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Grant shook his head as he looked to Shun. “It is unfortunate, but orders are orders, and despite having to possibly destroy all these fine arts, we must follow them.”

Grant then lifted his arms and quickly did several hand signs in rapid succession, and placed his hands on the floor. A burst of earth then surrounded him, and soon he was encased in hard, dark brown stone. Two eye holes and several holes where a mouth would be was on his head, and the only noticeable weakness to his stone armor was that the joints had less armor on them than the rest of his body.

Standing tall as he looked at the group, Orsai then prepared himself as well. Taking off his cloak, he showed off the dark metal samurai armor that was underneath, and his katana at his side. Drawing his blade, it ignited in a blaze of blue before it soon covered the metal, extending out a few inches as the sword tip.

As Takera made his attempt first, Grant lifted a stone hand to block his kick, before tossing him back with a counter. Orsai took this moment to then dash forward rather quickly at Averus, bringing his blade up in a strike motion with two hands on the hilt.

Shun sighed heavily and slide backwards, leaning downward as the senbon he had hidden reappeared between his fingertips. He watched as Takera came forward and fail to strike at Grant before being tossed back. His eyes focused on the stone armor that Grant wore, calculating exactly where would be the most precise and opportune place to land a strike. A hum of lightning flooded through the senbon as he flipped it between his fingers and jumped it from his left to his right hand, bringing it back to prepare launching it forward.

The line of water had continued on the journey he had led it on, shifting around between the other bookcases before stopping off to the side of the battle that was erupting. He stopped for a moment and noticed Grant was in the air and before he knew it, Takera was pinned down. This is not good... He stared on when Orsai sank a blade straight into Averus' arm and that was when he started his play.

The stream of water came together and shot forward as a distraction just barely missing Grant as Shun flipped forward and dashed to the man. More lightning burned through the senbon as he reached Grant and leapt up, moving over the man and slammed the lightning infused Senbon down straight into his shoulder. He hopped backwards and landed without too much of an issue as he eyed Orsai coming at him, dodging backwards away from the attack that was being made. Phew... He wiped his brow and danced back around between two bookcases, moving to the side he launched the stream of water from in order to further analyze the situation.

Sha howled and followed after his master, moving as swiftly with Shun as possible to avoid what was going on. The wolfhound would only strike when ordered, but knew that his primary objective is to protect Shun above all else. If he did not keep him alive, he would have to face the very will of Zarathos and even he feared the monster of a wolf.

--------------------- Meanwhile --------------------

Kiyoshi seemed to be running around the city, avoiding the large spikes of earth jutting out from the city. He could feel something more was going on and as he blew through the top of one of the buildings, he noticed a rather large wolf trapped inside of a cage. The shinobi flipped downward and slammed a burning boot against the cage, setting the entirety of it ablaze as the large wolfhound leapt out and howled loudly.

"Funny seeing you here... I didn't expect to see you so soon." Kiyoshi said as he turned to look over at Zarathos, whose killing intent and rage was so high the hairs on his fur were standing on edge. A heavy wave of bloodlust exploded through the giant wolf as he howled again even louder now. "What the hell?! Were you trying to kill me!?! ARE YOU DAFT!?" The shinobi waved his hand in the air as if he were dismissing it. He withdrew his mask and placed it onto his shoulder as a grin crossed his face. "See... I knew you would survive! You're tough! But I am rather surprised to see you here already... I was a little shocked when I came across Shun last night.

Zarathos seemed rather annoyed, but calmed down. The aura of bloodlust was still rather prominent, but he wouldn't let it fully manifest until he was in sight to murder those who trapped in the cage. "The timeline had to be moved up... he is coming here in a few months time... make sure you tell your woman the whole truth... you will have to come... but that is then and this is now... they are after the boys.. but I do not know which one..."

"The white haired one." Kiyoshi just laughed and formed a series of hand signs, smoke began to smolder at his feet before the two of them took off to rejoin up with his squad.

