The harsh night winds blew the desert sand into the air in waves, causing a great deal of the environments natural inhabitants to seek shelter. Indeed, even those behind the giant silver walls hid in the shelters of their home as even the mighty Sunagakure could only just weather storms such as these.The villagers still out or wrapping up their market duties could just barely hear the thunder rolling in the distance, and the sound of sand waves striking the barrier. In the distance lightning flashed and struck the ground before receding into the clouds to roll across the bottoms in a beautiful display of nature’s fury.
Standing inside of the wall, looking on from a window half way up that was etched into it, was Toraono Michino as he watched the weather growing ever so much more terrible than recently predicted. His purple irises scanned the horizon harshly, and even with his Beast Sight, he could still just make out a few small figures traveling in packs. Not even a month ago, he would of simply called them off as groups of desert wolves or some other creature. Since the vanishing of their leaders, more and more information about the Swarm began to pour in from the ragged and destitute refugees that ran to Suna for safety. Not a single one made it without injury, and supposedly of the some fifty-odd people they started with, only six passed through their gate. The creatures running around just outside of his vision could be anything now, with a 50/50 shot of it actually being those horrible humanoids. With a swift movement the tall dark-skinned swordsman slammed the murder-hole shut and slid the locking bolt back into place.
Tonight was an awful night to leave the village, and yet clutched in his left hand was a small stack of documents that gave him his next mission to do just that. He didn’t dare argue against this one either, not that his pride would of let him anyways, but the order was handed down to him specifically by the Rangers. It was a responsive job, cleaning up the mess left behind by the earth-shaking events that caused the turmoil they were brought into.
For the last week he had heard the talk of these kind of missions being handed out, but they were mostly just the normal fix or protect jobs that the military executed on the norm. What separated that, from the papers clutched in his hand, was that he was leading a team of specially trained soldiers into areas of the desert that were so far away from the village it would be considered nearly suicide to accept it; and that was during peaceful times. With a heavy sigh the Toraono sat down on a nearby wooden chair used by guards during watchman duties. With dim candlelight filtered through dusty glass above him and the wind howling outside he shifted through the documents and read up on the group he was tasked with.
One of them he knew. Reitechi Sakura was her name. It didn’t surprise him at all to see she had taken the last name of her deceased fiancee, only his heart skipped a beat as he wondered if she knew that Michino was responsible for her lover’s death. It had been years ago, back when he had a real left leg and was into underground boxing. The Toraono grew up with both of them and were part of his original class that had graduated long before him. Times were tough, just as they were now, but back then good paying work was hard to find and the government stipend paid to the military only supported so much. For a moment he also wondered if she also managed to have a safe birth…
To keep his mind from wandering too far, the swordsman shifted Sakura’s name behind the other three pages. The other four Chuunins under his watch were about exactly what he expected them to be. An Earth specialist, someone who had a large viewing range, a ranged type, and someone who could commune with the dead. They all seemed like something of an odd bunch and the Toraono poured over the documents looking for any one thing that would link them together…only to feel his heart drop when he finally realized it.
They were all kids he grew up with.
Heishi, Tomo, the Gun and Gin twins, and Sakura. His old days of Academy life were ones he did his best to forget, as they were when his twin-soul was at her most horrible. The multiple failings of repeating the school year long after his original classmates had passed, all the stings to his pride…for a moment he had to garnish his family’s natural born paranoia and question if someone in the Rangers was messing with him. Tossing the pages to the ground the warrior channeled a small bit of energy into his palm and shot it at the pages scattered on the wood floor. Due to being made of highly flammable material, the pages flared up into ash in seconds, leaving not even so much as the normal burning smells. Michino had his work cut out from him.
The five Chuunin team took their time gathering at the gates with the storm and her blessed rains beating against their new walls. They were silent, mostly, with only the red-headed twins from Tea joking at each other. They waited in the dark with only the swaying of lanterns above offering even a little light as thunder shook the walls again. From the unlit shadows, Michino slowly walked towards the group with the only sound of his approached offered was the sound of a lighter’s lid being flipped open. A strike and the smell of flammable fluids and heat rose into the air briefly followed by the sickly sweet stink of Red Leaf. Additive as the tobacco like product was, and as much as Michino tried to avoid it, he couldn’t help but feel some relief edge off the back of his mind as he exhaled a large cloud of smoke into the air. His purple eyes were glowing softly, as his demonic chakra made them do, giving off a more menacing feature than he’d usually have in the dark.
