“So.. you’re just going to meditate then?” Susano rang out inside of Maikeru’s head, the phantom like samurai appearing behind the boy.
“You’re the one who said this was a good idea…” Maikeru responded, his face clenching into an expression of annoyance. “You’re the one who told me to come to the forest and meditate. For some reason, you told me to take off my shirt and my shoes too.”
It was true, Maikeru sat in the lotus position, his shirt and shoes hanging harmlessly from a nearby branch, in the middle of a Kumo winter. On his shoulders had gathered a large amount of falling snow which in turn only helped to amplify the chill the boy was feeling in his extremities and chest. Grabbing at his arms, he shook his body in order to help clear some of the snow that had gathered, but it helped very little.
The ‘duo’, as it were, had come to the ancient forest inside of the Hidden Cloud village for a multitude of reasons. The primary one being the toxic and caustic effect that Susano’s chakra seemed to have on those around him. Thankfully the cursed seal had kept it mostly intact, but he worried about what would happen if it ever loosened itself, or god forbid if it broke…
No, no, that wouldn’t happen. Ryuichi was a sealing master, or so he claimed to his blood cousin. Still, safety was always first, that was pretty much the first rule of medicine after all. Hence the treck outside of the safety of his own apartment, and for the most part the village, in order to hone this new boon he had in some meaningful way.
Which was where they ran into their first issue. Sure, he could manifest a large amount of spiritual chakra, but what exactly could he do with it? He had to find a way to control it, and soon, lest he loses yet another arm to this so far failed experiment in recklessness. The spirit and boy had come up with a few ideas, but they were ultimately scrapped. While the idea of using the spirit to summon large beast, or to make a sword bigger than the raikages, seemed good on paper, ultimately it was ruled to be overly ostentatious and more befitting a protagonist in one of his comics than a trained shinobi.
So, they once again found themselves on really what was a story that has been told a million times. Boy creates spirit, boy absorbs spirit into his body in a reckless, dangerous, and stupid idea, and now boy has to find a way to use his spirit to fight. Really, who hadn’t gone through something similar.
After an hour or so of deliberation, Susano had been the one to suggest meditation. At the time it seemed like a great idea, but in hindsight… well, he was shirtless in subzero temperatures and slowly experiencing hypothermia. He could use medical and fire jutsu to prevent that, but, that only took time away from his meditation. He was stuck in a pickle.
“Yea but..” Susano started, walking with steps devoid of a footprint, to the front of the boy, before looking down at him. “...I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”
Silence. Wind swept around the two of them, blowing snow into the face of the clearly annoyed, and rightfully angry, Uchiha boy. His eyes drew into a tight scowl as they slowly opened, looking up to the spirit that he had created. Cold, unyielding hate formed in those blue orbs of his, all directed at the cause of his misfortune.
“I fucking hate you..” He muttered to himself, knowing full well the spirit could hear his every thought. “So, jackass, did you come up with anything while I’ve been here literally freezing my ass off?”
As he waited for the spirit to speak, the boy formed the boar sign with his hands, before exhaling deeply into them. Controlling the chakra he exhumed, he created a small scorch jutsu in the palm of his hands, sending waves of sweet heat radiating over his entire body.
“Well, sorta…” Kusanagi said, rubbing the chin of his armored samurai helmet. “But, I don’t know Reicheru would react to me being in control of your body..”
“No,” Maikeru said clearly, flatly, cutting the thought off at the head. “There is going to be no body switching, no possessions, no inexplicable twins. We’re not cliche, we can do better.”
Leaning back in the snow, Maikeru looked up at the falling snow, a couple flakes falling lightly onto the nose and face of the Uchiha. Days like today were the ones he considering leaving the shinobi life behind. Retiring at a young age, devote his life to perfecting the craft of blacksmithing. Wouldn’t that be something?
“Focus,” Susano said, snapping his fingers in the face of the distracted youth. “This is a problem we need to solve sooner, rather than later. My chakra grows in that seal every day and who knows how strong it actually is.”
“Right... Right. Okay, so, let’s go over the basics again. We have an instant mental connection, and you have a semi-ethereal form.” Maikeru said as he stood from the snow, moving over to the clothes he had abandoned. “There’s got to be a way we could use that, right?”
“Hm... I suppose I could borrow your knowledge and chakra, cast jutsu to aid you in combat?” Susano suggested, resting a hand on his armored hip. “Seems like that could be pretty strong. Shooting off high-level ninjutsu while you focus on the taijutsu.”
