Chapter 25: Mindscape
After a half an hour running through the island, they reached a small clearing past the woods. Rai can see a waterfall in front of him with a small patch of land in circular shape right in front of the falls. The place has a calm and serene feel to it. It is understandable that this is where Uncle B trained to control or make peace with the Eight Tails.
"So, I just sit there and try to meditate?" – Rai
"That's right. It's quite simple. But it is really hard for normal people to be able to enter their mindscape. It is simpler for people like me since we have a connection with a Biju that automatically allows for us to enter." – Uncle B
"Hmm. Ok. I haven't asked you this before, but what's Gy… er the Eight Tails like? I heard that you became friends with it." – Rai
Rai almost slipped up there and called the Eight Tails by its real name.
"Oh. His name is Gyuki and he's pretty cool actually. If you want I could let you meet him later." – Uncle B
"Sure. I'd like that." – Rai
Rai went towards the small patch of land and sat there cross legged facing the Waterfall. He clears his mind and tries to meditate. It isn't that hard for him to meditate for him since, it's not that much of a difference to cultivating. Both require for a calm mind and body to stay still.
Rai doesn't really know what his mindscape will be like. He knows from the series that what Naruto faced was his darker self, the culmination of all the hate that he has accrued during his time living as an orphan in Konoha. Rai shouldn't have something of that sort within him so he was intrigued to find out.
Rai continued sitting there for a long time hoping for something to happen but he felt nothing. But he persisted and continued to force himself into entering his mindscape. After what felt like hours, he finally got fed up and opened his eyes. He was about to ask his Uncle for some advice but then he noticed that he was not in front of the waterfall anymore. It finally hit him that he was successful and that is in fact inside his mindscape.
Rai was excited that he actually succeeded. He looked around to get a feel for his surroundings. He was standing on an empty plain with nothing in front of him. He was confused, he thought there would be some kind of manifestation of himself in here or something of the sort at least. All he says is a vast land of nothingness. No structures. No signs of life. It didn't even feel like there was any air in here. He tried to see if he could use chakra. That seemed to be working fine weirdly. He also wanted to confirm if he could get out if he wanted and he felt a tug on his mind that confirmed that he could leave if he wanted.
So, Rai decided to explore a little to see if he can find something. He spent many hours scouring the land looking for something. But there was nothing in sight. But, he did not give up, he wanted to know why his mindscape is like this? It was like an uncontrollable itch and the only reprieve he would get is if he found some answers. So, he kept looking. He tried asking Alice for some advice but she was non responsive. He tried summoning Yoru to see of it would work to get her into his mindscape but that didn't work understandably. There was only one thing that he could do. He continued searching.
Hours turned into days and days turned into weeks and then finally months but still he did not find anything until one day he saw something like a structure far off in the horizon. He initially thought it was something like a mirage. But, he made up his mind to do one last attempt and went towards it at full speed. The closer he got, the clearer the structure got.
They looked like walls. Humongous walls that went hundreds of meters into the air. He thought he would get there soon but, reality proved otherwise. He was still quite for from it but it just seemed to get bigger and bigger. It kind of gave him the feeling like they were similar to the walls in Attack on Titan. It seems like a city inside the walls, but this makes it even weirder. Why is there a city with such huge walls inside his mindscape? Is this not his mindscape? Did he get transported elsewhere? These thoughts were running rampant in Rai's mind.
He finally reached in front of the city. And just like he thought, this place is massive. He couldn't even see the end of these walls with his eyesight. His initial estimation of it's size was dead wrong. He wanted to try and climb it but thought otherwise. Instead, he started looking for a gate. If it's a city it should have a gate right?
He ran alongside the walls until he saw a huge red gate. It was closed shut though. He tried pushing it open but no luck there. He tried to attack the gate to see if there would be a change but it didn't even leave a mark. He carefully looked at the gate and saw some carving on the gate. He could not see it properly as he was too close. He went further back and saw what looked like a phoenix crafted on the gate. It looked like it was breathing fire from its mouth.
'This is getting weirder and weirder' thought Rai
He left from there and started looking for another gate. And he did but it was another closed gate. This one was White in color but with a Tiger carving on the gate. He kept going and found two more gates before he reached the Phoenix again. The third gate was Black in color with a Tortoise carving. He thought it was a tortoise until he saw the tail extending into the head of a snake. The fourth gate is Blue in color and has the carving of a Chinese Dragon.
Rai started to understand a little bit about this, since he vaguely knows something about the Mythical Four Symbol beasts. The Vermillion Bird (Zhuque) in the South, the White Tiger (Baihu) in the West, the Black Tortoise (Xuanwu) in the North and the Azure Dragon (Qinglong) in the East.
None of the gates were opening up. Rai felt weird. None of this made any sense, why are there markings of the 4 mythical beasts on these gates? And what is inside these walls? Since, the forceful approach doesn't work maybe he can try to climb the walls to figure out what is on the other side.
He looked up again. Just imagining scaling up these walls made him feel some vertigo. Rai isn't really afraid of heights but he isn't a daredevil either who can calmly scale up walls which for all he knows might extend for kilometers in the air. But, Rai could not give up. This was eating him up from the inside. He had to find out. It was like something was screaming out to him from inside that whatever is beyond these walls has something to do with him as if a part of him longs for it.
Rai decides to just go for it. This nagging feeling is eating him up. He quickly gets to the wall and just before he puts his hand on it.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." - ???
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone