Arthur stood there, deactivating his technique. He looked down at the fallen orangutan with a cold emptiness in his eyes.
Enma was breathing shallowly; he was lost for words.
Arthur felt no such satisfaction. Not after defeating the jungle's apex predator.
To Arthur's surprise, Enma managed to stand back up.
"That must hurt," Arthur said, knowing how ruptured the king's organs were.
Flames raged in the background as Enma stumbled slightly but managed to compose himself. He picked up his staff without breaking eye contact. It was clear that he wanted to kill the person who had caused all of this.
Arthur just watched, daring the king to try.
In an instant, the two dashed toward one another. Just as Enma swung, Arthur blocked the staff with his forearm and palmed the monkey back. Enma tried again, so Arthur palmed him back again.
Bang!
Enma slowly began to tire. He was getting increasingly sluggish.
At that moment, Arthur's natural energy ran out. Enma saw a glimmer of hope. But what he didn't see was how much Arthur had in his arsenal of techniques.
'Crimson gaze…' Arthur's eyes flashed red. Then chakra surged through his feet. 'High-speed movement.'
Enma could see his movements. So the monkey arced the staff down.
Crash!
Arthur had launched himself into the air, dodging the attack. When he landed, he scanned for a potential opening. Yet Enma quickly spun around and began swinging violently.
Arthur was ready. He countered by lunging forward and slipped beneath the first swing. Recovering, he ducked again, and the staff whistled past him. Then he rolled to Enma's side, dodging yet another swing.
'Chakra-enhanced strength…'
Bang!
A well-placed kick struck Enma's knee joint, causing a jolt of pain through Enma's leg. He buckled to his entire right side as Arthur launched a powerful uppercut.
Bang!
The blow struck Enma square on the jaw, sending the massive primate upward before crashing to the ground.
Enma lay motionless as Arthur stood there, barely panting from the heavy chakra exertion. Looking down at the fallen king, he couldn't feel anything. The sound of a nearby crying chimp mixed with the flames was all he could hear.
Just one look at Enma's chakra signature told Arthur what he needed: he had won.
So Arthur approached Enma and knelt beside him.
"You brought this upon yourself," he said. "Accepting me into your realm without verifying anything with the Leaf Village... All this was because of your stupidity."
Enma's gaze remained fixed on him, surprise crossing his eyes. Not once had he known that Arthur was from the Leaf Village. Let alone his true name.
What could he do now? His body was no longer listening, and he could feel himself dying.
"I hate you…" he managed.
Strong words to say, but they didn't faze Arthur whatsoever. He was, however, impressed. The internal injuries he inflicted were fatal enough to kill Elder Pepé. Yet Enma managed to continue getting back up every time.
Glancing at the baby chimp close by, Arthur arose and declared, "I'll assume that child was yours. Funny… I don't recall the king having an offspring."
Enma's eyes widened, hoping Arthur wouldn't kill the chimp right in front of him.
"Think of me as a monster?" Arthur asked, walking to the baby to pick it up. "It would be foolish of me not to spare at least one of your kind."
Enma hadn't known what he meant at first. Then the answer came to him: Arthur was a ninja with an affinity for this land. Not once had Enma interrogated Arthur on how he came to this land or what real knowledge he knew about the ninja world.
That's why Arthur called him stupid.
A lump formed in Enma's throat. Because deep down, he knew that Arthur was going to raise his child.
He watched with weary eyes as his own strength rapidly faded. "There's… no sense of justice in you. Don't think… you will get… away with this."
Justice? Arthur is the justice.
"Learn a proverb from the bible, oh king: to do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice."
At those words, Arthur beheaded the king.
✟
Some time later.
A whimpering baby chimp was seen being cradled close to Arthur's chest. The acrid smoke of the burning village was still apparent.
He had eliminated every primate, including the ones that fled. Simian Sage Mode's enhanced senses allowed him to track the primates with uncanny precision, making their stampede movements easily predictable.
Even the most formidable primates, incomparable to Enma, were defeated.
Arthur himself might have grown stronger, but it was his cunningness that sealed the primates' fate. He understood their patterns and their routines. The night he learned about the Cayman Jungles was the same night he observed their patrols and learned their vulnerabilities.
Thoughts of wishing to destroy this place were registered. Yet he hadn't decided to go with it until after knowing that he could learn Sage Mode.
Even without, he still had ideas of eradicating them all to use this land as his own personal project. Sage Mode just became a cruel advantage.
As he walked with the chimp, the acrid smoke filled the desolate village. The huts lay in smouldering ruins, and many roofs collapsed under the weight of charred wood.
Arthur looked down at the baby chimp against his chest. The epitome of innocence was born into a world that would never know its parents or home. He would raise it until it was ready to serve him in battle.
It's then he began sifting through the ashes while searching for anything salvageable. A weapon, a pouch of supplies—anything that could be of help. But almost everything was reduced to embers and ash.
As he reached the edge of the village, a strange sight caught his eye: a large chalice.
It looked to be a portal, akin to the one on Mt. Myōboku. If this was true, it would also be a one-way ticket back to the Fire Country.
"Waah!" the chimp whimpered again.
Arthur calmed it down before softly placing it on the ground. He then knelt before the chalice. It was unlike the one on Mt. Myōboku. While that one had water, this one held lava that didn't feel hot at all.
Steeling himself, he dipped his hand into the cold lava.
Swoosh!
The world quickly dissolved around him in a wave of heat and light. When the blinding sensation subsided, he found himself standing in a lush green forest. The air was clean, opposite the wasteland he'd left behind.
He was back. But back where?
He closed his eyes and focused his Crimson Gaze to sense the surrounding area. There was a remote village not too far from here. And from its decor, it looked to be stationed in the Fire Country.
From his location, he could see the village map. He didn't seem that far from the Hidden Leaf Village. Perhaps a day's walk from this location.
Either way, he needed to return back to the Cayman Jungles. And since he hadn't formed any contracts with the apes yet, traversing there should be the same.
'Summoning jutsu…'
Already, the cries of the chimp filled his ears. He looked down at the baby before picking it up again. Then he calmly rocked it until it eventually stopped.
For the first time carrying it, the chimp gripped his shirt. It was almost as if it were acknowledging him as a caretaker.
"Judging from your size, you must have recently been born…"
"Ko," the baby muttered. "Ko… ko…"
"Koko, huh?" Arthur said, checking its gender. The baby was female. "Yes… That can be your name."
Arthur had no thoughts of leaving her alone. As the last of the primates, he simply couldn't allow her to fall prey to another predator.
With a plan in mind, he set about repairing the damage done in the village.
He salvaged what he could: scraps of cloth, tools, and a few untouched cooking supplies. Using his chakra, he rebuilt the basic structure of a hut, enough to provide a meager shelter for Koko and himself.
All this took him twenty-four hours.
The next few days passed quickly. Arthur had scavenged for edible plants, supplementing them with prepackaged formula he found in the ruins of a food storage hut.
He fashioned a makeshift cradle from vines and leaves, and to his surprise, Koko adapted quickly.
This baby monkey, with her bright, curious eyes and playful antics, provided a much-needed spark in the otherwise bleak situation. She would coo and giggle as Arthur clumsily attempted to feed her. And to his surprise, her small fingers had surprising strength.
At night, she would nestle into his arms. A strange sense of companionship for a man such as Arthur.
It hadn't taken long for Koko to start understanding Arthur when he spoke. This came as no surprise since summoning animals aged and grew far quicker than ninjas. Mix that with a primate's intelligence; this baby chimp was actually quite smart.
Training Koko, however, was not something to be done this early. After all, she was still a baby.
When the time came, he would surely introduce her to basic commands and hand signs, hoping to forge a stronger bond. One that might one day translate into a fearsome summoning animal.
Time continued to pass.
During the day, Arthur ventured out, foraging for food and rebuilding the village in a manner most suited to himself. At night, he continued his grim task of hunting down any remaining predators or primates he had possibly missed during the massacre.
There were seldom any threats lingering for miles. A few giant serpents and eagles, but never anything he had to worry about. It was all to ensure the safety of the last remaining jungle inhabitant.
One could say that Arthur was a wonderful pet owner.
When he wasn't out hunting at night, he would try to teach Koko words from intact children's books at the Royal Registry. Thankfully, the place hadn't been completely burned down by him. For the books were of enourmous help.
Apart from teaching Koko, he trained relentlessly, honing his body and sharpening his skills. He practiced his techniques, remembering that the finals demanded him to be stronger.
While yes, he had acquired Sage Mode and proved himself by slaughtering an entire race of primates, that did not mean that he was going to blatantly show his transformation off. Margaret, who also had a Sage Mode, made the mistake of revealing it.
A part of Arthur yearned to never return to the Leaf Village, to go out into the world and forge more opportunities like this one. But a larger part held him back. Now was not the time to stray from the main story as a whole.
And then there was Koko. She was continuing to grow at a rate much faster than average primates. Even its movements became more coordinated as the days passed by.
One afternoon, while Arthur was engrossed in practicing the Water Dragon technique alone, a small voice threw him off guard.
"Pretty!"
He spun around, searching for the source of the sound. The small voice was followed by a giggle. Then he saw the source. There, perched on a nearby rock, was Koko.
"Pretty water!" she repeated.
Arthur blinked, wondering if he heard that right. Had the baby chimp just spoken? Her voice was clear and, surprisingly, girly. He stared at Koko, skeptical, causing the chimp to tilt her head in curiosity.
"When did you learn to talk?" he asked.
Koko, oblivious to his astonishment, let out another round of giggles. "Make more water, daddy!"
Daddy? Arthur had never considered himself to be father material. He was over the age of consent, but to be called something as prestigious as a father was a little under his years.
Moreover, Koko couldn't be more than a few weeks old, yet it was already speaking coherently. While animals in the Narutoverse aged faster than in his world, this was still impossibly fast. A few weeks old would be equivalent to a baby born by a woman who was still pre-mobile and reliant on her mother for survival.
From that day forward, their routine took on a new purpose.