Chained Beast 2.0 (Naruto Quest)
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Arc 1: Chapter 42
Kurama vs Shukaku Theme
You weren't going to fuck around with Shukaku. You'll go to your full power and rip him to shreds. Focusing chakra on your cursed seal, you felt the flame-like marking cover your body. You roared as your body mutated, your skin becoming crimson and an odd bony, fox like helmet now covering your face, barring your glowing violet eyes. Your hair turned from its usual dark coloring to a bright orange, reminiscent of your fur back when you had your true body. Finally, nine crimson tentacles sprouted from your back, eight of them twisting together to create malformed wings, with your final tail jutting out from your lower back, whipping against the ground and cracking the earth.
"Woah, look at you! Clearly you went dipping into some demon shit!" Shukaku exclaimed with both surprise and amusement.
"I always have been stronger than you, you pesky raccoon! Demon or human body, you will always be inferior!" you declared, your voice now much deeper and gravelly. You made hand seals and your arms were covered in fire.
"Do you want me to take care of this?" the cloaked figure asked Shukaku, stepping forward.
"Nah. You just be on the lookout for any Leaf fucks who try to spoil our fun. Got it, Kakuzu?" Shukaku ordered.
"Fine." the man known as Kakuzu replied, returning to his neutral position.
You didn't waste any more time on words, rushing towards Shukaku as fast as possible, looking to rip his jaw off with one fiery punch! Shukaku smirked and in a blur of hand seals, finished a jutsu and body flickered in front of you! You didn't even have time to verbalize your disbelief as Shukaku thrusted his palm into your chest, lightning chakra painfully coursing through your entire body! You stumbled backwards and tried to lash out with your tail, but Shukaku sidestepped the attack and grasped it with his lightning coating hand, using your tail to course even more lightning chakra into your body! Roaring with pain, you powered through the pain and punched out a few fireballs towards Shukaku. It caused him to let go of your tail, but he had absolutely no issue evading your attack!
"Oh dear brother. You fight like a wild animal. I guess that's to be expected, in your original form that's all you needed to be on top. But that doesn't work in these human bodies!" Shukaku declared, making more hand seals and placing his hands on the ground, sending a pulse of chakra through the earth that tore up the ground and sent large rocks flying your way! Using your makeshift wings, you jumped high into the air to avoid the rocks, but was instantly struck by multiple branches of lightning!
"YOU'LL DIE FOR THIS SHUKAKU!" you screamed at the top of your lungs, punching at Shukaku multiple times and sending dozens of fireballs down at him. Shukaku loudly laughed once again and formed a thick earthen dome to protect himself from your attacks. You made more hand seals and used your Wrathful Fire Stream, engulfing the entire area with flames that could even melt stone!
Shukaku's bodyguard Kakuzu had made hand seals and spat out a cyclone of water to protect himself from the flames. Eventually you stopped spitting out the fire, the battlefield now scorched and charred. You landed on the ground, panting. However, you saw something with your Byakugan. A figure standing casually behind you. Refocusing your sight for a better look, you saw Shukaku, completely unharmed.
"How?!" you roared, turning and attempting another strike at Shukaku, but he once again used that lightning palm jutsu to counter, sending you to the ground.
"Because I learned how to play ninja." Shukaku bluntly said. "I learned how to fight, use ninjutsu, how to use weapons and tools. I know you also started on that, but for me? I've been doing this ninja shit for decades!"
"You-"
"All these jutsu, all these tactics, I learned from years and years of training and practice! My host may only be a boy, but he houses my mind and skills! Once I trained up his body, I was back to normal! You're just learning to walk while I've been running marathons!" Shukaku cried out with mad laughter, kicking you in the face as you tried to get up. "You did some shit, I can tell, but you're still untrained. You got down the basics and then relied on shortcut after shortcut."
"Shut up you-" you tried to say, but Shukaku made a hand seal that made a pillar of earth slam into your back, sending you to the air. Shukaku watched you fly upwards and then slam back down onto the earth.
"Ohhh Kurama, I've been waiting for this day! Where you're groveling in the dirt, begging me for your pitiful life. Where I finally conquer you and make you my bitch!"
"That'll never happen!" you defiantly shouted. Despite your bluster, you were backed in a corner. Shukaku is a lot more stronger than you thought he was. Even in the second form of your Cursed Seal wasn't doing much. But you knew why. Your rage was taking over. You need to think of a plan!
What will you do?
[] Distract Shukaku with Phoenix Sage Fire, then strike at a distance with your tail!
[] Go in close to Shukaku, but then try that fiery explosion jutsu you used against Lee!
[] Throw multiple kunai with explosive tags on them, but then ignite them earlier than Shukaku expects with a fire jutsu!
[] Write in.
You weren't going to fuck around with Shukaku. You'll go to your full power and rip him to shreds. Focusing chakra on your cursed seal, you felt the flame-like marking cover your body. You roared as your body mutated, your skin becoming crimson and an odd bony, fox like helmet now covering your face, barring your glowing violet eyes. Your hair turned from its usual dark coloring to a bright orange, reminiscent of your fur back when you had your true body. Finally, nine crimson tentacles sprouted from your back, eight of them twisting together to create malformed wings, with your final tail jutting out from your lower back, whipping against the ground and cracking the earth.
"Woah, look at you! Clearly you went dipping into some demon shit!" Shukaku exclaimed with both surprise and amusement.
"I always have been stronger than you, you pesky raccoon! Demon or human body, you will always be inferior!" you declared, your voice now much deeper and gravelly. You made hand seals and your arms were covered in fire.
"Do you want me to take care of this?" the cloaked figure asked Shukaku, stepping forward.
"Nah. You just be on the lookout for any Leaf fucks who try to spoil our fun. Got it, Kakuzu?" Shukaku ordered.
"Fine." the man known as Kakuzu replied, returning to his neutral position.
You didn't waste any more time on words, rushing towards Shukaku as fast as possible, looking to rip his jaw off with one fiery punch! Shukaku smirked and in a blur of hand seals, finished a jutsu and body flickered in front of you! You didn't even have time to verbalize your disbelief as Shukaku thrusted his palm into your chest, lightning chakra painfully coursing through your entire body! You stumbled backwards and tried to lash out with your tail, but Shukaku sidestepped the attack and grasped it with his lightning coating hand, using your tail to course even more lightning chakra into your body! Roaring with pain, you powered through the pain and punched out a few fireballs towards Shukaku. It caused him to let go of your tail, but he had absolutely no issue evading your attack!
"Oh dear brother. You fight like a wild animal. I guess that's to be expected, in your original form that's all you needed to be on top. But that doesn't work in these human bodies!" Shukaku declared, making more hand seals and placing his hands on the ground, sending a pulse of chakra through the earth that tore up the ground and sent large rocks flying your way! Using your makeshift wings, you jumped high into the air to avoid the rocks, but was instantly struck by multiple branches of lightning!
"YOU'LL DIE FOR THIS SHUKAKU!" you screamed at the top of your lungs, punching at Shukaku multiple times and sending dozens of fireballs down at him. Shukaku loudly laughed once again and formed a thick earthen dome to protect himself from your attacks. You made more hand seals and used your Wrathful Fire Stream, engulfing the entire area with flames that could even melt stone!
Shukaku's bodyguard Kakuzu had made hand seals and spat out a cyclone of water to protect himself from the flames. Eventually you stopped spitting out the fire, the battlefield now scorched and charred. You landed on the ground, panting. However, you saw something with your Byakugan. A figure standing casually behind you. Refocusing your sight for a better look, you saw Shukaku, completely unharmed.
"How?!" you roared, turning and attempting another strike at Shukaku, but he once again used that lightning palm jutsu to counter, sending you to the ground.
"Because I learned how to play ninja." Shukaku bluntly said. "I learned how to fight, use ninjutsu, how to use weapons and tools. I know you also started on that, but for me? I've been doing this ninja shit for decades!"
"You-"
"All these jutsu, all these tactics, I learned from years and years of training and practice! My host may only be a boy, but he houses my mind and skills! Once I trained up his body, I was back to normal! You're just learning to walk while I've been running marathons!" Shukaku cried out with mad laughter, kicking you in the face as you tried to get up. "You did some shit, I can tell, but you're still untrained. You got down the basics and then relied on shortcut after shortcut."
"Shut up you-" you tried to say, but Shukaku made a hand seal that made a pillar of earth slam into your back, sending you to the air. Shukaku watched you fly upwards and then slam back down onto the earth.
"Ohhh Kurama, I've been waiting for this day! Where you're groveling in the dirt, begging me for your pitiful life. Where I finally conquer you and make you my bitch!"
"That'll never happen!" you defiantly shouted. Despite your bluster, you were backed in a corner. Shukaku is a lot more stronger than you thought he was. Even in the second form of your Cursed Seal wasn't doing much. But you knew why. Your rage was taking over. You need to think of a plan!
What will you do?
[] Distract Shukaku with Phoenix Sage Fire, then strike at a distance with your tail!
[] Go in close to Shukaku, but then try that fiery explosion jutsu you used against Lee!
[] Throw multiple kunai with explosive tags on them, but then ignite them earlier than Shukaku expects with a fire jutsu!
[] Write in.
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- Location
- yorkshire
[X] Throw multiple kunai with explosive tags on them, but then ignite them earlier than Shukaku expects with a fire jutsu!
[x] Then charge/fly through the fire, it will be the last thing he expects and your immortality will save you.
[x] Then charge/fly through the fire, it will be the last thing he expects and your immortality will save you.
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[X] Throw multiple kunai with explosive tags on them, but then ignite them earlier than Shukaku expects with a fire jutsu!
-[x] Then charge/fly through the fire with Flaming Feet of Swiftness, it will be the last thing he expects and your immortality will save you.
Not to hijack your plan but we'll probably need this extra speed if we're gonna show off our Trump card to make it worth it
-[x] Then charge/fly through the fire with Flaming Feet of Swiftness, it will be the last thing he expects and your immortality will save you.
