Chapter 51: Metal Ningen Rising: Redemption
Part 3: Pull my Divine Trigger
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(((Narrator)))
KLANG
DANG
DUN DUN
TANG
Blade against blade.
Jounin against Chuunin.
Makoto Hotaru against Hatake Kakashi.
Two minutes had passed since the two Leaf-nin began to duel in swordplay, and Hotaru is losing.
The only saving grace was that it seems like a significant portion of Kakashi's strength was suppressed due to the nature of his brainwashing. Hotaru know this from experience. Creating a brand new personality from scratch is hard even with his Kyoka Suigetsu technique. Similarly, Shisui suffers the same difficulty. It is much easier to seal the original personality and use it as the source code to build a new one.
This however lead to a significant portion of chakra to be split between the personalities. In Hotaru's own experience tinkering with Fuma Arashi, about 70% of the total Fuma Arashi's chakra was under Arashi2 control.
The stronger the personality of the original, the lesser the amount of chakra the fake personality can access. Attempting to take control more than they're capable off will result to the original to take over.
Think of it like how Naruto can only control 3 tails worth of Kyuubi's chakra before losing control. It's pretty much like that.
The fact that he is able to match against Blade-Dawg with the latter being only a few levels stronger than him is due to this nerfing.
However, while Blade-Dawg can only use 40% of Kakashi's full power, he is able to tap into the full combat experience of Kakashi, as well as his vast repertoire of techniques. Blade-Dawg cannot as access the Sharingan as doing so is out of his limits, believing himself to actually be blind in his left eye as per Shisui's own programming. However, losing depth of perception hardly much of an issue for a ninja of Kakashi's caliber as he had mostly operated half blind for a decade and a half anyway.
Thus, Hotaru is on the backfoot in this match.
Deciding that he couldn't win against a straight swordfight, he changed Yamato into Bayonet Mode and summon out a shotgun. He attached it to the slot at the end of the barrel and keep Blade-Dawg at bay through consecutive shots.
Blade-Dawg deftly dodged each jurst of pellets, knowing the full extent of the weapon capabilities. He raise White Fang and send down a powerful overhead slash, but Hotaru's parried it with the bayonet. He shot Kakashi again, but the pellets was stopped dead by the armor, layer of chakra dampening most of its penetrating force. The Chakra Core glows green, the chakra stored within the gemstone had hardly depleted from tanking the shot.
Hotaru backpedal away, trying to make room. He only has 2 clones worth of spare batteries left. Not enough to make a large AOE attack to deplete the armor's reserve fast. His own Armor is at half capacity, he had no time to refill it just yet.
Makoto Hotaru's Armor was designed by Amado to automate Raiton Burst without the need of his own personal input as well as his own chakra reserve. The Chakra Core of the Armor can be refilled by breaking and absorbing other Chakra Cores. Because of this, Hotaru is able to keep Blade-Dawg at bay as even 40% of Kakashi's full strength is more than enough to beat him.
Along with that, Hotaru's has been operating at 1.5 Time Accel, accelerating his thought just enough for a prolonged battle.
Running out of shotgun shells however, Hotaru stored the firearm back into his Pocket Watch and draw out a smoke bomb. Then, he hold his breath.
POOF
Thick smoke blanketed the whole area. Aside from the thick grey smoke, it also accompanied with intense rotting smell. For Hotaru that can willingly turn off his zenses, this is not an issue.
For Kakashi of the Hatake clan however, which is a cousin clan to the Inuzuka, he possess a sensitive smelling sense. While not as impressive as the Inuzuka as well as not inheriting the beastification biology of the Dog Clan, the Hatake still possess a nose far more sensitive than regular.
Blade-Dawg ran out of the smoke cloud as fast as he could, his nose feels like its burns from the pungent smell. He looks left and right, up and down, but Makoto presence was gone. He had gone away.
Blade-Dawg returns White Fang into it's sealed form. No use wasting chakra while maintaining the Shikai of the blade.
No matter. They have the perimeter of the town surrounded and Makoto Hotaru had been shooting down over a thousand Snow Army consist of regular soldiers, Metal Ningen as well as Chimeras. He has to be low on ammunition and he must have barely has enuff chakra now. Just to ensure he can't refill his chakra through self-electrocution, they had also cut off the power supply.
They will get that rat out eventually.
