Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the
characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.
Author's Notes: Well, first thing, apologies to everyone on not having updated for so long. I had finals and then came home for the summer, and it took a while to get back to this. Rest assured that I haven't abandoned it though. In any case, here's the new chapter, which has some very important information contained in it about Xi's past and what happened previously in lightning, though not the whole truth yet.
Thanks to all reviewers! Apologies again!
Decisions in the Eye
The Tsuchikage's anteroom is a quiet place, a spare stone room with little more than rugs to decorate it, and cushions for visitors to sit upon. There is no throne here, no desk for the business of the Kage. That is reserved for the office, the business room. This room is simply a waiting room, but also a room for diplomacy, a room with no trappings or symbols, a room where all were equal.
The windowless room was lit only by candles, and was quite dark on this day, the early morning following the chuunin exam. Three men sat on the cushions of this room this morning, one old and two the same age. Two wore the robes of Kages, while the third did not. They were seated in a triangle, each with his back to no one, and their weapons remained with them. Such was the meeting between Tsuchikage, Raikage, and Draci Xi.
As it was he who had called the meeting, Tsuchikage spoke first. "The jounin of Stone have met since last night, and proclaimed that there was no wrongdoing at any point in the chuunin exam. All parties are blameless for all events that occurred. The Head ninja of grass has asked that an apology be given to Senirai Shiren for her rash actions, but I have been tasked to give it to you to give to her. The grass ninja left this morning, not more than an hour ago."
Xi and Raikage gave no visible reaction to this news. Xi had expected it, and considered this the best possible outcome. Hopefully it ends here, whatever scheme that Tonetero creature represented, the grass ninja will leave it now that he is dead. Shiren may have done a very good thing.
Tsuchikage continued. "I will announce to you that you are welcome to stay until the roads clear, Hidden Stone extends its hospitality to our distinguished guests." He turned to Raikage.
"I have business back in Hidden Cloud, but I will stay until the end of the weak, so that the Monihii twins are fully recovered and we can devise a way to transport Yilosi Nemari." He responded simply.
Tsuchikage nodded, and turned to Xi.
"If it is no trouble, I would like to stay perhaps the rest of the month, so the grass can let their tempers cool before we must pass by that way again." He answered. That was not Xi's true reason, and everyone could tell that, but it was accepted.
"You are going south then?" Tsuchikage asked as if it were a surprise. "Not returning to Cloud?"
"I intend to return to the Leaf, at least for a time." Xi answered. "Draci Neji's training is not complete." Again the answer rang obviously false, but the excuse was legitimate, and so it could not be questioned.
"Very well, I will accept that, you are free to remain." Tsuchikage answered. "I will leave you to talk in a moment." He told the two lightning ninja. "However, I feel I should relate the following. Tsukabe Ota was confirmed as a chuunin last night. I understand also that the grass jounin, the majority of whom were in attendance, confirmed Aburanki Kei over the head ninja's opposition."
Xi managed to hide his surprise, but he had not expected the news, either its content or its source. I expected Kei would be ignored since Tonetero fell; obviously someone in grass is more farsighted than their head ninja. Yet why did you tell us that old man? That was the more important question to Xi. Is this some kind of offer of alliance? He looked over at Raikage, but the other ninja hid his feelings completely. Stone and Lightning had a treaty of non-aggression, which made sense since they were well apart, but they were not allies. What are you planning old man? Xi looked at the inscrutable face of Tsuchikage.
There was nothing more forthcoming from the leader of Stone, however. He stood up from his cushion, gathered his staff, and walked to the door. "Feel free to talk here as long as you wish." He told both lightning ninja. "I expect you have much to say to each other."
"Conniving old man." Xi muttered under his breath as Tsuchikage left.
"He is a politician." Raikage replied tiredly. "And a good one. He has long deflected threats from this village while making it strong. Now events have delivered power into his hands and he is trying to figure out what he can accomplish with it. Even I can sense that much Xi." Raikage gave Xi a somber look, his face marked with many scars and lines of worry that a man his age should not possess. "Not all of us can chart our own paths as you do."
