'Mother, Father, look at your son. Watch him walk for the first time, hear him talk for the first time, feel his warmth for the first time, indeed he has woken. Brother, Sister, look at your sibling now. Walk along side him, follow his gaze, look out for him. Protect him...

My friends, dead. My parents, dead. My siblings, dead. What is there left for me to live for? The power I sought for, the power I hoped to use to protect those I loved, cost me my friends' lives. It cost me my brothers' lives. It cost me my parents' life...

Sister, Brother, I strayed from your path and walked by myself. I abandoned your gaze and looked somewhere else. Mother, Father, I walked away from you and never spoke to you again. I will never speak to you again. What is left for me to love?

I have nothing, I have no one. I have no reason to live...'



Words couldn't begin to describe the overwhelming agony Shibirin could feel. The painful truth that was the past, the paralysing memories of the sight of his closest friends' death. The horror that took place in his mind was comparable to hell, if he'll knew such nightmares. The battle-spooked, shell-shocked scavenger had seen the darkest times of his life; he was sure of it. His mind was stained with ever-so-feint screams of his comrades and the after-math of their deaths. The rotting stench from their bodies, the same smell he had smelt the day he hurried the last of his brethren triggered headache attacks. They slipped through his subconscious mind and pierced his most recent thoughts. They were alarming, frightening, almost taboo to even think about. How they weakened him so. How they robbed him of all his strength, his spirit and above all, his will to survive.

The swordless swordsman was as good as dead: his strength was no better than a genin's, his speed far worse, his strength rather trivial to the matter and all other stats just as worse. He still had the reaction time of a fly; they couldn't rob him of that. Above all other attributes his reaction time was irreversible. They could've sped up time a tenfold and the man could still avoid a punch from destiny herself. However he knew all too well that he couldn't rely on his reaction time alone, he needed all his other stats back. He needed to be as strong as he was before they beat him, before they tortured him, before they stole his life away. The ANBU, those spineless serpents, those vile vermins, those bare-boned, brutal, barbarious beasts. They had his blood on their hands, and quite truly the blood of all his other friends on them too. They reeked with murder, subotage and conspiracy. But above all they were stained with justice. For all the men and women the Shichiouza had killed, the least they could do in the name of justice was kill the bloody convicts, and with the orders of one or more of the gokages, they did. Shibirin saw it coming; unlike his egotistic, self-seduced comrade Hao, he knew better than to ignore the warning signs of a storm. He didn't toss away the thought of defeat, instead he prepared for it. He knew after they had killed his partner Trilby it wouldn't take them very long to finish off the rest of the group's members. The others took him for a fool and continued to blindly follow the orders of their leader, their delusional conquerer. Hao, the so-called god they advocated would later on lead them blindly to their graves. And only a few months after the battle in the land of iron, the rest of the Shichiouza was hunted down and killed. All but one were dead. Shibirin survived by killing himself.

~


The swordsman woke up to the heavy light of day, his eyes fighting the urge to stay closed and a painful thump causing the inside of his head of ache. The man squinted his eyes as he slowly pushed himself into a seated position; every bone in his body aching as though it had a ten centimetre-thick screw drilled into it, right through to the bone marrow and out through the other side. Using just his left arm for support Shibirin managed to push him upper body up from the ground and against the soft wall that extruded upwards behind him. The rough texture of its surface forced sounds in his head as he moved his way against it. Shibirin slowly opened his eyes more and more as he felt the bright light getting softer and softer, his eyes obviously adjusting to its vibrant nature, seemingly dimming the light scourge enough for him to see the complicated details of his location. He was at the bottom of a pit, almost a well, but much wider. The walls around him had no definite origin, they just ran around him in circles, never stopping anywhere. The ground beneath him was damp and smelly, and as the feeling in his legs returned he could feel sharp objects piercing up into his legs from the ground. He was sitting in a muddy pit with a floor tiled with makibishi.

*Where is this place...? Why do I feel so weak, so out of breath? I can't feel my arm...now I can. Argh, there's cuts on my hands!* Shibirin thought, as he lifted his right hand up to see a grid-like pattern of cuts, each at least 2 inches deep. A stinging pain washed over his palm as he attempted to move his fingers up and down. At the same time blood began to drip along his arm and off his elbow, before disappearing into the mud. He could feel the could, wet touch of the mud against his bottom. The mud soaked through his pants and hugged his skin in an intruding manner. The man struggled to lift himself up onto his feet: but with the support of the wall behind him, and thought of escaping out of this prison Shibirin managed to pull himself up into a standing position, or rather a leaning position.

