Chapter 42 - Arc VIii: Deep Inside- Chapter 1

Asuna finished tying the cord around Ryouko’s tenketsu, then removed her shimmering, transparent hands from his body. Azami stood nearby, a look of anxiety on her face that belied her usual cool demeanor. This was nerve-wracking!

“He’ll need to be in your care for a while,” Asuna told Azami, wiping her hands, despite them being devoid of blood or anything at all besides her own sweat.. “The idiot. If he’s yours, please take better care of him.”

Azami shook her head. “He’s not ‘mine’. Just someone I’m helping train. Although I need to be leaving, so he’ll have to train by himself.”

There was a shared look between Asuna and Azami. Asuna understood that Azami planned to leave on her quest to find the Spear of Izanagi. She wouldn’t need long to get to the Land of Waves. Acquiring the spear might prove more difficult. But Azami wasn’t known as someone you said ‘no’ to.

“At least wait until he’s conscious again,” Asuna requested plainly. “If something were to happen now, either to you or him…”

“I’ll wait, of course. Is it safe to move him?”

“Yes. Let’s put him in his room. The darkness should help his subconscious. He’ll recover within the day. From my jutsu, anyway. The other damage…that’s up to the medic-nin.”
--

Naruto was being treated by Sakura, while Shoki looked on curiously. He seemed to be interested in Naruto’s chakra for some reason.

“…” Naruto regained consciousness. The first thing out of his mouth was:
“Oh…I didn’t?”

Sakura nodded sadly. “You did. But he’ll live. But he swore, before he passed out that…that…”
Sakura managed to choke back tears into a brave smile.
“…That he really has given up on me. He won’t pursue me anymore.”

Naruto didn’t say anything for a few moments. He couldn’t believe the damage of the landscape around him. He flashed back to when he lost it with Orochimaru, and saw the same destruction.
“…I knew he wouldn’t. So why couldn’t I control myself?” Naruto finally asked.

“Someone hit you with a poisoned needle. The drug on it brings out aggressive tendencies. And mixed with your potent chakra and latent worry that Ryouko might still be after me…”

Naruto‘s head dropped into his chest, despair on his face.“…I should have been killed. I’m just a danger to everyone.”

Sakura shook her head, giving him a warm embrace. “That’s not true. You’ve touched a lot of people, Naruto. And maybe…maybe you weren’t as out of control as you thought. Your last Rasengan hit Ryouko, and he didn’t block it…but you didn’t kill him with it. And you should have been able to. You must have restrained yourself somehow…”

The thought put Naruto slightly more at ease. He closed his eyes and let his head fall into Sakura’s lap.
--

Shinmaru grinned at Asuma, raising a sake glass.
“So, this is your main student, eh? Spitting image of Shikaku, I tell you!”

Idiot. Shikamaru couldn’t contain that particular thought very well.

“So, we’ve got five total guardians. Ryouko, Azami, you, Shikamaru here, and me. What about those other two? Can they stick around for a little while? As you might imagine, things are desperate…”

The details worked out, Shikamaru put on the waistcloth, feeling a little bit of pride. He wouldn’t tell Asuma, of course, but it was pretty cool to be able to follow in his footsteps like this.

“I think they can,” Asuma replied, sipping from his cup. “It’ll be good training for them. They’re both apprentices of legendary shinobi, after all.” Asuma had put a cigarette in between his teeth, flicking his lighter with practiced ease. The flame kissed the cigarette, lighting it and allowing the smoke to fill the room. “But those two are Akatsuki magnets. With Ryouko here, too, you’re begging for those black-cloaked villains to swarm you.”

Shinmaru rubbed his chin, apparently drifting into a deep thought. Asuma sighed and shook him out of his stupor.
“I know what you’re thinking, Shinmaru. And no, we won’t use those kids as bait for an ambush. That’s out of line.”

“The opportunity-” Shinmaru started, but he was cut off by Asuma.

“The opportunity will still be there when they’re fully grown.”

Shikamaru hadn’t seen Asuma so tense in a while. For now, he decided to chalk it up to the fact that he seemed to know Shinmaru, and didn’t completely trust him when it came to safety.
“I can’t believe the Akatsuki would attack here, of all places.”

“Lady Uzume and the boy are threats to them. Best for them to kill them both now.” Shinmaru shifted to a sitting position, apparently thinking again. “The boy; Shoki. He’s got it rough. But ever since this Ryouko guy came, the kid has been more at peace. I’ve got no idea why- it’s pretty obvious Ryouko himself couldn’t define peace right now.”
--

Shoki stared at the comatose Ryouko. Sakura had predicted that Ryouko would wake up in a couple hours. Shoki had volunteered to sit with him, feeling it was his duty as a student to watch over his hurt master. Azami didn’t seem to mind. She seemed preoccupied, really. She had spent the last hour sitting in the corner, looking through a map of the Land of Waves. Shoki hadn’t heard of the place before. It seemed like a small, unimportant nation.

