Naruto Naruto Genkyouien 22

[dariuspeak]

Those sensitive to chakra realized that Naruto had done more than just voicing his discontent. His right hand glowed to those who could detect the flow of energy within his body, for it was like he had directed the entirety of his replenished reserves to that limb.

This hand of mine glows with power!

 

[Nasuren]

Those sensitive to chakra realized that Naruto had done more than just voicing his discontent. His right hand glowed to those who could detect the flow of energy within his body, for it was like he had directed the entirety of his replenished reserves to that limb.

This hand of mine glows with power!

Its burning grip tells me to defeat you!

SHINING FINGER!

I'm also calling it: Weapon of the Soul Sayuri is a nuke or a higher grade WMD.

 

[T.L]

Weapon of the Soul Sayuri :- Pwetty Beam!

 

[MnemoD]

"BEAM CANNON!"

"NO, ONII-CHAN! IT'S PWETTY BEAM CANNON!"

 

[Nasuren]

"Um... you say 'cannon', but why is there a fleet of Star Destroyers in space? They're even playing the Imperial theme and- wait, is the moon moving?"

 

[The Sandman]

"BEAM CANNON!"

"NO, ONII-CHAN! IT'S PWETTY BEAM CANNON!"

Ah, so Weapon of the Soul Sayuri is Raging Heart.

 

[Seed00]

"BEAM CANNON!"

"NO, ONII-CHAN! IT'S PWETTY BEAM CANNON!"

Ah, so Weapon of the Soul Sayuri is Raging Heart.

Dude? Raging Heart was given to either Hinata or Tenten. I forget which one, but the device is taken.

 

[Nasuren]

"BEAM CANNON!"

"NO, ONII-CHAN! IT'S PWETTY BEAM CANNON!"

Ah, so Weapon of the Soul Sayuri is Raging Heart.

Dude? Raging Heart was given to either Hinata or Tenten. I forget which one, but the device is taken.

Better Raging Heart than Ruby or Sapphire.

 

[zeebee1]

No, the wand was just playing with some seiyu jokes.

 

[Daneel Rush]

Naruto understood.

He understood, because the communion brought into being by Weapon of the Soul was something so intimate, so transcendental, that it was simply impossible not to get it. When the presence of Sayuri, the existence that is Higashiyama Sayuri, invaded his body, extending tendrils of something into his ribcage and wrapping them around his heart, Naruto immediately understood.

Inside Sayuri, there was a flame. But the flame was Sayuri herself, and this was not some sort of weird existential riddle because both things were undeniably true. And the thing within her that was also her was not only her, but what she could and should not be, what she had been and what was offered for her to become. It was part of her, but also her totality and something much greater than her. It was her infinite past, her bound present and her potentially infinite future.

It was a flame, but it was not fire. It was not the harmless and meaningless comedy fire, nor the deep orange fire born of chemical combustion reactions, nor the nuclear fire that makes the stars. It was Destruction itself, in the guise of flame because it suited it the most. It was the concept, having taken a shape, yet infinite in its scope and significance. That flame, Naruto knew, could destroy everything, for that was what it defined and its only purpose. If left alone and unrestrained, it would consume everything in heaven and earth, and even after that, it would not be satisfied before devouring the ashes as well.

Ashes of ashes. That was the Void. Or, at least, what the Void should have been. And Naruto understood this, from looking at that flame. For it was The Flame Kindled By the First Motion, older than the world.

“Hmm…” He sighed, and it should not be possible because he was everywhere and nowhere, alone with that flame. “Yondaime really got it right. With sealin’ ya.”

He had just lashed out at Yuri, but could he really expect that woman to even understand what her daughter truly was? What she could become? He barely got it, and he was staring at the center of Higashiyama Sayuri’s existence.

“I might have to apologize…ugh.” Not something to look forward to. “Whatever.”

He looked at the flame, and its perfectly white body of light danced as if reveling in the attention.

“Look,” he said. “I’ll figure it out somehow. I’ll teach her to keep a hold of herself. I won’t let her burn things recklessly anymore. And if she…” He gulped, as the very idea scared him more than he wanted to admit. “…if she wants to become you in the end…well, that’s her choice to make, but…well, I think that’s a choice she’s gotta make when she’s all grown-up and smarter—wait, will she even grow up? I mean, she’s a Kyuubi already…”

Realizing he was speaking in circles, Naruto released a pathetic groan of resignation.

