"Fire Purview: Blazing Weapon."
Anko watched with amusement as Sasuke attempted to form the campfire in front of him into a naginata before Kakashi could knock him down. Even with Kakashi refusing to use his full speed, the boy still failed, repeatedly and hilariously.
Not at using the technique, as Sasuke had in fact managed to pull off the Boon, which was actually somewhat impressive for a Hero, but at using it quickly enough to be practical in battle, especially the kind of one-on-one fight he'd be part of in a few weeks.
"Again!" Sasuke shouted, not letting this get his spirits down.
The boy had spirit, Anko would give him that.
"Why don't we try something that you're more naturally inclined to?" Kakashi asked instead. "Anko, did you bring the Lion Scroll?"
She was here to watch over the Itzli Mark and make sure it didn't do anything weird, and did not appreciate being treated like a secretary. Therefore, she had her Appearance Knacks at full force and her pose in its most, shall we say, impressionable as she rattled off the technical information about the Sun Purview that she herself really didn't understand. It was the hormonal teenage boy in front her's loss if that meant he didn't understand a word of it.
Much to her disappointment, the boy merely shouted "I need a bow," and when Kakashi tossed him a crossbow, he then pointed it at a nearby rock, seemed to channel his Ichor, and then intoned "Sun Purview: Flare Missile."
A shining light briefly appeared on the crossbow's firing mechanism…but then sputtered out. The boy stated that he needed to take a break, and only then did Anko notice that he was arranging himself so as to keep something hidden…so it did work after all, she thought to herself with a smirk.
Of course, she had no time to focus on that as she felt vibrations coming to her through the ground that alerted her to the fact that someone was walking in their direction. It seemed to be a boy not much older than Sasuke, and he wasn't trying to be sneaky, so she wasn't that concerned, but she had to keep on guard.
"Hey, Kakashi, I think we have a guest."
It was not long after that that a red-haired boy with the headband for the Village Hidden in Hekau wandered right into their private training area.
"Hey, kid, this isn't one of the accessible areas to foreigners. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
The boy completely ignored her, simply staring at Sasuke.
"You're like me. You're eyes, they have the same desires for the world. The same…hate."
Anko did not like being ignored. "Listen, kid, I have no problem hurting a child, so please, stay here and give me a reason."
The Mummy briefly looked her way, but turned back to Sasuke uninterested.
"You try to hate, but you don't feel it deep down."
That was apparently all he had to say, for he started walking away at that moment.
--
Jiraiya had not counted on the horses being terrified of Mikaboshi. He supposed that he should have, but it completely slipped his mind. Oops.
The kid seemed confused. "I've never really had a problem with animals before…"
"Horses are attuned to humanity's concerns better than other animals," Jiraiya responded with an old superstition that, having actually communicated with many horses about that very concern, he didn't fully believe. "Or maybe it's just the energy of the Gods around here reacting to the Titan within. Oh well, there's another way to go about this."
Thus, the two found themselves a decent ways from civilization with a scroll laid out before them with the image of various animals drawn on its surface.
"This a Creature Follower Scroll. Normally, when one bonds with an animal, this will allow you and your companion to remain in contact even if you're in an area where they can't be. However, it's a lesser known little trick that one can try to find something out there that's willing to bond with them with only a little push."
Jiraiya started making some odd symbols in a circle surrounding the scroll, then asked Naruto to bleed on it.
"Wait, what?"
"Just a little blood, it won't hurt you too bad."
So the boy nicked himself, let a little bit of his blood spill onto the scroll, and…nothing happened. Everything was done right, as the Ichor flowed properly, it was just that apparently nothing wanted to come. Jiraiya rubbed his chin.
"Hey, Naruto, have you ever talked to Mikaboshi?"
This question caused Naruto's face to scrunch up in thought.
"I mean, it's talked to me before, but I've never gone out of my way to speak to it, no."
Well, that's something that really needs to be addressed, Jiraiya thought in response to the idea that Mikaboshi had spoken to Naruto in the past.
Instead of dealing with that now, he instead went further with this line of thought.
"I've heard that Gatekeepers can speak with the Titan Lords inside of them, sometimes managing to make demands. I wouldn't really trust it, as quite frankly you're not smart enough to not be tricked if it goes for subtlety, but…".
"Not smart enough to not be tricked? What craziness is that? I'll show you! It won't get anything past me!"
The kid raised his fist in a gesture that was meant to show his conviction, but accidentally slammed it against his lower chin.
Sarutobi would probably kill Jiraiya for even risking this later, but, well, why simply keep the Titan Lord inside of the boy? Even Minato had wanted Naruto to eventually use the monster's power.
"Okay, kid, tell me about the times that Mikaboshi talked to you. What did they have in common?"
Naruto related Mikaboshi's disappointment in the times where he didn't kill Gato's men, and then how he had actually seen Mikaboshi after he thought Haku killed Sasuke…
"there was this cave filled with light, and this giant mass of shadow that spoke to me, tried to take me over."
This line of questioning was clearly making the boy uncomfortable, and Jiraiya was already seeing the through-line that speaking with the Titan Lord was activated by violence and pain, which would be a little awkward to reproduce in a controlled setting.
"And how did you stop it?"
"Well, I kept wondering about the fact that, with Haku's aim and the fact that he had the fight under control the whole time, why didn't he just kill us? Then I thought about what I knew of him, and, well, I saw myself, I saw what I could have been if, when the Village was at its most cruel, when everyone hated me, what could have happened to me if someone saw how much I wanted attention from even one person and, well, used me. That thought let me keep myself under control."
Jiraiya nodded in understanding, hiding his wince. You wouldn't have felt that wayif I had been there, he thought. Maybe Guide Sarutobi was right. Leaving the Village, leaving this kid on his own, had been a mistake. A foolish, hedonistic mistake. An irrelevant consideration, as not even Zrvam could fix that mistake now, but one he was being confronted with. It…made him want to run away again, which only shamed him further.
Externally, he merely asked Naruto to continue.
Apparently, the next times that Mikaboshi had spoken involved running across two individuals named Gaara and Fuu (other Gatekeepers, Jiraiya noted), and when he was trapped in darkness created by someone from the Village Hidden in Sacrifice. Apparently Mikaboshi had been afraid of being eaten by his own grandmother, a statement which baffled Jiraiya as much as it had Naruto.
"Hmm, the Village Hidden in Sacrifice, huh? From what I know of that place, the most likely being to be able to create the effect you described would be a Vampire from Clan Lasombra that managed to overcome its pride and kneel before whoever leads Sacrifice."
Pondering this a little more, he continued, "you know, it's said that Lasombra had a Discipline, that's basically a Vampire's Purview before you ask," it was actually a lot more complicated than that but he had no intention of explaining it to an unacademically inclined kid right now, "that wasn't a natural evolution of a Vampire's powers, but actually the result of one of the first members of Clan Lasombra journeying into the Underworld in order to find out what was at its lowest depths. Most stories not told by Clan Lasombra itself hold that his expedition was an utter failure and he vanished without a trace, while others say he found something so horrifying that it changed his Clan forever."
Jiraiya shrugged. "I'm hardly an expert on Vampire legends, but if what you say is true, then maybe there is something to it, though I would never in a million years have guessed that it was Mikaboshi's grandmother that they found. A worthless academic question, anyways. Is that it?"
Naruto thought about it, but couldn't find any other moments of note.
"Well, I can't use the Obtenebration Discipline or get another Titan Lord coming at my beck and call,"
"what about Fuu?" Naruto interrupted.
"Huh?"
"She has a Titan Lord inside her, right, and she's still here in the Village. Can't you get her to come here?"
That…was not a bad idea, assuming that the political situation with the Village Hidden in Dreams would allow it. It was certainly better than trying to simulate overwhelming emotional pain.
--
Fuu's handlers had no intention of letting her outside to train with two Scions, especially when one was another Gatekeeper. Who knows what could happen when two Titan Lords conspired together? Thus, Jiraiya and Naruto had to wait for the girl to sneak out of her own accord before they worked with her. Jiraiya was certain any diplomatic issues could be worked out later. Probably.
"So, I want to speak with Mikaboshi, but I don't know how, and one of the only times he's chosen to speak with me was when I first saw you."
"You mean that you couldn't stop thinking of me since your first glance? My, I'm so flattered," she teased.
His suddenly red face and stammered responses only encouraged her.
"Unfortunately, I'm not sure if it's meant to be, for a poor, virtuous, Spring maiden such as myself…" She looked down at her stomach in annoyance. "It's a joke, you worthless maggot."
Glancing back at the two of them, she clarified, "if you want it to speak to you, find something that it likes or something that it really, really hates. Crom, for example, is the essence of Winter, and really hates Spring."
"Wouldn't he hate Summer more?" Naruto wondered.
"No, actually, as Summer is when Winter is already long gone. Spring is what gets rid of it. Plus, I think he wants me hated by the other Fae, and they're always nicer during Spring."
"Huh, why?"
Fuu shrugged. "It's some weird Fae spiritual stuff. They see everything as a season. If it makes things better, it's Spring, if it was always good, it's Summer, if it makes things worse, it's Autumn, if it was awful from the start, it's Winter. It's a lot more complicated than that, but honestly even I don't get it."
The topic seemed to be making her uncomfortable, while Naruto thought back to what Kabuto had said during his reading. A Winter person, which probably means something to the Fae.
"So I take it that, being associated with winter…"
Fuu shrugged. "Life sucks. Didn't it for you as well?"
Naruto didn't want to bring up his past again, and besides it seemed to make Jiraiya-sensei uncomfortable for some reason.
Instead, he went on to wonder about what Mikaboshi could like or hate. Well, he was always talking about 'snuffing out the light,' gave Naruto power over the Darkness Purview, was the Essence of Darkness, so maybe…just maybe…after thinking about it for quite some time, Naruto finally figured out that dark and light would probably be its greatest objects of love and hate. Fuu and Jiraiya both slapped their hands against their foreheads at how long it took him to figure that out.
--
"So, what does he want?" Naruto thought to inquire. "How would I get on his good side?"
"Well, as far as I understand, Mikaboshi wants to return the world to what it was before light came into existence."
"Doesn't he want to destroy things?" Naruto asked, thinking back on the stories he had always heard about the Titan Lords.
Jiraiya answered, "well, more explicitly, he knows that mortals have no interest in living in a world without light, and will do whatever they can to stop him. To my knowledge, he doesn't actually bear any grudge against humanity, just apathetic to the fact that his actual goal would wipe us out by necessity."
"Crom's like that," Fuu agreed, "he wants to freeze the world. It's the freezing that's important to him; the fact that everything would die from the freezing is just a side-effect."
Jiraiya continued, "while there are Titan Lords, like Cronus and Ymir, that have a grudge against the Gods and mortals alike, most of them are just apathetically destructive in their goals."
Thinking about this, Naruto had an idea. "Well, his goal sounds really boring. Get rid of light, wipe out everything that needs it, and then what? Maybe he hasn't actually thought this through. Maybe if someone can reason with him about this…"
"Stop," Jiraiya interrupted. "You're making a common mistake that, well, I don't know about Gatekeepers, but people negotiating with Titanspawn make it all the time. These things are not humans. They were never human in the first place. They do not think like humans. I have seen Titanspawn who, if you were to present them with the finest delights known to man, would scoff in boredom and disgust, but if you were to present them with something associated with them, for example a river nymph with the babbling of clear water, that nymph that tired of everything else quickly would stare at the bubbling and ripples of a clean river for thousands of years and never grow tired of it. Trying to give it human goals will bore it at best and insult it at worst."
Fuu nodded. "I've actually tried that exact line of reasoning with Crom before. He…tried to show me why snow and rotten plants were more interesting than people, and we eventually came to understand how to bargain. If you actually want to speak with him and make it productive, then control him. Turn your Gate against the thing inside of you, make it hurt. Or, deal with him. String him along and make him think that he can manipulate you, and he'll lend his energy to aid in hopes of doing just that. But don't think you can be real friends."
--
So, Naruto's first plan was to sit in the darkness, sitting in a cave shut off from all light. He closed his eyes, let the feeling trickle in…he felt comfortable, too comfortable. Mikaboshi was satisfied here. So, Naruto tried to deal.
"We can come here more often, if you just let me have more control over…" there was a weird feeling inside him, then he felt the comfort vanish. It was almost like his stomach was annoyed by the audacity, or something.
