[NK] Red and Black

The slums of Bahala, a small town near the borders of Tornado country, was where the cheaper and quality goods were sold. The upper districts of the place were more expensive and boasted imports and bright colors, but it only took Elspeth two minutes to break an umbrella she had lifted from a dumb looking stall. She brought some coins with her, scattered throughout her pockets so that in the event of pickpocketing they'd have to go through several articles to get any valuable amounts of ryo.

Sunlight filtered onto the street through layered rooftops. Already, she was imagining vibrant scenarios in which she'd have to freerun across them in order to get to her destination. It sounded awesome. Maybe she should burn something so that she'd get chased... Right as she was about to fly through the handseals of a simple fire jutsu, Elspeth heard a cry of distress. It sounded like it came from a young boy... She looked around fervently for the source of the noise but couldn't find its source. Huh. She scratched her ear as she marched up some cracked stairs into the next district. The smell of horrible perfumes heralded her nose, snd she knew that this was the perfect spot for what she was about to do. Tiger, ox, bird, rat, tiger. A few civilians and a town guardsman were looking curiously at her. Good. She looked at an empty crumbling building, and a huge shit-eating grin crossed her face.

"Fire release: explosion!" A compressed ball of fire flung itself from her mouth, colliding with with the building within seconds of its release. On impact, it spread out and burned. Old stones fell with the weight of gravity once they were knocked from their spot and fell to the ground with loud crashes. It was dead quiet. If anything, her grin widened. The guard seemed shocked that someone would have the audacity to do something so bold right in front of him. A few prissy girls and their moms screamed. That seemed to snap him right out of his reverie. Politely, she waited for him to recover.

"Arsonist!" He yelled, drawing a katana. She flung herself towards the crumbling building, easily scaling the non-charred side even as it crumbled beneath her. She scrambled onto the roof, only to find him already there. He wiped dust and sweat out of his eyes, and it smeared into his dark gray hair. Oh... Did he know that chakra climbing thing? Damn, she knew she should have gone for that... Regret would get her arrested. Plus, it was boring. She flew through the five handseals again and launched a small exploding fireball to his feet. Not even looking to see if it worked or not, she was sprinting across the rooftop and had made a wild leap to the next building. She dared a peek over her shoulder and he was a bit behind, but catching up. Hey, that's new. No-one's made it past two before. She was off sprinting again, her footfalls clanking on roofs of different textures and materials. The sun beat down directly on her skin, but if anything, today was a cold one. Her muscles began to sting with the force of her exertion, but she didn't really care. As she leapt across another gap, she launched yet another explosion below her feet, crumbling part of the building below her while simultaneously lifting her slightly higher into the air.

The next jump was more of a drop. She rolled upon landing and launched herself forwards once more. It wasn't safe for her to keep using that jutsu; it had a higher cost of chakra than she could supply. Elspeth heard a crash on the roof next to her, and if she hadn't dropped like a stone she'd be without a head. The katana whistled as it sliced through the air. Her hands clapped together in a half-tiger seal as she released a weak fire stream at her pursuer. It was aimed at his hands or chest, but he evaded both. This was fun. He was pretty good at this game. She summoned up all her endurance and chakra to her lungs and released several fire streams which cracked her lips upon their formation from the heat. They splintered on the ground, but he seemed to dodge them effortlessly. Elspeth's eyes narrowed. He was too good at this game. She brought her hands together again, as if to form another jutsu, but twirled around and forcefully kicked the back of his knees. Reflexively, he crumbled over partway. I win again. One more kick and he was sent sprawling across the roof with a loud crash.

Taking his katana as insurance, she ran away silently to escape some of the stares from the populace below. Now that she wasn't being chased, it was much less stressful. The wind blew through her hair annoyingly, but the stinging warmth of her muscles kept it from getting too chilly. After around ten minutes, she descended and threw the sword out behind a dumpster of some sort. Looking around, she saw similar layered rooftops and a grungy floor... She wasn't that far away from where she first started. How quaint.

She stretched, cracking her back, and walked around to find something to eat. Eventually, she came across a suspicious-looking noodle bar. Her standards said no but her nose said yes, and the next thing she knew she was nursing a giant bowl of noodles(?). It tasted salty and spicy, but the taste didn't really register as much as the smell. Awww...

She kicked her feet under the table, wondering what she should do next.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
845 words towards Fire Release: Explosion
100 words towards Fire Release: Fire Stream

945 words total

As Aeizith tended to do, he wandered from little place to little place, just getting a sense for how the world tended to work. The little white-haired boy had had enough of the ruins of Tatsumakigakure for now and wished to explore a place of living, breathing people rather than a crumbling place of the dead... It got boring looking for ancient treasures in a place where everything was crumbling stone and broken foundations... Disappointment builds on disappointment and then... well... motivation begins to cease. Such was the case with the little Ninja named Aeizith as he walked about the village of Bahala, smiling widely as he looked around at all the life, the busy people, the different activities and shops about them. Still, this place wasn't exactly the best town he had been to on his short time as a Missing Ninja... Much like the village it was connected to, this place was run down somewhat, broken, a pale shadow of what it once was... Without the upkeep and support of the Tornado's leader, the general state of the village had declined somewhat and they were required to find their own means of keeping the place running... Or at least... that was the slums...

Aeizith was an observant boy and was able to sense the general state of desperation and frustration that floated about the people here, the latter mainly attributed to the guards who glared at every stranger that walked through here like they were bound to cause trouble. The little white-haired ninja was no different really... In fact, he had received some looks that were even less hospitable than the ones they would give fully armored men... No one wanted a child walking around in a place like this... Obviously, they thought he would either stir up trouble with his childish ways or end up getting hurt himself and someone would blame the guard... But Aeizith wasn't perceptive to notice that he was being followed, especially through a crowd of busy lower-class people.

Everything about this place was different from everywhere else... the buildings, the people, the smells and sights... even the layout of the ally's behind an old ramen shop... It was a straight shot with the entrance behind him and the only exit above, the top above covered by connecting roofs. As Aeizith wandered through the dark, damp cave-of-an-alley, his boots splashing through the puddles, a rather large person stepped in his path as he made it half way between and wouldn't move... Due to the light coming in from behind the person and the lack-there-of within the alley itself, little Aeizith couldn't tell whether or not if this guy was facing him, or simply trying to get a better view of something outside... Deciding he would just go back the way he came, find Xuba and go home, Aeizith turned around to exit the Alley-way and found that another person had blocked that area as well... He was thinner, WAY thinner than the other guy, but also appeared more nimble and had this strange... scary look upon his face...When he took one step further into the alley did Aeizith start to panic... he didn't know this man... he didn't like this man... he wanted to get out of here... go home... The little white-haired child turned around to see if the large person had moved but to his horror, he too was coming down the allyway, that same twisted, horrifying expression on his face.

Panicking and acting almost entirely on instinct, Aeizith weaved 3 signs, his mediocre chakra reaching out like a network throughout the muddy-water within the Ally's shadow, forcing it up into a tentacle like appendage... Water flowed back and forth from it's tip to it's base, as nimble and flexible as flesh itself... As the thinner man drew close, Aeizith let out a yell as he threw his watery-whip forward, striking out at the man with a threatening crack. The whip seemed to smash into the side of the man's head, but the water only hit him with enough real force to equate to a slap rather than something deterring... the rest of the water lost it's form as it connected with the man's cheek.

"Leave me alone!" Aeizith yelled, throwing another crack of his whip to no avail.

WC: 718

718 (Water Whip)

"Leave me alone!" a voice cried out over the monotonous drabble of the noodle bar. She looked around briefly before picking up the bowl and swiftly walking away. No-one would care about a stolen bowl. Plus it satiated her hunger. She ate as she walked before approaching the source of the sound. Judging by the way it echoed, it came from a place with narrow walls, like a street corner or an alley. There's only one alley nearby... She almost crashed into a thin figure heading straight into it.

"My grandma has more muscle than you do," she noted in morbid curiosity, "and she's been dead for years." She whipped around, a bit of broth splashing down her wrists. She licked it off before continuing to the other, bigger built man. "...You look constipated. I think I remember seeing a latrine nearb-" one of the men, she didn't really see which, had struck out. It resulted in the noodles coming crashing down to the watery ground, and like a switch had been flicked, her posture straightened. Her expression was honed to a blank slate as she surveyed the area once more. This time, a small child caught her eye... She tore off part of her sleeve and offered it to him, and regardless of whether or not he took it, she spoke softly. "I'm going to ask you to cover your eyes with this, okay?" Then she stood up and dusted her broth stained hands on her sweatpants. She turned towards the men, head tilted.

"Thick hands like yours could not have broken the bowl in that particular way... This was made more by speed than stregnth." Before anyone could react, she grabbed the thin man by the neck, flew through the hand seals required, and released her jutsu right onto his face. She lowered her chakra a bit, so as not to accidentally burn herself in the jutsu aftermath. "Fire release: Explosion," she whispered, almost bored in tone, and turned towards the other man. An inhuman scream broke through the relative quiet, and a large thump echoed through the alleyway as he fell to the floor. His screams began to dwindle into raspy coughs and a desperate grasp for air, and then all was quiet.

A smile broke through her face, and she wiped some sweat off her brow. "Alright," she said normally. She kicked the steaming corpse so that the burnt part would be facing the wall, away from the boy. "You can take that off now, if you put it on." She glanced curiously at the thicker man. "You aren't going to try anything, right? " Elspeth asked with a saccharine sweetness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

255 words towards Fire Release: Explosion
189 words towards Fire Release: Fire Stream
444 words
1389 words total

Aeizith let out a relieved sigh as the noise he'd made attracted the attention of a bystander, someone that actually seemed to want to help him. Appearing behind the thinner man, a woman's voice rang out, commenting on his lack of muscles specifically that he had less than that of her dead grand-mother. The little white-haired boy said nothing, not even a laugh escaped his lips as he took a step back... Barging past the thinner man, the mysterious woman commented on the larger man behind him as well, stating how he looked "constipated"... Before she could even get through with her thought, though, the thinner man lashed out, his arm striking hers that held a bowl of ramen, her bowl crashing to the disgusting earth below. Aeizith watched as the wasted food ebbed out onto the dirty cobble-stone ground that was the alley's floor, then back up at the woman's expression, mutated from somewhat cocky and casual to a dead, stone-face. Tearing off her sleeve and handing the piece to him, the mysterious stranger stated that he might want to cover his eyes with this... At this point, the fact she was helping him at all and stopping these men meant he'd do just about anything she asked... the last thing he wanted was for her to leave him here with these two creeps... wrapping the cloth around his eyes, Aeizith also brought his arms over his face as well, slumping up against a the nearby wall before sliding down into a sitting position.

With only a whisper of her attack, a massive blazing noise erupted from in front of the boy, followed by the most painful, harrowing scream any little child would ever have to experience... For at least a full minute, the thin man went up in flames like a frail branch, burned to mere cinder-filled husk by the end of it all... Aeizith shook and quaked all the while, his tears staining the cloth the woman had given him as he refused to look up from his place on the ground... he wouldn't see the bodies... the death... the pain... he even heard the dying gasps of the man as his flesh glowed with internal searing burns as if her were a log, before finally death took him away, leaving only a deafening silence... Even if he couldn't see the man, he couldn't turn his attention away. This woman had just killed somebody! That guy was dead! Was she going to kill him too... once she was done with them...? He didn't know.... All he knew as that if she decided to end his little life, quaking there on the ground as helpless as could be, he'd be completely incapable of stopping her.

The fat-man didn't wait for the woman to finish her thought, disappearing back into the crowd of people before she even got her final word out, leaving the two alone... a terrifying turn of events... With the flaming woman and the little white-haired boy alone, Aeizith waited for her to kill him in the same way, shaking worse and worse with each passing second... Every step she took seemed to stop his heart, every swing of her arms making him gasp in anticipation.

Now... he thought, sensing her movements. She'll do it now....

WC: 1268
1268(Water Whip)

Xuba studied from a safe distance the comotion that interrupted his handy work. An small task of a farmer whom had allowed supplies and such to come to the aid of locals. For any reputation to be made one needed to make deeds done. Hard work, even noctorious deeds every once in awhile. The land had a history and xuba knew that it was like gold.

The day went by pretty well thus far. Errands and nodds of approval and a request here and there. The tasks were done up to satisfaction as xuba now curious to where Aeizith ran off to. Youth was an interesting case. Not long ago he too was a young man. But he had a strong grasp of survival and covering his tracks.  Still xuba wandered as  he grew concerned over the boy. Manipulative people could be anywhere and with the boy alone it would be concerning.

Hope hes ok...





  Xuba thought as there was a rush of wind and the air slightly heated up as if there was a furnance. An large man stumbuled his way through a crowd. It was by first glance that xuba noted he had on quiet some weight on his bones. Regardless as the man attempted to run by xuba. Xuba with a swift motion rotated his body so to allow the man to pass. However, his right arm  extended and with a fluid motion xuba  placed his arm around the mans shoulder like buddies walking down the street.

(Best way to discribe xubas grab)


"Hey there pal! Whats the rush?"

Xuba stated as he rotated his hips and pivoted the mans momentum was shifted before he knew it and xuba and the now confused fat man were walking back from the direction the man came from. The crowd thinned as xuba glanced in the aftermath of what was a pretty fierce mess. Ramen on the ground, a mutilated charred corpse,  a lady that seemed sweet. And Aeizith cowering in a corner.


"Aeizith?  You allright buddy?"

Xubas hand pressed down with enough pressure to make the man grimace with pain but he laxed enough for the man to feel relife as he continued to look like a good buddy with the man. But xuba was thinking on a diffrent beat.

What the heck happend here?


Xuba thought as he glanced questioningly between the girl, Aeizith and his now buddy buddy, fat man.

The man from before and an additional stranger had arrived at the scene. A twisted bouquet of smells came from the burnt corpse; barbecue on an open fire from the flesh and fat, a sulfurous smell from the hair, charcoal from the skin... And a dentist's office from the scorched bone. She titled her head in curiosity, before shooting a glance at the stranger on the floor. The new one's acquainted with him... Possibly close? It would be best to leave before more people came. The less attention, the better...

...but floor guy seemed a little worried. Elspeth thought that she took care of the guys bothering him (well, kill one, frighten a thousand and all that).

"Are you okay?" She asked out of morbid curiosity. "You look a little worried." As long as she didn't stick along for too long, it couldn't hurt. She rubbed her dry mouth with the back of her mouth and watched as a few flakes of skin peeled off from friction. She'd need to learn how to control her chakra better when doing close combat like that. As if in agreement, the chakra in her lungs swelled as she coughed. "Sorry- the smell," she described. But no-one else seemed to have her good mood. What weirdos, she thought to herself, I took care of everything already, so why are they still upset?

She kicked a bit of pottery shard on the ground. It clattered harmlessly far away, but her brows were furrowed and she wasn't focusing on the outside world. Why didn't people ever make any sense?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

263 words
Its late
I don't want to do math
I'll do it in my next post

Aeizith didn't move until he heard Xuba's voice and the moment he did, he lunged out from his spot on the floor, wrapping his arms around the man's neck in a hug, completely ignoring both the man who tried to hurt him a moment ago and the girl that had slain his companion. Visibly now tears ran down the little boy's cheeks in both fear and relief that his guardian was now here and that everything was going to be okay now... He clung to the darker-skinned man for all it was worth, as if the moment he let go would cause him to disappear and leave him alone again. After a little while of just enjoying the older male's presence and the safety it provided, Aeizith opened his eyes to see that his current guardian had brought the large man with him, a certain meek look upon his flabby face.

"X-Xuba..." Aeizith started, wiping his tears from his face with his jacket sleeve. "These people.... t-they c-cornered me here...." He pointed to the large man first, then to the seared body on the ground nearby. "I-I tried to f-fight back but... I c-couldn't do anything..." He paused a moment, struggling to keep his frightful tears inside, barely succeeding with a few deep breaths... If one didn't know him, one would truly begin to wonder how he ever got this far to begin with, especially with his frail nerves and seemingly weak will.

"B-but... this lady... sh-she killed one... h-he's....... b-burning on th-the ground... It w-was horrible...." Aeizith looked so vulnerable... It was like a staring at a child who had faced down their worst nightmare and lost... How someone could so casually end a life like that... snuff it out with as little a motivation as spilled noodles... that was truly the scariest thing that happened to him today... Aeizith had seen his own fair share of death in his lifetime... When he had to hunt for his own food when foraging was out of the question, when he saw the odd human body on the road after a bandit attack... When he was forced to defend himself... Things like these were nothing like what happened only a moment ago... In all these cases, these things happened because they HAD too... He HAD to eat... he HAD to go this way... he HAD to survive... the woman didn't need to kill that man, even if these two planned to do the same thing to him... He was helpless before her... She was a giant to that guy and she squashed him like an insect... that was what was truly frightening.

Yen gripped the large  with a single terrifying grasp (strength:30) the socket joint cracked as the  colkar bone shattered  on his left side of his torseo. The man fell to the ground withering in agony as xuba stepped over the man and brushed Aeziths hair softly and carringly with his left hand.

"There therr bud. Itll be fine."

Xuba spoke softly as he glanced up at the girl's remark. He wasnt fond of a meaningless death more importantly in front of a child. But there was more to this. It was why he wasnt going to play "law" and beat the mans corpse into the girls body so that they both would share the same pain.

Its a thought.


Xuba thought as he held onto the boy carringly. His mind was protective yet observative as the smell of tbe burning corpse filled his nostriles. Xubas now grey eyes homed in on the girl as he spoke kindly still yet his point was made solid.

"So what caused all this? You know killing in front of a child and innocents is frowned upon even a lawless has bounds of humanity. Your name and purpose? I protect these hard workers  from hardship of cut purses. So state your aligence."

Xuba remained kind but his point was made with the man. Whom he was going to deal with in a moment.

The new stranger's speech rang throughout the alleyway. She scratched the back of her ear, a brief expression of irritation marring her face before vanishing completely.

"Right. Uhh... Hard workers. Except that it's the middle of a weekday and these morons are trying to do shady stuff in a dark alleyway in front of that guy-" she said, pointing at the stranger who had water whipped one of the men, "and... You know what, the first time shit like this has happened everyone was all like 'why didn't you help? Ahhh!'" Elspeth imitated rudely. "But now that I tried to help, everyone's all like 'no, not like that'. Make up your minds already. He's only dead. What's the big issue?" She was frowning at this point. "Why does everyone get so bent out of shape about this?..." Muttering to herself, she remained quiet for a moment before her eyes widened. "Oh! You're worried about disease, aren't- no, you don't look too pleased with me right now..." She eyed the burnt corpse critically. People were weird. "Are you... Sick? Maybe you don't like dead things." she was pacing around. What was it those people were so concerned about it. "Okay. I give up. I only killed someone, why is everyone so upset?" In spite of the morbidness surrounding the question, it came of as genuinely curious. Almost as if she really didn't see anything wrong with what she just did.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

240 words, 263 words previous post
That's 503
Add that to 1389 and
Boom
1892 total

Aeizith let out a shaking, comforted sigh as Xuba embraced him back, holding him to his chest with his left arm while running his hand through his hair in an attempt to calm him down. The little child winced as his guardian's other hand popped the large man's arm out of his socket, causing him to fall on the ground beside his still burning partner, clutching is desocketed arm in absolute pain... He refused to stare at the man left incapacitated, refused to see the agony that was carved into his malleable features... He could already hear his groans... his cries... they were already going to haunt the dreams of this boy tonight... along with the charred corpse-face of his partner that lied dead in the dirt..

Aeizith didn't say a word as his effective "parent" criticized the actions of the woman, wondering if she knew killing people in the face of innocents or children such as him was a taboo, even in a lawless enviornment. He didn't want to take away from what he was trying to get across, though he doubt he could have if he tried. Xuba's words were so a-matter-of-fact, so direct, it would have taken an idiot to not have understood what he was trying to say. Yet, the woman insisted on questioning why either of them had an issue with what was going on in the first place... She just didn't seem to get why it was wrong to kill someone, why the permanence of death, the shutting down of all possible redemption was something to look down upon. Aeizith stared at her, wide-eyed, scared and confused from within the protective hold of his guardian. What was there to not understand...?

Her body-language really began to disturb him... they way she paced, the way she talked... it all made him think she was mentally unstable to something... He was afraid that she might suddenly pull a dagger on them and rip him from Xuba's grasp as a hostage! Perhaps that was just his little child's mind playing tricks on him, imagining the worst-case scenerioes, but nevertheless... She wasn't making him feel any more at ease...

"Y-you killed him...." Aeizith mumbled, his eyes flicking down towards the ground, barely missing the bodies of both men. "H-he can't redeem himself a-anymore... h-he c-can't be a better p-person..."