Koumei sat silently in a snowy training field at the edge of Konoha. Kuro kept her company as she waited patiently for the two leaf-nin to arrive. It had been six days since the last Moon-nin had been found, and although she could now move properly and with confidence, she was still weak and had yet to fully recover.
Her eyes were unfocused on the ground and her knees were pulled up with her chin resting on them. She shivered. To her, everything was red. The snow was covered in blood. The naked tree branches were painted crimson. She looked at her own hands. Red. All red. 'Stop it,' Kuro's voice erupted in her head and the bloody world turned white once more.
'I can't help it Kuro. It just gets worse and worse. All I can think about is him. Hayate too. I just want it to leave me alone...' she silently replied. In her left hand she squeezed her red and white hunter-nin mask. 'Here they come, Koumei' said Kuro. She didn't move.
Kasei arrived in the clearing, followed by a lazy-eyed Genma. She looked up and instead of Kasei, she saw Hayate, covered in blood with those familiar bags under his eyes, and fell of of the stump she was sitting on. She stared at him for a long while before shaking her head and closing her eyes tightly, burying her face in her ice-cold hands.
"Koumei? Are you alright?" said a utterly confused Kasei.
He sounds just like him... "G-gomen... I thought for a second... nevermind," she stood and took in a breath of cold winter air.
"What are we doin' today?" asked Genma, it was obvious he wanted to get this over with.
"I'm going to give you a bloodlimit," said Koumei as if it were obvious. Kasei was now thoroughly confused, even Genma had an odd questioning look plastered on his face.
"What? How? That's impossible," pointed out Kasei.
"Usually, yes it would be, but for one reason or another, the Wing ninja's bloodlimit was slowly formed into being able to simply pass on. Although you don't need it to use the Wing Ninja's style, it is an extremely useful component to posess. Come here," said Koumei. She moved back onto her stump and sat in a crouch as the other two shinobi sat down in the snow.
"My other bloodline will not pass to you, only the Wing one. It's called the Griffin's Bloodlimit. It's kinda cold out, but I'll also paint the seal on today I think. Hold out your left hands," she commanded. The two jounin obeyed hesitantly. The seal...? They glanced briefly at eachother.
"Now I want you to take out a kunai and cut it open, but immediately smother it and slow the flow. Before I do this, I'm going to warn you. Accepting this bloodlimit will change your lives. For some reason, it causes your bloodflow to slow down incredibly, causing you to be continuously cold. It will also cause a great amount of pain for the first times you use it, but you will learn to tolerate it eventually. When you use any of it's jutsus, it also results in severe bloodloss. You have no choice but to accept these things, but I thought you would be better off knowing beforehand instead of having the honour of finding it out yourselves." she looked at their faces and almost smiled. They looked horrified, and their faces, even Genma's, said 'What have I gotten myself into?'
But they recovered soon and drew a kunai each, bringing it to their left hands in almost exactly the same movement. They pressed the knife in, and slid it across, creating a deep cut which immediately filled with blood. It dripped to the snow, staining it red. This time, though, it was not an illusion. The two ninja quickly wrapped up their hands in cloth.
Koumei's eyes were fixed on the snow beneath them, and Genma stared at her oddly. She didn't notice. Her face paled, losing the pinkish glow it had attained from the cold air, and she swallowed. Kasei had also noticed the change by now. Don't tell me she's afraid of blood...
Her spell was broken however, when Kuro came to her shoulder and buffeted her head with a ebony black wing. She shook her head and apologized, not to Kasei and Genma, but to the crow.
"Has it slowed down?" she asked in a quiet voice.
They lifted the cloth and nodded.
"Alright, now hold them out flat with the palms up," she instructed as if she had done this many times before. She brought up one of her own kunai and took it to her hand. Sure enough, there was a long scar across the surface. She brought the kunai right across the scar, re-opening it.
She quickly thrust her hand over Genma's, closing her eyes in concentration as her blood mixed with his. The bird on her shoulder stopped ruffling its feathers as her brow furrowed and her head tipped slightly forward. The blood dripping off of her limp fingers suddenly slowed and darkened. Purple, dark blue, black. It mixed with Genma's, eventually turning it black. Both her and Kuro seemed frozen in concentration. Suddenly she broke apart and brought up her kunai, almost offensively slashing it down across his hand. It left a burning blue mark across his previous one, and sealed the dark blood in, leaving a large 'X' scar across his palm. Then, all remaining blood simply vanished.
"Done," she said. Genma brought his hand towards him and examined the new, foreign mark, frowning slightly before dropping it into his lap. She repeated this with Kasei, giving him a scar, which also sealed itself. But she wasn't done.
"Wait, one more thing. This is where you really recieve the bloodline. You'll notice a change after this," she said, "Give me your hands again."
Koumei took Genma's hand in her left hand and Kasei's in her right. The bleeding of her left hand had stopped. The two shinobi were suprised at how cold her hands were. Like ice, thought Kasei.
