by 
The figure grumbled as it squinted through the particles flying through the air. Ankle-length white robes gave the form a ghostly appearance, making it appear as though it floated over the landscape. The white veil the figure wore over its head furthered this effect. The figure lifted the veil, attempting to get a better view of its surroundings. Regretting the move immediately, it replaced the cloth over its face. It continued forward, toward the stand of rocks before it.
Finally reaching the stone wall, the white creature touched the wall with a pale hand. It felt over the surface, as though searching for something. It must have done something, because part of the stone fell away. Rather, it shifted to the side, revealing a small opening. The figure entered the gap and vanished in its darkness. The stone replaced itself a moment later, hiding all evidence of the figure’s entrance.
* * * *
Countless ghostlike figures roamed around the entrance to the large cavern in the side of the ring of cliffs. Small groups huddled together to the sides discussing important matters. Other groups rushed into the gaping hole, veils over their heads hiding their identities. Still other groups stepped out of the darkness, their veils removed to reveal pink, grinning faces. Urgency and efficiency could be felt on the winds surrounding this area. Utter silence fell upon the already quiet groups in the vicinity. The silence was not an uneasy silence, but one of respect. One small group, numbering no more than five people, quickly made their way out of the cave. The untrained eye would not have noticed the group much less identified the difference between this group and the rest. However, these people were far from untrained. Every eye was on this group, watching the figure in the center: the figure wearing black shoes amidst the white and tan of everyone else. The strange group of spectral figures hurried away from the cave; the rest of the figures returned to their business.
Some distance from the cavern, the strange group of five stopped. The center figure, the one with black shoes, waved its hand. The surrounding four nodded and raced away with such speed that they appeared to have simply vanished on the spot. The final figure removed its veil, revealing the head of a young woman. Her face was slightly pink from the heat, her short brown hair wet from sweat. She pulled a pair of glasses out of her sleeve and put them on, blinking her blue eyes rapidly as her vision came back into focus. She attempted to straighten her glasses, which were forever bent out of shape, but failed in her endeavor and gave up with a shrug. A split second later, she had the white robes she had been wearing previously draped over her arm. Beneath she had been wearing a loose black tunic, secured around her waist with several deep red belts holding various leather bags and pouches. Her khaki pants were cinched at the ankle, showing the slipper-like black shoes that had attracted such attention earlier. She shifted the two katana on her back before moving again.
She walked slowly toward the Village that rested in the heart of the ring of cliffs, making a mental check of what remained in her pouches. She had not used much, but she would still need to restock before she headed out again; knowing the person above her, she would be heading out again before long. She shook her head and strolled into the Village.
The buildings were all made of stone, earth, and clay, perfect in the dry climate in which the Village was located. The limited amount of rain each year provided the buildings protection from falling apart, meanwhile the high walls that surrounded the Village kept the stark wind from reaching them. In the land they lived in, the wind was harsh and stopped by nothing but these stone cliffs.
The city itself was shaped like a wheel, filling most of the valley in which it rested. The center of the city housed the leadership of the Village. Surrounding the political center was the market district. Further out was the housing of the Village. On the outside rim of the Village lay some of the city’s final visible defenses: the military barracks. The south held the main entrance to the Village; the west provided shelter for the secret entrance the young woman had just used to arrive. Main roads spread out like spokes from the center hub. Following any one of the nine roads, one could reach any of the sections of the city.
The young woman chose the nearest of these roads to take her to her destination. The guards visible on duty nodded as she passed them. Before long, small children could be seen playing in the road and women were seen carry baskets of food and laundry to their homes. Men, covered in sweat and dust from a hard day’s work, soon joined the group as she reached the business district. Smiles surrounded her as she continued, for the Village was at peace.
Before long, the crowds thinned, signaling her arrival at the center of the wheel. Towering above her was a multi-story building with the Village’s symbol embedded on it: a sort of hourglass shape with a horizontal line over it. After brief contemplation about taking the stairs, she sighed and leapt into the air. She landed on the roof of a nearby building. She cast a furtive glance around, still trying to decide what order to do her errands in. She spotted the window of the small apartment she rented when she was actually in the Village, but, sighing again, decided to visit her superior first. She leapt once more into the air, landing this time on a ledge below a window of the tall building. She opened it and let herself in, only to be greeted by the shout of a young man around her own age.
