The sound of quiet footsteps over stone was the first thing the Undead heard when he awoke. Hushed voices speaking words he didn't know. He felt, stiff. The Undead didn't know how long he had lain there but it must have been a while. He opened his eyes and watched the Bonfire. As the flame danced, casting shadows all about. The footsteps grew louder. He turned his attention to the one entrance into where he sat. He flicked his eyes over the location that once had a pile of flesh that used to belong to a man named Kōka. It was gone. Nothing left but stains on the cave floor. It had been a while. The Undead turned back to the entrance where a man came into view. He wore dark armour. Similar to the armour the Hagaromo wore. On his forehead was a metal plate with an engraving in the centre. Though what the engraving was supposed to be of the Undead did not know. The Undead met his eyes. He raised his hands, akin to surrender. He asked the Undead a question.
"Are you a friend of Konoha?"
And the Undead had only one reply;
"Canoe-what?"
The Undead felt a knife pressed against his throat, the man now suddenly closer.
"Are you here to destroy Konoha!" The man yelled.
"What?" The Undead replied again.
More footsteps emanated from the cave. In walked three more people. Two men and one woman. One of the men grabbed the knife away.
"Calm down!" The two men went to the other side of the cavern.
"Konohagakure no Sato. Do you know it?"One of the other voices chimed in. Feminine. The woman crouched down.
"Canoeha?" The Undead looked towards the woman. "Nay. I've not." The Undead changed his attention back to the man who held the knife against his throat. "Where I hail, thou actions wouldst be cause for death."
The four tensed up at the Undead's statement. He gazed over the four before gesturing down.
"Sit. The Bonfire is a place of peace and rest. Not of violence."
The four sat down hesitantly on the opposite side to the Undead.
The four kept looking between themselves and the Undead opposite.
"Do you have a name?" One asked over the flames.
"Once," The Undead replied. "Though it hath become lost to me. Through my journeys I never saw fit to have use of it. None would remember it. Soon not even I could remember." The Undead gazed wistfully into the flames. "To have a name of mine own, It would fill me with such joy. A feeling of self-identity. That I know whom I am." The Undead gazed up at his guests. "Mayhap you've any recommendations?"
Before any could come The Undead felt a blade pierce his eye.
"Oroka!" The Undead heard a male voice yell.
The Undead looked down to the Bonfire, appearing slumped over to the four. Must all his interactions end in violence?
"He is an unknown." A voice spoke. The same voice of the man who held a knife to his throat. "Any unknown this close to Kohona is a threat."
There was that word again. Kohona. It carried importance as Anor Londo does. Their home?
"Aiman, check him."
The third man's eyes were curious to the Undead. They were pale, making him appear blind in the light of the Bonfire. Veins at the sides of his eyes appeared and the Undead could feel those blind eyes staring straight through him. The Undead didn't like the feeling.
The two men, Oroka and the unknown name, were having a small spat of words.
"Just because we're at war doesn't mean you can kill anyone who you don't know." The first one said, the leader of the group.
"We're this close to the border with Yu no Kuni, and they claim they've never heard of Konoha?"
"Shuryo." The Non-Blind spoke up.
"What did you find?"
"It's bizarre. He has no Chakra."
The leader, Shuryo turned back to the one who threw a knife in the Undead's eye.
"You killed a civilian!"
"They also have a sword and various knives."
"See!" Oroka yelled.
"Quiet." Shuryo turned to the one named Aiman. "Why is that bizarre?"
"Because this close after death people usually still have some chakra flowing through them but this man doesn't even have chakra coils."
The leader of the group hung his head and sighed before gesturing in the direction of the Undead.
"Oroka, check if he has anything that we can use, or says where he came from."
"Why me?"
"Because you threw a kunai into his face!"
Oroka began walking around the Bonfire to the Undead. The Undead changed their attention to the woman of the group who was staring into the Bonfire with increasingly widening eyes.
"Shuryo?" There was a slight quiver in her voice as she stared at the bottom of the fire.
"What is it Onnanoko?"
"This fire-" There was another hitch in her speaking. "This fire is kindled by bones."
The three looked into the fire, confirming what the woman had said, before looking up again when the heard a scuffle. Looking up to see the Undead's hand clamped around the throat of Oroka, and Oroka clawing at the Undead's arm, trying to find a way to release the grip.
The Undead slowly stood. Lifting Oroka off the ground. The other three were all standing, ready for a fight. The leader, Shuryo, put out his hands.
"Listen, just put him down, we forget this happened."
The man's words were logical, the Undead knew. But the Undead had listened to such honeyed words before only to find them poison. Frampt, Patches, Lautrec. A millenia of experience had taught the Undead it's kill or be killed.
The Undead reached up with his free hand and slowly pulled the blade from his eye.
"Eye,"
The Undead raised the blade and pointed it at the eye of the man he held off the ground.
"For an eye."