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(((Hotaru)))
Fighting a nerfed Kakashi made me realized that just because I had kiled over a thousand mob characters doesn't mean I can curbstomp the canon characters.
Especially characters as important as Kakashi.
Fucking hell, he beat my ass. I had to dip as soon as I can.
"Nope. No power here."
I try to refill my chakra by jamming forks into power sockets but it looks like they figured out that I can refill my batteries through regular electricity, so they cut off the power.
GRUUUMMMMM
As if the Heavens is on my side, a storm is brewing by the evening. If I can't refill my power with power lines, fine.
I just need to tap into the au naturale source, Lightning itself.
Still, jacking myself up to a 240V power lines is one thing.
This is 500kV of pure power we're talking here. You see, air doesn't usually let electricity flow through it. In order for electrons to pierce through the barrier of atmosphere from the clouds to earth, it requires a huge amount of charge to do so.
I'm not sure I can survive taking on that much power with my puny vessel.
Well, refilling my Chakra Reserve isn't why I am thinking about taking a Lightningbolt head on. I want to take it to wake up the Raiju.
Yep, time for me to wake up this little shit.
In myth, the Raiju has a habit of sleeping in a person's navel. Why? Fuck do I know. Myth and legends tends to make no sense. Anyway, this prompts Raijin to shoot lightning to Raiju to wake it up, which promptly cause people to get strike by lightning.
Before, I had regular chakra just like anyone else. However, when I was 10 I electrocute myself just to get away from Naruto and his Speech no Jutsu crap. That promptly changed my chakra nature from good ol neutral chakra to the constant Lightning chakra it is now.
Basically, I had awakened the Raiju. Completely by accident. Unless I got hit by a Raiton or electrocuted myself by accident, I would never awakened this power.
So, I had concluded that in order to fully awaken The Raiju, I need to receive a real Lightning.
GRRRUUUMMMMMM
I breath in the ionized air on the rooftop of a mundane 3 storey building. Storms always energized me. I can feel my body absorbing the charges in the air, steadily refilling my reserve.
But I cannot beat a nerfed Kakashi just because storms allows me to refill my power passively.
I spread my own charges across the air, taking the ions as my own. Sparks of electricity begin to swirl around me as I steadily circulate the power. Lightning Chakra is not the same as real Lightning. It only mimics it. What you call as lightning is simply the aftereffect of electrons moving across air at 300000km per second, heating the air so hot that it turns into a path of plasma that is 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun.
Unless you have a Kungfu Alien level of Byakugan where you can zoom to subatomic particles level, you dont actually see Electricity.
You just seen the aftermath of its flow.
Personally, I can't see electrons. However, I can feel it like an extension of my own soul. I had barely tapped into what I can do with one of the Four Fundamental Forces. My so called Kekkei Genkai allows me to have godlike power over electricity and I am only limited by my puny amount of chakra.
Right now, I feel like I can smite this whole town. I can harness the storm in a way that would make Sasuke's Kirin looks cute.
The keyword here being feel. I know I can, but right now I cannot.
My authority over Lightning had yet to reach the point to bend the Heaven to my will.
I feel the bioelectric signature of Kakashi and dozens of that weird cyborgs approaching fast. My sensing range is amplified by the storm, allowing me to sense all living beings in kilometers. If I have any bullets left, I would have shoot them all.
But right now, I cannot. I ran out of options. I have not much ammos left. I'm not strong enough to beat a nerfed and brainwashed Kakashi on my own and i only have 2 more clones as spare batteries.
So, I swirl the charges around me. Lightning swirls around me like a galaxy, with me being the supermassive blackhole at the center. I will harness the entire energy in the storm above instead of just waiting for a random bolt to strike.
Fun fact, air is a very effective insulator for electricity.
Plasma however is a very good conductor.
I raise up a Kunai, aiming it to the center of the charges I'm sensing in the storm. I will shoot this Kunai as a railgun while carrying all the charges I am building up to the sky, creating a plasma trail between me and the stormclouds.
A direct link between me and the Heavens.
Blade-Dawg jumped up the roof but its too late as I shoot the Kunai to the Heavens. After that, all I see is pure white and all I feel is pure Nature's Power.
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The domain of a divine being.
That's what I concluded upon arriving here.
I have been searching for The Raiju within my body ever since Killer B had revealed that to me. I have mastered to ability to use Mindscape over the two years of gaining this power but never had I seen the Lightning Beast anyway.
