Chapter 55

After beating Asphodel to the ground, Tengoku came. Instead of being angry, he seems to be laughing, as if it was a good thing.

He said that Asphodel was a stubborn girl and she wanted someone stronger than her to take her as their summons, since Hikaru defeated her in a straight up match, that means he's the new summoner of Asphodel, becoming the very first outside of Tengoku to summon a dragon from the Beautiful Underworld.

Hikaru just gave a sigh to that and thought that summoning her in her dragon form if going to be cool, especially that he can boast this to other people.

Suddenly, he had an idea for the finals of the Chunin Exams, so that it can be done faster while showing off the power of the village, I.e his power.

Asphodel, being unconscious, Tengoku decided to say his goodbyes to Hikaru to bring her back to her den. Hikaru said his goodbyes too, before he left the Beautiful Paradise via a reverse technique.

After appearing back in his house, Hikaru decided to tell his plans to the Hokage, while preparing for a snake hunt.

He put on his everyday Chester Clothes and went out of his house. He flew using mana towards the Hokage Tower with his utmost speed. He arrived there in less than a second.

He then went through the window on the Hokage Tower, almost surprising Hiruzen to death.

"Oh for six-path's sake, can you give this poor old man's heart a break? That almost killed me." Hiruzen said as he wheezed out due to his surprise.

Hikaru jumped from the window and landed in front of the Hokage desk with a big smile on his face.

"Hokage-dono, I just had an idea for the finals of the Chunin Exams. It's going to be awesome." Hikaru said with excitement dripping off his voice.

"Really? Wasn't the first idea for the chunin exams great? We get to observe the contestants' overall skills and strength, what's greater than that?" Hiruzen asked in confusion.

Then, Hikaru told him all about his idea and Hiruzen suddenly found it a good idea.

In short, it's a 1 vs All battle type of thing. But there's going to be a timer, whoever survives for more than 5 minutes against Hikaru passes the test. Of course, there's going to be handicaps, Hikaru is too strong for them. He'll be blindfolded, his arms will be tied to his back, and he cannot use any form of chakra.

This is a good idea, especially since the investors and Daimyos are coming to watch the Finals. If they can show the power of Konoha through Hikaru, it would be a good thing. But there's something wrong with that idea too, Hikaru would have to beat the contestants from Konoha too. Since the majority of the contestants are from Konoha.

It would also make the major clans of Konoha to look weak, since their heirs are participating in the Chunin Exams.

There are pros and cons too with that idea but it will be worthwhile.

Hiruzen cannot decide whether to go with that one, or with the original.

With more investors, more missions will come to them along with the Daimyos but the major clans would have to take minor damage from it. And not to mention Orochimaru's invasion. The Chunin Exams should be nothing but a decoy right now.

He was about to reject Hikaru's idea, when the undead boy suddenly told him that he will be hunting Orochimaru for the rest of the month.

That sparked a light from Hiruzen's eyes, because that would mean the major problematic person in his head right now is going to disappear. That means the Chunin Exams could go normally.

Hiruzen then just decided to go with, 'Ah fuck it", and agreed to his idea.

With that, Hikaru left the room, knowing that he still had less than a month to hunt down a snake. And he's starting right now.

Hikaru left the room through the door before he suddenly disappeared very quietly, leaving a very ominous wind behind his steps.

'Orochimaru, I'm coming for you, I may not know where you are right now but I can spread my chakra throughout the entire village to find you. Get ready, for your dream to immortality is going to be crushed under my foot.' Hikaru said inside his head, fully knowing that Orochimaru stands no chance against him.

After all, the 1 vs All idea is just really for Azumi. To train her to fight against opponents stronger than her with a team stranger to her. It would surely boost her combat ability, along with her teamwork.

Meanwhile, with Azumi who's completely clueless to what Hikaru had planned for her.

She's in a room with four beds with each enough to fit two people. The beds were clearly designed for girls, it had pink bed sheets and orange comforters. It seems like they had some kind of aircon in the room, which Azumi thought she would ask Hikaru to buy one too.

There was Ino, Tenten, Hinata, Sakura, Her, and Kurenai.

