-4 months later-
More than a year had passed since Toru left Konohagakure. In this time span, he encountered hundreds of elite ninja sent by Danzo, who tried to assassinate him without success. Even while he was in the midst of his research, the Root ninja attacked, without even mercy, though the way most of those who survived ended up was somewhat... strange, after all, all those ninja who survived were now trees without a shred of vitality.
"Test subject 123... stable. His heart rate remains stable, his breathing also remains the same. His blood circulation is unchanged and the chakra in his body does not appear to have any malfunctions. The death lines in his body are still moving normally, however, the assimilation of the cells is leaving him exhausted, but he is slowly recovering. The individual's body seems to have successfully accepted the cells and it appears that his chakra is recovering twice as fast as before..."
Toru set the notebook and pencil down on the table next to the metal tray. He sighed heavily as he looked at the fruits of his efforts. It had been long enough, all that he had to live through in order to achieve what he so desired....
"I made it..."
A smile formed on his mouth. This was the pleasure a person feels when seeing a job well done, it was everything he desired. Now, all that was left was to kill the experiment, after all this one might get loose and reveal itself against him, so it was best to make sure the experiment didn't use its new powers to kill Toru.
"Thanks to you I have what I want, so you will have a painless death."
The man lying on the stretcher looked up at the ceiling and sighed. At last this suffering would end, after all he had been on that stretcher for over a month, suffering again and again the tortures of this mad scientist.
"Close your eyes, take a deep breath. Imagine a place that makes you feel happiness, peace... a place where you feel comfortable with yourself. Stretch out your arms, look at the sky and die with that beautiful landscape you have imagined."
After this, blood splattered on the walls and the stretcher, to seconds later fall slowly to the floor. Using a single scalpel, Toru destroyed the man's head, giving him a painless death in gratitude for the success of this experiment.
"Well, it's all finished. I have already done my calculations, everything should go well, my body should assimilate the cells without any problems, after all my calculations in this kind of thing have never failed, even in my past life I was praised for that. So I must prepare myself, the moment I have waited so long for is near. At last I will be able to get the Kekkei Genkai from Yamato-sensei."
He quickly prepared the whole place. He got rid of all the corpses of his experiments by burning them with Shakuton, he tidied up the whole clandestine laboratory to have enough space to move in case the cells caused him pain. Now only the most important thing was missing.
Taking a syringe with a red liquid inside, Toru took a seat on one of the stretchers, lay down on it and took a deep breath. He was about to implant his sensei's cells, which was strange, but necessary for what he wanted. He took some time to think things over and when he felt he was ready, the smile returned to his face.
"Let's get this over with."
Sticking the needle of the syringe into his left arm, Toru made sure the liquid would enter his veins. Once that was finished, he set the syringe down on the metal tray and leaned back on the gurney, waiting for the result. The seconds passed, however, no memorable event happened, it was simply him, lying on the stretcher, watching the flame of the candles on the candlesticks.
He felt a strange chill run through his veins, slowly, it moved throughout his body until it finally reached his heart. He sighed lightly as he thought, he thought so much that he even thought he would die stuck in his own mind. Having his own sensei's cells was something that somehow made him feel nostalgic.
He closed his eyes slowly, but... something didn't go right.
"Aghhh!"
Toru got up from the gurney quickly as he touched his chest hard. Digging his fingernails into his skin, he felt a horrible pain shoot through his entire body, starting from his heart all the way to his brain. Slowly this sensation, over and over again echoed through his body, as waves of hot, cold, aching, burning, different feelings of suffering flooded his body.
He fell to his knees, still touching his chest hard.
"Why, Ahhhhhhh!!!! I'm... sure my calculations were right... then, HOW! AHHHHHHHHH!"
Writhing on the ground, as the veins began to become visible on his skin, his eyes became bloodshot, at the same time, from his ears, mouth and nose began to pour out a great cascade of blood that seemed to have no end. He continued to touch his chest with force, as the pain was unbearable, he did not know what he had done wrong. Toru was sure that none of his calculations had failed, everything was perfect, his experiment had succeeded, so he could not understand it.
His suffering continued, without stopping for a second.
From his mouth, a strange viscous foam began to come out, at the same time, his body presented continuous spasms, which happened in intervals of a second. Tears began to come out of his tear ducts, it was not because he was sad or angry, these tears showed the pain he was feeling at that moment, an unimaginable pain that forced his brain to release the stress in the form of these tears, but that did not work, the pain did not subside, it could be said that it got much worse.
'Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! I'm going to die, I'm going to die... Damn!"
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Aghhhhhhhhhhh! Damn!"
Crawling on the floor, even if his own body disobeyed him, he tried to look for a solution, but it was too late, this was going to be his end... His vision became blurred, little by little the darkness took over his field of vision and then... a long silence was the only thing that remained in that laboratory, nothing more than that, silence...
-One year later-
The pencil being scraped on the paper, that small soothing sound was heard in that place while the rain hit the roof without stopping. Right next to it, a large being with canine appearance and silver fur stood. The wolf was sleeping being used by his friend as if it were a pillow.
Long strokes on the sheet of paper, he looked at this and sighed. For a few seconds, his eyes were fixed on the window, watching the incessant rain in this place. It had been a week already and it wouldn't stop raining. Still, this place was perfect for hiding, since due to the constant rains, his trail was easily erased, leaving no chance for Danzo's ninjas to find him.
"Toru-dono... is it training time already?"
"No, not yet. We'll train that nature jutsu later, it's still early, so, we should eat something. I saved some fruits I collected yesterday, they should still be edible, do you want some?"
"Uh... yeah, because I'm hungry."
"Well..."
Getting up from the floor, he walked around the small hut until he came to a small room. Once in there, he looked at the large amount of food that had been stored next to large blocks of ice that seemed not to melt. He stayed there for a few seconds, as he only took the fruits he had mentioned and returned to where his canine companion was.
"Catch it."
He tossed two apples and some grapes into the air. At that instant, Okaminaru's gaze sharpened and disappeared into thin air, instantly, he appeared at the other end of the room with the fruits in his muzzle. He had a small smile on his face as he chewed on those sweets of nature.
Seeing this, Toru just kept his expressionless face and sat back down on the floor, after all that place didn't have a bed, indeed, it didn't have any furniture, it was just an empty house. Although, there was a hidden place that Toru used as a laboratory, however, it had been quite a while since he used it.
In these past two years, he had traveled most of the continent, running away from the ninjas of Konoha and, above all, running away from the Root ninjas, the idiots who obey Danzo, so it was not strange to think that he had more than one laboratory in his entire journey. Since that day... he's just been on the run.
'Hm... we should start training shortly. My chakra reserves are a thousand times larger due to Yamato-sensei's cells, so it's hard to tire me out. Okaminaru will end up fainting before I run out of a quarter of my chakra.'
Biting into an apple, Toru remembered everything that happened a year ago. When he thought his experiment had failed, when he thought his death was assured. However, when he lost consciousness, he woke up a week later, lying on the ground and in the same place he remembered. It was strange, for when he awoke, there were no roots on his body or anything resembling wood. This was a mystery that was solved in the first second.
He quickly deduced that the experiment had been a success and that this suffering was just a small payment in exchange for such a powerful Kekkei Genkai, but... the experiment was a failure, everything failed, since, although he tried, Toru could never use Mokuton. And to his bad luck, the same day he woke up, he was visited by Danzo's ninjas. He had no choice but to destroy all evidence of his experiments and flee with his most important belongings.
However, all this sacrifice did give him a reward, for... now his capacity to store chakra had multiplied drastically. His chakra reserves were so large that, Toru himself, was fighting Okaminaru for an entire week without depleting himself. Which was strangely frightening and suspicious, so, that experiment failed... successfully.
'Something's something, I can't complain. Hm... I can't complain, eh... those ghosts keep bugging me, every day, at random times. I'm tired of listening to them, they always say hurtful things about me... I want to kill them, I want them to disappear, to stop talking to me, to get away from me and leave me alone...'
"Ha~ Okaminaru, let's go train. After that, you will return to your village, I will use the summoning jutsu to return you at the end of training. I don't want Okamitsuki to show up here like last time just to take his son with him."
"Hahaha... sorry, she's always like that. I'm not a puppy anymore, I can take care of myself."
"I know, but I can't do anything about it. Now, let's keep training that jutsu, I've almost mastered it. And by using my clones I can learn faster."
Leaving the hut, Okaminaru and Toru disappeared into the trees and the endless rain of this place, a place full of trees where he could easily hide, The Land of Rain.
