Chapter 11: The strenght of the Hakurei clan
Capturing Nue at all cost
...
(Third person Pov)
A man with a bamboo hat was seen carrying fishing equipment on his back.
He was walking inside a forest, his destination was the nearby lake where he lived.
This man was from the land of tea.
It was a normal day for him. He was going to catch some fish, go back home, cook the fish for himself and his family, go out for work, and when the food at his home ran out, he was going to repeat this process all over again.
It was a modest life in a world full of bloodshed.
As he arrived at the beautiful lake, he saw something new, something that normally didn't happen often.
There was someone else fishing at the lake.
He became surprised for a second but shrugged it off immediately. This lake was not known for attracting many people because there was a ninja outpost nearby. They feared attracting bad attention from a ninja nearby.
The great ninja villages always tried to conquer the land of tea because of its fertile land and low military power.
But they always failed because of Konoha was protecting the land, but recently, the one taking over the land was the sand village.
At least now he had a companion to share the art of fishing. Maybe make some small talk and share stories with this person.
As he sat down near the person, he prepared his fishing equipment. While doing so, he took some glances at the person.
The person was a little girl, she had extremely pale skin, as if she had seen a ghost, but she looked just fine and healthy.
She had a yellow shirt with some dark green parts, a bright green skirt, and a black hat with a yellow ribbon on it.
The most noticeable features in her were the bright green eyes and short gray hair, as if the ashes of burned buildings had permanently stained her hair.
But there was something very uncanny about her. It was not just the extremely pale skin, but the strange purple rope floating around her, all of it connected to a purple ball that had stitches at its center.
The man was left uneasy by these things. Maybe the girl was a ninja, but she didn't wear any headband. Maybe she wore these things to make her more unique?
But at this point, he didn't care. He was here to catch fish, not to discover the identity of this girl.
He prepared the fishing rod and started fishing, the girl already doing the same.
He decided to make some small talk.
"Hey little girl, what are you doing here in this part of the woods? It's near the village but it's still dangerous to be around here."
"Oh mister, I'm just here to relax after a long day of work, and I'm confident in my strength to beat anyone, so don't worry! Hehe..." she said to the man, who slightly shook his head with a wry smile.
He looked at her fishing rod for a moment and noticed something interesting.
The fishing rod was completely white, it had various sections to make it stand straight, it looked like bones for some reason.
And there was a colorful rope connecting it all together. It had black, brown, and yellow parts on it, as if the girl had collected the hair of many people to make this.
He tried to ignore these details for the moment, not wanting to get caught in something dangerous.
"So why do you like fishing? It isn't a common hobby for a girl."
"Well mister, I just like fishing because it's relaxing, there's no special reason for it. Oh yeah! The reason I am at this lake is because I saw in the Bunbunmaru Newspaper, in the gossips section, that there is a legend about a fish with a human face living here!
I want to catch it and show all my friends and my sister that I'm a legendary fisherman! The catcher of legends, the one who makes fish tremble when they hear my name, the legendary Koishi Hakurei!"
"Oh that! I saw it too, but sorry to burst your bubble, but that legend is probably fake. I've known this lake since I was little, but I never heard this legend before."
"Uh...but I still need to try! I'll never be a true fisherman if I give up midway, my motto is 'I'll never give up!' and I plan to stay that way! Or was it 'I am the enemy's nightmare'...
But anyway...can mister be a little optimistic? I'm sure it exists...I just need to catch it...or create it myself."
Just for a second, the world around him turned red, with everything around him showing dead bodies, there were more than 50 of them.
All these bodies had their faces removed, limbs ripped apart and bloody hair scattered around the ground.
There were even bodies floating in the lake.
And the most noticeable things in that single second he saw, were the various failed makeshift fishing rods, and the fish floating dead in the lake with ripped human faces glued to them...
The scene changed again.
Back to the peaceful lake, like what just happened was just a hallucination of his mind.
But the man was sweating buckets at the moment, he didn't scream, nor run away.
He just continued fishing, afraid that even the slightest violent movement might earn him a one-way ticket to the pure lands.
So, in deadly silence, 1 hour and a half passed.
He caught 8 fish, while the girl was still fishing, she had a frustrated face at this point.
Just as he started to get up to leave this place, a beeping sound came from the girl's hat.
"Huh? I am on my break at this moment, what do they want?" said Koishi, who was cutely pouting in frustration.
She put her fishing rod to the side and took off her hat, then she started to search for something inside the hat.
Then she took out a mechanical device, which was beeping a lot and flashing red and white.
When Koishi saw the lights, her face froze, no longer pouting in frustration, but a macabre smile slowly spreading on her face.
Just standing there, doing nothing while looking at the mechanical device.
"..."
