The Sword Saint of Konoha knelt inside of the temple known as the Thunder Temple, a place where he had felt like his meeting wouldn't be disturbed. Though there were several members of the Tsukino clan around the area, none of them disturbed him as he passed through, explaining to them that he needed somewhere private to meditate. He had removed his Sword of the Immortal Blaze and sat with it in his lap, feeling the heat radiating off of it as he thought deeply about his time in this village and reflected all of the things that had led him to this moment. He had been very busy since arriving here, sadly recently not having had much time to simply enjoy the village, but at this point he was simply biding time until a man whom he had summoned would approach. He had watched the man from afar, going as far a to sell him the last remaining part of Ukiyo Senju that he had, which was the Sharingan eye that he had taken off of her dead body, a moment that had still haunted her to this day. While he did not go himself to take the eye to the man, he had watched as a patron in the bar as the young child Taishi had delivered it for him. The man was a fascinating prospect and Mitsuo didn't want to let him slip through his fingers.

As lightning struck the area around him, he began to release his chakra, the immense chakra beast inside of him awakening as he felt the Crimson Dragon inside of him stirring. Tsuyo Hyuga, the king (or one of them) of the Aoi Bara had told him of this beast upon their first meeting. He had explained to him that to his trained Byakugan eye his chakra was the most powerful he had ever seen, even surpassing his own. It manifested itself as a massive Crimson Dragon, and ever since hearing that Mitsuo had done all that he could to bring forth this beast. While he had been travelling the world for three years, spending time away from the lands of the shinobi, he had been learning to make his chakra manifest itself. He had gained a small amount of control over it, the chakra manifesting as an immense heat, but he had never quite managed to get the dragon itself to manifest. He had learned to feel it though, and that was something that he was quite proud of. Everything around him began to feel as though it was the temperature of the heat radiating off of a furnace, and that was just a passive fraction of his power.

He focused inward, hearing the deep roar of the dragon inside of him, begging for release. It had been a long time since he had even used any of his chakra, having not had a reason too since coming back to the lands of the shinobi. Everything he had done since his arrival had been at the tip of a blade, which he was doing by design. He wanted to build his chakra up to a point where he would be able to manifest this dragon into a physical thing, in order to put himself on the same level as his former leader and mentor, turned brother in the Aoi Bara, Tsuyo Hyuga. When Tsuyo had told Mitsuo that he would lead the Aoi Bara with him, he had taken it as a great honour. A part of that position, of course, was recruiting, and that was why he had been following the man named Syn. He had never made his presence known to him, although the young Taishi had mentioned his name as he delivered the Sharingan to him. He didn't mind the fact that he had done so, as he wanted to plant the seed when Mitsuo would eventually come calling for him. He had sent out a letter by raven to Syn, the letter saying;

Syn,

You have outgrown your garden, and I have come to bring you to a new home. Your flower blooms beautifully, and I would help to nurture it. Meet me where the lightning strikes the temple, and you will have your answers.

Mitsuo~

It was somewhat cryptic, but that was often the case with the Aoi Bara. Mitsuo felt another bolt of lightning strike the ground near him, and he could feel the energy coursing through his body. This place felt powerful, and it was in this temple that his family would be strengthened...

765

It had been over a week since he had gotten the sharingan implanted into his left eye but he had never felt the need to open or even use it. He had kept it covered by his head band and nobody seemed to have noticed anything so all was fine. He still had two sharingans in his keep, one which he had bought from a certain Mitsuo Sarutobi and the other he took from the dead body of Neci Uchiha, the right eye of the one implanted in his left eye after the male attempted to best him. It had not been a funny experience and it took only one sentence that the ninja had spoken to trigger Syn's anger. The death of comrades. He had claimed to kill some kumogakure shinobis on his way to the border and that wasn't an act to be forgiven. He would protect the inhabitants of the village that had accepted him in whenever he could. He had not given much thought to this Mitsuo Sarutobi of a person. The purchase was meant to be an underground one where none of the parties were meant to know the names of each other but this person had left his own name. Did he have some other motive other than the sale of a rare item? This matter was worth looking into but Syn had not attached any importance to it since the deal had gone down.

The sight of a raven at his window drew him out of his pool of thoughts. He waved his hand but the bird refused to fly away. He moved closer and yet the animal stood it's ground. He peered closely and attached to the bird's foot was a message which Syn took carefully and read with eye movements.

Syn,
You have outgrown your garden, and I have come to bring you to a new home. Your flower blooms beautifully, and I would help to nurture it. Meet me where the lightning strikes the temple, and you will have your answers.
Mitsuo~

The message seemed like a puzzle and he knew he had to decrypt it. It was this Mitsuo again and this only confirmed that the man had some other motive than the selling of a sharingan. The talk about his flower blooming.. There's no way this person could have know that he was a senju. No, thats not what it mean. It was some sort of cryptic writing.



The jounin sat looking at the letter after the raven had taken off. It took him a little while but he cracked the code. A smirk appeared on his face as he put on his black knee length coat over his camelio armour with his scythe behind him. With this he left his home and headed for where the lightning meets the temple.

He would arrive at the thuner temple quickly and seeing the kumogakure no sato head band slid across his left eye, the Tsukino clansmen would not hinder him. He would walk into the temple as another lightning bolt would strike down on the earth as if annoucing his presence. He would see a single man kneeling inside the temple as he would speak from behind the figure.
'I decrypted your letter, Mitsuo Sarutobi... Now let's talk man to man.'

He smiled his signature half smile as he felt the man's approach. His chakra had reached a critical point in his training, and was beginning to coat him in a brilliant red aura. This was the power that Tsuyo Hyuga had told him of, this is what he had worked to unlock within himself at his instruction. The full mastery of exerting the full pressure of his chakra was within his grasp and he had pumped up the heat in the process. When he felt the approach it was impossible for a man like Mitsuo to miss. In his entire life there were three clans that he had spent the majority of his time with, and they all were very unique. The first clan that would come to mind, and the most recent one was the Aisu Clan, as he had spent time dating the Sannin from Kirigakure named Strafe Aisu, and had therefore spent time around the Mizukage, and the other sannin Yuudai as well. Their chakra was instantly recognizable to him, as he could feel the cold radiating off of their bodies, perverting his heat as it entered his space. He would always know an Aisu, but not nearly as well as the other two clans whom he had spent the majority of his life around.

The second was the Hyuga clan, which he would know slightly more than an Aisu, but slightly less than the third. His first love was a member of the famous Hyuga clan, and the two of them had spent every single day over the course of eight years together, causing them to be extremely close and for Mitsuo to get to know his chakra very well. He would also meet the second Hyuga he would spend a lot of his life with through Kimaru, which was his brother Tsuyo Hyuga, a man who would come across Mitsuo's desk as the Head of ANBU as a defector of the leaf, and who would eventually be his leader in the organization Aoi Bara, which Mitsuo and Tsuyo were now co-leaders of. Mitsuo and Tsuyo were close, and he had spent a lot of time around Kimaru, but there was something about the chakra of the Hyuga clan that was generally kept well hidden. They felt most powerful when activating their Byakyugan, and knowing the traces of that power was how Mitsuo knew if one of them approached him.

The third clan that Mitsuo would always know, and the one whom he had spent the most time with growing up, and therefore would never be able to miss, was the Senju clan. The wood release users were ingraned in Mitsuo's history from a young age, having gone through the Academy and eventually becoming best friend with Ukiyo Senju, one of the most powerful shinobi he had ever encountered. Sousetsu Senju was another person who Mitsuo had considered a close and personal friend for the majority of his life, and he was even the one whom he had surrendered the Hokage position too when he was asked. And then there was another friend of his, another Sannin of the village who went by the name of Owydelu. These three Senju were people who, until leaving the lands of the Shinobi, Mitsuo had spent most of his life with. He even knew how it felt when a Senju was slain, having killed Ukiyo with his own blade. When that had happened he promised himself he would never forget her, or her chakra, and that knowledge was still plastered in his brain. He knew from the first instant he had felt Syn's presence what he was, and it was part of the reason that he had recruited him. Being the former Head of the ANBU Black Ops in Konoha, as well as a former Hokage, he also had access to see every ninja that had defected in the history of the village, and over the past twenty or so years there had only been three Senju go missing. One of them was Ukiyo, the second was Sousetsu, and both of them Mitsuo would know undeniably, so he couldn't be either of those. That left only one option, but he would not reveal his hand so early.

His chakra reaching its boiling point, the red glow begining to have licks of flame appear on his shoulders and back, Mitsuo spoke in his low and commanding voice. "So direct, so straight to the point. Is it a Kumo ninja thing to be that way? It surely doesn't come from Konoha. I would know..." Mitsuo's smile didn't fade, and he didn't look up either. He didn't need too. The man would feel the pressure of his chakra and know that he was paying complete attention to him. More lightning crashed around him as Mitsuo spoke once more. "I have asked you here with a fascinating business proposition. Before I tell you my reasoning however, I will tell you a little about myself, so that I may gague your reaction. I am Mitsuo Hiruzen Sarutobi, the head of the Sarutobi Clan, named the Sword Saint of Konoha by the fifteenth Hokage. I was the Head of the ANBU Black Ops and was also eventually named the Seventeenth Hokage of Konoha. I am an extremely knowledgable man on all things Konoha, on all of their clans, and on all of the people who have gone missing from my village." His words would likely give away the fact that he had an idea of who the man was, and he would take note of his reaction, seeing if he would outright attack Mitsuo or do what the Aoi Bara members would do and seek a way to work out of the situation. Mitsuo was hoping he would look for the business proposition, as it would make more sense, and Mitsuo had no interest in fighting, or in turning the man in anyway. "I can reveal more to you shortly, but I want to know first what you think of me, and why you think I am here."

1789

A red aura began to cover his being as licks of flames leapt off it. The ability to cloak one's self in a layer of their own chakra was a brilliant feat on it's own but Syn was not here for a display of chakra control, he knew there were other things at stake but still he would acknowledge the feat and not address it yet. His right hand would rest on the metallic base of the demon's fang and ready to swing it if need be but the fact that this man felt confident enough to attend to an unknown person with his back turned was interesting and Syn would for the moment keep his calm while the man gave a response to his statement.

"So direct, so straight to the point. Is it a Kumo ninja thing to be that way? It surely doesn't come from Konoha. I would know...'' the response struck a twelve on Syn's clock. The way the man only showed that he knew about Syn's past but how? First was the coded letter with the flower and garden and now he was talking about Syn's behaviour and then linking it to konoha, it was pretty obvious already.

"I have asked you here with a fascinating business proposition. Before I tell you my reasoning however, I will tell you a little about myself, so that I may gague your reaction. I am Mitsuo Hiruzen Sarutobi, the head of the Sarutobi Clan, named the Sword Saint of Konoha by the fifteenth Hokage. I was the Head of the ANBU Black Ops and was also eventually named the Seventeenth Hokage of Konoha. I am an extremely knowledgable man on all things Konoha, on all of their clans, and on all of the people who have gone missing from my village."

Head of the Sarutobi clan? Syn knew this clan from his past and all about their will of fire stuff or at least he had read or heard about it. That explained the unneccessary heat in the room, the firey chakra that dwelled in Mitsuo. The chakra would now begin to overwhelm the room in all of it's glory and Syn would feel it's massiveness and the full focus of the man on him even with his back turned. It was as if the chakra had a thousand eyes and they all were faced at him. Regardless of this intimidating act, Syn would not waver. The ability to not bat an eye even in the face of danger had become something natural to him after his first death. His face only registered emotions of anger or happiness or whatsoever when he wanted it to so this feature hardly gave him away when anyone looked upon his face. The man had been the head of konoha's anbu before and had also been the hokage at one time. He also mentioned knowing about those that had gone missing in the village and this bit clearly caught Syn's attention. The message was all clear now and the picture he had been painting was well understood. He knew it all, that Syn was Dray or maybe not.

His tone would not switch to that of anger and neither would it be that of one begging for his life.
Blackmailing me with my own identity? Was this your motive behind the sharingan? Give me power and ask me to serve you? What is this business proposition you speak of, Mitsuo? the jounin would ask even though he still had the sharingan sold to him by Mitsuo safely kept. He would stand his ground and listen clearly.

"Blackmailing me with my own identity? Was this your motive behind the sharingan? Give me power and ask me to serve you? What is this business proposition you speak of, Mitsuo?" Mitsuo watched the man standing in front of him. A smile would cross his face as his responce had all but confirmed Mitsuo's assumption on the man. This was in fact Dray Senju, one of the missing ninja from his village whom had been in the bingo book when he had taken his turn in the ANBU. Other than his words betraying him, however, his body was fairly difficult to read. Mitsuo couldn't figure out exactly what he was thinking or if it looked as though he was planning to attack or run. It was something that was bothering him, the man seeming to be inhumanly still as he stood there and listened to Mitsuo. He assumed that the man was trying to show that he wasn't intimidated, but Mitsuo wasn't trying to intimidate him and was in fact simply laying all of his cards on the table.

As Mitsuo stood to his full height, he could feel the lightning surging around him, crashes of it hitting around them fairly consistantly. This place felt like power, and it was a fantastic place for him to train. He had been quite happy he had chosen this place to have this meeting. The man in front of him shared something in common with Mitsuo, besides the fact that he had been scouted by the Aoi Bara, and that was that they were both missing ninja from the Village Hidden in the Leaves, though where it seemed as though this man had left in order to escape the village, Mitsuo had left to save it. It still bothered him when he thought back to the night he had decided to leave, and the reason behind that oh so long ago...

The sky was black and rumbled with the crashing of thunder, splitting with the white slashes of lightning and pouring down all over the land with a heavy rain. Mitsuo stared directly up into the sky, the water making his glasses nearly useless, droplets dripping down his face that were more than just rain. He could taste the salty tears making their way down his cheek and he screamed bloody murder into the heavens above. A cold hand touched his cheek and he could barely bring himself to look down at the sight that was unfolding below him. He could feel the warm liquid pooling on the ground below him reaching out and soaking his knees, the irony tang of blood thick in the air. He lowered his head and sobbed, his lips pressing to those of the man who was dying in his arms as he kissed him one last time, feeling the life leave him in that last moment, which seemed much too short for Sarutobi, Mitsuo as the light left Kimaru Hyuga’s eyes. He yelled out once again, the horror of the situation truly sinking in. The man whom he had loved for the past three years, and whom he had known all of his life, was dead. The fact was undeniable. He found it difficult to face the fact and he could do nothing but watch as the silhouette of the man who had done the deed disappeared into the distance.

How could I have let this happen, Kimaru? Why wasn’t I fast enough, why wasn’t I strong enough? Why wasn’t it me? Everyone I love, every last one, dies… My mother…My brother…My father…now you… What is it about me? Why does death surround me? Why can’t I just be happy… His eyes were painted completely red and the salty tears were beginning to sting the cuts around his face from the battle that had ensued. Mitsuo ran his hands along the young Hyuga’s cheek and closed his eyes, the cold flesh wet from the rain and blood. He felt as though his heart had been torn out of his chest and smashed with a tenderizer, pulverized into a fine mush and then lit on fire, made to slowly burn until it was nothing but ash. He couldn’t believe what had happened, and wasn’t sure he would ever be able to accept it. He set down his mask and rested his forehead on Kimaru’s, looking into the blank and lifeless eyes of the beautiful man in front of him. He knew nothing would ever be the same and he knew it was his fault. It was a pain that was like no other he had ever felt. He thought back to the day that he had the Karisuma eye implanted into his left eye socket, the stabbing burning feeling that was intense as a thousand sons when Strafe Aisu had dug a kunai into his eye socket and dug out his destroyed eye. This was much more intense though, as Strafe had severed the nerves, eventually numbing him to the pain, though this was a pain that would last a lifetime. When he thought of all of the time they had spent together, all of the love they had shared, and that it would come to something like this, it made him sick.

He almost couldn’t bring himself to do it, his hands closing the young Hyuga’s eyes and resting on his forehead. He shuddered to think of what he would have to do next, as was his duty as an ANBU Black Ops agent. He began forming hand signs quickly, an intricate string of them more complex than any other jutsu he knew and the tears continued to fall down his face as he did this. Each hand sign seemed to stretch an eternity even though they took fractions of a second to form from his training, and he couldn’t bear to think of what he was about to do to his lover. He eventually finished through his string and placed his hand on Kimaru’s forehead once more, sending his chakra into the young man’s body and performing what was basically an ANBU agent’s last rights. The chakra pulsed through the young man’s body in waves, building up inside of him before he was consumed in a flash of bright light and then there was nothing left of the body, save for the mask which Mitsuo had saved. He ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head before beginning to throw up violently, the entire world spinning around him as he nearly collapsed onto the ground unconscious, the storm above more violent than any Mitsuo had ever seen before...

That death was the final straw for Mitsuo, who had been searching for the people who had been hunting his family and loved ones ever since. He had joined the Aoi Bara shortly after leaving, as their goals somewhat alligned with Mitsuos, and since then they had been making their ways towards the end goal of removing corruption from the world, though in the case of Mitsuo specifically, from Konoha, his beloved home. He looked back at Syn once more, putting a hand on his shoulder. "My good sir, I do not threaten you, and I do apologize for I cannot stay. I have come here to deliver a message. I am a part of an organization you have probably heard of, known as the Aoi Bara. We are a group of Missing Ninja who operate outside of the law in order to bring peace to the world and end the corruption that plagues each of the five nations. I am here to offer you an invitation, should you choose to accept it." He would tuck a letter into the man's jacket pocket, before walking away, looking out at the lightning once more.

"Find me Dray, look for the one they call the Hell Gate Dragon King, and you will find a friend." And he used the Body Flicker technique to get as far away from that place as he could...

{Exit Thread}

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