POISON [NARUTO SI]

[BrunofanofK]

Isekaied into the Naruto world, a classic power fantasy where the unsuspected author steps on the stage and takes it upon himself to write the script in a literal and metaphorical way. A tale of indulgence we take on good taste, for the chance the relive the closed-off cherished dream and their characters… yet the main actor, gifted in this world with the scriptures of fate remains the biggest sore spot in the tale, less a real person than a vehicle for the audience's fantasies the person that experienced transmigration insist on being ordinary despite the transformative implications of such experience should carry so to not overshadow the main actors, because he knows he lives in a dream. This is a story about living in Naruto world about actually living and walking alongside its people, Destiny is neither as kind of cruel as it seems, for life simple is life.

-//-

Magic, the power to materialize one's imagination and breathe life into its dreams. Something every human dream of in some way shape or form, from soft magic systems like Harry Potter to hardcore Nasuverse; a panacea to ordinary and safe lives that seem more and more sterile in our scientifically oriented society comprised of 0s and 1s.

I am trapped in my own body, likely the result of an atrocious accident. Possible in a vegetative state, completely cut off from the outside world. My limbs barely respond and my mind is fussy unfocused and light, typical of heavy medication. In this limbo, the only thing I can sense is this light.

The first thing a gained awareness of was magic, a circuit starting from my heart, going down to the base of my spine, and shooting upward toward the brain. This silver ladder between heaven and earth is like a brand in the mind's eye – these vaporous principles, these Essences meet like a mountain river meet the endless sea and where they converge the mélange gives rise to an altogether new mystic force coursing as if it was meant to be. If I were to describe this unexplainable force coursing through my body, I would call it a Mange biome.

More interestingly, as I familiarize myself with this magical essence by riding the currency it, a picture starts to take shape. A human picture. A baby's picture. I guess this explain my debilitated state then, newborn humans really are fragile. Born prematurely at nine months instead of two years old, an evolutionary concession for our oversized brains.

Things are starting to make sense now, I suffered some gruesome accident beyond my current scientific capacity to heal me, forcing people to preserve my brain with cryogenics and now people from a distant future are reconstructing my body with nanomachines… or I died and have been reborn.

Unnecessary to say, skepticism was literally thrown out of the window. Magic is real and reincarnation is real, meaning there actually is a right religion after all! That is so unfair! Here I am, having the most earth-shattering religious experience of my life inside the body of a baby! I need a priest!

I have so many questions yet the world outside is a razed mess only punctuated by familiar pangs of needs and their reliefs. It's like I am going mad in solitary confinement and tortured by sensorial deprivation. I have so many questions yet it feels like my mind is going to give out to this raze, so as to center myself I swallow my reservations and dive into this Magic like an anchor to my sanity. In an uncertain and obscure world, this light is the only thing I know to be true.

This vaporous energy and its vessel that a now can presume to be my subtle-body are not composed of a simple circuit but a veritable network. If the brain-to-heart circuit is likened to a combustion engine then their resulting bleed-off goes to a network comprised of nodes that are like components to an electric battery that subsist from the combustion aligned to the broad nervous system. This essence then stabilizes and settles in the core of the stomach which proceeds to direct it back toward the body, bleeding off to the ambient as if sweat.

These small insights are the only marker of time for me in the opaque mist that is the outside world. Not really that much but at least I am a bit surer of myself now. While some fantasy settings make a distinction between life force and magic energy, others state they are the same. If this Essence is my life itself, then is best to not let it go. Even if this vapor is just my MP (Magic Points) it should be better to not part with it.

Using the power of imagination I exert my will over this vaporous essence, making an image of it wrapping around my body like a burrito, kind of like basic Nen training of one's aura. It kind of works, the essence collapse from vaporous to almost liquid into a blanket that shrouds my body, and suddenly I am a bit more comfortable and warm; almost like being hugged. This small act gives me back the ability to assert myself, even in the smallest of ways. The collapsing damn holding back my despair at losing everything gets patched for the time being.

-//-​

I feel myself becoming more as this poll is forced to grow now that the leakage is closed. It is a novel experience I never had before. I don't think this is as simple as an increase in power level. It is more like the lines that contour my existence have thickened, granting me greater definition.

This leads to a rectification; it seems that even if some religions are more right than others it is still worth checking out every single one before I forget everything about them. See what is useful and what is not. The reason? Whatever I did put enough pressure on my magic engine to foster it to grow, and the more MP I have the more distinct its impression became. This is especially true at its highest concentration point, the belly. From my tummy a multitude of "streams" make themselves known to my awareness, there is an elemental system of some sort!

Time like this you go back to the basics.

And from the four concerns of the world God himself took dust from and with each color he made Adam.

The world of humans is ruled by sensibility and at the moment these impressions are the more novel discovery of my world. The ridiculousness of something as childish as "elemental power" gives way to the door of new possibilities. The ancients believed that four primary elements constituted the world (earth, fire, air, and water) and they consisted of a subtle, vaporous principle and a gross corporeal substance. These powers were detected by the combination of dry to wet and hot to cold.

While ridiculous to the skeptical modern man the reality of the situation is that the very fact I can even remember this while separated from my old meatware proves that there is irrefutable validity of souls despite all scientific bowmanship. As they never proved it did not exist in the first place I will go with my new magic senses.

In the legend, Elementals are beings comprised exclusively of one such element while humans possess both a Soul and a Body comprised of all four elements. While they could live longer than humans since their body composition is simpler, making them less prone to wear and tear, they don't possess an afterlife.

The soul of Adam is the image of God, and as God fills the world, so the soul fills the human body: as God sees all things, and is seen by none, so the soul sees, but cannot be seen; as God guides the world, so the soul guides the body; as God in His holiness is pure, so is the soul; and as God dwells in secret, so doth the soul.

Who knows, maybe God has a plan for me. Isn't this a miracle? I do not remember dying yet I remain here, there must be something worth in me and in this tribulation… or maybe god is a prick that designed this purgatory to scar straight rebellious souls like mine; it has been doing wonders to dust off my catholic classes at least.



That said, some things don't really line up, there are five distinct "streams" in my body instead of four. I thought at first that this might be the Ether element for a moment, but it is distinct and just like the other four in their combination. Warm and Dry (Fire), Cold and Dry (Earth), Cold and Wet (Water), Warm and Wet (Air), and the last strange mélange between them.

The thought that the Chinese elemental chart might be more precise passed through my mind. It is also associated with Feng Shui and is more interested in promoting internal balance and a state of homeostasis. Supposedly Chinese alchemy is the pursuit of immortality by transmuting these elements inside one's body instead of a cauldron. That said, immortality seems a rather petty goal we you know there is a Thereafter for one's soul.

Maybe if you want to hold on to something it would be worthwhile but living as xiaxian character has little appeal. Now magic on the other hand actually does have appeal, I want to know how far I can take this gift so a Western approach of "transmutation of lead into gold" is more aesthetically pleasing for me. In that case, my useless self is lead, and gold is "my better self" and better being a more "Ideal self". Theory of Form is an ever-present underlying principle of our philosophies and these are the only things that I have kept from my old life. With this resolution, I tackle my new project. Really, what else can I even do? Watch paint dry?

I start with the most obvious one the Warm and Dry stream, which is definitely Fire. I suppress all the chemistry lessons that say how stupid that assumption is with the power of as many prayers as I can remember and focus on the task at hand. It doesn't matter if this Essence is "like" fire, in the "likeness" of fire, or whatnot, fire is fire that is fire. It is simple, while in the western elemental chart, Earth subsumes both Wood and Metal, in the eastern chart they are different and have a "conquering" relationship that is sort of too "gamey" to be an underpinning principle of reality. I am playing by ear so best to not make any assumptions.

Although I can feel its stream more distinctly at the belly, concentration shows a tapestry that encompasses the entirety of the Subtle-body, some parts of the body have a "bigger" impression and with focus, I can perceive some "spots" that I know for a fact correlate to the places where certain organs of the gross physical body are supposed to be.

If we are talking about Fire then concepts such as consumption, heat, entropy, fuels, energy transfer, and thermodynamics in general should be under it. I meditate about everything I can remember related to each of these principles and open myself to perceive their patterns in my body. Humans are good at it, finding patterns where there is none even. At the very least, I should be able to see my body as an infrared light, not because I replicate those mechanics with this magic but because this should be the very Essence of this element.

Slowly the picture takes shape, and there is something comforting in how familiar it is, I am on the right track, or at least didn't accidentally touch anything that will have me killed yet. My taste for Nasuverse at least gave me a healthy sense of respect for forces I do not understand. Magic does not necessarily come in a user-friendly form. I have no intention of disturbing anything until a clearer picture emerges. This is a proof of concept only for the time being.

Next, comes Cold and Wet, labeled Water because, well, what else could it be? The principles related to it should be flows, forms, cycles, combinations, and manipulations. Considering humans are 70% water as well, perceiving the flow of one's blood should be well within its capacity.



I follow the Cold and Wet impression to where I know my heart is and start to chart my circulatory system. It is slow and I am tempted to skip minor detail but haste makes waste. I pour over it until I can picture my vascular system in its entirety.

The experience is peculiar and the way it weaves and braids with fire is so nonsensical it is nauseating, but considering they should be "dissonant" concepts this is a win in my book. They are both elements that are omnipresent in elemental charts for a good reason. Now I just need to see where and what I call the other three.

The Cold and Dry Essence comes next… here goes nothing- it is a bit of a gambit but I would say it has more to do with Earth/Wood. The principles I likened to it would be form, grounding, cultivation of energy, and energy embedding. They share a solid property with the element of water and now that I know how to look, I can see they are both "Heavy".

Fundamentally, the bones are the best bet for me to start from, since they are the hardest part of the body, and bone marrow is associated with vitality that should tie to Wood as well. Emboldened by my previous successes I focus on the Cold and Dry essence bundle in my stomach and follow it the best that I can and- OH MY GOD! I was so not ready for it!

There is knowing about something in the academic sense and then there is actually seeing it. I knew human babies are born premature, but nothing prepared me to see my own head soft and weirdly shaped and my row of teeth ready to grow. The picture is closer to creep pasta than an actual human being. Talk about nightmare fuel, good thing I am no longer in charge of taking care of my personal hygiene anymore. I crapped myself a little here.

-//-

After this incident, I at least walked away from it with the consolation that my speculation had merit even if my already ragged pride take another beating. The chaotic mess comprised of these vaporous energies circulating my body is starting to make sense. The pieces clicking into place and the elemental chart is taking shape.

In my head the imagine a pentagram with the heaviest Essences, Earth, and Water situated at the bottom, one "following" the other, as if pieces of a Lego set. Fire follows from Earth, standing just above it at the left pillar while keeping the greatest distance possible from Water. Maybe because while Earth is "Heavy", Wood "flow upstream", being lighter than wood and propelled by Fire emanations.

Suddenly there is no doubt who is at the top of this pentagram, scattered pieces clicking into place. People can live for 3 Weeks without food, 3 Days without water, 3 Hours without shelter but only 3 Minutes without air. In the Chinese elemental chart, it embodies "vitality" and in the Western chart it is the "noblest", as SYLPHS have the longest lives and their element being the highest, making them in turn the highest ranking elementals of "higher frequency".

Wind was by far the easiest to chart to map in the subtle-body and it was obvious why. The Wind element comprises by far the biggest proportion of it, of me. I did not even have to meditate on related principles to complete it. Its principles should be at least air, kinetic forces, static energy, free energy, and directed movement. They come so naturally to me that they even cut through the blur of my immature senses to sense the outside world. Just by replicating the same exercise externally, I get a first real glimpse of my new world. Like an extension of the sense of touch, a pseudo-echolocation of Daredevils.



I am in a nursery; the small bundles of erratic movements give away other infants like myself. It should have been expected really, but what is unusual is that for all that these babies whale for attention there is no real sight of nursery machines for life support. If we were not under observation then it would be more prudent to keep us around our new mothers in reserved rooms.

I hope I get a nice new set of parents… I think. Living as an orphan would be far more difficult at the very least; this is about survival! I pointy avoid thinking about my own family. They either reincarnated and are in new places like myself or they are in a better place and this is some kind of punishment. Regardless, this is the kind of can of worms I don't have the emotional endurance to face right now!

Now that my existential crisis was avoided for another day, back to the board. There is a "last element" to this chart, which makes the connection with Wind and Water, closing this circuit of my personal Elemental pentagram. The problem is that Wind pretty much went out of town with it, got it shit-faced, and then abused and disabused it as he pleased. However, it has a "high frequency", it "path of least resistance that Flows downstream", getting heavier as it prepares to "Follow" Water Essence.

I would waver this is either the Chinese element of Metal or that I have a personal affinity toward Lighting because it would be difficult for me to use it without Wind Essence taking it on a ride. Considering they are following water, I might be able to either feel my nervous system flaring toward "least resistance" and following water, I might be able to sense the iron in the blood.

With this project completed a bolt of inspiration run through me as the insight about the vagaries of the subtle-body clarifies. Looking closer the vague sense I felt from my belly at first were pangs of discomfort. Something easy to ignore when you are effectively tetraplegic and deprived of senses and body coordination, it simply fades into the background. Yet now I understand how the dissonance of these elements is being aggraded by the quantitative increase of my MP pool.

Ancient and medieval medicine was based on the principle of four humors; disease and health are determined by the balance or instability between these humors. The state of optimal health was called 'Eucrasia'. Using the mental image of the pentagram in the core located at my belly, the point of densest Essence concentration, then took each picture of the correspondent essence and arrange them in a form that promotes "resonance" between those correspondent essences while insulating and promoting distance between dissonant elements a beautiful internal harmony and equilibrium is reached. I release a breath I did not realize I was holding. The feeling of being settled in one's own skin takes place. More importantly, this opened a new door.

Alchemy, and to some extent cultivation, seems to be the real deal after all. Though I doubt things are as simple as xiaxian novels would lead one to believe. If breathing through your mouth was the secret to godhood the world would already be chockfull of idiotic retarded gods.

There is a promise though. The stress my body was under due to the rigors of containing this mysterious essence is replaced by a sense of surety. As more and more of these disparaging essences find their balance and stop to waver war inside me, my body feels more like mine. Theoretically, this should already be enough, I have no interest in immortality even if I really do not want to die or be ill and this brand-new body is getting a thorough scrubbing as the rough edges in its Essence coalesce into a polished engine but the taste of success spurs me on.

There is one element left, from the Western chart: Ether. Fundamentally, it can be summarized as Dark Mather: that which fills the universe, binds it together, and give the cosmos structure. When the scientists finished the mathematical quantification of the universe, they noticed this immense hole in human awareness that is mathematically proven to exist but we cannot interact with it.

Well, as the God in the bottle, I can attest that it feels very real now, people around me are like little mount hills of this concentrated Essence. I can use it as a reference point and feel because I happen to hold it within, allowing my signal to ping others. It is supposed to fill the upper atmosphere in classic theory but being ever-present makes more sense. We are all drifting in a space rock revolving around a nuclear active ball of fire, nothing of this ever made any sense! I am more surprised they got away with disbelieving it in the first place.

After this whole business of reincarnation, the idea that "magic" is not as foreign to humans as it seems has a fundamental appeal simply for the chance to normalize this bizarre situation. Some phenomena like the Greek "diminishment of the world" could explain high and low magic ages. Maybe even the belief in such things can affect how effective they can operate, so a scientific-oriented society is like an "anti-magic field" for all I know. That I am just a cog in this vast cosmos never sounded so sweet, better than a petty god out to get me.

Ether-related principles should be among the lines of composition, dissolution, modification, separation, unification, spiritual bodies, conceptual armaments, and the like. In Greek mythology, it was thought to be the pure essence that the gods breathed, filling the space where they lived, analogous to the air breathed by mortals.

Since systemic aesthetics already got me this far, I might as well see how far I can go with it. If the Theory of Forms checks out then those five fundamental Essences I sense are "emanations" that derivate from the "degradation" of this True Ether into a 'flawed' form. It is as if the elements of the periodic tablet catalyze and degrade by the half-life. Plus, if there is one place where the degradation of said half-life can be reversed it would be a particle accelerator, but alas we will have to do with me as a replacement "caldron". Each element so far moves at their own frequency but Ether is supposed to move circularly, having no intrinsic quality besides "motion". Convenient for me that I just made a "circular circuit" in my belly then.

…this is crazy; I am fucking out of my mind! I can genuinely explode or die of magical cancer if this goes wrong. Idle hands are really the devil's workshop – do not think of the demon that the demon appears! I don't want to know if Satan is real!

-//-​

I was still trapped in this helpless infant body without anything to occupy my mind. Before long, I succumbed to curiosity and started to toy with these dangerous ideas again.

On the favorable side of the argument: I will have a forewarning next time I "respawn" that doing this is a bad idea, instead of succumbing to curiosity later on and ruining a "run" I have committed into. If it was not in fact a one-time deal. It is like burning a brand new account in a gacha game account… I could just reincarnate until you roll as the son of a Shake, business Magnate or Diamond's dealer.



Counter argument: there are so many wrong things and unfounded assumptions in the last statement I do not know even where to start! I do not want to die!

The vaporous essence react to my emotional outburst, ignition shoving me into the half step I previously refused to take. The sense of vertigo is not unlike freefalling from a cliff. I messed up. Like I had been driving into the unsteady bridge and suddenly decided to park on it sightseeing. Now this imprudence caught up to me. Everything was already in place, I only needed to turn the key and this little episode is what was needed to grind together the confluence of forces in my body the success was so effortless that I felt I just pushed on the Red button to the nuclear warhead inside of my belly.

In my mind was as if a Ring of pure coruscant white light took shape from the frame of the Pentagram and collapsed into a single point right at the central and densest point. I did not dare to move or breathe, afraid of what is to come. However, the other shoe never drops and eventually, I relax. I did not explode or spontaneously combust. The new quintessence did not collapse or melt my body. It is simply there.

Now that the pentagram is complete I take stock of it. The Ratio between these elements has kept an even balance through the Eucracia and further increase through these…days? Weeks? Time is uncertain for a baby; it feels like an eternity in here.

Regardless, considering the ratio hasn't changed they might never change through my lifetime. There is merit in quantifying their proportion

. In my case, Wind is 42%, Iron 7% (and it is polluted by the Wind), Water 15%, Earth 15%, and Fire is about 20%. This Ether is roughly 1% of my essence now and it seems stable. The balance my body achieved is settled and no matter what I did, it seems to actually resist efforts of overt manipulating it, as if the vaporous essence was now on rails.

Crisis averted, good job everyone, mission accomplished, time to go back home.

…Seriously. Enough of playing with things that might make me explode. I cannot see how I might improve my elements at this point. I guess some things can only be granted by time. Time for me to think of another hobby for a pastime and I know where to start. I know for sure that my memories were never this reliable before and an infant's brain is not my idea of an upgrade either so a more cerebral endeavor might be in order.

-//-​

After mulling and reviewing what I remembered, I made another hypothesis. Maybe these different Elemental Essences really are affecting my 'humors', they might be hormones of the soul. Therefore, the inclination of their balance might serve as some kind of personality test. Hey, make as much sense as zodiac signs and blood type personality tests! Which gives me precisely nothing! Except…

The Muses of the Greeks were believed to have been sylphs, for these spirits are said to gather around the mind of the dreamer, the poet, and the artist, and inspire them with their intimate knowledge of the beauties and workings of Nature. Their temperament is mirthful, changeable, and eccentric. The peculiar qualities common to men of genius are supposedly the result of the cooperation of sylphs, whose aid also brings with it the sylph inconsistency. The sylphs labor with the gases of the human body and indirectly with the nervous system, where their inconstancy is again apparent. Maybe my high ratio of Wind elements is actually augmenting my mental capacity in a more tangible and concrete way. Might even come with good reflexes and good awareness. The fact I could actually remember about this is worth noticing! Who knows? Earth and Fire element might give me super strength and durability in time.

-//-​

Alas, boredom is a hell of an insidious killer and right track or not this new body is still too immature for me to do much with it. My senses have cleared and I now can somewhat assert where I am but the hot and humid weather, the constant cry of toddles, and the lack of a permanent adult figure sort of disenchanted me of the world around me for now. Pretty clear I am an orphan. Well, at least I do not have to worry about creating an emotional bond with any adult for the time being, seeing the way I circle through them. Looks like I got myself into a refugee camp… God, what do I even say to that?

I am scared yet relieved that this is my situation, putting me in a somber mood that makes me want to just enjoy the latrine of shitty emotions. The only way out of this pity party hut is magical training for a couple of hours.

My situation on the elemental balance is still in order even if it is still hard to keep track of time. As my MP pool increases the overhaul concentration of Ether Essence has slowly spread, settling in other parts of my subtle-body as the energy circulate. At first, they seemed to appear at random in small dotes across the body but over time these dotes started to paint a bigger picture in their constant symmetry. From what I have seen, it looks like these dotes of Ether Essence are gathering into control valves of the magic networking system. This magic network kind of reminds me of magical circuits but better. They are well-integrated and harmonic, looking like just another part of the human body.

The overhaul ratio of Essences remains the same, just the pool that has increased. The bigger the total pool the easier it is to sense it too. Just maybe as Ether Element is associated with both Light and Revelation the greater proportion present in the magical network is making the picture clearer. Even if I never get to use Light magic due to its low ratio within my body the sheer certainty it gives about myself and this gift I have been granted is more than enough…

By the way, posthumous congratulations are in order for my parents. It is a baby girl!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!................. . . . . . . . .

