ABOUT US

[Utakata]

March 17th, early morning.

A night's rest was hardly a night's rest.

After the fight with the demonic construct of the Iwagakure's power, which proved that he was the village's jinchuuriki, Utakata could only wonder why they would allow him to leave their village. The political blow of the Yonbi's disappearance during the Samurai War, be it from Akatsuki or the Samurai themselves, reached even Kirigakure's ears. There was talk about a possible new war happening in the far west, a change in the power vacuum. Yet that seemed to not happen, which Utakata imagined was quite the blessing after the Samurai attack.

Amber eyes slowly opened from a light doze. He did not know if he had been able to actually sleep. It was restless, constantly shifting, feeling a presence in the air. Yet there was none that he knew of. Every time he had awoken to the darkness, grey and dim, the moon's light corroded into a gray-brown haze with the endless dust and ash of the country's infertile earth becoming dry clouds in the skies.

The rotation of the night watch was the only blessing, it seemed. It was enough to distract the person -- who shifted in half-hour rotations -- from the bitterness of sleep. The final watch had been one Utakata had volunteered to take, if only to escape the monotony of the rest.

The sun was just beginning to kiss the grey skies with a lighter shade of grey in the east. Colors wanted to be vibrant, but even here they were desaturated as they crossed over the country of Izumi. This place was depressing as could be, Utakata felt, and it was beginning to wear on him. He did not mind the fighting and he only minded the other shinobi being around a small bit. They had taken Utakata's warning seriously, and he was constantly giving them obvious glances when they made to act out.

There was to be no laughter here. No laughter, no joy, no happiness. They were on a mission. Jovial passiveness to endure the blistering doldrums of the country was a waste of emotion.

At least, for the shinobi of Kirigakure.

The shinobi gave a quiet sigh, shifting on his rocky seat. It was uncomfortable as the rest of the land, and he simply waited. But something caught his ears, a sound that made his eyes narrow.

Those amber eyes of his scanned the horizon, looking for any signs of movement. Still, aside from the dead winds that pushed along curtains of nutrition-less dust, and nothing alive.

Then why was he hearing screaming?

It was a distant noise and quiet like the buzz of a gnat in his ear, but he knew this sound. It was a scream, unholy and suffering, the sound of a genderless voice calling out into the world for help. Despair rushed through his being, the feeling of loss, the feeling of guilt, the whimpering cry of sadness. Utakata pushed himself to his feet, haori shifting quietly around him as his hand settled on the relic in the soap bottle on his waist.

"Wake up," Utakata whispered, still looking for the source of the ethereal sound. "Wake up and tell me I'm not the only one hearing this."

[Kazuo]

Rest was a fleeting thing for the band of shinobi and monks. For a large part of the evening Kazuo took on the first watch, he also watched the priestess go through her prayers to bid farewell to two of her companions, the monk Chingen who had whithered away and passed away with only Utakata to his side and her personal aide the plumped smiling monk Maeru, who sacrificed his life so that Gaemon and Yui could seal and purify the copy of the Jinchuuriki Han and the Bijuu the Gobi. It was a battle on a scale that made Kazuo shudder, it also made him realize how truly important Utakata was for the village, before it was stressed and understood but now Kazuo truly understood why the Jinchuuriki and their Bijuu were so highly prized.

Kazuo's shift to guard the sleeping group was dull, heavy and wary. Kazuo always had to double check everything that made him suspicious he could have even sworn that once he had seen out of the corner of his eye something red, a piece of red clothing. Yet in that area there was nothing, not even a rock the size of a toe to use for cover. Then his shift ended and no sleep came to him. Kazuo was used to sleeping in the ground, to sleeping in the rain, mud and outdoors he had spent many years like that when he lived on exile. But now, there was no comfort internally or externally. Kazuo didn't so much as slept but passed out at times, he would not dream or feel merely wake up at random with his body hurting. He also felt empty, restless and cut off. The sensations going through Kazuo were strange indeed. To add even more to his suffering Kazuo found that as the night progressed the pain on his leg considerably heightened, it was as if the corruption on his leg was being fed and the purifying seals weren't working as they should have. Kazuo also noticed that Gaemon was in more considerable strain than the Akuchi, his skin was after all tainted from almost head to toe.

Kazuo aroused from the darkness in his mind when he heard Utakata's voice. He sat up, blinked a couple of times focusing on his ears. At first there was nothing, but then he could make out a noise... faint....

"Screaming?"

The sound grew stronger, until it became clear that the it wasn't just a scream it was the screaming of masses. It also drew closer...

"Its coming this way..."

[Han]

It was an odd feeling for Han to have so few bodyguards. While it was true that he spent a good deal of his free time trying to evade them, they were always present. Now half of his entorage for this mission were dead; killed by various demon raids. There were still ten shinobi from Iwagakure, counting himself, but it just felt different for him.

For this reason, and this reason alone, Han was having a more difficult time sleeping than usual. His strong will prevented any general unease from overcoming him, and the Gobi was satiated and slumbering within him, well rested and satiated after the fight with the false Bijuu. Han simply couldn't relax without a massive guard between him and the other shinobi, specifically the Kirigakure shinobi who had already demonstrated exceptional skills in combat against supposedly difficult odds.

The dreamless sleep was interrupted by a loud wailing sound. His eyes opened and he sat up from the ground. Having no need for a bedroll or napsack or any sort of extra luxury, Han was more than content with sleeping on the ground with his hat covering his face to keep light and insects from his face.

Putting his hat back in place, he stood up and looked around through the darkness as other people also arose. Utakata confirmed that he was hearing screaming but Han could see no clear source. He could discern the direction, though, and he could tell it was getting louder, thus closer.

[Narration]

Horror was ill defined.

It could be the sight of a dead loved one laying in the coffin or strewn in parts upon the ground.

It could be the startling appearance of someone you thought was dead, risen from the after-life.

It could even be the sound of a whimpering child among a pile of corpses.

In each estimation of horror, there was fear. Fear that there was something inhuman, the absence of humanity, the wretched vision of all being lost. Horror came in all shapes and forms, exotic and foreign, intimate and familiar. There was no choice in what form it came in. It could be metaphical, concrete, driven by hate or love. Any range of emotion could spark an incident involving horror... but what happened when horror was not made, but grown?

Twisting negative energies afflicted this land, draining it of its ability to sustain life. That might return some day, but it would take forces greater than mere humans to change that.

The dull screams were like a droning hive of gnats that steadily morphed into wasps. A presence of the sound was an addition to the creature that projected them. The shinobi might have wondered why those screams seemed to have been coming from every direction. And, well, the answer was simple.

Because that's where it was coming from.

The sound grew in a cacophony, deafening the ears of those shinobi, like the voice of a man standing right next to them yelling into their skull. They would feel it in their bones, the long, horrific sound continuing to painful, blistering decibels.

Skilled senses of the shinobi would find themselves distinctly aware of a strange pressure. It was in one spot at first, then another a moment later, then another and another. Like a pair of eyes you could not find watching you, that sensation of presence. Was it real? Was it a lie? Was it just a fantasy something strange in this land was triggering?

"Please... mercy..." A voice whispered, cutting into the screams which cut off almost immediately. The voice was unfamiliar to them, the sound of a young boy just hitting puberty. The body it belong to was hunched over, face in the ground in a place where none of them had been looking, curled up defenseless and meek. His body was bandaged completely, severely burned or worse, splotches of blood staining the bandages. The young boy's hands covered his head, his body trembling as he knelt into the ground.

"Kill me... Kill me, please..." he whimpered, still curled into the dead earth. "It hurts... It hurts so much."

[Susen]

”Tch..”

Susen couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t the fact that his comfort was limited to hard ground and a thin blanket he had taken along himself. This blanket alone was already more of a luxury than several other monks or shinobi, but regardless of that the chuunin was used to sleeping in harsh terrains. Like any shinobi, he had been trained for such circumstances and his body had been hardened. The reason for his discomfort was that… feel that this place was giving. It felt like they were intruding in a place where they just didn’t belong. Living beings in a place already claimed by death. The feeling that could compare the closest to what he was feeling now, it was still different but it evoked a similar kind of discomfort, unease and horror, was the feeling of facing a shinobi possessing very powerful killing intent.

Susen wasn’t the only thing experiencing this problem. Whenever he closed his eyes to go try and get some sleep, his ears automatically focused on the sounds around him. Uneasy breathing, a cough here and there.. never once did he hear the peaceful, slightly snoring breathing that was akin to someone sleeping peacefully. No, everyone felt uncomfortable. Even shinobi with skill far beyond his, like Chido, hated this place. Everyone wanted to go home.

The group consisting of Chido, Goto and Susen had managed to rendezvous with the bigger group at the start of the evening. Susen had found his group’s encounter with a pack of lion-like phantoms to be pretty impressive, but he soon learned that it was nothing, absolutely nothing compared to what the main group had been through. Their first encounter with a particularly big and nasty yokai already seemed to dwarf Susen’s own story, but the most shocking part was hearing about their encounter with an exact copy of the giant man armored in red known as Han. Through that it was revealed that this Iwa-nin was none other than Iwagakure’s bijuu. Susen had never seen a tailed beast or any of its hosts before. Hyouga was a small village, weak compared to other villages, even the minor ones. The Miyamoto’s reign had been helping it gain more power, but it was still mostly thanks to the harsh environment of Shimo no Kuni that mercilessly killed everyone who would venture without a guide that protected Hyougagakure no Sato from the more powerful villages. It wasn’t powerful enough to claim or contain a Bijuu, not yet. So Susen had never witnessed one of the beasts. And judging by the tales, he wasn’t looking forward to witnessing one either.

His eyes closed, his ears caught the sound before the Kiri-nin known as Utakata pointed them out. A sad, wailing sound. It reminded him of his sister, the way she cried when she heard of her teammate and lover who had met his end during a mission, leaving her alone and pregnant. It reminded him of the way the parents of his dead teammates cried when they heard about the fate of their son/daughter. A sound that evoked nothing but bad memories and negative emotions.

”Yeah, I hear it all right…”, Susen answered Utakata as he rose from his position along with several other shinobi. Now he could clearly hear the screams and cries of agony without the need to focus. It seemed to be getting louder, closer, its origins no longer the horizon but instead all around them. ”What is this?! Another type of yokai?!” ”Can anyone sense any enemies nearby? Any sensors?!” As the sentence left Susen’s mouth, the screaming rapidly increased in sound to the point where it seemed as if a man was being brutally tortured right next to him. It blocked out most other sounds, the confused screams of some of the less experienced shinobi who had a harder time keeping their composure only barely audible above the choir of tortured souls that were apparently surrounding them. A deep sense of dread suddenly filled the chuunin, as if the god of death himself had dragged the group of shinobi into hell. He tried to raise his voice in order to call out for the other shinobi, but by now the sound was so loud even his own voice was diminished. Cold sweat ran down his back, and even the rigorous mental training every shinobi underwent couldn’t help him from feeling a kind of fear he had never felt before.

Whatever the source of this mysterious curse was, it hated him. It absolutely despised him, and every other shinobi present here. It hated their guts, and it would dedicate every effort to tearing them down. Feeling this, Susen realized that there was no other option than to exorcise this curse. For as long as it was active, it would try and try again to consume every shinobi, no, every bit of life it could find, never satisfied, until it covered the whole of the shinobi world.

Looking around to see how the other shinobi were handling this, he noticed that some of the more experienced shinobi and monks, especially the monks who were already more experienced with dealing with this curse, were communicating using sign language and gestures. In the sudden chaos that had fell over the camp, this bit of order and diligence managed to help Susen get his act together. He was not alone. His comrades were around him, everywhere. Hyouga-nin he knew, but mostly foreign shinobi whom he had never met before. They were all in this together, and they needed each and every man or woman to make it out alive. That reassured Susen enough to regain some of his courage.

“Please… mercy...”

The noise left them even faster than it had appeared. The sense of dread did not. And every eye present went to the source of the whisper.

A young boy, only barely having hit puberty. His body, mangled and tortured. Burned, cut, bruised and broken. His face was invisible, buried in his hands. Maybe this was for the better. He continued begging for the mercy of death that would forever cure his pain.

”Is this… another yokai?”, Susen asked uncertainly. His question wasn’t aimed towards anyone particular, but he hoped any of the monks, who had proven to possess a lot of knowledge about whatever they had encountered thus far, could be able to answer it.

[Akuchi Tora]

Tora opened her eyes having heard Utakata speak, She hadn't dreamt, she had more or less shut down to reserve her energy and try and garner more. It had worked a bit but it would be a while till she would be back up to her own par. Upon opening her eyes she could hear the wails the screaming. It was like it was everywhere. She rushed to her feet and looked around, trying to figure were the exact source was. The screams caused goosebumps all over her body, the voice seeming to change and invoke a memory of different people. Her sister and brother, her parents, her kin. The massacre that had been a wash of blood and lived in her nightmares, even to this day.

Part of her felt this scream wasn't just a scream, this pain wasn't just pain. It was more and it hurt. It made her inside feel wretched and tormented. And as it felt like it got closer, it got louder, and louder. More and more until the screams were in her ears, it wasn't as if she hadn't heard pain before. The massacre, the screams of her kin, watching as her family was cut down one by one. Her screams had been among them then. But this wasn't the massacre, this wasn't her family. These screams were deafening. It caused a pain through her body that she had never felt before. She forced herself to open her eyes, having only noticed after the ache she had closed them again.

She felt soaked in sweat, an ache through her body but forced herself to focus. Her eyes wandered through everyone to see how they were. And as quickly as the screams started. . . they stopped. Her head snapped to the voice asking for mercy. The screams were gone, the dread was not. She didn't look but she was sure that everyone else had turned their head to the voice like she had. Her eyes looked at the boy, the poor boy who was surely in so much pain. And she was torn. She felt light headed and faint a bit. All she could do was wait, and hope someone would explain. Because she could not think of anything at the moment, and she felt as if her feet were stuck in mud.

[Taitaiyou Chido]

Chido couldn't sleep at all. Even when she wasn't on guard she simply lay there quietly, one eye staring up into the dark sky. The foul air kept her mind ill at ease and every time she closed her eye she saw Isaaru leering at her. It was not an image she could rest to. It actually scared her some. She had already suffered a good number of uncomfortable encounters with the spirits and specters of her long dead husband and if this land of nightmares and decay was going to bring him back she would be loath to suffer any more.

The dull droning annoyed her but as it elevated into screams of panic and terror and pain and fear and misery she sat up. She wasn't alone in this as most of the camp seemed to have sprang up as well, albeit some people slower than others. Looking around, Chido tried to discern the source of the sound but had no luck. It seemed to be coming from everywhere.

The screaming grew louder and louder and louder and Chido had to press her hands to her ears to muffle the sound a bit, but it still continued to grow louder. It was inside her head, not outside in the air. Chido was unsure how long she could take this wailing when it suddenly stopped.

She blinked and slowly removed her hands from her ears. Had she gone deaf? No...someone was...crying? Chido looked towards the source of the sound, walking over to stand with a group of ninja who had gathered, ready to fight. Susen asked if it was a Youkai. Chido looked at the burned and injured boy and didn't see a youkai at all. She saw a frightened child who was severely injured.

Walking out away from the rest of the ninja assembled, Chido made a brisk walk over to the crying boy. "Hold on," she said as she approached him, her voice lowering to a gentle, motherly whisper. She knelt down in the dirt beside where the child was crying. "Hold on there. Its going to be okay. We'll get you to a medic." She reached out slowly to try and pat the boy on the shoulder. She slid her other arm around to attempt to pick him up. "Just calm down honey. You're safe now."

