It was your average day or at least as average as it gets in a cave. The city was moving with its normal underground bustle as people went about their daily business; buying food for supper later, getting some chores done, checking off lists, that sort of thing. Among this crowd of people that was positioned in the main downtown of Sunagakure was a silvery-haired individual who looked like he was in his mid twenties and running down a chore list of his own. He was dressed in something of fancier garments wearing a fine white button down shirt with a black leather vest over it. His pants were black and made from the finer materials while his shoes were something a person with a substantial amount of money would own. His hair which cascaded down his shoulders stretched down half way down his back and was unhindered by tie or braid as the man haggled effectively with a shop-keep over the purchase of some base elements. No longer did he have the look of a malnourished homeless that he was known for carrying but instead carried the healthy glow of a man who was well fed and did much to keep his body in shape; all of these things were extremely out of place for a person who was just recently looked like walking death.
The reasons behind this were because Tama had finally solved his problems. All of his financial issues disappeared when he discovered that instead of constantly fighting with the science community over his brilliant ideas he could simply sell them and work out royalty fees that easily covered his next project. It wasn’t like selling a few ideas he was finished with was going to kill his ability to create the next best thing for Suna.
As for the matter of his heath, well, he finally succumbed to the “hunger” that had gnawed at his health for the past few months, causing him to rapidly age in a most painful manner. He wasn’t even able to use a smidgen of his powers without cheating for fear of them consuming his body whole and so decided that feasting upon souls would have to be what he needed to continue living a “normal” life. The Genin had little choice in the matter since his true powers were unlocked by an Ancient but damned if he didn’t try to fight it as much as he could.
“Thirty five,” the shop keep said, a red tint marking anger starting to rise at the haggling that had been going on for the past ten minutes.
“Thirty three and twenty, and I go no higher,” the handsome man replied, causing his opponent to finally sigh and relent the merchandise for the agreed price which Tama happily paid; after all he did save nearly forty zenny.
With his purchase complete the scientist grabbed the three jars containing specific elements and carefully placed them in a little satchel he had resting on the ground before moving the carrying sling across his chest and bidding farewell to the miffed shop keep.
Striking his hand into the vest’s inner pocket the man pulled from within a neatly folded sheet with a list of things he needed to accomplish today. Peering down at it with his green and blue eyes (right and left respectively), he noticed everything on there had been crossed off except for the single verb “feast”. A slight wicked smirk edged up the left corner of the man’s mouth as he folded the paper and took a turn down a back alley that would quickly take him to the Lower Districts.
The trip from the shopping district down to the poor ones took only thirty minutes worth of walking from the way that Tama took though most would avoid these routes, especially dressed as he did. However no matter how shady and dangerous the streets started to look not a single soul even bothered so much as to glance at the scientist as he walked by. You could taste the fear sweating off of them as the prey knew that a hunter was once more walking in their living quarters.
It was easily his favorite hunting grounds since all of the people who lived here were mostly ignored by the Sunan government, especially after a terrorist rebel cell was found and destroyed in the area. No one who lived in the upper areas ever gave much thought to those who couldn’t afford the niceties that the uppers were able to enjoy. Most of them were fallen students from the Academy who didn’t have the grades or the physical aptitude to join the military and the rest were simply born into poverty from parents that shared this fate, and since no one cared for them…hell it was kind of a mercy.
The scientist continued to walk down the streets until he found a ladder hanging precariously from one of the roofs of an apartment complex. As if not even thinking hard on it Tama jumped and grabbed onto the ladder easily to climb his way up and over onto the flat roof top. It would be here that he would wait for a later hour when people started to come out, because, unlike the Uppers the Lowers only came out at “night”. The Genin slung the satchel off his shoulder and gently placed it on the rooftop before flipping open the flap and carefully removing the products inside to work on a little project to pass the time.
In about the span of three hours nightfall had come and the giant ceiling above them was dark with the lack of an artificial sun. Street and house lights illuminated the area now as the Lowers began to awake and make their daily commute to the world in a cave. Music began to fill Tama’s ears as he tightened the lid on a glass bottle containing a very shiny blue liquid. Touches of metal, classical, and jazz lifted through the air as the mixed society of the underclass went about doing the simple things that made them happy. Removing a homemade pocket watch from the same spot he kept his list, Tama nodded at the time and gathered his things – the time to hunt was at hand.
Carefully and quietly the Genin made his way across the rooftop to peer down at the streets below seeing that, as usual, there was no one around this apartment complex being the poorest of the poor. Just to make sure he went and checked each side to find the streets as equally empty before making his way to the roof access door and silently moved down into the darkness of the building.
There was no real electricity in this dilapidated building with the exception of maybe two homes which made stealth work easier than it should be. He moved down the stairs without a single sound, looking for a door with a certain mark on it. The people of this area had began to speak of a creature that was killing them once a week and had began to mark certain doors with blood to try and “sacrifice” people to this creature. Of course this creature was Tama and he had learned long ago to avoid the doors marked with blood…those who were marked were usually the ill and dying that made for a very poor meal.
Tama’s eyes scanned over each door noticing how many of them were marked now since his attacks started which would have caused him to sigh in annoyance if it wasn’t that they helped him find a good meal before he finally saw the numbers 231 without any blood staining the rusted iron. Quickly the scientist used his ninja training and practically glided to the door before taking out the shiny bottle of liquid he had just concocted and poured it on the door knob. The glow quickly vanished as it absorbed itself into the metal causing it to simply become dust and destroy any semblance of a lock. Gently he pushed the door open causing a very creepy creak to echo through the building as he slipped his way inside to find a mostly empty apartment save a single television with a radio attachment. The TV was on but was broadcasting static as the speakers played a strange rock song and walking around the apartment half naked, or actually dancing, was a young man who seemed to be stoned on some kind of herbal drug that was left smoking in an ashtray. The pungent smell of the herb didn’t even faze Tama as he slowly glided through the dark and up behind the dancing guy and gently stroked his finger down the stoner’s neck. His reaction was instant, spinning on his heal to see Tama’s grinning face as a sharp cold pain suddenly hit his stomach. The look of shock and pain registered in his hazy red eyes as he looked down at his gut to see the hilt of a kunai sticking out of him. The shock registered quickly, destroying fear and survival instincts as he realized what had just happened. Blood began to pool out over his fingers, the sensation of warm fluids causing the guy to look at his bloody hands, taking the shock to the next level that simply forced his brain to shut everything down from the overwhelming disbelief of the entire situation.
The stranger was dead within seconds.
It was amusing to Tama how fragile the minds of simple mortals were, that the very disbelief in sudden death could cause a shock that would turn off the mind and kill the body. He kneeled before the corpse now and closed his eyes working a bit of his chakra into them to activate a piece of his power that allowed him to see souls. When he opened them up again the pupils of the left eye had changed into something reptilian as a small shiny ball of blue light hovered over the corpse of its previous container. Without giving it a chance to move on the shinobi preformed three seals causing a special symbol to appear on the right hand that then moved out towards the soul to grasp it. Ah, the monster thought to himself, this was going to be delicious. His favorite part of devouring a soul was not the fact that it kept him alive, but watching the memories of an entire lifetime pass before his mind in the span of a few seconds was a rush that could not be explained or duplicated.
Yet as the soul was but inches from his lips he felt blood suddenly burst from his mouth. A sudden pain his chest caused him to release the jutsu prematurely and look down to find a blade that had no shine to it at all protruding from about where his heart should be – thankfully he was born with his heart on the left side. Still a blade sticking through one’s chest was an obvious subtext that there was someone else there besides just the stoner, someone who quiet and skilled enough to land such an attack on him. It wasn’t going to matter though; no one had faced off with the scientist since he learned to control his powers.
However when he willed his hands to move nothing happened and when he tried to call upon his powers he was met not only with silence but not even a spark of light. A mild panic began to fill the scientist as he realized that he was unable to move at all, that somehow, someone had managed to concoct a paralysis poison that actually had effect on him. Which only told him that this was a targeted assassination, which the stoner was a mindless pawn in a game that he thought he was out of? The hilt of the blade was grasped by the killer behind him and removed slowly in such a way that the pain actually made Tama cry out a little before a gloved hand grabbed his hair and quickly inched the razor edge across his throat. Blood splattered out instantly over the body of the man he had killed, painting a very ironic picture as the ability to hold his body up escaped him with his blood and poison. He tried hard to fall in such a way that he could at least see his killer but only managed to twist his body in some strange half turn but his eyes saw hard of the man’s face. It was scarred…so scarred. Scars that created a frown around the corners of his lips, scars that ran across the bridge of his nose, and burn marks around his eyes…whoever Tama’s killer was, he was obviously a professional.
A black ocean roared over the scientist’s vision and then nothing.
The next thing Tama remembered was pain.
