During the early morning, the masked member of the Yamada clan, known for his failures more than his successes, was walking over the stone bridge, contemplating everything he had done so far and everything that had happened to him in the past month.

he had started to do more missions, had begun to train himself and had managed to strengthen his resolve to rise through the ranks, even at his ripe age of fifty eight years old, yet his desires were now more focused than ever as well.

If he was to obtain more power, more potential, than his body needed to be in better shape as well, but despite all his own efforts, he could not find a single solution to both his pain and his wounds. They would never seem to heal and the excrutiating pain remained as strong as ever, to be truthfull, it even seemed as if the pain from his wounds had begun to flare up from time to time, intensifying significantly.

It always happened after certain moments of which he remembered nothing, black outs he could not explain nor understand, though he id know that the pain was driving him to his breaking point.

Yet, if that was all, he could've lived with it, there was also the case with the mystery shade he had been seeing for quite some time now.

The mysterious figure that had managed to almost kill a relative of the daimyo and nearly had succeeded in having Kegare take the fall for that act, litterally, as he had managed to shoot the glass ceiling from underneath the masked man's feet at the time.

It was done by black crystals, which was something which frightened Kegare. He himself had silver colored crystals, varying from near white to dark gray, which was pretty close to the black which he had seen the mysterious figure use.

Not only did this signify that the man had to be a member of the Yamada clan, but also the appearance of the mysterious figure was slightly if not incredibly off putting.

A skeletal mask and hands, so strangely familiar to Kegare, yet he could not exactly put his finger on which it was that made it so familiar, except for maybe the fact that he himself wore a mask as well and that both his and that of the mysterious figure were adorned with a smiling face.

"Everything seems so odd," The masked man sighed and leaned against the railings of the stone bridge. Realizing that there was not a soul in sight, the omiddle aged gentleman took off his mask, searched his vest for a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, took out one of the cigarettes and lit it with his lighter, blowing out a teal colored puff of smoke into the dry, crisp morning air. "It's too damn close to home and there's no motive. What is it that I'm missing, what is it all supposed to mean?"

When he looked down at the water, kegare's mouth suddenly dropped open, as he could see a rather familiar shimmer in the shadows of the bridge, the shadows between the pillars that supported the bridge seemed to cover something and when he placed his hand above his eyes to ward off the morning sun, he could see it, that skeletal mask, those boney hands with the hole in them and more importantly, that relentless dark aura surrounding the mysterious figure.

In an instant, kegare put his mask back on and threw away his half smoked cigarette, preparing to jump down to the water below. "You, stay where you are, you son of a bitch!!"

wc: 616

"So brazen, you are," The shady figure replied, while retreating slightly further into the shadows beneath the bridge. The man's eyes looked straight into those of Kegare and effectively shocked the Iwa shinobi. He had never seen such an amalgamation of hatred and darkness, yet not a boiling rage, but a dangerously cold anger was to be found in the skeletal figure's eyes. "It is strange is it not, how little you know about me and how much I know about you, Yamada Kegare, disgrace of the Yamada clan."

The masked shinobi cringed when hearing the strange person's voice, which sounded so much like his own, but as if he had been in a freezer for an hour and his vocal cords were seriously damaged. All in all, the voice made shivers run up his spine and filled the remaining parts of his skin with goosebumps and straight standing hairs.

"You, what are you?" Kegare had a hard time keeping his calm and his cool, as he could feel it to the deepest part of his soul and mind that this person was bad news. After all, it was this person that managed to give him the slip with such apparent ease and even almost got him apprehended on the count of murder. "Who exactly are you and why DO you know so much about me?"

The mysterious figure remained silent for a momet, seemingly floating from left to right, looking at kegare with what he thought to be a look filled with curiosity, but also knowledge of something he could not understand just yet. It was strange, but somehow the masked shinobi could not shake the feeling that despite all the strangeness, mystery and shadiness, the skeletal figure in front of him had more in common with him than was to be considered normal. "Who are you, really?"

The shady figure chuckled and pointed towards Kegare with one of it's boney hands' fingers. "I am Anger, I am hatred, I am vengeance. I am truth, I am what should be and that which could be.
I am... Reikarou Kijin."

It was quite a long explanation of who or what he was, but at least it was something. However, somehow the masked shinobi felt nothing , he did not feel relief or satisfaction after hearing the skeletal person explain everything and answer his questions, in fact it just opened up a whole new can of worms, a whole new string of thoughts and questions.

wc: 417
twc: 1033

training:

"I want you to surrender right here and now," The masked man suddenly spread his legs a bit, while placing himself in a comfortable stance to initiate combat, looking at the shady figure with hatred in his eyes. "You're too dangerous to be left running around free, I'll take care of you myself, Reikarou Kijin, I swear on my name that you'll be beaten into humility."

The skeletal figure chuckled and extended his arm, motioning Kegare to come at him whenever he so desired. "Well then, show me the extend of your hatred. Show me how much you fear me, how much you loath me. Let it run out, my precious Yamada kegare. Let it all out and try to entertain me to the best of your abilities!!"

That was something the masked man did not need to hear twice, as he quickly ran towards the skeletal figure, using the pillars of the bridge as his ground, jumping off them towards Reikarou Kijin with the intent to kick the figure straight on the noggin'. however, rather than hitting the man, Kegare's foot seemed to pass through thin air, while Reikarou Kijin simply smirked and chuckled a bit to anger the masked shinobi even more. "Valiant effort, but not good enough, boy."

His taunt worked, as Kegare quickly formed a few hand seals and a dozen crystals started to form into shurikens in the air, with a single wave of his hand, the masked shinobi shot the crystal shurikens towards the skeletal figure, while jumping back a bit himself.

"Again, not good enough Kegare," The skeletal figure mused, while he glided through the barrage of shurikens with seemingly no effort at all, evading each and every projectile shot at him until he suddenly halted right in front of the masked shinobi. "I did say, you can't beat me. I was wrong, you simply can't touch me kegare, not now, not ever."

Pressing one of the bonelike hands against kegare's chest, the mysterious figure let out a sinister sounding chuckle, while the old masked man could feel his clothes hardening, due to black crystal starting to form a layer on them. "Oh shit, what the hell are you?"

Jumping back, Kegare avoided any more crystal to form upon him and impede his movement any further, but he could feel that his body was reacting to it, as if he had been expending chakra himself. It was a frightening ordeal. "How do you know a Yamada clan jutsu, how can you use crystals so easily?"

Reikarou Kijin simply tilted his head to the side and started laughing, raising his hand a bit and showing how he formed a small black crystal hovering in the air above the palm of his hand. "Perhaps the answer to those questions is easier than you think, Kegare."

It was quite obvious, even if the name didn't immediately ring a bell, the fact that this person was able to create crystals should've actually been a dead giveaway of Reikarou Kijin's heritage and background. "You...You're a Yamada clanmember?"

"Exactly," The skeletal figure laughed and raised his hand towards Kegare. "And here I thought you'd be smart enough not to need so many hints. For shame, former heir to the Yamada clan, for shame that you couldn't recognize your clan's own powers."

wc: 567
twc: 1600

Kegare had trouble refraining himself from jumping right at the skeletal man's head again, but for now he had to at least try to calm himself down just a bit. He had to try and make that Reikarou Kijin talk more, explain more and possibly he'd reveal some hints that could help the masked shinobi with his goal of apprehending this strange man and end whatever the man had planned before things would spiral out of control.

"The Yamada clan deals with their own, so you should know I won't be trying to stop you," The masked man didn't lie completely, as he didn't view himself as part of the clan anymore, he wasn't bound by their rules and their dogmatic visions. "If you are what you claim to be, you should know about the clan rules just as much as I do, is it not?"

Reikarou Kijin simply chuckled, suddenly raising his arm and pointing towards the older member of the Yamada clan with his bonelike index finger.

"I do know the rules of the clan, but I also know your own self serving conviction, Yamada Kegare," What the skeletal man said there, did shock kegare a bit, as it seemed that his attempt to manipulate the man had seemingly failed miserably. It was almost as if the man could read his innermost thoughts and seemingly was capable of deducing all of Kegare's ideas and plans in an instant. "You don't consider yourself a member of the Yamada clan and you haven't for quite a long time, is it not?"

It was quite annoying to hear the man press through to easily, pointing out every glaring weakness and flaw in Kegare's plan in just a single moment. It was horrifying to face someone who knew exactly what he was planning. "How could you know all that?"

"Simple, I know you just as well as you know yourself. I know how you think, act and react before you even do. In short, you can't apprehend me, no matter how hard you try, I'll always be ahead of you, one step at every turn," The skeletal man suddenly started to fade away, like how a weak clone would and as such, Kegare jumped towards him, hoping it was just a ruse, but he couldn't grab Reikarou Kijin. "Nice try, but no... You won't be taking me in just yet, not until I reach my goal."

"What IS your goal?!" The masked shinobi was confused and terrified at the same time, knowing that he had failed again and things WOULD get worse.

"To destroy the shackles that are placed on society, to rebuild the world, to plunge it into a war the likes of which have never been seen," The skeletal man chuckled as he dissapated, leaving kegare with a single warning, a single statement that made shivers run up his spine. "I will bring about the end of this era and be the herald of a new age."

wc: 511
twc: 2111

training: