Chapter 68: Reunion

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Last chapter was 4196 words due to me wanting to paint a clear picture on the friendship between Mito and Mikoto as well as her outlooks on the things of the world. I don't know how it's gonna be going down the line but we'll see.

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Title: Reunion.

...

The Eight Gates exist in order to limit the flow of chakra within an individual's body. Ordinarily, individuals can use no more than 20% of their body's full potential, the brain's way of protecting the individual from harming their body through overexertion.

With training, individuals can learn to remove these limiters, referred to as "opening" the gates. With each opened gate, individuals are given access to more and more of their body's chakra, thus increasing their physical strength and speed.

People able to open the Eight Gates have existed since this technique was invented by the first Tengoku and although his method was unique it was improvised as time passed.

The gate of healing according to the author of the book she had read, was the gate that constituted to the blood vitality of a Human's body. By opening this gate, not only would ones restorative abilities increase, their physical strength would immediately double.

This was the gate Mito decided to store her extra chakra and cells. It wasn't like she was going to go through any form of physical training, no. She just had to gather enough chakra and push it into that place on a constant basis and when she needs it, she'd immediately explode it and get an increase in power.

Mikoto had told her that just by merely pushing chakra into that gate, she was already increasing her regeneration ability as well as her physical strength.

...

The time came for Mito to inscribe this seal into her chakra pathways and Mikoto was standing just beside her with an encouraging smile.

"I'll begin now." Mito said with a resolute gaze as pointed at Mikoto.

Mikoto nodded but just as they were about to begin, the old man appeared out of nowhere once more and said. "Don't mind me, I just want to be around as you create your own legend. It'll be good story material."

He said and sat casually on the ground while peering at her. Mito found this strange but ignored it.

Taking deep breaths, she closed her eyes, clapped her hands together and began the process.

Over the course of two years, she had come to understand that handsigns were somewhat of a crutch. Her friend, Mikoto, could spam various techniques just with a thought and after asking how she does it, she came to know that they always go through mandatory meditation everyday to get accustomed with their Chakra pathways.

One thing led to another and she too could now circulate her chakra without the need of handsigns.

With Mito, with the use of her Kagura Mind Eye, she was able to gain access to her mindscape rather easily after visiting the Yin layer of the dimension.

Currently, she(Her consciousness) was sitting on the ground in a sunny landscape with something akin to a hologram of her body in front of her.

With a focused gaze, chakra condensed on her fingertips with which she used to begin drawing on the air above the holographic body of hers.

Despite how huge and bold they were, once one algorithm was completed, it'll immediately be imbued into the it supposed location seamlessly.

This continued for what seemed like hours as she continuously drew letters, symbol, numbers and other special characters.

Soon, the sun shining on her entire mindscape seemed to begin setting and soon, it fell entirely ushering in darkness, surprisingly though, her spiritual body kept emanating light that kept her going, but even that light began to flicker in and out, signalling the depletion of her Spiritual energy.

On the outside, Mikoto and the old man noticed her face going deathly pale and while Mikoto became worried, the man merely waved his hand and a fresh breeze swept over her, returning her face to normal.

"That's what she gets for going against the natural laws." He muttered with an approving look on his face.

Mikoto wondered whether he was praising her or telling her she shouldn't go against nature.

Inside the mindscape the darkness faded away as light once again shone. The 'sun' began shining even more brightly than before. Mito noticed all this but didn't relax her concentration even a little bit.

She continued drawing symbols upon symbols, letters upon letters, number upon numbers and special characters upon special characters.

Due to the lack of the concept of time in ones mindscape, Mito didn't even know how long she had been in here but when she drew the final seal on her forehead she felt her mindscape shake after which she saw an amazing sight.

Cracks began appearing on the skies of her mindscape, even the sun seemed to crack like glass amd shattered soon after.

Unlike what she had read about in cases where ones mindscape shattered, she didn't feel any soul stirring pain as it was explained, instead, she felt a sense of euphoria.

This feeling was so soothing that she felt a sudden urge to close her eyes and rest for a moment. And following this urge,she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

The holographic body she had just painted overlapped over her spiritual body and merged with it soon after. The crack in her mindscape completely shattered after which the grassy plains became even more exuberant.

Her former Sunny Field became an even lusher Field. The grass rolled and came towards her sleeping body, rolled around her and rapped her till was covered in a green cocoon.

The entire place was silent as if waiting for their creator to awaken from it cocoon and become a butterfly.

...

"Colour me impressed." The old man said while stroking his beard.

Mikoto looked at the man and asked. "What happened?"

"Why are you asking me, take a look at her with your eyes."

"Oh." Mikoto blushed and then turned to Mito and looked at her. Her red star shaped iris began glowing as she peered into Mito's body.

"Wow." She simply said.

"I know." The old man nodded again.

"She's... She's becoming immortal." Mikoto said. "This is impossible, no, she's becoming nigh-immortal."

"Exactly, her body will die after a couple decades, but her soul will remain exuberant as far as she doesn't will it to pass on. She's one lucky lady." The man said while giving her another look.

"Once she wakes up, I doubt there's anything this place can offer her again." He said and turned to leave.

"Why's that? Knowing her, she would want to absorb more knowledge before leaving."

"That's the point exactly. She doesn't need to absorb someone's knowledge. She has already embarked on a path, entirely unique to her. Perhaps only three people still alive can teach her a thing or two, but she can't possibly stay here." The man said.

"The original Creator usually said, 'I'll give you the foundation and theories of what chakra is, what you do with it is entirely up to you.' Does this sound familiar? You're his descendants after all, that's why this place isn't permanently opened up to you lot."

"I see." Mikoto simply said as she pondered what the man had said. Shun always said the same thing whenever she asks him to teach her something new.

He'd always say that chakra is the most versatile energy there is, just find your own way of using it and life will become even more beautiful.

Since they were young, he had been her mentor in the medical field, but that was that. He only gave her the basics and told her to read the rest up.

She always called him lazy but as she grew she found reason in that thought process. Everyone's mind moves and think differently. She found that even the littlest touch could claim one's life the same way it can bring a dying man back to life.

It was all about perspective.

"It's good you understand. Leave her a note telling her to leave or wait for her to wake up and leave together, you two don't have much to learn here anyways." The man's voice came with the wind as he was nowhere to be found.

"To think he isn't even a living person. Nah. He's a living person but not human. What an interesting person our ancestor was." Mikoto thought to herself while silently admiring this ancestor of hers.

Unlike most of her clan members or maybe due to having contact with Kuchiki (Shun), Yuri and Hinami, her way of thinking was different.

While others thought of ways to live carefreely, she was made to discover the secrets hiding in the most plainest of sights.

Looking at Mito sitting motionlessly on the ground, she smiled at having made another reasonable friend who wasn't thinking about ways to kill her the next second or too immature to think for themselves.

Going to her side, she sat cross-legged and began meditating. Since her friend was passing through an ordeal, she had to sit there and wait for her to awaken, that's what friends do.

...

End of Flashback.

Mito sat in her room smiling stupidly as she looked into space. A lot of things had happened over the years after she met her best friend and rival, Mikoto.

Now, she was getting married to the only man to make her heart flutter in ways she had never experienced.

He was someone so pure in heart that despite the amount of people he had killed, he didn't seem to be tainted by any foul or bad intent.

His smile was something anyone would hope to see in their darkest moments. It was bright and sunny as springs.

The only negative thing about him was that he was an idiot, cute but am idiot nonetheless. It was the kind of idiocy that would make those closest to him want to follow him in order to protect him.

To top it all off, he was strong. The feeling he gave off was something she had met with the Mikoto she met on the first day in the dimension.

Now though, she was strong enough to contend with Mikoto but that feeling of invincibility still flowed from him. An aura that says, 'no matter what, I'll get what I want.'

He and his rival Madara gave off that same feeling, though Madara's aura was cold for some reason, like he was meant to be the opposite of Hashirama no matter how amicable he looked.

Madara was someone she always had her guard up against. No matter how much Hashirama said he was a good person, she just couldn't put down that feeling.

Her Kagura Mind Eye had evolve into something more, something akin to precognition of things happening, whether good or bad, and Madara have her bad vibes.

Shaking her head, she shook off all distractive thoughts from her mind. She was going to marry the man of her dreams the next day, her father, uncles, cousins and friends were here, the only one absent was Mikoto.

She had personally asked her father to send a special invitation later to the chief of the Tengoku clan, while mentioning Mikoto's name.

Today was the last day before her marriage and first and best friend wasn't here to celebrate it with her.

"Where the hell are you?" She muttered, and as if to answer her a loud voice came from afar.

"YOU RED HAIRED BITCH. WHY AREN'T YOU HERE TO WELCOME THIS YOUNG MISS!?" And as if to accentuate her voice, a strong wind picked up and blew into he courtyard.

Mito smiled blissfully, her best friend made it but the next moment she too replied.

"YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT YOU WHITE HAIRED DEMON?"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY BITCH?"

"WHAT? DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE ALSO DEAF NOW."

"YOU SEEM TO HAVE GOTTEN A LOT OF BACKBONE RECENTLY HUH?"

"RECENTLY? PLEASE, I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU FOR SO LONG, NOW? HEHEHE."

"OH? IS THIS BECAUSE YOU'VE FOUND SOME STRONG MAN TO RELY ON? YOU THINK YOU CAN GANG UP AND BEAT ME? DON'T FORGET YOU HAVEN'T WON EVEN ONCE SINCE WE BEGAN OUR RIVALRY." Mikoto laughed as she said this.

"BELIEVE WHAT YOU WANT, BUT FROM OUR MONTHLY SPARS, WE'RE MATCHES 11-10."

"OH? ALTHOUGH I DOUBT IT, IT'S STILL GOOD YOU KNOW I'M HIGHER THAN YOU."

"BELIEVE WHAT YOU WANT BUT I'M THE ONE AT 11, YOU'RE AT 10, AND GUESS WHAT?"

"WHAT?"

"I'VE BEATEN YOU ONCE MORE." Mito's proudly said.

"HOW SO?"

"I'M GETTING MARRIED BEFORE YOU, THATS ONE TO ME, ZERO TO YOU, HAHAHA."

"WHA-WHAT!" Mikoto's rising momentum fluctuated for an instant before stabilizing once more.

"HUMPH, I'M HERE WITH MY ANIKI, *AHEM* ANATA, SO IT'S 11 TO ME 11 TO YOU."

"IS THAT SO? AT LEAST YOU AGREE WE'RE EQUAL." Mito chuckled as Mikoto accepted her earlier claims.

"WHA-WHAT. GAH! MITO YOU BITCH, YOU TRICKED ME. COME OVER HERE, LETS SETTLE THIS THE OLD FASHION WAY."

"Is that really what you want, Mi-ko-to-chan." Mito's voice came from behind her.

Without even flinching in surprise, Mikoto turned. "Yes it is, Mito-chan."

The looked at each other with piercing gaze for a few seconds with their chakra rising and clashing against eachother's. The people watching from the outside didn't know what was going on but the chakra the two emitted scared them from intervening.

As the crowd watched, the two ladies disappeared and appeared in the middle, "Gan, ken, pon" ×2 only for them to both present open palms.

"Again, gan, ken, pon."

Once again, the both presented a scissors. "Again! Gan ken pon."

This kept repeating itself as the two fought in the game of rock paper and scissors, directly forgetting they were being watch by a flabbergasted audience.

Where did all the momentum from earlier go? The chakra, the aura, the threats. Where did they all go?

Meanwhile, the two ladies used all their mental capabilities In playing this game. Unlike what the crowd thought, Mito and Mikoto were actually sparing, albeit mentally.