"I don't recall you being so remorseful, soldier." Xi replied. "Has your strength gone?"
"I am not weakened yet," Raikage responded with iron. "It has been eight years and I am stronger than I was when we last met, but even so, you were stronger than me then and you are even stronger than me now. It is hard to see another advance faster than you Xi."
"You are the Raikage." Xi answered. "I am a wanderer and a killer, my improvement has been my goal. That has been my eight years." Xi softened his tone. "I can tell you are stronger, and that you are the Raikage, that is more than I could be."
"Maybe." The shadow of a smile cracked Raikage's weathered lips. "But still, eight years of holding lightning together with all the will of a soldier who knows he cannot retreat. I have held my ground, but I fear the enemies have only multiplied."
That was a sobering thought, and Xi could not but take the remark in all seriousness. "And there will not be another eight years." He spoke quietly. "Everything is moving now."
Raikage nodded, and added one word. "Akatsuki."
"Konoha was only the first, Orochimaru destroyed the strength of two villages and shattered the power of the missing-nin bands he had recruited in one day." Xi began the litany. "Then Uchiha Itachi and that meddler from mist, Kisame, come looking for a power the Leaf had hidden well. Even I will not reveal it to you now. They were stopped, but they were cunning, I was away, or I would have tried to stop them."
"Could you have stopped Itachi?" Raikage asked darkly. "He wields the sharingan."
"The leaf has great strength still, they stopped him long enough. Had I been there I would have at least killed Kisame." Xi answered grimly.
"A pity." Came the reply. "I wish I could have killed that bastard myself, damn the bitch for everything. Eight years, and all I can do, and we still have not recovered. The Leaf could not destroy Cloud, but we did a good job of it ourselves."
"I will kill her." Xi said sharply. "I promise you, I will do it."
"I believe you Xi, and I fear I will have to hold you to it. The test of the strength of the Leaf has already come, and they have survived. When the test of our strength comes I will need you, I will need the dragon ninja."
"I will be there." Xi answered. "I have been eight years gone, but I am no missing-nin, I am still a lightning ninja. You have my word." Xi paused. "It can't really be as bad as you say. Surely there is some strength that's grown up in eight years."
"You'd be surprised what the clans can stifle Xi." Raikage replied. "I can push some things through, but only rarely. There aren't any wars right now, so no one listens to the soldier. There has been new strength, but the clans keep most of it for themselves, and send the rest off to get killed." The Raikage gave Xi a dark conspiratorial smile. "I suppose I owe you though, for this exam. I've made my decisions, and they're pretty clear- cut. The Monihii twins will be staying genin, considering that they got thoroughly beaten that shouldn't be a problem. Nemari, well, I suppose I'll have to thank Kabure Gosain for that when I give him word that he'll become a chuunin. That clan won't be giving me as much trouble now."
"You will make Gosain a chuunin?" Xi repeated.
"Yes." Raikage answered clearly. "I don't think there's any doubt. He beat Nemari even though the fool used a forbidden technique. He almost beat that stone ninja, Ota, as well, but was a bit too beat up." Raikage gave Xi a look. "Gosain is a lot like me, a soldiering ninja, a workhorse. I'm probably going to put a lot on his shoulders, but he has the experience to bear it. So I owe you for giving him the chance to become a chuunin. It's almost enough compensation for the trouble I'm going to have with Shiren."
"Trouble?"
"Don't play ignorant with me Xi." Raikage hissed. "It's your fault, as ridiculous as the whole situation is. Twenty-five students, one whole academy class, and Shiren's the only one without a clan to even become a genin. Now she becomes a chuunin while part of your team. How am I supposed to justify that?"
"So you do intend to make Shiren a chuunin." Xi said with finality.
"There was a question? She won the exam, even if by default in the final match. She defeated that monstrous thing the grass created, used a jounin level technique she learned without any instruction, and she showed taijutsu skills that would embarrass several special jounin. She's going to be a chuunin, I'm just going to take heat for it." Raikage sighed, and fingered his hat. "Who am I supposed to have her work with anyway?"