***
Looking at his face in the mirror, he could see that his easy features had changed a lot in the last two years. Now Toru is 14 years old, this obviously brought changes to his life. He had become taller, his face now had more masculine features, this implied that this boy is no longer a boy and is becoming a man.
"The clothes don't fit again. I'll have to go shopping for something new later. The good thing is that I can still keep my mother's cloak, this thing always outgrew me. Also, I have mercenary work to finish... Ha~ In a few more months I'll be able to kill Danzo, it won't be long now. Besides, the sun is finally out, this is going to make things easier for me."
Washing his face, Toru sighed and put on his cloak, along with his claw-shaped earring, his scarf with the Konoha badge and the engagement ring tied around his neck. Everything was ready to go, all that remained was to summon Okaminaru and begin the quest. However, the Advanced Shigan in his eyes activated without warning. He felt a large amount of chakra hovering over the hut. So, closing his eyes and pulling out his daggers, Toru thought that, after so long, Konoha had finally sent one of its most powerful ninja, all for the sake of capturing or killing him.
He was confident enough to take on someone so powerful, after all, his chakra reserves were now gigantic, so it was only a matter of time before victory was achieved.
With this in mind, he approached the door having confidence in himself, once there, he opened it and stepped out. A great gust of wind greeted him as he exited the hut and right above him, there was someone.
Like an angel descending from the sky, she had large papery wings stretched across her back covering the sunlight. She was a beautiful woman, with short straight blue hair. Her eyes reflected a bright amber color, with shadows around her blue-purple eyes and a piercing under her lower lip. She wore a paper flower in her hair and had an emotionless look.
"Two years ago, in Konoha, over a hundred elite ninja were killed in less than an hour. In the following two years, more than four hundred ninja of the same quality, but from different villages, were easily killed. Mercenaries, bandits, criminals, ANBU ninja, ninja from many other villages..."
He looked at the woman, whose voice was as beautiful as her face. All that his eyes saw at that moment, was a mystery, she was... a paper angel, so fragile and dangerous.
"That was all your doing, wasn't it, Asahi Tōru, Konohagakure no Shinigami?"
Questions arose in his mind. However, Toru thought he knew where he stood.
"Who are you?" And even though he asked that, just by looking at the cloak with the red cloud design he could tell where this mysterious angel came from, after all, Itachi was wearing the same clothes the day they saw each other's faces again after five years.
"I've come to invite you to Akatsuki."
'Akatsuki, huh... The guys who want to kidnap Naruto. This doesn't look good at all...'
'We need your power to help us with our mission. Come with us and lend us your strength."
A sudden proposal was heard by his ears, which simply led him to let out a tired sigh. "Why would Akatsuki need the mediocre power of a 14 year old boy? It's stupid" Keeping his face emotionless, Toru shook his head.
"Think of Akatsuki as a place that will protect a lonely kid like you. It will be better than being chased for the rest of your life" Descending gently, touching the ground with the tips of his toes, the large angel wings turned into hundreds of paper leaves, which danced to the rhythm of the wind, surrounding the whole place.
"If you do your job, everything you do after that will be your own business."
Shaking his head, while holding the daggers behind his back, hidden in his cloak, Toru closed hir eyes. If she belongs to that group of people who tried to kidnap Naruto, trusting them would be like tying a rope around his own neck, it just didn't make sense.
"It's a good offer, but I'm afraid I have to refuse. Since I can take care of myself, I don't need anyone's protection."
Showing the daggers in his hands, Toru already decided what he had to do. This person in front of him is dangerous, however, he could still defend himself, killing her before she kills him. So, in a quick movement, Toru appeared behind her, cutting her whole body into pieces, but... there was no blood, no screams of pain either. So he turned her gaze and...
"I see, that's how it's going to be. I guess I have no choice."
Toru saw how the body of that woman turned into hundreds of sheets of paper, which went to a specific place, place where they joined, returning to form her body completely, all this without having any scratches.
"I'll have to forcibly recruit you" Said the blue-haired woman.
Seeing this was strange for him, as this woman's body turned into paper, as if she was not human. This led to more questions arising in his head, however, it wasn't time to think so much, as, hundreds of sheets of paper headed towards him like a murderous rain. His eyes sharpened and he slowly began to walk in the direction of the woman in front of him.
