The wandering blade

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Chapter-3-the end of adolescence

Akami couldn't help but sigh at his charges antics, why from, their running around the village, to there blatent showing of their indistinguishable red hair, he swore that they were trying to be found out, there is a reason why the uzumakis have stayed in hiding for so long. Shaking his head akami started walking after the sisters, hoping that they hadnt done anything to stupid while they were out of his sight.

"Sho then ah sad to him, yeah well your moms fat"

Two men appearing to be intoxicated were walking in akamis direction, one of the men seemingly telling a story of some sort, akami just kept walking, as he passed them by, he saw out of the corner of his eye, one of the men give him a sideways glance, akami kept walking until he heard the men stop, and his ears picked up the tell tale whistle of a kunai soaring through the air. Twisting around fast, akami caught and redirected the kunai at twice its original speed, a speed that only a ninja could dodge, and dodge they did as the two men moved out of the way, of the incoming projectile. Akami had to give it to them, there facade was convincing enough to fool him, something not easily done.

Deciding to question the men after beating them into submission, and moving to an offensive stance, akami signed for the two men to come at him, and the two men rushed forward.

-5 minutes later-

Perplexed was the perfect word you could use to describe akami in This situation, the men who attacked him were pathetically weak, though there level of deception was certainly that much of a ninja, but it was clear that there purpose was not to kill or incapacitate him, so either they were stupid or they were stalling, but t would make sense considering there fighting style.very defensive and evasive like it was made entirely to draw out a battle for as long as they could, they may have underestimated him though, as when he took out the first assailant around the three minute mark the other was noticeably shocked, though he recovered and he managed to draw out the battle for a brief time he eventually slipped up and all akami had to do was capitalize. But back to the matter at hand, why would they need to stall him what would wasting his time gain the two men… the girls.

Reaching his senses throughout the village akami could sense no sign of his two charges, and though they had gotten better at hiding their chakra, it was not nearly to the level of being untraceable. These facts were leading him to a conclusion he really, did not want to face. They had gotten kidnapped and akami had been none the wiser.

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(Ugh my head feels like it just got rolled over by an akimichi)

Those were the first words that came to sasuke's mind when he awoke with his vision blurry and his head pounding, though he dared not speak, if he was right about his current situation then he couldn't afford to reveal to anyone that he was conscious, and as the throbbing in his head slowly started to subside hes memories of the time before he awoke started to reamerge and from them he could gather some insight into what happened, someone had attacked him in his home, robed and masked in black his kidnapper had swiftly incapacitated sasuke and his frivolous attempts to resist him, the strongest blow had been to his head wich explained the throbbing, but sasuke was pretty sure that he had not gotten a concussion, but from there on his memories were hazy at best, he knew that he had been taken out of the village and that he was in a forest and from the, old, rotten smell, he had not been taken anywhere in the forest he knew, until he got more information it was better to let whoever took him think he was out cold than to put them on guard. And though he was no sensor he could at least tell if there were any signatures nearby though that was about the extent of his abilities in that regard Stretching his senses sasuke felt two signatures near him, most likely in the same room, and though there chakra signatures were large, they appeared almost stagnant and unmoving, like they were asleep, it was certainly possible that he had not been the only one kidnapped from konoha, but other than those two there didn't seem to be any near him but he could still feel other signatures but they were distant enough for sasuke to be reasonably sure that it was safe to open his eyes

the raven haired boy opened his eyes, just a fraction, then half way, then all the way, just to be sure. Looking around silently, sasuke suspicion was confirmed, the place really did look as bad as it smelled, and just as sasuke had sensed, the two signatures beside him were not malicious, in fact he had seen the two faces not 5 hours ago…or at least, he thought it had been hours ago, sasuke in his passed out state, apparently hadn't been paying attention to the suns position in the sky, the room they currently inhabited had no windows, only a flickering, dirty light that looked like it would go out any minute, aside from the three children in it the room was bare, in fact from looking at the places were dirt grime and dust were more prevalent in some locations and less in others, it seemed like there had been items most likely furniture in the room but had been taken out in preparation for the kids arrival. Looking over at the two unconscious girls sasuke knew that he couldn't get himself out of their while carrying the two in his back, and he immediately knew wich one of them would be more beneficial to wake up first, so with slow controlled step careful not to trigger and creaks in the rotting wood he crept over to the girl he knew as asumi and gently shook her awake. Immediately sasuke was forced to avoid a puch going straight to his face, he rolled back surprised at how fast she was, right after her missed attack she sprung onto her feet into a defensive stance, and though she was aggravated she still possessed enough forethought to not make her awakening a loud one.

Her eyes quickly assessed him and the room soon reaching the same conclusion as he did, lowering her stance though visibly keeping her guard and senses up and on high alert she walked over to him, getting straight to business.

"Do you have a plan"

She whispered.

"Thats why i woke you up do you have any knives on you"

"I doubt the three of us would be able to take what i'm sensing to be at least ten ninja with just knives"

"Obviously not but look around, im guessing noone guarding us because either they thought we would be unconscious for a lot longer or they know that well have to get through them to escape but this room that were in is our best chance of getting out of here"

He says gesturing at the floor.

"I dont know why they put us in such a crappy room but if you have anything sharp with you, like in a seal than we can dig our way out of here"

All it took was second scan of the room before she pulled out her hair clip, likely thought to be useless for any utilitarian purpose, and turned it upside down revealing a small spiral seal that let out a puff of smoke revealing 3 knives, the ends of wich hooked around her fingers, he took one, went over to a corner of the room room and started digging scraping at the wood, which t took about a minute for him to be joined by asumi and a very irate shoko who surprisingly stayed dead silent.

There pace needed to be quick, someone could come in to check on them any time, and that damn light didn't help either, it kept flickering so so much, and that danm buzzing sound kept getting into his head.

Bzz bzz bz bzzz bz*

It just wouldn't stop, and then he heard a creaking noise, followed by a.

step,step,step,step*

It could be heard only feet away from the open doorway, the 3 kid's stopped immediately turning there head back and hoping to whatever god was out there to make the noise retreat away… and retreat the noise did after a distant scream was heard the steps went away along with some faint grumbling of.

"Incompetent fools"

Sasuke's nerves were already extremely frayed, and it didn't help that the damned buzzing kept getting louder, if it were just him he wouldve thought it trick of the mind but out of the corner of his eye he saw that the girls were affected to. Asumi kept on scraping though her eye would visibly twitch every couple of. Seconds, and shoko had stopped scraping all together and was giving the light a full on death glare, he tried to ignore it he really did but it juat kept getting louder and louder and louder… until he heard a sound that made there quiet scraping useless.

boom, sizzle*

The light exploded amd the sound rang sharp and clear, the steps that had been fading away had stopped, and started back towards them at a quick pace. There was only one thing he could think to do, to give them a chance albeit slim, to get out of here, clutching the knife tightly sasuke waited until the footsteps got close, then jumped onto the nearest wall, using it as a springboard, jumping off of it again to to propel himself to right above the doorway inturn doing a midair flip so his. Feet were against the ceiling right as the person ran into the room, and in flash sasuke propelled himself down, plunging the kunai right in the middle of the mans head. Sasuke never in his life could've imagined what it was like to kill someone, not even in his most realistic dreams about itachi could he have imagined it, the squelching sound as his knife pierced his brain, or the lifeless thumb of the body as it collapsed on to the floor of the now dark room, he saw all of that, heard all of that in painfully, slow detail his eyes burned like never before in that moment, it felt that time itself had stopped as he looked upon the man's corpse, the intense pain in his eyes seems to reach a peak and then all of a sudden it went away and hearing ear piercing shriek he passed out unconscious.

Sasuke awoke with a start his mind immediately going back to the previous events, only a gentle but firm hand on his chest kept him from leaping out of bed, looking to his left he saw an all to familiar face, it was a face that he had seen a lot more frequently since the death of his family it was the face of the third hokage hiruzen sarutobi.

" calm down sasuke your safe and sound back in konoha"

The words the reassuring did little to help the boys state of mind he kept flashing back to the knife that went from his hand to the man's head as the scene kept replaying his eyes or more specifically the pain in his eyes kept getting worse. The old man looked at him with a sad expression, and seeming to know what was happening to him, pulled out a small hand mirror, and what he saw was something that would change his life forever red with a black dot in the middle and one black tomoe circling it was, the reason his clan was the most feared in all the elemental nations, the eyes of legend, the sharingan, and sasuke had awakened it.

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If kusho could point out one of the many reasons he regretted joining the crew of sailors aside from there idiocy, horrible treatment of women and there rather…uneloquent manner of speaking, it would be there tendency to rope thing they would do, the captain didn't care much for what they did off duty so long as it didn't affect him and nothing eases the troubles of the day like a night on the town, so they say, so here he was, watching his idiot crew make fools of themselves at some hole in The wall tavern, knowing that he would have to carry at least a couple of them back to the ship, he sighed and took another swig of water from his cup, no one cared if he drank he just prefered not to.

"Idiots, the lot of them"

"You got that right"

He responded to the voice, not really occurring to him that he didnt know who this was, then blonking a couple times he looked over, and looking out at the crowd was a man who kusho couldve sworn he had seen before, the lower side of his face was completely bandaged, the upper half showed nothing out of the ordinary, just plain short and spiky black hair, he felt like he should know the man, or at least recognize his face but there was just something missing, like with out that one discerning feature he couldn't tell who ot was, he decided at least for now that there was no harm in talking to to the man"

"Are you a native of this village"

"Pfft me, hell no I wouldn't even consider going near this place if I didn't have to"

"You have to be here, why?"

"All i can say is im on a mission"

He says while leaning forward on his stool.

"And those guys are apart of it, but hey do me a favor and dont tell anybody you saw me okay"

"Um, okay sure i w-"

He was cut off when an arm was lazily drooped over his shoulder and the noxious breath of one of his crewmates assaulted his nostrils.

" *hick* hey kusho, wes a plannin oown headins back to the ship, gotsta rest up for the captain has us breakin our fuckin backs tommorow"

"R-right yeah"

He said while getting up, bit before turning to leave kusho took one last look at the man he still couldn't place. He was giving him a look he couldn't exactly place, kusho didn't know what to think of it he was almost halfway to the exit, all the other crewmates already having left when the man semmingly out of nowhere appeared infront of him. Tho they were on stools the man still supassed kush by at least two feat but now that they were both standing, the man seemed a giant to the 10 year old.

"Hey kid"

"What"

"How long would you say you've been working for those guys your with"

"Almost a month now, why"

He seemed to mutter something under his breath but soon looked back down at kusho.

"No reason, just curious"

He said before exiting the tavern. He knew he shouldve known who the man was but he just couldn't place it, he thought about it over and over, but he just couldn't figure it out. When he arrived at the docks, he was still trying to figure it out, the night was eerily silent but he was so wrapped up in his thoughts he almost missed it, a scratching sound coming from the lower part of the ship, the boss never liked animals in the ship, said that they could tear up the cargo amd give quote.

"A fuck ton a shit to deal with"

Deciding that he could do ot himself, he entered the ship and went down, past the sleeping quarters and into the lowest level, his eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, and he realized that he hadn't been down here in the few weeks he had been working here, now that he thought about it, only the captain and vice s

Captain came down here on a regular basis, it was kind of weird but he didn't think on it long, he would find the thing that got in here, kill it, throw it out and make his way to his hammock. It didn't take long, the sound was coming from the upper left corner of the room, he had to maneuver around some crates and such but with the sound acting as a beacon he eventually made his way there, and what he saw confused him, he saw multiple cages lined up in a row, human like silhouettes were visible through the bars, some were sleeping, curled up in the feedle position, some were awake and seemed to be looking at him, and then he saw what was making the noise, a woman chained up was on her knees, blood coating her mangled hands as she feverishly scraped and scratched at the wall, seemingly unaware of his presence. He knew what this was, but the knowledge did nothing to ease the growing pit in his stomach, just one question was echoing in his mind.

(What do i do)

That question would be answered in the form of every instinct he had in him telling him to dodge and dodge he did, jumping out of the way as a mace the size of his head slammed down on the spot he was standing on, and there he was, the hulking, imposing figure of captain morgan standing before him, the darkness doing nothing to hide the mans scowl as he looked down at kusho, the woman who had been previously unaware of the situation quickly fled back as far and the chains would let her, the woman's terrified gaze locked on to captain morgan who in turn was staring at kusho. Taking in a deep shuddering breath, kusho decided that until he could form a game plan, he might as well try to stall for a bit, standing up straight kusho looked directly at the man.

"Captain"

"Kusho"

"Mind telling me why, and correct me if im wrong but im just wondering why you just tried to kill me, also why there are caged men and women on the ship"

He said nothing, only readied his mace, and kusho decided that he wouldn't get anything out of the man, at least not while he and kusho both knew that he probably wasnt winning this fight, whats the use in explaining to a dead man after all. He only had one shot before the captain would know what he was trying to do, and he had to make it count, readying a kunai he waited until the captain leaped at him, and that was all he needed as the captain swung his mace in a sideways arc kusho slid under him, went through his legs, twisted and leaped for the captains back, climbed up his coat, and plunged a knife deep in his throat. He had only gotten the knife halfway in when he suddenly felt airborne, but it wasn't him it was the captain, who had jumped up, and laid back so his back would make a hard impact into the ground, and the ground would make a hard impact with kusho, he had two options, commit to it and potentially receive a broken back or get away and hope that he did enough damage to be able to outlast him, he chose the ladder, using tye captains back as a spring board kusho leapt to the right, only seconds after a massive thud was heard followed by a grunt as the captain soon got back up

And the look he gave kusho made him want to jump into the sea, faster than he could react the captain swung his mace directly into kusho, pain erupted from his chest as a cracking noise sounded throughout the room, as kusho was sent flying into a wall. Pain all he could feel was pain as the captains steps were heard coming towards him, white hot agony was all he could feel, everything felt numb, neither his arms or legs could move and his head felt like it was being drowned in a swamp, the captain seemed to say something, but he couldn't tell what, his eyes were steadily closing, he was on the brink of unconsciousness when a thought, sharp and clear came to his mind, but it wasnt a thought, more so a memory. His parents had been put running errands, and kusho had decided to go rummaging through some of his parents old things from when they lived in the mist village, he had always liked to do that, to see fragments of what life was like before the purge started, pictures, scrolls, and even some old jewelry were found in the chest he was looking in, but it was when he got to the bottom that he noticed the seal, kusho couldn't decipher most of it but what he could understand were the symbols for water, wind, lightning and blood, on a whim he bit his finger and wiped it on the seal, it glowed for a moment, and then a clicking sound was heard and the bottom seemed to open from one side, grabbing the edge of the board kusho slid it to the right, and inside the was a scroll, he took it out, feeling the old weathered paper, it was clear this scroll had seen many years, opening it he writing, and diagrams that formed what he could tell, seemed to be about his family's kekkei genkai, the storm release, the scroll had informed him that most kekei genkai are awakend throught emotion and intent, you feel a great sense of anger and you channel that to were you want it to go, not really knowing how to use it in a controlled fashion, but the storm release had to he awakend through complete calm, in order to harness the power of a raging storm you needed the calm of mind to tame it, kusho had never been able to do it before, his parents were always breathing down his neck when it came to training, he always felt so stressed because each time he failed the angrier they would get at him, but now, now was a different story, he felt numb, he couldn't feel anything accept pain and that drowned any emotion he was feeling at the moment.

(One more time, i want to try one.more.time)

He thought focusing in on the approaching captain, channeling all the chakra he could into his right arm he raised it up towards the captain, and he expelled it all in one burst, and it was magnificent, there were no hand signs, no control over it, just pure raw elctric blue and stormy gray chakra that sent the captain flying through the wall of the ship and into the water outside, only after that, did kushos mind go blank, and he allowed himself to pass out.

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A/N: to be honest i dont know why people still follow and favorite me, i havent posted in forever but i guess i should say thank you, to be honest im not very happy with akamis portion of the chapter and i did want to add more, to the over all chapters but this needed to get out, anyways heres to hoping that ill actually get ttf out in a reasonable time and to completely transparent, i dont think ill be following up on ill do it myself anytime soon as the reception on it wasn't very good so yeah, peace yall.