Desolation of the Caged Bird Chapter 40 - Cycle Begets Cycle

So, it ultimately came to this.

Wuji Zi appeared atop the Hokage Monument without a sound, without the tiniest fluctuation of chakra, without even the wind moving or noticing his presence. As though he were a part of the scenery, a part of nature, he stood atop the head of Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, with his eyes closed. The wind blew his long hair freely behind him, and he turned to look into the distance. In his left hand, a Flying Thunder God Kunai was held, and in his right, a simple seal.

Such a thing was completely indiscriminate… 

Wuji Zi twirled the Flying Thunder God Kunai gently before he tossed it down, burying it in the head of the statue.

Had we not intervened…

He had felt the spatial anomalies as they happened. No one, not a single soul else in Konoha, had known how close the village was to being affected by a great battle, to being struck by devastation. Not a single individual present was aware that Namikaze’s teleportations would have wreaked havoc here, in their village, as it did everywhere else.

Were it not for them, diverting away the runaway Flying Thunder God Technique, the Land of Fire, and Konoha, too, would have faced heavy casualties from the battle of teleporting shinobi.

Were it not for him, Wuji Zi…

And… him.

A pitch-black crow appeared on Wuji Zi’s shoulder, one wielding the Sharingan in both eyes..

“Hokage-sama is dead.”

“Yes.”

“The crow I planted on him was triggered.”

Wuji Zi nodded. “I see.”

Man and crow stood in silence.

“We could have aided him.”

“Could we?”

“He could have been convinced.”

“Could he?”

There was silence.

“Would he truly have burnt it all?”

“Without fail.”

Again, silence.

“How?”

How did things reach this point?

“Namikaze Minato is an example of one born with an Extreme Physique. A glowing star, one who rises above all others, shines above all others, learns and progresses ten times greater than all others, and would be destined to rule all others…” 

“Such a star is not always killed by enemies external, but their destruction starts from themselves; they are often destroyed from within. Their lifespans cut, fate envying their fortune, loathing them for shining too brightly, and too greatly…”

“You’re saying it was because of his talent?”

“Excessive talent may sometimes be a curse more dreadful than a lack of talent,” Wuji Zi smiled. “Your incurable sickness, is that not proof enough that the Heavens envy those born with unspeakable talent?”

“We cured it.”

“Yes, because I caught it early. If I were not your teammate, can you say with certainty you would have known before it was too late?”

The crow fell silent.

“Are you still conflicted?”

“Yes.”

“Your loyalties have always been to Konoha... not to the one who leads it. Would you have watched him raze the world and done nothing to stop him?”

“...No.”

Wuji Zi nodded slowly.

Namikaze Minato… 

“Had his goals been smaller… he could have brought peace… peace throughout his lifetime. The problem was his talent. He believed he could do greater; others, too, believed he could achieve more. He was told he was destined for great things, told tales of prophecy, and seeing his own talent, fearing his own talent… he believed them…”

“Rather than attain a feasible dream, he sought the unattainable goal, for he had been told, with the gifts he had, such a thing was possible for him, if for no one else…”

Ending the Cycle of Hatred?

Wuji Zi chuckled. “What a pity.”

Even in the Rain World, where Phoenixes roam the sky, and Dragons reign for millennia, even there, were Gods and Emperors rule their domains, where trillions of souls kowtow and pray to Sovereigns and Immortals, none, not one of such beings, can stand and proclaim they have ended all disunity, eliminated all discord, abolished all disputes, and extinguished all resentment…

For if they did… it would only speak to the infancy of such a world, the pettiness of its conflicts, and its deficit of history.

Grudges can last lifetimes… hundreds of years of disputes can trickle down, nine generations can be slain, and the escapees will carry that hatred and pass it on to their children, and their children’s children, and their children’s children’s children to the seventh generation…

I have seen with my own eyes Cultivators dying to atone for the deeds of their forebears that not even their oldest elders were alive to witness. In the annals of history, who can count how many Sects have been eradicated by enemies seeking vengeance for transgressions committed in the era of antiquity?

The Cycle of Hatred is not a thing one can end. 

There will always be Hatred.

Because there will always be 'Humans.'

Wuji Zi sat cross-legged and grabbed a small bottle of sake. He poured for himself, and poured a small amount, atop the head, the statue which he sat on, before he also grabbed a small cup, and poured for the bird on his shoulder.

Namikaze Minato, as you saw no means to attain the unattainable… You fell into despair. You lost sight of what it was that mattered…

Perhaps, in your dying moments, clarity returned… perhaps you started to remember what it was you truly valued…

Wuji Zi drank from the sake, and the crow drank with him.

A Prodigious Talent with a belief in prophecy is nothing other than a catastrophe in the making. You, fearing your talent, must truly have believed it… believed that as you could not find a means to save this world, your destiny was to destroy it.

You sought to fulfill written destiny, instead of acting against it, to comply with fate's whims instead of rejecting it and carving out your own truth… your own path… had you done so, you would have bloomed brilliantly.

Wuji Zi sighed, shaking his head.

Alas, the fault is not yours, but the fault lies in your teacher.

Your teacher, who believed in prophecy, your teacher, who followed the whims of fate… 

Your teacher is one who accepts fate, rather than seek to defy it, and he instilled that within you.

Such a mindset only befits a man of average talent.

What is good for the chicken is not good for the Phoenix, and the mentality of the carp does not suit the Dragon.

A Dragon with a Carp as a Master… How, indeed, could you know any different?

With such flawed teachings, how, indeed, could you have ever passed this tribulation?

But alas, who can decide for another man what shall be his Way?

Wuji Zi smacked his lips as he drank another cup of the rice wine.

Truly, the sins of the Teacher are the burdens of the Student, and the sins of the Student are the burdens of the Teacher.

Truly...

The karma of the Master follows the Disciple…

And the karma of the Disciple follows the Master.

Wuji Zi slowly kept aside the bottle. He felt a slight disturbance of chakra. A potent one. One that came from the direction of the Clan Head Secret Cave.

“Is it time?”

Wuji Zi nodded. “A month... at most.”

“You'll change.”

“I will be the same. Only my goals and priorities will be different.”

“That is change.”

The two fell silent.

“Will we still be friends?”

Wuji Zi smiled.

“Always.”

A man and a crow vanished from the top of the Hokage Monument together without a sound.

XXXXX

Uchiha Obito was in hell.

“I’ve already killed you! You’re dead! Dead!”

Hell was here, hell was what he experienced, hell was this moment, this eternal moment, this accursed moment, this loathsome moment, a moment he could not escape, a moment he could not flee from. The moment of killing his teacher. Killing Minato, ripping out the man’s heart, and feeling victory, feeling vindication.

Minato, who had failed not only him, but also Rin, Minato, who had gone on to live a long, fruitful life with a wife and children, enjoying his happiness, while Obito lived and saw the hellish reality of this world. Minato! His teacher! He had killed him! He had done it! He had done it!

Yet, time would rewind, and he would be back here, ripping out his teacher’s heart. Time would rewind, and he would be there again, killing him again. Time would rewind, and he pondered if this was truly victory. Time would rewind, again, and again, and again—

It happened as soon as he met his sensei’s eyes. For a brief moment, the image of a crow had overlapped in Minato’s eyes, a crow with a Sharingan, a Mangekyo Sharingan, and from there, Uchiha Obito was thrown into hell.

He thrust forward and ripped out his Sensei’s heart. The world reset.

“How did you become like this, Obito-kun?”

He thrust forward and ripped out his Sensei’s heart. The world reset. Minato’s eyes bled.

“How did you become so consumed by hatred?”

He thrust forward and ripped out his Sensei’s heart. The world reset. Minato’s eyes burst. Blood pooled from his sockets and dripped down into his lips.

“Is it because of Rin?”

He thrust forward and ripped out his Sensei’s heart. The world reset. Maggots feasted on the man’s burst eyes and crawled out of his nostrils.

“I knew you loved her… losing her must have hurt, but this is not the way to do things, Obito-kun.”

He thrust forward and ripped out his Sensei’s heart. The world reset. Legions of crows crawled out of Minato’s mouth with human hands and started grabbing the maggots, tossing them into their beaks by the handful.

“We must rise above the hatred in our hearts, Obito-kun.”

He thrust forward and ripped out his Sensei’s heart. The world reset. Black fire consumed all the crows, one after the other. Black fire consumed Minato’s skull. The maggots screamed. Their voices were that of Rin.

“I believe you can do it, Obito-kun.”

He thrust forward and ripped out his Sensei’s heart. The world reset. The maggots all had Rin’s face. They all had her voice. They were all crying. All screaming. All begging.

“Because you can’t leave this place without doing it, Obito-kun.”

He thrust forward and ripped out his Sensei’s heart. The world reset. The Rin-faced Maggots lunged at him. They bit at him. Tore at him.

