(By 'Guillotine,' I mean Zabuza's sword, and the 'Scissor' sword is my own creation, a double bladed sword that can fold up and be used in much the same way a pair of scissors can be used.)
Lazily, the sun began its ascent into the sky, but before even the sun became active, the Neo-Akatsuki was making its move. When Kuro Hyuga rose from bed, Kosshi Kaguya and Takachi Uchiha had already left, and Roku was prepared to go. Begrudgingly, Kuro pulled his uniform over his shirt and picked up his backpack.
"I'm kind of hungry… Where can we eat here?" came his groggy voice.
"Wherever we want. Come."
Roku stepped out of the study into the dim light the outside world began to shed. Kuro shook his head and followed. They trekked a short way to a café near the heart of the Hidden Rain. People stopped to stare at Roku, many still believing it was Pein, but nobody daring to approach him.
Roku closed his eyes impatiently as Kuro sipped at his tea. The former was intently eavesdropping on the table behind him.
"He's a magnificent craftsman, and his partner is said to be the strongest man alive!" said one man, wearing a basket hat that hid his eyes.
"I don't know… I've heard they're a bunch of freaks. And they're from the Hidden Stone Village," replied another man, this one who was much older, and who adorned the Hidden Rain's old headband, with a slash through the four line symbol.
"But the ancestor of this craftsman… no, this genius… his ancestor was said to have built much of the Hidden Stone Village's greatest structures that still stand today!"
Roku rose and faced the table, and the two men looked up at him. The one with the basket hat looked up at him and smirked, but his friend sunk back, mouth agape. The former opened his mouth, "And what do you want?"
Roku opened his eyes finally, and the basket hat shrunk back in fear as he saw the Rin'negan's glare, "You say this craftsman is a genius, and that he can be found in the Hidden Stone Village. Where, specifically? What is his place of work called?"
The older man spoke up, "It's a workshop, simply called 'M's.'"
Roku nodded to the speaker, but his hand shot forward, grabbing the other's throat. Gargling and gasping for air, Roku picked him up and slammed his head back against the wall. The hat fell away, revealing a clean Hidden Rain headband. Kuro, who was unaware of what was going until this point, activated his Byakugan and watched as Roku's cloak-hidden hand rose, a kunai's point showing.
Roku growled, "You will treat your leader with respect. And you will wear his signature on your headband, or you will perish for insubordinance." With a quick slash, the headband was scratched, deep, almost enough to break the steel in half.
Roku dropped him and made a motion with his now free hand. Kuro rose to follow his leader out of the café, but before they even touched the door…
"Leader? Our leader died years ago! We aren't going to let some punk-poser push us around!"
Roku sighed. Three bold, young men appeared suddenly around the two Neo-Akastukis, one with a katana inches from Roku's throat. Roku calmly spoke, "My comrades have more power in one finger than all of you combined." His mouth continued to move, but nothing else was said. Kuro read his lips though, and with three sharp, almost unseen jabs, the three men were felled, one who started coughing up blood.
"Is there anyone else who wishes to question my claim?" Roku continued. Not a soul dared to move, and at long last, a smile came to Roku's face. They were under his thumb now.
-
The sun was high in the sky now, though no one in the Wind Country knew that, because clouds filled the sky, completely masking the sun. There they stood, Uchiha and Kaguya, staring at the rocky exterior of the Hidden Sand Village. Takachi reached into his backpack and pulled out his ANBU mask, dawning it.
"I don't think we will be welcomed appearing as we are," Takachi spoke quietly, his voice muffled by the mask. He took off his cloak as he spoke, folding it up neatly and tucking it into his backpack, "We cannot simply march into the Hidden Sand Village dawning the Akatsuki uniform. Give me yours."
Kosshi lowered his eyes, "You make this demand and expect me to follow. I have no reason to enter the Sand Village. You are to take me to the Sound and Wave villages after this. I will remain here," he finished calmly as he took a seat on a rock near an awkward looking shack.
Takachi frowned, but continued forward, into the Sand Village. The Hidden Sand Village is an ally of the Hidden Leaf Village. As long as I keep this mask on, I should not be discovered. He froze in place only seconds later after a loud "Stop!" came from overhead.
