Fury is the best fuel

"Taichi!"

Taichi's nightmares were becoming more vivid by the night. His tossing and turning had become violent thrashing until he finally woke up. His bed covered in sweat, same with his clothes. He finally leaped out of bed with a angry growl. He hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in months, since the destruction of his home village, he had had enough. He felt no other option in his mind than to scream to the sky in anger and frustration.

"I'm done with this shit! I have been spending every god damn day being the nice bastard who gets stepped on, beaten, lied to. My mother, the sweetest person I knew was killed in this damned village by some lowly criminal who was hiding in the shadows. My father killed himself, honestly, it was for the best. He was a no good piece of shit. But now all that's left is me. I was the kind coward who ran away from his village. Well you know what? It seems to me the bastards in this world not only lives, but thrive."

Taichi threw open his dresser drawers and he began to grab the clothes he was going to wear that day. He grabbed his black turtleneck and threw it on, he threw his blue sleeveless combat jacket his shoulder and after throwing getting his pants on, he left his bed room. He walked into the kitchen and he still hadn't seemed to be able to calm down. Every day of his life, he tried to be the nicest kid around, that got him nothing but a dead mother and a deadbeat dad that would beat him and drink himself to near death. Then when his village went under siege, he had nothing to offer because he was too weak. On the same night he lost his soon to be wife and her family. The same family that he considered to be his own. He hated criminals back then, but little did he know that once the destruction had passed, he would turn into what he despised, one with criminal intent and carrying out their evil misdeeds on those who had nothing already. 

The reality of losing everyone he had ever loved weighed heavily on his mind, but the weight was something that Takeshi noticed was beginning to lighten, his love of life began to slip. His hatred toward humanity began to grow. There was little that he could do to stop it. He had no reason, why would he love life? Everything in life leads to pain and dissatisfaction. 

Even when he had left, all he did was try to take the coward's way out and get himself killed either by someone else's hand, or his own. Taichi had spent the last almost year of his life on the road, spending every day being the worst weakest version of himself. But that was going to end today. When he first came back to Suna, he found the scorched walls and the piles of corpses. How would one even fix this town? It was full of bandits and bastards, much like himself. His desire to live had left a long time to go, now he was just a walking corpse, with only one goal.

His goal in life had changed, he used to want to become a member of Suna's Jounin roster, and to push Suna's might even farther than it was. Now that Suna is gone, what the hell was the point? While it seemed to be something that Taichi wouldn't do, with his kind and caring heart. He finally had enough. Today he was going to the Training grounds and he was going to begin his journey to stop being a ninja, stop being a shinobi, and change his body and mind into being nothing more than a monster.

The thought of death was once something that feared Taichi, but now? He welcomed it. He wanted to die, but he wanted it to be a glorious death, one that was worth noting and remembering. He was tired of being a bastard youth from the village of Suna, from now on, every single decision that he would make from that point on was going to be directed to being a deadly weapon, ready to kill anyone from a lowly bandit lurking through the streets, to even the mightiest of Kage who led entire societies.

Taichi had finished eating breakfast, and he ran out the door toward the Training Grounds. As he walked out of his front door, he saw a couple bandits that were harassing a woman against the wall of his home. He looked at the bandits, who had now stopped and looked toward Taichi, they began taunting him. Taichi stopped his turning and put on his combat jacket. He looked at the bandits and smiled.

"Well come on than bitch. I'm in the need of a good warm up."

One of the bandits, the one beginning his attempt to rip the young woman's top off, literally, began running toward Taichi. Taichi stood in place and he waited for the bandit to get closer. He waited until the bandit was just within range before sidestepping the bandit, grabbing onto his chin and the back of his head. After snapping his neck, the bandit fell to his knees. His voice had been comprimised to the point of him just being able to have a clicking noise come from his throat. Blood began spilling out of his mouth and nose. Taichi smiled and threw his body to the floor. The other two bandits saw what Taichi had done, so they began to run away. The woman began to get to her feet and thanking Taichi for what he done, but he was already gone. He was heading to the Training grounds and there was nothing that was going to take his focus away.

"I've had enough of this goddamn village, all of the filth and rats that plague it's streets. I may not be strong enough to eliminate all of your son of a bitches, but I will be. Oh don't you guys worry I will be."

He continued down the street when he saw a mugging happening down an alley that was over by the scroll shop that he remembered visiting quite often before the destruction of the village. He figured he could visit it to see if any scrolls remained, maybe he could learn a little something while killing a few bandits at the same time.

Taichi neared the scroll shop when he saw one of the bandits had climbed on top of a random woman and was beginning to hit her in the face. Taichi seeing this, his rage continued to grow, he sprinted over to there location and he drop kicked the bandit off of the woman. The bandit scrambled to his feet, but Taichi was way ahead of him. He had grabbed the bandit by his throat. Having the wind pipe of the bandit within his hands. The bandit tried getting Taichi's hand off, but the fire was raging inside of Taichi's mind, he wasn't letting go for anything. He looked into the bandit's eyes, he saw him looking to the side, as if he was waiting for backup.

Taichi smiled and he crushed the man's windpipe, then he quickly got behind the wall and waited for his friends to arrive. As Taichi waited, the woman was unconcious on the floor of the scroll shop. Taichi wanted to help her, but he knew that trouble was on it's way. He listened for anyone coming, and finally he heard a couple men walking their direction. They were laughing, talking about all of the disgusting things they were planning on doing to the woman.

Taichi's anger only continued to grow. He found a broken leg of a stool on the floor next to him. He picked it up and he gripped it tightly in his hand. The men had arrived and they were all giggling like children when they found the unconscious woman's body. When they got closer to the woman, getting ready to pick her and do God knows what. Taichi flew over the counter he was hiding behind, having his Sharingan activated. He jammed the broken leg of the stool into the first guys throat. He tried to speak, but all he could manage were a few wheezes that had very little in the means of being comprehensable. The other two men whipped around and they immediately began running toward Taichi.

Taichi didn't know much, but he did know a few things about fighting, and he was now learning the joys of killing, so there was little he couldn't do. The man on the right lunged Taichi with a left haymaker punch, dodging he tucked his hand under Taichi's and snapped it at the elbow joint. As he was busy, the next bastard slammed into Taichi with a right straight across his jaw. Taichi dropped back for a moment, but used the backward momentum to swing his right foot to swing around his back and connected with the bandits jaw. As the bandit dropped back, Taichi leaped onto the bandit and tackled him onto the floor.

The bandit looked up at Taichi, Taichi down to the bandit. He rose his left hand and struck the bandit, he could feel the rage coursing through his veins. The andrenaline was unimaginable. He kept going and going until there was nothing left for him to hit. The bandits head was reduced to pulp on the sandy wooden floor of the scroll shop. Taichi got up from straddling the bandit and looked at his fists. His knuckles were broken open and bleeding, the blood of both of bastards had mixed together on the field of battle, not only on the floor, but on each other's bodies.

Taichi checked on the woman that was lying on the ground, he checked her pulse and was surprised when he felt one. Taichi picked the woman up and brought her to the back of the scroll store. Unfortunately he didn't know any medical techniques, so he just continued to monitor her health, while also waiting for the woman to wake up and come back to consciousness. The sun was beginning to reach it's peak in the sky. The woman began to stir, and Taichi was just about to run back to her, when he began hearing a lot of voices and footsteps heading in their direction.

Taichi activated his Sharingan, he knew that this was going to get dicey. He picked the woman up once more, set her in the far corner, and covered her area with old boxes of books. Once he was done trying to hide the woman's location, he turned his attention to the approaching horde of people. He looked around the corner and he saw an angry mob of bandits. Once they saw Taichi, they all began to scream and yell saying how they were going to kill Taichi. Taichi knew that if they found this woman, they would do unspeakable things to her. He walked out into the street to face the oncoming herd.

"You're wasting you're time. She's gone you bastards. You're friends are dead and there's no point in pusuing this any longer right? You go your way, I go mine, yeah?"

Taichi knew that this would never work, but it riled up enough of the bandits to begin having them chase him over toward the training grounds. He was dodging and weaving around different projectiles that were being thrown at Taichi. Just before he left the area completely, he checked to make sure that no one went into the scroll shop to try and find the woman. He looked quickly and he was reassured that they were all coming after Taichi.
Taichi grinned and thought to himself,


"Great they're chasing me. Now what?"

Taichi was reading a scroll while he was waiting for the woman to regain consciousness, it was a scroll about several different fire style techniques that he was trying to understand how he could perform. He remembered one in particular that he knew that he wanted to learn more than the rest. He tried his best to remember just what the scroll had said about performing the "Fire Style: Hiding in Ash."
He knew that the scroll had said the range of this technique was thirty meters in radius from the user. He knew that this was going to be enough range to take out the entire mob, if he could get them close enough and in a wide enough space that they would try and surround him.

They were beginning to get closer to the training grounds and he was ready to perform the technique. He was gathering his chakra and readied himself to perform the technique, the only thing he needed to do now was to get the bandits to surround him. He looked over his shoulder and they were still chasing after Taichi, he began taunting the bandits and encouraging them to crows him, betting their chances and what not.

He reached the center of the training grounds, knowing that he had plenty of room around him for the bastards to surround him. As the bandits caught up to him, the one leading the charge had told the mob to do exactly that, crowd around Taichi so he couldn't escape. He watched the group begin to surround him, playing along acting as though he was actually scared. He didn't care what the outcome was. Whether the technique was a dud and the crowd overpowered him and killed him in the most violently way possibly. Or the technique works and he send each and every single bandit in the group to Hell. One way or another. This field was going to become a gravesite for someone.

Taichi waited until they all began to rush in, but they didn't. Slowly one by one or two by two they came at Taichi, trying to use different combinations to get Taichi off guard and getting him knocked down. Taichi each time was able to fight off each pair, killing them the moment they would get in range. He grabbed the short blade off of one of the bandits that tried slicing Taichi's head clean off. He used that blade to eviscerate two of the bandits as they came towards Taichi. The moment the blade would cut through the intestines of the bandits, they would stop where they stood and try their best to gather their intestines. They would do whatever they could to keep them losing them, until they would lose consciousness and fall onto the floor.

The more that the mob's men began to fall, even quicker in numbers. The mob became more and more ravenous and anxious to come and rip Taichi apart. Taichi could sense this, so he began to laugh at the mob and asked them if this was all they had. Just as Taichi had finished saying this. One of the bandits stepped forward. He was about eight inches taller than Taichi and had almost one hundred pounds on Taichi. Taichi stopped for a second and analyzed the big bastard begin to come closer to Taichi. Taichi got into a fighting stance and he readied the blade that was begining to crack already from all of the carnage that it had seen. It was obviously not taken very good care of.

The big bandit began jogging toward Taichi and Taichi began analyzing his behaviour and his movements. He noticed that he was slow, but he also noticed that he had a slight limp on his right ankle. Taichi figured that there was no way he was going to overpower him, but maybe he could use that to his advantage. The big bandit had reached Taichi and went for a slash with a sword that he had of his own. Taichi leaned to the right, dodging the slash and used the momentum of his lean to reach out with a kick to his hurt ankle. Taichi landed a solid hit on the ankle and he heard a grunt of the big bandit. This was confirmation that he needed.

Taichi swung around the bandit's location and he slashed him on his left hamstring, which brough the big man down to one knee. He was leaning on his hurt ankle. Taichi sent a stomp directly for the hurt ankle and connected, the ankle completely came out of place and he fell to both knees. Taichi yelled to the rest of the mob,

"Come on you poor pathetic excuses for bastards. All of you at once, you obviously need the numbers!" 


The mob then began to scream and they all came rushing for Taichi. He grinned and he brought in a giant inhale, ready to give the biggest attempt at anything. He gathered the chakra and he exhaled, as he did, he infused his fire element and a giant cloud of smoldering ash and dust had come out of his mouth. As the cloud of hot smoke hit the mob of bandits. The screams began filling the air as each of the bandits were brought a small pile of ash. Taichi kept the smoke cloud going until he could hear no more screams. 

The moment the cloud had dissipated, Taichi looked around at the sandy training grounds that had just been singed by the giant cloud of smoldering smoke and ash. The bodies of the corpses were no where to be found, for they were all ash also. Taichi was surprised and amazed at the technique that he had just performed. He walked through the piles of ash that was being tossed around by the wind. He would at one point feel remorse for the death that he had just caused, it would have at one point caused him distress that he had wreaked so much havoc. But at this point in his life, he didn't care. The value of life was gone and it was never coming back. 

TWC: 3016

+15 stats
+2500 toward Hiding in the Ash and Dust
+255 toward 2 tomoe Sharingan (Completed)
+261 toward 3 tomoe Sharingan (261/6000)

Previous progress for 2 to more Sharingan:
Training 
Travel Log
Contract Book
Coming to Suna

“Taichi!” 


The nightmares were flooding through Taichi’s mind again, it didn’t matter how strong he would become, the one thing that he was going to need to fight would be his own inabilities to forgive himself on the night the battle in Suna had brought the village to its knees. The images of the house crumbling and crushing his entire would be family played through his head on what felt like repeat throughout the entire night. He would thrash and turn on the couch that he had in his living room. Tonight’s bout with his nightmares seemed to be slightly more intense, for he had scratches running down his arms and face. He had been punishing himself for his weakness. The only thing stopping him this morning was his newfound charge. The woman whom he had saved the day before in the scroll shop from the bandits, twice. She came running from Taichi’s bedroom and tried holding down his hands so he wouldn’t scratch himself any more. 


The moment her hands came into contact with Taichi’s skin, a sudden rush of calm flooded his mind. Taichi’s body seemed to settle and he had reached a sort of equilibrium in his sleep for the first time in what seemed like ages. Taichi slept for only a few seconds before his head snapped toward the woman’s face and he jumped out of the couch. Angerdly he yelled,


“What the hell do you think you were doing!” 


Taichi now being only a few inches from her face. Holding onto her arms, lifting her slightly to bring her to his eye level. The woman’s face changed from being startled, to pissed off. 


“Take your damn hands off of me you bastard!” 


With that she swung her foot and went for a kick directly in Taichi’s testacles. Seeing this attack coming, he let go of the woman and got just out of range of her kick. He marveled for a moment at the woman’s behaviour. It was as if he had just found a woman who could speak at a frequency that only he could hear. He was surprised that such a small woman could produce a kick with such vigor, especially against someone who was much bigger than her. 


“If you think I am going to let you put your hands on me like that again, you are going to be sorely mistaken!”


