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, the long wait is over, for I am finally revealing the secrets of Xi's past, so those of you who've been waiting, pay attention now. It's time to unleash the hunters.
Thanks to reviewers, as usual, I look forward to those email alerts!
The Tale of the Storm
At midnight Tsunade left Gosain's room, she had been within for four hours. As she exited she saw Xi, Neji, and Shiren standing outside. "Well, it seems you're all concerned." She muttered. "You stone companion is fine, at least physically, though he needed a great deal of blood, and it didn't all come from cuts on his hands. What the hell is that weapon?" She held up a hand to stop Xi. "I know what it is." She admonished. "Don't patronize me."
"How is Gosain?" Xi replied, his voice icy. "Can he talk?"
Tsunade was taken aback. "That ninja just covered an incredible distance without sleep or rest, suffered serious battle wounds, depleted all his chakra, and is dealing with the side effects of a soldier pill, and you want to know if he can talk?" Tsunade stared at Xi. "Just how callous are you?"
"This is not about callousness." Xi replied. "I must know what news Gosain brings. He was pursued by other lightning ninja in midnight blue, and the message he gave Shiren must be understood. So, is he able to speak coherently?"
"It will make his recovery take longer if he exerts himself now." Tsunade replied. "I will not have you speak to him."
"I am the most senior lightning ninja here, I will make the decision." Xi replied, and his words were steel. "Now either get out of the way or I will go through you, Hokage."
"If you put it like that I will let you through Xi, but only to prevent more violence in this place, and not from kindness." Tsunade remarked. "I don't intend to ever make you welcome in this village again. However, if you go in, I will go with you."
They opened the door and strode in.
Gosain lay in a bed only a few feet away from Dar, but while the stone ninja was sitting up and staring at the wall with great focus, Gosain lay prone, and bandages and tubes covered much of his body. Still, his left hand grasped the pole that held his chains, though they dangled on the ground. "He refused to surrender them." Tsunade said quietly.
Xi strode to Gosain's bedside, and stood there. "Chuunin Kabure Gosain." He said simply, not moderating his voice to be quiet.
"Draci Xi." Gosain replied, his voice soft and rough, torn up and scratchy, and his lips were pale. "I was ordered to find you. I completed the mission."
"Mission?" Xi replied. "Tell me Gosain."
Gosain began to speak, his words slow and parched, but his voice carried a brutal sadness, and as he continued expressions of grief and regret broke out on the faces of all who listened, from Neji to Shiren to Tsunade to Dar, but Xi remained completely unmoved.
"Raikage's last orders." Gosain began. "His last orders were to find you Xi, to tell you that the Dark Storm has returned. You must go to Lightning and kill her. You are the only one who can Xi. Everyone else is dead. They came in the night, amid a horrid storm, midnight blue ninja, came to kill everyone as they slept. The guards must have turned traitor or been enspelled by the storm, I don't know. They killed everyone loyal to Raikage they could find, all the jounin and chuunin, and they tried to kill me. I wasn't killed that easily. The genin, one of their teachers rang the alarm before he fell, and they all rallied and fought, but the clans, the clans knew, they stood aside, some even came and helped continue the attack. There were dead everywhere in the village, all the ANBU, the guardsmen, even the citizens who took up weapons. I found the genin, we organized, took back many streets, tried to fight our way to Raikage, we needed him Xi, we needed orders, something to fight for, someone to tell us why we were fighting."
"We made it to him Xi, all the way to the Raikage's Hall. He fought a woman atop the broken roof, and he was losing. I would have fought with him Xi, we all would have, but he forbid it. He told us the woman was the Dark Storm, do you know her Xi? She looked so young, and beautiful, but horrible at the same time. He said I was the last Xi, the last chuunin loyal to him, that no one else had come." Gosain sobbed here, his strength breaking down, but he tightened the grip on his chains and continued. "He ordered all the genin to flee, to run and hide until the Dark Storm was dead. Then he ordered me to run, to find you and tell you to kill her, that you were the only one who could. So I ran, and Raikage sacrificed himself behind us all. I ran and ran and ran, all the way to the border."
"Xi, please, kill her, you must. Everything is destroyed, Lightning has been shattered. They destroyed my home, my village, so many I knew, I saw dead, or I fought and killed in the streets. She is mad, to have done this. Kill her Xi, you must." Gosain fell silent.
"The Raikage is dead?" Tsunade asked, as Xi stood silent.
Gosain nodded.
"The Dark Storm holds lightning, an s-ranked criminal and member of the Akatsuki is in command of one of the great shinobi countries?"
