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ᗰOᑎᔕTEᖇ	By : Sessakag Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female > Naruto/Hinata Views: 44706 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Chapter Forty-Nine
Restless Night

May 20, 2010

His letter to Naruto was simple, and easy.
Questions about his fiancée’s condition and how he was handling the situation, inquiring if there was anything he could do to further assist the woman that was to marry his best friend. A few lines of banter and expressed annoyance over having been nagged into writing a letter, and that was it. He’d rerolled the small scroll and attached it to the messenger hawk a while ago.
His letter to Sakura however…
He’d been staring at blank paper for nearly fifteen minutes, his mind uncharacteristically empty.
What was he supposed to say?
Should he address the question mark they’d left off on, or should he keep things light?
He didn’t know. Socializing wasn’t his strong point, but he knew…he had to do something. He had to write something.
He didn’t want her to think he didn’t care about her…
But he also didn’t know what he was supposed to convey to her.
What he told her hadn’t been a lie, an excuse or an exaggeration. It truly wasn’t a matter of not wanting her. It was a matter of not knowing what he wanted. He’d never had feelings, the type of feelings she had, for any woman. His life had been one trauma after another, one emotional injury after another, one mistake after another. There was never time, there was never interest, there was never any real desire to develop romantic feelings. Quite the opposite in fact. For the mentality he’d been laboring under, the most important thing to him had been the severing of any and all emotional connections, and that included love of any nature. Even now, he lived amiss trauma, struggling, often times drowning in the consequences of the life he’d lived. When his mind journeyed beyond the hell within his memories, when it searched for a name for the sensation in his chest when he though about her, he was met with frustration, intimidation and deep rooted indecision.
He just… didn’t know what he felt for her, and that was the unvarnished truth.
But…
He couldn’t deny that something was there. A connection considering their proximity as children and the nightmare they’d lived in during their teens.
What label was he supposed to put to that?
Was that care?
Was it love?
Was it simple familiarity?
He sighed, then picked up the pen.
Whatever it was, it was enough to propel him into action. His words were awkward even to him, woefully short and stunted.
A touch of anxiety prickled his nape.
Fuck…
She had to realize he wasn’t good at this sort of thing…
She’d known him for nearly the entirety of their lives. Would she see his efforts, meager though they were, or would she chalk up his uncomfortable attempt at conversation as confirmation that he was stuck in his ways and unwilling to change?
He stared at the words. Wracked his brain for more sentences to add to the brief message and came up with nothing.
Silently resigned, he rolled it up, attached it to the hawk and sent him off to the post.
With domestics more or less taken care of, Sasuke turned his attention to his current task. Another venture into Kaguya’s castle. He’d finally regained use of his Rinnegan, and rather than continue the search for the dimension they’d sealed her within, he wanted to sift through the east wing of the palace before he went hunting for her resting place again.
He stood with the assist of his sword, attached it to its holding place at his spine before opening the pathway to the ice dimension.
Blistering wind, frigid temperature, the snowy wonderland chilled him immediately.
He reached the tall doors at a swift pace and wasted no time entering through them. It was cold inside, but nowhere near the stinging blizzard whistling beyond the entrance. He traveled through the abandoned fortress, his booted feet echoing within the empty halls. He went from room to room, checking through dusty desks and cabinets, old trunks and chests. A plethora of useless items littered the decrepit furniture. Torn paper with illegible ink, rusty trinkets, dust covered jewelry and letters written from worshipers of the Rabbit Goddess. He scanned through each of them then discarded them.
The next room proved fruitful.
Inside a grimy box pushed in the corner, the former rogue shinobi pulled out an old scroll. The handwriting was messy, but legible.
He read silently, taking in each word with growing anticipation.
It started off as a love letter and ended in a inquiry.
At the bottom, a flourished signature of the name Tenji. He knew the name, the relationship between the author and receiver. This man was Tenji, Emperor of So no Kun, the father of Kaguya’s twins. His question; what was the purpose of the den she’d created several miles southeast of the capital?
There were no coordinates, no detailed description about the area the den was located.
He’d have to comb the area thoroughly and hope this hidden lair was still intact enough to sift through. Taking the letter, he tucked into a compartment attached to his belt and quit the room. Minutes later, he was stepping back into the winter weather, pulling his cloak tighter around his shoulders as he stepped carefully down the icy steps.
Before he made his way to So no Kun, he had one last task to complete in this iceland.
Kaguya’s current resting place, the dimension they’d sealed her away in. He had yet to reach it, but he was getting closer. In the time he’d spent honing his ocular abilities, exploring the capabilities of his Rinnegan, the lone Uchiha had found a total of three dimensions belonging to the female Otsutsuki, including the one he currently resided within. He’s singed his clothes with his abrupt brush with the volcanic world, and twice, had nearly dunked himself into the swirling ocean of acid. Each discovery occurred while he was within this winter wonderland. He assumed, had it been possible to stay within the other two realms without risking limb and life, finding other dimension connected to Kaguya would be just as effective as it was here. Until he was able to test the theory, he had no choice but to continue as he had.
Focusing chakra to his left eye, and his mind on the familiar intangible thread that ran through each dimension created by the Usagi no Megami, Sasuke searched for unexplored pathways connected to the thread. He found purchase moments later. Touching upon a split from the path, he honed in on it, immediately opening a dark, swirling doorway to the discrepancy.
He shot through the vortex, preparing for a speedy exit if the location proved hazardous.
A yellowish-green sky and reddish mountains peaks ensnared his attention as he drifted down to the ground. The memory of that epic battle three years ago rushed to the forefront.
This was the place.
This was Kaguya’s resting place.
He touched down atop merlot colored dirt, straightening slowly as he took in the giant formation within the sky.
The moon tomb housing Kaguya had sank lower than it had been when they left, far lower, nearly touching the mountain peak below it. The top right of the sphere had a sizable chunk missing, as though someone had taken a bite from it. Within that jagged crater, something pale hung from it. Trepidation tightening his insides, Sasuke moved in for closer inspection. He leapt up a mountain peak nearest the hole, shock shooting through his body as he launched himself up and onto the massive rock. With her lower extremities trapped within the rubble, Kaguya Otsutsuki lay crumpled. Her pale skin was shriveled, her whites eyes blackened, the rabbit like horns that had once been her most prominent defining aspect had fallen from her crown.
It was her face that chilled him.
An expression of pure, unadulterated terror was etched upon her visage.
Pulse hammering, mind running a thousand miles a minute, Sasuke walked towards the lifeless form of the greatest threat the shinobi world had ever faced. A brief pause passed, a moment of hesitation before he crouched down next to the female. The small gust of wind from his cape swept over the corpse, initiating a swift and wholly unexpected crumpling. Pruned flesh morphed into silvered dust, littering the rock below in a pile of ash.
xxxxxx
“You look so tired, Naruto-kun,” Hinata observed quietly, running soft fingers over a whiskered cheek, “and troubled…I’m alright now, tell me what happened in Suna.”