Not to hijack your plan but we'll probably need this extra speed if we're gonna show off our Trump card to make it worth it
Arc 1: Finale
You jumped away from Shukaku. Blindly charging into the fray wasn't doing anything, so you'll play smart. Reaching into your tool pouch, you quickly grabbed all the kunai and explosive tags you had, wrapping the tags around the kunai as you dodged branches of lightning that Shukaku had fired at you! When you were at a proper position, you threw the kunai at Shukaku, sending a small fireball after them! You made hand seals at the exact same time Shukaku did and fire formed at your feet. Jets of flame shot out the bottom of your feet and sent you flying forward!
"Magnet Release: Repulse!" Shukaku shouted, thrusting his hands forward. Your kunai shuddered and shook before they flipped around, being sent back at you! You were already going too fast as you reached near your fireball that was sent to ignite the tags early. Your kunai vanished inside the fireball and the tags exploded in your face, a searing heat covering your entire body. But that wasn't the end, the shockwave from the explosion seemed to pulverize your insides and made your bones vibrate and crack. All you could hear was a loud ringing, even with the Byakugan all you could see was a blinding white shroud encompassing the world. You felt your body fly through the air and then tumble pitifully across the ground.
Eventually you started to recover your senses. The first thing to come back was your vision, as you could see the inky smudge that you knew was Shukaku slowly walking over to you. Then you noticed that you were no longer in your Cursed Seal mode, perhaps the only reason why you weren't blown to bits was due to it, along with Jashin's curse. The ringing in your ears slowly faded and you got to your knees, ignoring your burnt and cracked skin.
"Holy shit. You take a harder beating than some Sand whores I've smacked around!" Shukaku exclaimed with genuine surprise. "Looks like your demon form is gone, though. So what are you going to do now, Kurama? Are you still going to fight? Or will you beg like the bitch that I made you into?"
"I...would...never!" you screamed, lunging forward and attempting to strike Shukaku. He easily dodged it and countered with a knee to your stomach, sending you back onto the ground.
"...Even now." Shukaku coldly said, his killing intent spilling out. "Even when I far surpass you, you refuse to think you can lose to me."
"Because you can't. You can't kill me!" you panted, slowly getting back to your feet.
"You piece of shit!" Shukaku roared, punching you flush on the cheek. "Accept that you lost! Accept I'm your superior!"
Your response was to spit out thick wad of blood and saliva that landed right on Shukaku's face. Molten fury erupted from Shukaku as he tackled you to the ground, pinning you with his legs. He raised his fist into the air and brought it down onto your face. Once. Twice. You quickly stopped counting as your vision doubled from the impact. Your mind was going fuzzy, but all you could do was arrogantly smirk at the raging Shukaku. He may have been more powerful than you right now, but you'd never give him the satisfaction of a win. If you were going to die (as unlikely as it would be), you'd die willingly spiting your most hated foe.
Shukaku reached into his overcoat and pulled out a kunai, which began crackling with lightning chakra. He was intending to kill you off. However, there was a loud snapping sound and Shukaku suddenly screamed in pain, his arm was now bent the wrong way!
"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!" Shukaku vulgarly repeated over and over, clutching his broken arm. Kakuzu instantly rushed over to Shukaku as you felt someone pick you up and jump far away from the two. You quickly realized it was Azasuke, who set you down. Despite all the pain your body was going through, you reached into your tool pouch (which was barely hanging on by a thread) and quickly ate the last soldier pill you had. It didn't heal your injuries, but the boost in chakra was much needed.
"KILL THAT BASTARD KAKUZU!" Shukaku roared. Kakuzu took a step forward towards the clearly nervous Azasuke, but it was then another voice was heard.
"Shinobi of the Sand and Sound, Orochimaru and the Kazekage have been repelled. Surrender or we will be forced to kill you!" a commanding voice said, coming from a man with an ANBU mask on. Now surrounding you, Azasuke, Kakuzu, and Shukaku was dozens of Leaf shinobi, you could even see the bearded one and the adult copy of Rock Lee from earlier!
"Now of all fucking times?" Shukaku growled, clutching his broken arm. "No way I ain't rotting in a prison here!"
"I suppose that means we fight..." Kakuzu muttered, cracking his neck.
Azasuke sighed, activating his cursed seal, the flame-like markings spreading over his skin. He gave you a surprisingly serious look and said, "I'll make a path for you to escape. Get the hell out of here and get back to the Sound. I'll catch up if I can."
With blinding speed, Azasuke attacked a section of the Leaf shinobi while Shukaku and Kakuzu began their own battle. You thought about aiming a cheap shot at Shukaku, but a hint of rationality spoke to you. You are heavily injured and clearly the weakest being in this fight. You had no choice but to escape! Thankfully (and oddly) none of the Leaf ninja seemed to focus on you, which made it easy to use the opening Azasuke made and began running.
You ran and ran, reaching the large walls that surrounded the Leaf. Using chakra flow, you ran up the walls and reached the top. You turned around and gave the Leaf one last look. There were fires and ruined buildings everywhere, including a large chunk where it almost seemed flattened. You weren't able to get your full revenge, but such damage to the place that kept your prisoner for over fifty years made you feel satisfied for now. You jumped off the wall and landed on a thick branch of a tree.
You continued running for hours upon hours, being able to ignore your injuries thanks to Jashin's curse. Eventually when your energy depleted to the point you couldn't go on any farther, you climbed up a tree and took a seat on a branch that was covered by thick leaves. Hopefully you could get a few hours of rest here. You closed your eyes and quickly fell asleep...
---
Congratulations! You have finished Arc 1! Choose ONE reward!
[] Your experience in using fire jutsu has grown due to your intense battles. Learn or gain mastery of one fire jutsu of your choice.
-[] Offensive
-[] Defensive
-[] Supportive
-[] Gain mastery of a fire jutsu that you have. (Write In)
-[] Write In (Within reason)
[] Shukaku has thoroughly embarrassed you. You promise that you'll... (+3 points to the skill tree of the winning vote)
-[] Kill Shukaku and then take over his business, proving your superiority!
-[] Burn down him and his entire criminal empire in a gulf of flames!
-[] Hunt down and kill anyone related to Shukaku or his organization!
-[] Rampage against Shukaku's group and drown Shukaku in the blood of his own underlings!
[] You constant usage of demonic power had made you more sensitive to demonic hotspots, making them easier to spot.
[] Your battles have made you get more used to your body. 1 Stat point to any stat. (Write In)
"Magnet Release: Repulse!" Shukaku shouted, thrusting his hands forward. Your kunai shuddered and shook before they flipped around, being sent back at you! You were already going too fast as you reached near your fireball that was sent to ignite the tags early. Your kunai vanished inside the fireball and the tags exploded in your face, a searing heat covering your entire body. But that wasn't the end, the shockwave from the explosion seemed to pulverize your insides and made your bones vibrate and crack. All you could hear was a loud ringing, even with the Byakugan all you could see was a blinding white shroud encompassing the world. You felt your body fly through the air and then tumble pitifully across the ground.
Eventually you started to recover your senses. The first thing to come back was your vision, as you could see the inky smudge that you knew was Shukaku slowly walking over to you. Then you noticed that you were no longer in your Cursed Seal mode, perhaps the only reason why you weren't blown to bits was due to it, along with Jashin's curse. The ringing in your ears slowly faded and you got to your knees, ignoring your burnt and cracked skin.
"Holy shit. You take a harder beating than some Sand whores I've smacked around!" Shukaku exclaimed with genuine surprise. "Looks like your demon form is gone, though. So what are you going to do now, Kurama? Are you still going to fight? Or will you beg like the bitch that I made you into?"
"I...would...never!" you screamed, lunging forward and attempting to strike Shukaku. He easily dodged it and countered with a knee to your stomach, sending you back onto the ground.
"...Even now." Shukaku coldly said, his killing intent spilling out. "Even when I far surpass you, you refuse to think you can lose to me."
"Because you can't. You can't kill me!" you panted, slowly getting back to your feet.
"You piece of shit!" Shukaku roared, punching you flush on the cheek. "Accept that you lost! Accept I'm your superior!"
Your response was to spit out thick wad of blood and saliva that landed right on Shukaku's face. Molten fury erupted from Shukaku as he tackled you to the ground, pinning you with his legs. He raised his fist into the air and brought it down onto your face. Once. Twice. You quickly stopped counting as your vision doubled from the impact. Your mind was going fuzzy, but all you could do was arrogantly smirk at the raging Shukaku. He may have been more powerful than you right now, but you'd never give him the satisfaction of a win. If you were going to die (as unlikely as it would be), you'd die willingly spiting your most hated foe.
Shukaku reached into his overcoat and pulled out a kunai, which began crackling with lightning chakra. He was intending to kill you off. However, there was a loud snapping sound and Shukaku suddenly screamed in pain, his arm was now bent the wrong way!
"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!" Shukaku vulgarly repeated over and over, clutching his broken arm. Kakuzu instantly rushed over to Shukaku as you felt someone pick you up and jump far away from the two. You quickly realized it was Azasuke, who set you down. Despite all the pain your body was going through, you reached into your tool pouch (which was barely hanging on by a thread) and quickly ate the last soldier pill you had. It didn't heal your injuries, but the boost in chakra was much needed.
"KILL THAT BASTARD KAKUZU!" Shukaku roared. Kakuzu took a step forward towards the clearly nervous Azasuke, but it was then another voice was heard.
"Shinobi of the Sand and Sound, Orochimaru and the Kazekage have been repelled. Surrender or we will be forced to kill you!" a commanding voice said, coming from a man with an ANBU mask on. Now surrounding you, Azasuke, Kakuzu, and Shukaku was dozens of Leaf shinobi, you could even see the bearded one and the adult copy of Rock Lee from earlier!
"Now of all fucking times?" Shukaku growled, clutching his broken arm. "No way I ain't rotting in a prison here!"
"I suppose that means we fight..." Kakuzu muttered, cracking his neck.
Azasuke sighed, activating his cursed seal, the flame-like markings spreading over his skin. He gave you a surprisingly serious look and said, "I'll make a path for you to escape. Get the hell out of here and get back to the Sound. I'll catch up if I can."
With blinding speed, Azasuke attacked a section of the Leaf shinobi while Shukaku and Kakuzu began their own battle. You thought about aiming a cheap shot at Shukaku, but a hint of rationality spoke to you. You are heavily injured and clearly the weakest being in this fight. You had no choice but to escape! Thankfully (and oddly) none of the Leaf ninja seemed to focus on you, which made it easy to use the opening Azasuke made and began running.
You ran and ran, reaching the large walls that surrounded the Leaf. Using chakra flow, you ran up the walls and reached the top. You turned around and gave the Leaf one last look. There were fires and ruined buildings everywhere, including a large chunk where it almost seemed flattened. You weren't able to get your full revenge, but such damage to the place that kept your prisoner for over fifty years made you feel satisfied for now. You jumped off the wall and landed on a thick branch of a tree.
You continued running for hours upon hours, being able to ignore your injuries thanks to Jashin's curse. Eventually when your energy depleted to the point you couldn't go on any farther, you climbed up a tree and took a seat on a branch that was covered by thick leaves. Hopefully you could get a few hours of rest here. You closed your eyes and quickly fell asleep...
---
Congratulations! You have finished Arc 1! Choose ONE reward!
[] Your experience in using fire jutsu has grown due to your intense battles. Learn or gain mastery of one fire jutsu of your choice.
-[] Offensive
-[] Defensive
-[] Supportive
-[] Gain mastery of a fire jutsu that you have. (Write In)
-[] Write In (Within reason)
[] Shukaku has thoroughly embarrassed you. You promise that you'll... (+3 points to the skill tree of the winning vote)
-[] Kill Shukaku and then take over his business, proving your superiority!
-[] Burn down him and his entire criminal empire in a gulf of flames!
-[] Hunt down and kill anyone related to Shukaku or his organization!
-[] Rampage against Shukaku's group and drown Shukaku in the blood of his own underlings!
[] You constant usage of demonic power had made you more sensitive to demonic hotspots, making them easier to spot.
[] Your battles have made you get more used to your body. 1 Stat point to any stat. (Write In)
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[X] Your experience in using fire jutsu has grown due to your intense battles. Learn or gain mastery of one fire jutsu of your choice.
-[x] Supportive
[X] Shukaku has thoroughly embarrassed you. You promise that you'll... (+3 points to the skill tree of the winning vote)
-[x] Kill Shukaku and then take over his business, proving your superiority!
[X] You constant usage of demonic power had made you more sensitive to demonic hotspots, making them easier to spot.
-[x] Supportive
[X] Shukaku has thoroughly embarrassed you. You promise that you'll... (+3 points to the skill tree of the winning vote)
-[x] Kill Shukaku and then take over his business, proving your superiority!
[X] You constant usage of demonic power had made you more sensitive to demonic hotspots, making them easier to spot.
Should have made it more clear, you can only choose ONE reward.
- Location
- yorkshire
[X] Your experience in using fire jutsu has grown due to your intense battles. Learn or gain mastery of one fire jutsu of your choice.
-[X] Strength
[X] Shukaku has thoroughly embarrassed you. You promise that you'll... (+3 points to the skill tree of the winning vote)
-[x] Kill Shukaku and then take over his business, proving your superiority!
[X] You constant usage of demonic power had made you more sensitive to demonic hotspots, making them easier to spot.
-[X] Strength
[X] Shukaku has thoroughly embarrassed you. You promise that you'll... (+3 points to the skill tree of the winning vote)
-[x] Kill Shukaku and then take over his business, proving your superiority!
[X] You constant usage of demonic power had made you more sensitive to demonic hotspots, making them easier to spot.
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- Location
- Fifth Dimension
[X] Your experience in using fire jutsu has grown due to your intense battles. Learn or gain mastery of one fire jutsu of your choice.
-[X] Gain mastery of a fire jutsu that you have. (Fire Release: Wrathful Fire Stream)
-[X] Gain mastery of a fire jutsu that you have. (Fire Release: Wrathful Fire Stream)
Would put us one step away from getting first tier of Man skills, which is... Good, but not that good with Jashin's blessing. I guess it still would protect Kurama against getting gibbed and such, but otherwise, anything that isn't death by massive damage has been much less of a concern since getting effective bodily immortality.
That said, 40 points milestone and everything that follows is very good?
I can't really say how demonic in general would respond to Kurama in their current state, so it is a bit of a mystery box to me.
Slap that on one of our commonly used spells and enjoy a palpable increase in terms of effective combat strength. New jutsu is a bit of a mystery box. Given that Kurama's kit is pretty holistic and effective, IDK if adding moremystery stuff into it is worth it.
Effectively the same as improving a good jutsu. We get better in combat, in a straightforward way.
[X] Your battles have made you get more used to your body. 1 Stat point to any stat.
-[X] Strength
It was previously mentioned that strength is also durability under this system. There is a pretty fierce synergy between being able to tank well and then just never dying from whatever damage does manage to stick. Flaming Feet/Fists are also our commonly used techniques, as is taijutsu in general.
Just get better at we have been doing so far, basically. Bumping up the strength of WFS would be pretty good, too, though.
Side Story: Minato vs Edo Tensei Finale
- Location
- USA
"Hey Jiraiya!" Dan beamed with a bright smile. Jiraiya was briefly taken aback at Dan being his usual cheery self despite the circumstances, especially with the likely confusion of suddenly being brought back from the dead.
Jiraiya was going to respond, but his senses were honed from the natural energy coursing through his body. He could detect Ibuki, now reduced to nothing more than an automaton, barreling towards him at full speed. He felt pain on his face as she grazed his cheek with a kunai... that was too close. Jiraiya retaliated with a strike of his own. Ibuki dodged it with ease... or so she thought. Orochimaru may have known that he had learned the secrets of Sage Mode, but he definitely didn't know what that entailed. The invisible natural energy extended off of his fist, dealing the full force of the blow despite her perceived dodging. She was sent flying back from his enhanced strength, but he knew that she would be back on him in no time.
"Wow! Looks like you're definitely the Hokage now!" Dan exclaimed as he watched Jiraiya battle. "Oh, and don't worry! I don't think I'm supposed to attack you. I think I'm just here to... keep her under control..." he added, losing some enthusiasm once he realized his trivial role in this battle.
"Nope, sorry, not the Hokage," Jiraiya replied, paying his former colleague half-attention, as he formed seals and focused chakra into his hair. Fukasaku and Shima detected the jutsu he was preparing, and formed seals of their own to further enhance his hair. He had briefly lost track of the two Hokage, and no doubt they were readying another attack.
"Oh! Then the Hokage's gotta be Orochimaru now, right? He always was Hiruzen's prized student!" Dan exclaimed.
"Oh man... you've been dead for a while, haven't you?" Jiraiya said with a sigh. "Hate to break it to you, but a lot's changed, Dan. Orochimaru's a traitor and is responsible for this whole mess right now!"
If Jiraiya had time to look at Dan, he would have seen the sudden sinking of the Phantom of the Leaf's countenance. But he heard a roaring sound in the distance and looked in its direction to see a massive wave of water heading right towards him! Jiraiya fired hundreds of sharpened needles of his hair at Ibuki before she could get up as he quickly made hand seals to erect a large slab of stone to withstand Tobirama's aquatic assault. As the water slammed into the rock, he jumped up on top of it to see several large gnarled roots snaking their way towards him, covered in sharpened spikes.
"Combination oil technique!" Jiraiya yelled to the elder toads on his shoulders. The three each spat out a large amount of oil, fire, and wind that collided together into a deadly explosive cocktail of chakra. The sudden surge of fire raced across the sea of roots, engulfing the Hokages in flame. But no doubt Tobirama would have the fire extinguished in no time.
Jiraiya turned his focus towards Ibuki, who was forcefully tearing her body free from some of the hair needles that had pinned her to the ground. Jiraiya subdued the Uchiha once more by creating a small muddy swamp beneath her, but he was taken aback when the mud suddenly turned into soft but firm dirt. Without any seals, it had to be that damned Mangekyo she had!
And now Ibuki was racing towards him yet again, but now she was darting all over the place, seemingly trying to get Jiraiya to lose track of her location. Which may have worked if there weren't three pairs of eyes keeping a lookout for her. But then she started slinging lightning jutsu his way, adding distracting flashes and sounds.
Jiraiya's hair puffed out as hundreds of hair needles were sent out in all directions, but that wasn't enough to stop Ibuki. She was now almost on him, but his hair wrapped around his body defensively. He felt a sudden spike of heat as Ibuki used a fire jutsu to light his hair on fire, and the hair uncoiled itself as he whipped his head to smack her with the hair, batting her away. He countered with a quick but very potent blast of flame right in her direction, at least engulfing her legs in the fire. That should keep her subdued for a bit.
"Do you think we should prepare the Toad Song?" Shima asked him.
"That might be necessary, but I'm worried it may entrap some of our own forces as it echoes through the village," Jiraiya warned.
"Hey, sorry to interrupt," Dan said meekly. "But how is Tsunade doing?"
"I'm going to be honest with you Dan. She's not doing well at all. Your death broke her, and I haven't seen her in years. She deserted the Leaf," Jiraiya sighed, partially annoyed at Dan, but partially pitying him as well.
"Oh..." Dan said lowly with a downtrodden glance. At least maybe he would shut up now.
And suddenly, Jiraiya was no longer where he was standing moments ago. The vast amount of smoke in the air and soot at his feet made him realize that he was somehow pulled over to where the sea of flames from his combination jutsu had been before, but Tobirama had extinguished them as he had predicted.
"Damn it, I forgot he had spacetime jutsu!" Jiraiya swore. He narrowly avoided a stream of pressurized water hurtling his way, but he knew he was about to be in big trouble. Sure enough, he felt his connection to natural energy suddenly severed as Fukasaku and Shima were forcefully transported from his shoulders. The Sage toads were safe: they knew to reverse summon themselves back to Mt. Myoboku at the first sign of being forcefully removed from his body. But he was definitely in danger, especially with the disorientation from the sudden lack of natural energy.
