As the greed sets in.

"Money." Taichi thought to himself. He had just received an unexpected paycheck, a rather large one at that. It was something he could not have imagined that he would have actually done. He always told himself that he would leave the innocent alone, and only focus on those that had wronged either him or the greater public. But the money was the same, the money that he held in his hand. The money was no different, the money was still good. "Money." Taichi began to speak to himself, very quietly. "Money. Money is what I need. This is the answer to my worries and concerns. But this is what causes so much evil in the world. Isn't it?" Taichi would ask himself, as if waiting for an answer to come his way.

"No. That is what solves all the world's conflicts." 


Taichi looked whipped his focus directly behind him, expecting to see someone standing over him. The voice was a deep, growling voice. Sounding as if it was trapped within a well or a prison of sorts. Taichi lunged to his feet with a kunai in hand and his three tomoe Sharingan activated. "Who's there!?" Taichi would yell out into the endless trees that comprised the forest. He activated his Mind's Eye of the Kagura so he would be able to find out exactly where the source of the voice was coming from. Frantically looking around, knowing that with his eyes and his mind's eye being open, he would be able to find out where any intruder would be and if he was being ambushed. 

"You fool. Always the paranoid type, but never truly sees anything. Even with those powerful eyes of yours."


Taichi didn't see anyone with his eyes or his mind's eye, but he knew he heard the voice. He swung his left arm around his body to turn himself around and he unleashed the kunai and threw it into the tree that was directly behind him. The knife stuck deep into the tree, but there was no sentient target, only the tree." Taichi walked to the tree and he formed the hand seals for the Nativity World of Trees technique. 

"Will you ever learn you damned fool?"


Taichi formed two wood clones from the trees that he created and had them both activate their three tomoe Sharingan. "Find where the voice is coming from!" Taichi would bark at his two wood clones, who spread out to be 25 meters apart from each other and 30 meters away from Taichi himself. 

Taichi's mind felt increasingly uneasy and rattled. "What is happening to me?" Taichi said to himself quietly as he sat back down on a stump. He would scan the area with his Mind's Eye and continue to come up short in actually find anyone other than his two clones that were still very much within his range. 

"Why don't you go through what you know to try and figure it out. There's a voice with no source, yet you can hear it clearly. The voice speaks to you as if knowing you on a personal level. I know you're not dim, I also know you know exactly where I am. So quit pretending like you're some fool and come to grips with it already."


Taichi didn't want to believe this voice, but he knew that he was in denial. "Why are you there?" Taichi would ask himself. 

"I am here for your torment, to push you further down the same hole that you jumped in the day you killed Hiroaki. You knew I was there, that little voice that you heard when you saw his body burned to a crisp that laid on the ground. You could do nothing as you dwelled within the ground, safe from the same fate that you should have suffered as well."


Taichi's grip began to tighten on the kunai knife that he had in his hand. Tears began to fall from his face. Taichi decided that he was going to ignore the voice for now, he knew that he wasn't going to be safe in this forest for long before retribution would come for him for his crimes. 

"Time to go." Taichi told himself. He didn't know what he wanted at this point. Did he want to become a village ninja? Taichi would think to himself after he already merged into the ground with his Mayfly technique. He dispelled both of his wood clones and he traveled back to the island of Volcano Country. He would not yet enter the village, nor would he go to the island that he had been given should he join the village. He would instead emerge from one of the outlying islands that surrounded the mainland. 

He had a lot of things to think about and lot of things to work through on his own before he could show his face within the village again. He was now officially a criminal, he took the money from another individual. He threatened someone with their life to gain some of their possessions. 

He didn't know what was happening to himself, he was falling faster and faster. He was allowing the berserker's rage to fill his heart, he was robbing innocent people on the borders. "Am I...falling?" Taichi would ask himself as he emerged in the borders of Volcano Country. Taichi would create himself a forest to gather his thoughts in. He would climb into the tree that hung above him and begin meditating. Doing what he could to clear his mind of all the negativity and more importantly, the voice that had began speaking within his own mind. 

"One day. I will...want to join the village? Or will I? What is it that I want?" Taichi would ask himself. 

"Money. You know what it is that you want. You have now realized your true nature. You wanted to kill that bastard in Fang. You wanted to take the money from the ninja in Fire country. Didn't you!?" 


Taichi didn't know what to say in response to himself. Did he? Why didn't he feel bad anymore? Was he truly without remorse? Or was he just dead inside? There was so many questions that he still didn't have answers for. He had been traveling through the years, trying his best to answer the questions that he had filling his mind, but he continued to find more questions and run into more problems. Why was he a magnet to such things? He didn't know. Another thing he didn't know. 

"Money." Taichi pulled the twenty thousand ryo that he had taken from the shinobi within the borders of Fire country. The money felt good in his hands, he wanted more. He wanted to continue down this path. Or did he? "Do I want to keep doing this? I want more money, but maybe I go about it a diff-"

"Fuck off with that bullshit! You wanted that money, and now you want more. Just admit that and get on with yourself already."


Taichi did his best to ignore the voice, but the voice continued to get louder. Taichi could feel a rage building within his body, putting a certain pressure on his brain. This caused him a great deal of pain as he clenched his fists, but trying to keep his calm so he could more effectively meditate within the forest that he had created. The pain continued to grow in intensity before he finally leaped to his feet as he felt the arms grow out of his sides. A scream would be let out from Taichi's mouth, but the voice would be different than his normal voice. 

"It's about damn time!" Taichi would yell out in a much deeper and growling voice. The enraged Uchiha would send two of his fists directly into the tree that he was standing on. The tree crumbled from the impact of his fists, causing the rest of the tree to fall with Taichi within the tree. "Yeah!" Taichi yelled out in enjoyment and excitement as he plummeted to the ground within his forest. 

The enraged Uchiha would leap from the falling tree, hurling himself towards the next tree. The next tree would meet the same fate, then the next tree, then the next tree. Taichi would fully allow his rage to consume his body, uprooting the trees and sending them flying through the air and colliding with the other trees that still stood standing within the forest. 

When Taichi felt the arms retreat into his body, he slowly looked at the carnage that now surrounded him. The entire forest was decimated, no tree left standing. The enraged Uchiha knelt down to the ground, the rage subsiding and his mind returning to its calmed state. He spoke once again to see what his voice would sound like at this point, "Hello?" It was his normal speaking voice that had returned to him. 

"Damn that felt good. To actually stretch my legs for the first time!" 


Taichi placed his hands to the ground and released the destroyed forest and had the trees in all of their pieces return to the ground that they had once come from. 

Taichi felt relieved, felt uneasy. He felt calm, yet anxious. He didn't know if he was good, or if he was bad. He didn't really know whether or not he was even in between anymore. He didn't know what was going on with him. He felt his usual way of being dead inside, but he felt even less than that. He felt as though he was two separate people. The rage that had began growing within him upon receiving the Jugo transplant from Kenshin grew to be it's own personality.

The voice had been something Taichi had been able to ignore for a while, but not endlessly. His suppression of the voice and the feelings that he had upon killing Hiroaki had latched onto the rage from the Natural Energy that would gather within himself and grew. It grew until it was far too much for Taichi to effectively hold at bay. His depression manifested the perfect mental climate for the personality to grow, actually committing a crime intentionally just had to have been the final line crossed that separated himself and the growing new personality.

The confused Uchiha stood to his feet once more. "Alright. Enough of you. You had your fun. Now allow me to concentrate and shut it." Taichi would speak inwards, to the separate personality that had grown within him. 

"You actually think that is how this works? I will be here to blind you when you would generally think clearly. I will be here to further your torment and depression. Always know that I will be here, and there is nothing you can do about it. You might as well get used to me now to save yourself any extra headaches."

The voice within his head would laugh at Taichi as it mocked him when he would begin to get frustrated. 

"The angrier you get, the better. When you lose it. That is when I get to come out of my prison. So go ahead you pee-on. Get pissed off. Show me what you really got!" 


Deeply breathing, the frustrated Uchiha gained his footing once more within his own mind. He would calm down successfully and begin walking through the island that he had emerged from. He looked towards the mainland, being able to make out the giant volcano that sat directly in the center of the village. 

"What is it that I want?" Taichi would ask himself. 

"I have already told you. Money, and lots of it. Imagine it. You can have all the things you ever wanted. You could buy any transplant, hell if you start killing then you can even start selling the bastards. You already have a knack for the medical profession. You have seen the procedure, all you need is the clientele and the product. I will be here to help you every step of the way. You wouldn't need to kill anyone, I can do it for you."


The voice was quite charming, and he knew his way around a person's disabled mental state. Taichi would think about it, heavily. "I could perform that procedure, couldn't I?" Taichi would ask himself once more.


"You could. I know you can. Just go, lurk on the borders. Be the shadow that travelers will fear. Be the monster that you could be. Be the boogey man, take their money, or even their life. Reap all the benefits that you can, give nothing back to them. You have been kicked down all your life. Don't you think it's time for you to take a turn to do the kicking?"


In a trance, the confused Uchiha would imagine the life that it would be to finally be the monster that he wanted to be. "But what about the village?" he asked as he pondered about the kage Zaled and the island that he was given. He looked to the side and surprisingly he could make out the giant tree that stood out towards the edge of the island, his meditation spot. 


"You can come back, when you have finally proven yourself to be worthy of that island. When you finally show that you are worthy of the very breath that you draw into your breast. You are nothing right now, nothing but a thief. You aren't worthy of that island, you aren't worthy of belonging to any one place. You are nothing more than a vagabond trying to find his next place to take shelter. Soon you can prove yourself to be of worth, but for now, you haven't. Go back to Suna, go back to your once home. Speak with Kenshin, maybe he can show you what to do and where to go."


"I mean...that does make sense." Taichi would speak to himself once again. He would feel his mind beginning to sway. To sway away from the idea of joining the village. "For now. I stay in the borders. I will meditate on my decision first, then I shall leave." 


He placed his hands against the ground once more, creating a single tree that would allow him to sit within and enjoy the warm salty breeze that would brush against his face after it would blow across the seas. 

In his knew head space, the rage had softened. The fact that it now grew into a complete personality allowed his body to release the pain that would build up so intensely. He created two clones from the tree that was below him and had them both be look out as he continued to meditate within the tree. 

Exit
WC: 2456
[Insta traveling to Volcano Country borders from Fire Country borders with Mayfly]

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+2456 towards Sage mode (4150/5000)Previous Progress