by 
Quater sat backward in the chair he normally sat in when this room was used, his back to the door. Beside him was a single empty chair. SSS sat on the floor leaning against this chair. Between her and the Kazekage, Yoyo lay on her back with her legs on the chair, staring at the ceiling. Next to the semi-occupied chair sat Zergio and Toshii. Bano was slouched in the next chair, seemingly half-asleep, though most in the room knew he was paying full attention. Beside him sat Darkflame who was furiously taking notes throughout the entire meeting. Thicup, one of three Inferno nin who had arrived in Mountain that day, sat beside him, squirming slightly and feeling out of place. Clair, the Kajikage, sat beside her. Her face was grim as she watched the other two Kages. Completing the circle was Dark Raptor who seemed to be oblivious to everything that was happening; he had spent a good portion of the meeting alternating between picking his nose and poking the Kazekage with a pen. This group of warriors was the elite of their respective Villages; they would be the ones to save the world from falling into chaos.
“You expect me to believe that Mist is planning on releasing something that nearly destroyed the world? They’re power-hungry, not insane!” Clair cried.
“I don’t expect you to believe anything,” Bano yawned with a shrug. “Regardless of whether Mist is trying to get the Keys, the fact remains that Shadow’s Key has been stolen. We need to find their Key. It is merely a precaution that we ensure that the rest of the Villages know exactly where their Key is. If they wind up in the same spot, the world as we know it would come to an end.”
“It’s not just Shadow’s Key that is gone, either,” Q added. “Storm has lost their Key over the years.”
“Wonder of wonders,” Yoyo muttered to SSS. “They’d lose their heads if they weren’t attached.” SSS covered her mouth to stifle a laugh.
Q ignored them both. “We have to find Storm’s Key in addition to Shadow’s Key. If stopping an evil plot thought up by the Mizukage or some other Mist warriors is a result of that, then good for us.”
Clair nodded, though she apparently had no love for this venture. “Alright, I see your point. I suppose we’ll have to make sure all the Villages get their Keys back and hidden. How do you propose we do that, then? We can only assume that Mist has their own and Shadow’s Key; goodness only knows where Storm’s is.”
“We do know that Mountain’s Key is safe,” said Darkflame, looking up from his notebook. “We finished checking that this morning.”
“Inferno’s is also safe,” offered Thicup timidly. “We checked after you sent your message.”
“And Sand’s is safe,” Q concluded with a nod. “I checked that myself before we left.”
“So Mountain, Inferno, and Sand’s Keys are all fine. Storm’s is missing, Shadow’s is stolen, and Mist’s has been dug up by who we assume to by Mist warriors,” Yoyo summarized. “Just post some guards around our Keys to make sure nothing happens to them in the meantime.”
“Meanwhile, Glacier is proving to be impossible to work with,” Bano groaned. “Any suggestions as to how we go about doing this? We have three Keys to find and one to either find or keep safe.”
“Sounds like we should send home messages telling people to keep the Keys safe, then split up into groups to cover the other four Keys,” SSS suggested.
“Split up?” Thicup squeaked.
Clair pet a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I don’t like the idea of splitting three Villages’ warriors into four groups. Our fighting styles are all different and we would probably be better at destroying each other than protecting some old piece of metal. Unless you were planning on just sending Mountain one way, Sand another, and then splitting my warriors into your other two groups.”
“If we combined various members from each Village, it would be a growing experience,” Dark Raptor said, staring at a bug on the tip of his finger that he had captured a few minutes before. “Learn to work with other fighting styles, different jutsus, varied personalities. It would bring our Villages closer together and be helpful in the future should we be engulfed in war.”
The other occupants of the room stared at Dark Raptor in silent shock. He had been brought along because he had a lot of power, though he was still unskilled at using it proficiently. His ability to use his brain was not one of the things he was known for.
“That’s a good point, DR,” Q said, grinning suddenly. “So, it’s decided. We’re going to split this group up into four teams. Each team will go after another Key.”
Clair started to shout in protest, but the look on Q’s face told her that this was in fact the final decision. She shrugged in defeat and asked, “So how are we deciding who goes into what group?”
Bano sat up and smiled slyly. “We’ll decide this like warriors.”
* * * *
“So that’s why they never made it back,” a young woman with shoulder-length black hair said, frowning deeply at the news she had just received. She closed her dark brown eyes a moment before continuing. “I don’t suppose you found the message they had been intending to deliver, Temari.”“I did, Lady Kurokage,” the slender Mist warrior said, offering a slender wooden tube about a foot in length to Death, the Shadow Kage. “In my efforts to move them to your Village, the container fell out of one of their pouches.”
The Kurokage glanced over it, affirming that the seal that marked it as being unread was still in place before breaking it and reading the contents. “Very well; I understand the demands listed here. Now, what was your mission here in the Shadow Village, then, Mist?”
“I have a message from the Mizukage to deliver,” Temari said, withdrawing another wooden tube from a pouch, this one tinted a blue-green color.
“I see,” muttered Death, opening and quickly reading the Mizukage’s letter. When she finished, she looked over the page across the cold stone room at Temari. “You know what this letter contains?”
“I do,” Temari said simply.
“Excellent. Then tell your Mizukage this: I lied about Shadow’s Key because I owed him a favor. If he intends to continue this venture with my support, then he needs to pay up soon. The demands he makes in combination with his payment work well for me, but his payment will have to come before his results appear. We can not fund this endeavor without his aid.”
Temari bowed to indicate that she understood; Death nodded and stared at the letter in her hand. A low hissing sound extracted her from her thoughts. The room was large and made of stone with nothing but a padded chair in it, so the hissing sound was made all the louder. A second, shorter hissing sound followed. This made Death smile.
“Calm yourself, Temari,” Death said with a chuckle. “It’s just Hebi.”
A black cobra, nearly ten feet in length, came out of the shadows in a corner of the room. Its yellow eyes seemed to glow in the semi-light and a yellow ring around its neck had the same effect. It slithered along the floor, making two tight circles around Temari who had frozen with what seemed to be fright, hissing venomously the entire time. It then left the frightened Mist warrior and returned to its master, wrapping around Death and her chair.
“You don’t have to be afraid of my little Hebi,” Death cooed, stroking the pitch black cobra’s head. “She doesn’t hurt anyone unless I command her to. Unless of course.” Death paused and grinned evilly at Temari. “You have done something to deserve her wrath.”
Temari shook her head. “My apologies, but if you no longer need me, I must return to my own Village.”
“Yes, of course,” Death said, waving a hand at her dismissively. “Do as you wish; I am done with you.” She continued to rub Hebi’s neck as Temari’s echoing footsteps drifted into nothingness.
“You are the only one who ever has any decent news, dear Hebi,” Death asked, looking the cobra in the eyes. “What have you got for me today?”
Hebi sank below the back of the stuffed chair and, sliding underneath it, reemerged before the Kurokage with a wooden case wrapped in its coils. Death grinned and snatched up the case, reading the letter inside with fervor.
“Excellent,” she said. “Excellent. Everything is going as planned.” She grabbed the wooden case Temari had said she had found among her dead warriors. She examined it a moment, skimming the contents of the letter inside again, and laughed. She walked to the far side of the room where embers sat in a brass bowl. She then dropped the letter in this bowl, laughing all the more as the embers caught the page on fire.
“Hebi!” she called, turning to her scaled companion. “There is a lying, vile creature with Shadow blood on her hands walking the corridors of this place. She has a letter to send to her precious Mizukage. I’m sure your hunger can wait for a little while.”
Hebi watched Death and swayed, her head four feet above the ground, her forked tongue flickering in and out of her mouth at such high speeds you could barely see it. As soon as Death had finished speaking, Hebi hissed and lowered her head to the ground and slithered toward the door. Before it had reached the opening, she had all but vanished in shadows.
