A Run with a Spot of Larceny (Training)

Taro awoke to the hash morning sun. It’s rays pieced into the darkness of the cave he had slept in over night. Taro’s dreams had been tormented by the demons of his past as if they were welling up all their strength to overcome his mind and drive him back to the course of the Missing ninja. His dreams reflected his past: leaving the Leaf as a refugee, watching his mother breath her last breath before his eyes and finally like a dagger through the heart his descent into sorrow and eventual leaving of the village hidden in the clouds. After the hellish night he was still a bit bruised here and there from his spar with the deputy Kazekage that had taken place on the previous day, but that was irrelevant right now. Today was the day he hoped to return to the cycle and politics of the village, but not as a conqueror or murder; as a villager and ally of Sunagakure. Granted he would be under the close watch, and from what he could gather tutelage, of the deputy Kazekage, but that was a small price to pay to once again belong to a community after having been isolated for so long. At this point Taro was now sitting in front of a small breakfast fire. In the frying pan he had was a sizzling pound of bacon: it was the last bit of food he had left in his possession so he wanted to make it count. Also on the fire was a pot of tea the fumes of which gently wafted up into Taro’s nose. He could smell the sweet smell of jasmine it was familiar smell he used to smell all the time in his times before becoming a missing ninja. He had been thinking a lot of the past lately as if it were some ghost haunting his mind, but oddly enough the smell of the tea and bacon was able to calm his mind for the time being. Once the tea and bacon were done brewing and cooking respectively Taro ate a quick breakfast and gulped down the tea. He then packed up all his stuff and stashed it deeper in the cave so he could come back for it later. Coming out of the darkness of the cave Taro stood at the entrance of the cave with a resolve in his eyes.

Despite the sun being up it was till fairly early in the morning and Taro did not want steal into the village hidden in the sand in the wee morning hours like some sort of animal. He wanted to make his entrance into the village a memorable one for both himself and those within the village. So with his campsite for the most part taken down and his breakfast in his stomach he decided to go for a run in the sandy wastes. He hoped that the sand would provide a resistance and challenge for his run. As he walked out into the sandy landscape he was hit by a wave of heat that was at first overwhelming. Taking a breath Taro steeled himself and set out into the sand at a steady pace. With him he had brought a medium sized canteen of water. Normally he would have taken a larger canteen, but where he was bound there was going to be more water.

Taro kept a nice easy pace at first. Each stride he took sunk him a bit into the flat ground of sand and irritated his feet as the sand got into his shoes, but he disregarded that for now as his mind was elsewhere. His head was still swimming with thoughts and demons from his past. One demon in particular was vivid in his mind: his escape from the village hidden in the clouds. This thought was further enforced by the staccato of his footsteps as they flew over the sand with small grinding noises as his feet slipped into the sand. It reminded him of how his feet had been moving as fast as he would go as he fled from his old home.

Flashback:
It was a dark stormy night in the village hidden in the clouds. It had been a mere five days since Taro watched his mother die in his arms. He had just finished the Jounin exams that day and was sitting in his empty home drinking a cup of orange spice tea. There was a grim smile on his face he had just been named a jounin of the cloud, but alas it seemed a bittersweet victory to him. He had gained a great title, but had no one to share his delight with. Since he had moved from the leaf to the cloud he had made little friends and thus his only real connection was his mother. With her gone though he felt that his accomplishment was empty and useless. Who did he have left to protect? He had only himself and a village he had hardly any ties with. It was at that moment when his tongue was burnt by the hot tea he was drinking that there was nothing left in this village for him. He half considered getting up and leaving the village then and there, but thought better of it. Instead he got up and walked outside. He was bound towards the graveyard. Overhead there was a sharp flash of lighting and a roll of thunder, but as of yet no rain. Taro could almost feel the tension in the air as if nature was holding it's breath for the rain. Each step he took towards the graveyard seemed to get heavier and heavier. He was going to visit his mother and put some flowers on her grave. The streets he walked were deserted. Not even a stray animal dared walked the streets with a storm like his brewing, but still Taro walked these streets: what did that make him? Finally after the long walked Taro arrived at the graveyard. He walked over to the headstone and recently covered grave. His flowers from the previous days had wilted and died. Taro felt she deserved more than a flower that died after each day. So he smashed the snake hand seal together and using his innate Senju abilities, a keepsake from his mother, he willed a small tree to come into existence behind the headstone. The tree was a thing of beauty it was about four feet tall and from it grew delicate white flowers with yellow stamens. Each flower looked like a piece of the moon brought to the earth. Taro hoped that would be enough to commemorate his mother. It was then that another wave of sorrow passed over him. Taro's will broke then and there: he planned to leave the village that night under the cover of the storm. One day, maybe, he would return to pay his respects to his poor mother. With his mind made up Taro made all haste to his home. His legs moved like lighting as they were urged on by his will. He managed to make it home in record time. Once there he threw open his closet doors and packed all the clothes he would need. He then grabbed some cooking implements and finally he grabbed his ninja supplies and a map of the five nation and the minor villages. With his stuff all packed in a tidy backpack Taro set off. He gave one last glance back at his home and with tears in his eyes he set his mind to the task of escaping the village. It would be no easy feat as he had to quickly evade all the guards and then escape unseen into the wilderness. His mind worked like rusty clockwork: slow at first, but with each thought getting faster and faster until his mind was abuzz with idea and plans.

