Ten men stood strong on the horizon, each draped in black and red accents, neck to toe. Their blood-red eyes and chilling skin. Mabaroshi no Gekidan. The Phantom Troupe. Or more noticed as,
"DEMONS"
"TERRORISTS"
"HEATHENS"
To those who lived throughout the Shinobi genocide, these were the words that left their distraught voices. On their hands and knees laying atop their fallen comrades and rubble. From the ten thousand that tested Mabaroshi no Gekidan's true might, only thirty stood by the end, though a single spec of hope wasn't to be found. Each of the thirties faces left cold and void of any emotion. With this battle, they could have changed the fates for generations after them. The result in their failure had set it soon after each of the Kage's fell. The remaining thirty consisted of hope-crushed rookies, defeated veterans, and fallen gods. Gods whose power could not even rival that of the Phanthom Troupes. They were simply too powerful. Even for Perfect Jinchūriki's or Rinnegan Users. Their might was simply unmatched.
Each of the thirty kneeled atop their fallen comrades, not paying any mind to the others around them facing the same reality. Some wept, others cursed as loud as a foghorn, and others just sat silent. In the center of it all, Gideon Gold, son of Tenth Hokage and Greatest Kunoichi in existence. Thirteen years of age and crying over both his parent's corpses. He clenched his father's cloak in his left hand and his mother's hand in his right. His Jōgan flickered, on and off as his tears were. Though he was the swiftest and though she was the strongest, their deaths were inevitable. His tears became lighter and lighter as the minutes passed on. He wiped them away with his scarred and blistered hands. It seemed the other twenty-nine came to the same conclusion as the battlefield fell silent as the night.
A single man stood, ragged breathing and battered posture - the Eight-Tailed Beast's Jinchūriki - made a final effort. "Come out, Eight-Tails!" the man fearsomely roared, disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Replacing his previous position, a grand figure appeared. A purple ox-octopus amalgamation the size of a cruise ship. Everyone's attention was diverted - both the Phantom Troupe's and distraught twenty-nines. Though there were two mutual feelings being created, the feeling of pity and the feeling of paranoia. No don't. Gideon repeated in his mind. Twisting his body towards the Eight-Tails. He shook his head hazardously. D-Don't do it. Spare yourself, run."Run!" Gold roared with every fiber of his lungs as some others did. Though their cries were in vain. The Jinchūriki paid them no mind. Both the beasts and his heart and mind were set.
The strange beast charged towards the ten demons, Huffing white smoke as its paws left prints into the dirt below. The survivor's screams continued, though they were thrown away as an annoyance. In a flash, it all ended. The first figure blitzed forward, taking hold of the beast's eight arms with several Shadow Clones, tearing them off like bark on a tree. A second came forward, lunging two blades into the beast's dull eyes with precision greater than a master archer's. A third ran underneath the squirming beast's stomach, breaking every joint in its four legs in speeds rivaling light. Moments passed by, the pack of hyenas mauling their prey for the sport of killing. The Eight-Tailed Beast's blood raining upon the remaining twenty-nine like a sudden outpour. Their hair drowned by the blood of the Eight-Tails.
The following minutes proceeded, some fled - failed, some pled for their lives - failed, and others accepted their fate - success. All fell till it was Gideon Gold who was the last breathing. The Ten strode up to the kneeling child, grinning and scolding at his tears. "Please, s-spare me... please." Gold knelt at their feet, his hands visibly apparent. Tattered and bloodied clouded in his tears. Forced up by a blade under his chin, Gideon's teary eyes met his makers, Jōgan flickering once more. "P-please," tears left the child's eyes. An Uchiha stood over him, Sharingan lit and lips curved. "Your right eye, it's the Jōgan, yes?"The Uchiha asked, Gideon in return nodding as much as the blade underneath his chin permitted. "I see."
Placing the tip of his blade underneath the Jōgan, he slashed upwards in a single swoop. Gideon's hand immediately rising to his eye as it gushed crimson waves. Falling to the side the thirteen-year-old clenched his eye. He could feel the power he once had slipping out of his grasp. Till he heard a voice. His heart froze, as did his body. It wasn't till moments after Gideon looked up and realized the entire setting around him changed. There were no more bodies. No more rubble. No more smoke. Just an eternal, white. And the pain in his eye ceased, as did the flow of blood, "what-?" His hand slowly left his eye as his head quickly shot towards the presence he felt behind him. Arashi Ōtsutsuki. The man that granted him the eye, the man that guided his path to power. The man he resented. "That eye of yours, keep better care of it."
Though the subject diverted to his previously destroyed Dōjutsu, he could no longer feel the pain. He couldn't feel any of his previous pain, fatigue. None of the aspects hindering his physical body was gone. Wiped from existence. All that was left of his previous body was a scar slashed across his right eye, though it seemed to be covered by a bandage. The previously flickering and destroyed Jōgan's light flowed through the thick bandage on his right eye, brighter than ever. "You-" X "I fixed it." Placing his right palm upon his bandage, Gideon felt the light radiating off the Dōjutsu. Hand pulling away, a marking was found. At the very center of his palm, a small black diamond. "W-w-what is this?" Gideon pulled away cautiously and subtly, eying the marking left on his hand. He tried scratching it off to no avail. "Tis the Kāma Seal."
Gold's eyes widened. He had studied the Kāma Seal since his first decision to go under Arashi's wing, a long-awaited acquaintance was all he longed. Though under the circumstances he was at now, that light that was set ablaze dimmed and extinguished. There was no more excitement or joy in his power, instead, pain and suffering. "I'm afraid giving me this won't change anything anymore." Gold clenched his hand into a fist, lowering his head in defeat remembering the warzone he was taken from. "You think that. Though you don't know anything."The pale Ōtsutsuki slid his long fingers underneath Gideon's chin, raising it up, "the power you now possess, is extortionary. More than that, Godly. You've just lost sight in what is worth fighting for."A subtle tear left his left eye and his right eye's bandages dampened in a strange sweat and tear mix.
"How do I carry on like this?"
"By remembering what you walked into war for, whether it be for fame, power, and to save everyone you love. You had a reason, you've just lost it. But," he lowered his fingers from Gideon's chin, bringing them back to himself, "what you've lost was no farther than right front of you."He turned his back on the child whose face fell emotionless, "you've just yet to grab it."Looking down at his palm, the diamond flickered a dark blue. "Now, what was it you've sought to become?"Gideon stuttered over his words, though a deep breath in calmed his entire demeanor, "I..." he looked Arashi directly into his deep, violet white eyes, "want to become the strongest in the world." The pale man clicked his tongue, a grin sitting atop his lips. "And are you ready to make that a reality?"Gold nodded, "I am."
"Oi, seems the kid is back."One of the ten spoke out, quirking his head to the side amused as ever. Gideon returned, resuming the position he had when he left. Though his demeanor seemed different, his tears that flowed like a waterfall disappeared, the scars on his body and teras on his clothes did as well. "Do you understand, what I've always wanted to become since I was a child?" Gold asked, rummaging through his belt satchel, removing a cloth headband with a large piece of metal layed out across of it, "Do you truly?" The Kāma Seal grew and the boy was eyed as if he had lost all sanity and forgot his entire situation, "What the hell are you on abou-"X "I've, always wanted to become..."
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