IX
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Arc IX Chapter 12
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Masanari stared for a minute, a minute felt like an eternity, an eternity that lasted. Time passed, but his shock didn't subside.
His lips formed a wry smile, an uncertain smile, a worried smile.
The girl contemplated the unthinkable, the unimaginable. What is bravery, or folly, that made her plot against Pain? Or was it a trap? Was the little demon only waiting for him to take the bait?
His eagerness would spell not only his doom, but also that of his clan.
Pain would not forgive, nor show clemency. The mere thought of treason was a crime punishable by death and paid with blood, their blood.
Masanari retained his outside calm. The situation was precarious, dangerous. His composure couldn't to slip under any circumstances.
Masanari shook his head. A long sigh escaped his mouth. “Lady Asami, your words undoubtedly honour us. You place much trust in the Hattori clan, but your trust is sadly misplaced.
With all due to respect, Lady Asami, we must decline your gracious offer. We are not interested in being involved in your worldly affairs. We have no intention, nor the desire, to oppose Pain. Despite past grievances, we acknowledge Pain ... as the legitimate ruler of Amegakure.
The Hattori clan might have his differences with Pain, but we are still loyal subjects of Amegakure regardless. We won't turn our blades against our fellow villagers.“
Asami countered with a secretive grin. “Yet you remain neutral. Despite your alleged loyalty, the Hattori clan appears to show little enthusiasm for Pain and his reign. The clan mostly retreated from public life, with your power waning every day.
“Isn't that curious, Lord Masanari? I doubt the sincerity of your words. Shouldn't your clan take a more active stance?“ Asami tilted her head.
Masanari stiffened ever so slightly. Her words stung, but the truth could not be denied. “Lady Asami, whom we support, and whom not, is first and foremost, an internal affair. The clan decides how we see fit.“
Asami giggled amused. “I don't disagree, the future of the clan lies in your competent hands, and I am not the one to judge.
But I am delighted that my words fall on fertile ground.“
Masanari furrowed his eyebrow. He didn't share her assessment. “Do they?“
Asami beamed. “I would say so. Lord Masanari, I understand your worries. I understand your concerns.
You think my offer is a trap, don't you?“
“...“ Masanari remained silent.
Asami grinned in victory. “Thought so.
Consider, though, if my intention was to destroy you, I would hardly waste my time on playing little games with you. Destroying you with Pain's authority at my disposal would a trifling matter at most.
I am aware you are bound by honour, by duty. The responsibilities of your position weight heavily on you, as you only want the best for your clan. An admirable goal.
Know that I am not foolish enough to involve you yet. It's far too early to move against his Divinity. I am not willing to throw away the lives of the ones who put their trust in me for premature glory and power. I am a patient person.
My offer is merely an invitation, Lord Masanari. You are free to decline if you wish to do so. I won't force your hand as I search for allies, not for obedient subjects. It will take time before the day comes we can trust each other.“
Masanari considered her words.“You are playing a dangerous game, Lady Asami. I hope for you are aware of the risks. Pain is not known for mercy. He judges his enemies harshly, not to mention traitors. He won't pardon treason.“
Asami smiled. “Treason is such an unsightly word, your Lordship. Nobody here complaints treason. We are all loyal subject of our divine lord and saviour, aren't we?
I am aware of the risks, but I only act in the best interests of Amegakure. Sometimes, firm decisions are required.
Because I can't see him, or his legacy, last.
Pain is strong, undoubtedly so. A powerful force to be reckoned with, feared on the battlefield, feared by his enemies, but power and fear alone don't rule a country. He might be a god, but he is not a ruler.
Our god lives from day to day, uncaring of the common masses, uncaring of the fate of the village.
He will go out in a blaze and nothing of him will remain. I am not keen on sharing his fate, nor should Amegakure suffer the consequences of his dramatic lack of strategic vision. I won't allow such, nor should you. We all must take matters in our own hands if necessary.“
Masanari listened. Her words made sense. “It seems I have misjudged you, Lady Asami. I thought you stood with Pain.“
Asami giggled. “We all err from time to time. Nobody is infallible. Often things are not as they might seem.“
Asami looked outside the window. The light waned at the horizon. “I think it's time for to take my leave. I wish you a good day.“
Masanari interrupted her, “Why are you doing this? Why Amegakure?“
Asami halted, raising her eyebrow.
