CHAPTER II
OWL
The crowd around the cage was louder than usual, drunk off both the sake provided and anticipation for the fight ahead. The room was packed, filled to the doorway where scuffles broke out as patrons jockeyed for position, seeking a perfect view. Tobacco smoke filled the air as well, painting the otherwise wooden building in a gray haze.
In the center of the circular cage, a man garbed in black from his head to his feet turned his head to observe the crowd. There were familiar faces here, none of them particularly friendly. He had noticed the same three people seated or standing in the same spot for his last two fights. They looked young but hardened by military training. As the crowd began to scream for the man in black, calling out, "Black Owl! Black Owl!" for his distinctive black porcelain owl mask, the three watchers said nothing. They simply stared.
Owl's eyes cut to his opponent, another one of fifteen or so drunks that had come before and tried to best him in combat. This man, large and staggering, rushed toward him and swung a punch. Lazily, Owl stepped to the side, his tattered cape flapping smoke from his body. The drunk man turned on his heels and punched at Owl again.
The young man in black grabbed the drunk's arm, twisting it until it snapped before he slammed his elbow into the man's nose with an audible crunch, quieting the crowd for a single breath until they erupted into a loud cheer. Bloodied, the drunk man crawled away and Owl looked for the three watchers in the crowd. Like the past two times they had appeared, they were gone as soon as the fight was called. Owl narrowed his eyes and left the cage.
When he went through the doors, the owner of the building met him, grinning and dipping his head. "I don't know how you do it but as long as you keep winning and making me money, you can keep these fights going as long as you want."
Owl shrugged. "This is the last one." The owner's mouth opened.
"I don't understand. You're undefeated and these people keep coming and paying to see you win. Why stop? We could take this on the road. Expand!"
50,000 ryo. It would be enough to get him through the rest of the month, if he was careful. "I'm not interested," Owl replied, taking his money in hand. He left the building and the refreshing night air was a welcomed change to the smoke shack he had been in.
The quaint town, barely three buildings pieced together by a dirt road, was remote and a speck on the edge of the Land of Iron. The three buildings, a brothel and bar, a proper hotel and a general store, were the only sources of income for the people that were permanent residents. Owl had yet to visit the upper levels of the brothel, though it was not without its temptations. The bar, however…
"Ah, you're here again," the bartender said when he saw Owl pull out a stool. The young man waved his hand.
"Yeah, yeah. Give me the shochū." Owl took a shot and sighed softly as the alcohol warmed his chest. He motioned for another and when the glass was full, he took another shot. Owl heard the door to the bar open. Three distinctive heels clicked against the floor as they approached and gazing into the reflection in the glass mugs next to him, Owl saw that they were the same three young men that had been appearing in the cage.
They stopped just short of the bar counter and Owl looked at the bartender, who looked a fair bit nervous.
Owl sighed inwardly. "You don't have to stand up. There's plenty of stools." Silence. Owl motioned for the bartender to leave with his eyes and the man did so, slowly and casually walking away. When he did, the men stepped forward and Owl dipped his head.
He slid his sword halfway from its sheath in time enough to deflect an attempted kidney blow from one of the men, before grabbing the glass mug to his right, bashing it against the head of the man who stepped forward to that side. After making his move, he dashed backward in a black haze and quickly observed the room. The three men drew their weapons and rushed forward. Owl dove into their midst, the steel on his sword singing when he drew it fully from the sheath and struck one of his enemy's.
One of the three men, a blonde, performed hand seals and took a deep breath and unleashed a fireball from his mouth. Lightning sparked down the length of Owl's blade, chirping like disturbed birds lifting into the air. The steel sliced through the flame and sent it two separate ways before Owl dashed forward shoved his shoulder into the man's chest, enhancing his strength with chakra. He crashed through the wall and Owl turned on the two remaining men and looked from left to right. The three of them fought in the center of the bar, swinging blades and dodging each other's attacks. The dance was flashy, with all combatants darting around the room like flies around a carcass. Owl had assessed all of the men's abilities and knew what to do.
He waited until his two assailants approached him from both sides and held out his hands, releasing a stream of electrical chakra from around his body. The two men froze, teeth chattering as they slowly fell back to the floor. Owl glanced around the bar and then outside. He had been careful to deal non-lethal blows, for the time being. After he had sheathed his sword, Owl transported the men into the cellar underneath the floorboards, where slick talking patrons had often trapped young girls and forced them to perform for free. Owl's first entrance into town included the beating and capture of an attempted rapist and he had been rewarded with an unlimited tab ever since.
Owl sat on a wine barrel, drank from an old bottle and waited for a while for any of the men to wake up. When they didn't, Owl poured the remainder of his bottle on them and slapped the blonde man awake. Gasping, he looked up and attempted to perform a hand seal, but Owl swung his sword down, removing a few of the man's fingers. He cried out and Owl leaned forward and placed a hand on his mouth.
