Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Kakumei – Arc 2: The Curse of Time

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Chapter 59 – Epidemic

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"THE DAITENGU DID FUCKIN' WHAT?" yells Guroi, the Ripper, standing before Oshio Uchiha, who sits on the throne that Sojobo occupied until now.

After he recovered from his encounter with Orochimaru, the mercenary accepted Killin' Kiss' offer to stay in the village under the Daitengu's commandment. These last few days, he was away on a mission. He just came back from it to learn the news of Sojobo's defeat.

"He went to Konoha and was defeated." repeats Oshio. "It's that simple."

"… Crap… Crap. CRAP!" yells Guroi, not knowing what to do now.

"You're still allowed to stay here, I guess." says Kawaki, who stands behind his Uchiha friend.

"What? You're kidding me, right?" answers the Ripper. "Why would I want to stay here now? With the Daitengu gone, I have no reason to. I ain't gonna stay with a bunch of brats. Not even for that other hottie!"

He angrily lifts his sword up and lays it to rest on his shoulder, and then turns around to leave, without a word more. Kawaki and Oshio look at him leaving silently, and turn to look at each other.

"We should probably keep an eye on this dude." suggests Kawaki.

"Yes… Where's Meinu?" answers Oshio, thinking.

"Away. Doing mercenary stuff. Some job for some client…" explains Kawaki. "I'll keep track of this guy myself, no problem."

The young Rinnegan wielder doesn't respond. He just stays silent and wonders what the Daitengu's passing means for this land and for them. He already earned the trust of the people by putting his power to their use and helping them stand up after the tragedies they lived.

He already the assumed the position of leader, and this is likely what everyone wants him to be. Oshio takes a look at himself, at his simple and childish clothing, and feels awkward. He may ask for Meinu's help, to embrace the path she them to take and image she wants him to have. Now that Momoshiki and Sojobo are gone, it is up to him to become the god of this land and replace those that betrayed his people's faith.

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It's been 2 weeks since Sojobo's defeat. And for these two weeks, Naruto was kept at the Hospital, due to the many severe wounds he suffered from this fight, the psychological damage that the many time traveling illusions could have had, and an additional and unexpected illness factor.

Right now, the Hokage is putting on his clothes, alone in the hospital room, and gets ready to leave, when Sakura and Shikamaru walk in.

"Where do you think you're going?" warns Sakura.

"Back to my office." simply says Naruto. "Sorry, but I got a village, ninjas and a population to manage and look after. Can't stay here sleeping."

"You have to stay, Naruto." says Shikamaru.

"No I don't. Guys, I feel fine. Not a single scratch left, physically and emotionally." argues the Hokage.

"Yes, but we've got to speak about a lot of stuff, so sit down and listen." adds Shikamaru.

Naruto looks at the serious faces of his two friends, sighs, and sits down, agreeing to listen.

"So what's up?" he says, all ears.

"First of all, I know you're mentally stable, but do you still have memories of what you've seen during these time travels?" asks the Nara.

"It wasn't actual time travel like in novels and stuff." Naruto corrects, thinking it's important. "I wasn't actually in the past, just in super realistic illusions showing it."

"Sure, but you saw the future as well." his advisor mentions. "Do you remember it?"

"Yes. A lot of new faces, places, and ages. Do I need to list them?"

"Go ahead."

"Okay let's see… There was that super wise looking little girl, the tall hot chick who looked like Kaguya,… Um… The angry Mohawk guy with a sword…"

"Okay, wait for a moment… Any details? Did you see horns?" interrupts Shikamaru.

"Ah yes. That last guy's Mohawk actually was a horn. The four others also had horns, yes."

"So, supposedly all members of the Otsutsuki race… Anyone else?"

"There was a man, with golden horns, white hair, and a goatee. He felt… clever. I mean civil, and superior."

"So what about him?"

"Well he was there, and he looked scary. He was really intriguing compared to all the others." answers Naruto.

Naruto thinks for a moment, trying to remember another horned being, and recalls what he saw in the far future Konoha. This little man with a long pointy horn, but also the middle-aged Minamoto Takeshi.

"Where is Takeshi?" he asks.

"Still in the village. Some stuff happened and we got to talk about this too." answers Shikamaru. "Why are you asking?"

Again, the Hokage thinks alone. He thinks of how this grown up Takeshi was acting. How he was addressing Sojobo. About him, Naruto now recalls some of the words Sojobo said before dying, especially about him not being the only Daitengu.

