"Something has changed," said the Raikage. "I am not sure what. Find out."
"Yes, Raikage-sama!"
The wind shifted. The Kazekage noticed.
So did others throughout the Elemental Nations, not everyone picked up on it - but enough did. Quantifying whatever it was that had changed though - that was considerably more difficult and only a very few would figure it out.
Jiraiya looked at the great toad on his throne and considered various questions. "What do you mean that 'destiny has changed'?"
The Great Toad Sage sighed. "Prophesies work because fate itself is running on a road. That road may cross other roads. In this case, there was an earthquake and the road has shifted."
"How so?" asked Jiraiya, wondering if it had something to do with a talking gemstone.
"There are Kings of the various elements," said the Great Toad Sage. "Someone has just entered into a contract with the King of the Wind Element."
"Okay," said Jiraiya. "What exactly does that mean?"
"Clouds like cotton candy," mumbled the Great Toad Sage.
"Excuse me?" asked Jiraiya.
One of the older toads gestured. "I already got the basics, let him get his nap while I fill you in."
"So... basically," said Jiraiya to the Hokage, raising his cup of sake to his leader. "The contract with the King of the Elemental Wind Spirits means he's going to have the strongest affinity for Wind."
"'Strongest' how?" asked the Hokage.
"HEY! OJIISAN! DIG THIS! WEEEHAAAA!"
The Hokage blinked, reached over and refilled his own sake cup, and ignored the little orange-clad kid floating past the window.
"The strongest affinity for wind chakra in the Elemental Countries," said Jiraiya. "Mind you, the King is apparently an abusive sod who is going to put the kid through hell training."
"Oh?" asked the Hokage.
"Oh yeah," said Jiraiya. "Well, the kid wants to be 'awesome' - so that certainly seems a path towards that."
"Why haven't I heard of these Elemental Kings before?" asked the Hokage.
"Reclusive apparently, they don't normally consider mortals worth bothering with," said Jiraiya. "They're also only concerned with their element for the most part."
"So why is one getting involved now?" asked the Hokage.
"Apparently Jack has the contract ritual, but the only reason one accepted it was because Naruto was interesting and there was someone who apparently has managed to offend even the gods and spirits - if only a tiny amount."
"Orochimaru," concluded the Hokage.
"Probably," said Jiraiya. "Wonder how he managed THAT?"
"Probably best we not speculate," said the Hokage, "that way lies madness."
[Float is the first stage, then comes Flight,] said Jack a few hours later and after Naruto had been convinced to stop drifting through the village and bumping into things. [The entire set of manuevers involves control of the air.]
"What other elements are there 'kings' of?" asked Jiraiya, curious at this point.
[Several Kings or Queens, though as they are nonhuman spirit lords - don't read too much into that,] said Jack.
"Too bad, it would've made an interesting story," said Jiraiya, thinking that romancing an elemental Queen Of Fire or somesuch would've made a good ending for a novel. As well as a continuing subplot/plot hook. Hmmm.
[The training will be extensive,] said Jack.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sun, 19 Aug 2012 19:30)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.