"Empyreal Paradox"

By Nes Mikel

Acknowledgment;

I herby acknowledge that the work of fiction presented here is for my own personal amusement and entertainment purposes alone. Most of the story, characters, place names and other etc stuff in this fiction are copyright Naruto, Kishimoto Masashi, Weekly Shounen Jump, and any others I might have forgot.

For non up-to-date readers, this fiction contains characters and events introduced post-timeskip and spoilers up to the latest Naruto manga chapters.

I also humbly suggest reading Garden of Sanctuary and Medusa Javelin first before reading this fiction. Although not a requirement, many things in this fiction will not make sense unless they have been read beforehand. The links to both fictions are in my profile.

With that said, enjoy.

"Empyreal Paradox"

- Chapter Five -

"Novella"

n – a fictional prose that is longer and more complex than a short story

Before this author can explain just exactly what happened to create the monstrous explosion that blasted the hundreds of civilians and ninjas working on and around the Hokage Tower off their feet and into the air, we must first clear a few misconceptions one might have about the world where our heroes reside in. To name one such example, people often make the common mistake of Konoha and all the other shinobi villages being rather backward in terms of technology. This, however, is not true. In fact, one can say that in certain aspects they are more advanced that we are in the real world.

This is especially evident in the field of biology and medicine. I mean, where else can you find medicine that can instantly restore mental strength and stamina (the common soldier pills), grant immense power (the tri-color Akimichi pills), and even pills where they can turn a person a person young again – albeit at the cost of their life (the pill Sakura used before her 'death')? Doctors and herbalists, healers and med-nins, priests and all other medical specialists that live in this world… they are far more skilled at saving lives than even the best of our doctors in our real world.

In a way, bloodlines abilities too are a product of their science. Although we commonly associate these otherworldly powers with words like cool and awesome and dismiss them simply by the term 'bloodlines', let's be real for a second and imagine if these people actually did exist in society. What would we call them? Monsters? Freaks? Mutants? If you had called them by the last term, then you will actually be correct. The word 'bloodlines' is actually a fancy term for calling people with powers developed from artificial mutation on a physical, mental and the genetic level. None of bloodlines that exist in this world were naturally 'born'. If you trace them all back to their source, one can easily find evidence that they were all artificially 'created'.

Of course it will still be incorrect to say that they are all advanced than we. The most notable difference, for one, is that the residents of this world do not have what we call computers. The closest thing they have to compare to is that of the ability to develop televisions, video cameras and VCRs, and that level of technology is still only available at the government and military level, thereby making them inaccessible to the general public. Telephones too do not exist, and while they do have radios, they exist only in form of walkie-talkies and PA systems where range is limited and, at their level of technology, extremely expensive to make. In a world where TV programs and radio broadcasts do not exist, people flock to open-air theatres and festivals for entertainment and long-distance communication is done via letters and messenger birds. For them, mass media is still a foreign concept.

Weapon technology is where the difference in technology levels will seem most awkward. While cannons do exist (a technology that is oddly exclusive to the all-too-often underappreciated samurai caste), guns do not until much later, and even then it will never reach a level where it would be as popular as the king of long-range combat: the bow and arrow. This might seem odd to some, but if this author may refer to the battle between Hyuuga Neji and Kidomaru that will take place 27 years in the future from where this story is at now, some may be inclined to change their minds. While guns and their bullets are definitely superior in projectile speed and rate of fire, they cannot compare to the bow and arrow in all other aspects. With no such handicap like the gun has with the 'gunshot', the bows can not only fire their arrows in complete silence, they also have the ability to change the trajectory of the arrow by attaching 'homing' properties to it, and, above all, the gun cannot match the bow and arrow when it comes to sheer destructive power. By simply wrapping a few blast notes around the arrow, one can turn the seemingly primitive weapon into a modern equivalent of an inexpensive, compact, foldable, homing grenade-launcher with a built-in silencer. And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what the bow and arrow can do.

In fact, it could be said that blast notes alone are the very reason why weapon technology seems so backward in the ninja world. Cheap and easy to make, the blast note virtually eliminated the necessity of gunpowder and changed warfare forever. Combined with the many different mass-destruction techniques man developed using their spiritual power known as chakra, there was never the need to branch into other directions of weapon technology. That's not to say there weren't a few exceptions, of course, biological science and chemical science being among the few notable ones. Although ninjas have devoted countless hours in studying their applications in chakra and their uses above all other sciences, in order to understand exactly how things in the physical plane worked as they did for better results, research into those sciences could not be avoided. Such as physics.

If there is one thing in this world we can call the embodiment of physics, one can simply stare up and above the blue sky and point at the sun. Although we take the sun as something of a given, the truth remains that the sun is a seething, restless, and dangerous million kilometre wide thermonuclear reactor. Deep in its core, where temperature exceeds thirty million degrees, atoms, much less whole molecules, are unable to exist, stripped of their electrons and leaving only a basic atomic structure known as the nuclei behind. And when these nuclei smash together under these unimaginable temperatures and gravitational pressures, fusion occurs, and particles of electromagnetic energy we call photons are then born. They then make their torturous way through half a million kilometres of incredibly dense ionized gas we call plasma, towards and eventually out of the sun's shining surface. Like an air bubble forming underwater and making its way towards the surface, the surface of the sun erupts, hurling plasma into space only to pour right back down into the sun due to its immense gravity. We call the largest of these eruptions as solar flares.

