This is the last seriously edited chapter I have, but I have a lot more chapters that aren't edited. In fact I have close to 100,000 words more total. I like to set goals and complete them, regardless of what is going on...And, there was a lot going on around me as I finished these off.
I plan to end this story at some point and start a sequel. I don't know when, but it should be soon. It looks like everything is wrapping up and it can close off perfectly, or as close to perfect as I can get it. I can even have an epilogue and ending.
I may even be able to give a preview of what is to come in the next story! Thank you all and everyone for reading the story, moving on, or reading it and enjoying it! Thank you for the follows, favorites, reviews, and sticking around with me for the years that you have! You guys are awesome! I hope you're all being fearless, getting out there, and enjoying the sun and heaven like I am.
And, if you haven't started writing go for it!
What are you waiting for?
Yuko stopped listening attentively several moments ago. She could only stare into space. She didn't want to talk about what had happened in her nightmare, she didn't want to try to make some sense of it, she didn't want Hisao poking and prodding anymore. But, she couldn't fathom nor pay attention to what was going on around her, she could not begin to entertain the mundane, and so she drifted, contenting herself with the bright wisps and crystallization outpours flowing before her.
She was barely composed enough to take the yellow colored fruit, juicy and sweet as she knew it to be.
She barely nodded as Akiko put the bowl before her.
"What will happen now? Given the situation in the desert not too long ago, if that were to become the Elemental Nations and the outside countries themselves..." Amane paused, drawing Souji's full attention, a stoic expression on his face.
Yuko bit into her fruit, nearly blanching.
Blood...
She tasted blood...
"We are going to track down the Akimichi and route them from this area. We can't afford any more hit and run berserk attacks from them. We have the Aburame, Sarutobi, Hyuga, Senju, Subatsu, and Hatake to contend with at the moment." Souji spoke with an icy tone, and he drew his sword in a flash.
"You understand what this means don't you, Yuko-san?" Mitsuki asked, giving the young woman her full attention as she adjusted her blade so the hilt was pointed upward more than parallel.
"I bring them in for questioning-" Yuko started, looking more and more uncertain as Hikaku cut her off.
"No. Kill them. Don't hesitate." Hikaku said with a scowl.
Yuko eagerly wanted to dissipate into vapor under his harsh scolding.
"You're not wrong to want to bring them in for questioning. I doubt Atsushi is going to take any chances at this moment in time. We'll just have to give him the response he is fishing for. Unless he's leading the charge...That will change things." Madara said, adjusting his gunbai.
"I forgot they can be quite reactionary." Izuna nodded to himself, looking at Yuko in all seriousness. "Take that into consideration. Show no mercy, Yuko."
The yellow fruit moved and her hand twitched. A bit confused, Yuko grabbed at it again. It, somehow, to her shock, moved further away. She looked up at Hisao, only to see the stern face of Souji and her comrades. Yuko's vision fractured, like lattices forming crystalline structures. Blood seeped through every lattice, and the unmistakable presence of mayhem, seemingly emanated from the dark heart.
Leaping to the ground, she landed with a dull thud on the soft-packed sand, her feet sinking in ever so slightly. A cursory examination of the camp, heaps of firewood, and smoke bombs confirmed what she'd already suspected.
Their enemies weren't here.
Any tracks they might have left in the sand had been washed away by the sand storms or carried away on the violent gales that tore through the landscape when it would rain.
Yet she knew where she was going. Before her, the desert loomed barren and tumultuous, thick with signs of battle, fog, and mist. An almost impenetrable wall, except for the wide swaths, Yuko, and the unit with her carved through it. Someone or something of massive size and strength had torn a through the nearby enemy camps of all the clans present vying for supremacy with damiyo. The bodies were mangled and twisted, revealing the gore of bone protrusions. Already the desert was trying to reclaim the landscape torn asunder and shroud the carnage.
Hidden eyes were watching, even without sensing chakra nor using her Sharingan, she would have felt their gaze studying her, evaluating her, following her every move, and those with with her, in an effort to determine if they were hunter or prey.
"Move with caution. I think there's only one, but his chakra is very immense." Izuna urged, his voice cutting through the mist, just as his sword sang in the wind.