Suddenly, Koumei's arms were surrounded with red energy that resembled chakra. It moved slowly down her arms, to her elbows, then to her wrists and finally to her hands. Her eyes were fixed on it as she willed it to pass from her body to theirs. When it finally passed over, the two male ninja noticed an immediate change. Their hands suddenly felt frozen, and even as the red chakra retreated back into its owner, they felt the cold reach up their arms, across their backs and into their heart and lungs, and suddenly Koumei's hands didn't feel so cold anymore. She dropped them and her hands flew over to her raven, who was shivering on her shoulder.
She lifted the bird from her shoulder and brought it close to her, forcing blue waves of chakra over him and slowly preventing the shivers. She released him and he nestled close to her stomach.
"What is this?" asked Kasei. He blew slightly warmer air over his hands, but it didn't really help at all.
"A side affect," said Koumei.
Genma was frowning while looking ar his hands. "What was that red chakra? Was it even chakra? It felt the same, but more... concentrated."
"It was Kuro's. You haven't met him yet, have you Genma? This is Kuro. Say hi," she grabbed his hand which he was still examining intensely and brought it to the raven nestled close to her stomach. Using the same motions as she had with Kasei in the hospital, she forced him to stroke the birds dark neck feathers, before letting him pull away. Kasei smiled slightly, before asking her another question.
"Why is it that your hand has only one scar across it? I can tell you've done this before, but shouldn't there be a cross?"
"Uh, well I was the original experiment and did not have the Griffins Bloodline passed to me, I was just born as an experiment and given to the Kage of my village, who adopted me to use as a weapon. But I'm the only one who has ever passed it on to anyone. If you really needed to, you would eventually figure out how to pass it on, but it took me thirteen years," she explained as she stood.
"You were an experiment? Sounds like fun," said Genma sarcastically. Koumei actually smiled.
"Its hard. And painful. But I guess it is 'fun,' " she joked before getting back on track. "Now I need to seal it. I know it's cold out, but I need you guys to take off your shirts. Unless you want wings coming out of your hands."
This time Kasei went first. He removed his dark green jounin vest, and the black shirt underneath. Koumei reached into her own vest and removed a small black bottle, two kunai and a senbon needle. Kasei eyed them uneasily.
Koumei asked him to turn around, with his back facing her. She fell down onto her knees and plunged a kunai on either side of him, deep through the snow and into the frozen earth. She then lifted her hand with the senbon needle and brought it towards the space between Kasei's shoulderblades. She traced along the lines of some invisible design, causing blood to leak down his well muscled back. She traced the elaborate shape of one wing, every feather, and then the other so that it resembled hers. But she then added a small circle, followed by a triangle and another circle around it, between the two wings. It hurt incredibly, more than it should have, but Kasei bit it back showing no expression.
Koumei then wiped of the slightly bloodied needle and replaced it in her vest. She exchanged it for the black bottle, dipping her index finger in it and tracing the crimson lines, sealing them and stopping the bleeding. The whole process took about fifteen minutes.
She then let him replace his shirt and moved onto Genma, repeating the painful process once more. He replaced his shirt and vest also, turning back to face her and rubbing some feeling back into his left shoulder.
"Done. This takes alot out of me, so I won't do training today. I'll just go over the concepts and jutsus. And I'll get you to summon your birds." she said casually.
"Summon?" asked Genma.
"Hai... I sould do that first actually," she said. She unzipped her black vest and took out a large scroll from a specially made pocket on the inside of her vest. It was about eight or nine inches long, and the outside had the design of a griffin on it. She unrolled it. It had around fifteen names on it so far, Koumei's being the first, and each with the pattern of a bird's footprint beneath it.
"Bite the thumb of your right hand and write your name on one of the boxes beside mine. When you're done, touch your thumb to your middle and index fingers and make that design," she held up her hand and demonstrated in the air, "like this."
Kasei and Genma did as they were told. When they finished they looked back at her expectantly.
"Okay, now for the easy part. A Wing ninja usually summons Griffins, but their first summon remains with them forever and comes in the form of a bird. Whatever your bird is, will determine your style of fighting. If you bird dies, you must either summon another one, or go on without one for the rest of your life.
"For example, Kuro was the first thing I summoned, and he's a raven. That means that I'm fairly clever, and easily pick up on concepts. It also means that I use shadow and moon jutsu's while fighting. Another example, the girl who I found last week, her bird was a yellow warbler. That tells you that she was very bright and usually happy and that she used sound jutsus while fighting, like how a warbler sings. So whatever bird you summon wil also portray your pesonality, also." Koumei paused.
"I'll show you how to summon."
She brought her left hand to her mouth and bit her thumb, touching it to all of her other fingers. She then plunged it into the ground and blue chakra was visible around her hand. A circle of symbols appeared in the surrounding snow and the two male ninja stepped back to accomadate it. She lifted her hand and a form appeared in front of her.
