[ JINICHI WATARU ]
"Insignificant... insects?" I repeated, the words tumbling from my lips in pure shock and disbelief. My mind struggled to process the sheer, casual cruelty behind his assessment of my teammates who had just bled to protect me.
The Oni chuckled, a low, rasping sound vibrating against the front of his dark mask as he stared down at my trembling face.
"Yes, insects," he scoffed, his grip on my throat tightening just enough to keep me suspended in the air. "The weak have always been the stepping stones for the strong; it is an endless cycle that always repeats itself."
"The only way to overcome such an unforgiving truth is to be born with better talent," he continued, casually glancing toward the bloodied forms of Aoi and Kisuke on the cavern floor. "Sadly, your little companions over there caught the short end of the stick in this life. I won't even bother wasting my time executing them myself, but maybe they'll get better blessings in their next lives," he added with a soft laugh.
His words hit me like a physical blow, laying bare the horrifying reality of their desperate condition. Without immediate medical attention, their ragged breathing would soon fade completely, leaving them to die right here in the dark.
'Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! SHITTT!!!!!! MOVE DAMNIT!!!! DO SOMETHING!!! THEY'LL DIE AT THIS RATE!!!'
Desperation flooded my veins, forcing my paralyzed limbs to twitch against the overwhelming suppression of the seal. I clawed frantically at the Oni's thick forearm, kicking my boots against his shin in a pathetic bid for freedom.
I had to reach Aoi and Kisuke, to stop their bleeding before their shallow breaths stopped completely. My nails tore against his dark robes, but my frantic struggling didn't even cause him to shift his stance. The absolute futility of my resistance was agonizing, but I refused to just hang there and watch them die.
The Oni let out a long, exaggerated sigh of pure annoyance, clearly bored by my desperate thrashing.
"Go to sleep, little insect. Sensei has big plans for you," he muttered coldly, raising his free hand with blinding speed. Before I could even blink, a brutal chop struck the side of my neck with devastating force.
"N-Nooo…" I slurred weakly, the word dying in my throat as my vision exploded into a violent burst of white.
My vision exploded into a violent burst of white before immediately collapsing into a suffocating, terrifying darkness. It felt as though I was suddenly plunged into a vast ocean of inky, pitch-black water, choking on the darkness as I sank.
My physical consciousness drowned completely in the dark waters, leaving my mind adrift in an empty void. But even in that cold abyss, the sheer weight of my agonizing guilt, disgust, and hopeless fear refused to die. Above all, I cursed my own pathetic weakness.
Deep in the recesses of my mind, a whisper—a call of sorts—tempted me to let go of the reins entirely. It was an ancient, predatory murmur, promising unyielding power and absolute destruction if I surrendered to my hatred.
And so I did.
A chaotic coalescence of despair and shame boiled over, suddenly burning away the freezing cold until only pure, unadulterated rage remained. The bitter hatred festering in my soul rapidly expanded, reaching an absolute, suffocating peak that completely consumed my mind. I cursed the monster standing over my physical body with every remaining fiber of my being, wanting nothing more than to tear him apart.
There was no tactical plan left, no fear of dying, and no room for human reason—only a blinding, white-hot urge to destroy. The freezing, suffocating weight of the inky water was instantly vaporized by a dark, terrifying heat radiating from my core.
I was sinking deeper into the black abyss of my own mind, willingly letting the violent, ancient instincts take the wheel. I did not care what horrible monster I had to become, as long as the people who hurt my friends were slaughtered. I slipped away into total, absolute darkness, completely unaware of the horrifying massacre my physical body was about to unleash.
[ ONI ]
I casually let go of the boy's neck, watching his limp body drop heavily onto the cold stone floor. The child lay completely still, his erratic breathing fading into a weak, shallow rhythm that signalled his submission into unconsciousness. I turned my back on him, taking a few steps toward my blade, intending to retrieve it from the stone where it was deeply embedded.
The mission was essentially complete, and these useless Genin were no longer worth another second of my valuable time.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Without warning, a sickening pulse of unnatural, ancient chakra violently shook the solid bedrock beneath my boots. The sudden spike in atmospheric pressure was so severe that it nearly knocked me off my balance completely.
I halted in my tracks, my eyes narrowing behind my dark mask as the temperature around us dropped.
A dark, suffocating heavy pressure filled the enclosed space, suffocating the very air in my lungs with pure malice. It felt like a dormant calamity awakening from sleep.
I spun around quickly, my hands instinctively dropping to the daggers concealed within the folds of my dark cloak. The boy's physical body was twitching erratically on the ground, his fingers digging violently into the sharp stone floor.
He rose to his feet with an unnatural, jerky motion, as if his limbs were being pulled by invisible strings. His head snapped up toward me, his natural blue eyes completely gone from his sockets. In their place burned a pair of feral, glowing purple eyes.
A dense, swirling cloud of violent purple and ink-black smoke coalesced violently around the child's trembling body, obscuring him in a haze of volatile chakra. As the smoke flared and parted, a hardened, shell-like chitinous armour crept rapidly up his limbs, encasing his forearms up to the elbows and his legs up to the knees in a dark gold husk.
Razor-sharp claws sprouted from the tips of his armoured hands and feet, gouging deep grooves into the stone floor beneath him. Two sharp, sinister horns burst through his hair, protruding menacingly from his forehead while elongated fangs dripped saliva past his lips.
Thick, black veins bulged horrifyingly across his neck and cheeks, pulsing sinisterly and radiating raw, unbridled malice. This partial, demonic manifestation was no longer the frightened Konoha child I had so easily subdued just a few brief moments ago.
Then came the sickening sounds—the wet snap of shifting bones and the agonizing tear of muscle tissue. I watched in chilling silence as the boy's body violently betrayed its human shape, warping and snapping into a monstrous husk right in front of me.
His spine arched in a grotesque spasm, a strangled shriek dying in his throat as a hardened, chitinous armour violently burst through his flesh, creeping rapidly up his limbs to encase his forearms to the elbows and legs to the knees in a dark gold husk.
Razor-sharp claws forced their way out from the tips of his fingers and toes, gouging deep, frantic grooves into the stone floor as his body thrashed against the agony of the mutation. Two sharp, sinister horns tore through his scalp, protruding menacingly from his forehead while his jaw cracked and shifted, forcing elongated fangs past bleeding gums.
Thick, black veins bulged horrifyingly across his neck and cheeks, pulsing like dark parasites beneath skin that radiated raw, unbridled malice.
"What the hell…." I muttered, surprised by the absurd display I just witnessed.
Before my mind could fully process the terrifying physical transformation, the boy vanished from my sight entirely.
BOOMMM
A deafening sonic boom tore through the cavern as the sheer velocity of his movement shattered the stone floor. I barely had enough time to raise both arms into a hasty cross-guard to protect my head and chest.
A split second later, a monstrous strike slammed into my guard with bone-breaking force. The raw, unbridled power behind the attack blew past my guard, cracking the heavy metal bracers on my forearms.
The immense physical impact launched me backward across the wide cavern, my boots tearing deep grooves into the solid rock. I slammed heavily into the far wall, the impact causing massive cracks to spread upward toward the ceiling.
"ACK!"
A metallic taste filled my mouth as blood seeped past my lips and dripped down the inside of my mask. I looked up through the rising cloud of dust, genuinely stunned by the terrifying magnitude of his sudden power spike. I winced in pain as moving my torso sent a blinding wave of agony through my chest. I could feel my ribs grinding against each other. Slowly but surely mending themselves back but not fast enough.
'My ribcage is shattered and some of my internal organs are ruptured. My arms are damaged from the first attack I'm going to need a lot more time to recover.'
The boy stood where I had once been, letting out a guttural, non-human roar that shook the very foundations of the cavern.
ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!!!!!
Coarse, jet-black metal dust began erupting violently from the ground around him, spiralling around his body like a dark storm.
But before the lethal tempest could spread across the chamber, a heavy surge of the black iron shot across the stone floor toward the bloodied, unconscious forms of his teammates. Instead of shredding them, the metal dust snapped together, instantly forming a smooth, solid dome of impenetrable iron over their bodies—sealing them away in a steel cocoon.
'Huh…..Even with his human mind drowned in pure, demonic hatred, some deeply buried, primal instinct within him still remembered them, fiercely shielding his teammates from his own collateral damage. How poetic.'
With his allies safe, the remaining cloud of iron particles rotated at high speed, creating a lethal, localized vortex of pure physical destruction. Every grain of metal was infused with his volatile chakra, cutting through the solid stone surrounding him like a thousand small blades.
The boy swung his arm in a wide, sweeping arc, directing the massive storm of iron dust across the enclosed barrier. The swirling vortex of black metal slammed violently into the barrier containing the Konoha Jonin with incredible force. The weight and destructive power of the dark iron smashed through the intricate sealing formulas effortlessly.
The reinforced barrier shattered into a shower of glowing, harmless light particles, completely liberating the trapped teacher from his prison. The force of the explosion sent a violent shockwave sweeping across the entire room, shaking stalactites loose from above.
The two assassins that were keeping the Jonin busy repurposed their attacks. They retreated from the Jonin and charged at the boy. One of them, desperate to regain control of the chaotic situation, drew his short-sword and charged the frenzying boy. And the other providing backup with long-range Ninjutsu.
The lead assassin flickered from his position and appeared behind the boy. He attempted to run the child through from behind, seeking an opening in the chaos. The boy didn't flinch. On pure instinct, a dark iron spear erupted from the earth, driving straight through the assassin's chest.
SHRRRRK-BOOOOOOM!
Before the man could even scream, the metal inside his body exploded outward in a macabre burst of needles—a dark steel firework that shredded flesh and bone into a fine crimson mist, leaving nothing behind but a gory stain on the cavern rock.
Splat!
The second assassin let out a terrified shriek, frantically performing hand seals to construct an emergency earth wall. The boy closed the distance between them in an instant, completely ignoring the rising stone defense.
His clawed hand swept through the air in a swift, merciless arc that bypassed the wall entirely. The mercenary's right arm was severed cleanly off at the elbow, spraying crimson blood across the ancient cave walls.
Splat!
The surviving assassin collapsed onto his knees, wailing in agonizing terror as he clutched his spurting, mutilated limb. The boy raised his hand again, preparing to crush the man's skull and finish the bloody slaughter completely.
I pushed myself away from the cracked wall, biting down hard to suppress a groan as my shattered ribs ground together. The situation had completely spiralled out of my control, and my failing body was a glaring reminder that my time here was up.
KRRRRRRR-CRAAAAAAAAAAACK!
The entire subterranean grotto was groaning under the massive strain of his wild, uncontrolled outburst. Huge stalactites began raining down from the ceiling, threatening to bury everyone alive beneath tons of rock.
Before the boy could strike down the surviving mercenary, the freed Jonin moved with incredible, blinding speed. A sharp gust of wind swept through the dust-filled air as the Jonin intervened between his student and the crippled assassin.
'...Fighting a Leaf Jonin and trying to suppress the boy in my current, broken state was a guaranteed death sentence. A clean extraction was out of the question now. I had to fall back, but I refused to leave empty-handed.'
Ignoring the searing agony in my chest, I reached into my pouch, retrieving a specialized container. As the swirling black iron swept past my position, I hastily gathered a small sample of the refined material, securing the sealed vial safely inside my cloak.
I took a staggering step back, forcing the absolute last reserves of my chakra into my legs just to stay upright. I aimed for the dark tunnel the assassins had carved into the rock face when they first broke into the grotto. Shohei's entry point was already being crushed under tons of stone. I needed to report this discovery to my master immediately.
I offered one final glance at the raging child, intending to memorize the distinct pattern of his awakened power. But as my eyes locked onto his face, a sudden, blinding spike of pain shot through my skull.
A phantom memory flashed behind my eyes—an unbidden vision of a newborn, wrapped tightly in coarse, swaddling cloth.
I clutched my head with a low hiss, my fingers digging tightly into my scalp as the sudden shock rattled my thoughts.
'What….was that?'
Pushing aside the thought, I kicked off the crumbling floor, my vision blurring from blood loss, and launched myself upward toward the blasted fissure in the ceiling. A massive boulder pulverized the stone where I had stood a split-second prior as I hauled myself over the lip of the overhead passage. The darkness swallowed my form completely, leaving the Leaf Village shinobi alone in the collapsing grotto.
[ SHOHEI-SENSEI ]
Jinichi raised his blood-soaked claw, preparing to completely crush the assassin's skull into the cracked stone.
Channelling a surge of chakra into my legs, I flickered across the collapsing cavern at blinding speed. I materialized right between the crippled mercenary and my rampaging student, stepping firmly into the deadly vortex of iron dust.
The sharp metal particles immediately tore at my flak jacket, but my shock eclipsed the stinging pain. My eyes widened as I took in the boy's unrecognizable state—the dense, unnatural chitinous armour, the feral purple eyes, and a suffocating, demonic miasma. What in the world had happened to him?
Jinichi did not recognize my face, letting out a deafening, inhuman shriek that rattled my eardrums as he lunged forward. His heavy, armoured arm swung toward my chest, carrying enough force to easily shatter my ribs and cave in my chest.
