Naruto: Tales of Ashihara
Prologue – Arc 1: The Soul Robber
.
Chapter 2: The Village of Dragon Fire
.
The giant octopus monster has been defeated for now. The people of the village were all there thanking the Konoha-nin for their help, but unfortunately, the village's leader was nowhere to be seen.
"Can we really stay here without the leader's permission?" asks Hinata.
"Don't worry, we'll ask him when he'll come back. For now we'll take our vacation until he comes back, if he ever does." answers Naruto.
Naruto grabs Hinata's hand and goes to join Shikamaru in the village's hostel. The smart head of the group is ordering their stay places.
"Excuse me?" asks Shikamaru to the hostel's receptionist. "Good morning. Are there any rooms left? We'd like to take 4 if possible."
"Yes, Good morning and Welcome!" answers the young looking lady. "Of course there are. Do they have to be near to each other?"
"Not necessarily."
"4 chambers? but we're 5." asks Hinata to Shikamaru.
"Yes but you and Naruto are a couple now. Isn't it okay for you to share the same room?"
"Oh? Well, I guess it is..."
"Here you go!" says the receptionist, "Your rooms are outside at the end of the courtyard. My name is Natsuri Yokawa. Come to me if you have any question or need anything."
"Thank you, We'll remember this advice, miss Yokawa." answers Shikamaru speaking for everyone.
"You're still as good as usual with the all the talk things Shikamaru" says Naruto, "you'd really make a good advisor for the Hokage."
"What are you saying? I just asked for rooms in an almost empty hotel because none of you was there already, it wasn't that much of a drag."
"Yeah, don't know... I just wanted to say that."
"I guess I'll end up as the seventh's advisor in a few years, is it?"
"Yeah, Who knows?" says Naruto, a bit embarrassed by Shikamaru's lack of goof.
"I do."
"... Well, yes. Of course you..." answers Naruto after a brief silence.
He feels awkward. Maybe Shikamaru is sick of him still bragging about becoming the Hokage when it just became obvious at this point. Or maybe he's just tired, he looks really tired. Naruto was just now standing there, hoping for someone to change the subject and save him from this moment.
"So should we go to check our rooms now?" says Hinata to help Naruto out of his embarrassment.
"Ok you can all stay and take a break. I'll go around the village searching for some information about it and the leader." suggested Sakura.
"Great, I'll just go inspect the hotel's restaurant, I'm already starving!" says Choji. "Shikamaru, you with me?"
"Sigh... I guess. You probably don't have any money and someone's got to pay for whatever you're gonna buy."
"Naruto, ..." says Hinata holding Naruto's hand, "... Come with me."
Naruto just lets Hinata go dragging him with her. The group dispatched, only Sakura stays there. Watching Hinata go with Naruto she thinks. Now they're finally together, and Hinata really seems different. It's as if all the shyness left her body the moment Naruto confessed to her. It feels like she's finally freed of something that was keeping her down all these years. On the contrary, Naruto seems to be the shy one now. He really needs to learn about women and relationships, and Hinata's here for that. Still looking at them leaving for their room, she smiles and thinks of how they both grew a lot to end up together.
"Well, I have to learn more about this village now." she says to her own self.
Ryuka no Sato, or the village of Dragon's fire, is a small touristic village on the east border of the Land of Fire, located not far away from the frontier with the land of Hot Water. It is hidden between a large mountain and is crossed by a large beach. This beach going through the whole village is what made it famous as a touristic destination in the land of Fire. The mountain hiding the village used to be the Yamanaka clan's habitat during the warring states era, before Konoha was founded and the Yamanaka clan chose to join it.
This village was founded nearly 200 years before Konoha by a descendant of the Yamanaka. The village's leadership was then passed down to his descendants: The Minamoto Clan. This family is living in a huge mansion in the middle of the village called the Minamoto mansion. The seventh head of the village, Riku Minamoto, has been leading the village for more than 30 years, since a very young age, because his father died when he was still a teenager. He made the village go through a very ambitious reconstruction after the damages caused by the fourth war 2 years ago, without asking neither the help of the Hokage, as he wants to maintain his family's path for the village, which is keeping it away from war and hidden village's concerns.
"There's actually way more to the clan leaders' story." says Tsubai to Sasuke as they are getting close to the village. "My father Riku leads the village since he's 14. His father died when his second child was born. This second child is an uncle of mine. I don't know where the damn he is now and I don't really care about it, but before my grandfather, all the clan leader were dying right at the time of their first child's birth, who somehow always are boys, don't ask me how. We see it as some kind of curse of unknown nature,... unknown to me at least. My grandfather escaped this curse and survived my old man's birth, but still died when my uncle was born. Now my father survived my coming, but also survived when my younger sister came. So he's kinda the chad of the family, but who knows maybe he'll die if he ever has a third child. And then I'll become the leader and die when my fourth child is born, which is pretty cool because I don't expect to have that many children. However I don't think my old man can still have a third child at this point..."
"You noticed that Sasuke isn't listening, did you?" says Himari interrupting Tsubai's long monologue.
"Huh? Seriously? Hey dumb ass, were you not paying attention, I was talking to you!"
Sasuke is lost in his thought, still thinking about the man he encountered, but also about who he's gonna meet in the Ryuka village. Coming back to reality, he turns to Tsubai.
"So do you know what this Katashiki could have wanted from you?" he asks.
"You really weren't listening? ..." says Tsubai, who sighs, and moves on. "Oh, Whatever... No I don't know."
This shadow creature that the enemy had with him also had the same red Rinnegans. But it clearly wasn't as conscious as a human being. It really behaved like an animal, or even a puppet. Was Katashiki controlling it the same way Nagato controlled his Pain bodies? The moment he summoned this beast, he said a thing, Umashi something. Was it the name of the jutsu he uses to control this thing? This thing wearing the rinnegan definitely means it's related to an ability of his eye. Is this jutsu a unique ability Sasuke never heard of before? Could it be Katashiki's rinnegan unique ability like Ameno Tejikara is his eye prowess?
It would mean every Rinnegan user has an ability apart from the Rikudo no Jutsu and the Gedo, that only the original wielder of the eye can use. It would make sense, Madara's rinnegan allowed him to control these invisible clones, and the Rikudo-Sennin certainly had the jutsu he used to create the Bijus in his eyes.
But this Katashiki, he fled away using the same jutsu Sasuke recently discovered. He opened some circular black portal in space that obviously transported him to some other place, or dimension. Why is his eye able to do that? Sasuke thought this was just an alternate use of his Ameno Tejikara until now, but it is apparently a common rinnegan ability. But why wasn't Madara or the Rikudo-Sennin able to use this same jutsu? Maybe they were but they just didn't show it...
A man with pale skin, horns, a dojutsu, and space-time ninjutsu... This is already a lot of similarities with Kaguya. Obito, Madara, others Juubi jinchurikis. Even Naruto shares some similarities with her when it comes to the feeling they emanate, but Katashiki's chakra really isn't like Juubi's or Kaguya's. It sure is huge, but it isn't Biju chakra. What is he? What kind of being can share so much similarities with Kaguya but not be Juubi's jinchuriki. Since when is he around? Why does he only show up now?
Sasuke is still asking himself the same unanswered questions that came to his mind when he first met this man. As he thinks of it, he realizes he lacks just as much information about who Kaguya actually was. All he knows is she ate the God tree's fruit and is the Rikudo Sennin's mother, but where did she come from? How old was she before eating the fruit? How did she get her children? All these interrogations he had about Kaguya is the reason why he was trying to go back to her dimensions.
His learning of this space-time jutsu and his investigation of the different dimensions that Kaguya showed them will have to wait until he takes care of Katashiki. He doesn't know who he is and what links him to Kaguya Otsutsuki, but he knows that every people that presented this kind of traits like the horns, or who used a rinnegan were all threats big enough to destroy the world, even effortlessly for some of them. He has to eliminate this man as soon as possible, but at the same time, his existence and nature make him very curious. He wants to learn more about Katashiki so he's still looking for an occasion to talk with him or simply get to learn more.