Hashirama moved towards the disabled Jiraiya, his arm transformed into a wooden maul with several spiky protrusions. Ibuki suddenly appeared near the former Hokages, her Sharingan prepared to trap Jiraiya within a genjutsu should he avoid Hashirama's blow. And Tobirama was watching and waiting, prepared to use his space alteration to force Jiraiya back into the fray should he manage to escape.
"Jiraiya, please get up!" he heard Dan plead from a distance. But he knew it was over for him.
"Damn it... I got too cocky..." Jiraiya grumbled as he felt his senses begin to return to normal, but it was too little, too late.
And then a familiar three-pronged kunai landed next to him. There was a sudden roar of wind as the three undead opponents were flung far away from the sudden cyclone that appeared around him. He looked up to see Minato's back turned to him, his haori fluttering from the wind.
Minato's Battle Theme
"Sorry I'm late," Minato said. "I'd help you up, but I'm so slow I think you'd get to your feet before I could even turn around."
"You really shouldn't be here because of your condition," Jiraiya said with a sigh as he stood himself up. "...but I would be dead if you weren't, so I'll refrain from disciplining you."
"Good. I get enough of that from Rusumi," Minato said with a smile. "So... ready to win?"
"Sure. What's the plan, Minato?" Jiraiya asked, getting to his feet and watching the three undead foes begin to recover.
"I called in reinforcements from Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza... they'll be needed for my plan. You've probably seen that our enemies won't go down to brute force, so I decided we need to seal them away." Minato quickly said, slowly forming a cross shaped hand seal. "But they need to be ripped out of Orochimaru's grasp; these three can't be allowed to wreak havoc on the Leaf, or anywhere else..
Jiraiya gasped. "You don't mean the Reaper Death Seal, do you?!"
"I do. My days as a shinobi are at their end. I can barely move, Jiraiya. But if my last act as Hokage is to rid the world of these vile puppets of that traitorous snake, then I will die with my head held high." Minato seriously stated. Jiraiya wasn't facing Minato, but he could easily imagine the confident, yet grim look on his face. The Sannin realized there was no way to deter Minato at this point.
"Did you tell Rusumi?" Jiraiya bluntly asked, making his own hand seals.
"I did not. But... she probably already knows. Jiraiya-sensei, can you promise me one last thing?" Minato gently said as he finished his seals.
"What is it?" Jiraiya grimly responded.
"Watch over my kids, will you?"
"...I will."
"The elder Ino-Shika-Cho trio is en route, over," Minato heard Rusumi say through his radio earpiece.
Both Jiraiya and Minato finished their hand seals, two shadow clones appearing next to Minato. Underneath Minato and his clones was Jiraiya's summoned toad, large enough to comfortably fit Minato and the clones. The toad jumped backwards away from combat as Hashirama, Tobirama, and Ibuki all made hand seals. Hashirama created human sized wooden stakes that were easily knocked over and swept into the flood Tobirama spewed from his mouth. Finally, Ibuki coated her hands in lightning chakra and sent it coursing through the flood!
Perhaps if he was still in Sage Mode, a defensive jutsu may have been strong enough to block the combination jutsu, but as Jiraiya was now, all he could do was try to dodge! At least until a massive staff, larger than most buildings in the Leaf, suddenly slammed in between Jiraiya and the combined attack, its pure size and sturdy material letting it block the attack!
"Choza!" Dan exclaimed both with surprise and pride, looking at the giant Akimichi who was now picking him his massive staff. Even at his normal size, Choza was a large man with two purple markings going diagonally down his cheeks from his closed eyes. He wore a black outfit underneath a suit of armor that had the character for 'food' on it.
"Sensei..." Choza muttered, looking rather solemn at the sight of his resurrected sensei.
"Choza, there's no time for sentimental feelings, we have a plan to do." Shikaku declared, noticeably ignoring looking at his sensei. The Nara clan leader wore a standard Leaf flak jacket and a mesh undershirt, but over both of those was a deer skin jacket. His black hair was tied into a high, short ponytail and he had two scars on his face.
"We'll finish the battle, right now!" another voice called out, belonging to a man with long blond hair tied into a ponytail and light green eyes. He wore a black outfit under the Leaf style flak jacket, with another red coat over that.
"My genin team is all grown up, huh? Heh..." Dan said. "Sorry we have to meet like this. But please, fight on! End this horrible battle!"
Jiraiya smirked at Dan's display. It truly was the time to end this! Ibuki acted first, covering a kunai with lightning chakra and attempting to blitz Choza with her stolen speed, Hashirama and Tobirama waiting in the back to cover for her. Inoichi couldn't keep up with Ibuki physically, but with his chakra sensing, he knew that Ibuki was aiming at Choza! He made a unique hand seal and aimed where he knew Ibuki would be, jumping right at the giant man's neck.
Ibuki froze in the air from Inoichi's Mind Body Disturbance technique and Choza wasted no time in smacking the Uchiha down with great force. Jiraiya noticed Tobirama preparing hand seals, no doubt that blasted spacetime jutsu from before! Using his fastest jutsu, Jiraiya sent a spray of hardened hair needles at the two Hokage. Hashirama went to made a wooden wall to defend, but both Hokage were now paralyzed, both their shadows caught by the infamous Nara Clan jutsu.
Despite only just connecting to them, Shikaku was already sweating profusely as the Hokage tried to force their way out of the shadow binding. Seeing his teammate struggle, Choza reared back his massive staff and swung it at the Senju brothers, sending Ibuki flying away from the air pressure of the strike. Just as the connections from their shadows broke, Choza's staff smashed into the Hokage and sent them rocketing across the battlefield.
"Goddamn they are strong..." Shikaku panted, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "How do we follow up, Jiraiya?"
"Minato is going to seal away Hashirama, Tobirama, and Ibuki. He's using the Reaper Death Seal." Jiraiya stated, much to the shock of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Inoichi and Choza were about to speak up, but Shikaku rose his hand to silence them.
"I don't like it either, but this isn't a choice Minato made easily. No doubt he has already tagged each of the foes with Flying Thunder God already, so I assume our job is to bind the enemy until he can perform the jutsu?" Shikaku sternly said, looking the Sannin in the eye.
"Yes. As you saw, Ibuki managed to steal Minato's speed with her Mangekyo. Either you or Inoichi is going to have to stop her." Jiraiya said to Shikaku.
"I'll do it. She doesn't look physically strong." Shikaku muttered, using the body flicker to vanish. He needed to capture Ibuki before she could recover!
"Then Inoichi, you need to bind Tobirama. He has a spacetime jutsu that can shift where we are. If he's allowed to do that before Minato can seal him, we're dead," Jiraiya darkly said. "Choza, you and I will have to pin Hashirama down physically. It won't be easy, but all we need is a few precious seconds for Minato to pull this off."
With the orders given, the Leaf shinobi moved together, rushing towards the Senju brothers. When they were far enough away, Dan's body began to move on his own. "Wait, everyone! I'm being controlled!"
However, everyone else was too focused on capturing the Hokage to pay attention to Dan, who hadn't been a threat so far. Dan's body carried him to where Minato and his clones were, each of them making hand seals at a painfully slow rate. Minato saw Dan coming in from his peripheral vision and swore. He'd have no way of defending himself!
"I'm sorry! I don't want to do this!" Dan cried out as he jumped towards Minato, a kunai in his hand. Thankfully the toad Minato and his clones were standing on dodged out of the way, but Minato was more worried if Dan started to use his famous phantom jutsu. But before Dan could even recover to attack once more, a pit opened in the earth underneath Dan! Minato watched as Dan fell into the pit, and multiple spires of hardened spears impaled Dan, trapping him within the pit.
Minato felt a twinge of pity at seeing Dan getting mutilated, but he knew it was for the best.
"I love you," came the shaky tear-ridden voice of his wife from his radio earpiece.
"Rusumi..." Minato's jaw tightened and, for a brief moment, he thought of ditching this plan for another one. But one last look at the village he loved told him the answer. It was destroyed and set aflame... no doubt it would take a long time to recover. He couldn't allow this destruction to happen ever again! With renewed confidence, he finally finished his hand seals and a severe chill rolled across his body.
Behind Minato was the Shinigami, a spiritual being that was larger than any human with extremely long, shaggy white hair that had two red horns poking through the hair. It wore a snow white kimono and within its mouth was a ceremonial tanto. Being held in front of the spirit was Minato's soul.
"It's time..." Minato said.
---
Thankfully for Shikaku, Ibuki was heavily injured from Choza's attack and she was in the middle of regenerating from her wounds. This made capturing her with her shadow rather simple. Thankfully, Ibuki wasn't nearly as hard to contain than the combined might of the first two Hokage. Within a few moments, a mark began to glow on Ibuki's body before one of Minato's shadow clones teleported next to her. The clone thankfully nodded at Shikaku and slowly grabbed Ibuki's shoulders.
To Shikaku, he couldn't see the soul sealing process. The Shinigami was invisible to him: he could not see it reach through Minato's soul, its arm emerging from the clone's body, and pulling Ibuki's soul out of her undead body. All Shikaku could see was the clone's clothes being torn open on the front and a large seal appearing on its stomach. As for Ibuki herself, the body turned into a large pile of ash, with the corpse of some poor person covered by it. With a grim smile, the clone vanished in a puff of smoke.
---
Inoichi was having a tough time trying to fend off Tobirama's attacks. In fact, Inoichi knew that if Tobirama wasn't distracted by something, he'd probably been washed away by now. But something had happened in the distance, where Shikaku was. Inoichi couldn't quite grasp what was happening, but he could guess that Tobirama, even as a mindless puppet of Orochimaru, sensed that something had happened to the Uchiha woman. The faintest hint of a smirk forming on his mouth showed that the fiercest of enmities the Second had still burned brightly within his soul. That brief moment was all Inoichi needed to send his chakra into Tobirama, paralyzing him.