At first his thoughts were those of a madman: the first thought was simply walking out the main gate and killing anyone who got in his way, but that would not do, because he knew ANBU would be all over him in a heartbeat. As he went through the ideas in his head he slowly but surely progressed to the prefect plan: one that would both help him avoid the guards and escape undetected. Granted he would have to be quick on his feet and it would be a bit smelly. He planned to use the sewers as that was where the defenses in the city seemed to be the weakest. There were still some poor souls who were supposed to patrol down there, but they were of little consequence to Taro at this point. All that mattered right now was that he had a plan that he could run with and work with as he navigated through the sewers-that was his way of dealing with obstacles as they came up. Taro noticed that in his flurry of thoughts he had stopped awkwardly n the middle of the street so he quickly made his way to the alleyway. Once there he found an entrance to the sewer at the very end of the alley. As he was climbing down the ladder Taro almost had a heart attack when a black cat jumped down and knocked over a few trashcans. Calming his nerves Taro took a few deep breaths and went into the sewers.

The first thought that crossed his mind was how bad it smelled down here. The sewer consisted of a semicircular corridor with pathways on each side flanking the river of sludge and waste. Taro could have sworn he saw a few dead animals float by as well. Taro slowly made his way down the sewer that led out of the city. He knew that the sewer eventually would lead to a point out of the city where it dumped into the sea. The only problem was that taro did not know how long he would be going down this corridor filled with filth. He moved quickly, but each footstep he took echoed down the sewers. Taro worried that he was being followed, but when he looked behind himself he felt foolish as it was only his own footsteps. Taro finally made it to the end, or he assumed it was the end as he could hear rushing water and smell salt. Though he also heard voices from behind him: “Hey! I think I hear someone down here!” Taro then heard two sets of footsteps running toward him and he could see long shadows coming down the corridor. Now was the time to move. Taro broke out into an all out sprint and could see the place where the sewage was released out into the sea. This was his chance, but as he was in a midair jump out into the sea a sharp pain shot through his body: it was a kunai knife in his upper left shoulder. His dive turned into more of a stumbling fall into the icy sea water below. As he fell his vision was blurred, but once he hit the water instinct kicked in. He allowed himself to fall to the bottom of the water, which thankfully was not too deep. After a minute of being underwater Taro swam to the rocky shore. His pursuers had apparently left; for now anyways. Taro took off at full tilt in land towards the land of fire. He would not stop until he reached a small obscure and abandoned fishermen’s hut. Taro bunked there for the night and only then did he remove the kunai in his shoulder. Fear and adrenaline had numbed the pain. It was then that the realization washed over him: he was a missing ninja.
Flashback over

Taro’s mind had been so preoccupied with the past that he had not noticed where he was running to, or his running pace for that matter. While lost in thought he had gone into a full tilt sprint and was sweating profusely. He had fatigued a bit, but it was not something he couldn’t push through and push through it he did. He ran and ran until he finally arrived at a small oasis in the desert, which would make a perfect place for a break as the desert was really starting to drain him of energy and fluids. The oasis was quite small, but the pool of water that had formed there fostered much life. There was a moderately sized palm tree and few wild grasses growing there.

Taro jogged over to the pool and refilled his canteen, which he had emptied while running and then walked over to a small palm tree and slumped against the segmented trunk. The run had taken a lot out of him and still had to get back. Though maybe on the way back he would not go in an all out sprint like he had on his way out to the oasis. Taking out his canteen Taro took a long swig of the now hot and slightly foul tasting water. While drinking he reflected on some of the words that the cloaked man had told him the day before. One thing that stuck out in his mind was: “why did you not return to the village hidden in the leaves?” Taro had never really thought of returning, but now that he thought on it more maybe it would be a better option than joining the village hidden in the sand. After all it seemed that he owed the leaf village some respect, it was the village he grew up in. Then again he did not know how he would ever be allowed into the leaf village. For now he put the idea in the back of his mind. What he needed was more time to think. Luckily he had plenty of time to think. After some deliberation he decided to prove himself a good person at heart. He recalled the one gang who had contacted him for various jobs in the past: he would take them down. Hopefully with that good deed under his belt he may be able to bring himself back into good standing in the shinobi world, if not then he was surely doomed to the existence of a missing ninja. Shaking the idea from his head Taro stood back up and prepared to run back to the cave he had been camped out in.

The pace he set for his run on the way back was a bit more moderate than his on the way to the oasis, but it was none the less brisk. His run went on with out incident, once he reached the cave he was surprised to see his back pack strew across the cave with much of it’s contents missing. Shocked Taro ran over to it looked through to see what had been taken. He found that all his ryo was gone, his tent was gone, his only book was gone, and last but probably the most important to Taro: a picture of his mother. Looking around the vast desert Taro spied four figures running off in the distance. Taro jumped to the conclusion that those figures were the ones who had taken his stuff. His temper flared; he was going to get his stuff back one way or another. Plus giving chase to the hooligans who stole his stuff would not be that bad of a way to train.

Breaking out into a sprint with renewed vigor Taro set off after the figure in the distance. He was moving fairly quickly, but so were the four figures and he was not making any ground. Basically he had to fast and faster he went. A small cloud of dust was kicked up behind him as he ran. The figures must have noticed that they had a pursuer as one of them turned back and stood in wait for Taro, which he believed would be the last mistake the figure would make in a while. Taro quickly made ground on the now stationary figure. As he approached the figure he found that it was a woman with bright red hair. He would almost say she was cute, save for the fact that she had a katana drawn and had a fire in her eyes. The lady spoke up: “So, why are you following us? Was that you bag we ransacked? Sorry if you want your stuff back you will have to go through, which me, which, if I do say myself, will be next to impossible.” Taro cracked a smile, the lady was feisty he would give her that, but she was a bit dense: Why did she just admit to stealing thing from his bag? No matter that made it all the easier for him: “So it was you that stole my stuff. I will have to ask you to give it back now or things could get…nasty” The red headed girl let out a little giggle: “I like you. You have a good sense of humor now please be on your way or I will have to get nasty as well.” The lady said the last word with a mocking tone that really got under Taro’s skin. He could not hold his temper back any longer he was gong to bring the bitch down: “Ok then you asked for it so please prepare yourself.” The lady shifted her sword into a more defense stance and then made a face that just dared Taro to attack her.

Not holding back one bit Taro summoned up a small staff from the ground. It was made of ash, which would make it both flexible yet strong. He then advanced cautiously as it seemed the red haired woman was not going to move an inch. Taro made his advancement seem like a simple and easy to follow maneuver, but once he got within striking distance he body flickered behind the lady and at the same time bringing down the staff on the back of the ladies upper right shoulder. Taro believed his moved had been flawless and impossible to follow, but where his staff was about to land was quickly blocked by the blade of the katana-who was this lady who had just incredible speed? It seemed this match would come down to speed of attack, which was something Taro could live with. Withdrawing his staff he unleashed a volley of attacks with it, which were expertly parried without the lady even looking. He was getting more and more angry each of his attacks grew and grew in strength and speed until both of his arms were a blur. The lady finally turned around and when she did her red hair glinted in the sun and with a spin of her blade Taro found a scratch had appeared on his face: this lady was no petty thief. Taking his chance Taro put some ground in between himself and the beautiful yet deadly red haired woman.

