The Sounds of Battle Part 6 – The Maelstrom Churns
With Shinru, Kakashi could fight, more or less, on equal footing with Minato, and with Tenzu, Jiraiya was becoming much less of a problem, but with Zetsu backing him up, the battle seemed like it could go on for quite some time.
Shinru charged forward, throwing his spear ahead and then jumping aside, while making several hand seals in mid-air. Minato ducked under the flying spear, but when he did, he caught clear sight of Kakashi coming forward, one arm leaning behind him and the other threatening to stab him with a Raikiri.
Minato stepped to the side to dodge the Lightning Blade, just as Kakashi had hoped, for when he neared Minato, he revealed that his other hand held a second Raikiri, and he stabbed forward with that one as well. Meanwhile, several darts of ice were coming down toward Minato from his other side, all of them about to stab him.
Suddenly, he disappeared from both of their sight, reappearing a distance behind them. Kakashi couldn’t even recall him placing a seal there, but being that he was fighting Minato, renowned as nothing short of a pure genius, he wasn’t very surprised. When Minato appeared behind, he jumped ahead, straight toward Shinru who was still in the air, bringing one of his kunai in for a stab.
But in one fluent motion, Odyssey appearing in Shinru’s right hand, he spun around and hit Minato’s kunai aside. Luckily for Minato, he hadn’t been close enough for the spear to hit his arm, resulting in the two weapons hitting each other with a clanging sound and sparks forming during the impact.
Minato brought his other arm forward then, a Rasengan comfortably in that hand, holding it out toward Shinru as it spiraled. Shinru looked over to Kakashi, with a “you can jump in anytime now” stare.
Kakashi did just that, turning around and jumping toward Minato, Shinru not being too far away from him, and pushed Shinru out of the way while holding yet another Raikiri in his hand.
The two clashed for a long while, holding their jutsu against each other for a devastating impact of pure chakra and lightning. Kakashi felt as though he would give in under the pressure far before Minato would, and focused more chakra in. The clash ended with a devastating explosion, blowing both of them to opposite sides of the canyon.
Meanwhile, Naruto was giving Jiraiya all that he could possibly handle and then some. He threw a punch toward his mentor’s face, which was quickly stopped by Jiraiya slapping it away with the back of his hand. He brought his leg forward then, with a kick to Jiraiya’s side that was taken full on by the Sage, but not without Naruto suffering a powerful blow with his master’s palm a moment beforehand.
Naruto reeled backward, and Jiraiya to the side. Jiraiya then jumped up, flipping in the air and then coming down on Naruto while making a Rasengan in his hand that was gradually getting larger and larger, until it was finally what Jiraiya called the Oodama Rasengan.
Naruto, meanwhile, was building up a Rasengan of his own, but this one was small, very small; perhaps even smaller than the normal size. Nevertheless, Naruto was confident enough to jump up with the Rasengan in his hand, going ahead toward Jiraiya’s.
As the two clashed, Jiraya suddenly noticed that his was becoming smaller. As if Naruto’s was eating away at his.
“So that’s it… this destroys things on a molecular level. Breaking them down gradually until there are no remain,” Jiraiya thought to himself, and then grinned slightly, “Good to see that you haven’t changed a bit Naruto. Ever resilient in your training.”
The Rasengan wasn’t strong enough to completely destroy Jiraiya’s, and so the result was an explosion similar to the one that was happening at the other end of the battle.
Tenzu wasn’t intent on letting Zetsu get away, and every time Zetsu attempted to merge with the ground and disappear, Tenzu was there, teleporting right to where he knew the monstrous-looking creature would appear, staring him right in the eye every time.
Tenzu saw all of the others around him as nothing more than a nuisance, simply adding to the things that he needed to handle himself, and therefore made a point to keep them out of the battle, moving in front of them when they seemed ready to attack in interest of keeping his very planned out battle strategy going.
Zetsu was half out of the ground now, running around Tenzu in a circle. The Uchiha had only one eye open, following Zetsu closely as white flames began to materialize behind him. Zetsu was moving quickly, but the flames moved faster, gaining on him with great pace and threatening to swallow him. His arm, lagging behind him, had been the first to catch flame. He flicked his arm once as if the flames were just going to fall right off, and then spun around to get behind Tenzu.
He jumped out of the ground, not even feeling pain from the fire, throwing a punch with the enflamed fist toward the back of his head with a maniacal scream. Tenzu hopped to the side, turning as he did so and as Zetsu went over his body, he brought his knee up quickly, winding the odd-looking man. In one fluent motion, Tenzu then retracted his knee and flipped backward, slamming his heel down on Zetsu.
He then looked down at his opponent, opening his other eye now, and stared harshly down on him, preparing to engulf him fully in flames as he lay there helplessly.
A moment before he did, though, a form appeared behind him, and grabbed him in a locking hold. The figure held him in such a way that it locked his arms in place, and he hung slightly above the ground.
Tenzu turned as much as he could to catch a glimpse of the person behind him, and indeed it was the dark half of Zetsu. He regarded his other half, “You sure made a mess of things, huh?”
“Heheh… I guess so,” he said, “Came just in the nick of time.”
The battle on either side of them were both winding up now. Minato ran toward Shinru and Kakashi, both of them leaning on the wall, half sitting on the ground, with two Rasengan in both hands, and Naruto who was standing on the wall as well, was moments away from getting engulfed by a giant fireball.
A moment before the three ninja met their deaths, though. The two Rasengan diminished.
The fire disappeared.
And Minato and Jiraiya both fell to their knees on the ground.
They fell down again, fully this time, lifelessly, like helpless rag dolls.
Both of the Zetsu’s looked to the two scenes and then to each other. In panic, the dark Zetsu released Tenzu. But instead of taking advantage of the freedom, Tenzu, just as confused as the others, looked around for a moment.
“Wha… what just happened!?” the white Zetsu asked frantically.
Tenzu regained his composure then, moments away from kicking him before the black Zetsu grabbed his other half and jumped to the top of the canyon. He talked to his other half as the two began to rejoin, “Our cue to leave… that’s what. If those two disappeared, then Kabuto must have recalled the chakra that he was using to keep them alive.”
“But if he’s done that…” the white Zetsu began saying, both of them fully conjoined and moving quickly away, slowly sinking into the ground.
“Then he’s in a pretty heated battle right now…” The black half of Zetsu said as they fully sunk in.
~
Riku and Kabuto were at a standstill. To one who was only looking from a distance away, it would simply seem as though they were both staring at each other. But to Sora, who was meters away from Riku, it was far more intense than that.
They were both attempting to match the chakra that poured out of each of them. They were releasing chakra in overflows. It was as if there were two giant forces pushing up against each other. Like two vile creatures fighting one another for more power. They both watched each other with grins, daring one another to make a move.
They both suddenly disappeared at the same time, using unreal speed within a split second. There was nothing to be seen except for sudden appearance. They appeared once in middle of the area relative to their original locations, and then at various times again higher in the sky, each time with a different attack that matched each other equally. They seemed to go straight into the sky, as though they were both flying, until they could barely be seen from the ground.
They then appeared, still high in the sky, a distance away from one another. Simultaneously, Kabuto shot out a fireball as Riku did the same, both of the jutsu matching each other for a raging impact. When the fire diminished, Kabuto saw that Riku was no longer in sight, and in a split second, the boy appeared right behind him, preparing for a vertical slash.
Quickly, though, one of the snakes on Kabuto’s shoulders turned and lunged out toward Riku. He quickly disappeared then, reappearing right in Kabuto’s face.
“It can’t be… how can he be so fast!?” Kabuto thought to himself, his eyes wide at how Riku was reappearing and disappearing every few seconds.
The snake on Kabuto’s other shoulder went out to bite Riku now, this one to no avail as well as he vanished yet again. He kept doing this, appearing for but a moment before vanishing. Kabuto soon tired of this, and suddenly, snakes appeared from all sides of his body and they all jumped out, bursting outwards from all directions around Kabuto and going toward Riku, snapping their jaws.
