Puppet Verdandi had a foot firmly planted in her schest and as at least one of her lower ribs succame to the pressure, the kunoichi folded a bit inwards and was launched back and onto her ass like the children pushed aside by the panicking residents of the burned village fleeing their homes. The puppet not minding as the little bit of chakra holding it together loosened the tightness of its bonds. Puppet Vernandi's, eyes widened in panic becoming Yasubei's at the site of the headless ninja pressed on towards him. He'd no battle many times before, but never fear like this which shoke him enough to dispel his delicate transformation. The shape transformation, assisted by what Yasu assumed to be Yang chakra, began to dissolve into something more primal which lost no momentum seemed to have a much more devious purpose in mind. With the smallest of tugs, panicked but still controlled, Yasu unfurled the scroll in his hand once more, and Ogre still shrouded in his radiant aura appeared in front of him. Yasu reached out to his first ally with tattered puppet strings which had yet to finish repairing him. He willed him to stop the vile slush monster, but the Ogre sheathed in orange just began to fall to its knees as it had received no request do other wise as the slush monster enveloped the interposed target. and then in what seemed like an instant Ogre was encased in ice. The damage inside was apparent even before Ogre fell to the ground shattering as so many shards lost in the sand, and then for the first time Yasu felt a covetous grip grab something deep within him.
The battlefield seemed to almost visibly shake as dozens of ninja in the area shook in their boots.
'While not all ninja have a talent for sensing chakra dense, or powerful, or even specifically shaped chakra can have a tangible effect on the space it permeates through.' This was a lesson Yasubei learned, among many others, we he first awoke in this cold, indifferent place. Through intensive reading and exploration Yasu learned a few of the secrets of chakra, like it's ability to give life. The feeling of this chakra was lost on him. He never understood what someone meant when they said they could feel the chakra of another. Even as the magnificent burst of energy from a far off fight rattled the nearby ninja the tightness of his skin, the pointless subconscious swallowing of nonexistent saliva, and the unnecessary increased rate of breathing all went unnoticed by Yasubei as the great pressure of the beast was exposed to the world. The demon had once been sealed and trapped so deep in a glacier so massive and dense that in its release pure pressure released from its conceptual yet all to real, intangible yet seismic presence warped and bent the battlefield it almost seemed as if all at once ninja began to retreat. Maybe there business had resolved or maybe there was something lying much deeper beneath that inspired them to reform in the safety of their own camps and homes. Regardless the battle seemed to be clearing.
He was in a dark and cold world, alone and before him he saw a smooth, icy, fogged surface. He'd visited this place before. He remembered being here before he'd been anywhere else. The strange rectangle before him had never been here before yet almost compelled by something deep inside of him he moved closer to it. Inside of it he saw something moving ever so slightly, but he couldn't make it out. He placed a hand on the mirror to remove the condensation before he quickly snatched it back.
'Cold.' He thought as the concept appeared in his brain as if delivered from some far off place as he'd never known cold. Yet again he placed his had to the obscured surface his hand feeling the pressure of the cold mirror as he cleared it. Inside of it he saw himself, or at least some tainted version of himself. The slightly more aged figure on the other side had skin clinging all too tightly to a rib cage the struggled to take in air, a gaping circular hole that mirrored the one Yasu's puppet body had to hold his chakra core, and hundreds of glistening metal strings that hooked themselves firmly to the back of the older one's flesh.
"Oze, Yasubei," the voice would be the first one to ever speak that name to its young reflection. Grubby, knotted hair draped down to the floor before being parted by a face, as familiar as any other, that emerged from the long unmanaged locks.
"Did it hurt that much to be me?" The words echoed in his mindscape.
Yasubei intended to become a reflection of the Kiri-nin, who'd he'd seen as a selfish invader here for fame, fortune, glory, bloodlust, and money. As the shards of Ogre shattered around him and the sharp lash of Verdandi's words cut at flesh untouched by time and pain, Yasu scrambled backwards, shaken by the ice-nin, who had completely and utterly proven her superiority over him.
"Terrorizing you? I came here to help you! I don't know where you people went wrong in this conflict. But Kirigakure has ventured into Suna to get rid of its criminals and offer refugee to those that were already seeking shelter. I don't know about other villages. They aren't my responsibility. But don't you dare to offend me and call ME a terrorist. I haven't claimed a civilian life in my entire career." It was then that Yasu saw it that he'd finally felt it. While Yasubei had intended to become this woman's, this kunoichi's reflection, she in turn had become his. She stood there a ninja fighting for what she believed in, with comrades who'd done no different resting at her feet. Yasu showed Verdandi a mirror and she gazed into knowing who she was and what she stood for. She saw through the reflection and perceived nothing behind it except the same pontificated, puppet that Yasubei had tried to expose her as. Yasubei looked into this cold icy reflection and saw the glaciers that imposed themselves on Kirigakure, and the will that spared its home from the same trials Yasu's home was undergoing now.
For the first time now noticed he'd lost. It'd happened in a landscape more precious to him than any other. Yasubei made the mistake of losing in his own mind. Yasubei was a shinobi built to know no fear before any aggressor and no pain before an ninjutsu. His puppet well crafted bod was a tool forged to assist in the immortal struggles of the villages, but the Ryujin defeated him far before he'd ever stepped foot on this battlefield. he'd been guided into thinking that he'd be stopping oppressors to make way for a necessary evil, and he'd almost fallen, the Ryujin had almost won over his heart. Shame filled Yasu as Verdandi stared down at him. The were countless ninja around him that couldn't leave, and he saw them now for the first time as they were people fighting to protect there ideals, and murderers, and puppets that were walking down paths built for them by others. There was no black and white here at the battle that would come to be known as the Siege of Inabayama. He had no place on this graveyard enshrouded in wind. Yasubei's feet would find purchase in the sand. he'd leave now while he still understood the lesson that'd been etched into him. As the kunoichi left behind her own allies Yasubei looked down at the utterly destroyed Ogre resealing him within the scroll and then to Kisei before making his own departure from the battle himself. Besides everything else one phrase kept resounding in Yasubei's head.
"No. They weren't your responsibility. They were mine."[WC= 1354/8100]
- WC Breakdown:
-5000 S-Rank Event Mission Mission WC
-1000 Training Giant War Fan Sub-Spec
-2000 C-Rank Jutsu [The Tonjutsu & Manic Mantle]
EP/Ryo Payout = HERE
[Exit Thread]