“Where have you been, Yoyo? You’ve been in the Village for seventeen minutes and you’re just now arriving here?” The man paced before her, running a hand through his dark brown hair. He wore dark gray-blue shorts and tennis shoes. His brown T-shirt with its large yellow Q was wet; he had spilled a glass of water just a moment before to judge by the water that still dripped from the desk to the floor.
“Long day, Kazekage-sama?” Yoyo asked, grinning and sitting on the window ledge. She removed her glasses to clean them. “You should probably find something to clean that water up with, as well, sir.”
“You’re bossy, miss. You need to be nicer to your boss,” he retorted, a look of disdain crossing his face. “Any matter, do you have the information you were sent to gather?”
Yoyo rolled her eyes and reached for one of her many pouches. “Yes, sir. I wouldn’t have returned withou–Sir!” Yoyo’s glasses fell forgotten to the floor as she clapped her hand over her eyes, the hand in her pouch, momentarily forgotten. “I was referring to finding a towel, not your shirt.”
The now-shirtless man before her grinned as he mopped up the water with his shirt. “It’s not like I could wear it while it was wet. Oh, come on, you know you like it.” A stone that had somehow made its may into Yoyo’s pouch connected with his head. “Fine, I get it! Give me a moment,” he said, still grinning though his head was already beginning to throb.
After clothing himself to Yoyo’s approval with a shirt from his desk drawer, Yoyo picked her glasses up off the floor and pulled a small notebook out of her pouch. “It took some work, but I was able to get a definite confirmation that Mountain is doing something.” She stopped, absently cleaning her glasses and watching the Kazekage as he inspected the notepad. He stared purposefully at it, intent thought and study evident on his face. “Sir, are you positive this is what you want to do? You could easily start a war between Sand and Mountain if you snoop too much into something they don’t want your nose in.”
The Kazekage looked up from the paper, a smirk forming quickly on his lips. “Is the great Yoyo, leader of Sand’s clan, telling me that she is afraid to go on this adventure? I am surprised.” He laughed as her face flushed. “If I had known you would be so frightened by this, I would have never selected you to be my second in command.”
Yoyo silently replaced her glasses, fully aware of the ridiculous grin on the man’s face. “I was essentially born into the position, Q, sir.” The final word practically dripped with sarcasm, but it only caused the man to smile more. “I was more concerned with how the people of Sand and the other Villages would respond when they heard that the great Kazekage Quater had gone and gotten himself killed on his own mission and caused a war at the same time.”
Though it seemed impossible, Quater smiled even bigger than before. “It would be a story for the history books,” he said, handing the notebook back Yoyo. “Your concern means the world to me, but we’re leaving in the morning. Make sure you get some sleep tonight. Spend the rest of the afternoon preparing for the journey.” He gave her a quick pat on the shoulder and sat back down at his desk, clearly dismissing her.
Yoyo glared at his back, trying to bore holes into him, but gave up after a moment. “Yes, sir. Good evening, sir,” she said before dropping out the window once more. She landed gracefully on the dusty ground below and made her way to her apartment. She did not have to bother a glance at the sky to know that the sun would set in a short time; she had precious few hours left in her Village before she left again.
“What can you do?” She shrugged and went to prepare for her next journey.
* * * *
Kazekage Quater sat at his desk in deep thought as the sun set behind him. Bright orange and pale red mingled in the air, casting strange shadows on the wall before him. He understood Yoyo’s concern for his safety; he was concerned himself for the safety of his Village and what it would mean if he failed in his mission. He would have to trust Yoyo and the others he would be taking with him. Q felt under his desk for the latch that would open the secret drawer. Finding it, he pulled it and, hearing a faint clicking sound, reached with his other hand to the side of his desk. He pulled a weathered piece of paper out of the compartment. He unfolded it gingerly and placed it on his desk, inspecting it for what seemed the billionth time.
It was a ragged sheet of paper, having been blown into the Village by the harsh desert winds. The handwriting was familiar to him, belonging to one of his good friends. It had blown in his open window two days before, followed by several scraps of paper and leaves shortly thereafter. Q could only assume that the strong seasonal winds had snatched this particular sheet of paper from the hands of his friend in the north. He knew that it was not something that had just been thrown away. He read the page again, though he knew its contents by heart by now.
