Story Title: Sage of Origin
Crossover: Naruto/ Final Fantasy VIII
Summary: Long before the tailed beasts walk the lands, the Guardian Forces watches over men. Then the cataclysm came and all were destroyed. The world was broken, and its only hope lies in the actions of one living sacrifice. Naruto Uzumaki.
OoooO
Chapter Two: Konoha’s Pact
10 days ago… Land of Valleys, Daimyo’s Castle
Long golden hair swayed around the cold beauty of the woman who got up from her throne, as the guards led a man who had a wide array of seals imprinted on his body into the chamber. She smiled, licking her lips as she surveyed the man with her physical and magical senses. The essence of the man had been boosted to incredible levels, pretty soon even the seals on the man would give out, unleashing his full potential.
She could identify the powerful spells within the man, which had evolved with each of her extraction. Reaching out with her senses, she extracted the magical potential of the man and smiled beautifully as she made the extracted para-magic her own.
“You have remarkable potential. I am sure your offspring will be remarkably useful to me as well.” The women said with a smile. She reached out to touch the shaking and terrified man casting out a complex intricate spell. The man screamed in horror as his body began to dissolve into pure energy.
The woman sucked in deeply, consuming the essence of a man whose potential had been nurtured to superhuman levels. The enormous power flooded her body, causing her to smile in delight, her hunger for the moment had abated.
“Ah, that was a delicious meal.” The woman said to the two guards who remained unmoved by her actions. “Send in Baiza, we can begin discussing the agenda for today.”
“Yes Lady Sairen.” The guards said in affirmative as they walked out of the throne room. Within moments, a white haired tan skinned man walked in, bowing to the woman.
“Lady Sairen.” The man, Baiza said as the woman walked back to her throne. “Our arrangement with the organization that called itself the Akatsuki has proceeded without a hitch. We’ve received the second life shipments of genin and chunin from the different hidden villages. They have been properly sealed and put into the pens.”
“Good.” The Lady Sairen said from her perch on the throne. “I do hope that this Akatsuki does not disappoint… like so many of our previous providers have done. It is so hard to find rogue nins who can get the job done these days. Unfortunately we need grunts to do tasks like this so that those taken into our pens would not be linked to our country.”
“Yes Lady Sairen, we’ll be monitoring the progress of our latest contacts closely. About the shipment, we’ve began breeding programs with the new stock, as per your instructions. Hopefully with this fresh infusion of gene pool into the old stock, it will provide you with more variety for your… consumption.” Baiza noted, keeping his eyes firmly on the floor.
Lady Sairen smiled. “I am sure I’ll find out soon once I’ve sampled the new…”
A wave of faint energy swept through the throne room interrupting her. It was familiar… Lightning… Ancient… Storms…
The Lady Sairen quickly got out of her throne, standing rigidly as her eyes stared into the distance, seeking for something that only she could sense.
“It cannot be… only a handful of us survived… He’s supposed to be dead…” Lady Sairen muttered, her face turning pale in shock.
“Lady Sairen?” Baizen asked, carefully lifting up his eyes to look at the blond haired woman with a touch of fear. The lady however ignored him.
“But that was definitely his call… his elemental signature. For it to resonate over the distance… he must be at full power and in his elemental form. But that’s impossible! Not even I am able to retain elemental form for long now!” Lady Sairen raged, clenching her teeth. In front of her, Baizen cowered in fright but the lady paid him no attention.
“I need to find out if it is really him… He has always been the noble one, if he found me, he’ll probably turn against me like what Shiva and Carbuncle had done.” Lady Sairen said, her face hardening. “He’ll need to be dealt with before he ruins all my plans.”
“Lady Sairen…” Baizen said in a weak voice, causing the lady to turn her attention to him sharply.
“Assemble my SeeDs Baizen.” Lady Sairen said coldly. “I have a task for them. It’s time that they go out into the world once more…”
OoooO
Present time… Outlying forest of Konoha
In order to cut down the time for them to return to Konoha, Kakashi had led them on a route different from the one they had taken to go to Wave country. The new route involved a lot of tree jumping and walking. They have been making good of their time, and by the second day, have already reached the outlying forest that surrounded Konoha. One more day of hard travel through the forest and they would be back in the village. Everything had gone smoothly until Naruto had suddenly stopped during a tree jump, causing Sasuke who was now bringing up Team 7’s rear to crash into him.
“What did you stop for?” Sasuke cursed, rubbing his bruised face which had smashed into Naruto’s head.
Naruto grimaced rubbing his head painfully, though his attention was at a spot near the tip of the tree whose branches they were now standing on. To his vision, a stream of colored light orbs was flowing around the tree top. The light orbs looked like a cloud of colored fireflies.
“There’s something there.” Naruto said pointing to the stream of flowing lights.
Sasuke looked at the spot that Naruto was pointing at and then frowned at him. “Idiot! There’s nothing there!”
What you are seeing is a natural energy convergence. My summoners in the past used to call occurrences like this Draw Points. Quezacotl spoke up in his head. Only those who have formed a pact with a Guardian Force can see them. Draw Points are natural convergence of nature energies in the physical world, and those who have formed a pact are able to extract naturally forming spells from a Draw Point.
“Sweet!” Naruto chortled in delight. Kakashi had made him promise not to draw anymore spells from living beings, but his lazy teacher most certain did not disallow him from drawing magic from natural energy formations. “Does the Draw Point also get more and more powerful with each spell I draw?”
Unfortunately no. Draw Points are a convergence of nature energies, as such, there’s a limited amount of spells you can pull from a Draw Point before it disappears. Quezacotl explained. Some Draw Points will reform again given time if they exist on an energy node or leyline. Others however will simply cease to exist once the magical energies are drawn.
