Descent into Darkness [P, IO, NK, Psy]

[The first two lines are actually from the book that I'm working on. o.o]

It was dark.

As simple as it sounded, there wasn't much else to it.

The trees were blackened, their patchwork canopies blocking out nearly all light in the forest. Small shrubbery, saplings, and any other vegetation that tried to grow had withered away, died, become as dark as the giants that smothered them. Silence engulfed the woods, broken only by the occasional rustle or roar of a creature suspended within the shadows. Even in the deepest of the forest groves, a frozen wind swayed branches and chilled hearts to the core. It was in such a grove that she found herself.

She placed her feet carefully as she moved through the underbrush. How the girl came to be in such a place, she didn't quite know. One moment, she had been training in the mountains, and the next, hopelessly lost amongst a sea of nearly-nothingness.

The genin was tense as she moved, ready to fight or flee at the smallest of disturbances. She was a flighty, skittish girl as it was, but at that moment, it wasn't her own shadow that frightened her so. No, her antagonists were the countless shadows that danced, pounced, and wrestled in the forestry surrounding her. They were the roars of fiery anger and desperate agony from creatures she couldn't name, and the sounds of sticks breaking and leaves crunching that seemed to grow nearer and nearer by the second.

A feeling of dread began to settle within her stomach as she listened to the hymn of the hollows. There was something behind her; the intensity of her senses told her this clearly. With every step that she took, the creature took two... But with every slow breath it took, she took four, and quickly. Apprehension filled her to the brim, and as her heartbeat rose, so did her pace. As she sped up, her pursuer did as well, until they were both sprinting through the trees.

She focused her senses to figure out what monster was chasing her so vehemently. The beast's footfalls were heavy yet rapid, she could tell from the vibrations on the ground. It snapped limbs like twigs as it ran, and so she knew it must he horrendously big. Wind whistled and with its parting, she roughly assessed its build. What she discovered made her blood ran cold.

She picked up her speed desperatly. Branches snagged her clothes and tore through her skin as she raced blindly through the trees. She was weak, weaponless, half blind and unable to use her jutsu for a reason she had yet to discover. In ordinary circumstances, she would have turned around and slain the beast... But this was no ordinary situation. The creature was gaining momentum, and she had no means of escape, no way to save herself, but to run. Cold terror for her life - a feeling she had known many times before, in lesser levels - siezed her completely as she all but tore across the ground. Blood flowed easily from her wounds, and in her sightless horror, her foot hit an exposed root.

She tripped.

The girl landed upon the dark forest floor with a loud thud, rocks and thorns sticking like needles into her torn flesh. It hurt, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. As the haze that veiled her mind lifted, her breathing halted and her heart stopped within her chest. Behind her, there was no movement, no steps... It was silent, save for soft, panting breaths. Warm breath, smelling of death and rot and smoke, hit her neck and perpetrated her nose. It was terrifyingly sickening, and only served to make swell the pit of terror in her core. She quelled the shiver delicately running its trembling fingers down her spine. Slowly, she began to turn herself to face her soon-to-be murderer, until she was on her back and eye-level with the giant.

The monster that met her gaze was no ordinary creature of the wildlife. No, it was a massive, scaled thing, its armor the color of the trees surrounding it - pitch, all-engulfing black. Long, almost ribbon-like horns grew sturdily from its head, while smaller ones spiked unevenly down its back. The reptile's head was lengthy and slender, as was the tail that more than dwarfed it. Wings, mangled and scarred, sprouted from the back of the beast that was more than twice her height alone. This was not a wolf, a cougar, or even a bear. This monster was a dragon, and it was one that was starved and less than a foot away. It watched her intensely with its glowing yellow gaze, its overly elongated teeth gleaming from beneath its top lip. One, two seconds maybe, and she was dead. She was positive, for there was no way to escape her fate... She did the only thing her scattered and fear-stricken mind knew how to do.

Hanako screamed.

...And then she punched it.

Right in the f*cking eye.

