Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Prologue – Arc 2: The Daitengu

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Chapter 20: Round 2

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The Daitengu stands up on his legs and looks around. He's indeed locked at the top of this mountain, under the closed wings of the Perfect Susanoo. In front of him, Minaa, Z and Kobo come closer before Sasuke who steps back and goes next to Sana. The three ninjas who stepped forward ready their arms and legs. Kobo pulls out his swords from his back. Together they jump to Sojobo and assault him all at once.

The Daitengu's body starts to glow again and, with not much trouble, he dodges all the hits directed to him. While doing this, he notices that Tsubai and Shibata are looking at nothing else than each other, making their vision nothing of an advantage to him in this fight. "Very clever." he thinks.

The 3 ninjas, struggling to just touch their opponent, keep trying the best they can. Z decides to change his offensive tactic.

Ranton – Laser Circus

He makes a water bubble that he fills up with lightning and makes explode. The lightning bolts fly through the air like light beams aiming for Sojobo who dodges all of them. To keep their opponent's mind focused on them, Z guides his jutsu to try to hit again and many times. But the Daitengu still moves his body away of their trajectory. The Kumo-nin doesn't let go and keeps him busy with it while Minaa and Kobo still give their best with Taijutsu and Kenjutsu.

Tsubai, sitting next to Shibata on the ground, analyzes the damage taken by his fellow yamabushi. Daikoku, in his head, judges by the wounds and the way his clothes are torn apart that Sojobo wasn't the one who hurt him. Tsubai holds his hand on Shibata's shoulder to connect their minds and tengu.

"Those wounds were caused by Ryutoki, isn't it?" says Daikoku first.

"Uh? Was it your part of the plan?" asks Tsubai, who didn't know that Ryutoki was to be dealt with physically before Sojobo. "Did you fight against him?"

"I… forgot the plan." answers Shibata.

"Sojobo just took his memories." adds Tentoki. "We fought Chuji and Ryutoki, but too late."

"What do you mean?" asks Daikoku. "You didn't manage to stop his rebirth? Is he dead or alive now?"

"He was reborn unexpectedly soon. We couldn't beat him, and Sojobo absorbed him."

"Fuck! So he has Ryutoki's jutsus."

"Is it that much of a problem?" says Tsubai. "Sasuke will still beat his ass anyway, so it goes as planned…. I just have one thing left to do, while the others end it." he adds after suddenly becoming overly serious.

He looks insistingly at Tentoki, who stares back at him. The white tengu then sees Daikoku and watches as to guess what he's thinking. After a few seconds of silence, he widens his yellow eyes, and turns around to face Shibata.

"So that's the plan I came up with…" he says to his yamabushi. "Judging by your state, the current situation, the possible issues for Sojobo, and Tsubai's presence… I guess it's time to say goodbye."

"What?" asks Shibata, who has no idea what this part of the plan is.

"Tentoki is the one who planned everything." says Daikoku, respectfully staring at his elder. "There must be a good reason he chose to add this part."

"Shibata…" adds Tentoki. "Tsubai took the jutsu to absorb me from my memory. Chuji is dead, and with me gone, nothing will hold you attached to this story. You'll be able to join Kokoro in the land of Water, and resume your life as it was before you met Sojobo."

Shibata just stays silent, and stares agape at Tentoki. Then, he smiles. He knows that Tentoki is, as usual, right. Nothing else than his selfishness and feelings would keep him from accepting this freedom.

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Outside of their minds, on the top of the mountain, Sojobo still avoids every hit by Minaa, Kobo's swords and Z's lasers. With the multiple lightning beams, Z does manage to keep him focused on them only. The Daitengu keeps handling the situation but gets sick of it. His focus should be on Sasuke. Why isn't this one doing anything? Is he staying back and waiting his turn? Would the others attacking at the same time be too much of a bother for him? Stressed, Sojobo jumps up to escape Minaa and Kobo's hindrance. Z reacts by directing the lasers to follow the target.

Koton – Kosen

Sojobo shoots several actual lasers from his hand that confront, overpower and shatter Z's jutsu. When he lands back on the ground, Kobo directly comes with his swords crossed to strike him. Still using the Koton – Shunshin to reach his immeasurable speed, Sojobo stops Kobo by grabbing his wrists. He then lifts the boy up, throws him over himself and smashes him to the ground. Kobo, shaken by the speed and strength, almost faints.

Sojobo takes a step back as Minaa arrives on his left, trying to kick him away from Kobo. After failing to land this hit, she gets back on the ground and, in a feline manner, turns around on all fours before leaping back to him with long claws on her fingers. The Daitengi raises his hand and grabs all ten of her claws in one hand that he closes fiercely, and breaks them all off her fingers.

As Minaa's now unarmed in the air before him, he makes a chakra blade with his other hand, like Ryutoki used to do, and violently cuts through her chest in an instant, almost separating her in two. He hits her in the abdomen with his foot to push her away.

