Naruto Naruto Genkyouien 23 [END]

[Daneel Rush]

Oh no, Nue is not a "person". Nue is a concept, to the point it does not look the same to the eyes of two different people. Sayoko was thinking of Tamamo when she said that.

 

[LOLRAINE]

Tamamo <3

 

[Serous]

Reading through the previous chapters, it was mentioned that Suiren and Karen were incapable of using conventional Kitsune techniques. While it was mentioned that this was thought to be due to their parent's nature, I wondering if it instead was due to their mastery of their respective Aeons.

 

[michirusan]

Reading through the previous chapters, it was mentioned that Suiren and Karen were incapable of using conventional Kitsune techniques. While it was mentioned that this was thought to be due to their parent's nature, I wondering if it instead was due to their mastery of their respective Aeons.

...wasn't this only an issue until they hit 100 and grew their second tails?

 

[Daneel Rush]

Nah, the Spiral Children are in all ways inferior to their parents. They are still very young in comparison, after all. And there's no way in hell Karen will ever catch up to Sayuri. Besides, it's not like children are perfect amalgams of their parents' personalities: Naruto's and Yuria's son is completely different from either of them, for example, and that includes his combat style.

 

[wertygo]

So now we have Karen (Sayuri), Suiren (Mayuri), Kizuna (Setsuna), and an unnamed male son (Yuria). I'm starting to see a theme there. Oh, and then there's Shizuku's concern about the time it takes for normal Kitsune to mature...

 

[Daneel Rush]

What can I say? Sayuri grows into a very beautiful woman. Yuria is already a very beautiful woman, just a little height impaired. And Setsuna is Setsuna. And then there's the others, but those are more political than anything...except for Suzuran, who is adopted. Not that he doesn't love his children born of political arrangement, of course he does.

As for Suiren...well, her conception is a story all by itself.

 

[buytbuyt]

What can I say? Sayuri grows into a very beautiful woman. Yuria is already a very beautiful woman, just a little height impaired. And Setsuna is Setsuna. And then there's the others, but those are more political than anything...except for Suzuran, who is adopted. Not that he doesn't love his children born of political arrangement, of course he does.

As for Suiren...well, her conception is a story all by itself.

Naruto, Family man. :wub:

I want to read!

ed;
Q;

Oh no, Nue is not a "person". Nue is a concept, to the point it does not look the same to the eyes of two different people. Sayoko was thinking of Tamamo when she said that.

So, Nue wouldn't be characterized unless he/she/it was as/in someone else's POV?

 

[LOLRAINE]

What can I say? Sayuri grows into a very beautiful woman. Yuria is already a very beautiful woman, just a little height impaired. And Setsuna is Setsuna. And then there's the others, but those are more political than anything...except for Suzuran, who is adopted. Not that he doesn't love his children born of political arrangement, of course he does.

As for Suiren...well, her conception is a story all by itself.

Yuriyo???

 

[LOLRAINE]

Seriously, Daneel, don't break my heart again by not having Yuriyo end up in a relationship with Naruto. You already broke it once by not writing more Gospel stories and I don't think that I can take another heartbreak. ;_;

 

[wertygo]

As for Suiren...well, her conception is a story all by itself.

Which will be explored when she shows up in Reload Zero, of course.

 

[dwaite860@yahoo.com]

As for Suiren...well, her conception is a story all by itself.

Which will be explored when she shows up in Reload Zero, of course.

and my brain explodes......

 

[Daneel Rush]

Inuzuka Kiba and Higashiyama Yuriyo were taken away. Sayoko had returned to her sunbathing. The large audience of humans and youkai shuffled around, unsure of whether to stay or go back to their own businesses. This quickly changed when the leaders of both groups stepped forward to assemble a new semicircle around the most powerful Void user. While Songmistress Utahime and her escort watched the Hokage and his advisors with wariness—which was returned twofold by the humans—, Yuri, Yurimi and the Third did not spare the other group a glance. They did not trust each other, but they had at some point reached an understanding. Of course, only Yurimi and Sayoko among the kitsune and Jiraiya among the humans knew that Yuri and Hiruzen had engaged in intense discussion in the last two nights, away from the eyes and ears of those who would not approve.

“There are questions you must answer, youkai.”

I would be disappointed if you did not have questions. ‘Must’ is a rather big word, though.

Sayoko is not the kind of person to denigrate without reason. She had nothing against Shimura Danzou, so she just returned his unfriendly stare with her usual bored expression.

“The youkai has a name, Danzou,” Hiruzen pointed out. He looked around with some unease, and he was not the only one: both Homura and Koharu were doing the same, their lips twisted in displease.

“I have requested Naruto-sama’s and Sayuri-sama’s company for a while. If Hokage-sama’s need to meet them is truly of such urgency, he is more than welcome to come to us.”

Those were Sayoko’s words to the ANBU dispatched to summon Naruto and Sayuri to audience with the Hokage, Danzou and the Council. They had attempted to arrange a meeting with Naruto and the youngest Kyuubi without other youkai presence, but it seemed this would not be possible as long as Kurosaki Sayoko was around. From the ANBU’s words, Naruto had originally intended to obey—the Hokage is his boss, after all—, but Sayoko convinced him to wait for the Sandaime and the other to come to them. Sayoko, not Higashiyama Yuri. From what he understood of Naruto’s and Yuri’s relationship, he might not have trusted the seven-tails had she been the one to keep him from meeting the Hokage. Kurosaki Sayoko was not dripping with authority and charisma, but her sheer power was sufficient to get people to do as she wished, even without demanding anything. Hiruzen and the others did go to the riverside where Sayoko had taken the others in the end, after all.

Furthermore, what should have been a private meeting between the shinobi and kitsune representatives had become some sort of open audience, with over a hundred ninja and youkai as their audience. Had Sayoko intended for this, hoping for the public nature of the meeting to restrain the humans’ interests?

Of course not; Hiruzen expected too much from that hopeless person.

“The youkai has a name, Danzou,” the Third Hokage finally said. “Sayoko-san, if it were possible, we wish to discuss a number of relevant matters.”

He ignored the glare from Danzou to his left, who probably believed the Hokage was being indulgent and weak. Hiruzen was simply returning the politeness he had thus far received from Sayoko with equal manners. The woman in purple turned her gaze from Danzou to Hiruzen, who truly could not make anything out of her dull, sleepy eyes. Sayoko’s gaze then turned to, of all people, Higashiyama Yurimi.

“A question from the kitsune side, then the humans, then the kitsune again and so on,” the Void declared, and thus it would be. The kitsune went first because, well, she was a kitsune herself. Nobody said Sayoko’s completely impartial. “Yurimi-sama?”

The Fourth Matriarch of Higashiyama bowered most respectfully at the fox woman on the boulder. In a way, it looked like a retainer presenting herself before a loafing god-queen.

“Thank you very much, Sayoko-san. Allow me to ask, then, if you would restore Higashiyama Yuriyo’s right arm and eye.”

Yuri nodded, approving of her daughter’s inquiry. Now that they knew it was possible, how could they not aim to restore Yuriyo’s beauty?

“I refuse,” Sayoko immediately answered. “That was the price she paid to make it through her Trial of the Void. To hand it back to her would be disrespectful to everybody else who went through the same and paid their own price, myself included.”

Sayoko’s eyes traveled to the edge of the audience, where Kiyoura Setsuna nodded at the older Void user in acceptance of her judgment.

“Like Setsuna-san, who clearly gave away her ‘adulthood’—”

“I didn’t! This is my normal look!” The small kitsune immediately screamed, and the people around her had to inch away from the sparks jumping off her body.

Sayoko blinked, looking truly surprised for a moment. Then, she straightened herself to offer Setsuna a deep bow.

“I am truly sorry.”

“You’re making fun of me now, aren’t you!?” Just as an afterthought, Setsuna glared at Kotonoha by her side. The voluptuous swordswoman was looking down at her old acquaintances with identical surprise.

“You mean…all this time, I thought you had sacrificed your ‘growth’ to Oblivion…”

“Guess what, Miltank? I have a reason to wish you were dead again!”

Sayoko decided it was wiser to ignore the shouting in the back and focus on the people around her for the time being. Loud antics were not really her thing, anyway. She cleared her throat and eased back down on the boulder like a mixture of Cleopatra and a NEET.

“So, if Yuriyo-sama wishes to regain her lost arm and eye, she must grow powerful enough to walk into the Void and learn Mushoku Saisei.”

Personally, she doubted that would ever happen. Yuriyo was talented, but reaching that level of prowess demanded much, much more. She hoped the half-Void would instead learn to cherish herself in spite of her disabilities; otherwise the Void might use her weakness to claim her all too soon.

With that said, she turned to the humans. “Your turn,” she said.

Hiruzen did not bow like Yurimi, but he still nodded in appreciation.

“Thank you. First of all, we wish to know what happened to the two nine-tailed kitsune three days ago.”

A lot of vocal activity from the audience followed that question. It was obvious this was not a question only the higher-ups had had in their minds all this time. Even Setsuna had ended her blabbering back there, although that might be more related to Yuria opening a gap between herself and Naruto for the four-tails to sit next to her “student”, if her stiff seating posture meant anything. And was that Shionzaki Aika on Naruto’s left, sitting as close as physically possible without outright leaning on him? Were Utahime and Yurimi aware of this? The last thing Sayoko needed at the moment was a diplomatic row between two powerful kitsune clans because the current Silver Lily and the Chanter of Elegies were after the same genes.

But that was not really her business to deal with, was it? She had a question to tackle.

“I believe you watched the battle with the Scrying Screen in my shrine, right? Then you must already know that I sent Fubuki and Kougon deep into the Labyrinth.”

The Sandaime nodded. “Yes, we are aware of this…but we are not as certain as to what it means.”

Sayoko nodded. After all, the vast majority of humans who entered the Labyrinth did so either by accident or by the trickery of not-very-nice youkai. Those never made it out. She guessed the last human who entered willingly was…the Sage of the Six Paths, most likely? In other words, it was normal that even the Hokage did not know much about the Labyrinth. Heck, most humans and youkai do not know it even exists.

“The Labyrinth is a boundary. In the same way the Void is the boundary between Reality and Chaos, the Labyrinth is the boundary between Reality and the Void. It was likely made to give the Void something to consume instead of Reality or itself. It is a place of darkness, where only the light of Kouton can shine; the light sources in my shrine are old Celestial artifacts, fueled by chakra. It is a darkness that wraps itself around the world, its geography always changing…like walking inside the entrails of a dragon. The Whispers are loudest within its depths, and only those rendered completely mad by them and strong enough not to be swallowed by Oblivion dwell in the Labyrinth willingly.” She paused. “And me, I guess.”

Oblivion Castle Kurosaki, the shrine of the long-fallen Kurosaki Clan, was carved into the fleshy walls of the Labyrinth thousands of years ago.

“I acknowledge I sent you all to an extremely dangerous place, and for that I apologize. However, you were safe as long as you remained within the walls of my shrine. Those who exist in the Labyrinth, even the blind and the mad, know better than step into my castle, even if it’s empty most of the time.”

All the present remembered clearly the things they saw in the Oblivion Castle: the torches of white flame that did not emit any heat; the garden of crystal roses, their petals sharp like razors which drained the blood of those who touched them to become gorgeous red blossoms; the open main gate, its arch of stone carved like Void fire, leading to the most unsettling darkness they had even witnessed, and the things within they could only hear but never catch a glimpse of; and the black wall, a monument of sorts, carved with hundreds of lines of ancient and undecipherable script whose purpose would have remained a mystery were it not for a single plaque at the bottom in the modern language identifying it as the “Record of the Kurosaki Clan”. According to an expert who happened to be in Konoha and found himself drawn to the wall, the changes in the ancient script by themselves suggested that the contents of the wall had been added over thousands of years. None of the lines were written in anything similar to the modern language, or any script the oldest person present, Higashiyama Yuri, could recognize, not even from the records of her ancestors. This meant the most recent script on the wall was older than the Higashiyama Clan, which was around 1500 years old—a young clan, by all means.

“But I digress,” Sayoko said. “I sent Fubuki and Kougon to a random location in the infinite depths of the Labyrinth. Not even I could find them right now. I did it for Fubuki’s sake, although Kougon could learn a thing or two there as well. If they are wise they will stay together—Fubuki knows the Labyrinth well, but she is weak right now and alone she would be killed. Kougon has the power to survive the Labyrinth and its denizens, but he knows not how to get out. In the Labyrinth it will take a while for Fubuki to regain her powers; hopefully she will take the chance to repeat her training from zero.”

“Wait, her powers will come back?” Jiraiya blurted out. They all had hoped…

Sayoko shrugged.

“Sayuri-sama’s power is not Nothingness. What she destroyed can be remade once more. Fubuki can restore her connection to Oblivion, and even if you cut her tails, she is still a nine-tails. If the Labyrinth does not destroy her, she will come out with her powers restored, and hopefully a little wiser.”

She raised a halt, halting Hiruzen’s question before it was even asked.

“You will now ask me why I did not kill her. Why I did not grant Konoha the right to impart justice.”

The Hokage nodded, but dismissed the possibility of mind-reading by guessing the question itself was obvious.

“First of all, I made an oath not to take the lives of animals with my powers. This extends to humans and youkai. I find no enjoyment in that, and I can afford to defend against any threat without annihilating it. And no, that is not a challenge. I have better things to do.”

Yuri and Yurisa stared at Sayoko with an obvious “Like what!?” expression.

“Secondly, even if it has been centuries since then, Fubuki was my student, and I care for her.” Her eyes swept over the shinobi. “You might or might not understand.”

Naturally, some understood and some did not.

“And thirdly, I still believe Fubuki has a purpose she must fulfill. If she is to die in battle, it will not be by my hand. It is not my role to write history,” she said and then shrugged one more time. It was probably not a satisfactory answer, but it was the honest answer; none of the shinobi present would doubt that.

Sayoko thus turned to the kitsune.

“Your turn.”

Yurimi and her mother exchanged glances before the Matriarch seized the right to speak.

“Higashiyama Yurine.” It was not a question, but the meaning was clear. Sayoko shook her head.

“If Fubuki had given me the opportunity three days ago, I would have done something about it. However, saving Yurine-sama will not be an easy feat.”

Noting she had the attention of Naruto and all the kitsune present—Yurine and her situation were well know to Shionzaki, too—, Sayoko explained it all. It was a shame that neither Yurine, who was taking care of Yuriko, nor her daughters, were present.

“The components of Yurine-sama’s personality Fubuki took from her; she has not annihilated them, but instead bound them to her shadow, so that Yurine-sama remains aware that she once was different from her current self. Yurine-sama’s behavior the morning of the battle was likely related to Fubuki hiding in her shadow, although I have the hypothesis the tanuki’s chakra in the vicinity might have catalyzed the inference phenomenon…hmm…I’m digressing again.”

Yuri looked a bit peeved, but not really in a bad way. She was just so used to the lazy Sayoko that she sometimes forgot her best friend was quite old and by extension fairly knowledgeable.

“Anyway, for Yurine-sama to recover her lost personality traits, you must force Fubuki to manifest her shadow. Kind of like this.”

Sayoko’s hands blurred for a moment, and her shadow literally emerged from the surface of the boulder like a bloating, viscous mass. The tar-like Void stuff grew and sculpted itself into the silhouette of Sayoko, but it remained completely black and featureless; a black effigy in the likeness of the ancient Void fox-woman. She stood straight, even straighter than the real Sayoko normally would, while the original wiggled her aching hands and blew on them as if they were burnt.

“I’m too old to move them so quickly…”

So quickly you would need Sharingan to pick up the hand seals? Yeah, probably.

“That jutsu…” Setsuna, the person who had a working Sharingan, said. “That wasn’t Awakening of Shadow’s Ego.”

“It wasn’t?” Kotonoha, who recognized the name of the standard Kuuton shadow manifestation jutsu, thusly repeated.

“That’s what I said, megatits,” Setsuna scathingly retorted. “I copied it, but I’m pretty sure I can’t pull it off. Hell, it doesn’t even make sense in my brain.”

“Me, mega…” Kotonoha is a very tolerant woman.

“This is a different jutsu, but there is a very well known jutsu that allows all Void wielders how to create a corporeal manifestation of their shadows,” Sayoko further explained. “You have to push Fubuki into using it, and then you must destroy the shadow manifestation without killing Fubuki herself. It is not an easy feat; Fubuki’s shadow could easily match any seven- or eight-tails. Furthermore, it is made of Void-nature chakra, which means it is immune to almost everything.”

The Void kitsune’s eyes went to Naruto’s group at the far end of the gathering.

“Aside from myself, the only person here likely to pull it off would be Yuria-sama.”

Of course, the attention of those actually listening to Sayoko’s explanations went to the short three-tails seating next to Setsuna.

“Eh? What’s up?”

“Yeah, I was wondering too,” Setsuna mused, glancing at the girl who matched her height but not her bust size. “About time somebody brings up Musclehead.”

“Hey!”

“Yuria-sama, could you please join me over here for a while?”

After exchanging confused glances with Naruto, Yuria did as suggested by Sayoko. The eight-tails did not wait for Yuria to reach the boulder she was resting on to continue speaking.

“Yuria-sama…performed some impressive feats during the battle three days ago. On more than one occasion when the Emissary of Oblivion should have unleashed its automatic Void spears, it failed to do so. This always happened when Yuria-sama was standing in front of it.”

“Huh,” Yuria eloquently replied. “Really?”

Sayoko found Yuria’s ignorance almost endearing.

“Also, Yuria-sama penetrated Kougon’s Aegis of the Infinite, I was told.”

“Heheh, you said ‘penetrated’.”

The crowd went silent. Yuria stopped on her tracks. A fish leapt off the river, flapped its tail and flopped back into the crystalline waters. Somebody coughed.

“Whaaat?” Yuria retorted while pouting. “I’m trying to lighten the mood here! Everybody’s so serious and stuffy and warily looking at everybody else like we’re gonna start killing each other any second now! Yes, I’m looking at you, bandage grandpa!”

Danzou raised an eyebrow.

“We won, guys! We kicked ass together, and we won the big battle! That’s a good thing! Let’s make something out of that instead of concentrating on the shitty stuff. Konoha’s gone, but at the rate Chiyuri and Masked Dude are going at it, you’ll have your village back in no time!”

Somewhere in Konoha’s forests, Higashiyama Chiyuri and Yamato were seated under the shade of a tree, leaning on each other while pretty much hyperventilating from sheer exhaustion. It was a friendship forged with sweat. And chakra exhaustion.

“Naruto, your mate is really random,” Setsuna muttered. Naruto failed to notice the venomous intonation of the word “mate”, bless his soul.

“You know, she stopped being my mate the moment she was banished from her clan.”

“Really?” Setsuna’s eyes suddenly looked very lively.

“Setsuna, you’re wagging your tail,” Kotonoha thoughtfully pointed out.

“I most certainly am not, Boobzilla.” Indeed, she was not. Anymore.

“Onii-chan’s mate is Sayuri!”

“Yeaaaaaaaah, no.”

To Naruto’s left, Aika giggled at the strange company she was keeping that morning.

“But anyway. Kougon’s Aegis. Yeah, I remember that,” Yuria continued, closing her distance to Sayoko and her boulder.

“Perhap most importantly, Yuria-sama parried Fubuki’s Kuuton.”

Crossing her arms upon reaching the base of the boulder, Yuria puckered her lips in thought and nodded to herself.

“That I remember very clearly. How did that happen?”

Everybody looked her with almost identical “shouldn’t you know that?” faces.

“I have an idea of what it might be, but I would like to confirm my hypothesis. Right now, if possible.”

“Uhh, sure. How do we do that?”

“You stopped Fubuki’s Void attack. Let’s see if you can stop mine.”

“…huh?”

And thus, a minute later Yuria found herself standing just across the river, alone with Sayoko’s shadow. Everybody else had settled on the opposite side, with the real Sayoko and her cherished sunbathing spot.

“Uhh…is this really happening…?” Yuria muttered, still looking a bit uncertain of the sudden turn of events.

“Prepare yourself, Yuria; I’m not holding back,” Sayoko said from across the river.

“Umm…you could, you know, hold back a little! I wouldn’t mind, really!”

The shadow raised its right arm towards the sky.

“Soutouken.”

The shadow’s Sword of Complete Annihilation became a black line that split the sky in half. Most of the civilians took a step back; a sheer instinctual reaction.

“I do not favor offensive jutsu, so it is probably weaker than Fubuki’s,” Sayoko clarified.

“Sayoko-san, you’re not very good at comforting people; did you know that!?”

“Yes, I’m aware.”

Yuria did not fear for her existence—Sayoko had already declared she did not take lives. However, the sight of the titanic blade of Void was intimidating solely by act of presence. Sayoko would not annihilate her if she failed, but accidents happen. The feeling of trepidation perturbing those present only worsened when the blade began to shrink; the total chakra did not change, it was “only” compressed from a kilometers-high line of Void to a ten-or-so-meters-long sword of extinction. Not a single quantum of chakra leaked out; the construct was perfect, stable and unchanging, and its only property was truly annihilation.

