"Alright, I'm free from mission duties, packed all my things, enough clothes to last the way there and back... I'm ready!" Jiro thought to himself as he scanned his room for anything that he may have missed. "This is my first travel outside the village... I wonder how long it'll be before I come back to this place..." Jiro sighed. He got a pain in his stomach as he shut his bedroom window and gave one last gaze at his room before turning off the lights, shutting the door and walking down the stairs. "Hey, Jiro, where do you think you're goin' so early in the morning?" an old man sitting in his rocking chair asked him suspiciously mere moments before he almost got away. Jiro sighed before turning around to face the old man. "Grandpa, I told you already... I'm going on a journey to the old shrine in Otogakure." he replied, the slight sound of depression in his voice. Jiro was expecting his grandfather to demand that he unpack all his things and never think of it again, but he was shocked when he instead shook his head and allowed him to go.
"...Really?" Jiro asked in shock, his grandfather was usually never this generous. "Ah what the hell, you need to see this world for what it is at one point... you know, back in my day, I travelled from here to the land of wind at the crack o' dawn every mornin'! Why, this is a great opportunity for you to get ou-" Jiro walked out of the door before his grandfather could finish his speech. He knew that when grandpa got going, he rambled on for hours to the point that he didn't even know what he was talking about anymore. Jiro walked down the busy streets of Konoha, eventually running into 3 Chunin that were always bugging him. The chubbiest one dressed in a black T-shirt, slightly ripped black pants and leather boots to the left was named "Ba"; the one to the right with a tattered Chunin vest, a broken Kunai knife dangling from a rope around his waist, basic ninja pants, and sandals was named "Kurt"; and the one in the middle, their leader and the strongest and smartest of the three was named "Tamo", dressed in a polished Chunin vest, red ninja pants, polished red shoes with the toes sticking out and a headband tied around his thighed. Tamo shoved Jiro to the ground without hesitation and they beat up on him. "Who's the baby Uchiha? Who is he? Huh?!" Tamo said with a wide, evil grin on his face. When they got bored, they left him there. "...Jerks..." Jiro muttered under his breath".
"What'd you say?!" the three of them said in unison as they looked back. "I said..." Jiro paused due to injury and then continued. "...You're all lousy, low-life, two-faced jerks!" Jiro repeated at the top of his lungs and got into a fighting position, readying the blade at his side. "Let's shut him up for good, boys." Tamo said cockily, cracking his knuckles and the other two glaring evilly at Jiro. Before the two sides could clash, a Jonin stepped in to break it up. He told Tamo and his friends to back off, and Jiro to put his weapon away. Jiro walked past them calmly and continued for the Konoha gate.
The trio gave him a dirty look as the Jonin walked off, staring him down like a pack of lions would stare down their prey, even though Jiro wasn't even paying attention to them anymore. He could slightly hear the faint words of a plot to get back at him for what he said to them. He thought of it as nothing more than an empty threat and decided to ignore it as he past the gates.
He continued a ways down an animal trail. He decided it would be best to take the scenic route, due to the fact that he was in no rush anyway. He enjoyed nature as he walked for awhile. He realized that he had left a little too late, as the sun was now setting and he could hear the faint sound of wolves and other night animals filling the forest. It would soon prove too dangerous to stay in the wilderness. He decided to set up camp when he came to a strangely large opening. Battered from his beating earlier, aswell as forgetting to eat anything before he left, he realized he had to eat quickly and then get some rest. He pulled out his bag and rummaged through his supplies quickly to find anything that he might find appetizing. His eyes almost sparkled when he dug out a piece of sirloin steak from his backpack. He decided he needed to satisfy his hunger, and he wasn't afraid to fight a few wild animals to do so. He slowly peered his head out of his tent and saw nothing. With a sigh of relief, he slowly arched his body outside the tent and into the blinding darkness.
