Sero would listen to his fathers words as he seemed to demonstrate their surroundings with A wave of his hands. He was filled with nothing but dissapointment and irritation. Oh how little he respected what Sero had accomplished. Or perhaps he did not yet know? For now Sero was but a child before him. Perhaps until he overcame that he had accomplished nothing. His hands gripped the poor excuse for a rapier in his hands as he backed up pressing his back against a pillar. His grey eyes taking in the man before him. His father who he had never met was of impressive stature. A tall man who moved with a regal sense about him it had taken Sero jr a great deal of time to accomplish. However grey eyes could already tell they had opted for different paths as shinobi. Sero Jr. had opted for stealth as it had kept him alive for most of his child hood. Moving between the walls and striking at the evil that taunted his home from time to time as they slept. The man before him felt like he had never had that problem. When he walked, it was straight through any obstacle.

Sero took in a deep shuddering breath for a moment. He was drawing closer and closer and the heat of the room was rising. Was his father really so angry with him? Would this have been the mans reaction had he been around when Sero had grown up? Would Sero have grown up differently? Perhaps he would be the direct force of nature his father had been by now. However those thoughts were snapped violently away from him as he noted the scroll being produced. As if the man wasn't dangerous enough just standing there and slowly proceeding towards him he was up to something as well. Sero would watch as in a puff of smoke the man would suddenly be holding one of the more dangerous weapons Sero jr. had ever seen. The scythe imbued with the man. On contact the flames came to life automatically and he wondered how closely related the father was to the devil. For a moment Sero thought he would simply stand there as he sighed. Remorse didn't feel right in the situation but still it was one way to survive.

However that heated chakra burst out with a roar of rage as Sero struck out rapidly. There was nothing Sero Jr. could do. It was too fast and the chakra pressure was suffocating him. He was going to lose his head then and there and fail. However suddenly something would yank the front of his shirt hard. Pulling him down as the pillar behind him was decimated in the swing. For a moment Kaguza was there holding him down below the slash. He spoke without sound as he seemed to say "Keep moving." Sero couldn't hear more than a whisper but he understood. He couldn't fight his father head on. In the blink of an eye Kaguza was gone. Sero himself seemed to adjust now. Slightly more wild hair with the head band holding back his bangs in a pair of grey pants and boots with a grey tank top. A B rank katana in his hands. His appearance and age adjusted to when he was chunnin. Quickly he touched the broken pillar on the ground and focused some substitution chakra into it before keeping his calm. Moving as quickly as he could under the debris cover behind another pillar and remaining crouched. Choosing not to reply as his voice would give his position away. He needed to think.

As for Ayakashi and the smoke. Her chakra seemed to suppress it well enough. Whatever it was it seemed to press and mass against one part of the barrier before falling away and then testing another part. It was strong and growing stronger. Still it appeared like the smoke was forming into a sunken face with empty eye sockets. It was hungry and it seemed to be feeding off this world. Small black veins forming in tiny thin little patters on her chakra barrier. As if touching it was like a disease. Infecting the pure chakra holding it there. It felt like rage, fear and greed all flowing as one being. All forming together and fading like smoke. Yet as far as nature went it did not appear to be bound to the world.

Sero would press his back against the pillar and control his breathing. He was not currently a match for this man. He could sense how weak he was in comparison to the strength he had assumed his own since he earned it. How could he be acting so childishly? His grey gaze looked down as he took in the view of his pale hands shaking on the grip of the katana. Had he ever shaken in fear before? He had used it as a weapon so often. It's crippling effects turning his skilled opponents to maddened enemies launching jutsu randomly into the night in a slight hope to maybe hit the beast that hunted them. For him to be in such a position now himself. His father was someone he should never have sought to surpass. He felt his own weakness in that moment. Judging from his current chakra levels and his inability to summon certain weapons along with his outfit he figured he was around the level he was while in Kumo. A chunnin. Potent as he seemed at the time he was clearly fighting someone Kage level. He was out of his depth.

He heard the voice of his father who he hardly recognized speak out and as soon as it did something smashed against the pillar. The dust hardly had time to rush out before mist slammed passed him on either side. Smashing against the wall and flooding back towards him. He knew this technique and knew what was coming. Immediatly he took a breath of clean air while he could and held it in. The mist flooding back towards him as his clothes and skin began to gather red spots just from the proximity. He was going to die in this mist. He couldn't do anything to counter it. A shimmer startled him from in front of him and he watched as it form into Gin standing before him as a young girl. Evolving into a grown woman as she put a metal hand on his shoulder. Her lips parted as he read the silent words on her lips. He couldn't feel pain but he knew time was ebbing away. Still she spoke a simple phrase. It was her way after all. Silent words crying out to him with a smile. "Find your strength kid, fight back."