Xi let that hang in the air for a moment before speaking. I'm glad you brought the subject up instead of me, he thought inwardly. "There may be a solution to that problem."
Raikage's head snapped around. "You're not saying..."
Xi nodded. "I made an...agreement, that if Shiren achieved chuunin rank I would train her as a dragon ninja. She is quite willing to undertake that."
"Heh. Well that's a weapon I wouldn't mind having in the arsenal. I must admit Xi, I was rather angry when word came that you were training this leaf ninja, and a Hyuuga to boot. Could you have tried harder to stir up old grudges?" Xi moved to protest, but the Raikage silenced him with a slicing hand motion. "I know. I saw that one fight. He was going to block thunder and lightning strike somehow, I knew it, everybody did. That he could even conceive of such a thing makes me understand why you picked him, and if it helps push an alliance with the Leaf, that's all the better."
"I doubt that will happen, the fifth Hokage is not fond of dragon ninja, and Neji's position among the Hyuuga is hardly the best. I do apologize for any damage I may have caused you, but the clans' idiocies are not my problem. The dragon ninja are, and Neji was the best choice, an opportunity I could not pass up." Xi made it clear he would neither apologize nor regret his decision.
"A pity, the Leaf is no longer able to lord over us, it would be an excellent chance to try and forge an alliance." Raikage sighed. "Ah, what do I know, I'm no politician, I'm just a soldier. Xi, how long will you be continuing to train Neji, and now Shiren?"
Xi did not have a quick answer to that, so he sat silent for a moment. Finally he spoke. "I truly do not know. Neji is close to ready, but he seems to have hit a wall of his own making. It will take something to break it, but once that is done he will be beyond my power to instruct. Shiren, that will take longer, but she is driven, and in this past month she has moved far closer without even my help. Perhaps she and Neji can even help each other, there have never been two dragon ninja learning together before since the Villages were born."
"Whatever you do, hurry." Raikage told Xi. "There is little time, and a ninja of your ability cannot be spared. I would order you to return to Cloud as soon as Neji is ready, if not before, but that is impossible."
Xi's face split with a look of hatred that both men knew well, but he did not speak.
"Since that cannot be," Raikage continued. "I have a new mission for you. The time for spying is over. Draci Xi, I charge you with finding the workings of the Akatsuki and using whatever means necessary to destroy them. I cannot charge you as a hunter-nin, but this has gone beyond missing- nins. This is a war, and you are the only weapon I have now."
"Justify it however you want, it is the same as before. I am still the hunter, and they are still traitors. Besides, I am not your only weapon. Neji and Shiren will fight for this cause as well." Xi's eyes narrowed to slits, and took on a ghastly inhuman redness. "Eight years ago I had two things left to accomplish. One was to pass on the legacy of the dragon ninja, and I have almost finished that. The other was to fulfill my last mission from that day, and I will not fail to fulfill it."
"I suppose I can accept that much." Raikage answered with disappointment. "Very well, I believe we are done. I will see you again when I depart with Gosain." He turned to go.
"Soldier," Xi said quietly as the Raikage stood in the door, his back to the seated dragon ninja. "We may not have ever been friends, but you have my respect, then and now."
There was not motion from the Raikage to indicate how he took that remark. "You, hunter, have a mission to fulfill." The command was snapped out as if on the battlefield, and then he was gone.
Xi sat there for a time after Raikage had gone. Eight years, it doesn't seem long enough, he decided. Am I strong enough? Xi had not asked himself that question in some time. There have been other concerns. I defeated the four ninja here, skilled jounin from waterfall, but is that enough? I will need to be stronger than my old master was, that is the measure, and I can never know.
Angrily Xi pushed the thoughts away. I will do what must be done. I failed once, and others paid the price for that failure, and I have paid, for eight years everything has hung in the shadow of that failure, and now it is moving back again. I will kill her, but I need to find her. No one knows, all my spying and searching and I have found nothing in eight years. There must be an answer somewhere though, if the Akatsuki are moving, she will reveal herself as one of them, and then the chance to strike will come. Xi's face grew cold. I will not miss the chance.