He could barely see 2 feet in front of him, but Jiro was so hungry he didn't care at the time. He quickly searched everywhere for anything he could use to light a fire. He found a few sticks, another couple rocks, and a seemingly endless supply of coal, for some reason all gathered in one spot in the woods. This led Jiro to believe that, for some unknown reason, someone nearby has been mining. He didn't care regardless what some weirdo with a pickaxe was doing this far out in the middle of nowhere, he just wanted something to eat. And so he waited, and waited, and waited for his food to cook. What seemed like hours was mere seconds. There was tension in the air as the night grew. Jiro was always afraid of the dark.
He started having strange flashbacks that he couldn't recall. Of people dancing around a campfire, of people laughing and cheering, and of a baby crying. "AGH!" Jiro screamed as he grabbed at his head. His life was flashing before his eyes, but strangely enough he couldn't remember 90% of this "Life" that was flashing before him. When it stopped, he instantly stood up and drew his sword, realizing that he saw a shadow flash by. Instantly, he felt a sharp pain in his knee. Someone had just attacked it before he could react. He saw a cut and blood was dripping down. Jiro quickly ran inside the tent and wrapped a bandage around his injured knee. Seconds later, he could faintly here someone shout "Fire style: Fireball Jutsu". He knew this was bad. Jiro jumped out of the tent right before his tent burned to a crisp. The fabric from the tent went flying in all directions and a small piece landed on Jiro's clothes, burning them a bit. He quickly got up to look face to face with the apparent attacker.
The attacker had an Otogakure headband and was apparently male. "We have come to kill you... Uchiha...." the Oto ninja said without emotion. He had a mask covering his entire face except for his eyes, so Jiro couldn't tell if he had any emotion at all. The ninja drew hidden claws attached to his wrists and attacked Jiro head on. Jiro managed to dodge some of the blows, but he was slowing down due to multiple injuries he had suffered earlier from the 3 Konoha Chunin aswell as the blows inflicted by this ninja. Jiro guarded a fatal blow with the arm pads that he luckily wears all the time. He countered the ninja's attack with an elbow to the gut, then a knee to the chin, sending him flying into the dirt. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Jiro shouted as he launched a small fireball from his mouth, not yet possessing enough Chakra or stamina to create an ordinary sized one. When the fire cleared, the ninja was roasted and burnt beyond recognition. "Thank god it's over... I can't continue with the Chakra I have left..." Jiro thought to himself as he bent down to look at the dead ninja. "Who is he..." Jiro wondered.
When he got up, he heard more feet running towards him. He looked to his right, but it was too late. He felt the sharp pain of a kick straight to the side of his head. He rolled along the ground for a few feet and then smashed headfirst into a tree. "...What..... Is this....." he thought to himself in confusion as 20 or 30 shadows walked towards him, unidentifiable as he was about to pass out. Just as he was about to go unconscious, he saw someone step in front of him and start battling with the other ninja. He could hear distant shouts, cries of death and the smell of blood. It was too much for the young Genin to take in all at once, and he collapsed before he could see the conclusion to the battle.
When he awoke, he was looking at a ceiling. He didn't know what time of day it was or even where he was. He could hear birds chirping outside though, so he assumed it was some time in the afternoon. The smell of grains and the sound of water being poured could be heard nearby. Hours felt like minutes as he was doing nothing but watching the ceiling for an undetermined amount of time. He was beginning to wonder if he was even alive at this point. Jiro tried to move, but couldn't muster enough strength to even lift his hand. He slowly turned his head to the left and saw his bag at the other end of the room. He raised his arm to try to reach it before realizing it was ridiculous to try such a thing from across a room.
