Fire ascension.

If the lightning in the sky were to never again strike, the fire would remain. If the wind were to never blow again, the fire would remain. If all the water in the world were to vanish, and the earth become dry and desolate, the fire would remain. If the world itself, and all the land were to vanish utterly, there would still be the sun in the sky, there would still be fire in the sun; the fire would remain. No matter what, the fire would remain.
               Kasai sat upon the mountain top, his body ablaze, far above the tree line. He looked out on the world, his eyes shining, the heat of the sun blaring down on him. He had almost forgotten about the village he came from, and in his current state, the fire was all that existed for him. The fire was around him, above him, below him. The fire was outside, and within him. It ran in his bloodstream. He was the fire. If he could ever speak to the sun, it was in this state of being.
 
               Kasai had spent hours preparing for this day. This was what he planned on being a week long meditation on nothing but fire. He had piled wood all around him, and added oil on top of it. He laid cloth and silk, and nearly everything flammable on this pier. He built it to burn for a week straight, and so much so that even a heavy rain would not be able to put it out. He had built it to make as little smoke as possible, though there would still be a lot, and had done it far enough away from the village that it would not be able to be seen. It had taken him the better half of a day to do all this, and more effort than it was likely worth. However, Kasai was going to achieve something that day. Something that would not be achievable any other way that he knew of. He needed to be immune to the natural element, if he ever sought to master it completely.
 
               At first, he contemplated removing the robes, mask, and scroll that he had made for himself. They would burn up, and would ultimately be irreplaceable. However, he had decided against it. If his skin could survive, then so would everything else. However, would his skin survive? Would he at all? It would be re-playing his childhood. It would be the reason that his skin and face were destroyed by the scars of fire and flame.
 
               As Kasai had been building this pier, he could feel eyes watching him. It was the fire ape clan. He knew it was. They too knew this was his final test. If he survived, he would not be able to grow in strength, speed, stamina, chakra, or even his own constitution and health anymore. If he survived, the only thing he would be able to grow in would be the flame. If he did not, then he would start the cycle over again in the next life.
 
               Ruijin was there, along with Karyoku, and many other faces that he did not recognize. The apes were gathered around by the end. In fact, some had helped him build the pier in the first place. If he had done the task himself, it would have taken much longer to complete. Perhaps multiple days. However, they too understood the importance of this task. They might have been the only others that understood fire like Kasai did. However, if Kasai completed this task, he would be closer to fire than many, if not almost all of them were. If he did this, he would be considered an equal with their highest ranks.
 
And so it was that Kasai climbed on top of the pier. The many eyes watching him as he went, and then receding to a safe distance. The heat of the fire would be immense, and likely kill any that were to stand even at its edge, and most certainly at its center. Yet, this was the final ordeal. Chosen by himself, for himself. It was the task for Kasai, the one which he considered ascension. To fully understand the flame, he would allow it to engulf it. The flame would remain.
 
               It was then that Kasai activated his immolation jutsu, and flames engulfed him. However, these flames did not hurt him. He had developed the jutsu specifically so they would not hurt him. These flames were his friend, they only hurt those whom he wanted to hurt. They were strong, and an incredible defense. They did nothing to him, nor his clothing, or even the scroll.
 
               However, it was not even a second after he activated the jutsu that the flames began to spread. In fact, the flames spread everywhere so incredibly quickly that it was almost like an explosion. The flames engulfed everything, everywhere. All Kasai could see was fire. At first, it was almost hypnotizing. The flames danced, and waved, and crackled.
 
               However, it was not a second again before Kasai felt the wave of heat, and with that, the burning. The smoke instantly began to burn his eyes, and get in his mouth. He fell into a coughing fit very quickly, and was unable to scream because of it. He thrashed, and rolled, trying desperately to put out the fire that now caught onto him. It blinded him, sunk into his skin, bit at his face, tore at the mask, burned the scroll, shredded his robes. The flames began to destroy him completely. He could not cry, or leave. He did not know which way was which. All there was left was a world of fire. It began to kill him slowly.
 
               “It is time for this one to end in fire, and be reborn from the ashes.”
 
               Kasai, in his last moments of life, could see his life before him, and the life behind him. However, there was one event that stood prominent in his memory. The time that he got the scars that now covered him. It stood out in his mind, a vision of his past. It called to him then.
 
               It had been late in the night, and Kasai had only been a year or two old, no more. He did not understand why he had woken up, but he had, and for some reason, could not fall back asleep. Perhaps it had been the heat, it was very hot that night. He knew why now.
 
