Starring:
Date: September 9, 2010
Summary:
The past is revisited just as the future is decided by the actions of the present.
"Shadow Play - Will of Fire"
Hokage's Look Out, Hokage's Office
At first, the slight shimmer of heat would only be noticable by the completely aware of this instance, time and space at the top of the Hokage's Look out. The invisible flame would once again reveal people, this time two, as Yuzuna and Rainos would emerge at their destination. "Ready your gaze, and do not say anything. Your thoughts may even betray you… you must focus and never lose sight of… anything that you hold dear. Even if it is only one thing, focus all of your will on that thing, or death will take you." Uchiha Rainos would say suddenly before releasing her hand. "I cannot protect you from death, it is up to you." Rainos would then begin to lead her to the area where the ANBU enter, via a bit of terr walking along the outside of the building. "Eight… i believe… we are to slip in here to by pass your people. WE must reach Nuraku before we are postponed. He must not be aware of out presence before we arrive." Rainos would explain. Obviously he had gone through personell files thoroughly.
Appearing seemingly out of nowhere, Yuzuna blinks her pale opal eyes once before glancing around, soft lips parting slightly as she finds herselsf at the top of the Hokage's Lookout. She frowns mildly as she gives Rain a glance, listening. "You are asking a lot of me… to ask me to risk my life." Her jaw firms, giving the impression of displeasure for several moment before she turns her gaze away from him. "I will keep that in mind…" Yuzuna murmurs softer. She struggles not to curl her hands into fists as she silently follows him into the Hokage's office.
"That is the way of the shinobi." Rainos would lightly quip as they slipped into the secret entrance to the Hokage's look out. A small dark room that was above the Hokage's office and offered little mroe than port holes to see down on the Kage and anyone else made up this area. There were entrances downward of course, but Rainos would place his arm against her chest to stop her from moving. "Look to Nuraku, locate what is mine and tell me precisely where it is within his mass." Rainos would say very lowly to her. His Sharingan was activated at full force, but as he mentioned, he was all but blind in this situation. To stand before Nuraku and attempt this mean that he faced risking his prize in another stalemate. If only… Natsumi were still with him.
Yuzuna slowly and cautiously follows after Rainos, particially pressing herself against the closest wall and keeping a hand brushing against the surface. As it becomes darker around them, she gives into the urge as her pale opal eyes suddenly becomes intense with the overwhelming gaze of the Byakugan, veins spiderwebbing from the corners of her eyes outwards towards her temples. Though she was fully prepared to continue forward, Rain's arm snatches backwards to keep her still. Yuzuna gives him a quick glance, frowning mildly as she was told to look for Nuraku. As if she knew who this was. Her confused frown lingers, but she does not ask for further information as he told her not to speak.
Shifting her gaze, Yuzuna almost blinks with some surprise as she sees the chakra network of someone beneath them, though it is difficult to tell if this person is human or not. Blinking once more, the Hyuuga kunoichi narrows her focus with intent, her shoulders tense as she realizes she is seeing more, faint chakra near the core. A curled bundle of budding chakra set in the stomach of the creature. "Its…" Yuzuna hesitates, almost feeling sick, "between the rib cage and the pelvis… Like, its been swallowed…" she murmurs faintly. She couldn't bring herself to say what it was, as the thought of a creature swallowing a baby…
Nuraku's thick chakra tentacles would be writhing as they clutched the backs of the elders, directly wired in to their chakra system and even their nervous system it seemed. They were all puppets, used at his will at all times he wished it. It would be obvious to Yuzuna's eyes that this was the case, and the Nuraku had an absolutely staggering amount of chakra that didn't move in the same way as normal chakra. Instead of spiraling around from the stomache area, it was more like a furnace that fed each individual part of his body. He could direct all of his chakra any where he wished easily as his physiology was warped so much to allow it. His body was very thin, nothing but skin and bones, and he looked increadibly as if he could barely stand up. His tongue was missing, as were his lips, and his eye lids. He was nearly the visage of a walking corpse, heart beat so slow that some times it would seem to stop and start up again.
Rainos would stare at the floor as Yuzuna spoke to him of Nuraku carrying his child. "Nuraku…" he would say with the slightest breath burning with the deepest of sufferings and rage.
Flash Back:
A baby would be heard crying as Rain assisted a woman he trusted to deliver his son. With great pride he would smile at Natsumi who was exhausted, but sat up to view the infant they had together this day. Natsumi would place her hand on to Rain's and breathlessly say "Name him." Rainos would take a long moment to consider as he'd never done this before. "Fudo." he would finally announce. The name meant roughly 'God of Fire and Wisdom' and while it was short and to the point in saying, it carried great weight and hope. Natsumi would smile once again before falling alseep, and Rain would place their child into her arms. The nurse who aided them seemed to stiffen before smiling and saying she'd leave them be for now and leaving. As she would close the door, a long shadow would be cast on her as someone stood in front of her.
Not even a few weeks later, Natsumi sacrificed herself in order to make sure that Rain could progress forward. A lover, a wife, a mother gave everything she was to her husband and their child. Rain was furious at all times but when he could hold his child. "We shall make her proud Fudo…" he would say to the baby one night before putting him to bed next to his own, secret from even the trusted in the Takokujin. However, a shadow would be cast on the crib soon after they were both asleep, the guards outside drained of all of their chakra and seemingly life force. The baby was picked up and shifted to rest against the shadows body, held there by a tendril of chakra wrapped around it. The baby would begin to cry, causing Rain to snap to his feet, only to be taken control of by the shadow. A voice would boom in his head, "You will be devoured." and that was all that he would know before chakra would be drained from him in massive quantities. Rain would activate his sharingan, ready to compete in a battle of wills, but he noticed his son was captured. This was a move to make him helpless. Rain would say "Wait! You must be able to see farther than a … meal in order to have subdued me…. what is it you really want?" The shadow would state, "Nuraku wants to devour all." Rain went wide eyed, but he calmed very smoothly. "I can offer you… a kingdom that will supply you with infinite sacrifices… you will never go hungry… you can control your stock and supply… This is all yours as long as you do not harm my son." Nuraku would not take any time to think about it before dropping Rain. "Agreed." the thought would be imprinted before the tendril was extracted.
