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He continued to wander around the small town. The stillness and dead quietness of this whole place just sent shivers down his back. The only place he knew of that was like this, was the dessert. And no-one surrvived in the dessert for very long... As he continued to ponder down the streets of the emptied village, He peered into a house that had its door still open. Inside he could see a shattered plate. It was as if someone was getting ready to eat something when they just... dropped the bowl. As he continued he thought nothing of it. At least that was until there was a bucket in the middle of the street. It still had a little bit of water in it, but the area around it was very damp. It was like someone was walking then just dropped a full bucket of water on the street. On this island though, water would seem to be a resorce that would be much needed as the surrounding waters were not very drinkable. He pondered on this for a little while. It was around this time though that he could feel his eyes stinging. It was his eyes sign of telling him that he'd been using his eyes for fifteen minutes at least. He kept the possibility of just "vanishing" in the back of his mind. As he continued to search the area, he looked up at the church. The biggest building around, also... most likely the best vantage point. As he looked up and down the walls of the church, he noticed a small piece of tile fall and hit the ground as softly as it could. Fuyu quickly looked at where the tile was and saw no-one. What he did find though was strange, All the way up there were several cracked and broken tiles. He could tell this because of the dark lines that the cracked tiles made against the much lighter colored tile. How did they crack and break, the tiles that were effected were in a single location, not just all random an such like one would assume from weather erotion. He pondered for a moment, then looked back onto the ground for any clues. There wasn't a thing that could help him. he continuned to ponder on the thought for a moment, but desided that he should continue on. He'd made a senario in his head of what might have happened...
"Ok... the village looks like everyone just vanished and the roof of the church has several cracked and broken tiles... those tiles can hole a fair bit of weight as well. hm... possibly if there was a mechine or several people up there on the church, most likely shinobi, picking people out of there spots and taking them somewhere or possibly just making them go 'poof'?. But how?.... using string? no, it's have to be rope or chakra... but still... this doesn't make any sence... Gah... my eyes are really starting to sting, I best stop doing this and head over to the meeting place. It could be that time already."

While Fuyu started to head back to the meeting place, thoughts continued to run through his head until he heard a loud explosion comming from the inland area. He turned his head quickly and looked at the mountian. It looked like the beginning of an eruption, with all the ash and debris but nothing else. He thought to himself for a while, woudering what could have caused this but it wasn't until he heard a loud crash from the church like building. Fuyu's head snapped in the dirrection of the building and looked as there was now a large hole in the tower he was just looking at. But there was something else. A male leaping though the air. He couldn't quite make out who it was, but he knew that he'd never seen this person before. Could this have been the person who did all this? but then that didn't explain what just happened a moment ago. He desided that it would be safe to try and hurry to the re-grouping point and let everyone else know what he just noticed.

Notwen's eyes never left the replica. The Calormen evaporated, releasing a burst of hot air that singed his skin. He began skipping backwards as the replica began leg-sweeping him. He noticed an slight irregularity in the puppet's movements and moved back as it lurched forward with the blade. Notwen noticed a tree looming up behind him. If I time this correctly, it should get his blade stuck in the wood. Notwen kept backing up towards the tree purposely, making it look as if the replica was in control of the situation. When his back hit the tree, he quickly dropped on on all fours. If failed, Notwen will take a deep slash diagonally across the the upper body.

Notwen's eyes followed the curved blade as it tore through his shirt and made a deep gash in his chest. The burning sensation that followed was too intense for him to be able to utter a sound. All he could do was stare dumbly from the bloody, gaping wound to the sadistic replica, which kept smirking cockily. Notwen began falling slowly to his knees.
Images of his past began playing over his vision: The ten years he had a loving family, the day Soba-Sempai taught him the Calormen, the day of Dokuro's attack on the village, the miserable time he spent at the academy learning as much as he could, the day he left the village with Soba, and the day he met Sai and the youth that traveled with him... As his vision began clouding over, a spectral image of Dokuro began walking towards him from the shadows. The white skull mask stood out clearly against the encroaching gray.
"Look at you, child. You couldn't even carry out your vendetta against me. A weakling like you doesn't deserve to live in this world of ninjas!" He began to walk away, but stopped and turned. "You are a waste, it is trash like you that tarnish the Uchiha name." And with that Dokuro dissolved into the gray mist.
The spectral shapes of his mother and siblings materialized a few yards in front of him. They were beckoning him, urging him to come to them, but Notwen could do nothing but stare back.
"If I am not strong enough to avenge you all, i do not deserve to rest in peace." he whispered, and at once the specters of his family dissolved into the mist. Notwen at the verge of whiting out; he began to see the ominous "white light" descending into his vision. I can't go out like this...
Notwen went limp on his knee, arms hanging motionless at his sides.

Inside the forest, Soba had a bad feeling in his gut. The sounds of battle had died away, and a penetrating silence hung over the still night air. He looked over at Sai, who was no longer moving his fingers. That's not good, he thought. Soba rested his hand on a nearby rock, but removed immediately after he felt it crack. He looked at the small diagonal fissure on the surface with dread and couldn't suppress his worry ant longer. He dashed into the forest toward the former camp site, disregarding Sai completely. When Soba arrived at the scene, and saw Notwen's limp bleeding body his heart dropped from his rib cage to the soles of his feet.
"NOTWEEEEEN!!!!" he cried, rushing towards his student. Soba worked fast, searching his item pouch for the bandages he had packed. He removed Notwen's tattered shirt, then applied them expertly and tightly around the boy's torso. The bandages staunched the flow of blood well, but they were not enough. He had lost a lot of blood.
Soba knelt next to Notwen, hugging him carefully. "I am so sorry, N!" he whispered, tears rolling down his cheeks. "I should have never let you leave the village. I've failed you as a teacher and guardian."

While going back to the meeting place, thoughts continued to go through his head about what could have happened here. It wasn't long until the rubish from the explosion started to land near him. THUD!!. Fuyu looked over to his left, eyes now activated, saw a boulder about the size of himself if he was to curl into the fetal position. This was case to get the hell out of there in a hurry. He looked up and didn't see any more chuncks of earth that size, but the amount of it was still vast and the speed they were dropping could easily knock someone out. He now started to run, and moving on instinct rather then anything else. It was working though as every time he shifted to the left or right, rocks were hitting the ground where he use to be. As he went, he notice some of the last larger pieces were heading for the meeting place. If they hit, that building would be flattened. So without thinking twice, Fuyu jumped up and waved his hand towards the falling rocks. The wind sickle hit the boulders turning them into rocks that the buolding could handle. Once landed from the jump, he ran inside the building and stopped using his eyes. They were hurting way to much now so it wasn't worth it. As he waited near the door he turned his head in both directions while putting his cloth over his eyes. "Anyone here yet!?" He shouted not knowing who was or wasn't there.

Fuyu's head snapped in the direction of Oasis as she bolted through the door of the building and shouted his and Hatsuma's names. his body completely turned in her direction as he got ready to explain what he found. "Yes, I know it's not safe here any more... we need to leave as soon as possible. From the sounds of things Hatsuma's not with you... s**t..." He thought to himself for a moment. "She's very mission oriented... she's propably going to the sorce of the explotion to find out what it was, forgetting that we where with her at that exact moment. It's up to you wether we search for her or continue on... But first, let me explain what I found. Drinkable water is not found on this island easally, so it's a valuble commodity. I found several buckets of freash water just dropped in the middle of the streets. This effect is all over the town. It's like everyone just droppped what they were doing and left at the exact same moment. Secondly The tiles on the roof of the church were cracked and or broken. Looking at the make of them, they could handle quite a bit of weight. To crack or break them isn't caused by time and nature erosion... Lastly, from the church roof tops I saw a man jumping off of it as a large boulder crushed the roof. From what I saw, he had; short darkish hair, long dark clothing that covered his whole body and something long strapped to his back. That's about all I have found..." He paused, waiting for Oasis's judgement as wether to move on or stay and wait/look for their combat oriented friend Hatsuma.

Oasis was right, Hatsuma was the one who stated that they needed to continue on the mission even if not everyone was there. Fuyu responded with a short nod and quickly followed her. The first obsticle in their way was the falling debrie. It was the lighter stuff now but it would still be unpleasant to get hit by it. There wasn't much distance between the meeting place and the forests edge so making out without much trouble would be the case. As he ran, he tried to think of where Hatsuma would be, if she was alright. These thoughts were interupted when a small rock beamed him on the top of the head and bounced off of it. "Gah... damn rocks..." He muttered to himself as he only barely stumbled from the un-realized blow, but quickly got back on track and continued to the forest. Once in there, he couldn't hear any more rocks hitting the ground with any force but gravity, thus the danger of that was gone. There was still danger ahead though, like who that person he saw was, where Hatsuma dissapeared to, and lastly, what the hell was the explosion from?

Sai sighed lightly as he watched the 'touching' scene play out before him. They were both novices, poorly trained and inexperienced. However, where Soba's immaturity would probably be never cured, Notwen still fared a chance to be a capable shinobi... that was if he could ever manage to stay alive long enough.

Clicking his tongue irritatedly to himself, the man slowly approached the two. His right hand swinging back and forth with his hand gun held within his grip, his left hand hurriedly making various actions as the Notwen puppet regathered itself and returned to Sai, reverting back to it's cloaked state.

Standing just over the two, Sai shook his head at the scene before pointing the hand gun at Soba's head. "Didn't I warn you two that if ya weren't useful I'd kill you?" The man softly, his bright blue eyes glaring at the younger man. Slowly a grin broke across his lips and his eyes softened for a moment, but not before a quick blow to Soba's head to force him away from Notwen. "Comedy is derived from the unexpected withdrawal of sympathy." He said, chuckling to himself as he knelt down beside the young boy.

Sighing lightly, the grin gone from his face now, Sai set the Razor gently beside his leg before extracting a blue, velvet box from somewhere and laying it beside Notwen. Flipping the box open, the insides quickly revealed a treasure trove of vials, various medical equipment, and strange small items. One of which was a steel ring that indented twice on its frame, a diamond link chain wrapped in each indent.

Taking the ring from the box slowly, Sai examined it thoroughly. Turning it over between his fingers as he pulled and pushed the chains to move against it, the man kept his eyes on the young boy before him. With a sigh he took the ring and slipped it onto Notwen's right fore finger before pulling a kunai from the child's case and using it to rip open the bandages Soba had just freshly put on. With a keen eye he observed the damage, his hands rummaging through the box to find himself a needle and thread before quickly sowing the wound up. A moment later he extracted another one of his strange syringes and a vial of purple liquid that he would inject into Notwen's neck. "Feeling better?"



[1252 - Norm Lines
422 - Battle Lines]