As Sasuke was thinking, the trio was progressing and is now able to see the village not far away.
"There we are!" says Himari. "That's the place, the village of Dragon's fire. The village leaded by Tsubai's family. Your friends, including the great and famous Naruto Uzumaki, must be here already!"
Tsubai's family, The Minamoto clan. They could be the ones to know what makes Tsubai a target for someone like Katashiki. After he finds Naruto and Sakura, Sasuke will have to find Tsubai's father to seek for answers.
They've been walking through the country the whole day and night, went around the Yamanaka mountain, and finally reached their destination. Just by getting close to the village, and without even trying, Sasuke could already feel Naruto's chakra coming from the place.
"Damn that's some damn huge chakra we can feel there." says Tsubai with his usual tired voice. "It must be the noodle-guy. There are some other shinobis on the place right now, but I don't recognize my father or any of the guys that were with him the last time."
"Sasuke!" exclaims Himari. "Maybe your girlfriend is one of the ninjas that are here too!"
"I already know that she's there with him." calmly answers Sasuke. "The Hokage told me already. If they're here for vacation, we won't be bothering them."
Right before finally entering the village, Sasuke feels somehting odd. He stops and examines his surroundings.
"What's wrong?" asks Himari, confused.
"Something's here." says Tsubai, who gets the same feeling as the Uchiha. "It's getting closer. No, not something, but some things... Here!"
On his left, he sees a 4-tailed beast, resembling a bear, jump toward them. Sasuke immediately leaps forward to it and pushes the thing back in the forest with a simple kick.
"Thanks!" Says Himari. "T'was pretty quick. You didn't even need any super power like the last time."
"It isn't over!" interrupts Tsubai, stepping in front of her. "There are more of them."
As Sasuke gets out of the way, Tsubai lifts his hands up and makes a few hand seals: Monkey, Bird, Dog, Ram...
Katon – Kaen Senpu (Fire Style – Flame Whirlwind)
He throws a large fire spiral in direction of the trees among which the bear-like thing fell. The trees in the way are completely burnt up in seconds by the fire, which leaves Sasuke quite impressed. He didn't expect Tsubai to be a skilled shinobi after what he said to him when they met.
They can now see many beasts in the forest on the bear's side, including a giant fire bird who seems to have absorbed Tsubai's jutsu. This bird spreads his giant wings to lift his body in the air and reveals his real size, more than 20 meters. They can also see 9 long fire feathers in his back. Right where the beast was standing on the ground are standing all the other creatures, all more than 5 meters tall. The 4-tailed bear, a 5-tailed giant rat, a 6-tailed giant blue fire fox and an enormous 7-tailed lion.
This monstrous show reminds Sasuke of the Bijus. Did Katashiki actually create his own tailed beasts? Does it mean he actually split the Ten-tails too, like the Rikudo-Sennin did? How could it be? The Juubi was already split in the original well-known Bijus.
"Are those the actual Bijus?" asks Tsubai. "I thought they were bigger. And I thought your noodle-friend had the Nine-Tailed one sealed inside of him."
"And I thought the Nine-tails was a fox!" adds Himari, who feels like she needs to speak louder in presence of this giant figures.
"These aren't the real Bijus." says Sasuke, who despite being unable to solve his own questions, can still answer theirs. "The Bijus I know are taller and don't look like that."
"Bigger than that?" exclaims Himari. "These things are already big and scary enough! I really don't want to meet the ones you know then."
"Wait?" says Tsubai. "These are 6 more Bijus, different from those you know? I thought there were only 10 of these things, if we count the 10th bastard."
"Enough Questions!" shouts Sasuke before unleashing a large wave of black flames on the beast crowd. "Begone already!"
