Ninja Adventures
Chapter 2
DISCLAIMER I OWN NOTHING! EXCEPT ORIGINAL CHARACTERS!
Russell felt like his stomach was full of butterflies, and they all had the shits. He had recently been released from the hospital following the Leaf shinobi attack and, by the request of his father, a high ranking Jounin, he was removed from active duty for a few days. Now he sat across from his father as he waited for him to finish his afternoon tea.
"Alright," he said at last, putting his cup down. "Your sensei tells me you fought against Leaf shinobi, is this true?"
"Yes father," he said softly, averting his eyes from his father's hard brown ones.
"And," he continued. "That you had to be saved by that Tenkage… boy, is this true?"
Russell listened as his father said Bren's name with such venom in his voice. All the adults in town, save a few, didn't really like Bren. All he really knew was that his friend lived alone in the abandoned part of the village that had been condemned after the cataclysmic storm that decimated Cloud country for three days straight. All the other people were moved out and given new places to live for free… except Bren.
"Yes father," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"From this day, to when you return to active duty," his father said. "You will be training with me."
Bren looked at the destroyed buildings all around him from the roof of the old hospital in the abandoned part of the village. He was alone here, all by himself. This abandoned wasteland was his home, his playground, and his training ground. Sighing to himself he removed his shirt and upper body armor. He looked down at his stomach, as he ran his fingers over the crisscrossing blue lines that made up the seal that bound Sevra.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw something reflected in the broken glass of a window, a feint flash of blue, but; when he turned his head it was gone. Sighing again he drew his katanas and began to train. His movements were smooth and quick, dancing from place to place as he slashed at invisible opponents. His eyes continued to return to the glass reflection that seemed to disappear every time he glanced at it, and returned when his gaze was averted.
Slamming his swords into the rooftop until they stood up on their own he continued his dance of death. Swift punches and sweeping kicks replaced swords. With his gaze adverted the reflection returned. It was the reflection of a woman. Pale blue skin on the verge of nearly being pure white, a mane of soft white hair stretched down to her back, black cloth clung to the curves of her sensuous body. Her eyes, blue with white pupils, watched the boy in front of her. Her tongue slid over her supple, full lips as she watched Bren work up a sweat. Sevra liked what she saw. She would have this boy in due time.
The days passed in a blur and soon Russell was back with his team. He had received orders from Irowata sensei to meet up at the Raikage's office to receive their next mission. As he weaved his way through the people he saw that the others were already there waiting for him.
"Hey guys!" he called, waving to them. "Long time no see!"
"I see your still fat," Mizuna said, looking him up and down. "You should have told the hospital to put you on an IV drip instead of food."
Bren saw a brief look of hurt cross Russell's face, but; as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. The sword wielding Genin grabbed his friend in a one arm hug.
"Good to have you back," he said. "So how was your vacation?"
"You can't call training nonstop with my father with only two hours of sleep and one bowl of plain rice a day a vacation." he said, reaching into his overstuffed backpack and pulled out a bag of chocolate covered pretzels and began eating them quickly. "On the bright side, he did teach me some new jutsu to go with my current ones."
"Current ones?" Mizuna asked, tauntingly. "You mean you have more jutsu than just that bubble attack, well color me surprised."
"Alright enough reminiscing, we have an assignment to receive," Irowata sensei cut in, leading the Genin into the building. Soon they came to the Raikage's office. He was a man in his late twenties with spiky silver hair and a scraggly goatee, a long black robe covered his body.
"Good morning," he said. "I take it you're here for the new mission Irowata?"
"Yes, lord Raikage," she replied. The Genin watched as the Raikage shuffled papers around ion his desk, and muttered to himself as he leafed through missions.
"No… no…. no…. here it is," he said, as he held up a piece of paper. "Your mission is a C-Rank, you are to go to the village of Heike on the border of Stone country and gather information about why people are disappearing there."
Soon, after stocking up on the necessary supplies the four man team was off. Mizuna kept trying to weasel a date out of Bren, who politely refused her each time, and then returned to his conversation with Russell about trying out their jutsu in tandem. Irowata sensei covered the rear, smiling and chuckling at her charges.