A fucking coin flip. That is all it was. I know I should be thankful I did not get reborn as a dog or insect, but still, the reincarnation gacha is one hell of a pity system. I mean, if this magic is half of what it is cracked up to be then I might not be the last that I have seen of my little friend. Magic might be able to reunite my Johnny yet. I will defy Will of Heaven that a man only Schlong once! That is right, I am now a man on a mission to reunite with my Johnny. I am like Ed from Full Metal Alchemist, challenged God, opened the Gate of Truth, and promised then and there that I would rescue him one day. Wait for me Johnny, our story doesn't end here! If magic is real then a small miracle like this should be possible!

Filled with the resolve I move on to my next project, to find a hobby that will not get me killed. What? Is not like I even know if people around me know about magic and visualization seems to be a fundamental step necessary to command one's own magic. Shirou spent years toiling away in his garage until he cracked out the cheat code that allowed him to break the magic law of conversion of energy, creating tools with more energy in them than it takes to create. In a world where magic was fading, he turned his Intern World into his personal and exclusive use Greater Magical Foundation, bypassing the Dispersion of Mysteries caused by disbelief in magic.

I decided in going for mental exercises and meditation not only because it is less liable to get me killed but also because I have no intention of dealing with the ropes involved with learning magic through whatever institution administers the learning of magic this world might have. The thing about these places is that their primary goal is self-perpetuation, followed by whatever their mission is as a distant second. It might be my anti-social tendencies talking, but I have always been boneheaded and now is not the time to change. I do not know if they are like Harry Potter's Ministry of Magic or Type-moon's Clock Tower but both have ways to track magic and their users so privacy is the name of the game. Disappearing with an orphan would be child play.

More importantly, I am gender savvy enough to take the hint. So far, this magic Essence has followed an "Eastern" aesthetic.

While magical hearts is something I come to expect from western inspired media, as these traditions had put a greater emphasis on the Heart, the other seven giant Nodes following from the one in the heart, traveling up the spine to the brain are a giant give away that there might be some truth to the Indian concept of Chakras.

Hell, it is downright embarrassing how much time it takes me to make the connection: heart to the brain, Yang and Ying. I know very little about them as a topic besides that one episode of Jack Shan cartoon his "good" and "evil" side splinted. If anything, I would be more comfortable associating them with Id and Superego. The heart (Id) is the source of the "instinctual" components of one's personality that is present at birth and is the source of bodily needs and wants, emotional impulses and desires, especially aggression and libido. Meanwhile, the Brain (Superego) can be described as the unique physiologic phenomenon that happens in the human species that allow the internalization of cultural rules, mainly taught by parents applying their guidance and influence, the voice inside one's head that strives for perfection.

That says they are not good enough.

To be a man is to be part Beast and part God, to have the head on the clouds and the feet on the dirt.

Memes and genes, and from their confluences come to the Ego, much the same way these two sources merge and mix in this resulting mélange I call "Magic Power". Mana, faith, ki, chi, Shine, MP, whatever it is called; can be conceptualized as the spiritual life force that permeates the universe, a spiritual quality with a supernatural origin and a sacred, impersonal, and indiscriminate force. To have mana implies influence, authority, and efficacy: the ability to perform in a given situation. The supernatural force or power that may be ascribed to persons, spirits, or inanimate objects.

The concept of Mana originated from an anthropologic discussion about religious power, the universal source of supernatural power that manifested itself in extraordinary phenomena and abilities. The source that due to being "invisible" end up supplanted by the personable force of the personality of deities and their miracles, even as it is a universal explanation for their mysteries.

Who would have guessed that my hobby of mythological studies would come in handy now? Maybe that is why I was chosen for this. No, that is just ego-talking.



More importantly, now that I have conceptualized what this ethereal force might be I can more readily tackle it. It is believed that mana is a cultivation or possession of energy and power, rather than being a source of power. The quality of mana is not limited to individuals; people, governments, places, and inanimate objects, even ideals may possess mana. Moreover, its possessors are accorded respect. Mana protects its protector and they depend on each other for growth both positive and negative. It depends on the person to whom he takes his mana. That is why mana can be gained or lost by one's actions.

An idea starts to form in my head but I best shelve it for later. For now, the very fact I can ascribe a "source" and pin a name to this Essence already settle my grip on it. I feel its response. The Ying essence can be described as a product of my animatic thought process, being born from the brain, while the Yang essence is the product of biological activity. The rest is sure to follow- it's time for my meal.

Hey lady, baby formula is not as good as the real deal. Free the goods! Can't I have one good thing going for me?

-//-

Now that I have more or less settled on what this Essence might be, how it is generated, and where it comes from, I think is time to focus on the more "mechanical" and "know-how" of Essence channeling. The Nodes channel and regulate said essence through the body. Starting from the Primary Nodes of the heart through the spine to the brain, the bridge between Heaven and Earth, so to speak.

Thanks to the Ether Element circulating through myself, I have a clear picture of my sublet-body and the nodes that regulate it. Since they can only be in very specific areas, it is a fact the Ether Element accumulates at points of greater concentration of MP. To my mind's eye, they shine with searing light, 361 points of light to be precise.

While far too well integrated into the material body it resembles a machine too much with the Nodes as circuit breakers of MP for me to not call each cable between nodes as "magical circuits". Although its primary function in the administration of mental faculties and physiological functions is evident, as my mind and body both experienced refinement through my improvements its purpose is still uncertain. Yet if an increase of MP improves the self the expenditure jeopardizes both, from there I can speculate the following.

I would waver that whatever god designed this magical circuit network had "religious communion" as the primary goal, leaving its potential as a tool for the actualization of a supernatural phenomenon in a secondary parameter. In theory, if a wizard runs out of MP then he can just rest or meditate to refresh his mind until it he recovers. However, as the spiritual energy is tied to the body's life force, running out of MP means risking organ failure and even death. Any prospective wizard is literally cannibalizing himself through each spell. Killing oneself by using too much magic would be exceptionally easy in a high-stress situation… and that is a good thing.



When you take into stock how hardcore people can be about whatever trivial and transient crap they put their faith into I could easily picture the pandemonium that any primitive society would become with easy access to Fireball spell, and let us not even start with technological stagnation. Considering I see electricity here, I think the use of magic might be reserved and constrained for esoteric purposes. The biggest users would then, be found among monks, scholars, and priestly types that would be also physically compromised by this lifestyle. The avenue of physical enhancement by manipulating MP should be the most viable route for most warrior types due to sheer reliability as the body is already calibrated to manage basic manipulation of MP.

Good job God, being too generous with gifts can spoil a child rotten; making magic safe and idiot prof would just increase the number of people disabusing it for petty reasons, and this is coming from someone that will actually have to live in this world. This is not a primitive world where all daily comforts are supplied with magic spells and mana as electricity.

Though I admit that a mage hand cantrip would be handy right now. Get it? Life as a baby consists of sleeping and standing around while not sleeping or making a nuisance of myself, who doesn't cry and doesn't get to eat but this is a serious crushing to my self-esteem here. I am counting the days for pot training.

Anyway, what is important here is that it is closer to the concept of "subtle-body" of the East than not. While not as many as 88.000, these 351 nodes do the same job of regulating Prana. Add to that the 8 giant primary nodes from the heart to the brain, being extremely reminiscent of the Indian concept of Seven Chakras and suddenly I have enough pieces in the puzzle to guess what it is. While I would be hesitant to call the subtle body the soul itself, it is at least connected and fueled by it.

Maybe the Soul is more Idea than substance- no, I am sure of it. If the soul is not in any way material it would make sense it is not restricted to the Space-time axis. If I am to reincarnate as a human through whatever Godly device (Samsara) souls are processed then it would have a far easier time if this were the case. It is basically about energy conservation, if the Buddhist concept of 3 Million Realms is to be real and akin to the concept of parallel worlds then reallocating souls becomes more doable. The energy requirements otherwise would have caused the heat death of the universe by now. Considering they are the most prominent proposer of reincarnation, I have to bend the knee here. Both Prana and subtle bodies are emanations of the soul, which remains on the "Other side" yet still holds a connection to this realm by the link to this body.

Far better than having this energy simply coming from nothing at the very least, since then science is still somewhat useful and universal. While turning something as precious as a soul into a mere engine make me second guess this endeavor I simply am too tempted in my speculations to stop now. Whatever god devised these invisible mechanisms probably strived for mortals to search for enlightenment. It is what gods always do, so using it to understand myself and my place in the world would not be a sin or a waste, right?

I already have all the pieces, refinement and fine-tuning can come later, methodology is what matter and foundations determine how grand a building one can construe.

-//-​

Time passes excruciating slowly, a side effect of being a baby, I guess. A shitty time hyperbaric chamber. Maybe Dio trapped inside a coffin at the bottom of the sea is a more accurate description. Everything I have is my thought as a company, so I might as well make this experience useful and discover a way to reach Heave. Humans, you see, are like trees.

The more he seeks to rise into the height and light, the more vigorously do his roots struggle earthword, downword, into the dark, the deep - into evil.

I am going to take this as far as I feasible can. A man does not have to think through the process of putting one foot in front of the other but a baby has to struggle all on its own through trial and error until the process and internalized as second nature. I am not just a baby; I am me, myself, and I. For whatever reason this cosmic accident had given me magical powers, maybe an angel or saint got the wrong papers in their Bureaus of Heaven and my soul never got recycled but I am beyond care. Time to shoot for the stars! Arrogance is like Morning Star himself!

I am going to create a Gate of Truth; rather, I am going to become it. The reasoning is simple: if this Ying Essence comes from the Idea 'World of Form' and the Yang Essence comes from the 'World of Substance' then Mana is fundamentally the power to materialize one's imagination. There is something to be said about overreaching, but sometimes you have to overshoot to hit the target.

I know little to nothing about Tai Chi, Chakras, and Buddhism as a whole but Sefirots are another story. Maybe it is a cultural thing but each one of the ten Sefirots is easy enough to understand and they are displayed in an orderly sequence that goes from ideation to materialization of phenomenon. So overall, Sefirot is more user intelligible, friendly, and more oriented toward magic. Each one of the ten correlates to one imaginary step that serves as a mental trigger, similar to the seven steps to tracing magecraft from Shirou's. Plus they are split between the ten into the higher five related to ideation and the lower five related to actualization. To assert control over this Ying-Yang force I will frame them into an internalized Greater Magical Formula.

I am hoping this magic juice is good enough for syncretism to kick in and fill the gaps. The fact that the Sefirot also have a chart configuration to the body that I can use to assert control over the Nodes of the subtle body also helps. This is crucial because of the Heavenly Bridge concept of "as above so below". Heaven and Earth are sympathetic toward each other, so the state of one should affect the other. A self-justifying precept that holds strength more due to faith and aesthetics than rationality.

The soul of Adam is the image of God, and as God fills the world, so the soul fills the human body. This child of (Adam/the Earth) will become the one place where the Divine owes to manifest, a Temple, and its God will be MYSELF (MY HIGHER SELF/SUPEREGO/SOUL).

Socrates was widely regarded as the wisest man in all of Greece because despite knowing he did not really know or understood anything he had a Daemon whose advice he always followed. This voice did not come from outside but from within himself. God is an Idea inside our heads, this "captain of my own ship" is all crap, the very thoughts, and words we use to express ideas are something passed down by others that came before. No matter how might, nobody is born into this world through one's own strength but because they are wanted. The body is a House of Spirits of the sum of human experiences, memes, and the DNA of the soul.

To be a man is to be part God and part Beast.

The advice of the Daemon made a man who openly stated he did not know anything the wisest man in Greece but when people came claiming his life he refused to flee at the behest of this Daemon. He walked to his own death yet his influence, his Mana, now reach this Otherworld right now, through me. This Daemon was his ideal self that he ever strived toward and those that knew the man judged it to have reached the realm of the divine.



Whatever function those Eight Primary Chakras have I can take my time figuring out. Right now it is enough that they are the pins holding together my personal Tree of Life. Just as the first Buddha once achieved enlightenment by meditation under a Tree, this Sefirot Tree will be my Gate to "Heaven". This Light surely belongs there and even if 1%, this is still proof that I can walk proudly under this light. For light is revelation and it will settle me "free". The measure of a man is decided by how much Truth he can tolerate because while it set you free it also destroys everything about you that is not worth it. Maybe I am already crazy, but even if I end like Icarus, I am resolute to see this through to the end.

-//-​

Grandstanding aside, some things are easier said than done. Some things in life are difficult because they are simply tedious and time-consuming. Fortunately, I found myself with a lot of free time. I, fortunately, remember enough about the theory behind the Method of loci, the famous Mind Palace. While I never had the proclivity to pursue it in my last run (life) at the moment my agenda is only vacant spots. All truths worth knowing are paid for in blood, for they come from so deep everything else feels fake in comparison.

The Gate of Truth will be a world inside a nut, following the World's Egg theory. If there is such thing as Truth and we derive from it, then to retracing the steps back should be possible. At least here, where Soul meets Flesh. Every memory I can reach, the sum of things I have memorized are compiled in the most "honest" way that I can. All my conjectures and hypothesis are measured and I try to syncretism my way to godhood: Idealization.

The process was painfully slow, months I presume. Time perception for an infant is a far different beast than for an adult, but at the very least this keeps my mind occupied, easing my transition from the old life bearable as days stretched into weeks and months.

At some point, my body gains locomotion and I feel surer of myself, a hidden strength that defies belief lies within. I can see the world in sharp focus this really is an orphanage. The caretakers do their best but it's clear they are understaffed. It is poor but not miserable, which is good. Life is likely not going to be easy but it will not be the march of tribulations.

The result of my diligent efforts slowly start to take shape and it is beautiful. In my mind's eye, I see it. Made of solid white Marble, it has a figurehead at the top of the frame the depiction of wings from which eyes peek from while the true face remains unknowable, the realm of Keter. The "topmost", the sublime and most hidden of all things; that which is above the mind's abilities of comprehension. It is not considered part of "Sefirot proper" because it is the "source". While all of the other Sefirots are likened to the body, which starts with the head and goes its way down into action Keter is special. The crown of a king lies above the head and connects the concept of "monarchy", which is abstract and intangible, with the tangible and concrete head of the king.

The frames go on, nest comes to Binah and Chokmâh, Understanding and Wisdom, the right and left side of the brain. One is the 'intuitive understanding' born of 'contemplation' of deductive reasoning while the other is the "Divine Wisdom" "found" by God and passed down from person to person. Together they form a "palace of mirrors" with each other. One 'sweetens all severities and neutralizes their bitterness, one should repent and rectify all flaws' while the other is the very 'breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty, therefore can no defiled thing fall into her. For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of his goodness. And being but one, she can do all things and remaining in herself, she makes all things new and in all ages entering into holy souls, she makes them friends of God, and prophets.'

They Meet in Da'at, "Knowledge". The perfected state of infinite sharing and union with the others for it is not a Sefirot but all then meeting as one. In the body, it is charted as the Central brain.

Embodying the Right and Left Arms, come Chesed and Gevurah, Love and Mercy paralleled by Strength and Judgment. One arm to bring others closer, the other to push those unworthy away. Acting together to create an inner balance in the soul's approach to the outside world.

Manifested in the Torso, comes Tiferet, Sefirot of "Balance", "Integration" and "Beauty". For what is Beatify but the very balance brought about by the Golden Ratio in all things? It is where the most spiritual upper Sefirots meet with lower material ones. Harmony between Form and Substance. If Keter is the Crown and Malkuth is the Kingdom then Tiferet would be the "King".

Netzach (Victory) forms the left leg, representing victory through adversity, fortitude, and patience to follow through on passions. The will-to-power to overcome all barriers and limitations, and is associated with emotion and passion, music and dancing. It is a "Pillar of Mercy"(Chesed) for their purpose is not inherent in themselves, but rather as a means for something else. Whereas the upper Sefirots deal with God's intrinsic will, and what it is that He desires to bestow upon man, these lower Sefirots focus on man. What is the most appropriate way for man to receive God's message? How can God's will be implemented most effectively? Netzach is the attribute of leadership, the ability to rally others to a cause and motivate them to act.

Hod (Glory) is under the same level and is represented in the body by the right leg, forming a pair with Netzach. The feet not only bring a person to their place of intention; integrity here at the base of the pillar is foundational to all that stands above. In Hod are the righteous attributes related to group interactivity, as Hod is the spirit of community, the ability to do the footwork needed to follow through on ideas and make them happen. Prayer is seen as a form of "submission", Hod is a force that instead of "conquering" an obstacle in one's way, subdues oneself to that "obstacle" is related to the quality of Hod. It is analogous to how will-to-power a person has dominion over them: "Everybody is a slave of something".

More importantly, Hod is a force that breaks down energy into different, distinguishable forms, and it is associated with intellectuality, learning, and ritual. Hod is where the form is given shape by prayer in its widest sense, being the key to the "mystery of form". Our unconscious desires come from Netzach, and are given form in the symbolic realm by Hod, manifesting unconsciously through Yesod to Malkuth. Intention becomes action. Hod is said to be the sphere in which the magician/priest mostly works.

Now comes Yesod (Foundation), found in the sexual region…Johnny, wait just a little longer. Moving on, It is seen as a vehicle allowing movement from one thing or condition to another (the power of connection), the foundation upon which God has built the world. A transmitter between the Sefirots above, and the reality below.

The light of the upper Sefirots gathers in Yesod and is channeled to Malkuth below. In this manner, Yesod is associated with the sexual organs. The masculine Yesod collects the vital forces of the Sefirot above and transmits these creative and vital energies into the feminine Malkuth below. Yesod channels, Malkuth receives. In turn, it is through Malkuth that the earth is able to interact with the divinity. The 'engine room' of creation.

Malkuth (Kingdom), being both the Mouth and the Feet, embodies revelation, the final Sefirot. Unlike the other nine before it, Malkuth is an attribute of God, which does not emanate from God directly. Rather it emanates from God's creation—when that creation reflects and evinces God's glory from within itself; due to this I modified the Gate of Truth to also be found in the Heart, where the biggest chakra Node if found so the 8 Nodes are juxtaposed with the Tree of Life.

It is associated with the realm of Substance, as the receiving sphere of all the other Sefirots, Malkuth gives a tangible form to the other emanations. The Divine energy comes down and finds its expression in this plane, and our purpose as human beings is to bring that energy back around the circuit again and back up the Tree. Although Malkuth is seen as the "lowest" divine emanation on the Tree of Life, it also contains within it the potential to reach the highest. This is once again exemplified in the Hermetic maxim 'As above so below', and "Kether is in Malkuth, and Malkuth is in Kether".

To be a man is to be part God and part Beast. At the foot of the frame, I put a dragon, the Serpent of the Earth. Malkuth is also associated with "filtering" Qliphoth, the "rusk" that hides the light of God. Malkuth is associated with the anus since they "expel impurities".

The Gate of Truth is virtually complete and is modular enough to be my Foundation. Time for this show to start.

-//-​

Waiting for nighttime to descend, I take my first step toward Heaven on a hot summer night. By now, the Gate is as real and tangible as I can touch it, so I do just that. I pry the Gate open as it was my very soul that was been unveiled. With an effort of will I flare all these small stars in my body at once. The knot holding back the spirit was been pulled apart, tread by tread until it finally gives and my soul is free.

The Gate opens and then there is Light!

This is the most Right I felt in any life I can remember. Like a lightning bolt out of the blue sky. This is no longer a prison of flesh but a vessel of the divine. How do I explain eve it? The gap between thought and action has been mended. This body went from a clumsy doll of mud to a certainty that make me question if I ever had any control at all until that point. The world suddenly reveals its hidden deep to me. I have been blind, deaf, and mute my entire life; this I now know to be true. The Ether that binds all Creation together is revealed to me. The same forces I discovered in my body underlie the Texture of Creation. The Essence of the world was alive and its breath was music, a beautiful cacophony that surrounded all things.

I could see the sprawling city carved in the heart of a forest, with houses stacked on top of each other to mimic the chaotic life that surrounded them. They live like tiny stars doting the sky. Their emotions bleed out together into the maelstrom of colors I can barely make sense of, yet my mind remains clear. Synesthesia; my cultivated supernatural senses have merged with my ordinary ones.

More than that, I could see myself. That such power lies in something so small really cannot be called anything but miraculous. It seems that the biggest surprises really come in the smallest packages. A small one-year-old baby, ordinary in all aspects of the flesh except for the bright blue eyes that shine like shards of the Heavens.

I succeeded then; it is not surprising really. To have no doubt, this is strength. Normalcy only gives back mediocrity.

"Throughout Heaven and Earth, I alone am the Honored one."

​

Those are my very first worlds I speak to my new world. It is fitting really.

Higher powers 「Knowledge of the Unimpeded Bodily Function」

Divine ear 「Understanding of Breathing of the Living World 」

Mind-penetrating knowledge 「the Comprehension of the Hearts of Others」

Remember one's former abodes 「Recolection of Soul's Memory」

Divine Eye 「the Comprehension of the Empyrean Eye」

Extinction of mental intoxicants 「Knowledge of the Destruction of Defilements (Klesha)」

Six Supernatural powers/knowledge of Buddhism. The fundamental pre-requirements in the head of Nirvana.

At the tender age of one, I became a Pratyekabuddhayāna 「Self Made Buddha」.

An individual who independently achieves liberation without the aid of teachers or guides in that lifetime to reach their aim and without teaching others to do the same.

This is Ominous with capital letters on it though. Solitary Buddhas are only supposed to appear during dark ages.

When the teachings of a Buddha are no longer available. These enlightened ones do not study with spiritual teachers, because there is none, and they teach only by gestures, since others are not receptive. Living either singly or in small groups, they must rely on their instincts to learn of Liberation. They are described as 'secretive about their teachers, live in solitude, are afraid of Samsara, yearn for Nirvana, and have little compassion.'

They are also characterized as arrogant.

Well, fuck you too! I can see the children being tortured into living weapons from my cradle! Now that I know to look for it, this society is more than happy to groom children into weapons! These people were blessed with such an invaluable gift and the best they can think of to do with it is to bludgeon each other to death with it.

Fucking Monkeys!

I am living proof that even when the Four Noble Truths are not preached, they still exist and can be discovered by anyone who makes the necessary mental and moral effort. Put your back into it, lift yourselves by your bootstraps, and become super-human [Übermensch]!



Me? Well, supposedly Pratyekabuddhayāna is incomplete. They cling to the idea that the unsullied meditative absorption they experienced is Nirvana (Heaven) when it is more like an island to find rest on the way to their actual goal. Rather than letting them feel discouraged, the Buddha taught the Pratyekabuddha paths for rest and recuperation. After finding rest in states of meditative absorption, they are encouraged and awakened by the Buddha's body, speech, and mind to reach the final Nirvana. Inspired by the Buddha, they then cultivate Bodhicitta and practice the Bodhisattva path.

That is right bitchs! I am going even further beyond, transcending my limits to become super-duper-human! This gift is wasted on these people. If they had spent a fraction of the time they committed practicing to killing each other trying to make people around them happy then this world would be a paradise already. The poor Bodhisattva presiding over this Realm must be at the wit's end of his infinite love, talking with a real person surely would uplift his spirit!

Having made my resolve, I reluctantly let go of this power and my eyes return to their opaque onyx color. I do not know this world's policies on Mystic Eyes. I am not that surprised they exist either though. I really hate it, I can feel the clarity of mind slipping, and once again, I am nothing more than another sad prisoner of the flesh, cursed to live in this gross and dull world of substance and sensibility. I yearn for this higher world.

Magic to truly see… it is regarded as primordial, right? Marduk, the king of gods of the first proper human civilization (that I know about!) has a crown literally made of eyes. The power is valued because humans are visual-oriented creatures and cultural cross-pollination marks him at the root of the Judeo-Cristian idea of truth. Religion is the creative expression of human imagination and is something that they pass on as humans interact with each other. Both Greece and Semites have flood myths inspired by Divine Wrath and you can even find this myth in the background of the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is significantly older. Gods are a mirror to the soul of man.

Then comes the power of language, to hear and understand, to speak and be understood. Follow by written language and proclamation of laws. That does sound like a proper plan. This is the power to materialize and breathe life into one's imagination, visualization is key. As long as I can picture a version of myself that freely surpass my current limits then I can move forward one step at a time. I have everything I need already inside myself. Even if these savages have destroyed all records of the teachings of this Realm's bodhisattva in their pettiness, ignorance, and Cain's resentment toward the Divine I can put the pieces together.

Pratyekabuddhayāna is called monarchs for a reason, and like Gilgamesh, I am a great king cursed with ignorance. He who had the power to truly see was left adrift in his own obliviousness by the viziers that had the responsibility to guide him and embarked on a journey searching for immortality and finding wisdom. The prototype of the archetypical "Heroes' journey" to "see everything" in order to find and internalize the knowledge and understanding he needed to fulfill his potential… I do not think I will have in me the impetus to share it afterward though.

 

[ReadingAddict]

This is amazing!
I really liked how you took a far more spiritual and indepth view of Chakra than normal.

 

[Clotho]

This is quite interesting and unique. Although I wonder what thoughts he would have toward Kaguya and her entire situation.

 

[Daidalos]

This is a glorious syncretic mess; I am very intrigued to see where this will go.

 

[BrunofanofK]

Despite my best efforts life goes on in an endless pettiness comprised of all manner of triteness. I was still a baby and the nannies were grateful I gave little trouble. I still had no power to decide my own destiny and this prediction would remain so for years to come. The reality is that I had to adapt and fit in. I got lucky enough to get forewarned about the danger my new home offered so at least to know what not to do. And that is whatever might land me a seat in the same class in the hole with the other child soldiers that is.

Part of me wondered if this orphanage isn't a facility for child-solders but I dismissed this hypothesis. This is not 40k, a grimdark reality where there is only war, the nannies are genuine carrying staff, there is voluntary staff, and even kids walk around with metal headbands on.

Those kids are that I took a special interest in. They are strong, for the standard of what pass for strength around here, at least. If what I peeked is any indication then they could physically overwhelm the average adult. They also walk around armed, with all forms of throwing weapons, which makes sense. The human body is optimized for throwing stones, and the average speed of a professional baseball pitch is around 147 km/h, with superhuman physiology these kids could be just as dangerous as a handgun.

But the most interesting thing about them is that they are still kids, stupid and full of trivial hopes and prone to emotions. They are nothing like the kids in the hole, being broken down and build back together into unfeeling weapons. The fact they are dressed in all sort of cloth, with only the headband as identification also lead me to believe that whatever institution runs this is putting more than a token effort into being presentable.

These kids are usually chaperoned by adults that have a significant disparity of power to them, are usually uniformed with more standard military gear, and have a more sharp and more dangerous mentality of someone that has killed and would do so again. The wisdom of leaving this kind of person near children is dubious but if you want to make more people like themselves then this makes sense.

The kids in the hole must be some "special" program, Officio Assassinorum style of especial. Suicide missions and threats to the State that cannot be ignored, where there is no room for failure and service only end in death. I didn't dare look for these kids again but they must have been gifted… the nail that stands out gets hammered, Hun?

I don't like this, at all, I have to get adopted asap. Parents that want a normal child would be reticent about forcing her into military service. I don't know if one day some of these people will knock here looking for kids with "potential" but if this is measured by Essence network I am boned. The difference between me and the other kids is like a badly structured homemade steam engine and a top of line race car, even the adults don't get anything on me; the stress and uneven development of nodes show heavy focus on channeling Essence primarily on their arms and legs while ignoring the rest as "unnecessary" for whatever activity they perform. Even if more developed than mine own the difference in efficiency would mean I had a serious leg up… if we were to content in even ground!

I am not a soldier, I don't have the mindset to go against professional killers! This body is not really ready for this sort of stress test either. If anyone has eyes capable of seeing subtle-bodies like mine I would stand out like a fucking Christmas tree!

…That is it!

I need to blend in, I already decided that. But the problem is how I would go about it. Orphans are extraneous, they are extra mouths to feed and those of more ruthless inclination clearly see them as resources to exploit. I need to maintain secrecy but I don't have a good affinity for blending in… yet.

The line between Good and Evil is drawn right across the middle of the human heart, for the soul of man has roots that reach all the way down to Hell; humans are like trees! I already made the Tree of Life so I can use it as the foundation for the Tree of Death (Qliphoth). Qliphoth has been described as being created by God to function in a literal nutshell. Even Buddha is still subject to Klesha (Defiliment) as long as they are inside Samsara. If One is Revelation that cures all wounds then the other is the very poison of Ignorance.

A Qliphoth-based Yin-Yang spell would be far more efficient and "deep" than any water element spell I could come with to obscure me. I just have to calibrate it to "mislead" instead of "obscure", a black hole where you know a baby to be would give away the game just as well.

And so, under the cover of night, I worked on my project as if my life depended on it because it kind of did. Having in mind what the average normal infant looked like I proceeded to cast the illusion, using my Aura as anchor.

And it worked a charm, the illusion unravels every time I activate the Six Heavenly Eyes but it's not like I could hide them either just yet. And considering how this conceptual junk worked I don't feel confident in using these powers together, ever. This is not a videogame where you combine Light + Darkness spells and unleash "Megagenesis/Big gang attack. Sephirot is the light and Qliphoth is the shell that obscures it, a person may be able to bear two contradictory thoughts at once but that which is not made conscious will play out in reality as fate. Trying to cheese fundamental forces of nature and game the system is a recipe for disaster.

-//-​

Crisis averted I proceeded to submerge myself in the role of a baby. I don't know if they simply throw away all undesirables in the hole so making connections is the best survival strategy. It is also fundamental for an infant to be properly socialized so I have to "get back in the program" and fight for attention and affection to increase my recommendations for adoption. Learning the language without the Six Eyes will be a pain but it's better than kidnapping attempts.

Life moves on and I learn more about this realm, the tongue is reminiscent of Japanese and the people are ethnically an idealized Asiatic version of Scandinavian perception. Men easily reach 6 feet tall; people are lean with well-toned muscles and athletic physics. This city is like a giant Olympic Village. Their skin generally goes from a rich olive brown to almost albino in their extremes but is mostly comprised of a tanned Iberic-like tone, with hair and eyes being mostly brown.

I stand out in the orphanage like a sore spot, while similar enough to everyone else I am clearly of mixed ethnicity. God, I hope this is one of those chill worlds because being euthanized for "polluting the gene pool" is something people of my own old world used to do in the "good old times". These people so far haven't impressed me with their enlightened way just yet. Raven black rain, pale skin, and blue eyes. They had been onyx once upon a time, and I am lucky that babies have such inconsistent melanin and there are so many of us because even my Qliphoth spells failed to restore their previous color or alter to a less catching one.

"Eyes or the window of the soul" and mine have been using the Six Heavenly Eyes way too much. While not as catchy as Shards of Heaven they look like when activated they still are the most noticeable trait I have. There are Asian countries people are bullied for just standing out so my plans for adoption got their first complication. The chance of picks as an exotic creature also is not enticing.

I need to get stronger, no. I need a plan B. There are just too many uncertainties in my future and for every advantage I got I can imagine just as many complications following. It's not like I mind menial labor, I would gladly take it over whatever the headband kids are been groomed to become; there are worse options and a plastic shuriken is a good enough hint the headband people carry a lot of face in this society.

To begin with, abuse and indulgence of the Six Powers of Buddha hinder one's road to enlightenment, I have no grip about living as a "normal person", my body will already be super-human to begin with. I won't have to worry about want if I assume I won't live as a pariah.

-//-​

Considering how bumpy my life as a cute baby has been going I decided it's time for some contingencies. I don't fancy my chances against a professional warrior even if my capacities are superior, there is more to fighting than power and I didn't land on a world simple enough to be ruled by power-level logic. The jacked headbands are clear top dogs here, they might suck at using Essence compared to me but viciousness and enthusiasm go a long way, so discreetly gathering strength will go a long way. I have the saving grace of being a defenseless baby for now and machismo might save my bacon, what with the ratio of male to female trainees starting 2 to 1 and just increasing as they gather more power, but at the end of the day they might just being a meritocracy of trained assassins that don't take well to slackers that don't pull their weight and women only are let out of the hook if they produce more babies.

The best way for me to become stronger is to increase my "scale", that is to say, foster the development of my subtle body. Unlike magic circuits, they actually grow bigger and I already pinned down how to foster the generation of mana so in theory, I can increase by stressing my nodes' circulation. HxH Ren-like training would not only be viable but ideal as the stress would be put on the entirety of the subtle-body and consequently the material one as well but glowing like a Christmas Tree is the oppositive of low profile so I have to move to my next step, "cultivation".

In the same way what a man eats eventually becomes his own flesh he also takes Essence from the ambient and incorporation it with his subtle-body. "From dust he is made and to dust he shall return"; I just need to understand the process so I can accelerate it. The problem here is the millions of things that can go wrong by inserting foreign substances in one's body without any caution can cause. For all I know I have some magical allergy that will cripple me or land me a painful death if I act careless. I simply need to straighten this out.

Although doing yoga or tai chi to absorb the "fluids of nature" is out for years to come the act of breathing as a source of power is almost a monomyth so my wind affinity should really help here.

Fundamentally Essence resides in all things and comprises all things, but the problem here is that, like the periodic table of the soul, simply getting random elements and mixing them together can have disastrous consequences, especially when the container itself is one's body.

Thanks to my eyes though I am equipped to see behind the curtain and see the "engine room" of Creation. As I already concluded people are made from the "dust of four corners of the world". The composition of their subtle-bodies is heavily influenced by their environment.

I can see how the digestion of meals can help restore a person's store of Essence, the same goes for drinking water, but even bathing in the Sun and relaxing in the grass, and even breathing also restore what is lost to ambient. You could conceptualize that "men are the children of the kingdom of god", the subtle-body doesn't exist in isolation but is heavily influenced by the environment it is nurtured into, and as so happens to be this country is probably located in the Equatorial line, hot and humid all year-round.

The result? People's subtle-body gets comprised mostly of Fire Essence, to simplify, "fire affinity" is pretty much endemic. Of course, there are outliers, myself included, but it is easy to explain. As I said nobody is born under their own power and their first environment would be the womb, so it is only proper that the affinity of the parents would heavily influence the composition of the resulting children's subtle-body. It's mostly epigenetics, people raised in other environments will likely share the tendency toward different alignments of Ether, if most people here have Fire essence then people living in the tundra will either have Water, Wind, or even Ice compound as their primary affinity.

Add to that human nature as a migration animal and mutations brought about by quirkies of nature and you can pick natives from foreigners and recent migrants just by looking… Fuck, considering the sum of human history toward foreigners my situation is not good. Discrimination toward strangers and in-group positive bias are simply the rules. It takes a herculean effort to even start to curb those tendencies- No, I am being too negative about this, especially when I have evidence of the contrary.

Do you see? observing the subtle-body of the jacked headbands allowed me to notice a certain pattern. More likely than not they share a similar "factor" in their subtle-body despite the cornucopia of different ethnic features they happen to bear on the outside. An amazing propensity toward homeostasis with the "Kingdom/Malkuth", some factor in their bodies set their subtle-bodies in good harmony with their environment and the invisible forces that comprise them.

It is something one is much easier born with than acquired through training if the sample of infants around me is anything to go by. I can pick apart "those that have it" from the don'ts. This ties it to a "factor of the body" rather than the soul. And looking for it with my Six Heavenly eyes reveals how it affects mostly the nurturing and cultivation of "Yang" Essence in the body. And what exactly does "have it" entails? Putting it bluntly? I basically reincarnated as a Saiyan.

Using the trainees as a middle group a picture started to form. Using professional sports as a reference point, where the human body is pushed toward its limits, professional athletes have to keep peak performance just to be competitive and this makes them ironically the ones most likely to get injured. It is pretty much inevitable that they will suffer lesions, and some sports are so demanding that people retire in their early twenties because their bodies can't keep up with the abuse. Now imagine these normal people have to compete with a bunch of mutants that not only will always make a perfect recovery but get stronger after every such injury, their limits are just stepstones to reach even further.

It's a subtle but amazing power that pays dividends in the long run. The ratio of those that "have it" in the orphanage is around 1 for every 3 kids, the proportion invests to the headband trainees though, two members of a team of three are likely to bear such factors. The proportion for the jacketed headband everybody is bending backward to accommodate is 9 in 10. "Having it" is a defining factor to success and status in this society. I am born a winner, and what did I win?

A body bred and born for combat and war. A god-like body that will bounce back from anything short of amputation stronger with minimal upkeep, as instead of accumulating damage due to carelessness like a normal person I will slowly absorb and incorporate ambient Essence as required and become stronger than I was before.

It is easy to imagine how such a factor would come into play when different tribes are competing for limited resources: the ones that "have it" would be destined to win any prostrated war that isn't decided in a single battle. Their enemies get weaker as they accumulate injuries without medical knowledge to assist recovery while they get stronger if they survive.

That such a "factor" is so wildly proliferated is no coincidence then. Near 8% of the male population of the former Mongol Empire carry the genetic heritage of Genghis Khan. These jacked soldiers all have a common ancestor that is likely the source of this "factor" and by the diversity of ethnic features the guy had a "share the seed" kind of policy instead of racial purity, going for "fill the earth with as many of his children as the stars".

Whether it was through a Genghis Khan approach of "Man's highest joy is in victory: to conquer one's enemies; to pursue them; to deprive them of their possessions; to make their beloved weep; to ride on their horses; and to embrace their wives and daughters." or a Roman-like philosophy of Manifested Destiny that drove them to subjugate and assimilate their neighbors and incidentally creating a society where his descendants occupy higher positions and are more favored as partners, leading to greater reproductive success is yet to be seen. But the important is that I am safe from racial lynching mobs or discrimination due to how I look as long people perceive me at least as a "mongrel".

Works for me, while it annoys me that I have to bother worrying about the opinion these savages will hold of me, especially when concerning something so petty as pedigree when you know for a fact every human carries within them a spark of the divine I have now bigger worries.

It's a "curse", they are just so good at warfare and it probably rendered so many spoilers over the generations that it became what their whole life circle around. It's obvious how all children are been groomed to be like jacked soldiers; "shinobi".

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, In glory and triumph, They could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot."

These people are mad. I know this conclusion comes from a not-so-nice part of myself that perhaps would be best ignored, but I simply can describe them as nothing else. The Soul is real, people are not a cosmic accident brought about by chemical reactions, there are forces beyond our keen shaping the world and these people must know this at the very least if they are using Essence as a weapon. Do they think they can get away with it? That they aren't beholden to any higher force? That there will be no consequence for this sinful lifestyle?

God! Here I am terrified of even thinking ill of them while they merely parade around as if being a professional killer was something to be proud of! Killing people is wrong jackass, don't smile at me! Can't you see I am disapproving of you!? No, don't pick me up! How can you smile at a random kid you aren't even related to yet life as you do? Couldn't you share a small fraction of this tenderness toward others? Your eternal soul is in trouble, Samsara is real and if you keep up your next life will be spent as a sea urchin at the very best.

…

I don't understand those people at all

-//-​

My frustrations with those around me led me to search for productive ways to pass my time. I already know the means to progress my development. After some time, I decided to call this element of my bloodline. Maybe it is childish on my part but I think this is the best way to pin a name to it. Names are important and so It's time to iron out some things.

After some more covert observation, I have pinned it down to the Heart, the "source" of Yang Essence. While the soul comes from OH so High the body is from this world. In a sense, this factor is related to Earth/Malkuth Essence, and heavily tied to the forces of nature and lifeforce.

Even without instruction, it is easy to notice the senior shinobi can not only endure far more punishment than a normal person but likely survive through things that would kill a normal person. The "lifeforce" is what ties the soul to the body and even when spent the factor slowly restores itself by absorbing it from the ambient. And since this is a factor of the body it mostly happens instantly and automatically. You could say that if the heart of a normal person is likened to a machine that generates "lifeforce", Earth/Yang/Malkuth Essence then the bearers of such factor possess a heart that acts like a factory; it is not a matter of size but of the speed of production of "lifeforce".

This is eerily similar to what I imagine Artoria's magic Core should operate, though it resembles more the principle of nature spirits than dragons as high-class elementals. For this reason, I decided to call it [Asura Factor]. Violent Natural Spirits that are driven to constant warfare. Considering Samsara they are the most fitting name for the spirit. Powerful but belligerent and unenlightened.

This is not an unflattering opinion brought about by bias, actions consume or generate Essence. It can be said to be a product of biological activity so which kind of action would produce "Yang Essence"? Well, look at nature, what is considered as "thriving"? To be beholden to one's "instincts of life", to hold in contempt any plea from others and one's conscience that would risk "un-selfing". To set ablaze the flames of passions and desires and affirm oneself and one's way of life despite any adversity. Nietzsche would have a field day if he was to reincarnate here, a "superior" race of people literally empowered by Will-to-Power.

"Always desiring to be superior to others, having no patience for inferiors and belittling strangers; like a hawk, flying high above and looking down on others, and yet outwardly displaying justice, worship, wisdom, and faith — this is raising up the lowest order of good and walking the way of the Asuras."

At the end of the day this is the result, isn't it? Power and the ability to assert oneself is what decide one's position in the Hierarchy and the one at the top will be the most powerful, not the best one. I little care if this makes me part of "slave morality", the idea that there is no truth but power is intolerable. Being the slave of my lizard brain is not what the Great Bodhisattva that gave me this gift intended; I am sure of it!

Yet those in power do as they please while those below endure as they must. I won't get anywhere turning away from the truth. I am an asura, the question is how to ride this wild stallion of a body without being overwhelmed by it. Asuras are all addicted to pleasure, especially wrath, pride, envy, insincerity, falseness, boasting, and bellicosity; "the instincts of life". Self-doubt is poison to them…us, since it would slow down the production of Yang Essence that give the body vitality. Depression can literally such away the life of me, I can't lose hope in myself!

In the end, the only people that say strength doesn't matter are those that don't have to fight. I cannot turn my eyes from reality, if life here was that easy there wouldn't be so many orphans. There are countless people here working as volunteers and being a member of a powerful tribe means inheriting all of their grudges. People never forget the violence inflicted upon them and their descendants will pick on these grudges with everything else. "The past is never over; it is not even the past."

More likely than not there are people outside our giant walls that would kill every kid here in principle. If I want to move around on my own, I will need the power to fend off assailants at the very least, to be more problem than I am worth. It's best to be safe than sorry. Any world with child soldiers is bound to be barbaric, whether they get off from it or not.

-//-

Of course, this process of "feeding" on the ambient' Mana to augment my scale of existence has other complications. The first is that the very fact that the planet has the capacity of generating it proves it is "alive" and "sentient" for whatever definition of both a planet might be.

I would like to say this is ridiculous but I too once believed that humans were nothing more than alchemical constructs animated by physical reactions defined by the Deoxyribonucleic acid chain yet, here I am!

As God fills the world, so the soul fills the human body: "As God sees all things, and is seen by none, so the soul sees, but cannot be seen; as God guides the world, so the soul guides the body"

If I am to assume that humans are being endowed with a spark of the Divine then what about the rest of creation? Seriously, should I assume humans are THAT special? Isn't that hubris that creation exists for our sake when we know for a fact the cosmos exists for so much longer than us and will last far more than our very memory?

So, what if this makes humans like dust in the Engine of the Divine? Beings are comparable to bacteria in the lifecycle of the Celestial Bodies that fill the cosmos. We are already special enough just for be chance to be allowed to make a small part in this grand design.

Malkuth is not only associated with the Realm of Substance but also with the planets and the Solar System. Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether, that is why it is called "Kingdom". The existence of "Mana" is proof that this planet has the "spark of the divine" and the "animatic force of life" and those two are "meeting" and generating Essence.

The problem then becomes the consequence of carelessly absorbing this Essence. Sure, humans are part of the planet and do it passively and turn it their own, but to forcedly draw from it would mean suffusing oneself with the planet's "spiritual(ying) properties". If you fail your body would give out, if you succussed too well you can become an avatar of the planet, a representative of nature, "spiritually possessed" with the Will of the planet as whatever principles the soul operates on would be overwhelmed by the Planet's own.

Spirits of nature are naturally the ones equipped to use raw Mana, in the same way humans can be described as a "house of spirits", the planet would be the sum of creative forces influencing it.

The trick then is to process not only the Malkuth Essence of the mana but also its Keter Essence. To make its power both physically and spiritually yours. While spirits can get away with using the raw Essence of the planet for nature interference since they are an extension of nature a spellcaster would require to mix it in a way as if to "paint the essence into their colors" before he can even start to cast the spell.

So, in order to "cultivate" I need to absorb the planet's Natural Energy and have not only my body but also my soul claim it for itself. Fortunately, I have this already figured out, humanity's mission on Earth is supposed to take on the Emanation of the Kingdom of God and send it back up to the Tree of Life, to "God". I already have the structure to send this mana to my soul and have it then be sent back once again. My body is a "temple" and its God is my soul. With the Ashura factor located exactly at the heart, where Malkuth is represented, I feel like fate is smiling upon me.

Am I "discovering" this or is creation revealing its secrets to me?

-//-​

Mind made up, now is the time for know-how. Names have power, to give a proper shape to things is itself power and make it tractable and I have been vacillating too much about it. Considering how the Asura Factor works, and all the pieces I already collected together the more efficient way for me to cultivate is through breathings, as to use the Wind Essence as a medium for the collection of Ambient Magical Power. My subtle body is mostly comprised of this element and I can use my "dantain" in my belly to mix and recycle the ambient essence while it circulates without risking breaking the homeostatic balance the body achieved by balancing all the five basic elements. The True Aether Essence will be the linchpin that holds the confluences of energies in check.

Pneuma, this will be the name of my essence going forward. Mean "breath of life & Soul", the element from which all else originated. "just as our soul, being air, holds us together, so do breath (pneuma) and air encompass the whole world." Pneuma is, likewise, tethered to the soul, or as he says, "the origin of the soul," the soul as the center of causality. This "spirit" is not the soul itself but a limb of the soul that helps it move. In its highest form, pneuma constitutes the human soul (psychê), which is a fragment of the pneuma that is the soul of God (Zeus), a God whose name literally means "cause of life always to all things". Plus, as the force that structures matter, it exists even in inanimate objects. Pneuma it is!

Considering this stunt will also involve circulating a lot of raw Natural Energy through myself, the fact Pneuma also has to do with administration and expulsion of heat through the heart I feel more secure, syncretism has carried me so far. While it is fundamentally Tai Chi's Martial Grand Circulation Breathing the spiritual component of it brings it closer in concept to "Breathing and Walking" of Nasuverse series, it is basically "communion".

The absorption of outer energy (breath of life) to connect your inner world (soul) to the outer world. The acts of inspiring, expiring, and everything in between are part of a process that allows one to take in or release the gods. To turn the human body into a virtuous circuit that will take the emanations on high and send them back up the Tree of Life. To the God inside of me; my soul.

I activate my Buddha's eyes, and the gap between thought and action closes, I simply do. With my breath I take in the Essence of the World and direct it to my heart, using it as the first Gate to the Heavens. I return the emanation of Heaven back to it through my Tree of Life… and my God/Soul send them back!!

That is it! The 8 primary nodes are Gates! Gates to Heaven! Great Bodhisattva, I thank you for this gift! This power is not intended for war. It allows us to find our true self/soul and is a bridge to reach the heart of others and the world. The balm that heals all wounds, the holy land that mend all hearts. This is a gift born of love and compassion that strives toward the salvation of all creatures! Nirvana/Heaven!

I am so floored that I almost arrest the flow of Pneuma that is returning, crashing it with the raw Natural Force but the Six eyes pick up my slack and I manage to bring the new Pneuma back through the Seven gates and finally out of the GATE OF LIFE of the heart. That is its name, there is simply nothing better. I know it deep down in my soul!

My asura factor takes to it like a fish takes to water, a bird to the sky, the once white and coruscating True Aether elements now take a literal gold quality, contrasting with the black color of Malkuth emanation. It clicked so smoothly not due to the supernal self-control I manifest while activating the Six Eyes but because it was the ignition key to its engine all along.

I breathe out… letting steam from my palpitating heart… self-control is going to be an issue going forward, the feedback between action and karma can condition me into a deviant. But somehow things are going to be Ok. I just have to focus this boundless vitality toward constructive and creative endeavors.

-//-

Time passes, and life marches on uncaring for the agenda or proclivity of others. And before I know one year becomes two, October 8. Somehow the Roman calendar came to this world, probable work of another transmigrant. Maybe that is where those other daily comforts came from, my opinion of these people remains bottom low.

The good news is that I finally got moved from the nursery and put on a slightly bigger daycare center area of the orphanage. The bad news is that I am expected to engage with the other kids and adults more. At least the last year allowed me to shore up my language. Now that my body is ever fortified by the power of Pneuma I don't have to worry so much about being killed if left unsupervised by the time I reach ten.

So, I know for a fact this is a fundamental phase of children's development, their food intake can affect how well their brain develops and if they fail to be properly socialized by the time they are four they will carry that deficit for the rest of their lives. This is a crucial phase for the development of social skills, I should be going out there and forcing myself to be the most needy, attention-searching, and lovable baby I can be. Might even land a nice family if I play my card right.

So, what is the problem then? Have you ever heard of the Forbidden Experiment? The action of isolating a child in search to determine the line between nurture and nature in the human being? Well, I am getting the fucking first-row seat on it!

A rare shade of blond in a spiked mane, whiskered cheeks, and soulful blue eyes. The new kid in the block barely got here and is already the pariah! I don't even need my Heavenly eyes to feel the palpable hostility. The kid is being kept at the minimum the nannies can get away with. How does a kid get so hated? Did his parents do something?

More importantly, if it bothers you so much what are you gonna do about it?

You see, it is not that easy. By examining the kid's subtle-body I got some important clues that might affect my own future. Based on the composition of his affinity and other minor clues I can securely attest he and I are both chips of the same block from the native's side, we even share the same affinity to Wind. Now considering he too has a foreign parent and we see where the problem lies.

If the kid is hated because of something her foreign parent did then it would be relatively ok to approach, but if this discrimination is caused by some betrayal or due to his mixed blood I would be screwing myself. I am just as helpless and would suffer just as much, it is better for me to let sleeping dogs lie and ignore it. Cancel culture got nothing on these people, being unpersoned like this can be the death of me at this age.

The other thing is the "crest" in his belly rotted to his datian. By the signature, it was created by said parents and there might be something to do with the ostracism. While I would like to study it there might be dangers and traps to keep its secrets and there might be some cultural significance to the shunning.

So, what are you gonna do about it?

Are you seriously abandoning a kid to this fate? He is literally whitening! Seriously children are born with the assumption they are loved, this is simply due to the fact human infants are so dependent on adults. Without validation and love, they are left hanging in confusion, not understanding malice even exists and internalizing it as self-hate. Of all children here his hole in the heart is by far the biggest! It's like a black hole to my awareness and I know I can only notice it because someone much better than me, that strived for the salvation of all living beings, left a touch in my spirit that awakened the spark of divinity within myself.

I have already been saved and I am loved and validated. The doubt this kid feels, I don't know of it. Can I really take this gift for granted and move with my life? Wouldn't that make me the same as everyone else? A petty, conniving, and self-serving worm that can't think to do anything better with power than lord it over others?

Like hell, I will! I will decide for myself the kind of Ashura I want to be. I will never measure up to the great bodhisattva, I can attest to this without any shame. I simply am not that good a person. But this kid has no sin and didn't even ask to be born. Maybe this is a mistake and self-indulgence but I feel like I would be spitting on Savior's face if I ignored this kid.

Before I got cold feet and dismounted off my high horse I forced myself to walk to the kid. "Hey!"

He was distracting himself by playing with blocks, too used to being treated as invisible to think anyone was talking to him. This brat's nerve! I walk up to him and pull him up. "Hey!"

The now confused kid looks at me unblinkingly as if not understanding what is going on. I can feel the caretaker's irritation as they move. This is a disaster, I already know it but I am beyond caring, so I smile at the kid, let go of his shirt, and stretch my hand in what I hope is understood as a universal expression of friendship. I have to make my point across quickly, there are a thousand words in my mind that I can think to use to lift up the kid but he would never get them out of my chest.

It's ok, I have just the thing to mend the gap between our hearts.

The kid looks unblinking at the hand, yet the hunger for affection and contact spur him on even if he lacks the words to put to these feelings. Everyone is the same, in the end, we want the same thing. Before the disgruntled caretaker can close in and ruin the moment, he reaches my palm and looks up at me. I smile the best way I can manage.

Slowly, like daybreak, the kid smiled so big it almost split his face. I can see you, little buddy, you are not alone, our heart is one. I don't even need the Six Heavily Eyes of Buddha to do it, this is what this power is for, language barriers, low articulation and consciousness, and self-censure. To measure one's own heart is difficult but having others looking in can give us a third-eye view about ourselves. It is so intimate it's scary, to unravel oneself truly to others but in that smile, I found validation. Whatever the hell I am now, this kid can still look up to me and find comfort.

Ah, I see. I have been lonely too. A man isn't an island. I have been ripped away from everything and everyone. I lost everything. No matter how you look at it I have been walking away the pain and resentment toward an uncaring cosmos. The hole I could feel in his heart bothered me because I was the same.

Thank you, little buddy. I feel too, that I have been saved. I smiled at him while finally crying for the life I have lost while celebrating the new love mending the scar. That is what humans were born for. God, Buddha, to the divine force that presides over this Realm, thank you for granting me this life. I am so grateful to be born right now. Even if I can't be a bodhisattva that loves and saves all creation, I can at least keep this small light from being snuffed out. To pass the kindness rendered upon me forward.

I will take care of you, little buddy, everything is going to be alright. Whatever it takes. Besides, who really wants to pass through childhood and adolescence a second time? Kind of creepy, in my opinion, camouflaging as a little kid with the mind of an adult setting all kinds of red alerts. I don't have the temperament or disposition for the charade. This kid needs an adult and I am the only available one. Whatever shortcoming this body has I will deal with magic. I-

That is when the world was consumed by hatred and darkness. Everything fades to black.


[AUTHOR'S ROOM]
So, I am an idiot and this is my first time posting here, the guiding post wasn't as clear about following posts and I ended up reposting. Sorry for the inconvenience of spamming. If you are still following then I promise the next chapter will follow soon.

By the way, if you are a weight like me and got into the story then by all means speak away ideas. While I have some benchmarks already planned the journey is what gives me a taste of life. The goal here is to breathe as much life back into Naruto's world and recapture the "magic" of part one. People have to live in there so if you feel you can collaborate or give me some cool lore I will gladly take it into consideration.

 

[Lescol]

I really like this story and style of writing so far, it is such an interesting approach. Keep up the good work!

Did I understand correctly that (s)he basicaly has Sage Mode and 8-Gate?

 

[BrunofanofK]

I really like this story and style of writing so far, it is such an interesting approach. Keep up the good work!

Did I understand correctly that (s)he basicaly has Sage Mode and 8-Gate?

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

Fundamentaly the Gates are spiritual organs that have a function more relevant than as part of a power system. If the Body is a Temple and the Soul is it's god then the Gates are literaly the Torri that lead to the God's Realm, it's sanctum sanctorum. The use of the gates we see people like Gai doing is something only those of Ashura's bloodline can get away with due to their body constitution and it qualify as "ninjutsu" due to the weaponization of spiritual presepts. The gates are supesedly to exist for the same function the 7 Chakras do, that is why She is learning in the inverse order, she is not "opening" them the same way Gai is; remember that while the "heal gate" restore your stamina it also deteriorate your inmuny system in the long run.
To be a sage is to be a alter-ego of the planet, she isn't one yet, she is just acelerating the development of her "scale of existece". Those of ashura bloodline, especialy Hashirama even more than Naruto, have the potential of grow that can rival tailed beasts. Hashirama is literaly using the Ten Tails jinchuriki as a measure stick to his own chakra capacity speak volumes about how ridiculous his power is. We know Indra's power comes from emotions, the stronger the feeling the more Ying Essence they produce but what about Ashura? Why is he a "late blommer"? If Indra draws strenght from "God" then Ashura draws to from the "Beast". OC just cracked the code and is acelerating the process, a person only becomes a sage by perfect balancing Raw Natural energy and manipulating it in that state, she is absorphing small quantities and slowly "digesting" it.
Fundamentaly this also explain how kakashi went from strudging the entire series with chakra exaustion to spam kamui in the war, the sharinga indeed is the cause, but not because it is "consuming" his chakra, you could say the "deva factor" he inherited from Obito and his inborn "asura factor" were obstructing each other's development due to his depression.
This is basicaly the answer to the circular logic behind the "Chakra Fruit": it is the source of all chakra but how does it grow then before chakra had been granted to humans? This is "world building" because the world should make sense.

 

[Daidalos]

The goal here is to breath as much life back into Naruto world, recapture the "magic" of part one.

Click to shrink...

I think you are really doing a good job so far; I especially liked the notion that the shinobi are misusing chakra and their internal half spiritual organs in ways they where not designed to. It meshes well with canon's idea of the sage intending for the world to learn ninshu, but his descendants perverting it into ninjutsu. Sadly, in both canon and most fanfiction, nothing actually comes of that; it may be known to SIs but it never has any effect or relevance. Therefore I am quite interested to see where you will take this.

 

[H341ZP1Z]

Well, this is interesting. Surprised how technically it seems to be getting with the Chakras. But I suppose I should be more surprised I've never read a fanfic where someone did this before. Interested to see where it goes from here and hoping to see more about the protagonist and the world around them, and not just what goes about under the hood as it were. I will say the wordy tirades seem to circle in on themselves once or twice before getting to the point, which turns into word bloat to pad out a chapter. Just a not so tiny nitpick, as that tends to really turn people away.

That said there isn't much of a hook other than the more technical religious chakra aspect; which I feel will both pull some people in and push other people away, which isn't really much of a hook to pull people in with. I don't think that's particularly a negative however. Setting up your story with a suitable hook within the first few chapters isn't really something you need to worry much about unless you're trying to make money off your work, in a fanfiction format I feel reader are more willing to let things slide; except when they aren't. There isn't really much else I can say about the story so far given there isn't much to it yet. Personally I'm looking forward to more though.

 

[Deep Thought]

Hmmm..... Personally, I love the exploration of metaphysics shown here, as most SI of settings with a magic system doesn't focus on the jarring dissonance of developing a new metaphysical component beyond 'not having had magic made it easy for me to detect it'.

 

[BrunofanofK]

I have been naive, If God exists then there is definitely a Devil. Hatred is an interesting thing, philosophically speaking. People love to talk about it as if it is some kind of condition that can be rationalized away or bargained with. This is more due to a need for control, to have mastery over one's heart, and to validate the idea that we are good. That humans are good. After all what kind of God-fearing person would want to think themselves evil? It's far easier to fancy humans as inherently good and ignore the part of us that is too ugly for sunlight. Make looking at others more bearable even. It's easy but is also unwise, to blind oneself to malevolence, True Evil does not simply hide in the shadows, it's so Bright that to look at it is to be scorched.

This hatred is so deep that I feel I am drowning in it, so hot I am burning to cinder, so spiteful I am being flawed, layer by layer.

People talk about hatred as if they can grasp it. Modern and enlightened people that are raised in a society designed to shield them from all malaria of the human condition from cradle to grave know nothing of malevolence.

This is Hatred Incarnated. There are no other worlds or tongues that could define what I am seeing. Everything else just falls short.

I have to get away from here, I don't know how or why but every fiber of my being is screaming to flee, cover be damned! If there is a moment to use this power is now. My Extinction of Poisons channeled through my right hand of judgment (Gevurah) is my best bet to open my way out of this predicament-

The kid.

What then? What about him, if this is possession then simply using "the hand that pushes away" in his subtle-body can harm it in a way that goes beyond the flesh. Am I out of my mind, that thing can consume my soul whole!

What are you going to do about this? Abandon the kid? Can you do it and look in the mirror? If you wondered why everybody treated the kid like a time bomb this giant mass of hatred is the first, second, and third best option for it! The logic to even send it to an orphanage is beyond me but whatever the case, the kid is on his own, isn't he? You already knew he was in trouble the moment you saw his situation. In for a penny, in for a pound?

As if this was that simple! I am dead meat, there is nothing I can do against such a thing. It's like pitying a candlelight against a tsunami! This is a force of nature and it hates! I would be crushed, it would make it personal, make it hurt!

So, can I really abandon the kid to his fate in the claws of this monster? If I have no real chance against it then how well is a clueless infant everybody hates going to fare?

It's branded in my mind's eye, no. In my heart. A smile that is like daybreak.

People are not born in this world for this. Everybody deserves at least an honest shot at happiness. If there is any worth to this power is that it allows the light that shines in every heart to reach this world, however briefly. A walking cane to assist the peregrine's journey. It is a means to power, not power itself. Only with our own legs, we can bear ourselves.

I cannot turn away. I don't want to sympathize with the kid, I want to escape yet my legs feel rooted to the ground.

Ah, I see. I fear God. To accept there is a Divine force to creation, that it made, loves, and validates its creatures. So, to inflict or ignore suffering is a sin. Killing people is wrong, everybody in my old world believed this implicitly whether they are religious or not because of this background. It's why slavery, war of conquest, and exploitation are considered wrong, even if some will never admit to it in their pride and resentment.

It doesn't have to make sense, this Fear 'has no measure of boundary, and therefore the mind does not have the power to grasp it'. The Fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.

The person that I am and the person that I will become if I abandon the kid to his fate will not be the same. I won't get away with it. Ever. I won't be able to bear myself. I simply fear this far more than I fear death, especially when I know this is not the end. Hell is a hole because there is no bad situation that can't be made worse. I am already incarnated in Asura Realm, there are three layers still.

It is useless. I can't do anything for the kid besides die with him. But maybe this is my trial from the Great Bodhisattva, no. An opportunity; to save all creation is beyond someone like me but to stick my neck out for one abandoned kid? At the very least I can do this much.

It is hopeless, and I might even just be making things worse. There are plenty of reasons to not engage, I could just be making everything worse but there will be no one else to do this job. It's on me, so I will do it. I might just be talking myself into death but there will be a next time, whether it is kinder than this one is up to me.

It's useless and hopeless but I can take my next step with the memory of a smile that reflected the most sublime and most hidden of all things. This is Love. I will take care of you kid and I will go through to the end. People are born to be loved. I would never imagine the day when I say this out loud would come but life is full of surprises. If it cost me to take this love and set myself ablaze to prove it, so be it; I will prove that you too met love. The imprint you left in my heart, I want to share it with you. This is my first and last action of kindness, I will make it worthwhile. I could never see myself defeating that thing so I will not fight it, this is a display of love.

One's thoughts should be pure, one's forehead should display no harshness, one's ears should always turn to hear good, one's eyes should distance themselves from noticing evil, always looking at the good, one's nose should be free from the breath of anger, one's face should always shine, and his mouth should express nothing except good.

"This is the Light of Revelation that mends all wounds and grudges." The awareness of the Six Heavenly Eyes informs me I activated them the moment those words left my mouth. Here is the realm of the soul and psyche, as such my form is not the baby but a vaguely being of light in contrast to black. My will and my work gave shape I was a little bit of the god I keep bragging myself to be.

"HOH, SO YOU LIVE UP TO YOUR BOAST, HONORED ONE.". I could taste the disdain laced with grudging respect… Yeah, I feel sort of called out, having someone calling me by this title out loud is sort of embarrassing. But the fact this entity heard me, is capable of speech, and is aware of me is far more ominous, that this gargantuan force of malice is being directed by a sentience behind the wheel makes all my fears spike beyond anything I ever experienced.

This is it, an honest-to-God demon. I feel like I am in a horror movie yet the trill of fear one experience from the other side of the screen is like a pale imitation of the root deep existential fear that coming face to face with something Other, that defy common sense and human wisdom by merely exist represent. I feel more than ever that my previous incarnation had really been a blessed one of idleness, self-indulgence, and blissful ignorance. I want to run away, and the impulse once again comes to the forefront of my mind, like a rabid dog biting off his own limb to escape, this desire manifests so strongly I feel my sanity slipping. Like those Call of Cthulhu games, I saw the hint of something not meant for humans and the price of this insight is my peace of mind.

This is beyond me. I already knew this but I never really understood. But again, it's already too late to turn back. The demon was now laughing, rejoice in my fear, if I leave the kid here then God knows what It will do to him. And the only God in this hole is me, well whoever said that the only hands God needs to operate miracles are the ones that he has given us better be on to something!

I will not give this Demon any reservation, this giant mass of malice hiding behind shadows and banqueting on my distress will have to go through me before it sinks his claws on the kid, and I will make it difficult. Fear is the mind-killer; this is simply a fact. My own very supernal biology doesn't lend itself toward cowardice or meekness and right now I am like a stupid frat boy playing hot potato. I am pulling away as soon as I make real contact with it. This half-hearted resolve will get me nowhere. I have to put my hands into the flame!

Sometimes the only thing one really should fear is fear itself. This is not one of those situations. But to even step into the arena, I have to go beyond my own fear. Sacrifice my Lower self that is motionless in the name of my Higher self that will act. To let everything about myself that is not worthy to die, be scorched by the Light. I am terrified that there won't be anything left, like Icarus, but I already changed. I am confident that at least this Light will remain for the kid, to guide him back toward the sun.

Once again, I reach the Gate of Truth inside me and push it one. With the whole of my being, I dive into the Demon's Essence, my Heavenly Six Eyes revealing the whole of the demon in all of His gruesome glory. The Demon is not laughing now, recoiling like a wounded beast, outrage turned into fangs of malice as his essence recoiled back against my Pneuma. But between its Hatred and my Light I stand victorious; he might outclass me in the scale of existence but in Deep my Pneuma is simply closer to the "truth" and my Extinction of Poisons part his Hatred like sunlight to mist.

What was once a night uncompressible entity of malice take shape under my light. Canine animal shape with hints of human anatomy with long ears and red eyes with nine tails. To anyone with the most superfluous familiarity with Japanese culture, this is clearly the most popular and notorious of its "big three" monsters. The Nine-Tailed Fox. It certainly live up to the reputation!

"THIS CHAKRA IS SUPPRESSING MY OWN?! WHO REALLY ARE YOU!?"

One million dollars questions, wasn't it? I really could do with a guide about this situation but other things are preoccupying me right now.

I wish this was the most surprising revelation of the day but the Cage he was confined in by far, take the cake. I had hypothesized that the people of this Realm had developed their own schools of magic but nothing prepared me for the sheer breathtaking deep, complexity, and inventiveness. If it wasn't for the Mind-penetrating knowledge 「the Comprehension of the Hearts of Others」, to perceive the driving will and intent behind the seal its design would be utterly beyond me. As it was, I could grasp enough to understand this is the peak of its craft, a real cultural monument, crystallization of the workings of a civilization. And as all such relics, this reveals intimate insight into their way of life, values, and pursues.

The Cage was not a Cage. To be more precise, the "jailing" aspects of this work are barely a fraction of its totality, even as they can be said to be its "foundation". Like how the first step in creating a nuclear powerplant is to properly contain the radioactive pluton while giving it enough room to extract its latent power. That is perhaps truer than I fear. If the main goal was simply to contain this great Evil, then why go to such lengths? Maybe the construction of a container is beyond their understanding… but the very legend of Tamamo-no-Mae coupled with my opinion of these people makes me disinclined to accept this. If the Curse Killing Stone could last ten thousand years, then why put in a living human that won't last a century?

I keep looking, drinking deep from what I see until I can grasp the seal in its totality. I don't know how long this lasted but the intention behind this seal can't lie. I am righter than I feared. I knew mages could be led to immorality in pursuit of power but for the kid's own parents to do suck thing?! They could much easily have made this Seal into a windowless Jail that could never be opened from either side yet they went the extra mile to intermingle the kids and that Demon's subtle-bodies with the seal as the medium and artificial circuit breaker. It saw me because its essence is perpetually circulating through the kid, it can see everything the kid can. This demon is been turned into a power source!

But the most damming part is that, if my understanding is right, to optimize the Essence transfer the Seal is progressively loosened to increase its output. The consequence is that in time the "cage" aspect would be lost. If I presume that the person that designed it intended for the kid to use it then the message is clear: "The power of this demon, for however briefly you can keep it, is well worth its price".

The kid won't make it to his thirties, and with the demon to cajole him to use his power knowing this will hasten his freedom I can't see him making it to adulthood. This seal is basically a noose for the kid to hang himself with in exchange for power! And when this happens the Nine Tails will have free reins to do as he pleases in the world, vengeance being at the top of its least, very likely. That something so beautiful could be so perverse…

I turn back to the cage and meet the Beast's eyes, so full of hatred and open resentment, growling with a mouth showing teeth bigger than a man in a display of aggression I knew it could not back up, it was powerless for now. I force myself to reevaluate the Nine Tails, to really look at it, past the hatred and unending power.

God! Its soul had been mutilated! People can do that to each other!? That what is left snugly fits his new cage speaks of deliberate action, cutting the Nine Tail down to size so to speak. There are no words to describe how queasy this revelation makes me. Since I discovered souls are real, I became rather attached to mine, that someone can do anything like that will have to be addressed, but later.

Nothing about this situation makes any sense. I am tempted to ask the Nine Tails but I doubt it will cooperate. Or is it actually a she? How does one even ask for the identity of a mountain-sized nine-tail incarnation of malevolence?

"Your name wouldn't happen to be Tamamo-no-Mae by any chance, does it?" Foot met mouth.

"WHY WOULD I GIVE A HUMAN MY NAME?" The entity replies, genuinely affronted by the question. It's seeming it too is completely out of its element, as if it expected this conversation to go in a certain routine and now my stupid ass is completely ruining its style and making it into an awkward stare-down.

No, I already have the means to assert the truth, don't I? The Empyreal Eye allows me to understand the principle of karma, the governing force of cause and effect that spin the well of Samsara. In simple terms it allows me to see the "future", as much as such a thing can exist, the universe isn't determinist but probabilistic, and the Demon of Laplace doesn't rule over the cosmos. People have the power of choice and can guide their destiny in some measure, so "fate" is closer to gravity in a sense. That said, even if the future is uncertain what about the past? Isn't it as good as written in stone? Psychometry is the power to perceive the residual information of an object or person by reading their karma and asserting the steps backward by using the Divine ear 「Understanding of Breathing of the Living World 」in combination.

I have never tried this before, and honestly, there is a good reason for this. Humans are ruled by sensibility. Humans are creatures that depend on information to live, yet are bound by that information until they die. Since vision is the sense that acquires the greatest amount of information, possessing Mystic Eyes means accepting being bound by them. Like the freakish cases of people trapped in perpetual Déjà vu that think all their new information is something already learned or impostor or Capgras delusion that think loved ones were replaced due to rationalization of the loss of affection.

I have taken to heart that abusing this power can lead me astray. My head is already big as it is so anything that can affect my mental state is to be monitored. I remember enough about Shaman King to know that Mind-penetrating knowledge 「the Comprehension of the Hearts of Others」, could turn me into someone like Hao, especially in a barbaric world like this one. Soul eating and everything, apparently. I don't know my limits and what means to bear this power. I was never someone that special before, and while I feel I "deserved" it since it is something everyone can strive to achieve, I don't have any frame of reference for my situation.

And we are not talking about something as transient as a human either. The chances the Nine Tails is ancient beyond reconning is high. Doesn't it take one century for them to get a new tail? Maybe they cap at nine too, so what are the odds this one is millennial plus existence? I can easily overreach and fry my brain due to its long history or simply be overwhelmed by its ego. I could stop it from rebutting me because the amount of power it could foster within the seal is limited but this is about me going inside the cage of the beast, so to speak.

Then, what are you going to do about it? The situation didn't change, this is a poisoned gift that will kill the kid. Either social alienation will get to him or the temptation of a poisoned power will lead him to a slow and painful death. I already committed, now what is left is for me to go through to the end. I want to save the kid but I know nothing about his situation and any adult informed about him is probably an accomplice in this travesty. Nothing good will come from their ambition.

I look at the Nine Tails in the eye and our hearts meet as one.

-//-

It's flowing into me.



So...

This is...

Scarier...

Then the Hate.



This is his memory.

The reason he became the incarnation of Hate.

I can see bits and pieces of what happened with the Nine Tails.



Why Immortality was called a curse.

I never understood that, as a transient being change simply comes naturally to humans.

But to be everlasting, it's simple time enough for the soul to rot if withered enough.

For beautiful things to eventually become ugly and ugly things to become beautiful.

There is nothing disgusting, once you look at it objectively.

So, when things went so wrong?

Sophistry, falsehood, trickery, vanity.

Those are what he saw the most.



But even so, he was as strong in spirit as in might.

He didn't lose heart in adversity. His pride as the Elder and strongest wouldn't allow it.

There was an ideal and an oath he had to protect.

He didn't care for the pain,

as it was his responsibility to see that his Father's workings are preserved.

Even when his expectations were betrayed,

he believed there would be a next time if he did not betray himself.

He did not show grief or pain and never abandoned his post, even when it should be easier.



He aspired to be the greatest protector.

Someone who will always answer for pleas of lamentation and bring salvation.

Someone who will not retreat no matter what disaster he may face,

someone who can save everyone, someone his Father wanted him to become.



He is like the incarnation of destruction to others.

But he was also a convenient existence and was so used by others.

The proud being reduced to a system, and was conveniently exploited.

At some point, he became a God of Destruction that was wanted to be nothing but evil.

But he still had his Father's ideal to protect so he swallowed any bitterness and kept on his eternal vigil.



But at some point, he stopped talk about them. It was simple too difficult in such wicked world,

the words simply couldn't make themselves present without sounding like lies.

The more he kills and the more he is unable to save, the less he can talk about his ideal.

The only thing left for him is to obstinately protect his ideal with force.



In the end, his Father's dream had never been accomplished,

and he found out that it was just nonsense dreamed by a fool who is only a nuisance to others.

Conflicts came into his view as long as he was alive.

It was endless.

In the end, He just prayed for people in his view and his siblings to not suffer.

He grew to hate them in the end.

He grew to hate humans for repeating conflicts.

He grew to hate himself for thinking that humans are sacred.



My mind gives in.

An ocean of lamentations and futility.

I am like an island in it, being submerged by a Tsunami of pain.

I shouldn't sympathize.

I shouldn't feel compassion.

This would be the same as dying.

I would just become a small piece of his hatred.



There are no words of consolation, rebuttal, or reproach that can stand up to this pain.

Everything simple feels fake in comparison.

His resentment comes from so deep everything else standing against it crumbles to dust.



Yet something inside me urges me to not give in.

That I can't accept him or his way of thinking.

That I came here to protect someone.

This sounds true enough to me.

-//-

Reality reasserts itself, as much as it can inside a two years old kid strapped to the strongest being on the planet.

I am on my knees, panting like a dog; a little more and that would have been it. I force down my nausea and stand up on shaking legs.

"NOW, ISN'T IT NOSTALGIC; AND ENLIGHTENING! SOME TIME SINCE I HAVE SEEN CHAKRA BEING USED PROPERLY. AND THAT NASTY FACE YOURS, YOU SAW MY PAST, DIDN'T YOU?"

I don't want to hear it, I barely got out of that nightmare. As it is I can pass this as a nasty dream and work myself into disbelieving it through the next years. But if he says it will turn into reality. It's hopeless though, his Understanding of the Hearts of Others is far more advanced than my own, and this gives him plenty of insight into the best way to break a person. And knowing this only makes what is coming more biting.

"SINCE YOU ARE NEW AROUND THE BLOCK, I WILL MAKE THIS SIMPLE FOR YOU, IT'S ALL TRUE. THIS IS THE TRUE FACE OF THE NINE TAILED FOX."

His words are like judgment. Sentencing me into this little slice of hell. The world that I now am part of. It's like being burdened with a new brand of original sin. Of hubris of man.

"AS HUMANS UNLOCKED THEIR SPIRITUAL POWER AND USED IT TO HARNESS THEIR PHYSICAL POWER IT'S NATURAL THAT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEIR APTITUDES WOULD MANIFEST, AND THAT THOSE GIFTED ONES WOULD USE IT TO LORD OVER OTHERS."

Please stop it, is bad enough with the pieces I had seen it. This hatred, I don't want it.

"THAT IS WHEN I AND MY SIBLINGS ARE TO STEP IN, TO GUIDE AND GUARD HUMANITY, ENSURE THEY DO NOT LOSE THEIR WAY, AND PRESERVE THE BALANCE. INTERFERING WHEN SOMEONE'S CHAKRA BECOMES MUCH GREATER THAN OTHERS AS IT INVARIABLE LEADS TO ARROGANCE AND RECKLESS PURSUE OF EVEN GREATER POWER AND CONSEQUENCE CALAMITIES."

This is a nightmare.

"THAT IS HOW ONE ENDS LIKE ME, A NATURAL DISASTER TO PLACES WHERE THE DARKEST OF HUMAN DESIRES GO TO FESTER. A GOD OF DESTRUCTION THAT PUNISH EVIL."

I have seen it already, your asshole! I just want to curl like vermin and cry myself to oblivion.

"YES, I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I'VE REPEATED THE CYCLE. AS THE MIGHTIEST OF MY BRETHEN AND THE ONE GIFTED WITH THE 'UNDERSTANDING OF THE HEART OF OTHERS' IT FELL TO ME TO BE ACRIMONY TO THE WICKED. AND I FOUGHT AS OFTEN AS REQUESTED WHENEVER I KNEW I WAS REQUIRED."

Why are you being so talkative now, or is this who you really are?

"A GUARDIAN SHOULD SAVE MANY PEOPLE, RIGHT? THAT'S WHY I KILLED. I PRAYED FOR NO ONE TO DIE, BUT I KILLED ONE TO SAVE MANY. I SAID TO MYSELF I WOULD NOT HAVE ANYONE SUFFER, BUT I BROUGHT DESPAIR TO A FEW IN THE DARK."

Is it really the first time anyone has tried to speak to you as a person?

"SINCE YOU CANNOT SAVE EVERYONE, SACRIFICES HAVE TO BE MADE. I QUICKLY KILLED THE ONES THAT WOULD EVENTUALLY FALL OUT TO MINIMIZE THE DAMAGE."

Didn't you have anyone else to put those feelings out of your chest?

"I KILLED AND KILLED AND KILLED. I KILLED MANY PEOPLE TO KEEP MY OATH. I KILLED SO MANY THAT I STOPPED CARING ABOUT INNOCENT PEOPLE, AND I SAVED A THOUSAND TIMES AS MANY AS I KILLED."

A millennium of solitude, with only this cursed mission.

"IT CAN'T BE HELPED, RIGHT? NO MATTER HOW MANY THREATS I NEUTRALIZED, NEW CONFLICTS ARE ALWAYS CREATED BY HUMAN AVARISE. A GUARDIAN HAS TO KEEP FIGHTING AS LONG AS CONFLICT EXISTS."

Do you want validation or do you want to be punished?

"THAT'S WHY I KILLED. I TRAMPLED ON DOZENS OF AMBITIONS TO BRING SALVATION. I KILLED SCORES OF PEOPLE, RESCUED ONLY THOSE IN FRONT OF ME, AND DESTROYED MANY MORE WISHES."

"I KEPT BEING STUBBORN, SAYING THAT IT WILL END THIS TIME, THAT HUMANS WOULD EVENTUALLY LEARN."

What exactly are you expecting from me?

"AND IN TIME, I GOT USED TO IT. TO PROTECT MY IDEAL, I KEPT GOING AGAINST IT. I ONLY SAVED THE PEOPLE I TRIED TO SAVE AND QUICKLY KILLED THE PEOPLE WHO OPPOSED ME. I ALLOWED NECESSARY SACRIFICES TO KEEP PROTECTING MY IDEALS."

You know me as well as I know you so who are these words for?

"FROM THE START, I DIDN'T DO THESE THINGS TO BE APPRECIATED. I HAD NO INTENTION OF BEING PRAISED OR WORSHIPED. I JUST WANTED A RESULT WHERE MY FATHER'S DREAM WOULD BECOME REALITY."

Just shut up already.

"BUT SUCH WISH IT NEVER CAME TRUE. NOT WITHIN HIS LIFETIME, NOR AFTER HIS DEA-

"I said shut up already!" In the end, there are no words I could say that would change anything. To begin with, he is not the kind of guy to be moved by words. Only actions can reach him so that is what I did. The designers of this cage never thought someone would be stupid enough to enter the jail and the Nine Tails pegged me as a pacifist guy, fortune favor the bold!

I sucker-punched him. Flaring all my nodes at once I flew like a comet and with my right arm of judgment, I combined my wind and flame attribute with my Light, my Extinction of Klesha, to smite the hell out of him. Even with our difference in power, he had accumulated enough bad karma that it would be anathema to him like a human getting stung by a bee.

The Nine Tails grunted in pain and fell on his back. Disbelief turned into outrage as he looked at me. But it had a lifetime of experience so it rolled over to avoid my follow-up attack, far faster than I expected someone his size to move. At least this proves my attack "hurt" him.

Being honest with myself though, seeing him in his front legs like a human, with his tails shaking ominously behind him while serrating his hands into fists and casting a look that promises murder, I sort of feel like dead meat. He is like the secret boss that is actually stronger than the final boss and I am way too under leveled for this to be my first encounter!

My only hope here is that he wants to break my spirit more than kill me. It's ok by me, I just want to knock his head back straight, not defeat him. We both came to the agreement this is a battle of wills and is too stubborn to back down from this.

Honestly, telepathy is not what it is cracked up to be. Intimacy really is a foul thing. Both of our lives would have turned out better without this. I could ignore him and pretend he is the monster he appears and he could have kept away from the human business. The standoff lasted for just one moment, we both trying to take a measure of each other. As if this would help!

In this, at least, we agree.

The battle was joined.

[AUTHOR ROOM]

So, Kurama hero of justice! I totally ripped off from Emiya, not even going to defend myself here. This is for a couple of reasons. Kishimoto had no idea he would be the son of Ninja God when he first started, so for the longest time he was like Satan of Naruto world and even after B and 8 Tails most didn't believe Naruto could have such a relationship. Another thing is that we never got a proper explanation as to why ninjas don't rule the world directly, people often speculated but we saw in movies a jonin of Kakashi's level can gather enough followers to take a small country and become too much trouble for major villages and nations to do anything about it.

The world could easily have become Dynasty Warrior, where powerful chakra users deployed normal people like fodder to be killed in droves and exhaust their opponents. Let's remember that the Village system doesn't have one hundred years and Hashirama was the one that popularized the jinchuriki system by selling the tailed beasts. The balance of power between shinobi and tailed beast flipped quite recently, as an entire Village is required to subjugate a Bijuu; they are like the raid bosses of Naruto world. But by then Kurama was infamous enough for Madara to search him out so his bitterness toward humans has to derive from something besides being controlled.

This also makes it so the vacuum of the millennium between Hagoromo's death and Village System has more meaning, the cycle of devastation created by the Bijuu interference is what opened room for the Warring Clans Era. All tailed beasts have become bitter with humanity's misuse of chakra, the 8 Tails was just as bad as Kurama before he met B. While being jailed and turned into a weapon is the cherry on top of the shitty Sunday this makes more sense if you consider they are millenial existences.

 

[GamingPizza1998]

I'm gonna assume time is going a different speed in the seal or there's gonna some pointed questions.

 

[BrunofanofK]

I'm gonna assume time is going a different speed in the seal or there's gonna some pointed questions.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

The Rikugan is tied to the Light Release kekkei tota, they are basicaly Gojo's Six Eyes and offer many of the same benefites except for the perpetual motion machine rax. And due to the SI constitution her Wind atribute thought acceleration comes naturaly. This is also partialy why Minato and Danzo are smart enouth to master seals, as explained in the first chapter.

 

[GooseElite]

I really liked this entire concept. And am so looking forward to where it will lead.

 

[GamingPizza1998]

I really liked this entire concept. And am so looking forward to where it will lead.

Click to shrink...

I have read a fair amount of Naruto fanfic and none have gone this wild, if this dies I will cry.

 

[LokKi]

Yep, enlightened human is something I never saw in fanfics. The enlightened human that's try to become a trap is somewhat in setting but I've mixed feeling about this.

 

[BrunofanofK]

Fundamentally this was meaningless. There was no advantage to be had in this confrontation. I simple didn't had the power and now the inclination to slay the Nine Tailed Fox and he likewise would derive nothing but hollow satisfaction in vanquishing me, there was no freedom for him.

Nothing would change, so why neither of us refused to backdown?

We were simple two fools doing careless things to each other. Both too set in their ways to accept the other. So, to defend our spurious view we pushed and riled each other until this escalated in what basically amount to a bar brawl. Of all things to keep through Samsara stubbornness is perhaps the most damning.

I was so going to die here. This perhaps is a blessing in disguise, considering the position my opponent is in, but I really was never going concede that to him. We were like spiritual brothers in polar oppositive sides of the same spirit and were unreasonable to each other as just siblings could manage. I could not accept his views and he likewise rejected my own. We had our reasons and we saw how the other saw the world but to validate it would be the same as dying. Hate was the only thing keep him going and faith was my anchor in the uncertain. So, we fought.