Feeling every bit as exhausted as he was sure his face appeared, Naruto leaned into that gentle caress, sighing contently as her soothing presence permeated his body. She’d cried on the way back home and sniffled delicately in his arms as they soaked away their individual and shared pain together in the bath tub. Now they lay quietly in bed, his arms wrapped around her, their legs intertwined. He’d bottled his mission’s trauma in favor of caring for his distraught significant other, and though she’d seen in the hospital that he appeared off in a minute way many could never spot and inquired with worried eyes about his health, he’d outright refused to divulge until the tears had stopped, her sobs had quieted, and the bulk of her pain had been eased through a session of tearful grieving. It gave him something to focus his mind on, something he could throw his energy, what was left of it, into. A task that brought him naught but contentment. Comforting his Princess, shouldering her upset was one of the many thing he lived for. If anything, tending to her had allowed him to process Shino’s horrendous injuries and Ino’s decline, atop his own brush with the hellish creation that was entity 504.
But now, with midnight rapidly approaching, he’d accomplished the goal he’d set out to complete.
Though her eyes were puffy and her nose was red, she’d long since composed herself. It was his turn to unload his baggage in the safety of their home. To trust in her the shadows inside his heart and mind, as she had him. He wanted to do that, to unburden his shoulders and purge the horror still mucking in his head, the memories of a headache linked to gnawing roots beneath his flesh.
It chilled him.
It scared him.
He didn’t want that for her.
He didn’t want her to experience the nightmares awaiting him.
He didn’t want the ensuing stress and terror his lover would cloak herself in, or the tears that would start anew once she gained a full picture of the shit show he and Kurama had endured. Above all, he didn’t want to taint her with what was inside his psyche. Kurama removed every single protrusion, every gnawing root, and yet he still didn’t feel clean inside. Their repulsive presence, or rather, the memory of it still hovered at the edge of his mind, lingering much like the pain and offensive stench the fodder left behind. As irrational as it may seem, he feared talking about it with her, afraid speaking of it would revive the parasitic impression and in the process, pass it on to his lover…the way he’d inadvertently passed it to his friend.
“I don’t want to tell you,” he confessed.
She was quiet a beat, tension lining her frame.
“It’s bad…” she stated.
“Yes.”
“Really bad…”
“Yeah.”
“Tell me,” she prompted, giving his middle a squeeze, “we’re in this together. Whatever happens, no matter what happens, we face it together remember?”
Those were his words, his mantra to her whenever things went south. He had told her that, and as much as he dreaded exposing her to malevolence incarnate, even by mere words, he needed her to help him process it. He needed to lean on her inner strength and comfort to keep his mind, his heart and soul steady as he worked to shoved the terrifying memory from his mental space. Having him break down, or screaming inside the throes of a nightmare in the middle of the night would leave her more terrified for him if she was ignorant of their source.
Not telling her was not in either of their best interest.
Not this time.
“Before I tell you, I want you to know we handled it,” he premised, “Kurama and I, we’re no longer in danger, and if this happens…when it happens again, we’ll take care of it even faster; better than we did this time now that we know what we’re facing.”
She was already tense, her delicate muscles locked as though bracing for a blow to the the body. His arms tightened, and his big hands stroked her tension lined form. Comforting them both with his gentle caresses, he started talking. Midway through his recounting, she rose abruptly, her wide pearlescent eyes glued to his own weary blue. He rose too, sliding comforting palms up and down her bare arms as he spoke. She reached for him as he neared the end, her little fingers clutching his forearms as she listened.
“Ino’s been taken to the Intel facility for now. The Yamanaka are gonna help her do what Kurama did. It’s probably going to take a while for them to remove it all. Kurama was really tired after he finished, and considering his chakra reserves along with mine, the amount of time and how difficult it’s gonna be will most likely be far more than it was with us,” he confessed, “without a bijuu to help her fight it and…cope with what’s actually taking place inside of our brain, Ino’s symptoms are more extreme. They’re taking care of her, and doing everything they can to help her recover, but it’s going to take time, dattebayo.”
She was stunned into silence. Her bewildered stare fixated on his face.
She reached for him, catching his cheeks between clammy palms, her petrified face blasting him with a question that was loud and thundering though her lips never once moved.
“We’re okay,” he answered, “Kurama’s resting at the moment, but we’re alright now, ‘ttebayo.”
Swiping soft thumbs along the lines on his skin, her scared expression prompted him for more.
“I promise,” he continued, “I wouldn’t lie to you about this. We’re both clear.”
Mutely, she searched his face for any hint of omission, any sign that he was holding back in an effort to spare her stress and worry. He kept his face open for her wordless perusal, letting her see the shinning honestly, the dark shadows gracing his visage.
“They’re gone, but I’m gonna have nightmares,” he admitted, his voice hushed, “you don’t…go through something like that unscathed, ya know?”
She nodded, her glinting eyes emotional but understanding. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she pulled him to the comfort of her bosom. He went willingly, eagerly, to the soothing warmth her embrace offered. Within the safety of her arms, he let his mind tread the memories he had avoided all the way back from Suna. Looping her waist, he held onto her delicate frame as the anxiety fueled shakes began.
Over the next hour, he let himself fall apart, to release the weight on his shoulders and give voice to the terror, the horror wedged inside the deepest recesses of his soul.
And with gentle force, tender determination, his lover put him back together. Fusing the pieces of his being back into their proper place, reinforcing the pillars that made up Naruto Uzumaki with her own strength. She reminded him that she was here for him in soft whispers, that he was strong, that his iron clad will, one of his most defining features, would allow nothing to keep him from rising above any hurdle be it mental, physical or spiritual. He soaked it all in, his eyes closed as he drifted without care along the consoling stream carrying him into an ataraxis ocean. Beneath her stroking hands, butterfly kisses and patient comfort the traumatized blonde grew calm.
Settled in mind, body and spirit.
He didn’t realize he had fallen asleep until he awoke violently just before the sun began its ascent, a hoarse scream erupting from his lips, fingers clawing at the squirming beneath his skin. Gentle hands gripped his arms, halting his frantic movement, startling him in the process. He looked into the concerned eyes of his Princess as reality sluggishly pulled him from the remnants of his hellish dreamland. Without a word, she took him into her arms again, soothing him as she had hours ago. Panting, shaking, his disoriented brain latched onto the sensation, grounding himself with the physical contact. Willing his pounding heart to slow, the nausea in his stomach to recede, the cold grips of fear to release its strangle hold on his throat.
