Deep in the remote land of Darkness lies the Ghost Village Hidden by Spirits. A long, long time ago, this village's existence was threatened everyday by the presence of a dangerous dragon demon. The villagers feared it so much that they persuaded their Zetsumeikage to lock it away in a powerful forbidden scroll. But this wasn't enough to keep the demon at bay. Before it could escape the scroll, the Zetsumeikage and a select few arranged a special gathering and sealed the dragon demon within a 'sacrificial' host. This host would then live the rest of their life with a demon sealed within them. But something began to occur that nobody had ever expected. Over time, the host's appearance began to change drastically into that of the demon. Frightened that it might posses and break free of the host, they transferred the demon into yet another host, but in doing so, killed the previous host. This so called 'ritual' continued in this village for hundreds of years and even into the present day, which holds the youngest host of the demon dragon in their history. He's already starting to show signs of change.
Chapter 1
On a beautiful day, which lay unnoticed to the obscured Ghost Village Hidden by Spirits, two figures raced down the lantern lit, marble streets with extreme speed. A boy with blue hair and strangely colored eyes sped ahead of another, lankier boy with purple hair, passing him with ease and turned a sharp corner.
"Hah! I'm beating you!" panted the boy with blue hair as his friend began to turn the corner behind him.
"Not for long!" smiled the boy with purple hair, gracefully leaping up from the ground and onto the rooftops. The strange boy just looked up as if he were duped while his friend disappeared over the roofs. With a low, annoyed growl to himself, he too jumped onto the roofs to catch up.
"Dammit!" The blue-haired boy whispered to himself when he noticed his friend was nowhere in sight. 'Well, all I can hope for is that I get there before him!' He thought as he began to run with all his might.
"Boo." said a voice from behind, scaring the boy out of his skin. "Ha-ha, you scare too easily!" said the boy with raven purple hair from behind. Frustrated with his friend, the boy with navy-blue hair playfully pushed him off the roof. But his friend grabbed his arm just before falling to hold his balance and yanked his friend over the side of the roof as well and into a large tree located in a thick mist off to the left. Yelling as they fell all the way through the tree, hitting almost every branch on the way down, the boys hit the ground with a loud thud and painful yelps.
"Eeeeekk! What're you boys doing in here?" yelled a female voice, coming from the hot spring. Looking around frantically to realize where they were, the boys began to panic as more and more girls began to yell and scream at them.
"It's Hatori again!" Yelled another unidentifiable voice through the mist as the girls began to throw whatever they could find at the peeping toms.
"Go that way!" Hatori pointed as he shoved his friend in an unidentifiable direction. They both high-tailed it out of the bathhouse, rocks and items still being pelted at their frail figures. One pebble struck Hatori's friend in the back of the head.
"Sorry!" squeaked the blushing, blue-haired boy before turning angrily to his grinning friend as they ran.
"What? You did it!" Hatori stated as he sprinted ahead, their destination in sight. Rubbing his head where the rock hit, the boy with flowing, navy hair hesitated a moment before sprinting ahead as well. Before them lay the largest tree in the Land of Darkness, which held the building of the Zetumeikage's office that protruded from the crater of a once large branch that no longer existed. The doors at the base of the tree were massive; about 40 feet tall and 20 feet wide, and carved on them was the image of a great dragon. As the boys raced through the open doors, they tried to avoid the few people that walked through the halls and getting yelled at about running from the woman behind the front desk. Up the spiral stairs they ran, side by side, trying to push each other out of the way until they made it to the top floor that held the Zetumeikage's foyer and the door to her office. The blue-haired boy pushed himself ahead just in time to leap at the door handle. Right as he was opening the door, Hatori trips over him trying to bypass him, and they both went crashing down to the floor while the door flew open.
"See? I told you they'd make it on time!" said a girl's voice from ahead. After hearing the familiar voice, the boys quickly picked themselves off the floor and stood formally in front of the Zetsumeikage. She sat elegantly at her beautifully organized, hand carved desk with written documents and mission lists placed neatly in front of her. Also, in front of her stood the girl with red and black hair whom had confidence in their arrival.
"Yeah, Barely." sighed the man with silver hair to the right of the Zetumeikage's desk as he folded his arms, giving the boys a crooked look.
"Well, if it wasn't for Hatori-" The strange boy grumbled angrily before he was cut off by the girl's voice.
"Mikami! How did you get that scratch on your face?" said the girl to the blue-haired boy, Mikami. Touching his hand to his face, Mikami now realized that he had cut himself falling out of the tree with Hatori. Now thinking about it, he had no clue how to explain it without bringing up the bathhouse. His face turned a deep red.
"Well, uh...you see Enzeru, um...ha-ha, the funny thing is-" Mikami stuttered, blushing as he rubbed the back of his head.
"He fell out of a tree." Hatori answered for him blatantly with a big smile that shown his naturally blackened teeth.
"You... fell out of a tree...?" The girl, called Enzeru, questioned as she tilted her head with a raised eyebrow.