“It’ll be me and you, forever, to the end, Obito-kun.”

He thrust forward and ripped out his Sensei’s heart. The world reset. The Rin-faced Maggots collectively smiled as one.

“Obito-kun… we love you.”

“O-BI-TO--KUN!”

“RAAAAAGH! AAAAAGH! AAAAAAAAAGH!”

XXXXX

Zetsu was displeased.

Deep within a hidden cave on the borders of Kusagakure no Sato, one of Orochimaru’s old and abandoned hideouts that had been absorbed by the Akatsuki, Zetsu stared at the blank-faced Uchiha Obito, an Uchiha Obito he had needed to swiftly grab away from Amegakure’s destruction, an Uchiha Obito that was completely unresponsive to anything he said or did.

The man continued to twitch and shake in place, as he stood there, his hand outstretched in the same manner it had been as he took his teacher’s life.

“A technique was placed to trigger on whoever killed Namikaze Minato… and it is the Izanami…”

Zetsu was displeased.

That technique was originally designed by the Uchiha Clan as a counter to the Izanagi. On paper, the Uchiha claimed it was for the good of others, to help them ‘accept’ reality, but such lip-service and propaganda fooled no one. 

The truth was that assassinating or killing an Uchiha was too difficult a task due to Izanagi. Some members of that clan would sacrifice an eye to escape a killing blow, and go into hiding, trying to flee from war, famine, death, or enemies, or some would go about, raping women, killing and torturing, then die to appease all who had been aggrieved, before undoing their death at the cost of an eye.

“Even Madara escaped death with the use of the Izanagi… Thus, Izanami was initially created to counter rogue members of your clan. Trapping them in a loop that forces them to correct their ways, to change their mindsets and beliefs, to ‘reform’ them, and make them accept ‘reality’ rather than fleeing from it, evading it, or avoiding it.” 

Zetsu scoffed. 

“However, the ‘reality’ they must accept is decided specifically by the technique’s caster… and there are typically strict activation requirements…”

Zetsu was displeased.

“This version is unique. How is it possible to perform this technique without sacrificing an eye…? Uchiha Itachi… did he improve it…?”

Zetsu was displeased.

“He somehow combined the effects of the Izanami with the Tsukuyomi…? Such a thing was possible…?”

Zetsu stared at Obito’s twitching body with displeasure.

“To think that if I had been the one who landed the killing blow on Namikaze, my goals would have ended here…”

“If Nagato had landed the killing blow, he would have either been driven insane or turned into a puppet of Konoha as well…”

“If Orochimaru had landed the killing blow… he would have been trapped in a technique worse than that barrier…”

Zetsu was… displeased.

“Uchiha Itachi… UCHIHA ITACHI!!!”

Zetsu laughed.

“All that was left was the Nine-Tailed Fox! Namikaze is dead! We could have swarmed Konoha with full force and taken the Nine-Tails! The plan… the plan… the plan to attack with the full might of the world…! The plan to sweep Konoha by storm the moment Namikaze died… the countless preparations we’ve made for both him and Hamura…”

“To think I was so focused on how to defeat Hamura, Nagato, and Namikaze… that I did not account for Uchiha Itachi…”

Zetsu calmed himself. He did not anticipate this. Had Namikaze Minato known such a thing was on him? No, Zetsu did not believe so. Which meant Uchiha Itachi had somehow planted a technique on Namikaze Minato without the man’s awareness.

“But how? How was he able to perform the Izanami without that strict activation requirement? A technique that requires one’s eye to be lost? How… How…?”

Is… Uchiha Itachi… a greater threat than Namikaze?

Yes, he is Hamura’s teammate, which means he must have learned a lot from him… If Hamura tutored him personally… Perhaps… Perhaps he has already surpassed Madara in his prime?

Zetsu wanted to laugh.

Madness. Surpassing Indra’s Reincarnation with nothing but your own talent… Uchiha Itachi… what sort of monster are you? How was a person like you even allowed to be born?

“All those under Obito’s genjutsu, all those under our control… The Jinchūriki… the Kage… all of them will be freed… the entire world will realize they have been collectively manipulated like puppets to wage war on Konoha…”

Zetsu paced about.

Uchiha Itachi has singlehandedly halted our plans…

“I still have the Reincarnation Corps Obito prepared for the fight against Hamura… I’ll be needing them… needing the Akatsuki again… Uchiha Itachi is an incredibly dangerous variable. I cannot afford to face him recklessly. If I am hit by the Izanami… Not even Senjutsu or the Rinnegan can save me from that technique… Not even having fifty extra lives will make a difference…”

Zetsu turned to stare at Obito’s still twitching body.

