The Spirit of the Mountain

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Kakumei – Arc 2: The Curse of Time

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Chapter 55 – The Spirit of the mountain

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In the streets of Konohagakure, Kokoro and her team of Kiri-nin are walking around together. They're talking about what already happened since they've arrived at Konoha and what they'll be doing next. It's been a day since Takeshi communicated with the Daitengu through a Genjutsu, in the middle of a Kage council.

"Are you sure that you're okay, Takeshi?" asks Yukiko, still a bit worried about her teammate's state.

"I'm telling you I'm fine. You've asked this 20 times already." answers the young Kiri-nin.

"So what did you guys do yesterday?" asks Kokoro to start some random chit-chat with her students before bringing up today's topic.

"Oh we went around the village and Takeshi introduced us to his friends." Kaori replies. "Whom I didn't expect to be so young. Takeshi, why are all your friends literal kids?"

"They may be 3 years younger than you, but they're only one year away from me." says Takeshi about Boruto, Metal and Izuna. "The reason I have kid friends, is because I was a kid a year ago… Also their parents are friends with my parents."

"They're not like any kid, are they?" adds Kokoro. "One of them is the son of the 7th Hokage."

"About him, the Hokage, What did he tell you?" questions Kaori, ready to hear about their mission of the day. "And where are we heading to?"

Kokoro inhales, and prepares to explain what Naruto told her sooner this morning when she was called to his office.

"Thanks to his sensing abilities, the Hokage managed to approximately locate the Daitengu by using the connection his chakra and spirit has to Kawahime's." she tells. "Right now, as we speak, the Hokage is heading to Shin no Kuni to talk things out with him."

"Shin no Kuni? The lands of Heart? Where is this?" asks Yukiko.

"It's a very large land that lies under this continent." quickly adds Kokoro.

"So the Hokage is going all alone to another continent, by foot?" Kaori remarks, finding it odd.

"Not exactly by foot…" Kokoro precises, before going on with her explanation. "He hopes to find the Daitengu and properly discuss his objectives with him. Maybe negotiate an agreement… Meanwhile, to ensure her safety, Lady Saori Minamoto was secretly brought to a new place. We're going to the Yamanaka leader's house. She'll be able to give me knowledge of Lady Saori's location without having Sojobo hear it."

"So, obviously, the Daitengu was assisting to your meeting with the Hokage through your senses." says Takeshi. "I suppose this was intentional."

"Yes. It is the only way the Hokage had to inform Sojobo of his visit and attempt for a civil negotiation." she answers. "Hopefully, he listened to us and agrees to the meeting."

Takeshi nods, just like Kaori and Yukiko, satisfied by these explanations. In his mind, Tentoki is bothered by this approach, and has a pessimistic view of the outcome.

"He won't accept any talk with Naruto." he says to his yamabushi. "He probably sees it as pointless, since the Hokage wouldn't agree with him anyway. Even if they come to an agreement about Saori's status of yamabushi or not, the Hokage will never agree with Sojobo's vision of a gathered family."

"What do you think he'll do then?" asks Takeshi.

"He most likely will take advantage of Naruto's absence from the village and come to get Saori." he suggests. "Be it by sending a suordinate, or by himself."

"But there are still plenty of the 7th's clones around." mentions the young Minamoto.

"He knows that clones aren't as dangerous as the original." argues Tentoki. "With my Koton – Shunshin and Tenshi's chakra wings combined, he could go from one end of this world to another in a few seconds. Avoiding Naruto's trajectory on the way would just barely add a few more seconds to it. He'd still make it to and through Konoha, and find Saori in a minute or less."

Takeshi doesn't answer. He just tries to imagine how fast this would mean. He wonders if he'll ever be able to reach this level of speed himself. After these futile hopes, he thinks about his tengu's words again. About what Sojobo's next move might be and why.

"Plus with me in this village, it makes two reasons for him to come." he comments, a bit worried, but not afraid. "The other day, he showed interest in meeting me for real."

"In this case… If you come face to face with him, attack him relentlessly and protect those you care about." suggests the white tengu. "He seems to want a healthy relation with you. He won't hurt you, and won't upset you, as long as it doesn't go against his own objectives. It is the first time I see him interact with a child. Maybe your age will make him go easier on you than on any previous Minamoto first born."

"You do know he hearing what you say right now?" Takeshi reminds his tengu, who obviously didn't forget.

"Of course I know, and I'l letting him do so." Tenktoki replies. "Only he knows if what I'm suggesting is true or not."

Just as Tentoki predicted, Sojobo makes his move to Konoha. And just as Tentoki described, he does it in a flash, only moving a bit slower than the best he could, because his attention is partly on Takeshi's current conversation.

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Just an hour later, Naruto Uzumaki, who's in his New Rikudo Sennin Mode, flies through the sky in direction of Shin no Kuni. As he's going across the air at hypersonic speed, he suddenly stops short and looks back in Konoha's direction.

"What happened?" asks Kurama in the Hokage's mind. "Why did you stop moving?"

"Time just froze for a moment." answers Naruto, sure about this.

"What? How could you know?" exclaims the fox, unsettled by this assumption.

"It seems like Jikanteido is a space-time disruption similar to Madara's Limbo." explains the jinchuriki. "Sasuke can see it with his Rinnegan, and I can feel it with my Sage Mode."

"Really? So Sojobo just used this jutsu?" interrogates Kyubi, still confused. "Why are you looking toward Konoha?"

"Because it's probably where he went." promptly and calmly responds Naruto.

"Ah… I see." slowly says Kurama. "So it's as we supposed it would be. He refuses dialogue. Good thing we prepared for this turn of events."

"Yeah, we should get ready. Let's summon Gamakichi right now."

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In Konoha again, just a very few minutes earlier, in the common quarters of the Yamanaka, Nara and Akimichi clans, Karui, Choji's wife walks through the streets alone and peacefully. She's s going to meet her husband and get her infant daughter at her restaurant when she unexpectedly runs into him, without their kid.

"Where's Chocho?" she asks as she reaches him.

Choji just looks at her, a bit confused, and doesn't answer for a moment.

"Dear, where's Chocho?" she insists. "You were supposed to wait for me with her at the restaurant. What are you doing here?"

"It… is where I left her. The restaurant." he answers, hesitating. "I had to go, so I left her to the cook…"

"The cook? I am the cook. Who did you leave her to?" interrupts Karui, who starts to panic.

"You didn't let me finish." answers the Akimichi leader. "I left her to the cook's kitchen. In her cradle…"

"Oh. I get it! And where are you going? I thought we were gonna have some time together…" she says with a flirty voice.

"I'm going home to get a few things. I'll be back at the restaurant in no time. Don't worry, dear." he answers, confidently.

Convinced, Karui gently smiles, stands up on tiptoe and quickly kisses her husband.

"I'll see you there then." she says before she gets back on her way.

Choji looks at her leaving, and eases himself. He turns around and keeps going his way as well.

Later, Karui enters her restaurant and immediately heads to the kitchen to find her daughter. Unfortunately, she finds the baby's bed empty. Stressed and sweating, she runs back to the dining room of the place and gazes through the tables to see all the present clients, hoping to find someone that will help her. Thankfully, but oddly, she finds her husband sitting at a table with their daughter and the 6th Hokage. Confused, she runs to them.

"How are you here?" she exclaims, almost angry.

"What? How I'm here?" asks Choji, confused. "Um… We were supposed to meet here, don't you remember?

"Yes I do, but I just saw you outside, remember?" answers Karui. "You said you'll be back in a few minutes. So how are you already there?"

Choji just stares at her confusingly. He then gazes at his daughter, as if he expected her to give an explanation for this, and then at the 6th Hokage. Kakashi stares back, as confused as the Akimichi leader, before he realizes what might be happening. His confusion turns into fear and awareness.

"Quick! To the Yamanaka house!" he yells as he stands up and hurries out of the restaurant.

"What? What's happening? Kakashi?" questions Choji, even more confused now with the 6th's reaction.

"We've been infiltrated! It's the Daitengu!" adds Kakashi as he runs out.

Choji and Karui, not understanding how the former Hokage could ge to this conclusion, look at each other, trying to check if the other is any less unsettled. After a few seconds of hesitation, Choji simply decides to trust Kakashi and quicky hands his baby over to his wife, before running off to follow him.

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Yureidanuki (Ghost Tanuki). It is the name of the illusion that Sojobo is using. It is one of Kawahime's abilities. It allows the user to appear as a person's loved one to their eyes. After using Jikanteido and his high-hyperspeed to quickly break into Konoha, he used this Genjutsu to get through the village's security barrier, being felt as the one they love the most by all the sensory team, closer to the Yamanaka house without being seen.

Now, he's reached his destination, and casually knocks at the door like he's a regular friend coming to visit. Ino's daughter, Inoue, comes to open the door.

"AAH!" she screams at first, which almost makes the Daitengu doubt his power. However, she quickly calms down, also under the influence of Yureidanuki but just startled by who she sees him disguised as. "What are you doing here? I mean why are you coming to my house?"

