Disclaimer:

It had been a few days after Kashizudoto's recent mission; there was no still word of the samurai Yamato, who had unexpectedly earned himself a special place in Kashizudoto's heart. They had made remarkable progress in terms of taking back the manorial lands of Buma from the lost souls now that Kashizudoto had blown up the base and, in the process, filled up the tunnel with rocks and debris from which the lost souls were filing in from. Yet he couldn't take credit for this; the discovery of this base was made possible by only a team of eleven of Buma's samurai, ten of which lost their lives. The other one? Yamato, who had showed Kashizudoto the location which ten of his comrades died to locate for the sake of the citizenry of the manor in their time of desperation. Yet after Kashizudoto had successfully completed the mission, Yamato was nowhere to be found. They could only pronounce him dead. The young boy slept on these terrible thoughts, rolling back and forth in nightmares, sleeping on a fancy bed near the throne room that had grown dusty and grimy due to the low level of maintenance that resulted from the siege.

"Wake up, Kashizudoto-san!" was the first thing he could hear, a samurai's voice. He opened his eyes, blurred from the tears of nightmare and torture, "There's an attack on the castle!" Those words instantly alerted him. How could there be an attack? They were at last winning the fight! What could have happened?

He ran out in his usual gear, with his hawk, still a bit tired, perched on his shoulder; yes, he even slept in that stuff. The only time he didn't wear his normal stuff was when it was being washed or fixed up after being tattered. His attire was composed of his black swordsman's robe embroidered with golden patterns along the edges, with a bamboo sheath on his left hip that contained his Tentetsutou, the black katana that he had forged during his apprenticeship under Piandao. Next to the sheath, he had a fifty foot coil of wire, a useful shinobi utility. Underneath, he had a holster containing one kunai knife and three shuriken. He was ready for any fight, or so he thought. Yet this wasn't the average lost soul invasion...

"Beware the eyes!" Buma screamed, already in combat it seemed, "Don't look directly into them, or you're finished!" He looked up, trying not to look too much so that he wouldn't look straight into whatever eyes Buma was talking about. Standing upside down was a grim-looking teenager hardly older than Kashizudoto, his medium-length black hair hanging down as well. Though he didn't dare to look directly in order to avoid whatever Lord Buma was talking about, he could see that the man's eyes were red; was this the Sharingan? But those eyes didn't look like any that he'd seen; they had a complex pattern, with a three-pronged star and circle etched in black into the eye and six tomoes.

WC: 525

"Amaterasu!" he declared; all Kashizudoto and his hawk could see before being whisked away in a flash of lightning was a giant black flame coming for him out of the black-haired teen's red eyes, probably a super advanced form of the Sharingan. He had only heard of up to three tomoes. Why did this one have six? He observed the flame afterwards for a second as it burned on the ground. He wondered what was so special about this; however, he was sure that he didn't want to find out personally.

"That was a close one, kid," Lord Buma, who had just saved his life, spoke, "Don't expect me to come to the rescue next time." He breathed a sigh of relief in response, trying to comprehend all that had just happened. His hawk let out a screech.

"Th-thank you," he finally stammered before getting to his feet, still looking at those terrible, malevolent black flames. They had some kind of strange, dark aura about them; he could only wonder what special properties they had.

"Zuko!" he soon heard a familiar feminine voice ring in his ears. As he turned his head up and away from the black flames, he realized who this was and soon his eyes only confirmed this for him. He couldn't imagine... why was Ashlee, a friend he met back in the Land of Fire when he was a genin, someone who he, to this day, still had a longing for, why was she in the Land of Lightning? And why was she involved with this Zuko guy? He could see a similar expression of horror on her face as she recognized him; the sheer terror of finding that someone who you shared a special bond with was on the opposite side of a battle, for reasons beyond your comprehension. He wanted to call out, to ask her why she was doing this, but the words could not escape his mouth. Heartbroken.

"I already told you!" this "Zuko" guy yelled at her, "Kill them!" The frown sustained on her face, as if she didn't want to do this, yet she was doing this anyway. Why would she, the most mischievous kunoichi in all of Konoha, one with a good heart and an innocent soul, kill people? Yet, as if taking an absolute command, she nodded and took off to go on such a terrible task of killing innocents.

"You hold him off," Lord Buma declared, "I'll deal with the girl." It was a monumental responsibility, somehow dealing with someone powerful enough to create a black flame out of his... eyes? How that was even possible was beyond Kashizudoto's comprehension.

"Don't hurt her," he murmured to him before Lord Buma nodded and took off to confront her before she could hurt anyone. Now he had to deal with Zuko Uchiha. He still knew neither his motivation nor whether or not he was affiliated with those lost souls raids. He sure wanted to know what was going on...

WC: 1035

"Just drop down," Zuko muttered, causing Kashizudoto's eyes to trace up until he could see his black hair floating down, making sure not to make direct eye contact as Buma warned, "I'll make this quick." Kashizudoto saw a giant ball of flames coming straight for him from Zuko's lips. He could handle this. Just a fireball. Either this enemy wasn't particularly powerful, or, more likely, he was just testing the waters to see whether Kashizudoto would be worth expending much energy to defeat. In that case, he'd need to start off with a surprising blast of power. His most powerful and concentrated jutsu to date: the Heavenward Slash.

He grabbed his sword; the plan was to slash out with his fiery arc of fire towards the fireball that Zuko had produced. The enemy wouldn't be able to see it coming for him in time; he would only notice it when it would race through it, dispelling the fireball, and leap out of the flames towards him at such a high speed that he wouldn't see it coming. Except that's not what actually happened. The arc flew out of his sword and destroyed the fireball with ease, yet, when the flames of the fireball cleared out, Kashizudoto saw the arc flying towards... no opponent? He frenzied, looking to the left and looking to the right, where he saw Zuko landing. How could he see it in time? Was this the legendary power of the Sharingan?

"You're pathetic," he spoke as he finished weaving some hand seals and blew out a devastating, giant wall of flames that traveled through the plaza of the manor on which Kashizudoto and Hawky were standing. Good thing this wasn't a populated area; otherwise houses, and even people, could have easily been turned to ashes in less than a second. Either way, the flames were coming towards Kashizudoto at an immense speed, so he only had the chance to drop his sword and fall down on his back, creating the snake seal and a barrier of chakra around him and Hawky, which the flames couldn't pierce, thankfully. However, almost as soon as the barrier came up, the flames stopped coming, as if Zuko could see the barrier that Kashizudoto had created even though the flames that he had created.

"The Sharingan sees all," he noted from Kashizudoto's left as the barrier shattered. So, that was probably how he'd gotten time to dodge Kashi's arc; he had seen it coming through the fireball using whatever abilities that the Sharingan had. Kashi knew that they were a special dojutsu, but he had never gone up against one who had wielded it, especially someone this powerful. He was in for one tough ride.

Kashizudoto Chakra:

WC: 1502

"What's going on?" Kashizudoto questioned as he scrambled back up to his feet and grabbed his blade with his right hand, which jittered about in pure confusion, fear, and exhaustion, "Why... why are you?" Zuko made no attempt to respond to his query, instead charging at him with his blade drawn in his left hand. The only response Kashizudoto could think of in his shock was to get into a defensive position; as his blade got into the ready, the other blade met it with a certain ferocity, as the two got closer than they ever had before, in a lock of wills. Yet this wouldn't last for long, as Kashizudoto felt his feet sliding back, breaking through the earth, until the force of Zuko's blade overwhelmed him, with his bad footing, his relatively poor blade, and his exposed weakness. The force of Zuko's blade pushing against his sent him back an entire meter into the ground, dust swirling everywhere. He couldn't let this be the end. Something about the guy that he was fighting seemed oddly different, though he couldn't quite pinpoint it. Something familiar, although they had never known each other. Something comforting, although their eyes had never met each other. Still, the fact that this "Zuko" hadn't even responded to him gave neither a sense of familiarity nor comfort.

"I have to," he admitted, as if he expected Kashizudoto to magically understand what exactly he was referring to, "It's my only option. Just give up now, and I'll make it quick for you." The fact that this boy around Kashi's age could have been connected to this "Black Dawn". The fact that he could've been connected to the deaths of the civilians and samurai of the manor alike. He could only think back to Yamato, a brave soul who had twice seen his entire group of comrades fall before his eyes, one who gave up his life to show Kashizudoto the location that his comrades had sacrificed their lives to find. A tear for the samurai came from the boy's right eye and soon a flood: one drop for each samurai and civilian who died in the siege.

Just as Zuko readied his blade to slay Kashi, who had still not come up with any sensible solution, a clap of thunder ringed in their ears as a flash of lightning descended right behind Zuko and sent him flying forward. Before Kashi's eyes was Lord Buma, with an injured Ashlee hung over his shoulders. He'd won his fight pretty handily, it seemed.

"No need to cry, kid," he announced as he laid down Ashlee to the side, "I'm here to save your ass." By this time, Zuko had gotten back up, so had Kashi. The boy observed as Lord Buma chased after Zuko on the rooftops, he himself not quite ready to move but his hawk joining in on the hunt.

WC: 2000

It seemed like Zuko was performing some insane dance, leaping about from place to place to avoid Buma and Hawky, yet what perplexed Kashi was that there were multiple points where he could have escaped the castle if he truly wanted to. He seemed to have plans other than a direct retreat. Then it hit him, as Zuko jumped off the rooptops and made a dash straight for the injured, unconscious kunoichi who had been defeated, with his sword drawn and ready. He couldn't think of why Zuko would make his way to attack and, presumably, kill a defeated ally, but it didn't matter. Whether or not she had aided the enemy, and for whatever reason, he still felt something of a special bond with her, and his reflexes naturally caused him to dash.

A spark of thought raced through Kashi's mind as he calculated the best plan of action: if he couldn't stop Zuko's attack directly, he could at least divert Zuko's feet so that he couldn't reach their target before Kashi. As they both ran towards the unconscious body, Kashi weaved hand seals, beads of sweat rolling down the fingers as he made his most desperate bid yet. Just as the blade came within an inch of the kunoichi's neck, mud encircled around Zuko's legs and dragged him backwards a few meters. In this time, Kashi reached the girl and took out his sword. His eyes looked wild, as if something special, something essential, was just about to be ripped apart from him. As Zuko jumped back onto a far away rooftop and flickered away with a look of contempt being the final expression on his face, Kashi fell to his feet and let out a waterfall of tears. He felt weak. He felt miserable. He felt puzzled.

As his face fell to the ground, he began to ponder why he even felt the need to defend her in the first place. By all means, she was a traitor to him; she was a traitor to all that was good. Yet all he could see were the positives in her, who legally was nothing but a criminal who aided in senseless slaughter. As his hawk perched nearby and Buma landed onto the ground, all the blood returned to him. He could see it all: everything he'd spilled, everyone he'd killed. As young as he was, he had gone on missions where he had killed, with little afterthought, robotically, with a kind of strange insanity. How, then, could he denounce Zuko having tried to kill someone who would have, ostensibly, become a burden to his cause if captured and interrogated. Before Buma could open his own mouth to try and calm him down, Kashi let out a resounding scream, as if he couldn't control how fast his realizations were coming to him. Hawky and Buma both left him alone with the unconscious girl; they could sense the pain and tell he needed some peace of mind.

"I'll never kill again. I swear."

Kashizudoto Chakra:

WC: 2516

[Exit]

A-rank Mission: 2500/2500