The Master's final lesson [P]

The mist wavered as a shadow passed by, followed by screams. A low meaningless shout, then a sound of a blade cutting through the air and sinking into a body - the nearest voice went silent, but the background remained. The mist was red and the waters nearby were filled with death and dead. The little, frightened girl was hiding in a corner, luckily not spotted so far, she was seeing all of this happening in front of her with eyes that simply could not believe it. She was mighty afraid. Another silhouette passed by and the scream came close. A woman was running on the deck, but the little girl already knew what was going to happen and the reason was that the woman was screaming, if she had not... A slash came and the wooden deck turned crimson, her voice falling silent just like the one before as the body hit the deck. The man who did this would throw down the instrument of the woman's death and descent onto his victim, seeking anything of value to claim from the dead. Spotting no other living people around, the girl would feel a surge of initiative. She was of the age, where one starts to no longer see ones parents was almost godlike figures, capable of anything, whose knowledge is immeasurable. However, she had no experience of such horror. The girl knew she had to find her parents, if anyone knew what to do, a way out of this mess, it would be them. A thought of them being dead, cut down just like the one before her eyes, did not even occur to her. And now, as the reaver in front of her was busy, she would take this chance to slip out of her hiding place, which she knew would not keep her safe for much longer. The light feet of a kid she was would make almost no sound in this setting as she would flee the shadows...

...looking for. Youta would wake, her eyes opening to see the ceiling above. It was a dream, a dream she has had countless times. Stroking her white hair, she would sigh - was it ever going to stop haunting her? She had more important stuff do to in her life than delve on the past, which cannot be corrected anyway. The girl would jump out of bed and dress up. It was morning, slightly into the midday, even. She had no work today, so she would go looking again. After having a quick snack for breakfast the girl would leave her little apartment, lock it and head out into the village.
Youta was a genin, the youngest and lowest of ninja ranks, a genin of Tengakure, the village of skyscrapers. Tengakure was one of five major villages, the five major powers in the shinobi world. Depending on the situation it could mean a lot of different things, but none of them very important to the girl at the moment. She had a very clear and specific objective, which was so far the biggest in her small life - finding her master. Unlike your regular genin, Youta was not part of a team, she had no sensei and no team mates. However, there was this one Jounin, that might have been her sensei. She took interest in the girl and agreed to train her. But this revered person was now gone for weeks and Youta was lost. She tried asking about it at the village central building, where Tenkage-sama lived, or had an office at least. But nobody would give her a straight answer. Youta knew her master was a great person and was involved in important things to the village, things that would be kept secret and that nobody would just tell her. However, were Yozora to be sent on an assignment out of the village for so long, she would surely have told something to her student as she had done before. And yet, she was simply gone - one day she would not meet Youta at their training session, no messages sent to her would receive a reply, her house empty. There were a few things the genin could imagine to have happened to her master, but unless someone told her otherwise, she would keep searching.

In her daily, white, green and blue clothing she would walk through the streets, scanning the corners with her inspecting eyes. She wore her headband on her hair, sort of giving it a function to keep the hair in shape. The girl would stop, looking up at the colossal buildings above her. She would need to decide where to go, this was a big village and randomly wandering around would hardly do her any good, especially if she got lost. Looking back down at the streets, she would have her destination. There was a weaponry shop she accompanied her master to once. The owner seemed to know Yozora and he had seen her with, so maybe he could tell Youta something. The shop in question was slightly away from where the main market place was located. Not being in such a popular place, the shop survived probably because of its quality goods. Hopefully she will learn something there, this quest had already started to tire her, mentally.

