Disclaimer: I don't own the Naruto world, universe, it laws or limits
A/N: 'Shinobido Inashime' is an ongoing series that takes place in the Naruto world and goes by its rules. All characters are original although there will be cameos in the future. This is an introduction to the antagonists of the story. I hope you like it, and it peaks your interest enough to come back. And here … we … go.
Shinobido Inashime
Sleeping Angels and Living Shadows
In eerie silence, an Unknown man sat in his personal chamber, the pale blue light of the room shining dimly onto his metallic, face-fitted mask.
"Sensei," a voice called to him.
From behind him, the surrounding shadows bent, coiled, and morphed to shape a solid form, a young woman, no older than 17. She wore a long, black coat, its upturned hood hiding her eyes, and black leather gloves that covered her hands, hiding the one part of her the coat didn't shield. As she stood in the dim hall, with her attire, she almost blended into the darkness around her, seemingly absorbing what little light fell upon her; for one who didn't know better, she could easily be mistaken for a phantom especially in those surroundings.
Reacting to her call, the Unknown man responded. "Yes, Ami-san. What is it?"
"I have some more for you, three to be exact," Ami, the walking shade relayed to him.
Intrigued, the Unknown man rose from his chair and approached his student. Unveiling what she had brought, Ami manipulated the shadows into tangibility at her feet, sweeping them away as if they were a long sheet. Underneath the cover laid two dead female bodies and, next to them, sat a large, round package of darkness. The Unknown man came close to latest victims to visit him, observing them and gathering all visual information on them: One was a blond-haired young woman wearing red armor, who was utterly covered in sand; the other was a young brown-haired woman wearing blue armor, who seemed to have fangs and had blood coming out of every orifice of her head. Finally, his eyes fell upon the package, and he felt his stomach drop within him as a feeling of dread washed over him.
Slowly, with his hands, he peeled the darkness away as if the package were a plastic bag, and immediately the sight and smell of the contents shook his system, causing him to immediately close it back up. Ami noticed his reaction and the familiarity of his subsequent shaken state. He desperately clutched his chest; though he hadn't expected it, he still loathed seeing these types of tragedies. After a moment of gathering himself, the Unknown man peeled the darkness once more and examined the remains inside. Drenched in her own blood was another brunette wearing green armor, her body sliced into 4 sections.
"Did she," Unknown asked Ami.
Ami, having heard the question many times before, answered, "Yes. She died instantly; her eyes were still open.
With a dejected sigh, Unknown closed the darkness back up, and began the process.
"Okay," Unknown began inquiring, "Where are they from? What happened to them … Who are they?"
Expelling her knowledge, Ami explained as she had always done, "I found them in different places, but they all have 'Gelel' written on their clothes, so I assume that's where they are from."
Unknown simply nodded in understanding as Ami focused her attention on the blond, and began explaining the young women.
"She is Ranke," Ami detailed, "She must have lost to a very powerful Sand shinobI; I had to travel a very long way underneath a beach to recover her body. She seems to have been able to control lightning based on various grounding implements along her armor. I also believe she could change and strengthen her physiology because, at the depth that I found her, she should have been crushed. It kept her body intact, but it wasn't enough. She died of positional suffocation."
Unknown merely nodded once more, understanding the sand now, and Ami moved to the first brunette.
"She is Fugai," Ami continued, "I found her relatively shortly after she died; the dust hadn't settled yet, and the initial rumbling is what attracted me in the first place. She seems to have been able to transform into some sort of dog, as evidenced by the strange muscle structure of her vocal chords and around her canine teeth. Her vocal chords also seem powerful enough to emit some very powerful sounds, and since she could turn into a type of dog, I would assume those were howls. She must have heard a very loud echo in the mine I found her in because her ear drums were shattered, hence the blood in her ears. I also think this same sound lead to her death. I found her under a cave-in of rocks. Nearly all of her bones were broken including in her neck, back and chest; the only ones to survive were the ones in her hands, feet, and her skull."
Unknown let out another crestfallen sigh and nodded one more before turning his attention to the second brunette and the last of the deceased.
"And the last one," Unknown inquired.
"Her name was Kamina," Ami continued, "I found her shortly after I found Fugai, as I was leaving the mine in fact. She was a mess, so I made sure to wrap her up tightly. She has some odd structure around her canine teeth as well, but, unlike Fugai, hers seem to serve a different purpose: as opposed to a dog, hers seem more effective for bloodletting. Also, her ears appear especially formed for ultra-sensitive hearing. Just like the others, I think she could change her body structure, but hers was like a bat. As you saw, she definitely had the most gruesome end of the three. Based on the position of the cuts and where I found her, she had to be in a small wooden chamber like a barrel or a crate, a puppet maybe. The blades that did were curved like that of a scythe, and they easily sliced through her like a sideways guillotine. She died instantly as I already stated."
Unknown only stared at the three of them in silence as he absorbed all of the information Ami had given him.
"Sensei," Ami called apprehensively, subtly asking about him.
Unknown did not respond, lost in thought, in the gruesome, tragic sight. Moving with caution and care, he slowly positioned the dark package so that Kamina's head and shoulders were exposed, lying next to Ranke and Fugai. Kneeling in front of them, Unknown continued to stare his three latest 'patients', admiring them in a way. From one to the next to the last, he gently brushed their hair back, and pieced the information together, imagining what they sounded like, how they moved, how they fought, who they were. Finally, he responded.
"They definitely fit the criteria. And I know the best place to put them as well," he said, "these three are true angels … they're perfect."
Ami's heart immediately dropped a little in her chest. He had done it again, as he always did; he was fawning over these new girls, fawning over the dead.
"Of course…" Ami consented with subtle sullenness, "I'll leave you to your work then."
With that, Ami turned and started to walk away.
"You did well…" Unknown flatly called out, "my musume."
Ami stopped. This was something foreign to her; it didn't sound or feel right. Unknown had said these things to her before, but she never really believed them, that she deserved it or that he meant it, and this one was no different. She never took them well. All Ami really heard was 'well … but not perfect'.
"I…" Ami replied with uncertainty and defensively, "did the best I could … father."
Ami then took her leave, melting in the darkness of the room, disappears through the shadows. Now alone, Unknown's eyes fell on Kamina as he realized what he had to do first.
Speaking 'to' her, Unknown relayed, "I'll have to repair your body first if I wish to continue, my dear."
He then went to work. Manipulating the shadows around, Unknown deftly sewed Kamina's body back together; twisting and squirming, the shadows weaved in and out through each section and pulled them to, acting as a durable, effective stitching. Once together, Unknown held both hands over her body, starting the next phase; using his own chakra, he starting her rapid cell regeneration, providing the fuel for her dormant healing process and cementing the binds he had made as if Kamina had never been severed in the first place. Finally, he had one last task: he then used a reverse form of the 'Poison Extraction Jutsu' to replace the blood and fluids, performing a reverse dialysis to place the liquids back into her body, fully repairing the extensive damage. Having completed that necessity, Unknown now knew the real work could begin. Wrapping the three bodies in a large shadow as if it were a sheet, he began taking them away.
As he dragged them toward his next workplace, Unknown sincerely spoke them, "My three newest 'patients', excellent kunoichi of Gelel, your lives were ended tragically short, but you will live on in my work, in my soul, and in my heart."
--
Sticking her head out of the shadows just enough to see, Ami looked in on the scene: the spotless, clean white room, the preparing Unknown mixing and measuring chemicals, sorting and placing different accoutrements, all three bodies on three separate tables with their own tray of empty beakers, metal containers, and single paper seal. Just as Unknown finished getting ready, filling each beaker with the finished red liquid, Ami couldn't help but reflect on their history.
Unknown was a man named Gaki, her father and sensei. He and his wife, Ami's mother, were shinobi of a small village, and the three lived a pretty happy life. Soon, her mother contracted a slow, terminal illness, and Gaki did everything he could to save his wife, even changing his expertise to become a medical ninja. However, his extensive efforts ultimately proved fruitless, and Gaki lost his wife and Ami her mother. Gaki never took heartache well, and this was a destroyer of worlds for him. However, he soon discovered a special preservation process and liquid using their personal Jutsu.
Both Ami and Gaki were very rare ninja as they possessed a kekkei genkai: Kageuchi and its own set of skills, Kageuchido, 'The Art of the Darkness Inside'. With this kekkei genkai, they can control and manipulate shadows in any way, shape, or form. As such, they can not only use shadows for offensive purposes, they can also change their physiology to that of a shadow, allowing solid contact to pass right through them and for them to travel through shadows. Also, while some shadow-users are hampered at night, those with Kageuchi are not as daytime produces stronger shadows while nighttime produces many more shadows. In the annals of shinobi history, many consider the 'Shadow possession Jutsu' to be a variant of the most basic art of Kageuchido.
With his skills and new discovery, Gaki first preserved his wife, but he didn't stop there. Soon, he started keeping and preserving every deceased kunoichi he came across, whether they had a family or not. In many ways, Gaki viewed this as his work, his way of honoring those like his wife, the one person he viewed as precious; it was his way of staying close to her and not losing her. Sometimes, he even mistook a 'patient' for his wife. Nevertheless, he showed each of them the same care as he did his wife when he preserved her. Kamina, Ranke, and Fugai were no different, and were getting the same treatment.