Gosain nodded again.
Tsunade's eyes went blank. "It can't be."
"Gosain." Xi said finally. "I will kill her. I will finish it now."
Xi turned and brushed by the stunned Tsunade, he walked out the door, and then swiftly down the hall, not stopping until he headed for the roof.
"Shiren." Neji said quickly. "Get Dar up and follow me, quickly." He surged after Xi.
Xi stood out on the roof of the hospital. Neji broke out behind him in time to see him reach down to his left leg, to the hunter-nin mask that hung there. Xi pulled the mask free of its thong.
It has been eight years. Xi thought. Eight years since I wore this mask. He traced his finger down the broken edge, and his hand traced the scar on his forehead, the one which mirrored that mark. He remembered then the blast of lightning that had smote that mask, cutting it in two and shattering the other half. He recalled coming to his knees again after the blow had been struck, and looking out at what was before him.
Xi remembered.
"Xi, we can't win!" She had said from beside him as the Dark Storm plunged her black lightning sword into the second hunter-nin, killing Xi's comrade and driving the odds against her down. He saw the body of Veristai, a T'ien Lung, lying in the soil before him, the beautiful dragon's scales turned to black rot and smoldering. "She will kill us." She had said the words, the one woman who Xi had ever dared to love, the one who led them, leader of the hunter-nins of Hidden Cloud. Then she charged the Dark Storm.
Xi moved to aid her, but he was too slow, and suddenly he saw them locked together, two beautiful women, yet only one could survive. The Dark Storm drove her lightning sword into her leg, but she did not grimace, only grabbed her enemy, and her hands slashed through the flak jacket of the Dark Storm, and then threw.
Four objects landed in Xi's hands as he stood. "Xi!" She ordered. "Take the dragon artifacts and run! She must not have them!"
"No!" Xi shouted back. "I won't let you die!"
"Run Xi!" She told him again. "We have already lost, please run!" The last was a scream as the Dark Storm plunged her blade in again. She grabbed those hands, and black lightning drove into her, but she refused to let go. "I will hold her, run!"
So Xi turned his back and ran, and he heard the Dark Storm laugh as he did so.
It was there that I swore I would kill her for the first time. Xi looked at the mask. Eight years ago, and now it will be decided.
"Xi!" Neji shouted, coming up behind him. "What is happening? What are you doing?"
Xi turned around, and he saw Neji standing there, the young dragon ninja's face confused and troubled, but resolved. Behind him Shiren came up the stairs, and Dar behind her, the stone ninja with his customary stony look once more.
"I am going to Lightning Neji," Xi replied. "I have someone to kill." Xi raised the mask to his face then, and placed it on.
Though it was only half a mask it hung on Xi's face perfectly, the symbol of lightning slashed apart in the porcelain, and the jagged slash down the middle, with a flash of blue across the bottom.
As he put on the mask Xi's face changed to match it, and Neji saw the transformation occur in him, and he feared it, but he stood firm. "Then we will go with you!" He told Xi.
"No." Xi replied in a voice that was different from his own, the voice of the hunter, not concerned with anything but his prey. The voice of the hunter-nin. "This order is mine alone, you cannot follow."
"We can aid you!" Shiren said from Neji's side, and Dar nodded.
"No." Xi said again. "Against her you would only die."
"I don't believe that." Neji replied, his own voice cold and level now. "You said I surpassed you."
"In some things perhaps, but not in this." Xi told him. "Besides, why are you offering? There are no debts between us, you no longer need me, do not interfere with my mission."
That stopped all three stone cold, for they recognized that Xi was not to be swayed by any appeal they could easily make.
"Why must it be this way Xi?" Neji asked him.
"I will tell you a story, Neji, since you are to carry on the dragon ninja." Xi said. "So that you understand."
"Twelve years ago," Xi began. "The fifth Raikage was solid in his power, and the country of lightning was strong. The Daimyo wanted new territory, new possessions. There had been a recent treaty with Hidden Mist, and the islands were considered a meager prize in any case, so the Leaf was the target. The fifth Raikage believed he could win easily; he had many talented ninja beneath his banner including a new jounin, a beautiful woman who had already probed Konoha's weaknesses. She had supported his case for war, claiming that only a few itinerant bloodlines represented the strength of Konoha, and if their power could be discerned, they could be defeated."
