The Thirteen Hell Genma Instruments: Garden of Eyes Part One

[Octopus Garden]

"Are you ready?"

No, hell no. Pun intended, obviously. Akistar braced himself as the world and the room around him began to change and the music started to play rhythmically in the background.

"First, you must find the seed of truth." Said Konegu to him in his mind, though here, in the red room, their voice rang magnificently through the skies as though they came from the heavens themselves, which, they did. The music picked up and Akistar grabbed the flutestaff as it began to materialize before him out of the red aura cloak. "Let's get started then." He took a step forwards and grass and flowers shot upwards around him instantly, surprising him. He continued, and the grass and flowers grew larger behind him as he continued his journey, fanning out from behind his travel path and becoming wider and taller as time progressed. Eventually, he could no longer even see the sky as he had traveled about a hundred meters and the flowers at the beginning of the room had now grown to about three hundred tall and six hundred wide, he would guess. It was then that he noticed that the flowers had eyes in the middle of them, all of them, every single one of them, all of various different animal types and colors just as the flowers themselves were of various different types and colors. The music had shifted a bit, picking up to be faster, but only slightly, and definitely louder, the bass was melodic.

One of the eyes blinked at him and he suddenly fell, he leard laughter. "What the?" He exclaimed somewhat against his will and suddenly was reeled into the air by a vine that snatched him up out of seemingly nowhere, though, it had come from growth of flowers that he was leaving behind in his wake. Akistar channeled pink chakra into his body and the flutestaff and screamed a violent kiyah as he swung the staff around into the rope. On contact the staff reverberated and sent the pink vibration chakra outwards in a deathly spiral that turned red and then reached back out with a multitude of tendrils to grab the rope and begin eating into it, vibrating away at it incredibly purposefully and disruptively until the vine was gnawed and eaten through and Akistar was released, landing on his feet gracefully.

He channeled golden chakra, bringing forth the golden star disc ride which graced his presence and belonged beneath his feet, he began soaring around on it, causing the grass and flowers to grow and kick up in a pattern before he burst off, no longer going in a straight line but carving a curved and winded and crazy ridiculous path where he circled back around and over and on top of himself and back over the existing flowers, which he realized caused vines and moss and ridiculously huge stalks and canopy leaves to appear to create platforms and periodically spaced intervals that were definitely mathematically spaced, yet, there was an ever so slightly hesitant variance to them, leaving it feeling very organic and natural.

He began riding the star disc higher, circling around and around clockwise as he ascended higher and higher and caused a stalk of vine to begin rising upwards from the ground rapidly, before it changed into a great redwood tree, with beautiful purple and red and pink leaves that were absolutely massive. He continued rising upwards, the tree continued to grow, it was so large, eventually, entire houses could have been amongst its branches. That's when the bugs and the mushrooms started coming out, and the plants started being more carnivorous, poisonous, deadly, and scary. The fungus and the birds were horrible, a constant threat.

He had to tread carefully now, but, eventually, the growth did stop behind him, and he was a very, very long ways from the bottom. He looked down at the ground, it was so far below he couldn't even really see it all that clearly anymore, there was a red fog, though, it sparkled rather beautifully.

[Octopus Garden]

"Begin!"

Konegu's voice ran throughout the training room vibrantly, it pierced the walls and filled the void. The great tree of eyes, the wonderous spectacle that Akistar now found himself in the top of, it was massive, several dozen hundreds of meters tall and a great radius he couldn't even begin to guess, he was in for quite the journey as he sought the Seed of Truth in this training regimen set forth by the Hell Genma himself.

"Beware, the plants want to eat you."

Akistar gulped. Okay then, he'll need to be extra careful. He took a few steps forwards and realized he couldn't see very well. "Ah yes, that will be a problem, you will need a light source then." Akistar pondered for a moment before rummaging around in his back for some oil. He gathered a bunch of spider webs on the end of a stick, a took a few stalk-like branches from a nearby brush and broke the nuts off of them, sticking them into his bag in case they were useful for later, for they were rather huge easily the size of his head. He had three of them for now. In the corner, he could see a large shiny golden spider staring at him, it had a skull marking on its back. It appeared non hostile, at least, for now, and didn't appear really to care that he was there in any way.

That was good, he didn't really like spiders. He'd try to get over it.

He soaked the end of the torch he had made in oil, then wrapped it in cloth, then more spider web, then more cloth, then more spider web, then more cloth, then soaked it in oil again for a long time, then finally he lit it with a match.

Finally, Akistar produced a red tendril from this hell aura cloak with which to carry the torch separately from himself.

"You should learn to use the aura to make it function entirely independent of you."

"How do you mean?"

"Not just carry it as an extension of the cloak, carry it as its own aura, separately from yourself."

"I see."

"You should master this, really, it is a very useful skill."

"Okay, let's work on it."

[Octopus Garden]

Akistar worked on it for hours, trying to separate the red chakra from the tendril. Eventually, to his surprise, the golden spider walked up to him and very politely asked what he was doing, and inquired if he actually needed any help. As it drew nearer, he realized it was rather beautiful. It was like golden chrome, it was very shiny, and it had sparkly jewel diamonds for eyes, it was surely worth a fortune.

"What are you working on, it has been a long time since someone has entered this section of the tree, especially someone so young."

Akistar wasn't really sure what to say. "Where am I anyway?"

"You are in the tree of the black garden."

"I see...Is that supposed to mean anything?"

"Ah, I suppose you haven't heard, maybe it is a place lost on the more recent mortals."

Konegu materialized next to Akistar and the golden spider bowed, "Hello, Konegu." Said the golden spider politely. There was an arachnoid hiss to its voice, which Akistar would note in his journal sounded notably different than Zagara's insectoid voice. He would attempt to mimic it later during vocal training. He fidgeted with the flute staff nervously.

"It is good to see you again, Goldkinis." Said Konegu regally and proudly, as though he were greeting an old friend. Which, he was. Goldkinis was a very old spirit, very knowledgable and most wise to most things. Her knowledge was second to few, there were only one or two spirits who could claim a greater library to their name than Goldkinis. This was a grand friend to have indeed.

"Welcome to the Garden of Eyes." Said Konegu to Akistar, "Yes, this is the great tree of the black garden."

"We are here to teach the young jinchuuriki the ways of Aura and seek the Seed of Truth." Said Konegu proudly.

"You seem oddly thrilled about this journey." Said Goldkinis, whom examined the boy closely.

"Why is that?" She inquired.

"Oh, he is the star."

"Oh? The star?"

"Yes, the star."

"I see, then I will do whatever I can to help you."

[Octopus Garden]

"These are the cryptblossoms." Said Goldkinis as she gestured with her forelegs towards the easternmost wall of the red tree, revealing behind a curtain of spider webs a series of statuettes that were encased in gold, ivory, ivy, red fungus, red flowers, red petals, and red vines. They were about Akistar's height, or slightly taller, and each of them appeared to be wielding different types of weapons, each having the same type of color and flavor scheme as the statuettes themselves.

"Pick one to be your companion, and one to be your nemesis, one to be your guide, and one to be your testament."

He walked through them carefully, examining each of their weapons, and he chose the one with no weapons but rather with his hands together in a ninjutsu seal for fire. "This one for my companion."

It suddenly burst to life, a red aura enveloping its body entirely, not unlike the hell genma cloak he himself wielded.

He picked the one with the staff to be his nemesis, the one with an incredibly large broadsword to be his guide, and the one with seven spears to be his testament.

The nemesis disappeared immediately, crumbling into a heap of fungus spores and pods and leaves and bone dust. The guide came to life and greeted him with a handshake and a nod, as well as giving him some red cheese, crackers, eggs, peaches, grapes, leaves, mushrooms, nuts, and fishes. He insisted that Aksitar eat some of it right away, which he did, the cheese and cracks with a bit of egg, then some grapes. It was all quite wonderful, as he found.

The testament disappeared just as the Nemesis did. As they sat around the red campfire in the middle of the room, he finished up his snack food and the guide encouraged him to continue making the torch function separately from himself.

It was a good, difficult training task. The flame being ebbing and flowing meant the aura had to adjust to control it as well, meaning that the aura had to be refined and poised for most of the torch, but then organic and loose for the flame head. It was proving a challenging and difficult task for the boy, but he was making good progress.

He was making good progress indeed, and he eventually did find great success as the split the torch out from the red tendril of his cloak and sustained it separately from himself for the first time. Konegu was proud, truly, a rare feat, and the Companion and the Guide nodded and expressed their approval.

"Nice work." Said the companion in what Akistar would note in his journal was a fungal-like voice.

"Indeed, very good job." Said the Guide, which he also noted had a fungal-like voice. There really wasn't a better way to describe it. They were fun guys.

[Octopus Garden]

He summoned up his strength and braced himself for the next round of training. Now, he faced the Companion and the Guide, both of which had proven to be much stronger than him as well as faster, so, he would need to get creative in order to properly deal with them. Akistar surged with chakra and shifted into the fourth form, slinging upwards a red tendrils of aura chakra that formed into the Hell Genma's flutestaff, which he then embedded further with its own red aura and caused it to begin to orbit around him slowly about shoulder level.

The Companion formed a series of hand seals and the world shook violently, causing Akistar to stumble and have to focus on his hips and his footing. "Woah." He said as fire began to build in the sky.

The red fire grew larger and larger before wisps of it began to rain down towards Akistar, a few small ones at first, but over time they grew larger and Akistsr realized they were actually eyeballs made of fire. "Shit!" He cursed loudly while diving out of the way of a particularly large one. As the eyes bounced, they turned to float upwards and look towards Akistar. After a few moments they would explode and the larger the fire eyeball had been, the larger the explosion would be. He darted left, then right, then he took the flutestaff and smacked it into an exceptionally large eyeball and sent it flying towards the Companion.