“It was a nightmare, Naruto-kun,” she shushed him quietly, running her fingers through his sweat damp hair, “it’s not real, you’re alright. I have you, I won’t let anything bad happen to you, I promise.”
xxxxxx
‘Help…’
Vitriolic waves buzzed her nerve endings.
‘Someone…please help me…’
Horrendous ripping shoved her beyond the border of pain and into indescribable torment.
‘Make it stop!’
They twined beneath her skin, chewing apart the muscle below.
‘Sai!’
She’d been crying out for help, for hours, for days, and as time passed, it felt like she’d been begging for salvation for years. No one was here to save her, no one had come to pull her from the darkness of the cocoon the roots engulfing her body created. Alone, surrounded in pitch black, the maddening pulsation from the fat appendages the only sound to reach her ears, Ino felt seconds from losing her mind.
Frigid wet burrowed into her shoulder.
Ino whimpered before bracing her mind, her body, her soul, against the hellish sensation as it tore into the soft tissue. Teeth gritted, teary blue eyes wide, Ino silently prayed for the agonizing gnawing to stop. As if the devil himself had heard her voiceless plea, those starving roots tore into her spine.
She wailed, pulling and twisting to free herself from the nook that held her hostage.
She knew better than to move.
She knew better than to struggle.
But God help her, the agony was too much to bear.
They swarmed, clutching her tighter, bitting and chewing in earnest, dragging her deeper into their sticky den of roots.
They were enraged.
Desperate.
Terrified that their meal would desert them.
Ino screamed, tearing at the invading roots, her ruined skin bleeding anew as she yanked and pulled. Her fingers slipped as the roots pulled back, viciously burrowing deeper into her bloodied flesh. She wailed within the confines of her mind, the agonized sound echoing, melding with the high pitched vibrations erupting from the growths wrapped around her body. She reached for the fleshy growth crawling inside her neck, panicking as its tip clawed at her cheek, straining towards her eyes. With all her might, with strength born of pain, born of terror, she pulled as hard as she could, the action just as excruciating as their mastication of her insides.
The invading growths clamped down, spearing her flesh simultaneously, launching her into a world beyond hell.
She couldn’t move.
She couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t think.
She couldn’t even scream.
She was trapped.
Locked in the greatest of agony…
xxxxxx
May 21, 2010

The scent of food roused him late afternoon. He rose reluctantly, his tired body resisting, his overtaxed mind struggling. With the curtains drawn, and the room comfortably dark, Naruto sat in bed, his cobalt eyes heavy lidded.
He felt like shit.
More so considering he didn’t often experience the strains that others lacking the surname Uzumaki felt regularly. Even when he was battered enough to warrant a hospital visit, he never truly felt sapped. It took a lot to push him to that point and having felt it only once before, in the early days when the jubokko attacks began, he knew his mental state was the overreaching factor. It hadn’t really been the constant shuttling from one disaster site to another that created the boulder on his shoulders, the devastation, the human suffering is what had truly worn him down.
He didn’t hear her when she came through the door. The dipping of the mattress kick started his awareness. The future Mrs. Uzumaki was studying him with meticulous eyes, noting every chink in his armor. She recognized his mood, and he knew from her mood that she was settling back into the caring role that had seen him through his last bout of mental strain.
Leaning forward, she took his hand between her own and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
“Come have lunch,” she coaxed.
She didn’t ask if he was hungry, she knew he didn’t really have an appetite, but as he had with her, she wouldn’t allow him to neglect his health. He didn’t fight as she rose, tugging him from bed along with her. He took a seat at the table, waiting as she grabbed his plate. It wasn’t piled high like it normal, rather, it was proportionate to what she’d eat. Though she was determined to make sure he ate, she wasn’t forcing him to down the large amounts he was accustomed to when he wasn’t feeling the way he was now.
He ate what was on his plate, his mind a bit too monotone to fully enjoy the flavorful meal.
She cleared the table, but didn’t start dish water. Instead, she grabbed his hand again, then pulled him gently from his chair.
“Let’s go for a walk, Naruto-kun.”
He didn’t want to.
He could tell, she didn’t really want too either.
They both went anyway.
Last thing they needed to do was sit at home, stewing and marinating in the misery currently ravaging their lives. The fresh air did wonders for his mood, despite his lack of enthusiasm to go out today. With the warmth of the sun sliding along his skin, the cheerful people milling around them, the birds chirping as they flew lazily among the blue sky, the dreary cloud he’d woken up with began a slow parting.
“I didn’t get a chance to ask you last night, but what happened during your mission? Aside from finding Shino in the condition he was in, did anything else happen?” he asked as they walked a more secluded trail in a residential area, “Any clues about what happened to him?”
She shook her head.
“Nothing that would explain his injuries but…I did come into contact with another jubokko,” Hinata admitted, “a female.”
He stopped, his eyes wide.
“A female jubokko? You’re sure?”
Hinata nodded.
“She showed the signs,” she replied, “her pathways were switching from one tenketsu to another, they were made of different sizes, and her eyes held an imitation Rinnegan.”
Strain lined her delicate face.
“I…killed it.”
As though the admission was shameful, she ducked her head, pale eyes tracing the ground below their feet. He knew it wasn’t the quiet confession that brought about her hunched shoulders. She hadn’t meant to kill it, like the last jubokko, she’d lost control of the power thrumming through her chakra network. The fact that she hadn’t spiraled into depression told him the jubokko had been the only target to suffer beneath the destructive force she wielded.
“We’re still working on your control,” he soothed, caressing her bare arm,“you know that. It’s gonna take more time, and that’s okay. Did anything feel different, are you feeling scared or weird?”
She shook her head.
“Not in that way no, I’m just…a little anxious that it got out of control again.”
He understood her stress about struggling with restraint, however, when she faced the jubokko, he was happy that her power had become a blast first, ask questions later response. He wanted her safe above everything, and if that meant dead jubokko on sight, then so be it.
He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, and small smile with what he hoped was encouragement.
“You’ll get there,” he said quietly, “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
He turned pensive.
“But a female jubokko?”
“Yes,” she murmured, her own air also melding into one of seriousness, “I read up on site 9 while you were away.”
Of course she did.
Like he had done when the Anbu carted her off in the middle of the night for an impromptu mission, she’d gone to the Hokage for more information on what her other half was facing.
“I haven’t finished reading, but there was a part about female testing.”
“I haven’t had a chance to finish either,” he told her, “but I did glance over that part while on the way to Sunagakure.”
“They halted it due to the female subjected to the harvest dying very quick but really horrible deaths. A few months later, they tried again, experimenting with dosages and changes to the serum formula, it seemed to delay the time between death, but in the end, the women didn’t survive. There are a few periods where they try again, but there are no recorded instances of success.”
“But there had to have been at least one considering you were attacked by it, dattebayo.”
She nodded.
“Did they bring it back for autopsy?”