Masanari folded his hands. “You are not from here, are you?“
“How do you know?“
Masanari grinned. This time it was his turn. “Your accent, your pronunciation, they are both distinctly Land of Fire. Some might even say Konohan.
So what are you doing so far from home, Lady Asami? You said you will restore order to Amegakure? Why does her Ladyship care so much about the fate of our humble village?“
Asami chuckled. “You have sharp ears, found out just like that. A possibility I never considered.
You are right, I am not native to Amegakure. Akatsuki recruited me.“
Masanari retorted, “That doesn't answer my question.“
“It doesn't.“ Asami closed her eyes and pondered. Time passed.
“Lord Masanari, have you ever felt as if your life was not your own? Because I did.
Born into this world, blessed with the precious gift of life, I watched the course of history far too long. Considerate of my actions, I merely reacted, never acted.
I didn't wish for much. I could have easily reached for more, but my heart desired little. I didn't care. I was content with my lot ... in this life. I cherished what I had.
I drifted along my path. I lived from day to day, but little by little, my happiness was taken away against my will. My light dimmed. Life took what little I had, leaving only a feeling of shallow emptiness, of hollow purpose.
I was robbed. I was forgotten. I was used. I was feared. I was betrayed. I was abandoned. No more!
Once again, I realised that fate was not necessarily my friend, admittedly a miscalculation on my part. I can only blame myself. I hoped for too much. The decisions I made led me to this point.
I am tired of the vagaries of fate, Lord Masanari. I am tired of being tossed around. I am tired of having my life dictated. I am tired of being ignored!“
Asami clenched her fist. Her muscles contracted, and her knuckles turned white. “From now on, I will follow my own path.
I will defy fate. I will defy heaven. I will shape the fabric of my future, the fabric of my reality. Because I am the smith of my own fortune, the smith of my own destiny.
But even I need allies. No matter how powerful, the future cannot be carried by a single girl. Amegakure is the answer.
You can be the strength in my arms, the carriers of my vision, the holders of my dreams. Greatness awaits us, the greatness that is my birthright, our birthright.
Lend me your tired arms, your worn bodies. Because I will be your sword, your shield. United, we will stand, undivided.
Stand at my side, and you will prosper. Stand at my side, and you will rise to heights never known before. Stand at my, because together we will write history.“
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Damn i cauth up, i thought there were still lots of chapters left i read it all in 2 days i need MORE!! The sisters were so cute together
Cuteness is justice! Next chapter you will get an illustration of them.
@Assurbanipal_II YAAAAAYYYYY cuteness gracious!!! Cuteness is DIVINE!!!
@Liber8T
Good speech!
@Assurbanipal_II
Gasp... Asami is ambitious...
I like it
It is not ambition to claim what is rightfully yours.
Loving the storie and glad she knows she cant throw planets at people unlike 2 irrelevant characters i could mention... so she recognised even she needs help. Also still waiting to see what you do with the rest of akasuki. Hope you find a way to make some of them live from needlessly dying like Hidan and Kakuzu. But people like Mr. Art is an explosion him self, sasori and itachi are guaranteed to die. 1 from suicide, 1 from giving up and 1 from aids and suicide. But this stuff is far in the future.
Side note: People who say she's overpowered... have you seen naruto! There are people who can atomise you, people who can though a massive rock from the sky and even seal you in one, there is itachi(enough said), Nagato/pain is still much stronger than asami as saying she is stronger is putting her above sage mode naruto, you get the point Asami will definitely get stronger when she grows up more but there are very op people in naruto that people don't consider.
Trust me, everyone will be more careful with throwing planetoids around as I will nerf all end Naruto bs hard. Prime Pain/Nagato will be my benchmark in overall destructive potential. Even prime revived Madara will need to watch his step, otherwise he will quickly run out of Chakra and be easy prey.
And, yes, some Akatsuki members might survive depending on their wits. Kakuzu is a definite candidate as he is quicker to pick up the signs of time than the others. I take him also for more politically observant than the others.
And don't worry, Asami is pretty strong in her own regard. She will teach the ninja world the significant difference between power and strength, between fire power and combat power.