He held an overwhelming advantage in power, there was no way about it. He was the strongest. And while some mighty beings have challenged his position over the ages none had the permanence to stick around. Invariable the title returned to him. His battle experience could not be overstated, he really was shrewd as, well a fox.

I on the other hand was like nothing that he had ever seen. My powers and capacities have never been tested in battle which actually works on my favor against his empathy. The fact I actually landed my first attack shows that my Higher powers 「Knowledge of the Unimpeded Bodily Function」 was effective against it since by the time I decide a course of action my body is already performing it, he can't predict my movements through our link or by reading the flow of my aura.

This is basically Ultra instinct Goku vs Jigen, I compared myself with a Saiyan before but this is ridiculous. He could end it with one strike but he will have to sweat for that. No, to begin with my stamina is what will decide how long this battle will last. I held no illusions, even dodging like a madman he is strong enough he doesn't need to land a hit to harm me plus I can only repeat my first feat about four times- no, I will have to reinforce my body with aura to not be crushed by his power. Two strikes, is all I can manage, better make it count, is the last thing I will do.

"YOU FOOL, THE BOY IS NOTHING BUT A TOOL FOR UNCARING MASTERS. HE WAS BORN DOMMED TO DIE. NOTHING YOU DO WILL CHANGE HIS FATE."

That is not true.

I charge, like a comet. He answers by using his tails as hammers, trying to cover as much space as possible. All I can do is survive the onslaught by dance between the tails. It's surprising easy, even if it feels like I am being flayed alive by the wind pressure. I want to retreat, pain like this is novel and unbearable but my body refuse to even flinch, as if repulsed by the mere possibility.

Not, it is not so simple. The 「Comprehension of the Extinction of Klesha (poisons of the mind)」is burning that unnecessary thoughts away and using it as fuel; both my asura factor and Six Eyes are working up each other into an ever growing crescendo, my internal reserves regeneration is astounding. I can do it, within two strikes I can end this.

The Nine tails isn't idle, their tails are a volley as they work on concert like a whip machinegun, now that is an idea.

Fundamentally he is like a mountain, I could never skip away at in him in time. But he has a weakness, the asshole that mutilated his soul basically attempted to lobotomize him, taking away his mental acuity of this subtle-body, his Keter Essence, and leaving behind only animalistic fury and power. But he is a smart cookie, with the remnants of his Ying Essence as a foundation he used the self-image of the grudge he accrued as a anchor to preserve his mind. In a sense he is actually possessed by this accumulated hatred. It feels like a blow under the belt but I could never beat him down anyway, besides I will make up for him with dividends.

I move like a fly under his attacks, always just out of reach. My method of combat is more built upon an intrinsic comprehension of my opponent's character and capabilities than any combat experience. I have a pretty good grasp of his present bearing and course of action, and act based on it to weave my way between his blows until finally I find the gap to strike.

I said before that a person can have more than one contradictory thoughts at one but when they have to live through them, they are forced to pick. People are complicated and I right now have about fifteen contradictory thoughts, I hate you and want to shake you up and straight that head of yours and I admire you as someone actually better than me that tried so hard for so long. Fundamentally it isn't fair you are in this position right now. But I can't say it. But you are a better person than me. The first thing I did after gaining this power was think of myself superior but you are different, even if you are just as confused as me. We are both hopeless right now, but this is a good thing; in this we are at the same level. I can't express what I feel in words so this is my next best attempt. I am sure this will be nostalgic to you. This hate is not the core of you, I will help you remember, a little bit of kindness go a long way; especially when it is delivered through "tough love".

Take this, my love, my hate and all of my fury. Using the forceful Netzach methodology as vehicle I flare my spirit alight, opening all of my nodes like never before. I shine like a star, bright enough that the Nine Tails flinch as a stand over him. I cock my right arm(Chesed) back, a shit eating and mischievous grin in my face. 'kill them with kindness' never was so literal.

"Gomu-Gomu no Gatling Gun". The right arm of love that draws one near and the left arm of judgment that push away work on tandem to make more than a One Piece reference. Chesed and Gevurah act together to create an inner balance in the soul's approach to the outside world. Ultimately, the might of Gevurah becomes the power and forcefulness to implement one's innate desire of Chesed. Only by the power of Gevurah is Chesed able to penetrate the coarse, opposing surface of reality.

This power is a binding force. I can't extinguish a hatred as deep as his. It is like throwing water at a Vulcan. But underneath it all you also love others too. You are not a God of Destruction or a Beast, you are a person. This love you buried away; I will claw through you and pull it out until you remember it.

I rain down blows on him, my body of light stretching forward and back like rubber. It's by far the coolest thing I have and probably will ever do, but is something to be proud off. The emotional shock of his remembered love clashes so strongly with his hatred the emotional dissonance is stunning. Even if my punches are like mosquito bites they hurt deep at his heart. The Nine Tails fall to his back, giving me the opening I needed.

This is my last, I almost hesitate. That last attack was everything I had. If I go beyond this point I will simple vanish away, soul disconnected to the body by the lack of Pneuma. I could use this chance to escape, maybe this is enough. The Nine Tails can slowly be reformed by my actions.

No, then nothing will change. He will be right. If I want to prove myself to him then I have to make it matters. In the end the I will only be able to save the kid through the Nine Tails.

This is my last. I wish I could see what kind of man you would become. I love you kid, as if you were my own son, I am sure this light will reach you one day once again.

Goodbye.

I fall.

Nine Tails, the soul is not so easily vanquished. It is immortal and unbound by death, it's a idea. Even if the subtle-body is mutilated the light of Keter will forever shine down from Heaven. This is going to hurt but will also heal. I will give you this, the kid taught me this power bind all hearts together so now I will connect you to my Tree of Life, for this is the Light of Revelation that mend all wounds and grudges. Make it yours, then even if I am gone our meeting will hold significance. You were not wrong, even if you only got suffering in return so far this dedication is the reason I decided to give this to you.

Bringing my hands together submission, the way of Hod, I cast this final prayer.

I reach the Nine Tails at the end of my landing and touch his head with right arm. I hope you have a good dream.

-//-

---

I feel something stirring beneath me. I can't move anymore. I am simple fading like a ghost. My light is dispersing and even my god like senses are being consumed by the touch of oblivion.

"WHY?"

The Nine Tails is holding me in his hand/paw.

I couldn't help but laugh, really? As if you didn't already know.

"BASTARD, I AM ASKING YOU A QUESTION!"

"NOTHING HAS CHANGED, THE BRAT IS STILL DOOMED AND I STILL HERE AND THE WORLD IS STILL WRONG! SO WHY ARE YOU SO SATISFIED WITH YOURSELF!?"

I look at him, even if fading I couldn't help but nag at him. A final middle finger to a friend you know too well to bother with politeness. "Because I have left a worthy successor, haven't I?"

The Nine Tails is silent but the answer got under his skin.

"DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT I WILL HELP THAT FUCKING BRAT!? DON'T BE RIDICULOUS!"

"I do, after all he is the only one that will understand you, isn't him? He will be walking a mile in your shoes, so to speak. If you are a God of Destruction then he is your earthly avatar. You are bond by the same karma, both victims of others and cursed by your nature so I expect that you lean on each other out of this hole instead of dragging each other down, because ultimately the only one that can really save you is yourself, I am simple giving you a helping hand."

This is it, what I wanted to say to the Nine Tails all along. These words wouldn't reach him before but now he has something that can't be denied. The Tree of Life serves as a Magical Foundation he can work on and channel, our souls are connected by something deeper than even Essence. The Idea that is me will always shine this light over him and he will not tolerate to not pass this for the kid one day. The only wat to save the kid was through him. I won. I am satisfied with this outcome.





That is when I feel so much power flooding my fading subtle-body it was like lava was coursing through my veins.

"AS IF I WOULD ACCEPT THIS OUTCOME! YOU FADING ALL SATISFIED WITH YOURSELF, AS IF THE JOB WAS DONE WHILE BURDENING OTHER WITH YOUR EXPECTATIONS. YOU ARE SO MUCH LIKE MY OLD MAN I WANT TO CRUSH YOU! I WON'T LET YOU GET THE EASY WAY OUT; YOU ARE HERE FOR THE LONG HALL! LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN KEEP THAT HIGH AND MIGHTY ATTITUDE AFTER WALKING ONE MILE ALONGSIDE THE BRAT, THEN."

While I feel like both fading and being burned alive I couldn't help but kip. "You tsundere, you like me."

I basked in the frustration of the Nine Tails. Now this is time for celebration!

I was going to live bitches! You thought that was the last of me? The great Pratyekabuddhayāna won't be put down so easily! And you know what the great me do in times like this? I go even further beyond! As abhorrent as this cage is the principles behind it are a true work of art, an inspiration for my next step on my Gate of Truth and some overall improvements.

I already asserted how the 8 primary nodes are conceptually Gates to the Idea World and as my body is a Temple it's only proper it has Gateways. I am going to use them was foundations to build a Torii, a literal gateway to the Spiritual Real above up of the sanctum sanatorium of God that is me. He fucking deserves after that miracle!

Fundamentally the Gate of Life is the source of animatic impulse and Yang Essence and as my body is conveniently being suffused with ungodly power of the greatest lifeform present in the planet, that so happen to be also mostly Yang Essence, give me a unique opportunity. Binding my spiritual energy with the Nine Tails mostly physical one I guide it to my Gate of Life while at the same time I use it to construe the Torii at the Gate of Truth.

Despite the stress suck puissant Essence will put on the body my asura factor will excel to match it, even if I become debilitate for a time. This will be worth because the subtle-body shapes and influences the material one, you could say that Essence carry the template of the body-subtle to some extent. My body and Yang Essence will be extimulated to grow in simulate lines to the Nine Tails while keep its elements contained enough to not paint it too much on its colors. I keep saying to be man is to be half beast and the Nine Tails is the strongest one there is, this is as close to "ideal" I will ever manage.

Surely enough tree tick lines appear on my cheeks of this body of light, they will probable be reduced to small whiskers similar to the kid in my real body, this makes me happy. I smile at the Nine Tails.

"I guess this make us like brothers, then. We are connected in spirit and similar in body."

He looks at me, these words somehow reached deep inside of him. He hesitates as if pondering something.

"KURAMA"

What?

"MY NAME, IS KURAMA."

I know this is a tender and bonding moment where we are connecting. I am probable the first person to give something this valuable and intimate to Kurama, and now we have a bond that can't be severed that goes both ways. But the first thing I did after hearing the name was snore at it.

"WHAT IS WITH THE REACTION!?" His feathers were really ruffled by my reaction, better to justify myself quickly.

"He, he, sorry, sorry. But this is literally the second more cliché name to give a fox spirit. Where your parents running out of names and creativity by the time they reached you?"

It seems that was the limit, Kurama literally flings me out of his cage like I am a ball. Ah, this is a true brotherly bond experience already.

-//-

Fortunately, Souls are dissociated from the gross world of matter and it's time-space axis. Partly because of my Six Eyes thought acceleration and Kurama's own circumstance it looked like nothing changed in the physical world as our exchange lasted short seconds.

That said I had to bite the nanny to get it to give up on separate me from the kid, using these baby teeth for all they are worth! God I really have to give him a name! The whiskers? Come on, I have been hiding my subtle-body for over a year now, to make a charm so they do not draw attention is simple enough.

Unfortunately, I am whipped out. I am like an exhaust marathonist that toke the mother of all drug cocktails. I feel tired and energized at the same time. My Nodes are throbbing, making me sore in a whole novel way yet Kurama's Essence is energizing me to the point is hard to even stand still while trying to split my body in the seams. The situation would likely remain so for a long time, likely months until I adapt and my asura factor grew accustomed to Kurama's little gift.

Well, at least I know what to do with in the meanwhile I heal.

Grabbing the kids hand I drag it along. He is so excitable it is exhilarating. Let's play kid, luckily Squid Game shored up my memory of plays. We have the rest of our lives to know each other.

-//-

[HEY, MEGUMI. ARE YOU SURE THIS IS WISE? YOU BARELY RECOVERED.]

Honestly, if there is one thing you can always count Kurama on is in his ability to hold on to grudges. While I have no intention to fight against "nature" I still adapting to my new situation in this whole reincarnation business. So of course, the bastard has to poke at me every chance he can. He probable used my new name alone more times this last three months more times than anyone this last two years.

I can't even shut they guy up, apparently when I connected him to my Tree of Life I created a path between our souls. Kurama is quite smart and after the first month he healed enough to explain to me that the "soul" is an existence of a higher order in concept of this Realm's astral plane, "The Pure World". What I did connected us in a more conceptual level, that is actually how he transferred his Essence, his "Chakra" to me, since the seal was still too tight for him to manifest much. I basically created a "backdoor" to the seal, since it is more concerned with containing the subtle-body that contain his power. And now we have a "line", like wireless phone.

[WHICH BRING US AGAIN TO THIS TOPIC, THE "TREE OF LIFE" IS CONCEPTUALLY THE CLOSEST 'FORMULA' TO THE "CREATION OF ALL THINGS", AS IT CAN BE SAID TO BE BUILD EXPLOITING THE IMPRESSION LEFT FROM IT AS A FOUNDATION. I AM "HEALING" BY USING THE RECORD MY SOUL HOLD TO RECONSTRUCT MYSELF USING IT AS A MEDIUM, SO EVE IF LEFT ON MY OWN I EVENTUALLY WILL GET RESTORED TO TOP FORM, YOU DON'T NEED TO RETARD YOUR OWN PROGRESS BY SENDING YOUR PNEUMA MY WAY, MEGUMI.]

[If I become was strong as you will this make me happier, Kurama?]

[NAÏVE FOOL, THIS WORLD IS NOT KIND TO WEAKLINGS EITHER. YOU WILL NEED ALL THE POWER YOU CAN GATHER WHEN YOU ARE DISCOVERED. THE POWERS OF THIS WORLD WILL NEVER LET SOMEONE LIKE YOU BE, EVENTUALLY THEY WILL SEARCH TO REIN YOU IN OR YOUR NOSY TENDENCIES WILL LEAD YOU TO BITE MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW.]

[Then developing my comprehension of this power will do me just as well. This is what allowed me to beat you, after all.]

[YOU DIDN'T "BEAT" ME! YOU GOT YOURSELF KILLED AND I SAVED YOU IN MY ETHERNAL GRADIOSITY.]

[Wow, you really care!]

[!!!]

Whatever, any sense of awe I had left for Kurama had been dispelled this last months. Maybe familiarity really breed contempt but I prefer to think we simply got closer as friends. Meanwhile my body finally adapted and integrated the modifications imposed by his Essence, in a sense making it a simulacrum of his own body; like how Sigurd obtained a measure of Fafnir' power by eating his heart. Without the Asura factor this power surely would have ripped me apart but, as I suspected, it thrived under the challenge. My Gate of Life truly can be likened to a Dragon's Core now or a Tamamo Core? Anyway, the generation of Yang Essence is incomparable from before.

Which bring us to my next step. Now that my own reserves have grown the overall quantity of True Aether in my body have increased, even if the ration with the other Elements have been preserved. While before they could only be meaningfully detected in my Nodes, "tenketsu/pressure points", now it is filling all my nervous system. As Kurama stated, the Pure World is the source of the Ying Essence; unfortunately, he has been rather tight lipped about the topic, even the "Creation of All Things" is something he let slip along the way.

I attribute this more to cultural shift, while in my previous incarnation information sharing was seen as a virtue of modernity the truth is that for much of our history, we too had hoarded information and knowledge. This is why the knowledge of concrete had been lost by the romans and it took almost a millennium for it to be rediscovered after their fall. I decided discretion is the best part of valor and not to push the Fox Spirit too much, as it is he will eventually loosen up as my "affection points" increase.

What is important is that as my "scale of existence" got bigger my perception of it got clearer. The difference between trying to see a virus through a microscope to do the same to a bacterium. This is not entirely due to his little gift though. Adversity seems to be a key factor to foster grow and I got a lot of "exp" in my confrontation with Kurama. This sort of explain the sad state of affair of this world though, the more strife the stronger the victorious will get, promoting the mentality of survival of the fittest. That is why "being strong" is not really something I am that passionate about, it can easily become a rabbit hole that leads all the way to hell. This power can be so much more, I am much more interested in being my "best" self.

Which lead me to my next Torii. The Gate located at the Root of the spine is overwhelmingly comprised of the Earth element and is a linchpin of the subtle-body. I can see how the confluences of force gather there and with Kurama's hints and my near-death experience I have enough clues to make an educated guess about the basic function of the 8 Gates. Fundamentally they are the same thing that the 7 Chakras of India tradition, points of confluence of the body, soul and mind that administer and regulate vital, emotional and mental functions. Considering Chakra can be likened to life itself as the link between life and soul most of it is committed to vital and mental basic functions; about 80% to be precise.

Considering Kurama as an example I am secure to say that my initial assessment is right that combat ability is fundamentally decided by one's mastery over their Essence, it's quality and quantity as it allow to push far past the limits of the gross material body of flesh the more powerful and efficient the "Chakra user" is. In that case the proper optimization of the 8 Gates will be the best course to unite the useful to the pleasurable. As the 8 Gates, like the 7 Chakras of my old world, can be said to represent the entirety of the being to properly balance and influence is the best way to foster the growth.

If one of the Gates is blocked or obstructed the energy and the functions associated with it will be compromised but if it is too opened then the body is forced into overdrive and can easily lead to permanent damage or even death. Now that I know that and thanks to the insight of Kurama's Seal I have all elements necessary for optimal performance. If people are like trees then what I am about to do will be the equivalent of a bonsai. I will create a Seal, a Stigmata, a Mark that will "commit" foster and direct the proper function of the Gates. My success with the Gate of Life Torii spurs me on. The goal is to make more with less and squeeze every drop of utility from my Pneuma.

Luckily for me, the Root Gate is one for one aligned with the Root Chakra: both are at the base, are primarily comprised of Earth Element, as the neighbor of the Gate of Live, they "administer" this "vitality", being primarily conceptual linked with the principle of "survival instincts" and related activities such as hunger and sleep. Beyond that it is also wired to the most solid parts of the body: bones and muscles.

As the element of Earth and Wood are interlinked due to my east-west syncretism I decided the Stigmata will be a flower, the Lotus being the chosen one. Because lotuses rise from the mud without stains, they are often viewed as a symbol of purity. The same way, as the Torii is a Gateway that is born in the "Impure World" and rise to the "Pure World"; likewise, the lotus flower meaning is transcendence: the lotus represents the transcending of man's spirit over worldly matter since it blooms from the underworld into the light while also returning to the murky water each evening and open their blooms at the break of day, symbolizing strength, resilience, and rebirth.

And the same way the Root Gate is wired to different parts of the body the Perfect Lotus Stigmata will be layered in tree parts.

The Lotus's Root will be the foundation, linked to the bone marrow, and carry the aspect toward Wood element, being the "life force" that bind the body and soul; "Sweet Succor Cultivation Methodology". Basically, this will increase my "hp" and "stamina" poll and their regeneration.

The Lotus's Core is Golden, likewise this aspect will be of the Earth element and likened to the bones, "Golden Bone Transmutation Logic Formula". 'Gold' in this case will be less to do with the mineral and more it's ideal as stainless and perpetual nobility. Using the Lotus conceptual link with the "pure world" it will the carrier of the conceptual structure, preventing deviations caused by abundance of lifeforce like cancer and phenomenon interference from outside source. Fundamentally, this will prevent the deviations and raise my "magical resistance" and "status alignment resistance" as my Chakra will be more likely to reject impositions from foreign Chakras.

The Outer Layer of the Lotus are its Petals, representing its symbol of strength, they are likened to the muscles. Exploit the dissonance between Earth and Metal/Eletricity of my chart using my main attribute of Wind as a medium for "inversion of polarity/nature" as is the nature of electricity, which also control the muscles. This will be the "Wrought Iron Body Reinforcement". Increasing both "strength" and "endurance".

Have completed the conceptual structure of the formula I simple flash my Six Eyes for an instance and create the second Torii in my Gate of Truth and Root Gate, using the True Aether as a medium and clay for the Stigmata. In just a moment it is complete. Honestly, this is a burden out of my mind, as this chakra related to the Root Gate is "committed" to its function and is related to "survival" I no longer have to worry about dying by running out of "mp" as this will be like a safety breaker that will prevent another episode like my fight with Kurama. Sure, this means by the time I reach the final Gate my available "mp" pool will be only 20% of my total pool, but the Yang Essence regeneration of the Gate of Life Torii and this one proves that the benefits more than cover for the costs.

[CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR TRAMP STAMP, MEGUMI!]

[Fuck you!!]

[THAT WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT GATE AND A LOT OF YEARS, I IMAGINE.]

Bastard was milking the situation for all it was worth it! Yeah, the Perfect Lotus manifest in the back right under the Root Gate but since it is a "chakra construct" it will only manifest when I flare my aura-

Two chubby arms suddenly tackle me, I turn around and see a golden mane like the Sun.

"Play!" He demanded, full of exuberance and energy. I couldn't help but to smile softly at him.

"Sure Apollo, let's play. What do you want to do now?"

That is the name I have given the boy, my son. I had a real argument with Kurama about it as parents and siblings are a sore topic for him but I stood my ground and he fundamentally relented when I pointed out "ramen toping" is the straw that broke the camel's back for these birth parents. I don't care what pass for "love" around here, any decent God-Fearing country would view sealing a demon on your infant child as grounds for children protection service.