Sojobo doesn't reply. He doesn't even bother verifying whose appearance he took. He just looks away and waits for the girl to let him in. Inoue also waits, just like the Daitengu, before deciding to escape this awkward situation.

"Umm… I'll get my mom." she says as she turns around and gets back inside. After a few seconds, Sojobo sees the head of the Yamanaka clan, Ino, carrying her baby son Inojin. She gets the door and widely opens it.

"Sai?" she asks, recognizing her husband. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be on a mission?"

The Daitengu doesn't answer. In fact he didn't even hear these words. Right now, he's hypnotized by who he sees. Ino Yamanaka, in the flesh, standing before him, holding an infant in her arms. Agape at this image that reminds him of old memories, he slowly speaks.

"I-Inosuke?"

The current Yamanaka leader looks, to the Daitengu, very similar to a former leader of the same clan, that he knew by the past. Her carrying her son in her arms brings him ages back in time, to when he was nothing but a cocoon in a mountain.

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For more than a millennium, there was a statue in the valley of mount Sojo, the mountain around which the three clans Yamanaka, Nara and Akimichi were based before forming their famous alliance. This old wooden statue represented an odd creature resembling a person with no face, only 3 eyes, including one closed on its forehead, and wearing some sort of robe, fused into its body.

Members of all three clans who lived nearby had for habit to visit this statue for prayers and meditations. They worshiped it as some kind of divinity, as a natural force. Therefore had they baptized it Sojobo, which means the priest of Sojo, the spirit of the mountain.

3 centuries ago, from the cave in which this statue lied, an overwhelming chakra pressure could be felt. A chakra so intense and complex it couldn't be sensed by anyone else than the most experienced members of the Yamanaka clan. To investigate this strange phenomenon, the leader of the clan at the time, Inosuke Yamanaka, sent his younger brother, Inosawa Yamanaka, to see the statue with a small elite team.

When the leader's brother arrived at the place with his colleagues, the statue had disappeared,… at first sight. After a quick turn of the cave, one of the men found the statue, who now had legs instead of roots sinking in the soil. It was sitting with its legs crossed, confused by the life form that stood before it. The ninja saw the statue move in an odd, but very humane, manner. He saw it crawl away, like it's afraid. One only explanation for this thing occurred to him: An evil force or a ninja had taken over the statue of the spirit.

"You demon!" yelled the Yamanaka as he tried to cut the wooden living thing in two pieces.

Unfortunately, his weapon, after going through the wood, just ricocheted and flew off his hands. Startled by this sudden attack but unable to understand it, the statue tried to replicate the ninja's movement, to see its purpose. It precipitated its hand and long fingers toward the ninja, and accidentally stabbed through him, with extreme ease.

As the sound of an impalement resonated in the cave, Inosawa and the other ninjas ran to find the source of this noise. They found the creature, standing tall next to the corpse of their friend. The statue, unsettled, analyzed its hand, the human blood tearing down its arm and falling down as droplets from the tip of its fingers. Frightened by this discovery, but also shocked by their friend's murder, all of the present Yamanaka unleashed their weapons and assaulted the creature. All of them except two.

The first of these two just fell to his knees and contemplated the living statue, calling it both a miracle and a curse repeatedly. The second ninja who stood back was Inosawa, who stood straight and watched as his teammates were desperately attacking the statue. None of their blades could pass through it. They went through the wood, but not through what's under. The wood shell was slowly being peeled off by their repeated offensives as the creature was trying to apologize, but without a word, just with signs.

Eventually, it ended up killing all the ninjas who attacked it, just as unintentionally as for the first one, by carelessly trying to touch these people. Inosawa looked, amazed, at this glorious creature. He saw in this thing an opportunity. He had, for his whole life, been haunted by jealousy. He was jealous of his brother, jealous of not being able to ever lead the clan, jealous of his strength.

Inosuke, his elder brother, was extremely powerful compared to his fellow clan members. He was so strong that he once managed to stop an attack from the Kyubi by troubling the Biju's mind. Inosawa had no way to ever get close to his brother's greatness. However, in this creature standing before him, he could sense nothing but a nearly infinite supply of chakra, a raw unmatched power. Decided to make use of this opportunity, he drew his sword and stabbed his last living teammate in the back, killing him on the spot.

The living statue saw it happen, and stared confusingly at the last remaining man. Finally he spoke, as if he learned to express his thought with sound just by hearing the other men's complaints.

"Why do they end each other's lives so easily?" he asked to Inosawa, who wasn't surprised.

"Some lives are just meant to be ended." answered the Yamanaka, full of confidence.

