What horrors do his crimson eyes behold? These are the unfathomable depths of Uchiha Itachi.
I don't own Naruto nor do I profit from these writings in any way.
"Speaking"
"Thinking"
"Demon"
-SF-
Kitsuki
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Interlude, An Innocent Ninja Love Story
Kitsuki Waya lived a difficult life. It began in fire and pain, when he was orphaned at birth. Waya bore a disfiguring scar across his back that had nearly ended his career as a ninja before it had even begun. He was taken in by his maternal grandfather, a former shinobi himself who had retired from active duty and opened a bar and diner catering to off-duty ninja.Waya had lived his entire life surrounded by 'cool' ninja and he wanted nothing more than to be one. He was determined to follow in his parent's footseps and become a ninja regardless of the effort that it might take . As a result, he started on the road to being a ninja with a disadvantage that his classmates did not have and a burning determination that few could understand.
Medical techniques while a toddler had reduced the scar tissue on his back ensuring that he could live a normal life, extensive and merciless physical training under his grandfather's grudging tutelage had just barely made it so that he could serve as a shinobi. His grades in the Academy were usually the lowest in his class but by some miracle it seemed that this year he hadn't graduated in last place.
He wasn't to sure what to think about that mixed blessing.
The source of Waya's confusion was as always Aburame Shinobu.
Once, when Waya was eight an Aburame had entered the Kitsuki bar with some teammates. The man had held an air of exasperated tolerance and had left soon after one of the other men had drunkenly splashed some alcohol on him. Later that night, when Waya had been cleaning up their table at closing time he had noticed a strange looking firefly walking around in circles smelling of sake.
Waya had liked fireflies back then so he had gently moved the beetle to a coaster and placed it on an empty windowsill. The next day the beetle was gone and Waya forgot about the incident.
A day after that Shinobu had shown up.
The six year old girl was like a shadow that Waya couldn't be rid of. She watched him constantly and followed him everywhere. She stood outside his house when Waya woke up and she followed him to the academy, waiting at the entrance in the evening until he left. Silently, blatantly, unapologetically, constantly watching him. He had been ribbed by his classmates until one day he yelled at her to go away.
She hadn't gone away, she just decided to hide better, but he could always feel her watching him even in the bath.
"Creepy…"
It was irritating but his grandfather had only smirked when Waya had complained to him about her. The Aburame clan was now a frequent customer of the bar and diner. Jii-chan was so happy that he had added servings of fresh, sweet fruit juice to the menu for his new loyal customers as well as a small flower garden outside of the store to attract butterflies for viewing. Unsurprisingly, Shinobu often came with her parents on outings to the increasingly prosperous restaurant.
Waya had failed his first written academy exam and the second, he had been sent back with his team the third time. His physical limits had been improved over time but his grades were still horrible. By the time that Waya was twelve he was pretty certain that if he failed again he would be booted out of the academy.
To make matters worse Shinobu was now in his class, somehow always managing to sit in a position where she could watch him without being obvious that she was doing it. Her usual seat of choice was one place behind him to his left. She stood next to him in exercises and paired up against him in spars. They had interacted to such a degree that Waya was by this time hyperaware of insects to the extent that he was accustomed to restraining the instinctive urge to swat at things crawling on his skin when an Aburame was nearby.
Due to his time spent around Aburame members he now went out of his way to check to see if he had a kikai bug on him before gently brushing of the strangely amorous insects. He always had one on him though and Waya as fairly certain he knew who was responsible for that. Shinobu rarely spoke to him unless she had to and it was always a litany of monosyllable answers delivered in a bland, impersonal tone.
Waya found that in watching her watch him, he had gained several insights into her mystifying behavior. Her face became blank and her shoulders squared when she was afraid. Spiders, frogs, lizards and newts frightened her and she disliked being in the presence of animals that ate insects. The right corner of her mouth twitched when she was pissed and her personal hygiene bordered on obsessive-compulsive behavior.
When Waya had been paired with her and Uchiha Shisui he had been both relieved and depressed. On one hand he was with someone he knew, one the other hand she was the weirdest girl that he had ever known. Shinobu's only response to the fact that she was paired with Waya was. "Hn."
Their Jounin-Sensei was a laid-back man named Nara Toshiki whose idea of training his students was to have them run through endless drills and D-rank missions while the jounin worked on his tan. The slouching, lazy man at times tasked his students with independent study or, 'Do what you want, let me sleep!' exercises that involved quietly sitting, observing nature while blindfolded and gagged or pulling a two-wheel, one-man wicker carriage carrying their sensei or a prearranged bag of groceries around town while the man slept.
Today Waya was making his way to the steps of the mission assignment hall where he was supposed to meet his team for a new D-rank assignment. As usual Aburame Shinobu was shadowing his movement three steps behind to his left. As had been happening often of late Kitsuki thought back to the events of their genin survival test and the words Shinobu had spoken to him.
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Academy roof
"Ehhhh!!"
They had just been offhandedly informed by Toshiki-Sensei that at least two of the three genin taking his test would need to pass his evaluation if they wanted to become ninja and that the third should probably give up to give the other's a fighting chance. He had seemed about to list the many and varied list of ways that a straggler could kill a team before sighing and saying that it was too troublesome a thing to do.
"B-but that's not fair!" whined Waya in frustration.
"Hn!" From Shinobu.
"Cheh!" scowled Shishui.
-Yawn- "Like I care, having a team is too troublesome, don't expect any favors." Nara Toshiki ruthlessly replied as he stretched lazily on the couch where he lounged before his standing students.
"Then get us another sensei! Ya lazy bum!!" Waya screamed, incensed by the jounin's attitude.
"That's…even more troublesome, come to training ground twenty-four, sometime, -yawn- afternoon tomorrow, that's when I usually wake up un!" The shadow clone of the jounin replied before disappearing in a puff of smoke when its creator finally fell asleep again, miles away in his apartment.
Jounin Nara Toshiki was too lazy to even be bothered by the effort of getting out of bed to greet a group of bothersome brats three whole hours before noon.
Their sensei had arrived at three in the evening and given them half an hour to make it to the halfway point in field twenty-four's chunin training course. Shishui had burst ahead in a blaze of glory before going down the same way under the weight of several non-lethal traps. Shinobu had used he kikai bugs to free him while Waya took up the rear. Waya had aided Shinobu in spotting some of the more esoteric traps but his weak body had slowed the pace of their progress until things had come to an impasse.
Waya had fallen into a pit trap at the twenty-ninth minute. Shinobu had chosen to help him while Shishui had gone on, leaving them behind. Humiliated by his failure to spot such a simple trick Waya had been in tears when he asked her why she bothered. In a simple matter of fact tone Shinobu had replied.
"Because I love you."
Seconds later Shishui had returned, telling a blushing Waya and stoic Shinobu that he needed their help to pass the last hurdle. The three genin had failed the test by two minutes but Toshiki-Sensei had passed them anyway. This was mostly because the jounin hadn't bothered to bring an alarm clock to time them, since he didn't own one and it was too troublesome to buy one.
When Shishui had been asked for their time the normally by-the-book genin had lied outright.
Team Toshiki, pass!
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Mission Assignment Hall
Waya snapped back into reality as the chunin assignment officer began to go into the general details of the mission they had volunteered for. Babysitting a toddler, Waya was distracted by the fact that the 'toddler' he would be looking after was the Yondaime's son so he missed the glares that Shishui had been shooting one of the other teams. Shinobu however noticed everything. Since the only other teams from their year to have passed were the Kirito, Yamanaka, Akamichi group under Nura-Sensei and the Uchiha, Inuzaka, Hyuuga group under Murasaki-Sensei, Shinobu easily deduced who Shishui was staring at. Not for the first time the kunoichi felt uneasy about the Uchiha's behavior but she dismissed the matter from her mind.
A mistake.
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Two Weeks later, two days journey from Tatami-Waterfall Border
Considering that his mission with Xiaou Wu Long was now in progress Maito Gai couldn't help but feel disappointed by the sheer anti-climax that meeting the unyouthful action movie star had been. While he knew in his head that having a boring escort mission with a lazy, lush of a client that stayed out of his way was every ninja's ideal job, in his heart the fire's of Gai's youth raged.
"Where's the action, where's the excitement." He thought.
A second later Gai chided himself for those thoughts as he remembered that his strength was to be used to protect the weak, to guard the fires of youth and uphold his ninja way.
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Four and a half years ago
"Sensei!"
"Gai…"
"Please, sensei"
"Maybe…"
"Yahooo!"
A ten year old boy wearing green tights and a wire mesh vest under a forest green gi began spinning around wildly, bouncing around from place to place as his teacher tried talking to him.
"Wait a-"
"Thank you sensei!!"
"-minute "
"I wanna learn how to do that thing where you smashed that guy through a boulder."
"I haven't decided-"
"The one where you mule-kicked him up into the air like swoosh!!"
"-anything-"
"And then ya kicked him around so fast that I couldn't even see ya sensei!!"
"-yet!"
"Then sensei hung in the air like a crane."
"Gai"
"And she kicked him so fast it set him on fire!"
"Gai!"
"Like, swish! Bang!"
"Gai!!"
"And then fwip, fwip, fwip! Bam!"
"Gai!!"
"And you were all red and on fire, and he was all squealing and crying, and you were like 'I crushed your nose, I could'a been aiming lower' and he was like-"
Finally the dark-haired woman had enough of her rambling student and bludgeoned him with a right cross.
"Listen to me! Goddammit!!"
–Smack!-
Gai's face dug a short, inch deep furrow in the soft forest earth.
"S-strong!" Gai thought woozily. "Katsuragi-sensei is a strong and beautiful flower!"
"Masochist!" Katsuragi Yuuna thought as she watched Gai clear dirt out his nose with a love-struck expression.
Gathering her momentarily lost poise she turned to leave.
"My answer is no, you're still too immature for that!" Yuuna called over her shoulder.
Gai struggled to rise to his feet but instead only managed to raise himself to a kneeling position.
"Sensei, why? Kakashi he-" Gai began.
But Yuuna interrupted, "That is exactly why I can't teach you the advanced skills, if you are concerned about surpassing Kakashi-kun then the breathing skills and muscle control that I taught you should be enough, your taijutsu should have surpassed his already!"
"You're wrong Sensei!" Gai shouted at Katsuragi's retreating back. "I already know that! But Kakashi, Kakashi!"
Falling forward onto his hands Gai screamed aloud. "Kakashi is suffering, this war, people are dying around him and all I can do, damn it! All I can do is get stronger to be the one that protects! Not the one being protected!"
"Someone who protects, huh?" Yuuna muttered as she stood before the weeping Gai. Her movement was so sudden that the startled boy fell on his rear. Dark eyes looked contemplatively at Gai's tear and mucus streaked face.
"The things that I can show you, can kill you." Yuuna offered almost pleadingly as she knelt before him. "Do you understand me? You could die!"
Quietly she asked him, "Why do you want this?"
Gai stared into her eyes unflinchingly. "I need it to live!"
After a moment of silence Yuuna looked away, seeing the anguish on her face made Gai want to apologize but he held himself quiet.
Turning back to Gai Yuuna gave the boy a watery smile.
"A man does not go back on his word." She said.
"Yes!" Gai agreed emphatically.
Up until now I've taught you several styles of martial arts in addition to the advanced Konoha taijutsu, 'Renge'. When combined with the breathing and internal healing exercises that I've taught you you've been able to fight for longer without falling to fatigue."
"Hai!" Gai acknowledged.
"But that's not the only reason for learning those internal arts." Yuuna explained. Drawing Gai's attention to a fox stalking a field mouse she continued. "An animal in the wild must take care to only use the least amount of effort in hunting its prey, since less exertion means fewer injuries and slower wear on the body over time."
Looking at Gai to ensure that he was listening she continued. "The human body is the same way. In order to regulate our bodies to an optimum condition our mind and body possess a series of checks and balances to prevent over exertion. When these checks are released humans can draw an enormous power from within their bodies. You've probably heard stories of frail young mothers lifting a crashed ox-cart off of their children or wrestling with bandits."
Drawing a diagram in the dirt she pushed on with her explanation. "Using the techniques that I've taught to you, there is a way to systematically unlock these checks on the body's full strength and true potential."
Gai's face took on a look of pure glee until Yuuna's next words penetrated his mind.
"In exchange for unlocking these checks however is the risk of permanent injury, or even death." She said grimly. "That's why mastering even the simplest of endurance training techniques is vital as it is quite possible for someone to fight until they dropped dead."
Looking at Gai Yuuna pressed him with her words. "If I teach you how to use the Eight Celestial gates Gai there is something that I want you to promise me."
