Flashbacks(p)

Gwyn leapt from one branch to another in pursuit of the feline. What a fun mission! It wasn't everyday that she got to just fling herself through the forest chasing after an animal. Well actually that was just about every day for her, but she actually got to be paid for it this time! "I've gotcha kitty!" She shouted at the top of her lungs lunging forward towards the cat. The fiendish feline was too much for her though, and it escaped her grasp. Leaving her to face plant into the ground. Her impact tore up the ground all around her.
Her partner a girly looking guy named Butch, stopped momentarily by her before chasing after the cat again. "Did you even learn anything in the academy?" He scoffed before heading back after the cat.
As her partner left her in the dust, literally Gwyn looks off into the distance, and has flashbacks of her time in the academy.
xxxx
"Where the hell are we? What the hell was that? Who the hell am I? How the hell did we get here? Why the hell are we here?" Five key and slightly vulgar questions we'd all come to ask ourselves, as we awoke on the other side of the veil.

I felt the first breeze of creation caress my check, awakening me from my death-like slumber. The sensation was odd, and shocking. Feeling where there had been none for what felt like ages. It wasn't just the wind, I felt something else. Grass. Lush and green. Like a sumpcious carpet beneath me. I was laying down. Where?

My eyes snapped open only to snap shut just as quickly. The orange light from the setting sun forced my eyes shut. My heart began to pound. I suddenly found myself with the unsettling realization that I didn't know where I was. I opened my eyes once more, and gritted my teeth waiting for them to adjust to the blinding intensity of the dull setting star. From my back I could see a cloudless blue sky, which grew darker, and more purple with the setting of that golden eye.

Then I heard it. A noise that put an end to my slow awakening. There was a scream. Then a gasp. My gasp. My own shocked gasp. I was not alone on that grass under that sky. There was another and he was having a worse time than me. It was a boys scream, manic and desperate in the worst way. I could hear him panting, and mumbling. Worse than that, I heard others. They groaned, whispered, and sounded just as confused as I felt.

I couldn't afford to lay on my back any longer. A boy was screaming, and I was still half blinded by the sun. I began to prop myself up on my elbows. I could feel that silky grass brushing against my forearms like a lovers dress. Had the sounds of terror not disturbed me, I felt like I could have spent an eternity rubbing my cheek against those soft blades.

With a great amount of effort I pushed myself into an upright position. My muscles moaned and creak, as if covered in an age's worth of rust. It was only now that my eyes were fully adjusted to the light, and at long last I could see.

A score of teenagers were spread across a field at the mouth of a forest. All of them looking like I felt. Like they'd just awakened from a coma. Most were still laid out on their backs, their brows twitching as they slipped into consciousness. A few were like myself and had managed to pull themselves into a sitting position.

There were at least forty of us. Just on the outside of some Brooding forest, some were even propped up against trees. The field it's self was nondescript, a few hundred yards of empty grassland. Beyond that, salvation. Some kind a building. Tall and beige. The survival part of my brain told me 'Hey now, there's a place you want to be. Only problem was that my legs felt like jelly filled bags. I couldn't even stand at the moment. No There was only one who was able to get himself up onto his feet and walk around, the screamer.

A tall lanky kid with glasses, and hair like coal. "Where the hell are we?" He screamed. His chested heaved up and down and his breath was labored.

I never learned his name but that was the first in a long list of questions we'd all come to ask.

I found strength in my legs. Watching him freak out like that, I wanted to do something. Wanted to put my hand on his shoulder and calm him. Slowly and shakily I rose to my feet. I felt like a toddler. Those first steps aren't as easy as you may think. I wondered how this boy had managed it. Maybe all that adrenaline was helping him out. I whished I'd had that. With all that was going on I felt inexplicably calm. Even when there was a voice in the back of my mind that was telling me something I didn't want to think about. That I don't know where I am, and I don't know who I am.

For that moment at least I was able to push that voice to the back of my mind. The boy was only ten feet from me, and I had long legs. I only had to make a few steps to make it to him. I just had to remember how to walk. One foot, and then the other. One foot, and then the other. One foot, and then the other.

That was my mantra. I threw my right foot out in front of me and crashed down on it. Then did the same with my left. Suddenly I was that much closer to the boy. I could almost touch him. I reached my arm out, and took another step. This time it was almost graceful. Just a few more feet. Left foot right, left foot. I was just inches from his shoulder just inches from comforting him.
Then he fixed me with those wide blue eyes. They were so filled with terror and confusion. They were so big and vulnerable. I was so enamered with his almost palpable fear that I didn't notice his fist flying into my jaw.

Now the kid was a scrawny little twig, but in my state he might as well been the heavy weight champion of the world. When his boney fist made contact with my jaw I crumpled to the ground. I felt the heat radiate from my jaw into my neck and skull. I was only vaguely aware of him dropping his knee into my stomach. "Where are we?" He mumbled manically. I opened my mouth to say something, I don't' know what. Then he punched me.

I could taste blood. That rich metallic tang. I could taste it running down my tongue, and pulling in the back of my throat. I didn't want to swallow, but I didn't want to gurgle on it either. I was so overwhelmed by my newest sense awakening that I hardly paid any attention to the boy throttling me.

Fingers around my throat, a ringing in my ear, blood in my mouth, and a familiar darkness was creeping into the edges of my vision. I was in danger of returning to that coma I'd just awoken from. I can't read lips ,but I was sure that he was still screaming his questions at him. If only the ringing in my ears wasn't so loud, maybe I would have heard them.

Then I felt those fingers being torn away from my throat, and my assailant being thrown off of me. I wasn't in the state of mind to question why. I could only gasp wildly as I forced as much air into my lungs as possible. The darkness at the edge of my vision began to recede. "What's wrong with you?" I heard being yelled over the ringing in my ears.

I forced myself onto my side, so I could see what was happening. I moaned silently as I felt a small stream of crimson spit drool out of my mouth. Directly in front of me there was a pair legs covered in blond hairs. The legs feet were stuffed into a pair of leather flip flops. Then further out from those legs was my assailant. That skinny terrified boy, scooting himself away from whoever my hero was. I shifted my head ever so slightly so I could get a look at my hero. Khaki shorts, and an orange Hawaiian shirt stretched across wide shoulders. "You were going to kill her!"

The boy kept on crawling backwards like a naughty dog. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He whimpered. "Where am I? Where am I? Where am I?" He kept repeating it over and over, as he crawled further and further away from us. Until his back came into contract with a tree and he let out a terrible shriek. "I can't remember anything!" he cried out in shock.

His own scream awakened that voice in the back of my head. This time it was louder and more persistant. It kept on repeating one terrifying question. 'Who are you? Who are you? Who the hell are you?' I heard the voice screaming this into my mind. Which each utterance I felt something growing in the pit of my stomach. It was that same palpable terror that they boy was overcome with. The terror was overflowing from my stomach and spreading through my body.

I heard a growl from the treeline. If the voice in my head, and the ringing in my ears weren't so lound I would have given it a thought.

I closed my eyes, pluged my ears, and held my breath. 'Shut up. shut up. I don't know. shut up!' I had to shut it out, and shut it up. Couldn't think about that. I wasn't safe. It was getting dark. Couldn't let the terror rule me. Not yet, maybe later. not out here with the people. Maybe when I'm alone. Not with that kid. My throat was raw, and the taste of iron was making me sick.

I crawled up to my knees, and shoved the voice back into the void.

I got to my feet. The second time was harder than the first. My throbbing head wanted to pull me to the ground. I placed my hand on my hero's shoulder. Whether it was in thanks or for support I couldn't' tell.

He craned his neck to look at me. Short blond hair, and small brown eyes. A wide smile that stretched from ear to ear. "You okay?" His voice was soft, calming. Maybe because it was the fist voice I heard that wasn't screaming.

I nodded in the affirmative, and gave him a weak toothy smile. My teeth were dyed red from the blood. I broke contact with him and took a step backwards. They boy was still screaming. My head felt like it was going to split in two I couldn't take it.

Like a low thunder on the horizon I heard the growling again. This time I had the consciousness to head that call. "What was that?" I tried to croak out, but I couldn't find my voice.

There was a loud rustling from the forest. "What was that?" Some girl called out. A good ten seconds after me I might add.

My hero and I both took a few steps back. The boy however still kept on screaming his head off. Shut up, shut up. I still wonder what drove the boy to his madness. A panic attack? Did he know what was coming? Was he already insane. I couldnt' say. Not with any certainty.

What I do know however his how he met his end.

Out from the edge of the forest came a predator. It appeared only thirty feet to my left, and I could feel the stares of the others on the beast. It walked out with a sort of cockiness. It's four bizarrely muscular legs carried it out silently from the underbrush. It was a monstrous lion creature, with angry red fur. The mane was made of long spindly bards like those on a lion fish.

I felt myself freeze. As this creature coolly made it's way to the screaming boy. It's toothy maw pulled back into a snare, as it came closer.

The boys screaming only got more feverish as the thing approached. It was pure blind terror now as this creature made a B-line for him.

The Beast reared back on it's hind legs and stood at a foot teen feet tall. It's barbed filled mane fanned out like the hood of a lizard. Then it roared an ungodly cacophony of raged filled screams that made the ground under my feet quake.

Hell no.

I may have only learned how to walk a few minutes ago, but this thing was more than a good reason to learn how to run. I turned around and bolted. I didn't know where I was going, but it was away from that thing! As I turned I realized that everyone else had, had a similar idea. Only they'd had it much earlier. They were hundreds of feet ahead of me. I could even spot the orange shirt of my hero making a B-line for the concrete building.

I took my first step towards that building with a comfortable ease. It was like I'd been running my whole life. Good lord what if I was an Olympian, that'd be amazing. From behind me I could still hear the screaming. Only now it wasn't so much screaming, as horrible gurgling death throes. Talk about motivation.

I darted, dash, sprung, sprinted, shot, whizzed, and tore my way across that field. Clumps of grass and dirt flew out from under my feet. On the horizon was that building. Grey, and angular. Yet it shone with all the hope, and glory that a place of sanctuary could. Inside that building I could finally freak out. Away from that demon. That's be nice. A good long mental breakdown. Like that boy's, only quitter. Maybe I'd cry. Who knows? I feel like mental break downs should be a spur of the moment thing.

Beneath my feet the ground turned hard. The well manicured grass gave way to concrete, and nature became human engineering. I, and the rest of the kids found ourselves faced with a huge flight of squares. In my humble opinion these stairs seemed to match those found on a mayan pyramid. They were twenty feet wide and reach twenty feet into the sky. On either side were tall imposing walls, which I'd later discovered were actually planters. They made up a padio that over looked the fields, and forest.

For many of kids this signaled a good spot to rest. Behind us the beast was gone, along with the screamer. The stairs were tall and the run was long, but I pushed on. My lungs burned, my legs yelled horrible names at me, but I pushed on. Me and a few others. I could see of flash of orange to my left, and up ahead of me I could see a pair of feels clicking tiredly up the steps.

Until 'snap'. One of those blue heels bent awkwardly on the step, and the girl in them lurched backwards. She was like an avalanche coming right at me. A tumbling mass of silky black hair, and plaid blue cloth. It was like I was playing Donkey Kong. I was the plumber, and she was my barrel.

Jumping would have been such an easy solution, but not today. As she came tumbling towards me I bent forward, and scooped her up into my arms. Doubtless in the dwindling light I looked absolutely heroic. The Damsal was in my hands, the wind blew through my hair, and my godlike muscles bulged. All I needed was a flock of doves to fly over me.

I gritted my teeth, and did all I could not to fall down the stairs myself. I was half tempted to drop the girl. God she was heavy.

Maybe I would have too. Maybe I would have if she didn't look at me with those eyes of onyx. Those glassy orbs renewed my sense of altruism. That compassion had gotten me strangled earlier, but now it'd earned me the shy smile of a pretty girl. I call that an even trade.

Her stony eyes disengaged with my own as she turned her head aside. "Sorry." She grimaced. "I'm not used to running in heels."

"Neither am I." My lack of identity didn't stop me from being charming.

Her wide lips cracked into a slight smile. Her eyes kind of crinkled when she smiled. I like that. Her face grew troubled again, all too soon for my taste. A storm grew over her face. She was thinking of the boy, and the beast. I could tell. Those screams still hung heavy in the air. "What the Hell was that thing?"

"A Genjutsu." announce a gruff voice from the patio above us. Collectivley we all craned our heads upwards to see a man in a green flak vest smoking himself a cig, and looking down upon us all like some all mighty god. The new arrival took a final drag from his sig and flickd it off into the distance. Then with his fingers he performed a seal, dispelling the illusion they'd all bee caught in. Like the dissaperance of a shimmering illusions on the surface of water, the enviorment they'd been trapped in vanished. Replaced instead with the much more mundane surroundings of an everyday class room. Better yet I could feel my memories flooding back into my had Gwynis such a pretty nae, could I forget something like tht. Genjutsu I guess. For the final pleasant surprise I was glad to learn that all o my wounds had been completely healed. No signs of my brutal thrashing or strangling could e seen on my beautiful boy. We were all sitting a normal wooden desks with plastic seats.

"So that was all just a big genjutsu?" Asked the boy in the orange shirt. IT was good to see that I'd at least not imagined all of it. His shirt was indeed, and that face was indeed the face of a hero.

"That is correct." The Proctor announced looking out over the class. "Genjutsu is one of the most powerful techniques a ninja can have. It can created Illusions and even alter memories when you're under it's spell. That Genjutsu lasted for only two minutes, but it felt like more in your minds. That's why if you ever find yourself in a situation that is too strange to be true you must remember that..."

Then I just started to kind of drift off. "
xxxxx

Gwyn looked at the cashier who'd been checking her out. He had a horrified look on his face, and behind here were at least twelve people impatiently waiting for her to pay for her groceries. "I'm sorry what was the question."

The cashier gave her a frazzled look. "How was your day!"

"Well I told ya!"


xxxxx I Did this section in a different Program, Which is why the format is different xxx




It was dark and the atmosphere was thick. there was a great roar from just beyond the velvet curtains just feet away from Ling. All she could do was stand there and chew her nails, a nervous habit, one she hadn't really known about until recently. Now her nails were just
mangled stumps. Just a few little words, that's all she had to say, then she'd scurry off, mission accomplished. she spat a little shard of her nail onto the floor and closed her eyes. Music was lightly playing over the speakers, something creepy, an organ and this squawking little violin. It wasn't very calming, definitely not what Ling needed right now.
3...2...1
the curtains slowly rolled open, their ungreased wheels moaning the whole way across the Leaf Academy stage. A hush fell over the crowd. the stage lights clicked on like tiny little suns, bathing the stage in a warm orange light. Ling was in the middle of it, the lone figure in an otherwise dark and empty world. her brown hair was messy and tangled. her nig blue eyes darted from place to place as if she was searching for something. then the shouting started, angry upset shouting about her! they were coming for her. Big angry men were coming to grab her and wrestle her away.her friends were right. Ther was stupid! she should have listened to them from day one. If she had she wouldn't be shere now. she'd be living a nice normal life!
the shouting got louder, closer. she didn't know what to do. she started to pace along the stage. she flailed her arms, like some lunatic. Those people in the audience, they all squirmed uncomfortably. God they were all watching her, judging her! they didn't want her there, didn't want to shear what she had to say. What was happening? Ling threw herself on floor and let out a loud shriek that echoed through the audience. Gwyn was such a good acotor.
xxx
Granite, how about some nice solid Ganite. Granite. It all started with a
black granite wall at Raven Wood Academy. A nice big black slab of it that
echoed when tennis balls bounced off of it, with a satisfying thump. You'd throw
the ball, thump. You'd catch it and throw it again. then before you knew it, you
were lost in the rhythm of it all. You forgot about your worries and your woes
and just toss the ball.
the weather was perfectly matcshed to Ling's mood. It was hot and damp it'd
been raining all day and wasn't showing any sign of cheering up anytime soon.
the gray clouds hung close to the earth like a thick sky-blanket. Ling let out
what must have been her fifth sigh of the hour. the tennis ball was soaked all
the way through now, and squished every time she grabbed it. Squish, thump,
squish, thump. Every time she chucked the ball at the wall she'd pretend it was
Jessie's shead. Jessie with the crooked smile and the button nose. Thump, squish,
thump, squish.
It'd been what, an hour since Jessie dumped her and she wasn't taking it so
well. Obviously, she was sitting in mud. Mud. Not just wet soil, mud, deep and
slippery. Thump, squish. Kind of pathetic. Usually Ling was pretty resistant to the woes of being down, but today it seemed that even she got a chance to feel blue.
Enter sigh number six, stage left.
That was her. That was our heroine, the lonely guy in the mud. hero's don't sit
in the mud! they slay dragons! Ling wasn't slaying dragons! she wasn't doing
anything except ruining her pants. she was a student at The Leaf Academy! Ninjas
weren't sad sacs! Ninjas didn't sit in the mud! Ravens took thier life by the
steering wheel and told it what to do! If a Ninja willed it, it could turn lead
to gold.
Even on the dark and dull afternoon of a girls's broken heart the winds of fate
still blow posters into the faces of the needy. the Flier of Fate smacked Ling
right in her miserable little face. Smack! Fate looked awfully boring. Plane
white paper, all Times New Roman, and black ink. "SSS!" the flier screamed in
all caps. "Feeling down? Been kicked around? Come to us and you'll be safe and
sound!" Horrible rhymes aside, it made her smile. Thump, squish. "Come visit if
you need a shoulder to cry on. K-11. Welp that was that. In an instant Lings quick bout of sorry was gone with the wind never to return. That'd been awfully easy. It was awfully hard to keep ling down. Just distract her with something shiny and the problem jus seemed to float away.
Now Ling was a Terumi. she didn't cry, no matter what! Ther flier was insulting
her family honour! Thump, squish. Thump, squish. she was bouncing that ball
against K building. Thump, squish. she probably was bouncing her ball against
K-ll at ther very moment. Thump, squish, thump, squish, thump, squish. the thump
squishes were coming much faster now. Each thump against the wall was building
her up, giving her momentum. Suddenly sitting in a puddle of mud wasn't as
appealing as it was before. she had a place to go now, a goal, a quest! she was a
mighty warrior off to slay the dragon! Thump! Splat! the tennis ball splattered
into the mud. Ling didn't care though. she was marching into K building, ready
to storm K-11. she didn't even care about the mud dripping from her pants.
That of course didn't mean that other people didn't, the Director of SSS for
instance. "Hon, you've got mud on your pants." She was a tall woman, very
muscular with nice blonde curls falling over her shoulders. She ruled the small
kingdom of K-ll, an empty and desolate land. It's only landmark was the folding
chair she was sitting on. there wasn't even a window, it looked like a room they
kept crazy people in. It was little more than a janitor's closet. "So What can
SSS do for ya?" She had a slight twang to her voice. she was definitely from
south of somewhere. "We don't do laundry, if that's what you're here for."
"Oh um." Ling wasn't too sure about this place. A club had to have members.
There place had one woman in one chair. she wouldn't be surprised if the door
locked behind her and the floor dropped out from under her. Good lord what if
this was all a trap to steal her organs? Hey eyes! Her beautiful Terumi eyes! "What is this place." That was a normal question to as right?
"the Student Sanity Society! Song Cunningham at your service." Song sang.
"For all your therapeutic needs." You'd never heard therapy advertised so
well.
"Not much of a society." Ling grumbled. A society had to have people. there
were no people! she couldn't get over it. there were always people in The Academy.
You couldn't escape from them! In the Dorms, in the courtyard, on the roof.
Sometimes it felt like they had a higher population density than Kumo.
Song stashed her phone into her big leather purse. "What does that say about
a person visiting it?" her voice was honey sweet, but you could hear her
irritation.
"Sorry." Ling stuffed her fists into her pockets. there was mud in the
bottom of them. "Can you just give me the run down of the club."
Song looked absolutely terrified. "You don't want to join do you?"
Ling was confused. She didn't want new members?
"No, no. I'm just stalling. Never done anything like this you know?"
Song went wide eyed like she'd just seen a puppy. "Aww don't worry Hon. Take
your time."
Okay so maybe she wasn't a crazy organ harvester. Maybe she was a sweet lil'
southern bell, here to help her in her time of need. her curly haired fairy
godmother. Yeah that would be nice. "So how about that run down, just until I
can compose my thoughts?"
"Sure thing." she winked "SSS is a group of student counselors. Students can
come to us when they are stressed out and sad and we can help them out. Talk
them off the ledge." she let out a little smile, which made Ling smile. Oh yeah
she was a sweety.
"Wow, good for you." It certainly sounded impressive.
then she leaned in close to her, ready to share a secret. "the real reason is
that, that description sounds great on a college resume', and me being the
leader of it? Even better. That'd be a lot of work though. Ya know? I'd have to
listen to people crying to me everyday! So I run this little tax shelter. It's a
club, it's community service, and I hardly have to do anything! I just sit in
here for one hour every day doctor a few documents, and everything's fine!"
"Well that's just great! I'm getting emotional support from a con artist,
and a lazy one at that!. So you're not going to help me?"
"Well of course I am sugar!" she jumped out of her chair. "the SSS mission
statement is to help all those who come to us. I signed that myself!" she seemed
so passionate. "And you my friend look very needy."
she started digging though her purse. "Now take a seat, your session starts
now!" she sat down in her chair and brought out a fresh notebook.
When she said take a seat, she obviously meant on the floor, unless she had
invisible seats scattered around the room, so Ling just laid down at sher feet,
hands on her stomach. her dirty pants were smearing the floor. "Alright
so..."
"Name please."
"Oh, Gwyn Terumi. Tonight I was suppose to got out..."
"the curious case of Gwyn." Song spoke as she wrote down a tittle
on sher notebook. "the first human to enter the club since it's conception." she
added with a whisper.
Ling now had more questions than answers she was her first patient? Oh it
just keeps getting better and better!
"Start when your ready."
Start when you're ready? Like she had any right to tell her what to do! there
was no way in Santa Fe that she was going to spill her guts to this loon! "My
girl friend dumped me today." Well maybe she would spill a little.
Song sighed. It wasn't an 'aww so sad' sigh. It was a 'really, Ling that's
what you're here for' sigh. "I've had this club up for a year, and the first
problem I get is someone whining about their relationship? I wanted to help the
world!"
she was the worst! Who says something like that? If anything she'd started
feeling worse since she entered this dank little shack. This girl must be some
sort of demon, feeding off her negative emotions. "Are you going to help me or
not?" she practically wherpered that. Gwyn Terumi was on the verge of tears.
Oh dear. she was always so strong. A rock almost, sturdy and unmovable. Now she
was just so swamped in emotion. she felt like she was up to her nose in water.

"Sorry." Song didn't realize what she was doing to her. Didn't realize how
insensitive she was being. the Cunningham's were never really one's to spare
feelings, but she didn't think that was much of an excuse. "Please tell me
what's on your mind. I really want to know."
"I broke up with my girlfriend today. Well she broke up with me." It wasn't
easy to say. It's was only an hour ago. If it was a cut it wouldn't even be
scabbed over yet. In her head Ling started counting tiles as she spoke, 1,2,3.
"We pretty much spent every hour of every day together, and now I'm all alone
and I don't know what to do with myself. Weirder still I can't even manage to be upset about it! I recognize that it's a sad situation, and I'll miss her, but I don't feel any diffrent."32 tiles on the ceiling.
"Well Hon. This sort of thing just happens. It's not fair that someone has to
get hurt, but it happens." Song had never felt so defeated in her whole life.
she'd never failed at anything, and if this little twerp didn't leave here at
least slightly happier than when she entered, that streak was going to be done
with. "I can't help you get over her Hon, that's up to you. But...." there was a
little glimmer, in Song's green eyes. "...I can help you get your mind off of
it." Ling's ears pricked up. "It sounds to me like you dread all the free time
you're going to have now. So join a club! Those are wonderful time sinks. Who
knows you may even meet a new gal there!"
That didn't sound half bad actually. "Can I join this club?" Despite her
being an insensitive little number, she liked Song and she wouldn't mind spending
a few hours with her everyday.
"Oh no." there was a tiny blush on those tanned checks. "The club isn't, um
time sinky enough. Only open an hour a day! Four to five. Besides if you'd join,
then it might become an actual club, with actual work involved! Sorry kid I
don't care how much help you need, that's not happening." she gave her a smile.
"You want a fun club don't you? Pick a sport, or join a band. the wall outside
is covered with posters from every club, pick one, and have fun!"
"But what..?" Ling had so many questions, but Song was lightly shoving her
out the door.
"Good luck Hon!" It was 5:07 she went seven minutes past closing time for
her. she must have really liked her!
K building is the Klub Building. Pretty much every activity with which the
human race could possibly occupy it's time had a place in the building. From
science to chess, engineering to basket weaving. Down the length of main
hall ,each of those clubs posted pictures and fliers of their club on sheets of
neon colored paper. It was like walking down a kaleidoscope.
Every decision you make in life splits the universe, one for each possibility
you could have chosen. Now there was a thousand posters in that hallway and a
thousand possible universes, but Ling chose one. One blue poster with a certain Hokage on
it. "Senju." The poster whispered it's siren's song into Ling's ear.
"Auditions for the school play this Wednesday in R1 'the black box'. 4-6." Gwyn
couldn't stop the stupid little grin that was creeping up her face when she read
that. There was just something about it that sounded so right.

(5808)
29 stats.

Appproved

Gawainfinally zipped up his back pack. It was stuffed to bursting, packed with weapons, and scrolls, not to mention food, and sleeping supplies. You know the essentials. His heart was thumping within his chest. This was going to be his first mission outside of the country, and he honestly didn't know how he was going to fair. It was going to be another mission where he had to protect someone valuable, but it's not like the last one went all that well in the first place. Plus it was only going to be him this time. No Gwyn around to help. Oh well! Forget Gwyn! He was a man and needed no woman to protect him!

He set out from his front door, pack slung over his shoulder. He set forth into the rain letting the cold drops bounce off of his parka. He splashed through the puddles, watching his reflection as he did. The restoration of the city had begun taking shape. Slowly they were starting to drain the overflowing water from the streets into the already taxed drainage canals. It was slow going but a few blocks were actually mostly dry now a days. To be honest Gawain was going to missed the partially Flooded Streets of The Rain Village. He'd always enjoyed splashing around in them. But he guessed that they made travel around the city pretty horrible, for anyone who wasn't a ninja. Something which he appreciated. He figured the good of the city was more important than one man's enjoyment in the rain.

He shrugged off the idea and kept on walking. He was happy to see there were more people walking around the streets. Not many, but there were some. As in actually people out on the street. That's actually an amazing thing. Just a few months ago you'd be hard pressed to even find a single person other than yourself out on the streets. And now there were at least a half dozen people out walking these streets. Oh yes, things were changing for the rain village, life was good!

He ventured out from the village, and entered into the marshes of the Rain country. Rice, cat trails grew in this area of the country. If you weren't a farmer you didn't tend to hang out much around here. However Farmers tended not to be much of a nosey bunch, and it was the perfect place to rendezvous with his caravan. When he saw the group standing alone under a tree, he straightend up his outfite, and fixed his hair. He was a representative of the rain village and he had to look respectable.

He came upon four men standing under the tree. The leader of the party, and kind looking man in his mid fourties raised his hand and greeted Gawain with a wide smile. "Hello their! You must be Gawain ." He spoke with a strong youthful voice. He wore a simple looking blue dress shirt, and a pair of jeans. He snatched up a back pack that was hanging from one of the trees branches and slung it over his shoulder. "It's a pleasure to have a ninja hailing from the rain village escorting us on our journey."

There was a similarly dressed man standing next to him. As well as two lightly armored samuri standing guard around them. On man and one woman.

Gawain Opened his mouth to speak, but as soon as he got within range, the Female samurai flew towards him! She un sheathed her blade and sliced towards Gawain! Gawain could only stumble backwards, to avoid the attack. His butt landed in the mud with a splash. He looked up at his foe angrily. "What's the big Idea?"

The samurai sheathed her blade. She was a brawny woman, with a traditional samurai amrmor adorning her body. She hair was tied up in a high brown pony tail. She had a light scar upon the right side of her chin and cheek. Her skin was well tanned, and her dark eyes looked upon Gawain with disgust. "First they send us a kid." Her voice was light, but harsh. "Then he turns out to be unable to defend himself. How will he ever defend Master Chiro? He couldn't even avoid my attack."

Gawain Gritted his teeth. "What are you talking about, I avoided it by a mile!" He quickly became silent when he felt his shirt rip open, and he felt a sharp pain in the middle of his chest, as well as a bit of blood trickeling down his chest. Dang she was fast. The Female samurai rolled her eyes and began to walk away. "I wouldn't move if I were you." Gawain Broght his fingers up into the confrontation seal.

"What are you..." The samuri began before she noticed Gawain Looking down at her feet. It was then she noticed the paper bomb wrapped Kunai Resting at her feet. "How did you..."

This time the male samurai spoke. "Naki you idiot." His voice with deep, but infenitly friendly. He seemed to speak with a permanent chuckle in his voice. "The moment you unseathed you blade, he dropped that baby down at his feet." He walked over towards "Naki." And patted her on the back. You know all that speed counts for nothing if you don't take the time to notice what your enemies doing." He let loose another strong chuckle, and turned towards Gawain." We'll you've earned my respect welcome to our party, master Ninja."

Gawain pulled himself up to his feet, and cautious walked over to Naki disarming the paper bomb at her feet. "Sorry for the cheap trick."

Naki rolled her eyes. "Whatever, you wouldn't be able to activate that bomb if you were dead."

The final member of the party spoke. He head a monkey beard, and a pair of smiling eyes. As well as a pair of thick trimmed glasses. He wore a tweed jacket and a nice pair of dress slacks. "We'll if we're quite down attacking the man who's suppose to protect us all." She shot his samurai companion a leery look. "Allow me to make the introductions." He gestured an open hand to himself. "I am Sabanto, the leader of this little expedition." He then gestured to the man who'd first spoken to Gawain. "This is our valuable Cargo. Master Chiro. Author of the Lonely Mountain Series, and social spokesman."

Master Chiro brought his hand into his pack and drew out a thick binding of paper. "Actually if I may make a correction, this is the Valuable Cargo. My newest book. The mission is for you to get this little guy to the presses in Kibo village."

Sabanto let out a little chuckle. "Well I know you think you're book is the real treasure. But I assure you the prospect of me losing all your future books is far worse than just losing this one."

Chiro gave him a chuckle. "You publishes always want quantity over quality. I assure you Sabanto, this is the greatest work that I'll ever produce. You'd be a fool to let it die instead of me."

Sabanto returned the chuckle. "indeed my friend. Besides art becomes more valuable when the artist dies." Everyone gave a nervous chuckle. "These two Samurai are Naki and Liu Bei. Our loyal companions."

Liu Bei the older male samurai gave Gawain a bow. He was a bear of a man, six and a half feet tall. his hair was shortly cropped to his skull, and he seemed to be always smiling. "I'll lay down my life to Protect Master Chiro's work." On the other hand Naki just scowled.

Gawain introduced himself, and returned the pleasantries. "I'm glad to join your company, but might I ask. Why ask for my help when you already have two Samurai within your group?"

The group shifted nervously. "Well. Honestly we're going to be facing some opposition in our journey. It'll mostly be thugs from the village. Which Liu Bei, and Naki can handle just fine. However their Is rumor of ninjas on the road. We can handle thugs, but we need someone knowledgeable with the tactics of other ninja's in our group. "

Made sense.

Gawain Nodded. "Then Master Chiro, I will do everything with in my power to provide you with protection."

With that the group set off on their journey. Their destination a small country called the Land of peaks. It was only a small collection of mountain villages, It made The village Hidden in the rain look crowded. As they traveled through the marshes of the Rain country Gawain Drew out a scroll, and ran his hand over the seal. Out from the seal popped a big block of wood. Gawain Withdrew his Kunai and began carving away at the block. He let the curls of wood fall to the ground beneath them.

Liu Bei eyed Gawain Curiously. Gawain smiled and continued chopping at the wood. It was beginning to take on the form of a human head. "I swear it's not Voodoo. I'm a puppet master. This little guy is my newest project. I've only just begun, but I can tell it's going to be my greatest work of art yet."

Liu Bei nodded. "Are you an entertainer, or a ninja?"

Gawain smiled. "Sometimes I'm both."

xxx After a long March xxxx

For the rest of the day they marched on out of the Rain country. Near the border rain became less frequent, and heavy, and the land began to dry up. Raising slightly, preparing to rise up into a mountainous landscape. The trees stoped looking like they belonged in a jungle and started to become more piney. Soon they found themselves walking through a pine tree forest. Gawain had never visited this part of his country, and he hardly knew a place like this existed within it. When dusk began to set they set up camp in a clearing in the low parts of the mountains.

Just after nightfall the others finished setting up their camp. For the first time in Gawain couldn't even remember how long it wasn't raining. Gawain knew for sure that they were at the extreme edges of his country. He stepped our from the surrounding forest and approached the camp. "We should be safe, I trapped a good portion of the surrounding area. Bandits won't be a problem. And we'll have plenty of warning before any ninja's get to us."

Sabanto, fell to his cot. "Thank you master ninja. Having you here will make my sleep much more restful I think." With an excausted sigh he slinked down onto his cot. "Oh baby."

From Gawain's left Naki scrapped a bit of flint into a dry collection of branches, and tinder. The whole thing went up in a blaze, and a wave of heat swept over the camp. Gawain smiled he'd always love camping out in front of a warm fire. He grabbed his gear, and set it down in front of the fire. He took out a few pieces of the puppet he'd been working on and occupied himself with that.

Before his hands and his skilled knife, the hands of his puppet were beginning to take place.

Master Chiro spoke up over the crackling of the fire, he to had positioned himself just outside of it's flames. "So tell me Gawainwhy go down the path of the puppet master. It's my understanding that Shinobi take the stance that tools, can break, and that you can only rely upon your own abilities."

Gawain Dain thought about that for a moment. His words had truth to them. He simply looked down at his puppets hands, and trimmed off the loose splinters. "A couple of years ago a man was having a puppet show in my village. I was too old for that kind of thing, but I still went. When I was there I saw how much all of the children enjoyed the show. How entertained they are. For a brief moment kids and their paretns forgot about the state of their city, and enjoyed a different world. I don't know it's just something I wanted to be a part of."

Chiro noded his head, he understood. "Books are like that too, I think. No matter how horrible the world we live in is, we can always turn towards books to give us some hope. Their a strange a mythical world, where all of it's problems can be solved in a few hundred turns of the page. Where hero's are true, and our villains are clear cut. But tell me. Books aren't just good stories, we authors also instill them with our own virtues and ideals. If books and puppets are similar in one day, I'd think they were similar in this way too."

Dang. Master Chiro had a strange kind of insight about him. "You speak True Master Chiro. I don't just make puppets, I make angelic Puppets. Glorious winged creatures to soar above my city and remind people of out great history that isn't so long passed."

"History?" Naki asked raising an eyebrow into the air.

this time Liu Bei answered. "The Rain village was once ruled over by a ninja named Konan. Legend says she head great angel wings, and flew above the city protecting it. She even gave her life to protect the world some say. Our young master wishes to remind his people of that sacrifice. I believe." Liu Bei looked over to Gawain . "Am I correct?"

Gawain nodded in the affirmative. "We were a great people once, and we will be again. By the sweat of my brow, and the beat of my angel wings, I will make it so." He looked over the fire to his company gauging their reactions. Naki and Liu Bei both held a serious look, not a harsh one, but serioius."

Master Chiro, however smiled broadly. "Then you do understand. Master Gawain you understand the mission we are on!"

Gawain was taken aback. "I thought I did, but now I'm not so sure." He laughed. returning the hands to the seal, and withdrawing a new block of wood. "Do you care to refresh my knowledge?"

"I'd be glad to." He announced. He paused for a moment, and watched as Gawain Once more began carving into his block of wood. He was currently forming what would become the sectioned ribs of his puppet. "The Lonley mountain series isn't just a work of fiction. To any outsider it may seem like a romp of an adventure. However to those living in the land of peaks they know it to be an allegory for the life we live within it's borders. You see our land is ruled over by a harsh Chancellor, who keeps our villages representatives from opposing him with threats of violence."

Naki's clutched her fists so fiercely her knuckles popped. "He uses the Rhonin of our land to keep his power. Rouge Samurai, who've abandoned their path."

Liu Bei chuckled sadly. "Actually Naki we're the Rhonin. We were the ones who refused to serve the lord of the land."

Gawain's heart skipped a beat. "This wasn't the mission I signed up for. It's a simple escort mission. You, you can't trust me with something like this. You have to turn back, get a chuunin, or jounin, or a whole squad. I'm just a genin, not even a very good one. You'll only die under my protection. He had flash backs to his last mission protecting someone. The image of the representative in that bandits hands. His words were the only things that'd save the man's life.

"Calm yourself Master Gawain." Master Chiro assured. "You're not causing a revolution, nor will you be fighting in one. The land of peaks isn't some horrible dictatorship, though it will be if we don't do something. Your mission is and always has been to get me to my publishing house, that's where your obligation ends. No matter how much they live in fear no village representavie will allow The Chancellor to simply have his army attack us. It's simply the streets thugs indirectly connected to him that we fear."

Gawain's panic was lightened but not eradicated all together. "What's so special about your book? Why does it need protecting."

Sabanto shot up from his cot. "The Lonley Mountain: Arcadia is no meer book Master Ninja. It is the Magnus Opium of Master Chiro. It describes the death of democracy and tradition in such a way that it brings tears to even the most cold hearted of beasts. I know." He assured. "I had my wife read it and even she cried. When the towns in our countries read this work of art they'll be so empowered by it's characters that they'll demand reform! The Chancellors career will be destroyed, and our country can be free of fear once more."

"Wow." Gawain whispered, looking at his half carved rib cage. "That is quite a mission you place upon my shoulders."

Naki stood and headed towards her cot. "That's the problem with protecting V.I.P's they always seem to have something very important to do."

xxxxxx In the middle of the Night xxxxxxxx

Gawain's hands were shaking as he cut into his puppets woody flesh. He had the basic body of the angel down now. Minus the wings. The large body of the puppet had surprisingly taken less time than that of Rahpel. Despite it being much bigger. Gawain guessed it was because he wasn't trying to make this one look too terribly human. Abbadon had always been portrayed as a bit more demonic than the other angels. Often called demonic even. However Gawain Wasn't in the business of demons, the was a purely angelic man. That's why he choose to go with abbadon's traditional role as The Jailor, rather than his more popular role as the destroyer. The puppets design was made to capture and control dangerous targets. His whole scheme was based off of his reinforced body.

In The dead of night while the other's slept soundly, Gawain drilled holes into his puppets body. Sliding metal rods throughout the wooden ribs to reinforce them. It wouldn't make much of a prison if the opponent could just break on out now would it? He took great pains in collecting the hardest wood from the jungle that he could for this particular puppet.

He worked on it all throughout the night. Forgoing food, and sleep for this project. He popped a ration pill and kept on chugging. His conversation with Master Chiro had scared him. He wasn't sure that he as a ninja was up to the task. But he knew if he could just get this puppet finished that it'd be able to protect them.

By the time dawn rose over the moist needles of the pine tree Gawainhad the body and all the limbs complete. He just didn't have the mechanisms for them installed. Or a few other features that would contribute to a working puppet. But he was pretty darn close.

xxxxxxxx In the mountain pass xxxxxxxxxx

It was just after lunch when the company finally crossed into the Land hidden in the peaks. Immediately at the border there was a heavily defended check point. The check pointed defended the entrance of a mountain pass. In the center of this pass stood the check point. A small concrete wall guarded by six samurai wielding nasty looking spears. Atop the wall stood four archers, each with an arrow already notched. "Tight security for a little country." Gawain whispered.

"They were expecting us." Naki announced cooly.

"Submit to inspection!" A guard announced gruffly, approaching the group as they closed in on the road block. His five friends advanced as well.

Sabanto ever the diplomat answered with a cool smile. "Of course! We've got our papers right here." He handed them a fat stack of passports, and papers.

The guards went about invading the groups personal things. One opened up Master Chiro's bag and pulled out the manuscript for his newest book. "What's this Master Chiro?"

Master Chiro's slightly wrinkled face stayed calm. "Well I am a writer aren't' I?"

"More seditious material, that'll be banned by the end of the month?"

"Well I wouldn't be a very good author if someone didn't consider my material Seditious."

"I should just do you a favor and get rid of it now. Save us all the trouble of having to break the presses again."

"Well if it's all the same to you, that's my favorite part of the whole writing thing. I'd hate to have gone through all of this trouble, and not get to see it happen." The guard just snorted, and threw the papers to the ground. Chiro quickly scurried to pick them all up.

One of the guards took them while the other guards began to inspect the adults. "What of these two?" A guard asked referring to Naki and Liu Bei.

"We are both Samurai of this land." She produced a coin turned into a necklace from her armor. "This coin allows my master and I to enter and leave this land with our weapons."

The Guard snorted. "I know what I does." He left their weapons alone but didn't stop from ripping open their bags and checking what was inside. "Someone check the boy as well."

A bolt of metaphorical lighting flew through the group. They had had vivid memories of all the strange weapons Gawain had stuffed inside of his pack. He didn't have permits for any of that in this land. They were going to arrest them all for sure now! What were they doing searching a minor anyway. The group waited with baited breath as one of the guards approached to inspect Gawain .

"Sir there is no need to inspect my Grandson." Master Chiro announced, trying to sound Calm.

"We check everyone those are the rules."

The whole time Gawain simply stood starring at the blue sky. It'd been a few months since he'd seen the sun directly. He'd almost forgotten how bright it was. One of the guards emptied out Gawain's bag and the group let out a long sigh of relief. No weapons came spilling out from pack. Only food, water, camping supplies, and a rolled up scroll. "He's clear." The guard announced, returning to his post.

"Well Chiro looks like your publisher took care of everything. You're free to pass. Just don't get too comfortable in town. I hear the senate is working on some new censorship law. This may very well be the last Book you ever write!" With that the guards opened up their checkpoint and allowed the group to enter the country.

"Well that was fun." Gawain announced brushing off his bag. He was glad that he took the time to seal all of his weapons within his scrolls last night.

Once the group was far enough from the check point they erupted into a flurry of complaints. They were outraged by their treatment by the guards, and with good reason. Those searches were beyond necessary for a authors entourage'.

"Master." Gripping her blade. "Those men are no better than common thugs. They disgrace our order with their actions."

"Indeed my dear." Liu Bei agreed. "We will rebuild our order when this is all said and done with. Honor will be restored."

For some ungodly reason Gawain decided to speak up. "Well if you ask me, your honor has never been lost. You two are doing what's right for you country. That's the most honorable thing you can do."

Naki snorted for what must have been the 11th time in the time Gawain knew her. "A ninja wouldn't understand. Leaving our order, destroyed our honor. Having those thugs in our order, destroyed our honor. Opposing the ruler of our land, destroyed our honor. We will never be able to regain it, but perhaps we will be able to leave our order untainted upon our deaths."

"That's a harsh honor system. If you doing this goes against your order, then why join us?" Gawain asked.

"Sometimes what's right, isn't always what's honorable."

The group moved on through the mountain pass. Rocky walls lined their path on both sides. After a few hours on foot they came over a hill, and over that hill was Kibo village in the distance. "Not far now." Sabanto announced happily. "It's good to be home."

Gawainpicked up his pace a little, and approached Liu Bei from behind. "Psst Bei. Don't look but there are two men up on the cliff to our right. They're about to attack. Take the group and run." He placed a smoke bomb into the Samurai's hand. "Good luck."

No sooner had they finished their conversation, before a man with painfully pink hair jumped in their path. "Well well." The man announced in a purring cat voice. "I didn't expect you to get past the check point. And to think the chancellor wanted to kill you legally. Ho hum. It looks like it'll be my way then." From his waist he drew two Katana's from their sheaths. He raised on high above his head, then drew it down across the ground creating a line in the sand in front of him. He took a jump backwards and pointed towards the line. "That's the point of Safety, you have six seconds."

Up above them came a thunderous rumbling sounded off from the mountain walls. They looked above and saw an avalanche of rocks streaming down the mountain walls. "Run!" Gawain Screamed forming the hand seals for substitution Jutsu.

The rest of the group managed to make it pass the line in time. Avoiding the wave of stone as it came crashing down the pass. However From what everyone could tell Gawain had gotten crushed by the rocks.

As the group ran for safety the Pink haired Ninja in front of them charged, both his swords aimed to kill. Liu Bei, and Naki charged ahead of the group meeting the warrior face to face. Their four blades crashed. Despite having two opponents the man seemed more than capable of fending off the two samurai. The pink haired ninja purred. "Well you two were able to counter by attack, You Samurai are pretty good after all. However." He took away his hands from his swords, but blades remained in the air as if held by a phantom wield. "I've always found that you lot are lacking in the Finesse department." From his back he drew Two More Katanas. "Wind Style: Dance of Shiva!"

Liu Bei, crushed the smoke bomb in his hand and let the smoke explode from his hand blinding this ninja. When the smoke cleared the ninja found his enemies running at a swift pace towards the village. "Dammit." He spat clearing his eyes. He craned his neck over to his brother who was standing upon the avalanche zone. His brother was the other half of the "Howling Mountain Brothers." A fairly dangerous dou of rouge ninja. They'd usually been caught up in attacking travelers in the road, but somehow they'd found themselves as the trusted assassins of this Countries Chancellor, and they weren't going to mess this gig up! "You make sure that twerp is dead, I'll go after them. We meet up at the publishing house!" He sheathed three of his blades and sprinted after his targets.

The younger brother, a quiet man named Ox (For Obvious Reasons(He was big, that's the obvious reason)) walked amongst the ruble scanning for Gawain's broken body. It didn't take him long, before he spotted a shot of bright blonde hair popping out from the rocks. "Found ya." He announced stepping over to his victim. Ox pulled out a kunai from his pouch. He grabbed ahold of Gawain's head with his free hand and pulled it back, his plan was to slit Gawain's throat. Strangely though when he pulled back on the head the entire thing popped off! "Huh?" He turned the head over in his hand, and saw that it was actually the head of a human sized puppet. What sort of trick was this? He noticed the mouth of the puppet flop open. Then a blinding flash of light erupted from the puppets mouth. Seraing Ox's Corneas "I'm blind!" He shouted covering his eyes with his hands.

Out from the shadow's came Gawain ! With a katana in hand he flew at Ox. The blinded man made for easy prey. With a quick slice Gawain Severed the man's Achilles' tendon's leaving him alive yet unable to stand, or walk. As he began to fall to the ground, Gawain used the rest of his momentum to ram into his opponent, sending him flying away from Gawain's puppet. "It's called Substitution Jutsu. An oldie but a goodie" He pulled his puppet out from the rubble, and slung it over his shoulder. Why'd he have to make such a heavy puppet!!!!

xxxxxxxx

-Lazy Writing Time Skip-

Gawainclutched the manuscript against his chest as he sprinted through the Museum. Behind him he could hear the heavy foot steps of Naki behind him. He wished he could just fly out of here, but The ninja had smashed his Raphael to bits, he'd need some repairing before he'd be useable again. "Do you really think Liu Bei will be okay?" Gawain shouted over his shoulder.

"Master will be okay. Those thugs don't stand a chance against him. The fact that they're even called Samurai should tell you how far our order has fallen." The two of them surged down the marble halls of the museum. Behind them they could hear the fast approaching steps of the enemy ninja. "This guy however is going to be a pain!" They felt a wave of pressure surge down the hall shattering glass as it went. "Duck!"

Gawain dove to the floor, sliding underneath the blade of air surging overhead. He grounded his flesh upon the broken glass. As he stood to his feet he noticed the marble walls of the building now had deep gashes where the jutsu had struck. That was a powerful move. "Naki we don't stand a chance against this guy." He pulled out a paper bomb wrapped kunai from his scroll.

"I could have told you that earlier." Naki announced pushing Gawain Forward. She grabbed Gawain's hand. The one that had the kunai in it. She ran with him down the length of hall until they finally came to a window. "Just outside this window on the other side of the street is the publishing house! Get there as fast as you can." She let go of Gawain's hand and took a step forward.

"What are you doing?" Gawain Asked, worriedly.

"Buy you some time." Naki announced kicking Gawain powerfully in the chest and sending him flying through the window. It was tough love. She kept her eyes forward as she glared down the approaching pink hair ninja.

"Hey I didn't expect to see you guys killing each other. Could have saved me the job." He gave a slight laugh, and began unsheathing his four swords. "But I don't see a book on you missy."

Naki gripped her sword and motioned her head over to ruined display. "That case once held the serenity vase. It was considered to be the best work of pottery to ever come out of this town." The case was now filled with broken glass, and shattered clay. "You've already destroyed one priceless work of art, Master Chiro's book won't suffer the same fate."

With his four swords full unsheathed the pink haired ninja gave her a cocky grin. "You must think yourself an artist to say something like that. Tell me your name so that I may have the poets speak it forever."

Naki gripped her sword tightly with both hands. Along the hilt she kept the paper bomb kunai she'd stolen from Gawain pressed tightly. She didn't want her foe to see it. "I'm Naki of The Land Hidden Amongst the Peaks! I am the fastest Samurai in our land, and my art is my sword! Attack me if you dare!"

"You're a little nutty aren't you?" The pink haired ninja crouched down ready to launch forward. "Very well! Wind Style: Dance of Shiva!" He burst forwards his four blades ready to slice through Naki's light armor. For a split second she saw her jump backwards, before launching into her own attack. Probably to build up some momentum. However she wasn't expecting him to be so fast! Obviously because by the time the two combatants me they were in her original spot.

Naki stumbled forward suddenly feeling incredibly light. She heard her sword clammer to the ground. "My Arms." She whispered placing her chin upon her opponents chest. "How fast does someone bleed out when they loose their arms."

The ninja let lose a smile as she felt her warm breath on his chest. "Within a minute."

"Sounds good." With the speed she was known for Naki swept the ninja's feet out from under him, and fell upon him. She did all she could to be as heavy as possible. But the lack of arms wasn't helping.

"What you think slowing me down is going to help?" The Ninja laughed. "I'll kill your friend when I get you off, and if he's made it to the presses I'll burn it down. And if they've already printed books, I'll shred them, and if people have already read them I'll cut them in two!"

"I'm not buying time." Naki murmured weakly into the man's chest. With a great effort she tossed her head to the side, motioning to a Kunai with a burning paper bomb on it. "Sorry it was so sloppy, but I didn't actually see Gawaindo it the first time. Something tells me this isn't how it would have done in our fight. He'd probably still have arms."

"You bitch! Get off of me!" She shouted desperately.

"I know it's a terribly dishonorable move. But sometimes what's right isn't' always what's honorable."

xxxxx Around the same time xxxxxx

Wheezing, huffing, and moaning Gawain managed to throw himself into the publishing House, manuscript in hand. "I got it." He breathed stumbling to the floor.

"He's got it!" Master Chiro, shouted running over to the boy.

"You're alive!" Gawain shouted gleefully!

"We all are" Liu Bei answered with a smile stepping forth. "Thanks to your keen eyes, we survived that avalanche. Wait where's Naki?"

Oh Shit Naki! "Oh she's...." Gawain Began before a powerful explosion rocked the building. Gawain felt around for his paper bomb kunai. His heart skipped a beat when he realized what happened. "Master Chiro." He announced grimly. "I think you may want to add someone to your acknowledgments before you send that to the presses."

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After the destroyers of his city has left him, Gawain ran towards the Swamps of The Land of Rain. His run was a limping and ackward run. He'd broken a rib in defense of his city, though he'd been planning on giving a lot more in it's defense. He wasn't sure if he was lucky that they'd left him alive, or if he was cursed. He would forever more have the faliure of millions on his shoulders. Well it was The Rain Village so let's get serious here. It was more like the death of thousands. THOUSANDS. How was anyone suppose to have a weight like that on them? Dammit. Maybe if he'd trained more. Or focused on something other than puppets. Ehh probably not, that guy went god mode on his village the hell was he suppose to do? Besides that there were three other terrible fellows along with him, and he didn't even know what they could do. Probably equally horrid and fantastic things, but that didn't really matter. Listen! The point was Who could blame Gawain? Who could blame Gawain for losing his village to these people? Who could blame Gawain for losing to a Susano'o? Certainly not Gawain. He'd done all he could, and that was all he was going to ask from himself.

Her just worried that his people wouldn't share the same kind of forgiveness that Gawain had always honed to a razor sharp point over the years. Slowly the surrounding area faded out from crumpled buildings and ash, to partially crumbled buildings to ash. To a few small buildings to wet grasslands, to finally the marshy outlands of the city. It's been an extremely painful journey. Both physically and mentally. Physically because he had an f-ing broken rib floating around his already crushed body. Secondly because he'd been walking through the ash lands of all that he'd ever known. His whole, city dead. His whole life he'd spent in it vanished in a few short hours. The Buildings burned, the soil was soaked with blood, and many lives had ended. Yet the rain kept on pouring. Every thing hand come to a compete and utter end it would seem, and yet the one constant in Gawain's life was still there. The buildings, and the people, the whole village was gone, And Yet the rain of the land kept on pouring. There village was gone, but the land was still there.

On shaky legs he trudged through the mash. The smelly what water came up to his shin's but it didn't really matter. He'd already been thurougly soaked by the rain. A little swamp water wasn't going to do anything to him. He worked his way over the the sewage train which lead out into the swamp. That's where his people would be. If they even made it out. Oh god no! That wasn't even a thought that he could entertain. They had to be alive. He'd have nothing left in the world if they wern't. What if...o no wait. Gawain steped over a hill and on the other side he could see the huddle masses of his people wandering around the dry sessions of the marshes. Tending to the wounded. People were still being pulled out from the collapsed sewer entrance. Gawain couldn't help but wince at the sight. There was doubtlessly still people trapped in that collapsed Sewer. Gawain Stood upon his hill, and took in a deep breath. His people needed hope and direction! And he had just the speech for that! Then he took a look over to the people still pulling their fellows out form the collpased sewer. Dammit, right now his people didn't need a speech, they needed someone to take action and help.

Gawain Jogged down from his high hill and ran over to the collapsed sewer opening. "What's the situation?" He announced stepping down next to a muscular tanned man who was helping move some rocks away from the pipe. How that man got tanned Gawainwould never know. Well he guessed that Ultra Violet Rays could pierce through the clouds. So it made a little sense.

"The tunnels were holding strong." He announced in a grizzled tone. "But that last explosion caused some of the foundation to shift, and the tunnel fell down on its self. I think there were still about twenty people on the other side."

Gawain nodded. "Gotcha." Her flicked his hands over to one of the large slabs of rock blocking the entrance. Ten light strains of ivory blue Chakra strings connected to the slab. With a swift jump Gawain pronounced from his spot over to the hill that now sat upon the collapsed tunnel. He beckoned several of the people helping to excavate the the site to follow him up. He told them to grab onto the strings and pull. With the force coming from two different directions it was sure to budge! "Pull." He announced giving his strings a great heave. "Pull!" He could feel his body pull him back a bit as the rock moved. "Pull!" By the comedy rule of three the large stone tugged loose, and slammed to the marshy mud. From the bunker that was the damaged sewers the elated screams of grateful citizens came pouring out form the damaged concrete structure. From atop his hill Gawain could see with tear filed eyes his people pouring out through the sewer, a little ruffled, and scared but still alright. He looked out to all of his people there were a lot of them still. Still alive. Sure they'd lost many,but not even half of them. Sure they'd lost their entire village, but the people still live. The Rain village was more than just a few dozen empty sky scrapers. No! It was the people too. These people who were sprawled out before him amongst the marsh and swamps of his land, his country his home. He looked out at them with his tear filled eyes, and lo they too looked at him.


Ye verily Gawain looked down upon his people. So covered where they in ash and the mud of the world that they harldy looked like the hearty noble creatures he knew them to be. He heart rang out his sorry as he saw his people brought down so low. Well they'd never stood all that high to begin with, but that wasn't the point. His people desevered a place to sleep at night. Somewhere to rest there heads, and that'd been robbed of them. Their home, their family, their monkey, their lives, and their diginity. It'll all been stole, destroyed kill. Was this world so cruel that the good people of the village hidden in the couldn't even be allowed to live like human beings anymore?


No for Gawainlooked upon his people, with his pathetic crying eyes. With those sad and defeated eyes he looked down at his people. Their bodies too were sad and defated. Their eyes just as dead if not more so. How thoroughly these men had drain hope form the world, and from The Village hidden in the rain. Though not completely. As Gawaingazed down on his sad people, and his sad people gazed up at their sad leader he couldn't help but see a noble people who were yet to be defeated.


"I failed you." He announced over his hill. "I swore I'd give my life to protect this village and everything in it, and I failed. You loved ones, and mine are dead because I was week. Because our ninjas were weak, and without loyalty. I'm sorry. You put faith in your city and your people, and what did it get you? Nothing but death and destruction. Misery and despair. For this I am truly sorry. I did all that I could to protect this land, and those inside of it, but I wasn't good enough." He paused and whipped away the tears that were now falling freely from his face. "However." He announced trying to sound at least in the bit hopeful. "We're not the only village in this land, and we're not the only one's in danger. I plan to report to the Lord of the Rain Country. I'll see him for advice on what to do." He gave a sad chuckle. "I plan on bringing this village back. Maybe not as great at it once was, maybe not even as great as it was only a few nights ago. But I plan on bringing it back. We've never been a country of people who gave up, not now not ever. I was born in this land, and I shall die in it. Not matter what anyone says. If you want to stick with me, stick with the village that has failed you, you are free to do so. If youwish to leave, and travel elsewhere in the country or even outside you are free too as well. I won't stop you." He gave a grunt. "I don't even think I could stop you." He shook his head trying to clear away his doubt "But I warn you, we were no the only village destroyed, and we may not be the last. The rest of the world might not be safe. Even The land of lightning is coming under siege as we speak. If you run to our so called protectors you my just find yourselves falling into the same situation that has already happened here. Thought I desperately hope not."


He looked out at his people. Each and everyone one of them held a different look towards him. A different level of questioning. Who was this boy? Why was he talking. How old was he. what where they to do now? Should they go with him. Should they just leave. Was this boy really the only ninja in the city? He was just a boy. How was he suppose to defend anyone. still he was a ninja should they go with him anyway? What were they to do? What would happen to the village? To them? To their family and friends? What what what what what. These and a thousand more questions fluttered about the cramped atmosphere of the refugee camp that had become the swamp.


Gawain Rose his hand, and forsome reason the talking seemed to stop. "I can't promise you safety, or much of anything really. But I am going to the lord of this lands' castle. Surly he'd be able to give aid, if any aid was being given at all." He tugged his hand, and Raphael flew to GawainWrapping his arms around the boys shoulders, and spreading his wings out. It was a dirty trick Gawain Knew, but he needed people to belive in him, and god dammit angles got that done. He flapped the wings momentarily before unleashing a flash of light from the puppets, mouth and letting him disappear in a puff of smoke while the audience was still dazzled. He hadn't spent an entire year traveling around with a traveling puppet show and not have learned a little something about showman ship. No Sir Gawain! Gawain knew what it took to get a crowd ready for a show. What would make them want more, and what would drive them over the edge. Gawain Being a ninja, made them ready for the show. These people lived in a world where ninja were the top of the top it was just that easy. Him saving those people form the sewers made them ready for more. And he'll admit that he had a lot of help from the others, but the ninja doing something is what sealed the deal. And finally an angel appearing before, them and blinding them was good enough to drive them crazy with Love for Gawain . He'd have people following him To the Castle for sure now! "I'm leaving now. I want to get a few miles between us and the city before we make camp for the night." He slung his weapon filled pack over his shoulder. "We leave in five minutes."


To call the midnight trek through the rain country's swamps and marshes would be doing Dante's trek through hell injustice. It was quite a horrid flaming wonderland of Dante's, but it was pretty bad. You know? the last circle of hell isn't a flaming lake at all. It's a frozen over lake with the devil himself him self trapped in the middle of it. Yeah that sounded about right. Gawain Dain though as he trudged through the slightly un frozen marsh waters of the swamp. Each step was like sticking your foot into a bucket of ice water. Luckily for most of the village they had a good amount of rain boots on, making the journey less horrible. However Gawain Himself had a stylish pair of canvas sneakers on, so he was absolutely miserable trudging through the thick and heavy mud of his homeland. You'd stick your foot into the mud, and it'd try to suck you on down to the depths.


About five minutes out from the ruined city Gawain and his people set down what little supplies they had and set up a make shift camp. They managed to find a strip of land high enough that they wouldn't be flooded out by the rising swamp water. Between the few hundred survivors who were following him to the Rain Diyanmo's estate, they'd managed to scrape up enough of a shelter for the elderly, and children to sleep under dryly, while the rest of the survivors made due with sleeping under what tree coverage they could fine. The mood around the shelter was utterly dismal, and joyless. As if the complete loss a village wasn't enough, there was also the rain to deal with. Joy it seemed, would not come back to these people for quite some time.


Under a wide shaded tree Gawain hand managed to start himself up a fire. It was amazing how man's first achievement was still able to bring joy to his heart even after all these years. It wasn't just the fact that it provided him something warm to place his freezing fingers and toes in, nor was it the fact that it helped him dry of his pruny toes and fingers. It was just the simple joy of seeing the sparks fly into the air that truly gave him a bit of solace. He place his head back aginst the tree and shut his eyes, hoping that some how sleep could find him. Though he feared it was more likely for nightmares to find their way into his mind instead.


"Mind if I sit here?" A gruff voice asked, and Gawain could feel the earth shake underneath him as whoever it was sat down without the permission he'd just asked for.


Or maybe people would just want to talk to him all night, and he wouldn't get any sleep at all. Reluctantly he opened his eyes and found the man who'd helped him clear out the wreckage of the sewer sitting down around his came fire. "Oh hey." He announced solemnly. "Glad you decided to come with me." He sighed. He didn't really know what else to say to the man. Gawainfigured if he wanted to say something he'd do it himself. Gawain honestly didn't have much joy left in him to spread.


The Man cleared his throat. "It's not all that bad you know." He looked out over the fire and his eyes seemed to go on for miles.


GawainShrugged. "I'd have to disagree. Our home is destroyed, in fact I don't think it could get any worse. Or at least if it did it'd have to give it a pretty good go."


The man nodded, letting Gawain Go on. "We could all be dead couldn't we? That'd be much worse. Then there wouldn't even be a spirit of The Rain Village left. There would only be a pile of dust where it once was, and all else would be but dust and ashe floating on the rain soaked breeze." He gave Gawain a wink. "My name's Hans." He announced proudly and it boomed over the surface of the swamp. "I'm a mason and a smith of The Rain village." Once more the same booming voice blasted over the wet lands, and people were starting to stare. "I helped build that city. I made the tools folks used to build their homes, and then I even used to tools to build some more homes. So I think I know what that village was made up of more than anyone else. And let me tell you this..." He was speaking to Gawain, but mostly he was speaking to the people listening in on them. "It wasn't just concrete and Iron that made that city. It was the people. And you saved that much of it."


Gawain gave a weak smile. It was a nice thing to say, but he wasn't sure how true it was. "Thanks."


"Besides." The man whispered leaning in. "You're the last ninja this place has. They can't see you down. So if you really care about your people cheer up." He gave a broad smile, whetere it was fake or not, Gawain couldn't quite tell. "The people around here see you sad then that's bad."


"Because I'm the symbol of hope." Gawainfinished the man's thoughts. It made since, as the last ninja he had to be strong, but it was so hard. How could he stay up beat when his failure weighted on him so?


"Not at all." Hans waved the notion away like it was completely ridiculous. "You're our symbol of failure." Well Gawaincertainly hadn't been expecting that! "You're just a child and you sought to give your life to save use. Don't you think putting something like that on the shoulders of a child makes us faliurures as well?" Gawain opened his mouth to speak, but Hans shook his head. "Don't answer that." He sighed. "If people see you looking down, and in the gutter what do you think they'll think. Aww man. We're the ones who did that to him. We caused a boy to think that the world was weighing on his shoulders.



Gawainnodded his head. "I think I understand."


"Good!" Hans announced giving him a hearty slap on the back. "Now get some sleep. You meet with the lord of the rain country tomorrow. Can't have you doing that on a half tank of fuel.


Gawain Nodded once more and watched as Hans got up and headed back into camp. "Hey!" He announced once Hans was a little further away. "Thanks."


Hans just raised his fist over his head. "Don't mention it."


Gawain couldn't help but smile as she lowered his eyelids once more. What a cool guy

Surprisingly sleep had found Gawainrather easily on this night. No doubt due to him being beyond tired by the point he finally rested his head upon the tree. He'd had a pretty tough night, and sleep over took him like a tidal wave. All he could remember from his dreams was the vast blackness, of his closed eyes lids.


In the following morning Gawain found himself awakened by the soft dripping of the rain off of a leaf. It landed on his nose and splashed on his face. Several time this gentle alarm clock went off, and at last Gawain's eyes opened up to be hold the refugee camp before him. He groaned as he move his hand to wipe away from the moisture from his face. His crushed ribs screamed with each moment he maid. He groaned and lean his head once more against the tree. The piercing cold of the night time rain had given way to a steamy drizzle of jungle rain. Gawain much preferred this. He'd take sticky and steamy over, cold and biting any day of the week.


Gawain Propped himself up on the tree, and let out a weak groan. Ouch. He limped his way down the hill to where his people were packing up what little bit of camp they had. The mothers were all trying to contain the whining children, as the rest of the group packed up what little tarps, and sleeping bag they had. A few of the men, and women where coming out of the deeper parts of the swamps with arm fulls of nuts and berries to feed to the children. Gawain 's stomach groaned in jealousy. While his broken rib just groaned.


"Hey are you alright?" A man with shaggy brown hair, and piercing green eyes placed his hand on Gawain's Shoulder. "Looks like a broken rib." He announced. He placed a lot of preasure down on Gawain's shoulder forcing him to sit down in the soggy grass. "Let me take a look at that I'm a doctor." Well looks like Gawain didn't have much of a choice.


Gawain bit back tears as he felt the man poke and prod around his broken bone. He tried to distract himself with something, but every time he even came close to the rib it screamed out in pain, and he desperately wanted to do the same. Biting his lip he looked over the man who was attending him. "Hurk." He grunted. "You look really familiar."


"I'm Gwyn's father." He whispered, as his hands suddenly began to glow green.


Gawain let out a sigh as the pain started to fade away from him. It felt like it was being taken straight out of his body. "That's great news. Gwyn's in the land of Lightning right now getting help."


"Yeah." The man announced withdrawing his hands from Gawain's ribs, and leaving them completely healed. "Her uh, her mom didn't make it though." He finished that last sentence with a sharp inhaleation of air.


"No." Gawain Breath, feeling the cold terror of loss weighing down on his shoulders.


"Yeah." The father whispered. "She was evacuating the hospital with me. Then that thing attacked. I was right across the wall form her, then suddenly a golden arm came through the entire section of the hospital, and she was gone." He placed his head down upon Gawain's shoulder, and Gawain himself could feel the immense weight of sorrow weighing the man down. "Who attacks a hospital?" The Man gulped and shuttered. Letting out an inhumanly sorrowful whale.


"No man." Gawain announced putting his hand over his team mate's father's shoulder. "Only someone who knows that they aren't strong enough to do good in the world would turn towards destruction. Be strong my friend, soon Gwyn will return with help, and you'll have your family again." He said it as strongly as he could, but he knew that he would never truly have his family returned to him. He could feel the comforting morning breeze flying over the swamp. It caressed him along the face, and the could feel himself smile just from it's cool embrace. "Are you able to go on?"


Gwyn's father smiled, and whipped away his tears. "My wife would haunt me for all time If I let her death break me down." He let out a small chuckle. "And I couldn't only imagine what Gwyn would say about me. No." He announced removing his arm away from Gawain's shoulder. "I'll be able to continue this trek. Though my heart tell me I must mourn my wife. My wife tells me that I must continue to look over her people."


Gawainnodded understanding. "Thank you." He breathed, feeling humbled by the strong characters he found himself surrounded by. "And thank you." He motioned to his rib. "That was killing me."


"Litteraly." Gwyn's father announced.


Gawain Blanched, not quite sure he wanted to know what he meant by that.


Compared to the trek through the marshes last night, todays trek was a tropical wonderland. The swamp water was nice and warm. Every time Gawain found himself waist deep in water he let out a pleasant sigh as he found him self over washed by warm water. It almost felt like he was peeing his pants. The cool breeze of the swamp was soothing, but not too harsh. The dim grey light of the Rain Country's sun glowed down upon the train of refugee's. Much more soothing than the frigid and inky black night of yesterday. Not to mention that all his ribs were now in tact, which made things, so so much easier. Like Immensly easier. He could now breath without feeling like he was going to die. An I'm porting trait when one is trying to go on a hike.

Before the sun managed to reach half way up the sky the train of refugees had managed to make their way to the castle of the Rain Dyianomo. It was a high walled fortification in the middle of a island surrouned by a large and imposing lake. To any conventional army it would have been a imposing fortification.


Outside the mote was a small barracks, and what looked like a dock. The dock was protected by several guards, who looked like Samurai. "What's all this then?" Announced the head Samurai placing his hand on the hilt of his weapon.


"We're refugee's from The Village hidden in the rain. We must speak with our lord and discuss the situation with him."


The captain looked horrified. "Y-Yes of course." He placed his finger on an echo box that stood under the wooden structure they were using to keep dry. "Activate the bridge." With a loud 'vroom' Gawaincould see a bridge slowly extending out from the other side of the island. Then from this side of the mote an steel bridge also extended. The two steel platforms met in the middle of the massive lake, and formed a complete bridge. "Watch your step it's slippery."


Gawain and his parade of now homeless villagers crossed over the bridge. Their heels clattering loudly over the steel surface. When they reached the other side of the bridge, Gawain was greeted by another samurai, only this one was wearing a pink Kimono. His hair was swept back into a spikey pony tail, and he was missing a large part of his lower lip. "Master Ninja Our lord is awaiting your arrival in his conference room. Your villagers are free to rest on the castle grounds, we'll have food and a change of clothes ready for them by the end of the hours, now please follow me."

The Samurai captain led Gawain through the grounds of the castle. A wonderfully tended garden small down all resided within the confines of the compound. They entered the castle, and Gawain could feel his heart pounding. He was going to meet the lord of his country! This was a honor he'd never expected to experience in all his life. Well less of a honor and more of a disgrace. He'd had just lost the Lords village in battle after all. The Castle had strong wooden floors well waxed and furnished. Every drop of rain that dripped off Gawain's clothing quickly beaded up upon the floor and refused to be absorbed. It was an odd mixture of Palace and military compound, but it seemed that the fusion between the two was flawless. Port holes for archers were well decorated with a trim, and some piece of artwork was not far.

Eventually an awe struck Gawainwas lead to a strong wooden door. Which was clearly marked as 'Conference room.' "Remember to show proper respect. Master Ninja." The master Ninja warned. "You already bare bad news, best no to bare bad manners as well." He nodded his head towards Gawain, looking him in the eyes to make sure he understood. "I shall announce you." He slid open the door, and stepped inside. "My Lord I present to you Gawain of the Village Hidden in the Rain."

Humbly Gawainstepped inside the rather unimpressive conference room. There was no decoration around this room. Only a large oval table, plush chairs, a projector, and a screen at the far back. Sitting on the other side of the room was the Lord of the Rain country. An Older man, but not old per say. Young looking, but with definite grey hair. He had a short grey Gotee, and his hair was covered up by his hat. A symbol of his office. He only had a few wrinkles around his eyes. "My lord." Gawain announced getting on his hands and knees and pressing his head onto the floorboards. He stayed in this position until his Lord gave him permission to do otherwise.

"Rise." The Lord announce in an even voice. "What news do you bring me young ninja?"

Out from his arms Razor Sharp bones began to protrude from Gawain's arms. They were sharper than even steel. He stood to his full height. Two Samurai charged in to attack him, but a flurry of bones exploded from his back killing them both instantly. "Your attack on your own village failed. Your people still live. Though I belive that will be with out you. You are a plague upon this land, and i'm the doctor."
xxxxxx

Gwain felt The Weigh of Princess Gwyn on his shoulders. He thought back to those times. Back when they still had a country to call their own and fight for. Back to how he's slaughtered an entire castle's worth of samurai to avenge a lost town.

He remembered what it was like to be a patriot. To belive in a country and it's ideals so much that he was willing to fight for it, kill for it, die for it. He remembered have a place to call home. a captial to look at and admire every day. Having a roof over his head, and a steady flow of money.



But as he felt Gwyn snuggled up aginst his back. Well, he didn't miss home all that much.



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It was late at night and Gwyn still couldn't sleep. She'd had long hard day of ninja - ing and she still couldn't convince her eyes to close shut, and her mind to drift away. Instead she stayed up looking at the ceiling. You see out side a wonderfully light storm was blowing on through Ame. Gwyn honestly wasn't the type of person to be kept up by a little rain, she'd lived in a country of constant Rain for almost two decades. A little Ame storm wasn't enough to keep her from sleeping, well not in the traditional sense. It was more the fact that she hadn't gotten to see a proper storm in ages! Each time she tried to go to sleep she just kept on thinking about all the good, and bad times he'd had back home. With her friends and family. She sorely missed that soggy patch of earth she called home.
 
At last she figured that she'd go ahead and stop trying to fight her nature. She got her butt out of that be, and got dressed. She loaded on three layers of clothing, Shirt, sweater, and jacket. She grabbed ahold of her umbrella, and set forth. The front door of her apartment squeaked open, and immediately the cool air of a stormy night greeted, her like an old friend. She'd never imagined that she'd miss the rain as much as she did at that very moment. It was a soft and gentle rain, and it begged Gwyn to let her porcelain be touched by it. Gwyn smiled. "As if." She announced opening her Umbrella with a loud "Whoosh." She held her umbrella proudly over her head, and stepped out from the veranda. The soft sound of Rain bouncing off of her umbrella brought a smile to her face, now that was a sound she hadn't heard in a long time. She missed the constant companionship of Her umbrella. Up in the mountains it seemed to act more as more of a source of shade than anything else. But now it was in it's element! Umbrellas lived to bounce rain drops away from their owner!
 
Gwyn leaned up against a moist bricked wall. Above her head her big yellow umbrella happily stood open. It's yellow surface was being pelted by rain drops. It'd been so long since she'd just stood in the rain, watching and listening to the beat of  it upon her umbrella. She'd never really found the rain to be all that relaxing, but it did remind her of home, and she'd always found her home very relaxing.
 
Without a thought in her mind, or a care in her heart, but a gleam in her eye Gwyn found herself walking down the now et paths of Ame. The hour was late and she found herself to be one of the few people up this late, and in the rain. It was oddly desolate, and just like back home. She loved it. There were way to many people in this city, so gross. Just everywhere. you couldn't find a bit of privacy anywhere. Maybe that was just her experience from living in an abandoned city speaking
 
She wasn't entirely sure where she was going, thought that wasn't any less true on any other day she walked these streets. They were so foreign, and filled with strange people that she never knew where she was going at any given time. The out side of the village she had down just fine. Hills, mountains, Akira's temple, forests and beaches. Easy stuff. The village it's self though? Go F itself, that's what she'd say! It was a got sticky dump! There was no air up here, clouds were always passing through covering the place in fog, and the people were just a lil' too exotic for her taste.
 
As she complained to herself  Gwyn found herself at the foot steps of a large house. Bright red lanterns hung from the porches veranda, and an eerily cool wind suddenly swept past Gwyn. Cold wind during a storm couldn't have been too Terumird, but here was something about this wind in particular that ran up Gwyn's back and sent a chill all the way back down it. "Yikes." She announced folding her arms across her body, trying to hold in some heat. Stranger still the storm was blowing in from the opposite direction. She was getting a dark, as well as a foreboding sense about this place. She didn't like it, not one bit. Not that people liked to get dark and foreboding feelings, but you get the point. Her yellow rain boot made a squishing sound as she took a step back. As soon as the squish ended the front door to the house just flew right on open! Like it was inviting her in! In fact Gwyn was pretty sure it was, because despite everything, and I do mean everything she had this incredible urge to step inside.
 
"Cool." She whispered, feeling a good bit of morbid curiosity boiling up within her. She stepped up onto the house's porch, and was greeted with a loud, and long swack from one of the old warped boards. "Creepy." She took another step forward, and this time the board was silent. Gwyn let out a grateful sigh. That could have been pretty horrible if she just walked through the whole house like that! She'd go insane before she reached the living room.
 
She stepped through the front door of the house, and immediately she was greeted with the acrid stench of dust and wood varnish. This place was about as fresh as a gallon of Dinosaur milk. The front part of the house was just a hall way that lead further into the house. On the right a rickety looked staircase lead to a second story, and to the left were thee doorways leading to more rooms. "Hello?" her husky voice echoed long and hard through the musty halls of the house.
 
She took a creaking step inside, and it felt like she was walking through a think cloud of candy gloss. It was incredibly humid in here. The water from the rain must have been soaking up everything. Something like that. She brushed had hand against the wall to her left, and felt her fingers plow through a heavy layer of dust, and webs. How did this place stay standing, it looked like it'd been abandoned for decades.
 
She peaked her head through the door way which led to the living room. She could see a comfy looking room, couch, chair, and coffee table. all speckled with a good about of dust and grime. Gwyn stepped into the room. It reminded her of her living room back home, only more decrepit. It'd be an awfully comfy looking room, were it not equally terrifying looking. Upon the rooms walls, which were covered in peeling wall paper where several large picture frames. Gwyn crept over to inspect them, and upon whipping a good layer of grime away from the cool glass frame she was able to see the picture behind. Which wasn't much of a picture at all. at least eighty percent of the picture had been torn away by someone and all the remained where the outermost edges of the picture, which weren't enough for her to gather any information about what the original portrait looked like at all. All she was able to tell is that they sure weren't landscapes! She inspect the other two paintings within the room and found that they took were torn out. Strange to say the least. Stranger still was the fact that these pictures where still in their glass frames, it's like someone had torn the pictures up and then placed them within the frame!
 
Gwyn turned around from the final picture which hung over a burnt out fireplace. To her right she head a creaking sound, and quickly jerked her head over to a rocking chair that was sitting in the corner next to her. She turned her head just in time to spot the Rocking chair very slowly and deliberately, creek forwards as if someone was leaning forward from within the chair. It creaked with an unnecessarily long and shrill squawk. Gwyn felt her blood run cold, well that was Terumird. The just as quickly as it had begun, the chair slammed backwards as if the invisible person sitting in it had gotten up suddenly. The chair now rocked back and forth wildly from the force.
 
Gwyn let out a quick shriek and jumped against the opposite wall. Causing a cloud of dust to explode out from her. "Nope, nope, nope." Gwyn coughed waving around the cloud of dust. That was enough of 'This old house.' for one day. She began to speed walk to the front door. It was getting late anyway. She didn't want to be too sleepy for anything tomorrow. Besides what if the owners came back? They'd sure be sore if they found her disrupting all their nice dust!
 
Up ahead she could see the creaky old door closed shut. Funny, couldn't remember closing that darn thing! Must have been the wind! Before she was able to get the door, the grandfather clock which sat next to the door suddenly tipped over. Wedging itself between the wall and the floor, and blocking the front door off completely. Gwyn froze in her spot. She rose her hand cautiously to the grandfather clock. As soon as her fingers touched it's wooden frame from upstairs came the sounds of a piano, or pipe organ. A beautifully haunting melody that sounded out all across the house, and shook Gwyn to her bones. And that dear folk was just about all that Poor Gwyn could take. With a mighty shove she threw that clock away from the door, then tried for the handle. That too was lick firmly. She jiggled, and wretched at it but it wouldn't budge. Even the bolts seemed rusted entirely shut. The piano music only grew louder as she jiggled and jostled the locked door. "Come, on come on!" She threw herself at the door, shaking it's rusted hinges, but not budging it any.
 
With a final powerful kick near the door knob Gwyn was able to smash the door down. The sweet smell of rain water greeted her nostril immediately, and she threw herself outside. Each heave of her chest, sent the Poarch's floor boards, a squeaking' and a sqwakin'. Not bothering to turn her head, or look back at the house Gwyn ran herself on back to her apartment. Though she feared that sleep would not come easily to her on this night.
 
xxxxxx
 
Down the streets of Ame three Genin traveled together. They'd been a squad for pretty much forever,  and they were traveling over to the old abandoned house off of market streets. They'd taken a C-Rank mission which involved fixing up the house or something like that. Honestly it didn't sound like all that important of a mission, but they were willing to give it a shot. It was a nice fresh day after that rain storm last night. It seemed like a good day to just waste some time, and maybe make a little money off of it.
 
Hiru Hyuuga was walking at the front of the Trio. He was a 5'10 with short cropped black hair, and wore his Headband upon his forehead. It was a forehead protectors after all. His eyes were the distinctive Hyuuga white. He had thin eye brows and a fairly angular face. His semi-muscular frame was covered in a black vest, and hyper white Khaki shorts. Every speck of dust was like a big brown beacon upon his pants. He was a weaker member of the Hyuuga clan in Ame. Not that the branch in Ame was particularly strong to begin with, but even among them he was a runt. Still he had gusto!
 
Behind him came trailing a young woman of the Kura clan. She had short boyish spikey pink hair, and eyes as read as a tomato. Yiping Kura was her name. Very skilled at her Clan's famous Order release if the rumors were to be believed. She came from a family of judges, the little known Kura clan so she'd had a strong sense of justice pounded into her head since a young age. She usually got right in the middle of fights just so she could break them up.
 
Walking along with her was another boy. The two of them chattered cheerily, as Hiru navigated them through the City. He was Yue Jin. He a shaggy sand blond hair due going on. And his green eyes shined out through his bangs which covered his eyes. He was six feet tall, and very lean. He didn't belong to any family of ninja's but he was a genius at Sealing Jutsu from what everyone said. Some said that his skills in the art could rival even a Joining.
 
The way the three of them had met was that both Hiru and Yue had gotten over a fight over something, during their academy years. They started throwing punches, and before either of them knew what happened Yiping had appeared between the two. Of course the problem with appearing before people even knew what happened was that, they didn't know what happened. So at the same time the two of them threw a fist into each side of her jaw and sent her crumbling to the ground. Ever since that day the three of them had been thick as thieves. It'd been a pretty ackward hospital visit though.
 
The three of them slowly wandered through the city, not really in a hurry to get anywhere in particular. Eventually they reach the old abandoned house. "Here we are." Hiru announced gesturing with a grand sweep of his hand."
 
"Abandoned is right." Yipping announced. "Where is the Chuunin that was suppose to supervise us?" Gwyn was no where to be seen.
 
Yue Jin took a few steps towards the house. The old thing sure needed their help, it was falling apart like you wouldn't believe. "What's this stuff." He crouched down suddenly notice this ring of white that went around the perimeter of the house. He took a good look at it. "It's not a seal." He announced to himself. There was no chakra involved with it. "I think it's salt." He reached his hand downwards to grab a handful of the stuff to get a slightly closer look. But before his hand could touch the salt a Kunai stuck into the ground just inches ahead of him. It made a 'thunk' noise like a tuning fork.
 
"Don't touch that!" Gwyn announced, popping her head over a shrub, which she promptly jumped over. "You can't break that circle or else the spirits will be let loose. And thrust me you don't want that, I've already made them plenty angry."
 
All three Genin stared at Gwyn entrance with combined, curiosity, and complete confusion. Only Yiping was able to over come her shock and speak. "What Spirits?" She almost shouted. It was more like a nervous release of energy more than anything else.
 
Gwyn glared at her, and flipped open her big yellow umbrella. "the spirits in that house, pretty nasty ones too. Tried to trap me in there last night, but I managed to escaped. I place that salt circle around the house this morning so they couldn't get out, and harass the city."
 
Well that didn't answer anything. Hiru cleared his throat. "Is this about the mission we're on?"
 
"Yes of course!" Gwyn announced sounding more and more frazzled by the second. "What sort of Ninja's are you who don't read the full details of your mission? I up everything in my report."
 
Hiru scratched his chin in a guilty manner as his two team mates glared at him. "Listen I saw that it involved cleansing a house, so I just assumed. I assumed you meant, like rats or something! You know Vermin, not a ghooooost."
 
Gwyn gesticulated wildly. "Yes of course I meant ghosts! I put ghosts in the report! You just didn't read the whole thing, and shame on you. I'll be adding that in my report to your Jounin. Besides Spirits are the most vile type of vermin there are. An angry spirit can kill you!" A strong breeze blew through the front yard, one that chilled everyone to their spine. "Yeah I'm talking about you buddy!" Gwyn shouted at the house.
 
The three Genin were giving each other the stares of a life time. What was going on. "Well you know an angry rat can kill you too, if he's persistent enough." Yue Jin announced with a nervous giggle.
 
Like a flash Gwyn was upon the clan less ninja and placed her finger in front of his lips. "Mock ye not, the spirits of the other side." Gwyn then paused and blinked the Craziness out of her eyes. "Why are you all looking at me like that?" The three of them looked to each other not quite knowing what to say. "Well?" She announced in a demanding tone.
 
Yiping spoke in a shaky voice. "Are you alright? You're sounding a little sick, going on about spirits. Respectfully ma'am. There's no such thing as ghost."
 
Gwyn let out a heartily laugh. Not a crazy one, just a friendly one. "What are you guys talking about? Of course there is! There's the swamp spirits, the spirits of your ancestors, heck I know for a fact that half the buildings in Ame are haunted. Nothing like this house tough, these are angry spirits, not like your common house spirit." She paused as she realized the looks where fresh and renewed upon the Genins' faces. "What you guys don't have mountains spirits?" They all shook their heads. "Well you have house spirits here right?" Again another round of head shakings. "She sighed again. Well you guys have a relationship with your Ancestor's right?" That reaction was a little warmer, mainly just a few shrugs, and a moan. "Dang." Gwyn announced a little surprised. "You guys are pretty sheltered in Ame aren't ya?" She sighed. "I can't believe you guys don't have spirits here." She gave a shrug. "Oh well I suppose this would be a good time to learn eh? Just keep in mind that not all spirits are like the one in there."
 
"Uuuuuuh." The three Genin announced all at once. Then Yipping took over for the boys. "With All respect ma'am we're not entirely sure we should be going in there with you. You seem disturbed."
 
Gwyn nodded. "Well now that you mention it I am pretty bother that three Genin of the Cloud refuse to go on a mission they agreed to take up." She shot them all a glance, and each one of them shrunk away. "Unless of course you're questioning the Mission is that it?"
 
"Yes!" They announced as one.
 
"You're questioning the mission approved by the Raikage? Approved within  a few hours of it's submission might I add."
 
"Well..." They grumbled.
 
"Are you questioning your Raikage's wisdom for approving a mission involving ghosts? Do you think that the Raikage is mad for thinking that Ghosts Exist?"
 
They all shrunk a little bit more under her intense gaze. "No.""Of course not!""Never!"
 
"Oh!" Gwyn announce Joyfully bonking herself on the forehead. "Then it's me!"
 
"Yes!" Hiru announced, before immediately covering his on mouth. He'd expected the other two to say it with him. His cheeks burned red as he heard Yiping giggle at him.
 
"Oh gotcha. So you're questioning the Raikage's decision to put me in charge of this mission. Oh I see. You think the Raikage is crazy for putting the only ninja in this city who apparently knows anything about spirits in charge? Is this true?"
 
"No.""Of course not!""Never!"
 
"Oh!" Gwyn slapped herself on the forehead once again. "I see then, you three just want to go aginst the orders of The Raikage for no good reason then? My oh my, that sounds mighty dangerous to me!"
 
Yue Jin stepped in front of his friends and stamped his foot down. "Now I've had enough of this!" He announced in a stern, and steady voice. "What Yinping meant to Say is that she wasn't sure that we should go in with you. I mean we can handle a few spirits. We just didn't want to waste your time with such a trivial matter."
 
"Ah." Gwyn announced patting Yue Jin upon the head. "That what I thought she meant. Now if you would be so kind, follow me into the house." She stepped over the line of salt and waved for them to follow. "Mind your step, don't want the darn thing escaping before we even get in!"
 
Reluctantly, oh so reluctantly the three Genin followed Gwyn across the neglected yard and onto the porch. Which naturally squeaked loudly at having four people standing on it. Okay they'd admit it met all of the troupes for a spooky house.
 
"Now I warn you." Gwyn Warmly, and wearily warned. "This spirit is pretty active, so stay calm. I know last night I came running out of here like a Salamander with a hawk in the sky." They looked at her with blank faces, and she sighed.  "It's an Ame thing." She gripped the door knob, and sighed. "I knocked this door down last night and when I came back in the morning, it was fit as a fiddle. I wonder if the grandfather clock is still on the ground." She turned the knob, and found that the door easily glided open. Which could only mean that the grandfather clock was still up and running. Or rather upright and running.
 
Gwyn beckoned her squad inside, and the four of them stood ackwardly in the small hallway. "Alrgiht Gwyn announced shutting the door. Right before she kicked it down, and sent it flying into the yard. "One more thing." She gave the Grandfather clock a shove, and sent it crashing before the rickety stairs that led to the second story. "Alright, now they can't trap us in here, and drop that on use." She turned to her young charges. "A good less for all of you." She announced in a teacher's voice. "Always make sure that the battle field is to your advantage as much as possible."
 
"What's even going on?" Yiping questioned.
 
"Follow me kids, I explain everything." Gwyn led her team towards the living room.
 
"You know you're pretty young for a Chuunin." Yiping announced as they were lead into the living room.
 
Gwyn crashed down on the Couch in the living room, and threw her arms over the back of it taking a very cool and relaxed stance. Only she was enveloped in a think cloud of dust, and she was doing all she could to not choke upon it. "Yeah I just got promoted recently. Back when I was in Ame. Take a seat let me explain the situation to you." The genin looked around to the dusty furniture, and shook their heads. Gwyn just shrugged, and kept a cool look upon her face. Though she would have done the same thing in their situation. She could feel the dust settling in her lungs. "With all the lightning last knight I belive that the lightning awoke the spirit within this house. Now with a spirit this angry there must be an object of it's hatred somewhere in the house." She pointed a finger towards Hiru."That's where you come in young man! You're in charge finding anything strange in the house."
 
Hiru nodded. "Well that part should be easy enough." He announced with a shrug. He peeled his vest off of a grime covered hall and stood in the center of the room. The sooner they got this over with the better. "Byakugan." He announced sending a pulse of chakra into his eyes. "So what are we looking for exactly.... oooh found it." He announced with a gasp.
 
"What is it?" Both Yue Jin and Yiping shouted in synchronicity.
 
"She's right." Hiru breathed in shock. "There's a body buried in the wall of the basement." His voice was horse.
 
Gwyn nodded, and rose to her feet. "That's it. Good Work. Wasn't expecting a murder victim to be the Spirit." She pointed to Yue Jin. "You're with me, we'll seal the Sprit. Hiru and Yipping check out the rest of this floor for any clues to a murder or the spirits identity. Avoid going up stairs though, last night the Spirit was trying to draw me up there. We'll go up there as a group." With that she made for the hall way Yue Jin quickly following behind her. "Basement is down there." She nodded her head over to the staircase that led below.
 
Yue Jin nodded and took the lead as they ventured down the two tier steps. Yue Jin was taking the steps two at a time, before a step let out a large squawk and sent the young boy flying away from the staircase, and head first into the wall that stood only a yard from the base of the stairs.
 
Quick as a whip Gwyn grabbed the back of the boy's shirt and kept him from tumbling to the ground. Though he did choke a little bit on his own collar.
 
"Gotta look out sport, a spirit wouldn't make this easy for you. You could have broken you neck." She released his shirt, and skirted down the rest of the stairs, and looked around the absolutely abandoned basement. "Maybe we should have brought Hiru down here too." She laughed, as the two of the began inspecting the halls for signs of anything strange.
 
xxxxx
 
"You Find anything?" Hiru asked ducking out of the kitchen and meeting up with Yiping in the hallway.
 
"Nadda." She announced coming out from a little study. "Just dust and books. No spirits anywhere." She laughed. "Not that I expect any to begin with.
 
Hiru raised his eyebrow in a questioning manner. "You don't think there are spirits in here, but the body..."
 
"A Body doesn't mean anything. Well except that a person is buried in a wall. " She rubbed her temples. "It doesn't mean this place is haunted. We just have to play along with this nut, then collect our money. Still I'm pretty interested in this body. I'm concerned that the murder was able to avoid justice for so long."
 
Hiru nodded his head. "No doubt." He looked towards the staircase when hear some sort of chanting coming from it. It sounded like Gwyn and Yue Jin down there. "Hey I'm gonna let them know we didn't find anything."
 
"Shhh." Yiping hushed. "You hear that?"
 
"The chanting? Yeah." Guess they found the body.
 
"No not the chanting." She whispered. "I can hear a Piano. I'm going up stairs to check it out."
 
"Cool." Hiru shrugged already half way down the stairs. When suddenly he tripped over a loose board, and went tumbling down the steps. A little bruised, but still alive and unbroken.
 
Gwyn and Yue Jin gave one another a look. Yue Jin was leaning up against the brick wall and drawing a careful seal over a section of it. The two had identified it as being the most recently laid, as such the place where the body would be hidden. The two looked at each other, and Gwyn spoke. "Gotta fix that step." She announced, before stepping to Hiru. "You okay?"
 
Hiru rubbed his head tenderly. "Yeah just a little bruised. Sorry about that." He looked over to Yue Jin who was working on his seal. "You guys found it eh? Good on yeah."
 
"Where's Yiping?" Gwyn asked worriedly.
 
"She said she was going upstairs."
 
Gwyn froze. "Why?"
 
"She said she heard Piano Music."
 
"Piano?" Gwyn coughed before suddenly disappearing before Hiru's eyes.
Yiping trotted up the decrepit steps of the old house. Each and everyone moaning as she put Terumight upon them. The upstairs wasn't anything to write home about. Just a short hallway leading to a single room at the top. "Hello?" she announced preparing to form a hand sign in necessary. "I'm a ninja is any one here?" There was no reply so he stepped into the room. It was just as dusty as the rest of the house, only a little more barren. Nothing inside of it except a Piano aginst the door's wall, and an open window across from it. There was a splattering of leafs that'd been sprayed into the room by the wind. "Hello?" She announced once more, not that there was anywhere that a person could hide in this room.
 
It was so strange. She knew she heard the clunking of piano keys just a minute ago. She approached  the piano. It's ivory keys were covered in dirt as well as some of the leaves that had blown on in. Surely those weren't heavy enough to create a sound. The noise she'd heard almost sounded like a section of a section of a  song rather than just a few keys getting pressed down my Terumight.
 
As she looked down on the yellow keys of the Piano she just got the urge to play a tune on the dumb thing. She traced her fingers long the shapes and left a trail of cleanliness as she did so. She sat down at the stool, and held her hands in a ready positon. It'd been a while since she'd sat down at a piano. Now the moment her butt made contact with that seat she was propelled backwards. The piano suddenly lunged forward like a train towards the open window. Leaving Yiping barreling backwards as well. The two rocketed towards the window, it was all going too fast for yipping to even fear for her life!
 
The Piano stopped just short of hitting the wall but was going plenty fast enough to send Yipping flying  through the opened window She banged her head against the frame as she went flying through, knocking her out cold.
 
"Rupture!" Can the strong and sudden voice of Gwyn as she drew her sword and sent to wave of chakra crashing through the rooms wall which led to the outside. Leaping through the newly created hole, Gwyn caught Yipping just as she was dropping soundly to the ground. Managing to save her from a neck breaking plunge. "That was close." she whispered. Setting The young girl down on the ground?
"Is Yipping Okay?" Hiru asked sprinting through the front door onto the lawn.
 
"Just a bumped head." She stood and looked to Hiru. "Is Yue Jin Alright?"
 
"Yeah I'm fine." Yue announced stepping out of the house as well. "Finished the seal and everything." He held a scroll up above his head. "It worked just like you said, I finished the chant and the moment I Did all the ink from the wall flew away and onto this scroll, all the ink even turned blood red." He furrowed the scroll and reveled a ring of characters centered around what looked like the image of a scroll.
"Yikes." Hiru announced jumping away from it. "How'd you know how to do something like that?"
 
Gwyn shrugged with a laugh. "Everyone in my village knows that ritual. Like I said the whole place is just covered in spirits. It is a ghost town after all. In more ways than one. Tragically Gwyn didn't quite know the complete irony of that sentence just yet.
 
Xxx
 
Gwyn's yellow rain boots softly padded up the slopes of a steep hill in the Land of lightning. Her thin jacket, was unzipped and blew behind her like a cape. Even with only two and a half layers of Clothing on, she was still hot. It was horrible. She was practically half naked, and she was still too hot to manage. She was drinking twice as much water as she normally would, just to refresh herself. She was afraid that maybe she'd have to cut down to only two layers of clothing. Not an option she was fond of. That would make her feel way too exposed, too open.
 
Of course she probably wouldn't have been so hot if she hadn't been running up a steep hill. Working out in high altitudes was good for you though! There was less oxygen up here, so your body got used to doing the same amount of work with less air. So when Gwyn finally found herself in the low lands, then she'd have a buttload of Air to work with. At least that was the plan.
 
With a final huff she threw herself over the crest of the hill, and let herself roll in the soft grass for a second. Her lungs inflated, and deflated at a rapid rate. In a dizzy haze she stared up at the cotton clouds that hung lazily in the air above. She wondered if she'd ever grow tired of looking at a blue sky. She'd be monstrously disappointed in learning that the Sky in Ame was not always as it was during sunset, as she first thought. Still blue was nice.
Oh yeah that was pretty good way to get the heart pump. Gwyn stabbed he sword into the ground, and whipped the sweat from her brow. Goodness , how hot was it in this country. She fanned herself down. She even *Gasp* shrugged off her jacket, and let it fall to the ground. She felt the cool breeze of the mountain air almost penetrate the last two layers of her outfit. It was almost nice. If she hadn't felt horribly exposed. Jeez. Heatstroke or nakedness? She looked down upon her jacket. Dangit! She picked it back up, and slid it around her body. Toasty.
 
Better be found dead by heat, and fully clothed. Than dead and wearing only two layers of clothing. That be so embarrassing.
 
She shook away the doubt. It was getting a little tiring. She grabbed her sword from the ground and turned her attentions to the tree. She didn't feel like it really went well with the landscape. A lonely tree atop the hill who wanted that sort of thing? Give Gwyn a whole forest or, nothing at all. Well horridly overgrown jungle, but same thing. But with more snakes, salamanders, poisonous insects. Dammit Gwyn hated the jungle. Listen the tree was dead, just deal with it.
 
Once more she lifted herself to her feet and inspected her surroundings. She stood atop the curve of a large hill that rose above the surroundings landscape. Well most of it. From the Gentle slope of the hills, she could look down into a nearby valley, and get a good view of it's natural splendor. Though Amegakure would always be her home, this place had a natural beauty she'd never seen in all the world.
 
She nodded and pulled her Katana from her Umbrella. The natural beauty of this land would inflame her heart! She would show this land the beauty of her blade work!!! Atop the hill sat a mighty tree, naturally. And as with all things the tree would make the perfect object to practice. IT was perfect. If she could kill a tree, then she could probably kill a person. That was just logical. Trees have bark, people don't even have bark! Dogs do though.
 
"This is my sword!" She announced to the Valley. Holding the blade infront of her and letting it's sharp edge shine in the light. "There are many like it, but this one is mine." She Slashed the Blade Mightily and began to practice her Credo. "My Sword is by Best Friend." She bisected the warm mountain air. "It is my life." Her sword whistled as it flies through the air. "I must Master it, as I must master my life." As one of the only Ninjas in her country she had to learn discipline at a young age. She did her best to maintain that control over herself and her life at all times. She never wanted another person to determine her destiny. Though lately it seemed that she was the only person she knew not in control of her life. But She was in Control of her sword, and her sword was her life.
 
"My Sword, without me, is Useless." Just a lifeless scrap of metal. "Without my Sword, I am Useless." Almost certainly true. Gwyn wasn't very good at any other form of combat. However she could run away with the best of them. However that didn't really give her a use. "I must strike my sword true." Gwyn was fast, and with the right technique she could even be strong. If she struck true, and could actually land a hit. She was sure she could kill anything. "I must strike truer than my enemy who is trying to kill me." Of all the Credo she knew this to be true. In the forest she'd only survived because she struck to kill. Her opponents, had other intentions. Even know she shivered in remembrance. She renewed the strength in her sword arm. "I must strike him before he strikes me. I Will..." She would, she was fast. Like a cobra, riding on a cheata. That's right she was like a cobra Cavalry.
 
"My Sword and I know that what counts in battle is not the number of times we strike, or the noise of cry, nor the smoke we make." All that right, flash was very important to Gwyn. Like really important. It was definatly to compisate for her lack of actual abilities, but that was besides the point. In the end what truly mattered was her skill with the sword. At least that's what the Credo Stated. "We know that it is the hits that count. We will hit..." She brought her sword up diagonally, and the wind flowed in the direction she wend through the strokes. She'd been slowly channeling her Chakra through the hilt. More and more with each stoke the wind began surging along with each flick of her blade. God she loved having a wind nature.
 
"My sword is human, even as I, because it is my life." Gwyn figured that when Full Metal Jacket said it, it meant more. Gwyn lived in a world where salamanders could talk. So saying that something was human wasn't that strange. However if she was going to steal something from a movie, she had to commit to it. But yes she had to care for equipment like she did herself. If she failed it in the down time, it would fail her in battle. "Thus, I will learn it as a sister." Or at least a very good friend. "I will learn it's weaknesses, it's strength, it's parts, it's accessories, it's handle, and it's blade." Gwyn could disassemble her sword blindfolded in seconds. "I will keep my blade clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready." Pffft. Gwyn was a neat freak as it was. She didn't really need much practice in that area. She watched as the blade gleamed in the sun. Glorious. "we will become part of each other." Especially true when she infused the blade with chakra, her chakra was it's chakra, they were one. Mostly. Gwyn thoroughly hoped that her blade wasn't going to get too close to her. Like in her body. That'd be pretty uncomfortable.
 
"Before God, I swear this creed. My sword and I are the defenders of my village. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life."
 
She grabbed her Umbrella and flicked her Katana into her sheath. Lately the bulky thing had been used more for shade than anything else. Still love the thing though. She faced that tree, and with the look to kill. "Heyah!" She yelled like an apache. She launched her blade from her sheath and sliced through the tree. 'Thunk'. Okay so she sliced into the tree. Wasn't that good enough for you people. Plus she did it really fast, like really fast. Stupid tree didn't even have enough time to defend against her. It's defenses were completely down! Ha what a sucker. Though her strike wasn't all the powerful. Looks like she'd have to strike the darn thing down a hundred times, before it would fall. No she was pretty sure that, that wasn't how the technique was suppose to work.
 
Ya that tree was suppose to be on the ground by now. Dang looks like this would a round two. She placed her blade back into her umbrella once more. After the blade was nessled comfortably inside her umbrella's sheath she could hear the cracking of wood. She craned her head over to the tree, the gash she'd placed in it earlier had grown larger. That's Terumird. Yet at the same time it was entirely thematic. She shrugged, and got back into position. Whatever that didn't make a lot of sense, but her best friend had a puppet who could fly, so who cares about logic? Gwyn spits in the face of logic! She fought a cat with a sword in it's mouth once.
 
Sword in hand Gwyn threw herself at the tree. She held her Umbrella tight against her side. She wanted that Tree dead. Her legs were a blur. This stationary target was so dead! Whipping her Sword out from her umbrella she attacked the tree. The razor sharp steel of her blade sliced into the soft bark. Honestly it wasn't fair. The organic matter of the tree wasn't even close to being sword proof. It sunk into the wood, she got halfway through before she started to feel herself slow down. Nonono! Gwyn was stong! Stronger than growing trees, or pouring rain! She controlled the blowing wind, and could make lightning strike! She could cut this darn tree in half if she had to. Again she channeled that chakra through her body, because that was kind of her thing! She could infuse the F out of chakra. With that bit of monologue inside of her heart. Her muscles bulged, and her blade began it's exit through the tree. Rather than blood, the exit would was really just a bunch of splintering wood, but it still felt good anyway. A tree who saw it would have been plenty scared. Scared Barkless even.
 
Still despite that awfully clean and deep cut the tree, stood. Mighty and oaken it was. But wait dear reader Gwyn wasn't done. With an good and hearty sheathing, she placed her sword back in it's home once more. And with that the Tree came crumbling down. Gwyn brushed a bead of sweat away from her forehead. "I'm so glad that actually worked. It would have been really embarrassing otherwise.
 
Xxx
 
Once more Gwyn returned to the wind swept hill top. The brilliant green grass waved lazily in the wind, giving her a warm greeting as she marched up the slope. High above the sky glew a soft blue, she still couldn't help but be dazzled by the color of the sky here. In the air whispy clouds floated quickly far above her reach. The sun beat down upon the hill, all too intently for Gwyn. She'd gotten better at handling the heat in Ame, but she didn't see how these people did it. Oh wait, they didn't wear a shirt, plus sweater, plus jacket, plus scarf at all hours of the day. As Gwyn made her way up the hill side she could see the tree she'd chopped down earlier poking over the hill. She felt a twinge of guilt. Poor tree, wasn't hurting anyone. IT was just standing their providing shade, then Gwyn had to come around and chop it's barky butt down to the ground. Rather skillfully, she thought. Rather Skillfully. It couldn't have been helped! It couldn't' have! She need that tree to die to prove how powerful that move was! She couldn't' have just used it on the air, that wouldn't prove anything.
She cast a sad look down upon the tree. it's leafs were drying out, going from green to brown. She clicked her tounge, if it hadn't been the only tree on this hill it would have been easier. That darn piece of lumber just had to be so artfully placed.
 