"What about mine?" questioned the creature.

"Yours? Is it even possible to end it?" asked Inosawa to respond.

"I don't know… What about your life?"

"Me? No, My fate is different of theirs. My fate… is you." exclaims the jealous brother.

"Fate?" asks the statue, still confused by everything that happens, like a new born seeing the world for the first time.

"What is your name?" asks Inosawa. "What are you, spirit of the mountain?"

"I ignore it. I don't know anything. I was just a vacuity a few hours ago… Is that my name? Vacuity?"

"No. Since you don't have any other, your name will be Sojobo, as the people who live here decided to name your statue. You're the high spirit of this mountain. My name is Inosawa Yamanaka, and I believe that my discovery of you isn't hazardous. It's a sign of fate. Come with me. Serve me. Teach me. And I'll show you the world outside through my eyes."

For a moment, Sojobo didn't answer anything. He just looked, mistrustfully, at the human who seemed oddly enthusiastic unlike his deceased friends, before easing himself and realizing he had nothing else to do anyway.

"Inosawa… What am I? Why am I? How am I?" he asks, unaware of his own reason to exist.

"What you are? For now, nothing. But with me, you'll become something great. Unique in your kind. The greatest of all!"

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And so, Sojobo let himself be absorbed by this man and made him the first yamabushi. When Inosawa returned to the clan, Inosuke was furious about the outcome of this expedition that seemed to be so simple. But Inosawa introduced him to the statue's new nature. He introduced it as his new power. With this by their clan's side, they have the power to win any war, and maybe even the power to claim this country, the land of Fire, from the feudal lord. Inosuke then accepted to put the military future of the clan in his brother's hands. He had not yet realized that the true fuel for his own acceptance was fear.

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Inosawa Yamanaka spent 8 great years of glory using Sojobo as nothing but a weapon of destruction, conflict after conflict, death after death. One day, the tengu, slowly becoming more and more sentient, asked for the wars to stop. He asked to see other parts of this world, other parts of humanity. He could not believe that humans were nothing else than warring beings.

To make himself be heard, he refused to let any more of his chakra be used for combat. At this point, he was still holding back from using violence. Inosawa declined these demands and, as a result for his stubbornness, Sojobo was sealed inside his yamabushi, doomed to be nothing but a tool to the one who promised him so much but did so little.

As these 8 years passed, Inosawa Yamanaka's aggressivity and absoluteness caused the clan to grow more and more powerful, but also more and more dangerous. So dangerous that even its bond with the Akimichi and Nara clans was reduced to almost nothing. Fearing the lust for power of the Yamanaka, Chozo Akimichi and Shika Nara, the leaders of the two clans, decided to leave the mountain for the north of the land. They put Inosuke Yamanaka to test with this, telling to join them up north, but only if he still cares about their peace.

In these 8 years, Inosuke's daughter, who was still a toddler when Sojobo first was her, grew to become a young woman. And Inosawa, in the meantime, had a son. Inosuke, for his daughter, wife and clan's safety, wished to join the Akimichi and Nara and leave the mountain. But for this, he had to confront his brother's hunger for power. Inosuke retired the clan from any conflict, but it didn't change Inosawa's attitude.

The yamabushi was now willing to invade the capital, and take over the land. Inosuke had to act quick before Chozo and Shika give up on him. One day, he ordered a council, and explained the clan's new pacific approach. Inosawa was not pleased by this news. In need for power, and still jealous of his brother, he threatened to take over the clan.

Sojobo, who's been nothing but a sealed stock of chakra for the past 8 years, took all this painful time to observe in silence. Whatever his true nature is, whatever his reason to be is, Inosawa was just holding it back. This man was, to Sojobo's eyes, a being of pure evil that thinks he can use something such as him easily. A selfish rotten man who took his power for granted the second he met him. This man was now even threatening to kill his own brother out of blood lust and greed.

Sojobo thought again of one of the first questions he had asked: "What about you?" he told to Inosawa. Was this man's life worth more than his friend's who had died that day? Whatever the yamabushi had said at the time, the answer had changed. Neither of Inosawa or Inosuke's lives were worth being lived. Just like that, Sojobo decided to free himself by overwhelming and breaking the seal, which he could have done at any point, but just lacked the violence to do so. He took over Inosawa's spirit, releasing his raw chakra from the man's body and, accidentally again, causing everyone in the room to die in the process, including Inosuke Yamanaka.

Fearful, afraid, panicked, all of the Yamanaka clan ran away from their homes, ran away from the mountain, ran away from the Daitengu. They left him alone in this village where he'll stay alone for 300 years.

Once they fled, the fate of the clan was to be decided by the heir of Inosuke: his daughter, the new leader of the clan. Angered by her father's death, the young woman vengefully decided of a responsible for this tragedy. Blaming Inosawa for all this, she banished her uncle's wife and son, and went to join the Akimichi and Nara with the rest of the clan.

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The two banned Yamanaka, Inosawa's wife and son, wandered homeless around the mountain in hope of finding a place to live. After a few weeks of struggle, they met a nomad family that happened to pass by the mount Sojo: the Minamoto family. This little roaming clan welcomed them as their own. The Yamanaka boy grew up and married the Minamoto's daughter. Unworthy of his clan, he took the name of his bride and founded a village with the family, afoot of the mountain: the village of Ryuka.

Together, the married couple had a son who's birth caused his father's death for an unknown reason. This son will be raised by his grandmother, Inosawa's widow wife, and will awaken a being in his soul: Tentoki. The first tengu was born in the first heir of the new Minamoto clan. The boy learned about his grandfather from his grandma. She also taught him about Sojobo, the curse that struck her family, that from now on started being called the curse of Time. This boy grew up and, when ready, took on the mantle of leader of Ryuka.

This man, the original yamabushi of Tentoki, was just the first of a cursed lineage. He became a busy and feared man, and ended up having a child at the age of 36. He also died at his son's birth. This child became the yamabushi of Ryutoki, that he awakened very lately, and had a child around the same time at 29, the year of his death. The third Minamoto heir also developed a tengu, Kawahime, who's power caused him to become a father only aged 19. He died in his turn at the kid's birth, and his son awakened Amabie.

This one, 4th Yamabushi of his lineage, was now aware of the supposed curse and decided to not have any child. But as he got old, he was pressured to make one to maintain the lineage, so he died at 67, also at his son's birth. This son became Kasha's yamabushi and died at 38, just like his ancestors.

The 6th leader, Tsukasa Minamoto, Tsubai's grandfather, decided to test the lineage. He discovered a jutsu that allowed him to pull his tengu, Tenshi, out of his body. By sealing her away at the time of his kid's birth, he outstandingly survived the curse. Unfortunately, he still died before the age of 45, when his second child, Moritaka, was born.

At the same time, Tsubai's dad developed Akashita. His father's tengu, Tenshi, who was sealed in a pot, was given to Moritaka. Years later, Riku Minamoto had a son whose birth didn't cause any harm: Tsubai Minamoto. He also had a daughter, Saori, who's birth didn't kill him either.

As Tsubai grew, Sojobo, who's been living in Inosawa's body and spectated his descendant's lives for all this time, felt a long awaited power finally awakening in him. For an unknown reason, the Meiton of Daikoku was a power that he'd been waiting centuries to discover. It serves to him a purpose that he ignores.

Realizing that he'll may find his reason to exist by pursuing his instincts, he urged himself to assemble new yamabushi and revived his dead offspring. Awaiting for Daikoku's complete awakening he only needed all the tengus to come to life in order to be reborn.

Now, in this generation, after having reached an essential point of his existence, which is his original form free of any human body, he was defeated but brought back to life, even more powerful, and now wielding the power of one more tengu. The tengu who sleeps in Minamoto Takeshi, his last heir, who for now, appears to be different from all the others.

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As he stands before the mother holding her son in her arms, he is reminded of the sight of Inosuke carrying his young daughter, who was called just like the current leader of the clan, Ino Yamanaka. From this tiny memory, he recalls all this story in his mind, and then keeps staring at Ino who is still waiting for an answer from her husband.

As he looks deep into the light green of her eyes, he sees the reflection of what's coming behind him: The 6th Hokage running toward him silently, thinking he's still unseen.

Kakashi, as he arrives, sees Shizune stand before Ino, and understands quickly that it can't really be her. He pulls out a kunai and jumps to slice the demon's neck. The Daitengu doesn't move and just lets the weapon hit him. It does absolutely no damage as it stumbles against his back, that Kakashi hits in confusion, due to the difference in height of this creature and his wife. The kunai slips out of his hands and falls away.

Sojobo simply turns his upper body to the side to see the former Hokage behind him. Ino, shocked by this scene, figuring out that she's facing an invader and not Sai, steps back and hides her child away. The Daitengu, who stares at Kakashi with his two eyes, and at Ino with the eye on his forehead, sighs as he lets go these memories from the past.

"Well, my cover is ruined, I guess." he simply says, still decided to meet with Saori.

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End of Chapter 55 – Next Chapter: Vacuity I