"Hard times don't create heroes. It is during the hard times when the 'hero' within us is revealed."
— Bob Riley, The Rookie
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Otis sat by the river, the same clearing that had become his refuge since childhood. The water moved slowly, glinting under the sunlight, and the trees around him swayed in a lazy rhythm. It had been four years since his battle with Kazan, and though time had passed, the memory of that night still lingered inside him like an old scar that refused to fade.
But what stayed with him most wasn't the battle itself. It was what came after.
His eyes, shadowed with thought, scanned the river as he murmured inwardly,
"Four years…"
[Flashback – Two and a half years ago]
Otis had opened his eyes after what felt like a single night's rest. But the truth was harsher, he had been in a coma for a year and a half. To him, it had been like yesterday, when he had stood against Kazan with everything he had. When he opened his eyes in the hospital bed, the world had already moved on without him.
The following month passed slowly. Healing his body was one thing, but healing his mind was another. But when he was finally discharged, he didn't waste a moment. He marched straight to the Hokage's office.
He needed answers.
The old man had been waiting for him, as though expecting this day. Hiruzen sat behind his desk, his eyes studying Otis carefully, measuring the boy who had somehow survived battles that would have broken grown men.
"You seek the truth," Hiruzen said before Otis could even speak. His eyes softened, carrying both regret and duty. "About your mother… about why Danzo despises you."
Otis said nothing, only nodded.
Hiruzen exhaled slowly, his pipe smoldering. "Her name was Hikari. In her time, she was called many things. To her allies, she was hope. To her enemies, she was something closer to a calamity. Her most famous name was The War Maiden."
The Hokage leaned back in his chair, the faint smell of tobacco clinging to the wood around them. "She was… extraordinary. During the Third Great Ninja War, she was considered one of Konoha's sharpest weapons. Her body alone was a miracle, resilient beyond reason. Her heart, her chakra, even her blood carried qualities shinobi across nations would have killed to study. I even tried to erase that information about her… though I failed in that too."
Otis's hands clenched. "Danzo."
The Hokage's gaze darkened. "Yes. Danzo despised her. He tried to control what he could not. He schemed behind her back. Your mother forgave him once, but when he didn't take that warning seriously and attacked her directly, he ambushed her with a weapon designed to strip her strength, so she shattered him. Left him without an eye, without a hand… and without the pride he once carried. He never forgave her for that. And that hatred… carried over to you, Otis."
Otis swallowed hard, pride swelling in his chest.
Hiruzen spoke for hours, his voice filled with emotion, painting a life that seemed almost larger than legend. He told Otis how he had met Hikari for the first time, a young woman whose presence seemed to command attention without effort, whose laughter could lighten even the darkest of days. He spoke of how she came to Konoha, arriving with determination in her eyes and a spirit that refused to be contained. Hiruzen recounted her friendships with Tsunade, Kushina, and Mikoto.
He described her strength, both physical and mental, in painstaking detail. How she moved in battle. The techniques she mastered, the strategies she devised on the fly, the way she could turn even the simplest movement into an artful weapon. Hiruzen's words lingered on her victories and failures alike, every story revealing the depth of her courage, her intelligence, and her indomitable will.
As the sun sank toward the horizon, casting the room in a golden glow, the hours slipped away unnoticed. Otis listened, each story etching an image of his mother into his mind. Pride swelled in his chest, that seemed to anchor him to the legacy he had only just begun to understand.
Hiruzen also revealed
"Otis, your great-grandfather was a pureblood giant, and your mother inherited half of that power. That makes you… a quarter giant. Giants are gone from this world, and with every generation, their blood grows more scarce."
But the question that haunted Otis most finally broke through.
"How did she die?" he asked quietly.
For a moment, Hiruzen looked away, staring out the window. His gaze fell on a small black handprint, a reminder of a nightmare he could never forget.
(Pic)
"What I know is little… but I will tell you," he said, his voice heavy with restraint.
"It was during the Third Great Ninja War."
The office seemed to fade around Otis, the world dimming as the story pulled him back into the past—The Third Great Ninja War.
The war was chaos, fire, and blood. Land cracked under the weight of endless battles, forests burned, and rivers ran red..
The night sky hung heavy with storm clouds as a squad moved silently through the forest. At their head was a woman—black hair tied back, eyes sharp with focus. Hikari.
On her back were two newborns, bundled tightly in a cloth, barely hours old. Her presence alone steadied the hearts of the younger shinobi who followed her. The weight of her responsibility pressed on her, yet she carried it with unwavering determination.
But shadows stirred in the trees around them. Kumo ninja. Dozens of them.
As they neared the edge of a ravine, the Kumo shinobi emerged from all sides, blades gleaming, lightning crackling in the air.
The squad froze. Dozens of enemies surrounded them, their numbers far too great to allow escape.
Hikari's gaze hardened. She stepped forward, chakra flaring like a storm breaking free.
"Stay behind me," she ordered, her voice calm.
The forest floor trembled as two titans clashed. On one side stood Hikari, her black hair matted with sweat and dirt, her grip steady on the axe. Across from her, the Third Raikage, lightning dancing across his body, every breath sparking with raw power.
Both were masters of a single chakra nature, honed to the absolute limit. Hikari in the earth nature and Raikage in the lightning nature . In theory, lightning devoured earth. But theory faltered in the face of mastery.
The axe came down first. Hikari roared as the weapon cleaved through the air, aimed straight for the Raikage's skull. The ground cracked beneath her feet with the sheer force of her swing.
The Raikage twisted just in time—the blade missed him by a hair.
He countered instantly. His hand glowed, fingers sharpened into a spear of lightning. The infamous Hell Stab. He lunged, thrusting straight for her heart.
Hikari slammed her shield between them. The moment the Hell Stab struck, the world seemed to explode. A deafening boom split the clearing, shockwaves blasting outward. Trees were ripped from their roots, dirt and stone shot into the air, and the ground quaked so violently that even the Kumo and Konoha shinobi locked in smaller skirmishes froze, struggling to steady themselves against the aftershock.
Dust and sparks clouded the air. And in the middle of it, neither warrior yielded.
Hikari pushed back, chakra surging through her veins. Her earth-nature power solidified the shield as if it were carved from the bones of the mountain itself.
The Raikage's eyes burned with ferocity, yet a thin trickle of blood ran down his arm—her counterforce had pierced his lightning armor.
"You're strong," he admitted through gritted teeth.
The battle raged on. Hikari's axe met his lightning-fast strikes again and again, each collision splitting the night with shockwaves, tearing the forest apart, leaving devastation in their wake
But even the fiercest fight couldn't last forever.
Konoha reinforcements were approaching, and the Raikage had sustained injuries. Seeing this, the Kumo forces began to retreat.
The Raikage himself stepped back, his lightning cloak crackling as he lowered his hand.
"We'll end this another time," he rumbled.
With a signal, the Kumo shinobi withdrew, vanishing into the trees.
The battlefield fell silent. To those who had witnessed it, the clash between earth and lightning that night became the stuff of whispered legends.
Hikari had fought the Third Raikage to a standstill. And that was no small feat. Hours after giving birth, she had faced one of the most powerful shinobi alive, carrying not only her newborns on her back but the lives of her entire squad on her shoulders. Her strength, her courage, and her unwavering resolve left an indelible mark on everyone who witnessed it
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(Pic)
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(A/N)
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