So, the only reasonable explanation for that would be the Raiju resides not in the mental interpretation of my inner world, but rather it resides in what I can only call as my soul.
Soul. Just what is a soul anyway? Even after I was able to use Electromagnetism, I had yet managed to locate my soul. Soul is a substance that surpass known physics. You know it exist, but you just can't touch it. Can't see it. Can't hear it.
Once I am here though, I just know that I am now in my own soul. It's a similar feeling that I got when I got into whatever Domain that Kaguya the Moon Presence had dragged me into when I invoked her with the Moonstone.
How silly that we human thinks we have understood the universe just because some nerds figure out the math of natural phenomenon. That physics is all there is to the world.
The divine is not constrained by the silly rules of the mortal world. Souls came from the divine and returns to the divine.
The Domain of the Raiju is a beautiful one. Everything is made out of charged plasma. The grass are neon green plasma. The flowers are made of plasma made out of many neon colors. Trees that surrounds this Meadow of Lightning has trunks and branches of pure white lightning, and the leaves are neon mint green. The sky above are filled with swirling neon blue and black clouds, with small balls of plasma falls down like snow.
The heat from all the plasma here should have cooked me to dust the moment I set foot in here, yet I felt no heat. It's somewhat pleasingly cold actually.
I walk to the center of the meadow. There, a single boulder lay in the middle. The only mass here that is not made out of plasma. On top of the boulder is a creature with blue and white fur.
It looks like a cross of rabbit, dog and wolf.
No...
Actually, it kinda looks like,
"Pikachu?"
As I muttered, the ears of the creature perked up and it raise its head, opening its jet black eyes.
"Pii??"
It's furry tail stood upright, alert. Its hindlegs bends, tensing for a leap.
"Pipiiiii!!"
It leap, and landed straight on my face. I fell down to the ground on my back, as the creature snuggles to my face. All while its electric charges electrocuting me.
"Brrhhh!!", I grabbed the creature and pull it off my face. It's sparks tingles but it doesnt hurt. The creature squirms in my grasp excitedly as if it is seeing an owner that's been gone the whole day.
"Are you the Raiju?"
"Piiii!"
Oh okay. At least it understand human speech. Would be convenient if it can talk tho.
I set it on ground and it run circles around me. It picked a stick made out of plasma and hand it to me. I took it and throw it away, which it then go and fetch.
The Raiju is commonly depicted as either a dog or a wolf. So I figure it would behave like a dog for the most part.
I'm not sure how time flows in this Domain but from experience I can spend days in here only for a few minutes to pass in the real world. So I can make some time to play with the beast.
So I humor the thing with your usual dog plays. Tug o war, frisbee, chasing, stuff like that. I think it has too much energy after I just get myself hit with the entire energy of a stormcloud so I may as well get it to work off the energy. It's not going to listen to me right now anyway.
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I think its been a week now. Probably.
Man, I thought the creature would calm down after a few hours but instead we had been playing for days! I may not feel tired physically but mentally I just want to die.
I am not a pet person. I was never interested in getting a Summoning Contract even before getting locked out of it because I don't like dealing with animals. The only thing I dont want to deal with more than animals are kids.
They say you can judge what kind of a father a man is by seeing how he treat animals. Considering my relationship with animals is I dont give a shit about them unless I can eat em, that gives my parenthood prospect to be quite... Concerning.
"Alright, that's enuff playing, Raiju."
It's ears drooped in disappoinment, but I stood my ground.
"Cmon. I got people to save. Can you just give me some powerups already?"
Its ears perked up, and then it climb up to my head.
"Oh shi...GYAAAAAA!!!"
My head is electrocuted as Raiju uploaded some sort of Divine knowledge into my brain. While the little rabbit-dog-wolf thing looks nothing more than a uniquely shaped animal, it is still a creature from the Deva Realm. It possess knowledge that is out of this world quite literally. What Raiju had uploaded into my head is not the full capabilities of the Divine Beast Vessel but rather a portion of the divine might which I can handle for now.
And it is...
"Really? Divine Trigger? Are you sure you're not just ripping off from DMC?"
The beast leaped down and wagged its tail.
"Piiiiii!"
Well, apparently Divine Trigger really is a thing here. The information began to click in my head. Divine Trigger is an application of Sage Mode that is unique to people like me who have some sort of divine power resides within them. It pretty much means that Sasuke should has his own Divine Trigger.
However, unlike Beast Sages, summon contractors that learns how to draw in and harness Nature Energy from their summons of the Beast Realm, Divine Triggers gather their power differently.
It depends from person to person. In my case, Raiju Divine Trigger require me to cut through the enemies' chakra and absorb it for myself. Raiju will then consume the chakra and fills in my Divine Reserve, for lack of a better term.
I scratch my head over this game-like power up. Ah whatever, let's just roll with it.
The Raiju leap onto the boulder and curling up.
"So you're going back to sleep?"
The creature wagged once, seemingly to indicate yes.
"well, okay I guess. See you later."
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(((Narrator)))
Makoto Hotaru has left the Domain, Carrying with him the power which the Raikages had sought after.
Raiju remembers how it was summoned from Deva and caught. As a creature of Deva, there's few beings that can defeat it. The ancestor of the Raikages had received Sage of Six Path treasures from their alliance with Gyuuki and Matatabi and with it they had captured several Divine Beasts as a way to rise to the level of power of Divine Blood clans like The Uchiha and Senju. Through invoking the power of other gods, which surpassed Divine Beasts in divinity, they managed to seal them into their body.
However, Raiju may not been able to escape it's sealing, but it sure can resist from giving the damned mortals its powers.
For years, each new Vessel will have to painstakingly try to force Raiju to give up its power, little by little. Sometimes Raiju would slipped up and gave away its secrets. Sometimes Raiju would barter to receive better confinement. Over the course of decades, they had managed to break down Raiju's defiance.
Even so, Raiju had never give them the true Divine Trigger. What they got was just Lightning Armor, capable to resist even the strongest Wind attacks. However it lacks the true offensive capabilities of Raiju Divine Trigger. The past Vessels had thought the Thundering Palm Blade was the extent of their offensive capability.
Then, the Third Raikage died fighting Namikaze Minato, assisted by Makoto Raikou, an unremarkable ex Kumo-nin that defected to Konoha. He had mediocre chakra reserve and not particularly talented in fighting. What he had was just pure spite. Somehow through sheer spite, Makoto Raikou, a 16 years old mediocre Chuunin had joined the Minato Squad and aided in many missions during the Third Great War.
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"We did it... We actually did it..."
Makoto Raikou kneeled behind the corpse of the Sandaime Raikage, who died from the being stabbed in the back using Raijin Blade, the legendary sword used to belonged to Senju Tobirama.
The Raikage was protected by the Lightning Armor, a divine armor powered by the Divine Beast Raiju which was sealed into him. One of the most surefire way to break through the armor is by using the power of a god. The Raijin Blade is imbued with the power of Raijin himself, who is the direct superior to Raiju.
The Raiju cannot resist the power of its master at all. It is the greatest weakness of Raiju Vessel.
However, the Raikage was aware lf this. He knows that Konoha possess the Raijin Blade. So during the battle, Namikaze Minato had wielded the divine blade to battle him.
And Raikou had hidden himself until the most crucial moment where Minato will "slipped up" and lose the blade and Raikou would use his one single chance to stab the Raikage in the back when Minato gives him an opening.
The plan worked. And now the Sandaime Raikage is dead.
"Good work, Raikou."
Minato collapsed beside him, tired out from battling the Invincible Thunder. Even after mastering the Hiraishin, the bulwark of a man was hardly fazed by him. If it not because Minato had set up a final trap to kill him, he would have lose.
"Now what?", Raikou asked, more to himself. For years, he yearns to kill the Raikage for dragging him into the Shinobi World when he was nothing more than just a regular farm boy, forced to become expendable pawn for a war he had never been part off.
He and his father was forcefully conscripted, leaving his mother behind alone. Weeks later, he received news that his village had been scorched to the ground by Hotspring-nin which sided with Konoha. His mother died in the flames. His father had not lasted even a week as a frontline conscript, his corpse rotting somewhere at the Wood Country.
He had swore to take down the Raikage somehow for this, which was why he defected to Konoha the first chance he got. He had found a wounded Minato trying to escape a contigent of Ame-nin at the Rain Theater. Instead of killing him, Raikou had instead helped him in exchange for vouching for his defection.
That was 3 years ago.
Minato then smirked.
"Well, I guess you can finally let go of your grudge and finally confess to that singer girl back home. What was her name, Shizuka?"
Raikou grunted. He's not a man of many words. He become even more silent as many still suspects over his true loyalty. This lead to Raikou to has a reputation of a stoic and silent man.
Raikou was just socially awkward and bad at conversations. So he figure, he cant embarrass himself if he doesn't socialize.
Before he could respond further however, the back of Raikage crackled with Lightning. Raikou and Minato hastily stood up, hands ready with kunais in anticipation of the possibility that the Raikage is still alive.
However, instead what came out was a rabbitlike dog. Its fur frazzled and matted and it looks emaciated. Small sparks of lightning flickered across it.
"It's the Raiju...", Minato observes it with fascination.
Before he could warn off Raikou however, Raikou had kneeled down and taken the broken creature. He cradled it with care like a child.
"This is an opportunity, Raikou. If we can seal it into us, we can gain powers like the elite clans! Like the Raikages!", Minato exclaimed excitedly.
"No.", Raikou shook his head. "Remember your ideals, Minato. You want to end the Age of Shinobi. You want to end this nonsensical world of ours. If you enslave this creature, you will be like the Kages. Like our oppressors. Do not do that, Minato."
Minato deflates. "You're right. I slipped up my judgement for the sake of easy power. But what can we with do with the beast? We can't bring it back with us to Konoha. And we can't leave it here either for Kumo to retrieve. The beast is too weak to defend itself."
Raikou mulled a bit. And then he find a solution.
"Then I will make a contract with Raiju. Raiju, you can rest and recuperate in my soul. Take my chakra as nourishment. In exchange, I will never ask for your power unless it is crucial for both of our survival, and only with your consent. Will you accept?"
At that point, Raiju would have accepted any terms. Raikou didn't need to set up terms favorable for it at all. However, Raiju will remember this.
He will never forget this mortal's kindness and honor.
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"piiiiii..."
Raiju solemnly falls into sleep. It remembers the few times he was awake to aid Raikou. He was never a proper Vessel, never had he used the Raiju to self-evolve his body to be the mass of steel-like body like the Raikage. Raikou had retired from active duty at the end of the war as nothing more than a mediocre Chuunin. Never had he asked the Raiju for anything other than small aid of power to help them survive.
On the night of the Kyuubi attack however, as Makoto Raikou was dying in the hospital as the Nara clan tries to extract the Raiju out from him, Raikou had made a dying plea in the Domain.
Protect his child. Thats all that he had asked.
The Raiju had answered in kind. It then enters the body of Makoto Hotaru and slumber, until it was finally awakened by a jolt of electricity. Since then, while not fully awake Raiju had slowly guided the boy to self-evolve his body. Most of Makoto Hotaru's finesse over controlling his own brainwaves as well as manipulating electricity at the most precise level was only possible because Raiju had been handling most of the calculations.
Boy that kid is bad at math. You'd think an eldritch soul like his would be superskilled with all the past lives that had integrated into to the soul but no, the only thing the new incarnations ever remember each time was the weeb knowledge.
How can a soul that's so old it makes even the Devas flinch at sight of it can be so dumb is beyond Raiju's comprehension.
"piiii..."
The Raiju lulls into slumber once again.
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(((Hotaru)))
"urghh..."
I groggily stood up over the ruin of the building i was on before. The lightning strike I had just received was so huge that it actually broke the building.
"What had you done?"
Blade-Dawg looks like he was charred alive but he seems well enough. White Fang crackled with lightning. Ah, it looks like he had cut through the blast, which is why he had survived.
"Well you know how it is. MCs always gets powerups whenever they meet strong opponents and almost died, so I figure, hey, let's just get myself get a smite by lightning. That should give me a powerup."
"And did you did get one?", Blade-Dawg enter a battle stance, his Armor slides its parts to form the helm of his armor.
My own Armor did the same and I am encased in my own helm. "Beats me. Let's find out."
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(((Narrator)))
Hotaru and Blade-Dawg clashed their swords once again. However, something was changed with Hotaru.
Before, Blade-Dawg had the upper hand but now it is different. Hotaru has been able to keep up with him now.
It's the eyes! He has Blue Sharingan!
Trajectory Projection and Critical Flaw works in tandem. It shows Hotaru the path of Blade-Dawg swordswings and the most optimal path to parry it through Critical Flaw. Makoto Hotaru may had called his Kenjutsu style as Dark Slayer but he is hardly a real swordman. Against the real deal, Makoto Hotaru will lose.