"M-Minato...!" Inoichi shouted as loud as he could, hoping to get the Fourth Hokage's attention. Thankfully, it worked, as the second shadow clone of Minato suddenly appeared next to Tobirama. Inoichi could feel his stamina draining rapidly as Tobirama tried his damnedest to break out of the Mind Body Disturbance jutsu, but Tobirama froze completely when Shikaku appeared, further paralyzing the Second Hokage with the shadow binding jutsu!
"Good thing you got here..." Inoichi gasped, still keeping Tobirama bound with his jutsu.
"Yeah... but this is about the end of the line for me, honestly." Shikaku sighed. "Between bouncing around the village and now this? Jeez..."
"At least it'll be over soon." Inoichi sighed, looking at Minato's clone approach Tobirama. The clone grabbed onto Tobirama's shoulders and held him in place. Eventually Tobirama's soul was taken from his body and his body turned into ash. Shikaku and Inoichi released their jutsu and looked on at the final confrontation...
---
"Jiraiya...I don't know if I can keep holding him...!" Choza said between struggled breaths, his arms and hands much larger than the rest of his body. In between his hands was Hashirama, covered in long, white strands of chakra-empowered hair. Hashirama was thrashing wildly in Choza's grip, even making a few wooden spikes to stab into Choza's hands!
"Just a bit longer, Choza!" Jiraiya called out. The Toad Sage couldn't help but be in awe of Hashirama's strength, managing to thrash about while both being covered in his binding hair jutsu and in the grip of Choza! Jiraiya winced as he saw more wooden spikes rip through Choza's hands, and he knew he needed to do something or Hashirama will escape! The Sannin formed a hand seal and created a shadow clone. Jiraiya was playing dangerously; after that clone he didn't have much left in the tank, but risk was needed to finish this fight!
With another large wooden spike, Hashirama finally managed to make Choza release his grip, but the clone was instantly closing onto Hashirama. The First Hokage struck true with a powerful blow, but the clone exploded into sticky oil, a slight distraction for Jiraiya's real move. Copying his student's strategy, he used the substitution jutsu to move behind Hashirama with a Rasengan in his hand.
"We're ending this now!" Jiraiya roared, thrusting the compressed ball of spiralling chakra into Hashirama, ripping into the Hokage's chest. Hashirama was blown backwards by the attack and the second he landed on the ground, Choza grew to a giant size and stomped his entire weight on Hashirama, pinning him to the ground.
It was then Minato teleported next to Choza. Jiraiya went to Minato, helping him get near Hashirama as the giant Akmichi raised his foot. Hashirama slowly stood up, Minato standing across from him. The Shinigami behind Minato reached its arm into Minato's soul for the last time, emerging from Minato's body and digging deep into Hashirama's.
"This is it... thank you... everyone..." Minato weakly said as Hashirama's soul was ripped out and sealed into his body. Nobody sentient but Minato could see the Shinigami take its knife out of its mouth. A surge of primal fear coursed through Minato's veins. "W-Wait! Shinigami! Just a few more moments, please!"
A look of annoyance flashed across the demon's face, but the creature remained still, holding the blade precariously above the tether that linked his soul to the demon.
"Minato!" Rusumi spoke through Minato's radio earpiece. Although he couldn't see her, Minato knew by her voice she was crying.
"S-Sorry...Rusumi. I-"
"Minato...don't waste your last words on apologies. You saved the village and removed powerful weapons from Orochimaru... you did good." Rusumi shakily said.
"Thank you... dear. Rusumi.. .please tell Naruto and Tsuyu I love them. Tell them... to live happy lives. And that I'm sorry I won't be there for them anymore..." Minato weakly whispered, feeling his entire body going numb. His vision was starting to fade and it was getting harder and harder to focus.
"I will. I love you Minato. With all of my heart."
"I love you too... Rusumi..."
"Your time is up," the demon whispered from behind Minato, the creature's voice sending chills up his spine. "I may be rather popular today, but I do not waste my time otherwise."
Minato pondered the demon's words briefly, realizing with horror what the Shinigami meant.
"Hiruzen-" Minato began, but in one smooth motion the Shinigami cut Minato's soul from his body. Minato's words died with him as he became completely limp and began to fall. Jiraiya caught his fallen student and gently laid him on the ground.
Jiraiya heard Rusumi's wails of pain through Minato's radio. He flicked the earpiece off, wanting to give Rusumi some privacy in the moment. Shikaku and Inoichi stood next to Choza, all of them having a solemn look on their faces.
"Dan's gone," Shikaku reported quietly. "He must have been unsummoned once the sealing process started."
Jiraiya wondered why Minato had mentioned Hiruzen's name. Only the user and the victims of the Reaper Death Seal could see the Shinigami. Did the demon say something to Minato?
He looked around as several thoughts and feelings raced through his head. At this point, the invasion was ending, the Sand and Sound were being repelled. Orochimaru's plans had been foiled. But as Jiraiya looked down at Minato's body, it sure didn't feel like a victory.
And then it hit him. He knew exactly what had happened.
"Please, attend to the Hokage's body! I think Hiruzen is in grave danger!" Jiraiya suddenly warned as he body flickered away, racing to the rooftop where Orochimaru and Hiruzen were battling.
"This battle is over, Orochimaru!" Hiruzen barked, a firm grasp on Orochimaru's shoulders. The battle had been long and perilous and the Third Hokage knew it would be his last. He had learned just how depraved his former student had become in his absence from the village by stealing bodies of others to obtain eternal life, and even bringing back a remnant of his lost son, Tezaki, just to mock and belittle him.
Behind Hiruzen was the Shinigami, his last resort to finally kill his traitorous student. Orochimaru for the first time in the fight looked worried, staring at the Shinigami.
"Sarutobi, you!" Orochimaru hissed, now knowing exactly what his sensei is trying to do. With a flick of his fingers, Orochimaru controlled the legendary Kusanagi to fly at Hiruzen, intending to either make the old man move or land a killing blow. Hiruzen's summon, the monkey king Enma, covered in many snakes to immobilize him, suddenly reached out and grasped the Kusanagi by the blade, ignoring how it cut deep into his hand.
Unfortunately, it was a bit too late, as the tip of Kusanagi had already pierced the Third Hokage, protruding from his chest. However, Enma still kept his deathgrip on the sword, making sure it didn't go any further. Orochimaru grimaced... Hiruzen was determined to use the Shinigami to kill him! He tried escape Hiruzen's grasp, but the power of the Shinigami kept him in place.
"No...no!" Orochimaru shouted, a rare moment of genuine panic coming from the usually unflappable snake Sannin. But before Hiruzen could finish the jutsu, the Shinigami vanished. Hiruzen was in shock, his final trump card now gone. Orochimaru quickly recovered and with his full strength, managed to send a few more snakes at Enma, forcing him to vanish else risk death. The snake Sannin brutally pulled the Kusanagi from Hiruzen's chest and made it float into his hand. Hiruzen was now down on his knees, gasping and sputtering.
"You got close, Sarutobi-sensei. But it seems like someone else also needed the Shinigami," Orochimaru maliciously stated, making a likely guess of what had happened.
"N-No...Minato..." Hiruzen weakly muttered. The Third Hokage glared one last time at his former student, regret coursing through his body.
"Now die!" Orochimaru declared, thrusting the legendary blade through Hiruzen's chest, piercing his heart. Hiruzen's eyes went wide, the last thing he saw was his victorious student... before it turned into a memory of Orochimaru as a child. Soon the Third Hokage went limp, slain by Orochimaru.
It was at that moment the large barrier that stopped any outsiders suddenly cracked and shattered. Now another old man was in front of Orochimaru, with shaggy black hair and his right eye covered by thick bandages. A kunai was in his left hand, its blade covered in sharp wind chakra as he slashed at Orochimaru. The Sannin easily jumped backwards, a smug look on his face.
"Oh, Danzou. How fitting you'd be the first here." Orochimaru chuckled. With the barrier broken, the Sound Four and Kobura were now at Orochimaru's side, with multiple squads of Leaf shinobi at Danzou's.
"Enough of your words, vile snake!" Danzou bitterly said. "You and the damned Sand have done enough. We've repelled your forces, now get the fuck out of the village!"
"Lord Danzou, he's killed the Third!" one of the Anbu soldiers cried out, looking at Hiruzen's body. "We need to kill them here and now!"
"You may be weakened, Lord Orochimaru, but I've barely broken a sweat. This old fuck just blindsided me, know what I mean? Let me handle him," Kobura said, glaring at the opposing forces.
"Stand your ground, men! Retaliate if they make the first move!" Danzou ordered. He assumed an aggressive stance. "And be prepared for battle if I make the first strike."
It was then a silver haired man with glasses landed next to Orochimaru, standing to his feet. Danzou gave the man an odd look, but said nothing.
"Lord Orochimaru," Kabuto began, "Minato managed to seal away Hashirama, Tobirama, and Ibuki at the cost of his own life. Jiraiya is on his way here. I would call this mission a success, we need to leave."
"Getting a bit arrogant, aren't you Kabuto?" Orochimaru mused, looking at his right hand man. Danzou quickly began forming seals, and the squadron of ANBU behind him began to do so in turn. With a silent shrug, Orochimaru agreed with Kabuto and disappeared with the rest of the Sound ninja in a large puff of smoke.
"After them!" Danzou barked, pointing in the direction they body flickered away from after using the smoke as a misdirection. Danzou's forces soon departed, and none would question the fact later that their leader had stayed behind on that rooftop. Everyone in the village knew of the rivalry between Danzou and Hiruzen. It was only natural for him to grieve.
But mourn Danzou did not. He gazed down on Hiruzen's body, finally glad that the village was free from his cancerous grip. But the village had been gravely wounded today, and the Fourth Hokage was no more. There would be time for celebration later.
It wasn't long before Jiraiya arrived at the rooftop. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Hiruzen's body, Danzou kneeling before it and muttering a prayer. The Toad Sage was silent, but he was clenching his fists hard enough that his knuckles were chalk white and blood began to drip from his palms. "Orochimaru... you bastard!"
"You certainly took your time getting here," Danzou suddenly spoke with vitriol, standing up as he finished his prayer for the departed. He walked forward and looked Jiraiya in the eye. "What were you wasting time on? What the hell is more important than saving the man who trained you to greatness?!"
Jiraiya was taken aback at the sudden aggression heading his way. "What the hell are you accusing me of, you creep?" Jiraiya growled.
"You could have easily taken out the man guarding the barrier on this rooftop, but instead you played games with Minato's foes. What good did that do? He's dead!" Danzou continued as he railed into the Sannin.
"Speak for yourself! You're just as guilty of letting Hiruzen die as I am! I at least have faith that you were doing something beneficial during the invasion!" Jiraiya took some threatening steps towards Danzou. "But something tells me you were just lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect opportunity to throw muck at me. Who are you even performing this show for, you bastard?"
"And that worthless wife of Minato may have the Byakugan, but it didn't help her tunnel vision for only looking after her husband in a failed attempt at saving him," Danzou continued, unfazed at Jiraiya's comments.
Jiraiya stopped short of Danzou, glaring at him intently. His voice was both ice cold and burning with barely restrained rage. "Danzou, if you're not going to help me carry Hiruzen off this roof, then get the fuck out of my face."
The two men continued glaring at each other for a few tense moments until Danzou muttered a curse under his breath and left. Jiraiya walked forward and gently picked up the body of Hiruzen. A flood of emotions were hitting Jiraiya right now, having lost both his student and his sensei in one day, but right now he couldn't focus on that. He had a job to do. With a deep sigh, Jiraiya began the slow walk towards the Hokage's office...
Jiraiya was going to respond, but his senses were honed from the natural energy coursing through his body. He could detect Ibuki, now reduced to nothing more than an automaton, barreling towards him at full speed. He felt pain on his face as she grazed his cheek with a kunai... that was too close. Jiraiya retaliated with a strike of his own. Ibuki dodged it with ease... or so she thought. Orochimaru may have known that he had learned the secrets of Sage Mode, but he definitely didn't know what that entailed. The invisible natural energy extended off of his fist, dealing the full force of the blow despite her perceived dodging. She was sent flying back from his enhanced strength, but he knew that she would be back on him in no time.
"Wow! Looks like you're definitely the Hokage now!" Dan exclaimed as he watched Jiraiya battle. "Oh, and don't worry! I don't think I'm supposed to attack you. I think I'm just here to... keep her under control..." he added, losing some enthusiasm once he realized his trivial role in this battle.
"Nope, sorry, not the Hokage," Jiraiya replied, paying his former colleague half-attention, as he formed seals and focused chakra into his hair. Fukasaku and Shima detected the jutsu he was preparing, and formed seals of their own to further enhance his hair. He had briefly lost track of the two Hokage, and no doubt they were readying another attack.
"Oh! Then the Hokage's gotta be Orochimaru now, right? He always was Hiruzen's prized student!" Dan exclaimed.
"Oh man... you've been dead for a while, haven't you?" Jiraiya said with a sigh. "Hate to break it to you, but a lot's changed, Dan. Orochimaru's a traitor and is responsible for this whole mess right now!"
If Jiraiya had time to look at Dan, he would have seen the sudden sinking of the Phantom of the Leaf's countenance. But he heard a roaring sound in the distance and looked in its direction to see a massive wave of water heading right towards him! Jiraiya fired hundreds of sharpened needles of his hair at Ibuki before she could get up as he quickly made hand seals to erect a large slab of stone to withstand Tobirama's aquatic assault. As the water slammed into the rock, he jumped up on top of it to see several large gnarled roots snaking their way towards him, covered in sharpened spikes.
"Combination oil technique!" Jiraiya yelled to the elder toads on his shoulders. The three each spat out a large amount of oil, fire, and wind that collided together into a deadly explosive cocktail of chakra. The sudden surge of fire raced across the sea of roots, engulfing the Hokages in flame. But no doubt Tobirama would have the fire extinguished in no time.
Jiraiya turned his focus towards Ibuki, who was forcefully tearing her body free from some of the hair needles that had pinned her to the ground. Jiraiya subdued the Uchiha once more by creating a small muddy swamp beneath her, but he was taken aback when the mud suddenly turned into soft but firm dirt. Without any seals, it had to be that damned Mangekyo she had!
And now Ibuki was racing towards him yet again, but now she was darting all over the place, seemingly trying to get Jiraiya to lose track of her location. Which may have worked if there weren't three pairs of eyes keeping a lookout for her. But then she started slinging lightning jutsu his way, adding distracting flashes and sounds.
Jiraiya's hair puffed out as hundreds of hair needles were sent out in all directions, but that wasn't enough to stop Ibuki. She was now almost on him, but his hair wrapped around his body defensively. He felt a sudden spike of heat as Ibuki used a fire jutsu to light his hair on fire, and the hair uncoiled itself as he whipped his head to smack her with the hair, batting her away. He countered with a quick but very potent blast of flame right in her direction, at least engulfing her legs in the fire. That should keep her subdued for a bit.
"Do you think we should prepare the Toad Song?" Shima asked him.
"That might be necessary, but I'm worried it may entrap some of our own forces as it echoes through the village," Jiraiya warned.
"Hey, sorry to interrupt," Dan said meekly. "But how is Tsunade doing?"
"I'm going to be honest with you Dan. She's not doing well at all. Your death broke her, and I haven't seen her in years. She deserted the Leaf," Jiraiya sighed, partially annoyed at Dan, but partially pitying him as well.
"Oh..." Dan said lowly with a downtrodden glance. At least maybe he would shut up now.
And suddenly, Jiraiya was no longer where he was standing moments ago. The vast amount of smoke in the air and soot at his feet made him realize that he was somehow pulled over to where the sea of flames from his combination jutsu had been before, but Tobirama had extinguished them as he had predicted.
"Damn it, I forgot he had spacetime jutsu!" Jiraiya swore. He narrowly avoided a stream of pressurized water hurtling his way, but he knew he was about to be in big trouble. Sure enough, he felt his connection to natural energy suddenly severed as Fukasaku and Shima were forcefully transported from his shoulders. The Sage toads were safe: they knew to reverse summon themselves back to Mt. Myoboku at the first sign of being forcefully removed from his body. But he was definitely in danger, especially with the disorientation from the sudden lack of natural energy.
Hashirama moved towards the disabled Jiraiya, his arm transformed into a wooden maul with several spiky protrusions. Ibuki suddenly appeared near the former Hokages, her Sharingan prepared to trap Jiraiya within a genjutsu should he avoid Hashirama's blow. And Tobirama was watching and waiting, prepared to use his space alteration to force Jiraiya back into the fray should he manage to escape.
"Jiraiya, please get up!" he heard Dan plead from a distance. But he knew it was over for him.
"Damn it... I got too cocky..." Jiraiya grumbled as he felt his senses begin to return to normal, but it was too little, too late.
And then a familiar three-pronged kunai landed next to him. There was a sudden roar of wind as the three undead opponents were flung far away from the sudden cyclone that appeared around him. He looked up to see Minato's back turned to him, his haori fluttering from the wind.
Minato's Battle Theme
"Sorry I'm late," Minato said. "I'd help you up, but I'm so slow I think you'd get to your feet before I could even turn around."
"You really shouldn't be here because of your condition," Jiraiya said with a sigh as he stood himself up. "...but I would be dead if you weren't, so I'll refrain from disciplining you."
"Good. I get enough of that from Rusumi," Minato said with a smile. "So... ready to win?"
"Sure. What's the plan, Minato?" Jiraiya asked, getting to his feet and watching the three undead foes begin to recover.
"I called in reinforcements from Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza... they'll be needed for my plan. You've probably seen that our enemies won't go down to brute force, so I decided we need to seal them away." Minato quickly said, slowly forming a cross shaped hand seal. "But they need to be ripped out of Orochimaru's grasp; these three can't be allowed to wreak havoc on the Leaf, or anywhere else..
Jiraiya gasped. "You don't mean the Reaper Death Seal, do you?!"
"I do. My days as a shinobi are at their end. I can barely move, Jiraiya. But if my last act as Hokage is to rid the world of these vile puppets of that traitorous snake, then I will die with my head held high." Minato seriously stated. Jiraiya wasn't facing Minato, but he could easily imagine the confident, yet grim look on his face. The Sannin realized there was no way to deter Minato at this point.
"Did you tell Rusumi?" Jiraiya bluntly asked, making his own hand seals.
"I did not. But... she probably already knows. Jiraiya-sensei, can you promise me one last thing?" Minato gently said as he finished his seals.
"What is it?" Jiraiya grimly responded.
"Watch over my kids, will you?"
"...I will."
"The elder Ino-Shika-Cho trio is en route, over," Minato heard Rusumi say through his radio earpiece.
Both Jiraiya and Minato finished their hand seals, two shadow clones appearing next to Minato. Underneath Minato and his clones was Jiraiya's summoned toad, large enough to comfortably fit Minato and the clones. The toad jumped backwards away from combat as Hashirama, Tobirama, and Ibuki all made hand seals. Hashirama created human sized wooden stakes that were easily knocked over and swept into the flood Tobirama spewed from his mouth. Finally, Ibuki coated her hands in lightning chakra and sent it coursing through the flood!
Perhaps if he was still in Sage Mode, a defensive jutsu may have been strong enough to block the combination jutsu, but as Jiraiya was now, all he could do was try to dodge! At least until a massive staff, larger than most buildings in the Leaf, suddenly slammed in between Jiraiya and the combined attack, its pure size and sturdy material letting it block the attack!
"Choza!" Dan exclaimed both with surprise and pride, looking at the giant Akimichi who was now picking him his massive staff. Even at his normal size, Choza was a large man with two purple markings going diagonally down his cheeks from his closed eyes. He wore a black outfit underneath a suit of armor that had the character for 'food' on it.
"Sensei..." Choza muttered, looking rather solemn at the sight of his resurrected sensei.