*What, what happened to me?* The rebel looked around for any way out of the hole. He looked for steps, a ledge and even a rope but found none of those things. He thought about climbing out of the hole, but his strength warned him not to. He wasn't in the shape to perform any tiring activities; heck he found it too much work to even think. *There's, there are gaps along the walls. Maybe if I use them as make-shift steps I can pull my way out of here,* Shibirin thought, as he stood on the spot starring at what seemed like his only way out of the hole.


• Flashback v

"This way, the master is waiting for you," insisted the man, his voice sounding more persuasive than trustworthy. Shibirin felt a strange urge to kill the guy whenever he was around him; always thought he was shifty, but then again so was he. There was something unsettling within the deal he was promised by he and his supposed master; they had offered to seal his memories of his Jutsus in a scroll, which they'd keep under their care until the villages stopped looking for him. Shibirin knew they couldn't be trusted, but he felt he had no other choice than to take their offer. They said they wouldn't charge him more than 200 ryo, but the rogue was fast to suspect they would get more out of the deal than just 200 ryo. In any case Shibirin had to erase parts of his memory somehow, and they just so happened to have the means of doing it.

The two of them marched down a few slippery stairs before entering a large corridor with narrow walls, a sunken roof and an overall claustrophobic vibe. It didn't take long for them to reach a large wooden door that had a crooked ring for a handle. The dark-toned man grabbed the ring and knocked it against the door three times, almost in a rhythmic pattern, before it opened inside by itself. He signalled Shibirin to walk in, and up to that point Shibirin's memories faded in a bright haze...

^ Flashback •


Shibirin opened his eyes to the same chilling sight, this time much faster than before. He took in the same gross puddle of mud that surrounded him, and the same putrid stench of dead animals and piss. The smell of shit soon joined the choir of vulgar scents, slowly weakening Shibirin's sense of smell as it desperately tried to block it out. His head stopped hurting, or rather didn't hurt so much as before: a light pounding was still bothering his head. He didn't know what had happened during his short daydream of the past, but he knew something had happened.

Loud footsteps filled the almost-silent air, getting louder and louder as someone or something got closer and closer to the hole. Shibirin wanted to run, he wanted to hide, but couldn't. Why would he? Before all that had happened Shibirin wouldn't have even thought about running or hiding from a threat, he wouldn't even have flinched at the idea of a superior visitor, although now he wasn't remotely as strong as he was back then. The rebel forced his back into the wall as if almost trying to sink into it. Had he still the knowledge of all his wonderful techniques Shibirin would have been able to sink into the wall. He would've been able to easily get out of the hole he was in and maybe even destroy the person or thing that had startled him just now, but the reality was he was exposed, he was vulnerable. For the first time in his life, Shibirin felt scared.


• Flashback v

Today was it: the day Shibirin was going to be titled as an official Special Jounin. The Tsuchikage had said that he was pretty much ready, though he wanted the guy 'tested' by one of Iwagakure's finest Jounin: a man named Higori. Shibirin had no idea what the guy looked like, he was just going to have to see him for himself. He had gone downstairs, like the Tsuchikage had instructed him, but didn't see Higori anywhere. Instead, he saw the secretary that always handed Shibirin missions below B rank, for him to do. She beackoned for him to come where she was sitting, and he did. "I have a letter for you, mr Shibirin. It is from a man named Higori, here you go" sad the secretary, as she now handed Shibirin a small letter in an envelope. He turned to her and said, "Thankyou" before making his way out of the building.

As he walked slowly into the village, he opened the envelope and inside was a small note, that read, 'Dear Shibirin Genko, make your way towards Cave Neverendless. Signed: Higori'. Shibirin had heard of that place before: cave neverendless. It was near the mountains, he recalled being told by one of the villagers. He decided to make his way towards the place, as this was where thei Higori guy was. He didn't know exactly what they guy wanted him to do. Maybe it was a short spar, between the two, or a race. He had been in a race before, back in Sunagakure. He had lost last time, but not by much. Shibirin couldn't wait to see what the guy looked like. He couldn't wait to see what test he had installed for him. He couldn't wait to become a Special Jounin.

After a few minutes of walking, Shibirin finally made it to Cave Neverendless. He had no idea why someone would give it such a name, but if he were to take a guess, he'd say it's a very large cave. Upon arrival, Shibirin saw a man, standing near the entrance of the cave. He had short, black hair and was wearing a jounin outfit that consisted of: a navy blue, long-sleeved shirt with a black flak jacket over it and black pants and sandals to match. As Shibirin got closer, he could see that the guy had dark, brown eyes. He walked up to him and said, "Hello there. You must be Higori?" before giving him time to answer.

