Naruto: Tango with Death

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As the large dragon's head hit the water, and I landed some distance away, I felt a large amount of energy flow right into me, quickly merging with my killing intent to form what I would call Blood Essence.

With a thought, I directed it all toward my back, where a Blood Tattoo quickly formed. I didn't have to look to know that I now had the tattoo of a dragon in my back.

I heard Jashin exclaim, "Dragons are the strongest beasts there are, excluding Tailed Beasts! The Blood Tattoo you formed is quite strong. Although it won't be enough to make your Sage Mode, you are on the way."

I nodded softly, and stared at the dragon's corpse, as well as Roshi, who was looking at me with crossed arms.

Seeing he didn't seem intent on fighting, I relaxed my body, and he asked, "I heard the Owl was terrorizing Kumo."

I smiled under the mask and replied with a chilling voice, "I'm not a selfish person, I wouldn't want to only play with Kumo."

I sent a pointed look at the dragon's corpse, and asked, "I guess I won't be taking that away."

Roshi shrugged, now putting his hands in his pockets as he replied, "Depends. If you give back the Hero Water you stole, you could leave with the body."

I shook my head and said, "It would have been a bother to carry anyway."

I looked at the only bridge that connected the island to mainland, which had been destroyed by the fight, and said, "It seems you will be sitting ducks for a while. I wonder how you are going to stop me from decimating your troops while they are stuck on the island."

Roshi frowned as fiery red chakra oozed out of his body, producing steam quickly as he said, "If I kill you here, we shouldn't have much of a problem."

I smiled and replied, "We're not going to fight, not now."

And with that, I body flickered away, while Roshi stood rooted in place. He probably knew that even if he wanted to, he wouldn't be able to follow me.

As I moved away from Takigakure, I headed for the base I had been signalled, and quickly arrived there.

There were a couple of Jonin level fighters inside, but the poor guys did not even see me coming before I cut them into sashimi. Without them to fight, the rest of the base was easy to take down, and so in less than five minutes, not a single soul remained within the base.

Standing atop the watch tower, I looked at the gory sight beneath me, feeling my Blood Tattoo that had been once again strengthened. However, even those two hundred soldiers combined did not give me as much Blood Essence as the dragon, only about half of it.

Disappointing, but to be expected, I guess.

In any case, I doubt that was my last encounter with that member of the Akatsuki, so I would have more opportunities to fight dragons in the future.

After that, I did not immediately go back to the camp, but instead reverse summoned myself to Yami Mountain.

There, I searched for Yami, whom I found meditating in the temple, and told him about the Hero Water I had gathered.

Upon hearing this, Yami smiled and said, "You did well in bringing it here. Follow me."

I did exactly that, and together we moved near the top of the mountain, where the Sacred Water took its source.

The area was well decorated with stone statues, and at the very end was a small pond, which slowly riveted down the mountain, to eventually go to the Sacred Water Pool.

And within that small pond, was a small box. I had seen this place before, once or twice, and had always been curious about that box, but never intruded since that would not only be extremely rude, I also didn't want to risk harming the extremely precious and useful Sacred Water Pool.

This time however, Yami immediately approached the box, and placed one of his wings onto it as he explained, "Inside this box is a strong source of Yang Chakra… For about a thousand years we have been using it to slowly distil Sacred Water, but it is running dry. The sap will help rejuvenate it."

I nodded and took out all the jars I had stolen. Yami looked at them in surprise and said, "That is more than expected, they must have stored them for several hundred years."

I looked at him, and asked, "What would have happened if I drank it? Would it really have increased my chakra by ten times?"

Yami nodded and answered, "It would have. However, while consuming this grants great power, it also exhausts the drinker's lifespan. The power of the sap is too potent for anyone to directly drink it. However, if one were to slowly absorb it over time…"

I smiled in understanding, and Yami added, "Please open the box. It is rather hard for me to do… I don't have hands you see, let alone opposite thumbs."

I chuckled at the joke, and did as I was told, finally revealing what was inside the box.

It was… a heart.

I looked at Yami in surprise, and he explained, "This, is the heart of a Sage from ancient time. When he still had a physical form. He was one of the strongest Sages, and was the manifestation of Yang Energy."

I titled my head and asked, "Isn't Senjutsu Chakra supposed to be a mix of Yin, Yang and Natural Energy?"

Yami replied, "Much like normal Chakra, Senjutsu Chakra can have attributes. Most possess Neutral Senjutsu Chakra, but it is possible to change that… but that's a subject for another day."

I nodded slowly, and Yami said, "All you need to do is to slowly pour the sap into the right atrium, that is the small holes there," he pointed at the arteries at the top of the heart, "and make sure not to overspill, or miss. Considering the quantity of sap we have… it should take you around five hours to pour everything within the heart."

I looked at him with a frown, but Yami ignored my emotions and added, "Take this as a test of your patience. Besides, you are the only one who can do it."

I groaned, but as I blinked, Yami was gone. Damn, and people think I'm a scary assassin.

I begrudgingly turned back toward the heart, and after a sigh took one of the jars, and carefully aimed at the heart's right atrium.

The sap was rather viscous, making it easier to aim as I slowly began pouring the sap, or Hero water, into the heart.

A heart wasn't made to contain a lot of liquid at once though, and this particular heart, while slightly larger than the average one, didn't either. Thankfully, it seemed to absorb the sap rather fast.

The hours passed as I only moved to pick up the other jars once the one I had was empty. After six hours, one more than Yami had predicted, I had finally poured all the sap I had stolen.

The heart, which looked a little too dark and weary before, now was of a healthy pinkish red, and it even started beating slowly, at a rate of one beat per minute.

Actually, it already was beating before, but it was much slower, so slow it couldn't really be picked up. Now though, the heart was beating faster, and with every beat, more drops of a golden liquid dropped into the little pond below.

Those golden drops then diluted themselves into the water, which would then trickle down the mountain.

My work done, I moved to the Sacred Water Pool, where Yami was waiting. Seeing me arrive, he asked, "Did you just finish?"

I nodded, and he pointed at the pool, "Do you want to try it? The quality has already increased a little."

I shook my head and asked, "How long will it take until the quality peaks?"

Yami replied, "Slightly less than a week, I would say."

"Then I'll try it by then."