Mountain
Sand unknown
Shadow missing
Mist found
Glacier no response
Storm misplaced...
Inferno unknown
The list had been edited many times, the word “unknown” being replaced in most cases. There was a group of very rough sketches in the corner; a cat, a cup, a key, a flame, and a flower. “Mountain” had been circled once. The list made no sense to most people. Most would see a list of the Villages followed by a random assortment of words. Q would have thought nothing of it and simply returned the list to its owner the next time he saw him assuming he did not lose it in the meantime, but for the group of sketches in the corner.
Rumors and myths floated through time and space, traveling from one Village and generation to another. There were rumors that there were fire-breathing dragons in the mountains, love affairs between various kages, and that some villages had discovered a way to ward off jutsus. Myths about long-forgotten weapons of great power and about the creation of the Villages themselves were fun stories for some, while others believed them whole-heartedly. Among all the myths and stories in the world, most understood that there was merely a hint of truth amidst exaggeration and misinterpretation. However, there were some myths that only a few knew to be true.
“’Sand unknown’,” he murmured, running his finger over the sketched key. He glared at the page in thought a moment before standing angrily and slamming his hands down on his desk and shouting, “What does he think he’s doing?”
* * * *
The room was not empty, but the only sound was that of a pen scratching along on a piece of paper. The occupants of the room were trained to remain silent to avoid detection and they were skilled in their training. The one writing was a young man sitting at a desk. He was bent low over his paper, his black hair falling over his face, hiding it from view. He stopped writing a moment to adjust a strap under his shirt, a brown sleeveless shirt with a loose collar that doubled as a hood, then sighed and glanced up at his companion in the room.She was a younger girl with bright green eyes, long brown hair, and a near-constant smile. She wore a floaty brown dress that came to her knees. Brown boots that were sturdier than they appeared met her dress at her knees. She sat in a chair polishing a dagger that she normally kept sheathed in the belt around her waist. She looked up when she felt the man looking at her. “Something I can help you with, Yamakage?” she asked with disarming sweetness.
The Yamakage looked at her a moment longer then returned his eyes to his paper. “I was just thinking, Tos. That’s all,” he muttered.
Toshii replaced her dagger as she walked over to stand behind the Yamakage. “Thinking, Bano? What about?” She looked at the pages before the man and smiled knowingly as he quickly hid the page. He was writing a letter of no great importance, but there were so many words scratched out that it had quickly become a draft rather than the actual letter he would send.
“Are you ready for our mission,” asked Banouin, pushing her back with his pen.
Toshii yawned before responding with a bored, “Of course I am.”
Bano nodded and returned to his letter, but he was disrupted before he could focus on it. A knock on the door sounded just before another young man entered the room. He wore a sleeveless white shirt and dark green pants, pouches hanging from his shoulders holding most of his equipment. He looked annoyed and Bano knew that the feeling would soon be shared with he and Toshii. “Hurry up, Darkflame. Spit it out.”
“Sir, we have just received word that you will have company soon,” he said quickly. He then paused, uncertain of how he wanted to explain the rest. He finally gave up and set an object on his Kage’s desk and backed away.
Bano stared at the object a moment in confusion then looked at Darkflame in annoyance. “That’s a sock,” he said simply.
“Yes, sir. A scorpion arrived carrying that on its tail,” Darkflame explained. He backed out of the room as Bano’s eyes narrowed to slits. “I’ll prepare the meeting room,” he said as he left the room and closed the door.
The short silence was broken by Toshii’s laughter. “He really has no tact, does he?” Bano asked her as he poked the sock with his pen. He heard the sound of paper crinkling as he did so. “I sure hope it’s clean,” he muttered as he reached into the sock to retrieve the note.
Hey Bano! We’ll be there in a little while. Make sure there’s plenty of Cherry Cokes when I get there! See ya soon!
