Chapter: 5
Inside the Village.
A few minutes earlier.
Kushina felt the tremors, which was travelling across the village. She then looked at the village gates from where the shockwaves came from. Then at her team.
"We have to find a secure place, where aunt can give birth. Any ideas?" she asked in a worried voice.
She found the reason why her aunt was sucking chakra like crazy. She was about to give birth.
"I know a place, Kushina-sama. It's not far from here and it's a vantage point. Which we can defend easily." said a girl from her team.
"Lead us." she ordered.
"Hai"
Suddenly she felt a pang in her heart. She abruptly looked at the front gates. Then she saw a mesmerizing scene she would never forget, even if most of the view was blocked by the walls. Intricate seals were stacked in a curved angle. Their radiating orange glow was illuminating the dark village. Then she saw them stretch like rubber, as if they were about to burst through by something. But they held on. And in the next instant.
Boooom
Suddenly, a much more powerful shockwave hit the right side of the village. They paused and looked at the right side, they saw a big mushroom cloud outside the walls and a few seconds later —swish-crumble. The walls crumbled and a powerful gust of wind swept through the village, forcing Kushina to shield her eyes against the debris.
Kushina's eyes opened wide. There would be nothing left if that thing had landed in the village.
"We have to hurry, our walls have been breached." She said to her shocked teammates.
They nodded, now they moved first. She looked at the front gates again with pained eyes. She didn't know why, but the pain in her heart intensified several folds. 'Please father don't die on me.'
Then she also followed her team.
The village was unrecognizable.
Streets that Kushina had walked her whole life were cracked and scorched. Buildings she knew by name had collapsed into rubble.
The rain turned the dust to grey mud beneath their feet.
They passed many groups of civilians still evacuating amidst the rubble. A child was crying for a mother who wasn't there. Few people helping eachother from rubble.
Kushina didn't stop. She couldn't. But she looked.
She filed every face away somewhere behind her ribs and kept moving.
After a while they came to a compound at the upper part of the village. From where she stood, she could see the whole village, the front gates and beyond.
Well she wished she couldn't because she saw a giant ball of destruction approaching the village. Then she heard the gasps behind her. She didn't need to turn around to see their faces.
She just stared at it for few moments. Her violet eyes slowly lost their shine. Because now there was no barrier to protect them. And if whatever that thing was, hit their village. There would be nothing left, heck by the goosebumps she was feeling, she was sure there would be nothing left in a few miles.
Then she saw it. In the path of that thing, a figure was standing, then in the next second a blue aura appeared around the figure and exploded outward. She knew that aura. It was her teacher's. Then she remembered her teacher's word—
'Listen Kushina, there is nothing impossible in this world. The only thing that was stopping you was yourself.'
'Nothing is impossible until you agree with the person telling you it is.'
— These words were said to her when she did something that others thought 'impossible'. If she can do it, so can her teacher.
With these thoughts her once dim violet eyes regained their fire. Then she turned
"Start setting traps and seals in the surrounding area. I want this whole compound fortified. And start preparing for delivery." She ordered.
When they looked at her composed and determined posture, they also relaxed. Somewhat. And they flickered away.
Now alone with her still unconscious aunt in her arms. She again looked at her teacher and the incoming attack, and whispered with gritted teeth.
"Don't you dare die on me... I still haven't gutted you for my hell." Then she also began walking towards the house.
============
At the frontline.
Saki was prepared with a massive blue chakra radiating around her and concentrated around her Odachi.
She then activated one of her seal and decreased her Odachi's weight and increased her own.
She knew her odds of survival were close to zero. But that was acceptable.
She had never needed good odds, only a clear objective.
Cut it.
That was all.
She had cut through steel, through bone, through men who thought themselves immovable. She had cut through everything this world had placed in front of her.
This would be no different.
It had to be no different. Even if she had to die for it.
'I can finally meet you again…'
Now Bijuu-dama was a few meters away from her. She narrowed her eyes and swung her Odachi in a horizontal arc with everything she had. At the last second before collision she increased her Odachi's weight to maximum. Her hand muscles tightened like a taut string. And as the blade collided. The world broke around her.
The cracks spread outward like a spider's web — each one deeper than the last, each one wider. Then the ground beneath her right foot collapsed further, She didn't flinch.
Saki roared and pushed.
Behind her back, her seal matrix that was shaped like a flower —A red spider lily— began to pulse pumping more power around her body and seals.
The Bijuu-dama stopped for a few seconds by the collision. But her body had its limits —splurt— her hand and leg blood vessels ruptured. Her hand bones creaked. And she slowly skidded backward. She increased her weight again and her feet stopped but leg bones also cracked. She ignored it, she ignored everything. Her only focus was to cut this thing, even if it meant dying herself.
Then her armour came apart. First her gloves that were closest to the blast, shredded. And a big crack appeared in her wristguards.Then her shoulder pads began to splinter. Her chest plate. Cracked. Her onece pristine red armour now cracked and breaking further.
