-Scrambled Dimensions-
A tranquil forest was being watched by a full moon. As the heavenly body glanced at the ground beneath it, a fast-moving figure splashed through the flora. The silhouette stopped behind the large trunk of a canopy, listening to a conversation between two shady characters.
"This is the place," a slender male raccoon in a grey sleeveless shirt and blue faded pants, with a metal bracer worn on his left arm, brown sandals, and a big scythe placed on a buckler on his back, confirmed the area. "This is Inugami Forest, all right." His companion glared at him.
"How can you tell?" a red vixen with long black hair, wearing a small brown sleeveless jacket, short brown shorts, and brown sandals, with a chain wrapped around her waist and daggers holstered on her belt. "For all I know, this could just be another forest beside the Cobalt Corp's building…"
Her companion pointed the full moon. He then slid his index finger to point the trees with red blossoms. "The trees of the Inugami Forest bear Moon Lily flowers. These flowers bloom only in the night of a full moon. Convinced?" He grinned for a while before grasping his scythe. He quickly turned around and swung it, creating a powerful wind blow that hit a nearby tree. "Come out. I know you're there."
A dark-grey wolf jumped down to a patch of short grasses. He wore dark purple gi, with a mesh-like undershirt and a darker violet pants. He had bandages wrapped around his forearms, and he had two brown leather belts strapped around his waist. He wielded a pair of sais.
"Slim, Grim," he spoke at them firmly, not losing his stance. "I knew it… You're not going to touch this forest! This belongs to no one! I can't allow you to continue any further!" The two simply snickered at his message.
Chapter 3 - Kageryuu Ougi (Shadow Skill Secret)
"Say Grim, isn't that the pesky ninja who has been guarding that Inugami Village?" the raccoon chuckled as he pointed his scythe to the ninja. "You know, Cobalt Corp already has problems thanks to that village, and you're adding in it!"
"Slim, don't pretend that you don't know that twerp," the vixen commented while removing the chain around her waist. "Looks like it'll be fun for tonight. I want his uniform tacked in my room afterwards, so don't stain it."
Slim rubbed his cheek and nodded, "Sure, I'll keep his bloodstains on the ground, but I won't guarantee it. I might accidentally tear his clothes along with his internal organs!" He then charged forward with his scythe extended. "Kageryuu Ninjutsu practitioner Zephyr, die, die, DIE!" (Kageryuu Ninjutsu translates to Shadow Skill Ninja Art.)
Zephyr, the wolf ninja, evaded the assault. He used his weapon to stop the scythe from hitting him. Slim gave a thrust, and he caught with his pair of sais. However, the ninja didn't realize that Grim was still around. The vixen hurled her chain towards Zephyr. It spun around the lupine's neck.
"I wonder if your head makes a perfect trophy," she blurted out as she slowly pulled the strand, tightening the enclosure. Zephyr was slowly losing his breath as well as his force to stop the scythe from hitting him.
Suddenly, something hit the metal chain. It was something like a firefly - a beam of light struck the object. The weapon was destroyed, allowing the grip around the wolf's neck to loosen. It gave an opportunity for him to do back flip, giving him space away from the two deadly people.
"Hey, what gives?" the raccoon growled as he looked around the area. "Show yourself!"
The air beside Zephyr slowly projected something. It looked like a transparent creature, a ghost if you would say. A few seconds later, a chameleon in a blue suit appeared while holding a knife with a laser edge. Leon Powalski sided beside the wolf while grinning, "It's really odd for some criminal like me to save a goody-good shoes like this fellow… I watched the fight earlier and I felt disgust from it. I loathe unfair fights, so I guess have to intervene. The name's Leon Powalski."
"Hmph, a chameleon expert in color blending," Grim remarked. "You know, you could just quit the hero thing and help us. We need people like you in the Corporation."
"I don't work for no one, maybe except for a certain wolf with an eye patch, that's different," the chameleon responded while positioning in a stance. He then faced Zephyr and told him, "Well, well… Looks like it's a fair fight now… Zephyr, right? We'll have to work together to beat 'em up!"
"Leon-sama," he nodded while going to a stance as well, "let's do it then. Kageryuu Ninjutsu Ougi!" He didn't know the chameleon. In fact, he never saw him in the village. However, a help was mostly appreciated in his state, so he had to accept it.
