TangentOne: Two, are you there?
TangentTwo: ...
TangentOne: Two?
TangentTwo: ...
TangentOne: I finally have a break. Today is a good day.
TangentTwo: One! One! Guess what I found in store room seven!
TangentOne: *Sighs*
Kiri's changed. Normally there's a lot of death, a lot of crime and a lot of odd reports for guard-nin to respond too. Kirigakure doesn't have a police force, the guards take care of that duty. The streets have been silent recently. Very little traffic after dark, whereas before that was the most active time. Of course, people are still getting their essentials, but not as often or with as much tenacity.
The whole village is in a quiet state. Very little is happening, and even less is talked about. The two brothers stare out their window on the morning of a bright day. The brightest day Kiri has seen in decades. The mist is at its thinnest, and the sun is shining through much more harshly. An ear piercing whistle starts off in the distance. Followed by another, and another. The brothers share a look as the sound continues to travel through the silent village.
"It's time, Kiyoshi." Kojiro states.
"Aye, they're making their move." He replies.
The two brothers don their respective weapons and Kiyoshi tightens his headband. They walk out of their apartment silently, the other hunter-nin are surely awake at the noise by now and would be making their own move soon. They call the elevator, which is handily already at the top, and climb inside.
The elevator ride is slow, not because of the moment, but because it's a shit elevator. When they reach the bottom, they take off at a breakneck pace. The doors to the mission floor fling open and they shoot through. Heading for the Mizukage's building. Undoubtedly, Mei Terumī is already there, acting on her impulses.
They race towards the building, heaven path already active to boost their speed. The Ninja highway hasn't been this free in a while, but the sound from the whistling still manages to make the trip annoying. Suddenly, they stop moving. The Mizukage's building is right in front of them, and Mei Terumī is facing off with their Kage.
"Your rule of tyranny is over, Yagura." Mei declares, swiftly moving into a combat stance.
"Er, actually," Kiyoshi pipes up. "I really don't think so."
Mei doesn't turn her head to look at the newcomer, you don't just ignore a Kage level opponent, even for a new voice.
"And who are you to say that?" Mei says back.
Yagura watches the exchange with mild amusement. He relaxes, and smiles.
"I'm sure you've met them, Mei. The brothers best known as The Stalkers of the Mist. The older one being our very own Hell Incarnate. Whilst the younger is best known as the Vampire." Yagura comments, clearly at ease.
Mei scowls, she knows those names. They're not ones you want to face. Ever. Even one on his own is a difficult fight, but together, they're almost unstoppable. Mei is good, and she knows it, Yagura she's sure she can handle, but the brothers. They're a whole other variable that she didn't know was coming.
Thinking back on it, she should have though. She met the Vampire once, he came to Gozou with a child asking about her rebellion. He was alluding to this very moment when he told her about being alone. Or lack thereof. She inwardly curses, it's too late to back down now.
"Hello again, Mei." Kojiro calls.
She doesn't take her eyes off the Kage, the one she deems more dangerous. Flying through hand seals, she gathers chakra in her chest, building it up to an unreasonable amount. Before she got to her last seal, a hand grabbed her wrist and pulled none too gently. Kiyoshi didn't stop pulling either, he began to spin her around him.
"Don't ignore me, bitch." He seethes, launching her into the Kage's building with an audible crack.
Kojiro and Yagura stare at Kiyoshi intently, they're both curious as to how he was that fast. Well, Yagura is, Kojiro is more concerned with a potential regression. That was pretty stupid, if she finished the seals before he reached her, whatever she released would have been in his face. Mei's buildup of chakra stresses her coils. With no release for the gathered chakra, her body feels heavy and unresponsive.
She falls out of the imprint in the wall face first to the ground. As she falls, she manages to get out a few hand seals to release the chakra. The mist around her starts to shimmer into clones. Taking form quickly and with practiced ease. The stress buildup immediately calms, leaving her in a better state of mind.
Yagura reins his thoughts back in from how fast one of his shinobi is, to the fight. His staff is still on his back, no real reason for him to be wielding it yet.
"Are you two able to handle her? There's a bunch of things I have to do today." Yagura casually calls.
Kiyoshi's eye twitches at the blatant rudeness, but doesn't act on it. Kojiro thanks the Sage of the Six Paths for that and smiles at his Kage.
"Yes, she'll be no problem for us." Kojiro answers tactfully, ignoring the look he earned from his brother and Mei.
Yagura nods once and takes off, probably to slaughter some rebellious ninja. Kojiro's thoughts are pulled back to the mass of water clones stood before him and his brother. The leader of the rebellions face reverts back to a scowl once she recovers, which the water clones mimic perfectly.
"Akutō Release: Hell Path." Kiyoshi grunts out, eyes morphing from yellow to red.
Kojiro stays in heaven path, predicting the thought process of his elder brother. Mei starts a taijutsu barrage with her clones, which Kojiro manages to handle all on his own. The water clones are slaughtered by the dozens whilst Kiyoshi speeds through hand seals faster than ever.
In the span of three seconds, all the water clones are dispersed leaving only the real Mei left. Kiyoshi finishes his seal list at the same time, collecting a mass of chakra in his chest. Kojiro body flickers to a roof, throwing a kunai to pin Mei in place by the foot. It succeeds.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!" Kiyoshi roars, spitting a mass of water out of his throat that takes the form of a dragon.
It speeds towards the stuck Mei, who manages to erect a wall of lava for the fire dragon to slam into. She pulls the kunai out of her foot and body flickers to the same roof Kojiro is on, throwing it back at the young man. Kiyoshi darts forward, eyes flickering to full yellow. He catches the kunai middair, turning to face the rebellions leader.
"I need him, no need for senseless death," Kiyoshi says, openly mocking the kunoichi. "Oh… wait a minute. I said that wrong, time for the senseless death to start."
Kojiro inwardly sighs, and mentally facepalms. His brother is a little eccentric when he doesn't take a fight seriously. His eyes turn red as Kiyoshi darts forward to face the kunoichi in a taijutsu battle.
Kiyoshi stands before his brother. Kojiro has just turned seven, and earned the right to learn their family's Kekkei Genkai. They're stood on a lake, a training field on the outskirts of Kiri.
"Listen up, I'm explaining this once and once only. Our Kekkei Genkai is an enhancement limit, when you use Hell Path, it strengthens your taijutsu and ninjutsu power exponentially. Heaven Path quickens your pace and reaction time, also allowing you to control chakra techniques much more clearly." Kiyoshi explains.
"How do I use either path?" Kojiro asks.
"Like a regular jutsu. We use a hand seal, doesn't matter which, and regulate the chakra faster or slower depending on which path you want to use. Fast for Heaven, and slow for Hell."
"That's it?" Kojiro queries.
"That's it." Kiyoshi affirms.
Kiyoshi starts a furious exchange of fists and kicks, in the random manner that is the Kiri style. Of course, when learning weapons there is a certain style or skill that one learns and adapts for themselves, but taijutsu is its own form of fighting. The moves the facing ninja pull off are fluid and exact, proving them both to be masters in the subject. Yet still, the fighting is random and without any rhythm.
Kojiro looks on, readying his jutsu for the perfect moment, eyeing the fight curiously for any more signs of regression from his brother. He isn't worried about the person they're fighting, as a matter of fact they've fought worse opponents. The issue is that they haven't fought someone this strong in a while, and Kiyoshi may turn into a beast hunting for blood.
The ninja fighting each other both begin to sweat. The fight has been going on for a while, and no openings have been found by either side. Mei is content to drag this out, the longer the fight, the more time she has until back up. That being her thought process, she still can't go on forever.
Kiyoshi smirks, he can see it. Three more strikes and his brother will finally have an opening to use, footing and rhythm aside, there's a pattern with Mei's movements. Undoubtedly his brother has seen the pattern too.
"Kojiro, now!" He yells, the three strikes flashed in an instant.
Kojiro saw it, the opening was tiny, a very quick stumble that Mei would catch easily. If you weren't watching closely, you wouldn't have even noticed it. That's all he needed though, and while smiling, unleashed the jutsu.
"Wind Release: Wind Bullet." Kojiro chants, unleashing a maelstrom of wind bullets that were previously invisible to the eye.
They shot forward at a blinding speed, catching Mei even more off guard. Kojiro didn't charge the bullets with enough chakra to kill, just enough to knock her out. Mei reacted well, even being off balance, only letting a few hit her. Those few were enough though, as she flew backwards from the impact and found herself without a conscious mind.
Both brothers revert to their normal state, winded and tired. Sure, they won the fight without too much of an issue, but the chakra drain on using their enhancement technique was still very prominent. They walk over to the unconscious kunoichi, who hung lopsidedly off the edge of the building, and question what to do next.
"Did he want her dead?" Kiyoshi asks.
