A Shining Ally

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Prologue – Arc 2: The Daitengu

.

Chapter 17: A Shining Ally

.

In the land of Lightning, on the south-west border, Naruto Uzumaki is roaming in search for a familiar chakra when he runs into an old friend. B, or Killer Bee as he calls himself, is sitting with his legs crossed on a tree above Naruto.

"Yo, Naruto-boy!" says the jinchuriki of Hachibi.

"Oh! Octopops!" exclaims Naruto who looks up to see him. "It's been a while! How are you and Gyuki?"

"We good. Ya know, just being epic as usual." he answers while jumping down the tree to get closer to Naruto. "What about Kyubi?"

"Oh, we went through a lot of stuff lately, ya know…", he says as he scratches the back of his head.

"Yeah, sure you did stuff. Like how's it on the moon? How did you even get up there?"

"… That's a long story, but some more things happened after that. Now I have to find Sasuke again."

"So routine I guess…" he crosses his arms and leans a bit back to strike a pose. "What else? Getting money and bitches since the war? Or you still broke as fuck?"

"I'll soon become a jonin, so I should be okay with money. And I'm with Hinata now!"

"Hear that Gyuki? The boy got a girl! What else?"

"Well… I'm here to find Sasuke's chakra, 'cause he was there a few days ago. He probably uses Space-Time Ninjutsu. So I can't properly follow his chakra. I'm just looking for somewhere to begin. What about you? What are you doing away from Kumo or Genbu."

"Just roamin'. Brother's been sending people to the 4th war's battlefield for a while… just to look for clues about that big ass tree."

"Did you find anything?"

"Nah! Shit dried up and turned to ashes when yo broke the hoes & fame genjutsu, but Brother is too stubborn to understand it and keeps sending us there."

"Hoes & Fame? You remember the illusion?"

"Nah I don't. Just that if it's about my ideal world, had to be me surrounded with middle-aged women's chests."

"It's great you can joke about it. But you all forgot that dream when we broke the spell."

"I know. All I remember,… All we remember, is the battlefield. Not close to forget it. You know, when you walk on this ground… When you look around. You open your eyes, And you realize, Akatsuki forced us all on this train. On this road carved in our pain. And all that,… In vain." raps Bee.

Naruto doesn't say anything and just reflects on these rhymes. It's the first time he hears Bee rapping something else than casual flex and swear words. These words throw him all the way back to when the God Tree took over the battlefield. B steps closer to Naruto and holds out his fist. Naruto looks at him and raises his hand for a fist bump, so they can both see their Biju inside of them. Gyuki is standing behind B, and Kurama is faking sleep.

"So you're looking for Sasuke, Naruto?" asks Gyuki.

"Yo Gyuki." happily exclaims Naruto. "That's it. But I can't follow his traces. I heard he took 2 ninjas from Kumo with him."

"Minaa the nudist diva, and Zetto (Z) the white kid from my ghetto!" says Bee. "Two, as young as you. They survived the battlefield too."

"Can't you sense Sasuke with the Rikudo sage abilities?" asks Hachibi.

"Uh… I lost those powers when I used up y'all chakra against him."

"Mean you didn't use it when you stopped the moon meteor rain? Yahoo!" exclaims B.

"You ran out of our chakra?" repeats Hachibi. "Well just try and detect all of us with your sage sensory abilities. If you feel us, you can reach our minds, and you can borrow our power."

"What you saying?" asks Naruto, confused about how confidently Gyuki just told this.

"Kurama… Are you hiding things from your jinchuriki?" suspects Gyuki.

*Yawn "Damn Octopus… Couldn't have kept his mouth shut…" says Kurama while waking up.

"Kurama, what is he saying? You know something?" asks Naruto.

"Uh… I didn't want to give you lessons about chakra restraint relativity and all… Also I just don't like you others." he says looking at Hachibi.

"Come on, man! You know we could need this. That's not cool!" exclaims Naruto, understanding that Kyubi may know some clues for the sage training they need.

"Yeah Come On Man!" adds Killer Bee.

"Naruto." says Gyuki. "To put it simply, chakra isn't limited by space and time. Us bijus, as simple chakra beasts, aren't either. Two years ago, the other Madara gave you a part of each of us. All of this put in you, together with the Yang seal, caused you to learn Rikudo Senjutsu a bit too easily. But as I said, we aren't limited by space and time, so from now on, as long as you can sense our presence, you should be able to feel our minds and use our powers as yours, wherever whenever."

"Even if we're in another dimension." adds Kurama.

