Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Prologue – Arc 2: The Daitengu

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Chapter 24 – The Curse of Time Part II

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On this empty land, on this strange planet, in this distant dimension that once belonged to Kaguya Otsutsuki, The Perfect Susanoo of Sasuke Uchiha is bent over, holding the sword it just crashed onto the land to redraw the horizon.

Out of the large dust cloud lifted by the swift and strength of this attack, several clones of Naruto Uzumaki jump out, as to observe the scenery from a clearer perspective. Sasuke stands in his colossal avatar, and looks down at the settling dust, waiting to see the aftermath of this offensive. He felt his sword touch the target. The Daitengu was hit directly by the ethereal blade. It is the first time since his fight with Naruto that Sasuke uses this much power, enough to easily obliterate the capital or Konoha and the surroundings.

With now a clear enough view, the wandering Uchiha sees his two partners in this fight, Naruto and Kobo, recovering from the surprise he caused, and waiting like him to see what happened to the enemy.

Sojobo is standing straight under the blade that isn't even touching the ground. He was struck right in the left shoulder, however the sword went no more than 2 centimeters deep in his flesh (or whatever serves as muscles in this creature's body). Naruto and Kobo look astonished at him standing and see the minor wound caused by this major offensive. Sojobo stares at his own shoulder and thinks. He can see and feel his shell cut open and his other layers of skin damaged underneath, but it doesn't hurt. He deduces that this original form of his is unable of feeling pain.

Sasuke is pissed off by the little damage he did, but is still relieved as it confirms that Sojobo isn't unbreakable. Kobo sees Sasuke in the very far distance with his sharingan and guesses what he's thinking from the look on his face. He turns back to see Sojobo who's still distracted by his wound, and then to Naruto next to him.

"Sir, let's keep trying." he says while holding his hand over for Naruto.

Naruto doesn't answer and grabs it. A clone also takes the original's hand and tosses them both in Sojobo's direction. As they fly toward him, Naruto throws the young Uchiha forward for him to reach the target first. The Daitengu easily lifts the purple colossal sword a few centimeters up from his shoulder and lets it fall to the ground. Before it hits, the Susanoo lifts it up to its body again.

While his face and both his eyes are turned toward Sasuke, Sojobo's third eye focuses on Kobo who's coming closer. The Daitengu simply steps a bit aside to dodge him and Naruto who comes right after. Kobo quickly gets back on his feet and tries to attack Sojobo relentlessly, but fails to hit even a single time.

Sick of trying, Kobo looks at Sasuke for a brief moment, as to make sure he's looking, and goes back on his offensive. This time, Sojobo doesn't dodge but firmly grabs his hand, like a parent would hold an unruly kid. In reaction, Kobo grabs on him too with his other hand. Sojobo looks at him confused of what he might try now. With the hand that's being held, Kobo performs a series of hand-seals.

Katon – Jiko Shokyaku

Kobo immolates his own body to spread the fire on his enemy, who can't believe what he just did and lets the faire catch him too.

Ameno Tejikara

Sasuke understood Kobo's previous look as a signal and switches him with the remaining handle of his sword, from which the blade was erased earlier. The two Uchiha are now standing in the Susanoo's forehead, and Sojobo is in flames, although it doesn't deal any damage. The fire keeps burning, but doesn't cause the slightest deterioration on its prey.

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu

A bunch of Naruto clones, all in Biju cloak and Sage mode, appear to assist the real one and they all jump to assault the Daitengu one after another. He dodges them all, still with his great speed advantage, but a bit too effortlessly, making him believe that the point of this isn't actually to hit him. Once they've all tried, the clones are in a circle formation around him. They all jump up and turn around at the same time, all simultaneously forming a shuriken orb in their hand.

Rasen Shuriken

Yoton – Rasen-Shuriken

Jiton – Rasen Shuriken

Katon – Rasen Shuriken

Biju Dama Rasen Shuriken

Suiton – Rasen Shuriken

Futton – Rasen Shuriken

All the Naruto throw a variant of this jutsu at the same time to the same target. Surrounded by what he believes could maybe scratch him, Sojobo chooses to escape this attack. He summons his chakra wings and uses the Koton's speed to fly up and far away from the projectiles. Sasuke sees the flashing light escape from the ground and hurries to track it down. He unleashes the wings of his Susanoo and follows the Daitengu higher in the sky as Naruto's shurikens all collide together and cause a cataclysmic spectacle that collapses the place even more than the sword strike from earlier.

Sojobo looks down and feels glad he decided to fly away. He sees the Susanoo coming after him but unable to catch up. Sasuke notices the still remarkable difference in speed and tries another approach. Before Sojobo gets too far away, he lifts his sword up again with fierce strength and tries to strike him one more time, like earlier, but this time with momentum of the flight.

Sojobo keeps progressing but flies aside to escape the blade's trajectory. The sword passes right next to him. Once again, this simple sword dash rips through the air and splits the skies in two. Every cloud on a dozen of kilometers long line are wiped away by the hit that the Daitengu closely dodged. He now sees Sasuke's Susanoo with arms still moving up, and not yet ready to put them down again. He takes advantage of this small moment of exposition.

Umo no Ha

With his wings widely open, he shoots a large range of chakra feather blades aiming for the Susanoo's forehead. Unable to take defense, Sasuke sees the projectiles come toward and, for half of them, swiftly pierce through the protection of his armor. Sasuke is surprised. These feathers must be at least as sharp and strong as Kaguya's hair needles to pass through Susanoo. Taken off-guard by the surprise, it's as if he'd let himself be struck.

Katon – Karyuheki

Kobo expires a flame that shapes as a fire wall to cover Sasuke and him. Weakened and slowed down by the Susanoo's armor, the feathers are all stopped by the thick fire barrier. Sasuke turns to look at Kobo who just saved him. He thinks. Kobo is far from strong enough to fight against this thing. Him being still alive only means that Sojobo doesn't value killing him. But this, Kobo knows it and despite it, he's still here, fighting for a cause that Sasuke passed on to him. Sasuke can't afford to disappoint him.

The longer he fights Sojobo, the badder his feeling about him gets. Sasuke lets go the Susanoo's sword who vanishes as soon as it loses any hold. This way, he lowers the armor's arms faster while flying back to take distance with his target. Sojobo sees him preparing his next move and tries to interrupt him.

He raises his hand and makes a Tengu Chakra Orb like Ryutoki's power allows to do. The orb only grows as big as a volley ball, but powerful enough to shoot the Susanoo's head off. Before he can fire it, his third eye looks down to see Naruto flying up and toward him at incredible speed. "How is he doing that?" he thinks. Naruto Uzumaki isn't currently capable of using Rikudo Senjutsu. He shouldn't be able to fly a few kilometers up to the sky like this.

Naruto comes toward him with one hand down holding a Fûton – Rasengan. He is using the wind blow of his chakra ball to propel himself up to the aerial fight. Now having reached the enemy, he lets go off the jutsu and tries to punch the Daitengu right in the face. Sojobo, startled but watchful, shakes his wings to fly a bit away, just enough to avoid this punch. When Naruto passes by him, Sojobo quickly uses Kasha's claws to slice him down and severely injure him while he's off-guard… But Naruto vanishes in a white cloud.

This was yet another of the clone tricks from which Sojobo is now getting sick. He looks down to understand the purpose of this, but before he can react, another Naruto who was flying hidden behind the clone is already there next to him, with all his chakra cloak gathered around his fist.

Kurama Wangeki

With the same jutsu he used to put Toneri down in a single hit, he punches the Daitengu right in the face, where a human being would have his nose. When he does, he hears a crack sound before he sends him flying further in the sky. After only a few meters of fluttering, Sojobo stops by using his wings and quick fires a light beam to Naruto. He hits the target, who once again disappears, as it also was a clone. Out of the mist, the original Naruto flies out and comes with a jutsu prepared to hit again.

Biju Dama Rasengan

With this orb, he aims for the same spot, that's now marked with an eyelash-sized crack in his shell skin, but doesn't land it. Sojobo, with his body glowing in white again (and still on fire but unaffected), flies forward just enough to evade Naruto, who flies passed the target. He dismisses his Fûton Rasengan to stop ascending, but is still thrown upward by his current acceleration.

Meanwhile, Sasuke got his Susanoo's hands together holding a giant bow and shoots a black flame arrow. Again, Sojobo's third eye sees it first and moves to exit the arrow's trajectory. Sasuke notices it and is impressed. This third eye can really move independently of the two others, and it having the Mangekyo Sharingan's abilities makes it even more troublesome. Coupled with enough speed to make the Fourth Hokage look like a tortoise, it makes the Daitengu able to dodge any attack… Except for the few hits he took that were all hidden moves or surprise attacks. But even once he's hit, actually hurting him is even harder.

Sasuke knows all of this, and considered it all in this current move. He'll then go with both, an attack that's hidden and strong enough. As he expected, Sojobo moves just enough to dodge the arrow. Sasuke widely opens his right eye.

Kagutsuchi

With his eye prowess, he manipulates the black flames of the arrow that's right next to the target and shapes them into long, wide and sharp spikes that surprise Sojobo and touch him as they fly by. The black flames are now burning several parts of the Daitengu's body. Sojobo once again sheds off the shell on the burnt parts, but too late. The black fire mixed with Kobo's fire that was still burning on him. The eternal flames overtake the regular ones and soon cover all of the Daitengu, eventually burning over the already molted parts. Sojobo widens his eyes, as he realizes that their attacks finally got to him.

In the Susanoo, Kobo is hyped up and sees Sasuke smiling.

"I knew it." says the wanderer, satified. "Earlier, I got his leg with my flames and he immediately shed his skin. But at that point, we didn't even manage to do the slightest damage to him. So the heat of Enton is among things that can soften his shell and make him vulnerable."

Kobo turns to see Sojobo very slowly melting. Where the flames burn, his shell is getting thicker but less dense. The fire is taking over Sojobo's body and cover his sight. As he looks around to try and see, he suddenly feels his body absorb more Biju chakra at the same pace as he feels his chakra getting sucked out. Reminded of the connection between his and Naruto's chakra, he looks up and sees the sky above him hidden by Kurama's avatar, summoned by Naruto who's now falling back down on him.

Biju Soshingeki

As he falls, Kurama strikes Sojobo with all of his nine tails at once and knocks him back all the way to the ground. In less than a few seconds, the Daitengu crashes into the shattered soil, violently pushed by the Biju's tails. Kurama keeps falling, while the Susanoo hurries to fly down and find Sojobo who's already getting up on his feet. The Daitengu sheds all the skin that still can be to get rid of the fire as much as possible. His Mangekyo Sharingan looks up and sees Sasuke's Susanoo fall feet first down on him.

He raises his forearms to cover himself, but it isn't enough. Sasuke violently stomps on him with his colossal foot. The Daitengu is forced down on his knees but still manages to not be completely crushed. Sasuke pushes the Susanoo's foot harder to the ground to try and overcome the enemy's unbelievable strength. Feeling at loss, Sojobo lowers one arm and lets the foot fall to carry it on his shoulders. He keeps holding it the best he can and makes an escape with his freed hand that he puts flat against the underside of the spectral shoe.

Jinton – Cho Genkai Hakuri

With Dust release, he makes a giant cylinder wider than the leg stomping on him. This jutsu completely disintegrates the Susanoo's leg and goes forth through the whole armor, until it reaches Sasuke and Kobo.

