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 Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2019 5:19 pm
The following takes place between Lahlil and Zahara in Ryuichi Cave a few months after the war.
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Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2019 11:51 am
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Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 11:28 pm
Dark, dreary and devoid of much light were the caverns, a twisting network of tunnels of stone smoothed with long skid marks were present made by the every present serpents of the cave. Another high profile intruder this year, men who were allied to the storms were present some months before and now the lady of desert origin and leader of leaves was among their midst. Unlike the previous intruders who bumbled into the caves, insignificant and aimless they were and driven out by misdirection, fear or both had been their usual song and dance.
Here a man resided in the caverns as one of their own, reclusive to the outside world since his involvement with the wars and the various happenings of the old villages. Wounded during the war effort, he had been taken back under Ginda's orders and made a slow recovery in the few months. It was him this new intruder sought, name and record on file in the newly established leaf from the remains of what was saved prior to Uzu and Old Leaf's ruin. A strange trick of fate was weaving its way back to cross paths again, they've met once before under ironic circumstance. Consumed by a frenzy of corrupted chakra, he had attacked her once before as he had others during that time, yet she was lucky and survived his assualt while some did not.
In the glimpse of peripheral vision, movement would be seen in the shadows. The sounds of scale against stone echoing unpleasantly as soothing as a oily toad and calming as a frigid hag. Pairs of yellow eyes settled, glowing as those they watched did not move while others slithered deeper within the cave network. A large cavern opened up from a mess of tunnels, empty and sandy it was with a large space overhead while the stone remained smooth even here.
The sage of the cave knew someone was here, they did little to hide their presence as the subtlety of a beluga whale moved through the tunnel. Zahara walked along one of the main tunnels as he listened to the ambience of the cave, to the other serpents as the little white snake coiled around his shoulders and flicked its tongue at his cheek, whispering to him. He didn't reveal himself into the larger space, keeping hidden as he let the snakes be his eyes for him as a voice projected out near where this unknown intruder was.
In a sudden spark of sound, the kage of the leaf would hear the distorted sounds of a disembodied voice crack into the air with a pop and snap. This made the movement of snakes nearby cease altogether, yellow eyes settling on her from three different nooks. "Purpose, you have. You know what this cave is, no fear is shown of the unknown." The voice was distorted as it spoke from behind the woman, the chakra faintly visible as it continued. "They have not struck since you're an interest to them, but why are you here stranger? Leave our kind in peace."
Zahara held a seal as he canceled the jutsu then, the fading voice cracking with a loud pop that would echo for a good few seconds and leave the cavern in silence yet again. Still he remained deeper in the tunnels, bent down on one knee and he relied the feedback from what the other snakes saw. Not once did he see the intruder directly or know just who fate had reeled into his den. All he wanted was to be left in peace.
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Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:19 pm
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Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:53 pm
Hokage, an interesting surprise. But his name being said was the real kicker to his psyche as he froze in place for a moment. So, no use to lie in this case. He thought to himself, getting up from his perch and soon ran up the wall with chakra and repositioned to a higher tunnel that crept along over the larger atrium the woman was in based on the sensory feedback of his unseen helper. With earth chakra, the woman would be able to sense the flux of it in the room as Zahara pressed his hand to the floor of the tunnel and moved through the stone and soon dropped from the ceiling several meters above.
He quite literally dropped into the same area as the cave's intruder, falling from above. He slowed his descent at the last moment with a sudden burst of fuuton, kicking up sand from the cave floor as he casually landed with a light step as his cloak billowed out behind him. In the darkness he stood uncertain and had a hood concealing part of his face, but under it he wore a blacken silk blindfold with red embroidery that concealed his eyes from sight. To her, the sash would standout against his chakra, dull and insignificant as it hid his eyes from entirely.
"I wasn't aware there was a new kage in the politics of the villages. Lost interest after the mess in whirlpool and the rogues inciting war." Zahara spoke slowly as he reached up to the hood and pulled it down, revealing his face more save for the blindfold he wore. Through it, he could not see this woman face to face and only relied on other senses, he tilted his head in a ponderous thought. "There is no one here by that name, you must be lost. They've died during the war defending Arashi's borders."