"Sounds cool, but how do I do that?" wonders Naruto, not sure he understood well.

"Training your sage sensitivity up to the level where you can detect the biju at any time should make it." answers Kurama. "Usually it shouldn't be possible, but with our Tajuu Kagebunshin, it's child's play."

"Really? Why were you hiding this?" now asks Naruto.

"I told you already. I don't like the other bijus, so if you could avoid using their chakra, to me it would be great… Anyway, since you're obviously not going to give up on this, the Toad's mountain would be the perfect place for this. And once you're done, you'll have all our combined knowledge about chakra, which is approximately everything there is to know about it. So with this, you'll finally meet all the requirements to become a Jonin."

"Ma boy's gonna be Jonin before even being Chunin." says B. "What about becoming the Hokage?"

"It's still the next thing on my list." he answers. "But before, I need to find Sasuke."

"Ah Yeah, 'bout that, the captain girl heard Sasuke talk about dealing with stuff in the mountains, on the East coast of your land. You'll probably find him there."

"Is that true? That's Cool! Thanks Bee!" exclaims Naruto who steps away from the Kumo-nin. "Kurama, after we find Sasuke, we'll go to mount Myoboku, and we'll do that training."

The fox sighs, just annoyed by Naruto's resolve.

"Bye, Octopops! When I'm the Hokage, I'll make you the Raikage!" The 4th war hero shouts ironically while running away.

"NO THANKS, BRO!" yells Bee back before turning around dancing and heading back to Kumo.

.

In the land of Fire, Sasuke Uchiha with Karasu are progressing in the forest and calmly heading to the Sojo Mountain, where the Daitengu is hiding. More than a day has passed since their battle with the yamabushi. The group has walked through the land of Rivers and is already halfway there to mount Sojo.

During the last day, everybody seemed to have forgotten about the debate that took place before they left. They all chatted without any conflict, except for two of them: Tsubai Minamoto and Naomi Yuki. Tsubai is still unsure about Sasuke's decision about the tengu's lives. And Naomi is unsure of her relation with Tsubai. To her, he's a forbidden target. Sasuke just remained silent and only answered the few questions that he was asked by Minaa, Z or Sana.

As he said before going, he chose to go by foot so he could have time to think. He still doesn't know what approach to take. Should he go against Tsubai and Kobo's will and kill the tengu or should he let them a chance. He wants to remain someone Kobo can follow as an example, and he finds his opinion on the subject very wise, but at the same time, he wants to accomplish his mission and kill the Daitengu at all cost, for the sake of Konoha and his friends. As from now, he feels like the best thing to do is kill the Daitengu first by taking his soul with the Ningendo and acquire all his memories. But does this jutsu really work against an entity like him?

Deep in his thoughts again, he's not annoyed by the giggling of Minaa, Z, Daisuke, Kobo and Sana who've been chatting for as long as they've been walking. Tsubai looks at the sky and sees that it's already really late and that they'll probably stop to camp in the following hour. But they're not far of the mountain anymore, which means that tomorrow is the day they'll take action again. He recalls the events of his last encounter with Sojobo in his mind with Daikoku to figure out a weakness that would allow him to take his memories. If only he got them… The jutsu to unseal tengus is the only thing he needs to settle the debate with Sasuke.

Suddenly, Daikoku remembers a completely unrelated detail that tickles his mind and asks Tsubai about it.

"Hey, Sasuke?" asks Tsubai who's now as tickled as his tengu by this fact. "When you fought Sojobo, he called you something like… Indra?"

"… Did he?… It's true he did." answers Sasuke, who also remembers this and is as unsettled as Tsubai now.

"Who's that? That's not your name, is it?"

Sasuke knows who Indra Otsutsuki is. The son of the Rikudo-sennin and founder of the Uchiha clan. He knows that he is the reincarnation of that man's will, and that Madara Uchiha also was before him. But how does Sojobo know this connection between him and this man? Just how does he even know about Indra? Could it be that the Daitengu is around since the age of the Rikudo-sennin? Sasuke just now realizes that apart from what a tengu is, he knows very little about his enemy.

"It's not my name. I know someone who's called like this, but I don't see how the Daitengu is supposed to know him too… Tsubai… Do you think that I could take his soul, like Katashiki tried to take yours?"

"Uh? Why would you do that?" answers Tsubai, curious.

"When I absorb the soul of someone, I get all his life energy and memories." explains Sasuke briefly.

