The lonely road gathers a more welcome companion

Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:29 am

Taichi slept through the day and the night, sweating through his clothes and the bedding beneath him. He would toss and turn, swearing and yelling, at least that is what he was told when he woke. He had dreams of grandeur, dreams of him coming back to his home in Suna, back in the way that it used to be. A safer place, a kinder place. He walked through his front door, doing his best to kick off the sand that covered his boots.

He called out for the woman of the house, his love and his wife. He looked through the house, checking every room of the house. He finally went into the farthest bedroom, the nursery where both of his beautiful boys should be napping at this point in the day. He walked up to the door and he heard dead silence from within the room.

He slowly opened the door, and swung it very slowly as to not rise attention from his children. When he opened the door and he looked inside, he saw them. His wife and two boys, all sleeping within the room. His wife, Bri, was sitting in the middle of the room rubbing the backs of both his boys, until she fell asleep, that was. Both of his boys sleeping soundly, pressing their faces into their pillows.

Taichi crept into the room and he slowly picked Bri up and carried her into their room and placed her onto their bed. He pulled up the covers on the bed and covered his wife. Kneeling down, he brushed the chestnut hair off of her beautiful pale face. He admired the redness of her cheeks upon the snow white complexion that she bore with a marvelous sleeping smile on her face.

He leaned forward towards her, and was just about to kiss her forehead, when he began hearing a deafening screech that went into his dreams. The screeches turned to his own yelling into the void that was his existence. He heard the barging through doors and the calling of women and men together, checking on his well-being. He was able to barely open his eyes, but the pain was far too much to bear quite yet. He fell back to sleep and went back into his dreams, or at least that is what he had hoped.

He jerked out of consciousness, swinging the sword of his late friend Hiroaki. There was no one around him, just the void once again. The room he was in was cold and dark, damp being an understatement. He couldn’t tell where he was, but he did know that he wanted to leave. He tried to get up out of the bed, but his arms had appeared to be free. He thought this was interesting due to him being able to swing his late friend’s sword only a few moments ago. He tried valiantly to free himself. He grunted and groaned as he tried to force his hands through the straps that contained him in his location. Try and try he did, it proved to be worthless against the restraints that had been put on him.

He could hear voices coming from the doorway, but they did not sound like the voices that he had heard once before. He strained his mind, trying to think of a way to escape and ready himself to fight whoever would be walking through the door. He fought the restraints until he had a thought. He sat still and he performed the transformation technique, due to his mastery of the technique, he did not need to perform any hand seals. He turned into a bug, allowing him to be free of the restraints. The moment he freed himself, voices began ringing through the small dark room.

“Very good.”

The voice he heard was one that he hadn’t heard before. Taichi turned back into his own body when the room began to dissolve around him. Cracks began forming around him, the ominous cracking of wood and concrete could be heard as if ther force was above him, it was a loud booming voice, yet spoken so softly, like what a viper would speak with while it slithered through the grass. The cracks turned to holes and soon enough the entire floor fell out from beneath him.

As he fell through the floor, he began hearing the screams of both Hana and Bri. He could hear the men as they surrounded Bri, doing God knew what. All chortling as they ripped her life away from her, slowly and painfully. He heard Hana scream for him, then hearing the ceiling crash in on her. He could hear her life fleeting from her body with her last breath, before the blood gurgled out of her mouth and eyes.

He continued to fall and saw Hiroaki and Ember during their fight with the guy in the clearing. The flames filled the area he was falling in. He felt the heat from the flames as they surrounded him. The pain he felt from the heat felt far too real for him to be sleeping. His shirt caught fire and he could feel the searing heat burning his actual skin. He put out his sleeve and suddenly he landed in a relatively soft spot of sand.

Frantically searching his surroundings, he knew exactly where he was. "Suna?” Taichi thought to himself. He was still surrounded by fire, except for a small path into a tent off to the side. Taichi couldn’t believe what he was seeing, how could he be dreaming of all of this. How long would he be sleeping? Answers were nowhere to be found, but the questions began to pile up. The fire behind him began to get closer, so he rushed through the opening in the fire to take some shelter within the tent. When he rushed through the opening, he saw Bri lying there on the floor, just as he did the day he lost her.

Her body was beaten, bled out, and almost unrecognizable. Taichi fell to his knees, dipping into the blood that covered the floor of the tent. He wept, the sight of her body in the same position the day she was raped and killed was too much for Taichi to handle. As his tears mixed with the blood that surrounded him, reached for his backpack, reaching for his whip. The only thing that would allow him any respite from the flashbacks filling his mind and driving him to his point of insanity. But his backpack was nowhere to be found. His concentration on Bri’s body was quickly brought to an end when he heard a woman calling out his name.

He jumped back to his feet, hoping that he could help whoever it was. When he turned around and ran toward the opening in the tent, expecting to see the fire still swirling around like it was only a few moments ago. But when his eyes finally met the opening of the tent, it was night and there was no fire to be seen. He quickly ran out of the tent when he looked around to see his surroundings once again. “Night? Where did the fi-” He cut himself off when he realized where he was, he was within the walls of Suna. “I thought this place was destroyed?” His question was quickly answered by the incoming of the invasion of Suna by Kiri and Konoha. Taichi knew exactly what night this was. But he thought maybe he could save Hana in this dream, hopefully releasing him from the memory that was her calling out to him, and him being unable to save her. Restricting him to only watching and listening to his fiance’s body and life being crushed and destroyed.

He sprinted through the town, watching as the invasion went underway just as he remembered it happening once before. He bobbed and weaved through all of the attacks coming over the walls of Suna, trying to find Hana’s home. This is when he heard her voice once again. “Taichi! Please help!” Taichi heard the soft voice that he remembered of Hana. He rushed in the direction of the voice calling out to him.

As he past by a pile of already dead bodies of the Suna’s civilians and ninja, he found her home. He could see Hana’s terrified face, just as he remembered on that fateful night. He ran as fast as he could, hearing her still call out for Taichi. He called out back, saying that he was coming to her aid. Hana continued to call out for Taichi as if he wasn’t directly in her line of sight. He tried to get her attention, but it was no use. She continued to call out for him, sobbing hysterically trying to open the door so her family could get out of their home. Taichi performed his Water Release: Snake’s mouth technique directly at the house, trying to put the water out. But just as he performed the appropriate hand seals, what came out instead was a giant ball of fire, crashing into her house. Her face went from terrified, to hopeless. The roof of her home came down, crushing her and her whole family.

Taichi tried to figure what happened, “I performed the right hand seals. What is happening to me!?” Taichi fell to his knees once again. His mind was reaching his limits, the pain and stress that was being put upon his heart was beginning to wear his body out faster and faster, quickly bringing him to a point of passing out from the stress. His heart felt as though it was about to explode, his brain felt as though it was swelling in his head. He clutched his chest and as he was about to put his other hand on the sand to support his body, he saw the singed corpse that was Hiroaki, the man that had accidentally died in his fight against the man in the clearing.

Taichi apologized to Hiroaki again and again, tears falling from his face and dripping directly onto his body. Hiroaki face then came to life, just to stare at Taichi. “Why did you do this to me? WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME!?” Hiroaki’s head then fell back to the sand, lifeless once again. Taichi continued to apologize to him, his failures were surrounding him. All of the people that he failed in his life walked up to him, looking down upon him. Hiroaki’s body reanimated and stood up so he could join the rest of them.

Taichi looked up to see the crowd that surrounded him. Their hateful stares buried him with guilt and shame. He tried to apologize, but his mouth was suddenly covered by a thick piece of cloth. He could still see the mob of all the people that he failed in life, but he could not speak. He tried to stand, but he was bound to a chair. He tried to get himself out of the chair, remembering what chair this was. He looked around and he found himself back in the tent that he was stuck in when he was able to hear Bri’s groans and screams of pain when she was being tortured, raped, and killed in the tent next to him.

He struggled to get himself free, feeling that he would be able to actually save her. But he was frozen, unable to move, barely able to breathe.

“This one has a lot of fight in him. Most people would have given into their own insanity by now.”

Taichi looked around and could not see where this loud, yet soft voice was coming from. Taichi stopped struggling for a moment, the pain he was feeling was something he thought not possible when someone was merely sleeping. He came to the conclusion that this had to be Genjutsu at this point. He had mastered this technique, so fortunately he needed not to perform any hand signs. He focused his mind, feeling his chakra nature slowly calm down, then quickly surge through his entire body.

His eyes finally opened and he was still in the chair with his mouth covered by the cloth. But his surroundings had completely changed. He looked directly in front of him and saw a man sitting in a chair across from him. The man had a black suit on, pale white skin and raven black hair that hung down to his shoulders. He was leaning on one elbow with his left leg crossed over the right one. He had a smug face with a chin that came to almost a perfect point. Taichi looked into the eyes of the smug bastard sitting across from him. A man standing behind him removed the cover on his mouth, allowing Taichi to speak again.

“Oh look at you! That was one hell of a genjutsu to just fight your way out of. Gotta say I’m impressed.” The smug man chortled as he spoke.

“Who are you and what the hell are you doing putting me through that much shit!?” Taichi, already out of all patience and niceties.

The smug man’s smile grew only wider as Taichi began to yell at him. “Oh do calm down.” Leaning in he began to whisper. “Don’t want to wake up the boss now do we?” He leaned back into his chair as he kept his smile wide on his face.

Taichi, not really caring about his surroundings, yells again. "Untie me you motherfu-" Taichi was cut off by the door entering the room, due to it being slammed into and launched off of its hinges. The smug man's faced changed to a look of annoyance. He stood up front the chair he was sitting in and began speaking to the massive man that barged into the room.

Taichi marveled at the man that just blew through the solid wooden door as if it was made if paper. The man stood at most likely seven feet tall, looked to be as wide as a wagon. His hair was as red as the fire chakra that pulsed within his body. A beard that matched that hung down to his chest. He stood with an intimidating demeanor. The two argued for a few moments, and he was not able to catch most of what was said during their screaming, but he was able to pick up some.

“Who the fuck is he?”
“This is a-”
“I don’t give a shit who the bastard is! Why is he makin so much noise!?”
“That would be becau-”
“Well make the motherfucker stop before I rip his damn vocal chords out of his throat!”

With this the man stormed back through the door. The smug man, with a different demeanor altogether walked back towards Taichi and performed a hand seal. Being that Taichi was sure he was going for another genjutsu, he activated his Three tomoe sharingan. This startled the smug man and brought a new look over his face. Taichi immediately forced out a giant cloud of smoldering ash. The ropes that bound his hands and legs dissolved in the hot ash and fire that filled the room. He shot up from the chair and went straight for the door that exited the room. As he exited the room, he could hear the giant man begin to scream and yell once again, running towards the room he was exiting. He knew that if he was caught by that man, he was going to have a much harder time escaping wherever it was that they were. He sprinted towards another door that was at the end of the hall.

He burst through the door, frantically checking his surroundings, hearing the massive footsteps coming up from behind him. Causing the ground to shake with every footfall. Taichi looked at his surroundings and while he was outside, he was in a very different location than he was when he had fallen asleep at the Sleeping Giant’s Inn. The mountains that he was seeing in the land surrounding Kumogakure no Sato, had turned into soft hills covered with a gorgeous amount of grass and mossy stones.

He sprinted away from the building, knowing that the massive man was going to be busting through the door any second now. The moment he got out of the way of the door, the giant man blasted the door open with his shoulder and grabbed Taichi by his arm. Taichi tried to free him from the man’s grip, but it proved to be stronger than he was. The massive one slammed Taichi into the wall, the air quickly exiting Taichi’s lungs.

He fell to the floor, and he coughed up a little bit of blood. He reactivated his Sharingan, but not in time for him to be able to react to the right boot that was coming directly for Taichi’s side. The boot came in and slammed into his side, forcing his body to run directly into the wall once again. He coughed up a little more blood and he saw the boot coming in for his ribs one more time. He rolled out of the way and the massive man quickly lunged onto Taichi.

He was surprised as to just how fast a man so massive could move so quickly. Taichi rolled one more time and got to his feet, just to see the man’s fist coming straight for his face. The first connected with Taichi’s face, sending him flying backwards directly into a tree. Knowing that he could not continue the fight like this, he quickly changed his strategies from escaping, to actually fighting back.

Another ham fist was coming for Taichi’s face so he quickly ducked underneath the fist, feeling it go directly over his head and slammed into the tree, nearly uprooting it. Taichi ducked under his striking arm, being his right arm, and weaved to the right so he couldn’t get him with the other hand nearly as quickly. Just as his arm was stretched out all the way, Taichi body flickered out of the way 10 meters away from the man almost attached to the tree. Just before he flickered, he created two wood clones from the tree that was directly behind him. Taichi finished his body flicker and immediately performed the hidden mist technique, having his two wood clones leap behind their location to create some distance between them and the massive man.

As the mist began to spread, the man began to grow tireless and began throwing his arms and fists wildly around him. He was anticipating an immediate attack, but that wasn’t how he was going to play this. Taichi sunk into the ground and was able to see the man’s figure still swinging his arms wildly, he held off his clones from attacking for a few moments. Taichi waited until the man began to tire out, which seemed that it wasn’t going to happen any time soon, so he began his attack phase.

The first clone’s job was to apprehend or at least slow the bastard down. He did this by performing the water shockwave. The water surged from the first clone’s location and rushed toward the massive man’s position. The second clone at the same time launched a Water shark bullet directly for the massive man.

The shockwave showed to be very ineffective to the man as he just stood there and took the shockwave with little to no signs of it phasing him, but he then lunged for the second clone, using the water’s direction as the sign to where the clone was. But just before he was able to reach the first clone, the water shark bullet being sent by the second clone reached the man and hit the target. The massive man was sent launching directly past the first clone and slammed into a tree just outside the range of the hidden mist technique.

Taichi thought for a moment that he would be able to use this brief pause in battle to run off and not have to deal with this mountain of a man. After thinking about this for a few moments, he decided that he wanted to put this bastard down for good. Taichi then had both of his clones wait for the man to reenter the fray before doing anything else. The massive man stood outside the hidden mist, and Taichi was sure he was trying to contemplate a way to turn the battle’s tide back into his favor.

Taichi could not allow him to think of any solid plan, so he decided that he was going to go into action immediately so he could keep the favor on his side. He had the second and farther clone send out a Phoenix fireball jutsu from the mist. The man dodged to the right of the fireballs and just as the fireballs were sent, the first and closer clone performed the hand seals to hopefully sweep the man off of his feet, for a while that is. The first clone that was closer performed the Great Colliding wave technique. He aimed straight for the ground and then a massive amount of water in the form of waves came, dragging in both the massive man and the second clone into the center of the technique. Before the waves collided, however, the second clone performed the One with the water technique and slipped into the water, not being hurt by the colliding waves.

The man was swept into the water and was crushed when the waves came to the middle and crashed within each other. He was alive, but would be in intense pain with possible major injuries. He wouldn’t be able to go anywhere due to the fact that the water that started as colliding waves, would then turn into a sphere of water, trapping him in the middle. The man was obviously angry, trying his best to swing his arms to free himself. Taichi wanted to help this man, but he knew that no matter what he would do, he would be the same. He would try to kill him if he released him from this technique, so he knew that he was going to have to kill this man. He had some part to do with his kidnapping, so he was sure that there was more kidnapping that they would be up to.