"If you're going to be this loud, you ought to at least be saying something of substance." He removed his hand stood up straight, looking between all three men. "You're alive now for a single purpose and you will fulfill it or you will die, painfully and slowly. I have a single question. Where is Yashagoro?" When no one answered, Owl nodded. "Fine."
The bearded spy next to the blonde man gasped when Owl's sword swung towards stomach, spilling his intestines on the floor. He held his intestines and his mouth went agape with a high-pitched scream, that slowed and deepened. Shaky eyes shifted to Owl's, turned from their natural light gray to a crimson field, with half-completed black rings and tomoe rotating.
"What...what is this?" the blonde man sputtered from his lips.
Owl didn't blink. He had named the technique Mahākāra because of his left Mangekyo's unique ability to slow time in a localized area. It was an effect torture technique though, Owl hadn't gotten around to testing it in combat.
The bearded spy continued to scream in slow motion, clutching at his wounds until Owl stopped the technique and the man fell forward, dead. Owl shifted his eyes to the remaining men and could see the scarlet glow of his Sharingan in the cellar. Crying, the long-haired man to the blonde man's side dipped his head.
"Please, don't kill us!"
"Then answer my question," Owl said in a low, cold tone.
His hair touching the dusty floor, the man continued. "Please! We have families, families that will die if we turn against him."
Owl blinked. Memories, images, and voices tugged at his emotions. A family, his family, which he hadn't seen for years, called out for him, saying a name he had tried to let go.
Sosei…
Then, he saw his youngest brother molested and his other brother committing suicide, while his father stood idly by as both happened. Owl shook and felt his anger consume him, his chakra growing colder as he squeezed his fist closed until the palm of his hand bled and dripped down the hilt of his sword. He pressed the tip of his blade to the man's throat and stared at him.
"I don't care. You'll tell me where he is and what he's planning."
The long-haired man sniffled and kept his head bowed. "I don't know wh…" Owl pushed his sword through the man's throat, letting the blood spurt onto the floor. The man gurgled and gagged on his own blood until Owl pulled the blade out, whipping it towards the blonde man, letting the blood spray onto his face.
"That leaves you," he said. The blonde man shivered and looked up into Owl's glowing red eyes.
"I-I..."
Owl rolled his eyes. He had tried to get the men to confess naturally, but now, he was growing tired and impatient. He made eye contact with the blonde man again, locking him into a trance and entering his mind with a genjutsu. He didn't care to be subtle, instead ripping through as he searched for what he wanted, cycling through image after image until he found someone resembling the man he was looking for.
Long black hair, cold blue eyes, and a pale, angular face. Yashagoro stood in front of the blonde man and spoke to him, pointing behind him to a little girl. Owl heard a few words he said.
Cleanse.
Machine.
Tree.
Owl backed away and sighed softly as the blonde man slumped to ground, drooling from his mouth. He suspected that his brain was fried, ripped apart by Owl's intrusion. The revelation that the man was actually a father with a family did pull at his heart strings but he shook the feelings from his mind. This was the price of his mission and at his core, he knew that the ends justified the means. A few deaths didn't compare to the potential destruction of the world if Yashagoro had his way. That's what Owl had been telling himself every time he stared at the dead fathers, mothers, sons and daughters that laid in his wake.
He transported the bodies to the back of the brothel and incinerated them with Amaterasu as he had done in the past. The black flames swirled around, consuming the corpses until Owl's bleeding eye erased them.
He closed his right eye and turned away from the ashes. He went to his room and packed his bags with his clothes, money and the remainder of his food rations for the week, leaving money for the damages he caused behind the counter. With that last gift, Owl left the small town, the moon reflecting on his back as he walked away.
It was a little while before he stopped to rest against a tree, leaning against his bag of clothes as he tried to sleep. But the peaceful release he sought never came, clouded by images of fire, blood and chaos. Owl saw his old home destroyed, his mother killed, his family torn asunder while Yashin and Yashagoro watched.
He gasped awake and panted as he looked around, gulping and sweating heavily. The sun slowly crept over the horizon, shining directly into Owl's eyes. He heard some shuffling in the trees above him and looked up towards the noise. A large dappled brown eagle owl turned its head 180 degrees to stare down at him before blinking and taking off with a silent flap of its enormous wings.
Owl rubbed his head, took a drink from his water flask, then rose to his feet. He had very little indication where Yashagoro was now and with three of his agents dead, Owl knew that his target was getting closer to finding him than he liked. The last thing he wanted was to be ambushed and taken by surprise by multiple Kage-level shinobi. He had only one lead and that was the three words he had pulled from the agent's mind.