"Memories? Ah Yes! So you could get the Tengu unsealing method! I don't know but that's a good idea." says Tsubai.

"It wouldn't work." says someone hidden in the night around them.

All the group stops and they all get ready for a fight, all standing in a circle to cover each other's back. Only Sasuke doesn't react this way and just looks at where he already spotted the intruder. Shibata slowly comes out of the bushes near them to reveal his presence.

"You! You were there back then at the mountain!" exclaims Tsubai who recognizes the pale man, his white hair and black strands on the cheeks.

"So he's an enemy." says Naomi, menacingly.

"I'm not your enemy." Shibata hurries to say. "I betrayed Sojobo. I come to you for an alliance." He then turns to Sasuke. "Ningendo would kill Inosawa, and there's a slight chance it also kills Sojobo, but you'd only get Inosawa Yamanaka's memories."

Sasuke just looks at him and doesn't say anything, as he knows that the rest of the group will conduct the discussion very well.

"An alliance you say?" says Naomi again. "Why would we trust you?"

"Actually, it should be the other way around. You should convince me to trust you." answers the lone yamabushi.

"The hell is he saying?" angrily yells the mercenary.

"Wait a moment… He's right." says Z. "Since you come from the inside, you have essential information. You also must have a good reason for wanting to kill Sojobo, and so you're for now better suited for the task than us."

Sasuke slightly smiles while looking at Z, understanding his point, and then turns to Shibata.

"We won't convince you. We don't need you to trust us." he says. "However, I'm convinced you need at least me to kill your target. So first, introduce yourself, then tell about what you know."

"Hm Hm. As expected from you, Uchiha Sasuke." laughs the deserting host. "My name is Shibata, and I'm the yamabushi of Tentoki the celestial light. I know how much time you still have before Sojobo's reincarnation, I know how you could reach him, and…" he turns to Tsubai. "My tengu happens to know a jutsu you're looking for."

Tsubai and Kobo turn to look at each other, in a surprised manner. They then both turn to Sasuke and wait for his reaction.

"We're listening." simply says the wanderer.

"Tentoki is the first tengu that was birthed by Sojobo. He's the origin of Sojobo's Koton which is the Kekkei genkai he uses to move at such tremendous speed. He has a very important innate knowledge that surpasses any other tengu's. But apart from him, there's me who's been by Sojobo's sides since almost the beginning of his reincarnation quest. First I'll explain my motives, so you don't think that I'm here under his command… Originally, I was a Kiri-nin sent with a partner by the Mizukage to find a mercenary hiding in these mountains. When we found the mercenary, we all met Sojobo together by accident. He took us and gave us Tengu seeds. I stayed with him for two years now. This time, I found suspicious the way he wants to stay hidden. As the world was just recovering from Akatsuki, he comes and creates another shadowy organization with mercenaries and ninjas. And I felt… kidnapped. I want Tokiwa, my colleague, and I to be able to go back to our lives in Kiri, but I have to accomplish my mission first, which is to kill Chuji… And now, Tentoki who just awakened in me tells that Sojobo is a being that works by instinct, and that was essentially used as a weapon. To make it short, I have way more reasons to betray him than to stick with him. Actually, I have no reason to stay with him."

"Just a question,…" asks Z. "So who's Chuji and who's Tokiwa?"

"Tokiwa is a kiri-nin like me. We know each other since childhood, and we were sent to kill Chuji. She's been made the yamabushi of Amabie, the one who can swim through matter and use a hyptnotic genjutsu."

"So she's called Tokiwa…" thinks Tsubai.

"Chuji is the mercenary we had to kill. He's more important to my plan. He's actually a target as essential as Sojobo to me."

"Tsubai…" says Daikoku is Tsubai's mind. "Someone else is there."

Tsubai looks around after hearing his tengu and tries to find the said person. It's probably someone who followed Shibata, but is it an ally or an enemy?

"And who's that hidden there?" asks Sana who points her finger to behind Shibata, where she senses a chakra.

Shibata turns around and looks straight to where she points. He nods his head to indicate to Kokoro that she can come closer. So she does, she gets by Shibata's sides.

"This is Kokoro. The yamabushi of Kawahime, but her tengu is still not fully revived. The two last tengu to be revived are essential to my plan."

"Just get there now." says Sasuke. "What do you know? What's your plan?"

