Maigo made his way through the village, his ninja tools and sword on his person wearing his regular attire. Black sandals and blacks pants with his grey jacket and brown belt holding it together, around his stomach were lots of bandages wrapped around and his sword positioned on the right of his waist. His goal for today was to explore the ruins of the old clans, and to find any information he could on their previous exploits and ventures. Wars, battles, skirmishes, anything like that in order to find out about the legacy of his own eyes and what powers they were rumored to have had. His journey through the village was quite with a large amount of introspection on everything he was hoping to find, mention of the clan itself in historical documents or maybe more information on the KKG and how they work. Anything he could connect dots with really, and the first one on his list would be the Aisu compound, the clan of the current Mizukage. He approached a wooded area, at first he walked with his head down and his hands in his pocket and dragging his feet along the dirt path. The mist through the trees was thicker than normal the air still cool and a light breeze to rustle the trees as he stepped through.

He began to approach the ancient temples of the major clans of Kirigakure, treasure troves of mysterious objects and the clans information and own items of value. Maigo didn't know nor cared of what lay within, he was only there for any information he could grab and then for the adventure of exploring the ruins themselves. Maigo approached the temple, large stones cracked here and there, brush and vines grow out but around the entrance, the perfect field of grass was unobstructed by anything and it was like the grass was kept up with. Maigo watched as a white haired boy stood before the entrance of the temple, grey stone and brush around gave an ominous image but the entrance was nearly pitch black. Maigo approached the circle of trees, walking slowly and avoiding any debris to stay perfectly quiet. For the moment he was going to observe the boy there to see what happens. Maigo leaned up against a tree and wrapped his head around to glance at him from the distance, the boy was looking around at the giant temple itself, the surrounding atmosphere, and the surroundings trees. He seemed to be on edge but maybe for a good reason? Entering into the clan compound of the Aisu wasn't something most people did and not without good reason.

Maigo had a brief lapse of judgement thinking of the boy as maybe a criminal using it to hide out in, he smirked for a second as he watched him jumped down towards the entrance of the temple. His eyes jumped forward as he landed though, and he jumped again to the left as a few kunai flew out from within and split the ground and grass just behind where he had stood. It pretty much put Maigo's idea of him being a ninja in hiding to rest, since if those were his own traps he'd have been a fairly dumb criminal to forget. Maigo exhaled as he gathered his composure and leaned around a little bit further towards him, the boy was wiping the dirt off his pants as he stepped out from the tree. Maigo did his best to keep quite as he watched him lean in and look into the temple from the corner of it. Maigo smiled for a second as he yelled out towards the boy, standing probably twenty meters away as he yelled towards him and continued walking towards the entrance, "Hey you!" he would grab his attention first. A few more steps until the boy would acknowledge his existence, Maigo kept his left hand in his pocket but his right hand rested comfortably on his sword just in case he would need to draw it in some off chance he wasn't friendly.

He would continue on keeping a watchful eye on him for what his initial reaction would be and how he would react. Assuming that he didn't try to kill or fight Maigo immediately he would call out again, "Why are there traps for the entrance of this clan's temple?" he looked towards the boy and then to the entrance entrance as he approached. He would stop just before he entered the front of the entrance, about five meters from where the boy was originally standing.

[773 words]

The boy was just as confused as Maigo was, having traps in a place like this made absolutely no sense. But other than their confusion, the two of them also shared in the fact that he had also never been there. Maigo relaxed his stance off his hilt as it became apparent that there was no ill intent here, he stepped in closer to a reasonable speaking distance and looked towards the guy. The boy stuck his hands in his pockets and leaned against the wall, trying to look cool or something? Maigo took note of it but refused to give in, sticking his hands in his pockets as well and looking towards the temple. Maigo tilted his head and stared into the entrance of the temple, it was dark and nearly impossible to see anything, but he wanted to carry on the facade of coolness also. He looked in as the boy spoke, but kept his gaze within as he spoke, but his head eventually turned back as the boy gave up the right to do the honors himself. When he turned back, he carried a wide smile and was using his thumb to point at himself, such sudden shifts in stature and demeanor. Maigo was struggling to keep up and pin his personality, the struggle of it all. Rei Yuki. Sharing the last name of the temple, he had a good idea of why he might be there, or be at least interested in the place. He continued on with his story, nothing Maigo didn't already share with him or common thoughts, but he did mention something interesting of a treasure in his barrage of questions. He laughed at the thought, and Maigo couldn't help but crack a smile as well and chuckling to himself.

