Naruto: Kage of Kages

In the black void of unconsciousness, Shiki’s soul drifted until he awakened in the endless abyss to a familiar sight.

“This is . . .” The boy trailed off.

His soul was the void he had crossed when reincarnating into this world and right in front of him, was the gate he had passed through right before opening his eyes to a new life.

Leaning against the gate, arms crossed and a hollow expression on his face, was an exact replica of himself.

“Hello greater half. How was your first taste of death in this new life of ours?” The replica spoke.

“Not good, not bad. So are you supposed to be my lesser half?” Shiki responded.

Between the two hims, there was a kind of innate understanding that left no room for suspicion.

“Pretty much. Recognise this gate behind me?” The replica continued.

“I . . . or should I say we . . . crossed it into our new life.” Shiki replied.

“That’s right, it’s called the Dragon’s Gate or Ryumon. Sound familiar?” The replica smirked.

“Haha, very funny.” Shiki said in a deadpan response.

“Hey, insulting my sense of humor is insulting you own so what does that imply?” The replica made an argument but Shiki did not dignify it with a response.

“Fair enough. I’ll keep this simple since we both like it that way.” It continued.

“The Crossing of The Dragon’s Gate is a sacred ritual and trial of our clan. Those who are successful, exhibit snow white hair and mesmerizing violet eyes.” The replica began its explanation of the situation.

“However, when a particularly talented descendant is about to be born, their soul faces this trial at birth which usually kills the mother and results in a stillborn child but while the former is pretty much impossible to avoid, the latter is not.”

“Souls that can withstand and integrate the hollow void into themselves are born destined to become the greatest talents of the Ryumon Clan.”

“Only those who cross the trials successfully, be it at birth or later in life, are allowed to bear the name of Ryumon though no one has borne that name for over a millennium.”

Shiki interrupted.

“And how do you know all of this?” The boy asked.

“Getting there. There is an order to these things.” The replica complained.

“In order to maintain the inheritance of the clan, if a worthy member of even a scattered offshoot of the bloodline can Cross The Dragon’s Gate, they receive the full knowledge and power of our clan through bloodline inheritance.”

“We are the first successful example since our clan’s obliteration, courtesy of Otsutsuki Kaguya and Isshiki but while your soul being perfect and complete due to your enlightenment made passing the trial easy, melding with the void became hard.”

“And so I was born as a sort of avatar of the part of your soul that melded with the void. When you tapped into our clan’s power in your first true battle, you initiated the fusion which will be completed shortly.” The replica concluded its piece.

“I guess at the end of said process, we will become one and those memories of both our clan and that bit of Otsutsuki business will become available to act upon.” Shiki deduced.

The replica nodded.

“What was that issue with my chakra?” The boy inquired.

“Chakra came with the Otsutsuki, our clan’s abilities are incompatible with them though, after the fusion process is complete, that may stop being the case, we are known to have very adaptable physiologies.” The replica explained.

“It will take a few hours though, until then, only abilities purely coming from our clan can be used, no chakra.” It added.

“Alright then, take control in the meanwhile and handle business, staying immobile on the ground is a plainly bad idea.” Shiki declared.

“Relax. With our accelerated thoughts, only an instant has passed since you crumpled to the ground but fair enough, I’ll test out some of our clan abilities so our future united self can have a better idea on how to combine them with chakra.” The replica responded.

“Let’s do it.” The boy agreed.

*

Back in the real world . . .

[Shiki] rose from the ground.

The last of the Ryumon was ready to show the modern shinobi how pre-chakra shinobi handled business.

Taking a deep breath, his body filled with energy.

It was the Nirvana Art: Three Bodies Breathing but different.

As it turned out, Shiki might have been a genius, but he could only develop so many new and revolutionary jutsu because his legacy was subtly providing him hints of techniques he intuitively adapted for use with chakra.

But now close to its original form, the purpose of the breathing was to stimulate the Ryumon’s natural ability to absorb nature energy that surged into his body at a rapid pace.

It was an innate ability manifested in some of the surviving dregs of the Ryumon who had long forgotten their origins.

But unlike them, there was no transformation of the body and no disturbance of the mind.

This was because Ryumon shinobi could naturally metabolize nature energy and convert it into stamina rather than entering sage mode or using sage transformation.

Compared to the former two, it was rather weak, at least in its early stages, but it had one major benefit. 

It was easy.

[Shiki] stayed still for a moment as his body used the converted nature energy to rapidly replenish his stamina which also started to heal his injuries at a fast pace, not as much as a proper regenerative ability but he was not injured enough to need it.

This process only accelerated the awakening of his innate Ryumon qualities as his body hardened and strengthened while paradoxically becoming softer and more flexible.

Then suddenly, he was off.

In a series of leaps, he climbed out of the square hole made by the Mobile Core jutsu.

Though he lacked the chakra to stick to the walls, he used the violent and primitive method of digging into the walls with his fingers and feet, launching himself upward twice until he was out.

Without chakra, another thing out of his reach were his usual sensory abilities but Ryumon were sensitive to the world around them a side effect of their nature energy affinity.

Closing his eyes, the entire valley revealed itself to [Shiki], though the picture was very hazy and imprecise.

‘A large group heading for me, likely to support the elite jonin I just killed.’

His focus shifted.

“Why is Tsunade-sama fighting a random Kumo elite jonin instead of helping me? She must have crossed paths with me to reach the valley’s center since I doubt she would not have positioned herself in the south exit . . .” The boy wondered out loud.

‘Oh well . . . Inori-sensei seems to be heading towards Tsunade-sama, she’s injured, probably from fighting the big group.’

‘If they disengaged after pushing sensei so hard, their target must be me. They figured something went wrong here and decided to rush towards the south exit.’

‘Shinka and Mei are outside my sensory range. They must have made it out already.’

Concluding his assessment of the situation, [Shiki] lowered his posture like a predator starting a hunt, his expression hollow.

‘Alright then . . .’

+++++

Hey, Author here!

Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.

I’m trying to become a full time Author now and I’m not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.

Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -