In the beginning, humans were cursed by darkness. Wars, famines,pandemics, corruption, injustice ravaged the Earth since the beginning of time. Until one day, help came from the skies, as the Rabbit Goddess descended to free the humans from their sorrows. And thus the Rabbit Goddess said:
"Let there be light!"
And she blessed the humans with the immaculate power of chakra, the power to harness the forces of nature, the power to heal misfortune and hate. But as the years passed, humans behaved greedily and weaponized this divine power. And so, usage of chakra gave birth to another plague. The shinobi!
Thus, a new age begun. An age of terror,death and violence and regression. An age were brothers slaughtered those who were once considered loved ones to them,an age were disgusting incest occurred in the name of politics and diplomacy, an age were children, instead of playing and living carefree, were sent to war and were considered expendable.
The shinobi age finally marked its gruesome peak, when humans decided to merge technology and jutsu.And thus, humanity witnessed unprecented crimes against human dignity. But this wouldn't last for long...
The shinobi era reached its end when the celestial beings that gave birth to it intervened and ended it in a short, yet brutal raid. All those years of never-ending killings were concluded in a genocide of those that supported the shinobi system, thus sinking hundreds of years of history in the abyss of the unknown.
The years passed and the remnants of the shinobi were almost nonexistent. Yet one relic of that age awakens, bearing all the characteristics that shaped that gloomy era. Hatred, pain, guilt, revenge...
THE SHINOBI HAVE BEEN ERADICATED…
HUMANITY IS ONCE AGAIN PRIMITIVE…
EARTH IS OURS NO MORE…
_______
In an eerie and dark place, the only thing
that broke the deafening silence was an abrupt and constant beeping sound, generated by a oval-shaped metallic pod. A small window on the pod revealed it's content. A human, who appeared to be in a cryogenic state, was just waking up.He slowly started regaining his consciousness, as the electronics in his eyes and brain restarted.
"Rise and shine,Hayato. Rise and shine..."
That's the first thing that poped in his HUD after awaking.The HUD, the electronic interface implanted in his eyes, displayed a ton of incomprehensible information. Instantly his eyes opened and scanned his surroundings using this peculiar technology in his eyes. Hayato,which appeared to be the man's name, couldn't move or speak yet. His body wouldn't listen to his commands and it would stay still.
A few moments had passed and his body's condition had already started getting better. Another message popped on his eyes through his HUD.It informed him that the recovery sequence had initiated.
Then, chakra finally flowed freely through his body.
"Where am I… " he thought puzzled, as his mind begun to work at it's normal rate.
Hayato was finally able to move.The cryogenic capsule that contained him opened and emitted cold vapor and literally spat him on the ground.
"GAH!" he gasped in great agony and difficulty, as his lungs hadn't adapted to the environment. Then he attempted to stand up. But no, even that wasn't possible.As he panted, with each breath feeling like a stab in the chest,he decided that he had no other but to crawl.
Hayato then slowly opened his eyes,an act that was accompanied by an irritating burn. His eyesight was still blurry, yet it was steadily and hastily improving.
The overall experience was anything but refreshing. It was like our hero was born again.
Afterwards, he attempted once again to get up, successfully this time, as his eyes were nailed on a small opening in the ceiling that poured light into that cave, which had paper tags on it's walls.He couldn't believe it! He could finally bath in the sunlight after thousands of years.
After getting up, Hayato slowly approached the opening with difficulty, as every step ached. His body still hadn't adapted to the outside world.
Yet, whispers could be heard around him, making him turn his head left and right in order to check. The shadows from the stalagmites had formed silhouettes that stared on him and whispered, like they were gossiping. He didn't pay any attention though and continued his way. When he stood under the opening, the sunlight highlighted his face, a face of a young man that testified hardship and pain.
Hayato couldn't even lift a finger when the light hit his face. The warmth of it felt...mesmerizing. Though, he didn't want to lose any time and decided to leave the cave.
Managing to climb on the ceiling using chakra and get out of the small opening, Hayato found himself in a place... not very familiar? He uneasily looked around him as this place didn't have the slightest similarity with how it was back then. Hayato expected to find ruins of the buildings and of the skyscrapers, while the only that he faced was a forest with abnormally tall trees.
