Welcome to Gaia! ::

The 6 violet flames flared behind the eye slits as the nobody began to speak. "At first there was darkness.... then there was light.... I shall return you all to the Darkness." With a deceptively slow movement the Nobody drew one blade scoring a line on the earth as he moved his arm in a circular motion before dropping into a fighting stance and leaping forward. It was an old, but effective battle tactic, first a slow movement followed by a faster one making it seem as if attackers speed has increased exponentially. For a moment he vanished from the visible spectrum, but reappeared as he had to slow to deliver the blow with more power and accuracy. The blade in his right came from above down toward Nova's head while the blade on his left hip was drawn an swung upward all in one fluid motion.



But then interposed between the two combatants was a mysterious man in a dark hooded robe. His hands were outstretched blocking the blades with no visible damage to the man's palms. The hooded figure leaned forward speaking into the nobodies ear in a whisper. "Turn back now... This isn't your battle... if you continue you risk falling by the wayside... risk losing everything you've given up." The nobody made no move as to acknowledge the words spoken, but moved backward it's blades falling to it's sides in a non threatening posture. The hooded man turned to face Nova, his face obscured by the shadows of the cloak. "Please excuse his actions... they are very unstable at this stage. We shall take our leave now."

A strange mixture between the voices between the Boy and the Nobody flowed from behind the mask. "What... am I? You are nothing. I reject that, I am some thing I just don't know what." In a cool calm manner the Nobody raised it's blades again, but this time turned them on itself. Slashing it the helmet on it's face in a series of powerful graceful blows. The boy under the mask let out a gasp drawing in a breath of fresh air as he was freed from the hold of the helmet. It fell in ribbons around him, as the pieces hit the ground they evaporated. The boy hadn't escaped the self-inflicted attack unscathed, his face was covered in slices and cuts, but they all began to close and soon it was like they were never there to begin with. "You can't control me anymore... I am not your puppet." it seemed it was speaking to the vanished mask. " I have a name! My name is Maxaku!" his body seemed to glow for a moment as the rest of the armor seemed to lift from his body for a moment, but the light faded and the armor re adhered itself to his body as he fell earthward. He fell to one knee again only supported by it's blade.
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Nova, startled that the Nobody had led such a tactical maneuver so quickly, would not have been able to react quickly enough to draw his blade for any defense. Instead, the Shichibi had reacted for him, taking the mental image a blade, and forging the flames that were buried within the ninja's soul. Fire trickled forth from his fingertips, and a volcanic burst of fire had occurred, causing him to slide backwards before the contact would be made between the newly created flame blade, and the silver clad's quick movements. If it had not been for his demon's instinct, he would have been scissored quite quickly, and the first hit would be a deadly one. The newly created blade within his hands gleamed with a red and orange shade, an aura eroding off it's hilt and pouring energy from the tip. A dragon's emblem was encrested in the hilt, and with the aura, almost appeared to be real, and climbing in a spiral motion to the connection of the blade. It was long, and slender at the center blade, and half as long on the two extra blades that extended from both sides of the center. Their primary purpose was probably for parrying, but it would matter not. A mysterious black robed man had halted the fight, thankfully for Nova. For the young Otokage had grown to fear this being, not knowing what it was about, where it came from, why it was even here, what its purpose was, or the fact of simply not knowing. His accustomed way of battle was based on knowledge of the opponent, and how was he to build strategy when that was absent? The new robed man, or what he thought was a man, due to it's hominid shaped figure, seemed to be oppressing the silver clad, thing. It was just a thing to Nova now, a thing that had almost hurt him, a thing that did not even know of its own information, so how was Nova to know anything?

"--Whats going on..? Who are you!? Are you two with those creature made from darkness, the ones stealing hearts!?" His voice was submerged in a tank of an attempting seriousness in his fear of the unknown. In his mind, he could not think of anything probably, the world simply wasn't making since anymore. Nova stood with his blade in a defensive position in a diagonal manner in front of his chest, and removed the what he called 'lightning' from his back of the two Raigas, and placed it in his left hand firmly. This blade was dropped down lower to provide better angle in a defensive maneuver.

The Otokage had no intention of really fighting until he had a firm grasp on what was going on in this entire situation. He was still puzzled from the barrage of monsters that had come to attack his village, and now this!? Nova had failed to take a decent breath the entire time, and did so, though it was unnecessary for his abnormally blessed body. He exhaled, and put the blades at his sides, and listened to the others speak, it was useless to try and fight someone he could not identify as friend, or foe.

"Our time here is short so I will have to explain quickly... if you wish to truly know what is happening you must seek us out in the one place where we truly exist... it is the one place where all the answers you seek can be answered. The condensed version... your world is falling apart at the seams and if not stopped not only will this land, but all of these lands will fall into eternal darkness. Who I am is of no real importance really, I couldn't tell who I was at the moment even if I wanted to. It is best to just think of me as nobody, nobody important, nobody special, nobody who even exists. And to answer your last question, no, we are not the same as the beings of darkness who threaten your world, but we are simply remnants... remnants of what was and what will be...We are those who walk the thin line between lilfe and death, not truly alive or completely dead, we are the ones who walk the path that is both darkness and light the place where they meet and intermingle... as I said our time is short. I must take this boy with me... the path he has chosen is long and arduous and I must prepare him if he is to regain what he has lost. He shows potential though, he has taken the first step... he now walks a path toward a new dawn...." With those cryptic words the hooded figure turned from the Otokage and face the fall Nobody. "Rise Maxaku... We must go now..." the hooded figure raised his hand and Maxaku stood as he began to regain consciousness.

The green oh his eyes glowed a little bit brighter now and it almost seemed as if a ghost of a smile played across his features. "I feel... different somehow... something has changed. I don't know who you are either, but something tells me I can trust you," his face grew serious for a moment. "But the other part tells me I should also be wary of you, I'm not completely sure I want to go with you," his gaze traveled over Tamao unbidden. She was the first person that he had met since waking up who might have held some sort of connection to who he was. He was unsure if he really wanted to go with the strange man or stay with the other 2, who might hold the answers to he really was, and their other unknown companion. It really didn't seem like he had a choice in the matter for with a wave of his hand the mysterious hooded man had created a strange door out of thin air. It opened inward and instead of the battlefield that should have been on the other side all that was visible a strange and mysterious light. Maxaku's body turned toward the light and entered, but not without him casting one last gaze back at the two sound nins and Nano kunoichi. The hooded man gave the same slight bow as before and also entered the doorway. The door slammed shut behind him and the door began to fold in upon itself until there was nothing left of it. Just as the door disappeared from view Maxaku's voice could be heard once more. "I'll be back... I promise...."
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Nazuki arrived at the bar to find it still miraculously open, even though there was no one at the bar. Nazuki rang the bell and waited, though she had an idea that the owner would be too scared to come out. Hoping over the counter, Nazuki found some flour still untarnished and then started mixing water into it. "Now...I just need some eggs."

Ramen wasn't hard to make, and among one of the things Nazuki actually knew how to cook. Nazuki glanced at Tamao, who was apparently lost in thoughts. "So Tamao...DID you know that person?" asked Nazuki, hoping she wasn't treading on any sensitive ground.

13/30-ADV

Nazuki's mind flipped alittle at the mention of chunnin exams, then settled down again. No need to go into detail who she was, she had decided to leave it behind her. "No...it's not wrong to help people...though I thought that there was nothing we could've done in that particular scenario." said Nazuki as she stretched the dough. Nazuki then switched to a much lower voice:"But, as you know...appearances can be deceiving, and we have to agree that there is some greater power at work here."

Nazukitook another knife and started cutting the stretched dough into noddles, while thinking of whether the Mizukage was okay. She was sort of like family, since Nazuki didn't have any family members left.

14/30-ADV

Infact, her own village, otogakure, seemed like a strange place. There wasn't anybody to talk to, and she would just go and sit by a quiet stream that runs through the middle of the woods and play the jade flute given to her by a strange woman who was one of the sound four, or so she claimed. What the heck was the sound four anyways?