And just how powerful are these solar flares, you ask?

Well, let's just say that it's as powerful as a hundred million billion tons of exploding TNT, or enough energy that can power the entire human civilization for fifty thousand years.

And if, just if, someone could artificially create a solar flare, even if it were atomic in size, what would the results be?

Well, there you have it.

Katon: Tenchi Bakuretsu.

Fire Element: Geo Catastrophe.

That was the name of the technique.

The technique was invented by a man that fittingly went by the name of Rock Sun during the era of the Seventh Hokage. A genius of hard work in brain instead of brawl, Sun created a technique where one can, by overheating chakra inside a relatively condense material like a rock by using precise chakra control, trigger a massive explosion that could easily be focused towards a single direction by hurling said rock at enemy.

However, realizing the potential of disaster should the technique fall into the wrong hands, he requested the Seventh Hokage Haruno Sakura to deem Geo Catastrophe as a forbidden jutsu and be sealed within the forbidden scroll before the technique could be put into actual use. With the knowledge of Geo Catastrophe's existence limited to two people only, with one of them a chakra physicist that couldn't use chakra and the other one a Hokage who didn't have enough chakra control remaining to execute the jutsu due to her illness, Tenchi Bakuretsu looked as if it were a technique that would forever be banished from the memories of man.

Now, however, that number has increased to three.

"Ugh…"

The moment Hyuuga Hiashi opened his eyes after the blinding shockwave finally subsided, the first thing that came into his mind was his concern for his younger sister. Although he would've gotten up right away to look around, when he got up on his feet and saw the immediate area around the Hokage Tower ruins reduced into a deep crater that looked to be at least two hundred meteres wide, dread set in.

Such tremendous power…! Setsuka… if Setsuka was in that blast, then she's…

"Wh… what the hell just happened?"

Unexpectedly it was the dismayed voice of his injured friend that helped him snap back into the immediate reality. Crouching down, he gathered some chakra in his hands and struck a rather large slab or concrete debris lying next to him, reducing it into mere powder to reveal a wounded but rather healthy looking blond individual lying underneath.

"Dan." With a sort-of relieved look on his normally expressionless face, Hiashi offered his hand to his older ex-teammate. "You're alive. Can you stand?"

Clutching the bleeding wound on his head with one hand, Dan slowly shook his head sideways. "I don't need it. I'm just shaken up. Thanks, though. That Kaiten you two did at the last second saved my life. I would've caught the brunt of the shockwave otherwise."

Hisashi nodded. "Don't mention it."

Dan managed to laugh out a little. "Keeping your cool as always, huh? That's just like you."

"Is he all right?" A voice from behind spoke.

"He seems to have suffered a slight concussion." Hiashi answered without turning back. "But otherwise our Hokage candidate seems to be just fine."

Dan laughed a little harder. "Oh knock it off, will you…" He waved a little meek wave at the newcomer. "Glad to see you okay too, Hizashi."

Hiashi wasted no time in asking his younger brother the most important question that needed answering. "Have you seen any others?"

It was a subtle question with the undertone of Did you see Setsuka anywhere?

"…None so far."

It was a diplomatic answer which translated to I don't know where Setsuka is.

"I haven't seen Nidaime-sama either, nor that Hei character Nidaime-sama was talking about." Hizashi continued without pause. "Knowing Nidaime-sama, he'll probably be all right, but for anyone else that was in range of the blast… I don't know."

Silently, Hiashi stood. "I will go look for her."

"We don't know if she's-"

"Do not make me repeat myself, Hizashi."

The tone of finality in Hiashi's voice made it difficult for Hizashi to come back with a counterargument. "…I understand. Shall I take care of our wounded comrade here then?" The younger brother asked, looking down at Dan.

"Don't worry about me guys." Dan finally spoke up when the topic of the conversation focused on him. "This is my fault to begin with. If I had taken care of her properly like I promised I would…"

"Don't pressure yourself." Hiashi said. "No one could have foreseen this."

Dan stared at Hiashi quizzically. "Really? You make it sound like you don't believe in what you just said."

Hiashi tightened his chin. "Don't make it worse than it already is, Dan."

Dan winced at his words. "Sorry."

Ignoring Dan, Hiashi focused a brunt of chakra to his feet and was about jump away from the crater to observe the surrounding area from higher ground when he suddenly noticed that something was emerging out of his own shadow. Dispersing the chakra back into his body and settling into a basic juuken stance, he prepared himself for attack when the emerging voice suddenly broke his concentration.

"Looking for me, brother dearest?"

"Wha-"

The shadowy blob soon settled into his sister's splitting image. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?" She said, smiling. "I have a little something I want to show you."

"Niisan, get away! That's not Setsu-!"

So distracted he was with the image in front of him, everything was already too late when he finally noticed her blue hair.

"Katon: Tenchi Bakuretsu!"

The world around him erupted into pure energy.

"Fuck!"

Uchiha Kazuki slammed the ceramic cup he was holding in his hand straight into the floor, shattering the half-oval container into a thousand little pieces. Frustrated his sake got spilled on his hakama pants for a second time in a row thanks to some explosions that rocketed away in the distance, his attempt at calming down his foul mood with his favourite beverage was failing miserably.