The other five there didn’t flinch, speak, or even ask for a thing. The moment their leader stepped into view they stepped into formation and gave him a respectful bow.
“At ease…” the warrior spoke as he exhaled another cloud of smoke.
The five stood straight back up, but not a single question was asked. Even Sakura, who met his eyes, didn’t turn away or belie even an inch of anger. Either they didn’t recall him, or they were the cream of their crops, like the documents promised. They all stood their silently as Michino finished his smoke and then stepped aside, making only a gesture towards Heishi, the Earthborn. The man confidently stepped forward and made a circle on the ground before him with his heel before slamming it into the center. The rumbling of the rocks moving under them was easily disguised by the weather above, and it was then that the leader saw a little wisdom on how they were being ordered to proceed. The spot where Heishi placed his heel suddenly caved in and before them was a tunnel for them to proceed through the storm. Of course, they would only be able to travel so far like this, as reports about the Unbent rising from the ground which meant they ran the risk of hitting other tunnels full of straight evil. No, this was simply to help weather the worse of the storm until they could return to the surface. Without hesitation Michino flicked the cherry off his cigarette and hopped down the six-foot drop.
The tunnel collapsed behind them once the last of the team had dropped. As they moved forward, opening the path up through Earth-molded chakra, the path behind would continue to close after a certain distance. The act of continuing this was clearly taxing Heishi, as sweat dripped from his face, but he didn’t give anyone a single sign that he needed to stop. Michino watched the energy being poured from his soldier’s body to make sure he knew when to move. The swordsman himself knew quite a bit of jutsu that molded Earth chakra, and could tell that the moment Heishi’s reserves ran out the tunnel would collapse.
He never had to do anything though. Before long the tunnel exploded open into a large space, catching the team by surprise as they fell a short distance onto a brick road. Once some basic lightning jutsu were employed the crew found themselves standing on what could only be described as a gigantic city road. Under their feet were bricks made of a white stone that remained so despite the layers of dust and dirt. It was purposelessly laid down to form a marker for some kind of travel, and as they looked up, Michino took notes of the arches made of the same material that kept the tunnel from collapsing. Due to the pristine nature of the stone the structure was made from, no one there could devise how long it had been there either.
Fortunately, a compass still worked. The road happened to follow up with the map their leader had sketched out prior to the mission, and so they deigned to walk along it until a bend came and Michino’s map said carry on forward. The walk had been long enough for the Earthbender to step up and do his thing again, making another circular opening in the wall for them to travel on. However, as he opened the solid dirt wall, a clawed hand reached out from the darkness and grabbed Heishi’s head. Before anyone in the group could react, an overly large Unbent applied a little pressure and exploded their companion’s brains across the white stone and dirt.
“Run,” their leader said calmly.
Far away from the village of Sunagakure a patch of desert exploded out followed by three exhausted Chuunins. There was no sign of their leader or Tomo, last seen fighting a horde to see his companions to safety, when the trio was met by the locals from the North Oasis; meaning they had missed their original mark by nearly two days. The group was brought in without hesitation though, once they could prove to be human that was, and were treated.
Dehydration, exhaustion, small wounds from the endless skirmishes with other Unbent that were far less giant and terrifying than they one that killed Heishi. Some of Gun’s wounds also seemed to be infected with a strange poison, and was looking bad. Sakura, the less damaged of the surviving three, learned from the Oasis camp leader how bad their situation was.
The Unbent were sweeping. It was unclear how the hell they were moving around the desert, but all reports from the traveling merchants, before they had stopped coming, said the things had been popping out of the ground all over. The Second Oasis, the one below the North, had apparently been swallowed up by a crag suddenly opening under it, and contact with the South Oasis ended last week. This village was mostly untouched though, to which they gave praise to Mother Suna, and seemed to be the only one worth attempting to cart back home.
After another week of recovering, trying to plan a large escort, and some minor scouting, Gun had arrived on his death bed. His vitals were shaky, at best, all the color had drained from his face, and the infection clearly was the cause. From the bite wound was a giant oozing sore that radiated heat strong enough to heat cold water when poured over it. The only reason Gun had managed to make it thus far was due to his training alone.
Night had fallen and though he had not passed yet, the twin laid in a bed surrounded by torches as the villagers and his comrades gathered to mourn. From the shadows heavy foot falls echoed after a light tapping of a stick, as Michino slowly hobbled from the darkness and into the torch light. He looked worse for wear, with the sunken eyes of a man lacking sleep and wounds showing through his torn clothing. Yet, unlike those of his broken team, he was able to carry on, pushed by something unnatural.
The villagers, at first, recoiled in horror as the purple flames exploded from his right arm, and even his team seemed to be wary of the demon flame as it reached out to touch Gun’s infected wound. For the first time since he arrived in the village did the twin speak, and as he did, it was only to scream swears from the intense pain. Gin, of course, misread the situation and tried to attack Michino, only to find his blow stopping short when he looked down to see color slowly returning to his brother’s flesh. After a few more seconds the fel-touched removed his hand and with it, a small orange core in his palm. It glowed faintly, and with a swift grip their leader crushed it. The action caused an orange flame to explode around his body, lighting the entire Oasis briefly, but as it faded out it appeared that he took little to no harm.
“They run on these cores,” he finally said after a moment, stumbling a little to keep his posture, “And it seems that they can pass on a small bit of themselves in a bite.” His hand reached up to point at a small divot in his shoulder where he too had removed a core before it could infect him.
“It also seems the two villages below this one are lost. The South was overrun with Unbent, hence the wound, and the Second looked like it was swallowed up by the desert. Nothing around for kilometers but…hole. I had almost given up on any of you guys surviving too, given the state of the first Oasis. How did you make it up here?
Another two days would pass before they had a plan, and a full third week before Gun was well enough to fight again. In that small time the three who were well enough to fight had fended off no less than three waves of Unbent. For Michino, who excelled in one-on-one combat, this proved to be difficult. Even when Owari had the reigns, she too struggled to use her mastery over the demonic strength to do more than kill one Unbent at a time. That, however, was the duo’s only downfall. Sakura and Gin each had many techniques that could strike multiple targets, but what they didn’t have was their leader’s endless reserves of stamina. He was the first one into the fray, the last one out, and called every shot the group made. Before long they were able to excel and kept the Unbent from swinging their way for the last couple of days. Michino knew that only meant something bigger was no doubt coming, but already had a plan.
The roads below had been checked during Gun’s recovery, and after he had returned from near-death, the team of four managed to alter the structures, block off a few entrances, and created a safe path back to Sunagakure. By the time the group of refugees arrived, headed by Michino, another week had passed from the slow travel across the desert with a large group, but aside from the tragedy of the first two Oasis, he had managed to return with only a single casualty. A funeral was held for Heishi shortly after.
[WC = 2700]
Standing inside of the wall, looking on from a window half way up that was etched into it, was Toraono Michino as he watched the weather growing ever so much more terrible than recently predicted. His purple irises scanned the horizon harshly, and even with his Beast Sight, he could still just make out a few small figures traveling in packs. Not even a month ago, he would of simply called them off as groups of desert wolves or some other creature. Since the vanishing of their leaders, more and more information about the Swarm began to pour in from the ragged and destitute refugees that ran to Suna for safety. Not a single one made it without injury, and supposedly of the some fifty-odd people they started with, only six passed through their gate. The creatures running around just outside of his vision could be anything now, with a 50/50 shot of it actually being those horrible humanoids. With a swift movement the tall dark-skinned swordsman slammed the murder-hole shut and slid the locking bolt back into place.
Tonight was an awful night to leave the village, and yet clutched in his left hand was a small stack of documents that gave him his next mission to do just that. He didn’t dare argue against this one either, not that his pride would of let him anyways, but the order was handed down to him specifically by the Rangers. It was a responsive job, cleaning up the mess left behind by the earth-shaking events that caused the turmoil they were brought into.
For the last week he had heard the talk of these kind of missions being handed out, but they were mostly just the normal fix or protect jobs that the military executed on the norm. What separated that, from the papers clutched in his hand, was that he was leading a team of specially trained soldiers into areas of the desert that were so far away from the village it would be considered nearly suicide to accept it; and that was during peaceful times. With a heavy sigh the Toraono sat down on a nearby wooden chair used by guards during watchman duties. With dim candlelight filtered through dusty glass above him and the wind howling outside he shifted through the documents and read up on the group he was tasked with.
