Starring:
Date: January 5, 2016
Summary:
After spreading the seeds of doubt in the Hokage to yet another village along his travels, Shinji finally crosses a line with ANBU. One of their agents, the initiate Yasuo, takes it upon himself to end the legacy of Shinji's bloodline.
"Fall of the Wrathful Liberator"
Madarabi Path - Forested Area
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Heavy trees and brush remain in abudance along the the main dirt path of the forest. Massive roots bulge out from the green earth, tangling the dense forests making it difficult for even the general wildlife to navigate through it. Wooden posts line along the main path to help caravns navigate. The thick forestry blots out rays of sunlight, offering dim lit ambience. Two particular posts lie to the east, marking a grandiose cobble stone path.
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Contents:
Yasuo
Exits:
Cobble Stone Path - (E) [Cobble Stone Path]
Madarabi Path - (S) [Madarabi Path]
River Path - (N) [Madarabi Forest]
Late in the prior evening, Shinji had paid children to pass about word of his coming through a village within the Land of Fire. He wished to speak of freedom, of the deception of the leadership, and the enslavement of the people. Being children, they loyally performed, easily tempted by the ryo offered to them. The young had always been Shinji's favored pawns.
When those citizens who received words dared to show themselves in gathering at a prearranged point, Shinji is waiting for them. He is dressed quite regally in a layered kimono which rises high upon his neck, though there's a slightly sinister quality about him in the coloration. The young man's garments are black and red, one layered atop the over again and again. The strip of black silk wrapped around his head, obscuring his eyes, indicates his blindness. Both hands rest upon the peak of his cane, which is carved in the likeness of a dragon's head.
"Thank you for coming. It was a brave choice on your part, to risk listening to a defiant opinion," Shinji says after a moment's silence. He can't see these people, but he's more than capable of tracking them through his other senses. Ironic, how well he's adapted to living without his beloved Sharingan. "I will leave you to make of it what you will. If you disagree, then you will face no opposition from me. Those of you who are sympathetic, however, could well have the honor of saving our land."
Children passing about word don't tend to know who and who not to share information with or who might be listening for that matter. An undercover ANBU agent within the city heard of the coming speech and sent word back to his handlers. Seeing little choice but to monitor the situation, they sent another operative in to handle the situation so as not to blow the original's cover.
Having donned the cloak, tunic, and such of a normal layman villager and made himself look and smell like one, the ANBU Iniative known as Akumu has been given his first assignment… to observe this gathering and, if it is truly about trying to make the people of the Land of Fire rise up against Konoha or the Hokage, eliminate the threat safely outside of the city.
Walking up among the crowd and standing in with the men of the class he has portrayed himself as being, he remains quiet for now and simply listens and waits…
"I make this speech, which would mark me as a rebel, as I have in many other villages along my travels," says Shinji, "because I am deeply concerned about the future of Konohagakure. Where the Hidden Leaf goes, the Land of Fire will ultimately follow. Certain traditions cannot be allowed to poison the line of the Daimyo, but we have an opportunity to be the antidote. To be the fire which cauterizes the festering wound."
Shinji speaks with a calm, deep voice, sounding reasoned even as he foments treasonous ideals. "The fact is, those shinobi among you and your families are but pawns in the Hokage's view. More victimized than any other clan are the Uchiha. They are given comfortable lives and the illusory trappings of home and status. However, if ever they should choose to have an opinion differing from the Hokage? They pay the ultimate price, for the Hokage is desirous of their eyes' power above and beyond all else. He cares not for the person after their obedience wanes, only those two organs. I should know."
Shinji lifts a hand and undoes his blindfold, letting it unfurl to expose two empty eye sockets. "When I left with my own ideas, shedding not one drop of my kinsmens' blood in the doing, they sent their foremost ANBU after me. I was beaten near to death and my Sharingan were ripped from my face. When I awoke, I realized that I had been left for dead. A kunai was kindly planted in the ground next to me, if I wished to speed the process along by killing myself. That the kind of cold mentality which has begun to take control, and none of you are exempt. However, one man cannot change our fate. It will take all of you to pry free the root of this problem: the Hokage. If you make the right choice, then we may found a new future which begins today."
His hands rise so as to once again secure the bandana, no doubt for the comfort of the crowd. "Those of you who are interested, you will receive a signal on where to gather and when. I must move along, for even now, I am likely watched. Think well on this and what my experiences may entail for you … even if I should die before we can act."
Shinji inclines his head respectfully and then makes his way along toward the village's exit, cane tapping lightly ahead of him, as if he were unable to make his way along without its guidance. Probably a deception.
As he silently listens, Akumu furrows his brows slightly under the hood of his cloak. It seems the concerns of the higher ups were valid, meaning this Initiate must spill his first shinobi blood as a member of ANBU… He listens intently throughout the entirety of the speech, trying to find any detail that might redeem the Uchiha enough to stay his hand for now. Even a wince is given when the man's eyes are revealed, as he himself knows exactly what it feels like to be valued only for his eyes by those who held him captive before. Be that as it may… There is no detail in any of what is said that would allow him to keep from doing what he must. Any sympathies he may hold for the man must be pushed aside for the sake of the village.
As Shinji turns to make his exit, Akumu waits and talks among the other villagers, listening to the various talk as he can until enough time has passed that he can follow unimpeded. Once those precious moments have passed, he turns and begins to make his way out of the village, though he stays to the side of the path as if he were merely a farmer returning out to his home to finish his work. A quick handseal is made as he moves, activating his Byakugan so that he might keep an eye on Shinji from afar and pursue him out from the village into one of the forested areas where no one else will detect the coming battle in time to find them there.
Shinji walks at a leisurely pace as he crosses the village gates, drawing out the experience of the pursuit. Perhaps he's simply looking to avoid attracting attention from the people he knows watch him - Eremi would never be so careless as to truly let him run free. On the other hand, there's always the possibility that he knows he's being followed in a rather more direct fashion. Either way, they do gradually come to a forested area through which the path narrowly meanders. The soft tapping of the man's cane against clear soil and stone seems to guide him, where in truth, every scent and sound to which he has become accustomed serves as a tell.
"At this point," Shinji says as he walks along, "you've strayed too far from the village to be a simple villager, and too far off of the main roads to be a coincidental companion. I take it my tour, enlightening people along the way as to the cruelty they face, has crossed a line you cannot turn a blind eye to?" Blind eye. The phrase makes him fleetingly smirk to himself as he paces along.
Hearing the voice ring out through his pursuit, Yasuo looks over Shinji's way and frowns slightly as he reaches into his cloak to retrieve his ANBU mask, which resembles a tiger. This is more for anyone who happens to walk up rather than for Shinji since he obviously can't see his face regardless. Since the game of deceit is over, he turns and approaches, stopping about twenty feet from Shinji.
"It would seem so. I am not here to discuss politics with you or try to convince you that your own way has strayed rather than that of the village. You are obviously set in your stance, and there is nothing more that can be done to sway you," he says as he steps into stance, starting to build his chakra in preparation for the coming battle. "I do not expect you to go down without a fight. Prepare yourself that you might find your peace in the life to come."
"Is that the extent of your knowledge? I see your ranks keep secrets even with their own." Shinji slows to an eventual stop and turns to face Yasuo, hands still resting upon his cane. "In recent weeks, I was in Konohagakure. One of yours, who had received one of my Sharingan, wished to return it. In exchange, I offered to be a prisoner of the village walls. All of this fell to pieces because Kurome, leader of the Uchiha, refused our personal arrangement and instead demanded acts of appeasement from me. /Appeasement/, for the return of a part of my body with which I was born. How just does that seem to you? Do you still feel as though the act you're about to carry out is as honorable as you have no doubt been led to believe? It certainly cannot be said that I haven't tried diplomacy on more than one occasion."
Shinji says, even as the chakra pathways within him begin to spark to life with a surge of energy, "I'd prefer this didn't come down to violence, really. I am not violent man. Even when I was a shinobi in good standing, my methods were never lethal." He waits, patiently, to see what the fledgling ANBU makes of his circumstances.
COMBAT: Shinji focuses 5382 stamina to turn it into 7400 usable chakra!
RP: Shinji transforms into SIN-OF-WRATH-I.
COMBAT: Shinji finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Yasuo's turn.
"I told you I am not here to discuss these things with you. My own opinion and what I know of your plight are of no consequence, nor is honor," Akumu states firmly as he watches the Uchiha gather chakra and prepare battle. He is at least honorable enough to let him prepare, it seems. There is no wavering in his demeanor. This issue is not personal for him, at least not in how he's treating it outwardly.
Once Shinji has prepared, the ANBU Initiate leaps forward, lightning crackling around his hands as he goes into a flurry of sixty four strikes at the Uchiha's tenketsu and pressure points. If the strikes land, the electricity flowing through his fingers will go into the man's muscles to weaken him physically as it also weakens his chakra flow as most Juuken strikes would.
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks Shinji with 8-TRIGRAMS-32-ELECTRIC-PALMS with a roll of: 44
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks Shinji with 8-TRIGRAMS-32-ELECTRIC-PALMS with a roll of: 44
COMBAT: Yasuo finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Shinji's turn.
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks you with 8-TRIGRAMS-32-ELECTRIC-PALMS and rolls a 44. Action?
COMBAT: Shinji defends against 8-TRIGRAMS-32-ELECTRIC-PALMS(44) attack from Yasuo with a WALL-OF-SPITE…37
COMBAT: Shinji loses the roll and sustains 724 damage.
COMBAT: Yasuo drains chakra from Shinji
COMBAT: Yasuo drains stamina from Shinji
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks you with 8-TRIGRAMS-32-ELECTRIC-PALMS and rolls a 44. Action?
COMBAT: Shinji defends against 8-TRIGRAMS-32-ELECTRIC-PALMS(44) attack from Yasuo with a WALL-OF-SPITE…56
COMBAT: Shinji takes 307 partial damage.
COMBAT: Yasuo drains chakra from Shinji
COMBAT: Yasuo drains stamina from Shinji
"Nor is honor," echoes Shinji. "Yes, disregard for honor seems to be another hallmark of Daisuke's regime. It's fortunate that there's at least one man among you who strays from the typical. It's just a matter of his finding his way back to the right path. You can't stop that from happening, even if you kill me. He is the key."
Shinji doesn't retaliate with hand to hand combat. Rather, he quickly grabs the dragon-carved head of his cane and twists it to one side, pulling forth a blade forged from chakra metal. As soon as it emerges, it erupts in a sheath of oddly viscous flame, far hotter than any fire of its kind should be. It's revealed in the same moment that he can track the ANBU initiate by means other than sight, with his head slightly turned to his benefit. Every wailing series of blows is met with his sword gliding along the ground, creating walls through which even hands of lightning might have difficulty striking. "Is this what you wanted? To strike down the innocent and the victimized in blind loyalty to a tyrant?!" He questions Akumu with rising vigor and wrath as he gracefully holds his blade straight out to his right. "Do you not realize the consequences of continuing to leave him in control?! The ashes of the Leaf will be no different than what shall remain of the forest, all as a /consequence/ of your misguided choices!"
The blade suddenly shifts in his hand so as to be positioned for a thrust, and he lunges forward with force fueled by his raw anger. His sword, oozing flame birthed of the betrayals he's suffered, seeks a path through the ANBU's fists. "You forced this engagement! I desire only peace, only freedom, only equality. Unfortunately, you have already been twisted into an agent of the status quo!"
COMBAT: Shinji attacks Yasuo with SEETHING-SUNDER with a roll of: 61
COMBAT: Shinji finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Yasuo's turn.