He spoke matter of fact, the last he was seen was during the war before he had been dealt a mortal blow to the chest. While partly a lie, he in fact had survived only due to Ginda's involvement. Few others had seen him since then, but he hoped that he remained off the grid for longer. He knew the lie wouldn't stave off a kage but he still felt inclined to try, while he regretted taking on a student in the past few months. Shinji, a man from Arashi himself.
Zahara paced the floor now as he waited for her reply, his hands at his sides, thumbs hooked into his belt while a small white snake coiled from the folds of his cloak. The small creature's eyes had a yellow glow to them, tongue flicking as it watched the woman and receded back to the nape of his neck. A whisper, and then it disappeared into his cloak again.
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Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 2:32 pm
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Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 11:48 am
Her reply was not of a favorable one he wished to hear, in the back of his mind it was to ward the visitor off. But now, the kage was persistent on details on who he was and how he 'died', an explanation for his lie rolling through. "Pineapple, is the name I often go by these days." He said without so much as a thought, the first thing that came to his mind regarding his earlier encounter with Shinji of Arashi. Pineapple was a gag name he used to amuse himself and to trick the other intruder months ago that was his name, which had been a subject of his illusions of its being the scent of the fruit. It evolved to an identity for intruders, and even the guise of his closest friend and weapon. A name.
Zahara/Pineapple turned away from the woman as he feigned interest in her questions and offer, walking away into the darkness of the cavern as he spoke. "I do not care for celebracey or drink, if rest you must have do it elsewhere or else my kin will attack you come nightfall." He spat with venom in his voice but kept his tone neutral and fair, not raising his voice but speaking matter of factly. "I was present in their demise, they fell to the horde of numbers and countless others fell witness to the sage's efforts." While not a direct lie, he had fell in the fighting from a direct blow to the chest from a spear, but he was very much alive due to the medicines and iryojutsu of a snake.
He donned his hood again and heaved a heavy sigh, the white serpent coiled out from around his shoulders again but now focused its gaze on the woman with its glowing amber eyes and it flicked its tongue out. "Thisssss isss Zaharaaaa." The snake said and Zahara froze in his pace, unmoving as the coiled serpent retreated back into his clothes. You... Little...
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Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 2:03 pm
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Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2019 9:17 am
In long silence he stood in the cave, facing away from this woman as she went on over details of an offer. To be brought back into the fold and serve a cause he since abandoned, the fire within him stoked to rile the nerves. Silent, he only listened as the white snake moved down from his sleeve and onto the ground, moving deeper into the darkness. Still unmoving, he listened and didn't reply. Each word she spoke drive a nail into him as it revealed information he once desired, jaw tightening as he bit down hard and muscles tensing under the robes. Lost in a mental sea of internal conflicting emotion, a fog clouded his thought process as he shook his head.
"I decline." Turning around, Zahara eased his tension and held a scroll in his offhand he pulled from his belt. With a couple steps, his right hand weaved a single seal and primed his chakra. "I have no idea of who you are, I am not about ready to agree to some conditions a stranger sets. I am done being subservient to someone else's plans. I've lost too much, I suggest you leave Hokage." the scroll in his offhand unraveled as a summoning jutsu brought a giant bandaged blade into his hand as he rested it upon his shoulder as it chittered in the darkness. The samehada.
He held a stern gaze as he took another step forward, the grip on his blade whitening his knuckles from his tensed muscle. "Just who are you?" a snarl came as the chittering blade rippled under the bandages.
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Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2019 4:22 pm
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Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2019 5:31 pm
'Gikekekekekee~' The blade chirped to itself the longer Zahara held it within his grasp, listening to the woman further. Tension in the body eased slightly, the sword sensing its wielder's hesitation as tendrils of the blade's hilt crept onto his skin, slithering across his knuckles. Confused he was yet... his emotion swept with a familiar tide. His mind was in a haze and he shook it slightly, blinking in the darkness as his sword chirped in his dazed stupor. Letting go of the sword, the blade touched the cavern floor and the scroll rolled up on its own with the weapon sealed back within. Tucking the scroll back with his gear, Zahara held one hand to his forehead and shook the light-headedness away and blinked several more times, bringing the room back into focus.
It was her. He slumped to his knees with a loud thud and held his head still with the blurred vision and ringing ears. A conflict roiled through him to strike as he could still vividly recall the moon so clearly. Grunting and groaning to the pain of his mind, he shook his head again to clear his mind yet memories assailed him emotionally. The samehada's influence over his hesitation of not taking the moment to strike the woman wore on him, its powerful instinct to feast combined with the memory of the feeling he felt during the blood moon.
"This pain..." He breathed out in staggered breaths, rising back to his feet one leg at a time in great effort to keep himself upright. "But you died, or..." Zahara took his hand away from his head and breathed in. "Or so I thought." He said not to her or anyone in particular and turned away and began to pace, shaking his head to fight the temptations deep in him.
"I still remember the feel, the taste. The hunt." Zahara said to himself as he turned to face the kage, guilt surfaced in him and he struggled to maintain composure to the woman. "Another phantom of the past? Or are you real? Is this just another jest?" He continued, again speaking to no one in particular before he yelled aloud and threw a straight punch behind him, the scream echoing down the tunnels as an explosion erupted. A large ball of flame dwarfing the both of them lit up the caverns as the thundering boom sent shockwaves through the ground, the eruption of chakra taking out a small portion of the stalactites that hung above and reduced the stone it touched to literal dust.
He breathed a little lighter as the smoke cleared a second after the punch and he straightened his jacket, facing the woman. Calm, yet shaken and off-kilter but calm nonetheless. Fires lit hanging pots above the two of them, the hissing of snakes deeper in the cave system echoed faintly as they were disturbed by the sudden explosion from the sage. Zahara took a few steps and weaved a hand seal, earth chakra coursing through the floor as he terraformed a spot between him and her to form crude seats and a simple round table about four feet in diameter.
With a gesture to the rock set up, he simply said. "You were saying favors? Then let's talk first." If she would to take the invitation to his set up, he would sit opposite of her and ask her one question. The proof of her scars. "If you're who you say you are, show the scars you speak of. Then we can talk. Too many phantoms in my days, forgive me."
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Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 10:45 pm
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Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 8:34 pm
A sigh escaped him as he thought on it, sight of the scars proved more than one thing to him. The night was real, but she lived. What else has been muddled? Zahara thought on it and waved off the lingering feeling, she was an odd one to him -- showing strange mannerisms but had one clear intent, enticing him to return to the fold still. "You mentioned needing someone," he began, shifting himself with arms folded. "I don't recall anything being asked of me other than mentioning getting revenge for..." more of an observation, Zahara stopped and waved his hand to gesture toward her. "Yourself? Or the village. Whichever the case, you're best off appealing to the mistress of these caverns, not me."
The little white snake peeked out from over the man's shoulder, having returned in the midst of the commotion and its beady eyes stared at the kage. "And you have their attention." Zahara jabbed a thumb to the snake over his shoulder, making its presence known. The prospect of vying for someone else's sense of revenge did not appeal to him, yet he was intrigued by the persistence. "To put it into layman's terms, you want the perpetrator behind the attack on the Uzushiogakure village to be brought to Justice. Knowing, Ginda," Zahara looked over his shoulder at the white mamba, its tongue flicked out as he sneered and then returned his gaze back to her "would want her dead, to say the least."
Zahara steepled his hands under his chin and heaved a sigh. "I don't know what you'd want, but it's best to let be known the potential terms on that." Falling silent, the white snake coiled around his shoulders as its amber eyes matched the sage's and he nodded slowly to consider the offer of price she given him.
To think you live, and lead the new leaf...
What did he want? A perplexing question that he himself didn't know, for so long he had been driven by others whims and senseless rage. "Before the village was destroyed, I was set on a task by the religious cult that operated behind the scenes. Too much has happened during that and those I get close to have died." Zahara spoke up suddenly, snapping out of his thoughts with his realization. "Long story short, I am in no hurry to return to be the pawn of someone else, so I have terms if you're being so generous."
