The last time he’d wandered around this place at this hour, he was drunk on the side effects of absorbing his soul back and his brother’s half as well. He knew not all that happened, only that he awoke naked in the office of one of Suna’s Sennin and tasked to go find Leaf….a direct cause of his joining the village and now being a Sennin himself. Perhaps if he’d simply let bygones be bygones and not taken back what was stolen, he would never have lost his eye and arm. But that wasn’t any more of an option then as it would be now. The clan had thrown him and his mother away like trash, and those responsible paid for that callousness.
He was wearing a black single-breast pocket suit with peak lapels, a matching set of dress pants with pleats, and a white button up shirt with a red and black tie in a windsor knot. His shoes were his hiking boots, but he’d shined them after a thorough cleaning so they looked as good as the rest of his ensemble. Maki had never cared about appearances before, but that was before he had to find such things to focus his mind lest it wander to…unsavory topics.
He had taken to wandering mostly to focus on the meeting, and to try to work out some excess energy for sleep. But about half a minute from the hotel some sixth sense warned him he was being watched. His furtive looks and checks revealed nothing out of the ordinary at first, but then he spied them after turning a corner. A hulking figure that made anyone he’d ever seen look tiny, a being covered head to toe in white armor that left no room for even the sand of this place to get in. Isaki Osore.
If Osore was following him, Tenken was likely nearby. But, oddly, the sense of danger was not coming from that though. Someone else was after him, hunting him like prey. He had no idea what the voluntary outcasts from the Isaki clan would want with him, and he had less desire to find out. Maki turns a corner, his hand reaching out to touch the wall nearby and channel chakra into it. Using it without handseals was a simple enough task with the proper focus, but it also meant he was not focusing on the ones after him.
A moot point as behind him the wall writes and grows, raw earth bursting free and covering the alley’s opening as Maki begins to sprint down towards the other end. The barrier wouldn’t last long, and would fall even quicker should Osore decide to break it. Halfway to the other end, his eyes would catch senbon flying through the air before all of the lights around him shattered, plunging the alley into shadows. He had some light, but only enough to see his hand before his face clearly. Even something a mere dozen feet away was a silhouette. Past fifteen feet and he saw only pitch black.
“Greetings, cousin.”
With a sight mixed between disgust, resentment, and resignation, Maki turns to the voice of Isaki Tenken. “I’ve done everything you said. The Isaki Clan is being led by Hoshirei. It’s beginning to work more towards the common good than towards its own greed. Nobu is dead, by the way. He tried to hold a coup against her when I was…unable to act against him.” Tenken was close enough that he blue of his hair was visible, and behind him Maki could spot the towering figure of Osore.
“I am aware. A shame what happened to your eye and your arm. But I am happy to see you have recovered. I must warn you about what is to come. Someone seeks harm against you, retribution for an act you took against their home.” That said, Tenken stepped back into the shadows before Maki could ask for more information.
A snapping sounded off to his right, and as his head turns he spies the blue bolt of lightning coming directly at him. With no time to do anything else the Sennin raises his left arm and lets the bolt hit his raised palm. The leather glove covering that hand instantly bursts into flames before falling apart, revealing that the wrist down was a skeletal appendage still. As Maki jerks his hand back in pain, the snapping sounds out again, in quick successions this time.
Blue bolts begin flying around as Maki grabs a trash can and throws it in their midst, the metal drawing in the electricity even as he begins running for the other opening to the alley. He sees white briefly as he runs face first into a wall, similar to his own barrier that he hoped would stop Osore from getting to him. At the next snap his eyes catch a glimpse of black hair and pale skin, a blue officer’s uniform of some sort. He had no idea who that guy was though. But he recognized the uniform as Kirigakurian make.
Great, someone who blamed Maki for something the clan did when he was a kid in Leaf. “I don’t have time for this shit.” Grabbing the lid to the trash can he’d thrown, Maki rushes towards where he saw the figure, flinging the lid ahead of him like a frisbee. He hears the clang of it bouncing off a wall and dives to the side in a roll as a snap sounds, this time from behind him somehow. Whoever this guy was, he was able to move in the darkness with such ease it left Maki in awe.
Lightning seemed to be this guy’s trick, though. Maki reaches into himself and condenses his chakra into metal release, exploding outward from his form in a thick cloud of metallic particles. As this happens, the snapping happens in a crescendo of sound, bolts of lightning flying in from his right and dispersing in the metallic cloud. Maki begins forming seals as he waits for the counter to this.
Sure enough it comes, snapping from his right as this time bolts of flame fly forth, igniting the cloud and superheating the area around him. Maki stands in the inferno and finishes his jutsu, a blindling light suddenly bursting forth to shine a spotlight on his target. He follows up with chakra sense, catching a lock just as the man slips back into the shadows and vanishes.
Maki drops the searchlight, letting his chakra sense warn him of the other. Even with a lock on chakra it was proving difficult, the other giving nothing away as he hurries through the space around. It took Maki a moment to realize this was not the same alley, apparently it opened somewhere into a maze of them. Whoever was attacking him had planned this ambush well.
As a snap sounds, Maki responds with a kinetic jutsu, sending the bolt, this time of raw chakra, back at the other and catching them in the shoulder. Maki rushes in, a wakizashi forming in his hand as he moves. A roll and he springs forward, the tip of his sword just missing the other man’s shoulder as they twist aside. Maki sends out his chakra, light flaring as a lantern explodes into being nearby, giving him sight of his foe.
Black hair left to grow just to the brow level. Pale skin, and black eyes. The man was indeed wearing a uniform Maki could associate with Kirigakure, but it had been altered with some very Sunagakurian culture. It was obviously quite old but quite well maintained. As the man begins snapping his fingers, bolts of every element begin to fly forth from the air around him, leaving Maki hard pressed as he parries with his sword, metal dust forming a second blade in his off hand to aid in this endeavor.
With a burst of smoke, Maki vanishes as a bolt flies through the air where he was, shattering the log left behind. His foe, to their credit, had no trouble figuring out where he was and pulled a long metal weapon from behind them, blocking one sword. The other catches the wooden stock, and Maki realizes he’d just been blocked by a sniper rifle. His boot comes up, slamming the man’s chest eve as he drops a sword and grabs the rifle, pulling it free from his foe who rolls backwards from the attack.
As the sword dissolves back into dust and returns to him, Maki throws the rifle behind him and advances on the other, his remaining sword shining dully in the light. And then the man’s black eyes explode with an inner light, his hair and eyes both seeming to transform into an ice blue color causing Maki to freeze.
Enzeru. He’d broken into this man’s home years ago to steal his soul back from Osore there. That was probably what spurred this. Maki hesitates about his next action, which costs him dearly as, with only the barest of sounds behind as warning, a white gauntlet grips his head and he’s tossed aside like a ragdoll. Osore had joined the fray.
Maki holds out his hand, now holding a rifle similar to the other Enzeru had moments ago. A crack sounds as he fires, the rifle instantly reforming into a short handled warhammer in his grip as he charges. Osore ducks the bullet and meets him head on, not expecting a hammer to smash into his face. As he ducks in and slams it into the giant’s knee, a bolt of fire hits him in his side, smoldering the suit. Enzeru apparently had little trouble aiming ranged attacks into the melee.
Maki throws the hammer out at the other, forcing them to retreat as the weapon splits in mid air into dozens of senbon. Osore took the moment to recover, one hand slamming into Maki with enough force to throw him backwards into a wall. And then seems to freeze in place, his whole body shaking as Taken steps into the fight and holds his brother in place with some sort of jutsu. As Enzeru moves to attack, the former leader of the Isaki raises a hand.
“Gentlemen, be still. Your wives wish to speak with you.”
He was wearing a black single-breast pocket suit with peak lapels, a matching set of dress pants with pleats, and a white button up shirt with a red and black tie in a windsor knot. His shoes were his hiking boots, but he’d shined them after a thorough cleaning so they looked as good as the rest of his ensemble. Maki had never cared about appearances before, but that was before he had to find such things to focus his mind lest it wander to…unsavory topics.
He had taken to wandering mostly to focus on the meeting, and to try to work out some excess energy for sleep. But about half a minute from the hotel some sixth sense warned him he was being watched. His furtive looks and checks revealed nothing out of the ordinary at first, but then he spied them after turning a corner. A hulking figure that made anyone he’d ever seen look tiny, a being covered head to toe in white armor that left no room for even the sand of this place to get in. Isaki Osore.
If Osore was following him, Tenken was likely nearby. But, oddly, the sense of danger was not coming from that though. Someone else was after him, hunting him like prey. He had no idea what the voluntary outcasts from the Isaki clan would want with him, and he had less desire to find out. Maki turns a corner, his hand reaching out to touch the wall nearby and channel chakra into it. Using it without handseals was a simple enough task with the proper focus, but it also meant he was not focusing on the ones after him.
A moot point as behind him the wall writes and grows, raw earth bursting free and covering the alley’s opening as Maki begins to sprint down towards the other end. The barrier wouldn’t last long, and would fall even quicker should Osore decide to break it. Halfway to the other end, his eyes would catch senbon flying through the air before all of the lights around him shattered, plunging the alley into shadows. He had some light, but only enough to see his hand before his face clearly. Even something a mere dozen feet away was a silhouette. Past fifteen feet and he saw only pitch black.
“Greetings, cousin.”
With a sight mixed between disgust, resentment, and resignation, Maki turns to the voice of Isaki Tenken. “I’ve done everything you said. The Isaki Clan is being led by Hoshirei. It’s beginning to work more towards the common good than towards its own greed. Nobu is dead, by the way. He tried to hold a coup against her when I was…unable to act against him.” Tenken was close enough that he blue of his hair was visible, and behind him Maki could spot the towering figure of Osore.