"Fucking piece of shit! Fuck this war! Fuck them all!"

The ill-tempered head of the Uchiha clan was about to exit the kitchen so he could retreat back into his private sleeping chambers to get some well deserved sleep when he saw a flash of brown zip past his field of vision.

A flash of brown… brown…

Wait, brown?

"Damn it, woman! Kokone! KOKONE!"

Tearing down the shouji doors that normally kept the kitchen and the dining room into separate rooms, he stomped his way out into the hallway and headed straight for his wife's room. He threw the door wide open and prepared to lay down the law on his wife when a large brown bundle suddenly jumped at his face and started to claw away.

"Ow, ow, ow! Damn it Kokone! Get the fucking thing off me!"

"Denka, behave."

"Hey, the guy deserves it for disturbing my sleep in the kitchen meow!"

"No kidding. And can't this guy stop cussing even for one second nya?"

"Kokone… the stupid cat is STILL NOT OFF MY FUCKING FACE. And…THE FUCK! ANOTHER CAT'S ON MY FUCKING BA-"

"Watch your tongue Kazuki dear. The children are sleeping in the room behind us."

"Grrrrrrrr."

"Growling won't help. Now Denka, please stop clawing away at my husband's face. I'd like for it to remain handsome."

"Meooow… fine. As you wish, mistress."

"You too Hina. I don't want him castrated."

"But it's so tempting nya. This thing has already put you through so much pain by making you give birth to two children. It's not like he needs it anymore now too nya."

"I'm going to have YOURS castrated for this, you piece of-"

"Hina is a female, dear."

"Grrrrrrrr."

"I told you, growling won't help. Now Hina," She clapped her hands twice. "Off. Now."

"Nyau?"

"Yes, now. Don't make me repeat myself."

"Yes nyaaa…"

Kazuki released the breath he didn't know he was holding when his wife's crazy psycho-cat finally released her hold on his precious jewels. Regaining his composure now that the hellcats were back at his wife side, he opened his mouth to shout at her for bringing cats inside his house again but changed his mind when he noticed the cats were ready to pounce on him anytime if necessary. Deciding that he will instead find and kill whoever it was that first had the bright idea of turning ordinary cats into nin-cats, he convinced himself to calm down to speak in even terms.

"I thought I told you to not bring your fucking cats in here." He snapped.

Well, relatively even terms anyway.

Plucking her long smoking pipe out of her mouth, she smiled. "Is that the first thing you say to your wife you haven't seen in two months?"

Her angelic smile was creeping him out but he tried his best to not let it show up on his face. He had an image to keep, after all. "Not my fault you keep on insisting on running your fucking shop." He said as he shrugged. "You could easily hire someone to run it for you, you know."

"Why, but I heard the Uchiha adheres to tradition."

"Just because you married into our clan doesn't mean you have to stick to your clan's."

"Not a clan, dear. Just a normal family."

"Says the woman in a 'normal family' that runs a weapon shop in the middle of fucking nowhere that raises talking nin-cats that can tear a man's genitals off in a flash as a hobby."

"Why, thank you meow."

"I wasn't talking to you, tanuki-face."

"Hsssssss!"

She clapped her hands again. "Denka."

"Meow, but mistress!"

Her smile grew larger. "Denka?"

"…Yes mistress, I understand meow."

Kazuki shook his head. "I don't know how you do that, woman."

"Do what?" Now she was flashing her smile at him.

One look was all it took for him to give up the argument. "…Never mind."

"And for your information, Kazuki, we don't run the weapon shop in the 'middle of swear-word nowhere'."

"City ruins… whatever! It's the same thing!"

"No it's not."

"Yes it i-"

Kazuki could've sworn he could see angel wings and a halo glowing over his wife's head. It just made everything that much worse, too.

"Forget it, you win."

"Much better." She said as she leaned back and put her smoking pipe back in her mouth. Inhaling and exhaling a large plume of smoke, she then put the instrument down next to the fireplace and looked at him curiously. "Now then, was there anything else you wanted to say Kazuki dear?"

Actually, with the anger dissapated and gone now Kazuki wasn't so sure on how he was going continue the conversation anymore. Not wanting to condem himself to silence, he settled with starting a new topic on something else entirely. "Still wearing that ridiculous headband of yours I see." He said as he gestured over it with his chin.

"Oh these?" Kokone touched the cat-ear headband with the tip of her hand. "Aren't they nice? These are brand new ones too!"

"I don't see any difference."

"Kazuki dear, you were the one who said they looked cute when we first met."

He rolled his eyes. "The biggest mistake of my life."

"How rude. Are you going to say our children that happened as a result were the biggest mistake of your life too?"

Kazuki scowled. "Pulling that out just isn't fair."

"It gets you every time, doesn't it dear?" Kokone laughed.

Kazuki's face turned suddenly serious. "How are they?"

"The children? They're just fine, dear. A little tired from the journey perhaps, but they're sound asleep now."

The war had erupted right when they were expecting his wife and his children to arrive, and although Kazuki would've liked to meet them by the entrance of the village by person, duty came first and he went off to fight off Mist invaders that were invading the village. Instead, he had to let several lower-ranked clan members go pick Kokone and their children up from an Uchiha safe house not so far away with order to escort the three back into the village walls discreetly and safely as possible. Several members of the clan council were against going through such risk to bring family members back into a war-zone and recommended they turn back and hide themselves away the northern city ruins where Kokone ran her family's weapon shop until things calmed down, but after he treatened to kill them if they didn't go through with it, they complied. He hadn't seen his wife and his two children in two months, and nothing, nothing was going to take that away from him, not even a bloody freaking war. Although, he supposed, the escort was rather unnecessary…

"Did you have any trouble getting in?" He asked, just in case.

"Not really. We had a run-in with one group of Mist-nins when we passed through the village walls but they were taken care of by these two here." She playfully ruffled the larger nin-cat's fur. "They made for a nice, tasty snack, didn't they Hina?"

"They sure did nya!"

Kazuki didn't want to know what fate befell those poor Mist-nins. His wife and her summons were a force to be reckoned with.

"The children didn't have to see that, did they?"

"Of course not. No need for them to see something so traumatic."

So it seems that even his wife knew that what she's capable of is actually quite gruesome. I guess she's not as innocent as she claims to be…

"Why?" She asked.

Kazuki shook his head. "Nothing, just was wondering."

She tilted her head to the side. "Kazuki dear, are you all right?"

"…I'm fine Kokone."

"You're not usually this curious over the well being of our children."

Her words stung in a way Kazuki didn't know it could.

"Kokone, I…"

"You went to see Sen before you came back home, didn't you."

Silence.

"Well?"

"…Yeah, I did."

"Do you still love her?"

Kazuki hesitated and did not answer.

"I'll take that as a yes. I expected as much." Konone sighed melodramatically. "Even in death, I can't win against her, can I? Maybe I should've let those Mist-nins actually kill me. Maybe then I can finally compete against Masaki-san."

That hit a nerve. "Damn it, woman! That's not funny!"

"Oh my. It was a joke, dear." She chuckled. "Don't get so worked up over it!"

He couldn't tell if she was serious or not. Deciding wisely that he didn't want to find out, he turned around. "Whatever." He said, his foul mood quickly returning. "I'm going to bed."

"Wait."

He stopped.

"You didn't call me and the children back from the shop simply because you wanted to see me, did you?"

It was true. That wasn't the only reason.

"That's not the main reason I called you guys back to the village, though." He said.

"I know. But I am, after all, the wife of the Uchiha clan head. I understand what responsibilities I must fulfill. I am already putting a strain on you by allowing me my selfish desire to continue operating the family weapon shop. For that," She tucked her knees, sat upright, and bowed down deep in a submissive gesture. "I am thankful."

Kazuki waved it off. "It's nothing. I can bend a few rules here and there, but this…"

"…Is something you cannot bend." Kokone finished as she rose from her bow. "I know."

Kazuki sighed again and sat himself down on the tatami floors. "I don't want to force this one on him so early, y'know? Rules are rules, but this is our children we're talking about. I wanted to delay it as long as possible but they've been on my ass about it for ages, so yeah. Decision time."

"Fugaku's fiancée candidates."

A slow, curt nod. "Yep."

An arranged engagement even though the heir-to-be was only six years old. He hated having to force his own son to walk the same path as he once did. Fugaku could also be fated into facing the same kind of disaster he had to face in his youth. He could only hope Fugaku will end up loving the girl they had chosen him for, but sadly, the lovey-dovey fairy tail ending in arranged marriages almost never happened.

"The current candidate the clan elders are considering is Inuzuka Tsume." He said.

"Tsume? That rowdy girl?"

"Yeah."

She frowned. "She's going walk all over poor Fugaku if she becomes his fiancée."

Kazuki simply shrugged. "If you got any other candidates, I'm all ears."

Kokone seemed to look as if she was considering something. "Kazuki?"

"What?"

"Why did you love Masaki-san?"

He narrowed his eyes. "Kokone… now's not exactly the time for…"

"Was it because it was forbidden love? The ancient taboo of an Uchiha marrying a Hyuuga. Did that add to the temptation?"

"Kokone, I said now's not the-"

"Answer me seriously Kazuki. This is important."

He sighed. "Yeah, a part of it I guess. Now tell me, why is this important?"

"One more question. Would you like to mend relationships with the Hyuuga clan?"

It was another touchy question. "Sen's a bastard."

"Yes he is. But Masaki-san was not. She was a charming woman in the short time I got to know her. And their children, they are innocent. Clan relationships shouldn't have to suffer because of petty feuds like what you two have going on."

"Sen. Is. A. Bastard." He carefully repeated. "Get to the point before I lose my patience for real, woman. Who is this candidate you're considering for Fugaku?"

"Haruno Mikoto."

Orochimaru was always accepting to the idea that in war, he was simply but another soldier in a sea of the anonymous grand scheme. He knew a lot of people would disagree with his idea, insisting instead that they were different, that despite being ninjas, they were human beings, some even going as far as saying they were independent individuals. For Orochimaru however, the idea didn't bother him one bit.

After all, despite the widespread fame he and his teammates had accumulated over the years as the 'Sannin' – like the time they had wiped out the largest drug cartel in Fire Country's history, for instance – it didn't change that fact that they were just following orders. They had wiped out that criminal organization only because they were hired to do so by the feudal lords of Fire Country, and had he ran into the organization while he was off duty, he was fairly certain that he wouldn't even have bothered to lift a finger to stop them and their operations. Orders, for him, were to be followed to the letter. No more, no less.

Of course, had Tsunade and Jiraiya accompanied him during his supposed scenario he was positive that they would not only undoubtedly drag him into shutting the entire operation down, but the entire cartel along with it. While he was vigilant, cautious, and unwilling to move until he was certain he had an overwhelming advantage over whatever opponent he faced, Tsunade and Jiraiya were the types of people who blindly charged forward despite overwhelming risks if it meant they could save lives.

In that sense of stupidity, Tsunade and Jiraiya were really alike.

He had once mentioned this to his teammates when their useless chatter was getting rather annoying and Orochimaru had since then sworn to himself to never, ever, mention such things in front of Tsunade ever again. While Jiraiya had accepted the words enthusiastically (almost too enthusiastically, he had noted), Tsunade on the other hand was not amused in the slightest. It was one of the very few times Tsunade had tried to kill him (unlike Tsunade's almost-daily attempts on Jiraiya) and convinced him afterwards that those two were a match made in heaven. He of course kept this to himself; he had no doubt in his mind that Tsunade would try to kill him for real had he not. Orochimaru didn't have a death wish, unlike Jiraiya who on that very same day decided to peek on an already very peeved-off Tsunade while she was bathing and was beaten to the inches of his life as a result.

However, it did continue to puzzle him why most ninjas were so… unique. From what he'd studied in scrolls of ages past, ninjas were supposed to be professional assassins, anonymous soldiers who mindless obeyed the wills of their master, dirtying their hands to protect their village and their nation. But the only ninjas he thought that resided in the Hidden Leaf that actually fit that true description were the ANBU, while the rest of their ninja forces acted no different from as the samurai caste and the mercenaries that protected the Feudal Lords. Orochimaru even supposed that the only difference between the two were that samurai and mercenaries (usually) held next to no knowledge about the ninja arts. And that was it. What alarmed Orochimaru even more was the fact that even the ANBU nowadays barely fit within the description of a 'true' ninja. The members of the 'Yotsuba' ANBU squad were just as famous as the Sannin were and were certainly not anonymous like most ANBU claimed to be. Even among the faceless, masked crowd, they too had retained their individuality.

When Orochimaru first became a ninja, he was at first convinced that individuality made people weak. While he was honoured at first to be included in a team that was taught by the apprentice of the Second Hokage, he hated the fact that he had to be teamed up with a stentorian snotty-nosed brat and a borderline insane girl that packed a mean punch. They both loudly claimed that they had people they want to protect, connections they didn't want to sever. Orochimaru didn't have anyone to protect, and he had long since severed any connections with everything he cared. They were everything he was not. They were weak. He was strong. He wanted to become a ninja, a real one, and that was that.

But over the years, they changed him. He can't figure out exactly how they did it or why they even bothered to, but they had shown him that having someone to protect didn't make that person any weaker, but in most cases stronger. Through missions, through hardships, through adventures, he had grown to care for his teammates, and the thought of wanting to be together forever grew stronger each and passing day. And though this, he realized that everyone in the Hidden Leaf who thrived in their individuality were the ones that were truly strong. Retreating into the shadows of anonymity only made people weak. They were the ones that were running away.

Orochimaru still had to accept that he was still a stranger in a stranger land. Unlike his teammates and other individuals in Hidden Leaf, he didn't have a purpose that defined his existence. Sure, he wanted to protect his teammates, protect his village. But that was all, only the simple want; unlike the others he never went above and beyond that call of duty, never did anything that he deemed unnecessary to that simple want. There was something more his teammates and the people in the village possessed that he did not. A definite something was missing in his life, and for the life of him he couldn't figure what it was. There was of course the option of consulting his teammates about the subject, but he was fairly certain that they would ask him if he was having a fever or something for saying something that was so out-of-character.

But when he arrived at the scene where Hatake Sakumo was administrating emergency treatments to the comatose female Mist-nin, everything changed.

Midori's image flickered out for a brief second but soon refocused into her normal solid image when the shockwave of the second blast subsided. "Sheesh, what the hell was that? Not once, but a force of that magnitude twice in a row?"

"You're the information specialist. You tell me." Quickly wrapping up the rest of the bandages around the bleeding Mist-nin's head, Sakumo looked up to see Orochimaru and raised a hand in cordial greeting. "Yo. Not the person I was exactly expecting. Tsunade too busy?"

Orochimaru didn't reply and continued to stare at the unconscious woman lying beneath his feet.

"Orochimaru?"

"Hm?" Snapping out of his stupor, Orochimaru quickly regained his composure. "Oh yes. She sends you and the rest of your team the best of regards."

Sakumo looked at Orochimaru oddly for a brief second before he shook it away. "Uh, right. Anyway," Sakumo eyed the Mist-nin down then back up again. "She's the one. I suggest you get her back to Tsunade as quickly as possible. I've done the best I could, but yeah, I'm not a doctor."

"Sakumo?"

A little surprised at the slightly alarmed tone of his wife, Sakumo turned his attention away from Orochimaru. "What is it Midori?" He asked.

"Several of my network nodes went unoperational around the immediate area of the Hokage Tower ruins."

"…Unoperational?" Sakumo knew Midori liked to boast how her network nodes were close to being indestructible once they were set up. "How is that even possible?"

"That blast must have somehow contained an electro-magnetic pulse that knocked communications down, but even if that were the case my viral magnet and the power of my central processing unit should've prevented an overload! Unless... unless the pulse was so powerful it bypassed the manoeuvres of the matrix I've coded into the program, but then that means the enmity generated from that explosion would've -"

"Um, Midori, I have no idea what in the seven blazes of hell you're talking about. Layman's terms please."

"But that's…" She threw her hands up in the air. "Argh! You're hopeless! It means that that explosion right now must've shut my systems down! Whoever generated that blast is bad news. Bad news! Goddamnit! My precious babies! Whoever did that is going to pay!"

"Just bill the bill to the good ol' Hokage-sama. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to re-supply you with your 'high tick' equipment."

"Hi-tech! Get it right! Why do you sound so unconcerned over it anyway?"

"Hang on one sec." He pressed a button on his earpiece. "Did you get that, Nagi? Anything headed your way?"

Nagi's usual hard-voice reply came back almost immideately. "None."

Sakumo pressed another button. "Kaede? You back yet?"

He heard some shuffling on the other end of the radio as Kaede's reply came back over the line. "Don't rush the ladies, Sakumo! And yeah, I'm back in position. You can tell Midori to stop covering for me. I'm good. And no, nothing's headed my way."

"You're the closest to the Hokage Tower. What's the situation?"

"I'd say the situation seems pretty contained. I see lots of backup headed towards ground zero."

"Thanks." Sakumo clicked the radio off and turned to his wife's image with a broad shrug. "See? Nothing to worry about."

"But…"

"We can start worrying about it when the destruction starts expanding outwards." He said as he interrupted her. "We're not exactly in a position where we can move around freely anyway." He paused and made a face at the words he just said. "God, I sound like Nagi."

His teammate was not the one to miss out on such an insult. "I heard that."

Midori only giggled at the small exchange between the two male members of the Yotsuba ANBU team. "I guess."

"I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation, but…"

"Whoa!" Sakumo had almost completely forgotten about the presence of the third member here. "Orochimaru! Geezus, scaring me like that… wait, why are you still here?"

Orochimaru gave a quick glance over the Mist woman he cradled bridal-style in his arms. "What do you suppose is going to happen to them?"

"Them?"

"You said she was pregnant with a baby girl."

Oh crap. He hadn't thought of that.

Midori folded her arms in front of her as she frowned."…That's true. Whether we like it or not, that woman is a Hidden Mist ninja. Given her condition she can't be accepted as a prisoner-of-war, and then there's the issue about the baby…"

"Orphanage, maybe?"

"Most likely. And that's not even worst case senario."

"Yeah, she could be killed." Sakumo scratched his head. "Damn, what are we going to do?"

"I may have a solution to this problem."

Sakumo looked up at Orochimaru, a little surprised at the proposal. "You do?"

Orochimaru shifted his arms around the bit so the woman would be in a more comfortable position. "Do you know what the name of the baby girl is?"

His memory of the incident still fresh, Sakumo hesitated slightly before he gave his answer. "Yeah. The father gave her the name just before he died. Mitarashi Anko. What's that gotta do with anything?"

"It is decided then."

"Hm?

"I will adopt the girl."

"Say what?"

Orochimaru smiled. He had finally found that little something that was missing in his life.

As the smoke cleared away, Kagerou was expecting to see this girl's older brother torn into shreds by the sheer force of this new newly acquired technique she picked up from the girl's memories. But instead of seeing torn flesh and more rubble, what she saw standing in front of her instead was her master, his gigantic Kubikiri Houchou in hand, breathing heavily from the damage he took upon receiving the blast in almost full-force. So shocked she was at the scene, it took her several seconds for the abnormality in front of her to sink in.

Her master wasn't injured because he got caught in the collateral.

He was injured because he had saved those two whitey-eyed teenagers and the dumb looking blond man she was aiming to kill.

"It is… a devastating technique." Her master calmly observed without waiting for her to speak. "But it does have one flaw. The force of the blast is too concentrated in one direction. One has to search for the single epicentre of energy and simply strike it with enough force. The attack was unavoidable but I have at least dissipated enough force to render your attack into something that is non-fatal."

"I don't care about that!" She screamed at him before she could stop herself. "WHY! Why did you save them!"

"You are making a dreadful mistake. I did not save them." He said as he took a small step forward and resheathed his sword. "I did this to save you."

Her sprout of anger dissipated in a flash. "...What? But Master, I don't know what you're talking abo-"

"You are under the influence of Kyuubi."

Her eyes grew wide from shock. "How did you-"

"I know many things you do not." Her master continued. He sighed. "I should've known this would happen. I had suspected you would be able to read a person's memories when you took them over with your shadow readings, but I did not think you would be able to tap into their subconsciousness. I was careless. And that is my responsibility. Forgive me, Kagerou."

She was about to sputter out another response before her master suddenly lunged forward and drew his heavenly sword from his sheath and struck. Kagerou barely had enough time to dodge before the sword split the ground she was standing on moments before into a deep crevasse.

Skidding into a stop on a spot not too far away, Kagerou's borrowed face of 'Hyuuga Setsuka' twisted into that of befuddlement. "…Master… I don't understand… I did everything you told me to! And thanks to you, I now have the powers to flatten this village into the very ground! This is for the benefit of the Mist!" She screamed again. "Why are you doing this!"