“No,” she replied, a frown marring her pretty lips, “when the team dispatched to recover the remains arrived, the body was in a process of advanced decomposition. Like acid eating away at it, the skin was melted, the bones corroding, and by the time they could figure out a way to cart it back without touching whatever was dissolving it, the jubokko was nothing more than a foul smelling puddle of liquid.”
Blonde brows crinkled.
“What the hell?”
His beautiful fiancée shrugged her slim shoulders.
“No one is sure what happened, but from what we’ve read about, the failures with female jubokko, maybe this is another symptom of that failure. She didn’t behave like a jubokko either. There was no mindlessness to her, no raging hunger. She was composed and fluid…she was scarier than the ones that rampage and her touch-”
“She touched you?” Naruto demanded, abruptly pulled from his silent pondering by the news.
“I’m fine,” she assured him, attempting to curb his concern with a small up curl of her lips, “she grabbed me, and that was as far as it went, Naruto-kun. I wasn’t injured, I didn’t even bruise, but…there was a wrongness when her skin touched mine. Cold…repulsive, it was so pungent I could barely stand it.”
He didn’t like it.
She was fine, he could see that, but he really didn’t like that an anomaly among the abominations that were jubokko had been in her space, let alone touched her.
He stowed the ugly sensations knotting his stomach and asked instead, “did anyone else have a reaction to it?”
She shook her head.
“I was the only one that it touched. It probably-”
The couple turned their gaze to the masked woman that flashed into existence in front of them.
“Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuuga, Rokudaime-sama requires your presence. Please report to the level four meeting room in the Intel Department immediately.”
That order issued, the covert female was gone.
Sharing concerned glances, the couple walked hand and hand towards the building. This had to be about the tape, or maybe some other threat had presented itself, whatever it was, the duo could only hope it included an update on Ino’s condition.
xxxxxx
Sakura watched beyond plexiglass as the Yamanaka battled the fodder.
Her spunky best friend lay nearly lifeless upon the plush gurney. Dark bruises and long black lines that mimicked the appearance of charred veins stretched from the top of her head to her bare feet. They didn’t know what was causing the contusions, nor did they know why some of them had taken the shape of veins. It was horrifying to view, grotesque in a way that turned her stomach.
Maybe she was letting this get to her head but she could swear they pulsed at times…
And on rare occasions…the tips seemed to twitch.
They said it was simple bruising, it wasn’t those…things Naruto and Kurama had described. It wasn’t those parasitic roots…but the medical nin wasn’t so sure and even though she’d examined them herself, she still wasn’t convinced they weren’t…alive.
Sakura chaffed her bare arms, her sensitive fingertips running over the goosebumps along her skin.
Touching her friend had been so…unnerving.
Never had she been so unsettled during an examination. Not even when Orochimaru stood over her shoulder coaching her through the application of the seals that acted as treatment for tsuchi.
There was an energy about the young blonde.
Some sinister air that frightened the medical kunoichi and everyone else that got near her. It was hard for anyone to be in the same room with her. Like sinking to the seabed of an ocean, the atmosphere was heavy and suffocating. Terrifying in a way she had never experienced. Eying the men and women that made up the very best the Yamanaka had to offer, Sakura held a new found respect for the mental endurance of her friend’s clan. Their undertaking was grueling, even without the nasty energy in the room.
Seated in chairs that reclined, the two women and three men appeared lifeless in the comfy chairs. They’d left their mental space and entered Ino’s nearly three hours ago. At their last break, they’d reported their findings. They were still struggling to find Ino among the root infested labyrinth that infected her mind. The fodder’s resistance was onerous and vicious. Unraveling an entrance was punishing, physically and mentally. Functioning just as described, contact with those growths were poison. Many had already sickened, a few unable to return until they themselves had undergone a few hours of purging.
And if the sickness wasn’t enough of a deterrent, the terror was.
Her mind…was a nightmare.
A scary, darkened pit filled with madness, hunger and ungodly horrors many were unable to name.
There were quite a few that couldn’t return due to contact illness, but there were even more that refused to return after fleeing whatever demons had taken residence within her psyche.
And that scared her more than anything.
The fodder that had taken hold of her best friend was enough to frighten loyal clan members, individuals that specialized in trudging through the worst minds humanity had to offer.
“Any change?”
Sakura jumped, then turned to the chubby man heading towards her.
Choji gave her a sympathetic look. They were both on edge and had been since this all began. This wasn’t the first time an innocent voice had spooked her, nor was Choji exempt from startling when she arrived to join his tenacious vigil.
“No,” she replied as he stood beside her, “they’re still trying to connect with her.”
He didn’t reply.
She glanced at him.
His face was more than concerned, it was fearful. He’d been that way since they brought her here, and even if she couldn’t read the level of stress in his drawn brows or the tightness around his mouth, the fact that she hadn’t seen him eating anything any time she encountered him was the biggest give away.
And that worried her too.
“How are you holding up, Choji?”
“I won’t lie and say I’m handling this well,” he replied quietly, tension lining his words, “I’ve never…seen her like this. I’ve never seen anything like this before. The fact that nobody will answer my questions makes this a thousand times worse. I’m not the Akimichi head yet, I’m not even a jonin, but I have a right to know what’s going on, I have a right to know what’s happening to my sister but…nobody will tell me, not dad, not Shikamaru. I get it, this isn’t the first village secret in Konoha, and it won’t be the last, but I just can’t accept this, not when it’s effecting not just Ino, but the people around her. The Yamanaka are the strongest clan, mental wise and yet I’ve seen so many of them running from her. Running. Screaming like they’ve just seen a demon. How am I supposed to sit here, ignorantly watching what seems like a nightmare and not go crazy myself?”
She knew it wasn’t her call, that she hadn’t made that determination, but she couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty that she knew and he didn’t.
Even though Ino was her best friend, she felt as Choji did; he had a right to know everything, even more so than she did.
“Choji-”
“It’s okay…there’s nothing I can do about it, there’s nothing you can do about it either, so don’t feel bad for me,” he said, “I’m just…bitching instead of sitting around feeling helpless. I’d rather feel angry that to…feel helpless.”
“Even so, I’m sorry Choji, I know this is hard on you.”
“It’s hard on all of us.”
With a shake of his brown head, the normally jovial shinobi straightened his spine.
“I didn’t come down here to feel sorry for myself, I came to support Ino. I may not know everything, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be here for every step of her recovery. I don’t know how much help I can be but, I wanna be here if she needs me.”
“You’re doing more than you realize Choji. Ino…she needs every bit of support she can get, even more so from her brothers. You being here is more than enough.”
His face pensive, Choji watched the proceedings, his frown deepening.