The sound telephone rang, it was very low at first, but after a few seconds, the sound became unbearable, as if it would burst his ear at any moment.
She slowly turned her head to him, staring right into his soul.
Then she suddenly disappeared into thin air
.
The man just stared at the place Koishi was before, then for some reason, he could feel a cold metallic sensation in his head, and his vision slowly divided in half.
Until half of his face fell onto the ground...
That day, the man went missing, along with a destroyed sand ninja base.
================
"One more ramen, please, kind sir~"
A mature woman was sitting at a small ramen booth. It was the recently created Ramen Ichiraku, the owner being a young man at least in his twenties and the chef at the same time.
She was clearly enjoying the ramen.
"No problem, Hakurei-sama! It's an honor to have such an important person from the Hakurei clan wanting to eat at my humble ramen booth!"
"Oh, please, you flatter me too much! And don't downplay your ramen booth, Teuchi-san! Even though it's small and at the moment not well known, its food is one of the best I have eaten so far! Far better than the more popular restaurants, even surpassing Yakiniku Q in terms of food quality! I'm sure you are going to become super popular one day fufufu~!"
Said the woman, who was looking at the man like she had found a treasure trove.
The mature woman had a noble appearance, with purple eyes and long blonde hair. She wore a deep purple dress, a pale pink mob cap with a thin red ribbon and a smaller ribbon tied liberally on her accessories and the tips of her long white gloves, and purple shoes.
A neatly folded umbrella was next to her, standing still while being supported by a chair.
"And please, you don't actually need to use honorifics towards me, kind sir. You can call me Yukari or Yukari-sama if you want~"
"Well, if you insist, Yukari-sama. It's just that I have a deep respect for you. You probably don't know, but you saved my family on the Mother's Wrath Day with your space-time ninjutsu. Various people in the village are in debt to you."
"Well, it was my duty to protect the village we all love, but it's a shame really... one of our past clan leaders was actually alive even after a near hundred years had passed, and she revealed herself to Konoha as an enemy..."
She started to reminisce about that day. It all started like any peaceful day in Konoha until she came out of nowhere in the sky, bringing along an army of winged people, saying that Konoha had killed her precious son and she came back to purify Konoha's darkness.
Several ninjas of all classes died, and even extremely important people of the Hokage faction died too.
Heck, even one clan went extinct, and another clan almost had the same fate. At least now that clan has managed to repopulate to 100 people in 3 years after the war ended
All of that ruined the reputation of the Hakurei clan. Before, they were treated with respect like the Ino-Shika-Chou clan and the Hyuga, but now, they are treated like the Uchiha or maybe even worse.
The only reason that Konoha had not been destroyed was because of Reimu Hakurei managing to repel the woman and killing a lot of her army, and the unique abilities of the ninjas of the Hakurei clan rescuing a lot of civilians and killing the woman's forces left and right.
Now all of Konoha deeply fears the Hakurei clan because of the potential that they have, and they aren't like the Uchiha who have only one of the most powerful kekkei genkai that have been studied to the last centimeter just to counter them.
They have multiple ninjas all with unique abilities, almost making it impossible to counter the Hakurei clan if they decide to rebel against Konoha.
So they left them alone, not lowering the clan's prestige in the village but just staying the same, not changing one bit just to make them not think of rebelling against Konoha.
Because they know that disaster will happen if the Hakurei clan does a coup.
They know that they have powerful ninjas in their clan, like Shion, who put the fear of god into Amegakure after the Sannins' defeat. Hanzo was an extremely powerful ninja who managed to defeat the legendary Sannins, but Hanzo turned into a plaything in Shion's hands full of calamity.
Sure, Hanzo totally outclassed her in skills and strength, but when it comes to power, Shion is just a straight-up living natural disaster because of her Akuma genkai.
And the only reason a new ninja war didn't happen was that the others ninja villages feared the Hakurei clan too.
The Hakurei clan was just too strong by the standards of the ninja world.
All of the ninjas of the Hakurei clan even gained the title of "the devil spawns."
"Truly a shame that after the battle we will never have a peaceful coexistence with Konoha now..."
"Hey, at least let's look on the positive side, a new ninja war didn't happen by the greed of the other villages immediatly after the battle ended, making a third ninja war.
And who knows, maybe something will appear out of nowhere and force us to unite and coexist like a family against a new threat.
Oh, here is your ramen!"
After saying this, he gave his iconic delicious ramen to Yukari, who let the steam of the ramen hit her face, leaving a good smell and making her stomach rumble.
"Fufufu~ who knows... itadakimasu!"
Just as she was about to eat, a beeping sound came from somewhere.
She frowned upon hearing that sound, this was the second time this specifically type of light happened
The first was the mother wrath day
And now this...
she stopped eating and waved her hand slightly in the air.
