A Challenge

Wed Jan 09, 2019 10:06 pm

The Monster had spent nearly a week within the dreary confines of Rain Country, doing little more than scouting out the country for bases or outposts that could hold the forces of Kumogakure. He had visited the Black Markets and called in a favour or two to get the location of one such base, and his searching had revealed three more… but surely four relatively small outposts couldn’t be all the forces that the village had left stationed in their territory. In the end it mattered little since he had no plans of liberating Rain from the control of Kumo, but the more that he found the stronger the message that he was going to send the warmongering village would be. He supposed that the 100 or so shinobi that could be found within these outposts would be a decent enough message, but he still wished that he had found the location of their main base as it would likely house more of their forces than all four of the outposts combined.

The silver haired teen had decided to start with the northernmost outpost since it was the closest to Kumogakure, and he didn’t want to risk the inhabitants of the base managing to escape if word reached them of the destruction of the others. He was currently looking down upon the decently sized outpost from atop one of his Masked Beasts, and a dark smirk was slowly spreading across his scarred face. The deformed looking creature that he was standing upon looked as if it had been plucked straight out of a nightmare, a pitch black beast made seemingly of countless writhing threads while taking on the shape of what had obviously once been the majestic form of an eagle. He never really utilised the ultimate technique of his first bloodline as often as he should, but that wasn’t because he didn’t appreciate the technique, it was simply because he knew that his Ninjutsu was nowhere near as powerful as his Medical techniques. It was a flaw that he planned to correct in the future, but for now he would have to deal with techniques not being quite as powerful as he wished.

With no warning the ‘mouth’ of his Masked Beast would click open and an ominously glowing orange sphere would form in front of it. The Kumogakure shinobi within the outpost had no reason to even think about looking up until this very moment, as when they felt the monumental chakra signature of Kenshin seemingly appear out of thin air a Hyuuga within the outpost activated their Byakugan. The man screamed out a warning to his compatriots but it was far too late, and a colossal wall of flames would shoot forth from the ‘mouth’ of the twisted beast and consume at least half of the outpost. The screams of those caught within the now flame engulfed buildings died out almost as quickly as they had appeared, but Kenshin’s overly sensitive nose definitely recognised the scent of burning flesh. The silver haired youth would only chuckle as his Masked abomination began to dodge the kunai, shuriken and jutsu that were launched his way by the surviving shinobi of Kumo of what seemed to be its own volition. In actuality Kenshin simply had his senses connected to the beasts and was guiding it almost like a puppet master would a puppet, but with a great deal more freedom due to the lack of those limiting threads.

As his beast continued to fly around dodging what was being launched by the shinobi of Kumogakure The Monster upon the back of the abomination would start to form hand seals of his own. When he had reached the third seal the flying creature would begin to dive down, Kenshin only managing to stay perched upon the back of his marionette due to the threads of the beast. The beast would pull up when it had reached 5m from the ground, and Kenshin would release the jutsu that he had prepared at the same time. Whereas before the shinobi of the rot had been faced with a monumental wall of flames they were now faced with a raging vortex of water. A great many screams could be heard for a brief moment as the large jutsu rushed towards what remained of the base, and just as quickly those screams were drowned out by the massive wave of water. The formed commander of Hoshigakure’s Nova Corps could feel at least 2 survivors within the remnants of the outpost, but he suspected that there may be a few smarter shinobi within that simply had their chakra suppressed and were waiting for him to either leave or let his guard down long enough to strike. Unfortunately for them, neither of those things would be happening today.

Kenshin would direct the Masked Beast to land down upon the still flaming side of the base, only meters from where he could feel one of the two chakra signatures, something that he could detect thanks entirely to his Minds Eye. As he stepped off the back of the beast threads would shot forth from the creature and into the flaming building. A sharp gasp of pain was what told Kenshin that the threads had reached their target, and much like someone was fishing he would begin to reel in his catch. The piercing screams of the prey soothed The Monster, and mere moments later the form of a woman was dragged before him. Said woman was in extremely bad condition, as what remained of her exposed skin was covered in heavy burns. What made it much worse though was her clothes… they had been melted directly onto her skin, and what remained of her headband was seemingly melded to her right bicep. He supposed it was no wonder that she had screamed so loudly as the beast had reeled her in, as not only had she been dragged through the chakra enhanced flames that were still consuming the building, but she was also being dragged harshly across the ground with wounds like this.

The look that she levelled on the half-blood was rather strange, as it was equal measures fearful, pleading and hateful, but he supposed that such a look was to be expected with what he had done. The soft smile that he levelled on the woman caused hope to appear within her eyes, and as the soft aqua glow of his Mystical Palm aura engulfed her form and began to heal her wounds they began to tear up. She had obviously not been expecting Kenshin to heal her after the attack that he had launched upon the base… and she would’ve been correct in assuming such a thing. Mere moments after the healing had started Kenshin’s once pure aqua aura gained the slightest of purple tinges, and all the relief that the woman had been feeling would be replaced by a burning sensation from within. She had already screamed her vocal cords hoarse, so she would simply give a few strangled gasps as she levelled Kenshin with a look of pure betrayal and hatred… something that caused the Uzumaki no small amount of twisted glee.

It was only as the aura finally died off that two perfectly able bodied shinobi would launch an attack upon Kenshin, both were males and both were clad in what appeared to be Jounin vests. One was covered in what appeared to be an armour made entirely of yellow chakra while the other was wielding a lightning coated katana. Neither of the two managed to reach him however, as before either of their attacks could land Kenshin would begin to glow lightly and two chains would shoot forth from his back at truly blinding speed, shattering the chakra armour of one of the fools and impaling him just as easily as it had his comrade. Both would give strangled chokes and gasps as the two dying men felt a good deal of their chakra being absorbed by the menace that stood before them, and said menace would do nothing more than smile serenely as he gazed into the plumes of smoke that were rising into the air.

“You village dwellers truly believe yourselves to be safe behind your walls… believe yourselves to be stronger than those that dwell within the shadows of the world. That may have been true once, but no longer. While you stagnate we grow more powerful… because we have no other choice. We must be strong or we will die… and now the same rule will apply to you. Kumogakure shall be the first to face this test… and should the people hidden behind your walls be found as wanting as you they shall suffer the same fate.”

Kenshin would say, seemingly to the two Jounin that were impaled upon his chains. He would allow the two dying men to drop and walk back towards his Masked Beast. He knew that someone had been listening in due to his enhanced senses, but he needed someone left to deliver his message.

The beast would fly off, leaving the broken shell of a military base in its wake, a deep and dark plume of smoke rising into the sky as a grim foreshadowing of what was to come. Mere hours later three more plumes of smoke had joined the first, and what remained of Kumogakures forces within the country were on high alert due to a grim message given by the sole survivor of the first attack. But The Monster mentioned by the messenger was not seen again, as he had moved on once his tests had been completed.

Wind Country was next.

WC: 1614

[Insta Travelling to Wind Country]