Gai nodded dumbly to show his agreement.
"I want you to only use this skill under a certain condition…"
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Ravine Pass a day and a half from Tatami-Waterfall border
Gai had taken up position in the middle of the film crew caravan as they progressed through the ravine. He was currently in an oxen-drawn wagon that was supposed to be carrying Xiaou Wu Long his agent and part of his entourage. The actor had taken offence to the size of the umeboshi served at lunch and in a fit of pique had turned out the make up artists from their living-wagon which was slightly wider than his own.
The bitterly complaining cosmeticians and their equipment had taken up residence in one of the clothing designer's carriages leaving Gai and Moriko to use the old private carriage as a cheap decoy.
Gai was currently using Henge to appear to be Xiaou Wu Long while a few of Itachi's shadow clones pretended to be simpering groupies. Periodically one of them would open a flap allowing Gai to quickly snatch a look outside in the reflection of a hand held mirror.
The plan was for Suzume to be at the head of the formation with a disguised Itachi clone while Hideo stayed in the middle of the formation seated on the perch next to the driver. Suzume's sense of smell was impaired by being close to so many animals so positioning her at the head of the caravan made it easier for her to use her advanced senses to detect dangers ahead of their route.
Hideo was positioned in the middle of the formation with the cluster of disguised Itachi clones for the purpose of identifying enemies coming from any direction so the clones could deal with the threat before the workers were in danger.
Moriko was currently taking her turn in disguise as one of Xiaou Wu Long's entourage guarding the movie star so that Gai could rest away from the man. Itachi was somewhere close to the rear so that he would be capable of dealing with any attacks from that direction and communicating with the other Itachi clones in case of an emergency.
Gai knew the instant before the clones in the caravan raised the alarm that something had gone wrong. First there was a dull rumble and then the rumble was followed by a thunderous crash as large boulders fell upon the wagons to the front and rear of the caravan, Suzume's agonized screams chilled the young jounin's blood as he prepared to seek out and engage the enemy.
He need not have bothered as a spear tip sought him out, skewering an Itachi-clone in the process. The wagon lurched as muddy water from a dammed and diverted stream carrying logs and other debris swept down the sides of the ravine and crashed into the caravan. The two attacks killed most of the civilians and Moriko stood on a log carrying a wet Xiaou Wu Long who was screaming for his agent.
Gai, still disguised as Xiaou Wu Long followed the few surviving Itachi-clones out of the floating caravan and unto a log where he was swiftly attacked by a spear-carrying bandit. The man thrust the spearhead at Gai in quick succession, indicating talent and training. Gai bent over backwards to dodge a thrust to his midsection using the opportunity to deliver, upside down, a straight punch to the groin of a man trying to sneak up behind him. With a gasp the bandit Gai punched collapsed forward unto the thrusting spear impaling himself.
Balancing on his hands Gai kicked the spear out of its wielder's hands before delivering a second crushing blow to the man's chin. Leaping back to his feet Gai ducked a swing from an axe delivering a flurry of wing chun punches to the solar plexus and ribs of his attacker. He then stepped back as the brigand lurched over to vomit onto the log, watching as the man placed himself perfectly to receive the tip of the falling spear through a lung. A swift kick, broke off a five foot long length of wood which Gai used as a jo until he broke the wooden shaft on the head of a charging bandit.
Leaping closer to Moriko who was fighting an uphill battle burdened by Xiaou, Gai used his left foot to stop the sword-wielding fist of one bandit while doing a leaping kick with his other foot to break the nose of another bandit. Whipping the wooden sticks around, he managed to again trap the sword of the bandit before him with one stick, while swinging around the other like a baton to deliver a series of violent blows, clubbing the man's face and neck.
With a final poke to the sword-wielder's left eye with the splintered end of one of his short sticks Gai turned away from the writhing, screaming man clutching at his ruined eye.
-Wham!!-
A giant mace clubbed Gai in the back causing him to smash through the interlocked debris and into the water flooding the ravine.
The mace wielding bandit was a giant, burly hulk of a man who stood no less than six and a half feet tall. The sword-wielding bandit dragged himself to his feet and made his way over to the hole as his partners began to torment the weary Moriko. They waited for the ninja to show himself. Gai's crushed and bloody face floated up to the surface of the water and the smaller bandit spat on the revealed body of the ninja.
Then the world shifted.
Like the sudden lifting of a hazy mist the illusion covering the battlefield dissipated revealing, no Gai, no Moriko, only several dead and dying bandits along with a handful of Itachi's shadow clones.
"DYNAMIC, ENTRY!!"
At the sound of that horribly, manly bellow the giant, mace-wielding bandit looked up, seeking the source of the noise. From out of the light of the midday sun a figure appeared. Slicing through the air at incredible speeds the sandaled foot of the true Maito Gai struck the large man in the chin. A sixty kilo jounin, wearing one hundred and twenty kilos of training weights moving at high speed impacted with enough force to snap the ox-like neck of the mace-wielding bandit. The larger man's neck hyper-extended with an audible crack and the smaller bandit stepped back in shock as the man's giant body began to sag at the knees.
The barrel-chested bandit slumped backwards, collapsing unto the shoulders of the young jounin. The sword-wilding bandit took this chance to attempt to run both the corpse and the ninja through with a single thrust. Gathering himself he charged over the tightly packed debris with a shrieking yell.
"Ssshhhhhaaaaaaa-Reeeaaarrgghh!!" He screamed drawing his sword backward in preparation to strike.
-Plunk-
"My Fucking Eye!!" He thought, as he pushed away the stabbing pain.
-Plunk, plunk, plop-
For a moment the charging bandit thought that he was hearing the rain, until six kunai embedded themselves in the fatty gut of the bandit before him. Then another set struck a bandit several paces to his right. Looking over his right shoulder the bandit's good eye widened at what he saw. From out of the blinding light of the sun, the shadow of six kunai fell from the sky.
Then that number, tripled, then tripled again and again and again until the sky was raining hundreds of pieces of metal. With a quick gulp of air the bandit dived into the hole in the debris opened up by the mace. He stayed there for as long as he could hold his breath before surfacing at the shore of the ravine on the opposite side of the large corpse. Looking around for his missing sword in desperation the bandit noticed that the jounin from before was standing proudly on a rock on the other bank of the ravine.
Then he noticed the log that the ninja had replaced himself with propping up the kunai and shuriken-ridden corpse of the fat bandit.
And then he noticed the exploding tag on the log.
"Oh SHI-!!"
-BOOM-
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On a hill in the distance, from a hidden position overlooking the chaos in the ravine Murasaki Moriko packed away the last of her implements and sealed the scroll containing a lifelike depiction of the caravan passing through the pass in the distance. Itachi had observed closely as she had painted the scene weaving almost seamlessly the illusionary caravan using the spare carriage that Xiaou Wu Long hadn't wanted as well as a handful of shadow clones created by Itachi.
When Suzume had caught the scent of the bandits ahead of their route Hideo had found their watchers in the forest and Moriko-sensei had trapped the unsuspecting men in a genjutsu showing the caravan slowly proceeding toward the ravine. Hideo had used his byakugan to scout ahead for the location of the enemy forces and in doing so had found an alternate path to the border. To discourage pursuit several Itachi clones had accompanied Moriko-sensei and Gai-sensei to where they set up a counter-ambush. The rest of their group had escorted the real caravan through an abandoned pass that avoided the perils on their present previous course.
After closing the final clasp on her backpack Moriko sat for a moment observing what she had wrought. The shock of finding their world suddenly changed, combined with losing their target, being beaten by Gai in addition to seeing several of their number die in a hail of kunai severely tested the morale of the mountain bandits. The explosion was the last straw jolting them into fleeing as a mob despite of the protests of their leader a squat man wearing shabby samurai armor. As the bandit's fled from the ravine Moriko turned to Itachi.
"Dispel yourself and inform the others that we will be joining them soon." She ordered brushing aside a strand of hair.
The clone nodded and vanished in a puff of smoke.
"Now for the hard part." She breathed as Gai returned carrying the unconscious bandit leader as she had requested him to. One look at Gai's face revealed his queasiness at what he thought was coming. She almost sent him along with Itachi but Gai was a Jounin, what they could learn from the bandit leader may be important in the furure.
After quickly tying the man to a tree she belted him across the face with an open hand. By the time the first syllable of an outraged curse had left the man's mouth Moriko had already completed the final seal of her next jutsu.
