoes to fishing barges up to twelve meters long. He strained his eyes to make out the grappling hooks tethering The Tidebringer to two war frigates covering it's flanks. The sails and wood of the ships surrounding them appeared dirty and worn, not seeming to have been maintained for years.
"Naruto!"
He turned hearing Fu scream. He could barely hear through the pounding rain and thunder the sound of metal meeting metal and soft flesh giving way, "Fu!"
He raced south towards the stern of the ship. He jumped over a snarling purple and gray skinned man and ignored his friends fighting around him.
Kushimaru growled as he bashed his guitar into the skull of the freaks that had swarmed the ship. He caught a snarling decayed woman by the throat and flexed is wrist. "SNAP" Dry paper crinkled and the head fell from the woman's shoulders.
Sitting down a short distance away Shuujin breathed in and out slowly. She was shaking as a dead man laid only mere inch's from her, dead by her hand. 'Evil, Evil, Evil'
Dozens of limping undead surrounded her with swords in hand and dark hunger peering from their eyeless sockets. The Kaguya slowly opened her crimson eyes and a smile threatened to split her face in two, "I don't know why but...I'm feeling so excited!"
A voice whispered, 'A Kaguya's home is on the battlefield.'
The undead snarled and lunged forward. They dog piled onto the girl. Bony spikes erupted from the girl sending organs and brain matters flying as the zombies exploded in gory sprays.
The girl stared at her blood soaked body and something inside of the normally sweet girl broke. "Hehehe" Her fingers curled through her now crimson hair.
Finding himself at the stern of the ship Naruto touched down on top of a snarling corpse. He stomped down on its neck with his foot. His foot severed the neck and the head popped off in a gory spurt.
Fu not too far away dodged a swipe from Kabuto. The smirking medic nin laughed as he rolled under the mint haired girl sword, "Too slow girl. Are you always going to rely on Naruto?"
She shot him a glare that could melt steel, "If we weren't on this ship then I would show you just how scary I can really be."
"Well said!" A shadow wreathed fist connected with Kabuto's head and sent the screaming medic flying into the dark waters.
Naruto grinned at the gob smacked expression on his girlfriends face, "Yo"
Her brows furrowed in irritation, "I had that handled you jerk."
"Meh" He threw his arms behind his head and laughed.
"Ourggghhh"
They snapped their head to the portside of the ship as thee blurs climbed over the side. Three living men stood up. Their foes were covered head to toe in Anbu style light armor, except it covered their entire body with only the joints exposed. Similar to Ame nin they work gas masks that obscured their features and shaded goggles. Black cloth hid their hair in a bandana.
"Who are you?" Naruto demanded.
The first one, probably the leader, stepped forward, "We are the Elite Unit of Otogakure termed Delta Unit." The man's voice lacked any inflection of emotion, Naruto realized with a chill.
"What do you want?" Fu asked.
The men took combat stances, "Surrender to Lord Orochimaru or die." They spoke at once.
"Never!" Naruto turned his head and made rapid hand signs, "Water Release: Water Trumpet Jutsu" A water spout erupted from his mouth and shot towards the enemy nin.
"Lava Release: Lava wall" The ninja on the left spewed forth a wave of lava that met the water with a steaming hiss and cooled to form an obsidian blockade.
"Plasma Release: Light Whip" The leader in the middle held out his hand and a crackling blue whip made of roiling plasma came to life.
"Fu!" Naruto yelled.
"I'm on it" Fu entered sage mode, "Monkey, Ram, Dog, Tiger, Dragon" Her cheeks budged, "Sage Art: Earth Release: Earth dragon bullets" A dragons head formed from rock emerged from the ships wooden deck and machine gunned a wave of mud bullets.
The Oto ninja were forced to separate as the hail of bullets tore swath's of wood from the ship and impacted the water below with an explosion.
"Delta Unit, Formation Tiger Alpha!" The leader flicked his wrist and Naruto bowled himself over as the blue crackling whip cut through the side rails behind him with no resistance.