               Only a few seconds after he had woken up, Kasai remembered turning his head to see a light shining under his door. It was strange, but it comforted him, until he heard the screams. He could not get out of his crib, and only crawled to the edge, and began to cry. He knew someone was hurt. However, no one came, and the screaming continued. He continued to cry, because there was nothing else he could do.
 
               Soon, the screams died down, and there was silence. He continued to cry though, until the light began to creep through his door. This is because it was not light at all, but fire. The fire had consumed the rest of his house, as it was then consuming Kasai as he remembered this. The fire moved across the room, and soon, it enveloped all that he could see, as it did now. It burned him, scared him, and threatened to kill him, as it did now. However, Kasai survived. He, the sole survivor in the entire manor; the only one to survive the Senshi clan fire. He was the last alive because he survived that fire.
 
               He survived. Kasai’s eyes snapped open. The fire was still surging around him, he was still within the inferno. He stopped channeling his immolation jutsu, and struggled back onto the pier. He had lived that fire, which surrounded him as it did now. He had already survived this ordeal, even as an infant. Now, how could it be killing him? Yes, it scared him, yes it had hurt him, yes it almost killed him, but that was an almost. Almost. It had not succeeded, and now, Kasai had returned to conquer that fire.
 
               He sat upright, struggling to breath. He would outlast this flame. He had outlasted the other. When others had come to try to help, the house was gone. Everyone had been burned to ashes. Everyone except for Kasai. It was a miracle he survived, they had said. Burns covered eighty percent of his body. But he had survived. Kasai crossed his legs on the pier. He had lived at his infant age, he would live now. The fire could fight him all it liked, but he would conquer it.
 
               Kasai opened his eyes, and they no longer hurt. He placed his hands on his knees, and they were no longer on fire. He sat up straight, and his scroll was perfectly intact, along with his robes. He felt normal, unaffected by the flames around him. Unharmed by the red tongues of death that bit at him. The fire was no longer the same; it listened to him. No… it had always listened to him. Now, though, for the first time in his life, he listened to it. In returning this favor to the fire, however, the flames were no longer cruel servants, but friends as an equal. They no longer pained him, but aided him. He had become one with the fire, and the fire had become one with him. He could not speak, the feeling was so overwhelming. He did not know what to do. He felt as if he couldn’t move. The flames were all that there was; they were the only remaining world.
 
               He was not too sure how much time had passed, but gradually, the flames began to quell down, and the voices that laughed and cried with him became whispers. He could once again see the on looking faces of the apes. One of them, Karyoku, called out to him.
 
               “Kasai, is that you, or a hallowed being, destroyed by the flame?” The voice pierced Kasai’s concentration, and he opened his eyes. He believed he had before, but now, he could see clearly, and with a strange light shining from his eyes.
 
               “I am alive,” Kasai responded, and there were noises of awe and shock. “I am the fire, now, and the fire is myself, now.”
 
               “Step forth,” the ape replied, beckoning. “The flames have died down, time has passed.”
 
               “How much time has passed?” Kasai asked, wondering just how long it had been.
 
               “A week and a half,” replied the orangutan. “We thought you were dead,” he continued, as Kasai began to stand. “As soon as the pier burst into light, we saw you fall, and thought surely, you were dead. But on the second day, one of our own said that you were sitting upright, and indeed you were.”
 
               Kasai was shocked by this. Could it really be that he had crawled back up on the second day? He thought the vision had lasted an eternity. Then to sit upon the blazing pier for more than a week? It had seemed like minutes that he had spent listening to what the flames had to tell him. It was a very strange thing indeed. As he walked towards the ape, smoke billowed off him, though he was not on fire. Around him, there was a faint glowing light, and upon seeing this, the ape bowed its head. From Kasai’s eyes shone a fiery light.
 
               “I see that, truly, the task you sought to accomplish, has indeed been accomplished, Kasai,” Karyoku told him, raising its head. Kasai could not think of a response, other than to nod his head. It had worked, if what the ape had told him about the time was true.
 
               “It seems so,” he replied, nodding. “The one way to test has been tested. Fire no longer harms me.”
 
               “Natural fire, Kasai,” the ape replied. “You must remember this, or it will kill you.”
 
               “What do you mean?” Kasai asked. He might be powerful, but there were things that only age would know, and the ape was far older than he. “Natural fire?”
 
               “There is a large difference between the fire that comes from a torch, and that which comes from the body,” the ape replied.
 