Characters that overly rely on brute force instead of technique to get away will have a bad awakening with her.
@Assurbanipal_II Also unrelated note I'm not normally interested in this but as I like this novel will Asami have a love interest? I mean she doesn't seem like that kind of person but you never know. Also still want more of hidan the first encounter was gold and really highlighted how insane he is by saying he tryed to sacrifice people for a jashin ritual for Asami(stopped by Kakuzu). Idk if you edited it out but I think that was after the edits you did.
@GenZ Romance is very open. I can see her seducing a few people here and there when older, but romance? Hard to say. Yuri, straight, everything is open.
Hidan will return for sure. Eventually. ^^ For now, he is bennched, though.
@Assurbanipal_II If I've seen anything in my life well or just looking at Fan-Fics they are 99.9% if there is a love interest and a Female Lead its Yuri. Not that I'm complaining yuri is great and all. Time will tell I guess. Also I hope asami or naruto dies somehow so we either we won't see boruto as asami dies or boroto won't be created.
@GenZ If it is yuri, you have already met the planned love interest.
@Assurbanipal_II I have 3 ideas in my head now. But honestly I won't mind non yuri as there are alot of interesting male characters as well. Time will tell.
@GenZ
@Assurbanipal_II I don't think you actually need to Nerf Madara at all, in fact I think it would actually hurt the character and the overall story if you did. First off he's the endgame threat so power wise you don't really need to go much beyond that. However character wise a very vital part of Madaras character is directly correlated with his status as a god among men. Madara and Hashirama were to titans of power that hadn't been seen in centuries and we wouldn't see anyone even begin to approach their strength until the next century. Men who's mere presents on one side of a conflict meant that you must bring the other one in to fight them. The alliance of these two literally necessitated the creation of the five great nations, they had reached a level never seen before, but that also directly linked to their greatest flaw, that he fundamentally only believes it himself. Throughout all of Naruto the will of fire is repeatedly discussed both as the idea of laying the foundation and passing on your ideals to the next generation and the next generations choices on how to represent those ideals. This philosophy is what motivated Hashirama to create the hidden leaf, a place where the next generation would be allowed to grow to inherit his dream of peace, and he pursued this with the absolute certainty that the next generation would successfully carry on his dream. However Madara didn't believe that the future generations could properly carry-on his dream, he thought of it as impossible for those weaker than him, for those of less drive than him, for those that were not him. How could they ever succeed where he himself couldn't, how could they, mere men ever be worthy enough for him a God to entrust his dream. That's why his goal is to guide the world with the Infinite Tsukuyomi, a new reality he takes everyone currently living in the world and brings them together all under his eternal guidance a new world where everyone is content and satisfied to stay in place always under him, because if it's not something he himself could do how could he ever expect anyone else to succeed.
P.S. I'm sorry this got a little long-winded I just felt like I had to say that while Naruto's power scaling does get a little up there Madara's specifically is key to both the character and the narrative. However I have a greatly enjoyed your story and I'm sure to enjoy it any way you go keep doing the great work.
@pyro777
"First off he's the endgame threat so power wise you don't really need to go much beyond that."
He is not. Kagukya took that role from him.
"However character wise a very vital part of Madaras character is directly correlated with his status as a god among men."
I doubt he was actually seen as such. Considering his godlike status, his reputation seems weak. He was long foreshadowed, but based on his raw strength, he should have a much more prominent role in the collective memory.
"Madara and Hashirama were to titans of power that hadn't been seen in centuries and we wouldn't see anyone even begin to approach their strength until the next century."
They were clearly retconned heavily as the power scaling changed heavily. Nor do I think, Kishimoto understood well the consequences of his actions.
He wrote himself into a corner by overpowering a character and then needing to up the game severely. It would have been fine for me if Madara remained the threat to be all threats in a more reasonable manner, but no, Kishi added Kaguya and more Dragon Ball stuff. Poorly implemented.
He followed the rule of cool, but internal consistency suffered. Their strength creates an imbalance never addressed. They render all actions or achievements completely meaningless in front of them. They void the significance of men. An unwise decision for a character focused series.
