Authors Notes: I originally though of this story as a fanfiction with Naruto. Since then I have decided to remove all references to Naruto. However Since I have to pick a category and there is no Original story category. (at least to my knowledge) Then I will post it here under Naruto. I am sure it wont be hard to pick out the influences it had. Particularly in the prologue.
I could use an Editor for this story if you are interested please let me know. Thanks
Chapter One.
Sealing of the power
They were here. You could see them dart in-between the imposing trees where the ancient oaks gave way to the arid desert, the heat from the sand making their silhouettes sway and dance on the horizon. The Warriors of all Nine Houses where here, moving with a unity never heard of as far as I had known, a temporary peace of necessity, of shared fear and anger banning them together for a final battle they knew nothing about. Come to claim their property no doubt, to put them down, their weapons gone rouge, like rabid dogs, discarded and replaced without a moment's hesitation or concern. At least, no concern for the beast.
"They're here" I yelled over my shoulder, automatically checking my sword and knives, loosening straps and preparing for the inevitable. I may be a rabid dog but I'm not going down that easy or at least not yet anyway.
"Where are we at"
"Like a Flee on a monkeys' behind, we be ready" Smiled Isamu his cocky grin growing and stretching the red burn that covered the right side of his of his bald head as he comes and stands beside me. The burn was a remnant of an earlier time when us standing here together only would have happened with swords, fire and lighting between us. Don't get me wrong we would never be friends even if we survived this gambit after all his brand of humor irritated me at the best of times and I could not bring myself to really be sorry for scarring his face like that, if his jokes never made me smile seeing his face often did. "And with all this sand, making them itch will be the easy part" Like me he's prepared for battle, loosening straps on his knives and checking the coil of the whip at his side as he surveyed the field in front of me. His smirk never left his face as he turned and left me gazing out over the horizon on my own.
"Just do your part Masaru of the house Ga'n and we'll be right as a bitch in heat before they know what we're up to."
Of the house Ga'n. I could see my house, third on the right, no banner flew but when you work, train and fight beside people for a so long no banner is needed. I knew their movements better then I knew these sands I grew up in. I had trained with them since before I had memory to recall, my whole life I Fought with them, for them. Their life had been in my hands on more than one occasion and mine in there's. Isamu could say the same all of us here could, nine worriers, nine houses, each house had forged their weapon, made us into who we are, bonded power in us and expected us to destroy the other house for them but each house had done the same so the fight continued. Until now that is.
It's was Takeru who first thought of it, he was the youngest of us, argumentatively the strongest too. Bonded last by House Sy'n, power within power. It was because of him that we were all here today only someone so young and naive could have brought all nine of us together; convince enemy's to leave everything they knew and everyone they fought for, for a chance at peace, a chance to end the fighting. So that no one else had to grow up like us to be turned into weapons like us, to die like us.
I stiffen my spine and turn my back on the oncoming army, an act of defiance or just plain stubbornness, take your pick. There is much to do and my first duty is about to start. Isamu and the six other warriors are sitting round in a circle; swaying chanting in rhythmic patterns made more to calm nerves and help focus than anything else, that they even bother chanting to call up the power stored in each of them is a sigh of just how nervous we all are. Takeru sits in the middle silent; still, the carefree nature he uses to cover up the scars of battle is gone. He is deep in concentration preparing himself for what's to come headless of those around him. My first part in this is simple stop anyone from interrupting with what they are doing, stop the army from killing them, protect them from the anger of all our houses combined until they are done with their part in the seal. Like I said, simple.
"Don't look so down Masaru, we can do this"
I blink and look at Takeru his blue eyes the white of which have turned red with his bonding are looking straight into mine and his grin is as wide as ever. Maybe not so deep in concentration then but I smile in spite of myself
I block them from my mind and focus on the sand around them; it's made of mostly feldspar with a good amount of Quartz and even a bit of granite. It's not by chance we picked this spot, I reach down and grab a hand full of the earth let it run between my fingers, This is my sand, my home, mine to do with as I please. I form the seals with my hand; I have done them so many times I have long ago stop having to think about them. My fingers deftly form the complex signs going through them so fast they probably seam a blur. The sand around them starts to shift buckle and then rise. My eyes never leave Takeru's face, and dam him he never stops smiling till the sand wall becomes a dome cutting us off from each other. Something tells me that that will be the last time I see that smile.
"Good luck" I whisper
Now that the dome is complete I turn back to the army assembled against us, my actions did not do unnoticed a dozen fighters from each house is running a crossed the sands toward me. Swords are drawn and knifes sharpened A few of them are chanting and making seals, looks like three balls of flame and a bit of lighting. So much for talking but this is my sand, my element. I form sand into a small shield and take the fireballs and lightning with that, sand makes a great insulator and none of them are going to be able to make a fire hot enough to melt it. A small seal and the sand beneath their feet moves faster than they do, a few fall but most do not. Another seal and sand engulfs the foremost fighters creating gruesome statues between me and the rest of the men.
More power is thrown at me; I dodge what I can and block what I can't. I see a streak going over head wide afield of me the reason soon becomes apparent as it starts to rain. It's a good play sand is my element but sand and water make mud sure I can still work with it but it's harder and a lot slower.
The next ten minutes are a blur. I block, throw and eventually cut with the thickening sand around me but each moment they move closer and soon I am dodging swords, jumping spears and engaging in hand to hand combat. A Fireball lands to my right and I'm too slow to cover it. The explosion throws me into the hard side of the sand dome, My head ringing I can feel the heat on my face that makes me smile maybe I'll end up looking like Isamu then we can both laugh. They are closing in around me And I don't have much left. Hopefully I have bought us enough time I make the dome part just enough to let me though and enter into chaos.
Lightning flashes, fire burst and energy is tangible in the air. The sand underneath melts to glass then shatters into a million peaces and becomes sand again. The seven worriers around the circle have stopped chanting some are trying to stand others just lay on their face where they fell.
"Stings like bitch don't it?" Isamu stands here unsteady on his feet his cocky smile nowhere to be seen. He looked older, slower, worn down his brown eyes looked at me were empty and the whites of them where just that, White.
"It's time then. Help me get the others up and we will cover you while you form the seals"
"They'll kill you if you go out there you know" I say with a scowl
"You thought we were going to live though this Masaru, Your stupider then I thought? No, The only fate worse then we have is the one Takeru has" It took him a dozen breaths to say that I almost feel like punching him just to see him fall but what he says is true
"The only fate worse…" I eco and Takeru went to his fate with a smile
I would say the seven warriors of the bane of my existence walked to the edge of the dome so I could let them out but the truth is they stumbled, hobbled and generally used swords and other things on their person as crouches. Seven of the mightiest powers in the world reduced to cripples but they went to face their deaths steadfastly, bravely even I could say, for once I was proud to be counted amongst them. The sands closed behind them silently cutting off the sounds of battle shutting me in as tightly as a tomb and to be made tighter still soon. With them gone I turned to my place in the circle and began to chant. The chaos roared around me and I joined in it added to it, sand storms join flames join trees that sprouted grew old and died in a span of a breath. Life and death wisped around me, threw me, with Takeru at its center. Sitting now I took my first look at him or what was left anyway. His smile was long gone; a silent scream contorted his face as tears ran down his check to only be swept up in the force around him. Powers washed over him threw him each time leaving a little behind as he concentrated it, bonded it within himself.
I chanted for what seemed like an age, an age of creation as Mia created the world formed it from nothing. Took the chaos and made life. An Age of death as her brother Nou took the Life and scattered it a crossed the heavens. I poured my power out, pulled it from my depths, gave it voice and purpose, Gave it to Takeru. His Skin cracked and light shown through as his tried to contain it slowly drawing the chaos into himself, the purples of his eyes gone complete red as he bonded more power unto himself. The lightning was the first to give going out like a torch in a monsoon, The fires died down slower, the sands I was oddly proud of where last as they fall to stillness .
The world tilled everything leaning on its side; it took me a few moments to realize I had fallen over. My face pressed hard into the rough sand obscuring my vision. Takeru slowly stood, his left knee buckled from the weight trying to contain more power than any one man could but still he did not fall. He started chanting in a voice that did not sound like the carefree Takeru I knew, Ii was deep the kind of deep that resounds in your chest leaving your heart pounding and breath raged. He chanted till my face was numb in the sand and my eyes sour with dryness.
A light appeared in his fist barely more than a spark it spun slowly at first, gaining speed and brightness till I had to close my eyes to shield them from it. I could feel the heat of it on my face the heat of the sun as I instinctively pushed my face harder into the sand to escape it, the light shone though my up turned eyelid till all it could see was white. Then he screamed a scream of rage, pain and regret, a scream of loss, war and triumph. With a word he released the power into the ground, the light went out and it pulled at me, shifted me where I lie, trying to drag me down with it as the power spun and sank. I had little strength left, my mussels screamed at any movement. I managed to pull the sword from my back and plunge it into the sand rapping myself around the handle in what I could only assume to be a failing attempted to stop myself from being pulled in. The sand around the sword started to give way, sucked into the vortex of power, the blade shifted and I knew the end was near. For a moment I saw the sun quick realization that the dome had given way felt the weight of the sand as it fell on me, around me pining me down and the darkness took me.