"I'm not sure, probably not. Even if she died, she'd end up a martyr and his reign would fall short from the rebound. If she's alive and controlled, she'd be more useful to round up the last of their rebellion." Kojiro replies logically.
"Fuck, I wanted to kill her." Kiyoshi whines.
Kojiro shrugs and begins to tie Mei up, carefully making sure to tie her hands in a way that she couldn't use hand seals. Then he threw her over his shoulder and jumped off the building followed by his brother. He left Mei just inside the Mizukage's building and the two left to help deal with the rest of the rebellion.
Two Days Later
The brothers walk casually back into their humble abode in the hunter-nin's quarters. They take their respective beds and sit down to face each other. Both are extremely tired, the rebellion just finished, or at least their part in stopping it. Whatever remains of the rebellion are either surrendering unconditionally, or leaving Kiri without being noticed.
"That was the most eventful time of our collective lives." Kojiro comments blandly.
"Fuck the assholes who surrendered, though. I wanted more blood." Kiyoshi replies with a flick of the wrist.
"Is all you care about blood?" Kojiro queries.
"Don't be stupid, I also care about women," he begins, then thinks for a second upon seeing the half lidded eyes of his brother. "Oh! And you, yeah there's the list."
"Three whole things on your list, you have a lot to live for." Kojiro retorts, taking off the ninjatō's strap and setting it aside.
Kiyoshi mirrors him with his chokutō, unsheathing the blade once laid in his lap. He eyes the swords blemishes and watches in amusement as the blade snaps in half at the middle and falls down to his lap.
"Well I need a new fucking blade," Kiyoshi chuckles. "Do you know where I can find Jūzō?"
Kojiro's head snaps up from his own inspection, eyeing his brother with careful precision.
"Are you fucking stupid?" Kojiro asks seriously.
"We've been over this many times, yes. Also, I like that one." Kiyoshi replies, mock serious.
"You need to be trained by specific people to be able to wield it. Not only that, you need to find the man who holds it and kill him. Both of those latter prospects seem really unlikely, even for you. He's been missing for ages." Kojiro explains, still deadly serious.
"Then we can find him, together, and get me the blade." Kiyoshi says dramatically.
"You're insufferable." Kojiro sighs.
"That's my job. Have you heard from your summons lately? Mine haven't talked to me for a while." Kiyoshi replies, changing the subject from a jovial to serious manner.
"I haven't, even when I try to summon them, I'm not able to get an answer." Kojiro replies, with that information both brothers know something is wrong in the summoning realm.
"What do you think is the problem?" Kiyoshi wonders, not wanting to dedicate brain power to solving the issue.
"I've no idea, I might reverse summon myself and see what the issue is. They taught me when I got the contract to do it if I ever needed a break from Kiri." Kojiro explains.
"Well, go on then. Get your lazy ass out there and figure out what the issue is, in the meanwhile I'm going to sleep." Kiyoshi orders, crumpling in on himself lying on the bed.
"Of course you are." Kojiro responds.
Kojiro stood and began the reverse summon seal. It's slightly different from the main summon seal, but very quick to learn. With a small amount of time and chakra spent, he disappeared from their room in a cloud of chakra smoke.
Kojiro finds himself in a pitch dark cave, water dripping from the stalactites he can't see. He can hear, though, and he's learned many times over the few years he's had this summon to rely on his hearing in their realm. Even if he enhanced his eyes, the darkness is pure and deep like a void. It can only be seen through the eyes of his summons. Even the species contract holder is blind here, something his summons overlooked, rather than deciding upon as a group.
"Kōmori, where are you?" Kojiro calls.
A million flaps of various bat's wings filled his ears, hoping beyond hope that his summon answered him before he was swarmed by bats that want to be summoned or meet the first species summoner. His hopes were misplaced.
"Oh it's the summoner!"
"The summoner has come to see us!"
"We love you summoner!"
"Summon me next time, I'll be a great help to whatever you need!"
The relentless voices of bats filled his ears, and all he could do was smile awkwardly. It wouldn't do to murder his own summons. Besides, he loved them all in a roundabout way. Something must have changed in him when he signed the contract, his attitude toward the animals became much more strong in favor of them.
"Enough," A cool voice pierced through the swarming. "The summoner is to be respected, not played with."
The bats reluctantly move off, taking their previous spots on the cave top.
"Thank you, Kōmori." Kojiro replies to the large bat, not that he can see him here, but he has past knowledge.
