Back in Black! (jk)

Hysterio had finished organizing the massive group of civilians he had instructed to evacuate. They now milled around under the watch of his fellow ninja at the designated meeting point. He had seen no sign of his superiors however, and could only assume that they were still inside the village organizing something.

He thought over what he had done so far, and figured there was nothing else to do at the moment outside the village gates. He walked back to the entrance to his former home, the massive gates looming overhead, as the sound of scurrying feet continued to pervade the area. He began shouting at the remaining people he could see to evacuate, gesticulating at them frantically. Remembering the orders to leave the village, he stood just in front of the gates, making sure not to re-enter himself, as he hurried others out.

All the while, while he waited, he looked for his superiors, in particular, the Tenkage. He had performed the previous orders as requested, and wished to know how he could help further.

If the Tenkage showed up, Hysterio would kneel and say "Lord Tenkage - When I received your orders, I immediately began gathering everyone i could find and herding them out of the village, the majority of the villagers I could find at the time are gathered at the designated meeting spot I had last been informed of. Now I am getting the rest that I can see out of the village as well, I would not want anyone to get killed who could otherwise have been saved."

Hysterio thought over why the Tenkage might possibly want to evacuate, then he would continue "For the most part I have been the only ninja getting villagers to leave in any meaningful amount, that I have seen, if you wish, I will continue attempting to get the remaining population to leave, otherwise I would like to know how else I may assist you. If there will be a fight or such, I would be happy to offer my life if needed."

He would kneel, awaiting an answer.

Xyxer had finished his meeting with Takeo and soon anarchy would snake through the village of Tengakure No Sato in the form of rubble and smoke.. It was of course, possible that the snake itself would leave a faint  trail of blood if any of the villagers inside thought this was just a safety drill. It felt good to the man that was bred in the mist, the demon that had emerged from it's cold embrace had finally begun it's redemption for the great fallen land. The Tenkage were treacherous people, Xyxer thought as he spared a faint glance at a plot in the earth a little way away in the plains, a small cross plucking out from the earth. However, during the Tenkage's thoughts a little voice scratched at the back of his mind and he turned his attention towards the male in front of him. He was quite small, to him at least, with a stature that conveyed no aggression or intimidation and he seemed more like a scientist than any shinobi. It reminded him a little of one of the previous Tenkage's.. Rumour had it that that one impregnated creatures in a space time world to have his heirs, but he was a genius if all was to be believed. Smirking at what had been said, he answered simply, evading the last question for now as his amusement was piqued, "And what of my ANBU, young one? Have they not been the shinobi getting most of the villagers to leave, in a 'meaningful amount'?" His lips curled upwards in a sly smirk and his blue hair remained spiked as if it would never go down aside for a few stray pieces, "Perhaps I should find new ANBU?"

It seemed the Tenkage had many things going across his mind, it took him a while to notice Hysterio or his question, at least so it seemed. Adjusting his glasses slightly as he continued to kneel, he listened carefully to his leader. It seemed the boss was not quite sure how much effort Hysterio had put into the evacuation efforts, to put it mildly, this much seemed apparent both from his words and his facial expression. While Hysterio wanted to defend what he had tried to achieve, he did not want to come across as disrespectful or unfair, so he chose his words carefully.

He replied to the Tenkage “The only anbu I have seen though during the evacuation was the one who alerted me that there was an evacuation at all. Not sure who it was, as he or she was in uniform, the voice sounded masculine though. Perhaps some of them may not be in their anbu outfits and instead are in plainclothes. ”

Hysterio paused, having said all of this a little quickly without drawing breath. He then continued “While I cannot say how many others the Anbu have managed to get out of the village, I can say that I roused up the majority of those gathered just over there” (at this time Hysterio points at the crowd he had gathered) “at the last known designated meeting spot outside the village. Perhaps other ninjas have gathered up large swathes of people and taken them outside the village as well? I am pretty sure I did not catch all of them, even though I tried to get everyone I saw to leave quickly. After I got them outside of the village I got other ninjas to help keep an eye on them while I left to continue trying to evacuate people and await further instructions.”


“If the Anbu knew of the evacuation I am sure they were helping somewhere, too bad I saw none of them around save for the first one. They would have helped a lot with crowd control, frankly. Those of high rank tend to command much more respect and attention than young nerdy teenagers, I’m afraid.” Hysterio smiled wanly and looked up at his leader, hoping he would hear some good news but bracing himself just in case. Hopefully the Tenkage was not mad at him for not emptying the village of inhabitants, he could see people still muddling around inside the village from the corners of his eyes, even without looking int heir directions.

