by 
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Three:
A single rain drop hit the tip of Q's nose causing him to stop and wipe it away with his middle finger. It did little good as a downpour followed it only seconds later. He closed his eyes and tilted his head up a bit so the rain washed over his face. It was one of the most refreshing things in the world. The rain was freezing cold and actually stung the skin a bit, but it was better then the humidity of the forest. Within no time at all he was soaked, he could have and most likely would have stayed like that until the rain passed if not for Yoyo. She shook his shoulder and yelled in his ear trying not to be drowned out by the sound of the rain hitting the ground.
“We need to find shelter!”
Q silently agreed with a nod. Even he knew they would make little to no progress in this weather. He knelt down and placed his hand on the ground and with almost no effort three walls pulled themselves up from the earth. They came together to shape a tent like structure. A small opening was left for them so that they could enter.
“After you-” He started to say but Yoyo had already rushed inside.
Q slowly followed her in. She already had her boots off and was working hard on her socks, they were so wet they stuck to her skin. He saw Yoyo's eyes glance up into his own, she tugged at her shirt but did not remove it before sitting down cross legged. Her back to the wall she watched as a hook came out of the wall next to Q. He took off his shirt and hung it up, the low glow of his green AMP tattoo still lingering. He leaned on the stone wall next to the opening, his eyes fixed outside. They both knew the moment the rain gave any sign of letting up they would be on their way.
- - -
The rain had started only ten or fifteen minutes ago but its cold sting was already to much for Venomu. In his haste to flee, Venomu had ran as far as he could in any direction he could. This had led him away from the Shadow country and into the heart of Mountain country. The voices came and went as they pleased now but it was always the same. They came to mock him and when they grew bored with it, they would disappear for a short time.
He stumbled from tree to tree, he was exhausted and was unsure how long he could keep it up. The thought of giving up crossed his mind and the second it did, he found himself unable to go on. A tall tree supported him, it was only thing holding him up at this point.
“Is this all you have?” Came a new female voice that he had never heard before. His hands gripped the tree so hard they went white. He wanted to say yes, he wanted to be left alone, he wanted to sink into the dirt and let his attackers come for him. Let them end his life, if it meant that he could find peace, he would welcome it.
“There are far worse things then death, Venomu, and trust me, if they get a hold of you, you will come to experience them all.” Came the voice again as if reading his thoughts. Venomu did not care for what the voice had to say. He sank to his knees. He was done.
“Venomu!” Raged the voice. “Get to your feet now! Move!”
“Why?” He replied in a low uncaring voice.
“Despite what you may think, we do not wish for your death.”
Venomu busted out laughing, it was a tired laugh. “Of course not! You wish to drive me mad and take control over my body!”
“That was not us. We do not have such a power, all we did was play our part. Like the water ever beating upon the rocks, we wore down your mind and he took over. The one you talk of calls himself Iago, although not his true name.”
“And you side with him.” Venomu said coldly.
“Purely an alliance of need. If another were to step up that could offer was what we wanted...” The voice trailed off for a few moments letting Venomu think over her words. The rain did not help him keep his focus.
“And you think I could offer this? Whatever it is.”
“Yes, but you must survive! I can guide you to a save place. There we can talk, look up.”
As he did he saw a young beautiful girl stepped out from behind a tree not more then ten steps in front of him. Her hair was a burning red, her green eyes locked into his own. The rain seemed to ignore the girl. She motioned for him to follow with her head and the voice echoed in his mind.
“This way, I wont let them find you.”
Venomu pushed himself up to his feet and took a step forward.
- - -
Half an hour - an hour - an hour and half.
There was really no telling time out here as it was just endless rain. This however did not stop Q from trying. He shook his head and sighed. Feeling that they had wasted to much time stuck in one place and being powerless to do anything about it now plagued his mind. He was one of the worlds strongest, being totally powerless against anything was new to him. A ruffle of nose behind him caught his attention. He turned to see Yoyo tossing and turning in her sleep. He made his way over to her and squatted down. Yoyo's eyes moved in a deep a REM sleep, her face was covered in sweat and her body trembled.
“Mother...” She muttered in her sleep.
“A nightmare of days long past.” Came the female voice of the Hikage behind Q. He looked over his shoulder to see her standing in the small door way. Dei bent over and began to ring out her hair as best she could. The water ran out of her hair to the ground as Q pushed himself back up from his squat. “What brings you to this neck of the world?” He asked after she finished.