The Companion grabbed it with its bare left hand and it suddenly grew tremendous in size and shot out res gas horrendously throughout the room, causing Akistar to cough. The Companion tossed it into the air and it doubled, then the two doubled, then the four doubled, then the eight, the sixteen, the thirty two, the sixty four. Akistar watched in horror as the doubling season progressed rapidly, then they all began to hiss red gas and explode one after another in a horrible sequence, sending spores and Shrapnel and gas around the room.

[Octopus Garden]

"Your new body will be ready in five, four, three, two, one."

The music picked up horrendously and Akistar fell to his knees, dropping the Flutestaff and falling to the floor. "What, what's happening to me?" He practically groaned as the red chakra flew into his nostrils and eyes and ears and mouth and pores, exhuding in and out of his body. The red aura was a gas that secreted from him now, it wasn't a mist or a fog, but a gas, a true inhalant of horror and hell and death and destruction.

"What's that smell?"

"What do you want it to smell like? You can control it."

"What?"

"It's aura, reach out and control it Akistar."

Fair enough he supposed. Akistar tried to sit up and struggled to do so, the lights were practically nauseating to him. "Gods that's awful change it please." He said motioning towards them.

"No."

Akistar groaned. Why was Konegu so fucking annoying sometimes?

[Octopus Garden]

His body felt strange as he floated down through the red fog. It coalesced and rescunded and writhed against his very flesh and mangled through his hair and shampooed it quite literally and began to bathe him all over as it turned into a red foam and water. It was slow, methodical, rhythmic, resplendent. Akistar of the Jinrai hummed to himself as he floated through the red bath water and enjoyed the red scents and the red sights and the red feelings and the red warmth. The red music was wonderful, the red bath was splendid. He could get lost here forever in this red bath. Where was he anyway? Had he gotten lost in the garden of eyes?

What was that about having a new body? Akistar remembered what Goldkinis had said. When had he fallen under the genjutsu? He stumbled a bit and looked at the guide and the companion. He noticed that the air had a lot of flakes and specks in it.

"What's in the air?" He asked.

The guide responded. "Gas, Pollen, Dust, Metal, Bug Guts..." He trailed on with some more random trivial bits of things in the air at that exact moment.

[Octopus Garden]

He rose from the floor of the tree's room and stared at the pollen and flakes and dust as it shifted through the red light. It was tranquil in a way, really. There was water everywhere now as he saw, there was paper lanters strung about from trees with green leaves which otherwise looked very foreign in this place that had begun to be washed over white and blue with ice. It was cold now, instead of warm, and he could see the pollen and dust no longer, instead his vision was filled with a flurry of snow and lightning, an insane mixture he had never experienced in person before.

How bizarre, how bizarre. He rose from the floor again and the room spun. Hadn't he just been in a tree? A really large really ridiculously large even tree? It had been red wood. Wood that was red. Red, redwood. Wood of the red variety. The type of wood that one might could red. With red leaves. And read stuff. Red spiders. Wait. Spiders? Gold spiders. A gold spider? Goldkinis. Akistar's head raced as his mind soared and he could no longer make good sense of what was real and what was genjutsu.

Onwards Akistar continued through the water as he floated on his back now down the creek and further into the woods. A large mushroom shot out from a tree trunk and wrestled him into the water but then spores of red plumed his nose and he was sent downcreek again towards the tear party once more. Down, down, down the water her went and he wept as he read the red room of the red hell genma's aura and read rapidly the red aura that read the red dread. He danced down the water, it was getting darker. He made dread into food and sought for larger water for fish, which he did find and after a bit of luck grabbed a few fish. Then, with the aid of autonomous ultra firebending he cooked the fish quite nicely and ate it as a nice dinner with some rice and crude sea veggies he had on hand with old, smelly, salty, STHANKY canned oysters.

[Octopus Garden]

A large lily pad caught his attention. "That looks sturdy I wonder if you could stand on it." Said the companion teasingly but the Guide tried it by making a clone really quick that jumped out onto it quite gingerly and carefully. "Seems well enough to me." Said the clone who begin to scout ahead of the group of them. Next, the companion slew his hands together and formed a very long series of hand seals and formed a whole squad of twelve clones each with various suits of armor and various weapons along their persons and each with a different shroud of elements surrounding them in an orbit. "Impressive." Said Akistar and the guide nodded. Any jutsu the Guide could do, the Companion could perform with a ridiculous amount of extra boons and benefits and perks and bells and whizzles and gimmicks and gags. It was quite the great pick Akistar had made, really.

The Companion that Akistar had picked was the Wizard. What this meant is that they had access to a repertoire of vast ninjutsu of just about every imaginable type. Not only that, because of there extensive use of knowledge-granting shadow clones and space-time, they are also generally knowledgeable and intelligent in so many very different ways and types of ninjutsu combat. They are a real professor of the craft. They even create ninjutsu for fun on the daily in there down time! It was truly a great companion to have.

"What have we been working on today?" Akistar asked the Companion.

"I'll show you"

Akistar watched the hand seals carefully and began to mimick them.

It was a Jinrai jutsu.

It was also an autonomous Hell Genma jutsu.

"How interesting." Konegu said as he witnessed it himself from within Akistar.