“Wind Style: Air Bullets!”
With his beak opened wide, Kuchibashi fires a massive cannonball made entirely out of highly compressed air and the shot was true; Rito looks on with satisfaction as the colossal chimera plummets and clumsily crashes into a mound of sand.
“This is an aerial battle. Don’t ever mess with a hawk…!” Kuchibashi scolds from the sky.
The hawk soars overhead of the chimera, he slowly circles around like a hawk. With his summoning now flying steadily, Rito stands up and looks down on the beast; the young genius proceeds to infuse more chakra.
Great! Now to clip the monster’s wings… A confident Rito thinks while weaving the boar and ram hand signs. “Crystal Style: Burst Crystal Falling Dragon!”
Just as the chimera groggily rises to its feet, two crystalline dragons erupt from the ground underfoot of the monster and fly through its wings, effectively downing the beast; the chimera writhes in pain caused by the two gaping holes in its massive wings. The crystal dragons aren’t finished with their assault; they rapidly coil themselves around the chimera and begin the process of constricting it.
“Rraaawwrrr…!” The chimera bellows.
Not only have the beast’s wings effectively been clipped, but it is also being held down firmly by Rito’s constructs, making it the perfect target. The two dragons gradually squeeze the chimera monster even tighter with each passing second.
"Go for the eyes, Kuchibashi! Go for the eyes!!" Rito adamantly orders.
“Alright!” The invigorated Kuchibashi squawks. “BANZAI!!!”
The young genius holds on tight as the giant hawk folds his wings and dive-bombs the chimera beast; coming in like a tactical missile, Kuchibashi holds out his massive, sharp talons and claws at the beast’s face. The chimera’s right eye bursts like a balloon the instant the hawk’s talons sink their way into its socket; the sand and crystalline dragons are coated in red with the monster’s blood.
“RAAAAAAWWWRR!!” The monster releases an agonizing, blood-curdling screech while writhing in pain.
With a flap of his massive wings, Kuchibashi takes into the air once more, he quickly circles back around and dives at the monster again. The hawk claws at the chimera’s face a second time with his sharp talons--only this time--Kuchibashi plunges his foot into the chimera’s left eye socket and digs his talons into its eyelids before violently ripping out the left eye with one heave; with a loud snap, the optic nerve is torn apart with even more blood gushing from the new injury.
“Graaawr…!!” The chimera thrashes and squirms in its crystalline bondage.
Basking in victory, Kuchibashi squawks, “Never underestimate a hawk!”
“Good work.” Rito gives his summoning a thumbs up. This might actually be a good chance to test out my new jutsu in battle…
The young genius builds up chakra and weaves four hand signs, he then outstretches his arms in a position where his hands are open. Soon after, at Rito’s side, a pink chakra-like energy materializes and takes the form of a large jade-green mirror in the shape of a snowflake; the young genius sees his reflection and is disgusted by how dirty and sweaty he appears.
“Crystal Style: Jade Crystal Mirror.” A cringing Rito casts while weaving the hand signs for another jutsu. “Jade Crystal Clone Jutsu!”
Using his crystal mirror as a medium, Rito creates two clones of himself from his own reflection, they slowly emerge from out of the mirror with brimming confidence. The three Rito's all activate their curse mark; their skin grows darker, and their hair grows longer and wilder while turning gray.
“Go help Ayanami and Sasuke however you can!” Rito orders his duplicates.
““Right!””
As the young genius watches his Crystal Clones scatter in two directions, he swiftly weaves the boar and snake hand signs in a nearly imperceptible movement. Chakra coats Rito’s hands in the form of a faint, sickly-greenish-yellow flame; the boy notices that his hands feel warmer than they were in the desert heat.
There’s no better training than the real thing…! Rito swallows the sudden rush of anxiety and grits his teeth, he readies himself by taking a battle stance. “Ninja Art: Radiation Fist!”
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Meanwhile, in another part of the desert dimension, Sasuke is engaged in fierce mortal combat with the Satori; to the rogue ninja’s dismay, the creature keeps forcing him toward the Box of Paradise for some odd reason. Sasuke quickly deduces that something extremely terrible will happen should he be forced into that strange box.
The Satori swipes at Sasuke with its monstrous claws, but the rogue ninja evades the attack by flying in between its large fingers and up its arm in a swirling pattern. The Uchiha uses the momentum from his flight to charge at the bird-like creature and lands a solid punch on its upper lip; one of its tusk-like bones breaks off while the monster itself is sent flying.
“Sasuke!” Someone calls out.
The Uchiha glances down and sees a menacing looking Rito running to his location, the boy appears to have activated his own curse mark; the veil crystal dust surrounding the former Taka member coupled with his curse mark appearance makes him appear more like an ethereal entity.
“You have to either kill him or force him back into the box!!” Rito yells from the ground. “Those are the only two ways to beat him!!”
Sasuke hears his former team member speaking, but doesn’t bother to reply, he keeps his attention focused on the Satori; the monster has already recovered and is mysteriously circling over the Box of Paradise. With a flap of its wings, it quickly descends and lands, perching itself on top of the box.
