The Mad Sage Of Uzushio, A Naruto Fan Fiction:
Chapter #11: In Came Itachi The Crow!
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Chapter 11
In Came Itachi The Crow!
And Along Followed The Black Knight!
A thick mist suddenly surrounds a pair of Shinobi bearing swords, Sasuke wearing his daisho strapped with a black sash to his left side, in the manner traditional to the samurai, and Boruto wearing his lone katana strapped to his back, by a leather strap attached to the scabbard, hanging diagonally from his left shoulder. Making their way through a series of dark canyons, the shinobi take notice of the sudden surreal change in the weather.
Boruto:
Looks like we’re almost there… Sasukesan… This was how it was last time too… You’ve really never been to Ryuchi Cave before?… Eh?… Sasukesan?… Orochimaru said… ‘it’s a place that’s not really there’… whatever that means… You just start looking for it… and eventually it’s like… it finds you… Weird… huh?… Sasukesan?… Can’t you just reverse summon your way there?… Sasukesan?…
Sasuke:
Ai… But you can’t yet… and I can’t take you there… not without an active contract for you… I still can’t believe… that you turned down the White Snake Sage… and that you didn’t even mention it to me… I had to hear about it… from a crazy grandfather… that I didn’t even know that I had…
Boruto:
Sumimasen… Sasuke sensei… I didn’t know senjutsu was all that impressive… I just figured it can’t be all that impressive… if my old man could do it…
Sasuke:
Ai… He is quite deceptively talented… in his own way… He’s actually quite clever… in ways that are not so obvious… Enemies were always underestimating him… to there downfall…
Boruto:
Isn’t Sarada suppose to be studying this… from uncle Shintaro?… Why can’t we do that… and stay in Konoha?…
Sasuke:
Because of the dibs rules… which I have already explained… Besides… I don’t necessarily trust Shintaro sensei… His judgment… if nothing else… is suspect… And the White Snake Sage is legendary… I have known about her since well before her offer to you… But like Shintaro says… I had… like most shinobi… what I thought were higher priorities… I didn’t completely know either… Especially not about the value or the virtue of senjutsu… in opposing enemies… that we didn’t really know about… not fully… Now there is little more important for me to do right now… and little more for you either by the way… Senjutsu… the sword… and demon hunter shikigami… these are your training assignments… as Shintaro might say…
A strange quivering voice of an old woman is heard, from out of nowhere in the mist.
Quivering Voice:
As Shintaro might say?… What would your old master Orochimaru say?… about how long it took for you to visit me?… Eh?… Sasukesama?… You were so obsessed about becoming more powerful… once upon a time… and yet you never came to see me… It’s hard not to take offense… at such a slight… I feel as if… I’ve been taken for granted… not just once… but twice… by you… and by your own apprentice!…
Sasuke:
For starters… neither of us owe you any such patronage… or fidelity… Secondly… I don’t necessarily care… about the dibs rules… or what Orochimaru… or for that matter… what Shintaro… has to say about any of it… I am here… because I do believe my grandfather… when he says that the power of senjutsu… is the only power… that the Otsutsuki Emperor genuinely fears… And because I also believe him… when he says that… your supposedly a big fan… of my brother’s… Itachi the Crow?… Supposedly a frequent visitor of yours… Eh?… White Snake Sage?…
Something large slithers in the near distance, within the mist surrounding the shinobi.
WSS:
He is!… He is!… and I am!… I am!… and of yours… as well… Did Shintaro tell you as well… about the resistance?… Itachi is very important to the resistance… against the empire… As a sage… it’s considered unbecoming… to take sides… politically… But I can’t help it… things are starting to get genuinely interesting… Your grandfather has been a big part of that… But so has your brother… Those characters on Mount Myoboku don’t understand… the need to be neutral… to stay out of matters of the mundane existence… They’re so explicitly partisan… They care nothing for the plight of a proper sage… torn as I am… And your own grandfather… ceased to care about the propriety of the sages… a long time ago… I’m so jealous… of his open revolutionary zeal… ‘Death to all false gods’… indeed…
Boruto:
‘False Gods’?…
WSS:
Ai… Young Boruto… The Otsutsuki believe… and demand that others believe… that they are genuine gods… Their human livestock are made to believe this… and worship them accordingly… The Otsutsuki themselves… are made to believe this… They are all made to be enslaved… within their very own spirits… to the divine conceit… of the empire of false gods… They are an affront to anything… that a sage is meant to pursue… and to revere… Teaching senjutsu… is the only thing… that I feel that I can do… that is still in keeping… with the proper path… of a proper sage… It’s all I can do… to avoid going mad from the poison of politics… like Shintaro and the others…
The mist clears around the shinobi, revealing a giant white snake slithering it’s way around the shinobi, encircling and surrounding the shinobi completely with just her large snake body, as she peers down upon them.
WSS:
I hope you don’t expect me to get involved in any… political trouble… I might have to become cross… if you do…
Sasuke:
I don’t care to involve you any more than you already are… I would just like to know what you’ve heard… if that’s not too much to ask…
As Sasuke says this, a familiar voice calls out from behind the large white body of the White Snake Sage.
Familiar Voice:
You needn’t interrogate the poor White Snake Sage… little brother… I can answer all of your non senjutsu related questions… But first… let me introduce my new parents…
As the voice says this, the large body of the White Snake Sage, is transformed into a small human sized and human looking old woman, wearing the regal dress of a feudal queen mother, revealing behind the former girth of the white snake, two giant crows, with a slightly smaller giant crow in front of them. The same familiar voice begins to speak again, now coming from the smallest of the three giant crows.
Familiar Crow:
This is my mother and father… from my new life… among the crow spirits…
Largest Crow:
It is an honor to meet you… and it would be a great honor… to eat you… should you ever fall in battle that is… My wife and I would be sure to do a very clean job of it too… picked clean really…
Other Big Crow:
And very respectfully too… very tasteful… We offer a wide variety of options too… if that’s not to your liking… Give em your card honey…
The father crow starts to regurgitate, and conjures up a business card, into the tip of his beak, as he lowers the card into Sasuke’s waiting hand, with his beak. Sasuke wipes the card on his vest before taking a closer look and reading the card.
Sasuke:
‘Metaverse Mortuaries… Finishing You Off With Style And Discretion’…
Itachi Crow:
Dad?… Can you and mom leave us alone… to get know each other again?…
Father Crow:
Very well then son… If you think it’s safe… You did say that he had actually killed you before… after all… Are you sure he’s not just going to… go off?…
Mother Crow:
Oh… lets just go and let the two of them get caught up… I’m sure Sasuke’s got all that hyper-schmutz out of his system already…
The two larger crows take flight and disappear into the mist.
Itachi:
I can’t stay… I can’t really stay anywhere for long anymore… Fortunately the crow spirits are inherently nomadic… So I don’t miss home much… except for memories… from before…
WSS:
Boruto… Why don’t you come with me… and I can show you a few tricks… do you know anything… about shikigami?…
Boruto:
Just silly tricks…
WSS:
Well… Perhaps I can give you some better tricks…
The White Snake Sage wonders off into the mist with Boruto, leaving Sasuke with Itachi the Crow. As they depart, Itachi begins to metamorphose slightly, taking on a more human shaped physical frame, still completely covered in black feathers, except for his two human hands and his two human feet, with a human face resembling a young teenage Itachi from before the Uchiha massacre, peeking out through the mane of black feathers, framing his face.