"Why are you here, summoner? We did not summon you." He asks coolly, moving the conversation straight to the point.
"That's the issue, Kōmori. You haven't, and even when I try, you do not come. The same goes with my brothers summons, your allies. Something must have happened for you to ignore us." Kojiro explains, hoping it sounded less accusing than he imagined.
"Something has happened, our allies and us are in the process of talking about how to move forward. We would like to consult you two, but we would have liked a plan before Kiyoshi goes and does something reckless as your brother is wont to do." The large bat replies, ignoring the accusing statement from before.
"I see, and what happened?" Kojiro asks.
The large bat sighs, in that weird way that bats do. More like a snort than a sigh, but Kojiro remembers being told it is a sigh. He clearly doesn't want to tell Kojiro yet, but Kojiro holds his ground, a species summoner is a sacred person to the summon. To withhold information he's requested is considered rude, even species secrets. A summoner and summon are tied by blood, family in every sense of the word with nothing to hide from one another. Nothing they can hide, given long enough.
"The bears have a perfect sage. They've gotten large heads on their shoulders, and have started pestering our smaller caves. On top of that, our allies are starting to deal with skirmishes along their rivers. It seems like their might be war in the summon realm, and we're not sure how to handle it." Kōmori says with heavy breaths.
"That's a big deal. Way bigger than I thought it would be." Kojiro comments, a little awestruck.
There hasn't been summon wars since before the hidden villages were founded, and they always left the summon realm in shambles. Many of the summons still alive today remember those times, and they would like to avoid them happening again at all costs. Some look back and wish for those days again, apparently the bears follow that wish.
"It is, and we are sure that the sage will be multitudes stronger than you, at least in your current state. We're not even sure if you two can handle the sage together." Kōmori continues.
"What do Shuryō and Shigeru think about this?" Kojiro asks, naming the leader of the bats and the bat sage in turn.
"Shuryō has been trying to calm the situation down, but to no avail. The bears are being more aggressive than ever now that they have a perfect sage. Shigeru has been meditating since this started, giving very little insight. We know he'll be ready when the time comes, he always is." Kōmori states.
"This is much more than I had imagined… we just got done with a rebellion in Kiri and now we have a summon war to deal with?" Kojiro mutters to himself.
"What's this about a rebellion?" Kōmori queries.
"Oh, right. You haven't heard yet. Kiri had a rebellion two days ago, we stopped it with ease, but it was still a large one. Kiri's supplies have dwindled a lot, as well as the manpower we once boasted. Near a third of the ninja in Kiri supported the rebellion and, obviously, most are dead." Kojiro explains.
"Wow. I didn't think it would be this soon." Kōmori comments.
"What do you mean?" Kojiro asks curiously.
"From what you told me when we became partners, this kind of thing was inevitable. I didn't think it would happen so soon, though."
"Fair enough, more importantly, we need Kiyoshi and his summons, as well as the respective leaders. We need to sit down and think of a course of action. Kiyoshi may have been reckless when you met him, but he's back to his old ways. I promise." Kojiro swears after demanding the meeting.
"I can talk to Shuryō, we'll get a meeting set up. I'll let you know when it's happening." Kōmori promises.
Kojiro nods, knowing the bat will see him, and leaves the realm in a cloud of chakra smoke.
Kojiro pops back in the brothers shared apartment, noting a sleeping Kiyosh and nothing out of place. He nudges his brother awake, who ignores the nudging and continues to snore peacefully. Kojiro sighs, grabs a pillow from his bed and smacks his brother awake with it.
Kiyoshi acts on impulse, swivelling quickly and effortlessly to plant a kick in Kojiro's chest sending him flying toward a wall. He hits the wall with a very audible snap, leaving a body-print in the wall.
"The fuck is wrong with you, waking me up like that?" Kiyoshi angrily asks.
"You were sleeping too hard, this is very important." Kojiro retorts, calmly peeling himself out of the wall-print.
"Well, get on with it then." Kiyoshi huffs, setting himself back on the bed comfortably.
"The bears have a perfect sage, and they've been starting skirmishes and pestering our summons territory because they have an ego. Dumb fucks." Kojiro comments loosely.
"They're what? Fighting our summons? What fucking moron would think that's a good idea? Regardless if they have a sage or not!" Kiyoshi says angrily.
With that comment, he disappears in a cloud of chakra smoke. He didn't reverse summon himself, but his summons did. Kojiro sighs, knowing that he told his brother enough to make the cats a little annoyed with him.
