Ascending Madness

Thu Oct 13, 2016 6:51 pm

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High. He'd climbed quite high up, up a mountain and beyond, following the path of what had begun, to his eye, as a raging river cascading into the ocean via a lovely delta, backwards into a narrower stream, some places nothing more than a tiny brook or a leaking of water under a log, until it began to ascend. As it climbed and clawed its way up the mountain's face, so too did the man who trailed it, drank from it, occasionally snatched a fish from it, and pursued its birthplace with a strange vigor. The wanderlust had come once more, a restlessness of his mind and flesh and, as he roamed, he'd found this journey and allowed it to sweep him up.

Now he stood, up above the river, up near its snowy womb, on a small ledge of stone looking out over an endless sea of clouds. His mind wandered in the thin altitude to his home, to his days of youth in which he would climb into the mountains of Heaven's Blossom, the peaks which surpassed all among the earth and heavens. Even when young he had roamed, wandered, and viewed everything, eating up sights and sounds and thoughts with a ravenous hunger. Up on this mountain, he saw back into his past and the past of his clan, the slain members dead due entirely to the foolishness of the higher ups, those who had claimed to protect the village in a virtually endless parade of nonsense and fake, foolish leaders.

He rolled his eyes and his vision flew upwards, up into the sky above the clouds, above the mountain, above the world and up into the darkened sky, up into the net of stars cast over the earth and imprisoning them, up into the blinding glare of the sun firing off from a strange angle and, opposite this, the moon, floating serenely by himself. Those whirling, red eyes, now fully unveiled and glowing in the strangely lit skyline and out across the flowing, churning sea of white, fluffy clouds, capturing, as they always did, every single available detail.

He then sat, cross legged, and placed his hands upon his knees, fingers reaching up to the stars, and he closed his eyes, drawing deep breaths in a slow, controlled way. He was not a large practitioner of meditation, though he found the measured breathing quite natural as he was a calm person by nature. He focused, clearing his mind and found it quite difficult, the information within him buzzing crazily as he focused on a hundred things at once, combing over myriad facts and a plethora of details. He focused though, a kind of strange, loose focus of relaxation, picking up those stray thoughts before letting them go, releasing them as he would a captured fish, picking it swiftly from the water only to then release his grasp a moment later and watch it swim away. After some time he found himself devoid of thoughts, his mind finally, after an incalculable amount of individual moments, finally emptied. And then it began.

Spoiler:

Sun Oct 30, 2016 5:05 pm

He had been in that meditation for some time, the lack of oxygen getting to him and expanding his mind far more than any mere training, exhaustion, or simple fighting could ever hope to achieve. It had taken a long time to get to this state, though he could not be sure how much time he had been allowed to pass for that was not something permitted to focus upon. No he had simply melted there into the world and the mountains of his childhood and eventually he began to see things, taking him on a drastic and strange journey the likes of which he could never have simply predicted. He had no idea if it was real, if this was actually something which he had experienced physically or if it was purely a strange and spiritual thing but no matter, he found from it that which he sought.

It had all started with the normal zen like calm and spirituality of a more traditional meditative experience in that he had simply eventually set aside all of his thoughts and the like and let them flow away. That had offered him a powerful introspection into the very nature of his being and his soul which he had enjoyed many times over at this point and which would allow him to bring about the beginnings of this journey. He had come across what he could only describe as a strangely colored shrimp, one which could talk almost like a summoned creature and which he conversed with for a time before allowing it to come along with him down the road he followed for it seemed that the pair were travelling to the same place.

They walked in companionship for a short time before arguments came out. The tiny shrimp was feisty and annoying, prideful and wanting of fight and ready at any moment to explode in a torrent of attacks and verbal assaults. He was quite annoying and seemed to foil the personality of Jianyu quite heavily as the man was a quite one, walking even on utterly silent steps and carrying himself in a refined way that was yet at all times poised to strike. Even while coiled like a viper the man appeared utterly in control and almost shockingly calm. And so the pair went on, the smaller of the two riding upon the taller's shoulders and speaking in his low and rolling voice almost constantly, though quietly enough that a mere passerbyer would probably not hear him.

The road changed then from simply an implied path of white and shadow against an endlessly white plain to an actual path of dirt and stone cobbled together. Trees grew then around them and they found themselves in a seemingly unending forest. They walked until finally something seemed to have changed, Jianyu's ears perking up moments before a tree branch shot through the air, striking at the location just where Jianyu had been only a moment before. A man stood there, in a small hollow, having just invoked some strange wood technique to attack the man and his newfound friend. The red eyes of him narrowed, taking in every detail and every bit of chakra, absorbing the knowledge of the man's chakra and the technique he had just used, and marveling at the sword the man had been carrying, the blade apparently made of water and flowing out of a small glass container.

