Naruto: Tales of Ashihara
Kakumei – Arc 4: Might Makes Right
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Chapter 99 –Giving up on dreams
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At the gates of Hikarigakure, after the end brought to the battle by Oshio's new found power, the ninjas of the Shinobi Union have gathered their own. As they count the casualties and take care of the injured, Tsubai Minamoto and Konohamaru Sarutobi stand side by side. The chief general of this operation sadly stares at Naruto's students.
He sees Inoue, eyes closed, holding the hands of Izuna who lies passed out on a bed. She's probably communicating with her mother, Ino, who's responsible for the communication between the HQ and the front. Next to her is Boruto, sitting silently, spiritless, next to his mom and Ashi Rinha, the chief medic.
"He should be fine. I mean… Not completely, but it could be worse." says Ashi to Hinata.
"What do you mean?" the mother asks.
"Well, he's healed. Nothing's left but a scar." the medic replies. "I could clean his eye as well, but it was too damaged to recover. I doubt that it's still functioning."
"Only he can tell I guess." Hanabi suggests, standing behind her sister. "So, Boruto, is it that bad?"
The young ninja doesn't answer, he simply turns his head far to the left to see his aunt and mother with his left unharmed eye. This gesture is enough for Hinata to make a conclusion. She covers her mouth to contain her voice as she gets a more detailed look at her son's blind eye and the scar across it. Hanabi bites her lip to contain her reaction, and tries to speak of something else, knowing her own messy attitude that could get in the way of this moment.
"Does anyone know anything about that purple energy your eyes emitted earlier?" she asks everyone while addressing Boruto.
"Purple energy?" Hinata repeats to question herself, intrigued by what she thinks it might be related to.
However, before this conversation can go on, Suigetsu Hozuki gets the attention of all the leaders. He looks over to the village where a few ninjas of Hikari are watching them from a distance.
"So they're all gathered in the hospital?" he first says. "I'm sure there's still some of the Kakumei members over there. What's stopping us from going in and eliminating them?"
"It's too dangerous." Konohamaru replies. "You heard the warning of their leader. If we attempt anything, we're doomed."
"What? And like, we're just letting ourselves be scared away?" Suigetsu adds.
"Yes." promptly says the Raikage, to everyone's surprise. "Yes we do. This enemy is none to be dealt with… In my plans, I had considered the fact that we could be fighting him weakened by blindness since he'd obviously be still adapting to his brother's eyes,… But we lost anyway, ridiculously, and one of my best elements is lying there, barely alive." Darui says, looking at Yukai. "I know he'll be fine, but this makes it even worse. It goes to show that, even though Kumo was no match for Oshio Uchiha, he still held back from killing us."
Hanabi, Suigetsu, Boruto and all the squad leaders stare agape at the Raikage who, to them, is breaking out of his cold and proud character. But Darui isn't done yet.
"Sorry, but to tell the truth,… The aim of our offensive was to steal the enemy's Rinnegan… We intended to use it to reincarnate Naruto."
"What? This would have been absurd." Hanabi exclaims, forgetting for a moment that only the higher-ups of Konoha know the truth about the Hokage.
"What's absurd is to think we can really fix all this without him." Darui says, surprising everyone once again. "Sorry to say it, but Naruto Uzumaki is the only reason we're united. He's the only reason we're even alive. This era isn't the same without him. Proof is, he's been gone for just 2 weeks and we're already here, sitting as losers on a battlefield."
Everyone just listens, while Konohamaru, Hanabi, Boruto and Hinata look down, trying to hide their guilty faces. Tsubai, more observant than all the others, gets an odd feeling from the look on his brother-in-law's face. He remarks the same thing for all the Konoha-nins, and, together with Daikoku and Kasha in his mind, guesses that something might be up.
"Well damn…" he thinks to himself, before speaking up and ignoring what he suspects, to make sure no conflict is born between them.
"Tattoo man's right." he says, about Darui. "Problem is we didn't even manage to free Naruto's super fox. And, Water Boy, …" he adds, addressing Suigetsu. "We can't engage in battle again. We may have less casualties, but we still suffered more than expected. Kiri lost half of its deployed forces, including Mizuno."
"What did you just say?" Suigetsu exclaims, almost angry, just now learning of this.
Tsubai lets out a sigh and sadly looks over to his son, Takeshi, who stands next to Teru Uchiha and Mariko Uchida away from the crowd.
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There, Teru finally wakes up after fainting at the end of the battle. He immediately sits up and looks around, being brought to reality by the sight of a broken army. He's reminded that his last memories weren't just a bad dream.
"Finally awake." says Takeshi, to get Teru's attention. "Took you a while… The enemy ran away. But we got to rescue Izuna. And I took down at least one of Kakumei's guys. We're getting ready to retreat now."
Teru looks around and sees Mariko, quietly sitting with a pissed off face, visibly containing her anger. He then stares at Takeshi and remembers when he last saw him, vanishing just before the jinchuriki's ultimate strike. While the Minamoto speaks about what happened anywhere else, seemingly unbothered, Teru trembles and clenches his fists. Unwilling to stop himself, he surprises Takeshi with a swift and violent punch to the jaw, interrupting his speech.
"Damn, what the hell was that for?" Takeshi exclaims.
"You son of a bitch! Mio died by your fault!" Teru yells as he grabs the Jonin by the collar. "Why are you acting so unbothered?"
"Uh? I was just trying to stay positive and not tell the bad news first." Takeshi answers. "What do you mean, my fault? Don't go looking for someone to blame. It won't change anything."
"It IS your fault!" Teru screams. "Why weren't you not there, with the squad you were supposed to lead? What were you doing outside while your subordinates were inside, dying against a fucking Biju?… All you sent was a clone. A fucking clone? If you had come yourself, Mio and Mizuno would still be here."
Takeshi, feeling insulted, pushes Teru away.
"What was I supposed to do?" he yells back. "I warned you days ago already. My mission would be to take down Kakumei's yamabushi. Even with this, I did my nest to assist you. Yes, a clone. I've sent a clone to help you. But how was I supposed to know that Kawaki would force me to dismiss the clones? If I had come in person to save you, It's Boruto who'd be dead. Him and I don't know how many others who were under that little girl's puppet control! I know I'm fast. But the best I can do to be everywhere, are clones."
"… To take down the yamabushi?" Teru answers after a moment of silence to calm himself. "You made this mission up for yourself. No one asked you to do it. You just had to take this personally. You always have to. Everything you do has to be about yourself and your bullshit heroic life."
After these few words, Teru walks away, leaving the remaining ranks of Kiri, to no other goal than to get away, fleeing as far as he can from reality. Takeshi looks at him go, confusingly. Unsure of how to feel about this, he goes to Mariko, who he knows is quietly upset against him for probably the same reason.
"Girl, you heard me right?" he tells her, as he comes to stand in front of her. "What could I have done more? You're not gonna tell me you agree with Teru?… Without me, something way worse than that scar would have happened to you."
At this last sentence, Mariko gasps. She slaps away the hand that Takeshi was just about to lay on her cheek, and quickly stands up. She barely looks at the one standing in front of her, and goes away, just like Teru.
"Where are you even going?" Takeshi asks.
"With Teru." Mariko simply replies.
"And where to? We're gonna leave soon, back to Kiri. If you leave now, you're deserting."
"Whatever! Stop talking to me. I don't want to hear from you, ever again." she adds as she leaves.
Takeshi stands still and lets her go, too confused to do anything. He tries as hard as he can to understand what he is to blame for, but fails. Instead, he simply accepts Mariko's choice, knowing that following her would just spice things up even more.
"Welp… I guess It's a break up…" he tells himself. "After just a week and half… T'was a pretty short story."
"Takeshi… You're annoyingly good at fooling yourself." Tentoki comments on the situation, to his yamabushi.
"What do you mean by this?"
"Forget it." the tengu answers, deciding to discuss what is to come instead.
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Meanwhile, in the land of Earth, the only land that didn't take part in this offensive, is Meinu Imai, the only Kakumei member who wasn't present. Accompanied by her two friends of the Tomoe clan, Kiseru and Pai, she calmly walks across hills, on her way to the border of the land after completing her job in its capital.
Not only did she eliminate the Daimyo, she also broke the defenses of the city and forced the remaining citizens to run away while preventing all her targets from fleeing thanks to Kiseru's sealing barriers. After a day of rampaging in the capital with only her two partners, her instinct and her luck, she calmly leaves, satisfied.
As she begs out loud for Oshio to talk to her through the mitsudomoe tattoo on her right thigh, she's surprised by a colossal wall emerging in front of her and her friends. Soon enough, they notice a bunch of ninjas wearing the outfits of Iwa sitting on top of it.
"Uh? You guys didn't get enough?" Meinu exclaims just to provoke them, knowing well that these are the Tsuchikage's men sent to stop her, and not the Daimyo's guards.
"Lady Meinu, step back!" yells Pai as she comes to stand before her mistress.
"Girls, these two are twins, you see that?" Meinu adds, noticing Genki and Abachi Shintaro, two of Akatsuchi's students, standing on the wall. "We should have brought Fuyuko and Akiko!"
From behind the wall arrives a giant stone golem crawling up the fortress. On its shoulders is Akatsuchi with his last student, Kaza Kamizuru. Kiseru calmly looks around and counts the ninjas, trying to give relevant feedback to her master.
"16 on the wall, 2 on the golem. This guy's the Tsuchikage's right hand, and that girl is this village's last prodigy. Kaza Kamizuru."
"Oh, the Killer Hornet's daughter!" Killin' Kiss exclaims. "Isn't that true, little girl?"
Kaza clenches her teeth and fists, resisting the urge to jump on this woman who's trying to piss her off by bringing up what she hates most about herself, which is her shameful past and family.
"Whatever! I see you did your homework, Kiseru." Meinu adds, still acting careless.
"Killin' Kiss, or should I say Meinu Imai!" Akatsuchi exclaims. "You will not see what's behind this wall ever, for the next thing you'll see of this land is the inside of a cell. A cell from the infamous Great Cave Prison of Iwa."
Meinu doesn't answer and just tilts her head aside. In front of her, Pai gets her hands together, ready for battle, while Kiseru lifts her cloak to grab scrolls from her pocket behind her. Akatsuchi, before engaging, decides to say just enough to undo that annoying smile off Meinu's face.
"Right as we speak, ninjas of all other nations are invading the capital of your land and taking revenge on your crimes. Your actions in our capital will never be rewarded."
Meinu squints her eyes and looks across the enemy ranks to carefully analyze the face of all her opponents. After a minute of silence, she breathes in.
"Pai-Pai, my dear Pai… And Kiseru, my favorite princess…" she starts to say. "Fuck off. Really. I mean run away."
"We can't leave you alone here, Lady Meinu!" Pai exclaims, determined to help her.
"What next, then?" Kiseru answers, more trustfully.
"I dunno, just leave. I'll catch you later if you get lost. I'm staying here. And all these hotties are staying as well. I'm gonna teach them a little lesson they won't forget."
"You better stay true to these words." Kiseru says before throwing a gas ball at her feet and disappearing.
"Hoho! That's why I love you, princess!" Meinu says, despite her interlocutor having already left.
"Um… Be careful, please, Lady Meinu." Pai demands before doing the same to follow Kiseru.
From the shoulder of his golem, Akatsuchi sees Kiseru and Pai reappear in the distance, as far as the Shunshin could bring them. He lightly moves his head to see his student next to him.
"Kaza, follow them." he orders, to which the young girl immediately complies.
Kuchiyose – Kyodaibachi (Queen Bee)
She summons a giant, 5 meters tall bee and gets on its back before flying away, towards where she last saw her targets. Meinu simply lets this one go and raises her right hand, with her palm facing Akatsuchi. She stays in this position for a moment, as if she expects something to happen, and then lowers her hand.
