Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Eye of Eternity ❯ Part 3: ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
[C:]

When her father had collapsed back into chair, Taylor was worried and reacted accordingly. She sprang forward and was by her father's side in an instant. She studied him worriedly as her father's eyes seemed to be motionless and looking through her as though she wasn't even there. Taylor quickly shook her father worriedly.

"Whoa ... Since when did you get so strong?" he asked.

"Are you okay, Dad?" Taylor asked.

"Yes, I think," came the answer.

"Do you need me to call the paramedics?"

"No ... I'm fine. Just more worried about you Taylor," Danny Herbert answered and got up from his chair.

"Just stick me with homeschooling and things should improve," Taylor replied in as cheery a tone as she could manage.

"Let's get some sleep. We'll talk more about this tomorrow." Danny walked to his bedroom in resignation.

Taylor did the same. She had told her father more things than she had told him in the past three years but she had not told him everything. For one, she had not mentioned the voice to her Dad, not wanting to give him cause to worry even more and for another, she had not mentioned how much she was able to see with her new vision. Or the fact that her bedroom remained clear to her eyes even in total darkness.

<>

Meanwhile ... in his bedroom, Danny Herbert remained wide awake in bed. For one thing, he had a lot on his mind. Between his daughter getting bullied in school and the school's unofficial participation in the matter by turning a blind eye to whatever had been going on for the past two years, he certainly had a lot to think about. He was doubtful that he would be able to get any more sleep that night so he decided to go for a brief walk outside his house. Quickly, he got changed and took his keys. He headed for the door quietly, not wanting to disturb his daughter who would be sleeping in bed.

The door to the house opened and Danny Herbert stepped outside. Once outside the front yard of his house, he had begun thinking about the situation. There were many things to consider. The first was his legal options against the school administration. He wanted very badly to sue the school but the presence of Emma's lawyer Dad, Mr. Barnes, made things difficult. Not to mention, the unco-operative attitude of the students and the staff in the school. It was very likely, based on Taylor's words, that no one would come forward to testify on behalf of his beloved daughter ... and therein lay the dilemma.

How could he prove that the school administration was culpable in the bullying case via willful negligence? He could consult a lawyer but it would cost money ... precious money that he could ill-afford to spare in these difficult times. And once he had started on the road to sue the school, Danny knew he could not afford to lose the case. The school would most likely retaliate with a lawsuit of its own against him to cover up their accountability with Mr. Barnes's help, of course, since Emma was involved. Even if he won the lawsuit, the case would most likely drag out in court as lawsuits were prone to with the offending party appealing against the case until it reached the Supreme Court.

So ... what could he do then? What could he do for his beloved daughter that was all that remained of his deceased wife, Annette?

The head of the Dockworkers' Union wondered as he was suddenly surrounded by men in gang insignias. He had been thinking so much about the situation that he barely registered the presence of the men or danger coming from them as they stepped around him. Even then, Danny barely acknowledged them as his mind was on other matters that he regarded to be more urgent.

<>

He had so much to think about that when the bald-headed chinese man in front of him punched him in the face, it took him by surprise. Strangely enough, he felt nothing, if not a bit more energized. Danny Herbert who was certainly not in a good mood at the time responded in a rather predictable manner. He punched the man back without a word. The guy who was punched, got thrown back a distance of five feet and the rest of his gang (now that Danny noticed), needless to say, became rather pissed off.

One of them, who was bare-chested and covered with body tattoos, took out his katana and slashed at Danny Herbert with it. Danny simply blocked the descending blade with his arm, caught hold of the charging man and relieved him of it after giving him a nice kick in between the legs. He crumpled to the ground in a heap.

The second man ... or rather the third man who was wearing a black jacket was smarter. He quickly took out his gun and shot Danny three times at pointblank range. Much to his disbelief and shock, Danny continued moving as though nothing had happened. Three bullets fell to the ground in front of him as if they hadn't touched him.

"CAPE!" he screamed in fear.

Danny, however, felt great. Instead of bleeding to death on the ground from the bullets hitting his body, he had never felt better ... more alive dare he say it? Like he had more energy and strength than ever before. It was like he could take on the world and come out on top. And he would do it, of course, for his daughter. He turned on the rest of the men who had been accosting him with a grin on his face. They ran. The ones who were still conscious at least. He ran after them, not wanting any of them to escape his wrath.

<>

After his humiliating defeat at the hands of Hashirama Senju, the Uchiha Patriarch had travelled to many places outside of the Elemental Nations, seeking knowledge far and wide to defeat his hated enemy. It was at this time that he had an encounter with a bald-headed man clad in goatskin clothes clutching a walking stick at one of the temples to the devas.

"Whence have you come from Uchiha Madara?" the strange man had asked.

Madara was immediately wary and on guard when the man had spoken his name without doubt or any hesitation. He would have struck him down on the spot but there was something off about the man ... something dangerous ... his senses were warning him and these things stopped him from doing so. Even without the use of his sharingan, Madara could tell that the man's aura was old ... really old ... and very powerful.

"Who are you? How do you know me? Answer or die right where you stand!" Madara threatened, having great difficulty trying to suppress his killer instinct to kill the strange man in goatskin clothes.

"Ahh ... the who, what-or-else-approach ... but you haven't answered my question ... whence have you come from, Uchiha Madara?" the strange man repeated his question.

There was no further use in threatening the man as he did not even seem to be bothered by it.

"The Elemental Nations," Madara answered truthfully.

It was not as if the strange man could do anything about it due to the great distance from his current location to the Elemental Nations.

"Ahh ... the truth ... very good. Very good. I am Arjuna, a fellow practitioner and seeker of truths, Madara. We all seek Nirvana ... one way or another ... out of the cycle of Samsara though we know it not ... at times. Maya's illusions can have quite a strong hold on our consciousness," the man remarked ... seemingly pleased with Madara's answer.

"Why are you here?" Madara asked.

"This is for you," the mysterious dark-skinned fakir handed him a scroll.

Madara's powerful sharingan eyes immediately scanned the scroll the man was holding, wary of any traps. There were none. He took it from the man's hand and looked through the contents.

"The Dharma Sastra," Madara exclaimed in wonderment.

"Krishna's personal copy. He told me to pass it to you. The knowledge you seek is inside it. Teach the meditation techniques in it to Danny Herbert. He's going to need it to counter the shard's influence on his actions," the strange man explained.

Madara laughed. "I don't know this person or this shard you're talking about."

"No ... not now. But a lifetime from now, you will. Be patient with him. The shard's influences are quite strong," the strange man answered.

"Oh ... and one more thing before you go ... don't hand the Dharma Sastra to Ravana until the meditation period is up."

"Why so?" Madara wondered about the strange request.

"Ravana likes to disturb the meditations of the pilgrims who quest for Nirvana. It would be very troublesome to get him to stop his antics. Also, just a quick reminder, the niyoga of the Elemental Nations is sealed," the mysterious dark-skinned fakir explained.

"Sealed? I do not understand," the Uchiha Patriach stated.

"There is nothing you or anyone can do that will change anything. Eden is coming," came the strange reply.

Madara blinked his eyes and the man was gone. He searched the area with his Sharingan but there was no sign of him at all. It was like he was never there.

<>

So, those tough guy-wannabes thought they could just get away with themselves beating him up, eh? He grabbed hold of one them and lifted said person high up into the air with one hand. That black leather-jacket tough guy-wannabe, Danny noted, shrieked loudly for help as he struggled futilely in Danny's iron grip. His two other fellow tough-guy wannabes, in the meantime, had taken the opportunity to slip away.

"And now for the touchdown! There's nothing like American Football!" Danny shouted as he threw the man over a high wall.

The Chinese man screamed in fear as he flew through the air and then the cry of fear turned to pain as he crashed into something behind the twelve-foot wall.

"I'm quite sure they didn't hear you screaming for your mama from three miles away," Danny scoffed as he leaped over the high wall to land without a sound beside the leather-jacket man who had pulled out the gun earlier on him.

"You ... will ... be ... sor-ry ... when Lung ... gets ... here," the Asian tough guy-wannabe groaned from the pain he was in.

"Really ... and who is this BIG ... BAD ... LUNG ... that I should watch out for? Do I see him anywhere?" Danny gestured at the surroundings of the deserted warehouse.

Now, normally Danny would never have spoken nor acted in such a way but he was feeling quite pumped up from all the energy he could feel coursing through his body, invigorating him and strengthening him in ways that he could not imagine. It was like there was nothing that he could not take on and win in a fight.

"You .. will ... know ... when ... he ... gets ... here. He ... will ... a-venge ... us. You're ... dead ..., " the man coughed out some blood and pointed in a direction behind Danny.