With that Sero could sense his chakra build yet again. His hair growing out wild once more as he seemed to grow a little taller. Now in dark pants with a grey tank top. Soon ANBU armor appeared across his form before the image of Gin faded away. He formed the hand seals of his clan before focusing his chakra and exhaling his own mist. Shoving the mist in front of him away and watching with grey eyes as the two mists swirled and cancled each other out. The pillars in the room crashing down with chunks of the roof as dust swirled every where. His bone mask forming over his face as finally an A rank Odachi formed into his hands. He was special jounin now and ANBU. He spoke out as his voice seemed to echo around the room. His words hollow and yet they seemed to come from everywhere like the whispers of the dead. "Meet my fate like you did? You died alone and left us. You never even met me. The only thing you ever taught me was survival. I will survive you." With that Sero would emerge from the dust cloud surging forward with the Odachi directed at his target and keeping low to the ground. The dust bursting away from him as his direction of approach was from Sero Sr.s off hand. Having shifted from his previous position for a tactical approach. Aiming to plunge the blade into his fathers ribs.

As for the seal and barrier that Ayakashi was holding the odd darkness in. For a moment as she surged against it the darkness seemed to fall back. It was as if it cowered from her chakra, her power. It surpassed what it was accustomed to. However for just a moment there was something else in her. Something it fed upon. Something to give it the very strength being used to subdue it. It wasn't enough to shift hosts entirely but it was something. The face seemed to smile before suddenly the darkness was gone. Not a sign of it left in the world. No tremor of chakra or visual of its preference. It hadn't migrated or conquered a second host, but the infection had begun. If she simply gave in over time, she would grow consumed by it as all did. Fear, rage, greed. Any of those fed it and all of those things it encouraged.

"Meet my fate like you did? You died alone and left us. You never even met me. The only thing you ever taught me was survival. I will survive you."

It seemed there was another change, he seemed stronger than before, something was giving him strength and confidence, and finally now Sero, even in his berserk state was beginning to have second thoughts about his assault, while it did not manifest in the form of doubt, so much as curiosity. It would never show on the outside, but there was an internal war within the mind of the Senior Osada, was in a state of flux... While his son seemed to definitely pale in comparison to him in terms of strength, he seemed to be growing in strength rapidly, and it didn't seem to be some form of jutsu or base determination pushing him further, no, something was different here, something was holding his son back, and he hated it, more than the weakness itself. But, whatever ethereal force seemed to be restraining his son's power, he seemed to be able to overcome it with oppression.

'Oppression, he could do.'

As Sero charged out from the trenches, his father stood waiting, holding his scythe to one side as steam radiated off his skin, it had melted through his shirt leaving it in tatters hanging down around his waist as the material continued to evaporate away slowly. The titan could not help but chuckle and smile as Sero Lunged with his stab with the A ranked blade. Lunging forward, the endurance of the Osada would allow him to reach out, gripping the blade with his bare hand as the simmering steam of his acid that seeped through his pores would begin to rust the blade rapidly. With the scythe in the other hand, he would swing it for Sero's neck, using the side-ways momentum should he avoid it to rotate to the outside of the blade to Sero's right and pull on the blade hoping to drag it past himself. Without the need for a fancy flourish, Sero would step in, continuing to press his advantage, wildly but meaningfully swiping like a bully advancing on a child.

"Finally! The boy shows some spine! haha, now this, this is interesting. More, show me more." Sero would shout and bolster during the clash, the excitement raw in his eyes which seemed to burn hotter with passion than his flames.

It was time to turn up the heat for the Senior Osada, and in doing so, he would flow chakra into the scythe itself, gripping it in two hands before lunging forward, not at his full speed in the slightest, reducing his speed for lethal power and accuracy as he would sweep diagonally upward from hip to shoulder as he would side-step from one side to the other, creating an X pattern in the air with the blade as he would continue to advance, his smile twisting upward in a near sadistic glee... But something wasn't right about the ordeal... especially to the event host.

Sero was pushing too hard, something was wrong, the butterfly-moth creature had attempted to get Sero to attempt to break the sword after he grabbed it and press on with the oppressive offensive and wound Sero with a quick cut to the leg, but, the apparition had disobeyed. It seemed to have gone rogue, and the Butterfly Sage Animal was beginning to look worried about everything. Could it be that the mind of a Kage was so strong, that even an animation of his memories through nature chakra were so strong they could usurp her control? Or, was it potentially something far more rare... But it couldn't be, it was impossible... But it was true, that nature chakra was something that was dormant and living within the hearts and bodies of every living thing... and that the constructs in this world were ultimately, created by the nature chakra that were within the bodies of the participants, much like the use of a genjutsu.

But that would mean...

Could there be some part of Sero's living chakra, within his child? Or near enough to have an effect? Could the chakra of those who had touched sero's life, be incarnating in a real way in this world..?

The implications were staggering, the apparitions that were coming to Sero and giving him power, it was clear to the butterfly now, were not something that she was allowing to be created, it was like they were already here. It was like they were participants... It would be impossible for a construct to take over and deny the creator of the world, as too, the only beings that would be able to do so... were participants. The sage creature would find herself letting go of control entirely, slowly loosening the reigns in the same way she had done a thousand times before... the Kage's power flickered for a moment, and she could see a lot of stress put on his form as she did so like he was now in an area of increased gravity... but it was far from the dispersal that should have happened. Such power of will, such determination and fire... Sero wasn't fighting an apparition of his father as an illusion.

It was him... Or at least, what was left.

Ayakashi would stand perplexed at the disappearance of the chakra, not so naive to think that she had won, but, not so pessimistic to think that she had lost. The darkness had touched her, although it had not been physical contact, however, Ayakashi had defences of her own... within her chakra system there was an interesting interaction to the invasive corruption. The entity of Sero's chakra would enter her system, and be met with a dark room, the incarnation of the space in her soul... But where there was a bright light in the middle, the fire that it would intend to corrupt, there was a shimmering shadow nearby. The darkness would want to reach its target, but Ayakashi's beast was already there, the darkness would dash, attempting to avoid the beast, yet the beast was nothing but hunting instinct and nature chakra made manifest within her ID, catching the corruption and devouring it within its spectral maw...

'It would seem that the corruption was beaten.

but within the inner workings of the beast, it set its roots.'

Sero had watched his charge as he dashed forward with everything he had. Saw for himself how his body moved and what his movement time was in that distance. Based on his record of his training he was barely special Jounin at this point. His body prior to becoming hunter nin. If the records he kept were accurate then he was in for some trouble. He knew he should of held off a little longer before taking on an individual as capable as his father had appeared to be. His grey eyes also took in his fathers body and movements. The angle of the scythe and the way his shoulders moved. The scythe was awkward and not easily positioned to defend from a surprise attack. Not on the opposite side from the weapon. However it appeared it would not be needed. Sero watched with widened eyes as the man simply reached out with his bare hand and caught his blade mid lunging stab. It was perplexing that there could be so much distance between them. After all that training he was this weak again. Unable to surpass his lifes goal.


It was like an echoing voice in his mind. A single thought edging itself into the middle of this. Already his body was moving. Shifting his weight onto the blade and using it as a launching platform with sheer arm strength to plummet upwards feet first to the ceiling two stories up. The slashes missing him aside from cutting his robes as he rocketed upwards. A faint outline of someone seemed to grab him by the belt line and pull him harder to get out of the attack. For a moment it flickered in to look like Nozomi pulling him out of harms way. Than it was gone and Sero crouched upside down on the roof. His mask shifting to that of a hunter nins now as he watched his father. his hair growing out a little more. His arms a little longer as did his legs. He was older now. Almost to his current form. Steadily he rose to his feet and looked straight down (Up for him) as a pressure seemed to overtake his father. Holding him down a little and slowing his movements. Something was happening and the oppertunity was coming.


It echoed within him again. Something calling out to him with the darkness weakened and distracted. He would feel out to it and feel a connection somewhere outside this world. Some part of him waiting there. Taking a breath he would inwardly reach out to it. Accepting it as part of him and accepting that he refused to lose. That he wanted to win. His goal was before him and he would die before he ran from it. As he did the spirit Ayakashi had witnessed before rushed back and suddenly bound into his body. A part of him that had seperated until he met one condition. Until he was ready to reach his life goal. Light flooded into the vision they stood in as Sero transformed. His sage mode unlocking fully as the world went white. When vision returned they were once more in the frozen forest. The village that burned, gone, the manor falling apart, gone. They had returned from where they began. Sero though was nor longer cloaked in darkness.

Sero stood a good ten meters from his father in white robes with white fur along the right shoulder. A red wrap around his waist hosting a katana and a wakizashi in a traditional manner. The robes littered with red petals. His hair spilled down to his chest in long waves as pale fingers rested casually at his side. His left hand resting on the scabbard of the katana and his right held loosely on his right side. Padded shoes covered his feet and a black neck line rose up like spider legs behind his head. There one would notice his eyes had turned red and a third red eye had opened in the center, though now small white horns rose from his forehead. Between them near the tips and hovering above his head was a near transparent crown made of mist. He spoke then. His voice carrying for all to hear. No hesitation or fear left in him. Simply a person made whole for the first time in a while. Baring his power against someone he would no longer ignore.

"Your time is gone. I am the lord of the manor now and the guardian at the gates. To threaten the village one must survive me. Not they, nor the vision of my father risen from the dead may survive me. I will fight any who threaten my village and I will bury them all. The reason you will fall here today father, just like on the day you died, is because you stand alone. I do not."

