~jeiku~
im in a throne room with king on the other side sitting on a throne of gold, i dont feel any pain, my wounds are gone completely, am i dead?
"jeiku ive been expecting you!" king says, does he remember me?
"where am i?"
"youre in my palace obviously, come have a seat" he gestures in front of him and a chair appears. "dont be afraid i wont hurt you" i dont quite trust him but theres nothing else i can do, so i sit.
"what is this pla-"
"would you care for a refreshment?" he cuts me off and i shake my head, "suit yourself" he sits back on the throne getting comfortable. "im sure youre wondering why youre here and what this is, and since you killed hatsuden im obligated to tell you" since i killed hatsuden? "hatsuden was a part of a group known as the 10, at any given point in time there are 10 shinobi that are simply the strongest going from 10 to 1." i tense up, the 10 is what hatsuden mentioned.
"hatsuden was number 10, and you killed him, meaning that youre one of the 10 now. the 10 are very special, they have a lot of power over the ninja world, from the shadows." im a 10 now? "sensei yoritomo was one of the 10 before, he was number 9, that was a real hassle since he killed the previous 10 to be able to have their power and keep peace or whatever" yoritomo was one of them?
"but then i had butcher or moritomo as he sometimes goes by kill sensei yoritomo to take his spot. i would have helped but i cannot directly make contact with a 10, its a real pain in the ass. but if all 10 are under my control then poof, the entirety of this world and all others will be gone, the 10 have the power to do pretty much anything. i am more or less an illusion of sorts, the only way i can make direct physical contact with any member of the 10, all of them have to agree on it. im basically a demon that cant physically harm anyone unless the 10 allow me to. so obviously they all need to be under my control. once theyre all mine then i can have a physical body and i can take over the world. but i cant force you to join me so ill have someone kill you in the real world"
"in the real world?" i ask and king laughs
"yes, currently youre in a sort of liminal space where this all is happening in less than a second in real world time but can be eternities in here. and you're probably wondering why on earth i would tell you all of this? i dont really know myself why, more people that are part of the 10 that are against me is interesting. besides number 1 has been in hiding for years, i dont even know his true identity but if and when he dies i will know. number 1 was the only person left i needed to be able to come back. oh and before i send you on your way i have one more piece of information, the attack on the mist village was solely to raise tensions and start war but unfortunately that will probably be averted with the way things are going so use that information as you will, and one final thing number 10, i hope to encounter you again someday, fighting you would be rather interesting. if you manage to get all 10 to agree on bringing me back then you can fight me, or you could choose to not and for the rest of your life be hunted by my minions and never have a peaceful moment, the decision is yours or 10 of yours really" he laughs at this. "well congratulations on becoming number 10, i look forward to our next encounter"
he waves.
theres so much for me to process, i have to get the 10 on my side so i can kill king and end this, but what if thats just a lie so he can come to full power? i dont know how it works and i dont trust king but he doesn't seem like a liar.
i sit up abruptly and im back on the battlefield, i feel much stronger than before and my wounds are gone, so that wasn't a dream. i have to find out who all of the 10 are, i only know that its me and butcher for sure, if ibuki kills butcher then we're up another point. im not going to tell anyone about this yet, this is a battle of the mind between me and king and i plan on winning.