His eyes shot open when he felt like something was trying to rip his chest open and to his horror he saw only what he felt. His bi-colored eyes bared witness to his own chest cavity and the injuries it bore. He tried to scream at the sudden entrance into a horror movie only to be reminded that his throat was cut open and nothing but gurgling blood shot out.
“Now, now, now, Mr. Ryuu, that’s terrible for your health,” said a very conceited voice. Tama’s eyes moved towards the direction of that voice to see a man there he recognized as one of the scientists he sold some of his ideas to, “We don’t want you to die after all. You still have quite the brilliant mind full of ideas I would love to pick at…but we have to do something about that nasty power of yours. Make your more…tame.”
“You see dear Tama the inventions you sold me only procured a small amount of cash that was barely enough for me to work on one of my own projects and so I need more! However I know for a fact that we haven’t been the best of partners considering I’ve killed I believe three of your lab assistants and stole some ideas…so obviously there was no way I could just ask you, not to mention your ability to destroy things with your powers are quite well known. You could have easily just destroyed me and left not a trace of evidence…doing the same to you however is impossible so I had to improvise. I’ve been watching you for a long time boy…watched you age in leaps and bounds in the matter of days and watched your true nature surface when the energies that you used almost consumed you.
“You really should be thanking me in the long run, after all, after this surgery you won’t ever have to worry about them ever again…”
Anger fueled Tama’s conscious for but a moment before the pain of his body being split open finally caused him to succumb to the darkness once more…
Nightmares plagued his near death dreams. Horror filled dreams about a scared man who he couldn’t kill haunted his every sleeping step. In them the assassin hacked at his throat and body repeatedly, taking away precious bits of his life with each swing of his knife until there was nothing left of the man but his mind and heart.
His eyes opened up quickly, breaking away from the terrifying dream to find that he had been discarded somewhere in the Lower District, somewhere where the garbage collected and was sure to infect wounds he knew was there. The scientist raised a weary hand up to his throat and found that there was scaring but nothing fresh wound wise and the same could be said of his chest when he ripped open his blood stained shirt. His body felt broken and weary as it ever had though and as he tried to stand found that his left leg had been very badly broken from the knee down causing him to scream and fall back into the trash. A cold sweat began to cover his entire body before he began to retch up an empty stomach, feeling for the first time in a long time a mortal hunger. His shaky hands moved over the garbage until he found something solid that helped him stagger upright on his one good leg. The man felt like hell frozen over as stood, trying desperately to hold himself up on a wall. He tried to call for his powers, demanding that they be used to fix his leg willing to take the aging curse that would come with it but was only met with simple chakra – and not a lot of it either. The sudden memory of a mad man performing surgery on him crossed his third eye that made him realize that he had lost that which had caused him to be feared, that what caused people to leave him be.
Now that he had no power, what was he to do?
The reasons behind this were because Tama had finally solved his problems. All of his financial issues disappeared when he discovered that instead of constantly fighting with the science community over his brilliant ideas he could simply sell them and work out royalty fees that easily covered his next project. It wasn’t like selling a few ideas he was finished with was going to kill his ability to create the next best thing for Suna.
As for the matter of his heath, well, he finally succumbed to the “hunger” that had gnawed at his health for the past few months, causing him to rapidly age in a most painful manner. He wasn’t even able to use a smidgen of his powers without cheating for fear of them consuming his body whole and so decided that feasting upon souls would have to be what he needed to continue living a “normal” life. The Genin had little choice in the matter since his true powers were unlocked by an Ancient but damned if he didn’t try to fight it as much as he could.
“Thirty five,” the shop keep said, a red tint marking anger starting to rise at the haggling that had been going on for the past ten minutes.
“Thirty three and twenty, and I go no higher,” the handsome man replied, causing his opponent to finally sigh and relent the merchandise for the agreed price which Tama happily paid; after all he did save nearly forty zenny.
With his purchase complete the scientist grabbed the three jars containing specific elements and carefully placed them in a little satchel he had resting on the ground before moving the carrying sling across his chest and bidding farewell to the miffed shop keep.
Striking his hand into the vest’s inner pocket the man pulled from within a neatly folded sheet with a list of things he needed to accomplish today. Peering down at it with his green and blue eyes (right and left respectively), he noticed everything on there had been crossed off except for the single verb “feast”. A slight wicked smirk edged up the left corner of the man’s mouth as he folded the paper and took a turn down a back alley that would quickly take him to the Lower Districts.
The trip from the shopping district down to the poor ones took only thirty minutes worth of walking from the way that Tama took though most would avoid these routes, especially dressed as he did. However no matter how shady and dangerous the streets started to look not a single soul even bothered so much as to glance at the scientist as he walked by. You could taste the fear sweating off of them as the prey knew that a hunter was once more walking in their living quarters.