“Aaaaah, whatever! I’ll figure it out! Somehow!” A pause. “I know, not very reliable! But still! I…” He finally allowed himself to ease down and soften his voice. “…I love her, and I want her to be happy. I’ll take care of her…I’ll take care of you. So…just, just listen to me…if only this time.”

And the flame listened, because the flame was Sayuri, and thus loved him dearly. And it was also part of Sayuri, so it accepted becoming part of him. And when the flame filled him, Naruto found that he was no longer looking at Sayuri, but at himself.

He was not sure he liked what he was seeing.

*********************************************************

Those who witnessed the transformation saw Naruto being engulfed by flames. Those flames, orange and red and yellow, became brighter and whiter as they coalesced and swirled around Naruto’s unseen form. The color was different, and the heat, the heat was oppressive, completely unlike Sayuri’s natural ability to defy thermodynamics and prevent her flames from radiating such a sweltering haze. But the reason all of the present jumped away from the flames was not to escape from the heat. It was because of a feeling familiar to Sayuri’s relatives, and perhaps even to Hiruzen and Jiraiya.

The humans, they saw thirteen years ago being repeated. The invisible miasma that flooded their minds was exactly what they felt in the presence of the colossal beast that evening. It was perhaps even worse, for it now seemed to have a center and a purpose. If the evil presence from that night was like buckets of water flooding Konohagakure and its people, this time Sayuri’s chakra was a katana, sharpened and focused by the will of her summoner. But they, and the youkai close by, felt even more than “an indescribably dangerous presence”.

This flame, it could not be called “evil”. It was about as evil as an earthquake or a drought. It was simply a threat; an inescapable question that should never be answered and a depraved lullaby that should have never been sung. This flame, they knew, could burn through absolutely anything: though light and darkness, through mortals and gods, through heaven and earth and even through time itself.

This was Sayuri, in all the magnitude of her no-longer misguided and childish belief. And the people there who knew her realized that, when she said she could burn anything, she really fucking meant it.

And the flames dispersed, revealing more flames. Nine tails, crafted painstakingly and awesome in their blazing radiance. The flames adorned his back like that, but they also danced along the skin of his arms like red and orange and white fur. But Naruto’s newest and most powerful Weapon of the Soul could not be flames. Even the Pyroninja could immolate himself.

There was a reason “Weapon of the Soul” had that name. In the many centuries of humans dabbling with youkai and making contracts with them, the result of this transformation technique had been a tool to inflict harm on others, without exception.

However, this Weapon of the Soul was a stone. The largest magatama in existence; a comma-shaped jewel the size of an adult man’s fist, embedded into the flesh of Naruto’s chest, right on top of the sternum. Strange things like vessels bulged underneath the skin around the red stone, as if it had grown roots inside Naruto’s body, or like a spider’s legs attached to its magatama-body.

“Chakra reactor-type Weapon of the Soul.”

Inside the red stone, a tiny white flame merrily danced, and its joyful rhythm spelled the end of all things.

“Higanbana Sesshouseki.”

Naruto released a long exhalation, as if he had been holding his breath for a long time.

“Man…” he then said. “I’d make, like, the shittiest Hokage ever.”

Many people blinked. Sayoko, the only one who had not moved from her former spot two steps behind Naruto, sidestep a swaying flame tail to stand next to the boy.

“Well, you are a child, Naruto-sama,” she pointed out. “I would be more worried if you already held the mindset of a Hokage, if I’m allowed to be honest.”

“Ah, no, I didn’t mean it like…” Another sigh. “It’s hard to explain.”

Destruction is absolutely objective. The moment the flame became one with him, Naruto experienced that awful clarity of absolute objectivity, and saw himself reflected through that lens.

It lasted only for a vestige of an instant, but it was quite the eye-opening experience.

“Maaaaaaan…” Naruto repeated. “This feels really weird.”

“Oh, how does Naruto-sama feel right now?”

“Like…fire,” he confessed. “Like I can destroy absolutely anything and everything, until I snuff out and just…disappear.”

“Yes, you might not want to keep that power for too long.”

“Yeah,” Naruto agreed, not even bothering feeling surprised by Sayoko’s unexplainable wisdom anymore. “I feel it burning my soul as we speak.” It was a flame, after all. No matter how much it loved Naruto, its nature was to destroy things without restraint or discrimination. “By the way, Sayuri? Having your soul on fire? It really really hurts!”

“Muu…Sayuri doesn’t mind…”

“Because your soul is the fire!”

