Shou gave a rare smile to the dango seller as the man handed him a stick with three dumplings on it covered in the sweet and tangy sauce. It smile full of sharp points reserved only for things like food or swimming. Dango was always a nice treat after a long day for Shou. It was one of the sweet foods that he liked. He had grown to be picky over the years and the sweeter the foods he ate were the more he liked them usually. Usually sweet foods were all that he ate, as unhealthy as it was to just eat sweet and light foods constantly without much else. However, he didn’t really care. After all, he was still as healthy as he could be in his opinion.

Nibbling on the stick of Dango as he walked Shou ventured to the ‘Bloody Cemetery.’ Many would most likely find it odd that he visited the cemetery after what he had gone through two years ago when his brother had died. But he still went. He didn’t care about what others thought about what he was doing when he went to the cemetery, but he did lie and say that he was going under the pretense that he was visiting his mother and brother’s graves. Sure, he did visit them, but the cemetery had become more of a place for him to relive his darker memories and actually be himself completely rather than putting up a mask that he actually had a grip on his own mind.

Sure, he was still relatively sane compared to some others, but his craving for blood had become unnatural over the years and he had to constantly remind himself to keep it in check so that he wouldn’t get in trouble. Not that it prevented him from hurting people. He was still a spitfire when he was angry and would hurt people as much as he could usually if he wouldn’t get punished for it.

Shou bit the third and last dumpling off of the stick of dango as he found himself in front of the damp ground of the small familiar plot of land that housed his family’s graves. He stopped before the graves and stared down on them. It was a simple patch of ground where his mother and brother were buried next to each other, damp from the mist and rain and there was nothing particularly special about it other than the fact that it had been the last place that he had seen his brother. His family wasn’t particularly rich and they hadn’t really wanted spectacular graves anyway. Shou would be different when he died. He would have a different sort of grave.

Admittedly, despite knowing that he would have a different sort of grave he had indeed been fond of his mother when she had been alive. He had closer to her than to the other members of his family though even she had preferred Shouta over him in his eyes. It had always been about Shouta the first born twin. It was almost sad that his brother’s ‘grave’ was only a few meters away from where Shou had last seen him. Almost. Shou’s lips quirked into a sneer as he looked away from his mother’s grave to his brother’s grave, moving forward to stand just in front of the headstone, staring down at the ground that was supposed to hold his brother’s body but only housed an empty casket in commemoration of his life.

Shou wasn’t particularly broken up about the fact that his brother was gone and he was glad that they had never found his body. It meant that his brother had probably been cut up so small that no one would ever find him again. He could remember the blood that had splattered across his face. How the red had seeped into the ground and his skin. How he had seen red in his anger. How liberating it had felt. He smirked. The demise of his own brother had been freeing, as horrific as it had been for him the view of other people. He could still hear the people telling him how sorry they were for his loss. It hadn’t been a loss. It had been an achievement.

Smirking, Shou perched on top of his brother’s gravestone and looked around the cemetery, snapping the stick that had held the dango with a crack between his sharp teeth. He knew that it wasn’t a particularly appropriate thing to do, sitting upon a gravestone, but even so he didn’t really care. Shouta had been his brother and he didn’t care if it was a disgrace to him to do it. While Shouta had been alive he had been the bane of Shou’s life and even in death Shou was going to do what he could to spite him. There was no way that Shou was ever going to forgive his brother for anything even when he was no longer in the world.

“I wonder, brother, if you can see me in whatever hellish form you are now.” Shou sneered into the air, not aiming his words down at the grave. What would be the point if his brother’s body wasn’t actually there? He smirked. “You failed the chuunin exams, you blamed me for that, yet here I am, a genin on his way to becoming a chuunin. I’m farther along than you. I know more Jutsu. You were pathetic. I wonder if anyone actually realized that aside from seeing that you were the best?” He shook his head and sighed. Speaking to the air was pointless and silly. He let out a cold laugh and stepped down away from his brother’s empty grave.

“Let’s see…” Shou took a deep breath and looked at Shouta’s gravestone thoughtfully. Training in front of his brother’s grave to show him up had become something of a pastime for him and today wasn’t any different than the others. “Fūton: Nagare!” He growled, hopping again onto his brother’s grave before propelling himself into the air. With a deep breath that he released at the ground where his brother’s body would have been buried, creating a dent in the damp earth and propelling himself higher. He enjoyed the sensation of the jutsu. Just like being in the water being in the air was liberating.

Chakra 140/150:

It had been a long night, the night before, Solstice had been out patrolling the town with a small group of Special Jounin when they had seen it, there was a man in the Bloody Graveyard. Tall and clad in black with what seemed to be a lengthy blade in his hand, the three of them became instantly alert. Charging toward the man they suspected to be some form of copycat killer, knowing that Solstice and her team of ninja had already killed the serial killer of the graveyard. Or had they? Moving like lightning as the rain poured down over their heads the three of them came face to face with what seemed to be a hooded man. Staring him down the three Jounin(ish) ranked ninja called out to him, though there was no answer. Turning slowly, the man faced the leader of the group, something thick, round and heavy in his off hand. Solstice was surprised not by the drained and decapitated head of the male ninja in his hands, but the mask that was upon his face...

The mask was almost identical to Solstice's iron, round and featureless, though instead of having a white pentagram over one of his eyes like the last ninja to cross blades with the head of clan Aisu, this man's star was red as blood. Solstice found her footing in the cold wet ground of the rain and braced herself for what was yet to come, the two special went for their weapons also, chakra blades and a long sword respectively. the man tossed the head of the murdered Chuunin at the feet of solstice, and her blood began to boil, the chakra within her body beginning to flare, so much so that Hyoton chakra literally began to leak from her left eye. Solstice was the first to initiate combat, her fists curled tightly as the other two stalled to assist her, the man stepped backward and swung his blade for her head, to which Solstice raised her fist. The gold plated S rank gloves over her hands, reminiscent of her father's own caught the blade and deflected it upward and over her scalp.