To help clarify her role, Yuko drew out her own sword, then began to step down the path in tandem with Mitsuki, her heart slowly starting to pick up in speed. As she went, she probed the surrounding area with her Sharingan, using her chakra sense to feel and see beyond her scope of vision. Most of the shinobi or mercenaries she sensed posed little threat or were far away.
Still, she was wary.
Something had blazed the trail she was following.
Something big.
"Get ready. Everyone, gather around me. Izuna and Madara, you both take the lead." Souji said, already putting a strategy in play for the confrontation that assuredly loomed over them.
Almost fifty kilometers in-they'd been jogging for nearly two hours-the unit finally encountered their foes.
Rather, it was a lone Akimichi. The trail of fog grew thicker as they took a sharp turn to the east, and as they wound around the corner the burly mass of a man came roaring out from the surrounding dunes, snarling and howling. Izuna wasn't surprised in the least by the ambush. He sensed the Akimichi's presence from several hundred feet away, just as he had surely caught his chakra and stalked him from some great distance.
He met the brute's charge with calm, ruthless efficiency. Parrying the first swipe of the forearm, he attempted to carve a deep gash along the big man's left sweep of his thigh. The Akimichi switched his footwork with startling speed, triangulating so that he was in front of Izuna. When he rammed his weight forward into another punch, Yuko took the chance to slice a deep groove in his armor, but being so close, the Akimichi was able to overwhelm her, sending her smashing into a sand dune with a punch on the chin.
Souji fell upon the Akimichi, Madara, Hikaku, Mitsuki, and the rest of the unit swiftly moving forward, all convening like shadows on the mountain of a man. The Akimichi didn't fall right away nor was it an easy fight. He was far too massive to be felled by pairs of wounds from blades, and as they pushed on, the pain and joy of battle drove the Akimichi into a hedonistic impulse, to such an extent his body ripped with muscles, expanding as sure as his chakra stormed.
Despite his attacks being less than polished, the Akimichi's attacks and strikes were so powerful, it didn't even matter he lacked in form at times. He forced the unit to disperse from his wild charge, twisting and turning, they parried or leapt over one attack, then dropped to the ground to roll beneath another. Their combined speed and moving in unison was so fast they would have been nothing but a blur, had the Akimichi not been enthralled by battle. And with each exchange, they struck blow upon blow, both sides, and the Akimichi struck another blow, and Izuna finally cut a swath, trying to whittle away at the mountain of sinew and flesh like a master sculptor.
The Akimichi only grew more violent and abrasive, his attacks now more lumbering than violent, staggering and stumbling as if he were performing some drunken dance. In contrast, the unit was quick and precise. With each passing second as they took blow upon heavy blow, the Akimichi slowed, his strength not quite ebbing away, but his stamina and endurance, were certainly starting to ebb away due to blood loss.
Izuna swept across the ground, pivoting past the Akimichi's lumbering strike, launching himself forward. The Akimichi was now resorting to a quick, but powerful taijutsu style that emphasized punching precision and power, but his blows and footwork were certainly lacking at times. Still, even as Izuna swept in for the killing blow, the Akimichi managed to twist away at the last second, striking him square on the ribs. The blow launched him back and away to smash rib first into an earth and wooden dome left over from a previous battle.
"Yuko!"
Bunji's roar was cut off by a fist, forcing him target the Akimichi with a vicious flurry. But, it never got close to striking as the burly man evaded each stroke with a quick movement of his head and waist, constantly driving forward with fierce exhalations that nearly matched the swish of blades cutting through the air. Yuko rushed forward at the same time Mikito and Souji did, barely registering the fact she was smashed upside the head. Reeling, she couldn't help but watch the Akimichi's leg from mid-shin to foot fall away from his body.
Hikaku, at the cost of getting rammed face first into the ground, cleaved his foundation.
When she seen his face contort in pain and rage, the anguished scream he let loose, everything inside of her shook. Almost paralyzed, she watched the Akimichi clench his massive hand around Bunji and smash him to the ground like a rag doll before he was used as a battering ram to launch most of the unit away. From her side, Yuko could see Misaka as swift as ever, falling upon the Akimichi as well with windmilling blades.
The Akimichi moved to the side, evading the first slash, then jumped back to avoid the stab, slamming his hand into the ground. Souji and Izuna slammed their hands into the Ram seal, exerting all of their chakra to the forefront until it not only coated them, but shook the ground around them from the sheer ferocity of the exertion and rang into everyone's ears.
The Akimichi braced against the unreal force, his fingers nearly breaking at the knuckles before he reinforced them with chakra, and reinforced his entire frame with chakra.
A slow, sadistic grin stretched across his round face. "Hmph. Do you think this can hold me? I'm going to eat the whole lot of you..."
Yuko rushed forward, stabbing low for his face. Down went the blade to skew, but as Yuko expected he yanked himself out of the ground at the cost of a finger, and she quickly retracted her weapon and thrust it right back out, up high and across the other way in a slanted slice. The Akimichi couldn't bring his arm up to block, nor could he step back or parry fast enough. Yuko's blade stabbed into the center of her foe's neck, and as he lurched back from her follow through, Yuko retracted the blade and cut along its original course, digging into the left side of the Akimichi's neck. Blood sprayed out from the wound, splattering over her face, and she grimaced only slightly as the rest fell on her haori. The Akimichi stumbled backward still in a spray of crimson, tripping and crashing hard against the rock wall, but even as he fell, Misaka was there, her blade arcing in, then with a sudden shift of weight, her blade glided through armor, flesh, and bone.
At last, the Akimichi slouched backward and lay motionless.
Misaka's own face was in a similar state as Yuko's. When she saw this, Yuko's lungs constricted and her eyes sharpened as she stared at her fallen foe, an enemy...
But by who's standards and why?
"Akimichi are immensely powerful. You were swift, Yuko. If you hadn't acted when you did he would have used his Expansion Jutsu or Super Expansion Jutsu." Mikito said, carefully observing the fallen foe while nursing her own bruised jaw.
She swiped her sword to her side, ridding it of the blood swiftly, and drew it back into its sheath.
"I should thank you, Yuko. I acted too late." Misaka noted, looking over Yuko carefully.
Yuko couldn't take her eyes off the Akimichi man-for he wasn't a shinobi by some standards, and to lay down his life and fight, rather than flee...
To choose pride over life and die the way he did...
Fighting to the bitter end.
Yuko clenched her hilt even tighter, struggling not to tremble as she began to sheath her blade.
"You holding up?" Madara asked, eyeing Yuko with a measure of understanding.
"Should we have killed him in such a manner? He was a man of valor."
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"He was a fierce warrior. Only a warrior's death would satisfy him and that's what we gave him. Akimichi have no fear of death. He'd turn us all to pulp at some point just like he said he would." Hikaku replied, tone bearing no argument.
Yuko took a deep breath, eyes swelling with emotions as she kept her focus on the corpse.
Souji clenched her shoulder and turned her away from it, understanding her grief. "Our mission is to protect and ensure the Sand Country's sovereignty and autonomy during this time of war and crisis. All those who pose a threat to these principles are our enemy. This is our mission."
Leaving the man where he had collapsed, they pressed on with a newfound urgency. The battle, brutal, short, and savage as it had proved, was the first time Yuko had been tested in a true life-or-death battle, the first time she killed someone in battle without losing her composure or falling to rage, fear, or hatred. She had seen everything there was to see, and know everything there was to know about that Akimichi man, and in that moment...
He knew her in the same way she knew him.
They looked into each other's souls.
Yuko moved her tongue, the subtle action bringing her back to the present.
Blood...
She tasted...Blood.
Hisao gestured towards her cup of tea. "Have a drink."
Yuko's eyes widened, but she composed herself as every part of her consciousness returned in an instant that was as jarring as it was overwhelming. She looked at the surroundings, surprised to see a home and not a tattered desert. She was surprised to see Souji, not with a black eye, not with battle wounds. She was surprised not to see Izuna, spitting up blood as he nursed his broken rib.
She didn't see the Akimichi man she had run through after he brutalized the unit she was in. She looked around, feeling something deep inside of her burning. It ran through her like liquid fire, igniting her blood and surging into her very bones.
"Yuko is this young woman's name...This one is on the razor's edge, Souji. The Sharingan...The Mangekyo Sharingan is that kind of power..." Hisao said, tone eerily calm.
"What do you mean?" Yuko asked, trying not to snap the words out in accusation.
"You want to ask something of me, correct?" Hisao met Yuko's gaze.
Yuko nodded.
Hisao snapped her chakra back to even by bringing his arms up to cross over his chest, and surprisingly to her disbelief, Yuko could feel the sensation as her Mangekyo morphed back into the three tomoe Sharingan, and finally back to her regular chocolate brown eye color. It deactivated completely, and the chakra that had been focused was...
Dissipated.
She looked at Hisao, eyes wide with shock, her mouth barely kept from dropping agape.
"This young woman and this black fire of hatred I can sense...It reminds me of someone from long ago...Whatever you wish to ask of me, as you are right now..."
Yuko firmed her lips. "As I am?"
"Your hatred, is an immature hatred right now. You don't wish death on people, yet. However...If this hatred is nurtured and allowed to mature..."
"My request..." Yuko tried not to press, tried not to look up at Souji or Hisao, for she could only feel shame.
She didn't try to use that attack...
Yuko realized this was why the Uchiha didn't have any love for the Uzumaki. It wasn't because of the supposed happy go lucky nature, or being air heads, that was just disparaging insults meant to make them feel better. The Uchiha, like many other clans, feared the Uzumaki. Feared the Uzumaki's capabilities. And, she knew it to be true after what Hisao just did with seemingly whimsical ease.
Hisao sighed softly. "I have a very good idea what your request may be."
"Then-"
"As you are now, you may come to hate all of mankind...When you can't fall prey to that mentality. It is the shinobi, and the evil people that cause problems. Still, to hate and burn with hatred is never the answer, as that only forces issues down the line."
"My problem is with the shinobi and the systems they think about putting into place when they get free time from war. Any system the shinobi put into place is doomed for failures. Shinobi make their living off of strife and war."
Hisao dismissed himself in short.
His family followed him.
Yuko clenched her teeth and shook her head at the sudden depature.
Souji nodded just enough.
"What he said has as much to do with me as it does you. I am sure Ashina has his reservations and Hisao is keeping this close to his chest. I am afraid the Uzumaki are about to be a crux in a changing power hierarchy, and there could be an alliance to wipe them out, or a race to be their allies. I'm not sure. Perhaps us fixating on Mito is also a problem and on the opposite side of the same coin..."
"Mito was the Uzumaki that came into the Sand country?" Yuko asked, hoping to clarify the woman's role.
Souji nodded.
"And, we happen to come at this time." Yuko looked at the blood on her hand, her face tightening with a grimace of remorse.
Just as the Akimichi man's was cleft by her, and sprayed blood, now her eyes were bleeding because they were cleft by her Mangekyo.
Or was it even her blood she was seeing?
"Is this what Izuna means by the curse of hatred with the Uchiha clan? I taste blood. I see blood..."
Souji clenched her shoulder tightly. "Mikito and Izuna always speak on this, and they have differing opinions on the matter. Things get quite heated. My sister believes everyone has a choice to make...Izuna wanted the Domou to be the sheathe for the Uchiha...My only answer for you is...Only you know the answer to that question. If you don't know, search deep within yourself to find the answer or speak to the Uzumaki around you...Sometimes we must look deep inside of ourselves..."
And, with that solemn statement Souji took his own leave, because he was more troubled than Yuko was.
Could they be amicable...
Would hatred rule their decisions...
Or...
By the time the doors to the Chamber finally swung open, Yuko was already annoyed. If asked, she would have denied it naturally because she got the Fuinjutsu she requested, and would have thought she was telling the truth...But Hisao had left them out for three days, with nothing to do but reflect, stare through the windows to the curve of the canals and nearby islands, and with nothing to think about except her memories.
Was she Angry?
Not at all.
Overwhelmed was more accurate.
She was sure she wasn't angry. She kept telling herself she wasn't angry, and she made herself believe it. Yuko walked into the chamber, head lowered in a show of humility and respect. But inside her, down around the nuclear shielding that powered her heart, she was hiding. It wasn't anger she was hiding. Her anger was only camouflage. Behind her anger hid the cold worm of dread eating away at her, and she couldn't let Hisao and most important, Souji, see what that worm had grown into.
