Vacuity I (Naruto vs Sojobo)

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Kakumei – Arc 2: The Curse of Time

.

Chapter 56 – Vacuity I

.

The Daitengu stands before the Yamanaka house, between Ino Yamanaka and the 6th Hokage. Ino tries to stay calm, and firmly holds Inojin in her arms. In the present situation, she's unable to fight back and can only run away with her child. After stepping back, she violently slams the door closed to keep the invader outside.

But as soon as shut, it is annihilated in an instant by who stands on the other side. Afraid and startled, Ino runs away to the other side of her house, having understood that he is who the Daitengu is after.

"Inoue, run!" she shouts to her daughter in the living room.

Sojobo's focus is drawn back to the 6th Hokage when he feels a kunai hit his neck again. He turns around and sees Kakashi, who just wanted to get his attention.

"So you're going after Ino Yamanaka? Does she have something you need?" asks the former Hokage.

"Kakashi Hatake, I have no intention of talking this situation out." answers the Daitengu. "I already know how this path would conclude, and it's not in my interest… My presence here is my matter only. You should go and take care of your ill wife rather than wasting your energy here."

Kakashi doesn't answer, he's just a bit unsettled by how familiarly the creature speaks, and by how oddly young and pleasant its voice sounds. Before he or his interlocutor decides to do anything, the Daitengu sees Choji Akimichi, another ninja coming to bug him, run toward them behind Kakashi.

Mutai

Not willing to waste any time in a useless fight, Sojobo simply liquefies the ground under the Akimichi's feet and causes him to sink down, before letting the soil go solid again to trap him buried alive. Seeing his enemy make a move, even though motionless, Kakashi steps forward and raises his hands to prepare a jutsu, but is also stopped ridiculously easily.

Mokuton

The Daitengu's fingers grow to become wooden tentacles that very quickly bind the former Hokage up. Kakashi, unable to move, widens his eyes, surprised by this jutsu. Since when does this being have the ability to use Mokuton? None of the tengu he knows of could have made him unlock this power.

Not much interested by Kakashi either, the Daitengu breaks the wood off his fingers, leaving the 6th Hokage binded by his claws, and turns around to go after Ino Yamanaka again. He is this time held back when he sees Takeshi Minamoto, his last heir, jump out of the window above him. He stares, glad but uncomfortable, at the kid falling toward him.

Suiton – Mizurappa

The young ninja expels a water wave that falls on the Daitengu. As he simply lets this jutsu hit him, too durable to be even just moved by it, Sojobo realizes that he's almost fallen victim to one of his own creations. He knows that Suiton isn't among the elements that Takeshi can use for now, so this isn't really him attacking, but simply Kokoro using Yureidanuki to appear as his most beloved one, like he's still doing at this moment.

He easily undoes her illusion and sees her true form fall toward him right after the water mass. She, unsettled by Sojobo's appearance being that of Shibata to her eyes, fails to do anything else and is just grabbed by a huge chakra limb emerging from the Daitengu's robe. He stares at her right in the eyes and enters her inner-world to see the tengu inside.

"Hello, Kawahime." he says to his third born child.

Neither Kokoro nor her tengu reply to this greeting. Both are just shocked, as Kawahime should be totally invisible to anyone else than her yamabushi. This is a secondary effect of her emotion powered ability, but Sojobo is unaffected by it.

"It is, I believe, our first time meeting." he adds. "I'd have liked it to be in a more pleasant context, however."

Holding the Jonin from Kiri in his chakra hand, he balances the limb to throw her in his back. Fluttering away, she hits Kakashi and breaks the wood binding him. The two of them are pushed in the distance and out of range to intervene again. Not bothered by anyone anymore, Sojobo turns his third eye to see Ino who escaped from her house with her kids through a backdoor and is now in her backyard.

