Arthir, in for the night, walked over to his bed. He started to take off his white suit, and then the dark gray shirt beneath. But before that, he'd have to undo his red tie. With the upper part of his body was now bare, he tossed the clothes onto the floor, feeling the cool air run across him. He let his red hair down from a pony tail, it draping down the middle of his back. The next thing to come off of him was his dark shoes. Here removed them with ease, followed by the silky black socks. He didn't bother with the white pants, just laying on his bed, back to the mattress as he looked to the ceiling.

"Long day," Arthir said, his hand sweeping his hair back from in front of his face. With that done, he raised the same hand, palm facing the ceiling. "From Konoha to Kumogakure. Then, from here to the hospital. And finally, the casino." Arthir lowered his hand to his face, taking a deep breath. "All in a day," he said while sighing, "all in a day."

The constant ticking in his room, coming from his clock, filled the room. He felt the room spinning, most likely from exhaustion. The ticking began to echo, but he was too tired to notice or care. It echoed to the point where it just became a constant hum... And then that hum turned into buzzing. Buzzing? Actually, it was getting kinda warm. Kinda hot. Really hot! Arthir sat up suddenly, eyes open.

"What the hell-...?" he stopped, shocked as to where he was. He stood up slowly, cautious as if he thought he was in a trap. A trap... "Genjutsu?" Arthir asked to no one specifically. He turned around fully twice. It was true... He was in Konoha somehow.

"Not quite," spoke a male voice from some outside shop.

Arthir jumped, gasping and looking in the direction. Seated there alone on a stool was a man in a brown jacket and red shirt. He was eating some strawberry ice cream from a fancy looking bowl.

"It's kind of like a genjutsu. I mean, you know, if you wanna go there." The man turned, staring with his blue eyes at Arthir. "I like to call it uh... Dream release."

Arthir stared. "Dream...release?"

"Uh-huh." The man pointed at a stool next to him. "You like ice cream?" He waited for a response before speaking again. "I'll treat ya." With that said, he turned back to his ice cream.

Arthir checked around himself, and then looks back at the man. "S-sure," he responded with a nod, walking over.

"Oh. And put a shirt on, will you?" The man requested, biting into a random strawberry. Where did he get that? "It's indecent," he finished.

"A shirt? Well-..." Arthir looked down with wide eyes. He wasn't shirtless anymore! His white pants were now black jeans, and his top was his usual red sweater. "What...the hell?" Arthir shook his head, staring at his sleves in disbelief. "This-... This isn't happening. This can't be happening-"

"You idiot," the man said, "of course not." He turned back to him with a smile. "Dream release."

545

Now seated, Arthir rubbed his forehead with a hand. "I-... Start from the beginning."

The man, now drinking a strawberry milkshake, stared with a cocked eyebrow. He watched Arthir slowly turn to him with a look of irritation. He smiled, the last gulp being the loudest. "Tell you what?"

"T-this! All of this! Why am I not in my bedroom getting some sleep?!"

"But you are."

"What?!" Arthir shook his head. "So this is a genjutsu!"

"It's not."

Arthir shrugged. "Then it's like a genjutsu."

Then, out of nowhere, Arthir was punched on the side of his face by the man. The pain, despite being a genjutsu, or a dream, felt painful. Very painful. The man's fist felt like a slab of stone slamming into his face.

"Now let me ask you," he spoke, "did that hurt?"

With a hand at the spot of the punch, Arthir answered. "Of course it did! What's your poi-?"

"Then it's not a genjutsu."

Arthir was officially lost.

The man sighed. "Genjutsu tricks the mind into thinking you've been hurt. When you're out of it, you won't have such a wound. It'll hurt like hell though."

Arthir nodded. "Okay, but what does that have to-?"

"Natural dreams, or nightmares, usually do the same thing, right?"

Arthir stared.

"Right?" repeated the man.

Arthir nodded slowly.

"This, however, you will wake up with." With another gulp from the milkshake, the man continued. "If I were to break your arm, you'd wake with a broken arm. Even though this, to your definition of 'real', isn't 'real'-"

"It's real enough for it to be true or something, right?" Arthir nodded. "Kind of reminds me of that one horror movie named uh-..." Arthir pondered.

The sound of slurping came from the milkshake the other guy had.

"Dream on Dread street. Yeah, that's the one."

The man looked over with a smile. "Oh, did you see the movie where Reddy faced off against the serial killer who wears the football helmet? The guy from the movie 'Saturday the 21st'?"

Arthir shook his head. "Oh, no, I see it on the channel listings all the time. I need to check it out when I get ba-... Hey, don't distract me!" Arthir pointed at the man. "Now tell me, what am I doing here?! I'm really getting tired of-"

"You can't be tired if you're asleep."

Arthir glared at the laughing man, literally slapping at his knee. His laugh was high in tone, sounding almost like a chipmunk.

"N-no! No, in all seriousness! A-ah, that was a good one."

"It wasn't," Arthir said flatly.

"Well," the man sighed. "Maybe not. But here's the bad news." The man, now frowning, looked at Arthir. "You've got something of mine I need."

"What, a brain?" Arthir cocked his eyebrow.

There was silence. And then, there was laughter from the unknown man again. Arthir waited for it to stop.

1071

The laughter continued for about three solid minutes. The unknown stranger finally stopped, wiping away tears. Arthir...really didn't think it was that funny, but whatever. The man, giving a few chuckles, spoke again. His face went from carefree to serious in a matter of half of a second.

"No," the man, quickly regaining his composure, said, "you have my ability."

Arthir didn't know what to say, so he just looked at the man, expecting more to come.

"I said," the man started, "you have my ability."

Arthir's pink eyed glanced to the side, and then back at the male.

"I saaaid-"

"I know what you said! I just-... What do you mean?" Arthir shrugged, and watched as the other man started chuckling.

"You don't know what you're capable of, do you?" The man watched as Arthir shrugged. "Let me ask you something." He leaned closer. "Do you know what 'Fuuinjutsu' is?"

Arthir let out a single laugh. "Fuuinjutsu? Yeah, it's that sealing thing or whatever, right?"

The man nodded. "Well," he started, "you have my ability."

"Oh my god, not this again." said the red-haired man, placing a hand to his brow.

"I saaaid, you have my ability."

"Okay, but what does that mean?!" Arthir shouted, shrugging. He then thought about it. "Fuuinjutsu?" he said.

The man nodded. "Fuuinjutsu. You have half of my abilities in your arsenal. At least, you have replicas of them." The man grabbed the strawberry milkshake, suddenly refilled to the top. "Water release, to be specific, are the only techniques you have that are identical. Everything else is replicated through that...'tree release' or whatever you have there."

Tree release? ... What the hell was this guy on about now? Arthir had attended the ninja academy, sure, but... There were only five elements to his knowledge. Water, fire, earth, wind, and lightning. What the hell was a 'tree' element? Elements weren't a tree anyways! He decided to call him out on it.

"You're lying," Arthir started, "you don't know the basics of ninjutsu obviously. There are only five elements! Suiton, Katon-"

"Wind, Earth, lighting, fruit, whatever. Yeah, I know. I'm talking about your K.K.G."

Arthir's head dropped a bit. "M-my...Kei...Kei...gee?" He watched the man sigh, shaking his head from side to side, and then look upwards.

"He doesn't know what a Kekkei Genkai is, old man," sighed the man. He turned to Arthir. "Your bloodline technique! Don't you know what your family does?!"

Arthir stared. "I mean, they're rich but-"

"Oh no." The man sighed, and then laughed. "Oh no. He doesn't know what-... Oh no." He then placed both hands to his face, still laughing. "Ohhh no. Am I really going to have to explain what-... Oh no."

Arthir groaned. "Well hurry up and tell me if this is such a bad scene-...! Uh... Who are you? What do I call you?"

The man nodded. "You can call me Aeth-... Uh..." He paused, thinking. "Well, I kind of need you around a bit more, so..."

Arthir tilted his head.

"You can call me Aety. Aety-Aeth."

Arthir nodded. Aety-Aeth, short for Aety. Strange name. As Arthir was digesting this new info, he noticed the man staring...very intensely at him.

"Something wrong?"

"Oh thank god," Aety sighed. "N-no, it's cool. Oh man, I thought I revealed too much to trigger something in that head of yours." Aety took a gulp from his milkshake. "Definately can't take you on for a second time as weak as I am right now. And you at full power too? Sheesh, I'd be a dead for real this time."

Arthir shrugged, not understanding. Did he-...? Did he know this man? He dismissed this. "Just tell me what this 'Kekkei Genkai' is already so I can go, alright?"

Aety gave one more sigh of relief, and then nodded. "Yeah."

1737

Aety had taken Arthir out towards the gates of Konoha. On the way, there wasn't a single soul present, not even one belonging to an ant. Once they had passed the gates, Konoha had...melted away. This new place... Wherever they had gone, the heat from the 'sun' back in 'Konoha' was gone. This place was cold. Not freezing, just chilly. There was nothing but black as far as the eye can see, both of their bodies illuminated in all directions from a nonexistent light source. Or perhaps light came from below them, now that Arthir had stopped to look down. Below, as if he was standing on glass, he saw a pit of blue fire that flowed slowly. Was it fire even? It looked like it... As the flames danced and pieces of the blue ember rose up, he took note that these 'embers' looked like solid objects. Crystal almost...

"What in the-"

"Don't get left behind," Aety spoke, having had kept walking in a direction. "I won't be able to find you. Or maybe I will. Probably."

Arthir ran towards him to close the gap, resuming his walking. As he kept going, he glanced back down at the blue flames below. Near the source of the flame were items. Swords, staves, tables, chairs, you name it. They were either buried beneath each other, or floating about. Besides the items, he saw people. No, corpses. Their skin had been burned off it seems. But wait, the other corpse Arthir saw had a massive chest wound made by a sword. There was one more without a head, another missing a leg, and...one that looked like it had its whole side blown off. That last one looked young also. Arthir shuddered.

"Just-..." Arthir spoke. "Just where are we?"

Aety wasn't as quick to answer like before. "Fuuinjutsu is the technique of sealing."

Arthir didn't say anything, looking at the back of Aety's head as he followed.

"As such, I've discovered," Aety turned back with a smile, "the hard way mind you," he looked back forward, "that anything sealed ends up here in the-"

A monstrous roar came from below, gaining the attention of both men. They looked down to see a massive bear, it's fur having blue flames all over it in random spots.

"The fire doesn't burn," Aety said, now walking again, "It's just for show. Starvation though? That's a thing."

Arthir looked away, resuming the walk.

"There's no food in here. So it's likely it's feeling the pain of starvation."

"Wait. You had the ice cream back there though," Arthir said.

"That's true. But that's the power of," he turned back to smile, "milk release."

"M-Milk release?! Now I know you're making this up!"

"No, honest. Study Suiton long enough, you can make anything from your jutsus. Even ice cream."

Arthir shook his head. "What the hell."

The two kept walking through wherever they were, finally the black bleeding out. They were now...in the middle of a desert? The reappearance of the heat made that apparent. In the distance, he saw a village.

"Sunagakure is right over there, but more immportantly," spoke Aety, pointing at a man with silver hair. "This is my brother. He doesn't know I exist yet."

Arthir looked at Aety, and then at the silver-haired man. His brother? "So let me guess, you want me to deliver your final words to him or something? Like some sort of person in one of those ghost movies, huh?"

"What?" Aety blinked. "No. Hell no, dude! I'm still alive! Just...stuck here."

Arthir look at the man.

"But what I wanted was for you to stay away from him! He's a freak of nature." After saying this, Aety could see the confusion on Arthir's face. "I watch him like this all the time. You know, just to see what he's up to."

As if hearing them, the silver-haired man stopped what he was doing to look in their direction. Naturally, Arthir stiffened.

"Ah, don't worry," Aety spoke, "He can't see us."

Arthir started to relax...but then tensed up again after hearing what Aety's brother had said.

"Chakra," he spoke, his voice cold and hollow, "I feel chakra here."

Aety laughed. "But, he can probably feel us. Ah, if only he knew."

That...didn't make Arthir feel any better.

2489

The two men watched the silver-haired man. After standing for a moment, he turned to finish what he was doing earlier. He had been packing a bag full of supplies it seemed. Possibly heading out of the village with that many items.

"Anyhow," Aety spoke, "now that you've seen Aku's face, our real destination is within Sunagakure."

Aku... So that was his name. Arthir took not to stay away from him then. He then turned away from the man's brother, only to gasp and nearly fall over as the town came rushing towards him.

"What the-?!" he said, covering his eyes with his arms. A moment passed. He uncovered to see that he was now inside...a very empty town. "Ugh, now what?"

"I need you to find someone named 'Firoyuki'." Aety watched as Arthir took a seat on the dirt ground. "I don't know their full name, but-"

"Stop." Arthir sighed, putting a hand to his face. "I-...I'm still back in Konoha, debating if this is a dream or genjutsu."

"Dream release-"

"Whatever!" Arthir fanned away the thought with the hand that was near his face. "Whatever you want to call it! It's-... It's weird!" He shook his head. "This whole 'trip' has fried my mind! My brain just feels-... I just-... Where are we?! I'm still on that! Where. Are. We?!"

Aety crossed his arms, thinking. He then, smiled. "Alright! How about I give you these?" He crouched down to reveal to Arthir a clear plastic bottle with three green needles inside. Green senbon. "I made these for the Hokage, but he went missing. Can't seem to find him anywhere!"

Arthir stared. "You skipped the question-"

"Anyhow! You can have 'em. Maybe they'll save your life." The bottle was slowly taken from him by the red-haired man. "But I can't give you anymore. Those are the only ones existing. So, use them sparingly, alright?"

Arthir nodded. "Alright, but...what do they-"

"I told you I'd tell you what a 'Kekkei Genkai' was." Aety interrupted. "We're running out of time, so listen. It's basically a family's superpower. It's what makes them unique. Yours is creating plants out of nothing. Mokuton, otherwise known as, 'Tree release'."

"Tree release?"

"Technically called 'Wood Release' but that's dull."

Then, Sunagakure started to melt.

"Oh boy," Aety spoke, "looks like you're almost out of chakra."

Arthir stood, bottle in hand. "O-out of chakra?! What-?!"

"Yeah, this technique doesn't use my chakra since I'm inside the seal."

The rest of what Aety was saying was either going by too fast or becoming muffled. Arthir tried to explain that he couldn't hear, but felt lightheaded. He at least felt his knees give out as he fell. Or was he rising? He couldn't tell anymore. And then...

Black.

2976

His eyes snapped open as he gasped, shirtless again. He was in familiar territory now, his room. He sat up, and then groaned, feeling his face in pain. In pain... This... This was the same spot that lunatic had punched him! What was his name, Aety-Aeth? Arthir rubbed his race. Or at least, he attempted to. He was surprised when his face made contact with something cold. He looked to see a plastic bottle containing three green needles. The green senbons Aety had given him.

"What?" Arthir shook his head. "So it...wasn't a dream. Or was it?" His brain went over the information it had absorbed. "First, there was talk of fuuinjutsu, and then...bloodlines..." He sat at the edge of his bed now, burying his face into his palms. The information had come and gone so fast, he barely could keep up. "What was that bit about me? Did I know him? And that place-..."

His mind went back to the area filled with blue flames. Aety had said that anything sealed in transported there, or something like that. Does that-... Does that mean that's the inside of a fuuinjutsu seal? And he learned the hard way, so he said. Does that imply that he sealed himself somehow? No, surely...

"Why would he do that?" Arthir quizzed himself. "That wouldn't make a bit of sense. To seal something in the first place means-... It means you'd want to keep it safe." Arthir nodded. "So did he want to be safe-...? D-did he somehow run into some kind of trouble that forced him to seal himself away?" Uncovering his face, he crossed his arms. "But why? What trouble could that be? Maybe some sort of danger?"

The ticking from his clock filled the soundless moment. That, and the crinkling of paper near Arthir.

"Of course, that's implying I believe this whole story."

Arthir rolled his eyes, which happened to land on the plastic bottle. He didn't want to believe this story, he really didn't. He'd much rather just go to sleep and continue his lying streak, not having responsibilities or anything. And yet, there it is. The ultimate proof that this was anything but a dream or genjutsu. There on his bed was an item he was sure he hadn't fallen asleep with. Three green senbons, apparently life saving. Could a needle really do such a thing? He decided to examine it.

Opening the plastic bottle, he noticed some sort of white paper coiled around a tip of the senbon. He studied explosive tags and such, so he figured this is just a way to keep the needle's effect in check. He decided not to mess with it, sliding the small item back into where it had came, more crinkling from paper being heard by him.

"I'll carry them with me if I'm in trouble or something," he  decided.

Arthir got up to walk over to a shelf in his room, which held books and small simply toys. He placed the plastic bottle there. The red-haired man then laid back into his bed, crinkling paper sounding as his pink eyes looking over at the needles.

"Just what do they do?" he asked again, as if the air itself would give him an answer.

Unfortunately not. There was no answer, or sound for that matter. Of course not. He was alone in the room. Although, there's also the crinkling of paper filling the air with sounds.

Wait, crinkling? Arthir looked around in his bed, taking note of a piece of paper. It had a yellow tint to it, and the texture didn't feel like your average piece of tree either. Huh. It was blank. Was something on it? Where did it come from? Maybe it came from-...? Actually, Arthir had no clue where it could've come from. He flipped to see the back, and leaned forward to see what it said.

"This-..." he started to read, the handwriting not the best, "This...is...a fuuinjutsu tag."

His brain processed this. And then, it clicked. Fuuinjutsu... The sealing technique. Arthir nodded, tossing the piece of paper onto the floor.

His eyes started to feel heavy, and sleepiness began to set in. The once throbbing side of his face was now being muffled by the need to sleep. And so Arthir did, getting up from the bed to open up the blankets for him to slide into. He laid there with his eyes closed.

"I'll...think on all of this...later."

The constant ticking in his room, still coming from his clock, filled the room. He felt the room spinning like before, again from exhaustion. It echoed in the walls of his mind to the point where it just became a constant hum... And then that hum turned into-... Well actually, it remained as ticking. However, Arthir was fast asleep to notice this.

3806

C-ranked jutsu: Oswald The Octopus (C-Rank Scale) 1000/1000
C-ranked jutsu: Oswald Art: "Back Off!" 1000/1000
C-ranked jutsu: Green Seeds: Bunchberry Dogwood1000/1000
D-ranked jutsu: Green Seeds: Socotra Dragonsblood  750/750

[Exit]