“Mugyuu…but, onii-chan’s no angwy; Sayuri can tell.”

“Well, no, I’m not really angry; I kinda asked for this.”

“Ehehe~ Sayuri’s back inside onii-chan~”

“Right. But this time you’re not staying too long, okay?”

“Um!”

Nodding to himself, Naruto then turned to Sayoko.

“So, how are we doing this, Sayoko-san? I defer to your ancient wisdom.”

“Aah, mou! I don’t need your help to feel old, really. More importantly, how’s your compatibility?”

Naruto wanted to laugh. “Sayuri’s been part of me for almost thirteen years. Her chakra’s pretty much engraved in my soul already.”

Sayoko nodded. “So she’s your Avalon.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t mind me. In fact, I have to take care of our audience here…” Naruto and Sayoko glanced around, at the throng of humans and youkai watching the surreal scene of Naruto’s transformation and the pre-battle banter. “Things will get quite messy here and I cannot promise I can protect every person here. We cannot have our precious people here caught in the crossfire, right?”

“Uh, right,” Naruto agreed. “So, what’s the plan—?”

“Kuuton Kuchiyose,” Sayoko said, planting her hands on the ground.

“Kokuyou no Kurosaki no Saiden.”

Like that, the crowd was reduced to four people, only one of them human. A gob-smacked Uzumaki Naruto was staring at the hole in the ground where Konohagakure no Sato had stood until a moment ago. The colossal dome of darkness had disappeared together with the Great Spirit Clan, revealing only a huge crater between Naruto and the far away Hokage Monument—or what was left of it.

Sayoko sighed briefly, like a housewife who has to clean her husband’s mess on a Sunday morning.

“Oooo-kay, you summoned Konoha away…somewhere,” Naruto said while shaking his head in a sad attempt at dismissing the unbelievable. “How does that work?”

Naruto knew very well that Kuchiyose no Jutsu could not summon creatures against their will.

“It just does,” Sayoko dismissingly replied, and that was the end of that topic. Naruto took it as yet another step into the depths of Kurosaki Sayoko’s brokenness.

“So, where did they go?”

“A safe place…as long as they do not wander off,” she said. “Not a place I wanted to show them, but I do not get to be picky. More importantly…”

She presented the two Kyuubi to Naruto.

“There are two of them, and there are two of us. We are not familiar enough with each other to fight cooperatively, so…”

Also, that would unnecessarily stretch the word count, so please spare me.

“I’ll fight Fubuki,” Naruto declared. “I won’t be satisfied if I don’t…”

“Very well,” Sayoko accepted. “Your powers are not a good match for Kougon-kun, so I would have suggested you face Fubuki as well. Allow me, then, to offer you a piece of advice.”

The purple-clad kitsune willed her shadow to swirl and twirl like black flame by her feet, and a piece of Void Flame jumped to the tip of her tail to the space above her open right palm. She leaned closer to Naruto, to make sure she was heard only by the young human.

“The Void is Nothingness, the absence of concept. Do you understand that, Naruto-sama?”

Flakes of dying flame like cinders off a bonfire leapt from Naruto’s cheek when he scratched it nervously.

“Well, I kind of understand the words, but…” He said, frowning.

“The Void is Nothingness, yet it hungers, and actively seeks the end of all things,” Sayoko continued. “Think of that contradiction, and of what it implies.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

That Sayoko did not expect. “You do?”

“Sure,” Naruto said calmly. “I mean, I’m kind of an idiot, but even I get it when I get enough hints. I mean, it got me thinking when we talked with the other Sayuri at the Memorial Stone…”

Sayoko’s eyes grew widely. Yes, that Sayuri from another timeline had said it…!

Naruto grinned. “The rest I got from watching Yuriyo. So, I’ve got the Void pretty much figured out.”

Sayoko smiled at the boy’s unnatural confidence. “So, you think you can counter it?”

“Ni-shi-shi~” Naruto chuckled mischievously. “Don’t you know, Sayoko-san? There’s nothing in this world Sayuri can’t burn!”

“Yup!”

With that said, Sayoko placed her attention of Shinkirou Kougon, who had seemingly used the time to restore his utter calmness and his complete lack of expression. Kougon’s tremendous presence still permeated the entire place, but none of the present would be subjected to its pressure.

“I had expected you to attempt to reeducate Fubuki, Kurosaki Sayoko.”

“She will not learn anything more from me,” Sayoko sadly admitted. “But there are a thing or two she can learn from Uzumaki Naruto and Higashiyama Sayuri-sama.”

