Vacuity III (Hope & Loneliness)

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Kakumei – Arc 2: The Curse of Time

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Chapter 58 – Vacuity III

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The 7th Hokage lies back to the ground, still feeling the pain and injury of the rock pillar and the sword that impaled him earlier in this uncanny trip, even though he's not physically hurt anymore. Being held down by a foot in a black boot with white ornaments, he stares at the mystic wise face of who pressures him.

This person, apparently a man, looks like another member of the Otsutsuki clan but feels completely different from Kaguya, Katashiki or Momoshiki. Among those he met, a few had the same unique type of chakra as him and could surpass him thanks to the nearly unlimited resources they had. But this man's chakra is even worse. Its nature doesn't only equal Naruto's. It greatly surpasses it.

The golden horned man looks down on him as he pushes, like effortlessly, his member through the Hokage's rib cage and lungs. He seems unsatisfied, even a bit saddened by what he is to do. Feeling himself die once more, Naruto hears the Daitengu narrating this sight.

"You'll lose and die here…" he says, as the world flashes and time breaks again.

Still lying on the ground, Naruto is held down again but not by the same person anymore. Now, he sees another man, a bit taller than the one before, not pressing his foot against his chest, but holding a sword's tip against his neck instead. This man is more clearly visible than the one before thanks to the daylight. He has a pair of large white pupils, a robe with teared off sleeves and a horn on top of his head that looks like an Iroquois crest.

"Or here…" says Sojobo, a second before the stranger violently slits Naruto's throat with his blade.

Naruto only has time to feel his blood run out and life fade away for half a second before time flashes again. He is now back to a tree, as the setting suddenly changed from a forest to another that he recognizes as the surroundings of Konoha. The person above him changed as well.

It is no longer the tall crested man, but a short floating woman with very long hair that reaches her feet. She also has horns, owl horns pointing down over each ear, and is wearing nothing but a long mantle wrapped around her body. She's pressing against Hokage's neck, under his chin, with the tip of an elegant black scepter.

"… Or even there…" the Daitengu's voice speaks again, still making the setting change in a flash just as Naruto starts to feel his body going numb.

Naruto is now back in his home, where he saw his wife and a teenager that looked much like his daughter being held unconscious by a tall and terribly elegant woman. By looking around, he sees Hinata lying asleep by his side. He feels relief for a moment, before noticing the massive bloody stone pillar on which he was impaled earlier.

The roof to his house suddenly blasts open out of nowhere. He closes his eyes to avoid the dust and remains falling into his sockets. When he opens them again, he sees the same horned woman as earlier in this same place, marked with the same type of seal as Momoshiki. She's looking down while lying herself on his petrified body. Despite being able to see her doing so, Naruto can't feel the heat of her body at all. Very soon, he notices that he can't hear and smell her either, as if his senses had been turned off.

Feeling in anguish due to this alarming state and setting, he starts to sweat excessively before his vision fades away as well. Even though he's now completely blind, he still can see the white flash of Sojobo's illusion shine once again to bring him to once another time.

"So many ways for you to lose, but so little ways to win… What is the point of fighting today if death and defeat will inevitably come tomorrow? You're as doomed as me, and as everything else. Your only luck would depend on when you come to your end. Either you fall first, as a hero, or lonely, as a failed survivor, after everyone you loved."

The setting changes one last time, and Naruto looks around, able to see again, tired. He's feeling the pain and damage from all the deaths he's been through in just a few seconds. Not seeing any enemy plunge to him this time, he rests a bit on softer ground, before realizing what it is made of.

Nothing but snow, lukewarm blood red snow. Above him is no sky, no clouds, no moon. Just a very tiny bit of light coming from the few unobstructed stars behind him, just enough for him to see how darker everything is ahead. Trying to bear the pain, he lifts his head up and searches for help. He can't see anything around, until something in the sky opens, and emits a deep red light. As soon as he lays his eyes upon something else than snow and blood, he finally feels what Sojobo was waiting for. Hope fading away.