Itachi:
I can’t imagine what you might be thinking right now… It may or may not shock you… to find that I’m quite different now… than I used to be… not simply in terms of appearances alone… I’m no longer the pacifist that I once was… Perhaps it is because of my life before… that the very idea… of a sacrifice… for the futility of peace… seems like a sick tragic joke to me now… There is no peace… ever… except as a delusional farce… of a slave’s wishful thinking… Tell me little brother… do you remember anything of my previous life… that is not a sick tragic farce?…
Sasuke:
Ai… I can remember plenty… Perhaps your memory is not nearly so complete… as I’ve been told… I can remember a big brother… being a big brother… and then later lying about it… Because he thought I was better off with the lie… But I remember all of it… And it was no farce… Karasusama!… Has Sarada ever seen you like this?…
Itachi:
Sarada only ever saw miniature incognito version of my crow spirit form… Although… she was shockingly perceptive for her age… It would not surprise me if she saw my regular form at least… She reminded me of mother somewhat… a reminder that made me want to do things better… I still remember all of their faces… from the massacre… for peace!… I hate the very word now… even though I know that is wrong… I know that I am wrong… But I don’t know what’s right!… I just know that this is the least wrong thing that I can manage to do about any of it… although I kind of stumbled into it… I reacted badly… or perhaps just sanely… in an insane way… or as Shintaro sensei put it in describing his first reaction to the flesh markets of the empire… ‘a sane reaction… logically leading… to an insane reaction… in response to insane action’… I made a big spectacle of myself with some of the skills that I still remember… I became very renown… as a very vocal and forceful figure in the resistance… a resistance that had existed for as long… if not longer… than the empire… where I met Shintaro sensei… who had only just given it new life… with his reaction… to the atrocities of the empire…
Sasuke:
You call him Shintaro sensei?… You don’t believe he’s our grandfather?…
Itachi:
I know he is… But he was essentially a stranger to me… for all I remembered… And he’s always been explaining things for as long as I’ve known him… So to me… he’s just Shintaro sensei… That just feels more natural than calling him grandfather… and I think he likes it better any way… The Otsutsuki have all sorts of colorful names for him… The one that I like the best is… the Howling Death… of the Kaze Yokai… and of course there’s the emperor’s personal pet name for him… The Great Defiler… Because he made of with his daughter… the princess… among the princesses… of the Otsutsuki… Dude was a legend… that we were never allowed to know about… until now… But now he’s just Shintaro sensei to me… Obito says hi by the way… He’s not reincarnated or anything… He serves as a spirit messenger for the resistance… within the shadow realm… But he can sometimes manage to haunt a nexus zone… here and there… from time to time… Hagaromo sensei too!… Hagaromo is a spirit advisor to the resistance… Has been… for a thousand years… And you wouldn’t believe Jiraiyasama’s reincarnation… He’s also with the resistance… although strictly on the more cultural and diplomatic front… It’s hard to explain and you wouldn’t believe it… But he’s our contact with our most important asset… another reincarnation that you wouldn’t believe… and that I can’t even begin to tell you about…
As the former siblings continue their private conversation privately, the White Snake Sage gives young Boruto a little coaching with his shikigami technique, as he unleashes it. Boruto holds his right hand palm up as a sheet of paper peels up and seems to solidify right out of Boruto’s skin and chakra, then folds itself into a paper shuriken before spinning wildly, as the winds in Boruto’s palm, spin around and surround it, guided by his left hand, spinning it faster and faster, before launching the wind enhanced paper shuriken into a nearby small boulder, slicing it in two.
Boruto:
Oi!… Ya see?… That’s probably the only useful jutsu I ever learned… from my stupid old man… and that’s all I can do with it… He couldn’t even do that much with it… just me and Himawari… My Wind Style Rassengan… works much better any way…
WSS:
Well… It is very impressive… even though it took you forever… just for one… Shikigami is not necessarily about destruction… There are all sorts of ways to destroy things… Not nearly so many to preserve them… and you can’t simply destroy a demon… They must be sealed… as an act of mercy… for the sake of the suffering demon…
Boruto:
The suffering demon?…
WSS:
Ai… Demonism is a path… of self-inflicted suffering… in the guise… of the self-indulgence… and the debauchery… of nihilistic parasites and thieves… The scourge of demonism… as most may think of it… is just the collateral damage… of the demon’s own self-inflicted suffering path… For most there is no practical path towards redemption… Then the only mercy that can be provided is simply to be sealed way… to end the self-inflicted suffering of the demon… and put an end to all of the collateral damage delivered to the victims of their… indulgences…
As Boruto gets lectured by the White Snake Sage, the sound of hooves can be heard off in the distance through the mist. As they get closer, they seem more and more unnatural and artificial, as if someone were faking it by banging some coconuts together. As the sound grows louder, it starts to sound more mechanical, accompanied by the sounds of wind-up clockwork mechanisms, as well as various metallic clicking and popping noises. Suddenly a black armored figure bursts out of the mist, riding upon a wind up steel mechanical horse with a mechanically timed stride, and rides to a halt before Boruto and the White Snake Sage, wearing the blackened steel armor of a medieval knight, with all of it painted completely matte black except for a single large white Christian cross spanning the height and width of the front of his torso, and a long white beard protruding out and hanging down from the face guard of his helmet. A Large medieval two-handed double-edged long-sword, with a cross-shaped hand guard at the hilt, was strapped to his back.