Takachi looked over at the speaker and his heart continued to beat. It was only Jinzu, a Sand Village ANBU he had met and befriended on a previous mission. Jinzu laughed and pulled his own mask up, revealing his youthful, but scarred face. The dark red hair fell over his piercing blue eyes.
"Caught you, didn't I?" Takachi's heart froze again as Jinzu spoke, "You thought you'd get away with it, didn't you?"
"Get away with what…?" Takachi answered firmly, feeling his nerve slip. It would only take one call for the entire ANBU of the Sand Village to be here…
"Entering the village without paying your friends a visit of course!" Jinzu grinned. "That 'business-as-usual' thing you do. What are you here for, Takachi?"
"Lord Hokage sent me to update Lord Kazekage on the status of the Fire Country," Takachi blurted. This seemed like the right thing to say, but…
"But someone was here just yesterday for that. Has something new and urgent happened?"
"No…" Takachi's mind was racing, "I was supposed to be with the party that came yesterday, but I fell behind. I was following a lead on a Rogue Ninja."
"Really? Which one?" Jinzu asked in honest curiousity.
"Tsunami," Takachi blurted again. This was the only Rogue Ninja he could think of offhand. Tsunami was a Rogue Ninja listed as such in three different villages, taking the secrets of each village he went to with him and selling them to nations preparing for war.
"Ah, that one. They'd pay a Kage's salary to catch that one," Jinzu mused. "They say he's after the Swords of the Seven Mist Swordsmen now."
"Really? Has he recovered any?"
Jinzu laughed, "Of course not. Lord Mizukage possesses the Guillotine, Sharkskin, and Scissor swords. The others remain lost."
Takachi nodded and turned, about to just walk away and Jinzu clapped him on the shoulder. Takachi jumped, but Jinzu spoke before he could, "You don't have to go just yet. Come into the Village! I'll treat you to some ramen."
Beneath his mask, Takachi smiled a sad smile and nodded, following Jinzu into the city.
-
The lone, red haired girl had returned to her rock, but there were footprints all about. She thought little of it though. People usually walk by the rock to enter the Hidden Sand Village. She sat down and made a hand sign, the shack taking its true form. She looked up at the sky, lightly sniffing. It's going to rain soon…
She dropped her cloak from her shoulders, and with a few small movements of her fingers, the large puppet opened. She gasped and shrunk back in fear as a wild, white haired man jumped out from the puppet's body cavity. The man glared darkly up at her, his green eyes burning with rage.
"I tried to enter that 'shack' and it swallowed me up. I take it this creation is yours?" growled the angry stranger.
She stood up, taking a defensive stance, "Why are you trying to destroy my creations!?" With a few more finger movements, and much noise, two puppets dashed out, surrounding the wild man on all sides.
The man looked down at her as he straightened up, "I was trying to do no such thing. I sensed that it would rain soon, so I wished to take shelter…" He stopped suddenly as he spotted her left arm, which was from the elbow down, a puppet arm.
"Your arm…"
Before he could finish his sentence, the girl's fingers moved again, and the three puppets, the large container and the two she pulled out, lunged for him. He saw it coming though, and jumped clear over the three, letting them collide into each other.
He landed before the puppet mistress and a bone spear emerged from his palm. With a quick swipe, the bottom half of her left arm was gone, but inside was not blood, but a gas. It puffed up in a purple cloud, and the man yielded to the weakness it brought to him as he breathed it. He collapsed, and his sight blurred.
-
Am I in that pod again…? No… I'm alive… I am cold… wet… That girl…
Kosshi Kaguya jerked awake. It was raining now, and the sky was dark. How long have I been out…
He looked over to the rock as he heard clicking noises. There she sat, working away on a puppet. Her arm had been replaced.
"Who… are you?" he asked weakly. His lungs were burning.
"Oh, you're awake," she mused casually, not even looking up. She answered, though reluctantly, "I am called Akayuri. And you are?"
"Kosshi… Kosshi Ka—," he stopped. He remembered what Kuro had said about his bloodline and changed his mind, quickly coughing to cover up the rest.
"I'm sorry about attacking you… You gave me quiet a scare. My puppets are my life, and I can't just let people wander around all over them," she said absently. She reached into a pack on her hip and tossed Kosshi a small vial filled with a ice-blue liquid. "Take this. It'll stop the burning."