Gakido – Fujutsu Kyuin

Sasuke uses his Rinnegan to completely absorb the jutsu and keeps it from doing any harm to Kobo. The Susanoo, however, lost all its left side from its foot to its shoulder and even got its left wing separated from its body. Unable to stand, it falls over. When he's done absorbing the jutsu, Sasuke grabs Kobo's arm and jumps out of the collapsing spectral giant.

Sojobo breathes out and worries as he starts to feel exhausted. He's suddenly shaken with the ground when Kurama lands on all fours further away. The Biju is holding and still charging up a giant orb that he intends to throw at him. He sees the giant chakra bomb being prepared and decides to go for a power comparison. The Daitengu loads an orb from his own chakra that grows faster than Kurama's. Seeing his opponent quickly get ready to counter-attack, Kurama decides to fire the orb.

Bijudama

The Demon fox throws it now that it's already more than 30 meters wide, but Sojobo's orb reaches a similar size soon enough and is thrown for resistance.

Tengudama

As the two gigantic orbs are flying toward each other, Sasuke and Kobo are falling down, unfortunately between the two orbs. Naruto sees the two small silhouettes between the chakra balls and panics. Sojobo sees them too and gets angry but ready, as he already knows what Sasuke will do out of this situation.

Ameno Tejikara

As Sojobo expected, his place is switched with Sasuke and Kobo's and he is now in the middle of the two orbs, right at the moment when they're gonna collide. Sasuke chose the right moment and left Sojobo with no time to escape or erase the orbs, but the Daitengu still prepared. With his wings already deployed, he enlarges them and bends them to cover his sides. With his hands, he holds the interior of the wings and tries to hold the orbs away from collision, which he succeeds to do.

While he's resisting, the black flames are gaining over his body again and still weakening him. Sojobo gets frustrated. If only he wasn't in this strange dimension, out of his main domain. He could stop time and escape this easily. The worst about this fact is that Sasuke likely didn't even know about this weakness of Jikanteido, and simply brought him there to stop his escape attempts. Still holding, he feels a movement through his connection with the Biju chakra and looks up to see Kurama leap over the orbs.

Rasen Shuriken

A shuriken orb flies out of the Biju avatar and heads toward Sojobo. Glad he saw it, he strengthens his wings as much as he can and raises his hands to prepare a jutsu and counter Naruto's attempt to take him down.

Kagutsuchi

Before he does anything, Sasuke shapes the black flames burning on him. He extends and shapes them into spikes that stab through the Daitengu's wings and raised hand. Sojobo gets frightened, because not only did this nullify his chances of escaping the Rasen Shuriken, but one of the fire blades also pierced through his hand, and this means that his shell is weakened enough to be stabbed through. Unable to escape, the Rasen Shuriken hits him and blows up, which distracts and unsettles him enough for his wings and arms to collapse and let the orbs go.

Standing on the ground, Sasuke unleashes the half-body of his eternal Susanoo again to cover himself and Kobo from the colliding orbs' blast. Kurama lands behind them, and together they witness, what they believe is the largest explosion they've ever seen. Large enough to blow up dozens of villages at once, and even comparable to the one caused during their final fight together at the valley of the end. This cataclysm happens with Sojobo right in the middle.

A long minute after the collision, The Kurama avatar and Susanoo are partially worn out by just the shock wave. Once it's safe, Naruto and Sasuke dispel their covers and head over to check on the aftermath. The three ninjas run to the middle of the place to see what remains of Sojobo. When they arrive, they see him still alive, but severely injured, with an arm and shoulder missing. His shell looks completely broken up and his skin underneath is visibly melting.

The Daitengu turns around and stares at them quietly. Feeling defeated, he's sure that he won't win this fight. But will he survive it? He seriously underestimated his opponents and was too confident in his new power. After nearly 3 hours of fighting, he is the one who exhausted first.

With no intention of letting him any time to recover, Naruto, Sasuke and Kobo, all still covered in the Biju chakra mantle, rush to finish him off. Naruto takes the lead, Sasuke goes after him and Kobo is left behind.