Quote:

“The wolf has escaped.” Lin spoke up as she raised a hand to her ear, pressing down on the small button that was the communication device they all had. She had a frown on her face, as she had felt the cage she had created be demolished in flame. Next time, she had to create a better cage for this kind of attack.

Grimm looked over toward Lin but said nothing, turning back toward the rest of the village rooftops. He spotted now several shinobi were moving toward the large cage that surrounded the tall building.

“Looks like the bait all dried up. What’s the move, boss?” Grimm spoke as he, too, raised a hand to his ear. There was a long pause before a deep voice spoke back to the two.

“We give Grant and Orsai a few more minutes, then I am pulling all of you out of there. Be ready”

-----

Grant looked down at the captured Takera, saying nothing as he looked over toward his companion as Orsai had slashed at Averus, landing a blow. At this point he had not been paying attention to Shun, and he let out a yell as electricity arced onto his shoulder from the attack. His stone armor shattered off from the strike, and a burn mark was left upon his meaty shoulder.

Orsai turned to watch as Shun attacked, and timed it right when he landed for his own attack. Suddenly he was gone, and moving faster than he had when he struck at Averus, aimed a vertical slash right at Shun’s neck. He had a look of surprise, however, when Shun was able to dodge it at the last second.

He gritted his teeth in anger, then leapt backwards with the same speed he used, disappearing as the water was launched at him. Grant stayed where he was, making sure that Takera was still pinned underneath the stone gauntlet, rolling his wounded shoulder to make sure he could still move it.

Averus raised his arm a little to inspect the wound, and saw it wasn’t as bad as it had felt. He took a small breath, then seeing as Orsai had leapt back with an unnatural speed, he took the moment to pay him back for the blow he had recieved. Taking a quick dash forward, he reached down and grabbed one of the fallen books that had landed around them after the attack Grant had done before. He then tossed it toward Orsai before he leapt into the air.

Orsai had looked up and saw the book flying toward him, but it was blocking his view of Averus that had thrown it, so he did a quick slash with his blade to cut it in half, only to see that Averus had disappeared afterwards. Averus smiled as he soon twisted himself in the air and was falling toward Orsai with a clenched fist before he yelled and thrusted it forward, landing it hard on Orsai’s face, leaving a nasty bruise right afterwards.

Orsai gritted his teeth in anger as he had flinched back from the blow, then looked down as Averus landed on the ground rather badly, before he ran forward to strike once more at Averus.

Averus gritted his teeth as well as he turned quickly to see Orsai was attacking him once more, then yelled out once more as the blade spun downwards and cut open his leg, leaving a nasty gash as blood flowed down his leg.



















[Word Count: 582]
[Total Words: 14427 ]

Grant watched the wolf boy and his pet start to dive into the pool of their power, looking far more feral to him now as he watched on. He said nothing, but was rather impressed with how much power he was bringing to the fold to save his comrade. He turned his eyes toward Orsai, who was looking rather smug now as Averus laid on the ground, the point of the blade aimed at his throat. It was when he looked back that he realized he had made a critical error in looking away.

He moved his massive, stone clad arms in a defensive position as he thought that Sha was going to leap toward one of the weaker points of his armor, protecting himself from the possible assault, only for it to not come. Instead, he looked down as Sha dashed to the side and Shun appeared, slamming his hands against his armored gut as lightning burst. He let out a tell as he took a step back, the rock armor blasted off of his stomach and nasty burns on his gut. He looked up as he kept his stance, showing that despite the attack, he was damn sturdy and was not going down easy.

Orsai looked over, twisting his hands as he saw Shun flung himself backwards before he used that unnatural speed of his to appear in front of the boy. He swung his blue-hued sword at his enemy, only for it to be parried by the senbon. Orsai gritted his teeth, taking a step back to ready for another attack, as Averus quickly rolled onto his feet to get into some kind of cover.

Outside, Grimm walked to the edge of the rooftop, spotting the large wolf and his companions were just outside the cage of stone. He laughed a little as the cage was broken open, as he could easily hear the sound of Lin’s teeth gritting in anger, a flash under her hood as she clenched a small fist. The two were then gone in a cloud of black smoke that swirled around the two before it was gone.