She shrugged. "Oh well, no use crying over split wood." She sauntered off a few feet away from the downed tree. And pulled A shuriken out from the folds of her jacket. She felt the cold steel kiss her thumb and forefinger. She held it in a throwing position. "You are a Shuriken, not much on the eye, but stick with me, and Kid. We'll watch you fly!" She'd make that piece of metal fly like a bird, only there was one problem, birds flew in packs. This little guy was going to get lonely and lost if Gwyn didn't find him any friends. So that was the point of today's training. The Shuriken Shadown Clone Jutsu. A ninjutsu invented by the third Hokage. Hiruzen Sarubobi. Also know as The Professor, it was suppose to allow a ninja the ability the throw a single shuriken and create a hundred different clones of the object. Allowing the ninja to overwhelm their opponents, with out having to carry around the great that would normally be required to launch such an attack. It was a nifty little skill, and one Gwyn had been wanting to learn for ages. Now that Akira had throurghly taught her the finer poinst of Ninjutsu she felt like she could finally handle such an advanced technique.
 
She felt like she could. She'd been going at it for several days now. And the prospects weren't overly promising. It'd been three days and so far she'd gotten as far as creating two duplicates. Which was pretty cool on it's own, but for all the hand sings, and the chakra, she could have just thrown three shuriken! That was just economical!
 
She let loose her shuriken sending it shredding through the air. She formed the hand signs for the jutsu and let her Chakra explode from her body. Two shadowy figures appeared around the original, and followed it on it's path. Gwyn sighed, had it not been so cool, she would have been distraught about it. Luckily she'd recently been able to expand her pool of chakra, or else that would have been a pretty big waste. Gwyn liked it, having more chakra that is. Stamina was more like it. She could train longer, without all of the side effects. She remember just learning Chakra infusion she'd been completely whipped out by the end of it, and that was much simpler than what she was attempting to do. Life was good. Or it would have been if a thousand shurikens appeared in the sky when she wanted them too. She'd seemed to have hit a dead end. If two clones was going to be the limit of her abilities it wasn't going to take her very far in the world now was it?
 
She sat herself down on the grass and thought about what to do. She looked lazily over at the Shuriken she'd thrown. Worse part about cutting down the tree was that she no longer had a target. Her shuriken would just go flying off the hill and into the nearby valley. That was pretty good training on it's own, but boy did it get annoying after the third time. It got to the point where she'd just have a shadow clone go do it for her. Honestly Shadow clones were these most use ful thing ever, she was surprised more people didn't join on in, in the fun.
 
Oh wait a minute! The Janitor in Gwyn's mind was installing a light. Ding! There it went. Gwyn's eyes suddenly shimmered as an Idea flew through her grey matter. She drew a scroll out from her pack, and prepared a pen for when the time was needed. She then performed the signs for a regular Shadow clones, and with a puff of smoke the two Clones appeared. Before the smoke could even vanish she grabbed her scroll, and jotted down two different worlds, and tore them into two different pieces of papers. The clones didn't question what was going on, because well... they already knew. They just didn't know what worlds they were going to get.
 
Gwyn handed the piece of paper that read "Bubble." To the one on her right, and the one that read "Bird." to the one on her left. She watched as her clones read over the words they were giving, and contemplated it. They sat there in silence for ten minutes, just letting their thoughts wander before the OG Gwyn finally spoke up. "So what do you think we're doing wrong?" The plan had been that She'd give her clones two different words on the moment of their creation, and have them read it. Then the clones would have time to let their minds wander. Of course their wandering minds would be based off the words that they read. Hopefully placing both of them in a different enough mindset from Gwyn that they had at least a slightly different approach to the situation in mind.
 
"I just think it's Terumird that we can only do two clones of the Shuriken, just like we can only make two clones." Announced 'Bird' not long after the question was presented.
 
Gwyn nodded. "That's interesting. Think it might be a chakra thing?"
 
'Bird shook her head. "No I think we're fine on chakra, we're just having a hard time visualizing the one Shuriken become a hundred. I think it's a focus thing. You can imagine it splitting into three Shuriken, but a hundred is just to much to handle, especially when you're trying to manipulate chakra into a hundred different vessels."
 
"So we're doomed?" Gwyn asked. Though she knew it wasn't true, after all this clone was only her, she still had to voice the concern.
 
"Not at all." Bird Answered. "We just have to find a way to visualize, and form the chakra is all."
 
Gwyn nodded. "I like your answers. You honor all of us, Gwyns in the world." She turned to her second clone 'Bubble.' "What about you?"
 
Bubble just shrugged. "I was thinking about Akira." She admitted truthfully to her fellow Gwyns.
 
"Hey!" Gwyn announced to herself. "I gave you bubble, not bimbo. You're suppose to help out with the Jutsu not think about Akira! No matter how handsome, or strong, or talented he is!" She paused and all three Gwyn's let out a sigh. He sure was dreamy that was for sure.
 
Even so Bubble shook her head. "No that's not what I was talking about. Akira and his whole Idea that A jutsu is like a Painting. Maybe you could try Visualizing it like you did the Chidori. It seemed to help then, why not this time around too?"
 
"Oh my god I'm a genius." Gwyn announced with a Satisfied smile. "Good work you two. Feel free to dig into my back pack there is some lunch in there, you guys deserve it!"
 
With that Gwyn closed her eyes, and visualized a large golden frame. Like what you'd see in a mansion or a museum, much larger than anything a regular person would keep around. This was going to be a big one.
Next she imagined the other party goers, the actual clones of PrimeL The original Shuriken. She saw upon the staircase twenty of his friends, all liked up on the steps like they were going to take a picture. It was all boys on the left and girls on the right. They were positioned one person every three steps. On the top was Johnna and Vivi. A hopelessly in love couple. They wore a matching Tan Suit, and dress. Vivi's dress had plenty ruffles on the skirt, and her hair was tied back with a tan ribbon. From across the staircase They looked at each other with loving, longing looks. Johnna's slightly shadowed jaw slipped into a smile as he looked at his lover. Gwyn imagined the two of them as Shuriekn. They'd always be close by each other, she assumed. Yeah when she performed the Jutsu these two would be closer than any of the other Shuriken, striking the same target, almost acting as a single Shuriken, rather than two. She smiled just at the thought of it, okay that was pretty cute. Next on the staircase was Kasra, and Doro. Doro was a slight looking young man, though in his dark blue silk suit he didn't look too scrawny. His long limbs worked with his work. Her nervously played with this tie, and glasses as he waited on the staircase. Across from his sister Kasra gave him a look of pity. She was equally thin, just hot as tall as her brother giving her less of a jack Skelington look. Her simple blue dress clung happily to her slight frame, and her hair was done up with a peacock feather. She'd invited her brother to the party to get him out into the world and meet new people, but he was just so shy that he couldn't bring himself to have much fun. So she'd be constantly chasing after Doro trying to drag him into conversations and dances, both of which he was reluctant to engage in. As Shuriken these siblings would constantly be traveling together. Doro would always veer to the left, and Kasra wouldn't be far behind trying to drag him back to the center of the Shuriken cluster. Down below them was a slightly older couple, mid thirties. Tasha and Trace, were both dressed up in simple black outfits, a tux for Trace and a evening dress of Tasha. The two stand confidently near the top of the staircase. Their bodies turned slightly towards each other. Each of them has a hand upon the smoothly shaven hand rail. Tasha cracks an electric smile full of straight teeth, and Trace has this charming little smirk upon his own face. The two of them are the sturdy rock of a relationship that all the other shuriken look up to for support, and a grounding center. Sure they aren't as obnoxiously in love as Johnna and Vivi, or maybe they are and just don't show it. They've been dating for years, and have been good and well in love for every second of it. They fight, and whine, and kiss, and make up. Whenever there was a double date to be had, they were always the first people you asked. They were great at parties, and fun to be around. Oh yes Gwyn recognized these two shuriken. They were the two she'd been summoning all this time. She knew it had to be true. They were after all the heart of their group of friends. Below them was Alex and Alex. Well Alexander and Alexandria. Those names alone are quite the conversation starters don't you think? They're both dressed like neither of them had actually been planning on joining in on a party tonight. Alex just wore a baby blue button up shirt, a pair of khaki shorts, and some flip flops. His hair was a spiky straw yellow mess, and he still had his sun glasses resting on top of the mess. Alex on the other hand was just wearing a pink blouse and some black leggings. Hardly had any make up on, and her hair was done up in a messy bun. To be honest no one at the party actually knew them, everyone was just to wrapped up in the big party to ask them who they were. As they both stood on the staircase they shifted nervously, what would happen if people knew that they didn't belong there?  Honestly they just wanted to see how far into the mansion they could make it before someone kicked them now, here they were getting a picture taken on the staircase! They really hoped they'd be giving out wallet sized versions of this picture, because they needed to make this triumph of party crashing immortal. As Shuriken the two of them would come from completely out of the blue to strike at their enemy. After all what was the point of crashing a party if you weren't going to make an impression while doing it? Finally the last couple upon the staircase was Vance, and Celia. Vance was a tall white haired man, though his skin was still young and flawless. Her stood proudly, as well as confidently upon the second to lass row of stairs. His horribly tacky blood red suit would stand out like a sore thumb if his vibrant hair didn't already do that for him. What was it made out of? Crushed velvet? Oh Gwyn, what are you doing? Celia was less of a disaster. She like Vance also wore a blood red dress, though it looked more like an upside down rose, not velvet thankfully. Some kind of satin. While her night black hair was done up with a pair of metal chopsticks. She wore a lot of blush as well as crimson red lips. Let's just pull this band aid off really quickly. The two of them were vampires! Yes Scary I know, but don't make a big fuss out of it, they're people too, no matter how much they try to eat other people. Which was kind of funny because that was the exact reason they'd come to this party. They were getting pretty hungry and had to go for a late night snack. Now these two were vampires of taste and style. At least one of them was, the other wore crushed velvet suits. That's why they were here tonight, to feast on some stylish young people! Alex and Alex where already off the chopping block. As Shuriken these stylish immortal would fly in the shadows of another Shuriken. hiding in it's wake before it was time to strike with laser like precision.
Gwyn nodded to herself, and broke her concentration. Well she sure hoped this worked, because if not she just spent a whole lot of time coming up with outfits and back stories for a group of people who really didn't matter. And that would have been tragic. Personally she was falling in love with Alex And Alex's care free, easy going attitude, it was charming really. She let her Shuriken fly from her hands and performed the nessesarry hand signs, before sending her chakra in after Prime: The Original Shuriken. Just as planned a myriad of pointy stars appeared in ten small puffs of smoke! And then Boom! They all went flying in perfect synchronicity! Oh yeah now mama was cooking with fire. She'd hate to be on the receiving end of that baby! It was just like a normal barrage of shuriken, but it only took one little guy to start it. Plus the fact that every star was launched at the same time made that little cloud of metal almost impossible to just knock away with a kunai. Even the fact that it was a cloud increased the difficulty of just dodging the move. Plus with Gwyn's throwing arm those bad boys had some heat behind them! More more she made a few hand signs and let her chakra flow. A strong gust of wind blasted out from her, and collided with the traveling Shuriken. The lurched slightly as the undercurrent pick them up, the quickly picked up their pace. Ah man! They were actual physical copies. She'd actually done it! And combined with her gale palm these things could fly like the wind and punch through ply wood if they needed too, Gwyn was having a pretty happy day how. Then of course as all god things must, this too ended as they cloud of metal strays flew over the crest of the hill and down into the valley below.
 
She sighed and looked to her two clones who where busy eating her lunch. She let out a guilty giggle. "Hey do one of you guys mind getting that back for me?"
 
The two of them just gave her a look, as their full mouths chewed away at Gwyn's sandwich. "Um no? We're already working."
 
Gwyn glared. "That's not work! That's a break! At work they give you a break from work so people can do what you're doing right now!" She couldn't believe that she was arguing with herself on this!
 
They just sighed that ever present Gwyn sigh. "We're not working, working. We're thinking up the rest of the party personalities for you." "Yeah." The other clone added on. Once you poof us away you'll have all the knowledge that we gained on out picinic here. That way you don't have to make the ball of a hundred dancers like you were going to."
 
"Oh." Gwyn announced surprised. Her clones were pretty cool. Well how could they not be, just look a who they were based off of, I mean come on! Gwyn was all that and a bag of chips.
 
"Yeah so why don't you go fetch that Shuriken and let us get back to work." Never mind, Gwyn found herself as obnoxious as she found everyone else. With a reluctant Groan she went ahead and chases after her fleeing Shuriken. She leapt over the downed tree, and looked down into the slight valley on the other side. It was mostly just rolling green hills and a two poor trees growing diagonally upon the hill side. She ran awkwardly down the slanted hill and saw that the kill side was riddle with Shuriken. Now she just had to decide which on was hers...
 
Luckily not too hard, in a poof of smoke the other shuriken vanish, leaving a single blade embedded into the hillside. Gwyn tried to determine how long the shuriken had stayed materialized, but it was hard to say. Three posts? give or take. She snatched the shuriken up from the ground and headed back towards her hill. Her boots slipped a little upon the dewy morning wetness of the grassy hill, but other than that not much harm done. Her two clones were still making quick work of her Lunch. Finishing off the last chip just as she came over the crest of the hill. "Alright you two." Gwyn announced holding her Shuriken over her head. "Let's do it once more, this time with feeling." Her two clones vanished in a poof of smoke, and Gwyn's mind was flooded in with their memories. Looks like they'd managed to ad forty additional characters to her picture each, oh so tantalizingly close to reaching that goal of 100.
 
She strolled back into her original position. This was the one she could feel it. She held Prime rightly into her hand. This time she had it! She chunked her Shuriken with all the skill that a Kunochi could muster, sending it's sharp black from soaring through the air at a deadly speed. She performed the needed hand sings and shot her chakra into the Shuriken. The shadow images of ninety other shuriken phased into reality as Gwyn's mind sharpened in on their flight. They appeared around the original like little flickering fairies, before they final became full bodied clones of the ordinal star. Gwyn sent her chakra forward one more time and summoned up the last remaining Shuriken. Herald the cloud spun wildly on his side as he entered the Cluster. The lion and Lancelot both appeared at the front of the metal cloud, brace and courageous souls the two of them. The twins both appeared near the end of he pack each orbiting around the other as they traveled. Pricilla took the far right while her Arch Rival Gwyn too the far left, each of them rush to be the first to his the target. Helsing the vampire hunter trailed not far behind Vance and his date, making sure they didn't get in the way of any other Shuriken. And of course at the heart of the cloud was Gwyn, and Akira. The two most Charming Shuriken out of the entire bunch, if you asked Gwyn.
 

Gwyn's eyes glinted with pride as the full 100 shuriken clones swept over the hill town, and down into the valley. He glowed with pride as the swarm of deadly metal vanished below. She'd done it! An A rank jutsu under her sleeve and she didn't even need a Teacher for it! It'd taken a few days, it'd taken some grit, and it'd taken a whole lotta chakra, but by gum she'd done. it!

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