"Ninpo: Jigyaku no jutsu." Moriko intoned as she placed her hand on the forehead of the bandit leader. The man's jaws slackened and his eye's rolled up in his head. The jounin smirked in satisfaction as a trail of drool slipped from the corner of the man's mouth and his head lolled forward. The time reversal technique caused a subject to recall the events of a certain time period in exacting detail, it wasn't perfect but it worked well enough for debriefings and the interrogation of prisoners with weak minds.
"Tell me of what caused you to attack this caravan!!" Moriko ordered as Gai observed wide-eyed.
With a shuddering sigh the squat man began a mumbling, rambling account of his personal history, of how he felt unloved as a child, and lusted after his mother.
There was a reason that this technique wasn't the be all and end all of interrogation techniques. Moriko rubbed at the beginnings of a headache before asking a second, more carefully thought out question before the bandit regaled Gai with a lusty account of what actually happened when he decided to rape his mother.
"This caravan in particular! Tell me about what caused you to attack Xiaou Wu Long's caravan!" Moriko interrupted what was from Gai's expression a rather disgusting tale.
"Three men in red," The bandit leader sighed. "Paid us, told us that they'd split the ransom. I was fucking some bitch from the next village when they came to make the offer, uhuhu! She was a screamer all right! A virgin too! The men loved her!"
Moriko tried asking more about the three men but all she got was more disgusting information about the people that the man had been molesting with impunity that day.
Gai was trembling with impotent rage so she sent him ahead to meet with the others before he did something stupid. Then when he was out of sight, she made two hand seals, tiger, then ram and tapped the bandit with a finger.
"Genjutsu Kai!" She silently incanted.
"Her parents were scr- huh, whuh, where am I? What's going on?" The man asked as he shook his head in confusion.
His next words were bloody gurgles as Moriko emotionlessly slit his fat throat from left to right with the blade of a shuriken, severing his jugular vein and giving him a gruesome second smile as he slowly bled to death.
She walked away and never looked back.
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The bandits that had fled gathered together at their old base hidden in the forest. After it was apparent that Leader wasn't coming back the various lieutenants began to jostle for a position of power. They were in the second hour of their argument when the three men in red stalked into the camp.
They moved with such confidence and menace that none of the lower-ranked bandits dared to bar their path, not after the massacre that they had recently endured. The First was a man that seemed of average height and build he wore a folded pair of kusarigama strapped to either leg. The Second as short and squat, with largely muscled arms and hands covered with thick metal gauntlets, there was an odd bulge on his back making him seem to be hump-backed. The Third was taller than average and the hilts of three swords could be seen at his side.
The three were dressed as yamabushi, their faces and bodies obscured by red and black kimono and hakama. Their heads were covered by red scarves and they each wore a hand carved Noh Mask. The First wore Laughing Mask, The Second wore Crying Mask, The Third wore Hannya Mask.
After a few moments the lieutenants noticed the presence of the newcomers and ceased their posturing long enough for one to step forward and ask in a contemptuous tone.
"Who the fuck are you?"
He was answered with a single question.
"Who is the Boss?" Asked Laughing Mask in a friendly tone.
A large and heavy set lieutenant, with an untamed black beard stepped forward. "I am the Boss!" There were some mild grumblings of dissent but none disputed the man's claim.
"Who is the Boss?" Asked Crying Mask in a subdued tone.
"Are ya deaf I said I'm the fricken B-" The bandit roared before his body exploded in a spray of blood that sprinkled around the clearing in a fine spray.
The scent of blood filled the air.
"Who is the Boss?" Asked Hannya Mask in a menacing tone, shaking blood from his fingers.
Every bandit in the clearing replied obediently in a contrite manner, like a classroom of polite children.
"You are the Boss."
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AN: Proofreading these stories is the bane of my existence. It gets so bad that when I post a story and realize that there's still a mistake after the twentieth time looking through I just want to look the other way. It seems like this story isn't really drawing that much interest compared to God of Flash but it's the one that seems easir to write at this point in time. I've almost finished the next God of Flash so those of you who are watching for it don't worry.
It's just that I'm a bit strapped for time at the moment and I've already found the seeds of another story. We'll just have to see how things work out. I like it when reviewers ask questions about the story and make suggestions. It probably won't change what I'm writing but it helps shake me free of thinking only a certain way and not taking into account other aspects of a character's situation that I might not have considered. So reviews (about the story) are welcome. TTFN.