"Why the fuck didn't you tell me sooner?" Kiyoshi demands after immediately being reverse summoned. His eyes hadn't even adjusted to his surroundings yet, and he's already berating his summons.
An audible sigh echoed throughout the hall. Many large cats sat surrounding a plush cushion where Daisuke, the leader of the cats, sat atop. A giant white lion, yellow piercing eyes shot through to Kiyoshi's soul, managing to make even him feel slightly nervous.
"It wasn't prudent, given your actions recently." Daisuke comments.
"I only killed a few people, not sure what you're talking about." Kiyoshi comments lightly.
"We count. It wasn't a few." Daisuke replies.
"Yeah, I've killed a lot of people, what about it?" Kiyoshi retorts, caving in immediately.
"You've been reckless, not just homicidal. We couldn't tell you in good faith, not until you stopped." Daisuke continues.
"I'm fine now, I promise." Kiyoshi says seriously, steeling his resolve.
Daisuke swaps his gaze to Riborubāoserotto, Kiyoshi's personal summon.
"Is this true, Riborubā?" Daisuke asks the giant ocelot, knowing that he would have been watching Kiyoshi recently.
"It is, he's better now. Well as good as he can be." Riborubā says loyally.
Daisuke humms thoughtfully, Riborubā has never been wrong about Kiyoshi before. He reads him like a child's book, very easily. He comes to a decision near instantly, as he normally does. Everyone in the cat realm knows that Daisuke is the most decisive leader they have, and for him to be this reluctant about the situation with the bears does not bode well.
"Fine, we'll hold the meeting with the bats. Let Shuryō know, and say that sometime in the night is best for us." Daisuke orders a small housecat to his right.
The cat nods faithfully and scampers off towards the bat realm. Daisuke turns his attention back to their species summoner. Trying to figure him out, like he always does. Kiyoshi's actions always seem to elude him, even though Riborubā can read him.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Kiyoshi tells Daisuke, much to his dismay.
"How much do you know?" Daisuke continues, expertly dodging that remark.
"The bears are being assholes with an ego the size of the moon. Something about a sage and wanting more territory because they feel like entitled cunts." Came the reply, as brusque as Daisuke was expecting.
"Seems like you know enough, what's your opinion on what we should do?" Daisuke asks curiously, his summoner usually ignores these kinds of questions, or gives a very rudimentary answer. Now that's he's better…
"Fuck if I know, I'd like to beat the fuckers to death. I leave the how's and when's to Kojiro." He replies casually.
Daisuke sighs, seems his hope was misplaced.
"We'll let you know the time of our meeting with the bats, I'm sure your brother will know as well." He says, in a roundabout way of dismissing Kiyoshi without lording over him.
Kiyoshi shrugs, smart enough to know not to argue. He has more questions about how long he's been watched and why it was happening without his knowledge. He'd ask Riborubā later, it promises less friction with his summons that way.
"I'll see you all later, don't have any slaughter fests without me." Kojiro says, grinning madly before Daisuke releases the reverse summon sending him back to his apartment.
Kiyoshi flops back onto his bed, Daisuke released him a foot higher than when he left. Kojiro stares at the mild irritated look his brother has plastered on his face with interest.
"What happened?" Kojiro queries.
"The fuckers were watching me." Kiyoshi replies distastefully.
"I'm not surprised, the bats watch me too." Kojiro answers.
"Well, the difference is you knew about it." Kiyoshi says flippantly.
"I see... they probably had good reason. What did Riborubā have to say about it?" Kojiro asks.
"Nothing, yet. We were in a very public place and I didn't have the chance to interrogate the lying fuck, yet." He replies, calmly though it was, Kojiro could tell he was angry.
"Interrogate? Maybe you should just ask? It's a little odd to interrogate your summon." Kojiro says carefully.
"Two in the same, at least for me. You know that." Kiyoshi snaps.
"Regardless, what did they say about the meeting?" Kojiro queries.
"Something about being notified the day it happens. It's a very tense situation. I may not have been too happy about my summons doubting me, but I could still tell they were all very nervous. Not just about me, either." Kiyoshi explains, resting his head on his hands folded behind.
"Interesting. Well, I'm exhausted. Goodnight." Kojiro blandly states, removing the uncomfortable combat vest and flopping on the bed.
Kiyoshi sighs and stays awake for a few more minutes, rethinking why his summons would be watching him without his knowledge.