Riku was forced to counter with his sword then, smacking a few of the snakes away. Kabuto took that moment, building up powerful acid in his mouth, and then spitting out the purple-like substance toward Riku.
Making two quick seals with one hand, Riku managed to make a small gust of wind that pushed him away from the acid to his right, but it caught on his robe, or the lower half that was wrapped around his waist. When he landed on the ground, he could see it creeping up his robe and slowly deteriorating the thin cloth. He quickly uncoiled it from his waist and threw it to the side, looking at it closely with narrowed eyes. Within seconds, the acid soon completely ate away the robe until there was nothing of it left.
Standing there with only his black pants, slightly tucked into customary Akatsuki footwear, Riku looked back to Kabuto, “So you’re not completely helpless then. Good… good… I was afraid that things just might get boring.”
Riku began focusing chakra into Soul Eater, and light blue chakra radiated around it, to a point where it was lengthened greatly and one could tell just by looking at it that it’s cutting power had been increased tenfold, at the least.
Kabuto smiled, “I could say the same for you…” and then, unexpectedly and almost completely at random, Kabuto let out a series of coughs, each one producing blood.
“I’m running out of time…” he thought to himself, “I have to get this done quickly so I can get back in time.”
Kabuto jumped up, biting his finger, and made several seals followed by pushing his open palm out toward the ground. Suddenly, a giant snake was made under him, already slithering fast toward Riku. Kabuto was standing somewhere in the middle of the snake, between its head and the end of its tail. Riku quickly jumped up before it could devour him, but the snake eagerly snapped its jaws shut in anticipation of the oncoming meal. Riku ran against the direction of the snake’s path, now, going toward Kabuto, throwing Soul Eater toward him.
When the blade was but a few feet close to Kabuto, the older ninja just moments away from parrying, Riku held his hand out, and what appeared to be a whip made of ice appeared in his hand. One side of it was held by Riku while the other end, the actual whip, was wrapped around Soul Eater’s hilt. A moment before Kabuto could parry it, the blade snapped away from him, going in the other direction. Riku moved his arm in a semi-circle motion, bringing Soul Eater right above its target, and then slammed it down onto Kabuto. When he tried to block this, though, this attack proved false as well, as Riku flicked his wrist to the side, and then swung it horizontally, as to finally bring Soul Eater for an actual hit, nearly slicing Kabuto in half.
Kabuto jumped backward, just barely dodging the attack, but still getting a deep gash across his stomach. The gash had an extreme coldness to it, to the point where it terribly burned.
Riku began running forward again, Soul Eater back with him in his hand, but the snake quickly made a sharp turn toward the right, bringing Riku to a startled halt. He jumped down then, getting off of the snake and landing on the ground. He realized that he had made a big mistake then, though, when Kabuto jumped off, still grasping his stomach, and the snake craned its neck up, the upper half of its body off of the ground.
“I’m sorry, but I haven’t any more time to play around,” was all that he said before the snake came down powerfully, scooping Riku up in its mouth and then turning sharply away from the ground to lie down normally.
For a while, everything was quite. Seconds went by, and Kabuto began to go back to his normal, non-battle composure, but in a moment, the snake seemed to completely erupt from inside.
From all parts of it, minute needles shot out, but there were so many of these small spikes that the snake’s life ended in a bloody, cruel demeanor.
Riku was nowhere to be seen for a while, but in a second, he appeared right in front of a badly injured and tired Kabuto, bringing his knee up for a powerful kick, and then pushing his leg straight out, sending Kabuto tumbling across the gravel.
“You see…” Riku began, walking toward Kabuto, “You have no chance at beating me, but you knew that from the start, didn’t you?” he was right in front of Kabuto now, who was kneeling down, and he brought his leg up to kick him again, right in the face, sending him flying back again, “You’re an insane person in denial. For some pathetic reason, you continue fighting, while knowing that you won’t win. Perhaps that sudden burst of power you had would have been better used by turning and running away…”
Kabuto began standing up now, coughing blood every other second, as he talked between coughs, mumbling to himself, “I have just enough power… for one more Edo Tensei…” and then he spoke louder, to Riku, “Prepare to face the might of perhaps one of the most deadly ninja in history…”
With that, he clapped both of his hands together, and then slammed his palms on the ground as a coffin began to rise up from the ground.