"So began the three year war. Many powerful ninja fought in it, including your father and his twin brother, your sensei Maito Gai, Hakate Kakashi, and many others. The Raikage had anticipated a quick victory, but he underestimated the resolve of the Third Hokage, and the power of two of Konoha's clans. One of those was the Hyuuga, the other, the Uchiha. Those two clans, with the strength of their eyes, were terribly fearsome on the battlefield, with their joint powers to copy and counter any effect to and to see through everything, it was almost impossible to combat. Still, we of lightning were not so easily defeated. A jounin among us, one who had never been notable, but always present, took command upon the battlefield, leading a group of ninja against the Uchiha and the Hyuuga, and he was able to counter their abilities. Still this bought only a stalemate, and a slowing to our reversals. The war ground on, and we were losing.
The Leaf had almost driven the forces of Lightning back to the border, when that beautiful female jounin undertook some experiment. She was absent from the battlefield for a time, and when she returned she was much stronger, and immune to the powers of the Uchiha. She drove back a platoon of that most feared of clans by herself, killing one of the leaders, then considered the strongest of all the Uchiha, she also killed one of the Hyuuga, a woman who I believe was your aunt. When Konoha learned of this they offered peace, with the borders the same as before.
Debate raged fierce in Hidden Cloud, as the Raikage considered the options. The jounin who led on the battlefield counseled for piece, but the jounin who had pioneered the techniques said they should continue fighting, that she would share her methods. It was then that we learned just what she had done; she had bound herself to a demon of the darkest fury of nature, a storm creature so viscous it had no name. From that point onward she was called the Dark Storm. Despite this frightful transformation she convinced the fifth Raikage, and he led a strike against Konoha itself. The Third Hokage killed him.
Peace was made immediately, and a ninja party, consisting of our interim leader, was sent to Konoha. But that was a trick, as you well know, the Dark Storm had made many allies, and she had demanded the secrets of the Hyuuga bloodline as well, for the Hyuuga she had killed had not revealed any secrets. The plan failed, but they manipulated the peace to demand a Hyuuga in return. Instead, the Leaf tricked the Dark Storm by sending your father.
You may not realize this Neji, but that act triggered many things in Lightning. The Dark Storm was furious when she learned that the secrets were sealed in him as well. She demanded the war be renewed, but the new Raikage, a woman who had been the compromise candidate for many factions, said no.
A year passed then, as the Dark Storm built alliances and my comrades and I hunted the missing-nins the war had spawned in the land ruined by it. While Lightning seemed quiet for this time, except for the perpetual conflicts with Water country over the islands, inside it was seething. The Dark Storm was cunning, and she was extremely powerful. She convinced many clans to support her own bid for power, and she incited many clans against their old opponents, those who they had long hated, and she absolutely destroyed the influence of those who supported the Raikage.
Then she struck.
Lightning exploded in a single night, battle raging everywhere as the clans struck their enemies, those who supported the Dark Storm followed her orders, and many ninja simply lost themselves in the bloodlust. A few tried to end the war and restore order, but the Dark Storm hunted them down and destroyed them. She killed the sixth Raikage in the open streets, and those ANBU with her, and then made for the Raikage's Hall, seeking to take it and proclaim herself the new Raikage.
If not for her recklessness and bloodlust she likely would have succeeded, but her ninja attacked the innocents in the town, and they laid siege to the academy, slowly massacring one class and working towards others.
It was then that we heard.
I was a hunter-nin Neji, one of four, my teammates. A chuunin found us in the wilderness, and before he died of brutal wounds he told us what happened, what the Dark Storm had begun.
Neji, understand this much. Hunter-nins are forbidden to participate in conflicts, internal or external. I had not fought in the war, and we were bound by oaths not to fight then, we could not go back and face the Dark Storm." Xi paused for a moment, letting the other Dragon Ninja process what they were hearing. "But we went back anyway, we broke our oaths and went."
"Shiren knows. She was there when we came into the Academy, robes flying behind us and weapons in hand. I killed a ninja who was attacking her, and then escorted her and her classmates to safety."
Shiren nodded, remembering. He took off his mask for a moment, so that I would know he wasn't an enemy, and then he carried me to hide with my classmates, had they not helped us we would never have survived.
"Yet it was more than that we did that day, for the Dark Storm was close to victory. While we saved students, she was atop the Raikage's Hall, where only one ninja stood to stop her. That ninja was my master, Draci Naravki. He fought the Dark Storm atop that hall, and fought for a long time, but in the end he died, and with his death she proved herself the most powerful ninja in all of Hidden Cloud. He had fought her there because the one who holds that Hall cannot be assaulted, can drive back any attack, it is the fortress at the heart of our village, and she stood ready to take it. We were headed there, as fast as we could, but we could not have gotten there in time to stop her.