Instantly, a gap in space appeared in the air. It had multiple red eyes inside it and two bowties at the end part.
A mechanical device got out of the gap, she rapidly caught it and opened her hand to see what was so important to interrupt her lunch.
When she saw the light and red lights, she had a calm face, not caring at all about what was happening in Gensokyo.
She opened a gap again and sent the mechanical device through it.
She turned her attention back to the ramen and started eating, as if an extremely important situation wasn't happening at the moment.
"Sorry to interrupt, but...what was that?"
"Oh, nothing important to me! It will probably be solved quickly. Anyways, can you get 5 more ramen ready for me?"
The man just shrugged and turned his attention back to the kitchen, ready to serve more to Yukari.
But Yukari was a bit worried about what was happening, so she just waved her hand again and various gaps opened all around Gensokyo, serving as her eyes to watch everything happening in Gensokyo...
================
'Beep beep beep'
"Hmm?"
In a dimly lit cave, an old man who was sitting on a throne woke up to the sound of the mechanical device.
The old man opened his eyes, eyes full of wisdom and untold history, but at the same time, they were full of tiredness and worry.
He slowly turned his head to a white creature that was just silently standing still.
Without even talking to the creature, the white creature slowly started to walk towards the direction of the beeping sound.
The white creature found a little dirty bag on the ground, the being took the bag and opened it. The creature took out the mechanical device, which was shining brightly in the colors red and white.
The whole cave was lit up by the white and red colors, fully showing the old man's body.
He had various tubes in his back, all of them connected to the giant plant in the back. He was wearing an old dark blue cloak, the old man was holding a black sword to support himself and his face was extremely old, as if he was going to turn to dust at any moment.
When the old man saw the lights, he immediately frowned, knowing very well what could have happened to send this emergency signal.
He got up from his throne and hastily turned around and swung the black sword at the tubes attached to his back, removing them in the process.
Various white creatures appeared when he got up, all of them kneeling down, waiting for his command.
"Zetsus...the plans have changed, the demon of the ninja world probably have been awakened."
"Lord Madara, what is your order?"
"Prepare the 'ascension'...."
With that, all the Zetsus got up and sank into the ground.
Suddenly, the ground started to rumble and a set of spiral stairs appeared.
He started going down the long and tedious spiral stairs, reflecting on his past.
~Curse you, woman... I like gaining power in my way instead of free handouts like you always do...but alas, it seems I will have to use 'gift' to defeat the demon and have my plans go back on track...~
After a long time, he finally arrived at a massive metal door with various protection seals.
He stood atop a unique platform that looked like the combination of the Uchiha symbol and the Hakurei symbol mashed together, and he started making hand signs in a certain order and other gestures to make the door open.
'Sigh...'
~In a certain way, you were right, Hashirama. We both were needed to stay alive if something extremely bad happened, but your brother and that sudden disease had to ruin everything.~
He remembered his relationship with Hashirama.
Since he was a child, he always had a strange obsession with the demon of the ninja world, always thinking that the demon would get out of his imprisonment and wreak havoc on the world.
The Uchiha always said he was paranoid about the demon, saying he didn't need to worry because the Hakurei clan already guarded the prison to handle the demon if it awakened.
But he knew something the others didn't. It was more of a gut feeling, but a feeling he trusted heavily, that the powers the Hakureis have is something that should not exist, something created by the demon.
He didnt trust the Hakurei clan at all in guarding the seal
He was started to think that in the future, he alone would have to face the demon in the future
Until he met Hashirama, that fool understood completely his paranoia about the demon and the Hakurei clan's powers.
His brother didn't understand either of them, but it didn't matter, he and Hashirama were brothers in arms, any formidable foe that appeared was always quickly defeated by them.
There was another person in the group as well, a woman from the Hakurei clan.
She was a childhood friend, just like Hashirama, but he didn't get as attached. Heck, he even bullied her a little because of her Hakurei lineage, but it was not serious at all, just some mean words and no physical bullying.
But after Konoha was created, she suddenly vanished from the face of the earth, not leaving any clue about her whereabouts.
But it didn't matter, in a few years, everything became perfect for the village and his people. He was happy, his clan was happy, the village was happy, his... brother was happy.
Until he read the Uchiha ancient tablet.
Sometimes he wonders what would have happened if he hadn't taken the path that many consider madness, but it was something he didn't regret at all.
The only regret he has is the final battle, the Valley of the End.
When he was defeated, Hashirama spared him, not out of mercy or sympathy, but as a duty they both realized they had.
The duty to protect the world against the demon or something similar.
It was a really strange feeling, something that did not fit him at all. He was merciless, he did not care at all if the world would burn if it was a means to complete his goal, but it was the truth, the truth that since he and Hashirama were born, they always had a duty.