The only thing he could feasibly put together was the reference word of tree. In his mind, he recalled stories of the God Tree, an ancient construct that had been a part of the Eye of The Moon Plan, which two entities had two separate outcomes for. Owl had always assumed the tree had been destroyed but if Yashagoro planned to use it, then it had to still be active somehow. "Cleanse" and "machine" were vague enough words that Owl put them on the backburner of his mind. If he wanted to see where the God Tree had been, he'd have to go to the Land of Lightning and head to the site of the war that had supposedly ended all the wars to come.
Sighing softly, he picked himself up from off the road and stretched. A wagon squeaked toward him, hitting every bump on the dirt road before slowing to a stop as it drew closer to Owl. Narrowing his eyes, the young man's hand instinctively went to his sword's hilt, expecting an angry patron from the bar or some other drunk fool expecting a fight on the road.
A young woman stepped out of her wagon, a white kimono top with pink flowers etched into it's design covering her body. Owl loosened his grip on his sword's hilt and stared forward. The woman's blue hair was lifted in a messy bun, leaving her oval face completely exposed. Even if it had been hidden, there was no way Owl could have forgotten her.
Aori… he thought.
As if hearing his thoughts, Aori blinked at him and smiled before walking closer toward him. Owl realized quickly how much time had passed, he was almost towering over Aori now and she noticed too. She looked up at him and stared for a while.
"Sosei…" she said softly. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again. It's been so long."
The young man blinked, caught between who he had been and the person that Aori was talking to. He shook his head and ignored the tightness in his chest.
"What are you doing so far from Konoha?"
The blue-haired woman smiled lightly. "My father is a contractor and the Land of Water is still in the midst of rebuilding Kirigakure to modern sensibilities. I'm transporting a few examples of technology and meeting with the Water Daimyo and the new Mizukage to discuss the work he believes needs to be done."
"So, you're the head of that region's operations, then?" Owl asked.
"Merely a representative. I'm a good negotiator, is all."
Owl nodded. "Well, I guess you'd better be heading off." Aori blinked and slowly began to nod before she stopped and smiled again.
"Actually...well, this is a bit embarrassing to ask, but I know the roads ahead aren't particularly protected or safe. A lot of caravans and travellers have gone missing in recent weeks. I don't want to be presumptuous but...could you travel with me?" When owl made a face, Aori continued. "Just to Kiri. I'm sure I can hire some escorts back."
Owl weighed the options in his mind. He had more pressing business, trying to find if the roots of the God Tree remained where the monstrous blossom had once stood as well as stopping Yashagoro's plan. He had very little reason to go out of his way to Kirigakure and then backtrack around to the mountains. It'd takes weeks and in that time, Yashagoro could launch his plan. Besides, with his agents on Owl's tail and closing in on him, he couldn't risk putting Aori in danger.
But she'd be in more danger if one of Yashagoro's spies caught her alone after witnessing them interacting or if they had any knowledge of their past interactions. Then, Owl paused and remembered one of the words that he had heard in the spy's head.
Machine. He glanced at the back of Aori's carriage and narrowed his eyes. What if this was it?
Nodding, Owl folded his arms. "It's a bit out of the way of my original destination, but I'll escort you," he said. Aori's face brightened with a bright smile and she hugged him. The sudden touch sent a pleasant chill down Owl's spine and he had to hold himself together. When Aori pulled away, she walked towards her carriage.
"It won't be a free escort, of course. I'll make sure you're well-paid." She opened the curtain and sat in the corner, before waving for Owl to come forward. Glancing from side to side, the young vagabond stepped into the carriage and sat next to Aori. With a ring of the bell, Aori's carriage rolled ahead and Owl leaned back against the headrest.
He could feel Aori's eyes on him and turned to meet her gaze. "You all right?" he asked. Aori chuckled softly.
"Yes," she replied. "It's just that it's been so long and you look pretty different now." She reached and touched his hair, now long, unkempt and past his shoulders. Aori's hand retreated and she sighed. "You're missed, you know?"
Owl blinked. "No," he said. "Sosei Uchiha is." Aori's face twisted in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, that's not who I am anymore." It was partially true. Owl had had to change. For the past five years, he'd shifted from the young shinobi trying to live up to the legend of the Uchiha into his own man, a hunter searching for the most dangerous of game. The things he had done to get this close had been bloody and in most circles, considered dishonorable. Even as an ANBU, he hadn't tortured the way he had.
Aori didn't seem to understand fully, but she didn't argue with him or press the matter. "Well," she said. "Konoha has been producing some very promising shinobi. The graduation ceremony for the Academy students is happening very soon. I saw the list before I left Konoha. Hikari Uchiha is at the top of her class."
Owl's heart pulled a bit. He imagined his little pink-haired sister, Dakko-chan, taller and blossoming into a young woman with the deadly skill of her ancestor. It almost brought a smile to his face. Resigning in himself, Sosei turned and looked at Aori.
"And Kichiro?"