Minaa, on the verge of death, falls to Sana who has Sasuke standing behind her and holding her back with his only hand. Sana stops Minaa's fall by grabbing her and uses her healing Kekkei Genkai on her.

Shosen – Fukugen

Helped by Sasuke's incredible chakra, she totally heals Minaa's injuries and sends her back to battle in less than a few seconds. As soon as she's in shape again, the kunoichi of Kumo bounces back to Sojobo while gathering lightning chakra in both her hands. The Daitengu sees her coming, but is more preoccupied by Sana's presence and purpose.

So Sasuke is staying back to help her. It's true that her jutsu didn't work this fast and well when she healed Kobo, so Sasuke keeps his distance from the fight and simply makes sure the others battle for as long as possible. Does he want to wear him out before finishing him off? Sojobo has no intention to wait and see for the answer to this question. He simply steps aside to dodge Minaa who's coming to strike him.

Minaa misses him and falls in Z's direction. While avoiding any harm, Z catches her in his arms and puts all his strength in his legs not to fall back due to her speed. Minaa makes a surprised face for a moment, then smiles and winks at him. Z stares at her lying in his arms, blushes, and turns his head to look away, hiding her body from his eyes and his blushing face from hers.

Sojobo decides to kill the medic first and runs to Sana. But before reaching her, he raises a finger and shoots a laser over her shoulder to hit Sasuke. He touches him, but the Uchiha vanishes in a gas cloud. It was only a clone. Not taking his time to think about this, he sees the defenseless young girl before him and holds out to catch her.

Ameno Tejikara

She switches places with… black flames! The real Sasuke must be standing nearby and is the one who just did this. Sojobo can't stop soon enough and accidentally touches the flames with his right hand, which immediately catches fire. The flames quickly crawl up his arm. Sojobo remembers his last encounter with this jutsu and thinks of the severe burning marks that he still has on his back. He has no other choice but to stop the fire from spreading. He hurries to make a chakra blade on his left arm and cuts Inosawa's right arm off. The burning limb falls to the ground.

Jinton – Genkai Hakuri

With the Third Tsuchikage's jutsu, he makes a white cube that contains the flames of Amaterasu and his burning arm, and dismantles them both to completely undo the fire. The real Sasuke, who was hiding with Genjutsu, stands by Sana's sides next to Tsubai and Shibata a few dozens of meters away. He sees Sojobo using this jutsu and getting rid of his Amaterasu. He guesses that Chuji's tengu reached its maturity. This means that their opponent must be stronger than the last time they met.

Good grief… He's seen enough. He'll soon have to join the battle anyway, but he'll have to limit himself, not to hurt the others. Sojobo turns his head to Tsubai and sees the real Sasuke standing there with the young medic-nin. He has a quick stare down with the Uchiha on the other end of the battlefield, unaffected by his dojutsu. He pulls out two chakra wings and opens them wide.

Hane Ame (Feather Rain)

He shoots numerous feather blades from his wings to everyone standing before him. Minaa and Z, who are the closest to him, lean down and hold their hands to the ground together.

Raiton – Raijin Heki / Suiton – Suiryu Heki

Z makes a water wall emerge from the ground. Minaa makes a lightning barrier. The two jutsus combine and cover them and everybody behind from the feather rain. It stops all the blades by slowing them down enough as they pass through. Once all the feathers are done coming, the duo stops holding the jutsu and stand up from the ground, only to see that Sojobo has already vanished. Prepared, Minaa and Z position each other back to back and scrutinize the area to find him.

Mutai – Shogai

The ground under their feet goes liquid for a second, making them sink in, and abruptly goes solid again, imprisoning their feet. Sojobo swims outstandingly out of the ground a few meters away from them. He raises his hands again and uses the same jutsu as earlier.

Jinton – Genkai Hakuri

A white cube appears around Minaa and Z.

Ameno Tejikara

Before it glows up and erases everything inside, Sasuke switches place with Z and absorbs the jutsu in his rinnegan. However, he's now stuck in the ground next to Minaa with Sojobo, one-armed but free, before them. To help them, Kobo sneaks in Inosawa's back and tries to slice him with both his swords in the back. But thanks to Kasha's super hearing that he also has, Sojobo hears the young Uchiha approaching and reacts in time. He turns around and blocks the sword with claws. While he blocks Kobo, Minaa and Sasuke take advantage of the distraction to break out of the ground.

Chidori Nagashi / Raigeki Modo

They use different jutsus, but both surround their body with lightning and shatter the rock holding their feet. Sojobo hears the lightning behind him and pushes Kobo and his sword back with his claws. He's now surrounded by Minaa and the two Uchihas, ready to come and beat him. It's the same situation as sooner, but Sasuke took Z's place, which makes a great difference.

Sojobo wants to avoid this and simply stops moving. The three Karasu members step forward to him together with killing intent. To strike first, Kobo throws one of his swords to Sojobo who stays still. The sword disassembles into atoms when it gets too close. The three of them stop going forward when they see this. Minaa and Kobo make unsettled faces, not understanding what happened, but sure that something dangerous is happening.

Sasuke, with his Rinnegan, sees the chakra flow around Inosawa's body and understands what he's doing. Just another Jinton jutsu. Nothing he can't absorb. He raises his hand and opens his left eye wide. Sojobo sees him and understands what he intends to do.

Unwilling to let him do, He slightly moves, undoing the barrier, and emanates a chakra repulsion just like Ryutoki when he escaped Ritoru's mud trap. The repulsion is far more powerful than the past example, and blows Kobo and Minaa away. Sasuke, however, is not pushed back. He stands his ground and endures it. Sojobo makes a shocked face when he sees the determined face of the Rinnegan user. Sasuke draws his sword and steps forward, opposing the push, to slice Sojobo who reacts quick enough with his claws again.

The two battle beasts confront their hits and weapons for a good minute while all the others just watch and witness the two beings going way too strong and fast for them to even understand. Only Kobo manages to follow a bit of the action with his Sharingan. Unlike during their battle in the land of Rivers, the Daitengu seems to have the upper hand this time, despite his lost limb. While exchanging blows with him, Sasuke takes note of his opponent having grown even faster than before. He must have received an increase in chakra and performance too.

This should mean that Shibata failed to kill Chuji, as he ad promised he'd do, and that Sojobo absorbed him, taking his chakra additionally to his abilities. Sasuke gets worried about the speed difference. Handling him is becoming complicated. But if they don't kill him in the next two weeks, it'll become far more difficult.

Sick of spectating, Minaa is waiting the right time to jump in. While they're still trading hits, Sojobo grabs Sasuke's sword between his claws and disarms him. Feeling in danger, Sasuke takes a step back. Sojobo throws his sword aside and sees a surprised and worried look on the Uchiha's face. This pleases him. He raises his hand, ready to scratch his enemy's face off, but is interrupted.

Minaa saw Sasuke stepping back and took it as the right moment to get in. She surrounded herself with thicker lightning and strengthened her Lightning Strike Mode. Additionally to the lightning aura, she now has cat-ear shaped thunderbolts on her head and has the few clothes she had partially shattering under the armor's strength. She jumps to the Daitengu while he's focused on Sasuke and lands a headbutt in his ribs. Sojobo, unprepared, is surprised by the attack, feels Inosawa's ribs almost breaking and is pushed against the Susanoo's closed wing, many meters away.

Sasuke looks at Minaa's Raigeki Mode, with the lightning revolving around her and managing to hide her intimate parts. This jutsu greatly improves her speed and strength. He hadn't seen her use this version of it before. Anyway, Sasuke's attention goes back to Sojobo, who's slowly standing up. The Uchiha wanderer sees Kobo and Z both preparing a jutsu. He briefly exchanges a gaze with Z who nods his head, to indicate he's ready to strike. Sasuke decides to make Kobo and Z attack together.

Bansho Ten'in

He destabilizes and attracts Sojobo to him and between Kobo and Z.

Katon – Gokakyu / Ranton – Denki Mizurappa

Kobo throws a fireball toward Z, and Z throws a lightning wave moving like water to Kobo. The two jutsus collide with Sojobo in-between, brought there by Sasuke's pull. Still processing the pain of Minaa's headbutt, he's struck by both jutsus, and gets burned, shocked and drowned all at once.

The members of Karasu look at the aftermath and wait for the collision to stop and the jutsus to dissipate. When they do, they discover a severely damaged Inosawa Yamanaka. None of them moves, unsure of if their opponent will manage to remain standing. He slowly looks around and makes an angry face. He violently turns to Sana, who's just next to Tsubai, Shibata and a new Sasuke clone.

Jinton – Tengudama Hakuri

In an instant he raises his hand and immediately fires a Jinton chakra orb to the young medic-girl. The first and only person who has time to react is Sasuke's clone who uses his visual prowess to switch with her and take the hit instead. Even with this few time used to charge it, the orb still erases the clone's whole body, and doesn't stop there. It bursts forth to the Susanoo used as a barrier and passes through, piercing a human-sized hole in it.

Sojobo sees the breach and makes a hyped face. Sasuke notices it and forms a lightning sword on his hand. Sojobo turns to him. For a small second they gaze at each other, like two cow-boys trying to guess who'll draw first. Sasuke does.

"TSUBAI!" screams the Uchiha, to get his friend's attention.