Just as he was about to say something to Hashirama, that bastard of a brother Hashirama had, Tobirama Senju, just straight up ignored his brother's mercy and stabbed him in the heart, killing him in the process...
Not really, he utilized a secret technique to save himself from the shinigami's grasp, even he had to admit that some abilities of the Sharingan were just unbelievable.
Anyway, after the battle, he went into hiding in this stupid cave to make a new plan again, because his past plans did not work at all.
Just as he was creating a plan, a Zetsu, a creature he discovered, said that Hashirama suddenly became ill with an incurable disease.
That shattered many of his plans, he was still planning to let Hashirama live, he was not really necessary in his plan of world peace, but he wanted him to still be alive until that thing awakened and was dealt with.
He did not cry for his former best friend, but his mangekyo sharingan slowly forming purple parts said everything he was feeling.
And now, here he was, an old man of a dead era, now at his final act in this life.
After making 500 hand signs, the platform shone brightly, with a deep purple color.
The massive metal door started opening up, revealing various small and massive life crystals all around the room, forming a ritual symbol.
And at the center of it, a deep purple obelisk was standing elegantly, radiating a purple aura everywhere.
Madara stood in front of the obelisk, he dropped the sword to the ground, making a thick 'thud' sound throughout the room.
He slowly started walking towards the purple crystal.
~...even though you disappeared into nothingness...~
He entered inside the crystal.
~You leave this last gift to me out of all people...do you understand the consequences of your actions?...heh, you probably do...~
He started floating in a fetal position inside the crystal and closed his eyes.
~I may not know anything about you as of right now...~
Various white Zetsus entered the room, at least 20 of them holding a black sword.
These black swords were actually the eternal rods that Nue had lost.
~I may not know your reason to trust me with this 'gift' or anything you do really...~
~You just changed too much to recognize yourself as the girl with dreams to purify the world's darkness...~
The Zetsus aimed the eternal rods directly at the center of the purple crystal.
~But I know one thing...~
The Zetsus thrust the eternal rods with all their might into the crystal.
~That I will find you and personally thank you for this gift...~
The eternal rods entered the crystal cleanly, turning the purple color to a deep crimson red that spread in all directions inside the crystal.
~Junko Hakurei~
Madara, after many decades of hiding in the shadows of the ninja world,
Finally died.
The purple obelisk turned completely red, and every life crystal around it turned into deep black crystals.
After decades, Madara died in his own way.
But his soul, which was supposed to go to the pure lands, to the land of the dead to rest for eternity, was stuck inside the crystal.
His soul was constantly being refined and purified inside the crystal, and combined with the mysterious energy from the eternal rods, he was evolving into something truly unique, something unknown.
But something unexpected was happening, inside the crystal, a chakra not from Madara was desperately trying to get out.
That chakra was Indra's chakra.
Indra's chakra was trying its best to get out of the crystal, wanting to find a new suitable host to reincarnate.
But its struggles were futile.
It stopped trying to escape, the ever-changing insides of the crystal was changing the will of the chakra.
Indra's chakra was changing into something completely different.
===============
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH..."
"WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MEEEEE AAAAAAHHHH..."
In the middle of nowhere, a teenager was screaming his lungs out.
The teenager was kneeling on the ground and holding his head in immense pain, a place in his head feeling like it would explode at any second.
The ever-perpetual rain was somehow getting wilder and wilder with each second that passed, lightning was hitting trees left and right, making a deadly and somehow beautiful sight.
It was like witnessing doomsday about to happen...or the birth of something majestic.
He didn't know why suddenly this immense...pain started. It did not even feel like pain, it felt more like a feeling, a very strong energy that was ripping him apart.
Before this happened, he just wanted to leave his two best friends to have some private time together, without him. So he just left the small cabin they lived in and waited for them to finish whatever they were doing inside the cabin.
But just as he was chilling in the rain, this immense feeling suddenly came over him.
He was too far away from the cabin for his friends to hear his bloody screams, so he was completely alone in this hellish situation.
The pain reached its peak.
Just as his voice was about to be lost forever from so much screaming...
The pain completely stopped in a second.
...
The boy just stood silently in the storm, in the same position as before, just now his arms limply hanging at his side.
Seconds passed by.
Then minutes.
Until an entire hour passed.
He raised his head towards the sky, and the storm immediately became calm, going back to the calm and relaxing rain as before.
But for some reason, all the rain in the area was going towards the boy, specifically going towards his eyes.
With rasped breaths, he whispered to himself,
"...I feel so...strange...so...powerful."
He doesn't know how or why this sudden pain happened, but he knows one thing...
Even though he is a silent person, not having an ego or anything special about his personality.
But at this moment,
He felt like an almighty GOD...