Slim and Grim clashed against Zephyr and Leon. Slim and Zephyr attempted to hit each other with their weapons, with a scythe and a pair of sais colliding. Grim and Leon clashed their knives against each other, trying to disarm the opposition. However, the battle wasn't long. The chameleon was slowly losing, for he had no experience fighting an expert dagger user like her. He was taken down, with knife slashes around his arms.
"Hmph! I wasn't even able to throw these beauties," she scoffed while looking at her throwing knives. She glanced at Zephyr and Slim, who were busy. "Hey, Slim, take cover!" she suddenly yelled while hurling her deadly blades at the raccoon's opponent. Slim stepped away, with Zephyr wondering why.
"No," Leon whimpered out softly. He gathered his energy and took action with haste. He quickly covered the wolf ninja, making him take the assayed attack instead. "Guwaa!" he coughed out with blood.
"Leon-sama!" Zephyr exclaimed with nervousness because of the sudden action of his teammate. "I have to take him back! Fleeing is a better option now…" He tucked him around his left arm and made some hand seals with his right hand. However, he had to do it quick, for Slim's scythe was coming towards them fast.
An explosion occurred as soon as the cutting weapon hit the ninja and his partner. Pieces fell from the thick smoke. The scythe returned back to Slim, making the owner happy. "Looks like my explosives attached to the blade did it," he concluded as he returned it on its holster on his back. "The two are dead. Sorry if I had to ruin the flag for your room, Grim." The vixen neared towards the
"I have no worries, for you didn't ruin it," she replied back as she examined the remains of the explosion. "They escaped… Look at the fragments… These are wood. It looks like that Zephyr used Ninjutsu to escape. He's probably kilometers away by now."
He suddenly shouted out curse words before calming down. "Damn him," he grumbled as he stepped on the burnt wood pieces. "He used Kawarimi again to escape… He's really an expert in that Kageryuu Ninjutsu…"
-0-0-0-
"Ungh… Where, where am I?" Leon groaned a bit after opening his eyes. He slowly looked around, and realized that he was inside a room. He was lying on a mattress with a soft pillow cushioning his head. He slowly raised his upper body up and looked around. The room was decorated with shells and some bamboo furniture. A candle lamp was beside the bed, and it was probably lit during the night.
He placed his feet on the floor, and then he stood up. He looked at a mirror, and realized that he had more wounds than he thought. His upper uniform was missing too, as well as his boots. However, he could see that his injuries were treated, and that maybe his uniform was stained with blood or was ruined by the blades. He then decided to go outside. He realized that he stayed in some sort of inn, for a corridor was just beyond the door.
"Good morning, Leon-sama," Zephyr noticed him coming out when he was doing his usual strolls in the aisle. He decided to greet him. "The doctor of the village told me that you'll be okay. You just need some rest. Your clothes were tattered and bloody, but they're in the laundry, so I think they'll be fine."
"Thanks, I guess," he replied while looking at the view of the corridor - a beautiful seaside, "even though I really didn't want to help you. I just wanted to mess up and fight."
"No problem… You still assisted, and that's the only thing that matters," the wolf responded while smiling. "Now that we're in a safe place, I want to ask you something. I have never seen you before, and I'm sure the villagers here haven't heard of you. Slim and Grim don't know you, so I doubt the Cobalt Corp has any ideas about you, either. Where are you from?"
"That's the problem," the chameleon answered back in a serious tone. "I was busy minding my own business in a base called Sargasso Space Station, but suddenly I got transported in the forest. I had to use my camouflage, since those two shady characters were around. Then, I saw your fateful encounter with them."
The ninja couldn't quite get what he was talking about. "Sargasso? What's that? You sound as if you came from another world or something."
"That may be true," Leon assumed. "I didn't know there was a place like this either… But anyway, since I'm stuck here, and I owe you and the village, I might as well help you out. Those two were threatening the forest and this place, right? Well, in that case, I'm going to have some fun… I'll help you out, in one condition…"
"Yeah," Zephyr nodded while giving a smile. "Thanks again. But… what about the condition?"
"You're a ninja, and I felt some urge when you used that escape technique you did," he explained about his condition. The wolf wondered how he knew about that. "Huh? Hey, I was still conscious when you did that fleeing move. I realized that maybe, just maybe, you have more of those ninja skills hidden beneath your sleeve… offensive ones…"
"So you want me to teach you Kageryuu Ninjutsu… Well then, in that case, we should start later in the evening. Nighttime is the best time to train."
-0-0-0-
- sama is a suffix used to show respect to a person.
- kawarimi is the technique of displacement, a popular ninja move. The ninja switches places with an inanimate object, usually a log, to avoid the attack.