First they saw a light grey feathered head, and a black beak, followed by black scaled legs and talons. Then, they saw huge grey wings, folded loosely across a light grey back and casting a shadow over powerful paws, housing giant claws, and a long, elegantly curved tail. The griffin sat cat-like on the ground before them with it's head turned towards Koumei and it's sharp eyes boring into hers. She bowed slightly.
"Koumei. Why have you summoned me? I see no battle." It's voice was a deep, velvety rumble that shook the surrounding air.
"Gomen, Mamoru Kazeno. These are your new masters, they have just signed the scroll," replied Koumei calmly.
"Ah," said the creature. He looked as if he had to get somewhere at the moment and his tail flicked impatiently. "Is that all?"
"Hai, you may go now. Arigato."
The creature stood and lowered itself, bowing elegantly to her, before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
"That was a griffin?" asked Kasei after.
"Hai, but you won't be summoning one today. You just perform the same thing I did and you'll summon your bird. You'll have a conversation through your minds, and he or she will give you things like their name, element, type of bird and so on. You go first, Genma."
Genma nodded and took a few steps back. He was actually interested in the outcome for once. He reopened the same cut on his thumb and touched it to all of his fingers in turn, plunging it towards the ground and forcing chakra through it. Instead of a large circle, however, the same design etched into his back appeared. The wings took up a large space, and were extremely detailed, glowing orange in the snow.
He removed his hand and a shape made up entirely of light appeared. The wing design on the ground vanished and the creature began changing colour. First yellow, then blue and then green. Long tail feathers spread out behind it and it turned to Genma. It was a peacock. And it was incredibly beautiful. What does that say about Genma, then? wondered Kasei and Koumei.
There was a moment's silence as Genma was frozen in silent communication with the beautiful creature. When he was done, the bird spread it's tail feathers in a dazzling display and turned to bow to Koumei, who was suprised. Genma explained.
"He says he's being polite since your a woman and should be treated likewise. His title is Hoshi Chiba, Earth Star, and he told me to call him Kinu. Kinu's obviously a peacock." Genma said, his uniterested look returning. Kinu walked over and sat down next to Genma, lazily closing his eyes.
"Okay then..." Koumei paused, "I guess it's your turn then, Kasei." He nodded and stepped forward like Genma had. He also reopened his left thumb and ran his other fingers across it. He thrust it down and the symbols reappeared in orange. But instead of a white shape, a bright crimson shape exploded from the ground. Kasei removed his hand as the shape spun into the air before hovering. He waited for it to change as Genma's had but when it did, the change was almost imperceptable.
It flew back to earth and landed on a nearby log, folding it's bright orange-red wings. It's tail hung low and it was abour the same size as Kuro, but it almost radiated brightness in oranges and reds and golds. I was a phoenix, a mythical creature. The bird of resurrection.
Koumei's mouth opened slightly in suprise from where she leaned against a tree, as did Kasei's and Genma raised his eyebrows. Kasei was locked in a mental conversation, and when he broke apart, the bright bird flew to his shouler where it sat comfortably.
"Her title is... Ho-o:Rey Hino, Phoenix- Spirit of Fire, and her name is Rey. I never would have thought that I would summon a phoenix." said Kasei as he stroked her, smiling. Koumei was amazed at what he had summoned, but she soon recovered. "By the way, Kuro's title is Setsuna Kage, Dark Lord of the Shadows, she said absent-mindedly.
"You both summoned beatiful birds, and made poor Kuro look dull," she said jokingly, receiving a buffet of wings from her raven, she continued, "This means that Genma's element is Earth, and Kasei'd is Fire. I'll let you have the next while to kind of get to know them, I guess. Anyways I need some time to..." she trailed off.
Suddenly, Koumei's vision erupted in crimson again. Her raven jumped off of her shoulder and hopped back a few steps as she fell to her knees. Genma's hands shot out to steady her and Kasei approached again. She sat hunched over for a moment, before coughing violently and covering her mouth. When she removed her hand, it was covered in more red.
"Shit. Not now," she said. She pushed away Genma's hand and removed her black vest and sat up. She looked down at her left forearm, and saw what she had been fearing for the last few days. Two dark purple marks parellel and running the length of her arm, burned darkly against her pale skin.
"What the hell is that?" asked Kasei.
"It was a little birthday present from Orochimaru," replied Koumei as she stood. "You should run."
"What!?" asked Kasei, stepping back.
"Go, now! Or I'll tear you apart!" she said as she stumbled against a tree. Kuro cawed loudly and flew higher.
Kasei motioned to Genma and the moved into the nearby trees, out of sight, but they could still see Koumei. She was struggling with her hands clutching at the side of her head. Without warning, she cried out in pain, as two pitch black wings, not soft golden brown like before, shot from between her shoulders. She fell to her knees and moaned, still clutching at her head as blood dripped slowly down her back, tracing an all too familiar path for her. What is she doing? wondered Kasei as he looked out at her struggling in the red snow. Her hands fell as she used them for support, blood dripped from her mouth as she opened it and screamed out.