Chidori Nagashi

Sasuke covers himself with Chidori to accelerate his movements, mimicking Minaa's Raigeki Modo for the first time. He catches up to Naruto and they reach Sojobo together. Even this worn out, The Daitengu still has enough energy to try and fight back.

Koton – Shunshin

He lights up and boosts his speed with light again. But this time, he feels overwhelmed and takes several careful hits. Because of his view covered by the flames over his face and a missing arm, he looses focus and gets unable to resist their conjunct offensive.

Chidori

Fûton – Rasen Shuriken

Sasuke first slices through his chest with lightning, and then Naruto blasts him away with a wind orb that gets even more lethal by mixing up with the black flames. Sojobo crashes in the ground meters away, with his second arm blown up. Lying desperate on the ground, he thinks of the events that led him here and recalls the injustice that brought him into this fight.

His thoughts send him all the way back to his first meeting with Inosawa Yamanaka, the ancestor of the Minamoto clan. This man, Indra Otsutsuki, Sasuke Uchiha, and every other human,… They're all the same to him. All people taking chakra for granted, using it to kill and oppress… He breaks his train of thought, telling himself that complaining will not change anything to his current situation. He's now sure that he won't survive this encounter. Slowly he stands up and wonders if he'll ever get passed all the obstacles to his freedom. Once standing still, he doesn't say or do anything, he just rolls his third eye up and in and uses a genjutsu on his own self.

Tsukuyomi – Zenpo

Naruto, Sasuke, and Kobo look at each other confused, while their enemy stands still, like hypnotized in front of them.

"What about Tsubai?" asks Naruto. "Where is he at?"

"I don't know but surely not dead." answers Sasuke. "He still can't afford to kill him."

"But he didn't use any of Daikoku's ability since Tsubai's gone." notes Kobo. "Is that just a coincidence?"

Their discussion is interrupted by Sojobo waking up from his own illusion. After only a few seconds trapped in a Tsukuyomi of his own making, the Daitengu speaks, like reassured about his fate.

"At least this wasn't my ultimate take at existence." says the mortified creature to himself, before answering Kobo's interrogations. "Tsubai is alive. I imprisoned him. I am the lock to his time jail."

Sasuke and Naruto are both confused by these declaration. Kobo doesn't let the Daitengu's words embarrass him, and simply gets the important part. Killing him will set Tsubai free. Alone, he runs over to the enemy.

Katon – Honoha

He makes a large fire blade in his hand and bounds to slice Sojobo. The Daitengu, who even in this severed state could easily avoid this strike, lets it hit him. When the blade touches him, it mixes with the black flames and bisects him. The upper part of the Tengu's body falls over to the ground. Still melting and burning, the whole body quickly turns to ashes as he simply lets go. Before he does he turns to the sky and says a few last words.

"Until next time… Divine Will…"

Once the eternal flames turn off, Sasuke, Naruto and Kobo know that they're done completely destroying their target. Exhausted, Naruto turns off his Sage mode and Chakra Mode, goes back to his regular form, and falls to his knees. The Kurama chakra cloaks surrounding the two Uchihas wear off too, and they also get to their knees.

In the empty space next to them, a crack appears. A floating crack, as if a dimensional wall was just punched through and damaged. The crack gets bigger and opens, causing an empty hole to appear. Tsubai Minamoto falls out of this hole and lands on his back, lying on the ground. The space hole is quickly filled by the existing space surrounding them. Sasuke stands up, surprised by this sudden return. The Minamoto looks around, confused, like traumatized by what he's seen, where he was locked up by the Daitengu.

Sasuke looks at him, curious, but leaves this feeling behind. For now, he relieved that his friend is back and safe. Glad the battle is over for now, he walks to Naruto and holds out his hand to him.

"Are you hurt, scaredy cat?" he says with a smile on his face.

Naruto laughs, understanding this catch phrase as a private joke, and takes Sasuke's hand to get up.

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End of Chapter 24 – Next Chapter: The Daitengu - Epilogue