Black Knight:
Greetings… and salutations… young page and madam… Has master Itachi been through here yet?… Mistress White Snake?…
WSS:
Ai sir knight… He is with his brother at the moment… This is his bother’s… now my apprentice… Uzumaki Boruto…
Boruto:
Sir knight?… What’s that?…
Black Knight:
A knight of the realm… is a champion of the realm… charged with a duty as such… by their lord and king… in service to almighty god!…
Boruto:
Almighty huh?…
Black Knight:
Do you doubt the power of almighty god… young Boruto?…
Boruto:
Not necessarily… I’m just not so sure about… the almighty part…
Itachi:
Please do not be too offended sir knight… Young Boruto was raised more or less as I was… and has no knowledge of your beliefs… and I suspect that… like most shinobi… he has no real concern for them…
Itachi and Sasuke walk out of the mist and rejoin Boruto, the White Snake Sage, and the Black Knight.
Black Knight:
Well then… perhaps the boy should learn?…
Sasuke:
Our beliefs… are not a matter of legitimate concern… for strange men in metal masks and metal suits… riding on silly toy metal horses… Who won’t even give their proper names… sir knight?…
Black Knight:
My name is… My name is… It doesn’t matter what my name is!… not any more!… It was forgotten and worth forgetting… a long time before I forgot it myself… and the quest that it was pledged to… pledged in vain… it was doomed somewhat from the start… forgotten… as a consequence of the vile trickery… and treacherous machinations… of the temptress and enchantress… Morgana Le Fey… The sage Merlin had warned me of the she-devil… and her guileful trickery… as he had befallen of her charms as well…
Boruto:
‘Befallen of her charms’?… Eh?… Sir Knight?…
Sasuke:
Well… You’ll understand… if I don’t want my apprentice… to be influenced… by such a dubious source…
The Black Knight steps down from his mechanical steed and walks over to Sasuke.
Black Knight:
I did not mean to offend… good sir… I simply wished to enlighten… perhaps even to save… for those who may be in need of saving… and can still be saved…
The Black Knight lifts his hand up and slides up the face guard of his helmet, to reveal the elderly face within.
Black Knight:
The word of god is meant to be shared… That is why it is called the gospel… the good news… Surely good sir… you wouldn’t begrudge the boy… some good news… from almighty god…
Sasuke:
My mother always told me… to be wary of good news from strangers… and we still don’t know you… My apprentice… is young… and inexperienced… So for the time being… I’ll be the judge… of what good news is… And… As far as gods are concerned… I’ve never met any good ones… or real ones… that aren’t currently dead ones… and we didn’t come here to join a cult… anyone’s cult…
Black Knight:
You wound me sir… I seek to parlay… with honor… in peace and fellowship… And you greet me… with suspicion… defamation… and blasphemy!… False gods are no disgrace… upon the genuine word… of the true almighty god!…
The Black Knight pulls off his left hand gauntlet with his right hand, pulling it right off from his wrist, revealing that there was no hand within the gauntlet. Then the Black Knight throws his gauntlet down on the ground before Sasuke.
Sasuke:
Nani?…
Black Knight:
I challenge you sir… to a duel of honor… in the name of almighty god… and before god as my witness and ultimate judge… I will have satisfaction… or I will have an apology… then either way… I will be satisfied…
Sasuke:
Do you mean… kumite?…
Black Knight:
Perhaps… If kumite be the word… then so be it… Kumite it is then… In the name of almighty god… by all means… let’s kumite!…
Sasuke:
It’s your funeral… baca jiji… I just met some good undertakers… I’ll have to give your next of kin their card…
Black Knight:
My next of kin… are all dead!… And have all been dead… for longer than the Otsutsuki… have been alive!…
Itachi:
I don’t think this is really such a good idea little brother… I have seen him fight… Don’t let the clanky suit fool you… He’s no joke… I put up with him being my self-appointed body guard for good reason…
Sasuke:
Self-appointed body guard huh?… Fine… Let’s test that out then… Shall we?… I want to see for myself… what this so-called bodyguard… is actually worth…
Itachi:
Oh well… Maybe you’ll be reincarnated as a crow spirit too…
Black Knight:
You would do well to heed master Itachi’s warning… and apologize… You may not have come here to join a cult… as you say… Likewise… I did not come here… to kill master Itachi’s little brother… either…
Sasuke:
Then I’ll make sure that you won’t!… I’ll just kick your rusty tin can down the road somewhat… and be done with you!…
Black Knight:
Does it really pain you so much… to hear me speak of the word… of the lord almighty god?…
Sasuke:
You can speak all you want sir knight… as long as you don’t expect me… or my apprentice… to give a damn… Or you can sell it elsewhere… tin pot salesman!…
Boruto:
Now now… Sasuke sensei… A simple apology wouldn’t hurt… and I might want to hear about this supposedly almighty god… perhaps over our fight?… After all… I am suppose to be training here… am I not?… Sasuke sensei?… Then you can see what he can do… and he can give his spiel… and no one has to receive any unnecessary permanent damage…
Sasuke:
Fine… My apologies for being overprotective of my apprentice… for he is also the son of my best friend and cousin… But I will be the one to fight you… I want to see what you can do… and I want to test out these swords that my grandfather gave me… And your right Itachi… It is weird… Lets just go with Shintaro sensei… or better yet… Baca Sennin!…
Black Knight:
Very well then good sir… I will accept your apologies… and be satisfied… And return with dutiful apologies of my own… As I did not intend to be so overbearing… and presumptuous… But you would be surprised by how many will often stop to listen… to my spiel… as your apprentice says… especially all throughout the empire… There are many desperate souls that cry out to be saved… even while their minds are wholly enslaved… by their blasphemous conceit… as presumptuous false gods… Even though they be our common enemy… They are still souls that cry out to be saved…
Sasuke:
Well if we’re going to do this… won’t you need your hand?… for that big sword of yours?… It probably takes two…
Black Knight:
Ai… good sir… It often does…
The black knights gauntlet on the ground, comes to life on its own with the fingers starting to crawl back to the black knight, before they fly up with the gauntlet, as the gauntlet spins in the air to reconnect with it’s master, back where it belongs, fingers wiggling.
Black Knight:
Now… master Sasuke… as far as my sword is concerned… This is probably the only sword that surpasses what you carry now… It was an artifact of ancient sages and ancient traditions… come and gone since long before even the time of the sage Merlin… Or so Merlin once told me… when he entrusted it to my custody… charged with finding a new rightful heir… for the sword Excaliber… the rightful sword of my former liege… King Arthur Pendragon… of Camelot… long since fallen by then… as part of the treachery… of the she-devil enchantress… Morgana Le Fey…
The Black Knight reaches up with his right hand, and pulls out the large straight double edged sword, with a cross shaped hand guard and a two handed grip. As the sword is lowered into ready position by both hands, Boruto takes note of the peculiar writings on the side of the blade, resembling ancient Germanic and Celtic runes.
Boruto:
What does that say on the blade?…
Black Knight:
It is written… in language that was old and largely forgotten… by Merlin’s time… But Merlin told me that it was his peoples native tongue… and so he told me that it simply read… ‘to protect the sacred cradle’… It was the sacred pledge… Arthur made to Merlin and his people in secret… So he could have carried it to begin with… A duty Merlin then left to me… But I have yet to find any king yet… to be worthy of it’s proper ownership…
Boruto:
What does that mean?… ‘sacred cradle’?…
Black Knight:
As the sage Merlin explained it to me… It is the future… of our posterity… and the representation of that future… within the present… of the children… of the womb… and of the hearth and home that serve and protect them… A very pagan and heathen ethic… as Merlin and his people were… But masters of the guileful arts they were… as guileful as the enchantress Morgana…
Sasuke:
Sounds like a nice and dandy sword… But can you wield it?… Sir knight?… Talk all you want… But swing your sword while you do so…
Sasuke reaches down and over with his right hand and grabs hold of his katana, while he reaches down with a reverse grip of his left hand and grabs his wakizashi. With a single swift motion of both hands, Sasuke wipes out both of his swords, and swings his katana at the Black Knight’s head. The Black Knight swiftly and easily swings his massive Excaliber to block Sasuke’s katana, then swings it again to counter attack, as Sasuke blocks with his wakizashi in his left hand. As the Black Knight’s sword hits, Sasuke feels something of the force of what the Black Knight can deliver behind Excaliber, and unavoidably blends with the force of the Black Knight’s attack, and parries away with his katana, leaping up and back as he does, coming to a landing on a large boulder behind him. Then suddenly, the clanky heavy looking armored body of the Black Knight, leaps to the base of the boulder upon which Sasuke stands, with impossible swiftness and agility, and raises his sword high above his head, ready to strike at the obstacle in front of him.