It was easily his favorite hunting grounds since all of the people who lived here were mostly ignored by the Sunan government, especially after a terrorist rebel cell was found and destroyed in the area. No one who lived in the upper areas ever gave much thought to those who couldn’t afford the niceties that the uppers were able to enjoy. Most of them were fallen students from the Academy who didn’t have the grades or the physical aptitude to join the military and the rest were simply born into poverty from parents that shared this fate, and since no one cared for them…hell it was kind of a mercy.
The scientist continued to walk down the streets until he found a ladder hanging precariously from one of the roofs of an apartment complex. As if not even thinking hard on it Tama jumped and grabbed onto the ladder easily to climb his way up and over onto the flat roof top. It would be here that he would wait for a later hour when people started to come out, because, unlike the Uppers the Lowers only came out at “night”. The Genin slung the satchel off his shoulder and gently placed it on the rooftop before flipping open the flap and carefully removing the products inside to work on a little project to pass the time.
In about the span of three hours nightfall had come and the giant ceiling above them was dark with the lack of an artificial sun. Street and house lights illuminated the area now as the Lowers began to awake and make their daily commute to the world in a cave. Music began to fill Tama’s ears as he tightened the lid on a glass bottle containing a very shiny blue liquid. Touches of metal, classical, and jazz lifted through the air as the mixed society of the underclass went about doing the simple things that made them happy. Removing a homemade pocket watch from the same spot he kept his list, Tama nodded at the time and gathered his things – the time to hunt was at hand.
Carefully and quietly the Genin made his way across the rooftop to peer down at the streets below seeing that, as usual, there was no one around this apartment complex being the poorest of the poor. Just to make sure he went and checked each side to find the streets as equally empty before making his way to the roof access door and silently moved down into the darkness of the building.
There was no real electricity in this dilapidated building with the exception of maybe two homes which made stealth work easier than it should be. He moved down the stairs without a single sound, looking for a door with a certain mark on it. The people of this area had began to speak of a creature that was killing them once a week and had began to mark certain doors with blood to try and “sacrifice” people to this creature. Of course this creature was Tama and he had learned long ago to avoid the doors marked with blood…those who were marked were usually the ill and dying that made for a very poor meal.
Tama’s eyes scanned over each door noticing how many of them were marked now since his attacks started which would have caused him to sigh in annoyance if it wasn’t that they helped him find a good meal before he finally saw the numbers 231 without any blood staining the rusted iron. Quickly the scientist used his ninja training and practically glided to the door before taking out the shiny bottle of liquid he had just concocted and poured it on the door knob. The glow quickly vanished as it absorbed itself into the metal causing it to simply become dust and destroy any semblance of a lock. Gently he pushed the door open causing a very creepy creak to echo through the building as he slipped his way inside to find a mostly empty apartment save a single television with a radio attachment. The TV was on but was broadcasting static as the speakers played a strange rock song and walking around the apartment half naked, or actually dancing, was a young man who seemed to be stoned on some kind of herbal drug that was left smoking in an ashtray. The pungent smell of the herb didn’t even faze Tama as he slowly glided through the dark and up behind the dancing guy and gently stroked his finger down the stoner’s neck. His reaction was instant, spinning on his heal to see Tama’s grinning face as a sharp cold pain suddenly hit his stomach. The look of shock and pain registered in his hazy red eyes as he looked down at his gut to see the hilt of a kunai sticking out of him. The shock registered quickly, destroying fear and survival instincts as he realized what had just happened. Blood began to pool out over his fingers, the sensation of warm fluids causing the guy to look at his bloody hands, taking the shock to the next level that simply forced his brain to shut everything down from the overwhelming disbelief of the entire situation.
The stranger was dead within seconds.
It was amusing to Tama how fragile the minds of simple mortals were, that the very disbelief in sudden death could cause a shock that would turn off the mind and kill the body. He kneeled before the corpse now and closed his eyes working a bit of his chakra into them to activate a piece of his power that allowed him to see souls. When he opened them up again the pupils of the left eye had changed into something reptilian as a small shiny ball of blue light hovered over the corpse of its previous container. Without giving it a chance to move on the shinobi preformed three seals causing a special symbol to appear on the right hand that then moved out towards the soul to grasp it. Ah, the monster thought to himself, this was going to be delicious. His favorite part of devouring a soul was not the fact that it kept him alive, but watching the memories of an entire lifetime pass before his mind in the span of a few seconds was a rush that could not be explained or duplicated.
