A crescent moon loomed over the sub-remains of Konoha. A lone guard patrolled a section of the gate. His shift was almost done, but he remained vigilant. Ever since Pein attacked Konoha, everyone has been on high alert to ensure they aren't taken by surprise like that again. Despite his motivation to keep his village safe, he was feeling just a tad sleepy. As he continued his patrol he felt an unholy shiver creep up his spine and turned around, kunai bared. There was nothing there, but he could not shake the feeling someone was watching him. He turned around and started to head back to change shifts when he saw something that made his skin three shades lighter. A pair of white eyes, glaring at him from the shadows. Without hesitation he threw a few shuriken in the darkness and heard them hit the wall. He blinked, and the eyes were gone. As he walked past that spot he heard a small chuckle and almost wet himself. He quickly lit a flare and threw it in the direction of the chuckle charged with his kunai raised. He stopped when he saw the flare illuminated nothing but a wall. He bent down to retrieve the flare, but it went out. As he looked back up he was face to face with the pair of white eyes he saw earlier. Before he could utter a sound it shoved a sword, black as the shadows it emerged from, through his neck, killing him instantly. The figure then dragged him into the shadows, leaving a small patch of blood to stain the ground.
Neji was out for a midnight stroll that night, taking in everything that happened so far.
"Never thought I'd see the day when someone like Pein would do something like this..." he thought looking at the destroyed houses and buildings.
He stood still for a moment, he felt eyes on him. He activated his Byakugan and looked around.
"There!" he thought throwing shuriken at the shape watching him from the shadows. It vanished, almost instantly, reappearing moments later in another spot farther away.
"Teleportation? Through the shadows? Now I've seen everything!" he thought concentrating on his new enemy who kept disappearing and reappearing in different places.
It finally stopped in front of him and the figure stepped from the shadows. Aside from his eyes he was pitch black, a shdowy silhouette of a man with a wearing a hood.
"Who are you?" Neji demanded.
"No one you should concern yourself with Ninja." It answered back.
"Well what are you doing in our village?"
"Nothing you should concern yourself with Ninja."
"You can either answer my question or I can take you to Ebisu and you can talk to him." Neji warned.
It laughed at this,"You think you can take me down? I am the shadow of this world, the thing you Ninja aspire to be boy. But if you feel the need for me to prove this-" It ran into the nearest shadow and vanished.
Neji jumped back just as a shadowy spear streaked past him. It suddenly jumped from his shadow and began to slowly drag him into it.
"You will be my next victim." It sneered.
At that moment they both stopped, and Neji was suddenly tossed to the side. He looked up to see Shikamaru, Hinata and Kakashi.
"Looks like we arrived just in time." Kakashi said revealing his sharingan.
"Looks like you have." It said disappearing once more into the shadows.
"Neji! Hinata! Can you see him?" Kakashi asked looking around as well.
"He can move through the shadows like teleportation to point where he was able to leap out of my own." Neji informed them.
"How's that even possible? I've never heard of any ninja, or person for that matter, capable of something like that." Shikamaru said.
"It's because he's not human." Kakashi said.
"Then what is he? A ghost?" Hinata asked.
"No, he's-"
"Right here!" It said charging at shikamaru with another spear in his hand. Shikamaru leapt out the way and used his own shadow to hold it still.
"Good to know that still works." He smirked.
"Fool! I am the shadow." It said falling through the shadow and appearing at a different spot.
"Let me show you true shadow manipulation!" It said raising its hands in the air. The shadows around them began to grow larger and as it moved towards them if consumed the houses and rubble in its path.
"This is bad." Neji said.
"Clear the area!" Kakashi said jumping up, the other three followed. As they jumped blacked tentacles emerged from the shadows and grabbed at their ankles.
"No one escapes the darkness!"
There was a sudden flash of light and the entire area was illuminated.
"Gah! What's doing that!" It yelled covering its eyes.
They all heard the sound of a gun, and looked towards the source.
It was a girl, no older looking than 17 with short, brown hair and azure eyes holding a pistol. She wore a sleeveless, black hoodie and dark blue pants with black tennis shoes. On her back was a red katana with pink flowers on it.
"End of the line Vison!" she yelled.
"You bitch!" Vison yelled in anger,"I will personally see to your demise at my hands!"
"You've got to get your hands on me first." She smiled.
Vison ran into the nearest shadow and vanished.
"Not on my watch!" she said taking out a small silver ball. She threw it into the air and shot it, illuminating the area again. Vison was thrown from her shadow, covering his eyes. She aimed her pistol and shot him in the face. He fell to the ground but quickly got back up, a piece of his head however was now missing.
"You can't kill me Trish, that status has already been fulfilled." Vison laughed walking up to her.
"Never said I was here to kill you, but I did succeed in another goal." Trish smiled.
"Oh?"
"There's now a numeranian fragment in your skull, and Sera's not far behind you." Trish said pointing.
Vison turned to see another woman with shoulder length black hair and silver eyes pointing a staff with a three foot blade attached to it at him. She reached out with her hand and quickly closed her fist. The fragment in Vison's skull lit up causing him to fall to the ground screaming in pain until he went silent, twitching every so often.
"Wow, can't believe how easy he was this time." Trish smiled walking up to him.
"Well we had some help." Sera said pointing at the dumbfounded ninja.
They were both suddenly surrounded by every other able-bodied ninja in the village.
"Oh crap..." Trish said looking around.
"I'm Tsunade, the leader of this village and I demand to know just what the hell is going on here?" Tsunade demanded stepping forward.
"Hokage, my apologies for infiltrating your village in its current state, but we needed to capture this wraith before he achieved whatever goal his master sent him on." Sera said with a polite bow.
"Wraith?" Everyone asked at once.
"Yes, this is a wraith, the soul of a fallen warrior reawakened and enslaved to do its master's bidding." Sera said pointing at Vison.
"The way to took him down suggests otherwise." Kakashi said.
"We had to do some research before we set out on this little mission. Turns out for a shadow ghouls such as eternal darkness over there their essence can be neutralized by a well placed numeranian stone fragment." Trish said happily.
"Numeranian stone fragment?" Tsunade asked with a raised eyebrow.
"They were an ancient tribe full of shamans who would sometimes commune with or even control those who passed away. They were all wiped out about a century ago. We only recently found their ruins and began an investigation as to what exactly wiped them out." Sera answered.
"Who are you two?"
"My name is Sera Morrison, and this is my sister Trish Morrison. We're...I guess you can call us freelancers. Either way, we found out through a reliable source that Vison was on his way here. We don't know what's here that he wants, but there's something from him that we want." Sera said.
"If this thing's a ghost, then how did you shoot off a piece of it's face?" Shikamaru asked.
"I was able to convince someone to make bullets out of some of the numeranian stones we found incase we had trouble taking him down." Trish answered.
"Undead can't really be killed by normal means. Since they're already dead, the most you can do is banish them back into slumber. The numeranian stones disrupt the essence of a spirit's essence, tricking it back into a temporary slumber." Sera added.
"Slumber? So he's asleep?"
"Yes, whenever someone dies, their spirit merely goes to sleep. A necromancer or other dark magic user can reawaken a soul under their possession. Vison is a shadow ghoul, a slain spirit brought back from slumber. His type are filled with malice and anger for losing their lives by the hand of another, and take their anger out on whatever living creature they encounter. It's obvious from how selective he is of who he kills that he's being controlled, and we want to find out who and why."
"Well you're in luck, Ebisu's interrogation chair is open." Tsunade said pointing at a smiling Ebisu.
"Sweetness, let's get this over with." Trish said excitedly.
"...How exactly do you interrogate a ghost?" Kakashi asked.