“So, you intend to educate me instead?”

“Hmm…” Sayoko’s smile retained its usual, natural placidity. “I think complete and utter defeat will be enough of a lesson for you. It is something everybody experiences at one point; it is about time you stop being the exception, Bodhisattva of Shinkirou.”

*********************************************************

“You know the plan; right, Sayuri?”

“Um!”

“Just burn it the moment she throws something at us.”

While Naruto showed himself to be acting natural and collected, the nine tails of flame betrayed his edgy nature by twitching and jerking nervously with the slightest sound and movement.

“Weapon of the Soul,” Fubuki pointed out the obvious. “A nine-tails should not debase herself to that level.”

“Don’t ramble about things you haven’t even tried out,” Naruto retorted, and immediately paused to grimace. “Yes, I know this makes me a hypocrite for complaining every time somebody says or does something perverted. Bite me. But really, what do you know? Sayuri, how’s it feel in there?”

“Aweshum! Evwythin’s, like, whoosh! And fire! And warm! It’s the best!”

“See? She said it’s ‘aweshum’.”

Seizing the initiative was impossible: Naruto had no doubts about who was the strongest, fastest and smartest of the two. He had one single plan on which the foundation of his entire assault relied. If it worked, he would have an opening for a decisive blow—or so he hoped. If it failed, well, he would be dead. Or annihilated, whatever.

At the moment, there was no difference between Higashiyama Sayuri and Uzumaki Naruto. He was effectively a ‘Kyuubi’. Thus, he would rely in his newly acquired ‘Kyuubi-level’ reaction speed.

“Do you honestly believe that flame can harm me?” Fubuki stated, gesturing towards the twitchy tails of flame growing out of the small of Naruto’s back. Void-stuff swirled out of her shadow, like ribbons of darkness manipulated by an invisible gymnast. “They’ will be devoured, just like everything else.”

Naruto chuckled, doing his very best not to sound nervous. His body, however, was poised to leap at any time.

“Well, we can give it a try and see what happens.”

Fubuki gave no warning. The ribbons of darkness shot towards Naruto, aiming to dice him to pieces before swallowing him and Sayuri into Oblivion.

They were set on fire.

And they stopped.

The Void spears were still there, unharmed by Sayuri’s flame, for how could even the Flame of Destruction destroy nothingness? So, yes, Sayuri’s flame did in no way diminish Fubuki’s attack. It simply stopped it, for a reason the Void Kyuubi could not understand at first glance.

“Wha—”

“Kokonoe…”

It was not the time to provide Fubuki with a detailed explanation of why her attack had failed to work.

“…Maiyouko.”

She saw only nine flashes of red and orange flame before being consumed by the same number of explosions, as Naruto’s fiery form dash past the black nine-tails while unleashing his technique: Ninefold Dancing Spirit Fox.

“Waaaaaaaaai!”

Wiggle, wiggle.

 

[Knyght]

*fist pumps*

The Weapon of the Soul was somewhat within my expectations. I doubt any kind of weapon or tool would have quite matched up to Sayuri. I can't remember if the topic came up before, but is a Soul Weapon effected - in shape, ability or power - by how many of tails the kitsune has or is it entirely dependent on the person's soul? So if Sayuri hadn't become the Kyuubi but everything else about her remained the same, would her Soul Weapon be the same as it is now (only less powerful, I presume)?

 

[chew]

And we're back in business!

 

[Nasuren]

With the Anbu Demolition Corps worshiping a statue of a loli-foxgirl and her spiky hair prophet with unusual fervor, I figured that this updated.

 

[zeebee1]

It's hard to worship a statue for long if your form of worship involves explosions.

 

[Knyght]

I'm curious as to what Naruto saw that would make him realise he'd be a shitty Hokage; I assume it's something at the core of his being, something that makes Uzumaki Naruto who he is, rather than something that's likely to change as he grows up. The revelation of Sayuri's true form also makes me wonder whether it's simply a result of Sayuri being the person she is or if that Destruction came from elsewhere and became Sayuri when she was born.

And a prediction about this Void business; whilst the Flame of Destruction cannot touch the Void itself, it can touch the will behind it (either the user's or those who Whisper) or perhaps the connection between the Void Kitsune and the Void. The Void would remain but it would simply be and not doing anything without that link.

 

[Nasuren]

It's hard to worship a statue for long if your form of worship involves explosions.