This is really bad news. Naruto liked to believe that some Otsutsuki could be allies, but judging by all these visions, it seems like most of them will come only to beef with him. And added to them, there's also more creatures like Sojobo out there.

"Let's keep this for us for now." suggests Kurama, listening to his host's thoughts. "This and the hell we've seen with the one eyed titan… These would just cause an unnecessary panic. The Otsutsuki and the young man with the brown scarf are enough worries for the village for now."

Naruto agrees and shakes his head, before widening his eyes in surprise. The last thing Kurama just mentioned. The boy with the brown snood and the black sword who stabbed through his belly. He forgot to tell about him.

"There was something else. A normal man this time." he says to Shikamaru. "He was standing in the middle of Konoha with me."

"… I… Didn't think there would be this much." complains the advisor. "This man added to the Otsutsuki, it already makes 5 threats coming. Added to a possible return of Sojobo or Momoshiki, and the few other threats Sasuke warned us about like Kaguya's family… What a drag… You should probably just write a report about all of this, so we can work on it properly."

"Aye, I'll do that…" says the Hokage, happy to finally change the topic. "So what's that thing that keeps the Kiri-nin team on our soil?"

Sakura now steps forward, she who stayed silent until now, and cleans her throat, preparing to present an unexpected issue that showed up during Naruto's stay here.

"Do you remember Shizune's illness?" she asks, and goes on when Naruto nods. "It wasn't just a flu. It was more than that. A complex sickness that spreads oddly easily. The observed symptoms include fatigue and heavy weakening. It seems to go easier on young people."

"Where did that come from?" asks Naruto, unsettled and worried by this sudden crisis.

"We've looked into it… and there seems to be no connection with Sojobo's intervention." explains Shikamaru. "It's really just an unwelcome epidemic."

"Epidemic?" notes Naruto.

"Yes. It's contagious." continues Sakura. "Shizune caught it somewhere and gave it to Kakashi-sensei. And this is where it became serious. All the Kiri-nin got sick, and you did too. So we suppose Kakashi gave it to everyone who was in your office."

"Me? But I'm good now." says Naruto, relieved.

"You are now, but you were sick these last two weeks." she says. "And the real problem came from you. The day after Kokoro's arrival, you sent brand new clones all over the village, like you do every morning."

Naruto raises both his eyebrows and stays agape, quiet. Because of all his clones, the disease must have spread through all of Konoha, and this is what must have caused the crisis.

"How's Hinata?" he asks first. "And my kids?"

"They're fine now." quickly answers Sakura. "They were sick, but recovered. For Himawari, it didn't even show any symptoms."

"Oh, so it's curable." says Naruto, reassuring himself again.

"Well, Izuna caught it from Takeshi." explains Sakura. "So I worked my ass off for him. And, in about two nights, with Tsunade's help, we figured it out. Inside the body, this 'virus' seems actually more like a poison of unknown nature… We healed Izuna, and started applying the treatment at the hospital. But as I said… Tsunade was with me. She was with Izuna all the time until he showed the first signs of illness."

"Which means she caught it. How's she doing now?" asks Naruto, not reassured anymore, and confused by this poison story.

"We've been quick to react in her case, but still…" Sakura sadly says. "She'll be fine, but… you know… Because of the mitotic regeneration jutsu, even though she's 68, her body is nearly 90 years old. So, since this illness seems to be tougher for older people, she might never completely recover from its effect… Worst case scenario would be her unable to leave bed for the rest of her life."

"Damn… Where did this come from, seriously?" complains Naruto, not knowing what to say. "But she'll live?"

"She'll live." says Shikamaru. "You were sick, but recovered. Same goes for your family. Same goes for Saori Minamoto, the ninjas of Kiri and Konohamaru, and also for Kakashi. There's just Miss Hanaka, the academy teacher, who's still recovering, and is being replaced by Iruka until then."

"The ninjas of Kiri and Saori you say?" notes the Hokage. "Why are they still here then?"

"Oh… Because Lady Saori refuses to leave." simply says the Nara leader. "Apparently, she doesn't want to go back to her business."

"Odd,… I think it's rather for another reason…" says Naruto, thinking about Konohamaru. "So… I'm fine. Can I leave, if I promise to be careful about this disease?" he asks, as he stands up again.

"Get back on your ass." Sakura insists. "We still have some diagnostics to make before you're free."

Naruto sighs, and sits down again, while Sakura gets her material. She just onw mentions something that the Hokage didn't even notice yet.

"Also, why is your Sage Mode not turning off anymore?" she asks, to Naruto's surprise.

He looks to his reflection in the window next to him, and realizes that he still has the orange cross eyes and the black fox whiskers on his cheeks. His face has been stuck like this since his last battle, and he apparently doesn't need to activate this state anymore. Maybe the same way his chakra made Sojobo evolve, the Daitengu's chakra made his sage form permanent.

"Hm? Weird… I feel totally normal." he comments. "It's not voluntary or anything. And I feel like I can't even turn it off."

"Does it mean its become your new base stage?" Shimakari suggests, intrigued by his friend's change in nature.

"Whatever it means. It was hard to work with." Sakura complains. "Even Ino can't feel your chakra anymore in this stage. It made it complicated to operate on you."

Unsettled by this, the Hokage uses a transformation jutsu to appear as the simple blue eyed man he usually is, and doesn't let it bother him longer. He'll just maintain this metamorphosis unless he gets in a fight. He doesn't want the world to see him as anything more than the man he is.

Shikamaru looks at the Hokage, who's eager to get back to work after fighting two battles tougher than the first war in only a few months. His change in nature will not go unnoticed and will likely deepen the parallel that the world makes between the Rikudo-sennin and him. But Naruto doesn't want this. He prefers to be seen as the man and ninja he's been so far. He's not yet ready for what the universe expects from him.

"Naruto…" says Shikamaru, with a serious but compassionate voice. "Good job!… About the Daitengu, I mean."

"Sure. No problem. Just doing my job ya know!" answers Naruto, happily.

Just like the Hokage, his advisor pretends to forget about these changes and context, and keeps seeing his friend as he'd like to be seen.

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At the other end of the village, at the ninja academy, in a classroom, Iruka is telling about the timeline of the Hokage of the village to the class of Boruto Hyuga. Most of them are paying attention, but the teacher notices one student who, instead of following the lesson, day dreams while watching through the window. Izuna Uchiha is simply looking at the Hokage monument and thinking.

"Izuna!" yells Iruka to get his attention. "How old was the 4th when he became Hokage?"

The Uchiha boy trembles, almost falls off his seat, and looks at the instructor, startled. He thinks of the question for a bit, and answers.

"Um… Minato Namikaze became Hokage at 24, after we won the 3rd Great War." confidently says the kid.

"This is… correct." says the substitute teacher. "But you didn't learn about it right now. What were you looking at? What's on your mind?"

Izuna takes one more quick look at the 7th stone face, and looks back at Iruka.

"… What…" he takes a lot of time before finally clearly asking his question. "What does it take to become Hokage?"

Iruka is flattered by this question, and opens his eyes wide. All the rest of the class is as surprised as the teacher. Behind Izuna, Inoue squints her eyes and slightly smiles, uncontrollably. She hides over her mouth with her hand and looks around, next to her, where Boruto and Metal Lee are simply staring at each other, like to check if they heard it correctly. Izuna waits for an answer, but the first person to speak is the kid sitting next to the stairs in Izuna's range.

"Not to be an Uchiha." he jokes.

Izuna rapidly turns to stare at this boy, while the whole class gasps, astonished by the nerves of this kid. Smiling, the boy looks around and sees everyone shocked, not laughing at all. Even Iruka doesn't know what to do. First to react, and not thinking too much about it, Boruto quickly gets up and goes to stand on the stairs next to him. Feeling threatened and understanding that what he sees as a joke displeased his classmate, the boy stands up and stares at Boruto right in the eyes. Half of the girls in class stand up, ready to support the Uchiha son as well.

Izuna doesn't move. He just looks at his yellow haired friend, hoping for him to contain his anger. Metal Lee, who sat just next to Boruto, hurries to stand up and runs to hold his friend back. Feeling his arm being pulled, Boruto clenches his fist. Iruka stares at Naruto's son ready to get involved for Izuna. Lost in old memories, he forgets to do anything. As the tension escalates in the classroom and Metal doubts that he'll be able to hold the Hyuga back, someone else takes action.

Rebekka Tabiki, the war orphan who often goes to Ichiraku with the Hokage, is sitting between Izuna and the boy who insulted him. Used to sanctions for this kind of behavior, she stands up to save Boruto from it.

"Hey!" She calls the kid next to her.