CRACK!
[ *POOF* ]
A rock appeared in my previous location, the one bearing the brunt of the attack. A substitution jutsu in full effect.
But that wasn't the end; Jinichi's figure blurred to my position, slashing toward me, intending to cut me down.
My hands moved at blinding speed, weaving hand seals in a fraction of a second. My shadow grew larger before splitting into two. Kuro, my bear summon, materialized just in time to throw his massive, reinforced bulk forward to block the attack.
He acted as a living shield, taking the full, terrifying weight of Jinichi's feral swipe. The sheer impact pushed the giant bear backward, cracking the stone beneath his heavy paws.
Simultaneously, out of my shadow came another summon. Oboro, my giant serpent summon, slithered rapidly from my shadow. Her thick, muscular coils surged forward, wrapping around Jinichi and tightly binding his violently thrashing limbs to halt his rampage.
The restraint was a desperate measure, and I knew it wouldn't last. Jinichi let out another agonizing roar, his brute force and the swirling iron dust shredding through Oboro's thick scales. The great snake let out a sharp hiss of pain before bursting into an inky shadow, forcefully desummoned by the sheer trauma.
Freed from the bind, Jinichi relentlessly battered Kuro, overwhelming the bear's defenses with blinding speed and savagery until Kuro, too, vanished in an inky shadow.
But their sacrifice had given me the exact opening I needed. While Jinichi had been tearing through my summons, I had already swiftly woven a complex string of hand signs with my free hand, drawing upon the deepest reserves of my own chakra. Five glowing kanji materialized around my fingertips, radiating a brilliant blue light that pushed back the boy's suffocating purple miasma.
"Forgive me for this, Jinichi, but you need to go to sleep right now." I commanded, my voice carrying a heavy, authoritative tone. Stepping rapidly into the gap left by Kuro's disappearance, I bypassed the boy's wildly swinging claws and exposed his chest. With a decisive thrust, I slammed my glowing palm directly onto the center of his sternum, forcing the suppression seal into his wildly fluctuating chakra network.
The boy let out a final, agonizing roar as the glowing blue sealing formula rapidly spread across his skin. The five intricate kanji locked together, forcefully suppressing the volatile, foreign chakra that had completely hijacked his young body.
His feral purple eyes widened in sudden shock before rolling to the back of his head as the rage was forcibly severed. The dense, chitinous armour encasing his limbs instantly dissolved back into violent purple smoke, returning him to his human form. The swirling vortex of black iron dust lost its anchor, crashing heavily onto the cavern floor like ordinary, lifeless dust.
Jinichi collapsed forward like a puppet with its strings cut, and I caught his limp body before he hit the ground. He was breathing heavily, completely unconscious and blissfully unaware of the horrifying massacre his body had just unleashed.
However, our dire situation was far from over, as a massive chunk of the cavern ceiling suddenly slammed into the floor nearby. The grotto was groaning violently, finally succumbing to the devastating structural damage caused by Jinichi's awakened rampage and the explosive battles. I had mere seconds to evacuate my entire squad before we were all permanently buried beneath a crumbling mountain of solid rock.
I securely hoisted Jinichi's unconscious body over my right shoulder. I then sprinted toward the smooth, indestructible iron dome that my rampaging student had instinctively constructed to shield Aoi and Kisuke.
With the boy's dark chakra now suppressed, the metallic construct had already begun to crumble and disintegrate back into loose dust.
I kicked the remaining iron shell away, finding my two other Genin severely injured but still mercifully drawing shallow breaths. Gathering them into my free arm, I braced myself against the terrifying weight of carrying three unconscious children through a collapsing hazard.
The surviving, one-armed mercenary was completely forgotten in the chaos, left to his own miserable fate amidst the falling boulders. I focused every ounce of my remaining chakra into my legs, kicking off the trembling bedrock with explosive force.
I navigated the crumbling debris with extreme precision, launching us upward through the jagged vertical shaft I had created upon my arrival. Massive stalactites and huge slabs of stone crashed down behind us, sealing the grotto away in a deafening avalanche of destruction. We burst out into the cool, open air of the surface just as the ground beneath us completely caved in, leaving only a massive sinkhole behind.
A/N: not my best work, sorry, but with that we'll begin entering canon. Also bear with me, I'm currently sick (malaria) so I'm taking a few days off to recover, and if you have any issues with the chapter, please tell me so I can improve my writing (just don't make it insulting please).