Looking down upon the boy once more, Xyxer smirked a little once more.. It appeared this one was quite intuitive. He had gave Xyxer a run down on the situation and had directed his vision to an ample group, yet Xyxer was still completely unaware of whom this boy was. He had not seen him at a bakery, nor had he ever had the fortune of having an audience with him in his office. It was true that people of high rank commanded more respect than mere genin, and this boy seemed to have had wits about him when it came to, you know, evacuating villages. Clicking his fingers, a member of the ANBU operatives with a mask that represented a twisted mask of a jester, he'd wave one hand towards Hysterio, "If you wish to prove yourself then I'll put my faith in a shinobi of Tengakure. From now and until I reach Shimagakure you'll carry this bag with you.. If you look in the bag at any time, I'll have to tax you your appendages. If you succeed the mission and none of my files are recovered, I'll grant you a higher rank. We'll be heading into dangerous territory." He paused for a little while, smiling as he continued, "And if I should fall, destroy all of it." The ANBU operative would hand over a surplus backpack bag which would appear stuffed, and of course, a lot of vital documents regarding the village would be inside. He knew that handing this to one of his ANBU would be dangerous as they could be killed, but he himself guarding them with this boy could prove quite imposing.

Hysterio remained kneeling, and listened carefully. It appeared that whatever the documents were in the bag, he was to keep the entirety safe. Not opening it was a given, not only because of the Tenkage’s orders, but because if he were to be captured, he would be potentially tortured and he might well break under genjutsu or the like. He did not want to risk leaking secrets that could prove detrimental to the security or plans of his village, and in particular, the Tenkage, seeing as his village may be no more soon. He accepted the backpack and, lowering his voice so that only the Tenkage and possible the Anbu operative would hear, said “Sure thing, if you do not mind, I am learning a minor jutsu good for storing items, that opens up my own personal dimension. I would like to use that to make sure the files are safe from attack, while still easy to access for me. However, I would prefer that people not know where I have the bag, so I would prefer to store it in the dimension in private, you can watch if you want, but preferably nobody else or only those you would trust with these documents themselves. Here there are too many people for it to be easily secret. Then most people will not know I have these documents to begin with, and fewer still where. If you believe it would be better or it is necessary for me to hold these documents directly on my person instead of storing them elsewhere, I will do such as you request.”

He thought over the rest of what his leader had said, continuing “Our final destination is Shimagakure, huh. I get the impression that that is not the dangerous territory you also mentioned, from your wording. It sounds like we are travelling somewhere else first?” It sounded like they might be going on an adventure and Hysterio was feeling excited. It was always good to become stronger and learn new things.

Listening to what the boy had to say, Xyxer's amusement was mildly piqued. It was certain that this boy was an intelligent one as he was  dabbing into the realm of space time manipulation which was a very exclusive specialty, after all, Atlas had only seen two men throughout his entire life that could manipulate the fabric of space and time and those men had both been Tenkages.. Denkiteki and Zachariah. It was a shame, of course, that their legacy would soon be wiped out and replaced with his own, but Mizukage does have a much better ring to it. The last known Mizukage was Suzaku Shina and his legacy was a broken and weak Kirigakure No Sato.. That should not be the last memory of a village so great and fierce. The mere remembrance of that pitiful Mizukage churned the belly of the beast and he grimaced in retaliation. Looking down to the boy once more, he nodded before speaking to him, "My my, of course. If people do not know you're carrying anything important then perhaps you can be the little mouse that sneaks around the back of their legs and chews through their achilles heel." He smirked at the mental image before continuing on, "Of course, you can do it out here in the open. The explosions and crashing buildings happening behind us will be capturing their attention much more than any illusion that could be passed off as a magic trick in this curious world of shinobi."

Cocking his head at the new question of the boy, he certainly was an inquisitive fellow, and of course, with the trait comes curiosity, he just hoped this would not be the cat that fell into the bear trap. Perhaps he could serve for further amusement or perhaps to actually become a worth while soldier. He nodded once more, "Why, yes, of course we will be heading to Shimagakure, but that place is ill fated and is in need of a new name.. The old Shimagakure you have heard of is dead and buried, and from it's burial plot will emerge Kirigakure.. reborn and stronger than it has been in the years prior it's destruction. However.. before that, we will be attending a little party in a rather famed area of the world, undoubtedly you've heard of it, everybody has.. Kumogakure No Sato. The land of lightning and famed for it's Raikage that is in a constant drunken stupor. Such weaklings serve no place in this world, but alas, if he does not come to us we will not go to him, I merely have some business to attend to there but every head severed is a pat on the back." He paused a little, the prospect of blood being extremely tantalizing for the sadistic Kage before he focused his attention back on the young one, "Forgive me, I never asked.. What is your name?" It was around this point that Xyxer remembered that he had not cleaned himself after his slaughtering in the ruins of Amegakure.. Tiny flecks of blood would be dotted around the male's clothing which was of course, not very important, but little details like these are often exploited when attempting to discern the true nature of a person. If a person is covered in blood, it normally means they are not a very nice person and that they do quite sinister things.