"So I was thinking, when I use my bubble stream jutsu you follow behind it so when the enemy sweeps it aside you hit them with a lightning sword," Russell said.
"I like the sound of that, how about this," he replied. "You hide in cover and send out a water clone, and let it be taken hostage. The hostage taker will think that I'll surrender and not attack. But I'll surprise him and run them both through on my swords."
"That would be awesome to see!" Russell exclaimed, as they rounded a bend in the road they could hear the sounds of roaring and barking. "Hey! Look at that!"
Up the road was a massive black bear fighting with a grey and white wolf. The wolf was already injured as blood dripped from the gashes on it's side. The bear charged at it's injured opponent, but; at the last second the wolf leaped towards the enraged bear and slammed into it's chest before tearing into it's face with it's fangs.
The shinobi watched in shock as the bear staggered backwards with the wolf still on it, the massive ursine waved it's massive paws back in forth in a futile attempt to remove the assaulting canine. The bear fell back to the ground, and used the momentum to flip over on top of the wolf, before beginning it's own assualt with it's large claws. In the blink of an eye the bear froze in place, a thin line of blood appeared on it's neck, before the head slid off of the body. Bren sheathed his sword and turned to the injured wolf as the bear's dead body collapsed backwards. Setting his pack down he started digging through it as the wolf lied there and watched him with curiosity.
"Hold still and I can bandage your wounds," Bren said, as he pulled out disinfectant and bandages. "Lie still now."
The others watched in surprise as the wolf lay still and didn't move as Bren treated it. Bren looked into the wolf's yellow eyes, and felt a connection. Both were alone, both were struggling to survive, both were fighting for what they believed in. when he finished Bren grabbed his pack and stood up.
"May our paths cross again on better terms," Bren said, as he turned to continue on. When the group had walked for several more miles Bren looked over his shoulder and to his surprise, saw the wolf following them. "He's following us."
"Just ignore him and he'll go away," Irowata said.
But; the wolf didn't go away. When the group stopped to pitch camp for the night the wolf sat on the top of a large rock over looking the camp and didn't move until the next morning.
"I think he wants to come with us," Russell said, looking over his shoulder at the trailing animal.
"I think your right," Bren said, turning and stopping, kneeling down he held out his hand. "Come on boy… come on."
Bren spoke softly to the wolf as it came closer and closer until he was able to get his hands on it. He scratched it behind the ear as the wolf licked his face.
"What are you gonna name it?" Mizuna asked offhandedly.
"How about Zenshomaru?" Bren asked. "Do you like that name boy?"
His answer was a bark from the wolf.
"I think that's a yes Bren," Irowata said.
After several hours of walking the group finally arrived at Heike, the village was nestled on the edge of a massive, and severely overgrown forest. The villagers regarded the four shinobi and one wolf with unease.
"Alright team, split up and ask around," Irowata ordered. "Meet back here in an hour."
The team split up in different directions, they asked everyone they could that was willing to talk but nobody wanted to say much. After an hour of fruitless investigation the team reassembled in the village square as the sun began to set.
"Report," Irowata ordered.
"I didn't learn anything," Mizuna said.
"We didn't learn anything either," Bren added, kneeling to pet Zenshomaru.
"I think I know," Russell said. "People are being taken by giant spiders into the forest."
The other shinobi looked at him like he was crazy.
"That has to be the stupidest thing you've ever said!" Mizuna exclaimed.
"She has a point Russ," Bren agreed. "That doesn't sound plausible."
"What made you think that giant spiders are doing this?" Irowata asked.
"That," Russell said, pointing, the others turned in time to see several large, brown spiders carrying villagers wrapped in webbing into the darkness of the forest.
"Well, I stand corrected," Bren said, running after the spiders. "Zenshomaru! Go!"
With a howl of excitement the wolf bolted after the spiders. The shinobi followed after into the darkness. Soon they came out into a clearing where a gigantic web stretched all around them, villagers hung in the webbing like flies, a lot of them were dead, dried out husks.
"What did this?" Mizuna asked. From above them the sounds of movements caught their attention as a giant spider came down to the ground, on it's back was a young man with six arms.
"I believe your looking for me?" he said, crossing all of his arms. "Formerly the Sound Four's, Kidomaru."
END CHAPTER 2