He knows that Saori is hidden somewhere in this village and that Ino knows where. After having seen millions of possibilities, he knows all the places where his descendant could be, but there are too many of them. He needs Ino's memories to lern of the correct and exact location. Behind the family's house, The Yamanaka's are now accompanied by Kaori and Yukiko, two genin from Kiri. Yukiko took the baby boy in her arms to free Ino's hands so she can call for assistance.

Shindenshin

Ino joins her fingers together and hurries to get in contact with Konohamaru, to warn him of the coming attack. She just has time to reach the Sarutobi's mind and to call for his name, before her hand sign is broken. The Daitengu promptly appeared behind the group of ninjas running away and grabbed Ino's hand to stop her from communicating with anyone.

Kioku Kyuin

Before any of them can realize that he stands right there, and even before Ino can see the hand holding hers, Sojobo pulls all the memory he needs out of her mind and absorbs it.

"This is all I needed." the creature says, calmly, after undoing his illusion disguise to their eyes.

She now turns her head around to see the tall white figure stand behind her. Inoue, next to her mom, screams in horror at the imminent threat, but neither Yukiko or Kaori find the courage to do anything, not even run away.

Suddenly, coming at lightning speed, Takeshi, the real one this time, leaps out of a window behind Sojobo. He aims for the Daitengu's back, to push him away from the Yamanaka family and his teammates, and protect his friends.

As Tentoki had expected, Sojobo acts, not to antagonizeTakeshi. He knows his heir is coming in his back, since he can see himself through the boy's eyes. In just the time it takes for Takeshi to fall down the window, The Daitengu makes two chakra arms that grab all the girls standing before him and puts them away, out of Takeshi's range. He then simply steps aside to dodge the young genin's attack. Takeshi lands on his knees and slides to turn around, face to face with the Daitengu in the flesh.

"Tentoki, don't you think it's the right time to lend me your power?" suggests the young Minamoto in his mind.

"It would be pointless anyway." answers Tentoki. "No matter how fast we can get, it'll still be ridiculous compared to him."

Takeshi sighs, gathers his courage, and prepares his best jutsu to get at the Daitengu.

Shiden

He covers himself in purple lightning and concentrates its power in the palm of his hand to shape it like a lightning blade. Sojobo watches, unimpressed but still proud, ready to react.

Shintenshin no Jutsu

While his attention is concentrated on his beloved last descendant, he's surprised by Ino Yamanaka trying to enter his body with the Body-Switch technique. Unfortunately, this jutsu doesn't work on a being whose body and spirit are one and only. Still it manages to trouble the Daitengu's mind for a moment. At the same time, Kakashi, full of determination, gets up quickly and blitzes through the house, also surrounded by purple lightning.

Cho Baika

Choji Akimichi, who was buried underground in front of the house, frees himself by turning into a 30 meters tall giant. He bends over the house while holding on the roof and hands over to grab the confused Daitengu. Surprised and troubled, Sojobo is held by Choji's giant hand completely, with only his head uncovered. Takeshi comes from the front, and Kakashi from behind. The two of them, at once, gather all their Shiden in the palm of their hands and aim for the Daitengu's head.

Sojobo sees it happen, unbothered. He knows that even such a well orchestrated hazardous attack won't hurt him in the slightest way. However, he got what he wanted here from Ino's memories, and now knows where Saori is hidden. He has no reason to stay here any longer.

Jikanteido

Takeshi and Kakashi aim for the Daitengu's head together, but suddenly between them, the target disappears and all that remains on the spot is the severed and cut off giant hand of Choji. Unable to react in time, the two Shiden collide and confront themselves. Going easy on the kid, Kakashi lowers his power and makes sure to match Takeshi's, just so they'll both be able to cancel their jutsu before any one is hurt.

Choji, who's Cho Baika is undone by the sudden pain, goes back to his normal size, and standing before the house, gets on his knees. He holds his arm with a missing hand. This limb, lying on the other side of the house, also shrinks back but stays down on the ground. Kokoro stands up behind Choji and guesses what happened, full of worries.

Behind, Kakashi and Takeshi managed to stop their jutsus, but surprisingly, the one hurt is the former Hokage. He holds his hand, slightly burnt, and thinks of the intensity of Takeshi's chakra. Such a thing already happened to him, and it was when he confronted his Rasengan to Naruto's during training.

Ino runs over to check on the former leader and the boy from Kiri.

"Are you okay?" she asks.

Takeshi watches, surprised at Kakashi's hand.

"Oh, sorry, Lord 6th! I didn't mean to do that." he apologizes.

"No worries. It happened only because I held back." explains Kakashi to humble Takeshi before turning around to see Ino. "But most importantly,… We failed."

.

An instant earlier, during the time pause, in an underground facility under the Hokage's mansion, the Daitengu ran, boosted by Koton, and passed through a reinforced door thanks to Amabie's Mutai. On the other side, he found his objective, Saori Minamoto, with another of her, and Kohonamaru Sarutobi.

Sojobo walked around this frozen room and analyzed the scene. Two Saori's, and one Sarutobi. He knew of this possibility, but he also knew of the different outcomes. Most obviously, one of the two Saori's was a transformed clone of the Sarutobi. He couldn't tell right now who the real one was, so the safest thing to do was to get rid of obstacles first. Saori doesn't know any metamorphosis jutsu, so the Konohamaru of the room was either a clone or the original, and in no way someone he had to spare.

If he was the original, Killing him at this moment would have caused the transformed clone to disappear and leave only the real Saori in the room. If he was a clone, only the two Saori's in the room would have been left, and the Sarutobi would have had to take off his disguise to counter attack. So the safest thing to do was to eliminate the ninja of the room first.

Akashita

Sojobo covered his hand with the deadly black mist of Akashita and stepped forward to Konohamaru, ready to take his life in a touch. Before he did, he suddenly remembered the last possible, least likely outcome that such a scenery implied. There was one catastrophe that could completely shatter his luck. Judging by how the situation had evolved until now, it was either impossible, or extremely obvious.

Alone in his frozen world, the Daitengu had no other choice than to bet on the right outcome. So, getting rid of any doubt, he plunged his hand down and grabbed on the Sarutobi's shoulder to eliminate the life in his body.

Unfortunately for him, the outcome was the worst possible. As soon as he spread the deadly chakra through this body, time resumed involuntarily. The lethal fog spreading through the Sarutobi seemed to have no effect, and was just pushed out by the sheer strength and life force that inhabits it. The person Sojobo's holding undid its disguise and revealed its real form, under his disappointed eyes.

Naruto Uzumaki, who could sense the Daitengu's action in the time pause, hurries to hold on the creature's arm. Sojobo looks at him and turns his third eye to his right, to see the two Saori's. One of them undoes its transformation and turns back to Konohamaru. The Daitengu could expect this situation, but is still surprised. Is this the real Naruto holding him, or just a clone? This path could lead to the worst outcome possible for him. Now, he's forced to engage in a battle against the Hokage.

"Kurama, he took the bait!" says Naruto, in his New Rikudo Sage Mode.

"Great! Let's end it now!" exclaims the fox.

"Yes, but first…" adds the Hokage.

He firmly holds the Daitengu's arm, and hits him in the torso with his shoulder. He leaps up and carries Sojobo with him, through the ceiling. They emerge from the ground in front of the Hokage's mansion and go up to the sky. Once high enough, he throws his enemy away and stops, levitating above his village.

Sojobo forms the chakra wings of Tenshi in his back and hurries down, trying to go back to Saori, but he's immediately stopped by Naruto who grabs one of the wings and pulls it back up. The Daitengu stabilizes himself in the sky and contains his frustration. To help his flight, Naruto activates his Kurama Chakra Mode, which he joins to his Sage Mode. The two floating fighters see the same connection between their chakra as during their last meeting appear again, meaning this Naruto is the original, and not a clone.

"Can you please stop with this illusion?" asks the Hokage to the Daitengu who's still using Yureidanuki to his eyes. "It's… kinda disturbing to see my wife fly above the village and try to kill me."

Sojobo doesn't answer, and just complies. He undoes his Genjutsu and goes back to his real appearance.

"Thanks… Before we start, could we get away from the village?" Naruto asks, calmly. "Look, we just finished the repairs after what happened nearly 4 months ago with Momoshiki. It would be cool if we don't mess the place up again."

"Oh, I'll gladly leave this village… But only after I get to Saori." answers the Daitengu.

"Nah. Sorry but there seems to be a conflict of interest there." ironically says the Hokage.

"Tsk! Why are you doing this?" angrily asks Sojobo. "How would you like it if someone took your family away from you?"

"Don't compare us! My family is actually willing to be by my side." says Naruto. "And I'm not wanting to put my daughter in a life threatening situation, like you with Ryutoki."

"WHAT DO YOU TAKE ME FOR?" yells the spirit of the mountain. "I wouldn't force such a burden on someone I cherish as much as Saori!"

"You don't care about her anyway!" yells Naruto back. "Just now, you wanted to kill the man she loves. How do you expect her to react after that?"

"sigh… I already know there is no point in trying to reason with you…" says Sojobo, desperate. "There is no relevant outcome from now on, that doesn't imply one of us dying."

The creature flaps his wings and tries to stab the Hokage with his elongated finger claws, which Naruto flies back to dodge. Suddenly, from his command, all the clones of the Hokage who are accompanying the citizens of Konoha disappear and all their chakra is brought back to the original body. Sojobo feels this incredible power through the chakra connection with the jinchuriki, and widely opens his three eyes in astonishment. The chakra he's receiving and dealing through this link is totally different from 12 years ago.

Naruto now opens his hand wide and holds it down, as if there was a ground under him. A Biju Chakra Arm emerges from his cloak and tries to catch the Daitengu, who uses the same jutsu to counter. The two chakra limbs hold on each other. Now that he's in contact with his opponent, the Hokage uses his held down hand.

Gyakku Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Reverse Summoning)

Sojobo and Naruto disappear from over Konoha, and are transported to the other Naruto, the clone who was heading to Shin no Kuni. Behind this clone is Gamakichi, the giant toad who just synchronized his Reverse Summoning with the original Naruto to get them here, away from the village. Sojobo turns around to see the animal who tries to strike him down with its staff. However, the staff simply breaks when it makes contact with the nearly unbreakable shell of the Daitengu.

Kurogiri

Sojobo emits Akashita's black mist from his hand and sends it to spread on the toad, to absorb his life force. Fortunately, the summoning creature disappears before it's touched. Naruto's clone dispelled the summoning, aware that Gamakichi would just be at risk in such a battle. The Naruto clone also disappears, leaving only Sojobo and the Hokage alone over the ocean.

"You're alone this time." notices the Daitengu. "Without the help of Sasuke or the younger Uchiha, how do you intend to defeat me?"

"Oh I've gotten way much stronger since last time. I can handle you on my own now." he says, while summoning his last Gudodama by his side. "And I doubt you have anything to counter this."

Sojobo doesn't answer. He has seen the possible directions of this fight. He knows what weakness of this orb he'll use to counter it, but also how Naruto will get rid of this weakness. He knows that Naruto isn't lying when he says he got far stronger. He's seen it, and has just yet to experience it.

Flying above the ocean, he looks around and thinks. He also knew that this place was one of many possibilities. They'll have no problem with going all out up here. Naruto readies himself for a serious fight. Sojobo doesn't. He just analyzes his opponent and thinks of all the futures he's seen.

"Up to now, with everything that happened… The millions of outcomes have shrunk down to… a hundred, maybe?" he thinks aloud. "… Such a shame. I can see the future… but not control it."

"I have no idea what you're bragging about!" yells Naruto as he leaps forward to engage the enemy.

The two beings collide and begin to throw all their might at each other. Sojobo's strength and speed are being a bit powered up by the chakra he deals with his adversary. With the Koton, he still surpasses Naruto's speed. But, contrary to the Rikudo Sennin Mode, this boost only fastens his movements and doesn't upgrade his perception and reaction time. Therefore, in close combat, the two of them perfectly match each other.

Naruto flies around and tries to hit with punches, kicks and chakra orbs. Sojobo flaps his wings like those of a dragonfly, to stabilize his moves and keep up with the Hokage's accuracy. He tries to strike with Kasha's claws and chakra limbs. They both attack relentlessly, until Naruto finally lands a punch first. He hits the Daitengu in the chest and sends him flying all the way down through the sky.

As he crashes into the ocean and sinks down to its end, Sojobo feels the strength of this blow going through his body. Naruto got incredibly stronger indeed. His shell is already damaged by just this single blow, whereas even the Hokage's strongest jutsu could barely damage him in the past. His power has really multiplied with his new sage form. It's as if he added a second and third layer of transformation upgrade to his already active Sage Mode. The extreme durability of the Daitengu's shell isn't so meaningful anymore, compared to this strength.

Tajuu Kage Bunshin

Naruto, standing above the sea, creates thousands of clones that throw themselves down to the sea, to find the Daitengu as soon as he emerges. Under their eyes, an extremely intense light can be seen deep under the surface. This light enlarges, and engulfs all the ocean that is now shining bright. Out from this white sea emerges endless feather blades that surprise the clone army and pierces through, causing most of them to disappear. The real Naruto shapes his only Gudodama into a shield to protect himself from the sharp feathers.

Jikanteido

After this reverse rain of projectiles, Naruto lowers his protection and is immediately hit in the lungs by a headbutt of the Daitengu, who stopped time to get closer, unseen. The Hokage manages to catch his breath again after almost suffocating, and stops in the air. The Daitengu strongly flaps his wings forward to stop his flight and looks up, not even 10 meters away from his opponent.

Gudodama

Naruto lets his black orb fly toward the target to try and pierce through him, but is very easily dodged by Sojobo, who then covers his hand with Meiton and grabs the orb. Adding his speed to it, he throws it back to the Hokage, way faster than it came. Being the master of this weapon, Naruto immobilizes the orb before it touches him, and thinks.

"Stop using this orb." suggests Kurama in his body. "We only have one left, and unless we push it physically, it'll be way too slow. And using a throw ball in a short range fight doesn't work."

"Nah! There's one way to use it that would still work." answer Naruto.

The Daitengu leaps forward with his hand still covered in Meiton. As he gets closer, he shapes the chakra in his hand into a black hole that he prepares to throw at the Hokage, to trap him like he was trapped by Momoshiki. But before he can do this, Naruto shapes his last black orb into an elongated staff that he uses to violently strike the gathering darkness and the Daitengu. By hitting the forming black hole, he nullifies it with Inyoton.

The Daitengu, however, has been receiving sage chakra from Naruto since this fight began, and became impermeable to this ability of the Gudodama. Yet, he's still violently struck and thrown away. His shell breaks under this hit, and his arm falls off clean. Before he can get back to his senses after this blow, Naruto reshapes his orb into a lasso that wraps around the target's body. He firmly binds Sojobo and his wings to stop him from moving.

By tightening the rope, he slowly crushes the creature's body, who starts to crack. To save himself from this unbearable pressure, Sojobo covers his wings with both Koton and Meiton, making them glow in a black light, and forcefully spreads them open. He manages to break the hold and loosens the rope. Out of breath after this panic effort, he realizes that his predictions were true. Naruto Uzumaki really has the power to take him down alone now. Angered, and afraid, he's struck by sudden worries.

Then, as he was already expecting to happen at some point in this fight, the Daitengu's body is blessed by Naruto's power, having dealt enough chakra with him. In the back of his shell body, the same Rinnegan symbol as in the Hokage's back appears. And underneath come 2 rows of 3 magatamas. He now has the same Rikudo Senjutsu chakra as his opponent, even though seemingly incomplete since only 6 magatama symbols are visible, rather than 9.