In the first phase, Gaki turned his hands intangible, and reached into each of their bodies. Once there, he gently removed their organs, careful to leave the heart and lungs, and placed them in the metal containers to be disposed of later. Next, he again used the reverse 'Poison Extraction Jutsu', siphoning the blood out and the preservation liquid in, placing the blood in the beakers and the chemical in the bodies. Finally, he took each paper seal, placed it onto their still-remaining hearts, and activated them, causing the hearts to pump the liquid, circulating it through the body much like the blood it replaced.
Watching the procedure as she usually did, Ami, as usual, became more and more downtrodden as it went on. Gaki moved with such care, such passion, such empathy for his 'patients', some of them Ami's age; his hands, his motion, his body all acted deftly, gently, reverently. One could tell he cared for these people; Ami wished she could feel what that was like. She was merely his undertaker, his personal body collector. She loved her father truly; he was all she had, among other things, and so she did everything she could possibly do for him, but with every act, he would merely turn to the work after, and not the act. Though she did her best, she never impressed, never excited, was never perfect. Now, despite whatever she did, all Ami ever did was doubt herself, never feeling she mattered to her father as much as the kunoichi she delivered to him.
Soon, as all her feelings and all her memories ran through her at the same time, Ami could no longer watch, and blended back into the shadows as all three of the hearts began pumping again.
--
"They're finally ready, Ami," Gaki exclaimed with elation.
Ami looked on at the now fully preserved Fugai, Kamina, and Ranke. They were pristine, as if they weren't ever injured, their chests gently rising and falling from their beating hearts. All three of them looked … at peace, as if they were merely sleeping.
"They're beautiful, aren't they," Gaki doted over three newest additions, "I hope I've done them justice. I wished I had known them… Nevertheless, they will sleep serenely and divinely, and in such a convenient spot too; they fit in beautifully."
Slowly, Ami pulled her vision back, allowing herself to see more of the scene, and focused on their placement. Like the others, Ranke, Fugai, and Kamina were placed in and fastened to the back wall to their own personal chambers, closet-size rooms inside the wall of Gaki's personal hall glowing with pale- blue light, cooled to where the body would not freeze but not get warm, and closed with clear, plexiglass doors so they could be viewed at all times. Each of them had their own personal nameplate underneath their chamber, inscribed with their name and home. Ami also noticed the her father had found three empty chambers right next to each other, right between 'Tayuya of the Sound' and 'Fabuki Kakuyoku of the Snow'.
Still adoring them, Gaki continued, "They're perfect Angels."
Ami, hiding her despair from him, solemnly replied, "Yes … just like all the others."
Slowly, Ami allowed her eyes to wonder over all the others; from top to bottom, there were tens of others preserved and placed in the chambers in Gaki's massive wall. All across the 'gallery' were Genin to Anbu, Rogue Ninja to Hunting Ninja, from the Land of Earth to Land of Water, shinobi of many shapes, sizes, and of all ages; Each had their own chamber, name, home, their own spot. Fugai, Ranke, and Kamina made 74, all of them kunoichi. These were Gaki's 'Tensei ninja', his Angels. However, right in the middle of the wall with the others placed around her, there was one and only 'Megami', the one Goddess, the original.
"Father," Ami called to Gaki.
Not turning around and taking his eyes off his Tensei, Gaki responded, "Yes, Ami-san?"
Asking a question she only asked when she felt particularly depressed, Ami inquired, "When I die … will you make me into an Angel?"
Gaki paused for a moment as he slightly turned to Ami, and, not hiding his aversion for the question, coldly replied, "No … I plan to be dead before that has to happen."
Ami wasn't nearly encouraged or convinced. It was the same answer, but it never seemed sincere especially with Ami always noticing Gaki's reluctance to answer it. If nothing else, Ami knew one thing that Gaki knew: things almost never go according to plan.
"Ami-san," Gaki called, "I need to acquire more supplies for my work. Will you join me?"
Ami thought to decline like she had many times before, but decided against it. She didn't have a choice, and she didn't have anywhere else to go. Gaki was all Ami had, the only one she was connected to. Like every time before, she could only give one answer.
"… Of course," responded Ami.
The End
A/N: Those were Shinobido Inashime's antagonists. I hope to get three main characters up soon, but we'll see. I hope you enjoyed it and that you come back to see me again. As always, please Rant, Rave, and Review.