"Choza, there's no time for sentimental feelings, we have a plan to do." Shikaku declared, noticeably ignoring looking at his sensei. The Nara clan leader wore a standard Leaf flak jacket and a mesh undershirt, but over both of those was a deer skin jacket. His black hair was tied into a high, short ponytail and he had two scars on his face.
"We'll finish the battle, right now!" another voice called out, belonging to a man with long blond hair tied into a ponytail and light green eyes. He wore a black outfit under the Leaf style flak jacket, with another red coat over that.
"My genin team is all grown up, huh? Heh..." Dan said. "Sorry we have to meet like this. But please, fight on! End this horrible battle!"
Jiraiya smirked at Dan's display. It truly was the time to end this! Ibuki acted first, covering a kunai with lightning chakra and attempting to blitz Choza with her stolen speed, Hashirama and Tobirama waiting in the back to cover for her. Inoichi couldn't keep up with Ibuki physically, but with his chakra sensing, he knew that Ibuki was aiming at Choza! He made a unique hand seal and aimed where he knew Ibuki would be, jumping right at the giant man's neck.
Ibuki froze in the air from Inoichi's Mind Body Disturbance technique and Choza wasted no time in smacking the Uchiha down with great force. Jiraiya noticed Tobirama preparing hand seals, no doubt that blasted spacetime jutsu from before! Using his fastest jutsu, Jiraiya sent a spray of hardened hair needles at the two Hokage. Hashirama went to made a wooden wall to defend, but both Hokage were now paralyzed, both their shadows caught by the infamous Nara Clan jutsu.
Despite only just connecting to them, Shikaku was already sweating profusely as the Hokage tried to force their way out of the shadow binding. Seeing his teammate struggle, Choza reared back his massive staff and swung it at the Senju brothers, sending Ibuki flying away from the air pressure of the strike. Just as the connections from their shadows broke, Choza's staff smashed into the Hokage and sent them rocketing across the battlefield.
"Goddamn they are strong..." Shikaku panted, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "How do we follow up, Jiraiya?"
"Minato is going to seal away Hashirama, Tobirama, and Ibuki. He's using the Reaper Death Seal." Jiraiya stated, much to the shock of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Inoichi and Choza were about to speak up, but Shikaku rose his hand to silence them.
"I don't like it either, but this isn't a choice Minato made easily. No doubt he has already tagged each of the foes with Flying Thunder God already, so I assume our job is to bind the enemy until he can perform the jutsu?" Shikaku sternly said, looking the Sannin in the eye.
"Yes. As you saw, Ibuki managed to steal Minato's speed with her Mangekyo. Either you or Inoichi is going to have to stop her." Jiraiya said to Shikaku.
"I'll do it. She doesn't look physically strong." Shikaku muttered, using the body flicker to vanish. He needed to capture Ibuki before she could recover!
"Then Inoichi, you need to bind Tobirama. He has a spacetime jutsu that can shift where we are. If he's allowed to do that before Minato can seal him, we're dead," Jiraiya darkly said. "Choza, you and I will have to pin Hashirama down physically. It won't be easy, but all we need is a few precious seconds for Minato to pull this off."
With the orders given, the Leaf shinobi moved together, rushing towards the Senju brothers. When they were far enough away, Dan's body began to move on his own. "Wait, everyone! I'm being controlled!"
However, everyone else was too focused on capturing the Hokage to pay attention to Dan, who hadn't been a threat so far. Dan's body carried him to where Minato and his clones were, each of them making hand seals at a painfully slow rate. Minato saw Dan coming in from his peripheral vision and swore. He'd have no way of defending himself!
"I'm sorry! I don't want to do this!" Dan cried out as he jumped towards Minato, a kunai in his hand. Thankfully the toad Minato and his clones were standing on dodged out of the way, but Minato was more worried if Dan started to use his famous phantom jutsu. But before Dan could even recover to attack once more, a pit opened in the earth underneath Dan! Minato watched as Dan fell into the pit, and multiple spires of hardened spears impaled Dan, trapping him within the pit.
Minato felt a twinge of pity at seeing Dan getting mutilated, but he knew it was for the best.
"I love you," came the shaky tear-ridden voice of his wife from his radio earpiece.
"Rusumi..." Minato's jaw tightened and, for a brief moment, he thought of ditching this plan for another one. But one last look at the village he loved told him the answer. It was destroyed and set aflame... no doubt it would take a long time to recover. He couldn't allow this destruction to happen ever again! With renewed confidence, he finally finished his hand seals and a severe chill rolled across his body.
Behind Minato was the Shinigami, a spiritual being that was larger than any human with extremely long, shaggy white hair that had two red horns poking through the hair. It wore a snow white kimono and within its mouth was a ceremonial tanto. Being held in front of the spirit was Minato's soul.
"It's time..." Minato said.
---
Thankfully for Shikaku, Ibuki was heavily injured from Choza's attack and she was in the middle of regenerating from her wounds. This made capturing her with her shadow rather simple. Thankfully, Ibuki wasn't nearly as hard to contain than the combined might of the first two Hokage. Within a few moments, a mark began to glow on Ibuki's body before one of Minato's shadow clones teleported next to her. The clone thankfully nodded at Shikaku and slowly grabbed Ibuki's shoulders.
To Shikaku, he couldn't see the soul sealing process. The Shinigami was invisible to him: he could not see it reach through Minato's soul, its arm emerging from the clone's body, and pulling Ibuki's soul out of her undead body. All Shikaku could see was the clone's clothes being torn open on the front and a large seal appearing on its stomach. As for Ibuki herself, the body turned into a large pile of ash, with the corpse of some poor person covered by it. With a grim smile, the clone vanished in a puff of smoke.
---
Inoichi was having a tough time trying to fend off Tobirama's attacks. In fact, Inoichi knew that if Tobirama wasn't distracted by something, he'd probably been washed away by now. But something had happened in the distance, where Shikaku was. Inoichi couldn't quite grasp what was happening, but he could guess that Tobirama, even as a mindless puppet of Orochimaru, sensed that something had happened to the Uchiha woman. The faintest hint of a smirk forming on his mouth showed that the fiercest of enmities the Second had still burned brightly within his soul. That brief moment was all Inoichi needed to send his chakra into Tobirama, paralyzing him.
"M-Minato...!" Inoichi shouted as loud as he could, hoping to get the Fourth Hokage's attention. Thankfully, it worked, as the second shadow clone of Minato suddenly appeared next to Tobirama. Inoichi could feel his stamina draining rapidly as Tobirama tried his damnedest to break out of the Mind Body Disturbance jutsu, but Tobirama froze completely when Shikaku appeared, further paralyzing the Second Hokage with the shadow binding jutsu!
"Good thing you got here..." Inoichi gasped, still keeping Tobirama bound with his jutsu.
"Yeah... but this is about the end of the line for me, honestly." Shikaku sighed. "Between bouncing around the village and now this? Jeez..."
"At least it'll be over soon." Inoichi sighed, looking at Minato's clone approach Tobirama. The clone grabbed onto Tobirama's shoulders and held him in place. Eventually Tobirama's soul was taken from his body and his body turned into ash. Shikaku and Inoichi released their jutsu and looked on at the final confrontation...
---
"Jiraiya...I don't know if I can keep holding him...!" Choza said between struggled breaths, his arms and hands much larger than the rest of his body. In between his hands was Hashirama, covered in long, white strands of chakra-empowered hair. Hashirama was thrashing wildly in Choza's grip, even making a few wooden spikes to stab into Choza's hands!
"Just a bit longer, Choza!" Jiraiya called out. The Toad Sage couldn't help but be in awe of Hashirama's strength, managing to thrash about while both being covered in his binding hair jutsu and in the grip of Choza! Jiraiya winced as he saw more wooden spikes rip through Choza's hands, and he knew he needed to do something or Hashirama will escape! The Sannin formed a hand seal and created a shadow clone. Jiraiya was playing dangerously; after that clone he didn't have much left in the tank, but risk was needed to finish this fight!
With another large wooden spike, Hashirama finally managed to make Choza release his grip, but the clone was instantly closing onto Hashirama. The First Hokage struck true with a powerful blow, but the clone exploded into sticky oil, a slight distraction for Jiraiya's real move. Copying his student's strategy, he used the substitution jutsu to move behind Hashirama with a Rasengan in his hand.
"We're ending this now!" Jiraiya roared, thrusting the compressed ball of spiralling chakra into Hashirama, ripping into the Hokage's chest. Hashirama was blown backwards by the attack and the second he landed on the ground, Choza grew to a giant size and stomped his entire weight on Hashirama, pinning him to the ground.
It was then Minato teleported next to Choza. Jiraiya went to Minato, helping him get near Hashirama as the giant Akmichi raised his foot. Hashirama slowly stood up, Minato standing across from him. The Shinigami behind Minato reached its arm into Minato's soul for the last time, emerging from Minato's body and digging deep into Hashirama's.
"This is it... thank you... everyone..." Minato weakly said as Hashirama's soul was ripped out and sealed into his body. Nobody sentient but Minato could see the Shinigami take its knife out of its mouth. A surge of primal fear coursed through Minato's veins. "W-Wait! Shinigami! Just a few more moments, please!"
A look of annoyance flashed across the demon's face, but the creature remained still, holding the blade precariously above the tether that linked his soul to the demon.
"Minato!" Rusumi spoke through Minato's radio earpiece. Although he couldn't see her, Minato knew by her voice she was crying.
"S-Sorry...Rusumi. I-"
"Minato...don't waste your last words on apologies. You saved the village and removed powerful weapons from Orochimaru... you did good." Rusumi shakily said.
"Thank you... dear. Rusumi.. .please tell Naruto and Tsuyu I love them. Tell them... to live happy lives. And that I'm sorry I won't be there for them anymore..." Minato weakly whispered, feeling his entire body going numb. His vision was starting to fade and it was getting harder and harder to focus.
"I will. I love you Minato. With all of my heart."
"I love you too... Rusumi..."