“I have to be there for Shino too,” he said quietly, “what happened to him…I never imagined something like this happening. With Lee, at least we knew what happened, how it happened, and eventually, he was able to return to his life as a shinobi. Shino, how can he ever go back? His chakra network…there’s no fixing it is there?”
Saddened, heartsick once more, Sakura shook her head.
“No,” she admitted dejectedly, “there’s no repairing that. He won’t be able to go back to being a shinobi. For him, it’s really, truly, over.”
It hurt her to say that. Shino hadn’t just lost his position as ninja, he’d lost the connection he shared with his insects. With his network compromised, Shibi Aburame had explained that his ability to communicate and house bugs within in his body would be severed.
Shino loved his insects.
To lose two things he loved in one fell swoop…
It was beyond devastating.
“What about the food pill medication? Is that going any better?”
A scream cut halted her response, scaring both herself and her chubby friend.
One of the men had cracked.
His bellows were deafening, his struggles tipping both him and the chair. The attendant in the room was there in an instant, a sedative in hand. With her heart hammering, Sakura watched as the man held down the flailing Yamanaka, gripped his arm and administered the drug inside the needle. When the man quieted, the attendant walked over to the intercom.
Shortly after, the poor man was removed from the room and another took his place.
“Sakura Haruno.”
The distressed pair turned to the masked woman standing a short distance away. Giving her friend a glance, Sakura walked over to the Anbu and out of the hearing range of the Akimichi heir.
“Rokudaime-sama requires your presence. Please report to the level four meeting room immediately.”
xxxxxx
Sakura joined them as they walked down the long hallway towards the level four meeting room. Hand and hand with Hinata, Naruto glanced down at his friend along side his woman. She looked deflated and woefully exhausted. Her bubble gum hair was a tad mussed, there were shadows beneath her gleaming emerald eyes, and the confident stride with which she always walked was more than a little wilted.
“How’s Ino, Sakura-chan?”
The pinkette shook her head.
“She’s not doing well at all,” she admitted tiredly, “they’re keeping her partially sedate for now, but what’s inside her head…Kurama was right, she’s not able to purge that on her own, and while they have a team forcing that…alien shit from her head, progress is slow. Too slow, but there’s really…nothing else they can do to speed up the process. Those things just won’t let go. I’ve read your report Naruto, I know what Kurama told us about them but…”
She shook her head, distress sliding over her features.
“Its like it…they… I don’t even know what pronoun to use for that fucking thing, it’s like it has a mind of its own. Like it’s sentient. The way it moves and behaves…and it really is like poison,” Sakura continued gravely, “she has a rotating team drawing it out but they’re getting sick. Some leave her mind screaming and need sedation, a few refuse to come back.”
“Shit,” Naruto muttered, running a hand through his hair, “I knew it was gonna be bad, but I was did think it’d be this bad, ‘ttebayo. Kurama said it didn’t touch her as deeply as it did us. They were after me and the others, not Ino.”
Hinata stroked his back, her small hand comforting in the midst of his worry.
“But as you reported, it’s poison. Poison doesn’t care what it infects.”
“Yeah,” he muttered dejectedly, reaching for his lover’s hand other hand and twining their fingers.
“Sakura,” Hinata began quietly, “I hate to pester you and if you feel like I’m bothering you-”
“You could never do either of those, Hinata,” Sakura assured her friend with a gentle smile, “ask me anything.”
Returning her smiled with a small one of her own, Hinata continued, “are you any closer to developing treatment for Shino-kun?”
“Yes, actually. It’s still in its infancy, but with the help of the Akimichi, I’m developing a temporary medicine that’ll cut the number of transfusions he needs in half, maybe even more.”
“Why temporary?” Naruto questioned.
“The medicine is a bit unstable and while it’ll promote chakra flow from his tenketsu, its not sustainable. This treatment relies heavily on the structure of food pills, and as such, comes with some of the same draw backs. Forcing his tenketsu to work past their capacity, even at five percent more is dangerous, but to do so long term,” she shook her head, “its not sustainable. It’d kill him.”
Hinata’s soft gasp of distress brought his arm around her. He pulled her into the crook of his oblique, smoothing his finger tips over her tense shoulders.
“I’m sorry, Hinata,” Sakura rushed to apologize, “I didn’t mean to-”
“Don’t be sorry,” she murmured, “I…need to know what’s going on, even if…even if I don’t want to, even if it scares me…I’m sorry too, this must be really hard on you. With Ino in her current condition and Shino’s health so dire…I know you’re not okay, so I won’t ask that, but if you need me for anything, anything at all, even just a shoulder to cry one, please come to me. I know Ino’s your best friend and that you depend on her as much as she does you, but…while she’s recovering, please let me support you.”
“Goes for me too, Sakura-chan,” the blonde threw in as the neared the meeting room, “we’ve talked about this before, but you never tell me shit that’s eating away at you. This time, I need you to come to me about whatever keeps you up at night, whatever makes you tired and sad. I’m here for you, always have been, always will be. I won’t let you go through this alone, dattebayo. When you need us, tell us, but if it looks like you need us and don’t say anything, I’ll make a bunch of clones to follow you around and nag you all day. Shit’s really dark right now, and we have to rely on each other. Everyone is relying on you for the bulk of this, the least we can do as your friends is lighten the load. I’m not gonna let you get crushed beneath it.”
With that warning, Naruto opened the door for his sorrowful wife-to-be and his quietly emotional teammate.
He meant what he said.
If it took a legion of his clones pestering the medical kunoichi twenty-four hours, seven days a week, then he’d do that.
She knew he had the stamina and bullheadedness to do it.
Closing the door behind them, he followed his Princess to the spot they usually resided during meetings. Naruto took a seat at the table front and center, Hinata sliding in next to him. Sakura took a spot next to his fiancée, while the rest of those among their rank sat down behind and around them. There were considerably less jonin in the room, a handful, but of those in the room, Naruto recognized their prominence and could guess why they’d been included in what he figured was the first group to receive whatever information was to be shared with Konoha’s jonin. Ibiki Morino sat behind him. Ensui Nara next to him while Hoheto Hyuuga and Santa Yamanaka took residence on either side of the room.
A white drop screen had been pulled from the ceiling in front of the dry erase board that was normally scribbled with important information for whatever topic the jonin meeting consisted of that day. A wheeled tabletop stood two seats away from him, a projector atop it.
Kakashi-sensei and Shikamaru entered the room.
Their white haired leader took a seat at a table in the far corner, facing the audience, while Shikamaru stood in front of the projector screen.
He appeared impassive but attentive, his dark eyes sharp and focused.
The door opened a final time and Lee walked in. Thick brows crinkled, Lee shared a glance with the blonde, showcasing the blazing concern within those inky black eyes. Lee had been brought up to speed on the Otsutsuki puzzle, he could see it in his face. He strode across the room and planted himself in the seat beside Sakura.
“Alright, now that everyone is here, let’s get started,” the Hokage’s adviser announced.
Pulling a small remote from his pocket, Shikamaru dimmed the lights and fired up the projector.
“This meeting is another update of the ongoing investigation and research into the Otsutsuki. Recently, a team headed by Naruto Uzumaki was dispatched to Suna with the objective of assisting the Sunagakure investigatory team at site 9 with locating the frequency of entity 504,” he explained, bringing up an image of a healthier tree than what they’d seen, on the overhead, “in the course of this mission, an incident occurred resulting in multiple negative effects upon personal, however, this incident did reveal new information.”
The group listened as the adviser gave an unvarnished rendition of their mission, taking questioned as he spoke. The lone Yamanaka in the room asked the most questions about the tree’s frequency and it’s psychological effects. Naruto knew he’d be taking every bit of information that he could back to the team assisting Ino.
“Now that you all have an overview of the situation, we’ll move on to the contents of the video recording.”
Straightening in his chair, Naruto tuned in sharper than he had for the explanation. He wanted to know what the fodder had been saying to Kurama.
“When the tape was initially reviewed, the raw footage manifested the same symptoms you and your team suffered, Naruto,” the clicker clicked and a list of bullet point appeared, “Pounding ear drums, aching joints and bones, nausea, severe headaches, painful stinging of the skin, emotional turmoil, generalized pain throughout the body and though rare, vomiting and nosebleeds were also experienced. These were the sensations experienced by any person within whisper distance of the sound.”
Hinata tensed at his side, and while he hoped to project comfort to her with his mere presence, he found himself in need of hers as well. The unease was creeping into his senses. Just talking about that damn tree and it’s weird sound was setting him on edge and last night’s nightmare hadn’t exactly helped his nerves.
“We took the tape to Technological Research & Development department and they were able to come up with a solution and in the process, they may have found a way to capture the frequency Naruto and Kurama can hear,” Shikamaru shared, “Naruto, we’ll discuss the details later. We’ve sent our findings to Sunagakure already and we’re waiting to hear back.”
Hinata and her future husband took the news with no small measure of relief. If the Tech Department were able to detect that horrendous ‘song’ without the blonde’s assistance, it’d save the Jinchuuriki and bijuu another dangerous, agonizing encounter with the fodder. Naruto would do whatever was necessary, but he held hope that this breakthrough would lead to second.
“The footage is safe to view, so we’ll be going through it today. Between agonized groins and wails, none of which belonged to Ino, theses are the words The Cipher Corps were able to decipher,” Shikamaru explained.
The projector whirred, and the tape began. Naruto knew his significant other could feel the deepening rigidity of his body. Though hardly appropriate in their current setting, she moved her soft hand to his thigh, squeezing gently in silent support. Steeling himself, Naruto turned hard eyes to the images on the screen.
He could see himself in the corner of the zoomed in frame of Ino.
The sounds that reached his ears raised the fine hair on his skin. Hinata squeezed his hand, her own eyes wide with horror. He gave her a comforting squeeze back, then focused his mind on the new addition to the tape.
Subtitles at the bottom, giving meaning to the sounds coming from her mouth.
‘The pain!’
Naruto grimaced.
He wasn’t sure what magic the Tech department had worked to remove the ill effects just hearing those sound had wrought but he was beyond grateful. Even without the physical, mental and spiritual pain, those utterances were so inhuman his brain ached to even process them.
‘It’s so loud…’
It sounded like a low, wounded yelp. Like an animal suffering. Strange as it was, with the words coinciding with the sounds, he could attach human emotions to the tones.
‘Traitors!’
Unbridled rage, explosive wrath.
‘Let me out…’
Sinister coaxing in that last sentence.
‘I can’t breathe…’
Suffocating suffrage.
‘We hunger.’
‘My soul, it hurts…let me die…’
A deep hopelessness that made his chest hurt.
The video paused, and Shikamaru spoke once more.
“At this juncture, we believe the fodder is speaking directly to Kurama.”
‘Come to us…we are starving…”
He could hear himself in the background, questioning Kurama about his bellowing growls.
‘We are fodder. We are shed by host.’
A brief pause elapsed.
‘We will show you.
Show him.
See us.
I see you.’
Another grimace passed his features. The clashing octaves and archaic syllables were fucking uncomfortable. Like nails on a goddamn chalk board blaring through a megaphone. The fodder were talking over each other while screaming their torment in between.
‘We hunger, our essence withers!
We must have it…your essence…replenish us…
It hurts…Return to me…
We are fading
We will have him
The host will have you…
Kurama…’
“The fodder, as they’ve named themselves, seem to be comprised of the essence of multiple, ‘individuals’, for lack of a better word. Kurama has stated that, despite their ability to communicate and somewhat function, these ‘individuals are not sentient. They are an echo left behind by the ‘host’. All the same, it gives us insight into what we’re dealing with in terms of the ‘host’. Hunger stands at the top, madness a close second and woven between those two and a torrent of others, is a desire to escape the recycling described by Kurama. Based on the newest installments from the Otsutsuki doctrine, we’ve connected this information with the report from the site 9 investigation,” Shikamaru informed them, “the newest translation introduces a number of details about the Otsutsuki. They are narrated from the perspective of an unidentified Otsutsuki, describing events initiated by the oldest son of Cyilo. This Otsutsuki refers to this incident as the first great atrocity.”
With those ominous words, Shikamaru walked to the projector and took a few sheets of paper from a drawer inside the table it rested upon before he returned front and center.
“In the interest of saving time, I’ve condescend our finding into summaries and isolated the more pertinent parts to be read as translated. The full transcription is available only through request, level four clearance and above.
That said, he began reading.
‘The eldest son, he was the originator of it all. The first great atrocity and those that followed rest solely with his gluttonous desire for power.
He has damned us all.
We have all fought the call, the seduction thrumming from their willowing forms.
That delicious scent of power. That raw energy, the vivid vitality, it drew us all and tantalized our senses with the sweetest nectar one could ever encounter. We all hungered, every son of Cyilo resisted…except for him.
He did not resist.
When Sylvana turned her gaze from us, while Cyilo slept beneath the earth, he consumed her. The youngest daughter and from that great atrocity, the rickety dam that held us back shattered. We could feel the pulsations of power seething from his form, we could see the potency coloring his skin. The evolution that transformed his body.
We too desired the destructive force thrumming beneath his flesh, the satiation within his eyes.
His satisfaction was tangible.
After centuries of wondering, envisioning the taste of their delectable essence, we hungered. And when he offered us all the chance to taste nirvana…
We did not resist.
We followed him, listened as he taught us how we were to consume them. This process was different than the one he used to consume the youngest, but we did not question this. We merely followed. Beneath his guidance and direction, we tore the essence from the graceful form of another daughter and planted it within earth tilled by him and from it, a tree emerged. Fleshy, sticky, alive, it leeched life from the very dirt it lay nestled within.
