Welcome to Gaia! ::

Michio had been enjoying the caravan ride when suddenly spiders began to pour into the cart by the dozens, causing panic among all of the passengers and forcing Michio to be pushed out of the cart by the crowd that swept him up like they were a river's current and carried him in a flow of bodies.

Now that they were all out into the blistering heat and the blazing sand, Michio took notice of how terribly the sandstorm was pelting the passengers and himself. If not for the rags and goggles he'd fashioned around his face from the transformation jutsu, he might have been completely blind. The rest of the crowd certainly were, as some of them began to wander in separate directions as they continued to attempt to rid their bodies of the spiders.

Michio noticed several of the arachnids had made it out of the cart and were skittering across the sand towards him with seemingly ill-intent. These weren't normal spiders. Normal spiders weren't this aggressive. The only explanation was that the insects were that of a shinobi, and there was only one he could think of who would even have the capacity for summoning a swarm of spiders... like, for instance, the Kazekage's right hand man who resembled the cross between a spider and a man.

'If he's after me, that's really bad... figures he'd be tailing me... I can't see him though. Damn sandstorm...' Michio thought, accelerating the blood flow to his hands and creating hand seals to rid himself of the insects. They leaped to make their strike and the blood shaping shinobi spilled blood forth from his feet, creating a small crimson pool that stretched out in front of him before springing up as a wall.

The wall shot up just in time for the spiders to collide with it and bounce off, deflecting the attack. Michio took this small victory but did not crack a smile. If it was Roku, Michio was in a bad situation that he'd have to get himself out of if he were to truly leave the Village Hidden in the Sand.

Roku sucked his teeth as he saw the wall of blood deflect his spiders. The kid really was intent on running. Instead of sticking around, he decided to use the sandstorm as cover and sneak away. He let out an exasperated sigh, sucking his teeth once more as he climbed out of his burrow. If there was something he hated it was when his prey managed to escape. However it was certain that whatever he was reading at the library would eventually give away his destination, so with that thought in mind the six-armed man turned away and headed back to the village.

When Shinken arrived outside of the walls of the village the coarse sand buffeted his face. He was forced to remove the mask from his bag and placed it on his face. He still wished he had goggles because it was difficult to see, but he was able to make his way through the desert toward the country border. It was beginning to get dark now, and that combined with the fact that there was a storm raging to hide his footprints made it easy to sneak through the desert.

The wind had a cold chill to it. Shinken had forgotten how cold it could get out in the desert at night. He pulled his cloak tight around him bundling himself up as much as he could. He began to shiver he felt his fingers begin to numb. This journey was going to be far more dangerous than he had first thought. Still to him it was definitely worthwhile. He didn't want to be trapped in a village that treated its citizens the way sand did. That village bred brutality and betrayal, and while Shinken could be brutal he valued loyalty. The irony and juxtaposition of a situation did not escape him, and if he had not been in the middle of the sandstorm he might even have let out a chuckle.

As Shinken pushed forward sand blew into his eyes causing stinging irritation. Tears began to well up in his eyes and he was forced to bring up his arm to shield what little of his face was exposed. After almost an hour of walking through the desert sands the storm began to recede. As the wind slowly died down Shinken was able to observe his surroundings more clearly. The dunes around him were massive almost blotting out the rising moon. There was no vegetation anywhere in sight. If he got stranded out here he would be in a world of hurt. Still being a resident of the desert had its advantages. Because he was travelling at night he did not have to worry about the heat of the sun. That meant his water would last him twice as long. Even without the heat the dryness of the desert wind would still dry him out.

Shinken looked up to the stars, now that he could finally see them, and began to plot his course towards rain country. Because he had been nearly blind in the sandstorm he was quite a bit off course, but now that he had orientation he changed his direction and redoubled his efforts. It wasn't long before he came across landmarks that he recognized from maps. In the distance could see black rolling clouds. They were drifting in from behind the village. It would be at least a day or so before they reached the village hidden in the sand, but when they did there would be massive flooding. Shinken hope that that would keep the sand Shinobi busy enough to forget about him while he made his getaway.