Taichi had his clone that was within the water come up to the man who was trapped by the water, and when he was only 10 meters away he began weaving his hand signs. The hand signs he weaved were for the Five Feeding Sharks technique. As soon as he was finished weaving the hand signs, the sharks would immediately form and begin to devour the massive man alive. Pulling his arms and legs away from his body and the final shark devouring his torso and head.

The moment the man was gone, Taichi released the giant sphere of water and the hidden mist, but left the wood clones active so he would be able to react to any counter from any other attackers within the building. The water cleared and the mist lifted, so the two clones were looking around, with Taichi scanning the area underneath the ground he saw there were two signatures of life within the building that he was trapped in before. One looked to be quite small, smaller than his own hand. While the other seemed to be larger than a horse.

Being obviously curious, he sent both of his clones into the building and began searching the building for any signs of life. The clones came about two interesting animals that brought Taichi out of the ground, after checking a few more times that they weren’t about to be ambushed. He had his clone stay put at the entry to the room while he inspected the two creatures. Taichi stared at the hairy animals for a few moments before the smaller one spoke with an elegant and beautiful voice.

“Hello, do you think you could free us from our restraints?”

Taichi jumped back for a moment and he performed the genjutsu release technique, being sure that he was under a genjutsu when the animal began to speak to him. Both of the animals began to laugh and the smaller one spoke again.

“Oh dear, we are indeed real. While we are certain you have never heard of animals such as us speak before, I assure you that we are in fact of this world. Now, would you please be so kind as to open these cages so that we may take our leave?”

Taichi nodded his head slowly and began to get closer to the cage, having both of his clones come in to the room, just in case they try to attack. Taichi opened the cage doors and both of the animals hopped out of them, stretching their legs and backs as they did so. Taichi then knelt down to be able to see the smaller animal slightly better.

“Excuse me, but how exactly are you speaking? I thought animals such as yourself could do such things.” Taichi asked with an obviously curious and confused tone.

The small animal giggled and responded in her sweet and soft tone, befitting that of a woman belonging to royalty. “My kind have always been able to speak, only few of us choose to speak in ways that your kind can understand. Say, would you mind helping us find the rest of our kind? The men that you had encountered kept us trapped here and was fitting to sell us to the highest bidder due to our… talents."

The small animals words intrigued Taichi as he was still kneeling on the ground.

"Talents? What type of talents are you speaking of?" Taichi asked the small animal, curious.

"We have a special access to a certain type of energy that is called chakra."

Taichi immediately knew where the small animal was going with her explanation.

"You mean like this?" Taichi said as he performed the transformation technique.

"Yes, exactly like that! Some of us have access to fire, while other have access to multiple different elements." The small animal began to show excitement.

"That's so amazing. Well hey, why don't I help you find your way home and there we can part ways. What do you say?" Taichi said looking at both of the animals.

"That would be lovely." The small one said. climbing up on the larger one's back.

The three would then begin caravanning to their home. They spoke for almost the entire way, speaking about the culture the animals lived with. How they were called Hares, not animals. Taichi always forgot the difference between rabbits, hares, bunnies and all those.

The larger one did not speak very much, so he was a little more difficult to read. The smaller one seemed to be the mother figure if the community of hares according the stories she told.

Taichi told the hares his story of misery and loss. Mother Aria, as she preferred to be called, wept at the sounds of his story. They spoke for hours on the different adventures that they had been on and what the goals that they all had in their lives.

Turns out that Mother Aria had quite the lust for battle. She grew tired of staying in the burrow while watching other hares go out and see the world, but she knew that she would never be able to be gone for long periods of time. Taichi thought for a little while about her predicament, until finally he came across an idea in his mind.