Instead another came, a man who she had not anticipated. The jounin battle leader, who had been leading the fights with Mist ninja in the south. He had stripped his garrisons bare and brought all those ninja north to reclaim the village. He and his men landed before her, and the Dark Storm was thwarted.
But from Naravki's body she had taken the artifacts of the Dragon ninja, and the powers they contained could not be left in her hands. Though her chakra was depleted she fled, and that jounin could not task his men to follow. Instead, that task fell to us hunter-nins. We had broken our oaths, and we were judged for it. He banished us then and there, knowing it must be done, but he also charged that we still belonged to the village, and we were to kill the Dark Storm. The jounin was one you knew, the soldier who became the seventh Raikage, not because he wished the title, but because he had to, because no one else could.
Four hunter-nins chased the Dark Storm, and I was one of them. We thought that we had her, no matter how powerful she was her chakra was depleted and she could not fight. We were wrong." Xi's voice and eyes never changed, though his personal tragedy unfolded. "She fell upon us, ambushing and slaying one of my teammates, and she consumed his energies somehow, recharging her own, so that her strength was as before. Still, we fought her, I summoned a T'ien Lung, only to watch him die upon her powers, and only to have her slam me back and break this mask you see on my face. She killed another of us then, and the woman who led us made a decision that we could not win. She grappled the Dark Storm, taking back the artifacts that she had stolen, and she gave them to me and ordered me to run, to abandon the battlefield. I did, and I heard her die as I fled.
I returned to Hidden Cloud, and the Raikage, though he hated it, exiled me forever, and charged me with only two tasks, one was to ensure the continuation of the Dragon ninja, and the other was to kill the Dark Storm. For eight years, though I have roved about and spied on many and killed many more, those have been my only two missions, everything I have dedicated myself towards.
Neji, you, and Shiren and Dar, you are the continuation of the Dragon ninja, that task is done. Now all that remains is to kill the Dark Storm, and I am going to do that now."
He is going to his death. Neji saw, he could feel it; he knew Xi was ready to sacrifice himself to kill this woman, this Dark Storm. He knows he needs only a single blow, that it does not matter if he dies as he strikes, as long as she does. Xi, no. Neji did not want the man to die, did not want to see him go, not like this. "Are we to simply rot here then?" He demanded.
"You will go to Waterfall." Xi ordered.
"What?" It came from all three dragon ninja.
"Have you forgotten?" Xi's voice remained deadpan. "There is an Akatsuki in Waterfall, one who has committed a terrible crime. He must be stopped. Tsunade will not be able to send help, she must send ninja to the lightning border now, the situation has become critical, and the Leaf has no ninja to spare. You must go; go to Waterfall, the Dragons asked it of you three, but not of me. They must have foreseen this. They watch from the heavens and may glimpse the future. You must do that, it will be the final test of you three, and I will not be with you." Xi turned. "Give my apologies to Tsunade, I hate to break my word even to that witch who dared forsake her duties, but I made the promise to kill the Dark Storm eight years ago, it has precedence. I suspect we will not meet again."
With those words Xi departed into the night, and was beyond even Neji's sight in moments.
"What do we do now?" Dar asked.
"We tell Gosain goodbye and inform Hokage-sama that we are going to Waterfall." Neji said firmly. "You are fit to travel Dar, aren't you?"
"Ah." The stone ninja replied.
They walked down back into the hospital, where Tsunade still stood by Gosain's beside. "He has gone, hasn't he?" She said when they returned. "What a fool."
"Draci Xi sends his regrets that he could not serve on the mission as he said." Neji replied. "A prior commitment has interfered."
"You are a cold one, Draci Neji." Tsunade remarked.
"Hokage-sama." Neji said slowly. "Scrap the mission to Waterfall immediately. The dragon ninja will finish it without burdening the Leaf."
Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "You cannot plan to face an Akatsuki and all the Waterfall ninja by yourselves."
"It is our fate." Neji replied. "And we are going to meet it, just as Xi meets his." Neji paused, and looked at Shiren and Dar, and saw the silent agreement in their eyes. "And when that it done, we are going after Xi."
"I cannot help you." Tsunade said sadly. "Please, don't do anything foolish."
"Neji." Gosain murmured from the corner, causing heads to turn.
"Yes?" Neji asked, not wanting to be bothered, his mind already racing ahead. "Before you go to lightning, come and get me." Gosain wheezed. "You will need my help, it is my country."
"Very well." Neji replied. "As long as you are fit."
"I will be ready." Gosain managed.
"Let's go." Neji said to Shiren and Dar.
Author's Notes: Well, the long wait is over, for I am finally revealing the secrets of Xi's past, so those of you who've been waiting, pay attention now. It's time to unleash the hunters.
Thanks to reviewers, as usual, I look forward to those email alerts!
The Tale of the Storm
At midnight Tsunade left Gosain's room, she had been within for four hours. As she exited she saw Xi, Neji, and Shiren standing outside. "Well, it seems you're all concerned." She muttered. "You stone companion is fine, at least physically, though he needed a great deal of blood, and it didn't all come from cuts on his hands. What the hell is that weapon?" She held up a hand to stop Xi. "I know what it is." She admonished. "Don't patronize me."
"How is Gosain?" Xi replied, his voice icy. "Can he talk?"
Tsunade was taken aback. "That ninja just covered an incredible distance without sleep or rest, suffered serious battle wounds, depleted all his chakra, and is dealing with the side effects of a soldier pill, and you want to know if he can talk?" Tsunade stared at Xi. "Just how callous are you?"
"This is not about callousness." Xi replied. "I must know what news Gosain brings. He was pursued by other lightning ninja in midnight blue, and the message he gave Shiren must be understood. So, is he able to speak coherently?"
"It will make his recovery take longer if he exerts himself now." Tsunade replied. "I will not have you speak to him."
"I am the most senior lightning ninja here, I will make the decision." Xi replied, and his words were steel. "Now either get out of the way or I will go through you, Hokage."
"If you put it like that I will let you through Xi, but only to prevent more violence in this place, and not from kindness." Tsunade remarked. "I don't intend to ever make you welcome in this village again. However, if you go in, I will go with you."
They opened the door and strode in.
Gosain lay in a bed only a few feet away from Dar, but while the stone ninja was sitting up and staring at the wall with great focus, Gosain lay prone, and bandages and tubes covered much of his body. Still, his left hand grasped the pole that held his chains, though they dangled on the ground. "He refused to surrender them." Tsunade said quietly.
Xi strode to Gosain's bedside, and stood there. "Chuunin Kabure Gosain." He said simply, not moderating his voice to be quiet.
"Draci Xi." Gosain replied, his voice soft and rough, torn up and scratchy, and his lips were pale. "I was ordered to find you. I completed the mission."
"Mission?" Xi replied. "Tell me Gosain."
Gosain began to speak, his words slow and parched, but his voice carried a brutal sadness, and as he continued expressions of grief and regret broke out on the faces of all who listened, from Neji to Shiren to Tsunade to Dar, but Xi remained completely unmoved.
"Raikage's last orders." Gosain began. "His last orders were to find you Xi, to tell you that the Dark Storm has returned. You must go to Lightning and kill her. You are the only one who can Xi. Everyone else is dead. They came in the night, amid a horrid storm, midnight blue ninja, came to kill everyone as they slept. The guards must have turned traitor or been enspelled by the storm, I don't know. They killed everyone loyal to Raikage they could find, all the jounin and chuunin, and they tried to kill me. I wasn't killed that easily. The genin, one of their teachers rang the alarm before he fell, and they all rallied and fought, but the clans, the clans knew, they stood aside, some even came and helped continue the attack. There were dead everywhere in the village, all the ANBU, the guardsmen, even the citizens who took up weapons. I found the genin, we organized, took back many streets, tried to fight our way to Raikage, we needed him Xi, we needed orders, something to fight for, someone to tell us why we were fighting."
"We made it to him Xi, all the way to the Raikage's Hall. He fought a woman atop the broken roof, and he was losing. I would have fought with him Xi, we all would have, but he forbid it. He told us the woman was the Dark Storm, do you know her Xi? She looked so young, and beautiful, but horrible at the same time. He said I was the last Xi, the last chuunin loyal to him, that no one else had come." Gosain sobbed here, his strength breaking down, but he tightened the grip on his chains and continued. "He ordered all the genin to flee, to run and hide until the Dark Storm was dead. Then he ordered me to run, to find you and tell you to kill her, that you were the only one who could. So I ran, and Raikage sacrificed himself behind us all. I ran and ran and ran, all the way to the border."
"Xi, please, kill her, you must. Everything is destroyed, Lightning has been shattered. They destroyed my home, my village, so many I knew, I saw dead, or I fought and killed in the streets. She is mad, to have done this. Kill her Xi, you must." Gosain fell silent.
"The Raikage is dead?" Tsunade asked, as Xi stood silent.
Gosain nodded.
"The Dark Storm holds lightning, an s-ranked criminal and member of the Akatsuki is in command of one of the great shinobi countries?"
