Shattered Destiny:
Chapter 19: Resting place of Storms
Bittersweet is the word I'd use to describe this. I hold the shield up in front of me, it's a draugr's shield, but it doesn't seem to have any chakra in it already.
I'd be doing better if my shield arm wasn't already tired from holding the thing up. "If I'm recalling right blocking doesn't negate attacks, just reduces what is dealt?" Sensei asks.
"Mmhmm." I need to sit down again. Who'd think that having one working lung would drain someone faster than usual, rather than… you know. Dead.
"And there's something taking up most of your 'health bar'?" Sensei continues.
I nod in reply, taking slow, deep breaths to recover. I have a lot of training to make up for.
"Keiki will be exempt from sparring, if the two of you didn't know that already."
"Why would I spar with someone who's missing a lung!?" Zabuza pipes up, he's practicing sword stances. It looks absurd with a blade that's almost three times his size, and that's not counting the pommel.
"I-I don't want to accidentally kill him!" Satu looks up from her books, textbooks from the village we saved. I don't know what they're about, and I'm not interested enough to ask.
Sensei chuckles knowingly. "How long do you need to wait in between shouts?"
I take a deep breath. "Fifteen seconds, I think."
"Shout at the wall."
Another breath. "FUS!" The shockwave is just as strong as if I were unharmed, sending dust everywhere. I jump away from the dust as if it were trying to kill me, I don't want to imagine what were to happen if my bad lung inhaled dust.
"Four, five, six, seven-" Sensei counts.
She's going to want me to shout when it's fifteen. I take a deep breath and hold it until then.
"Fifteen."
"FUS!" More dust angrily takes flight, seeking out whoever dared to disrupt their sleep.
Death by dust, what a way to go.
"On the dot." Sensei nods. "How're you feeling?"
Instead of answering I drop to the ground, prefering to breathe and rest for the time being. "Heeeeee…. Hooooo."
"We can resume when you've recovered enough." Sensei nods with a relieved sigh. "Zabuza your letting the tip dip too low."
"Right!" Zabuza pushes his elbow up, propping the blade back up so it's even with the hilt. The cold radiating from the blade leaves leaves traces of frost on his arm.
A few minutes pass before I try standing again, my head goes light instantly and spots pop in and out of existence at random. I wait until the worst is over before holding my shield arm up, pretending to block attacks coming at me.
-3 health. +5 block XP (55/325)
One of the imaginary blades hits my shield, and forces me back. "W-what the!?" I cry out as I fall to the ground.
The imagined enemies fade away, all but one. Sensei is there in a flash. "Where did this thing come from!?" She demands.
"I-I don't know, I thought it was in my head!" I back away quickly.
The… ghost? Swings at sensei, she ducks out of the way of the strike. "Is it possible to kill it!?" Zabuza rushes over.
"FUS!" I shout at the ghost, it's staggered by the force.
"That's all I need to know." Zabuza cleaves his blade through the ghost, it seems to freeze before turning into goo.
"What's this?" Satu hesitantly steps up and pokes the goop with a kunai, the tool doesn't phase through the goop.
"I think it was a ghost?" I say.
"Ghosts don't exist." Sensei shakes her head.
"Then what do you call that!?" Zabuza points at the goop.
Satu pulls a sword out of the goop, the silence deepens and the questions pile on. "What's going on?" Ichiyo suddenly appears.
"Keiki was attacked by… what can only be described as a ghost." Sensei explains.
"A… ghost." His doubt is clear as day. "We've been through this entire ruin, there's a few corpses but nothing moving."
"What about the vault door?" Sensei raises an eyebrow.
"The locks on our side, and nobody's come in without…" He trails off, his eyes going wide.
Coming from deeper in the ruin is another ghost, it readies it's spectral axe and charges. Sensei and Ichiyo jump at the ghost, the two almost dancing around the ghost's attacks and cutting at it until it turns into more goop.
An axe bubbles up from the goop. "Apparently there's something down there now." Sensei tells Ichiyo.
"So it would seem, Ai's team is scouting right now, and Fumimaro is still recovering."
"Keiki isn't going anywhere." Sensei rubs her chin.
"We need as many able hands in case if any hostile nin stumble upon this place."
I share looks with my teammates, they're as unsure as I am. "But having more ghosts wander their way up…. Zabuza, Satu, we're going down."
"W-what about me?" I ask, already knowing the answer.
"You're staying here until we're done." Sensei tells me. "And if you follow us, so help me."