The name will be nothing but a curse to the boy anyway, whispered in the same breath as "demon container". Kurama warmed up to they idea when I pointed out only me and him would call him by that name for the longest time, there is a reason he never gave his name to humans, he didn't want them to sully it and with it his father's memory, someone he doesn't even talk about with me. This name will be our personal little prayer for the boy, that he will break of this fate and stand unsullied from the ugliness and resentment to shine like the sun.

Taking his hand I run alongside him, pointily pretending to be oblivious to the glares. These fuckers can choke on the hate! I will make sure Apollo has the bestest childhood a child can have! Believe it!

[AUTHOR ROOM]

Yeah, if Kishimoto didn't went out of his way to wank Minato would we see him in the same light as Rasa? A modern person? Most definitely. His only friend is Kurama who he mutilated and jailed too, who did not like, got over all his hate of humans; he just wrote Megumi and "Apollo" out of the list of people he will nuke the moment he gets out. Some times the best revenge is living well, he is not into that though.

By the way, I am making it so the reason Kurama didn't wiped out barion mode before was because the "know how" was with his Ying half. Now we have a boring fox with privileged access to a magic formula completely novel to the elemental nations. There will be carnage.

One year time skip next chapter, there simple isn't much to be done in the meanwhile. Unless someone wants to kip in and give suggestions I am moving the time table to Sarutobi first encounter.

 

[BrunofanofK]

Yep, enlightened human is something I never saw in fanfics. The enlightened human that's try to become a trap is somewhat in setting but I've mixed feeling about this.

Click to shrink...

Honestly, you are thinking way too much about it. The core of the story is thay humans are full of contradictions, as they have many impulses that pull at each other in different directions. It simple would be more strange if he didn't care at all but then she became obssessed with godhood and being ajudmental ass then she almost threw alway everything for a kid she just met because she was starved for connections. Naruto himself became a self-made hypocrite. Later on she will have to decide if she becomes a alpha bitch to fortify the asura factor or whatsnot, as Ino and Sakura did. Another thing is that she spend a lot of time inside her head, when she express the world "man", it is more often than not is in the biblical sense. It simple offer more options to explore this theme to put her in those circunstances.

She is far more interested in "godhood" than crotchhood.

 

[Knight In Red]

This is one of the most interesting Naruto fanfics I've ever read. Even if it has certain grammar problems (considering the general complexity of text, it fells like T9 is the culprit, somehow), this story is just below "Weaver's Option"... and there certainly is nothing above "Weaver's Option" in fanfiction for me (not even "A Demon Lord's Hero"). I hope to experince this POISON till the very end!

 

[GamingPizza1998]

Ho Lee Shit...

Spoiler: Canon

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M2gFj3oFRcI

I can not wait for Megumi to find what's left of Minato and Kushina in the seal.

 

[BrunofanofK]

I awaken with the first rays of sunlight hitting me in the face as my bed was located precisely for this, always unpleasant but effective clock. I can't afford a real one just yet and having Apollo running around this early would be too much work, the kid is great but God does he has energy! Like this I can have breakfast prepared by the time he is out of the bed.

Forcing myself up through the grogginess and haze of sleep I leave the bed. One of the things you kind of forget about childhood until you become a parent is that of kid's propensity for sleep like logs. I was used to dial from oblivion to wide awake like a switch but now it takes a good 10 minutes for me to simple force my eyes open, even longer if the resin of the eyes glued then shut. It was rough at the beginning to move like that in our new flat but I have accrued enough bumps to have the layout memorized, pain is a great teacher.

Yeah, you hear this right. At the tender age of 3 the bureaus of the Village Hidden in the Leaves have judged us, that is me, fit enough to live in a government handed out house. It sounds absurd to this day, even after hitting the history books and discovering that over one hundred years ago people used to send 7 years old to fight in frontlines of feudal warfare and this is by all means considered "progress". It seems people are somewhat aware of the mental augmentation Chakra provides and don't so much as blink at "geniuses".

In fact, Konoha quite like them, geniuses that is; a bit too much in my opinion even. This was a calculated risk but after getting the heads up from Kurama that getting Apollo and skipping town was pretty much not on the picture until I was strong and desensitized enough to literally fight my way out of it with him, we were stuck here.

The infamous "Nine Tails Attack" was a prison break, he is being a captive here since pretty much its founding, a "deterrent" to "keep the world at bey". I once likened him to a God of Destruction but I never imagined how accurate this assessment was. A power that they can seldom let go of even as it scorches them, an odious god fit to wretched merchants of death.

So, since adoption was out of the picture the best way forward was to get enough face to secure my position as someone worthy to keep around the "demon container", even if just as an emotional lever to control the both of us with. Being a child with inborn ability to manipulate chakra set me on the pedestal easily and changing my disguise to show a little more of progress got me a lot of attention. While a visit of the broken masked men that live in the roots of the village was a real danger, I had to risk it to ensure I wasn't separated from Apollo. His situation in the orphanage was deteriorating fast due to neglect. People simple hated him too much, to the point it was something that united them in the "tragedy" of the attack.

Slavery is wrong, everybody is born free, and if people want to take away other's freedom, then they better be prepared to have theirs taken away when things don't go their way. I can't hold this against Kurama when he went out of his way to keep out of human affair until they deteriorate to cancerous levels.

This is more of a temporary measure, I have no intention to become or letting Apollo to be child-soldier or a killer, especially when I have the poster kid of such lifestyle perked outside my window. But thanks to the second Hokage I have a grace period of 9 years until I am forced to become a genin to think of something.

Hitting the kitchen, I go for the fridge and take all the left-over of the week, from a diversity of vegies to meat and many eggs. This kitchen is ruled by the 15 minutes of prep time to any meal, anything fancier would be too hard on this child's body anyway. Chopping the vegies, I simply take the iron cast pan and conduct Fire Essence in it, heating it without the need of flame, just to impress the "secret" assigned chaperone. Putting one finger of oil in the pan I then start to cook the vegies and meat for five minutes then season than and cover them with a mix of milk and eggs, use wind Essence to flay a block of cheese like a scraper and put my palm over it, channeling Fire Essence to simulate a broiler. And like that a 15 minutes veggie frittata is ready.

Apparently to just channel chakra like that through the hands or feet is considered a "jonin level" skill. These people are hopeless, to seize total control over the entirety of the chakra network is the unescapable requirement before you even attempt to start to use Chakra for anything. They are almost like Shirou, barely using their circuits properly and letting them atrophy, then latter in life when you try to correct that it becomes harder as it will requires to relearn it while tackling bad habits picked along the way. "The good enough is mortal enemy of the perfect".

Putting the pan down I get some boxed juice then slice the meal in three parts for three plates. Taking one slice I deposit it in the window. "Come on boy, food is ready. Enjoy while it is hot." I know I am being petty, just because he walks around with a dog mask and smells of dog doesn't mean my chaperone enjoys being treated as one, especially as a young man but I simple feel that I can't let him be. Who the hell has high functional depression by the time they reach eighteen?! He is clearly married to the job too, by how frequently he gets this post. This is the fate of "geniuses".

Leaving him be I walk back to the sleeping room. Reaching the bed, I start to shake Apollo awaken. "Come on, it's morning. We will have breakfast and go play lots and lots!" The disgruntled answer was really cute, Apollo is always so grumpy at mornings I always take pleasure in teasing him.

He turns around and make a face, clear intent in staying in bed. Ha, as if I would let you develop this kind of bad habit! Grabbing the mattress, I literally flip him out of the bed while landing on my own, this sure will wake him up.

He screamed then turned to me with a really cross expression that make him look adorable with those chubby cheeks. Smiling I grab both of them and repeat "Wake up Apollo, you of all people should learn to rise with the sun."

"Ah, come on Meme. Just some more minutes!"

"Nope, breakfast will become cold by the time you had enough. Besides I don't want you to be running around after dark either." After that the usual fight to get him out of bed ensues. I really would like to be more peeved by this but I wasn't any better to my own father either. As he had business close to my school so he always had to wake me up to get there early.

Walking back, I see that the plate and juice cups left by the window are empty. "Really, are you sure you shouldn't be a cat instead?" He wouldn't answer, he never did. I felt bad for the boy but his passive-aggressive tendencies set me off in an almost alien way. I never much cared to be brushed off but this Senju blood in me screamed out of principle to be thanked properly for the meal.

It was pretty easy to discover the "source" of the Asura factor. The top dog of the Warring Clans Era, that toke on all challenger and came out as the indisputable winner of that age, setting up the framework for the "Village system". Honestly, I have to give credit when it is due, this Tobirama guy is perhaps the shrewdest guy in all of the elemental nations' history. Choosing to give the paper tiger title of nobility to the clear mutant clans like the Aburame, Hyuga, Uchiha and Akimichi as a smoke screen while dissolving your own clan as a "demonstration of good faith" while establishing the first "democratic system" this world has ever seen paid off; Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju shacked hands in peace and one hundred years later the Uchiha and other clans that once rivaled them have barely kept themselves above replacement level while the descendants of the Senju have prospered and multiply to become the singular majority of the most populous "Hidden Village". Demography is destiny, they don't need stamps on their backs, in group bias does not vanish that easily.

I held no illusion. Konohagakure existed for, by and to the Senju clan as far as things were concerned. Wise considering people with obvious mutations, "advanced bloodlines" are derided as harbingers of conflict, being downright discriminated against in other parts of the world or looked at with suspicion. He probably noticed that "factor" in his own family and went out of his way to make sure it was obscured and brushed aside as a cultural quirk so that while the Senju name is all but dead their descendants can pass off as just unremarkable if "talented shinobi" or "geniuses". As expected of a rational man full of bitterness and cynicism over the blood feuds of his lifetime losing siblings, children and relatives. Nothing was overlooked to maximize his kin success, he buried the Senju name and all the grudges associated with it with ruthless efficiency, almost joy even, if the humors about the disdain he bore for his father were true.

It's like the most delirious of Jews conspiracies made manifest; if only it wasn't both true and vindicated. After hearing talks about bloodline purges happening is the Village Hidden in Mist I kind of am forced to bow down to the wisdom of my great ancestor. I mean if I had to bet a place for this to happen, I would put my money into "Blood Mist"; if you force two kids into a deathmatch against each other the one with superpowers is most likely to win, even after they banished the practice the bad blood and resentment would certainly remain. If I was born in a world where people could look at monsters like the resent turned traitor, Orochimaru and say "he was possessed by the impulses of his senju blood" my life would be far less comfortable.

Let's not even mention the fact the famous Sannin are basically the real-life retelling of the "Tale of the Galant Jiraiya". I have heard that life imitate art but this is ridiculous! I don't even want to understand how Samsara decided to make a fairy tale into reality, the implications are too much for me. Back to our regular schedule of ranting about the social-political background of my new ethnicity.

Let the mutants like bug-infested Aburame and freak eyed Uchiha&Hyuga to prominence so we can pass as normal to the rest of the world, Konoha the "nice" Hidden Village. More like masters of PR. We really are like the Tohnos, a house of well-groomed monsters that maintain position of prominence and authority to wider society while burring all our dirty laundry "in the roots". Or, to a more native friendly terms, the successful version of the Kaguya Clan, with our own blood-line limit to give the game away. I look at the balcony where my personal little garden is kept.

In the end I was so worry-sick about being separated from Apollo that Kurama interfered. He confined to me that if I manifested the wood release, something he judged well within my capacities due to my Gate of Truth and Perfect Lotus Stigmata success, I would surely be kept with Apollo, as this power was the most prized and coveted by all the world, the power to suppress him.

I was both touched that Kurama trusted me enough to give me this information and scared out of my mind. This was the opposite of keeping a low profile! I would be the fucking golden goose of this nation. I was already reticent about leaking the existence of my Six Heavenly Eyes, my Rikugan (Buddha Eyes). It was the second scarier thing I have ever done and it would put a target on my back forever but I did it; leveraging my Pneuma' "vitality" as a base and combining it with Fire, Water and Wood/Earth essence I displayed a small trick to Apollo "by accident".

It was incredible easy and fuel efficient as it uses almost all Elements that comprise my Chakra. While any spell comprised of True Aether would be an uphill struggle that I would require the Rikugan full atention to even attempt and it would need to be "charged" as I compress the basic elements into "Light Release" (keke mora), "Wood Release" can basically be performed by using nature as a medium. The trick is the hint of "natural energy" in your own chakra medium to exploit the binding nature of chakra and connect with the surrounding flora and let nature do the heavy lifting. All my talk about trees the last three years must have had an effect after all.

What the natives call "nature transformation" is the action of 'drawing out" one of the basic Essences that comprise the subtle-body. Considering they never bother to even master their entire chakra network the action of properly balancing out the basic essences inside their bodies, the "dust from the four corners of the world" is beyond them. They have to rely on crude divinations to determine which element is the main component of their subtle-body to then train to "master it", that is learn to filter it out from the rest. Crude and inefficient, but I guess is "easier".

In the end Kurama was right. I was subjected to enough exams and blood tests that I developed a heath new iatrophobia but after both of us throwing a tantrum the higher ups decided it would be more prudent to simple letting us be together. Soon after we got this flat and a meagre allowance, discretion was the best part of valor, our greatest shield is anonymity. Which is why I question the wisdom of divulging Apollo's identity as the "demon container", I beet it was politics.

Apollo finished his meal and toke on the dishes, I will be dammed is he grow into a useless adult. Since I always cook he has to wash the dishes. I even made a laddered stool for him to reach the sink, together with the plates, and the tableware and most of the furniture, and his toys and the most succulent vegetables and fruits I could ever imagine.

Ok, maybe this has gotten out of hand. But come one, how cool it is!? To make anything you can imagine is so cool! I could make a fucking house out of nothing one day with the snap of my fingers! Nine Tail repellent? I have literally become a magical carpenter that could raise and feed a city from the fucking ground, this is far more amazing!

Now that I think of it that is precisely what the founder did, wasn't it? I am really ambivalent about the guy. In one side he was born in a death world where children' lives were used as grease to a perpetual war machine and not only morally opposed it but steered the entire world into a more civilized direction, swallowing bitter resentment by shaking hands with bitter rivals to create a world where kids could "grow old enough to experience the wonders and horrors of sake". He had the power to conquer the world and if he had gone for it none of his contemporaries would have blinked. While I have the leg up of remembering a more civilized world the fact that he rose against the common sense of his time is beyond praiseworthy but that he did it at the cost of my friend is something I can never emotionally forgive.

"I am done, now let's play outside!" Apollo shake me off my zooming out by literally jumping in my back. It seems that he too, hate to be brushed aside and ignored. I smile down at him, enjoying what is to come.

"Not just yet, we have some homework to do before we leave." The look of betrayal on his chubby face as he prepare to whine was glorious, pulling the rug out of him is one of my guilty pleasures, he is just so excitable and his reactions are just so cute I can't help but rile him up.

"Nooo! I don't wana! You said we would play today!" He cries in his impotent fury and betrayal.

"I never said when though." I answer surely, so sure in fact he blinks in confusion. Realizing that indeed I never respecified the timetable as if that explain everything, after all I was acting so sure of it I must know better.

"Come one, just half an hour today. Do it for me and I will make it to you." I had him then. Sure I would do anything he asked anyway, but the idea of getting a concession itself enticed him. Apollo could be so simple minded, but this was also cute about it. I fully intended to enjoy this age as he would eventually grow out of it. For now, at least, he was my baby.

Taking a primary math book, some sheets of paper and pen I set the tabled. Apollo sat next to me disgruntled. The truth was that I couldn't count on Konoha's regular public service to tend to his education, regular public service was "good" for the standards of this world but it is a tool to their warrior culture, the open hostility people have for him also make my expectations for reasonable teachers low and Apollo himself is so excitable I would qualify him as ADHD if I had the qualification to diagnose it. In the end I have decided that is best to take his academic life in my own hands and homeschool him, especially because I have the one tool to fill in the gaps, Ninshu.

One more hint from Kurama, the legacy left behind by the bodhisattva that presides over this planet and works for its salvation. When I questioned him about it, he affirmed that the man himself died shortly after his own birth, and as the fox is as old as dirt himself that is saying something.

['a middle finger']

[Cultural exchange has been fruitful and enriching it seems.]

The point is, with this power anyone can connect their "spiritual energy", what I previously qualified as Keter or Ying, with each other a spiritual connection can be made and a telepathic and empathic link is formed. The Great bodhisattva has given every human being a latent talent for the 「the Comprehension of the Hearts of Others」… and the very first thing they decided to do with it when he wasn't around anymore was set each other on fire with it!

Ninjutsu.

Anyway, with this power express ideas and pass on intent is really simple, so it can easily be used as a tool of learning and teaching. Apollo is a natural at that, there is no other wat to slice it, the kid was a prodigy. Thankfully not of the "art of shanking people" this world values, I won't see the day where he uses "British breathing art". His potential is more along the lines of being "Great" than to be "Strong". That is something I am extremely proud of but I also can't help but fear, his circumstances couldn't be worse. Is the love of one person greater than the hate of an entire community? That he grows to hate humanity in knowing them is my greatest fear.

…

I had one or two nightmares with Hao outcomes that I would rather suppress. But it is a real possibility after some perusing in the academy's material I found out about this "senjutsu". There is really not that much about it but this is a confirmation that a person really can "die as a human" and becomes a alter-ego of the planet. So, I asked Kurama if an Archetype-Earth scenario where a powerful enough sage uses the planet to force a spiritual link with the planet to cull the unworthy while awakening those qualified to become sages, creating a society of enlightened people, "shamans".

He pondered about it for a long hard minute, then all excitedly called me a "fucking genius" and offered to teach me this senjutsu, since according to him I was already "half-way there". I explain to him it wasn't a proposition, he quickly lost interest but pointed out if I changed my mind, he was the guy for the job. Said that the fact I could device such plan, "an answer" to fix the world show I had the potential.

No, Apollo's education is my first priority. He has to be guided the proper path and I am the only one to do it. If there is one thing I have to pass down is that despite all the malevolence this world has one must not succumb to it and wallow in the dirt. To struggle with it is part of human experience and every time people have succumbed to their worse impulses there has been only an ever-deepening hell, there is no future in resentment. Nobody can get away with anything, the consequence of their actions, their karma, will eventually get them. So, to do good is its own reward, the power to change the world for the better is something everyone has the capacity for, even in this Realm. If there is one thing Hashirama's achievements have proven something it is that.

We work in silence, trading just a few tips and soon enough is time to go. I go pick some things and we reach the door. I can't help but hesitate, walking the village with Apollo is always a rough experience. Here in this flat is our personal little world we can forget ourselves in, there is no hateful villagers and scornful eyes and whispers and insults. Part of me honestly can't help but dread this door, but Apollo is an outgoing extroverted person. He craves to meet people and make connections and I simple am not enough. I am not even offended by it, I am an introverted that has more interest in ideas and aesthetics than people; he easily take up all my energy for social interactions and then some. And more importantly I can't set a bad example and run away from this. He doesn't get to run away, this option was taken from him at birth, so I won't run away either. These bastards can choke on the hate for all I care!

With this resolve I open the door.

-//-

Konohagakure is perhaps the mostly stunning idiosyncratic place I ever experienced. I have been in cities that almost looked like they had been grafted to forest before but nothing can prepare you for the chaotic architecture and hazardous electric work and labyrinthic plumbing system and pagodas for buildings staked over each other like a giant game of jenga, showing the steady progress and prosperity it enjoys. To someone that had the displeasure of experiment the ever-encroaching march of sterile postmodern cinder blocks it is a breath of fresh air, there is a vibrancy that scream that people actually live here and they have an identity that can't be brought or faked.

Its people… don't give off the best first-person impression or experience, from where I am. There is nothing as brazing as rejection and to have it enforced by an entire community is a whole new brand of hell. I never knew how frightening cold people's eyes could become. If eyes really are the window of the soul, then what should make of that? I don't know, and a part of me is constantly scared for Apollo. People hate him but would never let go of the power that he holds. This kind of toxic relationship is fated to end in tears for everyone involved. I know that just moping will change nothing but to reach for other and be rejected is so painful, like offering your heart and have it stomped. "Once burned twice as shy", right? It really fills me with pride that a child so young can be so amazing. I don't want that light to be snuffed out so I will keep going no matter how many times I get burned.

Taking his hand I march forward, pretending the hostility is breaking like water under my back. That said there is not much point in delaying our trip so I force a brick march. Honestly, people could at least pretend the identity of the vessel is secret, as we walk the whispers about demon, monster and blame for the death of the star child 4th​ Hokage can be heard even with human ears. These people don't even pay lip service to the supposedly capital law about the container! But again, this is actually normal, isn't it? No matter what kind of law one tries to push forward it is culture that is the ultimate enforcer, if everyone agrees to hate Apollo then this law is toothless.

It's hard to not lose heart, part of me wants to get powerful enough to really fight my way out of this hellhole. If peace in the elementals nations is impossible for me and Apollo then I can reach for an unexplored continent where nobody has heard of us and start a new life there. What is so especial about one's place of birth that one would give their life up for? It's not like we have anything from here but emotional scars. As cliché as this sounds a child that is not embraced by the village will burn it to know its warmth.

It's wrong to kill but people have the right to defend their lives and strive for happiness. It's simple something that everybody has the right to. It doesn't need logic or explanation. When others try to take your life and freedom away, how far is too much? Even if I had the power could I go through with it and crush everyone in my way? And more importantly, do I want to live like that, constantly fighting off pursuers? I have no answer- no, I am running away from this question, for now.