"To make you realize that your continued possession of that girl is dangerous." He said coolly as he lifted the sword off the ground and prepared himself to strike again. "Leave that body now, Kagerou." His eyes turned more serious now. "Don't force me to do this."

"But Master, this girl I've possessed could possibly be the most precious weapon the Mist could ever hope to claim! I realize it can be risky, but I can't just leave her be! This war-"

"A war we are supposed to lose."

"…What?"

"I will not allow any further deviations. This is why we must leave. Now. This is your final warning, Kagerou. Stand down."

She begins to understand. "…I can't believe… Master… the whole reason the surprise attack failed… it was you?"

The master swordsman does not answer.

Still in denial, she slowly shakes her head. "But… but why? Why would you... betray us… why would you betray me!"

"Kagerou…"

"No." She starts to back away. "No. This is just a dream. This can't be happening. This can't be happening!"

"There are some things in this world that is beyond your comprehension." Her master says it with an icy tone. "Now stand down and remove yourself from that girl."

She takes another step backwards "No! I will not abide by the orders of a traitor!"

"You will listen to me!"

"No!"

"Listen to me, Konan!"

"Don't call me by that name!"

Something snaps. With mixed emotions of anger, sadness and desperation swirling within the woman known as Kagerou – no, a young girl named Konan's heart, she charges forward.

Memories can be cruel.

"What is your name, little one…?"

"Are you all alone? Do you want to be needed?"

"I will give you a new home. A new name."

"Come with me, 'Kagerou'."

"Come with me."

Inside his eternal prison, the Kyuubi roared in laughter.

Contrary to popular belief, the Second Hokage Kazama Seishi was in fact not all right like Hyuuga Hizashi had earlier assumed. Instead of being propelled upwards like most people when Geo Catastrophie's initial blast struck the premises the Nidaime Hokage had the unfortunate luck of being pushed down into a small lateral split in the ground. The result: having to endure a freefall that felt like it lasted forever when it reality it probably lasted for only a few seconds. In his defense, he was falling through the hole in total darkness...

Either way, he was stuck. The second blast that followed soon after had covered up what little opening there was, leaving him all alone, trapped in the middle of the ancient corridors that ran underneath the now-totally ruined Hokage Tower up above.

Ah well, at least on the bright side Monkey gets to have a new Hokage Tower all to himself once we build a new one for him…

He dusted himself off and flicked his fingers to produce a small fireball hovering over his palm. He stood up and took his first step to look for a different way out when his right foot stepped on something soft.

"Whoa!" He instantly pulled his right foot back to where he stood, only to see a naked boy lying face-first on the corridor floors.

"Now where did he come from…?" Curious, he poked the passive boy with the tip of his foot. No reaction. Then he remembered Hiashi's words from earlier before.

This must be that 'dead boy' he was talking about earlier. Seishi thought as he continued to prod the body with the tip of his foot a few more times for good measure. Gotta wonder, though, what the hell was a boy like him doing down here…?

"U… ugh…"

"Whooooooaa!" Startled, Seishi took another step back to see the boy slowly return from the far beyond. "You're not dead! You're alive!"

"…What happened…?" The blonde boy slowly tried to sit up but flinched when he did so. He clutched his stomach in pain.

Seishi then noticed that there was a pool of blood around the boy and a lot of smeared red from where he clutched his stomach. "You okay, kid?" He asked, crouching down next to the blond boy with spiky hair. "Here, let me take a look at it. You really shouldn't be moving around as much if the wound really is serio-"

"It's not there."

Seishi blinked. He wasn't really expecting he'd get interrupted mid-sentence. "What?"

"It's not there." The boy repeated. "The wound, it's not there."

He chuckled at the boy's feeble attempt at convincing himself that everything was all right. "That's impossible. See? You're bleeding like cra-" As he removed the boy's hands from where he supposed the wound was, his words caught in his throat. There really was no wound. "How…?"

"…I guess… it's probably because of-" The boy suddenly jerked upright. "Wait, before that! Haku! Where's Haku?"

"Haku?"

"Yes! I could've sworn it was him! I mean, yeah, he really looked different being older and all, but there's no mistaking that girly voice! There's no way in hell that can't be Ha-"

The boy didn't get to finish when Seishi grabbed the boy's throat and started choking him.

"Who are you?" Seishi asked in a deadly serious voice.

The boy looked up at him with confusion swirling in his eyes. "Gah… wh-what…"

"I asked you a question, kid. How do you know Kuro no Hei's true name?"

"Can't… can't breath…!"

"Answer me now! Tell me your name!"

"N-no! Sakura-chan told me I shouldn't give out my name to anyone!"

"…Sakura-chan?"

Realizing the error he made, the boy underneath panicked. "No, not Sakura-chan. I mean Setsuka-chan!"

"…Wait, so what you're saying is that Hyuuga Setsuka is Haruno Sakura?"

The boy's eyes went wide. "H-How did you…"

Seishi released the grip he held over the boy. "By the gods. You. It's you. Naruto." He laughed. "Oh my god! What irony! So you were down here all along!"

He continued to laugh for a full minute when he finally realized that the boy in front of him had no clue as to what he was talking about. Choking down his laughter, he slammed a friendly pat on his back. "Good to see you again, Naruto."

"Who… are you?" The boy asked with a weary tone in his voice.

