They each woke up to find no one but themselves at the scene of the battlefield.
"Where are we and where is my Ramen?" Yol, as usual, only has food on his mind.
"Could you stop being arrogant for a second? Just a second?" Kikushi spoke for the others.
They had failed, again. Hasaya seemed to be the most disappointed; for he realized that he, as the leader, was responsible for this failure. The main thing that was damaged, however, was their pride. It had been completely destroyed by the man and they had been lucky to get away with their lives. Hasaya had felt a somewhat personal hatred towards the man for some odd reason. Even though he had no idea who he was, he felt that he had met him before.
They began the long journey back to the sand village.
Once the sun started to set, Hasaya felt that he should say something to the demoralized group.
"Ok I know that didn't go like we planned it to go, but we each fought very well." He said.
"Didn't go like we planned?! That was pitiful!" Kagami exclaimed, furious. "We failed AGAIN. Our second mission this month and we've failed both of them."
Hasaya said nothing, staring at his team, ignoring Kagami, and felt reminiscent. He looked over at Kikushi, remembering the day they met. They day they became best friends.
There was a time of nonstop fighting between Leaf and Sand villages. Hasaya had been promoted to Chunin, which meant he got to fight in the war. He rushed into battle, eager for bloodshed. He had defeated a couple of leaf shinobi, but was aching for a real fight. He noticed a Jonin that would have been an easy kill; however, he was quickly killed one of Kikushi's puppets. An ANBU Black Ops had spotted Hasaya and thought of him as an easy target. The man had rushed him, unsheathing his katana and nearly sliced Hasaya's head off. Had Hasaya not had the Byakugan, he would have succeeded.
Hasaya had learned early in his life that his family were the descendants of a single man that defected from the great Hyuga clan. This man and his wife both had the Byakugan, as did his children. They had produced many generations after that. Although, because the children were not pure-blooded Hyuga, the Byakugan was now a rare trait, and one that Hasaya possessed.
Then, Hasaya rushed Kikushi. He hit him in the jaw, went in for another straight to the stomach, but both were blasted back by a wind jutsu created by the Black Ops team.
Kikushi and Hasaya, agreeing on a temporary truce, went into close combat with their foes; However, the ANBU Black Ops had a few advantages, obviously, because of his superior experience. The only advantage that Hasaya had was the byakugan, although this seemed to be enough as he was actually able to defeat him. He was then attacked by more Black Ops, each one just as powerful as the first one.
Surrounded in the center of the throng of Black Ops agents, he was continuously attacked by them, fighting back as hard as he could. After taking out about twenty of them, though, he was about to fall. Then, all of the sudden, the crowd had a hole blown right through them by Kikushi's Tortoise puppet tank, while others were being killed by his other two puppets Eagle and Bear. He came to the center where Hasaya was.
"Are you okay?" Kikushi asked.
"Just fine." Hasaya panted.
Kikushi then grabbed the injured Shinobi, threw him into tortoise's shell, and used his "Scroll of 1000 Puppets" to fight. The crowd was beaten back by the sheer numbers of the puppets. Soon, all the Black Ops agents were dead. Kikushi knew that Hasaya could be seriously injured so he got him back to the sand village as soon as possible.
Once Hasaya woke up, he realized he was in a hospital bed with Kikushi sitting by his bed side.
"Why didn't you run off when you had the chance? Why not leave me there to die?" Hasaya wondered.
"That was incredible, what you did out there. I have a proposal for you." Kikushi stated.
Hasaya sat up. "What kind of proposal?" he asked
"Well, I think that if you and I team up then we could become even more powerful." Kikushi replied.
"Hmmm…" He had to think about that. He barely knew this shinobi, let alone trusted him. One, he seemed a little suspicious, and two, the puppet thing creeped Hasaya out a little. Hasaya was deeply loyal to his village, so he had little reason to trust this stranger. But maybe, deep inside Hasaya, something told him to just go with it. Or maybe he was simply desperate. Whatever the reason was, Hasaya accepted the offer.
"Well I'm glad that you chose to accept because I have a very important mission to do and I need a person who has fire in their heart to watch my back." Kikushi explained the mission to him, Hasaya paying attention to every detail.
So, the new duo was off on their mission to ambush a leaf shinobi force west of the Sand Village. Because of the raging sandstorm, both Hasaya and Kikushi had to camp out inside Tortoise's shell for a while. So, while they were forced to be in a space with each other, they decided to get to know each other a little.
"So what's your story?" Kikushi asked.
"Well, when I was very little, my house was burned down, killing both my parents and my little brother. All I have left," Hasaya told him, pulling down his shirt revealing bandages all over the left side of his body, "are the burn scars."
"U-um ok" Kikushi said, startled.
"So how about you? What's your story?" Hasaya asked
"When I was a baby, I had the Grim Reaper sealed inside my body. I grew up resenting my parents, the ones who did that to me, until the day when a stranger came to my house and killed them in front of my eyes. You know what he said to me?" he asked Hasaya.
"No, what?" he wondered.
"He told me that I would never amount to anything. That I would never be like my parents, the heroes, the ones who saved their village by sacrificing their own son's body and sealing that demon inside me. He told me that I was worthless. He pulled up his knife, about to kill me too, until the reaper stopped him." Kikushi's eyes were far away, glazed over.
"I swore, that day, that i would become stronger. That i would amount to great things. That i would find that man and kill him, without the help of some stupid spirit."
Hasaya just stared at him. It turned out that him and this stranger had something something in common, after all.
They both wanted revenge.