As the night went on Shinken passed by an oasis. He contemplated stopping and resting for a moment but quickly thought better of it. Instead he pulled out a rice ball from his pack. As he bit into it there was a gritty feeling in his mouth. The bag had not been sealed tightly enough to prevent grains of sand from being forced in by the wind. The young Uchiha's lips pursed and he cringed knowing that he would have to eat this food until he could find something that wasn't full of sand. Unhappily he finished the rice ball and then took a large swig from his water canteen. With that done he replaced the mask upon his face and began to move in earnest again.

It was midway through the night when Shinken began to feel exhaustion overtaking him. He had already been on one long journey, and had not had time to recover. His legs ached. his arms felt heavy as lead. Yet still the young ninja pushed onward. His will and determination fuelled by his anger. His anger at the village, his desire to get away from the place that had caused him so much suffering, and his anger at Michio's betrayal. Nothing was going to stop him from reaching rain country. Not a sandstorm, not the cold, not his exhaustion, not even other ninja.

Now that he was far enough away from the village Shinken decided it was time to put out a bounty on Michio. He took out a pad of paper and a pen and began to jot down a description of his former teammate as well as a description of the reward, and how he can be contacted. He summoned his crow, tied the letter to its leg and sent it to fly high above the clouds to a bounty office on the border of rain and wind. There copies of the bounty would be made and distributed.

As the two ninja stepped out of the stone wall surrounding the hidden sand village they had to squint while their eyes adjusted to the bright sun on the horizon. It was going to be another hot day in the desert. Thankfully they had both brought plenty of water with them, and they were clad in special robes made to keep the body cool even in extreme temperatures.

After his eyes adjusted Shinken took a moment to look over the dunes. He didn’t see anything that looked like an ambush. One would think it would be hard to hide in the desert, but one would be wrong. It was as simple as wearing the right color clothes and partially burying yourself in the sand behind the right dune. Of course any opponent would be foolish to lay an ambush so close to a Ninja’s home village. If they were laying in wait out there somewhere it would be further into the desert.

“It looks clear for now.” Shinken whispered as he walked closer to Kazumi. She knew better than to directly respond in case they were somehow still being observed. The two of them continued through the sand dunes occasionally stopping to drink water and scout the surrounding area. Each time they stopped Shinken felt a little more uneasy. His gut was telling him this was going to be trouble, and he’d grown to trust his instincts over the years.

If they were being watched how were they doing it? He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary in the desert. Just sand and sky. There was the occasional plant too but nothing jumped out at him as suspicious. Still he couldn’t shake the feeling something was out of place.

He had to start thinking about a course of action if things went south. Out here in the open it would be a pretty straight fight. Assuming of course that their opponents couldn’t use the sand to their advantage. That was a trick he’d seen Jin pull. After that thought he suddenly felt far more exposed out here.

“Kazumi...wait.” Shinken said quietly. She stopped and immediately began to scan the area for threats.

“What is it Shinken?” She asked. Her voice was quiet but tight with anxiety. She clearly didn’t like being in this situation anymore than he did.

“Nothing yet. Just a precaution.” He explained as he began to form hand seals. When he finished he bit his thumb and pressed his hand into the sand. There was a puff of smoke and an abnormally large crow appeared. It must have been at least three feet tall and Kazumi looked a little shocked.

“What is it Shinken?” The crow squawked.

“I need you to scout the area Kuroshi. I’m pretty sure I’m walking into a trap and I need eyes in the sky. Don’t worry you don’t have to do any fighting. I know how much you hate that.” Shinken replied. The crow looked disgruntled at this but spread its wings and took to the air. It flew in a wide circle several times before descending to land on the ground between the two ninja.

“I didn’t see anything out there Shinken, are you sure about this?” The crow asked. Shinken nodded in reply.

“Well I guess we’re safe for now, but I think I’ll keep you around for now Kuroshi. Can you fly back up there and keep eyes on us? Just give me an early warning if you see anyone getting close ok?” Shinken asked. The bird huffed and trotted away a few steps.

“You know you’re a real pain in the a** Shinken. Fine, I'll be your watch dog for now. But you owe me!” Kuroshi cawed as he took to the air again. Shinken shook his head slightly and turned to Kazumi.
“I think we can feel a little safer with him watching over us, but we should still be careful.” The Uchiha said. Kazumi looked up at the bird circling in the sky and then back to Shinken.

“Umm It’s great that we have a scout now, but won’t he give us away circling like that?” She asked. Shinken just grinned in response.

“Just because we can see him, doesn’t mean anyone else can.” He answered. She looked confused for a moment and then it clicked. The crow could use genjutsu.

“Well let’s get going. The scroll said noon right? I’d hate to keep our friends waiting.” Shinken said with a tinge of sarcasm in his voice. After that the two ninja resumed walking through the desert dunes. They were making decent time, and the weather seemed to be favorable. Though it was hot out, it wasn’t unbearable like it had been the day Shinken had found Kazumi, and there was no sign of a sandstorm.

The two walked for nearly an hour and a half before Shinken decided it was time to stop and rest. It wouldn’t do them any good to get to the meeting place and be exhausted from the heat. If they did need to fight, they would have to be in tip top shape. Which meant regular breaks, and lots of water.

Shinken had just about finished his drink of water when he heard the tell tale sound of a squawking crow. He dropped his waterskin to the ground and jumped to his feet. His body tensed ready for combat and his head whipped around to scan the area for the threat. Kazumi had done the same and she slowly backed up until she and Shinken were standing back to back.

The crow continued to circle overhead giving no indication as to which direction they were coming from. Shinken could feel his heart racing wildly as he tried to calm himself. He wouldn’t do anyone any good by panicking. Then he saw movement on the top of a dune to the west. He couldn’t make out who or what it was but he prepared for a fight anyway. It wasn’t like they were going to run into many people out here just seeing the sights.

The Crow finally descended from the sky and landed behind the two ninja. It squawked again nervously and hopped from foot to foot.

“Thank’s Kuroshi. You don’t have to stick around for this.” Shinken said quietly. The crow squawked gratefully and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Shinken asked with thinly veiled aggression. The figure had come into proper view now. It seemed to be an old man with long grey hair and a horrible hunchback.

“I think the question is what do you want, Young Kazekage.” The old man chuckled. Shinken was too smart to dismiss the elder as harmless. Looks were often deceiving in the ninja world. Kazumi seemed to prickle at the man’s words and slipped into a fighting stance as he got closer.

“Easy Kazumi…” Shinken whispered. He didn’t want her to do anything rash, but he was glad she was ready for a fight.

“So you know who I am. That’s good. That means you should know better than to try and sneak up on me.” Shinken warned. The old man simply laughed harder this time, until a coughing fit wracked his body.

“I’m not afraid of you boy. Nor will I ever be.” The old man’s tone of voice had shifted to something darker.
“I was hoping that I’d be able to get closer, but you seem to be pretty on the ball.” The man said as his voice shifted. In a puff of smoke two younger men appeared. The taller one grinned and let out a chuckle.

“Sorry Kid, you’re not going any further than this. You had a good run though. Kazekage for a day and all that.” He said mockingly. Shinken wasn’t stupid enough to rise to the bait and launch an attack so he simply stood his ground.

“So I assume you’re working for Kaji Uchiha then.” Shinken said calmly. Kazumi on the other hand was starting to tremble. He wasn’t sure if it was in anticipation or fear, but he hoped she could keep her cool a little longer.

“He’s got eyes everywhere you know, and he doesn’t like you poking around in his business. So now we’re going to make sure you never bother anyone ever again.” The shorter man said with a grin.

There were only two opponents. Shinken had been expecting a lot more. Either they were incredibly over confident, or they were more dangerous than they looked. Shinken had a feeling it was the latter.

“Well I suppose I should be courteous since you’re in my country. I’ll give you one chance to surrender. You’ll be imprisoned for daring to attack me like this, but you’ll at least get to live.” Shinken said as he bought time to think of a plan of attack.

“You’re a cocky little kid aren’t you? Well you did kill the last Kazekage...but he didn’t know what you could do. We do.” The tall man said as he dropped into a fighting stance. The shorter man dropped into a different stance and pulled two small swords from the sheathes on his back.

Well that was just great. If they knew Shinken was a Genjutsu specialist they had also probably prepared for that kind of fight. This was going to be a lot harder than taking Jin by surprise. He was certainly glad he wasn’t alone in this fight.

In the blink of an eye the fight had started. The short man was fast. Faster even than Shinken. The uchiha was barely able to turn to the side to avoid two piercing blows from the twin swords. He didn’t have a choice in this fight. If he didn’t activate his sharingan he was going to die.

With a burst of chakra to his optic nerves the world tinged in red and Shinken was able to better see the short man’s movements. He had to calculate every movement to minimize travel distance but he was able to avoid the next flurry of attacks.

Kazumi on the other hand had taken it upon herself to distract the taller man. She wove the seals for her binding snake strike and threw out her arm towards the man. Snakes flew from her sleeve and attempted to make contact with her opponent. The taller man retaliated by spitting mud from his mouth which encased the snakes and quickly solidified into rock.

However that had bought her enough time to activate the limited amount of natural energy she had stored in a seal on her back. Her skin took on the quality of scales and she radiated a faint aura of green chakra. The taller man didn’t give her a chance to launch a second offensive as he wove hand seals of his own.

“Earth Release: Stone bullets!” The man shouted as he finished the final hand seal. The stone encasing the snakes suddenly fractured and flew toward Kazumi at a breakneck pace. She unhinged her jaw and opened her mouth as a cascade of large snakes intercepted the stone projectiles.
“Not bad.” The taller man complimented.

While this was happening Shinken was doing his best to draw the shorter man away from his companion. If he could separate them he might be able to get the advantage. That meant that he would be leaving Kazumi to hold her own, but he didn’t see another option.

Shinken retreated back behind the nearest dune and sure enough the shorter of the two men followed quickly after. Now that they were separated he could try and turn this fight around. The man with the swords was fast, but his technique was sloppy. Shinken could see the openings but he wasn’t sure he could land a counter attack without putting himself at risk.

“What’s the matter kid? Where did all that bluster go?” The short man taunted. Shinken knew better than to be distracted by the insult and focused on analysing the timing of the man’s attacks. If he could just find the right moment he could try and land one of his touch based genjutsu. He didn’t want to use any of his sight or sound based techniques because he knew his opponent was prepared to resist illusions. But if Shinken could make it look like he was using ninjutsu he might be able to prevent the man from breaking the illusion.

He watched the sword strokes as they barely missed him. He could feel the wind with each and every strike. Still there was a pattern to the man’s attacks, and he seemed to favor his right arm. His left arm was slower, and more imprecise. That was going to be the key to his opening.

Again the man with the swords launched into a flurry of stabs and slashes, and Shinken noticed something else. There was a slight pause after the third attack where the man adjusted his footing. If Shinken could force him to attack with his good arm on the third strike the pause combined with the difference in speed between the man’s left and right arms would give him just enough time to launch a counter.

Shinken shifted his position and pushed his chakra into his legs to enhance his speed as he circled around the man to take the low ground. Now that Shinken had the height advantage the man had to reach higher to try and strike a lethal blow. The swordsman knew better than to try and wound Shinken. The Uchiha would take the opportunity to strike back at him with a jutsu if he didn’t kill him with the first attack.

This played right into Shinken’s plan however as he took another step back putting the peak of the dune between him and his opponent after the second strike. This forced the swordsman to take a step forward and attack with his right arm for the third attack. And that was when Shinken stepped forward and touched the man’s left bicep with two extended fingers.

The man screamed in agony and stumbled back down the dune clutching his arm. He’d realize that it was just a genjutsu in a moment, but Shinken wasn’t going to give him the chance to regain control of the fight. Shinken moved in and formed the seal for his second genjutsu. Now that the man wasn’t focused he was much easier prey. Shinken locked eyes with him and then burst into a flock of flaming crows that assaulted the man. Pecking and tearing at his exposed skin.

However that was just to keep the man distracted. While the swordsman fought off illusionary crows, Shinken repositioned behind him. The birds seemed to coalesce and reform into Shinken as he reached forward and put his hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Suffer.” He said coldly. Suddenly the man saw glowing hot metal chains erupt from the ground and seize his limbs.

“You’re supposed to use genjutsu!” The man screamed as he felt the chains pull apart his limbs. Suddenly he was kneeling on the sand in front of Shinken. His arms and legs were still intact and he was covered in a cold sweat. He tried to move but his body was slow and sluggish now.

“Your Synapses are burnt out. Too bad for you.” Shinken stated coldly as he kicked the man’s swords away. Shinken touched him one more time and the man screamed in agony again. It appeared he was too far gone to defend himself against the genjutsu now. That was good. Shinken stopped just short of killing him allowing his opponent to fall to the sand unconscious.

Kazumi wasn’t faring as well as Shinken did. She was barely keeping up on the defensive. Every time she thought she had an opening the man shut her down with an earth style Jutsu, and she was running out of chakra too quickly to be able to sustain her efforts for much longer.

“Is that really all you’ve got? That’s pathetic.” The man laughed. These men simply worked for Kaji. How strong was he to be able to control people like this? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to that question.

Her opponent seemed to have an endless supply of chakra. He wasn’t even slowing down and she had burnt over half of her reserves. He’d managed to break through her defenses a few times too. She hadn’t taken the full brunt of the attacks, and her cloak had absorbed most of it, but the damage was building up with each hit she took.

The man solidified the sand under her feet into a spike of rock which she just barely managed to dodge. However the attack still managed to glance her leg and her blood spattered across the sand. When she landed a wave of white hot pain jolted from her thigh up into her hip. The attack had cut pretty deep. The rock had been razor sharp.

“You can’t win, you know. It would be a lot faster if you would just lay down and die.” The man taunted as he began to walk towards Kazumi. She used the brief respite to try and catch her breath. That was when she saw Shinken silently approaching behind the man. She just had to distract him for a little longer.

She decided she would use the last of her chakra to launch a full frontal assault. She wove the hand signs for her binding snake strike technique and jumped toward the man. He simply smiled and wove a few hand signs of his own. A shard of rock flew up out of the ground toward Kazumi, but she had been prepared for this. She aimed her jutsu at the ground and launched herself out of the path of the projectile.

Without wasting a second she again formed the hand seals for the binding snake strike and threw out her other arm toward the man. As the snakes raced toward him he brought up a wall of stone to intercept. While he was fully focused on Kazumi, Shinken got within range to touch him and threw the man into a chain of genjutsu.

First he would feel his skin erupt into flames as his synapses and nerve ending were charred to a crisp. Then he would find himself whole again but sinking into a pit of molten earth while chains pulled his arms out of their sockets and finally tore the flesh and tendons holding them to his torso. Finally as he sank up to his neck in the molten sand he would hear the anguished cries of every damned soul in hell.

The man writhed and screamed out in agony for what seemed like minutes before his body suddenly tensed and his eyes rolled back in his head. After that he went limp. Shinken bent down to check his pulse and sure enough the man was dead. With the opponents taken care of, Shinken turned to Kazumi and saw the blood flowing down her leg.

“You ok Kazumi? I’m no medical Ninja but that doesn’t look good.” Shinken asked. She winced and slowly sat down.

“It hurts but I think I’m ok…” She said through clenched teeth. As Shinken bent down to examine the wound he saw the jagged incision and winced.

“That’s definitely not ok. We need to stop the bleeding.” He instructed as he tore a strip off of the dead man’s clothing. He wrapped the fabric around the wound and tightened it as best as he could.

“That’s all I can do for now. I have to carry the other one back to the village. He has information we need. You need to keep pressure on that and we need to move slowly.” Shinken ordered. Kazumi nodded in acknowledgement that she understood.

“Go get him and let’s get moving.” She replied. Shinken thought for a moment and then began to form hand seals. He made them so fast Kazumi’s eyes could follow them, and then he pressed his hand into the sand. She knew what he was doing then. He was summoning something again. The same crow from before appeared in a puff of smoke and turned to Shinken.

“Well. You seem to have survived. I guess you have me to thank for that.” The crow squawked proudly. Shinken shook his head in frustration and gave the animal a serious look.

“Go back to the village. Get a medical ninja team and have them meet us halfway. She needs a healer for that leg.” Shinken said sternly. The Crow seemed to gulp audibly at Shinken’s serious demeanor.

“Uh..Yeah. Right! Got it! Medical team. I’ll get right on that!” It squawked as it took to the sky. Shinken walked over to where the swordsman lay unconscious and threw the man over his shoulder.

“Let’s go. You can lean on me. Try not to put too much pressure on that leg.” Shinken said as he approached Kazumi. She did as he instructed and the two began the long trip back to the sand village.