She moved slowly into the center of the circle of cool stone, and turned toward Hisao. He was unreadable as always, his aged features composed in a mask of serene contemplation. Souji could have been carved from stone. Ashina and Dai-in hovered beside the two, distanced a few meters apart with rather stoic expressions on their face befitting the setting.
"Yuko Uchiha." Hisao's tone was so relaxed that Yuko almost dropped her guard internally.
"Hisao-sama will lend an ear to what you have to say. Souji-san has made it clear that something is on your mind." Dai-in said.
Yuko stood very still for a long moment, until she could be absolutely sure she heard what she thought she did. Souji had been right. He seemed to be right about a lot of things. In fact, now that Yuko thought about it, she couldn't remember a single instance when he had been wrong. The man was sharp and perceptive. Finally, as it began to sink in upon her, as she gradually allowed herself to understand that Hisao decided to listen to her, that he finally had recognized her, her dedication, her sincerity, and her earnest vigor in protecting all things living...
She took a slow, deep breath.
"Thank you. You have my pledge that I will be honest."
"Fuinjutsu is nothing to take lightly..." Ashina's eyes narrowed at Yuko.
"Some have become more concerned with avoiding oversight than they are with ending the wars..." Dai-in noted.
Yuko inclined her head. "I understand."
"The potential of our Fuinjutsu has no limits..." Ashina leaned forward, staring into Yuko's eyes with a measuring squint.
Yuko was barely paying attention. In her mind, she was already leaving the chamber, riding the boat to the compound, and suggesting that certain measures be put into place with her new Fuinjutsu...
"Issues shouldn't be forced." Hisao said.
"Fundamentally speaking certain things should be done away with."
"What?"
"What can Hashirama use to equalize the egos of everyone involved? If he were to bind the Bijuu at some point, and he hands them out? The thought will eventually lead to someone who would choose to seal it in a person...If someone forces the issue or doesn't, fundamentally speaking shinobi will always do anything to gain an edge and that won't change just because shinobi are founding villages...That just means shinobi villages will do anything to gain an edge."
"And, what of your amalgamation? Would it not be the same thing?" Ashina asked.
Yuko exchanged glances with Souji, breathing a sigh of relief when he nodded. "On the surface it may seem like we are doing the same thing as them but we are not, because it is fundamentally different. Hashirama founded Konoha while Arata and Katsu founded Kumo. They weren't able to see the bigger picture and if there was anyway to get the bigger picture going it'd only upset the power balance that's already shifting."
"You're saying that the Amalgamation that is happening right now in your compound is the bigger picture?"
"I don't think so...You are misunderstanding what I said." Yuko said as respectfully as she could.
"Ashina-san. I don't think it is wise to joust with her. If we were to rationally examine what is going on with the Kage and villages...How can an everlasting peace be ensured when the mentality and ideals will never be the same..." Dai-In trailed off, letting the thought sink in.
It was a small statement, a simple sentence, but an instinctive recoil from words that felt like punches, like blades bursting inside of them that left their heads ringing and the room spinning around them, but even to Yuko's own ears, the voice that came from her lips didn't sound like her own. It was deeper, firmer, brusque and harsh, resonating from the depths of her experiences.
"If Hashirama binds the Bijuu what happens then? Will he hand them out like lottery tickets? What of the other villages that may not get one? Is that something to base and equalize power off of? Is that the blueprint? There won't be any equality. Things won't change." Yuko stood to the floor, motionless. She wasn't even truly aware of speaking. It was as if someone else were using her mouth.
"There are still small border skirmishes that will have to be taken care of before things would get to that point. We can factor in clans and villages going after the Bijuu as well. Hashirama will most certainly convene a Kage meeting for these reasons and more. At this meeting he could give the Bijuu he may possibly bind as peace offerings, but that doesn't equate to a Jinchuriki...The other Kage will see reason at this point. The question is who or what would force the issue where Jinchuriki become part of the 'blueprint'?" Ashina finished, eyes glinting with keen observation.
