Chapter 135: Red Hand
Naruto: Tales of Ashihara
The Shinden Saga – Arc 3: The Dragon Sage
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Chapter 135 – Red hand
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Boruto Hyuga, having just seen his master vanish from a single touch, is now alone on the roof of Toneri's castle with the two Otsutsuki intruders. Staying on his guard and at a safe distance, he focuses to localize Toneri's chakra, but can't sense it anywhere. This hairless red-handed man really made him disappear simply by laying a hand on him.
He did that so calmly and innocently that neither Boruto or Toneri could have seen it coming. But what happened exactly? There is no way Watsuki actually killed or deleted him like that. What Boruto thinks is more likely, judging from what he learned with Sasuke, that Toneri was sealed or transported to another dimension.
The atypical appearance of that man's left hand, a blood red clawed limb, must be the origin of this power. Understanding that he will have to fight these people off to free his master and keep them away from Earth, the Hyuga raises his hand to catch the handle of his sword in his back. Seeing the human get ready for a more consequent resistance than what his master offered, the two invaders stare at each other.
"I guess I'll step back and let you handle this one as well." Aritsuki, the golden haired and bearded man with ant horns says to his acolyte who answers with a simple nod.
Seeing the red-handed man now look toward him, ready for a real fight as well, Boruto takes another step back. Before engaging, he tries to figure out how his opponent's ability exactly works. If he's right, and the red hand is really the source of it, then it must be some sort of opposite to Hiraishin.
His space-time jutsu allows him to transport himself instantly to a mark by sensing and localizing it in 3 dimensions, then passing and moving through a pocket parallel dimension that will release him at the mark's location. Watsuki's thing must use a mark as a starting point, the mark in that case being his hand. However, Boruto has no idea what happens once a person is sent through the starting point.
One thing is sure: he has to avoid being touched at all costs. Yet even if he manages to defeat that one, he feels like the second celestial waiting in the background is even stronger. To make it clear, this situation seems out of hand for him. The best thing he can do is seek help.
Seeing his opponent calmly come closer, Boruto hurries to make a move and keep his distance. He pulls out the sword in his back just to dash it through the air and force Watsuki to stay back, just long enough for him to slip away.
Hiraishin
Using this jutsu, he transports himself deep into the castle, to a place where he can find a pen and scroll on a table. Using the pen, he writes a simple message on the scroll: "HELP!". He doesn't give himself time to write more than this. Once the scroll is closed again, he bites his finger and slams his hand on the ground.
Kuchiyose
He summons Garuda, the giant hawk who once was the personal summon of his sensei. Since Sasuke now mostly relies on Chimatakami or the wings of Susanoo, he entrusted his hawk to his student. Boruto gives the scroll to the bird by tucking it in his beak.
"Bring this to my dad!" he tells Garuda who stretches his wings, ready to take on this task.
Boruto rushes to the large window of this room to open it and let his summon out. As he does so, he thinks of his plan. From the presence of Garuda, his father will easily guess it's either from Boruto or Sasuke. With his chakra all out on display as he fights back the invaders, his father will have no problem localizing him on the moon. Until Garuda gets there, and his dad takes action, Boruto has to hold on and figure out a way to save Toneri.
As he sees Garuda fly away by the window, the Hyuga thinks of any possible way he has to fight off this enemy. His thoughts are interrupted by a crashing sound above him. Watsuki passed through the whole castle in a straight line, simply holding his left hand forward to erase everything in the way.
Boruto leaps away, out of range for the Otsutsuki who comes crashing on him. The Otsutsuki lands on his knees, followed by Aritsuki who slowly levitates to keep an eye on the battle, and sees the giant hawk in the sky by the window. Immediately understanding what purpose it could have, he smashes the window in front of him and pushes the large debris of glass toward the fleeing bird.
Before reaching their target, all the sharp pieces of glass are stopped by Boruto's sword flying through the air. Watsuki and Aritsuki look aside to see the Hyuga who just activated his Tenseigan and summoned his Gudodama.
"Oh, I see!" Watsuki exclaims, surprised mostly by the floating orbs. "I guess you aren't just any human. Let's get done with this!"
To start off this fight, Boruto sends a Gudodama to Watsuki who simply grabs it in his red hand and immediately erases it. This makes one thing clear to Boruto. His jutsu can literally affect anything. The celestial reaches him and attempts to catch his face, but he leaps aside in time and tries to land a series of Juken strikes that are all avoided.
As they fight, Boruto analyzes his opponent. He has more chakra than him for sure, but it isn't comparable to his dad. Even other weaker Otsutsuki such as Rihetsuki had seemingly a larger reserve than Naruto, but Watsuki doesn't. Same doesn't apply to Aritsuki however. He seems on par with Sakitsuki.
In terms of hand-to-hand skills, he isn't any better than him. He must be a young celestial who's training was more focused on chakra control than fighting. This gives Boruto an advantage. Even though Watsuki is physically stronger, his superior mastery of the Byakugan and Juken put him above.
Yet, it's complicated to handle this battle while avoiding the red hand's touch at all cost. He has to focus his strength and attention on it. Though it is still made easy enough by Watsuki who actually uses almost only that limb. At one point, when the Otsutsuki tries to grab the palm of Boruto headed toward him, the Hyuga creates an opening.
Hakke Kusho
Both their palms get close to each other, but the superior strength of Boruto's Taijutsu repels the red hand before it touches him. It pushes Watsuki's arm up and leaves him open for a second. Long enough for Boruto to aim for his left heart without a risk.
Chidori
The yellow-haired ninja promptly stabs through the celestials' first heart with a lightning blade, which startles the two invaders. When he feels the hand of his enemy move in his chest to slice toward his second heart, Watsuki gasps and hurries to push Boruto away with his foot. As soon as out of range for the Chidori, Watsuki uses a double gale palm to send the Hyuga flying through the window, away from the castle and down to the soil of the hollow moon.
"That's unexpected." Aritsuki comments about what just happened. "He knows how to kill one of us. He must have learned it from the Rinnegan user."
"What?" Watsuki exclaims, confused by this statement.
"Oh, didn't you realize it by now?" the blond-haired one answers. "This human must be the son of the yellow fox and heir of Hamura Otsutsuki, Boruto Hyuga. Unluckily, we ran into one of the strongest from this world."
"So… That's why he has the Tenseigan…?" Watsuki asks. "But it means this bird from earlier could warn the fox from our presence!"
"Yeah, you better finish him quick." Aritsuki adds. "I doubt he's any close to being at his father's level, but careful. Now you know he can kill you."
Down in a forest covering the large inner surface of the moon, Boruto uses Hiraishin to appear next to his sword that fell down earlier. Taking his blade back in his hands, he thinks about how easier it could make this fight. Defeating that guy would surely be simpler if he didn't have his red hand.
His thoughts are suddenly interrupted by the ground trembling under his feet. Watsuki crashes into the forest at super speed and, right as he lands, rises spiky stone columns under Boruto's feet. The Hyuga, who felt this coming, leaps away repeatedly and blocks the emerging stone picks as they follow his traces and gets faster and larger. To get rid of all at once, Boruto lets all his Gudodama circulate around him to form a barrier that he completes with Hakkessho Kaiten.
His defense widens and obliterates all the matter around, preventing the rise of any more deadly stone. When he stops his rotation and puts his black orbs back to rest, he's surprised by Watsuki who jumps in to directly attempt another physical contact. Straight with his ideas, Boruto lets himself fall back to get his body out of range and swings his sword to cut off the red hand.
Akateko
To his surprise, from just a contact of the blade's sharp side with the back of Watsuki's hand, his weapon vanishes just like Toneri or the Gudodama did earlier. Unarmed, he uses his eyes' telekinetic abilities as taught by Sasuke, similarly to how the Rinnegan does. With a reproduction of Shinra Tensei, he blasts Watsuki away to avoid his touch.
To break the action, he blindly strikes the enemy with a massive wind unleashed from his Gudodama spiraling in a circle. His own chaotic move made him lose track of the enemy, but also left him some time to think. "If anything touching his hand or ankle disappears, I'll just have to cut his whole arm off." he says to himself.
To overcome his lack of weapon, he grabs one of his Gudodama and concentrates to control it. As Toneri said, it can be whatever he wants. He doesn't need it to change state or appearance. He just needs something sharp, like his sword. From this thought and wish, he manages to shape this single orb into a new black blade, imitating his Hyuga sword.
Now that he has a weapon, he focuses on sensing his opponent getting back into action. His last wind strike seems not to have done much damage to Watsuki. It's like this kind can't be hurt by most Ninjutsu anyway. He's still here, and Boruto could clearly see his chakra nearby with his Byakugan until now, when it suddenly vanished.
"You tried to cut off my hand!" he hears him yell. "How foolish of you."
Boruto finally sees Watsuki reveal himself out from the dust lifted by his previous attack.
"My red hand, Akateko, is the only path to enter my world." he explains. "If you were to disable it, your master would stay where he is forever. Trapped in a dimension where he loses 4 hours for every minute he spends there."