Black Knight:
You are quite agile good sir… But you underestimate the power of Excaliber in my hands…
The Black Knight swings Excaliber down upon the boulder in front of him, and slices the boulder in two, with such force that the two remaining halves are also shattered and scattered as debris, forcing Sasuke to leap away again to another boulder. As Sasuke leaps away, the Black Knight holds his large sword in one hand, then effortlessly flips the large sword up with his right hand, causing it to flip in the air a number of times, before landing in his left hand, then griping the sword in both hands again.
Black Knight:
I have been wielding swords… since I was mere page in training… long before the time of the Otsutsuki!… I have been wielding Excaliber for almost as long… for longer than I can properly remember… But my sword skill gets a lot of practice… against the empire… For aeons… I have practiced against the usurper empire… It may interest you to know that there are many fine swordsmen among the Otsutsuki… in spite of the rampant complacency… of the Otsutsuki generally… There are more than a few who are not so complacent… And they too have been practicing… for aeons… Your skill is superb… But you are still not quite ready for them…
Sasuke:
Then show me!… The elite jonin instructors of my home village like to say… ‘come at me with intent to kill me’… for training!… and testing!… I need to test my swords… and Boruto needs experience… Boruto!… Grab your sword and come join us… I don’t care which side… Both of you… if you like… come at me with the intent to kill me…
Black Knight:
I solute your spirit master Sasuke!… And so I respond to you and your apprentice in kind… By all means… come at me with the intent to kill me… with any luck you might succeed… It would be a relief… to be permanently relieved… But with all do respect… I don’t like your chances good sir…
Sasuke:
Boruto!… You heard the good sir knight… focus on strengthening your weak hand… and remember to keep your strong hand free for other jutsu…
Boruto withdraws his sword from the scabbard on his back with his left hand, and swings about the sword in his left hand in brief warm up.
WSS:
Try some shikigami!… But with just one free hand… like your paper shuriken… but faster… and more of them…
Black Knight:
Paper shuriken?… Surely you must be in jest… mistress White Snake… Paper weapons are but toys for children…
WSS:
You’ll be surprised if one hits you… I think it would be instructive… to see what happens…
Sasuke:
Did Naruto teach you that?…
Boruto:
Ai… He tried to… But he was no good at it… Me and Hima are way better at it… But I only just got it strong enough to use it…
Sasuke:
Show me!… If you don’t mind sir knight…
Black Knight:
Do your worst young page… I have nothing to fear from your paper weapons…
With his sword still in his left hand, Boruto begins to walk towards the Black Knight as he begins to form a paper shuriken in his right palm, spins it up with his wind style palm, then hurls it at the Black Knight, as he merely stands there. As the shuriken nears the Black Knight, he continues to just stand there as Boruto calls out.
Boruto:
Oi!… Come on!… You have to at least try and dodge!…
As the wind enhanced paper shuriken hits the Black Knight dead center in his chest plate, it slices the Black Knight in two, right through his lower torso, as Boruto looks on in horror. With Boruto looking on in shock at the unintended devastation, the two halves of the severed Black Knight begin to glow an electric purple glow, then start to spark and arc between them. The two halves of the Black Knight begin to levitate and hover closer together, as a heart reforms itself in air between the two halves, out of bits of paper, dust, and ash, before the two halves of the severed knight snap back together with a sudden electric purple discharge, as the gaps in the knight’s armor are filled in with more bits of paper, dust, and ash, transforming into blackened steel armor where they fill in the gaps, until they are completely reformed and the electric purple discharge dissipates entirely.
Black Knight:
That is quite the surprisingly effective and impressive weapon you have there… young page… But as you can see… there is not even a flesh wound… as I have no flesh to wound… save for the head in this helmet… and the heart that used to beat blood… pulsing in veins that I no longer have… a regenerating paper mache pantomime of a knight… within a clanky tin can shell… that can never be destroyed… by the foul sorcery of Morgana… That will not be enough to deal with me… pity… I was actually hoping it would work…
Sasuke:
Do you really have that much of a death wish?…
Black Knight:
When you have lived as long as I have… the prospect of death… can only seem like a wish in vain… a guarantee for everyone else… a forlorn hope for me…
Sasuke:
Then I may have something for you sir knight… If you truly and sincerely wish to die… then I may be able to oblige you… Is that really your wish?… Sir knight?…
Black Knight:
If you really have such a means… then I beseech you good sir… By all means… use it and kill me for good… And end my suffering… But like with the boy… I don’t like your chances… And even if you succeed… then you inherit my burden… my duty to find the rightful owner of this sword… by whatever means you can… by your own conscience… as your only guide…
Sasuke:
Ameterasu!…
Boruto:
Sasukesan!…
The Black Knight suddenly bursts into the black flames of the Ameterasu, engulfing him entirely. Then discharges of electric purple lightening rapidly begin to strike at the Black Knight as he burns in the black flames, and bits of paper, dust, and ash, begin rapidly flying in from everywhere in the mist, converging on the burning knight, flooding into the black flames consuming him, with an electric purple aura of high amplitude static discharge displacing the black flames, impossibly snuffing them out, replacing all the burnt and consumed material of his armor, and whats left of his flesh, before the electric purple aura dissipates entirely.
Black Knight:
That was quite the attempt good sir… But as I suspected… all for naught… The foul sorcery… of the enchantress Morgana… will not so easily be undone…
Sasuke:
Sumimasen… good sir knight… But that was the best I had… Although I may have other tricks up my sleeve… or in my new eyes… that I do not yet know about… I’ll keep an eye out for something that might work for you…
Black Knight:
Thank you good sir… But your grandfather has made similar promises… yet with no luck so far… With all due respect to you good sir… if a sorcerer of master Shintaro’s caliber cannot help me… then I don’t like your chances… Your grandfather reminds me of the sage Merlin… But even he could not undo the foul witchery of Morgana…
A young woman’s voice is heard emanating from the mist.
Young Woman:
Please don’t sound so sad… brave sir knight… It pains me so when you lament with such sorrow…
The young woman comes out of the mist near the Black Knight, and walks over to him, as Boruto recognizes her as the eldest of three of the White Snake Sages daughters, in human form.
Young Woman:
Can’t my company… help comfort you some… and pass the time a little better?…
Black Knight:
Lady Tagitsuhime… Your company is as diverting as ever… But for some burdens… there is no real relief possible…
Another slightly younger teen age girl comes out of the mist, nearby where Itachi stands, and walks over to where he and her mother, the White Snake Sage, stand watching the show.
WSS:
Tagorihimechan!… I figured you would making an appearance… what with Itachi around…
Tagorihime:
I wouldn’t want the Ryuchi Cave’s reputation for hospitality… to suffer in my absence… mother…
As the White Snake Sage greets her daughter, another even younger teenage girl, appearing only slightly younger than Boruto, suddenly materializes in the air above Boruto, startling him.
Boruto:
Ichikishimahimechan?…
Ichikishimahime:
Nice shikigami… Boruto… I know shikigami too… I could show you some… Ryuchi Cave is famous for shikigami… among other things…
WSS:
My youngest daughter is quite good with shikigami… the best among my three daughters… In many ways shikigami is much more powerful than the sword… Because it has more ultimate potential… Why don’t you come with me and Ichikishimahimechan… and we can show you some real weapons…
Sasuke:
Ai… That’s not a bad idea… Why don’t you leave my new friend and I to get more familiar… Besides… I still need to properly test out my swords… and I can probably do that better without you in the way… You can rejoin us later…
Black Knight:
Very well my good sir!… I will have at thee then!… Prepare yourself!…
The Black Knight launches another attack directly at Sasuke, as Sasuke blocks with both swords in front of him, while Itachi and Tagorihime, quietly and discretely, wonder off into the mist together. Sasuke and the Black Knight continue to clash for a test of swords, as Tagitsuhime eagerly watches on, and Boruto begins to follow the White Snake Sage and Ichikishimahime off into the mist.
Boruto:
Can shikigami really be more powerful… than swords?… even more than the Excaliber?… or a Yuino steel blade sword?…
WSS:
Ai… Ai… And why don’t you call me by my real name… I’ll tell you if you promise not to tell anyone… You’re quite a gifted young man… Uzumaki Boruto… My name… is Moroganehime… Laufei Moroganehime… But you can call me Moroganehime sensei… or even just aunty Morogane… if you like…
Boruto:
Ai… Ai… Aunty Morogane sensei!…
Ichikishimahime:
Mama almost never tells any one her name… Names have power… especially secret names…
There Is No Alone!
Forever Never Ending!
There Is No Escape!
There Is No Point In Pretending!
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