Ino has one bed for herself, Azumi and Sakura were sharing one bed, Hinata and Tenten shared a bed, while Kurenai got one bed for herself. In the middle of their beds were lamps on top of a table, they were all lit. The room was made for concrete walls, unlike the traditional japanese house that is sometimes made in paper. It's also made that way so that the cold wind of their aircon could envelope the entire room.

"Hahaha, are you guys jealous? My dad's a friend from the one who made those aircons, you know." Ino bragged to the others.

"Hmph, don't be so proud of yourself. I have also ordered one through mail but they said that it will arrive a few weeks later." Hinata said to Ino with a smug face.

"Tch, show off." Ino muttered resentfully.

Well, they're just like this; talking about girly things. But for them, showing off how rich they are seems to be cool to them when it's clearly not,

Sakura, Tenten, and Kurenai didn't have the same amount of wealth as them, so they could only stay quiet until one of them changed the subject.

"Hey, how about we tell stories to each other?" Azumi asked, since the others were obviously feeling uncomfortable being shown off by their wealth, she decided to change the subject. A subject where she could win against them.

Ino turned her head at her and said, "Well then, since you were the one who suggested it, how about you tell a story first."

Azumi, not expecting that so quick, suddenly went nervous but she remembered a story Hikaru told her once. It's a short one, so it'll be quick.

She cleared her throat and replied, "F-fine. I'll tell you a story, a story about a Lonely God and a child he created named, Alice."

They all straightened their backs to listen to her story.

The Story

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There was once a god drowned in melancholy and despair for reasons he doesn't quite understand. Even though he created a beautiful world full of humans with emotions, he just couldn't find love and comfort. Despite the fact that he had interacted with the humans before and made bonds with lots of them, he still couldn't find that comfort he so badly needed.

And with that, he despaired.

He wanted to cling to a comfort he could hold on but found no rope trying to pull him back. In his castle, he found no one to interact with. He would go down to a world he created but found that the ones he made bonds to had already died a long time ago.

Time is just as fleeting as death; he learned that a long time ago but why would he create bonds with creatures with short lifespans? It only brought him more despair and melancholy.

From then, he isolated himself in his own castle in the sky. He never came out from those walls, even when humanity was in trouble, he never came back.

He wanted a creature that could make him happy again, away from these negative emotions. Living his lonely immortal life, not once he interacted with someone outside of the walls of his castle.

But one day, when he was sitting on his bed, he suddenly had the feeling to sleep. This surprised him because he never once had to sleep since the day he became an immortal god.

So, he slept on his bed.

But there was something strange, he dreamt of a little girl who had angelic white hair and golden angelike wings. Her golden eyes moved ever so slightly as her little hands reached out for his face and he heard her say, "Father, I'm here. There's no need for you to despair any longer, please smile with happiness. I'm here, aren't I?"

For the first time since millenniums of isolation, he smiled with tears streaming down from his cheeks full of joy and happiness that he badly wanted to seek back then.

And then he woke up.

He suddenly realized that it was all a dream, and he despaired yet again, only to feel something tap him on his shoulders.

He turned his head to look at it, and found the very same girl in his dreams hovering beside him.

"Father, what's wrong?" She asked with a worried face.

He smiled at the sight of her and said, "Nothing, Alice. Just some bad memories."

The End.

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"Eeh!? What's with that ending? That's so vague." Ino complained.

"I somehow got it but I just can;t get my hands on it." Hinata said as she wondered what the ending meant.

"Eh, so what was the ending's meaning?" Sakura asked curiously.

"I don't know, Darling never said it to me." Azumi replied to her question.

"To end it with just that, hmph. Such a bad story." Tenten said.

"It's not actually that bad, maybe the ending meant that some time had passed from the time he created that girl, Alice." Kurenai said.

"Hey, enough about that. It's your turn, Ino. I already told my story, it's your turn now." Azumi pouted.

"Ah." Ino scratched her head sheepishly.

And so, for the rest of the night, they had fun telling wholesome stories to horror stories. They also had a pillow fight, to playing with teddybears, They would even go out of their room to go to the kitchen and make midnight snacks for themselves.

At the very least, they all had fun at their slumber party.