The time will come when this problem between me and this village will have to be settled and Kurama will be more than happy to throw his lot with us. There will be nothing that can stand on his wat by then either, he is taking this chance to reconstruct his soul with my Pneuma into something more suited to cover for his weaknesses. The difference in life experience between us is clearly showing, he has already surpassed me, whatever power they previously used to contain him will be lacking next time. One way or another Apollo will be his last container.

I am pulled from my musing by the tug of the arm, normally I avoid busy streets when crossing Konoha to alleviate the unpleasantness so I missed the commotion, but after his insistence I notice the parade happening at the main street of the Village Gate. Apollo's eyes were clearly begging me to see it. I sign in resignation; these small pleasures are not something I will ever let be taken from him if I can help it!

"Follow my lead." I relent while firming my grip on him with my hand and chakra so he knows to imitate me the best he can. All especial movement techniques used by shinobi rely on human capacity to interact and move through the four(five with metal/lightin?) ethers as our subtle-bodies are partially made of these same elements. From gluing yourself to walls, moving-like-a-mole, to stand on water and store yourself in a puddle of water. That said a person can't really change the composition or ratio of elements they are born with easily, it would be akin to Chinese foot biding, doing more harm than good if you don't know what you are doing. If you are going to use one single element then your primary one is by far the easiest, this decide which movement technique is also the easiest.

That is right, it is easier for me and Apollo to learn how to fly than to walk on walls or stand on water! Even my use of Fire and Wood essence always starts with my Pneuma as a base foundation that I then incorporate with other elements by reaching to them. My Wood release is fuel efficient but is also far slower and mechanical than the basic and instinctive use of Wind or "Fire"(Wind+Fire).

That said levitation is a bit out of reach for me without the Higher Powers 「Knowledge of the Unimpeded Bodily Function」 of the Rikugan and Apollo is basically a baby, so a more basic movement technique it is. This is basically air bending, to use the communion with the Wind Ether as leverage to seemly reduce your weight and propel oneself with gusts of winds. We use it to slowly make our progress upward, from small jump to small jump through verandas and open platforms designed to accommodate vertical locomotion all ninjas favor, until we reach a good spot.

I will give it to then, these people really know how to have a good time. They are literally littering the streets with rain of confetti for the "parade", a commission of foreign ninja that came to Konoha to break a peace treat for "The Village Hidden in the Clouds", Kumogakure. The most bitter rival Konoha has even had even as "Hidden Stone" is the one that hate us the most. Apparently, all the high rank shinobi have come here for the celebrations to the end of hostilities.

What a farce.

Kurama's little gift enabled me to sense the evil intentions and malice of the Kumo's chief diplomat from here, even without the Rikugan active. All warfare is based on deception. The man was here to get leverage of some kind, War of Position or Maneuver warfare. So, this is it? Will Apollo grow up in warfare? Will he be conscripted, then? No, he is too valuable an asset and I am the key holding him, if Konoha had another mokuton user they would have used it on the attack. This is not our problem.

Letting Apollo bask on the sight of this empty celebration I turn myself off. This is not our problem. I can't do anything anyway and I don't want any early promotion either, so is better to pretend I didn't see anything.

"If we stay here until the end there wont be much time to play, Apollo."

"AHhh!?"

"Let's go, shall we? It will just be the same until the end, anyway."

He looked reluctant at it, he really wanted to go there and be part of the festivities. And God, but I really wish he could experience it at least once! I feel powerless, and this feeling twist inside myself into something ugly and hot and best repressed.

"Ready to go?" I ask, giving him some time to get over it.

"Hey, Meme? Do you think that one day I will be allowed down there with everyone?"

"Why does everyone look at me like that?"

GOD FUCKING DANMIT!

I froze like I always do any time this topic comes up, not trusting in my reaction. If the cold gazes and backtalk are scorching then Apollo dejected reaction is like a spear through the heart. The pain is so great I feel like I am suffocating. Apollo don't deserve to pass through this. Nobody does. I hate it… and I hate them too. I can admit myself that. It also bruises my pride this bunch of neandertals that barely learned not to kill their neighbor after two millenia can get to me! Fucking monkeys! But if I really want for Apollo to grow into a proper person then I can't let him be consumed by this, nothing will change for him in negativity, because human state of nature is misery. People of my world managed to rise above this misery through immense effort and I am the only one that can carry this light here. I want to give this boy this light, he has the strength of character to bear it. I would have given my back to these "people" long ago in his place.

I look at my small sun and smile tenderly, touching our foreheads together. He is trembling, he already cried himself dry long time ago, there are no words of consolation I can pass. Not even the truth will improve things. So I will fake it until I make it!

"You are like the very sun, one day everyone will see it too. So don't let these fools' opinion bother you. When stupid people spit toward the heavens their only answer is the gravity hit them with it back right in the eye. By then everyone will want to be your friend, so use this time to see who is really worth of you, ok?"

I could feel his small arms trembling around my frame, but then the fragility was gone and he put a brave face and smiled back at me. It was fake, but the fact he was putting it for me melted my heart. He was really a strong boy. One day for sure. Until then, please God, deliver us from harm.

"Let's go."

"Yeah!"

-//-

Honestly, I was never much of a nature person in my last run. My father often dragged me for weekends in the countryside and while I loved the man to bits it was a dull experience for a geek. At best I awkwardly fooled around with the local girls as the "city boy" as I got older. That said I learned my way around it, hunting, fishing, foraging for edibles. All skills a denizen of the 21th century would judge superfluous. Yeah, yeah, I get it, once again the paternal wisdom is vindicated.

If Konoha was a beautiful idiosyncratic mess then their forests are comforting familiar. As if the works of nature could ill concern themselves with the machinations of man. Eternal and everlasting. Always beautiful too, patchwork of Forest with golden fields of tall grass in creeks, rivers and lakes. I could almost imagine I am back home. Such pipe dream is worthless, time in different Realms is supposed to flow differently and even if we are in the same dimension I could never find it. Rikugan or not I was still human and existed in a human scale. Instead of dwellings in these thoughts I should focus on make the best of my situation, for the sake of us both.

I smiled at Apollo as I raced him. The fact a child's body could move like that always amazes me. This is our playground. I don't dare to go all out with the Mokuton to not give the masquerade away but small changes to make things interesting are an indulgence I simple can't dispense with. We race free across the fields, jumping, swimming and running and laughing. This small happiness is all I really want. Godly powers or not this fresh rush brought by simple things are what make human experience worthwhile. Kids really are great, playing here is like a second childhood. I had almost forgotten what it was like.

Roughhousing was the name of the game and once again I had to concede to the parental wisdom of dragging me to do judo for the better part of a decade. Apollo jumps at me and is met with a reverse throw as I fall back and exploit his momentum to counter. Instead of disheartened he sees it as a challenge and charges again. I understood, since I played this game often in the other side. Being treated as a ball is surprising fun for a kid as you push yourself to your limits. That said the kid has a lot of stamina and I had a kid's body so this eventually degenerates in a tangle of limbs as we rolled around the ground. This went on for hours! The hell I would give in to the brat!

Eventually dusk came and hunger hits. Instead of going back just yet I decided for making camp by the riverbank. "Water bending" was my worse subject but even then, catching fish was trivial then everything left to do was gutting and seasoning it with salt and lemon I brought from home. Soon we had a cozy camp made with earth bending and our dinner was ready.

Of course, things could never be so simple. I didn't even realize when he got in here but the robed old man sudden presence set off all of my alarms. What, when, how, why? I panicked and was holding my wood skewer like a knife… but yet.

It toke me a while to figure out what set me off so much about the old man until I realized. His eyes were full of candor and tenderness. It has been so long since I saw this from another human being besides Apollo I almost forgot what it was like. That must be how he sneaked on me; the lack of evil intentions allowed him to swim through my passive senses. Is he just an old man walking wandering the forest? Yeah, what are the odds?

I look for the dog-boy, he seems relaxed so I let the electric nervousness go, unwinding myself like a deflated balloon. The young man lives to his moniker, I have felt he "dealing" with a small ambushs from resentful villagers more than once and more often than not his response is swift and lethal. Small mount hills of hatred and madness being swallowed by oblivion. As far as guard dogs go, he is the best one I ever had. If he didn't think the man was a treat then he was in the clear.

"Ahh" Apollo scream, falling back in his seat in fry.

"W-who are you?"

The old man pulls back and answer in good humor "What? Just an old uncle passing through."

Apollo turns to me as if to search for instruction but then we hear the rumbling of his belly as he stares at our dinner. The old man looks back at us with that tender gaze, practically radiating grampa energy. Somehow this is relieving, after so many bad interactions with "adults" his sincerity simple pass through all my raised barriers. He does not want anything from us, he simple couldn't let two small kids alone. I understood it far too well. That is how my bond with Apollo started. This is the best side of humanity, to care for others shinning through, I almost forgot it existed. I had started to think I was the mad one, the one born wrong.

At that realization something in me gives out and when he and Apollo start laughing like fools, as dork friends getting off from an internal joke between them I joined them. At this moment all of the worries about Konoha could be but on the background, only here and now mattered.

"Here, gramps, eat this." Apollo offered in impulse. This boy is so naturally generous It warms my heart. He sure would have lots of friends if we moved from here.

"Are you sure? Thank you very much! It looks so good!" The old man proclaims in his sincerity. Naturally an extroverted trying to get a conversation going. These two already clicked.

"Of course, Meme prepared them, so of course they will be good." He answers naturally and my back straighten and my chest heave. Apollo never had anyone to brag about me to so this is one of the rare moments he put to words feeling I knew he bore. Somehow this makes it more real though. It is natural for parents to be their children's world but to hear it is magical. I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear at him.

"You help too, didn't you? So of course, it would make the food tastier."

"Is that so?" The old man guessed at us with a smile. He really had the grandpa shine down to a patch. Without ceremony I raised another seat for him and we restarted our meal. Dusk fell and only the night sky and our campfire illuminated the night, revealing a sight lost to the metropolitan city life. I myself could count in the palm of my hand the number of times I had seem it. The ocean of stars that reach all the way to this world.

"They are beautiful, aren't they? The stars." The old man cut into my musing.

"And what do you know about the stars, grampa?" Honestly, I regret never paying that much attention to astronomy. It was such a transient science, any real effort in space exploration died after the cold war and I knew real space exploration would only really start after my own time had already passed. But even so, if I knew a bit more I could look for familiar patterns in the sky and see if my own old home planet was in this dimension, somewhere. We could do so much with Chakra, space exploration, teleportation, food production, panacea to all diseases. Earth would be a paradise with this power, spitting fire from your mouth isn't that better than basic firearms and warfare is a game of numbers, even entities like Kurama would leg behind continental nuclear ballistics as a deterrent for total war. It was a world far more ready to handle this gift responsible. It was a fanciful dream I knew but a part of me wanted that world back.

"Each of those stars is like our own world's sun. The sheer amount is incredible, eh?"

"I know about that! The sun is the big ball of fire that we circle around, it gives heat that allow for life to Exist!"

"Hoh, you are well informed."

"Well, my namesake is a moniker for it, so of course I know!"

After hearing that the sexagenary look appraising at me. The trick is to keep a upfront and unconcerned poker face. It's not like anyone in this place ever heard of Greek Gods unless they were transmigrants as well, so if you acted like you had nothing to hid people would presume this is simple a word invented by a child's imagination. Soon the old man came to that conclusion and dismissed the topic.

"Indeed, the Sun does all that and there are countless stars like the Sun. This world is boundless. Compared to the vastness of the world, man's existence is very insignificant. The things insignificant humans fret about are petty indeed."

"No, kidding! The world is big, huh? You sure know a lot, gramps! It goes on and on…"

I watched their interaction. This was perhaps the first adult to try to connect with Apollo. He could see the burden he was under so decided to help him in a tangential way with a social grace I seldom could ever imitate while instigating his imagination to possibilities of the future. Soon they were laughing again about nothing in particular and the small talk between the two went on and on.

Thank you, kind stranger. Humans are still the same. These small actions from strangers also have a significance. I had forgotten that. People had a skewed view on virtue, virtuous people didn't possess them, it was the other way around. They were the ones possessed by their virtues, to the point they thought everyone thought the same as them so their kindness was nothing really especial in their own eyes. This old man had a heave heart, posture and scars of a soldier, he probable was born in a more violent world than us both and that savagery has tattered him haged. But here he is giving two outcasts the time of the day because he simple couldn't bear to see us isolated so he was accompanying us himself. He didn't think much of the action, it was simple something he though he owes to do.

I feel ashamed. It wasn't much and our situation was still crap but what else could he do? Beat all the bystanders until they learned to behave around us? Seriously, these top-down interventions never work. I experienced bully for a year so I know, and the most shameful part is that I dealt with it by becoming one. It started innocently enough, things you do to gain the approval of your peer, poke other to get under their skins. It's innocent fun, boys will be boys, right? But eventually you can't lie to yourself when you see a "friend" bursting in tears over your malicious actions and you look back and see the strain in your relationships, people never forget wrongs committed against them and if you look you can see how this resentment color their actions for years. I knew this pain as well so why did I inflict that on others? Why did I forget and overlooked this fact until the evidence was on my face?

That is why after Apollo crashed, I tattled to the man.

[YOU ARE GOING TO REGRET IT.]

[I know, no good deed goes unpunished, right?]

"Old man, the big shot Kumo diplomat that came here today is duplicitous as they come. I could practically smell his bad intentions from the crowd. If you still have any contact with anyone in the active forces, can you give them the heads up?"

He suddenly stops. There is almost the sense of disbelief around my confession, but it was more drowning hope than dismissal. He was praying I was wrong but was too jaded to dismiss my warning.

"And how have you come to this conclusion, young lady?"

I just looked at Apollo. "If there is someone versed in sniffing out these types, it should be me, right?"

That was perhaps too brazen and cavalier response. He was genuinely hurt. For us. I knew the type of person he was so I should have been more tactful. He was a good person that couldn't help but take other's pain and concerns as his own.

"Hey now, no pity party, ok? We are more than enough for each other." It was a lie, but I had already shoved my foot so far down my mouth I was practically chokings on my own leg. We weren't fine but our problem couldn't be resolved overnight. There was a real danger to unaware somebody out there but the arm of the crime was already a known factor. They just have to set more of these masked man after the man and caught him red-handed.

"Do you want me to accompany you then?"

"Don't worry, we already have a nanny to bring us home. Come on, boy! I saved your portion. Have your fill and carry us home. Or do you want for me and Apollo to walk at night with a dangerous foreigner in town?" The smell of frustration from the "Hound" was delicious, he was super reluctant in obeying a child but couldn't argue with the logic, he has been exuding a manic worry like an oven since I tattled.

Silence, then a moment latter the silver haired masked teenager appeared. I turned taking the two remaining skewers and offered then without turning, he never showed his face and now isn't the time for games. If he had to defend us is best he is battle ready. He toke my offer and I turn to pick Apollo, even with super strength a child still had a special way of make itself a burden but soon enough I had him in my back. I turn and look at him.

"Come one, I have a burden here! Turnover and give me a pickback ride!"

The young man stared at me. I stared back. He lost. It was written all over his body language when he gave up and then he turned.

"Good boy! I will make your favorite tomorrow as compensation. Goodbye gramps, take care of yourself as well."

He smiled then, as if this small display invigorated and hardened his resolve. Soon we departed, going out at amazing speed.

-//-

[Really, the fucking Hokage?! Couldn't you have given me a heads up?]

[I TOLD YOU WOULD REGRET IT.]

This was a mess. All the village is in an uproar like a kicked anthill. The Kumo diplomat was captured by the Hokage himself just before kidnaping the heiress of the Hyuga Clan the day after he signed the peace treat with the village. People are out for blood and there is talk of ransom for the guy! Even Hidden Villages owe accountability to the Lords of their countries and the Fire Lord himself is interfering by pressuring the Lightning Lord court.

Our own security has multiplied. While before there was only one AMBU, the pretorian guard of the Fire Shadow, now there is a platoon of seasoned killers perched outside my window. Lunch has been hectic too, but at least they have more manners than the boy and cover the costs by leaving generous tips or even magicking food in my pantry. I guess the gruel and ration bars don't get better in another Realm either. I had a military uncle so this was the minimum I could do for them.

You know what? This is a problem for future Megumi. I will do what I always do when I am stressed and need to assert control over my life, study magic. Honestly, I have become a workaholic in this regard as there are lots of things to stress about.

I am finally ready for my second Stigmata and there is no time like the present. The third Gate located in the spine alongside the level of the stomach, primarily build of the Water Element. If the previous Gate was responsible for rooting the forces that link the body and soul then this Gate primary purpose is to ensure their proper flow. It is involved with palate, blood flow, production and elimination of urine… and sexual process.

[HEH HEH HEH!]

[Not helping! God damnit, I have a decade before puberty so at least this will make it smother!]

[WHATEVER YOU SAY.]

It corresponds to the Second Chakra, called Svadhishthana. Emotionally it is heavily involved with the regulation of sensations, pleasure, self-expression and humor but spiritually it is associated with "creation" and the First of the Four Noble Truths: that suffering, dissatisfaction and pain are an innate characteristic of existence in the Realm of Samsara. It is also called "where the self is stabilized" having syncretic link with the Yesod sephirot. This will be called the Gate of Pleasure.

It is said that One who meditates on Svadhishthana obtain the following freedom from enemies, the status of a lord among yogis(yoga practicioner), eloquence and clarity ("words flowing like nectar in well-reasoned discourse"), loss of fear of water, awareness of astral entities and the ability to taste anything desired for oneself or others.

The Stigmata representing this Torii will be based on the myth of the Dragon Gate (Longmen), The legend states that while many carp swim upstream against the river's strong current, few are capable or brave enough for the final leap over the waterfall. If a carp successfully makes the jump, it is transformed into a powerful dragon. Considering the more elevated the Gate the more spiritual it becomes this legend is the most appropriated. Looking like a carp at the bottom with the dragon above with water in between, resembling a ying-yang.

If previously I rooted my vital forces now I optimize their flow, improving the regeneration and restoration of the functions and proper properties of the previous Stigmata. Improving the regeneration of vitality and stamina(hp and sp regen), washing away disturbances that obstruct the proper balance of the body(reduce status duration), and granting great flexibility over a already steel like body. As more of the chakra is permanently committed to the body its parameters also increase, even as available MP is reduced. No matter, the improvement in my ability and speed at manifest the Light Release more than make up for it.

I feel that I am at the cusp of greatness here.

[AUTHOR'S ROOM]

Yeah, super-mom Megumi for you, what Naruto has yet to manifest in eloquence he makes up for in the cute factor, she has been thoroughly domesticated. This chapter became so giant I was tempted to split it but the idea behind it would be lost.

If you remember Hashirama's flashback he too felt the Senju PR was crap use to manipulate kids while Tobirama paid lip service to it in front of his father but was really resentful of all adults around him, wanted to promote a code of conduct among shinobi and "burry the hate" to stop the cycle of revenge, wanted things to be democratic and kept on harping Hashirama to stop acting like their father. It's not wrong to say he might even hate the Senju as legacy since his father view of it was literally to "die in the field of battle". He established the academy, standard age of 12 and decided to die so the younger generation could live. As far as founding fathers go he is better than the councilmen sending youngsters to fight and die, those two literally outlasted five hokages in their jobs.

 

[mightykk]

Changing Naruto's name to Apollo is really jarring and keeps bringing me out of the narrative. I'm finding myself skipping ahead a paragraph every time MC calls him that.

 

[BrunofanofK]

Changing Naruto's name to Apollo is really jarring and keeps bringing me out of the narrative. I'm finding myself skipping ahead a paragraph every time MC calls him that.

Click to shrink...

That is kind of the point. What make a person who they are? As he grows older and people like Jiraya enter the fray there will be a matter of identity. It's important to remember that only Kurama and Megume call him Apollo. People around think of it as a nickname and those who care will use Naruto but it will simble be too fundamental for his formative years. This is the prelude to show how his background has changed. Megumi doesn't know he is the child of prophecy that is destined to change the world, doesn't know about "canon" and her knowledge of greek prophecies makes her disinclined to take them at face value like Minato did. More importantly she is heavely attached to Earth sensibilities to the point it is detrimental. This is a set up for internal and external conflict.

It's easy to gloss over it now that we have a ending but Naruto himself admited to Sasuke he could have ended like him. Someone hated by humans, with great powers over nature and the ability to read the heart of other and gather fanatical followers. This is why Hao is often mentioned. With his knowledge about Samsara a "reincarnation" spell would be viable too, Ōtsutsuki ' Karma seal are founded in that principle.

This is partialy a subconscious intuition like instinct granted by the Rikugan of this potential future. Megumi doen't even want Naruto to be a ninja so you can imagine there will be a lot of head butting between the two.

 

[Shinnister1]

Story reads to be far too exposition heavy for me. Would have been better to let the characters and event unfold more naturally and keep the exposition to apocrypha etc. As it is, it is difficult to relate to the characters.

 

[FadingBlossom]

Your research into Bodhisattva is truly insightful and needed perspective for the chaos known as the Ninja in Shinobi World. Also, your writing crossing over with the many themes and elements from other fandoms based from Nasuverse show fantastic innovation and thought put into your character. Already, her actions and thoughts are something I look forward to seeing develop as part of your self-insert creating a meaningful impact.