"Y-Yeah! No biggie! Ha-ha!" Mikami answered quickly and loudly, trying to avoid anymore questioning.
"So now that we're here, what's our mission for the day? I heard it's pretty important." Hatori asked the Zetsumeikage to change the subject as he closed the door.
"Well, I wouldn't really call it a mission for the day." Spoke the Zetsumeikage in a smooth, melting voice that captured the attention of everyone in the room. "But this is a very important mission. I honestly don't know how long it will take." A silent pause crossed the room as the three that stood before her waited in anticipation.
"As you know, our village is almost completely isolated from the rest of the world. Other villages to the west find it too dangerous to even cross over the border of the Land of Darkness because of the protectiveness of our Dark Forest. This is cutting back our trade and communication drastically. We are slowly losing our power, and that's where you three are going to come in." She explained, folding her hands gracefully in front of her. The sleeves of her majestic, white kimono appeared to swallow her hands up with only her delicate fingers showing through the black trim. "...You three have the mission of visiting an extremely powerful village far to the northeast of here and will give the Hokage of that village this letter of requested alliance directly from me." She concluded, holding out a neatly folded letter sealed with her mark and beautifully written kanji on the front that read 'Letter of Alliance: From the Zetsumeikage of the Ghost Village Hidden by Spirits'
"So, we're just delivering a letter? Can't you just send it to them using a messenger bird?" Mikami questioned, dumbfounded.
"It's not that simple," Said the man with white hair as he lit a cigarette. "Think of it as an ambassador mission. It would be very disrespectful and informal if we just sent a messenger bird. We need representatives from our village to deliver that letter to them personally." He elaborated as he exhaled slowly the smoke from his lungs.
"So wait, if we're leaving the village that means...we'll be seeing the sun?" Mikami spoke exasperatedly, his eyes widening as he went completely off topic.
"Yup," said the man with white hair as he took another drag from his cigarette. "It took you that long to figure it out?" Mikami's teammates chuckled at him as his expression faded to embarrassment, though admitting to his self that he was pretty slow at figuring it out. Since the village is obscured by the canopy of the massive trees that grow in the Land of Darkness, no one living here has ever seen the sun unless they've been outside the Land of Darkness, such as the man with silver hair.
"So Keanu Sensei's going to?" Enzeru questioned excitedly.
"Of course I am," Said their sensei, Keanu. "Unless you know how to get there by yourself." He laughed slightly.
"So, what's the name of this village we're going to anyway?" Hatori asked.
"It's called the Leaf Village hidden in the Trees." The Zetsumeikage answered. A long silence filled the room
"... Never heard of it..." Mikami broke the silence in a clueless tone. Enzeru and Hatori glanced at each other, unknowing of the village as well.
"Well, that's to be expected I guess..." Keanu sighed as he scratched his head in disbelief, but also with understanding. Before anything more could be said, the office door flew open once again to reveal not more people, but a small, puppet-like being with tears flowing heavily from his eyes.
"Mama!" He yelled, sprinting towards Enzeru and leaping out at her.
"Malachi?" Enzeru said in surprise, catching him as he wrapped his small, wooden arms around her neck. "I thought I told you to stay at home until I was done here?"
"I'm so sorry Mama, but he's gone! I had to come tell you!" Malachi explained himself as the tears kept flowing. "Atreyu's gone!"
"Oh no, not again..." Enzeru sulked, "Where did he go?"
"I'm not sure… he just walked out of the house saying he was tired of doing nothing... Vincent went after him and told me to stay home, but I HAD to come tell you Mama!" Malachi cried harder, burying his head in her shoulder.
"It's ok, Malachi..." Enzeru comforted him as she petted his head. Mikami grabbed his head and started pulling at his hair.
"This is just great! I hope he doesn't do what he did last time he got out!" Mikami said horrifically as everyone else began to remember Atreyu's destructive escapade the last time he left the house by himself.
"Well, at least Vincent's with him this time." Enzeru stated which relaxed everyone a great deal.
"Are you mad at me Mama...?" Malachi finally lifted up his head to reveal his big, puppy-dog eyes.
"Of course not, Malachi." Enzeru smiled, making Malachi cease his crying and smile back.
"You kids go ahead and find him. I'll meet up with you at the village gate." Keanu said suddenly with a soft smile.
"Alright, let's go find him." Hatori said as his teammates and Malachi nodded in agreement. After they left the room, silence struck again.
"... Is this what you really want to do, Shino?" Keanu finally spoke, a little uneasy at first.
"Yes. The council and I couldn't find a better team for the job." She sighed, a little worried. "You of all people should know that." She forced a smile. She knew what Keanu really meant, but didn't want to answer that heart-panging question.
"... Alright," Keanu sighed, picking up the letter and tucking it safely in his pocket before heading for the door and placing a hand on the handle.
"Take care of them." The Zetsumeikage asked suddenly. Keanu turned around slightly with a smile.
"Of course. Wouldn't want anything happening to them, especially your daughter." He concluded with a soft smile as he left the room, closing the door silently behind him. Shino sat back in her chair and closed her eyes to relax. After a moment of thinking to herself, she opened her eyes slowly to gaze down at a picture sitting on her desk. The picture included her smiling when she was younger and a man with red hair wrapping an arm around her waist. She reached for it and picked it up to look at it closer before running her fingertips over the dusty glass in the frame.
"... If only you could see her now."
Out in the village, the trio continued to scour the area for the missing Atreyu. Enzeru finally calls everyone back to their meeting spot with Malachi at her side. Mikami was the first back.
"Any luck?" She asked him with a sad look on her face. Mikami couldn't help but to blush at how cute she looks when she made her sad faces, but tried to be serious about the situation.
"N-no...I looked everywhere." He replied, upset that he couldn't do anything more for her.
"I couldn't find him either." Hatori said as he appeared suddenly.
"Yeah, me neither." She said sadly. After looking at them both, Enzeru then looked down at Malachi with a comforting smile on her face. "Malachi, want to use your jutsu?" Malachi's eyes widened with happiness after she spoke those magical words to him.
"Ok!" He said happily as he took one of his long, pointed fingers and ran it down his chest area that was stitched up, slicing the stitching open.
"Locator Eye Jutsu!" She spoke after she and Malachi made the required hand signs. The eye socket in Malachi's chest opened up to reveal a vertically placed, pale yellow eye that resembled a snake's. The eye jolted around to look in different directions before Malachi envisioned through Atreyu's eyes where he was. He saw a type of counter and a partial wall with a man standing in front of him, looking down at him in an extremely annoyed manner. He snapped to when he recognized the area Atreyu was at.
"He's at the village gate!" Malachi yelled, happy that he was able to help.
"All the way up there?" Mikami roared, "Atreyu's getting on my last nerve and I haven't even seen him to day yet!"
As soon as Malachi closed up his third eye, the team was off to the complete opposite side of the village. They jumped across rooftops and ran through the streets until they came close to the village gate. The gatekeeper that sat in the small outpost everyday was standing in front of a very small puppet no taller than three feet with his hands on his hips as this small puppet with spiky red hair taunted him. As they grew closer, they could begin to hear the threats the puppet was spitting out at the gatekeeper and they also noticed another, taller puppet standing behind him as if he were trying to coax him out of his argument.
"I'll tell 'ya, if you don't scram, I'm 'gonna have to get security down here." said the gatekeeper, loosing his patience as he chewed on his toothpick.
"I don't care! Send'em all down here! I can take 'em on!" yelled the raspy, redheaded puppet as he shook one of his four fists at him.
"Atreyu, please stop..." said the taller puppet behind him in a calm voice.
"Atreyu! Vincent!" yelled Enzeru as they approached. Enzeru quickly scooped up Atreyu in her arms and tried to keep him from escaping. "I'm so sorry, Dumoi! He didn't bother you too much, did he?" She tried to apologize.
"Hey, what's the big deal? Put me down Enzeru!" roared Atreyu as he wiggled around trying to break free of her grasp.
"You might want to keep him on a leash next time." Dumoi the Gatekeeper said as he folded his arms. "Nah, he's fine. I have to put up with his crap every day. I'm used to it by now." He concluded as if nothing happened, walking back inside his outpost. Enzeru sighed in relief as she turned around to Vincent, the taller puppet with white hair.
"Thank you." She said gratefully.
"... Yes, of course." He said quietly, smiling.
"If you make us run all around the village looking for you again, you're going to be sorry!" Mikami taunted the pinned Atreyu as he poked a finger at his forehead.
"Make me!" Atreyu snapped, almost biting off Mikami's finger.
"Oh good, you found him." Keanu Spoke, approaching the team with four packs lung across his back. "Since you were busy with Atreyu, I packed your supplies for you."
"Thanks man." Hatori spoke in gratitude as he began to distribute the bags to everyone.
"Did you-?" Enzeru began to ask as she put Atreyu down.
"Yes, I did." Keanu answered with a smile. "All of the puppet parts are in the bigger backpack."
"Thank you!" She said appreciatively as she took her bag and slung in over her shoulders.
"Wait, you're making another puppet?" Mikami questioned in fear as Hatori and he looked at each other in dismay.
"Yup! He's gonna be our little brother or sister!" Malachi said with a huge grin.
"...Joy." Mikami sobbed. Keanu sent a friendly hand gesture to Dumoi. With his feet propped up in the counter, Dumoi gave him the thumbs up and began throwing the hand-signs, only he knew, to open the village gate. Suddenly, the roots and branches that coated the titanic gate and walls surrounding the village began to move, creaking their way away from the gate. The sound of rustling tree leaves and snapping branches filled the air until the entire gate was clear. The doors slowly opened out into the darkness of the forest that lay ahead.
"Everyone ready?" Keanu asked.
"Definitely!" Mikami yelled, rearing to go. The team and the puppets that followed leapt into the forest and up into the massive branches of the trees to their destination, The Leaf Village.