guardian of the storm | ✓

Chapter Forty-Two ~ Rattle the Gods

~Chapter Forty-Two~

His hands wouldn't stop trembling. The battlefield had descended into chaos once Obito Uchiha had become the Tail Tails Jinchuriki and Eien couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't the worst of their problems. Blood stained the earth a rusted red as shinobi fought and died to try and stop the monster that man had become. He didn't even look remotely human anymore. Gods, Eien wanted to help, but what could he do against something like that? Even his sister had grown pale at the sight.

He took several deep breaths, struggling to form a plan to save them, or at the very least, give them some time.

There were two figures fighting directly against Obito, both blonde, both strong, both legends in their own right. But even those two were finding troubles with the being in front of them. He needed to give them a strategy. He needed to think.

He closed his eyes, his mind racing. Eien had always been more reliant on his mind rather than his fighting abilities and he took a great pride in his intelligence. His eyes moved from side to side as he arrived in a place he rarely visited anymore, a place filled with all of his knowledge, a place that had been constructed into a grand castle. His mind palace. There had to be something in here that could help them. In this place he ripped apart drawers, searching, searching, searching.

And then he found it. Take the scroll out of its slot with careful hands, Eien unravels it, the whorls of ink stark against the white paper. He might not be able to save them, but he could definitely give them all a little more time.

After all isn't that what life is all about? Finding more time. Time to grow, time to hone skills, time to travel the world, time to learn everything and anything. Humans strived to find any way to get more time.

His eyes open, his hands growing still. He viewed the battlefield before him, committing each detail to memory.

And then, he got to work.

***

Winter felt the small ripple of energy before anyone else. Moments, after they'd been transported out of the reach of the flower Obito, had created to try and wipe them all out, she'd notice a change. It was subtle and constant and growing. She knew this chakra and her sharp eyes sought out the owner. Eien stood far away from the center of the battle, his figure just barely visible.

Whatever he was doing was going to help, she knew that much, but she also knew he had to amass the chakra needed to perform whatever he was planning.

But then the tree shook. It groaned and snarled and seemed to come to life. Roots shot from underneath the ground, heading with a surprising speed towards the shinobi. Winter felt the wrongness in her bones seconds before the shinobi to her right got touched. She blanched as he turned into a husk of his former self, his chakra being drained from his body. "Don't let the roots touch you!" Her voice rises and carries to everyone still alive, the wind making sure that they hear her message.

She sprung backward, snarling and sending bolts of lightning at the roots that seek her. However, the lightning does little to deter the roots chasing after her. She cuts any roots that come too close with her twin katanas, lighting still striking the tree.

She retreats, Ja'far guarding her back and vice versa, the two finding that even the roots had a limit as to how far they reached. Her heart grew cold as she looked at the hundreds of still bodies the tree had claimed, each person a ghost of their former self as they took their final breaths. Anger boils in her and she grips her left forearm, the bandages fraying. Winter was no child. She knew that this was war and that there were going to be casualties.

But to see a man lay waste to hundreds upon hundreds of lives was enough to make her go on a rampage.

"You." She hissed, the single word carrying across the carnage to reach Obito's ears. For the first time since she arrived, the man turned his attention to her, his arms folded across his chest, his gaze once of indifference. "I'm going to make you pay for what you've done." She snarled lowly, her eye glittering with a storm. Wind whips around, dust rising and falling, the coldness sending shivers down spines.

Energy crackled around her, her hair drifting up slightly as she sheathes her katanas. Her knees bend slightly, her left hand raising to the black sky above. White lightning flickers once overhead, a beacon of raw energy, before tearing down to the earth.

The lighting hit Winter straight on, the bright flash blinding those near her and making others squint. When the lighting slithered away and the dust settled, Winter was left holding the obsidian handle of a weapon that had been whispered in tales over campfires, that had killed the person that destroyed her first team, that had been summoned only a handful of times to be used.

"Taiteki."

***

Tsunade and the other Kage listen to her summon as the miniature slug tells them what's been going on. They were moving swiftly on Gaara's sand, their destination slowly coming into view, and all they could do was listen as the slug told them of the deaths and hardships the shinobi were facing. Without warning they feel the electricity race overhead before seeing the large flash of lighting in the distance. Eyes narrowed, Tsunade tried to not get her hopes up, but she only knew one person who controlled lighting like that.

"Oh dear." Katsuya, the slug, paused her retelling as she receives intel from a part of her on the battlefield. "It appears that someone has summoned a weapon of sorts." The details were blurry, the chakra that connected her with her other half wavering. Finally spoke up once more, her words grave.

"It appears that Winter Ookami has summoned a sealed weapon in order to face Obito." She sighs. "And apparently Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki had similar ideas, for those two have summoned their own resources."

Gaara kept his face calm although a small smirk broke through his facade. The Raikage is the first to notice, his notorious temper rising to the surface. "Do you find something amusing about our current situation, Kazekage?"

The redhead shook his head slightly, his seafoam green eyes glancing at the Kage around him. "It's just... well with those three riled up, I can't help but feel the urge to fight. Separately, they're all powerful in their own right... but together?" He turns his gaze onto the horizon, one filled with dark clouds, a towering purple giant, and a large fox.

"Well, if they put their minds to it, they could rattle the gods."

I wrote this instead of doing my AP Psychology homework. Feel special ;)

So I've been debating on how to write the war, mainly because it's so looooong and I decided I'm going to try and put three to four episodes in each chapter so it goes by faster. Of course, some things are going to be tweaked or changed completely... deal with it, it's going to make this story way better then if I follow what happened in each episode. Ya'll know me, I love putting my own twists on things. 

Let me know what your favorite part of this chapter was :)