Great! It sounded like the Tenkage liked Hysterio’s idea. He explained the Storage Displacement jutsu briefly while he performed it, covering the steps individually and demonstrating it by putting the bag he had been given, into the new dimension he ended up accessing. “I will explain the jutsu in case you wish to try this one yourself, or so you know whether you already know this jutsu. The hand seals are: Rat, then Dog. Pretty quick in fact. I found that manipulating my chakra this way allowed me to warp space a little to create my own dimension for storing items like so. Presto! The bag is safely in the other dimension and as far as I know nobody else is able to access it. You may want to try it, it is extremely easy to learn, you do not even need to be specialized in the arts of Space and Time. My own talents lie primarily in genjutsu, I only found out about this storage jutsu because I was trying to shore up my weaknesses with basic jutsu from other types of ninja arts.”
He thought over the rest of what the Tenkage, Xyxer, had said, and then asked “I am assuming whoever is destroying the village is working with you? You do seem rather nonchalant about the whole thing. Perhaps this was planned all along?”

He paused, glancing at the Tenkage’s clothing, and continued “I think I can guess what kind of party you are attending, would it be okay for me to gatecrash it if I am not already invited? I think I might be able to squeeze a little training in on our rather roundabout journey. Will it be just you visiting or will there be others, quite possibly including whoever is destroying the village at the moment? Speaking of which, we will be cleaner if we move out of the way now, I think.”

He was about to move and then he realized the Tenkage had asked his name. “My name… I am Hysterio Shinkou. I doubt you remember me but I was one of the entrants into that snow man making competition. It was a nice way to train some of my jutsu I must say. Say, if I find anyone who I think might benefit the village, may I take them prisoner? There are a lot of things we could probably learn from those of other areas.”

Hysterio would listen to anything his leader might say. If Xyxer the Tenkage was inclined to leave and begin travelling, Hysterio would follow, practicing some of his jutsu as he went.

*****
(potential exit, total word count: 1508, claiming 7 stats and 4 posts of character development with the kage)

Waiting for Hysterio to finish what he was saying, the expressions of Xyxer were almost entirely neutral aside for a very faint smile. Walking towards the male, he'd turn him around slowly and walk with his hand on his back, pushing him along gently, and although no force was truly being used, that option remained open should Hysterio begin to fight back. You see, this was quite an important thing for Xyxer and any disrespect of any form could be quite challenging for the party that caused it. It would be clear after a short time that the Tenkage was striding with Hysterio directly to a small plot of the earth where there seemed to be an absence of grass as compared to the other patches. When they were close to it, say, two feet, the body of Xyxer would stop and gently grasp the cloth on the back of Hysterio, gesturing for him to not move any closer. "I am sure you know the story of one of your Tenkage, correct? Zachariah. He was considered a genius and, according to the Mizukage of my village, held great power. He had raised the village of Skyscrapers himself alone and made it a considerable power.. Even the likes of Kirigakure No Sato were under such a creation. This was back when they were united and known as the Sky Nation.. Surely, you know of the Sky Nation versus Fire Nation war. It was grizzly and.. suddenly resolved. No attacks ever launched directly on Tengakure No Sato if I recall correctly.. But you see, there had been a faint slip of a dagger.. The supple flesh of Kirigakure No Sato would be parted by such a betrayal, and it's life essence would run free like the mist that enveloped the village." Pausing a little while to allow that information to soak into the child's brain, he would then continue on shortly after, "Zachariah had betrayed his nation and his friend, the Mizukage. Before this, I was the right hand of the Mizukage and enforced many of his.. questionable rulings. Executing people that attempted to leave the village, maintaining a level of fear in the village so that he would not be opposed.. I served willingly and gladly, I do love blood shed." He paused again after saying that, waving his hands over his entire form to demonstrate the now dry splotches adorning it, "However.. I was introduced to a legendary figure. A sannin of my village who had drowned the village of Konohagakure No Sato herself.. Sameonna Hoshigaki, the Daughter of Poseidon, as she called herself. She was divine in appearance and forgiving in nature, but she was stern. When we met I was already a member of the ANBU Corp and had already committed a list of atrocities that could make any sane man snap just as they say I have.. The Mizukage would not relent his power to her, but she did not wish to murder him.. or at least that's how it seemed. She requested I meet her at the sea, and so I did.. I gathered the few I called my friends in the small village and I departed with the Sannin, wishing that my village would restore it's honour after the weakling and coward of a Mizukage that it had garnered from it's years of stagnating." He frowned some more when he recalled the nature of that one.. He had never used force himself, merely Xyxer.. Perhaps that was why the aspirational young boy had turned into such a hardened sadistic executioner. "You see.. Sameonna was a leader. There was a boy once, Rin Senju, he had followed our party all the way from Kirigakure No Sato and to the middle of the sea before getting our attention.. I hailed him, and when he retaliated, I struck immediately.. I closed the distance faster than he could ever hope to comprehend and flung my foot with destructive impact towards his temple, a certain kill for sure.. But Sameonna saw that the boy had done no wrong, she had a body of water collide with me and knock me from the young boy. She had not allowed the demon of Kirigakure it's fair share of blood, and because of that, I learned a valuable lesson.. Those who allow their subjects to perform their tasks of violence with no permission or indication that they should do it are cowards. That's why I know the Mizukage was a coward. He had allowed me, even encouraged, the execution of petty criminals and sometimes even the innocent. He truly was a demon and held a foul beast.. He had worn a golden cloak of three tails, quite grizzly in sight. However, I was split up from Sameonna after a short while.." He paused once more, recounting the facts was quite difficult for the boy, but he felt that if a shinobi was truly curious of why their village was being destroyed, they should fully know. "I arrived in the village of Tengakure and found one member of our party already there, the other two had traveled with me with Sameonna still missing.. All was fine and the Tenkage at the time was Shinji Uzumaki, a man who was a friend of mine for a long time. I became his ANBU and he aided me in knowing that an ANBU was not needed to detatch himself from his emotions and kill for fun.. In fact, he was quite against killing.. I admire him for that, but, well.. he broke that rule." With one lazy gesture of his hand, he waved it to the small plot of earth where a small cross was embedded into the ground, "Sameonna had returned to Tengakure hearing of our appearance there, and I went outside with a small party of three to greet her.. The other two people I don't recall, but this was a short while after a dispute I had with the Tenkage. He still considered me a friend though, I have reason to believe. And so, as Sameonna neared us.. there was a change in the air, it felt more.. electrified. One of those feelings you can just not shake off, and I didn't need to shake it off for my worst expectations would soon be confirmed.. My Sensei was quartered instantaneously by a man I had considered a friend.. My feelings were askew and I still don't recall what happened after that, but I know that her body was sent to the Hokage and I kept some of her personal items.." He felt the taurus auracite around his neck, a sense of loneliness devouring his feeling of well being, "Her body is not here, but this where her dying spot was. And so, Hysterio.. The village of Tengakure has snatched from me my village and the closest person to me.. Zachariah worked so hard to build this village up from the ground.. It is only fitting I destroy it in retribution for my comrades and home. Do you have any questions?"

He looked towards the boy for a few seconds before he strolled towards burial plot, crouching on the trodden earth before moving his hand towards the cross, stroking it as if it would comfort the dead. It was quite queer to, I suppose, that a small scroll appeared to be resting behind the cross.. Moving his hand to it he recoiled it back into his body and opened it.. It appeared to be one of those things he had heard of.. a summoning thing, perhaps? He had heard a contribution of blood was vital for one of them to work, and, it seemed only destiny that he should sign this.. The death of the village and the birth of a new alliance for Xyxer, perhaps.. Biting into his thumb, he would smear the blood on the summoning contract to fulfill it, answering Hysterios other questions in the mean time, "Yes, my ADHD little friend, you may attend the party alongside me and the others, try not to die though because I find those documents extremely valuable. And of course, you can take the lesser people as prisoner, if they deserved freedom they would not allow themselves to be bested in combat now would they." And so it was that the demon of Kirigakure had slowly begun it's resurfacing, all of the hard work of Sameonna Hoshigaki cracking away like the enamel of a chronic soda drinker.

[2000/2000 contract with the SQUIDS BOIIIII signed]
[548/5000 so far for the Kraken]

Hysterio listened carefully to the Tenkage, moving and stopping as the Tenkage seemed to desire, while listening to the Tenkage’s impromptu history lesson. Indeed, some of the details Xyxer mentioned, Hysterio had learned in his history classes, but not all of the details, and certainly not the bits about the Tenkage’s sensei. He listened carefully to the Tenkage’s words, all of them. “No questions right now, I would feel the same way about destroying the village in your position, certainly. I hold no strong attachment to the village, I am a newer face here, which is probably why you have not seen me before now.” He had wondered why the Tenkage had mentioned Kirigakure and events related to it so much but now it made a lot more sense.

He processed all the words his leader had uttered, and one point stuck out to him. “Sorry, it just occurred to me. You mentioned the Mizukage had this cloak with 3 tails I believe? Would this have anything to do with the tailed beasts? Also, I will see if I can clear some of the falling debris so that it does not land on that area.”

While he listened for his leader to talk, he would practice a jutsu, attempting to make the wind blow without moving his hands to form seals. Truly a difficult task considering his relative lack of experience. He reached out with his chakra, attempting to manipulate the raw air around him, without the aid of his hands to help him manipulate his chakra. He had already learned how to cast the Gale Palm jutsu but he wanted to improve his usage of it. Right now the clap tended to slow him down a little, as sometimes he had very little time to cast jutsu before his thrown items would impact the target, better to be able to release them and cast the jutsu right away. As he attempted to cast the jutsu without hands, he tried to form an eye of the storm, so to speak. The gusts of wind that he tried to create were aimed to move around the site that his leader deemed so important to himself, not wanting to desecrate the area. Instead, he directed the wind around it, leaving the area untouched, catching light falling objects such as leaves, and clearing them away before they could land on the ground.

He watched as the boss, walked over to the cross, and seemed to find something. Having never seen anything like that before, Hysterio asked “What is that scroll for? Sorry, but I have never seen one of those before.”

He would listen carefully to everything the Tenkage might say, and continue attempting to blow the gusts of wind without using hand seals. His control was improving, soon he would be able to do the jutsu at the normal strength but while using less chakra and without having to clap his hands, at all. Life was good, he was getting on well with his leader, it seemed.

*****
(total word count: 1508+505=2013 lol
2,000 towards mastering Gale Palm)

Hysterio had informed the Tenkage that he was new to the village, which was quite surprising to the leader. He was new to the village and yet he had already won a competition that was originally designed for shinobi? If he recalled correctly, he had made a behemoth of a snowman, it was even rumoured that it was truly a summon. Perhaps he was from Yukigakure and was also friendly with Yetis.. such questions could only be pondered however, as Xyxer was not too rude to outright ask whether the boy ran free with the animals or where the village that saw him born was. He had no use of that information at the moment and Xyxer found it easier to cope with people if he knew very little of them, that way you can avoid a personal attachment. He had no questions about the destruction itself which seemed to be finished behind him, but then that was when the boy objectively asked one of the most important questions that could arise from the topic. He smirked at Hysterio's keenness, although he knew inside that this boy would certainly grow up to become quite a detriment to himself if he already had his eyes and knowledge scoped on the demons that roamed the world inside of vessels of blood and bone. He nodded his head grimly as he recalled the male practically vomiting coral, "Yes, it was one of the tailed bijuu. If I recall it's name was Sanbi and he was using that to test me.. it boosted his power considerably along with other factos as well as granting him queer abilities I had not seen before.. But that says very little as still I see queer abilities that lack a jinchuriki. This world is just a weird carousel of adventure, Hysterio, I assure you." He allowed his facial expression to soften a little, still juggling the now bloodied contract in his hand wondering on what summon he could actually bring into this world.. Would it be one of power and status? Anything of note? Perhaps it would be a thunderous beast that would shake the very heavens, perhaps a gentle giant.. Creatures were very weird things and acted erratically, just like the humans Xyxer enjoyed to hunt. "I am unsure on this matter myself, but I have heard that via the transfusion of blood, a summoning pact can be made with a particular species.. A very dear friend of mine had enlightened me on such a subject and he had formed a pact with the Oni, a very terrifying beasts. This one.. I am unsure on how to tell what species it is. Perhaps it is serpent in nature, mayhaps feline.. Only time will tell when one of their ranks comes out to join me in this vast and mysterious world." It was queer to think about it all, really, he did feel a crushing loneliness in this world. He had never been able to identify with people, even as a genin he had displayed overwhelming sadistic tendencies which forced him to alienate himself from a true group of friends and there were only three people he could truly trust himself around, whom they were perhaps he would never feel, whether they were even alive still was another question that would beckon an answer in due time. Sometimes, Xyxer even felt as if he was not truly worthy of being a Kage.. perhaps merely being a missing shinobi was enough to fill his blood lust, perhaps even the executioner of a village.. So many choices he could pick, such little time in this world. Hell, perhaps a summon would alleviate the feeling.. Most summons would not exactly be wanting the best outcome for other shinobi after all.. Violence was a great thing to make a bond out of.

[1188/5000 Kraken]