Not stopping her momentum she punched for the center of the man's chest as the Bladed Sp jounin cut for his head. The killer fell backwards planting his hand to avoid both strikes forced Solstice to duck the incoming blade to maintain her closeness to her target. The third fighter engaged quickly as Solstice closed the gap, his chakra blades opening with a rapid flurry of strikes as the killer fended them over ever moving backwards. His second hand behind him all the while maintaining his posture and balance. "Or hiding a weapon" Solstice thought to herself as she became aware of it. Leaping in with a spinning roundhouse kick the assassin blocked the force of the kick with the blunt of his blade, before angling it to block a further strike from the wielder of the chakra blades.

The battle waged on, the skill of the fighter had made an impact on the trio, though they had discovered it was hard to battle a man whom always held superior range and continued to retreat hastily while remaining on balance with those he fought. By now, his sword was cracked, and on the brink of shattering into nothing but shards, and he knew it... so did solstice, ordering the two special Jounin to outflank him as he once again stood in the centre of the three fighters. But before Solstice could order the attack, the middle man acted, hurtling his blade for the chest of the chakra blade user whom darted to the side, only to be impaled through the shoulder and pinned to a gravestone. Without a word solstice and the other attacked, but it was solstice this time who staggered her blow.

The special Jounin with the sword chopping head high the man ducked only to be collected by Solstice's heel, thrusting him high into the sky and winding him, snapping her leg back, pivoting off it and using the snapped back leg to plant off the ground, the man was stunned. Spinning like a corkscrew with incredible momentum solstice let out her right leg and collected the man in his temple and activating one of her pulses. As the man hit the ground with force, his mask shattered and his head froze to the brain, killing him with the worst case of brain freeze recorded in kiri... But this posed a serious question, who was the man, and why was he wearing such a similar mask to Solstice? Pulling her mask from her face she observed it, though there was a difference between hers and the killer's. Hers bore the symbols of the four waves, similar to a ninja headband... she had inscribed them herself, the murderers, did not.

Solstice spent an uneasy night in her home with a lot to think about, barely able to get to sleep, the rain had subsided and she moved to the roof of her house to overlook the village and attempt to get some clarity into what was going on. She stared into the formations of the mist and hoped that something would just come to light, that she would have some form of revelation and that everything would become clear to her, but no truth came from the clouds, and no secrets came to light, only more mysteries and more questions. Looking down at one of the larger shards she had collected from the corpse of the ninja, she ran her hand over the red of what was a piece of the pentagram. How did you do it...? Why? Who are these guys... She spoke lightly to no-one other than herself as her eyes were mystified by the object... hours past, and eventually Solstice fell into a shallow and uneasy sleep.

---

The next day, Solstice had awoken with an amount of conviction burning within her, she had to get to the bottom of this case. due to the continued absence of the Kage, she had ordered the small group she was with to compile a list of all of the people who had sighted the Serial killer in the graveyard over the past years. They got a number of results, and each of them was likely more troubling than the other. they had never suspected it before, but with the shards of the mask on the desk before her, it was a possibility that this was no mere coincidence, there may well be several of these killers, some form of organisation or alliance opposing Kirigakure. Which was the last thing they needed. With the list of people in mind Solstice began looking around and asking questions.

She'd gotten a couple of mixed responses but when it came to approaching the Hozuki clan, in particular a member of the clan named Shou, Solstice felt a strange sensation that this search was actually going to get her somewhere, there was an odd air in this case as the Serial killer had killed one of their children in the bloody graveyard, but had failed to kill the other of the two twins, which was not exactly in the killer's MO. In the late evening when she arrived at the Hozuki estate, she had talked slightly to the father of Shou, enquiring to his whereabouts. Though the man seemed distant, records showed that the man had lost his wife, as well as a son, which would be a burden to any parent. Solstice sympathise, having seen what her mother had been through at the loss of her father.

But, who was missing at this time of night, pulling up Shou's file, she noticed that he was an aspiring Genin, of a rather reputable nature, though he was noted for having a couple of small attitude problems he was otherwise exemplary in his studies, and often fought and learned like he had something to prove. It was only moments later than one of the two Sp. Jounin had sighted Shou in the graveyard. Thanking the ninja Solstice began her walk to that same location, minutes passed which became little more than forgotten memories as she approached the Hozuki section of the graveyard. Solstice remembered back to when she had fought a Hozuki when she was younger, literally attempting to beat water to a pulp with taijutsu, and not doing a terribly bad job at it. The conflict ended up in a tie, oddly enough, and Solstice had not seen him since.

She watched Shou blast a small rivet into where the tomb of his brother lay, which Solstice dismissed as anger mixed with grief which was dismissed by Solstice as a natural reaction for a young boy. Once she got close enough she called out to him in an attempt to confront him, she did not wear her black pentagram imbued mask on her face, rather than it hanging from her hip on a hook of her belt. Her golden gloves as always graced her hands whild her long black coat and little underneath gave her a form of dangerous allure. Her hood down with her Fine fuuma shuriken on her back. Hozuki Shou... I'm Sostice... and I have a couple of questions I would like to ask you about the night which your brother had died...

Training Bukijutsu S-SS 1577:

Shou closed his eyes for a moment and let himself stay enveloped in the air before falling backwards and opening his eyes to look at his surroundings again, feeling like he was floating in the freedom before he was falling. There was something different about it, a person. From the air, Shou saw the woman approaching the area of his family’s resting place and he frowned. There weren’t many people who would come to look at his family’s graves, at least not that he knew of. He supposed that his mother’s old students, the ones who had been particularly fond of her, must visit every once in a while, but he had never seen any around times that he usually came. It was the ‘bloody’ mist after all. People did have a tendency to avoid it with its horrible history and the tall tales and rumors based in fact after all. This woman was curious. She was obviously a shinobi with her weapons and she seemed to not need to be cautious in the area, just like he had no reason to be particularly tense in the area.

Righting his orientation in the air so that he could land, Shou did a somersault before he once again perched himself on his brother’s headstone as he completed the jutsu, staring at the woman with slightly narrowed eyes. Sure he had taken a glance at her when he was in the air, but it was always easier to take details in when you were looking right at the person. He took in more of her appearance now that he was on an even plane with her from the type of shoes she was wearing to the weapons she was carrying, to her head. He took a deep breath and crossed his arms at the question.

“Hozuki Shou... I'm Sostice... and I have a couple of questions I would like to ask you about the night which your brother had died..”

It seemed silly that she would ask him questions now, but also dangerous for him if there was a reason for it. He had been interrogated about what had happened when he had walked out of the cemetery covered in blood that had not been his, but his identical twins. He had been questioned about what had happened repeatedly for a few hours before he had finally been released so that he could go home after the whole horrible ideal. Questions like: Who had been there? Where is Shouta? Who did this? What did the person look like? Why did you survive? Why … rather than How did you survive? His father had repeated that questions many times and that had made his dislike for the man grow tenfold.

However, though this was true, his mind calculated the odds that they had found something incriminating him somehow. Sure, he had hated his brother, but because they were twin brothers no one ever thought that they could actually hurt one another let alone kill one another. Oh how naïve the world was to still think like that. But even so, the man had said that he would take care of everything once he had seen how bloodthirsty Shou had been as long as Shou didn’t say anything about what had happened or what he knew about the serial killer which wasn’t much in the first place. It was the serial killer’s kill after all. Not Shou’s kill. There was no way that they could know that he had had a part…right? He didn’t let his worry show through though. He couldn’t that would only make the woman suspicious and in turn destroy his world on all likely levels. No, it would remain his closely guarded secret for the rest of his life. Oh how glad he had been to be free of the other who made him so much less original than who he was now.

Had he been being followed? If he had been being followed, how long had they been following him? How had he not noticed being followed? Not noticing was the worst thing. No, he couldn’t have been followed, he would have realized. He knew that he hadn’t done anything incriminating since his brother’s death anyway. He had been careful, just in case there was a reason why they found him to be linked with what had happened in the cemetery those two fateful years ago. He was being a ‘good’ genin as much as he could be. He could be a good kirigakure shinobi and he was good at it. Even so, he probably had been if the woman had suddenly been able to find him at the cemetery specifically. He doubted if he knew that his father had known where he had gone.

“A couple of questions? Been a couple of years now and only now more questions are being asked? Really? What for? Was something found?” Shou started, voice a little incredulous, his eyebrow arching upwards. But, paused as he saw the mask on her belt that he had just skimmed over before, his hazel eyes zeroing in on it in slight shock at the details. The pentagrams on it, the details. They were just like – No. He wouldn’t give that away. He looked back up at her, trying to keep his face a mask of indifference. But that mask. It couldn’t be. There was no way that this woman was the same person as two years ago. They didn’t have the same voice. This couldn’t be the same person. Slowly panic slightly bubbled inside him though he tried to quash it and he didn’t show it. He was still a genin in rank and he knew that although he was good at what he did there was no way that he could just beat a shinobi of a higher rank particularly if they had to do with the serial killer. What was going on? Who was Solstice?

Solstice looked over the young boy standing there perched on the gravestone of his brother, it was not up to her to judge the desecration of his own twin brother, though it was not his brother who had passed the ninja academy and now wore the headband of a genin, it was not the brother who lay 6 feet deep in the soil which was now useful to kirigakure, it was this boy. She eyed him over, he seemed fit, strong, able and seemed to have an amount of wit about him, but as she observed she saw a small jolt in his mannerisms, when he spied the mask on her belt. Though he moved very quickly to steel it, Ayakashi did not think the look suspicious, she knew he had seen the mask once before. On the night his brother was murdered by the serial killer. Though such times were long since gone, or so solstice had once thought, she remembered back to the night before, the person she had fought was at least of a Jounin rank, able to dodge and manoeuvre the way he did, to avoid the three of them who went hunting that night.

Solstice looked around and over the graveyard before taking the mask from her belt and moving it to near her face, reversing it to look upon the front. She traced her fingers over the pentagram, and the four small wavering lines which inscribed the insignia of Kirigakure upon the front as she opened her mouth, sliding her fingers into the eye holes of the mask she lowered it back down to her side. Don't worry, i know you've seen this mask before, it's been some time, i know but the questions I'm about to ask you about the man you saw that night are going to be specific, so i want you to have a clear mind when you answer them... agreed? Solstice spoke sternly, as the head of the Aisu house in Kirigakure, although she was speaking to a member of another of the noble houses of the hidden mist, she spoke with an amount of authority. She wanted to somewhat install in him a degree of respect for her, whether it was in her power or ability, her status as a ninja, or her diplomatic status.

This mask belonged to a man I Killed a couple of months ago, at the time i had thought he was the sole person responsible for the murders which have been occuring in kirigakure, i killed this man in this very graveyard, his own personal hunting ground. And Identified him as the man who had killed your brother, as well as dozens of other low ranking ninja like yourself. Yet, yesterday i saw another man wearing almost the exact same mask, performing the exact same deeds with a similar blade and the exact same movements, although a lot faster and more fluent. What can you tell me about the killer? And how do you think he has come back? She said lightly, trying to wrap her head around the deed herself, the obvious answer was it was some form of copycat, keeping the legend of the bloody mist alive, but solstice knew it was deeper than that, it was deeper than an ordinary killer, deeper than someone who had taken up the mantle of the killer in the mists.

There was something about the feel about these people, the way they moved, the way the fought and the way they talked and bragged, perhaps they were some form of group who received the same training, an organisation of killers who were attempting to cut the life out of kiri in some twisted means of a hostile takeover. Solstice remembered back to the first killer and the genin he had managed to get his hands on before the team of three reached her, multiple stab wounds to her chest and neck, her blood spilled and stained messily all over the man's body as Solstice lost the ability to control her actions, charging in on the man and using her chakra flow technique to land a lethal punch to the mans chest, literally freezing his heart inside of his body with a single blow. But she took a rather considerable wound to her shoulder to pull it off, requiring medical attention rather urgently after the fight.

The scar on her shoulder was one of the many on her body that people could not see, unlike the two large almost burn like red scars over the centre of her exposed body. Solstice looked to the boy for his further reaction, still holding out the mask in an attempt to continue to jog the boy's memory of the trauma, which, she was still looking for. Soltice was no stranger to hate, having often had similar feelings for her mother in her youth and her father for leaving them in such a state, but she was beginning to get the feeling that the hate this boy was feeling toward his brother was not one out of grief. The way he sat on his gravestone was like 'keeping his brother below him' like a symbol of psychological superiority. This was not enough for Solstice to begin to suspect foul play, but her cold, calculating mind was at the pique of its activity, over analysing everything trying to discover this mystery, and with him in the way, he was a piece of the riddle.

Buki Training 2497:

Shou took a small breath. Not a breath of worry though it could be read as such, but one of concentration as she pulled the mask from her belt and moved it to her face, his muscles tensing in anticipation much like a snake waiting for a chance to strike an enemy. If she was looking for a way to make him nervous she had certainly succeeded even if she had pulled the mask up just to study the features, her fingers tracing over the marks that many would deem hateful. “Yes, I have seen the mask before. I suppose that I’ll do my best to answer what your questions are, but no promises.” He replied and pursed his lips, his sharp teeth digging into the inside of his mouth as he looked for some semblance of what side she was exactly on. She was carrying the mask that his brother’s killer had worn after all. Sure, she could be telling the truth that she had killed the man that it belonged to, but if there was indeed a group of them then it could be possible that she was one of the group since she had the mask that they wore. For all he knew, this could be a test from the man that had killed his brother to test his silence of the few specifics about him that he had known. And if it were, were they trying to recruit him? There were so many questions whirling in his head. He wasn’t sure if he would want to join a group, but he wasn’t sure if he wouldn’t want to. He didn’t know. He wasn’t really particularly loyal to any of them, but they had gotten rid of the biggest nuisance in his life that had been his brother and he was grateful for that.

“Forgive me if I don’t believe you quite so easily as you are a new face to me. You say that the mask belongs to a man that you killed a few months ago and yet you still carry around the mask with you. Sure, I understand that it may be something of a trophy symbolizing what you had to go through with the man, but you have to understand my own suspicions as well…” Shou paused as he studied the woman, hopping down off of his brother’s grave stone and onto the empty earth below it, looking at the woman suspiciously, his fingers flexing a little. He didn’t have any weapons with him, and if they had to fight he would have to rely solely on his chakra and jutsu, which wasn’t exactly a good thing. If he had to fight for his life, his chanced were cut in more than half against a superior shinobi. “If you are saying that there are a group of them, why couldn’t you be one of them under a guise of trying to get me to talk about the event two years ago under the orders of the man who attempted to kill me and killed my brother? What stops you from being one of them? Tell me that? Yes, you are a kirigakure shinobi but they have the skills of shinobi as well as you have seen if you have indeed fought them as well.”

Shou glanced at her face for a moment before looking back at the mask and then looking at her overall for her reaction, any representation that would define what side she was on completely. It was a little disappointing to him if he looked deep within himself that she seemed to be honest about her reason for coming to find him. He had wanted another encounter with the man deep down and that was one of the reasons why he visited the cemetery so often on his own he supposed. He wanted to meet up with the one who had killed his brother, but not for revenge, just for bloodlust. He wouldn’t admit to this disappointment in his twisted mind though.

He was a shinobi of Kirigakure and even if he didn’t have a very specific loyalty to the country, they had all been taught that killing your allies was something that you never did and the killers in the cemetery were enemies through and through because of what they were doing. He wasn't going to burn his bridges. He liked his connection with Kirigakure was it was. But, even so, the possibility of joining them sometime didn’t completely escape Shou’s thought pattern. It would be exciting to cause such bloodshed without a care in the world under such a cruel mentor. Only a little bit though. He liked the originality that he had as a Kirigakure ninja and he doubted that if he were a member of some secret underground killer organization that he would be given such freedom. He could have to conform to their appearance and that wouldn't be something that he would be able to do. Shou frowned as he looked at the woman. "What exactly could you do to prove to me that you are not one of them?" He asked after a moment in an attempt to get a definite answer to show that she was not one of the people who were in the group but just a regular shinobi of kirigakure.

Solstice stood stalwart at the boys accusations, though his suspicious behaviour actually bought a smile to his face. Hozuki Shou... Solstice would have to remember that name, as well as the keen mind that went with it. Few had ever questioned her so much, and in a world of ninja where everyone had their own motives for power and control his distrust in her was well place, and Solstice accepted that, her eyes met his and stared into his very soul with her blue almost heterochromic eyes. The Hyouton imbalance within her body which dropped her base body temperature lower than an ordinary ninjas also gave her eyes a small blue resonance almost as she became more potent with her skills. Her eyes, still meeting his has a shimmer deep within them, a living gloss as the chakra moved beneath the surface, forever looking for an excuse to escape, it would freeze the world into a crisp, dry wasteland if it could.

Solstice in having her eyes locked on his ran through a hundred means to answer his question, but none of them gave any fruit, most of which were overall dismissive, but none of that would help the situation of trust, and as much the leader of the Aisu clan was in a rush to have this case closed, she was not in enough of a rush to push aside this boy's claims and fears. But she started to believe that he has seen something, or heard something more of the man who wore the mask, he was hiding his intentions, his defencce was beginning to work against him. Solstice after some time of staring, only seconds in the single digits, averted her eyes from his for but a moment before coming to the ultimate conclusion. I cant, but you're going to just have to trust me. I'm Solstice Ayakashi Aisu, head of clan Aisu, Jounin of the village hidden in the mist and loyal member of kirigakure, with that information, if I really was an enemy... you could take that to the Anbu and I could be eliminated as a rogue ninja. We both know how rogues are handled in this country. She said heavily putting the mask back to the clip on her belt.

I keep the mask as a symbol, it never used to bear the four waves of the village on the forehead so I inscribed them. The mask has an air of terror about it, which to a point is useful. She spoke informally crossing her arms across her chest, and cocking her head slightly to one side still expecting the answers from the boy. Her mind beginning to wonder about a couple of possible situations, her senses were not alert when the Kunai hurled through the air behind her, the whistling of the blade catching her ear a moment before the blade impacted, spinning the blade flourished past her, and stabbed into the surface of the gravestone the boy had once perched on. Solstice turned to see a figure sitting upon one of the nearby statuettes of a larger gravestone. Bearing a pitch black mask, and a porcelain white pentagram over one eye.

Solstice stared for a moment in disbelief, before looking back at the child. She might need help for this fight, but from a Genin... the thought resounded in her mind for a moment. Looking to the Kunai and back to the image of the man her voice dropped from light to dead serious, I might need a hand against this one... If you aren't up for the fight, run, run now and i won't blame you. But deep in you i can smell the desire for blood. So grab it... you're going to need a blade Hozuki Shou. Solstice clenched her fists, she would have given shou the blade on her back, but it would have been a little too complex for him to use aptly. The Kunai looked like it was of better make than the usual dull blades given to most Genin. A C rank dagger, able to cut almost bone deep.

The man perched in the distance looked to the two of them, waiting, reaching behind him to the long deadly blade these killers always used to destroy their victims. Its been a while you two, Hozuki Shou, Daughter of the Traitor... Bot all alone, and have no idea about the fate you're fallen into... Such a shaaaame. Leaping to the ground the air around the man, the being, who seemed to carry such a similar consciousness to the others. Walked toward them with his long shimmering silver blade which sparkled in the moonlight. I wonder whose secrets i should spill first... yours he said looking in the direction of Shou, or yours... he said turning his gaze to solstice. both so delightful, both so... catastrophically intense. What is a dead man to do? Leaping forward with advanced though not extreme speed the blade whistled across for the two of them in a massive arc, striking through stone at both of their chests. Solstice rose her hands to guard against the blade, knocking her back and causing her to roll back up to her feet crouched...

How... who the hell were these guys, and how did they all speak with THE SAME VOICE!?

Buki training 3390:

Trust. Really? Shou almost wanted to tell her not to make him laugh. How could he trust anyone who he had just met, particularly a shinobi of a higher standard with a mask that he had seen once before? Shinobi weren’t exactly the most trust worthy people in the world and the people who he had placed his trust in had failed time and time again to keep it. His family. His own clan members. They had failed to keep his trust throughout his eighteen years, not that he had many relations with any of them now. Even his own father. He tended to avoid. But if he couldn’t trust his own family, why should anyone else ever have his trust? He hadn’t trusted anyone for at least four years, so why would he start trusting anyone now? Yes, he knew perfectly well how rogue shinobi were handled in the village, and he didn’t intend to become on that would be handled like that.

At least, not anytime soon. He was still just a measly genin, a shinobi who was sent to do grunt work and not much else, not worth anything though he did have skills. Shou would work towards whatever goal bore the most fruit for him and if that happened to mean that he had to leave Kirigakure in the future he wasn’t so sure that he wouldn’t do it. He didn’t have a reason why he would want to stay anywhere and that was his problem. He had to find one in order to become connected to the village and stay and he didn’t know if he ever would at the pace that things were going. He was already eighteen after all and still a genin, though admittedly after a long stint of not wanting to become a shinobi. Shou scowled a little as he looked at her, studying her strangely vivid eyes that seemed to look into him. It was a little disturbing. No one had ever really looked at him like that, like they actually cared about him. His hand twitched at his side before grasping his belt hard and speaking again. “I don’t trust anyone unless they give me direct reason to I’m afraid, Aisu, Solstice Ayakashi. You understand I hope.” Shou replied, a vaguely sarcastic tone that wavered a little bit in his voice.

“A symbol…” Shou’s lips quirked from his frown into an almost amused sneer at her words about the mask. “You kept the mask purely as a symbol of terror. Yes. I see how that is useful. Terror has always been a useful aspect of our ‘bloody’ mist village, Solstice.” He may simply be a genin, but he was old enough to have experience in many things in the fast paced world of the shinobi. Shou wasn’t exactly young at eighteen, when most shinobi died at young ages anyway before they were even forty usually because of their violent lifestyles. However, that fact that she kept the mask was something that Shou actually found quite relatable because of what had happened to his brother and his own fascination with bloodshed. And it amused him with the horrible history of the village that the woman in front of him would use it to her gain. Their village had always had a horrid history, and most of it hadn’t been written out of their history books. It filled with blood and reins of terror and it didn’t seem like that was ever going to change. Kirigakure was vicious and that was something that made him like the village at least a little, not that he had a tie to it. Shou had to side step a little when the kunai soared through the air and into the gravestone that he had been standing in front of, immediately on high alert and tense again as he looked at the man sitting on to gravestone while listening to Solstice’s voice, only vaguely hearing what she said as he zeroed in on the man sitting there.

Shou shuddered at the sound of the voice that he had heard two years ago, taking a deep breath, mixed feelings flooding him. It wasn’t a shudder of fear, but a shudder of excitement and adrenaline. He didn’t know what to do. He was a genin, yes, but he also loved fighting and bloodshed and he hadn’t seen a good fight in a long time. But he also liked the man for killing his brother who had been such a pain in his life because everyone looked to him rather than to Shou. But this woman had killed one of them before and had one of their masks, so she was powerful. He didn’t know what to do, fight on the side of Ayakashi or fight on the side of those who were the murderers in the graveyard and become one of them? Why did the man decide to come out when she had come? It would have been so much more easy to decide if only one of them were there at a time

“Oh man…” He grumbled angrily with a curse, jumping back to the grave and plucking the kunai out of the headstone. It would be good to at least have a weapon even if it wasn’t one of his own, and it made him angry that she thought that he would run from a fight, and his world snapped back into focus. “Why now?” He snarled, not directed at just one of them, but at both of them. “Why is it now that you decided to come ask questions! This is stupid!” his voice became a little high pitched in his annoyance, mind whirling with what to do. He was only a genin. There was no way that he could hold his own… but with a jounin…Shou cursed again and lept backwards off of the headstone, his kunai clashing with the blade to block it before he put enough distance in between them, his eyes locked on the man. If the man was going to attack him too, then he would align himself with Solstice for now. Shou swore again, before quickly making another series of hand signs and started another jutsu that would hopefully help them in their fight, creating a shroud of mist around them.

Chakra 120/150:

Solstice moved her hardened almost shaking fingers to the mask on her belt, trying desperately to understand the circumstance to this man's arrival, yet with that voice, HIS voice. It was the same, exactly the same. For a moment Solstice thought herself to be going mad, she began to think that her mind was cracking, like a void opening to the vast darkness and bloodshed of this world, like so many ninja before her whom the pressures and trials of the shinobi way had slipped into incurable disease of the mind. Each of them fell, chattering about dark creatures or beings which dwelt beneath the skin of the universe, their own skin, or in the skin of their dreams, monsters existed in this world, Solstice seemed to have found one. The immortal serial killer, who appeared, time and time again to create his own mystery was something more than a simple oddity. Solstice began to think of how long the myth of the bloody cemetery had been going on for, a year? a decade? A century? She didn't know, but as her mind wrapped around the concept that no matter how many of these men you kill, he will re-appear, she came to think of the old Jashinites, but all of which had long been destroyed, their immortality was only skin deep.

This was something deeper than that, stories and records told of the King Yama jutsu which was able to bring a man back from the dead, but such was one of the great and legendary jutsu of the sage of the six paths. And one needed to possess the Rinnegan to perform such a miracle. Thousands, millions of processes passed through the confines of Solstices mind as she began to even amplify the chakra flow of her own body to her brain. Until she came to a single inevitable point, like all light, and every impulse of her brain came to a single, infallible point showering through her mind. Solstice had not realised she was holding the mask in her hand, she had not realised her other hand was gripping the side of her head as she had literally given out an audible expression of the strain she had put on herself. She blinked, her eyes fluttering lightly as she was lost in her own world for but a moment. The chaos of her mind had suddenly lifted leaving an absence of noise, and a void like the calm after a ravaging storm.

It doesn't matter... She laughed... It doesn't matter... it doesn't matter who they are, how they're here and how they're all the same. They're threatening the people of Kirigakure, and we'll treat them like any threat. Solstice placed the mask on her head, which differed from their opponents only in the sense hers bore the same symbol every headband a shinobi of the village hidden in the mist wore in some shape or form. Their opponent had stalled, awaiting a counter attack as none directly came, the stage was reset as Solstice looked to Shou, the chakra in her right eye beginning to flare through the mask as her chakra began to pump through her body, destabilising and turning her very skin into a weapon of sub zero degrees. Shou, I dont keep the mask as a symbol of terror against the people I fight, though that helps... that is not the reason. I keep the mask as a reminder. An ultimate reminder that monsters CAN DIE! Gritting her teeth Solstice's entire body tensed up as her chakra became a negative inferno washing through her blood and becoming not only power, but justice, made manifest in her own blood.

Solstice rose her hood and in the guise of the mist surrounding the cemetery combines with the mist that she was giving off her body constantly she extended it a little way. Breaking out into a run someone who would be able to see chakra would note her moving through the fog at astounding speeds, equivalent to one of the legendary Sannin in calibre. She didn't run directly toward her opponent, instead darting in between large gravestones, her black cloak looking little more than a shadow amongst the grey as she began to rise higher and higher, closer and closer to her target she zigged and she zagged. Her fists coiled tightly as the wind against them screamed under the starlight and the glint of gold all but invisible.

