[Chapter Size: 2200 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
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"How is this possible?! Whose chakra is this?!" Madara was stunned to see this; after all, as far as he knew, only he was a chakra user, and there was no record of this energy in the world.
"What is that? Any problem, Madara?" Ciri looked at the surprise explosion as the wind hit them, but Madara's gaze made her frown at what that could mean. "Wait... did you say chakra?!" She recalled the last word that Madara had murmured.
"Yes... there is a chakra user there. I'll leave you at a distance; we can't risk you in the middle of a fight with whoever he is. After all, if he really is a chakra user like me... he's not weak... and a fight means the entire region will be destroyed," Madara said, passing through the trees as the dust cloud rose in the distance.
Madara reached a point where he made at least four clones, leaving them with Ciri, while he just looked at her. "Stay here... if the clones disappear, there is a map in this backpack with hair dye. You must get out of here and continue hiding, understood?" he said, giving a leather bag, looking at her with the most serious tone he had ever used.
"Wait, why is that?!" Ciri exclaimed upon hearing such things.
"I don't know what I'll find there, but it's better if I go see. It's not like I have to die there, but I'm just thinking of all the scenarios, understand?" Madara said; he was still thinking about her safety.
"You don't think I'm really going to let you!" she exclaimed with a nervous heart.
"I know that, but if I need to use a card, you will be in danger even here, so you must move away. I'll find you later," he said, trying to calm her.
"Just come back," she murmured while he nodded before jumping among the trees and advancing to the battlefield.
Yennefer was stunned by what had just happened. She saw her shield and those of her fellow mages exploding like glass while one of them was transformed with his body turning to dust. Another quickly used a second shield and prevented them from being annihilated, but his arm was destroyed in the process, while she saw him fallen on the ground screaming in pain.
She also had to open a second shield, and to avoid being destroyed too. The destructive flames continued ravaging all the terrain with her feeling the pressure of the attack, while she started to gather all the chaos energy she could to prevent the flames from reaching her. For some moments, she managed to hold firmly, while all the chaos finally stopped, allowing her to breathe. She released her shield a few seconds after ensuring the attack had ceased, while the only sounds were the settling dust and her fellow mage's screams of pain.
When she accepted to come on this mission at Tissaia's request, she never imagined having to deal with something like this before the war. After all, the armies were worried about scouts and groups of soldiers being continuously wiped out here, believing that Nilfgaard was preparing a part of the army to bypass the hills and catch them from behind.
Yennefer fell to her knees, struggling to breathe, imagining who in the world could create such power. Worse, she didn't even feel the energy of chaos, making her think about the forms of attack and the origin of the energy generated—the same as the boy she had been researching in recent years, who was in Cintra and now somewhere in the north.
'I have to get out of here... I must prepare a portal!' This was her predominant thought at this moment, knowing that if she stayed, her death was inevitable.
"Yennefer, help me?!" The elderly man beside her exclaimed while his blood continued spreading, giving the mage a look of despair.
"I..." Yennefer was too exhausted to respond quickly, but she couldn't help him either. After all, that would make her lose the chance to escape through the portal she was trying to build at that moment.
However, before Yennefer could personally respond to him, the air was cut as a kunai sliced through the dust cloud, and the old man was struck in the head by the blade, killing him instantly.
"Well... one body was destroyed, another can still have its heart taken, and there's a mage still alive." The voice of the man responsible for the devastating attack approached calmly as the dust finally began to settle.
"..." Yennefer couldn't say anything as she saw him walking through the desolate terrain.
"What wa... have you already given up? You people from this continent are so weak..." He spoke calmly as he walked toward her.
"Who are you?" Yennefer asked with a tired and grim expression.
"You could say we are something beyond your comprehension, far more powerful than your mages, Witchers, soldiers, nobles, and armies... We can change an entire war, we can wipe out entire kingdoms with little effort... we could destroy the entire continent in a few weeks..." he said, mocking the stunned look of the mage in front of him.
"Are you some kind of god? You said, 'we'? Are there more of you?" she asked, trying to buy time as she continued gathering more chaos energy for her spell.
"No, we're not gods, we're shinobi. But yes, we serve a god if you really want to know... She's been in this world for a long time, after coming from space and giving us the power you're witnessing." He spoke with a smile, not hiding these things, after all, he was talking to a corpse. "Yes... we are a group that recently arrived on this continent. We haven't had any involvement in the war, but maybe we'll interfere a little, just for fun," he said, making Yennefer frown at his words.
"Why are you doing this?" Yennefer murmured, now with a serious look.
"We're after someone on this continent. Once we find out their name, we will hunt them down... Anyway, let's end this. I don't want to waste any more time with a mage," he said, beginning to prepare his kunai, ready to kill Yennefer as he approached her.
"You're after Madara, aren't you?" she suddenly said, trying to buy more time. This was an obvious conclusion for Yennefer, after all, it wasn't difficult to connect the dots. Both used the same strange type of energy.
The man suddenly stopped near her, looking at Yennefer with a surprised expression. "You could say that, yes, we are after the boy. But I'm surprised you know that," he said, and Yennefer fell silent at that moment.
"How about you tell me where the boy is? After all, we stopped following him to the north to witness the war up close. So we let the boy live a little longer," he said.
"Why do you want to kill him...? And I don't know where he is, probably far beyond your reach," Yennefer said with a firm expression.
"I see... Say whatever you want, but that won't change the fact that soon we will kill him.... Very well, I'll take your heart now. They say mage hearts are more valuable," he said calmly as he walked toward Yennefer, ready to rip her chest open as he got close to her.
"That won't happen," she murmured, quickly invoking her magic, distorting the space around her and even trying to throw the stranger backward.
"You think I've never dealt with mages before? I've killed dozens of them," he mocked, stomping on the ground. In the next moment, strands of hair emerged from the soil, grabbing Yennefer and binding her.
"I doubt you'll be able to escape from this now," he said with a smile, as he freed his leg from the strands and approached her with the distorted space shrinking due to her difficulty moving.
Yennefer, however, did not give up. She tried to teleport, distorting the space further as the man felt himself being pushed back, but he quickly steadied himself, leaning toward her, ready to stab her.
It was at that moment that someone appeared behind the witch, jumping from the forest floor and rushing with full speed toward the mage and the shinobi. The attacker entered Yennefer's space, using her shoulder as leverage before pushing their body forward, extending their leg toward the man holding a kunai.
The man saw the movement, surprised by the sudden appearance between them, and reacted quickly, attempting to strike the attacker. However, the attacker dodged with agility. He could see the red eyes of his opponent before being struck in the chin, sent flying several meters back with a powerful taijutsu strike.
Yennefer, stunned, halted her teleportation magic as she saw what had happened. The man groaned in pain and surprise as he rolled on the ground, but soon stood up, looking ahead. His eyes widened upon seeing who stood before him, revealing crimson eyes.
He paused for a moment, still paralyzed, until he then broke into a smile and began to laugh. "I can't believe this... to think I would see you here before all the others," he announced.
"Kakuzu?" Madara murmured in a slow tone as he narrowed his eyes, though his surprise was evident in his voice. He never imagined he would find someone like this in such a place. He wondered if the Akatsuki existed here. Because if he was here, there should be others as well.
"Kakuzu...? You speak as if you know me?" the man said, tilting his head, wondering who this boy was talking about, with no idea what his name meant. But he looked curiously at the Sharingan, redder than any he had seen in a long time.
Yennefer remained silent, stunned, even forgetting to use her teleportation.
'So, he's not called Kakuzu... but he certainly has his powers, and that can be seen from the masks on his back. We could die many times...' Madara thought, and he had nothing more to say in front of him. It seemed his existence was known, and from what he heard, this man had found him before the 'Others,' making Madara wonder if he was being hunted.
His gaze shifted behind him in the next instant, seeing the woman still bound. Quickly, he took his kunai and cut all the threads that were holding her, freeing her.
Madara didn't know what to think of this woman, surprised as well to find her here. After all, though she was one of the protagonists in her series, there was still a dark side to her, selfish enough to even consider sacrificing Ciri. While Yennefer now considered Ciri someone important, she hadn't hesitated to seek benefits in the past.
But at this moment, she was his best option. If something happened to him, Ciri would have a better chance of escaping with this woman's help.
"Get out of here," Madara told her. "Go north. I left Cirilla, Geralt's child of destiny, there. I need you to stay with her, and if my plans fail, leave as quickly as possible. But don't hand Ciri over to Nilfgaard or any other northern kingdom. If you have any consideration for Geralt, take the girl to him while I'm away." Madara said, not entirely sure of what could happen.
Yennefer only nodded, still dazed. Madara then created a clone, which grabbed the mage by the shoulder, since she was still motionless, and headed into the forest, leaving Madara alone with his enemy ahead, who remained still.
"Well, I can catch her later anyway. I'm more interested in you, little Uchiha. It's been hundreds of years since I killed someone like you." The man said, as Madara narrowed his eyes, a bit surprised by those words. He knew there had been an Uchiha clan in this world long ago, according to Mousesack, with scant records, but they had disappeared for some reason... and it was extremely rare even to hear mentions of them, with even slimmer chances of finding out who they really were.
Now, in front of him, stood another shinobi, one who could provide some information. After all, if he said he had killed Uchiha hundreds of years ago, there must have been a massacre of the clan, and Madara wanted to know more about his origins in this world.
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*Raccoon Here*: There's a member of the Ootsutsuki clan in this world, which gave rise to many things. But I still don't know who it is… I first placed a male character, then switched to a female one. I'm still undecided if I should add someone familiar like Kaguya or others, maybe an OC. But with the powers I want this character to have, I believe Kaguya would be the best choice.
Initially, the plan was to use characters with the names of those who had the original powers... but that would be quite obvious, so I'm going to give them new names, even though they will be similar to the members of the Akatsuki...