Chapter 25

A silver-shaggy-haired shinobi with three distinctive red markings on his face groggily woke up, he then held his head while groaning in pain. The silver-haired shinobi opened his eyes revealing his red coloured iris, looking around the spartan-like room with only a blue armour, a closet for clothes, and a bed. The shinobi whispered in astonishment, asking no one in particular. "What am I doing back in the village?"

Hurrying out of the room, he left the house to look at his current location confirming his conjecture. 'This is definitely the village, how did I get back here?' he thought again. "Anija!!" he screamed out, running towards another house. 'He's not here in the village' he wondered.

He squatted, placing his right palm on the ground. "Izuna is here too, what's going on?" he said. "Don't tell me..." his eyes widened at the realisation his brother and Madara decided to face Indra alone.

"Hashirama!! you idiot!! what do I tell the clan members, that the founder of the village decided to go die off in a pointless self-sacrifice?? The four of us had a better chance at defeating Indra." Tobirama exclaimed angrily at the perceived foolishness of his brother. 'Why would Madara join him? he has nothing to lose or gain?' he thought, his brain already analysing everything based on the information available to him. 'Did they know something else we didn't?'

He started heading towards the location of the nearest Senju clan member he had sensed a few moments ago. He paused for a moment, waiting for the shinobi that was hurriedly heading towards him.

"Tobirama-sama!" he shinobi greeted upon getting to him.

"How did I get back to the village?" Tobirama asked.

"Hashirama-sama, and Madara ordered every one of us to bring you and Izuna back to the village."

Tobirama placed his hand on his chin, 'So Hashirama knocked me out, then how was I unconscious for the entire distance back to the village?'

"How was I unconscious for that long then?" Tobirama asked the Senju clan member.

"Hashirama-sama, gave us the pollen produced by his wood release jutsu."

Tobirama nodded in acknowledgement, dismissing the shinobi. He hurriedly headed back to his house to fetch his shinobi armour. Clad in his blue shinobi armour, Tobirama headed towards the Uchiha compound to get Izuna with the intention of leaving for the Land of Lightning immediately. He didn't get to the Uchiha compound when he saw Izuna clad in the usual Uchiha clan garb and his sword at his side, sporting an anxious look on his face.

They both headed towards the gate without saying anything, already knowing what's on the other person's mind and what they have to say. Upon getting to the gate of the village, fifty shinobi from both clans stood in a loose formation waiting for them.

"What are you all doing here?" Tobirama asked impatiently.

"We are coming with you both," An armour clad shinobi resolutely said, the others nodding in acknowledgement. "The current condition of our clan leader is unknown, we cannot sit back and let something happen to them." He continued, showing concern towards the Uchiha clan head too.

"Fine! you can all come with us," Izuna said, interrupting Tobirama who was about to reject them.

They all started running towards the Last known location of Indra in the Land of Lightning. They reached the borders of the Land of lightning in 38 hours. "We'd all have a rest here," Tobirama said, coming to a stop. "Restore your chakra reserves, we would be leaving in three hours."

Three hours later, and they had restored as much of their chakra they possibly could, given the time they had. "Reserve as much of your chakra you can," Tobirama said. "Although six days had passed, we don't know what to expect. Hashirama and Madara haven't returned to the village, something must have happened to them. There might be a fight waiting for us."

Tobirama and Izuna lead them to their last location in the Land of lightning, right before they got knocked out. And as they had expected, Hashirama and Madara weren't there and the house Hashirama created with his wood release jutsu was gone. They immediately headed towards the last location of Indra, that's the best lead they had for now.

The sight they saw shocked them to the core when they got to Indra's last known location. From afar they could see three massive ice statues, each reaching 300m in height. The statue of Indra was right in the middle with the statue of Hashirama and Madara to his left and right respectively.

'They definitely fought here,' Tobirama thought, upon seeing how scarred the entire area was. 'But where is Anija and Madara?'

They all hurried to the base of the statue, shinobi and civilians gathered around the statue. Some of them were staring at the statue in marvel, while others were trying to destroy it but to no avail. It seemed the ice statue was made to be impervious to damage, at least damage from the current attackers.

Izuna walked up to one of the onlookers and asked, "What happened here?"

"Gods fought here, for days we could all feel it, the explosions and everything. And after they were done these statues appeared here," The woman animatedly replied.

"They lost, two shinobi tried to become gods and they failed," another onlooker interjected, adding his own bit to the reply. He then pointed at the statue of Madara and Hashirama, "Those two," he said, "they chose this place as an arena to earn the right to be gods, and they lost. A red-haired woman carrying a baby alongside her clan members took the bodies of the losers away."

An Uchiha shinobi walked up to the man speaking, he rudely grabbed him and lifted the man. With his Sharingan activated, he asked. "Where is Madara-sama? tell me before I kill you."

"I already told you, I swear... the red-haired woman took them away," the man fearfully replied.

"Izuna control your clan shinobi!!"

*Tch!!!* The Uchiha shinobi hissed, before throwing the man to the floor.

Tobirama walked to the man, before asking, "Do you know where they went?" The man pointed in a direction before scampering off.

[Unknown POV]

'I felt the battle that happened here, as strong as I am, I know I wouldn't have been a match for any one of the combatants. The shockwaves from the battle were massive, I felt it from over 100km away, when I got here I couldn't believe how much three shinobi fighting could have destroyed the land as much as they did. And then the statues, they look familiar to me but....'

"A-sama, Uchiha, and Senju clan members are heading to this location."

