NOVEL NEXT Chapter 69
Not much longer ‘til Sasuke and the others arrive… I need to keep Menma off of Naruto for the time being. Jin analyzes the situation as he throws his jutsu at the Ten-Tails.
“Crystal Style: Burst Crystal Falling Dragon!” Rito shouts, hurling a large crystalline dragon at the Ten-Tails.
Ayanami as well as Naruto throw their own jutsu at the behemoth who is at the bottom of the giant pit, many other ninja are also launching various other long range jutsu of their own. The Alliance’s target isn’t necessarily the Ten-Tails, but the three Rinnegan wielders standing on its head; Madara, Menma, and Obito all appear to be quite calm given their current position.
The multitude of long-range ninjutsu have traveled only about halfway down the pit when the Ten-Tails finally reacts; its tails all simultaneously bristle, causing numerous cracks in the quicklime cement. Suddenly, the tails change, growing hands at the end of each tail; the tails blast out of the pit, disrupting all of the jutsu thrown at it, and knocking all of the alliance ninjas out and away from the hole.
I need to have my Susano’o ready for this part… Jin quickly recovers and lands, his Rinnegan changing from their usual purple to a red hue.
A golden yellow aura of chakra erupts from Jin’s body, surrounding him. A skeletal arm grows from out of the aura and raises itself into the sky, catching Rito as he is sent flying overhead due to the Ten-Tails' transformation.
The behemoth eerily claws its way out of the giant hole with a new appearance, taking the shape of an emaciated humanoid with elongated limbs and a twisting neck. It now possesses visible legs, which it presently uses along with its right arm to stand, as its left arm is now missing from the elbow down. The beast's head was altered greatly, as its eye remained on the front of its head, it grew a single ear on the right side, and its mouth--which now contained straight teeth and bore a grin--moved to the left side, with a single triangular nostril appearing above it. Several horns formed on various parts on its head: two above each side of its face, two beneath its eye, and another below its ear.
“Let’s show them… WHAT DESPAIR IS!!” Obito shouts from the behemoth’s head.
The Ten-Tails lurches back for a moment and opens its mouth, amassing chakra for a Tailed Beast Bomb. Kitsuchi immediately performs the Earth Style: Mobile core jutsu; the ground under one of the Ten-Tails’ feet swiftly changes elevation, throwing the behemoth’s aim off. The dense sphere is sent hurtling several mountain ranges away, the explosion in the distance is so massive that even the shinobi without visual prowess of any kind can see quite clearly.
That’s one, gotta time this JUST right… Jin’s Susano'o develops its full skeletal form, focusing both sage chakra and gelel energy into its right hand.
The Ten Tails recovers and gathers more chakra, firing another Tailed Beast Bomb; the recoil causes it to clumsily fall flat on its back. It even fires another bomb while still on its back, the behemoth slowly gets back on all-threes and fires one more Tailed Beast Bomb.
…I gotcha in my sights, bitch! An urgent Jin along with his Susano'o turn around, quickly. “Susano’o: Lightning Style Gelel Rasenshuriken!”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Th-This… This is…?!” The mist ninja, Ao senses through the Sensing Water Sphere what is coming.
“What is it, Lord Ao?” Inoichi asks, calmly.
Realizing this is the end, Ao tries to keep himself calm and collected before speaking, a drop of sweat runs down his brow.
“Please… listen to me calm--HUH?!” Ao is overcome with a mix of surprise and relief.
The danger had passed, the Tailed Beast Bomb that was headed right for them was intercepted by another powerful jutsu. Both were knocked into the stratosphere and detonated safely with no casualties of any kind.
Intrigued, Shikaku asks, “Well, what is it? What happ–”
“I just saved all your asses--THAT’S what happened!” Jin telepathically communicates with the Mind Transmission jutsu, his mental voice is loud and reeks of pride. “AHA HA HA HA HA HA!!!”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“That felt GREAT!” Jin cheers in satisfaction.
“No need to get a swelled head about it.” Rito jeers, sarcastically; he jokingly elbows his friend.
“Having fun?” Echo asks, appearing behind the two.
“A blast! And uh… where the hell have you been?”
Walking up from behind Echo is Mecha-Naruto, the robotic duplicate stands at the ready--gunning for a fight.
“As you can see, I’ve repaired Mecha.” Echo gestures toward the machine.
Their brief moment ends as everyone’s focus immediately shifts back on the Ten-Tails as it is up to something. All of the behemoth’s tails reach to the sky in an arc-like manner with the hands at the end of each tail facing the Ninja Alliance forces. Rows and rows of wooden spikes slowly grow out of the beast’s many palms and fingers; to Jin, Echo, and Rito, the sight before them looks like there are several cacti shaped like hands.
“WOOD STYLE: CUTTING SPRIGS JUTSU!”