Bah! Shows what you know! Any statue to the Loli-goddess and her prophet , while not indestructable, are incapable of being destroyed by the pitiful explosions the mere mortal Anbu Demolition corps are capable of making!

They might have burned fire, but Sayuri nuked it!

 

[violinmana]

*fist pumps*

The Weapon of the Soul was somewhat within my expectations. I doubt any kind of weapon or tool would have quite matched up to Sayuri. I can't remember if the topic came up before, but is a Soul Weapon effected - in shape, ability or power - by how many of tails the kitsune has or is it entirely dependent on the person's soul? So if Sayuri hadn't become the Kyuubi but everything else about her remained the same, would her Soul Weapon be the same as it is now (only less powerful, I presume)?

I'm guessing it's entirely independent of the summon's power level, and dependent on their soul instead, because Emma can weapon of the soul into Sarutobi's diamond staff, right?

 

[Knyght]

Point. I forgot that it's not kitsune-exclusive.

 

[michirusan]

Point. I forgot that it's not kitsune-exclusive.

The fact that the Naruto in canon has never done something like this in all the time he's been summoning the toads just goes to show just how much Kishomoto wastes huge aspects of his own world building as toss away moments .

 

[violinmana]

To be fair, Emma only ever says "Henge".

 

[Solaris]

Great, now I imagine Naruto using Kage Bunshin's to transform into ridiculously awesome weaponry.

Orochimaru's Kusunagi? Poof, Have one of my own.
Diamond Hard Staff? No problem.
Raijin no ken? Just need to practice lightning manipulation a voila~.

 

[datenchi]

i refer you to halfway down this page: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4176756/13/Roku-Naruto

 

[Daneel Rush]

Fire and shockwaves rocked the uneven ground of devastated Konoha—the location Konohagakure had stood—, wrecking the geography and sending rocks and trees flying before the flames consumed them. After the dash, Naruto turned around and slammed both hands and feet on the ground, sliding until the friction broke his momentum.

“Fire!” He yelled, just in time to intercept the spears of Voidstuff shot from within the raised smoke and dust. Just like before, they stopped in the air the moment the flames touched them.

“Onii-chan’s shadow!”

“Burn it!”

Naruto’s shadow had been replaced by an abnormally dark circle under his feet. The boy did not even know when Fubuki did it, but he just willed it to combust. After that the very flames that concealed Fubuki’s form were set on fire as well. Countless bubbles of high-density chakra burst out of the fiery tails, freezing in midair before starting to coalesce on the place the tips of those same tails met in front of Naruto.

“We’re going all out, Sayuri!”

“Waaaaai!”

Naruto’s high-power bombardment plan was interrupted by the swirling sphere of pure nothingness that emerged from within the smoke and flames, devouring them all and almost swallowing the young shinobi. The sphere grew the good part of fifty meters in less than two seconds, obliterating everything within that volume.

“Guh!” Naruto grunted, forcing chakra to his feet to resist the pull of the vacuum created when the Void sphere receded. Fubuki stood at the bottom of a crater; a perfectly smooth bowl carved into the ground by her Void release. Unharmed, the Queen of Oblivion glanced up at Naruto with cold hate in her eyes.

“Tell me, boy,” she spoke just as coldly. “How are you doing that?”

Naruto could not read her face enough to realize she was only looking for confirmation of what she already knew. It had been clear the moment the Whispers in her head were silenced.

“Like I’d just go and tell you, idiot!” He shouted back. “Really, it should be obvious. There’s only one thing that Void of yours can do.”

To annihilate. To erase from existence. The Void, the absence of concept, can only impose that condition of everything it interacts with. It is perfect for it can only annihilate completely. Thus, it is also perfectly static, perfectly lifeless and perfectly uncaring. Something else must thus drive it to move, something so hollow, profane, alien and twisted it can move the perfectly static, point it towards everything else and drive it to actively reach to consume the world.

Whatever that something is, Sayuri’s flame can burn it.

So, Naruto could stop her attacks from reaching him, but she could just as easily erase his attacks from existence with a static defense like Aegis, like she had done just before.

“It’s a stalemate—”

Naruto had to engulf himself in flames to stop the Void-coated black tail descending on his back like a hammer. The tail stopped before it could catch flames, allowing Naruto to leap away desperately.

When did she move!?

“Onii—!!!”

Again, self-immolation as a means of defense. Naruto could not follow her with his eyes; it was only the honed instincts of human and youkai working together that urged him to set himself on fire to protect his body from attacks he could not keep up with. He could not see her, but he could feel her breath on his neck no matter where he moved to. Anybody watching him would see a boy leaping around desperately, while Fubuki chased him without taking a single step.

Naruto realized it was not high-speed like Shunshin, or some weird space-time thing like his Banshou Tanho.

“She is a Void Kitsune, Naruto-sama,” the familiar voice of Kurosaki Sayoko echoed in the depths of his mind. “And her Void can only annihilate.”

“So, onii-chan, the bwack mweanie is…umm…”

“She’s…annihilating the distance between us?”

A distance away from the battle to which speed no longer applied developed; Sayoko allowed herself the slightest of smiles. She looked down at her opponent.

“That boy…is developing the right mindset. Fubuki could really learn from him. However…”

Naruto allowed himself to steal a little glance at Sayoko’s and Kougon’s fight…and froze lamely on the stop.

“When the hell did that happ—wah!”

“Tch.” Fubuki clicked her tongue upon meeting with failure one more time. However, she too was stunned into stillness when she glanced in the same direction.

Sayoko looking down had nothing to do with a difference in body height.

“When…when did she…?” Fubuki mumbled pointlessly.

Shinkirou Kougon lay on the punished ground. He looked unharmed by all means, but his body made no movement, and his face carried the expression of a man defeated. He simply lay there, unmoving, and exhausted beyond reason after only mere seconds.

“…Kougon?” A person unfamiliar with Fubuki would think she was worried. “How…?”

“At his current level, it was a waste of time to waste words on this…engagement,” Sayoko calmly declared, and her lazy tone managed to somehow not sound arrogant. It sounded like there had not been a fight in the first place, and those were precisely Kougon’s next words.

“There was…not even a…”

This was not some sort of shounen manga metaphor to compare power levels. Kougon’s words were literal: a fight never took place.

The Celestial Kyuubi reproduced the events in his mind. One moment, he was standing before Sayoko, his chakra poised to unleash his Kouton Jutsu on the ancient Void user. The next, he was laying there, incapable of even thinking of doing anything else.

He was defeated.

“What…what did you do…?” Fubuki whispered, before quickly raising her voice to alarming levels. “What did you do!?”

Sayoko minded not the words, and instead pointed to Fubuki’s right.

“Kokonoe Maiyouko!”

Sayoko’s Aegis protected her and Kougon from the barrage of explosions that swallowed Fubuki one more time. With a swipe of her hand, the dust raised by the attack was dispersed around them, and Sayoko returned her attention to her fallen opponent.

“He has to finish it before Fubuki stops underestimating him,” she said, casually sitting down next the Kougon’s unmoving form.

“You…honestly believe he can defeat her.”

Sayoko made a second gesture and Kougon found himself painlessly pinned to the ground by stakes of Void. The fact he was not being destroyed by the black tools puzzled him, and for once it showed on his face.

“A safety measure.”

Sayoko did not bother explaining that the Void stakes annihilated the flow in Kougon’s chakra pathways. The chakra inside his body had become as hopelessly still as his anatomy on the ground.

She then looked at some place in the sky over fifty meters away, where Naruto’s chakra tails were being swallowed by Fubuki’s impenetrable Aegis. Either had yet to inflict harm on the other.

“There are a number of ways he could do it despite Fubuki being superior to him in every way, just like there were a number of ways I could have defeated you. I am more interested in witnessing which one he has figured out,” Sayoko pondered. “But he will have to create an opening…”

Kougon slowly turned his head in the direction of the other battle, but he found out he just did not care that much anymore.

“What…did you do to me?”

“To you, nothing,” Sayoko said. “I simply annihilated the probability of you defeating me.”

She quickly covered her mouth to stifle a yawn.

“…my apologies.”

Kougon’s eyes quivered.

“Wha…?”

“We now live in a world where Kurosaki Sayoko cannot be defeated by Shinkirou Kougon.”

Her shoulders slumped forward. Then again, she always looked a bit tired.

“Do not be mistaken; this is much more difficult than I make it seem. It is worth the effort, however.”

Kougon’s eyes for once reflected his thoughts and feelings. It was a welcome change to Sayoko.

“You…you cannot…you cannot do that…”

They remained in silence for several seconds, letting their irises speak for them while fire and nothingness collided and swallowed each other all over the place.

