Arthur stood there, deactivating his technique. He looked down at the fallen orangutan with a cold emptiness in his eyes.
Enma, his breathing shallow, managed to rasp, "You... will pay for this!"
Arthur felt no such satisfaction. He had already proven he was strong.
The fight wasn't about winning anymore. It was about dominance, about highlighting the power that Arthur had embraced.
He was the apex predator of the jungle now, and Enma, the leader who had failed his people, was merely standing in his way.
Enma stumbled slightly but managed to compose himself. It was clear that he was getting used to the corrosive effects.
Flames raged in the background, mixed with the cries of the chimp. In an instant, the two dashed toward one another.
As the fight raged on, Arthur started to feel a drain on his reserves. His sage chakra was receding.
Yet he remained calm.
Just as Enma landed a thunderous blow with the staff that would have obliterated him, he blocked it with his forearm and palmed the monkey back.
Enma, fueled by blind fury at first, slowly began to tire. He was getting increasingly sluggish.
At that moment, Arthur's natural energy ran out. But he still had more than one to fight!
His eyes glowed brightly as he activated his Tamashii. So long as he had similar precognitive abilities granted by Sage Mode, he would always be able to predict Enma's next move.
'High-speed movement.'
With a burst of adrenaline, he channeled his chakra into his legs, launching himself into the air just as Enma brought the adamantine staff down in a bone-crushing arc.
The staff smashed into the ground where Arthur stood a second ago, sending a shower of sparks and debris flying.
Arthur landed behind Enma with a soft thud, his eyes scanning for a potential opening. Enma roared and spun around, his staff swinging wildly. But Arthur was ready.
Anticipating the attack, he countered by lunging forward, not to meet the staff head-on, but to slip beneath it. As he rolled towards Enma's side, the staff whistled past him.
'Chakra-enhanced strength.'
With a well-placed kick, Arthur struck a pressure point located on Enma's knee joint. The blow connected with a sickening thud.
A jolt of pain shot through Enma's leg, buckling his entire right side. He roared in agony, the staff slipping from his grasp and clattering to the ground.
Arthur didn't waste a second. He knew Enma wouldn't stay down for long.
He channeled his chakra into his fist and launched a powerful uppercut. The blow struck Enma square on the jaw, sending the massive primate upward before crashing to the ground.
Enma lay motionless.
Arthur stood there, barely panting from the heavy chakra exertion, as the clearing fell silent.
Looking down at the fallen king, he couldn't feel anything. The sound of a nearby crying chimp was all he could hear.
There was only a twisted sense of victory. The sight of the burning village, the lifeless body of Nala—all of it had been taken down in one night.
He kneeled beside Enma, the defeated king staring back at him with a look of utter despair. Arthur couldn't empathize. The grief this CPU was feeling after losing everything didn't compare to his struggles.
"You brought this upon yourself," he said. "Accepting me into your realm without verifying anything with the Leaf Village... All this was because of your stupidity."
Enma's gaze remained fixed on him, surprise crossing his eyes. Not once had he known that Arthur was from the Leaf Village. Unable to continue fighting, he gave a sigh of resignation, saying, "I hate you…"
Strong words, but they didn't faze Arthur whatsoever. The internal injuries he inflicted would be fatal.
Glancing at the baby chimp close by, he arose and declared, "I'll assume that child was yours. Funny… I don't recall the 'great' king Enma having an offspring."
Enma's eyes widened, hoping Arthur wouldn't kill the chimp.
"Think of me as a monster?" he said, picking up the baby. The chimp whimpered against his chest. "It would be foolish of me not to spare at least one primate."
A lump formed in Enma's throat. He watched with weary eyes, his own strength fading rapidly. He knew deep down that Arthur was going to raise his own child as a servant.
"There's… no sense of justice in you," Enma rasped. "Don't think… you will get… away with this."
Justice? No one could judge Arthur's actions. He was the justice.
"Learn a proverb from the Bible, oh king: To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice."
Some time later.
Arthur cradled the whimpering baby chimp close to his chest, the acrid smoke of the burning village still apparent.
Victory tasted like ashes in his mouth.
He had eliminated every primate, including the ones that fled. Due to Simian Sage Mode's enhanced sense, it allowed him to track the primates with uncanny precision, making their stampede movements easily predictable.
Once he located them, they were all overpowered. Even the most formidable primates, incomparable to Enma, were defeated.
Arthur himself might have grown stronger, but it was his cunningness that sealed the primates' fate. He understood their patterns and their routines.
The night he learned about the Cayman Jungles was the same night he observed their patrols and learned their vulnerabilities.
His use of Sage Mode became a cruel advantage.
The acrid smoke filled the desolate village. The huts lay in smouldering ruins, and many roofs collapsed under the weight of charred wood.
Arthur looked down at the baby chimp against his chest. The epitome of innocence was born into a world that would never know its parents or home.
He would raise it until it was ready to serve him in battle.
He sifted through the ashes, searching for anything salvageable—a weapon, a pouch of supplies, anything that could be of help. But everything was reduced to embers and ash.
As he reached a central clearing, a strange sight caught his eye. Nestled amidst the rubble, untouched by the flames, stood a large chalice.
It looked to be a portal, akin to the one on Mt. Myōboku. A one-way ticket back to the Fire Country.
The baby chimp whimpered again. Arthur calmed it down before softly placing it on the ground.
He kneeled before the chalice. It was unlike the one on Mt. Myōboku. While that one had water, this one had lava that didn't at all feel hot.
Steeling himself, Arthur dipped his hand into the cold lava.
The world dissolved around him in a wave of heat and light. When the blinding sensation subsided, he found himself standing in a lush green forest.
The air was clean, opposite the wasteland he'd left behind.
He was back. But back where?
He closed his eyes and focused his Tamashii to sense the surrounding area. The land was recognizable—the Fire Country!
He wasn't close to the Leaf Village, not yet, but he was close enough.
'Summoning jutsu.'
Upon performing the summoning sign again, he appeared back in his original spot in the Cayman Jungles. Since he hadn't formed any contracts with the apes yet, traversing here again was inevitable.
He looked down at the baby chimp before picking it up again. Its grip on his shirt tightened, as if acknowledging Arthur as its caretaker.
"Judging from your size, you must have recently been born," he hypothesized.
It was his responsibility now. He couldn't allow it to fall prey to another predator.
While other ninjas gravitated towards canines or birds, Arthur's was primates. This baby chimp, the sole survivor of its race, could potentially become his first true summoning contract.
With a plan in mind, Arthur set about repairing the damage done in the village.
He salvaged what he could: scraps of cloth, tools, and a few untouched cooking supplies. Using his chakra, he rebuilt the basic structure of a hut, enough to provide a meager shelter for himself and the baby chimp.
All this took him twenty-four hours.
The next few days passed quickly. Arthur had scavenged for edible plants, supplementing them with pre-packaged formula he found in the ruins of a food storage hut.
He fashioned a makeshift cradle from vines and leaves, and to his surprise, the baby chimp, whom he'd named Koko, took to him readily.
Koko, with its bright, curious eyes and playful antics, provided a much-needed spark in the otherwise bleak situation. It would coo and giggle as Arthur clumsily attempted to feed it, its small fingers wrapping around his with surprising strength.
At night, it would nestle into his arms, its soft body serving as a comforting weight against his chest.
A strange sense of companionship for a man such as Arthur.
It hadn't taken long for Koko to start understanding Arthur when he spoke. This came as no surprise, since summoning animals aged and grew far quicker than ninjas.
Mix that with a primate's intelligence; this baby chimp wasn't stupid.
Training Koko, however, was not something to be done this early. After all, it was still a baby.
When the time came, Arthur would surely introduce it to basic commands and hand signs, hoping to forge a stronger bond—one that might one day translate into a fearsome summoning animal.
Time continued to pass.
During the day, Arthur ventured out, foraging for food and rebuilding the village in a manner most suited to himself. At night, he continued his grim task of hunting down any remaining predators or primates he had possibly missed during the massacre.
There were seldom any threats lingering for miles. A few giant serpents and eagles, but never anything that he had to worry about. It was all to ensure the safety of the last remaining jungle inhabitant.
When he wasn't out hunting at night, he would try to teach Koko words. To his surprise, there were many children's books lying around, which were of enormous help.
One could say that Arthur was a wonderful pet owner.
That is, until they looked at the complete silence of a slaughtered population that echoed in stillness.
Apart from teaching Koko, he trained relentlessly, honing his body and sharpening his skills. He practiced his techniques, remembering that the finals demanded that he be stronger.
A part of him yearned to never return to the Leaf Village, to go out into the world and forge more opportunities like this one. But a larger part held him back.
He needed to become stronger, yes, but now was not the time to stray from the main story as a whole.
And then there was Koko.
The baby chimp, nurtured by the formula and a steady supply of fruits Arthur procured, thrived. It continued to grow at a rate much faster than average primates. Even its movements became more coordinated.
One afternoon, while Arthur was engrossed in practicing the water dragon technique alone, a small voice threw him off guard.
"Pretty!"
Arthur spun around, searching for the source of the sound. The small voice was followed by a giggle. There, perched on a nearby rock, was Koko.
"Pretty water!" she repeated.
Her voice was clear and, surprisingly, womanlike. Arthur blinked, wondering if he heard that right. Had the baby chimp just spoken?
He stared at Koko, skeptical. The chimp tilted its head, its expression curious.
"When did you learn to talk?" Arthur asked.
Koko, oblivious to his astonishment, let out another round of giggles. "Pretty water! Make more, daddy!"
While animals in the Narutoverse aged faster than in his world, this was still impossibly fast. Koko couldn't be more than a few weeks old, yet it was already speaking coherently.
This would be equivalent to a baby born by a woman who was still pre-mobile and reliant on her mother for survival.
Was there something unique about Koko, or was this one of those discrepancies?
"Koko," he said softly, "we have a lot to learn from each other."
From that day forward, their routine took on a new purpose.
Arthur continued his training, focusing not just on his physical prowess but also on perfecting his Simian Sage Mode. He also taught Koko certain phrases that the playful chimp could understand.
In turn, Koko absorbed all of Arthur's lessons with her uncanny intelligence. She even tried to mimic Arthur's movements when he was training. She failed a lot of the time, but it was at least a start.