Which is why Hotaru had always been cheating. Which who cares? They're ninjas. Since when do they have honor?
When Hotaru had met the Blue Moon Goddess, he just know he has to get a magic eyeballs for himself right then and there. He had picked the First and Second Tomoe abilities precisely because of how broken it would be when used in tandem with his combat style.
The Uchiha has the Interceptor Fist, a fanon Taijutsu style that's only reach its full potential with the usage of Sharingan. Similarly, Hotaru's combat style is only complete when used in tandem with his unnamed Doujutsu.
His fighting style is weird!?
KLANG
DANG DANG
KANG
The two of them clash their swords, neither giving ground. However, Blade-Dawg felt so much more pressured than any normal swordfights he could remember.
DANG
KANG KANG
KLANG
I get it! He's not aiming to strike my body at all through opening.
Hotaru once again parry with critical precision. Each made Blade-Dawg feel his sword is going to break.
His Kenjutsu style aims to destroy the weapon itself!!
Hotaru had figured that he could never really beat any real swordman in a straight swordfight. The essence of swordfighting can be simplified to keep parrying or block one and another weapons until one managed to slip through the opening and deal a debilitating blow.
Simply put, swordfights are about getting pass each other defense to deal a strike. Find an opening and strike.
Hotaru has no time to learn all that opening crap. The only other person he had practiced swordmanship was Sasuke who is hardly a master swordman himself. So rather than learning how to kill another swordman...
He learns how to destroy the swords instead.
KANG
DANG
DANG
Trajectory Projection is great for sniping, but upon reaching Jounin level, most ninjas operates at the speed of sound and beyond. At some point a lot of Hotaru's hypersonic bullets wouldn't be much of a threat to them. Trajectory Projection purpose is more than that, it allows Hotaru to see the path of movement of anything he desires. Coupled with Critical Flaw, this gives Hotaru the most optimal path to parry and strike another weapon.
This means that Hotaru can strike directly to any weapon's weakpoints. Hotaru's swordmanship is not about wounding the opponent.
Its about destroying the opponent's weapon.
Thank lord I rewatched Katanagatari!
Black-Dawg tries to disengage but Hotaru keep his pace to him, adding more strikes to the same weakpoint over and over again.
What kind of a lunatic decides to learn this kind of swordmanship?!!
Swordmen are used to fighting people trying to get past their defenses. That is the normal way to fight. The efficient way to fight. Keep the fight short as you look for opening and deal the strikes.
The idea of aiming to destroy a weapon directly is ludicrous! No one in their right mind would choose to do this. Breaking the enemy's weapon is not easy and require a lot of energy and time to do so. So most did not learn how to destroy weapons midfight. Therefore, no one is trained over how to defend against this kind of fighting.
Which is why for the first time in Kakashi's life, he felt out of depth as swordman.
DANG
DANG
KANG
Hotaru keeps the pressure in him. Each strike is perfect. Blade-Dawg's battle reflex keep positioning his sword to defend but this just gives Hotaru free window to damage his sword further. The spot he is hitting is perfect. Each strike was strike hard, numbing Blade-Dawg's arms. When he try to return the attack, Hotaru parry it perfectly.
CHKK
Blade-Dawg's lone eye went wide. White Fang had clashed against many swords, some of them were Spirit Blades too, but never had any of them managed to chipped the edge let alone fracture it.
But now, a thin crack had appeared on the pure white blade. Everything has flaw in their structure, even a Spirit Blade. By keep striking the same Critical Flaw, Hotaru had managed to do something no one ever did. He cracked White Fang in its Shikai form.
CHKK
CHKKK
CHKKK
More cracks appears on the blade with each strike. At this rate, White Fang is going to be-!
WOOSH
Then, for some reason, Hotaru disengaged and backpedaled away from the fight. Blade-Dawg was confused, so he couldn't help but asked,
"Why did you stop? You almost broke my blade."
To which he answers.
"Kakashi would be sad if I broke his sword. I always thought its such a waste that it got destroyed in canon "
Blade-Dawg scoffed.
"You decided to spare this blade for that loser? Hah! That pathetic lazy slob?!"
Hotaru tilt his head.
"You knew you're a fake?"
"Oh, I'm aware.", he pumped more chakra into White Fang, restoring the blade. "I am the personification of Hatake Kakashi's self-hatred. I despise the original, you see. All that talents, all that gifts, and what does he do with it?"
Blade-Dawg spat. Like actually brought down his helm and facemask and spit to the ground just to get his point across.
"he waste his time sulking at graves and whatever free time he had left is spent reading smut! He could have been the next Kage now but instead he is too busy being depressed to bother! The son of Sakumo the White Fang, Sakumo who was said to be stronger than the Sannin at their prime decides he rather waste his time rotting away like a zombie instead of improving himself to reach the levels of his father and mentor!"
Hotaru sheathed his sword. He figured this is the part where you have a heart to heart with a villain character and learn their motivation and sad backstory.
"Yea I know. He's such a deadbeat. Totally useless."
Hotaru stretched his body. Its been a long day and he really wants to get this over with.
"Still. I'm going to need you to give his body back."
"Hah! Over my dead body! You are a fool, Makoto Hotaru. You had the chance to deny me my weapon yet you choose to spare my sword for the sake of sentimentality. Don't think I will be fooled by your odd swordmanship again."
"yeah well, i stopped not just because I dont want to break White Fang."
The smell of ozone permeates the ait as power began to surge from Hotaru.
"I stopped because I had just filled my DT bar to full."
Fuck you!!
As Hotaru raised his middle finger to the air, a blast of power surged from him like a dome and hit Blade-Dawg head on. The Chakra Armor protected him from the most of it but the blast threw him back. Also he swears he had heard fuck you echoes within the blast itself.
He looks around to seek of Hotaru but he is,
BAMM!!
At great speed, Hotaru punched him the face. Big mistake on his part to take down his helm just to spit.
Even more foolish for Hotaru to not take advantage and punch his face to the death either.
Blade-Dawg backpedals away, and now he sees Makoto Hotaru in his newly awakened Divine Trigger form.
A pair of horns in the shape of inverted and curved lightning symbol emanates as plasma on his head. His gauntlets and greaves are wreathed in plasma, crudely shaped like claws of a beast.
This is the First Stage of the True Raiju Divine Trigger that the Raikage's ancestor yearns for, but never managed to gained. Lightning Armor was powerful but it is only a fraction of the true Divine Trigger. The true form of the Raiju DT is to become a being of plasma itself.
10 seconds. I have 10 seconds.
Not wasting anymore time, Hotaru rushed toward Blade-Dawg before he can collect himself. With an uppercut, he sent him flying up to the air and Hotaru leap above him.
Then, he spun down in a rotating axe kick, so fast that he looks like a electrical grinder sawing through the chakra armor forcefield. The Chakra Core reserve rapidly decreased as it is tanking not just any regular chakra attack.
This is Divine Lightning. Its so much more pure and powerful than normal Raiton.
Hotaru stops rotating as they hit ground and he wildly swing his claws. Each strike depletes the Chakra Core further. Blade-Dawg could only scream is pain as some of Divine Lightning break past the forcefield of the armor and electrocute him.
Hotaru is relentless..he makes every seconds count. Then, he copied Kick 13 from DMC and unleashed a combo of punches and kicks before bending down for a final strike.
[Dragon Strike]
Putting all his remaining Divine power in this final punch, he delivers a punch straight to the Chakra Core and it broke through as three explosive shockwave punch through it like a jackhammer, destroying the core in process. Blade-Dawg landed on his back hard, and knocked unconscious as his head hit the ground.
Hotaru collapsed to the ground. The burden of utilizing Divine Trigger is so much more heavier than expected. His body had barely able to contain that much power without exploding in the process. No. The reason why he didn't explode right away was only because the Raiju handles most of the fine control of the energy.
This is not a power that Hotaru had anticipated. But now he knows he needs to self-evolve his body to better able to contain divine energy.
No matter, right now he needs..
PRAKK
An huge inky black bird landed beside him.
"Need assistance?", Sai, the ROOT agent asked.
"Fuck you.", Hotaru complains. "Just get me and Kakashi to base."
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(((Hotaru)))
Urghh... Fuck this day, really. I cancelled my infiltration plan, massacre a bunch of Snow NPCs and fight a nerfed Kakashi of all people.
Welp, at least I retrieved him.
After taking some short rest and eat something, I went to the ROOT interrogation room. Blade-Dawg was tied up to the chair to the point you may as well say he had merged with the chair and his chakra is sealed with paper tags.