COMBAT: Yasuo counters against a SEETHING-SUNDER(61) attack from Shinji with a GREAT-HEAVENLY-SPIN…50
COMBAT: Yasuo loses the roll and sustains 804 damage.
"I think you should consider yourself lucky to be given a fighting chance," is Akumu's only response as he goes to spin and bring forth a rotating shield of chakra, which Shinji manages to strike through and leave a burning gash in his side. He spins again, pointing a hand directly at the Uchiha's face to send a current of lightning chakra at him with intent to send him flying backward before his other palm strikes forward to send another wave at him. "This engagement was forced by your own actions. Make peace with the fate your path brought you to."
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks Shinji with EIGHT-TRIGRAMS-ELECTRIC-AIR-PALM with a roll of: 44
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks Shinji with EIGHT-TRIGRAMS-ELECTRIC-AIR-PALM with a roll of: 45
COMBAT: Yasuo finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Shinji's turn.
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks you with EIGHT-TRIGRAMS-ELECTRIC-AIR-PALM and rolls a 44. Action?
COMBAT: Shinji defends against EIGHT-TRIGRAMS-ELECTRIC-AIR-PALM(44) attack from Yasuo with a WALL-OF-SPITE…43
COMBAT: Shinji loses the roll and sustains 330 damage.
COMBAT: Yasuo drains stamina from Shinji
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks you with EIGHT-TRIGRAMS-ELECTRIC-AIR-PALM and rolls a 45. Action?
COMBAT: Shinji defends against EIGHT-TRIGRAMS-ELECTRIC-AIR-PALM(45) attack from Yasuo with a WALL-OF-SPITE…57
COMBAT: Shinji wins the roll.
Shinji sounds no less full of wrath as he bellows his reply, blade whirling to bring up yet more walls of liquid flame from the earth. "All too easy to pass off the blame, so long as you have the Hokage to assuage your guilt! To pardon your sins! It's no small wonder that the ANBU wear their masks, for they could not bear to show their own faces while committing the deeds that they do." When his strike lands home, he pulls his blade free and jumps off to the side, feet landing against a tree's trunk with the aid of chakra. As he swings his blade horizontally, an arc of liquid flame unfurls toward Akumu, artfully angled so as to also set the surrounding forest ablaze.
"When I die in this inexplicable forest fire, the people of that village will wonder. What was it he said of being followed by agents of the Hokage, merely for speaking the truth? Of having his eyes ripped out and being left to kill himself? Did they finally come to do the deed, they will wonder. Word will travel from village the village, and my stories will become more than ramblings. The people will question, and some will rise up! Fate is what we make of it, and I would sooner fall upon my own sword than be chattel for such a slavemaster as he."
COMBAT: Shinji attacks Yasuo with FIERY-CRESCENT-SLASH with a roll of: 52
COMBAT: Shinji finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Yasuo's turn.
COMBAT: Yasuo counters against a FIERY-CRESCENT-SLASH(52) attack from Shinji with a GREAT-HEAVENLY-SPIN…64
COMBAT: Yasuo has successfully countered the attack.
"Or your words will be murmured about less and less and eventually taken as those of a madman who was vanished before he could do any more harm than he had already done," Akumu replies as he steps back and spins once again to throw up a massive wall of rotating chakra from his body to deflect the flaming blade as it goes to slam into Shinji and knock down masses of trees in the process with its immense size.
Were that not strong enough, lightning begins to crackle from his body and flows up to turn the entire giant sphere of chakra into a rotating mass of lightning that flares out and bursts into an enormous shockwave intended to attack the nervous systems of everything it touches with its electricity and stun.
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks Shinji with 8-TRIGRAMS-HEAVENLY-SHOCKWAVE with a roll of: 65
COMBAT: Yasuo finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Shinji's turn.
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks you with GREAT-HEAVENLY-SPIN and rolls a 64. Action?
COMBAT: Shinji defends against GREAT-HEAVENLY-SPIN(64) attack from Yasuo with a WALL-OF-SPITE…36
COMBAT: Shinji loses the roll and sustains 568 damage.
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks you with 8-TRIGRAMS-HEAVENLY-SHOCKWAVE and rolls a 65. Action?
COMBAT: Shinji counters against a 8-TRIGRAMS-HEAVENLY-SHOCKWAVE(65) attack from Yasuo with a SEETHING-SUNDER…43
COMBAT: Shinji loses the roll and sustains 874 damage.
COMBAT: Shinji attacks Yasuo with FLASH-FIRE with a roll of: 35
COMBAT: Shinji attacks Yasuo with SCOURGE-STRIKE with a roll of: 35
"The great irony is that I was far less harmful when I still had the Sharingan," Shinji rasps out as he falls from the trees, energy crackling through his nervous system, sending him into a more or less graceful descent upon his geta. As he lands, he stabs his sword into the ground and drags it out, making certain to spread the fire with every movement he makes. "This flame, born of their treachery? It did not exist. In those days, Uchiha Shinji shared the hope for Konoha that his brother once held. He could not even maim a man with his power, but if you deem me a monstrosity, then I am one of your Hokage's own creation!"
He's already suffering badly in this battle, but considering he's blind, the things he's capable of doing are rather impressive. Seems something or other drove him to adapt to his situation, as well as to harness the terrible power which had arisen from his core. He thrusts forward again, and as the sword nears its target, the viscous fire enveloping it flares in a blinding flash. Quickly, he swings to change his grip and judges the distance in height he's measured, aiming to smack the side of Yasuo's head with the flat of his blade.
COMBAT: Shinji finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Yasuo's turn.
COMBAT: Yasuo defends against FLASH-FIRE(35) attack from Shinji with a JUUKEN-DODGE-II…46
COMBAT: Yasuo wins the roll.
COMBAT: Yasuo defends against SCOURGE-STRIKE(35) attack from Shinji with a JUUKEN-DODGE-II…44
COMBAT: Yasuo wins the roll.
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks Shinji with 8-TRIGRAMS-HEAVENLY-SHOCKWAVE with a roll of: 71
A bit surprised that that didn't restrain Shinji despite it hitting, Yasuo lifts an eyebrow and watches as the Uchiha comes his way. The wrath this one feels to have He sidesteps each of the fiery strikes as he spins once more, sending out a spiral of lightning energy in a massive wave once again with intent to put him down. "Blame your plight on whoever you wish if you must," his voice rings out as the blast flares out. "It will not bring you peace in the end." Truth be told, he's held back from showing forth his full level of Byakugan in this battle, but perhaps that time is closing toward the end of the battle as the forest around them blazes higher and higher with the effects of the battle.
COMBAT: Yasuo finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Shinji's turn.
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks you with 8-TRIGRAMS-HEAVENLY-SHOCKWAVE and rolls a 71. Action?
COMBAT: Shinji defends against 8-TRIGRAMS-HEAVENLY-SHOCKWAVE(71) attack from Yasuo with a WALL-OF-SPITE…49
COMBAT: Shinji loses the roll and sustains 410 damage.
Shinji is beaten, and he knows it. However, there was a time not so long ago when he graduated as both a genjutsuist and a tactician from the Leaf Academy. Every strike dealt toward Yasuo has unavoidably impacted the forest around them, with a fire now quickly spreading between trunks and amongst the canopy. "If ANBU has ever honored me in any way, it is by always sending its more skilled combatants. Such a shame that I couldn't show you the disapproving visage that I showed my last opponent from your ranks," he sighs out, "but it seems my time has come. This time, it will be an end of my choosing. With growing strength, and a will defiant of the darkness, I rob you of victory and set into motion my own plans! One by one, the villages touched with doubt shall hear of this news and rise up against the Hokage!"
No allowing things to go along as they will, as he did back when he crossed paths with Eremi. Shinji swiftly turns his sword about and drives it into his own midsection in an act of pure, vengeful wrath. He focuses chakra inward, to his center, as the viscous fire fluctuates and ripples out of control. Hotter and hotter, until at last, the chakra metal sword shatters and explodes outward. What pieces of the weapon aren't dissolved into dust upon the wind instead scatter and imbed themselves into waiting wood, where each shard is the seed for a new fire.
Shinji falls to his knees and then back, thudding against the ground. There's more chakra within him, but it goes unused, just as his own rage seems to wane. The wrath vanishes from him. "Strange," he whispers through the blood burbling in his throat. His center is nearly gone, and the rest of him will soon perish. "I can't see, and yet, I /can/ see the future I hope for. The one I'd always hoped for. When my piece finally moves on the board, hopefully aided by the liberators I have inspired … Daisuke will be no more. There will be freedom for all."
He slowly breathes in and out, crackling audible with each inhale and exhale. Shinji's long journey is nearly at an end, and he seems to be curiously at peace with that. Whether Yasuo chooses to end it or simply let nature do the rest is the initiate's decision. Would killing him truly stain his hands with tainted blood?
COMBAT: Shinji finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Yasuo's turn.
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks Shinji with 8-TRIGRAMS-THUNDERING-PALM with a roll of: 56
As the Uchiha is downed, the Hyuuga steps over to him and lifts an eyebrow beneath his mask at the man's words. What's odder than his words is that the man has taken TWO stunning attacks at their full force and still manages to use acts of jutsu. Still, by now Akumu doesn't trust that the man actually has enough energy left to off himself or that he's actually doing so rather than pretending to so that he can recuperate later and plague Konoha further with his plans, though such a plan would be rather hard to pull off against a Hyuuga with his level of dojutsu.
"You may think you are somehow pulling off some victory in trying to rob me of your death or feigning at doing so… but I am not so petty-minded, and I am not going to let it be said I performed sloppily and was not certain it was actually completed," he says as he steps up to the man on the ground and stares down at him. He then stretches his left arm down past normal limits to pick the Uchiha up by his collar while he moves his other hand back into a ready position with an open palm as it begins to fiercely crackle with lightning. The lightning builds up more and more around his hand until he at last lets Shinji's collar go and strikes forward with his palm directly at his heart with a strike that will thunder out on impact and likely wreak aboslute havoc on the Uchiha's body.
COMBAT: Yasuo finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Shinji's turn.
COMBAT: Yasuo attacks you with 8-TRIGRAMS-THUNDERING-PALM and rolls a 56. Action?
That's what wrath will do for you. Even so, he's as docile as can be by the time Yasuo prepares his strike, standing already upon death's doorstep. It's difficult to escape a burnt, gaping, shrapnel-filled hole in one's own midsection. Shinji is thus easily struck by Yasuo's palm, and he takes a step forward. From the doorstep, onward through the doorway.
As the energy spreads from his heart throughout his body, the effect is curious, and it's only for him. His mind registers one last memory of Inuzuka Takeo, Master Jinchuuriki, Sage. The man's leaf-adorned longcoat flutters with the wind as he stands upon the lake made to be his own grave, as well as the grave of a great many bandits. Had this man noticed him at last, to welcome him to the afterlife?
"Fate is what we make of it. Strange that I hated you for so long, and yet, wove a path so similar to yours," thinks Shinji, as if mentally conversing with his sibling. "We both fought the same foe, but you saw him first. You were the wiser of us, brother."
So ends Uchiha Shinji, and with Yasuo's blow, the parents of the two brothers lose both promising descendants. There were rumors that Takeo had died saving a daughter. Who knows. For the moment, their legacy lies like a charred epitaph to rebellion seared into the forest floor.
COMBAT: You must finish defending against all attacks first.
COMBAT: It is now Yasuo's turn.
COMBAT: Shinji left combat at 22.7 percent stamina.
RP: Shinji leaves the roleplay.
RP: Shinji reverts to his normal state.
RP: Yasuo leaves the roleplay.
RP: Yasuo reverts to his normal state.