All around him, nothing but lifeless bodies, from whom he recognizes the faces. Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Lee, Sakura, Tenten. Not only his friends, but also people he takes a while to identify at first, due to them looking way older than they should be. His son, Boruto, and a black haired man with pink strands covering his ears, Izuna. Not only people from Konoha. He also sees Omoi, Minaa Nii, a woman that looks like a bulkier and dark-skinned version of Kira, the wife of the Raikage who's there as well, with the new Mizukage, Gaara, and even Sasuke… All of them lie, severed, mutilated, lifeless.

Naruto, speechless and breathless, lets his head fall down to the ground again, and accidentally comes to see the source of the red light that shines on this mortuary scene. A moon, an eye, watching over this cemetery. A Rinne-Sharingan. After a few seconds, remaining thoughtless, he surprisingly sees this eye blink. It isn't an image on the moon. It is an actual eye belonging to a living form standing before the sky. A creature so huge that its silhouette covers and intercepts all the sky light.

Naruto has no idea if it's day or night. All he sees is the giant entity standing up, revealing an unbelievably human posture and a surreal full height, that greatly surpasses the Juubi, or Kaguya's Gudodama. Compared to this, the two latter seem like simple ants. It stands, still hiding the light that now leaks from its back and lets its silhouette be drawn. The monster turns its all-powerful eye down to see the only remaining living thing.

Totally forgetting about Sojobo and the illusion, Naruto feels his hope, joy, sanity and spirit fade away. Drowning in fear, despair and loneliness, he lets himself sink down in the melting snow and blood, as if he was already dead. He closes his eyes, and loses all his focus. He stops seeing, hearing, smelling… The only thing that remains is the emotions he senses around. At first he doesn't feel any, but after a deeper look inside his own self, he feels him. Kurama, just as despaired and afraid as him.

The Biju has been quiet since they started going through these deaths. In the fox, he senses the same anguish as in him. And oddly, the Hokage is brought up by this. He is not alone yet. He and Kurama still have each other. As long as anyone other than himself is in fear, he has to fight. As long as anyone has emotions, he has to stand for them. After all, he promised so in front of Katashiki years ago: as long as he's the Hokage, nobody except him is allowed to sacrifice.

Naruto focuses, and feels the presence and quiet emotions of another being. The Daitengu, who's silently spectating.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" screams the Hokage, at top of his lungs.

Biju Chakra Mode

Naruto gathers all his strength and power, activates his chakra cloak combined with his Sage Mode, and immediately stands up. He concentrates to sense all his surroundings, and after a second of silence, he turns around, facing an empty spot where Sojobo suddenly appears.

Rasengan

He surprises the Daitengu and instantly strikes him with a chakra orb that sends him flying through the dark red sky of this apocalyptic future.

Tajuu Kage Bunshin

Countless clones appear all around the place, as far as it expands, and all jump to Sojobo together. Naruto inhales, as he clenches his fists and, in his body, holds his closed hands against Kurama's muzzle, to wake him up from the nightmare.

"Loneliness, Annihilation,… Sure, I'm afraid…" shouts Naruto, full of hope again. "But you showing this to me actually cheers me up. It won't break me. I'll simply stand up, wait for all these futures to come, and beat them, all of them. I'll outlive all of the visions you've shown."

Listening to this, Sojobo gets sick again, as if all the Hokage's positiveness and naivete was making him physically ill. Almost vomiting, he loses his focus and involuntarily lets an opening for the clones to reach him. One after another, they punch him in the face, the chest, the abdomen, breaking his shell and sending him flying through space. Unable to maintain it, the space-time illusion breaks, and both the Daitengu and the Hokage are brought back to the sky over the sea.

Naruto doesn't stop there, all his clones keep boxing the white creature away through the sea, all the way north, back to the continent and the soil of the Land of Fire.

"You should mark those words I say, for I'm never going to run away. I'll never go back on my words!" shouts the original Naruto as he lets the beating continue. "It is, always has been, and always will be my Nindo!"

Wakusei Rasengan

Reaching for his target, the original hits him with a big ball Rasengan, surrounded by several smaller orbs rotating around it. At impact, Sojobo is propelled many kilometers away by a giant vortex. Gripping balance again, missing half his body while what remains is barely holding together, the Daitengu sees thousands of Naruto clones still come after him, not intending to let him any respite.

Daitengu Dappi

Sojobo's shell widens and crackles up to let a brand new body, completely unharmed, hatch out of it. As soon as the new body is ready, he unleashes his chakra wings and stabilizes himself in the air. Still surrounded by the clones, he tries to chase them away.

Koton – White Hole

To spread the clones around and disperse them, he quickly creates an anti-black hole that repulses all matter, including light, away. All the clones are sent back and troubled by the push.

Meiton – Black Hole

Immediately following the white hole, and taking advantage of the clones' confusion, Sojobo now takes a moment to make a black hole, big and heavy enough to pull all the clones, air, light and ground in over a kilometer round to it. All the clones are grabbed by the object's attraction and are crushed down, forced to disappear. Behind the army, the original is also drawn in the pull.

In panic, and lacking any information about this weird jutsu, he prepares a reaction as fast as possible, trying to stop this the same way as he did for Pain's Shinra Tensei earlier.

Inyoton – Haki Rasen Shuriken

He rapidly throws a shuriken orb embedded with the Yin-Yang Ninjutsu canceling power to the cosmic object, in an attempt to dispel it just like Momoshiki could dispel Sasuke's Susanoo, but it has no effect. Sojobo, so far, has already absorbed enough of Naruto's Rikudo Sage chakra for his own nature to be upgraded to that level. All of the Daitengu's jutsus are now Rikudo Senjutsu and not simple Ninjutsu.

Naruto, however, doesn't give up now. Before all the clones are destroyed, he dispels them and gathers all their chakra into two way bigger orbs while randomly adding anything that could have an effect.

Rikudo Jinton – Twin Biju Rasen Shuriken

He throws two enormous tailed beast shurikens reinforced by Shukaku's Juinjutsu, along with his own Inyoton chakra again. The two projectiles are rapidly pulled by the black hole and collide with it at the same time. Unexpectedly, this massive gathering of all forms of chakra troubles the heavy mass's structure and the Juinjutsu seals its pull for a brief moment, long enough for it to succumb under the power of the jutsu's blast.

"Oh! It worked!" says Naruto, surprised by his own mindless solution.

"What the hell?" yells Sojobo, who knows the true power of these celestial objects and finds it unbelievable that it was countered despite now being fully made of his natural and cosmic energy.

Naruto, who's being brought close to Sojobo really fast by the pull's momentum, grabs his face and dives down the air to the ground, to smash the Daitengu's newly made body. Not yet ready to take that much damage again, Sojobo makes the landing harmless for him.

Mutai

When he comes in contact with the ground, Naruto only feels his hands hit the bottom. Sojobo used Amabie's power to swim through the soil and escape unharmed. While the Hokage is confused by this event, the Daitengu precipitates a complete take over, taking advantage of Naruto's tiny instant of surprise.

By using Koton's speed combined with Kasha's agility, Amabie's grace, and Tenshi's wings, he outspeeds Naruto and, without any clone, reproduces the beating he endured earlier, but with feline claws. While moving on and through the ground and air at extreme speed away and back from Naruto, he yells out his thoughts.

"If I had a mouth, I'd have thrown up from your naivete!" he screams. "There is no hope, no fighting spirit, no ninja way! All the deaths and ends you've seen are all more and more absolute. There are only defeats, not a single victory in the horizon of time. To change all of them is just improbable! You can't escape the curse of time!"

