[February 1st TST/September 24th DBT]
"I'm sorry if it's a bit messy...I don't get a lot of visitors besides Tat-chan, and I wasn't expecting you to visit..." expressed Orihime, head lowered and fingers pressed together shyly as Vahn looked around her small, one-room LDK apartment.
"What mess? The dishes in your sink...?" asked Vahn, staring at Orihime with his right brow raised and an amused smile.
"I-I'll take care of them immediately..." stammered Orihime, her cheeks flushing as she tried to slip past Vahn and enter the kitchen. Instead, she found herself bumping into him, his hands snaking naturally around her to grab and squeeze her butt as he hummed, "I'll take care of it...you need to get ready for school..."
"I can't have you, of all people, do my dishes for me..." muttered Orihime, raising her gaze to meet Vahn's as she naturally leaned into him, her large and pillowy breasts deforming against him as the ruddiness in her cheeks became fueled by more than just embarrassment.
"You're not having me do anything..." contended Vahn, giving Orihime a series of pecks on her lips before grinning as he added, "As usual, this is me doing as I please. Now, run along..."
Releasing his hold on Orihime, Vahn punctuated his words by giving her a light smack on the bottom, prompting her to look back at him longingly as she walked over to her grey, red-accented Karakura High winter uniform, hanging from a hook on the wall. If she continued entering the Tower, she would be thirty years old by the time of her graduation. However, as she was determined to graduate with her friends and potentially go to college for two years, Orihime slowly stripped down to her underwear and donned her uniform while periodically glancing at Vahn.
"Alright, the dishes can wait..." hummed Vahn, unable or, more accurately, unwilling to ignore Orihime's transparent attempt at seducing him. It was somewhat embarrassing, but he also found her appearance in her uniform incredibly appealing, particularly when she raised the back of her pleated skirt to show off her voluminous ass cheeks, bisected by a cream-colored lace t-back that made it look as though a flowery bouquet was rising from her interglutal cleft...
...
..
.
After fulfilling Orihime's dream of having her boyfriend walk her to school, Vahn returned to his palace in a good mood. Minato had asked for a week to prepare things on his end, so he didn't have much to do but spend time with the people he cared about, train, and monitor how things were going in the palace.
'Actually, I should check on the Jinchuriki...' thought Vahn, recalling that he had yet to interact with any of them outside of Kushina, who he hadn't seen in several years from his perspective. Several were children due to their predecessors perishing in the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars, so while they had already been apprised of the situation, he might be able to ease tensions and resolve any concerns they might have by introducing himself and interacting with them directly.
With such thoughts in mind, Vahn closed his eyes and teleported in front of an ornate, clearly reinforced wooden door inscribed with a pulsing gold pattern. Then, instead of entering directly, he gently rapped his knuckles on the door's surface and waited nearly three minutes for its occupant, a petite, gentle-looking woman with delicate features, a somewhat rounded face, medium-length sand-brown hair, and dark blue eyes, to answer with a tentative, "Can I help you...?"
"My name is Vahn Mason—" revealed Vahn, intending to say more, but the woman, Karura, went wide-eyed, opened the door in a hurry, and abruptly tried to lower herself into what he assumed to be a reverent or apologetic dogeza before he hurriedly grabbed her shoulders and said, "Please don't do that, Karura-san...if a pregnant woman were to prostrate herself before me, the only thing I would feel is ashamed..."
Though she initially tensed when Vahn abruptly grabbed her shoulders, Karura quickly went from fear to confusion when she looked up and found him staring back at her with a notably awkward smile and clear anxiety in his expression. She had expected someone with a title like Dragon God to be cold, callous, and proud, but the handsome, dark-skinned man before her exuded a palpable familiarity...like he was oblivious to the concept of distance between people of differing social classes.
Confident that Karura had given up performing a dogeza, Vahn released her shoulders and kept his hands raised to show he intended her no harm as he stated, "As I was saying before...my name is Vahn Mason. I am also known as the Dragon God of Intertwining Fates, but since you are neither one of my followers nor a member of the Dragon's Pavilion, you are free to address me without honorifics. As for why I'm visiting, I wanted to ensure you were comfortable and address any concerns you might have."
Sensing nothing but concern and sincerity from Vahn, Karura felt even more confused, compelling her to ask, "I beg your pardon if this comes across as rude...but is Vahn-sama truly a God? Your appearance is very striking, but other than that, you feel...normal..."
Exhaling a soft chuckle, Vahn, surprising himself, elicited a shy blush from Karura as he casually retorted, "I came here to ease your concerns, not to frighten you. And if it makes things easier for you, you're welcome to view me as just a man—striking or otherwise."
"Please come inside..." responded Karura, hanging her head so that her sandy bangs concealed the upper half of her deeply flushed face. Vahn was tempted to respond with his usual 'Always...' but since Karura was a married woman and most certainly not a member of his harem, he nodded silently and stepped into the suite-like room she had been given to ensure her comfort.
"I...please make yourself comfortable while I prepare you some tea..." muttered Karura, slipping past Vahn and retreating to the kitchen with hastened steps.