Several thousand tendrils of Voidstuff lunged from Fubuki’s shadow like a swollen maw out to swallow the world. Naruto’s beastly roar unleashed a torrent of the whitest flame, which became a wall which halted the advancing darkness. Nine fiery tails lashed out at Fubuki, only to be consumed by the utmost blackness of her spherical Aegis. The Void Kyuubi was already gritting her teeth with impatience: she was fighting a human; she should not be taking this long. However…

“Aaaah, this is annoying!” She roared, and her shadow swelled to paint the sky black. For a moment, Naruto feared everything from the distant horizon upwards would become the same color, and his heart shriveled in primal fear of the dark. However, he had to fight. He had to stop her.

A pillar of flames spread wider than the Emissary of Oblivion and stretched upwards into the darkening sky. Naruto held his hands together and his arms raised high, as if the pillar of flames were a sword he wielded.

“Okuzankuusou!” Fubuki conjured A Hundred Million Decapitating Void Spears, wildly swinging her left arm in front of her as if to erase the disgusting thing in her sight.

“Tenmitasu Myoujouken!!!”

“Pwetty Swohd, yay!”

And when Naruto swung down his Sky-Filling Morning Star Sword (aka “Pretty Sword”), fire and Void met in the grandest clash this world had seen since the Second Shinobi War. The flames fell upon what trees remained like a tidal wave, and Sayoko had to spread her Void barrier to protect Kougon who could not use his chakra.

“My, how wasteful,” Sayoko commented. “He needs to take the decisive step before Fubuki does.”

“Why…do you not help him…?” Kougon wondered. “With your powers, you could…”

“End this immediately,” Sayoko completed. “Perhaps. But that would be the repetition of the tragedy of my clan.”

A sad, bitter smile framed Sayoko’s small face, made all the bitterer by her dull eyes.

“What do you think happens when an entire clan of kitsune worships a god-like, all powerful mother, who can apparently do everything and solve every problem all by herself?”

That was when a huge portion of the sky became the deepest black.

*********************************************************

“Muu…Sayuri can’t set her tails on fire…”

Naruto leapt like a frightened cat, avoiding a new swarm of Void ribbons eager to slice him to pieces. Where they advanced, crisscrossing the air and the dense forests surrounding the perimeter of Konoha, everything ceased to be. Greast gashes of absence of life and matter scarred the forests of Fire Country in Fubuki’s unrelenting chase, as trees, rocks and wildlife were effortlessly erased from existence.

Naruto’s clawed hands swiped the air, creating huge gashes of flame that seemed to split the sky, which met an ignoble end against Fubuki’s Aegis.

“Nah, that would be too easy; it’s gotta be a direct hit—!!!”

He urged his legs to move, getting away at the same time Fubuki annihilated the distance between them and unleashed her Aegis at close range. Naruto moved over a hundred meters in the blink of an eye, barely enough to avoid being swallowed by the colossal sphere of black nothingness that obscured Fubuki’s form. The purest Void without aim or purpose, expanding in the ideal volume; there was nothing Naruto’s and Sayuri’s flame of Destruction could do about it.

Outside the sphere, Naruto drove chakra to his flaming tails.

“We’re welcoming her with a big boom the moment the sphere is gone, Sayuri!”

“Pwetty Beam!”

“Nope, something different!”

Flames swirled from and around the nine tails, but they were but a child’s toy until the dancing flame inside the Killing Stone began to pour out through the crystal and mix with the growing conflagration. Ordinary flames became conceptual flames, Destruction made manifest.

Naruto sighed lengthily. With those white flames he had poured out a fraction of his soul. The more he wielded the white flames, the less of himself that remained.

The moment the Aegis ceased to not-be, Naruto released a gigantic white fireball, almost as large as the sand tanuki he fought earlier.

“Reisei Daiendan!”

The Spiritual Sacrifice Great Flame Bullet is a terrifying technique. As Destruction made manifest, it burns not only through matter, but through chakra as well. No physical or supernatural barrier could possibly stop it. Upon contact with flesh, it would predate the poor victim’s chakra pathways like acid and poison at the same time it turned flesh into ashes and blood into steam.

This was what Fubuki witnessed the moment she dismissed her Aegis, standing alone amidst the land she had rendered barren.

“Stop.”

Twenty meters away from her, the colossal ball of white flame became a colossal ball of ice: the atmosphere itself, frozen due to the annihilation of molecular motion.

“Huh,” Naruto said. “Should’ve seen that coming.”

He is saying that more and more often, isn’t he?

Dodging was not an option when an invisible force threw the immense ball of ice towards Naruto, thus the young human clenched his right fist and met the crystalline meteor with a war cry and a punch clad in flames.

“Onii-chan Punch!”

The quasi-spherical iceberg exploded in a burst of white steam that clouded Naruto from all sight. However, that same cloud of steam and rapidly melting ice shards became nothingness, for Fubuki closed the distanced to the boy in a split instant, standing before his defiant form with hands and tails coated in black flames. Naruto roared, but his right hand clad in the white flame of Destruction was intercepted by Fubuki’s own, and the black Void Fire began to consume Sayuri’s white flame.

“You cannot hurt me,” the Void Kyuubi declared.

Even Sayuri’s flame succumbed to Oblivion. However, as long as the flame of Destruction could eradicate the “hunger” that drove the Void to attack, Fubuki could not direct her jutsu to exterminate him. On the other hand, she could use undirected, omnidirectional Void releases: not truly attacking, simply manifesting the Void upon reality and having it annihilate whatever happened to stand in the way.

However, if it was truly a “spontaneous” release, driven by no “attacking will”, just what stopped that Void Fire engulfing Fubuki’s arms from devouring Fubuki herself?

Naruto grinned.

“Won’t stop me from trying~”

They attacked simultaneously.

*********************************************************

Kurosaki Sayoko slowly tilted her head up and down in silent approval of the final clash.

“See? The boy won.”

Kougon frowned, unable to understand how what he was seeing spelled Uzumaki Naruto’s victory.

Sayoko, however, simply looked at the sky, high above Fubuki’s head.

“He might not be the best ninja out there…but he would make a fantastic Void Kitsune.”

*********************************************************

In the end, it was the oldest trick in the book that defeated Kuromiya Fubuki. She had watched the Chuunin Exam finals from within Higashiyama Yurine’s shadow, but in these circumstances that could not help her.

Naruto had been thorough.

Her startled dark eyes blinked a few times as she struggled to understand the petite cloud of unnaturally white smoke in front of her; the result of her Void Fire engulfing the human child which, until a moment ago, was attacking her with hopeless defiance.

But, you see, human children do not explode in clouds of unnaturally white smoke.

“What in the gods—”

“Hanko!”

For a moment, when Naruto destroyed the giant block of ice, he was completely hidden from view. However, that should not have been enough: the Void hungers for the annihilation of all things—even without the driving will of a Void user, the source of the Whispers can also “push” the blind Void towards the things of Reality. It is the basis of Kuuton jutsu that allow the detection of living beings, as mentioned before.

Fubuki should have detected the presence of a second Naruto, even if she could not see him. What she did not understand was that Sayuri’s white flame could truly destroy everything. Even things like the alien “hunger” that drives the Void to attack the living.

Even things like Uzumaki Naruto’s “presence”.

Sayuri was trembling in utter confusion inside Naruto’s body because, at the moment, the only Naruto in existence was the clone Fubuki had just destroyed, and thus she did not know who this person identical to her onii-chan was, why he was wielding her as a Weapon of the Soul instead of her onii-chan, or why her chakra responded so naturally to him. Most unfortunately, in the midst of battle Naruto had no chance to explain to her just what the consequences of his plan would be. It is likely he did not understand them himself; he is but a child, after all.

This only lasted an instant, however; the world has a way to correct humanity’s messes. Uzumaki Naruto was there, in the world, and thus he carried a “presence”.

And Fubuki looked up in alarm because the Uzumaki Naruto which had ceased to exist just a moment before was suddenly very alive and existing and freefalling just over her head…

“How did you—!?” Her mind kicked her into action. “Ae—”

But she caught sight of his fearless smile, and the principle of her defeat clicked in her intelligent brain.

“The rest I got from watching Yuriyo. So, I’ve got the Void pretty much figured out.”

The Trial of the Void! Yuriyo’s “will” overcame the lure of the one who Whispers and thus stopped Oblivion from claiming her!

If that white flame can also burn that “will”, then not even Aegis is safe—!

“KUBIKIRI!!!”

The nine fiery tails became a white, blazing guillotine, splitting both the afternoon sky and Kuromiya Fubuki’s magnificent black tails, right at the base.

 

[gimp]

LOL, I love how utterly broken Sayoko is and now Naruto is almost as broken hax as the sharingan. I immolate the ability of the sharingan to predict my movements or just burn the eyes really.

 

[chrnno]

Wow Sayoko is really, really powerful. Was expecting at least a fight if a very quick one.