"50 Years Ago"
"Tanaka's Perspective"
Using the Shunshin technique, Tanaka found himself on the street. After using it a few more times, he ended up at the door of his home. As he entered, he ignored the few centimeters of dust; he felt no embarrassment.
Walking into one room, his brain began to produce adrenaline, and his heart started beating faster, pumping blood to all his limbs, while his body filled every cell with additional chakra. Every hair on his back stood on end from the danger his instincts screamed about.
Opening the door, he saw a person wearing a spiral mask with three tomoe, positioned like an activated Sharingan in the upper left and right corners of the mask.
Despite his instincts, after a few seconds of silence, Tanaka spoke:
"Are you the one who has come for me?" he asked, still tense. The stranger rolled up his right sleeve. On his arm was a tattoo of the Shinigami mask. After the demonstration, he said:
"Indeed, very clever." Tanaka only relaxed after seeing the tattoo because when a ninja reaches for his sleeve, he usually doesn't scratch his arm but pulls out a kunai, which often ends up dangerously in the throat or head.
Thus, Tanaka drew a kunai, the blade's edge wrapped in chakra. The chakra dispersed into the air after the stranger's words.
Tanaka spoke first:
"I still haven't gathered everything, and I need to exit through the gates," he continued, more relaxed, "because a missing S-rank ninja from the village could lead to a disaster. I should know." The stranger only tilted his head but asked:
"Do you want to meet outside the village?" Tanaka, packing away his kunai, replied:
"Yes, I'll step five kilometers south of the southern gates." The stranger asked:
"The nearest ones to you?"
"Yes," he answered shortly. But he did not expect what would happen the next second.
"Then goodbye," the unknown person said in a child's voice.
Suddenly, the tomoe on his mask began to swirl. Tanaka thought it was an illusion and quickly interrupted the chakra flow. But his face and body began to spin, even twisting into a small point, and after a few seconds, he only heard a distant:
"Uzumaki"—a few minutes of silence enveloped the room.
He realized he had to stop the chakra flow.
"Spatial-time technique?"—they didn't meet often or even very rarely—he's from the Namikaze clan? It's impossible; they were completely wiped out due to their talent for spatial-time techniques. And I saw a red flash; he's definitely from the Uchiha clan, and if he's Uchiha, then that means a Mangekyō Sharingan, and it doesn't last long. Despite his attempts to calm himself, he still felt the shivers running down his spine, not from danger but from anticipation of a battle against spatial-time techniques.
Shaking his head, he turned to start gathering his things, but instead of a shelf with scrolls, he saw a bloodied yet still beautiful girl lying on the stone floor in a star-like pose.
"Everything's okay," she said, lifting her heavy right arm, looking at him with a soft smile. His eyes widened, and his pupils narrowed because he knew what would happen next, and he couldn't react. He wanted to scream, but a large orange tail fell on her and the stone. After a second, the tail darted in the other direction, but nothing remained of the stone and the girl.
A second later, a shelf filled with scrolls appeared before him.
Tanaka was in shock; clenching his fist, he frowned, still staring at the wall. His fingers dug into the skin of his palms, and four streams of blood flowed from them, merging at the ends of his palm. A few drops of blood fell from his outstretched hand, but when his gaze fell upon this scene, he simply channeled Yin chakra to the wound, causing it to heal faster.
After a few minutes, he was ready and stepped outside. Passing through the gates, he ran at maximum speed, and within five minutes, he was already at the meeting point. There stood a masked man; approaching him, Tanaka began to spin, and within seconds, he found himself in an unknown cave.
Inside, there were three people: the same Uzumaki, the masked Uchiha, and a girl.
"And so, everyone is here," said the red-haired member of the group, "I think we should introduce ourselves. I am Kuraykuro Uzumaki."
The masked man simply waved his hand and said:
"I'm just Kyotora Uchiha, but since we're on the same team, you can call me Kyotora."
The only woman in the cave simply said:
"Tamasa." A moment of silence followed. Rolling her eyes, she continued: "Tamasa Senju."
Trying to break the awkward atmosphere, Kuraykuro continued:
"After introductions, I have to explain the plan.
The first main achievement will be sealing the Shinigami in one of us, but there's a problem: to avoid creating the strongest being in the world or a free Shinigami, we will seal him within a soul. So, are there any volunteers?"—a moment of silence arose—"Well, fine, I will do it since I have the Uzumaki body and I possess genetic control over the Shinigami. We will discuss the details later.
The second part is summoning a dead soul into this world."
Thus, our first gathering ended.
Afterward, it was just a simple journey to the Valley of Darkness.
At first, we had a light atmosphere, but after a month, we realized we needed sacrifices. We only used the insane Kaguya after 57 sacrifices, and we understood that the soul best resonates or becomes subject to manipulation.
None of us agreed to conduct experiments on children, so our progress stalled. But with our goals and objectives looming on the horizon, we continued.
After a month, we began preparing to seal the Shinigami within Kuraykuro's soul. Everything went smoothly from summoning to drawing the seal on his soul to sealing it. Since he could sometimes see other worlds, our progress sped up.
But misfortune began suddenly. It all started as always, every Sunday. Kyotora went out for food for us, gathering in the kitchen. It was a bright day since we had all seen our loved ones alive. And progress was moving very quickly. We began with a dialogue:
"Hey, Tanaka, have you lost your coffee-making skills?"—said an angry Senju, as she expected perfect coffee. She was our doctor and surgeon, which helped a lot with the experiments.
"Hey, if you're not satisfied, learn to make it yourself. And Kyotora promised cream, and where is it?!"—responded an angry Tanaka. He was responsible for the seal drawings.
Unbeknownst to them, Kuraykuro entered the room and, seemingly with dazed eyes, grabbed a coffee cup from the table. Everyone looked at him—this was one of his calmer episodes. But, raising the coffee cup, he spilled it on himself. Tamasa quickly caught him and, inspecting the coffee stains, inhaled:
"Again, cleaning his kimono? And now he has burns. Why did you make such hot water?"
"Did you want cold coffee?"—he asked calmly. But suddenly, Kyotora spoke:
"Spilled coffee is not a good omen."
Everyone in the room looked at him and just shrugged.
An hour later, he left, and everything was fine. Kuraykuro woke up, and we continued our experiments.
In the evening, he came in a cracked mask and torn black cloak, covered in blood:
"They found us. I managed to eliminate the henchmen, but the leaders of the Kaguya, Hyūga, and Ametsuchi clans are pursuing me."
Behind him, an explosion resounded, and three men rose before the heroes.
"Oh, and you have shortened my clan," said a pale man with two red dots on his forehead.
"This has caused a lot of trouble," replied the man in the green kimono with white eyes.
"An interesting battle?!?"—said the third man with disappointment. "I came to see four kids?"
Silence fell, and suddenly, without warning, the last man began to form seals. The evident member of the Kaguya clan also started forming seals, while the Hyūga activated his Byakugan.
The three ninjas, although not expecting their appearance, reacted quickly.
Tanaka unsealed his kusarigama and explosive seals.
The Uzumaki summoned chains for protection, while Tamasa merely opened the seal on her forehead, which spread across her entire body.
Meanwhile, the heads of the Kaguya and Ametsuchi clans finished simultaneously:
"Summoning Technique 'Eternal Rain'"
"Bone Element 'Bone Tomb'"
They sounded at the same time, and many bone spikes grew from each side of the room.
The room was large, as it needed to conduct experiments on hundreds of people simultaneously, so there was plenty of space to run around. The S-rank status that even Tanaka attained during the 1.5-year period allowed them to easily evade them.
But the head of the Kaguya clan fused with one bone and appeared from a spike behind Tamasa, striking her heart with a sharp bone tip. Tanaka saw this and shouted in despair:
"Tamasa!"
"Minus one," he said, laughing maniacally and ripping the bone from Tamasa's heart.
But he did not expect a strong blow to his chest. Spitting out a piece of blood, he said:
"What the hell, bitch?" But, despite the dozen broken bones in his chest, he got up and concentrated chakra on that spot, and quickly new ones grew. Tamasa didn't cover her fifth-size breasts, which could fall off at any moment. Without any scars on them, everyone was very surprised by such regeneration.
But suddenly, a storm broke out in the room, and the cause of the storm simply said:
"The game begins."
And he, as if teleporting, reached Kuraykuro. But he did not lose his composure and directed six of twelve chains at him, but he was already behind him.
Kuraykuro, anticipating this situation, sent his other chains that shot out in all directions from his back. At the same time, they tore off the head of the Ametsuchi clan.
Looking at the blood dripping from his severed arm, he said:
"A wound like this during rain doesn't scare me."
And he, as if concentrating a new arm from the water around, which had already taken the silhouette of an arm, fell apart. Silence ensued, and this process repeated several times amid the sounds of Tamasa's blows and Kaguya's curses. Tanaka and Kuraykuro watched closely as understanding appeared on the Uzumaki's face. Ametsuchi screamed:
"Sukin, you son, what have you done!!!"
"I just attacked along with the arm and the soul, so you can't regenerate it."
Hearing this, Ametsuchi attacked again.
This went on for several hours. Tanaka and Hyuga occasionally clashed, sometimes helping allies, as none of them wanted to have madmen behind them.
But after another hour, those whom no one expected to see appeared — the heads of the Uchiha and Senju clans. Kyotara, realizing the order of actions, used his technique to teleport Tamasa, Tanaka, and Kuraykuro to a spare cave. His last words were:
"I hope I was a good friend."
He waved his hand as always and tilted his head to the left.
What happened next cannot be described: Tamasa, furious, wanted to explode with rage, but Kuraykuro knocked her out with a blow to the neck.
"You felt the seal on him, and I don't have to explain to you why he didn't return?" — he asked quietly.
"I don't need explanations," Tanaka replied softly.
After Tamasa regained consciousness, we explained everything to her. After Kyotara's death, someone had to go for food, and Tamasa volunteered. Our experiments, although delayed, were already outlined with a seal for summoning souls. Finding the perfect victims, we proceeded to implement the final result.
We stood outside the seal. In a specially inscribed circle stood Tanaka, as he had to summon the souls and later seal them. This was a trial version on his sister.
Everything went according to plan, but the soul could not be sealed in a dead body. So, seeing his sister suffering from being torn apart, Kuraykuro sealed her inside himself.
"Next is Kuraykuro's point of view."
Everything went according to plan, but why does something feel wrong? I can't watch my sister being torn apart because of my mistakes. Who can I seal her in? Tamasa? Tanaka? No, only I can endure her soul. We chose, but I need to correct some seals. But which ones? No, I'll just step outside the circle, and she'll enter my body.
A step, and my sister's soul is already flying towards me. Pain tears me apart, but I must do this; I must endure! Control!
Suddenly, everything fell silent, everything became gray, and mist began to appear in the middle of the room. My soul, the soul of the Shinigami, and even my sister's soul calmed down. A sense of tranquility overwhelmed me, and I relaxed. What a pleasant feeling. What a wonderful life.
From the mist, a figure emerged, saying, "So? What happened? Why are you torturing the soul of the sister you love so much? But I'm quite impressed: you, having neither strength nor chances for summoning the soul, did this. Congratulations." The misty figure smiled.
And I simply fell apart into atoms, slowly from my left leg to the end of my right ear. I ceased to exist; I just soared toward the figure, as did my sister's soul and the Shinigami. We all found peace.
"Tanaka's point of view."
After his choice, silence ensued. You could hear his moans of pain from being torn apart, but suddenly even he calmed down, and I felt an aura. An aura of death. I recognized it: it was invisible, but it was the same one that hovered over that field, over that bald man. I will never forget it. Fear appeared on my face for the first time.