Mission:

What a fascinating turn of events...

The man stood with outstrectched arms awaiting the servents of the Monkey King to bring him the robe that he had taken to wearing since joining the village hidden in the clouds. He had dawned it for the first time when he had met Hastur, and it was a great reminder of the day that he had been brought into his fold. Their goals appeared to be alligned and this was simply proof of that. The best way to ensure that the sands stayed free from corruption and crime was to bring it under the thumb of the cloud, and Mitsuo would spearhead that effort. His gold flame trimmed white robe that was adorned with blue rose imagry drapped over his hody and his armour, hiding it from view as his do’un was placed upon his head, the gold roses with sapphire accents dangling around the round brim of the hat. Eizo’s attire was much more typical of him, the normal dark armour that he wore into battle with a blood red cloak clasped to his shoulders with sapphire roses.

“Did you think we would be going back to that place, Eizo?” Mitsuo’s voice was serious, intensified by how well it carried across a room. His voice was as much of a weapon as anything else he had used, and he knew that full well. He had the ability to embolden or tear down those who he spoke to through his immense charisma and righteous zeal, having long ago perfected the skill of Speechcraft. “The citizens of the Sand will meet their saviour once more, and when they are brought under the thumb of Kumogakure they shall truly know freedom from the corruption and fear that has held a deathlock over them for so long. I was the catalyst for their liberation, and now I shall complete what I started and truly bring them one step closer to Utopia.” The monkey kind had a stern look upon his face as he listened to Mitsuo’s words, the ramblings of a madman. He knew that Mitsuo meant well, but at some point something inside of him had broken and he knew that he wasn’t entirely himself.

“But will the people welcome you back as saviour? Or will they see you as scourge? Your definition of one is most peoples view of the other, and they might see a conqurer instead of one who means to bring freedom. I hope you will tread lightly, Lord Sarutobi, as you ended many lives, and disrupted many more that night.” The monkey king spoke with an undertone of sadness. He had watched his lifelong friend and companion slip into insanity and it was something that had bothered him deeply. He knew that at this point he could only hope that something would one day snap him out of it, and until then he would be there to support and protect the once great shinobi.

“Nonsense Eizo, I am sure they will see the light. While it may not be instantaneous they will understand that their lives are better for what has happened. I have been put on this planet to judge the wicked and bring justice to those who deserve it, to free those shackled by sin and corruption, and it is my divine duty to ensure that people like them are saved and allowed to live a free and prosperous life. That is what I am here for...” His fiery resolve truly was something to behold and Eizo couldn’t help but to feel somewhat inspired by his words. He truly believed in everything he spoke, and his belief made his words carry a great weight. He placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder and the two of them made their way away from the Monkey Kingdom, and towards the heart of the beast, where the first of many nations would be brought peace...


Standing outside of the village, the Hellfire Drake awaited the legions of the Raijin, standing in front of the assembled masses at the gate. He looked towards the beautiful glass that had been the labour of his previous visit and smiled, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it with his chakra, inhaling deeply and taking the smoke in his lungs before letting it pass through his nose and addressing the crowd.

“People of Kumogakure, hear my words...We are put here on a righteous path by our Raikage, the great Raijin Hastur.” He used the considerable weight of his voice and allowed it to carry across the vast nothingness of the desert, the winds amplifying it and causing a megaphone like effect. “The Village of Sunagakure was a cespool of sin and corruption, and justice had been brought upon the majority of the perpetrators of those crimes, but today we come to bring the people of this once great village peace. We will tear the village to its corrupt roots, and bring the innocents into the fold of our great nation, allowing them to taste prosperity and to experience the Utopia that Hastur and I will bring to the shinobi world. Suffer not the corrupt to live, bring death to the criminal, and make the sinful repent. We are liberation, WE ARE JUSTICE!” His speech was short and to the point, the Monkey King standing beside him to bring weight to his words. Upon completion of his message he turned around and watched as the shinobi backing him up poored into the village like a flood, bringing his and Hastur’s vision to light as he moved to begin the liberation of the sand...

(947)

Chakra 375/420:

Raphael moved across the desert sands with a hundred other Shinobi of the Hidden Cloud Village, they had but one destination on their minds, the remains of Sunagakure. It was hard for the boy to believe that a year had already past since the fateful night that the village hidden in the sand was turned to nothing more than a slab of glass and burning rubble. He had always planned to have returned here to help his people, whether it was rebuilding or offering them his own protection, but now a year had pasted and the boy was here for a different reason. The Land of Wind has fallen into the grasp of an unknown force that call themselves Ryujin, they have built a city upon the very glass that had once been the village hidden in the sands and declared themselves the protectors and gods of this land. Yet word had been spread that the crime and corruption that once held a stranglehold over Sunagakure no Sato, now sat in full power within this group of Ryujin with no opposition to stop them, keeping the people of this land in poverty and disarray. When word of this group reached the ears of the Raikage Hastur, to say he was disapproving of this would be an understatement. The Raikage announced not only to the people of Kumogakure no Sato, but to those of every nation that he would not stand idle while those of Kaze no Kuni suffered under these tyrants. Now the full force of the Kumogakure no Sato Shinobi army marched across the sands of the land of wind under the command of Mitsuo Sarutobi to the very doorsteps of those that have been deemed not only a threat to the Land of Wind but to the world as a whole.

If you were to have told the boy a year ago that he would be returning to his former home as part of a conquering force with the intention of finishing the job that the three rogue Shinobi had begun he would of laughed in your face, and if you told him he would be doing so under the leadership of one of those rogue Shinobi he might have punched you in the face. Some would say that it was the man's fault that the Land of Wind had fallen to such disarray, that if he had not destroyed Sunagakure no Sato that the Ryujin would not have come to the power that it now held over the land. However the past year the boy has spent living in Kumogakure no Sato has changed the young shinobi, not only in his maturity but also in his way of thinking and his perspective over the situation. The young boy now understood that the man did what he had done to help free not only those of Sunagakure no Sato but also to free the entirety of Kaze no Kuni, and there was nothing to say that these Ryujin as they called themselves would not have still rose to power even if Sunagakure had still been standing. Though in all honesty to himself, the boy could not be sure that he did not still harbour ill feelings towards the man that many called the Sword Saint for the innocent lives that were taken that night, he has since come to realize the reasons behind the man's actions. The young Shinobi now understood that though he was a shinobi of the Hidden Sand Village, that he did not truly know the village that he had served nor did he know or understand the corruption of it's leadership. The boy was but a lowly genin during his services to the sand village, not yet aware of the crime and corruption that his so called leaders not only supported but ultimately orchestrated. Last year after the destruction of his home the boy fled the land of Kaze no Kuni in search of guidance and strength to help right the wrongs that had fallen upon his people, his journey brought him to the gates of Kumogakure no Sato and to the feet of their leader, the Raikage Hastur. The man stood as a god before the young boy and granted him sanctuary under his divine protection, after that day Raphael dedicated his time and energy to serving the Raikage as well as Kumogakure no Sato and the Land of Lightning, the young shinobi grew both in strength and in rank to reach the point where he now stood among the shinobi of the cloud village.

The young shinobi caught his first glimpse of their target as they topped the last sand dune that stood in their path, the sight was almost blinding by the fact of the glass reflecting the light of the Sun. Once his eyes adjusted to the light the boy had expected to see a beautiful village like that of Kumogakure, however his eyes were met with no such sight instead it seemed that the new rulers of this land cared little for the appearance of their home this fact proven by the fact that the glass beneath the village was by far the only thing of beauty the boy could see. As the army of Kumogakure Shinobi drew closer to the village gates, Raphael caught sight of two figures standing there as if they were waiting for the rest of them to arrive. As they got closer to the pair, Raphael realized that one of them was in fact a rather large monkey, which could only mean that the man standing next to him was none other that Mitsuo Sarutobi. Now that the Kumogakure force had gathered the man address the crowd with a voice that was amplified by the wind, his words carrying to all those that stood before him. The man's words carried a weight to them and yet sent a wave of inspiration with them as well, as he finished his words a large roar erupted from among the cloud shinobi as the assualt on the village began with the young special jounin among the inspired as he charged with his brethren towards the gates of the village.

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1036

Under the blistering sun of the Land of Winds, the Forces of Kumogakure would gather in front of the glassed remnants, each and every one of them dressed for war, equipped to the teeth with weapons and wearing the best quality armour they could get their hands on and flaunting the headband bearing Kumo's insignia. Under the banner of the Raikage and the command of Lord Mitsuo Sarutobi it would be their task to take over the last bastion of resistance in name of the Raikage Hastur Miyamoto. In between these troops stood a young woman, known as the 'herald of Hastur', a diplomat of the Lightning Kage, bearing a simple white robe with the cloud grey coloured kamon of the Raiu that covered her personal leather battle dress. Her long black hair would be tied together with a purple ribbon in the back, covering the back of her Kumogakure hitae-ate and resting loosely on her white robes. Her trusted katana positioned on the left, ready to be drawn instantly by the iaijutsu practitioner she was, along with the quiver full of arrows and the white longbow on her back would form the main tools of the warfare that would be brought at Sunagakure's doorsteps today.

Having grown up to perform most investigations and missions on a solitary base, the large amount of warriors that had gathered today was not something she was familiar with, her thoughts dwelling to questions as how it was possible so many people could gather under a single banner to execute one single purpose. Today's mission was of a rank that was supposedly far beyond her capabilities as a special jounin, and yet the Administration had delivered an inquiry for her to assist the troops. To say she felt out of place was an understatement. The very nature of this mission already contradictory to what she stood for. Mizuki cherished the preservation of life and the approach of peace above a brutal display of strength like the one that would be shown today, but in the back of her mind she understood that some solutions and certain peace could not be delivered without bloodshed. Her father had taught her that much the moment she took his life to finish her executioner arts.

If one was to give Sunagakure the opportunity to rise from its ashes and return to a worthy Village however, the last vestige of the ruins would have to be destroyed. Not only Kumogakure had come to understand this, seeing as how a variety of bases had popped up like mushrooms recently. It was just so that Kumogakure had taken the initiative and would strike first and fast as lightning. Standing in the crowd to hear what the Destroyer of Suna had to say, it would perhaps be for a first time since the Kage Summit that the kunoichi came to understand why the Raikage had decided to spare the man that had stood at the base of Sunagakure's ruination rather than to execute him. His charisma would enthral the masses, his spirit a true zealot hiding under the resplendent clothes he wore, he was driven to eradicate all that was corrupted and sinful in favour of an Utopian regime. He and the Raikage were kindred spirits.

But where did she fit in? Was this the future she had seen when she became Lin's student and got inspired by the idea to improve upon Kumogakure in a peaceful way through trade, travel and politics? It certainly was not. Not once had the annexing of a Village been a part of that vision. What she had wanted was improving upon the quality of the Village from the inside out rather than expanding it and risking the wrath of the Wind Daimyo. Better quality weapons, improved defences, the shepherding of the nearby villages and rice fields that supported them, improving the safety of trade routes. Boosting the economy and the interactions between other Villages. Such choices would have allowed the area to flourish, a slow progress that would pay off in the long run.

Unfortunately for her, much of the future she had planned had eventually proven impossible. Enriching the village at Lin's side had but been one of those. Traditions and expectations imposed since childhood, the inevitable loss of her family, even the way this mission stood adverse to her peaceful approach. There had been too many unexpected events that had derailed her from her path, and that had started to push her mind into a creeping spiral of thoughts that wondered if there was anything in life remaining that was still worth fighting for.

Her mind would find respite from the encroaching shadows as the troops suddenly cheered loudly, Mitsuo's speech having come to an end. The troops' morale raised and rallied for the cause, Mitsuo Sarutobi would turn his back to the troops and set his gaze upon their target, with it giving the signal that the assault had begun. The troops moved, spirited, their previous cadenced march now a wild charge that would crash upon the gates like a tsunami. The quiet before the storm had been broken as the dark cloud of the Raikage's ambitions would come to pass judgement over Sunagakure.

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881

“From how long I been your partner, I never seen you take an interest in the happenings of the world. You always kept to yourself, and to those worth your time. But, now, you are stepping out of this comfort zone. Why?”, The man sitting on the hardwood floor in a seiza position, with his eyes closed, ignored the question proposed by his teacher, trainer, and friend. The being made a good point. Never had he been interested in the machinations of others. He usually, even when apart of a different village, did what he wanted whenever the situation benefitted himself or those close to him. What he was about to do accomplished none of that. So, the question remained, why was he going to act for someone who cared little for?

Opening his eyes, yellow and reptilian in nature, he stares in the direction of the one who asked him. Hikari, a dark green komodo dragon belonging to a summoning clan who, at her parents' request, became the teacher for him in the act of Senjutsu. “I have been inactive for far too long. Many of those in my generation has long since passed everything I have done, and even the youngest have managed to carve their names into this world. What about me?”, He ignored how she tilted her head, and how her eyes danced with amusement, “While fame is something I do not seek, for the unwanted attention, I still believe it is time for I to move, and carve my name into this world.”

Hikari took in the words spoken by her hatchling, a predatory smile spreading across her face. Never would she imagined her hatchling felt that way. Who would have thought Daremo have grown tired of his inactivity? “So, my little hatchling finally want to grow, eh?”, She barked in cruel laughter, “Very well, hatchling. Though you do not seek my permission, you have it anyway. Go forth hatchling, leave your mark on this world, let them know that Pestilence walks amongst them, and even the Gods should be wary for it has no equal.” Indeed, there was no reason to gain her permission, but, getting it was a nice gesture from his companion.

Sighing, Daremo stood up from his sitting position. Draped over his shoulders was a black color haori of a simple design, lacking any of the intricate patterns that he was known for wearing. Hiding a black armor, from his days of Anbu of a different village, was a cream white kosode, and finishing the attire was matching hakama, and Jika-tabi shoes. His silver hair was styled in a bun being held by a pair of two-foot-long senbon in a criss-cross fashion. “Gods?”, He shook his head, “There are no Gods in this world, only delusional men.” As history taught, all those who proclaimed themselves as a “God” ultimate fell by their lesser man. If they were indeed a God, they would have not died, becoming nothing more than a memory.

Walking towards the door, Daremo paused, “Do not worry hatchling, I will look after your mate and children. So be at ease knowing they will be safe.”, He nodded at Hikari words; they brought him some comfort. Kaia-mai, his wife, Zaylee and Mamoru, his children, if there were ever a reason not to die today, it would be for those three. They were his life and world, and there is nothing, man or God, that would stop him from returning to them. Opening the door, he stepped out, shutting and locking it behind him, “Thank you. . .” He muttered, slipping on his headband, showing his allegiance to Kumogakure.

It did not take him long to arrive at the location where the Forces of Kumogakure was gathering in front of the glass remnants of a once proud village. Blending in with the men and women, dressed in their best armor, equipped with the highest quality of weapons, flaunting their headbands, bearing the Kumogakure insignia, shimmered in the sun rays. A few acknowledged his presence, but nothing came between the moments as they were focused on what was to come.

The air was brimming with energy as these shinobis, both rookie and veteran alike, were prepared to carry out their God’s decree. Hastur Miyamoto, Daremo did not know what to say about the self-proclaimed God. Personally, the Raikage never did anything against his person. The man allowing him, and his wife, to join Kumogakure’s forces after leaving Konohagakure no sato. If Hastur wanted, he could have turned them back over to Konoha, allowing the village to deal with the pair, yet, the man did not, instead, he allowed them to stay. And while the man’s proclamation of being a God rubbed Daremo the wrong way, there was really no other reason for the silver-haired male to dislike the Raikage. With there being no reason to hate Hastur, he might as well help the Raikage in his endeavors . . . for now.

His eyes moved towards the man standing in front of the crowd. To many, he was the Destroyer of Suna, the devil to some, and the saint to others, but to Daremo, the man was nothing more than the father-in-law. The adopted father to his wife, and unknowing grandfather to their children. His thoughts on the man varied. He wanted to hate the man for leaving his daughter behind without anyone to protect her, but could he really? The man could have just believed the village would watch after his child, and keep her out of harm's way. Could he really hate him for that thought process? Yes, he could, but, only because he knew what Kaia-mai went through during that time, however, he would not. There were far worse fathers in this world, and hating the man who is his children grandfather, and Kaia-mai’s father was not healthy. He was too old to let such feelings to bother him. As far as he is concern, the man was family, if he knew it or not.

”A good speaker.”, he mused, watching how the man’s words seemed to energize even more. The men and women feeding off the words that were spoken. Believing in the words that were being spoken, believing in the orders given. For a split second, he felt motivated by the man’s words, before clamping on that from blooming. As the soldiers cheered loudly, him included, as the speech came to an end. A calmness settling upon him, and his mind becoming sharper than any blade. With the signal given, men and women followed the Destroyer of Suna into battle, while being blissfully unaware of the pestilence who marched with them.

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1128

Exiting Thread

1036 words

Learning Zanbato Weapon Style