The 6th Great Ninja War
Chapter XXVII: The World of Grief
Chapter XXVII: The World of Grief
A warning...if you decide to be lazy and skip what seems to be the huge walls of text in this chapter, I guarantee you will be lost and will not feel the emotional and epic depth of this chapter xd
Enjoy my NB Magnum Opus chapter
Enjoy my NB Magnum Opus chapter
Roku: Welcome to the World of Grief
Izuna: What is this place?
Roku: Cool, isn’t it. This place is the result of the ultimate Music Arts technique. It’s called Apollo’s World of Grief.
Izuna: Music Arts? But how…when did you…O_O When you played the lyre! But…I should have been able to detect the sound effect…
Roku: That was your first mistake Izuna. You see, among my other Music Arts techniques, this one here is a bit special. It doesn’t affect my target directly by sound, but rather, it summons the ethereal form of Apollo, who is standing right behind you, and activates as soon as he touches you. When I played the lyre, I was summoning him behind you, and luckily, Apollo is not made of chakra like normal beings. He is composed of Pure Energy. Now, you’re here with only one course of action to take: fight. You see, the World of Grief is somewhat like a genjutsu, but it would be incorrect to call it that. It is a Dream world in a realm of its own, completely separated from the physical and spiritual parts of the world. And here…my word is law.
Izuna: That would explain your crown of laurel leaves, huh?
Roku: Sort of. Now that you have an idea of where we are, you will now learn the interesting thing about the World of Grief.
Izuna suddenly heard music that came from nowhere but drifted throughout the entire plane of existence. He heard this tune, but it did not affect his physical state. The only effect it had was on his mental state, simply making him increasingly elated. Izuna, confused, noticed that the piece of music was perfectly reminiscent of the endless meadow setting. Roku stood atop the cliff, his eyes closed with joy engraved in his expression. He was directing the music with his own two hands.
Roku: I truly enjoy this piece…The Waltz of the Flowers. I hope you’ll find it suitable for the next step…Cry of the Flowers…
Before Izuna could fully take in what Roku had just spoken, he was abruptly impaled by more than five extremely sharp vines that extended from the ground underneath the flowers in this meadow. The blood of Izuna, however, did not stain the vines, much to Roku’s surprise. Izuna smiled and his body immediately turned into water and he sunk to the ground before reforming himself well away from the impaling vines. Izuna cracked his neck to the side and loosened his arms by moving them in an arc.
Roku: Again with the Water Transformation…however, your reaction speed was ridiculous. Honestly, I’m impressed.
Izuna: Why, thank you. Now…
Izuna pointed his hand at Roku and shot a highly compressed blast of water at him. The water blast splashed where Roku was, significantly wearing away the cliff that Roku was standing on, but when the splash’s impact had settled, Roku was no longer there. Izuna looked around for a moment and, upon turning around, witnessed Roku a good distance away from him, sitting on a white and gold throne very lazily.
Roku: That was dangerous…how about we change stages?
Roku snapped his fingers and instantly, the landscape changed to that of a gloomy field covered entirely in grape vines and dark grass. The sky above was covered by a sheet of extremely dark clouds, which gave the setting such a gloomy aura. It was much like the previous setting, open and seemingly endless. Izuna, impressed by the dark surrounding and the speed at which the landscape changed, applauded.
