Dystopia Unleashed

By WhoIsThisDamnAuthor

Edited Ver. : 3-3-2016

I've re-read my work from top to bottom a few times now, and it had become evident to me that I've glossed over a few grammatical mistakes in my earlier chapters.

For that, I apologize, and most of the ones I've noticed have been edited out in this update.

Writing Chapter 13 as I publish the older chapters.

Read, and do tell me what you think.

Chapter 1 : Recognition

Where am I?

Son Goku looked around, and saw exactly what he was expecting. A blurred mess.

He blinked a few times, and shook his head, trying to get his eyesight to clear. That helped a little, and things were now coming into focus. He could now discern a small palette of colors, but it still seemed like a confusing heap of green all piled into his field of vision.

Grass, or leaves maybe... he reasoned.

He waited awhile. Just staring into infinity, trying to gather as much light as possible. It felt like he was a blind man having just regained use of that vital sense. And gradually, things resolved themselves. He began to notice shapes and outlines, and familiar objects began coming into view.

He was in a forest, as he'd guessed. Quite the large one, at that. The trees seemed to stretch out till the horizon, or whatever part of it was still visible through them. The chirping of the multitude of birds in the vicinity seemed heavenly in comparison to the ordeal he had just experienced.

The new flood of sensory information sent in by Goku's eyes had done the trick. It had washed away the last straggling shreds of insanity from his mind. His thoughts were clear now, finally.

He stared out into the wilderness for a long while. Naturally, after a certain amount of time had passed, he began to wander. A little curiosity seeped in, stirring his deadened brain into action. He looked down onto himself. What he saw surprised his laconic mind, pleasantly so.

I'm still a kid?

Amazing as it may be, Son Goku had not changed at all since that day. Not one bit. He had reconstructed his perfect form, tail and all, with the perfect size and proportions of a thirteen-year old boy. He was even wearing the same blue gi and ochre trousers.

Probably a parting gift from that bitch of a dragon...

Very gently, almost gingerly, he tried to move a finger. It lifted exactly as much as he thought it would. Apparently, he still remembered basic motor functions then. He slowly recalled the various nerve impulses required for standing. Moving the feet here, contracting the quadriceps here, slowly transferring weight to his legs, and... there.

This were all new experiences to him, as if he were a baby. If one hadn't had a physical body for so long, there was no way one could remember this standing up; even remembering to breathe should have been a challenge. But Son Goku stood up. Managing his knee joints, he tried to take a step forward. Fold at the hips, extend the knee, place foot on the ground, repeat with other foot...

He laughed silently at the mental picture of him waddling like a robot. Learning how to walk...

Oh, that brings back so much... Goku remembered an experience from a past long since forgotten. He remembered that fine autumn evening, when he'd seen his son walk for the first time. Oh, the pride he'd felt, the pure joy of seeing a creation of his control its own actions... He'd decided that day, that no matter what Chi-Chi said, Gohan was going to become a fighter like his dad.

Taking another awkward step forward, Goku exited his reverie, focusing all his efforts into re-learning how to freaking walk.

Oh, the irony... The world's greatest fighter, the recurring savior of the universe had to learn basic locomotion all over again. How he missed the sensation of flying; his Ki surging through his body as he lifted off, feeling the wind rush through his spiky hair...

Forget it! He reminded himself that all of it was gone now. Every single technique, every single martial art, every awesome power punch he'd ever landed, those were his last. He gave up trying to walk; he was about to sit down and contemplate suicide options, when he felt it. He sensed Ki. Somewhere, far away, probably in the forest, he sensed a minuscule speck of what was definitely Ki.

Holy crap! Does this mean, that even my Ki will...will...regenerate like it did before?

Relief crashed through Goku's beleaguered mind, calming his body, soothing his mind, re-lubricating his mental passageways. Perhaps there was hope for him after all. Out of sheer excitement, he rose to his feet and did a cartwheel, completely forgetting the fact that he had been struggling to walk just a freaking minute ago.

Then, as suddenly as the euphoria had come, it receded. Once again, waves of depression threatened his sanity, as he reasoned it out. There was no way his Ki was regenerating, not after that incident. Also adding in the fact that he was still alone, and that this universe was completely foreign, he nearly curled up into a foetal ball and cried.

Nearly. For as he was lying onto the soft grass, ready to weep till he died, depressed, bereft of loved ones, he felt it. It was the minutest of feelings, almost non-existent. A tiny pinprick in the back of his mind. A tiny pinprick of Ki.