Anxiety flooded him like a tsunami as he thought that, if trees so big managed to grow here then over a thousand years had passed since the tragic event. Without losing any time, he hastily climbed on a tree to scan the area. When he reached the top, he faced a huge mountain that it was like it erected from the forest. This mountain was no other than the Hokage monument, whose faces had been severely affected by corrosion.
Hayato used his HUD to analyze the corrosion and get an answer on how many years have passed since he entered his slumber state.
Then, a number appeared in front of his eyes, a number that he didn't expect. The HUD calculated that 3143 years had passed since then.
He absolutely freaked out!So many years passed since that time. Not one, or two but three thousand years!He knew that it was impossible to find other shinobi, since he knew that after so many years those... pesky Otsutsuki would have slaughtered them all.
Desperation hit him like a train so he came up with the conclusion that whatever he'd try to do would be pointless.He climbed down the tree and sat on a rock while holding his face with his hands.Then someone's words echoed in his mind:
" Hayato, whenever everything goes the opposite way you want, whenever you feel that even the universe itself hates you, calm down and relax. If you analyze the situation with a clean mind you will definitely find a solution to everything and even the tallest mountain on Earth won't be able to stand in your way!"those words poured some sense into him.
Hayato was filled with confidence when he remembered those words, words from a person very important to him.So, he decided to use jutsu, sensory jutsu more precisely. He sat down cross-legged and red pigmentation appeared around his eyes. His pitch-black pupils changed to that of a frog, while their color changed to yellow.
"WHA-!"he shouted shocked, as he managed to sense over a thousand human chakra signals from the top of the mountain. However, none of them seemed to be any intense at all, other than two. Hayato was overwhelmed with confidence and optimism and thought that it was best to head on the top of the mountain to check.
_______
Thanks to his gifted-by-birth swiftness, he made it to the top of the mountain in a couple of seconds . He was surprised by the fact that on the top of the Hokage monument there was a fairly big fortified city.It's clear now that humans have survived after all these years.
" It seems that luck is in my side! " Hayato thought relieved.
A very interesting aspect of that city was that the architecture was very similar, almost identical, to the architecture of the Warring States era. This fact made Hayato believe that humans started rebuilding their civilization from scratch.
"Damn you Otsutsuki fuckaroos, you did pretty well!" he chuckled.
" OUCH"
A sharp pain struck Hayato's right shoulder
"The Karma... is aching. Heh, so you are still there aren't ya?" he laughed and threw a glance at his shoulder.Without wasting any time, he approached the city.
This settlement was fortified with 10m cobblestone walls, while towers were built on them as well.There were also many soldiers upon them,who were simply armed with spears and katanas and some of them were armed with weird, long wooden sticks.
They also wore blue tunics and bronze cuirasses that protected their body, leg guards and armguards and most noticeable were the conical jingasa hats they were wearing . Hayato tried to slowly approach the main gate but a soldier noticed him.
"HEY YOU, WHERE ARE Y-..."
The soldier noticed the metallic parts on Hayato's body and panicked. He immediately went inside a wall tower and then came back with an other person besides him.Judging from the other person's armor, Hayato concluded that he was definitely a samurai.
Then the samurai nodded at the soldiers and they lined up on the wall for combat. In front of the spearmen, about 100 soldiers armed with those weird sticks lined up in three rows.
The first row of soldiers pointed those weird sticks at Hayato and then a tiny blast came out of the tip of them,creating a loud noise and shooting a small metallic projectile at high speed.
Those tiny projectiles did almost nothing to Hayato's strong body. They only scratched a bit his organic parts.
" They used…gunpowder!So they aren't air rifles. " he thought. Those "sticks" left a strong odor after firing.
Then the second row fired and one of the projectiles almost hit Hayato's left eye. He didn't feel he had to give those assholes a 3rd chance to cease fire, so he decided to get a bit serious.
Using sheer speed he dissappeared from the soldiers' sight, instantly piercing through the sound barrier. His foot touched the wall's floor and managed to crack it, while the shockwave pushed the soldiers away and thew them out of formation
However, the only one that still stood up, unshaken by the shockwave, was the samurai.
______
When one of the soldiers fell on the ground from that strong repulsive force that threw us the whole unit out of order, the first thing that he did instinctively was to reach for his spear.
Nevertheless, this monster, or however this man viewed Hayato, had another idea. He slowly walked towards the soldier, picking up the spear, while throwing a gaze at him with his pitch-black eyes, darker than night herself.