Gosain nodded again.
Tsunade's eyes went blank. "It can't be."
"Gosain." Xi said finally. "I will kill her. I will finish it now."
Xi turned and brushed by the stunned Tsunade, he walked out the door, and then swiftly down the hall, not stopping until he headed for the roof.
"Shiren." Neji said quickly. "Get Dar up and follow me, quickly." He surged after Xi.
Xi stood out on the roof of the hospital. Neji broke out behind him in time to see him reach down to his left leg, to the hunter-nin mask that hung there. Xi pulled the mask free of its thong.
It has been eight years. Xi thought. Eight years since I wore this mask. He traced his finger down the broken edge, and his hand traced the scar on his forehead, the one which mirrored that mark. He remembered then the blast of lightning that had smote that mask, cutting it in two and shattering the other half. He recalled coming to his knees again after the blow had been struck, and looking out at what was before him.
Xi remembered.
"Xi, we can't win!" She had said from beside him as the Dark Storm plunged her black lightning sword into the second hunter-nin, killing Xi's comrade and driving the odds against her down. He saw the body of Veristai, a T'ien Lung, lying in the soil before him, the beautiful dragon's scales turned to black rot and smoldering. "She will kill us." She had said the words, the one woman who Xi had ever dared to love, the one who led them, leader of the hunter-nins of Hidden Cloud. Then she charged the Dark Storm.
Xi moved to aid her, but he was too slow, and suddenly he saw them locked together, two beautiful women, yet only one could survive. The Dark Storm drove her lightning sword into her leg, but she did not grimace, only grabbed her enemy, and her hands slashed through the flak jacket of the Dark Storm, and then threw.
Four objects landed in Xi's hands as he stood. "Xi!" She ordered. "Take the dragon artifacts and run! She must not have them!"
"No!" Xi shouted back. "I won't let you die!"
"Run Xi!" She told him again. "We have already lost, please run!" The last was a scream as the Dark Storm plunged her blade in again. She grabbed those hands, and black lightning drove into her, but she refused to let go. "I will hold her, run!"
So Xi turned his back and ran, and he heard the Dark Storm laugh as he did so.
It was there that I swore I would kill her for the first time. Xi looked at the mask. Eight years ago, and now it will be decided.
"Xi!" Neji shouted, coming up behind him. "What is happening? What are you doing?"
Xi turned around, and he saw Neji standing there, the young dragon ninja's face confused and troubled, but resolved. Behind him Shiren came up the stairs, and Dar behind her, the stone ninja with his customary stony look once more.
"I am going to Lightning Neji," Xi replied. "I have someone to kill." Xi raised the mask to his face then, and placed it on.
Though it was only half a mask it hung on Xi's face perfectly, the symbol of lightning slashed apart in the porcelain, and the jagged slash down the middle, with a flash of blue across the bottom.
As he put on the mask Xi's face changed to match it, and Neji saw the transformation occur in him, and he feared it, but he stood firm. "Then we will go with you!" He told Xi.
"No." Xi replied in a voice that was different from his own, the voice of the hunter, not concerned with anything but his prey. The voice of the hunter-nin. "This order is mine alone, you cannot follow."
"We can aid you!" Shiren said from Neji's side, and Dar nodded.
"No." Xi said again. "Against her you would only die."
"I don't believe that." Neji replied, his own voice cold and level now. "You said I surpassed you."
"In some things perhaps, but not in this." Xi told him. "Besides, why are you offering? There are no debts between us, you no longer need me, do not interfere with my mission."
That stopped all three stone cold, for they recognized that Xi was not to be swayed by any appeal they could easily make.
"Why must it be this way Xi?" Neji asked him.
"I will tell you a story, Neji, since you are to carry on the dragon ninja." Xi said. "So that you understand."
"Twelve years ago," Xi began. "The fifth Raikage was solid in his power, and the country of lightning was strong. The Daimyo wanted new territory, new possessions. There had been a recent treaty with Hidden Mist, and the islands were considered a meager prize in any case, so the Leaf was the target. The fifth Raikage believed he could win easily; he had many talented ninja beneath his banner including a new jounin, a beautiful woman who had already probed Konoha's weaknesses. She had supported his case for war, claiming that only a few itinerant bloodlines represented the strength of Konoha, and if their power could be discerned, they could be defeated."
"So began the three year war. Many powerful ninja fought in it, including your father and his twin brother, your sensei Maito Gai, Hakate Kakashi, and many others. The Raikage had anticipated a quick victory, but he underestimated the resolve of the Third Hokage, and the power of two of Konoha's clans. One of those was the Hyuuga, the other, the Uchiha. Those two clans, with the strength of their eyes, were terribly fearsome on the battlefield, with their joint powers to copy and counter any effect to and to see through everything, it was almost impossible to combat. Still, we of lightning were not so easily defeated. A jounin among us, one who had never been notable, but always present, took command upon the battlefield, leading a group of ninja against the Uchiha and the Hyuuga, and he was able to counter their abilities. Still this bought only a stalemate, and a slowing to our reversals. The war ground on, and we were losing.
The Leaf had almost driven the forces of Lightning back to the border, when that beautiful female jounin undertook some experiment. She was absent from the battlefield for a time, and when she returned she was much stronger, and immune to the powers of the Uchiha. She drove back a platoon of that most feared of clans by herself, killing one of the leaders, then considered the strongest of all the Uchiha, she also killed one of the Hyuuga, a woman who I believe was your aunt. When Konoha learned of this they offered peace, with the borders the same as before.
Debate raged fierce in Hidden Cloud, as the Raikage considered the options. The jounin who led on the battlefield counseled for piece, but the jounin who had pioneered the techniques said they should continue fighting, that she would share her methods. It was then that we learned just what she had done; she had bound herself to a demon of the darkest fury of nature, a storm creature so viscous it had no name. From that point onward she was called the Dark Storm. Despite this frightful transformation she convinced the fifth Raikage, and he led a strike against Konoha itself. The Third Hokage killed him.
Peace was made immediately, and a ninja party, consisting of our interim leader, was sent to Konoha. But that was a trick, as you well know, the Dark Storm had made many allies, and she had demanded the secrets of the Hyuuga bloodline as well, for the Hyuuga she had killed had not revealed any secrets. The plan failed, but they manipulated the peace to demand a Hyuuga in return. Instead, the Leaf tricked the Dark Storm by sending your father.
You may not realize this Neji, but that act triggered many things in Lightning. The Dark Storm was furious when she learned that the secrets were sealed in him as well. She demanded the war be renewed, but the new Raikage, a woman who had been the compromise candidate for many factions, said no.
A year passed then, as the Dark Storm built alliances and my comrades and I hunted the missing-nins the war had spawned in the land ruined by it. While Lightning seemed quiet for this time, except for the perpetual conflicts with Water country over the islands, inside it was seething. The Dark Storm was cunning, and she was extremely powerful. She convinced many clans to support her own bid for power, and she incited many clans against their old opponents, those who they had long hated, and she absolutely destroyed the influence of those who supported the Raikage.
Then she struck.
Lightning exploded in a single night, battle raging everywhere as the clans struck their enemies, those who supported the Dark Storm followed her orders, and many ninja simply lost themselves in the bloodlust. A few tried to end the war and restore order, but the Dark Storm hunted them down and destroyed them. She killed the sixth Raikage in the open streets, and those ANBU with her, and then made for the Raikage's Hall, seeking to take it and proclaim herself the new Raikage.
If not for her recklessness and bloodlust she likely would have succeeded, but her ninja attacked the innocents in the town, and they laid siege to the academy, slowly massacring one class and working towards others.
It was then that we heard.
I was a hunter-nin Neji, one of four, my teammates. A chuunin found us in the wilderness, and before he died of brutal wounds he told us what happened, what the Dark Storm had begun.
Neji, understand this much. Hunter-nins are forbidden to participate in conflicts, internal or external. I had not fought in the war, and we were bound by oaths not to fight then, we could not go back and face the Dark Storm." Xi paused for a moment, letting the other Dragon Ninja process what they were hearing. "But we went back anyway, we broke our oaths and went."
"Shiren knows. She was there when we came into the Academy, robes flying behind us and weapons in hand. I killed a ninja who was attacking her, and then escorted her and her classmates to safety."
Shiren nodded, remembering. He took off his mask for a moment, so that I would know he wasn't an enemy, and then he carried me to hide with my classmates, had they not helped us we would never have survived.
"Yet it was more than that we did that day, for the Dark Storm was close to victory. While we saved students, she was atop the Raikage's Hall, where only one ninja stood to stop her. That ninja was my master, Draci Naravki. He fought the Dark Storm atop that hall, and fought for a long time, but in the end he died, and with his death she proved herself the most powerful ninja in all of Hidden Cloud. He had fought her there because the one who holds that Hall cannot be assaulted, can drive back any attack, it is the fortress at the heart of our village, and she stood ready to take it. We were headed there, as fast as we could, but we could not have gotten there in time to stop her.