All the ecstasy came flooding out again, and Son Goku finally began to feel like himself again.

What does this extreme moodiness say about my psyche, I wonder...

Jumping up, he closed his eyes and concentrated. There it was. It was definitely there. It was like an atom in the emptiness the size of an entire galaxy, but Goku knew it would fill up, as long as he gave it enough time. He wouldn't be able to perform even the least powerful of his moves with it for another few years, but after that, the exponential growth really would kick in. He reasoned he was going to reach full fighting strength in approximately fifteen to sixteen years from then.

A decade and a half... Not too bad, not bad at all. Probably a mere blink of an eye, for all I've seen...

Reassured by these revelations, he now searched for the other trickle of Ki. Honing his senses, he concentrated, trying to locate a definite direction. His own energy level was way too weak to figure out the distance to the target, but he could vaguely tell that it was roughly east of him. He took a confident step forward, and another, and broke into a run. A full sprint, using as much muscle strength as was consciously possible. A strong tail wind started blowing in the meantime, flooding his gi with a burst of air. It felt like the universe wanted him to start all over.

My adventure begins, again...

After an hour of crawling, hacking, pushing, jumping and running, he reached his destination. He saw god rays filter in through the canopy above, signifying that there was a clearing above that let light in. The Ki source lay just ahead, through that bush. He rushed into the bush, and was about to make a dramatic entry, when his reason found him. What if this guy's hostile? I have no strength to face anyone right now. Sure, I'm walking again and all, but I'm definitely very weak.

Goku peered out through the thicket. The source was very close now, and Goku knew that any movement would be detected. He held his breath, and tried to get a closer look at…

"RASENGAN!"

The tree right next to him exploded. Sheer instinct drove him out of the bush and into the clearing, and he immediately assumed the fighting stance learned from Master Roshi all those years ago. He involuntarily let out a bloodcurdling yell, as anyone in his situation would have (Probably not). As soon as he heard what his scream sounded like, he regretted ever emitting it.

Thirteen year old boys' vocal chords aren't suited to scream like a man. The resulting nails-on-blackboard screech was responsible for the eventual halving of the bird population in the forest of Konoha.

(Konoha shinobi still swear that the white-tailed coathanger bird is still there in the forest, but I highly doubt it)

Goku stopped his scream abruptly, choosing to gape at the man in front of him. At first, he only noticed the bottle-green flak jacket and the sharp weapons around the torso. As his eyes travelled up towards the face, he lingered for a while, taking in the depth of the startling blue eyes that stared right into him. His gaze travelled further upwards.

And saw the headband with the weird forehead plate on it. Some leaf-like emblem, no doubt…

Finally, they reached their final object of scrutiny. And stopped dead. Goku's blood ran cold. He observed spiky, golden yellow hair. Golden freaking yellow. Memories flashed through Son Goku's head. Memories of fights long finished, villains long terminated, and he remembered the method of termination.

The recollection was a bit too much to handle silently. The old-yet-young Saiyan let slip a rare expletive.

"Fuck."

"Rasengan!"

Namikaze Minato watched the ball of chakra as it scoured the tree. At first, it decimated the outer bark; emulating a rapid sequence of rotating blades sawing at the wood. But as the randomly spinning inner sphere hit the tree a second later, the tree seemed to melt and reshape itself to accommodate the intrusion, similar to a ball being pushed into liquid butter.

The factor responsible for this was the subtle, random cutting motion of each chakra particle. When viewed with the naked eye, they were too random to be seen separately, and they just sort of melded into a visual image that resembled something melting and reshaping itself. This was what gave the Rasengan its crazy destructive power.

Minato watched as the sphere effortlessly passed through the first tree, reducing to half its original size in the process. Power did have its limits after all. It flew on to another tree right ahead, but the bulk of its energy had already been spent. It fizzled away with a mild explosion that scarred the trunk with a characteristic spiral shape.

Minato smiled. Now that was definitely an improvement. His first successful Rasengan had barely managed to go through half of one tree before fading out to nothing. Also, he noted, he had enough chakra left over for another one. This was the first time that he had the chance to do two in a day. He thought for a while, reflecting on the pros and cons of trying a second time in one day.

Cons. Oh so many cons.

There was the fact that all his chakra would be spent, leaving him nearly defenseless, armed with only Taijutsu. Hand-to-hand combat wasn't going to be enough to beat the Kumogakure, Iwagakure and Sunagakure shinobi in the case of an enemy attack. These were getting far too common these days. The post-war tension between the Great Countries meant that patrolling teams of Chuunins could be encountered anywhere.