Taro now wore a slightly deranged face as he charged at the woman for a second time; she was getting on his nerves. This time he attacked with purpose each attack slowly drove back the woman until she was right where the root that had created the staff stood. The rest was child’s play. He once again backed off the attack and put enough room between himself and the woman to make a snake hand sign. In an instant the root behind the woman’s left foot grew around her leg and had her incapacitated and dangling from her leg as the root held her in place. Turning her right side up the roots grew around her in a prison of sorts. A devil smile retuned to taro’s face he had won. It had been a match of not only speed of attacks, but speed of thoughts and strategies. The woman was now begging for her life: “Please don’t kill me. I was only doing my job. We were hired by a group of shady figures on the edge of the desert to ransack your backpack. Normally we don’t deal in such petty crimes, but there was a large reward and it was something we could not pass up.” Taro pondered what this lady had told him: someone had hired these four people to provoke him? That small bit could wait right now Taro needed answers: “Yeah, yeah that’s all well and good. Just tell me where your friends are.” A small tear ran down the woman’s face as she looked toward the east: “No! I would never sell out my friends not even for my life: kill me! Kill me now or give me a weapon so I can myself!” Taro just shook his head. A few days ago he might have killed her on the spot, but something repelled him now. “No you will stay here. I will track your friends myself. Though it will get on my nerves and annoy me to have to track them without any clue where to start looking. When I am annoyed I have a tendency to be rash and kill people it’s a shame your friends will have to see me like this…they sound like such nice people.” Taro put on this act to seem slightly deranged and he hoped that the woman would make his job easier and break by telling him where the other three were headed as it would save him tons of extra time and energy he would have wasted trudging around the desert. The girl was clearly quite conflicted-Taro could almost see the argument going on in her head. Finally after a minute of deliberation the woman spoke up again: “Fine…they went north towards the sky nation. Please be merciful and do not kill them. We are only mercenaries.” Taro knew where this girl was coming from. Just the yesterday he had been dispatched as a mercenary. He gave a curt nod to the girl: “ Fine I shall spare your life and your friends lives if I can, but until I capture them you will remain here.” With that Taro took off to the north. He doubted he would be able to spare all these wretched people’s lives, but he would try to not go overboard.

The adrenaline that continued to pump through his body kept him moving at a nice clip. The ground seemed fly under his feet as he ran over it. For now his thoughts were not on his stolen goods, but more on the people who had hired these mercenaries to steal his stuff and to what end. None of it seemed to add up. All Taro knew at this point was that he could not just drop the chase. He had started the game and he planned to finish it. In the distance he could see another figure-these mercenaries were stalling by leaving one of their group behind each time and Taro wondered if he would be able to beat all four of them with these staggered running portions in between each fight. The figure he was now approaching was silhouetted by the sun, which was now right behind the figure. Stopping about thirty five feet from the figure Taro heard a gruff voice yell out: “So you beat Azami? You must be pretty quick even I have a hard time keeping up with her, but alas for you as you will go no further-I will assure that.” Taro took a deep breath-so that ladies name was Azami, nice name he thought. With another deep breath Taro squared off against this gruff man. The man now came into sharp relief. He was huge at six feet five inches and from what taro could tell extremely muscled. Though what struck Taro as odd was the man’s hair was a old grey color. Taro could not tell if the man was extremely old or just had grey hair. Ending his analysis on the man Taro decided to provoke an attack as he did not want to charge into attack an opponent who he had never seen battle before. “Oh Azami was her name? She was not in the least bit fast. In fact all I have to show for my battle, if you could call it that, is this small scratch on my cheek. Though she on the other hand got quite a bit more than a scratch.” The grey haired man let out a beastly roar that unsettled Taro quite a bit- no human should be able to make a noise like that. What happened next was something that Taro found hard to comprehend. The man’s skeletal system seemed to bulge and then the man rose his right arm with his fingers facing out aiming right for Taro. In a heartbeat the man seemed o project the bones in his hands at Taro. Had Taro not been ready for battle he would have been dead then and there. Luckily he was able to dive out of the way as the bone projectiles imbedded themselves in the ground a few feet behind where Taro had once stood. Regaining his footing Taro broke into a series of acrobatic stunt to avoid the barrage of bones that followed him closely. It took every once of speed and concentration on the part of Taro to dodge these attacks. So far all he had been doing was running about looking like a fool. He needed to do something, but the man’s attacks left very little openings in which to produce a counter attack of any type.

As the fight wore on for about four minutes Taro was starting to get sluggish. His feet felt like cinderblocks yet still he willed himself to dodge the attacks. Until in one barrage a thought to occurred him-he knew how to end this fight, but it would be painful. Taro was no stranger to pain, but that did not mean he welcomed it upon himself. He knew he had to let himself get hit. It would go against every fiber in his being to stand still, but he forced himself to do so. Then three hard projectiles pierced his right calf. Pain shot through him as he crumpled to the ground making sure that his back was facing the grey haired man, though Taro now hesitated to think of him as a man after he just shot his own bones at him. With his back to the man he could hear the man let out a hearty laugh and walk in for the finishing blow, or so Taro assumed. So with his back providing cover Taro made the Snake hand seal for the third time that day. The man was instantly surrounded by roots that grasped at the large man’s physique, making the roots look like toys, but they held strong. Turning around Taro had a small smile on his face: this man hadn’t been too hard, but the bone projectiles in his calf were going to slow him down. Taro sighed: “You could have made it easier on yourself and finished me from afar” The grey haired man only smiled and replied: “It is not over you Senju scum!.” A wave of anger passed over Taro this man had crossed the line when he insulted the honorable Senju clan. He would pay dearly for that. Though Taro would not get the chance to exact his revenge as the roots that surrounded the man started to split. From inside the cocoon of roots came large spikes of bone. “You have done well thus far Senju, but you will not get past my ultimate technique. Please allow me to welcome you to my forest of bones: it will act as your graveyard.” The spies of bone started spreading all around the ground as if it was becoming skeletal itself. Taro acted quickly and preformed a stumbling body flicker. He had escaped the thirty meter radius around the grey haired man, which was now populated by a field of jagged bones. This fight was going to be a lot harder than the last one. The man inside the field of bones seemed to be immobilized right after using the technique so Taro took this chance to remove the bone projectiles in his calf. Each one seared with pain, but at least he would be able to move freely without the fear of worsening his injury. Looking into the bone field Taro saw that the man he had been fighting was now gone. Looking all around taro was able to just barely able to see and dodge a large spike of bone that protruded from the forest of bones. Taro decided it was time to go n the offensive and he had just the perfect way to do it: Fight a forest of bones with forest of wood.