He hurries to his target who raises its only remaining hand to make a hand sign, the single one he needs to freeze time and space. Sojobo also slightly move his body aside to try to avoid Sasuke's strike, but can't completely escape it. Sasuke, determined to stop his target before his jutsus activates, blitzes through the Daitengu and slices his abdomen open. But he wasn't efficient enough.

Jikanteido

Time stops. Sojobo falls down with his belly open, but still lives. He looks around and racks his brain to think only of what is the priority. Pressured by his state, he chooses to run to Tsubai and Shibata. To his surprise, he sees Tsubai holding a two handed seal and able to move.

The Minamoto hurries to stand up, but before he can, he's kicked away by Sojobo, who grabs Shibata by the collar and hurries through the hole. He thinks that along managing to flee, he can also manage to get Tentoki. Time stopped moving for only a second and Sojobo is already far away with Shibata.

Tsubai stands up and repeats the hand sign to undo the time freeze.

"Damn it!" yells Sasuke, who saw the Daitengu get away from him with his rinnegan, frustrated by this event. "All this for nothing!"

"Calm down, Sasuke." says Z. "We still have more than enough time to find and kill him. Look, he's all worn out and wounded. He's barely alive now."

"… Still, How do we find him now, Shibata?" asks Sasuke who turns to Tsubai and sees that Shibata has disappeared.

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In not even a minute, Sojobo carried Shibata so far away with Inosawa's severed body that he's now running away on the ocean toward the land of Lightning. But he suddenly stops when he notices an important problem. Through Tentoki's eyes, he isn't seeing Shibata inner-world.

"You won't get anything from me!" says Shibata, still all beat up and incapacitated due to his last fight.

Sojobo looks at him and concentrates for a moment. Through Daikoku's eyes, he sees Tsubai… And Tentoki. He was so focused and occupied by his battle against Karasu that he didn't even notice that Tsubai took Tentoki in his body. He turns back to the mountain that he can still see a bit in the distance, but doesn't move. It would be hopeless to try anything more now. His body is way too damaged to attempt anything.

"AHHH! Curse You Indra!" he screams in anger.

"So you're seeing it uh? Your end." says Shibata, to mess with the Daitengu.

Sojobo turns his head and looks at the traitor.

"This body won't be of any help in a fight, but you're stuck in it." adds Shibata. "Kokoro and the last tengu that you need to reach your goal are safe in Kiri. In this state, you can't go to retrieve her."

Sojobo doesn't say anything and lets Shibata explain his plan. The Kiri-nin straightens his face and gives a serious look, even slowly starting to smile.

"Now, all you can do is wait and hide. Since you can't get Kokoro closer to your chakra, you'll have to wait the longest possible time. And I doubt that you'll survive 2 more weeks with Sasuke Uchiha after you."

"HmHm!" Sojobo quietly grins at these last words, but can't contain his laugh. "Hahahaha! Excuse me, Shibata. What did you just say? 2 weeks?"

Shibata loses his confidence, and makes a confused and frightened face. Sojobo drops him in the water and watches him floating there, waiting for more details.

"You can't be that stupid, are you? Coming from Tentoki, my smartest child, I'm disappointed." says the Daitengu. "Do you really think I trusted you at any point. I COULD SEE WHAT YOU SEE, and this from the beginning. There's no way I would trust you enough to give you such information. Why do you think that Ryutoki's rebirth happened so early compared to what I told you?"

"You mean…"

"BECAUSE I LIED! Two weeks? I'd never survive two more weeks… Oh I'm so glad you told it this way to Indra. You want to know how long I really have before Kawahime's rebirth, and consequently, my pinnacle?"

Before even hearing the answer, Shibata already lost all hope. If Sasuke goes after his words, they won't kill him in time. He did all he could, but the Daitengu always was a step ahead. It's over. Sojobo bends over him and looks straight into his eyes, before crushing his soul with only two words.

"Two days." he dramatically says. "Will Karasu take my life within two days? What do you think?"

Shibata doesn't answer. Sojobo stands up and catches his breath, still exhausted by the battle. Looking at Shibata, he point his remaining hand at him and forms a Jinton orb.

"With Tentoki having left your body, there's no point in keeping you alive anymore. Farewell then… I just want you to know… that it could have been different."

Jinton – Genkai Hakuri

He extends the jutsu into a pillar that passes through Shibata's chest, turning his heart to dust and completely erasing it. The Daitengu then turns around and walks away.

As his lifeless body sinks to the end of the ocean, Shibata feels his consciousness fainting and is hardly able to think anymore. Of the few time he still has to think, to feel, to live, he chooses to remind himself one last time of Kokoro. The young girl that followed him in his plan. He'll never be able to fulfill his promise… to reunite with her after they're done with Sojobo, to return to his previous life in Kiri with her…

He closes his eyes, that he'll never open again, and sinks down to a place that his body will never leave.

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End of Chapter 20 – Next chapter: The Mermaid Prophet