Grant and Orsai turned to the group that entered, and Orsai raised his blade in a stance for attack, but made no move. Grant, meanwhile, made his way over toward the stone gauntlet that held Takera down, and with a motion of his hands, the gauntlet held Takera now in a fist instead of just pinning him down.

Black smoke appeared on either side of the intruders, and Averus stood up just in time to see Lin and Grimm had now joined the four.

“Seems you two captured the boy, but failed to take out the two others. Disappointing, apprentice” Grimm said as he looked at Orsai, who turned his head in disgust and frustration. Grant looked down at Lin, who was looking at the group in anger. Zarathos could tell that, out of the four that was in front of him, only the child matched his bloodlust, possibly even more.

“We have what we came for. Let’s go, boss” Grant said as he raised his hand to his helmet. A moment later, large cocoons of stone went around the four, and Takera held in the gauntlet, before they slammed shut and dug into the ground. Any with the senses to follow the stone objects could tell they were moving rather quickly outside of the village. What was left behind was a white mask, that matched the one Zarathos had seen on their leader.

Averus looked on with wide eyes as he saw his comrade taken by the group, still unaware of the truth behind what he had seen. He slammed a fist into a table near him, gritting his teeth in anger as he just watched those assassins escape with what they had wanted in the end.




















[Word Count: 643]
[Total Words: 15070 ]

Kiyoshi stepped into the library right after Yukiko, watching as as Lin and Grimm appeared in a puff of black smoke. He just stood there with his hands buried inside of his pockets and continued to watch. He could feel the bloodlust radiating from what appeared to be a child amongst the motley crew and was about to step forward and attack them when the cocoons of stone encircled them and they all disappeared into the ground along with Takera. Yazanagi stepped over onto the cocoons and tapped his pipe against the ground, letting out a low sigh. "They are outside of the village now... not sure where, but I know the way if you want to follow." Kiyoshi shrugged his shoulders just slightly, seemingly as if he did not care that Takera had been captured. "Our focus right now needs to be playing defensive... the village is in shambles and is in need of repair. I will speak with the Raikage about setting up a team to chase after Take--"

Shun stepped over to Kiyoshi, interrupting him almost immiediately. "Takera is still here... they captured a clone he made.." He seemed to make note of this just as Takera made his appearance to Averus known. Yukiko came over to Averus and began to heal him of his wounds, even though they were not life threatening it was the most she would be able to do right now. Yazanagi stepped to the door a few moments later and took a long, hard drag of his pipe before exhaling the smoke. "I'll go see if I can find any survivors... Raikage will need a report of any losses." The man dashed off out of the door as Kiyoshi grabbed Takera by the back of his coat and dragged him over to Averus. Zarathos glared at Shun after he had taken the mask from Takera, tossing it onto his head while Sha just stared at him with a rather odd expression. Shun shook and wandered over to Kiyoshi, Averus and Takera. "Alright... you, tell me what happened." He pointed at Shun as he released Takera into a chair, standing with his arms crossed over his chest as he glared down at the trio. Yukiko shot him a rather unsatisfactory look and his expression softed just slightly.

"Well... we met up near the Marketplace and it was then we thought someone was following us... I smelled some new scents I hadn't smelled before... they were unlike the regular traders and villagers from the areas surrounding the village.." Shun began as he sat back in a chair beside Averus, thinking back as best as he could. He was still slightly rattled from both seeing and experiencing that aura of bloodlust Zarathos seemed to always perpetuate. "We completely confirmed it when we started walking... we decided we would led them away from the market to somewhere more quiet... less casualties if it led to a fight... the library seemed like the best choice for the time of day... I knocked out the librarian, she's currently sleeping in the large storage unit in the office." He pointed with his thumb and looked over to the office, wondering if she had woken up yet. "Afterwards... two of them.. Grant and Orsai, I believe were their names... spoke to us.. we tried to gather some information and fool them, but it didn't seem to work.. I tried to talk them out of a fight but then he..."