Bringing his hand up, Zahara counted off with his fingers as he told his conditions. "Officially declare me, or rather my name, deceased. That title you mentioned, Sannin? Explain it and what that entails. And finally," His hand brought up the third finger and paused as he dropped it with a long stare at her, noting her composure. "The bodies of the dead in the old village, proper return of what bodies that remain. Those of the operatives from Arashi... those who brought with them blades of the seven." He pulled out his white scroll and referred to the chittering beast from earlier "Like what I wield within this scroll. They attacked Uzushiogakure not long before those under this 'Kagami' you speak of if case you're not aware of who you're getting into bed with, but I want their kage to know the fate of their operatives if they do not already know. "
Now he folded his arms again and gave a slow nod. "I will not be your killer, nor will I work for any village hierarchy, but I am willing to assist in your revenge if you help me with something personal." Now the snake was lively once more upon his shoulder, staring at her with its tongue flicking out. Light in the caves was dim as chakra worked through the stone, an illusion was lifted during their talk and been since broken ever since Zahara lost his 's**t' and dropped to his knees. If she were perceptive enough, she would notice that the cave she entered was not like it been before but now adorned with subtle changes to the stone and vines decorating the chamber they were in. The white mamba still continued to stare at her, its eyes bright with its amber hue.
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Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2019 10:05 pm
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Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 11:24 am
More questions came to him more than the answers he wanted to hear, where she learn of his presence and how she even became the leader of the new village? She was like a riddle, a common theme strewn with phrasing to direct and confuse. He noticed she had been disturbed as he blinked at that moment as the mamba on the shoulder stared still. "Shiro," Zahara said, looking at the white snake for a moment before returning his gaze back at her "Has been altering your perception of the caves the entire time he's been looking at you." he explained the genjutsu and gestured to the room himself. Small changes, but now everything was alight with the flickering illumination of flames above them.
He sat on a stool formed of stone, formed perfectly out from the manipulation of earthen chakra as he examined the scroll the kage woman tossed him. "This is ... Everything? ... All of it?" Skeptical he was that the woman would have the village's records all contained in a single scroll. He looked back at it and set it on the floor and held the bridge of his nose in thought. "To become a ghost doesn't help me, the world needs to believe I have died. This rolls into the one other request I need to ask of you still." Dropping his hand to his lap, he continued to stare at the scroll and sighed as he considered the contractual obligation to form pact, or covenant as she called it.
Shiro, the white mamba, was gone from his shoulder when he was describing the specifics of being announced deceased. Instead now, the snake was coiled not far off from the woman whom it still considered an intruder of the home. A hiss escaped the mamba, its amber eyes staring unblinking to her but it did not recite its illusions this time. Instead another serpent with a body dwarfing both her and Zahara slithered out from one of the tunnels with jet black scales and coiled several meters off from the meeting with amber eyes of its own.
"Kuro and Shiro are hesitant with the offer." Zahara would explain as he watched the large black snake observe them. "They're the twin sons of the matriarch, they don't talk much.' He stood up from the stone stool and gave a slow nod to them and they hissed in unison and retreated back into the tunnels to leave the two of them alone. Gathering up the scroll she tossed him, he walked toward the kage and held it out to her. "Appreciate the offer, but I guess I can't let go of the past. I just need to be known as deceased, the snakes of this cave will not join your offer either. To them, you are an intruder in their home with no benefit fitting them."
Should she take the scroll or not, Zahara would pace the spacious cavern either way in a deep thought. He had his hood down entirely, black hair unkempt and a mess. Surreal the meeting was as it went on, she still seemed much the phantom. "Might we take a break discussing all this? I've a lot to process." He said suddenly, stopping his pace and held his hands behind his waist, right hand holding the wrist of the left. He looked back at her with one eye and blinked. "It's not everyday someone you've thought dead by your own hand lives and breaths, especially when the phantoms of the past haunt your dreams like mine do"
He looked away so she couldn't see his face, tears came unexpectedly as he looked down, letting hair in front of his eyes as well. "You never said your name, you know mine. What is it?"
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