Arthur looked down at the fallen orangutan with a cold emptiness in his eyes.
Enma was breathing shallowly; he was lost for words. How could he, the king of the jungle, let this happen?
Arthur had to be stopped, so Enma gathered as much strength as he could to re-enter a fighting stance.
"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's back. Enma tried again, so Arthur palmed him back again.
"You're getting sluggish," Arthur taunted. At that moment, his Sage Chakra ran out. "Tsk…"
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.'
As Arthur raced forward, Enma could see his every steps. 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 slipped beneath the first swing, jumped over the second, and let the third whistle past his face.
'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.
Arthur then slowly walked toward the fallen king. Looking down at Enma, he couldn't feel anything. All he could hear was the cry of the baby chimp mixed with flames. So Arthur knelt toward Enma's ear.
"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 ignorance."
Enma was surprised. 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. That didn't mean he wasn't 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.
If only Enma had at least asked more questions, he might have uncovered the truth of Arthur truly was.
A lump formed in Enma's throat. Because deep down, he knew that Arthur was going to raise his child.
Finally, with weary eyes, he lamented, "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 smoke of the burning village was still apparent.
He had already eliminated every other primate, including the ones that fled, thanks to his Simian Sage Mode. 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 learned of their vulnerabilities.
Now in the present, the village lay desolate. The huts were in smouldering ruins, and many roofs had collapsed under the weight of charred wood.
Arthur looked down at the baby chimp against his chest. He would raise it until it was ready to serve him in battle.
While sifting through the village to search for anything salvageable—a weapon, a pouch of supplies, whatever could be of help, he came up empty since almost everything was reduced to ashes.
As he reached the edge of the village, a large chalice caught his eyes.
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 suddenly whimpered.
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 liquid.
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?
'Crimson gaze…'
In 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. A house showed a map tucked under someone's bed. From his location, he could see that the Leaf Village was close. Perhaps a day's walk.
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. So he picked it up and 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. "Hmm… I suppose 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. So 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 then rebuilt the basic structure of a hut, enough to provide a meager shelter for Koko and himself.
All this had taken 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 even fashioned a makeshift cradle from vines and leaves, and to his surprise, Koko was adapting 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 he clumsily attempted to feed her. And to surprise him even more, her small fingers had quite the grip.
At night, she would nestle into his arms. Quite the strange companionship for a man like Arthur.
It hadn't taken long for Koko to start understanding him when he spoke. This came as no surprise since summoning animals aged and grew far quicker than people. 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.
In due time, he would surely introduce her to things like hand signs. Then hopefully, just hopefully, she might turn into a fearsome summoning animal.
✟
Time continued to pass.
During the day, Arthur had foraged for food and rebuilt the village in a manner most suited to himself. At night, he continued his grim task of hunting down any remaining predators that managed to weasel their way inside.
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 kept up his own training by sharpening his skills.
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, for instance, had made the mistake of revealing that she also had a Sage Mode.
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 her 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, only to see Koko giggling on a nearby rock.
"Pretty water!" she repeated.
Had Arthur heard right? Had this baby just spoken? Her voice was clear and, surprisingly, girly.
"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 she was already speaking coherently.
While animals in the ninja world aged faster, 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's milk.
This was good because now their routine could take on a new purpose.