“It sounds good in practice…” Maikeru said, pulling his woolen shirt over his head. “But, we share one mind. Even if you have thoughts of your own, I can feel the mental drain when you form. I don’t think I can split my attention between forming chakras.”
As he continued to dress the snow fell harder and harder, droplets forming into piles as quick as the boy could swipe them away.
‘Snow…’
That was when the idea struck him. The single moment of brilliance that would be remembered by him for years to come whenever he thought of how his life got to the point it was at. Turning to look at Susano, pulling the woolen fabric over his cursed seal mark, a small smile formed onto his face.
“We infect them,” He said with his trademarked cocky grin, nodding his head as his eyes ran through a mental checklist. “Yea.. if your spirit energy hurt me this bad, and it was made from me, imagine what it could do to others…”
“I’m sorry little one, you lost me,” Susano admitted, a look of confusion staring at the Uchiha from under his heavy mask. “You want me to infect people?”
“Well, sort of,” Maikeru tried to explain, ushering to the snow around him. “Think of your spirit energy like snow. No matter how fast you run, or how agile you are, snow is impossible to dodge forever. When I summon and dismiss your blade, it comes into this world as particles first, right? Well, what if we simply use those particles to, well, infect people? Weaken them, cause them pain. I know it’s not the most honorable way of fighting, but our targets aren’t exactly honorable themselves.”
“I don’t particularly like it, but you do have a point,” The spirit admitted begrudgingly. “The fight you have in mind is one we can’t bring honor into if we wish to live through it, or at the very least take out who we intend to. Their well protected, by many friends, we’ll need every advantage we can.”
“Exactly. Plus, this arm.” As he spoke he held his corrupted right arm up to Susano. “On your blade I inscribed some sealing ninjutsu in order to empower you. Let’s call them augments, pretty standard stuff for shinobi nowadays. Anyway, where do the augments go when I dismiss your blade?”
“I’m not sure, I wasn’t even aware that you augmented me. Honestly, I think I’m offended.”
“...Shut up. Listen, I think that they’re being stored inside of this arm. I don’t think this is simply a chakra burn. The arm seems... Alive almost. The lights are almost like a heartbeat if you watch close enough. What if it’s not an injury, but a physical manifestation of your spirit stored in my body?”
“Then you’d be able to use the augments to… augment yourself, am I close to what you’re getting at here?” Susano responded, the idea seemingly clicking into place as the boy and he traded ideas.
The smile on Maikeru’s face grew wider, his finger moving up to slowly tap his temple. Slipping an arm through the hole in his jacket, he pulled the heavy vestment onto himself, before continuing.
“Exactly. Plus, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for thinking. Think about it for a second. If you were able to subconsciously place this upon my body, imagine what we could do with a little focus.”
“Right…” Susano responded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “It’s certainly better than the orange gi idea. Or the super large sword that we had no purpose carrying.”
“Yea, let’s not talk about those again,” Maikeru said, shaking his head in a sort of disappointed motion direction at himself. “Either way though. There are so many things we can theoretically do if we just put our mind to it.”
“Then, you know what we have to do now.”
Yea, he did, though he dreaded it. At least out here, they wouldn’t hurt anyone, well, except himself. He took a deep, cleansing, breath before taking a step forward. Behind him had been a frozen river which he moved to step next to. He placed his hands in front of him in a prayer motion, resting the brow of his nose on the tips of his fingers.
Maikeru had never been a religious person, not that he didn’t believe in the gods per say. He was just more of the belief that if the gods were going to help him, no amount of prayer or tribute would change his fate.
“Raiden help me..” He said quietly, before feeling a soft force on his shoulder.
Turning around, he saw the armored hand of Susano gripping his shoulder as best as his ethereal form could. Filled with a small sense of confidence, the boy released the breath that had been hitched in his chest.
Forming the tiger sign, he gathered all the chakra he could muster before releasing the jutsu that encased his abdomen.
“Release!” He said loudly, with confidence, feeling the sudden surge of chakra once again feeling his form
The first sensation that came back to him was the burning, clawing, stabbing pain that had begun to form in his abdomen. It took little time before the boy fell to his knees, his hand moving to grip at the half Uchiha crest symbol that hung around his neck.
“Come on.. Come on…” He muttered, his eyes spinning into the Sharingan, before mutating into the Mangekyo. “For you... For Reicheru... For Danni…”
Crimson red blood ran from his right eye as his body attempted to expel chakra in the quickest way it knew how, the jet black flames of Amaterasu. Around the boy a large ring of the ebony flames rose, quickly melting the snow and ice in the areas they had formed, and in the large dome that was quickly forming around him.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” He screamed, clawing at his chest, clawing at the source of the pain. “GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”
His teeth clenched, his jaw tightened, the muscles in his stomach and chest felt like they were about to tear asunder. The black shell around the boy was becoming more and more complete with each passing second, completely blocking him from the outside world.
“FOCUS!” Susano roared in his ear, the spirit kneeling beside its partner. “If you don’t focus you’re going to die! Which means I’m going to die, and I am not ready to die little one! You promised Reicheru, Danni, Mikasa, you promised all of them you’d grow strong and protect them, are you going to be weak now?!”
“NO!” He roared out, blood dripping from where he had begun to bite the corner of his mouth in agony.
“Then focus! Use my spiritual energy, use it to infect the life around you, drain the energy so you can live!”
With what little remained of his mind, lost between the searing pain and the split from having Susano active, Maikeru reached out to the well of chakra that burned within him. It felt familiar, but also different. Sort of like when your leg falls asleep. It was uniquely his, but it didn’t feel right being stored inside of him.
Reaching down, grasping at that font of power with all of his might, he yanked on the cords separating the two pools, merging them into one steady flow. The blue gem-like substance in his arm grew brighter, and brighter until it was like a beacon inside of the black flame-like shell.
“Come on you stupid son of a bitch…” He growled at himself, his voice coming out ragged between his teeth, his head tucked into the ground. “Do something right.. Just this once… do it!”
Ripping once again, he expelled the spiritual energy from his body, sending showers of small snow like light in the surrounding area. The barrier around him quickly dispersed, the black flames dying now that their power source was drained.
All around him he could feel the strange spirit chakra falling onto nearby creatures could feel his own power growing as theirs slowly diminished, the flames of their lives flickering until they were no more. He could feel the death that surrounded him, hear the final cries of various forest animals and the crash as their bodies hit the snow.
Panting, the burning sensation still dimly blazing in his stomach, he once again made the tiger sign.
“S-s-seal..” He muttered, collapsing into a sweating, panting mess on the melted snow beneath him as he did so. “I… I d-did it..”
“That you did,” Susano stated, his form fading and flickering even as it stood before him. “Now, you just have to do it again.”
Fuck.
[2,387 words]
“You’re the one who said this was a good idea…” Maikeru responded, his face clenching into an expression of annoyance. “You’re the one who told me to come to the forest and meditate. For some reason, you told me to take off my shirt and my shoes too.”
It was true, Maikeru sat in the lotus position, his shirt and shoes hanging harmlessly from a nearby branch, in the middle of a Kumo winter. On his shoulders had gathered a large amount of falling snow which in turn only helped to amplify the chill the boy was feeling in his extremities and chest. Grabbing at his arms, he shook his body in order to help clear some of the snow that had gathered, but it helped very little.
The ‘duo’, as it were, had come to the ancient forest inside of the Hidden Cloud village for a multitude of reasons. The primary one being the toxic and caustic effect that Susano’s chakra seemed to have on those around him. Thankfully the cursed seal had kept it mostly intact, but he worried about what would happen if it ever loosened itself, or god forbid if it broke…
No, no, that wouldn’t happen. Ryuichi was a sealing master, or so he claimed to his blood cousin. Still, safety was always first, that was pretty much the first rule of medicine after all. Hence the treck outside of the safety of his own apartment, and for the most part the village, in order to hone this new boon he had in some meaningful way.
Which was where they ran into their first issue. Sure, he could manifest a large amount of spiritual chakra, but what exactly could he do with it? He had to find a way to control it, and soon, lest he loses yet another arm to this so far failed experiment in recklessness. The spirit and boy had come up with a few ideas, but they were ultimately scrapped. While the idea of using the spirit to summon large beast, or to make a sword bigger than the raikages, seemed good on paper, ultimately it was ruled to be overly ostentatious and more befitting a protagonist in one of his comics than a trained shinobi.
So, they once again found themselves on really what was a story that has been told a million times. Boy creates spirit, boy absorbs spirit into his body in a reckless, dangerous, and stupid idea, and now boy has to find a way to use his spirit to fight. Really, who hadn’t gone through something similar.
After an hour or so of deliberation, Susano had been the one to suggest meditation. At the time it seemed like a great idea, but in hindsight… well, he was shirtless in subzero temperatures and slowly experiencing hypothermia. He could use medical and fire jutsu to prevent that, but, that only took time away from his meditation. He was stuck in a pickle.