Alright, if that was how it was going to be, then Naruto was going to move on to plan B.
Fuu helped to create a series of ice crystals that reflected the sun straight at him, and Jiraiya found the location where the sun was brightest. Fuu sat next to him, helping him meditate.
"Is he annoyed," she asked.
"A little, I think," Naruto responded. "I feel something like that."
"Good. Now shut your mind down, it shouldn't be too hard for someone like you,"
"hey!"
She stuck her tongue out before continuing. "And let yourself drift toward that irritation. Don't make yourself, just know that part of you already wants to, you just need to shut yourself down and let it."
Don't do something? Just let your natural inclination do it, when you clearly weren't doing it before? What kind of advice was that? Naruto found it frustrating, and his frustration only moved him further from the goal.
--
Jiraiya could tell that the boy was not making progress, and thinking on the other thing that brought out the Titan Lord in the past, he had an idea that the kid was really not going to thank him for later.
Placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder, he muttered "Stars Purview: Frozen Moment."
From Fuu's perspective, it looked like Naruto had disappeared. Jiraiya knew full well that he had merely been displaced from time, but he intentionally refused to tell her about that as he quietly asked, "would water filling your lungs kill you?"
She shook her head, a little frightened.
"Would Naruto know that?"
"P-probably not? I don't understand what your asking…".
"Asha Purview: Seta Amasha Spenta-Haurvetat and Vohu Mana."
Ichor sprayed from his mouth, on one side forming a man made of water. On the other, a vaguely humanoid form that seemed to be covered in scales one moment, feathers the next, and then fur in another appeared.
"We need to be convincing for this to work. Put on a good show."
That was all the warning Fuu got before they attacked.
--
Naruto had no idea what Jiraiya had done to him, but as he saw his new sensei suddenly attack his new friend (?), he gave up on this meditation and tried to call out…but nothing happened. He tried to reach out, but couldn't touch anything. A spray of water splashed out from one of those things that Jiraiya summoned, and the drops actually knocked him backward. Said knock back was completed when he tripped over a blade of grass, which didn't bend even the slightest against his foot. What's going on?
He panicked as he saw Jiraiya and those two things holding Fuu down while the water-one drowned her. It was drowning her. That was the only explanation he could see for what it was doing to her throat, but why? Why would Jiraiya do this? Why couldn't he stop them?
He felt Mikaboshi stirring in response to his own anguish, and wanted to embrace it…thinking on Fuu's words, he did embrace it. He let himself be dragged toward the growing rage within him, and then…he found himself in that same brightly lit cave from when he fought Haku.
Back then, things had been too chaotic to appreciate the view, but he saw all the gems, looking just like he was told Amaterasu had (they even looked like Sasuke's Birthright), glaring as if the sun was shining directly on them. It hurt to look at, until they just stopped at a wall of blackness.
Mikaboshi, he thought. Naruto, the blackness responded to his thoughts, forming what vaguely looked like some sort of mask. No details could be made out. Are you finally ready to set me free? Are you ready to snuff out this world's light?
"I'm here to collect on rent," Naruto responded, suppressing any fear he felt talking to this thing. "You've been living here for how long? And I have yet to see any payment."
The thing laughed at him, or at least he thought that incomprehensible noise resounding through his skull vaguely resembled laughter. Your mastery of Darkness is not enough? Saving you from that silly little half-elohim was insufficient? And that was far more than you deserve. Your 'payment' is the fact that this frustrating seal of your father's keeps me from ripping you apart from the inside-out.
"Wait, my father?"
You know so little, foolish child.
When the Titan Lord refused to elaborate, Naruto pressed on.
"Well, you're going to stop preventing me from using the Animal Purview, and you're going to be a little more helpful, or, well," Naruto smiled in what he hoped conveyed bravado, "I'm going to spend the rest of my life in the brightest corner of the brightest room I can find. I'll have those who know the Sun Purview tail me everywhere, making your life as painful as possible."
And at the end of your life, the deaths of all you hold dear will be so much more painful for it, when they simply could have quietly gone into the dark.
The two stared at one another, neither backing down.
Eventually, Mikaboshi chuckled. Another one who thinks they can control the dark. Very well, bleed on that scroll, and see what comes out. Know that it's what you asked for. Be sure to ask Jiraiya about your father, and why he refused to tell you anything about the man earlier.
