Chapter 10   - Ch10. The Consequences of said Mistake

Rei's and Konan's souls clash started to intensify but both children were far too gone. Pain, pleasure, senses. None of that reached their minds that were being overloaded, stretched.

Their chakra flared up, swirling around them, sending blue wisps all around the cave. The two chakras started to get closer, push against each other until... they started to entwine. Strands made of chakra started to merge as if being knitted together.

Once a strand of two chakras was done, it snapped. But wisps of Rei's chakra stayed in Konan's, similarly as some of Konan's stayed in Rei's. And the process started all over again.

Hundreds, thousands of strands were merging and snapping again and again until nobody could determine where Konan starts or where Rei ends. And yet... they were both singular. Both... separated.

On a deeper level, the change was even more insane. Their very souls were clashing against each other. Konan's eight years old small quivering soul and Rei's over twenty years old soul were forcefully pulled together. Merging, exchanging something. Something vital. They were creating a... link.

As Rei's soul tore a chunk of Konan's. Konan's soul absorbed a chunk of Rei's of the same size. In multiple places were these two souls ripping apart the other and absorbing it but not in one moment was one less than the other. They were getting in perfect sync, taking and ripping only as much as was taken and ripped from them.

Konan and Rei could only stare at each other in horror as they felt their entire existence being overhauled. They felt every rip in their soul. They felt every fulfilling absorption of a piece of the other's soul. They felt their chakra change, flare, grow... their reserves were getting lower and lower as the chakra produced in their coils was getting denser and denser the more their souls exchanged matter.

And when they were getting more and more tired, on the verge of chakra exhaustion, the timer ran out and the seal ceased to work. The chakras pulled away from each other. The souls stopped clashing.

The final product was an amalgamation of both souls and chakras and yet. Both Konan and Rei didn't become one entity. They were clearly still two separate beings with their respective bloodlines, skills, personalities, minds... souls.

But their souls were no longer resembling a human. They were a patchwork of two. As was their chakra. Nobody will ever be able to find out where one started and the other ended.

The second the seal ceased its action, both exhausted kids started falling forward. They gently fell into each other's embrace and their foreheads gently met. Rei and Konan started shuddering in euphoria. Their very existence was happy at the touch. Their hearts fluttered and their souls couldn't help but shudder with their bodies as the two patchwork amalgamations connected, no longer fighting but somehow creating one, bigger soul. At least, until the two children again separate...

While Rei and Konan blissfully slept in each other's embrace, their connected soul was unconsciously pressurizing their bodies, connecting their chakra in a similar way as their souls. Suddenly, their chakra coils had a need to widen. They had to contain these two, no, this one connected amount of chakra and had no space! And that is what their bodies and chakra coils did. They started... growing. Slowly, ever so slowly. But... the chakra created was dense, heavy, compressed.

The pressure on their bodies was barely being mitigated as the natural energy flooded their bodies, reinforcing them, soothing them, toughening them while keeping them alive. The destruction and recreation of the cells were faster than normal human eyes could process and both Rei and Konan physically aged by two years. Their bodies looked like ten years olds.

As their minds started to be caressed by the energy, they started to increase in proficiency, processing speed, capacity... they gained something akin to perfect memory and enhanced mind.

But... for all the advantages, Konan and Rei could never separate. They now belonged to each other. This connection... was far more severe than any magical marriage bond could be in a distant world of wizards...

Unknowingly to them, no human being could survive such a clash of souls, chakra, and the flood of natural energy. The Supreme Chakra Control Talent and Godly Natural Energy Attunement Talent barely managed to keep the kids alive... changing them irreversibly.

...

Somewhere near Amegakure:

Hanzo's boss salamander summon suddenly stopped as if struck. Its eyes wide and mouth agape. Only Hanzo recognized the shock of his old friend and got worried as he never saw him in such a state. The summoned animal was visibly shivering as a poisonous cloud was leaving its mouth.

Hanzo decided it was not worth it to keep fighting if his summoned salamander was in such a state. He looked at the three idiots who challenged him and were now bloodied, messy, and barely standing while supporting each other. Sigh, youngsters these days. So rash.

He sneered behind his mask at them, his eyes looking at them in contempt. The two men were alive only because the weak female was an extraordinary medic. Without her, they would be but a smear on the ground or keeling over from the poison in a minute. Exactly like their summoned animals. Heh, salamanders rocks!

Manda and Gamabunta were both barely swaying from side to side, a little away from the battlefield as they had to put a supreme effort to stay on their feet... or belly, in Manda's case.

Katsuyu was already out of it but then again, she was the one without any damage as poison managed to only knock her out. It wouldn't hurt her in any other way.

Tsunade felt despair. She knew exactly how much chakra she had left and it didn't look very promising. Hanzo was much, much stronger than her idiotic teammates thought! He was playing with them! Three on one and he was standing on his salamander looking at their battered form with a raised eyebrow! It was a very painful wake-up call.

But then she felt it and her head snapped to the east. The boundless energy coming from... somewhere. She could only feel it on the corner of her senses. Not fully. But she knew where she felt something like this the last time.

Hashirama-jii... Her mind faltered.

She didn't know it was senjutsu chakra, an amount large enough to topple boss summon, that she was sensing. But this feeling ingrained itself in her soul and will stay in her mind for years to come. Making her unable to forget. Unable to get it out of her mind. Unable to focus on anything else. She was a Senju and Senju had a peculiar body. Connected to nature. Sensitive.

Tsunade was too close to not be affected.

Jiraya's mind was reeling even though his body could not move anymore as Tsunade supported him. He could feel the boundless nature energy. But... He had more important things to think about!

Tsunade! B.o.o.b.s! Squishy! Ehehehehe!

Orochimaru... had only one thought as his eyes darted from side to side with a frown, playing cool despite his blood literally covering his body.

No little boys anywhere... Meeeh.

"I will now withdraw." Hanzo told them regally even though he was mentally rolling his eyes. The trio was happy they stood on their feet. What withdraw! If they will really believe such bullshit and lousy acting... ah, they are Konoha-nin. Of course, they would believe it!

"You fought well, cough, weaklings, cough, younglings." Hanzo's eyebrow twitched as he impassively continued as if it was a rehearsed script in a bored tone. "I will now bestow a title of three ordinar-, ahem, Sannin! Yes. You are from now on Sannin of Konoha! Wear it as proudly as you stood today in front of me and enterta-, ahem, managed to fight me. Un!"

The trio that was barely standing, happily flopped onto the ground, and Hanzo sweatdropped.

I am still here, you know?

He thought awkwardly and then noted the white-haired man was already soundly sleeping while his hand was squeezing a boob of the ticked-off blonde female who was barely restraining herself from punching the idiot to his early grave. The black-haired girlish boy was sighing in disappointment.

At least one smart man!

Hanzo mentally praised but then he saw the wide, disturbing perverse smile on Orochimaru's dreamy face and his long tongue rolling out of his mouth with drool as his eyes glazed over, dreaming about research, boy-toys, and... ugh. Hanzo shuddered.

Whelp... better get the f.u.c.k outta here!

And with that Hanzo turned around, disturbed, and ran! His mind conspiring, tears streaming down his face as he thanked it was raining.

Maybe... Konoha really did know what they were doing. Sending those three against me! I feel scarred for life...

The huge spike of natural energy was forgotten by all but Tsunade who, in that instance, found a new life-goal for herself.