"Your time is up," the demon whispered from behind Minato, the creature's voice sending chills up his spine. "I may be rather popular today, but I do not waste my time otherwise."
Minato pondered the demon's words briefly, realizing with horror what the Shinigami meant.
"Hiruzen-" Minato began, but in one smooth motion the Shinigami cut Minato's soul from his body. Minato's words died with him as he became completely limp and began to fall. Jiraiya caught his fallen student and gently laid him on the ground.
Jiraiya heard Rusumi's wails of pain through Minato's radio. He flicked the earpiece off, wanting to give Rusumi some privacy in the moment. Shikaku and Inoichi stood next to Choza, all of them having a solemn look on their faces.
"Dan's gone," Shikaku reported quietly. "He must have been unsummoned once the sealing process started."
Jiraiya wondered why Minato had mentioned Hiruzen's name. Only the user and the victims of the Reaper Death Seal could see the Shinigami. Did the demon say something to Minato?
He looked around as several thoughts and feelings raced through his head. At this point, the invasion was ending, the Sand and Sound were being repelled. Orochimaru's plans had been foiled. But as Jiraiya looked down at Minato's body, it sure didn't feel like a victory.
And then it hit him. He knew exactly what had happened.
"Please, attend to the Hokage's body! I think Hiruzen is in grave danger!" Jiraiya suddenly warned as he body flickered away, racing to the rooftop where Orochimaru and Hiruzen were battling.
"This battle is over, Orochimaru!" Hiruzen barked, a firm grasp on Orochimaru's shoulders. The battle had been long and perilous and the Third Hokage knew it would be his last. He had learned just how depraved his former student had become in his absence from the village by stealing bodies of others to obtain eternal life, and even bringing back a remnant of his lost son, Tezaki, just to mock and belittle him.
Behind Hiruzen was the Shinigami, his last resort to finally kill his traitorous student. Orochimaru for the first time in the fight looked worried, staring at the Shinigami.
"Sarutobi, you!" Orochimaru hissed, now knowing exactly what his sensei is trying to do. With a flick of his fingers, Orochimaru controlled the legendary Kusanagi to fly at Hiruzen, intending to either make the old man move or land a killing blow. Hiruzen's summon, the monkey king Enma, covered in many snakes to immobilize him, suddenly reached out and grasped the Kusanagi by the blade, ignoring how it cut deep into his hand.
Unfortunately, it was a bit too late, as the tip of Kusanagi had already pierced the Third Hokage, protruding from his chest. However, Enma still kept his deathgrip on the sword, making sure it didn't go any further. Orochimaru grimaced... Hiruzen was determined to use the Shinigami to kill him! He tried escape Hiruzen's grasp, but the power of the Shinigami kept him in place.
"No...no!" Orochimaru shouted, a rare moment of genuine panic coming from the usually unflappable snake Sannin. But before Hiruzen could finish the jutsu, the Shinigami vanished. Hiruzen was in shock, his final trump card now gone. Orochimaru quickly recovered and with his full strength, managed to send a few more snakes at Enma, forcing him to vanish else risk death. The snake Sannin brutally pulled the Kusanagi from Hiruzen's chest and made it float into his hand. Hiruzen was now down on his knees, gasping and sputtering.
"You got close, Sarutobi-sensei. But it seems like someone else also needed the Shinigami," Orochimaru maliciously stated, making a likely guess of what had happened.
"N-No...Minato..." Hiruzen weakly muttered. The Third Hokage glared one last time at his former student, regret coursing through his body.
"Now die!" Orochimaru declared, thrusting the legendary blade through Hiruzen's chest, piercing his heart. Hiruzen's eyes went wide, the last thing he saw was his victorious student... before it turned into a memory of Orochimaru as a child. Soon the Third Hokage went limp, slain by Orochimaru.
It was at that moment the large barrier that stopped any outsiders suddenly cracked and shattered. Now another old man was in front of Orochimaru, with shaggy black hair and his right eye covered by thick bandages. A kunai was in his left hand, its blade covered in sharp wind chakra as he slashed at Orochimaru. The Sannin easily jumped backwards, a smug look on his face.
"Oh, Danzou. How fitting you'd be the first here." Orochimaru chuckled. With the barrier broken, the Sound Four and Kobura were now at Orochimaru's side, with multiple squads of Leaf shinobi at Danzou's.
"Enough of your words, vile snake!" Danzou bitterly said. "You and the damned Sand have done enough. We've repelled your forces, now get the fuck out of the village!"
"Lord Danzou, he's killed the Third!" one of the Anbu soldiers cried out, looking at Hiruzen's body. "We need to kill them here and now!"
"You may be weakened, Lord Orochimaru, but I've barely broken a sweat. This old fuck just blindsided me, know what I mean? Let me handle him," Kobura said, glaring at the opposing forces.
"Stand your ground, men! Retaliate if they make the first move!" Danzou ordered. He assumed an aggressive stance. "And be prepared for battle if I make the first strike."
It was then a silver haired man with glasses landed next to Orochimaru, standing to his feet. Danzou gave the man an odd look, but said nothing.
"Lord Orochimaru," Kabuto began, "Minato managed to seal away Hashirama, Tobirama, and Ibuki at the cost of his own life. Jiraiya is on his way here. I would call this mission a success, we need to leave."
"Getting a bit arrogant, aren't you Kabuto?" Orochimaru mused, looking at his right hand man. Danzou quickly began forming seals, and the squadron of ANBU behind him began to do so in turn. With a silent shrug, Orochimaru agreed with Kabuto and disappeared with the rest of the Sound ninja in a large puff of smoke.
"After them!" Danzou barked, pointing in the direction they body flickered away from after using the smoke as a misdirection. Danzou's forces soon departed, and none would question the fact later that their leader had stayed behind on that rooftop. Everyone in the village knew of the rivalry between Danzou and Hiruzen. It was only natural for him to grieve.
But mourn Danzou did not. He gazed down on Hiruzen's body, finally glad that the village was free from his cancerous grip. But the village had been gravely wounded today, and the Fourth Hokage was no more. There would be time for celebration later.
It wasn't long before Jiraiya arrived at the rooftop. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Hiruzen's body, Danzou kneeling before it and muttering a prayer. The Toad Sage was silent, but he was clenching his fists hard enough that his knuckles were chalk white and blood began to drip from his palms. "Orochimaru... you bastard!"
"You certainly took your time getting here," Danzou suddenly spoke with vitriol, standing up as he finished his prayer for the departed. He walked forward and looked Jiraiya in the eye. "What were you wasting time on? What the hell is more important than saving the man who trained you to greatness?!"
Jiraiya was taken aback at the sudden aggression heading his way. "What the hell are you accusing me of, you creep?" Jiraiya growled.
"You could have easily taken out the man guarding the barrier on this rooftop, but instead you played games with Minato's foes. What good did that do? He's dead!" Danzou continued as he railed into the Sannin.
"Speak for yourself! You're just as guilty of letting Hiruzen die as I am! I at least have faith that you were doing something beneficial during the invasion!" Jiraiya took some threatening steps towards Danzou. "But something tells me you were just lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect opportunity to throw muck at me. Who are you even performing this show for, you bastard?"
"And that worthless wife of Minato may have the Byakugan, but it didn't help her tunnel vision for only looking after her husband in a failed attempt at saving him," Danzou continued, unfazed at Jiraiya's comments.
Jiraiya stopped short of Danzou, glaring at him intently. His voice was both ice cold and burning with barely restrained rage. "Danzou, if you're not going to help me carry Hiruzen off this roof, then get the fuck out of my face."
The two men continued glaring at each other for a few tense moments until Danzou muttered a curse under his breath and left. Jiraiya walked forward and gently picked up the body of Hiruzen. A flood of emotions were hitting Jiraiya right now, having lost both his student and his sensei in one day, but right now he couldn't focus on that. He had a job to do. With a deep sigh, Jiraiya began the slow walk towards the Hokage's office...
lol Dan's such a dweeb.
I wrote up until Minato asks Jiraiya if he's ready to win. Then it's mostly Mega with a few additions from me here and there. When it switches to Hiruzen, that's pretty much a joint effort. Also skipping Hiruzen's fight is justified because it's mostly the same as canon: some out of shape old dude getting styled upon by Orochimaru who's too busy trolling him to get the job done without getting into danger.
I wrote up until Minato asks Jiraiya if he's ready to win. Then it's mostly Mega with a few additions from me here and there. When it switches to Hiruzen, that's pretty much a joint effort. Also skipping Hiruzen's fight is justified because it's mostly the same as canon: some out of shape old dude getting styled upon by Orochimaru who's too busy trolling him to get the job done without getting into danger.
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Well, here ends probably the most ambitious arc of the quest so far. Mainly due to the Minato fight. But over all, I had fun and despite Pyro giving credit during the parts themselves, I do want to thank @pyroflare77 and @Giga for helping with this absolute beast of a battle. Without them it's highly likely Chained Beast would have gone back into a hiatus again.
THat was pretty well written fight sequence, kudos. I especially like how you perfectly captured the essence of Danzo as a worthless waste of oxygen who never actually does anything productive (counter productive, on the other hand...) for Konoha but is the first to sling accusations at others that they aren't pulling their weight or are actively detrimental to Konoha with their nonsense hippie feel good policies.
[X] Your experience in using fire jutsu has grown due to your intense battles. Learn or gain mastery of one fire jutsu of your choice.
-[x] Supportive
[X] Shukaku has thoroughly embarrassed you. You promise that you'll... (+3 points to the skill tree of the winning vote)
-[x] Kill Shukaku and then take over his business, proving your superiority!
-[x] Supportive
[X] Shukaku has thoroughly embarrassed you. You promise that you'll... (+3 points to the skill tree of the winning vote)
-[x] Kill Shukaku and then take over his business, proving your superiority!
To those who have voted for multiple rewards, you votes will not be counted, as I did clarify you can only vote for ONE reward. I'd suggest changing/editing your vote.
- Location
- Fifth Dimension
[X] You constant usage of demonic power had made you more sensitive to demonic hotspots, making them easier to spot.