"Don't recognize me? I suppose not, eh? With me looking this devilishly handsome and all." He smirked and struck a pose with his free hand. "There? That ring any bells?"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Looks like you finally got it. That's right! Feast your eyes on this! Tears of blood, brimming with wrath! Toad Demon of Mt. Myokuboku! I'm the devilishly-handsome sage of the-"

"ERO-SENNIN!"

"Hey sis? You awake? Sis?"

"…Stop shaking me, Fugaku."

"Did you hear that?"

"…Hear what?"

"Father and mother talking. They were discussing something about my future best friend!"

"Fugaku, fiancées aren't exactly friends."

"But mother said…"

"Forget what mother said. She can be an airhead sometimes."

"Sis! That's rude!"

"It's the truth. Now go to sleep."

"They were talking about Tsume becoming my fiancée."

"That's nice, Fugaku."

"Hey, don't you even care? If she becomes my fiancée she becomes your best friend too!"

"I hope she doesn't become your fiancée, then."

"Tsume's a nice girl, though!"

"Even though you got beaten up by her just because you touched one of her dogs?"

"Tsume is a nice girl! She's just a little…"

"Bitchy."

"Sis! That's a bad word!"

"Is that all now? I want to go to sleep."

"No! It's not all! They were talking about someone new too! Her name was... Mikoto something? Can't remember."

No response.

"Sis?"

"…No, it's nothing. Go to sleep Fugaku."

"But sis!"

"Fugaku."

"Hm? What is it?"

"Shut up."

"You're so mean sometimes, you know that Madara?"

"Whatever."

"Novella"

n – a fictional prose that is longer and more complex than a short story

"Empyreal Paradox"

- Chapter Five -

-END-

Author's Notes:

…Better late than never, right?

Yeah, I'm not going to make excuses. The chapter is late, late, late. The official 'reason' I had for it was because the manga was actually becoming interesting for once and the new chapters destroyed a large chuck of what I had planned out for the story so I had to rework everything in order to make the plot work again and stuff. I really wasn't expecting a childhood background story for Pein and Konan at all, so a lot of reorganization had to be done, and…

But yeah, really, I'm such a procrastinator. Kept on thinking, "Oh, I'll finish it up next week." Next week: "Nah, next week should do fine." The week after: "I'll do it next week! Right now, it's time to play this new computer game!"

Before I knew it, five months. Sigh. It really must've taken me like three real days to write this too. Sigh. And it's short too. Siiiigh.

Onto the real notes.

Some of you may have noticed this as you were reading this chapter, but Kokone is actually not an OC. If any of you read the Naruto manga, please go back and reread chapter 354 again. That old cat granny. Yep. That's Kokone. I simply gave her a name and set her up to be the future grandmother of Sasuke and Itachi. And since she almost is always never present in the Uchiha compounds due to her running her weapon shop, plus adding to the fact that she's not an Uchiha by blood, I figured, even though I set her up to be their grandmother, she should be able to escape from the wrath of the Uchiha massacre. I mean, if Itachi really wanted to wipe out the clan, why didn't he wipe out everything that was related to it as well? Thus the reason why the cat granny got a name and an actual place in my storyline. Heck, I bet I'm probably the first person to incorporate her into a Naruto fanfiction too. And her cats are cool. I love them. Naruto needs more ninja cats.

The biggest issue I had to face when the new Naruto manga chapters came out was the issue about Konan/Kagerou's age. In the manga Konan looks really young, but the problem is that I've already described Konan/Kagerou to be a young woman in the previous chapters. Since this fanfiction is taking place 30 years before where the manga story is at now… yeah, obviously something won't add up right. The shadow possession ability I gave to Konan/Kagerou was originally for the purpose of her being able to 'switch' into different characters, thus allowing her to become whoever she was when she was finally revealed in the canon storyline. However, the manga actually gave Konan a backstory…which I didn't expect at all. Therefore, switching characters using that shadow possession thing wasn't going to work. My next idea was Kagerou to be Konan's mother, but that wasn't going to work either because I already made the Kyuubi mention that Konan/Kagerou was that of the Akatsuki (or going to be, anyway). So I finally settled with the idea that 'Kagerou', a young woman, is forcibly letting Konan, a little girl, possess her own body in order for Konan to survive in the Hidden Mist after Hei picks her off from the streets. More details to come in the next chapter, but yeah, Konan at this point 6 years old, 4 years before she is picked up by Jiraiya and trained alongside Nagato and Yahiko, making her to be 36 when she first appears in the manga story. I'm probably wrong about my guess on her real age (she's probably a lot younger than that), but that was the best I could come up with without just outright saying that Konan was born earlier than what history shows.

Damn you Kishimoto for screwing up my timeline.

And for those who went: "Wait, what the hell?" at the last scene… there is a reason for this, I swear. It will be explained, hopefully, by the next chapter.

…Which of course I have no idea when's it's going to come out. Sigh. I think I really deserve those death threats sometimes.

Oh, and for those who are confused as to who's who in the story because I've introduced so many characters and subplots, I've updated my profile siting a link that has the list of characters introduced thus far in Empyreal Paradox and some random facts about them. Hope that helps.

Reviews, questions, comments, criticism (expecting a lot of these this time around), always welcome. I will answer them to the best of my ability.

Until next time, signing off.

- Nes Mikel

Chapter Five, Complete, November 16th, 2007