The Hokage, being torn apart by claw strikes from all directions at a speed that surpasses what he can achieve, yells out in pain and determination while protecting only his chest and face from this offensive. He focuses as much as he can to sense all his enemy's movements and deduce his location.

"Can you?" yells Naruto, bleeding out from all his body.

At this question, Sojobo lets the confusion take over and stops straight for an extremely short moment, long enough for Naruto to grab him by the arm to stop his running attack. After a quick stare down, the two divine beings attempt to strike each other once again.

Biju Rasengan

Meiton – Black Thunder

Sojobo gathers complete black lightning in his free hand, Naruto makes a little tailed beast orb, and the two of them collide their attacks, standing in the middle of the kilometers devastated by the black hole's pull from earlier. As they withstand each other's power, Naruto looks up, and deep into the eyes of the creature, still visibly unsettled by his last question.

Suddenly, while their chakra are furiously confronting each other through their jutsus, inside of Sojobo's consciousness, Naruto appears face to face with him, ready to speak from the deepest of his heart to the deepest of the tengu's.

They both stand in a complete white horizon. Sojobo feels lost and looks around. Naruto, who already reached this level of comprehension many times, simply stands before him. In this bright void, he can perfectly sense and understand all the Daitengu's feelings.

"I fight for my village, for my family, for my world." says Naruto. "I told you earlier. I have to protect them from you, and from others… And you, Sojobo, what do YOU fight for? What do YOU fear?"

Sojobo doesn't reply, and is just surprised by the Hokage's will. Why would he even try to reach this place? Can't he just beat him up and go home, like he did 12 years ago? He widely opens his red glowing eyes and listens to what his opponent has to say.

"I am not afraid." continues Naruto. "You can read my fears, show them to me in image. Make them happen… I don't care. I'll just stand up and fight while I still can, for Hinata, for my children, for Konoha… But you, Sojobo,… You're the one who's afraid. All the future you witnessed… You're the one who calls them absolute. You're the one scared to face your fate. You're the one cursed by time."

"Shut up! Stop this! Get out of here!" screams Sojobo, pissed off by Naruto's words, but deeply affected.

He's already accepted the truth that the Hokage is speaking, but prefers to deny it in front of him, out of mistrust. Within this strange realm, he leaps forward and tries to slit Naruto's throat, but can't bring himself to do it for some reason. Naruto, knowing this isn't the right place to pick a fight, even willfully, stands straight, unimpressed. Unable to use violence, Sojobo frowns, and answers Naruto's first question.

"I fight for my family. I just want them by my side. I have no intention of wronging them. You have no reason to stop me." he says angrily.

"Bullshit!" yells Naruto. "If you really cared for Saori, or for anyone, you would ask for their choice, and aim to spend time with them, like any being… All you do is spy on them from far away, and call them your children! Loving someone, as a friend or a family member, isn't just having feelings and strongly believing in them. It's also seeking to be loved. Bonds become real when they go both ways!… You don't know this! You never really felt love… See, the truth is that you're just like me. Your worst fear is loneliness."

Sojobo stares deep into the Hokage's sage eyes, hurt by these words and how real they are. He had seen every possible path that this fight could take, but not even once did he take the time to listen to what Naruto had to say. Now that he did, he feels lost, confused.

In the devastated land of reality, Naruto's Biju orb breaks through the black thunder and strikes the Daitengu who's shoulder breaks under the shock. He is sent fluttering and rolling on the ground for many kilometers, reaching twice further than the black hole's range. Sliding on the ground, he clenches his fists, and carelessly damages his own ankles with his claws. He gets on his knees and holds the ground.

Deiton/Meiton – Yami no Jii

Combining his dark chakra with Kasha's mud release, he turns all the soil, for as far as he can see with all three eyes, into dark black mud that swallows down everything it touches. This way, he flattens and cleans the country several dozens of kilometers ahead. Naruto, to avoid this dark pool of torment, calls for Kurama's help.