Yuko thought back to one of the earliest teachings she learned in the Domou compound. "Those who have or gain power are afraid to lose it. Any Kage from any village can dissemble. Their true motives will always remain a mystery under a guise of the title and honorifics, that mean very little...Just like the clan leaders now, except they're powerful. They have titles, but that's for a reason."
Dai-In's eyes widened briefly before he turned towards Hisao, watching for one, if any expression to pass over his face. "There is still the situation of Kage being on equal ground with damiyo. Damiyo and lesser lords are not Emperors and we'd only have one if that were the case. Is it possible that someone is trying to get that position? Emperor?"
Souji's eyes were as cold as the situation unraveling.
Yuko matched his stare.
"The samurai share land with the shinobi. Would the shinobi be trying to imitate samurai by doing this?" Dai-In asked.
"They may wish for that same power. After all many damiyo the shinobi sell their services too are samurai." Hisao said softly.
He gestured to an empty seat beside him.
"Please sit down."
Something in Hisao's gentle voice, made Yuko relax a little more.
She felt very young, and very foolish.
"Forgive me." Her bow of modesty couldn't hide the blaze of embarrassment that climbed her cheeks.
"You are an honest one." Dai-in noted.
Hisao nodded.
"Now isn't the time to mince words. I'd rather be blunt about everything." Yuko offered.
"The fact remains we don't know who or what could force the issue. If it happens we know the extremity things will go in." Ashina's stare was hard as steel.
"I wonder..." Hisao said, trailing off.
"Is this about the dark lord?" Souji asked.
"He is elusive...Speculation will get us nowhere when it comes to him...However...I'm not prepared to believe his intent is to dismantle the Elemental Nations as a whole to completely change the scope of power... If anything, I believe it is he who has helped accelerate Hashirama's dream and Kumogakure's conquest to power..."
"Why should he bother?" Yuko countered.
"As a practical matter...Far too many powerful people like yourselves, Hashirama, Madara, and many others are alive and well...He may only show himself long after our time, but we can still do something about him pushing things behind the scenes." Dai-In said.
Yuko looked from one grim face to another.
Hisao leaned forward. His eyes were hard as chips of stone. "With Konoha and Kumo...There is no longer a worry about controlling the shinobi within these countries. By people adhering to Hashirama's will and way, he'd have all of the villages, and the era that will secede this one, directly under his control. It may not be his intention, but there will be those who agree with his blueprint. Those who descend from them will share the same belief-this is the right way..."
He folded his hands, and squeezed them together.
"Dictatorships..." Yuko murmured.
To think Tobirama was her husband's rival, and enemy.
Some of this she shouldn't have even been entertaining keeping due respect with Izuna.
"But what can we do about it?" Ashina asked, still gazing down at his robe with a frown.
"I can't be sure...Everything is fluctuating..." Yuko said bluntly.
"That's what we asked you here to discuss. What can be done about it, and if nothing can be done, what are the long term effects of such a foundation shift?" Hisao told her calmly.
Ashina shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not sure I like where this is going."
"None of us likes where anything is going right now." Dai-In said, half rising
"Dictatorships don't work. Our current predicament is proof that such forms of government will not work. They are doomed to ruin from the beginning of their foundations. It may come down to a fight that could end everything as we know it..." Souji mused softly.
"A war?" Yuko asked.
"I can't be sure..." Souji shook his head, furrowing his brows.
"Could that be the dark lord's agenda? Make everyone kill each other that poses a threat..."
The silence that followed the question was palpable.
"If the conviction and sincerity for peace grows strong...If compassion becomes commonplace?" Dai-In spoke softly and thoughtfully.
"If his plan were to come to fruition that means even Mikito and Hashirama have to die. Madara, Izuna, myself...Tobirama...All of us are first on the list." Souji said with a growl, leaning forward.
"To what end? What would that accomplish?" Ashina snapped irritably, not bothering to hide his dismay at the suggestion.
"No generation will know peace and when people like us who have a greater understanding pass away, what does that leave the younger generations..." Dai-In's tone was heavy with sadness
Ashina felt like someone punched him in the gut.
Yuko shifted only slightly in her place, a small presence in this meeting of leaders and commanders. Her eyes were even and clear with observation as she turned toward Dai-In thoughtfully. "Perhaps he is waiting for someone..."