“It is unfortunate, Obito.”

He placed his hand on the skull of the twitching man.

“Our partnership ends here.”

XXXXX

Kumogakure no Sato

“Call in all the Jōnin! Contact my brother! And contact Yugito as well! We’re calling an emergency meeting! Quickly!”

“Raikage-sama?!”

“I said call them all now!”

The Fourth Raikage, A, was absolutely livid. He grit his teeth as he slammed his hand down on his fist.

I’ve been made a fool of!

We’ve all been made fools of!

An Uchiha… one bloody Uchiha—!

“They should have died out with the fucking Senju!”

XXXXX

Sunagakure no Sato

Rasa blinked.

…I’ve been under a genjutsu.

Sand burst into the room. A red-haired boy entered.

“Father—”

“Yes. I know. I’ve also been freed from its influence.”

“Konoha.”

“I do not believe they had a hand in this, but…”

Rasa was calm. 

“It was an Uchiha. If one Uchiha can do this much…” 

He was calm, only because the depths of his fury knew no bounds.

“It would be best if the rest were all wiped off the face of this world.”

XXXXX

Iwagakure no Sato

“BLOODY UCHIHA!”

“Ōnoki-sama!”

“Calm down! Ōnoki-sama!”

“You’re too old to be getting this worked up!“

“DAMN IT! LET ME GO, BRATS! I’M GOING TO DEMAND KONOHA GIVE ME ANSWERS!”

“Ōnoki-sama!”

XXXXX

Kirigakure no Sato

A set of eyes opened with true, proper clarity for the first time in years.

…Where… what was I doing?

I remember… that man— with the Mask…

An Uchiha…

XXXXX

Takigakure no Sato

“Shibuki-sama! Shibuki-sama!”

“Fū—”

“Shibuki-sama! There’s been— I’ve been—”

“We know. We… all of us… We need to call a meeting. As soon as possible. We need to know how many of us were affected… and what this means going forward.”

XXXXX

The Fourth Shinobi World War had announced its first official ceasefire.

The chaos of the battle between teleporting shinobi had done grievous harm to all nations except the Land of Fire, and the mystery of Amegakure no Sato’s destruction was cause for concern. Thus, a temporary ceasefire was proposed, a momentary suspension of all aggressions.

Unprecedentedly, calls had come, universally, for a Five Kage Summit, and for the first time, it was also open to leaders not from the Great Shinobi Villages, but part of the Fire Extinguishing Alliance. Thus, it was changed from the Five Kage Summit to a Shinobi Leader Summit.

The first of its kind.

The topics to be discussed at such a conference included, as mentioned to a select few, the accusation against the Uchiha and the organization known as Akatsuki for grand conspiracy, the discussion of the fate of Amegakure no Sato, and what actions were to be taken against Konoha, which appeared to be both victim and perpetrator of a grandiose, world-spanning scheme.

Hostilities were to be paused for one month, and at the end of said month, the Shinobi Leader Summit would be held.

A ‘ceasefire’ it was called publicly, but, in truth, many were aware of what it truly was.

A countdown. 

Villages that had sat out of the war were joining the Fire Extinguishing Alliance. Previously neutral or undecided parties were rapidly joining the forces rallying for the destruction of Konoha. After all, the greatest deterrent, the Whisper in the Wind, was no longer in play, and thus, all the villages that had been scared, wary of the man, no longer had such reservations.

Many wished to see Konoha’s downfall. Amegakure no Sato had, after all, been wiped off the map. Namikaze Minato had been seen teleporting across the world, engaging in combat, with no care for casualties or destruction. Not a single other village wanted a repeat of such an incident. Thus, strength would gather in numbers. Whatever method was used to wipe out Amegakure no Sato could not be used on all of them. Or at least, if it were, there were others that would take the brunt of the attack before they did. The Fire Extinguishing Alliance quietly added more villages to its numbers and began pooling their strengths and efforts.

In one month, depending on the consensus made at the Shinobi Leader Summit, the Fire Extinguishing Alliance would march upon the Land of Fire.

In death, Namikaze Minato had accomplished what no one else in the history of the world had done. For the first time, the Elemental Nations and the entire Shinobi World were united. Every single village, the entire world, was working together in fear and in awe, of one enemy, the most dreaded enemy, the most hated enemy—

Konohagakure no Sato.