At his great surprise, each of the beasts open both their eyes to reveal the exact same Rinnegan as Katashiki and all absorb the flames burning them. He understands that these bijus all can use their creator's dojutsu, but aren't like The 6 bodies of Pain. Each of Pain's bodies could only use the Rinnegan path powers that Nagato passed to it. However, all these beasts used the same paths, Gakido, together. It would mean that each of them can also create black receivers and use the Tendo and Ningendo abilities as these are the only powers Sasuke is sure that Katashiki has.
"Shit! Look out!" screams Tsubai as all the beasts concentrate their chakra in front of them.
They all fire their chakra at the same time like ray beams in direction of Sasuke only, who manages to dodge any damage by summoning Susanoo to protect him. The spectral armor endures their attack with not too much difficultiy. Before any of the monsters has time to start another move, Sasuke points his Susanoo's bow in direction of the nine-tailed phoenix above them. If he has the most tails, he must the one who's powers equals Kyubi's, he thinks. It must be eliminated first then. Sasuke throws a burst of Susanoo arrows at the phoenix, unable to dodge.
Hurt, the giant bird falls to the ground right on the other beasts, with one of his wings over the Susanoo. Sasuke makes his jutsu grow bigger and put on a second layer of armor to take Tsubai and Himari under its protection too. The bird crashing crushes the other 5 beasts but is unable to harm the Susanoo. A sword appears in the Susanoo's other hand and cuts off the giant wing that covers it.
"Wow Thank you again!" says Himari. "How many powers do you have, seriously? You didn't use this one until now. They won't be able to break through now."
"Shit! Look out again behind you!" screams Tsubai again as a new circular portal has appeared inside of the Susanoo, right behind Sasuke.
Long shadow claws come out of the portal and break through the spectral armor from inside. Whom the claws belong to steps entirely out of the portal and stands still for a moment inside the damaged Susanoo. It is the shadow from the last time. They can now clearly see the shadow's silhouette. It resembles a woman with long hairs floating in the air in the form of 2 shadow tails. It has beast-like members with long claws and a monstrous mouth with sharp teeth. But the two most notable things about it was the pair of rinnegan that Sasuke already noticed the last time, and the large horns on top of its skull.
The beast suddenly grows inside the Susanoo until it reaches 8 meters of height, and completely shatters the Susanoo from the inside. Sasuke tries to reach for his sword and Tsubai tries to join his hands to prepare a jutsu, but none of them is able to move. Neither could Himari next to them. They only stand still, paralyzed on spot. On the ground, Sasuke notices their shadows being as black as the beast, and all in physical contact with it.
Kage Shibari no Jutsu (Shadow Paralysis Jutsu)
The beast is using the Nara clan's Hijutsu, but without any hand seal. With all three unable to move, the shadow monster turns its fingers in their direction and quickly makes its claws grow longer to pierce and kill, but only Sasuke and Himari, not Tsubai. Fortunately, this hit doesn't land on time. The beast is suddenly thrown many hundreds of meters away from the village by a powerful punch to the face. The Uchiha looks up to see the person who just saved them.
"Sakura?" he says.
"Sasuke?" says Sakura, who lands next to them. "It's been a long time!"
"Thank youuu Madam!" sings Himari while jumping to Sakura. "You saved our lives, we were all about to diiie!"
"Sasuke could have absorbed that." says Tsubai to calm Himari's enthusiasm.
"Could he? Is there something he can't do by himself."
"Apparently, he can't avoid getting into troubles." answers Sakura looking at Sasuke as if she was seeing him for the first time again.
"That's my bad. I'm the one who's in trouble." says Tsubai to Sakura. "Your boyfriend is just trying to help out a random stranger and his sidekick."
"Sidekick?", says Himari. "Did you call me your sidekick, Tsubai?"
"Boyfriend?" asks Sakura blushing and turning to see Sasuke. "Did you tell them that?"
"There's no time for talking now!" says Sasuke as the beasts are all coming back to their senses and standing up. "I'll explain what's going on later. For now they are coming back."
At the same time on the beach inside the village, people run away from the water as it is being sucked down some kind of giant typhoon under water. Shikamaru and Choji arrive on the place right in time to see the giant Octopus emerge from the water, again.
"It's back!" exclaims Choji. "So Naruto was right, It wasn't over."
"Damn what a drag!" says Shikamaru. "Is it me or it got way bigger than this morning?"
"Come on, let's deal with it!"
Cho Baika no Jutsu (Super Expansion Jutsu)
Choji makes himself 30 meters tall and tries to push the Octopus back in the water. The monster reacts quickly by surrounding Choji's body with his tentacles, restraining his movements and trying to choke him.
Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Manipulation Jutsu)
Shikamaru connects his shadow to the giant beast's and keeps it from closing its tentacles any tighter, which allows Choji to break free. But before he could do anything more, The octopus absorbs the shadows restraining it from the ground, and reveals his eyes to his opponents.
"What?" thinks Shikamaru. "Rinnegan? How can this be?"
The monster, now free to move again grasps Choji's hand, who was ready punch it. By using his tentacles, it lifts the Akimichi up in the air and throws him away in the ocean, with ease. Turning back to the beach, it starts to crawl out of water to reach the village.
"Shikamaru!" says Naruto arriving on the place. "Is everybody safe and off the beach?"
"Naruto?" answers Shikamaru, in a hurry. "Yes, The field's empty. Be careful It got rinnegans."
"Yeah I saw that. My turn now."
Naruto enters his Kurama Chakra Mode and jumps to face the monster himself. Seeing this yellow shining thing head toward it, the octopus throws his tentacles on the beach to crush everything it sees, only for them to be stopped by the tails of Kurama's avatar form. Standing in front of him, Kurama grabs the beast's tentacles and bites off one of them before pushing the creature away from the beach. Inside of the spectral Kurama's head, Naruto crosses his fingers.
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)
He makes two clones and sends them ahead. One of them jumps behind the octopus and gets Choji who's been thrown away. The other stays in front of the octopus. The Kurama avatar hits the giant beast with a powerful tail slap.
"I'm not letting you flee this time!" shouts Kurama at the octopus that's falling back in the sea.
Kurama grabs the monster's giant head to keep it in place while the other clone still in front of it is falling down on it. In addition to the Kurama Chakra Mode, the clone activates its Sage Mode and gets ready to strike.
Senpo: Jiton – Rasengan (Sage art: Magnet Style – Rasengan)
The clone hits the octopus with his sealing rasengan, knocking him down and keeping it from teleporting away. Using his sage mode's sensitive abilities, he traces the monster's chakra to find its origin.
"Tsk, This fox bastard!" says Katashiki, hidden far away from this land. "He's forcing me to give this Tsukumogami up."
"Too late! Found you already!" says Naruto's clone smiling as he feels the mysterious source's chakra fade away in the beast."
The giant octopus' body suddenly explodes and disintegrates completely. Fortunately again, Naruto is able to contain the explosion with the nine tails of Kurama's spectral form. Even though his clone got blown up in the explosion, all the information he gathered went to the original Naruto's memory. He now knows the location of the octopus' summoner.
"So fast, and efficient, as usual from Naruto." says Shikamaru to Naruto and his clone, coming back on the beach with Choji safe.
"Take care of Choji." says the clone before disappearing.
"There's no time to loose, I'm going to join Sakura and Sasuke now." adds the original.
"What, Sasuke?" asks Shikamaru. "What are you talking about?"
"He's there, I've been feeling him getting closer for a while. Look!"
Naruto points at a direction with his finger. Shikamaru turns around and sees many other monsters like the octopus in the distance. Naruto, still in Kurama Chakra Mode, runs to join them.
"Sasuke is there, huh?" thinks Shikamaru. "Looks like some serious stuff is happening then. And Team 7 is being reunited once again."
.
End of Chapter 2 - Next Chapter: Team 7 reunites