“I wanted a change of scenery.” She snickered.
“I don't enjoy your jokes.” Q said focused on her grayed out eyes.
“Yes yes, the blind girl can't make jokes about seeing. You've told me before, but I tend to forget.” She shrugged after a long moment of silence. “I'm here with Death, we are hunting after an escaped convict. She has gone on ahead, she fears losing his trail.”
Q nodded even though his mind had blanked out on what Dei was saying when she heard Death's name. His mind worked on other things now.
Things such as how lucky he truly was. He had lost a day or more due to unforeseen troubles, but now, two Kages were here. This would save him a month or more of travailing around the world to the other countries. “Say Dei, did you get my note I sent?” Q commented thinking back to the six notes he had sent to all the Kages telling them about his idea for the clans to go to war.
“I did.” She nodded. “I guess you need my consent for my village clan to join?” She asked.
“I do, it's the rules, you know.”
“You make the rules.”
“So I should be the one to follow them more then anyone.” Q smiled at her as if she could really see it.
“Fine, I'll join your silly 'Clan War.' You and you boys, always a need to prove you are better then the last.”
Q just smiled ear to ear as he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a small container, inside was the document that waited to be singed by the remaining Kages.
- - -
unpleasing thoughts touched Death's mind as the forest raced past her in high speeds. Her legs carried her as fast as they could. Venomu was just a normal man, and she was a Kage, one of the seven leaders of the world. He could and would not escape her wrath forever. Death's face twisted in pleasure as she thought of the things she would do when she finally got her hands on Venomu. The rain stung her face forcing her to keep her eyes narrowed so much they were almost closed. Not that she needed them much anyway, she could hardly see far past the heavy rain. She ran solely by feeling Venomu's AMP energy, it was leading her right to him. She masked her own as much as was humanly possible. She hoped it would work to her favor and he would never feel her coming.
- - -
“The Kurokage is fast approaching.” A new voice entered Venomu's mind.
“We know.” Said the female voice.
“You must move faster.” Came the newer voice.
“My body is at its limits, I move by will alone. This is as fast as it's going to get.” Venomu complained to the open air pushing on after the girl now in a somewhat steady walk. He felt another voice linger in the back of his mind, and than another, as if they had just entered to sit back and laugh at his failure.
“I can not stand all of you in my head at once!” He spat.
“Keep your cool. Only four of us are here and we are here to help as much as our sister that now leads you.”
“Help me how?”
“We are going to keep your mind off your human 'limits'.”
“How are-”
“My god, he asks a lot of questions.” Came one of the voices followed by laughter.
“We must come to trust each other. If we are to reach our goals and we know you better then anyone, Venomu.* Images of Raz popped up before him. “We know what you want most. You will need our help, and we need you. You see, we are prisoners-”
“You can understand that far better then anyone, you yourself placed in chains.” The female cut the other voice off, she turned to face him, her eyes showed a bit of compassion. Like she saw a true ally in him. Perhaps even saw someone who would understand.
“You are prisoners? Then you have done something wrong.”
“This we do not deny. But Iago seeks to free us, and if he succeeds he will turn us against the Kages and the world will burn.”
“And you have a problem with this?” Venomu asked.
“Not even we can breath ash.”
“Alright. Lets start with learning your names and how many there are of you.”
“Seven.” Said the girl placing a hand on his back and pushing him a bit faster over a rock.
“My name is Sabure.” Said the first voice. This was the one that had done most of the talking so far. His voice rang with a hint of leadership over the others.
“Bikou.” Came the next.
“Hyouga.” The third echoed.
“Berugu.” Said the girl as she took his hand and helped him up over a log. He had been so into the voices he had gave no attention to the outside world. She was dragging Venomu along at this point with no aid from him. The roar of a waterfall entered his ears and he was pulled with more force then before. “Just there.” She said.
They were heading for a waterfall? This was going to save him and hide him from a Kage that could feel his very life energy?
“Great.” He said.
“They wont make it.” Hyouga said with worry in his voice.
“How right you are.” Sabure added. “I have a plan brothers.” And without another word all the voices withdrew from his mind leaving him alone with Berugu.
“Plan?” he asked her.
“Don't worry, Sabure has never failed us before.” She looked at him from over her shoulder smiling.