End Flash Back
Rainos would clench his fist very tightly as he stared almost through the floor they both stood on. "You may go now." he stated firmly to Yuzuna as he seemed to prepare a vast amount of chakra for what was about to occur. "Or you may observe how to defeat the impossible."
Yuzuna blinks her pale eyes once before she glances back to Rain, mildly bewildered as she stares at him openly. "You… could not possibly be serious." she murmurs. "I know you are strong, but can you really defeat that… thing? It seems inhuman. Who knows what it is capable of, or what its weaknesses may be." She frowns slightly again as she looks downwards to where the Hokage's office is. Silent for a moment longer. "Besides. I can not let you go in there by yourself." Yuzuna murmurs softer, only to faintly sigh, "I seem to have too much of a soft heart for my clan." She shakes her ebony head.
"This conflict is not about can, it is about must. I will not fail. You should understand that much, follower of the Will of Fire." Rainos would state as his preparations were completed. "If you are going to insist on coming, then you have one task. You must stun one of your elders. Do not hesitate. Do not question. This is your duty in this moment. If you hesitate for one instant, you will likely not survive." Taking the time to prepare with a few hand seals, Rainos would ask finally, "Are you ready?"
Yuzuna glances back to Rain with some hesitation, quiet as she listens to the Uchiha. Gently pressing her soft lips together, she murmurs softer, "As one can be." the kunoichi replies. "Just… if I am to die for your cause… Can you tell Hyuuga Hiroshi-san how I strove for the good of Konona?" The intensity of the Byakugan watches him for a moment longer before Yuzuna glances back towards the office, already focusing chakra.
"Perhaps eventually, it is not as if i am to live here when i am done." Rainos would state before motioning to silence and then moving towards a position that was near directly above Nuraku. Flickering down from one of the discrete floor panels, Rainos would immediately be surrounded by the elders, coming at him with kunai and all facing inwards towrds Nuraku. He would be impaled several times before poofing as the real Rainos would still be focusing a seal as he stood upside down on the cieling. He fired a barrage of small fire balls down upon the mass, which quickly dispersed as he would fly through the flames. More of those invisble chakra tentacles would spring up and come at Rainos, and he'd have to twist through the air rapidly as he set up yet another ninjutsu. Kunai would br thrown at him before he would reach Nuraku's body, and electro magnetism would cause the blades to whirl around his form and fling all of the weapons up in to the ceiling with a cacaophony of thumps. His gaze would be able to reach Nuraku now, and the representative of death would be forced to remain still, tendrils and all for a few seconds. Landing just before Nuraku, Rainos would twist int oa high kick and a low back hand, spreading his body wide apart as he pried the disabled monster apart from around his son. "Now!" he would yell as the elders would be a mere half a moment from stopping his actions.
Great. If she died, her death would be a mystery to the village. Yuzuna remains silent as she holds back a sigh, instead focusing her Byakugan on the other room as she presses herself against the wall and into the shadows, keeping herself hidden as Rain leaps through the panel into the room beyond. Most of the fight was beyond her natural sight, though the Byakugan flashed with chakra as it is used. Yuzuna tries to keep herself from being distraction with the rush of action as she focuses chakra steadily through her fingers, waiting as Rain lands in front of Nuraku and desperately begins to pry apart the creature's core. Firming her jaw, she pushes off hard in a sudden blur of speed towards the closest Elder, her long ebony hair whipping behind her as her hand comes to close over the back of the neck and releases a strong, paralysing current of chakra. The temporary paralysis jutsu is only that, temporary. But it should cause enough of a shock to the system to effect the creature Rain called Nuraku.
And that is exactly what happens, The elders are forced to stop as soon as they begin to make contact with Rainos, and Nuraku is further contained by this action as well. Rainos cradles the child carefully but quickly as he would wriggle out from Nuraku and the elders with a shallow back flip, landing almost on his knees as he would make sure to cover up the child. "Out the window, now." he would command of the young Hyuga girl as he used a technique that caused the kunai to strike every elder as well as Nuraku and paralyze their systems. Holding his child against hie heart, he inhaled very deeply before lowering the child and benging forward fully, blasting a wide breath of fire at the windows and causing them to blow out before he would himself run towards the flaming opening and dive out towards what ever fate he would have after that. If Yuzuna looked carefully, she would see that he and the child were burning! But there was no flame on them, they simply faded away in the chaos.
Yuzuna grips her hand a bit tighter at the back of the neck she held for a moment longer before releasing her hold altogether, snapping her pale eyes upwards with the intensity of the Byakugan. Her fingers tighten into fists at her sides, hearing the stern command over the roar of the sudden flash fire, every window shattering as glass is blown outwards. Her body tenses before the Hyuuga kunoichi pushes off with a blur of speed, leaping through the flaming window as smoke and lapping orange flames lick at her heals. She seems to fly across open air for several moments before rolling to a smooth halt on a building rooftop, coughing some as Yuzuna snaps her gaze quickly around for Rain and the child. Though it seems he has disappeared.