               “Then, is that why the fire did not hurt me?” Kasai asked. “Because I cast it?”
 
               “No,” the ape replied. “Once a fire jutsu lights a blaze, the aftermath, such as the pier, is a natural fire. However, even a simple fire stream is not natural fire, and will still singe you. If someone were to use your own immolation against you, you would die. Fire jutsu are fueled off of chakra, not off of nature. That is the difference. Chakra is very strong, and it is a stronger fuel source than any oil humans can devise. When chakra is the source, then the fire will always be much stronger.”
 
               “So, even though nature can no longer harm me, and I may walk through fields of fire, but if someone is still fueling that field with their own chakra, then I may not?” Kasai asked, just to make sure he understood. He knew he did.
 
               “Yes,” the ape replied. “However, beware the jutsu that some Uchiha can cast.”
 
               “Why?” Kasai replied bluntly. They were not the masters of fire; the apes were, and now he was among them.
 

               “Because some of their fire is not fire at all,” this time Ruijin replied, the massive gorilla, standing at eight feet tall while on all fours, more than twice the size of a normal gorilla. “They can cast black fire, and some fire that cannot be put out. Even when there is no fuel for this fire, it will burn, and it will be dangerous. You must look out for this kind of fire, Kasai,” the large ape finished, and Kasai nodded.


(Ugggh, it's too late to write anymore. I'll finish up with a 700 word post tomorrow, and make claims then. So, WIP for now.)

Kasai nodded, and took in that information. He did not mind, though. He had completed what he wanted to. 

Kasai brushed a piece of ash out of his face, only to find it falling back in his face. He wrinkled his brow, and lightly tugged on the ash. His head hurt when he did so, and he knew then that it was his hair. He grabbed more of his hair, and it being long, he brought it around in front of his eyes. It was all black now. 

"What has happened to my hair, friend?" Kasai asked the ape that stood before him. "Before it was orange, but now it is like charcoal."

"I think it was the fire," Karyoku replied. "It might not have marked your skin this time, but maybe the smoke, or something else. It has been a week to change though. I do not think it will change back."

Kasai considered this, and nodded. So be it; he had changed the fire, it made sense that the fire changed him as well. The fire also seemed to change that his hair stood up and in strange ways. Now it hung loosely, falling in his face constantly. Kasai tied it behind his head, giving him the appearance of a top-knot, like a samurai has. He did not mind, change was natural. 

As he walked, he could see that the light around him light up his surroundings, though it set fire to nothing. Instead, it only bent the shadows out of the way. He truly felt stronger, and that was good. No, it was not the strength. It was the fire. 

The fire would remain. No matter what, Kasai now was one to prove that. He had survived the final ordeal, and now, he would ensure that the fire would always survive. 

He spent the next few days with the fire apes, simply sitting around, and watching fires, and talking about them. However, it was not long before Kasai had to return to the city. He was extremely hungry, and felt that any longer in the wilderness he would go insane. And so it was that he returned.

Passing the pier, Kasai looked at it, and seeing how the fire had even scorched the mountain top, wondered how he had survived. It shouldn't have been possible, but yet, it was. 

After passing that, he came into the village, and ordered the largest meal he thought it was possible to eat. He ate and drank for hours, as if an animal coming out of hibernation. He supposed that after burning for so long, and burning the fuel within him, he needed to retain his strength, and gain it back. And so he did. 

The fire would remain.

He was no longer obsessed with the element, for some strange reason. Instead, it was simply a part of him. He thought about fire just as someone would think of water. It was precious, and required to live, but not an obsession. He wondered if this too came because he had a higher understanding of the element. He was unsure. 

Then, Kasai wondered when Youka would return. He had spent well over two weeks in the village so far, and had advanced greatly in power, yet Youka had not yet returned. He assumed such, as he had not been contacted. What was taking him so long? Time was a precious thing, and the village hidden in the leaf would already be aware that he was missing. They might even send someone after him. He was unsure, but he knew it was ultimately inevitable. 

He would wait in the village longer, but he would not be able to guarantee that he would be safe there. He might have to leave within the month, unsure of what would happen to him if Youka would not return in time. He guessed that he would just have to bet on the fact that Youka should return, and hope that would be enough.

(Finallllyyyy. TWC: 3010 Claiming 8 stats, and wondering how much Ryo I can claim? Those 8 stats max me out, and I still have 7 left over, so can I clain Ryo? Also, claiming 3k words to gain Child of the Sun (currently 0/3k))