Takara
Takara's heart pounded in her chest as she raced through the thick forest, her senses on high alert. She was on a mission with her team: Maguro, Rina, and their sensei, Takashi, her brother who had been born a decade before Takara. They had been sent to retrieve an important artifact that was rumored to be hidden deep within the forest.
Takara's mind raced as she tried to anticipate any potential threats. She knew that they were deep in enemy territory and that the stakes were high. They had been warned that the enemy ninja guarding the artifact were powerful and ruthless.
Suddenly, Takara heard a piercing scream that cut through the quiet of the forest. It was Rina's voice. She knew that they were in trouble. Without hesitation, Takara ran towards the sound of the scream, her heart racing in her chest.
As she burst through the trees, Takara saw the scene that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Rina was on the ground, bleeding profusely, while Takashi fought off the enemy ninja. Maguro was nowhere to be seen.
Takara's heart sank as she realized that they were outnumbered and outmatched. She tried to help Takashi fight off the enemy ninja, but it was too late. They were too powerful, and they quickly overpowered Takashi before she could even reach them.
Time seemed to slow down as she watched her brother fall to the ground, his lifeless eyes staring up at the sky. She knew that she couldn't save him, and that realization was almost too much to bear.
In that moment, something inside Takara snapped.
Takara felt the intense rush of adrenaline as she charged towards the enemy. Her teammates, Takashi and Rina, had fallen to their blades, and now she was going to kill them. She was going to fucking murder them. As she activated her Destruction: Chakra mode, she felt her chakra surge through her body, giving her a near-unstoppable power.
Takara's mind was consumed with the flames of revenge. Her power surged even further, and she felt invincible and helpless.
The enemies stood no chance against her as she unleashed her fury upon them. Her chakra formed into a wave of pure destruction that simply erased them from existence. She didn't even feel their attacks as they disintegrated against her destruction-infused skin.
But as the last of the enemies ceased to exist, Takara's anger slowly faded, and she was left with an emptiness inside. She had failed to protect her comrades, and despite her overwhelming power, she couldn't bring them back.
Takara collapsed to her knees, her chakra mode fading away. Tears streamed down her face. What use was all this power if it just meant she'd watch everyone else die around her?
She'd taken her older brother, Takashi's eyes and gained the eternal mangekyou. It hadn't been worth the price, but was it ever?
In the end, they weren't able to retrieve the artifact. The temple where it had been had already been raided. All they found there were a few bats and a tapestry displaying a tree in the sky.
Eventually, she became the hokage. Perhaps if she became the village's shield, she could make some difference.
But war was always the same, and the burden of leadership had only added more and more corpses to her pile of regrets.
Now a foe unlike any other had appeared and once again, she felt helpless. She had won every fight she'd ever been in, but no one really won in war. Some people just lost less.
Now she was at the training grounds, trying to prepare her students. She couldn't be everywhere at once, so they needed to learn to defend themselves and protect the others as well.
This is when Kihaku appeared unexpectedly. "Two things. First… I'm sorry, I should have kept a better eye on him. The trackers say Maguro was headed straight towards the corruption."
The blood drained from Takara's face. Then she shook her head vigorously. "Then I'm going after him immediately."
"Wait, Takara, the second thing."
"Quickly, what is it?"
"There may be a way to defeat the corruption. According to a witness, they saw the corruption dissipate. It was just from a small plot of land, but it's the first time we've ever seen it. Unfortunately, this was all the witness was able to tell us before he died. The area was completely destroyed, as if whatever had happened—"
"I've heard enough. We will look into this later. Kihaku, watch over the village."
Takara turned towards her three students. It had been one year since she'd begun training them. She'd taken them on missions. They'd already fought against missing ninja, and they'd grown quite a lot. She dreaded taking them into danger, but this was the fight she had been training them for. It was time.
"In times of peace, we hold tournaments to determine who becomes chunin. But this is not a time of peace," Takara said to her three students. "So, earn your rank on the battlefield. Return alive and you'll have more than earned that rank. Now. Team Takara, move out."
Takara and her team stood at the edge of the twisted, corrupted forest. The trees were gnarled and blackened, their leaves wilted and brown. The ground was covered in a thick layer of sludge, and the air was thick with the stench of decay. Takara could feel the corruption seeping into her pores, and she shuddered with revulsion.
"So, this is what the corrupted lands are like," Okimi said with more curiosity than fear.
"No," Okimi said. "This is what this part of the corruption looks like. It's never the same. In a week this forest might be completely different."
As they stepped into the forest, the ground squelched beneath their feet. The trees twisted and turned in impossible ways, and the foliage seemed to reach out to grab at them. The sound of rustling leaves and snapping branches echoed all around them, making it difficult to discern where they were or where they were going.
Takara's senses were on high alert as they pushed further into the forest. She felt eyes watching them from the shadows, and the dark whispers seemed to follow them. Every so often she heard the inhuman cries of a distant corruption beast. Despite her best efforts to remain calm, she couldn't shake the feeling of unease that settled deep in her stomach.
Finally, they emerged from the corrupted forest, the twisted trees and sludge fading behind them. Takara couldn't help but feel relieved as they stepped out into the fresh air once more. But she knew that they had only scratched the surface of the corruption's influence, and that the worst was yet to come.
In the next area, the air was thick with a noxious fume that made it difficult to breathe. Takara had to surround her team in a bubble of destruction. The ground was charred and blackened, and the sky above was a sickly shade of green. As she looked out across the landscape, she saw twisted, jagged rocks jutting out of the ground, with sharp edges that seemed to gleam in the eerie light.
But it was the interspersed trees that truly filled her with dread. They were gnarled and twisted, with trunks that were blackened and charred, and branches that snaked and writhed like serpents. They were covered in a thick, black slime that oozed and dripped from their twisted limbs. The leaves, if they could be called that, were a sickly yellow-green color, and seemed to writhe and twist in the hot, sulfurous wind.
On the other side of the plains were mountains. They were discolored, but she couldn't make out the details from. There was a strange black furry object, writing behind the mountains, popping in and out of view.
Wait, no, there were two. And a third. Eventually, nine of them emerged, just before two massive claws sank into the top of the mountain and the head of an enormous raven fox revealed itself.
Its eyes glowed bright green. It let out a roar that tore across the landscape, unrooting the grass and toppling every tree in the plain.
This was bad. This was beyond bad. The Kyuubi was one of the most powerful creatures in existence, even without the corruption. This wasn't going to be an easy fight, even for her.
She looked over at her students. "Okimi, take these two and head back to the village. I'm going to draw the attention of this creature and every other corruption monster anywhere remotely near."
Miu looked hesitantly back at Takara. She knew what the girl was thinking. She'd felt safe in the corruption so far because Takara had been by her side. What would happen when she wasn't here?
"I can't protect you from something like this. Now go!"
Kurotenshi looked like he was about to say something, but Okimi grabbed his hand and tugged him away. Fortunately, the kyuubi's roar had cleared the corrosive fog, so they made it back into the twisted forest with no problems.
Takara's eyes widened as she watched the Kyuubi begin to gather a massive amount of corrupted chakra in its mouth. Sludgy black chakra arms seemed to reach out in desperation before they were sucked in. The chakra swirled and twisted in on itself, becoming darker and more ominous by the second.