“Yuria-sama,” Sayoko insisted, her voice slightly sterner and impatient. Yuria gritted her teeth. She simply could not understand; why was she so afraid? This is Sayoko-san; she had nothing to fear from this person. Then, why was this blade so fucking terrifying!?

“Stand up, Yuria-sama,” Sayoko repeated, and Yuria gasped at the feel of soil beneath her fingers. She…did not even notice falling flat on her butt.

Scary.

Scary.

Sayoko must have done something to her; she was so unreasonably afraid! Of the Void sword, and of the unflinching, unfeeling and unnatural shadow in front of her.

“Stand up…” she whispered to herself. “Stand up! Stand up, Yuria!”

“Stand up, Yuria-kun.”

“What the hell are you waiting for!?”

She looked at the other side of the river, where Gai and Naruto had called out to her. Naruto was carrying Sayuri on his shoulders, and the little Kyuubi looked delighted.

“Waaaai, Sayuri’s so taaaaaall!” Strange words from one whose true form is a gigantic monstrosity of poisonous chakra. “Now Sayuri can burn even moar things!”

“How many times do I have to say it—no burning!”

“Muuu…”

“Yuria-kun,” Gai continued, paying no heed to Naruto and the nine-tails. “Have you forgotten why you wished to train under my wing?”

“Yeah!” a grinning Naruto added, pulling Sayuri’s hands off his eyes. “Don’t realize, that ‘the strongest’ is standing right in front of you?”

The strongest.

Yuria had made that claim a number of tails: that she would become the youkai that would surpass all youkai. She did not really know much about youkai besides kitsune—although she had an idea about the Overlord of Oni being absurdly powerful—, but she realized Naruto had a point. This Kurosaki Sayoko was the woman who surpassed both Kyuubi. She was, undoubtedly, the strongest fox youkai.

Her chakra swirled inside her, as if possessing a will of its own and yearning to be unleashed. It began to gather and flow through her thick pathways, running towards her sole manifested tail. Yuria frowned, and her sight narrowed as she glared at the shadow of Sayoko, the symbol of Yuria’s unexplainable moment of weakness.

“What the hell…?” She murmured angrily. “Since when do I need me telling me what to do!?” Growling to herself and her uselessness, Yuria leaned back on the warm soil before launching herself to an upright posture.

“Burn, my cosmo!”

“It’s chakra,” most of the kitsune present retorted as one.

“Alright, let’s do this the shounen way: with lots of screaming,” Yuria decided and thus filled her lungs with air. Then, she roared like a saiyan gathering his ki for the strongest transformation. Her tenketsu began to glow when loose chakra gushed out of her body like steam from a teapot. While the civilians and some of the Shionzaki kitsune were surprised, it was a sight Gai and the Higashiyama lilies were already accustomed to. They already were well acquainted with the unfathomable depths of Yuria’s chakra capacity. A single white-tipped black tail became three. Her entire body was engulfed by the halo of blazing chakra; tones of blue, yellow and grey swirled around like paint being mixed by the artist about to create his masterpiece.

Gai nodded. Yuria probably had more chakra than any of the humans present, and more chakra than most of the kitsune as well. The chakra was being directed towards a single of her tails.

“This tail! It glows with awesome power!”

“Knock it off with the reference jokes already…” a face-palming Yurimi muttered to nobody.

Sayoko was attentively watching the three-tails from her cherished boulder. In her mind, she was estimating how much chakra Yuria had gathered in the glowing tail; she was measuring, and comparing.

“More chakra,” she demanded. “More, and more compressed.”

“Don’t need to tell me…that!” Yuria gasped more than said. “I feel like I’m gonna take a dump, right here!”

“Ugh…” Naruto groaned, but he could get her point: Yuria’s well-defined musculature was taut, from her forehead to her toes, and she gritted her teeth while forcing her prodigious anatomy to pump out more and more chakra. The haze of energy surrounding her was already so thick it was making the air around her vibrate. Hiruzen commanded his shinobi to form a wall between Yuria and the civilian elements of their audience. He had seen Yuria’s Mountain Breaker, and he did not want any innocents blown away by a shockwave.

Suddenly, something changed inside Yuria, and both the girl herself and Sayoko noticed this. Yuria looked at the sword of Void, and she no longer felt the unreasonable horror from before. It was as if her chakra unleashed had washed away all fear and uncertainty. Sayoko smiled the tiniest of smiles; Yuria’s chakra had literally pushed out the Kuuton chakra she had injected inside Yuria to eat away at her usual fearlessness and unreasonable confidence.

Not yet.

“More compression,” she demanded, and ‘Yuria whispered some expletive nobody caught. While screaming at the top of her lungs, she wrapped the overcharged tail around her right arm, assumed a very low horse stance and pulled her right fist back to ready her attack. It was an absurdly long process of gathering chakra, completely impossible in a real fight; it was the only reason the magnitude and density of the accumulated energy dwarfed her previous instances of Rasenken.

And then, a certain threshold was broken, and a most interesting phenomenon began to take place. Sayoko’s heart skipped a beat, as it was struck by a wave of unbearable nostalgia.

There. There it is.

“Wait, am I…am I seeing things here, Sayuri?” Naruto tried to confirm the strange thing he was witnessing. The murmurs amidst those watching had grown in volume, so he guessed it was not just him. Gai was also shaking his head, trying to understand this strange development.