Naruto can't see his enemy's back, but can still feel this sudden change. He and Kurama make flabbergasted faces, until now unaware of what effect their chakra connection could have had. To Sojobo, it makes a bit more sense. He guesses, thanks to this observation, that Naruto's Sage Mode being so much different and stronger than how it used to be during the 4th war is probably also due to the tengu chakra that he absorbed through this same link when he first fought him and that his body must have kept since then.

Both their bodies now have Rikudo, Biju and Tengu chakra bathing in them in perfect harmony and merging to create a tiny piece of a superior energy that makes them stand far above anything that ever died on this planet. Added to his connection to the Biju, it turns out the Daitengu's chakra also has a link with the Rikudo. However, from this reminder, Sojobo gets frustrated as he recalls the pointlessness of fate. This newly acquired power is nothing but one mystery that will remain unanswered.

"What do you even fight for?" he exclaims to the Hokage, frustrated by his own knowledge. "We already had this battle. You defeated me, but here I am, back to existence. Whatever the outcome might be this time, I'll be back anyway!"

"I have to keep you away!" yells the Hokage back. "I have to protect my village, my citizens, my family, and even YOUR family… from you!"

"IT IS POINTLESS!" answers the Daitengu, still yelling. "If it ain't the current Minamoto clan, and the current Konoha, it'll be those from the next ages! You can't stop me for good. Why don't you give up now?… Just like the fox that lives inside you, killing me will only set a timer until I reappear again and again. You cannot stop me with simple punches! There is no limit or age to my existence. Just a plain frustration and mystery! You can defeat me as much as you want, I'll always return, stronger than the last time! You cannot do anything about this. I'll outlive you, and as soon as you're dead, all the efforts you've put into holding me back will go to waste!"

"This… will be up to the next generations." firmly says Naruto. "Your next lives, the next problems you'll cause. I leave this up to them. I trust them… Right now, it's the present. And it's just you and me!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Sojobo laughs out, uncontrollably, under Naruto's deranged eyes. "The future may not be on my side, BUT IT ISN'T ON YOURS EITHER!… You're as doomed as me, Naruto. You… And all this world! I've seen all the futures. All of them! Time won't save you! I know what you fear, what you dread, and I can show it happening to you! This is my true power. To accelerate your vision high beyond what you call the present! For I am the Curse of Time!"

Kunino Tokotachi

From the eye on his forehead, an intense bright light is emitted and blinds Naruto. Unable to see, the Hokage feels the hand of the Daitengu grab his face and push him back so far that it feels like he's leaving the atmosphere. Suddenly, the hand lets go of him and leaves him to flutter, blindly, through space, like he's breaking through dimensions and time.

By combining his Tsukuyomi – Zenpo with the fused powers of Koton's relative speed and Meiton's reality deny, Sojobo created a time and space breaking Genjutsu that goes beyond the concept of 3 dimensional reality and breaks all the laws that no other god would dare to oppose. This is the same jutsu he used 12 years ago on Tsubai Minamoto, upgraded with the power of Takeshi's tengu.

After a painful fall in vacuity, that felt like ages of suffering, Naruto hears a cracking sound behind his back, as if he just fell through the barrier of space itself. He lands violently, with his back hitting rock bottom. After a few seconds, he gets on his knees, looks forward, and gasps in shock. Unable to believe what he sees.

On a lake, the lake of the Valley of the End, the Kurama avatar is standing on the surface, confronting his fist with the one of a Purple Perfect Susanoo. Naruto recognizes this scene, but refuses to believe it.

"Wh-What… is that?" he asks, denying what he already guessed.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" screams Kurama in his mind, before lucidly explaining it. "This… is the Valley of the End, 14 years ago. This, in front of you… is your final battle with Sasuke, after the war."

.

End of Chapter 56 – Next Chapter: Vacuity II