The woman had both hands clenched into a fist, her eyes not only staring daggers at Taichi, but putting him on fire all at the same time. Taichi was in an aggressive stance for a moment, then he relaxed his shoulders and calmed his facial expressions. He sat down on the couch and he apologized to the woman. He couldn’t believe the feelings that he had running through his body. Just yesterday he had sworn off being nice and caring. But today, with this woman, he couldn’t keep himself angry. He knew that that was crazy because they had just met, there was no connection between the two. Maybe it was a Genjutsu that she placed on him while he slept? Didn’t seem very likely. The woman had a certain calming aura coming off of her body. Her eyes were just like the sea, beautiful when calm, quite intimidating when agitated. 


Taichi tried to think about why this woman seemed to impact himself so much. He thought of Hana. His fiance was just the same, she had striking eyes that could bring the craziest of animals down to an obedient state. This woman was just like her. She had a safe type of personality, but did seem to have the attitude that she would rip your head off of your shoulders if you had pissed her off. 


Taichi sat quietly for a few moments, contemplating this woman’s similarities to his former fiance. His eyes watered, he hated himself when he began to show his emotions. They made him weak and emotional, his ability to reason and think rationally. This was when he felt at his absolute weakest in any situation, especially if in combat. While he didn’t have much experience in combat yet, he knew that he was going to need to be able to keep a level head at all times, ensuring he had the best chance to make the best choice for the situation. This was something Hana would tell him quite often, she would always remind him that feeling your true feelings, and expressing them. That is when a man is strongest, not when he is trying to hide his feelings from everyone, including themselves. This is when they become delusional to their own strength and they begin to make the wrong choices.


Taichi finally cleared his mind and looked over to the woman. He finally had his composure again and spoke.


“I’m sorry. I haven’t had anyone with me in my home since my dad….” 


He stopped, realizing he didn’t even know this woman’s name, why would he disclose such information to someone that he had never really spoken to before, about things not revolving around saving her. Her eyes sheathed the daggers and returned to normal, she sat on the couch next to Taichi and this time, put her hand onto his shoulder. She gave him a meek smile, which he reciprocated. 


“Tell me. What is it you like for breakfast?”


The woman asked him as she got up from the couch and began walking into the kitchen. Taichi hadn’t had anyone cook for him in forever so he wasn’t entirely sure what to answer with. He didn’t usually eat anything special for breakfast, just whatever he could get his hands on before leaving to take on his contracts or going to train. 


“Ummm…. Just some eggs would be fine with me. Over medium with a piece of bread?”


The woman nodded and smiled at Taichi, she then began gathering the ingredients he needed for the recipe. She then began speaking with her back turned towards him,


“So are you going to ask my name? Or are we just going to keep avoiding those?”


Taichi was just thinking the same thing.


“Names would make talking to each other much easier.”


She laughed and nodded as she began cracking the eggs into the pan on the hot stove.


“My name is Taichi. What is yours?”


“My name is Bri. Like the cheese.”


Taichi loved her name. He nodded and said that it was good to meet her. She reciprocated. She continued to cook breakfast and Taichi watched intently, watching her every move. Every twist of her body, every flick of her wrist, he found this woman to be quite extraordinary. He hadn’t found another woman that was so hard headed to have responded to Taichi picking her up and yelling at her with a kick aimed straight for Taichi’s groin. He chuckled at the thought of the woman being so strong willed, not out of humor, but out of admiration. 


Bri went over to the dining room table that was attached to the kitchen, she looked over to Taichi and motioned him over to the dining room table. 


“Come on. We’re eating breakfast at the table this morning.”


Taichi was shocked to feel his body move, he was responding to someone telling him what to do and he didn’t have any control over it. He knew that there was something special about this woman. He didn’t know exactly what. But he knew that there was something special. He sat down at the table in the dining room and the two began to eat breakfast together and talk to each other about random things that popped into their minds. Taichi had finished his breakfast and asked Bri what it was that she wanted to do that day. She wasn’t entirely sure due to the fact that the bandits that roamed Suna were going to try and get her the moment that Taichi was to leave her alone, so she figured that she would go with Taichi to wherever he was going that day. 


Taichi didn’t want Bri to know exactly what he was, being a missing nin, otherwise known as a criminal, so he decided that if she was going to be with him, then he was going to go training today and not try and take on any contracts. Taichi nodded his head and told her that he would like that. The two then finished breakfast and cleaned up the dishes that had been produced. They cleaned all of the dishes and put them away, then they both got ready to hit the town, going to the training grounds. 


They finished getting ready and Taichi walked over to the front door. Bri didn’t have any of her gear, so she had to make due with the clothes she already had on. She did, however, make sure that any markings or bruises from the day before had been patched and treated in any way they could. When she came out of the bathroom, Taichi took note of all of the bruises on her body and face. They walked out the front door and Taichi checked the surroundings to ensure there was no ambushes headed their way. She motioned toward Bri and she followed Taichi closely, staying within an arm’s reach.


Taichi had activated his Sharingan, this would help him react to an ambush much better than his naked eye. He walked through the village, taking whatever shortcuts he could, while also making sure that he didn’t bring the two into a closed off area. He wanted to keep out of an easy ambush and keep an exit near them at any time. He was constantly checking his corners the entire way to the training ground. But as they got closer, Taichi had noticed a caravan of wagons that he had not seen there before. Figuring it was probably some merchants that really shouldn’t be there, or the wagons used to belong to some merchants that had been stolen, he didn’t pay it any more attention. Taichi did look for something of note on the wagons as he walked by them, heading into the Training Grounds. He noticed that two of the wagons, being four in total, had a picture of a Sun shining above the waters of what looked like the ocean on the back. Keeping this in mind, just in case, he continued to the training grounds.


They made it to the training ground and saw no bandits on the way there. While Taichi knew that he had killed a lot of the bandits that lived in Suna, he knew there were plenty more where they came from. This made him worry about why they hadn’t encountered any on the way there. He tried clearing his mind and began to focus on his training. He had learned two very powerful Fire Style techniques. But he did want to focus on his Dojutsu instead. His Sharingan had been gaining strength lately, but he wanted more. He knew about the tomoe system, and he wanted to gain his third tomoe. 


Taichi asked Bri if she knew how to throw knives. She laughed and pulled three kunai out of the pouch she had on her right thigh. Taichi nodded and asked her to throw them at him as fast as she could. Without a second thought, she got into a fight stance and sent one after another hurling directly for Taichi’s body. With his Sharingan activated, he was able to see the flight of the kunai quite clearly. He swayed left to dodge the first, ducked to the right to dodge the second kunai, then he sent a kick toward the left side to kick the handle of the kunai, knocking it off its flight path and snatching it out of the air. Taichi was happy with his visual prowess, but he knew there was still much improvement that was needed. Bri had congratulated him, but he waved it off. He explained,


"There is still much improvement that is needed, I don't deserve any congratulations yet."


Her face became cross and she crossed her arms. 


"You better learn to look on the bright side before you burn yourself out. Your own attitude will kill you far before someone's knife will." 


She walked over to pick up the kunai as she said this to Taichi. Taichi, still amazed by this woman's demeanor, responded. 


"It is those who celebrate to soon that wind up losing the battle." Taichi explained.


"True. But those who never celebrate, end up not fighting." Bri responded with the same matter of fact tone.


Taichi smirked and motioned for her to throw the knives again, but this time, actually throw them as hard as she could. Bri returned the smirk as she sent the knives flying at him with an amazing amount of power and speed. Taichi watched the knives get close and he ducked under the first, swayed way left to dodge the second. But as he went to dodge the third, he had realized that it was going too fast so just before he was hit by it. He used the substitution technique to not be hit by the knife. 


Taichi looked at Bri with amazement. Bri blushed and smiled at the reaction Taichi had to her strength. Taichi gathered his composure and told her, 


"Wow! That was one hell of a-"


He was interrupted by an explosion barely 10 meters away from their position. They both got into a fighting stance Taichi looked around to find out where exactly the explosions were coming from and what was detonating. Taichi saw a kunai knife come over the village wall and was soaring directly for Taichi and Bri. Taichi went to grab one of Bri's kunai knives, but she had already sprung into action. She sent a single kunai soaring for the incoming explosive. Her kunai hit the one aimed for them and changed its destination to put them out of the blast radius.


The kunai hit the ground and instantly detonated. The paper bomb attached to the kunai had blown up and created a small crater in the ground next to Taichi and Bri. Taichi nodded at Bri, which she did the same. They decided to go and see what exactly was the meaning of the exploding kunai that were being hurled over the wall at them. As they ran for the village gates. Taichi felt someone was wrong, but didn’t know what. Just then, a fist had erupted out of the ground, soon followed by the rest of the body. The fist had almost nailed Taichi directly in the chin, but because of his Sharingan, he was able to leap backwards, stopping Bri from going forward and being hit also. Taichi was in a fighting stance, trying to find out who it was that had come out of the ground. He was standing there before them, just waiting for Taichi or Bri to make a move. Taichi had never seen this person before, but he was sure that he meant trouble for both Bri and himself. 


“What is it you want?!” Taichi yelled at the stranger.


“You have killed a lot of my men, especially in just one day. You didn’t think that was going to go unnoticed, did you?” The stranger responded.


Taichi felt uneasy, he was still very new  when it came to combat. Just being able to conjure up two giant fire techniques against a bunch of bandits who had no shinobi skills. But this was a different opponent completely. But not wanting to shy away from this fight, and knowing that they would take Bri if he did. Taichi grabbed a kunai from Bri’s hand and readied himself for a fight he was way out of his league to be in. 


The stranger grinned and readied himself also. The stranger was the same height as Taichi, had a muscular build, he also had white hair. His hair was slicked back and he wore a black suit. His left eye was dark brown, but the other eye was a leaf green. Taichi didn’t know much about his opponent except for he does use the element of Earth and his appearance. Taichi couldn’t see any projectiles on him, but with the suit the man was wearing, he could have been hiding some anywhere on his body.


Taichi quickly performed the hand seal for Great Fire Annihilation, being horse. He drew in a deep breath quickly and let it out trying to strike the man with the giant cloud of smoke. Taichi was sure this was going to miss, his opponent didn’t seem to be terribly slow.  But he knew that that was one of his two techniques and he couldn’t use his Hiding in Ash technique, for that would injure Bri. Taichi grabbed Bri’s arm and quickly ran back towards the village as the giant cloud of fire dissipated and cleared. He knew that this would probably end with the death of both of them, or maybe even worse for Bri.


Taichi found himself being barricaded by more of the bandits, blocking their access to the village. Taichi figured the village would be an easier place to run through the shortcuts and try and lose them. Go back to his home and think about a plan to get Bri out of the village, for it was not safe for her there. Taichi was just about to perform the Great Fire Annihilation technique once again, but he was stopped when the stranger had come in and performed a jump kick directly to the sternum of Taichi. 


Taichi was reaching an emotional state that was blocking his ability to perform correctly, he should have been able to see that coming with his Sharingan. But because of his hyperfocusing of saving Bri, he incidentally put her in the most danger. Taichi flew backwards a few meters when he finally rolled back onto his feet. Just then the stranger had come again with another jump kick. Taichi was able to see this one and dodge the attack. He tried to grab the stranger’s foot to redirect his kick and turn the tide of the battle. But his strength was too much. He broke through Taichi’s grip and spun around with his other foot, swung it directly into Taichi’s right cheek. Taichi dropped back a half a meter and the stranger was relentless in his attacks.


As Taichi was on his back foot, the stranger came up and swept the back leg out from under him, putting Taichi in a bad situation. Taichi could hear Bri beginning to yell as she was fighting off as many bandits as she could, but they were beginning to overwhelm her. Taichi became angry at this point. His fists clenched harder and just as the stranger’s kunai was coming towards Taichi’s chest, he grabbed the man’s arm, just before impact, and planted his foot directly into the stranger’s stomach. He launched the stranger off of him and sent him flying a few meters behind him. 


Taichi quickly shot up and began sprinting toward Bri, wanting to help her. He was running and the flashbacks of the battle of Suna began flooding his mind again. Hearing Bri yell out to Taichi, needing help, caused him to hear Hana as she yelled out for him before the ceiling had crushed her to death. Taichi sprinted as fast as he could, and just as he reached her. The stranger had caught Taichi and punched him directly in the mouth, the pain was minimal as Taichi was only concerned with Bri. He rolled onto the ground, but ultimately landing on his feet from the roll. He began running for Bri again. The bandits had tied her up and were taking her away from the village. Taichi was sure that whatever the bandits were planning on doing with her, wasn’t going to be good. The panic continued to course through his veins at this point, so he ran even harder. But every time he’d get close, the stranger would come in and stop him. 


Taichi finally had enough. Taichi saw that Bri was just over thirty meters away from Taichi’s location. Taichi looked at the stranger and he was coming in for another Taijutsu move, he narrowly dodged the move as he gathered his chakra into his stomach. He let out a massive cloud of smouldering ash as he performed the Hiding in Ash technique. He heard the stranger yell out in pain. Being that Taichi was in a hurry to catch up to the bandits and Bri, he released the cloud of smoke. He looked around frantically for Bri, he finally found a couple wagons off in the far distance. He began sprinting toward the caravan, trying his best to catch up. 


He didn’t see the stranger following him or beside him, so he hoped that that meant the stranger was no longer an issue for now. He got closer to the caravan and he looked for the two wagons that had the picture of the sun and the ocean on the back. He saw one wagon with the sun logo, but not the other. He noticed that there were only two wagons, when there were four in total before. He caught up to the caravan and leaped up onto the top of the wagon, he broke the neck of the bandit driving the wagon with the sun logo, and he saw the bandit driving the other wagon speed up the horses and try to get away. 


Taichi swung over the side of the wagon, ripped the door off the side and looked inside. As his head went into the wagon, he saw there was no one inside. His eyes narrowed and his breathing began to become erratic, he worried for Bri’s life. The flashbacks came back, he heard Hana screaming and calling out for Taichi. Taichi grew in his anger, his skin beginning to turn red. Taichi jumped off of the wagon and he began sprinting toward the second wagon. 


The wagon was pretty far in the distance, but he was certain he could catch up. As he was running, he noticed that his body was beginning to fight back, his worry for Bri was beginning to build up. He pushed through the mental and physical barriers that he had. He needed to catch up to the wagon. As he drew closer, the bandit continued to whip the horses, trying to get them to go faster. Knowing that the horses were beginning to get agitated, they defied the rider and began to slow down. This was the only reason why Taichi was able to catch up before passing out. He reached the wagon and checked inside to see if she was in there. Just before he could look inside, he was being whipped by the bandit that was driving the wagon. Taichi grabbed the whip and wrapped it around the bandits throat. He tied the bandit down to the wagon, making it to where he couldn’t run off, but he also wouldn’t die. 


He checked inside and he found no one. Just an empty wagon with no one inside. Taichi’s anger had reached the boiling point. He grabbed the bandit and drug him off of the wagon. He used some rope from the reins that tied the horses to the wagon and tied him to a large stone that he found by the main road. Taichi stood only a few meters away from the bandit, whip in hand. 


“Where the fuck is she?!” Taichi screamed as he began whipping the bandit constantly.


The bandit tried to speak, but the shots from the whip kept cutting him off. Taichi couldn’t contain himself. He had sworn to not be as helpless as he was in the destruction of Suna. He was not going to fail this woman like he failed Hana. After a few minutes of straight whipping. The bandits entire chest was covered in blood, he was moaning in pain, sobbing and weeping, asking for someone to help him. Taichi walked closer to the bandit, crouched down in front of him.


“Tell me where she is. Or this is going to get much worse for you.” 


Taichi was towering over the bandit, still moaning from the pain of the whips that covered his entire front. After a few seconds of groaning Taichi grew tired and aggravated. He tried to keep his emotions down, but he couldn’t help but get angry. Why did he feel so strongly towards this woman? He did not know. What he did know was this bastard was giving him no answers. Not yet, anyway.


Taichi took a step back from the bandit, and thought for a moment. He thought of how he was going to extract the information he needed. It needed to be quick, because that other set of wagons was only getting farther away and Lord only knew what they were doing to Bri. Taichi’s mind began to wander on what he thought they were doing to her. All the depraved and disgusting things they could be doing, he felt the rage fill his mind again. He gripped the whip and whipped the bandit again. Upon hearing the scream of the bandit, Taichi yelled,


“Tell me where she is now!” 


The bandit smiled and looked over to Taichi,


“You won’t want her after we are done with her.”


Taichi’s rage had turned into wrath. With a scream, he put his hand into the bandits mouth. He grabbed onto his tongue and yanked it as far as it would go out of his mouth. The bandit’s eyes grew wider and he screamed for help, as well as he could without the use of his tongue. He tried to pick his hands up. But with the kunai that he had taken from Bri before this whole thing had happened. He stabbed the bandit’s left hand and sunk the knife through his hand and into the stone. His screams of pain and agony fell on deaf ears. Taichi’s eyes felt as if they were going to pop out of his skull. 


“You tell me where they are or I will make your life a living hell you son of a bitch!” 


The bandit eyes became glossy and he seemed as though he was trying to say something. Taichi let go of his tongue so the bandit could speak clearly. The bandit laid there, eyes beginning to roll back into his head. His other hand went limp, the hand pinned to the stone did the same. Taichi watched as the bandit died right in front of him. Taking his last breath and letting out a groan as the life completely left his body.


Taichi felt no remorse, he felt no regret, aside from killing him before he was able to tell him where Bri was. Taichi ripped the kunai out of the dead bandit’s hand and threw it into his skull. The lifeless body simply shook with the force of the kunai sinking into his right eye. The head sunk down as to face the ground. Taichi knew that he was going to run out of light soon, the sun was beginning to sink toward the far off mountains on the horizon. He searched the wagons to see if he could find any clues as to where they may have taken Bri. When he looked through the wagon that was leading the small caravan, he found a stack of papers sitting on the driver’s bench. There were maps, letters and all of that sort on the bench. Not really knowing what to do with it at that moment. He picked up the stack of papers, and set them into one of his pockets. 


He began running back down the main road that he had first chased the caravan on, he was going to try and track the second caravan before the sunlight was lost completely. As he ran, Bri’s screaming continued to play on repeat in his head. Again and again he could hear her scream for him. Then he could hear Hana’s voice intermingling with Bri’s. Taichi couldn’t get their pleads for help out of his head. He was angry, he knew that he wasn’t acting rationally. He knew that at that moment, he was acting more like an animal than he was a person. This put him in a bad mindset if he was going to be able to find Bri. Unfortunately, he didn’t care. All he cared about was finding her. He was not going to fail her like he did Hana.


Taichi found the trail that was left on the sand covered road from Suna out into the borders. He knew that this was going to be a treacherous trip, but he needed to take it. He went out as far as he could with the sunlight, but the moment it was gone, he had a hard time being able to find the track again. He kept the location of the tracks in mind as he began to find other vantage points that would help him see a farther perimeter to hopefully find some sort of camp or compound that the bandits may be hiding in. He looked around for the tallest mound of sand and he found one that towered over the others.


As he walked up the mound of sand, he looked around as he got higher in altitude. At first he saw nothing but sand, but he got higher in the mound and he continued to try to look out, finally when he reached the very top of the mound. He could see a faint light that looked like it was coming from a campfire. He got his route that he was planning on taking, trying to weave through the dunes as much as he could. He wanted to try and use the dunes as a form of cover so he could sneak up on the camp or compound and get an idea as to where Bri might be. 


Would it be possible to run in there, guns blazing and make it out alive? Maybe. The problem is there was no way of knowing who they had in the compound and how many ninjas may have resided inside. He began down the mound of sand and he started weaving through the dunes. The wind was beginning to pick up and he was sure there was going to be a sand storm very soon. This could prove to be quite useful if he was able to get to the compound with enough time to get into position before the massive storm was to blow in. He could use the cover of the sand storm to get into the compound and hopefully even find Bri with the same cover. The sand storms during this time of year tend to last quite a while. 


He was weaving through the sand when he heard a noise cutting through the wind and the sand shifting. It sounded like two men talking. He crouched down and he looked around his area to see if he could find where the sound was coming from. As he looked through the sand near him, he was able to find two men walking down the main road that led to Suna. He thought for a moment on attacking the two. If they had any sensory ninja in the camp, they would be able to sense the loss of two chakra signatures, so that would alert the entire place, screwing up his ability to have the element of stealth and surprise. He decided to elude the two patrolling bandits and sneak by them, keeping his presence a surprise. 


The sand was beginning to come in and he knew that he was going to need to pick up his pace if he was going to actually make it to the compound in time. He began to do a light jog, not enough to make too much noise, but enough to get his body moving fast enough to try and outrun the sand storm. As he was getting closer, he could see the light begin to glow over the mound of sand that he had in front of him. He was just about to start up the mound to get a vantage point on the compound, when he could hear hard footsteps on the main road. 


He whipped his head around to find what the source of the sound may have been. He took a hard look, trying to see what it was when he saw the same two men that were talking earlier, the ones that he had decided to elude rather than kill. He watched as the two men looked as if they had urgent news. Did they find his footsteps in the sand on their patrol? Are they running from the storm? Taichi could not risk them telling the camp about his presence, so he decided to make a sound just loud enough for them to hear it. The moment the sound came from Taichi’s mouth, the two men stopped their running and began walking very carefully toward the sound that Taichi had made. 


Taichi had buried himself in the sand, allowing his footsteps up to his burial sight to be found so the two men had a trail to follow, he made sure the footsteps were leading away from the camp, so whatever noises that these two men would make when they died, it would be flooded out by the sand storm that was just about to hit their position. Taichi could hear their footsteps got  closer and closer. He heard a footstep stop directly next to him, this was when he began his attack. He thrust his elbow into the side of the left knee of the man following, but before he could let out a scream full of pain, he slammed his foot into the throat of the same man. The following bandit fell backwards into the sand. Taichi had crushed his windpipe with the kick and the bandit had passed out from the pain, but was not dead, not yet. 


Just then, the other bandit had whipped around and saw his partner falling to the ground. Taichi was already lunging toward him before he could make any movements or call out to help. Taichi sent a low jumping kick for the bandits ankle, when his kick connected, he heard the crunch of the joint completely falling apart from the force of the attack. The bandit let out a yell, Taichi hadn’t gotten to his windpipe quick enough. Shortly after belting out his yell, Taichi had wrapped his left arm around his neck and had him in a sleeper hold. The bandit struggled, and he tried ripping Taichi off of his back. This proved to be unsuccessful when he was able to crush the bandit’s windpipe with his arm. The bandit’s struggle ended immediately and the last bit of air escaped his mouth in the form a of a faint moan. His arm fell to his sides and the rest of his body went limp. 

Taichi threw the bandit’s body to the side and he slowly went up the mound of sand to see if anyone had noticed the squabble between him and the bandits. No one in the camp seemed to shift or seemed to have any clue of his presence. So Taichi began to search the camp for any type of entrance that he could use to enter into the camp without being noticed. Taichi continued to search the walls with his Sharingan helping his perception of the wall. As he looked he noticed the entire camp was only minutes away from a giant sand storm, so it was almost the perfect time for Taichi to make his move and enter the camp without being noticed, but before the storm hit the camp, he needed to find where they were keeping Bri.


WC: 6010
+30 stats
+5850 to three tomoe sharingan (Completed) [Previous progress is above]
+160 toward Mangekyo Sharingan (160/8000)

Bump

“You fucking hurt her and your dead. Worse than dead. I fucking promise you will regret anything you did to her. I will rip out every one of your fucking fingernails one by one. I will pull your organs out of your body while you are still alive. You better not fucking touch her you motherfu-” The old man struck Taichi and interrupted his string of threats. He leaned over Taichi, as if he was trying to intimidate him, and said “Listen here you son of a bitch. There is nothing you can do about what is going to happen to this woman. But do not worry, when my guys are done with her. You would not want her anyway.” Taichi spat blood in his face. 




The bandits surrounding Taichi were just about to beat Taichi, but the old man laughed and waved them off. “Don’t worry boys, what we are going to do in the next tent will be plenty of torture for him by itself. As for you, just know that this is what happens when you fuck with the Walls of Jericho” The old man motioned for his men to leave the tent, which they all did with haste, as if they were running to get to Bri first. Taichi continued his tirade of insults and threats until finally all of the bandits had left the tent. Taichi continued to try and free himself, it was then that he heard the screaming of a woman that he knew was Bri. Taichi knew the evil and depraved things that the bandits were doing to her and his mind felt as if it was completely broken. Taichi fought his bindings more and more until he finally felt them begin to give. Taichi continued to work his bindings until he finally freed himself. Taichi sprinted out of the tent, he had no idea how long he had spent trying to get himself free. But he knew that he needed to find Bri, if he still could. Taichi checked the next tent over, the screams seemed to be too close for her to have been that far away. When he ripped the entrance flap into the tent open, he saw Bri lying on the floor. 




He saw her body, lifeless as it lay on the ground of the tent. Her clothes ripped apart and tattered. Her face facing the opposite direction, toward the backside of the tent. Blood had covered the floor where her body sat, cuts had covered her entire body, from head to toe. Taichi walked over to her body and looked at her face. It was completely battered and was hard to recognize just who it was. Her throat was slit and the little bit of clothes that were left on her, were completely soaked in blood. Taichi screamed into the air, he screamed so much his voice was lamost completely gone. He slammed his fists into the floor of the tent and cried. His face was covered in tears and his tears fell onto Bri’s body. Taichi’s mind felt as though it was running out of life and his ability to reason completely left him. His vision was blurry and his thoughts continued to play the screams from Hana and overlayed the screams that he heard coming from Bri when she was with the bandits while Taichi was helpless once again. He got there too late and he could do nothing to save her because he was unable to use his ninjutsu to try and help. Taichi had no words, he had no thoughts, he only had his fury, and the overwhelming weight of guilt and depression that he had never felt before. 




Even the night of Suna’s invasion when he had lost the first love of his life, Hana. He still knew that her death, while terrible, did not involve all of 
Bri was tortured and assaulted in several different ways, she was still unable to fight from the beating that she had received the day before when Taichi had come to save her. So these bastards had taken advantage of a woman that was completely helpless. All ten of the bastards did. He had no way of being able to bring his body back to its feet. His body was far to exhausted, he was only able to sit there, on his knees like the weakling he was. He was only able to stare at the dead body of the beautiful woman in front of him. While he didn’t know her for very long, he caught himself thinking about their life together. The night that she stayed in his house was a memory that he was going to hold on to forever. He could not believe that he felt this deeply for a woman that he had just met, but he knew deep down, that he truly loved her. 




Taichi couldn’t stop himself from crying, his eyes felt like pincushions due to the overuse of his Sharingan and due to the crying that he was doing. He fell to the side and past out when he hit the floor of the tent. Taichi lay almost lifeless, like Bri’s body that lay next to him. Taichi laid there for the next full day. It was almost 24 hours that had past until he finally woke up from his slumber. When he woke, he jerked his body up, praying that what he had just went through, was only a dream. But when he saw Bri’s lifeless body still lying there. He knew that everything was real. Taichi felt his chakra presence once again, so he knew exactly what he was going to do. 




He crawled over to Bri’s body, tears still filling his eyes. He touched her soft cheek as a few tears fall onto her cheek as well. Taichi said goodbye to Bri, knowing that she was gone and there was no bringing her back. Taichi walked out of the tent, saying his last words to her, but saying them to himself. He turned around and faced the tent. Taichi performed the horse seal and he released a massive cloud of blazing fire, consuming every inch of the tent, then watched as it began to spread throughout the entire camp. At this point he was surrounded by fire and he watched as the flames began to get closer to him. Taichi was thankful at this point, for he was ready to die. He had already seen both of the loves of his life die, he heard both of their screams, and he was helpless in both situations. He could not bring himself to cry another tear. His heart had finally been destroyed, all he felt was numbness. A complete absence of emotion that he had never felt before. The flames continued to get closer to him, and he just watched as sage brush after sage brush went straight up in flames as he silently begged the flames to consume his body. He was finished living, for he had no reason on this planet. He wanted nothing left of this world, the only thing he wanted was to finally be released from this planet for he was useless. If he could not protect the two women that he loved, how could he ever even pray to become strong enough to crush villages under his boot? 




Taichi could feel the flame’s warmth on his body, the inviting embrace continued to get closer and closer. His body told him to get out, but he could not bring himself to feel anything. He could only hear the screams from Hana, then from Bri, the nobleman he burned alive, all the bandits that he had killed. What did it all mean? What did he gain? He lost both of the women that he could envision spending his life with. All he ever tried to do was to protect, but no matter what, all he could do was fail and watch everyone he had ever loved, die. The flames were only meters away at this point, then Taichi past out in exhaustion and from grief. As he fell, his vision blurred, he knew that soon enough, he would be engulfed in flames, and he would hopefully be able to see Hana and Bri again.




Taichi woke up in a setting that he was not entirely sure as to where he was. Taichi sprung out of the bed he was lying in and he saw Bri walked into the room. Taichi was covered in sweat with burns lining his right arm, it immediately began to sting. Bri ran up to Taichi and placed her hand on his chest. She was attempting to calm him down, but all he could do was cry. “I thought I lost you! What happened to you? I tried my hardest to save you. I just couldn’t-” Bri interrupted him with her always so calm and soothing voice. “Taichi… Calm my love…” Taichi did his best to take a deep breath. His breath still shuddering at the sight of Bri. “What is going on? I thought you were dead.” Bri gave Taichi a look that Taichi was beginning to be able to piece the puzzle together. Bri broke the silence with her soft, sweet tone. “I am, love. I am gone to you and to this world. Your fires engulfed my body and brought me down to ashes. This is merely a figment of your imagination that your mind is projecting after you past out in the middle of the camp with the flames approaching.” Taichi looked down at the burns on his right arm. “So I’m dead too?” Taichi asked Bri with a tone of wishful thinking. “No, love. You are still alive. You were saved from the flames by someone that you have never met. You will wake soon and I will be gone forever. Do take care of yourself, do not use my death as a reason to end your life. You are the sweetest criminal I had ever met. Use this as a platform to hoist yourself past your suicidal self, you never know, you may just save the world one day.” Taichi was so confused and he wanted to ask her a million questions, but she began to fade away. He begged and pleaded with Bri to not go. But she continued to fade away, her sweet smile being the last thing he would ever see. Taichi tried his best to speak through his tears, “I love you, Bri.” Bri’s smiled amplified, “I love you too, Taichi.”




Taichi woke up on the desert floor, just outside the camp that was currently in the middle of a raging inferno. The warmth still radiating through the air, being intensified by the hot desert sun, and the even hotter desert air. Taichi did not feel sadness, nor did he feel fury. He felt absolutely nothing at all. He slowly got to his feet and he saw the wagon that he had tried to hide Bri’s body before she was captured and killed in the camp. He slowly walked over to the wagon, and he still saw the blanket in the back as if it was covering her body still. Taichi’s numb state had a brief sense of excitement when he saw what looked like Bri’s body in the wagon. So he threw the blanket off of the wagon, and fell back into his numb state. There were bags of sand that had been arranged to look like her body with a note. Taichi grabbed the note and read what it said. It was from the bandits and it read, “This is only the beginning. We actually enjoyed ourselves quite a lot with your friend. You just opened the horizons in our organization to a whole new level of ways to keep morale up in our men. Wanted to say thanks for that.” Taichi gripped onto the letter, hands shaking in anger. He hated them, he wanted each and every single one of the men there that day to be hung in the streets, eviscerated, and put on display for all to see.




Taichi folded the note and he placed it one of his pockets on his vest. He put his hands in his pockets, and began to walk back to Suna. What he was going to do when he got there, he wished he only knew. His inability to feel had come back, like it was before, but this was different. He did not even feel sadness or depression. He just felt like watching the whole world burn like the camp in which the second love of his life had been tormented and murdered in the most brutal fashion. He lost the little bit of humanity that Bri was working on instilling back into him. Now he was left with a husk of his original self. He walked closer to Suna and he could begin to see the village gates, the ones that had dead bodies piled high on top of them. When he first saw these bodies that littered the entirety of the gates, he was devastated that Suna had become such a wasteland, one that would have corpses be used as a decoration. Now he saw it for what it really was, it was a sign to show all those who wanted to fuck with Suna, that your body will be just another lawn decoration. Taichi saw this, not as a sad and devastating thing anymore, he saw it as a lesson. He saw that he viewed life far too valuable, it was time for him to see the world for what it really was. The world was nothing more than a training ground. It was an area that he could use to practice and hone his skills, on anyone and everyone that crossed his path. He was done thinking about preserving his humanity, it gained him nothing but grief and depression. Now, he was going to keep his new mindset on the world for it was the only one that made sense. The world had done him no favors, so he was going to do none back. People were just meat, sacks of flesh that could only provide Taichi with one of two things. Organs for sale, or money outright. Anything else about them was irrelevant or unnecessary. He cared not for their personality, he cared not for their wants and wishes. The only thing he cared about was what he could gain from them. The only thing that he cared for now, was money and his own self-preservation. 




Taichi continued to get closer to Suna, and he could hear the yells and screams that had become commonplace in Suna now that it was filled with criminals. Before, Taichi would be so sad that his home village had come down to this. But now? He enjoyed the sounds, he was done with his own humanity so what did he care if other people in Suna were miserable or killed? They didn’t care when Bri was killed, they did not care when Hana was killed. So why the fuck should he care if any of them were killed, the only unfortunate part of it all, was that he wasn’t the one benefitting from their death. He arrived at a small outpost that sat just outside of the village, it must have been put up while Taichi was traveling and making money because it did not look at all familiar. He walked into the outpost, and there were a few bandits that saw him walk in. They all began yelling at each other that there was a random ninja just walking into their base. What looked like twenty five, maybe thirty came out and began taunting Taichi, telling him that he looked like a lost bitch. Taichi simply continued to walk towards the group. There was no emotion on his face, his piercing eyes just stared directly through them, not acknowledging anything they had to say. Taichi was within five meters from the group when he finally took his hands out of his pockets. One of the bandits, who seemed to stand at an impressive seven feet tall and weighed what looked like three hundred pounds, walked up to Taichi and pushed him. This didn’t knock him down, but it did stop his forward motion. Taichi looked up at the bandit with his emotionless face. He waited for the bandit to try and push him again. The bandit laughed and asked if he was retarded, or just stupid. Taichi continued to stare directly through the bandit, waiting for him to make another move. The large bandit walked up to Taichi and did the same thing, he went to push Taichi’s chest, but this time he leaned into it a little more, probably trying to fully knock Taichi over. Taichi took a lightning fast side step to dodge the push, grabbed the bandits arm and sent his palm directly into the elbow joint. The thrust was enough to force the joint to snap and for the arm to be rendered completely useless. The bandit screamed out in pain, but Taichi grabbed his arm and forced his entire fist into his mouth, he did this by ripping the tendons in his jaw with his other hand that was not holding the bandit’s fist. His cries of pain being muffled by his own fist, he shortly past out from the pain. Taichi then looked at the rest of the bandits, who all had a look of absolute terror. He began walking towards them and they all ran as fast as they could. Taichi still showed no emotion, he only saw the weakness of man running away from him. Taichi walked out of the outpost, he did not feel like scavenging, then headed back into Suna. He first came in with the mindet of fixing this village and bringing it back to its original glory, but now, he only cared about making all of the bastards that called this new Suna know that Taichi was one such bastard you didn't want to fuck with. Taichi walked across the training grounds before he walked into the village. He saw some of the ash that was left over after his bout with the bandits. He thought what would have happened if he still had some chakra left when they tied him up and did what they did to Bri. Would he have been able to save her? He thought about the very choice to fight the group of bandits in the first place. Should he have chanced that fight? Should he have instead tried taking her back to Suna and try his luck there? Both places were full of bandits and honestly he felt hopeless with any choice he could have made. He felt so close to Bri, but it felt as if the very world was against the existence of their relationship. He walked slowly through the village, he stared at each bandit he saw, praying that they would approach him so he could continue to practice his skills on the cannon fodder that was these poor, pathetic bastards. Unfortunately for him, most just saw Taichi and continued along their way. But the sun was still in the sky, so he continued to walk through the village feeling nothing. His eyes were stained with tears that felt as though they had lost their ability to produce anymore tears. The thoughts of what he could have done better was the only thing he could think about. Should he have not gone training that day? Should he have just stayed inside and taken care of Bri? 