"I guess I'll spare you, maybe because I like your attitude." she says to Akatsuchi. "But I can't tell as much about everyone else."
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On the west side of the lands of Heart, on the desolate mud field that once was the garden of Momoshiki, Oshio lies back to the ground, at the exact same spot where he once tried to end his life. This time however, he is with Kawaki and Mikitaka by his side. While he's focused on the beginning rampage he senses on Meinu's side, he hears the complaints of Miki.
"Those bastards of Suna almost got me sealed for good! And what was that green shit the Uchiha threw at me? And how did that Minamoto kid pass by so quickly?" he yells around. "I'm the jinchuriki of the fucking Kyubi! How am I not invincible?"
"Having the fox doesn't make you the man himself." Kawaki comments.
"Sure. But I also have Rokubi!" Mikitaka argues. "And whatever I have, you, Oshio, have that giant flying samurai I never saw before. What was that? If you have that thing, why didn't you just stomp all these assholes down?… And what about that alien guy you made a pact with? Why didn't he come to help us?"
"This man was never an ally in the first place." Oshio suddenly says, breaking his silence while staring at the eye he has in his left palm.
Kawaki notices his friend's gaze and is reminded of the only other person he knew to have eyes at this spot. He thinks of the connection Oshio shares with this being, and then stares at the back of his own left hand, where he sees the red arrow-like hair mark that is the source of his power. He thinks of its true purpose.
"You and I are in the same boat now, I guess." he says to Oshio, who raises his head to see him.
Oshio stays quiet and just shares a trustful look with his friend. After checking on Meinu's progress, making sure that she's in no trouble at all, he rises.
"We don't have much time left. Let's head back to Hikari and start rebuilding." he commands. "Akiko is…"
He doesn't finish his sentence. He just lets Kawaki and Miki complete it in their mind, since they're both already aware. Mikitaka just makes a sorry face and looks down. He didn't get along well with her, but he doesn't think that disrespecting her now would be appreciated. Kawaki takes it more personally. He looks up to the sky to hide his face and bites his lip to contain his emotion. Now is not the time to cry.
"… But we can still save everyone else." Oshio adds. "We'll do one last thing for this land, and then, we'll end it with the nations by ourselves."
After these words, the Uchiha stands up and opens a space rift to go to the coastal village where he sent all his villagers. There, he assembles his people and begins to return them all to their homes. He brings the strong first, for he'll need all the help he can get with rebuilding the devastated village.
To rebuild the village, let the people settle back, heal his army, guarantee its maintenance, prepare his next and final offensive, and finally get to it. This is what will keep what remains of Kakumei busy for nobody knows how long, as a result of the Shinobi Union's attack.
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One more week after the battle of Hikari, in the hospital of Konoha, Izuna Uchiha finally comes to his senses. Having collapsed after 2 long weeks during which he didn't allow himself to sleep, he's had a whole week of rest, and is gently greeted as he wakes up by the sensation of a comfy bed and the morning breeze, rather than a cold wall in an underground lab.
Pleased by this feeling that he didn't know he missed so much, he slowly rises and tries to open his eyes to see the sunlight that he feels on his skin, coming through the window. However, back to the painful reality, he can't catch any light for he's still missing what was taken by his brother. Harshly reminded of what was before, he sits up and lets his head fall back, now facing the ceiling.
Lady Tsunade passed away nearly a month ago now. Same goes for his sensei and hero, the 7th Hokage. His 2 weeks of pain and mental torture by his own brother are just as real. And the fact that he blindly escaped also is. As well as the atrocity he committed in his rage against the woman who kept him captive. Atrocities that he couldn't control, and that went beyond his will. Atrocities that destroyed his promise, and therefore his dream.
Alone in his mind, tormenting his own self again, he's saved by the warm feeling of a hug. The person he senses against him, he can very well identify her, despite not having been hugged by her a single time before. Be it from just her smell, or simply her reassuring presence, Izuna recognizes her.
"Inoue…" he quietly says, to confirm his guess.
"… It's been so long." the young woman says. "I'm so sorry. It must have been horrible for you. I'm sorry we couldn't get you out of there sooner…"
Izuna doesn't dare to speak at first. Oddly, he feels guilty for what he hears. He remembers what Inoue last said to him before he was abducted. He remembers her yelling at him and speaking her heart out. About her speech, he had way enough time to think. The only conclusion he could make is that he was only bringing his pain to her life by letting it out like this.
"… Where am I?" he decides to ask, acting as if nothing was going through his mind.
"In a hospital room, in Konoha." Inoue answers as she gets away to stand next to him while keeping physical contact with him. "You're home now."
"Where is my mom?" Izuna then asks, thinking that she should be close, since they're at her workplace.
"At the office…" Inoue answers, doubtful about how it will make him feel. "She serves as the Hokage now."
Izuna takes a moment to process this information. After a while, he lets himself fall back down, forced to confront reality again. Inoue warmly holds his hand, to not leave him alone. She waits a moment for it to pass, and tries to move forward.
"How are you feeling?" she asks. "Do you think you can go for a walk?"
"… Yes, please. I don't want to stay here."
"Boruto is out training." she adds. "He's not going well either, but he's had more time than you to get over it. Maybe we should join him."
"There's a place I need to go to before."
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On the 3rd training ground of Konoha, Boruto Hyuga is all alone, pointlessly training his Taijutsu to evaluate how heavily the loss of an eye affected his skills. He quickly got over his wound and is more affected by his defeat and humiliation. And even this, he could have taken it as motivation fuel for his training, but he just seems to be missing something for this to work. Bored of his exercise, he lets himself fall on his back.
"This feels pointless without sensei…" he tells himself, missing the presence and instructions of his master.
"Boruto!" he hears the voice of two young girls shout in the distance.
He stands up and looks around to see his little sister, Himawari, come to him running with Sarada Uchiha. To maintain a strong and glorious image, he gets a hold of himself and stands up.
"What's up?" he asks as soon as they reach him.
"My brother woke up." Sarada simply says, before turning around to run away again.
At this news, Boruto doesn't show any excessive reaction. He just smiles for a moment, and gets back to work, motivated again. He doesn't hurry to go see his friend. He knows that it will only make him feel bad. Instead, he'll stay here and wait for him.
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Nearly an hour later, Izuna Uchiha is standing alone in the cemetery. He reached this place only thanks to Shizune who guided him from the hospital to there until he got to the right grave. Inoue left to go training, expecting him to join by himself later. But he lacks the motivation to even try. The only reason he could navigate easily without eyes when he freed himself from the cave in Hikari was because all the hallways he was crossing were simple straight lines. Now back to the labyrinthine streets of his village, he feels more embarrassingly his lack of vision.
As he stands there alone, in front of Tsunade's grave, he tries his best to sense the surroundings and tries to imagine things as they looked when he last saw them. Quietly concentrating to see without eyes, he suddenly comes to see a stranger's sight. For a moment, he thought he saw what looked like a very crowded hospital full of injured soldiers.
Unsettled by this odd sight, he suddenly remembers what he feels in his fiercely clenched fist. Between his fingers and his palm, in his left hand, he holds the white receiver that he took from Minoka. He didn't let go of it at all until now. He slowly opens his hand and lets the object roll in his palm.
Distracted by this shameful trophy he collected, he's startled by two familiar hands that land on his shoulders. A second later, he feels a small person wrapping her arms around him and hugging his legs.
"It's ok. It's me." he hears the voice of his mother.
Izuna guesses that the little person in front of him must be his sister Sarada. It is simply his family who came to find the one they were missing. But not much surprisingly, his father is missing. Izuna doesn't speak and wonders about all that Oshio told him again. He lied about the village and Inoue's fate, but about Sasuke, it was the truth. Coming from his mother and his sensei, it would have made sense for his father to take on the mantle of Hokage. The fact he didn't goes to show that he's probably as missing as Naruto.
