Prologue: Introduction to the World of Ninja
Long ago, the five great nations of the world began to flourish and take root in the world. The Lands of Fire, Lightning, Earth, Wind, and Water, known as "The Five Great Shinobi (ninja) Nations" each have their own main village, from which they train their young students to become respected ninjas: Fire: Leaf, Earth: Stone, Wind: Sand, Lightning: Cloud, and Water: Mist. Other villages are known, but none of them reside in any of the Five Great Nations. While most of the time a villages ninja are loyal to their countries, there are…certain ninja that seem to follow their own rules. They are called "Rogue ninjas" and thus our story begins.
Chapter 1
Mist and Rain
It is another day in The Land of Fire whose village, The Hidden Leaf Village, is isolated by a wide and thick forest which suits their battle needs. Yet there is one dwelling in that forest that does not belong. A man sits under a tree, enjoying the breeze of the forest. He wears a one piece long black suit which is very breathable, allowing him to move more swiftly. Over that he wears a black vest often wore by higher class ninja. The vest is black and has slots and pockets on it for storage of documents and such. On his feet is the classic footwear of any ninja: non-toe closed shoes, for traveling purposes. Next to him lays a great sword almost 6 feet in length and nearly 2 feet wide, with the blade sharply bent at an angle for tearing away at enemies. His hair is also black, short and is sort of spiky. While he is wearing a headband on his head that is cocked to the left, this headband says that he is a ninja from The Hidden Mist Village.
"You never feel a breeze anything like this back at home." he said. "Unless you count the breeze coming in from the sea, and that's a salty like breeze. Nothing like this Leaf Village breeze here, where it's pure and devoid of anything foul. But I don't have time to rest here forever. I have to keep moving along, or eventually I'm going to get caught. I've gone through too much for that to dream to vanish before my eyes."
* * *
At the same time he's resting, someone IS closing in on him, but only by pure coincidental accident. A figure swiftly moves through the trees, jumping on a branch every once in a while. "Oh damn I hope I've lost them. It has been a while since I've seen them but tracker ninja never rest. I wouldn't be surprised if they were just waiting for me to take a break, and then jump on me when they don't think I'll expect it. But I'm not just any old regular ninja. They will see that soon enough."
The figure finally jumps from the trees and lands on a small clearing in the forest. The figure is none other than a female ninja from the Hidden Rain Village. Her hair, dark brown, is shoulder length. Under her dark red kimono that's she's wearing up to her knees are black shorts that stop at the thigh. The shorts are not loose, and are made that way to prevent snagging during drawn out fights. She has her ninja tools holster on her right thigh, right under her katana which she keeps at her waist.
"Whew, it looks like I can finally rest for a while." she said. Then she turns around and draws her sword. The Mist ninja jumps from the trees and brandishes his great sword, which crosses blades with the female's katana. For a minute they are locked together, in a dead fast standstill but as they look at each other, they jump back from each other. "I know who you are and chances are you know me." The female said.
"Yes I do know you." said the male ninja. "You're Kaori Tanaka, rogue ninja of the Hidden Rain Village. I didn't even have to look at your headband tied around your waist to know that. Your kimono tells all, it's red from the blood of that wealthy family's child you murdered. I also heard that it's red because even from the day you were young, you were always seeing red. Your temper exceeds your reputation. I could feel a sense of rage from you the moment we crossed blades."
Kaori gave a small smile but didn't relax her grip on her sword. "Very good. That murder was over 2 years ago and yet I'm still being hunted for it this very day. You're guilty of a crime too you know. From your attire I'd guess you're Dokina Abetara of the Hidden Mist Village. You're the last remaining member of that group led by Zabuza Momochi who attempted to overthrow the Land of Water's government. You failed in doing so and were forced to flee the country with the tracker ninjas on your heels. After a while those trackers succeeded in killing everyone, except you and Zabuza who was killed a year and a half ago by a ninja from this land.
Dokina gave her a small smile back but, like Kaori, didn't relax his grip. "It is because of Zabuza that I am as strong as I am now. He taught me everything that he knew including the mastery of Water Jutsu and swordsmanship. Do not think that this fight will be easy even for a minute." "Then come at me with all your might Dokina."