Yet as the soul was but inches from his lips he felt blood suddenly burst from his mouth. A sudden pain his chest caused him to release the jutsu prematurely and look down to find a blade that had no shine to it at all protruding from about where his heart should be – thankfully he was born with his heart on the left side. Still a blade sticking through one’s chest was an obvious subtext that there was someone else there besides just the stoner, someone who quiet and skilled enough to land such an attack on him. It wasn’t going to matter though; no one had faced off with the scientist since he learned to control his powers.
However when he willed his hands to move nothing happened and when he tried to call upon his powers he was met not only with silence but not even a spark of light. A mild panic began to fill the scientist as he realized that he was unable to move at all, that somehow, someone had managed to concoct a paralysis poison that actually had effect on him. Which only told him that this was a targeted assassination, which the stoner was a mindless pawn in a game that he thought he was out of? The hilt of the blade was grasped by the killer behind him and removed slowly in such a way that the pain actually made Tama cry out a little before a gloved hand grabbed his hair and quickly inched the razor edge across his throat. Blood splattered out instantly over the body of the man he had killed, painting a very ironic picture as the ability to hold his body up escaped him with his blood and poison. He tried hard to fall in such a way that he could at least see his killer but only managed to twist his body in some strange half turn but his eyes saw hard of the man’s face. It was scarred…so scarred. Scars that created a frown around the corners of his lips, scars that ran across the bridge of his nose, and burn marks around his eyes…whoever Tama’s killer was, he was obviously a professional.
A black ocean roared over the scientist’s vision and then nothing.
The next thing Tama remembered was pain.
His eyes shot open when he felt like something was trying to rip his chest open and to his horror he saw only what he felt. His bi-colored eyes bared witness to his own chest cavity and the injuries it bore. He tried to scream at the sudden entrance into a horror movie only to be reminded that his throat was cut open and nothing but gurgling blood shot out.
“Now, now, now, Mr. Ryuu, that’s terrible for your health,” said a very conceited voice. Tama’s eyes moved towards the direction of that voice to see a man there he recognized as one of the scientists he sold some of his ideas to, “We don’t want you to die after all. You still have quite the brilliant mind full of ideas I would love to pick at…but we have to do something about that nasty power of yours. Make your more…tame.”
“You see dear Tama the inventions you sold me only procured a small amount of cash that was barely enough for me to work on one of my own projects and so I need more! However I know for a fact that we haven’t been the best of partners considering I’ve killed I believe three of your lab assistants and stole some ideas…so obviously there was no way I could just ask you, not to mention your ability to destroy things with your powers are quite well known. You could have easily just destroyed me and left not a trace of evidence…doing the same to you however is impossible so I had to improvise. I’ve been watching you for a long time boy…watched you age in leaps and bounds in the matter of days and watched your true nature surface when the energies that you used almost consumed you.
“You really should be thanking me in the long run, after all, after this surgery you won’t ever have to worry about them ever again…”
Anger fueled Tama’s conscious for but a moment before the pain of his body being split open finally caused him to succumb to the darkness once more…
Nightmares plagued his near death dreams. Horror filled dreams about a scared man who he couldn’t kill haunted his every sleeping step. In them the assassin hacked at his throat and body repeatedly, taking away precious bits of his life with each swing of his knife until there was nothing left of the man but his mind and heart.
His eyes opened up quickly, breaking away from the terrifying dream to find that he had been discarded somewhere in the Lower District, somewhere where the garbage collected and was sure to infect wounds he knew was there. The scientist raised a weary hand up to his throat and found that there was scaring but nothing fresh wound wise and the same could be said of his chest when he ripped open his blood stained shirt. His body felt broken and weary as it ever had though and as he tried to stand found that his left leg had been very badly broken from the knee down causing him to scream and fall back into the trash. A cold sweat began to cover his entire body before he began to retch up an empty stomach, feeling for the first time in a long time a mortal hunger. His shaky hands moved over the garbage until he found something solid that helped him stagger upright on his one good leg. The man felt like hell frozen over as stood, trying desperately to hold himself up on a wall. He tried to call for his powers, demanding that they be used to fix his leg willing to take the aging curse that would come with it but was only met with simple chakra – and not a lot of it either. The sudden memory of a mad man performing surgery on him crossed his third eye that made him realize that he had lost that which had caused him to be feared, that what caused people to leave him be.
Now that he had no power, what was he to do?