One of them he knew. Reitechi Sakura was her name. It didn’t surprise him at all to see she had taken the last name of her deceased fiancee, only his heart skipped a beat as he wondered if she knew that Michino was responsible for her lover’s death. It had been years ago, back when he had a real left leg and was into underground boxing. The Toraono grew up with both of them and were part of his original class that had graduated long before him. Times were tough, just as they were now, but back then good paying work was hard to find and the government stipend paid to the military only supported so much. For a moment he also wondered if she also managed to have a safe birth…
To keep his mind from wandering too far, the swordsman shifted Sakura’s name behind the other three pages. The other four Chuunins under his watch were about exactly what he expected them to be. An Earth specialist, someone who had a large viewing range, a ranged type, and someone who could commune with the dead. They all seemed like something of an odd bunch and the Toraono poured over the documents looking for any one thing that would link them together…only to feel his heart drop when he finally realized it.
They were all kids he grew up with.
Heishi, Tomo, the Gun and Gin twins, and Sakura. His old days of Academy life were ones he did his best to forget, as they were when his twin-soul was at her most horrible. The multiple failings of repeating the school year long after his original classmates had passed, all the stings to his pride…for a moment he had to garnish his family’s natural born paranoia and question if someone in the Rangers was messing with him. Tossing the pages to the ground the warrior channeled a small bit of energy into his palm and shot it at the pages scattered on the wood floor. Due to being made of highly flammable material, the pages flared up into ash in seconds, leaving not even so much as the normal burning smells. Michino had his work cut out from him.
The five Chuunin team took their time gathering at the gates with the storm and her blessed rains beating against their new walls. They were silent, mostly, with only the red-headed twins from Tea joking at each other. They waited in the dark with only the swaying of lanterns above offering even a little light as thunder shook the walls again. From the unlit shadows, Michino slowly walked towards the group with the only sound of his approached offered was the sound of a lighter’s lid being flipped open. A strike and the smell of flammable fluids and heat rose into the air briefly followed by the sickly sweet stink of Red Leaf. Additive as the tobacco like product was, and as much as Michino tried to avoid it, he couldn’t help but feel some relief edge off the back of his mind as he exhaled a large cloud of smoke into the air. His purple eyes were glowing softly, as his demonic chakra made them do, giving off a more menacing feature than he’d usually have in the dark.
The other five there didn’t flinch, speak, or even ask for a thing. The moment their leader stepped into view they stepped into formation and gave him a respectful bow.
“At ease…” the warrior spoke as he exhaled another cloud of smoke.
The five stood straight back up, but not a single question was asked. Even Sakura, who met his eyes, didn’t turn away or belie even an inch of anger. Either they didn’t recall him, or they were the cream of their crops, like the documents promised. They all stood their silently as Michino finished his smoke and then stepped aside, making only a gesture towards Heishi, the Earthborn. The man confidently stepped forward and made a circle on the ground before him with his heel before slamming it into the center. The rumbling of the rocks moving under them was easily disguised by the weather above, and it was then that the leader saw a little wisdom on how they were being ordered to proceed. The spot where Heishi placed his heel suddenly caved in and before them was a tunnel for them to proceed through the storm. Of course, they would only be able to travel so far like this, as reports about the Unbent rising from the ground which meant they ran the risk of hitting other tunnels full of straight evil. No, this was simply to help weather the worse of the storm until they could return to the surface. Without hesitation Michino flicked the cherry off his cigarette and hopped down the six-foot drop.
The tunnel collapsed behind them once the last of the team had dropped. As they moved forward, opening the path up through Earth-molded chakra, the path behind would continue to close after a certain distance. The act of continuing this was clearly taxing Heishi, as sweat dripped from his face, but he didn’t give anyone a single sign that he needed to stop. Michino watched the energy being poured from his soldier’s body to make sure he knew when to move. The swordsman himself knew quite a bit of jutsu that molded Earth chakra, and could tell that the moment Heishi’s reserves ran out the tunnel would collapse.
He never had to do anything though. Before long the tunnel exploded open into a large space, catching the team by surprise as they fell a short distance onto a brick road. Once some basic lightning jutsu were employed the crew found themselves standing on what could only be described as a gigantic city road. Under their feet were bricks made of a white stone that remained so despite the layers of dust and dirt. It was purposelessly laid down to form a marker for some kind of travel, and as they looked up, Michino took notes of the arches made of the same material that kept the tunnel from collapsing. Due to the pristine nature of the stone the structure was made from, no one there could devise how long it had been there either.
Fortunately, a compass still worked. The road happened to follow up with the map their leader had sketched out prior to the mission, and so they deigned to walk along it until a bend came and Michino’s map said carry on forward. The walk had been long enough for the Earthbender to step up and do his thing again, making another circular opening in the wall for them to travel on. However, as he opened the solid dirt wall, a clawed hand reached out from the darkness and grabbed Heishi’s head. Before anyone in the group could react, an overly large Unbent applied a little pressure and exploded their companion’s brains across the white stone and dirt.
“Run,” their leader said calmly.
Far away from the village of Sunagakure a patch of desert exploded out followed by three exhausted Chuunins. There was no sign of their leader or Tomo, last seen fighting a horde to see his companions to safety, when the trio was met by the locals from the North Oasis; meaning they had missed their original mark by nearly two days. The group was brought in without hesitation though, once they could prove to be human that was, and were treated.
Dehydration, exhaustion, small wounds from the endless skirmishes with other Unbent that were far less giant and terrifying than they one that killed Heishi. Some of Gun’s wounds also seemed to be infected with a strange poison, and was looking bad. Sakura, the less damaged of the surviving three, learned from the Oasis camp leader how bad their situation was.
The Unbent were sweeping. It was unclear how the hell they were moving around the desert, but all reports from the traveling merchants, before they had stopped coming, said the things had been popping out of the ground all over. The Second Oasis, the one below the North, had apparently been swallowed up by a crag suddenly opening under it, and contact with the South Oasis ended last week. This village was mostly untouched though, to which they gave praise to Mother Suna, and seemed to be the only one worth attempting to cart back home.
After another week of recovering, trying to plan a large escort, and some minor scouting, Gun had arrived on his death bed. His vitals were shaky, at best, all the color had drained from his face, and the infection clearly was the cause. From the bite wound was a giant oozing sore that radiated heat strong enough to heat cold water when poured over it. The only reason Gun had managed to make it thus far was due to his training alone.
Night had fallen and though he had not passed yet, the twin laid in a bed surrounded by torches as the villagers and his comrades gathered to mourn. From the shadows heavy foot falls echoed after a light tapping of a stick, as Michino slowly hobbled from the darkness and into the torch light. He looked worse for wear, with the sunken eyes of a man lacking sleep and wounds showing through his torn clothing. Yet, unlike those of his broken team, he was able to carry on, pushed by something unnatural.
The villagers, at first, recoiled in horror as the purple flames exploded from his right arm, and even his team seemed to be wary of the demon flame as it reached out to touch Gun’s infected wound. For the first time since he arrived in the village did the twin speak, and as he did, it was only to scream swears from the intense pain. Gin, of course, misread the situation and tried to attack Michino, only to find his blow stopping short when he looked down to see color slowly returning to his brother’s flesh. After a few more seconds the fel-touched removed his hand and with it, a small orange core in his palm. It glowed faintly, and with a swift grip their leader crushed it. The action caused an orange flame to explode around his body, lighting the entire Oasis briefly, but as it faded out it appeared that he took little to no harm.
“They run on these cores,” he finally said after a moment, stumbling a little to keep his posture, “And it seems that they can pass on a small bit of themselves in a bite.” His hand reached up to point at a small divot in his shoulder where he too had removed a core before it could infect him.
“It also seems the two villages below this one are lost. The South was overrun with Unbent, hence the wound, and the Second looked like it was swallowed up by the desert. Nothing around for kilometers but…hole. I had almost given up on any of you guys surviving too, given the state of the first Oasis. How did you make it up here?
Another two days would pass before they had a plan, and a full third week before Gun was well enough to fight again. In that small time the three who were well enough to fight had fended off no less than three waves of Unbent. For Michino, who excelled in one-on-one combat, this proved to be difficult. Even when Owari had the reigns, she too struggled to use her mastery over the demonic strength to do more than kill one Unbent at a time. That, however, was the duo’s only downfall. Sakura and Gin each had many techniques that could strike multiple targets, but what they didn’t have was their leader’s endless reserves of stamina. He was the first one into the fray, the last one out, and called every shot the group made. Before long they were able to excel and kept the Unbent from swinging their way for the last couple of days. Michino knew that only meant something bigger was no doubt coming, but already had a plan.
The roads below had been checked during Gun’s recovery, and after he had returned from near-death, the team of four managed to alter the structures, block off a few entrances, and created a safe path back to Sunagakure. By the time the group of refugees arrived, headed by Michino, another week had passed from the slow travel across the desert with a large group, but aside from the tragedy of the first two Oasis, he had managed to return with only a single casualty. A funeral was held for Heishi shortly after.
[WC = 2700]