"With pleasure Kaori. I will enjoy this fight"
Dokina rushed Kaori and again they crossed blades once, two, three times in under a second. While Kaori had a smaller sword that was easier to use, Dokina's sword was larger and it all Kaori could go was defend until she could find an opening in his offense. Then, she found it. Now it was her turn to start attacking Dokina and forcing him to defend himself from her attacks. It didn't seem like either side was going to give anytime soon. Then Dokina let go of his sword and while he was leaping backwards began forming hand signs very rapidly. "Water Style: Water Bullets Jutsu" Kaori looked up and noticed that it had recently been raining in the area where they were fighting. Water was still on every leaf of every tree surrounding them.
"Ah yes you seem to know it now don't you." Dokina said quietly. "With this jutsu I can now change the weight of water from being as light as air to as heavy as stone. I'll crush you beneath a sheet of water." With that, water began to fall from the trees and this rain would be painful if any of those droplets hit her. Kaori jumped from one spot to another trying to avoid being hit. She knew that Dokina was just trying to tire her out and wait for her to slow down. Dokina would not let all the rain fall down at once which meant that he was going to unleash a huge collection of them at the end. She had to act quickly and counterattack before he could do that.
As she pondered this three shuriken came out of nowhere, flying right at her. She heard them whistling through the air and swung her katana in their direction, parrying all three of them and knocking them to the ground making them useless. "It's an ambush" she said. Dokina rushed over and grabbed his sword, readying himself for any kind of attack. Both of them were so busy trying to figure out where the random attack had some from that soon they found themselves back to back. "Just know that I still don't trust you." Kaori said. "Hmph, the same goes for me." Dokina replied. They both waited quietly for anything sudden like a noise or another attack from a different direction. "It appears as though they are disappointed with failing to kill you and are probably waiting for us to drop our guard again." Dokina said quietly. "Only an amateur would drop their guard after a mistake like that." Kaori quietly replied back. But she did relax her grip but only a little.
"DIE WRETCH."
Dokina and Kaori looked up to see a man with a sword descending upon them. He swung his sword hard and struck Kaori in the shoulder. Kaori didn't shout out in pain or anything. Instead she smiled again and laughed an evil laugh. "But only a REAL amateur would even think of falling for this trick." Kaori melted, becoming a puddle of water on the ground. "What, a Water Clone Jutsu?" the man said not knowing what had just happened.
Suddenly Kaori appeared behind him unhurt and unscathed. "Let me explain to you what your tiny brain couldn't measure." She explained. "Dokina quickly conjured up a water clone that used a simple Transformation Jutsu to look like me. I, in the meantime, waited in the shadows of the trees for the moment when you would attack. All this happened between the time I swung my katana and the time me and Dokina went back to back. I'm impressed Dokina. Even in the heat of battle you read my mind and could understand me without words." She then used her katana to end the life of her would-be attacker. "I always knew I would be followed by someone trying to kill me. I didn't think it would be someone like him."
"He doesn't appear to be more than a simple bandit by the looks of his clothes." Dokina observed. "Plus, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of their being more of them around here. Bandits never like to go out for solo plunders. They prefer to hunt in small groups of two or three, sometimes four." "Then why don't we flush out the rest." Kaori declared, reaching into her holster. She withdrew three small throwing stars and threw them in a certain direction. Her hunch was right, as three other bandits jumped from the trees. "Simple bandits trying to steal something of value from rogue ninjas like us…how laughable." Kaori snickered.
"You may have ended the life of one of our members, but you haven't won yet." They cried. "The Forest Bandits have made a name for themselves plundering merchants and peddlers traveling the forests of this land. We now have evened the field of this battle in our favor. There are three of us and two of you."
"See that's where you're wrong." Dokina coldly said. "We're standing in the Land of Fire, home to the ninja who live here in the Hidden Leaf Village. You guys are just common thieves who should have been rubbed out years ago. The only reason why the village doesn't do anything about you is because you're not worth the effort at all. You think that just because there are two of you that the odds are even? Then you don't know who we are. I am Dokina Abetara of The Village Hidden In The Mist." The water that he had been storing up for the attack against Kaori fell from the sky and hit one of the bandits with the force of a landslide, creating a small crater in the earth and crushing him under a ton of heavy water.
This seemed to scare the remaining bandits who didn't expect to run into someone as powerful as Dokina and Kaori. One of them fell backwards on his ass, too scared to move. The other one was also scared but not too scared to where he couldn't move. He slowly backed away from the scene, a look of terror in his eyes. Kaori slowly walked toward him, keeping up with his steps. For every step the bandit took forward Kaori took a step forward. This continued until finally Kaori had backed him up to a very tall tree.
