Post by Hero on Jul 1, 2018 20:55:26 GMT
Elsewhere...
A drunken mess of muscle stumbled through a forest of blood, panting with every step. Wiping the booze and blood from his silver beard he continued forward in the darkness with only his adroit mastery of his senses to guide him. Sortez was the most trusted of Kaede's Iyeryu yet even he had lost sight of everything. The Gunji Sangin as disposable as they were fell like flies in their desperate attempt to protect everyone and surrendered to the carnage of bloodshed that befell all. Perhaps things would have been different had he stayed, in-fact, he knew they would have been. Still, something even more important loomed on the horizon, something far away that he tried desperately to grasp. Following his remote suspicion he had disappeared from Kitashiobara just before the attack began, and before Kaede was even attacked, he had already met with many of the enemy. One after another his towering body of muscle trampled over them, crushing their heads into bits of bone and pools of blood, aiming for any weaknesses that he saw along the way. Still, never focusing on they themselves, he knew instinctively that to end this night of blood he would have to get to the source.
So as to not allow himself to be cornered, he steeled himself, drank more of his regionally-acclaimed sake, and mowed through the dozens and dozens of fiends that swarmed him from the direction that he pushed forward into. Yes...there was a chakra unlike any other this way. While those that he killed one after another were devoid of chakra altogether, something powerful, perhaps even moreso than any of The Kitakokou's personal regime loomed ahead. No, even more powerful than The Kitakokou himself.
With a final leaping bound he smashed into the ground, forcing it to cave and sending massive boulders of splintered rock into every which direction, crashing into trees, and flying off into the distance of the open clearing on that bloody night. Far away from Kitashiobara he took another swig of his sake.
“Yer' know...pretty smart to keep ya' distance this far away...” the high-pitched baritone stammered with an accent reeking of the country-side. “That way I can really do my stuff!” he announced to the clearing where only the ivory moon and the crater he had created exist.
A voice would reply, yet nothing about the world around him unnatural would change1.
“Finally we get to meet, Sortez Hagemaru.” the voice echoed. It was young and arrogant, carrying a natural malice to it. “I've heard much about you from Kazuma.”
This was enough to crack Sortez's usual aloofness. His bloodied hand gripped around his sake bottle he froze in fear of even hearing the name. Kazuma...the most frightening monster to ever wear human skin...Sortez immediately recalled the memories of his bitter past in melancholy, slowly dropping the gourd in his left hand back to his waist. “You know kid...you shouldn't speak such nonsense...it can really get you killed around these parts...”
“So I have seen. Then again, I doubt the oh-so-powerful Kitakokou would lay a finger on me...then again he has been pretty sick lately hasn't he?”
This anonymous voice had done it's homework, but it wasn't as knowledgeable on the situation surrounding Kaede as it led itself to believe. Sliding his right foot out so that his feet were slightly beyond shoulder width apart, over a thousand beads of chakra like fireflies began to appear, their color honey, and their intensity enough to warp the air around them. With but a single moment of focus they rushed inwards and collided with Sortez's flesh, bypassing his bloodstained violet sweater and thick baggy slacks. His fists clenched with enough force to break anything in their grasp at his sides, and his teeth gritted themselves in pain. Again. Thousands of chakra beads appeared once more and were internalized into his flesh. Again! More beads appeared this time, surrounding not just the few meters around him, but gathering around the clearing around him. Again!!2
A dozen golden rivers of ancient chakra rushed to him, pouring into his body relentlessly.
“Shugendo...I guess if you're going to die, it should be with an ounce of pride...”
The atmosphere in the clearing shook with fierce energy with Sortez at it's source, sending tremors for several hundreds meters out in every direction from his booted heels. Trees began to topple underneath the pressure of Sortez's transformation, and even the sky somehow became clearer.
This boy...it must be him...but here? If he's here then Kazuma...
Cutting a swathe through the air where no one would even be able to breathe no less even stand without their bones being shattered, a white-robed figure appeared. It was relatively small in comparison to Sortez, and stood about fifteen meters away. Within the hood were bandages that covered every outside extremity, and along each of the figures hands were plain white gloves, as plain as the cloth that lined the man's body.
“Any last words?” the voice questioned aloud, gesturing with empathy to Sortez. “I would have liked us to have met under different circumstances but...”
“Where...is...Kazuma!!” his voice echoed into the heavens, stretching into the skies and perhaps across the region itself.
“Poor last words...but if you must know...I'll show you.”