Kosshi, welcoming anything to stop that burning, opened and downed it quick. Akayuri laughed a little as she looked back at him, shaking her head. With his throat clear and his lungs starting to feel cool, Kosshi wheezed, "What was that… what happened to your arm?"
Akayuri absently clutched her left arm with her right hand, sighing, "A war injury, years ago… My arm and legs were sliced off, but a special jutsu saved my life… I developed it myself from studying my Danna's papers."
Kosshi rose at long last, on his feet. He walked over to her and shivered. She was wearing shorts and long, black stockings that hid her legs when she fought him, but now the stockings were off, as well as one of her legs. He saw that on her right leg, only from the knee joint down was puppet, but her entire left leg, which she was cleaning now, was a puppet part.
"How do you live without being completely human?" Kosshi asked politely, but the question still made Akayuri sigh. She didn't answer, and Kosshi came around to sit in front of her. Looking up at her eyes, he noticed the beginnings of bags. To change the atmosphere, he quickly asked, "How old are you?"
"I'm 23," she answered quietly, still not looking up from her leg. He nodded and went into his own thoughts until she pulled him out soon, "You know, when you ask someone a question like that, it's polite to offer your own answer…"
"Oh, I'm… not sure how old I am…" Kosshi pondered. He hadn't thought of it before. Is he only a few days old? Or does his age consist of the moment he was conceived from the bone marrow?
"You look like a traveler… How long have you been out?" she asked.
"I was resting in the Hidden Rain Village prior to coming here, only yesterday," he answered.
Akayuri nodded and, to Kosshi's slight disgust, reconnected her leg to her body. She stood up and walked in a small circle, jumped in place, and gave a small spin. Kosshi raised his eyebrow as he watched, and with a small giggle, she sat back down, "Testing it. Sand tends to get in the joins and freeze up the movement. So, I never asked you… why were you trying to enter Kiga instead of going into the Village?"
She smiled at Kosshi's puzzled look and added, "Kiga is the big puppet. He's disguised as a shack because he's too big for me to carry back into the village, and a puppet sitting out in the middle of nowhere is a funny thing."
Kosshi looked up at the faceless giant, and then back at Akayuri, "My partner went into the Village looking for someone who teach him Fire Style Jutsus, and for a place to practice. I didn't feel like following."
Akayuri nodded, "My element is Fire… I can help your friend."
Kosshi looked towards the village. As if on cue, Takachi appeared, walking out of the village with another ANBU member. The other ANBU member's mask was raised though. Takachi still wore his.
The two waited. Takachi and the other man seemed to exchange their goodbyes before Takachi trekked alone towards the rock. Takachi saw the giant puppet before he saw anything else, and called out.
Kosshi answered his call, "It's safe! Come!"
Takachi ran the last several feet and Kosshi introduced Akayuri. After the introductions were out of the way, Takachi told his story.
"An old friend of mine spotted me on the way into the Village, and he insisted we catch up," he spoke coolly. "He showed me around the Village, and when I asked if he knew anyone who used Fire Style Jutsu, he told me that there was only one girl he knew of, and that she was…" he looked at Akayuri and stopped abruptly, noticing her arm and legs, and recalling Jinzu's exact words (a freak!), finishing politely, "…more likely to be found outside the village."
Akayuri offered her hand, and Takachi shook it reluctantly, "I happen to be one of the best Fire Style users in Wind Country."
"Please… teach me?"
She looked at him up and down and smiled, "Of course. You'll need to remove that mask though. Many Fire Jutsus require the mouth." When Takachi made no move to do so, she reached up to do it for him. He jerked back, but the band holding his mask on tore, and away it fell. She gasped and jumped back.
"Itachi Uchiha? Then you must have known Sasori no Danna!"
Takachi stopped in his place. "Find a Sand Ninja who has knowledge of a shinobi called 'Akasuna no Sasori.' If you find such a shinobi, give them this." Takachi reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring, 'Orb.' Akayuri almost squeeled as she took the ring from his hand
"This belonged to Sasori no Danna! You really are Itachi!?"
"No… I am his son… However, that ring, and much more, can be yours if you come with me."
Akayuri looked at the Sand Village and shivered at her memories of it. She turned back to Takachi and nodded. "Let's go, then."
Next Chapter: The Craftsman