“Yea but..” Susano started, walking with steps devoid of a footprint, to the front of the boy, before looking down at him. “...I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”
Silence. Wind swept around the two of them, blowing snow into the face of the clearly annoyed, and rightfully angry, Uchiha boy. His eyes drew into a tight scowl as they slowly opened, looking up to the spirit that he had created. Cold, unyielding hate formed in those blue orbs of his, all directed at the cause of his misfortune.
“I fucking hate you..” He muttered to himself, knowing full well the spirit could hear his every thought. “So, jackass, did you come up with anything while I’ve been here literally freezing my ass off?”
As he waited for the spirit to speak, the boy formed the boar sign with his hands, before exhaling deeply into them. Controlling the chakra he exhumed, he created a small scorch jutsu in the palm of his hands, sending waves of sweet heat radiating over his entire body.
“Well, sorta…” Kusanagi said, rubbing the chin of his armored samurai helmet. “But, I don’t know Reicheru would react to me being in control of your body..”
“No,” Maikeru said clearly, flatly, cutting the thought off at the head. “There is going to be no body switching, no possessions, no inexplicable twins. We’re not cliche, we can do better.”
Leaning back in the snow, Maikeru looked up at the falling snow, a couple flakes falling lightly onto the nose and face of the Uchiha. Days like today were the ones he considering leaving the shinobi life behind. Retiring at a young age, devote his life to perfecting the craft of blacksmithing. Wouldn’t that be something?
“Focus,” Susano said, snapping his fingers in the face of the distracted youth. “This is a problem we need to solve sooner, rather than later. My chakra grows in that seal every day and who knows how strong it actually is.”
“Right... Right. Okay, so, let’s go over the basics again. We have an instant mental connection, and you have a semi-ethereal form.” Maikeru said as he stood from the snow, moving over to the clothes he had abandoned. “There’s got to be a way we could use that, right?”
“Hm... I suppose I could borrow your knowledge and chakra, cast jutsu to aid you in combat?” Susano suggested, resting a hand on his armored hip. “Seems like that could be pretty strong. Shooting off high-level ninjutsu while you focus on the taijutsu.”
“It sounds good in practice…” Maikeru said, pulling his woolen shirt over his head. “But, we share one mind. Even if you have thoughts of your own, I can feel the mental drain when you form. I don’t think I can split my attention between forming chakras.”
As he continued to dress the snow fell harder and harder, droplets forming into piles as quick as the boy could swipe them away.
‘Snow…’
That was when the idea struck him. The single moment of brilliance that would be remembered by him for years to come whenever he thought of how his life got to the point it was at. Turning to look at Susano, pulling the woolen fabric over his cursed seal mark, a small smile formed onto his face.
“We infect them,” He said with his trademarked cocky grin, nodding his head as his eyes ran through a mental checklist. “Yea.. if your spirit energy hurt me this bad, and it was made from me, imagine what it could do to others…”
“I’m sorry little one, you lost me,” Susano admitted, a look of confusion staring at the Uchiha from under his heavy mask. “You want me to infect people?”
“Well, sort of,” Maikeru tried to explain, ushering to the snow around him. “Think of your spirit energy like snow. No matter how fast you run, or how agile you are, snow is impossible to dodge forever. When I summon and dismiss your blade, it comes into this world as particles first, right? Well, what if we simply use those particles to, well, infect people? Weaken them, cause them pain. I know it’s not the most honorable way of fighting, but our targets aren’t exactly honorable themselves.”
“I don’t particularly like it, but you do have a point,” The spirit admitted begrudgingly. “The fight you have in mind is one we can’t bring honor into if we wish to live through it, or at the very least take out who we intend to. Their well protected, by many friends, we’ll need every advantage we can.”
“Exactly. Plus, this arm.” As he spoke he held his corrupted right arm up to Susano. “On your blade I inscribed some sealing ninjutsu in order to empower you. Let’s call them augments, pretty standard stuff for shinobi nowadays. Anyway, where do the augments go when I dismiss your blade?”
“I’m not sure, I wasn’t even aware that you augmented me. Honestly, I think I’m offended.”
“...Shut up. Listen, I think that they’re being stored inside of this arm. I don’t think this is simply a chakra burn. The arm seems... Alive almost. The lights are almost like a heartbeat if you watch close enough. What if it’s not an injury, but a physical manifestation of your spirit stored in my body?”
“Then you’d be able to use the augments to… augment yourself, am I close to what you’re getting at here?” Susano responded, the idea seemingly clicking into place as the boy and he traded ideas.
The smile on Maikeru’s face grew wider, his finger moving up to slowly tap his temple. Slipping an arm through the hole in his jacket, he pulled the heavy vestment onto himself, before continuing.
“Exactly. Plus, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for thinking. Think about it for a second. If you were able to subconsciously place this upon my body, imagine what we could do with a little focus.”
“Right…” Susano responded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “It’s certainly better than the orange gi idea. Or the super large sword that we had no purpose carrying.”
“Yea, let’s not talk about those again,” Maikeru said, shaking his head in a sort of disappointed motion direction at himself. “Either way though. There are so many things we can theoretically do if we just put our mind to it.”
“Then, you know what we have to do now.”
Yea, he did, though he dreaded it. At least out here, they wouldn’t hurt anyone, well, except himself. He took a deep, cleansing, breath before taking a step forward. Behind him had been a frozen river which he moved to step next to. He placed his hands in front of him in a prayer motion, resting the brow of his nose on the tips of his fingers.
Maikeru had never been a religious person, not that he didn’t believe in the gods per say. He was just more of the belief that if the gods were going to help him, no amount of prayer or tribute would change his fate.
“Raiden help me..” He said quietly, before feeling a soft force on his shoulder.
Turning around, he saw the armored hand of Susano gripping his shoulder as best as his ethereal form could. Filled with a small sense of confidence, the boy released the breath that had been hitched in his chest.
Forming the tiger sign, he gathered all the chakra he could muster before releasing the jutsu that encased his abdomen.
“Release!” He said loudly, with confidence, feeling the sudden surge of chakra once again feeling his form
The first sensation that came back to him was the burning, clawing, stabbing pain that had begun to form in his abdomen. It took little time before the boy fell to his knees, his hand moving to grip at the half Uchiha crest symbol that hung around his neck.
“Come on.. Come on…” He muttered, his eyes spinning into the Sharingan, before mutating into the Mangekyo. “For you... For Reicheru... For Danni…”
Crimson red blood ran from his right eye as his body attempted to expel chakra in the quickest way it knew how, the jet black flames of Amaterasu. Around the boy a large ring of the ebony flames rose, quickly melting the snow and ice in the areas they had formed, and in the large dome that was quickly forming around him.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” He screamed, clawing at his chest, clawing at the source of the pain. “GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”
His teeth clenched, his jaw tightened, the muscles in his stomach and chest felt like they were about to tear asunder. The black shell around the boy was becoming more and more complete with each passing second, completely blocking him from the outside world.
“FOCUS!” Susano roared in his ear, the spirit kneeling beside its partner. “If you don’t focus you’re going to die! Which means I’m going to die, and I am not ready to die little one! You promised Reicheru, Danni, Mikasa, you promised all of them you’d grow strong and protect them, are you going to be weak now?!”
“NO!” He roared out, blood dripping from where he had begun to bite the corner of his mouth in agony.
“Then focus! Use my spiritual energy, use it to infect the life around you, drain the energy so you can live!”
With what little remained of his mind, lost between the searing pain and the split from having Susano active, Maikeru reached out to the well of chakra that burned within him. It felt familiar, but also different. Sort of like when your leg falls asleep. It was uniquely his, but it didn’t feel right being stored inside of him.
Reaching down, grasping at that font of power with all of his might, he yanked on the cords separating the two pools, merging them into one steady flow. The blue gem-like substance in his arm grew brighter, and brighter until it was like a beacon inside of the black flame-like shell.
“Come on you stupid son of a bitch…” He growled at himself, his voice coming out ragged between his teeth, his head tucked into the ground. “Do something right.. Just this once… do it!”
Ripping once again, he expelled the spiritual energy from his body, sending showers of small snow like light in the surrounding area. The barrier around him quickly dispersed, the black flames dying now that their power source was drained.
All around him he could feel the strange spirit chakra falling onto nearby creatures could feel his own power growing as theirs slowly diminished, the flames of their lives flickering until they were no more. He could feel the death that surrounded him, hear the final cries of various forest animals and the crash as their bodies hit the snow.
Panting, the burning sensation still dimly blazing in his stomach, he once again made the tiger sign.
“S-s-seal..” He muttered, collapsing into a sweating, panting mess on the melted snow beneath him as he did so. “I… I d-did it..”
“That you did,” Susano stated, his form fading and flickering even as it stood before him. “Now, you just have to do it again.”
Fuck.
[2,387 words]