“Colohs are goin’ weihd,” Sayuri muttered, about as amused as she was confused. The green of the tress just beyond Yuria was changing from a deep green to a lighter tone, and then to an intense yellow, and the same happened to the grass around her feet. The water at the river’s edge, closest to Yuria’s legs, was instead taking a greenish tone. Yuria’s own skin had taken a bizarre orange tonality, while the chakra halo surrounding her gained an intense red color.

Yuria, too, was looking at her surroundings with surprise and confusion.

“Hey, why do the trees look so blue all of a sudden? And the water so…purple.”

“What are you talking about!?” Naruto shouted back. “The trees are yellow!” However, the phenomenon was reduced to those trees nearest to Yuria. Any trees, any other object sufficiently away from Yuria’s position retained its natural color.

“It’s a purely optical phenomenon,” the Third Hokage realized. “It only affects anything we see past her released chakra.”

“Gravitational redshift. It happens because the light that reaches our eyes is being pulled towards Yuria-sama.”

However, the same force that was pulling light itself did not seem to be tearing the rest of the world apart. A strangely selective phenomenon.

People looked up at Sayoko, who had covered her mouth with both hands, watching the phenomenon with tears in her aged eyes.

“It has been too long…really, too long since I saw this last…”

Yuria’s eyes widened when the shadow pulled its raised blade back a bit before slashing forward; a descending strike like an executioner’s axe. Her left foot took a step forward, and the grass and soil around it burst outwards as if to envelop it. Yuria roared in pain as all the chakra condensed in her tail was forcefully pumped into the muscle fibers of her right arm. At the same time, blades of grass were uprooted, leaves plucked themselves off their branches, streams of water leapt out of the river and clumps of packed soil surged from below, all of them like devotees eager to touch that messianic limb. For a moment, just for a moment, everything and everybody felt themselves inexplicably pulled towards that arm glowing red with chakra.

Soutouken met Rasenken, and the sword of Void was pulled towards the fist just like everything else. The pull broke it and bent it almost comically, like a broken accordion, until it finally exploded, immediately dispersing harmlessly. There was not even a confrontation; upon touching the spiral fist, the sword of annihilation surrendered and fell apart. Immediately afterwards, all the things which had been pulled towards Yuria’s arm began a parabolic descent towards the ground, as if the planet had demanded back its sovereignty over all matter from the empress’ fist. There was no shockwave, no calamitous explosion of two great powers. Yuria’s fist destroyed the Soutouken, all colors went back to normal, and the girl then fell flat on her face, feeling spent. And so, while everybody else tried to make sense of what exactly just happened, Yuria rolled herself to look up at the sky while heaving and sweating beyond what any single punch should make her sweat. A shadow fell over her. It was Sayoko, who had dismissed her Manifestation of Shadowform Nyorai and crossed the river to reach the three-tailed foxgirl.

Yuria tilted her head albeit slightly.

“Why…are you crying, Sayoko-san?”

The older kitsune wiped the tears off her cheeks and smiled.

“Because you have reminded me of someone I dearly miss, Yuria-sama. Thank you very much.”

Sayoko fell to her knees and delicately wiped the sweat off Yuria’s face with a handkerchief.

“What…what just happened…?”

“I…cannot explain it myself. It was explained to me with these words. She said: ‘Sayoko, to make it simple, your Kuuton’s will to annihilate was inferior to my Chiton’s will to exist’.” Sayoko giggled at a memory only she carried, deep within her heart. “Basically, my Void tried to eat more than it can chew.”

“Chiton…?”

“When you gather enough chakra and compress it beyond a certain threshold, it changes its nature. It is neither basic chakra nor Earth-nature chakra; it is the sublime chakra with the power to hold the entirety of Creation together; the core manifestation of the Aeon of Existence: Chiton Jutsu.”

“I don’t…I don’t understand…” The fact that she was still wobbly did not help matters.

“Remember what I told Fubuki and Kougon. The ‘Pinnacle of Systematic Mastery’ the Kyuubi receive from Inari to boost their power. It is the first of many steps towards reaching the primordial, fundamental powers that rule our Reality: Creation, Existence, Destruction and Nothingness.”

Sayoko sat down; it did not matter if the others nearby listened, but the target of her words this time was Yuria and solely Yuria. Her hands tenderly caressed Yuria’s cheeks, which made the three-tails blush quite brightly.

“Kougon wields Kouton, and Inari granted him Trikaya, the body of light. Should he understand that his light is more than a physical phenomenon, but the light of life and truth that illuminates the Void and shapes concept from the raw chaos, he would begin his ascension towards the Aeon of Creation.”

Sayoko spared a glance towards Sayuri, who was rambling something about setting gravity on fire. Sometimes that girl was inexplicably sharp.

“Sayuri-sama originally wielded Katon, and Inari granted her Kakuton, the unraveling of atomic forces. However, she believed in her own destructive power to such an extent that Destruction itself answered to her will. Now she wields the white flame that unravels all existence. She is much further along the path to the Aeon of Destruction than Kougon to Creation.”

Yuria winced when Sayoko took her swollen, stinging right arm and held it carefully between her soft hands.

“You wielded neither Reiton nor Doton. Not even the Mountain Alchemy of the great Moutain kitsune clans. But you pushed yourself, so recklessly, so devotedly, when surrendering would have been so much easier. Your chakra has blossomed into something truly beautiful, just like your body, so strong and magnificent.”