Solstice with a final place of footing readied her other hand to block the blade low in case of a counter-attack while kicking off a gravestone, reducing the marble to rubble with the speed and force of her leap as she catapulted toward her opponent throwing a strike that looked like a golden meteor cascading toward its destination. The fight began, with an explosion of movement and activity. No doubt that would be the way it ended as well. The target of the attack was prepared for a strike in anger, or confusion, the two emotions which seemed to be able to become so very similar in execution when shined under the right light. He ducked the blow while rotating his body and stepped into solstice's momentum with his blade, stepping to one side and with his other hand using a jutsu. One of him turned to four as his blade ground across Solstice's prepared defence.

The four of him splitting up from his shadow clone separated in a means to attack their targets, each of the copies was pristine. Each with a blade, and all of their equipment copied, and thee of them forming around Solstice like a triangle, while one of them slipped off from the main group, as a shadow, beginning to walk through the mists toward Shou, his blade at the ready, stepping past grave after grave, his footsteps able to be heard. The question at hand though, is which one was the real one? Solstice after her strike turned to see them and began to focus on her defence, moving ducking, planting her hand and twisting expertly to avert the three blades as gripping one she let out a pulse of the demon ice corruption jutsu, channelling it through his blade and freezing his hand, detonating the shadow clone through sustained damage. This was the start of a glorious fight.

The one approaching Shou, didn't speak as is picked up the pace. As it drew its blade into a high stance and as it reached him struck down then up in a colossal Kendo style 'V' which would leave Shou as nothing but a dismembered torso. Spinning on his heel regardless of the strikes he had attempted to land a second prior, he would continue to step in with an attempt to decapitate to simply finish Shou off Swinging his blade in a massive arch wide at head height to finish the three strikes.

Chakra 275:

Buki training 4588/9000

Of course neither had answered his questions as to why it was now of all times that this was being brought up again, not that Shou had expected it, but it still agitated him and he scowled as his eyes darted between the two trying to figure out what side to choose. On Solstice’s side he knew that she wouldn’t attack him or betray him from what he had seen though he didn’t trust her completely. But, on the man’s side, there was no surety that the man would not turn on him and kill him in the end. Shou liked his life despite his lust for blood. However, fighting against the man was also not quite a wise decision as the man was probably jounin rank and he was only a measly genin with the measly experience to show for that rank. Sure, he had surpassed his brother on this front, but until he himself mad it higher in the ranks there was no way that he would be able to defeat the man in a one on one. However, this wasn’t really a one on one. He had Solstice on his side. “Ugh…” Shou grumbled as he reached his decision to fight with Solstice against the man that haunted her nightmares and had released him from his own personal hell of living in his brother’s shadow.

On Solstice’s face, Shou saw a look of fear for a brief moment as she battled with herself internally, and his brow creased considerably in thought. What shinobi would let herself become so overcome as to allow such internal conflict? Particularly if it were to actually show on one’s face. How afraid of this man she must be. It was somewhat silly. To be afraid of a man that she said that she had already killed, but then again, here he was once more, before them. Surely, it had to be another man if the real one had been killed? This had to be a cult of some sort with a special ability. Or… something… right? It couldn’t be that this was really the man that had already been killed, the man that had killed his brother and had taken the unbelievable choice of letting him go when he had seen how he had grinned at his own brother’s death. How he had wanted to help take his brother’s life. A shudder ran through Shou as he looked at the man, somehow letting Solstice’s own feelings about the man sink into him so that he too could feel a vague amount of fear. After all, he was only a genin and had no chance against such a shinobi.

Shou listened to what she said wordlessly, tense and not removing his eyes from the man that was before them and was obviously becoming an enemy of the two of them quite quickly. A reminder? A reminder that monsters can die? Shou’s eyebrow arched considerably at the words of the woman who he was now to fight with. He had not been expecting such words from her. He mulled it over in his mind. A symbol that monsters can die. How quaint. Such a symbol was something that not many would use. Her way of thinking intrigued him. She wanted to be a pure symbol of loyalty to Kirigakure didn’t she? Or, maybe not. Shou was still a little suspicious of her because of the mask. Perhaps this was all still a trick. He would have to figure it out, and soon. After all, she did seem to have a genuine fear of the man who was now in front of them. Whatever it was, the whole situation was ridiculous and he hated it. Why did this confrontation have to happen now? He wasn’t ready!

Gripping the single kunai that he had been provided by their enemy, Shou’s mind whirled. He had never really been in a real combat situation aside from the time with his brother. This was completely different. The malice that was there between them was intense, and it almost stilled him to the point where he simply allowed the man to attack him without retaliation. But, Shou wasn’t a weakling! He wouldn’t allow himself to be killed simply because of a little shock initiation into what the real shinobi world was. This was what he had been preparing for! A fight to the death! To see blood spilled under his blade. Shou licked his lips and a half-grin appeared on his face as he tried to keep track of the man when he split into different figures. However, it was hard, and Shou wasn’t completely sure if it was the clone or the real man who was coming at him through the mist.

Shou took a deep breath as the clone approached him, not happy with how little his own jutsu had effected the man’s jutsu. It was supposed to keep them shrouded, not allow the man to keep his vision as if it had simply been nothing at all. Then again, they did live in the village of the mist, so what was the point in making the original mist even thicker than it had been initially? It had been a completely stupid move on his part. Shou huffed out the breath that he had been holding and decided to take another tactic that he hoped would have a better effect than before. Only thing that would cripple him with the Hydrification Technique of the Hozuki clan was if he used it for too long was that he didn’t have his water bottles with him. Using it for a brief moment in combination with another should be fine though. Taking another breath and coming to terms with what he was going to do he created two clones directly in front of himself so that the blade would hit them before taking a step back and crouching, using the technique of his clan to make his body liquid rather than solid. He watched the blade swipe through his first clone watching it dissipate before his clone moved away from the man while he himself moved forwards, feinting that he was the clone, and ready with his kunai.