He blamed himself for what happened to Bri, all of the unspeakable things that happened to her. The screams Bri generated during the time Taichi was tied up rung louder in his head than Hana's screams ever could. Hana dying was a terrible thing, but it was out of the result of an invasion, Bri's death he felt was a resulted him being beaten in battle. If he won that fight, she would still be alive. Maybe they could have run off together? Maybe they could have had a quiet life on an island somewhere, away from all of this nonsense? Taichi knew there was little point in actually planning his possible future with a woman who was dead. But he could not get her out of his head, he didn’t feel anything for this world, he only felt the crushing defeat that was Bri’s torture, then her death. All he wanted was to be with her again, all he wanted was to hear her voice again. But he knew that that was never going to happen, he failed her. He is the reason for her death, he should have never left her. But that was something he was going to have to live with, the crushing feeling of guilt. Knowing that the screams that Bri produced when she was in the tent with the bandits, that was something that he could have prevented if they just ran. 




Taichi walked by the scroll shop, where all of this began, where he first met Bri. This was where he saw an innocent woman being beaten by men that were much larger than her. While she may have been a spitfire, she unfortunately lost the fight with them. But that was still not the end of it. Every time Taichi and Bri got into trouble with bandits and won, more and more continued to pop up and tried to take her. Until finally Taichi lost, he lost the battle to defend her when she was in no way able to protect herself. When she was in the tent, being beaten and worse, she was barely even conscious due to the beating that she had taken the day before that. Taichi tried to calm himself down, but he just could not do it, the fury that was inside of his mind was far to great. Taichi heard a group of bandits coming down the street, directly towards him. He was ready for this, he was ready to take out some of the fury that was building up inside of his mind, making him feel as though his brain was going to explode from the fury built inside. Taichi didn’t bother hiding, he was done with that nonsense. He did not care about his own life any longer, just like before. But this time, he had a lot more power ready to unload on any bastard who was stupid enough to fuck with him. 




Taichi walked directly toward the group of bandits, which by his count numbered in only eight bandits. Taichi stood with his hands in his pockets and stared directly at the group of bandits. When one of them noticed Taichi standing in the middle of the road. They began to cheer and running toward Taichi, obviously ready for a fight. Taichi stood there, with his hands still in his pockets, he mentally prepared himself for what was to come next. The first bandit came right up to Taichi and landed a left straight directly to his jaw. Taichi took the hit and recoiled from the strike by taking a few steps backwards. The next bandit tackled Taichi to the floor, which Taichi also took. He allowed himself to be beaten by the bandits, he wanted to feel a little what Bri had to go through. He felt as though he owed her that. The bandits kept going, kicking and striking Taichi as he was down, without so much as a second thought. The blows kept coming and Taichi continued to allow the strikes to hit him. The pain that he felt from the strikes were nothing compared to the pain that he had felt for being the cause of Bri’s death. He could feel the bruises beginning to form and the bumps beginning to get larger and larger. After a few minutes of allowing the bandits to beat the hell out of Taichi. 




His grunts from the pain, turned into small chuckles. He could not help himself but to laugh at the pain that he was being subjected to. Taichi wanted them to keep going, but they stopped out of pure confusion as to what Taichi was up to. One of the bandits tried to shut Taichi up by slamming his heel directly into Taichi’s nose. Taichi figured that this was enough of a beating for now. While he had in no way paid Bri back with his punishment, he knew that being killed by a lowly bandit was not the way he was going to die. Taichi grabbed the bandit’s foot just prior to slamming into his face, he twisted his body and wrapped his legs around the bandits. Taichi had the bandit in a leg lock quicker than the other bandits could react. He pressed into the side of the bandits knee, hearing the joints and tendons begin to rip and crack. Taichi gave it one last thrust and heard as the knee completely bent sideways, hearing the joints crack and break. The bandit let out a howl due to the pain in his leg and he fell to the floor. The other bandits began going for their strikes again. But Taichi was done with today’s beating. He dodged most of the attacks and he began to pick one bandit at a time and deliver the most painful form of torture that he could apply to each bandit.




He was aiming for any and all joints that he could get his hands, or feet on. He did not want them to die immediately, no he wanted them to suffer, much like Bri did. He wanted them to feel, if only a slight portion of what Bri felt when those bandits had tormented her and killed her. He continued to dodge what he could, block what was not able to be dodged, then take the opening created by cracking their joints. After he was done and the bandits were all put out of commission, he stood in the center of them. The pain that he felt in his body helped him keep his mind off of the pain that he felt for failing Bri and for causing her so much pain and torture. He limped away from the gang of bandits, all of them beginning to pass out from the pain that they were suffering from Taichi breaking the joints in their body. He limped away and walked back into the scroll shop. He placed his hands on the wall and he apologized to Bri, he apologized for everything that had happened to her. His pain beginning to set in, he felt the blood coming down from his head and from various other places that he had been slashed or stabbed by the bandits. Taichi knew that if he didn’t patch up his wounds soon, that he was going to lose consciousness and most likely bleed out on the street. Wouldn’t that be fitting, for Taichi to die a broken never-was on the side of the crime ridden streets of Sunagakure no Sato based on wounds that he allowed to happen. He was the cause of his love’s death, why not be the cause of his own. 




Taichi reached his house and walked through the doors, more like a stumble, and he walked into the bathroom. Taichi checked to make sure that everything he had in there was still there. The medical equipment that he had gotten from a caravan he robbed a while back was still in the cabinets of his bathroom. Taichi quickly grabbed the equipment and began patching up all of the wounds that he had covering his body. He went for the deeper wounds first, then when he finished patching those, he moved on to the smaller wounds that were more shallow. Taichi used the alcohol that he had in his bathroom to keep his tools sterile, but when he was finished, he downed the rest of the bottle. He could not bear the shame that he felt for causing such a brutal death to such an amazing woman. He left his bathroom, another bottle of alcohol in hand. He began to walk towards his bedroom, knowing that he would still be able to smell Bri’s scent off of his bed, which is where she slept the night before she was abducted by the bandits. He was just about to reach the bed when he downed another couple gulps of the alcohol, the burning he felt as it went down his throat was just another form of punishment. The punishment allowed his mind to momentarily forgive himself for failing Bri and for causing such damage. But the moment the punishment was finished, the shame bombarded Taichi once more, unallowing himself from ever feeling a moment of respite. While it was certainly a miserable life, he knew that it was the life that he deserved, it was the life that he had earned when he failed to defeat the group of bandits the day of Bri’s death. 






He walked through the door of his bedroom and his mind began playing tricks with him, or maybe it was the booze. He thought he had seen Bri lying in his bed, so he tried lunging at the bed to tell her how he felt and how happy he was to see her. But when he lunged, he tripped on his own feet and fell to the floor. When he met the floor, he passed out and lost his consciousness. Taichi hoped that, if he was to be granted anything of positivity, it would be a dream that had Bri in it, at least that way he could see and hear her one last time.



WC: 12118

+60 stats

+2500 to Wood Release: Wood Clone

+2500 to Wood Release: Foo Dog Heads

+5000 to Mayfly

+2118 to Fire Release: Great Fireball Shower (2439/2500)

Previous Progress on stat page due to reallocation of WC