Death smiled and returned to her seat. She grabbed a glass from the small table beside it and raised it as she plopped sideways into the chair. “To you, my dear Mist nin. May you enjoy your stay in Shadow, for it will be far longer than you expected.”
* * * *
“Someone kill me,” Clair groaned to SSS. “Better yet, kill him. Even better, kill whoever it was that came up with this lame idea of splitting us up into these groups.”SickSelfishSycho just smiled, nodded, and continued reading her book. Beside her sat Clair, a pen in hand as she worked to write a letter to the warriors she left in charge of her Village while she was away. Across the table was Zergio who was munching noisily on peanuts and chatting away, oblivious to the glares Clair was sending his way.
“That was when we knew I was in trouble. I only had three kunai and a shuriken left since all my other weapons had been broken earlier in the fight. It was just my bare hands and I against three mass murderer warriors. One came at me from the side, but I blocked him. A second attacked from behind me, but I leaped into the air and landed on his head, knocking him out cold. The third pulled out his huge sword and tried to slice me in half, but I caught the sword with my bare hands. The first one wasn’t done, yet, though, so he came after me with—”
“Would you shut up?” Clair cried in desperation. “I’m trying to concentrate on this really important letter, but I can’t hear my own thoughts over your fairy tale!”
“Fairy tale,” Zergio scoffed. “My dear Clair, this really happened! It was my first encounter with the dark side of the law. It is what made me want to become a warrior for Mountain!”
“No human, no matter how strong, could ever, and I mean ever, fight off an entire band of murderer with just their bare hands at the age of six!” Clair shouted, fed up with his constant bravado and stories.
“I don’t know,” SSS said, not looking up from her book. “Q strangled two snakes that had gotten in his cradle when he was still an infant.”
Zergio and Clair both stared in shock at SSS.
“Really?” Clair asked, eyes wide.
“That sure beats my experience,” Zergio whispered in awe.
“You still got any of those peanuts?” SSS asked.
* * * *
“We’ll need to find some tools for creating a shelter in case we run into bad weather,” Darkflame was saying to his partner Thicup. “We’ll also need to bring enough food to eat on our journey. Storm is surrounded by a foggy plane that has no food sources of any kind and we’ll be in that area for several days.”Thicup watched as Darkflame ran around the room and gathering supplies, talking the whole time about what they needed to take and why. She knew she was a quiet girl and seemed to be overly nervous about everything, but she was not useless as Darkflame seemed to think she was. She had traveled before. In fact, she had traveled to the Storm Village, so she did not understand Darkflame’s need to explain simple things as packing a tent. She just shook her head and returned her attention to mending a tear in her shirt.
It was a three day journey out of Mountain and into Storm; from there they had to figure out where Storm had put their Key that helped keep a demon locked away. She was not sure how she would be able to handle the patronizing Darkflame in a country where everything goes missing just because it can.
* * * *
Toshii’s eyes were starting to burn, but she could not give in now, not with victory so close at hand. She continued to stare hard into the eyes of the man sitting before her; he was struggling just as much as she was if not more. She could see his eyes starting to narrow slightly. Just a little longer and she would win.Suddenly, a strong breeze followed by a large crash echoed throughout the room. Toshii leapt to her feet, drawing one of the daggers in her belt. After a quick survey of the room, she found that a table had been knocked over and the two cups that had been sitting on it had smashed to the floor. She spun on her opponent.
“Cheater!” she cried, pointing with her dagger at the broken glasses. “That’s just cheating, Q!”
Q was curled up in his chair laughing so hard that he did not make a sound. Toshii just watched him and shook her head, a grin emerging on her face. Before long, both were laughing about how Toshii had reacted in true warrior form.
“You took this staring contest so seriously,” Q laughed, wiping a tear from his eye. “I had no idea how you’d react. I was just hoping to startle you!”
“Well, it sure worked well,” Toshii said, then pointed her dagger at him. “I’m not buying a cheater a Cherry Coke when we get to Mist, though.”
“Fair enough,” Q said, hands in the air in surrender. “I’ll buy the first round of drinks when we get there. After that, we’ll have more staring contests for the next rounds.”
Toshii nodded, shaking Q’s outstretched hand. “This time completely on the square.”
* * * *
“What’s this one’s name?” Dark Raptor asked, poking a sleeping green dragon in the Dragon Cave.Bano looked over, somewhat annoyed at the nonstop noise issuing from the young Inferno nin’s mouth. “That is Sosai. You’ve pointed at her three times already. You should probably stop poking her before she bites you.”
Dark Raptor stared at Bano in shock. “That’s a girl?”
Bano heard Yoyo snort from somewhere behind him. A glance over his shoulder showed her to be lying on her back in the midst of the small group of dragons he had chosen to take along on the jounry to Shadow. She had a bug caught between her fingers and was moving her hand in circles above her. A black dragon seemed to be desperate to eat the bug because it was flying in circles, chasing after it.
“Doctor, that’s a girl alright. It’s the girls you have to watch out for, though. You wouldn’t expect it, but dragons, the girls especially, like to eat humans. Humans are a dragon’s favorite snack food,” Yoyo said without looking at anything but the black flying above her.
Bano cast a curious glance at Dark Raptor to find that he had a puzzled look on his face. Seconds later, his expression changed to one of horror and he went to go sit by the door. Bano smiled and he heard Yoyo chuckle.
Bano turned and stared at Yoyo a moment. “That’s the Unnamed black that nabbed the paper that brought you here,” he said, watching the dragon as it nipped at Yoyo’s fingers, only to find that he was too slow.
“Yup, this is the one,” Yoyo said, still not looking at anyone as she spoke. “He’s really playful, though. Simple enough to fool, too. The other dragons would have figured out the simple pattern I’m moving this bug in and caught it ages ago. This one is just doggedly following after it, hoping it makes a mistake and lets itself get caught.”
“I worry about that one,” Bano said, sitting near Yoyo to work with his dragons, ensuring that they were ready for travel. “Nearly every dragon Ishi has ever had has gone through their Naming by the time they have reached his age. The ones that didn’t usually never found someone to bond with.”
The room fell quiet, the only sound being that of occasionally fluttering wings and the squeaks from the black that still had not managed to catch its snack. Before long, Bano had concluded his check of his dragons and signaled to them that it was time to go. Yoyo gave the black its long-sought bug and Dark Raptor stood, perfectly prepared to get out of the Cave as soon as possible.
As the three warriors and three dragons, the white Akai, the green Sosai, and a silver named Gin, left the Dragon Cave and started their ascent up the stairs, Yoyo stopped and turned to Bano and asked, “Do you really think your idea to decide these groups using pieces of paper and a hat was a good idea?”
Bano shrugged, turned her around, and shoved her further up the stairs. “We’ll just have to see, won’t we?”
* * * *
Four small groups of warriors met in a small dark cavern the next morning. It was difficult to tell, hidden as they were in the heart of a mountain, but the sun had not yet risen. Various members of the groups hugged or shook hands in farewell, for they would not be seeing each other for some time. A group of dragons numbering the same as the humans also grouped together for what seemed to be farewells. Four humans stood off to one side holding one last meeting before they parted ways. “We all know our missions,” Darkflame was saying, inspecting a pad of paper covered in handwriting. “The group going to Storm, myself and Thicup, will be helping to search for their missing Key. The Glacier group consisting of Kajikage Clair, Zergio, and SSS need to convince the Hikage to ensure their Key is safe. The Mist Group, Kazekage Quater and Toshii, will confront the Mizukage concerning their Key and these rumors. Finally, Shadow’s Key has been stolen and must be retrieved, which is the goal of the Shadow group: the Yamakage, Dark Raptor, and Yoyo.”
Darkflame looked around, finding each member as he said their name. Each member was sitting or standing in quiet conversation with the others. He stopped short as he said this last name. “Where is Yoyo, sir?” he asked, turning to Bano.
Bano stared at Darkflame drowsily a moment, then shook his head. “Oh, Yoyo, yeah, she’s over there.” He pointed drowsily at the entrance. Wedged between a couple of larger stones was Yoyo, who appeared to have found this a nice place to take a nap.
Quater laughed and Clair rolled her eyes. “Typical Yoyo,” he said, wiping a tear from his eye. “This is too early for her; you’d think she was an owl or something. Quick, now is the time to steal her katana and hide them from her!”
“I can still hear you, sir,” Yoyo said, her voice surprisingly clear for someone who had been asleep moments before. This caused Q to laugh even harder. “By the way, sir, what’s in that backpack you’ve been carrying around? I don’t think you’ve taken a thing out of it, yet.”
Q smiled mischievously and winked. “You’ll see soon enough.”
Bano yawned and shook his head. “Let’s just get going. The sooner we get gone, the sooner we’ll all be back at home and in bed at this time of night. Later, guys.” That said, Bano walked away, his dragons trailing lazily through the air after him.
Yoyo stood clumsily to follow, eyes half-closed with sleep and threw a “Later, Fish,” over her shoulder. She grabbed Dark Raptor’s arm as she walked past him, and the group left without another understandable word; Dark Raptor made strange squeaking noises as he was dragged through the tunnel.
“Well, there goes one strange and tired group,” Clair said with yet another roll of her eyes. “I suppose we should be going, too.” She motioned to SSS and Zergio and the three left, the latter threw a broad grin at his fellow Mountain warriors, two dragons following him, the former giving a quick wave at her kage before entering the small passage that would take them out of Mountain.
“Well, don’t wanna get left behind, do we, Tosh? Let’s get going!” Q said, grabbing Toshii by the arm and rushing through the cave.
Toshii waved at Thicup, a surprised and amused expression on her face before she vanished into the darkness with Q.
Thicup waved back, though she knew Toshii could not see her. “We had better start moving,” she said as she grabbed her backpack. She heard Darkflame grunt behind her, a sign that he was upset he had not been allowed to finish the “pep talk” he had spent a large portion of the night preparing. She was sure she would be hearing the rest of it as they made their way to the Storm Village.
* * * *
Mizukage Destinykil;The Kurokage suspects nothing. She read the letter that I forged and accepted its contents to be true. She agrees to our terms and does not know what her people had originally planned to tell her: the truth, probably.
I received word that the Kazekage, Kajikage, and Yamakage have held a meeting concerning the location of the Keys of the Villages. As of now, I have not heard what was decided, but can only assume that the other four Villages will soon receive visitors of the rank of Kage. If I happen to come across any on my return to Mist, I will not take any chances, but if the opportunity arises to remove one of them from their place of power, I will not hesitate to do so.
I will send this message ahead of me so any delay in my arrival will not delay this message.
Respectfully yours,
Temari
P.S. If I may ask, please, never send me to Shadow again. I am afraid of snakes and Shadow is crawling in them. I’m afraid one will decide I’m a meal.
Destinykil finished reading and set down the letter his warrior had sent him. He nodded, a pleased smile on his face. Shadow had agreed to aid them in finding the Seven Keys that kept a powerful demon locked away. He planned to control this demon and combining all the Villages into one; one he would have power over. The only things standing between him and the Keys seemed to be three Kages and their warriors.
“Easily taken care of,” he said to the empty room, his laughter echoing slightly. “They have all split up, weakening themselves in an attempt to stop me. It will not take much effort to remove all the obstacles in my way. I’m already well on my way to retrieving all seven Keys. I already have Mist’s and Shadow’s; only five left to steal and Glacier’s is already within my grasp. Do your best, innocent fools. Just come and get me.”
Last edited by Yoyo on Thu Jul 15 2010, 20:31; edited 1 time in total
Toshiro~ ^_^ x3
I like it Yoyo. haha nice work!