With that, the room faded, and Naruto found himself back in the same world he had been in all his life. Jiraiya was still killing Fuu, and he still couldn't move so much as a blade of grass.
Somehow knowing exactly what to do, he walked over to the scroll, nicked himself, channeled the Ichor in the same way he had tried earlier, and brought four horses into existence. All four of which stared at him hungrily.
--
By using the scroll, Naruto had managed to pull himself back into normal time. Impressive, actually.
It also meant that Jiraiya could dismiss his Spenta and intone "Water Purview: Water Control" to pull the water out of Fuu's lungs.
"That hurt, you know!" She shouted at him, which only prompted Jiraiya to point out that it had worked, his finger indicating Naruto surrounded by horses. Four of them, with odd mouths…oh no, you summoned them.
Jiraiya wasn't certain whether or not this was something that Mikaboshi might have pulled off. They weren't associated with the Titan Lord, or most Titans in general. Cronus might have had some influence, but Mikaboshi shouldn't…it didn't really matter, now did it?
The four horses of Diomedes were immediately in front of him, and the boy he had been trying to teach the Animal (Horse) Purview to had summoned them. He was still excited about that fact, too.
"Pervy Sage, look, I didn't just find a horse to bond with me. I found four! They look hungry. Should we get some oats?"
Fuu was still gasping and learning to appreciate the simple pleasure of being able to breathe once more, but even she could see, merely by looking into the creatures' eyes, that oats weren't desired.
"Uh, Naruto, I think they want to eat you…"
Naruto looked at Fuu like she was an idiot.
"What are you talking about? Horses eat plants, even I know tha-ow!"
One of the horses bit into his arm before he could finish correcting Fuu on why said horse should have no desire to bite into his arm.
"What in the cold depths of the Underworld! Hey, Pervy sage, what's going on…"
all four of the horses neighed, or at least did something resembling a neigh as interpreted through some form of twisted nightmare, reared up on their hind legs, and then rushed toward Naruto, mouths opened and eager to bite. Naruto ran as fast as he could, which was pretty fast, but they pursued.
"Okay, kid," Jiraiya called, hoping that his calm voice would help keep the situation under control, "the fact that they responded to the scroll means that the Animal Purview is within your grasp. You just need to understand…".
Jiraiya proceeded to undergo a very dry and lengthy lecture while his student ran in circles trying not to get eaten.
Fuu's jaw dropped when it turned out that Naruto had actually been listening, managing to sputter out, "Animal (Horse) Purview: Animal Communication," and then suddenly looking like he could understand them. This did not stop him having to flee them, just got him to start arguing with them in some horse language as he did so.
--
"Why don't we work together?" Naruto shouted in horse, completely forgetting Jiraiya's advice to stick to words a horse would understand.
Luckily for him, these four were a bit smarter than an average horse. Well, luckily in terms of communication. That fact was very unlucky when one thought to split off from the herd and climb a nearby plateau in order to leap in front of Naruto.
"You're no Diomedes. Or Heracles. You're not our master. You are food!"
"Darkness Purview: Shadow Bodies!" Naruto screamed.
The horse in front of him struck with his hooves right as the silhouettes formed, so they were all sent sprawling downward, but it was still enough to confuse the quartet before the other three could get to him.
As they went through the pleasant process of biting and stomping at each of Naruto's bodies, the boy himself suddenly thought of an idea. These horses struck hard, and the nearby hills had some very loose soil…he ran to the nearest cliff, dispelled what few Shadow Bodies remained and invested a little more Ichor into summoning three more, and shouted to his would-be consumers "over here!"
They charged him, just as expected. His training in Dexterity Knacks was enough that they couldn't get a good bite it, though with all four of them chomping at him it was only a matter of time…time that they did not wait for, as he had also expected. One of the horses reared back and slammed its hooves against the cliffside. It had meant to slam into Naruto's face, but it struck against the cliffside instead.
Its sisters followed suit, just as the boy had hoped, and then they all managed to smash their hooves into said cliffside at the exact same time, causing several loose rocks to start tumbling down and smashing against larger loose rocks, which in turn prompted those loose rocks to start tumbling down and doing the same until the horse found themselves in the middle of a proper landslide.
Grinning, Naruto simply reinforced "Earth Purview: Safely Interred," and let his would-be attackers panic and screech as the stones and the dirt surrounded them, crushing them, but not defeating them, especially as Naruto grabbed the strongest looking of them and pulled the beast into his pocket of safety.
"Will you accept me as your master?!"
The horse screamed at him in response, which prompted Naruto to note the much louder screams of her sisters, which were in pain, which sounded like they were dying.
"You are strong. A master of Earth, like grandfather Poseidon himself."
A different God with similar abilities, Naruto thought, but didn't think that that would be diplomatic to bring up in this situation.
"Okay, young Heracles. I am Xanthos. Send us back, and I will make sure my sisters understand. You are our master now."
"Yes, Xanthos. I am glad that we could come to an understanding."
Awkwardly, he shouted out to Jiraiya, dispelling his Ichor to make sure the horse couldn't understand.
"Uh, Pervy Sage, how do I un-summon them?"
--
Naruto had no idea why both Jiraiya and Fuu were so insistent that he get the bites and hoof-wounds from those damn mares checked out. He had always been a fast healer, and had no reason to suspect that this time would be different. Still, he checked into the hospital, found the doctors shocked when his body healed itself as they always were (not that such quick healing was unheard of, just odd for a Hero with only Epic Stamina at its weakest form for a Stamina Knack), and was just about to leave to talk with Fuu about the possibility of there being any other insight she could give him in regards to being a Gatekeeper when he noticed Sakura with a bouquet of flowers.
"Hey, Sakura, how'd you know I was here? I mean, I only just arrived, and I'm fine now, but I guess it's the thought that counts, right?"
Sakura stared at him, confused, then irritated. "Naruto, this isn't about however you managed to hurt yourself training this time. I wanted to check on Lee."
That prompted him to nod in understanding. "Hmm, yeah, I liked that guy. Hey, maybe I'll come with you."
"Naruto…"
"It's not a date! I just want to see how he's doing too."
--
And then Gaara came to the hospital. He had never been in one. Apophis didn't let him get hurt, so he had no reason to ever go there. Thus, it didn't occur to him that the person he had hurt so badly in the Exams might be in one until now.
Once the thought did occur to him, however, he was able to find the boy quite effortlessly. It was a bit of a shame, actually. This kid had been the first one to properly injure him in all of his life. He had been so full of power and speed. And now…this Rock "Osiris" Lee lay there a cripple, sleeping because it was all he could do, just laying there.
Get up, a part of him thought. Get up and face me! Show me the power you once displayed! Don't be the broken bird I see today, be the beast you once were!
Thinking about how far a person could fall made him wonder if he would one day fall like that, which made him wonder if his life really was doomed to the whims of Fate, just like all those whom Fate had seen fit to put in his direction…no, he was different.
By killing others, he proved that he existed and they didn't. Besides, Apophis was downright gleeful to see one of Osiris's children brought down so low, and hadn't Apophis ensured that he could prove his existence…but didn't that mean that only Apophis actually existed, and that Gaara was a non-existent tool?
No. He would kill this boy, this boy that hurt him, that reminded him that there was still the possibility that he could end up another worm crawling through the ground to be crushed at random, and thus he had absolute power over his own life and death, not Osiris, not this boy, not Fate, but him! He chose who lived and who died! He was the only one who existed!
Just as he resolved his internal conflict and turned one of his fingers into the visage of a flint-scaled serpent, just as he was going to send it into the sleeping boy's neck, he heard a shout.
"What in the cold depths of the Underworld do you think you're doing?"
--
Techniques:
Fire Purview: Blazing Weapons-allows the user to turn currently existing fire into a 'solid' weapon or temporarily incorporate the properties of fire into a chosen weapon
Sun Purview: Flare Missile-turns light into a small projectile, can be used as ammunition for ranged weapons
Earth Purview: Tremor Sense-user becomes aware of nearby motion on the ground
Stars Purview: Frozen Moment-displaces a person from the normal flow of time, making them incapable of interacting with the world
Asha Purview: Seta Amasha Spenta-turns multiple known Purviews into physical, humanoid beings, some of which have specific names (Jiraiya named the Water and Animal Spenta)