Danny turned around to see the figure of a broad-shouldered and well-built man covered in body tattoos looking at him from the top of another building. That was his only warning when a sudden explosion engulfed him from out of nowhere.

<>

Lung was not a happy man, his hands simmering with the occasional flame and smoke. Next to him, Oni Lee remained his normal stoic self but ready for action at a moment's notice. Facing the parahuman members of the ABB were close to a hundred of their normal unpowered thugs gathered together, awaiting his orders. As expected, they were heavily armed with all sorts of weapons including firearms and sharp blades. The rest had been sent out to scout for the location of their quarry for the night ... the Undersiders.

After the Undersider's daring raid on one of the main storehouses of the ABB that resulted in the loss of quite a large sum of cash and resources due to a combination of theft and damage, Lung knew instantly that a strong response was needed. One that would drive in the message to not only the Undersiders ... but more importantly ... the Brockton Bay community that the ABB was not a force to be tangled with. This was important for two reasons. One, it would allow him to project the strength of the ABB to dissuade any further similar attempts by future would-be interlopers and two, ... prevent the Undersiders from growing any stronger into a possible threat.

Right now, they were all waiting for the return of scouts in locating their target. So far, they had yet to return. Just then ... two of their men broke into the room, breathing heavily as if they had been running a marathon.

Inwardly Lung wondered at their tired and sorry state, if they had just narrowly escaped from the Undersiders. He had expected the men to tell them of their target's location but he was wrong. Instead, the two men told him that they had just narrowly escaped from another unidentified cape who had taken down three of their fellow gang members.

"And this cape was alone?" Lung queried.

"Yes! He must be a brute or something because nothing we did seem to affect him including guns."

He had immediately ordered his men to take him to this unidentified cape. Behind him, Oni Lee followed. The two men had brought him to the place they had fled from him. Not surprisingly they could not find him. Lung asked the rest of his men to scout the area but they still didn't find him. Finally he had ordered Oni Lee to teleport him to the rooftop of the highest building in the area where they could have a better view of their new quarry.

And behind the high wall of a large warehouse, Lung saw him ... The man was openly mocking his henchman and his name in the air rather loudly.

"Lee ... get Siu Han out of there," he ordered.

He was personally going to teach the new cape a lesson in manners as to who the real power was in Brockton Bay. The simmering flames and smoke covering his hands began to grow. The new cape would soon learn to fear the name of Lung. He continued to look down on the unidentified cape from his position on top of the building with disdain.

Just as he had expected, Oni Lee had teleported next to Siu Han and warped him out of there when the man turned to look at Lung. As usual after every teleport, Oni Lee left a clone behind ... The clone pulled the pin and the grenade exploded just as the man turned back to look at Siu Han shattering the wall of the warehouse with tremendous force. The roof collapsed and with it some of the power lines that began sparking wildly. The unidentified cape, however, remained unharmed, Lung noted.

Oni Lee had then teleported right next to the man and departed once again, leaving a clone that pulled the pin of another grenade. Once again, it exploded with terrific force though the explosion did not appear to have harmed the cape. The cape was definitely a brute of some sort, Lung was sure. Once again Oni Lee reappeared behind him and then warped away, leaving his clone to pull the pin.

The unidentified cape struck the clone, causing the clone to collapse into ash before the grenade could be primed. Not deterred in the least, Oni Lee reappeared to his side leaving a clone to pull the pin. The cape lashed out with his fists at the clone but was unsuccessful this time as the grenade exploded in his face.

Though seemingly unharmed, the unidentified cape did not look very happy now as he seemed unable to respond to Oni Lee's attacks with any real effectiveness. In anger, he called on Oni Lee to face him down like a real man and fight. Oni Lee, of course, remained silent to the unidentified cape's taunts and insults and simply continued attacking in his usual silent manner.

Finally, in great anger, the unidentified cape slammed his fists into the ground, causing a powerful shockwave to ripple outwards, from his position, shattering the ground beneath him and the powerlines to tumble down, one of which, struck the cape. Electrical energy surged into the unidentified cape's body and then the lights in the area began to flicker before going out, Lung noted with interest. Darkness covered the surroundings and the cape began to glow with electrical energy. Unseen by all of them, the lights in Brockton Bay began to go out, city block by city block.

Then, all of a sudden, without warning, the unidentified cape threw a crackling arc of electricity around him that expanded outwards, hitting everything within range including Lung himself and Oni Lee.