Behind him, Sakura doesn't say a single more word. She's hardly holding back her tears from finally seeing her son stand again, but eyeless and hopeless. Sarada, being of more realistic nature, calmly interrogates her brother.
"How do you feel, Izuna?" she asks. "Being back home I mean."
He doesn't answer and just lets himself fall back against his mother, to let her hold him tighter. Since her mom still isn't ready to talk. Sarada goes on.
"The hospital is trying to figure out a way to fix your eyes." she says.
"There's nothing to fix." Izuna promptly answers. "I didn't lose them. I know exactly where they are. And we better consider them gone."
"But you need them back." Sarada argues. "You need their power. How is an Uchiha going to become Hokage otherwise?"
"Hokage, uh?" Izuna replies with a tearful voice, reminded of his dream, but also of what he did to Minoka. "How could an eyeless prick, unable to stay true to his own nindo ever become Hokage?… No. I give up on that dream. I don't deserve it. I don't deserve anything anymore. I didn't even deserve my life in the first place."
"Stop saying that!" exclaims Sarada. "I spent the last 3 weeks waiting for you to come back. Not because you're willful, strong or anything. But just because you're my brother. The one I look up to. I'll keep doing so, so please, keep being worthy of it."
"Your brother?" Izuna questions. "Whatever… Your other brother will soon be done with what remains of this world…"
Having heard enough to deduce what is going on in her son's mind. Sakura tightens her hold on him and passes her head over his shoulder to see his face.
"I see you awakened the Byakugo." she says. "Congratulations. It took me until I was almost 17 to reach this stage, and yet you're only 15."
To this praise, Izuna doesn't reply either. Only in the mood for pessimism, he lets it go over his head. But Sakura doesn't give up so soon. In need to save her son from his depression, she insists.
"Not even your dad or Naruto had such power at this age. Once you put this to use, I'm sure you'll quickly catch up to all of Boruto's training. See, until you get used to this, how about training your senses other than vision? There are samurai or Taijutsu experts who are blind. It is in no way a dead end. Instead of powering up your eyes, how about upgrading your fist? You should try training with Mirai. She recently elaborated a jutsu that might reveal an interesting development for your Enken."
"Mom, you don't get it." Izuna interrupts her, to make things clear about his given up dream. "I've killed someone. I swore to never waste a life. But as soon as I was left alone, without Hokage-sensei, I broke my oath. This means that I'm unable to hold my word."
"But you're still alive." Sakura rapidly answers. "Don't let this go to waste. You can take a new start. What you've been through will necessarily change you forever. Mold the new ninja you want to be. Get better in any way possible. It's the only thing you can do for now. But, Izuna, I swear to you, we'll find a way out of this. Everything will be back to normal. I promise. You certainly don't believe a word I say now. But you'll see. Soon, you'll be the one telling me these same words."
Izuna doesn't answer this. This time, he honestly doubts his mother's speech, but is also perplexed. How can a woman who lost her husband and best friend, who was forced to assume such responsibilities, stay so positive?
"Boruto and Inoue are training at the 3rd training field." Sakura makes a suggestion. "It would be good for you to join them."
"I'd like to, but how am I supposed to do that? The only reason I got here is because Shizune guided me all along. I can't go anywhere alone."
To answer his question, Sarada grabs his hand and firmly holds it.
"Come one, I'll guide you." she says.
Izuna doesn't argue more than that, and accepts his sister's kindness. And so, Sarada pulls her brother to his teammates while Sakura stays there, watching them go. She's hopeful that Izuna will grow stronger from this. Things might already get better for him when he learns the truth about Naruto. But in the long term, until they can really fix everything, she'll have to trust Inoue and Boruto, Izuna's teammates, with helping him through this.
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End of Chapter 99 – Next Chapter: The Fate of Hikari