With that Sero took his first step forward. At the first step Ayakashi formed at his side. His first mentor and the one to teach him restraint. Moving at pace with him. On his second step Kaguza appeared next to him on his other side moving with them. The one who taught him pride to be backed with power. The third step brought forth Gin moving next to Ayakashi. The woman who taught him to enjoy battle. To reach out and embrace growing stronger. On the fourth step Nozomi appeared next to Kaguza. The one who taught him friendship and loyalty. On the fifth step they all charged forward. In the distance for a ring around them the forest seemed to flood with shinobi and citizens of the village alike. People Sero had protected or rescued. People he had met and cherished. Teru and Yasuo, Alwen and Burittsu. The forest filled with them as a roar lifted in unison as the army of them roared in unison with Sero as the clash came. The five of them drew weapons in unison as the father would have no chance against all of them. Ayakashi for the left arm and gin for the left leg, Kaguza for the right arm and Nozomi for the left leg. Sero's blade would glow green with his S rank acidic plague jutsu as he would attempt to plunge it into the heart of his father. Driving it to the hilt it he succeeded and holding it there. If it all hit his jutsu would begin pumping acid into his fathers heart and body. He would stand there as everyone else in the forest faded and a tear streamed down his cheek to sizzle against the ground. Staring down at his fathers chest and whispering one phrase.

"You may never have loved me...but I love this village. And enough of them love me in return."

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Sero would watch the battle unfolding before him. A war of legends come and gone with the legends of more recent days. People who had stood by his father and passed since then slamming against the tidal wave that Sero brought with him. A massive power struggle was on the verge of ripping apart the land. If anything looked like war, a battlefield had been chosen. The memories of the dead against the memories of the living. The surge going back and forth as ghosts faded to fatal wounds here and there without a hint of pain. All this due to a lack of understanding between father and son. The crown of mist flared as Sero crossed the battlefield with a roar of his own. His own father prepared to meet him now on equal grounds. Even with his connection severed he was still one of the mighty. However there was something else there. Something lacking in challenge as a moment of hesitation cost him dearly. Whatever had made him hesitate made Sero confused but not enough to stop his own strike. He had to win this. The dead could not stop him. His blade plunging deep into the mans chest with all the passion Sero could muster.

The moment the blade pierced forth from the front to the back the entire battle seemed to burst away. A shining dust mist settling about them and floating there. Sero stared intently at the spot his blade had pierced. At first for just a split moment blood would spread out of the wound. However quickly the blood turned black and his father began to peel away again. However a hand gripped his shoulder and he looked up to the man. Their eyes met and his father was smiling. His words carried something across that Sero had been lacking his entire life. For many nights Sero had wondered what differently his father might have taught him if he were alive. He had dreamed of having a family until too many walls were put up to sleep that soundly anymore. The words rang out and he wondered if he had ever done those things before. Laughed or cried, he recalled a vague memory a couple of times but was it outside of battle? His father was telling him to live. To become a man that the village needed and to never let go. He supposed that was enough. For his life goal of surpassing his father. This was enough.

His father faded away from him as did the scene around them. The tree's fading from sight and soon they were sitting at the table again. Suddenly Sero's body moved strangely. He couldn't feel it but he could tell his muscles were moving as if under a great weight. The signs of exhaustion. Whatever had happened within there to drain him took a great deal. For a moment his vision blurred before coming back at a feeling of freedom. He was free of his fathers shadow. Free of his striving need to be the best. He had accomplished his goals and he felt so free now. He didn't bother wiping the tears from his face as they were quickly drying themselves from his natural body heat. Instead he would look to the Mizukage before him and then the weapon she held out to him. Quietly he would rise to his feet using the table to steady himself. His right hand reaching out to grip the hilt before turning it and lifting it if she released it. He was captain of the seven now. Risen in rank to the highest levels of service under the Kage themselves. He had no urge to be Kage so this was his dream realized. With a grit of his teeth he turned and with a thrust towards the woods stabbed the blade forward as it spun. Along the ground the grass split as dirt was cut until it reached a tree across the lawn and split it in half. With that the sword sealed into one of his body seals and he leaned heavily on the table. Speaking quietly.

"I would like to host a festival. The people need to know me. The captain should be a face people recognize. Will you help me?"

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Exit thread
S-2 ~> S-3, 2250/2250 Endurance

12207
2500/2500 Suiton style -Pierce heaven's throne S rank jutsu trained

Expanded horizons
1500/1500 B rank jutsu

Shadow Doppelganger Technique
1500/ 1500 B rank jutsu

Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu
2000/2000 A rank jutsu

Dynamic Doppelganger Explosion
2000/2000 A rank jutsu

Ninja Art: Tile Shuriken
750/750 D rank jutsu

1957 words remaining