- - -
Death stopped dead as three sets of energy that matched Venomu's almost perfectly popped into existence next to the original. They then split off all four headed off as far away from each other as they could get. Her eyes became nothing but black orbs of frustration and she looked more demon like then human. Death's head tilted to the side as one rushed right for her location. She crossed her arms and waited for whatever trick this was to pass making sure to keep tabs on the first energy trail, pushing all the others out of her mind for now.
- - -
Sabure could do more then match his energy to Venomu, he changed his appearance to do so as well. He raced right for Death with lighting speed. His plan was a simple one. Confuse her and attack her and let her believe she had killed Venomu.
- - -
“Five.” Death counted out loud as she popped her thumb. “Four.” She popped the next finger. “Three.” And the next “Two.” the last two fingers went together. “One.”
Sabure lunged out of the trees his arm pulled back and his fist balled up. In a blur Sabure's fist collided with Deaths open palm. Her hand closed in around his own and her eyes locked on to his as the situation sank in on him. Death's lips twisted into a smile. “Got. You.” Her free hand came up and wrapped around his neck. Her fingers tightened around it cutting off the air flow. Death brought him crashing down into the ground her hand never leaving or letting up from his neck. Her fingernails dug into his skin so hard they broke the skin causing small cuts to bleed just a bit.
Sabure really felt no pain or even needed air, but he struggled and fought as if he did to put on a true act. Anything to keep her interest. He bite his tong to hold back a laugh as she raised him into the air and jumped forward. His back rammed hard into a poor unsuspecting tree. He truly found it amusing that she was so full of herself, he could see it in her face. With a grunt through his teeth he did his best to mock her. “What a weak Kage.” It was met with a fist to the gut and other and other. With a fling of her arm he went flying, finally free of her grasp. He hit the ground and rolled a bit. He stopped with his face to the sky, rain falling unto his face. A part of him wished he could really feel it. He opened his mouth a tiny bit and water filled it fast.
Foot steps across the grass made his head turn to the side. Death stood over him, her spear unhooked from her back and hanging loosely in her hand. He smiled up at her, the water that had collected in his mouth poured out slowly. Death placed the spear tip to his skin, right where his heart would be.
“Just look at you. Aren't the Kages meant to be our leaders?” he laughed before going on. “Ah. Or was the generation before you? Yes, I think it was. I remember the Kages before your time. You're nothing in comparison to Punkfilter, just a dog showing it's teeth to the world in hopes they don't see your true colors. In the end, you will be- ” His words were cut off with a spear through his throat. His plan had worked better then he thought as the spear was pulled away from his body. Let her think she had killed off Venomu. All the better, easy to hide a dead man.
Death hooked the spear on her back and stepped over the body as Sabure played dead. Laughing on the inside as he felt the real Venomu's AMP energy vanish. It was a perfect timing, the allusion was even more complete. If Death had been looking she would have seen the edge of his lips twisting into his own little smirk. It's a shame by this time she was leaping away back to the others to get out of the rain.
- - -
You're nothing in comparison to Punkfilter. Just a dog showing it's teeth to the world.
Death had stopped and made her own shelter not ready to return to the others just yet. This was due to the fact that she was overcome with anger. Her whole body shook with rage as the words repeated over and over again in her mind. More then a dozen times she could hear them. The one thing that troubled her the most was that she agreed with them. Punkfilter had been apart of the frist ring of Kages, more then that. He was the was the Kage that the others fell in line behind. He had built the shadow country that she now maintained.
It was a fact that she would be nothing when next to him. She had placed him on a heightened pedestal that no one could ever reach. No matter how hard they fought and tried, they would always fall short. Death's blackened eye pupils expanded to leave to white in her eyes. The energy poured from her uncontrolled and unstable. Her little half fast shelter started to crumble under the flow of power and within a moments time it gave way and collapsed.
“This is why mother always made me keep an eye on you.” Said Dei from Death's backside taking a small step over the rocks that had fallen away. They may have resembled something fore before Dei had got there but now they were just a pile of rocks that once kept the rain off Death's head.
“Why do I feel like one of these days I'm going to have to save you from your self. Instead of some other worldly thing trying to take your life.”
“When were you really ever looking after me?” Death questioned as she felt Dei's chin come to rest on head and her arms pulled tight around her in a hug. They both looked forward.
“Hm. I guess It was kinda hard after father rushed you off to another side of the world but that does not matter. I'll always be here to cool your hot head. Literally.” The rain over head seemed to slow right along with Death's temper.
- - -
Q's foot pushed at the sleeping Yoyo's side. “Time to go.” He said she she rolled over, her vision was still a bit fuzzy as she saw Q put on his shirt. She pushed herself up into where she was sitting crossed legged. Rubbing the sleep away from her eyes she wondered how long she had been out. She looked completely lost to Q, it caused him to clap his hands. “No time to lose. Come on come on.” He helped her to her feet and dusted her off. He was in so much of a rush it was near impossible for him to understand just how annoyed she was at him for doing so.
- - -
“Dead men tell no tales. Especially when they have their throat stabbed through.” Sabure's voice came as he stepped into the cave nicely hidden behind the roar of a waterfall.
“Shh.” Berugu's lips were pushed together, her finger pushed up to them. She sat next to a sleeping Venomu who was out like a baby.
“What will we do now?” Berugu asked him.
“We wait.”
“For?”
“The Kazekage knows of Iago's presence and moves in a haste to deflect. Thats for sure.”
“Ah. Is that what he is after?”
“Yes. He hopes for a distraction, to slip under and take Iago out without to much of a fuss. He also fears Iago's powers, he does not wish to fight another Kage who's mind is not even their own.”
“A sound plan.” Berugu commented under her breath.
“Maybe, but this is where we come in. After all the other Kages are so busy with fighting each other, the Kazekage will find out just how truly alone in this world he made himself.”
“The architect of his destruction.” Berugu nodded. “I believe he and I should stay here. This way I can stay close to him and he will more then likely wish for more answers then we have given him thus far.”
“Can you keep his energy from reaching out from this cave?”
“You did not feel it on your way here, did you?” She winked at him.
“Then make him stay.” He nodded. “I must leave you, be save sister, until my voice can connect with yours again.” And Sabure was gone. Berugu vanished as well, there was little point in putting out the effort when she could easy just talk to Venomu when he awoke in his mind.
- - -
“Blasted kids!” The man yelled as the three teenagers ran past him, the last one running into him. She did not stop to say sorry, in fact, she ran faster than ever. The small leather bag from the mans belt now tight in her hands. The two boys in front of her rounded the corner with her fast behind. She turned it fast and without really looked ahead, her eyes were to busy looking over her shoulder to make sure the man had not caught on to what happened.
“Ouch” She yelled when she hit the two boys hard and fell to the ground rear end frist.
“What do we have here?” came the smug voice of Darkflame. He looked past the two boys to the girl who's eyes were narrowed at him.
“Areana and her little gang of wannabes, so, wheres the fire?”
“No fire, just having a race man.” Shrugged one of the boy, the taller of the two. He put on a fake smile.
Darkflame only rolled his eyes putting a hand on the boys shoulder and pushing him out of the way. He bent down and grabbed Areana by the wrist pulling her up. Before she could hide the small bag his eyes locked on to it. He pulled it away from her and pushed her away. He opened it and dumped it out. His eyebrows raised slightly. “Ask me this, but I don't think someone like yourself would keep only ten gold coins. Or is it 'just for' money?” He smiled big as in a victory kind of way.
- - -
“I have never.” Bano said slowly looking at the girl that sat in the wooden chair in front of him.
“I'm sorry!” Areana started.
“No. Just no.” Bano's fist came down hard on the table next to him. “Shut up.” he went on seeing her open her mouth to speak again. Areana's head sunk and locked onto the wooden floor of the Kage palace.
“You are surrounded by the best things any of your people could ever want. Yet, you act like a common thug.”
“My people?” She muttered to scared to look him in the eyes.
“Yes!” He yelled. “One day you shall lead them. Have you never thought of this?”
“I'm just a kid.” She whispered.
“So what? Your mind is better put to things like theft?” Areana remained silent, she was not really sure what she could say.
“What do you want from me?” She finally muttered.
“Grow up.” Bano shook his head and grunted, his body still a bit stiff from the beating he took just the day before.
“A-alright.” Areana's voice broke, her hands clenched up in her lap.
- - -
“Yo, Boss lady!” The tall boy shouted at Areana as the gates to the palace opened up and she stepped out. Her shoulder bumped into his and she kept walking. They both could here her cussing under her breath. “If he wants me to grow up, I'll do just that.”
“Man...see the look on her face?” Said the short boy.
“Yeah, must have been bad.”
“I...Was she crying?”
The tall boy shrugged at the short one and they both raced after her.
Last edited by Banouin on Thu Jul 15 2010, 20:34; edited 4 times in total
Toshiro~ ^_^ x3
