So many things to do, so many lives to save, and the time…he wasn’t sure if time was on their side or quite the opposite. He could see all the Shinobi moving through the bunker, exchanging knowledge, moving into the city… and there he was, starting at the intel they had gathered. The bombs…the damned contraptions holding his village by the throat…each of them strong enough to wipe out a district…and he had to choose where to go. Each place was worth saving…he already knew his family would be trying to secure themselves. He sent one of the Shinobi towards the companied to let them know of the shelter and his tasks. So much choices…and in the end, he couldn’t help but follow a bit of his own selfishness. Of course, disarming the bomb within the Sietch was of utmost priority. After all, they couldn’t risk their most secure spot, even if it were strong enough to withstand the blast. But he couldn’t deny it… when he read about the Sietch bomb, a few familiar names cropped up… one’s he hoped he would never have to see.
He had heard stories from his family. A promising Sunaku medic, who suffered the loss of a beloved women, in spite of his efforts to save her…those efforts had not stopped, causing the men to kill at least 3 people in an attempt of wicked experiments. Luckily he was sized, Haru’s father Shigeo personally dragging him through the village to the Obsidian Palace. Unfortunately, the body of the girl was never found. All of this happened when he was… seven or eight years old. He felt sorry for the poor men…but as he saw him being apprehended by his father, there was a sense of fear he felt just by being near him.
And now there it was…the Cabal apparently asking the aid of a elderly Sunaku Shinobi, freed from captivity, guarding a device which would demolish an entire districts. Someone who needed to be stopped…but they didn’t have quite enough of a lead. Not yet at least.
Harupia rarely was within the actual Palace himself. What he did at most was guide a few captured prisoners to the entrance, where the ANBU would quickly take care of them. Being inside of the dark walls felt as good as we suspected earlier. This eerie atmosphere…it seemed as if something I the walls called to him, nagging on him, just eager to drive him insane… Even if the effects of whatever was used to create this dark place were lessened by its destruction, it still weighed on his mind. And yet here he was, amidst busted cells and messed up halls. He would be feeling like a blind child where it not for the documents supplied in the bakery. Of course, ANBU detailing he layout of their headquarters was an unusual thing, but they didn’t have time to worry about procedure. They were out trying to help the villagers, and requested for someone to come by the offices and make sure their documents were safe.
It all seemed so quiet and calm…but he could feel something was off. It was feint, just barely distinguishable from all the commotion in his mind as the dark walls messed with his head. But there was a feint trace of chakra…just barely noticeable, but still there. And so he wandered the dark hall’s, going towards the files as he had remembered, but still having the signal of chakra there in his mind…and it grew stronger and stronger…Was it just him starting to get more and more paranoid. But then it felt it even stronger, more than before…coming straight from the wall before him. Now, his mind was quite weary from the last few days. He wouldn’t disqualify the possibility of him being delusional. But still…focusing his powers, he gently made the sand particles around him move. When he focused hard, he could feel each particle around him, he remembered even his father making him count each one during training. And he felt the particles in the wall. Moving freely, having a bit of space. Curious he moved closer to the wall, and with a bit of sand formed into a pike, tried to poke around the wall. It took a while, but he found just slight wedge…after a bit of s struggle, part of the wall dropped down… and things got a bit more hectic.
Just how the reports said. A bomb. One of the smaller ones, but he wouldn’t doubt it was strong enough to kill him if it were to blow up. They seemed to be somewhat easy to operate once you found them, according to the files. You just needed to apply the right amount of chakra to overload and make the explosive inert. But if he judged wrong…well, he hoped he wouldn’t. He gingerly reached for it, not wanting to set it off…and then came the footsteps. With a quick move he dashed back, with the assailant passing by him. It seemed like whoever this was, he was just as lost in the dark walls as Harupia felt…though his inmate clothing suggested he had much more time to get used to the place. In whatever way, the prisoner had a standard ANBU blade in his hand…and was lunging with it at Haru again with a mad look on his face. Still, the sand had gathered quite quickly after the initial attack, blocking him and holding the sword in place. Before the men could wrench it out of the grasp, a firm strike of Haru’s elbow, then followed by a clump of sand, knocked the assailant unconscious.
Luckily, it seemed he was one of the few inmates still inside and not locked up. Without him, Haru could focus on the bomb, and managed to take it offline after a bit of stressful work, seeing the chakra sensitive clay finally dissipate into dust once he was done. After a while ha managed to find the ANBU offices, and it seemed at least part of the paperwork was still salvageable. He guessed the inmates didn’t really care about them as they ran off to freedom. After a bit of digging around he managed to find something he could use. A file on one Hashiro, otherwise known as “The 8th Butcher”. As he read, he was the 8th psychopath who had referred to himself as such during the ANBU’ operation history. A bit of a lowlife, doped out of the academy after 8 years of not passing the genin exam and increasingly growing aggressiveness. A big guy, strong and tough, but not much else good to say about him. Had a very short temper, and with how harsh some people could be on someone who failed to pass the academy training…it was a mixture bound to explode at some point. At first it was just a few fines for starting trouble, he beat up some people, he got beat up for it. He did cross the line eventually, getting caught after killing a meat store owner with his own cleaver…hmm, so apparently he didn’t even call himself the Butcher. The ANBU member making the report just felt it was appropriate enough, and that it’s been a while since they had a butcher around. Huh..it was amusing to see the elusive ANBU having a sense of humor…as twisted as it was.
After his visit in the Obsidian Palace, and restraining the one inmate who tried to get him, Harupia moved back into the Sietch, taking to the rooftops. His revelation about the youngest Sunan butcher was important for one reason in particular. Reports indicate he had been in contact with one Sunaku Kishi for a few weeks, before Kishi got arrested for his experimenting. And they seemed to have attempting to contact each other within the Palace. This Hashiro had some tab’s on the forsaken Sunaku…and he needed to see what exactly that implied. After a bit of searching, he managed to find the guy. He stood out quite a bit in the empty streets of the Sietch. He seemed to be semi worried, looking around from time to time. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t as focused to try and look up at the rooftops.
With a silent thud, Harupia landed on the building to which Hashiro has entered. Crouching down to listen, he could hear something going on in the building…mostly due to the convicts loud shouts, but also some worried cries of others. Well now…things once again got a bit more complicated. Fortunately, it seemed the building was abandoned, besides the commotion going on downstairs. Harupia silently moved down until he reached one of the rooms. He could hear even more shouting, and panicked cries from other people. While he intended to be careful, the cry of someone about to be “cut to pieces” was enough to spring him to action.
Just as the clever of the large male was to fall down on the hand of an elderly male, a sand bullet lunched itself at it, knocking the weapon of Hashiro’s hand with a thud. An enraged face of the men was quickly met with a dirty boot as Harupia kicked him in the head, though getting back fisted for his trouble in return. Apparently the guy was also pretty tough, along with his size. Next came a flurry of attacks from the failed Genin, but after two punches connecting to Harupia’s head, he was finally able to gather enough sand for his defense. Though with him being fazed from the earlier two attacks it only served to slightly deter the kidnapper, his second strike breaking through the defense. Still, as he reached for the Sunaku Shinobi, he already had enough time to clear up his thought. A kick movement of his hand and he struck the man at his belly, causing him to move back. He charged forward a second after, but Harupia had little trouble moving to the side. By the time the culprit would turn back, it would be already too late. One solid clump of sand struck his face, another his stomach, a few others followed, before finally another boot landed on Hitoshi’s head, this time managing to pin him down. Before the winded bandit could try and get up, he would find himself tightly engulfed in Sand, a terrified look on the men’s face. If there was one thing people knew about the Sunaku clan, is that one did not want to end up in a coffin made from them. With a somewhat grim look on his face Harupia said “Don’t worry, I don’t want to crush you…but I would like to ask a few questions if you wouldn’t mind…”
The impromptu interrogation proved quite fruitful. Hitoshi was quick to say the people he kidnapped were people that at one point or another offended him, or people related to those people…or just people who looked at him funny. As he sat the people free, he recognized some of them for being filled as missing in some of the reports back in the bunker. Some were a bit more shaken up then other…they saw Hitoshi kill one of the captured people, while he sent of some of the others. Getting something more useful from the captured criminal was a bit more time consuming, but a bit of…pressure could do wonders. The revelations that came were...somewhat startling at first. But in the end, he founded out what he needed to know. He was working for Sunaku Kishi, delivering people to him…and he knew where the men was now.
Harupia didn’t go straight there. First, after tying up the captive with all the rope he had available and holding onto his arms for good measure, he forced the men to move into the Seitch, with all the civilians following close by. Now that he didn’t need to spot anyone out he could move via a safer route towards the bunker, one of the close by buildings having an entrance with the dimond symbol etched upon it. With a bit of chakra applied to it, he would unlock the hallway which went deeper into the safe haven. After a while he encountered a patrol of Shinobi, which took of the prisoner from his hands and made sure the other civilians were taken care of. Now then…it was time deal with the men sullying his family’s name.
The Sietch was where the middle class would live. People who maybe weren’t drowning on yen, but who had enough of an income to live with dignity, and even comfortably. Of course, people always enjoyed some entertainment after their hard work. The Golden dune theater was quite popular place for finding just that. What started as a small play house grew quite a bit over the years, providing just the right balance between simply amusing plays and ore thoughtful pieces. Sometimes the performances would rival those put up in houses from the Golden District, as he had learned coming to see the productions a fair amount of times. What was also going for the place was its location, being as close as a building could be to the center of the Sietch. Fitting it would be the best place to fit in a device which was able to demolish the whole area. Harupia had a solemn expression as he moved through the busted door frame. It was a bitter feeling, seeing what was once a somewhat modest, but classy looking establishment, now wrecked through the crisis. Curtains torn, walls cracked…he could only imagine what went on here when the invasion started. And he knew what would come next wouldn’t be much better.
Now, he didn’t quite know much about Kishi, but from what he knew about the bomb, this one was quite a bit larger than the ones he saw in the ANBU Division. And he knew the best place to set up such a large device. Going through the familiar halls he finally found himself before the main stage, dimly lit by the few still working chakra crystals and by the Illumination coming from some of the cracks in the walls and ceilings of the building. And as he suspected, there it was. A large contraption, similar to what he saw before…and a men crouching in front of it, a tattered robe covering his body. He stepped carefully towards the stage, casting quick glances to the sides, seeing dozens of dead bodies in beetwen the seats. but he still didn’t quite sneak on the men, as he heard him say in a low voice “Well well…it’s been a while cine someone came here…most people already know the plays are canceled for the foreseeable future…and who might it be?”. Still moving closer the Sunan defender said “Sunaku Harupia…it’s been a long time, Kishi-san”. With a cackle the men by the bomb said “Well, well, the son of the men who locked me away for all this years…are you here to finish up your father work? Or perhaps you are concerned with the device I was tasked to take care of? It’s amusing, how people from outside of the village were more willing to help me then my own brethren…” Harupia replied quickly “We tried to help you…but after what you did…all those you killed”. With bitterness in his voice, Kishi replied in turn "Don’t you try and chestite me boy! I’ve killed many men, and as long as it served the interests of this damned village or my family, no one bated an eye…but when I try and help myself, suddenly I’m the evil one”. Trying to be as gentle as possible Harupia said “What you wanted was impossible…I can’t imagine what you felt when you lost your beloved Kishi… but you can’t bring back the dead”. Another cackle came as the men said “Can’t I?”
Suddenly, a bolt of chakra shoot from the men’s finger, illuminating the room. A Photon Jutsu, though crafted in a way to make it only into source of light rather than an attack. On the now illuminated scene, the Older Sunaku stood up. His frame was somewhat sickly, thin, pale, the shaggy hair on his head being almost half way white. And the grin he had on the face only made it more unsettling as he spoke “They kept saying it’s impossible, that she was gone. No one wanted to help me…they called me a monster for all my attempts. But then, when I was in my prison, the Cabal came to my aid…they gave me the knowledge I needed…my earlier attempts were clumsy, incomplete…but now…here she is. My beloved Yuna.” From behind the curtain, he could see a lone figure moving to the front of the scene. Harupais eyes winded in shock at what he saw. He never really knew much about Kishi’s lover, though he did see them in the compound a few times. She was quite pretty in his young eyes, so her image did imprint itself in his mind…what he saw, he assumed ,was to be her. The face, the body, it was similar…but it was dead. He could see it was sawn together, stitched…her eyes were lifeless as she stood next to Kishi, who wrapped his arm around her in a loving manner while saying “Im guessing you found me because of that idiot Hitoshi…he was useful in one thing. When I paid him to start a fight, he did that… he created enough commotion around the medic wards for me to have enough time to steal away my beloved’s body… Of course, I needed to work so hard to preserve her, while trying to bring her to life…I needed to make so much experiments…all for naught… But then, when I was captured and sentenced into a life of madness on the Obsidian hell, the Cabal found me. They let me bring her back…though it’s still not perfect. This is only the vessel…but once me deed is done, they will share the rest of the knowledge with me…I will be able to bring my love back completely…”
As the man stared in adoration at his creation, Harupai’s hands balled harshly, while a set of sand missiles lunched themselves right at the men, with him shouting “YOU SICK FREAK!”. The missiles of sand seemed to stop right before the men, some of them even ending up bouncing back at Harupia. He could see a bit of a gleam coming from right before Kishi as he laughed…a Mirror Jutsu as well. This would be tricky…also, he could not be sure just what the freakish apparition he created was capable of. After a while Kishi said “ I have no time to play with you child… you were dead as soon as you came here”. Suddenly, Harupia started to hear shuffling from behind him… The bodies were rising up. Harupia jumped back quickly, just barely avoiding getting caught by the shambling corpse. What kind of jutsu was this… Just a second later, it seemed another attacker came. Also like a corpse, though he looked more fresh the others…and was also swinging an exe at his head. A shield of sand quickly came to his aid, and a shove of his hand condensed it into a Sand missile, shaped into a sword, flying with enough force to pierce the axe wilding warrior to a wall. He did see at least eight other bodies charging at him…and then his eyes started to burn. Photon light could hurt the eyes quite a bit. Blinded by Kishis’ Jutsu, Harupia didn’t quite manage to fend of all the animated corpse hounding hi, feeling one swipe at his chest, and one bite at him shoulder. A quick grab and a throw got rid of him, and the send protecting him was doing a good job fending of the others. Though he was almost tricked by his reliance on the sand, when a spike of the grainy soil flew at his direction. He was fighting Sunaku after all. Still, he had enough control to dissipate the projectile before it managed to do more damage. Earning himself a few more claw marks from the corpse, Harupia was finally prepared to fend them of. With a quick thought, tendrils of sand erupted from the ground, lashing out on each of the bodies. As much as it wrenched his guts, he dismembered the bodies, and thus gave himself a moment to breath. Though it seemed they wouldn’t be easily stopped as they kept on moving.
He couldn’t be wasting time with these…he had the main goal in mind. With a quick leap, he found himself on the stage Kishi turned towards the bomb. The body of his beloved still just standing there. Still able to see a member of his own family in the men he said in a pleading tone as he approached him “Kishi, you can still…” before being cut of, a hook to his jaw sending him reeling back. Soon followed by a quick combination of strikes and a kick to his gut which sent him flying. The copse had come to life…and it seemed much more capable then the other ones he saw before. It seemed to be almost live like, with her fighting stance…and h could see the feint outline of chakra over her fists. Channeling jutsu…and judging by the fact his vision was getting a bit blurry, it had to be poison. He did recall the girl being an aspiring medic… though she packed quite a punch for a healer. He didn’t have much time to contemplate as he had to move back, her assault continuing. And soon after other attacks came in, Kishi shouting at him “You forced my beloved to soil her hands…I’ll make you pay for that!” as he pelted him with sand projectiles and flares of Photon energy. Still, it was a bit to his advantage. He managed to dodge some of the projectiles, while his own sand and the sand made from the maniacs attacks also helped him. Still, dodging a barrage of ranged attacks was not making it any easier to dodge her own attacks. It was also a bit consuming, as her hands shine with the feint light he remembered from the nurses using on lighter wounds, but in the few times her punches connected, it seemed the chakra was more poisonous then healing. And she managed to throw in a few punches, while his sand was defending him from shards of mirror glass and light energy.
Harupia knew he had to act fast as he dodged around. He could assume that this being would be able to heal her master if he were to hurt him, so he had to make sure to try and eliminate it first…besides, getting hounded like this would make it hard to try and get to his intended target. The scratches from his earlier fight with, and the wounds from the glass shards which managed to sneak through his defenses, and the strong punches of the horrific puppet before him were slowly adding up. And god only knew what would happen if he didn’t manage to fend off one of the stronger looking strikes…But he needed to dodge and weave just for a few more seconds, suffer through the men’s horrific laugh. Kishi then paused for a second as he said “Look at you, dancing on the stage…a young artists dream hmm?” The momentary lack of attacks was just what he needed. A quick motion of his hands kicking up the san under his feet, causing a brief sand storm. Obscuring the vision of those around. Kish laughed saying “Foolish boy…I know all of these tricks” before he used a quick wind Jutsu to dispel the wind. But that bought him enough time. As the animated body faced him again, Harupia was ready, with a sphere of pure Chakra in his hand. Smashing it against her stomach, the energy exploded, sending her tumbling back into the wall.
Not wasting time, he charged forward to try and get Kishi while she was out…and as he struck the men with a might blow, he simply faded into nothingness…A Mirage. Confused where he was, he was soon blinded by the men’s jutsu, his eyes adjusting a bit quicker, though it seemed there was a constant source of light. And an armed one at that. It was Kishi, using the Luminous Shine jutsu and arming himself with a mirror weapons, furiously trying to slash Harupia down, almost frothing in anger as he shouted “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER! YOU WILL NOT TAKE HER AWAY FROM EM AGAIN! NO ONE WILL”. This wasn’t good again…he was not the best in close quarters, and Kishi was relentless in trying to hound him down. And all the blinding light and his tired, somewhat weakened state was making this all harder and harder. And he knew the puppet of the mad men would be returning soon…But he remember well shower she landed. He waited, waited, trying to dodge the attacks of the Angry Kishi. After a bit he said “Face it old man…whatever you created back there, it is not you lover, it’s only a twisted sack of meat! An insult to the women you loved!”, making the Sunaku lunge at him with furry. With that, he quickly rolled to the side…just in time to dodge another hook from the animated medic.
Letting his eyes adjust, he saw how the Sunaku stabbed the corpse with his weapon, staring at it in horror as the lifeless body started back with blank eyes. Not wasting time, Harupia gathered all the sand around them, encasing the men in the infamous Sand Coffin. Kishi shouted and cried out as he watched the body slump to the ground “ Yuna, please, forgive me…I didn’t mean to. Get up, please…if you stop this men, we can soon be together ag…” he was cut short, a pained groan coming from his lips. Watching from the outside, one could see the hilt of a blade, made out of sand, sticking out of the coffin. Almost like a magician and his trick. But this wasn’t a tricky, with Harupia creating a sand missile and leaving enough room in the coffin for it to pass. Pricing straight through Kishi’s heart…or what was left of it. A few second later, the panting Sunaku released the coffin, letting his clan’s man’s body fall lifeless to the ground, his head landing next to his beloved Yuna’s. Even in his death, he seemed to be starting into her with his obsessive, adoring eyes…watching as the corpse, held together by whatever dark arts he used, brittles away into nothingness.
Harupia found it ironic this whole debacle ended in a theater. As he stood before the massive contraption, disarming it with his charka, disassembling it with his sand, he felt that this could have been a good set up for a play. One of tragedy, romance, action. Yet, as he exited the theater, wounded, winded, he couldn’t help but to feel a sense of bitterness. Perhaps this was why the hero’s died in tragedies…because one would find it hard to believe someone could live with the burden of memories of what he witnessed. He hoped he could…for his own sake, and for the sake of others.
Mft, Wc= 4559
He had heard stories from his family. A promising Sunaku medic, who suffered the loss of a beloved women, in spite of his efforts to save her…those efforts had not stopped, causing the men to kill at least 3 people in an attempt of wicked experiments. Luckily he was sized, Haru’s father Shigeo personally dragging him through the village to the Obsidian Palace. Unfortunately, the body of the girl was never found. All of this happened when he was… seven or eight years old. He felt sorry for the poor men…but as he saw him being apprehended by his father, there was a sense of fear he felt just by being near him.
And now there it was…the Cabal apparently asking the aid of a elderly Sunaku Shinobi, freed from captivity, guarding a device which would demolish an entire districts. Someone who needed to be stopped…but they didn’t have quite enough of a lead. Not yet at least.
Harupia rarely was within the actual Palace himself. What he did at most was guide a few captured prisoners to the entrance, where the ANBU would quickly take care of them. Being inside of the dark walls felt as good as we suspected earlier. This eerie atmosphere…it seemed as if something I the walls called to him, nagging on him, just eager to drive him insane… Even if the effects of whatever was used to create this dark place were lessened by its destruction, it still weighed on his mind. And yet here he was, amidst busted cells and messed up halls. He would be feeling like a blind child where it not for the documents supplied in the bakery. Of course, ANBU detailing he layout of their headquarters was an unusual thing, but they didn’t have time to worry about procedure. They were out trying to help the villagers, and requested for someone to come by the offices and make sure their documents were safe.
It all seemed so quiet and calm…but he could feel something was off. It was feint, just barely distinguishable from all the commotion in his mind as the dark walls messed with his head. But there was a feint trace of chakra…just barely noticeable, but still there. And so he wandered the dark hall’s, going towards the files as he had remembered, but still having the signal of chakra there in his mind…and it grew stronger and stronger…Was it just him starting to get more and more paranoid. But then it felt it even stronger, more than before…coming straight from the wall before him. Now, his mind was quite weary from the last few days. He wouldn’t disqualify the possibility of him being delusional. But still…focusing his powers, he gently made the sand particles around him move. When he focused hard, he could feel each particle around him, he remembered even his father making him count each one during training. And he felt the particles in the wall. Moving freely, having a bit of space. Curious he moved closer to the wall, and with a bit of sand formed into a pike, tried to poke around the wall. It took a while, but he found just slight wedge…after a bit of s struggle, part of the wall dropped down… and things got a bit more hectic.
Just how the reports said. A bomb. One of the smaller ones, but he wouldn’t doubt it was strong enough to kill him if it were to blow up. They seemed to be somewhat easy to operate once you found them, according to the files. You just needed to apply the right amount of chakra to overload and make the explosive inert. But if he judged wrong…well, he hoped he wouldn’t. He gingerly reached for it, not wanting to set it off…and then came the footsteps. With a quick move he dashed back, with the assailant passing by him. It seemed like whoever this was, he was just as lost in the dark walls as Harupia felt…though his inmate clothing suggested he had much more time to get used to the place. In whatever way, the prisoner had a standard ANBU blade in his hand…and was lunging with it at Haru again with a mad look on his face. Still, the sand had gathered quite quickly after the initial attack, blocking him and holding the sword in place. Before the men could wrench it out of the grasp, a firm strike of Haru’s elbow, then followed by a clump of sand, knocked the assailant unconscious.
Luckily, it seemed he was one of the few inmates still inside and not locked up. Without him, Haru could focus on the bomb, and managed to take it offline after a bit of stressful work, seeing the chakra sensitive clay finally dissipate into dust once he was done. After a while ha managed to find the ANBU offices, and it seemed at least part of the paperwork was still salvageable. He guessed the inmates didn’t really care about them as they ran off to freedom. After a bit of digging around he managed to find something he could use. A file on one Hashiro, otherwise known as “The 8th Butcher”. As he read, he was the 8th psychopath who had referred to himself as such during the ANBU’ operation history. A bit of a lowlife, doped out of the academy after 8 years of not passing the genin exam and increasingly growing aggressiveness. A big guy, strong and tough, but not much else good to say about him. Had a very short temper, and with how harsh some people could be on someone who failed to pass the academy training…it was a mixture bound to explode at some point. At first it was just a few fines for starting trouble, he beat up some people, he got beat up for it. He did cross the line eventually, getting caught after killing a meat store owner with his own cleaver…hmm, so apparently he didn’t even call himself the Butcher. The ANBU member making the report just felt it was appropriate enough, and that it’s been a while since they had a butcher around. Huh..it was amusing to see the elusive ANBU having a sense of humor…as twisted as it was.
After his visit in the Obsidian Palace, and restraining the one inmate who tried to get him, Harupia moved back into the Sietch, taking to the rooftops. His revelation about the youngest Sunan butcher was important for one reason in particular. Reports indicate he had been in contact with one Sunaku Kishi for a few weeks, before Kishi got arrested for his experimenting. And they seemed to have attempting to contact each other within the Palace. This Hashiro had some tab’s on the forsaken Sunaku…and he needed to see what exactly that implied. After a bit of searching, he managed to find the guy. He stood out quite a bit in the empty streets of the Sietch. He seemed to be semi worried, looking around from time to time. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t as focused to try and look up at the rooftops.
With a silent thud, Harupia landed on the building to which Hashiro has entered. Crouching down to listen, he could hear something going on in the building…mostly due to the convicts loud shouts, but also some worried cries of others. Well now…things once again got a bit more complicated. Fortunately, it seemed the building was abandoned, besides the commotion going on downstairs. Harupia silently moved down until he reached one of the rooms. He could hear even more shouting, and panicked cries from other people. While he intended to be careful, the cry of someone about to be “cut to pieces” was enough to spring him to action.
Just as the clever of the large male was to fall down on the hand of an elderly male, a sand bullet lunched itself at it, knocking the weapon of Hashiro’s hand with a thud. An enraged face of the men was quickly met with a dirty boot as Harupia kicked him in the head, though getting back fisted for his trouble in return. Apparently the guy was also pretty tough, along with his size. Next came a flurry of attacks from the failed Genin, but after two punches connecting to Harupia’s head, he was finally able to gather enough sand for his defense. Though with him being fazed from the earlier two attacks it only served to slightly deter the kidnapper, his second strike breaking through the defense. Still, as he reached for the Sunaku Shinobi, he already had enough time to clear up his thought. A kick movement of his hand and he struck the man at his belly, causing him to move back. He charged forward a second after, but Harupia had little trouble moving to the side. By the time the culprit would turn back, it would be already too late. One solid clump of sand struck his face, another his stomach, a few others followed, before finally another boot landed on Hitoshi’s head, this time managing to pin him down. Before the winded bandit could try and get up, he would find himself tightly engulfed in Sand, a terrified look on the men’s face. If there was one thing people knew about the Sunaku clan, is that one did not want to end up in a coffin made from them. With a somewhat grim look on his face Harupia said “Don’t worry, I don’t want to crush you…but I would like to ask a few questions if you wouldn’t mind…”
The impromptu interrogation proved quite fruitful. Hitoshi was quick to say the people he kidnapped were people that at one point or another offended him, or people related to those people…or just people who looked at him funny. As he sat the people free, he recognized some of them for being filled as missing in some of the reports back in the bunker. Some were a bit more shaken up then other…they saw Hitoshi kill one of the captured people, while he sent of some of the others. Getting something more useful from the captured criminal was a bit more time consuming, but a bit of…pressure could do wonders. The revelations that came were...somewhat startling at first. But in the end, he founded out what he needed to know. He was working for Sunaku Kishi, delivering people to him…and he knew where the men was now.
Harupia didn’t go straight there. First, after tying up the captive with all the rope he had available and holding onto his arms for good measure, he forced the men to move into the Seitch, with all the civilians following close by. Now that he didn’t need to spot anyone out he could move via a safer route towards the bunker, one of the close by buildings having an entrance with the dimond symbol etched upon it. With a bit of chakra applied to it, he would unlock the hallway which went deeper into the safe haven. After a while he encountered a patrol of Shinobi, which took of the prisoner from his hands and made sure the other civilians were taken care of. Now then…it was time deal with the men sullying his family’s name.
The Sietch was where the middle class would live. People who maybe weren’t drowning on yen, but who had enough of an income to live with dignity, and even comfortably. Of course, people always enjoyed some entertainment after their hard work. The Golden dune theater was quite popular place for finding just that. What started as a small play house grew quite a bit over the years, providing just the right balance between simply amusing plays and ore thoughtful pieces. Sometimes the performances would rival those put up in houses from the Golden District, as he had learned coming to see the productions a fair amount of times. What was also going for the place was its location, being as close as a building could be to the center of the Sietch. Fitting it would be the best place to fit in a device which was able to demolish the whole area. Harupia had a solemn expression as he moved through the busted door frame. It was a bitter feeling, seeing what was once a somewhat modest, but classy looking establishment, now wrecked through the crisis. Curtains torn, walls cracked…he could only imagine what went on here when the invasion started. And he knew what would come next wouldn’t be much better.
Now, he didn’t quite know much about Kishi, but from what he knew about the bomb, this one was quite a bit larger than the ones he saw in the ANBU Division. And he knew the best place to set up such a large device. Going through the familiar halls he finally found himself before the main stage, dimly lit by the few still working chakra crystals and by the Illumination coming from some of the cracks in the walls and ceilings of the building. And as he suspected, there it was. A large contraption, similar to what he saw before…and a men crouching in front of it, a tattered robe covering his body. He stepped carefully towards the stage, casting quick glances to the sides, seeing dozens of dead bodies in beetwen the seats. but he still didn’t quite sneak on the men, as he heard him say in a low voice “Well well…it’s been a while cine someone came here…most people already know the plays are canceled for the foreseeable future…and who might it be?”. Still moving closer the Sunan defender said “Sunaku Harupia…it’s been a long time, Kishi-san”. With a cackle the men by the bomb said “Well, well, the son of the men who locked me away for all this years…are you here to finish up your father work? Or perhaps you are concerned with the device I was tasked to take care of? It’s amusing, how people from outside of the village were more willing to help me then my own brethren…” Harupia replied quickly “We tried to help you…but after what you did…all those you killed”. With bitterness in his voice, Kishi replied in turn "Don’t you try and chestite me boy! I’ve killed many men, and as long as it served the interests of this damned village or my family, no one bated an eye…but when I try and help myself, suddenly I’m the evil one”. Trying to be as gentle as possible Harupia said “What you wanted was impossible…I can’t imagine what you felt when you lost your beloved Kishi… but you can’t bring back the dead”. Another cackle came as the men said “Can’t I?”
Suddenly, a bolt of chakra shoot from the men’s finger, illuminating the room. A Photon Jutsu, though crafted in a way to make it only into source of light rather than an attack. On the now illuminated scene, the Older Sunaku stood up. His frame was somewhat sickly, thin, pale, the shaggy hair on his head being almost half way white. And the grin he had on the face only made it more unsettling as he spoke “They kept saying it’s impossible, that she was gone. No one wanted to help me…they called me a monster for all my attempts. But then, when I was in my prison, the Cabal came to my aid…they gave me the knowledge I needed…my earlier attempts were clumsy, incomplete…but now…here she is. My beloved Yuna.” From behind the curtain, he could see a lone figure moving to the front of the scene. Harupais eyes winded in shock at what he saw. He never really knew much about Kishi’s lover, though he did see them in the compound a few times. She was quite pretty in his young eyes, so her image did imprint itself in his mind…what he saw, he assumed ,was to be her. The face, the body, it was similar…but it was dead. He could see it was sawn together, stitched…her eyes were lifeless as she stood next to Kishi, who wrapped his arm around her in a loving manner while saying “Im guessing you found me because of that idiot Hitoshi…he was useful in one thing. When I paid him to start a fight, he did that… he created enough commotion around the medic wards for me to have enough time to steal away my beloved’s body… Of course, I needed to work so hard to preserve her, while trying to bring her to life…I needed to make so much experiments…all for naught… But then, when I was captured and sentenced into a life of madness on the Obsidian hell, the Cabal found me. They let me bring her back…though it’s still not perfect. This is only the vessel…but once me deed is done, they will share the rest of the knowledge with me…I will be able to bring my love back completely…”
As the man stared in adoration at his creation, Harupai’s hands balled harshly, while a set of sand missiles lunched themselves right at the men, with him shouting “YOU SICK FREAK!”. The missiles of sand seemed to stop right before the men, some of them even ending up bouncing back at Harupia. He could see a bit of a gleam coming from right before Kishi as he laughed…a Mirror Jutsu as well. This would be tricky…also, he could not be sure just what the freakish apparition he created was capable of. After a while Kishi said “ I have no time to play with you child… you were dead as soon as you came here”. Suddenly, Harupia started to hear shuffling from behind him… The bodies were rising up. Harupia jumped back quickly, just barely avoiding getting caught by the shambling corpse. What kind of jutsu was this… Just a second later, it seemed another attacker came. Also like a corpse, though he looked more fresh the others…and was also swinging an exe at his head. A shield of sand quickly came to his aid, and a shove of his hand condensed it into a Sand missile, shaped into a sword, flying with enough force to pierce the axe wilding warrior to a wall. He did see at least eight other bodies charging at him…and then his eyes started to burn. Photon light could hurt the eyes quite a bit. Blinded by Kishis’ Jutsu, Harupia didn’t quite manage to fend of all the animated corpse hounding hi, feeling one swipe at his chest, and one bite at him shoulder. A quick grab and a throw got rid of him, and the send protecting him was doing a good job fending of the others. Though he was almost tricked by his reliance on the sand, when a spike of the grainy soil flew at his direction. He was fighting Sunaku after all. Still, he had enough control to dissipate the projectile before it managed to do more damage. Earning himself a few more claw marks from the corpse, Harupia was finally prepared to fend them of. With a quick thought, tendrils of sand erupted from the ground, lashing out on each of the bodies. As much as it wrenched his guts, he dismembered the bodies, and thus gave himself a moment to breath. Though it seemed they wouldn’t be easily stopped as they kept on moving.
He couldn’t be wasting time with these…he had the main goal in mind. With a quick leap, he found himself on the stage Kishi turned towards the bomb. The body of his beloved still just standing there. Still able to see a member of his own family in the men he said in a pleading tone as he approached him “Kishi, you can still…” before being cut of, a hook to his jaw sending him reeling back. Soon followed by a quick combination of strikes and a kick to his gut which sent him flying. The copse had come to life…and it seemed much more capable then the other ones he saw before. It seemed to be almost live like, with her fighting stance…and h could see the feint outline of chakra over her fists. Channeling jutsu…and judging by the fact his vision was getting a bit blurry, it had to be poison. He did recall the girl being an aspiring medic… though she packed quite a punch for a healer. He didn’t have much time to contemplate as he had to move back, her assault continuing. And soon after other attacks came in, Kishi shouting at him “You forced my beloved to soil her hands…I’ll make you pay for that!” as he pelted him with sand projectiles and flares of Photon energy. Still, it was a bit to his advantage. He managed to dodge some of the projectiles, while his own sand and the sand made from the maniacs attacks also helped him. Still, dodging a barrage of ranged attacks was not making it any easier to dodge her own attacks. It was also a bit consuming, as her hands shine with the feint light he remembered from the nurses using on lighter wounds, but in the few times her punches connected, it seemed the chakra was more poisonous then healing. And she managed to throw in a few punches, while his sand was defending him from shards of mirror glass and light energy.
Harupia knew he had to act fast as he dodged around. He could assume that this being would be able to heal her master if he were to hurt him, so he had to make sure to try and eliminate it first…besides, getting hounded like this would make it hard to try and get to his intended target. The scratches from his earlier fight with, and the wounds from the glass shards which managed to sneak through his defenses, and the strong punches of the horrific puppet before him were slowly adding up. And god only knew what would happen if he didn’t manage to fend off one of the stronger looking strikes…But he needed to dodge and weave just for a few more seconds, suffer through the men’s horrific laugh. Kishi then paused for a second as he said “Look at you, dancing on the stage…a young artists dream hmm?” The momentary lack of attacks was just what he needed. A quick motion of his hands kicking up the san under his feet, causing a brief sand storm. Obscuring the vision of those around. Kish laughed saying “Foolish boy…I know all of these tricks” before he used a quick wind Jutsu to dispel the wind. But that bought him enough time. As the animated body faced him again, Harupia was ready, with a sphere of pure Chakra in his hand. Smashing it against her stomach, the energy exploded, sending her tumbling back into the wall.
Not wasting time, he charged forward to try and get Kishi while she was out…and as he struck the men with a might blow, he simply faded into nothingness…A Mirage. Confused where he was, he was soon blinded by the men’s jutsu, his eyes adjusting a bit quicker, though it seemed there was a constant source of light. And an armed one at that. It was Kishi, using the Luminous Shine jutsu and arming himself with a mirror weapons, furiously trying to slash Harupia down, almost frothing in anger as he shouted “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER! YOU WILL NOT TAKE HER AWAY FROM EM AGAIN! NO ONE WILL”. This wasn’t good again…he was not the best in close quarters, and Kishi was relentless in trying to hound him down. And all the blinding light and his tired, somewhat weakened state was making this all harder and harder. And he knew the puppet of the mad men would be returning soon…But he remember well shower she landed. He waited, waited, trying to dodge the attacks of the Angry Kishi. After a bit he said “Face it old man…whatever you created back there, it is not you lover, it’s only a twisted sack of meat! An insult to the women you loved!”, making the Sunaku lunge at him with furry. With that, he quickly rolled to the side…just in time to dodge another hook from the animated medic.
Letting his eyes adjust, he saw how the Sunaku stabbed the corpse with his weapon, staring at it in horror as the lifeless body started back with blank eyes. Not wasting time, Harupia gathered all the sand around them, encasing the men in the infamous Sand Coffin. Kishi shouted and cried out as he watched the body slump to the ground “ Yuna, please, forgive me…I didn’t mean to. Get up, please…if you stop this men, we can soon be together ag…” he was cut short, a pained groan coming from his lips. Watching from the outside, one could see the hilt of a blade, made out of sand, sticking out of the coffin. Almost like a magician and his trick. But this wasn’t a tricky, with Harupia creating a sand missile and leaving enough room in the coffin for it to pass. Pricing straight through Kishi’s heart…or what was left of it. A few second later, the panting Sunaku released the coffin, letting his clan’s man’s body fall lifeless to the ground, his head landing next to his beloved Yuna’s. Even in his death, he seemed to be starting into her with his obsessive, adoring eyes…watching as the corpse, held together by whatever dark arts he used, brittles away into nothingness.
Harupia found it ironic this whole debacle ended in a theater. As he stood before the massive contraption, disarming it with his charka, disassembling it with his sand, he felt that this could have been a good set up for a play. One of tragedy, romance, action. Yet, as he exited the theater, wounded, winded, he couldn’t help but to feel a sense of bitterness. Perhaps this was why the hero’s died in tragedies…because one would find it hard to believe someone could live with the burden of memories of what he witnessed. He hoped he could…for his own sake, and for the sake of others.
Mft, Wc= 4559