Fucking hell. Paper is overpowered in Narutoverse. I bet the Paper here beat Scissor.
I had contacted Danzo and he will arrange my ride to Snow tomorrow. Seriously this rando sidequest in Vietnam... I mean Rice has gone long enough as it is. Time to move on.
But first, I will take down Kakashi's brainwashing. Considering the current plot thats going on, Kakashi will be crucial at the final moment and deliver a sword that is not mine. Sorry Naruto but I had the foreshadowing that HF Yamato v7 is going to break somehow whenever I fight the Senator.
In a weird way, I am looking forward to the nonsense speech I will be subjected to.
Alright Kakashi, here we go.
I grabbed his head and connected my Mindscape to his.
ZZUUUUUUUUU
POOF
I poof into Kakashi's Mindscape. Its a rather dreary place really. Most Mindscapes are a messy jumble of mess with little structure and it takes years of training to shape it into something coherent.
Kakashi's Mindscape takes the form of tangled vines and roots. The flowers of the vines looks like rotting purpling meat. It cling tightly to the few trees here, sucking out whatever happiness contained within the trees.
Gee, very subtle.
The trees obviously represents the people he cared about. I mean the sakura tree is obviously an allegory for Sakura.
Unfortunately, I am no tree expert and hava zero idea what kind of trees are around here. My botanical prowess only goes as far as to recognize fruits. I still have no idea over how to differentiate between mustard and kale.
Whatever.
What I came here for is the cube that floats in the middle of this Mindscape. I fly toward it and inspect the cube. Now I know that Kotoamatsukami in canon can brainwash you in a glance and the effect is absolute but it can only be done once a decade for each of Shisui's eye. Here, Shisui's Mangekyo ability is not as broken as the original, but in return he has no long cooldown limitation.
Honestly, this fanfic version of him is way more problematic for me. Gimme a break.
Now, for anyone else this mental cube prison may as well as be absolute to anyone else to be broken, even for a Yamanaka, but I have a technique that can rival Kotoamatsukami.
[Kyouka Suigetsu]
I push my will against the prison. St the end of the day, this prison is just another electrical waveform and I am the master of electrical manipulation. The battle between me and Shisui is about who is better in the Mental Arts.
Soon enough, I broke through the first layer and enter the cube.
I found myself in Kakashi's memories instead. I seen him meeting Gai for the first time alongside with their fathers. Immediately it clicked to me.
This is how Shisui keep Kakashi's real personality contained. He imprisoned him within his own traumas, looping it over and over again. If I have to guess he had to be imprisoning Kakashi under three layers of his worst nightmare.
I sighed.
There's nothing I can do but to let it play it out. FML.
I gonna have to play therapist for Kakashi, isn't it?
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(((AN)))
Urghh, been so busy at work. I think I lost a lot of humor IQ for the past two weeks.
I wasn't really satisfied with this chapter but welp, I just want to get it over with.
Coming up next, Makoto Hotaru our resident insane kid embark in the quest of I Can Fix Him: Kakashi edition.
Will the next chapter be a heart touching moment or will Hotaru proceed to go fuck it and ruin Kakashi's traumas? We'll see.
Now, I want to share a personal ghost story of mine.
I was in a boarding school back then. I was insomniac and cant sleep at night. Its 2am something and I was in bed in dorm, just stare to the bunkbed atop of me to oblivion and I go,
"This is fucking boring. I just gonna borrow my fren's phone and watch something."
It was fucking Twilight. The only movie in there. I figure it'll be so boring it'll put me to sleep in seconds.
I ended up watching the whole thing while not remembering any of it at all. Shit was so trash that my brain refuse to remember it.
But eh, I finally feel drowsy enough to sleep, so i put down the phone to the bed next to me beside me, in-between of the beds of me and my friend's is a rotting corpse.
Fucker had been watching Twilight with me the whole time.
In the dim light, I see maggots crawling all over its face and we sorta locked eyes for a bit probably
And I just,
"eh."
I face to the other side of the bed, say some prayer and doze off immediately. "I am too lazy to deal with this supernatural bullshit", was my thought at the time.
Then at dawn I woke up, and I recall what had actually happened before i gone asleep and laughed my ass off. Then I go to school.
Now, you may think I am trolling. But that's hardly the most ridiculous of supernatural stories I have, experienced by me or someone I know off. Whether you believe me or think I am joking doesn't really matter. Just felt like sharing.