Twisted Fates.

Landing on one of the appendages, Megumi began to slide on them using chakra.

Two heads twisted around the long neck he was riding and began to chase him back towards Mukade's body.

"HEHEHEHEHEHEHEH~ How will you escape now!?" Mukade asked as his head looked down on everything from the top while nearly ten heads surrounded Megumi from all sides.

The birdcage head formation collapsed onto Megumi as he was trapped in its center with the heads all swinging down on their way to eat his head.

Heads regrew out of the neck Megumi was gliding on to entangle his limbs and katana by wrapping it in hair, trying to drag him to a slow stop.

"HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE~~~ I finally caught you!!!!!"

Mukade's head peered into the cage as he opened up a small frame for himself to enter inside using his head.

Greeting him inside was not a struggling Megumi or even a peaceful one, it was a note, a paper note that read, "Explosion is an Art Form-"

BBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM

A loud explosion resounded throughout the remains of the central tower sending shockwaves of dust flying outward. Flinging any loose rocks into the city that had become eerily silent.

Standing with the help of a loose brick, Megumi coughed heavily as a healthy shower of flesh, guts and blood rained upon the stagnant city.

Looking around from the top of the tower, Megumi could see exactly why the city was so silent.

Everyone had been frozen using seals.

'Must be something personally built using the Rymyaku vein as an energy source.' Megumi thought.

'Rura, you there/'

'Is he dead dead?'

'No. He'll just take some time to heal up if we don't do something soon.'

'Even after he was reduced to that mush?' Sakura asked as Megumi looked back at the center of the tower where a red pinkish mass of flesh mushed around like the stirring of freshly cooked porridge.

*blehhh*

Megumi vomited as soon as he saw the scene in front of him.

'That looks disgusting.'

'...'

'He's clearly still alive, just a matter of time until he gets up all fine and dandy, though I don't know if he'll have all those heads again though.'

'I see.'

'What about the insects?'

'They stopped moving once you blew him up.'

'That's nice...what do you think Hagoromo is doing?'

'I don't know, but this seems a bit too much to not have caught his attention. Did you use your space seals again?'

'No, I didn't. I made sure ot use Hiraishin every other time.'

'Good, maybe if our luck's good, just maybe he'll not find out.'

'For some reason I have a hard time believ-'

Megumi stopped midway through his words because he noticed something peculiar and odd.

Meanwhile in the fabric of fates where Hagoromo peered through the fabric of space and time looked down on the young man he had deemed a strict threat.

'I need to get rid of him now.'

'I can't let this grow. The foolish future me must've left this problem for me to deal with.'

'He probably is busy because the final stages of the plan are close to completion.'

'I guess I can spare a bit of my chakra to ensure he dies here.'

Weaving hand signs using his fingers, Haogoromo created a ripple in the fabric of space as a string of his own chakra attached to the one that he was using to spy on Megumi.

The string of chakra wrapped Megumi's string completely before expanding into a ball around it.

A closer look at the transparent ball revealed the tremendous amount of pressure with which it was weighing on the thread.

Under Hagoromo's delighted gaze the thread grew thin and strained taut.

Before anyone could say or even recognize otherwise, the thread of fate was snapped in two.

Hagoromo watched with a sagely smile, the other half of the thread floating away into nothingness. 

Eager to see what would happen this time he watched on to see what Megumi's final moments would look like.

'It is always a delight to learn how fate tried to find death for someone.'

'Rura, are those blobs of flesh still moving around?'

'The one in the tower? Yeah'

'No. The ones spread all around from the explosion...'

'Wha- Oh...they are.'

'Oh! Shit.'

'Shit indeed.'

'Rura you prepare a great fire jutsu, I gather them all together with Seramu! Wait do you see Seramu anywhere?'

'Not right now, but I remember seeing her go underground for some reason earlier.'

'I sent her there to disturb the ritual ring Mukade was making to offer the entire city as a sacrifice.'

'What!!?'

'No time to explain now, we need to stop those hundreds of smalled Mukade's from spawning or else everyone will be in danger! Even you and me!'

'Ok! Got it.'

Megumi began sliding along the rooftops, throwing tagged kunai at any wiggling masses that were already large and teleported them into a heap near Sakura.

On the other hand, Sakura prepared another Katon: Gouka Mekkyaku to burn away everything Megumi sent her way all at once.

"Seramu!!" Shouting to get Seramu's attention, Megumi created lightning in his hands to make further noises to attract her.

Seramu looked at Megumi in a confused manner as this was the first time she'd seen him panic so much.

"Gather all those fleshy bits and destroy them! Or everyone will be killed!" Megumi shouted across from the roof top as Seramu stood by the hole she'd created using some Earth jutsu.

Seramu nodded in agreement and began to rush around along with her husband as the two of them collectively burnt away any of the fleshy bits alive, moving.

Quite a few times due to the high speed of Hiroto and Seramu coupled with the disgusting looking mounds of flesh Sara blanched like Megumi, but held on.

'Rura! I'm sending the first batch! Be ready!'

'Ready! Send it a few meters ahead of me.'

'Ok.'

Megumi controlled his spiritual energy to wrap the fleshy bits around the kunai he'd thrown and then teleport all of it to a few meters in front of Sakura.

Soon a majestic heap of fleshy mass was formed that without getting the opportunity to combine or communicate was burnt away by Sakura's Katon: Gouka Mekkyaku, leaving nothing behind but scorched earth and molten rocks on the ground.