“Energy node or leyline?” Naruto asked in confusion even as Sasuke gave him a look.
“Are you talking to Quezacotl? Did you see something I can’t see?” Sasuke was asking in rapid fire sequence. He was also frowning at the spot Naruto had pointed, as though if he stared hard enough he would see what Naruto had seen. Naruto was saved from answering by Kakashi. Kakashi and Sakura had only just realized that the two boys were not following and were already making their way back towards them.
“What are the two of you doing?” Kakashi called out, jumping to a nearby tree.
“I have a stitch at my side.” Naruto said as he clutched at his waist, trying to buy time while he was trying to make sense of what Quezacotl had told him.
So I just have to pull at the Draw Point and I’ll get some new spells? Naruto thought inquiringly back at Quezacotl.
Yes. And I’ll update you on the actual magical theory once we have the time. For now just draw the spells and be on our way. I can sense Kakashi getting impatient. Quezacotl answered, spurring Naruto into action.
Reaching out, Naruto pulled from the Draw Point. Quezacotl’s mental voice updated him on what spells he had actually pulled. 8 Protect magic has been drawn. Protect, a magical spell that creates an energy shield around targets preventing physical damage. The duration and power of the energy shield is highly based on the amount of magical energy/ chakra used to cast the spell.
“Well catch your breath and we’ll have to get going.” Kakashi was saying, obviously having no idea of what Naruto had just done. “We’re on a tight timeline.”
“I’m okay now, let us continue, we still have a distance to go.” Naruto said, suppressing his elation at getting new spells. The swirling stream of lights near the tip of the tree had vanished after he had finished pulling the spells from the Draw Point.
Kakashi gave a curt nod, jumping away to led the way, with Sakura following wearily after him. With the lowest stamina in Team 7, Sakura had been tired out easily during the journey, and had been too weary to unleash her inner fan girl on Sasuke. After a few moments, Naruto and Sasuke followed, with Sasuke glaring at the blond haired boy.
“So what happened?” Sasuke asked, not at all fooled by the excuse Naruto had given Kakashi. It was doubtful Kakashi would have believed him if the group was not pressed for time.
“Let’s just say I’ve gotten eight new spells.” Naruto said with a grin, causing Sasuke to blink in surprise.
“From who? I thought you promised Kakashi not to pull spells from people?” Sasuke asked as he eyed Naruto.
“It will take a while to explain.” Naruto said. “I will tell you when we set up camp for tonight.”
Sasuke frowned at Naruto as the two boys began running above the trees. Seeing that Naruto was not going to talk, Sasuke gave a shrug as he turned away from Naruto, quickly following after Kakashi and Sakura who were already in the distance.
OoooO
She was tired and drained after the hard journey. Returning from a cold bath in a nearby stream, she paused at the edge of the camp and stared incredulously at the sight of Naruto and Sasuke huddled together like buddies. Kakashi was talking to both of them while shaking his head, but the moment they caught sight of Sakura, they immediately stopped whatever they were going to say.
There’s something going on. Inner Sakura whispered. They are hiding something from us. Sakura blinked as a darker image of herself with flames in her eyes, growled within her mind.
Sakura shook her head. Inner Sakura as she like to call her, was a dark part of herself that had existed since she was young, a representation of her suppressed emotions. She tends to get flashes of Inner Sakura whispering in her head when she was feeling very emotional, but during the past few days, ever since Wave country, Inner Sakura had been constantly present in her head talking to her. With the stress of the journey and the worry of whether she was beginning to go crazy, Sakura was starting to feel very unwell.
“Sakura!” Naruto called up cheerfully, seemingly still full of energy. “Dinner’s ready, I’ve cook up the fish we’ve caught!”
“Thanks Naruto.” Sakura said wearily as she sat down beside the camp fire, taking a spit of a fish that was already cooked. She turned to look at Kakashi and her teammates. “So… what are you guys talking about just now?”
Naruto blinked and began to look uncomfortable. “Ah…” Naruto said but was cut off by Kakashi.
“Naruto was just asking me what Tazuna gave to each of you.” Kakashi said smoothly.
He’s lying! Inner Sakura raged with conviction, but Sakura was distracted when Kakashi took out three small scrolls from his pouch.
“I suppose now is as good a time as any to inform the three of you and pass you his gifts.” Kakashi said with a smile, handing each of his genin a scroll. “Tazuna found many treasures in Gato’s collections. It seemed that Gato was a collector of rare tombs, among which were many ninja techniques. A lot of the content will be generously donated to Konoho. As for the rest of the ‘loot’, they will be given to Team 7. I have helped Tazuna in choosing the gifts for all of you.
“Naruto, inside the scroll is a library containing books on the Art of Sealing. It is a rare ninja craft, but I’ve confidence that you will… have the aptitude to master it if you try hard enough.
“Sakura, your scroll contains a library of Genjutsu techniques, look through them and begin training in them. With your highly refined chakra control, those techniques will be a good match for you.
“As for you Sasuke, the scroll in your hands contains several high level fire and earth techniques even I have never come across. It will be good training for you to begin mastering them… under my guidance of course.”
“Wow!” Naruto said clasping the scroll to his chest happily. “New techniques! Thank you Kakashi sensei!”
“I will be training all of you hard in those techniques once we return to Konoha.” Kakashi said simply. “For now, eat and then turn in for the night. I’ll be taking first shift for guard duty, Naruto second, Sasuke third…”
It was only later with a full stomach, as she lay drowsily in her sleeping bag, that Sakura remembered Inner Sakura’s words, that Kakashi was hiding things from her. But tiredness enclosed her in a warm cocoon by then, and the memory was forgotten as she drifted off to sleep.
OoooO
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