Instead another came, a man who she had not anticipated. The jounin battle leader, who had been leading the fights with Mist ninja in the south. He had stripped his garrisons bare and brought all those ninja north to reclaim the village. He and his men landed before her, and the Dark Storm was thwarted.
But from Naravki's body she had taken the artifacts of the Dragon ninja, and the powers they contained could not be left in her hands. Though her chakra was depleted she fled, and that jounin could not task his men to follow. Instead, that task fell to us hunter-nins. We had broken our oaths, and we were judged for it. He banished us then and there, knowing it must be done, but he also charged that we still belonged to the village, and we were to kill the Dark Storm. The jounin was one you knew, the soldier who became the seventh Raikage, not because he wished the title, but because he had to, because no one else could.
Four hunter-nins chased the Dark Storm, and I was one of them. We thought that we had her, no matter how powerful she was her chakra was depleted and she could not fight. We were wrong." Xi's voice and eyes never changed, though his personal tragedy unfolded. "She fell upon us, ambushing and slaying one of my teammates, and she consumed his energies somehow, recharging her own, so that her strength was as before. Still, we fought her, I summoned a T'ien Lung, only to watch him die upon her powers, and only to have her slam me back and break this mask you see on my face. She killed another of us then, and the woman who led us made a decision that we could not win. She grappled the Dark Storm, taking back the artifacts that she had stolen, and she gave them to me and ordered me to run, to abandon the battlefield. I did, and I heard her die as I fled.
I returned to Hidden Cloud, and the Raikage, though he hated it, exiled me forever, and charged me with only two tasks, one was to ensure the continuation of the Dragon ninja, and the other was to kill the Dark Storm. For eight years, though I have roved about and spied on many and killed many more, those have been my only two missions, everything I have dedicated myself towards.
Neji, you, and Shiren and Dar, you are the continuation of the Dragon ninja, that task is done. Now all that remains is to kill the Dark Storm, and I am going to do that now."
He is going to his death. Neji saw, he could feel it; he knew Xi was ready to sacrifice himself to kill this woman, this Dark Storm. He knows he needs only a single blow, that it does not matter if he dies as he strikes, as long as she does. Xi, no. Neji did not want the man to die, did not want to see him go, not like this. "Are we to simply rot here then?" He demanded.
"You will go to Waterfall." Xi ordered.
"What?" It came from all three dragon ninja.
"Have you forgotten?" Xi's voice remained deadpan. "There is an Akatsuki in Waterfall, one who has committed a terrible crime. He must be stopped. Tsunade will not be able to send help, she must send ninja to the lightning border now, the situation has become critical, and the Leaf has no ninja to spare. You must go; go to Waterfall, the Dragons asked it of you three, but not of me. They must have foreseen this. They watch from the heavens and may glimpse the future. You must do that, it will be the final test of you three, and I will not be with you." Xi turned. "Give my apologies to Tsunade, I hate to break my word even to that witch who dared forsake her duties, but I made the promise to kill the Dark Storm eight years ago, it has precedence. I suspect we will not meet again."
With those words Xi departed into the night, and was beyond even Neji's sight in moments.
"What do we do now?" Dar asked.
"We tell Gosain goodbye and inform Hokage-sama that we are going to Waterfall." Neji said firmly. "You are fit to travel Dar, aren't you?"
"Ah." The stone ninja replied.
They walked down back into the hospital, where Tsunade still stood by Gosain's beside. "He has gone, hasn't he?" She said when they returned. "What a fool."
"Draci Xi sends his regrets that he could not serve on the mission as he said." Neji replied. "A prior commitment has interfered."
"You are a cold one, Draci Neji." Tsunade remarked.
"Hokage-sama." Neji said slowly. "Scrap the mission to Waterfall immediately. The dragon ninja will finish it without burdening the Leaf."
Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "You cannot plan to face an Akatsuki and all the Waterfall ninja by yourselves."
"It is our fate." Neji replied. "And we are going to meet it, just as Xi meets his." Neji paused, and looked at Shiren and Dar, and saw the silent agreement in their eyes. "And when that it done, we are going after Xi."
"I cannot help you." Tsunade said sadly. "Please, don't do anything foolish."
"Neji." Gosain murmured from the corner, causing heads to turn.
"Yes?" Neji asked, not wanting to be bothered, his mind already racing ahead. "Before you go to lightning, come and get me." Gosain wheezed. "You will need my help, it is my country."
"Very well." Neji replied. "As long as you are fit."
"I will be ready." Gosain managed.
"Let's go." Neji said to Shiren and Dar.