The others began to mutter anew among themselves. Yuko said nothing. She didn't know who or what the dark lord was. It seemed Ashina and Dai-In believed this...Monster to be consumed by their own lust for power.
She could feel Souji shift uncomfortably, having trouble maintaining his silence.
Ashina leaned forward, his strong brow furrowing. "This is difficult to accept. He could not have returned without us knowing. Who or what could he be so fixated on as well? This is only speculation now."
"The dark side is hard to see and ever elusive...Perhaps by discovering the Water damiyo's true motives, can we get a glimpse into his plan. It's not often those tyrants do this..." Hisao said with a small snort.
"All speculation aside. If there was a time the dark lord would show himself it'd be very soon. The Warring States Era is coming to an end. Soon enough the wars between samurai and shinobi will reach their apex. There's revolution and conflict with the shinobi village system...Then there's the amalgamation of the former clans who've joined you...There's the foreigners as well..." Dai-In suggested with a nod to those gathered.
Hisao kept his expression stoic and blank, betraying none of the emotions he felt rushing through him. "This attack on the mainland was bound to happen at some point. The last time this happened was roughly one hundred and eighty years ago... The mainland is his target. Since his predecessors failed in the past at conquest, this could be his way of trying again to right the perceived wrong."
Ashina nodded his head, in a gesture to show Souji that his focus was on Yuko. "You must protect Yuko-kun once you leave this place."
The others murmured their approval.
Hisao hummed softly, tracing his palm with his finger. "We shall use all our resources to unravel this mystery and discover the intent of this attack. If the dark lord is moving and focused on someone in particular we will find out."
"My request..."
Hisao nodded his head, giving her a critical look. "You have much on your mind, Yuko-kun."
"With your permission..." Yuko replied, gaze steady. "I would like a Fuinjutsu capable of sealing chakra and changing the landscape."
Ashina's eyes widened slightly. "Chakra and changing the landscape, you say?"
"Chakra located around a person or object?" Dai-In asked quickly.
Yuko didn't quite nod, but she did move her head just slightly. "Just chakra itself...However, concerning the landscape..It'd be like drawing and painting. In essence art would be given form and life...Maybe personified is a better word. I could effect the landscape as well, but that's a little more complicated. I don't feel comfortable doing that quite yet."
There was a shocked silence this time.
Hisao's eyes narrowed.
Yuko was requesting the impossible. A Fuinjutsu that could move, shift, create, and transport entire landscapes, a Fuinjutsu that was beyond just sealing, but an actual art with the seals leaking the essence by the connectors to chakra. Compromising consciousness, intelligence, and physical energy-the person and their experiences formed the link between chakra and everything living.
There were shinobi capable of changing the landscape through ninjutsu as well as scroll-held architectural pieces and wonders that were only limited by the applicant's creativity. But there was more that troubled Hisao. There was a prophecy, so old its origins had long since been lost, that a peaceful one would appear, imbued with an abundance of understanding, a being strong with thoughtfulness, and destined to alter the Elemental Nations forever.
Could this all be tying into that prophecy perhaps or was it all just speculation as Ashina had reduced it to such in his own mind?
Ashina crossed his arms over his chest. "I feel like you are vacillating by saying chakra."
"I don't presume-"
"You do, though!" Ashina snapped.
Yuko took a deep breath. "I request the Fuinjutsu for chakra and changing the landscape... "
Again, there was silence while everyone exchanged glances, communicating without words.
Eyes shifted back to Yuko.
"Fuinjutsu for chakra and changing the landscape? So, going several steps above the scroll-held architectural pieces and wonders while expanding upon them as well in a manner?" Hisao asked softly.
"I remember the desert region and those people..." Yuko said.
Hisao held up one hand, bringing the meeting to a close. "Very well-I will give you the Fuinjutsu you've requested. I will also show you the intrinsic details of how the landscape is changed through your imagination personified by the link."
"Really?"
Hisao nodded slowly. "You're not as selfish as I thought you to be...Take heart, for these lessons are to be distilled and ingrained inside of you-just as they have been with all Uzumaki."
Yuko nodded somberly.