Izuna: That was cool. You can change the landscape at will in an instant. That’s one scary ability
Roku: Why, thank you. *smirks*
Roku snapped his fingers, and immediately, the vines started to shift and the song Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy started to play. As this occurred, the vines attempted to wrap themselves around Izuna, who in turn jumped away, avoiding the vines. As the vines continued to pursue him, the grapes swelled and burst very gently, each releasing a purple mist from within that spread through the air, creating a screen of purple mist that hindered Izuna’s sight completely. Izuna observed the area with his sharingan, and within moments, his eyes started to ache. He held his hands over his eyes, griping in the ocular pain. Through this pain, Izuna realized that in order to stop the madness, he needed to deliver a finishing blow to Roku, thus, he activated his Divine Senses and rid himself of his sight, enhancing all other senses. Izuna sniffed the air and felt the ground, trying to pinpoint Roku’s location, and upon locating him, Izuna charged through the purple haze and leaped out of it in front of Roku, much to the sage’s dismay. In Izuna’s right hand was his concentrated sword of pure water which surrounded his entire hand. Izuna opened his eyes again, smirking with confidence, and he thrust the blade into Roku’s forehead triumphantly. However, at the moment of impact, Izuna noticed his blade was now lodged in a small tree. Izuna yanked his blade of water out of the tree and restored his eyesight. Looking around, he could not see Roku anywhere. The surroundings had yet again changed to that of an open field of short blue grass; or perhaps it was the radiant moonlight which gave the field such a meticulous color. There was a minor, insignificant draft which blew constantly on the field but was nearly incapable of being felt by anything other than the grasses. Izuna stood by the lone tree in this grassy field and looked up at the bright moon, beholding its celestial glory as it shone its moonlight upon him. And, it was at this moment that Izuna heard a piece of music that can accurately be described only as the Moonlight Sonata movement 1. The harmonious yet ominous melody crept within Izuna’s mind as he tried to comprehend the situation he was in now. Then, he noticed a woman standing in the field a good distance from him, but he could still make out exactly what she looked like. The woman possessed radiant beauty comparable to that of the moon. Her hair was silver, but not that which would indicate old age in any way, as she was quite youthful. Her grayish-blue eyes glowed and her long hair shifted slightly with the soft wind. Her outfit was that of a Greek huntress; she wore a light fabric dress with almost no sleeves and quiver full of silver arrows along with a flawless silver bow. In her hands were silver hunting knives which emitted an aura of white light. Izuna was stunned by this woman and for a moment, he drew back with uncertainty, but he quickly regained his confidence and created another blade of pure water around his left hand, dual wielding two dense, sharp water blades. Roku’s voice sounded from around the field, and Izuna could still not trace the source of the voice.
Roku: Welcome to the Moonlight Field…that woman there is your opponent for now, and she’s quite dangerous if I may say so myself.
Izuna: Hmph…we’ll see about that, won’t we, Roku!!!
Roku: Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Allow me to tell you something about her………her name…………is Artemis.
Roku’s voice faded at this last word and the woman appeared before Izuna with blinding speed, at which point, the stormy 3rd movement of the Moonlight Sonata gloriously sounded. Artemis swiped her left hunting knife at Izuna, which Izuna dodged and thrust his right blade forward, attempting to impale Artemis in the chest, but Artemis instinctively drew her right knife upward, forcing Izuna’s right hand into the air and leaving a perfect opening to which Artemis delivered a precise strike to the chest with her left knive, wounding Izuna significantly. Artemis ripped her knife out of Izuna’s chest and proceeded to wipe the blood off the blade. Izuna panted heavily, trying to understand the huntress’s insane speed and dexterity. Izuna took a deep breath and focused his sharingan. He made the first advance, running quickly toward Artemis and thrusting his right hand forward. Artemis sidestepped Izuna’s thrust and performed a sweeping kick that tripped Izuna, and she immediately prepared to stab him into the ground before he landed, but Izuna stabbed his blade into the ground, keeping him within the air for the necessary amount of time to use his feet to block Artemis’ thrust and kick the knife out of her hand. Izuna deactivated his water blade in his right hand for a moment, allowing him to land on his right hand and push himself back up to a standing position several feet away from Artemis. Izuna then recreated his water blade. He smirked and Artemis gave him a displeased look. She charged immediately without retrieving her lost weapon and gracefully spun around Izuna, avoiding each of his attempted attacks, and kicked him in the chin with an upward thrust, sending Izuna into the air for a good distance before landed harshly on the ground. Izuna stood up quickly. He was badly significantly damaged, but not to the extent that he could not fight. He took a deep breath and charged again, allowing Artemis to easily see through his attempted jab, ducking while retaining a strong posture. Artemis struck Izuna in a vital spot with her dagger and patiently awaited his reaction, but she then realized that the place in which she stabbed Izuna had turned completely into water.
Izuna: I was waiting for that.