Yuria blushed a lot more. She still was not used to receiving praise for her rugged, brawny body. Sayoko slid her finger along Yuria’s upper arm. Yuria did not have bulging, grotesquely large biceps or triceps, but Sayoko was mesmerized by how stiff and hard her muscles were.

“The first step to Chiton! You need a body of adamant! Not just plain steel; anybody can shape himself some steel muscles! You need the toughest, hardiest, unbreakable body; the kind of body the smith gods would want to make a divine weapon from! Shaped from outside with hard work, and from the inside with chakra constantly being pushed to the limit! That’s right, a body like this! Ahahahahaha!”

“You mean…this is the ‘Pinnacle of Mountain Mastery’…?” Yuria asked with gaping eyes. “The power…a Mountain Kyuubi would receive from Inari-sama…?”

“Have you learned nothing from three days ago, Yuria-sama?” A smiling Sayoko retorted. Their bodies were similar, but Sayoko had to admit, Yuria and that person were completely different. “Kyuubi is just a title, and the ‘Pinnacles of Systematic Mastery’ are a gift from a recklessly kind god, but there’s only so much even Inari-sama can give. True greatness, true power…those things no god can give you, and nobody needs to wait eight hundred years and hope for divine providence to reach that level.

She remembered so many great people, wise and powerful, although perhaps a little unhinged as well. She spoke a little louder; perhaps she wanted everybody else to listen to this part as well.

“The great humans and youkai of earlier times, they did not need the blessing of a ninth tail to achieve their great power. Hagoromo-kun certainly didn’t, and neither did I. There have been many great kitsune who never became Kyuubi, like Yuri-sama’s mother Yuyuko-sama, or even Utahime-sama over there. And there are so many powerful youkai out there, who started with nothing and struggled to become symbols of greatness, like Lord Nurarihyon. Just like those great humans, and those great youkai; Yuria-sama, this Chiton…it is your power, and your right, as the little Mountain kitsune that could.”

Sayoko got back on her feet, and helped Yuria stand up as well.

“With that said, Yuria-sama…has been banished from her clan. That is truly regrettable. A kitsune as important as Yuria-sama cannot be allowed to live without a proper, full name.”

Yuria frowned, wondering just what Sayoko was trying to get at. It was Sayoko’s turn to blush, if only a little.

“If I may be allowed another act of selfishness, can I have the honor of granting Yuria-sama a new name, to replace ‘Higashiyama’?”

Among most kitsune clans, Higashiyama included, there was no taking back a sentence of banishment. This was something Yurimi and Yuria had both accepted on that day. Yurimi would never admit the dissolution of Yuria’s claim over Naruto might have had something to do with that decision. In the end, it was what Yuria had wished for, even if in the end it became a pointless thing—Fubuki at least had intended to attack Higashiyama long before Yuria’s defiance could have become a point.

Names are important to kitsune. According to the Kitsune Creation Myth, Inari himself gave noble names to the first fox youkai, which became the names of the first kitsune families and clans. A kitsune without a surname was thus a kitsune without a family, without allies or a place to call home; a kitsune without honor, and thus undeserving of either respect or hospitality.

Yuria had not really thought much of it. Now that it was fairly clear she would not become “Uzumaki Yuria”—not that it ever was a possibility, really—, getting a proper name sounded like a useful thing to do. She would be the First Matriarch of her one-person clan.

“Um!” Yuria nodded excitedly. “If it’s a name from Sayoko-san, it would be my honor!”

There was a sudden feeling of alarm among the shinobi when the youkai began to leap across the shallow stream to the side where Yuria and Sayoko stood alone. Shrugging to himself, Naruto followed them with Sayuri still on his shoulders. The Third Hokage raised an arm to stop his ninja from drawing weapons; his intuition told him this was a ceremony of importance to the youkai there, and he carried no ill feelings towards Yuria, one of the brave soldiers who fought the Emissary of Oblivion and protected Konoha.

Yuria looked behind her, at the kitsune of Shionzaki celebrating her with thumbs-ups and grins; at Yurisa’s gentle smile, full of happiness for her half-sister’s sake; at Setsuna, whose sneer did not match the congratulatory warmth in her eyes; at Kotonoha, who bowed before her with respect Yuria never believed she deserved. Shionzaki Aika looked like she could feel Yuria’s elation as if it were her own, and it was by looking at her that Yuria finally realized what was happening, and what she was feeling.

She was finally someone.

For no real reason, she looked across the river, at the humans. Most of them did not have a clear idea of what was going on or what all the talking was about, but among them she could find a number of faces. There were some who fought the Emissary and lived to remember her, and those who had accepted her help clearing debris and carrying construction materials. There were those whose loved ones she had personally dug out from the rubble, and children who had cried on her clothes upon realizing their mothers and fathers had fallen into a sleep from which they would never wake up again.

To most people there she was just another youkai; an object of distrust, perhaps even hatred. But to some among them, she was somebody.

“Who steps forward as witness?” Sayoko called out loudly. Two kitsune did so.

“Shionzaki Utahime, Fourteenth Songmistress of the Great Sound Clan, steps forward as witness.”

“Yurimi, Fourth Matriarch of Higashiyama, steps forward as witness.”