"Yes, Higori is my name, and i suppose you must be Shibirin Genko?" the man replied, as he quickly scanned his eyes over Shibirin's appearance from head to toe. "Yes, Shibirin is my name. I was told by the kage, to come see you if i wanted to rank up to Special Jounin" spoke Shibirin, and not a moment too soon, Higori replied back saying, "Ahh yes, the test. Good, see, all you have to do, is go in the cave and bring back a white scroll that's located at the center of the cave. Think you're up for it?". The man wanted Shibirin to simply go in and bring him back a white scroll, what was the purpose of that? Shibirin repeated this task ove and over again in his head, trying to make sense of the somewhat simple task.

"That's all i have to do?" Shibirin asked, and again, not too soon after he got a response from the guy. "Yes, then i'll report to the Kage and you become a Special Jounin. So, you up for it?" said the guy, and at this moment Shibirin was convinced that there's a catch to it. There must be, otherwise any old genin can come to him, do this task and easily get the rank Special Jounin. Shibirin decided to do as the guy said, knowing well in his head that there's some strings attached to this task. Maybe there was a bear in there, just waiting to rip out his guts. Or maybe, they were dangerous spiders and snakes and other creepy crawlies. Shibirin didn't like bugs and serpents at all. "Alright then, here i go..i guess" he said, before making his way into the cave, feeling safer because he had remembered to bring all three of his katana with him that day...

^ Flashback •

"Know your place scumbag, you're in our turf now. You have no power here, you have nothing," a voice so boa gangly sinister called out from above and swordsman fought through a wave of pain just to look up. The sun's glare shone from the figure's back, all Shubirin saw was his silhouette, that odd shape of his was unsettling. His outline was interrupted by the shape of a sword, a very large sword. Large enough to be mistaken for a large war fan. It was a war fan, only it's edges were sharpened to extremes. Just the sight of it stung the swordsman's eyes, but no real harm was done. The figure soon disappeared, leaving Shibirin to spend the night all by himself. But in background he wasn't alone.

He woke up with a start, the natural howling of the werewolf he'd heard for the last two nights in a row had stopped, prematurely. They had been disturbed, but by what? By who and when? It was alarmingly perculiar to see himself waking up before dawn: usually he slept until he received the slap of the rising sun, but tonight was different. And after hearing a loud 'thump' sound in the air above ground, his suspicions would be amplified a tenfold.

"Wh-who is there?" Shibirin forced the words out of his mouth, but instead of the loud shout he had been hoping for all that came out was a loud whisper. He tried once more. "Who is there?!" This time his voice came out loud and harsh even a deaf person could've the roar. The ground shook once. Twice, then once more, shaking a chunk of rock and dirt off of the walls and onto Shibirin's foot. Why hadn't he moved his leg. The rock crushed his toes before rolling off of his legs, the dirt that failed it covered the foot up a second after.  Shibirin wanted to scream, oh how he was desperate to scream, but he couldn't. A shout alone stole what seemed like all of his strength, what could a scream do? Although arguably the former took more effort to conjure up, the latter would last longer. Instead of screaming he fell back into a slouch against the walls of the earth and let out a small grunt that lasted for 8 seconds exactly. A tear rolled down his cheek and splashed onto the ground, but wasn't soaked in by the dirt. Shibirin tilted his head to face the floating water droplet, before realising what this meant.

*My chakra is what's keeping it from sinking into the earth, my chakra must be slowly coming back,* Shibirin thought to himself, as he then rested his head back against the wall and forced his eyes shut. That night he slept with a smirk on his face, for he had witnessed the first sign of payback, and it looked beautiful. Tomorrow morning these men would regret the day they enslaved him.

~

The next day felt very much like the last, only Shibirin was strong enough to experience it. Whereas for the last few days he hadn't the strength to even lift himself up to stand, today he could walk, although he hadn't much space to move about in the small cramped hole he lived in. He had somehow woken up that day with the strength of the average man, which didn't sound all that impressive but for Shibirin it was a huge improvement from what he had before. The floor no longer held him captive; if he so wished to he could jump into the air and for the first time in what he could remember, escape the ground's hold. He move to one corner of the hole without pushing himself past his body's limits, he could stand up without instantly feeling the effects of fatigue: he was now the man he should've been without any training.

"C'mon, in you go!" a voice from above called out, interrupting the rebel' train of thought. Shibirin had managed to find a way to pass time in between the day: he'd spend the most part of the day slowly digging into the walls around, in hope that one day the small one inch thick hole he had created would somehow transform into an escape trench. He was in the middle of his afternoon digs when a body suddenly fell down from above and landed only a meter behind him. He had been lucky to not have had the body fall on him, but he was more concerned with the reason as to why this body had been dumped in the hole and whether it was alive or not. A few small head movements confirmed the man was still alive after the fall, but for how long? Shibirin turned and approached the body, glaring up towards the sky to see who had thrown it down here, but he'd see nothing but the empty clouds above. He'd turn back towards the now-motionless body, thinking to himself, *This explains why I couldn't walk for the first ten days after waking up.* Convincing himself the man was dead, Shibirin would return to his afternoon dig, the falling of the man still lingering in his thoughts insistingly, tormenting his mind with questions of who, why and how? Who was the man and who were the people that sent them down here, what was their intentions and why him? Why them? Shibirin dug for another half hour after the falling of the man, before taking a break, sitting but a meter away from the somewhat lifeless body.

'People used to fear me...these bastards stole my power, they stole my strength...they stole my life.'


• Flashback v

'Sand, sand and more sand,' were the only thoughts going through Shibirin's mind at the time, as he made his way towards Sunagakure, the village hidden in the sand, unheared and unspotted as of yet.

Not long ago, Shibirin had been forced to go one on one with the hidden's leaf's own Hokage, Takao, only to end the fight with an early retreat, taking away with him from the fight, first degree burns all over his skin. It had been the Kage's powerful katon jutsu, that had given Shibirin those burns, but luckily enough, they had healed. He looked as if no such damage had been delt on his skin, though remembered the incident well enough to reassure him that such a thing had happened. Such a traumatizing experience as the fight at the summit, would be kept in his memory for life. He had seen people die that day, had seen bodies laying on the ground, half alive yet surrounded by a pit of blood. He had whitnessed another man's hell, he had seen the fall of a great nation. Whether he regreted his actions or not was needless to say, for he couldn't undo what he had done, nor could he take backt he serious decision he had made that day. He knew his future, from that day on, was forever at the dark side, the evil side, the side most people ran away from in fear of. He didn't feel much different from when he was back in Iwagakure, though he did look different indeed.

Before pledging alligance to the Shichiouza, he had been wearing the forehead protecter of the hidden rock village, and had over his everyday outfit, a white cloak with his clan symbol stiched on the back of it. Today, he dressed himself differently. He wore a long, black cloak, with a hoodie attached to the back. Underneath this, his entire body up to his chin, including his neck, was covered in bandages. Before, they were there to help speed up the healing process of the burns he had receaved from fighting the Hokage, but after his wounds had healed, he still chose to wear them. They provided no extra protection of some sort to the young rebel, which would leave otehr clueless as to why he wore them. Shibirin chose to wear them becuase they concealed his skin, well, most of it. With the cloak on and the hood's shadow covering the young ninja's face, all people could see of him was his mouth and chin, though today he had chosen to wear the cloak without covering his head with the attached hood. Ine thing people missed about his appearance, was the stolen Byakugan that was implanted in his left eye, though the left nag of his hair covered up this eye, hiding the doujutsu entirely. Shibirin had slowly made his way towards the village, though had only passed through the border, before spotting a couple travelling away from the village. The couple stopped in their tracks and held their frightened gaze towards Shibirin. Shibirin's only reaction towards them, was a mere smirk, which he displayed just under the hood of his cloak. Not wanting any whitnesses to give away his location as of yet, he swiftly dashed towards the two and put one kunai through each's heart, though wasn't foolish enough to leave their dead bodies where they were, for others to find. Quickly ditching their bodies high up in the trees, he made his way back down to the ground and continued walking towards the hidden sand village, casually walking as if nothing had happened.

“Hold that thought, who is that?” was the first thing Shibirin heard when he arrived at his destination. The voice sounded young and very well frightened in some way. The second thing he heard, was, “Run boy! Run and inform the Kazekage of this intruder!” which sounded more alert and fully aware of the situation than the first. “Be ready Uchiha, this fight won’t be easy, we will have to work together to stall him,” was the next thing Shibirin heard, and at this point, he started seeing at least three bodily figures, one just leaving the area and the other two starring towards Shibirin, as if they'd seen a ghost. The last thing Shibirin heard, was, “Who is it?” “Shibirin.” At that moment, Shibirin knew they had spotted him, not that he had been trying to hide his appearance. He casually walked up to the two, but soon stopped at a distance not too far from the pair, yet close enough to see both of their faces in detail. "Greetings," Shibirin spoke, with a deeper voice than he had five years ago. On his head, were two headbands, one tied above the other. One had the Sunagakure village symbol on it, with a thick line carved across it, and the other had the Iwagakure village symbol, witht he same scratch across it. It symbolises how Shibirin, had betrayed not one, but two nations. Shibirin waited for the two shinobi's response, before acting accordingly...

• Flashback ^