Haru sat straight up. This was getting annoying. Messenger birds, messenger birds, messenger birds, every single day. Birds, birds, birds. All of them with letters detailing missions that just couldn’t help but start at the crack of dawn. Words, words, words. He imagined it was something big, like destroying another giant monster or something, but he hoped it was just a letter. He was about to regret that wish. He opened the window and took the letter off the messenger bird, unfolding it to reveal a note… from Takeo? A love letter, no doubt, that guy struck him as gay from the very start. Still, that was not the case. It seemed Yozora too had dropped dead suddenly, and Takeo felt Haru should be the one to take care of the body. Naturally, he thought this some kind of joke. There was no way he wouldn’t have taken care of the body- Oh… He was a hypocrite for thinking that, wasn’t he?
 
Sighing, Haru slipped on his robes, apparently going off to fill his role, once again, as corpse collector of Tengakure. In the back of his mind, it still had not sunken in yet, all the deaths of his friends. He was still blocking it out, like a ticking time bomb. He made his way down the stairs of the hotel, not quite exited enough to jump off as he usually did. Reaching the streets, he made a slight detour, wanting to see which way would be the most discreet for when he disposed of the body… Well, he did have a scroll or two handy. Still, it couldn’t be helped, that Haru happened to be passing by the weapons shop as he heard someone ask a question. Something along the lines of “Have you seen Yozora?” Haru stopped walking, his right eye activating as his byakugan scanned the area. No one was looking at him. How strange. Who had asked that question, then? Scanning the area, he determined that the question had come from within the weapons shop he was standing next to. Curiously, the boy peeked into the place. A girl stood there, likely the source of the voice, as the only other person there was a much older person, unlikely to have the higher, younger voice he had heard.
 
Adjusting the bandages around his eye, Haru stepped into the place, unsure of how to approach this. Who was this? Yozora’s sister, maybe? ”You know Yozora?” He would ask the girl suddenly. He wasn’t sure if he was allowed to divulge such information, seeing as she was an ANBU on a high ranked mission at the time of her death, but if she was next of kin, he wasn’t going to keep it from her. If she answered yes, Haru would bite his lip, glancing over his shoulder, despite having a byakugan. He would pull the letter Takeo had sent him from his robes, unfolding it and handing it to her. ”Don’t read aloud.” He would say as he handed it to her.  


(22/30 Posts Sharingan recovery)

Time flew by while Youta made her way to the shop. She would not really remember how, but just like that she was here. Upon entering, the girl would spot the bulky owner, massive and muscular, something you would expect from a blacksmith, which he was. However, instead of immediately approaching the man she would first take a look at the wares here. She had to admit, she liked the collection of different kinds of weapons and after taking a kunai for a closer inspection it was made clear that these really are quality equipment. Unfortunately the girl did not have any money with her at the time, she did not intend to do any purchasing when she left her house. Maybe another time. Putting the weapon back in its place, she would now turn at the shopkeeper, who up until now was working on something behind the shop stand, while also keeping an eye on his visitor. She would walk up to the stand and in response he would stop whatever he was doing and smile at her. "Can I help you, little one?" He would inquire. Nodding the kunoichi would ask her question. "Yes, if you remember me, last time I was here with a young woman, named Yozora. Have you seen her lately?" The guy obviously did not expect that, he was probably waiting for a 'I'd like to buy that...' or something. He would frown a bit, appearing to try to recall that visit. And yet, before he could formulate a sentence with which to reply somebody else entered the shop.

Youta would face this person, as he did not seem interested in the shop's wares but was clearly approaching her specifically. The shopkeeper would remain silent, although his expression would now be hidden from the girl. Before she could take her time to inspect the other person, Youta would hear a question. ”You know Yozora?” Her eyes would narrow a bit, has he overheard her question to the blacksmith? Was this a joke or did he actually know her master as well? Well, if he actually did know her too, then maybe he could bring some light onto the situation, if this was a terrible prank... then she would beat him senseless. She would nod, then give a simple and straight "I do." After a moment his expression would change a little. In this moment, the girl would notice this being a boy a bit older than she, he too had white hair and wore a headband of Tengakure. So was a ninja. The girl also noticed that one of his eyes was completely hidden under bandages, while the other seemed to be blind from the first glance, it had no pupil, but a number of veins were visible around it. And yet it moved as if he could see with it, most interesting. The boy would look over his shoulder then take out a letter and hand it to her, telling her not to read it aloud. She would take it, while carefully inspecting his eye, which being so unusual was pretty impossible to read and the other was covered. Then she would lower her sight onto the already unfolded letter. It seemed to be addressed to someone named after one of the seasons of the year. As she continued through the lines, her face slowly collapsed into a frown, small muscles appearing on her cheeks, as she would tense up. This indicated that Yozora was dead and her body was in the basement of the sender, signed Takeo Tadashi. Although it did not say if she was killed and if she was, who did it, but it did not matter to the girl at the time. She did not entirely believe it. Her master was a great person...