Bano shook his head as he stood and stretched. His friend Q was on the eccentric end of the sanity scale, but he knew his goal was simply to have a good time and make people laugh. Bano probably would have laughed now if he were not so stressed out by the current circumstances in his Village. He had just received word that an ancient artifact hidden in and protected by his Village was being hunted for by strange groups of warriors. He had been sending some of his own warriors to other villages to check on the states of their artifacts and the news he had received were less than heartening.
And now he had Q coming for an unexpected visit. He rolled his eyes and exited his office, motioning to Toshii to stay or go as she would, though she was not to follow him. He walked down the hallway to the small staircase that led to what was called the meeting room. Visitors were led to this room when they wished to speak with the Yamakage, but to those in the Village, it was known as the Dragon Cave.
At the bottom of the stairs, Bano reached a metal door embedded in the rock. He pushed it open, closing it again carefully but quickly. He looked around the room and breathed in deeply, taking in the smell of the underground. He was in a cave now, high roofed with a hole in the center to let in sunlight and lit by torches set in the wall. The cave itself was dull and nothing much to look at, but it held a fantastic view to those who looked up.
Colors, brilliant and varied, flew through the air, circling and diving in play. Every color from red to green, black to white filled the air. Bano held out his hand, a smile playing on his lips, and waited a moment. Before long, one of the lights, a dark green one, rushed down and landed on his outstretched hand.
“Hello, young one,” he said. “Feeling better, are we?” In his hand, Bano now held what looked to be at first glance a lizard. Another look revealed nearly translucent wings on its back. Those wings and its shining scales reflected the light of the torches, making the creature appear to glow. Bano smiled at the creature and stroked its neck.
“Have I ever told you about dragons, Q?” he asked without turning to face the new arrival in the room. “They have incredible endurance for their small size and each has their own personality. Each also has their own special power, decided by what family it is born into. This green one, for example, is Ao. This dragon is capable of healing wounds of any kind given enough time and energy. However, while he loves humans, he heals wounds delivered to plants best, fixing even the most torn tree in no time at all. Some of the other green dragons are better at healing humans while still others are better at healing animals.
“And those are simply the green dragons,” he concluded, turning to face the man who leaned against the wall just inside the entry, watching the dragons flit through the air. “There are many other types of dragons, each with their own personality, each with their own skill.”
“And you, the Mountain warriors, have learned how to become their friends so they will aid you when you ask them to. You’ve told me about your little pets before,” Q concluded.
Bano stared hard at his friend. Q normally waited patiently for him to talk about the dragons his people were so proud of and would not insult them by calling them “little pets.” Upon further inspection, Bano noticed, that his friend’s normally cheerful attitude was being tinted by something darker. Q’s fingers were clenching and unclenching, a sign of nervousness in others. With Q, Bano knew, it meant he was prepared for a fight, and that worried him.
“What’s on your mind, Q?” asked Bano, lifting his hand into the air to signal to Ao that he should take flight. “You came without much of a warning and then you insult the dragons in their presence?”
Q shrugged and continued to watch the dragons above Bano’s head. “Not much on my mind. I just wanted to visit one of my buddies. It’s been a while since we had a chance to just talk.”
Bano nodded, though he knew there was more to this visit. Even when Q had serious things to discuss with him, they spent time catching up and chatting before they moved on to business. “Out with it, Q. What’s going on?” he demanded, not liking the direction this visit was going already.
Q finally looked at Bano, his black eyes revealing nothing of what he was thinking. “I had a nice trip, thanks for asking. Yoyo talked the whole way, though that’s nothing unusual. Yes, Yoyo’s here somewhere. So is SSS,” Q said, waving a hand in the air dismissively seeing Bano’s eyebrow raise. “They had to take care of that scorpion we sent ahead of us and run some errands. I’m kind of jealous of them at the moment; the weather here is actually pretty nice for being in the mountains.”
Bano stared at his friend curiously. “Yes,” he said uncertainly. “We’ve had some nice weather lately.”
“Mhm. Though, I did notice something strange on the way here. Well, maybe it’s not strange for you guys, but I thought it was. There was a rather large group of your warriors by a hole in the ground. Nothing was there, just this hole in the ground. It wasn’t even that big and when I asked what was going on, they just said nothing and stared at us until we left. Know anything about it?” Q shrugged as though it meant nothing to him. He pulled a small chain out of his pocket, one that someone would wear around their neck, and spun it around absent-mindedly in his left hand. On the end of the chain was a small key.