Yes, the endless darkness of the Black Forest was legendary. Might be why it was called the Black Forest, but no one mentioned THAT in the brochure. Course not, bad for business. Kuro, the sole owner of the forest, who was judge, jury, executioner, executioner, and executioner of those in the forest, was on a walk. Why three executioners? He liked that part of the job. A lot. Kuro also loved explosions. On the other hand, he disliked when people punched dragons in the eye. Oddly specific, but a pet peeve. He usually poked anyone who did that in the eye with a needle. That taught them. Or killed them, considering his idea of a needle was a sword created from Lucifer, which was on his back. Unlike his previous self, he was not as psychotic, just not careful when dealing with people. As such, it meant the black forest still had the reputation of being a devil's den, filled with creatures far darker than even the blackest night, in a room with no windows, artificial light, or doors. Such monsters ate humans without care, even though they need not feed. They were enormous, grotesque monsters capable of feats that not even ninja could match sometimes, such as... well, ninja could actually do pretty much anything with enough training. In any case, the specific beast that was being tormented was Kalameet, a dragon similar to that of the HellKite one, which he met first. Even so, Kalameet HAD caused the situation.

Kalameet was a long, scaled beast, with blackened scales, as if to signify how fucked anyone who managed to see him was. With being a dragon, Kalameet was capable of spewing fire from his throat, though this fire was not the same as normal. It was a black fire, similar in appearance to Amaterasu, though not as intense. In truth, this specific dragon had more kills in its history than even Kur-HAHAHAHA No. Kuro had more than tripled the black dragon's killstreak, multiple times. And that was AFTER his amnesia, too. The dragon was still enormous, and terrifying, with a wingspan easily longer than a train, and a body just as long. Its structure was a thin shape, which made it far faster than any predator in the forest, other than Kuro and the Hellkite Dragon. This monster could kill sixteen people before they knew they were even close to danger. Its fire could wipe out cities with ease, roasting the citizens alive with little effort. All in all, it was one of the most dangerous horrors in the forest.

Kuro found it adorable.

Ignoring such mundane thoughts, Kuro appeared before the... girl? He didnt get a good look at her yet, as Kalameet had seen him and they always maintained eye contact when they met. Kuro, being who he was, ripped a tree from the ground, and stared at the beast. This was a match of wills! No beast would beat Kuro! But looking into those eyes... he felt like he was kicking a fluffy kitten. "Oh fine, just this time." Kuro leaned his arm, and thus the giant tree, back, before heaving it forward with insane force, almost instantly becoming a twinkle in the skies. Kuro yelled "Fetch!" And the dragon flew towards the tree, which was still in the air. "That oughta satisfy him for a while. Onto business." Kuro turned towards the frightened girl. "Fuck you doing in this forest? Everyone knows how dangerous it is!"

[Don't call it short, cause its 200 words longer than your post was. o.e And I'll format it later.]

Hanako had no words.

One second, a massive reptilian beast had been staring her in the eye, drool dripping from its glittering fangs as it mentally devoured her... The next, some psychotic man had entered her view - one holding an entire uprooted tree, at that. However, instead of simply hitting the dragon with the tree, the insane... male... simply threw it into the air. Like a stick. Then, instead of the dragon ignoring the tree and eating the man like it should have, it flew up and started chasing the tree instead. A massive, train-sized dragon chasing a tree tens of times bigger than she was. Fetch, this game was, Hanako noted.

She simply had no words.

However, as he faced her in an annoyed manner, she found some. You see, the Hanako from a year prior would have acted meek, masking her annoyance for the most part and stuttering out an excuse... This girl was different. Instead of averting her eyes and scuffing her boots on the floor, she fixed a suddenly strong and burning gaze on the man before her. "No shit, sherlock!" she snapped at him. Hanako was sick and tired of being talked down to; everyone from her father to her ex-teachers did it, and after a year of being stuck in a house with the absolute worst of the bunch and an eye infection painful enough to split a skull, the girl was tired of it. Plus, she was nearly eaten alive by a dragon with a face bigger than her body, less than four minutes prior. Anyone would be a bit overwhelmed. "Ain't my fault the damn mountains criss-cross so much!" Her boldness wasn't the only thing that increased... With it, was her vulgarity.

However, as the actions of this person settled in her mind, Hanako realized that perhaps she should have kept her irritation hidden. After all, even in the Shinobi world, it was... rather uncommon to see someone so easily just uproot a tree like that, to say the least. And he had done it so effortlessly... Whoever he was, he could break her like a twig. With his pinky. Now, that was certainly a comforting thought, was it not?

Hanako pushed the annoyance from her being, trying to drop the hostility that so often engulfed her as of late. The tension fell from her shoulders visibly and she sighed, looking to the ground for no longer than a moment. Maybe she should be thankful, instead of pissed off that he talked down at her? After all, the voice of reason was a big one in her head, and from an outside perspective, her actions were a bit...moronic, if one didn't know the story of how she came to be in this forest. With her feelings mostly falling from her face and her expression fading into her default, emotionless sort of look she generally wore, she met his gaze again with her half-blinded emerald eyes. "...Thank you, though. Please excuse my outburst; I'm not usually like that," she said, the former edge having left her voice. While never completely relaxed, even in sleep, and always on the thin, defensive line between Fight or Flight, the girl normally managed to keep it hidden... Though, it seemed this time was an exception. Perhaps it was, as stated before, because of nearly being eaten alive...? Yeah, it was probably that.

In the second following that she waited for a response, Hanako got to thinking, her thoughts moving at an intensely fast rate. The voice of this man... She recognized it. Nothing about him visibly set off a trigger, but his voice... She knew this voice; she had memorized it before. Hanako wasn't sure where, or how, or why, but she knew this man... And quite frankly, that fact frightened her dearly. Because if nothing set off a visible trigger, than their meeting must have been during the time she was blind. Hanako had met many people in those days and the year following the regaining of her sight, and most of those people... were not on the nice, nor moral, side of life. Recognizing this insanely strong shinobi before her brought an uneasy feeling coiling in the pit of her stomach, but she refused to acknowledge it. Showing weakness was not something she could do, under any circumstances, and so she didn't... The man didn't seem to recognize her, anyway, and she hoped he wouldn't. Still, though. Who was he?

"What's your name?" she asked. She didn't offer her own.

Kuro took a moment to stare at the girl before he finally responded, considering everything she had said. "Wow..." Kuro blinked, apparently intrigued. "Ive never met such a young tsundere before." And like that, he made his impression. "Most people just shit themselves, but to actually YELL at me and THEN act all shy and shit... adorable." Kuro let out a hearty laugh, amused at the child's antics. "Tell me though, what are you doing in this forest, so far away from your family? Surely your mother and father must be worried." Kuro smiled kindly at the kid, not at all angry at her antics. He had dealt with genuinely annoying children, a shy little girl was no problem. Although he had little doubts she would object to the little girl comment...

{LAAAAAAAAAAAAZY POST}

"Wow..."

Hanako, for some reason, felt a flicker of pride in her chest.

"...I've never met such a young Tsundere before. Most people just shit themselves, but to actually YELL at me and THEN act all shy and shit... adorable."

Aaaand smothered.

Hanako narrowed her eyes, a blush beginning to darken her cheeks. She was not a Tsundere! Okay, maybe she was a tsundere, but she wasn't adorable, damnit! If looks could kill, Hanako's dark glare by then would have smothered the man half to death, stabbed him with a spork, an finished the job with a repeated brick to the face. Glancing off to the side, she muttered the ever-so-lady-like statement of, "...smartass son of a-" but she was cut off by his next statement.

"Tell me though, what are you doing in this forest, so far away from your family? Surely your mother and father must be worried."

Hanako whipped her eyes back, looking up at his face. Her metaphorical mask faltered for a moment, shock at the statement and pain at the memories evident. However, the emotions were gone as soon as they appeared, replaced by the cold scowl she so often possessed these days. This time, though, was unlike before... This time she appeared hardened, older than her age. But she tried to hide that too, and quickly, the new edge faded away as well, replaced by her usual glare.