Hearing this, Boruto is actually relieved. It means there is a way for him to find Toneri. If he lets himself be touched, he'll end up in the same place as his master, and then he'll have to figure a way out. He already has the start of an idea. Maybe Hiraishin could be of help. In that case, he just needs to be sure to lay a mark somewhere practical.
Yet, much to his contempt, these schemes are made useless by Watsuki's unforeseen next move. With a chakra blade in his right hand, the celestial abruptly cuts off his own left hand. Boruto shockingly stares at him, unable to believe that he'd give up on his best card just like that. What he didn't realize yet, is stated clearly by Watsuki.
"Now, no way out for your master." the Otsutsuki says with a provocative smile.
Boruto, seeing the red hand fall down and turn to ashes, understands what his opponent's words mean. This was the key to free Toneri. And now it's impossible. Not even Sasuke could find a way to this other dimension without a clue. This unbelievable, machiavellian deed infuriates him. All he wants now is to take it out and avenge his master.
Angry, he screams as his purple chakra leaks out and gathers within and around him, activating his Tensei Chakra Mode. With the upgraded speed of this form, he dashes toward Watsuki and starts to hammer him down with his black blade, blinded by rage. The Otsutsuki, startled by this sudden rise in power, barely holds up to this offensive. He only does his best to block the strikes and crawls away as he laughs out. To calm his opponent, he tells him the reason for his laugh.
"As expected from a human, you're just an idiot blinded by your feelings!" he says, out of breath from his effort. "I recognize that underestimating you was a mistake, but you did worse by disregarding me! Hurting me now is pointless!"
Not listening, Boruto promptly stabs forward through the hand and chest of his kneeling enemy. By doing so, he successfully impales his second heart, leaving him one injury away from death. Yet Watsuki is still smiling. Curious to understand, Boruto lets him talk.
"You think a superior life form like me would only have one trick up his sleeve?" Watsuki says. "I am a celestial. I'm naturally better than you. All that a human can do with chakra, I can do it better!"
It is only now, as he uses his Byakugan's sight, that Boruto notices that his enemy seems oddly sparse in chakra. As if he lost an important amount of it. Or as if it had been split in parts. Seeing the one he impaled suddenly vanishing answers his question. This was a shadow clone. He understands it when he notices the real Watsuki in the corner of his Byakugan's sight in his back, free from the injuries of his clone. He still has his second heart and his red hand.
Earlier when he thought he lost track of him, Watsuki actually just hid his chakra print for an instant to confuse Boruto, and replaced himself with a clone, only to trigger his anger with this little act and catch him by surprise now. In a hurry, the Hyuga turns around to confront his enemy with his Gudodama sword, but is quickly disarmed.
With a palm hit on the blade's flat side, Watsuki propels the weapon away and forces Boruto's arms to spread open. As he falls back, Boruto has no way to avoid being touched by the red hand. Yet, he's glad that Watsuki didn't actually cut it off. This means at least he still has a way to save Toneri. All he needs is a jutsu formula laid somewhere. He can't sustain this need traditionally as his arms are out of reach. What he can do, however, is follow his master's advice.
He controls one of his Gudodama, infuses it with chakra to turn it into a glowing purple orb and throws it toward Watsuki. The Otsutsuki, unbothered, easily catches it with his right hand right before laying his red fingers on Boruto's chest.
Akateko
Touched, Boruto instantly vanishes just like Toneri. Finally rid of his opponent, Watsuki gets at ease but is still confused by one detail. In his right hand, the Gudodama he caught disappeared. He thinks that this is only because it was separated from its user and can't be used anymore. However, where the orb landed in his palm is now a spiral mark tattooed.
"Finally! We can proceed now." Aritsuki says as he comes closer to his acolyte, glad that it's over.
"Yeah… What now?" Watsuki says, confused about that mark in his hand, but not worried as he trusts his own power. "Should we hurry before the fox finds us?"
"I'm not afraid of the yellow fox." the blond-haired god answers. "If he comes, I'll possess his will and make an ally out of him. We should look for a quick passage to Earth from here. But let's not hurry too much. We could have a little tour of that magnificent castle over there."
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Boruto Hyuga, right after being touched by Watsuki's red hand, finds himself in a compact space where he lands back to the ground, next to his sword, an empty black orb and piles of debris. After standing up, he looks around to see a gray desert. In front of him is a tiny dried oasis. An empty lake pit and a dead tree with a torn rope attached to one of its branches. As far as he can look with his Byakugan, he only sees the same landscape over and over, as if he were in a loop. Back to the pit's side is Toneri who was just about to sit down.
"Master?" Boruto says, getting his attention.
"Oh, Boruto?" Toneri says. "I thought I was sent here alone."
"Uh? Well, you were?" the ninja answers. "I tried to fight these guys, but figured I should join and rescue you first."
"How did you have time to fight anyone?" Toneri asks. "I've been here for just a few seconds."
Boruto makes a confused face for a moment but understands. This must be the difference in time flow that Watsuki meant when he said Toneri would lose 4 hours for every minute spent here. This means one thing for sure: they gotta get out of here really quick to stop the Otsutsuki.
"Shit! we gotta go back to the castle and stop these bastards!" Boruto exclaims as he picks up his sword and goes to grab Toneri's hand.
With the confrontation hand seal, Boruto focuses on sensing the mark he left on Watsuki with a Gudodama before being transported. But unfortunately, he can't localize any of his marks. Indeed, he didn't consider it, but Sasuke did tell him that other dimensions were out of reach for any simple sensory ability. His marks on Earth, in his universe of origin, are too far away.
"Boruto, you didn't plan on using Hiraishin, right?" Toneri asks worriedly. "You know, this jutsu only moves you in a space parallel to one universe. You won't be able to bring us to the moon with that. Right now, we're outside of the universe, in another 3 dimensional space. We may be universes away from the moon."
The truth is exactly as Toneri explained. Hiraishin isn't designed to work across dimensions. The pocket space through which the user moves doesn't connect several universes. Boruto has joined Toneri here for just 10 seconds, but it has been 40 minutes outside already. 40 minutes that Aritsuki and Watsuki spent exploring the castle of Toneri. Naruto, unaware of Boruto's position, couldn't even locate him, and surely won't bother the Otsutsuki now.
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In Earth's universe, but far away, in the plains of Ashihara, the masked one called Tokubei Otsutsuki is back to his domain for the first time after a long absence. He's already greeted his wife, Fureya, and only now meets his son Taiyoshiki again, whom he was waiting for in his dorm room.
"Where have you been?" the son asks, which the father finds unusual.
"I guess there is a reason for this question. Is there somewhere you'd have expected me to be?" Tokubei answers.
"… In all honesty, somewhere that might be of your interest." Taiyoshiki says, referring to the reason his last lesson with Naobi was interrupted.
"You mean Takama, because Sasuke Uchiha might have found it, is that right?" Tokubei guesses, which gently surprises Taiyoshiki. "I'm also a Shinden, Taiyoshiki. I sensed the summoning of an ancestor, just like Naobi-sama did. And since it is obviously what you will ask about, I demanded the right to intervene to Yamitsuki."
"And I suppose he refused?" the son guesses. "Doesn't he find it alarming that Sasuke Uchiha gets access to a knowledge that even some of us ignore?"
"It seems, like about a lot of other things, he couldn't care less." Tokubei boringly replies. "As always, we're still all forbidden to take any action regarding Earth's inhabitants…"
Right as he says these words, Seimei, youngest member of the clan, barges into the room of Taiyoshiki, hoping to find her mentor and friend to inform him of an important matter she just discovered.
"Taiyo! My uncle went to Earth!" she yells before gasping aloud when she notices the second person in the room. Someone she certainly didn't want to hear that. "Uh? Tokubei-sama? Forgive me for the noise!" she says as she bows, hoping that her previous announcement went unnoticed.
But the masked celestial didn't even hear her greeting. The first statement captivated his attention too much. Taiyoshiki, surprised to learn about it and bothered that his dad heard it at the same time, stares at his father and waits for his reaction. Seimei stays immobile, waiting like Taiyoshiki.
Tokubei quickly figures out the reason and goal that Aritsuki could be pursuing on Earth, and knows that, for the Ryu Shinsen's interest, he has to be stopped. The first and most rational thing to do that comes to his mind, is to spread the information. And so, with just a word, he shocks his son and his friend.
"Naobi-sama." he calmly calls, to summon the wisest of their kind.
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2 hours later, Aritsuki and Watsuki are still inside the moon, on their way to a hidden cave, where there is a mystic lake that will transport them directly to the Earth. They found out about this passage after a complete tour of the castle during which Aritsuki also stopped to admire the glorious collection of humanoid puppets of Toneri.
He, who personally finds great interest in the anatomy of the living and the beauty that inferior beings can inherit from his kind, was impressed by the work put in these faithful yet original representations of living beings. It is later, by going through the writings in Toneri's personal room that they could find information and plans about the path built by his ancestors to reach Earth at any time.
Now on their way to the hidden cave, Aritsuki still exerts his amazement from the puppet workshop he's seen. Watsuki, who only feels jealous and frustrated whenever his master admires any other body than a celestial one, stays focused on their purpose.
"Aritsuki-sama, when we get there, don't forget to erase all the earthlings' memories about the two men I defeated along with what's about the Uchiha and our clan." he advises.
"Shouldn't you make sure they're dead before that?" Aritsuki asks, to be sure.
"It's not like they're ever gonna get out of my space anyway." Watsuki confidently replies. "Even if they did teach themselves a way to escape, it would take them months if not years. In this universe's time, they won't be back before at least 2 centuries. Any human alive now will be dead by then."
"What makes you think they don't already have a way to escape?" Aritsuki remains doubtful.
"They don't." the hairless one replies. "None of them showed any sign of a Dojutsu or mark that could allow them to jump across universes. Even that mark in my hand is only a path to a pocket space that can only be used as a shortcut through one single universe. In other words, they have no way to escape a dimension."
Just as he says this, full of confidence, he's promptly captured by a purple flash emitted from the mark in his hand. Aritsuki stops straight in the air, startled. Blinded by the flash, he hears a powerful blast. When he opens his eyes, he sees Boruto and Toneri standing on the ground, out of their prison, after what should for them have been only 30 seconds.
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2 hours ago, but not even a minute in the space they were locked in, Boruto was struck with the realization that his Hiraishin couldn't get them out of there. Fortunately, as he understood that he was stuck in a stranger's dimension with no way out, he triggered a unique jutsu that his sensei, Sasuke Uchiha, had sealed inside his eyes in case he ever found himself locked in another dimension after losing a battle. Chimatakami.
"What is that?" Toneri asked, confused.
"Oh! It's Sasuke-sensei's space-time jutsu." Boruto explained, not too glad about it. "It was set to activate if I ever saw him die in another dimension so I could still get his corpse to Konoha where he could be resurrected, or something like that…"
"Well what are we waiting for?" Toneri said. "Leaping in will get us back to our world, right?"
"Yes, but to Konoha." Boruto said. "We need to get back to these two guys and kill them before they reach Earth…"
Just as he explained this, sensing the interior of the portal, which is actually a timeless inter-dimensional hallway between universes, he got an idea. This isn't any different from the dimensional short cut of Hiraishin except it actually links dimensions with each other. From its inside, he should actually be able to sense all his jutsu formulas, no matter what space they are in.
This meant, if he laid a mark there and became able to sense it from anywhere, he could use this instead of his current pocket dimension and unlock the ability to travel dimensions.
By proceeding just like that, in just 20 seconds, he managed to upgrade his Hiraishin to work across dimensions. So, the Chimatakami that Sasuke sealed in his Tenseigan was wasted, but he successfully created a replacement for it. By using this new Hiraishin for the first time, he managed to localize the mark on Watsuki's palm and get back to the moon with Toneri.
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As soon as he arrived, he struck Watsuki before he could notice them with a Ginrin Tensei Baku, a wheel of Gudodama that annihilates everything in its way. But this first inexperienced jump across dimensions was even more tiring than Sasuke's first use of Chimatakami. Boruto is left almost strength-less by this enormous effort.
Aritsuki, witnessing the aftermath of this return, sees the two humans stand on the ground where Watsuki was. Toneri is holding his nearly passed out student. What bothers the celestial is the absence of his acolyte, which he unfortunately figures out a second later.
On the ground next to them, he stares in shock as he notices the lower body of Watsuki slowly turning to ashes and disintegrating. The young Otsutsuki, struck by surprise by Boruto's deadly technique, had all his upper body, including his head and two hearts, annihilated by the Gudodama spiral.
"WHAT DID YOU DO? HOW COULD YOU?" Aritsuki yells at them, in pure panic and anger as he realizes that a youngling died because of him. "I will make you pay for this! Which one of you did this?"
It doesn't take long for him to understand, by the state and posture he sees them in, that all the effort was done by Boruto. He is the one who killed Watsuki and will therefore carry his stigmata. Toneri has no importance to him now.
"I see. I'll just destroy you." he says to Toneri before looking at Boruto. "And I'll make you follow me directly to the Tenshin."
Boruto, held by his master, tiredly looks up to the angry celestial above them and realizes that, despite his current state, they will have to fight a much stronger and menacing opponent than who they just eliminated.
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End of Chapter 135 – Next Chapter: The Fire Ant