“Can you imagine what it’s like inside this box? There’s no exit. You can’t break it open. You’re inside darkness with one overpowering feeling swirling around you…” The Satori starts ominously monologuing. “It's as big and black as the darkness itself and it seeps into every cell in your body. That feeling honed me, purified me. All the emotions that once tormented me grew fainter and–?!”
The Satori is interrupted due to sudden actions of Rito, the young genius has just created five large pink crystalline pillars that surround all three combatants; with his ocular powers, Sasuke can see that these crystalline structures are further enhancing the potency of Rito’s chakra. The boy then goes on to encase himself in a prism of transparent blue crystal. A sinister chakra emanates from the prism in the form of a faint, purple, flame-like aura.
“Crystal Style: Arrow of Light!” Rito roars.
Rito’s prism focuses his chakra into the prism's tip and fires an intense, powerful heat blast of purple chakra at the Satori who quickly and nimbly evades the attack despite its large size. The Satori takes flight once more and retaliates, it hurls a barrage of its feathers, the feathers rain down like arrows, piercing both the ground and Rito’s constructs; the young genius erects a ten-foot-thick wall of crystal, the feathers managed to pierce through the wall, but are stopped. The feathers are about four centimeters shy of making contact with the now shaking Rito.
Sasuke immediately takes advantage of the opening Rito created by firing a volley of Onyx Chidori Senbon. However, the monster is able to weave its way through most of the senbon, but that was good enough for the rogue ninja as some of his attacks managed to hit the beast.
“Heh… Your darkness could never swallow mine.” Sasuke finally breaks his silence.
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Confused, the hovering Satori’s attention shifts back over to the rogue ninja. “What?”
“I will become Hokage and end this twisted way of the shinobi…” Sasuke continues. “Through me, this world will start walking down the path of true history.”
Suddenly, the rogue ninja activates his perfect body Susano’o and charges at the monster.
“It’s no us--Grk?!” The Satori freezes up.
Unbeknownst to the monster, Sasuke used his Chidori Senbon to simulate the Hyuga clan’s Gentle Fist; the senbon have effectively disrupted the Satori’s chakra flow and paralyzed it.
With a swing of his massive, ethereal sword, Sasuke cuts off one of the Satori’s wings and instantly follows up with a mighty flip kick; the Uchiha watches the monster crash into the ground with cold stoicism.
“I’ll put you to rest now.” Sasuke says grimly while clapping his hands together, infusing chakra into his eyes.
Giant spears composed entirely of black flames erupt from the sandy floor and pierce the Satori, thoroughly skewering it.
“UWAAAAAAAH…!! ARGHHHHHHH!!!” The Satori wails and writhes in its throes.
The burning, impaled monster quickly rises into the air due to the Uchiha creating a Planetary Devastation with the Satori as the core, countless mounds of sand following suit. The sand that follows is pulled toward the Satori and clings to it like gravity, all the sand piles on and compresses into a celestial body with the black flames still spewing forth. The celestial body has the appearance of a miniature, otherworldly sun; this ethereal sun emits a bright light that brings forth an intense darkness.
Without hesitation, Sasuke flies higher and lunges for his black sun, his Susano’o forms an Onyx Chidori with the black flames of the Amaterasu covering it.
“Takemikazuchi-no-Kami!” Sasuke vehemently roars.
The rogue ninja thrusts his jutsu forward. The ball of fire and lightning pierces the black sun, carving its way through; the impact creates a noticeably sized dent in the burning celestial body. The black sun itself begins to glow bright and brighter with thick cracks forming all across its surface until it finally detonates, resulting in a massive explosion.
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Crikey! That’s bloody overkill… Rito’s Crystal Clone takes a moment to watch the ensuing fireworks from the ground.
The Rito-clone quickly snaps out of it and refocuses his attention on the Box of Paradise; with the Satori dead, the box has now closed its mouth. The clone builds up his chakra and injects it into the ground.
“First, I’ll make it so no one can use it again…” Rito says out loud.
The sand surrounding the box rises up and layers itself on top of it, completely covering it up from head to toe. Rito then has all of the individual grains of sand come together and compress themselves into a single seven-foot-thick layer of quartz that fully encases the Box of Paradise. The young genius doesn’t stop there; he goes on to convert the entire layer of quartz into pure, solid lonsdaleite; bright lights reflect off the translucent, brownish-yellow crystal.
Too bright…! The now bracing Rito-clone shields his eyes from the blinding light. “And to play it safe, I’ll make sure no one can find it…”
The Crystal Clone proceeds to inject more of his chakra into the sandy floor. This time, the clone has the sand underfoot of the box shift and swirl around, making an artificial patch of dry quicksand.
Rito watches as the lonsdaleite box sinks into the terrain; it fully submerges into the ground after a few short seconds, completely disappearing from sight. However, the Crystal Clone continues his efforts, the Box of Paradise continues to sink deeper and deeper into the desert dimension where no one will ever find it, let alone, think to search for it.
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Meanwhile, the battle between Ayanami Hyuga and the Master Puppet continues on. The Puppet strikes at the girl with a swing of its sword, but the cyan-glowing kunoichi and catches the attack in her hands; blood drips from her clenched hands as the blade has managed to cut through her chakra cloak, her feet skid along the ground as she tries to stop the sword mid-swing.
I should stop trying to match it blow-for-blow and use its own strength against it… Ayanami ponders the best way to go about fighting her adversary. Then, I’ll throw it off balance and hammer away at its weak spot…
Gritting her teeth, Ayanami takes a step, pivots her body, and quickly creates a pair of chakra arms that pull the sword hard, using the momentum of the puppets' attack against it. The kunoichi starts spinning all while maintaining her hold on the Master Puppet, swinging it around like a hammer.
I always wanted to be in the Olympics… Guess this is the closest I’ll ever get…! The kunoichi muses internally as she releases her grip, throwing the puppet as far as she can.
Ayanami speedily takes off sprinting to where the giant puppet will land in order to keep up the pressure. The kunoichi then jumps, propelling herself high into the air and gathers lightning chakra into her hand for the meantime and takes aim; she waits for the instant when the puppet will crash land.
Here’s my chance…! Ayanami cracks a cocky smirk. “Take this! Sage Art: Lightning Beast Running Fang!!”
The kunoichi launches the attack at the moment she was waiting for, the hound composed of black lightning streaks its way down and sinks its electrified teeth into the puppet’s cavity just above the midsection just as the puppet makes contact with the dirt. The moment, the very instant the jutsu bites down, it erupts into a massive explosion; lightning streaks across the sand, turning it into glass scars on contact.
“All right…!” Ayanami sighs with relief, landing gracefully before her downed foe.
The kunoichi cautiously peers down and waits for the smoke to clear. She sees that the Master Puppet lies motionless at the bottom of a glassy crater; smoke and electric sparks emanate from its smoldering remains.
“Huh? Looks like you don’t need help after all. Good.”
The kunoichi looks over her shoulder and sees Rito, transformed by his curse mark, walking toward her.
“So, I take it you beat that giant winged-turtle-lion-thing?” Ayanami asks.
“Look and see…” Rito points North of their location.
The kunoichi’s keen eyes follow where her friend was pointing and notices what she can only assume is the real Rito and his hawk fighting the chimera. However, it’s more like a slaughter than a fight; the chimera is held down by a pair of constricting crystal dragons, its eyes are missing, and the giant hawk is unleashing a barrage of wind jutsu. What really catches Ayanami’s eye are the numerous growths forming all over the beast’s body, they look cancerous; the chimera itself appears to be in great pain.
Perplexed, Ayanami points at the beast and asks, “Are those… tumors?”
“Nah Yeah.” Rito gives a slight nod.
“How?” Ayanami continues to question.
“Remember that tree I told you not to touch the morning after we fought Indra?”
♦♦♦♦♦
(Authors Note: This scene takes place back in Chapter 28!)
It’s morning and Rito has been up for about two hours, training. He stands in front of one of the trees that Ayanami grew, the tree itself is dead with all of its leaves fallen and scattered in the wind. Rito stops molding chakra due to footsteps growing louder from behind him.
“Hey, Rito! I came to--what happened here?” Ayanami stops when she sees the dead tree, she slowly reaches out to touch it.
“DON’T TOUCH IT!!” Rito’s sudden shriek causes Ayanami to jump back.
“What--why?!”
“I’ll explain later, j-just… don’t touch it.”
Rito’s vague warning and body language informs Ayanami that something is wrong with the dead tree. She slowly takes a step back before turning to face the 11-year-old reincarnation.
“O-okay… I just came to tell you that we’re about to leave this time period.”
“Alright, I’ll be there shortly.”
♦♦♦♦♦
“I got the idea from Jin; he told me about how these ‘star ninja’ use radiation from a meteorite to enhance their chakra.” Rito goes on to explain with his chest puffed out. “And then I saw Naruto’s Baryon Mode in Jin’s memories.”
“Well, that explains that--hey, wait…” Eyes wide, a now defensive Ayanami takes a few steps back. “Are you telling me you just figured out how to artificially create radiation?”
“Yes, but you don’t have to be afraid. It only works if I actually touch you while the jutsu is activated. It’s kinda like Torune’s venomous beetles or Kabuto’s chakra scalpels.” Rito is quick to further explain himself in order to assuage his friend's fears.
Still reluctant, Ayanami slowly walks toward Rito, she cautiously reaches out and pokes him carefully in the arm a few times; absolutely nothing happens.
“So, I don’t have to be afraid of being poisoned or getting cancer.” A rightfully skeptical Ayanami asks.
A smiling Rito looks up at her and gives a thumbs up. “Nah Yeah, as long as my hands aren’t glowing green, you’re perfectly safe.”
Their discussion comes to an abrupt end when the ground suddenly and violently trembles. The two confused shinobi look around only to see that the Master Puppet has risen from its glassy grave and attempts to repair the damage it sustained; it is not happy.
Taking a battle stance, the kunoichi infuses her chakra once more and says, “Rito? I would like for you to help.”