Around the circle of bones formed a small forest of wood. Taro then made the trees bend in on the bone spikes. Though the spikes did not remain immobile: they retaliated with a vengeance. Out of one large spike in the middle of the bone circle formed the grey haired man-he seemed to have become one with the bone spikes. The bones easily went through the wood that moved upon them, but the wood did not stop when skewered. Instead the wood continued to grow until it overwhelmed the bones and the forest of the bones became engulfed with the forest of wood. All at once the bone spikes drew back in to the grey haired man who now lay at the center of the small thirty meter radius of trees that did not reach over six feet high. For a second time the grey haired man was captured in a cocoon of roots only this time he was conked over the head by an advancing Taro. Taro grimace and withdrew his wood transformation not wanting to leave any trace that a Senju had been here especially now that he knew someone wanted him for something. Looking further into the desert Taro almost started running again when he saw a large cloud on the horizon. It was not a storm cloud, but a dust cloud-a sandstorm. Of all the rotten luck he had had all day this was the worst: he would be forced to bunker down and allow it to pass. With a sigh Taro limped back to the grey haired man who was bound and unconscious. Making the snake hand seal again Taro made a small wooden hut around himself and the man. It was small, but it would do for now.

Taro had his injured leg laid out in front of him. Outside he could hear a roar of wind as the sandstorm bared down upon his small hut. Reaching over to the grey haired man Taro ripped off a piece of his shirt and tied it around his wounded leg. It would not stop the pain, but it would keep the blood from flowing freely his leg and hopefully scab up. Once he was done patching himself up he leaned back against the spherical wall of the hut and let his mind run free. The pain in his leg brought back memories, which were probably better left in the back of his mind, but oddly enough what is meant to be forgotten comes to the forefront of the mind.

Flashback
It had been a year and a half since Taro had escaped from the village hidden in the clouds. His existence had been a miserable one to say the least. He was on the outskirts of the village hidden in the rocks and on the search for food. The food that had been sustaining Taro was not enough: this was his first time he ever attempted to steal anything, but he was desperate and it was a matter of life and starvation. There was small farm he had been staking out for the past day and now, on the night of a new moon, he planned to sneak into the cottage and grab all the food he could. Once the last light went out in the cottage and the clouds in the sky hid the pin pricks in the sky that were stars Taro made his move. He moved in the shadows. Each movement he made was with meaning and speed. He did not want to spend time dawdling around the cottage. He arrived at the back window to the storehouse and gave it a stern yet silent kick inwards. Unfortunately the door was not very well hinged and it flew back and fell off it’s hinges making a loud clutter when it fell to the ground. Wasting no time Taro ran into the small storehouse and grabbed all the food and supplies he saw. He then ran out the door as fast as his legs would allow. Just as he was about to make it to the safety of the bushes and woods he heard a yell and then eight points of pain in his left leg. He continued to move through the woods, but at such a slow pace that he was sure he would be caught. Resigning himself he lay crumpled behind a tree-he had not been fast enough. Somehow one of the occupants of the house had heard the commotion Taro had made while entering the storehouse and responded by throwing eight senbon, which now lay imbedded in his leg. Luckily Taro lived through the night without being found. From that night on he resolved not to steal food: not only because he was scared of being seen, but because he was afraid of being incapacitated and unable to move.
Flashback end

Returning to his current situation Taro could hear the storm blowing over: it was coming to an end. The grey haired man who had formerly been unconscious was coming to so Taro gave him another solid conk on the head and the man fell immobile again. Taking down the ramshackle wooden shelter he had put up to protect from the sandstorm. The shelter melted back into the ground from here it had come. The sun was bright and the desert was completely changed. Large mountains of sand had formed. He would have been disoriented if not for the position of the sun. Taro was able to figure out where he was supposed to be heading and went on his way. At this point the woman he had trapped in the roots was probably free. That thought gave new speed to his movements: he did not want to have to fight that woman again. Despite the wounds in his leg he was able to bite through the pain and keep on his way up the now steep slopes of sand. Taro was driven now, not by the want to get back his stolen stuff, but to find out why the hell these people would go to such lengths to get to him.

Cresting a particularly large hill Taro spotted yet another figure. This was getting old he wanted to finish this fast so he slid down the sandy hill and stood on level ground with the person who stood before him. The man was a person with a small physique: about five feet six inches with hair as black as coal. Taro flashed a toothy smile: “So you are my third challenge are you?” The small man let out a laugh in his right hand was griped a scroll, but for now it seemed nothing would be coming out of it: “Yes, yes, yes I am your…challenge. I see you beat my two friends: they are nothing compared to me. I am the the one pulling the strings I am this groups planner and you have fallen into my trap.” Taro just looked at the man: was this guy crazy-he had no fear whatsoever. The small man’s hands moved with blinding speed: he shoved the scroll he had in his right hand into the sand. When he pulled his hand out the scroll was gone, but taro could just make out five chakra strings coming off his hand. Though nothing happened at first so taro switched to taunting: “You can’t even touch me. Whatever you had planned seems to have failed completely and utt…” taro was cut off when a demonic looking puppet popped up out of the sand behind taro with it’s ribs wide open. Taro was instantly caught by the ribs and pinned down. The short man then closed the hand with the strings and locked the puppet into position around Taro’s now immobilized body. He was pinned in such a way that both his arms were behind his back and his head was forced to look at the short statured man. The man walked up to Taro with a long jagged spike in his hand. It seemed this would be the weapon that killed Taro or at least it would have been had Taro not managed to get his hands together behind his back: it was a bit unconventional, but it would work. Luckily a source of wood was all around him-a puppet. The foolish coal haired man would be incapacitated by his own puppet. As the coal haired man pulled back his metal stake the puppet four wooden stakes shot forth from puppet. The puppet itself was warped out of shape now as most of the mass was in spikes, but it would do. The short coal haired man stood no chance: his arms were skewered at the biceps and his legs were skewered in the quads. Basically he would not be going anywhere. The metal stake that had been in his hands fell with a dull thud onto the ground. The man’s eyes were filled with shock: his own puppet had turned on him-a true tragedy. The wood that had been around Taro uncoiled and allowed him to step back: this was the easiest fight yet: who would use wooden puppets against a Senju? Taro laughed a bit. Oddly enough the man with the coal hair was also laughing-he really was insane.

Taro decided to take this man’s insanity and use it to his advantage: “So as you can see I am superior, as I said. So why don’t you tell me who exactly you are working for. Seeing as you are the mastermind behind your quintuplet you should know.” The man’s eyes were bugged with pain, but somehow he was able to speak: “That’s for me to know and you to find out. If I don’t answer to you I am dead and if I do I am dead. I see no reason to help you.” Sighing Taro responded as quickly as possible: “Fine, fine, fine. I will keep you safe if you tell me.” The man just laughed as one of his teeth fell out into his mouth. The tooth as it turned out was a pill. He bit the pill and foam erupted from his mouth. And in another second the man lay limp on the wooden spikes. So much for his attempt at getting information. Whoever had hired that man was clearly more dangerous than Taro originally thought. If someone would commit suicide rather than face him then who knows how powerful this person is. Choosing not to hesitate Taro took off back into the sandy wastes.

He did not have any time to waste and it was getting dark: he would not be going to the village hidden in the sand today. His legs were burning both from the heat and from the excessive exercise he had been doing all day. His legs faltered as instead of sand they hit solid ground, which was odd. He was still in the center of the desert, but there was a solid stone ground for about a twenty five hundred square meters in a square. Slowing his run to a walking pace Taro walked the perimeter of the square and he would have continued running on had he not heard a voice underneath the stone. It was muffled, but if was definitely a voice. Then behind him he heard a scraping of stone and the very ground shook. Throwing his gaze behind him Taro saw as a four foot by four foot tie slid back to reveal a set of stairs that led down into darkness. Against his better judgment Taro took a few steps towards the stairwell.

As he descended the stairwell he jumped as the entrance closed behind him-great now he was trapped. Walking back to the entrance he attempted to push it back open, but to no avail. With a sigh he turned back down the stairs. All his senses were on high alert-he did not want to be taken down an assassin’s blade. He still heard the voice, but now it was moving and it seemed to be singing a song of sorts-one that made the hair on the back of taro’s neck stand on end. Further down the stairs he could see an odd torch: it had blue flames flowing from it. This place was down right eerie. The song continued to echo off the stone walls as he progressed down. Finally the stairwell flattened out into a long hallway. The hallway was lit by the same creepy torches and the singing had stopped. The silence was almost creepier than the singing. Each of Taro’s steps was slow and deliberate. He tested each stone he stepped on looking for traps-he could never be too careful. So far he had suppressed his inner urge to just run through the halls and raise hell with whoever had trapped him here. The hallway opened up into a poorly lit chamber. The pillars that held up the ceiling looked like snakes with their mouths spread wide open holding the tremendous weight of the desert over their heads. His eyes then rested on the small figure that sat cross-legged in the center of the chamber-the assumed source of the singing. The small figure turned stood up and started speaking without turning around, her voice, as it was obviously a girls voice, was soft and sweet like an alluring melody: “Hello and welcome to the underbelly of the desert, I assume you are Taro. I expected much from you and you have excelled past my subordinates. Unfortunately I will have to incapacitate you and bring you to the boss.” At first Taro was stunned, first she didn’t attack him right away plus her voice was enchanting. Regaining his composure Taro spat out a reply, he wanted to keep this lady talking so he could get some information: “ Your subordinates? The last guy I met claimed to be the mastermind behind this whole operation, unless I am mistaken. And if I may ask who is your boss?” The girls let out a small giggle and responded with a slight whisper: “So Haro told you he was the mastermind, that’s rich. I doubt he has a single original idea in that sawdust head of his. Now about my boss…that’s a touchy subject how about we skip that part and get to something more interesting like how much of you I need to get for some DNA. I hear all it takes it but a hand or even a finger. So I suppose I could rough you up a bit and give my boss only a piece of you. The rest of you will make fine food for my…pets.” With the last word the woman spread her arms out and symbols on them started to glow. They looked like tattoos that glowed a florescent red color. Then two tattoo, one on her left and one on her right arms seemingly fell off the ladies body with a slight poof of smoke.

The two snakes that came off this woman’s body were huge: standing five feet tall with hoods like a cobra, but they also had rattles on their tails like a rattlesnake. Taro balked at the two snakes, he would have to fight those things? “So I assume that these,” Taro gestured to the two snakes “are your pets?” The lady abandoned her old laugh and replaced it with a witch like cackle: “Yes and these are only the first of many you will be fighting so I wish you luck, but you stand no chance. Now my pets feed!” The lady then disappeared into the darkness leaving taro to fight the two snakes. Ironically Taro wove the snake hand seal, but nothing happened. As the snakes slithered towards him he tried making the sign again with no effect-something was preventing his wood release from working and whatever it was was going to be the death of him. At this point both the snakes had taken to circling Taro like hungry sharks ready to strike. It was then that he found a small splinter in his hadnt from the staff he had been using in the fight with the red haired woman. Discretely pulling out the splinter he made the snake yet again, but this time the small splinter grew to a long staff. The wood release itself had not been unable to work: wood just could not be made to come through the floor or roof of the structure as Taro had been trying to do. Instead only wood already inside the dank chamber could be grown. The second the staff had been formed he heard a laugh from the darkness as the two snakes lunged right at Taro with the intent to kill. One snake lunged at the left shoulder of Taro and one the right. Thinking on his feet Taro took one step back and managed to, in the same movement, come up behind the snake on the left. With a swift thwacking motion Taro brought the staff down with all his might on the snake’s hooded head. The snake fell to the ground with a thud though something Taro had not factored in was that the snake, formerly on his right, was still lunging and was now on a direct collision course with the defenseless Taro. The remaining snake’s jaw closed around the left bicep of Taro. The instant he was bitten a pain unlike anything he had never felt before overwhelmed his body and he then collapsed to the ground. He could feel his vision blur and his reaction time slowing to a halt as the venom of the snake seeped into him. In his right hand was still clutched the wooden staff, but right now it was no use. The snake itself had disappeared, but now starting on Taro’s left shoulder and going down his back. All Taro could do was sit helpless on the cold stone floor of the chamber.

As he lay there Taro could just make out soft footsteps coming up from his left side. Then a cold hand was laid upon his back and the snake was drawn back to its master with considerable pain on taro’s part. Then came the same sing songy voice: “Well I guess you were really all talk. I did not even have use my other pets. Now lets get to dismembering you shall we? I cant allow my pets to make a mess, because they can be so….imprecise. I will be removing what I need and then my pets can have the rest. Now this will hurt.” To emphasize her seriousness she drew a long silver dagger and held it above Taro’s left hand. She then pressed the dagger onto the top part of Taro’s wrist. Taro had been in somewhat of a stupor, but the cutting pain he felt in his wrist sobered him up. He still had the venom pumping through his vein, but for now he needed to stop this person from chopping off his hands. Calling on the last once of his willpower Taro withdrew both his hands together with the staff in between them-much to the surprise of the lady. Taro had only enough time to will the staff to wrap around lady who stood next to him and squeeze with all it’s might hoping to constrict the life out of the woman. The last image he saw before blacking out was the woman falling down beside him. He was glad that if this was his end he had not gone down alone.

While unconscious Taro felt nothing and saw nothing save for blackness, cold numbing blackness. Both his mind and body were at drift until after an hour of being unconscious his body gave an involuntary jerk as if life had been thrust back in it and Taro’s eyes shot wide open. At first his eyesight was blurred and he could not move much of his body. The venom of the snake had not been lethal, but with one quick glance he saw that his snake like wooden staff had done it’s job as it had caved in the ladies’ body. A weak smile came across Taro’s face as he lay on the chamber floor. Unable to move still Taro just sat there for another hour until his fatigue and the effects of the venom had passed. Pushing himself up Taro walked over to the body of the woman and found his lost ryo and found a note with familiar looking handwriting. Unfurling the crumpled note Taro read over it:

We have a new job for you. This one should be simple for you four. You are to steal items from a cave, which is specified on the map below. This will cause you to be pursued. We wish for you to capture this man. He does not need to be alive. We only need a sample large enough to experiment on his DNA. Beware though this man is dangerous take every precaution. Your reward will be given to you once you have dropped off the DNA at the prearranged area we have used before.
-G

The letter was signed with the same archaic looking G that Taro had seen before on a contract he himself had carried out in the service of this mysterious G person. Though Taro’s personal quest for closure and vengeance against this G person would have to wait. For now all Taro could do, and wanted to do, was get back to his cave and get some well-deserved sleep. Retrieving his staff from it’s place wrapped around the woman: he would need it to escape from this godforsaken dungeon. Stumbling to the door Taro found his supplies that had been stolen and put them on his back-it was going to be a long trip back to the cave. The only obstacle left now was getting out of this underground chamber. Walking back up the steep steps Taro arrived at the sealed exit: there had to be a way to get through this door. Upon feeling around the slab of a door Taro found a latch that he had missed after his first attempt at escape. Pulling back on the latch he was able to pull the door above him open about an inch, but no further. Then an idea occurred to him: he shoved the wooden staff he had through the small hole that had been made and then expanded the staff, which forced the door open. With a cracking noise Taro threw the staff back into the chamber where it would stay for the rest of eternity.

Outside the chamber the desert had cooled as night fell. Stars now twinkled in the sky. The air had become cool and clean without a trace of the sandstorm that had past by earlier that day. Taro slowly retraced his steps to make it back to his homely cave. The trip back was soothing: there was no blistering sun and his way was lit by star and moon light. Then again Taro was burdened by the beatings he had taken through the course of the day. Taro passed by his three other battle fields making sure to remove any trace of a Senju being there. Naturally all the people, including the one who had committed suicide’s bodies were gone, which was something Taro did not mind-he did not want to have to clean up a mess like that. Finally he arrived back at the cave. Once inside he started a small fire and brewed a pot of tea. It had been a long day and he wanted nothing more than to sit back and sleep, but first he wanted a spot of tea. While waiting for his tea to brew a wave of fatigue washed over Taro; it now hit him how much running and speed oriented battling he had been doing all day, his legs felt stronger and faster than they had in the morning. Also a sudden realization came over him: he had to get back into the village hidden in the leaves-this thought ha dbeen in the back of his mind all day, but at this point it was clear. He had to inform the Deputy Kazekage of his choice, but yet again that was for another day. It seemed like all the important things in Taro’s life always happened tomorrow. While lost in thought the tea boiled over, which caused the fire to make an especially loud sizzling noise. Pouring himself a cup of tea Taro opened the map of the nations. He wanted to make a stop in the valley of the end to check something out he had read about in his one and only book. From the valley of the end he would go to the village hidden in the leaves and that was where it got a bit tricky, because Taro had no idea how to go about joining a village. He allowed that thought to fill his mind as he downed his last cup of tea and lay down to bed outside the cave under the never ending expanse of the stars.
(WC: 9066, +90 JP, +15 Chakra, +30 Speed)

bump

Approved.