He noticed a rustling in the bushes to his right. Found you, Minato thought.

Found you, Jiraiya-sensei…

For the eighteen-year old Jonin knew that Jiraiya-sensei hid and watched his pupil's practice. Jiraiya knew that Minato knew, and Minato knew that Jiraiya knew that he knew. It kinda defeated the purpose of hiding in the first place, but both ignored it and pretended that they knew nothing. It was just one of their little routines. Jiraiya's presence cleared the dilemma. Even if he used up all his chakra, the perverted sage would be there if anybody attacked.

He readied himself for Rasengan #2. He took a large breath and gathered his chakra. He held his forearm parallel to the ground, and kept his palm facing upward. He curled his fingers ever so slightly, as if he were holding a large imaginary sphere. Focusing, he began to release chakra from his palm into the space above it.

Using sheer willpower, he forced every particle of chakra to rotate in a random direction. As the spinning particles began rotating over his palm, Minato brought them all together, as tightly as he could. The space above his palm started glowing, and a tiny blue ball formed at the centre of the ambient light.

He concentrated further, and pumped even more chakra into the hand. Gradually, the ball grew in size. His palm started shaking, and the veins in his wrist pulsed due to sheer effort. He fought it and held on till the ball grew too large to control.

In an instant, he decided to give his sensei a shock. Using the rest of his fingers to maintain the chakra, he drew his index finger in and punctured the smooth surface of the Rasengan. This caused it to burst like a filled balloon, chakra explosively escaping in all directions. Before this happened, he shoved his palm into a tree next to the bush Jiraiya was hiding in.

"RASENGAN!"

BOOM! The tree disintegrated. Minato jumped back, expecting his perverted mentor to jump out, white hair singed by the Rasengan's explosion. The person who screamed like a girl and ran out was definitely not Jiraiya.

Who is this weirdo?

The newcomer had a dementedly spiked hairstyle, the sort worn by those upstart Panku Rocku bands that were starting to gain popularity. It looked as if he'd received a large shock due to the sudden explosion of Rasengan. Or was there a slight lightning element to it? Worth experimenting over… Minato mused.

Wait, one problem at a time, he remembered that he was facing a total stranger. He observed the boy in detail. His hair wasn't the only crazy part. He was wearing a light blue training gi, the type that samurais wore while in the Iron country. Adding to the contrast were a pair of ochre yellow trousers, a white belt and black shoes.

What weird fetishes do kids have these days? Sheesh…

Minato noticed the bulging neck and torso muscles. The boy was in a Taijutsu pose, ready to fight. The expression on the boy's face gave away experience, and the gravity in the deep black eyes told Minato that this was no ordinary kid. He had the expressions, stance and silent grace of a master assassin, but he carried no weapons.

I must be careful. Thought Minato. He probably got exposed due to my Rasengan. Anyway, I need to confirm whether he's hostile.

Minato too, dropped into a basic Taijutsu pose. If the boy was unarmed, it was only fair that Minato followed suit. Also, he could sense no chakra emanating from the boy, none whatsoever. Probably like that new rookie I've been hearing about, some guy called Maito 'Guy', back home. But a Taijutsu assassin? Highly unlikely.

"What do you want?" Minato finally broke the silence.

The boy's face showed genuine surprise, and his eyes took on a distant look. Clearly, a simple question such as this one didn't need a normal person to think this much. "Nothing," he replied, returning to reality. Suddenly, he noticed Minato's fighting pose, and his face broke into a smile. "Actually, I wouldn't mind a little sparring match!"

The Jonin's mind whirred, trying to comprehend the perfectly mixed signals the boy was giving out. His voice was reassuring, innocent and honest, but his words and fighting stance completely opposed it. Minato shook his head in an attempt to dispel whatever was confusing the hell out of him. This must be some new genjutsu I've never seen before… The moment was nigh. Minato had to choose to either respond to the challenge in his words and stance, or decline it and place faith in his peaceful voice.

Fine. If it's a sparring match he wants, that's what he'll get. (Apologies for the cliché)

Minato charged.

Given my propensity to rant at the end of every chapter, I shall, in compliance to that, rant.

Goku training under Nam' Min. I felt that the start to this convoluted, long-as-fuck tale should, in fact, be here.

Look. I'm honestly going to take this all the way. 200k, maybe even 250k.

My abysmal writing speed aside, do you think it should span that much time?

I have an extremely kick-ass scene planned for the Uchiha Madara arc.

Do tell me what you think.

Peace out.