I gulp and settle down by the wall, not saying anything. "We'll keep an eye on him." Ichiyo promises.
"I'm keeping you to that, when Ai comes back-"
"You went deeper into the ruins to clear out the ghost-like beings."
"Exactly, Zabuza-"
"Right!"
"-Satu-"
"Y-yes sensei."
"Let's go." Sensei leads my teammates down into the ruins.
"Where are we anyways?" I ask Ichiyo as we head for the 'heart' of our camp.
"Close to the border of Frost, that way word can reach us sooner rather than later of Kirigakure's preparations."
Makes sense. I settle down next to Fumimaro. "How're you holding up?"
"I'm not coughing up blood anymore." he states dryly.
"That bad?" I reel.
"Could be worse, I could be in your shoes." He jokes.
"H-hey." I rub the back of my head. "I'm not that reckless, usually."
"How'd you lose your arm?"
"I jumped on a zombie and shot his face full of firebolts, it stabbed me and Sensei pulled me off of it."
"How'd you get the hole in your chest?"
This again!? "I… ran off on my own like an idiot."
"Huh, if only your foresight was as sharp as your hindsight." Fumimaro punches my good shoulder lightly.
"Ha. Ha." I frown at him.
"We're back, Ichiyo-san!" Ai calls out as she enters the cavern.
"Welcome back, anything exciting happen?"
"A few squirrels and rats, but nothing to worry about, we came back to rest for a few before trying our luck at a raid." Ai says ushering her genin into the cave. "Get some rest you three."
"Okay."
"Finally."
"Thank you!"
Ichiyo steps aside for the genin. "Guess who woke up while you were gone."
"The brat with one arm?" Ai's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "I thought he was going to die!"
"He's not that lucky, but he'll heal."
"Right." Ai says, swallowing the bitter pill. When Keiki was brought back from his 'mission' in Frost he was missing his entire arm, you could see his ribcage, but now he's only missing just past the elbow! "Where's Koi-sama?"
"Ghost-like creatures came up from deeper in the ruins and attacked, Keiki was lucky his teammates were there."
"I thought we cleared that out." Ai grumbles iritably.
"Koi-sama is clearing out the 'spirits'." Ichiyo says with quotations.
"She didn't take-"
Ichiyo holds a hand up, cutting her off. "It's my job to make sure he doesn't follow them down."
"Keep a close eye on him, I wouldn't put it past him to sneak away."
"No, I don't think we have to worry about that." Ichiyo ushers Ai to the 'heart' of the camp, where Keiki is chatting with the other genin.
He's using a shield to push Yoko away from his chest bandage. "Don't poke at him!" Ai shouts. "If you broke your arm you wouldn't want someone shaking it?"
"S-sorry Sensei!" Yoko backs off, face as red as a beet.
Ai rubs her eyes. "Change of plans, after our rest we're going down into the ruins."
"Again!?" Kuniaki sputters. "We already cleared out the giant rats and spiders!"
"Apparently there's something new down there-"
"Something came up and attacked me." Keiki puts the shield down and points at one of many gashes on it. "I was lucky sensei and Ichiyo-sama were there."
"Fine, I guess we weren't thorough enough." Kuniaki stands and starts marching towards the gate into the ruin.
"Where are you going?" Denbe calls.
"To finish what we started!" Kuniaki calls.
"We go as a team Kuniaki-kun!" Yoko calls after him.
"Koi-sama's already down there right?"
"Alright, fine." Ai knows where he's coming from, and it's eating at her as well. "We'll rest later, Keep an eye on the brat, okay?"
"Hey!" Keiki pipes up.
Ichiyo chuckles. "Stay safe."
Team Eight hurry down into the ruins, they spent the better parts of the morning and afternoon clearing out this out just so they wouldn't get ambushed in the middle of the night by something wanting to take a walk on their skulls.
The first burial room, there are corpses sprawled around the room, none of them human. "Did Koi-sama's team move them?" Yoko idly asks.
"I don't see why any shinobi would move anything unnecessary." Denbe points out.
"I guess."
"Keep moving, we'll catch up to them soon- Kuniaki!" A ghost charges at the genin's back.
He turns around, his teammates intercept the ghost and ram kunai into its joints, locking it in place as Ai delivers a chakra enhanced fist into its head. "What was that?" Kuniaki asks, he blinked.
"Probably one of the 'ghosts' that Ichiyo-san mentioned." She watches as the hammer the ghost used materializes in the goop.
"I think it's some sort of slime taking the form of a ghost." Denbe suggests.
"Living slime?" Yoko pokes at the goop, it moves and splurges with the knife. "Makes sense, ghosts don't exist."
"We missed them on our first time through." Ai says with a sigh to calm herself. "We won't miss anything this time."
Koi's team isn't too far ahead of them, a draugr head hits the doorframe Ai's team is about to pass through with force. "What the-" Ai wonders as the fight comes into view.
The last time her team was down here none of the corpses were moved, let alone moving and swinging weapons around like people who've just realized that they have limbs. "Assist Koi-sama's team, questions can come later."
"Right!" Team Eight springs into action, Denbe and Yoko working together and Kuniaki assisting Satu.
"How'd you miss this much draugr?" Koi asks, driving a kunai through one of the draugr.
"None of them were alive until now!" Ai responds iritibly. "What woke them up?!" A roundhouse kick knocks three draugr over. Coffins suddenly burst open, revealing more draugr.
"Beats me, when we went through the ruins in Frost they jumped us immediately." Koi pins the arm of a draugr at an awkward angle with a kunai, then uses another to slip through the sweet spot in the makeshift armor, striking a vital and killing it immediately. "What'd you find at the bottom?"
"A vault, the lock has a claw imprint on it, and three disks with animal engravings over them." Finally the last of the draugr falls to the ground, silence envelops the burial grounds.
"If you 'cleared' this out, then what was here before?" Zabuza asks Kuniaki.
"Spider nest, biggest spider I've ever seen."
Zabuza snorts. "Glad we weren't here for that, if there's a giant spider nest in every ruin then I want nothing to do with them."
"And the undead aren't reason enough?" Kuniaki grins.
"A-a spirit told us we weren't supposed to be here, and then this happened." Satu pipes up.
"Ghost's aren't real." Denbe snarks. "They're slimes with human form."
"Whatever they are-" Koi interjects. "We can't let them wander up and catch us off guard."
"Maybe the vault opened." Kuniaki pipes up.
Koi and Ai think about it. "How far are we from the vault?" Koi asks.
"Three rooms, each one just like this one."
"Well then, let's get started." Zabuza huffs.
Quest Added: The Azure Claw.
Find the Azure Claw:
What the? I watch the quest fade, reappearing just beneath Team Four. "Something wrong?" Fumimaro asks, waving a hand in front of my face.
I push the hand out of the way. "No, just confused."
"What was it?"
What do I say? "I thought I saw something, but it was nothing." I nervously trace my shield, still getting used to holding it. It's stranger still to only use it.
"It wasn't another one of those 'ghost's', right?" Fumimaro looks around frantically.
"N-no, I don't think they're related." Could they? Before the Frozen Tomb not even sensei knew about the Draugr, or about Frostbite spiders… Could this ruin be linked to my Kekkei Genkai?
I got the power to shout from a ruin like this… Is there something here tied to me? "How're the cripples doing?" Ichiyo asks playfully.
"I can move my fingers!" Fumimaro wiggles the fingers of his broken arm excitably.
"Excellent." Ichiyo says with a giant grin.
"Still a stump." I wave the stump in question in the air.
"How's the lung?"
"Not as bad as it was earlier, but I'd rather not go anywhere."
"Actually going to let yourself heal up?" Ichiyo raises an eyebrow expectantly. "Are you sure you don't want to run off and save another village?"
I give him a sour look, and he walks away with a laugh.
"Koki's cooking some of the game Ai's team caught." Ichiyo calls out.
"W-we won't have to eat more sandpaper tonight!?" I rush to get out.
"We're hidden enough for some cooking, plus it'll help with morale." Ichiyo explains.
Today might actually be my best in weeks. "Someone's happy." Fumimaro chuckles.
"Any day we're not having edible sand paper is a good day!" I say, brightening at the thought. Not today food pills!
"That's no way to talk- okay you're right." Fumimaro tried defending the foul food substitute. A valiant effort, but a pile of refuse is still crap at the end of the day.
"I knew I wasn't the only one who thought that way!"
"At least don't complain about them in front of him, please?" He pleads.
"Why would I lie? My parents taught me that lying was bad."
He sticks a finger in my ear. "I won't pull it out until you promise."
I hold a flaming hand to his head. "Get your finger out of my ear." I might not have enough chakra for a Firebolt, but I have more than enough for Flames.
Author's Notes: And another one done! Thank you for reading, and have I been calling Yoko Koko For the past several chapters!? How embarrassing! Forgive me please! Anyways I hope you enjoyed this and the previous bits, Until next time!