Chapter 14: The Clash Begins - Part 2
POV: Kole
Kakuzu's lightning mask unleashed hell itself—electrical devastation that turned the forest clearing into a storm of pure destruction. Trees exploded into splinters, earth turned to glass, and the air itself screamed with the fury of elemental forces unleashed without restraint.
"4.5 seconds. I can push to 4.5 seconds."
Time stuttered as Kole reached beyond his limits, reality hiccupping like a broken record. In the stretched moment of stopped time, he could see the threads of Kakuzu's attack perfectly—how they would pierce Asuma's heart, ending the jonin's life with mechanical precision.
"Not today."
He slammed into Asuma with desperate strength, shoving him sideways just as time resumed its normal flow. Kakuzu's threads missed their intended target, piercing lung and stomach instead of the heart. Mortal wounds, but not instantly fatal. A few minutes of life instead of immediate death.
"A few minutes. That's all I've bought him."
Asuma fell, blood pooling beneath him in growing crimson lakes. The wounds were clean but deep, threads having punched through flesh and organs with surgical precision. His breathing came in wet, rattling gasps that spoke of punctured lungs and internal bleeding on a scale that would kill him within minutes.
"Sensei!" Shikamaru's scream tore across the battlefield, raw with grief and fury.
"I know what I have to do. I know what it will cost."
Kole's hands moved before conscious thought could stop them, pulling the Philosopher's Stone fragment from his pocket with trembling fingers. The crimson crystal pulsed with its own inner light, warm as fresh blood and twice as tempting. One miracle. One chance to break the rules of equivalent exchange and save a life that was slipping away like water through cupped hands.
He knelt beside Asuma, pressing the stone fragment to damaged organs while tracing a transmutation circle in the pooling blood. The array blazed with impossible light as ancient power flowed through it, rewriting biology with principles that existed outside natural law.
"Let this work. Please, let this work."
Crimson radiance erupted from the point of contact, washing over Asuma's broken body like healing fire. Torn tissues knitted themselves back together, severed blood vessels sealed with impossible efficiency, and punctured organs regained their structural integrity through molecular manipulation that defied every principle of medical science.
Asuma gasped, eyes flying open as breath returned to lungs that had been drowning in their own blood. The color returned to his face in waves, life reasserting itself through applications of power that belonged in myths rather than reality.
But equivalent exchange demanded its payment.
The Philosopher's Stone fragment crumbled to dust in Kole's hands, one of three miracles consumed in a single desperate moment. But worse than the loss of power was the presence he felt watching through the dissolving crystal—something ancient and hungry that had noticed his use of forbidden techniques.
"Two favors remain. The debt grows."
The whisper came from everywhere and nowhere, a voice that spoke directly to his soul with words that carried the weight of cosmic law. The Entity's gifts weren't free. Every miracle borrowed carried interest rates he didn't understand yet, accumulating into obligations that would eventually come due.
"What have I done?"
But there was no time for regret. Kakuzu was advancing with the mechanical precision of someone who'd decided the demonstration was over and the specimen collection could begin.
"Impressive," the immortal said, threads twitching with barely restrained violence. "You'll make a fascinating research subject."
"Like hell."
Kole transmuted the ground beneath his feet into an oil slick, then snapped his Ignition Gloves with desperate efficiency. Wall of flame erupted between them, buying precious seconds of separation from an enemy whose capabilities far exceeded his own.
"FALL BACK NOW!" he screamed, voice carrying across the burning battlefield.
Shikamaru dragged Asuma toward the treeline while Izumo and Kotetsu launched covering attacks that might slow Akatsuki down for seconds. Precious seconds that could mean the difference between escape and capture.
Kole held the line alone, pushing his time stop to five full seconds despite the agony that felt like nails being driven into his skull. His nervous system was breaking down from the repeated strain, blood pouring from nose and ears in steady streams that spoke of damage that might never fully heal.
"My body is falling apart. But they're getting away. That has to be enough."
"We'll see you again, miracle boy!" Hidan's laughter echoed across the clearing, the sound of someone who'd found a new obsession. "Lord Jashin is very interested in meeting you!"
They let him retreat. The realization was both relief and terror—relief because it meant survival, terror because it confirmed his worst fears. Akatsuki wasn't trying to kill him. They were hunting him, studying him, preparing to capture something they viewed as a valuable research specimen.
"Every power use paints a bigger target on my back. And now that target's visible from space."
The medical tent smelled like blood and antiseptic, a combination that turned Kole's stomach even as he helped coordinate Asuma's emergency treatment. The jonin was stable—impossible, miraculous, but stable—breathing on his own and showing vital signs that suggested full recovery.
"I changed it. I actually changed the timeline."
But victory felt more like theft than salvation. He'd stolen Asuma's canonical death, rewritten fate through applications of power that belonged to gods rather than mortals. The Entity's debt weighed on his shoulders like a physical thing, three miracles reduced to two through desperate intervention in events that were supposed to unfold differently.
Shikamaru sat beside his sensei's bedside, studying Kole with an expression that was impossible to read. Intelligence gleamed in those dark eyes, the mind behind them working through implications and possibilities with calculating precision.
"You knew," Shikamaru said finally, voice carrying absolute certainty. "Somehow, you knew this would happen. And you came anyway."
"I knew because I've seen this story before. Because in another world, your sensei dies today and you spend months hunting the monsters who killed him. Because I'm from a place where your lives were entertainment, and I couldn't stand to watch it happen again."
But the curse wouldn't let him say any of that. Instead, Kole just nodded, throat too tight for words.
"How?" Shikamaru pressed. "How did you know where to find us? How did you know what weapons to bring? How did you know exactly what techniques would work against immortal opponents?"
"Because I've read the script. Because I know how this story is supposed to end, and I decided I didn't like that ending."
"Lucky guess," Kole said instead, which was probably the worst lie he'd ever told.
Shikamaru's expression suggested he agreed with that assessment. "Lucky guess. Right." He leaned back in his chair, dark eyes never leaving Kole's face. "You saved his life. Whatever you are, whatever you're hiding, you saved my sensei's life. That counts for something."
"I'm someone who knows too much and can do too little. I'm a man trying to save a world that doesn't know it needs saving. I'm an alien variable in a cosmic equation that was never supposed to include me."
But those words would only trigger the gibberish curse, so instead he said: "I'm just glad he's going to be okay."
"He's going to be okay because you used some kind of miracle technique that shouldn't exist. Because you pulled power from somewhere that doesn't follow any rules we understand." Shikamaru's voice carried the weight of someone who'd reached conclusions he didn't like but couldn't ignore. "What are you, Kole?"
"I'm someone who's in way over his head. I'm a dead man from another world, walking around in borrowed flesh and fighting battles that aren't mine with powers I don't understand. I'm the Entity's puppet, dancing to cosmic rhythms while pretending I have free will."
"I'm someone who cares," he said finally. "That's all that matters."
Shikamaru studied him for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "Maybe it is. But whatever you are, you've painted a target on yourself that's visible from other dimensions. Akatsuki wants you now. That's not going to end well for anyone."
"I know. But Asuma's alive. Your sensei gets to see his child born, gets to hold Kurenai again, gets to keep protecting the people he loves. That has to be worth whatever comes next."
Outside the medical tent, night fell over the forest like a curtain dropping on the first act of a play that was far from over. Somewhere in the darkness, immortal monsters planned their next move, and cosmic entities calculated the interest rates on debts that were accumulating beyond any hope of payment.
But in a medical tent lit by flickering lanterns, a good man breathed easily in sleep that should have been eternal rest. One life saved. One small victory stolen from the jaws of predetermined fate.
"Changing fate feels more like theft than salvation. But maybe that's what heroism is—stealing hope from hopeless situations, one impossible act at a time."
Tomorrow would bring new challenges, new enemies, new opportunities to save or damn everyone he cared about. But tonight, Asuma Sarutobi was alive because someone from another world had decided his story deserved a different ending.
It would have to be enough.
Author's Note / Promotion:
Your Reviews and Power Stones are the best way to show support. They help me know what you're enjoying and bring in new readers!
Can't wait for the next chapter of [ In Naruto I Have 3 Wishes ]?
You don't have to. Get instant access to more content by supporting me on Patreon. I have three options so you can pick how far ahead you want to be:
🪙 Silver Tier ($6): Read 10 chapters ahead of the public site.
👑 Gold Tier ($9): Get 15-20 chapters ahead of the public site.
💎 Platinum Tier ($15): The ultimate experience. Get new chapters the second I finish them (20+ chapters ahead!). No waiting for weekly drops, just pure, instant access.
Your support helps me write more .
👉 Find it all at patreon.com/fanficwriter1