“This passage, as well as others, indicate that this is the origin and original composition of the Shinju. As I’m sure you realize, this depiction coincides with the physical characteristics of entity 504 as well as the tree below Akechi village, dubbed entity 602, though there are a few key difference between them all. 504 actively sought nutrients from living beings, capturing and consuming them, while 602 received nutrients directly from a male Otsutsuki through intravenous means. We’ve come to the conclusion that there are various means of creating these trees, and in accordance with the process, the fruit it produces are not the same. This is brought to the forefront in later passages, for now, this is one of the many running theories that we are confident this text confirms as true.”
His brain was reeling.
That was the secret, the source of the Divine Tree…
He was stunned but not entirely surprised. Considering what that tree was capable, the potency of its fruit, what else could create such incredible, destructive power other than the soul of an Otsutsuki female?
“Another similarity is the lure these trees cast. The daughters of Sylvana emitted a scent that the male Otsutsuki found irresistible and in a matter of years, the Otsutsuki devolved into cannibalism. Entity 504’s frequency, it’s ‘song’ ensnared Kurama and based upon his behavior and final communication, Shukaku as well. In both cases, a stimulant effecting the senses that influenced the behavior of those on the receiving end was present. However in the case of 602, Naruto merely felt the presence of the Otsutsuki in the basement. We have solid ground but there are parts that are do not match with what we know.”
Looking back down at his paper, the adviser continued.
‘It bore fruit again and again.
Over and over, we harvested and feasted upon the manifestation of birth, the origin of creation, the culmination of life.
Their essence was ambrosia that lasted for countless years. Yet even this was not enough, not for him, not for us.
We hungered.
Though we plundered the tree we’d grown for many years, we continued to hunt even before it grew barren. We gathered them all and extracted the essence of nearly every daughter of Sylvana and planted an orchard.
With each harvest, we evolved.
Our dark sclera grew white, our pupils began to fade, and the vivid crimson of our iris were nearly as void of color as our sclera. With these eyes we could see it, the energy cycle below flesh and bone.’
He glanced at his lover. Hinata sat enraptured by the words, her milky eyes, wide and astonished.
“The energy cycle referred to is essentially what we call the chakra network,” Nara explained, “This passage explains the origin of the Byakugan, how it manifested. It also gives us various descriptions of what the male counterparts of the Otsutsuki looked like thousands of years before their current form.”
‘Dark lines arranged in unique patterns graced our visage, the shape and size of the horns that grew from our craniums emerged with just as much variation amongst us. Our maroon flesh slowly paled, the sharp angles, ridges and planes of our physique grew smooth and ethereal. From our bald heads, white hair sprouted.
Only he was different.
The eldest among us, the only among us to consume essence directly from Sylvana’s daughter. His patterns, they flashed slowly, their dimming and brightening hypnotic. The scent of his skin remained laden with power, akin to the headiness that our sisters once exuded. It draws us, ensnares us, it calls us to consume its energy. A siren’s call that has seen the destruction and consumption of those of us unable to resist his lure.’
“The only Otsutsuki to consume pure ‘essence’ was Cyilo’s first son. There’s no clear explanation for this distinction other than the insinuation that pure ‘essence’ was too dangerous to be consumed, and so, this process of extracting and planting their essence and consuming it in multiple harvests were the result.”
‘We harvested and consumed Chakura no Mi again and again. Countless millennia passed before the orchard began to wilt. The trees grew wrinkled and patchy, crumbling into fine powdered ash. They left behind seeds and just as before, these new seeds were planted.
Despite reaching maturity, the trees struggled to bear fruit.
The seed, it was dulled, defective, unable to draw life from the soil of its own volition. With this discovery, the next atrocity arose. With no daughters left to harvest, we took our brother, a son of Cyilo and sacrificed him to the oldest tree within this new, barren orchard.
We waited.
Nearly half a millennia passed before the first fruitful harvest emerged. With this success, we planted the rest of the seeds and fed our brothers to them all.
Sowing the seeds of our own downfall.
The fruit these trees produced was bitter to the taste, the power within them halved of the original and frighteningly fleeting. Once expended, our energy no longer replenished.
We began to sicken, to weaken, as the fruit’s power waned within our systems.
We began to die in both body and essence.
We wasted away until there was nothing left.
We were dependent upon these defective fruit to maintain our existence. We needed these seeds, these tainted fruit to live, and yet these fruit, once ambrosia, were poison, rotting away our insides, sapping our energy cycle, infecting our mind with madness and delirium.
Sylvana’s daughters…they have cursed us.’
A pregnant quiet filled the room as he finished reading.
“That explains why that Otsutsuki died after we fought in the Akechi village,” Naruto said a few seconds later, breaking the hush that had fallen over the group, “and the one that appeared near Sasuke last year, dattebayo. The one in Akechi was coughing up green stuff and he looked really sick.”
“When we found entity 602, it had already developed the patches and was crumbling,” Sakura murmured, “now that we know that these trees wilt and turn into dust when it’s no longer able to produce, that means another Otsutsuki was taking the fruit up until it grew barren. ”
A thought crossed his mind.
The tree in the Akechi village hadn’t completely wilted before they left and called it in to the village.
“I haven’t had time to read through the report,” Naruto admitted, “was there a seed left in the ashes?”
Sakura shook her head.
“No, nothing. According to the report from the investigatory team, just ashes.”
“Which highlights my point about the discrepancies among these mini Shinju,” Shikamaru added, “the ash was collected, sifted through and analyzed, there was no seed to be found, thus we are still missing very important pieces of the puzzle.”
“With this new information, Naruto, Sasuke, Kurama and Ino’s contributions, we know at least a few of their motives and goals,” Kakashi said, swinging the rooms attention his way, “they need chakra fruit to sustain their lives, with that in mind, we’re bound to find more of them. We also know, that Kaguya is a daughter of Sylvana, one of how many, we can’t be sure. The text confirmed that nearly every female Otsutsuki had been harvested and consumed, so just from that, we understand her presence is not only rare but essential to them.”
Which meant, if they got their hands on her, they’d become an even greater threat than Kaguya herself had been.
“However, I’ve a haunch their ambitions encompass more than that simple explanation. Site 9, the Akechi village, these are variables that aren’t fitting into the picture as neatly,” Kakashi informed them, “they’re after something else, we’re just not sure what at this time. We’ve sent Sasuke to verify that Kaguya remains sealed. He’s still developing and honing control of his Jikūkan ninjutsu, but he feels confident he can find the dimension she was sealed within.”