But he let out one last cough this one releasing more blood than all of the others put together, and Riku could practically feel his chakra drop like a stone. Kabuto shook his head rapidly, his eyes wide, “No… not now… It wasn’t supposed to happen this soon! Just a few more…”
He kept trying to focus chakra that wasn’t there, desperately yearning to defeat his opponent. Suddenly, he let out one last yelp as a powerful light engulfed his body, followed by thick smoke, “NO!!!”
Those were the final words that Kabuto Yakushi ever spoke.
~
Kabuto’s final yell could be heard from the other side of the valley, where the others were trying to get to Riku and Sora. They were moving quickly, Kakashi and Shinru at the front.
“That was Kabuto’s voice… wasn’t it?” Kakashi asked, looking toward Shinru.
“I sure as heck hope so,” he replied.
They were soon upon the area, standing atop the cliff, gathered around at a distance, as the group watched what was happening, standing at a distance where none of the fighters could see them.
Shinru looked over to Riku, and then at the radiating blade that he was holding “That can’t be good…”
Using their Sharingan, Tenzu and Kakashi were both astonished by the chakra levels within Riku. They were ridiculously high. As if for the moment he was some sort of unstoppable force; a one man army. With chakra levels like that, he could’ve handled the entire war himself. Chakra overflowed from his body, dark chakra that had almost a melancholy feel. No… more than that… pure evil.
~
Riku could not yet see through the smoke, but he could hear laughter. It cleared slowly as the laughter continued. It was a creepy laugh. When the smoke cleared, Riku could see but one man standing. He was still wearing Kabuto’s robe, but he was noticeably different. His hair was much longer, going down the man’s back and covering his face as he bent his head over.
Suddenly, the man looked up toward Riku, and Riku nearly fell over. He had never met this man in person, but he surely knew who this was. His face completely white. A somewhat purple lining around the top of his narrowed, serpent like eyes. His thin face gave him even more of a snake-like appearance.
Beyond doubt, this was the legendary Sannin Orochimaru.
He was stilling laughing, holding his arm up to his mouth, “Mmmm… What have we here?” he asked, and then he laughed again. Riku began feeling weak, both because Soul Eater’s effects were wearing off, and due to the sheer sight of this powerful man, “Do not fret, child. Kabuto and I share the same body, and because of all of the chakra that he used up, I’m running on rather low reserves now as well. You won’t be harmed… for now…”
As he said that, he began to disappear, fire slowly eating away at his body from the bottom up, using his Body Flame Technique, “But I assure you… I will not leave such a unique ninja like you to go to waste.”
Orochimaru disappeared fully, then.
And with that, leaving much to be unsure about and leaving a deep sense of uncertainty within the group, the Battle in the Valley of Echoes was over. The final echoes had been heard. The final battle had been won. The valley was silent for the first time in what seemed to the gathered ninja like hours. As almost a symbol of this grand victory, the rain slowly stopped.
Riku’s eyes began to close slowly, fluttering at first, and then he fell to his knees as they shut fully. He fell one more time, face down then, as he began to rest, a broad smile on his face. But this wasn’t the grin that he wore when Soul Eater took its control over him. It was differently entirely. It was a warm, content smile, as the young boy slept.
~
The leader of Akatsuki was far below ground now, under the spire in what was a complete labyrinth; unknown to most of the members. Behind him was only Tenzu Uchiha. They were standing in front of a wall at the most secluded part of the labyrinth. Only three people knew about this section. The two that were already in it and the one ninja that had betrayed them long ago.
On the wall, there were writings written in blood, messily placed on various parts of the wall. The leader of Akatsuki had comprehended it long ago, but it was still very necessary to not dispose of it just yet. He was still adding to it. What was on that wall was unfinished, and would not be finished until he collected all of the pieces. Yesterday, after the victory over Kabuto’s army, he had found more of the pieces.
He stabbed a small needle into his finger, moving it around in his skin until blood was pouring out of the impaled finger. Taking the needle out, he quickly began to make markings on the wall with his blood, holding a small parchment in his other hand.
He finished after a while, and Tenzu began speaking, “So how much longer?”
The Akatsuki leader shrugged, “It depends on how quickly we manage to get everything else that we need. Could be days or months depending on how quickly the others move. But this…”
They both looked at the very center of the wall, where the greatest prize that they found in Kabuto’s lab hanged. This was a notorious man, feared all over the world for his exploits in the previous Great Shinobi World War. He hung from the wall, his face wrinkled.
Madara Uchiha, the ultimate combination between the greatest powers that Shinobi could ever manage to have, hanged from the wall. Silently. Lifelessly.
“This…” he continued, “Is quite the addition to my little collection.”
Tenzu nodded silently, as he gazed at the rest of the wall. Scattered around it were not only the blood writings, but various other bodies of powerful, deceased ninja. Like a giant collage of dead shinobi scattered in almost an artistic manner. It was a gruesome sight, but at the same time, each time a new body was added to the wall, the pair couldn’t help but grin.
~
Shinru walked back into the village of Konoha after many, many years. He inhaled deeply, “I didn’t realize how much I missed this place,” he said to Kakashi who was walking beside him.
“It’s indeed refreshing to be back in such a peaceful place, what with all of the dark and gloomy things going on lately,” Kakashi agreed.
Shinru nodded, and the two walked into the Hokage’s tower. They both walked in silence, enjoying the calm wind and the occasional chirping of birds, as well as the sound of laughter and bustling life that ensued outside.
Shinru then broke the silence, feeling the need to air things out, “It’s just… been so long. I mean, since everything was… good. Ya know? I can remember those days fighting with Lance so vividly, and occasionally putting you in your place whenever you got a little too arrogant,” he glanced sidelong at Kakashi with a smile, though the Hokage hardly seemed amused, giving him an annoyed glare. Shinru went on, then, “But it seems so long ago at the same time. To think that it was, what, ten or so years when everything spiraled out of control? More or less…”
It was Kakashi’s turn to return the sidelong glance, now, “And I’m supposed to listen to you complain for how long now?” he asked, though Shinru knew well that he was only teasing, and hardly mined listening to Shinru reminisce. In fact, he most likely enjoyed the talk of old, happier days.
Kakashi, though, was forced to move to more grim talk, then, “So will you be joining us against Akatsuki, then?”
“Of course… though I can’t say that I’ll enjoy it,” Shinru replied.
“I assure you that none of us are enjoying any of this… but it has to be done,” Kakashi said.
To anyone who was listening to the conversation, Kakashi’s final statement about what has to be done would have sounded as though he was clearly referring to fighting the war, but Shinru understood the implications with that statement. By it, he meant much more than simply fighting the war. Shinru would have no problem with fighting against most of Akatsuki, but Kakashi was referring to the death of Lance and Riku. It was inevitable.
As Kakashi said… it simply had to be done.
They continued walking, going into Kakashi’s office where a figure sat in front of the desk, the chair’s back turned to both of them. Neither of them could guess how long he had been there, but it must have been for a while. He was sitting with his feet up on the desk.
As if just noticing them, he turned around in his chair. When he turned, both of them found themselves staring at a battle-hardened, terribly scarred warrior, who Shinru immediately recognized and Kakashi, who hadn’t known this man as much, took a few moments to recognize, but this man was surely not a forgettable person.
“Shinru!” the man said, standing up from his chair, he was a tall and burly man as well, towering over them both, “I thought you were dead… again.”
“Thane?” Shinru replied, holding a hesitant excitement. And then, as he recalled his training with the sages and the trouble that he had gone through with this one, he practically grumbled, “Why do I get the feeling that something terrible is about to happen?”