I turned to look at my bodyguard, "Let's stay away from their sights for now."

A Few minutes later, I watched the Uchiha and Senju members led by Tobirama, and Izuna leave in a different direction from where they came from.

"Arena of the Gods?! What a load of bullocks, no one is strong enough to be a god," My bodyguard next to me said.

'Now I'm certain, the statues are of Senju Hashirama, Uchiha Madara, and Hatake Indra. No! he can't be called an ordinary shinobi anymore, Hatake Indra the Shinobi no Kami.'

"A-sama! A-sama!." My bodyguard kept on saying, distracting me from my thoughts. "Sorry, what were you saying?

"What do you think about what they're saying concerning who created the statue? do you think he's a god?"

I laughed at the stupid question he asked, "No he's not a god, just a human that has acquired the power of a god. The Shinobi no Kami, just like the fabled tales of the Rikudo Sennin."

........

[Indra's Dimension]

"Mito-san, when you got here, you were hell-bent on killing Indra-sama and escaping, and now you treat this place like it's your home. Why is that?" A white-haired shinobi with a tanto strapped to his back asked the red-haired kunoichi sitting next to a kunoichi with white hair.

"Hahaha, I know right!" She stated. "I've grown to like Indra-kun a lot," She replied with a dreamy look on her face.

*Tch!!!*

"What is it Megumi?" The white-haired shinobi asked the kunoichi sitting next to Mito.

"You're not worthy enough to be with Indra-sama!!!!!" Megumi said heatedly. Then animatedly pointing at Mito with smoke coming out of her head.

"Sit down little girl," Mito replied.

'Ah! God! not again!' Yuuta covered his face with his palm, sighting at the antics of both kunoichi.

The entire landscape started shaking with the land ripping apart like an earthquake was happening.

"What going on?" Yuuta exclaimed, trying to balance himself.

Megumi face widens in fear, as she points towards the sky. "The... the s..ky is falling," she said stuttering.

"Let's go, we'd head back to the mansion Yuuta ensure the clan members are okay, bring everyone to the mansion too, I'm sure Indra-kun would return immediately, he knows everything happening here after all." She said as they all ran towards the mansion, dragging anyone they could find alongside.

By the time they got to the Mansion, the carnage had somewhat subsided, the land was no longer ripping apart and the sky had somewhat stabilized, but it still happened only at a much-reduced rate. They all heard a screaming woman, immediately they got to the mansion vicinity, with the nurses and doctor Indra brought scrambling around.

"What's happening?" Mito asked, stopping one of the nurses.

"Akari-done has gone into labour."

"At a time like this," Mito hissed, frustrated at the current situation.

A few hours later, the doctor came out of the room, Mito and the white-haired Hatake clan members ran up to him.

"You can all go in now," he said solemnly.

Mito stayed back as Yuuta and Megumi ran into the room to see the mother of their clan-head. "What's going on?" she asked the doctor.

"Where is Indra-dono?" he asked Mito. "He should be next to her, the birth of the baby has exhausted her life force. His mother won't live for much longer."

Mito left the doctor and rushed into the room. She stood next to Akari with tear-filled eyes, and her voice choked with emotions as she looked at the pale, and barely breathing mother as she cuddled her newborn.

"Where is Indra?" she weakly asked. "Look, he has a little sister now," she said, softly smiling while showing the sleeping newborn to Mito.

Mito choked back tears before replying, "Sorry Akari-sama, Indra-kun hasn't returned yet."

"It's fine, I know he's busy trying to protect what's left of our clan. I just wish I would be able to see him one last time." She slowly said, her voice getting weaker with each breath. "Mito-chan, can you please take care of my baby for me?"

"Yes I will, I promise," Mito replied, already crying alongside everyone else in the room.

"Thank you, Her name is Ayaka." she said, with a soft smile on her face. Her voice turning into a whisper towards the end. "I'd have loved to see you and my son get married someday. Take care of him for me Mito-chan."

The baby started crying as if she knew she'd just lost her mother.

"I will, Akari-sama," she said picking up the crying baby.

A massive explosion rang out outside the mansion, as the dimension started collapsing at an expedited rate. An emotionless voice immediately sounded out.

[Transferring Authority]

The crying voice of Indra's sister increased tremendously as a diamond-shaped mark appeared on her forehead.

[Expelling current residents in 5 seconds]

'Take care of my sister, she's the most important person to me right now,' the voice of Indra rang out in the mind of Mito.

'Where are you Indra?' she frantically replied.

'I won't be coming back for a while. A few months at best.' his voice rang out again before going silent.

'Indra!! Indra!!' she frantically called out but to no avail, his voice had gone silent.

[3..2..1]

A bright light appeared, blinding them. Their next sight was of three massive ice statues with Indra in the middle of them.

"Look, there's two shinobi there," one of them said, drawing attention to the bodies of two shinobi right at the base of the statues.

"Hashirama and Madara," Mito exclaimed. 'What are they doing here?'

"Quickly, go pick them up, we have to leave now," she hurriedly said to the Hatake clan members. No one questioned her order as Yuuta was already heading towards the unconscious shinobi.

'Ah fuck!! I didn't want anyone to see us leave, but that's too late now,' She thought, sensing different people close to them.

They hurriedly carried the bodies of Hashirama, and Madara with a small crowd already forming. They could all hear the talks of Gods fighting here and this place being called the Arena of Gods.

........

[A/N:- Point out any mistake so I can edit it, I wrote two chapters, so I didn't have the time to edit any of it. Ja ne!]