The man said nothing but instead lunged forward, the trees wrapping around him as he went. They lunged forward like huge claws looking to grasp the man but, as he jumped backwards to avoid the strike they surged forward once more in an attempt to either grasp or impale him. His eyes widened as he felt himself grow full of incredulity that his eyes had not seen the attack coming. Was this where he died? Was this how he went? The small shrimp flashed across his periphery as hit maneuvered across from his back and up upon his shoulders, its small fist like claws already poised to strike as they seemed to always be. He flicked the fists forward in a blinding flash and then another one, followed by a third and fourth all faster than Jianyu could track, much to his surprise. The fists destroyed each small branch, blowing the wood apart and crushing the branch for feet and feet away, showing how much raw power the small creature held in his arms and fists. Astounded, the Uchiha moved quickly.

His bow, ever present and trustworthy, had already appeared in his hands, withdrawn from his back with a motion born of endless repetition of thousands upon tens of thousands of cycles of brandishing the smooth, violet color of the thing. A pair of arrows had arrived in his other hand and he instantly knocked the the thing, letting a single arrow fly out towards the charging Senju just as his feet hit the ground. At that moment, a single thread of chakra wound from his pinky to his heart, enlivening him and allowing him to rapidly reposition himself off to the side of the man whereupon he took a careful aim, launching his second projectile directly to where the assailant would logically dodge. By flanking he cut off most of his options and so the arrows flow true to the top and front of the man, boxing him in.

The Senju did something unexpected though and used one of the branches as a platform, spontaneously growing it beneath him and fully halting his motion before dodging away from the archer and down towards the ground. The sword had vanished, sucking itself back into the small jar as the man's arms moved rapidly, likely a jutsu. Before Jianyu could knock another arrow, the branches around him moved, trees erupting from the ground to attempt to attack and ensnare him, and Jianyu had no choice. His eyes focused and intensified, a double spiral pattern appearing in each and, in that moment, he vanished from reality, the trees and branches failing utterly to touch him and instead passing harmlessly through. He dashed forward then, out of the way of the solid objects, and focused his vision upon the man, igniting all that he could see in an endless sea of black flames.

His manipulation of them was superb as he both caused them to collapse upon the man in lance like patterns and gathered up some of the flame into his right hand, forming a wickedly curved, schimitar shaped blade out of pure black flames. He moved to strike the man who was about to be swallowed by the flames of Amaterasu when a half dome arose on either side of him, taking the damage of the lances of fire, as well as the man enwreathed in flame's attack. The sword managed to dig deeply into that wood but it was stuck and Jianyu unhanded it before flying backwards due to kicking off of the wall. A barrage of chakra sharpened leaves met his backwards motion but, again, the shrimp fended these off without even breaking a sweat, such was the skill of the small creature. Curiously, Jianyu felt that he could smell the leaves far before they had even arrived upon him, something which he felt certain that he could not have done before this.

The dome exploded then with a massive human made of wood and shrouded in a tangle of dragon like structures before rocketing forward. Placing his bow back upon his wide shoulders, the man opened his beautiful eyes then and, suddenly, his chakra ruptured outwards, creating a massive construct of shimmering, ethereal gold, holding a massive spear with what appeared to be a sword affixed to the end and six other arms attached to his back, appearing almost like some kind of Buddhist god. It swung the massive blade, striking the dragon and causing a huge explosion that knocked the two avatars away from one another. Jianyu seemed to recover first and flung himself forward, the spear pointed at the man riding the statue of wood.

The thing lept but, could not evade in time and was caught about its midsection, rending a large hole in it and tearing away one of its arms. Before it can react, three of the spare arms from the right side reach forward, grabbing the right leg of the thing and pulling the massive human of wood down onto the earth once more, slamming it with huge force into the ground and causing a massive eruption of fragments of earth and soil and chips of stone. With his original two hands, he slammed the spear down once more to the monster, slicing its head clean off, though the man riding it had evaded the attack by leaping away. A fifth hand moved though, slamming down and crushing the man's bottom half, ending his life in an instant.

The Susano'o dissipated and Jianyu placed his feet upon the ground once more and paced over to the dying corpse. He retrieved from this poor, strange soul both that legendary blade and the heart, which he would put within his own body in due time, granting him massive powers and increasing his vigor and force by droves.

When finally he woke from this, regaining consciousness upon the very mountain, he had with him a small jar of what appeared to be a very gaseous water, a small shrimp upon his back, and a new, strongly beating heart. When he opened his eyes and peered at the sword holding jug, he caught the gentle, rippled pattern of his new eyes staring back at him. He had awakened.