Author's Notes: Well, first thing, apologies to everyone on not having updated for so long. I had finals and then came home for the summer, and it took a while to get back to this. Rest assured that I haven't abandoned it though. In any case, here's the new chapter, which has some very important information contained in it about Xi's past and what happened previously in lightning, though not the whole truth yet.
Thanks to all reviewers! Apologies again!
Decisions in the Eye
The Tsuchikage's anteroom is a quiet place, a spare stone room with little more than rugs to decorate it, and cushions for visitors to sit upon. There is no throne here, no desk for the business of the Kage. That is reserved for the office, the business room. This room is simply a waiting room, but also a room for diplomacy, a room with no trappings or symbols, a room where all were equal.
The windowless room was lit only by candles, and was quite dark on this day, the early morning following the chuunin exam. Three men sat on the cushions of this room this morning, one old and two the same age. Two wore the robes of Kages, while the third did not. They were seated in a triangle, each with his back to no one, and their weapons remained with them. Such was the meeting between Tsuchikage, Raikage, and Draci Xi.
As it was he who had called the meeting, Tsuchikage spoke first. "The jounin of Stone have met since last night, and proclaimed that there was no wrongdoing at any point in the chuunin exam. All parties are blameless for all events that occurred. The Head ninja of grass has asked that an apology be given to Senirai Shiren for her rash actions, but I have been tasked to give it to you to give to her. The grass ninja left this morning, not more than an hour ago."
Xi and Raikage gave no visible reaction to this news. Xi had expected it, and considered this the best possible outcome. Hopefully it ends here, whatever scheme that Tonetero creature represented, the grass ninja will leave it now that he is dead. Shiren may have done a very good thing.
Tsuchikage continued. "I will announce to you that you are welcome to stay until the roads clear, Hidden Stone extends its hospitality to our distinguished guests." He turned to Raikage.
"I have business back in Hidden Cloud, but I will stay until the end of the weak, so that the Monihii twins are fully recovered and we can devise a way to transport Yilosi Nemari." He responded simply.
Tsuchikage nodded, and turned to Xi.
"If it is no trouble, I would like to stay perhaps the rest of the month, so the grass can let their tempers cool before we must pass by that way again." He answered. That was not Xi's true reason, and everyone could tell that, but it was accepted.
"You are going south then?" Tsuchikage asked as if it were a surprise. "Not returning to Cloud?"
"I intend to return to the Leaf, at least for a time." Xi answered. "Draci Neji's training is not complete." Again the answer rang obviously false, but the excuse was legitimate, and so it could not be questioned.
"Very well, I will accept that, you are free to remain." Tsuchikage answered. "I will leave you to talk in a moment." He told the two lightning ninja. "However, I feel I should relate the following. Tsukabe Ota was confirmed as a chuunin last night. I understand also that the grass jounin, the majority of whom were in attendance, confirmed Aburanki Kei over the head ninja's opposition."
Xi managed to hide his surprise, but he had not expected the news, either its content or its source. I expected Kei would be ignored since Tonetero fell; obviously someone in grass is more farsighted than their head ninja. Yet why did you tell us that old man? That was the more important question to Xi. Is this some kind of offer of alliance? He looked over at Raikage, but the other ninja hid his feelings completely. Stone and Lightning had a treaty of non-aggression, which made sense since they were well apart, but they were not allies. What are you planning old man? Xi looked at the inscrutable face of Tsuchikage.
There was nothing more forthcoming from the leader of Stone, however. He stood up from his cushion, gathered his staff, and walked to the door. "Feel free to talk here as long as you wish." He told both lightning ninja. "I expect you have much to say to each other."
"Conniving old man." Xi muttered under his breath as Tsuchikage left.
"He is a politician." Raikage replied tiredly. "And a good one. He has long deflected threats from this village while making it strong. Now events have delivered power into his hands and he is trying to figure out what he can accomplish with it. Even I can sense that much Xi." Raikage gave Xi a somber look, his face marked with many scars and lines of worry that a man his age should not possess. "Not all of us can chart our own paths as you do."