The sheets of paper flew back and forth, but something made the woman squint her eyes, after all, the sheets of paper didn't seem to cut the body of the boy in front of her, indeed, every time a sheet of paper came close to Toru, it ended up cutting into two or more pieces of paper. It was as if he had an armor that protected him from any attack, although this was not correct, because at this moment, while walking relaxedly, he used the daggers at high speed to cut the paper. So much was the speed at which he moved, that it seemed that his body simply maintained the same position in which all this began.
"I'm here."
She felt a chilling voice in her ear, immediately, she turned her gaze quickly, seeing Toru, who had just appeared right behind her, raising his arm to strike a blow with the daggers. So, reacting quickly, she raised one of her paper wings to protect herself from the sudden attack. The daggers clashed against the paper, which seemed to have a resistance far superior to that of any metal, after all the sheets of paper were stopping the edge of the daggers.
"Shimikomaseru: Shakuton, Bāninguejji [Imbuing: Shakuton, burning edge]"
However, Toru's voice was heard again, after that, a large bright light appeared in his hands. It was the daggers, which were imbued with her kekkei genkai. This made the woman's eyes widen as she saw the paper burning due to the high temperatures the daggers could reach, so she jumped up and spread her wings again.
If I'm in the sky, I'll have the advantage, that was what she thought, but seeing this, Toru smiled slightly.
"Fūton: Eapurattofōmu [Wind Style: Air Platform]"
Taking a great leap, Toru was far away from reaching the woman, however, as if the air under his feet stiffened, he took another leap, and another, and another, until quickly positioning himself in front of her once again.
'This jutsu is very useful, I'm glad I created it.'
Raising his arm to deliver the final blow, Toru watched the woman one last time.
She understood that this boy had the advantage, he wielded fire jutsu and could reach any ninja that is capable of flight, though the latter are hard to find. There was no escape, there was no way to defeat him, she did not understand what was this feeling that suddenly came to her heart, but it was like a shiver... seeing him in the eyes.
Mysterious blue eyes, whose pupil was surrounded in a faint red color that glowed just like the blue iris. Right there, inside the iris, a mystical-looking X slowly turned, analyzing his enemy's every move. This was... without a doubt, the sensation of death rapidly approaching.
It lifted large amounts of paper, forming walls that Toru easily destroyed. There was no alternative left, she would have to use a jutsu of a much higher level. So, she rose higher in the air, to be able to perform this jutsu, however, he appeared to give her a hammer kick in the head, causing her to fall at a great speed and when her body was about to touch the ground, the paper was able to cushion her fall.
"It's over, die!"
Though this guy obviously wasn't going to leave her alone, as he appeared in front of her again, as if he had some ability to teleport. This time, he intensified the flames covering his knives and attacked, but....
"Uh...?"
Toru felt how a strange invisible force prevented him from approaching her. Then, at that moment...
"Shinra Tensei"
A male voice echoed in place, before a loud boom exploded violently.
Just a second before the rumble, Toru felt as if his entire body was being pulled at high speed by a strange gravitational force. By the time he realized it, he was buried in a mountain, blood was pouring from his head and his vision was beginning to darken.
At the same time, the mysterious man descended from the sky. His cloak, which was identical to that of the blue-haired woman, danced to the rhythm of the wind as his feet gently touched the ground. Without paying much attention to the woman's presence, this man began to walk slowly to where the rumble exploded.
The trees on the site were shattered, most of them split in half, there was even blood on the cut wooden tourniquets. Also on the ground, it was as if the earth had been lifted by a strange violent force.
Toru watched as the man approached him, walking slowly and leisurely. Even after he was about to faint, he could see one last thing....
"Those eyes..."
After saying that, he fell unconscious due to the heavy blow he received from crashing into the mountain in less than a second.
Seeing this, the man grabbed Toru by the collar of the cloak and lifted him up, dragging him as he slowly rose back into the air.
"We're leaving, Konan..." Said the man.
Konan looked up at the sky, keeping her face expressionless. Sheets of paper began to cover her back, forming large wings of the same material. Her feet lifted off the ground to finally fly next to that man who called himself "God".
"Yes... Pain..."
She nodded her head as she thought about what had happened, after all, if he hadn't intervened in the fight, she would have surely been killed by that boy by now. And now, together with Toru, they head to that place where those who hide in the shadows of dawn meet, those who call themselves "Akatsuki".
_______
Finally! The main plot of volume 2 begins after three prologue chapters. Can you guess what will happen to the MC from now on?
I will post the next chapter when I reach over 200 power stones, good luck and let the hunger games begin!