Chapter two – A second coming
The eye, with a Sharingan that has not been seen for ages, looks out over the plain. The man who carries it, a tall, lanky figure with an aura as mild as a young child looks out over the plains.
He leaps from his cliff-top perch, falling 20 feet to the ground, looking around he searches for something. Moving faster than the eye can see, he moves around what might be a battlefield, looking for something undescribed.
He looks to the left, and then to the right, then leaps up onto another cliff, overlooking the battlefield again. Then, a sight that would harrow peoples bones. A battlefield as gloomy as anything, and could only be worsened if it were filled with death. Smoke and dust, rises and looms over the battlefield, most of the landscape is utterly destroyed.
Surveying his landscape the figure again, leapt down onto the battleground and again starts to move about the landscape, leaping over parts of forests like small puddles and running through craters as large as buildings. The figure starts again to run but then stops, looking at a particular area of the battlefield. Surveying hard, he starts to move toward the area that seems to be where a pond used to be as a large dragon formed from the water on the ground. Water Dragon Jutsu was a common Jutsu used, and easily countered by the Sharingan. Quickly jumping past it he found the conjuror.
Running up to him and throwing quickly, a kunai followed by a shadow strike, the opponent began to lose the battle. Jumping down to avoid the kunai, he missed the one in its shadow and it hit just as he fell out of sight.
Jumping down to his level, the figure looked around for his opponent, no blood, just water. A water clone? Possibly, but unlikely. He began to turn around as the opponent shot out of the ground piercing him in the stomach with a kunai.
"I told you, I would win!" the menacing voice said, shrouded by a demonic shadowy face with piercing red eyes. And then that three seconds, just turned into the worst three days of his life.
Shooting up in a cold sweat, Kengura looked around to make sure his surrounding were still there. They weren't, he was in his room again. Rubbing his head, he looked over toward the dresser, thinking about the images, the sounds, the sights in his head. These dreams came and went sometimes, replaying events such as this one. Lying in his bed again, he looked up toward the ceiling making patterns in the ceiling with the bumps.
Slowly, he recounted what he was doing there and looking into the window he realized that he was not in the morning anymore. They had do be at Hokage Tower at 1! He leapt out of bed and scurried over to the clock, oh, it was only 12:30. He had some time. Since he was already out of bed, he decided to get ready and go do something with the time that he found out that he had. After taking a shower and putting on his uniform, he decided to go and see if Otoki's was open. His ramen store was raided, looking at the mess of cups; he decided it must have been Kerone sometime in the past two days. They haven't been home much so he would have been able to get in and out without a problem.
He sighed, looking at the pile of empty cups, and then started to leave. Turning to the door, he quickly grabbed his hat and kunai belt and led himself out.
Arriving at Otoki's, he halfway suspected it to be filled with people, and for Gyo to be there. But surprisingly, the place was empty. Two or three guests sat at the bar drinking what could only be sake. He went and grabbed a seat at a table near the door.
"Hey Kengura!" said the waitress.
"Hey Nika, what's on special today?" He asked, looking at her new uniform. Nika was one of three children that Otoki had. Nika is the oldest, 22 with beautiful flowing blonde hair. The other sister Sakira also worked there. She was four years younger than Nika. Their brother was Anbu, not much would be said about him other than he was the youngest and around the age of 17. He was just accepted after he got his Chunin rank after the second attempt of his squad.
"Right now, we are going to have a special on pork and egg ramen. Honestly I don't like it that much but I guess I have never had a taste for pork," she explained. Looking over the menu she quickly found her favorite, Chicken and lentil ramen with two egg halves.
"I think I will have the egg and cheese ramen. Not very practical but it tastes pretty good."
"Alright, give me a few minutes!" Naki waved back at him as she walked back off into the kitchen. He saw Otoki stirring a huge vat of noodles. Pre-cooking the noodles for use with whatever people order was a good idea Kengura thought. Then all you had to do was prepare whatever was going to go into the noodles. He also presumed that there were eggs in the bottom of the bucket cooking as well.
Naki bumbled around in the kitchen a minute, waiting for the order to be filled. She looked over at Kengura, admiring him. The Uchiha clan always had some mystery to it. Some unique passion for their gift, and the ability to use it like an extension of their body, like the Hyuuga clan. Not like other bloodlines which are purely used for causing war, but they made it have practical uses. All throughout the village, people wanted the use of Sharingan users to help them with things, especially contractors. They always made special notes when they made requests for help to have a Sharingan user so they could help look for any defects in structures. A plate was finally put in front of her and she grabbed it, thinking nothing of the present, just stuck up in her fantasies of a young woman took the plate to Kengura.
Reaching out to get the plate he leapt out of his chair to catch the bowl before it fell.
"Naki!" He yelled, "Watch it!" taking and setting down the bowl. She had been so caught up in thinking about random things that she had completely lost track of what she was doing. Most people knew that this is why she could never pass as a Konochi. She was not able to keep her mind on the missions. Instead, she was able to get a job in her dads business.