With Artemis’ hand still outstretched, Izuna swept his water blade in his free hand through Artemis’ arm, cutting it cleanly off. Artemis stared in horror at her arm which had just been sliced through, and before she could react, Izuna thrust his other hand into Artemis’ skull, initiating an immediate change in the surroundings. Instead of his sword stabbed into Artemis’ skull, Izuna found his sword impaled in a teeming with contained magma. Izuna pulled his sword from the stone. Looking around, he noticed a drastic change in the area. Rather than a moonlit field, Izuna was now at the base of several actively erupting volcanoes. The volcanoes were not spewing massive amounts of lava, as they appeared to have unleashed the brunt of the eruptions prior to Izuna’s arrival. Izuna stepped over a narrow lava flow next to him and walked for a short distance to get a better glimpse of the area. As with the others, the extent seemed to be endless. The volcanic smoke created a dark red sky covered in soot that prevented sunlight from shining through the realm. Izuna smirked and turned around, and there was Roku, standing on the same grounds as him. Roku was inhaling and exhaling calmly, and he did this with a devious smile on his face.
Izuna: This definitely isn’t my kind of place. So, are these volcanoes all going to erupt?
Roku: Hephaestus Grand Fire
Izuna:
Roku inhaled heavily and promptly exhaled a violently powerful but small fireball. When he did, the finale of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture played around the realm and the fireball stopped midway toward Izuna, much to the latter’s surprise. Izuna looked up as the fireball changed direction and started to fly toward the sky. Once it reached its peak in height, the fireball spun rapidly and exploded in an array of highly concentrated, enormous blasts of fire of a vast number of different colors. As the blasts approached, Izuna formed the tiger seal and, lifting his arms overhead, he struck his hands down to the ground while still holding the seal. The moment his tiger seal touched the ground, water exploded from underneath as if it had been resting under the ground. Izuna pulled his hands up and outstretched his fingers, causing the mass of water to rise of in front of him in the form of a very high tower, and when Izuna moved his arms away from each other, the wall expanded, more water ripping out of the earth. The highly compressed water formed a vastly wide wall with towers made of water at each end.
Izuna: Great Water Tower…
The blasts of fire collided with Izuna’s wall of water and let off huge amounts of steam. The force of the colliding fire blasts was so great, in fact, that it shook the earth, causing one of the nearby volcanoes to begin erupting. Izuna became unsure of his defense and formed a layer of water around his hands. Surely enough, one of the fire blasts managed to penetrate the wall and upon its breach, Izuna positioned his hands toward it and released a highly compressed, thin blast of water from his hands that ripped through the center of the fire blast and surged high volumes of water through it, defeating the fire blast easily. Several more breached the wall, but Izuna successfully hit them with his compressed blasts of water until the rain of fire ceased. Izuna proceeded to put down his shield, causing the huge wall of water to dissipate before him in an instant, but behind the wall was a familiar face. Just as Izuna lowered his defense, Roku charged through the original bounds of the wall and punched Izuna in the face, sending him crashing across the volcanic landscape. Izuna caught himself and stood upright again.
Izuna: Impressive. My Water Tower is the ultimate water defense. Until now, nothing has been able to breach it.
Roku: That's very much appreciated....
Roku thrust his fists forward in a punching motion, unleashing large fireballs from his hands that raged toward Izuna. Izuna leaped to his side and, dodging each of the fireballs, and when the last one unexpectedly approached him, Izuna jumped and spun in the air sideways to avoid it. As he spun in the air, he created his water sword in his hand and grazed it across the ground in motion with his spinning so that when the blade of water lifted from the ground, it shot a compressed crescent blast of water to Roku at incredible speeds. Roku, not having enough time to dodge the blast, blocked with his two hands and was hit. Strangely, however, the splash from the attack occurred at an extremely slow pace, as if time had been slowed down the moment Roku was hit. Izuna was confused. He observed the event for a few moments before the splash suddenly turned into an outrage of water that flooded the area. When the water reached Izuna, it wrapped him in a small sphere, trapping him momentarily. Izuna could not see outside of the water sphere, for it was too dense and the color of the water was a deep blue. After failed attempts to break the sphere, Izuna stopped and waited to see what would happen next. Surely enough, the sphere opened up by itself, revealing Izuna to the outside world, which had once again changed. Now, the clouds still covered the sky, but they were dark, stormy clouds. And instead, when Izuna looked around, he was in the middle of a raging, vast, deep blue ocean. The dark, gloomy look of the surroundings gave Izuna a wretched feeling inside. The waters were unlike anything he had ever seen, for no water in the world was this dark or menacing. The stormy winds seemed to have little effect of the water, yet the water often shifted violently as if it were sentient. Izuna then heard more music; this time it was Verdi’s Requiem: Dies Irae. Within seconds, a huge volume of water shifted toward Izuna, but as he jumped, he noticed that the seemingly sentient ocean was not shifting towards him, but towards something behind him. Izuna turned in midair to catch a glimpse of where the water was moving toward, but what he saw was beyond comprehension. The water was gathering to form a colossal, sentient humanoid mass made entirely of water. Izuna was in awe, as the creature stood several hundred meters taller than him. As the entity came together more and more, Izuna could make out its true look. It was that of a godly figure, with a muscular build, white eyes teeming with energy, long white hair and a long beard. Atop the entity’s head was a crown, and in its right hand lay the most identifiable aspect of this being: a trident. Izuna focused his sharingan and clapped his hands together to form his blade of water in both hands, but these blades were, unlike the previous ones, far more massive in size. When the entity formed entirely, it spoke its name: Poseidon. Poseidon lifted himself well above Izuna and, pulling his trident back, he forced himself and all of his mass downward to crash upon Izuna, who instinctively lifted both of his swords to cross in the shape of an X in front of him, slicing Poseidon in half. Though Izuna managed to successfully slice Poseidon, the unbearable volume of water still approached. At the last moment, Izuna activated his water transformation and merged with the ocean, becoming a part of the sentient waters. When Poseidon rose up again, Izuna formed a single hand seal.