~
Riku woke up, back in the Akatsuki spire. He sat up quickly, his eyes wide and sweat running down his face. He was on a bed somewhere in the spire, and sitting on the side of the bed was the leader of Akatsuki, seeming as though he had been sitting there for hours.
He looked at him, questioningly, and when the man turned back, he stared at him, “Riku… so you’re up. I heard that you had quite the fight with Kabuto, eh?”
Riku didn’t answer, only changed the subject, “And you’re here because…?”
“I think that it’s time… that we continued your training. I’m the only one fit to do that here, and so you’ll be… off duty for a while. We’ll have to invest much of our time training to get you stronger,” he replied.
“I don’t need training,” Riku argued, “You saw what I did to Kabuto, I can handle—”
“Please, child, that was hardly what you did, but rather what your sword did. Don’t fool yourself, you’re hardly that strong. Had your blade not taken over you, you would have been done for within seconds. I’m sure that you’ve talked to Thane about it.”
Riku looked over at his sword, leaning on the wall in the corner of his room, “Alright then… when do we start?”
The leader got up then, standing and walking toward the door, “Tomorrow. You’re still running on low chakra reserves. Meet me in the training room tomorrow, I’m sure you know where it is; don’t think that I haven’t seen you snooping around here. While we train, I’ll let you in on a few of our secrets Until then, you’d better rest.”
Riku shrugged, he had searched around the spire quite a few times, but never found anything of particular interest, aside from large, empty rooms. But suddenly a thought struck him, and before he got to left, he called out to the leader, “Wait… this may sound a bit too pushy, but… since you said that you’re going to talk with me about a few secrets while we train…”
He got no further before the man blew out an audible sigh, “Lance,” he said simply, “You may call me Lance.”
And with that, he left, giving Riku much to ponder for the remainder of the day.
~
He would come out here often, now. The giant cliff gave him an excellent view of the sea, from which he could clearly see the violent maelstrom as it powerfully churned. It was becoming more violent every day.
He sat at the very edge of the cliff, waiting for it to finally happen, the moment that he had waited for years and years for. The boy had wildly spiked wild hair. His face assured anyone who he saw that he was no more than a teenager, or perhaps someone who had just very recently escaped their teenage years. His face was also rather serious, though, almost solemn. From waist down, it would seem as though he was wearing a simple black robe, but from above his waist, the robe ended and there was a tight fitting, zipped up shirt that on his torso. The shirt’s collar was unzipped, leaving it loosely hanging on either side of his neck. His right arm was bare but his left arm was covered by a black sleeve. On both hands he had tight-fitting black gloves. Under the half-robe, he wore black jeans and boots. There seemed to be an earring on one of his ears.
Suddenly, as he watched the maelstrom in the center of the far-off sea, one leg hanging over the edge of the cliff and the other one bent, with his foot just barely on it, the violent storm ceased.
For the first time in many, many years… it stopped.
He kept watching. This was it… the calm before the storm. He could see now that the time had come.
Suddenly, like a giant vortex, the water rose upward and swirled violently. As though it were some mixture of every elemental, the vortex violently twisted like a mixture of water and wind. Lightning shot down periodically in and around the storm. The earth itself shook powerfully at the vigor of the storm and the sky itself heated powerfully from the sheer energy of the cyclone. The cyclone rose up to the heavens and beyond.
And suddenly, it completely stopped, and where the cyclone once stood, a giant hole now did. The hole seemed as if it led to the underworld itself. Water didn’t pour down into it despite being in the center of the ocean. It was as if it was immune to all things near it.
The boy got up then, grabbing his sword that had been impaled into the ground beside him. It was a very large sword, wrapped completely in bandages. He turned around and began walking away, “So the time’s finally come…”
He walked away from the ocean. He wanted to go there right then and there, wanted to search desperately for the one whom he intended to kill, but he knew that to do that would be to commit suicide. And so he walked away.
“I’m ready for you this time,” he said, “Come and get it, Sephiroth. I’ll be waiting.”