Yuria’s head could not have jerked faster in Yurimi’s direction. The sisters stared at each other at length, and Yurimi’s barely raised eyebrow wordlessly asked whether it was so strange of her to do this for her sister.

This kind of ceremony required two formal witnesses, at least one of them not related to the subject by blood. Satisfied with the two, Sayoko nodded and planted her hands on Yuria’s shoulders, thus drawing her attention.

“Then I, Sayoko, First and Last Matriarch of Kurosaki, shall grant you a name.”

Sayoko’s eyes looked at Yuria as if she wished to memorize her whole anatomy. Yuria was wearing her traditional shrine maiden garments; the clothes Naruto bought her were all but ruined at the end of the battle. She had to wash her sole remaining clothes every evening and wear them every morning even if they were not completely dry. She had slept in her true vulpine form the past few nights, to better fight the night breeze. She was originally not welcome to stay either in Konoha’s or Shionzaki’s camps, and even those who would have welcomed her succumbed to peer pressure and turned their backs on the banished kitsune. It was Sayuri who cared not for kitsune habits or traditions and invited Yuria to stay with her and the unconscious Naruto. She did not sleep much, anyway; she spent nights of vigil watching over her former fiancé and dear friend, and during daytime she made herself useful and those who rejected her at nighttime uncomfortable about themselves. Yet there she was, standing tall and straight like the world could do nothing to make her stumble and fall.

“You’re truly quite the unorthodox kitsune, Yuria-sama,” she spoke quietly, barely loud enough for Yuria herself to hear it. Then, she raised her voice, denying Yuria the chance to reply.

“I shall grant you a noble name; the name of the greatest youkai to have ever lived in this world. A person who lived selfishly, intensely, and without an ounce of regret. A reckless, inconsiderate person who put her own wants above everybody else’s. She left no offspring, going against the wishes of the entire kitsune race and against the gods themselves to defend her choice. She sought and found enlightenment in power, and the entirety of creation kneeled before her incomparable might. She was the first and the last to carry her name, and she placed on me the duty of granting that name to the next one to walked her same steps.”

The pressure on Yuria’s shoulders increased, and the girl unconsciously stood straighter.

“Yuria, formerly of Higashiyama. As of this moment, you shall be known by the name Tamamo.”

The girl gained a boy, a friend. Then, she involved herself in a great battle, where she experienced fear and the possibility of losing her life for the first time, but also grew more powerful, and helped many people. For her great power and her great deeds, she was granted a noble name, which she would carry proudly to the end of her days.

Thus continued the legend of Tamamo no Yuria.

 

[LOLRAINE]

Fairly enjoyable snippet. :3

 

[violinmana]

This story was never about Naruto, but about Tamamo no Yuria instead.

Probably.

 

[KurokamiDG]

This story was never about Naruto, but about Tamamo no Yuria instead.

Probably.

Meh. While I agree that Tamamo no Yuria is pretty much an important factor, she's still not the Main Character. This story was meant to introduce all of the important players in Naruto's life as he begins his ascent to becoming A BEING THAT TRANSCENDS HIS MORTAL COIL AS ONE ABOVE THE GODS.

At least, that's how I feel about it at this point.

Still, it's awesome that Yuria's finally getting some recognition. ^_^

 

[buytbuyt]

^_^

Inspiring!

Me Shivered!

W00t!

 

[Knyght]

Yeah, that was quite thrilling. And I'm oddly reminded of the start of The Lion King.

I wonder if Naruto's gonna go the Aeon route.

 

[raedric]

Naruto is gonna say "screw aeons" and find himself a better power. Preferably with blackjack and hookers.

 

[Nasuren]

This story was never about Naruto, but about Tamamo no Yuria instead.

Probably.

Bullshit. This is about Sayuri and pwetty tails!

 

[violinmana]

This story was never about Naruto, but about Tamamo no Yuria instead.

Probably.

Meh. While I agree that Tamamo no Yuria is pretty much an important factor, she's still not the Main Character. This story was meant to introduce all of the important players in Naruto's life as he begins his ascent to becoming A BEING TRANSCENDS HIS MORTAL COIL AS ONE ABOVE THE GODS.

At least, that's how I feel about it at this point.

Still, it's awesome that Yuria's finally getting some recognition. ^_^

Naruto's soul belongs to something greater than the Death God?

HIS SOUL BELONGS TO HIMSELF

 

[Daneel Rush]

The Sayumayu cosmology assigns every single technique, including those from canon, to one of the Four Aeons. All humans, youkai, gods, as well as the Ultimate One, belong to this level. Then we have the "transitional" powers of Time kitsune and Mayuri's Touzai Kokon: their power originated from beyond Reality, but their capabilities do not truly surpass the Four Aeons and can be defeated by powerful wielders of any of the four. Then there is one power truly from "outside Reality": the Silver Key. Sayoko only used it to live an obscenely long life, but that's because she has no idea how to tap into its powers for combat purposes, and she never really cared.

 

[LOLRAINE]

It's been a while so I'm probably forgetting but where do the Outer Gods stand in this cosmology?

Also, what does possessing an Aeon truly mean? From the brief moment where Naruto merged with Sayuri it seems that one truly becomes the embodiment of said aeon or is that a bit wrong?

 

[Thardoc]

Lol.... and now naruto is the owner of said silver key....

 

[violinmana]

No, Sayoko took the Silver Key back from Naruto. I'm assuming that eventually, she'll give it to him again to wield(?).