Giving up hope on moving, he decided to close his eyes and sleep again, feeling somewhat comfortable in this strange, tranquil, yet peaceful place that, from what he could tell, would be glad to call his home if it were rightfully his. But for now, he stopped worrying about something so trivial and decided to rest. He opened his eyes and saw white light everywhere. He could hear arguing in the background, but there was nothing anywhere. He dropped to the ground and grabbed at his head. He got another flashback. He saw two Konoha shinobi fighting eachother. They both seemed to be Jonin or higher in rank and both in atleast their late 30's to early 40's. One of them had Sharingan eyes activated and the other was using amazingly strong Jutsu that he had never even known existed. The two appeared to have ran out of Chakra. Each pulled out a kunai and threw them at eachother. Each hit the opposition. The Sharingan user was hit in the knee and the other unknown ninja in the arm. They appeared to have ran out of kunai aswell and both of them rushed at eachother full speed and yelling. As the two fists clashed, the flashback ended.
"What... does this mean?" Jiro asked himself as the white world he was in faded and he blacked out again. Jiro woke up again, this time in that same room he was in before, still staring at the ceiling. Raising his arms, he realized he could move perfectly now. Shockingly, even more so than before. He got up and felt overflowing energy. As he got out of bed, a boy, probably 5 or 6, walked into the room. They gazed eachother down for an entire minute, the wind coming through the window blowing in their faces. "What is it, son?" a voice from behind the boy rang. "He's awake, daddy!" a smile erupted on the boys face and cheerfully ran out of the room. Standing where his son was mere moments ago, a tall, muscular man, seeming to be in his late 50's, walked in. "Ah, you finally woke up. You were unconscious for over a week, you know. You're probably hungry, aren't you?" the man said with a smile and made a gesture as if asking Jiro to follow. Jiro followed the man out of the room and into another, even bigger room with a table and tiny wine glasses in front of chairs surrounding the table. The table itself is white with a blue tablecloth surrounding it. Jiro sat down at the chair nearest to him. He and the man talked for awhile until a maid came in with a teapot.
"Would you care for some?" the man asked politely, already pouring some into his wine glass. "Erm... no thanks." Jiro replied, keeping his eyes on the wine glass as the man took a drink from his. "That's alright, then." the man said, sipping it and then putting it back down again. "Now, as for why you're here..." the man continued, connecting his eyes with Jiro's as a more serious expression arose on his face. Jiro waited patiently for the man to continue. For a moment, it was so silent that it seemed time had stopped. "...My name is Taro. I saw you being attacked in the woods late last night, so I came to help you. Those guys were nasty, eh?" the man known as Taro finally said something. Jiro breathed a sigh of relief, expecting him to say that he was being kept prisoner, or that he was going to die, or something much worse. "At any rate, you're free to go any time. Just to warn you that they could come after you again any time." Taro continued, taking a large gulp of his tea and setting it down again. "Either way, I wish you luck in whatever it is you're doing out here. You don't seem to be very experienced in combat, or all that intelligent." Taro said again, a bit of a mocking tone this time. Jiro's face lit up red and he seemed to respond angrily from that remark. "Hahaha, just kidding. Don't take it so seriously!" Taro laughed, finishing up his tea and standing up.
Jiro stood up aswell and went back into the room he was in previously to get his bag and sword. "Ahhh... it was a nice rest, but I really have to get going." he said to no one in particular while still looking at the room. He turned around and Taro was already down by the door that lead outside, waiting for him with a smile. "It was nice having you here for the week. Try to visit sometime again, alright?" Taro stated, holding his hand out to Jiro. "Heheh, sure." Jiro replied, shaking hands with the man. Jiro went into a state of shock when he realized the man's words. "1 Week....?!!!" Jiro silently muttered out loud. "Yeah, it's been about a week by now." Taro replied, not realizing what he had just said that made it so shocking. "Gah!!! Sorry, but I have to go now! Bye!" Jiro shouted loudly while dashing out the door. "Geez, that kid really doesn't seem fit to be a ninja..." Taro muttered under his breath and face palmed as he shut the door to his house, taking one last look at Jiro and smiling as he turned away. "He kind of reminds me... of him." Taro thought to himself as he walked back into his house.
Jiro dashed full speed down the roads, looking for any signs that he was getting closer to Otogakure. He saw a sign that said "Otogakure. 3 Miles". Jiro was completely lost and had no idea where he was going, but it seemed he was in luck that he was so close. He walked down the path, taking his time again and enjoying the scenery as he was before he was attacked by those ninjas. "I've been out of it for a week... I can't believe it." Jiro said to himself, depressed. He continued walking for awhile with his hands in his pockets. He heard a twig snap in the bushes and he turned and looked at the bush that he heard it from. He figured it was nothing, so he looked a way and continued along the path. He eventually saw a restaurant come into sight. Jiro thought it was odd that there'd be a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, but figured he shouldn't be so quick to judge. He just remembered that he had never gotten to eat that steak he was cooking up last night. Desperate to get something to eat, he went inside the restaurant.
Inside, he was shocked to find that no one was there. No customers, no one at the front desk, no cooks, no one in the washrooms, not even any noise besides his own. He figured someone forgot to lock up and that it was closed. That was, until, he saw blood Underneath the door that read "Employees only". Jiro cautiously opened the door and slowly walked into the dark, damp, depressing room that was dirty everywhere. Suddenly, the door slammed behind him and the lights turned on. He saw a man at the end, dressed the same as the other ninja that attacked him a week ago. "Heh...heh..." the ninja coughed a bit, and then made a noise that sounded like laughing, but Jiro wasn't sure. To the right of the man was a huge stack of dead bodies, Jiro counted 20 in total.
"HAHAHAHAHA! You walked right into it! As expected of a failure of a Genin!" the ninja laughed with joy and claws attached to his arm shot out, rushing towards the young Uchiha Genin. The ninja made a feint slash downwards with his claws, and then quickly launched an upward kick, smashing Jiro in the gut and knocking him through a wall. "Now to claim the prize we've been waiting generations for! Give us your eyes!!!!" the ninja said, ready to finish Jiro off as he stood before him. The ninja brought the claws down to Jiro. Right before he was about to finish him off, Jiro blocked with his arm guard, then drew his sword with his other arm and slashed the ninja's waist, knocking him back as blood shot out. "Why did you kill all these people?!" Jiro shouted at the ninja in rage. "Heheheh... what people?" the ninja asked as the entire house puffed away in a cloud of smoke and the dead bodies puffed away and were replaced with logs. "You made it seem like a restaurant in order to lure me in... you don't seem to be an average ninja." Jiro replied in shock.
"Yeah... but in the end, I still failed... brethren! Avenge me!" the ninja shouted as he fell to the ground, bleeding to death. Jiro ran out of there and eventually made his way to Otogakure. He asked many people along the way and eventually found the shrine. "I'm finally here!" he thought to himself in excitement as he went to the middle of the shrine and found the bell he went all this way for. He held it with pride and began to walk out of the shrine. Right before he was about to exit the shrine with it, the ground collapsed, sending him underground. When he awoke, he found himself deep underground. He could see the sky above him through the hole he fell through. "I don't have enough Chakra to climb up there... I should probably look for a way out of this place. I don't wanna die here!" Jiro thought to himself as he got up and headed forward. Strangely enough, there appeared to have been people mining here a long time ago. It all looked abandoned now though. He ignored all the mine carts and drills left abandoned at the side and continued down a long path that seemed to have been drilled or mined through already. He was relieved that everything seemed to be easy to navigate.
He eventually came to a two-way sign. The left way said "Exit". The right way also said "Exit". The left path went up and the right path went down. "I want to go as far up as possible... I think I'll go left." Jiro said, taking a look at the right before going left. When he got to the top, he saw an opening. He looked out it and saw a long way down. It was indeed an exit, but not the type of exit he was looking for. He was planning to get out alive.