Izuna: Water Implosion!
With this said, Poseidon imploded into a tiny orb of water that Izuna then absorbed, causing him to grow larger. Izuna laughed and looked around for Roku. Roku appeared in a burst of music resonance in front of Izuna. Izuna looked down on him and proceeded to smash Roku into the ocean with his gigantic hand but was stopped when Roku thrust his palm into Izuna’s, which surprised Izuna. Roku removed his hand from Izuna’s giant hand and opened his palm, revealing a blue kanji on his hand that read “支配” for “Control”. Izuna could not move his body. Instead, Roku was now controlling his every movement.
Izuna: Damn you…this is your Control Body of Water seal isn’t it.
Roku nodded. Then, Izuna, as a mass of water, exploded outward, causing a huge downpour on the ocean. Izuna returned to his normal state, somewhat injured, and crashed into the deep ocean. Izuna solemnly glared toward the surface as he drifted in the ocean waters. He couldn’t see beyond it, but he was slowly approaching the surface. He relaxed himself, exhausted from the intense battle. He shut his eyes to get one last moment of peace—one last moment of rest. Izuna suddenly resurfaced, but he was no longer in the middle of a vast ocean. Now he was in a rocky cavern filled with dark gray stones. Strangely enough, the water which Izuna resurfaced was not a deep ocean, but rather, it was a tiny pool in a small depression within the cave, no wider than six feet and no deeper than a foot. Izuna snuck through the halls of the cavern, and as he did, more music played. This time, it was Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King. The cave was quite spacious and had many halls and areas that were lit by candles that gave it a very ancient look. On several walls, the phrase “Hades’ Wrath” was written. Izuna eventually came near the entrance of the cave, and he approached it with caution, first throwing a kunai outside to make sure nothing was waiting for him outside. Surely enough, nothing happened, so Izuna stepped toward the entrance of the cave. He looked outside, and oddly, the cave was part of a mountain and there was no plausible way that anyone could reach it from the base of the mountain. (cue music here:
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) Overlooking the glorious landscape mixed with steam-like clouds, several Karst hills rose above the clouds in the morning mist through which the sun’s light partially shone. They resembled the mountains that overlooked the Li River in China. Izuna could not sense any presence nor could he see anything strange. All of a sudden, the cave began to shake and rocks from the ceiling crashed down. Izuna maintained his balance and stepped away from the ledge. Izuna ran through the cave, searching for a way to the top, and surely enough, he found a staircase within one room of the trembling cavern. Izuna climbed the stairs as quickly as he could and reached the top. He stood on top of the mountain and nearly lost his balance, as he could see that the entire mountain was collapsing. Other mountains around him started to collapse as well, but their cause was unknown. Izuna fell against his will through the clouds along with the collapsing chunks of rock that comprised the mountain. When Izuna passed through the clouds, he could see beneath him a massive fissure that was swallowing each of the surrounding mountains. In shock, Izuna grasped the air continuously, but his attempts were futile. Nothing could keep him from falling in the huge fissure. He thought to himself, attempting to finalize his resolve.Izuna: …I guess this is it…I’m almost out of chakra………what can I do?