"I don't recall you being so remorseful, soldier." Xi replied. "Has your strength gone?"
"I am not weakened yet," Raikage responded with iron. "It has been eight years and I am stronger than I was when we last met, but even so, you were stronger than me then and you are even stronger than me now. It is hard to see another advance faster than you Xi."
"You are the Raikage." Xi answered. "I am a wanderer and a killer, my improvement has been my goal. That has been my eight years." Xi softened his tone. "I can tell you are stronger, and that you are the Raikage, that is more than I could be."
"Maybe." The shadow of a smile cracked Raikage's weathered lips. "But still, eight years of holding lightning together with all the will of a soldier who knows he cannot retreat. I have held my ground, but I fear the enemies have only multiplied."
That was a sobering thought, and Xi could not but take the remark in all seriousness. "And there will not be another eight years." He spoke quietly. "Everything is moving now."
Raikage nodded, and added one word. "Akatsuki."
"Konoha was only the first, Orochimaru destroyed the strength of two villages and shattered the power of the missing-nin bands he had recruited in one day." Xi began the litany. "Then Uchiha Itachi and that meddler from mist, Kisame, come looking for a power the Leaf had hidden well. Even I will not reveal it to you now. They were stopped, but they were cunning, I was away, or I would have tried to stop them."
"Could you have stopped Itachi?" Raikage asked darkly. "He wields the sharingan."
"The leaf has great strength still, they stopped him long enough. Had I been there I would have at least killed Kisame." Xi answered grimly.
"A pity." Came the reply. "I wish I could have killed that bastard myself, damn the bitch for everything. Eight years, and all I can do, and we still have not recovered. The Leaf could not destroy Cloud, but we did a good job of it ourselves."
"I will kill her." Xi said sharply. "I promise you, I will do it."
"I believe you Xi, and I fear I will have to hold you to it. The test of the strength of the Leaf has already come, and they have survived. When the test of our strength comes I will need you, I will need the dragon ninja."
"I will be there." Xi answered. "I have been eight years gone, but I am no missing-nin, I am still a lightning ninja. You have my word." Xi paused. "It can't really be as bad as you say. Surely there is some strength that's grown up in eight years."
"You'd be surprised what the clans can stifle Xi." Raikage replied. "I can push some things through, but only rarely. There aren't any wars right now, so no one listens to the soldier. There has been new strength, but the clans keep most of it for themselves, and send the rest off to get killed." The Raikage gave Xi a dark conspiratorial smile. "I suppose I owe you though, for this exam. I've made my decisions, and they're pretty clear- cut. The Monihii twins will be staying genin, considering that they got thoroughly beaten that shouldn't be a problem. Nemari, well, I suppose I'll have to thank Kabure Gosain for that when I give him word that he'll become a chuunin. That clan won't be giving me as much trouble now."
"You will make Gosain a chuunin?" Xi repeated.
"Yes." Raikage answered clearly. "I don't think there's any doubt. He beat Nemari even though the fool used a forbidden technique. He almost beat that stone ninja, Ota, as well, but was a bit too beat up." Raikage gave Xi a look. "Gosain is a lot like me, a soldiering ninja, a workhorse. I'm probably going to put a lot on his shoulders, but he has the experience to bear it. So I owe you for giving him the chance to become a chuunin. It's almost enough compensation for the trouble I'm going to have with Shiren."
"Trouble?"
"Don't play ignorant with me Xi." Raikage hissed. "It's your fault, as ridiculous as the whole situation is. Twenty-five students, one whole academy class, and Shiren's the only one without a clan to even become a genin. Now she becomes a chuunin while part of your team. How am I supposed to justify that?"
"So you do intend to make Shiren a chuunin." Xi said with finality.
"There was a question? She won the exam, even if by default in the final match. She defeated that monstrous thing the grass created, used a jounin level technique she learned without any instruction, and she showed taijutsu skills that would embarrass several special jounin. She's going to be a chuunin, I'm just going to take heat for it." Raikage sighed, and fingered his hat. "Who am I supposed to have her work with anyway?"