"I was training and took a wrong turn, thanks," she replied snappishly, "and I really doubt they'll mind me being out a little past my curfew." It was true. Her mother was dead, so she wouldn't really mind... Daiki would probably mind, but she didn't give a shit about that. So long as she got home after he was in his nightly booze coma, she'd be fine. Until morning, anyway. It was hardly evening, so she had time to spare.

Hanako missed the smile that flit across Kuro's face. She wasn't used to kindness, and she wouldn't let her guard fall to notice it. Men were enemies, anyway. All a man had ever caused her was pain, lest it be physical or emotional. Even her best friend... Even Sora left. So forget people. Forget them. All that Hanako needed was herself, and so far herself was just fine.

Well. There was one man that had helped her more than anyone else... But she hadn't seen him in over a year. Yes, seen. He was the man who gave her back her sight... Kurokon Shikyo, where was he? Come to think of it, this man reminded her of Kuro... Their voices were alike... and their heartbeats... their breathing patterns...

Hana's eyes widened, if only a fraction of a centimeter. But she didn't say anything. Not yet.


{Equally lazy lol}

Kuro easily heard the comment about him being a smartass, but he did not mind it. Mostly because it was true, and partially because it was funny. Most in Kumo would run from him like the plague, fearing his wrath. This girl called him a smartass and stood her ground. Although that was what worried him. He recalled very little of his own childhood, but he had been hardened by the time he could think in complex patterns, thanks to the difficult beginning he had, as well as the various challenges along the way. At the tender age of twelve, he could kill a man without even thinking about it later, in terms of emotions at least. He usually did think about it later, wondering how he could have done it more creatively, or such. Either way, this girl had been through at least something. Probably not as drastic as being sold into slavery, forced to kill, and then killing her own parents, but still. It was general knowledge that shinobi had bad pasts. Apparently angst gave enhanced abilities. He almost snorted, and would have, if he had not thought further.

This girl was, well she looked maybe twelve, to him. She could not do the same murderous things he did at that age, but she was at least a little hardened. Enough to worry about, especially as it became more apparent when she mentioned her parents. Kuro sympathized with her slightly, mostly about the obvious dislike of her parents. Although she probably wouldnt kill them, he did not doubt she was suffering. He had seen that look in her eyes too many times to not understand what was going on behind the scenes. The flowing river of thoughts slowed for a moment, as he began to speak. "Hm, tell you what." He paused, thinking his next words over. "Im rather hungry, and Im about to head into the village for a meal, why dont you tag along?" Though it was asked as a question, the tone made it obvious it was not. He wasnt too forceful, but he could see the telltale signs of family issues on her, and usually it included starvation, so she shouldnt be able to pass up a good meal, even if he couldnt see her body enough to tell whether or not she was starving. "Hell, you can even pick the place." He couldnt go to his usual restaurant, since he was bringing a kid with him, but he wasnt picky anyway. "After all, if your family doesnt mind a late curfew you have no reason to deny." Kuro chuckled slightly, knowing what she was thinking quite well. 

Perhaps it was his somewhat bleeding heart, but he couldnt help but feel protective over this girl. He chalked it up to her being his responsibility, with her being in his forest and all. Even so, he could tell something was off about her. She was doing the same thing he had done so many times before, the same thing Misaki and Yaju had done. Hell, he couldnt remember someone who DIDNT do it. She was hiding behind emotional walls, refusing to trust him. Good thing he was good at breaking walls. Not that he could really blame her at the moment, but it was worrying nonetheless. Her considerable fear for the man before her was obvious, though it was a rudimentary problem at best. Dozens of ideas popped into Kuro's head, but he did not try to predict it yet. He would have to wait for the restaurant, which was the reason he had asked her. Oh, that and he had not eaten in about a week. Didnt need to, but it felt better than absorbing energy from the sun like a plant with COAT.