"So you all think me to be some wretch huh?" she yelled angrily, her rage building up inside her. "I am no wretch. I am someone to be feared. I am Kaori Tanaka, of The Village Hidden In The Rain. Ninja Art: Tree Capture Death." Kaori completed her hand signs and seemed to disappear into thin air. The bandit looked around trying to find her. He was so busy trying to find her he didn't notice the vines creeping out from underneath the tree until they had him bound to the tree, unable to move or escape. As he was struggling, Kaori emerged, from the waist up, out of the tree right above the struggling bandit. When he finally looked up, all he saw was her hand reaching for him. He didn't even have time to scream before she ended his life. The vines let his lifeless body go and fall to the ground. Kaori soon emerged from the tree.
That move she used was a simple form of Genjutsu, jutsu that affected the five senses of the human body, enabling her to attack from a distance without exposing herself to danger. Normally she would have had to extract more chakra, the life force that ninja need to perform jutsu, to create a tree to bind him to. She was just lucky to have been fighting in the forest.
"And then there was one." Kaori and Dokina said simultaneously, looking at the last bandit sitting there too scared to move. "Would you love to have the honors?" Dokina asked.
"No I want you to kill him." Kaori replied back.
"I really think you should be the one to do it."
"I mean it. You should go ahead and do the deed."
"You should kill him."
"No you should kill him."
They were so into their argument that they didn't notice their prey trying to sneak away. When they did he was bolting away at full sprint trying to avoid being killed.
"You know what, let's just both kill him."
"You read my mind."
With swords drawn they rushed him on both sides. The both swung at him. He stopped, they stopped, and time seemed to stop. It was just Dokina and Kaori side to side as if frozen. The bandit was just standing still as well. When the wind began blowing and the leaves began dancing around them, he gave a death groan and fell to the ground from two massive wounds given to him by two sword attacks.
Dokina and Kaori stood up again and looked at each other. Now that the threat to them was done, there was still a matter of their battle. They never did get the chance to finish. For a while they just stood there, not moving or attacking or anything. Finally Kaori broke the silence between them.
"You fought well. I'm impressed with your performance. Then again, I shouldn't expect anything less from a former pupil of Zabuza Momochi."
Dokina said nothing for a few minutes. He just stared off into the sky, as if searching for something that only he could see.
"Thank you. I'm impressed with you as well. Up until this day I never met a ninja who could wield Genjutsu as well as you could."
"Thanks."
The silence between them continued again for another few minutes. This time Dokina broke the silence.
"So what about that intense battle we had before we were rudely interrupted? Who do you think won that?"
"I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it ended in a draw."
"That's exactly what I was thinking."
"So where do we go from here? I mean honestly we're both on the run from our respected villages and we really don't have anywhere else to go."
"Not to mention that we're both going to be stalked night and day by tracker ninjas, bandits, bounty hunters and the like."
"So maybe you and I should become one moving group. You know, start our own little group of rogue ninjas."
Dokina looked at Kaori, wondering if she was serious or not. At first he though she was just kidding but looking into her eyes, he could tell she really meant it. He had to admit, forming an alliance with her did sound pretty intriguing. If they were to perhaps find other ninjas like them on their travels, then they could increase their size and power. The whole strategy of "strength in numbers" was starting to sound very good to him.
"Ok I'll take you up on that offer. You and I will become a traveling group of rogue ninjas, traveling the lands. I'm also pretty sure that we're not the only rogue ninjas roaming the place. Let's form our own group of misfits."
"Yeah I like that idea. If we had at least one ninjas from every known village in our group we'd become unstoppable."
"Then it's settled. From now on, we are no longer solo ninja. Let's swear to stand together as one and to be safe let's swear it via blood."
Dokina and Kaori both took their swords and cut a small gash in their hands, making them bleed. Then they clasped hands together, symbolizing their union as both Mist and Rain united.
"So what should we do now?" Dokina asked
"Well I don't like leaving unfinished business behind." Kaori replied, looking at the bodies of their victims. "I say we go to those bandits hideout, kill the weaklings, and then finish off their leader. If we're lucky they're bound to have some treasure on them."
"Ok, but we better hurry. The suns almost down and we're losing our daylight. If we're lucky we can find their hideout in the early signs of the morning."
With those words the newly formed group jumped back into the trees and disappeared amongst the shadows of the leaves. Now it was time to rest and recharge for the coming battle. They didn't know who or what they were going to face when they found the remaining Forest Bandits. But they did know this: The blood of every last Forest Bandits would be spilled before the sun set again that night.