Hi (Requesting entry)

[Kairyuu]

The Maelstrom raged on as it always did, sand and glass screaming through the air at high speeds and occasionally hitting each other and creating such a din. For any lookouts at the Maw who happened to be watching that would be a normal sight. The abnormal would come soon, as the sound took on a higher pitch suddenly. Something might just be visible in those shifting sands, a shape. A shape coming nearer to the village.

The shrieking of the storm would go even higher as a line appeared just ahead, a line that went from the desert floor to the sky above. This line was something new, an empty space where no sand, no glass, would enter. Even the wind seemed to avoid this space. As the seconds would tick by the gap would widen, going from a mere few inches to several feet across. And that shape could now be seen clearly, walking along in this empty air as if out for an afternoon stroll.

It looked like a man at first, a man standing just under six feet who was wearing black robes. Black robes with a golden trim, adorned with runes in the trim. Matching boots were on his feet, sturdy shoes that had obviously seen use but had a long life ahead of them. His skin matched the sand around him, a burnished gold that matched his golden eyes. And in those eyes, his pupils were as black and coal and shaped like hourglasses. Long white hair settled on his shoulders, reaching just under his neckline.

As Hoshikata made his way to the Maw, the sands behind him would squeal in rage as they began to come back together into their natural pattern. Keeping up a kinetic shield this large took a lot out of him, but appearances were everything in his world. He would appear strong before the weak, wise before the ignorance, rich before the poor. He had to, or else this would all fall through before his plan could begin.

He steps upon the now calm grit underfoot and lets the shield drop, his eyes taking in the pit before him. The man raises his hand, and a staff flies from the storm behind him, gliding into his palm perfectly. The weapon was as tall as he was, made of carved ironwood with runic symbols and shapes. At the foot was a pointed cap of blue crystal, and at the top was a clear globe held by four talons. Inside of this globe was a storm of colors, spiralling and colliding together. He brings his arm down, the staff slamming into the sand beneath him.

To those whose minds were weaker than his own, a sound akin to great thunder would drown out all else as he spoke. ”I am here.”

(There might be others following me. If anyone does feel free to ride along the calm space I made )

 

[Mikaboshi]

"And who is this that arrives upon my doorstep bellowing like a sandworm?"

The response that the darkness gave to Hoshikata's announcement was no thundering challenge to meet his words. It did not rumble or roar. It simply was. Like a single drop of water falling from high above into a pool of water, Mikaboshi's question rippled through the darkness and echoed off of the stone walls of the Maw despite their softness. The torches set about the office at the height of the lift which descended deep into the threat of the dead sandworm demi-god flickered in resistance to the smothering shades that deepened around them as Mikaboshi stepped from shadowspace into the damp air of the upper levels of the Maw.

Garbed in robes darker than a moonless midnight with his upper-body encased in a breastplate and shoulder guards of an aged argent color, Mikaboshi's eschewed the typical look of the ANBU for one that was distinctly him. Rather than a mask to hide his identity, the shadows themselves obliged him under the cavernous hood that he wore. Rather than simply throwing a shadow over his features within the hood there seemed to be a hungry void dwelling within it consuming any light that dared even attempt to plumb it's depths despite the fact it played naturally over the surface of the hood and his chest normally as it might anyone else.

The presence of the sennin was unique in the sense that it strangely lacked any substance at all. Like the darkness that clung to him, Mikaboshi seemed oddly... empty. Hollow, even. A by-product of his most recent dance with his own demise, Mikaboshi had come away from it stronger for his struggle but also more in control than before. Where before he'd required a tool to keep his spiritual pressure from billowing out and suffocating weaker souls around him, he now possessed the ability to entirely suppress his power and presence... a useful skill, he'd found.

Even though his eyes were not visible through the shroud of his dark hood, Hoshikata would likely be able to sense the sennin's attention set upon him as Mikaboshi awaited an answer from the former Mizukage.

 

[Kairyuu]

The response was something that was rather unexpected, and something he was wholly unprepared for. Oh the soft voice that seemed to be everywhere at once was easily handled, likely some sound ninjutsu he figured. The flickering of the light was a parlor trick, in his mind, something easily handled by those in tune with the spiritual realm. He knew from recent experience that other such people did indeed exist. No, the thing that got him was the man who followed the voice out of the darkness.

Golden eyes flicker with a mix of amusement and excitement as the man, another in robes but also armor, seems to step out of thin air and into sight before him. He peered out, his unique eyes meeting the void under that hood and a smirk drawing itself on his face as he did. He had seen unique things in his time with these eyes. He had seen people with multiple spirits, people with deformed spirits, he once saw someone with a demon spirit.

He had never seen someone with no spirit.

”This would be Isaki Hoshikata. Former Mizukage, leader of the Isaki clan. Deicide.”

He thought for a moment it might be some construct being controlled from afar, but he saw no link to connect it to the puppet master. Nor did he see anything, not even a flicker, of a soul inside of that shell of darkness. It was as if there were nothing standing before him, but his eyes did not lie on the physical plane. And he knew he was under no genjutsu.

”I come bearing news of Kirigakure, and an invitation for your leader.”

This was certainly no mere human. Nothing mortal lacked a soul, even Hoshikata had one, though he no longer considered himself to be mortal. This was going to prove to be a most interesting night, he knew. With a soft chuckle, he mutters to himself before awaiting a response.

”Vel'bol ph'dos, dos lnaya klez? “

 

[Mikaboshi]

Mikaboshi seemed to wait for a moment before his head turned to the side within his hood at a distinctly strange angle as if he were attempting to ponder his way through a puzzle.

"Very well then. Bear your news."

Mikaboshi's tone made it apparent that he wasn't overly interested in what he had to say but at the same time he wasn't about to just let a man that claimed "deicide" as a title to simply walk into his village. The dark sennin did not move or speak further, he simply stood and waited as though he were a gargoyle waiting for the cover of night to reanimate him. Even the air seemed to be stiller with his presence in the vicinity but given that Hoshikata had just walked in from a literal maelstrom of grit and glass such perceptions were unlikely to be reliable.

As Hoshikata looked upon the ancient what he saw was a lack of humanity in a way that he recognized. Mikaboshi did indeed possess a soul but not in the same way that humans did. His reflected to the eyes of those that could see such things as a gaping void without substance; a hungering pit that threatened to suck in the light around it. When Mikaboshi had met one of the most recent spiritually aware arrivals of Sunagakure it had physically hurt her to look upon him but that was mostly for the lack of power between them.

 

[Kairyuu]

His eyes do not narrow, but the smile on his face grew a bit thinner. He had never thought to enter without some questions, but he also had no idea who this being before him was. He had no intention of spilling the full story to what could end up being a nobody ANBU or a chuunin with too much time on their hands. Finally, after a brief moment of silence, the smile widens back to what it was before.

”Well, I'm not quite sure how much of the news would be relevant to you, but the city of Kirigakure is no more. The false Mizukage, Kasumi Masa, angered a god and brought an attack down on the village by the very world itself. The entirety of Water now lies under a frozen tundra, and at the center in the city of Kirigakure it is cold enough to freeze lava solid in mid flow.”

Indeed, it was not Masa who had angered him, it was Karurosu. Still, it sounded better to blame a false Mizukage than the medical sennin. Oh sure, she'd been named, by him no less, but she was no more the legitimate leader of that land than Hayata Shin was of Cloud. One day all of these false leaders would realize they only served because he allowed them to.

By that same token, he had little doubt as to why the village was gone. If ever one needed verification of his rise to divinity this would be it. Hoshikata had marched to his old home with every intention of striking it down. Karu had dared to claim that he could hand Hoshikata that which the god already owned. He was going to show him exactly what a god could do. And he did. His pure rage, he believed, had swept across Water like a chill wind of hell. And in his wrath he had frozen them, broken them. Mist crumbled as he willed it.

”As for the rest, that is for the leader of the village alone. I come bearing an invitation for him, one made as well to Hayata Shin of Kumogakure. One to be made to the leaders of all the great shinobi nations that stand. Worry not, I bring no harm or ill intentions to your home; I merely seek an audience with the one who leads you.”

 

[Mikaboshi]

Mikaboshi made a snorting noise as Hoshikata explained that Kirigakure had been destroyed by the hand of an angry god. Obviously being what he was Mikaboshi did not believe in gods. Not true gods, anyway. A being as old as he had seen all manner of things; creatures which could certainly pass as gods to the eyes of humans but they were such a gullible breed. It was far more likely that Mist simply suffered the ire of an extraordinarily powerful spirit which could influence the state of water in the air. Such a being could easily cause ice floes on a massive scale if they so chose. It never crossed Mikaboshi's mind to ask what the Mizukage had done to anger the spirit enough to bring such devastation down on Kirigakure. Humans of this age had collectively little respect for the spiritual world and as a result found themselves commonly at odds with it. Smiling within the utter darkness of his hood, Mikaboshi savored the news that humans had been driven out of the Water Country entirely.

And then made a silent note to visit some day. A kingdom of rime and darkness where humans could not survive? It sounded to him like paradise.

"I have but your word to assure me that you mean my city and my master no harm." Growled the wraith-like sennin, drifting about to Hoshikata's right side. "And the word of a human is worth less than nothing. But the opportunity to meet a king? There are many assassins in the world that would give their right arm for such a thing."

There was something special about this man, Mikaboshi could feel that much. But he was still very much a human being. No matter how much power he gained or how much he changed about himself he would always have the essence of a man in his heart just as Mikaboshi would always have the essence of an ancient.

"So tell me Isaki Hoshikata of the Isaki Clan, former Mizukage. Why should I let you pass my gates to speak to my master? What does Sunagakure stand to gain?"

 

[Kairyuu]

Now those eyes narrow, the smile vanishing from his face as the thing before him speaks. ”I agree on the word of a human, but it appears you've made the mistake of assuming that which stands before you is such.” He lets his grip on the staff loosen and steps closer to the shadowy form before him. As he walks from the weapon, it stands completely upright as if on its own. ”I know you are not such, though I can honestly say I've never encountered a being like you. It's as if, where your soul should be, there is only a pit. Quite interesting.

Those golden eyes look back up at Mikaboshi, the black hourglass pupils almost appear to have their own golden grains of sand dropping through them as he stares at the thing, as if counting down their death. ”You believe my eyes a simple trick? You believe I take the title of Deicide lightly?” Hoshikata chuckles, but there is little mirth in the sound of it. ”I have faced down a god. And cast it down with the power granted me by its own mistake. I survived being burned from the inside out, being cast into the waters of the dead. No human could do that, I'm sure you know. I see you for what you are not, perhaps you should look into returning the favor.”

His hand rises as the staff flies into it like a dog to its master. ”Your village stands to gain an equal power to those other shinobi villages. A meeting is coming which will decide the fate of the shinobi world. Absence from it is not suggested, as it could make the other kages rather suspicious.” He doubted these were things the being before him cared for, however. So he lets his smile return, slowly.

”In the short term, however, you gain the protection of a man who can slay a god. I am bringing this meeting together, and it would hinder that greatly if anything were to happen to this village before then. But, perhaps I should state the obvious here and now. Had I intended to bring harm upon anyone inside, I would not go announcing myself with such a flair as I did before hand. It would be a brazen assassin indeed who proclaims his presence to the entire village before trying to bury a dagger into the heart of its leader.”

He left unspoken the fact that, had he truly wanted to enter, he could have done so. Better this one remained ignorant of his myriad tricks stemming from his mastery of the spiritual plain.

 

[Mikaboshi]

"You don't honestly think that you're the first man that I've met with unusual eyes, do you?" Mikaboshi asked with a flat, bored tone. Sand was home to two clans which also possessed unusual eye techniques. The Uchiha were legendary of course for their Sharingan eye. Equally infamous in some circles were the Masashi who possessed an extremely similar technique which bore an identical appearance. Both doujutsu techniques granted them powerful traits and techniques not normally available to the average human being.

"You humans. You think because you absconded with the power that isn't your own that you aren't a man." He continued, his hands going from clasped behind his back to folded across his chest as he tipped his head to the right in explanation. "But nothing changes what you started as. What you are. I can see your heart, Isaki Hoshikata. You were born a man and a man you remain. Changed, yes. Ascended? Perhaps. But human none the less."

Mikaboshi grinned behind the darkness of his mask as Hoshiata went on about how he wouldn't go announcing himself before the gates of the village if he were intending to assassinate the Kazekage.

"Or perhaps you simply judge yourself better at lying than you are at hiding." Reasoned the Sennin thoughtfully, pacing a little closer to where Isaki stood. "But I have a proposition for you, my potential friend. Provision me a sample of your energy. It will let me find you in my city should I need to. Should you turn against us."

Mikaboshi had an ulterior motive that he didn't mention, of course. He usually did. He wished the sample of the energy so that he might have a taste of it; find out what sort of changes Hoshikata had made to himself. He saw darkness in Hoshikata's human heart and could not contain his curiosity towards what it might taste like. He could not attack and kill Hoshikata in plain view of the gates, of course. That would have been uncivilized. But if Hoshikata were to willingly give up a portion of energy to the sennin? Well then he could do what he wanted with it, of course.

"Grant me this boon and I will take you to my master."

[Requesting a Solar Seal]

 

[Kairyuu]

A tsk tsk would sound from his lips as the thing went on about how he began as a human and remained such. Such talk was offensive at best, dangerous at worst. Hoshikata knew what he used to be, just as he knew what he now was. And that was not a mere human. ”It's not just the eyes. But nevermind that, I see you have as closed a mind as your village does gates on that matter. Apparently we have vastly different ideas over what constitutes as being human. I've yet to meet anyone else capable of matching what I've become.”

Indeed, the man was grating on him something fierce. He was used to people listening to his words, he was used to less doubt to his words. Even those fools in Cloud, who had threatened him upon entry to their squalid home, had fallen for the silver tongued devil in their midst. It might simply be that one does not con a conman in this situation, however. Evil knew evil.

”Ask what you truly mean.” He smirks, his eyes narrowing slightly as he does at this thing. At the end of it's grand speech, about how he was only a man and just like the millions of other men in this world, it proved what it itself was. A beggar looking for a handout. ”You want a taste of power. You, who think yourself superior to me, wish some of my gift as if it were a handout.”

Black flames would form in the palm of his right hand as he spoke, drawing in the light like the void as they sprung to life. ”Very well, I shall show you what kind of gifts I can bestow upon those I deem worthy. And then we shall see if indeed you believe me a mere human.” He raises his arm up, letting the sleeve of his robes roll down from it to his shoulder.

The black flames had licked their way up his arm to the elbow, wrapping the limb in a canvas of darkness. ”I warn you, this will not be pleasant.” As the last word slips, he springs forward and grips the arm of this thing, as he does whispering a soft word. ”Ssussun.” As the hellfire of chakra flows like water from his golden skin to the armor of this thing, it would sink through it to whatever flesh was beneath. And from the staff in his other hand, the globe atop it would suddenly flare with a piercing white light, illuminating several meters around the two.

The flames would sink past the flesh even, burning like the legendary amaterasu as they sought out a soul. And they would find it, twisted and unfamiliar though it was. To Hoshikata's eyes, they would shift golden as they began their work, etching upon the very spirit of this man a symbol of his own devising. A seal of untold power.

Hoshikata steps back as they begin to finish up, knowing from experience just how painful it was to be sealed in such a manner. And indeed, he was hoping the light from his staff would have granted him some better angle of view at whatever lay under that hood.

 

[Mikaboshi]

Mikaboshi made no move to dodge away from Hoshikata as the once Mizukage lashed out at him. Indeed, this was what he had asked for.

Agony blitzed through his arm as Hoshikata grasped him. Familiar pain. It reminded him of the ritual that Kuro's progenitor had attempted to use to re-write him into a demon spirit. But just as before, Mikaboshi refused to kneel before that pain. That power. Exercising his own will as the ebony flames sank into his flesh, Mikaboshi drank deep of it's essence. The pain eased as he consumed the dark chakra of the seal and incorporated it into the nexus of power that was his own spirit. Hoshikata was used to sealing humans, beings that were incompatible with the type of power that he wielded. Where the brand of cursed seals that he gifted to others were anathema to the soul of a human, Mikaboshi's new body and his very soul were accustomed already to such treatment having already suffered the affects of such a seal at the hands of Toraono Kuro.

Then came the abrupt flaring of light from Hoshikata's staff and with an angry hiss Mikaboshi's body dissolved as if made of black smoke being blown upon a stiff breeze. Had the light affected him so deeply that it had destroyed him?

"That was not very kind of you, former Mizukage." Chided the disembodied voice of Mikaboshi. "But I do thank you for your donation of energy. It was..."

Mikaboshi's words trailed off slightly as his physical body reappeared a few paces away, slumped over with his arms dangling from his sides and his hood blown back over his face. His face was human for the most part with thin, gaunt features and swept back jet-black hair. But where it was clear that he was not what he seemed was his eyes. Mikaboshi too had golden eyes but his were of a different sort. Like burning candles behind open windows, Mikaboshi's eyes smoldered with an unearthly hunger. These were not the eyes of a man but of a monster. One that had seen far more years than his body would imply. Hoshikata had expected to inflict a wilting pain upon Mikaboshi but it seemed as if the dark creature which masqueraded as a man had enjoyed the experience.

"... bracing." He concluded with a sharkish grin upon his features as dark shades exhaled from his mouth and nose as though it were cold enough to see his breath. The gilt of his eyes gleamed in the darkness like the coals of a stoked furnace as straightened up and reached up to once more throw his hood up about his features, shrouding his inhuman gaze in impenetrable gloom. Mirth dancing through his words now, Mikaboshi gestured for Hoshikata to follow him. "Now that I have a better measure of you, let us get under way. I am sure Lord Takahashi will be fascinated by you."

 

[Kairyuu]

No one had ever stood through the process, but he had a feeling this thing was more than capable of doing so. Even as the flames turned bright and began the marking process, he would stare at the transformation that overcame them. This thing was made for those seals, made to be fused with the evil power they granted. Hoshikata desired to know more of this thing, that he might learn how to incorporate that power into himself so easily.

And then the flash. A smirk painted his features as the construct simply vanished in the pure light of Verin. Few things of shadows could stand before it, and he thought it a nice touch that he should use such a pure, white light of power for such deeds as he often did. Though the physical form had faded, he saw that stretched abyss of nothing that was the spiritual, his eyes tracking it around.

”I'm not a very kind person. Mist didn't bring nice people into the life of a shinobi.”

He was already facing the body as it came back, and that face finally came into view. He was mildly disappointed with it however, for he had been expecting something unique and terrifying to study and was instead given mostly mundane. The face was human, but it was pulling a starved-vampire skin-pulled-tight-over-bone thing it seemed. Still, the eyes were attention catching, much as they mirrored his own in color. Gold was not an eye color often seen in the world, and these veritably glowed with ravenous desire for something.

He met those eyes as the other spoke, knowing that eyes could be more than mere doujutsu, more than simple comestic changes. His own granted him much, and they were an accident of a dark god under the village of Mist. His eyes had been to the realm of the dead and returned, along with the rest of him. They had bathed in the waters of the dead and forever changed from that experience.

At the gesture he began to follow, his staff tapping into the sand without a sound as he did. Takahashi? Lord Takahashi. Someone that made this thing before him admit to its superiority was definitely an attention getter. Was the whole village full of inhuman beings like this one? It would certainly explain the hole in the ground they lived in and their desire to not become political. But Koho, the woman he'd met atop the radio tower in Kirigakure, had been a normal, mundane human being.

”Well, let us not keep him waiting.”

(Topic left, village entered if allowed)