Within Sight

After searching through the haystack that was the Land of Hot Water, Suguru was almost certain that his targets weren't in the country. 

On New Year's Eve, however, his wishes were uncannily granted. He squinted as he gazed upon the father-daughter duo he never expected to see. The bloody shine of his Kaisugan was glitter-filled with awe.

His targets were walking through the beaten path. Traveling to only god knew where.

"What a coincidence..." A mutter escaped his lips.

Just when Suguru felt like visiting the Land of Frost... They seemed to be headed there too. However, not a single trace of their existence had fallen under Suguru's gaze despite his best efforts.

None of the settlements around the Valley of Hell had held any clues as to where they had been. This baffled him greatly. After all, anyone who existed was bound to have traces. That was why people called him the Ghost of the Land of Rivers.

His traces were elusive and deceiving.

However...

Chino and Oyashiro En.

The last two survivors of the Chinoike Clan. Their traces differed from his own — instead of being elusive, theirs didn't seem to exist at all.

'I have a feeling...'

...That Oyashiro En had been putting every villager under a Genjutsu. Hiding away from the prying eyes of the civilian public. Living a life of lies.

'Amusing,' Suguru thought.

***

The night was deep, with a gleaming full moon shining in the sky. Suguru's eyes flashed as he tailed the father-daughter duo from several kilometers away. Waiting for the most opportune moment to strike, he was like a predator who was hunting its prey.

'Unfortunately, the skill of my prey is still unknown.' Suguru smacked his lips. "Furthermore, I don't have a good feeling about this.'

Something was telling him that tonight was not a good time to strike. No opportune moment would surface, nor would there be any useful variables.

'I need to observe a little more...'

Such was Suguru's judgment, abiding by the warnings of his sharpened instincts. Little did he know that his screaming instincts were caused by five different parties entangled in S-rank combat.

***

—BOOOOOM!

A Tailed Beast Bomb Barrage rattled the ink-flooded underground battlefield. There were at least five eight-tailed, skinless foxes rampaging about. Their compounded firepower was enough to level mountains.

Yet none of their attacks escaped the designated Genjutsu battlefield. After all, five versions of Danzo faced each skinless fox. Their white Humanoid Susanoo flickered with overflowing energy.

There was no finesse in this fight.

Only raw strength.

'The balance must shift,' Danzo thought as his eyes gleamed. Each version of himself exerted force.

—Crack.

Mirrored five times, the bones of the Kyuubi cracked under the force of the Susanoo's fist. Ragdolled and thrown into the air, every Kyuubi reacted with another barrage of Tailed Beast Bombs.

—Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

A rain of terrifying force threatened every single Danzo. However, they replied with an equally terrifying assault of their own.

[Rat » Rabbit » Rat » Tiger » Dog]

'Wind Release: Sudden Vacuum,'

Unbeknownst to each Kyuubi, they had been surrounded.

—...

A huge amount of air was channeled through the Susanoo. A humongous vacuum suddenly formed, encasing every Kyuubi within their bounds. A killing region within another killing region had been designated.

Silence befell the battlefield, for no sound could be transmitted.

Danzo watched as the Kyuubi's lungs collapsed, emptied of air, and nearly turned inside out. The pressure in its body approached zero, forcing its blood into a terrifying boil. Ruptured skin beneath its chakra cloak regenerated continuously in an excruciating cycle.

The eyes that had once formed, exploded from the change in pressure.

And every organ in its body began to fail.

—Crack.

The sound of bones shattering into thousands of pieces echoed out in a harrowing tune, audible to none. No scream, no cry of defiance, nor any wail of agony could be heard despite the Kyuubi's opened maws.

"Pitiful,"

Danzo hurriedly canceled his lethal jutsu. The Kyuubi could not die.

However...

'This should be enough to keep it from moving for a while.'

Danzo's eyes flashed as he further simplified the battlefield and reverted it to normal. He called off the effects of Bishamonten. No Genjutsu layering existed any longer, as the fight swiftly progressed towards its end.

He thus made a seal.

[Seal of Confrontation].

The thousands of Fuinjutsu seals imprinted throughout the battlefield began to move. They flooded the inky waters as if returning home.

Then, like a million ants crawling up to consume an elephant, the seals began swallowing up the Kyuubi. The sea of seals then went on and grew into a gluttonous whale, seeking to devour the dying body that floated on its surface.

***

The world within Naruto's mind had been dyed with a gruesome sight. Naruto had long collapsed from the strain on his body, and he lay there, half submerged in the bloody waters, unconscious and dying.

Kurama wasn't fairing any better. His presence was weak.

—As if it would dissolve into nothingness at any moment.

'Bastard,'

The light in his eyes was just as weak.

Looking down upon the dying Naruto, Kurama could see where his fate would lay. He closed his eyes and yielded.

Kurama could not even bring about his own end, swarmed by the sea of seals. Pitch-black chains crafted only to bind him and bring him into slavery.

'One day,' He thought.

Kurama would drown the world in blood.

'One day...'

It would come eventually.

Thus, even the world within Naruto's psyche would be tinged in darkness. Consumed by ten thousand seals.

"..."

It was then...

A pair of eyes would appear within this very darkness. Glowing with a deep red.

***

"So you've come to face me," Danzo glared at the two uninvited guests. "Did Hiruzen put you up to this?"

A sly laugh replied to his question. The white-haired Toad Sage didn't seem the least bit fearful of the shining white Susanoo standing before him.

"This?" Jiraiya grinned, "I don't need to follow orders for something as simple as this."

Just as short as his laughter, Jiraiya's countenance shifted again. His expression turned serious.

"You're going too far, Danzo."

Jiraiya's voice was firm, disregarding honorifics and disregarding Danzo's position and title. Thus eliciting a twitch of the brow from the latter.

"The path you have chosen is wrong."

Like a judge, Jiraiya spoke of his verdict.

—Bite.

His hand fell upon the murky waters. It was time for battle.

'Summoning Jutsu,'

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