Mito with her precognitive ability and Mikoto with her Rikugan powered heightened perception. Every single twitch of Mito's hand muscle was captured by her while every action of Mikoto was being seen earlier than it was done.

In conclusion, this was a battle of endurance, the one with the stronger mental strength will be the final winner.

...

Meanwhile, Tobirama who had just caught up with his brother asked. "That was Mito's voice earlier. You think something has happened?"

Tobirama wasn't worried about Mito, far from that, he had seen and experienced first hand what Mito could do. If not for his brothers Mokuton and Sennin Mode, he was sure as hell she could singlehandedly take one the entire Senju clan.

She was basucalua walking disaster. Thankfully she was quite an amiable person.

Hashirama however waved his hand and said. "I can only imagine who she's having a fight with. Seeing as the Tengoku clan head is here, then that friend of hers should be here too."

Tobirama nodded with a 'Hn'. If Shun was here, he would definitely have more reasons not to like this guy.

"I wonder what that friend of hers is like, perhaps we can use her to get more information on the Tengoku clan." Tobirama said.

Hashirama stopped and looked at his brother in awe. Was this still his smart little brother? Was it just him or was their role reversed today.

"Why are you looking at me that way." Tobirama asked.

"Little brother, are you okay?" Hashirama asked worriedly.

Tobirama scowl grew deeper and he said in a deep voice, "I'm fine brother, even if I wasn't, I would be able to heal myself."

"No, I don't think so, come on, I'm currently the best healer in the clan, lemme check you out for a bit. Perhaps this lack of war has finally gotten to you." Hashirama pressed on sincerely.

"Brother, I'm going to assume this is one of your rare periods of being humorous, if not, please conduct yourself properly." Tobirama spat out annoyed.

Hashirama stopped and looked at his little brother for a while before sighing. "It's just that since today, you've been making and saying some obvious mistakes that even I would know and not do."

Tobirama frowned. 'What is brother talking about?' he asked himself.

Knowing his brother was actually wise when he needs to be, he decided to ponder on his actions and words since a couple minutes back.

After a few seconds, he rubbed his temples and said. "I see."

"I hope you have, you can't just expect someone who's apparently in the personal squad of the clan head as well as a captain to give out information on their clan, now would you?" Hashirama asked causing Tobirama to stiffen but being as thick-skinned as he was, he didn't even blush and turned his face toward the place chakra was clashing.

"Are you sure you don't want to go have a look? That chakra give even me the chills." Tobirama said.

"Hahaha, I see you finally understand. But geez, seeing as it is Mito-chan's friend, everything should be okay." Hashirama said only to feel the two chakra rush at eachother at breakneck speed, but instead of clashing, they stopped in-between and began doing something else.

"Hmm... That's weird, perhaps we should go check it out." Hashirama said to which Tobirama nodded and flickered away.

...

With Shun, he immediately placed a time seal, and strengthening seal on their room as well as a silencing seal as soon as he entered.

As minutes passed on the outside, hours passed inside the room. Both Shun and Hinami were beings beyond normal humans, and their body functioned differently.

Be it Shun Artificially made body or Hinami's naturally strong body, everything aspect of it was beyond what normal humans could handle, hence the need to take some precautionary measure.

As they lay on the bed Shun had created, he hugged Hinami tightly and asked. "Think Mikoto and this Mito are doing alright?"

Hinami rubbed his chest gently and said. "Hmm, dunno but she's a sensible person, although slow at times, she's still good. It'll be another thing if it was Yuri."

"Hahahaha, you're right on that one." Shun laughed.

There was a long moment of comfortable silence between them, before Shun spoke.

"We've lived for quite a long time Nami, isn't there anything you'd like to accomplish?" Shun asked lovingly.

For all these time, she has only dedicated her time to him and thing relating to him. Shun hadn't seen her take a time for herself. To just enjoy herself.

"Are you looking for an excuse to chase me away and find more women?" Hinami raised herself and looked at Shun seriously.

"I'm being serious Hinami. Since the beginning, except for the time you asked why we had to leave both Izanagi and Izanami, you've never asked anything again. Don't you have something you wish to do? Izanagi and Izanami are even alive right now. Although Nagi ran as he noticed our chakra all those years ago, Nami is still on the Nadeshiko island you know. An island filled with women and only women. A paradise for all men- ouch."

Shun winced in pain as he felt Hinami pinch through his Specially made skin.

"Sorry, what I'm saying is, you have your life to live, just leave the matters relating to the five major village to me, gonhave your own experience, be it on this planet or outside. In this part of the universe, we aren't well know, some other civilization may just be out there waiting for us to discover them. Or you can still go over and have some time with Izanami and that little girl Tomoe I trained."

Shun looked at her dotingly and asked. Whether he liked to admit or not, of his three women, Hinami was the most dedicated, at the same time, she was the only one that seemed ambition-less.

Ria, despite being all bratty at such an old age is a genius in her own right and had shaped Rōran into a metropolitan city using the bits and pieces of knowledge she'd gotten from my experiments.

Currently, aside from the natural beauty Hanagakure (Country hidden in flowers.) had, Rōran was the next beautiful place on this planet as well as the most self sustainable city despite being in a desert.

Kaguya, despite being a make-shift scientist on the new energy under Rōran, still had a deep desire to meet her children and give them a reasonable explanation while hearing their story.

This was something Shun had discovered and had told her she would get her desires when his prophecy came through.

Being a dutiful wife, she agreed and delved right into her research on time related energy and it's prospects.

Shun had already planned to incorporate her and Hinami into his universe, Kaguya would be the Godhead of Time and all motion related concepts while Hinami will be the Godhead of space and all space related concepts.

Simply put, Kaguya would become the sentient version of the speedforce, still force and eternity, while Hinami would become something akin to Infinity.

"Maybe... Just maybe, after this life, I'll go around the world, maybe take up a student and see how it plays out." Hinami muttered undecided.

"Really!?" Shun asked in excitement.

"Yeah. But don't think I'll let you off if I come back and see you with another woman. Got that?"

"Crystal. Also, I wouldn't dream of having another woman. I'm seriously centuries year old, maybe a quick fuck here and there but nothing seriou." Shun casually joked.

"Ouch. How do you even do that?" Shun asked. Being able to hurt him once may be coincidence but doing it twice?...

"In this universe no one except maybe you and the few God Kings have better manipulation of space than me, so figure it out." Standing up from the bed, she materialised a dress and said. "I'm going to check up on Mikoto, see whether you can make friends with Ashura's little brother."

"What? The white haired dude? Nah..."

"Why? Does he remind you of yourself?" Hinami teased.

"Woman, I was not broody as fuck in my twenties, I was enjoying my peaceful life with my children."

"No, not that... I could feel a deep desire for knowledge from him, he's gifted but perhaps a little bit misguided." Hinami said.

"Heh. He has spent his entire life with Ashura and hasn't changed, what makes you think I would be able to stand him?"

"Well, maybe because he's exactly like Indra when we were all young. You know, the genius, protective, and ever stoic part of Indra." Hinami said and giggled.

"Yeah, but apparently, he hates the Uchiha to his core, I don't doubt for a single second that he will be the undoing of Hashirama's dream." Shun said and also got dressed.

"Hashirama and not Ashura?"

"Yup, Ashura wants to bring Indra back to the light, that isn't possible in this time, but as I've said before, they'll lay down the groundworks for that to happen. Hashirama will, but that Tobi guy? His paranoia will cause why I'll have to interfere in the inner workings of the future village, either by force or they willingly allow it. If not..." Shun said and snapped his finger, deactivating the seals in the room.

"If not.. what?" Hinami asked.

"Hehe, that's for me to know and you to find out dear. Now. Now. Mikoto awaits." Saying this, he left the pouting Hinami and walked out of the room.