Biju Modo

Leaping over all of the dark pool's length, Kurama's avatar falls closer to the Daitengu and raises his nine tails up in the air. All together, they lengthen and crash upon the target and all the surroundings. Not fast enough to get out of range, Sojobo gives himself the time to do so anyway.

Jikanteido

The impact causes a shock wave that can be felt from Konoha. Sojobo stopped time to evade it, but Naruto, still using his sage mode, felt the time freeze and followed the tengu's movements. Inside of the Biju Mode, Naruto leans back to escape the Daitengu's claws trying to rip his face off. In an instant, he loads up Kurama's chakra in his hand and throws it up.

Kurama Wangeki

He punches the creature away, right in the face, caving a hole in his cheek, and pushes him out of his colossal armor. Right as he flies out, Sojobo floats in the air in front of Kurama.

Wangeki

The yellow fox strikes the Daitengu the exact same way with his giant hand, and sends him fluttering through the sky of the land of Fire. As he slides in the air uncontrollably, Sojobo closes his eyes, waiting to land, not having any counter attack plan. Fortunately, through Takeshi and Kokoro's gazes, he sees all the villagers, including them, look over the borders and very barely see the many hundreds of meters high fox standing on the land far in the distance. To him, it's a glimpse of hope. Judging by their position, and their image of the Biju Mode, he guesses the position of Konoha.

Koton – Shunshin

Unleashing his chakra wings, he makes his body glow and tremendously boosts his speed. He strongly flaps his wings in the air and pushes himself forward to the village. Naruto, who saw the light gather around the Daitengu's body, reacted in time and bounced forward as quickly as possible with his Biju Mode. However, he's far from fast enough to catch up to the Daitengu who takes distance.

Futton – Kairiki Muso

To propel himself closer, he boils up his chakra, and uses it to boost his jump out of the spectral fox. Going at full speed, boosted by the momentum of the Biju Mode's leap and his vaporizing chakra's jet effect, he reaches the fastest he's ever been, and for a moment, keeps up with the Daitengu. Before he loses the advantage of the push, he transfers all its impulse to a jutsu.

Yoton – Rasenshuriken

He throws the magma orb at relative speed compared to him, and it flies faster than Sojobo, reaching him and cutting off one of his wings. This results in the Daitengu losing control over his flight and considerably slowing down. Naruto catches up to the slowing creature and holds him by the neck.

"Damn it! Just let me go!" screams Sojobo, totally out of options. "I told you countless times! There is no point in fighting! Your worst fears will come true, and will end you! I am not even the enemy you'll have to face to oppose this truth." he adds, ready to justify this last sentence with another time leap.

Kunino Tokotachi

To get rid of Naruto, he emits his endless light from his forehead eye again, hoping to trap him in another timeline and leave him there. But Naruto won't let himself be fooled by the same jutsu again. Hence he grabs the Daitengu's face and covers his third eye with his palm, deflecting the projected light back to its source, trapping Sojobo in a piece of his own illusion for a moment.

"Enough with this!" shouts Naruto. "What about your fear coming true?"

The Daitengu feels his body fall in infinity, out of space and time, and lands abruptly, completely immobile, in a dark mysterious cave. Unable to move any muscle, he hardly moves his eyes around to see and recognizes the place. It is the one place he saw at the end of all the possible timelines he explored. All the millions of them. It always ended the same way.

Tetanized by fear, he starts to sweat and tremble uncontrollably, hoping for help. Out of the darkness that fills this place, he sees three 3 red glowing eyes just like his open. A shadowy creature, as thin, tall, and menacing as him slowly steps out of the darkness. This thing looks like an exact copy of him, but somehow older, worse, stronger. There seems to be something on top of his skull, rather than just a bald head, and in opposition to Sojobo's white, this shape is completely dark, so dark that it can barely be told apart from the shadows.

Seeing this creature silently come forward to him, raise its hand and carelessly aim to grab him, Sojobo gasps, panics, breathes out, and finally, screams relentlessly for help.

Rasengan

He's suddenly brought back to his senses, saved from this nightmare, by Naruto who hits him in the chest with a Rasengan. The two of them fall down the sky, and land in the middle of Konoha.

All the present villagers, and the ninjas who come running to protect them, watch as the dust lifted by the landing settles. When it does, they see their Hokage, covered in wounds and blood, standing above the Daitengu who's pushed down in the ground, defeated. Done with this fight, Naruto deactivated his Biju cloak. Sojobo, too shaken and harmed to move, simply looks desperately at the Hokage's orange eyes. Having been reminded of his inevitable fate, he speaks to the victor.

"What am I supposed to be? I am not even the sole individual of my kind." he laments. "I am not THE Daitengu, but A Daitengu, and probably the worst of us… Whatever my nature is,… Is this my purpose? To serve as an expendable, nourishing it."

"So, 'it'?" asks Naruto. "What is 'it'? Is it who or what you fear? Is it something that moves, speaks and thinks like you and me?… If this is the case, why are you crying about inevitability? In any fight, there's two sides. And both can win."

"You don't understand… It doesn't apply here. I've seen all of them, all the paths I could take. All of them lead to one same moment. They all end the same way. There is no good outcome for me…"

"Of course there is, you just forgot to make it possible." he says. "If you look and just believe what you see, without any objection, of course, nothing will stop it. You didn't find any path where you beat your fears. Ok, then make a new one… But don't come to your family seeking support, unless you're prepared to offer it back."

Sojobo widens his red eyes again, and stares with his blank face at the Hokage proudly standing above his broken body. After this life lesson, he can't contain himself, and sheds a tear, before bursting into laughter. All the villagers standing around look, confused and afraid by the creature's behavior.

"You… are right, Naruto. I can't deny it anymore." he admits. "I can love, but I don't know love. I can't experience it. I am fated to be alone, trapped in loneliness, awaiting to meet my worst fear. I have no other choice than to let it come, and… hope to survive. You are right, there is hope. In fact, there is nothing but hope. No love, no truth, just hope… But my hope was my family…"

He turns his head to look at an empty street, seconds before Takeshi comes running out of it to see the scene. The young boy stops and watches, a ten of meters away. Sojobo lovingly stares at him, and raises his hand toward him.

"Will you… show me… hope?" he quietly whispers to the kid, speaking from his body and within Takeshi's mind simultaneously.

Takeshi breathes in, and watches, sadly, at the defeated Daitengu. He takes a few steps forward, and raises his hand, as if to catch his ancestor's, still staying several meters away. Sojobo's tear wipes off his face, and in his eyes, Takeshi and Naruto can clearly read a smile.

"Takeshi, Makura… Goodbye, for now…" he whispers again, before letting himself leave existence once again.

Jikanteido

To everyone's eye, in just an instant, The Daitengu, turned into a wooden statue and aged up, becoming completely inert. Naruto, who felt the time pause, looks over to stare at Takeshi for a moment. He has the disturbing impression that something just happened between this kid and his clan's founder during the time freeze, but can't tell what. The young ninja seems indifferent, even unaware of what jutsu was just used.

More preoccupied about his adversary, Naruto looks back at the Daitengu's carcass whose wood is peeling off, falling into pieces. It eventually turns to dust and flies away, carried by the light breeze. The last emotion the Hokage could sense from this creature wasn't malicious, or desperate. It was simply peace of mind, and hope, as he taught him.

And these emotions, the Hokage can still perfectly feel them in the air, as the Daitengu, Spirit of the Mountain, the Curse of Time itself, never truly leaves and only passes on the tale to his next generations until he can return and confront his fate, be it his final demise or glorious rise.

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End of Chapter 58 – Next Chapter: Epidemic