As soon as the kid's gaze leaves Boruto and he turns around, Rebekka punches him right in the face and makes him fall over, at Boruto's feet. This sudden noise brings Iruka back to reality. He sees the kid who fell down and half of the students standing.

"Enough!" he yells to grab everyone's attention, ready to disperse the situation. "Surprise test for everyone!"

All the class sighs and everyone gets up to get in line on the stairs. Boruto stares, agape, at Rebekka who just punched the kid in the face in his place. Rebekka stares back, and just widely smiles. Izuna stands up and gets between the two of them. He offers his help to the kid who insulted him to get up.

Inoue in the back of the room, as well as Rebekka and Boruto, widens her eyes, surprised by the Uchiha's choice of kindness. He's usually way less friendly when the attack isn't directly to him. To not be angry after this is oddly mature for him.

"Boruto, you come first!" yells Iruka again.

Boruto turns to see the teacher and, not annoyed or deranged, complies and gets down the stairs to stand before him. Iruka inhales and prepares to give the details of the exercise. He plans to ask them to use Henge, the Transformation jutsu, but looks at the blond kid with whisker marks on the cheeks standing before him. He remembers the last time he gave this order to this kid's father.

"Um… Let's unseal a tool from a scroll." he says, not much motivated to risk the same scenario happening again.

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Somewhere far beyond the solar system, on a giant planet with a gravity and atmosphere unsuited for life to exist and develop, there is a great lake, surrounded by a volcano ring. The volcano is built like a trench filled with lava, circling around the lake. In this naturally overheated water, a divine woman lies naked and relaxes. This woman, Yasona Otsutsuki, rests in the bath, with her hair floating around, while 3 other members of her clan, her three pupils, watch in silence.

Among those three, one man contemplates the perfect body of his mistress. He has light blue hair, light gray skin, a pair of Byakugan, and a flat headband-like horn wrapped around the back of his skull. His name is Kuboshiki Otsutsuki, and he is Urashiki Otsutsuki's younger brother.

Standing next to him, a very short woman, only about 1.50 meters tall, stares shamefully at her colleague getting an eyeful of the goddess in the bath. She also has gray skin, but more human-looking, a pair of wide black powerless eyes, dark purple pointy hair going down her neck, and two thick long pointy horns going straight over her shoulders, above each ear. She's holding a long spear that's more than twice her size. Her name is Chishiki Otsutsuki.

On her left, the last member of her trio, a giant muscular man, who's even taller than Kinshiki, stands straight and looks around, like he's guarding the place. He has extremely pale skin, long light blue pointy hair, a pair of Byakugan and two red strands going down his cheeks. Topless, he wears a white long opened vest with the same colors and symbols as Kaguya's dress. On his forehead, he has one single pointy light brown horn like a unicorn. He is Torushiki Otsutsuki.

While the three of them stand, their mistress lets her body float around in the hot water, and comments.

"Kubo, Chishi, Toru… You're always acting like the fun was for me only."

She lets her head fall and looks behind her, at the three pupils. She specifically stares at the tallest one.

"Torushiki? Why don't you come and join me?" she says, almost whispering. "I'll make sure you enjoy yourself… and feel the caress of this water." she adds, voluntarily choosing provocative words to describe her abilities.

The tall figure doesn't answer, and just looks at her, like unimpressed, but still respectfully. Taking this silence as a no, Yasona puffs her cheek, looks back to the sky, and closes her eyes. Kuboshiki, the other man among the trio, stares at his silent brother in incomprehension. He then looks at Yasona's naked body enjoying the bath.

"Yasona-sama, I'll gladly join you if you allow me to." he says.

The goddess of beauty and senses smiles, and… Before she can answer, is distracted by another voice.

"What are you doing here?" says the voice.

Yasona opens her eyes and, levitating above the bath many tens of meters away, sees Naobi Otsutsuki, the wise woman who sits with her at the Shinden's council.

"Oh, Hello Naobi. Care to join me?" She invites her colleague to come with her.

"Yamitsuki's rule is simple." says Naobi, ignoring her cadet's offer. "We shall not go to Kaguya's world, or even just influence its development."

Yasona looks up, intrigued by this remark. She knows what her elder is talking about. Standing straight in the water, with only her body up to her shoulders emerged, she turns around to look at Chishiki, the little woman who stands in the middle of her pupils.

"Hear that Chishi? An update about your poison epidemic." she says before looking up to see Naobi again. "I guess, your golden eyed pupil watched it take place. So how's it going?"

"The village of Konoha has handled it." responds the sage goddess. "Chishiki Otsutsuki. I had guessed that you caused this?"

"Why do you always have to spell the last name?" Yasona interrupts. "There's like… one single dude to have a different name among all our kind now. Just call her Chishiki."

Naobi stares boringly at Yasona, doing her best to ignore her haughty and full of herself attitude, and addresses Chishiki again without looking away.

"I know it was only under your mistress's command, certainly for her sole enjoyment."

Chishiki looks at Yasona, waiting for her approval to speak. The bathing woman sighs, and nods to let her pupil explain.

"Yasona-sama sent me to Earth only for a simple task." explains Chishiki. "I had to create a slow lethal poison that spreads like a disease with my Dokuton, and then inject it into the village of Konoha."

"And what was the goal of this experiment?" asks Naobi to Yasona.

The swimming goddess lets a deep breath out and lets herself fall back on the water.

"Why don't you get off my ass, little girl?" she complains. "Seriously, I simply wanted to test these guys' ability to manage a natural event like this… I-was-simply-bored… There's not much to do in the universe anyway."

"Are you sure you weren't looking for a discreet way to avenge my nephew?" suspects Naobi. "Or were you trying to ease the ground by killing one of the two gods of Earth?"

Yasona stares at Naobi right in the eyes and stays quiet, before giving a vague answer.

"Maybe… Who knows…"

"Yasona. Yamitsuki's rule is simple. We just don't go to Kaguya's world. Why can't you just comply to it?" asks the wise woman.

"Come on, Naobi… Is it really that much of an issue?" complains Yasona again. "Like… Little to no one died. And it's not like it's the first time someone goes to Earth. Half of us have been on its soil. Hyakki spent a whole decade there. One of our kind even lives among humans, on the fringes of our society. Yamitsuki himself disrespected this promise many times… And I didn't even talk about the Tenshin yet. One of them literally has a cult who worships him on Earth. Why don't you bother them?"

"We can't control the doing of the Tenshin. You know it." argues Naobi. "However, we both sit at the Shinden council. We both have to follow and obey the rules of the agreement between Kaguya's son with Yamitsuki…."

"Oh… Yamitsuki this, Yamitsuki that… Stop with his name already. It's making me nauseous." interrupts Yasona.

"… You're lucky that I came to talk with you, rather than him coming himself." threatens the wise one.

"Why? What would he do anyway?" mocks Yasona. "As he says himself, he could not care less about what I did with Chishi."

Naobi just stares at her in silence, with her eyes full of scorn. Yasona notices this shameful gaze, and waits for her to leave, but she doesn't. So the goddess of beauty and disorder starts to feel guilty. She hovers out of the water. In just a second, the intense heat surrounding them dries her body and hair. She then makes her strapless qipao dress appear on her, with a pair of high heels, and flies up to reach Naobi's altitude.

"I apologize, on behalf of my pupil, for her behavior and actions." she says, in doubtful honesty. "She shouldn't have done such a thing out of pure boredom… But I can't promise it won't happen again. I've done it before, and will probably do it again in some decades. If you're really too afraid by the consequences, you could just rewrite the minds of humans like you did by the past. But judging from all they've learned about us these last years and the little care Yamitsuki showed about it, maybe it's not that important."

Naobi just stares at her for a long moment, and closes her eyes, giving up on the situation.

"I have no word to give on Yamitsuki's choices." she says. "I'm getting used to this. You're the chaos. And I'm the order that comes after. It's always been like that… Keep in mind that your actions and your pupils are only allowed to affect your worlds, and your territories here on Ashihara. Regardless of Yamitsuki' will, it is essential that at leas the Shinden show the right behavior."

Izunome

Right after she said these words, she instantly vanishes from the place, teleporting away to anywhere else in the universe. Yasona stares at the now empty space before her, pissed and deranged by Naobi's elderly attitude. She raises her chin, and turns around, slowly getting back to the ground, in front of her 3 pupils.

"Are you not going back to your rest, Yasona-sama?" asks Kuboshiki, who enjoyed the view while she was at it.

"This bath sucks anyway…" she says, salty about Naobi's lesson. "Let's head to the Kannogu. There, we'll have actual good entertainment…" she adds as she cheers up and walks away. "And this time, you'll join me, all three of you!"

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End of Chapter 59 – Next Chapter: Kakumei