Xi let that hang in the air for a moment before speaking. I'm glad you brought the subject up instead of me, he thought inwardly. "There may be a solution to that problem."
Raikage's head snapped around. "You're not saying..."
Xi nodded. "I made an...agreement, that if Shiren achieved chuunin rank I would train her as a dragon ninja. She is quite willing to undertake that."
"Heh. Well that's a weapon I wouldn't mind having in the arsenal. I must admit Xi, I was rather angry when word came that you were training this leaf ninja, and a Hyuuga to boot. Could you have tried harder to stir up old grudges?" Xi moved to protest, but the Raikage silenced him with a slicing hand motion. "I know. I saw that one fight. He was going to block thunder and lightning strike somehow, I knew it, everybody did. That he could even conceive of such a thing makes me understand why you picked him, and if it helps push an alliance with the Leaf, that's all the better."
"I doubt that will happen, the fifth Hokage is not fond of dragon ninja, and Neji's position among the Hyuuga is hardly the best. I do apologize for any damage I may have caused you, but the clans' idiocies are not my problem. The dragon ninja are, and Neji was the best choice, an opportunity I could not pass up." Xi made it clear he would neither apologize nor regret his decision.
"A pity, the Leaf is no longer able to lord over us, it would be an excellent chance to try and forge an alliance." Raikage sighed. "Ah, what do I know, I'm no politician, I'm just a soldier. Xi, how long will you be continuing to train Neji, and now Shiren?"
Xi did not have a quick answer to that, so he sat silent for a moment. Finally he spoke. "I truly do not know. Neji is close to ready, but he seems to have hit a wall of his own making. It will take something to break it, but once that is done he will be beyond my power to instruct. Shiren, that will take longer, but she is driven, and in this past month she has moved far closer without even my help. Perhaps she and Neji can even help each other, there have never been two dragon ninja learning together before since the Villages were born."
"Whatever you do, hurry." Raikage told Xi. "There is little time, and a ninja of your ability cannot be spared. I would order you to return to Cloud as soon as Neji is ready, if not before, but that is impossible."
Xi's face split with a look of hatred that both men knew well, but he did not speak.
"Since that cannot be," Raikage continued. "I have a new mission for you. The time for spying is over. Draci Xi, I charge you with finding the workings of the Akatsuki and using whatever means necessary to destroy them. I cannot charge you as a hunter-nin, but this has gone beyond missing- nins. This is a war, and you are the only weapon I have now."
"Justify it however you want, it is the same as before. I am still the hunter, and they are still traitors. Besides, I am not your only weapon. Neji and Shiren will fight for this cause as well." Xi's eyes narrowed to slits, and took on a ghastly inhuman redness. "Eight years ago I had two things left to accomplish. One was to pass on the legacy of the dragon ninja, and I have almost finished that. The other was to fulfill my last mission from that day, and I will not fail to fulfill it."
"I suppose I can accept that much." Raikage answered with disappointment. "Very well, I believe we are done. I will see you again when I depart with Gosain." He turned to go.
"Soldier," Xi said quietly as the Raikage stood in the door, his back to the seated dragon ninja. "We may not have ever been friends, but you have my respect, then and now."
There was not motion from the Raikage to indicate how he took that remark. "You, hunter, have a mission to fulfill." The command was snapped out as if on the battlefield, and then he was gone.
Xi sat there for a time after Raikage had gone. Eight years, it doesn't seem long enough, he decided. Am I strong enough? Xi had not asked himself that question in some time. There have been other concerns. I defeated the four ninja here, skilled jounin from waterfall, but is that enough? I will need to be stronger than my old master was, that is the measure, and I can never know.
Angrily Xi pushed the thoughts away. I will do what must be done. I failed once, and others paid the price for that failure, and I have paid, for eight years everything has hung in the shadow of that failure, and now it is moving back again. I will kill her, but I need to find her. No one knows, all my spying and searching and I have found nothing in eight years. There must be an answer somewhere though, if the Akatsuki are moving, she will reveal herself as one of them, and then the chance to strike will come. Xi's face grew cold. I will not miss the chance.