Seramu worked similarly with Hiroto and cleared them by freezing them with her seals and letting Hiroto burn them away using his fire jutsu.

But still their numbers climbed only the ten's while the fleshy bits scattered around reigned in hundreds.

In under a minute, everyone watched with a little fear when the fleshy bits grew at an astonishing rate. They watched it go through the twisted stages of life, from cells to a fetus to a child and finally a monstrosity.

HHHWHWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

HOWWOWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Forced to hear the sounds of howling from the new creatures that formed, Sakura and Megumi's skin thickened with goosebumps.

"Megi…" Sakura said worriedly as she, and Megumi, along with Seramu and her family watched large monstrous creations form out of the small blobs that were once a part of Mukade.

"Is he even alive?" Megumi asked.

"I don't think so, but anything detailed will have to wait until I can get my hands on them." Sakura replied.

The once majestic city was now bathed in blood and entrails as Monstrous creatures mindlessly smashed through the walls as if they were searching for something.

The creatures were all humanoid and stood on two legs and dark in color, almost as if light refused to touch them. They looked like walking silhouette of humanoid versions of the animals they were formed out of.

Each of the creatures had their own gimmick features, some had large ears, others sharp mouths, a few more long limbs with claws at their ends, and so on. But what they each had in common was they worked as a hive mind, working together to help each other figure out where to search next.

A few of the creatures attempted to run around and tried eating the frozen people but it didn't work. It was as if the people had been turned into statues and frozen to the clean and hard stone brick floor.

"What are those?" Sakura asked as she pointed at a fairly large dark creature with an elongated head that made clicking noises.

"I don't know, maybe it's the bat head from earlier? Using sound to navigate?"

"..."

A few of the newly formed creatures attempted to search outside Roran but were forced to a halt when they collided into a transparent barrier set up around it.

"That barrier, is it your doing?" Megumi asked incredulously since he knew not even Hashirama could accomplish such a feat of encompassing such a wide area with a strong and firm barrier.

"...no. I don't recognize it." Seramu revealed, shocking both Megumi and Sakura as they glanced at each other.

"Was this the threat you wanted to warn me about?" Seramu questioned Megumi as he slowly peeked over the top of a balcony wall.

"Well yes, but only if whatever that is, was still human and used puppets instead of animals to modify itself."

Everyone among the impromptu group was currently silent. Contemplating the situation they were in.

Someone had clearly meant for this to happen and locked them in with a barrier and a few hundred monstrosities that were moving around, searching for them.

All of them except Hiroto and Sara could guess who was trying to do this to them, but that still didn't change much about their situation.

"How do you think we should take it down? Any ideas?" Megumi asked.

"Can't you just...you know." Sakura left words unspoken but her meaning was clear: she wanted Megumi to teleport everyone out of this mess.

"No, Hiraishin depends on the domain surrounding the user, I'd end up falling into the enemies hands if I try to teleport us anywhere. And...I don't want to just let the people that are trapped die." Megumi rejected in a roundabout way.

"...I don't think anything will happen to the people here until the dragon's vein dries up." Seramu interrupted.

"Is that-"

BBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Before Megumi could complete his sentence the dragon's vein exploded in a pillar of pink light as it enshrouded everything in its glow.

"What the he-"

Megumi attempted to curse but was cut off when space split apart as entire house moved without causing any harm to its surroundings and everything joined at weird angles without rhyme or reason.

The vast city of Roran was turned into a labyrinthian maze that was bordered by houses forming walls to guide whosoever was in it deeper into the maws the monstrosities.

Sakura stood in a different space so did Seramu and Hiroto while Megumi stayed in a different space with Sara and they could each see other only through the faraway windows of each house.

"What t-"

But Megumi was cut off when he realized that in his tight corridor were three dozen of those humanoid black frankenstein'ed monstrosities.

Sara beside him audibly gulped as Megumi finally,

"WHAT THE HECK!" finished his cursing.

"Megi!!!" Sakura shouted and tried to push through the hard space walls that kept the windows out of access, but failed.

"Don't worry!! I'm alright!!" Megumi exclaimed.

"Mom! I'm fine!" Sara shouted over to her mother. "Aniki will take care of me!!"

"Yes, I will!! Don't worry!!" Megumi said waving his hands but it seemed like the walls were one way, they allowed Megumi to hear others but others couldn't hear him and Sara.

'Someone's targeting me? Hagoromo?'

The three people finally managed to calm down when they saw that Megumi and Sara were alright.

"What now?" Sakura asked Megumi and he just pointed towards the center, toward the Ryumyaku vein.

"Maybe there will be a way for us to meet at the center!"

Sakura, Seramu and Hiroto, nodded as they began to focus on their paths, since the shouting they did had caused some of the creatures to become aware of their presence.

Megumi wanted to try something out but left it at the back of his mind since he did not want to do something that might make the situation worse than it already was.

'Is Hagoromo watching? Did he do this?'

'But how did he figure out a way to make space fracture like this? Wasn't his speciality related to fates?'

"Aniki, I'm scared." Sara's cries brought Megumi's thoughts back to reality as he picked her up and holding his katana with one hand said, "Don't worry, your Aniki is here. He'll keep you safe no matter what."

-------------------------

Thank you for reading!

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