Kyuubi. The strongest of the tailed-beasts, and the source of Kitashiobara's infinite power. Once heralded as the crown of Konohagakure's most virtuous shinobi, things had changed, for better, or worse. The rage in Kurama's scowl was like of nothing Kaede could remember seeing in recent memory. As it approached hellbent on destroying what was left of any survivors, something felt...off. One couldn't tell by Kaede's body language, but his mind could feel it. Rather than dwelling, he steeled himself for the worst and watched as Oni strained himself further than he already had prior to deal a blow powerful enough to atleast render Kurama immobile for the time being. The shockwave was powerful enough to send rubble gyrating tornadoes flying into every which direction before the mammoth of a beast fell to the ground, still conscious. Uncrossing his arms Kaede gave a round of applause while approaching Kurama, finding it fascinating that Oni was able to do so much damage with a single technique. The more he saw Tenseigan in-action, the more he realized it's power alongside its drawbacks. It was true, it granted limitless power to one who could handle it, and when accompanied with the ability to internalize natural energy and combine it to create sen-chakra, it was a force to be reckoned with, the strain that it had to be putting on Oni's body was unlike anything he'd experienced before, even in his insane training regimen.
“You are hearby removed from your duties as a general of Hanyusha, and stripped of your rank. From hereon you are a nomad that may do as you please. However, with those eyes in your head, you are obligated to return before I die of old age...” Kaede joked shamelessly, stopping his amble just as he stood before the nose of Kurama. While his words may have shocked everyone but Kaede himself, he had already worked on a readjusted timeline that accounted for everything he had said and soon would say.
“Hi old friend, been awhile hasn't it?”
The look in Kurama's eyes were almost of fear. Once a beast was tamed, it didn't dare defy its master, and this was a proper example. Kaede's right hand dropped to pet it's mystical fur that burned his flesh with every stroke, before he lifted it and ushered Ouza forth.
“Kiyoko, you do the honors. I trust your fuinjutsu and ritual abilities have only grown in caliber so you've been away. When you've completed the task, rendezvous in Rin's laboratory below incase there's anything else she needs. Ouza, you're free to do as you see fit until we depart. Every three days we will gather here until our departure, so use the surrounding support villages to your advantage...do not make contact with any of the Gunji Sangin and ignore the few who remain from the night of lamb slaughter...”
Slowly the sun began to creep over the line of the horizon, giving the indication that dawn was upon them.
Glancing over to the horizon, the creeping suspicion that something had happened under his nose set in his stomach.
“Once you leave Rin, Kiyoko, track my chakra signature. We need to speak.”
After saying what all he had to say to them all, the distraction of something unrelated finally showed. The Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan showed itself suddenly thereafter. With no more delay, a vortex of twisted space warped him into it's center, and just like that, he was gone.
And where else would he go than to the source of his earlier distraction. In a single step he was gone and reappeared, allowing his eyes time to refocus on just what it was he was looking at.
“...WHAT?!” Kaede gasped in disbelief, his heart skipping a beat, or even two.
A drunken mess of muscle stumbled through a forest of blood, panting with every step. Wiping the booze and blood from his silver beard he continued forward in the darkness with only his adroit mastery of his senses to guide him. Sortez was the most trusted of Kaede's Iyeryu yet even he had lost sight of everything. The Gunji Sangin as disposable as they were fell like flies in their desperate attempt to protect everyone and surrendered to the carnage of bloodshed that befell all. Perhaps things would have been different had he stayed, in-fact, he knew they would have been. Still, something even more important loomed on the horizon, something far away that he tried desperately to grasp. Following his remote suspicion he had disappeared from Kitashiobara just before the attack began, and before Kaede was even attacked, he had already met with many of the enemy. One after another his towering body of muscle trampled over them, crushing their heads into bits of bone and pools of blood, aiming for any weaknesses that he saw along the way. Still, never focusing on they themselves, he knew instinctively that to end this night of blood he would have to get to the source.
So as to not allow himself to be cornered, he steeled himself, drank more of his regionally-acclaimed sake, and mowed through the dozens and dozens of fiends that swarmed him from the direction that he pushed forward into. Yes...there was a chakra unlike any other this way. While those that he killed one after another were devoid of chakra altogether, something powerful, perhaps even moreso than any of The Kitakokou's personal regime loomed ahead. No, even more powerful than The Kitakokou himself.
With a final leaping bound he smashed into the ground, forcing it to cave and sending massive boulders of splintered rock into every which direction, crashing into trees, and flying off into the distance of the open clearing on that bloody night. Far away from Kitashiobara he took another swig of his sake.
“Yer' know...pretty smart to keep ya' distance this far away...” the high-pitched baritone stammered with an accent reeking of the country-side. “That way I can really do my stuff!” he announced to the clearing where only the ivory moon and the crater he had created exist.
A voice would reply, yet nothing about the world around him unnatural would change1.
“Finally we get to meet, Sortez Hagemaru.” the voice echoed. It was young and arrogant, carrying a natural malice to it. “I've heard much about you from Kazuma.”
This was enough to crack Sortez's usual aloofness. His bloodied hand gripped around his sake bottle he froze in fear of even hearing the name. Kazuma...the most frightening monster to ever wear human skin...Sortez immediately recalled the memories of his bitter past in melancholy, slowly dropping the gourd in his left hand back to his waist. “You know kid...you shouldn't speak such nonsense...it can really get you killed around these parts...”
“So I have seen. Then again, I doubt the oh-so-powerful Kitakokou would lay a finger on me...then again he has been pretty sick lately hasn't he?”
This anonymous voice had done it's homework, but it wasn't as knowledgeable on the situation surrounding Kaede as it led itself to believe. Sliding his right foot out so that his feet were slightly beyond shoulder width apart, over a thousand beads of chakra like fireflies began to appear, their color honey, and their intensity enough to warp the air around them. With but a single moment of focus they rushed inwards and collided with Sortez's flesh, bypassing his bloodstained violet sweater and thick baggy slacks. His fists clenched with enough force to break anything in their grasp at his sides, and his teeth gritted themselves in pain. Again. Thousands of chakra beads appeared once more and were internalized into his flesh. Again! More beads appeared this time, surrounding not just the few meters around him, but gathering around the clearing around him. Again!!2
A dozen golden rivers of ancient chakra rushed to him, pouring into his body relentlessly.
“Shugendo...I guess if you're going to die, it should be with an ounce of pride...”
The atmosphere in the clearing shook with fierce energy with Sortez at it's source, sending tremors for several hundreds meters out in every direction from his booted heels. Trees began to topple underneath the pressure of Sortez's transformation, and even the sky somehow became clearer.
This boy...it must be him...but here? If he's here then Kazuma...
Cutting a swathe through the air where no one would even be able to breathe no less even stand without their bones being shattered, a white-robed figure appeared. It was relatively small in comparison to Sortez, and stood about fifteen meters away. Within the hood were bandages that covered every outside extremity, and along each of the figures hands were plain white gloves, as plain as the cloth that lined the man's body.
“Any last words?” the voice questioned aloud, gesturing with empathy to Sortez. “I would have liked us to have met under different circumstances but...”
“Where...is...Kazuma!!” his voice echoed into the heavens, stretching into the skies and perhaps across the region itself.
“Poor last words...but if you must know...I'll show you.”
Kyuubi. The strongest of the tailed-beasts, and the source of Kitashiobara's infinite power. Once heralded as the crown of Konohagakure's most virtuous shinobi, things had changed, for better, or worse. The rage in Kurama's scowl was like of nothing Kaede could remember seeing in recent memory. As it approached hellbent on destroying what was left of any survivors, something felt...off. One couldn't tell by Kaede's body language, but his mind could feel it. Rather than dwelling, he steeled himself for the worst and watched as Oni strained himself further than he already had prior to deal a blow powerful enough to atleast render Kurama immobile for the time being. The shockwave was powerful enough to send rubble gyrating tornadoes flying into every which direction before the mammoth of a beast fell to the ground, still conscious. Uncrossing his arms Kaede gave a round of applause while approaching Kurama, finding it fascinating that Oni was able to do so much damage with a single technique. The more he saw Tenseigan in-action, the more he realized it's power alongside its drawbacks. It was true, it granted limitless power to one who could handle it, and when accompanied with the ability to internalize natural energy and combine it to create sen-chakra, it was a force to be reckoned with, the strain that it had to be putting on Oni's body was unlike anything he'd experienced before, even in his insane training regimen.
“You are hearby removed from your duties as a general of Hanyusha, and stripped of your rank. From hereon you are a nomad that may do as you please. However, with those eyes in your head, you are obligated to return before I die of old age...” Kaede joked shamelessly, stopping his amble just as he stood before the nose of Kurama. While his words may have shocked everyone but Kaede himself, he had already worked on a readjusted timeline that accounted for everything he had said and soon would say.
“Hi old friend, been awhile hasn't it?”
The look in Kurama's eyes were almost of fear. Once a beast was tamed, it didn't dare defy its master, and this was a proper example. Kaede's right hand dropped to pet it's mystical fur that burned his flesh with every stroke, before he lifted it and ushered Ouza forth.
“Kiyoko, you do the honors. I trust your fuinjutsu and ritual abilities have only grown in caliber so you've been away. When you've completed the task, rendezvous in Rin's laboratory below incase there's anything else she needs. Ouza, you're free to do as you see fit until we depart. Every three days we will gather here until our departure, so use the surrounding support villages to your advantage...do not make contact with any of the Gunji Sangin and ignore the few who remain from the night of lamb slaughter...”
Slowly the sun began to creep over the line of the horizon, giving the indication that dawn was upon them.
Glancing over to the horizon, the creeping suspicion that something had happened under his nose set in his stomach.
“Once you leave Rin, Kiyoko, track my chakra signature. We need to speak.”
After saying what all he had to say to them all, the distraction of something unrelated finally showed. The Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan showed itself suddenly thereafter. With no more delay, a vortex of twisted space warped him into it's center, and just like that, he was gone.
And where else would he go than to the source of his earlier distraction. In a single step he was gone and reappeared, allowing his eyes time to refocus on just what it was he was looking at.
“...WHAT?!” Kaede gasped in disbelief, his heart skipping a beat, or even two.