Thoughts of a WONDERER

January 1st, 1122 - Page 1: The Rebellion

It is morning.. The dawn brought an earthquake of tremendous proportion. Screams of men and women echoed throughout the streets, muffling sounds of anything other than sudden brutality and bloodshed. A look from the window revealed a massacre on the streets of Kirigakure. There had been rumors of a rebellion uprising, though I hadn't thought them to be true until now. The way things were, it was almost peaceful. All of the village clans had effectively banded together in an attempt to quell the mercenary uprising from the Southern Hemisphere of the Glacial wastelands.

Though, looking from my window now, the streets formed the familiar sight of a river; though it's color dyed red from blood. A Kunai breaks through the window, my reaction being just fast enough to dodge it before it pierced my eye, instead flying into a wall behind me and sticking there. It was obviously thrown from an individual of moderate physical strength.. Hm. I scanned the kunai, quickly glancing back out of the window to reveal a ninja baring a stricken Kirigakure headband sigil. It was clear to me at this point that this man was a mercenary - and he was in fact here to try and kill me. 

The window shatters, the wood splits and breaks as the man forced his way through the outside northern street-facing bedroom wall. Slivers and shards of glass enter the air, the shockwave of the mans g-force sending them into any and all directions. I had managed to duck down, though some pieces of the window managed to slice my face up a little bit, small drops of blood beginning to fall from my cheek, just under my right eye.

The mans large build lands itself on my floor, the wall now basically nonexistent. I needed to get away. That was my number one priority. This man was obviously too physically adept for me to engage in hand to hand combat. Not that fear gripped me, but, more a sense of strategy and tactical thinking. The anger felt when he burst through my wall, ruining my bedroom and forcing me to hire new fucking contractors to come and fix this mess of a god damn now mediocre apartment. This man has to pay, and he needs to pay big.. with blood. Or oxygen. 

I held my hands below me, channeling chakra into my palms and causing a jet stream of water to fire from my hands which accordingly clashed against the southern hallway wall of my now completely overwhelmingly fucked apartment and bed room. This stream was of great enough force, fortunately for me, to send me sliding straight into the middle of the street, a trail of water following me as my body went airborne. 

I was off the ground, probably twenty feet high, facing the sky with my back toward the ground. I thought this was a perfect place to be for the time being, because what happened next really pissed me off. As my hair surrounded my visual point of view, I moved my right hand just enough to allow me to see clearly between my legs. The mans fist comes downward, just where I had been moments ago. The wood and stone beneath is crushed, virtually pulverized. He fucking put a hole in my floor.. Who the fuck was this sack of dicktips. 

He looked at me as he rose from the rubble produced by his attack, dust falling from on top of his elongated ears and long black hair. I stared into his eyes. His pupils were black.. his sclera was glowing and bright green in color, almost like a potent acidic feel. He looked like some kind of angry demon. I quickly tried to gather more information about him so I could make out some kind of clan heraldry or ancestral qualities to determine who or what he was. His face was seemingly tattooed. They were two individual, but identical, swirling tribal lines on each side of the face stretching from his forehead, through his eyebrow, cheeks, lips and down to his chin, meeting at the point. 

His muscles were very large, and his neck was vascular, indicating an adrenaline rush. Horns reached outward from his forehead, rather lengthy ones, curling at the end into a spiraling formation, and twisting outward at the end. His torso followed the same muscular atonement though, unlike his face, his body was horribly scarred. Everywhere I could see was slashed, ripped open, broken. Torture. 

Whoever and whatever this guy was, I knew I could not allow him to get his hands on me. I'd surely suffer at least a few serious injuries, or some kind of physical or mental ailment. Though I was disappointed in what I found, as I couldn't make a determination of who or what this guy was. I'd never encountered someone like this before. And I likely never will again.. But what did remain was the need to survive. I was not going to die today. I needed to help the forces of Kirigakure. And I quickly came to the realization that if I had any chance of doing that, I needed to end this fight quickly. 

Still in the middle of the street, I felt the inertia of my body slipping and causing me to start dropping. I immediately formed a handseal consisting of holding both my index and middle finger up, together, the rest of my hand folded. In accordance with this, the entirety of the area became blanketed by the thick mist which was my fighting signature. This was my world now, and it didn't matter what the hell this guy was, I was about to destroy him. As the latter thought crossed my mind, a bright green light began emanating from the area my bedroom had been located in. A closer look revealed this mans eyes being the source. I felt a surge of chakra energy and came to the conclusion that this was preparation for an attack. I proceeded to activate the Hiding in Water technique, effectively turning my body into the mist around me. 

Almost instantly moving myself to the top of the roof of my apartment building, I cancelled my Hiding in Water technique and stood on the rafter, stepping back in just enough time to avoid the massive shockwave of energy that had been produced by what followed, a shingle flying past my head. I could see two lightning bolts, bright green in color, basically obliterating the building across the street from me; the pillars holding up the higher tiers collapsing and falling inward, causing the entirety of the foundation to collapse and cause the building to keel and fall over, rubble, debris and dust being kicked into the street with a force comparable to hurricanes. The impact actually pushed me back slightly, causing me to force my body to maintain my position, pressing my feet into the ground and eating the brunt of the rushing winds. 

It was time to end this man before he did any more damage to the village. I could feel a rumble beneath my feet, realizing that he had enough prowess in the chakra field to sense me and where I was. I jumped back about ten feet, with a perfect amount of speed to avoid his uprising, battering his way onto the rooftop through the concrete ceiling from below. It was impressive, actually, this mans strength. My bedroom was on the second floor, and now, us two met almost twenty stories higher, another fourty feet in the air. My feet touched the ground, and his eyes began to glow again. Shit. I quickly gathered all of the water in the area, pulling it together in front of me, causing the entirety of the mist to virtually disappear almost instantly, revealing a much more horrific side of my emotional composition. I knew that there may be casualties in the village if I did what I was about to do, but I also knew it was going to be nothing compared to the destruction this man would cause if he had managed to defeat me here. I could not allow this to happen.

My eyes widen, I feel his chakra signature surge again, and I time my counter flawlessly. I can see him react as the water spiraling into my palm exploded into a gigantic burst of water, taking over the area like a tidal wave crashing onto a coastline during a tsunami. I'm pushed back by the tremendous power of my jutsu, yelling out its name in the process. "Hidden Water Technique: Great Water Shark Bullet!" I bellow, almost screaming, causing my voice to become hoarse in due time passed. My hair is sent in the opposite direction of the water now forming into a gigantic shark-like composition, its mouth swallowing the mans lightning bolt, causing it to grow even more sizable and ferocious. Another double set of lightning bolts are sent from his eyes, I can see their reflection through the water, but barely, as it is again absorbed and causing my shark to grow more powerful. Reaching its pinnacle in speed, I can hear the scream from this man fill the air, before nothing. Just the sound of my roaring attack filling the area, the remaining water pouring over the edges of the building, with the brunt of the technique now causing the building containing my apartment to sink. Well, you know what they say about real estate. Location, location, location.

I used my Hiding in Water technique to again utilize my water, allowing me to become invulnerable to the environmental damage caused in the immediate area. I traveled to the edge of my attack, where I found a small band of rebels being overwhelmed and killed off one-by-one by Shimagakure's elite shinobi group Sector One. Becoming a part of the Sector group was my dream goal, so I knew a great deal about them even at a younger age. They were basically the best of the best, and were the hunters responsible for taking down rogue ninja. And this didn't even necessarily have to be in Shimagakure, they did global bounty hunting missions for all types of people in all classes and standards of living. I hoped my skill in Water Release would one day bring me to this pinnacle of power. To be considered part of the most lethal organization in Shimagakure history, now that is something of an idea I could get used to.

I called out to the group, reporting my name and active status within the village to establish my identity and avoid a clash that could very well end up in my death. "I am Shadowfax, the Squad Leader of SI:7. Reporting for duty. I go where you need me." A man wearing a sash and mask over his face approached me, kunai in hand. I tightened my fists just in case he hadn't believed me. He instead shook his head. "No need for that, Ms. Shadowfax.. We know who you are." I was surprised to hear this, though nonetheless, he stopped walking and stood about eight or nine feet from where I was, the water on the ground beginning to subside and pull back into the borders of the village. "Yes, when we saw the giant explosion of water in the village we assumed it must have been you, as you're the only one in the village with such capabilities.. And yes, you are needed." He would walk to me, each foot trudging along, his body was almost limp. It was clear he had been probably fighting this battle all night, before it even reached the village. Hm.

I unrolled the scroll, reading along to discover than an order had been called for all bodies and equipment to be collected from battlefields and kept in safe containment for fear of rebels looting to gain a power spike. I saluted the leader of Sector One and turned, activating my hiden technique Utsusemi, my unique body flicker technique, which caused a clone to spawn alongside me, which I had follow alongside me just in case of another attack. For strategic effect and utilization of flanking methods or surprise attacks, I had the clone travel twenty feet behind me and on the trees above, allowing a viewpoint from all areas of the surrounding forests of Shimagakure. This allowed unparalleled communication between both me and my clone, and anything she saw I would see, and interpret to determine a new battle plan when the situation would call for it. 

Hours have gone by and I now sit writing in this journal, a recollection of what had happened today. It is now sunfall, and the sky has become dark with every passing second, a fire allowing me to keep warm despite the cold temperatures of night within the village. My thoughts have become stifled, the streets are littered with bodies and weaponry.. I almost convinced myself that I wasn't ready to see this multi-faceted side of humanity. How could men and women desire this? Why was this necessary? Perhaps the answer will come to me as I grow older.. For now, I sit and ponder my existence. I will wonder why I am the way I am, I will wonder who I am, and who I will become. I will take whatever courage and strength from within my I can muster and move forward no matter how desperate and destroyed my outlook on this life may appear. I was meant to be exceptional. I was meant to be wise. I was meant to be powerful. 

I was meant to be Shadowfax.