“There’s another unaccounted detail. Toneri Otsutsuki mentioned some truth that he wanted to reveal to you, Hinata, but never specified what that was, and then there was the reassurance that as long as we obey the Otsutsuki, no harm would come to your friends and family. His information was vague,” Shikamaru said, “but it did reveal that whatever goals they wish to accomplish, they are attempting to do so with the least amount of contention possible. With their health in decline, and their inability to replenish their chakra network, they cannot risk expending too much chakra by taking what they need by force.”
xxxxxx
May 22, 2010
It was nearly sunrise, he’d sent the summons hours ago. He was doing this on purpose, showing that he was in control, that he was his better and that he could make him wait hours without fear of consequence. Gritting his teeth, Momoshiki turned then resumed his agitated pacing. Irritation boiled in his gut, the urge to rend flesh and snap bone, beating in his temples.
By the time his clansman graced him with his pompous presence, Momoshiki had thoroughly lost his patience. He’d been careful for years, bitting his tongue and bowing his head to his betters, but in that moment, he could not find it within himself to play the sniveling clansman troupe.
“You appear to be losing your grip upon Konoha, Isshiki-sama,” he hissed, “and your incompetence has led to trouble with the Kazekage.”
The adviser of Konoha’s daimyo turned narrowed dark eyes to the speaker and that glance was all it took. It cleared him momentarily of his ire, throwing him back to the days when this very clansman had flayed his skin from bone for years on end, when this very clansman had seen him drowned for a decade after. Isshiki Otsutsuki was not one to be trifled with. He could count on his hand the Otsutsuki that Isshiki feared, and unfortunately, Momoshiki was not among them.
Not yet.
“You speak out of turn, Momoshiki. Your stature and ranking within the main branch has grown, however we are not equals. Your rise was driven by nothing more than the need to fill the gap left by the demise of those who’s power far exceeds your own. Do not let arrogance and hubris lead to your downfall. You have already consumed Kinshiki, you are trapped at your current stature as we all are. A stature far beneath my own,” Isshiki warned, ice dripping from every enunciated word, “Do not forget your station, or you will meet the same fate Kinshiki faced.”
And just that quick, his temper reignited.
Momoshiki gritted his teeth until they threatened to shatter.
He’d clawed his way up the ranks by his own will, strength and cunning; the gap be damned.
It was he that had found Toneri Otsutsuki and the cluster of Byakugan within the moon colony the half breed Hamura created.
It was he that had found Kaguya’s core dimension and led Toju-sama to the moon housing the last daughter of Sylvana.
It was he that had sealed Cyilo for the final time. A barrier that would hold long enough to accomplish their goals.
He had earned his place among the main family by his own ambition. He was no charity case. No pity component. No reject that had been forced among the elite due to an excess of vacancies.
He was an elite.
And he deserved the respect due his new status.
Yet…he didn’t dare speak those words aloud, and the cowardice burned his soul anew. The bull horned Otsutsuki struggled to mask his rage, forcing his face to remain neutral, though his milky white depths blazed. Isshiki, damn him to the world of Cyilo, had not been boasting in his chilled response. With Kinshiki devoured, there was no way for him to replenish his chakra network, let alone bolster his strength. Even in his diminished state, Isshiki could destroy him in an instant if he so chose. The prideful Otsutsuki was well aware that had they been in less dire straights, he’d already be dead, his essence consumed. The chakra Isshiki expended to kill him would not return, and the wasting that was slowly killing them all would accelerate the process.
Settling disputes as they used to years ago was now suicide. That Isshiki was in the same doomed ship they were all in was what kept him breathing.
Though he despised himself and the other Otsutsuki for it, he bowed slightly.
“My apologies, Isshiki-sama,” he acquiesced through clenched teeth.
Like the pungency of vomit, the words left his tongue coated in something foul.
“We are not within a safe area, refrain from addressing me by name,” Isshiki sniped, “and return to your husk.”
His jaw tightened, but Momoshiki again submitted.
“Please excuse my thoughtlessness,” he seethed.
Turning, Momoshiki walked over to the corpse propped at the base of the tree. Straightening its rigid form, he sat upon it and began to sink within it’s confines. Momoshiki bit his cheek as the rotting, frigid flesh of Fukuda Danuja encased his own. The repugnant sensation was one he would never forget. Grimacing as he stood, Momoshiki forced the creaky joints to loosen.
“Why are you here?”
“The Kazekage is proving a nuisance,” Momoshiki ground out, “he is lenient with the Uzumaki Jinchuuriki, and authorized him full clearance to interact with the fodder. He left Suna infected with their taint and took the tape of that human female spewing the old dialect with him despite my objections. Konoha has the means to translate whatever the fodder shared. Following my demand that the tape be returned, that brow-less mongrel assigned his elder brother in place of myself to handle situations concerning site 9, and twelve hours ago, he received a missive and dispatched his brother shortly after. I am unable to dissuade him to cease his actions, and the daimyo has not responded to my complaint.”
“And yet you worry about my control of Konoha.”
“With all due respect, Yagutsu-sama,” Momoshiki fairly spat, “had the Hokage been restrained from the very beginning, this issue would not have arisen.”
“Watch your mouth, Momoshiki, this is your final warning.”
Trembling with rage, burning with hate, Momoshiki strained for the edges of control. Several quiet minutes passed before he trusted himself to open his mouth again.
“The fodder has not yet dispersed and should the Jinchuuriki return, they will reach for him and the nine tails again. We cannot risk that imbecile passing on the rot to Hinata-sama.”
“He will not.”
“You cannot know that. The fodder are more than persistent, they will stop at nothing to feed. She is not prepared-”
“Your concern is unwarranted-”
“Hinata-sama must be protected!” the brash Otsutsuki raged, “reign in that wayward Hokage and if you cannot then step aside! I will-”
His body hit the dirt below, the world spun before it halted.
Agony lashed his neck, a sensation he was familiar with. He opened eyes he hadn’t known he closed and took in the sight he had known awaited him. His body lay crumpled, blood trickling from the gaping neck. Booted feet stepped into his sight, splashed in a crimson puddle and continued on.
With wrath in his dark eyes, the severed head of Momoshiki gnashed its teeth.
xxxxxx
We are more than halfway done. Chapter 49/80. You all are getting new info here, but be careful of the conclusions you draw (￢з￢)
I’m sorry I couldn’t get this chapter out a few days ago, I really tried! I wanted to post on my birthday but there was a lot going on, lol, so it’s a little late, but here it is. In celebration of my Taurus ass date of birth, tell me, what’s been your favorite parts of the story so far? What’s been the worse? Are you ready for the final thirty-one chapters?
I cannot wait to get to this sequel, let me tell ya!
Anyway, please do not forget to review! It helps the story pull in new readers! :) and I kinda, sorta, completely, totally, absolutely love reading feedback. It really keeps me going!
Done here.
Laters
Sessakag~
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