Chakra 115/150:

Solstice took a stray look to the side as Shou managed to dodge the first attack of the madman, though this battle had only just begun there was more than would be coming their way very soon. this guy was insane, and brandishing his blade would be something that even Solstice would have to be very careful about. Looking at the two clones which remained on her side of the battle one of them was directly in front of her, while the other had taken up a strategic position behind her. Solstice turned to have either of them at her shoulders and eyed up their offensive capabilities. There was only a slight calm as they slightly rotated, but Solstice made it clear that they would not be escaping her peripheral vision.

Their first attack was statistical and concise, the clone to her left striking at her neck from the front while the other struck at her knees from behind. It was the obvious choice, two attacks from opposite angles at the same time made it many times harder to dodge the technique, throwing her weight backwards as the blade coming for her knees had passed her shoulder height she planted one hand behind herself, kicking off the ground with her legs and rotating around into a full backwards tumble, tucking her chin in just in time as the blades stopped mid swing and chopped upward and downward to guillotine her part way as she landed on her feet in the middle of the blades.

Their strikes didn't cease, as the attackers moved into free for all, one striking down for her head as she rose the back of her hand to meet the steel, as the enforced metal of her own S rank glove deflected the blade with profound efficiency, ducking low as the other blade flew over her head, planting her other hand and throwing a low sweeping kick for one of them which was avoided. Following through and throwing the force of her strike into the ground she threw the rest of her body upward. As the two recoiled, aiming the tips of their blades for her body. Solstice crossed her arms across her chest and landed.

Each of the blades shot out in her direction, Solstice reacted spinning the inside of her body into them, each of her hands' palms open and catching either blade. With the force of her spin death gripping the two blades she pulled them into her. With her opponents also stepping in for the weight of the blows they were unable to resist the pull as she threw them to either side, a couple of steps into either direction so both of them were standing with their backs to her. From here, Solstice predicted that the two of them would use their momentum to both turn and strike, while refacing her. It was a classic reaction, to which there was no real alternative, it would be impossible to coordinate with the other if they could not see each other and what they were doing.

This came to solstice's surprise then one of them turned with a chest high strike, and the other for one at waist height, how was this possible, if they could not see each other, they could not coordinate the attack, unless... suspicion rose, and the gap between the two swords was minimal, managing to spin only one hundred and eighty degrees Solstice kicked off the ground spinning straight like a corkscrew, her sapphire hair ignited under the sheen of the steel, her body passing horizontally between both of the blades as she extended her leg our to meet the ground. With the incredible sum of momentum within her grinding to a halt she darted toward one of them in the wake of their strike. One step and throwing all of her weight down into the ground as she grounded herself in a low stance.

Her fists extended in either direction in horse stance side on to her opponent as her fist connected with her opponent's solar plexus. Landing the blow was a relief, but she felt the stinging of steel across the back of her leg from the other opponent. Her chakra roared on impact, sending a pulse of ice through her and into the solid surface of the killer's body, only to have her fist sink through gaseous matter. The clone dispersing in every direction, the smoke exploding back from the force of her punch in a massive expanding ring. Solstice fell to one knee with the strike. Realising that with her recoil, she'd assumed a perfect execution position...

the point of his blade aimed at her back, to which she could only see through the mirror reflection of the frozen panel which had stuck into the ground where she had once hit the clone. Solstice span to face her opponent as his strike came down, whipping out her arm, colliding with the blade at its tip and stopping the force of the blow millimetres from her heart. The tip sinking in through her coat and drawing blood. But Solstice had two hands, he only had one sword. Her second hand came across with a lethal chop, aiming for the brittle section in the middle of the blade. Slamming against the flat of the blade she snapped the steel in two.

Not stopping with her spin, her opponent stepped back, and she stepped in, letting out some of the blade before stepping past him like a tornado, extending her fist and brushing past his shoulder, planting his own blade deep into his neck and breaking her momentum into two steps past him. Closing her eyes, she hoped she heard the sound of a man drop dead to the ground, but instead... there was but the poof of a clone instead, which caused solstice to open her eyes and look down at the battle happening in the midst of Shou's mist, and hope to ascertain the tide of the battle.

Meanwhile the killer had hoped for an easy kill, but it seemed the boy was resisting, not that he minded, it was oh so fun when they did. But this boy was a loose end, and he grew tired of him. Cutting through an academy strength clone, it was hard to differentiate them in the midst of the bog the boy had made, but it was not impossible, the clones were incapable of harming him, and the boy was probably panicking and scared, while his saviour was a distance away fighting clones... even he would have had to admit when the second clone came for him, he swung the length of his 4' blade to intercept, not thinking that what he hit would be solid.

Leaving but a second for the child to actually land a hit, the kunai penetrated into his side, and blood began to fall from his body as he penetrated just over an inch into his skin and flesh. The man looked down at himself and winced at the pain, but, no doubt to the boy's horror, it was not a clone he was fighting, if it was, it would have dispersed with the direct hit. Shou was point blanc against the actual killer, and though he was a brave boy, the Sp. Jounin ranked fighter was within a league of his own compared to Shou. With a knee He would lash out at the boy's chest, spinning with the blade and cutting through a standing hozuki gravestone with the two handed strike and aim to divide the child in half, stepping in all the while to remove the simple option of retreat.

He was angry now, and he wanted to END this child, with seemingly no care what so ever to the woman who had dispersed his clones a couple of seconds from now, meaning help would not come just yet.

WC 5914