"Shit!" Naruto donned his cloak of darkness and clenched his right hand, "Evil Release: Akuma"
Like once before the crimson tainted sword formed from the vile purple-black chakra. Naruto had finally settled on a name for the sword. He leveled the vile blade at his foes, "I hope you lot are done praying to your gods, because this one is fresh out of mercy."
The Oto Leader scowled, "Lord Orochimaru is the ultimate being. Kill them!"
The Lava wielding ninja engaged Fu while he fought the last two. The leader threw out his whip with a crack sending ropes flying and exploded barrels as he rolled and jumped from the frighteningly fast strikes.
'Think Naruto. The leader has that light whip and the one fighting Fu had lava release.' He spared a glance to Fu's fight seeing both of them standing on equal grounds. Fu had tapped into three tails of her bijuu and desperately threw water jutsu at the spreading fires the lava nin created. Moving back to his fight he warily analyzed the last ninju who had been sitting back so far.
The ninja watched them fighting with intelligent and keen eyes. Alarm bells rang in Naruto's head as he desperately tried to remember why this man seemed so familiar. "CRACK" The whip landed a strike against him and he screamed as it penetrated his cloak and sliced him across the chest. Agony exploded across his chest.
He grit his teeth and fought through the pain "This is nothing" He threw his sword at the leader in a move that surprised the man and this allowed him a small opening to exploit. Naruto appeared in front of the man with a black tinted Rasengan, "Die!" He rammed his arm forward, and froze.
"What?" He tilted his head down and gasped. A shadow connected from the last member of the Delta Unit to himself. "This is Shikamaru's jutsu!"
The Oto ninja smiled viciously, "Correct, now we will bring you to our master, Kyuubi boy."
Golden eyes shined brightly in rage as he struggled against his bonds, "No, no, I refuse." He let his tenuous hold over his chakra go, and the effects were immediate.
Terrified Shrieks rang out from all over the ship and beyond as men, living and undead alike, began screaming and holding their head. The leader of the Oto nin staggered, and that was all the opening he needed. The shadows lost their hold on him as the ninja controlling them fell to the floor whimpering.
"Ompfff!" He connected a right haymaker and the leader flew from the ship into the dark waters below. The other ninja quickly gained his bearings. Naruto shunshined in front of the ninja and slashed with a kunai. The ninja threw himself to the floor and brought his leg out in a judo kick aimed at his abdomen.
Naruto grabbed hold of the limb and turned, swinging the Oto nin and throwing him into the river. Without a moment of hesitation he ripped his Katana from its position in the floor and jumped overboard.
The Oto leader swam to the surface of the river and growled seeing Naruto jump from the Tidebringer. "You bastard."
Naruto laughed, "Not such hot shit now that I can let loose huh?"
Now that he wasn't confined to such a small space and didn't need to worry about collateral damage he could fight to his fullest. He let his sword fade away and took a wing chun stance. Muscles tensed and legs coiled.
He took off in a burst. The Oto commander was put on the back foot as Naruto seemingly teleported inside his guard. Naruto struck a clenched fist at the side of the Oto nins left flank, causing the man to cry out in pain. Keeping up his momentum he grabbed hold of the man's left arm below the elbow, and by the forearm.
"SNAP!" The man's left humerus broke.
"AHHHHHH" Naruto wrenched the man forward by his broken limb and grabbed hold of his head. Naruto yelled as he slammed both hands, palms open, on the man's skull. The oto nins head exploded like a grape.
"Gasp"
He turned to face the last Oto ninja. The man shook and pissed himself seeing the burning golden eyes peering at him. The man stepped back and held up his hands, "No, no, please!"
Naruto flashed to the man's side and lifted a knee into the man's solar plexus.
"Ack, Me- MERCY!"
He grabbed the man by the shoulders, "No mercy"
Rip and Tear
With a wet squelch the man was ripped in two sending soft tissue and blood everywhere. With glowing molten eyes he glared at the surrounding ships and roared.
Pain, Hatred, wrath.