"Sojobo speaks with the yamabushi a lot. Sometimes he speaks of what's next, and he happened to mention a time period. The remaining time before his reincarnation. It's not a constant variable. It depends on something. He'll be revived only once he has enough of the tengu's powers. In this process, the powers of the old tengu are more important than the younger ones. But the old tengus are also those who take the most time to be reborn inside a host. Now everything left before Sojobo's objective is the rebirth of Ryutoki and Kawahime. I don't know how long there's left before Ryutoki' rebirth, but Kawahime is the last one who'll be revived. And according to Sojobo, there's 2 weeks left before she achieves it."

"And her rebirth will be the same moment where the Daitengu will reach his original form." supposes Sasuke. "So we have 2 weeks left to kill Sojobo. That's more than expected."

"Not exactly. The process of rebirth is faster proportionally to how close the yamabushi stays to Sojobo. Sojobo's presence makes the rebirth faster. I suppose Sojobo meant at most 2 weeks, so to really have 2 weeks left, we need to take Kokoro as far away as possible from this land."

"… And you brought her here for us to do it.?"

"I'd like one of you to do so, yes. But we can speak of this later. Let's speak about the other remaining tengu now: Ryutoki."

"No." says Tsubai. "Let's talk about your jutsu to unseal them."

"Ah yes… Just, Tsubai Minamoto, there's a thing I have to say first… Do you know that Sojobo can hear and see through Daikoku's eyes, as well as through yours?"

Every member of Karasu makes a shocked or confused face. Some don't get what it means, Minaa, Daisuke and Sana. The others had their thought process go really fast and quickly got it. They now understand how the yamabushi managed to find and attack them at the right time and place. This means that their enemy has been spying on them since the beginning.

"He can see through all of the tengu and is seeing us right now. But don't worry, I know how to transmit my attack plan to you, as well as the tengu unsealing jutsu. About this jutsu, I won't need it, but you will, Tsubai. So you can just take it from my memory. All it requires is to have a tengu. Just taking the memory will be enough to know how to use it."

"See that Sasuke?" says Tsubai. "We won't have to kill them after all."

"But by killing them, we can still weaken Sojobo." says Naomi.

"Honestly…" says Shibata who turns to see Sasuke. "I think you don' t need this. Isn't two weeks enough to kill him in his current state? You fought him already so you should know."

"…" Sasuke looks at Naomi, recalling his latest encounter with the Daitengu. "He's right. If Tsubai knows the jutsu, we have no reason to kill them. I'll be able to take care of Sojobo in his current state, especially if y'all help."

"Just a small issue." adds Shibata. "There's one yamabushi we can't spare and it's Chuji. I have to kill him, and his tengu. Ryutoki, the power of kings, has abilities that Sojobo didn't unlock yet. Very powerful abilities that we can't allow him to unlock."

"So about this Ryutoki." asks Z. "I guess that's the one I fought with Kobo. The one who can use the chakra orbs."

"It's him. I don't know how long we have before he comes back, but we have to take him down. By killing him before his rebirth, I'll prevent Sojobo from getting his powers, and even possibly stop him from ever achieving his original form."

"So…" says Minaa, who's been vaguely listening and now wants to sum it up. "We have two weeks to kill Sojobo. One of us will take this young girl, Kokoro, and bring her to another land, while the others follow your mysterious plan to kill Sojobo. And you, you'll go and kill Chuji/Ryutoki. Did I say everything?"

"Basically." answers Shibata. "So Sasuke Uchiha, I presume you're the leader so it's your choice who counts."

Sasuke thinks of all that he just learned and tries to stick his plans into Shibata's. Kobo, who still has a lot of questions about Sojobo, decides to ask them while he can.

"Wait. How old is Sojobo? I though Inosawa Yamanaka was the ancestor of the Minamoto clan. And you're saying that he's still alive, but the Minamoto clan is more than 300 years old."

To this question, Shibata stays silent for a moment, and listens to Tentoki's explanation. Once he has it, he passes it to Kobo.

"Well, Sojobo has been living all these years hidden in the mountain. Inosawa is alive only because Sojobo's powers keep him from dying. That's why he looks 30 instead of 300. Your next question should be why is he taking action only now so I'll answer right away. Sojobo has been creating more tengu with the only objective of creating ones with 2 powers, the Koton and the Meiton. There's something about these powers that I don't know, but it seems like Sojobo needed them before wanting to come back to his original form. They must be the keys to unlock his own Tengu abilities. Tentoki, who's inside of me, has Koton. And Daikoku, in Tsubai, has Meiton. So this means Daikoku's birth is what he was waiting for. His yamabushi's recent awakening is what made him start his plan."

After this answer, nobody else says anything. After all these explanations, they all feel more aware of what they are actually doing. Sasuke looks around and then stares at Kokoro who's been standing silently behind Shibata.

"Naomi." he says. "You'll go around the mountain to the sea with the girl. There you'll catch a boat and will bring her to the land of Water. Daisuke will go with you, for safety, but will come back to us instead of crossing the ocean."

Naomi makes a bored face for a moment. But as she thinks and realizes that she has not any valid reason for wanting to kill the tengu anymore, she complies. Daisuke just immediately complies without hesitation. To him, this instruction is to protect the cold lady he travels with and a young girl. Sasuke then turns to Shibata again.

"Now what about that plan? How do we learn about it without Sojobo hearing?"

"I don't know the plan. Only Tentoki does. He figured it out himself. It's apparently very simple. But to get you to know it is more complicated. At least you and Tsubai should be aware of your roles. We have to avoid any vocal transmission, or else, Sojobo will hear it too."

"So how do we proceed?"

At everyone's surprise, Shibata pulls out a ninja scroll of summoning and uses it to unseal a tied up raccoon dog.

"A question first: Sasuke Uchiha, do you need to know the whole plan including Tsubai's part. or is your part enough?"

Sasuke looks at the raccoon dog, and tries to figure out what weird thing Shibata intends to use it for. He then looks at Tsubai for a moment to think of an answer to the last question.

"Tsubai gets to know his part, I'll get to know mine." he decides.

Shibata stays quiet for a moment, and then unties the animal to let it run away. He rolls the scroll back and hides it in a pocket.

"This sure makes it way easier. Okay so… Tsubai, use Kioku Kyuin to take the memories of the whole plan from Tentoki, plus the knowledge of the jutsu to unseal a tengu. Then, If I'm correct, you're also able to give away memories that you'll lose to someone."

"Indeed I am." says Tsubai. "I can treat memories just like Sasuke's treats chakra. Taking and giving it away."

"So then, just give to Sasuke your newly acquired memories of his part of the plan. And to me, you give my part of the plan. See, that simple. No need to use Sasuke's Rinnegan or to sacrifice a captive animal."

Shibata looks around at all the members of Karasu with an awkward face, and sees Minaa giving a suspicious look since his last sentence.

"First, I thought of using a cat, but I reconsidered." he says, feeling an odd need to explain. "Anyway, we won't use any live creature."

"Let's do this now then." says Sasuke, who just wants to know how to kill his target.

Tsubai repeats the process to himself and proceeds to do it without any mistake. After using his Memory absorption jutsu on Tentoki, he stays silent for a moment just to bear the knowledge he just acquired. For a second he feels very dumb for not guessing it before, about the Unsealing jutsu that seems disturbingly simple. He then proceeds to use the reversed jutsu to transmit his part of the plan to Sasuke. Sasuke splits his eyes, surprised by the good knowledge of his abilities that Tentoki has.

Tsubai then gives to Shibata his part of the plan. Once they're done, Shibata looks at Tsubai.

"Great, now just don't say anything about the plan to your tengu, or you'll ruin everything."

All of Karasu, and Kokoro, just look confused while the three men make quick physical contacts with each other, always followed with short moments of silence and wondering. Sasuke, who got his part of the plan, recites it to his self many times. It isn't absolute, not perfect, but it's very well prepared. Right now, he can't figure out any way for Sojobo to escape it. The plan makes great use of the team's ability and counters The Daitengu's efficiently.

"I think we're done now." he says, feeling ready. "We'll be camping here this night. Shibata, you can leave."

Shibata turns to Kokoro and holds her head by the cheeks with both his hands. She lays her own hands on the man's, on her face.

"I have to go now." says the lost Kiri-nin.

"Be careful then…" answers the young girl.

"Don't worry. Next time we'll see each other is in Kiri, after Sojobo and Chuji are dead." faithfully answers Shibata, with a warming smile on his face.

He then steps back slowly and performs a single hand sign.

Koton – Shunshin

He makes his body glow and vanishes at an almost instant speed. Kokoro just stays staring at where he was standing a moment ago. He didn't even leave for a second but she already feels lonely. She doesn't see him as a big brother, she feels something different about him. Still, she accepts that she'll have to keep these feelings for her, as Shibata is older than her and probably sees her as nothing more than a younger sister. For now, she accepts his departure and stays with Karasu for the night. Once the camp is set, she'll lie down and go to sleep, thinking about her next reunion with this man.

.

End of Chapter 17 – Next Chapter: The Power of Kings I