The soldier could finally see and describe Hayato's characteristics clearly now, since we were literally a few centimeters apart.He resembled a man, not of a certain age, perhaps around 20-30 years old, fairly tall and muscular, yet incredibly, almost unnaturally shredded.He also had an unsettling, frowning yet lifeless expression in his face.
His long hair were blonde, tied with a ponytail and shaved on the sides and the back of his head .
Instead of ears he possesed black pieces of metal and at the center of them there was a silver circular metallic piece glowing a pale blue light.In the cheeks of his were metallic pieces as well that resembled the down part of a samurai's menpou mask.
His neck was also metallic of black color, his forearms, hands, biceps and triceps as well.The rest of his body was mostly made out of flesh. Lastly, he was only wearing pants that were rugged and there was also a cloth with an almost shuttered metallic piece attached on it.
"This one is definitely not like the other devils. He speaks and he is hella quick. Who the hell gave birth to this guy" thought the soldier, as his teeth crackled from terror.
"Hoho! A devil that can speak and act like a human? A definetly rare discovery indeed. You will provide us with some answers about your kind, whether you like it or not." said the samurai with a threatening tone in his voice.
" The fuck are you talking about old man?" Hayato rudely answered confused. The samurai was the only man that Hayato could feel his chakra flowing . He was definitely one of the signals that he picked up before.
The soldiers noticed how his voice sounded too mature for his displayed age.Hayato's voice slightly echoed mechanically, as his voice wasn't generated from from an organic voicebox
"Oh, so you are the signal I sensed earlier huh? Splendid! You will provide me with some answers as well."Hayato stated sarcastically.
"Hn. Like hell I will do something like that, you hellspawn. EVERYONE, BACK OFF NOW!" the samurai ordered.
The soldiers broke their formation and backed off a bit. So did the samurai.
"Damn! The situation is escalating quickly.I don't want to but it's better activate my Sharingan!" Hayato and activated his dojutsu while entering a stance with his spear.
"Watch out Captain! The devil's eyes became red! We don't know what tricks he might have up to his sleeve!" one of the soldiers shouted worried.
"Don't worry my boy. He will be no match for me. Once I take him down prepare the chains and wrap 'em around him. Understood?"
"AYE SIR!" responded all the soldiers shouting together.
Then the samurai unseathed his huge blade and prepared for combat.
"Oh, he is infusing chakra and channels it through his blade, yet a very small proportion of chakra. Any attack from him wouldn't do any serious damage to me. So I will let his attack hit me and then I will fake my defeat by supposedly fading.They will lead me then wherever they will and probably an interrogation or a torture session will begin. That's where I will gain the upper hand by force and ask them the questions I want!Well,I would hope this entire session would be initiated peacefully but this samurai dude doesn't want to make a civilized conversation. " thought Hayato, as he carefully formed a plan,which he was sure it would succeed.
The samurai then thrusted his katana at Hayato's direction , launching a chakra wave that hit him on his chest. He didn't even try to dodge it, instead he faked a scream and fell on the ground Surprisingly, Hayato felt a lot weight in that chakra wave.
" Thats it boys, he's down! Now wrap the chains around him, fast! "
7 soldiers holding thick chains appeared and carefully wrapped them around Hayato's body. He tried to not move an inch so the soldiers could not understand that he was conscious.
Then they lifted his heavy body and at the general's command several soldiers surrounded them and started marching. With the general at the front of them, the escort team got off the walls and headed outside of the city.
The escort team entered a small fortress built into the mountain's woods , not to far away from the city.It was heavily guarded, with many bowmen on the wooden towers and spearmen around the main gate. The spearmen opened the big gate and let the escort team in.
".What do these savages plan to do to me? Whatever their plans are, they are going to fail miserably "Hayato thought to himself as the gate opened.
As the soldiers carrying Hayato walked through the fortress's tends, none of their colleagues cared about them and about who they were carrying. It was like this was an everyday sight for them. They were cleaning their weapons, doing every day jobs and chilling together. Like nothing was happening.
"Hm, now I see. The absence of chakra from the battlefield made humans to resort into hand-to-hand combat. Logical." Hayato thought as he analyzed every information around him.
Finally, escort team finally stopped in front of a small door with many locks on it, fixed on the ground. The guard in front of it opened it and the samurai took a look inside.
"Sooo, we have a new guest Hattori?" asked the guard.
"Oh, he is a special guest for sure." the samurai replied with a sarcastic grin.
" Hmm, Im intrigued. Heh."chuckled the guard
The soldiers threw Hayato inside and they climbed down as well through a ladder. One of them grabbed a torch from his back and lit it with flint. Hayato heard a loud boom which was the closure of the door.
The alight torch was the only source of light inside this dark corridor, in which the humidity caused terrible smells to be emitted from it's concrete walls.They went down through some stairs, went straight, turned left, turned left again, turned right and this pattern continued for about 10 minutes.
"Where the heck are they taking me? " Hayato thought uneasily.
They stopped in front of a metallic door with a lever on the left side of it. One of them pulled it down and the door opened. Then, the soldiers who were holding Hayato threw him inside the room.
"Goodnight freak!Have fun in this room 50 meters under the earth."said a soldier mockingly and closed the door.
________
" Oh! I got locked into a dark room that smells like horseshit!Seriously couldn't they think something more generic? "Hayato joked to himself, as an attempt to hide his nervousness.
Hayato's indifferent attitude changed as he activated his HUD's night vision to check his surroundings. The sighting he encountered was at least disgusting.
Dismembered and decapitated were all around him but that wasn't really the issue. The bodies had metallic parts in them,awkwardly mixed with their rotten flesh,implying that they were remnants of the age of humanity's technological prime.
"W-where... Where do these fuckers found augmented bodies?! Why are they in t-that condition?! What the hell happened?!"
"Get the hell outta there ya fool...
Leave before they clobber ya...
Go! What are ye waitin' at?... "whispered the psychotic layered voices in Hayato's mind.
He started breathing heavily and cold sweat was running through his body.
"Damn it! I underestimated them. Now I have only two options. Either escape from this shithole or stay until morning and see what they'll do to me.
Obviously, choosing the second is utterly stupid. I'll break out of here and use the Transformation Jutsu to sneak into the city. Then I will confront that stupid asshole that locked me here personally. He not only has to apologize but answer me a heck of questions too... "
He knew that something was wrong and definitely dangerous...
_________
However, as Hayato remained locked inside that gloomy room, two persons were observing him from afar. Their ability to extend their field of view and enhance their vision testified the fact that those two bore the Byakugan. And of course, in an era were the word "shinobi" didn't even exist in fairy tales, only one group of "people" could harness the power of the legendary dojutsu,the Otsutsuki.
Despite their immaculate power, the two male celestial beings seemed very uneasy upon Hayato's sighting.
The first, the one that fashioned green and white clothes grasped his sheathed sword tightly. His blade emanated a small metallic clatter, revealing his fear.
The other Otsutsuki, dressed in blue and white apparel, appeared more confident and calm than the other. Upon noticing his comrade's shaking, he immediately raised his arm at him.
"Don't even think about attacking!Do you even know the severity of the situation? This is red alert!" the Otsutsuki in the blue warned him.
"What? Ridiculous! Well, yes I know about this man and my knowledge says that we should kill him now that he is weak!" the other one retorted, blinded by his fear.
"I don't think you do.He is a monster of human science!A genetic freak! A shinobi superweapon whose reason of manufacturing is to exterminate our kind!-"
"You know what? I'm done with your crap!" his comrade interrupted him and wore off his glove, revealing an eye socket in his palm in which the Rinnegan resided. Instantly, his companion grabbed his forearm with enough force to smash his bones.
"Tsch, tsch, tsch. You want to get yourself killed? Go on then. Absorbing his jutsu with your Rinnegan won't work, as this man uses natural resources to hurt his opponents!" retaining his composure, the Otsutsuki in blue said to his companion, as if he didn't crash his forearm a second ago.
" What do you mean? " the Rinneagan-bearing Otsutsuki asked, nonchalant about his terrifying forearm wound.
" A rare type of senjutsu."he replied calmly, breaking his comrades urge to fight into pieces.
" Let's just not get involved and report this to the administration immediately!"he continued and, after taking his companion's silence as an affirmative answer, he used spacetime ninjutsu to transport both of them in an unknown place.
And so, even if he has barely stepped foot on the earth after thousands of years, our hero has already been monitored by his nemesis.
TO BE CONTINUED...