They once told me that chakra was a link between body and soul. Chakra was what made them what they were. A shinobi was as powerful as his mastery of the power that ran through his body, the power that was called the life force of everything. So I always asked myself, why were the shinobi the only creatures with the power to use it? Why were the creatures who were fast, agile and cunning the creatures who also employed chakra? They were already the perfect weapons, so why were others more suited to using it not taught the ways of chakra? Why did the shinobi take all of the abilities that should have been divided between many? Why could so many people act like elites of the highest class in so many skill sets? Surely not so many people can be simultaneously wise, strong, agile, cunning and able to use chakra. Very few people can be elites at everything today, maybe one in a thousand. Why could so many do it then?
Not that it matters now. We all try to forget the past now. You only survive here if you can remain totally obsessed with the present. Yet still, something has always told me to look towards the past, no matter how useless the knowledge of that time may be now. People like myself are called seekers. People who for some reason are obsessed with finding out how the world became like this. Still, maybe they had a point. I mean, maybe if I hadn't strayed from the village, I wouldn't currently be holding sure death ten inches away from my face.
The jaws of the beast slam together again, and again, and I only just manage to roll my head in one direction whilst pushing the jaws held in my left hand in the other. The damn thing is getting closer though, as this time I could literally feel its hair brush my face. This can't go on for much longer.
Left hand shaking, I somehow managed to hold the jaws away from my head whilst the vampwolf held me pinned to the floor with its forepaws. Again, it focuses its body weight on its head, and the thirty pronged cavern of death lurches towards my face. There is no way that I am going to be able to avoid it again by holding it at bay. The limited strength in my hand is already failing. Thinking quickly, I stop groping with my right hand for my bag, which had been thrown five feet from me when this thing had attacked, and dart up towards the thing's underbelly. Taking firm hold on my adversary's fur, instead of pushing like it expects, I pull it, sending the jagged teeth half a centimetre too high. Again, the vampwolf gets a mouthful of dust and dirt. But I am running out of tricks. Still, that little maneuver has somehow caused it to stop its assault for half a second.
I don't bother to wonder why it has stopped, only hope that my plan is better than its. With the small amount of breathing room that I have, I glance towards my bag, my right hand once again reaching for the salvation that lies within it. It takes me less than a second to realise that it is well out of reach. Then the vampwolf makes its move.
It's right paw kicks up suddenly, from where it was keeping me pinned, and before I have time to roll away, the vampwolf has the paw on my chest, placing its massive body weight directly on my heart. The shaggy grey mutt bears its yellow fangs at me, and while I can bearly concentrate on anything but the crushing pain in my chest, its left claw descends towards me.
The problem for it is that it now has freed my hands for me to use. I no longer have to use one hand to stop it. Have fun beating up that log my furry friend. See, the secrets of chakra were not lost with the death of the shinobi. A few people still can use it, even if not so proficiently as the shinobi used to. I learned a while ago how to use a few basic techniques, and I can pull off a basic body switch with any object in the area that I wish, given barely a fraction of a second and both hands. Don't bother asking what a log was doing in the middle of a wasteland, but for some reason there seem to be logs everywhere whenever I need a quick escape.
Ok, I bought myself one, maybe two seconds with that trick, and I intend to use them. My bag is still out of reach, so I may as well give up on this being a fair fight. The vampwolf is stronger, faster and tougher than me, and it has natural weapons of its claws and teeth. I have nothing beyond a measly amount of chakra ability that I think I may have already exhausted. So I guess playing fair is out of the question. Guess I'm going to have to improvise again.
My belt pouch is in shreds, and most of my more immediate equipment is strewn out across the wasteland, but I have a few pieces of wire, a rusty knife and a holding seal containing a thunderball. That's my name for a small, but quite heavy metal orb that I carry around with me everywhere. It's about twice the size of a grown man's fist, and you'd be surprised how useful these can be, for instance...
I take the thunderball from the seal, slot the knife up my left sleeve, deftly tie the end of the wire to the thunderball, and then round on the vampwolf with the ball clamped in both hands. This is going to require some doing. The thing is on me before I have finished turning towards it, and all I can do is to duck to avoid the beast's swing. (The ball is too heavy for me to perform anything really fancy whilst I am holding it). Damn, if the thing was faster than me when I wasn't holding the thunderball, it's now like a hawk hunting a snail. I can track it with my eyes, but I can only barely respond to its movement, as it darts round to my left, forcing me to continue my swing further than I would have liked in order to get anywhere near it. At the last moment, it ducks away, and my swing meets with nothing but air.
As I lose control of my swing, and the weight of the ball takes my balance from me, I realise that my plan had a few gaping holes in it. There probably wasn't a better plan, but still, now I'm back where I started, with a pair of gaping jaws coming towards me and I being pinned yet again on the floor.
That's what I am really hoping that my expression conveys to the vampwolf. If it doesn't think that I am beaten, then this simply will not work. A small seal pulses on the thunderball, and rather than jerk away like it expects me to, I reach directly into the vampwolf's maw. A muffled gulp of surprise escapes it as it realises that the thunderball is as hard as it is heavy, and I hear several short sounds, somewhere between a click and a crack. I've heard tales of what a vampwolf's bite can do, and I am quite impressed by the fact that somehow it has managed to crack the thunderball down the middle, even if its teeth are now cracked and chipped in many different places. Even so, the thunderball has done its job; the beast is down, unable to bear either the weight of the ball, or the pain of its cracked teeth. Some blood runs down from its maw into my eyes from a small gash in its mouth, but I ignore it, simply closing my left eye. My right eye is stronger anyway.
The next part of the plan will have to be done swiftly. I pull on the wire attached to the thunderball, pulling it taught and causing the wolf to howl in pain. Admittedly, I was rather hoping to be in a slightly better position than this when this moment came, but beggars can't be choosers. I drape the wire around the thing's front paws, then reach up and grab the wolf's fur again, once again pulling upwards, an pushing myself downwards towards its hind paws. The wire pulls taught, and just as I slide out from under the vampwolf, it trips on my wire, coming down hard on its heavily weighted maw, and once again whining in pain. Pulling the wire taught again, I swiftly weave the wire four times between its hind paws, before pulling it tight, pulling its hind paws together. A sturdy not in the wire should hold it for now, and the thunderball should hold it while I finish it off. Yes it sounds heartless to attack the beast when it is defenceless, but given enough time, it would escape, and I need my gear back.
The vampwolf must sence the impeding danger, since its fur begins to retract into its body. A clever plan, if it didn't have a thunderball in its mouth. I watch slightly mercilessly as it returns to its human form, shrinking to the point at which it could easily escape its bonds. I'm not worried. With the rest of its body, its jaw is also shrinking. It comes to this conclusion, and its eyes widen in fear, a muffled scream escapes from around the thunderball. For a second, I consider leaving it to this gristly death, but I'm not quite that heartless. A flick of my left wrist sends the knife sliding down my sleeve into my hand, and a swift strike to the back of the vampwolf's neck severs the nerves in the spinal column. It is dead before it has even registered any pain. I might be merciless at times, but I am not sadistic.
Wiping the blood from my eye, I methodically begin to carve out bits of flesh that can be eaten later. I never wanted to be a cannibal, but when you live as a seeker, you do what you have to, and my supply of food is growing low. That, and vampwolves are not technically totally human... I think. Then again, I have met many vampwolves who seem more human than humans do these days. I have no idea why this one attacked me, and there doesn't seem to be any way to find out. Maybe it simply viewed me as a threat. After all, a human this far from civilisation is quite rare. I could have been a threat for all it knew.
I shake my head. It doesn't really matter now. That was just my seeker's curiousity speaking, and I do not intend to risk my life any further searching for the answer to this question, and I am definitely not going to lose this lead. Judging by the sun, it is about the middle of the day. A saner person would look for shelter now, but I am on a tight schedule and I need to make up the time I lost fighting the vampwolf. Bearing my teeth against the sun, I head northwards, towards the answers. I barely spare a glance back at the dead vampwolf, but I do just about spare it a glance. Its dying reflexes caused it to continue changing when I removed the thunderball from its maw. The cumbersome thing was by then far too cracked to be of any use in the future, so I left it there. The wire on the other hand was still worth its weight in gold as far as I was concerned, so I removed that. The vampwolf's human form had surprised me a little.
Barely more than a boy, he was fair skinned and had three scars across his face. Hell, he was probably barely older than myself, although he looked slightly younger. I didn't bother to study his face. It wasn't important, and unnecessary information could slow me down when I needed necessary information most. That... and I didn't really want to remember his features.
I might live by the rules of this world, but I don't have to enjoy doing so.
Sparing the vampwolf only a glance, I hope that if there is an afterlife, it's better than this one. I hope that wherever he is, it's a more pleasant realm than this one. That's not too difficult is it?
I then rid all thoughts of the dead boy from my head, and resolutely set off North. This could be a long day.
My name is Gikyo, and this is the story of a world that shouldn't have been.
A/N: I know that this first chapter tells you very little about the story, but feedback of this part would be appreciated. If feedback is good, I will focus a little bit more on this story, and write it a little quicker. Anyway, please favourite, follow review, etc. If you like it, and review if you don't telling me why.