“Is he awake yet, Shoki?” asked Uzume, stepping into the room. Shoki shook his head.
“Hmm? This is…! Ah, no wonder! Shoki, do you want to see Ryouko’s paradise?”

“Huh? How?”

“I can tell- Ryouko put himself in a protective genjutsu while his body heals. When he removes the curse bindings, it’s painful until they re-attach and align themselves to his tenketsu. So he puts the pain out of his mind by sedating himself. And, in effect, allowing himself to train, if only in his mind.”

Shoki would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious. Master Ryouko was such a closed book. What would make a man like him happy? What was his paradise?

“I’m going to enter his mind. For this to work, you’ll need to make the same handsigns as me, Shoki. Get ready…”
--

Genjutsu

Uzume and Shoki appeared in the library area of Ryouko’s genjutsu. The number of books and scrolls had increased since the last time Uzume had been here. She noticed a new bit of furniture as well. One of the few comforts Ryouko afforded himself was a long couch, stretched across one wall. Above it was a giant wall scroll, written in nearly unreadable kana.

“Shoki, this is the world he created for himself. There’s an important lesson to be learned here. I think you’ll understand when you see it. For now, let’s find Ryouko. If he wants us to see the whole thing, he’ll give us a tour.”

Ryouko wasn’t going to be hard to find. He was outside in the big, grassy field he had created. This time, a cherry tree was planted in the ground. It was massive, looking as if it had been growing in that spot for four hundred years. Weapons of all shapes and sizes were lying underneath it.

Ryouko was currently in the middle of sword practice. He moved with a practiced ease, and a gracefulness that suggested long, intense periods of practice. After a few more moves, he gave the sword a shake and put it in it’s scabbard. Turning to his visitors, he gave a small smile and offered an apology.
“I was almost done, and I wanted to finish up. Lady Uzume; Shoki.” His smile grew a little wider. “If I’m seeing you, I guess Naruto didn’t kill me after all.”

“No. That would have been a poor way for him to repay your courage. You let him win, after all.”

Ryouko half-shrugged, setting down his sword and untying his belt. “Not really. He had me with that last strike. I didn’t give him an opening; he found one. Maybe I could have done a better job of blocking it, though.”

Not wasting anymore time, he walked over to the two. He didn’t have a drop of sweat on his body, even after that hard workout. That was an effect of the genjutsu.

“Shoki, try that jutsu we worked on. The fire style. Let’s show Lady Uzume your progress.”

Shoki was a shy boy by nature. But he came alive at this command, excited to show off his new abilities. Uzume looked to Ryouko, seeing him half-smiling. He looked at Uzume and winked slightly.
“It’s interesting. I think you’ll be surprised. The time I’ve spent in here wasn’t spent just healing…”

Shoki performed his personal fire jutsu flawlessly. His attack was interesting, and incredibly effective. He did the same sort of move as Sasuke, except he could make three balls of fire, and send them in different directions, stack them on top of each other, or focus them one behind the other, to break barriers. Uzume WAS impressed.

“Okay, good, Shoki. Now, let’s try this while we’re in here. Don’t worry, you can’t be hurt in this genjutsu world. Now, I’m going to use my fire style attack on you. I want you to look at it, and ‘capture’ the image with your eye. Then imagine an invisible wall in front of you, blocking the attack.”

Ryouko used his attack, sending a blast of fire toward Shoki. The boy looked scared, but took his master’s advice, and held his ground. He captured the image in his eye. He imagined the invisible wall. And just as the attack was about to reach him, everything froze.

Ryouko walked around his ball of fire, to stand next to Shoki.
“I was right. When you use your eyes, you aren’t just capturing images. You’re analyzing them, and you’ve even got the ability to block them. Look at your ‘invisible wall’.”

Ryouko was kneeling down, pointing at a floating black character sitting just underneath his fire attack.
“The kanji for fire. I had a feeling. Shoki, what’s really happened here is that you negated my attack with the base element of fire.”

That made no sense to Shoki, and he said so. Ryouko drew on the ground for a moment.

“See, all the elements have a weakness. Fire is beaten by water and enhanced by wind. But if two fire attacks meet, if there is equal force behind the two attacks, the attack is negated. Since your force is stationary, but equal to my moving force, this gives the illusion that you’ve ‘frozen’ my attack. But really, you’ve blocked it. In effect,” Ryouko smirked, “You’re fighting fire with fire.”

Uzume touched Ryouko’s arm lightly. “I was hoping he could see…”

Ryouko gave a slow nod. “I was debating that myself. It would be a healthy thing for him, wouldn’t it? Although I’m not sure I want him to see his teacher at his worst. But…”

Ryouko looked toward a hill in his grassy field. Just beyond it lie the sealed doors.
“He won’t hurt you. Just remember that,” Ryouko told Shoki, realizing that he probably just scared the poor kid even more.

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