Izuna fell through the fissure and was now surrounded by the dark walls of the abyss as he continued to fall endlessly.
Izuna: Am I going to die? ……………………………I can’t…I can’t die…………no…I won’t! I won’t die! I won’t DIE!!! I WON’T DIE!!!!!!
Above the clouds, atop one of the stable mountains that had not been swallowed by the fissure, Roku waited to confirm Izuna’s death, but what he saw was beyond what he had expected to come from this event. In the area that Izuna and the mountain once stood, a beam of blue and white chakra blasted into the heavens above from somewhere below. The energy continuously rose into the air, much to Roku’s surprise. He felt Izuna’s chakra growing to immense amounts. In fact, the amount of chakra Izuna was releasing was unprecedented, and it rivaled that of the tailed beasts, but had a different feeling to it. Rather than a sinister presence, the chakra emitted a dangerously swift and powerful aura that felt almost as if an entire ocean had been placed above the sky. Roku’s eyes widened as he marveled at this occurrence. Below the clouds, Izuna screamed, releasing as much energy as he could put out. His pupils disappeared and vast amounts of chakra surged through his body. Izuna’s surging chakra lashed out, destroying much of the walls of the fissure. He then turned himself upright as he fell, stomping his leg down on the air, shooting him up a great distance. Izuna continued to do this, literally climbing on the particles of the air as he raced through the skies at preposterous velocities. Izuna roared, his rage manifesting in the form of an eagle of chakra around him. He then rose above the clouds and stopped stepping. Time seemed to slow at this moment; Roku and Izuna locked eyes: Izuna with full intent to kill Roku and Roku in utter surprise
Izuna: 4 Chakra Implosion!!!
Izuna raced through the skies at blinding speeds and struck Roku in the gut, causing the latter spit out a large amount of blood. Izuna kicked Roku into a nearby mountain and waited for Roku to recover. Roku flew out of the mountain on a golden chariot carried by flaming golden horses. He looked upon Izuna intensely. Izuna lifted his hand and a sphere of abysmal water formed in his hand. Then, an aura of white energy covered the sphere, causing the orb of water to grow to an unprecedented size. Roku, too, lifted his hand to the heavens and the sun seemed to move closer. It seemed that the two were rising higher into the sky. However, Izuna realized what Roku was doing. Rather than the two approaching the sun, Roku was actually pulling the sun down from the heavens. It was vastly colossal and in fact that largest thing Izuna had ever set his eyes upon. While the sun was smaller than it had been portrayed through teachings, Izuna knew that the laws of his world did not apply in this world. The sun was still an enormous sphere of fire and gas, radiating with immense power. Had Izuna not been in his 4 Chakra Implosion mode, he was sure that it would have incinerated him by now.
Roku: This is my final technique. Apollo’s Revenge
The sun began to grow more and it eventually achieved its maximum size, releasing a blinding light that Izuna nearly winced at, despite his heightened abilities. Roku then did the unthinkable. He hurled the sun at Izuna in all its glory and power. Izuna created another giant orb of abysmal water and energy in his other hand, holding two powerful energy balls in each hand. He threw the first one into the sun, to little effect at first, but then, the orb that the sun seemed to have consumed so easily exploded and part of the sun ruptured, turning a vast majority of the remaining mountains that were hit by the burst of sun fire into ash. Izuna held the last orb trustingly and infused all of his power into it. The orb grew to a size rivaling that of Roku’s sun and Izuna, in a last resort attempt, smashed the two together before dropping through the clouds to avoid the resulting effect of the collision of the two powerhouses. Roku’s sun could not fully absorb Izuna’s sphere of abysmal water and energy, but it successfully wore it away for the most part. Then, Izuna’s sphere exploded, unleashing bright rays of light through the entire land, temporarily blinding the world and even Roku. The sun and Izuna’s sphere exploded fiercely, the resulting blast completely wiping out everything in the land as an explosive mass of abysmal water swept one half of the land and an explosive mass of blazing sun fire swept across the other half of the land, incinerating and decimating everything in their paths. Izuna made a last attempt to protect himself by creating a 360 degree shield compressed around his body, but as he did this, Izuna’s vision faded and what he saw of the crumbling world disappearing into a void once again. Was it his existence or the world itself that was collapsing? This, Izuna was not sure of.