The countless rows of spikes rain down upon the Allied Shinobi Forces, killing many.
“”””””AAGGHH!!!””””””
“”””””UWAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!””””””
“”””””URRRRRGHAAAAAAHHHH!!””””””
Many ninja from numerous villages, men and women, the young and the old scream in agony as they are skewered and mangled by the shower of spikes; their collective spilt blood soaks the scarred ground, painting it scarlet red. Jin has to block it all out as he knows that if he looks back, he’ll have another panic attack.
Jin quickly pours more of his chakra into his Susano’o to the point that the ethereal avatar is covered in armor and grows a shield on its left arm. The Susano’o quickly raises its shield and braces itself, blocking numerous wooden spikes. Rito erects a giant wall of crystal for an added layer of defense; coincidentally, a number of shinobi are saved as they just so happened to be standing directly behind Jin’s Susano’o.
“Jin, you alright?” Rito asks with concern as he notices both of Jin’s eyes twitching.
Jin winces, “Ngh…! Whenever I use this, everything hurts. It’s like every cell in my body is on fire, electrocuted, and has acid being poured on them.”
Rito is taken aback. “That sounds a lot like the gympie-gympie… only worse!”
As Jin watches Naruto step forward and throw several Rasenshurikens, he senses a chakra signature appear directly below him; Jin is intimately familiar with this signature. The Onikage smiles in elation as a black, viscous liquid gushes from the ground at Jin’s feet.
“Looks like just--*burp* …in the nick of time.” The puddle of black liquid eerily rises to eye level.
It forms two large red eyes and a large smile filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth. The black mass then forms a pair of slender arms and legs; the creature gets down on one knee, kneeling in reverence.
Shrugging, Jin quips, “Well, Mileena… A couple of minutes ago wouldn’t have been so bad either…”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Sage Art: Eight Trigrams Air Wall Palm!”
Using both hands, Ayanami sends out a powerful wave of compressed sage chakra from her palms with great force, destroying a wave of wooden spikes and protecting a number of alliance ninja.
The kunoichi notices the Hyuga clan head, Hiashi knocks back one of the Ten-Tails’ hands; the young lady bolts in the direction of Naruto, she runs as fast as her legs can carry her. She remembers what Jin showed her in his own memories about what happens now and what will be many years later, this knowledge only fuels her desire to change the fates of those closest to her.
As she gets closer, Ayanami can see Hinata jumping in front of Naruto to shield him from a focused wave of oncoming spikes. Blood begins to roar in Ayanami’s ears as she starts building up her chakra.
Ayanami urgently weaves the snake hand sign. “Sage Art: Wood Style…!”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With his Byakugan activated, Neji can see which spikes are going to pierce Hinata. The prodigal member of the branch family jumps in-between Hinata and the oncoming spikes. Neji braces himself, he closes his eyes and waits for the end.
However, something unexpected occurs; he continues to wait and wait, yet nothing happens. Neji opens his eyes and looks back and sees Ayanami standing behind him with a five foot thick wooden dome wall standing strong in front of her. The wall stretches twelve feet tall and six feet wide.
Both surprised and confused, all Neji can think is, Ayanami?!
“Oh my, that was close…!” A desperate Ayanami exhales; she slowly starts calming down.
The leaf kunoichi turns to face her fellow clansman and starts walking toward him, he can see her holding his forehead protector which was knocked off by a prior spike. Ayanami stands face-to-face with Neji, her warm hand pressing against his forehead; she wears a look of compassion mixed with determination.
“Ayanami? What’re yo–”
“I WAS going to do this when I had absolute respect and renown from the whole clan…” Ayanami interrupts, her hand still firmly on Neji’s forehead. “...But NOW? I realize that I should’ve done this much sooner--consequences be damned…”
“?!” Neji gasps.
Ayanami weaves a sign with the hand that is holding his headband, she injects her chakra into Neji with the hand that is still on his forehead. She removes her hand and shows Neji his headband, he can see his reflection in the metal plate. His eyes widen; his face is covered in sweat and dirt, a few scrapes and bruises, but what truly surprises him is that there is nothing on his forehead. The curse mark that plagued the branch family, the same mark that was placed on Neji when he was four years old, was gone.
“Our clan has a number of in-house policies that I never agreed with. This is the one I detest the most.” A smiling Ayanami explains herself, handing Neji back his forehead protector.
“I-I… I don’t know what to say…” A singular tear runs down Neji’s face as he looks on at Ayanami with hope in his eyes; he takes back his headband and puts it back on with renewed vigor.
Ayanami continues to hold out her hand, welcomingly. “I decree that there are no more main and side branch families. From now on we are all simply, ‘Hyuga’. Will you fight at my side, Neji?”
With new found morale, Neji takes her hand. “I will.”
“And so will I.” Hinata adds, listening to Neji and Ayanami’s conversation.