"Sorry, I'm just thinking again." Walking back off to the kitchen, he wondered if she would ever get to be able to control it. Forgetting for the moment, he dived into his bowl of ramen, quickly absorbing the noodles in minutes. Looking at the empty bowl, as a few drops of the remaining soup, slowly collected at the bottom, it slowly formed a reflective pool. Looking at it, he saw a brown version of himself staring out of the pool, blue eyes twinkling in the sunlight. He put the bowl down, and went to the door, almost forgetting to leave the payment.
"Where is he? Didn't someone tell him that we were to meet at 1 instead?" Gyo asked. Confused about where Kengura had wandered off to. Kerone stumbled around the meeting room. He had gone to Kengura's house to find him, but he wasn't there. It was now 1:30, and he had gone to see where he was about 10 minutes earlier. Everyone had just decided to meet up at the tower and wait for him to appear. They all waited for him to show up, Tidashi was feeling better and was allowed to get off of bed rest a day early to go on the mission. Tidashi looked through his shining green eyes out over the plains. Quickly activating the Sharingan he had, he scanned the scenery trying to find any sign of Kengura. Nothing yet, he turned around as he looked over and deactivated his Sharingan. Turning around, he looked at the crowd and Kengura walked in the door.
"You always had a way with timing!" Tidashi said, bored after having to stay.
"Well, I'm early, what are you talking about." He said, looking at everyone.
"The mission got switched up to 1… We guess no one got to you early enough." Gyo explained "But now that we are all here, we can get this mission started!" They all turned to the Hokage for the assignment. Waiting a moment, he rifled through some papers on his desk looking for the mission assignment.
"Alright, today, your team is to take a package from the bottom floor to a nearby village for delivery. They are expecting this package within the next few hours and you need to get it there soon. The only requirements are that you get it there before 5 and that you do NOT open the package; under any circumstances do not open it." He stopped for a moment to let the team absorb their instructions and then waved his hand for them to go. Gyo came forward to the Hokage as the others left.
"I will make sure that the package gets opened before they reach the destination." Gyo said, smiling.
"IF, you can get them, it will be a mighty surprise. But as it stands now, just don't lay a hand on the package. They need to be able to transport precious cargo without question. If they can finish this part of the tests, they will pass the Chunin exams with no difficulty at all." The Hokage smiled, knowing that unless Gyo was completely persuasive or posed a situation that the package was opened accidentally, that Tidashi would sooner kill either of them for trying to open it. His drive to play by the books was stronger than any ninja of his age. If it was bending the rules, then he would not go along with it, unless a real threat posed them. Nodding his head, Gyo quickly moved out to return to the group.
Downstairs, the team had already received the package and saw that it was no more than an ordinary box. No seals or booby traps to speak of. Looking at it, Kerone began to wonder what was inside. Keeping this urge to himself, he distanced himself from the box. Tidashi grabbed the box, whirling it around. No seals on the bottom either. Either this was a test, or this was just a simple delivery.
'I don't think we should open it. If we do, something bad is going to happen to the person who does' Tidashi thought, as he slowly surveyed the box. Even the Sharingan did not detect a thing that looked abnormal on the box. Satisfied with his findings, he put it in his pack to take with them.
"Why don't we look inside the box Tidashi?" Kerone said. His resolve to keep his hands to himself gone.
"Because, we have been told not to," Tidashi quickly responded, waiting for how long he might have been able to hold out. They all started to laugh as Gyo walked in. 'They didn't open it already did they?' he asked himself.
Walking up, "Everyone ready to go? We have a ways to travel to get to the village," he said slowly going to the door. Everyone in the room followed him out, into the village and then out of the gates.
Slowly over the travel, they went. Sometimes stopping to have to break up another heated debate on some random subject from Kengura and Kerone. Tidashi always was practicing with his kunai, slashing in the air and occasionally letting one fly into a tree up ahead. Soon, Kerone joined in and they turned it into a shooting match, continuously making new shots and trying to take each other down. Though younger than Tidashi by 3 years, Kerone was still the better weapons person there. Equally able to stop opponents in their tracks with his precision to that of a trained gun wielder.
About halfway to the village to deliver the package, they dropped out at a small town to eat.
"Let me go see if they have a ramen hut here." Kengura said. Unavoidably starting another conflict he turned away from Kerone before he could speak.
"That sounds fine but let's get something we can eat on the road. We are on a timeline you know." Gyo replied, looking at Kerone, who was about to explode about Fried Noodles again. Holding his hand up, "I think we are just going to get some rice balls to take with us. I think that would let us keep time."
"I would agree with that," Tidashi said. Kerone now calmed down about not getting to speak out against ramen since they were not going to eat it. He slowly eyed the shops for any sign of rice balls.
"There, over at the 4th stall. They sell rice balls there."
"No they don't, they sell rice cakes. The rice balls are at the 5th stall." Kengura corrected.
"Oh… I meant the 5th," he said, scratching his head.
"Well let's go, the longer we wait the less time we have for the mission." Gyo said, and with gang in tow, they went to the stall.
Happily fed and properly nourished, the team was back on the road, going toward the village. Slowly trudging along, they made good time, not stopping often. They eventually made their way to when the village was in sight.
"Ah finally, civilization!" Gyo said. Much of the scenery that they had passed by had been grass, grass, and more grass. Tired of seeing a preverbal Sea of Green, he was glad to see the village again… "Wait, something's wrong," he said. Looking at the village, there was no movement, no life to the village. It was literally as if they entire village was dead.
"What's wrong Sensei?" Kerone asked, not seeing what he was.
"Everyone get your guard up. Something isn't right here" He said, eyes flashing from brown to red. All three tomoes started to spin as he surveyed the town. No movement whatsoever. "Alright, move quickly, to the village!" he commanded, rushing forward toward the gates of the village. The rest of the team quickly followed suit, realizing that this was not part of the mission. They moved quickly to the gate of the village, looking out to the west. One of the gates had been completely obliterated; the other looked like it had been hit. Hit so hard that it broke the hinges off the post it hung from. Inside the village, the parallel streets and symmetrical alleys lay in disarray, strewn with pots, furniture, and other debris. Ahead, dead center about 300 yards away was the town meeting house. A large traditional Japanese building with red shingling and a modest exterior. It was accompanied by a now destroyed cherry garden. Flower petals lay everywhere on the ground as they walked past the groves of dead and destroyed trees. Bodies lay in the streets, all with stab wounds not from a kunai, and their clothes soaked with water. Each one soaked around the stab area and nowhere else on their bodies. The wounds were clean, and bled little, indicating something was there to keep them from bleeding before they died. Something that was not there now. Gyo stepped over to a villager to check his wounds. There were so many stab wounds, that the woman should have been covered in blood, yet only traces of blood were on her clothes and were soaked with water.
"The body is cold." He said, feeling her neck and shoulders.
"But shouldn't a dead person feel cold?" Tidashi asked.
"The temperature of a dead body remains at normal temperature for about an hour, then it goes down to air temperature. No, her body temperature is cold, colder than it is now, colder than it has been recently." He explained, clearly puzzled at what might be going on. "Come on; let's go to the meeting house. Possibly the survivors were gathered there." He said, waving his hands over her eyes. The group moved fast to the doors.
"Stay here, I will go in and check out the building. Get on top of the building and survey the landscape. Look for anyone in the immediate vicinity of the village. Even animals." He said, as he opened the door. As he disappeared inside the strange building, the three companions ran up the walls and perched on top of the building. Slowly looking over the area, they saw nothing.
"Why is the village dead?" Tidashi quietly asked himself, trying to piece together the evidence. Even so, he could not draw a complete picture of what might have happened.
BAM, a resounding hit came from inside the building, a few of the shingles shook loose and fell to the ground.
Thew thew thew thew
Kunai, no something was being projected from the building. In all directions, small slivers of silvery substances shot out in every direction in the building. Then the roof became the next target, items shooting out from the ground below them.
"Senbon!" Kerone said.
"No, they aren't. They are ice Senbon." Kengura said. Looking over the area, ice needles flew out of the building around them, breaking through the shingling one by one.
"We need to get off of this now!" Tidashi said, about to leap as Kengura caught him by the pants.
"No, if we get off now we might get hit. Lets wait until they stop coming out. The clay shingles at least give us some protection." Kengura said. Sure enough, another huge wave of needles emanated from the building, followed by a raging ball of fire.
"LET'S GO!!!," Gyo Screamed, running out of the building, returning fire with a Demon Shuriken. Not hesitating a moment, the three drew kunai and leapt out behind him and started to run as he held off their foe. Slowly retreating, Gyo yelled back "Tidashi, throw me the box!"
"What!!!" Tidashi screamed, not realizing that he needed to do this now.
"The box Tidashi, throw him the box!" Kerone screamed, jumping into his pack and getting the box. He threw it over to Gyo who had just avoided another sliver of ice enough to grab the package. Throwing the package over toward the foe he followed it with a kunai, cutting it open to reveal a great flash of light erupting around the enemy.
"GOGOGOGOGOGO!!!" He screamed, running for the door. They had narrowly escaped. Soon after the light engulfed the enemy he fell to the floor in pain, disabled enough to allow them the time to escape.
Running for the hills, the team met up in the village they had stopped to eat in earlier. Stopping to catch their breath they sat down for a moment.
"What was that?" Tidashi asked, curious to why they almost got killed in a D-rank mission.
"I have no clue at this moment, but we need to get back to the Hokage now and tell him what happened." Gyo said… slowly regaining his poseur. "Let's go, the sooner we get back the better. IF we do, we might be able to get another elite team out here to find out what happened to the village."
"Well what are we waiting here for?" Kengura asked. They all caught their breath and then began the trek back to the village. This strange new enemy was a ruthless killer, and had to be stopped, and they had been the only people to leave and know what he looked like. But it did not do them much good. A person in a dress looking outfit and in a decorated war mask was hardly a description. They all knew that this would not be over soon.