Shun pointed over to Takera. ".. came up and went to attack one of them, but before we knew it he ragdolled into the ground and became pinned. Grant, I think, used some sort of earth-like armor and then pinned Takera down with a giant fist.. we fought, Averus got hit a few times and I managed to get a few decent hits off of Grant before well.. you guys showed up." Kiyoshi brought a hand to his chin during the play back of events, stroking it slowly as he nodded and leaned back against a table. He thought for a long moment, effectively in silence before deciding to speak. "We had been tracking a group that sounds similar to them, we didn't think they would hit the village... I mean who would be stupid enough to attack Kumogakure? If the Raikage had been here this would've been over quickly." He hopped forward and knelt down some, grinning a rather cheery grin at the boys. "You three did good, I'm proud of all of you... but I have to wonder... why were they after you?" He inquired as he looked over to Takera for a moment before waving his hand dismissively. "You and I will have that conversation one on one at the ANBU Office." Yukiko stood up and walked over to Kiyoshi once Averus had been fully healed, giving Kiyoshi a kiss on the cheek before she took off into the city to assist Yazanagi.

"You three, go on home... I'd like it if you trained for the next three months before you go on your 'mission'. And yes... I know all about your mission... individually or together, it doesn't matter to me.. but become stronger than you are now." He flashed a smile before picking Shun up by his collar and placed him over his shoulder, stepping over to the exit before he waved and disappeared in a puff of grey smoke with Zarathos and Sha following behind him.

Kiyoshi burst through the southern gate of Kumogakure with Shun still drapped over his shoulder, passing by several squads of shinobi who were assisting with the recovery of the damaged village. Shun estimated that the repairs would not take a very long time due to Yazanagi providing assistance. Yazanagi was known through out Kumogakure as one of the better Earth-nin in the village, having mastered the entirety of it in under a week. He was similar in Kiyoshi in that they both were quick learners, but in a fight between the two of them it's hard to say who would win.

Shun looked around, noticing they were heading toward a rather remote region of Lightning Country... one he hadn't been to before. He was surprised that Kiyoshi would take him so far out of the village especially while the ones who attacked the village could still be out there. Kiyoshi came to a stop and set Shun down, who was now looking around at their surroundings. "Kiyoshi..?" Shun looked at his father before Kiyoshi turned to Shun, placing both of his hands on his shoulders and looked down at him. "Tempest."

Shun's pupils quickly dialated as he quickly fell to his knees and stared at the ground as if he were dead. Zarathos and Sha stared at the seemingly unconscious boy, then over to Kiyoshi. "You're going to use that again? I do not think he can take any more of this..." Zarathos looked over to Sha who quietly faded away as if he were never there in the first place.

Kiyoshi sat down across from Shun, crossing his legs and brought his hands together. He closed his eyes and began to focus, repeating some strange language that Zarathos couldn't understand. The giant wolfhound emitted his aura of bloodlust in order to keep any wandering shinobi or animals away, knowing that Kiyoshi shouldn't be disturbed. There was a chance he could lure in any of the intruders from before and if that happened, it would be an interesting fight.

Kiyoshi focused harder, starting to form a wide variety of hand seals in rapid succession. This would be the last time he would have to use this technique as it also took a toll on himself as well. It was a fairly powerful Genjutsu he had been taught a long time ago and had only ever used it 3 times in his life... this would be the fourth time. The moment the hand signs finished, he shot a hand right onto the unconscious child's head before he spoke again. "Tsunami."

Shun immediately returned from his unconscious state and stared at Kiyoshi, then over to Zarathos. Both of them were looking at him and it made him feel rather awkward. "W-What..? Why are we out here? What about the village?" Kiyoshi just smiled and stood up, pulling Shun up along with him. Sha crept out of a nearby bush, wandering over to Zarathos. "The village will be fine... I wasn't kidding when I said you needed to be stronger... you cannot be the same you were before... you need to be how you were during that fight... for the next three months besides balancing time with your team, you will be working with me in the ANBU office and doing training with ANBU under specific OPs I deem appropriate for you."