Leaning back and cracking his back, it was his turn to speak out now, "Well then, I suppose it's my turn to respond then..." he let on as his expression became more neutral. He left his hands in his pockets as his eyes ran over the boy briefly before returning to eye contact, "The name's Maigo Mugetsu!" his voice was loud but nothing excessive nor annoying. "But I share your struggle with having never been here before also, however, I don't share a name with this particular clan or anything. My blood is of another type... and I was hoping that I could find a bit more about it. Historical records anything of that sort..." he continued on as his vision began to fade like he was blankly staring off into the distance. Eye contact faded to where Rei was more the focal point of blurred vision, he shook his head lightly and blinked a few times to return back to his awareness. "But anyways, the traps are beyond me as well... but I agree whole heartedly, it is now very interesting. And maybe there is a treasure inside" he let off with a smirk and turned himself towards the opening of the temple. "But there's only one way of finding out..." he took his right hand from his pocket and scratched the side of his head and looked towards the door. "That's if you're not too afraid to follow me in." he laughed a bit at the thought as he took a step towards the temple.

---

If Rei would follow him in he would lead the way into the temple, his hand resting on his hilt again in case more traps would become a thing. The entrance to the temple was a long hallway, bronze and dirty stones lined the floor, walls, and roof. Nearly all of them were cracked and shattered and vines and other small brush were growing from it. The light was dim, but there were a few lit torches on the wall scattered about, flickering with the wind which howled in from behind them. Maigo reached up and grabbed one of them, the torch wasn't very bright but was enough to dimly light around them a few feet and make sure that they didn't fall into any holes or things like that. The further they got down the hallway the more and more the light began to depend on the torches, vines quickly began to disperse in favor of less cracked stones, and rooms would pop up occasionally here and there. What were wooden doors to close these rooms off from the outside hallway were gone, a few of the doors were cracked and rotted away and on the ground while others were left in half and attached by a single hinge. The entire building felt deeply abandoned, as if people hadn't entered or used it in ages and the wear upon it was extreme if nothing else.

As they would continue on down the hallway they would begin to see a very bright area of the hallway, where it split into two in a fork and torches kept the fork itself very well lit. But to either side, the left and right, their vision would fall off nearly immediately to what would be a pitch black hallway. As Maigo stepped forward towards the fork, the last ten meters or so of the straight hallway before they arrived, he turned his head towards Rei to break the silence, "Hey--" he was cut off as he stepped forward and a loud click came about. The stone at his foot began to slid downward, slowly at first as more clicks came about, his head turned down to see what was happening as he began to watch his foot fall below the floor. Within seconds of the plate clicking to a stop, two sheets slid down rapidly on each side of them and holes were scattered throughout the wall. Maigo's eyes widened as he realized what was going on, he would rotate quickly on his heels and find Rei, then with a heavy force he would push him back away and out of range of the holes. Of course, Rei could find himself and escape it, but if Maigo were the quicker one on his feet he would knock Rei back a few feet and to his butt if he wasn't fully on his feet to resist.

Then from there, failure or success to get Rei out of the way, senbon shot out rapidly, one from each hole every few seconds towards them. Maigo stood on his feet and took a few to different areas across his body, the senbon pierced his jacket, two to his right arm, one to his torso, another to his left leg and a last one to his right inner thigh. The senbon would stop quickly with Maigo left to tend to his wounds, he would slowly pull each of them out one at a time, a little blood splattered behind but none of them hit any vital points or arteries or anything. He knew that much right off the bat, and so he was left to tending to himself, each senbon fell to the round with a clank in the flurry of other needles littered across the ground around him. "Dammit!" he winced as he pulled the last one out. He was quickly becoming dreary, a fast acting sleeping agent lined the senbon but he didn't notice it until he saw the others on the ground, they glistened slightly and the torch on the ground ignited the liquid. Maigo stumbled for a second as he gained his balance and turned towards Rei, to check if he himself was hit by any of the senbon himself or what their current situation was, "Rei, I think that there... was....... something.......... laced..." his words failed to get out as he fell up against the wall as he tried to hold himself up. Then with a thud he would fall the the ground, his vision slowly  fading away as Maigo passed into a deep sleep, but for how long and how deep? That would be yet to be decided...

[1344 words, 2117 words total]

Silent slumber, probably snoring away as the other boy struggled on with whatever traps may lie on the outside and in reality. But for Maigo, his dreams were that of chaos and closer to nightmare than he would like, for instances and flashes of scenes played out before his eyes. A battle was taking place, and there he and his sister were, against another person with a three tomoe sharingan, the scene shifted around and one minute he saw himself before him, everything calm and in the next minute he saw flashes of lightning and explosions. A weird black staff hit the ground and a laser shot out from it cutting everything in its path, another time skip. Forward or backwards, the clanking of weapons and the rush of feet against the ground, nothing could be made out anymore as it was just chaos between the two wielders of the Sharingan. Then the scene began to fade, screams and shouts rang out, the smell of blood filled the air and splashed on his face as he saw his sister dead in his arms, then more chaos and rage. And a final cut of blood, but who's was it? And why was he looking at it from the outside like a spectator? Unable to control the outcome or influence anything, panic rushed over him and suddenly... reality.

Maigo awoke quickly with a jolt, a small burst outward as he awoke from his nightmare like he was about to yell but didn't, his sharingan was activated already but he hadn't realized it from the shock just yet. With ferocity his head shot back and the crown of it collided with the stone wall behind him, "Dammit!" he cursed as dust and dirt shook free and fell on him. He rubbed his head and began to stand up, feeling the chakra in his eyes he released his sharingan back to his normal yellow eyes. It was all weird and he made no sense of it, and furthermore, as he looked around the area, he had no idea where he was or what had happened to bring him here. He heard some slight noise coming from a door to his left, and on entering it he saw Rei among the darkness with his torch, he continued blinking trying to wake up, a very heavy daze set upon him and his mind racing from his nightmare. Doing his best to ignore it he called out to him, "Hey, what happened? How did we get here?" he yawned while he spoke. Entering in through the wall he looked around at what he could, more stone walls like everywhere else, and right next to the door was an unlit torch hanging oddly out from the wall. His hand lazily reached out to, his confusion and apathy towards everything was swirling as it ever was, still doing his best to shove the thoughts to the back of his mind.

As his hand fell on the torch and pulled it, it jammed, failing to move up in any way. His eyes turned to it as he looked at it, pulling it out and left and right... not even a wiggle. Then with a furious rip and with all the strength he could measure, he pushed down on the wooden stick and it budged, sliding downward until it stopped. But Maigo's momentum already applied, he continued on and it broke near the base with a heavy crack. Splintered wood shot out, but instead his attention shot out to what originally was the opening into the room. With a heavier thud, the sound of stone grinding against stone rang out and the room was closed off by a wall of stone that fell into the doors place. Maigo blinked as dirt and dust fumed out from the floor where it closed, and holes opened up in the walls with a heavy stream of water pouring out after a second.

With each incoming action his heart sped up a little bit and his awareness increased, his sleepiness being replaced by worry. The floor would soon be covered in water, an inch high, it was weird that a room made of stone was sealed so perfectly that it could hold water. He stepped towards the center of the room and turned towards Rei, regardless of his expression or if he might be saying anything, he looked towards him then frantically looked around at the room. "I know it's probably obvious but we won't have much time, and we definitely need to find a way out of here!" his voice was panicky and he continued his search. Heading to the wall, he began to claw at the stones, feeling around for anything, another switch a trap door anything that could give them a chance, all the while the water began rising steadily and steadily. If Rei had any ideas he would follow along, but for him, his only idea was to hope for the best and search for a miracle.

---

Soon the water became high enough that he would float in it, along with Rei as well, the room itself was only around ten feet tall, and that means over half the room was now filled, over half. And rising. He would dive down towards the floor, looking for bubbles or any clue towards their survival, but the water poured in quicker than he could think. Nothing. No signs of escape. It wouldn't be long, the water would be within inches of the roof, Maigo would call out as he faced upwards towards the roof, "Rei, take a deep breathe, we've got to figure something out with our last breathe." and with that Maigo delayed as long as he could. Searching and searching, a puzzle that seemed to have no answer, the breathe escaped from him in a surge of bubbles as he floated back down to the floor of the room. A bright light faded in as his eyes faded away, he had lost track of Rei, panic had faded away into the dull roar of quietly rushing water. What was there to do, even if Rei were still awake it would be up to him to find a way out, if he could, if he also hadn't succumbed to an inevitable drowning.