Folding the letter back together, Youta would raise a bit of a dread look back at the boy, handing him back the letter, while voicing her question. "Who is this Takeo person? And even more importantly where does he live?"

Well, she claimed to know Yozora. He was going against his better judgement by doing this, but Haru had to help her.
”Are you family?” He would ask the girl as she finished reading read the letter. At that moment, it dawned on Haru that he didn’t know where Takeo lived… The idiot. Why wouldn’t you put a home address in a letter telling someone to go to your house and essentially clean up after you? Eh, whatever. The girl was staring at his eyes, darting around small features of his face, as if assessing how she felt about him based on his looks. Charmed, I’m sure. Still, staring like this was something Haru, as a Hyuuga, was used to people doing, which was no doubt amplified by the fact that his Sharingan was bandaged. His eyes were a spectacle, not something one normally sees. He’d get even more stares with black and white eyes… He’d have to see about having someone change the sharingan to match the Byakugan. Maybe den, since he was so savvy in medical ninjutsu. Not only were his eyes definitely something that stuck out, his armor and robes were quite unusual, as well as his white and black hair. Originally, it had been brown, but it greyed prematurely when he took those aging pills…
 
The girl inquired about Takeo, and where he lived. ”Takeo” Began Haru in answer to the girl’s question. ”Is an idiot who doesn’t know how to put a return address on a letter. I can’t reveal all the details, but essentially, we worked with Yozora before… Well, you know.” Said Haru, glancing at the shopkeeper with a cross of distrust and uncertainty crossing his face ”We can probably get his address from the post office.” He said, heading out the door, gesturing for her to follow. If she followed, he would head for the post office, which was thankfully near by. A quick exchange with the clerk would reveal Takeo’s place of residence to the pair of them. ”Let’s get going, then. Try not to break anything…” He would advise as he headed for Takeo’s house, walking towards the doors. Reaching out, he would begin to twist the doorknob.
”Shit.” He would mutter. The door was either locked or jammed. Naturally, he could just bust the thing down for their troubles, but that would be awfully messy. And loud. And expensive.

The boy would ask another question. He wanted to know if Youta was family to Yozora, the reasons quite obvious. Hoping her answer would be good enough, the girl replied. "To my knowledge she does not have any family in Tengakure... no, I am her pupil." After returning the letter and asking her own question the boy would explain how Takeo had not put his address into the letter and how they both worked with Yozora before. Based on that Youta made a couple assumptions, which she would not voice at the time. She would then catch the boy's distrustful glance at the shopkeeper, as he would suggest extracting Takeo's address from the post office. Nodding in agreement, the girl would follow the boy out of the store, slightly bowing and thanking the keeper as she exited, promising to return later to check out more of his goods. Not exactly sure if she could trust this kid with strange hair, stranger clothes and the strangest eye she has seen, Youta would decide to question him a bit as they were making their way to the post office. From the way he spoke about Takeo and how they worked with Yozora, she had already assumed the following to be true, but still wanted to confirm it. "So, you would be Haru, the one the letter was addressed to?" Following that, still not exactly sure what to believe, she would dare to ask that was well. "The letter speaks as if Yozora is dead... Do you know how it happened? Did this Takeo kill her?" The post office was fairly close, to by the time the boy had answered or did not answer the questions, they would arrive.

It was surprisingly quick and easy to obtain the address they needed, as nobody would much question their motives in requiring this information. Youta was not sure she could have gone off this easily had she come alone with such request. Contemplating her situation, the girl would not even notice as the time flew by and they were at the spot. Her companion on this little quest would attempt to open the doors, which appeared to be locked, or jammed. He hesitated, obviously not sure what to do now, probably not wanting to break the door and thinking of another plan. Youta however did not share such restraint. As the boy's hand was no longer holding the door handle, she would swing her right leg up and thrust it forward, hitting just above the knob, breaking the mechanism and tearing the door open. She did not care about the doors or being messy at this point. Yozora was in this house, she could be injured and need her help, so f**k the doors! Piking inside, the girl would start searching the place, shouting her master's name every other minute.

Her pupil… Had Yozora have a genin team? She didn’t seem the type for that. They walked for a bit, before the girl asked about his name… She’d read the address on the letter, and asked if that was his name. He hesitated for a moment, since he wasn’t sure what kind of information he was allowed to give out as an ANBU trainee. Still, his name wouldn’t hurt, would it?
”Yeah, I’m Haru.” He would say, withholding his last name. The letter simply said his first name, and there was no reason to go about spouting his surname like he used to. Such a habit was bound to get his other eye stolen one of these days. The girl inquired about Yozora’s status. ”And you are?” He would ask, before hearing her next question.
”No, Takeo merely took care of her after the… incident. She’s dead, but we don’t know how. Some kind of sickness spreading across the village that makes people drop dead where they stand. My sensei and two of my friends were lost to it as well.” He explained to the girl. He felt empathy for the girl, as his situation was quite similar to hers. ”The Tenkage himself is working figuring out what caused it, but the outbreak seems to be over.” He assured her.
 
As he moved away from the doorknob, the girl kicked down the door rather excitedly. Understandable, as this was her sensei that they were looking for.
”That works, too, I suppose” He would say, stepping slowly into the building after her, not really bothering to run after the girl. It occurred to him that he could use his Byakugan to aid the search, so he flipped it on and glanced around the house, walking through Takeo’s house. Moving into a different room, he figured he would help himself to something from Takeo’s pantry for his troubles. He was having trouble locating Yozora, as there was no more chakra signature from her body… He would sit in a chair as he searched around the house for the corpse, making sure he was in a different room then Youta so that he would not appear disinterested. He pored over the house, admittedly rather lazily, as his eye kept going back to Youta’s chakra signature… He had gotten so used to simply looking for the glowing, human-shaped light that showed up. He’d have to work on getting used to not using it so much…

(26/30 Sharingan recovery posts)

Takeo had only been back in Tengakure for around three minutes. His house was not that far from the village gates, and after gaining entrance he made a beeline for home. The main reason for this was because he wanted to check up on his family. He had not seen his six siblings in several weeks, and honestly he missed them. He was walking briskly through the streets, though despite the speed at which he was moving his footsteps made no noise. It was a force of habit really, and this silent walking had become a natural thing for Takeo to do. The boy had a bag slung over his shoulder, holding all of the belongings he had taken with him on his journey. Located on his left hand was a glove of some kind. The glove itself possessing the advanced armour dubbed 'The Wraithraiser'. Untested in actual combat Takeo was still not sure of it's exact effectiveness. Though with recent events he didn't doubt that it would be used all too soon. It was as he rounded the corner that he heard a scream. He recognised the scream though, it was the scream of one of his sisters. His walk turned into a dash, his finger's pressing against the glove in his left hand. In an instant the Wraithraiser armour encased his body. His silent dash didn't stop as he arrived in front of his home however. He quickly ran through the now open and broken door of his home. Takeo could sense the two presences in his home, from the corner of his vision he noticed all of his family cowering in the corner of the living room. One thought ran through Takeo's mind. Protect his family. He also heard the sound of calling. The intruders picked the wrong house today. Takeo caught sight of an unknown figure. All of this processing took less than a second, in which time Takeo had closed the distance between him and the one yelling. From his right fingers the lightning blades of superiorness extended. The gap closed and Takeo swung his right arm forward, the blades poised to cut a gash along the back of the girl who had intruded his home if she failed to dodge the attack somehow.

Xyxer was on his way to the Tenkage chambers; he wished to retake his title of ANBU Captain in the village. He had a rather nice slumbe- Was that a scream? He heard the sound of wood being broken, something he was used to hearing when he broke into houses back in Kirigakure.. Something was greatly off. Following the sound of the scream that reminded him of Takeo, he paused outside for a minute to see what was happening, seeing another figure running in. He used that as his cue to enter the doorway, his frame blocking it and his crocodilian mask covering his features, molding him into an emotionless sentient.

Jumping straight into the house, Youta was actually unaware and not expecting to find someone inhabiting it. Soon she came to realize that they were not alone in the house. There were people here, males and females, none of the faces were Yozora's though. They all seemed fairly panicked, which was not a big surprise considering Youta did just break into their home. The group of what seemed about six people, would now gather in the living room. They did not appear as a threat to the girl so she would mostly ignore the bunch and go on with her search. She would scan the interior, room by room. Making her way through the kitchen, living room, shortly appearing in their bathroom and study. What was it with this stupid design for a house. The girl closed a door to one of the bedrooms and was on her way to ask the family where is the entrance to their basement when she felt something. Something was wrong. At the door she saw somebody else, it was not Haru, nor was it someone from the family. Before she could much respond to it, the guy? dashed at her and aimed what appeared to be a punch. Overwhelmed by the speed all she did was take her stance, raising the hands half the way...

It was familiar to a feeling she had before, on the red night. As the girl, the kid she was at the time, was running through the ship she and her parents were sailing on. Having just abandoned her hiding spot, she was looking for them. Clumsily climbing the stairs, the Rentei appeared on the bridge and it was the moment she felt the very same sensation. Before her stood a big man, she could not see his face, in his hand a sword. Trapped in his bloodthirst, he would not even consider the one before him being but a child and would almost immediately raise his blade. And then he would sent it down, the girl paralyzed in fear, yet her eyes burning in a blue fire of her inner strength.

2345 w.
[Unlocking Seigan level 1 and 2]

Woah. Two chakra signatures were approaching, one of wearing some strange armor, and the other wearing some kind of mask. Not only that, it seemed Haru had failed to notice the others in the house while he was working on becoming less dependent on his eyes. Shit. The armored one was moving fast, towards Youta, forming a chakra blade of some kind from his hands. Haru had seen those before, though he couldn’t put his finger on where. Rising up from the chair he sat in, he would activate his body flicker, quickly dashing through the house to intercept the armored man’s blades that were aimed for Youta, who it seemed wasn’t fast enough to react. He would end the dash in front of Takeo, slightly to his left. As he finished the movement, hopefully gaining the element of surprise, he would reach up with his left hand, attempting to catch Takeo’s right hand hand around the fingers, so that he could not bend them to cut him or Youta with the blades. At the same time, Haru would thrust his right hand into the man’s chest, using the Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm at point blank range to blast him away, releasing the man’s hand as he flew backwards, into the man standing in the doorway. If this were successful, he would reach over his shoulder with his right hand, pulling a bone from his shoulder, and extending it so that it could be used as a sword.
”Get to Yozora’s body and get her out of here. I think they’re after it.” He would say to Youta without turning his head away. These were without a doubt criminals going after Yozora’s body. He had heard of jutsu that could extract information from the brain of a dead body, and there was no doubt Yozora had quite a bit of information to share, should they manage to get their hands on the corpse.

(30/30 posts sharingan recovery)