Nazuki bit her lip as she made a tiny cut on her finger. Shedding the wounded epidermis with her technique, Nazuki threw away the old skin and then waited for Tamao to finish the soup.

15/30-ADV

Butterfly, eh? Thought Nazuki as she looked for some miso and fermented bamboo stems. Now that was something she could relate to. Nazuki had never had a mind to help others, but perhaps it'll come naturally later on. Mitsuko the Mizukage once said that you can never be taught to be nice to people, a caring heart develops by itself.

A little boy of 6 or 7 walked by the bar and then sat there, his hungry little eyes staring at Tamao and Nazuki in turn. "Hey, want some ramen?" asked Nazuki as she plopped the finely bonded noodles into the pot. The boy nodded and seemed childish for a few seconds, and then went back to the sad and cynical expression.

16/30-ADV

Nova had dived into a pitfall of silence as he took in the words that he had just been told. Answers, they were, but incomplete. It seemed everything was incomplete these days, trying to find it's fulfillment. Nova's flame blade lashed back into his body as the silver clad man disappeared, and he tucked away his second blade in it's respective holster. As the two kunoichi headed off the the Sound Village, Nova hopped on his dragon to return there as well. He hoped to survey the two's activities rather closely, seeing if he could find anymore answers. It was his only lead left after all, the dark hooded man, and the silver mystery had disappeared through to another dimension it seemed.

Once arriving at town, he could tell that things had picked back up to their normal order. The town was rather busy, especially in the area of the free market. Everyone seemed to be buying and selling more than usual, because everyone had more needs to fill after a fatal attack. Nova saw that the lives lost during the battle had been an astounding zero... He began to ask around to everyone how this came about when he himself was not even at the home village at the base of the attack. Everyone spoke a of a silver being coming to fight off each and ever one of them, and then something that ended with a retreat. Could that strange creature have been the savior of his village? Their affinity of good or evil, these... 'nobodies' was unclear to the Otokage, and he shook his mind off the never ending stream of questions. Instead, he went on to survey the two kunoichi, one of the Nano, and the other a new member of his own village.

As Nova made his way through some of the more unpopulated regions of his village to the others, he noticed that the attack did have an impact on some of the life. Poverty had struck many of the people in this corner of the village, and Nova made sure that he would fix this issue as soon as he could. But for now, he had two kunoichi to confront. He walked up very quietly, and calmly to them, as he saw them in the nearing distance.

Tamao

Tamao was keeping herself busy in the ramen shop's kitchen, preparing a few more veggie animals as well as a second pot of broth. She hoped the owner of the ramen shop was able to come back soon, and would, and she planned to have things started up when they did. But first, she'd take the opportunity to enjoy herself a little more. Using the same sense of radar all people working in kitchens had, she sensed another person step inside the ramen shop, and called out to them, welcoming them to Nazuki and Tamao's Happy Ramen House. The rather random name had come out of the blue, but she liked the sound of it.
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She hoped Nazuki wouldn't mind it. Glancing over, she was rather surprised when she saw just how long Nazuki's hair was. But before she had a chance to comment, Nazuki had already stuffed her hair back under her cap. Tamao decided not to mention it, wondering if Nazuki perhaps didn't really care for her hair being that long. If Nazuki mentioned it, she'd be more than happy to offer her assistance, but she wouldn't bring the matter up herself. She set down the next batch of veggie carvings and looked up, to see who the newest arrival was. She froze for an instant when she saw it was the same person from before.
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She had no idea it was the Otokage, and she wasn't actually scared of him, but the sudden re-introduction of him had been a little surprising. Today was turning out to be a very odd day, she was thankful it was almost over. She greeted him, making no mention of their earlier encounter, and then turned to check on the youth, seeing he seemed rather upset. She went up to him and tried to think of something comforting she could say, but nothing came to her. Finally, desperate for something to do to try to put the boy at ease, she reached over and patted his shoulder awkwardly.
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