[Narration]

"P-Please..."

The boy whimpered. Still bent over, face in the ground, his body bandaged up and trembling, it was obvious he was in severe pain. Whatever had scorched his body had done a fair job of it, but someone had come about to wrap him in the bandages. Who, the boy did not know, but they were there. They were stained with bits of blood that had seeped through, peppering the well-meant wrapping with red.

"Why... why am I alive?" the boy continued to cry, eyes hidden by his hands. He continued to weep, the agony of the act just making him cry more.

One of the shinobi showed a notion of humanity. A woman, a woman from the village of Amegakure stepped forward at a brisk walk, speaking gently and with words of kindness. The boy whimpered at her approach, unable to look up, twitching and trembling.

"Gaaah!" he cried out as her hand touched his shoulder. "It hurts...! Please... Just kill me! Just kill me like they did Momato! Kill me like they did your squad in the War!" That young voice began to deepen, both bandaged hands raising to Chido's cheeks. They gripped with an unusual amount of strength -- not hard enough to crush her face, but enough to hold her there. Chido would feel something invading into her mind, the cold, chilling grip of guilt and sadness.

The boy's head began to rise.

"Or Kuzuri, is he dead? What about Nariko? Your husband... Was it a message that told you how he died? What did it say?" The voice had become something more inhuman, with a shaking treble. It mimicked her husband's voice. It wasn't only its words that came out of its mouth that she would hear, but the whispers in her mind.

::They will all be aborted. You have been infected by this land. You will never carry a child or bring life into this world. You will die, alone, without friends or loved ones. Your life will end as it began -- pathetic and feeble. There will be nothing in life. No hope. There will be no light in your world. All you will know is darkness, death, and despair.::

The boy's head lifted. Its face was clearly inhuman, the proportions of its skull longer than normal, framed like a cranium without a nose or lips. Its mouth peeled apart, revealing white molars, and two great, lidless green eyes gazed at the woman.

"Save yourself," its mouth whispered into her ear. "Save everyone the despair. Kill them. Life is only horror."

[Taitaiyou Chido]

Chido cringed as the child cried out when she touched his shoulder. She felt helpless to help him. All she could think to do was pick him up and carry him away, take him to safety, take him to someone who could heal him and ease his pain. She just wanted to keep him safe and warm and-

Momato? Chido thought, her concern vanishing in an instant. A cold, icy, clamy feeling was overcoming her as the boy talked about her squad in the war. There was only one squad in one war that could make her feel this way. The Third Great Shinobi War...all of her friends...that ambush....

Chido's eye glassed over and she was no longer staring at the bandaged head of the crying child. She was watching Momato killed before her eyes. She was watching her friends slaughtered by dozens of ninja in an ambush. She didn't feel the hands clamping her face, holding her there.

Whispers...low hissing in her mind began to describe images that the cold, clamy tendrils were pulling from the deepest recesses of her heart. A purple haired Genin bruised, bleeding and broken upon the ground. This time, he wasn't getting up to spout cuss words at his opponent. This time his eyes stared lifelessly up at the sky. A brunette girl, scarcely certain of her place in the world, impaled upon the sword of a dark shadowy figure and her life essence dripping down the silver blade, a dark stain against the reflected moonlight.

A face she knew too well looking at her with a pained expression. Words forming on his mouth but nothing was able to enter Chido's ears. No sound existed as he told her that Isaaru was dead. Isaaru...her soul mate...the man she loved with all of her being. The pain she felt then was refreshed now. Twenty years of trying to come to terms with it washed away and the feeling as fresh as if the courier were there telling her right now. Loneliness filled her. Or was it emptied her? Chido felt an empty vaccum within her that hurt. The whispers in her mind reaffirmed her greatest fears.

Something refocused her eye. She looked into a massive emerald orb that stared back at her with a malevolent intensity that froze her very blood. This boy was no boy. This boy was some monster, some demon! She wanted to attack it, to destroy it, to make it feel the pain she was feeling right now, but something stayed her hand. Something kept the chakra from forming the burning energy in her palms that could free her from this monster.

It was despair. It held her in this monster's grip and it prevented her from even fighting for her very life. Whats the point...

[Kazuo]

The sound drew closer, closer and closer it made each and every hair on Kazuo's body to shiver. Dread, this was the first time he had experienced dread. Kazuo had been many times on the edge between life and death, he had seen fear, the horror of those he loved dying before his eyes, he had closed his eyes once thinking he had died, the horror of waking up and seeing the blood of someone he loved in his hands, the boiling rage at the world. The darkness, Kazuo had a taste of it but the darkness that it was being cast it was not possible. The screams and wails of pain were of a million lives, of a million darkness of each person's darkness to make a shadow in which there was no light. This was dread, the pain, the suffering and the horror of more lives that Kazuo could possibly count. Then a child, crying, begging, suffering...

Kazuo froze when he sat the child. "A survivor?" the screams didn't lessen, Kazuo couldn't think straight. The world froze then, it was not normal. Kazuo stared and stared, not capable of producing any one thought, he was at loss. The Akuchi unable to react simply stared at the child covering his face, the malnourished body. He heard Tora speak, but did not understand her words, he was getting dizzy. "Wh-what is going on?" Kazuo struggled even to form the thought to question, the screams were getting louder inside his head. One hand extended and touched his forehead, he looked around but the hand was gone, the moment was gone. Kazuo blinked, his mustard colored eyes dull... sick... dizzy...

A woman approached the kneeling child, Kazuo didn't recognized her he looked as she went to him, everything was moving so slowly. "Chido" The word came to Kazuo after a time. He watched her kneel next to him, saying soothing words, but no... no words could lessen the dread, the suffering.

Kazuo found himself unable to breath, he looked down and wrapped around his neck was a pair of hands, soft hands but with a force that was choking the life out of Kazuo.

"A-ah..." Kazuo could not find the strength to struggle, but he gathered the strength to look at his killer... there was no one.

Kazuo snapped, his consciousness escaped the screams and he came back to reality. The moment the child grabbed Chido's face, Kazuo realized... This is no human!

Kazuo ran, ran with everything weaving handseals as he cut the short distance. Blood and chakra pumped into his arms, then it solidified as two blades cut through his veins, skin. But the pain was nothing compared with what the land was feeling, it was almost trivial.

The Akuchi jounin was next to Chido and the demon, oh the horror. The eyes, the shape it was disgusting it made Kazuo's stomach wrench.

Kill me please

Kazuo's right arm shot up, the crimson blade on his forearm making an rising cut. The blades were sharp, they could go through rock, tree, skin and bone almost without resistance. Kazuo attacked, seeking to sever both arms holding Chido. Then with his left hand he slashed seeking to cut in half the hideous face above where its nose was supposed to be. At the same time Kazuo put himself between the Chido and the child demon, he would attempt to kick her with full force back. The force was enough to push her back a couple of feet back.

"QUICK KILL IT!" Kazuo finally found his voice, it everything that had been dulled finally awoke.

[Utakata]

JP between Utakata and the monster.

This child... what was it? Another illusion? Some sort of phantasm to haunt them as they made for the Nexus. The screaming stopped, coming to an abrupt halt on the child's appearance. He shook, whimpred and whined, begging for death. What life he must have been living if he was in such pain? The Kirigakure-nin's face hardened, actually considering it. There were no medical shinobi that would be able to help him at this point, judging by the blood in the bandages and the agony the child claimed to be in. A swift kunai to the spine would bring along a quick end or another to pierce the heart. Two, maybe three seconds before the child was dead, gone before he hit the ground.

Chido stepped forward to tend to the child, but something happened. Utakata's eyes narrowed at the boy as he reached for her, a strange, dark energy lingering in the air, more pure than what was ambient in the country. It was cold, cold to the point that Utakata felt a shiver pass through his person.

It was an evil chakra.

"Woman," he called as the boy reached for her cheeks. Her spirit just seemed to drain from her, visibly, depression taking its toll upon her mind and body alike. He could see the slackening of her muscles, the vacancy of her face. Utakata reached for the relic in its canister at his waist.

This is it...


::There is none. To exist is to suffer. To suffer is to live. What gods would make life's purpose to suffer?:: The voice of Chido's husband asked inside of her brain. ::There is no purpose beyond that. If you could, your barren womb would only bring suffering to another life. What mother would put a child through that?::

The bandaged face was smiling, its elongated skull and noseless face mere millimeters from Chido's. Beneath its bandages, its flesh writhed, flexing and twitching like worms on solid ground.

Its strange head tilted, those lidless eyes turning to the side as blood began to spill from the Akuchi's body, forming two blades. Lipless jaws remained in an eternal smile as he came toward them, but the creature did not move. The blades struck true, cutting through its arms with the greatest of ease.

There was no bone, no muscle, no skin or anything. There was only a dark brown matter, a matter that did not drip or ooze, but wriggled.

For the second attack, the creature leaned back, bending like a contortionist as the blade passed through where its head had been. Immediately it shot back up, standing in front of the Akuchi with its smiling face inches from his.

All of his resolve would melt away, the creature's eyes staring into Kazuo's. ::Who have you protected? This woman? She is gone. You have failed. All that was her and all that you are exists in the abyss. You are fighting, and for what? Duty? Honor? Pride? Your powers do nothing but destroy. When have those blades ever done anything but cut?::

At the creature's sides, its stumped arms began to reform, the living tissue flexing and stretching out into new forelimbs and hands. The emotions that the creature drew upon were amplified a thousand fold but whatever manipulations it possessed, draining away all hope and light.

::There is no purity in life. There is no honor in duty. There is only despair. You will fail to save those you care for, as you had before. You could not save your clan from your own village, those you believed would shelter you. They chased you from your home. They have no love for you. Even your family, even Tora... They care nothing for you. You are not a shield. Your honor serves you not.::

The never ending pit of despair opened, but something came along to fight it.

A single orb drifted next to the creature's head enough to draw the thing's attention. A glance of its lidless eyes and it exploded. The creature was thrown back and the directed explosion, its bandages breaking apart along its right side. Otherwise, it appeared unharmed. Feet caught the ground again and it skidded to a half, its grinning face looking where it had been.


Utakata landed, amber eye looking through the curtain of his hair, its blowing relic staring over the barren ground. "If it's done something to you, Kazuo, you know I won't object to slapping you," the jinchuuriki said cooly. He kept his attentions on the creature.

"This is the thing Chigen told me about. This is what caused that old monk to die. All of you, listen up!" Utakata called, speaking loudly for all of their benefit. "The old monk told me that the negative emotions and energy of the war changed this land. This is a product of that. The monks have been working on purifying this land in hopes to weaken the Nexus so that they might be able to cure it and exorcise all of the dark chakras plaguing it. There's a reason why they haven't succeeded, why they've all been dying."

Utakata raised an accusing finger at the creature as it began to speak in his head.

::There is nothing to live for. Only death. You have killed. The monster inside of you has killed. You know what awaits you in this life -- suffering.::

"This thing has been killing them. The old man said it was born the same way the Bijuu were born, brought about by the wars and abhorrent feelings of humanity. Just like all the other youkai we've fought, but it's worse. It's been absorbing as much of the energy as it could and projecting it out. This thing is the reason why this country is in this state."

Utakata narrowed his eyes. The creature stared back at him. Staring and smiling. It showed no other expression than this.

::Even Yagura left you. He was not killed. He killed himself because he couldn't stand being around you. You were a failure. You will never be able to amount to any of his expectations. You cannot control what is inside of you. You could not even save Yagura from himself because you're too weak.::

"This thing is the Nexus. It's what is c-causing the illusions and the phantasms. Chigen discovered it when they first went to purify this land. It fed on all of the fear of those that lived here. It grew on the violence. Hundreds of thousands of lives... It f-feeds on all the horrors of your past, your fears, your guilt... everything that makes you human. It's... It's... It's a parasite."

Utakata's face twisted. Not out of what he had said, but what he was about to say. What the creature was making him see made him cold, the void in his spirit becoming nothing more than the vacuum of space. He could feel the creature invading his mind, touching on his memories, his fears, his doubts, his guilt, his loneliness, and all the things that were negative in his life.

::You were made into a creature. A monster. You will never know love. Those around you know what you are. You're afraid of this. You cannot stand to be alone. The only thing you will ever share with another is this loneliness, and that thing isn't even human. You are a monster. A monster that gives nothing to anyone, a monster that killed his own teacher.::

"T-The... the monk said it was a new generation of creature. It's like a bijuu, born in a different time. He called... He called it the Reibi."

And the monster kept smiling.


( OOC Note: The Reibi will begin to afflict everyone with despair. It will draw upon your greatest fears and make you believe that they are truly real. You can have it say anything you want to accomplish this.)

[Susen]

”Chido-san!”, Susen called out as the Ame-nin approached the wounded child. The warmth that the woman had inside her, that motherly warmth that was the reason Susen admired her, was now backfiring on her. She wasn’t the type to leave the ill-fated to suffer, the Chuunin realized, and while that made her in his eyes a wonderful person, at the same time it was what caused her to be the first to fall victim to the curses’ final attack. At least, Susen hoped it was.

A mixture of anger and despair began filling him as he watched what the creature did to Chido. Despair for seeing a woman he saw a shining light—strong, kind and always full of happiness—being reduced to an empty husk of a woman in mere seconds. The strength drained from her muscles, her shoulders starting to hang sloppily, and her eyes seemed to lose every emotion, reverting to the hollow, glassy look of someone who had simply… given up on living. And anger towards the creature for being the cause of it.

He wanted to attack the… whatever it was, it was definitely not a normal child, but someone was faster. One of the two purple-haired Kiri-nin, the male one, had closed the distance in between him and the twisted creature and slashed at it with two red blades that had grown out of his arm, apparently made with his own blood utilizing what was probably a Bloodline Limit or a Secret Technique. The creature, its bandaged face, glaring green eyes and wicked smile not resembling anything human, did not make any effort to dodge or defend itself. The crimson swords slashed easily through both its arms, but there was no blood. No bone, no tissue, just a brown mass. Similarly, the creature showed not a single sign of pain, anger or even mild annoyance. It barely acknowledged the attack at all. The next attack it did dodge, bending its head backwards in an angle and way impossible to humans. It shot up, its green eyes stared into that of the Kiri-nin as it appeared to repeat the same trick it had on Chido, sucking the life out of him.

The black-haired Kiri-nin he seemed to be guarding saw to it that it didn’t happen.

A bubble drifted close to the creature, and just as Susen wondered what difference it would make, it exploded with enough force to knock the thing back several meters. The Chuunin was not surprised that the beast seemed unharmed; it had proven capable of regenerating lost limbs just a few seconds ago. This creature was definitely above the lions that he faced earlier, and more than just a few leagues. When the creature was still near the Ame-nin, some kind of force had prevented Susen’s entire body to responding to his own urges to charge at it. Now that more distance had been made, he found his legs returning to power again. Dashing over to Chido, Susen grabbed her shoulder and gave her body a slight shake to awake her from her trance.

”Chido-san, are you okay?”

Susen’s attention was then focused to the bubble user, who possessed some valuable knowledge on the monk gained from one of the monks who had died in a skirmish with one of the youkai, including the answer to a question many of the present shinobi must have asked themselves by now; what the hell was that thing?

It was a less than pleasant answer.

”Its.. like a Bijuu? How the fuck are we gonna defeat something like that?!”, he mused to himself. Somehow, it seemed like his thoughts attracted the attention of the Reibi, although it was probably sheer coincidence that it focused its gaze on Susen next. And to his despair, he found out just what Chido and Kazou had experienced.

::You let your friends die..::

An inhuman voice suddenly appeared in his mind as his entire vision seemed to be sucked into the Reibi’s smile. It was as if the bandaged face occupied his entire vision, although it remained the same size in his eyes.

”W..what?”, Susen managed to bring out in a shocked whisper.

::Your friends are dead because of you; your recklessness created by your hunger for recognition sealed their fate. Now..::

The inhuman voice slowly changed its tone into that of… everyone he knew. His family, his friends, Yukiko and the rest of the Miyamoto, Chido and even the Kiri-nin whom he barely knew. All of them seemed to be talking to him, their voices mixed together into one. Judging him cruelly, like they always did nowadays.

::.. now your nothing more than a liability. A heap of dead weight pulling the rest of us down. Your just an alcoholic idiot who will never accomplish anything and will only continue to embarrass the village of Hyougagakure with your disgusting behavior until you finally die alone and unwanted!::

They all spoke with relentless cruelty, the emotionless tone the beast had originally assumed changing into one filled with disgust. If anything, it reminded of how Yukiko talked to him, as if he was something disgusting and revolting.

With his mouth gaping wide open, Susen stared at the creature. Despair took a hold of him, paralyzing his body and draining every happy thought from his being as the creature applied the final strike. Its voice and tone again changed to… his own voice.

::Becoming a shinobi? Why the fuck would I even bother?::, he heard himself say in a nonchalant voice, thick with liquor.

::It’s not like I can actually do anything good, right? No matter how hard I try, I’ll never protect anyone. They will all die, and I will have failed them like I failed Shuri-chan and Tougan-kun. I’m just incapable of doing good. So it’s better to just not give a fuck, right? Hey waiter, pour me another one!::

As if he had used a Shushin no Jutsu, the Reibi was suddenly right in front of Susen, bringing its face as close to Susen as possible, its voice returning to its original, emotionless state. Dead and inhuman.

::To live is to suffer. It is better to be dead. Your friends are waiting for you, Tategami Susen!::

”S..STAY AWAY FROM ME!!”, the Chuunin suddenly burst out as he took his spear of his back and slashed at the Reibi, a sloppy, panicked attack solely motivated by the desire to get the creature away from him.

[Han]

Han was relieved when the cacaphony of screaming suddenly subsided, although it left a distinct ringing in his ears. It cleared after a few seconds, but by then the white haired woman was approaching what appeared to be a badly bandaged child. Han thought she was simply over-compassionate and needed to take greater care when approaching an unknown threat and he was expecting the Gobi to argue the fact with him, but when he went to 'percieve' the demon within him he was alarmed to find it on-edge.

Do you feel it? she asked. Her fur was up on edge and she seemed like she was stuck between choosing fight or flight. She was a little more feral than he remembered. That darkness...that taint....its unnatural....its evil she hissed.

Han didn't have time to start asking what was wrong with her. The child turned out to be less a child and people were beginning to freak out. The white haired woman seemed stunned and several shinobi were attacking the not-child beast with large green eyes. Combat was something Han could easily wrap his head around, but first he had to take the ones who couldn't fight out of the area. Attacking allies was against Han's grain, and if they were stuck disabled in the battlefield they could be used by the enemy to gain an advantage.

The ninja from Hyouga had gone out to try and help the white haired jonin from Amegakure after a Kiri-nin seperated her from the not-child and now the white haired ninja was on the ground muttering to herself while the Hyouga ninja was wildly slashing with a large spear. If the fear and panic that was starting to engulf everyone continued, the panicked ninja would likely start becoming more a danger to each other than to this creature.

The bubble-blower from Kirigakure spoke up, describing this beast being similar to a Bijuu and calling it Reibi. Well it certainly explained why the Gobi was having a hissi-fit in his mind.

Han leaped from his spot and landed in a crouch by the white haired woman. Scooping her up in one massive arm, he held her over his shoulder as a voice started to whisper in his mind. It was not the familiar whining of the Gobi. It was much darker and much more sinister. It spoke of things that would likely have chilled Han's bones to the bone if he wasn't so iron-willed.

.:Your village hates you:. the Reibi said

Does not The Gobi argued

Does to Han agreed with the green eyed demon as he jumped away from the center of the action. The unconcious woman needed to be removed from the hot zone.

.:They only tolerate you because of the power of The Gobi. The moment they no longer need you, you will be sacrificed. You have no friends. Roushi never liked you and Kotori only fears you. Your guards are there to protect the village from you and to keep their best weapon out of enemy hands:.

Thats nothing new to me Han said as he ungraciously dropped Chido to the ground by some of his surviving guards. "Watch her." he said to two of them before turning around to head back into what was becoming quite the fray.

.:You cannot keep control over what dwells within you:.

Thats why I let her out from time to time. Keeps us both happy.

.:You will destroy everyone you care about:.

No one cares about me, why would I care about them?

.:You will destroy Iwagakure:.

Its survived when I lost control before

.:You will fail your village:.

They all expect it

[Akuchi Tora]

She watched as another kunoichi(sp?) approached the boy. Tora felt a part of her inside scream for the woman to get away. But her voice wasn't working, it seemed to fail her at this moment as she watched the bandaged boy move and weep. And continued when the voice started to deepen, when his head started to rise. She couldn't help but watch in horror. That was no demon that was a monster. That wasn't something to help but to destroy. Her position wasn't good to do anything though, if she had been able to move her feet. She could see the distress on Chido's face though. Something had to be done. A voice screaming in her head to move. And then Kazuo did it, he moved and separated the two and she felt the weight move a bit. She would move.

She was disgusted at how although its arms were cut but it did not show pain. And then when it was standing in front of her cousin. She was unsure what to do. And then appeared a bubble, harmless in appearance but capable of so much destruction. Although she was saddened when it didn't do too much damage to the monster.

:They will turn on you once they know. Your samurai blood will be the end as the massacre couldn't accomplish:

The voice chilled her and her eyes widened hearing this. She tried to push it aside, they wouldn't. The Akuchi were loyal to the village, they wouldn't care what was once their blood, what is their history.

: Your cowardice and fear will cause you to betray everyone. Like how you betrayed your siblings. And your cowardice like your ancestors, will you turn on your master when things get bad. :

"No your wrong. Your wrong, it was an accident. I didn't," she said out loud in response to the voice. Poking at her fears, Tearing at her mind. "I wont betray them, Id never," she said.

: But you will, the samurai blood will make you. The demon in your blood will cause it, your cowardice its companion. You will fail in what you want. And there is nothing you can do about it. They will die, they are dead. And after you lose Kazuo, you will be the last Akuchi. The lonely Akuchi. And then you will die. And there will be no one to mourn you. :

"Thats not true," she said swallowing, the fear engulfing her. She had betrayed her siblings, betrayed her parents, betrayed so many. She would only continue, she would fail to bring the Akuchi back, she would be the fall. She put her hands to her head and tried to block out the voice. Trying to fight it with the little will. She had to believe.

: You cant fight your fate :

[Kazuo]

Kazuo found it odd as his blade severed the Reibi's arms was the lack of any resistance. It felt like Kazuo had just cut through water rather than through skin, blood and bone. His eyes quickly caught sight at the stumps, there was nothing no bone, no blood, no muscles it was a just a mass that resembled skin. It was unnerving to watch but it did not damage Kazuo's rithym and he slashed. For a split of a second Kazuo thought he decapitated the demon but then the smiling demon head popped up.

Kazuo's eyes were trapped and he felt as tendrils attached themselves to his his consciousness. Kazuo could feel as the Reibi probed every part of his mind, his waking memory and his unconscious memory, it was the worst feeling. Kazuo unable to look beyond the smile, lost control of his body.

::Who have you protected? This woman? She is gone. You have failed. All that was her and all that you are exists in the abyss. You are fighting, and for what? Duty? Honor? Pride? Your powers do nothing but destroy. When have those blades ever done anything but cut?::

Kazuo heard the voice sound inside his skull. "I am a weapon, my blades are to protect, it is my duty... my reason to exist!" Kazuo replied inside his head, his resolve weakening. The words that the creature spoke weren't speaking at his mind but were targeting his soul, his very resolve and reason for being.

::There is no purity in life. There is no honor in duty. There is only despair. You will fail to save those you care for, as you had before. You could not save your clan from your own village, those you believed would shelter you. They chased you from your home. They have no love for you. Even your family, even Tora... They care nothing for you. You are not a shield. Your honor serves you not.::

"No..."

Kazuo's knees dropped as his resolve and skin went pale. Utakata's timely intervention saved Kazuo from true despair. Kazuo looked up at the Jinchuuriki who he was supposed to be protecting, although there was no humor in the thought just doubt. "What am I doing?"

"It... it g-gets in your head.." Kazuo whispered, slowly rising to his feet. His legs were shaking and the one that had been corrupted the day earlier was burning like fire. The Reibi amplified the taint in Kazuo's leg.

::Taint, who are you to speak of taint? Your very existence is taint, your failure comes from your blood, your ancestors, their crimes and their inability to protect:: The voice echoed inside his head, it was Okita's voice.

::Your ancestors, failures not even worthy of being lowly Samurai. He betrayed his very way of living for nothing, just like you are do now as a shinobi, you fight for nothing, you protect nothing, you do not have a duty, you merely prolong what cannot be stopped:: This time the voice was that of Kazuo's mother.

"No... no, I am an Akuchi I live to serve"

::Serve what? Serve for what? you could not even do what the rest of us did? We did the right thing Akuchi Kazuo, we surrendered to fate and are now nothing, were there is no pain, no suffering, no duty or honor, you could not even do that:: It was his great grandfather's voice the leader of the Akuchi.

Kazuo looked on at his surroundings. The voice didn't stop speaking to him. The Akuchi jounin looked at Tora, seeing her suffer steeled Kazuo's resolve. It reminded him of his own private oath, he was going to protect her for she was teh future of the Akuchi, of the two survivors she was the one that deserved to live. He formed handseals and blood began pouring out of the openings in his arms, engulfing his arms like a new layer and the iron in his blood hardening becoming stronger than steel.

Kazuo dropped to a stance and waited for an opening in the smiling demon's guard.

::It is hopeless, you will not save her, she will die in despair and darkness, you will not save anything... you will only destroy those around you, the hate inside you will::