'What an adorable woman...' thought Vahn, resisting the temptation to sneak a direct peek at Karura's butt as she retreated. If he were being honest with himself, he didn't feel that Rasa, the Kazekage, deserved to have Karura as his wife. However, that was based on his retrospective knowledge of the canon Naruto timeline. The current Rasa wasn't nearly as bad as he was depicted in various flashbacks, and even the decision to make his unborn son the vessel of Shukaku was due to pressure from the Suna Council—desperate to fortify the village after the Third Kazekage's sudden disappearance and the death of the previous Jinchurki, Bunpuku, within months of each other.
'The tragedies of Gaara's childhood won't happen this time around...I won't allow it...' affirmed Vahn, nodding to himself before taking a seat at the low-lying table in the suite's living room. Karura arrived minutes later with tea and snacks, appearing markedly calmer as she apologized for the delay and served him tea before sitting on the side of the table to his left. From there, the two of them discussed the details of how Shukaku would safely be removed from her son, the current state of Sunagakure, and her hopes for the future or, more specifically, the futures of her two, soon-to-be-three beloved children...
...
..
.
Following his rather pleasant chat with Karura, Vahn teleported into the otherwise inaccessible and consequently inescapable suite where the Jinchuriki hailing from Iwagakure were being held. They had tried to take Xenovia and Erza hostage when the two appeared to apprise them of the situation—even going so far as to unleash the power of the Four and Five-Tails sealed within them when they realized they were at a disadvantage. As such, they had lost the right to move freely.
'They really did a number on this place...' noted Vahn, relaxedly scanning his surroundings. The suite's layout was similar to Karura's, but the smell of burnt wood hung heavy in the air, and all the lighting fixtures had been systematically destroyed, leaving it looking like the aftermath of a building fire that left the floor, walls, and ceiling intact.
'Oh? I've always wanted to try something like this...' thought Vahn, half-turning in the direction of a matte black, nearly soundless kunai sailing at his right shoulder from what should have been his blind spot. In the same motion, he raised his right hand, timing a flick to deflect the kunai toward the ceiling. It didn't stick due to the structure of the palace being virtually indestructible, but its tip had visibly bent, causing it to ding off the ceiling before falling to the floor.
Demonstrating that the kunai had been a distraction, a very large, kasa-wearing man sporting a facemask and crimson armor under stone-colored robes appeared behind him in the blink of an eye, punching at the back of his head with a giant, stone-hard fist. Vahn sensed this, of course, but he figured the fastest way to get the duo to cease their attack was to exhibit its futility.
pomf
As he had punched forth with enough force to shatter a large boulder, the nearly 230cm-tall Shinobi's light brown eyes reflected disbelief as his fist didn't simply stop against the back of Vahn's head. Instead, it was as if all the force contained within the blow had been negated—disappearing as if he had never thrown the punch in the first place.
"Move aside, Han...!" shouted a much shorter, 149cm-tall man with red hair, a mustache, and a beard that tapered to a point. His attire consisted of a long-sleeved magenta kimono shirt and baggy pants beneath brown, samurai-esque armor. Toeless black Shinobi sandals adorned his feet, and beneath his shirt, a flexible, multi-layer hide-wire mesh could be seen—its purpose a bit of a mystery as Vahn had never witnessed the very common shinobi undergarment stop so much as a shuriken.
As Vahn took in his appearance, the diminutive Shinobi, Roshi, barreled at him with a fiery orange, magmous aura enveloping his body and a trio of magma-formed tails protruding from his lower back. The heat he exuded was close to 1,500°C, but Vahn stood his ground, allowing Roshi to weave several hand signs before expelling a tremendous volume of lava from his mouth with considerable force.
Following his comrade's advice, the inordinately tall Shinobi, Han, evaded using the Substitution Jutsu, leaving behind a section of destroyed sofa in his wake. As for Vahn, he shook his head, stood with his hands behind his back, and smiled calmly as the torrent of lava enveloped him.
"He didn't even try to dodge..." Roshi remarked aloud, his expression fixed in an intense, disbelieving glower as he stared at the human-sized cacoon of lava where Vahn had been. It should have cooled rapidly and turned to stone after it was no longer connected to his Chakra. But to his and Han's horror and disbelief, it seemed to get hotter, nearly white-hot, as it quickly melted, revealing Vahn wreathed in violet-gold flames.
"Magma may counter flames in some settings, but only if their user lacks imagination..." remarked Vahn, referencing Ace's defeat at the hands or, more accurately, the piercing right fist of Admiral Akainu in the One Piece canon. To his credit, Ace could increase the temperature of his flames to 5,000°C with Haki, but with Source as his fuel, Vahn's only limits were his surroundings and how hot he wanted to burn.
Feeling the heat exuding from Vahn's body, causing the suite's interior to feel like the inside of a boiler, Roshi and Han quickly lowered themselves into dogeza-like poses, their foreheads and knuckles touching the ground as the former declared, "Please, belay your anger! We surrender...!" with a palpable sense of urgency. After all, even if it was just for a brief moment, the flames enveloping Vahn's body were hot enough that his skin became dry and started to wither—a phenomenon startlingly similar to the Scorch Release of the famed Pakura of Sunagakure but over a much, much larger area...
...
..
.