Zarathos chuckled a little, standing up and shaking himself free of any dirt before walking over and pushing up against Shun. "You're a monster just like me... remember that." Shun just stared at both of them with a rather confused expression on his face as he looked at Sha who just barked loudly. All three of them laughed before they began their treck home, returning to the village.

Over the next three months Shun moved was dragged through countless training OPs ANBU was doing in Kumogakure all day every day for three months besides the days he spent with Takera and Averus training as a team. The more he trained on his own with ANBU the more it felt as if it were second nature to him, but he couldn't put it just why it felt like that. It was a rather strange sensation, but he ended up dismissing it.

Once the morning of their depature, he had acquired a cart from one of the merchant's in Kumogakure along with the merchandise to sell. He traded the majority of it all for information he had gathered for the merchant who was trying to find out who had been skimming off of his Ryo. Shun hadn't seen Kiyoshi the morning they were going to depart, being told that he had gone off to another mission in Water Country.

Once the three of them had all arrived, he took the position of driver and the three of them took off. Zarathos and Sha running alongside the cart that headed to the one of the Seven Holy Cities, Aren.

The next day came quickly as Anton awoke from a light sleep feeling much better than he had the day before despite a lingering weakness throughout his body. God why do I feel like I’ve been used as a training dummy for the entirety of the hyuuga clan? His words were sarcastic and a light smile came to his face as some of his buried personality surfaced. A soft laugh emerged from his lips as a mildly fake smile crossed his face and he thought to himself, Yes this is how it used to be. A shallow façade left over my deadened self. I can laugh and live as though normal it is only on missions and in front of superiors that I need to act cold or professional. With this thought Anton stood and moved around for the morning beginning with very light stretches to try and maintain the little strength in his body while not exacerbating his wounds. After stretching he bathed and ate a breakfast of fruit and boiled eggs before making his way to a closet from which he removed an old back pack in which he placed the books he received from Instructor Jiang. Holding the book on strategy in his hand he placed the backpack over his shoulders and shifted it until it was more comfortable. The atrophied muscles in his arms could barely handle even these light books so he had decided to use the pack to disburse the weight more and make his life easier as he returned to the academy early on this new day.

Reading the strategy book casually as he walked his stride today seemed more natural than before though his face remained severe as each step seemed to send tingles of pain through his body that was still far from healed. Pushing the pain to the back of his awareness he read over the index of the book once more and let his own insights codify the contents in a manner that made sense to him. In his case he felt the most inspiration from the section on gaining ground was most suited to him as having been returned to the starting line he needed to gain ground in every sense of the meaning. Ideally if he could execute Feigning ignorance without going crazy and tying silk blossoms to the dead tree he could perhaps create a future in which he would be free to determine his purpose. Biting his lip many thoughts floated through Anton’s mind as he absently moved forward while his eyes flickered over the words of the book and the path ahead.

Taking a deep breath Anton closed the book and let his hand fall to his side as he momentarily shifted his attention away from the book and towards the other task he was assigned. What is a purpose? How do I find my purpose? Is it simply what I want to do or accomplish? Even if it is that simple what do I truly want to do? I want my life to have meaning but I have never really dreamed. At least that is the sense I have considering my memories are all bits and pieces or torture. Shaking his head he emptied his mind for the moment and looked up to the sky as he let his mind drift taking in the simple beauty of blue and white while feeling the earth supporting his every step. I don't wish to reach the heavens or any other impressive height, perhaps I should be like the earth and support the feet and weight of someone that can reach the sky that is so far beyond my thoughts?

With this as his basis Anton once again let his mind wander as he looked down to the earth before him and the outline of the academy that was just appearing in his field of vision. It would be fine to leave the complicated stuff for later and instead focus on the here and now. After all, he could only do what he could do and leave other tasks to those capable of them. Whether or not this was his way would be determined later.