The Yamakage glared at the man before him. That question was no shoot-the-breeze kind of question. He suspected something was going on in the Mountain Village. Worse, he had an idea of what was going on. “I have no idea what they were doing. Probably just getting together for training or something,” he responded calmly, allowing calm to show in his voice, though his mind was racing.
Q’s eyes narrowed dangerously, then. He caught stopped swinging the chain suddenly, catching the key in his left hand and tossing it in the air toward his friend. “No idea, huh?” He straightened and reached with his right hand for the large sword on his back. He drew it out with skill, making hardly a noise as it left its sheath, though the air cracked as he whipped it forward and pointed it at Bano. It was long, nearly as long as Q was tall. The silver blade was nearly a foot wide at its base and tapered slowly to a sharp point. Q then dropped into an offensive stance. “I expected better of you. I thought you’d tell me if something important was happening.”
Bano instinctively reached for the double-ended spear he carried strapped to his back. He had not expected this meeting to turn violent and he only hoped that he could stop the fight before it had started. He was not worried so much about a fight with his fellow Kage, for they had fought many times over the years. He was more concerned what would happen if they were to fight where they were. The dragons that flew overhead as well as the ones that had been sleeping in the crevices in the walls had noticed the beginning of this fight and were circling in preparation to fight.
“Q, let’s just talk about this. There’s no need to fight. Especially not here,” Bano said, holding his weapon before him defensively.
Q cast a quick glance at the dragons and simply smirked. “I can handle a few lizards,” he said. He swung his sword, a slow, side-sweeping arch that Bano easily avoided by stepping back a few paces. Q changed the direction of his attack quickly, stepping forward to cover the ground Bano had put between them. Bano successfully blocked this attack with the shaft of his spear, though he slid nearly a foot across the ground from the power behind the attack.
Q was only just begun, however. He recovered quickly and stuck again, using an over-head strike this time. Bano deflected it using the head of the spear, but was unprepared for the next blow: an elbow to the face that easily caused his nose to start bleeding. He stumbled backward, barely keeping himself from falling flat on his back. Catching his balance, he quickly leapt to the side, landing in a sideways roll that brought him back to his feet, narrowly avoiding being stabbed by the Kazekage’s sword.
Bano began backing away slowly, making sure to keep out of the sword’s reach. The dragons circled angrily above. One, a green one named Sosai, landed on Bano’s shoulder. She licked Bano’s cheek and then turned and waved her tail in front of his face to heal any damage dealt by Q’s blow. Bano nodded his thanks as he continued circling, dancing just out of Q’s reach whenever he made a movement to get closer.
Bano winced as he heard a screech above him. Akai, one of the red dragons, dove down towards Q, throwing a smallish ball of red fire at Q’s face. He avoided it by stepping to the side. The next blow Q received knocked him flat on the ground, his sword clattering noisily beside him.
“What do you think you’re doing, idiot?” Yoyo grumbled as she stared hard at her floored Kage. “I told you not to do anything stupid. This was stupid. Fighting Bano in the Dragon Cave? Really? Get a grip on reality, boy. There’s no beating him here and you know that.”
Q blinked rapidly as he regained his bearings after a swift blow to the head from Yoyo, then grinned. “I said Yoyo was around here somewhere!” he stated as he hoisted himself to his feet and stood beside her. He swayed slightly before regaining his balance.
Yoyo shook her head and beckoned for Sosai to come and fix the broken Kage. She then turned to Bano and smiled in apology. “Sorry, he’s been itching for a fight lately, especially when we got near here. Shall we start this meeting over?”
Bano nodded, his hand still on his spear to be ready for anything. He watched silently as Yoyo shoved Q from the room, expertly opening and closing the door to keep the dragons from flying into the building and frightening those who were not familiar with them. Bano nodded again, absent-mindedly petting Sosai who had once again perched on his shoulder.
“If this isn’t explained correctly,” he said to no one in particular. “We could start a world-wide war.”
Last edited by Yoyo on Thu Jul 15 2010, 20:31; edited 2 times in total
Toshiro~ ^_^ x3
