A fragmented voice from seemingly afar echoed inside his head.
"T́ḩ́e͝ ̸m̷͘͟o̸o͜͞n̵̸ ̀i̴̷͘s̶ ̵͜͝o̴̡͝ut̸͜. Y͏ou͏͏ ̸̸͘s͡h҉͘o̢̢u—̷̶̀͜"
The blond boy was on the ground, desperately panting to catch his breath. With a quick glance around, he observed the forest of trees with their bark scored with several scratches. There was also an occasional tree stump that looked as if the trunk was ripped right off. To the boy, he could hear nothing but his own breathing along with the rustling of the leaves as the breeze passed. The sudden voice, however, gave him mild a surprise.
"I still don't know who you are…" the boy said, as he let his breathing settle into a regular pace.
He was met with no response to his statement. He sat up, peering around to see if anyone was watching him. He was sure he picked an isolated location from the main area of the village. Nobody should be around these areas, not even the occasionally curious jōnin.
"Hello? Will you ever talk back?"
Again, no response. This situation was becoming odder as the atmosphere grew eerie from the chilling silence apart from his breath and nature. The boy strained his senses to distinguish any presence within his vicinity. With new focus, he could hear the subtle cooing of a mother owl returning to her children—a couple kilometers or so away, the boy estimated. He could feel the slow, careful prowl of an animal, which he associated was a feline's, and he could visualize it preparing to pounce on its shocked, quivering prey…an injured rabbit, perhaps? He could even identify the sound of a raccoon picking out a fruit or nut from a tree. Many months in this forest allowed him to identify the subtlest of sounds. He could hear so much more, yet there was no indication of a person or presence that could have spoken to him.
"Am I actually hallucinating…?" the boy muttered to himself. Considering how the voice wasn't an uncommon occurrence in his life, he doubted it. It felt too real to be an illusion. But, if he really did lose his sanity, of course it would feel real.
He sat in thought for a moment before he stood up, refocusing on his original objective. He procured a kunai and stared at it intently, as the three blades glistened in the moonlight. He could throw it fine, and he didn't really find it significantly different than a standard kunai other than its heavier weight…but obviously there was a piece to the puzzle that had yet to be explored. He changed his focus to the paper on the handle and the markings that were inscribed on it. He has been experimenting with it with all the knowledge he learned, but it obviously needed something more to interact with it somehow like he once did before.
The boy looked up and discovered the full moon high in the sky behind the canopy of leaves.
"Oh, it's this late already?" he muttered. He contemplated staying a bit longer to train. However, he knew his prolonged absence would tip off the usual ANBU guards on patrol and that would raise unwanted suspicion.
He reluctantly stuffed the kunai back into his holster, and examined the area to inspect the damage he had caused. Several trees were hacked up to the point that it was amazing to see how they were still standing—if they hadn't already collapsed, of course. Some areas of the ground were thoroughly ravaged, and many rocks that were initially massive boulders were smashed to pieces across the landscape. What was most noticeable to any onlooking observer, however, were the several glowing chains that were splayed in random directions with the boy standing at the center of them all. The glow was soft, as if they were emitting their own moonlight.
The boy winced when he felt the strain on his body. He looked down to see his clothing was torn.
"Again? I can't go one night without…" he left his sentence hanging as he began retracting all the chains back into his body.
He was panting slightly more than normal—this technique exhausted him quite a bit. It wasn't long ago that after he discovered his chains, he frequently made his escapes to isolated areas of the village to practice using them. It was difficult to use more than one chain because he had to track the movements and intention of each chain. A common problem was that they would often collide together before they reached their intended destination.
"Just keep practicing, I guess," he muttered to himself, again.
He put on a thick, oversized jacket to hide his torn clothing and began his way back to his apartment. As he walked, he thought back a few months ago, the day he discovered his ability to procure chains out of his body. The day of the incident.
⁂
A/N: This is a short chapter that contextually makes sense after the next chapter, but I felt it was a good prologue to the story. I hope you follow along with me as I release more chapters.
Thank you for reading.