Before he could turn around, someone pushed him, sending him off the cliff. Jiro quickly grabbed onto the ledge, however his sword aswell as his bag fell to the bottom. He heard a "Smash". The sound of metal breaking as it hit the bottom. "No! That was my father's...." Jiro watched as the sword crashed and broke in half at the bottom. He heard 3 different laughs. To his horror, he looked up to see Ba, Kurt and Tamo. "Poor little Uchiha! Let's see how big you'll talk when you're splattered all over the ground." Tamo laughed as he talked. The other two repeated as he said it. Tamo stomped on Jiro's hands, trying to make him fall.
Jiro let go, spread Chakra to his feet, stood on the ledge with his feet and tackled Tamo, jumping back into the cave where he was before he was rudely pushed off by Tamo. He fought Kurt and Ba, blocking their punches and kicks and countering them. Eventually, Ba and Kurt toppled into Tamo. The trio was lying on the floor unconscious. Jiro was shocked at how weak they were. All this time he could have easily beaten all three of them. Remembering this for the future, he ran back down the path and went to the other exit to the right instead. It was a huge opening with an opening at the end. Light was peering through it and he could see trees and hear birds. He rushed for it, but he saw figures stepping through the opening and coming inside, blocking it. They were the same ninjas as before, but there were 10 of them this time. They wasted no time talking this time and immediately attacked Jiro, drawing all of their claws.
Jiro tried to block them, but when he blocked one, he got slashed by another. They eventually overwhelmed him and sent him flying back. They took their time beating on him while he was down until one of them picked him up with one hand and smashed him against a wall. "Now... your eyes are OURS TO KEEP!!!" the ninja said, preparing to stab him. The ninja brought the claw to his stomach, drew it back and lunged it at Jiro. "It can't end here..." Jiro thought to himself. Suddenly, the bells glowed and a shield surrounded him, shattering the claw that the ninja was about to stab him with. The entire group jumped back a few feet in awe. "What is that light..." one of them asked. "That bell... that bell caused it! We must take it from him." another one shouted in desperation. They all jumped at him at once, attempting to pile on Jiro as the shield has now dispersed. "What's going on...?" Jiro thought to himself as he looked at the glowing bell. Right when they were all going to stab Jiro at once, another shield formed, destroying all of their weapons and knocking them into the ground. "Is this what I came here for?" he said to himself. "Hmph.... we can't get close. We need to use our Forbidden Jutsu!" one of them said. "Yes..." another one said.
They all formed a hand sign in synchronization, one that not even Jiro knew of, then slammed their hands into the ground. From the ground emerged a black, liquid-looking monster. Jiro shot at one like a bullet with all his strength packed into his fist. He punched it and his fist went right through the ugly creature, whatever it was. Unaffected by the hit, the creature smashed Jiro back into the wall with its head. As the creature inched towards him, he could hear the ninjas laughing in triumph. "No... not yet!" Jiro thought to himself as he struggled to get back up. The bell flashed with an even greater light than before. A beam shot out of the bell and headed right through the monster's chest. The monster didn't react at all at first, but eventually groaned and bursted into pieces.
"What?!" one of the ninja shouted out loud. "That's impossible, that was supposed to be indestructible!" he stated in disappointment and amazement at the same time. "We've run out of Chakra, we should retreat for now. We do have plenty of time after all." another one said. "Yeah, I know... let's get outta here." the other ninja said again. In seconds, they dispersed and Jiro was alone again. He walked out of the cave and into the sunlight. It took him weeks, but he finally managed to get back to Konoha. He went back to his house and set his bag down, depressed that his sword was broken too much to carry back. "Where were 'ya, sonny boy?" his grandpa asked him. Jiro sighed and ignored him, going back up to his room. He tossed his bag into the corner of his room and lied on his bed. Too tired to speak, he just took the bell from around his neck and looked at it in amazement. "What kind of power are you..." Jiro thought to himself as he rolled it around in his palm before setting it on his desk and going to sleep.
Sat Jul 23, 2011 1:51 pm by 