“I am aware. A shame what happened to your eye and your arm. But I am happy to see you have recovered. I must warn you about what is to come. Someone seeks harm against you, retribution for an act you took against their home.” That said, Tenken stepped back into the shadows before Maki could ask for more information.
A snapping sounded off to his right, and as his head turns he spies the blue bolt of lightning coming directly at him. With no time to do anything else the Sennin raises his left arm and lets the bolt hit his raised palm. The leather glove covering that hand instantly bursts into flames before falling apart, revealing that the wrist down was a skeletal appendage still. As Maki jerks his hand back in pain, the snapping sounds out again, in quick successions this time.
Blue bolts begin flying around as Maki grabs a trash can and throws it in their midst, the metal drawing in the electricity even as he begins running for the other opening to the alley. He sees white briefly as he runs face first into a wall, similar to his own barrier that he hoped would stop Osore from getting to him. At the next snap his eyes catch a glimpse of black hair and pale skin, a blue officer’s uniform of some sort. He had no idea who that guy was though. But he recognized the uniform as Kirigakurian make.
Great, someone who blamed Maki for something the clan did when he was a kid in Leaf. “I don’t have time for this shit.” Grabbing the lid to the trash can he’d thrown, Maki rushes towards where he saw the figure, flinging the lid ahead of him like a frisbee. He hears the clang of it bouncing off a wall and dives to the side in a roll as a snap sounds, this time from behind him somehow. Whoever this guy was, he was able to move in the darkness with such ease it left Maki in awe.
Lightning seemed to be this guy’s trick, though. Maki reaches into himself and condenses his chakra into metal release, exploding outward from his form in a thick cloud of metallic particles. As this happens, the snapping happens in a crescendo of sound, bolts of lightning flying in from his right and dispersing in the metallic cloud. Maki begins forming seals as he waits for the counter to this.
Sure enough it comes, snapping from his right as this time bolts of flame fly forth, igniting the cloud and superheating the area around him. Maki stands in the inferno and finishes his jutsu, a blindling light suddenly bursting forth to shine a spotlight on his target. He follows up with chakra sense, catching a lock just as the man slips back into the shadows and vanishes.
Maki drops the searchlight, letting his chakra sense warn him of the other. Even with a lock on chakra it was proving difficult, the other giving nothing away as he hurries through the space around. It took Maki a moment to realize this was not the same alley, apparently it opened somewhere into a maze of them. Whoever was attacking him had planned this ambush well.
As a snap sounds, Maki responds with a kinetic jutsu, sending the bolt, this time of raw chakra, back at the other and catching them in the shoulder. Maki rushes in, a wakizashi forming in his hand as he moves. A roll and he springs forward, the tip of his sword just missing the other man’s shoulder as they twist aside. Maki sends out his chakra, light flaring as a lantern explodes into being nearby, giving him sight of his foe.
Black hair left to grow just to the brow level. Pale skin, and black eyes. The man was indeed wearing a uniform Maki could associate with Kirigakure, but it had been altered with some very Sunagakurian culture. It was obviously quite old but quite well maintained. As the man begins snapping his fingers, bolts of every element begin to fly forth from the air around him, leaving Maki hard pressed as he parries with his sword, metal dust forming a second blade in his off hand to aid in this endeavor.
With a burst of smoke, Maki vanishes as a bolt flies through the air where he was, shattering the log left behind. His foe, to their credit, had no trouble figuring out where he was and pulled a long metal weapon from behind them, blocking one sword. The other catches the wooden stock, and Maki realizes he’d just been blocked by a sniper rifle. His boot comes up, slamming the man’s chest eve as he drops a sword and grabs the rifle, pulling it free from his foe who rolls backwards from the attack.
As the sword dissolves back into dust and returns to him, Maki throws the rifle behind him and advances on the other, his remaining sword shining dully in the light. And then the man’s black eyes explode with an inner light, his hair and eyes both seeming to transform into an ice blue color causing Maki to freeze.
Enzeru. He’d broken into this man’s home years ago to steal his soul back from Osore there. That was probably what spurred this. Maki hesitates about his next action, which costs him dearly as, with only the barest of sounds behind as warning, a white gauntlet grips his head and he’s tossed aside like a ragdoll. Osore had joined the fray.
Maki holds out his hand, now holding a rifle similar to the other Enzeru had moments ago. A crack sounds as he fires, the rifle instantly reforming into a short handled warhammer in his grip as he charges. Osore ducks the bullet and meets him head on, not expecting a hammer to smash into his face. As he ducks in and slams it into the giant’s knee, a bolt of fire hits him in his side, smoldering the suit. Enzeru apparently had little trouble aiming ranged attacks into the melee.
Maki throws the hammer out at the other, forcing them to retreat as the weapon splits in mid air into dozens of senbon. Osore took the moment to recover, one hand slamming into Maki with enough force to throw him backwards into a wall. And then seems to freeze in place, his whole body shaking as Taken steps into the fight and holds his brother in place with some sort of jutsu. As Enzeru moves to attack, the former leader of the Isaki raises a hand.
“Gentlemen, be still. Your wives wish to speak with you.”