---

"breathe... Breathe.... Breathe!" a voice rang out as a ringing developed in Maigo's ears. Consciousness slowly began to fade back into his existence, again, he was lost as to where he was or what was happening. A scene began to unfold before him, a woman standing over him and pressing on his chest. He coughed and water spurted out violently as he rolled to his side, she stood up quickly and walked back. Then a door slammed, more of the scene came to life. He was in a cage, made of a thick wood and around them, were dozens of workers all digging away and mining into the earth. Confusion arose as he looked around himself, and began to take in the sight, heavy industrial lights were hung from the roof and shining into certain areas, the region was huge and others were in cages as well, next to and behind him in a little camp. As he took everything in, a voice rang out nearby, "Hello, intruders! And welcome to my operation..." the man was burly and had a heavy mustache. He was actually giant and looked like he could crush a tree with his bare hands and wore a military/survival outfit, stopping there and looking on towards them. Now... what did he want.

[1276 words, 3393 words total]

“Hello, intruders.. And welcome to my operation…” the voice rang out as Maigo sat there and gathered his surroundings. His eyes looked out, a familiar face among a few others in more cages. His head was pulsing, like a sinus headache combined with a migraine, the last thing he remembered was drowning and passing out. The fact that he had his life was surprising in itself, but he wasn't one to complain, the number of times he had been pushed to the brink in the last few years, it was becoming a bit of a usual occurrence for him. Maigo blinked though, turning towards the man as he began to pipe up, "Operation?" he rubbed his head gently in the hopes of subsiding the pain and ringing in his brain. But to no avail, what was left then was to continue on, "You and your workers digging, it sounds like the aspirations of a little kid turned grown up." he snickered as he leaned himself against the back wall of the cage.

His eyebrow twitched, obviously intolerant of Maigo's quick attitude, "Let me tell you something kid, these so called 'workers' are no workers. They're slaves I've taken from villages in and outside the Land of Water. Entire communities gone in a flash and subjected to my will! And you'll treat me with respect! I am the king of the underground, Boss Hammerschmidt! And my will is absolute!" he was yelling at the top of his lungs at the end of it. Grabbing hold of the bars on Maigo's cage as an uncontrollable rage broiled forth, spit flew from his mouth forward, as he lost control. "Yeah, yeah, Mr. Hammer guy, but still doesn't mean what I said was wrong..." Maigo let off the quick jab to further taunt him. But as quickly as he became angry, he became calm once again, stepping back from the bars and standing up straight.

"You know, you say a little kid turning into an adult. But do kids dream of finding rare minerals in the earth for their own gain? Do they dig the depths of the crust in order to find rare treasures left by those generations long lost?" his monologue had began. Maigo's thoughts drifted as he spoke, he wondered if this would ever actually end, his goal to taunt him to open the door, then Maigo would have to step his game up and find them away out. As for Rei, if he could keep his attention off of him, maybe he would find another way for them to escape? Who knew... the man continued on, "And with those resources we finance our operations and further take control of the country. Sure your Mizukage may run the ninja village and serve the Daimyo, but the Daimyo serves my underworld and my black market. That's the power that I've gained in my time as emperor of crime." at this point Maigo had no desire to listen any further so he blurted out like a child to interrupt him.

"Wait, wait, wait. Why does your title keep changing? Does anyone even call you any of these things? I mean, outside the lackeys that you'd kill if they don't? Because I've gotta be honest.... I've never heard of you, not even once." he spoke with the smuggest look on his face. The man's face had turned red, veins had bulged from his temple and forearms, obvious rage had built up, he stepped forward and with a powerful kick, launched the cage with Maigo in it down the hill behind him. Rolling down the hill and bouncing as Maigo bounced within it, small yelps and barks came from the boy with each hit and toss about, rolling down the steep hill and gaining speed. As Maigo fell the man calmed down again, ignoring the yells from his victim, "The other boy then. Make sure that the black haired kid is dead, I've had enough of his transgressions." his eyes turned towards Rei now, "As for you, you can suffer a similar fate or become one of my slaves and work for me as compensence for letting you keep your life. The choice is yours... I'll give you a little time to think it over." he then turned and walked away through the mounds of dirt and past the other exhausted, worn out, and underfed slaves around him.

[750 words, 4143 words total]