Their strength is wholly unreasonable. That is why I will nerf them. They will still be strong, but much more relatable. They will still be one man armies, but not to this absurd degree.
@pyro777 P.S. I'm sorry this got a little long-winded I just felt like I had to say that while Naruto's power scaling does get a little up there Madara's specifically is key to both the character and the narrative. However I have a greatly enjoyed your story and I'm sure to enjoy it any way you go keep doing the great work.
@Assurbanipal_II yes. This is just too true. Adding Kaguya after madara made no sense and they were all really pushing it with sage of sixpaths power ups and madara being a ten tails jin. While it gives us cool moments like 8 gates (which should be nerfed btw its like the only non BS power up as we all know he had it and their were 8 stages and it takes massive hardwork) it does make the power scale like in dragon ball were they keeps getting more powerful to a ridiculous degree. In my eyes the peak power in naruto should be EMS/rinnegan madara and sage mode hashirama.
Man a shame asami doesn't have any siblings she can murder lol. But fret not Hashirama cells can heal anything (EVEN THE BACKLASH OF MS that really should not be the case and it annoys me that it is, it's like that to make obito more powerful so he can spam kamui ;-;).
@Assurbanipal_II
He is not. Kagukya took that role from him.
True but hear me out Kagukya's power literally doesn't matter. I she quite literally can't have an impact anything because she can only exist in the story once Madara has set everything in place for her. First by becoming the 10 tails host and then casting the infinite Tsukuyomi in order to gather enough chakra in place for black Zetsu to summon her. And that will only happen after the main characters have been given the " just tag her and you win power". So it literally doesn't matter how strong she is since the cast always has this instant win power and once she's gone the greater conflict still remains between Naruto and Sasuke. It gives her almost no fanfare in the original Manga with the actual emotional core of the fight being the scenes of Obito's death, naruto's speech to black Zetsu on what the true history of a ninja is, and Madara's deathbed conversation with Hashirama. That she quite literally has zero impact on.
I doubt he was actually seen as such. Considering his godlike status, his reputation seems weak. He was long foreshadowed, but based on his raw strength, he should have a much more prominent role in the collective memory.
That one's actually pretty easy to explain, in that literally almost everyone that knew them died with the next 20 years. Because even though Naruto's timeline is pretty vague in certain areas we actually know that the first two great wars happened within 20 years of each other because of tsunade and that they were some of the most bloody battles because there were no medical Nin on the battlefield. And the oldest ninja to ever live is Kakuzu at 92 and at 60 you are considered an elder in this world so doesn't really leave much room.
They were clearly retconned heavily as the power scaling changed heavily. Nor do I think, Kishimoto understood well the consequences of his actions.
He wrote himself into a corner by overpowering a character and then needing to up the game severely. It would have been fine for me if Madara remained the threat to be all threats in a more reasonable manner, but no, Kishi added Kaguya and more Dragon Ball stuff. Poorly implemented.
He followed the rule of cool, but internal consistency suffered. Their strength creates an imbalance never addressed. They render all actions or achievements completely meaningless in front of them. They void the significance of men. An unwise decision for a character focused series.
Their strength is wholly unreasonable. That is why I will nerf them. They will still be strong, but much more relatable. They will still be one man armies, but not to this absurd degree.
I just want to take a moment to acknowledge that while I will stand by the series for a lot... everything you say here's unquestionably true, and I can't stand here and die on some make-believe hill at the story doesn't have some very key and frankly glaring flaws. I'll just say I'm extremely fascinating to see where you decide to go with it.
@pyro777 Reading now.
@pyro777 *gives you a hug*
Don't worry, I try to honour the original story and its characters as much as possible.
That is also the reason I didn't touch Naruto himself as little as possible, and interact so little with the original main cast. Asami would impact the story way too much and overshadow Naruto and his character development. An error that too many fanfics make. They fail to create an own story at the expense of Naruto. I don't want that.
Asami's entire journey is meant to set up a dangerous end game enemy of a different calibre. All her actions will challenge quite severely at the end.
And I need to expand on the term collective memory. It comes from sociology and describes the subconscious memory of an entire society, and not the experience of individuals.
Certain events leave deep traces in societies far beyond their time, in the form of myths, legends, and customs.
As such, Madara and Hashirama should be far more present.