He looked over to Mother Aria and asked her a simple question. He asked her whether or not she and her people would be interested in signing a summoning contract with him. She jumped at the chance and agreed with him immediately.

She continued by saying that he must gain the trust of each member of her people before having them sign a contract to do so. This Taichi agreed to immediately. The two shook extremities and Taichi grabbed his summoning scroll out of his backpack. After having both Aria and the larger hare that went by the name Constantine sign the contract, he thanked them both.

After a few days of traveling, they finally reached what was most likely the largest trees that he had ever seen. He looked in astonishment at the tree, being larger than even any building that he had ever seen. The hares laughed in amusement to Taichi’s response to the giant tree that stand before them.

The night began to fall and the three turned into the many, Taichi was brought below the tree into their burrow. Taichi was astonished once more when he saw all of the beauty that was the world the hares had built beneath the great tree above. He thought for a few moments that he had no clue what this place was called. He turned to Aria as they sat around a grand gathering area, larger than any he had been in before.

“What is this marvelous place called?” Taichi asked, beginning to feel slightly swayed by the alcohol that he was given.

Aria, in a similar fashion, but still with her elegant tone and speech. “Our home goes by many names. The great Burrow, the Hare’s Hold, and others. But the name that I claim for our home is Puzzlewood.”

Taichi nodded his head as he took another swig. “What a beautiful name.” Taking another swig from the flask.

Taichi was far too drunk to travel, luckily for him, Aria arranged for him to stay with the hares in Puzzlewood, at least for the night. He was carried off by Constantine and left in a cozy hole within the burrow. He was being kept warm by about another five hares that were the same size as he was. At first he found it difficult to get comfortable, but soon, he found that lying with the hares was far easier than it was to lie in any bed that he had been in before.

The next morning he was awoken by all of the hares getting up, dropping him about three feet onto the floor. He rubbed his eyes and climbed up on one of the hares that was exiting the burrows. The moment he grabbed onto the fur of the hare, they were all off. As the group exited the burrow, Taichi found it difficult at first to stay on top of the hare, but he soon gained the hang of it.

The speeds that the hares moved were incredible, almost blinding, especially the small ones. When they all began to circle around a rather large mound in the middle of the circle they were forming. Taichi tried his best to see what was atop the mound, and it was Aria. She stood on top of the mound, barely being eye level with a lot of them, due to her height. The circling finally ended when the last hare left the burrow and circled the mound. The hares sat down and Aria began to speak to them all with an impressive loud voice.

“Morning family! I would like you all to meet a new friend of ours. He is the man that saved both Constantine’s and my own life from a life of slavery and servitude. His name is Taichi and you all should meet him and get to know him. We spent many hours together, getting to know one another and I for one trust him. This is not to say that you all must also, I have already told him that that is going to have to be a burden he puts upon himself. To prove himself to each and every one of you. If you are to lend him your trust, then I ask that you shall join both of us into battle. While we know how strong we are in battle, we rarely get the opportunity to show just how proficient we are living under this mighty tree. I know each and every one of you shall find a use for him in battle, and I know you will do your best in any battle you are given.

But today! Your goal is to gather. We are to gather for our next feast so that we may not go hungry! So go on my family, go forth and gather for yourselves and for each other!”

The moment she ceased her speaking, she twitched her ears in such a way it was to motion for the entire herd of hares to commence with their duties.

Taichi and Aria gathered together in the meeting hall for more conversation about battle, and friendship between races.

WC:5487
+1359 towards a contract signing with Hares of Puzzlewood
(Completed)
+3000 towards Aria
(Completed)
+1125 towards Constantine
(Completed)

Fri Jan 31, 2020 1:39 am

Looks good. Approved

The lonely road gathers a more welcome companion

The lonely road gathers a more welcome companion

Re: The lonely road gathers a more welcome companion