But she still pushed herself even as her body burn from inside and took a step forward.
As if reacting to her desires, the seals on her back began to pulse more erratically and the chakra around her odachi sharpened as laser edge, and it cut few inches inside.
It wasn't enough.
The Bijuu-dama advanced. And Saki was engulfed.
——
When she opened her eyes she was in a white space, completely white.
"Is this afterlife?" She looked around, nothing only white.
'Did I cut it?' she thought, her hand tightened and jaws clenched. Then she released a breath and began walking.
Her footsteps made no sound. The ground felt solid but looked like nothing — white beneath white.
She kept walking.
After a while she came in front of a flower. A flower she knew. A flower that carved itself in her very soul. A Red Spider Lily.
That she loved and hated most.
Up close the petals were exactly as she remembered. Exactly as she had tried to forget.
Her jaw tightened.
"So it's you."
She extended her hand but stopped. She looked at her fingers, which were shaking slightly.
Then she tightened her hand and forced the tremors down, burying them. And touched the petal.
Then the scene shifted. Now she was standing in the middle of a market or should she say Clan market.
She knew this place by heart. It was Uzushiogakure, when it was only a clan.
Then she looked around. Vendors selling their products. People buying. Merchant coming and going.
It was peaceful…. but she knew how fragile this peace was.
As she was looking around. Suddenly two children passed her. Her eyes shook.
"No.. no. no.."
She frantically looked behind and chased them.
She took a few steps, when she heard them converse, as they made their way through the market.
The young girl who seemed to be around 7 or 8 years old, leading a younger boy who was following her with a gloomy expression.
"Come on, why the long face. Itsuki." the girl said cheerfully. "So what if you don't have the talent in fūinjutsu? I am not much better either."
Then Saki reached them and tried to grab the boy. But her hand passed through them like a mirage. Her eyes widened. She gritted her teeth and her eyes flashed with fury.
"I will fucking kill you." she said with gritted teeth as she flared her chakra trying to break the genjutsu.
There was only one other person who came this deep in her memory. And to this day she cursed those eyes that allowed him that. Afterwards she had almost killed him. Would have, if those same eyes hadn't saved him — and his wood-user lover beside him. Even now the memory of it sat in her chest like a coal that never fully cooled.
But nothing happened.
She studied her breathing. And tried again with a hand sign.
"Release"
Nothing changed, not even a ripple.
She kept trying again and again and again. But nothing happened.
The memory kept playing.
She looked at the departing children, then she started to follow them but this time she didn't rush. She walked behind them.
If this was someone's genjutsu she would kill him even if it's the last thing she would do.
But if it's afterlife and it was her hell… then so be it. She deserves this hell.
"So.. you are telling me that you heard from a traveling merchant about a rare flower. That was blooming at the forest Cliff." The boy who was Itsuki and a mini copy of the girl said in a deadpan face. His gloomy mood eased considerably.
It seems she missed some of their conversation in her fury. But she knew what had passed between them.
She never forgot it… to this day.
"Saki-nee, are you an idiot?" Itsuki asked with deadfish eyes.
Tremors ran through Saki's heart when she heard 'Saki-nee' again... from him. Her knuckles turned white but now she kept walking beside them.
But for her younger self, she clutched her heart dramatically and said.
"You wounded me, younger brother."
"Ahuh.. who would believe a merchant about a flower that was so rare and he didn't took it himself." he said with the same deadpan expression.
"Well dah.. because he was a merchant he can't climb a cliff." Young Saki shrugged and replied.
Itsuki didn't completely buy it. But the prospect of going out of the clan grounds was appealing. But
"What about our safety? It is prohibited to go outside without permission." Itsuki said.
"It will be alright. It's not that far from here. And he also said that the flower was so rare that even the yamanaka clan from the land of fire coveted it. And he would sell this information to them. And besides" Young Saki said, looking at him with a grin. "I will protect you."
He smiled too when he saw her smile and said.
"Uhm okay."
"Yay, let's go!!" Young Saki grabbed his hand and began walking outside of clan grounds.
" Huh.. like right now? But we don't even have proper gear." Itsuki said with some panic.
"Hehe.. I already got it beforehand." Young Saki replied smugly as she showed a backpack in her hand.
"Y—you knew I would agree?" he asked and looking at the backpack that came from nowhere he thought. 'And she said she was not talented.'
They both crossed the Clan grounds.
The real Saki who had observed this whole thing. Had her head lowered. Looking at the ground with her red eyes trembling and her hand clenched and veins visible.
She looked again at the departing children and stopped for a moment she thought about not following them. But in the next instant she crushed that thought. And stepped forward to repent. Stepped forward to live her Hell.
=======
Hello there
If you want second chapter this week then donate 50 power stone.
And I will release it's 2nd part.
Happy Reading.